2022 NASCAR THREAD

At least the day is not a total loss for watching auto racing ..... in an hour is the 62nd NHRA Winternationals final rds from Pomona CA !!!!!

 

Keselowski probably not attracting any new fans today

 

Mmmm Leah P…. Hottie. Lol

 

She's married to Tony Stewart !!!

 

Haaahaahaa right!!!!

 

https://pagesix.com/2021/03/19/nasc...-to-drag-racer-leah-pruett-with-massive-ring/

 

Al Gore invented the internet

 

Aw come on…he only wrecked two top runners

 

And that took out half the field.

 

I didn't get to watch a lap. With that winner and 2nd place car, I'm glad I didn't.

 

You didn't miss much, It was Actually A Lot of Wreckers and then the Checkers.

 

It's actually by design. The front and rear clips are expendable to keep the greenhouse/cockpit intact. Since each team only got 3 cars to start the season with it makes sense that they are modular. Now, if the greenhouse is intact, they can just bolt on a new front or rear end, replace some body panels, and be ready for the next race. With the old car if the chassis was too tweaked there wasn't much they could do to fix them.

 

I really like this aspect of the new cars. I thought it was cool how the rear diffuser has a little flap that will send air up into the trunk (to divert energy & blow out the rear deck lid) in order to keep the cars from getting airborne when turned backward. It kept Reddick from flipping.

 

Who does? But what's your reasoning?

 

I used to not mind him. Then someone got in his ear and told him he could benefit from a certain card he held, ever since then, I have no use for him. You are correct, he starts a bunch of shit, just to benefit from it.

 

I met with a racing collector last weekend who has covered racing from local bullrings to Cup for his entire journalism career. He had a ton of amazing stories about hanging out with the Pettys, Bakers, Allisons, Pearsons, Flocks, etc. He had the most incredible collection I've ever seen.

He shared a story about sitting with the Allisons at a local Georgia track a few weeks after Davey's '92 Pocono crash (when he was still recovering from his Charlotte All-star crash), and the death of his brother, Clifford. Davey's eyes were still bloodshot, his right arm in a sling, and he was sitting with his mom and dad, Judy & Bobby, signing autographs with his left hand. My friend asked "what the heck are you doing out here at this track? You've been through so much and need to rest & heal!" Mrs. Judy replied, "well we'd rather be out here with y'all than just sitting at home feeling sad."

And this is when it hit me about what made NASCAR and stock car racing different from other motorsports. Thinking back to the early European Grand Prix events, historically, motorsports was a playground for the wealthy (it still is). But, stock car racing, in its infancy, and well into the '90s was primarily manned by former ragtag bootleggers, war vets, and crazy backwoods goofballs. This is what made it different, and more accessible. It's what made blue-collar heroes like Earnhardt, Petty, Yarborough, and more.

Much of this is lost to modern racing and the modern fan. We have Richard Petty, who operates more as a symbol these days, and the Wood Brothers, who run a museum and outsource their day-to-day operation to Penske. There are a few legacy drivers & owners; Blaney, Burton, Hendrick, Childress, and the Dillons, by association, who carry the old guard torch. Gone are the days of riding over to some ramshackle shop to see some ol' local boys prepping a car to make a go of it against the big boys.

Ken Squier used to open every year's Daytona 500 coverage by saying "Daytona Speedway, where ordinary men do extraordinary things." It's not the case anymore. I'm not lamenting the change, merely reflecting and observing, and seeing how money changes everything, perhaps not for the better. Seeing how the concept of organic, grassroots movements have been co-opted as a marketing & PR tactic in advertising, politics, and more, it just seems irresponsible to consider modern NASCAR to be anything like it was in decades past.

This is why I don't look to modern drivers to be heroes. They're just kids, doing and saying what they are told in a confusing and fast-paced world. At 40 I don't have it all figured out. I don't expect them to have it all figured out. I'm not going to hold it over their heads if they say the wrong thing or don't have a well-formulated viewpoint. They're force-fed racing & PR management 24/7. It sucks, but this is sports entertainment.

 

This is one of the reasons I've been migrating more interest into sportscar racing. It is significantly more grassroots (even with major manufacturer backed teams). After a lifetime following NASCAR and peering through the fence into the garage area, freely walking into the paddock at VIR on race day back in 2011 or 2012 was kind of mind blowing. Stopping to chat with Boris Said as he was sitting next to his car waiting for the TC class races to finish, laughing at the line of hot moms getting autographs from Patrick Dempsey, meeting the guys from Spirit of Daytona Racing and ogling their prototype, being able to walk around, touch, and poke my head into the cars really made for a better fan connection. Same goes for the Rolex at Daytona. I had more access to drivers, teams, and vehicles as a spectator than I did as an employee with a hard card during any NASCAR event at Daytona.

 

you on IRACING?

 

I tried it a while back, but my computer couldn't handle it so I stuck with console racing. I was active online with the old Papyrus NASCAR games (through NR2003 with the Aero 88 and Project Wildfire truck series mods). Right now I travel so much that I don't have time to commit to any online racing, much less pay for a subscription. I do have Project Cars 2 and Assetto Corsa Competetizione on my gaming PC to scratch any racing itches that come along. My personal favorite is hopping into either the GT40 MK IV or Porsche 917LH for a time elapsed 24H at the vintage LeMans track. Something about ripping down the Mulsanne Straight at 220mph in the rain at night that is oddly soothing.

Back around 2011-2012 I was racing online with Forza Motorsport 3 and 4. Started out bombing around public lobbies, met up with a few guys that invited me to their sites and series, and within a month or two I was creating racing series, serving as either a moderator or admin on their sites, racing 5-6 nights a week in multiple series, then creating videos from the replays to recruit new drivers for all of the series I was racing in.

 

That’s cool. I been on Iracing for about 5 years now. I probably get on couple races each day. I love running the NASCARs