Nascar - 2018 Race #5 - AAA At Fontana

[GA_Boater]

Penalties and sponsors top the news this week with the last race in what's called the West Coast Swing. Cup and X-Men are running and Trucks return next week at Martinsville. From MRN - The schedule;



Once again a short field as only 37 teams have signed up to compete. Rain is in the forecast for Friday afternoon and overnight into Saturday.*

News and Notes

• Penaties - Chase Elliot got an L1 hit like Harvick did, only his was for suspension (trailing arm mounting), not rear window; 25 driver/owner points, Car Chief 2 race suspension, Crew Chief $25K fine. 5 teams had loose lugnuts and CC's fined $10K. 2 X-Teams had loose nuts resulting in $5K fines. Also 2 team members were indefinitely suspended for substance abuse, no idea what teams.
• Lowes is dropping sponsorship after this season for Jimmy Johnson. Lowes has been the #48 primary since 2001 when Johnson moved full time into Cup.
• Busch is once again the Official Beer of Nascar and will sponsor the Busch Pole Award. Busch/Bud were the official beer from 1988 to 2007. Busch began it's pole award program in 1978 until also becoming the official beer 10 years later. Busch replaces Coors as the pole award program.
• TV ratings - Phoenix on Fox had a 2.7 rating against a 3.0 last year, which was lower that the previous year, etc., etc.

iBoats Fantasy Live

• With a win at Atlanta and now Phoenix, we have the first 2018 double winner in FlaCowboy or AKA FlaBonester. Cowboy is also the overall leader ahead of Trackchick Stars. Congrats, Cowboy.
• Qualifying cutoff for the 5 point Pole Bonus is 7:10 PM ET.

Humpty_Boater

*Not claiming to be a weatherman. Not a good one anyway. :smile:

 

[64osby]

Think viewership would increase if they made the drivers drink the official beer of Nascar during the race?

They could combine it with the stages. At the end of each stage drivers, each member of the pit and the car chief must have consumed 3 beers. Penalties for not doing so will be shots of Moonshine for all ( following Nascar's roots)

 

[sam60]

:watermelon:

 

[GA_Boater]

Add breathalyzer numbers for bonus points! :thumb:

 

[aspeck]

Here is an excellent summary of the death of NASCAR. Enjoy your reading ...

https://929thegame.radio.com/articles/nascar-dying-and-they-have-no-idea-how-save-it?ref=yfp

 

[GA_Boater]

Only practice before qualifying is over. Fastest is Harvick followed by Bowyer, Almirola, Newman and Larson.

Pole bonus pick locks at 7:10 PM ET.

 

[GA_Boater]

Add that Suarez is starting in the back in his back up car cuz he hit the wall during practice.

 

[GA_Boater]

Qualifying finished and only 24 cars attempted to qualify. 13 cars out of 37 didn't make it through inspection before the first stage finished. Some writers are defending Nascar, saying it's on the teams for stretching the rules by not presenting legal cars. I think it's on more on Nascar and less on the teams. Cars are measured to as little as a 150 thousandths of an inch and it's all done with cameras - Nascar has extremely tight tolerances and teams cheat as they always have.

Case in point - Why did Harvick keep his win at Vegas? As much as I hate to say it, The Twerp should have gotten the check, the win and the bonus points because the #4 should have been disqualified. As far as I know, Nascar is the only motorsport that does not DQ an illegal car.

They say it's so fans aren't disappointed. What fans? Less and less attend every week, TV rating are about to hit single digits and they can't even get a long term sponsor. Lowes just dropped Johnson sponsorship and how many other major sponsors have to disappear before Nascar figures out the sport is dying up. But they have an official beer!

Oh well. The survivors were Truex, The Twerp, Larson, Jones, ADillon, Logano, Busch41, Blaney, Newman, Harvick, Keso and Beuscher.

Two Cup practices tomorrow and the X-Race on FS1, which is another problem with March Madness against the X-Race.

 

[GA_Boater]

BTW - 1/3 of of the entry list can't be cheating to this extent. On plus side - Nascar can't get 40 cars for a Cup race, so it it could have been more the 13 cars missing qualifying. :doh:

 

[GA_Boater]

Yesterday BuschWhacker Logano swept the heats and the X-Race. X-Regs Allgaier and Sadler in 2nd & 3rd, BuschWhacker Dillon was 4th and Hemric was 5th.

Race is scheduled to start in 20 minutes. Hope all your rosters are set.

 

[GA_Boater]

With all the cars stgarting at the back due to the inspection mess, expect a lot of charging to the front.

Green flag at Fontana

 

[GA_Boater]

1st yellow for Larson and Harvick making contact and still in commercial. :doh: Harvick into the wall.

 

[GA_Boater]

Harvick didn't like that Larson took his air and made him wiggle, so he went down into Larson and lost it. Dumb, dumb, dumb - But he's in the playoffs already, so he can be stupid.

 

[GA_Boater]

Truex takes Heat #1. The Twerp was 3.5 seconds back and only the Harvick/Larson caution so far.

 

[sam60]

And GA_ is leading the series as I type!

 

[GA_Boater]

You had to say it, Sam! :doh:

 

[GA_Boater]

Sam is leading as I type. Payback!

 

[GA_Boater]

2nd real yellow for Bayne trying to take a bite out of the wall. The wall won.

Looks like he had a tire go down after touching Newman.

 

[sam60]

Sam is leading as I type. Payback!

OSBY1 will likely get you, but good to see you up there...

 

[GA_Boater]

Truex wins Heat #2.

And after the final heat starts, Ragan brings out another yellow for a tire.