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'09 NASCAR season starts tonight

As a track, I despise Daytona. It's in horrible shape & extremely bumpy, you enter the banking & it just goes on & on forever. Put on over 100 miles there 2 years ago for a track day & really have no desire to ever go back. With the speeds you are carrying coming out of turn 4 & entering the front stretch it's extremely dangerous.
 
dynarider said:
As a track, I despise Daytona. It's in horrible shape & extremely bumpy, you enter the banking & it just goes on & on forever. Put on over 100 miles there 2 years ago for a track day & really have no desire to ever go back. With the speeds you are carrying coming out of turn 4 & entering the front stretch it's extremely dangerous.
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Were you doing one of the driving experiences or what?
 
MO_Hacker said:
It's definitely a chess match, still a lot more exciting than Pocono or Michigan. I can't hardly stand to watch those.....boring. I wish they ran more short tracks, nothing better than a Sat. night at Bristol or Richmond.
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At least Pocono and Michigan are about the best driver and the best car winning, instead of about timing a slingshot move just right.
Im with you on the shorttracks though, they could race Bristol 4 times a year and I wouldnt complain.
Id like to see more road courses too. Its funny how they talk about NASCAR drivers being the best racers in the world, yet they somehow cant manage to shift, brake, turn left and right without crashing.
Id love to see them race at Laguna Seca. Could you imagine those NASCAR boys trying to make it through the corkscrew??? LOL
 
MO_Hacker said:
Were you doing one of the driving experiences or what?
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No, I was on my motorcycle, Yamaha R1 for a track day. We were down there for Daytona bike week, my buddy & I were working the pits helping out some friends with their race bikes for a few days. We took 1 day off to attend the track day sessions.
 
I agree about the road courses, I don't like it when they throw Pruett,Said etc. in the cars though. I would rather see the normal every week drivers out there.
 
dynarider said:
No, I was on my motorcycle, Yamaha R1 for a track day. We were down there for Daytona bike week, my buddy & I were working the pits helping out some friends with their race bikes for a few days. We took 1 day off to attend the track day sessions.
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That would be awesome and scary as hell on a bike. What kind of speeds were you guys seeing coming off the banking?
 
MO_Hacker said:
That would be awesome and scary as hell on a bike. What kind of speeds were you guys seeing coming off the banking?
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1st few times around I was taking it easy as that banking is scary as hell, you can't even see thru the corner because they are so big. You look down & you see the apron, look up & see the railing & realize both are a very bad option to hit. The apron is not a gradual stepdown, it's very abrupt & could easily cause a bike to go down. If we didn't maintain a minimum of 100-110 mph thru the banking, the bikes would simply drop right off the track & onto the apron.

After maybe 3-4 laps I started wicking it up & towards the end the fastest I saw coming out of the banking was 174mph. That wasn't bad but the front straight isn't really straight as there is a slight bend in it & at 1 point I leaned out just a bit to see around someone who was in front of me & that really upset my draft. had to fight to get my head back inline with my bike & seriously thought for a second i was going to crash because the force was literally pulling me sideways towards the wall.
 
Thats why I have a lot of respect for people who race motorcycles. Racing a car is one thing, but you have 4 wheels and a rollcage around you. On a bike it takes so much more skill because you have to balance the bike and if you go down, there is very little to protect you. It definetly takes a very special person (with a lot of courage and/or stupidity) to race a motorcycle.
Thats a large part of why Travis Pastrana quit doing MX/freestyle and now does rally.
 
Another crazy Daytona finish, good to see Harvick get the win. At least it wasn't a Hendricks or Roush car.lol
 
I was happy to see Earnhardt Jr crash out. Looks like I'll be getting a free soda on Monday! Not to crazy about Harvick winning, but at least that means we get to see the lovely Mrs. Harvick.
 
Don't care for Harvick, just something about him really turns me off.
 
I think the thing I like about Harvick is he won't back down and he says what's on his mind.
 
True, but he often goes overboard and starts talking trash instead of telling it how it is. I personally dont like the guy because of how much whining he does about other people who wreck him, yet he never wants how often he causes wrecks, saying, "thats just one of them racing deals..."
I like his wife (just cause I think she is hot, although I hear she is very bossy and unpleasent to deal with).
 
I'm pulling for Harvick all year, haha. It wouldn't be any fun if we all liked the same drivers.

I will also be a fan of the Gibbs cars.

Mainly the two owners that I can't stand are Hendricks and Roush.
 
If you like Harvick, thats cool. I like all of the Toyota drivers, so I dont expect too many NASCAR fans to agree with my choice of drivers.
Toyota isnt very popular in NASCAR, infact a lot of NASCAR fans dont think they belong.
 
I'm fine with Toyota, I just don't think that outside of Gibbs teams any of their drivers are any good. I like Waltrip as a personality, hate seeing him on the track. Reutimann,Vicker,Ambrose,Riggs,Nemecheck none of those guys will be competitive week in and week out.

Kyle and Hamlin will have to carry the banner for the Toyota teams this year, I hope they represent them well.
 
Reutimann is actually pretty decent. He struggled for the first couple years, but the 2nd half of last year he was running in the top 20 every week and managed a couple top 10 finishes.
As for Vickers, Team Redbull doesnt have anywhere near the funding that JGR does, but Vickers did almost with the Coca-Cola 600 a couple years back and did win a race when he drove for Hendrick, so he has the talent to win.
In the case of Waltrip, I know that he has said that if he doesnt win at least 1 race this year, he will step down as the driver of the #55 car. He has said that NAPA, MWR and the crew of the #55 car deserve a driver who can win races and if he cant get the job done, he has said that he will retire from driving.
I agree with you that Toyota's only real chances of winning are with the JGR cars, mostly with Kyle Busch. Hamlin is OK, but he still has some growing up to do and its going to take Joey Logano at least a year or 2 before he matures and is ready to run up front with the big boys every week.
I think Logano is going to have a tough season. He has been so hyped up as the next big thing that he is under so much pressure and because he has been so hyped up, I dont see the veteren drivers cutting him any slack whatsoever.
They are usually tough on rookies and when that rookie is hyped up as the next big thing and everyone says how he is going to be the dominant driver in the future, you know those other drivers are going to knock him around and try to intimidate him. Thats just the way it is.
Look at Kyle Busch. It took him a few years to mature to the point where he could compete and IMO, Logano will be no different.
 
I hadn't heard about Waltrip, since he said that he'll probably end up pulling off a win somewhere. You're dead on about Joey Logano, it will probably be a rough year.

All I know for sure is if freakin' Jimmy Johnson or Jeff Gordon win the championship I'm done with NASCAR. I'm so sick of those guys I almost quit watching last year, actually I did quit. I didn't watch the last race, didn't want to see it.
 
Figured I add this thought here.


How do you declare a winner before the race is even over??? Dude was crying after the race, I don't get it. Finish the damn race!!!
 
You cant have them drive in the rain. At those speeds the danger would be out of control. But I never understood why it is not done like golf where they just finish the next day.
 
You could if you gave them tires with tread and put rain-x on the windshields!
 
JB said:
You cant have them drive in the rain. At those speeds the danger would be out of control. But I never understood why it is not done like golf where they just finish the next day.
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I'm not saying drive in the rain at all.....just finish it when you can. They have lights to finish it tonight or wait until tomorrow. The fans and the sport itself deserve it. No driver had a shot at winning the race with no definitive ending like that.
 
Craig Mac said:
Figured I add this thought here.


How do you declare a winner before the race is even over??? Dude was crying after the race, I don't get it. Finish the damn race!!!
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They called it due to rain, slick tires and high-banked turns dont work very well in the rain.
As far as Kenseth crying, this race means a lot to all those drivers. Its such a hard race to win because its mostly luck. Im sorry that you cant understand how someone can shed tears of joy over winning a race that they all have dreamed about winning for most of their lives.

JB said:
You cant have them drive in the rain. At those speeds the danger would be out of control. But I never understood why it is not done like golf where they just finish the next day.
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The next race is in California and they have to be there by Thursday, not to mention they have sponsor obligations and whatnot.
Not to mention the fans paid to see a winner and not all of them can just call in sick to work on Monday.
Sometimes they do finish the race on Monday, but that isnt always an option.
 
Smallville said:
You could if you gave them tires with tread and put rain-x on the windshields!
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They tried that and the speeds are too fast even with rain tires. The cars would all hydroplane and it would be too dangerous.
 
But the same can be said for golf and they always finish it on Monday.
 
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