|| *Comments on the 2011 Subway Jalapeno 250 Powered by Coca-Cola:* View the most recent comment <#88> | Post a comment <#post> 1. 00andJoe posted: 07.01.2011 - 10:16 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) That was a fun race. Wild finish. Good run for Danica - too bad Tony used that lapped car as a pick to block her a few laps from the end (setting up the melee)... 2. potatosalad48 posted: 07.01.2011 - 10:16 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Joey Logano gets his 1st NASCAR Restrictor plate win. Big crash at the end caused by Aric Almirola getting together with Mike Wallace. 3. irony posted: 07.01.2011 - 10:17 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) How disappointing. Danica was leading with 4 to go and a Gibbs car won yet again. Surprisingly good run for Kevin Conway until he wrecked himself and Joe. KHI swept the first 2 rows in quals. 4. AlmirolaFan88 posted: 07.01.2011 - 10:24 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sigh. Aric and Danica made their move WAY too soon. It was awesome to hear the crowd cheer for her when she took the lead for the last time she did though. Great race for her, back to back Top 10's for the first time in her career. Great win for Logano too. Good thing he didn't have the #3 car to deal with this year. Jason Leffler came a foot or two short of ending a near 4 year winless drought, it would have given Turner Motorsports a 4th win.....with only 4 laps led. 5. Rusty posted: 07.01.2011 - 10:25 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Lame to see another JGR victory when it looked like we were going to end up with a suprise winner like Danica, Almirola, Anett or Steve Wallace. Good race though. 6. Smokefan05 posted: 07.01.2011 - 10:28 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This race was great. Danica almost won, boy i beat this site would melt down if that happened. She ran a good race tho, got to give her that. The yellow with 10 to go wasn't needed. It would have been if Front Row Jow and Conman wrecked. btw i found it funny that Front Row Joe and Conman toke each other out. They were so "a head" of everyone else. (ok horrible pun time is over). Joey put Baby Busch in the wall to win the race. And Mike Wallace, STILL can not catch a break. 7. 00andJoe posted: 07.01.2011 - 10:38 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Agree on that last caution - I presume they were expecting the 97 to go around instead of bouncing off the front of Stenhouse, and "cautioned on anticipation". Shame shame... 8. New 14&88 Fan posted: 07.01.2011 - 10:45 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Wild finish to a pretty interesting race, thought for a moment a N'wide regular was gonna pull it off but Steve Wallace overheated from pushing Annett and as was stated above Almirola and Danica made their move to soon. Speaking of GoDaddy Girl she ran pretty well, heaven knows what this site would be like if she had won. All four KHI cars started the race from the first four spots, and all four of 'em ended up wrecked.Bowyer got turned by Harvick on the backstretch late in the race and then Sadler, Smoke and Harvick all got caught up in the big one at the finish.This was an expensive night for Kevin and Delana. 9. Cooper posted: 07.01.2011 - 11:00 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I'm so impressed with Danica. She has really taken to these heavy stock cars, and tonight she looked like a series regular. I'd love to see her come over full-time next year as I think she could be very very competitive. I was cheering for her as the laps wound down, but it just didn't shake out for her and Almirola. So many good stories could've developed but as always the two Toyotas found there way to the front. Was pulling for Rusty's two cars as well. Steven should've ran that thing out of water, who cares if it's blowing up. You ended up with a wrecked car anyway, mise well go for the win. Overall the two car tag team has become an interesting phenomenon and will probably be here to stay for at least the next two years. 10. WallaceFan posted: 07.01.2011 - 11:05 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Annett and Steve 1-2 with a half lap left...and Steve blows it up on the backstretch. Heartbreaking feeling, then of course gets caught up in the wreck at the end. Looked like he may have bbeen temporarily knocked out from the wreck too. Ran a special scheme for the Infinite Hero Foundation...wounded warriors, had a bunch at the track with him. Real dissapointed he couldnt pull one off for them. Great run for Danica too btw. Thought she might shock the world for a bit. 11. cjs3872 posted: 07.01.2011 - 11:09 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Yes, that caution with 10 to go was an anticipatory call by NASCAR, figuring that a wreck was happening, when in fact it didn't. However, it probably didn't have an affect on the outcome of the race. While some may be disappointed by the fact that a JGR car won the race, it was at least the third time this year that I know of that a JGR car won a race that, frankly it wasn't supposed to win. The others were Kyle Busch's wins at California (tire strategy) and Talladega. Also, a disappointing end to a great run by Danica, who led 13 laps in the race, but was involved in the wrenck at the end of the race and finished 10th. While one typically conservative driver came out of her shell (Danica has always been considered one of the most conservative drivers in IndyCar racing since she arrived), another stayed the course. Is it me, or was the fall back of the two white Fords as predictable as anything could be at Daytona. A radio communication between Trevor Bayne and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. displayed their respective racing personalities about as clear as it can be displayed. Early in the race, while they were running with the leaders, Stenhouse was happy running as he and Bayne were, but Bayne thought things were getting wild, which it didn't look like to me at that particular moment. While Stenhouse wanted to stay in front, Bayne didn't. He wanted to fall back, and him pushing Stenhouse, he had the final say on that matter. Even when they did make their way back to the front, watching the race unfold, I could almost predict excatly when they would drop back. Now I may be beginning to realize why Bayne is having trouble finding sponsors. Maybe potential sponsors are seeing the same thing I am, that Bayne is just too conservative on the track and that he just doesn't drive hard enough. This was quite possibly Bayne's last shot at a win this year in the Nationwide Series. There were also two wicked crashes in the race, caused by the same thing. In fact, they were alsmot exact duplicates. The first happened just past the start-finish line when Mike Bliss appeared to hook Eric McClure, and the other occurred on the backstraight when Kevin Harvick did the same to Clint Bowyer. Neither incident was intentional, but they were hard crashes against the concrete wall, as there is no SAFER barrier where either of those crashes happened. Also, congrats to Joey Logano, who became, by far, the youngest driver ever to win a NNS race at Daytona, as youth continues to be served at Daytona this year. First Graham Rahal is part of the winning effort in the 24 Hours of Daytona 30 years after his father Bobby's win in the same event, then Bayne's victory in the Daytona 500, and now, although not on nearly the same scale, Logano's win in the Nationwide Series race. Knowing the way this season's going at Daytona, you may as well pencil in Logano or Landon Cassill (who was third in the February NNS race at Daytona) as the winner of the Firecracker 400. Also, Kenny Wallace moved on the apron to improve his position about five places, which in this case was legal, since he went on the apron to avoid an accident. Wallace had earlier been penalized for changing lanes too soon on a restart. 12. Bronco posted: 07.01.2011 - 11:19 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The #20 car finally wins a superspeedway race at Daytona after 3 runner up finishes at Daytona and Talladega combined in the last two years. Heartbreak for Elliott Sadler to not score that elusive Daytona win after leading at the white flag, just like in the truck race earlier this year. I would have hoped that he would have had at least one win by now. Kevin Conman and Nemechek were impressive in this one, running in the top 15 and top 10 regularly. The caution for when they both brushed the wall was unnecessary. DP was definitely the story of this race, driving Daytona like a veteran despite it being only her third Daytona start. This was her third top 10 in 6 starts this year, and her results so far would put her about 7th in the standings if she were running the full season. Stenhouse lost some major ground in the standings tonight. 13. Nick posted: 07.01.2011 - 11:21 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Danica almost won the thing! Got a give a shout out to the NEMCO guys with Joe and Conway-they did a heck of a job before the crash. 14. potatosalad48 posted: 07.01.2011 - 11:32 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sucks to see Sadler miss that win after leding the most laps. 15. Jon posted: 07.01.2011 - 11:34 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) wow congrats to danica, that was fun to watch! she drove the hell out of the car and impressed me more than anyone else in the field. was definitely pulling for her, but yeah she needs to learn timing in the last laps here. i don't even think where she was on the last lap was that big of a deal, so maybe her shuffling the field up twice before the final lap was a good idea. the only thing that kept her from making a run on the last lap was getting caught up against the wall by whomever that was that side swiped her in the 2nd turn. i think she had a car that could have come from that far back to win in one lap, had she navigated through traffic just a little better. good finish, too. 16. irony posted: 07.01.2011 - 11:45 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "whomever that was that side swiped her in the 2nd turn" I believe it was Stewart. She was making another run for the lead when that happened. I actually think her timing was perfect and I was shocked that Stewart did that. They worked so well together early in the race. 17. hyperacti posted: 07.02.2011 - 12:12 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) I love Kevin Conway, I hope he wins tomorrow So many things need to be said about how the bonermobiles worked together tonight 18. Eric posted: 07.02.2011 - 12:38 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) I thought for sure coming into the tri-oval Kyle was going to step out and win and he did tried. An another JGR car won, but Boy i was pulling for Annett and Wallace on that final lap Great Job For both RWR Cars 19. 00andJoe posted: 07.02.2011 - 12:47 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) #16 - That would be twice Stewart blocked her in the closing laps, then. Tsk tsk. 20. irony posted: 07.02.2011 - 12:58 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Yeah it was Stewart. It was a lap later than I thought though. I'm not sure what broke her momentum the first time but it musta been another block. I regret watching again :( So close. Oh well, not giving up on an oval win in IndyCar this year. 21. Butch1469 posted: 07.02.2011 - 12:59 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Great race. Still don't understand how Harvick kept his car from wrecking, that was a heck of a save. And Kenny Wallace plowed through the infield to get 7th place, he passed the whole wreck. 22. irony posted: 07.02.2011 - 1:04 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) LOL just remembered Stewart was the one whining about blocking last week. He worked well with Danica early on though so I'm not mad, just disappointed. 23. Anonymous posted: 07.02.2011 - 1:28 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) "Joey put Baby Busch in the wall to win the race." "I thought for sure coming into the tri-oval Kyle was going to step out and win and he did tried." Did you guys watch the finish, or do you just hate Busch so much that you are blind to what actually happens on the track? Busch was blocking Leffler, who was looking to the outside. And it looks like Leffler may have gotten into Busch just slightly when he made his move down to the inside. Just look at the replays, and the way Busch wiggles and slides up into the wall. Even if Leffler didn't get into Busch, that would just mean he lost it on his own. And Logano only moved up because he thought Busch WAS making a move, and didn't realize how close Leffler was closing. He didn't put Busch into the wall, he didn't cause Busch to crash, and Busch didn't try to step out to win. Stop trying to make this into something it's not. Busch even went to Logano in victory lane to explain what happened, and if anything, had Busch not thrown the block on Leffler, Logano may not have won. It's all on the replay, and in their comments after the race once they both understood what happened. 24. 18fan posted: 07.02.2011 - 1:59 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Kyle did try to pull out and Joey put him in the wall, which almost gave the victory to Leffler. 25. Larry posted: 07.02.2011 - 2:58 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Amazing how many people seem to think there was kind of incident between Busch and Logano, or don't know the difference between normal plate racing and "blocking". It's almost as if these people were watching a completely different race than me. Stewart stepping out of line to pick up a push from a different pack of cars at the end of a plate race is not the same thing as the blocking of which he previously complained. You can still call it "blocking", but it's not the type of blocking Stewart was talking about last week, and if you don't know the difference then you must be new to plate racing. And Logano did not wreck Busch, he did not put him in the wall, and what happened at the end was an accident caused by Busch trying to stop Leffler and Sorenson from passing Logano. Busch even said after the race that he did not care if he wrecked, he was going to push Logano to the win. He did not step out to try and steal it, and Logano did not put him in the wall. But I know their own words and video evidence isn't going to be enough for some people here, who like to revel in their own ridiculous made up nonsense. 26. Danica posted: 07.02.2011 - 5:06 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) On the white flag lap it looked like she still had a good enough run to get to the outside, but the Leffler/Sorenson combo moved up a bit and that was that. 27. NicoRosbergFan posted: 07.02.2011 - 7:20 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Felt bad for Mike Wallace; he was capable of winning the last two plate races and came out with a lousy drafting partner both times (NeedsEyesCheked, and Allgaier). Drafting is an art that everyone can learn, but few use wisely. I have been watching Danica since her IndyCar rookie year. I seen her post-race interviews, and other conversations. I harsh feelings towards many drivers, but she gets the worst. Sluttrick! If she weren't a whore, she would get as much love as Simona, Milka, Sarah, and Ana get. I bet the people who root for her is most composed of prostitutes (I know Danica is married, though; unfortunately for him) and pornographers. It is most disgusting, however, that the cameras are fixed on her, even when she is stinking out the joint. 28. cjs3872 posted: 07.02.2011 - 7:54 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Yes, Bronco, Stenhouse did lose some major ground in the standings, largely because of his conservative drafting partner, though that incident involving the NemCo Motorsports cars didn't help his cause either, because I suspect that he did get some front end damage in that incident. But he'll start to gain the ground back next week at Kentucky, which is his style of track, a wide open track where running hard is the name of the game, and nobody in the Nationwide series runs a car harder than Stenhouse, not even Kyle Busch. I still think if stlyes of Stenhouse and Bayne ever do rub off on each other, than both will be very successful (Stenhouse figures to be regardless), because Stenhouse does need to have more patience in the way he runs the car, and Bayne definately needs to be more assertive and run his car harder. As I mentioned in post #11, if there was any doubt about the philosophical difference between the two Roush-Fenway drivers, it was never more evident than in the radio communication between the two early in the race. My question about Bayne now is, instead of a lack of confidence in himself, which I thought was why he drives conservatively, could it be that he's lost at least some of his desire, since he won the "big one" (the Daytona 500) on his first shot. The same thing happened to a car owner named John Mecom in the mid-to-late 60s. Mecom won the Indy 500 in 1966 with Graham Hill (and nearly finished 1-2 with Hill and Jackie Stewart), the first year he was there, and finished second at Indy in 1967 with Al Unser. He sold his team to Parnelli Jones and Vel Miletich after the 1968 season because he tired of racing, having won Indy on his first shot, even though he remained a fan of it. Also, part of Mike Wallace's problem, which was brought up in the telecast, was that his car was flat slow and that he, more than anyone else, needed someone pushing him. Also, did anyone notice that, because of the crash that happened just behind the leaders at the finish, that ESPN just about MISSED the finish, as they barely caught the top finishers crossing the start-finish line. In fact, if not for the scroll, it would have been some time before the viewers knew who actually won the race. Sometimes I wonder what the people in the television trucks are doing, regardless of the network that's covering the event. (Remember that CBS may very well have missed the actual finish of the 1979 Daytona 500 if Ken Squier had not been telling the nation where Richard Petty, Darrell Waltrip, and A.J. Foyt were running on the racetrack after Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough crashed entering turn three on the final lap.) 29. 00andJoe posted: 07.02.2011 - 10:31 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) NRF - Why don't you tell us how you really feel about Danica? (;)) I don't agree with you at all, but that's racin'. cjs - That is a good question about Bayne. I'm not sure about it (even missing five races, he's on track for a better NNS season, statistically, than last year, aside from poles), but I do have to worry a bit if we haven't already seen the "Best Of..." when it comes to Bayne. The notes about Bayne and Stenhouse's personality differences are a good point too - you can temper aggression, but you can't teach it... 30. Cooper posted: 07.02.2011 - 10:49 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Trevor Bayne has made only 72 starts in all of NASCAR. It's too early to tell where his career will end up. Let the kid do his own style of racing and see where he shakes out. Mark Martin has made a phenomonal career of racing cleanly and conservatively. So has Matt Kenseth. Jack Roush loves racecar drivers that race with respect and Trevor is no different. Please people stop talking about Logano and his teammate. That's normal restrictor plate behaviour, especially at the checkered flag. 31. Dodge posted: 07.02.2011 - 10:57 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) I believe it was Stewart. She was making another run for the lead when that happened. I actually think her timing was perfect and I was shocked that Stewart did that. They worked so well together early in the race. Considering that it was/has been Tony that has been saying "If you block me I promise I will wreck you. There is no need to block." With him saying that he is against it and yet he does it, to me he is contradicting himself. 32. kinetic posted: 07.02.2011 - 11:20 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Leffler and Sorenson were coming with a full head of steam so Kyle moved up a lane to block them. At the last moment, they dove to the inside while Leffler clipped Busch into the wall. Kyle wasn't trying to win the race. Heck, he even congratulated Joey's team in victory lane. 33. cjs3872 posted: 07.02.2011 - 11:29 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) I agree that Trevor races respectfully, that I have no problem with. In fact, I have a problem with Montoya and others like him who have no repsect for his competition. But there are those on the track that know that Trevor races conservatively, and realizing that, they will tkae advantage of that. One of all-time greatest speedway drivers, Bill Elliott ran the car hard, but always kept his nose clean. But nobody in the era that he raced in had more respect for the other competitors than Elliott did, which is why he was seldom in any controversies. But he also ran hard a lot more often than perople gave him credit for. Jimmie Johnson is another driver about whom that could be said today. I just think Bayne needs to be more assertive on the track, and until that happens, he's never going to be close enough to the lead to have a chance to win on non-RP tracks. That may also be the reason why he can't attract sponsors. He couldn't find sponsorship with Michael Waltrip and he can't seem to find it with Roush either. And he wouldn't be the first elite driver to have that particular problem. In 1982, Terry Labonte was leading the championship stadings at the midway point in the season, but Jim Stacy, who was sponsoring him through his J.D. Stacy Enterprises, withdrew sponsorship from Terry simply because he wasn't aggressive enough, and he was leading the championship standings at the time that happened. Then there's the situation that saw Tom Sneva actually get fired from Roger Penske's team after actually winning the USAC IndyCar championship in 1978, because he didn't drive the car hard enough, so Penske brought in Bobby Unser, who he knew would drive the car to it's full potential. There's absolutely nothing wrong about driving with respect on the track, but I think there are those that will take advantage of Bayne and others like him (Josh Wise and Danica Patrick are two other prime examples), drivers that are conservative, and use that to their advantage by pushing them around. (Dale, Sr. did that to Terry Labonte, Bill Elliott, and others like them all the time, it seemed, for that very reason, because he knew they would never hit back at him.) Until those drivers do that, they'll never reach the full potential, and their teams will never know what the potential of their cars are. That's why Roush would like to re-sign Edwards and put Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. in the #6 Cup car if David Ragan is let go at season's end, because Stenhouse will drive the car to it's full potential, sometimes to his detriment. 34. cjs3872 posted: 07.02.2011 - 11:38 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Also, kinetic, it was Joey Logano that caused Kyle Busch to brush the wall at the end of the race, not Jason Leffler. That incident caused Busch to drop to fourth, as Reed Sorenson nipped him at the line. He would have been third if not for that. But of course, the TV audience never saw that live due to the crash that was happening just behind the leaders in seventh place. (See post #28 for more on the that situation.) 35. DaleSrFanForever posted: 07.02.2011 - 11:39 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Caught the last 20 laps. I thought the Turner cars had them, but they just came up a bit short. Nonetheless it was yet another great run by them. Reed Sorenson's resurgence continues. If he were a stock, you would definitely want to buy him right now. Good to see NWide regulars like Reed, Leffler, Allgaier, and Mike Wallace being able to run toe to toe with the Cup guys on a Cup track. Like Michigan, they came up a bit short, but they are there, and it won't be long before they beat them outright on Cup tracks. Did ESPN spend the entire broadcast referring to the 4 KHI cars as "The Four Horsemen"? I knew this already, but that just drove this point home: ESPN is easily impressed. They had 2 time Cup champ Stewart, but his stock is definitely in a free fall. He is so frustrated by the way his career is going, he is starting to really lose it. This whole "I'm the Law and Order of the garage, and I will dump everyone who blocks me, pissing off a lot of people which could very well cost me a shot at the cha$e" thing is pathetic. And now he has no Joe, JD, and Zippy to clean up his messes now. They also had Harvick who, despite his stock being perhaps the highest it has ever been, has had an overall disappointing Cup career when looked at in whole, and is also more concerned with silly feuds and making Kyle Busch look like Mark Martin. There was Clint Bowyer, a guy who is just kind of there. He doesn't suck, and he does a good job of taking care of his equipment, but doesn't light up the win column or lead many laps. And then of course there is Cup failure Sadler. Harvick wrecked Bowyer after Bowyer tried his damndest to wreck Harvick, then Smoke wrecked the other 3. (I have no idea why I'm talking about drivers in terms of "stock". It just sort of happened) "LOL just remembered Stewart was the one whining about blocking last week." That's Tony for ya. When he is in a bad state of mind, and make no mistake about it, his current state of mind is as bad as it has ever been which is saying something, he can flat out embarrass himself. Remember Daytona '06 when he said Kyle Busch will kill somebody, then intentionally put Kenseth in the most dangerous position possible on a race track a few days later? And now he is totally in charge of his own destiny with his own team which is even worse. He will have perhaps the biggest meltdown in NASCAR history soon. There is a 25% chance he will have to be committed to a psych ward before the season ends. The shame of it is, when his head is on straight like in '05 and '09 and.... actually that's it, he is an absolute artist out there. The way he carried that 20 team for the first 1/3 of '05 while they were struggling badly before they figured out coil binding, got their cars as good as anybody's, then Smoke just Smoked them the rest of the way. He was so good, he nearly broke up Jimmie and Chad because they were so frustrated at losing so bad to him. Of course he took his head back off his shoulders the next year, gift wrapped the championship to the 48, and they haven't lost since. Then in '09 he raised the level of Haas Racing's profile from "bum shit" to the fringe of "elite". It was a masterful performance, winning 4 times, leading the points for a while, and rejuvenated the racing career of Ryan Newman's corpse. I think he got Ryan's heart to spontaneously beat a few times that year! How many drivers could do what he did those two years? 36. Ivan Balakhonov posted: 07.02.2011 - 11:49 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) "I have no idea why I'm talking about drivers in terms of "stock". It just sort of happened" DaleSrFanForever, you made my day with the best post-race commentary so far. I almost started rolling on the floor laughing from the phrase above... 37. cjs3872 posted: 07.02.2011 - 11:50 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) And, by the way, assertive ness can be taghut, if the right peolpe are doing it. I'll use Tom Sneva as an example again. After Sneva was fired after the 1978 season, he ended up with Jerry O'Connell, who knew something about conservative drivers. After all, he had Billy Vukovich II for quite a number of years, and he was as conservative as they got. But in 1980 Sneva gave perhaps his best performance at Indy, starting last in a back-up car, he charger through the field and ended up leading about 13 laps (I don't have the exact amount at my finger tips) and finishing second. But it was the legendary George Bignotti that finally got Sneva to drive with more aggression. Sneva drove from 20th and led the 1981 Indy race until gearbox problems caused him to eventually drop out. In '82 at Indy, he held off Rick Mears better than anyone, including Gordon Johncock, who won, did during the entire race, and Sneva might have been the one celebrating if it weren't for a bad pit stop. (He had engine problems right at the finish.) Then in 1983, Sneva's newly-found assertiveness paid off in a dominating victory, as he led more laps than anyone else that day, and after passing Al Unser, Jr. and Sr., in that order, he pulled away at more than 1 second per lap, and won by about 11 seconds. The only other drivers to finish on the lead lap were Roger Penske's two drivers that day, the elder Unser and Rick Mears. (Notable beacuse, as I mentioned in post #33, Penske fired Sneva after winning the national championship because he wasn't aggressive enough.) So the Sneva lesson is this. With the right crew chief/leader, a passive or conservative driver can become more assertive and aggressive on the track. But that is rare, because as 00andJoe mentioned, while aggressiveness can be toned down, rarely can it be taught. It is either in a driver's personality, or it isn't. 38. DaleSrFanForever posted: 07.02.2011 - 11:51 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) "In 1982, Terry Labonte was leading the championship stadings at the midway point in the season, but Jim Stacy, who was sponsoring him through his J.D. Stacy Enterprises, withdrew sponsorship from Terry simply because he wasn't aggressive enough, and he was leading the championship standings at the time that happened." It is true that Terry raced too conservatively and that definitely held him back, especially in the win column. You are right about that. But in all fairness, Stacy also bought Osterlund's defending champion team halfway through '81, and gutted it because he didn't like Dale. So we are not talking about a racing visionary. But I agree with your post. There is a line. JPM crosses it and it has hurt him badly. But owners would much rather have somebody they have to pull the reins back on than have to kick in the ass. Those crew members work their asses off on those cars, when their driver doesn't drive it to its limit, it is very demoralizing. Jeff Hammond told the story about Terry Labonte replacing DW in Junior Johnson's cars, and how although he was very easy to get along with and didn't cause all the headaches DW did, he was too laid back on and off the track, and soon they began to miss Darrell's shit fits. 39. cjs3872 posted: 07.02.2011 - 11:52 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) DSFF, Jason Leffler (Turner Motorsprots) would definately have won if the start-finish line would have been where it is at Talladega, though it's questionable whether or not Sorenson would have moved up to second. 40. cjs3872 posted: 07.02.2011 - 11:57 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) DSFF, Terry's conservativeness definately held him back in the win column, however it must be said that there he had only two real opportunities late in the season to win championships, and he cashed in BIG both times, though in each case, he won only twice. (In 1996, he won EIGHT fewer times than Jeff Gordon, who was his teammate. He won the championship that year because his bad finishes weren't nearly as bad as Gordon's. And in NASCAR's point system, if you can limit the damage done by poor finishes, it is more valuable than wins. That was the case in 1984 and' 85, and it is true today. Probably even more so with the points system that was adopted this year.) 41. cjs3872 posted: 07.02.2011 - 12:03 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) However DSFF, it must also be noted that, by 1987, Junior Johnson's team, which Terry Labonte started driving for in 1987, was already on it's way down. Darrell Waltrip, who had led the series or had been tied for the series lead in victories in each of his first four years there, won only three times in each of his last two years there (and I believe only one of them was on a track longer than one mile in length). Neil Bonnett also left Johnson's after 1986. After Darrell and Neil left, Johnson's team would have only one really big year left, and that was 1992, when Bill Elliott won five times. And four of those came in the season's first five races and the other came in the season finale. 42. BLabonte47 posted: 07.02.2011 - 12:19 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I love how DSFF refers to Elliott Sadler as a Cup failure yet he is a Brad Keselowski fan. LOL, like Brad is a walking Cup success story? 43. RCRandPenskeGuy posted: 07.02.2011 - 1:20 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Danica comes up 5 laps shy of winning. Almirola pushed her to the lead way too early, although I guess they really can't control when they have the speed to jump out there. I still think they should have had a better plan than that, although I am glad Danica didn't win as nobody would have shut up about it for the next week. What I have said last week is continuing to be proved true: Reed Sorenson is a good race car driver. The only times he has actually driven capable equipment was when he had the Ganassi ride as a rookie in '05 (they were much better in NW than in Cup), and now the #32 Turner Motorsports ride. Watching this race makes me look all the more forward to tonight's Cup race. 44. potatosalad48 posted: 07.02.2011 - 1:42 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) What happened to Steve Wallace? It looked like he was knocked unconcious by that wreck. 45. Matthew posted: 07.02.2011 - 1:44 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Man,I was pulling for Danica to win then knew she wouldn't.I thought Elliott Sadler was out front,I thought he was driving Joey Logano's car when the wreck happened.Almirola,of Tampa,caught on fire. 46. Smokefan05 posted: 07.02.2011 - 2:14 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "Also, kinetic, it was Joey Logano that caused Kyle Busch to brush the wall at the end of the race, not Jason Leffler. That incident caused Busch to drop to fourth, as Reed Sorenson nipped him at the line. He would have been third if not for that. But of course, the TV audience never saw that live due to the crash that was happening just behind the leaders in seventh place. (See post #28 for more on the that situation.)" Thank you very much. 47. Anonymous posted: 07.02.2011 - 2:22 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Eric McClure hit the wall hard after contact with his teammate Mike Bliss. I believe they transported him to Halifax for further evaluation, my guess a concussion. 48. cjs3872 posted: 07.02.2011 - 2:36 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Yes, as you would have seen in post #11, I mentioned the hard crashes of both Eric McClure and Clint bowyer in sections of the track where there is no SAFER barrier, so if McClure was taken to Halifax, it wouldn't be a surprise. 49. Dodge posted: 07.02.2011 - 2:55 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Eric McClure hit the wall hard after contact with his teammate Mike Bliss. I believe they transported him to Halifax for further evaluation, my guess a concussion. You are correct. I did read that he did suffer a concussion but was released from the hospital later Friday night. He will have to get clearance from NASCAR to race next weekend. 50. Frank posted: 07.02.2011 - 4:35 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) cjs3872, it's strange that you're pointing that Bayne is conservative comparing to Stenhouse and suppose that it is not good. Do you remember how Ricky drove in 09 and 10? He wrecked other people occasionally with the most memorable came at Talladega last year - his teammate Edwards in the middle of the tri-oval. And now Ricky seems to be able to stay up front but eventually overusing his tyres. Also I don't like to overrate his Iowa win because Edwards wasn't too hard just won that million in ASC. But Bayne's conservatism allowed him to succeed in fuel-mileage races at Vegas and Chicago. 51. Larry posted: 07.02.2011 - 4:43 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Bayne didn't get to the front cause they got stuck pack racing after the restart. I'm fact Bayne pushed Stenhouse so hard trying to get passed the pack that in the tri-oval Stenhouse got sideways and had to back out of it to save it. This ending any chance of winning. I was going for Joey and K. Wallace at the end. It was a heck of a race. 52. cjs3872 posted: 07.02.2011 - 5:39 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Well Frank (#51), you are right about Bayne's conservatism working in fuel mileage races, which have, for the most part, constituted his best finishes this year in the NNS in the races you've accurately mentioned. You also mentioned about how hard Bayne was pushing Stenhouse at the end of the race. Well, you're supposed to race harder then. I've not seen Trevor be conservative at the end of races. I just think he gets himself too far behind in the open track races by being conservative. To that point, Stenhouse has led more races this year than Bayne has in his NNS career, while Bayne has never taken the lead in a race (except for RP races). He either gets it through pit stops or from his pole positions, which he has four of in the NNS series. When they shared the front row this year at Bristol, the difference in the styles of the two drivers became apparent. Stenhouse charged to the lead, while Bayne dropped back. Even when Bayne won the Daytona 500, he INHERITED the lead when David Ragan was penalized for changing lanes too quickly on that restart, he never actually took the lead. Bayne's plan was actually to push Ragan, his Roush Racing corporate teammate to victory. (And he even contemplated pushing Tony Stewart to the win even after that penalty to Ragan, but Bobby Labonte had other ideas.) You are, however, incorrect about your statement about Edwards not trying as hard as he could to get by Stenhouse at the end of the Iowa race. In fact, Edwards himself said in a post-race interview that he was trying his best to try to get to and around Stenhouse, but that he just didn't have enough. About your saying that Ricky was a "bucking bronco" early last year. That statement couldn't be more accurate. He even failed to qualify for one race last year, because he crashed three cars, including Edwards' back-up car in qualifying. Your point about Ricky overusing his tires is correct, as well, and on more occasions than one, but as I mentioned in post #37, and as 00andJoe mentioned in post #29, you can temper aggression, but you can't teach it. You either have it or you don't, which is why George Bignotti is in a league of his own (or maybe with Dale Inman as crew chiefs go) because he was able to get aggression out of Tom Sneva that not even Roger Penske could get out of him. And by the way, Bayne is not the only driver to have been accused of being too conservative, though that opinion has never made the airwaves. In 2008, when he was Casey Mears' crew chief at Hendrick, Alan Gustafson mentioned that he beileved that Mears wasn't assertive enough. And in 2004 during a rain delay prior to the Firecracker 400, Darrell Waltrip flatly said that Kasey Kahne wasn't aggressive enough, especially in traffic. And there are the cases of dirvers like Terry Labonte and Benny Parsons, who made careers of driving conservatively, although in Parsons' and most of Labonte's era, you couldn't drive the car hard like you have to today to succeed, because back then, the equipment just couldn't stand it. 53. cjs3872 posted: 07.02.2011 - 5:40 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) And if Bayne eventually proves me wrong about him, I'll be one of the first to admit so, because I'm not above being proven wrong about anything. 54. Anonymous posted: 07.02.2011 - 6:02 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "Also, kinetic, it was Joey Logano that caused Kyle Busch to brush the wall at the end of the race, not Jason Leffler. That incident caused Busch to drop to fourth, as Reed Sorenson nipped him at the line. He would have been third if not for that. But of course, the TV audience never saw that live due to the crash that was happening just behind the leaders in seventh place. (See post #28 for more on the that situation.)" Thank you very much." You're both wrong. It is not very hard to find a replay and end this "Logano put Busch in the wall" nonsense that you want to perpetrate to satisfy your childish need to belittle Busch and Logano whenever possible. 55. Frank posted: 07.02.2011 - 7:07 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) =In fact, Edwards himself said in a post-race interview that he was trying his best to try to get to and around Stenhouse, but that he just didn't have enough.= Oh, do you believe ANY driver will tell something like "I just wanted to give my young teammate his maiden win" after any race outside RP? But I can even admit Edwards really was trying his best - and his best that day, after million bucks, wasn't enough for beating Ricky at a short track. Is it me or I started to note more and more Ragan-protecting thoughts about this year's Daytona 500? Driver with 4 FULL SEASONS under his belt in Roush Racing iconic car 6 still makes rookie mistake in the most important race of the sport. Why should we even feel sorry about him? Trevor was against the, okay, not 42, but for sure at least 32 the finest of NASCAR in his 2nd career race. And outsmarted everyone in that new drafting style. 56. DaleSrFanForever posted: 07.02.2011 - 8:07 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) 1) I never said Brad is a Cup success, I just like the guy. 2) Brad is just in his 3rd season. 57. RCRandPenskeGuy posted: 07.03.2011 - 1:37 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) It's true that Bayne does need to step up and know when to be aggressive and when not to be, but I still consider his 500 win impressive since he had Carl Edwards right on him ready to pounce if he slipped, but he never even flinched. I have been a fan of his since the 500 win, but I will also be the first to admit that if he doesn't learn when/when not to be aggressive, he's not gonna perform to his full potential. 58. DaleSrFanForever posted: 07.03.2011 - 9:55 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) I, too, am curious about Steve's wreck. Was he just ducking his head in the "turtle position" in anticipation of more hits or was he out cold momentarily? I couldn't tell. 59. WallaceFan posted: 07.03.2011 - 9:59 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I thought Steve was out of it for a second or two...he tweeted the next day that he felt terrible, but nothing more was said of it. He looked fine in his interview though. (Somewhat better than he normally does ironically..) Anyways lots of tough hits throughout the night. 60. Wildthing posted: 07.03.2011 - 10:18 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Kyle wasn't going for the win, he owes Joey a few, he was covering the move of leffler and sorenson. I was hoping Danica would win,it would've been good for NASCAR 61. cjs3872 posted: 07.03.2011 - 10:23 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) WallaceFan, that's because the wrecks, for the most part, happened in places on the track where there was no SAFER barrier, as I mentioned in several other posts. McClure's crash happened in an area where there is no SAFER barrier, as was the case with Bowyer's crash on the backstretch. Now the case with the crash at the end was just a case of cars slamming into each other, and nothing's going to cure that danger. Also, RCRandPenskeGuy, Bayne's problem is that he's too conservative early in races and doesn't run the car hard enough until close to the end, almost as if he's afraid to crash. When he finally does run the car hard near the end of the race, he's almost always too far behind for it to count. But he is a fast driver, almost always qualifying with the leaders (in the NNS), then drops back when the race begins. That kind of conservative driving dogged a driver that drove for one of your favorite owners, Roger Penske. Namely, Tom Sneva. (See my other posts for the explanation for what happened regarding the Sneva situation at Penske.) Rick Mears was somewhat like that, though he did drive the car harder, even in the earlier stages of the race, than he's often given credit for. 62. jensenators posted: 07.03.2011 - 11:47 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) tim george, jr. and jeffrey earnhardt have there best career finishes so far. 63. cjs3872 posted: 07.04.2011 - 9:20 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Instead of saying that Bayne is afraid to crash, I should have stated in post #61 that Bayne seems afraid to make mistakes and that's why he raecs conservatively. Sorry about that error. But sometimes I wonder it he's too nice for his own good when it comes to being competitve on the track, because it sometimes seems that he doesn't want to ruin someone's day and is overly cautious for that reason. (Just about anyone else might have said something about how Keselowski wrecked him in the Firecracker, but not him. He just apologized to his team for his crash, when he had absolutely no reason to, since it was not his fault in any way.) 64. Talon64 posted: 07.04.2011 - 4:17 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) To me, aggressive and conservative are opposite ends of the spectrum. It's no good being too much of either, you're going to be either JPM who can be a bull in a china shop at time and throw away likely wins or, as cjs3872 says, Bayne who doesn't step up early in the races. But people can learn to swing themselves one way or the other on the spectrum to improve their "game", so to speak. But talent and smarts are things that you can't teach, and I think Bayne has plenty of both. So he'll be fine in the long run so long as he improves his race craft. btw smarts might be another one of JPM's problems lol 65. Talon64 posted: 07.04.2011 - 4:46 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Joey Logano gets his 9th career Nationwide win in 77 career starts, but his first this season. It's his first NASCAR restrictor plate win, after 3 runner-up finishes in his last 4 NNS plate starts. It's the #20 team's 2nd win of the season (Denny Hamlin at Richmond), after not running 2 of the last 4 races. Despite that they're still 5th in the owners standings, 58 points out of the lead. Jason Leffler gets his best finish of the season in 2nd, just his 2nd top 5 of the season but both coming in the last 4 races. Leffler's winless streak is now at 135 races, which includes 5 runner-up finishes. It's his first top 5 in 16 Daytona starts (6 top 10's, 15.9 avg fin). Reed Sorenson has back-to-back top 5's for the 3rd time this season. Since blowing an engine at Bristol and finishing 34th Sorenson has 1 win, 5 top 5's, 10 top 10's and a 7.0 average finish in the last 13 races. 3rd is his best finish and 2nd top 5 in 9 Daytona starts in NNS. Kyle Busch gets his 7th consecutive top 5 in his starts but has gone 4 starts without a win, his longest win drought since he went 11 in a row without one in 2009. It's his first top 5 in 4 Daytona starts but his 8th top 10 in the last 9 races after none in his first 7. Justin Allgaier gets just his 3rd top 10 in the last 7 races, but that includes a win and a 5th in this race. It's his 2nd top 5 in 6 Daytona starts. Michael Annett gets his best finish of the season in 6th, just his 3rd top 10 of the season but that surpasses his total from all of 2010 when he drove for Germain Racing. But all 3 have come in the last 4 races. Kenny Wallace gets his 6th top 10 of the season, 4 of them coming in the last 7 races. It's his 3rd 7th place finish of the season, and he's sat in 7th in points over the last 8 races. Coming into this season, owner Robby Benton only had 1 top 10 in his first 3 seasons as an owner (66 races, but the top 10 was Boris Said's win in Montreal last season) but has 6 in 17 races this season. Elliott Sadler and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. are now tied for the most top 10's this season with 12. Sadler gets his 50th career top 10 in 147 NNS starts. After KHI qualified 1-2-3-4 in the race, Sadler was the only KHI guy to finish in the top 10. Aric Almirola gets his 8th top 10 of the season but he only has 1 top 5, a 4th, and hasn't finished better than 9th in his other top 10's (9th 4 times, 10th 3 times). After having a 28.0 avg fin with a best finish of 19th and 1 lead lap finish in 13 starts last season, Danica Patrick has a 14.7 avg fin, 3 top 10's with a best finish of 4th and 2 lead lap finishes. If you rank her average finish in NNS and Indycar among the average number of cars in the field per race (14.7 out of 42.3 cars in NNS, 12.0 out of 27.7 cars in Indycar), she's been in the 65th percentile of the NNS field in her races versus being in the 57th percentile in Indycar. 66. cjs3872 posted: 07.04.2011 - 7:17 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Talon64, I'm not sure you're entire accurate on that statement about driving conservative and driving aggressively (I often will use the term assertively). You certainly can teach drivers that are aggressive to be more conservative, but it's almost impossible to teach conservative drivers to be aggressive. Aggressiveness is either in their nature, or it isn't. You are right about Bayne being fast, talented, and smart. But maybe part of Bayne's problem with his lack of assertiveness may be in his character, in that he may be too nice a person, and often times someone that is nice like he obviously is, just doesn't have the "killer instict" in him. After Bayne's crash in the Firecracker, no one would draft with Brad Keselowski for a while, as if the entire field was sending a message to Brad for his boneheaded move on lap 5. (Bayne wasn't going to fare well in that race anyway, since he had no drafting partner, due to driving for a single-car team.) After all, though Bayne is a conservative driver, his personality gravitates through the garage area, as he may very well be the most popular driver in either the NNS or Cup garage area. Maybe he will find what Tom Sneva did in George Bignotti, and that's a crew chief that can get to drive with a little more assertiveness. After all, Bignotti got out of Sneva what not even Roger Penske could get out of him. Hopefully for Bayne, he won't be one of those drivers forced out of the sport for financial reasons first, as he may very well be out of a ride for next year, not because of his conservative driving, but rather, because he can't find a sponsor, which he'll almost certainly need when his contract is up at year's end. AS for JPM, he's been pretty much a disrepectful bully his entire career, no matter what series he has been in. The tempo for his personality was set from the start when he wrecked Michael Andretti in a practice session at Motegi in 1999, and Andretti, one of the all-time greats, let it be known to him that he wasn't going to tolerate his attitude. Then JPM took his bull-headedness to F1, and the drivers over there weren't very happy with him either. Then he started ruffling the feathers of some of the most respected drivers in NASCAR, including Newman, Stewart, Gordon, and even Mark Martin, who's feathers are almost impossible to ruffle, but he ruffled them. Since then, Kasey Kahne, another driver who hardly gets upset, justifiably got upset at him, as well as Jamie McMurray, another driver he ran over at Sonoma. He's even gotten to Jimmie Johnson, another mild-mannered driver. One of these days, he's going to cross the wrong driver and will finally get what's been overdue for more than a decade, and that's a serious talking to, if not worse. 67. MarkMartin5fan posted: 07.04.2011 - 10:00 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Kyle Busch is so selfish. He thinks drivers should push him to the win, but he to selfish to do it to them. For Example in the 09 Truck Race at Talladega, Almirola pushed Kyle to the Win and last year Kyle didn't evan want to push Aric to the finish line Kyle Busch is so so SELFISH 68. cjs3872 posted: 07.04.2011 - 11:12 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) MarkMartin5fan, it's called racing. Kyle wants to win every time out, just like everyone else does. Sure he would help a teammate win in that kind of situation if he can't, as was the case in the NNS race Friday night, but his first priority is to win for his team and sponsors. 69. AlmirolaFan88 posted: 07.05.2011 - 2:06 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) #67, Amen brother. He said he was going to push Aric to the finish. He lied about that big time. Then in victory lane he said he had to make a move because he couldn't hold Johnny Sauter behind him any longer, yeah right. He owed Aric one and he never repaid the favor. 70. Anonymous posted: 07.05.2011 - 8:46 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "He owed Aric one and he never repaid the favor." Boo-hoo. Nobody owes any other driver, least of all someone who is no longer a teammate, anything. I want drivers to place winning as a priority above all else, isn't that the way it's supposed to be? That's why I hate this tandem crap. You have some guys that resign themselves to pushing, and go crying about it when the other driver doesn't "return the favor". Well guess what, there is no such thing as team orders in NASCAR and it's every driver's right to push or not push whoever they want to. Busch has the right attitude, winning is all that matters. It doesn't matter what your competitors think, it doesn't matter what your teammates think, it doesn't matter what the fans think, it doesn't matter what series you're racing, what car your driving, or who you are driving for; all that matters is winning. Whether it's a race at a local dirt track, a truck race, a Cup race, it doesn't matter, Kyle Busch only cares about winning. If only every driver in NASCAR felt the same way. And don't go giving me that crap about, "oh waaah, Busch shouldn't run these other races because he's so much better and it's not fair". It's a race, and he wants to win it. That is pretty damn refreshing to me as a fan, and an attitude far too many drivers have moved away from in recent years. I remember back in the day when it would be a common sight to see a NASCAR driver running dirt tracks on friday nights before a Cup race, in whatever town they were in. And why did they do it? Money and fame, sure, but mostly because those guys were just born racers that loved to race and loved to win, and they didn't care who or where they were racing to do it. The fame and money were secondary bonuses that came along with the love of racing and winning. So cry me a friggin' river about Almirola feeling like he's owed something by Kyle Busch. If he doesn't like it, he should put Busch in the wall, he's got every right to race him however he wants if he feels he's been slighted. 71. 18fan posted: 07.06.2011 - 2:48 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This year will be the last for the Nationwide Series at ORP(or Lucas Oil Raceway or whatever they call it now). They are moving that date to the Brickyard. What a shame. 72. cjs3872 posted: 07.06.2011 - 3:11 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The reason that people complain about racing at IMS is that they don't have close racing there with a lot of passing. Well, the plain truth is that the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was NEVER designed to be a race track. the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was designed and built in 1909 to be a test track for the cars of the day, but it wasn't ever designed to be a race track, much less a race track with cars going as fast as they are today. That's why IndyCars rarely put on close, competitve races with lots of passing there. 73. Anonymous posted: 07.06.2011 - 3:12 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "This year will be the last for the Nationwide Series at ORP(or Lucas Oil Raceway or whatever they call it now). They are moving that date to the Brickyard. What a shame." It's a shame, sure, but it's not like it's a net loss for the series. We're talking about the Brickyard here. Instantly, that is one of the top 2 Nationwide races on the schedule. And since Daytona is such a crapshoot these days, I'd even argue that the new race at Indy will be the most prestigious Nationwide race for a driver to win. It's not like they dropped that great little short track for some generic cookie cutter, it just moved to the tough 4 turn, 4 straightaway, every corner drives different, win here and people will know your name, history-making old Brickyard. Honestly I'm excited about that race now, and I'm glad that IRP gets to keep the Truck race. That's a great weekend of racing suddenly, between the Grand Am race that will attract Indycar and other outside drivers (possibly even Cup guys) looking to win the Brickyard (yet another instantly prestigious new race), the Truck race at IRP, and the Nationwide/Cup races at the Brickyard. I think it's a smart move, and I welcome it as long as IRP stays open. What they should do is come back and have a different standalone Nationwide race at IRP later or earlier in the year. Other areas get two Nationwide races, why not Indy, just at two different tracks? 74. cjs3872 posted: 07.06.2011 - 9:15 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I honestly don't think Indy is that tough a track to drive, and it hasn't really been that tough a track to drive since the early 1970s when aerodynamic cars first came to the speedway. The reason I don't think it's that tough a track to drive is the fact that the turns are only 90 degrees, instead of having to turn the car 180 degrees at once. That gives the drivers a break between turns 1 and 2, as well as 3 and 4. Yes, to perform well there you have to have everything at the optimum level, but Indy has, for 40 years, actually been one of the easiest tracks to drive. Racing other cars is another matter, since the track was never designed for high-speed racing, b ut if you can get into an open space where there is no traffic, it can be one of the easiest tracks on which to drive a race. 75. cjs3872 posted: 07.06.2011 - 9:18 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) And by the way, along with the moving of the Nationwide race to IMS (as well as the new Grand-Am event), it was also announced that the trucks will no longer run at IRP on the weekend of the Brickyard 400. 76. Pk84 posted: 07.06.2011 - 9:45 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "but Indy has, for 40 years, actually been one of the easiest tracks to drive." Ok, now you're either trolling, know very little about the speedway's corners and their intricacies, or have never watched an Indy car race in your life. Pretty much every Indycar driver who has ever turned a lap at the track would disagree with you. Are you really operating under the assumption that every corner at Indy is exactly the same? Wow.... 77. DaleSrFanForever posted: 07.06.2011 - 9:46 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The last stand alone link to the former Busch Series, the true breeding ground for future Cup stars, is going to die. They have had such great momentum for the NWide Series ever since Iowa, and then they announce this. Splat! NASCAR just can't stand it. They must just sit around in Daytona Beach board rooms and say "Hmmm, our fans seem really excited about the direction and future of one of our Series. What can we do to squash this awful optimism (*takes a moment to throw up in one of those silver trash recepticles at the though of NASCAR fans looking forward to something*) from the fans?" IRP (it will always be IRP to me) is a wonderful short track, a true throwback. It puts on great fender to fender racing while many fans grab blankets or lawn chairs and sit on a hill beside Turn 1. No gimmicks, no stunts, just a great night to watch true, throwback RACING before tuning in Sunday when it is all about hullabaloo and pomp and circumstance leading to an awful race. I've always been fascinated by this contrast between the two tracks in the same city on back to back night. A night of everything that is right about racing then a day of everything that is wrong with it. Now it is all wrong. Just for a few extra bucks. Thanks NASCAR. 78. cjs3872 posted: 07.06.2011 - 9:49 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) It's quite possible DSFF, that IRP may be about to shut down (at least the oval), which may be why it was announced that the trucks will no longer race there after this year. Remember IRP, including the oval is owned, I believe, by the NHRA. And maybe they don't want to run the oval anymore. 79. Talon64 posted: 07.07.2011 - 3:13 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I'm pretty sure Trucks no longer racing at IRP is coming from NASCAR's side. But I doubt IRP will shut down since other series race there other than NASCAR, including USAC. 80. cjs3872 posted: 07.07.2011 - 4:15 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Actually Talon64, the I hear it, NASCAR had wanted the NNS race to be held at the Brickyard for years, but Tony George, when he was running the speedway didn't want that, because he liked the idea of the NNS race being held at IRP. And also word came down that the trucks may well run at IMS in 2013, if the event stays on the calendar. 81. 00andJoe posted: 08.30.2011 - 1:08 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) #44 sponsor: East Central Floridian View/#HURT 82. 00andJoe posted: 08.30.2011 - 1:13 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) #52 sponsor:TaxExact/TRX Software/Curry's Roofing 83. Mike posted: 10.28.2011 - 3:46 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) This was actually the first ever summer Daytona race that could have ended in a green-white-checker that didn't. (The last one that didn't have a GWC was in July 2004, before NASCAR instituted GWC finishes.) 84. Daniel posted: 05.21.2012 - 12:12 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) In using fastest 43: #46 Chase Miller Out using fastest 43: #09 Kenny Wallace 85. Nascar Lead Lap Points posted: 04.24.2014 - 8:38 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Withdrew 42 Tim Andrews Key Motorsports 11 Chevy Curtis Key Sr 86. Anonymous posted: 08.05.2015 - 10:08 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The link from the "All races in 2011" section doesn't work right here, the link is missing the "Subway" part from the title and it doesn't bring one to the right page 87. Christian The Gangsta posted: 11.11.2018 - 11:50 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) This Race Was Kinda Boring 88. TeamDCRfan posted: 03.24.2020 - 7:19 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) 9 years later, im still pissed at Kevin Conway for spinning Front Row Joe ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: