Yep, the season has started already! They are on the track at Daytona as we speak.

Now anyone who remembers the last Daytona 500 and the infamous crack in the track that took forever to fix mid race, should also know that they have repaved the track this yer for the first time in a really long time.

In addition they have switched from the traditional race fuel to an E-15 fuel. It apparently suprisingly creates a bit more horsepower but suffers in the gas mileage area.

All this is combining to make an impressive set of variables. I am watching practice right now. Dale Jr has the fastest lap right now at 199+ mph. They havnt run that fast at daytona since restrictor plates were implemented.

It appears that the 2 car drafting trains are able to hook up the entire way around the track with the new pavment and aero package. This adds a interesting new level of strategy.

I for one can not wait for sunday when the Bud Shootout Les down and the season is officially open the following Sunday for the Daytona 500. I had tickets but have since sold them due to the preggers nature of my wife. I'm really sad.

Oh, almost forgot. Go Mark Martin!

Now that the sun has gone down, the lap average speeds have jumped to 203.09 mph

this is insane because with the new restrictor plates, they are supposed to have around 60 less horsepower, and yet they are going almost 10mph faster.

The new track surface, the new fuel, and the new drafting tatic can be attributed to this. It is an exciting start to what promises to be an exciting season.

The Speed Channel is showing an hour long special about Dale Sr right now.

Wether you like NASCAR or not, ou should watch it. The way he lost his life is as legendary as it is tragic.

He passed on a last lap wreck protecting the lead of his friend and the 2nd place position of his son on the last lap of one of the worlds greatest races.

Edit: forgot to mention both waltrip (the winner of that race) and dale's son (finished 2nd) both drove for Seniors race team. It was waltrip first win ever and he didn't get to celebrate it because his bestfriend lost his life protecting his lead.

NASCAR hates you

i was watching that on the speed channel ford. it was very well done.

they actually showed the footage of him celebrating after the race, and then (i think?) the driver of the 36 came and told him, and you could see the smile drop from his face. very sad.

cars running in circles.

i still can't see how it's a sport.

and it's very easy to drive in circles.

Simplifying the sport like that is retarded. You could do that with any sport.

NASCAR is the largest spectator sport in the WORLD for a reason. Stop being ignorant and look into it. You just might find out you like it.

You should go put in 20 laps at a go kart track, Jelly. There's plenty of physical requirements for driving high performance vehicles like that. Even 20 laps in something simple like a spec racer will take a lot out of ya, let alone the really high end track cars.

And then, of course, there's the mental concentration and reaction speeds it takes to address events happening at 200+ miles per hour without going flying off the track.

Aren't those pretty much the 4 fundamental competition points in most sports? Who's the strongest/fastest/smartest/smoothest?

Part of the reason I don't care much NASCAR much is because of the whole pretty boy aspect of it, but don't let that fool you into thinking the competition itself isn't very physically and mentally demanding.

Not to mention the motorsports aspect of it. The HUNDREDS of people what research, develop, fabricate, assemble, and finish the cars. The pit crew members that service the car during pit stops, 4 tires, full tank of gas, any adjustments needed, clean the grill, take off a windshield tearoff, get the driver a drink, get the tires back over the wall before the car is allowed to leave, in only 12 secconds, all while only 7 people are allowed over the wall. if they make one mistake causing even a seccond delay on pit road you can lose a ton of positions on the track.

Let's also not forget the spotter, who is the drivers eyes and ears, let's him know who is around him, where to go to avoid wrecks, and what lines the other drivers are taking. If that communication breaks down your day ia over.

Almost forgot about the crew cheif that ties everyone together, makes strategy decisions like when to pit, what adjustments to make on the car. Does it need a track bar adkistment? What about a round of wedge? Maybe it just needs a quarter of a PSI on the right side tires.

fluff man. I guess they really do just go in circles. Why have I been a fan all these years! Thanks for opening my eyes.

Formula racing is all of that, plus ACTUAL race track.

driving in circles still takes relatively low skills compared to an actual race course driving.

I'm not undermining the requirements of it, but the skill aspects is like comparing american football to rugby.

i think jelly is right, i doubt i'll watch this year or ever again.

i mean, i just no longer enjoy it

hmmm, doesn't look like it shows the races on xbox ESPN.
oh, i do get to ogle Danica Patrick a bit in the highlights though.

That's funny, because every formula one race I watch there is very little competition. The cars are so spread out that it is boring as fluff because there is very little passing.

I would argue that there is so little competition because it is more about the car in forula one. Tlyou have so many computer aids and so much technology that you aberly have to drive!

How's that for over simplification of your sport.


Edit: NASCAR does do road courses, although it's limited to 2 a year now. It's funny, there are people that sign um just to do the road courses thinking that they can school all thes no skill circle drivers. They never do.

Andrettis drive NASCAR, Tony Stewart, a multple time Nascar champion, is also a Indy car champion.

It's a different set of skills. You have to interact with other racers every single lap for 4+ hours. The racer are longer and the conditions harder.

Either way, if you don't like don't read this thread, simple as that, I don't really give a fluff if you like it or not. 200,000+ people that attend every race and the millions more that watch it do like it.

juan pablo drove his way right into little success in nascar

but all he had to do was turn left!

i used to hate on nascar hard and then i finally sat down and actually watched it. it is so much fun.

NASCAR isn't shown on espn untill the end of the season. The contract is sl lucrative that they have actually split it up between 3 networks.

The Forster third is on FOX, seccond is on TNT, and the last part of the season is on ABC/ESPN

NASCAR race = contest to see who stays awake the longest.

and the 200k that attend? half is drunk before going, and half doesn't know how many states there are in the US.

it's a dumbed down sport, for .....

well, I guess when there's a hot dog eating competition that's considered a main event of your country....

You are fluffing retarded and clearly wish to stay ignorant. Have you even been to a NASCAR race?

Like I said, stay the fluff out of the thread if you don't like NASCAR. No one if forcing you to post here, and I plainly don't give a fluff if you don't like it.

why can't we have a civil discussion of comparing NASCAR to other sports?

why are americans so freaking offensive when any negative things are said about what they like...

why generalize what all americans think because mrford told you to shove off, eh?

a civil discussion? You were doing nothing but fluffting all over the sport. There wasn't anything civil about it. Just because you didn't use any naughty words don't mean you were being civil.

So once again, this isn't a debate thread, it's a thread about the 2011 NASCAR season. If you don't like NASCAR you are not required to post here.

I gotta agree w/ mrford that most of your arguments sound a lot more like generalizations based on your own stereotyped beliefs, Jelly. You haven't made a single point that is anything other than a generalization on how you view the sport...or anything American, apparently.

mrford - Midol, mate. The wifey tells me it really helps the irritability.

Engine stryed on the Shootout.

This new pavment is going to be INSANE. Just before the race NASCAR took away an extra cooling duct to attempt to handicap the 2 car draft effect. We shall see if this has any effect.

Not to mention they took away the catchcan man, so they have one less man allowed over the wall. It's going to be an intense shootout

nascar is such a white trash sport.

but i do hear they are fun to watch IN PERSON.

Ur right, I'm so white trash!

The 200,000 fans in attendance and MILLIONS that watch around the country are white trash!

10% of NASCAR fans are African American according to TV and attendance measures. 30% are female. There are drivers from bogota Columbia, Spain, Canada, Australia. It is the largest spectator spor in the world.

Yeah, it's white trash as fluff.

Stop with your ignorant stereotypes and wake the fluff up please

http://www.toyotaspeedwayatirwindale.com/NASCAR_demo.pdf

http://www.greenflagmarketing.com/...w&id=18&Itemid=35

this is 2011, not 1960.

Even with the last minute change to the cooling system in attempt to limit the cars to under 200mph lap averages, they are turning mid 204mph times

they havnt run this fast since the restrictor plate era. It's insane

that track looks awesome, especially compared to when the drivers wanted them to put an orange cone in the hole and they'd all avoid the pot hole

206.07 mph lap

holy fluff.

I am going to a Daytona party at my boss's house next Sunday. I have never been to one of those. I work at a Chrysler dealership so of course everyone will be rooting for Dodge drivers. My boss is a huge race fan. We have wrecked pieces from cars that have run daytona, brickyard, richmond, bristol, etc. hanging in the showroom and the service area.

It's the same as a superbowl party except more beer and grilling probably.

The 500 is like NASCARS superbowl. Signals the start of the longest season in profesional sports.

Well there is definitely going to be lots of beer. Wade just brought his kegerator back to functionality. :)

Also, this is one of the most amazing things that's ever happened in organized competition:

http://www.realnascar.com/...scar-history-part-ii.html

To recap: in '64 hemi powered dodges win all but a couple races, so are banned. No chrysler products in '65 leads to Ford domination. The hemi is allowed back, and Ford's new engine for '66 is banned, so Ford boycotts and Dodge wins everything again. WTF? A racing league repeatedly bans the best engines? That is retarded.

It has regulations in place to make it as competative as possible. It's less about the car as it is about the driver. This ain't formula one, it's NASCAR




Fjhdhdjchfbdkxjfgeidkfbehfidjfluff

mark just wrecked

rjrhfurubsgxifnvdifbvdkfbegxidvefluffBALLS

Yeah, I know, like the salary cap in football it is for competitive balance. I say, the other company has better engines than you, invest in some RnD!

That was a sweet race.

The 500 is going to be amazing. There were ~27 lead changes in that 187.5 mile race. Imagine a 500 mile one.

I'm loving this repaved Daytona

mrford, i'm going to go and race in the NASCAR and win,

and then I'll say live on TV, mrford, this fluff is too easy.

if youre not first youre last!

SHAKE N' BAKE!

this decal is dangerous and inconvenient, but i do really like fig newtons

you are a fluffing tard



Old Jr apparently got the pole with hit hendrick team mate Gordon getting the outside of the front row.

Chevys had 7 of the top 10, interesting. Although nothing other than the top 2 matter. I really like the idea of setting the field with a race

Anyone watch the Nationwide Series race?

Tony Stewart came from 12th to win the race in 6 laps.

He won it by 0.007 of a seccond. That's about 8 inches at speed.

The top 4 were within 0.01 or a seccond.

Holy fluff that was a good finish.

Mark Martin FTW !!

he got screwed a couple back

how about that bayne kid. he was great all day. he was awesome as the second car in the draft, the pusher (or whatever you call it)

that was great fun

Say what you want about the new rules, the new points system, the new pavment, the 2 car train draft

that was one of the best daytona 500s in recent history. 70+ lead changes at the stripe! That's not even counting the ones that were constantly happening in the unscored parts of the track.

Sweet Jesus Trevor. Your life just changed. His legacy is already submitted in NASCAR. 1 day after his 20th birthday, and his first win in any of the top 3 series is the daytona 500?

That is movie status right there. It was amazing to see the wood brothers back in victory lane. They have done so much for this sport, it is good to see them back where they belong.

I can't wait for this season. What a way to start it off

i thought it was great too, the two car drafting. but i kind of agree with what gordon said about guys not needing to be doing it three wide battling for twenty eighth. a lot of good drivers got fluffed because of that.

Good to see Gordon back in victory lane after a 2 year drought. Hendrick had 4 of the top 13! hes still the team to beat imo.

My boy Mark is 5th in points after finishing 10th in the 500 and 13th today. Not exactly sure how that one works out but ill take it!

Real story of the weekend is Kyle Bush. Little fluff won the Truck Race, led 200 of the 200 laps and won the Nationwide race, and finished 2nd in the Cup race today.

Jesus man, give everyone else a chance!

you might not like him, but he's one heck of a driver. and i personally do like him (kb)

but yea, i guess it is nice to see gordon back again. the last time he won a race i wasn't even a fan of the sport, weird to think about :P

:)

go NASCAR woo!!

My boy mark won the nationwide race! 52 years young