NASCAR Cup - Round 21, Pocono...

[gomick]

Qualifying Washed Out - Grid set on drivers/owners points...

Tony Stewart - 3054
Jimmie Johnson - 2862
Jeff Gordon - 2847
Kurt Busch - 2608
Carl Edwards - 2556
Denny Hamlin - 2518
Ryan Newman - 2506
Kasey Kahne - 2482
Mark Martin - 2471
Juan Montoya - 2461
Greg Biffle - 2445
Matt Kenseth - 2429

---- Inside/Outside Chase ----

David Reutimann - 2361
Kyle Busch - 2347
Brian Vickers - 2309
Clint Bowyer - 2278
Jeff Burton - 2201
Marcos Ambrose - 2175
Joey Logano - 2083
Jamie McMurray - 2060

[MJ_N_09]

I live just 2 hours from Pocono, and it has been thunderstorms every day this past week. It's raining heavily right now, and with no lights at the track, it looks like we have to try again tomorrow.

[FIRE]

Green flag tomorrow at noon?

[rustyfan]

Best race I've seen at Pocono in years. Gotta love those double file restarts.

Congrats to Hamlin and great to see solid runs by Montoya, Hornish and Bowyer as well.

[MJ_N_09]

I hated Nascar last week. Now I love it again. I gotta go next year to Pocono.

I will admit, I teared up a bit When Denny game his inter view from VL. The tears would've flowed if Hornish won.

Fantastic job to RCR's Clint Bowyer and Montoya as usual. This board can sleep easier now that he's 6th in the points.

Shame that a majority of other forum posters are disgusted that he won. So what if he wrecked the 47 and 00, he at least apologised for it.

[Steevp]

Great Race! What was up with the pit lane reporter trying to get JPM to attack Kahne? I thought Kahne was classy regarding that restart bump with JPM.

[gomick]

Juan is showing some great form in the lead up to the chase - one would say "a genuine championship threat"...

What happened to Ambrose? I see he led a lap too

[Fish_Flake]

One has to like Montoya's chances to make the Chase at this point. He'll be a favorite to win at the Glen next week, and should be among the contenders at Michigan after that. A pair of top-tens will probably do it, and he finished in that position at three of the four tracks remaining before the Chase in the spring (sixth at Michigan, ninth at Bristol, tenth at Richmond). If Juan wants to win a title, though, he has to find victory lane before the year's out.

[rustyfan]

Originally Posted by MJ_N_09

Shame that a majority of other forum posters are disgusted that he won. So what if he wrecked the 47 and 00, he at least apologised for it.

Well, I must admit I wasn't too pleased when the #00 and - in particular - the #47 was taken out, but that said the incident was a pure racing incident (looked to me like the #00 didn't get a very good run out of the final turn) so I'm not angry at Hamlin or anything.

Originally Posted by Steevp

Great Race! What was up with the pit lane reporter trying to get JPM to attack Kahne? I thought Kahne was classy regarding that restart bump with JPM.

The pit lane reporter assumed Kahne was angry at Montoya during their little chat, something Montoya commented on when he said something like "You reporters always expect the worst, don't you?". I agree on Kahne being classy.

Originally Posted by gomick

Juan is showing some great form in the lead up to the chase - one would say "a genuine championship threat"...

What happened to Ambrose? I see he led a lap too

Hamlin got into Reutimann coming out onto the main straight and spun him out. Reutimann then, in turn, got into Ambrose which caused considerable damage to the #47 and ended his day. Ambrose wasn't exactly having a stellar day, hovering around 20th place during most of the day, but they were working on the car throughout the race and it was getting better all the time so it's a shame he was taken out. He lead the lap when staying out under one of the caution flags.

Originally Posted by Fish_Flake

One has to like Montoya's chances to make the Chase at this point. He'll be a favorite to win at the Glen next week, and should be among the contenders at Michigan after that. A pair of top-tens will probably do it, and he finished in that position at three of the four tracks remaining before the Chase in the spring (sixth at Michigan, ninth at Bristol, tenth at Richmond). If Juan wants to win a title, though, he has to find victory lane before the year's out.

Agreed. I must admit I don't see him as a proper title contender though but I do hope he gets to visit Victory Lane before the year is out.

[gomick]

Spewing for Marcos - will just have to win at Watkins Glen next weekend

[Knowlesy]

Chase here we come.

*crosses fingers*

[morninggents]

Personally I feel I've just lost 3 and a half hours of my life I'll never get back! Nascar is now a parody of the great series it used to be.

It's a farce when a driver (Jimmie Johnson) goes 3 laps down then ends up where he did. Was it stellar driving that allowed him to drive through the pack, get to the front, pull away and get back on the end of the pack then do it all again - twice? No, it was the farce that is now Nascar and the stupid 'lucky dog' gain-a-lap charade they play. That the team did a great job to trace and rectify the fault is beyond dispute and Johnson never gave up driving superbly but surely on this occasion the rewards vastly exceded the effort. Johnson ended up ahead of several drivers who hit problems in the latter part of the race when he should have been a couple of laps down. Why should those who have problems early have a great advantage over those who hit trouble late?

Also we had the usual Nascar trick of a caution for nothing when a car hit the wall fairly lightly with no debris but Nascar threw the caution light as there had been a long period of green flag racing and the field was strung out.

The Car of Tomorrow sucks. We no longer get lap after lap of the field nose to tail, 2 or 3 wide as we had with the previous car and the spectacle has been ruined. Well done Nascar - no wonder there are big gaps in the seating areas.

[rustyfan]

Originally Posted by morninggents

The Car of Tomorrow sucks. We no longer get lap after lap of the field nose to tail, 2 or 3 wide as we had with the previous car and the spectacle has been ruined. Well done Nascar - no wonder there are big gaps in the seating areas.

So basically you're comparing Daytona or Talladega with a non-plate track? Because other than on restarts, the "nose to tail, 2 or 3 wide" wasn't exactly the norm on other tracks with the old car either. And I stand by what I posted above - yesterday's race was one of the most exciting at Pocono in all the years I've followed NASCAR (which dates back to the early 90's).

[morninggents]

Originally Posted by rustyfan

So basically you're comparing Daytona or Talladega with a non-plate track? Because other than on restarts, the "nose to tail, 2 or 3 wide" wasn't exactly the norm on other tracks with the old car either. And I stand by what I posted above - yesterday's race was one of the most exciting at Pocono in all the years I've followed NASCAR (which dates back to the early 90's).

I've been a Nascar fan since the late 60's. Certainly the late 80s and early 90s were far better for the racing than today. I don't think there's any doubt that the aerodynamic package of the CoT makes following closely much more difficult. We saw the same in BTCC in the 90s when they started to allow adjustable rear wings.

[FIRE]

Montoya

[MJ_N_09]

Originally Posted by morninggents

Personally I feel I've just lost 3 and a half hours of my life I'll never get back! Nascar is now a parody of the great series it used to be.

It's a farce when a driver (Jimmie Johnson) goes 3 laps down then ends up where he did. Was it stellar driving that allowed him to drive through the pack, get to the front, pull away and get back on the end of the pack then do it all again - twice? No, it was the farce that is now Nascar and the stupid 'lucky dog' gain-a-lap charade they play. That the team did a great job to trace and rectify the fault is beyond dispute and Johnson never gave up driving superbly but surely on this occasion the rewards vastly exceded the effort. Johnson ended up ahead of several drivers who hit problems in the latter part of the race when he should have been a couple of laps down. Why should those who have problems early have a great advantage over those who hit trouble late?

Also we had the usual Nascar trick of a caution for nothing when a car hit the wall fairly lightly with no debris but Nascar threw the caution light as there had been a long period of green flag racing and the field was strung out.

The Car of Tomorrow sucks. We no longer get lap after lap of the field nose to tail, 2 or 3 wide as we had with the previous car and the spectacle has been ruined. Well done Nascar - no wonder there are big gaps in the seating areas.

I think Jayski is a great place for you. Many of the posters share your opinion there.

[Adam43]

You should do what I do when F1 'got' boring, sell your TV and never watch again. It has been a revelation for me; I get out more and see things I haven't seen for years. Although the birds don't sing as tunefully as they once did.

Anyway.

I liked it when Montoya shunned thoughts of going all out for the victory to get points. Who'd have thought!

[morninggents]

Originally Posted by MJ_N_09

I think Jayski is a great place for you. Many of the posters share your opinion there.

Don't know what Jayski is - sorry.

I thought this was a 'forum' so that differing views can be expressed.

[MJ_N_09]

Originally Posted by morninggents

Don't know what Jayski is - sorry.

I thought this was a 'forum' so that differing views can be expressed.

www.jayski.com . A very popular Nascar news/rumors site with comments allowed for most articles.


Seriously, I had no intention to insult you.

[gomick]

Originally Posted by morninggents

Johnson ended up ahead of several drivers who hit problems in the latter part of the race when he should have been a couple of laps down. Why should those who have problems early have a great advantage over those who hit trouble late?

That is an interesting point...

[morninggents]

Originally Posted by MJ_N_09

www.jayski.com . A very popular Nascar news/rumors site with comments allowed for most articles.


Seriously, I had no intention to insult you.

That's OK. I guess I'm just disappointed with the artificiality of the current 'racing'.

[rustyfan]

Originally Posted by morninggents

I've been a Nascar fan since the late 60's. Certainly the late 80s and early 90s were far better for the racing than today. I don't think there's any doubt that the aerodynamic package of the CoT makes following closely much more difficult. We saw the same in BTCC in the 90s when they started to allow adjustable rear wings.

Well comparing any era to the 80's isn't exactly fair, if you ask me - not only did the cars look gorgeous, but there were some great races during that time (at the plate tracks and short tracks in particular). I do think the cars themselves from that era help maintain a somewhat rose tinted picture of the racing itself, however, because there were quite a few so-so races in those days as well, with a mere handful of cars finishing on the lead lap, big victory margins, races where very few cars contended for victory and so on.

But hey, it could be worse - the aero-problems we are seeing with the CoT are absolutely nothing compared to those of the late 90's/early 00's

Lastly, going back to your earlier post I do agree that the Lucky Dog isn't exactly an optimal solution, but after the drivers unfortunately kept showing they couldn't handle the "Gentlemen's Agreement", resulting in several big crashes and close calls (with the Jarrett-incident at New Hampshire in 2003 the final straw), NASCAR felt compelled to act.