Daytona does not compare to what the IRL does at indy. Daytona is the a buildup to the start of a season, its 1 points paying race. The IRL is a dead series that only gets on TV in May, so they have now added a second race at Indy and this retarded qualifying setup.

They changed the layout because they decided to move the showdown to Friday, in some vain attempt to get a nice showing at the truck race. I was solidly asleep before the green flag thanks to the boring qualifying.

5/19/2014 9:04:50 AM

Quote :

"Daytona does not compare to what the IRL does at indy."

(IRL is as dead as Winston Cup. Keep up with the times brother.)

Justify the Thursday races. The Twin 125s along with Bump Day used to be highlights of my racing year, and they've both become meaningless.


while I'm here, Jack Brabham died yesterday, was F1 world champion in 1959, 1960, and 1966

[Edited on May 19, 2014 at 10:35 AM. Reason : /]

5/19/2014 10:18:06 AM

Quote :

"In NASCAR's case they took something from the past that would work perfectly fine for the format of the All-Star Race now and change it for no reason. Why are there 4 20-lap segments? What's wrong with segment 1, invert x many, segment 2, pit if you want, then 10-lap trophy dash?"

That was my favorite format, easily the most memorable "The Winston" races...Earnhardt, Kyle Petty, and Davey Allison 3wide on the last lap, with Allison winning and crashing...the fans voted on how many to invert, and they ALWAYS voted to invert as many as possible. The current format is just a 90 lap race with a bunch of pre-planned cautions...BORING.

Now that its obviously not working, heres two options to fix it:
1) Only the Top X drivers proceed to the following segment. Gives the drivers a reason to actually race hard the entire race.
2). Move the damn thing somewhere else. Charlotte is BORING. Its convenient for the drivers to stay at home for a weekend, but its BORING. It was initially designed to be at different tracks every year, but that didnt happen. Bristol is the obvious choice. Martinsville wouldnt be bad either...and Eldora would be fantastic. Qualify via heat races, invert the field, have some fun with it...right now what you have is a boring race that means jack shit.

5/19/2014 3:07:01 PM

^

yep, in my ideal world they run all star race on dirt. would be the tits if they trucked in a bunch of dirt to bristol and ran it on dirt. it has been done before for other series.

5/19/2014 5:03:42 PM

I agree with "move the All-Star Race". Perfect race for Bristol. But Charlotte/Concord didn't want that to happen of course.

Quote :

"That was my favorite format, easily the most memorable "The Winston" races...Earnhardt, Kyle Petty, and Davey Allison 3wide on the last lap, with Allison winning and crashing..."

I have a poster of that race. There was some guy named Dave Mader in it. I know racing guys plenty but I have no clue who he is.

Kurt Busch crashed at Indy today. He's fine. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG-NdMS1Imw

[Edited on May 19, 2014 at 6:07 PM. Reason : /]

5/19/2014 6:02:57 PM

1991 was the last year Elliott drove the #9 for Melling. That was the year they switched from Coor's to Coor's Light for the sponsorship and the car was blue instead of red. They won the Daytona 500, but that was the only win that year. That put them in the '92 Winston. Elliott left to drive for Junior Johnson. Melling had a few different drivers in '92 and Mader ran the Winston.

Melling and the seat of the #9 went on to see such talent as Chad Little, Greg Sacks, Jerry Nadeau, etc. In 2001, 10 years after Elliott left, they gave up the #9 for #92 because Evernham and Elliott wanted it for their new Dodges. Melling swapped to Dodges and got help from Evernham in return for giving up the number. Stacy Compton drove the #92 in '01 with a guy who used to work for Evernham when he was crew chief for the #24, Chad Knaus, on top of the pit box. The next year, Knaus went back to Hendrick to be crew chief for their new #48 and a rookie named Jimmie Johnson.

[Edited on May 19, 2014 at 7:42 PM. Reason : fafds]

[Edited on May 19, 2014 at 7:44 PM. Reason : dafs]

5/19/2014 7:40:50 PM

Melling's a team that just got lost as NASCAR transformed in the '90s.


Apologize for my Indycar spamming, last one for the week I promise. But if you know who Derek Daly is (Irish ex-F1/Indycar driver/TV commentator now based in Indianapolis), James Hinchcliffe does the best impression of him you'll ever hear. http://www.theindychannel.com/sports/indycar/video-james-hinchcliffe-takes-on-derek-daly

[Edited on May 19, 2014 at 8:41 PM. Reason : /]

5/19/2014 8:41:04 PM

The most notable thing the post-Elliott Melling team did was get in some kind of trouble while sporting the Cartoon Network colors with Scooby Doo on the hood. The booth announcers threw it down to one of the pit reporters to see what happened and he immediately said "Ruh roh!"

5/19/2014 9:55:28 PM

and i was wrong in my earlier post. Elliott's win in '91 for Melling that put Mader in the Winston was at Daytona, but it was the Firecracker 400, not the 500.

5/19/2014 10:15:54 PM

Somebody needs to tell Kurt Busch that you "DO NOT ATTEMPT TO CATCH A INDY CAR WHEN IT GOES TO SPIN OUT". He was real close to Gordon Smiley'ing himself all over the turn two wall.

5/20/2014 12:14:46 PM

that's gonna be a hard habit for a stock car driver to break

5/20/2014 4:22:06 PM

HOF 2015 class: Bill Elliott, Wendell Scott, Joe Weatherly, Rex White, Fred Lorenzen and Josh Wise

5/21/2014 5:33:35 PM

glad Bill made it in, happy for him. Lookin forward to the Nationwide race on Saturday. I'm gonna be at Qualifying and the race with my wife and parents. Really hoping the #9 comes across the finish line first, but if not, a solid top 5 would be great.

5/22/2014 10:06:46 AM

So Charlotte didn't sell any tickets in turn 2 tower for the 600. That tower is the best bargain in racing, you can see the entire track, and its cheap.

5/22/2014 1:10:44 PM

well that sucks balls, that's where I was planning on sitting Sunday. last year my friends and i just got the cheapest tickets we could all scalp right before the race and found a good spot for 8 of us since it wasn't exactly packed.

hopefully they're not planning on to tarp the entire turn 2 section, because this year's plan was going to be very similar to last year.

5/22/2014 2:32:52 PM

Their plan as far as I can tell is to try and push everyone into the front stretch to make it look like a "sell out"

5/22/2014 2:56:59 PM

N.C. State student Jarett Andretti (John's son) finished 16th in the Hoosier Hundred last night for USAC Silver Crown cars.

5/23/2014 8:26:17 AM

its amazing, I went to the 600 in 1998 and the entire front stretch, turn two and backstretch was jam packed, sold out. Now they can't even sell out the front stretch. Crazy

5/23/2014 1:24:58 PM

imagine if you'd told folks 20 years ago that getting Bristol tickets wouldn't require years on a waiting list...

5/23/2014 1:59:45 PM

never been to CMS before. where is the best place to park? does it matter?

5/23/2014 7:42:06 PM

it's a long, hot, miserable walk no matter where you park.

they do have some old school buses they will haul you in. they're packed with sweaty, drunk rednecks and smell accordingly.

[Edited on May 23, 2014 at 7:49 PM. Reason : asfd]

5/23/2014 7:47:21 PM

figured. won some suite tickets to the race tomorrow so I'll be going for my first race ever

5/23/2014 7:52:24 PM

i always recommend getting a scanner and listening to different teams' communications. adds another level to the experience.

5/23/2014 7:56:17 PM

yep I was planning on it. Fanvision worth it or no?

5/23/2014 8:00:43 PM

i've never tried it, but i always thought it was dumb. CMS has big jumbotrons for replays. watch the race, not a tiny tv.

[Edited on May 23, 2014 at 8:06 PM. Reason : but i have my own scanner i take]

5/23/2014 8:01:55 PM

ok cool, thanks. I'm looking forward to it.

5/23/2014 8:07:41 PM

I may be getting a scanner tomorrow for the Nationwide race. Never fooled with them before, but i'd love to have one.

5/24/2014 12:03:21 AM

Since you are going to Charlotte, I'd pass on fan vision. "If I wanted to watch the tv broadcast I'd stay home and do it". Charlotte has a HUGE tv on backstretch that shows the tv broadcast. Get a scanner amd listen to drivers and prn.

5/24/2014 7:13:42 AM

congrats to Bayne for getting a full time cup ride in the #6 cup car for Roush. the chances of both biffle and edwards going back to roush now seams slimmer....

5/24/2014 11:10:50 AM

Who's idea was it to run the nationwide race in the middle of the day? Night races are better for fans, ain't nothing like sitting in the sun for 4 hours getting cooked.

5/24/2014 3:41:35 PM

back before the early '90s, very few tracks had lights, but races were still sold out and the stands were packed with fans who were more than willing to get baked by the sun because the racing was worth watching.

5/24/2014 4:19:34 PM

There is a name for those sort of people.

5/24/2014 4:34:00 PM

personally, I like double file restarts, BS yellows, wave a rounds, lucky dogs to keep more cars in hunt. 30 years ago there was often only a few cars on the lead lap

5/24/2014 4:39:00 PM

Quote :

"30 years ago there was often only a few cars on the lead lap"

and the racing was still better

5/24/2014 5:18:15 PM

I think HD TV and climbing ticket prices are why the stands are half full. At home I can watch 10 laps, take a 3 hour nap and watch the end.

5/25/2014 6:17:53 AM

maybe if there was actually anything worth watching in the middle you'd watch it all

5/25/2014 9:07:26 AM

Yep, that logic is why I'm not going to Charlotte today. I pretty much slept through the last race there. Drivers are saying the cars are twitchy in traffic, and there is no speedup high. Gonna be 600 miles of follow the leader.

5/25/2014 9:40:20 AM

Indy sucks. Awful track to see a race

5/25/2014 1:26:04 PM

What's your problem with Indy?

5/25/2014 3:25:08 PM

i don't watch IRL regularly, but i watched the end of today's race. sure seems like it's way too easy for those cars to just pass on command.

5/25/2014 3:26:59 PM

That was my first IRL (cough) race since Dan Wheldon. It wasn't a bad race.

My problem with indy is the way its built, if you look at the grandstands, you are watching tv/nothing for most of the lap. Unless you are up high in turns 3 or 4. Also Indy is great for follow the leader "racing"

5/25/2014 3:33:58 PM

Great finish

5/25/2014 3:34:16 PM

I took a nap from lap 110 until the three wide crash. Now I'm all energized to sleep through 3/4 of the Coke 600.

5/25/2014 3:37:19 PM

^^^its that way for most all of the tracks > 1.5 miles in length. Pocono, Daytona, Talladega...same thing.

Good finish. I'll never go to a race in Indy/Pocono/Daytona/Talladega because when I go to a race, I like watching the whole race...not 1/10th of it.

Went to the Nationwide race in Charlotte yesterday. Of course the first race I go to to cheer Chase Elliott in...he brakes something in the right front and tears his car up .

5/25/2014 5:55:02 PM

GO DANICA GO GIRL

5/25/2014 6:25:37 PM

hendrick engines coming un-put-together tonight

5/25/2014 9:25:27 PM

Only the ones they sold to Stewart.


I don't know which Busch brother has the hotter woman.

[Edited on May 25, 2014 at 9:41 PM. Reason : fuck it its movie time]

5/25/2014 9:29:39 PM

another hendrick engine bites the dust

5/25/2014 9:44:12 PM

Here comes a debris caution

5/25/2014 10:11:44 PM

wooooo

[Edited on May 25, 2014 at 10:26 PM. Reason : 6-Time ftw]

5/25/2014 10:19:27 PM