2022 NASCAR THREAD

But who do you pick on 9/11/22?

 

#11 car

 

4-Time Cup Winner Stat Comparison

With Sunday’s win, Austin Dillon joins a host of eighteen other Cup drivers tied for 87th on the all-time win list. Austin managed this feat in 319 starts. Here is how some other 4-time winners fared on their march to four wins:

• Micheal Waltrip: 563 starts
• Joe Nemechek: 352
• Morgan Shepherd: 327
• Austin Dillon: 319
• Bobby Hamilton: 310
• Ken Schrader: 189
• William Byron: 152
• Charlie Glotzbach: 88
• Pete Hamilton: 57

 

What sucks about Austin is that only one of his wins was legit where he had a car deserving of the win. Both wins at Daytona were due to half the field wrecking and Austin making some extremely aggressive moves that are frowned upon at those speeds. And another was a fuel mileage race. I mean I feel for the kid because he seems like he has no identity and desperately wants to be validated but he just does not have the skillset to achieve. And it seems no one in the sport will call him out for it. I mean he is a subpar performer in the car and its not like he can work to help run the team because it appears he is extremely uneducated and perhaps might even have a learning disability. I watched the first couple of episodes of his reality show and went from disliking him to actually feeling bad for the guy. He gave a beginning of the year speech to RCR and was using words that do not exist multiple times. He is simply put, stupid. As grandma would say "oh, bless his heart".

 

Idk, I still consider fuel mileage a win and kind of miss seeing those races, to an extent. However, I'll definitely agree with you on Daytona. Skill and car setup are pretty irrelevant when half the field gets taken out by one person's mistake (or other reason). Winning at Talladega and Daytona is all about luck.

 

#51 Jeremy Clements has forfeited his Xfinity win following an L2 penalty. Forfeited playoff wise anyway.

 

Winning a fuel mileage race has nothing to do with the skill of the driver in most cases. That is what we are discussing.

 

It does. Not in the traditional sense, but you're still the fastest to the finish since you were able to successfully navigate your gas remaining and still remain ahead of your competitors.

 

Yeah and the monkey turning the wheel has little to do with that. One might say it takes more luck to win a fuel mileage race than in a super speedway. Normally it’s because you are off cycle and cautions fall your way. I mean you can respect him all you want but fuel mileage race wins are because crew chiefs and engineers call a race and gets some breaks. Hell they normally tell the driver where to lift and how much throttle to use. Not a lot of skill required by a driver for that.

 

First off: it's a team sport. Secondly, the crew chiefs are not telling the drivers where to lift on each lap. That's on the driver's, especially considering the competition could easily hear that as well. So, yes, the monkey turning the wheel has a lot to do with that. And yes, that takes skill. You have to outrun your competition and be the first to the finish, or even push your competition to finish off their stuff before you do.

 

Dude! The teams have telemetry and they without a doubt tell them when to lift and when to get into the gas. The spotter maintains the gap so yeah, I could win a race turning lap times several seconds off the pace. I mean if you want to argue that’s cool but why die on Austin Dillons hill man. I mean all the stats and data prove he sucks.

Also teams don’t need to listen to what they say on the radio though they all do. They can see the real-time data from the other cars. You do know these teams have war rooms with strategist and people listening to all the radio traffic back at the shops right? Do you think the driver is doing anything beyond exactly what he is told to do? He is not! The drivers not saying “hey crew chief, it’s cool I saved 5 gallons so I’m just staying out”. No, the crew chief tells him when and where to save and when to go. In those races with a few exceptions it’s nothing to do with the driver. I mean sure he gets the win but he is along for the ride and not because he was fast.

Are you a closet AD fan bro?

 

I'm aware of all that. I just disagree that there is no skill on the driver's part in fuel savings. That's just asinine. Ultimately the driver is driving the car. The crew may tell him he needs to save more and make him aware of gaps, but ultimately they're not driving the car.

 

Oh, bless your heart! Dude, they are literally looking at telemetry and saying lift now, get back in the gas now. Now go part throttle. Now go balls out. He is not saving fuel on a gut feeling. As I said, there are exceptions. KH has had some races where he saved more than the team thought he could. Brad did it a few times in the 2. Back in the day it was much like you described though they normally had a reserve hidden in the car somewhere so there is that. But at the end of the day. OKAY, I will give you his win in the Coke 600 and the fuel mileage race he won. He is only 50% shitty. 50% of the time AD is a shit driver 100% of the time.

 

The lone high point of this weekend of trash racing. Dang.

 

One month until Talladega. I hope the weather cooperates this year. It sucked driving all that way last year, setting up camp, sleeping through rain, sitting through fog & more rain, watching the track dry, cars take pace laps, then park them. Drove back to Georgia with the grumpiest of kids.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CUlOPmJgRp0/

 

Not as much as you think. And I'm not even arguing about AD at this point; just fuel mileage in general. Again, it's ultimately in the driver's hands. Telemetry helps, but it's also slightly delayed (a split second or so, but still). It's also a team sport. Arguing that you won on fuel mileage is a fluke makes about as much sense as saying a guy took two tires at the direction of his crew chief and won because of it is also a fluke. It's a team sport, but the driver is ultimately driving the car. You just have to be first to the finish line. It's not the same as somehow avoiding the melee that comes with each Daytona and Talladega demolition derby.

 

My point is that in a fuel mileage race any driver in the field should be able to win that race as it is done on strategy much more so than skill. Lets use Jimmy Johnson for instance. Not trying to take anything away from Jimmy as he was able to drive a car much looser than most but the majority of the success the 48 team had hinged much more on the shoulders of CK than that of JJ. Chad gave Jimmy the best car and called the correct strategy more often than not. This was successful because JJ was smart enough to listen to CK and do what he was told. To the point to where CK would tell JJ what line to take on the track much of the time. No doubt drivers like Kyle Busch, Larson and others makes up for a lot when you are flat out trying to get the most out of any car. However, driving around off the pace trying to win a race on strategy in not nearly the same thing. And yes when a crew chief makes a call to advance a driver such as taking two tires and that driver advances positions he was unable to gain prior to on the track without the call, the credit for the benefit or gain is due to the strategy and the person not driving the car. Everyone starts the race on an even playing field. Lets say you advance to 10th place and run in 10th all day. Then on the last round of stops you get a lucky caution and two tires and come out in 1st and the race ends under caution. That does not mean you are the best driver and had the best car. It means you were lucky and happened to be the SOB sitting in the driver seat when it ended!

If you and I line up at a stop light in the equal vehicles and both go balls out to the best of our ability to the next light and you arrive before I do then it is a safe assumption that you are in fact better than me. Now, if we run the same race and I decide to do a burnout and cut donuts in the middle of the road and you arrive at the finish line before I do. You still win but that does not prove that you are more capable than I am. Just that I took a different approach and hence lost the race. Now in Austin Dillon's case lets say we had run this race heads up 100 times and I kicked you ass 97 times. Then when I decide to do donuts and fuck off for a race do you think people would think you and I were equal? Doubtful. People would say, oh he lost but because he did donuts at midtrack, not because you were faster or more talented though you won the race. A fuel mileage race proves nothing of a driver other than that drivers ability to listen and have the discipline to be slow. And yes it is a team sport to an extent. Hence I do not know why you are arguing that some wins are credited more to the TEAM and others to the DRIVER. Fuel mileage falls into that team category for me and hence supports my theory that AD has only one valid win to where he as a driver was deserving of the win on that given day.

Furthermore if you and I are driving the same route over 100 miles and I decide to drive as fast as I am capable of driving and you drive the speed limit but you gamble that I will get pulled over and be slowed down by getting speeding tickets. And that happens and you arrive before I do, I would argue that this proves nothing about your ability to drive a car better than I. It might prove that you are of a superior intellect but you are inherently gambling on something to happen outside of your control to allow you to be successful and thus are either smarter or luckier than I. It could go either way, hence its a gamble and cannot be judged as a contest of skill though in this scenario you are the victor.

Hence when a driver that wins a fuel mileage race gets out of the car he normally says. I have to give the credit to my crew, we did not have the best car but the strategy allowed us to win. At the end of the day you and I are of a difference of opinion as we typically are. And are simply jabbing back and forth for our own entertainment and that of others in this thread. It is what it is. You have every right to be wrong and I respect your right to exercise it as you so often do! LOL... Also, FUCK YOU MAN! JK.

Seriously, have a good day man.

 

According to door, bumper clear RCR is aggressively going after KB. I mean you have to take the source with a grain of salt but it would make sense if RC was willing to pay him. RCR had all the success because RC was willing to pay the best driver and best crew and build the best cars for so long. Then they stopped doing that and this current mid tier team is the product. If he wants to succeed again he is going to have to spend some money and invest in the talent behind the wheel and in the shop.

 

i've heard that as well. I guess they could run 3 cars for a year and then KB takes over the 8 in 2024. I do think Chevy may be his new ride, either way. Kaulig still has play too.

At this point, if he stays at JGR it'll be a shock.

 

The 9 paint scheme for Darlington

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Ch2O_rhDCaH/?igshid=NmNmNjAwNzg=

…and the story behind it. Pretty cool!

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Ch7jwxAji0Y/?igshid=NmNmNjAwNzg=