NASCAR 2012 Thread

o_O

 

Only 97 more days until the Daytona 500!

 

Got my tickets in the mail last week.

On the front stretch again, near pit exit.

 

Don't forget that there are even less days until Preseason Thunder.

 

The 2012 Future Valet Car Parker Rookie of the Year is Stephen Leicht.

 

So, which year is most embarrassing? 2012, with Stephen Leicht's 15 starts and Josh Wise's start-and-part efforts; 2011, with Andy Lally's uncontested bid; or 2010, with Kevin Conway's wonderful personality, beloved car owner, and scintillating results?

It's weird - the rookie classes from 2001 to 2006 included Harvick, Kurt Busch, Newman, Johnson, McMurray, Biffle, Kahne, Vickers, Kyle Busch, Hamlin, Bowyer, Truex, and a few other guys with semi-okay Cup careers, plus Edwards, who never officially qualified as a rookie under the technical definition. Since then, the shining beacons have been Montoya, Menard, Ragan, Reutimann, Allmendinger, Smith, Hornish, and Logano. Keselowski, Almirola, and Ambrose were never officially rookies. Say what you will about the potential of any of these drivers, but the fact is that with the exception of Keselowski, the success of most of the 2001-2006 rookies was both more immediate and more sustained and had a higher peak. I think the problem is that for some reason, there's been almost no driver turnover in the past few seasons. Almost nobody important has retired, so there aren't many good seats opening for new guys. Are we looking at another wave of new faces approaching in five or ten years, when Gordon, Biffle, Kenseth, Stewart, and maybe Johnson and Earnhardt, among others, all decide to step aside?

 

For all you Danica hatters out there she finished 10th in points and I'm willing to bet she earned 2 times more money than Stenhouse did for the year!

http://www.nationwide.nascar.com/nationwide-series/races/2012/standings-official/

 

I'm glad they showed the money won in the same table you just posted. Looks like Stenhouse won 1.97 times more money than Danica this season. Even if she did receive more money in salary/sponsor dollars, I wouldn't be brave enough to say that she earned it.

 

Steve Wallace finished 10th last year, that should tell you something...

 

I would,I believe she'll do better next year when she gets out of that junk jr. builds!

 

How can you read and post on the forums when you are clearly blinded by loyalty?

The exact same "junk" put Cole Whitt in 7th overall in points, 150+ points in front of Danica's result. Cole Whitt had 4 top 5's and 14 top 10's, where Danica recorded only 4 top 10 finishes in the exact same equipment. The problem wasn't the car, unless you blame JRM for installing the faulty mechanism between the seat and the steering wheel.

 

Regan Smith won in his first start in 5 years in the same equipment.

 

Yeah, there's not many full time, fast drivers in Nationwide to be honest. You could start every race and finish top 25 and still make top 10 in points.

Exactly.

 

It seems unfair to compare Danica Patrick to Regan Smith, considering their very different levels of experience driving a stock car. Cole Whitt was a Nationwide Series Rookie this past season, was also driving JRM cars in every single race, and he still beat Danica by an average of 5 points a race. Their comparison seems much more fair, and Cole Whitt blows Danica out of the water on performance alone. I guess it's just too bad he can't beat her in the swimsuit competition...

 

Additionally Whitt is nearly 10 years younger, and a rookie in the NNW series. That kid's got a whole lot more potential in him, which Danica fans will see in a few years from now.

 

From an ESPN.com article summing up the season in all three series:

Source

 

Next year's points battle is gonna be a big one.

Elliot Sadler- JGR
Brian Vickers- JGR
Regan Smith- 5 JRM
Cole Whitt- 7 JRM
Trevor Bayne- 6 RFR
Travis pastrana- 99 RFR
Parker Kligerman- ???
Michael Annett- 43 RPM
Austin Dillon- 3 RCR

Edit: Forgot Sam Hornish Jr.- 12 PRS

Anyone for next season's predictions?

 

As much as I want to see Annett winning the championship, I unfortunately feel he's not quite ready yet, with not even a race win in these past years... which leads me to support...





Brian Vickers!

 

"...but only 13 drivers competed in every event."

Confirms what I was saying earlier. That's pretty bad.

 

And those other three drivers (old guy Mike Wallace, rookie Jason Bowles, and self-owned Jeremy Clements) were on shoestring budgets compared to the GoDaddy-funded JRM/HMS equipment Danica was driving. They also finished 12th, 13th, and 14th in points.

 

Also, Mike Bliss finished 8th in points in Tri-Star equipment. Good to see him in the top 10.

 

I think the problem with the lack of rookies was the Nationwide series becoming Cup-lite before 2011.
Also, there were 14 full time NWide drivers, 11th place Joe Needmecheck just didn't run Road America because he was busy parking at Sonoma in Cup.

 

That my friend is my championship winning list

I'm rooting for all of those guys so other then Kyle Busch, I will really have no one to despise next year.

Unfortunately though going off the pace of the 54 in this weekend's race, I get the feeling that the Kyle Busch of 2009 is back. The fact that he was able to contend towards the end of the year makes me believe the Nationwide regulars have a huge headache in their way of winning races

 

@ drunk Brad.

 

New meme(needs appropreate picture):

Go home Brad

You're drunk.

 

I am a little surprised that Nascar or somebody didn't whisk him away somewhere safe and out of public view given the shape he was in, he has proven to be a bit of a loose cannon even sober! You could tell he had more than a few on the Wind Tunnel interview last night. Way to go Brad, Penske and Dodge

 

Drunk Brad is awesome haha. Wonder what his tweets consisted of that night...

 

Pretty sure they were encouraging him.

Also, Drop, I was meaning pure statistics when I was talking about Bowyer getting the curse.

 

He's not "drinking" as much as he's "providing an enthusiastic sponsor plug during a high-traffic viewing opportunity." He's just making sure that Miller Lite gets their money's worth for sponsoring his car.