2019 Auto Club Speedway --Auto Club 400 -- Pre-Race Thread

[FLRacingFan]

Lol. Even MRN - NASCAR state media - said the fans in the stands are booing.

Yikes. But hey - NASCAR’s in show business, folks!

 

[Ventisca]

Time to drug test all NASCAR Executives...

 

[Kiante]

How is this NASCARs fault? You know how much time you have , if you dont make it, its on the Team not NASCAR. Blame everything but where it belongs.

NASCAR's fault for trying to implement useless gimmicks.

Teams follow suit with the rules and with this package, it makes it pointless to go out alone on track. The package has been pretty good on Sunday when it matters.

 

[Zerkfitting]

Group qualifying doesn't work.

 

[Spotter22]

Pure stupidity to sit when you know you arent going to make it. The teams should be embarrassed

 

[FearThe4]

all the drivers deserved that for sitting on pit road like idiots.

 

[AdoubleU24]

I have a feeling rules are going to change after this week.

The fact that all they changed going into this was the pit road speed limit is hilarious.

It's so obvious to everyone except the morons running the show.

 

[Spotter22]

NASCAR's fault for trying to implement useless gimmicks.

Teams follow suit with the rules.

Its not a gimmick, you have a car, you have a clock, use it.

 

[Brentford]

What are the chances NASCAR uploads this to social media to be replayed over and over?

If I were them, I would trash the tapes and try to pretend it never happened.

 

[Charlie Spencer]

How is this NASCARs fault? You know how much time you have , if you dont make it, its on the Team not NASCAR. You guys will blame everything but where it belongs.

I don't know about anybody else, but I don't blame the teams. They're doing their best to take advantage of the aero package they've been given. I don't care that none of them advanced. Even it they'd all made the line, qualifying is now just another meaningless drafting crap shoot. I blame NASCAR for not seeing that coming, and I expect I'll continue to blame them all season as I don't expect them to make any changes.

 

[BobbyFord]

I used to look forward to watching qualifying. My bad for tuning in this afternoon.

 

[Charlie Spencer]

“Sorry to all the fans who couldn’t enjoy qualifying because of the rules package we’ve got.”

- Blaney on MRN

Yeah, that's an invite to the Monster hauler.

 

[SeventyGTX]

Its not a gimmick, you have a car, you have a clock, use it.

The gimmick is group qualifying for the "show".

 

[Pandaz3]

Laughingstock qualifying

 

[Charlie Spencer]

Pure stupidity to sit when you know you arent going to make it. The teams should be embarrassed

I assume you saw what happened to Kurt Busch in the second round? Pure stupidity to go out by yourself. Essentially these teams made the call to sit on their second round speeds.

 

[Kiante]

Its not a gimmick, you have a car, you have a clock, use it.

Its a gimmick that was brought from F1 and Moto GP. The teams have a car, engineers, and everything else. At the end of the day, its the template of the rules that are laid out and teams move within them.

It works for them for open wheel racing, but for NASCAR not so much. Just keep it simple with single car runs, at least IMO. I get where you're coming from though, but after the whole experiment with the pack qualifying on plate tracks and jams on the short tracks. Just keep it simple.

 

[Spotter22]

The gimmick is group qualifying for the "show".

Drivers and teams fault.

 

[gnomesayin]

But hey - NASCAR’s in show business, folks!

They somehow managed to cheapen the process, remove all credibility, and make it immensely boring and unsatisfying. Quite a feat.

 

[AdoubleU24]

If they were running last year's package they woulda made it

 

[Spotter22]

I assume you saw what happened to Kurt Busch in the second round? Pure stupidity to go out by yourself. Essentially these teams made the call to sit on their second round speeds.

Yeah and if one of those drivers would have gone out they would be on the pole

 

[SeventyGTX]

Drivers and teams fault.

Obviously, but if they didn't have a rules package that penalized the first car out, they wouldn't have this problem. The only solution is back to single car qualifying.

 

[kyle18fan]

 

[AdoubleU24]

I'm not surprised whatsoever that you're the only one defending NASCAR on this lol.

"They don't race by themselves so why should they qualify by themselves." Amirite?

 

[Kiante]

If they were running last year's package they woulda made it

What they have is good for Sunday IMHO. Honestly, I can't ask for much more in how the racing has been so far. Just the drafting during qualifying... Eh, not the greatest thing.

 

[Switchback]

Yeah and if one of those drivers would have gone out they would be on the pole

No they wouldn't, everyone else would have followed and they'd probably be 12th for being out first.

 

[Charlie Spencer]

Yeah and if one of those drivers would have gone out they would be on the pole

If one of those drivers had gone, the rest would have followed, benefited from his being in front, and he'd have wound up 12th. I don't remember who led the pack off pit road toward the end of the second round but I do remember he wound up 15th. Being the leader is poison.

If your second round was in the top 5, you have almost nothing to gain by having the third round run successfully. You have little to lose by getting to the front of pit road at the start of the third and trying to slow the rest of the pack when they roll. If I could figure that out just now, the crew chiefs figured it out at Atlanta.

EDIT: anybody have this DVR'ed? When the cars were sitting at pit exit, I'd love to know which three were in front and where they finished round 2.

 

[Charlie Spencer]

If Aunt Jemima had nuts she'd be Uncle Jemima

I gotta agree with you on this one. If they'd have been running last year's package, they would have handled their strategy completely differently.

 

[AdoubleU24]

I gotta agree with you on this one. If they'd have been running last year's package, they would have handled their strategy completely differently.

My point was moreso that they would've had the HP and mph to make it back around lol

 

[Kiante]

I gotta agree with you on this one. If they'd have been running last year's package, they would have handled their strategy completely differently.

They did:

5 minutes last year and about 30-40 seconds in the cars were already out. Fast forward to about... 43 minutes in. This was for the spring race last year.

 

[Efisher131]

This is why NASCAR is hemorrhaging fans. Absolutely no credibility

 

[Spotter22]

They did:

5 minutes last year and about 30-40 seconds in the cars were already out. Fast forward to about... 43 minutes in. This was for the spring race last year.

This aint last year my friend.

 

[Spotter22]

Cause he wouldn't have time to draft his way to the front Sunday in this crap ass package? Lol

Crap ass package, I only saw one supposed Cup driver spin it out

 

[jws926]

Wow.....

 

[Kiante]

This aint last year my friend.

I know, but I was just answering Charlie's question about strategy. Two completely different beasts at the end of the day.

Today, cars left with about 45 seconds left. Last year was about 4 minutes and 20 seconds left. In the last round of the session.

 

[Spotter22]

No they wouldn't, everyone else would have followed and they'd probably be 12th for being out first.

I was referencing what Kurt Busch did

 

[Charlie Spencer]

This aint last year my friend.

That's his point, that there's no value to comparisons to last year. He's on the same side of this point as you and I.

 

[Kiante]

That's his point, that there's no value to comparisons to last year. He's on the same side of this as you and I.

Exactly, two completely different situations. Crew chief's and engineers maximizing what they have at the end of the day.

 

[BobbyFord]

Anyone still curious why fans are fading away?

 

[Charlie Spencer]

Anyone still curious why fans are fading away?

We reversed ours for the year last weekend. They're blowing down now instead of up.

 

[lisa]

Where did Kurt qualify?