NASCAR Streets of Chicago

That was so freaking cool to see. Congrats to SVG, a man who I had literally never heard of until yesterday. Scott MacLaughlin was losing his mind on Twitter towards the end.

Best NASCAR race I've watched in years. Watching cars get punted, flip a U-turn, and get back to racing was awesome. Well unless you got punted by Bubba Wallace and buried in the tires.

Marcus Ambrose came to the US from the Super Car Series also.

Ford put him in the Truck Series, which was the wrong environment for a Road Racing Specialist.

 I had the good fortune to work directly with him for 8 years.

Good Lad

He had the talent, Ford held him back

FWIW

RacingComputers said:

Marcus Ambrose came to the US from the Super Car Series also.Ford put him in the Truck Series, which was the wrong environment for a Road Racing Specialist. I had the good fortune to work directly with him for 8 years.Good LadHe had the talent, Ford held him  cback FWIW

He got a year in the Truck series, followed by 2 years in the Xfinity series prior to running Cup for 6 full seasons. Even Cup only had 2 road races per season back then. It seems logical to give him some time in the lower series before throwing him to the wolves in Cup. What would have been the right environment for him without "holding him back"? 

RacingComputers said:

The KIWI beat the Good Ole Boys

What "Good Ole Boys"?

Keith Tanner said:

If you follow racing down under at all, it's no surprise SVG took the win. He's a hell of a driver and far more used to this kind of race than the usual NASCAR driver. I'd love to see him take on Le Mans. 

He has a few times, along with Daytona 24 and Sebring, Spa 24 and lots of other GT3 endurance races.

In reply to racerfink :

Alabama Gang

In reply to CrashDummy :

SVG is fast in everything he tries, he got in a WEC2 car for the first time last year and ended up with a podium finish, he's run well in Sprint Cars, he's incredibly talented. I really wanted to see Haley hold him off, and he did a good job trying but just didn't have enough to stay with him. 

In reply to CrashDummy :

Putting a World Class Road Racer into a Series with out 1 Road Race, did / does not make much sense

Additionally, the Team he was put with, had little experience in the Truck Series,

Possibly, putting him with an established Ford truck team would have been advantageous for both Ford and Marcus.

However, that time is past, and those were the days.

FWIW

These cup cars are very similar to v8 supercars.  Svg domintes when scott Mclaughlin isn't around.

Not surprised he did this well.   I am sup4ised Nascar even did this race!

Go SVG!

Kyle Larson was pretty funny in the post race press conference.

" He was behind me, and I put together what I thought was a really good segment, looked in the mirror, and he was on my bumper."

"E36 M3, he's fast."

Based on that extended highlight vid, that had more entertaining bits than the entire F1 season. 

I wonder what city gets the next street race? Can you imagine Manhattan or Seattle?

In reply to Appleseed :

I would love to see it happen in Manhattan. I have a couple places in mind where it might be doable but it's going to be difficult to work around busy areas and long term projects to find streets wide enough and open space for a paddock. 

Appleseed said:

I wonder what city gets the next street race? Can you imagine Manhattan or Seattle?

San Francisco. 

It'd be like watching a stadium truck race.

In reply to Datsun310Guy :

Bobby Allison

Donnie Allison

Red Farmer

Neil Bonnett

Davey Allison

Larry Mac Reynolds 

In reply to RacingComputers :

My father-in-law is from Alabama and he reminds me of the Allison's.  

He just turned 87 YO and he's still ready to fight you over some 20 year old matter. 

First NASCAR race I've watched in years. I tried to go but the tickets were too expensive. 
 

I thought it was awesome. I want it back in Chicago in 5-10 years. Really I want it back next year, every year, but that would never happen. 

RacingComputers said:

In reply to Datsun310Guy :

Bobby Allison

Donnie Allison

Red Farmer

Neil Bonnett

Davey Allison

Larry Mac Reynolds 

 

They were all out of NASCAR before Ambrose got there.  How were they holding him down?

I don't believe I said they were holding Marcus Down

I posted that I thought Ford did not do Marcus any favors by putting him with an inexperienced Truck Team

FWIW

Yall are forgetting Scott Pruitt who did all but win almost all the nascar races he came in for, losing 1 or 2 to Ambrose I think. Granted he did do the full circuit his first season and didn't end up the best. 

mtn said:

First NASCAR race I've watched in years. I tried to go but the tickets were too expensive. 
 

I thought it was awesome. I want it back in Chicago in 5-10 years. Really I want it back next year, every year, but that would never happen. 

Chicago has a 3 year contract with NASCAR.

The ball is in Brandon Johnson's court.

johndej said:

Yall are forgetting Scott Pruitt who did all but win almost all the nascar races he came in for, losing 1 or 2 to Ambrose I think. Granted he did do the full circuit his first season and didn't end up the best. 

Pruett was 37th in points in his full season. He managed 3 Top-5 finishes in his 14 road course starts in the Cup Series. He only raced against Ambrose once in Cup, when they finished 38th and 42nd at Sonoma in 2008. The struggles of talented guys like Pruett is what makes what SVG did so damn impressive. 

CrashDummy said:

Usually guys from other series really struggle in NASCAR Cup races so major props to SVG on the win. He may have been uniquely positioned to pull something like this off this weekend. The current Cup cars are pretty similar to the V8 Supercars, nobody had run this track before, and he probably has a lot more experience racing on the type of track (street course) and the type of weather (wet to damp to dry-ish) than any of his competitors in this event. I'd love to see him come over and give the full Nascar schedule a shot in a future season. 

Big +1 to all of this.  Not to dismiss what he did, but I doubt we will see that sort of result in the future.  This event was the perfect storm for SVG to show up and smoke the field.  

I was disappointed that Xfinity got canceled after the weather delay.  Watching those style cars on a road course is fantastic...they should not be as fast as they are.  

In reply to jmabarone :

This race was basically a V8 Supercar race that happened to be taking place in the northern hemisphere. It's no surprise he dominated, if there's a V8 Supercar street race the odds are that he'll win that too. 

I really hope we see more street races, it was loads of fun to watch - much more so than an oval IMO.