This will NASCAR's 62nd season, and is shaping up to be.....well.....
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.
And actually, in the end I'm easy with that. Just as long as a ******* Toyota driver (particularly Kyle Busch) or a Roush Fenway Racing driver doesn't win it. As long as the racing is good, that's all that matters.
So, Daytona! One of the two tracks that actually are pretty much flat out all the way around. 2.5 miles, with 31° turns and a 3° tilt to the straights. The front stretch is 3800ft long, with a 3000ft backstretch. So the cars have plenty of drafting (slipstreaming) time to get a reasonable pace going.
Something that could help this year is a relaxation of the bump-drafting rule. The drivers will be allowed a little more flexibility in how hard they bump each other on the super-speedways when trying to gain speed and also where they bump each other. The rule for the last few years has been no bumping in the turns and no big hits anywhere. It's about time that rule was relaxed somewhat. I believe they've also changed the restrictor plate size (the plate that goes between carb and inlet fannymould to reduce the horsepower and keep speeds sane at Daytona and Talladega) to give the cars a little more oomph.
Cup race is on the 14th. I'll update the thread before then with links to race streams.
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.
And actually, in the end I'm easy with that. Just as long as a ******* Toyota driver (particularly Kyle Busch) or a Roush Fenway Racing driver doesn't win it. As long as the racing is good, that's all that matters.
So, Daytona! One of the two tracks that actually are pretty much flat out all the way around. 2.5 miles, with 31° turns and a 3° tilt to the straights. The front stretch is 3800ft long, with a 3000ft backstretch. So the cars have plenty of drafting (slipstreaming) time to get a reasonable pace going.
Something that could help this year is a relaxation of the bump-drafting rule. The drivers will be allowed a little more flexibility in how hard they bump each other on the super-speedways when trying to gain speed and also where they bump each other. The rule for the last few years has been no bumping in the turns and no big hits anywhere. It's about time that rule was relaxed somewhat. I believe they've also changed the restrictor plate size (the plate that goes between carb and inlet fannymould to reduce the horsepower and keep speeds sane at Daytona and Talladega) to give the cars a little more oomph.
Cup race is on the 14th. I'll update the thread before then with links to race streams.
), for anyone who isn't paying for Murdoch's mission to show football every single hour of the day there's