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We are two days away from the Clash in Los Angeles and the beginning of the 2023 NASCAR Season!

 

Last season saw Joey Logano grab his 2nd Cup crown, Ty Gibbs win a Xfinity title before getting the move up to cup to drive the 18 54 car for grandfather Joe Gibbs, and Zane Smith and Front Row breaking through to win the truck title.

 

A lot happened with driver moves and the schedule as well, with Kyle Busch leaving the 18 ride to pilot the 8 car for Richard Childress, Jimmie Johnson coming back to own a portion (and running some races!) of Petty GMS Motorpsorts Legacy Motor Club, the addition of a street course in Chicago to the Cup schedule, and the long-awaited return of North Wilkesboro Speedway as the host of this year's All Star race.

 

I'm going to go ahead and put my predicitons for the Championship 4 for both series (bold equals my championship prediciton); I encourage you all to do the same!

 

Cup: Ryan Blaney, Kyle Larson, Ross Chastain, William Byron

Xfinity: John Hunter Nemechek, Brandon Jones, Josh Berry, Austin Hill

Trucks: Ben Rhodes, Zane Smith, Grant Enfinger, Stewart Friesen

 

This season will celebrate the 75th anniversary of NASCAR, and let's hope this season will be a good one!

 

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I'm honestly excited for the season to start; for the first time in years. I expect big things from AJ, Justin, and everyone at Kaulig this year. I have AJ penciled in for a few wins this year; maybe up to 4, if he plays his cards right. With the overabundance of road courses, plus the street course; he should be high on everyone's minds to make the Chase.

 

Justin is also making strides, and should be a threat to win on the superspeedways. It has the potential, for sure, to be a huge year for the organization.

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21 hours ago, Chicageaux said:

Bowman secures the front row for the 6th year in a row by grabbing the pole. Larson will start second. Johnson and Travis Pastrana both secured starts for the 500. We'll see how the rest of the field shakes out tonight.

Has it really been 6 straight years? You’d think at some point he’d break through and win.

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On 2/14/2023 at 1:26 AM, infrared41 said:

Field Fillers

 

Slap's got some good videos. Not sure if you've seen the Brock Beard "Rise of the Field Fillers" series he mentions in that video, but it's some pretty obscure '90s-'00s NASCAR stuff. Can get monotonous at times, but it's very nostalgic for me.

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I watched just about all of the racing at Daytona this week. Qualifying, Duels, trucks, ARCA, Xfinity, the 500.

 

This was my favorite part.

 

A 41 year old fence company owner from Indiana just won a 4th-tier series race that pays like $25k to the winner and you'd swear he just hit Powerball. I absolutely love it.

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I don't get the love affair people have with Fontana. I've always hated the track, and the racing it had for as long as I've been a fan, which is now over a quarter of a century. (I've been a fan as long as the track has been apart of the circuit.)

 

You say the last few years have had great racing, but conveniently leave out the fact the track has had about two decades of crappy, subpar, and boring racing. It happened, those snoozefests happened. You can't change the past. The track may have had great racing in the past few years, but it doesn't change the fact this track was bad.

 

I, for one, will be glad to see this track reconfigured. Now, if they could only reconfigure Texas into a parking lot...

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On 2/24/2023 at 8:52 PM, Dalcowboyfan92 said:

I don't get the love affair people have with Fontana. I've always hated the track, and the racing it had for as long as I've been a fan, which is now over a quarter of a century. (I've been a fan as long as the track has been apart of the circuit.)

 

You say the last few years have had great racing, but conveniently leave out the fact the track has had about two decades of crappy, subpar, and boring racing. It happened, those snoozefests happened. You can't change the past. The track may have had great racing in the past few years, but it doesn't change the fact this track was bad.

 

I, for one, will be glad to see this track reconfigured. Now, if they could only reconfigure Texas into a parking lot...

Oh wow, the reconfiguration is really happening.

https://www.cbssports.com/nascar/news/auto-club-speedway-will-not-host-nascar-races-in-2024-due-to-reconfiguration/

 

Here's an overlay of the current 2 mile track with the plans for the half mile short track on top.  Looks nice, and not your typical short track either.

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The slight curve down the front stretch is what really intrigues me. Both Bristol and Martinsville are straight down the stretches so Auto Club should provide something new. The 2-mile track posted a great race to finish on, but I think moving to a short track is the right call. The track needed to be repaved soon anyway (losing the great racing fans have come to love) and honestly? I'd rather NASCAR get the money to reinvest in facilities and improving the fan experience. I do wish that we had another 2-miler on the schedule that isn't Michigan (not that Michigan is bad, but I want another one to help diversify). Now if only they would bulldoze Texas.

the user formerly known as cdclt

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7 hours ago, CDCLT said:

The slight curve down the front stretch is what really intrigues me. Both Bristol and Martinsville are straight down the stretches so Auto Club should provide something new. The 2-mile track posted a great race to finish on, but I think moving to a short track is the right call. The track needed to be repaved soon anyway (losing the great racing fans have come to love) and honestly? I'd rather NASCAR get the money to reinvest in facilities and improving the fan experience. I do wish that we had another 2-miler on the schedule that isn't Michigan (not that Michigan is bad, but I want another one to help diversify). Now if only they would bulldoze Texas.

Well there is Richmond which isn’t a .5 mile but .75 miles but close enough. I think the real difference will be having the banked front stretch, and close to no bank on the back stretch, and who knows what angle the turns will be, I’d imagine somewhere between 15-20 degrees if the front stretch stays at 11. It would certainly be unique. The tight u turn like turns of martinsville, with the steep banks of Bristol all connected by Richmond’s front stretch.

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