NASCAR 2018

Good brave change by Charlotte.

Talladega and Daytona need to do this to one of their two races as well.

 

I wonder how the placement of the start finish line relates to the braking zone for the new turn one?

 

I would love to see the July race at Daytona be on the road course under the lights.

 

Would NASCAR risk doing that since they're usually universally slower than IMSA GT cars at venues
where they used to race on the same track/configurations?

BHW

 

the could take the chicane out...

 

Or run just the oval, but have the chicane in.

 

nah, seeing a full field of Cup cars slam on the brakes at start/finish and go barreling into turn 1 of the road course will be high comedy.

 

Amazingly, no beer sponsors in 2018 Daytonner 500.

Has Mountain Dew become the new Budweiser?

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/will-no-beer-sponsored-cars-2018-daytona-500-142553737.html

BHW

 

Back around 2000-01, I was invited to cover the Brumos Historics at Daytona.

For some reason, they ran like 1970 through then present-day NASCAR cars along with GT sports
cars in the same run groups.

Shooting from the pits watching the procession and indeed the NASCAR cars were braking for Turn
One on the S/F line. On one such occasion, Hurley Haywood who was driving one of the Brumos
Porsche 914s was following a NASCAR car when the stock car threw out the anchors some
400 yards before the normal braking point.

Hurley very nearly ran up the back of the NASCAR car, caught it and zipped past as if the NASCAR
was standing still. Everyone was in awe, "Whoa!", it was that close.

Later, when he got out of the car in the pits, everyone asked Hurley how close it all was. In his typical
low key fashion, he said "About as close as it gets!". It was a riot to see GTU cars with (what?) a quarter
of the power of NASCAR eating big cars alive on the road course.

NASCAR would be out of their minds to put a race of theirs on the road course. But, remembering
who's running the show there, who's to say?

BHW

 

sad state of affairs when NASCAR is too expensive (and/or provides too poor an ROI) for even blue chip consumer products like beer.


BEER!!!!!!

also, sad that I'm more excited for the SLM world series at New Smyrna than the 500.

 

lol.

they ran stock cars at Daytona to fill the field, and to attempt some cross-promotion, back in the day.

NASCAR even got some cars entered in LeMans in 1976, mostly due to lack of entrants because of the oil crisis (kind of ironic, when you think about it)

http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/g4163/muscle-on-mulsanne-best-of-the-rest/?slide=2

 

The lifeblood of NASCAR, tobacco and now beer are now gone.

Seems incredible.

BHW

 

Yeah, but the thing was, due to the weight and braking/handling disparities, the NASCAR cars were little more
than rolling chicanes in those sports car races and pretty damned dangerous to have them all out there at
the same time.

BHW

 

Do away with white middle class blue collar workers and this is the results you get. Same for ISC. When you push the working class away from a sport they built, the won't be coming back anytime soon. Be careful what you wish for, you may just get it. In NASCAR's case...you got what you wanted, now live with if. Same for ISC.

 

Brutal, dude, brutal...

BHW

 

Depends upon your perspective. I think Mr Hinton does a rather good job of diagnosing the problem. The facts presented seem to support the argument.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2016/sep/16/nascar-decline-struggles-auto-racing

Considering this was a sport built by mechanics and drivers....one must consider that the wealthy aren't as smart as they think. Like it or not, racing on short tracks is alive and well. The other major series...Will see in a few more years. Once autonomous vehicles enter society, your party may be over for good. And you can thank the kids in charge for doing a bang up job with all the rules and mindless nonsense that they brought to the party. Like Mr Hinton pointed out....We blue collar folks settle our differences far different than the wine and cheese crowd.

 

spot on.

 

Hey, when is Brian France's "State of NASCAR" speech schedule to be delivered?

This is the annual farce where France gets up before the racing media (such as it is) at
Daytonner, tells about the new rules changes and how these changes are in stone and unchangeable.

Then, two days later the rules are changed and we all laugh at him.

BHW

 

Why are there two NASCAR 2018 threads?

It's hard enough keeping up with the nonsense on one of them, much less two...

BHW

 

Probably because I'm tired and forgot we already had one for the year that wasn't bumped recent enough.

 

after watching the Clash, I'm looking forward to the 500, particularly since the forecast is for 80 degrees and sunny...handling will matter and the cars will move around a lot.

 

Annual farce? I love it. That is about it. My friend refers to ICS in a similar manner.

 

instead of watching the race, enjoy spending the afternoon telling those damn kids to get off your lawn