Someone Explain Nascar To Me - I Just Watched Final 40 Laps And No One Was Passed

Just like any kind of racing, sometimes it isn't all that interesting. Usually Daytona is a wild ride in the final laps but sounds like it didn't happen like that up front. As others have mentioned, the draftingn aspect of Daytona makes it a different kind of race, strategy wise, than most other tracks.

I still think Track and Field, and running in general, could learn a lot about sport marketing and sponsorship from NASCAR and the other auto racing leagues.

I'm not to smart about NASCAR and all the specifics, more just a peripheral viewer. From what all the racers were saying during the 2 hour red flag was that the outside line wasn't moving. Apparently, normally at Daytona that outside "slingshot" move works great, but if you watched that outside line work and work and work and work to try and make a move during those last 40 laps you would have seen how it wasn't working. This is part of why 2nd didn't pass for first the final lap.

The other reason was he wasn't going to pass his teammate, whether reluctantly or not. Every restart over those last 40 laps, Kenseth (the winner) would go out of his way to try and reconnect with Biffle (his teammate, 2nd). Both guys had great cars, but Kenseth had already been showing that final 100 miles that you were going to need a teammate to finish high, so he made that happen. At any point over that final lap, Biffle could have been pushed around Kenseth by a charging Dale JR. car - the problem for JR. becoming that he had to pass two cars instead of just one in order to get back down in line. If he tried to go earlier and didn't get around both cars (doubtful he would have been able to) then he gets left outside high and dry with nobody to push him.

I am with you, though, those last few laps were boring as hell. But part of the excitement is knowing what could happen, the anticipation. Think about an indoor mile with a group of 4 or 5 crossing at the bell, all switching through their gears, turnover ramping up and then they finish with an all out blast off the final turn. But the whole time not a single pass happened. Just look at Lagat and Lomong blasting Rupp this weekend - The last lap had no passing and there was no excitement whatsoever for whether the winner was in question. But to us track fans, Lagat just wowed us.

I do all my races on my Firebolt wearing my invisibility cloak. You'll never see me, but I win them all.

They changed the set up on the cars this year and that changed the race a lot. In the past couple of years they did two car drafts and you would see people move from 20th to first in a lap and a half. This new set up doesn't allow as much movement.

Normally there is a lot more passing but this new set up has changed things.

Folks, please understand NASCAR only masquarades as competition. Drivers are pitchmen, cars are billboards...period. Look at the ads they run - many are the drivers themselves pimping the products. The whole race is designed to artificially produce a close race. 'Tactics' are indirectly the same.

But hey if the peeps want to spend their $ on this then thats fine - its not like NASCAR try to hide their motives!

and yes...I know the above can also apply (less blatently) to other sports eg the NBA.

Mr. Obvious wrote:

So can somebody explain how you hit a fuel truck during a caution?

I think JPM said something just broke on his car.

I've seen worse. Maybe ten years ago at Daytona a driver ran into the pace car during a caution. The pace car was stopped on the backstretch waiting to pick up the field, and the race driver had gotten out of the pits late (or something) and was hauling ass around the track to catch back up with the lead pack and...WHAM! He rear ended the pace car at full song...must have not even seen it. Completely destroyed it.

I have been running for about 20 years now(33 years old) and I also grew up around stock car racing. I was not an amazing runner but was a division 2 All American in cross country..yes I realize baby nationals. I have been racing gokarts and cars since I was 14 so I have a pretty good understanding of both sports.

The thing about driving a race car is that its not hard for most people with common sense and some ability to get around a track with no other cars around for a lap or two. Just like Danika qualifying fast time in the Nationwide that was only 2 laps with no other cars around, she will get her ass handed to her at some of the smaller harder to drive tracks. The hard part about a stock car is when you are coming off the corner on the 200th lap of a race, track is greasy, have cars banging on your rear bumper and the 800 horsepower engine spins the rear tires and you have the wall coming up quick and you are sideways.

I have always enjoyed watching pool players for their ability to think two shots ahead and the same goes for NASCAR drivers, their ability to think ahead, to see which line on the track is faster, to see a wreck happen before it actually does, to pace themselves to make it 500 miles, to control something that is on the edge of being out of control. The average person driving to work on the freeway going 70 thinking NASCAR is a joke has no clue.

This year I am racing cars in Idaho and Utah on a series called the Rocky Mountain Challenge Series, the car I am driving weighs 3000 pounds with 650 horsepower and my goal isn't to just qualify fast which most people could do, but to make it the entire race keeping the car in one piece thats the hard part.

I also race gokarts and I guarantee most the people reading this could not handle driving them. They are actually much harder to drive than the race cars because of their explosiveness, speed and how fast everything really happens. The kart weighs about 400 plus pounds with me in it and has a cr500 dirt bike engine on it, we race on dirt tracks that range from a tenth mile to some tracks a bit larger going almost 90 mph. Many of the kids that came from the gokarts are now racing all over the country in some of the bigger forms of racing. My son is now 7 but been driving racing karts since he was 4 and his gokart depending on the track and gear will get up to over 40 or so mph. His mom made the mistake of buying him one of those lightning McQueen electric cars at Toys R Us after he had been driving his gokart and he looked at his mom and its 3.5 mph top speed and said, "huh, whats wrong with it"

Daytona was boring at the end but like others have said if you don't understand whats actually going on you can't make fun of it. You have to understand you had two teammates working together, Jr couldn't pull out to pass two cars without help, the fire probably screwed up the pavement and sometimes different lines at tracks get faster or slower during races.

I promise you guys its much harder than it looks and a lot more is going on than the average person can see.

db

Not all of you do, but many do.

Big John wrote:

Flagpole wrote:

So, I LOVE it that now there's Danica Patrick. A real shot to the manhood of many NASCAR fans for sure.

What people unfamiliar with stock car racing don't realize is that women have raced in the sports top series plenty of times before. We don't have the problem with this that you seem to think we do.

Interesting points. I have no doubt that what you say for some fans is right on. I have though heard people say they don't like Jeff Gordon because he "don't talk like we talk", so I know that's a factor.I also know a guy who LOVES Jimmie Johnson, and the reason he give is that he "goes for the win", so it appears that even for people who like (or know) this sport, there is disagreement about how it all goes down.

Flagpole wrote:

I used to love hearing fans talk about how tough these racers were..."A normal man can't handle the Gs!!!!!" "Do you know how many Gs they pull when the go around a corner that fast!?"

So, I LOVE it that now there's Danica Patrick. A real shot to the manhood of many NASCAR fans for sure.

Apparently you didn't catch the interview with Danica's parents where her father was asked the question: What is the one thing people don't know about Danica?. Nor did you hear the conversation between Danica and her crew chief after the Nationwide 300 crash.

Idiot.

Flagpole wrote:

Throw in the hatred the fans have for Ford or Chevy and then the hatred some have for people who can speak in complete sentences (Jeff Gordon) and you have just one big testosterone pissing contest.

Is it ironic that a run-on sentence was used to complain about people not speaking in complete sentences?

[quote]Flagpole wrote:

Not all of you do, but many do.

[quote]

Well sure you can support your stereotype with some imaginary fan out there that hates her because she's a woman. But back in reality from what I've seen - from the fans, to the media, to the drivers - the response to Danica Patrick has been overwhelmingly positive.

You were in the Daytona 500??? Amazing that you were still bored. I'm literally flabbergasted.

Why are you arguing about something that isn't a sport?

the difference between NASCAR and running is that in running you push your body to a certain limit. In NASCAR your pushing your car to that limit, thus not as exciting.

Jeff Gordon has a very pretty wife to come home to, why would he want to even hang out with a bunch of smelly guys?

Nascar is kind of like the letsrun training philosophy. Cover hundreds of miles and hope something happens.

Not imaginary fans brother. There are 3 NASCAR guy fans in my neighborhood that I know pretty well and they all hate Danica Patrick (and REALLY hate that she didn't stay driving Indy cars), solely because she's a woman in a man's sport. I've heard them say "she needs to make me a sandwich" "they should start a series for women only" "she should take her top off". No WAY are they the only guys who think that about her. No driver or media person in their right mind would say such things, but believe me, the dudes in my neighborhood who like NASCAR definitely DO say those things.Anyway, while I was not trolling (because I really do have these opinions about most NASCAR fans), I knew this would get some people all riled up. Just believe what you want brother. I hear people talk about NASCAR all the time, so I KNOW what at least SOME fans think about the sport. Columbus, OH isn't even the most redneck area of the country, so there's no way people are just more enlightened elsewhere.Smell of gas, hate or love of Chevy, beer, macho-ism, keeping women in the kitchen = NASCARNonAthleticSportCenteredAroundRednecks

Big John wrote:

[quote]Flagpole wrote:

Not all of you do, but many do.

[quote]

Well sure you can support your stereotype with some imaginary fan out there that hates her because she's a woman. But back in reality from what I've seen - from the fans, to the media, to the drivers - the response to Danica Patrick has been overwhelmingly positive.