The 2021 Running NASCAR/IMSA/other racing things thread

191 and change without a draft is hauling the mail, although I think that's down from 2020. Still, Daytona is a race where you can win from any starting position, so the Fords may be better for drafting.

That's what today is all about.

 

If it were up to me, I'd run qualifying without the plates. I made that suggestion out loud one time and a Dodge engineer got wide-eyed because with the low coefficient of drag (way less than F1 or IndyCar), he thought they'd be able to reach 230-plus on the backstretch and probably laps in the 220s. I would assume it'd be very much like a flat-out Daytona Prototype.

I know Rusty Wallace ran a test at 'Dega in 2004-05 without one and it was scary fast. It'd take some serious cojones to hold the throttle wide open at those speeds, but wouldn't that be something to see!

With the plate, Tony Stewart said any of us in the media center could qualify at Daytona as long as we hit the shift points at the right time because you just stand on it and point it. (Take that, DP.)

I wouldn't want a race without them, but hell, let the engine builders have one day when they get to show off all that horsepower under the hood.

 

They were terrible in practice that morning, so that’s not an auspicious preview. Daytona Beach has a 40-plus percent chance of “we lost the track” tonight, so we’ll see if the Twins run.

 

As much as I disliked Ironhead and much of his crap and bully act on the track, the one thing I did agree with was taking the restrictors off the plates.

Let them run. Yeah, the crashes will probably still be awful, but right now they're awful 20-car pileups. Get rid of the Big Ones and work forward from there.

 

First race was pretty good.
Sucks for Dillon. He had it and had to check up because of the 22, and it cost him a spot on Sunday.

 

Kyle Busch is still a douche.

Kyle Busch details split with former crew chief Adam Stevens | NASCAR

 

The NASTRUCK guys had what I suspect will be the most exciting and batshit craziest finish of Daytona stock car Speed Weeks once again.

 

Always thought the point of the plates wasn't how bad the crashes would be for the drivers, but how bad they could get for the fans. As in, that extra 20-30 mph could cause the cars to fly into the stands.

 

Now that we’ve broken the cardboard fan barrier, I wonder if NASCAR would be tempted to fill the first 20 or so rows that way, or maybe with lifelike mannequins. Builds in a little margin for wayward flying sheet metal and helps disguise for TV that those are the seats no one wants anyway.

 

Shoot, I was jacked when I scored seats up close at Bristol. Bigger track, maybe not so much.

 

Enough with night races at Daytona. I've fallen asleep/gave up and gone to bed during everything so far.

 

We’ve lost the track in Daytona Beach and may not get it back until Wednesday.