Nascar - 2018 Race #6 - S'NO Racing At Martinsville - WIMUSKY 500

[GA_Boater]

:smow: Will WIMUSKY take one of the 2 open entry spots for this week's race at Martinsville? Take a look at the forecast;



Friday has Truck practices scheduled with qualifying and the race on Saturday. Cup has two practices on Saturday and qualifying is after the Truck race at 5PM, just when the snow comes in with up to 8" of the white stuff. Wonder what the track record is on snow tires? Well, weathermen have been wrong before. The schedule from MRN;



38 teams + Musky's sled are entered this week. He is my roster pick for pole, all heats and race winner. :lol: I bet he can pass inspection in less than 4 tries!

News and Notes

• Penalties - Starting off easy, one for Cup with The Twerp a loose nut and one loose X-Nut for Preese. Just fines.
• Inspections will be streamlined this week. Post-qualifying and Pre-Race inspections will be combined. This is an impound race, so Nascar has the cars in lockdown between Q'ing and the race. Nascar says this is the plan going forward, but only a few races are impound races. Will all races be impound now? Does Nascar know?
• This week end will be an "enhanced" schedule - "NASCAR will again use a new and well-received enhanced schedule format featuring robust driver appearances and fan interaction opportunities". This is the first of 12 enhanced races this year. Looking at the schedule above, you can see Cup is only track-active for 2 days. Is this in conjunction with the streamlined inspections. What about the 18 other races? Does Nascar know?
• A sign of things to come? Triad is selling their Toyota engine shop because Trucks have mostly switched over to Ilmor spec motors based on Chevy small blocks. Nascar has been talking about spec motors for X-Cars and Cup cars, too. If this happens, the only difference between cars will be the Blue Oval, the Bowtie and whatever Toyota calls the circlely T thing. Motors and very minor body variations are the only differences between the three makes now. Click AutoWeek's article on Triad.
• New penalties for flunking inspections across the three series,teams can purchase (for about $2K) an extra tire set for those passing pre-Q inspection. Click AutoWeek again.
• After 13 Cup cars didn't get to attempt qualifying last week for flunking inspections, The X-Cars got new penalties for failing pre-qualifying inspection and it is expected to cross over to the other 2 series. A car not passing pre-Q inspection will start at the end and make a pass-through after the start of the race. All X-Cars passed, so the new penalty has yet to be tested.
• TV ratings from Jayski's cuz he says it best

  "The NASCAR Cup Series at Fontana (Ca.) earned a 2.4 rating and 4.0 million viewers on FOX last Sunday, down 25% in ratings and 22% in viewership from last year (3.2, 5.2M) and down 40% and 41% respectively from 2016 (4.0, 6.8M).
  
  The 2.4 rating is the lowest ever for the race (dates back to 1997), marking the fourth of five races this season to hit an all-time record low. In addition, viewership was the lowest since at least 2001.
  
  Martin Truex Jr.'s win was also the lowest rated Cup Series race ever on FOX (dates back to 2001), falling below the previous mark of 2.7 for the past two Texas races."

• In a final news item - Will Nascar go this way? Once again from AutoWeek.

iBoats Fantasy Live

• Some guy from Georgia won his 1st in over two years.
• FlaCowboy is hanging on to the overall lead, but he may be hearing footsteps from TCS.
• Lock time for picking your pole driver is on Saturday at 5:05 PM ET. Studded tires have been approved for only this race. Unless Nascar changes it's mind which they never do.

Humpty_Boater

 

[sam60]

Congrats Humpty!

 

[WIMUSKY]

Haha, now that's my kind of race. Do they have plows at Martinsville? :laugh:

How would u like that job checking guys underwear. Lookout 4 skid marks....ound:

 

[GA_Boater]

Haha, now that's my kind of race. Do they have plows at Martinsville? :laugh:

Only if you show up with your plow. Or they can use jet driers to melt the snow, then use Air Titans 2.0. Maybe Air Titans 3.0 have snow removal features added? LOL

How would u like that job checking guys underwear. Lookout 4 skid marks....ound:

Looking for work?

 

[MTboatguy]

Spec motors and snow plows, that would be interesting!

I swear NASCAR is bound and determined to kill off racing!

:rip:

 

[GA_Boater]

This spec motor business is Car Of Tomorrow X 1000.

The charter stuff, jello rules with jello rule enforcement and not DQ'ing illegal cars - All lead to less fans to hang on to because they are losing credibility. Follow the leader racing on cookie-cutter 1.5 mile tracks is more like Formula 1 with heavier cars.

 

[MTboatguy]

Well all I can say is this summer may be filled with more camping and fishing on Sundays over watching TV.

 

[GA_Boater]

Fun day at Martinsville.

Cup got in the two scheduled practices and Trucks qualified.

The Truck race was started with misty rain, light sleet and snow. Some of the radio chatter before the green flag waved;

One driver says they'd like to have the windshield wiper option ... that they have on a road course.

Overheard on scanner: "I can't believe they'll be crazy enough to throw the rag here."

Jayski at the start of the race;

Despite the snow, the race goes green

Nascar soldiered on and one spotter threw this out;

One spotter says on radio that "It's almost like a wet snow" ... says it sleets, changes to snow and changes to rain drops

At the end of lap 23, the red flag came out and the race will resume at lap 24 tomorrow after the Cup race. Naturally Cup qualifying was canceled and owner points will set the field. I hedged my bets based on weather and picked Truex for the pole and he has the pole. I should get the 5 bonus points because cancelled qualifying is not mentioned in the rules, all they say pick the pole sitter. I did.

While we're waiting;





The tracks in the snow are this guy;

and MUSKY

The revised schedule for tomorrow;



1:55PM ET is the lock time for setting your roster.

 

[WIMUSKY]

Snow tires and let them go...... That will boost ratings...

 

[GA_Boater]

The new, new Martinsville schedule;



iFL lock times have moved forward 24 hours - Now 1:15 PM ET MONDAY.

The track may be in good shape tomorrow, but what will the fans do?

 

[Old Ironmaker]

Well there's 2 words that I have never heard together, snow and Nascar. Been to a few Blue Jay games before they built the dome in Toronto where it snowed and snowed hard but never a motorcar race. I'll watch today and when Jeff Gordon opens his mouth I'll mute the TV. I liked him as a racer but not as a colour commentator. I would love to hear Tony Stewart in the booth, he doesn't have a word filter, that would be fun until they fire him before the race is over. When he attended a shindig when he got the Home Depot ride he asked a pretty young blond there why she was with the old guy. The old guy was Arthur Blank the owner of Home Depot and the young blond was his wife. That was Tony being Tony.

That curly Q Toyota logo is supposed to be a Bull. I guess they don't have many Bulls in Japan to compare it with.

 

[64osby]

Truck racing with Snoway plows would clean up that track real fast.:lol:

 

[WIMUSKY]

I'll take Gordo anytime over DW and MW...

 

[Old Ironmaker]

I'll take Gordo anytime over DW and MW...

Yes I have to agree, compared to them Jeff ain't so bad after all. I'm not sure which Waltrip but the one in the pits is a clown. Off topic of course but talking about colour commentators the biggest surprise this past NFL season was how good Tony Romo is in the booth. I had no idea how much he knows about football, he really knows his stuff and knows it well, and he never took a talking head lesson before they put a headset on him. Some that can't do teach. I liked him on the field because a good friend is a die hard Cowboy fan and watching Tony choke in the playoffs and watch my buddy cry like a newborn was good to see and it didn't hurt bet money always came my way.

Why isn't the race on my TV, supposed to be pre race at 1:30, Sports Center is on TSN?

 

[GA_Boater]

Why isn't the race on my TV, supposed to be pre race at 1:30, Sports Center is on TSN?

:smow:

 

[aspeck]

Watched the race today ... it was really short ... actually enjoyed the Pens/Fliers game with out any interruptions other than my eyes closing.

 

[MTboatguy]

Heck come on, Rally cars in Europe race in the snow all the time!

:faint2:

 

[GA_Boater]

The Pens had my heart pumping!

I was about to hit the sack last night and did a channel scan. Found Formula 1 starting at 1AM. Ended up watch the whole thing until just before 3. It was as boring as a 1.5 mi. Cup race. :doh:

 

[MTboatguy]

I like the Formula E Cars, cause they have to change their whole car in the middle of the race! Reminds me of a Chinese fire drill!

:faint:

 

[WIMUSKY]

That clown running around in the pits is MW. He's worse than his older bro, imo....