Daytona 500 - Nascar
Warrior15
Anywhere there are Titties.
The Great American Race was yesterday. Huge crash with 10 laps to go took out about 20 cars. Did you see it ?
Nascar seems to have lost it's appeal. A few years ago, they had recognizable stars like Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt. Now, they seem like an after though. I know Jeff Gordon was the driver I followed. Once he retired, my interest in the sport went way down.
Did you watch any of the race ? Do you give a hoot about Nascar ?
Nascar seems to have lost it's appeal. A few years ago, they had recognizable stars like Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt. Now, they seem like an after though. I know Jeff Gordon was the driver I followed. Once he retired, my interest in the sport went way down.
Did you watch any of the race ? Do you give a hoot about Nascar ?
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31 comments
I saw 3 big crashes and then sat down for dinner. There was still about 5 laps to go.
I think I saw the best part of the race.
@Daddillac: Were there any UGA grads racing?
Lol !
I used to be a big fan starting in '64 when some friends and I went to Daytona and watched The King win. I was on again and off again till '94 when I saw Gordon win his first Cup race in Charlotte. I was a regular (Homestead, BRISTOL, Daytona, Charlotte, Talladega) from then on till the debut of the CoT (Car of Tomorrow) at the Bristol spring race in '07. It was nuts! Bounce off the wall like nothing happened! I swore I'd not return to NASCAR again, but a friend talked me into returning next spring. Meanwhile Bristol reconfigured after the '07 fall race and completely ruined NASCAR'S best race. I've never returned but for one race in Homestead to hopefully see Jimmy Johnson win his 7th championship. He did. So that's my story of "The Great American Race" and NASCAR.
The #18 car came in second. At least Jimmy Johnson didn't win.
To you point though, JJ very well may turn out to be the most successful driver ever. If he keeps going, he almost surely will pass most drivers not named Richard Petty for most victories. But I think he also may be blamed for part of Nascar's demise also. Johnson dominated the sport for several years. And did it in the most boring way possible. Did he run anyone off the track, no. Did he ever get into fights, no. Was there ever any suspense in the years he won, no. Did he ever do anything embarrassing or insulting, no. Even if you are a fan of his, you have to admit that he is kind of dull. He just went out and won.
Very very doubtful anyone will ever match The Kings 200 wins. Kyle Busch the most winningest driver in recent time will likely pass 200 this year. I believe he is at 193, BUT most of them are in truck races and Xfinity or whatever they call it these days. 51 Cup wins I think it was last I remember. The drive (active) with the most is Jimmy Johnson and he's not even half way to Petty!
w.r.t. auto-racing, I used to follow-it the most in the 80s - a bit-less less in the 90s - and a bit less in the 2000s - and very-little in the 2010s - back in the day my fave auto-racing was Indy-racing and my fave driver growing up was Mario Andretti and then his son Michael Andretti - I lost interest in Indy-racing when they went all Ocacio-Cortez and started putting limitations to "make it more fair and give everyone a chance" and Indy-racing went from well-known strong-teams and drivers to a whole-bunch of nobodies - I hate when they "try to make things equal" - that's socialism/communism where nobody is allowed to be beyond mediocre and in the worst-case everyone is "equal" by being equally-fucked - whenever they've tried to put things in place to "make things equal/fare" in any sport (e.g. salary-caps, etc), IMO it's brought down the level of play where no team is great, just a whole-bunch of mediocre teams w/ the least mediocre winning - same-thing happened in Formula1 which I used to follow in the 90s and 2000s, at some point a few years ago they instituted some IMO crappy-rules I think in the "spirit" of making things more "equal" and IMO it brought down quality.
Back in the day my fave type of racing was Indy - I also enjoyed MotoCross (Ricky Johnson was my fave rider in the 80s) - I also enjoyed european Motorcycle road-racing (think it was called MotoGP) - was never really too into NASCAR too-much - followed Nascar the most in the 80s and Bill Elliot was kinda my fave driver - didn't really follow Nascar as much in the subsequent decades.
Some years ago I ran the Richard Petty Driving Experience at the Homestead track. Above you stated "my fave driver growing up was Mario Andretti and then his son Michael Andretti". At the Homestead track, my pace car driver was Mario's nephew/Michael's cousin, Adam Andretti. He is the son of John, Mario's brother.
There's been a lot of redevelopment of the Opa Locka airport grounds - bunch of new large warehouses including a new Amazon fulfillment center - across from Amazon they are building some kinda driver-experience track which I think is due for opening sometime in 2019 - there is a sign w/ a website but I don't recall the website name