Something has happened to me. I'm starting to get very interested in Nascar. It began innocently enough, I joined a Nascar betting pool of about a dozen people, and now I'm actually watching some of the races. It was even exciting to watch Newman and Mayfield go man to man the last 30 laps several weeks ago. Of course Newman winning me $50 may have had something to do with it. Any other soccer fans into Nascar?
NASCAR is very hypnotizing. I'll find myself all into it all of a sudden before I snap out of it and realize what I'm doing to myself. But I've grown to respect the skills needed to race one of those cars.
I go to a couple of races every year with my brother. We have a lot of fun and I find it pretty exciting, but I have a really hard time watching it on the tube. Give me Boca v River Plate any day of the week.
I don't understand how Newman is not the points leader even though he's won the most races this season. The whole point system is confusing to me. And hogwash about the #12 car cheating. Me. My faves are the usual suspects.... Jeff Gordon Kurt Busch Jimmie Johnson Matt Kenseth I hate Harvick Michael Waltrip Mark Martin
I'm a huge NASCAR fan - I go to Richmond twice a year, and used to make alot of other races, but it is becoming a bit too corporate any more, more and more greed instead of caring about the fans. It is still fun though. People always made fun of me for liking racing, and now it is the #1 sport .... so now people make fun of me because I like MLS Soccer instead ;-) I was a huge Dale Earnhardt fan I'm into Jr., Bobby Labonte, Tony Stewart mostly. I can't stand Bill Elliot, Dale Jarret, Rusty Wallace, Jack Rousch or anything ford For strategy, excitement, and just a great smell and feeling, you HAVE to go to a NASCAR race and feel the cars going around in your bones. Nothing like walking along next to the track and feeling the rubber, etc flying at you at Richmond, or the scream of the engines as they go by at Talledega. Or hell, just the look of pure capitalism that the souvenir trailers convey. Oh, and there are some incredible babes at the races too, that never hurts. F1 and CART aren't racing, it's showing off. Now, if you want to get really obscure - I'm also a big Hydroplane Racing (Hydro-Prop) fan! Now if I can just get DC United to STOP scheduling home games the same nights as the Richmond races, all would be good with the world....
I can't believe I left out my favorite NASCAR quote from my original post. "Who wants to watch rednecks turn left all day?" - My Dad.
Re: Re: Nascar Someone tried to explain this to me. A lot of different factors go into it. How many laps you lead in a race etc. Newman didn't finish a number of the races earlier in the season, that hurt him. I really enjoyed watching Stewart chase him down to win last weekend. I can see now I'm going to have to attend one of these things. Probably Loudon next year.
Re: Re: Re: Nascar The point system is rather simple, actually, rednecks made it up ;-) It rewards consistency over the 32 race season. It scores on a sliding scale and there are two bonuses possible. One for leading A lap, any lap - 5 points. And one for leading the most laps - also 5 points, so one guy will get 10 extra points, a bunch will get 5. Then, to win counts 175 points, down 5 for the next 5 positions (170 for 2nd-150 for 6th), then down 4 for the next 5 positions (7th-11th), then down 3 each position all the way to the end (43rd place gets 34 points). So if you fall out early, you don't get many points, but if you finish in the top ten all season, you win the championship. See, simple They are talking about changing it, adding bonuses for winning, qualifying and maybe evening out all the last 15-20 positions in how many points they give them so guys will stop driving cars too slow just to get points for safety. Newman drives for Penske, Penske blows some engines, Newman blew a few and wrecked a few times, and the ones he won, the guys high in points finished right behind him. He is currently 331 points out of the points lead in 4th place. He is only 7 points behind Dale Jr in third - I hope the little bastard wrecks every week (can you tell, I like Jr.?) Please, gawd, do not ask me how the money is handed out ....... that is too complicated.
I can't say I enjoyed that last race as much. It seemed like they were going in slow motion due to the short track. I think i prefer the super speedways, like Talladega.
Yeah, they are different types of racing. But you can't bump and bang and knock people out of your way at Talledega without crashing 30 cars. I like to see some paint being traded, and the short tracks are great for that. Martinsville isn't the most exciting, but I'll take it over Michigan, Kansas, Pocono, and Chicago ;-) If you want to see really exciting short track racing catch Bristol next spring. What I like about NASCAR over some of the other racing leagues, is more than one type of track, short, medium, high bank, flat, superspeedways, road courses.
Great race in Atlanta. My man Stewart raced heroically, but that bad pit stop killed him and my chances for $50. I didn't get the feeling he was going to be able to overtake Gordon, even if they had raced the last 6 laps. My nascar buddy mentioned on the friday before the race that what makes Stewart so effective is his ability to keep the car on the bottom of the track. I definitely noticed that Monday.