NASCAR news

[Spike]

On 3/8/2022 at 9:42 AM, HossC said:

It always used to appear that NASCAR teams had unlimited tires. Have they recently started limiting them or has that always been the case? F1 teams often have to put on used (or scrubbed) tires, but they've probably only done a few laps, and even the softest compound normally lasts at least 1/3 race distance.

I think it has more to do with the new 18 inch rims this season and the whole parts supply problem. I think teams were limited to 6 new sets of tires for the race. 

On 3/8/2022 at 12:44 PM, RogerDuke said:

Does NASCAR still sell used tires to fans as souvenirs? 

I don't know Roger, I assume they still do.

It seems the new cars are too rigid. Driver's have complained about being rattled so much that they're teeth hurt and some are actually losing feeling in their feet and legs. 

[Spike]

Nascar looking at doing an all electric vehicle exhibition series https://nascar.nbcsports.com/2022/03/10/steve-odonnell-nascar-to-take-a-look-at-electric-exhibition-series/

 

[RogerDuke]

3 hours ago, Spike said:

Nascar looking at doing an all electric vehicle exhibition series https://nascar.nbcsports.com/2022/03/10/steve-odonnell-nascar-to-take-a-look-at-electric-exhibition-series/

 

Hmmm, I wonder if they are getting big money and/or tax incentives from the government to promote this. 

[Spike]

19 hours ago, RogerDuke said:

Hmmm, I wonder if they are getting big money and/or tax incentives from the government to promote this. 

No. The automakers are most likely pushing this especially GM since they are going to go all electric by 2030.

[RogerDuke]

6 hours ago, Spike said:

No. The automakers are most likely pushing this especially GM since they are going to go all electric by 2030.

I can't imagine they will be able to pull that off. It will take longer than 8 years to develop the infrastructure. But then again, they have been deceiving us, intentionally and/or not since there has been an auto industry. I never did get my George Jetson car in 2000 like I was promised. I'm still mad about that. I could have outjumped the General. 

[Spike]

Chase Briscoe won his first cup race at Phoenix yesterday, it is also the first time a car carrying the #14 won at Phoenix. At the end it became a battle of the young guns with Chase having the strongest car. The Hendrick Motorsports cars looked strong early in the race and to possibly dominate the race with William Byron winning stage 1 and his teammates finishing in the top 7 in that stage. Stage 2 all the Hendrick Motorsports cars finished in the top 5 except for Alex Bowman. It all fell apart for stage 3 though with none of them finishing in the top 10. Kyle Larson had an engine blowup. Chase Elliott spun out after the handling went away and changes didn't make the car better but still managed an 11th place finish. JGR equally didn't have a good race with only Kyle Busch managing a top 10 finish. With Kevin Harvick getting his 18th top 10 at Phoenix he becomes the only current driver to match that achievement with Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt Sr who both did that at North Wilkesboro.

Top 10

1 Chase Briscoe

2 Ross Chastain

3 Tyler Reddick

4 Ryan Blaney

5 Kurt Busch

6 Kevin Harvick

7 Kyle Busch

8 Joey Logano

9 Daniel Suarez

10 Chris Buescher

[Spike]

Tyler Reddick apparently signed a contract extension with RCR through 2023 https://nascar.nbcsports.com/2022/03/15/richard-childress-says-tyler-reddick-is-under-contract-for-2023/

Nascar is looking to trademark the defunct ASA series 

 

Might use that as it's Electric Exhibition Racing series, that way if it bombs it's not tied to the Nascar brand.

[Spike]

Nascar, Chevrolet and Hendrick Motorsports are going racing at LeMans in 2023 https://www.jayski.com/2022/03/17/nascar-hendrick-motorsports-announce-pursuit-of-garage-56-entry-at-le-mans/

 

[Hobie Hartkins]

On 3/11/2022 at 9:02 PM, RogerDuke said:

Hmmm, I wonder if they are getting big money and/or tax incentives from the government to promote this. 

That's what I figured! Let's all go Green! Right?? How ridiculous can people get??

[HossC]

The F1 season finally got under way this weekend. This year's cars are quite different from last year in a effort to make close following and overtaking more easy.

After pre-season testing, it looked like Red Bull had made the most of the new regulations, with Ferrari close behind and Mercedes off the pace. However, in yesterday's qualifying, Ferrari took first and third with Red Bull in second and fourth. Aiming for a damage limitation race, Mercedes were fifth and ninth.

In today's race, Ferrari's Charles Leclerc led from the start, but Red Bull's Max Verstappen briefly swapped places with him several times after the first pit stops. Carlos Sainz in the second Ferrari maintained third place for most of the race with the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez and the lead Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton behind. George Russell in the second Mercedes improved from ninth to sixth. These places were looking pretty static until Pierre Gasly's Alpha Tauri pulled to the side of the track, bringing out a safety car with 13 laps to go. Charles Leclerc nailed the restart while Max Verstappen began to complain about issues with his car. With three laps to go, Max Verstappen had to retire, and his team mate Sergio Perez also retired at the start of the last lap. That gave Ferrari a 1-2 finish in the opening race with Mercedes gaining an unlikely third and fourth. Kevin Magnussen, who only found out that he was racing a few days ago when Haas sacked Russian driver Nikita Mazepin, finished an impressive fifth. F1's first Chinese driver, Guanyu Zhou, scored a point for finishing tenth on his debut.

Ferrari now head to next week's Saudi Arabia Grand Prix with a maximum of 44 points, with Mercedes on 27 and Red Bull on zero. Mercedes think they have a fast car once they can iron out a few issues, and both Haas and Alfa Romeo seem much more competitive than last year. Apart from Mercedes, other teams playing catch-up this year are McLaren and Aston Martin.

I can't embed the video, but you can see the highlights here.

[RogerDuke]

On 3/19/2022 at 7:17 PM, Hobie Hartkins said:

That's what I figured! Let's all go Green! Right?? How ridiculous can people get??

I like green. Kawasaki green that is. 

[Skipper Duke]

1 hour ago, RogerDuke said:

I like green. Kawasaki green that is. 

I like green too. The long green... Money that is.

[Spike]

I watched the F1 Bahrain highlights, looked like a very exciting race. Glad to see a Haas car in the top 5 and a Ferrari 1 2 finish. Hopefully this means there is better parity this year instead of just 2 or 3 teams. 

Jimmie Johnson finished 6th in his Indycar oval race debut at Texas yesterday. Looked like Jimmie Johnson of Nascar championship form yesterday. 

The Cup Series on the revamped and repaved Atlanta track set a bunch of new records yesterday. Most different leaders, most passes for the lead and one unfortunate record... most cars out of the race since Atlanta Motor Speedway's first race, a dozen cars were loaded back on the haulers due to wrecks. Since the new Atlanta track races like a superspeedway there were a few big ones due to the narrow deeply banked track. A good chunk of the race was a 2 lane drag race with the upper lane gaining the advantage on one lap while the lower lane got the advantage on the next lap and back and forth. William Byron ended up winning and becomes the 3rd Hendrick Motorsports car to win a race this season. Chase Elliott has yet to win this season but that could change next week at COTA. Christopher Bell forgot about the passing below the double line rule on the last lap and even though he finished 2nd he was scored as the last car on the lead lap in 23rd which knocked him down to 30th in points standings. Corey Lajoie scored his first top 5 of his cup series career. 

Top 10

1 William Byron

2 Ross Chastain

3 Kurt Busch

4 Daniel Suarez

5 Corey Lajoie

6 Chase Elliott 

7 Chris Buescher

8 Martin Truex Jr

9 Joey Logano

10 Alex Bowman

[HossC]

13 hours ago, RogerDuke said:

I like green. Kawasaki green that is. 

A few years ago, the TV show Wheeler Dealers repainted a Caterham 7 (the modern version of the Lotus 7) in Kawasaki Green. It was apparently a 'hot' color - definitely eye-catching.

[RogerDuke]

23 hours ago, Skipper Duke said:

I like green too. The long green... Money that is.

I'm a redneck and the woods is getting ready to turn green so that will make me smile! 

[Spike]

Sorry I haven't gotten around to posting race reviews been really busy helping out at the wife's work catching up on back orders the past few weeks. 

Ross Chastain showed that he was a good student when he was AJ Allmendinger's teammate at Kaulig Racing. He pulled out the win  at COTA after some chrome horn bumping between the two of them and led the most laps.

Top 10

1 Ross Chastain

2 Alex Bowman

3 Christopher Bell

4 Chase Elliott

5 Tyler Reddick

6 Ryan Blaney

7 Martin Truex Jr

8 Austin Cindric

9 Erik Jones

10 Austin Cindric

[Spike]

Richmond Toyota Owners 400

Denny Hamlin broke his winless streak and what was a bad start to the season with a win at Richmond. William Byron was trying to win on pit strategy and old tires but the grip of newer tires eventually caught up to him and passed him.

Top 10 

1 Denny Hamlin

2 Kevin Harvick

3 William Byron

4 Martin Truex Jr

5 Kyle Larson

6 Christopher Bell

7 Ryan Blaney

8 Alex Bowman

9 Kyle Busch

10 Austin Dillon

[HossC]

3 hours ago, Spike said:

Sorry I haven't gotten around to posting race reviews...

Not to worry, Spike, thanks for keeping us updated. There are more and more names I don't recognize in the results - I'll have to try and catch a race again sometime.

I was up early this morning (6am local time) to watch the Australian Grand Prix - the first to be held there since 2019. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc snatched pole position yesterday ahead of the two Red Bulls. His team mate, Carlos Sainz Jr., got caught out by a red flag and only qualified 9th. Mercedes still haven't got a handle on their new car, but Lewis Hamilton and George Russell qualified 5th and 6th behind the McLaren of Lando Norris.

In the race, Carlos Sainz Jr. had a bad start and then beached his car in the gravel after only one lap. Both Mercedes cars made up places at the start, but it was Charles Leclerc's Ferrari and Max Verstappen's Red Bull that led the way for most of the race. George Russell managed to leapfrog Lewis Hamilton by pitting under a safety car. Towards the end, Max Verstappen had another mechanical failure, which means that he's had two DNFs in three races. Maybe it's karma for the way he won last year's championship!

The top 10 were:

1	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari
2	Sergio Perez	Red Bull
3	George Russell	Mercedes
4	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes
5	Lando Norris	McLaren
6	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren
7	Esteban Ocon	Alpine
8	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo
9	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri
10	Alex Albon	Williams

That's three British drivers in the top 5, a good double points finish for McLaren, and the first point of the year for Williams.

You can watch the race highlights here.

[Spike]

William Byron bookended Martinsville winning both the trucks race Thursday night and the cup race last night so he got two clocks this weekend. It looked like Chase Elliott was going to dominate as he led from the 1st lap till the end of stage 2 winning both stages. William Byron's pit crew got him out ahead of Chase after the stage 2 end pit stop and he led till the end of the race. 

Top 10 

1 William Byron

2 Joey Logano

3 Austin Dillon

4 Ryan Blaney

5 Ross Chastain

6 Kurt Busch

7 Kyle Busch

8 Aric Almirola

9 Chase Briscoe

10 Chase Elliott

The Xfinity race was the most exciting of the weekend ending with a fist fight in pit lane. Joe Gibbs grandson Ty was driving like a jack*** the whole race and at the end was moved to the outside by his teammate Brandon Jones, who went on to win the race, and Landon Cassil went to the inside of Sam Mayer in turn 3 and pushed him into Ty. Ty didn't realize it and decided to take his tantrum out on Sam Mayer. Ty hit him on the track after the race and followed him into the pits and confronted him with his helmet on threw punches after Sam took his helmet off. Both had a long talking too in the Nascar trailer. 

[RogerDuke]

Chase Elliott needs to step it up a little. 

[HossC]

The Formula 1 race this weekend is at a brand new track that winds around the Miami Dolphins' Hard Rock Stadium. With first practice just over, it looks like Mercedes will be closer to Ferrari and Red Bull after a poor start to the season. As far as I can see, the race will be at 3.30pm ET on Sunday, which means it's 8.30pm for me.

[RogerDuke]

How many Formula 1 races are there in the US every year? I've gotten into MotoGP this year and the US only has one race.....it already happened on April 10 in Texas. 

[HossC]

Since 2012, Austin has hosted the US Grand Prix (with the exception of 2020 when there was no race due to Covid). This year they've added Miami to the calendar to make it the first time since the '80s that the US has hosted two grands prix. Next year you'll get a third race at Las Vegas.

[HossC]

The Spanish Grand Prix earlier today had its fair share of action. Mercedes finally seem to have sorted their problems with their cars "porpoising" on the straights, and qualified 4th and 6th amongst the Ferraris and Red Bulls. Lewis Hamilton got a puncture due to contact on the first lap, and slipped back to last-but-one. Both Max Verstappen in the Red Bull and Carlos Sainz Jnr in the Ferrari had spins caused by crosswinds which lost them a few places. George Russell in the second Mercedes did very well at keeping the Red Bulls behind him for many laps despite having a slightly slower car. Charles Leclerc went into the race leading the championship, and started on pole, but his Ferrari's engine lost power when he was in a comfortable lead, and he had to retire.

In the end, Max Verstappen won to take the championship lead, despite his car having intermittent DRS problems. His team mate, Sergio Perez, finished second, and George Russell finished an impressive third. Lewis Hamilton battled back from 19th to fourth, but had to slow for the last few laps because his car was overheating, so eventually finished fifth behind Carlos Sainz Jnr. Lewis' former team mate, Valtteri Bottas, had a good race with his Alfa Romeo finishing sixth. You can see the highlights here.

It's off to Monte Carlo next week for the Monaco Grand Prix.

[Spike]

On 5/22/2022 at 3:42 PM, HossC said:

It's off to Monte Carlo next week for the Monaco Grand Prix.

I wish ESPN/ABC ran the race live instead of tape delay after the Indy 500 and before the Charlotte 600 like NBC did when they had F1 coverage. It was nice waking up Sunday morning and getting a quick racing fix.