NASCAR news

[Hobie Hartkins]

1 minute ago, Skipper Duke said:

Garrett Duke

??? How is Garrett Flashed up??

[Skipper Duke]

14 minutes ago, Skipper Duke said:

Garrett Duke

Hobie Garrett's a NASCAR fan. So I tagged him.

[Skipper Duke]

13 minutes ago, Hobie Hartkins said:

??? How is Garrett Flashed up??

I tagged Garrett so he will hopefully see the electric car news. He's a big NASCAR fan.

[RogerDuke]

I hope dirt bike racing doesn't go through this. They are claiming they won't because it is necessary that you be able to hear other bikes you are competing against and if you can't that wouldn't be safe. 

[Skipper Duke]

3 hours ago, RogerDuke said:

I hope dirt bike racing doesn't go through this. They are claiming they won't because it is necessary that you be able to hear other bikes you are competing against and if you can't that wouldn't be safe. 

Hopefully dirt bike racing doesn't change.

[HossC]

11 hours ago, Spike said:

NASCAR is going 'lectric racing 

https://www.jayski.com/2024/07/06/nascar-abb-reveal-ev-prototype-and-launch-electrification-innovation-partnership/

It's probably about time that NASCAR adopted an electric element, but don't worry prematurely. Formula 1 has been using hybrid engines for 10 years now, but the main power unit is still gas powered. There was an article at roadandtrack.com in May suggesting that NASCAR could go hybrid from 2026.

ABB seem to be behind the Jayski story. They are the main sponsor of the Formula E racing series. For those of you unfamiliar with Formula E, it uses fully electric cars for racing. The races are often run on city center courses where naturally aspirated cars would stand no chance of being allowed to race due to the noise (I've never been to a NASCAR race, but I can tell you that F1 cars are loud).

I think you'll either get hybrid cars or a separate electric racing series. F1 and NASCAR are both committed to using 100% sustainable fuel as soon as possible, so that implies that neither are planning to go fully electric.

[Spike]

6 hours ago, HossC said:

It's probably about time that NASCAR adopted an electric element, but don't worry prematurely. Formula 1 has been using hybrid engines for 10 years now, but the main power unit is still gas powered. There was an article at roadandtrack.com in May suggesting that NASCAR could go hybrid from 2026.

ABB seem to be behind the Jayski story. They are the main sponsor of the Formula E racing series. For those of you unfamiliar with Formula E, it uses fully electric cars for racing. The races are often run on city center courses where naturally aspirated cars would stand no chance of being allowed to race due to the noise (I've never been to a NASCAR race, but I can tell you that F1 cars are loud).

I think you'll either get hybrid cars or a separate electric racing series. F1 and NASCAR are both committed to using 100% sustainable fuel as soon as possible, so that implies that neither are planning to go fully electric.

Yeah hybrid powertrains are coming most likely around 2026 or so. Hopefully they will keep the V8's though Toyota is pushing for a V6. If that happens they will have to use balance of power rules to put the V6 and V8 on more equal footing. 

I watched a formula e race once, won't make that mistake again . 

[HossC]

20 hours ago, HossC said:

For tomorrow's British Grand Prix, the three British drivers (Russell, Hamilton and Norris) will be starting first, second and third. Max Verstappen starts fourth. There was rain in practice and qualifying, so it should be a good race.

What a race. This is the only one of the year that gets shown live on free-to-air TV over here, so I stayed in to watch it. The race started dry, and the two Mercedes led for the first laps. Max Verstappen got past Lando Norris for third on the first lap, but Lando passed him back a few laps later. Oscar Piastri, Lando's team mate, also got past Max. Then the rain came, gently at first. Hamilton got past George Russell for the lead, then Lando took the lead. McLaren split their tire strategy and Oscar had to do an extra lap before getting his intermediate (wet weather) tires.

I think they raced for about 15 laps on a wet track, but Silverstone is an old airfield, so it dried quickly when the sun came out and the teams went back to slick tires. Sadly, George Russell had to retire his Mercedes with a mechanical issue. Lewis had ended up leading when they went back to slicks, and chose the soft tires, as did Lando in second. Max went for hards, and overtook Lando with a few laps to go, but he couldn't catch Lewis who won a record-breaking 9th British Grand Prix. It's Lewis' first win for two and a half years, and a record-breaking 104th career victory. Lewis was very emotional as he got out of his car waving a Union Jack at his home race. It's his last race there for Mercedes and the moment clearly got to him.

We've now had six different winners from four different teams this year - twice as many as last year. Max is still well ahead with seven wins (the others have one each), but the top teams are now much closer, which bodes well for the second half of the season.

The highlights aren't up yet - I'll post a link later when they get to YouTube.

[HossC]

As promised, the highlights can be found here.

[Garrett Duke]

Well y'all...I've really been slacking when it comes to NASCAR and HNet. I got another week and two days and my class will be over and I'll have a few weeks off from classes. 

They were at Chicago's road race last weekend and it sounded like an exciting race. I was grocery shopping so, I missed out. I was going to do better about watching the races. But apparently not. I haven't watched one, but kept track of Elliott throughout the races. Now that it's not on FOX, it'll be more difficult for me to watch. I just don't seem to have the patience to sit down and watch it as I did back with Gordon and Johnson were racing. Dang, I never missed a race. I do miss that. I'm sure once I sat down to watch it, I'd be hooked...

Anyway, enough about me. Chase Elliott came home 21st...he needs to get back to first! LOL. Anyway, his teammate, Alex Bowman broke his winless streak and went home with the win. I am excited for Bowman. He's a great guy. (Then again, he's a Hendrick driver and I like all the Hendrick boys. Elliott just happens to be my favorite.) I guess early on in the lap, he made a mistake and got into Bubba Wallace. While Bowman was on his cooldown lap, Wallace hit Bowman into the wall. Bowman later apologized for his earlier error and said how bad he felt and that he understood Wallace's anger and said he didn't think Wallace should be punished. Well NASCAR punished Wallace $50,000 for the hit. Wallace went home 13th after the race. 

I'm not a fan of Wallace or him wrecking Bowman, but at the same time, at least he waited until after the race to do it and not ruin the win for Bowman. But maybe that's because he couldn't get to him. I'm sure tempers are hot and so forth, but it's not in Bowman's style to intentionally wreck people either. It doesn't look like he was penalized points, which normally 25 points or so is taken from the driver, so maybe NASCAR took in Bowman's interview and all.

Chicago Street Race Race Results, Lineup | Official Site Of NASCAR

Bubba Wallace penalized following Chicago incident | NASCAR

[Spike]

Noah Gragson is the latest SHR driver to find a new team, he'll be moving to Front Row Motorsports probably taking over the #34. https://www.jayski.com/2024/07/10/noah-gragson-signs-multi-year-deal-with-front-row-motorsports/

 

The Chicago street race was a good one to watch again. Too bad some protesters had to delay the start for almost an hour because they chained themselves to one of the fences. They were arrested and banned from all future NASCAR races. It was once again turned into a timed finish due to a red flag period to somewhat dry the track. One thing I can't figure out is why they added a lap though. They said numerous times once the clock hit 00:00 the leader would get the white flag but for some reason the flagman gave the 2 to go signal instead. The Xfinity Chicago race was a good one to watch too so if they put it up on the YouTube channel check it out. 

[Spike]

Ryan Blaney won Pocono yesterday, this is the '23 champs 2nd win of the year and moves him up to 5th in championship standings. Corey Lajoie might be the driver of the week to be fined for on track conduct. He turned Kyle Busch after Busch threw a block on a late restart. If he would have turned Busch during the block it probably would have been called a racing incident but since Corey turned Busch well after the block and took out 4 other cars doing it he'll probably get a fine. Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, Daniel Suarez and Ty Gibbs got nailed for speeding on their last pit stops which mixed them back in traffic. Chase Elliott was able to get all the way back up to 9th, his teammates Alex Bowman and William Byron got top 5's. 

[RogerDuke]

4 hours ago, Spike said:

 Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, Daniel Suarez and Ty Gibbs got nailed for speeding on their last pit stops which mixed them back in traffic. 

You have to have rules. I get that. But still, it's always funny to hear about someone getting in trouble for going too fast in a race. That doesn't happen in Hazzard County.....and Hobie doesn't fine anybody if they go too fast in the pits at the Moonshine 400.

Edited July 15 by RogerDuke

[HossC]

17 minutes ago, RogerDuke said:

You have to have rules. I get that. But still, it's always funny to hear about someone getting in trouble for going too fast in a race. That doesn't happen in Hazzard County. 

They give out pit lane speeding penalties in F1 too. When I started watching F1, there were no pit lane speed limits, but it was inevitable that they'd be introduced as the cars got faster and more attention was paid to safety. They initially brought in a 100km/h (62mph) limit in 2004, and reduced it to 80km/h (50mph) in 2017. Some circuits, such as Monaco, have a 60km/h (37mph) limit due to shortness or narrowness.

F1 pit lanes are quite different to NASCAR, both in design and the amount of equipment and personnel that you'll find there. Refuelling was stopped a while ago now, so pit stops are generally just for tire changes, which are often achieved in around two seconds.

Here's a video I found of some pit lane incidents, most from many years ago. The driver whose car catches fire in the last clip is Jos Verstappen, Max's father. As far as I know, he didn't suffer any lasting injuries.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWfUg5ja90k

[Spike]

Cole Custer to move back up to cup for 2025 season in Haas Racing #41 Ford. Haas will become a satellite team for Rush/Fenway/Keselowski Racing. 

https://www.jayski.com/2024/07/20/cole-custer-to-drive-for-haas-factory-team-in-2025/

[HossC]

The outcome of today's Hungarian Grand Prix wasn't entirely satisfactory, but it was a good race nonetheless.

McLaren continued their recent good form by locking out the front row of the grid, with Lando Norris starting on pole ahead of team mate Oscar Piastri. Max Verstappen was third, but his team mate, Sergio Perez, crashed in qualifying and started near the back. Despite signing a contract extension, Perez is under mounting pressure to retain his drive after several disappointing races. Mercedes driver George Russell also started near the back after not taking enough fuel to make the best of the changing weather conditions in qualifying.

Piastri got the better start, and Norris found himself in third after Max Verstappen also moved up a place, but he did so by going of the track so his Red Bull team advised him to give the place back in case they got a penalty. This was the first of several team decisions that annoyed Verstappen today. Lewis Hamilton jumped Ferrari's Carlos Sainz Jr at the start, and undercut Verstappen at the first pit stops. We were then treated to a good fight between Hamilton and Verstappen.

McLaren were well ahead by the second pit stops, but chose to pit second placed Norris first, putting him in the lead after Piastri stopped a couple of laps later. The team told Norris to give the lead back to his team mate (F1 is very much a team sport with a constructors' as well as drivers' championship), but Norris was reluctant as he was clearly faster and only has one victory to his name. In the end, he relented with three laps to go, giving up a six second lead to let Piastri take his maiden win and give McLaren a 1-2 finish. Hamilton resumed his battle with Verstappen after their second pit stops, which ended with collision that sent Verstappen's car into the air. He carried on to finish fifth. Hamilton suffered less from the collision, and finished third to take a record-breaking 200th podium.

At halfway through the season, we've already had seven different winners, which is much healthier for the sport than recent years.

You can watch the 8-minute highlights here.

Next week is the Belgian Grand Prix from Spa - one of my favorite circuits. I hope the close competition continues there.

[Spike]

11 hours ago, HossC said:

McLaren were well ahead by the second pit stops, but chose to pit second placed Norris first, putting him in the lead after Piastri stopped a couple of laps later. The team told Norris to give the lead back to his team mate (F1 is very much a team sport with a constructors' as well as drivers' championship), but Norris was reluctant as he was clearly faster and only has one victory to his name. In the end, he relented with three laps to go, giving up a six second lead to let Piastri take his maiden win and give McLaren a 1-2 finish. Hamilton resumed his battle with Verstappen after their second pit stops, which ended with collision that sent Verstappen's car into the air. He carried on to finish fifth. Hamilton suffered less from the collision, and finished third to take a record-breaking 200th podium.

And that right there is why F1 is not even in the top 5 of my favorite Motorsports to watch. Lando should have kept that 6 second lead and won the race since he was clearly the better car and driver for the race. If that were to happen in NASCAR that would most likely earn the team a 'not to do it again' warning at least. Most teams in NASCAR let the drivers race the teammates as for whatever spot as long as they don't wreck. Sure on the regular season finale race teammates will give a spot up to another teammate to try to get them in the "Chase for the championship" but they wouldn't give up a win. 

[HossC]

4 hours ago, Spike said:

And that right there is why F1 is not even in the top 5 of my favorite Motorsports to watch. Lando should have kept that 6 second lead and won the race since he was clearly the better car and driver for the race.

When they interviewed the McLaren team boss afterwards, David Couthard mentioned that when he drove for McLaren and had to give up the lead to a team mate he was still paid the winner's bonus. I hope Lando at least gets that. The whole situation played out very badly through radio messages, especially as Lando was clearly faster and is ahead in the championship. As Lando closes the gap to Max, I hope the decision doesn't come back to haunt the team at the end of the season.

[RogerDuke]

On 7/22/2024 at 4:40 AM, Spike said:

And that right there is why F1 is not even in the top 5 of my favorite Motorsports to watch. 

Pro dirt bikes for me. Followed by NASCAR and then sport bikes like Moto GP. F1 is awesome but there is only so much time in the day. In fact, all road and track racing is awesome. If it has wheels, people in Hazzard wanna race it....or at least wanna watch it race.  

[HossC]

Seeing as NASCAR likes dry tracks, I thought y'all might like to see a wet qualifying session in F1 (squeezed into 7 minutes). It's not unusual to get bad weather at the Belgian Grand Prix, but it's meant to be fine for tomorrow's race. Despite the rain, there wasn't a single spin or crash during qualifying, and only a few slides. You can watch here.

Spoiler alert: Max Verstappen was easily quickest, and took pole position, but he'll start from 11th after a 10-place grid penalty for exceeding his engine allowance. That promotes Ferrari's Charles Leclerc to a surprise pole position with Max's team mate Sergio Perez having a better session to start in second. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) and Lando Norris (McLaren) start third and fourth.

[RogerDuke]

On 7/27/2024 at 5:19 PM, HossC said:

Seeing as NASCAR likes dry tracks, I thought y'all might like to see a wet qualifying session in F1 (squeezed into 7 minutes). It's not unusual to get bad weather at the Belgian Grand Prix, but it's meant to be fine for tomorrow's race. Despite the rain, there wasn't a single spin or crash during qualifying, and only a few slides. You can watch here.

 

That's cool that nobody crashed from the rain. Sport bikes are the same way. It is surprising that they race in the rain. And also surprising they don't crash more than they do on a wet track. 

[HossC]

I was out yesterday, so I only got home to see the end of the Belgian Grand Prix highlights. If I'd watched it live, I'd have missed the cruel twist at the end, but more of that later.

Charles Leclerc retained first place off the line, but Lewis Hamilton got past Sergio Perez for second, and took the lead on lap 3. The order was shuffled a bit through the first pit stops with McLaren, Mercedes and Red Bull all looking fairly evenly matched, and Ferrari not far behind. George Russell then made the brave decision to go with a one-stop strategy when most teams were doing a two-stopper. It looked to have paid off when he had a good lead after the second round of pit stops. Lewis managed to catch him with three laps to go, but couldn't pass. At the finish it was George, Lewis and McLaren's Oscar Piastri all separated by just over a second.

Unfortunately for George, sometime after the race, his car was found to be 1.5kg (3.3lb) under weight, and he was disqualified. This is extremely rare in modern F1, but probably down to simple human error somewhere down the line. That promoted Lewis to first (his 105th career victory), with Oscar second and Charles in third. Max Verstappen recovered from his grid penalty to take fourth, and Lando Norris finished fifth after losing places at the start.

You can see the highlights here (minus the after-race disqualification).

It's four weeks until the next race (the Dutch Grand Prix) as F1 takes its annual summer break. There's speculation about whether Sergio Perez will still be driving for Red Bull after the break. He's had a pretty bad run of form after extending his contract earlier this year. Yesterday he started second and finished seventh, while team mate Max Verstappen started 11th and finished fourth. Sergio just isn't providing the support or points that Red Bull are looking for.

News just out tonight: Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz, who's leaving at the end of the year to make way for Lewis Hamilton, is joining Williams for 2025. Read more here.

[HossC]

On 7/29/2024 at 7:32 PM, HossC said:

There's speculation about whether Sergio Perez will still be driving for Red Bull after the break. He's had a pretty bad run of form after extending his contract earlier this year. Yesterday he started second and finished seventh, while team mate Max Verstappen started 11th and finished fourth. Sergio just isn't providing the support or points that Red Bull are looking for.

To end the speculation, Red Bull have announced that Sergio Perez will continue driving for them in the second half of the season. They will also be retaining Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda at second team RB.

[Spike]

Was waiting to post Richmond's results to see what NASCAR was going to do. Austin Dillon was on his way to a win in the final laps till Ricky Stenhouse and Ryan Preece ran out of talent and crashed into each other causing a caution. On the GWC restart Joey Logano got the lead and until turn 3 looked like he would win but Austin has other plans full sailing it into turn 3 hitting Joey Logano causing him to spin. Denny Hamlin was 3rd and thought he was going to win since Austin full sailed it and was way up the track but Austin had other plans again turning as far left as he could tappin the right rear of Denny's car sending him hard into the wall. Austin went on to win. Denny and most of the rest of the drivers called foul and forced NASCAR to finally put a line in the sand on what they will allow. NASCAR finally decided to allow Austin to keep the win but take all the points away and make him illegible for the playoffs. It's funny because Dale Earnhardt Jr said this would probably be the best outcome for everyone on his podcast yesterday. 

Top ten

1, Austin Dillon, encumbered win

2. Denny Hamlin 

3. Tyler Reddick 

4. Bubba Wallace 

5. Ross Chastain 

6. Christopher Bell

7. Kyle Larson 

8. Carson However

9. Chase Elliott

10. Daniel Suarez 

 

I personally think they should DQ Austin Dillon and take the win away but I guess this outcome is just as good as it does show everyone there is a line not to cross now. 

[Garrett Duke]

23 minutes ago, Spike said:

Was waiting to post Richmond's results to see what NASCAR was going to do. Austin Dillon was on his way to a win in the final laps till Ricky Stenhouse and Ryan Preece ran out of talent and crashed into each other causing a caution. On the GWC restart Joey Logano got the lead and until turn 3 looked like he would win but Austin has other plans full sailing it into turn 3 hitting Joey Logano causing him to spin. Denny Hamlin was 3rd and thought he was going to win since Austin full sailed it and was way up the track but Austin had other plans again turning as far left as he could tappin the right rear of Denny's car sending him hard into the wall. Austin went on to win. Denny and most of the rest of the drivers called foul and forced NASCAR to finally put a line in the sand on what they will allow. NASCAR finally decided to allow Austin to keep the win but take all the points away and make him illegible for the playoffs. It's funny because Dale Earnhardt Jr said this would probably be the best outcome for everyone on his podcast yesterday. 

Top ten

1, Austin Dillon, encumbered win

2. Denny Hamlin 

3. Tyler Reddick 

4. Bubba Wallace 

5. Ross Chastain 

6. Christopher Bell

7. Kyle Larson 

8. Carson However

9. Chase Elliott

10. Daniel Suarez 

 

I personally think they should DQ Austin Dillon and take the win away but I guess this outcome is just as good as it does show everyone there is a line not to cross now. 

Wow I am really failing on this thread, aren't I? I've been reading up on this and yet haven't wrote a single word about it. Thank you Spike for the post. I didn't watch the race and have to look at what had happened, but I agree with you, that if he wrecked them intentionally just to win the race, they should have handed the win to the second place driver which looks to be Hamlin. If you can't win without wrecking people, then that's not really a win. My mom just sent me a clip from the 90's when Rusty Wallace did this to Jeff Gordon to win the race...she knows how to make me mad. HA. It's just dirty and wrong. But no one asked me...LOL.