Daytona Spoilers. Big Name is OUT!!!!

Jacques Villenueve will not race in the Daytona 500. What a tool. Had a thing with Peugoet in the LeMans Series, but decided to race Nascar with an unsponsored car. Now he crashes out of his qualifying race.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Tom @ Feb 17 2008, 10:32 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>I've watched a bit of the NEXTEL cup thing over the winter and found myself quite interested in what demands the cars and drivers actually have on them. Who knows whats what?

Oh, not Tom. I thought you'd be one of the last guys to buy into that stuff.

I was once a fan and quiet a crazy fan about Nascar. What would you like to know? Sadly I could probably anwser all your questions.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Tom @ Feb 17 2008, 11:01 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>Just the standard background stuff. The cars are made of what??? Are they identical except the bodies? How quickly do they develop them? What makes a good driver? How do they tackle the courses? Whats a good setup and whats a bad setup?

Cars are made of aluminum and steel tub framed chassis. They are not "stock" like DTM and BTCC are. All the chassis are now built to spec with the new car, that has the rear wing and front spliter. Those are carbon fiber and come from Nascar when they arrive to the track to avoid any tampering of them.

Yes. The bodies are now built to spec and are exactly the same. The only difference is the front nose where the manufacters logo goes.

The new car was started in development in 2005, and started racing part time last season. If you have alot of money and engineers, you could get a car to it's full potential in about a year, which teams like Hendrick Motorsports (drivers include Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson, and Jeff Gordon), have for the most part done with their car. But some teams are still struggling to develope the car.

Most of Nascar goes back to engines. The manufacters do not provide much input and engineering help with this. Only Toyota and Dodge does engine work in house. Each team builds their own engines or buys them from others teams. Hendrick Motorsports build engines to about 4 teams. Their own, plus anyone who wants to purchase them. Roush Racing and Yates Racing build all the Ford engines and sells them to, oh wait, their are no other Ford teams. Dodge builds engines for their teams, but Penske Racing build their own engines. All Toyota teams use the factory engines, except new comers Joe Gibbs Racing (drivers Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch) build their own.

A good driver is only good if he has great equipment much like Formula One. You really cannot make a Nascar car run better on second tier equipment. That is why Dale Earnhardt Jr. left his late fathers team and went to Hendrick Motorsports. You need to have patience to run Nascar. Running in a tight pack you need to have the patience to run without crashing. If you can drive a car, you can drive Nascar. They make themselves seem like their are great drivers, like F1 and all other car racers, but they are doing nothing special. Anyone can get into the series if they have the money.

Driving ovals and the occasional road course for 36 races is quiet demanding. To tackle the races and tracks you again need patience. Driving an oval is quiet easy. Driving a round-a-bout is probably harder to drive than Most Nascar tracks. You have tracks like Talledega and Daytona which are tight packed tracks running 3 wide for 500 miles at 180 mph around a 2.5 and 2.66 mile track. You have the cookie cutter track like Atlanta and Texas which are 1.5 mile long and you run pretty much single file and at 170-180 mph for 400-5oo miles. Then you have the short tracks. Those are a tight circuit of a mile or less. You run single file at these tracks and run into lap traffic very quickly. Speeds are low, at around 130 mph. But for 2 races during the Sprint Cup season you go to road course. First you head to Infineon Raceway, which AMA SBK runs, and is very elevated and slow. The cars have skinny tires and slide a bit there. Speeds are only about 110 mph tops. The racing is quiet boring as their is little passing. Not many Nascar drivers have road circuit experience, so it is quiet fun watching them screw up and go off course. Then they go to Watkins Glen, which is faster, but still on the slow side. The cars get up to about 170 mph before entering the bus stop chicane. Still little passing and again the inexperiences cause many cautions, as Nascar is a yellow flag happy series and throws the saftey car out at every spin of the car.



This is one thing I might have some trouble with. Set ups. Hmmm... A good set up would include a car that handles like the drivers wants. It varies from race to race. At tracks like Daytona, you want a car to have speed and can let handling slag. At the cookie cutter you want a little of both. A car that can turn and can go fast. Those are the hardest tracks to set up for and the times are quiet apart during qualifying. Then at short tracks and road courses, you'd rather have a car that handles than has speed. You can make up that top speed with a better corner speed.

Hopes this can help. I am not a Nascar fan. Actually my sig quiet explains my feeling to the series.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE <div class='quotemain'>I can see a lot of parallels between NASCRAP and "pro" wrestling. Both are the Cheez Whiz of their respective sports: pasteurized and processed for you viewing pleasure.

I think this is the longest post I have ever done on any site.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLdZDLbISdw

Reason my sig is what it is. Montoya looking like an ... again. How the great have fallen.

Ricky Carmichael is running in one Nascar's developement series for Dale Earnhardt Inc. I think it is a waste for him, as look at Patrana.