All Purpose NASCAR Thread

Yeah, but I think you have to listen to what they're saying about the bump drafting getting increasingly aggressive.

Mark Martin was on Cold Pizza this morning and said he had never been beat around in any race in his entire life as much as he was at the Bud Shootout last weekend.

I mean, come on, I don't think this is some made-up issue here.

 

You're right, do listen to what they're saying. That's how you know it's just drivers whining.

You've got some drivers thanking the other drivers who "pushed" them up through the field. You've got the guys who wrecked bitching about the unnecessary risks. You got the usual bitchers -- Tony Stewart, Rusty Wallace, Kurt Busch -- bitching about everything under the sun. Then you've got guys like Dale Jr., Elliott Sadler, Jeff Gordon, Dale Jarrett, Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Burton and Matt Kenseth driving their cars and not bitching about anything.

The fact is a fatal wreck is no more likely at Daytona and Talladega today, with the bump drafting, than it was 10 years ago without it. You've still got 43 cars going 190+ mph six inches apart. The fact that they're hitting each other in the ass 50 times per race isn't causing nearly as many wrecks as its preventing.

 

My initial reaction to the "watchingthe bumping," although perhaps simple, is this: You set the cars up this way, make it unavoidable to bumpdraft, and then you're going to penalize people for doing it?

That makes no sense.

 

Trailer for the new Will Farrell NASCAR movie is out...

http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/talladeganights/

I can't tell if it will mock NASCAR or if it's just a comedy set within the sport.

 

That's Kevin Harvick's house, I think. Recognized it from NASCAR Drivers 360. Yes, I watched that show. Shut up.

 

Elliott Sadler looked up from his baloney burger to blame Jimmie Johnson's bump-draft for causing his wreck at Talladega last fall. Johnson blamed Earnhardt Jr. for pushing him too aggressively from behind, forcing the wreck. Ricky Rudd had some less than nice things to say about it at Daytona last year, and Junior caused the 25-car "Big One" wreck at Talladega last May with a bump-draft of Mike Wallace. Junior, of course, promptly said it was Johnson's fault for moving up the track at the same time he tapped Wallace.

And under the aerodynamic skin, these days a Nextel Cup car looks like it has a cow-catcher for a front bumper. Trouble is, you can't take some of the steel out without making it less safe. Maybe the Car of Tomorrow (which will punch a bigger hole in the air than the current models) will alleviate the problem by making it easier to draft.

They have major sponsorship from DLP HDTV by Texas Instruments, they're getting their engines from Joe Gibbs Racing and Bill Saunders (former CEO of HighwayMaster, competed in the SCCA Trans Am series for six years with two wins in his final season), who once ran that Trans Am team with Paul Gentilozzi, who's now one of the principals in the Champ Car World Series. But all that said, I'm still taking a wait-and-see. Open-wheel and desert-racing mogul Cal Wells came in with two cars with major sponsorship (Tide and McDonald's) in 2001 and his team has absolutely flopped in NASCAR. McDonald's didn't even stay with him for a full season, and the Tide ride has floundered with only occasional success.

 

Somewhere around the middle of last season it became really easy for guys to blame Johnson for everything. I don't know if it stemmed from them thinking Knaus was cheating and getting away with it or if Jimmie slept with somebody's sister, but damn they turned on him. If not for Gordon, dude wouldn't have had a friend in the world ... and I'm not so sure how committed Gordon was.

You're right about the Aikman/Staubach team. And that was my point. I wasn't saying they were going to be a success, just that you can't lump them in with the ain't-no-doubt-failure's-on-the-way teams.

 

These drivers are all pampered babies. Its part of reason why NASCAR is just not as engaqging any more.

I long for the days of LeRoy Yarborough, David Pearson and the Allison Brothers. It was much more interesting when Junior Johnson and the Woods Brothers were car owners instead of some corporate entity.

 

Somebody's been playing with Google, I see.

Too bad he misspelled both the first and last name of one of NASCAR's greatest drivers, LeeRoy Yarbrough (no relation to Cale Yarborough, another NASCAR legend).

Boomer, since you're a NASCAR noob, you may now fetch each of the board's gearheads one bottle of Sam Adams apiece.

 

hah - real NASCAR fans are certainly not drinking Sam Adams. Now we know you are a fraud.

I have forgotten more racing than you know. I grew up in Iradel county where the racing was pretty much invented . You probably do not know that though.

 

A sense of humor is always appreciated, in my book.

With that in mind, did anyone see Tony Stewart bump draft the pace car in the first qualifying race today?

Is anyone watching the Gatorades?