Nascar at Talladega

[longam]

One hell of a finish at Talladega today, and a 'Big Ones' wipes half the field out in the 8th lap.

http://www.nascar.com/

[CaptainHaplo]

Yes, that was a whale of a wreck. Carl Edwards VERY was lucky to walk away from that one. He is right that they are going to get someone killed with the restrictor plate.

I am playing a streak to the finish with a few people - including my kids. Whats really bad - I went with Edwards, my daughter - who is 4 - picked Kaslowski to win. On the end lap I was like - no way this rookie passes Edwards.

But he did - and it was good to see that he raced clean for that win. Right now - there are 5 people playing, 3 adults and 2 kids. Now what I hate to admit - is my daughter - at 4 remember - is beating the snot out of the rest of us.

[longam]

lol, yea if anything that was the biggest long shot bet. Maybe you should take her to the horse tracks?

I follow Kenseth mostly, but was hoping for JR to win one. He is doing so much better now that he left the DE team.

[Max2147]

The really scary thing about that crash was that fans were hurt. If that catch fence had given way it would have been an absolute disaster.

It's a tough situation. If you take the plates off, you just get higher speeds and bigger crashes. They put the plates on in the first place because a car almost went into the crowd. At the same time, less engine power makes the cars more reliant on the draft, meaning more pack racing.

I'm sure the drivers would love to be rid of Talladega, but you'd still have Daytona, and it goes without saying that cutting Daytona simply isn't an option.

One option might be narrower tires, so the cars can't go flat-out in the corners. That would break up the pack racing, but less grip at those speeds might be dangerous.

[SteamWake]

Every year Talladega has 'a big one' every year the restrictor plate debate begins.

Perhaps they should be looking at the tracks instead of the cars.

These superspeedways were designed when cars couldent even dream of the speeds and performance they achieve today.

[Schroeder]

Nasty crash.

Did I get that correctly that the commentators were talking about that the carburettor went missing after the crash? Are there still carburettor engines being made in the US?

[SteamWake]

Originally Posted by Schroeder

Nasty crash.

Did I get that correctly that the commentators were talking about that the carburettor went missing after the crash? Are there still carburettor engines being made in the US?

Nascar 'stock' car rules mandate 'normally asperated engines' fuel injection is not allowed.

Why they still call them 'stock' cars is beyond me.

[Schroeder]

And here I was thinking that racing was about to invent new technologies and advertising with your successes.
What advertisement effect is a car supposed to have that is sporting technology that was abandoned about 20 years ago?

[SteamWake]

Originally Posted by Schroeder

And here I was thinking that racing was about to invent new technologies and advertising with your successes.
What advertisement effect is a car supposed to have that is sporting technology that was abandoned about 20 years ago?

Alot more go into the cars than an engine and fuel delivery system. Fuel injected engines are not that far removed from their normaly asperated types.

Brakes are one thing that major advances were made.

But hey the real point of NASCAR is to make money dont lose sight of that.

[Max2147]

Originally Posted by Schroeder

And here I was thinking that racing was about to invent new technologies and advertising with your successes.
What advertisement effect is a car supposed to have that is sporting technology that was abandoned about 20 years ago?

This is NASCAR, not F1. Their basic engine designs are decades old.

[longam]

I think most of the way Stock cars are setup is to keep the playing field level as possible. You have to remember most of these races are a 500 mile drag race with the pedal to the floor.

[CaptainHaplo]

First off carburetors were phased out of the US market because of "big oil". Too many people were figuring out how to get 60, 70 or even a 100 miles per gallon by fiddling with the fuel air mixture. Big Oil had to keep buying the rights to such things for major money. They finally had enough and went to fuel injection.

When automakers - and the dealers realized how computerized the cars could be, they then began to see the profit in making the vehicles so complex that your local shop was limited in what it could do for you. Thus ending the days of the neighborhood garage where Leroy or Mike could fix anything from a go-cart, through a tractor, to a normal family car, all the way to a diesel rig.

Heck, I have a Saturn - and had to buy a special tool to get the danged oil filter off. Something goes wrong - you have to have a special computer (that costs MAJOR $$$) to hook to the thing to tell you that you have a bad oxygen sensor. Then the sensor itself costs ya $300 bucks, and good luck putting it in without special tools.

Now back to the topic - yes - "stock" car is such a misnomer. There isn't a solitary part on those things that are stock.

As for controlling the speed - I have no problem with the track, I have the perfect answer for how to fix speed at the big T. Put Bristol the week before - and they can change engines, brake packages and transmissions, as well as repair any frame damage - but they have to leave the body panels unchanged from the finish of the last race!

Seriously - just take the front splitter and rear wing off. Nothing holding the car down. The drivers would learn real fast what the original "Nascar" drivers (aka the bootleggers) learned - how to drive the car to its limit - not some arbitrary one imposed by the sanctioning board of Nascar.

[SteamWake]

Originally Posted by longam

I think most of the way Stock cars are setup is to keep the playing field level as possible. You have to remember most of these races are a 500 mile drag race with the pedal to the floor.

Uhh not true, the only tracks that are pedal to the metal is Dega and Daytona.

The rest require alot of braking and acceleration.

Then theres Bristol where alot of luck is required.

[SteamWake]

Originally Posted by CaptainHaplo

First off carburetors were phased out of the US market because of "big oil". Too many people were figuring out how to get 60, 70 or even a 100 miles per gallon by fiddling with the fuel air mixture. Big Oil had to keep buying the rights to such things for major money. They finally had enough and went to fuel injection. .

[longam]

Originally Posted by SteamWake

Uhh not true, the only tracks that are pedal to the metal is Dega and Daytona.

The rest require alot of braking and acceleration.

Then theres Bristol where alot of luck is required.

braking and acceleration - pit times, but it usually comes down to the last 50 laps, if you make it that far.