Coast Resorts Open Roads Forum: Around the Campfire: Nascar Follies

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Topic: Nascar Follies

Posted By: PawPaw_n_Gram on 02/25/18 09:53am

Well, I was sure wrong about the road courses. They are among the shortest races time wise. At 2 hours 7 min and 3 seconds (green flag to checkered flag) the Watkins Glen race was the shortest time wise last year.

1/3 of the races last year were run in less than 3 hours - 12 of 36.

27 of 36 races were run in less than 3 hrs 30 min - which is about the length of a football game.

Only one race ran longer that 4 hours of racing - The Coke 600 at 4:19:22.

The average length of the 36 points races was 3:12:23 last year. Adding in the amount of red flag time the average climbs to 3:23:26. With red flag times added in - 24 of the 36 races were run flag to flag in less than 3 1/2 hours

Indianapolis was 6:10:39 due to 3 red flags for 2:31:39 - and 1:47:03 of that time was a weather red flag. The Coke 600 was almost 6 hours long due to the longest non-weather red flag of the year - 1:39:56. The spring Bristol race was postponed til Monday due to weather.

8 races had overtime’s, Indy had 2.

The impact of caution laps is interesting. The stages mean every race will have at least 2 cautions. At Martinsville and Bristol the stage cautions can run 10-12 laps each. At Sonoma and Watkins Glenn the stage cautions are 3 or 4 laps each.

The June Dover race had 15 cautions for 72 laps (17.73% of the distance run) with a time of 3:52:06. The fall Dover race had 4 cautions for 24 laps (6% of the distance) with a time of 3:04:48 - or 3:20:57 after adding in a 15:09 red flag.

The two races at Daytona had 20% and 31.29% of their distance run under the yellow flag. Talladega had 17.27% and 25% under the yellow.

Of the tracks which run two races, Pocono had the least number of cautions/ laps.

I’ll try to figure a way to post the spreadsheet. The source is the Official Race report of each race from NASCAR. Those reports are scrutinized to ensure accuracy by the teams and the media.

Full-Time 2014 - ????

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Posted By: bobsallyh on 02/25/18 12:34pm

Weren't the talking heads at Daytona last week spewing about the nice weather forecast for Atlanta this weekend? And with the rain, they even get to babble longer. On Fox but could end up on one of Fox's sub channels.

Posted By: PawPaw_n_Gram on 02/25/18 01:11pm

The long range weather forecast was for good weather. But you know how reliable weather forecasts are.

Being stuck with those hours to fill and no alternative programming is difficult. You have to admit that we actually get to hear the ‘stars’ of the sport. Imagine trying to get baseball players to talk during a rain delay.

Posted By: thomasmnile on 02/25/18 01:13pm

MCO65: Daytona or any plate race is meaningless as a predictor of a driver's season. The winner is pot luck. Look at who won. It wasn't Ryan Blaney who led over half the laps, yet the media drivel of the last week suggests Dillon is the guy to beat this season. Ask Kurt Busch what it did for him in 2017. Dillon BTW qualified 25th for Atlanta and starts at the rear due to a rear gearset change. Other than prestige, Daytona doesn't mean that much in the grand scheme.....

Posted By: Cloud Dancer on 02/25/18 01:47pm

At Atlanta: Usually, the best driver will win, but only if he's driving the best car.
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Posted By: thomasmnile on 02/25/18 05:53pm

And, it appears Harvick was THAT driver.

Have to admit I watched only the last 40 or so laps. Tiger was playing this weekend. Good showing but he had to work at it.

Posted By: bucky on 02/26/18 04:56am

I was hoping for more action on that last restart but the 4 was on a mission.
Best Chevy was 9th in the new body, but they will get better as the year goes on.
I'm surprised the 2 didn't try a 2 tire stop on the last restart as he had nothing for the 4 on that last run.

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Posted By: Cloud Dancer on 02/26/18 05:33am

thomasmnile wrote:

And, it appears Harvick was THAT driver.

Have to admit I watched only the last 40 or so laps. Tiger was playing this weekend. Good showing but he had to work at it.

Exactly! It's not like boxing, it's a contest to see which racecar performs the best. And, for the sake of this determination, there has to be a sufficient number of excellent drivers. So, let's give more recognition to the team engineers, crewchiefs, crewmembers, and money sources. And, while we're at it, how about some credit to the providers of the racetracks (however screwed up the track design might be).
It's really too complicated for NASCAR to be the fault of everything.

Posted By: downtheroad on 02/26/18 07:40am

Cloud Dancer wrote:

It's really too complicated for NASCAR to be the fault of everything.

I agree, there is not a simple solution.....but, the solution has to start at the top (i.e. France).

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Posted By: Cloud Dancer on 02/26/18 08:12am

downtheroad wrote:

Cloud Dancer wrote:

It's really too complicated for NASCAR to be the fault of everything.

I agree, there is not a simple solution.....but, the solution has to start at the top (i.e. France).

First you have to document the problem. Write it down. THEN, I will tell you that there is NO practical solution.... [emoticon]

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