"The" Daytona 500

So yesterday i decided to give "The" Daytona 500 a chance..thought i'd tune in to see what the big hoop-la is about this sport here in the States...at least i could catch a good crash or two i thought...

O....M....G....
What a ....... joke, that has got to be the most pointless "sporting event" i've ever had the displeasure of witnessing...225 THOUSAND people were there! WTF? WHY? To start off, they must have had a 4 HOUR preshow... Is it me, or are HALF of these "athletes" over 60 years old and about 100 pounds over weight...i'm no spring chicken, but jezuz most of those guys looked my fathers age.

The #3...Dale Earnhardt....
During the 10 hour long preshow, while Brooks & Dunn were playing their last song... they brought out the #3 car...How long are they going to bleed Earnhardts death? Seriously it's been 10 ....... years!...get over it...One of the former winners, now commentator started crying? HEY! .......! It's been 10 years, get over it! You know i bet even Jr; Earnhardts son, has got to be sick of of these a-holes bringing up his Dads death at every ....... event....I Just feel it is very disrespectful trying to manipulate sympathy from the TV audience...what ....... dicks.

Another thing....is EVERYONE involved in this sport named DALE? every other person interviewed, or interviewing, or announcing, or racing, or covering the history of the sport..or whatever...was named Dale. AND They all sound like a bunch of hill-billies...

"DAG-GUM"....while calling the "race"....the commentators used the "word"..."DAG-GUM"

"THEY'RE AVERAGING 180 MPH DALE!!!"
Well NO .... Dale...the ....... cars topped out at 185 mph!...they go around the "corners" (flat-out i must add) at 182!!...on the straights they pull the trigger to achieve a blistering 185!!...GOD what ....... idiots!!! "JUST WATCH THE RPMs... JUST COMING OUT OF THE CORNER DALE!"
Change....change he said ...the RPMs out and in of the corners changed alright....from 8100 RPM to 8500 rpm and back again...thats it. OH and get this....the gear shifter....you know that used thing to change gears.....NEVER used on the track....only used when entering and leaving the pits.

To the NASCAR fans on this board.....why do you enjoy this?...it's crap.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (xx CURVE xx @ Feb 18 2008, 12:03 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>So yesterday i decided to give "The" Daytona 500 a chance..thought i'd tune in to see what the big hoop-la is about this sport here in the States...at least i could catch a good crash or two i thought...

O....M....G....
What a ....... joke, that has got to be the most pointless "sporting event" i've ever had the displeasure of witnessing...225 THOUSAND people were there! WTF? WHY? To start off, they must have had a 4 HOUR preshow... Is it me, or are HALF of these "athletes" over 60 years old and about 100 pounds over weight...i'm no spring chicken, but jezuz most of those guys looked my fathers age.

The #3...Dale Earnhardt....
During the 10 hour long preshow, while Brooks & Dunn were playing their last song... they brought out the #3 car...How long are they going to bleed Earnhardts death? Seriously it's been 10 ....... years!...get over it...One of the former winners, now commentator started crying? HEY! .......! It's been 10 years, get over it! You know i bet even Jr; Earnhardts son, has got to be sick of of these a-holes bringing up his Dads death at every ....... event....I Just feel it is very disrespectful trying to manipulate sympathy from the TV audience...what ....... dicks.

Another thing....is EVERYONE involved in this sport named DALE? every other person interviewed, or interviewing, or announcing, or racing, or covering the history of the sport..or whatever...was named Dale. AND They all sound like a bunch of hill-billies...

"DAG-GUM"....while calling the "race"....the commentators used the "word"..."DAG-GUM"

"THEY'RE AVERAGING 180 MPH DALE!!!"
Well NO .... Dale...the ....... cars topped out at 185 mph!...they go around the "corners" (flat-out i must add) at 182!!...on the straights they pull the trigger to achieve a blistering 185!!...GOD what ....... idiots!!! "JUST WATCH THE RPMs... JUST COMING OUT OF THE CORNER DALE!"
Change....change he said ...the RPMs out and in of the corners changed alright....from 8100 RPM to 8500 rpm and back again...thats it. OH and get this....the gear shifter....you know that used thing to change gears.....NEVER used on the track....only used when entering and leaving the pits.

rant over.
did you really think you were gonna find it..... interesting?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (frosty58 @ Feb 18 2008, 10:08 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'> did you really think you were gonna find it..... interesting?

I find anything with an engine and raced interesting...not necessarily entertaining
I was looking for why some do...

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (xx CURVE xx @ Feb 18 2008, 12:13 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>I find anything with an engine and raced interesting...not necessarily entertaining
I was looking for why some do...
yep i used the wrong word. entrertaining.... my bad.

To start with that is a restrictor plate track.The cars had got to an average 212 mph but they would fly when they got sideways or backwards.When i say fly,i mean they would launch 15-20 feet in the air.Talladega is the same,speeds had reached 214 average per lap and they had an incident,i was there,where a car almost got into the stands.Nascar saw the potential for disater and put restictor plates that zapped around 400 of their 900 hp.Thats why you saw very little variance in RPM,they stay wide open under that rules package.Nexts week race,they will have all the power back and you will see speeds alittle over 200 mph on the striats but having to get of hard for the corners and then back in it.The first half of yesterdays race was boring becaus of no cautions but the last 50 laps was great and the finish was even greater.Why do we enjoy it,the top 10 cars finished within 3/4 of a second of each other.I just like racing.Bike racing,car racing,hell ive watched lawn mower racing.To people that dont get Nascar,a lot is jealousy,they wish their favorite series was as popular.Other just dont get what is involved with the strategies and the physical and mental endurance it takes to drive one of those cars.They just dont understand that when a 3400 pound car goes into a 30-35 degree bank at 200 mph,the G force equals what an astronaut goes thru in a shuttle launch.The difference being,they are not being pushed into the seat,they are being pulled out of it.Think of going thru a shuttle launch 800 times in a 4 hour period and still having the reflexes to make millisecond moves.Thats what i like about it.Close racing,inches apart at high speeds and always a bang bang finish.Name another series that gives you that kind of racing.I can think of 1 and its on ovals also and these guys even have bigger balls,THE IRL.That .... is insane.30-40 mph faster per lap and open wheel.And more often than not, a bang bang finish.Go to a Nascar race at Bristol Tennessee and come back on here and tell me you didnt like it,i dare you.

Of course the finish was close!...it was a 2 lap drag race after a yellow flag!

and lame.

I hate NASCAR just as much as the next moto gp fan, but the reason they were paying special attention to Dale sr is because it was the 50th race there and thats the track he died on so I can understand that. But Nascar isnt a sport because the drivers arent athletes

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (xx CURVE xx @ Feb 18 2008, 12:57 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>Of course the finish was close!...it was a 2 lap drag race after a yellow flag!

and lame.

To each his own,difference of opinion is what the makes the world go round.If you did watch the race,you would know that the top 10 cars were pretty much bunched together the whole race.Not just the last 3 laps.Oh,and im with you on the pre race show.Way to much but it was the 50 year anniversary.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (povol @ Feb 18 2008, 04:37 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>I can think of 1 and its on ovals also and these guys even have bigger balls,THE IRL.That .... is insane.30-40 mph faster per lap and open wheel.And more often than not, a bang bang finish.Go to a Nascar race at Bristol Tennessee and come back on here and tell me you didnt like it,i dare you.
Yup, I'm a HUGE fan of IndyCar racing. I can remember in the mid-90's CART was the most exciting series on the planet, by a long way. It was the diversity that made it, drivers had to excel on Ovals, Street and Road courses to have a shot at the title. Then the bloody split between IRL and CART happened. Hopefully the proposed merger between Champ Car and IRL will happen and we will get proper IndyCar racing again.

Being in the South and formerly living a few miles from where Richard Petty's shop was located, I followed NASCAR up until a few years ago; not so much now because for me it lost some of it's characters, and heritage. Best marketed racing series in the US bar none, unfortunately most of the racing is boring. I still watch the Bristol race, hardest ticket in NASCAR to get by the way and I'm only a few hours away from that track, but the racing there always gets interesting.

Povol raises fair points. The Daytona field was, for example, large and competitive, at least in the top 15 or so. Because the cars are not so expensive there is no shortage of teams and sponsors or an unwillingness to race at many venues in a season. And open access to the driver-pit radio channel open is fun.
So that much is true. There are some lessons for Dorna/Motogp here and its amazing shrinking grid.
But geez, what pitiful racing. It's awful tough for anyone to argue that NASCAR's left-turn, conga-line obsession -- odd for a sport with so many right-wingers -- makes for great driving or viewing. Check out how much baseball-type infill the announcers need, i.e. long-stories, anecdotes and asides to fill the downtime -- DURING AN EFFING RACE!!! And true it ends well sometimes, but you need a cattle prod to snap out of the trance you lasped into between laps 98 and 156.
And let's not even get started on those few times the series gets to a road course where most the drivers handle right turns and esses like drunk Shriners in go-karts at a 4th of July parade. (If the reference is lost on non Americans, my apologies. But you get my drift.)
NASCAR has worked to eliminate its best feature: the outsized personalities that made the sport fun even when the racing was dull.
I do wish Motogp would adopt some of NASCAR's structure and aggressive cost-control but as for the racing, wake me when it's over.

Bristol is insane. It's more of a stadium than a speedway.

^

Holy ....! That place is PACKED!

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (povol @ Feb 18 2008, 12:37 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>To start with that is a restrictor plate track.The cars had got to an average 212 mph but they would fly when they got sideways or backwards.When i say fly,i mean they would launch 15-20 feet in the air.

Like this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz1ZI9-26_Q


Gosh, that race almost won me over. I watched the ending and thought, "Pretty exciting", but remember I used to be a Nascar fan, I remembered, "This does not happen at every race.

Point is...if it takes big crashes to make a racing series exciting...that means it normaly sucks.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (xx CURVE xx @ Feb 18 2008, 03:48 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>Point is...if it takes big crashes to make a racing series exciting...that means it normaly sucks.

That is Nascar! The "Big One" sells. The carnage and crashing of the cars sells over the racing quality. Sad that one of the world biggest companies has to resort to that to advertise the series, but watch many Nascar TV commercials and TV shows, and what is the big focus in the highlights? The crashes. Not the great pass 16 laps in. Not the lapped car holding up the leader for 5 laps, but the crashes. Even the crashes get pretty boring after a while. You see one car flip over, and that is it. It gets old. That is one thing I did like about this years race. Their was some decent racing and yet this years race will probably be called one of the worst races of the history of the race.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (phleg @ Feb 18 2008, 02:26 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>^

Holy ....! That place is PACKED!


I live down the road about 80 miles from Bristol and it is the hottest ticket in Nascar.Especially the night race.It is billed as the fastest 1/2 mile track in the world and things do happen fast there.It has the highest banking of any tack in Nascar and the speeds are goofy.They average 125 mph.Bumping and grinding is a fact of life at that track and you can count on a lot of lost tempers.I think the seating capacity is 165000 and they sell it out a year in advance.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (povol @ Feb 18 2008, 10:37 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>Go to a Nascar race at Bristol Tennessee and come back on here and tell me you didnt like it,i dare you.

I've been, and I didn't like it. I sat too far from the cars, too many cautions slowing things down, the cars are uninteresting, the "drama" is often manufactured and not genuine, the close competition is created by gratuitous yellows, etc. I can see the place from my house, and I save my money to drive 5 hours to Road Atlanta for my live racing fix.

I do respect NASCAR drivers and what they go through, however. Despite being flat-out draft lotteries, the mental strain during the plate races has to be huge. Those cars are pigs too, fast in a strait line but hell to turn and slow down!

Speaking of the IRL, I'm looking forward to see what Indy Car racing turns into now that the "merger" has taken place...sort of. Hopefully the schedule will gradually return to what it was in the CART days, taking the few good events from the Champ Car calendar and cutting out some of the 1.5-mile ovals.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Mr. Shupe @ Mar 18 2008, 03:01 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>I've been, and I didn't like it. I sat too far from the cars, too many cautions slowing things down, the cars are uninteresting, the "drama" is often manufactured and not genuine, the close competition is created by gratuitous yellows, etc. I can see the place from my house, and I save my money to drive 5 hours to Road Atlanta for my live racing fix.

I do respect NASCAR drivers and what they go through, however. Despite being flat-out draft lotteries, the mental strain during the plate races has to be huge. Those cars are pigs too, fast in a strait line but hell to turn and slow down!

Speaking of the IRL, I'm looking forward to see what Indy Car racing turns into now that the "merger" has taken place...sort of. Hopefully the schedule will gradually return to what it was in the CART days, taking the few good events from the Champ Car calendar and cutting out some of the 1.5-mile ovals.

My avi speaks volumes to my belief on that. I am not Indy!

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Hayden Fan @ Mar 18 2008, 02:12 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>My avi speaks volumes to my belief on that. I am not Indy!

I'm sure it hurts. I feel a little funny, since I was a huge CART fan up until '01 or so. However, Champ Car had no future; it's time to move on.

However, I wouldn't say "I am Indy." I see the 500's importance and place in American open-wheel racing, but I don't think it should be chained to it as was Tony's original vision. Road courses and talented, international drivers are just as much a prt of the deal as Indy.