2015 NASCAR Thread - And then there was 1

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Dale Jr. kind of was forced to take 4 given the circumstances. Kenseth is probably in trouble too unless he can get a good restart. Then again, Matt has a win so he can gamble, but he probably won't win this race.
 
Very impressed with Larson right now but the 18 is coming just not sure if he has enough time.

And there is the caution. Watch out fot the 18.
 
C'mon Almirola (and Jr. of course:sly:) Give me a reason to watch these races beyond Charlotte, Talladega, and the last half of Homestead
 
No championship for Jimmie Johnson this year.

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People who believe the conspiracy theory that NASCAR is trying to keep JJ from typing Dale Sr. and Richard Petty with this format will be happy. People who believe the conspiracy theory that it was made to gift Jr. a championship will also be happy right now.

Either way, that was a tight battle with half the drivers making it to round two by single digit point margins.
 
People who believe the conspiracy theory that NASCAR is trying to keep JJ from typing Dale Sr. and Richard Petty with this format will be happy. People who believe the conspiracy theory that it was made to gift Jr. a championship will also be happy right now.

Either way, that was a tight battle with half the drivers making it to round two by single digit point margins.

How so, when in regards to Junior...if they wanted to gift him a championship they wouldn't be running the chase for the past 3-4 years when he's usually top five to begin with as the pre-chase season wraps up. As for JJ the moment the chase gets the green light already proves NASCAR is purposely setting up a system. Where a guy wins a ton of races regular season and gets many top tens as well and leads or is second, and then gets the rug pulled from under him with a silly scenario called the chase.

As for those that thought JJ was a threat...HA
 
How so, when in regards to Junior...if they wanted to gift him a championship they wouldn't be running the chase for the past 3-4 years when he's usually top five to begin with as the pre-chase season wraps up. As for JJ the moment the chase gets the green light already proves NASCAR is purposely setting up a system. Where a guy wins a ton of races regular season and gets many top tens as well and leads or is second, and then gets the rug pulled from under him with a silly scenario called the chase.

As for those that thought JJ was a threat...HA
There were always a bunch of people saying that the original chase was made so that Jr. could win since he was always a threat at a few of the tracks (especially Dega). Ironically, the inaugural year of the chase was iirc the year that Dale blew everyone away before the chase tightened up everyone for the final 10 races.
 
There were always a bunch of people saying that the original chase was made so that Jr. could win since he was always a threat at a few of the tracks (especially Dega). Ironically, the inaugural year of the chase was iirc the year that Dale blew everyone away before the chase tightened up everyone for the final 10 races.

Yeah it was the year he won like five or six races, only to have the rug pulled out from under him and then do not so hot during the chase. Same year Vickers won Dega chase race on questionable methods.

EDIT: Never mind, that year he won the PHX and Dega chase races. It was two years later that he and JJ were taken out by Vickers.
 
Wow, Gordon not eliminated. Well, I'm just gonna stop predicting now. Vettel already managed to make my prediction in F1 look idiotic and now Gordon is doing it in NASCAR.

I have JJ on my fantasy team this week, so that is not likely.

Thank you, based @Adamgp

You've restored order to the galaxy.

People who believe the conspiracy theory that NASCAR is trying to keep JJ from typing Dale Sr. and Richard Petty with this format will be happy. People who believe the conspiracy theory that it was made to gift Jr. a championship will also be happy right now.

Either way, that was a tight battle with half the drivers making it to round two by single digit point margins.

Personally, I think all of them are crazy. Perhaps not Soccer fan crazy (or football crazy in some cases), but not too far from the very same frequency.
 
The Arizona Cardinals looked very good last season. Then they started to struggle a bit in the weeks prior to the play-offs. Then they bombed out and lost to a losing team in the wild card round.
Welcome to sports. It doesn't matter in sports how good you are in the regular season, it only matters that you are good enough to make the post season.
If you disagree, then you really can't call NASCAR a sport.
 
The Arizona Cardinals looked very good last season. Then they started to struggle a bit in the weeks prior to the play-offs. Then they bombed out and lost to a losing team in the wild card round.
Welcome to sports. It doesn't matter in sports how good you are in the regular season, it only matters that you are good enough to make the post season.
If you disagree, then you really can't call NASCAR a sport.
The Cardinals started tanking when their starting quarterback was injured. Once they got down to the third quarterback, they were toast.
 
The Arizona Cardinals looked very good last season. Then they started to struggle a bit in the weeks prior to the play-offs. Then they bombed out and lost to a losing team in the wild card round.
Welcome to sports. It doesn't matter in sports how good you are in the regular season, it only matters that you are good enough to make the post season.
If you disagree, then you really can't call NASCAR a sport.
I don't call NASCAR a sport. Ask Donovan McNabb, he will tell you too
 
The problem is that unlike most sports, NASCAR is not a pure head-to-head competition. You have other competitors not in the "playoffs" on the same track that could materially alter the result from taking out a playoff driver or causing a caution at the worst possible time. An injury on a playoff team may or may not have an major impact while a failure of the car (due to defect or someone else's debris knocking off a belt) can have devastating consequences. There's far more outside variables that can affect the eventual outcome in motor racing.

NASCAR can rework their "playoffs" all they want but to me, it will always be a gimmick marketing tool. I'm going to keep saying it but I'd rather just have 26 regular races that end right before the start of the NFL season. Less cost on the teams, it frees up sponsors for other teams and each race becomes more important overall.
 
I know I've changed my stance on the Chase many times over the past couple of years, but right now I'm torn. It does create more exciting racing that I've seen in years past, but as of late there have been too many circumstances that can destroy someone's run when they've run fantastic over the entire season.

I think @outlaw4rc said it best; it's not a head-to-head competition against one other team, instead you face 42 other drivers in any given race. Injuries in a football game do not have the same impact as a mechanical failure or a crash in auto racing. Whereas the team can move on and still claim wins if a big-name star is hurt in a ball/stick sport, in racing anything that damages the car can set you behind very far. Points systems for a mass of individuals is far different from a win/loss/tie record in a team sport. And I'll bring this specific anti-Chase example up again; what if somebody won all of the first 35 races (like that will happen, but it's part of logic) and suddenly got taken out by a cheap backmarker on the final lap of the final race and lost the championship because of it? You may say something like Tom Brady getting injured in the Super Bowl in the final quarter and the Patriots losing because of it, but the team still has a chance to win without him. As for NASCAR, being based on an individual competing for the championship, if someone takes a cheap shot on you when the time is vital, you're screwed. Game over, man, game over. With the original non-Chase points format in place, someone else's malicious doing doesn't crush all of your hard work and you do have that chance to recover.
 
Not that it means anything since we have the chase, but the classic points, as I alluded to in my prior post...

1. Joey Logano 1062
2. Kevin Harvick -8
3. Dale Jr -76

22. Kyle Busch -461
 
Not that it means anything since we have the chase, but the classic points, as I alluded to in my prior post...

1. Joey Logano 1062
2. Kevin Harvick -8
3. Dale Jr -76

22. Kyle Busch -461
As of right now, we would have a two man race for the title using the old system. Dale would have no chance.
 
As of right now, we would have a two man race for the title using the old system. Dale would have no chance.

He might if lady luck smiled upon him, and got Logano and Harvick to do a JJ and Harvick. And also winning probably 2 or more races. I'd say his chances with the old system compared to the current is probably better, but others might disagree and say he can be what Ryan Newman was to last years chase.

I just want a normal points championship. This chase format is the worst thing ever.

Not that that the classic standings are any better right now...

As we've done before, I think the best way to fix that is give 1-20 points for finishing. Perhaps a break down from 50 being the highest to 1 being the lowest. Or maybe the collective here can make a points break down over the winter break

And then just keep owners points the way it is cause only one group of people cares about those...owners.
 
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NASCAR is pretty much on death's doorstep. Attendance is down. TV ratings are down. France has run it into the ground. Its basically rolling billboards and fixed outcomes ala WWE. NASCAR will make sure JJ never gets that 7th championship. Clowns like Danica are their for ratings. BTW that has failed. And no talents like the Dillon brothers have rides because their drunken POP POP owns the team
 
NASCAR is pretty much on death's doorstep. Attendance is down. TV ratings are down. France has run it into the ground. Its basically rolling billboards and fixed outcomes ala WWE. NASCAR will make sure JJ never gets that 7th championship. Clowns like Danica are their for ratings. BTW that has failed. And no talents like the Dillon brothers have rides because their drunken POP POP owns the team
I don't agree with a lot of that. Just because ratings and attendance is low doesn't mean it's dying. Look at F1, who, under your theory, should already be dead by now. It's still expanding, despite having a shrunken attendance. IndyCar should have, by prospect, been dead a few years by now, but it's growing again. Expansion and contraction is an economic cycle, and NASCAR's going through what everything else has. NASCAR didn't rig the part in Johnson's car to give way. It's coincidental, and under the worst timing. It's something that could happen to anyone. He'll get a 7th championship. He's still got a few years. I will agree with the statement that a lot of ride buying is happening, but as expensive as everything is, they're just trying to survive. I can't say it's rigged because look at what can happen. We were just talking about JWT winning a race, which we never thought we'd see, and Stenhouse in the top 10. It's a roulette, not a fixed event. Both are bad as it's luck instead of script, but at least it's volatile and dramatic.
 
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