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NASCAR 2015 Season


KenJennings
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The Bud Shootout Sprint Unlimited All Star Race just wrapped up to kick off the 2015 season, and I have a few thoughts:

 

The current restrictor plate package is about as good as they've done in a while. Should be a good show next week.

 

Tony Stewart looked very racey til he got wrecked. I think he's a serious contender for the 500. I think I'll be pulling for him more than anyone else. Would be very special to see him move on with his life with a Daytona 500 championship.

 

With all the sad business going on in his life Martin Truex Jr. seems to have a fast car, and appears to be racing with a lot of heart right now. Potential show stealer.

 

There will not be many cars running at the end of the Daytona 500. Lots of wrecks should be expected. It's going to come down to the 10 (or so) remaining clean cars at the end.

 

Matt Kenseth and the JGR boys looked good. Not as great as people are making out. It was a fine win, but I don't expect a repeat in the 500. Kenseth and Hamlin will be great, but I think Edwards will face some growing pains, and I generally think Kyle Busch is massively overrated.

 

Joey Logano is a rolling hazard and his competitors are getting tired of it. I think he'll get what he deserves sooner than later. He caused the big stackup with Biffle and McMurray, then he did it again (pushing in the corners) to Harvick. Then the guy has the nerve to throw a conniption fit when he gets confronted about it. Harvick, Newman, Hamlin, Stewart, Bowyer... lots of drivers are expressing discontent with this guy. He won't last long racing this way.

 

Can't wait for the season to officially get going next week!

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Knockout qualifying for the Daytona 500 is an absolute joke. Every driver they interviewed, except for one, absolutely hated it. And the one driver who didn't? NASCAR on Fox bootlicker Michael Waltrip.

 

It's just a terrible idea. So stupid.

You beat me to it.

 

Knockout qualifying anywhere (except for maybe the road courses), utter shit.

 

Knockout qualifying on a superspeedway...indefensible. I loved Bowyer's comments. Will NASCAR take them to heart? Not a chance.

 

The lesson, as always, is never put your drunk kid in charge of a multi million dollar enterprise.

 

That shit was embarrassing today.

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Yeah, spending 15 minutes of watching cars sit idling on pit road (the exciting part...) stretched out over a 2 hour broadcast (the dull part...) with like an hour of combined commercials (the aggrovating part...) made this the worst Daytona 500 qualifying session I've ever seen.

 

But Mikey swears that the fans love this! This is just so exciting!!

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Yeah, spending 15 minutes of watching cars sit idling on pit road (the exciting part...) stretched out over a 2 hour broadcast (the dull part...) with like an hour of combined commercials (the aggrovating part...) made this the worst Daytona 500 qualifying session I've ever seen.

 

But Mikey swears that the fans love this! This is just so exciting!!

I've gotten to the point where I don't really pay attention to anything either Waltrip says. I like Joy and it's fun to hear McReynolds butcher the language (though he's a smart guy, IMO) but I wish they'd replace DW.

 

Maybe Mikey was just trying to take the sting out of the completely valid criticisms his best driver made to avoid the wrath of NASCAR...

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Knockout qualifying works with Formula 1 and Indy with their road courses. This definitely does not work on NASCAR's ovals.

 

With this NASCAR season, with all the unnecessary changes that Brian France has been doing, it may be the last season I watch NASCAR. Especially since my favorite driver since my childhood, Jeff Gordon, is going to be gone at the end of the season. It's just too much stupidity for me to handle anymore.

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What exactly is knockout qualifying?

They all run at the same time, then the top 24 move on to the next round, then the top 12 run to determine the pole. It sucks anyway but it's worse at plate races because the fastest lap is run by someone in the middle of the pack so no one wants to lead, or even start till the absolute last second. This meant that for four of the five minutes of the session, the cars were assembled on pit road with no one going anywhere.

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No Busch brothers in the 500.

 

Kurt suspended, Kyle injured.

 

Absolutely no reason in my opinion NOT to have SAFER barriers in all locations around the track.

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No Busch brothers in the 500.

 

Kurt suspended, Kyle injured.

 

Absolutely no reason in my opinion NOT to have SAFER barriers in all locations around the track.

 

So there should be less wrecks with those 2 jerks out of the mix. I hope Kurt gets suspended for the whole season.

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That was a nasty hit for Kyle. He's lucky to have only broken his leg.

 

And we still have Hamlin and Keselowski in the 500 so there is potential for some more big wrecks.

 

Hamlin doesn't deserve that kind of reputation. Danica wrecked herself in practice, and in the Duals, Hamlin did screw up, but that's hardly usual.

 

The one that scares me is that moron Logano.

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For 50 years, NASCAR would allow drivers to race back to the start/finish line whenever the caution flag would fly. A few years ago, they changed this to prevent cars from racing through the scene of a caution, in order to get back to the flag quickly. This is a fine rule change in general, but now with the Green-White-Checkered rule, if the caution flies on the last lap, it stops the race without giving the drivers a chance to race to any finish line.

 

So, the best compromise would be to go back to the old rules... but only on the last lap. We raced that way for 50 years with only minor incident, and it used be that way on EVERY caution flag. Allowing drivers to race back to the line on JUST the last lap is not a significant safety risk. Not every decision balancing safety and race quality needs to come down on the side of safety. Stopping the race mid-lap is not worth the safety benefit it creates: if that's the attitude, we should forget the whole endeavor.

 

Every race should end with the competitors racing at the start finish line. There is no excuse to see the series end on the backstretch.

Edited by KenJennings
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For 50 years, NASCAR would allow drivers to race back to the start/finish line whenever the caution flag would fly. A few years ago, they changed this to prevent cars from racing through the scene of a caution, in order to get back to the flag quickly. This is a fine rule change in general, but now with the Green-White-Checkered rule, if the caution flies on the last lap, it stops the race without giving the drivers a chance to race to any finish line.

 

So, the best compromise would be to go back to the old rules... but only on the last lap. We raced that way for 50 years with only minor incident, and it used be that way on EVERY caution flag. Allowing drivers to race back to the line on JUST the last lap is not a significant safety risk. Not every decision balancing safety and race quality needs to come down on the side of safety. Stopping the race mid-lap is not worth the safety benefit it creates: if that's the attitude, we should forget the whole endeavor.

 

Every race should end with the competitors racing at the start finish line. There is no excuse to see the series end on the backstretch.

I was shocked and disappointed that they called the race when they did, depriving fans of what might have been an incredible finish.

 

 

But I do think you have to allow for circumstances that take into account safety, like if there are disabled cars in extreme danger just across the start finish line.

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This is why they don't race back to the line. Nascar needs to look at where the wreck is and then decide to throw a caution or not. If it's on the front straight or turn one, don't throw caution, if it's on the back stretch let them race it out.

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For 50 years, NASCAR would allow drivers to race back to the start/finish line whenever the caution flag would fly. A few years ago, they changed this to prevent cars from racing through the scene of a caution, in order to get back to the flag quickly. This is a fine rule change in general, but now with the Green-White-Checkered rule, if the caution flies on the last lap, it stops the race without giving the drivers a chance to race to any finish line.

 

So, the best compromise would be to go back to the old rules... but only on the last lap. We raced that way for 50 years with only minor incident, and it used be that way on EVERY caution flag. Allowing drivers to race back to the line on JUST the last lap is not a significant safety risk. Not every decision balancing safety and race quality needs to come down on the side of safety. Stopping the race mid-lap is not worth the safety benefit it creates: if that's the attitude, we should forget the whole endeavor.

 

Every race should end with the competitors racing at the start finish line. There is no excuse to see the series end on the backstretch.

I was shocked and disappointed that they called the race when they did, depriving fans of what might have been an incredible finish.

 

 

But I do think you have to allow for circumstances that take into account safety, like if there are disabled cars in extreme danger just across the start finish line.

 

They raced for 50 years without taking events like that into account... Let the drivers self regulate.

Edited by KenJennings
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