Nascar Week #17 - Fireworks for the 4th - Daytona

[GA_Boater]

This weekend is the second Daytona race of the year, the Coke Zero 400 Saturday night. X-Men are on the undercard with a Friday night race and Trucks return to action next week. This is the first race on NBC, no more Waltrip brothers until Daytona next year. From MRN, the Daytona schedule;



Weather may an issue - The clouds look juicy from Thursday though Monday if the race is delayed from Saturday. A little bird told me Juan Pablo is also banned from Daytona for this event at the request of the Air Titan crew.

41 teams have signed up for the race, so one will be sitting.

News and Notes

• Retiring drivers have been getting some strange gifts from tracks, as were some that Jeff Gordon got last year. Tony Stewart is no exception - Indy is building a dirt midget track inside of turn 3 as a parting gift.
• Townley and Gallagher were fined and placed on probation for the wrestling exhibition near the end of the Truck race last weekend.
• There are changes to how the Cup lineup is set is qualifying is canceled. Owners points will set the field instead of practice speeds.
• Another rule for setting the field for Chase races - If a non-charter driver is in the Chase, they will be guaranteed a starting spot all 10 Chase races.
• This is for aspeck. Knowing that you are excited that Smoke won at Sonoma In the past 10 Summer Daytona races, not one winner from the preceding race has won at Daytona. :blue:
• TV ratings for Sonoma were down from last year.

iboats Fantasy Live

The Smokes finally won a race. Our Smokin'!, aspeck, won his first :first: this year. Congrats, 'speck.

Verticle Pedal added to the overall lead over Trackchick Stars.​

Remember the race is on Saturday, so don't wait until Sunday to work on your iFL roster. Really - Wait 'til Sunday. LOL Good luck.

The Humpster

 

[aspeck]

I have to work at schedules a little bit better ... will be unable to watch TV OR Internet during the race ... guess I will have to pick up highlights after the fact ... FYI, last week was only the 2nd week this year that I have had Smoke on my team ... good timing!

 

[GA_Boater]

Take a look at the MRN radio station list, 'speck. You might find some stations to at least hear the race.

X-Men got in the first practice session yesterday and then the heavens opened during the Cup practice with only 8 cars getting on track. The remainder of track action was washed out, causing a reschedule for today. Here's the updated schedule from our friends at MRN;



Don't know if today will be any better weather-wise.

 

[GA_Boater]

Qualifying results for tomorrow night's Coke 0 400;

Biffle with his first pole in almost 4 years, 129 races ago. Following in the top 12 are Edwards starting 2nd, followed by Busch18, Stenhouse Jr., Keselowski, Dillon, Kenseth, Johnson, Hamlin, Busch41, Logano and #2Blaney.

Shrubby sent his primary car to the crusher after crashing hard in the closing minutes of this morning's practice. He qualified the backup and should be starting in the back of the field if the rules haven't changed overnight.

Speaking of rules, this USA Today article about declining attendance and TV ratings, cites the constant rule changing as one of the reasons. Only 5 months left until the Sprint sponsorship ends and still no word on a replacement. One thing I saw was France saying there may be multiple sponsors instead of one primary. Are you ready for the Juniors' Used Cars-The BBQ Shack-Grits R Us-Kudzu Cup?

X-Men on tap in just a little on NBCSN.

 

[GA_Boater]

A nice :blue: 8 car wreck in lap 8 of the X-ers. Red flag

 

[WIMUSKY]

Just started watching. Been daily in tune with the Olympic trials......

 

[GA_Boater]

Typical Daytona! G-W-C finish with a multi-car pileup on the restart after the restart line was crossed. Race finished under caution and it took Nascar a while to see who won. It was Almirola over Allgaier in a photo finish.

 

[WIMUSKY]

They should have thrown the yellow way before they did during the GWC. Almorila wins by a nose.

 

[GA_Boater]

They should have thrown the yellow way before they did during the GWC. Almorila wins by a nose.

The yellow was slow. It was too late for a debris caution and they wanted to stretch it for an Allgaier win? :rolleyes.

I don't think they can really get this one right, It all depends on which camera was taking the picture.

 

[WIMUSKY]

Who knows, but there were a bunch of hard hits during the wreck. They should have thrown the yellow instantly...

 

[GA_Boater]

It was an easy call when the wreck happened right behind the leaders. They'll throw a flag for a dish rag on the track, but not when cars are wrecking @200 MPH. :doh:

 

[MTboatguy]

They should have thrown the yellow way before they did during the GWC. Almorila wins by a nose.

I am going to have to disagree.

 

[WIMUSKY]

I am going to have to disagree.

I saw it as wasting time to get to potentially banged up drivers.... A safety issue....

 

[MTboatguy]

I saw it as wasting time to get to potentially banged up drivers.... A safety issue....

I don't think so, the action was behind the leaders and as soon as they had a handle on it, they called it.

 

[WIMUSKY]

Normally they throw the yellow as soon as they start/are wrecking...

 

[MTboatguy]

Normally they throw the yellow as soon as they start/are wrecking...

yes a lot of times they do and I believe that is one of the problems with NASCAR these days, they waited last night and nobody was worse for wear, at Daytona and Talladega it is a tough call when you basically have two different races going on, one on the back stretch and one on the front.

Heck, 90% of America doesn't have to drive 2 and half miles to go to the grocery store!

 

[WIMUSKY]

Yep, last nite worked out fine. But, if someone had to be hauled out on a stretcher............ NASCAR just needs to be consistent... And that's one thing they're not noted for..... They're consistently not being consistent....Lol

 

[MTboatguy]

YNASCAR just needs to be consistent... And that's one thing they're not noted for..... They're consistently not being consistent....Lol

After 50+ years, I don't know why anyone would expect any different, they have never been consistent, we all know that and we keep watching it.

On another note, I am sitting here looking at airfare so we can visit the kids and grandkids in the fall and attend the Charlotte race!

 

[GA_Boater]

Racing at Daytona.

Green flag! 160 laps to go excluding G-W-C laps

 

[GA_Boater]

60 laps in the books, 100 to go.

Only one caution, a competition early, all green laps otherwise. Keso is running in front and is running hot.