Cup RACE thread --- Homestead

StandOnIt said:
Yeah I don't agree with the gimmick assessment. The track pavement is rough and the tire is fairly soft. New tires are going to let cars go everywhere they want, but shortly later the fastest way is running the top groove when the tires give way.
This week it is Martinsville, a true one lane track tires or not. There won't be hardly any passing. It you are thinking about watching because you will see tons of passing, you would be better off taking a baseball bat to a gold course. Makes about the same sense but you would have better luck with the golf ball and the bat.
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Martinsville has always been like this though. That's what makes it so fun, you typically have to go through someone to get around them
 
Jorge De Guzman said:
Just finished watching the race. Had no idea, kept my phone away from me all day. Good to see your favorite guy win. Thought the 12 was the best car though. Kyle survived calamity on pit road, hitting the wall and racing with the 11. Awesome win, hopefully he goes on a run, Larson is now the 3rd winningest driver in HMS history.

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Yeah - it's another example like I was saying with Bell where it's not like they were dominating but they executed all day and things went their way at the end. The long run, Blaney blowing up and Alex chocking and pounding the wall all were what he needed. I am not positive he needed Alex to choke but I am not 100% sure he would have gotten by him. I think Alex would have really taken his line away and made it tough.

As a Chase fan I am a little mystified to be honest. Based on lap times all day he had a top 5 car and was making his way slowly by surely into the top 5 before the very odd penalty (once again the "golden boy" gets a questionable penalty that NASCAR really did not have to call) but even after that he blasted his way from 30th to 15th and things were looking up. Then the car just suddenly went to junk and Chase was DEAD silent on the radio for the entire last run. Not sure if the track transitioned and they just did not keep up with it or he used his stuff up too fast.

I talk about that execution and things going your way. The 9 team has had only one clean race this season at that was Phoenix when they brought their worst car. I am still optimistic but yesterday was a let down.
 
Mispeedway15 said:
Martinsville has always been like this though. That's what makes it so fun, you typically have to go through someone to get around them
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Yeah, haven't short tracks like Martinsville always been this way? I remember Bristol back in the day was they way too before the reconfigure.
 
SeventyGTX said:
Exactly, Larson has a sense of how hard he can push it. Sometimes he loses, but often times he doesn't and that is what differentiates him from the others.
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He has a lot of experience hitting that wall. Never in my life had I seen anything as crazy as what he did in the trucks at Eldora years ago. He eventually paid the price, but what a show it was!
 
StandOnIt said:
Speaking of generation cars.
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That was part of the goal, right? From about 2017 onwards we had guys winning 7, 8, 9, even 10 races a year. The same teams tend to win the most races and the championship, but several more teams have the ability to steal a victory here and there now.
 
Efisher131 said:
On the worn out tracks, the car makes the speed early in the run, the DRIVER makes the speed later in the run.

What we saw yesterday was a driver utilizing his skills to win with a 5th place car on a long run to the finish.
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I don't disagree on what we saw yesterday with Larson. That said, I don't think it's a simple that the driver makes long run speed. I know they have a say in it with how that manage tires but there's a lot more that goes into it with car set up and air pressure and so on. Larson did a great job yesterday hands down but it still to me at least is an example of how fickle this sport is and why we should not put so much on winning. If a caution came out with 20 to go Larson was screwed because it seemed early in the run his car was a little mid. Like I said before also, if Blaney does not blow up, if Bowman does not choke and so on. Winning is what happens when you drive a great race and luck falls your way also. That's why I've never been that concerned with wins. They come when they come when the team is clicking and everything goes right. We saw it 3 weeks in a row with CB. This is why consistency impresses me more. To me, that is more in the driver's hands. Great job to Larson though. Before that long run it did not seem to me he had much of a chance. That being said, I don't think a ton should be made of it. This is what we expect at Vegas, Homestead, Bristol and Darlington with him.
 
StandOnIt said:
Speaking of generation cars.
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I don't fully agree with this. I think the modification of the schedule had more to do with it and not enough people mention this. The schedule was so littered with 1.5 & 2 Mile tracks in 2021 and years before that a race team could hit a home run and dominate.
 
StandOnIt said:
It's called managing your tires. Larson saved his tires qualifying, saved them on restarts and consistently did his gaining of spots when everybody else for the most part had used theirs up. He did it all day long.
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See...right there. None of us KNOW this. We have no idea how hard he was pushing early in the run compared to what the car was capable of. It COULD be true but we just don't know. It could just as easily be that Larson was better at making speed on worn tires than the rest and without seeing proof such as what his tires look like compared to others that would be my best guess. That being said I don't know for sure either. Either way though, the trend over reacting to wins will just never die. Larson drove a great race and everything fell the way it needed to for him as well and he won at a track that everyone thought he would win on. Everyone was ready to crown Bell as the best ever a few weeks ago and he has been barely noticeable on the track the last few weeks outside of spinning this week and pitting in a teammate's box last week. Relax. Long season and if I am a Larson fan, as good as this win was
Mispeedway15 said:
I don't fully agree with this. I think the modification of the schedule had more to do with it and not enough people mention this. The schedule was so littered with 1.5 & 2 Mile tracks in 2021 and years before that a race team could hit a home run and dominate.
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I don't feel like Larson's win rate has dropped off much outside of that one magical 2021 season regardless of the car. I'd like to see some data on it though.
 
wi_racefan said:
Didn't they send HMS tires to a lab several times and still couldn't find anything?
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Yes, I believe so.
My post was sarcasm obviously, but I did see an interview with Evernham several years ago where he all but admitted they were doing interesting things with their tires back then.
 
dirtfan said:
Yes, I believe so.
My post was sarcasm obviously, but I did see an interview with Evernham several years ago where he all but admitted they were doing interesting things with their tires back then.
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It was mostly with holes in them. Harvick admitted to it as well. They were looking in the right spot, just for the wrong thing lol!
 
Charlie Spencer said:
Yep. So I didn't have my Cup recording spoiled, I switched to golf and checked back every few minutes.
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Nice to have options. Not sure how I watched everything before the advent of DVR. LOL. September/October are huge for me because NFL/NASCAR/MLB are my top 3. We used to have game nights with friends on Sundays and watch the race, Yankee game and both our favorite football teams. Some late nights for sure. :)
 
Charlie Spencer said:
I was. Since the IndyCar race would end first, I didn't want the Cup booth to ruin it for me. I watched Cup this afternoon.
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Same. I made sure to watch Indy first while navigating my way through a family party. Cup got the DVR treatment. And I’m still going to go back and really watch the IndyCar race uninterrupted if I have time this week.
 
dirtfan said:
Yes, I believe so.
My post was sarcasm obviously, but I did see an interview with Evernham several years ago where he all but admitted they were doing interesting things with their tires back then.
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If I remember correctly it was Jack Roush accusing the 24 team of soaking tires in a “special solution” during one of Jeff’s tears he was on during the 98 season, as he won a few races with a two tire change, last pit stop of the day. I believe it was a 4 race win stretch for the 24 team in early August where Jack made his feelings known, right before the Bristol night race. Mark Martin was the one to win the Bristol night race that year while Jack crowed “you can’t see rainbows at night” in VL. Needless to say I haven’t felt bad as Jack’s team has been lost in the wilderness for the last how many years before Brad bought in, couldn’t happen to a better guy imo.
 
Jorge De Guzman said:
If I remember correctly it was Jack Roush accusing the 24 team of soaking tires in a “special solution” during one of Jeff’s tears he was on during the 98 season, as he won a few races with a two tire change, last pit stop of the day. I believe it was a 4 race win stretch for the 24 team in early August where Jack made his feelings known, right before the Bristol night race. Mark Martin was the one to win the Bristol night race that year while Jack crowed “you can’t see rainbows at night” in VL. Needless to say I haven’t felt bad as Jack’s team has been lost in the wilderness for the last how many years before Brad bought in, couldn’t happen to a better guy imo.
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Yes - There was talk of a special chemical being made by Dupont since they were experts on that and sponsoring him.
 
Jorge De Guzman said:
If I remember correctly it was Jack Roush accusing the 24 team of soaking tires in a “special solution” during one of Jeff’s tears he was on during the 98 season, as he won a few races with a two tire change, last pit stop of the day. I believe it was a 4 race win stretch for the 24 team in early August where Jack made his feelings known, right before the Bristol night race. Mark Martin was the one to win the Bristol night race that year while Jack crowed “you can’t see rainbows at night” in VL. Needless to say I haven’t felt bad as Jack’s team has been lost in the wilderness for the last how many years before Brad bought in, couldn’t happen to a better guy imo.
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This is correct, except that I remember ot happening way more than just a few races, lol
 
Jorge De Guzman said:
If I remember correctly it was Jack Roush accusing the 24 team of soaking tires in a “special solution” during one of Jeff’s tears he was on during the 98 season, as he won a few races with a two tire change, last pit stop of the day. I believe it was a 4 race win stretch for the 24 team in early August where Jack made his feelings known, right before the Bristol night race. Mark Martin was the one to win the Bristol night race that year while Jack crowed “you can’t see rainbows at night” in VL. Needless to say I haven’t felt bad as Jack’s team has been lost in the wilderness for the last how many years before Brad bought in, couldn’t happen to a better guy imo.
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Given how often accusations turn out to be projection these days, I now assume Roush was soaking their tires in Simple Green.
 
AJ's finish goes under the radar.

I truly love seeing Matt Kaulig and AJ celebrate together, but I'd like to see AJ leave Kaulig and land elsewhere. He's been carrying the banner for the team for over half a decade now.
 
Kiante said:
AJ's finish goes under the radar.

I truly love seeing Matt Kaulig and AJ celebrate together, but I'd like to see AJ leave Kaulig and land elsewhere. He's been carrying the banner for the team for over half a decade now.
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I think A.J. likes being in that position as #1 driver on the team. Job security in the racing world is a good place to be, especially at his age.
 
StandOnIt said:
I think A.J. likes being in that position as #1 driver on the team. Job security in the racing world is a good place to be, especially at his age.
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No offense to AJ, but being the #1 driver at that organization isn't something to really brag about. The #10 car is literally a rent-a-ride
 
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