Las Vegas Pre-race Race Thread

Testing, testing and more testing. :cool:


Teams test Thursday at Las Vegas: Sprint Cup teams typically get only about three hours of practice on a race weekend. They will get more than six hours on Thursday alone at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and then about three more hours on Friday and Saturday. The key for drivers and crew chiefs during Thursday's one-day test session will be to not only find pure speed in the car but also find ways for it to handle better in traffic. The test, which will not count against the four-per-organization allotment for the year, is key for smaller teams that don't test often at non-Cup tracks. NASCAR opted to open Las Vegas, the first 1.5-mile track on a 36-race schedule that includes 11 races at 1.5-mile tracks, a day early for testing rather than have the teams using one of their four allotted tests this early in the year. Teams will be allowed to have telemetry on the cars for the day of testing and change engines after the test. NASCAR will begin its regular race weekend with technical inspection Friday morning, followed by practice and qualifying.
 
StandOnIt said:
Think about it..when you have the fastest car, who is behind you..uhhhh ding...everybody else.
When you have a 20th place car, you have twenty cars to pass or 2o cars to get passed by.
make an air pressure change for the good in 20th..you pass 5, 6, mybe 7, slower cars, or if it is bad, the same amount backwards..this happens all day long. Doesn't happen in the top 5 cars as much, they usually get better as the race goes on, but they usually ALL get better. If on occasion, one of the top five doesn't improve their setup, bad pit, tires, bad race strategy, they get passed. And that is mainly why you don't see much passing for the lead. Also, most of the passing done by the top group is what I call pull over passing. The driver knows his car is slower, but he knows after the pit stop his car is going to get better, so don't fight to keep the lead and save it for the last 25 laps.
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I like where you are going with this , it's called racin. Add in pit stops , penalties , fuel strategy ,weather and track changes , parts failure , driver error, and you never know what might happen. That's why I watch .
 
SuperTex14 said:
I was at the inaugural race in LV and it seems nascar races there have always been parades. Face it, the best prepared team is going to be fastest, and at least pit stops provide some opportunities for teams to use different strategies to get better position and make the car drive better. With variable conditions, how well a driver communicates with his crew chief about what to change in the span of a 13 sec. pit stop will always be key.
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Great point , SuperTex . Quite often ,weather and track conditions change and the best running teams start to 'lose the handle' , while other teams have ' the track come to them '. I think that that was the strength of Earnhardt Sr. and obviously the weakness of newcomers like Pastrana , being able to identify to the crew chief what is happening to the racecar and exactly what is needed to fix it .
 
Not sure if this has been posted, havent seen it elsewhere.

Cant tell if the guy is being serious with the article. Here's some tibbit's
The solution to boring green flag racing at intermediate tracks has been found and it has nothing to do with the new Sprint Cup Series car and everything to do with something that NASCAR fans have come to take for granted during race coverage: The roof cam.

Before the race at Phoenix International Raceway, NASCAR announced that roof cams will not be installed on cars at any intermediate track. Why? Sprint Cup Series Director John Darby said that the roof cams could give a car as much as 80-90 pounds of extra downforce. That's almost one Danica Patrick!

And you know who got those maximum benefits? The leader of the race. But not any longer.

Now that the leader doesn't have that incredible advantage, it will be virtually impossible for a lead to be over 1 second in an intermediate track race. This week at Vegas? The NASCAR record for lead changes may be broken.
The newfound racing will extend back throughout the pack too. The cars will be three wide every lap. It could look like a restrictor plate race. All because of one tiny roof cam.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nasca...ed-wednesday-roof-cams-022012786--nascar.html
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"Welcome to Warped Wednesday, our new feature at From the Marbles. On it, we'll put out the rush to judgment map, go a little too far and have a little fun. Will it be funny? Sometimes. Will it be crazy and largely unbelievable? Probably. Will not everyone get it? Definitely. So let's get started, shall we?"

Yeah, he's making fun of nascar's ability to be so desperately clueless.
 
FenderBumper said:
"Welcome to Warped Wednesday, our new feature at From the Marbles. On it, we'll put out the rush to judgment map, go a little too far and have a little fun. Will it be funny? Sometimes. Will it be crazy and largely unbelievable? Probably. Will not everyone get it? Definitely. So let's get started, shall we?"

Yeah, he's making fun of nascar's ability to be so desperately clueless.
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Reason 45 why I should probably read the stupid italics at the top of a webpage, so I dont post something stupid on a forum. :dunce:
 
I already miss the roof cam. The in car shots aren't that great, you can't see squat, and I think Nascar's reason for taking them off is pure exaggerated B.S.
 
EI2IC said:
Reason 45 why I should probably read the stupid italics at the top of a webpage, so I dont post something stupid on a forum. :dunce:
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It wasn't so bad. Hell, dpk does a lot worse. ;)

StandOnIt said:
I already miss the roof cam. The in car shots aren't that great, you can't see squat, and I think Nascar's reason for taking them off is pure exaggerated B.S.
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Kinda shows how bad their gen 6 aero 'fix' is.
 
StandOnIt said:
I already miss the roof cam. The in car shots aren't that great, you can't see squat, and I think Nascar's reason for taking them off is pure exaggerated B.S.
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I read yesterday that they are working on a cam to put behind the rear-view mirror that will replace the missing camera on the intermediate tracks.
 
I'm just hoping for racing again. Where leaders can go at it swapping places, racing back in the pack and no more leader getting out 4 or 5 car lengths and no one can catch him.
 
Bobw said:
I'm just hoping for racing again. Where leaders can go at it swapping places, racing back in the pack and no more leader getting out 4 or 5 car lengths and no one can catch him.
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Quit asking for so much.:D
 
It's kind of scary how strong the #48 team is again. Wins the 500, finishes second at Phoenix and you know he's gonna be up front at Vegas.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
I read yesterday that they are working on a cam to put behind the rear-view mirror that will replace the missing camera on the intermediate tracks.
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That is better then nothing. It still isn't going to be a fan viewing improvement because you are looking thru the tear offs. I hope fan persuasion brings them back. The camera on wires at Daytona isn't going to do it, all it did was give a little different perspective. F1 has the best in car cams. They can locate their cameras better than Nascar so you can also see the driver. Grand Am, Rolex, you name it, all have roof cams. I'll shut up if they really do make a difference not being up there, I guess, if I have too. :)
 
Stewart Fan said:
It's kind of scary how strong the #48 team is again. Wins the 500, finishes second at Phoenix and you know he's gonna be up front at Vegas.
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No, you don't know he is going to be upfront.:) Tony, Brad, Kyle, Denny, etc. aren't going to lay down for him. Don't give up on the 14 this week. Phoenix is usually a parade until the last few laps. if they get a caution, and they usually do..well you know the rest of the story.
 
StandOnIt said:
No, you don't know he is going to be upfront.:) Tony, Brad, Kyle, Denny, etc. aren't going to lay down for him. Don't give up on the 14 this week. Phoenix is usually a parade until the last few laps. if they get a caution, and they usually do..well you know the rest of the story.
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I kind of forgot how Phoenix usually is, but Gen 6 sure didn't fix anything. Maybe all this stuff will work on the boring 1.5's. II don't have much hope, so I'll take up praying as a hobby.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
You guys sure don't give this car much of a chance, that's for sure.
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That's because they didn't do much more than focus on ending tandem racing. They added downforce, and that just makes the cars even MORE aero dependant and throw more dirty air around. Simple logic says the more aero dependant the cars are, the more advantage the leader will have. If F1 needs a button to overcome aero push, NASCAR's gen 6 doesn't stand a chance of changing much. The real death blow is still the weight of the cars, which dictate hard tires. Brians marketing company has Goodyear as a client, so rock hard tires that almost never fail and don't wear is what we'll get.
 
I know that most everyone has their minds made up on the car and that's fine. The people that complained about the old car will continue to complain about this new one. That's in that NASCAR fans code I think. I'm not going to get caught up in trying to defend something but I am going to sit back and watch this unfold.
 
Ah you know how it is, some won't be pleased if you shot a rocket up their a$$. Then there are a small bunch who weren't able to see or hear races for years early 60's, just could read about them. There would be a little black and white pic of the winner and a couple sentences in the back of hot rod or motor trend. Then came cable coverage, good for the townies, but not this country boy, took five years until my hooterville cable company decided to carry Nascar races, I could get dirt sprint races, my mom was a big fan, I would go over to her house and she and I would watch the races. She was a Kinser fan. that was cool. Young pups are spoiled rotten, me too now.
 
FenderBumper said:
...The real death blow is still the weight of the cars, which dictate hard tires. Brians marketing company has Goodyear as a client, so rock hard tires that almost never fail and don't wear is what we'll get.
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Goodyear is in a no win situation . If they make a crappy tire that fails , then the public won't buy Goodyear tires . Maybe they should hand Nascar back to Hoosier and let them deal with it.
 
ted@economy said:
Goodyear is in a no win situation . If they make a crappy tire that fails , then the public won't buy Goodyear tires . Maybe they should hand Nascar back to Hoosier and let them deal with it.
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You're not that new to NASCAR to remember how that worked out. :(
 
Guess you tire guys forgot Indy a few years back. I wouldn't bitch too much about a harder tire, at least they will be able to race. It is going to take a while until Goodyear gets it dialed in, just like the teams. Patience....
 
StandOnIt said:
It is going to take a while until Goodyear gets it dialed in, just like the teams. Patience....
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How much more time does Goodyear need? Seems like there's a new tire everytime we turn around. They don't seem to be getting better. Yes I do remember the debacle at Indy.

I don't recall as many tire failures with the old bias ply tires. Seems to me that pre-COT tire failures weren't the problem they are today.
 
not an expert here, but looking at the practice times, a lot of drivers best times are on laps in the teens and 20's. You think that is because of a hard tire or what?
 
StandOnIt said:
not an expert here, but looking at the practice times, a lot of drivers best times are on laps in the teens and 20's. You think that is because of a hard tire or what?
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It's probably because they made adjustments and went back out to turn more laps.

The lap counts accumulate, they don't reset.
 
StandOnIt said:
not an expert here, but looking at the practice times, a lot of drivers best times are on laps in the teens and 20's. You think that is because of a hard tire or what?
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I think it was Hamlin who said you could run an entire race on left sides and it wouldn't make much of a difference. Stewart last week said his car was much slower on new tires. Very odd....
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
It's probably because they made adjustments and went back out to turn more laps.

The lap counts accumulate, they don't reset.
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oh ok, so I guess they could also be taping up, like a mock qualifying run. They are a long ways from a track record. 190.456. Glad I am not a driver...that could get me fined 25 thou.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
You're not that new to NASCAR to remember how that worked out. :(
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You know memory is not my strong suit but I have the sense that the problems were more related to the competition between the brands . Either brand might have been trusted to provide a safe tire but as long as there was a competition , safety margins were going to be stressed in favor of speed. Nascar decided (and rightly so) to pick one brand and told them to err on the side of safety. So far it has worked well. IMO
 
Dang it Juan Pablo is lovin those new Hendrick loafers he is wearing. Top of the leaderboard and has been in the top ten all practice
 
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