2017 Michigan - Pure Michigan 400 - Pre Race Thread

Blogger Brad nails the pole, and says it's because the Toyotas dialed it back. Nothing about thanking his crew, Roush-Yates motors....just Toyota. In your head much Brad?



It will be a pleasure to see a Toyota win Sunday ......... this screwed up format will probably screw up Brad
 
did you catch that tidbit about a new inspection procedure? I wonder what Nascar is going to do different now?
 
did you catch that tidbit about a new inspection procedure? I wonder what Nascar is going to do different now?

That had been going on for awhile now I thought.
 
I'm not sure they dyno the cars at the R&D center. The electronic Fuel injection system was supposed to be controlled with a tamper proof sealed system. I've always thought that and the injectors would be easily tampered with. Listening to Johnson's car on the last restart at Homestead, I have never heard a motor rev like that. No bouncing off the chip that's for sure. A dyno at the R&D inspection could clue them in if anybody is fooling around with the box or the injectors I would bet if they aren't doing that.
 
Those were the only races they were decent until Kansas--TRD Toyotas turned a corner right there.

Nope wrong again. No wonder your so difficult....78 was one of the best cars winning stages and leading laps at Fontana, martinsville, bristol. Been very strong ALL year long. 18 was dominant at martinsville! 20 dominated alot of Richmond! The 18 and 78 each have led twice as many laps as Harvick the 4th overall and top Ford all year long. Like i said it's not recently it's been all year.

http://racing-reference.info/raceyear/2017/W
 
Current qualifying is about 100 times less enjoyable to watch than the previous format.
When the current qualifying format was announced I really thought I was going to like it. I was actually looking forward to it. I couldn't have been more wrong. It's finally gotten to the point that I don't watch it. I prefer the single car runs over multiple cars on the track. I used to like seeing things, such as the ghost car, to display the differences in the current pole sitter to the car on the track. One car against the clock with the fastest sitting on the pole for the race is the way qualifying in NASCAR oughta be.
 
SATURDAY, August 12
ON TRACK: MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
8:30-9:25 a.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice, CNBC (Follow live)
9:30 a.m.: NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Keystone Light Pole Qualifying, FS1 (Follow live)
11:30 a.m.-12:20 p.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series final practice, NBC Sports App (Follow live)
1 p.m.: NASCAR Camping World Truck Series LTI Printing 200 (100 laps, 200 miles), FS1 (Follow live)

PRESS PASS (Watch live)
3 p.m.: Post-NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race

ON TRACK: MID-OHIO SPORTS CAR COURSE
8-8:45 a.m.: NASCAR XFINITY Series practice (Follow live)
12 p.m.: NASCAR XFINITY Series Coors Light Pole Qualifying, CNBC (Follow live)
3:30 p.m.: NASCAR XFINITY Series Mid-Ohio Challenge (75 laps, 169.35 miles), NBCSN (Follow live)
 
The Toyota qualifying times are pretty near to what they ran in June.

The Penske cars, however, are a full 3 SECONDS faster.

And Keselowski claims the other guys are doing something fishy.;)
 
Nope wrong again. No wonder your so difficult....78 was one of the best cars winning stages and leading laps at Fontana, martinsville, bristol. Been very strong ALL year long. 18 was dominant at martinsville! 20 dominated alot of Richmond! The 18 and 78 each have led twice as many laps as Harvick the 4th overall and top Ford all year long. Like i said it's not recently it's been all year.

http://racing-reference.info/raceyear/2017/W

Penske Fords won the both the Richmond and Martinsville races and we all know what took place with #22 after Richmond :)
 
The Toyota qualifying times are pretty near to what they ran in June.

The Penske cars, however, are a full 3 SECONDS faster.

And Keselowski claims the other guys are doing something fishy.;)

Keselowski was a little over 1 MPH faster than last years pole winner Logano? 1.399
2016 Pole Speed: 201.698 mph
2017 Pole Speed 203.097
 
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Top 10 2nd practice at Michigan
1 #42 Kyle Larson 21 202.532 35.550 Leader
2 #2 Brad Keselowski 19 202.332 35.585 0.035
3 #48 Jimmie Johnson 28 202.310 35.589 0.039
4 #21 Ryan Blaney 21 202.003 35.643 0.093
5 #24 Chase Elliott 25 201.884 35.664 0.114
6 #88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 14 201.511 35.730 0.180
7 #77 Erik Jones 22 201.387 35.752 0.202
8 #18 Kyle Busch 24 201.376 35.754 0.204
9 #41 Kurt Busch 28 201.376 35.754 0.204
10 #78 Martin Truex Jr. 16 201.320 35.764 0.214
the rest: http://www.foxsports.com/nascar/racetrax
 
When the current qualifying format was announced I really thought I was going to like it. I was actually looking forward to it. I couldn't have been more wrong. It's finally gotten to the point that I don't watch it. I prefer the single car runs over multiple cars on the track. I used to like seeing things, such as the ghost car, to display the differences in the current pole sitter to the car on the track. One car against the clock with the fastest sitting on the pole for the race is the way qualifying in NASCAR oughta be.

They qualify one at a time now. I don't know why they don't use the ghost car, I guess they think their timing with the red and green colors works better.
 
They qualify one at a time now. I don't know why they don't use the ghost car, I guess they think their timing with the red and green colors works better.
It's sort of one at a time, sometimes there's 3-5 cars on a track at once making a lap. Then you gotta deal with guys coming and going and not interfering with your lap. On TV what sucks is you don't get to focus on one guy's lap, just a bunch of numbers over to the side for every car that's on the track at that time and they put the camera on whoever they feel like you should be watching.

My biggest grip with knockout is you're giving guys multiple chances to get it right. It removes all of the pressure to go out and nail it on the first try.
 
Why would NASCAR make it known that they are going to take the cars and tear them down? That should be something that's done at random. If it's historically been done after Michigan, maybe switch it up? Another "durrrrr" decision on their part.
 
Nope wrong again. No wonder your so difficult....78 was one of the best cars winning stages and leading laps at Fontana, martinsville, bristol. Been very strong ALL year long. 18 was dominant at martinsville! 20 dominated alot of Richmond! The 18 and 78 each have led twice as many laps as Harvick the 4th overall and top Ford all year long. Like i said it's not recently it's been all year.

http://racing-reference.info/raceyear/2017/W

The 78 is the anomoly. The 18 had not had winning speed until Kansas. Listen to the scanners and the drivers--even Ratcliff was talking about the car being out of balance. Anything the 18 did prior to Kansas was about the driver not the car.

I think your earlier comment was closer--that the 78 and 18 have been pretty good all year while the rest got with the program in Kansas. IMO, it isn't until you start talking about the entire group can you start talking about dominance.
 
When the current qualifying format was announced I really thought I was going to like it. I was actually looking forward to it. I couldn't have been more wrong. It's finally gotten to the point that I don't watch it. I prefer the single car runs over multiple cars on the track. I used to like seeing things, such as the ghost car, to display the differences in the current pole sitter to the car on the track. One car against the clock with the fastest sitting on the pole for the race is the way qualifying in NASCAR oughta be.
Agree totally!
Used to have some drama, now it's just a mess.
 
It will be a pleasure to see a Toyota win Sunday ......... this screwed up format will probably screw up Brad
I guess I'm just old school, but I don't understand the brand loyalty these days. There is nothing on these cars remotely like anything a street car has except the manufacturers logo. Hell Toyota never even had a rear wheel drive, pushrod driven V8 car. Personally I pick drivers, not what decal is on their hood. But that's just me.
 
Why would NASCAR make it known that they are going to take the cars and tear them down? That should be something that's done at random. If it's historically been done after Michigan, maybe switch it up? Another "durrrrr" decision on their part.
I doubt it's actually a thing they made known, but it wouldn't surprise me if someone leaked it or folks in the garage are friends with folks inside NASCAR and word gets around.
 
I guess I'm just old school, but I don't understand the brand loyalty these days. There is nothing on these cars remotely like anything a street car has except the manufacturers logo. Hell Toyota never even had a rear wheel drive, pushrod driven V8 car. Personally I pick drivers, not what decal is on their hood. But that's just me.
I don't think old school has a thing to do with it. I wish I was the one who invented those tacky decals that had a little kid pissing on Ford or Chevys or Dodges eh?
 
Jimmie pancaked the hell out of the wall.

Gracious, got loose on entry and that was all she wrote.
 
JJ has had a hell of a lot of mishaps in practice and Q this year. And his times haven't been all that, so the argument that they're pushing the edge cause the edge is fast can't fully apply.
 
I doubted stage racing's ability to make the races more entertaining at the beginning of the year. Now, I'm hooked!

If 3-4 stages per race are good wait until Nascar goes to 4-5 next year. I don't notice enough meaningful difference with stage racing to overcome the long delays between the stages and the needless ticking off of laps run under caution. I think I am in the minority on this and I respect the opinion of those who like them.
 
I guess I'm just old school, but I don't understand the brand loyalty these days. There is nothing on these cars remotely like anything a street car has except the manufacturers logo. Hell Toyota never even had a rear wheel drive, pushrod driven V8 car. Personally I pick drivers, not what decal is on their hood. But that's just me.



Because ....... if a Toyota wins it means that Brad, JJ and Harvick didn't ;)
 
I see a future for you with the NY Times or CNN. :)

The difference being that I acknowledged my oversight. Now who is the lead candidate for a research job at NYT or CNN?
 
I guess I'm just old school, but I don't understand the brand loyalty these days. There is nothing on these cars remotely like anything a street car has except the manufacturers logo. Hell Toyota never even had a rear wheel drive, pushrod driven V8 car. Personally I pick drivers, not what decal is on their hood. But that's just me.

Yeah, I have posted about this several times, and if you come from the school of thought that there needs to be a direct connection between street and track, then the manufacturer loyalty doesn't make sense. If you buy into the thinking that racing is a manufacturer's expression of what it can do on the track, then there is more of a connection. It has been quite some time from the days of drive it off of the track and home IMO.
 
JJ has had a hell of a lot of mishaps in practice and Q this year. And his times haven't been all that, so the argument that they're pushing the edge cause the edge is fast can't fully apply.

JJ hates this aero package IMO, and Hendrick/Chevy haven't been able to give him anything to like it more.
 
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