Daytona 500

As usual heck of a last lap.

Congrats to all.

It was a great race. Danica got snookered by DE Jr. But hay she is learning. Jr has 10 years more experience. Considering what happened yesterday NASCAR needed this race to go the way it did.

I must say, Danica pleasantly surprised me. I heard her thank her team, I heard her take onus for a lack of draft experience, and I watched her fight like hell to keep her car running in the top ten most of the day.

She seemed pleasant, and she drove a good race. She took the first step in turning me into a believer.

Race was boring. The announcers focused too much on her. "Look, there's Danica falling back to 18th. Oh, yeah, and there's this guy that just took over the lead position, too..."

It was probably watched by many more people just because of yesterday.

In reply to Maroon92:

I agree with "the race was fairly boring" but I'm also guessing that it was boring because everybody got told to not berkeley it up and create a re-run of Saturday.

I fell asleep on the couch. Woke up after the race ended. I still don't know who won. LOL!

Then I think I won't tell you.

Ok it was somebody with the initials J J.

A lot of people don't think Danica deserves the hype she gets. For a little perspective, my wife, who is not a nascar fan, watched the whole race to see how Danica did. If Danica continues to qualify well and nascar finds a way to let the world know, I would bet that more races will be watched in their entirety at our house. Just sayin'.

Yeah, Danica put in a pretty competent showing - not bad at all for someone who hasn't been in NASCAR very long. And whoever came up with the Day-Glo green paint scheme is a genius - the car is pretty easy to spot on track.

Overall, a lot of the race had me thinking of ways to try to make restrictor plate racing more interesting, without inviting a repeat of yesterday's crash. (One of them was to put the cars on tire compound so hard they couldn't go full throttle into the turns.) It was a pretty impressive fight on the last lap, but a lot of it was just everybody running in a single line.

Oh... I thought it was the Danica 500.

In reply to N Sperlo:

It is according to the media and apparently the majority of the people posting on this thread.

Hey Jimmie Johnson good job on winning the race.

I read that they did away with the rear away bar so they can't stick as good in the turns? I don't really follow it though to be honest.
My dad does so if I'm with him ill watch it and 9 times out of ten ill fall asleep, lol. To be fair baseball and basketball also put me to sleep

BoxheadTim wrote: In reply to Maroon92: I agree with "the race was fairly boring" but I'm also guessing that it was boring because everybody got told to not berkeley it up and create a re-run of Saturday.

that big crash at the end of the race yesterday was a very rare deal- i don't think there has been anything like it with debris going up into the stands like that since Geoff Bodine crashed into the catch fence during the truck race at Daytona in '01 or so. and the last one before that was Bobby Allison at Talledega in 87 or so when they were hitting 215mph going into turn 1.. it was a fluke, the likes of which we probably won't see for another decade or more. and besides, the Cup guys are (generally) better than the Nationwide guys- that's (generally) why they are in Cup and not stuck in Nationwide..

Bobby Allison 87:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wySxP-tWZQU

Geoff Bodine:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k55h0XCF1t8

novaderrik wrote: and besides, the Cup guys are (generally) better than the Nationwide guys- that's (generally) why they are in Cup and not stuck in Nationwide..

It seems like they are all the same guys. Aren't all the guys who race on Sundays also racing on Saturdays? Seems really dumb that they allow that. Should be in one series or the other. Tony Stewart who won Saturday is the same Tony Stewart who was out there again today in a 200 mph traffic jam was he not?

I'm Danica-neutral but I give her huge credit for running well, staying competitive all day with the amount of hype and pressure. That can't be easy. I can't even imagine the pressure that she felt last night and into this morning. And as for the end, she did the safe thing and admitted the same thing I was wondering - if she pulled out if anyone would have followed or not. If not the train goes by and turns it into a 20th finish.

Boring....

At the end it was a load of crap.

Blah, blah, blah...

I wasn't even slightly bored, but then again, I'm not some closed minded road racer who hates NASCAR. ;) I love the Gen 6 cars with the body contouring to look a bit more realistic. Love how Brad Keslowski managed to stay up front with a pretty banged up and aerodynamically inefficient car, too. Love that a few small dollar teams managed top 10 finishes, running against the big boys. Loved how Danica managed to run in 3rd for a lot of the race, and not get crashed out by someone else. Love the last lap move by Jr to move to second.

In reply to Chris_V:

I actually liked the teaming up. It made things interesting when people who weren't teammates worked together, though I think they will find a way to make the aerodynamics of the new body styles work in a similar fashion.

In reply to all:

I would like to thank the following:
dean1484
Maroon92
mazdeuce
MadScientistMatt

For participating in my little experiment. 50% in the first 8 reply posts about Danica (Excluding the OP and thanks N Sperlo for mentioning everyone talking about her and ruining the experiment.)

mazdeuce pointed out the whole reason she is there. Nascar's fan base is shrinking and she will bring it up with the women segment. Good for them smart marketing.

Now observing behaviors aside. Jimmy Johnson showed why he will probably go down as the greatest ever in roundy round before it is all over. Mark Martin showed that old men can still race with the young boys, and Danica proved that she has learned a few things and can avoid doing something stupid in the biggest race of the season. Now that is an accomplishment for a rookie driver in that league. It hasn't been done since Trevor Bayne in 2011, (just being catty, it truly is odd that you have two drivers do so well in the 500 so close together.) She ran clean, smart, and patient.

Good start for a driver and a great start for a dog and pony show.

T.J. wrote:

novaderrik wrote: and besides, the Cup guys are (generally) better than the Nationwide guys- that's (generally) why they are in Cup and not stuck in Nationwide..

It seems like they are all the same guys. Aren't all the guys who race on Sundays also racing on Saturdays? Seems really dumb that they allow that. Should be in one series or the other. Tony Stewart who won Saturday is the same Tony Stewart who was out there again today in a 200 mph traffic jam was he not?

yes, it's the same Tony Stewart and no, it's not "all the same guys".. there might be 10 or so Cup guys that run Nationwide races from time to time and there are always Nationwide guys running in Cup to prove that they can hang with the big dogs before moving up, but they only get to earn points in one series. they are racers, and they will race as much as they can. the Cup guys running in the lower classes bring attention to those series, and they allow the up and coming drivers in the lower series to get actual on track experience running side by side with the best of the best.

Danica deserves a lot of credit and she ran real we'll today. You will see, she runs the bigger tracks well, did so in Indycars too. I think it has to do with experience and rhythm. She also has good coaches keeping an eye on her. With the investment NASCAR has made promoting her, they all need her to be successful. Being a big stock car fan and growing up at the local bullrings, I thought today was an excellent race. Just enough action, to break up the long green flag runs and just spread out enough to not make. It too much of a crash feat.

I got the fiancee and future mother in law to watch it today, the whole thing, because of Danica. Racing is racing and if it's on tv I try to watch it. Missed the first half because of a long run after doing some stuff to the scoobie, but they had turned it on and started watching it themselves bc of her.

from what I've heard, and the 10-15 min I tried to watch, it seemed to be a very predictable nascar and boring race. I changed the channel when there was a caution with 9 to go.

novaderrik wrote:

T.J. wrote:

novaderrik wrote: and besides, the Cup guys are (generally) better than the Nationwide guys- that's (generally) why they are in Cup and not stuck in Nationwide..

It seems like they are all the same guys. Aren't all the guys who race on Sundays also racing on Saturdays? Seems really dumb that they allow that. Should be in one series or the other. Tony Stewart who won Saturday is the same Tony Stewart who was out there again today in a 200 mph traffic jam was he not?

yes, it's the same Tony Stewart and no, it's not "all the same guys".. there might be 10 or so Cup guys that run Nationwide races from time to time and there are always Nationwide guys running in Cup to prove that they can hang with the big dogs before moving up, but they only get to earn points in one series. they are racers, and they will race as much as they can. the Cup guys running in the lower classes bring attention to those series, and they allow the up and coming drivers in the lower series to get actual on track experience running side by side with the best of the best.

It also helps with sponsorship. Dale Jr can run 5 races a year which entices sponsors to get on board with his other drivers.

T.J. wrote:

novaderrik wrote: and besides, the Cup guys are (generally) better than the Nationwide guys- that's (generally) why they are in Cup and not stuck in Nationwide..

It seems like they are all the same guys. Aren't all the guys who race on Sundays also racing on Saturdays? Seems really dumb that they allow that. Should be in one series or the other. Tony Stewart who won Saturday is the same Tony Stewart who was out there again today in a 200 mph traffic jam was he not?

one problem with that as a solution is that the NW series would have a hard time sustaining itself without the big names in their line up ...