Official NASCAR Thread

[Elephant]

Joey reminds me of Kahne. Kahne was so over hyped when he came in, they said he would be the next Jeff Gordon.... Joey is the same way, everyone thought he would be the greatest thing since sliced bread, ohh wait that was what thye used to call him! I guess he isn't sliced bread anymore!

One of the main reasons I am not a Dale Jr. fan. All the hype surrounding him when he entered NASCAR and he is an average driver at best.

I am not a Logano, Hamlin or Busch fan. I am JGR fan. If it came down to an individual driver, it would have to be Denny Hamlin or Carl Edwards. Sorry Mike, I know HH is gonna play into that one.

We'll see how Logano turns out, he's only what, 19? I am generally not one to buy into hype when a rookie enters a sport and is touted like the next whomever, LeBron James comes to mind. They need to prove themselves first!

However, I will always root for JGR, even when they run a damn Toyota instead of Ford or Chevy, preferably Ford. Logano is a member of that team, so I will root for him, Kyle too.

 

[riggins44]

I wish I could be a JGR fan, but too much a loyal Ford fan. Fan of the Blue Oval and not so much the individual drivers. My NASCAR loyalty is like my Redskin fandom...I support a team and whoever is on that team.

 

[Elephant]

yeah, me too. Its the Great American Race to me and as shallow as that sounds I hate the fact that foreign products run so much of this country and refuse to root for one in NASCAR. Joe Gibbs has always been a pioneer when it comes to breaking down walls in the sport but he went too far this time. I actually tell my friends I root against him..

I hear you guys, and I know a few who will not watch NASCAR at all anymore because of Toyota. I just can't find myself rooting for any other team.

As a kid, I vaguely remember when Dale Sr. came into NASCAR. If I remember correctly, there was a Sunday Night prime time race that had Bobby Allison squeeze out a victory against the Wrangler Chevy on the last lap as they came around turn 4. I really liked racing, but lost interest throughout the latter part of the 80's.

In the early 90's when Joe became an owner, I watched when Dale Jarret won the Daytona 500 in the JGR car. I was hooked and got real involved in NASCAR again. Although my interest has wained over the past 10 years, I have kept up with the standings and watched some races throughout the year, especially when Homestead became so important at the end of the year. I had the pleasure of attending Tony's first Championship in the #20 Home Depot car, scoring enough points to win over Mark Martin at Homestead.

I was not a fan of the switch to Toyota. I was disappointed that JGR chose to race in a foreign car, but we are talking about Joe Gibbs!

 

[Lanky Livingston]

Question: I accidentally caught the beginning of the race on Sunday, and heard some guy give a prayer before the race over the loud speaker. Is this common for NASCAR races?

 

[riggins44]

Not only do they say a prayer before each race, but no races on Easter or Mother's Day.

 

[Lanky Livingston]

Thanks for the responses. Not something you see (at least addressed to the spectators) in other sports, so I was curious.

 

[Burgundy Burner]

Haven't posted any insider info so far this year - not much to report, until now. Got off the phone with my usual source and he had some interesting news to share. Here it is...

Jr. Motorsports will be moving to Cup next year and Mark Martin will be the driver. Go Daddy will follow him to the new ride, but Jr. was not able to get the #8 from Teresa. There will be a licensing and technical agreement with HMS. No other details other than an announcement and/or press conference will happen on Saturday morning in Martinsville. I'll post any updates if more stuff becomes known.

Some other news...

Greg Biffle is close to getting an extension with RFR.

Speaking of Mark Martin, he will be making his 800th start in Cup racing this weekend.

After the first practice this afternoon in Marty, here are the fastest (top three) racers...

Kyle Busch
Joey Logano
Kevin Harvick

 

[Burgundy Burner]

Carl Edwards flies with the Thunderbirds.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYoxqEnHVNA&feature=related[/media]

And to give equal time - here is Dale, Jr. flying with the Blue Angels.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eda2LTRA1UU[/media]

 

[Elephant]

man, dale Jr is really MY driver. Skins fan...navy boy..good ol boy.

whats not to like?

Don't wanna battle over this, I like Dale Jr., but I think he is over rated.

 

[Burgundy Burner]

Well, my Jr. April Fool's trick acted like a lead balloon.

Anyway...

I have been sworn to extreme secrecy, but can tell you that there will be crew chief changes coming this week. Yes, "changes" as in more than one.

Edited to add that Trevor Bayne is in the hospital with either a tick or spider bite.

 

[riggins44]

I enjoyed the race. Does me good to see the Ford's dominate. Just waiting for the rule change to slow them down.

 

[Burgundy Burner]

Speaking of short tracks, Nascar is thinking of adding a 1/8 mile track on the schedule. It would look like the video below. The cars appear on the track at the 1:30 mark. Yeah, this would be fun.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_AqvWKjufM[/media]

 

[Burgundy Burner]

Hearing that the 20 and 11 teams at JGR could change crew chiefs sometime very soon or within the next few weeks.

 

[Elephant]

Great story watching Smith win last night! HH, your driver Carl is one class act for sure!

Unlike my guy over at JGR, but I love how things went down between Kyle and Harvick last night! I have to admit up front it went a little too far, Kyle should have let up before shoving Harvick down the track, but Harvick really deserved retaliation of some sort. He tried to bully his way past Kyle on the restart and got up into Kyle, then after Kyle recovered Harvick got up into his ass end. The unfortunate part of their battle was Bowyer trying to get past on the bottom. He made a good run to move past them, but not good enough.

I know it seemed Kyle ran like a little girl in the Pits after the race, but I like what he did. Harvick acted like the bad ass going after Kyle after he blocked his escape, but Kyle just shoved Harvick's car into the wall, adding insult to injury.

 

[Elephant]

kyle turned left TWICE to wreck him and then miraclously drove straight off...lol

that was awesome though all the way around. and believe me, it aint over.

Yeah, we'll see what Harvick's got. If it was me, Kyle would be in the wall at the Monster Mile. But, since it's Harvick, he won't have the guts to try anything more than antagonize Kyle and I wouldn't be a bit surprised to see Harvick end up in the wall again trying to walk the fine line between payback and heading the words of NASCAR officials.

Everyone's talking about how much they hate Kyle, last night I earned a newfound respect for him. Kid's got no problem standing up for himself on the track. It would have been fun to see him get out and fight last night, but he obviously knows his limitations. Instead of getting beat up, he made Harvick look stupid!

 

[Burgundy Burner]

Just watch the replays...

http://www.nascar.com/video/post-race/final-laps/110508/cup-dar-high-final/index.html

The culprit was Harvick, pure and simple. Notice the first contact off of turn two. Kyle has a run on the inside and Kevin suddenly turns left - down on Kyle. With four laps to go, it is a fair move - but it was instigated by Harvick.

With that strong momentum, Kyle goes ahead of Kevin - cleanly. Then, Kevin takes a shot in turn three from behind. It gets Kyle loose and as Kyle gathers it back, he and Kevin are side by side exiting turn four. At the same time, Clint Bowyer makes it three wide. Kyle is pinned against the wall and has no where else to go. Kyle and Kevin get together due to the choice that Bowyer made. The wreck occurs - Clint essentially took himself out - it was his choice go three wide off of turn four at Darlington. That is always a recipe for disaster at The Lady in Black.

At that point, any driver who has been hit three times (after making a clean pass) has every right to retaliate. As soon as I saw what happened to Bowyer, I knew Kyle was going to retaliate. Does it even things out? Maybe - maybe not. But a retaliation was in order. Sr. would've done it. Ricky would've done it. Rusty. Jarrett. Gordon. And Kevin.

On to the pits...

If you go to the end of the video, you will notice what has become a typical Kevin Harvick theme of retaliation over the years. He waited to personally attack KB and made sure that his team was there. Yeah, ten guys against one is certainly fair - right? Can't blame KB for doing what he did, but NASCAR will probably issue a penalty against the 18 team - it did happen on pit road. But hey, ten against one never favors the one.

Again, this is a Kevin Harvick way of doing things. Harvick made sure his team was around back in 2000 when he attacked Greg Biffle. Kevin made sure his team was there when he went after Ricky Rudd in 2003. Last year at Pocono, Kevin made sure his team was between himself and Joey Logano. Last night - yep, wait for the team to be around, THEN get out of the car.

What will happen - both teams at Dover will be given their typical lectures. The 18 team faces a possible penalty for forcing a car aside on pit road.

What should happen - tell both teams at Dover that they are staring at a final warning. No penalties. NASCAR should realize that ten against one never favors the one. By the time they were on pit road, KB lost reverse gear (NASCAR confirmed it after tearing the car down and fully inspecting it).

Looking at message boards last night - most were against KB. Today - it has gone to 50-50 after people have begun to realize what truly went down. There will always be a large contingent against KB no matter the circumstances. That's fine, but when one looks at it realistically, the culprit was clearly KH.

 

[Burgundy Burner]

Yeah, we'll see what Harvick's got. If it was me, Kyle would be in the wall at the Monster Mile. But, since it's Harvick, he won't have the guts to try anything more than antagonize Kyle and I wouldn't be a bit surprised to see Harvick end up in the wall again trying to walk the fine line between payback and heading the words of NASCAR officials.

Everyone's talking about how much they hate Kyle, last night I earned a newfound respect for him. Kid's got no problem standing up for himself on the track. It would have been fun to see him get out and fight last night, but he obviously knows his limitations. Instead of getting beat up, he made Harvick look stupid!

Imho, nothing will happen at Dover. People were talking about how Newman and Montoya could have another go of it at Darlington. It's like I told others - that is over and done. It will be the same thing here. It's over and done. Behind the scenes, NASCAR will make sure that nothing is happening for quite some time. That's just the way it is. What happened at Darlington will stay at Darlington. Ditto for Richmond.

I don't know if what happened last night makes me like or respect Kyle in addition to the like and respect that was already there, but he was in a no win situation. Harvick's crew was converging on the scene and KB's crew was still two or three minutes away (they were at the other end of pit road, packing up the gear when things started). I don't condone creating an accident on pit road, but Kyle had no other choice.

Again, nothing is going to happen other than some interesting rhetoric. It's over. Time to move on. I have. Dover is up and that is a fun track.

 

[Burgundy Burner]

Doubtful. Just looking at Kerry Tharp's quotes from earlier today confirms nothing will come of it. On to Dover.

 

[Elephant]

I knew Harvick and Kyle had past issues, but I had forgotten the specifics...Homestead last year. This is far from over. It may not happen next week at Dover, even though I think something will, but it is far from over.

 

[Burgundy Burner]

Look for a $25K fine for both drivers and four weeks of probation. Probably will be announced this afternoon.

Good to see that NASCAR took into account that KH was the overall culprit and that KB pushing a competitor's car down pit road was technically wrong.

On to Dover.