Thoughts @ The Quarter Point of the Season

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Skoalbandit33

Guest
What are your thoughts about Nascar and the drivers and teams after 9 races?

Some of my thoughts in no particular order:

The racing has been great and I have seen each one including Daytona and I am not crazy about plate races. I was cautiously optimistic the racing would improve this year but I didn't think it would be this good.

I have been mildly surprised at how well Chase Elliott has performed as a rookie. I didn't doubt that he would be good but I thought it might take until the second half to show his stuff. I think Chase will be in the Chase

Nice job by Austin Dillon as he has taken a definite step forward this year and I didn't think he had it in him.

Congrats to Ricky Stenhouse for taking a big step forward and to Bayne for doing better as well.

I didn't expect Clint Bowyer to win a race this year but I am surprised things have been as bad as they have been.

I didn't expect Carl Edwards to win 2 of the first 9 races but I am glad he did.

Something seems a little off with the Penske cars this year compared to last year.

I thought Martin Truex would have been a little better than 10th in points and have only 1 top 5.

I have been surprised by the low attendance at the tracks this year excluding Daytona of course. With the good racing and the summer months coming things could get a lot better in that department.

It looks like Greg Biffle has reached the end of the line which is a shame.

I didn't expect the 10 team to duplicate things from the first 9 races last year but I thought they would have had more than 3 lead lap finishes and at least 1 top 15. The good news is that there is plenty of opportunity for significant improvement in the next 9 races.
 
Just absolutely thrilled with the racing package. I never missed any races even with the boring high down force package, but a mid race nap was commonplace. Not anymore. Passes everywhere, slipping and sliding, comers and goers, tire management is key. I love it!

Keep taking down force away because if they don't these engineers are too good and clean air will return as king.
 
This was the best Richmond race I've seen. Was awesome to see the dirt guys like Stenhouse and Kahne rim riding and passing cup champs in the top 10. Low down force gives a lot of talented guys a chance to shine
 
Honestly, I would have never thought that Toyota would be leading the Manufacturer Standings. Small car count. Huge performance. Thrilled.
 
Biggest surprise for me has been the relative lack of spins and wrecks. If Goodyear brings the right tires and there are no cooling issues we've seen 100+ lap green flag runs to start races. I would have thought with the lower downforce package creating less grip we would have had more spins not less.
 
I agree with all these. I lost interest in NASCAR these past few years but something this year told me to watch Atlanta(I always watched Daytona even after losing interest) and I was pleasantly surprised at how good the racing was. My interest has increased hugely this year and I've watched every race from green to checkered apart from Las Vegas and Martinsville
 
The on-track action is a big upgrade from the past several years. I haven't caught as much live as I used to but when I do I usually like what I see. If they up the ante a bit and give some horsepower back I think it could be even better, although it wouldn't kill me if they didn't. I do look forward to seeing what developments from the X-3 prototype are transferred to the Cup package in the next couple of years as teams engineer downforce back into the cars little by little.

Toyota has been impressive, Penske has disappointed. Fortunately, it's early. Both Joey and Brad were better in the second half last year.

Larson continues to disappoint. Dillon's progress has been admirable. RFR appears to have made strides as well.

A lot of people expected Harvick to fall off with the new aero. He hasn't skipped a beat - best driver rating in the series and tied with Carl for the most Top 10s. Impressive performances, just needs to seal the deal on a few more victories.

I love the increase in extended green flag runs. Love it!
 
Great racing so far, best I have seen in years. Maybe the best story so far was the Matt B run at Bristol. Not sure about your comment regarding attendance at Daytona considering they removed over 46000 seats.
 
sloggie said:
The first 75% of the laps have been uneventful.
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I honestly cannot think of anything as crazy as this statement. Unless you like wreckfests, what more could you ask for? The racing has been fantastic with a dramatic reduction in aero push, tons of passing, comers and goers constantly keeping it interesting, and a big step forward in driving skill required. I cannot recall a period in Nascar history when the competition was as good as now. (I am tired of the Gibbs domination, but pretty sure that is transitory.)
 
LewTheShoe said:
I honestly cannot think of anything as crazy as this statement. Unless you like wreckfests, what more could you ask for? The racing has been fantastic with a dramatic reduction in aero push, tons of passing, comers and goers constantly keeping it interesting, and a big step forward in driving skill required. I cannot recall a period in Nascar history when the competition was as good as now. (I am tired of the Gibbs domination, but pretty sure that is transitory.)
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It's a very reasonable question. I'm not looking for wrecks, that's for sure.

I find myself watching the beginning of the races and saying to myself "none of this matters. If Kyle goes a lap down or even two laps down, he's going to get be back on the lead lap and still compete for the win."

I'm not sure if that explains it or not. It probably makes no sense at all if you are a hardcore fan that just loves to watch racing just for the purity of it.

Tldr; I find the first part of the race lacks drama


Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk
 
FLRacingFan said:
A lot of people expected Harvick to fall off with the new aero. He hasn't skipped a beat - best driver rating in the series and tied with Carl for the most Top 10s. Impressive performances, just needs to seal the deal on a few more victories.
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Harvick has surprised me in terms of his adaptability, but he has lost his dominance of two years ago which shrunk last year, and this year is an evolution of that. He is not unloading untouchable anymore, and we have seen periods where he (and Rodney) have lost the car. These changes have not been to his strength IMO, but he has done pretty well remaining competitive.
 
Hi, old cynical guy general observations.

Daytona = snooze
Martinsville & Richmond = good
Bristol = sucks anymore the promoters are doing the right thing turning it into a ball stadium maybe the stands will be full of college students & alumni. Rip it up & put the groove back on the bottom. Should have spent the money changing the track instead of on a "super-wazoo" score board.
The other tracks that were run this year = ok but no cigar.
Drivers & teams all do the best that they can. A good driver in a so-so ride = a mediocre finish.
BF should change his initials to BS + refund the 35K.
The Mrs. likes Race Hub better than the races.
Jaws is still Jaws I use the FF button a lot. His bro should be called Jaws 2. The jury is still out on Gordon.
Will view Dega on FF.
My car owner once told me that he would rather have a driver that he had to grab by the belt to slow him down rather than one that he had to wake up.
Oh-my-gosh & golly-gee drivers please re read the above sentence.
I get depressed after Homestead, endure football & wake up for speed weeks.
Coffee @ Mickey-D's will still cost the same no matter who wins.

On to Dega.
 
Revman said:
Harvick has surprised me in terms of his adaptability, but he has lost his dominance of two years ago which shrunk last year, and this year is an evolution of that. He is not unloading untouchable anymore, and we have seen periods where he (and Rodney) have lost the car. These changes have not been to his strength IMO, but he has done pretty well remaining competitive.
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Definitely not as good as they were the past two years, but for the most part I think that can be attributed to the strides JGR/TRD has made. Outside of that camp they're probably better than everyone except the #48 team at the moment.
 
Churchkey said:
Hi, old cynical guy general observations.

Daytona = snooze
Martinsville & Richmond = good
Bristol = sucks anymore the promoters are doing the right thing turning it into a ball stadium maybe the stands will be full of college students & alumni. Rip it up & put the groove back on the bottom. Should have spent the money changing the track instead of on a "super-wazoo" score board.
The other tracks that were run this year = ok but no cigar.
Drivers & teams all do the best that they can. A good driver in a so-so ride = a mediocre finish.
BF should change his initials to BS + refund the 35K.
The Mrs. likes Race Hub better than the races.
Jaws is still Jaws I use the FF button a lot. His bro should be called Jaws 2. The jury is still out on Gordon.
Will view Dega on FF.
My car owner once told me that he would rather have a driver that he had to grab by the belt to slow him down rather than one that he had to wake up.
Oh-my-gosh & golly-gee drivers please re read the above sentence.
I get depressed after Homestead, endure football & wake up for speed weeks.
Coffee @ Mickey-D's will still cost the same no matter who wins.

On to Dega.
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Welcome to Racing Forums, even if I don't agree with most of our post!
 
Churchkey said:
Hi, old cynical guy general observations.

Daytona = snooze
Martinsville & Richmond = good
Bristol = sucks anymore the promoters are doing the right thing turning it into a ball stadium maybe the stands will be full of college students & alumni. Rip it up & put the groove back on the bottom. Should have spent the money changing the track instead of on a "super-wazoo" score board.
The other tracks that were run this year = ok but no cigar.
Drivers & teams all do the best that they can. A good driver in a so-so ride = a mediocre finish.
BF should change his initials to BS + refund the 35K.
The Mrs. likes Race Hub better than the races.
Jaws is still Jaws I use the FF button a lot. His bro should be called Jaws 2. The jury is still out on Gordon.
Will view Dega on FF.
My car owner once told me that he would rather have a driver that he had to grab by the belt to slow him down rather than one that he had to wake up.
Oh-my-gosh & golly-gee drivers please re read the above sentence.
I get depressed after Homestead, endure football & wake up for speed weeks.
Coffee @ Mickey-D's will still cost the same no matter who wins.

On to Dega.
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I don't like tennis. I don't watch it anyway and then bitch incessantly. Sounds like you just don't like good racing.
 
FLRacingFan said:
Definitely not as good as they were the past two years, but for the most part I think that can be attributed to the strides JGR/TRD has made. Outside of that camp they're probably better than everyone except the #48 team at the moment.
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It will be interesting to see how the second half of Harvick's season goes with the spigot be turned off on some technical info from HMS. Also it seems to me that BKez and JLo are off a little from the second half of last year and if they can't figure it out it could be a temporary setback for SHR going into 2017. There is a lot of racing and a lot of time for things to change between now and then though.
 
Skoalbandit33 said:
It will be interesting to see how the second half of Harvick's season goes with the spigot be turned off on some technical info from HMS. Also it seems to me that BKez and JLo are off a little from the second half of last year and if they can't figure it out it could be a temporary setback for SHR going into 2017. There is a lot of racing and a lot of time for things to change between now and then though.
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Regarding Jlo, my theory is that either he's not a very good long-run driver or that his team has just never been set up for long green flag runs. With the former aero package there were wrecks or debris cautions every 15 mins so therefor lots of restarts where he could perform well. This year with cautions way down his weaknesses are exposed.
 
Penske was pretty awful the first half of last season as well. Then towards the end of summer was the fastest cars almost every week.
 
Edwards to me is topping out a little bit too early. He reminds me of JJ from last year. He has unbelievable speed but has made mistakes on pit road and other things that have hurt his consistency. I could see him winning 5 or 6 races then having bad luck early in the chase
 
Acs said:
Regarding Jlo, my theory is that either he's not a very good long-run driver or that his team has just never been set up for long green flag runs. With the former aero package there were wrecks or debris cautions every 15 mins so therefor lots of restarts where he could perform well. This year with cautions way down his weaknesses are exposed.
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Don't know the reasoning, but that's a pretty accurate observation. Joey ranks 4th early in a run and 13th late in a run.

http://www.mrn.com/Race-Series/NASC...-Data/Season/2016-Fastest-Early-in-a-Run.aspx

http://www.mrn.com/Race-Series/NASC...p-Data/Season/2016-Fastest-Late-in-a-Run.aspx
 
Acs said:
Regarding Jlo, my theory is that either he's not a very good long-run driver or that his team has just never been set up for long green flag runs. With the former aero package there were wrecks or debris cautions every 15 mins so therefor lots of restarts where he could perform well. This year with cautions way down his weaknesses are exposed.
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Good thinking.
 
Revman said:
Harvick has surprised me in terms of his adaptability, but he has lost his dominance of two years ago which shrunk last year, and this year is an evolution of that. He is not unloading untouchable anymore, and we have seen periods where he (and Rodney) have lost the car. These changes have not been to his strength IMO, but he has done pretty well remaining competitive.
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They are still running cars from 2014 nearly every week - I expect to see the situation worsen as the season goes on with the upcoming manufacturer swap.

The one sure thing is that the power shift is for real - Gibbs is the top dog across the board now no question.
 
Wrangler1 said:
They are still running cars from 2014 nearly every week - I expect to see the situation worsen as the season goes on with the upcoming manufacturer swap.

The one sure thing is that the power shift is for real - Gibbs is the top dog across the board now no question.
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They have been running some in house chassis.
 
Michfan said:
I don't like tennis. I don't watch it anyway and then bitch incessantly. Sounds like you just don't like good racing.
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Petty's win on the 1/2 mile near Macon GA in '68 was a good race.
72 Daytona 500 not so good. In the covered grandstand on a 50* day & AJ wins by almost 2 laps.
The only ticket stub I kept is from the 2001 Daytona 500. Remember that one?
I don't like tennis either.

Catch ya later.
 
Acs said:
Regarding Jlo, my theory is that either he's not a very good long-run driver or that his team has just never been set up for long green flag runs. With the former aero package there were wrecks or debris cautions every 15 mins so therefor lots of restarts where he could perform well. This year with cautions way down his weaknesses are exposed.
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Thats an interesting theory
 
kymartin6 said:
Glad to have you aboard Churchkey......


I'm sure a lot of folks on here have no idea what a churchkey is........... lol.......
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I have been carrying the same one around with me for over 40 years. It is pockmarked and a little bent but it gets the job done.
 
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