2019 Nascar - Fontana - Race #5

[GA_Boater]

We are at the end of what's known as the West Coast Swing. The 5th race of the season comes from Fontana, CA. Cup and X-Men will be battling on Saturday and Sunday. Cup has 38 teams on the entry list. Of course The Twerp is on the X-list, too.

Let's start with the weather. A retweet on Jayski's, who is slowly coming back on Twitter, has the forecast;

That's good news. LOL From MRN, the weekend schedule;

[h=1]Auto Club Schedule of Events[/h]
All Times Eastern (Local Time 3 Hours Behind)

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Friday, March 15
Monster Energy Cup Series Practice: 1:00 p.m.-1:55 p.m. (MRN/NASCAR.com)
Xfinity Series Practice: 2:05 p.m.-2:55 p.m. (NASCAR.com)
Xfinity Series Final Practice: 4:35 p.m.-5:25 p.m. (FS1)
Monster Energy Cup Series Qualifying: 5:30 p.m. (MRN/FS1)

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Saturday, March 16
Monster Energy Cup Series Second Practice: 12:00 p.m.-12:55 p.m. (MRN/FS1)
Xfinity Series Qualifying: 1:10 p.m. (FS1)
Monster Energy Cup Series Final Practice: 3:30 p.m.-4:20 p.m. (MRN/FS1)
Radio Pre-Race: 4:30 p.m. (MRN)
TV Pre-Race: 4:30 p.m. (FS1)
Xfinity Series Production Alliance Group 300: 5:00 p.m. (MRN)

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Sunday, March 17
Radio Pre-Race: 2:30 p.m. (MRN)
TV Pre-Race: 3:00 (FOX)
Monster Energy Cup Series Auto Club 400: 3:30 p.m. (MRN/FOX)

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News and Notes

• 2020 Hall of Fame nominee list has been released. Plenty of tweets about why so and so isn't on the list and why so and so is on the list. :smile:
• Bristol is only selling seats on the front and back stretch, with no corner seats, for the next race in April. They say it's only for the spring race. I'm sure it isn't because they can't fill the house. :bolt:
• Phoenix only had loose/missing lugnuts in post race inspection flunks.
• The Twerp has won 199 races across Cup, X-Men and Trucks. The argument has begun about if King Petty's 200 wins are better than The Twerp's upcoming 200th win. Being unbiased, Humpty has no comment. :lol:
• New rule - Pit road speeds during qualifying will be enforced beginning this week. That's news to me, I thought pit road speeds were always in effect. Entry speeding gets a pass-through and exit speeding DQ's that qualifying attempt. In both cases this means the driver has to do it all over again if time is left in the session.
• Schedule changes coming in 2021? Phoenix has 42,000 new grandstand seats following a $178M modernization and this was the 2nd race after project completion. 10,000 of those seats were empty on Sunday. France family's ISC owns the the track and one of the things under discussion is moving the spring ISM race to be the 1st race of the year, ahead of Daytona. This may be considered shocking taking the shine off of Daytona's apple.
• TV ratings - 10,00 empty seats didn't mean no one watch. Ratings were up to 2.8 vs 2.7 last year. 2017 was 3.0.

iBoats Fantasy Live

• 4 races under our belt and 4 different winners. iFL is keeping pace with Cup racing. LOL FloridaFishingNetwork won at Phoenix. He gets his 1st :first: this year. Congrats FFN.
• Samo60 is still sitting on top of the overall leaderboard by 4 points, with Fasteddie370 in second place.
• The pole locks at 5:35PM tomorrow.

Good luck,

The Humpster

 

[GA_Boater]

The only Cup practice before qualifying at 5:30 is over.

The 5 fastest are Johnson, ADillon, Beuscher, The Twerp and Hamlin. Only one Ford was in the top 10 - Keso in 6th. 6 Chevys, 1 Ford and 3 Toyotas made the 10 fastest. Mean anything? :noidea:

Pole pick locks at 5:35.

 

[GA_Boater]

This is rare - Elliott spun during the 1st Q-Round and brought out the red flag. He was one of the top 5 in the 1st round.

Sure messed up those in the middle of a run.

 

[GA_Boater]

7+ minutes into the 2nd round and only Kurt Busch had taken a lap. The other 23 are sitting on pit road.

Professional Grade my butt!

 

[GA_Boater]

The 23 cars all left the pits with about 50 seconds left in the round.

The 1st car out, Kurt Busch, didn't advance. This is strange strategy, but I guess it worked for 12 of the 24 in the second round.

 

[GA_Boater]

I guess the plan was to draft into the 3rd round? Have to hear what the drivers say - Those who made it and those who didn't.

 

[GA_Boater]

They did the same thing for the final round. Waited until the last second and they all took off together.

Good plan to use the draft. Except not one car made it under the wire. so there are no times for round 3. This is what fans pay to see - Backfired strategy. :facepalm:

I didn't pay attention to qualifying at Vegas a couple of weeks ago, but it was something like this fiasco according to some of the Twitterheads.

Default qualifying results per Jayski's;

Austin Dillon wins the pole with the fastest time in the second round. He will be followed by Harvick, Almirola, The Twerp, Joey, Hamlin, Newman, Elliott, Bowyer, Blaney, Johnson and Stenhouse.

 

[GA_Boater]

Today's 1st practice results - Harvick, The Twerp, Keso, Truex amd Hemric are the top 5.

One more practice session after X-Qualifying, then it's time to pick your teams.

 

[GA_Boater]

Final practice had Harvick on top, then The Twerp, Keso, Truex and Hemric for the top 5.

Race picks lock at 3:25 tomorrow afternoon.

 

[MTboatguy]

I hate to say it, but the Xmen are actually putting on better races right now than the Cup guys on Sunday, their cars are faster and they are pushing harder than the guys on Sunday.

 

[GA_Boater]

No argument here, MT. Trucks are better as well.

 

[WIMUSKY]

Pretty sad about Bristol. Used to take a couple years to get a seat.... More banners covering seats...

 

[GA_Boater]

If fandom grows, all they have to do is uncover and sell the seats. Unlike other tracks that ripped 'em out with no thought to the future if interest increases.

Wait 'til they start cutting back from 36 races to hang on to fans. That's why Atlanta will move to later in the season. Who wants to sit in the stands when it's rainy and cold (for Atlanta) in February. If it's too nasty to go fishing, it's too nasty to watch a race at the track and a summertime race will draw - Just like when they had 2 races here.

 

[GA_Boater]

Pre-race update;

Austin Dillon has been sick - Cleared by Nascar.
Tifft to the rear for an engine change.
Newman to the rear and car chief chucked for multiple pre-qualifying failures.
McDowell to the rear, same as Newman except his flunks were pre-race.


That is all;

Humpty_O'Boater

 

[WIMUSKY]

Won't be able to see the race, maybe the end. MSU plays MI 4 the Tourney Championship. Would be the 3rd win this year against MI if they pull it off....

 

[GA_Boater]

You're gonna miss Mikey!

 

[GA_Boater]

Green flag in the California sunshine!

60 laps in the 1st heat.

 

[GA_Boater]

Caution free so far, 28 laps in and green flag pit stops are starting.

 

[GA_Boater]

Bowyer thinks his motor is gonna blow. 20 laps left in the 1st heat.

 

[GA_Boater]

55 laps left and ADillon blows smoke. Tire or motor? No matter, yellow anyway.