NASCAR 2012 Thread

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outlaw4rc
:lol: at the mild clapping for Hammond.
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Pretty much sums up how well Known Top Gear is here. "Richard who?" is probably what they were thinking.

Also, I'm so painting that car Richard was driving đź‘Ť
 
ICEYOU
Which Hendrick car do you think has the greatest chance of winning this weekend?
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While it's a ridiculous question, because Talladega is nothing short of a roullette wheel, I'll bite anyway.

NOT JEFF GORDON.






For a more serious answer, I'll go with this:

Dale Jr probably has the best chance to win of the 4 Hendrick drivers. He is more proficient in the older style of drafting, and his second place run at Daytona earlier this season was the highest finish for a Hendrick car in that race.

Of course, Jimmie Johnson wrecked on lap 2, and Dave Blaney almost won the race when turn three nearly burned to the ground.

Who could have predicted that before the race?
 
I'm going to say Jr. as well. Him and his team have been pretty consistant and have taken care of the cars. I hope I didn't just jinx him though. :nervous:
 
MustangRyan
While it's a ridiculous question, because Talladega is nothing short of a roullette wheel, I'll bite anyway.
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Yes with 2-car tandem racing dega is a roulette wheel. But since the pack's back it won't be like that anymore. And are you implying that it takes no skill to win at Talladega?

EDIT: And why not Jeff Gordon? he has 12 combined wins at Daytona and Talladega? Sure his season has been rather s*****, but I think he turn turn it around at Dega.
 
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ICEYOU
Yes with 2-car tandem racing is a roulette wheel. But since the pack's back it won't be like that anymore.
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How old are you again? Do you even remember true pack-style drafting, where 36 cars would run 3-wide, 12-rows deep, all just inches apart at 200mph for lap after lap? One slip, and 20+ cars can be destroyed in an instant, contenders and pretenders alike. Which cars will survive 188 laps at Talladega is an absolute guess, as referenced in my Jimmie Johnson/Dave Blaney comparison above.

ICEYOU
And are you implying that it takes no skill to win at Talladega?
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No, not at all. However, while it does take a lot of skill to win in the older-style drafting packs, no amount of skill on earth can prevent you from being taken out at absolutely no fault of your own at any time throughout the race.

ICEYOU
EDIT: And why not Jeff Gordon? he has 12 combined wins at Daytona and Talladega? Sure his season has been rather s*****, but I think he turn turn it around at Dega.
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Oh that? That was trolling. I wouldn't do it if I didn't have to sift through so many blindingly pro-Gordon posts day after day. Consider this just a little balancing of the spectrum.
 
Most weeks, around 10 drivers have a chance at winning. A real chance. At Dega, 43 drivers do.
 
Furinkazen
Most weeks, around 10 drivers have a chance at winning. A real chance. At Dega, 43 drivers do.
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Besides the same 7-8 drivers that are always in the garage by lap 13. :sly:

EDIT: Does anyone else have trouble getting the nascar.com page to load every other day? It don't matter what computer I'm on, but it seems like that site never wants to load.
 
Strange. I just tried from my laptop and from my coworker's desktop and nada. But I was able to get it loaded up on the same laptop earlier this morning. It happens at my house too.
 
nascar.com works fine for me as well.

I'd like to see Dale Jr. win, but I have an odd feeling he's going to finish 2nd..... again. It's just too difficult to predict a winner with how recent Talladega races have finished.

Also, the way Jeff Gordon's season has been, he's going to need Dale Jr. pushing him to the finish if he's going to want a win.
 
I guess it just don't like me then. :odd:

Very hard to predict. I just wouldn't want to be in the lead at the start of the green white checkered finish (if there is one). But the way they've been racing this year, there may not be one.
 
Stormtrooper217
Who's watching the Top Gear NASCAR episode?

(I have a feeling that this will be a long episode...)
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Boy, I had no idea Jeremy Clarkson was that insecure

I thought it was a decent episode, but fifth gear's NASCAR episode was much better


 
MustangRyan
How old are you again? Do you even remember true pack-style drafting, where 36 cars would run 3-wide, 12-rows deep, all just inches apart at 200mph for lap after lap? One slip, and 20+ cars can be destroyed in an instant, contenders and pretenders alike. Which cars will survive 188 laps at Talladega is an absolute guess, as referenced in my Jimmie Johnson/Dave Blaney comparison above.
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You didn't like the pack racing at this year's 500?
 
GasolineJunkie
Besides the same 7-8 drivers that are always in the garage by lap 13. :sly:
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:lol:đź‘Ť

GasolineJunkie
Very hard to predict. I just wouldn't want to be in the lead at the start of the green white checkered finish (if there is one). But the way they've been racing this year, there may not be one.
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Oh I don't know, I've got a bad felling that the pack racing at Talladega is going to make up for the lack of yellow flags in the last few races. I hope not though.
 
Not that I've been religiously watching NASCAR races, but you don't NEED Cautions or anything just for a race to be exciting. That's like saying a basketball game is boring just because players don't get fouled hard. A race can still be a good one even without excessive cautions. So if you think that Cautions make racing great and that many are great, then you probably loved that Coca-Cola 600 that had what... 23 cautions?

Talladega WILL experience the Big One (or something pretty close) at least once. You survive Talladega much like you survive Daytona. I began to better think about the challenge of racing tracks like Talladega through GT5 and through various NASCAR games I've played before. It's a certain science to racing continually at high speed while making timely passes. You might be able to bounce back if you fall behind on a short track or a mile-long or maybe even an intermediate oval, but on a track like Talladega, it's going to be tough to bounce back unless you have the slipstream battle of your life to win or place high. You have to admire the talent of these racers in taking on tracks like Daytona and Talladega.
 
And now for this week's wrap:

 
ICEYOU
You didn't like the pack racing at this year's 500?
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Not at all, I fell asleep during the pack racing and the pied piper follow-the-leader "racing".

When I woke up I saw a pickup truck with 15-20 foot flames shooting up out of the back of it, then things got interesting.
 
Adamgp
Not at all, I fell asleep during the pack racing and the pied piper follow-the-leader "racing".
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With no announced rules changes for this weekend, expect more "follow the leader" racing coupled with plenty of wrecks. :grumpy: đź‘Ž As a lifelong Nascar fan, I am very disappointed this year by the lack of on track action. And by action, I don't mean wrecks every 20 laps or debris cautions for hot dog wrappers 4 counties away. I'm talking about side-by-side battles that last for more than one lap after a restart among other things. It's almost like in the off season, Nascar and the sponsors informed the teams this year to follow each other around the track in a parade formation for 3-4 hours so every car's sponsor is not obstructed by another car alongside it. :yuck:
 
I really like what you said, RVDNut. NASCAR seems more scripted than ever nowadays, as all you really see are phantom cautions and 10 seconds of real action.

And I really hate those cautions over a 5 inch piece of paper falling into the pit-lane. It's a piece of paper, not scrap metal. I also hate it when a fan causes the caution. Nobody wants a Budweiser can thrown by an upset Dale Jr. fan to bring out a caution just because he got upset since Junior blew a tire on lap 8 or something.
 
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RVDNuT374
With no announced rules changes for this weekend, expect more "follow the leader" racing coupled with plenty of wrecks. :grumpy: đź‘Ž As a lifelong Nascar fan, I am very disappointed this year by the lack of on track action. And by action, I don't mean wrecks every 20 laps or debris cautions for hot dog wrappers 4 counties away. I'm talking about side-by-side battles that last for more than one lap after a restart among other things. It's almost like in the off season, Nascar and the sponsors informed the teams this year to follow each other around the track in a parade formation for 3-4 hours so every car's sponsor is not obstructed by another car alongside it. :yuck:
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To be fair, the restrictor plate rules have always been hit and miss. The 2000 Daytona 500 is probably the worst restrictor plate race ever but the 2000 Fall Talladega race was probably the best ever

As for the quality of racing this season, theres probably alot of little factors that contributed to what we've seen so far.

The COT has always been a car that needs momentum to be fast, and drivers cant be as racy with it as with the old car. There is the introduction of the chase that might be encouraging drivers to take it safe and easy to get consistent finishes and make the chase. Theres also the over saturation of 1.5 mile ovals

In my opinion, what has hurt NASCAR the worst is the "variable" banking and the COT. Both allow multiple lines to be fast. Back in the day if you couldn't run the bottom of the track you couldn't win. Now you have guys running next to the wall winning. When tracks get too many grooves drivers dont have to battle as hard to pass each other. Just get into a different groove and drive around someone without ever getting near them.

Thats what has really hurt the racing.
 
You and I must have a different definition of racing. Being stuck behind someone because you cant go anywhere else to pass him isnt better racing, its a recipe for punting peopleoff track. Think of gordon and kenseth i believe in kansas. Allowing people to find other places to run I think has taken nascar to a higher level as its no longer just glorified bumper cars but allows strategy, allows for options, lets people use more of the track, etc.
 
Been a fan for over three decades, but I am afraid I am watching more out of habit than anything else these days. There is a simple solution though. Get rid of all that aero crap, lift the cars 5 inches off the ground and then let them go nuts with the motors. It won't matter how much power they have if they actually have to start driving the cars again! As for the templates: make them conform to the shape of the cars they represent, that's how they got the term "stock cars" in the first place isn't it?
 
I also am watching it out of habit, but recently I'll just watch to the first commercial break, then change the channel and tune back in towards the end when the "excitement" is. :rolleyes: My solution to make Nascar exciting involves the following things:

Stop the micromanagement of the teams and actually let them tweak the cars within reasonably set guidelines.

The sponsors need to let the drivers be human and not treat them as corporate puppets.

A different tire manufacturer. There's a reason Goodyear's not in any other motorsports besides the top 3 divisions of Nascar and drag racing.

The elimination of the Chase. I believe it has promoted a "parade" style of racing during the first 26 races so the teams can save their best equipment for the final 10, and even then the Chase is a parade.
 
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