anyone watch Daytona or was there a more important Autocross somewhere?

I was busy autocrossing (badly) in Canada today, though it's not all that likely I would have watched NASCAR had I been home.

ah nascar, billboards going in circles for 3 hours. its like watching skittles flushed down a toilette. pass.

-J0N

We had a pool going on what lap Danica would wreck her car that I won. Huge pot going on how many cars (total) she wrecks this year.

jmthunderbirdturbo wrote: ah nascar, billboards going in circles for 3 hours. its like watching skittles flushed down a toilette. pass. -J0N

And this differs from any other form of professional racing... how?

Dietcoke wrote: We had a pool going on what lap Danica would wreck her car that I won. Huge pot going on how many cars (total) she wrecks this year.

She usually does well at the super-speedway tracks, being somewhat closer to her open-wheel roots. Her wreck this year could have happened to just about anyone. Jr's wreck wasn't much different. At least she kept it off the wall. If the splitter hadn't dug into the grass and ripped the nose off the car, she might have kept going.

The splitter digging into a grass was a common issue, but I also wonder if they will really get rid of it. While it pretty much assures a wrecked car, it may also provide a role in keeping cars from spinning back up into the rest of the field and taking out even more. This was the first race in my memory where there was not really a "big one" wreck that involved ten or more cars.

Ian F wrote: The splitter digging into a grass was a common issue, but I also wonder if they will really get rid of it.

Keep the splitter, get rid of the grass.

I watched multiple hours of the Daytona 24 hours and none of the 500. Just not interested. So, who won?

SVreX wrote: You guys are a riot! It was the closest finish in Daytona's history. They race for 500 miles and are separated by only 0.010 seconds at the finish line, but your biases are so strong that you've got nothing to add except masturbation jokes? Hilarious.

According to my Fitbit, it was the Daytona Half Mile.

Spoolpigeon wrote:

SVreX wrote: You guys are a riot! It was the closest finish in Daytona's history. They race for 500 miles and are separated by only 0.010 seconds at the finish line, but your biases are so strong that you've got nothing to add except masturbation jokes? Hilarious.

According to my Fitbit, it was the Daytona Half Mile.

+1

And if one can be alerted by the "5 lap to go" alarm, you would have enough time to see the only really interesting part of the race.

Close is great, but it does mean it's interesting all the time.

And I do realize that the racing is really, really hard- having done 6/10 of the speed at Michigan with only two cars. But that still does not make it entertaining to watch the whole thing.

BTW, my editorial- Matt should have stayed low. I think the outside car would have stalled before passing him as he was alone. Instead, the block resulted in a pretty easy pass on him, and then some great car control as Matt lost it, to win.

Ian F wrote:

jmthunderbirdturbo wrote: ah nascar, billboards going in circles for 3 hours. its like watching skittles flushed down a toilette. pass. -J0N

And this differs from any other form of professional racing... how?

Dietcoke wrote: We had a pool going on what lap Danica would wreck her car that I won. Huge pot going on how many cars (total) she wrecks this year.

She usually does well at the super-speedway tracks, being somewhat closer to her open-wheel roots. Her wreck this year could have happened to just about anyone. Jr's wreck wasn't much different. At least she kept it off the wall. If the splitter hadn't dug into the grass and ripped the nose off the car, she might have kept going. The splitter digging into a grass was a common issue, but I also wonder if they will really get rid of it. While it pretty much assures a wrecked car, it may also provide a role in keeping cars from spinning back up into the rest of the field and taking out even more. This was the first race in my memory where there was not really a "big one" wreck that involved ten or more cars.

Danica's and Jr's accidents were very different. Danica had help, Jr did it on his own.

Certainly, it can be debated if Danica caused the help to happen or not, but it's not as if she lost in a corner without anyone around her.

Ian F wrote:

jmthunderbirdturbo wrote: ah nascar, billboards going in circles for 3 hours. its like watching skittles flushed down a toilette. pass. -J0N

And this differs from any other form of professional racing... how?

Exactly. As if F1 cars or Indy cars or LeMans cars aren't rolling billboards. I guess I'm an exception here, but I never did understand the love of F1. Just doesn't do it for me.

Though I like NASCAR, I'm not a fan at all of restrictor plate racing. I just think it's crappy racing and it's only a matter of time before someone gets needlessly killed again. But the finish to this one was really good. I'd have sworn Truex crossed the line first when I watched it in real time, but replay is conclusive.

bludroptop wrote:

Ian F wrote: The splitter digging into a grass was a common issue, but I also wonder if they will really get rid of it.

Keep the splitter, get rid of the grass.

NASCAR drivers want green teflon removed.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/motorsports/nascar-drivers-still-clamoring-for-more-safety-improvements/ar-BBpGvOh

Wall-e wrote: I wish Truex could have held on to win. They are good people.

Me too

Missed the last 80 laps to get some sleep before midnight shift. The one NASCAR race I really wanted to watch, caught highlights on Sports Center this a.m. tho.

Glad Hamlin won, tenth attempt at Daytona. His grade school letter was super cool, cracked me up. Good guy there... now if he only drove a Chevy.

NASCAR isn't love or hate w/ me, more like like/ dislike to the latest 'improvements' they always make. Where other motorsports 'progress', NASCAR appears to morph into their next phase to see if it will stick w/ their fan base. A few races from now I will likely give a E36 M3 but only keep it on for the noises and the last 25 laps if nothing better is on. Road courses are still must watch.

At one point the driver development component pissed me off, admit I was being old school there. Good crop of young drivers coming up. Chase Elliot looks like he could be the real deal. Dillon's, meh.

Yeah, I watched it here in Richmond and everyone's happy to see Hamlin get a win. It was raining here so had it on while doing some cooking. I'm also surprised they didn't have one more wreck after the caution with 15 to go. Great finish.

Anybody know what the Toyota engines are? Any relation to production ones? Seems they work pretty well!

The Toyotas are NASCAR only engines withy nothing to do with any production engines.

Klayfish wrote:

Ian F wrote:

jmthunderbirdturbo wrote: ah nascar, billboards going in circles for 3 hours. its like watching skittles flushed down a toilette. pass. -J0N

And this differs from any other form of professional racing... how?

Exactly. As if F1 cars or Indy cars or LeMans cars aren't rolling billboards. I guess I'm an exception here, but I never did understand the love of F1. Just doesn't do it for me. Though I like NASCAR, I'm not a fan at all of restrictor plate racing. I just think it's crappy racing and it's only a matter of time before someone gets needlessly killed again. But the finish to this one was really good. I'd have sworn Truex crossed the line first when I watched it in real time, but replay is conclusive.

Yup, never got Indy or Lemans and certainly have never gotten into F1. Tried watching F1 and was bored to tears. I honestly don't really watch much racing at all. I go to the dragstrip once or twice a year (never the NHRA pro stuff though), I got a Formula D event once a year (Now that's a riot) and do a fair bit of autocrossing.

Wall-e wrote: The Entire Field are NASCAR only engines withy nothing to do with any production engines.

FYP.

While GM's engine does share a style and displacement with a production engine, I don't think they are related at all. Certainly, Ford's engine have no modern relationship.

None of them have anything related to road going cars but he asked about the Toyotas.

alfadriver wrote:

Wall-e wrote: The Entire Field are NASCAR only engines withy nothing to do with any production engines.

FYP. While GM's engine does share a style and displacement with a production engine, I don't think they are related at all. Certainly, Ford's engine have no modern relationship.

Nope, not anymore. The Toyota engine is actually the reason the whole field runs a clean sheet design. The old Chevy engines were small-block derived, the Ford was a Windsor with crazy heads and the Mopar was an LA derivative. Along came Toyota without an engine to base it off of, so NASCAR allowed them a clean sheet design. Everyone else called foul and before long they all jumped to clean-sheet designs as well.

What the hell is this late Daytona race all of you are talking about?

They were moving away from the production based engines before Toyota starting with the SB2 in the late 90s.

WOW Really Paul? wrote: What the hell is this late Daytona race all of you are talking about?

Uh, near the HQ of a certain magazine....

Wall-e wrote: They were moving away from the production based engines before Toyota starting with the SB2 in the late 90s.

SB2 still shared a lot of similarities with the the old small block Chevy though. The R07 is a whole 'nother beast.

Lack of left AND right turns bore me. I did watch Talldaga Nights the Ricky Bobbi Story. Does that count?