*** Official Daytona 500 thread ***

[ISUCubswin]

Greatest 500 was last year when Montoya blew up that truck.

But Hos - for most people, Bristol is their favorite race track. Talladega and Daytona are common, but they are common for "the big one" - the big crash that everyone anticipates that typically happens within the last 5 laps, as we saw in the Nationwide Series last night.

Road courses are the worst. Thank God there are only two.

I like Phoenix a lot, so I'm looking forward to next weeks race.

 

[brianhos]

You probably like watching wrecks. Short tracks would be the ones to watch. Avoid road courses because there is no passing and they don't go fast enough to do a lot of damage when wrecks happen.

Or watch someone pass another racer. There was no passing at all.

 

[kilroy]

Or watch someone pass another racer. There was no passing at all.

I would have to agree with this, but read above post :it was daytona:

 

[jdoggivjc]

That's the problem with restrictor plate racing - by slapping that restrictor plate on the engine you make every engine equal, and because all engines are equal cars cannot separate themselves from one another. I understand the need to restrict speeds at Daytona and Talladega - IIRC Bobby Allison's wreck 20 years (give or take) ago was due to the fact that cars had simply become too fast for those two tracks. If I understand correctly, at both Daytona and Talladega under ordinary circumstances you don't even need to pull your foot of the gas, even into a turn. Perhaps forcing drivers to drive a V6 version of their car and/or reconfiguring the tracks such as reducing the degree of banking would work, both of which would cause slower speeds without grouping the drivers together.

 

[cowgirl836]

Greatest 500 was last year when Montoya blew up that truck.

But Hos - for most people, Bristol is their favorite race track. Talladega and Daytona are common, but they are common for "the big one" - the big crash that everyone anticipates that typically happens within the last 5 laps, as we saw in the Nationwide Series last night.

Road courses are the worst. Thank God there are only two.

I like Phoenix a lot, so I'm looking forward to next weeks race.

duh, yeah last year's was good, keep forgetting about the rain delayed race delayed by the track being on fire, lol.

I agree that road courses are like slow torture, I hate them so much. The night race at Richmond and the Coke 600 are usually pretty good too.

 

[Rabbuk]

Anyone else just prefer demolition derbies?

 

[kilroy]

Anyone else just prefer demolition derbies?

no

 

[kilroy]

... Perhaps forcing drivers to drive a V6 version of their car and/or reconfiguring the tracks such as reducing the degree of banking would work, both of which would cause slower speeds without grouping the drivers together.

If I remember right they tried this with the Nation Wide Cars in the 80s. It sucked, but that was for all races.

 

[DistrictCyclone]

I think racing would be cool if were more like Mario Kart. Throw some mystery boxes on the track, add in some shortcuts here and there, give drivers the chance to attack other drivers, and so on.

 

[cycloneworld]

I like this racing much better than 2 car bump draft.

You still think that? Man, I thought it was terrible racing. Single line, no passing, no middle line, barely a bottom line.

Jr. is Danica without boobs.

This. I find it really funny when people complain about the attention Danica is getting...and then they are junior fans.

 

[cowgirl836]

I think another big part of it was the new car - guys seemed tentative to push but the big problem was a lot of the movers and shakers were gone early. We saw Harvick running the bottom and Stewart would do all sorts of crazy stuff, and then they were gone. You got to the end and you had Johnson leading, Patrick wasn't (and shouldn't have) tried anything, Biffle seemed content to sit again this year, and you only had Jr with Martin really go for it. The other guys up there didn't really "belong" so they were content to ride around and get 6th.

 

[cowgirl836]

This. I find it really funny when people complain about the attention Danica is getting...and then they are junior fans.

Well since I'm one of them, I find it annoying because she's literally done nothing to earn it and Jr. hates most of that attention that yup, he got because his dad died. He doesn't go pose for Playgirl to up his media presence.

 

[cycloner29]

That is what I was hoping for. I want to like racing, but I should have just taken a nap, nothing at all happened.

It was so boring,I cleaned our stove, came back about 50 laps later and nothing had changed.

 

[cycloneworld]

I thought it was guaranteed Danica would wreck. When did that happen again? I must have missed it.

I think she was way too passive at the end. Thought her and Jr should have hooked up there.

I thought she was too passive at the end too. But she ran so much better than I ever expected. She ran Top 5 about 50% and Top 10 the other 50%. I think she was scared to make a mistake at the end that would cost her that good run. But she's a rookie and will learn from that. All in all, I was really impressed with her today.

I thought Danica was the story of the day outside of the wreck that collected Harvick, Stewart, and Kahne who were all favorites to win. Other than that, the race was extremely boring watch them "race" single file for 99% of the race. And I'm an avid NASCAR fan saying that. The Nationwide and Truck races were much more entertaining. And that's sad.

 

[kilroy]

You still think that? Man, I thought it was terrible racing. Single line, no passing, no middle line, barely a bottom line.

The end was great. I think everyone was to afraid of the new car with all the practice problems theyve been having to get out and dice it up. Plus it 500 miles what the hell are they going to do for the first 480?

I thought it was interesting that several drivers said that they were running around at half throttle. Well go pass someone then.

jdog nailed it with the restrictor plate comments. Thats the WHOLE problem with daytona.

 

[cycloneworld]

Well since I'm one of them, I find it annoying because she's literally done nothing to earn it and Jr. hates most of that attention that yup, he got because his dad died. He doesn't go pose for Playgirl to up his media presence.

I understand where you are coming from and Jr has certainly done more than Danica will ever likely do. But for the past 5-6 years, Jr hasn't been relevant at all (I realize the last year or so has been much better). Yet he gets all of the attention from both the fans and media.

 

[kingcy]

Its wasnt a good race. Plate races are best when both lanes work equal, and cars can move around some. Today it was get in line and follow the leader. Jr may have figured something out at the end, but it was way to late in the race to make it fun to watch. That late yellow flag also blew what could have been a good finish. I was also disaponted in Fox's coverage. I know they have to pay the bills but commericals every 4 laps that last 5 laps is getting crazy. Hell they missed what may have been the best part of the race late when they were in commerical. There is a lot of good info out there on Twitter during the race, that you never hear on the TV broadcast.

 

[cycloneworld]

The end was great. I think everyone was to afraid of the new car with all the practice problems theyve been having to get out and dice it up. Plus it 500 miles what the hell are they going to do for the first 480?

Not for a plate race, it wasn't. Jimmie Johnson almost got passed. That's about all that happened. Even with the COT, we had lead change after lead change, multiple lines working, etc. Not today. They all basically drove around in a straight line until the last lap when it was too late to do anything. Not good for NASCAR when this was supposed to be their Super Bowl.

 

[DistrictCyclone]

Well since I'm one of them, I find it annoying because she's literally done nothing to earn it and Jr. hates most of that attention that yup, he got because his dad died. He doesn't go pose for Playgirl to up his media presence.

Yeah, it's not like Junior never goes on late night TV or has cameos in movies or anything like that...

:wink:

 

[Tre4ISU]

Give me the "paired-car" racing. That was fun to watch. Today, well, today sucked and yet again, Jr. blue balled all his fans at the end. I swear in every 500 he is right there, only to finish somewhere in the top 10. He does always go for it though, which I like. He'll jump out of line hoping for someone to go with him and it doesn't happen.