The 2022 running NASCAR, IMSA & other racing things thread

I worked in a machine shop learning the trade for a few months after I got out of the Navy. It didn't take long until I decided I didn't like red hot pieces of metal going down my collar and in my mouth. I decided I wanted a job where I took a shower before going to work instead of when I got off.
I used my GI Bill money to get a journalism degree and go into newspapers. Maybe that was a red hot poker going up my butt.

 

I wonder how long they’d been doing it. How could they have missed it on Bell’s car two weeks ago?

 

And NASCAR puts Cleveland State on probation.

 

I haven’t figured out what that team did, but it must’ve been a doozy.

 

The 1994 Brickyard replay is on FS1.

God, Jeff Gordon could really wheel.

(So could Ernie Irvan.)

 

I watched a bunch of that, too. That was pretty good racing. How did that come to suck so badly? COT?

 

How did NASCAR go from the drivers of the '90s to what we have today? Maybe its that there were fewer "super teams" and more drivers won, and the fields were deeper. Check out the results from the '93 Daytona 500 - half the field is in the Hall of Fame, an Indy Winner or both.

https://www.racing-reference.info/race-results/1993-01/W/

 

Lang, Utter, Pockrass and Crandall were in Chicago a week ago for the downtown race announcement. Would all their employers pay for that travel in lieu of a teleconference, or might NASCAR have kicked in air fare for some/all of them?

 

Back in the halcyon days, SMI rented a jet during Media Days to fly the media from Charlotte to the new Texas Motor Speedway for lunch and a tour.

(You're probably on the right track with NASCAR offering a ride. Although Bob probably drove to Chicago and ate at every Chinese takeout restaurant along the way.)

 

Heck, SMI did a 180 on the lunch they served during my time. In the 90s and early 00s, whether it was NASCAR or NHRA, if we were at an SMI track, we ate well. There was always some kind of pre-event presser where we were either at a decent local place, or they catered it in. All that stopped. In the press box, we at the exact same food as the luxury boxes. It was with plastic plates and utensils, but the food was the same.
By the time I got out, it had switched to a deli tray or hotdogs and hamburgers if you were lucky.

 

The Nacho Bar at TMS was legendary. There wasn't another track on the circuit that could compete when Zizz and Eddie were in charge.

 

And I realize 99 percent of the things I post on this thread have absolutely nothing to do with 2022 NASCAR, IMSA or other racing things, and you still reply. Which tells me we'd all rather be talking about racing history and media center food.