2020 NASCAR Season Thread

[DCarp1231]

Fresh off the 2019 Kyle Busch (*shudders* unfortunately) Championship run, we arrive at the 2020 Season Thread.

 

Changes include:

 

Major overhaul to the season schedule

- Daytona book ends to the regular season

- Double Pocono race weekend

- Rightful replacement of Championship race from Homestead (moved to earlier in the season) to ISM (Honestly wish it was somewhere else)

 

Driver/Raceteam changes:

 

- Chris Buescher (moves from #37 JTG Daugherty Racing to #17 Roush Fenway Racing)

- Matt DiBenedetto (moves from #95 Leavine Family Racing to #21 Wood Brothers Racing)

- Daniel Hemric (released by Richard Childress Racing, Hemric will run a partial XFINITY schedule with JR Motorsports)

- Daniel Suarez (released from #41 Stewart Haas. Unknown plans. Could move to XFINITY with Richard Childress Racing)

- Ricky Stenhouse Jr (moves from #17 Roush Fenway Racing to #TBA at JTG Daugherty Racing)

- Cole Custer (moves from #00 Stewart-Haas Racing [Xfinity] to #41 Stewart-Haas Racing [Cup])

- Christopher Bell (will drive #95 for Leavine Family Racing)

 

- Jimmie Johnson (announced that 2020 will be his last year competing full-time, Hendrick Motorsports announced they will take their time finding a successor)

 

 

[dfwabel]

NASCAR's "NextGen" car was tested in Homestead by Erik Jones with a sequential 4-speed transmission.

 

[infrared41]

Duels at Daytona tonight. Let's go racin', boys and girls. 

[AustinFromBoston]

That Newman wreck was scary. 
Really hope he is ok. 

[Dalcowboyfan92]

Absolutely nasty crash Ryan suffered. Please, don't let it be anything serious. You could see in both Blaney and Hamlin's faces they were obviously extremely worried and upset about what transpired. Hamlin's getting a lot of flack for his "celebration", but they did temper their celebration and Hamlin may have actually celebrated for a few seconds.

 

Blaney was obviously very stricken, you could see it in his mannerisms and his speech patterns. Even Mike Joy and Jeff were choked up. We probably won't be able to know about Newman until tomorrow.

[Sykotyk]

It didn't look good once I saw the replay and how his driver side was struck at full speed and caused him to flip. 

 

Hoping for the best, but in 2001, we found out about Earnhardt about an hour or two after the broadcast ended. If there is good news I'd hope it's put out before then. The longer we wait the worse I fear it'll be. 

[See Red]

Per a statement from Roush Racing read by Steve O'Donnell just now, he's in serious condition but the injuries are non-life threatening.

[jn8]

Man.... these are the nights that it sucks not having any close friends that are into racing to talk things out with. I legit can’t sleep right now because I’m absolutely sick to my stomach about that wreck. Being too young to remember 2001, I’ve never had to deal with a super serious injury during a race and the realization of how bad this could’ve been is hitting me pretty hard. When Austin Dillon went into the fence a few years back, that was terrifying, but he was out seconds after the car came to rest. Tonight was different. In the past, I’ve had concerns about wrecks and always hoped everyone would get out okay, but tonight was the first time I was legitimately scared about what I was seeing. I can’t really even explain it, but as soon as he turned sideways I felt something... different. IDK... Over the course of my 16ish years watching racing, I’ve seen my share of hard crashes, flips, fires, and the like, but everyone always puts that window net down and climbs out with nothing more than some bruising (with a couple notable exceptions that resulted in fractured bones or concussions) and I think that in a way, NASCAR fans, myself included, have become desensitized to crashes. Unfortunately, this just proves that no matter what you may believe, these cars are still not completely safe and these drivers are legitimately putting their lives on the line week in and week out. Sorry for the long/rambling post, it’s been a wild night, just felt like I need to get this out of my system. Just glad Newman’s injuries don’t seem to be life threatening

[Dalcowboyfan92]

Latest report says he is awake and is talking to doctors and his family, so that's good.

 

I can't imagine what Corey LaJoie was thinking. He had absolutely nowhere to go; he was going to tee off on Newman no matter if he sideswiped him, or hit him full bore like he did.

[DCarp1231]

On the business side of things, it’s very obvious Newman won’t be in a race car for a while, so it begs the question:

 

Who drives the 6 for the foreseeable future?

[dont care]

13 hours ago, DNAsports said:

On the business side of things, it’s very obvious Newman won’t be in a race car for a while, so it begs the question:

 

Who drives the 6 for the foreseeable future?

I’m thinking Matt Kenneth, or they will make a deal with Stewart haas to pull chase Briscoe into the seat for a few. I don’t know if Penske has any drivers ready to jump

[DCarp1231]

33 minutes ago, dont care said:

I’m thinking Matt Kenneth, or they will make a deal with Stewart haas to pull chase Briscoe into the seat for a few. I don’t know if Penske has any drivers ready to jump

Eh, I’d be more inclined to think super-sub Regan Smith would get a call first.

[dont care]

11 minutes ago, DNAsports said:

Eh, I’d be more inclined to think super-sub Regan Smith would get a call first.

He didn’t race last year, and you’d want to give seat time to someone who could potentially take the ride next year

[DCarp1231]

This is a picture from Daytona moments after the Newman wreck. Many fans are blaming Hamlin and other drivers for not caring about what had just happened. This is Corey Lajoie, the driver who hit Newman in his driver side window. Regardless of if it’s a reaction his body is feeling from the impact or a reaction to hitting Newman, to claim these drivers don’t feel pain is such an ungodly thing to say.

[jn8]

Thank the Lord. I honestly have no words. He took a car to the driver’s side window at 200MPH and not only survived, but he’s walking around less than two days later. 
 

 

In other news, rumors (tweeted by Bob Pockrass) point towards Ross Chastain as the leading candidate for the 6, at least for Vegas

[jn8]

And it gets better:

Incredible 

[dont care]

Likely not racing next week because he can’t possibly get cleared in time, and I’m sure a lot of it was precautionary but great to see him walking out of the hospital today

[AustinFromBoston]

Glad to see he's been released from the hospital already. 

 

We still don't really know what injuries he suffered, so it's hard to say exactly if/when he'll be able to race again. 

[LAWeaver]

22 hours ago, DNAsports said:

On the business side of things, it’s very obvious Newman won’t be in a race car for a while, so it begs the question:

 

Who drives the 6 for the foreseeable future?

Bob Pockrass (FS1) tweeted earlier today that chatter within the industry has Ross Chastain in the seat, which I honestly couldn't imagine given how much Chevy and Ganassi have supported him. These are different circumstances, sure, but I would imagine someone in the Ford camp would step up before going across "enemy lines" (and I just saw jn8 mention this exact thing, so although my comment is half-pointless now, I stand by it). 

 

A few other names that I could see fill the seat: Matt Crafton and Paul Menard. Crafton is in Vegas for the Truck race this weekend, and he's filled in for Kyle Busch and, just last fall, Menard at Talladega. Speaking of Menard, he has supposedly stated that he would possibly be interested in racing a time or two in the future. 

[Dalcowboyfan92]

Ryan had someone riding shotgun with him on that night. Fans are saying that it's Earnhardt, others are saying God. Anyway, whoever it was said to him; "It's not your time. You still have a lot of life to live."

 

(Apparently, people like to think Dale Sr. is the Guardian Angel of Daytona, considering how Austin Dillon managed to escape his frightening crash in the July Daytona race a few years ago.)