NASCAR 2011 season thread

JRS

JRS

JRS

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The countdown to Daytona is well under way now, so I figured it was time to get this thread up here.

Last season, I said the following:

me said:
Honestly, who's going to stop Jimmie Johnson? Who? Seriously. For the love of God, he's won four titles on the trot now. I wouldn't be betting against a 5th. I'd love to see his Hendrick Motorsports team-mates get right up with him (Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr, Mark Martin), and I'd love to see Earnhardt Ganassi Racing give Juan Montoya a car that can challenge for the title. Oh, and it'd be nice to see one of the few remaining Dodges get the odd decent result. But being realistic, JJ has to be favourite. By a looooooooooooooooooooooong way.
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Aaaaand of course, we all know what happened. Denny Hamlin pushed him, Kevin Harvick pushed him, but Jimmie Johnson simply pushed back. Bish bash bosh, fifth title secured, job done. Party in Vegas.

So, number six. How likely is it? Could this finally be the year that someone mounts a successful challenge on JJ's dominance on the Cup title? The Hendrick cars last year were not bullet-proof, and even speed wasn't there at times. Operationally, there were some 'interesting' (in the fictional Chinese sense of the word) moments - swapping the #48 and #24 pitcrews at Texas being the prime example. That being said....I still think he can take the title this year. The #48 team have spent some time this winter ironing out issues. The other Hendrick teams have made some changes as well (especially the #88 team of Dale Earnhardt Jr, who have under-performed for a while now).

And who's going to challenge him? Denny Hamlin blew a brilliant chance last season, and that has to affect him (though he seemed to be pretty happy at the last test). Kyle "Petulant Tit™" Busch is still a petulant tit. Carl "Braindead Moron™" Edwards? Don't make me laugh. Tony Stewart has a bit of a distraction in the background. Sure, it'd be fantastic if someone from out of left-field mounted a title challenge. Juan Montoya in particular - though I'd settle for seeing him win an oval race.

There are a few unknowns going into the new season. The fuel has changed again - from high octane unleaded to an E15 ethanol/petrol blend. With it has come a new fuelling system for pitroad - which has brought along a few difficulties. Expect that to be a bit of a story point in the first few races this year. The calendar has changed a bit - the bore-fest at Fontana is no longer the second race of the season, instead the teams head to Phoenix after Daytona - a very different track to Fontana with different challenges. Indeed, Fontana has lost its second date in the season as well - as you can imagine, I'm utterly distraught at this news (;)). Oh, and they've completely altered the points system as well, marking the end of a points setup that has been in place since 1975. Now it's 43 points for a win, 42 for second place, 41 for third and so on down to 1 point for 43rd. You get 3 bonus points for the victory as well, a point for leading a lap, and another point for leading the most laps. Not convinced that it needed to change, myself. NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France thinks it's an improvement....we'll see.

The Cup schedule is here. The first race is the non-championship Shootout event on Saturday, followed by the Duels on Thursday to determine the grid. Here's to hoping for a good season!
 
Good stuff :)

I really want to see Montoya do well again this year. 2009 was great for him - IIRC he made the chase? Last year he was disappointing.

Do you know of a UK TV schedule available anywhere? I keep missing the races, or joining them at the end after Top Gear.
 
Spunkey said:
Good stuff :)

I really want to see Montoya do well again this year. 2009 was great for him - IIRC he made the chase? Last year he was disappointing.
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He did indeed make the Chase in '09, first driver not born in the US to do so. As for his 2010 season - he did win a race (Watkins Glen), and got pole three times. But yeah, 17th in the final standings is not where anyone thought he'd end up.

Spunkey said:
Do you know of a UK TV schedule available anywhere? I keep missing the races, or joining them at the end after Top Gear.
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Like MissChief says, Premier are showing it this season. I'll post race start times in this thread in advance of the action starting.
 
Great post JRS

Its a shame Sky gave up the coverage. But once they got the PGA tour back, something was always going to have to go.

Sad to see its PPV this year though. I pay enough to Sky already !! Open access did a fair job, considering. No doubt I there will be an internet streem somewhere ;)

Really enjoyed last year. Jimmie did what Jimmie does. Makes very few mistakes and brings the car home with a decent finish, even when his eqpt is not the best. It was some call to change the pit crew whilst fighting for the championship, but the Hendrick success does seem to come from a total team ethic. Must be hard to manage at times internally. I definately think some other teams colsed the gap last year, and it will be interesting to see if they can continue that momentum.

Looking forward to a great season, and I hope its close again. The last couple of races were edge of seat stuff.
 
So, anyway. Daytona!

Daytona International Speedway
Daytona Beach
FL

xeo57m.jpg


Completed : 1959
Distance : 2.5 miles
Shape : Tri-oval
Banking : 31° turns, 3° straights
Frontstretch : 3,800 feet
Backstretch : 3,000 feet
Seating : 147,000

Daytona International Speedway opened in 1959, but the history of auto racing at Daytona goes back much farther than that.

In 1936, the precursor to today's Daytona 500 was born on a course that went down 1.5 miles of highway, then turned and came the same distance back up the beach.

William H.G. France, a mechanic and racer who'd moved south from Washington, D.C., eventually took over the job of running the beach races on the second of two courses used for those events. In 1947, he presided over a meeting at Daytona's Streamline Hotel where NASCAR was born.

A decade later, France began working on his showplace.

"Big Bill" France was building it, and he insisted on 31-degree banking in the corners. That's as steep as he could make the turns and still keep the machines putting down the asphalt from tipping over.

When drivers gathered for the first Daytona 500, it was an eye-popping experience. Drivers were more accustomed to half-mile dirt tracks and saw the 1.366-mile paved track at Darlington as vast. A trip around Daytona International Speedway was 2.5 miles -- nearly twice that.

Bob Welborn ran 140.121 mph to win the pole for the first Daytona 500, and Lee Petty won in a photo finish over Johnny Beauchamp.

It was at Daytona International Speedway where Junior Johnson discovered that if he tucked his car right behind another one, he could go faster than he could run by himself. And drafting became a part of the sport.

It was also at Daytona where Cale Yarborough topped 200 mph on his first qualifying lap in 1983 and then, as he went even faster on a second lap, his car took off and flew, turning upside down before crashing.

Bill Elliott set the Daytona track record in 1987, running 210.364 mph, just before restrictor plates were introduced to the sport.

The Daytona 500, considered NASCAR's biggest event, has hosted some of NASCAR's greatest moments -- and maybe its greatest tragedy.

Many considered the 1976 Daytona 500 as the greatest race of all time.
Richard Petty won seven Daytona 500s on his way to becoming "The King," but lost in '76 to rival David Pearson after they wrecked coming to the finish line and Pearson puttered across the stripe bumping his car along with his ignition.

In 1998, in his 20th try, seven-time Cup Series champion Dale Earnhardt finally won the Daytona 500. Sadly, three years later, Earnhardt died in a Turn 4 crash in the 2001 running. It was a moment that changed the sport forever.

In addition to the Daytona 500, the track hosts the Pepsi 400 each July along with the Rolex 24, America's premier endurance race, and annual motorcycle races that are the centerpiece of Daytona's Bike Week.
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This race will mark ten years since one of the greatest drivers the sport has ever seen lost his life. A lot of stuff came out of the crash that claimed Dale Earnhardt - some of it bad, a lot of it good. I expect that a lot will be said about it on the race broadcast. Certainly much has already been said.

As with the Imola '94 death of Ayrton Senna, I have pretty vivid memories of that '01 Daytona 500 and the aftermath. The crash looked like nothing, really. There had been a much bigger accident in the race that had bent up half the field and sent Tony Stewart flipping (indeed, he landed on more than one car including team-mate Bobby Labonte in the melée!). But when Earnhardt got loose, his car bobbled up into the car of Ken Schrader outside of him and just turned hard right into the outside wall. And the sport hasn't been the same since.
 
Snippet from the Mclaren F1 website:

Mclaren electronics to supply NASCAR in 2012 when the cars move from carbs to fuel injection.

It has always fascinated me how basic the cars in NASCAR are. Not sure how the US public will react if the cars become too "technical".

NASCAR’s decision to switch from carburettors to fuel-injected engines is as big a step-change as you can imagine in the world of North American motorsport.

And the involvement of McLaren Electronics, who will work in partnership with Freescale Semiconductor to develop and integrate new fuel-injection and engine control systems into the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series from 2012, is a similarly significant step for the renowned British electronics specialist based at Woking (Surrey, UK).

Announced on Friday at Daytona Beach – the spiritual home and headquarters of NASCAR – the deal means that, from 2012, McLaren Electronics will supply the engine control systems to the two biggest racing series in the world: Formula 1 and NASCAR.

And while McLaren Electronics’ Formula 1 involvement is already well documented (we’ve built a rock-solid reputation as a supplier of reliable and tamper-proof standard ECUs to every grand prix team since 2008), our foray into NASCAR looks set to be an equally ground-breaking journey for both parties.

For NASCAR, the arrival of fuel-injection will end the carburettor era, which has stretched across the stock car championship’s entire six-decade history.

It’s a timely change: although the carburettor still remains a robust and tamper-proof piece of classic mechanical engineering, across the wider automotive and motorsport worlds its time has passed. Indeed, fuel injection is a far more straightforward and efficient means of controlling ignition and injection across the engine’s complete operating range. That means performance with better fuel economy.

McLaren Electronics’ ability to produce technically superior and tamper-proof solutions means that it will continue to guarantee that the NASCAR community operates on an absolutely equal playing field.

“To have earned a role as a standard equipment supplier to the two most important motorsport series in the world is an incredible achievement for us,” said McLaren Electronics’ managing director Peter van Manen. “Today’s announcement means that, from 2012, McLaren Electronics will be supplying standard ECUs to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and the FIA Formula 1 World Championship.

“We’re extremely proud of the reputation we’ve built up in just a few short years as official ECU supplier in Formula 1, and we’re absolutely confident that the same standards of excellent service, reliability and impartiality will continue to flourish when we cross the Atlantic to begin this exciting sporting relationship with the full NASCAR grid.

“We’re absolutely delighted to be playing such a central role in the largest-growing sporting spectacle in North America.”

Ron Dennis, Executive Chairman of McLaren Group, added: “As a group, McLaren is extremely serious about its involvement in North America: as well as looking ahead to our NASCAR involvement, the next 12 months will also see us introduce the MP4-12C high-performance sports car to the market.

“With both projects, we’re keen to ensure that our expertise produces the most efficient and effective solutions while also safeguarding the incredible reputation that the McLaren name has built up over nearly 50 years of motorsport competition.”

Robin Pemberton, NASCAR’s director of competition, added: “This move gives us an additional opportunity to incorporate the best technology in our race cars that will enhance the sport in various ways.

“Selecting these two industry leaders [McLaren Electronics and Freescale Semiconductor] reflects our commitment to this new technology which our manufacturers and teams have embraced. This is a positive step that will provide greater fuel efficiency and a greener footprint while maintaining the same great competition we have seen on the track.”

The programme will see Freescale designated as the ‘official automotive semiconductor of NASCAR’; McLaren Electronics will become the ‘official engine control unit of NASCAR’.
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Countcussy said:
Snippet from the Mclaren F1 website:
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Yep, it's in the works.

Countcussy said:
It has always fascinated me how basic the cars in NASCAR are.
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But they really aren't all that basic :) Well, depending on your idea of the term of course. Sure, they're still using a single 4bbl carb - but it works. Sure, they're still using a Detroit locker diff' - but it will take the abuse. And as far as the body goes, there is a fantastic amount of science and testing that went into the decision that said "yep, this is what we want to see, go build 'em".

Countcussy said:
Not sure how the US public will react if the cars become too "technical".
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They won't give a **** if the on-track action is good :)
 
Been reading these articles about Earnhardt and the Daytona 24hr race he participated in just before his death. It's great to read about stuff like this, like he was a little slower over most of the lap, but on the banking he was making up tons of time over the other drivers in the team, just because his knowledge of the bumps and the fastest way round at Daytona was extraordinary. Well worth a read.

http://nascar.speedtv.com/article/rolex-24-the-final-podium-pt-1/

http://nascar.speedtv.com/article/rolex-24-the-final-podium-pt-2/

http://nascar.speedtv.com/article/rolex-24-the-final-podium-pt-3/
 
The grid for the 33rd Budweiser Shootout exhibition race has been drawn. Junebug has the pole.

The full grid:

Row 1 - Dale Earnhardt Jr - Tony Stewart
Row 2 - Carl Edwards - Denny Hamlin
Row 3 - Kasey Kahne - Bobby Labonte
Row 4 - Clint Bowyer - Ryan Newman
Row 5 - Derrike Cope - Michael Waltrip
Row 6 - Greg Biffle - Jeff Gordon
Row 7 - Juan Montoya - Jamie McMurray
Row 8 - Jeff Burton - Kevin Conway
Row 9 - Kurt Busch - Kevin Harvick
Row 10 - Matt Kenseth - Mark Martin
Row 11 - Kyle Busch - Joey Logano
Row 12 - Jimme Johnson - Regan Smith

The field needs a bit of explaining. The cars eligible for the race are the following:

The 12 from last year's Chase
Previous Bud Shootout winners
Previous winners at a points-paying Daytona race (the Daytona 500 or what is now the Coke Zero 400)
Previous Cup champions
The last 10 Rookies Of The Year

The race doesn't count for the championship, the guys are just racing for the prize money (about $200k IIRC). First part is a 25 lap sprint, followed by a 10 minute break, and then the second part which is 50 laps. Caution laps count to the total, if a caution occurs late on then the Green-White-Checkered procedure may lengthen the race by a couple of laps.

The race starts around 8pm ET tonight (1am for us), doubt very much that it'll be shown on UK television at all. There may be some internet streams of dubious legality showing it - if so then this link may be of some help. And you didn't see me post that :)
 
Just watching Cup practice - the new asphalt makes this place look and act like Talladega. A hell of a lot smoother than the old surface. I kind of hope that this changes quickly and we get some of the old Daytona bumps back.
 
Heh....sat here watching the practice #2 broadcast. They've just shown a team struggling with the new fuelling system. That's going to ball someone up here, no doubt.

Also talking about this new fuel blend. The engines are making more power, but getting worse fuel mileage. That 50 lap sprint in part 2 of the Budweiser Shootout tonight is going to see some fuel stops if it stays green.
 
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