2014 NASCAR Thread

[nascarfan1400]

College football*

I know it's probably a relatively big thing in the USA, but for an outsider, it looks even dumber that the highest NASCAR series coverage would be halted by college sports.

And not to mention they get about 65% of their facts wrong and just like yesterday, when interviewing a driver after they have a disagreement they are "so what harsh words did you have for <name>?"

 

[Carbonox]

I don't think anyone is unlucky as Steve Park was, but this is with all due respect to Park, and excludes his vicious crash that took him out of action.

Another driver from the same era I should mention: Jerry Nadeau.

 

[AMPMROCKETFANN]

College football*

I know it's probably a relatively big thing in the USA, but for an outsider, it looks even dumber that the highest NASCAR series coverage would be halted by college sports.

Ah yes, that travesty of American sports, yes it's big in the south, and can alter programming, but it is also harder to watch than Fox News
signed, an American motorsports fan who hates college football and basketball with an undying passion.

Now, back to the show!

 

[RACECAR]

I don't think anyone is unlucky as Steve Park was, but this is with all due respect to Park, and excludes his vicious crash that took him out of action.

While he's not in Cup level anymore, he's actually still in action (in modifieds if I recall).

 

[Johnny1996]

While he's not in Cup level anymore, he's actually still in action (in modifieds if I recall).

I remember hearing that he was back behind the wheel in something. Modifieds as in Whelen Modifieds?

 

[The Bman]

Martin Truex, Jr. is quite unlucky considering what happened over the course of last year.

 

[GTPorsche]

I remember hearing that he was back behind the wheel in something. Modifieds as in Whelen Modifieds?

I think he's in Late Models.

 

[Johnny1996]

I think he's in Late Models.

Ah okay. As long as he's racing though.

 

[GTPorsche]

2015 schedule is just being reported on.

Darlington goes back to Labor Day, Atlanta is the second race, and Bristol moves to mid-April.

 

[MustangRyan]

Atlanta could be snowed out in mid-to-late February. It was snowed out during the big east coast ice storm in March of 1993.

 

[Jahgee]

Darlington at Labor Day is great!

 

[Bhowe83]

Oh so it's bias. And no one said I had to agree with it, but from a realistic stand point no he doesn't deserve it over the other 4 or 5 drivers. The same rhetoric could be said by any fan of any of those other drivers. I'm trying to be impartial I had no idea that you were such a major Jeff fan or at least planning on being partial in your post and thus responded accordingly. It's hard to tell who you like in NASCAR when it seems like each passing year you write it off and claim you're not going to follow the subsequent year.

I now see why.

If anything the guy who deserves it most would be AJ Almendinger because of how hard he has to try each week to be competitive and the comeback story.

People don't just deserve things, they have to earn them and work for them.

Atlanta could be snowed out in mid-to-late February. It was snowed out during the big east coast ice storm in March of 1993.

Remember, we also had a snowstorm the week after the 500 that caused the entire city to shutdown for a week this year

Also

 

[GTPorsche]

Less downforce, grippier tires were the favorite choice? I bet that's totally not because it's what the teams wanted....

 

[meek]

Why doesn't NASCAR mandate higher final gear ratios? the only way cars would reach this year's speeds would be by running 10,000 or more RPM... might work during qualifier, but they'd cook the engines quickly during races.

 

[nascarfan1400]

What ever happened to the night race at Auto Club? O.o I'd love to see it come back given the racing we have seen there in recent years.

 

[MustangRyan]

What ever happened to the night race at Auto Club? O.o I'd love to see it come back given the racing we have seen there in recent years.

I didn't even realize California had lights.

 

[Furinkazen]

What ever happened to the night race at Auto Club? O.o I'd love to see it come back given the racing we have seen there in recent years.

I didn't even realize California had lights.

 

[MustangRyan]

Yeah, I googled it. They were added in 2004 when they got a second race date. I guess when they went back down to one race a few years ago, they dropped the night race. They should have dropped the day race. Night races are always more fun to watch.

I tuned out of Nascar for most of the mid-2000's, so that's probably why I missed out on their night races.

 

[nascarfan1400]

Yeah, I googled it. They were added in 2004 when they got a second race date. I guess when they went back down to one race a few years ago, they dropped the night race. They should have dropped the day race. Night races are always more fun to watch.

I tuned out of Nascar for most of the mid-2000's, so that's probably why I missed out on their night races.

They weren't quite as good because they had the Crap of Tomorrow car, and they weren't constantly 3-6 wide.

I'm in love with the track in NASCAR 14 now because of that

 

[cnd01]

College football*

I know it's probably a relatively big thing in the USA, but for an outsider, it looks even dumber that the highest NASCAR series coverage would be halted by college sports.

Because there are millions of college football fans and even more pro football fans in America. Having tickets to all of Auburn's home games this year puts NASCAR on the back burner

 

[nascarfan1400]

It's not real NASCAR, but I find these funny, and fans may get the references.

 

[Bhowe83]

It's not real NASCAR, but I find these funny, and fans may get the references.

No, why. Just don't bring these up here. They're a desperate attempt to be funny and makes the NR community look like drooling 10 year olds laughing at "LOL FUNNY MEMZZZ XD" all day.

 

[OutlawQuadrnt]

Less downforce, grippier tires were the favorite choice? I bet that's totally not because it's what the teams wanted....

Like the former but with the latter, more grip would be okay if the falloff overall is greater.

 

[GTPorsche]

They will probably pick an engine package to use as well. They tested various spacers to drop power to 850, 800, 750, so not sure which one they'd go with.

One of the test session combos showed great results for passing, but not sure what combination was ran when that occurred.

 

[samurai8juice]

Steelers win last night, Jeff Gordon wins today.

This weekend keeps getting better and better.

Hey man, its only preseason.

edit: but the season for my beloved Bills is looking bleak.

I would've thought Kenseth would've won at Michigan. At least he's the non-winner points leader.

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

If anything the guy who deserves it most would be AJ Almendinger because of how hard he has to try each week to be competitive and the comeback story.

People don't just deserve things, they have to earn them and work for them.

Well I agree people don't deserve things they must work hard, I know that first hand. Which is the point of my post, it gets quite tiresome when people claiming their driver is more entitled because it is there driver and a thousand excuse to go along. I don't think AJ deserves it though if we're going to play and dream in the hypothetical world of who deserves it more because of story and great smile (joking on that part).

He runs with a team that though small is by no means the working mans team, they've had a sponsorship with big companies for about 8 years and through a time when Busch (Nationwide) had teams struggling to keep sponsors due to the economic meltdown. The use RCR equipment in a technical alliance, so it's not like they build their own chassis and engines and unlike Roush we've seen Childress have a decent overall car. Also it's a one car squad so it's pretty much how can you screw up when you only have one focus and not 3 or 4. It's being able to put a driver a good one on the payroll that I feel is the harder part with small teams.

However, this isn't the days of the 80s and 90s where there were small teams still building their own cars and not in a technical alliance.

 

[GTPorsche]

Nope.. never going to be another Alan Kulwicki type.

 

[Bhowe83]

Well I agree people don't deserve thing they must work hard I know that first hand. Which is the point of my post, it gets quite tiresome when people claiming their driver is more entitled because it is there driver and a thousand excuse to go along. I don't think AJ deserves it though if we're going to play and dream in the hypothetical world of who deserves it more because of story and great smile (joking on that part).

He runs with a team that though small is by no means the working mans team, they've had a sponsorship with big companies for about 8 years and through a time when Busch (Nationwide) had teams struggling to keep sponsors due to the economic meltdown. The use RCR equipment in a technical alliance, so it's not like they build their own chassis and engines and unlike Roush we've seen Childress have a decent overall car. Also it's a one car squad so it's pretty much how can you screw up when you only have one focus and not 3 or 4. It's being able to put a driver a good one on the payroll that I feel is the harder part with small teams.

However, this isn't the days of the 80s and 90s where there were small teams still building their own cars and not in a technical alliance.

I know all of that, and I wasn't trying to claim that AJ is more deserving than any other driver out there. I was just saying that by the biased logic of that one guy, AJ is more deserving than the guys he brought up.

AJ may be harder working than a good number of guys, but all 43 drivers on track deserve to win races and championships just the same.

They will probably pick an engine package to use as well. They tested various spacers to drop power to 850, 800, 750, so not sure which one they'd go with.

One of the test session combos showed great results for passing, but not sure what combination was ran when that occurred.

As far as engines nobody knows, but the buzz in the garage area is that the best aero spec was [surprise surprise] the low downforce spec the teams called for. And judging by Slugger Labbie tweeting out that his cars hit 223.5 mph top speed, I'm guessing they ran the 2014 spec engines.

Nope.. never going to be another Alan Kulwicki type.

But the thing is, we have a near infinite amount of time theoretically for the sport to continue on. We're currently in a recession, sponsorship and money is scarce right now.

Maybe in the next 10 years when we get back into a more normal economic state will produce a new crop of start up teams that may taste victory. Plus there could be an MWR type team if a new manufacturer comes into play and gives factory support to a smaller team to help them grow.

 

[MustangRyan]

Nope.. never going to be another Alan Kulwicki type.

I know he never won the title, but I would say Ricky Rudd was the last great owner/driver.

Alan K was a man truly thriving in his own world, even in the single-car-team era of the late 80's and early 90's.

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

I know all of that, and I wasn't trying to claim that AJ is more deserving than any other driver out there. I was just saying that by the biased logic of that one guy, AJ is more deserving than the guys he brought up.

AJ may be harder working than a good number of guys, but all 43 drivers on track deserve to win races and championships just the same.

I see, sorry I wasn't sure, so I took you seriously. I apologize and should have known better since you usually seem to be more level headed on here than most others.