NASCAR Cup Round 7: Samsung Mobile 500 - Texas Motor Speedway

[fieldodreams79]

After the weekend off for the Masters (Go Bubba!), I mean, Easter, the Cup series returns to action at the Texas Motor Speedway SATURDAY night under the lights.

JAYSKI Race Page

746 pm est approximate start time

The young man in the #55 quickest in practice in Thursday practice. One more practice tomorrow afternoon and q-ing around supper time.

2012 Sprint Cup Driver Championship Points Standings:
[after Martinsville, race 6 of 36]
1) #16-Greg Biffle [0 wins], 226
2) #88-Dale Earnhardt Jr. [0 wins], 220, -6
3) #14-Tony Stewart [2 wins], 214, -12
4) #17-Matt Kenseth [1 win], 214, -12
5) #29-Kevin Harvick [0 wins], 214, -12
6) #56-Martin Truex Jr. [0 wins], 214, -12
7) #11-Denny Hamlin [1 win], 210, -16
8) #39-Ryan Newman [1 win], 202, -24
9) #15-Clint Bowyer [0 wins], 192, -34
10) #48-Jimmie Johnson [0 wins], 189, -37
11) #99-Carl Edwards [0 wins], 179, -47
12) #2-Brad Keselowski [1 win], 175, -51

courtesy of Jayski

[fieldodreams79]

Truex grabs the pole, followed by Kenseth, the Bif, the young man and Kahne.

Full Lineup/Q-ing results

Stremme, Nemecheck and Compton DNQ.

[fieldodreams79]

Underway in the Lonestar State.

[The Original Instag8or]

Wow... there really wasn't much to say about that race, huh? This has to be the shortest race thread ever.

[Axeman444]

running short of fuel screwed my fantasy team with Ambrose though... dammit

[codename_47]

One of THE worst races I've ever seen, so much so I fell asleep...

NASCAR really needs to stop dominating the schedule with these kinds of 2 mile parade tracks zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Still, we have the Trucks at Rockingham today, the true highlight of the weekend!

Anyone who remembers that track will know we're guaranteed some action there!

[fieldodreams79]

Texas is a mile and a half, but I agree that there are WAY to many of the mile and a half/ 2 mile ovals. They do need more tracks like the Rock, that is for sure, but funny how we find it boring with no GWC finish or crashes.

Yes, not one that will burn into memory as a great race, but at least we didn't have to sit through a 2 hour delay for a truck fire or lay around for a day and a half worth of rain delays. The wind was a bit absurd; I was getting sick watching the cams from on top of the press boxes.

I think the Bif's move on JJ was great and a clean run to the finish is what I have been waiting for since the inception of the GWC rule.

[Axeman444]

Personally I think the cross to the NASCAR Race Control and other behind the scenes stuff was good (is it Jeff Hammond?). How long that can go for without rehashing stuff though is the question, i guess til they hand over to TNT is all that is required...

[IceMan_PJN]

Originally Posted by codename_47

One of THE worst races I've ever seen, so much so I fell asleep...

I suspected this would be the general consensus amongst NASCAR fans when I dropped in just shy of the mid point and saw the cars all strung out.

[The Original Instag8or]

I wouldn't call it the worst race ever... for one thing, everyone survived.

[gomick]

Spewin' for Ambrose, reckon he is 50 points down on where he should be - badluck will change at Talladega where he gets his 1st oval win

[Flyin Ryan]

I got home Saturday night with 200 laps to go and proceeded to not see a single caution from that point forward.

There was a race Dale Jarrett won once at Michigan where there was not a single caution the whole race that I think he even conceded "was probably not that entertaining". Mid-to-late '90s. These kinds of races I call "F1 races on ovals".

From Frontstretch.com's (a NASCAR-heavy racing site) review of the race:

http://www.frontstretch.com/mmclaughlin/38345/

The Key Moment – With 31 laps left to run, Greg Biffle made a banzai pass on Jimmie Johnson for the lead. Johnson had been struggling with lapped traffic most notably in the person of one Ryan Newman. The pass caused such a stir amongst the nearly dozens of fans left awake in the grandstands it woke up several others in their respective rows. Sixteen laps later Johnson, slapped the wall to all but seal the deal for Biffle.

In a Nutshell – I’ve seen better racing contests between amphibians. Putrid, utterly and relentlessly putrid to a degree that redefines putridity.

What They’ll Be Talking About Around the Water Cooler This Week
Any more questions as to whether these 1.5-mile cookie cutters are destroying a once exciting sport?

Humpy Wheeler, NASCAR visionary and ex-head honcho at Charlotte, spoke about his own unique ideas on how to fix the racing at the intermediate tracks this week. Wheeler proposed that the field compete in several heat type races with the best finishers heading to the main event, a format used at most local short tracks. (And, of course, a “consolation” race for those not qualified for the main after the heats.) Run the main event for a short distance for all the marbles and let them have at it, basically ensuring four or five good races at an event rather than one long boring one like Saturday night’s debacle. I’m not sure how that would work as far as the points system, but I’m willing to try anything to avoid another “race” as monotonous as what we endured Saturday.

Overall Rating (On a scale of one to six beer cans, with one being a stinker and a six pack an instant classic) — We’ll give this race one can of tepid Lone Star you have to share with a dying cowboy in the backseat of a Greyhound bus out of Abilene. (Few people outside of Texas may realize that Lone Star is the only product to be marketed both as a beer and a paint thinner.)

or if you take a couple posts on a message board on it:

I agree. It's amazing how whiney and hypocritical the NASAR community is. On one hand, they whine and cry about Nascar being rigged for throwing bs debris cautions. Then this same group wants to cry like little babies when they have long green flag runs. NASCAR should quit listening to the fans, because for the most part, they have proven to be incapable of knowing what they want. I think a lot of them them just like to complain.

It more amazes me how many cars finished on the lead lap.

[Axeman444]

i agree with the 2nd part of that...

[The Original Instag8or]

Here's the way I see it... races on any oval larger than 1.25 miles will bring thse type of race we saw at Texas Saturday Night. If NASCAR wants more action, and the drivers want to not die racing, they need more 1/2 mile short tracks on the schedule, and much less 1.5-2 mile tracks.

Either A) they go fast and string out, or B)they go slow and beat the snot outta each other.

[Flyin Ryan]

Originally Posted by The Original Instag8or

If NASCAR wants more action, and the drivers want to not die racing...

NASCAR made the cars tanks so they wouldn't die racing and could withstand 10 flips down the frontstretch at Talladega.

It'd be nice to have less 1.5s, but the issue is you look at the 1.5s on the schedule and they're owned by Bruton Smith and ISC (i.e. the France family, which owns NASCAR). Bruton would sue NASCAR if they took a date from one of his facilities when the move was not of his own volition and NASCAR's not about to take a date away from themselves.

[Axeman444]

Originally Posted by The Original Instag8or

Either A) they go fast and string out, or B)they go slow and beat the snot outta each other.

like Bristol last month?

I see your point, but there are flaws in most theories

[The Original Instag8or]

Bruton evidently has the money to butcher Sears Point and neuter Bristol, twice... he can afford to "fix" a couple of his 1.5-2 mile snoozers as well.

By "fix", I mean reconfigure it into "New Bristol" since he is trying to recreate "Old Bristol".

And upon a second read of your post, it seems that with two entities owning so much of the schedule, it seems that monopolies are no longer frowned upon?

[Flyin Ryan]

Originally Posted by The Original Instag8or

Bruton evidently has the money to butcher Sears Point and neuter Bristol, twice... he can afford to "fix" a couple of his 1.5-2 mile snoozers as well.

By "fix", I mean reconfigure it into "New Bristol" since he is trying to recreate "Old Bristol".

It's difficult to change a 1.5-mile oval into a half-mile oval. You've trashed all your grandstands, the banking is messed up, complete redo of the infield...

They tried to "fix" a 1.5-mile oval once. They "levigated" Charlotte and I remember Humpy Wheeler discussing this in promos before the Coke 600 one year. They proceeded to have one of the worst races ever as there was a caution seemingly every 10 laps.

In an effort to make the racing better and remove some of the bumps, track president Humpy Wheeler had the 1.5-mile surface ground down, or levigated, between the 2004 and 2005 seasons. Instead, it produced a record 22 cautions in the 600-miler, so Wheeler repeated the process before NASCAR's premier series returned in October.

But tire testing prior to the fall race -- producing record speeds and multiple crashes -- hinted at the disturbing possibility of an event that would be unusual in its scope. There was just no time available for Goodyear's engineers to come up with a tire compound that would hold up to the new surface.

It become evident early on that tires were going to be an issue. No fewer than 16 incidents, including blown tires by points leader Tony Stewart, Elliott Sadler, Kasey Kahne -- all while leading -- forced NASCAR officials to take the unusual step of throwing a mid-race competition caution and mandating maximum tire air pressures, with the threat of points reduction to any team that failed to follow the rules.

The latest craze that's been done that appears to have worked is progressive banking.

And upon a second read of your post, it seems that with two entities owning so much of the schedule, it seems that monopolies are no longer frowned upon?

Well it's not a monopoly if there's two, it's an oligarchy.

Since the late '80s at least, the dates have always been controlled by track owner, they've never taken away a date from a track owner. (If they did, they'd take a date from Pocono, a track owned by the Mattioli family, which won't sell to either Bruton Smith or ISC.) A track owner like Bruton Smith and the ISC have though taken dates away from tracks they own and given it to other tracks they own. But read up on the Ferko lawsuit in your own time.