The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing thread

[Wizzie]

It sums up everything that's wrong about American motorsport when everyone creams their pants when "Darling Danica" does anything of any significance.

You don't think that that has ever occured in F1? It's not an American-only thing.

Name me one driver in F1 who is so fanatically followed by the press the way Danica Patrick is.

The ONE commentators have a 'crisis' as Mr Clarkson would put it every time Mark Webber does remotely well

[AndreaModa]

That wouldn't be AUSTRALIA'S Mark Webber would it?

[the Masked Lapwing]

That wouldn't be AUSTRALIA'S Mark Webber would it?

At least he's AUSTRALIA'S Mark Webber. It's still WESTERN AUSTRALIA'S Daniel Ricciardo

[Wallio]

Its beyond ridiculous the cover she gets in the states. Over here, the only coverage of USF1 were rumors that Danica was a "lock" for a seat. Said rumors often reffered to the team as "an attempt to bring Danica to F1" (no I'm not kidding). Scott Speed got zero coverage over here, what little is did get was centered on how sad it eas he changed his name. To get ahead (uh hello?). Everything Dancia does gets coverage. This week we had a full page article saying Danica no longer wants to be referred to as "sexy" because shes "pretty". Bikini spreads be damned! Lol

Espn is the worst. They used to scroll Indy finishes at the bottom of baseball games and it would list the top five than "Danica finishes X". No matter where she finished. Marty Reid once said "And Danica's making her run for the lead" after she made a pass to go from 19th to 18th with 10 laps to go......on a ROAD COURSE. Commentary partner Scott Goodyear literally said "Are you serious?"

That's why if shd wins ANY race (which she probably will eventually) every American Media outlet will cream themselves.

[dr-baker]

Johanna Long is a new name to me. Why so much publicity on Danica and so much less on Simona de Silvestro, Pippa Mann, Milka Duno (when she isn't being sooo slow), Johanna Long, etc.?

[Wallio]

Two words: Sex Appeal. Danica does racy spreads in some adult magizines. Other drivers such as Sarah Fisher, Kat Legge, and Pippa Mann, arent considered (for whatever reason) sexy. And they let they're racing do the talking. Danica does TV ads (not that thats a bad thing, shes made a TON of money doind it) and it can be argued she isn't as focused on her driving. But more than that, she looks good in a thong, simple.

[JeremyMcClean]

NASCAR, Y U NO RACE IN RAIN????

[Wallio]

Indycar proved what happens when you race on an oval in the wet....

[Wizzie]

Indycar proved what happens when you race on an oval in the wet....

Which also proved what happens when you let the muppets run Race Control

[nome66]

buggaration! the punks down in race control postponed the race until tomorrow.

for the first time in this race's 53 year history. for the first time since NASCAR began racing on the beach in Daytona, for that matter.

[JeremyMcClean]

buggaration! the punks down in race control postponed the race until tomorrow.

for the first time in this race's 53 year history. for the first time since NASCAR began racing on the beach in Daytona, for that matter.

Double buggaration!!! It starts when I'm at school. Now I have an excuse for not watching the race at all... I don't normally watch NASCAR and there's another reason why!!!!

There's also stale racing.

[RealRacingRoots]

I don't normally watch NASCAR and there's another reason why!!!!

There's also stale racing.

I don't always watch NASCAR,

But when I do, I make sure it's a road course race. and the Daytona 500, I guess.

[Wizzie]

Monday isn't looking all that flash either

[Cynon]

You can not build rain tires for high banked ovals. They would be shredded way too quickly.

Fact of life a lot of people have problems understanding.

[eurobrun]

So much fail

[Wallio]

In the two prior races this weekend, 62 of the 79 entries were involved in accidents. Lap 1 more of the same....

[Dan B]

...and Montoya just took out a jet dryer.

Edit: Alright apparently something broke on Montoya's car and it snapped into the dryer. That's the only thing I can think that happened.

[Wallio]

Went to get a snack under yellow, come back to a raging jet fuel fire. I have watched all forms of racing all my life, never seen anything like that....

[Cynon]

Rear end failure apparently. Still, though, what the flying bathplug?!?!?!

[Pieman]

Rear end failure apparently. Still, though, what the flying bathplug?!?!?!

Exactly what I was thinking - that has to be the most bizarre crash I have ever seen. Top four of Blaney, Cassill, Raines and Gilliland - if the track is damaged and they can't restart we will have the most Reject-tastic result in NASCAR history!

[eurobrun]

If Dave Blaney wins I will run around celebrating

[Cynon]

If Dave Blaney wins I will run around celebrating

Dave Blaney is the Roberto Moreno of NASCAR.

[nome66]

c'mon run the cars over the speedy-dry on turn 3 like the old beach race!

[Wallio]

If Dave Blaney wins I will run around celebrating

+1 My friends and I have started a "Call it! Call it!" Chant. Best top 5 EVER!

[Wallio]

And now the Tide's out!

[RealRacingRoots]

The conversation on Twitter has kept me nicely occupied (@RealRacingRoots, no shame) and seeing Brad have his phone in his car gave me a chuckle.

Back to Raw I go! (WWWYKI)

EDIT: And now rain too?

[eagleash]

Went to get a snack under yellow, come back to a raging jet fuel fire. I have watched all forms of racing all my life, never seen anything like that....

According to the BBC sports news JPM escaped the fireball completely unharmed, thankfully.

[Wizzie]

For those that missed all that was in the name of bathpluggery.

JPM thinks it's a transmission problem judging by the radio audio.

[Cynon]

For those that missed all that was in the name of bathpluggery.

JPM thinks it's a transmission problem judging by the radio audio.

Either that or something in the rear end, because it just suddenly went around. It's not like he Michael Waltriped and spun out being a complete noob.

[East Londoner]

Bloody hell! It just blew up! Montoya must have been going at pretty much full whack to rupture the fuel tanks on that track dryer

[Wizzie]

Bloody hell! It just blew up! Montoya must have been going at pretty much full whack to rupture the fuel tanks on that track dryer

One has to remember though Jet Fuel vapour in particular is notoriously volatile and will ignite at the slightest provocation.

[Wizzie]

For those that missed all that was in the name of bathpluggery.

JPM thinks it's a transmission problem judging by the radio audio.

Either that or something in the rear end, because it just suddenly went around. It's not like he Michael Waltriped and spun out being a complete noob.

Autosport are now reporting McMurrary had a similar problem in the other Ganassi car

[DanielPT]

Bloody hell! It just blew up! Montoya must have been going at pretty much full whack to rupture the fuel tanks on that track dryer

One has to remember though Jet Fuel vapour in particular is notoriously volatile and will ignite at the slightest provocation.

Montoya was lucky to leave unscathed from that crash. And we should thank the tanks that those cars are for not having yet another serious accident.

[mario]

Bloody hell! It just blew up! Montoya must have been going at pretty much full whack to rupture the fuel tanks on that track dryer

One has to remember though Jet Fuel vapour in particular is notoriously volatile and will ignite at the slightest provocation.

Montoya was lucky to leave unscathed from that crash. And we should thank the tanks that those cars are for not having yet another serious accident.

Yes, it is quite lucky that all he seems to have suffered from in that accident was a bruised ankle, but I'd say that the driver of the truck is probably much more fortunate given that he probably didn't have anything like the same level of protection that Montoya did. Interestingly, Montoya's team mate, Jamie McMurray, has also come on the record to say that he felt that his car also suffered from a similar problem, as he says that the rear wheels on his car seemed to lock up as well.

"I don't know if the transmission locked up or the rear end. Something broke in the car, and it was actually freakishly something similar to I think what happened to the #42 [Montoya].
"So, I'm not real sure what happened. It was like the back tyres locked up, and I started spinning."

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/97714

[Wallio]

The driver of the jet drier was held over night at the hospital, but should be ok. Truck and crew were from MIS, what an expensive loan that turned out to be!

The strangeness continues however. Landon Cassill reports his rental car was towed during the race!

[howardmb]

I know not many people here watch NASCAR but it appears a F1 grad, JPM, set a record of sorts as he crashed into a track maintenance vehicle and set it ablaze.

http://www.nascar.com/video/post-race/highlights/120227/cup-day-high-eight/index.html?MostPopular.

This kind of thing has never happened before. He was driving hard under caution and lost control, then swerved into a truck that has a jet dryer on the back and was trying to dry off the track from the recent rains. The resulting fire forced the race to suspend for some time before it restarted. It certainly wasn't his most glorious moment in racing. At first, it was thought something broke on the car but the latest thinking is no, nothing broke, he just lost control. No one was seriously injured.

[DanielPT]

Well, we are proud of being a pluricultural forum assembling very diverse tastes. So much so that we even encourage members to watch other forms of motorsport. For this purpose it was created a sub forum which incorporates several threads dedicated to other racing series including, of course, NASCAR (link), where fellow forumites can discuss related events like this one. This particular event is already there, so go check it out!

[JeremyMcClean]

What the bloody heck happened to Montoya? Did his brakes fail?

[nome66]

here's what happened.
he went to the pits because he was feeling a vibration every time he changed gears. they checked and found nothing wrong. during the caution period, he was driving at full chat around the track to catch up to the field and not lose another lap. while entering turn 3, his car shuttered and his rear differential failed catastrophically, causing him to spin to the right and into the Jet Dryer truck. the truck exploded, and JPM went tumbling back down the banking on fire.
the Jet Dryer was leaking Kerosene and something sparked and it burst into flames. took about 10 minutes to put it out.

[Cynon]

It also took two hours for the race to restart... in the meantime, Brad Keselowski was having fun on Twitter.