GA_Boater
Honorary Moderator Emeritus
- Joined
- May 24, 2011
- Messages
- 49,038
After the three races from Daytona on Sunday, Atlanta will host the next 3 Cup races. Throw in Trucks and X-Men, we'll have 9 races. The races are on the bottom of the Schedule of Events from MRN;
Special Note: The Truck race Stage 2 ends at lap 80, not lap 180. I guess Nascar didn't think this mess was confusing enough, so a Stage Test was in effect with the 2nd stage ending 50 laps after the end of the Truck race.
I looked out of the window and checked my shadow - The race should have good weather.
News & Notes
Iboats Fantasy Live
Humpty_Boater, Esq.
Special Note: The Truck race Stage 2 ends at lap 80, not lap 180. I guess Nascar didn't think this mess was confusing enough, so a Stage Test was in effect with the 2nd stage ending 50 laps after the end of the Truck race.
I looked out of the window and checked my shadow - The race should have good weather.
News & Notes
- For the 1st time in forever, a Cup race does not have a full field. Only 39 entries to fill 40 spots at Atlanta. Is the shine wearing off?
- More trouble in Paradise? Hendrick cars will only sport Monster logos when absolutely required. Pepsi/Mountain Dew is a big HMS sponsor and Monster also sells competing products. Last year Cup cars displayed the driver name on top of the windshield, the reason was to highlight the drivers. This year the driver is gone and the decal is the big green M twice with Monster Energy in the middle. I guess to highlight Monster over the drivers. No idea. HMS reverts to the driver names when off track.
- On sponsorships - Stewart Haas Racing is still way short for Bowyer and Patrick. I think the sport has become a hard sell with falling attendance and TV viewers. Daytona said it was a sellout, but probably half the seats are gone with the recent "modernization"
- The first Lugnutgate of the year. Almirola's CC was fined $10K for 1 loose nut. Of note - 2 loose/missing nuts means a 1 race CC suspension and 3 nuts is 35 driver/owner points with a 3 race CC suspension. And Nascsar had the gall to fine Smoke when he complained that loose and missing nuts was a safety issue just before his return to racing last year. Double standards?
- How about this change? Cup will qualify and race the same day at the July Pocono, Watkins Glen and the October Martinsville races. More tracks are expected to be announced. Maybe they are serious about reducing the length of racing weekends.
- Supposedly TV, Fox and NBC, are the big movers behind all the changes. One thing I know - The new side by side for commercials is horrid. One tiny postage stamp sized live race window while Monster dominates the lower half of the screen with the ad running on the upper left.
- Circuit of the Americas would like to have a road race. Probably very unlikely because the France family or Bruton Smith would have to drop a race date to make room. Fat chance.
- Finally - TV ratings. From Fox - " The race projects to rank as the highest-rated and most-watched sports event of the weekend and the highest-rated and most-watched sports event since the Feb. 5 Super Bowl on FOX" and "The DAYTONA 500 projects to rank as FOX's highest-rated and most-watched telecast of any kind since Super Bowl Sunday" Well duh! For all the hoopla over the "new" Nascar, ratings were flat compared to last year, which was down from previous years. Nascar/TV/Monster needs to build a younger base because us old timers are dying off and many of us don't like the endless change.
Iboats Fantasy Live
- Get your picks and or changes in before the race on Sunday. Good luck everyone!
- iFL stage 1 winner for Daytona is jimmy dale. Jimmy will get one of the new trophies, a special design. Congrats, jimmy
Humpty_Boater, Esq.
Took too long to get through inspection, but with only 39 entries they are in.
