NASCAR 2015

[wdwfan4ver]

I was not pleased what I saw during the Truck Series Race that happened at Las Vegas Speedway Last night. I saw the entire truck series race on Fox Sports 1 and saw the Austin Theriault crash and with him being airlifted.

Austin was airlifted because he crashed into a wall without a safer barrier.Austin is alive and got released from the hospital this morning with a CT Scan showing a 10 percent compression fracture of the lower back. What Austin went through and the Compression fracture is something that could've been avoided by the track and the owner of the track Speedway Motorsports.

Las Vegas Speedway back in March announced that they are going to make safety modifications, but yet there wasn't a safer barrier where Austin hit over 6 months later after the safety modification announcement. What Las Vegas Speedway's actions were after that safety modification announcement is something the race track needs to be called out on since the pr people said one thing, but their actions spoke another thing.

The track already had a history of areas of the track without safety barriers despite them being installed some parts of the track like the 2008 Las Vegas crash Jeff Gordon had. That 2008 crash without a safer barrier caused Jeff to have serious back problems that he was in a lot of pain from 2008 to 2010.

What I hope for is the track is forced to install the safer barrier when Austin hit by the time NASCAR goes back to the track and race. At the same time, there better an inspection there to make sure there isn't any other areas wasn't fixed despite the safer modifications announcement back in March.

 

[MOXOMUMD]

AAA 400, Dover

1. Kevin Harvick
2. Kyle Busch
3. Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

 

[MinnieM123]

I was so happy to see the #4 win yesterday, and Kevin Harvick definitely has a spot in the Chase.

It was also good news to see Jeff Gordon in the Chase standings.

Meanwhile, I was stunned to see that the #48, Jimmie Johnson, is out of the Chase. Never expected that to happen.

 

[MinnieM123]

I was not pleased what I saw during the Truck Series Race that happened at Las Vegas Speedway Last night. I saw the entire truck series race on Fox Sports 1 and saw the Austin Theriault crash and with him being airlifted.

Austin was airlifted because he crashed into a wall without a safer barrier.Austin is alive and got released from the hospital this morning with a CT Scan showing a 10 percent compression fracture of the lower back. What Austin went through and the Compression fracture is something that could've been avoided by the track and the owner of the track Speedway Motorsports.

Las Vegas Speedway back in March announced that they are going to make safety modifications, but yet there wasn't a safer barrier where Austin hit over 6 months later after the safety modification announcement. What Las Vegas Speedway's actions were after that safety modification announcement is something the race track needs to be called out on since the pr people said one thing, but their actions spoke another thing.

The track already had a history of areas of the track without safety barriers despite them being installed some parts of the track like the 2008 Las Vegas crash Jeff Gordon had. That 2008 crash without a safer barrier caused Jeff to have serious back problems that he was in a lot of pain from 2008 to 2010.

What I hope for is the track is forced to install the safer barrier when Austin hit by the time NASCAR goes back to the track and race. At the same time, there better an inspection there to make sure there isn't any other areas wasn't fixed despite the safer modifications announcement back in March.

This is really disturbing. One would think that after the back injury and pain that Jeff Gordon endured for years after his race, that the Las Vegas Speedway would go ahead and install safety barriers for the entire track, so that there would never be a repeat of 2008. I hope that Austin Theriault will get better soon, and hopefully, not suffer any lingering effects from his accident.

 

[Dead2009]

http://espn.go.com/racing/nascar/cup/story/_/id/13811004/jimmie-johnson-eliminated-chase-sprint-cup

 

[wdwfan4ver]

This is really disturbing. One would think that after the back injury and pain that Jeff Gordon endured for years after his race, that the Las Vegas Speedway would go ahead and install safety barriers for the entire track, so that there would never be a repeat of 2008. I hope that Austin Theriault will get better soon, and hopefully, not suffer any lingering effects from his accident.

What to Las Vegas is what happened many tracks before Kyle Busch's injuries at Daytona this year. Before this year, race track owners made statements to the affect they wouldn't be adding more safer barriers due to cost. Brian France last year matter of fact didn't indicate that more changes would be likely before Brian was forced to change his tune after the injuries Kyle Busch suffered at Daytona.

The catch with that is most of the race tracks owned in the cup series is by SMI or ISC depending on the race track. The owners of ISC actually is the France Family. The same France family that has Brian France as the CEO of NASCAR. I know the ISC isn't hurting for money since Brian's uncle Jim is the Forbe's billionaire list this year and is Chairman of the company. Brian's sister is the CEO of ISC.

The owner of Las Vegas Speedway is the Speedway Motorsports Inc aka SMI. SMI is owned by the Smith Family with Bruton Smith being the CEO of the company for many years before his son Marcus took over the CEO job this year. Bruton Smith has been on the Forbes list multiple times after Jeff's incident in 2008.

 

[MinnieM123]

What to Las Vegas is what happened many tracks before Kyle Busch's injuries at Daytona this year. Before this year, race track owners made statements to the affect they wouldn't be adding more safer barriers due to cost. Brian France last year matter of fact didn't indicate that more changes would be likely before Brian was forced to change his tune after the injuries Kyle Busch suffered at Daytona.

The catch with that is most of the race tracks owned in the cup series is by SMI or ISC depending on the race track. The owners of ISC actually is the France Family. The same France family that has Brian France as the CEO of NASCAR. I know the ISC isn't hurting for money since Brian's uncle Jim is the Forbe's billionaire list this year and is Chairman of the company. Brian's sister is the CEO of ISC.

The owner of Las Vegas Speedway is the Speedway Motorsports Inc aka SMI. SMI is owned by the Smith Family with Bruton Smith being the CEO of the company for many years before his son Marcus took over the CEO job this year. Bruton Smith has been on the Forbes list multiple times after Jeff's incident in 2008.

Jaw drop time . . . So, if your facts are true, then the owners of the race cup tracks will not install full track safety barriers due to cost?! You'd think they'd want to safeguard these drivers--because if the drivers got seriously injured or worse--then there's no race at all. The owners profit off the drivers in the race, and one would think they'd do everything in their power to protect their "investment" . . . really, I'm stunned.

 

[wdwfan4ver]

Jaw drop time . . . So, if your facts are true, then the owners of the race cup tracks will not install full track safety barriers due to cost?! You'd think they'd want to safeguard these drivers--because if the drivers got seriously injured or worse--then there's no race at all. The owners profit off the drivers in the race, and one would think they'd do everything in their power to protect their "investment" . . . really, I'm stunned.

Yep, before Kyle's Crash at Daytona that sidelined them. In terms of actions, Daytona, Bristol, Michigan, Charlotte now all covered around the track with them doing it after Kyle's Busch Daytona crash. I think Darlington is, but not sure. Talladega made a statement today that their race track is going to be completely covered by safer barriers before NASCAR comes to Talladega from October 23rd to 25th.

The problem is Las Vegas was being slow as turtle. On Tuesday, Las Vegas Motor Speedway did make a statement that they actually planned to put a safer barrier where Austin before the trucks came to the track, but didn't put it up yet for the Truck race.

Marcus Smith, the CEO of SMI did say earlier this year that he expected all walls to eventually have some sort of energy-absorbing barrier, but it didn't happen for Las Vegas. That is odd considering SMI tracks have been spending money on stuff like scoreboards, giant tv screens and rest of the tracks by that company is putting up their safer barriers up faster.

What I can tell you about the Track owners is NASCAR actually can force them to update tracks for safety reasons. NASCAR did takeaway track dates in the past in the name of Safety like they did for Texas World Speedway after 1981 when the grandstands were falling apart and had shifting foundation problems in turn 1 and turn 2. The Catch is back in 1981 NASCAR was run by Bill France Jr.,not his son Brian. Bill France Jr. didn't invest money into safer barriers before Dale's death, but he was concern with the conditions of the track in terms of what was acceptable at the time.

NASCAR also is capable of reviewing tracks on how safe they are and indicate where the improves are needed. They even tell race tracks the amount of safer barriers they need to add. The problem is NASCAR didn't go far enough for some of the tracks.

 

[wdwfan4ver]

Austin Dillon got lucky tonight and that he didn't get hurt before the Xfinity race started tonight or anyone else in pit road.

What happened what there was fireworks before the Xfinity race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and some the fireworks didn't pop in the sky. The fireworks landed back of Austin Dillon's fire suit instead. Austin said he was okay earlier in the race based on what the NBC sports pit reporter said.

 

[MinnieM123]

Austin Dillon got lucky tonight and that he didn't get hurt before the Xfinity race started tonight or anyone else in pit road.

What happened what there was fireworks before the Xfinity race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and some the fireworks didn't pop in the sky. The fireworks landed back of Austin Dillon's fire suit instead. Austin said he was okay earlier in the race based on what the NBC sports pit reporter said.

Oh brother. Thankfully, Austin is o.k. I've often wondered how safe fireworks could be in a somewhat confined space such as a raceway.

As for the race last night, that got poured out (not just rained out--it was really pouring down there!). I think it's on at 12:30 this afternoon, but on a station called NBCSN. I don't think I get that on my TV system . . .

 

[MOXOMUMD]

Bank Of America 500, Charlotte

1. Joey Logano
2. Kevin Harvick
3. Martin Truex Jr.

 

[MOXOMUMD]

Hollywood Casino 400, Kansas

1. Joey Logano
2. Denny Hamlin
3. Jimmie Johnson

 

[wdwfan4ver]

I do have thoughts on the franchising NASCAR is looking at with 36 teams locked in with 40 cup teams in total. The catch about the charting is the current version of the plan requires a team to have been full-time since 2013. That means Kurt Busch and Carl Edwards teams can't get a charter and can't be one of the 36 teams to be locked in despite where they are in points this season.

It is a bad idea to do franchising in NASCAR and it has been done in Auto Racing before. The problem is it actually doesn't work well at all. Champ Car/CART had it and they ended up needing to merge with the Indy Racing League. There is a big difference between Champ Car/CART and NASCAR from a governing standpoint. Champ Cart/CART did franchising teams because the owners actually made all the decisions in that racing series and the CEO of the series was the "Puppet".

The reason NASCAR is doing the franchising is because Brian France wants NASCAR to be like other stick and ball sports. A lot of the moves Brian France has made is caused by wanting to be like stick and ball sports and try to be more popular than them. One of the problems with franchising in auto racing is owners of the teams have to sell and that makes it very hard for new teams to make it auto racing. What Brian fails to realize to this day is what works in Stick and Ball Sports can't work in Auto Racing.

The deal is Brian France's moves as CEO of NASCAR has backfired and has caused tv ratings, and attendance in the stands to go down and at this point NASCAR needs a new CEO.

Brian France has caused the following issues at least:

• Auto Club Speedway Labor Day Flop - race track that sold out one date before getting 2 dates and neither date was able to sell out after that and is forced to go back to one cup date Brian wanted Auto Club Speedway to get the Labor Date instead of the long time tradition of the Southern 500 due to Auto Club being closer to a bigger market. NASCAR didn't give Darlington the Labor Date back right away after the Labor Day date for Auto Club failed because they didn't want to admit that they screwed up.
  
• The injuries of Kyle Busch at Daytona - Brian France made the statement in 2014 that he didn't think safer barriers needed to be put all around the race track. Brian France this year was forced to admit that the injuries Kyle had was caused by NASCAR neglecting the safety of the drivers . Drivers including Jeff Gordon told NASCAR and Brian France last year that race tracks need safer barriers all around the track, but Brian and NASCAR decided not to listen to the drivers at that time before Kyle Busch got hurt.
  
• The waste of money on the High downforce package experiment for Indy and Michigan for deciding on what Rules Package for 2016. Brian France didn't like the low downforce package at Kentucky because he wanted pack racing despite the fact the drivers, owners, crew chiefs, and fans liked the low downforce package since driver have an easier time to pass without Aerodynamic's playing as much as a role. The High Downforce did cause a draft for Indy and Michigan, but passing was worse passing the leader compare to the low downforce package. That basically meant Brian and NASCAR caused teams to spend more money than they should due to them racing 3 different packages instead of 2.
• Chase - It has to be considered a flop at this point due to the amount of different versions NASCAR created since the Chase started in 2004 as an attempt to get higher ratings by creating excitement. NASCAR had problems with big names not making the chase and increased the amount of drivers as a result and wanted "game 7 moments" every year aka create artificial excitement for entertainment reason. People look at chase as a gimmick now and some people view NASCAR as Pro Wrestling now because due to it.
• Races close to the chase wasn't as exciting as it was before the chase. While Brian did make wins important for making the chase starting last year. Teams for years with a big enough points lead to make into the chase, experimented with race sets up for the chase like Jimmie Johnson did during his championship runs. The Bristol Night Race excitement went down because of drivers were afraid of getting wrecked and not making the chase. That in return affects fans in the stands.
• NASCAR fining drivers for speaking out against things like if a race sucked or there is problems with the car, or criticize NASCAR towards safety. What Brian France and NASCAR is really doing is trying to control the driver's personalities and that in return is something fans don't want.

 

[MOXOMUMD]

CampingWorld.com 500, Talladega

1. Joey Logano
2. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
3. Jeff Gordon

 

[MinnieM123]

That was an interesting call at the end of the race by the NASCAR officials. Couldn't help but notice the mixed reaction from the crowd in the stands.

Glad that Jeff Gordon is still in the Chase. The whole latter part of this series is turning out to be exciting.

 

[MinnieM123]

I do have thoughts on the franchising NASCAR is looking at with 36 teams locked in with 40 cup teams in total. The catch about the charting is the current version of the plan requires a team to have been full-time since 2013. That means Kurt Busch and Carl Edwards teams can't get a charter and can't be one of the 36 teams to be locked in despite where they are in points this season.

It is a bad idea to do franchising in NASCAR and it has been done in Auto Racing before. The problem is it actually doesn't work well at all. Champ Car/CART had it and they ended up needing to merge with the Indy Racing League. There is a big difference between Champ Car/CART and NASCAR from a governing standpoint. Champ Cart/CART did franchising teams because the owners actually made all the decisions in that racing series and the CEO of the series was the "Puppet".

The reason NASCAR is doing the franchising is because Brian France wants NASCAR to be like other stick and ball sports. A lot of the moves Brian France has made is caused by wanting to be like stick and ball sports and try to be more popular than them. One of the problems with franchising in auto racing is owners of the teams have to sell and that makes it very hard for new teams to make it auto racing. What Brian fails to realize to this day is what works in Stick and Ball Sports can't work in Auto Racing.

The deal is Brian France's moves as CEO of NASCAR has backfired and has caused tv ratings, and attendance in the stands to go down and at this point NASCAR needs a new CEO.

Brian France has caused the following issues at least:

• Auto Club Speedway Labor Day Flop - race track that sold out one date before getting 2 dates and neither date was able to sell out after that and is forced to go back to one cup date Brian wanted Auto Club Speedway to get the Labor Date instead of the long time tradition of the Southern 500 due to Auto Club being closer to a bigger market. NASCAR didn't give Darlington the Labor Date back right away after the Labor Day date for Auto Club failed because they didn't want to admit that they screwed up.
  
• The injuries of Kyle Busch at Daytona - Brian France made the statement in 2014 that he didn't think safer barriers needed to be put all around the race track. Brian France this year was forced to admit that the injuries Kyle had was caused by NASCAR neglecting the safety of the drivers . Drivers including Jeff Gordon told NASCAR and Brian France last year that race tracks need safer barriers all around the track, but Brian and NASCAR decided not to listen to the drivers at that time before Kyle Busch got hurt.
  
• The waste of money on the High downforce package experiment for Indy and Michigan for deciding on what Rules Package for 2016. Brian France didn't like the low downforce package at Kentucky because he wanted pack racing despite the fact the drivers, owners, crew chiefs, and fans liked the low downforce package since driver have an easier time to pass without Aerodynamic's playing as much as a role. The High Downforce did cause a draft for Indy and Michigan, but passing was worse passing the leader compare to the low downforce package. That basically meant Brian and NASCAR caused teams to spend more money than they should due to them racing 3 different packages instead of 2.
• Chase - It has to be considered a flop at this point due to the amount of different versions NASCAR created since the Chase started in 2004 as an attempt to get higher ratings by creating excitement. NASCAR had problems with big names not making the chase and increased the amount of drivers as a result and wanted "game 7 moments" every year aka create artificial excitement for entertainment reason. People look at chase as a gimmick now and some people view NASCAR as Pro Wrestling now because due to it.
• Races close to the chase wasn't as exciting as it was before the chase. While Brian did make wins important for making the chase starting last year. Teams for years with a big enough points lead to make into the chase, experimented with race sets up for the chase like Jimmie Johnson did during his championship runs. The Bristol Night Race excitement went down because of drivers were afraid of getting wrecked and not making the chase. That in return affects fans in the stands.
• NASCAR fining drivers for speaking out against things like if a race sucked or there is problems with the car, or criticize NASCAR towards safety. What Brian France and NASCAR is really doing is trying to control the driver's personalities and that in return is something fans don't want.

Wow. I didn't realize even half those things were going on. And, I only turned on the tv yesterday at the very tail end of an interview with Brian France, in the pre-race show, so I missed that entire segment. Wish I had seen it.

 

[wdwfan4ver]

NASCAR has to do some research after Brad Keselowski announced earlier this week that his Track series driver, Austin Theriault had his HANS device broke during the Las Vegas crash. Brad also announced that Austin's helmet took a major impact when Austin hit the steering wheel.

The fact Austin's HANS device broke is a big concern and is why NASCAR needs to do some research being that track better have safer barriers all around the track. That was the crash that had no safer barrier where Austin Theriault's truck hit and Austin got a 10 percent compression fracture of the lower back .

The 2nd thing is I am curious about what happens after the 5 year contracts NASCAR gave its race tracks. My curiosity is caused by a few tracks.

Atlanta Motor Speedway's racing surfaced hasn't been repaved somewhere from March 9, 1997 to the weekend of November 15-16 1997. This is a big deal because I don't know if Speedway Motorsports Inc. would spend money on resurfacing the track due to problems of fan attendance for years. The problem with attendance at that track is more than its recent 2nd week of the NASCAR season. The city of Atlanta has a very bad reputation of being a bad professional sports city in terms of loyalty to a sports team. The city of Atlanta matter of fact had problems drawing fans even to Atlanta Brave games when the Braves basically were going to the playoffs each year. The City had problems with rest of the Pro sports there too including causing 2 hockey time to move.

Dover Motor speedway is a another track. It goes to if capacity goes below 72,000 fans. Dover Next year only could hold 85,000 fans compare to 135,000 fans in 2009. The thing with that track is the owners of it since it isn't owner Speedway Motorsports inc. or the France family aka International Speedway Corporation. This is a big deal due to the owner of Dover was forced to sell or close rest of the race tracks they owned for for truck and Busch/Nationwide series races in NASCAR.

The final NASCAR cup track after 5 years being a concern is New Hampshire. The Chase date in recent years sells better than the other date it has. There isn't anything Speedway Motorsports inc. could do in terms making one of the races into a night race. The owner that Speedway Motorsports bought the track from actually made a deal with Loudon, New Hampshire not to host night races back in the 1990's.

 

[wdwfan4ver]

While Indycar announced their 2016 race schedule, a piece of bad racing history was being made. The Milwaukee Mile isn't able to host a race from a major racing series for the 2nd time after 2009. It is caused by the track needing a new promoter. The first time was in 2010. That track has hosted a lot of different type of racing series including the NASCAR truck Series, and the NASCAR Busch/Nationwide series at the time.

Milwaukee Mile is known as the oldest race track for auto racing in the United States. Finding a promoter for the track is hard due its history of having a difficult time keeping a promoter.

The Milwaukee Mile is owned by the government due to them owning Wisconsin State Fair Park and the track is part of that property. The Wisconsin State Fair Park Board actually decides if a person or a group is the right people for promoting the race track.

 

[MinnieM123]

NASCAR has to do some research after Brad Keselowski announced earlier this week that his Track series driver, Austin Theriault had his HANS device broke during the Las Vegas crash. Brad also announced that Austin's helmet took a major impact when Austin hit the steering wheel.

The fact Austin's HANS device broke is a big concern and is why NASCAR needs to do some research being that track better have safer barriers all around the track. That was the crash that had no safer barrier where Austin Theriault's truck hit and Austin got a 10 percent compression fracture of the lower back .

The 2nd thing is I am curious about what happens after the 5 year contracts NASCAR gave its race tracks. My curiosity is caused by a few tracks.

Atlanta Motor Speedway's racing surfaced hasn't been repaved somewhere from March 9, 1997 to the weekend of November 15-16 1997. This is a big deal because I don't know if Speedway Motorsports Inc. would spend money on resurfacing the track due to problems of fan attendance for years. The problem with attendance at that track is more than its recent 2nd week of the NASCAR season. The city of Atlanta has a very bad reputation of being a bad professional sports city in terms of loyalty to a sports team. The city of Atlanta matter of fact had problems drawing fans even to Atlanta Brave games when the Braves basically were going to the playoffs each year. The City had problems with rest of the Pro sports there too including causing 2 hockey time to move.

Dover Motor speedway is a another track. It goes to if capacity goes below 72,000 fans. Dover Next year only could hold 85,000 fans compare to 135,000 fans in 2009. The thing with that track is the owners of it since it isn't owner Speedway Motorsports inc. or the France family aka International Speedway Corporation. This is a big deal due to the owner of Dover was forced to sell or close rest of the race tracks they owned for for truck and Busch/Nationwide series races in NASCAR.

The final NASCAR cup track after 5 years being a concern is New Hampshire. The Chase date in recent years sells better than the other date it has. There isn't anything Speedway Motorsports inc. could do in terms making one of the races into a night race. The owner that Speedway Motorsports bought the track from actually made a deal with Loudon, New Hampshire not to host night races back in the 1990's.

I just watched a replay on Fox Sports of Austin's crash into the wall. Good grief, he hit hard. Still, I'm stunned to read that his HANS device broke (I always thought those were practically indestructible), and his helmet also took a major impact. Although the barrier was there to lessen the impact, it obviously was not sturdy enough to be truly effective. I'd love to hear the official response from NASCAR on that one.

Of interest was your comment about the 5-year contracts. I'm not at all familiar with this topic, so that provided an interesting read here this morning.

 

[MOXOMUMD]

Goody's 500, Martinsville

1. Jeff Gordon
2. Jamie McMurray
3.Denny Hamlin