The 2020 NASCAR Cup Season (plus Xfinity, Trucks, ARCA talk)

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JRS

JRS

JRS

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Daytona time.

This is going to be the last season of the Gen-6 car in the Cup Series. The Gen-7 body and chassis are coming for '21, with a new engine formula to follow at some point. Potentially going hybrid. Not sure how I feel about that yet. The current rules package has been tweaked for this final year - reduced downforce on short tracks and road courses, wind tunnel testing limited to 150 hours, tweaks to the amount of chassis each car number can have built in order to reduce costs.

This is also the last full-time season for Jimmie Johnson, so at least a portion of the NASCAR fanbase will be overjoyed...right up until they realise that they've lost one of their favourite things to complain about ;) The series has already lost Jamie McMurray and Paul Menard to retirement, this will be the first season since '02 and '03 respectively without them. And we unfortunately lost former driver John Andretti in a rather more permanent way. A long-time driver in NASCAR, IndyCar and sports cars, he succumbed to colon cancer. Twice a winner in the Cup Series including a race win in the Petty 43 car, he was also part of the winning team in the '89 Rolex 24 Daytona race. **** cancer :mad:

Daytona schedule

Cup competition begins with the Busch Clash on Sunday Feb 9th. A non-points exhibition race, the eligibility is as follows:

2019 Busch Pole Award winners
Former Clash winners who competed in 2019 full-time
Former Daytona 500 winners who competed in 2019 full-time
Former Daytona 500 pole winners who competed in 2019 full-time
Drivers who qualified for the 2019 Cup playoffs

Qualifying drivers:

  • Aric Almirola (2019 Busch Pole Award)
  • Ryan Blaney (2019 Busch Pole Award)
  • Alex Bowman (former Daytona 500 pole winner)
  • Clint Bowyer (2019 Busch Pole Award)
  • Kyle Busch (2019 Busch Pole Award)
  • Kurt Busch (former Clash winner)
  • William Byron (2019 Busch Pole Award)
  • Austin Dillon (2019 Busch Pole Award)
  • Chase Elliott (2019 Busch Pole Award)
  • Denny Hamlin (2019 Busch Pole Award)
  • Kevin Harvick (2019 Busch Pole Award)
  • Daniel Hemric (2019 Busch Pole Award)
  • Jimmie Johnson (2019 Busch Pole Award)
  • Erik Jones (2019 Cup Series playoff driver)
  • Brad Keselowski (2019 Busch Pole Award)
  • Kyle Larson (2019 Busch Pole Award)
  • Joey Logano (2019 Busch Pole Award)
  • Ryan Newman (former Daytona 500 winner)
  • Daniel Suarez (2019 Busch Pole Award)
  • Martin Truex Jr. (former Daytona 500 pole winner)
Hemric and Suarez probably won't take part - Hemric is returning to the Xfinity series, and Suarez secured a drive for the season fairly late on with Gaunt Brothers Racing who will probably want to concentrate on qualifying for the 500 rather than potentially wrecking a car in an exhibition race.

Earlier on the same day is Daytona 500 qualifying. And no, they haven't changed the annual brain-bender that is Daytona qualifying yet:

Qualifying for the Daytona 500 is unique in NASCAR. Only the two front row starters (the pole and "outside pole") are determined by the standard knockout qualifying system. For all other drivers it only determines their starting position in their duel with odd placed cars being entered into the first duel and even placed cars going in the second. After the Top 2 positions are locked in, the next 30 places of starting grid of the Daytona 500 is set by the finishing order of these two races with the top 15 (excluding pole winner and outside pole) making up the next 15 places on the inside and outside lanes respectively. After the Duels are completed the four fastest non-qualifiers by time and finally the six or seven (if no past champion's exemption is needed) highest-earning teams in points not in the race yet advance (also set by time), and the starting grid for the Daytona 500 would then be set. The order is still subject to change if engine regulations are violated.
Click to expand...

Those Duel races are going to be held on Feb 13th. Then the main event is on Sunday Feb 16th. The other series races are:
  • ARCA - Lucas Oil 200 - Feb 8th
  • Trucks - NextEra Energy 250 - Feb 14th
  • Xfinity - NASCAR Racing Experience 300 - Feb 15th

Lord alone knows who, if anyone, is broadcasting any of it in the UK. I've long since given up on legal means of watching this sport :(:p FS1 is broadcasting qualifying and races in the US, aside from Daytona 500 qualifying and the race which are on Fox.

Will post the official entry lists as soon as they're published.

Season schedule changes

For the first time since 2002, the Cup season won't end at the Homestead-Miami track - that race moves to round 6 after Atlanta in March. The season will end at Phoenix AZ instead. Daytona's second date has been swapped with Indianapolis, after 21 years of it being the Fourth of July Weekend race. So now the regular season is bookended by Daytona races. Both Pocono races are going to be held back-to-back on the weekend of June 27th-28th, which should be a logistical nightmare for those who end the first race with a torn-up car. And the second Dover race is being held earlier, so is no longer part of the playoff end of the season.
 
Daytona 500 entry list.

Busch Clash entry list.

No surprises for the Clash, just Generic and Suarez missing. For the 500, I'm looking forward to seeing what Quin Houff can do - I remember his first ARCA race here a few years ago, and now he's racing the NASCAR Cup series. Time flies.

The other thing I find hard to believe is that we're down to seven Toyota entries now...and only six of them are running the full schedule. Seems like Ford's recent big push to sign up drivers and teams is squeezing them out.

Meanwhile in ARCA, the entry list for tonight's race is here. In practice for the race Hailie Deegan was fastest overall, turning a lap at 183.572 mph. This will be her 7th ARCA race, she has one top 5 finish in the series and three other top 10 finishes. In what is now the ARCA Menards Series West she has three wins to her name and finished 3rd in the 2019 standings. She's a pretty fair country driver both on paved tracks and dirt, would be nice to see a strong run for her at this event. Certainly seems like she's got the hang of the draft early on.


***edit***

Cup practice for tomorrow's qualifying is already seeing speeds of well over 200mph in the draft :cool:

***edit 2***

ARCA Qualifying Results. Michael Self won this race in 2018, and pole is as good a place as any to try and win it again.

Race will be starting in not very long. Cars are out on pitroad about to get the command to fire up.

***edit 3***

Self wins. Deegan second. Drew Dollar third. Sean Corr and Thad Moffitt round out the top 5. Was a good race :)
 
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Daytona 500 qualifying time.

As I said in the OP, this determines the front row and the fields for the Duel races on Thursday which actually set the grid. Expectations are at least one Hendrick car on that front row. We'll see what happens.
 
Qualifying results.

Great job by Stenhouse, got to feel good after being dumped by Roush-Fenway before this season. And the expectations re: Hendrick cars were on the money - 2nd, 3rd and 4th, and Stenhouse's JTG Daugherty Racing team also use Hendrick engines :D
 
The Clash went well. And by 'went well' I of course mean it didn't, in fact, go brilliantly well. Only 6 of the 18 starters were classified finishers, and only 5 of them finished on the lead lap. Still, that's a bunch of drivers who now know what not to do in the Duels.

Congrats to Erik Jones for his win, which came despite heavy damage sustained during the sequence of wrecks that put the race into overtime:


Absolute amateur hour...

The proper highlights vid:

 
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They're getting ready for the Duels now. Another lousy rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, but it was at least in the same post code as the tune. Not far away from engine fire-up for the first qualifying race.

Lineups.

***edit***

Oh bother. Rain delay. Hopefully it's brief.

***edit 2***

About an hour delay in the end. Could have been worse.

Duel 1 results.
Duel 2 results.

Reed Sorenson and Timmy Hill make the cut and will race in the 500. Chad Finchum, Daniel Suárez and J. J. Yeley fail to qualify.

Barring engine changes or going to backup cars, this is how they'll line up.
 
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Some particularly dumb driving, even by plate track standards. Denny Hamlin wins his second straight 500 in what I believe is the second-closest finish ever for the race.

Ryan Newman is in a serious but fortunately not life-threatening condition following the crash at the end. Wholly unintentional by Ryan Blaney, it's a product of these cars on this track racing that closely. Not so many years since that would have been a fatal wreck, but they build these cars and safety barriers very well these days. Plus, Newman is a tough SOB. Hopefully we get good news from the hospital in the next updates.
 
MagicBoy said:
I couldn't quite believe my eyes when Hamlin and the Gibbs crew went all out on the celebrations, while there was no sign of Newman getting out the car. I hope they didn't know, although the tone of the Fox guys indicated everyone else did ... and it was serious.
Click to expand...

Hamlin has said that he had no idea about how serious Newman's crash was. But he didn't bother to find out, which I find entirely in-keeping with how much of a tit he is.

Remember Austin Dillon's flip-and-roll into the catch fence at the 2015 July Daytona race? Dale Earnhardt Jr was immediately on to the radio after winning to find out if everyone was okay, because he's a class act. Denny Hamlin wouldn't know class if it gained corporeal form and bit him on the nose...

MagicBoy said:
The feeling of horror watching the upside down car leaking petrol inches from an on-fire fuel filler neck will stay with me for a while.
Click to expand...

Fire is still the thing that freaks me out the most with motor racing crashes.

MagicBoy said:
Go back 25 years and the drivers seems to have more respect due to the proximity of the bare walls. Newmans accident would have been very serious before the SAFER barriers, now there's idiots like Logano who think it's perfectly fine to play bumper cars at 190mph as it's less likely to kill someone.
Click to expand...

Between the SAFER barriers, and the cars being a lot more squishy in a crash since the 5th gen 'Car Of Tomorrow', it certainly seems that way.

MagicBoy said:
I do a bit of iRacing and this turning left on a superspeedway thing is harder than it looks. Scary enough in a simulator. ;)
Click to expand...

It truly is :)
 
And now he's out of the hospital :) They built that guy tough.

Ross Chastain is going to sub for him while he recuperates, currently he and the team haven't given a timeframe for his return. Next race up is Las Vegas - entry list here. Only 38 cars, so no-one will DNQ. Xfinity and Truck series will also be at Vegas - Xfinity entry list and Truck one. I believe that with Chastain driving the #6 in Cup that means he's entered in all three races this weekend. Not for nothing was he known last year as The Busiest Driver In NASCAR.
 
Auto Club Speedway, Fontana CA this weekend. About my least favourite track on the calendar. Just Cup and Xfinity here, trucks aren't back for a fortnight.

Alex Bowman swept the Cup practice sessions. Bodes well for his race weekend.
 
Didn't watch one minute of action from Fontana. But I've been keeping up with Phoenix this weekend - so far we've had a punch-up between McDowell and Suarez, Ryan Newman showed up but isn't back driving yet, and Chase Elliott is on pole for the Cup race. Thing is, Elliott qualifies well at Phoenix often but never finishes particularly well on raceday. My money is on Kevin Harvick for the win.

Qualifying results
 
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