NASCAR, Hendrick Motorsports to pursue 2023 Le Mans entry

I hope they use Larson, Elliot, Byron, and Bowman.  Larson, along with Jamie McMurray, won the Rolex 24 in 2015 in a Ganassi DP.

And for some of you that are either too young to remember, or so old you forgot, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, and Colin Edwards won a Race of Champions about a decade ago.  It was rally cars for the car guys, and a 2wd buggy for the motorcycle guys, on a dirt course.  And while Edwards certainly helped matters by never losing in the buggy, Gordon and Johnson more than held their own in the rally cars against some BIG names in rallying.

In reply to racerfink :

Gordon was a wildly successful sprint car racer before NASCAR.

Wally (Forum Supporter) said:

Will said:

Part of me is like "This is a great opportunity to dispel some stereotypes."

The other part of me is like "I hope it's a full-send 'Merica, berkeley yeah effort sponsored by Jack Daniels and Smith & Wesson."

I need to work on getting a passport and a mullet for next year 

I quoted Wally so that this gem didn't get lost in the noise.

In reply to Loweguy5 :

There was some crossover in the 70s and 80s too. A number of Ford drivers were in Roush cars for the 24 hours of Daytona, and Bobby Allison ran a Buick Sommerset one year. 

Javelin said:

In reply to racerfink :

Gordon was a wildly successful sprint car racer before NASCAR.

And Johnson came from off road trucks so he too is pretty comfortable with being crossed up sideways in the dirt.

mageep said:

In reply to tuna55 :

There needs to be much more of this type of thing. This might be the first time I watch a NASCAR turning  laps in years.
 

I think they should open it up to DTM, BTCC, Australian supercar, all of it. What could possibly go wrong?

The Stadium Super Trucks show up?

RandolphCarter said:

mageep said:

In reply to tuna55 :

There needs to be much more of this type of thing. This might be the first time I watch a NASCAR turning  laps in years.
 

I think they should open it up to DTM, BTCC, Australian supercar, all of it. What could possibly go wrong?

 

The Stadium Super Trucks show up?

Or a sprint car too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjtIf-VtJME

In reply to RandolphCarter :

I'd love to see more races open to pretty much anything that showed up and could meet a minimum speed. 

Wally (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Loweguy5 :

There was some crossover in the 70s and 80s too. A number of Ford drivers were in Roush cars for the 24 hours of Daytona, and Bobby Allison ran a Buick Sommerset one year. 

Allison in the Somerset was in preparation for a whole separate NASCAR series called the "LR Cars" that never fully panned out. It would have been a NASCAR road course series. The LR cars in testing weighed 400-500 pounds less. There were two generations of cars -- the first was considered pretty crappy so they continued development until they got much better.

Here's your driver 

GCrites80s said:

Wally (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Loweguy5 :

There was some crossover in the 70s and 80s too. A number of Ford drivers were in Roush cars for the 24 hours of Daytona, and Bobby Allison ran a Buick Sommerset one year. 

Allison in the Somerset was in preparation for a whole separate NASCAR series called the "LR Cars" that never fully panned out. It would have been a NASCAR road course series. The LR cars in testing weighed 400-500 pounds less. There were two generations of cars -- the first was considered pretty crappy so they continued development until they got much better.

Allisons car was run in the 24 after nascar scrapped the lr deal. He built it to test for nascar then the scraped the deal so he brought it back out for tge 24.

Ford Torino running at the Daytona 24

When NASCAR raced at Le Mans

The guys style could use a little pizzazz, but his research is good.

In reply to GCrites80s :

Somewhere I have a picture of an Olds Calais in JD Stacy colors testing at the Meadowlands.  It was a neat looking little car. 

Javelin said:

In reply to racerfink :

Gordon was a wildly successful sprint car racer before NASCAR.

Wasnt Larson like unstoppable in sprint racing after he got removed from the Cup series for his racial slur? 

Yup. Won 4+ in Outlaws when he was on his hiatus.
https://motorsports.nbcsports.com/2020/07/14/kyle-larsons-world-of-outlaws-dirt-racing/

MotorsportsGordon said:

Ford Torino running at the Daytona 24

Might be just the picture but that sure looks like wrinkle wall on the front tire...I've not seen that before.

APEowner

Javelin said:

In reply to racerfink :

Gordon was a wildly successful sprint car racer before NASCAR.

And Johnson came from off road trucks so he too is pretty comfortable with being crossed up sideways in the dirt.

IIRC Johnson came from dirt bikes before that.

IMO there's no lack of talent in NASCAR. They all came to the series from something else after all. Should be several options within the ranks if they choose to do so.

I don't see why they'd bother running Corvette Racing's engine. NASCAR engine programs are incredibly good. They have to be to handle hours at Wide Open for Daytona and Talladega. I'd expect minor changes at the most. I can see far more effort being put into making the rest of the driveline reliable. Unless of course this turn into a one off that has little to do with cup cars than the outer shell.

Not lemans but here is nascar cars racing at Bathurst 

Asphalt_Gundam said:

MotorsportsGordon said:

Ford Torino running at the Daytona 24

Might be just the picture but that sure looks like wrinkle wall on the front tire...I've not seen that before.

APEowner

Javelin said:

In reply to racerfink :

Gordon was a wildly successful sprint car racer before NASCAR.

And Johnson came from off road trucks so he too is pretty comfortable with being crossed up sideways in the dirt.

IIRC Johnson came from dirt bikes before that.

IMO there's no lack of talent in NASCAR. They all came to the series from something else after all. Should be several options within the ranks if they choose to do so.

I don't see why they'd bother running Corvette Racing's engine. NASCAR engine programs are incredibly good. They have to be to handle hours at Wide Open for Daytona and Talladega. I'd expect minor changes at the most. I can see far more effort being put into making the rest of the driveline reliable. Unless of course this turn into a one off that has little to do with cup cars than the outer shell.

Earnhardt childress engines have been doing gm Daytona prototype and Daytona prototype international engines for a number of years so they are fairly experienced at endurance engines.

action express racing is expected to be involved with the program aswell which makes sense since it's owned by Jim France and managed by Gary Nelson.

Taking the RPM down by 1000 vastly increases engine life in any case.

In reply to Asphalt_Gundam :

Every tire is a wrinkle wall if you put enough stress on it.