2025 NASCAR

MinnieM123

MinnieM123

Premium Member
(Long Daytona 500 yesterday, with over a 3-hour rain delay.)

Congratulations to the #24 Chevrolet -- William Byron, (Hendrick Motorsports) who won his 2nd straight Daytona 500, after a last-lap wreck took out race leader Denny Hamlin on the backstretch.

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photo credit: Jared C. Tilton // Getty Images

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Photo credit: Terry Renna, AP
 
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wdwfan4ver

Well-Known Member
Aaron's announced they are returning to NASCAR as a sponsor. They are sponsoring Todd Gilliland on Feb. 23rd at Atlanta and will be sponsor Zane Smith for 7 cup races. The 7 races Aaron's will be sponsoring Zane are The following:
Phoenix raceway - March 9, Homestead - March 16, Bristol - April 13, Atlanta - June 28th, Indianapolis Motor Speedway - July 27th, Daytona - Aug. 23rd, and Phoenix - Nov. 2nd.
 
artvandelay

artvandelay

Well-Known Member
wdwfan4ver said:
Aaron's announced they are returning to NASCAR as a sponsor. They are sponsoring Todd Gilliland on Feb. 23rd at Atlanta and will be sponsor Zane Smith for 7 cup races. The 7 races Aaron's will be sponsoring Zane are The following:
Phoenix raceway - March 9, Homestead - March 16, Bristol - April 13, Atlanta - June 28th, Indianapolis Motor Speedway - July 27th, Daytona - Aug. 23rd, and Phoenix - Nov. 2nd.
Click to expand...
Good to see an old sponsor come back to NASCAR.
 
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wdwfan4ver

Well-Known Member
NASCAR announced nominees for the 2026 NASCAR Hall of Fame. The nominees are in the modern era ballot, and pioneer ballot.

The Modern era nominees are the following:
Greg Biffle - 19 time cup, 1 time truck series champion, and 1 time xfinity series champion
Neil Bonnett - 18 time cup winner
Tim Brewer - 2 time cup champion crew chief
Jeff Burton - 21 time cup winner
Kurt Busch - 35 time cup winner and 1 time chase champion
Randy Dorton - his engines won 9 NASCAR Championships
Harry Gant - 18 cup wins
Harry Hyde - 1 time cup championship winning crew chief and an import part of early Hendrick Motorsports.
Randy Lajoie - 2 time Xfinity series championship and 1985 Busch Series North Champion
Jack Sprague - 3 time truck series champion

I'll have to go through more details on the next post for some of the nominees including Jack Sprague.
 
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wdwfan4ver

Well-Known Member
Jack Sprague is an interesting nominee. You can't tell the early part of the Truck series without Jack Sprague. The major drivers in the early part of the truck series history was Ron Hornaday jr., Mike Skinner, and Jack Sprague.

The problem with Jack Sprague is its not like dealing with Ron Hornaday's resume. Ron for the most part raced on western part of lower NASCAR Series and was champion. Sprague on the other hand came from Michigan and failed at 2 successful Xfinity series organization before Truck Series existed. What got is a Hall of fame Truck series career, but was a Xfinity series failure before joining Hendrick Motorsports in the truck series.

Randy Lajoie can be argument of NASCAR Hall of Fame is a bit deeper than his lower NASCAR series championships. He is known for his race seat safety.

As far as Randy Dorton, he is connected to follow NASCAR Hall of fame nominee Harry Hyde to a degree . Randy worked under Harry back in the late 1970s before Hendrick Motorsports bought out Randy's engine company in 1984. Basically Randy Dorton and Harry Hyde was the original foundation of Hendrick Motorsports.

Harry again at the start of Hendrick Motorsports. The difference is Harry left Hendrick Motorsports after 1988, but Randy stayed. The fact is the history Hendrick Motorsports can't be told without Randy Dorton from 1984 to the airplane crash of 2004.
 
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wdwfan4ver

Well-Known Member
The nominees of the Pioneer ballot are the following:
Jake Elder - 3 time cup championship winning crew chief
Ray Hendrick - won over 700 times in NASCAR Modified and Late Model Sportsman
Banjo Matthews - the cars he built won 72 percent of all cup races from 1974 to 1985
Larry Phillips - first 5 time NASCAR weekly champion
Bob Welborn - 9 time cup winner and 3 time NASCAR convertible series champion

I do have a complain about Smokey Yunick not being on the Ballot. The guy is not the ballot because the France family holds a grudge against him.

I want to share a little of Information on Jake Elder. Jake's nickname was "suitcase Jake" because he was known to quite race organization for no reason.

While Jake is credited with 3 cup championships, his 3rd championship is shared with another crew chief. The other crew was Doug Richet and Doug was only 20 years old in 1980.

The fact is Jake Elder left Dale Earnhardt Sr. in May of 1980 during Dale's first championship season despite Earnhardt had the points lead.
 
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wdwfan4ver

Well-Known Member
NASCAR also announced the Landmark award nominees. The Landmark award Nominees are the following:
Alvin Hawkins - NASCAR’s first flagman; established NASCAR racing at Bowman Gray Stadium with Bill France Sr.
Lesa France Kennedy - NASCAR Executive Vice Chair
Dr. Joseph Mattioli - founder of Pocono
Les Richter - long-time NASCAR executive oversaw competition, helped grow the sport on the West Coast
Humpy Wheeler - former President and General Manager of Charlotte Motorsports
 
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wdwfan4ver

Well-Known Member
Kurt Busch is an automatic inductee into the 2026 NASCAR Hall of fame from the Modern era ballot. The 2nd pick from the modern era is more tricky. I don't think Randy Lajoie and Jack Sprague will not inducted for 2026. Sprague's problem right now Greg Biffle being on the ballot. Biffle was champion for 2 out 3 NASCAR national touring series and he had a very good cup career.

I think the 2nd spot in the modern era will between Jeff Burton, Greg Biffle, Harry Gant, and Neil Bonnett. Randy Dorton's problem right now is having Harry Hyde on the ballot due to history of HMS. What Helps Harry Hyde some is Harry built 2 cup winning organizations. Tim Brewer's problem is Harry Hyde had more crew chief wins than Tim does.

I think the inductee from the Pioneer ballot is between Ray Hendrick, and Banjo Matthews. Both are extremely deserving.

The only reason not Larry Phillips is he's from a very low NASCAR series despite having over 300 career NASCAR wins. Larry was a very influential driver in the Midwest, but his amount of wins is way less than Ray Hendrick since Ray had over 700 career NASCAR wins.

I don't have Jake Elder yet is due to 2 modern era crew chefs having more career wins. Jake Elder's problem is him being a nomad crew chief hurt his career and that 3rd cup championship is more on Earnhardt than Jake. The reason is Dale held the team together to win cup championship despite working with an inexperienced crew chief that was 20 years old after Jake left. Jake left Earnhardt and organization for no reason in May of 1980 despite Earnhardt had the points lead and Earnhardt won despite what Jake pulled.

My opinion on the Landmark award winner will be Humpy Wheeler. My reasoning is due to him being a legendary promotor.
 
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wdwfan4ver

Well-Known Member
Joey Logano and Ryan Preece cars were disqualified from Talladega after post race inspection.
Joey's car had 1 loose bolt on the surface of the spoiler.

Ryan's car had 3 shims instead of 2 shims.
 
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wdwfan4ver

Well-Known Member
NASCAR Hall of Fame announced announced the 2026 Hall of Fame Class and the Landmark award winner .
Kurt Busch, Harry Gant and Ray Hendrick got voted in for the 2026 NASCAR Hall of Fame Class.

The Landmark award winner is Humpy Wheeler.

As far as why Harry Gant got in, I have a few explanations starting with Harry's accomplishments in the lower leagues of NASCAR before he became a cup rookie in 1979 at the age of 39. Harry won over 300 races lower league NASCAR races and 3 championships in National NASCAR Sportsman series before he became a cup series driver in 1979. The final reason is Harry is still alive, but will be 86 years old by the time the 2026 NASCAR Hall of Class Ceremony happens.

As far as Harry's over 300 lower league NASCAR wins go, it can't be proven because of NASCAR's record keeping in the lower series in NASCAR before 1982 was extremely bad. The best way to put it is there are other NASCAR Hall of Fame drivers that have win totals that be proven either like Red Farmer.

As far as Ray Hendrick goes, the man won over 700 modified races. The problem is the same as Harry Gants lower NASCAR series career in the 1960s and 1970s were not very good for the most part recording wins. They record the championship, but that is it.
 
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wdwfan4ver

Well-Known Member
There is something to keep an eye on. Roger fired 3 of his Indycar management people including Tim Cindric for failing Indy 500 inspection. Tim Cindric is the dad of NASCAR driver Austin Cindric.

Why they got fired over that is because it was the 2nd time Penske failed inspection in a year. Last year was illegal software that allowed all 3 Penske drivers to use push to pass sooner than they supposed to despite what the rule book says. This year was 2 of the 3 Penske cars had a safety device on car illegally modified for the Indy 500. It also was found out earlier in the week that last years Indy 500 winner car had the same illegal modified safety device also. The safety device for the car designed to absorb and reduce the force of impacts. The reason that safety device was modified was for getting an aerodynamic advantage during 4 laps of Indy 500 qualifying with affecting how effective the safety device for the racecar would be.

The reason also this is a big deal is the owner of Indycar is Roger Penske and yet the Indycar team he owns had been getting away with cheating.

This has to do with NASCAR because Tim Cindric is why Austin Cindric got a ride with Penske on the NASCAR side of things originally. What I'm getting at is Austin Cindric is not protected by Tim for job Security at Penske as a driver anymore.
 
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wdwfan4ver

Well-Known Member
wdwfan4ver said:
Last year was illegal software that allowed all 3 Penske drivers to use push to pass sooner than they supposed to despite what the rule book says.
Click to expand...
What I mean by illegal software is in Indycar, all racecars do use software for certain stuff including push to pass.
What push to pass does is the racecar gets an extra 50 horsepower when you press the button, but the catch is each race car on the track only gets 200 seconds of push to pass and only able to use it certain times.

What illegal software for push to pass does is allow push to pass to be used all time including including when it is not supposed to be used.
 
artvandelay

artvandelay

Well-Known Member
wdwfan4ver said:
What I mean by illegal software is in Indycar, all racecars do use software for certain stuff including push to pass.
What push to pass does is the racecar gets an extra 50 horsepower when you press the button, but the catch is each race car on the track only gets 200 seconds of push to pass and only able to use it certain times.

What illegal software for push to pass does is allow push to pass to be used all time including including when it is not supposed to be used.
Click to expand...
Huge story right before the Indy 500. Roger Penske had to do something.
 

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