2017 Nascar Thread

Do you have access to a roster of the drivers racing in it along with teams?

 

So what is the Kurt Busch deal? Someone with more knowledge can explain what they mean with declining his option? Is that basically saying they are in the process of negotiating terms?

 

He is a free agent now, my guess Kenseth in the 41 and he's in the 77 with monster sponsor since the 77 team could get financial help, if not that then 27 next best currently

 

But SHR said he'd be there next year?

 

Yea, and SHR could pick him up as a free agent. Or he could sign with furniture row with the 77 as he could bring Monster with him although Monster hasn't said anything. Kenseth has dollar general he could bring to the 77 team, so right now I think the outlook is great for a 77 car seeing as two past champions have sponsors that could come with them and help the 77 car be able to run next year. Right now, Danica only has a few races covered with sponsors so she potentially could be out at SHR next year, as well as Khane could be out if they don't pick up the option on those drivers and they become free agents as well. This may be the silliest season ever as far as I can remember.

 

Kenseth only has DeWalt. Dollar general got out of NASCAR. I hope Danica is done and SHR signs Kurt again, although having Kyle and Kurt in the same equipment would also be fine by me

 

haha my bad, dollar general is def. gone and Dewalt replaced. Sorry bout that. Either way, Kenseth can bring sponsorship is my point. Yea its gonna be wild seeing how all this plays out, this year is a huge game of chess.

 

Shit, pull Kenseth to the 10, and bye Danica.

 

Honestly, the past several weeks Danica has been running consistent top 15s and 20s, best of her career. She has been involved in some unfortunate accidents while running good which wasn't her fault but I have been more impressed with her this year than any other time. She isn't running SHR good but she is running good for her. I don't care if she is out of Nascar either way though.

 

Yeah, top rides should be for top drivers. She can help small teams with $$$ and run her usual shit and no one would notice a difference

 

I've been impressed with Michael McDowell, Gray Gaulding this year as well, especially McDowell. That kid is driving the wheels off his equipment.

 

Watch closer, McDowell has caused alot of wrecks he didn't suffer any consequence in. ESPECIALLY Daytona. His top finishes were Ill gotten

 

Not off-hand, but the cars look cool as hell. Harry Gant, Jack INgram, and Ned Jarrett will be there too.



Josh Berry had the best debut with their throwback TNN style promo:

 

Gaulding is out. His dad has been late on payments and is now behind over a million to the team owner.

 

More on Kurt Busch:
Looks like SHR is letting the option expire to negotiate a lower driving fee. Having Kenseth in the silly season means Kurt is not top dawg. SHR is forcing Kurt's hand to take a lower deal to stay in the 41 rather than go fishing for another ride.

https://pilotonline.com/sports/auto...cle_9afe6a8c-5244-526f-92aa-ecbc5b27d158.html

 

Makes sense, even though for program development he brings way more to the table than Danica, and he has a win where Bowyer doesn't, and Harvick is only at 1, so this seems like they are trying to shaft him

 

Yeah, but Danica isn't in a contract year, so her job status has no correlation to his job status. Next year is her final contract year. It's a first year in a new manufacturer. As much as NASCAR has tried to make these cars spec racers, there's still engineering differences and adjustments to be made. The factory has their own engineers the drivers have to learn to work with. Kurt has previous Ford experience. That one win of his was a fluke as you'd call it, since it was a fuel mileage win. He fell into that. Kurt's a decent driver. He's always going to be in or around the top-10, but, like Kahne, Kenseth, and many others, he's past his prime for modern NASCAR. Guys used to hit their prime around 39 years old in NASCAR, but post-Jeff Gordon, the entire sport has changed. On the business side, it is much more like F1 than the folksy, blue-collar, every-man drivers of old. Now you have to be young, relatively good-looking, with a sponsor or daddy's money behind you.

I did a comparison chart several years ago comparing modern veteran drivers (Kurt & Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton, Bobby Labonte, Dale Jarrett, Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin) and their yearly stats. The norm is a rise and fall in competition over 15-20 years. Modern drivers tend to peak around their fourth-seventh seasons before competition settles and they eventually fade. The modern era has had some wild outliers such as Tony Stewart, and Jimmie Johnson who blasted through the sport with unreal stats. Dale Jarrett was the last old-school driver who earned his way up the ranks driving crap for years before getting quality rides, and later, crap again (MWR). For the modern era, generally, when a driver has reached a point of Arrival, where he's proven himself to his senior racers, or his ego gets the best of him, they tend to taper off in checkered flags. Look at Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick since they won the Cup championship. Heck, Brad Keselowski too. They achieved their goal; climbed the mountain, and now their brains can't reset and do it all again. Bill Elliott was the same too. After '88 he had a few solid runs, but dismal production numbers until his late 40's.

Speaking of Bill, I'm headed to Dawsonville in a few minutes to check out Atlanta Motorsports Park, the Georgia Racing HoF, and the Dawsonville Pool Room for lunch.

 

I wouldn't say KB or KH don't have the mind to do it again... They still have a chance at it. Question becomes who could replace Kurt? Not many yet.

 

Shiiiiiiiitt

 

Sad. Nascar is also pretty close to pretty much banning cup regulars in Xfinity, which means less sponsorship in the series due to sponsors not willing to take a risk on unknown driver vs. cup driver. The downfall continues. Maybe it will fall so hard it goes back to actual stock cars.