NASCAR at COTA

[blacksheep-1]

A lot like explosive diarrhea, it's much better when it's actually over.
They are really trying to steal this race from Reddick.
Wayne Tayler in 10th.

 

[TMSBOSS]

Reddick needs two trophies. One for the win and one for surviving all the restarts.

 

[Bill Pemberton]

I must like explosive diarrhea since I thought it was a pretty exciting race! Putting damn near 40 cars that are so similar out there reminds me of a bunch of Spec Miatas on Hyper Steroids battling every single corner till the end. I remember how insane it was running 30+ 116- 118 Spec Miata years back and I can not imagine running with 800-900 HP bumper to bumper that long. I thought it was exciting , essentially some pretty cool shittz!

 

[blacksheep-1]

I must like explosive diarrhea since I thought it was a pretty exciting race! Putting damn near 40 cars that are so similar out there reminds me of a bunch of Spec Miatas on Hyper Steroids battling every single corner till the end. I remember how insane it was running 30+ 116- 118 Spec Miata years back and I can not imagine running with 800-900 HP bumper to bumper that long. I thought it was exciting , essentially some pretty cool shittz!

They had some road racers out there as well, which IMO they should just stop with that, they always look bad and some guy is always talking about how road racers aren't as good as the NASCAR guys. The fact is, it is unfair, besides not being allowed to wreck your way to the front, in a road course, you can't drive off the track, down the return road, in back of the stands and pull back on again. When the Aussie V8s ran COTA a few years ago, they put on one of the best races ever, and they even had to stay on the track.
With regards to Reddick, it would be a cold day in hell when I root for a Toyleta, that was today, as they did everything possible to screw this guy over.
Was there even a Ford in the top 10?
Also not sure what is going to be racing in NASCAR in the future, Chevy will only be building SUVs by then and Ford is almost there as well. Won't be quite the same watching Kia, Toyota and Nissan as the new face of stock car racing.
I wouldn't be too surprised to see Ford walk away from NASCAR and do the global GT3/4 road course thing, since the US is no longer a car market that they want to exploit.

 

[TMSBOSS]

One of the road racers had a top 10 in his first time in a Cup car. Impressive.
Storm coming through now. 3” hail predicted. We shall see.

 

[blacksheep-1]

One of the road racers had a top 10 in his first time in a Cup car. Impressive.
Storm coming through now. 3” hail predicted. We shall see.

Hang on buddy

 

[TMSBOSS]

Not too worried about the weather. It seems that the competing weather services/channels always compete for the Worst forecast. Lol. We had some small hail so far.
Folks a few hours north sure got hit this weekend.

 

[Bill Pemberton]

I always prefer to have a Ford win, ( my car number is 22 primarily for Cindric when he was in Xfinity ), but I respect a good drive and with Reddick having to make numerous restarts, the finish was more intense and it showed off his skill , so I really didn't care what vehicle he was in, he drove a solid race. I find Nascar racing, on road courses with cars so equal and high numbers of vehicles on track, alot more difficult to navigate cleanly than some 20 -30 car events. We have wrecks in all kinds of racing and though I don't need them to feel a race is exciting , I know racing in Spec Miata , with alot of competitors does see more banging than we see with Classes where there are plenty of cars of varying speeds - which tends to have Classes separated and not in constant contact with their specific competitors. I am old fashioned, but I respect almost all racing, and frankly though I prefer Sports Car Road Racing, I enjoy Nascar also. I guess I don't fully understand some of the criticism track enthusiasts complain about , because there will be differences among various racing Organizations and it seems each fan backs the one they are most comfortable with. There are , though, a reasonable group of folks, imho, that enjoy all types of racing, accepting they will be different and finding the positives each showcase. I understand this is difficult for some and I respect that, as I have gotten criticism for years by those who say autocrossing is not racing -- but heck , what do I know , I also absolutely love Formula 1 too !!

 

[TMSBOSS]

F1 is fantastic racing. I just can’t relate to the cars as well as I do with a full bodied street car based series. Amazing skills, unbelievable performance acceleration and braking beyond any sports car. The mega tech and mega budgets are just hard to relate to. The F1 teams pit crew has more people over the wall than several Xfinity team have in total.

I still go to local dirt tracks a few times a year, NASCAR when I can and I enjoy watching NASA and SCCA events in person. I was fortunate enough to experience the Daytona 500 from a pit box, amazing. F1 amazing as it is, just seems out of touch with what most folks see as reality.

 

[12coBoss]

F1 is fantastic racing. I just can’t relate to the cars as well as I do with a full bodied street car based series. Amazing skills, unbelievable performance acceleration and braking beyond any sports car. The mega tech and mega budgets are just hard to relate to. The F1 teams pit crew has more people over the wall than several Xfinity team have in total.

I still go to local dirt tracks a few times a year, NASCAR when I can and I enjoy watching NASA and SCCA events in person. I was fortunate enough to experience the Daytona 500 from a pit box, amazing. F1 amazing as it is, just seems out of touch with what most folks see as reality.

If you haven't already go to Netflix and watch Formula 1: Drive to Survive. Just started watching a few weeks ago and up to season 3. I thought it was a little slow to get going but into it now, gives a good perspective to behind the scenes and the pressure and intensity to win.

 

[JDee]

If you haven't already go to Netflix and watch Formula 1: Drive to Survive. Just started watching a few weeks ago and up to season 3. I thought it was a little slow to get going but into it now, gives a good perspective to behind the scenes and the pressure and intensity to win.

Yeah, agree totally. I was reluctant to watch it, figured it would be hokey hollywood crap, but it is pretty well done. You see a lot of stuff from the inside that spectators would never see. Definitely worth the time spent.

 

[Stan Whitney]

Yeah, agree totally. I was reluctant to watch it, figured it would be hokey hollywood crap, but it is pretty well done. You see a lot of stuff from the inside that spectators would never see. Definitely worth the time spent.

It is a better watch than the races themselves. Tough and cutthroat business for sure, fascinating to see behind the scenes.

 

[ArizonaBOSS]

Pretty entertaining watching these guys run over any paved (and unpaved, near T7/8) surface since no track limits other than in the Esses. Also helps that the majority of the "penalty curbing" wasn't installed for this event.

 

[Dave_W]

The problem with the "road course ringers" in NASCAR is that, with the increased emphasis being put on road courses, any regular driver that wants a decent chance at the championship is not going to give up his seat to a road course specialist. So the teams that need to hire a "ringer" are usually the backmarkers or one-off drives. I think Jordan Taylor was the only "ringer" with a decent car, being tapped to replace the injured Chase Elliot. Also, for at least the past decade or so the regular drivers have gotten much better at road courses, so the advantage a road course specialist may have over the top NASCAR drivers is much less than it used to be.

The crashfest in turn one on every restart also mixed up things enough that finishing positions beyond the top couple of places should not be used as an indicator of driver performance.

 

[ArizonaBOSS]

Speaking of Turn 1, I did enjoy the overhead shots of the pack heading in there. Really neat each time.

 

[blacksheep-1]

It is a better watch than the races themselves. Tough and cutthroat business for sure, fascinating to see behind the scenes.

You have no idea, these kids start in karts, and go straight up as fast as they can, F3, F2 and then F1, if they can't cut it along the way, they are just tossed aside, and politics enter that as well, which kart mfg, which tire company. The only thing you see like that here was with Scott Pruitt, drove Margay/ Bridgestone then showed up at Riverside to drive a Roush (B stone) Capri in Tran Am, starting from last and winning the race, he was hired by them, Later went to NASCAR and was basically told he would not be successful there. He sat on the pole at Darlington, got wrecked every weekend by some clown (same with Steve Kinser BTW) then got discarded. He went back to Bridgestone, which had bought out Firestone and did all the Indy car testing and won the first race for B stone in like 12 years. Ran with Pat Patrick until he got "monied out" because he was a paid driver. Went to Gannassi in sportscars and won just about everything, but when Ford went GT racing he was let go again, remarkably, since he had some of the most extensive driving experience on the planet, and a relationship with Ford.
Lake Speed was the only US world Champion in karts and it amounted to nothing, if he had a european accent he would've started climbing the ladder to F3. Andretti ran with Senna as his co driver for a few races in F1 and then just vanished, I was only mildly kidding when I made the statement that you have to have a european accent to vist the WEC paddock, Virtually every race engineer that I have worked under has been from europe.

 

[Fat Boss]

If you haven't already go to Netflix and watch Formula 1: Drive to Survive. Just started watching a few weeks ago and up to season 3. I thought it was a little slow to get going but into it now, gives a good perspective to behind the scenes and the pressure and intensity to win.

I got a good solid laugh when Christian revealed the names of his donkeys.

 

[honeybadger]

I have a love/hate relationship with Nascar. I prefer sportscar racing and F1 for different reasons - sportscar for the relatable cars, manufacturers and less emphasis on individual drivers and F1 for the skills, machinery, and end product. Watching an entire F1 race commercial free is amazing. I sat down to watch Nascar at 2:20pm (local) and was not up and moving until after 6. Took 30 mins to even start the race - I think they spent 15 mins driving around doing their bicycle-speed pace laps. Then there was the absolute clown show at the end.

But more than all that - I just can't stand sitting through 30 mins of commercials during the first hour of the race. Commercials during green flag racing? pure insanity. And there's no option to buy your way out of commercials. Rage.

All that aside, I really feel like Nascar could provide a really kickass product by just fixing some procedural things (the slow safety car and pace laps suck all the energy out of it, endless restarts at the end, etc.) and cleaning up some of the driving. I went in person last year and loved it outside of the above. In the end, decided not to go this year as I knew the end would ruin the whole race - and surprise surprise.

Aussie V8 supercars are the real deal - though. Would kill for a Cup car/V8 Supercar-type hybrid series

 

[TeeLew]

You have no idea, these kids start in karts, and go straight up as fast as they can, F3, F2 and then F1, if they can't cut it along the way, they are just tossed aside,

Virtually every race engineer that I have worked under has been from europe.

That's one thing about Sportscar racing is you see the F1 'rejects' make good careers. Will Stevens and Brendon Hartley are both good examples of bloody good drivers that were a bit chewed up/spat out.

On that other thing, I think it's just a matter of economics. If you're an American engineer, you'd have to be a financial idiot to go into racing instead of industry.