I did one of those ‘ride-a-longs’ at Daytona and those banked corners are deceiving. Since you don’t encounter them in real life you don’t realize how fast you can drive into them. We were clipping along at 160mph and all I could think was “no way he makes this corner, no way he makes this corner” and I’m feeling since I’m the passenger I’m going to take the brunt of the collision going into the wall. Then suddenly ‘zip’ you smoothly transition right into the banking.
Vrooom vroom vroom
vrooooooooooom vroooooooooooom vroooooooooooooooooom
screech
vroooooooooooom vrooooooom
I remember watching something years ago talking about how they built the track. The guy whose idea it was, Bill France, pretty much had them stack the banking as steep as they could without the paving equipment flipping over. Watching a race many years ago, I remember one of the old time drivers, Ned Jarrett I believe, saying that as steep as the banking was, it seemed nearly flat when driving around the track at full speed.
To give an idea of the type of racing that goes on here, I found this. It’s about 10 minutes and kind of dull for the first 3 or 4, but then things start getting interesting.
Thanks for all the help, folks… t-minus eleven hours or so until we head out. I’m all packed (I think) and feeling much more confident about appearing at least somewhat intelligent.
don’t ask… your post made me giggle a lot. That was pretty much my level of knowledge til this thread! 
I’ll check back in when it’s over, let you know how I did! 
Turn it up!
**Vrooom vroom vroom
vrooooooooooom vroooooooooooom vroooooooooooooooooom
screech
vroooooooooooom vrooooooom**
Talledega is a good track for a NASCAR virgin. Later this year, you can go to the night race at Bristol for the other side of the coin. You can ignore Phoenix, Texas, Kansas, et. al. Seriously boring.
Unfortunately Paul Dana was killed in practice before the Homestead Florida IRL race in 2006.
“The girl” asked by the OP is probably Danica Patrick, the IRL driver who is running several NASCAR races in the Nationwide (top minor series this year). You might have seen about 2 million Go Daddy commercials with her. I don’t think the “Sprint” (top series) has had a female since Shawna Robinson about seven years ago.
One of the few writers worth reading is Ed Hinton, now on ESPN. He wrote a book several years ago about the history of auto racing in Daytona, FLA that is worth hearing. Several others (I’m too lazy to research authors) are “Fixin’ to Git”, a sociology professor who went to several races in 1999 and is a fan, although he recognizes the flaws (“Guns, alcohol and firearms kill 500,000 Americans this year but they are major sponsors of auto racing. And if you are reading this book, you probably think it’s a fair trade”). There is a “Science of NASCAR” by a female engineering professor that has some interesting tidbits (the various springs and adjustments you can put on each wheel give you 1,600 possible results and they are not linear). Also Liz Clarke’s “Helluva Ride.”
Two most important drivers are Richard Petty (“The King”. There are three kings: Jesus, Elvis and Petty) and “The Intimidator” Dale Earnhardt, who is NEVER called Senior, although his son Dale is "Junior, Little E, etc. If you go to a race, hold up three fingers on lap three to remember Earnhardt.If you want to sound knowledgeable, point out David Pearson won three championships and only raced in four full seasons: never had the sense to sign autographs for three hours after a race like Petty to get publicity. You can also say Jimmie Johnson with four straight titles is even better than his yuppie teammate Jeff Gordon, although be sure to mention how boring he is and how anyone can win with a Chad Knauss as crew chief for a Hendrick Racing car. And always mention the sponsor, manufacturer and car number as in “The Number 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet” for Johnson.
The Tom Cruise movie “Days of Thunder” is considered junk, although it did draw fans. Gordon was the late Tim Richmond (who died of AIDS so NASCAR tries to ignore him and how they forced him out when he got sick. Robert Duval is the legendary crew chief Harry Hyde and Randy Quaid is owner Rick Hendrick. The sory about having the driver stay on the track so the crew could finish eating ice cream is true, though.
It would appear that Bobkitty got her money’s worth. They set the record for most lead changes in a race with about 70. That only counts leaders at the start/finish line. If they actually counted each time the lead changed hands, it would’ve been about double that I’d guess. The margin of victory was 0.012 seconds, or about a couple of feet or so.
Wow, I was way off. It was more like 88 lead changes.
I think that the green-white-checker should be disallowed at tracks such as Daytona and Talledega. Two laps barely allows them to get to speed, and drivers get crazy trying to. But other than that, yeah, it was a good race.
Yeah, the green-white-checker seems to invite quite the crash-fest, even at the smaller tracks. I have to agree about two laps not being enough at Talladega and Daytona. Maybe they could extend it to five laps or something but only give them one chance at it instead of three. But somehow I seriously doubt they could actually make it for five laps without a crash. Perhaps lining them up single file for it could help. If they could actually race back to the line on a yellow it might not be so necessary for the green-white-checker situation, but on the other hand, parked cars getting hit at full speed tends not to end well.
So I guess their list of choices are have the race end unexpectedly (and lamely) on the backstretch, tear up cars on green-white-checkers, or let them race to the yellow to finish the race (but risk unmoving/slow moving, disabled cars being plowed into at full speed). Kind of a pick the lesser of three evils here I suppose.
This is my choice. Why should a driver who is far outstripping the field be penalized because there is a wreck back in the pack? Other sports accept blowouts, why shouldn’t NASCAR? Finishes under yellow were not that frequent.
Sure, if there’s a crash that spreads a lot of debris and will take many laps to clean up, do something else. That’s why the red flag was invented. But in general, a finish under yellow was not such a big problem as to require a solution in which 20 drivers get wrecked cars in order to give them a chance to bunch up and artificially create a close finish.
When you put it that way, it is kind of gimmicky (like the chase system for pretty much the same reason you don’t like g-w-c’s, but that’s another thread topic i suppose) when a guy has a 5 second lead and this happens.
I haven’t watched a whole lot of racing for most of the 2000’s (I was a die hard fan from the mid-90’s until the '01 season), but races ending under caution didn’t seem to happen very often back when I did watch. I know they were pissing some people off with inconsistency regarding throwing the yellow vs. red at the end of races. But just from watching this season, it seems like over half the races have had green-white-checker finishes.
Who knows, maybe the rule actually leads to more wrecks at the end. Perhaps drivers would be a little less aggressive if they knew that a wreck toward the end of the race means race over, and no chance of getting the field bunched back up.
I’m pretty sure that if this trend continues however, teams and drivers are going to start piping up about having all these cars tore up week in and week out, but then again, that hasn’t changed anything regarding coming up with something different to slow the cars down at the plate tracks besides the restrictor plates.
Just dragging in, and heading straight for the shower (yup, we camped on Saturday despite the weather), but wanted to stop in and say thanks for the help, and yeah- that was a crazy race. Our seats were amazing- four rows up, in the middle of pit row (right across from the Miller Lite pit), not far from the start/finish line. The first three (maybe four- I lost track!) situations-that-led-to-caution-flags were almost literally right in front of us, including the poor guy that got stuck in the mud on the NASCAR emblem.
Buick, yeah, they kept going on and on about the record lead changes- when we were almost at the previous record halfway through, it was just a matter of sitting back and counting.
I did have one of those ‘crack everyone up around you’ moments… as Jeff Gordon started limping out of pit row with a hood that was dented to hell and back and a fender that was hammered back into place as quickly as possible, I yelled out ‘It’s still good, it’s still good…’ Must’ve been surrounded by Simpsons fans.
I felt terrible for the poor guy at the very end of the pack… it was like:
vroomvroomvroomvroomvroomvroomvroomvroomvroomvroom
(two second pause)
vroomvroomvroomvroomvroomvroom
(enough time for the leaders to get to the opposite side of the track)
vroomvroom
(enough time for the leaders to get 3/4 of the way around)
vroom
I almost wanted to root for him just because.
Right, off to the shower. Anyone have any questions for the no-longer-a-NASCAR-virgin?
Yes. How did the boob viewing work out?
Sounds like you enjoyed yourself. Good!
Glad to hear you had a good time, bobkitty. Now I want to go to Talladega, dammit!
I remember the last time I went to MIS for a race, there was a slow guy at the end of the pack like that. It was kind of funny, as each lap I would hear all the “vrooming” of the main pack, followed a little later by the vroom of the last car. Each lap that interval between the vrooms would grow until a caution. Rinse and repeat until he finally crashed. :smack:
Gordon was quite, and I quote from the TV interview, “pissed off” after his crash. It seems he was going quite fast down the backstretch, passing the line of cars above him when his “teammate” Jimmie Johnson kind of ran Gordon off the banking going into turn 3, causing him to slow way down to avoid a major wreck. A half-lap later he was caught up in that wreck that he otherwise would’ve been way in front of. This isn’t the first time these two have tangled this season and it’ll be interesting to see what happens next week at a short track. Gordon comes across as kind of a pussy, but he’ll bite back when he thinks enough is enough. I think he’s about had his belly full of Jimmie’s bullshit and next week’s short track would be a good place for him to exact some retribution.
Not bad at all! For reasons I’m still not 100% clear on (other than the association with ‘Redneck Mardi Gras’), there was a metric assload of beads being handed out. I would say there was probably a 2:1 ratio of ‘boobs I’m glad to have seen’ to ‘BRAIN BLEACH!’ but there was also a fairly high percentage of ‘people who should be required by law to wear lots of clothing at all times.’ I did get to trot out one of my favorite pearls of wisdom, however, in response to a comment about a girl who wandered by in an… ill-advised outfit, considering the weather Saturday (miniskirt, knee-high boots, something resembling a top) probably not being nearly as attractive up close as she was from a distance: “Gentlemen, when one is poking a fire, one does not tend to look at the mantle.” Much hilarity- granted, the gentlemen in question had been drinking heavily for about 10 hours at that point, so pretty much everything was funny- ensued.
I myself was the recipient of a decent number of catcalls… not bad for an old gal. 
I did not, however, receive any beads. Nor would the really, really hot motorcycle cop agree to my request for a photo with him (stoooopid departmental rules- or so he said), but he was very gracious and did playfully flirt back when I gave him a hard time over it.
My coworker promises me that I will not have to forfeit my Yankee Card if I admitted I had fun, so… yeah. It was actually a good time. I’ll be paying for it for the next couple days, though- lot of cigarette, wood, and burning rubber/important engine part smoke. Never mind that one of the guys I camped with made a cajun boil for dinner Saturday night (shrimp, corn, potatoes, squash, sausage, and TONS of spices- pity he couldn’t find crawfish to add in)… after the first bite I couldn’t feel my lips anymore, but it was so good I had two plates of it.
I haven’t seen any of the race highlights or the interviews with Gordon, but I’m unsurprised he’s ticked. There was a lot of tossing around of the phrase ‘hung out to dry’ (not just pertaining to Gordon-Johnson, but to several guys who helped their teammates move up- some cases as much as 8 or 10 spots- and then were promptly abandoned to fend for themselves). Of course, Johnson himself got caught in one of the last crashes, so perhaps that’ll make Gordon feel a bit better.
But DAMN I wish I’d stayed for the Nationwide race (if you had a ticket for the Spring Cup, you could stay for the Nationwide, which had been delayed from Saturday)… apparently someone CAUGHT THE FENCE ON FIRE. That must’ve been insane.
The Talladega race that I went to was Dale Earnhardt’s last win. I was on the front row just past the finish line. In the replays, you can see me leaned over the guard rail with both of my thumbs pointed down as he goes by. I never was able to sit down for the entire race since nobody around me did. I didn’t drink, but I smelled like beer when I left.
For the love of god, it’s just 'Dega. Anyone who’s anyone knows that.