NASCAR 2013 Sprint Cup season (other series discussion welcome!)

Ceryndrion · 7 Feb 2013 at 16:29

JRS said:
How good does Montoya's '13 mount look!

A shame that he'll not keep it that way for very long.. given his tendency towards getting into trouble.

JRS · 8 Feb 2013 at 11:16

The very first Truck Series 'Mudsummer Classic' is being held in July this year. And yes, that's not a typo - Mudsummer. The race is being held at Eldrora Speedway, and Eldora Speedway is a dirt track

It'll be the first NASCAR national series race on dirt since the 1970 season. Nice to see the sport regress back to its roots once in a while! All 17,700 grandstand tickets have sold, with a couple of hundred general admission tickets remaining they should get a crowd of about 20,000 in to watch. Not bad for a track in Rossburg, Ohio - population 201....

Indy500 · 8 Feb 2013 at 11:18

As soon as I saw a few months back that Eldora was on the schedule, I thought of the number of extra caution periods it would generate

JRS · 8 Feb 2013 at 11:22

Going to be a wild night

Skeeter · 8 Feb 2013 at 11:42

Isn't there already a dirt oval series? Is this going to be Truck drivers driving those cars, or will they be sticking nobbly tyres onto the normal Camping World Trucks and taking them out?

Indy500 · 8 Feb 2013 at 11:44

Skeeter said:
Isn't there already a dirt oval series? Is this going to be Truck drivers driving those cars, or will they be sticking nobbly tyres onto the normal Camping World Trucks and taking them out?

Plenty of lower-level series run on dirt, but the main Nascar national series haven't done so for about 40 years. The trucks will be adapted:

Skeeter · 8 Feb 2013 at 11:48

So it will be the tarmac oval trucks with nobbly tyres!

This is going to be great! How can I watch Trucks over here?

Indy500 · 8 Feb 2013 at 11:49

Skeeter said:
So it will be the tarmac oval trucks with nobbly tyres!

This is going to be great! How can I watch Trucks over here?

Wait for someone to upload it to youtube

JRS · 8 Feb 2013 at 12:02

Skeeter said:
So it will be the tarmac oval trucks with nobbly tyres!

This is going to be great! How can I watch Trucks over here?

sr4470 said:
Wait for someone to upload it to youtube

Yep. Or try and find a stream to watch live/wait until the torrented broadcast has been uploaded to RFM to watch after the fact.

A clip from pre-season testing. Here's how badly testing can go (6 mins in)....

Whoops

Skeeter · 8 Feb 2013 at 12:08

The new bodies look a bit odd. Going to take a bit of getting used too.

JRS · 8 Feb 2013 at 18:25

I look back at the immediately pre-CoT cars now and think 'Christ, those were ugly!'

(click for larger)

***edit***

Sent you an e-mail Adam, re: RFM.

Indy500 · 8 Feb 2013 at 18:31

Heh, it'd be a lot easier for me to buy him a drink JRS

Skeeter · 8 Feb 2013 at 22:02

I quite like that the massive boxy rear ends are gone.

JRS · 13 Feb 2013 at 12:43

Entry list for the Sprint Unlimited.

bigfoot4616 · 13 Feb 2013 at 15:23

JRS said:
Sadly, the Truck series still doesn't have a broadcaster over here.

premier sports claim to be showing some truck races live and highlights of the rest

JRS · 13 Feb 2013 at 22:09

bigfoot4616 said:
premier sports claim to be showing some truck races live and highlights of the rest

If so, that's great

The Truck series does deserve a lot more support than it seems to get - both from viewers and sponsors!

Indy500 · 13 Feb 2013 at 22:10

JRS said:
If so, that's great The Truck series does deserve a lot more support than it seems to get - both from viewers and sponsors!

Kimi Raikkonen showing up again would get them some attention

JRS · 13 Feb 2013 at 22:17

sr4470 said:
Kimi Raikkonen showing up again would get them some attention

I'm not certain it would. He's not the kind of guy who would happily deal with the sponsor bull-**** that you have to deal with when you're a big name involved in a top-level motorsport series in the USA.

Lewis Hamilton on the other hand....that would get the sponsors and pundits wetting themselves with anticipation! He'd do the TV spot nonsense (and has done, those Mobil 1 adverts with Tony Stewart are brilliant

) and he'd be quick in a stock car, no question. I almost hope he gets a bad Mercedes F1 car for a year or two to get him bored enough to try it!

Indy500 · 13 Feb 2013 at 22:24

JRS said:
Lewis Hamilton on the other hand....that would get the sponsors and pundits wetting themselves with anticipation! He'd do the TV spot nonsense (and has done, those Mobil 1 adverts with Tony Stewart are brilliant ) and he'd be quick in a stock car, no question. I almost hope he gets a bad Mercedes F1 car for a year or two to get him bored enough to try it!

Not sure about that. More likely that Narain Karthikeyan will go back there instead (if he doesn't buy the second Coyne seat in Indycar that is).

JRS · 13 Feb 2013 at 22:32

Oh, I don't think it's likely to happen by any stretch. But it'd be fun to watch!

Narain was very good in the NASCAR races I saw him drive in. Anyone who can finish in 13th place and on the lead lap in their first event has done a good job, especially when coming from a Euro-centric open wheel racing background.