Nascar Race #3 - Kolbalt 400 At Lost Wages

[GA_Boater]

Time for the 3rd race of the 2015 season in Las Vegas, the Kolbalt 400. The weekend kicks off with Cup practice Friday afternoon and we have XFINITY to support the Sprint race. Here's the schedule from MRN.

Date​	Event​	Time​	TV/Radio​
FRI 3/6​	Sprint Cup Series Practice​	3:00 p.m. - 4:15 p.m.​	FS1​
​	XFINITY Series Practice​	4:30 p.m. - 5:25 p.m.​	FS1​
​	XFINITY Series Final Practice​	6:00 p.m. - 7:25 p.m.​	FS1​
​	Sprint Cup Series Qualifying​	7:50 p.m.​	FS1​
SAT 3/7​	Sprint Cup Series Practice​	11:30 a.m. - 12:25 p.m.​	FS2​
​	XFINITY Series Qualifying​	12:45 p.m.​	FS2​
​	Sprint Cup Series Final Practice​	2:30 p.m. - 3:25 p.m.​	FS1​
​	TV Pre-Race​	3:30 p.m.​	FS1​
​	XFINITY Series Boyd Gaming 300​	4:00 p.m.​	FS1/PRN​
​	Green Flag​	4:16 p.m.​	FS1/PRN​
SUN 3/8​	TV Pre-Race​	3:00 p.m.​	FOX/PRN​
​	Sprint Cup Series Kobalt 400​	3:30 p.m.​	FOX/PRN​
​	Green Flag​	3:46 p.m.​	FOX/PRN​

This the final race using last year's points if a driver doesn't pass muster in qualifying. There are 48 teams entered, and 5 must qualify based on speed. including Carl Edwards and Travis Kvapil.

Race weekend weather is looking through Sunday night and beyond. Sunny with no rain forecast.

Joey Logano and Jimmie Johnson are in the Chase after winning the opening pair of races this year. Who's sucking? Jeff Gordon with all of 16 points, in 36th position and an average finish of 37 so far this year after wrecking out of Daytona and Atlanta.

News & Notes

• Following the pre-qualifying inspection mess at Atlanta last week, Nascar has adjusted the track schedules for Vegas and the following two races. 1st practice is being cut by 10 minutes and qualifying has been pushed back by 5 minutes adding 15 minutes to the prep and inspection time.
• Las Vegas and Phoenix are making safety changes to the track walls after Kyle Busch and Jeff Gordon hit bare concrete areas unprotected by a SAFER barrier.
• Brett Moffit will fill David Ragan's seat in the #34 for the next 3 races. Moffit finished 8th at Atlanta in his 10th Cup start filling for Ragan while Ragan filled in for Ky, Busch.
• Speaking of who's in what seat - Brian Vickers returns after have heart surgery in December.
• Kurt Busch will not be charged with domestic abuse in Delaware, but he is still under indefinite suspension by Nascar. This week he came to agreement with Nascar on guidelines for his return, but no details have been released.
• Saving the best for last - Nascar is trolling on Craig's List for a new Cup sponsor to replace Sprint after the 2016 season. OK - I made the CL stuff up. But this is for real, they are looking at $100M a year for a total of $1B over a 10 year contract. The current Sprint contract is about half at $50M /year following a 3 year extension inked in 2011 which cut 50% or $25M from the original annual price. The price cut was due to falling attendance and TV viewership back in 2011.

iboats Fantasy Live

FlaCowboy took the hardware home from Atlanta last week. He has a :first: trophy on his mantle and also took over the league leaderboard. Congrats, Cowboy.

The race is a little later since it's in Vegas, so you a little bit of added time to place your bets this week. Good luck!

Humpy_Boater

 

[sam60]

I think the haulers are headed up the strip in the parade right now. I need to drive to Vegas to make a good living, but I get the heck out of there as soon I'm off work. I must say the town does well this weekend.

Chamber of commerce weather this year. :car:

 

[GA_Boater]

Your weather is a lot better than last week in Atlanta, Sam.

 

[WIMUSKY]

I see there is no truck race already this weekend...... Tonite would have been great since the girls are heading to the big city....

I see Jeff Burton is a full time analyst this year on NBC sports. Cool.............

FOX has some Cup races on FS1, GA's favoritte network.

When they go to NBC, the majority of the races will be on NBCS. During the Chase they split evenly between NBC and NBCS. GA, do you get NBCS?

 

[GA_Boater]

Basic cable only, Musky. So no NBCSN (NBC Sucky Network ??) and of course no Fox Sucky 1 or 2. I want to see what the TV ratings are like at Jayski's after the 16 Cup races are not shown on broadcast TV. All the races being carried on the Sucky's might cut into the bottom line with the new Cup sponsor deal. I won't be seeing any Sprint ads or any other ads when I can't watch the race.

Yeah - Trucks are off for a couple of weeks and don't go round and around until 3/28 at Martinsville.

 

[WIMUSKY]

Well that sucks, pun intended....... Viewership may just be down thiis year alright.... Just like when BJ mainly broadcasted on Velocity this year. Never heard of it. They only had 2 days where they broadcasted on network I get. I have since removed them from my dvr recordings.... MECUM is much better anyway.....

Didn't know Vickers had heart surgery.......

ps. GA, I'm finally up to Kissimmee(I'm sure I slaughtered the spelling)....

 

[GA_Boater]

I miss SPEED. I lost it when Fox started the Sucky's and one of the them didn't replace it.

You're never gonna catch up. Kissimmee was a 10 day sale!

 

[WIMUSKY]

No problem, that's why there is a fast forward button.... You know skip thru all the first gen Camaros and 'Stangs....

 

[QC]

What's bugging me is you can't stream FOX or NBC as far as I can tell. With ESPN and TNT I started streaming races last season so that I could watch on the Lake. It was working well. I watched Homestead on the boat and ran the sound through the Stereo. Worked great. I can watch sort of on my NASCAR App, but it is virtual, not real cars. Any suggestions?

 

[GA_Boater]

Have you tried the Fox Sports Go thing, QC? http://www.foxsports.com/foxsportsgo/

Fox Sucky seems to be a problem for more than me. http://www.foxsports.com/watch/foxs...-series-races-and-more-on-fox-sports-1-022715 It looks like no U-Verse users will see any FS1 content.

 

[GA_Boater]

Qualifying results

Gordon is on the pole, second time this year (Daytona) and set a new track record speed of 27.738 seconds/194.679 MPH, beat the old record of 27.939 seconds/193.278 MPH by Logano last year.

Rounding out the top 12 - Logano, Kahne, Earnhardt Jr.,Larson, Kenseth, Newman, Truex Jr., Johnson, McMurray, Keselowski and Stewart. Missing the cut - Sorenson, Kvapil, DiBenedetto, Wallace and Bliss.

Other news

• Chip Ganassi Racing has replaced 4 of the 6 over the wall crew members on the Kyle Larons #42.
• Nascar said it had no choice but to suspend Kurt Busch after the restraining order was issued and the judge released the report. Chevy has continued it's suspension and David Ragan continues to drive the #41.

Good News

• Penske and Miller Brewing are celebrating 25 years of swilling Miller Lite....I mean sponsorship or as they like to say, partnership..
• Gordon now has been on the pole at every track except Kansas and Kentucky

 

[GA_Boater]

Austin Dillon won the XFINITY. On PRN it sounded like a real battle with Ryan Blaney. Too bad ESPN doesn't have the series any more. :blue:

Cup pole sitter Gordon ran into Danica in the final minute of Happy Hour after she spun in front of him. To the back in the back-up, joining the #18 driven by sub David Ragan, who hit the wall and is now in the back-up.

 

[WIMUSKY]

Atta girl Danica!

I spent my afternoon traveling and watching the Girls B-ball Sectional final. The team from our conference is headed to state, so that's cool.

But I digress. Go Jeb!

 

[MTboatguy]

The Xfinity race was a good race, Dillion and Blaney were all over each other, I have to say, it has been quite a long time, since I watch a race where the 2nd place guy was using the wall to keep himself on the track, Blaney really wanted that race.

NACAR had better be careful, making the big boys of Sunday, so close to the same spec's as the guys who run on Saturday, could be dangerous, it is cheaper to go to a Saturday race than it is to go to a Sunday Outing.

 

[GA_Boater]

Atta girl Danica!

Gordon and Gustafson didn't saything as nice as that, Musky. :tape2:

 

[WIMUSKY]

Just found out my brother is in 'Vegas for the weekend. He'll be at the race....

 

[sam60]

Just found out my brother is in 'Vegas for the weekend. He'll be at the race....

You're going to tell him pics for my iboats friends, aren't you? :facepalm: Otherwise he wasn't there.

 

[MTboatguy]

I Tried to get reservations, but figured for the prices there were charging, the $90 bucks a month I pay for satellite, would be more than enough to actually see the race!

 

[sam60]

I Tried to get reservations, but figured for the prices there were charging, the $90 bucks a month I pay for satellite, would be more than enough to actually see the race!

I worked as the MEP PM for the construction of the Media Center & Neon Garage at the LVMS. Had to be at the track in the bosses suite for 4 years. Shook hands with Bruton Smith and sat in meetings with the likes of Humpy Wheeler.

I have no desire to go to another Nascar race. I will watch on TV though....

Bruton Smith is one heck of a nice guy.

 

[64osby]

Gordon & Blaney to the rear, Jeb was lacking last week. Those were 3 out of my 5 picks.

Revamped my whole line up. :drama: ​We'll see what happens. opcorn: