2017 NASCAR Season Thread

[stumpygremlin]

1 hour ago, dont care said:

I was never a fan of his, I have always thought the only reason he has a ride is because of his dads company. Yes if he wasn't alittle but talented he wouldn't have made it to cup, but his dad made it about 100 times easier when he has a sponsor just attached to his name alone.

I agree with you here. I'm of the opinion that if guys like McDowell, DiBenedetto, Buescher, Allmendinger, or Ragan had that ride, they'd do better than Menard has.

[stumpygremlin]

On 7/11/2017 at 1:32 PM, raysox said:

People forget that a Chevy is leading the points and have 4 of the top 10, vs 3 each by the other teams

Dodge, I'll believe it when I see it. They are still in Xfinity however.

http://blackflag.jalopnik.com/why-a-zombie-dodge-raced-in-nascar-on-saturday-1785261897

 

These are old Penske Dodges that were sold to a couple of small teams like MBM Motorsports and Mike Harmon. They have no factory support, and their presence has no impact on the company's plans to reenter the sport.

[stumpygremlin]

Also I'm watching the NH race right now. Why is there a competition caution on lap 38?

[LAWeaver]

51 minutes ago, stumpygremlin said:

Also I'm watching the NH race right now. Why is there a competition caution on lap 38?

There were some holes in the track that they wanted to fix after the Xfinity race, so the competition caution was to make sure the repairs were effective and to make sure they weren't harming the cars. Seemed like it was OK until they noticed some of the patches coming up, so that was the reason for today's red flag after stage one.

[stumpygremlin]

30 minutes ago, mr.nascar13 said:

There were some holes in the track that they wanted to fix after the Xfinity race, so the competition caution was to make sure the repairs were effective and to make sure they weren't harming the cars. Seemed like it was OK until they noticed some of the patches coming up, so that was the reason for today's red flag after stage one.

I knew about the red flag bit. Thanks for clarifying the competition caution for me.

[Needschat]

I have a feeling that Kahne's gone after this season.  He's doing poorly.  If that happens, Kenseth takes the 5 for a year, with Byron taking that ride in 2019. 

[stumpygremlin]

16 minutes ago, Needschat said:

I have a feeling that Kahne's gone after this season.  He's doing poorly.  If that happens, Kenseth takes the 5 for a year, with Byron taking that ride in 2019. 

That'd be interesting, and I think Bowman would slide into the 88 as he did last year.

[Needschat]

8 minutes ago, stumpygremlin said:

That'd be interesting, and I think Bowman would slide into the 88 as he did last year.

 

If social media is correct, he has the backing of Junior and Jimmie Johnson.  It all depends on sponsors.  I think Mt Dew likes him: He always represented them well when he was on camera, in both Cup and XFinity, and he drinks it off camera, too LOL

[rvrdgsfn]

Results from New Hampshire

 

1. Hamlin

2. Larson

3. Truex Jr.

4. Kesneth

5. Harvick

6. Suarez

7. Bowyer

8. Kurt Busch

9. Keselowski

10. Johnson

 

Stage 1 winner: Truex Jr.

Stage 2 winner: Kyle Busch

 

Now, as far as finishes when it comes to New Hampshire, this was one of the better ones. Larson was close but Hamlin kept it together, especially with all the bad luck the JGR cars have had. Penalties hit Kyle Busch not once, but twice. It was a better race, I'll give it that.

 

Next up, the Brickyard itself, Indianapolis.

 

Now as for a new manufacture, I think Honda & Nissan are almost a shoe in, but I'm with y'all, I think Volkswagen may be up for it. The reason? VW is basically the #1 automaker in the world. The only thing that may be a hassle is that they don't have a truck here in the states, yet. However, Honda & Nissan I could see cause Honda is usually seen as direct rival to Toyota & Nissan has a caliber in racing ( I would say they already have a V8 but that's for Virgin Australia Supercars). Volkswagen would be a very good dark pick, same with Hyundai (if they ever make a truck & a proper replacement for the Genesis coupe.

 

It does make me wonder though & it brings me back to what Kes said, what if they make a new car? Possibly with carbon fiber or a v6 win turbo engine? (I know blasphemy) but times are changing, they may look to keep the speed but make some cuts in cost.

[stumpygremlin]

6 minutes ago, rvrdgsfn said:

Results from New Hampshire

 

1. Hamlin

2. Larson

3. Truex Jr.

4. Kesneth

5. Harvick

6. Suarez

7. Bowyer

8. Kurt Busch

9. Keselowski

10. Johnson

 

Stage 1 winner: Truex Jr.

Stage 2 winner: Kyle Busch

 

Now, as far as finishes when it comes to New Hampshire, this was one of the better ones. Larson was close but Hamlin kept it together, especially with all the bad luck the JGR cars have had. Penalties hit Kyle Busch not once, but twice. It was a better race, I'll give it that.

 

Next up, the Brickyard itself, Indianapolis.

It wasn't a bad race. I definitely noticed that the leader at a given time, for the most part, would run away and hide. The only time that didn't happen was at the end, with Larson gaining on Hamlin at the end. I genuinely thought that Larson was going to win that race. Good on Hamlin for holding him off, and good on Kenseth for holding Larson off long enough to allow Hamlin to build a large enough buffer. Another lap or two and Larson would've caught him.

[stumpygremlin]

Also, not gonna lie, it was nice to have a race without the cartoon character named Darrell Waltrip in the booth.

[dfwabel]

5 hours ago, rvrdgsfn said:

Now as for a new manufacture, I think Honda & Nissan are almost a shoe in, but I'm with y'all, I think Volkswagen may be up for it. The reason? VW is basically the #1 automaker in the world. The only thing that may be a hassle is that they don't have a truck here in the states, yet. However, Honda & Nissan I could see cause Honda is usually seen as direct rival to Toyota & Nissan has a caliber in racing ( I would say they already have a V8 but that's for Virgin Australia Supercars). Volkswagen would be a very good dark pick, same with Hyundai (if they ever make a truck & a proper replacement for the Genesis coupe.

 

It does make me wonder though & it brings me back to what Kes said, what if they make a new car? Possibly with carbon fiber or a v6 win turbo engine? (I know blasphemy) but times are changing, they may look to keep the speed but make some cuts in cost.

Huh? Toyota has global sales which  double Honda and are about 40% greater than Nissan even after adding Mitsubishi. Acura and the Ridgeline/Odyssey/Pilot will be the only V6 vehicles Honda will mass market* for 2018 as the V6 Accord is dead.

 

The Nissan Rouge is poised to surpass the Camry as the best selling non truck in America as Nissan has gotten to a 10% market share with deep dealer incentives.

 

As for VW, Dieselgate is still impacting their business and cost cutting. While they've reached a settlement in the USA, there are 9 million diesel vehicles sold in the EU which haven't been addressed yet and the software they claim really didn't break EU laws.

https://www.ft.com/content/0b9bf1d2-e486-11e6-9645-c9357a75844a

 

*-NSX isn't a mass market vehicle.

[DCarp1231]

Dale Jr's Darlington paint scheme:

 

 

It pays tribute to his Busch series days back in '98-'99.

 

Jr also stated he has another throwback scheme to be unveiled on August 2 for the season finale at Homestead.

[dont care]

2 minutes ago, DNAsports said:

Dale Jr's Darlington paint scheme:

 

 

It pays tribute to his Busch series days back in '98-'99.

 

Jr also stated he has another throwback scheme to be unveiled on August 2 for the season finale at Homestead.

Earnhard sr wrangler scheme?

[DCarp1231]

1 hour ago, dont care said:

Earnhard sr wrangler scheme?

I highly doubt that. It will probably be a paint scheme from Jr's racing past, not his dad's. A lot of fans are speculating it will be a call back to his DEI days.

 

Also, if you look closely on Jr's car, there's a throwback Mountain Dew logo. If only they went the whole 9 yards and used a Dupont logo in place of Axalta.

[raysox]

On 7/12/2017 at 9:56 PM, mr.nascar13 said:

In other driver news, NBC Sports made a great point today regarding Petty Motorsports. Right now, they are currently leasing a charter to #32 GoFas Racing and Matt DiBenedetto. . According to NBC Sports, a team can only lease a charter once every five years, with this year being that year. GoFas does have the option of buying the charter after this season, but if for some reason they don't or are unable to financially, RPM would get that charter back and could field a second car again.

 

Where am I going with this? Richard Petty told NBC Sports that he was impressed with Bubba Wallace's performance while filling in for the injured Aric Almirola and said he would like to have him back if another ride opened up for him. 

 

I could definitely see this happening. Bubba is a great personality to have on the track and improved every week driving the 43. 

btw

 

 

[Burkell007]

So why in the &@$% is the eldora truck race on FOX business network? Are they jelious of how nbcsn will throw Indy car races on. CNBC???

[dfwabel]

44 minutes ago, lilben777 said:

So why in the &@$% is the eldora truck race on FOX business network? Are they jelious of how nbcsn will throw Indy car races on. CNBC???

The Eldora ratings have fallen over 50% since the 2013 debut on SPEED.

USMNT will easily get 40% more viewers.

[raysox]

10 hours ago, dfwabel said:

The Eldora ratings have fallen over 50% since the 2013 debut on SPEED.

USMNT will easily get 40% more viewers.

3rd tier of NASCAR vs a US National Team game is a no brainer. It's a :censored:ty situation but like, not an overly hard decision

Bowman to the 88, Nationwide on the car for 19 races, Axalta resigns for 15 races

 

[LAWeaver]

11 hours ago, dfwabel said:

The Eldora ratings have fallen over 50% since the 2013 debut on SPEED.

USMNT will easily get 40% more viewers.

It's like you're trying to convince us that NASCAR is terrible and we shouldn't be watching it based solely on statistics. TV Ratings do not always reflect the on-track product. 

 

It's easy to sit back and look at ratings while saying "THIS SPORT IS DECLINING, NO ONE WANTS TO WATCH IT." It's another to look past all that and focus on the racing at hand while still enjoying everything that goes on. 

 

Last night's race was a lot of fun. I wish FOX and NBC showed more dirt races.