Nascar Race #8 - Goin' For Groceries At Bristol

[GA_Boater]

Ah - Bristol! Race cautions have been down this year with the Low Down Force aero package. Bristol should bump the average cautions per race up a notch.

Cup and X-Men are running, while Trucks are still on break. My only hope is that The Twerp is shut out this week. The schedule from MRN;




Weather is looking good now, hope it stays that way. 70's and a good amount of sun is in the forecast. And the Cup race is on Fox - No searching for an on-line stream. :snile: The entry list is at 40, so all the qualifiers will make the race and Ty Dillon is the designated sit-in for Tony Stewart.

News and Notes

• Make note of the X-Men race format above. 2 heat races and the Series Feature. Just like your local track on Saturday.
• Texas penalty report. 6 teams flunked laser inspections a different time at Texas. Race winner Shrubby and Bayne did it 3 times and lose 15 minutes of Bristol practice time. The other four got the dreaded written warning.
• Only two "mystery" debris cautions at Texas. An improvement? It might be better to skip the sandwich and write a $4 check to the foundation.
• Dale Jr.'s World Famous Hellmann's Mayo and Banana on white bread sandwich will be a featured food item at Bristol. Cost is 4 bucks with a portion of that going to his foundation.
• Brian Vickers is looking to snag a seat in an Indy car for the 500.
• All these Cup drivers running the X-Men racing is upsetting a few, including me. Autoweek's latest article - A broken NASCAR Xfinity Series: Can it be fixed?
• Sad racing news - Rockingham Speedway, The Rock, is going on the block next month. The track lost a race date to California's Auto Club Speedway in Fontana and the remaining race was moved to follow the Daytona 500. Unpredictable weather then killed ticket sales. POOF! The final Cup race was in 2004 - Still sad that one more of the tracks old time tracks is gone.
• Texas TV ratings were down again to new lows. Even lower than the previous record holders from last year..

iboats Fantasy Live

Got our first multiple league winner at Texas. Urea 24 got the second :first: for the mantle. Congrats, U24.
The overall league leader following Texas is Trackchick Stars​

Get your picks and changes made in time for Sundays race. Good luck all.

The Humpster

 

[WIMUSKY]

Boy, NASCAR must be scrambling and grasping at straws trying to improve "the show". Heat races and a feature? Xfinity All-Star race? NASCAR is its own worst enemy.....

 

[GA_Boater]

If the SEVEN non-X-Men were tossed out, would that make a more interesting race? Just like Cup, the X-ers are now running a Chase format and the 6 races to date have been won by Cup drivers.

I haven't seen any talk about the race money taken away from "development" teams or that for this week, 2 teams won't have a chance to race for money because the 7 Cuppers will take away a chance to qualify. It isn't very fair.

 

[boatman37]

the heat race format should be interesting at bristol. i might like it but will have to watch and see

 

[fhhuber]

Someone needs to put the shrub and Kahne in the wall in lap 1.

 

[WIMUSKY]

The sponsors of the X-Men can't be happy. If the Cup guys are up front, their sponsors get all the exposure. I know I wouldn't be a happy sponsor.....

 

[GA_Boater]

Has anyone watched a Truck race this year with the timed competition cautions? I haven't and wonder how that hare-brained scheme is working.

 

[WIMUSKY]

I haven't seen them all, but the ones I did see I don't think they made it to 20 mins, except maybe once.....

 

[MTboatguy]

They rarely make it to the 20 minute clock.

 

[boatman37]

i have not watched any of the timed races. don't think i want to either

 

[GA_Boater]

Qualifying is done and Carl Edwards got his 2nd consecutive pole. The remainder of the top 12 is Kenseth, Logano, Hamlin, The Twerp, Johnson, Harvick, Truex Jr., Allmendinger, Bayne, Kahne and Keselowski.

I think I'm crossing Bristol off my bucket list. This morning the brand new video screen named Colossus was unveiled. Bristol says it weighs 700 tons. That's 1,4 million pounds suspended on 4 skinny cables over the infield. I hope there are two too many zeroes in the weight. A Nascar article - http://www.nascar.com/en_us/news-media/articles/2016/4/15/colossus-new-tv-screen-bristol.html

 

[WIMUSKY]

Video screen on that tiny track? Why? Sounds like a huge waste of money.....

 

[GA_Boater]

Video screen on that tiny track? Why? Sounds like a huge waste of money.....

Yeah - One of the best fan tracks and virtually every seat a good one with sight lines to almost every inch of the track.

It may be a small track, but maybe they're trying to show Texas that Big isn't limited to the Lone Star state. But Bruton Smith owns both Texas and Bristol. One other thing is Bristol is host to some UT football games and a regional college game. Supposedly Smith is interested in getting some Panther NFL games there as well. Could be the plan is bigger than we know.

But still - That thing isn't 700 tons!

Almost time for the X-Guys, Gotta find a stream to see these 2 heats and the Main Event.

 

[ehenry]

Xfinity race on......stands are empty

 

[GA_Boater]

Xfinity race on......stands are empty

They aren't empty. The driver and crew families are "filling" the grandstands. :doh:

 

[GA_Boater]

Also glad to see a regular X-man win the first heat. Erik Jones took Heat 1. I hope an X-er wins the second heat and the Main.

 

[MTboatguy]

Video screen on that tiny track? Why? Sounds like a huge waste of money.....

Awe come Wim, don't guys all love super sized TV's!

 

[GA_Boater]

Rats - The wrong Dillon won the 2nd heat. Cupper Austin Dillon took the checkers over brother Ty in 2nd.

So far no yellows. 100 laps of Bristol racing clean is rare.

 

[MTboatguy]

Well crap, Bush is in front AGAIN!

 

[GA_Boater]

Well crap, Bush is in front AGAIN!

I've been chewing on my tongue. :mad-new: