LGP NASCAR Thread

[TheHammer24]

BOOM!

NASCAR suspends Knaus and Car Chief 6 weeks, fines Knaus $100,000 and docs 25 points (~100 in old system). Johnson in last place with -23 points.

[shafnutz05]

BOOM!

NASCAR suspends Knaus and Car Chief 6 weeks, fines Knaus $100,000 and docs 25 points (~100 in old system). Johnson in last place with -23 points.

Man....repeat offender gets nailed. That's a ton of points in the new system

[TheHammer24]

That's a ton of money too! I just read crew chief generally make $500,000/year. Knaus is probably the best, so I tab him up to $1 million, but man 10% of your salary? James Harrison makes $10 million, and we were all sour when he got fined $40,000

[TheHammer24]

Hendrick says car has been cleared 6 times previous to this offense. Interesting.

[Kovy27]

That's a ton of money too! I just read crew chief generally make $500,000/year. Knaus is probably the best, so I tab him up to $1 million, but man 10% of your salary? James Harrison makes $10 million, and we were all sour when he got fined $40,000

I'm pretty sure that Hendricks will "help" him with the fine.

[relantel]

I don't agree with points penalties for opening inspection infractions. It's like the Michael Waltrip 100 point penalty when he was first with toyota for an illegal engine in opening inspection. Never raced on, yet ruined the season. 48 at least is in the top 35 (thanks last year's owner points the first 5 races), where Waltrip was a new team then, and DNQ'd quite a bit that season in large part because of the hit.

The penalty combined with the 42nd place finish, and having net negative points from the weekend, like Waltrip did, I don't like. Really shouldn't be able to lose any more points than were earned. The net effect is being a race and a half off the lead, and likely 35 points out of 35th for post-bristol. Had the 48 finished well, 25 points doesn't create as much of a hole.

(Watch, the fill in crew chief will win a race or two with Jimmie...)

[Fire0nice228]

Hendrick says car has been cleared 6 times previous to this offense. Interesting.

Glad to see him get slammed cause I hate cheaters, but interested to see how this car was cleared 6 times when the offense was supposedly so egregious that it was visible to the eye let alone the template. watching..

[TheHammer24]

Ah - hem, Hendrick claims it was cleared 16 teams. Not 6. Johnson used it, according to Hendrick, at all four plate races last year. However, Hendrick admitted this is the car that Johnson was driving when Knaus said "Crack the back" if you win.

[TheHammer24]

I don't agree with points penalties for opening inspection infractions. It's like the Michael Waltrip 100 point penalty when he was first with toyota for an illegal engine in opening inspection. Never raced on, yet ruined the season. 48 at least is in the top 35 (thanks last year's owner points the first 5 races), where Waltrip was a new team then, and DNQ'd quite a bit that season in large part because of the hit.

The penalty combined with the 42nd place finish, and having net negative points from the weekend, like Waltrip did, I don't like. Really shouldn't be able to lose any more points than were earned. The net effect is being a race and a half off the lead, and likely 35 points out of 35th for post-bristol. Had the 48 finished well, 25 points doesn't create as much of a hole.

(Watch, the fill in crew chief will win a race or two with Jimmie...)

He has past champions provisional, so he'll be safe all season. I don't think the 25 points are that bad. If he had this last year, he would have fallen one sport (from 1st to 2nd) going into the Chase. That's based on the points after Atlanta, because the stats reset them all to 2000 after Richmond. There was like a 150-point difference between Jr. and KyBu going into the Chase.

[TheHammer24]

That's a ton of money too! I just read crew chief generally make $500,000/year. Knaus is probably the best, so I tab him up to $1 million, but man 10% of your salary? James Harrison makes $10 million, and we were all sour when he got fined $40,000

I'm pretty sure that Hendricks will "help" him with the fine.

Ha, yeah. Just used to team sports where that is absolutely prohibited.

[relantel]

I'm not a fan of the 48, and rather have despised him for years, which is tough since his car is in the same shop as the 88 is. Hard to root for one to do well and one not so much. then KyBu became enemy #1 and it became a lesser of two evils type of consideration.

[TheHammer24]

I'm not a fan of the 48, and rather have despised him for years, which is tough since his car is in the same shop as the 88 is. Hard to root for one to do well and one not so much. then KyBu became enemy #1 and it became a lesser of two evils type of consideration.

I love KyBu

[CBear3]

I hate points fines for a violation pre-practice. If you alter your approved car after the weekend starts so that it doesn't conform, then I'd throw the book at you.
Just doesn't seem to make much sense to take points away that you earn from your on track performance, before you ever get on track.

[TheHammer24]

I hate points fines for a violation pre-practice. If you alter your approved car after the weekend starts so that it doesn't conform, then I'd throw the book at you.
Just doesn't seem to make much sense to take points away that you earn from your on track performance, before you ever get on track.

I kind of disagree, just given that I imagine a lot of stuff that gets passed inspection is intentionally illegal. Thus, it has to be overly punitive for when violations are found.

[CBear3]

Yeah, but I'm an engineer and a Smokey Yunick lover
Gray areas and innovation are what makes the technical side of racing exciting.

[TheHammer24]

Lol - Twitter put together this graph for Keselowski:

[tifosi77]

NASCAR can fine you for having an illegal car that never saw the track during a race or official practice/qualifying session?



Crikey, and I thought the FIA was bad.

[relantel]

NASCAR can fine you for having an illegal car that never saw the track during a race or official practice/qualifying session?



Crikey, and I thought the FIA was bad.

yep, and fairly common on a lesser magnitude

[CBear3]

Penske to announce their switch to Ford for next season this afternoon?

Keselowski has tweeted about big news today, and Autoweek, Speed, and Jayski are reporting its changing manufacturers. That would leave Dodge with no teams (Hammer knows I'm a Robby Gordon fan, but RGM doesn't count as a "real" team). Seems weird as Penske has been doing development work with the 2013 Charger, which was photographed in their shop last week or the week before, and the official unvieling is supposed to be at Vegas.

[TheHammer24]

Penske to announce their switch to Ford for next season this afternoon?

Keselowski has tweeted about big news today, and Autoweek, Speed, and Jayski are reporting its changing manufacturers. That would leave Dodge with no teams (Hammer knows I'm a Robby Gordon fan, but RGM doesn't count as a "real" team). Seems weird as Penske has been doing development work with the 2013 Charger, which was photographed in their shop last week or the week before, and the official unvieling is supposed to be at Vegas.

That is weird given that Dodge is planning to unveil the Charger, and now there are no teams (other than Gordon) that use it? Do you think the technical alliances forced their hand? JGR-MWR; Hendrick-SHR-Phoenix; RFR-RPM-All other Fords; RCR-EGR

[relantel]

Strange move with Penske. JGR jumped from Chevy when they felt they were too low on Chevy's list (HMS, RCR, DEI at the time). With Ford, there's already Roush-Petty-WoodBros as the focal point - but look at the FR9 and its performance at Daytona this year. It was better than what the others had to offer by far for the rules package.

Dodge seems likely to pick off someone - even if it is one of the smaller teams. Might not be surprised to see Tommy Baldwin go that direction. Maybe Front Row's several cars. Not top flight teams by any means. Roush, Hendrick, RCR will never change short of Ford or Chevy going out of business. Everyone else is not near as certain.

It is remarkable how much the team/manufacturer landscape has changed in the last decade. Dodge came back with great fanfare, yet petered out. Pontiac left the sport when JGR switched to Chevy. Toyota was coming. Now, many teams have contracted cars - in some cases 3-4 cars down to 1 (each half of EGR for example, or RPM and Evernham, who merged 6 into 4 and is now 2 cars), or gone away completely (Red Bull). It may be a wonder with all of that that there still are full fields each week.

[relantel]

1988 Phoenix race on MRN's friday classics today:

http://www.motorracingnetwork.com/MRN-R ... rch-2.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

this was Alan Kulwicki's first win, and the birth of the Polish Victory Lap.

http://www.racing-reference.info/race/1 ... cker_500/W" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[relantel]

HMS first practice not looking good... Kahne was top 5 but 24-48-88 were 17-24-31. Seems the streak is not destined to end this weekend.

[relantel]

Nice to see Elliott Sadler break his winless streak. Very popular win in the garage. Beat a full field of cup regulars to do it - Harvick, KyBusch, Keselowski, Kahne, etc.

[shafnutz05]

Nice to see Elliott Sadler break his winless streak. Very popular win in the garage. Beat a full field of cup regulars to do it - Harvick, KyBusch, Keselowski, Kahne, etc.

Thankfully Phoenix doesn't require bump-drafting