Daytona 500

[Don]

Welcome to the Official Site of the Daytona 500:

On February 17, 2008, Daytona International Speedway will host the most anticipated event in racing history: The 50th Running of the Daytona 500. Join the celebration and be part of history...


http://www.daytona500.com/

[Ron61]

I am also going to watch the Rolex 500 as I like the Le Mans series better than NASCAR. But I will watch all of Speed Week. I do want to see how that new car does on the Super speedway. All everyone has done on the NASCAR site all Winter is complain. To slow, handles like a truck, hard to set up, and on and on. But I had rather see slower speeds and racing than the high speed parades they have had the past several tears.

Ron

[Joe Wicked]

Ron,
We watch Nascar all year long and they ran that car at Talladega in the fall. The whole race was pretty much everybody staying in line and no passing going on. Whenever someone tried something it resulted in failure/wreck. The winner was the one who made the least mistakes. Not really racing to me. It was more of a parade than before. I like what they are trying to do with the car and safety, but Nascar is not doing it the right way IMO. There was an obvious problem with the foam in the door catching fire. Nascar denied the problem and blamed it on the teams until it got to a point where the fire was so bad that "non-flammable" foam was completely burnt up to do something about it. Every time a team tries to find something to improve the car, they are slapped with fines and penalties. What you are left with is a whole field of cars that go the same speed and don't handle very well (comparatively speaking). They really need to either allow the teams to make changes to the car, that still fit within the templates, or they need to open up the restricter plates to allow the cars to use the power plant differences from team to team.

That being said, I will still watch, but a few years ago, I did not miss a race and was bummed if I had to. Now I have gotten to the point of "oh well" if I miss one.

[Ron61]

Joe,

That is the way I feel. I used to look forward to the races but any more all NASCAR is a bunch of politicians and they have to have their fingers into everything. I have always enjoyed and liked road racing more and hated to see the old Trans Am series go away. I have never driven on an oval track and have no desire to. I think NASCAR has ruined their style of racing and in a few more years it is going to bite them hard. They run more laps under yellow so they can get all of their dam talking heads on TV than all of the other series combined. And it seems every time they get close to a green flag pit stop there is suddenly a caution flag for some phantom debree. And it does not take 12 laps of caution to go pick up a piece of paper even when there is something on the track.

Ron

[Wayne Maybury]

I am going to the Miami Boat Show that weekend and we will be flying back Sunday afternoon. Depending on the route that air traffic control sets, we maybe able to look down on the track from 30,000 feet.

IMHO the new car is basically a spec racer and is at the other end of the spectrum from the "run what ya brung" roots of stock car racing. I am all in favor of safety but now all of the teams are running the same car which is really stupid at this "elite" level. I know, I know, keep costs down, bla, bla, bla. I would much prefer the following rules for the cars. Engine: displacement limit, carb limit, must be push rods, etc. Body: minimum weight limit, aero limits, must resemble the body on the showroom floor. Tires: limit the number per car, per weekend. Safety: full set of safety rules.

And now for my pet peeves about NASCAR; Limit the number of yellow flag pit stops per car, per race, make them pit under green. Immediately go back to green as soon as the "debris" has been removed from the track. Get rid of that stupid lucky dog rule. In other words; make 'em race instead of playing follow the leader for 195 of a 200 lap race. Of course this will never happen as they won't have time to run all of the commercials on TV.

Wayne

[Ron61]

Wayne,

Have a great time at the Boat show. If you should run into Turk or Earl there tell them hello for me. As for NASCAR, about 30,000 feet is the best distance to watch their farce from.

Ron