Nascar 2012

[sparrow]

Yeah two feet towards the front and he'd be all fucked up.

[wxwax]

1:30

[wxwax]

They ground down the top groove at Bristol after fans complained about boring racing in March. The goal was to bring back side-by-side racing. Didn't work for the Nationwide cars on Friday. The top groove was still the place to be. Cars underneath had a hard time making a pass.

[larryboy]

Anybody know if it's an actual rule to drop the window net if you're ok inside the car so the safety crews don't kill themselves getting to you as fast as possible? Is it just a gentleman's agreement like the old don't race back to the line after a crash thing?

Danica just sits there, crash after crash after crash she doesn't even bother getting herself out of the car. Maybe she can't reach the net?

[wxwax]

Inside the last 20 laps, NASCAR throws the usual "debris on the track" yellow. One guy who happened to desperately need more gas was the 22, Brad Keselowski.

Then ESPN's replay shows a water bottle coming out of Brad Keselowski's car.

Then ESPN's in-car camera shows Brad Keselowski grabbing his water bottle and throwing it out of his window.

Lucky bastard, NASCAR says the debris wasn't the bottle, so the 22 wasn't penalized.

But his interview on pit road right after the race was classic in-your-face lying. The fucker kept saying he didn't know anything about water bottle. He looked like a tool pretending he didn't know what he had done. Someone should have told him it was on national tee-vee.

[larryboy]

Originally Posted by wxwax

Then ESPN's replay shows a water bottle coming out of Brad Keselowski's car.

Then ESPN's in-car camera shows Brad Keselowski grabbing his water bottle and throwing it out of his window.

He was confused because he had thrown the water bottle out something like 20 laps before that caution. ESPN saved the replay so they could show it to Harvick on the big screen under caution to try and manipulate him into a Harvick tantrum, damn near worked.

"An ESPN spokesperson said the network had taped the water bottle toss earlier and showed it during the caution as a possible cause of the yellow, a set of facts which supports Keselowski's version of events."

I'm not sure why nascar.com is blaming the wreck with the 30 on Danica, he clearly caused the wreck.

Pretty good showing by Pastrana, I say he wins the championship next year in Nationwide.

[wxwax]

Originally Posted by larryboy

He was confused because he had thrown the water bottle out something like 20 laps before that caution.


"An ESPN spokesperson said the network had taped the water bottle toss earlier and showed it during the caution as a possible cause of the yellow, a set of facts which supports Keselowski's version of events."

Wow. That's even worse than in the Euros, when UEFA spliced video of fans crying during the national anthem and played it after their team had conceded a goal. Scummy work.

Still, the Keselowski interview was the funniest I've ever seen of an athlete. At the end he finally admitted he'd thrown out the bottle, and said everyone throws their (half-full) water bottles onto the track.

[RedRocket]

Originally Posted by larryboy

.

Pretty good showing by Pastrana, I say he wins the championship next year in Nationwide.

Earlier in the season Travis said his goal this year was to beat Danica, and he hasn't managed that yet.

[viajero]

Originally Posted by wxwax

At the end he finally admitted he'd thrown out the bottle, and said everyone throws their (half-full) water bottles onto the track.

So why does NASCRAP allow this?

So they have a reason to throw the yellow and alter the race results, for "entertainment" purposes?

What a joke.

[wxwax]

Harvick was plain spoken after the race. He said what we all know to be true: NASCAR throws the cautions when they please, for whatever reason they please. And often, it's to bunch up the field and make a dash for the end. Harvick got screwed, his car was utterly dominant until forced to do restarts on old tires at the end.

[larryboy]

Originally Posted by RedRocket

Earlier in the season Travis said his goal this year was to beat Danica, and he hasn't managed that yet.

It's his entry year, seven starts and he has a big mouth. Remember Danica going for the championship after getting the pole at Daytona?

Danica:

YEAR 2012
RANK 10
POINTS 539
STARTS 23
WINS 0
TOP5 0
TOP10 2
AVG. START 14.9
AVG. FINISH 20.7
WINNINGS 538,247


Travis:

YEAR 2012
RANK 31
POINTS 158
STARTS 7
WINS 0
TOP5 0
TOP10 0
AVG. START 25.4
AVG. FINISH 21.4
WINNINGS 143,876


Average finish is what counts and that's pretty damn close, apples to smaller apples Danica in Cup compared to Travis in 'wide might be good for a comparo as they're both beginners that way.

[larryboy]

Originally Posted by wxwax

Harvick was plain spoken after the race. He said what we all know to be true: NASCAR throws the cautions when they please, for whatever reason they please. And often, it's to bunch up the field and make a dash for the end. Harvick got screwed, his car was utterly dominant until forced to do restarts on old tires at the end.

You guys did see that chunk of something they picked up right? It had to be removed from the track or Danica would run right over it.

[viajero]

Originally Posted by wxwax

Harvick was plain spoken after the race. He said what we all know to be true: NASCAR throws the cautions when they please, for whatever reason they please. And often, it's to bunch up the field and make a dash for the end. Harvick got screwed, his car was utterly dominant until forced to do restarts on old tires at the end.

Which is why I don't watch that crap. A sanctioning body which overtly alters the course of a race for "entertainment" purposes loses all credibility, in my mind. When the "show" becomes more important than the integrity of the competition itself, they have lost any relevance.

The fact that they are still so heavily sponsored by American business interests speaks volumnes about this country, big business and its citizens.

[larryboy]

Originally Posted by viajero

Which is why I don't watch that crap. A sanctioning body which overtly alters the course of a race for "entertainment" purposes loses all credibility, in my mind. When the "show" becomes more important than the integrity of the competition itself, they have lost any relevance.

You're not paying attention, the caution was for a chunk of aluminum that could hurt a driver or fan:


Kevin Harvick was angry – understandably so – after a late debris caution in Saturday night's Nationwide Series race at Atlanta benefited two of his competitors and ultimately may have cost him the win.

Due to the timing of the caution – which fell at the end of green-flag pit stops – two drivers were able to pit for fresher tires than Harvick. One of those drivers, Brad Keselowski, helped push eventual race winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr. past Harvick.

Around the time of the debris caution, ESPN showed viewers at home – and on Sprint Vision screens at the track – an in-car video of Keselowski throwing a water bottle out of his window during the green flag. While that's a common practice for drivers, it led many viewers to believe the caution was connected to the water bottle based on the TV images.

Even Harvick's team thought the water bottle was the "debris" which brought out the yellow. Harvick was told about the water bottle toss while still in the car, and it infuriated him – especially when Keselowski wasn't penalized for it.

But as it turned out, he and his team had the wrong information. Keselowski did throw a water bottle out the window, but that didn't have anything to do with the yellow flag.

"The debris TV showed first was a water bottle, which is not why we threw the caution," NASCAR vice president of competition Robin Pemberton said after the race. "There was a piece of aluminum up there...some debris up on the outside getting into Turn 1. While the caution was out, we picked up the water bottle also."

ESPN later showed a worker picking up the aluminum piece after the water bottle incident. Pemberton said drivers are allowed to toss plastic water bottles out of the window during the race and that it is a common practice.

"We understand that they do (throw bottles)," Pemberton said. "Normally, they'll wind up falling to the inside of the track or the apron or something like that. Occasionally, we've seen in past years where they throw out a big drink bottle and we can't tell what it is (and it prompts a caution), but that's been awhile. We don't hit anybody (with a penalty) for throwing a plastic water bottle out."

Harvick, though, did not receive that explanation immediately after the race. Thinking the water bottle cost him the race, he walked from his car to where Keselowski's No. 22 was parked on pit road and confronted the driver for a cheap move.

Keselowski looked surprised and said he had no clue what Harvick was talking about, because it was news to him that a water bottle had caused the caution. The Penske Racing driver later said he was confused because he threw the bottle out of the window 15 or 20 laps before the caution, and that it was one of three bottles he tossed during the race.

But Harvick, who had one of the most dominant cars in any series this season, was in no mood to let the water bottle incident go when he visited the media center – and sat right next to Keselowski.

"It's pretty obvious," Harvick said. "They put it on TV and showed it, and the caution came out the same lap. He told me after the race: 'You've never thrown a water bottle out?' You know what that means.

"He told me it was intentional. So it is what it is."

Then Harvick turned to Keselowski.

"Sleep good," he said sarcastically. On his way out of the media center, Harvick lightly smacked Keselowski's cheek twice.

For his part, Keselowski said he was "caught off guard" by the focus on the water bottle because he did not believe it was connected to the caution. The driver said all drivers throw bottles and helmet visor tear-offs out of their cars.

Keselowski said Harvick was just frustrated, and he sympathized with the Richard Childress Racing veteran.

"Sometimes in racing, you do everything right and it just doesn't work out," he said. "If you're not mad about it, you're not a racer. So how can I sit here and bash Kevin? Kevin is a racer, and he had the best car and didn't win. If he wasn't mad as hell, I would personally be mad at him, because that's his job. That's why he's a great racer.

"So just give him some time. He'll figure out the situation with NASCAR. Cooler heads will prevail, and that's just the way it is."


http://www.sbnation.com/nascar/2012/...i-water-bottle

[wxwax]

Originally Posted by larryboy

You're not paying attention, the caution was for a chunk of aluminum that could hurt a driver or fan:

His cynicism - and mine -- is well founded. Whenever a yellow flag is thrown, NASCAR spends an interminable amount of time cleaning the track. Yellows last forever, and that's the reason why.

Race after race, they run vast distances without a yellow. Nice clean racing surface.

And then, with 20 or so to go, debris mysteriously finds its way onto the track. It happens too often to be considered a mere coincidence.

Kevin Harvick said it. I believe it.