Nightona 500

Ten post Daytona 500 thoughts...

1 - Rain rain go away... nuf said.

2 - Wow Here it Comes, Here Comes the Night... The first Daytona 500 under the lights, and on a school night! Well done to NASCAR for getting the race done!

3 - If Jimmy Spencer was Mr Excitment, Elliot Sadler has to be Mr Impatient... Lap 2? Really?

4 - Oh look its a girl in a race suit... the new "face of NASCAR" was stuffed in the wall, hard, in her Duel race, taken out by her team mate in the Nationwide race, and her 500 effectively ended courtesy of Mr Sadler. Pity! Only time will tell if she can win races in either series.

5 - Pack is back... Much credit to NASCAR for delivering the style of racing the fans wanted while also giving the drivers the ability to race for themselves and slingshot for the win.

6 - Juan for the delay, Two car for the show, Three delays to get ready, now go cat go, but don't you, wreck my new tarmac... or something like that... Who would have thought the "big one" would be between one race car and a jet drier? Que a Twitter and Facebook world full of "Juan less jet drier", or Days of Thunder, "hit the pace car" gags. While it looked like something on the 42 car broke, JPM needs to start looking like the world class race car driver again, and not, frankly, a waste of space!




7 - Two car for the show? It can only be Brad Keselowski... posting on twitter... in the middle of the race... brilliant!!

8 -  More NASCAR love... Half way payout worked perfectly, as did fuel injection!

9 - Umbrella, ella, ella... This years Daytona 500 proved once and for all that in racing... just when you think you have seen it all...

10 - Ford rules... Well done to Matt Kenseth, 2012 Daytona 500 winner!!



Now the regular season starts... roll on Phoenix!!

Indy Roadsters!!

Regular readers will know how much I love Indy Roadsters, so I couldn't resist showing you these old shots courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.com Flickr photostream!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/indianapolismotorspeedway/

Duel at the Daytona Corrall

What do we know after yesterdays two Gatorade Duel races ?

Firstly the field is now set for Sundays running of the Daytona 500!


http://www.jayski.com/news/stats/2012/story/_/page/01-Daytona-Qualifying-Lineup

We know the big race could be a race of two halves. The first, fairly laid back, just getting some laps in, trying a few things out, settling the car in to the track, seeing how the draft works, and seeing how the engine temperatures change when bump drafting, a lot like the second Duel race. The second half could be a real eye opener, just like the first Duel race. Full of action, wrecks and riches for the victor.

We know that not only does tandem drafting work, for as long as the engine temps can handle it, but we also know that the old fashioned draft works very well too! Just look at the run the 88 had on the 14 on the last lap of the first Duel when the yellow flag came out. Was Smoke really going to win that race had it stayed green?



We know that Danica was very unlucky! We must also be impressed with not only what she did with her hands as she approached the inside wall, but also her attitude to the whole weekend, learn and gain respect first and results will come!

We know that as a young, inexperienced rookie, Michael Waltrip is likely to make silly mistakes...

We also know that the 500 is a long race, and a different prospect completely to the Shootout and the Duels.

So I guess that means we don't know all that much after all!

Bud "Shootout" Indeed!!

So last night, or this morning, 3.30am UK time this morning in fact, I sat up to watch the 2012 NASCAR Bud Shootout...

Was it worth it??

Hell yeah!!

If you listed every element the perfect pre-season event should have the list would include lots of lead changes, close racing, wrecks, and a nail biting finish.

This years race had all those elements packed into an 82 lap action packed sprint!

Surely the racing was exactly what NASCAR fans wanted, a return to pack racing... or was it? The racing was definately more "pack" than "tandem" but a "return"? This was not "old school" pack racing where drivers sat two or three wide, lap after lap, unable to race for themselves. This was "new school" pack racing where drivers could draft or bump draft to overtake... and it was good!

There were wrecks, several wrecks, but what do you expect when you put that many drivers, that close together, for that few laps. The only real sticking point and the cause of the wrecks, was the effect of bump drafting in the corners, especially when the pushing car is lower on the track than the car being pushed.

FoxSports.com are already running a poll asking fans, "Should NASCAR make changes after the Shootout?" Richard Childress is not happy. Should NASCAR change the rules package? Should NASCAR ban bump drafting in the turns? Should NASCAR do this, should NASCAR do that?   

“NASCAR asked the teams and the drivers what we could do to make it better,” said Tony Stewart, the defending Cup Champion. “My point is, this is better than having to sit there and stare at the back of a spoiler for 500 miles and not be able to see where you're going half the race. We had control of what lane we got to run in. We got to move whenever we wanted. You didn't have to not move because you had a guy behind you that you had to rely on making your decision on what he had to do also. We had more control as drivers today.”

The answer according to Dale Earnhardt Jr - "You just hold your damn car where it needs to be and not drive around like an idiot."

Quite! The rules package worked perfectly. I do not believe the drivers will bump draft to the extreme we saw in the Shootout for the whole 500 miles next Sunday. The 500 is a different kettle of fish, a long race to survive, not a sprint. We might see more of the same in the last 100 miles but that has always been the way, hasn't it? The drivers have the Gatorade Duels next, more time to get the hang of the "new school" pack racing.    

The other story from the Bud Shootout was Kyle Busch and his “stab and steer — and some braking" saves and his last corner slingshot for the win on Tony Stewart. Love Kyle or hate him, that boy sure can drive a race car.

So what have we learnt so far?

"Pack" racing is back, don't bump draft the left side of another car in the turns, Kyle Busch sure can save a race car...

Don't lead the last lap...

Now that's very old school after all!!

NASCAR Euro Series

OK, so they only race on road courses but they are still V8 powered stock cars... In Europe!!

1 WEEK TO GO!!!

This time next week the NASCAR season kicks of with the 2012 Bud Shootout!!

Only 7 more sleeps to go!!

Are we there yet...

How 'bout now?

Now?

Oh...

Hey Good Lookin' Part 2? Not Necessarily...

Several of the newest set of Formula 1 cars have one consistant, redeeming feature..

Boy are they UGLY!

In comparison I may not have been a fan early on, but the 2012 Indycar, the DW12 is starting to grow on me...

Just like the new Daytona Prototypes...

I Couldn't Help But Wonder...

With all this talk of bringing back "pack racing" at Daytona I couldn't help but wonder... Were things that much better way back when?

Old school "pack racing" was hold your breathe close, hold your breathe tense, hold your breathe dramatic. Fans loved it... Drivers hated it.

The trouble with "pack racing" was that one driver could not overtake on his own. The last lap pass for the win rarely happened unless the cars were two by two already. For a driver to overtake he needed 25 other cars to go with him. If he moved and they didn't he found himself on his own, going very quickly... backwards. The cars were so closely packed together on the high banks that one wrong move caused "the big one", and the drivers felt powerless to do anything about it.

Fast forward to 2011 and "tandem drafting". Drivers don't mind it but fans hate it. Yes the cars are a little more split up for the first 499 miles but the drivers can slingshot when it comes down to that final mile.

So back in the day a driver needed as many cars as possible pushing his if he decided to pull out of the draft, today one car pushing will do the job.

NASCAR seem to understand the need to limit the speed differencial between the tandem drafting and the ols fashioned pack drafting but hopefully they also realise the need to maintain the ability to race one-on-one.

Personally I am not sure a fully blown return to "pack racing" is as good as some rose tinted glasses make it look.

With all this enthusiasm surrounding the 2013 Cup Series Ford Fusion and with it a return to "stock" looking cars, I couldn't help but wonder... What was the last "stock" looking stock car?

Current Cup cars may not be the spitting image of a specific road car but at least they are more road car in proportion than the generation before and in my eyes make for a good looking "stock car" if no so "stock" car...

Did a road Monte Carlo ever look like this...

or a Charger ever have a front like this?

Or a Taurus look like this...

This is better...

Getting better, a Pontiac Grand Prix that looks like the road car, right down to the detail in the front and the overall shape... 

A Thunderbird from the same era, again thats what a T-bird looked like back then...

An Oldsmobile, again from the same era, and again looking like an old road going Olds Cutlass Supreme...

Same goes for the Chevy Lumina...

A little older and again they look like road cars, Buick on the high side and another T-bird down low...



So to find the last "stock" looking "stock car" it looks like we have to go back to the era of Lumina vs Thunderbird vs Grand Prix vs the odd Buick and Oldsmobile. They were still race cars but they were "stock" looking!

Despite all of this looking backwards I am excited about the future, the upcoming 2012 season, and what 2013 will bring!