What Were The Biggest NASCAR Surprises in 2017

Reck said:
Man I love that site.

Didn't even know you can pit drivers head to head. Makes it so much easier. Thanks for the future point of reference.
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Yeah. I failed to post the link but it is found at the bottom of their site. Spelling is of the utmost importance when doing the compare. Omitted commas and periods can prevent results from being displayed.
 
StandOnIt said:
not really. The manufacturer won 16 of 36 events during the season, including eight of the final ten.
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I understand what you are saying, but he beat one of the top drivers with the same manufactured car when all of the chips were on the table. He definitely kept me on the edge of my seat for those last ten laps.
 
StandOnIt said:
Drivers are around easily for 20 years this IS Nascar. Fans like certain drivers personality's and winning isn't everything.
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You didn't read what I wrote. However, on that point, I'd say both Larson and Elliott will be around for long careers.

On your fan's like certain personalities, I'm unclear where Larson and Elliott are that different off the track. Both are soft spoken and polite. On the track they are very different drivers. Larson is more aggressive than Elliott.
 
Nitro Dude said:
I understand what you are saying, but he beat one of the top drivers with the same manufactured car when all of the chips were on the table. He definitely kept me on the edge of my seat for those last ten laps.
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yeah for sure. Truex did it all year long. I have no problem believing Truex was the better driver of the two. Both drive very similar (I believe most advanced) cars and with the exceptions of winning the most poles (Busch) Truex was the most skilled, led the most laps out of the two and won the most races. That was a done deal before the playoffs ever happened.
 
Towmater said:
You didn't read what I wrote. . However, on that point, I'd say both Larson and Elliott will be around for long careers.

On your fan's like certain personalities, I'm unclear where Larson and Elliott are that different off the track. Both are soft spoken and polite. On the track they are very different drivers. Larson is more aggressive than Elliott.
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What makes you say Larson is more aggressive?
 
Towmater said:
I guess you don't root for the guy who is the underdog. The guy who didn't have it all handed to him due to his father's legacy. Base it on wins. Oh, that's right, we are NASCAR.
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First off, I'm an Elliott guy because he drives for "my team". If Larson drove for HMS, HE'D be my guy. That doesn't mean that I don't like him. I like Blaney a lot too, and he drives a freakin Ford. Also for what it's worth, I started following Chase the day he signed with HMS, just like I did with Jeff Gordon. I had no idea if he would be any good or not. Lucky for me, he is. I will also note that regardless of what he was "given" he has delivered results at every level. Now, back to the actual topic. Because of the fact that Chase is the son of one of the most popular drivers in history, drives for the powerful HMS, has a sponsor that has put him in several commercials, and has an easygoing personality gives him a real leg up on the popularity meter. That's not a comment on Larson, that's just facing facts. Life isn't always fair.
 
Nitro Dude said:
The main difference I see between Larson and Elliot is a famous father. But, both of them seem like very nice young men and both of them can wheel a race car.
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yep both are good people. that was my point. Mater was having a hard time seeing why Chase is so much more popular with less time and no wins in the sport..like it was some kind of travesty and calling him a silver spoon because he comes from a racing family. His dad had a twenty plus year run in Nascar, most popular driver on record and here is his son who has been coming up thru the ranks for years, Xfinity champion, and races hard and is doing well. Larson has his story, came from a family where his mom was a fanatical racing fan and his family helped him to get where he is now.
 
1. Edwards quit
2. the 48 quit, so to speak
3. Kenseth got kicked out of his ride
 
StandOnIt said:
yep both are good people. that was my point. Mater was having a hard time seeing why Chase is so much more popular with less time and no wins in the sport..like it was some kind of travesty and calling him a silver spoon because he comes from a racing family. His dad had a twenty plus year run in Nascar, most popular driver on record and here is his son who has been coming up thru the ranks for years, Xfinity champion, and races hard and is doing well. Larson has his story, came from a family where his mom was a fanatical racing fan and his family helped him to get where he is now.
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Because it reeks of NASCAR attempting to provide us with another Dale Jr. Now it isn't as forced as the Austin DIllon narative but it hangs there. There isn't gonna be another Jr. Just like there isn't gonna be another King, or Sr. Whomever the fans hang their hats on needs to bubble up to the surface. Being desperate and attempting to force something won't work.
 
Taco said:
Thats all you have?
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He started to do it to the 18 last night and stopped. How about where he runs his car. High line. How about the other drivers taking notice of who he is and the respect he gets. Christ, Harvick devoted some of his pre-race interview to him and where he runs. Did I missed him chatting about Chase? Nope, he didn't reference him at all.
 
Edwards quitting and disappearing
Kenseth's cut throat firing
Nascar not checking the cars at Michigan or the rest of the year like they usually do.
 
Towmater said:
Because it reeks of NASCAR attempting to provide us with another Dale Jr. Now it isn't as forced as the Austin DIllon narative but it hangs there. There isn't gonna be another Jr. Just like there isn't gonna be another King, or Sr. Whomever the fans hang their hats on needs to bubble up to the surface. Being desperate and attempting to force something won't work.
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you must have your sound turned down at Martinsville and when they introduce the drivers.
 
AuzGrams said:
I think the 48's struggles have to be the biggest surprise. 4 top 5's and 11 top 10's all season is pretty low.
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He still got 3 wins...
An average finish of 16.8 compared to 14.0 last season doesn't seem that extremely bad either. I think he was just sucessful at the wrong time this year, he can still win number 8.

Most surprising for me was:
-Truex winning the championship
-Logano not qualifying for the Playoffs
-Carl Long and Derrike Cope returning to Cup
-Dillon, Stenhouse Jr. and Blaney all getting their first win before Chase
and I never thought Kasey Kahne was going to win another Cup race.
 
StandOnIt said:
yep both are good people. that was my point. Mater was having a hard time seeing why Chase is so much more popular with less time and no wins in the sport..like it was some kind of travesty and calling him a silver spoon because he comes from a racing family. His dad had a twenty plus year run in Nascar, most popular driver on record and here is his son who has been coming up thru the ranks for years, Xfinity champion, and races hard and is doing well. Larson has his story, came from a family where his mom was a fanatical racing fan and his family helped him to get where he is now.
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And popularity doesn't equal success. Refer back to the two guys who rolled off pit road last yesterday.
 
Towmater said:
He started to do it to the 18 last night and stopped. How about where he runs his car. High line. How about the other drivers taking notice of who he is and the respect he gets. Christ, Harvick devoted some of his pre-race interview to him and where he runs. Did I missed him chatting about Chase? Nope, he didn't reference him at all.
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Aggressive works both way, in and out of the car, never seen that from Larson. When was the last time Larson put the bumper to Ryan like Chase did at Phoenix?
 
For me the biggest surprises occurred off the track even though some of them should not have surprised me.

The last minute deal with Monster signing on as title sponsor

Drivers earning 13-14K per race with new contracts

Monster cutting support to Kurt Busch and going from a half season sponsorship down to only 9 races.

RCR selling primary sponsorship's on the 31 car to Kraft Foods for 175K per race.

Around 30K in attendance at the Brickyard

The season finale not selling out

This year's season finale dropping from about 6 million viewers last year all the way down to only 4.5 million this year.
 
Skoalbandit33 said:
... The last minute deal with Monster signing on as title sponsor ...

... The season finale not selling out ...
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I'm with you on Monster's late arrival. I'd completely forgotten about that.

I'm not with you on Homestead. It was announced as a sell-out. I don't get why multiple people here keep saying it wasn't.
 
Skoalbandit33 said:
This year's season finale dropping from about 6 million viewers last year all the way down to only 4.5 million this year.
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Last year's race ran over into Football Night in America's time slot, this year's race didn't. That might have had a little to do with the fall off.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
I'm with you on Monster's late arrival. I'd completely forgotten about that.

I'm not with you on Homestead. It was announced as a sell-out. I don't get why multiple people here keep saying it wasn't.
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Because you could still buy tickets to it a few of hours in advance and I imagine the track got creative with the remaining tickets so they could list the event as a sellout. Even if the race did sell out having to wait until the last moments to sell the last of only 46K in tickets doesn't speak very highly of things, IMO.

ToyYoda said:
Last year's race ran over into Football Night in America's time slot, this year's race didn't. That might have had a little to do with the fall off.
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Unless I am having a complete CRS case it was 2015 where the race bled over into FNiA as the race had a huge audience of 7.7 million and then dropped down to 6 million last year and I think around 4.5 million this year.
 
Towmater said:
Because it reeks of NASCAR attempting to provide us with another Dale Jr. Now it isn't as forced as the Austin DIllon narative but it hangs there. There isn't gonna be another Jr. Just like there isn't gonna be another King, or Sr. Whomever the fans hang their hats on needs to bubble up to the surface. Being desperate and attempting to force something won't work.
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I wish somebody would have forced him on us a little more last night. The guy finishes fifth after sucking all weekend, finishes fifth in the points, and I watched like an hour and a half of post race coverage waiting for somebody to interview him. I finally gave up and turned the TV off.
 
ToyYoda said:
I know Jr was more popular, but it still sucked seeing a former series champ's last race getting completely overshadowed by Jr's last race.
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Matt Kenseth's announcement was made Nov 4th. He also said that he wasn't retiring. The Earnhardt name has been in this sport for a long, long time. It's the end of an era. The most popular driver in this sport was stepping down. No offense to Kenseth but that's kind of a big deal.
 
I have to say, Clint Bowyer not winning was a surprise too. I didn't buy into the "Bowyer will win multiple races" and "Bowyer will contend for the championship" stuff, but I thought he'd get a win.
 
Boyer didn't surprise me. SHR switching to Fords and Boyer with a brand new team at the same time. I did think he would do a bit better. Pretty evident he isn't getting along swimmingly with his crew chief.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
Matt Kenseth's announcement was made Nov 4th. He also said that he wasn't retiring. The Earnhardt name has been in this sport for a long, long time. It's the end of an era. The most popular driver in this sport was stepping down. No offense to Kenseth but that's kind of a big deal.
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I get it, but it still kinda sucks. I don't think they even interviewed Kenseth last night until after they switched over to NBCSN.

Even though Kenseth said he wasn't retiring, I have a feeling yesterday was his last race. He'll be 46 in March, team owners don't call guys of his age as much as they used to.
 
Matt getting fired

Dillon winning the 600

Stenhouse winning 2 races

Lagono not qualifying for the chase

Chase not winning a race

Cole Custer absolutely DOMINATING the Xfinity Miami race

But How have you guys not remembered Parker Kligerman winning at talladega? That was probably the most surprising win of the season
 
ToyYoda said:
I get it, but it still kinda sucks. I don't think they even interviewed Kenseth last night until after they switched over to NBCSN.

Even though Kenseth said he wasn't retiring, I have a feeling yesterday was his last race. He'll be 46 in March, team owners don't call guys of his age as much as they used to.
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Nascar and its partners botch just about everything they touch as it would have been fitting to give the former champ some love. It is possible Kenseth will drive again but highly unlikely unless it is for an injury fill in for the right team and how often does that happen?
 
Taco said:
Aggressive works both way, in and out of the car, never seen that from Larson. When was the last time Larson put the bumper to Ryan like Chase did at Phoenix?
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You've never seen aggressive from Larson? What? You've never seen the video of him dumping C.E. Falk in 2013 at Daytona in the Whelen All-American UNOH Battle of the Beach? Did you watch Larson in 2014 battle Jeff Gordon for second at Chicago? Nothing dirty on that one. They both raced hard and Gordon came over to him after the race and gave Larson some advice and told him how proud of Kyle he was.

To your last question, when was the last time Chase won in Cup like Larson did?
 
Towmater said:
You've never seen aggressive from Larson? What? You've never seen the video of him dumping C.E. Falk in 2013 at Daytona in the Whelen All-American UNOH Battle of the Beach? Did you watch Larson in 2014 battle Jeff Gordon for second at Chicago? Nothing dirty on that one. They both raced hard and Gordon came over to him after the race and gave Larson some advice and told him how proud of Kyle he was.

To your last question, when was the last time Chase won in Cup like Larson did?
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Kyle has been racing 4 years and has 5 wins, Chase has 0 wins in 2 years. I have no doubt in my mind that he will have more than 5 wins in 4 years.

So are you saying dumping Falk was aggressive, I would say that was a stupid move and he just wrecked the guy.

If Larson was so aggressive why did he not past the 78 and 18?
 
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