The Official "NASCAR 2008" thread

[SDRacing]

Im up kinda late, bored, so I figured I share a couple of classics:

1992 Iroc when they ran the Dodge Daytonas

+ YouTube Video

+ YouTube Video

+ YouTube Video

+ YouTube Video

+ YouTube Video

[tom3]

Excellent videos, good racing back then in real (looking) cars. Wonder what's the scoop on the Yeley water bottle deal. Little lead never hurt anybody, sort of brings back memories of Smokey there. Good race in Chicago and a full house never hurts any sport.

[likearock00]

Originally Posted by marinerbc

You guys are like a second family, except that none of you ever sue me.

I love it here.

I'm offended and you'll be hearing from my lawyer....

Good race on Sat night. I was at work (had to work 3rd shift) but saw most of it. I missed the ending and saw the results in the paper on sun morning. I was pretty disappointed. I got to thinking though- I used to hate Jimmie Johnson like 2 years ago for winning all the time. Now I am sad to see that Jimmie didn't win it! It's crazy how no matter what, you always want the best to fall and the weaker ones to prevail. Just like with Crocodile Hunter, how many of us watched just to see his final episode with his ass in a croc's mouth....

[SDRacing]

Originally Posted by likearock00

I'm offended and you'll be hearing from my lawyer....

Good race on Sat night. I was at work (had to work 3rd shift) but saw most of it. I missed the ending and saw the results in the paper on sun morning. I was pretty disappointed. I got to thinking though- I used to hate Jimmie Johnson like 2 years ago for winning all the time. Now I am sad to see that Jimmie didn't win it! It's crazy how no matter what, you always want the best to fall and the weaker ones to prevail. Just like with Crocodile Hunter, how many of us watched just to see his final episode with his ass in a croc's mouth....

Thats funny, for years I rooted against JJ, but that night I was yelling go da**it, go!!!

[DuraMax Hammer]

Hello boys. Well Saturday day and night was simplely, AWESOME! I ended up going to the race by myself. My wife wanted to go but with the little one being only 5 months old, she wanted to say home so she could feed him. So as much as I wanted to go with her, I was okay going by myself, as I could do and go anywhere I wanted to at anytime. My ticket was for row 4, about 300 feet towards Turn 4 of the Start/Finish line. And even being that low in the stands, Chicagoland Speedway has done a great job letting everyone, no matter where they are sitting see every inch of the track. Then I found out on Friday night that a friend of a friend had a Hot Pass for the Pits and Garage that was all access. So while others were only able to look at the garages and pits through a fence, I was able to actually be in the pits and the garages and had all access to everything except the RV's of the drivers. Other than that, I could go everywhere, and I was able to get some awesome pics (which I will post tonight).

I got down there for pre-race stuff, and was able to take a few pics of the drivers making their way to the stage, and a few of the pit boxes (which are freakin' cool) and then as the drivers were getting out of the bed of the trucks that took them around the track, I was able to make it out on pit road, got to shake hands of Bobby Labonte and Richard Childress. RC was the only one who made me litterally speechless. In my head I knew what I wanted to say to him, that I was a fan of his and wanted to wish him luck and I took a pic of him, walked up to him, shook his hand, smiled and couldn't say a thing. Boy did I feel like an a$$.

Then I got about 3 feet from Tony and got a few good pics as he was being interviewed by MRN, and then when the invication and national anthem was about to start, I found myself lined up with the Haas/CNC team of the #66. Another very cool thing. Was going to spend about 20 or so laps in Tony's pits, then go up to my seat, then if Tony was in the running for the win, I was going to go back down there. But I met a couple more Tony fans that were next to me and I ended up staying down there the whole race. Everything was so cool and even walked away with 3 of the lug nuts from Tony's last pit stop. So other then all that, it was a normal weekend.

[marinerbc]

[tom3]

Sometimes the best souvenirs are free. Looking forward to seeing the pictures too. Never been to a real NASCAR race, probably never will looks like. Have to wonder if Stewart is making a huge mistake, going to a team that doesn't build their own engines and chassis. I'm really wondering if there will be another aspect to this deal. How about Stewart/Hass/DEI racing?

[Shotgun]

Will Newman choose Stewart-Haas or RCR? My gut says Haas. He should go to RCR, though. If RCR doesn't get him, maybe they can get Truex.

[likearock00]

Shotgun already said it, but here's the official word anyways:

In the final year of his contract with Penske Racing and unhappy with the team's performance, Ryan Newman wanted to weigh his options for the 2009 season. On Monday, the Penske organization decided to move on without him, and announced it was cutting ties with Newman effective the end of the year.

"There's a point where there's a decision that has to be made," Penske president Tim Cindric said. "Our first choice was to keep Ryan on board with us, but you can't draw it out forever. There's going to be a point where we either have to decide whether we're in or we're out, and obviously today was the day to part ways."

http://www.nascar.com/2008/news/head...ske/index.html

[psece]

I was happy that Harvick came in third. But I was also saddened. Think about if Kyle had done what he did to Jimmie Johnson to Rusty Wallace or Dale Sr. I mean, he went around the outside of someone and pinned him down to the white line. In the old days, you would be asking for a beat down doing that. Now you just win!

[likearock00]

Originally Posted by psece

I was happy that Harvick came in third. But I was also saddened. Think about if Kyle had done what he did to Jimmie Johnson to Rusty Wallace or Dale Sr. I mean, he went around the outside of someone and pinned him down to the white line. In the old days, you would be asking for a beat down doing that. Now you just win!

I think there's alot more riding on a race now than then. Guys do want to win, but they also want to finish. If you wreck at the last lap and come in 23rd, you're probably gonna get your ass handed to you by the owner. It's more important to finish well vs wreck and get nothing IMO.

That doesn't mean I disagree with you though....

[Shotgun]

Originally Posted by likearock00

I think there's alot more riding on a race now than then. Guys do want to win, but they also want to finish. If you wreck at the last lap and come in 23rd, you're probably gonna get your ass handed to you by the owner. It's more important to finish well vs wreck and get nothing IMO.

That doesn't mean I disagree with you though....

You are both right. The points system has screwed up good racing. I STILL say that the winner get 50 points more than second, even if the second place driver leads the most laps. This would encourage racing for the win versus just riding around and not chancing losing points. Still, a system of awarding points to only the top-10 or 15 would also be good. It would also eliminate these torn-up, slow-ass cars from running around just to "collect points". To see a top driver racing 100 laps down just to gain 1 spot at the back (3 points) is a disgrace. I'd have to say I'd pull a Kyle Busch on that one and get out of dodge when the car was demolished. Remember, Earnhardt was seen much just garnering points with a torn up car. He'd park it and say, forget it. He'd regain the points later...

[psece]

Originally Posted by likearock00

I think there's alot more riding on a race now than then. Guys do want to win, but they also want to finish. If you wreck at the last lap and come in 23rd, you're probably gonna get your ass handed to you by the owner. It's more important to finish well vs wreck and get nothing IMO.

That doesn't mean I disagree with you though....

Originally Posted by Shotgun

You are both right. The points system has screwed up good racing. I STILL say that the winner get 50 points more than second, even if the second place driver leads the most laps. This would encourage racing for the win versus just riding around and not chancing losing points. Still, a system of awarding points to only the top-10 or 15 would also be good. It would also eliminate these torn-up, slow-ass cars from running around just to "collect points". To see a top driver racing 100 laps down just to gain 1 spot at the back (3 points) is a disgrace. I'd have to say I'd pull a Kyle Busch on that one and get out of dodge when the car was demolished. Remember, Earnhardt was seen much just garnering points with a torn up car. He'd park it and say, forget it. He'd regain the points later...

I also think part of it is that the old drivers came up living from race to race. They would work 40 hours and put all the money and sweat into the cars at night. Every race had the possibility of being there last and they raced the race that way every time. Besides the cars being "Stock" cars, the drivers and their attitudes is what made the sport special.

The new kids had mom and dad working to put them in the cars. They then got picked up and got into the top echelons of the sport at a very young age. They weren't as hungry because there was always a next week for them. It is truly corporate like F1 now. Only a few top teams and drivers who have no clue how lucky they truly are.....

[LAChevy24]

So what do you guys think about nascar possibly hampering toyotas performance alittle bit to help out the others. honestly im not to sure about it. in one way it says, here you go american guys, since you are struggling, heres a bone to help you out. but the other side says why not. remember gordon's 97 t-rex car. they banned it after one race and nascar made new rules.

[Shotgun]

Originally Posted by LAChevy24

So what do you guys think about nascar possibly hampering toyotas performance alittle bit to help out the others. honestly im not to sure about it. in one way it says, here you go american guys, since you are struggling, heres a bone to help you out. but the other side says why not. remember gordon's 97 t-rex car. they banned it after one race and nascar made new rules.

Well, this won't be popular, but here goes. I don't think Toyota has an unfair engine advantage like everyone wants to talk about. Sure, they may have a little more HP, but you have to give them credit where it's due. When the new engine rule for N'wide came out, it was up to every manufacturer to adapt their engines for the tapered spacer. Dodge and Toyota are neck in neck in HP ratings according to the previous dyno tests. Ford and Chevy say they are 5-20 hp off. Now, NASCAR should have allowed Chevy to use the new R07 engines in N'wide, which would have helped. I'm not up on the Ford engine program, so I can't speak for them. However, to be honest, I think that a change in midstream is a dumb move. Childress spanked everyone's butt in Busch last year, but there weren't any calls for help from other manufacturers. I think Toyota and Dodge did there homework on this new engine package while Ford and Chevy sat around thinking they would be okay since they had success last year. The only difference is that Toyota has better teams than Dodge in the N'wide series.