2014 Fontana - Auto Club 400 - Pre Race Thread

So far in my non professional viewing position, I don't know if it is the rain delay or the new car or what, but I could swear they are racing harder this year. Maybe it is the new higher bounty on winning a race. Whatever, I think this week will tell the story a bit more. I don't think weather will be a factor, so it will be interesting to me anyway to see if they race hard from the start. This race isn't usually filled with non stop action, I don't expect that, but they made some changes to the cars during the off season. The no height rule is golden so far.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
3 out the top 10 driver ratings @ Fontana come out of HMS. 5 out of 10 if you throw the satellite team of SHR.
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Michigan or Fontana? Michigan is a top ten track in terms of average finish for only one HMS driver (Kahne - 9th best track out of 23). It's one of the five places Johnson has never won at, in double the starts as any of the other four. Even going back to the start of the organization in '84 it's only the 15th best track for the team. And since the beginning of 2012 it's the absolute worst track for the team (21.81 average finish).
 
FLRacingFan said:
Michigan or Fontana? Michigan is a top ten track in terms of average finish for only one HMS driver (Kahne - 9th best track out of 23). It's one of the five places Johnson has never won at, in double the starts as any of the other four. Even going back to the start of the organization in '84 it's only the 15th best track for the team. And since the beginning of 2012 it's the absolute worst track for the team (21.81 average finish).
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Those stats won't last forever, HMS is way too strong for a stat like that to continue!
 
I always get a few extra free tickets for the Nationwide race at Fontana and right now i have 2 extra, so if anyone wants them just PM me.
 
Nitro Dude said:
I always get a few extra free tickets for the Nationwide race at Fontana and right now i have 2 extra, so if anyone wants them just PM me.
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You're not offering people a trip out West are you? We've seen that before ;)
 
SlicedBread22 said:
Interesting Fact: Did you guys know that since the second NNS race here in 2008 only Joey have Kyle have won NNS races at Auto Club?

No different than most weeks but expect the 54 and the 22 to be up front on Saturday.
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Holy crap it's like you read my mind or something! ;):pbjtime:
 
From Wiki: "...Kyle Busch gave Toyota its first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win in the Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 9, 2008..."
*Edit* Ahh, first win at ACS. Yes, it was. One year I was there Tony was killing everyone in the Home Depot 20 before the mill expired prematurely.
 
Knockout quals at a track this large will be interesting. Do drivers only go out for 1-3 laps or do they try to beat the time to get to the line @ the end of each session?
 
ChexOrWrex said:
Knockout quals at a track this large will be interesting. Do drivers only go out for 1-3 laps or do they try to beat the time to get to the line @ the end of each session?
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I think it depends how fast their car is. Guys who are fast in practice might wait a bit and go get the quick lap in near the end. Tire wear is big at this track so I'm curious to compare speeds from the different rounds. I think once you make a lap that's going to be your lap on record for that session most likely. So they're going to want to get all they can out of it right away.
 
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SlicedBread22 said:
I think it depends how fast their car is. Guys who are fast in practice might wait a bit and go get the quick lap in near the end. Tire wear is big at this track so I'm curious to compare speeds from the different rounds. I think once you make a lap that's going to be your lap on record for that session most likely. So they're going to want to get all they can out of it right away.
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Qualifying depends on how fast your car is? :eek:
 
ChexOrWrex said:
Qualifying depends on how fast your car is? :eek:
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LOL Yes.. that's all I meant by that :rolleyes:

It was kind of a stupid question to begin with but what I saw saying is that cars that are slow in practice will probably get out quicker so they can get more runs in if they are still slow. While quicker cars might wait until its half over.. get a quick lap in and wait for the next round.
 
SlicedBread22 said:
LOL Yes.. that's all I meant by that :rolleyes:

It was kind of a stupid question to begin with but what I saw saying is that cars that are slow in practice will probably get out quicker so they can get more runs in if they are still slow. While quicker cars might wait until its half over.. get a quick lap in and wait for the next round.
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From what we saw last week I'm leaning that drivers are going to save their tires as much as possible for the final round. Last weeks pole sitter had the least amount of laps on his tires. I think it was 2 laps before the pole run.

Apparently teams only get one set of tires for ko qualifying? It would make it more interesting to allow teams to put on sticker tires for each round if they choose. It would put more cars on the track for longer runs in each round. It would also make it more interesting for the fans, which is the reason they went to this qualifying format to begin with.
 
mreed said:
From what we saw last week I'm leaning that drivers are going to save their tires as much as possible for the final round. Last weeks pole sitter had the least amount of laps on his tires. I think it was 2 laps before the pole run.

Apparently teams only get one set of tires for ko qualifying? It would make it more interesting to allow teams to put on sticker tires for each round if they choose. It would put more cars on the track for longer runs in each round. It would also make it more interesting for the fans, which is the reason they went to this qualifying format to begin with.
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So you want KO qualifying to be just like a race? Why react to what one driver did at Bristol? It's fine the way it is.
 
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