Fun to Watch 1st Time Winners
General
That's an impressive list of first timers!
Forum Activity for @dave-fulton
Fun to Watch 1st Time Winners
General
Motorsports - NASCAR All Times Eastern
Sprint Cup - Odds to win the Daytona 500 - Sun, Feb 26th (12:00pm ET)
@ Daytona International Speedway Odds
All drivers have action.
A.J. Allmendinger #22 30/1
Aric Amirola #43 100/1
Bill Elliott #97 (Suspended) 150/1
Bobby Labonte #47 75/1
Brad Keselowski #2 20/1
Carl Edwards #99 11/1
Casey Mears #13 100/1
Clint Bowyer #12 25/1
Dale Earnhardt Jr. #88 17/2
Danica Patrick #10 35/1
Dave Blaney #35 100/1
David Gilliland #38 100/1
David Ragan #34 50/1
David Reutimann #93 75/1
David Stremme #30 150/1
Denny Hamlin #11 20/1
Elliott Sadler #33 60/1
Greg Biffle #16 18/1
J.J. Yeley #49 (Suspended) 150/1
Jamie McMurray #1 20/1
Jeff Burton #31 22/1
Jeff Gordon #24 12/1
Jimmie Johnson #48 14/1
Joe Nemechek #87 200/1
Joey Logano #20 35/1
Juan Pable Montoya #42 40/1
Kasey Kahne #5 18/1
Kenny Wallace #09 (Suspended) 125/1
Kevin Harvick #29 11/1
Kurt Busch #51 25/1
Kyle Busch #18 10/1
Landon Cassill #83 200/1
Marcos Ambrose #9 30/1
Mark Martin #55 40/1
Martin Truex Jr. #56 45/1
Matt Kenseth #17 18/1
Michael McDowell #98 100/1
Michael Waltrip #40 (Suspended) 60/1
Mike Wallace #37 (Suspended) 200/1
Paul Menard #27 40/1
Regan Smith #78 40/1
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. #6 50/1
Robby Gordon #7 100/1
Robert Richardson Jr. #23 (Suspended) 200/1
Ryan Newman #39 35/1
Terry Labonte #32 200/1
Tony Raines #26 200/1
Tony Stewart #14 17/2
Trevor Bayne # 21 40/1
Fun to Watch 1st Time Winners
General
Didn't some hot shot try out "Smell-o-vision" at the movies years ago?
If we could pipe in the smell of high octane gas fumes and burning rubber, along with the throbbing of V-8s that can currently only be experienced in person, we might be on to something, PK!
Backers, backers, backers....?
IPO
Fun to Watch 1st Time Winners
General
Regardless of who you might have pulled for in the Daytona Truck or Nationwide race, you gotta admit it's fun to watch first time winners in Victory Lane.
Now, who do I put my money on for Sunday's 500??
First timer or veteran?
So far my Daytona picks have not fared very good.
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:02:07PM
New owners have big plans for Myrtle Beach Speedway
General
I wish the very best for the Myrtle Beach track.
To me, it is always sad to see long time promoters throw in the towel.
Having a driving experience program, though, is not going to save a racetrack.
The Best & Biggest Change in NASCAR
General
The best change I've seen in NASCAR since I started attending races in 1964?
Response time of safety & medical personnel to an accident scene.
I was amazed to see how quickly the crews were on top of the Danica Patrick incident following her horrible crash in the Daytona Duels.
Lots of changes have led to this quick response and I didn't at the time like many of the changes, but the results so far as driver safety are obvious.
Years ago, the safety vehicles weren't allowed to even roll until not only the cars had raced back to the flag under caution, but until the cars had slowed sufficiently in NASCAR's opinion to safely dispatch the safety crews.
Remember when we'd cringe waiting for a fire extinguisher to get to an accident site when a car was burning, yet in open wheel racing the safety team was there sometimes before the car stopped rolling?
It has been a change for the better.
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:02:07PM
Did Mike Wallace Intentionally Wreck NASCAR's 1st Female Pole Setter? Yes, Said Joe Nemechek
General
I thought it, but didn't say it.
Did Mike Wallace Intentionally Wreck NASCAR's 1st Female Pole Setter? Yes, Said Joe Nemechek
General
Thanks for the very informative video.
I don't miss the whine of the failed 6 cylinder experiment.
Did Mike Wallace Intentionally Wreck NASCAR's 1st Female Pole Setter? Yes, Said Joe Nemechek
General
Here's one from the Sports Illustrated vault.
Let's hope Danica fares better today than Shawna in 1994, although a good cat fight might do wonders for the Nationwide Series television ratings!
SPORTS ILLUSTRATED
March 21, 1994
Shawna Robinson
Jill Lieber
After a decade of trying to make it in the macho world of motor sports, Shawna Robinson thought she had finally earned some respect. Last Thursday the 29-year-old Robinson became the first female ever to win a pole position in a NASCAR Grand National event, qualifying for Saturday's Busch Light 300 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway with a track record for Grand National cars of 174.330 mph. To mark the historic feat, fellow driver Joe Nemechek, the other qualifier on row 1, presented Robinson with a red rose in Victory Lane.
On race day, however, Robinson got a rude awakening. As she entered Turn 3 on her first lap, she was racing side by side with Nemechek when Mike Wallace slipped alongside her car on the inside of the track. Wallace took the air off Robinson's spoiler, causing her orange Polaroid Chevrolet to drift up and smack Nemechek broadside. Both cars spun and slammed against the retaining wall. The front of Robinson's car was heavily damaged, and in order for her to continue, much of the sheet metal had to be sawed off. Racing with the engine exposed, she completed 63 laps before a hole in the radiator forced her into the pits for good. Meanwhile Nemechek never got underway again, and as soon as he was out of his mangled car, he grabbed a microphone and made charges over the track's public address system that Wallace had intentionally caused Robinson to crash. "I'd heard from people before the race that he was going to take some air off her spoiler and get her loose," Nemechek, the 1992 Grand National champ, alleged later. "I figured he was running his mouth, but he did exactly that. Going three across on the first lap is a big risk. People could have gotten hurt. You don't pull a stunt like that."
Why did Nemechek think Wallace would want to take Robinson out? "It wouldn't be politically correct to answer that," Nemechek said. But Robinson, who after the race had to be separated from Wallace's wife, Karla, as the two exchanged words, was more direct. "Ego," she said. "Maybe some think it's a manly thing. I don't know where that thinking comes from."
Certainly that thinking is foreign to Robinson. Growing up in Des Moines. Robinson and her four siblings were taught that they could accomplish anything they set their minds to. Her father, Richard, was an amateur racer who competed on local tracks and tinkered with racing vehicles in his home garage. He encouraged his children to take up racing, which they did on minibikes, snowmobiles and motorcycles. "I still have the burn marks on my legs from racing motorcycles as a teenager," says Robinson. At 18 she began driving in a short-track series for trucks. Five years later she became the first female to win a NASCAR Dash series event.
As the only woman driver in either of NASCAR's top two series, Robinson still struggles for sponsorship. She often wanders the supermarket, pen in hand, copying the addresses of potential sponsors from packaging labels. A top finish in Atlanta might have helped her attract some backing.
Wallace denied trying to put Robinson out of the race, and after interviewing the drivers and studying a tape of the wreck, NASCAR officials issued a terse statement that nobody was to blame for the crash. But an unmollified Robinson asked, "How many fans were taking bets, 'Is the girl going to crash on the first lap?' By starting on the pole and racing well, I hoped I could have changed those attitudes. I've never wanted to flaunt the woman thing. I just want to be thought of as being a good driver, not a good female driver."
updated by @dave-fulton: 03/20/18 05:06:52PM