Take yourself back to 2013...

Efisher131

Efisher131

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Off weekend has me bored with no racing. So I figured I'd make a fun topic. It's 5 years ago, and you get a message from the you of today telling you all of these things will happen over the next 5 years. How would 2013 you react? Would you believe any of these? Which one would've surprised you most?

-Through 6 races in 2018, Hendrick Motorsports has 5 top 10s collectively between their 4 drivers
-Roush Fenway racing has scaled down to 2 cars, and they're struggling to even get top 20s
-Danica retires without a top 5 in cup
-Monster Energy sponsors the cup series
-Martin Truex Jr won the 2017 championship
-Kyle Busch won the 2015 championship missing 11 races
-Dale Jr, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon, Jeff Burton, Greg Biffle, Tony Stewart, Danica Patrick, Bobby Labonte, Marcos Ambrose, and Juan Pablo Montoya have all left cup racing in the past 5 years
-Between 36 and 38 cars are showing up for cup races, and no one was sent home from the Daytona 500 in 2018
 
I wouldn't suffer through a message board. :confused:
 
It would be easier to eliminate the events on your list that surprise me the least, but that will throw the thread off track.

I would say that Hendrick 2018 performance and Truex as 2017 champion would have been the longest shots as of 2013.
 
Dale Jr and Tony Stewart being retired would surprise me the most, I thought of all the current guys those two would be racing into their late 40’s into their early 50’s like previous drivers. Shoutout to Truex winning the Cup and Edwards being retired as circumstances that would also surprise me. Fun thread.
 
Truex winning for sure. Has an awesome car but he is remarkably consistent for driving such a low downforce car
 
-No way, Jose.
-Possibly? RFR was not looking too stout in 2013. I don't know. I probably could've foreseen them struggling to get top-tens this year, but top-twenties? Count me out.
-Danica not getting a top five makes me sad. I was sure that she would eventually break through, back in 2013.
-Maybe? Probably? I don't know. As long as there is a title sponsor, that's great.
-2013 me was hoping that one day, Truex winning a Cup would be a reality, but I was highly doubting it back then. In fact, I do not think that the thought even occurred to me. I probably thought that race wins were certainly in the cards, but a title? That seemed fairly irrational...
-I knew that Kyle was going to win a Cup one way or another. It was only a matter of "when", not "if".
-Burton, Biffle, Ambrose, Labonte, and Montoya were the only ones that I expected to go. Edwards's retirement announcement took me by surprise the most, by far!!!
-Certainly not. Definitely not. I am always looking for a over-sized crowd at Daytona.
-Stages are a surprise, and as they have wore on, I continue to have "mixed feelings" about them.
 
Edwards and Truex. Teams go through the motions especially with new drivers. Wasn't real surprised (even when Edwards was still in the 99) Roush went downhill after Kenseth left.
 
I'm with ReturnTrip - stages.

Of the original list, Monster Energy. Most of the others are just the normal ebb and flow of teams and drivers.
 
Larsonfan1995 said:
Off weekend has me bored with no racing. So I figured I'd make a fun topic. It's 5 years ago, and you get a message from the you of today telling you all of these things will happen over the next 5 years. How would 2013 you react? Would you believe any of these? Which one would've surprised you most?

-Through 6 races in 2018, Hendrick Motorsports has 5 top 10s collectively between their 4 drivers
What? Who are you? What are you doing in my room?!

-Roush Fenway racing has scaled down to 2 cars, and they're struggling to even get top 20s
You mean to tell me Hendrick and Roush are both doing poorly? What teams are doing well?

-Danica retires without a top 5 in cup
Well, that's not a surprise. She's only so-so in the Nationwide series.

-Monster Energy sponsors the cup series
Sprint left? Why did Sprint leave?

-Martin Truex Jr won the 2017 championship
What? That MWR driver got a championship? How did he beat 11 other Chase drivers?

-Kyle Busch won the 2015 championship missing 11 races
How is that possible? Is every driver missing races? Did NASCAR change the championship format?

-Dale Jr, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon, Jeff Burton, Greg Biffle, Tony Stewart, Danica Patrick, Bobby Labonte, Marcos Ambrose, and Juan Pablo Montoya have all left cup racing in the past 5 years
Oh, man. I knew Jeff would be retiring soon. Did the rest of them leave because of the disgusting championship format?

-Between 36 and 38 cars are showing up for cup races, and no one was sent home from the Daytona 500 in 2018
It's darn sad to hear NASCAR is destroying itself. Shame on NASCAR for implementing BS that fans and drivers hate!

You just ruined my entire day. I wish you had never visited me!
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My responses in bold.
 
Would never have believe that Kyle Busch would have snapped his leg in half and crushed his ankle only to come back and win it all. No ****** way would I have believed that.
 
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Revman said:
Would never have believe that Kyle Busch would have snapped his leg in half and crushed his ankle only to come back and win it all. No ******* way would I have believed that.
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How come? Did you really think those injuries would diminish his talent?
 
1. Martin Truex Jr won the 2017 championship: :confused: Considering he only had two wins following 2013 I would have never believed this in 1,000,000 years.
2. Kyle Busch won the 2015 championship missing 11 races: o_O I still have trouble comprehending :p.
3. Carl Edwards: :eek: Total shocker, see response to #1.
 
2 Sweet said:
How come? Did you really think those injuries would diminish his talent?
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Did anybody ever think that he could even race again that year? He had a ****** bone sticking out of his leg, and his ankle was screwed. Unbelievable display of badassness.
 
Mopardh9 said:
And he shouldn't of been allowed to win after missing all those races, total bs.
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I would ask, "Why?" but I have never heard a good explanation, and I don't expect one here. It's the hater thing, but even for haters, such a position is utter stupidity. A Hall of Fame Football Coach called it one of the greatest sports stories in history. I have heard many in the medical field call the pain that he drove through "indescribable." The only people not impressed apparently are the fans of this sport which says a lot about the state this sport is in. What Kyle Busch did will be a story told on his induction night into the Hall of Fame. Let that sink in. BTW--Kyle wasn't allowed to win. He went out and took it--even to the very end. YouTube it.
 
Mopardh9 said:
And he shouldn't of been allowed to win after missing all those races, total bs.
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I can't find fault with someone for taking advantage of the rules. If your point is that there shouldn't be exemptions to Chase qualification rules (the same exemption that let Tony Stewart into the Chase the previous year), I can agree with you, at least to the point of more tightly restricting exemption conditions. However, there was and still is an exemption in the rules, and a driver and team would be foolish not to apply for it as needed.
 
The biggest surprise for me has been the large erosion of the fan base. I thought things would have leveled off before now but the slide continues unabated.

Carl Edwards retiring did not surprise me as driving in cup may seem glamorous but with sponsor commitments and the length of the season I think it would be a pain in the ass.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
I can't find fault with someone for taking advantage of the rules. If your point is that there shouldn't be exemptions to Chase qualification rules (the same exemption that let Tony Stewart into the Chase the previous year), I can agree with you, at least to the point of more tightly restricting exemption conditions. However, there was and still is an exemption in the rules, and a driver and team would be foolish not to apply for it as needed.
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I agree. It's not Kyle's fault for taking advantage of the rules that were put in place, but it is a stupid rule, and it diminishes the value of the regular season. The idea that you can be 30th in points, somehow win a race, and now you are championship eligible is completely absurd to me. NASCAR went from putting way to LITTLE emphasis on winning races to putting way too MUCH emphasis on it. A win shouldn't be a free ticket to ANYTHING, except the All-Star race.
 
I have to agree, almost every year there is a car that wins a race and it is more of a fluke than anything else. They are eliminated easily in the first round. It should be limited to top 15 in points, just because you make a mistake an injure yourself and have to miss races, tough luck. M&M's had more to do with that than Nascar and their contest.
 
Trying to think back to this time in 2013, I would say all those drivers being out of the sport would be the most surprising. I probably would expected one or two of them to be gone given the nature of sponsorship dollars even 5 years ago, but not all of those.

Danica not finishing her career with a top 5 would be the least surprising.
 
Larsonfan1995 said:
Off weekend has me bored with no racing. So I figured I'd make a fun topic. It's 5 years ago, and you get a message from the you of today telling you all of these things will happen over the next 5 years. How would 2013 you react? Would you believe any of these? Which one would've surprised you most?

-Through 6 races in 2018, Hendrick Motorsports has 5 top 10s collectively between their 4 drivers
-Roush Fenway racing has scaled down to 2 cars, and they're struggling to even get top 20s
-Danica retires without a top 5 in cup
-Monster Energy sponsors the cup series
-Martin Truex Jr won the 2017 championship
-Kyle Busch won the 2015 championship missing 11 races
-Dale Jr, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon, Jeff Burton, Greg Biffle, Tony Stewart, Danica Patrick, Bobby Labonte, Marcos Ambrose, and Juan Pablo Montoya have all left cup racing in the past 5 years
-Between 36 and 38 cars are showing up for cup races, and no one was sent home from the Daytona 500 in 2018
Click to expand...

Probably the one thing on the list after the series sponsorship is the death of Roush as a top racing organization. Hendrick will get back up top simply because General Motors will command it happens, even if a few people have to get fired along the way.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
I can't find fault with someone for taking advantage of the rules. If your point is that there shouldn't be exemptions to Chase qualification rules (the same exemption that let Tony Stewart into the Chase the previous year), I can agree with you, at least to the point of more tightly restricting exemption conditions. However, there was and still is an exemption in the rules, and a driver and team would be foolish not to apply for it as needed.
Click to expand...

All that needed to happen was Harvick outperforming Kyle when it mattered the most. All of this would then have been moot. He couldn't do it. Can't wait for the ESPN 30 for 30 on this.
 
Revman said:
All that needed to happen was Harvick outperforming Kyle when it mattered the most. All of this would then have been moot. He couldn't do it. Can't wait for the ESPN 30 for 30 on this.
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Kyle Busch played the system like a cheap fiddle that year. They even knew if they brought him back when they did, they'd "easily" make the playoff with one win. You could even tell once he made it in, he was putting all his preparation into Homestead. It's right up there with 1990 in my books, but Kyle won with the rules in place.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
Kyle Busch played the system like a cheap fiddle that year. They even knew if they brought him back when they did, they'd "easily" make the playoff with one win. You could even tell once he made it in, he was putting all his preparation into Homestead. It's right up there with 1990 in my books, but Kyle won with the rules in place.
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He won four other times. Nobody even knew if he could make it back. Epic story operating as you said within the rules in place. If he had the chance to do it all over again, I am guessing that he'd pass on hitting a wall head on, snapping a leg, and crushing his ankle. Complaints about the rules are an attempt to overshadow one of the greatest sports stories of our time. His description of what he went through in addition to Samantha's account are off the charts incredible. Having said that, he didn't think (and still doesn't) that it was that big of a deal because in his words, "I just wanted to race." Samantha just shakes her head. I hate the term, "racer," but I am guessing that this applies here. I have said it before, and I will say it again, Junior does this, and they enshrine his ass on the stage in Homestead. We all know that.

I laugh at the smartass comments about his tangle with Joey a year ago. Want to talk about tough? Sonoma with his leg and ankle at that stage of healing. That's ****** tough.
 
Ernie Irvan was given a 10% chance to live after his wreck at Michigan in '94. Yet he survived, came back to NASCAR and still won races. Tim Richmond was winning races when he was sick with full blown AIDS. Many drivers have raced with broken ribs or hands or whatever. If you think Kyle Busch (or any other driver) would miss more than three months just for a broken bone, then you underestimate Kyle Busch.
 
2 Sweet said:
Ernie Irvan was given a 10% chance to live after his wreck at Michigan in '94. Yet he survived, came back to NASCAR and still won races. Tim Richmond was winning races when he was sick with full blown AIDS. Many drivers have raced with broken ribs or hands or whatever. If you think Kyle Busch (or any other driver) would miss more than three months just for a broken bone, then you underestimate Kyle Busch.
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Darrell Waltrip crawled into a car two weeks after shattering his leg at Daytona. Harry Gant nearly won at Michigan a week after puncturing a lung. Just to keep on point though, as far as I'm concerned, my complaint has NOTHING to do with Kyle Busch. He did what he had to do, and it's what anybody else in his position would have done. I don't blame HIM one bit. I'm just angry with the rule that allowed it to happen.
 
Revman said:
He won four other times. Nobody even knew if he could make it back. Epic story operating as you said within the rules in place. If he had the chance to do it all over again, I am guessing that he'd pass on hitting a wall head on, snapping a leg, and crushing his ankle. Complaints about the rules are an attempt to overshadow one of the greatest sports stories of our time. His description of what he went through in addition to Samantha's account are off the charts incredible. Having said that, he didn't think (and still doesn't) that it was that big of a deal because in his words, "I just wanted to race." Samantha just shakes her head. I hate the term, "racer," but I am guessing that this applies here. I have said it before, and I will say it again, Junior does this, and they enshrine his ass on the stage in Homestead. We all know that.

I laugh at the smartass comments about his tangle with Joey a year ago. Want to talk about tough? Sonoma with his leg and ankle at that stage of healing. That's ******* tough.
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I don't think it will ever be considered one of the greatest sports stories. I defend Kyle a lot on here, think he's the most talented driver in history, but that will be seen by the majority of NASCAR fans as the most illegitinate championship in history.
 
Fwiw, I think Kyle's title was legitimate. But I think the overwhelming majority of fans will never accept it, and I understand why.

Every time it came down to Busch and Harvick, Busch won. Every time.

Kyle Busch is a driving god, plain and simple.
 
I'm not a KB fan but it doesn't bother me too much. After 2003, I started caring less about the "championship". After 2013, I barely care at all. The Homestead Cup will never matter near as much as the Winston Cup Championship.
 
2 Sweet said:
I'm not a KB fan but it doesn't bother me too much. After 2003, I started caring less about the "championship". After 2013, I barely care at all. The Homestead Cup will never matter near as much as the Winston Cup Championship.
Click to expand...

That's a pretty sarcastic way of putting it but I have to say I feel the same way. The championship used to be based on a cumulative performance metric. It no longer is. We can argue about the points system back then but the guy that finished 1st could make a legitimate claim to "I was the best". That's not the case anymore and NASCAR wants it that way.

Around August last year I said somewhere else the following 2 things:

"If Jimmie Johnson is in contention for the title at Homestead, it's a travesty." - Him and that car were horrid after his 2nd race win.
"If Martin Truex is not in contention for the title at Homestead, it's a travesty." - No one else should've won the title last year except him, it was his year. Him and his team and his car were the best, period. Thankfully, Truex did actually win the series title.

I understand the championship now is not about "who was the best?", but creating drama so there's intrigue at the final race, conveniently at an ISC-owned track that would struggle for attendance otherwise. But it does undercut the rest of the season. NASCAR wants to be like basketball and football and baseball it says. Okay, are they completely unaware that a lot of the fans of those sports consider the regular seasons there increasingly meaningless? I listened to an argument from one guy saying Virginia winning the ACC regular season and ACC tournament mean nothing because of their loss to UMBC. Okay, if they mean nothing, why am I watching the games? Why is ESPN paying to broadcast them? Why should anyone spend money to go attend games? This is an incredible problem with the current structure of North American sports and the powerbrokers are largely unaware of or ignoring it because they are making so much money from TV rights fees. Those TV rights fees ever start to go down, we're going to see all kinds of problems suddenly gain a focus as low tide comes.

Busch's title win while he was awesome at the back end pretty much said the first part of NASCAR that year literally meant nothing. They didn't send fans refunds that went to those races either.
 
Revman said:
I would ask, "Why?" but I have never heard a good explanation, and I don't expect one here. It's the hater thing, but even for haters, such a position is utter stupidity. A Hall of Fame Football Coach called it one of the greatest sports stories in history. I have heard many in the medical field call the pain that he drove through "indescribable." The only people not impressed apparently are the fans of this sport which says a lot about the state this sport is in. What Kyle Busch did will be a story told on his induction night into the Hall of Fame. Let that sink in. BTW--Kyle wasn't allowed to win. He went out and took it--even to the very end. YouTube it.
Click to expand...
I am not a Kyle hater. In fact I love watching him come in second or third which is natural because I am a Team Penske Fan.
What I don't like is for Nascar to change the format that determines a yearly championship.
I also cringe when I here JJ called a 7 time Monster Champion. I would really like to see the distinction emphasized.
However I believe the current Champions should all be distinguished as the "Lottery Champions" because under any other system we have known they would not be champions.
I don't care what points sytsem was used in different eras, the Champions were all Nascar Year long Points Champions even if they did it Allen's way on the last lap.
But Harvick and Kyle to me will never be Nascar Year Champions. I can say this because without the gift from Nascar, Kyle with the best team and support has never come close to a championship. At least Denny came close.
 
Privateer said:
That's a pretty sarcastic way of putting it but I have to say I feel the same way. The championship used to be based on a cumulative performance metric. It no longer is. We can argue about the points system back then but the guy that finished 1st could make a legitimate claim to "I was the best". That's not the case anymore and NASCAR wants it that way.

Around August last year I said somewhere else the following 2 things:

"If Jimmie Johnson is in contention for the title at Homestead, it's a travesty." - Him and that car were horrid after his 2nd race win.
"If Martin Truex is not in contention for the title at Homestead, it's a travesty." - No one else should've won the title last year except him, it was his year. Him and his team and his car were the best, period. Thankfully, Truex did actually win the series title.

I understand the championship now is not about "who was the best?", but creating drama so there's intrigue at the final race, conveniently at an ISC-owned track that would struggle for attendance otherwise. But it does undercut the rest of the season. NASCAR wants to be like basketball and football and baseball it says. Okay, are they completely unaware that a lot of the fans of those sports consider the regular seasons there increasingly meaningless? I listened to an argument from one guy saying Virginia winning the ACC regular season and ACC tournament mean nothing because of their loss to UMBC. Okay, if they mean nothing, why am I watching the games? Why is ESPN paying to broadcast them? Why should anyone spend money to go attend games? This is an incredible problem with the current structure of North American sports and the powerbrokers are largely unaware of or ignoring it because they are making so much money from TV rights fees. Those TV rights fees ever start to go down, we're going to see all kinds of problems suddenly gain a focus as low tide comes.

Busch's title win while he was awesome at the back end pretty much said the first part of NASCAR that year literally meant nothing. They didn't send fans refunds that went to those races either.
Click to expand...
Well said. Not a fan of the “Homestead Bowl” myself, but it’s what we have. I miss the Winston Cup and points system too, but I’ve embraced the Vince McMahon style points system. And the stages/playoff points have made it fair in the sense of it rewards regular season performance to the point you could Truex your way to Homestead but then once there all bets are off.
 
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