I came upon Daytona Preseason Thunder on Speed. So...maybe time for a thread. The first thing I'll say is that these cars don't seem dramatically different than last years as far as looks. They do look markedly similar in some respects to roadgoing counterparts, but they also still look like a modern NASCAR stock car, with certain parts of the bodywork heavily equalized. That said, I'm pretty psyched to see the 500 around the corner.
My European racing culture would find it more interesting if the so called "stock cars" were using a body derived from the original frame of the production car as it is in WRC, WTCC or GT racing. I guess it would be too difficult for very fast oval racing. Anyway I saw some pictures and they seemed to look better FWIW.
Agreed. We do have the Grand-Am Rolex Series, which has a GT class that is derived from production cars, bodywise. Their main support series is actually a showroom stock series, the Continental Tire Sports Car Series. These cars seemed a bit squirrely in the practice. I hope nothing horrible happens in the 500, but it should be interesting racing. They'll have their hands full! Go #88!
I like watching the Daytona 500. I also like watching the few road course races, where drivers can master the challenge of turning right.
Absolutely agreed! I miss Riverside from my youth. But Sonoma isn't bad. Only thing that irks me a bit--and perhaps for safety,nothing can be done--is that teams build a different car for different types of tracks. A road course car would be different than a Talladega car. Has NASCAR ever done street courses? That would be a sight.