Nationwide Race Thread-Talladega

[DanicaFan]

Well, I was too nervous to type on here while watching the race. I think Danica drove a great race yesterday. She had a top 5 car but unfortunately got 15th. She got caught up in the late wreck which ended her chances.

Congrats to Joey Logano for the win. And Im glad Eric McClure is fine. That was a nasty hit.
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[rustyfan]

I think Danica drove a solid race all day long and yes, I probably enjoyed the retaliation against Sam Hornish Jr. after the checkered a bit more than I should

[Neil22]

Danica's putting Hornish in the wall just proves she belongs in NASCAR. As to Crybaby Hornish, don't start something you can't finish.

[St00ge]

It proves she should be back in the kitchen

[nickyf1]

I still find it ridiculous that in the ad for Darlington, they have shots of some of the fields best drivers, and they throw in Danica too... Despite another female driver beating Danica at Richmond, which will not go reported..

[Clive Brown]

One of the biggest obstacles she faces in making it as NASCAR driver on merit is that she is far too feisty for her own good. This is a characteristic she used to display in CART, and she seems to have carried it over into her new career, along with the unfortunate attitude that nothing is ever her fault. God knows, it's hard enough to stay out of trouble on a superspeedway anyway, without being the author of one's own misfortunes. I foresee a season littered with wrecks, but hey, what the heck, Jr. Motorsports will always pony up another car for the next race.

As for the Hornish incident, NASCAR should park her for it, as they should anyone else for deliberate wrecking under caution, after the chequer, or off the racing surface (e.g., on pitlane). The initial impact was not of Hornish Jr.'s volition, as he had a deflated right front tyre, and was on his way to the scene of an accident all of his very own when she got between him and the wall.

Some might say that NASCAR wouldn't ban one of their main marketing tools for the Nationwide, but I reckon that a ban would make her even more of a draw upon her return from suspension.

I'm only amazed that they didn't set her up for the season with a black RCR car carrying the #3; that's about NASCAR's level when it comes to good taste, and trawling the depths of tackiness in pursuit of the mighty dollar.

[Paradise City]

I take onboard the NASCAR culture but nerfing Hornish off like that I found unnerving tbh after the McClure thing. There just can't be much room for horseplay on a track like Talladega whatever about other venues.

As for Danica's career, I see her NASCAR career follow a similar trajectory than that of Montoya but without Montoya's gift with the roadcourses. I think she's entitled to a Cup Car but above that there's no evidence of an unusual talent there.

[Clive Brown]

But when she moves up to Cup next year, she's likely to be in the third SHR car, which will effectively be the seventh HMS car, so she won't be battling against some of the terrible old clunkers that EGR provide JPM, and in which he is somehow expected to run competitively.

[The Original Instag8or]

Um, Clive... She got beat by "the other girl" at Richmond. And I can safely inform you that Johanna Long's car is light years behind the EGR stuff JPM drives.

If She can get beat by the 70 NNS car, She will have a hard time against the likes of Blaney, Gilliland and Ragan. In other words, look for Her to run in the deep 30s, despite the superior Hendrick built car.

[rustyfan]

Originally Posted by The Original Instag8or

Um, Clive... She got beat by "the other girl" at Richmond. And I can safely inform you that Johanna Long's car is light years behind the EGR stuff JPM drives.

If She can get beat by the 70 NNS car, She will have a hard time against the likes of Blaney, Gilliland and Ragan. In other words, look for Her to run in the deep 30s, despite the superior Hendrick built car.

So just because Johanna Long happened to finish 20th while Danica Patrick finished 21st at Richmond, Patrick will have a torrid time for the rest of her NASCAR career? Interesting logic

I'll wait until Danica Patrick runs full-time in the Cup Series before judging her. Jimmie Johnson wasn't exactly stellar in the Nationwide Series either (fun fact: Danica Patrick has scored more top-5 finishes in her first 33 Nationwide starts than Johnson did) and he turned out quite decent after stepping up full time... And no, obviously I don't think she'll turn into some Cup Golden WonderChild after stepping up full time. I do think she'll do a better job than Scott Pruett did though

[rustyfan]

Update on Eric McClure, via NASCAR.com:

Nationwide Series driver Eric McClure suffered a concussion and internal bruising in a hard accident this past weekend at Talladega Superspeedway, but was released from a Birmingham, Ala., hospital on Monday, according to a team representative.

[Clive Brown]

Originally Posted by The Original Instag8or

Um, Clive... She got beat by "the other girl" at Richmond. And I can safely inform you that Johanna Long's car is light years behind the EGR stuff JPM drives.

If She can get beat by the 70 NNS car, She will have a hard time against the likes of Blaney, Gilliland and Ragan. In other words, look for Her to run in the deep 30s, despite the superior Hendrick built car.

You misunderstand me. I was attempting to point out that JPM's Cup career has been sorely restricted by his loyalty to a crap team. If JPM stays at EGR, and She does get the third SHR car, she will have much better equipment for the 2013 season than he does. He should have put his misplaced loyalty to Chip Ganassi behind him, and taken the #22 ride at Penske.

In a half-decent car, I see him as a potential Cup champion.

As for her, I see her averaging out between 22nd and 27th in her first Cup season in 2013, but that might be over-optimistic. I simply don't see her as particularly talented; her only USP is that she is a girlie. Take that away, and I don't think she'd even have a ride.

[Clive Brown]

Originally Posted by The Original Instag8or

I can safely inform you that Johanna Long's car is light years behind the EGR stuff JPM drives.

Ehh? Johanna Long runs in the NNS, JPM runs in Cup.

Her car is vastly inferior to the Jr. Motorsports car that She runs in the NNS.

Next season, Patrick will be running an HMS car in Cup; this car will be vastly superior to the EGR junk from which JPM is expected to extract a decent result, week in, week out.

[The Original Instag8or]

Originally Posted by rustyfan

So just because Johanna Long happened to finish 20th while Danica Patrick finished 21st at Richmond, Patrick will have a torrid time for the rest of her NASCAR career? Interesting logic

Compare the equipment that Johanna drives to the Hendrick-built JRM stuff that Princess drives. If after 33 races in an elite level ride She is getting beat by a rookie on an ARCA budget, She is not as great as the media makes some folks believe.

Will She be around long enough to get good? After seven years in Indycar, despite coming up the road racing ladder, She never got all that good at turning right in an open wheeler. Doubt She'll have as much success in the tougher league.

[fieldodreams79]

Glad that McClure is relatively unscathed after that massive hit.

Originally Posted by Purist

One thing this incident does reinforce for me is that belted-together tire barriers seem like a much better solution for crashes at steep impact angles.

While I agree with your assessment of tire walls vs the safer barrier and while they would probably work at that portion of the inside wall at 'dega and similar areas on other tracks, they won't work for all portions of all tracks. Obviously, tire bundles on the outside wall at Darlington would leave everyone driving on the apron; they could be applied to inside barriers only, which is perhaps what you are getting at, but NASCAR would have to ensure whatever is there would need to be fixable in less than 25 minutes or so, as a a part of their MO. Remember Steve Park and Dale Jr at Pocono a few years back? They plowed into a very affective armco barrier that did a fabulous job reducing the impact, but it took over an hour to get it back together. I could be wrong, but I believe the next race there, I saw the very same armco had dirt backfilled to it. Problem fixed for NASCAR and track owners and hopefully not at the expense of the drivers.

[nickyf1]

Originally Posted by fieldodreams79

Glad that McClure is relatively unscathed after that massive hit.

While I agree with your assessment of tire walls vs the safer barrier and while they would probably work at that portion of the inside wall at 'dega and similar areas on other tracks, they won't work for all portions of all tracks. Obviously, tire bundles on the outside wall at Darlington would leave everyone driving on the apron; they could be applied to inside barriers only, which is perhaps what you are getting at, but NASCAR would have to ensure whatever is there would need to be fixable in less than 25 minutes or so, as a a part of their MO. Remember Steve Park and Dale Jr at Pocono a few years back? They plowed into a very affective armco barrier that did a fabulous job reducing the impact, but it took over an hour to get it back together. I could be wrong, but I believe the next race there, I saw the very same armco had dirt backfilled to it. Problem fixed for NASCAR and track owners and hopefully not at the expense of the drivers.

Well, the reason we have safer barriers in the first place is because you can't have anything softer on the outside, it has to be hard enough to keep cars within the track and stop cars from bouncing back out into oncoming cars. But having something much softer than a safer barrier on the infield, like air fences, tyres or deformable TechPro barriers like they have in F1 (do the same job as tyres and can be rebuilt easily) is definitely something they could do.

I mean, they have safer barriers at the Glen, which I find quite odd, because they could put softer walls in as its a road course.

[Flyin Ryan]

"ABC’s live telecast of the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway on Saturday, May 5, drew the network’s third-largest audience ever for a Nationwide Series race."

One thing this incident does reinforce for me is that belted-together tire barriers seem like a much better solution for crashes at steep impact angles.

When CART used to race at the trapezoid oval in Brazil in the '90s, they had belted-together tire barriers on the outside. For some reason I think there was a weird crash that made them remove them.