Arena Raise Hell, Praise Dale - NASCAR/North American Racing Series Discussion

How could I forgot Rusty. I just thought Ricky first cuase he had a chance to break it in 99 or 00 and didn't.

As far as Gordon, there's no denying he was ahead of his time in Nascar, so it makes you wonder what a few guys who aren't always win contenders could have done back in the mid 90's if they were old enough like Bowyer or Harvick or Truex. I don't mean they're at Jeff's skill level, but would they have done as well or were Hendrick's cars more ahead of the time (kinda like Petty in the early days) than anything else?

 

It's debatable, but we'll never know. Gordo's still a great driver though, and he's done it since he was a little kid.

You gotta check this out. Best racing I've seen all year! Seriously though, this video is insane good.

 

Oh yeah, I love those stop motion races. Almost more exciting than the real thing sometimes.

 

ISC won't lower ticket prices

I think this is a good idea. Those giant banners they cover up the empty seats with are pretty expensive for them.

I've just about had enough. It's sad but part of me actually wants to see the sport crumble just because of my hatred for the people that ruined it. I want to see them fail.

 

Waltrip could retire arter 2009? from the 2009 NASCAR Preseason Thunder Daytona Fan Fest: Saturday news conference transcripts:
Q. Do you get the same sense of excitement or anticipation when you get ready to race as you do when you go on camera to do the funny NAPA commercials with Ron Capps?
MICHAEL WALTRIP: I'm just real lucky, and I think the question earlier about would I have started my team, I'm all in. Me and Capps just finished our commercials for this year yesterday and the day before, and they're awesome. I can't wait for everyone to see them. That's fun. When I get to go on TV and talk about truck racing, the last season of that truck racing were as fun as anything I've done hanging out with Phil and Rick and Al and all the folks on Speed. I love that. But I'm a race car driver, and when I came through that tunnel a minute ago here at Daytona, it almost brought tears to my eyes. It's almost like coming home when you've had success here and you know the people that have won and the people that have lost their battles here. Just I love it. It'll be interesting.
My goal is to go win some races this year, run up front so that I don't have to say this is my last year. But if I don't do those things, if I can't compete at the level that Ruderman does or NAPA expects, then I probably won't get to do this again in 2010. This is a real important year for me because I still love it. I'm still emotional about it. That's a great feeling. I'm glad I have that. I'm glad I feel the way I do, and I'm also glad that I own my car, because if this is my last year then I'm fine, because that means I got somebody faster or better than me to drive my car in 2010, and that's how it was supposed to be. I'm not going to be standing around thinking, "well, what am I going to do now?" I know exactly what I'm going to do now, I'm going to continue to be to try to influence my drivers and my team and my sponsors to be the best team that we can ever be."(NASCAR PR)(1-18-2009)

This might sound like good news at first, but YOU KNOW he's going into TV afterwards. He'll never go away.

 

Woo-hoo! NASCAR's back.

 

Awesome race tonight. If only they could run plate tracks every week...

 

Yeah, Daytona and Talladega always produce fantastic finishes. I'm glad that Stewart got a 3rd place finish in his new car.

 

Too early to tell and you can't really judge how teams will do this year based on Speedweeks, but I bet Stewart can't be happier with how it's going so far. I admit I was one of the people who thought he was making career suicide like Michael Waltrip. But then again Stewart is an awesome driver. Waltrip couldn't win at slot car racing.

 

Yeah. I've always liked Mikey, but his driving skills are, well, non-existant.

 

Daytona 500 today! I predict a win for Tony Stewart.

 

I would really like Kenseth to win it.

 

Yeah, I wouldn't mind seeing Kenseth win, but I haven't seen him near the front a lot in Speedweeks. Who knows, he night be waiting until the end of the race to show what he's got. Did you see that Nationwide race yesterday? I sure was glad that Stewart held off Kyle Busch. Actually, I'm glad anytime anyone holds off Kyle!

 

Well Kenseth won cause of the rain right?

Looked like Jr crashed the field up there too.

 

Wow, you were right Gersh! But still an awful way to end the 500, under a rain delay...

 

That was an earth-shattering race.

 

Sweet, he is a second cousin of mine. His car seemed to be running good today.

 

This years Daytona 500 = LAME!

It just had nothing to it. One big pileup allegedly caused by Earnhart Jr. Not so on the replays.

Then they stop the race with intent to re-start to finally declare Kenseth the winner. I hate it when it ends like this. I say when the rain starts have the cars pit and put some rain-X on the windshields and some treaded tires on the cars and continue!

They used to start the 500 just after noon... Not sure where this 3:30pm crap started. If they had started it just around 1:00pm we could have had a completed race.

I only watch the Daytona and Talledega races anyhow... It's like George Carlin said, it is one of the same 5 rednecks that win all the time anyhow!

 

So, can Kyle Busch win all three races? Truck, Nationwide, and Cup? I sure hope not!

 

Okay, so one thing I have to vent about here:

Anybody see when Jimmie was passing for the lead and Scott Speed got IN THE WAY? I love how Waltrip blamed Jimmie's bad last 30 laps of the race on him missing his stall. No, he still would have been lapped then. It started when the lapped car got in the way of the leaders racing FOR THE LEAD.

 

Yeah, Speed got in Johnson's way. Another problem I have is that the lapped cars get to restart on the bottom row in the front. At least put them on the top row!

 

I've always thought they need to change the lapped car restart rule to 20 or 25 laps instead of 10, if they insist on them being up there at all.

 

Agreed. They always get in the way, and in most cases prevent anyone except the top 3 or 4 cars from making any sort of run for 1st place.

Atlanta next week. Anyone remember that 2000 race when it came down to Bobby Labonte and Dale Earnhardt? Great race, just like the 2001 Harvick and Gordon race. I hope we get a good finish this Sunday!

 

I hope so too. I'm a huge Dale Jr. fan and he does well at Atlanta. Time for him to follow up that top 10 at Vegas with a top 5. A win would be nice too.

*shakes the voodoo from the 88 team* No more pit road mistakes!

 

Going back to lapped cars in the way, Gordon would have won that if it wasn't for Brett Bodine.

Excited for this week though, I absolutely love Atlanta.