Nascar: 2010

[Don]

Quote from Kyle Petty:

-- “There's no silver bullet to fix what's wrong with NASCAR, no single fix. Give them credit, though, for doing something with the wing and the spoiler situation. Whether it's a positive or a negative, they've at least done something and that's good for the sport. Right now, everything's about the economy. Until that clears up and gets better, NASCAR almost has to let things flow and see where they level out."
-- “Sure, NASCAR needs to listen to its fans. But they need to listen to its drivers, its owners, its manufacturers and the media, too. With fans, you have to listen, but only up to a point. I mean, some of them will say, ‘Hey, y'all run 'em 50 laps one direction then turn 'em around [and do] the run laps the other direction.' Yeah, right, fans.”


http://www.autoweek.com/article/2010...#ixzz0dGHQ49pN

Spoiler:

The new piece will sit four inches atop the rear deck of all cars, measured from the centerline and fixed at 70 degrees. It'll be level across the top with a clearance of 43.52 inches from the top of the spoiler to the ground. The spoiler will be 64.5 inches wide and fabricated from 3/16-inch thick aluminum.

Teams must modify slightly their cars' left-side fuel-filler hole to accommodate the spoiler. They also must add four-inch-long right and left quarterpanel extensions at the rear wheel opening. An open test is scheduled for all teams March 23-24 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The new spoiler is expected to debut in the 500-lap race on March 28 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway


http://www.autoweek.com/article/2010...#ixzz0dGHlrESH

[Ron61]

Don,

I am looking forward to the first race with the spoiler so we can see how it actually works in racing conditions. Even full tests don't duplicate the real racing conditions because the drivers aren't going to push as hard in a test as they will to win a race. I hope that it makes racing a lot more exciting.

Ron

[Wayne Maybury]

The new piece will sit four inches atop the rear deck of all cars, measured from the centerline and fixed at 70 degrees. It'll be level across the top with a clearance of 43.52 inches from the top of the spoiler to the ground. The spoiler will be 64.5 inches wide and fabricated from 3/16-inch thick aluminum.

This is exactly what I don't like about NASCAR. They have 10 rules about every piece on the car. I am more of a "run what ya brung" type guy. Why can't they just say the max size of the spoiler is 4" by 64.5" and let the teams experiment and come up with their own formula that works best for their car and driver. The only thing they didn't specify is the colour of the thing.

NASCAR wants every car to be exactly the same so they have rules that leave virtually no room for innovation or ingenuity. Let's face it, if something new works, all of the other teams will copy the idea but a small rule book leaves teams with lots of room to try to make their car better than the others.

Wayne

[Joe Wicked]

I agree Wayne. I don't care if one team is better because they have better technology. If you want to control costs to make it fair, set a team budget. This is the max you can spend on 1 car team, 2 car team, etc... Similar to a salary cap. How you choose to spend it is up to you, salary, R&D, etc... Making the cars all identical in every way does not improve racing, but creates the parades we see.

As far as Kyle Petty's comment, I have always said the fans are idiots. Many just want to see more wrecks so they like them bunched up. I want to see hard racing lap after lap. I want to see a driver push a car to the limit to catch up and then push it a bit more. The Drivers and teams know how to get the cars to do that and their input should be more considered. I want the excitement back. I am still on the fence if I am even going to watch this year. It is still programmed into my DVR, but I did not watch the Chase at all last year and I am a JJ fan. The racing was too boring and I gave up about 4-5 races before the chase.

[Excaliber]

I have always said the fans are idiots.

OK, guilty as charged. Sometimes I fall asleep waiting for the next crash to happen. We should have more of that, keeps me awake.

[Don]

From Sports Business Journal which is subscription based, but the heading of a current article, sure to please many, ,that Speed is expanding their NASCAR coverage, must be a sufficient number of sponsors to pay for the programs and TV time:

" Speed adding a full field of new NASCAR shows "

By MICHAEL SMITH
Staff writer
Published January 18, 2010 : Page 04

" Speed is pumping even more horsepower into its NASCAR lineup in 2010. While the network already has a deep stable of NASCAR programming, from practice and qualifying to news and analysis, Speed is planning to add six to eight new shows this year. Yet another show that’s still in the …"

[Ron61]

Don,

Nothing wrong with that except I miss the other types of racing they used to show. I just don't watch the NASCAR shows any more as there is only so much you can discuss about the cars, drivers, & etc and it is often repeated on different shows all day long. I just hope that the changes will make for some much better racing.

Ron

[Don]

From AutoWeek.com regarding the media tour, note that Showtime will also have a NASCAR program

Among other comments from the R&D Center:

-- "We won't start working on the 2011 schedule until the spring. We still can't even consider Kentucky (Motor Speedway) until all the litigation is gone. When it is, we'll review Kentucky's situation."--Brian France.

-- "We've had fewer (disciplinary) visits to the hauler than in the past, and that's good."--Mike Helton.

-- "We're glad to have her but we'll let that team (JR Motorsports) set its own level of expectations for Danica Patrick."--Joe Balash, Nationwide Series director.

-- "There was a lot of debate about (whether to keep) the yellow line. We respect the competitors' opinion and it wasn't 50-50 (to get rid of it). In fact, it wasn't even 70-30."--Robin Pemberton.

-- Quote of the day: This from Dale Earnhardt Jr., shortly after pro wrestler Ric Flair playfully quipped that the sport's most popular driver can do anything he wants except win races: "I'm 35, I've got two Nationwide championships, 18 Cup wins and a Daytona 500 win. I can build a house as big as I want."

-- Showtime has jumped into the NASCAR "news magazine" pool. It'll debut its weekly "Inside NASCAR" on Feb. 10 with Chris Myers working with team owner Brad Daugherty, driver-owner Michael Waltrip, and Randy Pemberton, brother of NASCAR executive Robin Pemberton and crew chief Ryan Pemberton.

-- Charlotte Motor Speedway will host a $1 million race for the Legend Car Series on July 15-16-17. After starting their careers on short tracks in the scaled-down cars, Cup drivers David Ragan and Joey Logano are expected to compete on the speedway's quarter-mile track.

-- Quote of the day 2: From Michael Waltrip on the possibility that Jimmie Johnson might win a fifth consecutive championship: "I can't get my arms around the fact that he's won four straight, so I'm betting heavily against him winning a fifth. Man, y


Read more: http://www.autoweek.com/article/2010...#ixzz0dM9l9MUS

[Joe Wicked]

I would agree with Michael, I really doubted he would win a 4th. I hoped for it and I rooted for it, but did not really expect it. I really don't expect it again, but I will hope for it and I will root for it as I am a fan of his since I first saw him race an offroad truck when I was in the Navy in San Diego many moons ago.

[Ron61]

Just saw this History of the Spoiler on the NASCAR site and thought that some of you might find it interesting as to how it came about.

http://www.nascar.com/2010/news/opin...agg/index.html

Ron

[Ron61]

NASCAR to give tracks some relief.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100129/...r_track_relief

Ron

[Silverback51]

Well Ron, if they get to the point of paying me $200.00 and provide all the beer I can drink, let me know. Then I will go to a CABCAR race.

[Ron61]

John,

I read in one of the NASCAR site articles that they are removing a lot of seats from some of the tracks and making the remaining ones wider so it will still look like a full grandstand. I guess the empty seats showing on TV last season didn't help much.

Ron

[Ron61]

Don,

Why don't they have the print option on the NASCAR site this year like they used to or am I just not finding it. They used to have an option that would format the schedule to print out and I can't find it on this years Schedule page. I guess I could copy it to Word and print it from there.

Ron

[Don]

Ron, I infrequently use the NASCAR.com web site, depending mainly on multiple independent sources, so not familiar with the web site features. Have never registered for the site and not knowing whether your registered, maybe joining NASCAR.com is required, but obviously guessing.

Quick view, here's one that had a Print command, but it's stats, not an article. I could not find the commonly used by other web sites " Printer Friendly " link.

http://www.nascar.com/races/cup/2009..._official.html

However, here's an article that has the " Print Article " link, maybe the use is inconsistent

http://www.nascar.com/2010/news/head...age/index.html

The Schedule can be printed using Copy & Paste into a document, but when I did, the screen format did not copy properly

The web site does have a live chat M-F EST 11:00AM to 7:00PM feature, might want to ask.

[tcrist]

Ron,
When you open up each schedule page just go to "File then Print" on your browser. For the Sprint and Nationwide just tell it to print page #2 only and for the Trucks tell it to print just page #1.

Kind of small lettering but it can be seen. Nascar's schedule sure is not as printer friendly as it used to be. That is for sure.

[Ron61]

Thanks Don & Terry,

I got a pretty good print out by using the copy and put it into word to print. Everything came out well. I just couldn't figure out why I couldn't find the Print Link that they used to have.

Ron

[rustyBob]

Ron.......

it was attached to the wing ........and they are getting rid of that too...............

[Ron61]

Bob,

I actually think getting rid of that wing is a good idea. I wish they would make up their minds on what they are going to do about the yellow lines at Daytona and Talladega. At first they were going to allow cars to go below them and then changed it back to no they can't go below then and now the latest is they are going to review it after the Daytona 500. Personally I think keeping them above the lines will prevent some big wrecks. That is flat down there and the angle where the banked track meets the flat is quite severe. Try passing a car down there and them coming back onto the banking at 180 MPH and the car is going to just go anywhere. I believe the spoiler will help the racing.

Changing the subject but I just finished watching the 24 hour Rolex race and it was pretty good. I wanted Pruitt and the Ganassi team to win but that V-8 powered Porsche really ran great for the whole 24 hours.

Ron

[Ron61]

Well tomorrow February 4th, they will start showing the various practices and other stuff on Speed Channel. Saturday is the All Star Race.

Ron