That's turrible. Labonte is even close to how many starts he has. Sad story




[Edited on May 16, 2013 at 11:29 PM. Reason : On page 6]

5/16/2013 11:27:28 PM

Quote :

"Dick Trickle may have shot himself because of constant chest pain. Chuck Trickle told the Review-Journal that his brother was healthy except for the pain under his left breast. He said the two brothers talked about a week ago and Chuck knew the condition was serious when he heard his brother curse for the first time in years. “He was very down,” Chuck Trickle told the Review-Journal. “He more or less said he didn’t know how much longer he could take the pain.” "

maybe he shouldnt have smoked under yellow

[Edited on May 17, 2013 at 12:25 PM. Reason : a]

5/17/2013 12:23:20 PM

jeff gluck's crazy ideas for the all star race:

Quote :

"GO THE WRONG WAY One intriguing change would be to race the opposite direction. Instead of making left turns, have the cars run clockwise and make right turns the whole way. How would the cars have to be set up differently? Which drivers could adapt to the change? What would the racing look like? NASCAR fans couldn't afford to miss it. BRING BACK ELIMINATIONS What makes reality TV successful? Eliminations. Viewers tune in to see who stays and who goes home. The All-Star Race tinkered with eliminations in 2002 and 2003, but the format was ahead of its time. People are much more used to them a decade later, and cutting one or two drivers after every 10 laps would make for an interesting scramble at the back of the field. Of course, it's not fair and some drivers would cry foul, but it's not like they're running for points. It would be fascinating to see how the field was cut down. THREE-WIDE AT THE FRONT There are few more exciting moments in NASCAR than when a driver makes it three-wide on a 1.5-mile track like Charlotte. While the whole field lining up three-wide on a restart would result in a certain wreck, that's not necessarily the case for the drivers at the front. What if the front row lined up three-wide for the final segment with everyone else in two-by-two rows behind them? It would be up to the drivers to see if they could make it stick or back out of the situation and possibly miss a chance at the win. There's a chance it could end in a crash, but it would certainly be high drama, something the current format has been missing of late."

also rain

5/17/2013 7:31:14 PM

I hope it doesn't rain cause I fully intend to cook my wings after the race.. If anyone going is short grill space I'm bringing my grill from home and only gonna have 2 Steaks and corn. Just throwing that out there

5/17/2013 7:50:14 PM

^^^I went to school w/his granddaughter. She was killed in a car accident when we were 16. He shot himself in the cemetery where she was buried. Everyone said depression yesterday, possibly due to that accident, though it was 12 years ago (he apparently went there several times a week). He called 911 to tell them they'd find him there dead. But I hadn't heard anything about that chest pain, so that could be it, or a combo of both.

5/17/2013 10:46:17 PM

no, it's not NASCAR, but I'm going next week

Ed Carpenter got the pole surviving the Andretti and Penske onslaughts in the Fast Nine session. He's a native Hoosier and a native Hoosier has not won the Indy 500 since Wilbur Shaw did it before World War II in 1940.

Also very impressive was Indy Lights driver, Indycar rookie, and Indy 500 rookie Carlos Munoz. The man has balls and uses the whole racetrack coming out of the turns. I share Kevin's and Cavin's beliefs of he's either going to challenge for the win or will crash on lap 10.

Chevy domination. Unknown if this will pass to the race but at least for qualifying speed the top Honda was Alex Tagliani in 11th.

Penske in the Fast Nine, it looked like Castroneves and Power took too much downforce out of the cars.

Ganassi pretty much sucked. Briscoe was actually bumped out and had to put himself back in the field.

Bad day for Team Rahal. Jakes got himself into the top 24 pretty late, Graham Rahal after he couldn't find speed just gave up and said he'd qualify tomorrow, and Mexican veteran Michel Jourdain doing a one-off was by far the slowest. I don't know how much track time Katherine Legge got today, but Jourdain's woeful efforts makes it between them two on who will not qualify unless someone else finds unexpected problems tomorrow.

Row 1:

1. #20 - Ed Carpenter - U.S. - Ed Carpenter Chevrolet - 228.762mph
2. #26 - Carlos Munoz (R) - Colombia - Andretti Chevrolet - 228.342mph
3. #25 - Marco Andretti - U.S. - Andretti Chevrolet - 228.261mph

Row 2:

4. #5 - E.J. Viso - Venezuela - Andretti Chevrolet - 228.150mph
5. #2 - A.J. Allmendinger (R) - U.S. - Penske Chevrolet - 228.099mph
6. #12 - Will Power - Australia - Penske Chevrolet - 228.087mph

Row 3:

7. #1 - Ryan Hunter-Reay - U.S. - Andretti Chevrolet - 227.904mph
8. #3 - Helio Castroneves (W) - Brazil - Penske Chevrolet - 227.762mph
9. #27 - James Hinchcliffe - Canada - Andretti Chevrolet - 227.070mph

Row 4:

10. #4 - J.R. Hildebrand - U.S. - Panther Chevrolet - 227.441mph
11. #98 - Alex Tagliani - Canada - Barracuda Honda - 227.386mph
12. #11 - Tony Kanaan - Brazil - KV Chevrolet - 226.949mph

Row 5:

13. #22 - Oriol Servia - Spain - Panther DRR Chevrolet - 226.814mph
14. #19 - Justin Wilson - England - Dale Coyne Honda - 226.370mph
15. #7 - Sebastien Bourdais - France - Dragon Chevrolet - 226.196mph

Row 6:

16. #9 - Scott Dixon (W) - New Zealand - Ganassi Honda - 226.158mph
17. #10 - Dario Franchitti (W) - Scotland - Ganassi Honda - 226.069mph
18. #14 - Takuma Sato - Japan - A.J. Foyt Honda - 225.892mph

Row 7:

19. #83 - Charlie Kimball - U.S. - Ganassi Honda - 225.880mph
20. #16 - James Jakes - England - Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda - 225.809mph
21. #77 - Simon Pagenaud - France - Schmidt Peterson Honda - 225.674mph

Row 8:

22. #60 - Townsend Bell - U.S. - Panther Chevrolet - 225.643mph
23. #8 - Ryan Briscoe - Australia - Ganassi Honda - 225.265mph
24. #78 - Simona de Silvestro - Switzerland - KV Chevrolet - 225.226mph

yet to qualify, roughly fastest to slowest:

#21 - Josef Newgarden - U.S. - Sarah Fisher Hartman Honda (last car bumped)
#18 - Ana Beatriz - Brazil - Dale Coyne Honda
#15 - Graham Rahal - U.S. - Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
#63 - Pippa Mann - England - Dale Coyne Honda
#77 - Tristan Vautier (R) - France - Schmidt Peterson Honda
#6 - Sebastian Saavedra - Colombia - Dragon Chevrolet
#91 - Buddy Lazier (W) - U.S. - Lazier Partners Chevrolet
#17 - Michel Jourdain - Mexico - Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
#81 - Katherine Legge - England - Schmidt Peterson Honda
#41 - Conor Daly (R) - U.S. - A.J. Foyt Honda (cracked header on engine during qualifying run)

5/18/2013 8:20:08 PM

Flyin Ryan, perhaps we should start our own IndyCar thread? I know these fools can't appreciate IndyCar.

Hell, I spent the whole day watching Pole Day. It was great.

Anyway. The aluminum showing for the "all star race" is pretty fucking sad. And that's after they removed seats in turns 1 and 2 a few years ago (the seats I was in 13 years ago).

Today there was a publishing of the top 50 paid athletes, and only one driver made the list (Dale Jr.). I believe a few years ago, quite a few drivers made it (like Jimmy Johnson, Jeff Gordon, ect). The series has certainly fallen in terms of appeal to both sponsors and fans.

5/18/2013 8:27:04 PM

^ Be nice. We're all racefans.

Regarding the empties, they overexpanded capacity on these tracks 10-20 years ago.

This team intro, I get why they do it, and if you're a fan in the infield, it's probably cool, but it's the most tedious TV NASCAR has all year.

5/18/2013 9:11:57 PM

While I agree that they overexpanded the capacity 10-20 years ago, Charlotte has removed seating, and there are still a ton of empty seats.

5/18/2013 9:18:42 PM

they should really move the All-Star Race around, the All-Star Race doesn't get the attendance the 600 does a week later, the format is just beyond stale, way too many segments making the first 60 laps seem like filler; Charlotte and SMI though would fight that tooth and nail

All-Star Race at Bristol, say on a Thursday night before a Bristol race weekend so NASCAR can get midweek TV and good primetime ratings. Wouldn't that be fun?

[Edited on May 18, 2013 at 9:37 PM. Reason : /]

5/18/2013 9:34:18 PM

Anybody else lose Speed on TWC? The motherfucker just dropped and went black. All other channels are fine.

5/18/2013 9:48:39 PM

I'm fine, but I'm not on Time Warner.

"45 laps and the race becomes official."

?

it's an unofficial race, you can declare it over whenever you want

5/18/2013 9:54:44 PM

My SD channel works fine. My HD channel doesn't work worth a flying fuck.

5/18/2013 10:02:13 PM

Quote :

"I know these fools can't appreciate IndyCar."

i am a fan of all forms of motorsports but when i heard kurt busch was running laps at indy wide open the whole lap it kinda ruined the indy 500 for me. they need to remove enough down force as needed to allow the talented guys can get to the front

[Edited on May 19, 2013 at 9:27 AM. Reason : a]

5/19/2013 9:25:56 AM

^ Kurt wasn't running competitive speeds though, nor was he running with other cars around him. They have been "flat out" for at least the last 20 years. During Qualifying they remove as much rear and front wing as they can possibly get away with. But the ground effects still produce massive amounts of down force. Plus with as little down force that they run, you can really see people hang on for dear life, especially some of the lesser experienced/talented drivers.

Yeah, Kurt was flat out, but he was running a higher down force setup than what they ran to Qualify with. Plus it was just he and the track. It wasn't much of a challenge because his car wasn't setup to be challenging and fast.

5/19/2013 9:48:57 AM

^if i am going to watch an oval race i want them to have to lift. otherwise its just like danica winning the pole at daytona a few months ago. it didnt prove a damn thing about her driving abilities.

5/19/2013 2:14:17 PM

And like I'm saying, you can't compare the two, you fucking retard. Unlike Daytona, it takes balls to Qualify for the Indy 500

5/19/2013 2:53:44 PM

indy and nascar both suck donkey dick

5/19/2013 2:57:07 PM

Just got back. Man I'm so hungover.

5/19/2013 3:20:08 PM

Quote :

" I know these fools can't appreciate IndyCar."

So far I'm right.

5/19/2013 4:51:44 PM

i'm sorry but push to pass is dumb to me.

i do casually watch indy though

5/19/2013 6:40:34 PM

Always have it on the radio when tailgating for the 600

5/19/2013 7:13:55 PM

Quote :

" i am a fan of all forms of motorsports but when i heard kurt busch was running laps at indy wide open the whole lap it kinda ruined the indy 500 for me. they need to remove enough down force as needed to allow the talented guys can get to the front"

he did 218 once I think, last place today was 223 over 4 laps

I can run around Indy flat, just a case of there's going to be a lot of downforce on the car. You have to remove the downforce to go fast though.

I do wish the cars had more horsepower and less aero, but the engine manufacturers wanted lower displacement engines when they designed the formula.

The top guys are all at front though. Well guys on top teams that have Chevys (the top 10 was the entire Andretti and Penske lineups, plus Carpenter who's always good at the high speed ovals and Hildebrand whose team Panther has always been good at Indy). The Hondas have sucked (so Ganassi).

Quote :

"otherwise its just like danica winning the pole at daytona a few months ago. it didnt prove a damn thing about her driving abilities."

Daytona and Talladega are worse for me. Because at least for Indianapolis you have to get your car to handle, and then once you do, you remove downforce and have to get it to handle again (there's also when you get your car in traffic where the handling goes away pretty bad and very few cars can run flat). At Daytona and Talladega, handling doesn't figure into the equation at all. It's two tracks that just produce complete clusterfucks where driver talent doesn't figure into who wins. Indy is high speed, but you have to use driver talent to get the car to handle. The Indycar equivalent of Trevor Bayne or David Ragan is not winning Indy in other words.

[Edited on May 19, 2013 at 9:29 PM. Reason : .]

5/19/2013 9:00:39 PM

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/report-charlotte-nascar-race-could-042042165--nascar.html

Charlotte October race to Vegas.

When I was a kid, this state used to have 6 Cup races. We could be down to 1.

[Edited on May 22, 2013 at 2:19 PM. Reason : /]

5/22/2013 2:18:51 PM

lololololololol

i love watching nascar circling the bowl on its way down the shitter

5/22/2013 2:21:05 PM

To be fair, Las Vegas does have a rich NASCAR history and is deserving of two races. I'd probably give them 3 or 4 to be honest.

5/22/2013 2:22:27 PM

the fall charlotte race isnt going anywhere. Bruton is still at war with Cabarrus County and is using that as leverage. He knows and Nascar knows that you could stick a fork in the sport if the fall race leaves

5/22/2013 7:50:47 PM

How bout October race o the fucking rock already. The sport will not end if Charlotte loses 1 of 3 races. Lol

5/22/2013 11:17:36 PM

I loved Rockingham. Went to a few races there. But no, they won't move a race there because it's no longer owned by Bruton Smith, he sold it to Andy Hillenberg.

5/23/2013 2:10:57 PM

would be nice if the race dates were chosen by supply and demand and not a smoke filled room with a few billionaires

5/23/2013 3:13:59 PM

Whole sport is going down the shitter. It was embarrassing to see how many fans were out at the All-Star race last week. They took away good tracks like Rockingham for other garbage cookie-cutter tracks like California, Vegas, Texas, etc.

Bruton pulled this same shit a few years ago, he's not going anywhere. Fact is they're not going to get any more fans at Vegas or anywhere else than in Charlotte.

5/23/2013 4:11:34 PM

The 600 crowds seem to dwindle a little bit every year too. I didn't even bother buying tickets this year because I know somebody will be at the gate practically giving them away around race time.

5/23/2013 4:28:41 PM

the sport needs more short tracks and another road course. the faster the cars go, the harder it is to pass. i watched motogp and v8 supercars at the new road course in austin texas and was thinkin how great a cup race would be there.

5/23/2013 5:31:32 PM

As long as money from Fortune 500 companies are being poured into the sport. Places like Vegas and California will get races.

As long as the companies have their top employees in the pressbox getting shitfaced the sport isn't going anywhere. It will be like the truck and nationwide series as well other sporting events

LIVE COVERAGE KILLS SPORTS

If you can't agree with that you're a dumb shit

5/23/2013 7:24:19 PM

crongrats to tim flock for making the hall of fame.

Quote :

"Tim had a Rhesus monkey co-driver named "Jocko Flocko" with him in his May 16, 1953 Grand National win at Hickory Motor Speedway. Jocko Flocko became the only winning monkey ever. The monkey was retired two weeks later at Raleigh, where the monkey became scared after looking into the wheel wells. Tim had to do a pit stop to remove the monkey, and he finished third instead of second."

5/23/2013 8:40:21 PM

Charlotte does pretty well attendance wise for the 600. But yeah you should be able to get tickets out front no problem. I'll be there in the RV lot like always.

2012 - 140k
2011 - 145k
2010 - 140k
2009 - 100k
2008 - 160k
2007 - 175k

http://racing-reference.info/race/2009_Coca-Cola_600/W
http://www.jayski.com/pages/tracks-seating.htm

Quote :

"The 600 crowds seem to dwindle a little bit every year too. I didn't even bother buying tickets this year because I know somebody will be at the gate practically giving them away around race time."

[Edited on May 23, 2013 at 9:20 PM. Reason : f]

5/23/2013 9:19:15 PM

Redneck hill?

5/23/2013 9:50:16 PM

4 wide finish indy lights

http://youtu.be/Wp1klmtsWQA

5/24/2013 9:16:48 PM

That was pretty good

5/24/2013 11:19:28 PM

Watching the Indy 500 now. Go Will Power

5/26/2013 12:28:11 PM

What's the best way to grab cheap tix for Bank of America in October?

5/26/2013 6:47:08 PM

Craigslist. Or stubble pending on where you want to sit

5/26/2013 7:00:06 PM

LOL Fox cable cam

5/26/2013 8:20:50 PM

10 fans injured, 3 of those transported to the hospital for observation.

5/26/2013 8:43:21 PM

Hang it up mark.

5/26/2013 10:35:51 PM

is this the only sport where the spectators continuously get hurt ?

5/26/2013 10:41:04 PM

nope. soccer is much worse.

http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/explainer/2013/02/daytona_spectator_injuries_is_car_racing_the_most_dangerous_spectator_sport.html

5/26/2013 10:58:05 PM

Fox lawsuit?

5/26/2013 11:19:00 PM

Charlotte specifically has a stellar record of crowd injuries. This, the bridge, collapse, and the indy crash. Not to mention the drivers that have died on the track.

5/27/2013 1:56:43 AM

I think that's what drawls them in

5/27/2013 7:48:27 PM