Posted on 11/20/2006 4:55:50 AM PST by WestCoastGal
a combined company? interesting
No news bump. ;)
Speed to air Daytona testing shows; SPEED will begin its NASCAR season with coverage of NASCAR Preseason Thunder testing days on Jan. 8 at 7:00pm/et. The 30-minute highlight shows will feature testing coverage from the Nextel Cup Series, Busch Series and Craftsman Truck Series sessions at Daytona International Speedway, giving NASCAR fans their first looks at new drivers, new teams and new race cars. NASCAR Preseason Thunder testing shows on SPEED (subject to change; check local listings):
* Jan. 8 at 7pm/et - Nextel Cup Series testing
* Jan. 9 at 7pm/et - Nextel Cup Series testing
* Jan. 10 at 7pm/et - Nextel Cup Series testing
* Jan. 11 at 7pm/et - Testing highlight show
* Jan. 12 at 7pm/et - Craftsman Truck Series testing
* Jan. 14 at 6:30pm/et - Craftsman Truck Series testing
* Jan. 15 at 6:30pm/et - Nextel Cup Series testing
* Jan. 16 at 6:30pm/et - Nextel Cup Series testing
* Jan. 17 at 6:30pm/et - Nextel Cup Series testing
* Jan. 18 at 6:30pm/et - Testing highlight show
* Jan. 22 at 7pm/et - Busch Series testing
Beginning Jan. 29, SPEED also will cover NASCAR test sessions from Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
NASCAR testing coverage will lead into SPEED's 12-day Daytona Speedweeks program schedule, highlighted by LIVE coverage of the Gatorade Duels repeated in Prime Time, the Craftsman Truck Series season opener, the inaugural SPEED Performance Awards, the Bud Shootout Drawing, the ARCA season opener and the return of popular SPEED shows, including NASCAR RaceDay, Trackside, NASCAR Live!, Wind Tunnel, Tradin' Paint, NASCAR Performance, Inside Nextel Cup, NASCAR Victory Lane, The SPEED Report and the debut of the SPEED Road Tour Challenge.(speedtv.com PR)(1-3-2007)
Keep us posted on Dakar FA.
Did you know NASCAR will pay for the rear wings used on the new Car of Tomorrow, then distribute them at the track and collect them after each race?
Did you know the COT, which is two inches taller and four inches wider than the current car, will fit inside the current haulers?
Did you know the inspection process at the track should be faster with the COT because of nine radio frequency IDs that will be installed on each chassis, allowing inspectors to verify its legitimacy electronically instead of manually?
Did you know the restrictor plate as we know it at Daytona and Talladega likely will become obsolete with the design of the COT engine package?
Did you know the COT looks more like the car on the street than the one currently on the track because the angles of the windows and headlights aren't nearly as severe?.......see more and the full article at ESPN.com: Car of Tomorrow shaping up as pretty nice ride.(1-3-2007)
Did you know the jury is still out on all of the above??
Thanks, WCG, I plan to start a thread very soon. I will keep everyone informed. It really looks like Robby Gordons best chance yet, seems he's assembled a talented team.
A Healthy New Year to ya.
Question...What did Tony know and when did he know it..,. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1762029/posts
http://www.glumbert.com/media/nascar
Check out this video of a crash at Daytona back "in the day"...
Funny music, funny looking cars and sound effects too.
Ping List fodder...
But the cars did snap me out of my amnesia induced in 1964 when the 2 cars I built were totaled in the same crash...
Now THAT is racin!!!
They had a segment on HD early this afternoon on one of the market reports. Most seemed to rant about Nardelli, but one stockholder said he was pleased with him, but after Nardelli quit, the stock price rose. He owned two million shares and it seems to me he should know what he was talking about.
Did you read the news that Yates finally decided on using the #88? The reason given on Jayski was.......The agreement, sources said, was that RYR could keep the #28 when Texaco left for Chip Ganassi Racing [#42 Dodge], but that Yates would wait several years to run the number. Yates and Masterfoods -- Snickers' parent company -- wanted to run the #28, but couldn't reach the required agreement with Texaco to do so, sources said.(ESPN.com)(1-3-2007)
And then there's this.......
UPDATE: hearing that the Pepsi 400 at Daytona will be shown with no commercials by TNT [in primetime] and the coverage will be sponsored by...Pepsi, but the other five races, as of now, will be shown with commercial breaks.(1-4-2007)
I was so amazed that they wore only helmets, OY!
Ok that sounds funny, helmets along with street clothes.
Quick, what do these racetracks mean to the DuPont team? Bristol, Martinsville, Darlington, Infineon, Watkins Glen, Dover, Loudon, Richmond, Phoenix, and Talladega in the fall? If you said they're tracks where Jeff Gordon has had tremendous success- 33 wins and 9850 laps led since his first championship- you're right. Now heres the tougher question: which tracks does the DuPont team feel the most doubt for 2007? Bonus points if you said Bristol, Martinsville, Darlington, Infineon, Watkins Glen, Dover, Loudon, Richmond, Phoenix, and Talladega in the fall. It's at these ten tracks, tracks where Gordon has either run well or nearly dominated since the beginning of 1996, where NASCAR will introduce its controversial Car of Tomorrow, a/k/a The Flying Brick, next season. Now add in Daytona, Talladega in the spring, Fontana, Indianapolis, Pocono, and Michigan. That's another 19 wins, another 2700 laps led since the beginning of the 1996 season, and all on the list for COT implementation in 2008.
That may very well mean trouble for Gordon's quest for title number five. Initial opinions on the COT after fall testing have been lukewarm at best, with most drivers doubting that the cars will race well in traffic or close conditions. Gordon has been a particularly vocal critic of the new design, saying "I'll admit, I'm not a big fan of the Car of Tomorrow. A lot of guys are having issues with the cars pushing, that they cannot get the push out of the car. That doesn't surprise me. If you look at the aerodynamics of the car, it's very rear downforce heavy. You can get all the rear downforce you want in the car. The front downforce, you're very limited." Gordon's criticisms have been echoed by other drivers, particularly Tony Stewart and Matt Kenseth.
Suddenly, that dominant road course chassis, those great short track cars and concrete cars, the aerodynamically-perfect plate course cars. All are obsolete, relegated to Gordons driving schools, the Hendrick museum, or sold to other series. The COT is a totally new beast- four inches wider, boxier, and heavier, with a controversial front splitter and rear wing that are supposed to improve competition in the series. That means that all the performance data, the setup testing, the analyses of on-track performance such as the notebooks that the team has on these tracks will essentially become obsolete along with the old Monte Carlo chassis.
http://www.gordonline.com/commish/010107.html
Texas :(
The COT is the "jumped the shark" moment for Nascar.
It's disgusting what France and Helton have done/are doing to our favorite sport.
Well today's scuttlebutt is that Jr will have a second Busch car running at JRM #83 with six different drivers. [this is a definite] Hopefully one will be himself.
Kerry Earnhardt's son Jeffrey will have some kind of announcement in the next few weeks about racing.
Crash will probably be one of those drivers. I'm so hoping Steve Park will be one.
And Jr flew to Georgia today for an unknown reason and so did Smoke - maybe doing a promo for the track??
Also, rumors still abound with Jr being in the Rolex. Some were spoken by reliable folks, so the next few days will tell.
IN MY OPINION
NASCAR's MassCar?
Fans show plenty in name suggestions for Cup car to debut in '07
DAVID POOLE
dpoole@charlotteobserver.com
File / The Charlotte Observer
In NASCAR's Nextel Cup Series, the "car of tomorrow" arrives in the 2007 season.The Dodo, because it has wings but won't fly.
The Quickbrick. Boomerang. 21 Cent -- like 50 Cent, but for the 21st century.
Last week, I asked fans to suggest nicknames for the "car of tomorrow," since it won't be that once it has been on the track.
My suggestion was Zipper, because the chassis is being measured on XYZ coordinates in NASCAR's inspection process. I still kind of like it, but I did get a lot of pretty good suggestions.
Like Edsel. About 50 times. NASCAR has a lot of work to do in selling this concept to fans. It knows that, but if there's any doubt all its officials would have to do is read my e-mail over the past week.
A lot of responses I got, frankly, were unprintable. Others came close. One fan offered this progression: C = Cutter; CC = Cookie Cutter; CCC = Cookie Cutter Crap; CCCC = Complete Cookie Cutter Crap.
Albatross? Formula Zero?
I got Slot Car, Box Car, Block Car, UniCar and -- because the cars supposedly will be more and more alike -- MassCar. I actually kind of like MassCar.
I also like Ditto and, for a reason I am not sure I can articulate, the FoxyMoron.
Someone suggested the RS, standing for Retro Shoebox. Another person suggested NAS-car, with NAS standing for Not A Stock-car.
Autodrone and Autoclone came in, as did several variations on "clone." There were several variations on "aero," as in aerodynamics, and when you think about it Arrow would not be bad name for the car.
You have to appreciate the amount of thought that went into some suggestions.
Take, for example, the person who said the car should be called Lassie or Rin Tin Tin. "Both pooches showed up to save the show each and every week," the author said. "Just like NASCAR is trying to do." It was hard to be certain, but I'm pretty sure he was being facetious.
How about the Zaster (disaster)? Or the XYZ-car, which would be pronounced Zi-Car. My problem with that is somebody might decide that should be pronounced Shu-SHEF-Ski and we don't need that.
There was the Spruce Goose, the Axis and the Ugly Duckling. One fan gave me names for all four car makes -- the Ford Fiasco, the Chevrolet Chaos, the Dodge Disaster and the Toyota Turmoil.
Then, there were some that were just silly. Robbing Hood? Extended Warren T.? The Bumper Thumper? Booty Haul?
Keep `em coming.
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