LGP NASCAR Thread

[Kaizer]

Junior is taking this race, gonna be one of many for him this year. This is his year.

So close, came in 2nd.

not gonna happen.

ever.

[TheHammer24]

Just finished. Bizarre race. Who wrecks a jet dryer. Juan Pablo Montoya would wreck jet dryer. BK is awesome; I'm glad y'all found him funny.

No idea why Denny and Jr didnt hook up. 17 11 88 and 16 were obviously the 4 fastest cars but Jr and Denny wanted to split Ford more than they wanted to go as a duo. Indeed all 3 Hendrick cars wrecked and 2 JGR were back. Maybe hey were scared by Rousch-Yates engine speed in practice, but I think they could have taken a shot.

[TheHammer24]

Also great start to season for Denny. I would have flipped **** if he won.

[tifosi77]

Who wrecks a jet dryer. Juan Pablo Montoya would wreck jet dryer.

It's not like he just up and drove into the thing; something on his car clearly broke.

Besides..... what kind of a two-bit series allows racing cars to be on the track at the same time as a JET DRYER?!??

When I first heard about the incident I thought "Did he lose the car coming into the pits or something? Hit the dryer parked off to the side?" Nnnnnnnnooooooope. Thing was on the circuit.

[TheHammer24]

“I’ve hit a lot of things,” Montoya, a former IndyCar and Formula One star, said. “But a jet dryer? … I thought, ‘I’m actually hitting the jet and it’s not going to be fun.’

“Before I got there, I was thinking this thing was going to be on fire pretty bad. And it was. I saw the flames. My helmet got a little burned and everything.”

[relantel]

Junior is taking this race, gonna be one of many for him this year. This is his year.

This may be his year. Surprised Biffle didn't go for the win - the 16-88 should have been able to pass the 17 by himself. But this 2nd feels a lot different than the 2nd in the 2010 race, that was only due several G-W-C attempts and the field jumbling. This time, he was up front the last 85-90 laps, and hit pit road in 2nd on the final stop (and held serve). From that standpoint, a 2nd probably creates more drive in them, vs a win that might have left them rest on their laurels a bit.

The key point in this race turned out to be pit road right before the red flag. 1-2 off pit road ended up 1-2 in the race. Biffle may have been 3rd in both - he was 3rd off pit road when the restart finally happened post-red flag.

[TheHammer24]

I'm on Board with more Monday night NASCAR esp. at places like Phoenix, Vegas, and others where it won't rain.

@JennaFryer: Bottom line: Final overnight rating was 7.7 and Fox's highest rated Monday night since "at least last year's World Series."

Post red flag was 7.3. Total overnight rating was 7.7 -- down 6 percent from last year's 8.2 (but up from 7.0 of pothole 2010)

I'd keep the 500 on Sunday, but it would be cool to mix it up here and there.

[mac5155]

I don't know what it is about night nascar races but that makes them 100x more enjoyable to watch

[TheHammer24]

I don't know what it is about night nascar races but that makes them 100x more enjoyable to watch

Totally! Because in the day, you get up get sandwiches take the kids to a friends, etc. etc. At night, you have the aura of the lights, and it's just you and the race.

Jim Rome says Monday Night NASCAR was better than any Monday Night Football game this season. Says it was like a Michael Bay film.

Rome is RAVING about the race. On an epic rant about how awesome NASCAR is. I mean, could not be more positive.

[mac5155]

Maybe it takes me back to dirt track too.. I dunno, I just think that Nascar under the lights reminds me of how Nascar should be.

[pittsoccer33]

Danica Patrick missing wrecking into those two other cars by skidding between them with inches to spare was straight out of a Michael Bay movie

[TheHammer24]

Danica Patrick missing wrecking into those two other cars by skidding between them with inches to spare was straight out of a Michael Bay movie

True; and good ratings even though Elliott Sadler idiotically wrecked the field on lap 1!

Patrick, Bayne, Busch, Allmendinger, and Johnson - three of the better storylines of night!

[columbia]

Did someone really drive into a fuel truck?

[TheHammer24]

Rome: "Dudes needed to hit that track with some Tide. Make it smell April-fresh."

Rome: "Damn it, we're talking NASCAR -- like it or not."

Rome: "I have never seen a sport that embraced Twitter like NASCAR did."

[shafnutz05]

I am absolutely loving the reaction to the race in the media....the Twitter stuff last night was sheer genius.

[TheHammer24]

I am absolutely loving the reaction to the race in the media....the Twitter stuff last night was sheer genius.

Who in the hell would have thought that Keselowski would have his iPhone in the car and start tweeting during the race. What a nut. That's so awesome. Penske hit gold with him as the driver of the Miller Lite car.

[mac5155]

Did someone really drive into a fuel truck?

Not a fuel truck but a jet engine on the back of a truck with 200 gallons of jet fuel, yes.

[TheHammer24]

Also, isn't 200 gallons of jet fuel overkill?!?!

[relantel]

It is getting press. Likely much more than it would have had it run its normal window.

[relantel]

Also, I am mildly annoyed at myself that I wanted the two car tandem to work on the G-W-C, seeing as how I had/have railed against it. Guess fandom colors things sometimes.

[mac5155]

Also, isn't 200 gallons of jet fuel overkill?!?!

Well like DW (i think) said.. that thing doesnt have time to stop and fill up if need be.

[Jesse]

A few notes:

Ford really broke the mold on restrictrr plate racing. They thickened the cylinder wall so that the cars that are running out front have more power to pull away in tandem, but especially alone. Seems like Ford was able to gear their car differently this weekend and put the other models at a serious disadvantage. Hendrick has a lot of catching up to do. Especially with Gordon's blown engine. I'll be interested to see the analytics of that and what specifically went wrong on Gordon's machine.

The guess for JPM and his accident was his ring gear and pinion. He had a lot of issues with his transmission throughout the night. The sparks would indicate the gear shattered after the teeth were eaten up by the issue and launched him directly into the jet dryer.

Really disappointed to see people ripping into JPM today. He was probably going faster than he needed to, but when the rearend blows out like that, what are you gonna do?

[tifosi77]

JPM has some of the purest car control skills I've ever seen in a racer.

[TheHammer24]

A few notes:

Ford really broke the mold on restrictrr plate racing. They thickened the cylinder wall so that the cars that are running out front have more power to pull away in tandem, but especially alone. Seems like Ford was able to gear their car differently this weekend and put the other models at a serious disadvantage. Hendrick has a lot of catching up to do. Especially with Gordon's blown engine. I'll be interested to see the analytics of that and what specifically went wrong on Gordon's machine.

The guess for JPM and his accident was his ring gear and pinion. He had a lot of issues with his transmission throughout the night. The sparks would indicate the gear shattered after the teeth were eaten up by the issue and launched him directly into the jet dryer.

Really disappointed to see people ripping into JPM today. He was probably going faster than he needed to, but when the rearend blows out like that, what are you gonna do?

Lol @ your topnotch assessment of auto racing that is no different than your hockey analysis. Do you follow anything passively?

[relantel]

Parts break. It happens. JPM should have won Brickyard 2-3 times where he had strongest car but did not win. Once he sped on pit road on final stop - 2009 I think. 2010 he dominated but took 4 when teammate McMurray took 2. He can drive the ovals. I don't think there was any question he could drive. I feel confident he will win on an oval at some point. Then again, I thought Michael Waltrip would win on a non-plate track with DEI too and that never came to pass - came close at Charlotte one year but no cigar. Half of the suspense in NASCAR is that the strongest car doesn't win the race all the time, sometimes less than half the time.

EGR - if only they were split back to CGRFS and DEI again. They basically operate as two one car teams under the same roof. How the mighty have fallen. When Jr left, so went the money. Kind of irony that McMurray's 3 wins in the 1 in 2010 exceed Jr's total since the split with DEI.

(And here's to the 88 breaking the streak at Phoenix like the 24 did last year... this year, doesn't seem as much as a pipe dream as recent years past)

First time winners for 2012... thinking Allmendinger gets it done in the Penske 22. No one else even comes to mind.