pk500 wrote:But the dude is a very fast learner, so we'll see. All I know is that JPM has almost single-handedly revived my interest in Cup this year, and I'm enjoying it.
He's revived a lot of my interest as well, but man those races can get really boring.
True, true. But I never find Atlanta boring. Even if Stewart and Johnson dominated all day, there's always something interesting happening on that track because of the wide, fast racing surface. So many different lines on which a car can get hooked up, so that makes it fun for me.
I know this sounds like heresy to some NASCAR fans, but next week's race at Bristol has the potential to be MUCH more boring than Atlanta. Bristol is a one-groove track, and usually it's just a long freight train punctuated by wrecks spawned by drivers using the only effective passing method at the track, punting.
Gomer Nation may love the wrecks, but that's not racing to me. So Bristol can become the ultimate short-track snooze fest, especially 500 trips around that little bowl.
Take care,
PK
"You know why I love boxers? I love them because they face fear. And they face it alone." - Nick Charles
"First on the throttle, last on the brakes." - @MotoGP Twitter signature
True. It's impressive to see Montoya improve so rapidly. I thought he really had an outside shot to pull it off yesterday if it stayed green to the end. With so many cars questionable and the Dodges seeming to have better mileage, I thought he may end up stealing one early in his career. As always, the infamous caution debris gave all the stars that much-needed pit stop.
I agree about Atlanta. It's a place where they can race everywhere, and it makes it much more enjoyable to watch. I like Bristol, but not for the quality of racing like Atlanta. I enjoy it more for the incredible reflexes you have to have just to survive there. I'm not a wreck fan, naturally, but seeing guys dip into the corners nose to tail in a little bullring will always remind me of dirt track saturday nights. Fast pace, saw that wheel and try and bring it home in one piece.
For those reasons you mention Terry, Bristol is one track where qualifying is damn fun to watch.
How about AJ Allmendinger's terrible start to his NASCAR career? I feel bad for the guy, Red Bull Racing did him no favors by putting him in Cup right away.
Related to that, Toyota really needed to pay some better teams to switch to the Camry this season. Bill Davis Racing is mid-pack at best and the rest of their teams aren't locked in to starting spots outside of the suddenly incrediby slow former champ, Dale Jarrett.
Dave wrote:How about AJ Allmendinger's terrible start to his NASCAR career? I feel bad for the guy, Red Bull Racing did him no favors by putting him in Cup right away.
I don't. He jumped to Cup for only one reason, money. He's getting paid handsomely for doing nothing, so mission accomplished.
It would be one thing for Hornish or Wheldon to jump full time to NASCAR because they've achieved something in American open-wheel racing. Won Indy. Won a series championship. Allmendinger achieved nothing in open-wheel other than one golden summer of a few victories before reaching for the Toyota NASCAR money.
I shed no tears for Allmendinger. None at all.
Take care,
PK
"You know why I love boxers? I love them because they face fear. And they face it alone." - Nick Charles
"First on the throttle, last on the brakes." - @MotoGP Twitter signature
Jarrett's been pretty slow for a few years now, but riding around in decent equipment. It is sad to see any former champ using provisional after provisional each week, though.
The Toyotas really have a lot of ground to make up, but nobody really expected them to come in and do particularly well. I think the best shot that they have at getting some top 5's is Vickers...and when Vickers is your beacon of light in the darkness, you're in for a long year.
Jarrett only has two provisionals left, as NASCAR ended the endless use of past champs' provisionals. Past champs only have six provisionals per season, I believe, before they become chumps.
Mayfield is the biggest joke among the Toyota crew. Everyone has known for years that Michael Waltrip is the clown prince of NASCAR who got lucky twice in the aero lottery at Daytona.
But to think there were those a few years back who said Mayfield had what it takes to contend for the championship. Sheesh. Talk about cash and carry -- Mayfield personifies it.
Take care,
PK
"You know why I love boxers? I love them because they face fear. And they face it alone." - Nick Charles
"First on the throttle, last on the brakes." - @MotoGP Twitter signature
TCrouch wrote:The Toyotas really have a lot of ground to make up, but nobody really expected them to come in and do particularly well. I think the best shot that they have at getting some top 5's is Vickers...and when Vickers is your beacon of light in the darkness, you're in for a long year.
And that's what makes Montoya's start even more impressive. Ganassi's Dodges have been borderline junk the last two years.
Sure, Ganassi's Chargers are much better this year, but I still don't think its cars are on a level of Gibbs, Roush or Hendrick. Yet Montoya is punching above the weight of his experience, in slightly lesser equipment on tracks he's never seen.
Very impressive. And it's also elevating the games of Ganassi teammates Sorenson and Stremme, who had nice runs yesterday.
Take care,
PK
"You know why I love boxers? I love them because they face fear. And they face it alone." - Nick Charles
"First on the throttle, last on the brakes." - @MotoGP Twitter signature
pk500 wrote:Jarrett only has two provisionals left, as NASCAR ended the endless use of past champs' provisionals. Past champs only have six provisionals per season, I believe, before they become chumps.
Without looking at the standings, he's got to be close to the top 35. If he can do that, he won't need the chumps provisional, right?
I really wish NASCAR would roll that locked-in number back a little bit, maybe to 25 or 30.
Yeah they only have 6 champ provisionals, but still...when you are a well respected name like Dale Jarrett and you used 4 of your 6 in the first 4 races...ouch.
Checked the standings and he's sitting at 33rd, so maybe that was his plan. Burn the provisionals and then make the cut with the other teams scrambling to make the field in the first 6 weeks.
Sorry to hear the news about Medlen. I was really hoping he'd pull through like Shorty did last year.
Here's hoping this IRL season gets off to a better start than Homestead last year. Based on qualifying, it looks like a bit of the gap has been closed to the red cars.
The very end of F1 qualifying today was fantastic. There's a good chance it'll be better than the race itself, but at least the weekend provided some excitement.
I watched on and off. The DP01 looks purty and the LV street circuit was better than some.
The car counts could obviously be better and the green flag wave off followed immediately by a full course yellow has got to be a turnoff to the five or six curious viewers who weren't watching Tiger.
My son was born in January of the first year of the AOW split. Eleven years and counting is way too long.
Yeah it always pisses me off when people can't get the race underway, but I thought the course was pretty neat and there was a lot of hair raising wheel to wheel action, especially coming off of turn 1. Bourdais did brilliant except for 3 tires going down!
Will Power showed some serious cajones getting past Paul Tracy on the restart.
I love the sound of turbos. Every time I hear the Champ Cars go, it's hard to really like the sound of stock cars or IRL cars. They just sound so lifeless in comparison.
Smurfy wrote:Just imagine what the Formula 1 turbos must have sounded like
I assume they had V12s back then?
The turbo era F1 engines were only 1.5 litres. They were tremendously powerful but didn't rev as high as today's engines. Red line was probably around 12K rpm compared to nearly 20K for the NA V10s from a few years ago.
For sheer decibels, the 3.5L Honda IRL engines are louder than the turbo Cosworths in the CCWS.
Bumped for Bump Day, which is always one of my favorite days of racing throughout the year, even when nothing happens. It's unbelievable there's been no racing chatter here for over a month.
Belated congrats to the Super Aguri F1 Team and Takuma Sato for registering the team's first World Championship point in Spain. They now lead myearthdream.com one nil.
Cooler still is Neckthai's transformation into a new media phenomenon. Arni has always been one of the truly nice guys at SR and here. It's great to see him getting some three-way action with Mr. and Mrs. Al Unser Jr.
sfz_T-car wrote:Cooler still is Neckthai's transformation into a new media phenomenon. Arni has always been one of the truly nice guys at SR and here. It's great to see him getting some three-way action with Mr. and Mrs. Al Unser Jr.
"Are you OK with that?"
That line about Gina's crush on Neck from Neck to Al Jr. was CLASSIC! Neck not wanting to be roasted like a pig at Mari Hulman George's next barbecue was a rib-splitter, too.
Take care,
PK
"You know why I love boxers? I love them because they face fear. And they face it alone." - Nick Charles
"First on the throttle, last on the brakes." - @MotoGP Twitter signature
I left Indy after the first rain delay today thought there was no way they'd get the place dried up and my pancho sucked, running the water directly into my shoe. But I'm glad they got the 500 running again, I wasn't happy that Marco lost the lead 1 1/2 turns into a restart and then a yellow came out.
Congrats to Dario, he's definitely a worthy 500 champion.
thought there was no way they'd get the place dried up and my pancho sucked, running the water directly into my shoe. But I'm glad they got the 500 running again, I wasn't happy that Marco lost the lead 1 1/2 turns into a restart and then a yellow came out.