2023 NASCAR THREAD!!!

Kyle has come a long way. I think what transpired at JGR checked his ego a lot and that was needed. When Harvick is done he is about the last in the sport that will actually tell it like it is. And he does have that driver code that they all used to abide by. What is pathetic is seeing what Kyle is doing with the B team and what AD is doing with the 3. Richard needs to park Austin in an office beside his dad and hire another wheel man.

 

Agreed... Send Austin over to Spire to be with his brother and bring in Corey!

 

You don't think Hamlin tells it the way it is?

 

He does but he is also an owner now so that will keep him in check to some degree, much of what he says is to stir up shit to drive the masses to pressure NASCAR to sway them to a position that is advantageous for him. Plus he is just generally not liked and is known as someone who talks but when it comes down to it his actions prove him to pretty much be a pussy.

 

Ross needs to get punched in his big stupid lower lip once.

 

I've heard from a couple of sources that Lojoie is in line for the #21 next year. Nothing confirmed. I'm trying not to pry with my sources. Just keeping my ear to the rail. I don't see the connection. Zane Smith seems like the logical successor - in 2-3 years. It would be fitting if Smith; a California kid, like Gurney* won 100th race for the Wood Brothers.


*Gurney was born & raised in New York but moved to California as a teen and quickly embraced hot rod culture in the early 1950s.

 

I don't mind these tracks (way better than the Charlotte Roval or Indy Road Course) but I think ultimately why fans wanted this isn't so much that they wanted road courses. It's that they wanted variables and driver skill again at a time when the 550 package was used at most places and you basically held it wide open everywhere larger than Richmond. Road courses allowed for that to a degree.

 

I just want Lajoie to get a quality ride from someone. And he is way more marketable than a lot of these new guys. He has done well building his brand. On the flip side the 7 is starting to invest a little more and I could see that being a consistent top 10 car 75% of the time in the future also. If Lajoe was in decent equipment I would be pulling hard for him. I don't ditch drivers so I would still be a 9 fan but it would be a toss up. I like him a lot more as a person than I do Chase. Unfortunately if he goes to a ford he will be in the same bucket as the 12 for me. I don't mind seeing him win some but not to much!

 

hmmm, COTA is better than the Roval? Not sure about that one, but I can agree that the Indy RC needs to go.

 

Yes. At least COTA was designed as a road course and not shoehorned into an oval that wasn't designed for it.

 

I figured they started throwing a bunch of RC tracks in the schedule to get Chase Elliott more wins. Once it was evident that Chase was good at road racing, they started adding more of them. In the series, up to 2017 there were only two RC races, Sonoma and Watkins Glen. In 2018, they added an extra, that being the roval. Chase got his first win in 2018 at the glen, and added a couple oval wins also. The next year (2019) they stayed with the 3 RC tracks and Chase won two of them and Talladega, which anyone can win. In 2020, with covid, many tracks did not open so it was a random. They only had two RC races, and would you believe it, Chase would win both of them. He would also win Charlotte, Martinsville 2, Phoenix 2 and the championship in 2020. Then for some stupid reason, Nascar decided to have 7 RC races in 2021. Funny thing is Chase only won two of them which were his only wins of the year. In 2022, Nascar cut it down to six by removing the Daytona RC. With drivers like Reddick, Chastain, Larson that run well at the RC tracks, Chase was not able to win any of the RC races in 2022. Then again in 2023 Nascar has six RC races on the schedule.

From what I remember, everyone of the Nascar fans I knew hated road course racing. It was always boring and uneventful. This last race at COTA was no different. The only excitement was the end of the race and that got straight ridiculous at the end. Say what you will but I full believe that Nascar feels Chase Elliott is the savior. Much like Dale Jr. I will say, at least chase can win races on other tracks. Dale Jr's only hope was the plate tracks.

 

Fuck man, hate much? You should do a little research and look at Dales career in the 8 car when he was a threat at most every track. Dale has come right out and said he did not take the chances he should and he was scared at a lot of tracks. Had his dad not died in a car and he not taken some of the hard crashes and come close to burning to death in a Corvette his career would have come out much different. He was a two time Busch series champ where he absolutely dominated that series. Later in his career he did show more success at plate tracks because he and his dad had a massive fan base for them and that was his legacy so he actually gave a fuck and what do you know. He was successful. Love Jr or hate him, he no doubt carried the sport for a long time and does more for the grass roots racers than anyone currently.
As for Chase, a lot of the success he has had on road courses are all about the crew chief he has and his equipment. Chase is competitive everywhere and yes he does show that he has a great feel for road races, more so than others but not as much in this new car as it leveled the playing field a lot with the larger tires and much larger brakes. The driving aspect that Chase enjoyed in the last get car was that he could drive deeper in the braking zones and simply pushed harder than others. As was evident at the COTA monsoon race where his car was airborne more than it was planted. He was simply willing to take more risk and was more comfortable than others. As for NASCAR adding tracks or styles of racing to assist in Chases success. Come the fuck on, hate all you want but he is in the best equipment and is actually a top 10 talent. NASCAR is not pandering to make him successful, he is just in the right position to do it. NASCAR is adding road courses for one reason, ratings and the feedback they get along with how much money they make. They see the success and popularity of F1 after drive to survive came out and they emulated that docuseries trying to cash in on it. How do you pull some of those fans, emulate the racing and go to one of the tracks they go to. Not to mention this new car is practically and IMSA car and is better suited to be on a RC opposed to a 1.5 oval. Chase Elliott and his success does not factor into the decisions that NASCAR makes. He is the most popular driver so they are going to put the camera on him and follow him because he has more fans than anyone.

 

Looking at the research before and after your comment. Looks the same. On Dale, he had 26 wins total. 16 on regular ovals and 10 on plate track. Matter of fact, He was more successful in DEI than he was in Hendrick. Which really proves the point how average he was as a driver. Remember your "best equipment" comment. As far as his Nationwide success, How's Hemric doing? How about Suarez? Ricky Stenhouse was a back to back champ, what the fuck has he done?

As far a hate, no, I really dislike Chase. Believe it or not but this is my opinion and I will say I'm not the only one out there that thinks it. You can continue to drink the kool-aid all you want. I have said it before and will say it again. Nascar is becoming just like WWE. Its all about the almighty dollar and not about racing.

 

Dude, the equipment when Dale was in the 8 car was way better than his equipment at HMS. Even Gordon was not very successful during the years of the 48's dominance. Do you also believe that JG did not know how to drive a car or forgot? Plus Dale went through a ton of trauma that without a doubt effected him. And I do not disagree, Dale was a mediocre talent but only after all the trauma. Prior to that he was on pace to have lot more success. He lost his love of winning and his drive for a long long time coupled with a lot of injuries. He never claimed to be anything but. It was us, the fans that had an unrealistic expectation of him. HMS did not care about his performance because he brought in dollars. As for all the Nationwide, Xfinity guys you mention. You are not factoring the competition that the Busch series had in the late 90's. Not to mention none of those guys have showed any of the success that Dale did in cup so that is not a fair comparison. When you look at Dales Career you really have to look at pre 2004 (Corvette crash) and post. I do not care about your opinion and you have a right to feel however you like but just because you can find like minded morons does not validate the ignorance of your stance. Or so is my opinion. News flash, NASCAR has always been about the all mighty dollar. Every sport and company is. Do you think the NFL pays more attention to Patrick Mahomes or the NBA to Lebron? Of course they do. They do not give them more home games, that is what you are claiming. As for kool-aid. You are drinking four loco and the rest of us just grabbed a water. Its not a conspiracy, the sport and teams ebbs and flows. It has always been that way. If you don't want to be salty support a driver and team that is more successful. If you like being salty, carry on I guess. Understand it just gets old, Harvick, Larson wins 10 times in a season and no one gives a fuck and gives them all the credit. Other drivers have mediocre success and rightfully so because they are in good equipment and yet they are getting it handed to them. I have no idea who you support but obviously you feel they are cheated or an underdog. Perhaps that makes you feel better. Hopefully it does. But having a difference of opinion does not mean the masses are drinking the kool-aid. It just means you are in a minority that happens to be wrong. Hence the minority.

NASCAR is adding road courses and street racing for one reason. MONEY! They want to pull urban fans and tap the F1 fan base. Plain and simple.

 

So the DEI equipment was better than the Hendrick equipment when Jimmie Johnson was dominating??? I hope Ross Chastain never meets you because with that big watermelon head and ego, he will smash it on the pavement.

 

LOL, wow. Okay. But yes, the years that Dale was in the 8 car through about 2005 his equipment as the premiere car for DEI with Bud dollars backing it. Without a doubt better equipment. You might want to look back at the history of HMS. They have never had more than two cars that performed extremely well at a time. During the majority of the Dale era HMS had two separate shops and Dale was not paired with the 48 for the majority of them. HMS actually has more parity now than ever.

One thing that is so different about NASCAR over other forms of motorsport is the crew chief. Look at the years that Gordon had with Ray. They were lights out, then the years that JJ was paired with Chad. Some crew chefs and drivers just click. Just because one team in an organization has success does not mean that translates to other teams under the same roof. As a driver the best thing for Dale Jr would have been to stay paired with Tony Jr. Unfortunately they had a falling out of sorts not to mention the type of relationship they had seemed really toxic from the outside looking in but its just how they were. Dale was a driver who really needed a crew chief to believe in him and pick him up. HMS did not put enough weight in this until they paired him with Steve and when that started to click it was over because Steve moved on.

 

Hmmm, did you run out of BS stats to support your claim or were you expecting that someone else might come to your aid by this point so you could use the heard mentality to give your weak point of view validation? Feel free to argue your point. Just telling everyone of a different opinion that they are stupid because they do not buy into your obviously emotionally driven perspective is a tough sell. This thread is not like most on forums among the WWW. In here you have a collective that typically disagrees and tells each other to fuck off to some degree or the other but we still have respect for each other. Agree or not. And most of the people who are active in here don't really take well to "this is my opinion and if you disagree then you are an idiot and I'm cool because I go against the grain. Oh, now you disagree with me so I'll call you names." Come now. Let us be civil. I disagree with your point. We have a difference of opinion. This is okay and I respect your right to be wrong. To many, a lot of the time I am wrong. Many times I am. On this however, I am not. Let us play nice now.
At the end of the day, NASCAR is not fixing races. They are trying to grow the sport and make as much money as they can. No grand conspiracy regardless of whatever rabbit hole you got into on Reddit.

 

I don't like Elliott, but even I can admit that the additional road courses have absolutely nothing to do with Chase Elliott.

The reason road courses and demand for more short tracks became more prevalent recently was because of the 550 package. Plain and simple. The 550 package meant that drivers were holding the gas wide open at pretty much any track that was bigger than Richmond. The racing was closer, but it was not good. You couldn't pass, you had to rely on getting the perfect run off the corner which was only previously an issue at Indy and Pocono. It was no longer possible to go from 34th to 8th in a single run if you had an issue that cost you track position. It was no longer possible to just power by someone if you had a better handling car. Furthermore, drivers began racing one another with a lot less respect because they had to in order to make any moves at all. But the problem is that other form of racing is "boring."

Fans wanted to see more variables and driver skill. Short tracks and road courses allowed for that since it was pretty evident NASCAR had no interest in returning to the 800 HP package.

NASCAR went to the 670 package and the racing at tracks such as MIS or the intermediates has improved and so the interest in the road courses is waning.

 

Shouldn’t you be suspended for something?