The 2021 Running NASCAR/IMSA/other racing things thread

Does the Venn diagram showing the Barber crowds and the Talladega crowds have any overlap?

I switched back and forth a bit yesterday. Who doesn’t love Richmond? But the Indycar race was really good early, and they didn’t seem to spend all day focused on JJ.

 

I'd assume there is, motorsport is motorsport. That said, I think the NASCAR crowd is really far more into that, and the smaller crowd size at Barber's (only thirty miles away from Talladega) would tend to bear that out. The crowd at Barber is in part for Indy cars and in part a sports car crowd for the other races that weekend. Turns in both directions, elevation changes, all that. They also don't have facilities for RV's and don't encourage huge infield drunk parties. I think that in great part it's a different crowd.

It's a fabulous facility. George Barber is rich as hell and both the track and the museum are his babies. If there is one thing in Birmingham, Alabama, that is honest to god world class, it's Barbers. That museum is mind boggling. It's the largest collection of motorcycles in the world, hundreds of rare and interesting motorcycles and the biggest collection of Lotus cars, both street and racing, anywhere outside of the Lotus factory. I highly rec anyone who passes through here make a stop there. Well worth the time.

 

I'm a lifelong open wheel fan and I can barely bring myself to watch those broadcasts.

For one, you would come away from the broadcast thinking there is absolutely no strategy involved in anything. It's an endless parade of "Rossi is in the pits!! What's he doing? IT'S A SET OF FIRESTONE STICKER REDS!!" Nothing about why he's pitting. what the tire choices are, why they might be doing what they are doing. Every single thing is treated as a crazy, random act. The Power "push to pass" is a good example -- the reasoning should be obvious, but either it doesn't occur to them or they are choosing to pretend it's a mystery. Either way it's a lousy way to handle the broadcast.

Plus, Paul Tracy's continued employment speaks poorly of the entire sport.

 

Enjoyed Tracy as a driver but he's awful on TV, their three-man booth just doesn't work he's either talking over Townsend Bell or they are sparring with each other. The first question the pit reporter asked Power was about the whole "push to pass" thing and he said he didn't have enough fuel. F1 broadcasts can sometimes get way too technical for a non-gearhead like me but there's no way they would miss that kind of thing. And as others noted, the back half of that broadcast seemed to be filled with commercials.

 

The rain helped, but happy to see Jeb Burton win the Xfinity race at Talladega yesterday.

 

Time for the Jimmie Johnson Variety Hour, with occasional guest appearances from the race leaders.

 

He's had two big moments so far, the second is going to pack up the field for a great finish. Honestly, St. Pete may be the hardest track they run on all year. Even Long Beach has more margin for error.

 

Run. the advertised. Distance.

 

Welcome to the:
SPONSOR 500
or the
SPONSOR 505
or the
SPONSOR Whatever, Presented by Let's Fuck Over One of Our Legendary Teams

 

The video from Bubba Wallace's car of Joey Logano reminded me of the flying cow scene from "Twister."

 

Looked like last week’s iRacing Pro Invitational from virtual Talladega … which also featured Keselowski winning.

 

Oh, c'mon. Don't you love the (sponsor here) 500 becoming the 24 Hours of Talladega?

Joey Logano might flip over that.