Forum Activity for @andy-denardi

A PHOTO SOME MAY HAVE NOT SEEN

Stock Car Racing History

If I remember correctly, the 1970 Superbird in the Petty museum had a (flat) bucket seat from a Dodge van. It took a long time for stock seats to disappear from stock cars.

Given the safety of the cars at that time, there's a decent chance that concrete walls would have been more dangerous than the wooden posts. Although not for this particular incident. Look at the demand for SAFER barriers. Once again my memory fails me, but I think that through the 70s, many tracks used armco barriers instead of concrete anywhere there weren't grandstands.

Now you have two new Champions

Stock Car Racing History

I thought Harvick was the 1st champion from the South in a long time but he's from California. I had him mixed up with his wife, who;s from North Carolina. I think it's been since Dale Jarrett in 1999 that we've had a champion from down home.Harvick isn't a favorite of mine but he led a lot of laps this year and worked hard. He deserves the championship and I can be happy for Tony Stewart who has had some difficult times in the last two years.I wasn't thrilled with the mix of guys that ended up in the shootout but was pulling for Newman to create an upset in the final laps. Those caution laps at the end put a damper on the racing and made it a battle of restarts. I really like it when we have a tight race and twenty laps of green to the finish.

Newman Still Does Not Have to Win

Current NASCAR

Monte Dutton has made it clear to me that Newman doesn't have consistency either. Hes only finished in the top five four times. I like Newman and was rooting for him but now I can't. Dutton also reminded me that Junior would been champion last year without any victories. Not likely that we would hear as many complaints about the system if he had triumphed.

I thought up a system the other night that kept the eliminations but included all teams and spread them out over the entire season - every nine races or something. I was trying to decide if a win should let you back in after elimination but then decided that we didn't really need another screwy chase formula, we just needed to make the whole season count.

I would rather dump the chase go back to the old points system, but if we're going to have a chase then this is my favorite format so far. For me, it's built excitement and made me watch more often than I have in recent years. I know it's just a gimmick and most of these eliminations would have happened anyway. But it works for me and I don't follow stick & ball sports.

Some people have been eliminated this year that I think should still be in it. Keselowski and Gordon especially. Some people are in it that shouldn't be. I can deal with that. My biggest grudge against this new system is that it all comes down to luck in one race. One bad pit stop shouldn't be able to take the championship away from Logano and Harvick. Up until now, they've had two other races to redeem themselves and now there's just one.

As great a season as Keselowski had, somebody on his team choked. He had to fight to make the next round twice and only succeeded in doing so once. Logano has essentially the same machinery and is in the playoff. Denny Hamlin choked one year and Carl Edwards another. It happens and it's nothing to be ashamed of. But last year they didn't even make the chase after winning the championship the year before. Something's very wrong there and they need to get to the bottom of it.

Newman Still Does Not Have to Win

Current NASCAR

If you want to argue that the championship should be determined by wins then you're at least 35 years too late.Last week I pointed out that Benny Parsons won the championship despite having won only 1 race, compared to Petty's 6 and Pearson's 11. I'll give you another example. Cale Yarborough won 9 races in 1976 and won the championship. Second place in points was Richard Petty with 3 wins. Pearson finished 9th, having won 10 races.Sponsors are hard to come by. If you don't count consistency, then the big teams will run only the big races like Pearson did. So you've got twenty-five races where the small fry fight it out with varying results, then Jimmie Johnson comes in to sweep the superspeedways and the championship. The viewership for those twenty-five races with few stars will be be as good as Nationwide at best.Frankly, I'd like to see more diversity from track to track. I'd like the local short track hotshot to have a chance to run the races in his area. You could do away with Nationwide and let those drivers run Cup, then use trucks as the development series. New teams could run the smaller races and work their way up the ladder so there wouldn't be this start-and-park crap. You could get local sponsors involved again. But the sport would sink back to the visibility in had in the Sixties, and the two big track owners would go bust.

original SpeedVision Speedvision founder relaunches Torque.TV relaunched on web

General

This doesn't have much current stock car content but there's potential and maybe some historic stuff will come up.

Speedvision founder relaunches Torque.TV

I didn't really enjoy the original SpeedVision channel, too many boats and airplanes. This looks somewhat better. The historical and car show programming might interest me.

updated by @andy-denardi: 12/05/16 04:02:07PM

Two Races to go and 2 non winners in the hunt STILL

Current NASCAR

Ford will definitely ask for help from the other teams, but that may not gain them much. I don't know if the Wood Brothers will be at Phoenix. RPM will be sitting mid-pack, which doesn't help Brad much, and Roush will make Edwards their first priority. Biffle and Logano are his best hope. Ford definitely wants to see their car in the champion's circle after so many years of Chevy domination.

The last twenty laps at Phoenix are positioned to be the best racing all year. I hope NASCAR doesn't break it up into four lap runs between caution flags.

Two Races to go and 2 non winners in the hunt STILL

Current NASCAR

If I were Gordon, Harvick, Hamlin, Kenseth, or whomever else is upset with Brad, I would make sure to get the pit just in front of his. Then I would do a poor job of tucking in the back of the car and keeping the old right rear tire out of harm's way.The problem with four car teams is that there are a lot of teammates that can make it difficult to pass. Brad can't even ask Logano to run interference for him because Joey's got his own plans for a championship.

Wonder Boy (with busted lip) Calls Bad Boy Brad a Little Dip....

Current NASCAR

I don't blame Gordon for being upset; he had a good finish going. But Keselowski did nothing wrong by trying to shoot the gap. If Jeff is upset with anyone, it should be NASCAR. That caution when he was leading the field in the final laps was unnecessary. I saw at least two cautions for spun cars that went to the apron without hitting anything and rejoined the field.NASCAR intentionally manipulated the end of that race because they wanted Keselowski to create controversy by pushing the limits to get the lead. And like Chase said, as soon as Brad and Jeff collided, they knew there would would be an incident after the race and they had plenty of time to stop it. If that's what they need to keep people from changing the channel, then fine; but there shouldn't be any fines, probations or penalties.

After a Lot of consideration I came to this conclusion

Current NASCAR

Keselowski and Harvick are dangerously close to being out of the final. If Gordon has two bad weeks then he could be eliminated too. If none of those three are in running at Homestead then NASCAR will be very disappointed in the TV ratings and race attendance.

I just don't think that Hamlin, Logano, Edwards and Newman are going to make for must-see TV in most people's eyes. If that happens, Brian France is going to slip a supercharger under Danica's hood to spice up the show. She'll lead the first lap and finish 12th.

After a Lot of consideration I came to this conclusion

Current NASCAR

Tony didn't do too bad either. I remember when it took two and a half miles, a 426 Hemi and a car that looked like an airplane to do that. I'd feel good if he won at Texas. It would close a chapter and also make them race much harder at Phoenix to get that free pass into the final by having a non-chaser win.

I like five of the guys going into the final, I hope four of them make it.