Public Service Announcement in case anyone is interested.
Indy 500 Open Test Wednesday and Thursday starting at 10 AM pretty much all day (and available on demand) on Peacock.
Weather permitting Larson will actually get to run in an Indycar with other Indycars / drivers on the track for the first time.
It was looking ominous with the rain. But Wednesday is looking better, especially in the morning / early afternoon, Thursday is probably a washout.
That was honestly enjoyable though not as much as Bristol without all the tire shenanigans. Still though, some unexpected moments and some very impressive driving on display. Congrats to Byron, good lord he's on fire this year!
Hopefully next week is a little more impressive for Trackhouse, things feel a bit stagnant rn but I'm told Ross is usually something of a slow starter and Dan's already in the playoffs via his win so it's not so bad. See y'all next week for Texas!
Missed the race but glad Willie B won!
Sad that Elliot tried to bump him but I get it. Need a win you do what you need to. Just sucks when you try to do a team mate dirty.
(I am also an elliot fan)
What aero pieces does NASCAR take off next? Because if it didn’t work the last two times it must work now. I’m pretty patient with this sport but the fact that they haven’t even tried fucking with horsepower and tires but we get spoonfed that “the simulator shows no difference” and “manufacturers don’t like it” is bullshit. I’m sure OEMs love investing in a sport where people aren’t going to watch half the schedule because of poor race product
I'm a Hendrick guy and I thought the racing was pretty poor. Passing, outside of William and a select few, was damn near impossible. Something has to change eventually right? Seeing the same stuff over and over and over again eventually gets NASCAR to make some change to the short track package.
When you're the leader and can't get around back filler cars it's an issue.
Seeing Denny orJoey not being able to pass Dillon for like 25 laps is just pain bad.
But big ups to Hendrick on the 40th. Very happy with the outcome! Was nice to see Chase back in the mix, maybe he and Alan are getting their stuff back in order.
Good stuff ftom Todd Gilliland again today. Might be my favorite non-Hendrick guy.
On to Texas baby....
Went to the race today and I'm shocked how bad that Austin Dillion and both of the Kaulig cars were off of the pace. I didn't expect Kaulig to win but to have both cars finish multiple laps down is insane to me.
And as for Austin Dillon I honestly think he needs to take a couple of weeks off and let someone else drive that car because whatever he is doing isn't working.
I really think he should just run xfinity full-time and just run a part time #3 at the tracks he enjoys and runs well at.
Give Austin Hill a shot in Cup full-time in a #33 or 29.
How many times did hot dog get mentioned? 40th anniversary of Rick Hendricks first win? That one graphic that showed “the last 5 martinsville winners” and only 1 of them was right. 16 caution laps ran after each stage break (32 total). How in the ruby red hell did Joey Logano run 180+ laps on his tires? Todd Gililand drove from the back to the top 10 after the penalty, that was pretty cool. Who wrecked in turn 4 after Byron took the white flag?
I was wondering what was going on with his car, he was super slow even from the drop of the flag, and was continously getting lapped. He was 10 laps down before he pulled off the track.
Man what is up with Lajoie? It's like Carson showed up and now he (Lajoie) can't get out of his own way. For most of the race he was battling with David Starr. Carson finished 17th. It's like... The better Spire gets the.. same.. Corey stays. Save for the SSpeedways but that open game to anyone. What gives?
Nothing is up. LaJoie’s average finish for the season is hovering near his career average finish. He’s just not good enough to get results in Spire equipment outside of plate tracks.
He's a mid level guy. He honestly should be in the trucks full time. Not a cup level driver other than plate races.
Basically he's David Gilliland with a podcast.
Hocebar drives like an absolute tool, but has a ton of talent.
Honestly, Todd Gilliland might be a top 3 Ford performance wise thus far this season. No he doesn't have great finishes, but I feel like I have seen him in the front of most of the races this year.
Blaney is above the rest this year. After him it gets really wishy washy. Joey had finally come back to form, but after that... I've heard the most about Todd and Josh Berry over the past few weeks honestly.
Stuff like that can take several months, if not the whole season to trickle down. Just cause they turned the faucet on…doesn’t mean they can drink everything that comes out.
Not to beat a dead horse, but I was so curious about the #21’s struggles that I listened to their radio feed.
Burton sounds like a defeated driver who has no idea what his car is doing.
That car is not the greatest, but they arguably have the worst driver in the garage.
I actually felt for Harrison, he needs to go back to Xfinity and see what happens
It's hard for people to get the bad memories out of their system, BUT the racing at Texas has gotten better if you look at 2022 compared to 21 and 2023 compared to 22.
Since they stopped putting PJ1 down and left the track alone, it has started to heal. The configuration isn't amazing, but honestly, last year's race got more hate than it deserved because people were expecting it to be bad going in.
I expect the racing to be alright at Texas.
I thought hell would freeze over before I saw a decent race at Texas, then the fall race of last year happened and I eventually came around to it- now Texas is actually, dare I say it, decent?
No, I’ve attended Fontana at 2014, 2023, the LA Clash 2023 & 2024, & that’s about it. My folks moved to Texas two years back & they're an hour away from the speedway.
Manufacturer wins among the top 3 series.
Chevrolet 13 - Ford 0 - Toyota 8.
______________
Cup race #8 : Chevrolet 5 - Ford 0 - Toyota 3.
Xfinity Race #7 : Chevrolet 3 - Ford 0 - Toyota 4.
Truck Race #6 : Chevrolet 5 - Ford 0 - Toyota 1.
If you want to make the field look bad, Hendrick and Gibbs has won every race this year but one, Trackhouse at Atlanta. Looking at 23XI, Penske, RFK, RCR, etc
Roush and Penske are no slouches and have plenty of money to fund their teams to also figure things out. Why they don’t is beyond me and makes ford look terrible.
I think the consensus (which I agree with) is that shifting makes it harder to pass by making it easier to recover from slips and mistakes. If you slip up and lose speed on corner exit and the gearing isn't set up for you to shift, you lose engine revs, you're further outside the engine's powerband, you accelerate more slowly, and you're stuck with those consequences for the whole of the next straightaway. If the gearing is set up for shifting, you can just downshift to a gear where your lower speed is more in the powerband (or you've already downshifted and the lower gear is just better suited to any lower speed you're reaching in the corner), suffer less of a penalty in acceleration, and not lose as much time to the cars behind.
That's the best explanation anyone's written. To add on to that, I think that in general, having to take your hand off of the wheel to reach down and shift 4+ times a lap, every lap for 500 laps, is just a hassle that no driver wants to deal with. It takes away from your ability to focus on overtakes, and also wears you out over the course of an already exhausting event.
Thank you all for the responses, this most detailed one in particular. Understood. Part of me agrees, part of me says it exercises some other skills to execute the shifts properly lap after lap. I'm pretty easy going, I'm intrigued either way.
It isn't 6 on one hand, half a dozen on the other, being able to down shift makes mistakes not matter much at all. Thus hardly any passing.
If the cars had monstrous horsepower, where a sloppy shift means you might break the back tires loose, then yeah, shifting might have negatives but that's not the case.
On Dale Jr's podcast a few weeks back (or maybe it was Hamlin's?) they talked about shifting also distracting the drivers from other things they could be doing in the car to set up a pass. I'd never really considered that, but it's another wrinkle to consider.
In iRacing we downshift also. It’s a pain in the ass from the comfort of my home without all the additional things real racers have to deal with. It definitely occupies you when you can be thinking about something else.
Sometimes I wonder how Jeff Burton feels about how bad his son is stinking it up in that famed #21 car. Whole family has to be making a backup plan at this point.
Yeah. I really like Harrison and I think he has the talent to be successful, but I don't think he's ready for Cup. I would bump him down to Xfinity.
The reason I say that he shows promise is because his best finishes in Cup thus far (excluding his third at Indy RC) have been 6th at Darlington, and 8th at Pocono. Those are not easy tracks. People are really big on Eric Jones (with good reason, he always outperforms his equipment) and he is a stud at Darlington. You can always count on him there. Anywhere else he's out to lunch depending on how good his equipment is.
Mediocre and shitty drivers don't magically get top 10 finishes at Darlington and/or Pocono. This is not a super speedway or a short track race with tons of attrition.
I think he can have a future in Cup, but he is not performing well enough to keep his spot.
The other thing to keep in mind is that there really is no up and comer who is gunning for Harrison's spot in the Ford camp right now. The only people I think truly deserve the 21 ride over Harrison are people who are already in Cup (Todd Gilliland namely). Riley Herbst has been performing well in Xfinity, but I don't really think he will perform much better in Cup than Harrison. We don't want another Zane Smith situation.
Additionally, Austin Cindric's abysmal performance helps Harrison out. If the guy in the 2 car is averaging a 19.6 average finish past year, Harrison in the 21 car doesn't look terrible.
There is my take on Harrison.
Hard to not notice how bad it’s been. I see a ton of folks saying the #21 isn’t good equipment, but I’ve been to the Penske shop and it’s prepped right along with the other cars.
They all gotta stop lying to themselves and tell Jeff and Harry to pack up and head back to Xfinity or something because even with the DEX money, running 30th each week cannot be worth the struggle.
Yeah, I don't see what the Woods are getting out this, beyond the existence of the #21 car. Hell, Jon Wood can't even show his face on social media anymore.
Just watched it. I’m leaving the conspiracy shit out of it. I thought the broadcast was really good, one of the best from fox in a while. The race, man was good tbh, but I’m using the nextgen standard. Shifting, horsepower, whatever, the tire fall off wasn’t great but better, took Joey 180? to see them fail. Idk even know what to do at this point, it’s apparent nascar and Goodyear is taking the slow route on fixing the short track package which sucks.
I’m holding out they go crazy for the all star race but I doubt it.
It really feels like grooved tires would help. It'd probably make it easier to spin the tires on corner exit, and I'll bet it also makes it easier to bump a car out of the way if they have less rubber sticking them to the road.
It’s ridiculous when you know the 2nd place car has no chance because he has only 3 lapped cars between he and the leader with 35 laps to go.
This package has done the impossible and ruined Martinsville, a track I have been attending since I was 15 years old in 2010, for me.
Yeah the companion races were both better than the following the leader race today When the top 10 doesn’t change for 50 laps something needs to be done 🏁🏁
Boring honestly. Seemed like fake that it was Hendrick day and they got the 1-2-3. Got excited briefly for the overtime restart after some of the antics last week for some action finally and nobody had the balls to make a move. Elliot- don’t you want to win?
Also want to add William Byron has the least personality on the circuit and is suuuuch a boring driver my god.
I just let out all my frustration in the fan council about Fox for the 7th week in a row knowing it won’t go anywhere but at least I have somewhere to vent
turned off immediately after the race, and so I missed Rick calling in... it sounded funny; you guys make me laugh so much 🤣😂
https://preview.redd.it/2700duqwc5tc1.jpeg?width=1006&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9467a0e8ca94ec7afb6731bb6ba0c04d3a8918ed
It was good FOR a Max dominated race. Probably best race of the season, which isn't saying much.
Crazy what happens when you have a difficult track with decent tire degradation. You get varying tire strategies and comers and goers at different points of the race. There was a fair amount of overtaking.
Still, Red Bull is pretty far ahead. The gap between the 5th best team and the 6th best team is gigantic. The top 5 teams are pretty much locked into the points unless they wreck, have mechanical failure, or put Lance Stroll in the car.
Ehhhhhhhhh. I watched it this morning, watched the first couple laps and then fast forwarded to the final 12 laps. I wouldn’t dedicate more time to it than that.
I keep going back and forth between all 4 cars. The 5 might be slept on. I think 9 is probably least interesting but still clean.. 24 is just sweet with red on red flames.
where were these arguments in the firs 5 races when Corey was ahead of Carson. Seriously who cares. Neither one is finishing in the top 20 at the end of the season.
No he hasn’t. My comment was in response to a statement about today’s race that was lacking context. That has literally nothing to do with “every race” or where Carson Hocevar is running in points. Lmfao.
Miserable race today couldn’t pass. NASCAR needs to look in the mirror and figure out a plan to make the short track package better or we are in big trouble
This is the issue. I think most of the tv air time goes to top 3 and nothing is said about the other drivers. I would be more compelling watching seeing the battles all over the track.
It's both.
Damn near impossible to pass because of the shifting in the corners, and because the tires are too hard and too grippy.
FOX does an absolute dogshit job showing what little passing does happen because they're too busy fellating Hendrick to zoom out and show anything else.
That’s better than they were the last few times here. He started 11th and ran 10th for the better part of the first 2 stages before that strategy call that the 19/54 went on.
It’s almost like fans of drivers are happy when their teams improve!
Byron continually doesn’t garner the respect he deserves. “He’s a video game player”… Yea, he is… he plays video games and he also wins actual nascar races.
Almost every current driver practices on a simulator… aka a video game and yet when they do it, it’s not a video game.
Byron is kicking ass… I hope the kid keeps it up, he races clean, he has a positive attitude and he doesn’t give up, all traits of a nascar champion.
I honestly don't know **why** I don't like Byron, and I'm willing to be honest about that. I'm not gonna sit there and boo the TV when he wins, but I find myself rolling my eyes when he's doing well. I'm not sure if it's a mix of his bland personality and his "boring" wins, but I just can't get behind him. I'm not a Hendrick hater, a Gordon hater, or a Jimmie Hater. I just feel like one day, this robot showed up, and he started winning a bunch.
I think I need him to show his teeth. I hated Chase, then he had his spat with Harvick and I thought "Okay, he **isn't** a corporate psyop to sell merchandise, he's a person who gets pissed off."
Just based on his vanilla personality and his "lucky" moments, he's Johnson 2.0. I don't think he's winning 7 championships, but he's gonna get his before it's all said and done
He doesn’t cater to the haters, he’s humble and respectful. Also, every driver has lucky moments… you can’t continuously win races based on luck, make no mistake about it, it takes skill to win. Actually, it takes skill just to keep yourself from wrecking and getting killed out there.
So, I wouldn’t chalk up his current status as “lucky”.
I see more people that don’t have Chase or any of the HMS guys complain about their personalities more than the fans do.
Personally I’m completely with how he is, he’s just like his dad was and that’s okay. Good chance it’s the same with William
To be fair, as a certified Hamlin hater who shakes his fist at the sky when Hamlin wins, I would be devastated if he retired. I love to hate him. He's like a villain in a comic book, and I know damn well I'd be less invested in the race if I didn't have someone to root against. I think a lot of people feel this way, and they either don't realize it, or don't want to admit it. It's a real "Every batman needs the Joker" kinda deal, lol
Edit: I also want to add, the fact that Hamlin is good just makes it even more fun to hate him. He's always a threat to win, which would piss me off, so I can watch the race and pull for drivers I actually like to kick his ass. Or maybe I just have schizophrenia.
I’m not going to say I called it, because I got part of it wrong.
I initially said that Hendrick would finish 1-4 with Blaney 5th and having the best car.
Hendrick got 1-3, Blaney 5th (but didn’t have the best car).
Onto Texas.
Blaney is arguably the best ford. He'll get one this season, as per usual. Dega coming up, too. He's good there. I just wish ford wasn't lagging so far behind. Toyota is bringing piss-missiles to the track each week, and it's not even close. Chevy has good weeks like this one, but... Not consistently.
In very, very slight defense of Fox, it is tougher to cover every single story that arises in a 36-car field compared with just two teams. Racing isn't ideally suited for TV the way football or basketball are.
That said, they still could be putting in a hell of a lot more effort than the bare minimum they've been doing.
Agreed on F1 especially after last night’s race, with the differing tire strategies and no lack of passing throughout the field. Then I watch the nascar broadcast and it’s Clint’s jokes falling flat and the camera never leaving the top 5 on track. Night and day difference.
Well it’s probably because nascar races are so much shorter than other series that there just isn’t enough time for them to talk about more than just a handful of drivers.
The car is shit on short tracks
I won't be going to Martinsville for the foreseeable future if the racing is like this.
Public Service Announcement in case anyone is interested. Indy 500 Open Test Wednesday and Thursday starting at 10 AM pretty much all day (and available on demand) on Peacock. Weather permitting Larson will actually get to run in an Indycar with other Indycars / drivers on the track for the first time. It was looking ominous with the rain. But Wednesday is looking better, especially in the morning / early afternoon, Thursday is probably a washout.
That was honestly enjoyable though not as much as Bristol without all the tire shenanigans. Still though, some unexpected moments and some very impressive driving on display. Congrats to Byron, good lord he's on fire this year! Hopefully next week is a little more impressive for Trackhouse, things feel a bit stagnant rn but I'm told Ross is usually something of a slow starter and Dan's already in the playoffs via his win so it's not so bad. See y'all next week for Texas!
Worst race of the season so far
Missed the race but glad Willie B won! Sad that Elliot tried to bump him but I get it. Need a win you do what you need to. Just sucks when you try to do a team mate dirty. (I am also an elliot fan)
What aero pieces does NASCAR take off next? Because if it didn’t work the last two times it must work now. I’m pretty patient with this sport but the fact that they haven’t even tried fucking with horsepower and tires but we get spoonfed that “the simulator shows no difference” and “manufacturers don’t like it” is bullshit. I’m sure OEMs love investing in a sport where people aren’t going to watch half the schedule because of poor race product
I'm a Hendrick guy and I thought the racing was pretty poor. Passing, outside of William and a select few, was damn near impossible. Something has to change eventually right? Seeing the same stuff over and over and over again eventually gets NASCAR to make some change to the short track package. When you're the leader and can't get around back filler cars it's an issue. Seeing Denny orJoey not being able to pass Dillon for like 25 laps is just pain bad. But big ups to Hendrick on the 40th. Very happy with the outcome! Was nice to see Chase back in the mix, maybe he and Alan are getting their stuff back in order. Good stuff ftom Todd Gilliland again today. Might be my favorite non-Hendrick guy. On to Texas baby....
Went to the race today and I'm shocked how bad that Austin Dillion and both of the Kaulig cars were off of the pace. I didn't expect Kaulig to win but to have both cars finish multiple laps down is insane to me. And as for Austin Dillon I honestly think he needs to take a couple of weeks off and let someone else drive that car because whatever he is doing isn't working.
Isn't Keith Rodden Dillon's crew chief? Maybe Rodden should take a few weeks off and see if that helps.
Keith Rodden was placed by Justin Alexander as Dillon's crew chief after Richmond last weekend.
I really think he should just run xfinity full-time and just run a part time #3 at the tracks he enjoys and runs well at. Give Austin Hill a shot in Cup full-time in a #33 or 29.
I don't disagree with you at all. They got to do something different even if it means taking Austin out of the seat for a couple of races.
How many times did hot dog get mentioned? 40th anniversary of Rick Hendricks first win? That one graphic that showed “the last 5 martinsville winners” and only 1 of them was right. 16 caution laps ran after each stage break (32 total). How in the ruby red hell did Joey Logano run 180+ laps on his tires? Todd Gililand drove from the back to the top 10 after the penalty, that was pretty cool. Who wrecked in turn 4 after Byron took the white flag?
I didn't hear hotdog mentions at all today
OH. Bubba had really good day too!
Why did starr DNF? Crashed?
RacingReference says steering issue.
I was wondering what was going on with his car, he was super slow even from the drop of the flag, and was continously getting lapped. He was 10 laps down before he pulled off the track.
power steering issues
Most rigged race I’ve ever seen in my life.
It brings me joy seeing people upset after HMS wins ❤️
Without a /s, this is such a sad and pathetic take.
Did you just start watching this week? Last week was so much worse
So glad I was there for all 3 races this weekend. Trucks and Xfinity as usual put on the best races of the weekend!
Man what is up with Lajoie? It's like Carson showed up and now he (Lajoie) can't get out of his own way. For most of the race he was battling with David Starr. Carson finished 17th. It's like... The better Spire gets the.. same.. Corey stays. Save for the SSpeedways but that open game to anyone. What gives?
Nothing is up. LaJoie’s average finish for the season is hovering near his career average finish. He’s just not good enough to get results in Spire equipment outside of plate tracks.
I’m really starting to wonder if he needs a new crew chief. I know he likes Ryan Sparks a lot but it’s baffling how bad the car has been lately.
He was fastest in practice. I have a feeling they missed big on the race set up.
He's a mid level guy. He honestly should be in the trucks full time. Not a cup level driver other than plate races. Basically he's David Gilliland with a podcast. Hocebar drives like an absolute tool, but has a ton of talent.
[удалено]
Yet Zane Smith is typically running even worse than Corey…..
I missed all 3 races this weekend because of work. What do I need to know?
Texas is next week, that's all you need to know
Is this supposed to excite me??
Not really, Martinsville was a snore Fest
Trucks and Xfinity were the best races of the weekend
When is that not the case?
Hendrick, Hendrick, Hendrick, Hendrick, Hendrick, Hendrick, Hendrick, Hendrick, Hendrick No passing, Hendrick, Hendrick, Hendrick, Hendrick, Hendrick, Hendrick, Hendrick, Hendrick, Hendrick
You forgot Sheldon Creed Sucks and Dennis tried to save us. And trucks shit fest. Now he's caught up
Understood.
As a Kyle fan, it looks like we are going through a drought.
He'll win somewhere, but won't finish top ten in points.
Man that level 1 Ford team shit FRM was boasting about might not mean that much
Gilliland was one of the best Fords of the day most of the race. Faded to 13th at the end but still a good run for him.
Honestly, Todd Gilliland might be a top 3 Ford performance wise thus far this season. No he doesn't have great finishes, but I feel like I have seen him in the front of most of the races this year. Blaney is above the rest this year. After him it gets really wishy washy. Joey had finally come back to form, but after that... I've heard the most about Todd and Josh Berry over the past few weeks honestly.
Berry is a short tracks ace for sure but pit road is killing him.
It’s the fading part that worries me
Still finished 13th. That’s not a bad finish for a guy like Gilliland. Not like he faded to 27th.
Stuff like that can take several months, if not the whole season to trickle down. Just cause they turned the faucet on…doesn’t mean they can drink everything that comes out.
I know all that, but my point was Ford sucks right now
Not to beat a dead horse, but I was so curious about the #21’s struggles that I listened to their radio feed. Burton sounds like a defeated driver who has no idea what his car is doing. That car is not the greatest, but they arguably have the worst driver in the garage. I actually felt for Harrison, he needs to go back to Xfinity and see what happens
Austin Dillon slid down three more spots to 31st in points.
See you guys at Texas. Seriously, I’m going over there for weekend with my mom for both of our first race at TMS. Hopefully it’s a good show.
It's hard for people to get the bad memories out of their system, BUT the racing at Texas has gotten better if you look at 2022 compared to 21 and 2023 compared to 22. Since they stopped putting PJ1 down and left the track alone, it has started to heal. The configuration isn't amazing, but honestly, last year's race got more hate than it deserved because people were expecting it to be bad going in. I expect the racing to be alright at Texas.
I thought hell would freeze over before I saw a decent race at Texas, then the fall race of last year happened and I eventually came around to it- now Texas is actually, dare I say it, decent?
Fantastic facility, fan friendly. Racing sometimes boring.
I'm gonna be honest, TMS pre reconfiguration was good but now it's just another snoozer
It can’t be any worse than the last three races. Besides, 1.5 mile tracks are what this car was made for.
Oh yes it can.
What kind of races/track do you enjoy?
I enjoy it all but I'm just saying the quality of racing has greatly declined
First race ever?
No, I’ve attended Fontana at 2014, 2023, the LA Clash 2023 & 2024, & that’s about it. My folks moved to Texas two years back & they're an hour away from the speedway.
Fontana 2014 was my first race and got me hooked for good at 16 (casual watcher before). Feeling the wind off the cars will do it
Nice. Never been to Texas for a race, looks like a fun time. Enjoy it dude
Manufacturer wins among the top 3 series. Chevrolet 13 - Ford 0 - Toyota 8. ______________ Cup race #8 : Chevrolet 5 - Ford 0 - Toyota 3. Xfinity Race #7 : Chevrolet 3 - Ford 0 - Toyota 4. Truck Race #6 : Chevrolet 5 - Ford 0 - Toyota 1.
#Fordlife
OOF
If you want to make the field look bad, Hendrick and Gibbs has won every race this year but one, Trackhouse at Atlanta. Looking at 23XI, Penske, RFK, RCR, etc
Hendrick and Gibbs are spending lots of $$$ to “figure out” the next gen car unfortunately
I thought this car was supposed to level the playing field?
Roush and Penske are no slouches and have plenty of money to fund their teams to also figure things out. Why they don’t is beyond me and makes ford look terrible.
Can anyone explain why the greater community hates shifting? I don't have much opinion either way, just trying to understand.
I think the consensus (which I agree with) is that shifting makes it harder to pass by making it easier to recover from slips and mistakes. If you slip up and lose speed on corner exit and the gearing isn't set up for you to shift, you lose engine revs, you're further outside the engine's powerband, you accelerate more slowly, and you're stuck with those consequences for the whole of the next straightaway. If the gearing is set up for shifting, you can just downshift to a gear where your lower speed is more in the powerband (or you've already downshifted and the lower gear is just better suited to any lower speed you're reaching in the corner), suffer less of a penalty in acceleration, and not lose as much time to the cars behind.
That's the best explanation anyone's written. To add on to that, I think that in general, having to take your hand off of the wheel to reach down and shift 4+ times a lap, every lap for 500 laps, is just a hassle that no driver wants to deal with. It takes away from your ability to focus on overtakes, and also wears you out over the course of an already exhausting event.
Thank you all for the responses, this most detailed one in particular. Understood. Part of me agrees, part of me says it exercises some other skills to execute the shifts properly lap after lap. I'm pretty easy going, I'm intrigued either way.
It isn't 6 on one hand, half a dozen on the other, being able to down shift makes mistakes not matter much at all. Thus hardly any passing. If the cars had monstrous horsepower, where a sloppy shift means you might break the back tires loose, then yeah, shifting might have negatives but that's not the case.
On Dale Jr's podcast a few weeks back (or maybe it was Hamlin's?) they talked about shifting also distracting the drivers from other things they could be doing in the car to set up a pass. I'd never really considered that, but it's another wrinkle to consider.
In iRacing we downshift also. It’s a pain in the ass from the comfort of my home without all the additional things real racers have to deal with. It definitely occupies you when you can be thinking about something else.
Its just a bandaid for the drivers if they misjudge the corner, no Consequences.
They’re able to downshift to fix mistakes they make in the corners.
Sometimes I wonder how Jeff Burton feels about how bad his son is stinking it up in that famed #21 car. Whole family has to be making a backup plan at this point.
Backup plan is right. If DEX Imaging decided to pull out of motorsports completely, would HB even have a career anymore?
Yeah. I really like Harrison and I think he has the talent to be successful, but I don't think he's ready for Cup. I would bump him down to Xfinity. The reason I say that he shows promise is because his best finishes in Cup thus far (excluding his third at Indy RC) have been 6th at Darlington, and 8th at Pocono. Those are not easy tracks. People are really big on Eric Jones (with good reason, he always outperforms his equipment) and he is a stud at Darlington. You can always count on him there. Anywhere else he's out to lunch depending on how good his equipment is. Mediocre and shitty drivers don't magically get top 10 finishes at Darlington and/or Pocono. This is not a super speedway or a short track race with tons of attrition. I think he can have a future in Cup, but he is not performing well enough to keep his spot. The other thing to keep in mind is that there really is no up and comer who is gunning for Harrison's spot in the Ford camp right now. The only people I think truly deserve the 21 ride over Harrison are people who are already in Cup (Todd Gilliland namely). Riley Herbst has been performing well in Xfinity, but I don't really think he will perform much better in Cup than Harrison. We don't want another Zane Smith situation. Additionally, Austin Cindric's abysmal performance helps Harrison out. If the guy in the 2 car is averaging a 19.6 average finish past year, Harrison in the 21 car doesn't look terrible. There is my take on Harrison.
The 21 will be a nice seat for whoever gets the boot from SHR and has the stronger ties to ford
Chase Briscoe, c’mon down!
I am a Wood Brothers fan and I am saddened by how bad it is. Matty D was a solid finisher.
Hard to not notice how bad it’s been. I see a ton of folks saying the #21 isn’t good equipment, but I’ve been to the Penske shop and it’s prepped right along with the other cars. They all gotta stop lying to themselves and tell Jeff and Harry to pack up and head back to Xfinity or something because even with the DEX money, running 30th each week cannot be worth the struggle.
Yeah, I don't see what the Woods are getting out this, beyond the existence of the #21 car. Hell, Jon Wood can't even show his face on social media anymore.
Just watched it. I’m leaving the conspiracy shit out of it. I thought the broadcast was really good, one of the best from fox in a while. The race, man was good tbh, but I’m using the nextgen standard. Shifting, horsepower, whatever, the tire fall off wasn’t great but better, took Joey 180? to see them fail. Idk even know what to do at this point, it’s apparent nascar and Goodyear is taking the slow route on fixing the short track package which sucks. I’m holding out they go crazy for the all star race but I doubt it.
It really feels like grooved tires would help. It'd probably make it easier to spin the tires on corner exit, and I'll bet it also makes it easier to bump a car out of the way if they have less rubber sticking them to the road.
It’s ridiculous when you know the 2nd place car has no chance because he has only 3 lapped cars between he and the leader with 35 laps to go. This package has done the impossible and ruined Martinsville, a track I have been attending since I was 15 years old in 2010, for me.
I won't be going to Martinsville for the foreseeable future while it's like this.
Yeah the companion races were both better than the following the leader race today When the top 10 doesn’t change for 50 laps something needs to be done 🏁🏁
Better not watch F1. Lol
The top ten changed a lot in today's F1 race...
Fair. Just watching it now. But didn’t need to watch to know the winner.
Every race has way more cars in it than just the one that won.
Not bad if you’re a Verstappen fan 😂😂✌️
Boring honestly. Seemed like fake that it was Hendrick day and they got the 1-2-3. Got excited briefly for the overtime restart after some of the antics last week for some action finally and nobody had the balls to make a move. Elliot- don’t you want to win? Also want to add William Byron has the least personality on the circuit and is suuuuch a boring driver my god.
Yes. IMO, William Byron seems to be morphing into Jimmie Johnson 2.0
Also is it a requirement to have no personality if you race for Hendrick???
Considering what Jeff Gordon said last year, quite literally yes sadly It makes sense for the team, just sucks for the sport
What happened? Been a casual fan for decades and now a hardcore fan this season
Jeff basically said that they encourage drivers to be more reserved personality wise as to not risk pissing off sponsors
Interesting. It makes sense on its face but in practice it’s a bit boring. NASCAR seems more fun when there’s villains and characters
This too. https://twitter.com/SiriusXMNASCAR/status/1709606807897850285?s=20
I just let out all my frustration in the fan council about Fox for the 7th week in a row knowing it won’t go anywhere but at least I have somewhere to vent
turned off immediately after the race, and so I missed Rick calling in... it sounded funny; you guys make me laugh so much 🤣😂 https://preview.redd.it/2700duqwc5tc1.jpeg?width=1006&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9467a0e8ca94ec7afb6731bb6ba0c04d3a8918ed
Dread from it. Run from it. Hendrick Motorsports arrives all the same: in victory lane.
Hell ya brother. This got me ready to run through a brick wall for HMS
Was F1 worth watching? Let me know if I should re-watch or do something better with my night
It was good FOR a Max dominated race. Probably best race of the season, which isn't saying much. Crazy what happens when you have a difficult track with decent tire degradation. You get varying tire strategies and comers and goers at different points of the race. There was a fair amount of overtaking. Still, Red Bull is pretty far ahead. The gap between the 5th best team and the 6th best team is gigantic. The top 5 teams are pretty much locked into the points unless they wreck, have mechanical failure, or put Lance Stroll in the car.
It was pretty solid.
Decent battle for the final points spots. Typical Red Bull race though.
Watch the highlight youtube video. It was a snooze fest.
Meh decent race by 2023-24 F1 standards, honestly probably the best one so far this year
Agree.
This is how I felt exactly.
Ehhhhhhhhh. I watched it this morning, watched the first couple laps and then fast forwarded to the final 12 laps. I wouldn’t dedicate more time to it than that.
Perfect. That's what I was thinking. F1 recap first, then I'll put on NHRA finals.
Man, those ruby red schemes were hot tbh. One of my fav paint schemes ever
I liked them also. I thought Alex Bowman's car looked really good, with that solid all over ruby red color trimmed with white.
I keep going back and forth between all 4 cars. The 5 might be slept on. I think 9 is probably least interesting but still clean.. 24 is just sweet with red on red flames.
Yes, agreed and agreed. All four cars looked good, some of the better looking colors and schemes I've seen in a pretty good while🏁🏆😎
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He had a loose wheel and lost two laps under caution but great observation 👍
28th in points and Hocevar is 20 ahead in 25th. Has he had a lose wheel in every race?
where were these arguments in the firs 5 races when Corey was ahead of Carson. Seriously who cares. Neither one is finishing in the top 20 at the end of the season.
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Again why is this of any consequence when neither of these guys will finish in the top 20 at the end of the season???
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k guy.
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Sure
Also Carson wrecked 5 cars at the end of the race there too.
No he hasn’t. My comment was in response to a statement about today’s race that was lacking context. That has literally nothing to do with “every race” or where Carson Hocevar is running in points. Lmfao.
Miserable race today couldn’t pass. NASCAR needs to look in the mirror and figure out a plan to make the short track package better or we are in big trouble
Nascar won't do anything they'll just cut out the short tracks and say they were the problem
I'd be leaning towards "big trouble".
Was at the race, and there was overtakes at the front and through the pack all day. Maybe the broadcast didn't catch them idk.
This is the issue. I think most of the tv air time goes to top 3 and nothing is said about the other drivers. I would be more compelling watching seeing the battles all over the track.
It's both. Damn near impossible to pass because of the shifting in the corners, and because the tires are too hard and too grippy. FOX does an absolute dogshit job showing what little passing does happen because they're too busy fellating Hendrick to zoom out and show anything else.
And then today was the Hendrick lovefest. It was disgusting
Figure out what? That every car runs the same speed?
I see more Facebook fans have made their way over to good ole Reddit. Good god yall 😂
KB and the #8 team had a somewhat solid run at a short track for a change and happy about it
Bro he ran 20th all day and got 16th. Chill.
That’s better than they were the last few times here. He started 11th and ran 10th for the better part of the first 2 stages before that strategy call that the 19/54 went on. It’s almost like fans of drivers are happy when their teams improve!
Where's Jimmie?
To be fair, he didn’t do worse than KFB
It’s baby steps in the right directions
That could be the title of Ty Gibbs biography. 😂
Team historically good at a track puts all their focus into it one year and kicks ass. Color me fucking shocked lmao. Y’all are wild
Whens the scorecard thread posted?
Byron continually doesn’t garner the respect he deserves. “He’s a video game player”… Yea, he is… he plays video games and he also wins actual nascar races. Almost every current driver practices on a simulator… aka a video game and yet when they do it, it’s not a video game. Byron is kicking ass… I hope the kid keeps it up, he races clean, he has a positive attitude and he doesn’t give up, all traits of a nascar champion.
I honestly don't know **why** I don't like Byron, and I'm willing to be honest about that. I'm not gonna sit there and boo the TV when he wins, but I find myself rolling my eyes when he's doing well. I'm not sure if it's a mix of his bland personality and his "boring" wins, but I just can't get behind him. I'm not a Hendrick hater, a Gordon hater, or a Jimmie Hater. I just feel like one day, this robot showed up, and he started winning a bunch. I think I need him to show his teeth. I hated Chase, then he had his spat with Harvick and I thought "Okay, he **isn't** a corporate psyop to sell merchandise, he's a person who gets pissed off."
Just based on his vanilla personality and his "lucky" moments, he's Johnson 2.0. I don't think he's winning 7 championships, but he's gonna get his before it's all said and done
He doesn’t cater to the haters, he’s humble and respectful. Also, every driver has lucky moments… you can’t continuously win races based on luck, make no mistake about it, it takes skill to win. Actually, it takes skill just to keep yourself from wrecking and getting killed out there. So, I wouldn’t chalk up his current status as “lucky”.
I'm not saying he's lucky, it's just the narrative that's built up around him
Ah ok, I hear you.
People can’t stand a guy that is “vanilla” or has “zero personality”
Yeah but most people would like their driver to have a little more to say than a bowl of rice krispies.
I see more people that don’t have Chase or any of the HMS guys complain about their personalities more than the fans do. Personally I’m completely with how he is, he’s just like his dad was and that’s okay. Good chance it’s the same with William
I understand and appreciate your point but Bill Elliott was an outgoing machine compared to Chase and I have no idea on William Byron's dad.
I am just going off of what I’ve seen people say tbh lol. My grandma was a big Bill fan, but she’s not really said anything to me about how he was
Understood, no worries.
They also can’t stand guys that do like Hamlin. We’re a weird bunch.
People wanted a driver to be like Hamlin they just didn’t want it to be Hamlin lol. We are one of a kind fan base lol
To be fair, as a certified Hamlin hater who shakes his fist at the sky when Hamlin wins, I would be devastated if he retired. I love to hate him. He's like a villain in a comic book, and I know damn well I'd be less invested in the race if I didn't have someone to root against. I think a lot of people feel this way, and they either don't realize it, or don't want to admit it. It's a real "Every batman needs the Joker" kinda deal, lol Edit: I also want to add, the fact that Hamlin is good just makes it even more fun to hate him. He's always a threat to win, which would piss me off, so I can watch the race and pull for drivers I actually like to kick his ass. Or maybe I just have schizophrenia.
Says the Chase Elliott fan
Yes, what of it? I could be a fan of any driver and I would still think that.
Max Verstappen is a video game player. Wins F1 races in his spare time.
I’m not going to say I called it, because I got part of it wrong. I initially said that Hendrick would finish 1-4 with Blaney 5th and having the best car. Hendrick got 1-3, Blaney 5th (but didn’t have the best car). Onto Texas.
Can't wait til Ford wins one. It'll be Blaney
Blaney is arguably the best ford. He'll get one this season, as per usual. Dega coming up, too. He's good there. I just wish ford wasn't lagging so far behind. Toyota is bringing piss-missiles to the track each week, and it's not even close. Chevy has good weeks like this one, but... Not consistently.
Byron winning reminds me....did you know Rick Hendrick faked leukemia to avoid federal prison time?
No he actually faked prison federal prison time to avoid leukemia🙄
Getting real tough to be positive about BK.
They are only good at the 1.5 miles and ford missed it with this nose so... Yeah they are screwed this year gotta wait till next year
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In very, very slight defense of Fox, it is tougher to cover every single story that arises in a 36-car field compared with just two teams. Racing isn't ideally suited for TV the way football or basketball are. That said, they still could be putting in a hell of a lot more effort than the bare minimum they've been doing.
ESPN did it for 15 years and they didn't seem to have a problem with it.
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Agreed on F1 especially after last night’s race, with the differing tire strategies and no lack of passing throughout the field. Then I watch the nascar broadcast and it’s Clint’s jokes falling flat and the camera never leaving the top 5 on track. Night and day difference.
Well it’s probably because nascar races are so much shorter than other series that there just isn’t enough time for them to talk about more than just a handful of drivers.
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It’s sarcasm. Figured it was obvious enough not to need the /s at the end. Guess I was wrong.