Quote :

"NASCAR officials elected Friday evening to postpone the start of the race until 1 p.m. ET Sunday on ESPN after rain from Tropical Storm Hanna threatened to swamp the track. Spinoff rain from Hanna struck RIR Friday afternoon at about 4:15 p.m., wiping out all hope NASCAR officials had for the remainder of scheduled activities not only that evening, but all day Saturday as well. Qualifying for the Nationwide Series' Emerson Radio 250 was canceled at about 4:46, with the 43-car lineup set per the rulebook -- the top-30 starters line up in order of owner points. Qualifying for the Cup race also eventually was washed out, and the starting field was set per the rulebook. The Nationwide event will now be run at 7 p.m. Sunday on ESPN2, after conclusion of the Cup race and after the grandstands have been cleared."

9/5/2008 7:11:32 PM

Yahoo is now telling me that my deadline to select my drivers this week is (Sunday) September 7 at 12:55pm...does this mean they've preemptively postponed the race til Monday?

^gotcha

so this means qualifying order is based on points standings, ie Kyle will be on the poll, correct?

[Edited on September 5, 2008 at 7:14 PM. Reason : N]

9/5/2008 7:12:05 PM

^owners points.

will be cool that all the top 12 bubble guys will start next to each other

9/5/2008 8:09:31 PM

logano will get 1st cup start on sunday in the 96 hall of fame racing car. should be good race

9/12/2008 7:13:18 PM

Every week I get more and more pissed that NASCAR can't find 2 hrs to run a damn qualifying session at some point Saturday or first thing on Sunday. The trucks and NW do qualifying hours before a race, why can't the cup guys do it, too?

9/12/2008 9:42:39 PM

tech inspections maybe?

[Edited on September 12, 2008 at 10:46 PM. Reason : kartracekid can probably give you a good answer]

9/12/2008 10:46:29 PM

^^Most tracks I agree. Other than TV, I cant give you a decent explaination. Its different at Loudon though, because they run every series they can possibly run in one weekend. The Camping World East series was supposed to run today, the Modifieds and the trucks are supposed to run tomorrow, and the Cup series runs on Sunday. They have to qualify and run all 3 of those series tomorrow and run the Cup race on Sunday.

The only other reason I can give is that they sell tickets to every qualifying session and every race throughout the weekend, so they would have to clear the grandstands in between each event if they ran them both in the same day in a rainout. In the 3 years I have been traveling with nascar, they have run double headers (nationwide race and cup race in the same day) twice. Once at the July race at Daytona in 2007 and the other was last week at Richmond. It seemed to be a huge cluster at both races.

Other than that, it was a soggy day in Loudon, and is still raining right now.

9/12/2008 11:02:55 PM

In regards to qualifying tickets, they have to refund them anyway. The race is at ~1PM on Sunday, run the qualifying (weather permitting) at 9AM Sunday morning and anyone who shows up uses their ticket, or make it so race-day tickets can get in earlier. Obviously this would probably make it an impound situation and a very short turnaround so people would complain about that.

9/13/2008 8:24:11 AM

yeah, I'm definitely not disagreeing with you, just telling you what Nascar says about it. I would have loved to qualified. I am spotting for the #10 car this week, and I would have loved to had the chance to qualify to have a decent starting spot. Instead, we have to start 39th.

9/13/2008 6:11:45 PM

awesome race

roush domination

9/21/2008 5:50:15 PM

Once again I put Ragan in my fantasy roster and don't start him. That kid is going to be one to watch out for in the coming years.

9/28/2008 8:17:04 PM

loved how carl said he meant to hit the wall when he passed jimmy and it doesn't slow you down that much on video games

9/29/2008 7:07:59 AM

anybody goin down to Talladega this weekend?

9/29/2008 4:55:27 PM

ahahahahahaha FUCK KYLE BUSCH ahahahahaha

9/29/2008 4:56:47 PM

that was a good ARCA race

10/3/2008 7:35:44 PM

i think they should have called it the "Ambulance 500"

10/4/2008 9:42:54 AM

anyone heading up to Martinsville in a couple weeks??

10/5/2008 3:01:43 AM

ahaha, kenny wallace just said "duh, big red truck"

10/5/2008 12:50:57 PM

they dun fucked up bad today

10/5/2008 8:06:50 PM

that was worthless

i don't even give a shit if that's what the rule says. the rule should be fucking changed. with this fucking rule we'll never get to see another move like "the pass in the grass" or anything. nascar has really turned itself to shit.

10/5/2008 8:15:27 PM

I am heading to Charlotte and then Martinsville

10/5/2008 8:45:35 PM

^^ agree

smith should have won that race as he was clearly forced below the line

10/5/2008 9:41:57 PM

i don't care if he was forced down there. we shouldn't have to sit around and debate whether someone was forced anywhere. they should let them fucking race and crash and tear shit up and die sometimes. IT'S FUCKING RACING GODDAMMIT.

the phrase "no aggressive driving" does not belong anywhere near racing. it's just absurd.

10/5/2008 10:17:28 PM

rules iz rules

gg Stewart

10/6/2008 12:29:48 AM

Quote :

"rules iz rules"

If rules are rules, then Stewart should have been penalized for forcing Regan down there. They specifically told all the drivers in the drivers meeting sunday morning that "if you run below the yellow line to advance your position, you will be black flagged...ALSO if you force someone below the yellow line, you will be penalized. I like Tony, but he should have been the one who got black flagged.

10/6/2008 12:16:51 PM

I agree with Neuse, there shouldn't have to be an argument over who was forced where or not. Alot of tracks let them drive below the line anyways.

10/6/2008 1:20:59 PM

Quote :

"rules iz rules"

sure. i'm not saying anyone did or did not break a rule or was or was not properly penalized. i'm just saying that this particular rule is stupid. i have been saying this since they first came out with it and today it finally decided the winner of a race. nascar drivers are gonna take chances and sometimes it's gonna end in a wreck. sometimes folks are gonna get hurt or killed in that wreck. if you're not comfortable with crashing and dying, stay the fuck out of a racecar.

let the boys race goddammit

[Edited on October 6, 2008 at 1:35 PM. Reason : also, it's easy to take the "rules is rules" approach when your driver benefitted from it]

10/6/2008 1:34:41 PM

Nascar was much better off 10 years ago before all these useless "safety" rules

10/6/2008 1:53:49 PM

lol i wouldn't go that far. I don't think having your stars die every few years on the track did much for the sport.

10/6/2008 3:23:55 PM

yea, fuck stewart, and im kinda angry at carl edwards for wrecking jr.

and god I wish they would race at North Wilkesboro again. I loved going there as a kid.

10/7/2008 12:29:45 AM

^ http://www.savethespeedway.net/

It is sad NASCAR started in that area and now isn't even there.

Junior Johnson must be pissed. His runs from the police started it all.

10/7/2008 12:36:40 AM

All we got from Stewart on the scanner on that ending controversy yesterday was, "ain't no fuckin' way..."

I would have liked to see him get fired up more if they gave the race to Smith, but I'm glad a driver other than Roush Fords and Jimmie Johnson finally won a race either way...

10/7/2008 1:10:49 AM

i hate tony stewart, but it's a good thing they gave it to him. otherwise we'd have to listen to him whine for another year or so.

10/7/2008 12:57:40 PM

Quote :

"I wish they would race at North Wilkesboro again"

10/12/2008 7:47:03 PM

^ ditto. And I wish OCS was back to the good old days where you could barely get into the stands.

10/12/2008 8:35:12 PM

north wilkesboro, south boston, rockingham, one darlington race, etc....

we're losing them because they don't hold as many people as the boring 1.5 mile tracks.

i'm gonna try to go to the ARCA race at rockingham next year. hopefully the darlington cup race too.

10/12/2008 8:44:43 PM

maybe that will work

10/12/2008 9:51:28 PM

^^^for sure. i spent many a saturday night at southern national back in the day. a lot of 3 and 4 am nights when my dad had to stay in the tech room because someone protested one of our motors too

10/13/2008 12:43:19 AM

My post from earlier this year:

Quote :

" I have a prediction for NASCAR 2009. There will be less than 40 teams racing in a substantial number of races. DEI (or whatever it will be) will barely run 1 or 2 teams, certainly not 3 or 4. MWR (Waltrip) will not run 3 teams next year. Ganassi is already down to two teams, and I doubt the third team will be back next season. Robby Gordon won't be able to run a full season next year. This year 45 teams normally show up for the 43 spots. Assuming everything else stays the same, that would give us 41 teams competing. Now consider teams like 21-Woods Brothers, 78 - Furniture Row, Petty Enterprises' two cars, and the three cars of Gillette Everham and Penske that might not field as many cars next year, and NASCAR could have a large problem. 7/7/2008 9:01:09 PM"

and today on http://jayski.com:

Quote :

"00 team could go away in 2008, McDowell not picked up: Michael Waltrip Racing will field cars for #55-Michael Waltrip and David Reutimann [#44 in 2008 supposedly will use the #00 in 2009 with #44 owners points] and then partner with JTG Daugherty Racing to field the car for Marcos Ambrose [#47] in the Sprint Cup Series in 2009. The fate of the current #00 MWR team is still to be determined. Running that car would depend on sponsorship, MWR Executive Vice President Cal Wells said Saturday at Lowe’s Motor Speedway"

and

Quote :

"Smaller fields in NASCAR's future? Another sign of the times is the rumor [Bob Margolis] heard in the Cup garage that NASCAR has floated the possibility of a change in the field size for the Craftsman Truck and Nationwide Series to 28 vehicles and the Cup field down to 36 sometime in the future.(Yahoo Sports)(10-13-2008)"

[Edited on October 15, 2008 at 8:56 AM. Reason : looks like I will be correct on most of my predictions]

10/15/2008 8:52:30 AM

they'll have a full field regardless even if Morgan Shepard and the other start-n-parks go cup racing. They pay enough money just to start that people can make a decent living with one car/engine as long as they dont tear anything up.

My prediction is that there will be 10 or 11 four car teams every week. All the single/two car teams wont be able to compete with the big spenders.

10/15/2008 3:28:36 PM

they should really have a road course in the chase

10/15/2008 8:57:55 PM

i like the idea of smaller fields. get rid of the guys that should still be in nationwide cars and end up wrecking guys who actually stand a chance.

10/15/2008 9:03:21 PM

Just FYI - it is freakin monsooning in Martinsville with no signs of letting up. ALSO Gas is 2.85 up here.

[Edited on October 17, 2008 at 12:49 PM. Reason : .]

10/17/2008 12:46:19 PM

this has got to be the most rained-out qualifying sessions ever in one season

10/17/2008 2:36:13 PM

Quote :

"they should really have a road course in the chase "

Agreed

Looks like Jimmy has this one locked up

10/19/2008 11:28:57 PM

Well, at least this helped me in my race pool. My lead goes from 7 to 15. If Bowyer would have lost it when Ragan got into him, I'd be a lot happier.

10/19/2008 11:37:23 PM

Quote :

"this has got to be the most rained-out qualifying sessions ever in one season"

I'm pretty sure it is...at least in modern era nascar...11 Qualifying sessions rained out in the cup series by my count. And there is a 70% chance of rain in Atlanta on Friday.

10/20/2008 8:38:38 AM

looks like this may be 3 weeks in a row for qualifying rainouts...its raining like a som bitch in Atlanta with no sign of letting up...

10/24/2008 11:30:37 AM

i thinks its good for the 12 chase guys to start in the front personally. cant wait to see cousin carl, the biff, and jj battle on lap one.

10/25/2008 7:52:46 AM

Re: Phoenix race

I understand that the race had two red flag stopages of the race that made it run long. However, the stop the showing of the race on ABC to broadcast the idiotic America's Funniest Home Videos was simply a poor decision.

If ABC cannot commit to showing the full race coverage, then they need to keep the races on ESPN.



[Edited on November 9, 2008 at 8:35 PM. Reason : ... and JJ won again ]

11/9/2008 8:35:01 PM