Finally the Daytona 500 Race Thread

Professur said:
Sad sad sad. Need I remind people that Dale Sr.'s last race, he spent his last laps blocking to give Mickey Waltrip ... his team driver ... the win. Biffle drove for his team. That's what he's paid to do.
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And it's not like the #8 gave Waltrip any really trouble during the closing laps...you know, kind of like Biffle and kenseth in this situation ;)

What happened here is that Hamlin had no interest in helping Earnhardt and the other 6 HMS cars were no where to be found when it counted.
 
A 'fun fact' for Daytona Speedweeks. I can't verify this number but this is what I am seeing posted.....

A total of 118 different cars and trucks were involved in crashes at Daytona during Speedweeks. And that doesn't count the jet dryer.
 
Some TV numbers.....

End result Last year's Daytona 500 on Sunday: 8.7

Fox overnights: Start to red flag -- 7.8. After red red flag -- 8.8.

Bottom line: Final overnight rating was 7.7 and Fox's highest rated Monday night since "at least last year's World Series."
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
A 'fun fact' for Daytona Speedweeks. I can't verify this number but this is what I am seeing posted.....

A total of 118 different cars and trucks were involved in crashes at Daytona during Speedweeks. And that doesn't count the jet dryer.
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I was amazed...those jet dryers burn like failed rocket launches once they get going...you ain't putting that out with a hand-held.

Still....If I was in charge I wouldn't worry about it much....how often can you have a driver so dumb to hit a jet dryer?

Thank goodness everybody got away from the fire...and that was a FIRE!
 
On the who finished 2nd I know Bill Elliott was 4th in 1997 after Gordon passed him below the yellow line.
 
Jeffrey00 said:
Why is it that I don't like this type of racing makes me picky? I actually wouldn't have mind it, if it wasn't single file. That second groove couldn't move at all.
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Just a theory here on my part, but maybe that second groove couldn't move as well because of the bigger rear wicker on the cars. The side draft could of changed, making it harder for the outside groove to advance while they were in a big pack.
 
NASCAR wanted to get rid of the tandem, yet it took two cars hooked up to be able to pass while a third car in tow proved to be no help at all. All the changes made and the cars still run in twos, except now they run two by two in a pack.
 
Mopardh9 said:
Just a theory here on my part, but maybe that second groove couldn't move as well because of the bigger rear wicker on the cars. The side draft could of changed, making it harder for the outside grove to advance while they were in a big pack.
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well,Idont know.................it worked thursday n friday night.
 
Mopardh9 said:
Just a theory here on my part, but maybe that second groove couldn't move as well because of the bigger rear wicker on the cars. The side draft could of changed, making it harder for the outside grove to advance while they were in a big pack.
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I'm not sure I understand what you mean. The NW cars have a larger spoiler than the cup cars. The cup cars had a smaller spoiler than usual.
 
Mopardh9 said:
Just a theory here on my part, but maybe that second groove couldn't move as well because of the bigger rear wicker on the cars. The side draft could of changed, making it harder for the outside grove to advance while they were in a big pack.
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Bigger rear wicker??????You talking about the shark fin on the trunk?
 
From NASCAR.com (for everyone that thinks Greg was dragging the brake)...

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- For two weeks, they said, the tandem would win the race. Despite the fans' disdain for it, despite NASCAR's attempts to deemphasize it, drivers in the sport's premier division seemed almost certain that at the end, a two-car draft would be what claimed the Daytona 500.

In the final laps early Tuesday morning, those two cars belonged to Greg Biffle and Dale Earnhardt Jr. So Earnhardt's No. 88 hooked up with the back end of Biffle's No. 16 in a green-white-checkered restart -- and the tandem draft still couldn't catch eventual winner Matt Kenseth, who claimed his second title in the Great American Race.

"This new package really didn't come down to tandem racing at the end," Earnhardt said. "I mean, me and Greg were pushing like heck and we couldn't get to Matt. So they have definitely made some strides in trying to make that not the definite way to win in a Sprint Cup level."

The tandem certainly seemed to be the difference-maker in last weekend's Budweiser Shootout, when Kyle Busch used the slingshot around Tony Stewart in a final-lap, two-man duel to claim the exhibition season opener. Yet a similar situation didn't play out in the rain-postponed Daytona 500, in which Kenseth led the final 38 laps. As it had shown in winning the second of two 150-mile qualifiers on Thursday, the No. 17 car was just too strong.

"Even on them restarts when Dale Jr. tried to push me, I tried to give him air and stay with him, but our car just ran so good, he couldn't quite keep up and stay attached to us," Kenseth said. "So I had to make other moves to keep the momentum up. I think when you come to plate racing, a huge, huge percentage of it is the car and how fast the car is. But I think Thursday was really good for us, because we learned some things in them last few laps that I think probably helped a little bit [Monday]."

Still, the drivers behind Kenseth were surprised they couldn't make up ground.

"Once we got straight, I pushed the gas down, I thought that we'd drive up on the back of the No. 17 without a problem," Biffle said. "It must have just pushed enough air out in front of my car that it pushed the No. 17 car out about five, six feet in front of me, and I couldn't get any closer. I thought, well, I need to get out from behind him because then we'll be able to go by him. So on the back stretch I moved up a little bit, and Matt is not stupid. We had no run at him. We were all going the same speed."

When Biffle moved over, Kenseth did the same. In retrospect, Biffle said he probably should have slowed down to try and put some distance between him and Kenseth, so he and Earnhardt could pair up and try to make a run at the leader.

"Then we could have moved up beside him coming off the corner, and then Junior and I would have had to dice it out to the line," he said. "That's probably what I should have done, is just anchored down the brakes down the backstretch and put distance in between us. [That's] the only way we probably would have got a run at him. But I thought for sure I didn't need to do that. Of course, Monday morning quarterback, I'd do it now, but I didn't think I needed to. I thought [Earnhardt would] shove me right up to his back bumper. He had all night. I had no doubt it would happen then."

But it didn't, and instead it gave the impression that Biffle was blocking for his Roush Fenway teammate. Earnhardt, who eventually overtook Biffle for second place, didn't see it that way.

"This is the Daytona 500, and I don't know what it pays, but it's a lot of money. And his team, I know that they're teammates, but his group of guys that specifically work on that car or travel down here to pit the car during the race, his crew chief, Greg himself, they work way too hard to decide to run second in a scenario like that," Earnhardt said.

"I'm pretty sure that if I know Greg, and ... if he had an opportunity to get around Matt and had a chance to win the Daytona 500, he would have took it immediately. He's trying to do what he could do. If I were him, I can't imagine what his game plan was in his head, but if I were him, I would have tried to let me push him by and then pull down in front of Matt, and force Matt to be my pusher and then leave the No. 88 for the dogs. But that didn't work out."

It didn't for either of them. And although Earnhardt seemed pleased with his Daytona 500 run early Tuesday morning, he knew at some point the internal second-guessing would begin.

"I'm very happy," he said. "I'm really in a good place. I'm not frustrated at all, I promise. I'm in a great mood. I run second here a lot, though, so I know I don't feel it right now, but I know later [Tuesday] and [Wednesday] and the rest of the week it's going to eat at me what I could have done to win the race. So that is kind of frustrating."
 
FenderBumper said:
Ok, maybe that's what he meant.
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The lower rear bumper? That might change the side draft.

But in the end, Biffle just never pulled out. If he did, it would have slowed the 17 significantly.

Just like we always hear, it's like pulling a parachute after that guy pulls out of the rear air stream.

Biffle just never did, scared that JR might spin him in the end.
 
MOEJOE said:
The lower rear bumper? That might change the side draft.

But in the end, Biffle just never pulled out. If he did, it would have slowed the 17 significantly.

Just like we always hear, it's like pulling a parachute after that guy pulls out of the rear air stream.

Biffle just never did, scared that JR might spin him in the end.
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It's possible that Biffles motor was laying down, but he still needed to move to a different line. When you have a pusher, you don't use the draft pass. You get to the high line and go balls to the wall.
 
mike honcho said:
I just find it funny that Bif could pull up to the 17's rear bumper for every lap of the race except for the last one.:rolleyes:But hey that Ford Cheerleader from the West Coast is going thru alot of trouble to try and get us to believe it.
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Believe what you want. I'm basing my opinion from the statements of the two guys that finished 2nd and 3rd, not a bunch of (sad) Chevy lovers on a chat forum.
 
mike honcho said:
I just find it funny that Bif could pull up to the 17's rear bumper for every lap of the race except for the last one.:rolleyes:But hey that Ford Cheerleader from the West Coast is going thru alot of trouble to try and get us to believe it.
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heeee
 
So it looks like they both went in at the same time.

Where are Brad's twitter pics????

Enquiring Minds want to know...
 
FB, you crack me up!

BTW, this is reply number 999 to this thread. :eek:

See what a little rain delay and a jet fuel fire will do for you? :D
 
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