Looking to Daytona

Bristol Notes

I missed the entire pre-race show and the start of the race too. It was so nice that we decided to grill, but had no propane, so instead of sitting through the pre-race, I went to get propane so my wife could grill up some pork chops. It was totally worth missing the Hour of Nonsense. :thumbs:

Several months ago, when we finally saw something of what the COT was going to look like, I thought it looked downright ugly. Seeing them yesterday, I immediately saw the problem. That hideous black wing ruined them aesthetically. I thought they looked more like spec cars, and last night on Dave Despain's show, a Tunnelhead (not the first guy who called, who was clearly drunk) got it right when he said that they looked like slot cars, not stock cars. At least Nascar doesn't have to worry about the acronym. They can now be called the National Association for Slot Car Auto Racing. I don't know enough about aerodynamics to know why a wing is a better choice for what Nascar wants to do than a spoiler is.

One of the pit reporters went into this bit about Jamie McMurray's workout routine and I wonder, who cares? Maybe both of his fans wanted to know, but why don't his parents just call him up and ask him?

I will say that Tony Stewart is looking quite a bit less doughy than he did at the end of last year. He was becoming a real fatboy.

I love Montoya's aggressiveness, but more patience is required at Bristol than what he's showing. Both he and AJ Allmendinger are getting lessons in short track racing. It's probably been 2 or 3 years since AJ drove a short track and at least 8 since JP drove one. The learning curve is steep for wrestling a 3400 lb. slot car around Bristol.

I mentioned my sim-racing a couple of weeks ago, and while I will never claim that it's exactly the same as real racing, there are a very few ways in which it is. One of those is the paradox that slowing down does make you go faster. I only started going fast when I slowed down more going into the corners and stopped overdriving them. In some of my early days of sim-racing, I was racing at Darlington one time and was pretty frustrated because I just wasn't fast. The leader came up behind me to lap me, and I decided to try something different. Instead of driving so hard into the turns, I'd back off then get back on the gas quicker. I started running quicker lap times, pulled away a bit from the leader, and started having more fun. It's paradoxical, but sometimes, going slower in a race car is the way to go faster.

The biggest way that sim-racing is different from real racing is the absence of what I call the pucker factor.

If DW is right and the splitter is causing the left rear tire failures, then isn't that embarrassing for Nascar not to have picked up on this, for as much testing as they've done on the COT? Oh, btw, I just remembered that DW threw the green flag, and he said a little later how cool that was. Yeah, I think that would be very cool to throw the green to start the race.

I had to laugh when DW said that they raced a Caprice. He got that wrong, btw. What he meant to say is that they built and raced a battleship. Anybody ever drive one of those things? I drove one once at work a few years ago and I thought I was going to have to ask for a thick telephone book to sit on. Those things were so huge.

I've always liked Ken Schrader. I give a big thumbs up everytime he's on. :thumbs: Mike Joy said something about Schrader's impressive runs at Bristol when he drove for BAM Racing. Impressive runs? BAM Racing? Has Mike started drinking his lunch?

My wife just asked, "What's with the creepy girl and the elephant on the track?" I have no idea. If you can explain that commercial to me, please do so.

Now we're down to it, and what a great move by Kyle Busch to get the lead. Tough situation for Hamlin to pick the right line and he chose... poorly.

At the time, I wrote: At least it wasn't a debris caution that gives Gordon the win, but a legitimate one. No way Kyle Busch holds off Jeff Gordon to win.

And then, whaddaya know? He held off Gordon and Burton. If Burton had another lap, I think he would have been far enough alongside Busch to claim the track position as his own without spinning him, but ran out of laps. I didn't stick around to listen to Busch's Victory Lane interview. Did he thank Jeff Burton for not turning him? He should have.

I'm glad that Burton didn't turn him. There's nothing satisfying about winning a race when you turn somebody around or bump them out of the way. For this Earnhardt fan, the least satisfying win he ever had was the Bristol night race in 1999. I was happy that my driver won, but it was a little embarrassing to win like that. Gordon fans, you can't tell me that having your driver knock Rusty Wallace aside twice at Bristol to win was satisfying. Well, it was Rusty, so maybe that's a bad example.

Regardless, not turning a driver in order to win is obviously something that Burton decided for himself long ago that he wasn't going to do. Remember when Michael Waltrip said that the worst thing about what happened at Daytona was when his daughter asked why her Daddy was cheating? I have no doubt that Burton doesn't want to hear his kids ask, "Daddy, why did you bump that driver out of the way to win?"

I've heard Mark Martin say something about this that I think Jeff Burton believes as well, and shows why he didn't bump Kyle Busch out of the way yesterday.

"Championships don't make the man."

Well said.

 

I actually liked how the cars looked but for the wing. That wing will take some getting used to.

BTW, I want to take a moment to tie up a loose end from last week's notes. I asked what 2 things Harry Gant is relatively famous for.

#1, he tied the modern record for consecutive wins with 4 wins in 1991, earning him the title of Mr. September. Harry won the Southern 500, Richmond, Dover and Martinsville in September 91 and came within 9 laps of winning 5 in a row at North Wilkesboro. The Martinsville race was notable because Harry got caught up in a wreck when Rusty Wallace spun Brett Bodine, but the crew fixed it and Harry drove through the field for the win. At North Wilkesboro, Harry won the pole and dominated the race until an O-Ring failed on the right rear and Harry lost his brakes, ultimately finishing 2nd to Dale Earnhardt.

#2, Harry is the oldest driver to ever win a Cup race. He was 52 when he won the August Michigan race in 1992.

 

He did win that Busch race at Richmond as well. In fact, there were 7 Nascar races in September 1991, and Harry won 6 of them.

One other thing I should note about the Wilkesboro race was that Harry threatened to lead every lap. The cautions were spread out fairly evenly as I recall, but there were a couple that were within 20 laps or so. About half the field pitted under one caution, and when another flew about 20 laps later, Harry and everybody else pitted and Harry gave up the lead to Morgan Shepherd. In all, Harry led 350 of 400 laps. A week after the Wilkesboro race, he won the Busch race at Charlotte for 7 wins in 8 races. Incredible run.

Thanks, Mexdeaf!

 

Martinsville Notes

I missed the entire pre-race and most of the early laps. But, I did get to hear DW talk about how excited Jeff Gordon is about his impending fatherhood and then DW told us about winning at Martinsville after Jessica was born and the rose and all that. What Darrell didn't say was how he won the race. He was running 3rd behind Earnhardt and Terry Labonte in the closing laps and... well, here's what DW himself said.

"I shot into Earnhardt, he shot into Labonte, and I shot into the lead." -Darrell Waltrip on how he blatantly took out Earnhardt and Labonte to get his first win with Rick Hendrick.

Not only did Darrell win his first race after Jessica was born, he also won his first 2 races after his daughter Sarah was born. In 1992, DW won the first race after Sarah was born, which was the Bristol night race, which was also the first race run on the concrete. The next week, Darrell got what would be the last win of his career in the Southern 500. That was a really cool race that I'd like to post about sometime, but not today.

Larry Mac to English dictionary:

Futher - at or to a great distance: Denny Hamlin is getting futher and futher away.

The funniest online newspaper in the world, The Onion, reporter that after the Bristol race and all the complaints, Nascar has scrapped the COT (Car of Tomorrow) for the COY (Car of Yesterday). Enjoy the story.

Montoya really did a great job for his first race at Martinsville. This track is just as different from F1 road courses as Daytona is.

Hamlin/Gordon/Stewart racing hard... who doesn't love this place?

If you're wondering about my simracing, I have a weird relationship with Martinsville. I always dread running a race at Martinsville, because it seems like it takes forever, but it's no futher distance-wise than any other track I run. It's probably because the car doesn't go that fast, relatively speaking, and I like speed in my sim-racing. But, if my car is handling well and I can get into a good rhythm, Martinsville is a fun track to drive.

On the Domino's Hot Lap, Gordon was in front of all the others. 11% picked Jamie McMurray and I'm trying to figure out who these 11% are that would pick him over Jeff Gordon for anything at Martinsville. I wouldn't pick McMurray in a 1 lap race if Jeff spotted him half a lap. I don't remember who the other guys were, but he's the one who stood out because I'm on an Anti-McMurray campaign.

So, what's your favorite short track? Of the 3 options given, mine is Martinsville, but I like North Wilkesboro best of all.

It was sooo good to see Earnhardt leading. We don't see that nearly enough.

I laughed at the hot dog eating. DW was looking at Larry Mac and Mike Joy like he caught them eating out of the garbage.

During the baseball promo, DW said, "I'm going to play like Jed Clampett when he was in Hollywood." Anybody have a clue as to what he was talking about?

If you haven't filed your taxes yet, April 16th is not tax day. My mom works for H&R Block and I asked her about the 15th since it falls on a Sunday. The final date for tax filing this year is April 17th. The IRS will be shutdown on the 16th, but I don't remember why. April 17th is tax day this year.

My sister's favorite actor is Nicolas Cage because of Raising Arizona. Which is fine, because that's a good movie. Because of that movie, if somebody asks me what time it is, and it's in the morning, I always say, "It's {insert time here}... in the AM." But, Cage has really made some dogs of movies, including the one he just made, according to the reviews, and I think the one that's either just come out, or is coming out. I also wonder what Academy Award winner Hilary Swank is doing in "The Reaping", which appears to have something to do with the 10 plagues, but looks like a plague itself. She must need the money.

With 184 to go and Jimmie Johnson running 2nd, you pretty much know he's going to win.

The Ned Jarrett posing as DJ commercial is a hoot.

Fox had a great shot of the tires on somebody's car and how little air the tires have in them once they restarted the race. That's a great shot and something I've never seen before. It's a perfect shot of what they've been telling us all these years about the tires having as little air as possible in them at Martinsville.

I've said this before, but it bears repeating. You can always tell who met their wife before they started winning races. For a racecar driver, the hotness of their girlfriend increases in direct proportion to the number of races won.

They noted that Montoya was running so high, and I wrote, "I suspect he's doing it because he doesn't know any better." When the Fox guys said that as well, I nearly broke my arm patting myself on the back. :smilewinkgrin: I didn't see Montoya's wreck initially, but my 8 year old son said, "That was Montoya's fault. He wrecked him."

I've never heard of foam catching on fire. Very bizarre.

Great racing by Gordon and Johnson. DW said something about how he respects Gordon and how clean Gordon races people and I said, "Except if his name is Rusty Wallace or Matt Kenseth."

After the race, was that whining I heard from Gordon? He was complaining about how Jimmie Johnson was blocking him? What does he think this is, F1 racing? In F1 racing, the driver holding somebody off is allowed to block once and that's it. You block a 2nd time, and the FIA will order you to pull over and let the faster driver go. Gordon whined about Johnson, but you can bet your last dollar that if the situations were reversed, Gordon would have been blocking his behind off.

Gordon said that the only way he was going to win was to wreck him and he wasn't going to wreck a teammate. He doesn't mind wrecking somebody else, but not a teammate.

Now, it's time to rant about the stupidest pit reporter questions ever.

Steve Byrnes to Jimmie Johnson: What does it mean to beat Jeff Gordon?
Jimmie Johnson: Oh, it means a lot to beat him.

Oh, it does? Really?

I hate that question. Can somebody tell the pit reporters to stop asking what it means to win/finish 2nd/3rd/4th/5th/last/etc.? It's a race and not much more than that. Stop looking for deep meaning where there is none to be found.

Then, somebody asked Dale Earnhardt Jr. about how he wanted to win, not finish 5th. Earnhardt contemptuously said that he thinks everybody was there to win.

I'm blaming this current trend of stupid pit road questions, which has lasted a few years now, on Bill Webber. Dr. Jerry Punch was the best at congratulating the winner and then asking him to talk about the win. There was none of this silly nonsense like "what does it mean", "you really wanted to win, didn't you?", and the other stupid questions they like to ask after the race.

All pit road reporters need to go back and watch the best pit road reporter ever, Dr. Jerry Punch, on the old ESPN telecasts to learn how to do it right.

 

Very interesting, swaim. I haven't seen a replay of that finish for a long time to speak intelligently about it, and your interpretation sounds right to me. The quote was pulled from racing.reference.info, a site that I visit often. I wonder if that finish is on Youtube? I'll have to go look. Thanks for the info.

Edited to add: It doesn't look like that video is on Youtube. If somebody finds it somewhere, please post a link.

 

News

I didn't watch the Busch race on Saturday and there was no race, but I wanted to call attention to some news items from the last week.

Repaving of Darlington
Darlington will be repaved and some fans on a racing board I visit are all up-in-arms about it. I don't understand why though. It was repaved in 1995 and the first race after the repaving was pretty good. 1 year of weather later, the pavement was back to the old tire-chewing pavement of old. I don't recall what else will be done to the old girl, but if it means Nascar will continue to go to Darlington, then I'm all for it. Evidently, some fans want to bi... ahem... complain when there's no reason to complain. Of course, these same fans are griping about the work being done at Bristol, even though the last few races at Bristol haven't been very good. I'm not for change just for the sake of change. I am for making things better and I believe the work being at Bristol and Darlington are good things.

Bill doesn't go to Washington
It was announced that the track ISC wanted to build in Washington state won't happen. I think I'm Ok with this, because a track in Washington had the potential of taking a date from Martinsville, and I wouldn't be Ok with that. OTOH, it may have taken the 2nd Pocono race, and there's nothing wrong with that. Last night on Wind Tunnel, Dave Despain asked Eddie Gossage, GM of the Texas track, whether we've seen the end of the track-building that we've seen over the last decade. I answered "Yes" and then I saw some track news at Jayski this morning. So, my answer now is "No". As long as somebody projects that they can make wheelbarrows full of money by building racetracks, then, no, tracks will keep getting built.

CCWS (Who? Exactly.)
The Champ Car World Series ran its first race of the season on a Las Vegas street course yesterday. I have no idea who won and I don't think I care. The only 2 names that I know of in CCWS, Tracy and Bourdais, didn't win. I don't like street courses, but when you're hard-up to put a schedule together like CCWS is, you take what you can get.

F1 Malaysian Grand Prix
Fred Alonso took the lead on the 1st lap of the Malaysian GP and won. Any on-track passes would have made headlines. The lack of such tells me that there weren't any.

F1 does have a bit of excitement though. Lewis Hamilton, a rookie English driver, is stealing the spotlight from his teammate, the aforementioned Fred. In his 1st 2 F1 races, Hamilton has finished 3rd and 2nd and is 3rd in the points. Reminds me of the success J. Villeneuve had back in '96. For the '07 F1 season, the battle is between Ferrari and McLaren. Everybody else is racing for the table scraps.

IRL
John Barnes, part-owner of Panther Racing in the IRL, thinks that doing a support race for Cup would be a good thing. This might be a decent idea, but it will never happen. #1, the IRL wouldn't do it. They think they're a top-tier sanctioning body, and they wouldn't want to play second-fiddle to another racing organization. #2, Nascar wouldn't allow it. They can't afford to let anybody know that the IRL puts on a good show with real racing.

I'd love to hear what you think about any of the above, or any other racing-related item that catches your attention.

 

The FIA took a hard stance against team orders after the fiasco in 2002 at Austria and Indianapolis. Each team still has a #1 and #2 driver, but the #2 driver pulling over to let the #1 driver win, ala Barrichello and Schumacher at the 2002 Austrian GP, doesn't happen anymore.

This has been the well-deserved knock against F1 racing for as long as I can remember. While F1 doesn't attract any mainstream attention here, there are still enough fans to justify a race at Indy. While I don't want F1 to become another Nascar, it would be nice of battles like the ending of the Turkish GP last year were the norm and not the exception.

 

Texas Notes

In my Nascar fantasy league, I had picked Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr. I had almost picked Jeff Burton instead of Jimmie. Rats.

:BangHead:

Anyway, on to my notes.

I did believe Jeff Gordon when he said he was more upset about losing than anything Jimmie did. Of course, he had a couple of weeks to think about that answer, and I don't remember what he said after losing 2 weeks ago.

Oh, and thanks to Chris Myers for pointing out that Tony Stewart was behind Jimmie and Jeff at the end of the interview. It's not like we couldn't figure that one out for ourselves. I have to assume that he gets paid everytime he mentions a star. This just affirms my belief that Fox and TNT are more interested in promoting the stars rather than broadcasting a sporting event. Although, in the case of Nascar, sporting event may be going too far.

There was a time when Junior Johnson dominated Nascar. Presently, Hendricks Motorsports does. Is there some hand-wringing going on about this that I'm not aware of? If so, why? Do the hand-wringers not know their history? The Junior Johnson era came and went. The Petty Enterprises era came and went. The Darrell Waltrip era came and went. The Dale Earnhardt era came and went. This will happen to Hendrick. Count on it.

I find it hard to believe that Fox spends any time on McMurray. He's not McBetter, nor is he McWorse. He's McAverage. He doesn't McWin. He doesn't McRun upfront. When given the McChance to try and win at Talladega a couple of years ago, he McHelped somebody else win. The only notable thing he did was sit in Sterling Marlin's McCar 5 years ago and win at Charlotte. The only notable thing he does now is drive for Jack Roush. And if the Mc thing is McGood enough for McFox, it's McGood enough for McMe. :wavey:

McDonald's is really scraping the bottom of the barrel using David Faustino for their commercials. When did Bud Bundy become hip and cool?

On the Ricky Rudd wreck, you can tell this is real life and not a movie because Rudd's car didn't flip over. He hit Ragan's car perfectly for a flip. I was disappointed.

Speaking of Larry Mac knowing the exact temperature at last year's Texas race, Larry didn't have to Google that. He wrote it down last year. When he was a crew chief, he took more notes than anybody. Pages and pages of them. That practice is part of what made him a successful crew chief, and he continues his note-taking practice as a tator.

What is up with Kevin Harvick? He got 5 wins last year, won the Daytona 500, and has done zero since. Inquiring minds.

At least Harvick has won. The Evernham cars have been dreadful. I said this not long ago, but Kasey Kahne has easily been the most disappointing driver of 07 after 6 wins last year.

So, I fell asleep for a bit and Jeff Gordon was leading when I woke up. I think I need to go back to sleep again.

Charlie Sheen: "It's broadcast in 1080i, which means it's cool." Here's what Charlie should be saying.

"It's broadcast in 1080i, which I know nothing about, but I'm hauling away money in a truck from doing this commercial, so that's cool."

Mike Joy calls him Jimmie Gordon. Sounds like somebody's been using the Jack Johnson Memory System. Or was it the Joe Jackson Memory System?

When I can, I watch old races. A couple of weeks ago, ESPN Classic was showing the 1991 spring Martinsville race. Jerry Punch mentioned how fast a pit stop was when they changed 2 tires in 20 seconds. Today, the #8 crew rips of a 4-tire change in 13 seconds. Phenomenal.

Did you guys see the teeshirt that Kurt Busch wore after his stint at Wrigley Field? "Real Cubs Fan (I know the words)"

It's a little dig at Jeff Gordon because he forgot the words in his stint at Wrigley "Stadium". But, I thought that the words that all real Cubs fans knew were "Wait till next year."

Dale Jr did something today that nobody else did since the beginning of the race. Pass Jeff Gordon. It's taken them longer than I thought it would, but Dale and Tony Jr are getting back on the same page about their car.

One thing that I've never liked, and Buddy Baker made a regular habit of it, was when the announcers told us about what was happening in the announcers booth. Buddy would tell us when they got ice cream, or sandwiches, or when Eli Gold spilled his drink, or all manner of things that nobody cared about. I want to watch a race and listen to expert tator opinion and I don't care about the goings-on in the tators booth. So, Mike Joy tells us about the sandwiches and Dove bars and I yawn. I don't really care whether the tators just got food, ice cream, beer or strippers delivered to their booth.

Krista Voda just threw 3 baseball references into 1 sentence. Somewhere, Bill Webber is smiling proudly.

My wife just asked who Krista Voda knows to get her position on pit road. I don't know if she knows anybody, but I think she's earned her position, unlike the next to useless Jeanne Zelasko, who I'm convinced has pictures of somebody and that somebody let her be a pit road reporter.

I hope everybody texted Domino's to pick the next paint scheme that will be on the car when David Reutiman crashes it.

It's a good thing that they mandated that drive shaft tunnel on the COT, because it happens so often that the drive shaft comes off the car and flies into the windshield of another car or into the stands. Typically, when the drive shaft comes off, it pretty much lays right there where it came off. I have never seen the drive shaft take off like a rocket. I guess the drive shaft tunnel is a nice-to-have, but it solves a problem that didn't exist.

Actually, to answer the question, yes, we can get enough of Denny Hamlin. I've had enough of his commercials.

Does anybody know who the black guy (assumed rapper) is with Dale Jr in those Impala commercials where they swap cars? I don't know who he is, and I'm not going to take the time to figure it out. Is he a rapper? I have nothing disparaging to say, I'm just mildly curious.

My wife, who knows a tiny bit of Spanish, says that Boogity, Boogity, Boogity has to do with picking your nose.

On the JPM/Stewart wreck, I think Montoya just drove too hard into the corner. Jimmie Johnson said that the issue was that they were trying to figure out who is going before the other. This phenomenon has a name. We call it racing. Thanks, Jimmie.

When a car is spinning in front of you, and there's a lot of smoke, shouldn't you slow down there, Kyle? My wife said something about the spotter not saying anything, but the spin was right there in front of him. I don't really understand how Junior slows down but Kyle doesn't.

Any bets on how long "Drive" lasts? I'm setting the over/under at 6 weeks.

Right. Jeff Gordon won the race off pit road totally because of his pit road selection. It had nothing to do with the fact that his pit crew was just as fast as Mark Martin's pit crew, nosiree. The importance of pit road selection is overstated.

Dale Jr does seem very confident about his team. I haven't seem him show confidence in his team since the 2004 season.

Great racing by Burton and Kenseth. I really didn't think Burton was going to pass him.

On Wind Tunnel, I heard that Tony Stewart was talking about how much fun he's not having and that once he gets enough money, he'll retire. The questions are, #1, how much money is enough? #2, what other profession pays him like his current one does? #3, could he even do it, or, would he be like Mark Martin and keep racing? I've heard some say that the only way Dale Earnhardt was ever going to stop racing is when he died in the car. I think Tony is much the same.

BTW, the answer to #1 is "Just a little more."

Also on Wind Tunnel, an angry caller was mad at Kyle Busch for being an idiot. He insisted that it wasn't because Junior got wrecked, but that Nascar needs to do something about him. Nascar doesn't need to do anything. Rick Hendrick doesn't want him tearing up racecars, so I suspect that Hendrick Motorsports will take care of that situation just fine.

This was a pretty good race. Passes for the lead under green. Unexpected twists during the race. Good racing for the win. There wasn't much to dislike about this race.

 

Busch and Jr didn't fade so much as Busch took them both out. Gordon faded.

One other thing I forgot to comment on was something that Jeff Hammond said at the end of the broadcast. After noting that Chevrolet had won so many races this season, Hammond said something about how Nascar may look into that.

My question is, what can Nascar do about it? Should they do anything about it? Common templates, the gear-ratio rule, and other things have been put in place specifically so that one manufacturer doesn't dominate. But, what can be done about the evidence that suggests that Chevy simply has better drivers than the other manufacturers? Going back to the list that I made up a couple of months ago or so, the best Ford driver, Matt Kenseth, probably lands at #4 when compared to the lineup of Chevy drivers.

I think that Nascar should do something when a manufacturer manipulates the rules to get an unfair advantage, ala Chevy 95, Ford 85, but I'm not seeing that here. I don't know the specific reasons why the Bowtie Brigade is faster than everybody else, but unless the Chebbies have done something that blatantly manipulates the rules, rule changes to penalize them should not be the order of the day.