The 2021 Running NASCAR/IMSA/other racing things thread

Because NASCAR owns IMSA. And the Rolex 24 started today, and the Cup champion is in the race. (somewhere)

And also because Magnus Racing — the outfit with the best-tuned sense of humor in all of motorsports — entered this Acura NSX in the GT Daytona class, and it deserves to be seen.

 

Oh, and the race started when Bruno Spengler in the RLL Beemer went full iRacing …

Jimmie Johnson’s 48 team is P1 overall. Austin Dillon is in the seat of the 51 right now in LMP2 and is sixth overall. It’s on NBCSN until 3 a.m. EST.

 

And Spengler blamed the guy he rear-ended, which was kind of amazing.

 

Is there even a reason for 24-hour racing in 2021?
The point was for manufacturers to showcase how much better their cars were than their competitors.
There isn't even a point in 500-mile NASCAR races these days because the cars don't break.

 

Yes, and it’s the same reason for all kinds of racing: Because it’s fun and because they can.

 

Congrats to Taylor, Albuquerque, Spiderman and Rossi. I know the full-course cautions bunch the fields more than in the past, but there was a pretty damn good four-car battle all night for the prototypes, separatated by just car lengths at times.

 

I'm getting back into the sport a little more, and I find myself visiting NASCAR.com every day or two. And it's the dregs. I understand it's the offseason, but I don't need to see endless clickbait galleries of Kyle Larson's paint schemes or who's who in the Rolex. I seem to remember more dynamic content there, but it's been 20 years since I regularly checked it out. And Jayski nowadays seems to be all press releases, little aggregating.

(Note: Not trying to gain favor with anyone on this board with this post.)

 

IMSA and NBC had to be really happy the Ganassi DPi had a tire blow up to bunch the field together with 2 hours to go. I wonder how the race would’ve ended if the 01 hadn’t had the second flat tire with 7 minutes left in the race. Maybe the engineers set the rear camber too aggressively.

That said, I remember when a close 24 Hours of Daytona meant the winner had a 4.7-lap lead rather than a 4.7-second lead at the finish and I am annually amazed at these teams treating the race like a sprint race for 24 hours.

Now I’m trying to remember who’s won overall three years in a row other than Wayne Taylor Racing.

 

I miss the days of Jayski before it was bought out. I honestly can't remember the name of the site, but there was a good one with a lot of the old NASCAR beat writers when many of them were let go 10-12 years ago.

 

And because apparently every thread must have a COVID-19 article:

 

Yeah, it had Larry Woody and Mike Mulhern and some others.

I wonder if we’ll see another Jeff Gluck. I remember when he was posting here and working in Rocky Mount and it was clear what he wanted to do. I admire how he’s hung on for so long covering a beat that’s clearly diminished. Does any news outlet cover the majority of the races anymore?

 

Maybe Charlotte and AP.