Nascar is back

Did you watch the Shootout yesterday?

Who was the last rookie to win his very first Daytona start? What race did he win and what year did he do it? Finally, name the legendary driver who finished 2nd in that race. No fair googling the answer either.

Nascar continues to make up the rules as they go along and Carl Edwards was the "beneficiary". Rather than run over the cars that pulled onto pit road, Edwards went around them, earning him a black flag for passing under the yellow line.
NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter said it "didn't matter" that Edwards hadn't advanced his position, a change from NASCAR's previous statements on the issue.

No other professional sport besides Nascar changes the rules in the middle of an event. They may be the #2 sport right now, but many people see them as just a step above professional wrestling, I think precisely because they do stuff like this.

Kyle Busch has a better car than he is driver. If I were a betting man, I'd put money down that he'll be the direct cause of no less than a dozen wrecks over the course of this season.

BP was right on when he said it was so good to see the cars back on the track racing.

 

Greg Biffle is a good guess as he got his first Cup win at the Pepsi 400 in 2003, but he did run in the 2003 Daytona 500.

It was great to see Jeff Burton get the pole for the 500.

Bobby Labonte, Robby Loomis and Todd Parrott have all teamed up at Petty Enterprises. As absurd as it would have sounded if I said this as recently as last year, I think Labonte will put the #43 back in Victory Lane this year.

 

"Chad Knaus, crew chief for Jimmie Johnson's No. 48 Chevrolets, has been "ejected" from further participation in Sunday's Daytona 500."



It's been known for a long time now that Chad Knaus is a cheater. He's gotten away with it before, but got sent home to Charlotte for this bit of cheating. Jimmie Johnson will have to start at the back of the field on Thursday. Without his illegal modification, hopefully he'll stay in the back.

 

Mario Andretti is a very good guess, and he may have done it, but there's somebody who did it in recent history. And, I just looked something up and I realize that I've messed up my own trivia question. So, let me try again. Sorry, guys. I came up with the question on the spur of the moment and didn't do enough fact checking.

In all of the Cup races that are run at Daytona, including the Busch Clash, Twin 125s, Daytona 500 and Pepsi 400, there is another driver in the modern era besides Denny Hamlin that won the first race he drove at Daytona in a Cup car. This driver has run at Daytona in a BGN car, but he didn't win. Mario wouldn't count because the modern era began in 1972.

Cope was in the right place at the right time when Dale Earnhardt cut a tire coming off of Turn 2 on the last lap in the 1990 Daytona 500. Earnhardt immediately knew he cut the tire and tried to hold on, but it blew as he went into turn 3. About a dozen laps or so before the final dash to the finish, Rusty Wallace's spotter reportedly said, "The only way anybody is going to beat Earnhardt today is if you shoot his tires out."

Despite the outcome of the 1990 Daytona 500, Earnhardt's legacy is that of 7 time champion. Cope's legacy is that of a fluke and a guy who was more likely to wreck his car than keep it in one piece. If you're getting the idea that the topic of Cope annoys me, you're right.

As with swaimj, my prediction for Daytona 500 winner will come after the races on Thursday.

 

I was thinking of Jeff Gordon, who won his qualifying race in 1993. It was the first race at Daytona in a Cup car for Jeff.

4His_glory wrote:

Hey, thanks for contributing.

You like golf and you complain about Nascar being boring?

Sorry, but chasing and/or watching people chase a little white ball all day is rather boring.


ConvictedbytheSpirit asked:

Here's a definition of sport.

sport: An activity involving physical exertion and skill that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often undertaken competitively.

By this definition, auto racing is a sport. I've heard the mockers of my sport for years, so you're hardly the first or last.

On some of the other message boards I visit, there are many who think Nascar has succeeded in spite of themselves. I land right about somewhere in the middle. Nascar has done some things right, but they've done some things wrong too.

Really? Are you sure about those actual statistics?

Driver Starts Wins Win %
Richard Petty 1184 200 16.8%
David Pearson 574 105 18.3%
Cale Yarborough 560 83 14.8%
Bobby Allison 718 85 11.8%
Darrell Waltrip 809 84 10.4%
Dale Earnhardt 676 76 11.2%

His winning percentage isn't as good as Petty, Pearson and Yarborough, but it's comparable to Allison and better than DW. I don't know how Earnhardt will be perceived 5, 10 years from now, but in the 5 years since his death, his "star" hasn't diminished at all.