2017 NASCAR

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wdwfan4ver

Well-Known Member
NASCAR announced their schedule for 2018. They made big changes with it starting at Daytona. Daytona Clash race while on the same day as they while qualify for the Daytona 500.

The Daytona 500 is still the first points race, but it went up a week for 2018 with it being 18th of February. The 2nd change is Richmond's first cup race becomes a night race again. Dover got moved up to the first Sunday of May with Pocono taking Dover's spot. Michigan got move up a week with Michigan's old spot being a off week for the cup cars.

Chicagoland is moved from the chase to July 1st. Daytona's 2nd date is the 8th of July. New Hampshire's only date in 2018 is taking over Indy's July date. Indy gets the race before the chase on September 9th.

The chase only has4 1.5 mile tracks in the chase.

2nd Las vegas is the first chase date instead of Chicagoland. Richmond takes over New Hampshires chase date. Charlotte takes over Dover's chase date, but it uses Charlotte's infield road course instead of being an oval race. Dover chase race takes Charlotte's race date.
 
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wdwfan4ver

Well-Known Member
My own take is I have to wait on see on the infield road course Charlotte has. What I like is only 4 1.5 mile tracks, 1 road course, 2 short tracks, 2 1 mile tracks and 1 Super Speedway is in the chase.

I never saw a Charlotte infield road race before and it is a wait and see thing. It has 13 turns. It actually uses the oval part of the track, but it also uses the infield road course.

What I don't like is what NASCAR did with Indy. They are putting lipstick on a pig there because moving the track date isn't going to bring in a lot more fans due it being a very difficult track to pass with them not using the road course.
 
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wdwfan4ver

Well-Known Member
NASCAR hall of Fame has announced Jim France won the Landmark award. I know Jim has been involved in racing all his life due to his dad "Big" Bill France and know for starting a Sports Car Series. I do question him getting this award because he has the power to boot out Brian France out of his position of CEO of NASCAR.

I've read Brian did stuff without proper authorization and no shows in important business meetings. Those 2 things is stuff you don't want out of a person who runs a company or an organization.
 
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wdwfan4ver

Well-Known Member
Robert Yates, Red Byron, Ray Evernham, Ken Squier, and Ron Hornaday Jr. will be inducted into the 2018 NASCAR Hall of Fame class. Ron won it over a tiebreaker over Alan Kulwicki.

Buddy Baker had the 7th most votes and Davey Allison 8th most votes.
 
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wdwfan4ver

Well-Known Member
I am happy for Robert Yates with him getting inducted while he's still alive. He's one of the best engine builders that wasn't in the Hall of Fame and was one of the best NASCAR owners of the 1990's. For those who don't know, Robert Yates is fighting for life due to him having liver cancer.

Red Byron is long overdue for the Hall of Fame. Red's stats in NASCAR shows he only raced for short time, but he actually raced since the 1930's way before NASCAR was formed. Red Byron was one of the best drivers before World War 2 before he shattered his leg in the war. The fact Red won 2 NASCAR Championships despite how bad his leg was due to his World War 2 injuries speaks about his pure talent in that era.

I'm bit shocked Ken Squier got inducted due to him winning an aware already although he's very worthy. Ken was one of the most important people in the racing media for helping NASCAR grow in popularity on television.

Ron Hornaday Jr getting the tie breaker is debatable although I understand why. Ron has 4 championships in the trucks, known as the king of the restarts, and was the biggest truck series star during the early days of the series. The truth is if a regular truck series driver should get inducted into the hall of fame, Ron would be on everyone's list.

The reason I call Ron Hornaday Jr. debatable because what Alan Kulwicki did in 1992 is something that will never happen again.

Alan was an owner/driver that won a cup championship that year despite there not being a chase and the first driver to do so after Richard Petty won his 1979 title. What made Alan's championship impressive is he raced against teams that had 2 or 3 times the budget he did and his team didn't have a lot of race cars compare to other teams. Alan didn't get any help from any of the top ford teams in his era at all and his small team built the cars and the engines.

I don't like the Ray Evernham selection at all. The problem is the NASCAR Hall of Fame ballot doesn't even have the best crew chief inducted yet. I am talking about Smokey Yunick. Ray even said in the past that Smokey should be the ballot before him.

Smokey Yunick never the made NASCAR Hall of Fame ballot yet. A lot of people have said it is due to stuff outside of racing. Smokey Yunick and the France Family never seen eye to eye at all. NASCAR even rejected Smokey's safety proposal's such as making a fuel cell less prone to catch fire.

Smokey even wrote nasty stuff about the France family in his book years when he was still alive. Smokey Yunick and the founder of NASCAR "big" Bill France actually were rivals in the Auto repair business in Daytona before NASCAR was founded.
 
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wdwfan4ver

Well-Known Member
Out of the top 3 people in votes that didn't get inducted into 2018 class, I think its possible that Alan Kulwicki could be only one of the 3 making it into the 2019 class.

I don't know who will the 5 people that will be new to the ballot for the 2019 class, but Jeff Gordon was ruled eligible to be on the 2019 Hall of Fame Class Ballot despite subbing for Dale Jr. last year. I expect Jeff to get every vote next year or close to it. That means he's going to get at least the same percentage as Robert Yates.

I would think that could affect Davey Allison since he never had a cup championship and he had a lot of prime years left as a driver when he died in a helicopter crash in 1993. Right now Alan Kulwicki and Bobby Labonte are the current 2 cup drivers left on the ballot has cup championships. When Jeff Gordon gets named, that would make it 3 drivers on the ballot. I don't see the NASCAR Hall of Fame doing 4 cup drivers on one ballot right now.

Buddy Baker may or may not be inducted next year. It really depends on who's on the ballot. Buddy was known as a driver, but also for what he did as part of the racing media before his died.
 
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wdwfan4ver

Well-Known Member
I did read some interesting. Although a part of it sounds like politics, a part of it isn't.

The Texas Legislature approved a bill Thursday that makes NASCAR Allstar race and final race of the NASCAR season eligible for Texas Major Events Reimbursement Program. If the bill in question is signed by the Gov. of Texas, that means the All-star race at Charlotte can move to Texas and Homestead getting a new date on the schedule.

My first thought is Texas doesn't need a 3rd race date. The problem with the Charlotte Allstar race besides the areo pack is some race teams like at the Charlotte All Star race as a test session. The broadcasting team for the all star race basically the 88 team already had plans of making it a test session. The problem I have with Texas is a crowd standpoint because will race fans actually attend 3 races at the same track s

As far as being the final race of the season, I think it is a ploy from a market standpoint. I have no idea where Homestead would be moved to if this happens outside me guessing where the current chase date for Texas is currently.
 
MOXOMUMD

MOXOMUMD

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Screenshot_2017-05-29-07-38-44.jpg


COCA-COLA 600, CHARLOTTE

1. Austin Dillon
2. Kyle Busch
3. Martin Truex Jr.
 
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wdwfan4ver

Well-Known Member
Great Clips is leaving the 5 car of Kasey Kahne after this season. Farmer's Insurance before this season already announced they are leaving the 5 car after this season.

I am interest in how Hendrick Motorsports is going to handle the 5 car after this season.
 
Dead2009

Dead2009

Horror Movie Guru
wdwfan4ver said:
Great Clips is leaving the 5 car of Kasey Kahne after this season. Farmer's Insurance before this season already announced they are leaving the 5 car after this season.

I am interest in how Hendrick Motorsports is going to handle the 5 car after this season.
Click to expand...

By getting rid of it too :p.
 
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wdwfan4ver

Well-Known Member
Bubba Wallace is going to be racing in the 43 car at Pocono while Aric Almirola is still recovering from his back injury. He also will be racing in the 43 till Almirola returns also. This is possible because Jack Roush has decided to Suspend operations of the 6 team of Bubba Wallace in the Xfinity series due to lack of Sponsorship despite being 4th in points in the Xfinity series.
 
patch553

patch553

Well-Known Member
I'm happy to see bubba get a chance in the 43 but really gutted the 6 ride is closing after a decent start to the season!if almirola gets fit enough to jump back in bubbas gonna of lost the chance of the championship in xfinity, In my opinion running both xfinity and monster races at the same weekend would be beneficial, the likes of keselowski, busch, logano, Dillon etc all do
 
patch553

patch553

Well-Known Member
great finish in the xfinity race, Keselowski had the fastest car all day but I thought he'd lost it when Sadler bumped him on final restart great recovery tho, also another strong run from Allgaier
 
artvandelay

artvandelay

Well-Known Member
wdwfan4ver said:
Great Clips is leaving the 5 car of Kasey Kahne after this season. Farmer's Insurance before this season already announced they are leaving the 5 car after this season.

I am interest in how Hendrick Motorsports is going to handle the 5 car after this season.
Click to expand...
Wouldn't be surprised to see the 5# team go away and HMS go down to three cars. Another question for HMS, are they going to keep the number 88 or go back to the classic HMS #25 when Dale Jr. retires?
 

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