NASCAR -- 2014

Tired of watching the curling and the figure skating and the snow and the ice in Sochi?  Tired of watching the Canadians beat the US?  Me too!

You won't find any of that on the NASCAR circuit.....and it all officially begins this year on Sunday during the running of the Daytona 500 and the return of the #3 car to racing.

Of course there’s always a chance of showers in Florida, but unless the “good-old-boys” have developed a “wimpy” side in the offseason, they should be all-in for a wild ride on Sunday as America begins its 2014 sports season!

Let’s go racing!

Once again, the Vegas race is the same weekend as the WCC tournament.

Daytona is seat of the pants tense. They can ride around for a couple hours, and then a little bump, and all hell breaks loose. Last night, no issues for 119 laps over two 60 lap races, then Johnson runs out of gas, and Clint Bowyer does a 360 barrel roll!

DoubleDipper wrote:Of course there’s always a chance of showers in Florida, but unless the “good-old-boys” have developed a “wimpy” side in the offseason, they should be all-in for a wild ride on Sunday as America begins its 2014 sports season!

Well, rain showers are one thing, but the race was stopped after 38 laps and the grandstand evacuated due to the threat of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes.

It’s been a strange year, weather wise..... 

After a 6:22 weather delay the race was finally won by NASCAR's most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt, Jr.   Vancouver's Greg Biffle finished 8th.

  You just had to love that perhaps hundreds of thousands of fans thought last year's winner Jimmy Johnson was the winner, as erroneously report by Fox News, and after thinking the replay of last year's race during the weather delay was this year’s race.  Deadspin ran the headline, "Scores of Idiots Don't Realize Fox Is Airing Last Year's Daytona 500".........and they were right!

Earnhardt, Jr. was the best driver with the best car……in auto racing that’s a great combination, but you’ve gotta have some good luck too…..only 19 of the 43 starters completed all 200 laps.

I hate it when I set my DVR for a race, even add a couple extra hours in case of rain delay or running into a jet dryer, and I still only get to see the first hour of the race.

I am actually in Flagler Beach just north of Daytona.  While you guys were watching whatever programming they had during the delay we were watching the weather person going on and on and on about the thunderstorm with tornado potential.  It was a blow by blow description of the storm as it moved through the area.  We had some rain and a little thunder and lightening, but no tornado.  

No rain today, but not much sun either, in the mid 60s all day.

Nothing better than sitting on the covered porch of the High Tides and sipping a Sake Bloody Mary while you are watching the thunderstorms roll in.

Unfortunately our porch has no cover so we had to sit indoors with our rum drinks watching it rain.

Sitting on the porch now in shorts and a tee eating a fresh grapefruit.  Life can be so hard at times.

So a quart of Gas was the difference between Dale Jr. have two wins in the first three races, and only having three top two finishes.

What are the odds of NASCAR's most popular driver to win the cup? I'm not enough of a degenerate to even find them, but my guess is that he's one of, if not the favorite now.

blacksheep wrote:Once again, the Vegas race is the same weekend as the WCC tournament.  

So, did you go to the race?

What's it like compared to being surrounded by Gonzaga and BYU fans?   

DoubleDipper wrote:

blacksheep wrote:Once again, the Vegas race is the same weekend as the WCC tournament.  

So, did you go to the race?

What's it like compared to being surrounded by Gonzaga and BYU fans?   

You'll have to ask PNut as he's the only one I know that was in Vegas. I'm not sure he's quite redneck enough to have made it out to the track though.

When I was there a few years ago, the crowd erupted every time Jr so much as passed someone (even though he was never really in contention). I can't imagine what it was like with him out front at the end of the race, then watching him run out of fuel.  

Bristol was a pretty good race, despite another series of rain delays.  But this woman did not seem to think so: Woman drives through church

Rain in Bristol?  Yes, for sure!



But attempted murder?  Come on, that's pretty normal behavior around NASCAR.

Ridiculous race at Fontana today because of TIRES!!  Or should it be said, because of the crappy track at Fontana, especially the back straight, that caused the tires to shred?

At least 16 yellow flags today just for shredded tires and debris, and cars were always diving into the pits to change at least two tires, and often four.

That track has been a joke for years.....it's time it was finally fixed, or the race moved elsewhere.

Kurt Busch won at Martinsville. but he had a little extra excitement on the way to his victory.

Not all the hits are on the track in NASCAR......

This hit on Casey Mears by Marcos Ambrose in Richmond last night will probably be a part of NASCAR promotion videos in the future  :

http://cdn2.vox-cdn.com/assets/4364469/nascarpunch.gif

Ah, the better action was 'Bad Brad' causing a post race wreck because Kenseth raced to win.

http://bcove.me/4q3y3t03

As an unabashed fan of Danica, it was exciting and gratifying to see her get her second career Top-10 as a Sprint Cup racer tonight in Kansas.

Her 7th place finish betters by one her 8th place finish at Daytona last year.  

As one would expect, Danica has her detractors, but she's good for NASCAR racing in general and is instrumental in many fans even watching NASCAR racing.....and has the won the "Most Popular Driver" award.

Better story was Jeff Gordon. Already the points leader, he got his first victory of the year. And his 89th of his career. Not bad for an old guy some think should retire so a young gun can get his ride.

DoubleDipper wrote:As an unabashed fan of Danica, it was exciting and gratifying to see her get her second career Top-10 as a Sprint Cup racer tonight in Kansas.

Her 7th place finish betters by one her 8th place finish at Daytona last year.  

As one would expect, Danica has her detractors, but she's good for NASCAR racing in general and is instrumental in many fans even watching NASCAR racing.....and has the won the "Most Popular Driver" award.

In Atlanta today Danica finished 6th....her all-time best finish in Sprint Cup racing!

Enumclaw, Washington driver Kasey Kahne drove to his first victory of the season and earned a berth in the 16-driver, 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship.

Kasey's win may have the effect of knocking local driver (Camas) Greg Biffle out of the Chase, the Nascar playoffs. He is the last driver in with one race to go. He has little chance to pass any drivers ahead of him. And if a driver behind him wins next Saturday at Richmond, he's out.

Under the old points system, he'd be solidly in the Chase, but the new "win and you're in" format has several drivers who have earned fewer points than Biffle but have a win, in it.

up7587 wrote:Kasey's win may have the effect of knocking local driver (Camas) Greg Biffle out of the Chase, the Nascar playoffs.

But it would seem fewer and fewer people even care.....have you noticed the number of empty seats at Sprint Cup races this year?

Not only that, but TV viewership is way down from previous years and a number of races will be bumped to Fox Sports1 next year because of a lack of viewers.....and apparently many more races could follow if the loss of viewers continues.

I certainly don't know the answer, but going head-to-head with football starting this month is going to make it even more difficult to attract viewers (unless of course they do what so many of us do, have four sports recordings going at once while watching another event live).

I've heard the Cup drivers have suggested schedule changes to avoid the conflict with football....but apparently to no avail.

The new Chase format is resulting in some real tense drivers. Tonight's race was at Charlotte, the 2nd of a 3 race elimination series. For 12 drivers, it is win a rave and you're moving to the next round. And if you don't win, you need to be in the top eight in points to have a chance to compete in the next round of eliminations.

Harvick won tonight, joining Logano as winners who will advance. Kenseth, Keselowski, Jimmy Johnson and Dale Jr are in danger of being eliminated. But the final race in this set is at Talledaga next week, and no driver wants to rely on that track for a good result. It is too unpredictable with all the big wrecks. So at the end of the race tonight, Kenseth, Keselowski and Hamlin all tangled on the track, and then got into fights in the garage area after the race. Good fun. Can't wait for next week's fireworks!

Jimmie Johnson was definitely the best driver with the best car today in Texas....but what about that fight!

I'm no Brad Keselowski fan....and I really like Jeff Gordon....but that just seemed like a good racing move when Keselowski's car hit Gordon's (which eventually wrecked) as he shot the gap going for the lead.

Was that Kevin Harvick that pushed Keselowski before the brawl started that bloodied Keselowski and Gordon?

Road rage and brawling all live on ESPN.....is this a great country, or what!