|| *Comments on the 2012 Food City 250:* View the most recent comment <#59> | Post a comment <#post> 1. The Final Gear posted: 08.24.2012 - 10:57 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) First!! This is why N'Wide isn't worth watching at times. 2. Ty (fourturns.blogspot.com) posted: 08.24.2012 - 10:59 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I'm getting so sick of Joey Logano. 3. loomer posted: 08.24.2012 - 11:00 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Ryan Blaney notches his 3rd top-10 in his young Nationwide career. Austin Dillon wrecks both Justin Allgaier and Trevor Bayne while trying to pass them. The kid is going to have a huge wakeup call when he eventually has equal or less equipment on Sundays. 4. 10andJoe posted: 08.24.2012 - 11:11 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) #3 sponsor: American Ethanol/Poet #36 sponsor: Advance Auto Parts/SealWrap #39 sponsor: Joy Mining Machinery #41 sponsor: Carport Empire/Keen's Portable Buildings #51 sponsor: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital #60 sponsor: We Back Pat/Learn2Adjust.com 5. Rusty posted: 08.24.2012 - 11:11 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sucks for Trevor to get wrecked late in what will probably his last Nationwide start of the year. I didn't pay close attention to the race, I was more into the football game I was watching. The racing seemed okay, lame that Logano won though. 6. 10andJoe posted: 08.24.2012 - 11:12 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) #6 sponsor: NOS Energy Drink 7. Ty (fourturns.blogspot.com) posted: 08.24.2012 - 11:15 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) To me, this proves that Logano deserves to be in the Nationwide Series. He's won six times this season -- 3x as many wins in his entire Cup career. If he was running full-time and was given points for his performances, he would probably be leading the points right now and likely on his way to giving JGR their second Nationwide title. If he can't get a solid ride next year, they just need to send him down to the Nationwide Series. 8. bduddy posted: 08.24.2012 - 11:19 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Everyone involved with the "new surface" and its relentless (even for NASCAR) hype should be ashamed of themselves. Including the "fans". 9. RaceFanX posted: 08.24.2012 - 11:21 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Rick Crawford makes his first Nationwide start of the year...and start and parks. Way too much talent has been reduced to doing that (Darnell, J.Green, Riggs, Starr) of late. 10. Jordan posted: 08.24.2012 - 11:30 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Darnell is "talent?" I think Danica deserves a lot of credit for her race. All too often, she's ended up crashing out after being stuck in traffic due to a poor qualifying run, but she was patient tonight and avoided all the accidents. After seeing her run in qualifying and the Sprint Cup practice, this run shows a ton of improvement. If she can manage even a top 30 tomorrow night, it will show that she's improved a ton as a driver over the course of the season. I'm not necessarily a fan of hers but as she gets criticized for her mistakes, she also deserves credit when she does well. 11. 10andJoe posted: 08.24.2012 - 11:53 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) >If she can manage even a top 30 tomorrow night ...it'll mean she didn't start and park. 12. Jordan posted: 08.25.2012 - 12:07 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) No, it will mean she beat the start and parkers, dodged early wrecks, and didn't have early mechanical troubles. Though I get your point, maybe I should have said top 25. The amount of start and parkers today is ridiculous, before long I guess we'll have 20 car races. 13. DaleSrFanForever posted: 08.25.2012 - 12:13 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) The amount of TV attention towards Danica is way too disproportionate. Yes itnwas hands down her best short track run to date. But to praise her every 30 laps for not getting lapped and running Top 15 is too much. Especially when Nelson Piquet got one mention (not counting his spin), while running Top 10 all night before he lost it, Ryan Blaney got one mention, and Cole Whitt who was also Top 10 all night only got mentioned when he snuck into the Top 10 in the last 5 laps before falling to sixth. And who made the one in race mention and praise of Piquet? Rusty. He has really come to life as a broadcaster this year. But overall a ridiculous telecast. Seeing everybody sell their souls for GoDaddy's money (TV, Tony, June, and Danica herself who is pretty much just GoDaddy's property) is, in a nutshell, what is wrong with NASCAR today. Somebody mentioned this on the Cup page, and I would like to mention it here. Usually when a full time Cupper wins a Busch race they have to be thought of as a threat for the next day or night's race. But Logano just can't even approach his NWide moxy in Cup. I have never seen somebody who runs Cup full time kick so much ass in NWide yet be so invisible on Sunday's. Brad had one season like this, in 2010 when he cruised to the NWide title and royally sucked in Cup, but quickly turned it around in 2011. Absolutely nothing he does in NWide translates to Cup. Even his one legitimate Cup win was Pocono where NWide never goes. 14. cjs3872 posted: 08.25.2012 - 12:16 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Well, where Danica finishes in the Cup race depends on how many wrecks there are, and if she's in any of them bad enough to not be able to continue. If it's like most recent Bristo races have been, she should run about 28th-32nd all race long, but if there are numerous wrecks (or one big one, which has happened there more often than you might think), she could threaten the top 20. But remember that if Tony Stewart runs like he has recently at Bristol, even if Danica runs 30th, it won't look that bad because Tony Stewart hasn't done much better in recemt Bristol races, including this race last year, in which he was THE slowest qualifier and didn't run that much better in the race. If Tony can't run in the top 20, then Danica won't look so bad, no matter where she runs. And remember that, although she was a 30th-place car during the Coca-Cola 600, Tony couldn't do any better than 25th himself (and only a couple of laps ahead of Danica). Now I'm no fan of Danica and never really have been, as I think she's proved herself to be racing's version of "Team Obliterator", but if her boss (Tony Stewart) is not that competitve in the Cup race, I don't think there's as much reason to criticize her performance, because fairness would require me to mention Stewart's performance, which at Bristol in recent years has been pretty terrible. 15. cjs3872 posted: 08.25.2012 - 12:23 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Like I said on the Cup page, I've recently watched much of the 1987 spring race at Atlanta, which was one of the first 500-mile NASCAR races ABC televised live start-to-finish (maybe the first) on YouTube, and was called by Jim Lampley and Sam Posey, with Jerry Punch and Jerry Gappens (who currently run NHMS) in the pits, and there was more insight into NASCAR given on that broadcast than is given in three months of racing telecasts today. That broadcast also had things you never saw, such as Posey's timing of cars in segments of the track, stories about drivers (such as Benny Parsons), and quipping by both Lampley and Posey, who seemed to have fun in the booth calling the races they did, or at least I get that impression. And racing broadcasts focused a lot more on the men behind the wheel back in those days than they ever do now. For a longer version of this post, check out my post on this subject on the Cup comments page. 16. Daniel posted: 08.25.2012 - 12:36 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) In using fastest 43: #47 Stephen Leicht & #89 Morgan Shepherd Out using fastest 43: #4 Brad Teague & #23 Robert Richardson Jr. 17. murb posted: 08.25.2012 - 12:47 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) "Darnell is "talent?"" I think Erik Darnell is incredibly talented. He won two Truck races, and had flashes of brilliance in his few NNS races with Roush. The thing with him is that Jack Roush threw him into his "Young Drivers That I've Screwed" department, which also includes Todd Kluever, Colin Braun, and more. I really hope Logano isn't at JGR next year. JGR has way too many young guys that deserve full time NNS rides (Ryan Truex, Darrell Wallace, Drew Herring). And you guys are right, I also have never seen a Cup guy dominate NNS like this and then at the same time be so out to lunch in Cup. And yes, she did a good job tonight after a terrible lead up to the race, but the coverage of Danica is ridiculous, just like DSFF said. And just like I (and some of you other guys) was saying on the Michigan Cup page, next year is gonna be even worse. ESPN seems bad, but just wait until next spring when she'll be getting analyzed by the Waltrips. Truthfully, that sounds way worse to me than ESPN, lol. 18. 18fan posted: 08.25.2012 - 1:41 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) What happened to Piquet by the way? He got loose under the 24 car and turned the 24, then he got penalized for an uncontrolled tire, and the next thing I saw he was 4 laps down. 19. Anonymous posted: 08.25.2012 - 2:58 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) "And you guys are right, I also have never seen a Cup guy dominate NNS like this and then at the same time be so out to lunch in Cup." Brad Keselowski 2010 comes to mind. I'm a Brad fan btw "Austin Dillon wrecks both Justin Allgaier and Trevor Bayne while trying to pass them. The kid is going to have a huge wakeup call when he eventually has equal or less equipment on Sundays." Allgaier learned "you pinch, you pay". I did find it funny when Mr. Squeaky Clean Allgaier put himself in the wall and screwed his car up even more when he was trying to haul ass and get revenge after he was at least partially responsible for the wreck to begin with. I didn't feel too bad for Trevor Bayne, as he tried to dirty up Cole Whitt in a serious way some laps prior, although failing while trying to do so. Trevor likes to use the bumper when he gets frustrated, and the situation with him and Austin was more of a racing deal than people are saying. It wasn't entirely on Austin; Trevor was expecting him to run lower than he did. It wasn't a careless dump. This is coming from a pretty big critic of Austin who constantly makes fun of the ridiculousness of the cowboy hats the Dillon brothers sport, so I consider myself pretty unbiased. 20. Anonymous posted: 08.25.2012 - 2:59 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) "The kid is going to have a huge wakeup call when he eventually has equal or less equipment on Sundays." You mean the wakeup call he's already gotten when he finished 24th & 26th in his 2 Cup starts? 21. wow posted: 08.25.2012 - 4:40 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Another race dominated by an ego driven greedy cup driver in top notch equipment is simply all that needs to be said. 22. 10andJoe posted: 08.25.2012 - 5:50 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) ^ Bitter much? 23. Spen posted: 08.25.2012 - 6:08 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Kevin Lepage had a pretty good run all night. He was actually running about 17th with a couple laps to go, but somehow lost a lap and wound up 20th at the end. Still his best overall race since 2008. Naturally, his name was never mentioned once all night. 24. the Great Dave posted: 08.25.2012 - 7:11 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Good race, Awful winner. 25. Dave #38 Fan posted: 08.25.2012 - 7:22 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) @#20 allgaier has not made a cup start yet, who were you talking about? 26. startandparkfan posted: 08.25.2012 - 7:53 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) #25 I think he meant Austin Dillon. David Starr's engine failure was legit, we saw him smoking to pit road. 27. cjs3872 posted: 08.25.2012 - 8:27 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) What race were you watching near the end, Anonymous (#19), because it sure wasn't the same as the one I watched. The incident between Austin Dillon and Trevor Bayne was about as deliberate as it can get. Dillon gets inside of Bayne, who gave him about as much room as he could have given him, and he still sideswipes Bayne, and the wrecks him on the next lap, taking Kasey Kahne with him. That's about as intentional as it gets. Now you might have a point regarding the incident with Bayne and Whitt, although aerodynamics may also have been involved there (Dillon was on Bayne's right rear corner at that time, which probably caused Bayne to get loose at that precise moment), and the incident between Nelson Piquet, Jr. and Benny Gordon (mentioned by 18fan) was entirely aerodynamically caused. Remember that, because they have to run so close together at Bristol and because the speeds are so high for a short track, that aerodynamics do come into play, especially when they're side-by-side, and the car on the inside does get sucked around, even at Bristol. 28. Brad24 posted: 08.25.2012 - 11:50 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) "Austin Dillon wrecks both Justin Allgaier and Trevor Bayne while trying to pass them. The kid is going to have a huge wakeup call when he eventually has equal or less equipment on Sundays." He'll never be in less equipment. Simply because of who his grandaddy his, Austin and Ty Dillon will always have a ride at RCR. 29. Jordan posted: 08.25.2012 - 12:11 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "Austin and Ty Dillon will always have a ride at RCR." Thus they'll probably always be in "less equipment." 30. DaleSrFanForever posted: 08.25.2012 - 12:12 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @19: I mentioned Brad's 2010 season. I remember it well as a fan of his, wondering how in the hell he could run away with NWide like that and struggle his guts out the next day just to run 20th for the same organization. As it turns out the answer is "Paul Wolfe". But Logano has been doing this for 5 years now. Ever since he stepped into NWide he has kicked ass. But his Cup career has been less visible than Jimmy Hoffa (I wonder if Logano's Cup talent is buried under the Giants stadium). His first few starts in '08 were very Danica-esque and he simply has not contended for shit. And now he is the leading candidate for the #22 car? If that doesn't sum up the stagnation in Cup over the last few years due to the unused talent pipeline and Cup owners lack of initiative plus their insistance on using proven mid packers, I don't know what does. 31. DaleSrFanForever posted: 08.25.2012 - 12:22 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) As for the Dillon boys, they have both already shown they have perfected the modern day RCR system of racing which is "whatever you do just finish the race and complete as many laps as possible, don't take a single chance, and hope occasionally a win will fall in your lap". Grandpa has pre programmed them well. In other words, when the #3 makes its "triumphant" return to Cup, it will look like the '97-'00 version of the #3, not the '84-'95 version of "I'm just gonna go out and kick everyone's ass" that we fell in love with. And like the '97-'00 version, they are going to have circles run aroound them by HMS cars, JGR cars, and cars with Yates motors in them. Btw, is anyone else still stunned that RCR took until October 2011 to log their 100th win considering Dale won 67 for them from '84-'00 and Rudd won twice in '83? 32. NicoRosbergFan posted: 08.25.2012 - 12:31 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) DSFF, despite the fact that they never got along, can you imagine what RCR would be today if they had Rudd and Earnhardt simultaneously? 33. ch posted: 08.25.2012 - 12:48 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sponsor changes: 19 - G-Oil (No Noah's Light) 42 - The Motorsports Group 71 - Rick Ware Racing 75 - Rick Ware Racing 34. cjs3872 posted: 08.25.2012 - 1:48 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) NicoRosbergFan, I don't think they would fare well at all, especially since neither Rudd or Earnhardt liked being part of a multi-car team, especialy Rudd. Remember that the four years that Hendrick spent in the doldrums (1990-'93) were the same four years Rudd drive the #5 car. I have always believed that a big part of Henrdick's return to prominence in 1994 was the releasing of Rudd and the hiring of Terry Labonte. Although the driving styles of Rudd and Labonte were simliar, their attitudes couldn't be any more different. Rudd was never a guy you could build an organization of that type around, because he always wanted to be the #1 guy, while Labonte never had that kind of an ego. Labonte knew that Jeff Gordon was the future there, and basically served as a mentor to Gordon, something Rudd would never have done. Labonte was also a good team player, while Rudd was, again the exact opposite. I'm not sure it would have worked with Earnhardt either, but for different reasons. Earnhardt could never mentor anyone else. It just wasn't in his makeup, as he was never going to help a fellow competitor out on the track, even if it was for the same organization. But as bad s it would be for Earnhard and Rudd to have teammate, it would have been even worse for them to have each other as teammates. That would be a disaster from the word "go". Yet in 1984, they each had the same sponsor (Wrangler Jeans), even though they were driving for two different teams, as they swapped teams in 1984. 35. 18fan posted: 08.25.2012 - 1:52 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Roush-Fenway Racing announced before the race that Trevor Bayne will run full time in Nationwide next year and will once again run part time with the Wood Brothers in Cup. 36. Captain77 posted: 08.25.2012 - 2:35 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) As you guys may or may not have figured out: One of my favorite things to talk about is Casey Mears and how he's starting to run faster and faster week by week. I know he didn't "earn" the pole, but based on practice speeds, he easily would have been top 10. The only reason this team shouldn't finish top 10 is the have something go wrong or if he gets caught up in one of Danica's wrecks. They are starting first, have the best pit stall, and this should be a great race for them But my pick is my main man Keselowski. His last two or three starts says it all. On top of that, he has a pretty sweet looking paint scheme 37. Smiff_99 posted: 08.25.2012 - 2:51 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) ^^^Not to mention Kez' has won the last 2 straight Cup races here.... 38. murb posted: 08.25.2012 - 2:53 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The RCR system of racing has always bugged the hell out of me. I always liked them. I was a fan of Earnhardt's during his last two or three years, and after he died, I stuck behind them just because I thought it was cool how they were still going after all the tragedy. I took an instant liking to Harvick just because he was there (and even though he has said and done idiotic things throughout his career, I've still stuck behind him.) And then, my all time favorite driver, Jeff Burton, went there in the fall of 2004 to try and resurrect his career (which he did two years later), so I pulled for them even harder. But since last year, I've really started to lose interest in them. I still pull hard for Burton and Harvick, but as for RCR, I've really lost respect. There was Richard's whole fixation on Kyle Busch. And then there was the whole Menard thing at Richmond last year, which really made me lose even more respect. And now my favorite driver is dwindling away there in what will probably be the last few years of his career. The part that makes me really upset is that Richard doesn't even do anything about it. The Cup program has been awful this year. But all of his focus seemingly goes to his grandsons in the lower series. They finally did something about it this week by putting Gil Martin back on Harvick's pit box. But it just seems like Richard is just waiting for his current Cup guys to retire or whatever just so Austin and Ty can get their rides. And it is really annoying. I still pull hard for Jeff Burton. You guys know how it is. When you have a favorite as a little kid, you stick behind them for their whole career. I still support Kevin Harvick too. Yes, he can be a total ass sometimes. Yes, I don't like every thing he says and does. But I've pulled for him his entire career, and I will continue to. But as for RCR, I've lost just about all of my respect. The Dillons are losing my respect (especially Austin lately), and so is Richard as an owner. 39. Anonymous posted: 08.25.2012 - 3:23 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "@#20 allgaier has not made a cup start yet, who were you talking about? " startandparkfan's response is right.. I was talking about Austin Dillon. It didn't specify his name in the quote that I quoted, but the quote was about Austin & I was responding to that. 40. Anonymous posted: 08.25.2012 - 3:29 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) cjs, I really have no idea how you could say that the Dillon/Bayne incident was as intentional as it gets while saying Piquet turning Benny Gordon was aerodynamically influenced. I don't think either wreck was intentional, but from the one onboard I saw from the Benny Gordon wreck, Piquet had a lot more room and made a mistake and went way up the track. In the Bayne/Dillon incident, they were much closer together, there was less to work with, and there was a much higher possibility of Austin getting aero loose rather than Nelson getting aero loose in the Gordon situation. I just didn't think Bayne had much to complain about the way he was racing people, but I still think Austin was pretty much at fault. I just don't think it was intentional. I do think Allgaier contributed heavily to his incident, as he gave no room whatsoever, and that tends to happen when you don't give room. 41. DaleSrFanForever posted: 08.25.2012 - 5:04 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Its hard to say Dale would have done as a teammate. He famously didn't get along with Mike Skinner, but that looked to me to be more of a case a personal dislike for Mike Skinner. Obviously he was a believer in the multi car system (at least in the end) cause his own organization had 3 cars at the time of his death. We also have to remember that his last 6 wins came with Skinner as his teammate. In 5 of those 6 victory lane interviews he specifically mentioned the 31 team saying he hoped they could get a win (the exception was the '99 Bristol Night Race where he had some more pressing issues to discuss lol). As Rusty mentioned on TV the other day, in his personal conversations with Dale, he was annoyed with having to constantly try to help get them up to speed. They couldn't have started the 31 team at a worse time. Dale was already injured from his viscious '96 Dega wreck and had been fighting team chemistry issues since Petree left at the end of '95. So he was trying to get his own career back on track at the time. So that hurt things. And we definitely can't forget that in his last ever race he threw a chance to win another Daytona 500 out the window to give his team what would have been the biggest shot in the arm imaginable, so he could be unselfish on the grandest of stages. Of course what wound up happening was the worse possible thing for that organization seeing as how 2 of its 3 drivers (Mikey and June) had their confidence 100% attached to having Big E having their back. I always wondered how Park would have done had he not had his near fatal wreck. Could he have led DEI to where it was capable of? 42. 10andJoe posted: 08.25.2012 - 5:33 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) >There was Richard's whole fixation on Kyle Busch. To be fair, it's not like Kyle didn't pour gasoline on Richard's fire. >And then there was the whole Menard thing at Richmond last year, which really made me lose even more respect. ...was anything ever proven there? 43. DaleSrFanForever posted: 08.26.2012 - 1:54 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "...was anything ever proven there?" NASCAR tried to sweep it under the rug because of how damaging something like that is to the sport, and I guess for the most part succeeded. But it is pretty obvious there was foul play there. And if you have noticed, RCR has been a big target for inspection penalties this year. I doubt they are cheating any more than any other team, but that may be NASCAR's private punishments for RCR. Also, with pretty much zero room for innovations, RCR has lagged pretty badly behind the pack in terms of pure speed this year in Cup. Although Harvick's dumbass decision to have Gil Martin removed as his crew chief hasn't exactly helped, especially considering how Harvick has a tendency to throw in the towel when things aren't going so well. Throw in the fact that the sport has clearly passed Burton by (I hate it, but that is the truth), they lost what we now know was a huge part of their '06-'11 resurgance: Clint Bowyer, and Paul Menard is Paul Menard, and you have the recipe for a shitty season. By the way, if Harvick doesn't win in the next two weeks, then that will be the seventh time in his not quite 12 year career that a calendar year has passed between wins for him, and that isn't counting the 364 day stretch between his '01 and '02 Chicago wins. His optical illusion career continues. 44. murb posted: 08.26.2012 - 2:45 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "Harvick has a tendency to throw in the towel when things aren't going so well." You can say that again!!! It's so frustrating to me as a fan of his. Sometimes he'll do something, and I'll starting yelling at my TV going, "You idiot!!! Why did you do/say that?" Like last night, when they played the radio from Michigan last week where he just goes off on the crew. I understand his frustration, but I think he would do better a lot of times if he just calmed down a little bit. "the sport has clearly passed Burton by" Yeah, this is the most saddening to me. It seemed like 2010 was kind of his last hurrah as far as challenging for multiple wins in a year went. But at the same time, he was great last night in the Cup race at Bristol before he became a victim in Newman and Montoya's hijinx. I'd just like to see one last run out of him, but I don't know if it will happen or not. I hope once his contract is up he can go somewhere else to a semi-competitive to competitive team (like a Richard Petty Motorsports or something) and have one more run. "Paul Menard is Paul Menard" I might have to disagree with you here, because I think Paul has done a nice job this season. Now, I'm expecting him to definitely fall off here for the rest of the season because of his crew screwing him at Michigan and getting suspended like that. But overall, I think he's a decent driver. I honestly think he can get maybe one or two more wins in his career and wind up with a nice little Cup career, a la John Andretti or Bobby Hamilton. 45. DaleSrFanForever posted: 08.26.2012 - 3:38 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) For the record, I don't think Menard "sucks". I just don't see him as a huge asset to an organization outside of his father's sponsorship money. I compare his impact to Clint Bowyer's. He joined RCR in '06 and they had a major resurgence that year and were a factor every year he was there except for their putrid '09, and even then he was RCR's best. Now at MWR he has obviously had a big impact there too. So although he doesn't seem to have that ability to really step up to the elite of the elite, he is a tremendous asset. Menard on the other hand has pretty mch no effect on whatever organization he is at. But he has done a nice job of improving, I give him credit for that. 46. Daniel posted: 08.27.2012 - 2:27 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Atlanta entry list out: -Blake Koch in the #00 -Kyle Fowler in the #08 -Danny Efland in the #4 -Denny Hamlin in the #18 -James Buescher in the #30 -#39 TBA -Matt Dibenedetto in the #42 -J.J. Yeley in the #47 -T.J. Bell in the #50 -#52 TBA -Tony Raines in the #70 -Scott Riggs in the #71 -John Jackson in the #72 -Mike Harmon in the #74 -Reed Sorenson in the #98 -Travis Pastrana in the #99 47. Rusty posted: 08.27.2012 - 3:07 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Menard is a mediocre driver. He is having an alright season because he usually finishes 15th every week. He isn't a roadblock like Kevin Conway but he isn't showing any speed to win races. Infact, he has no top 5s yet this season. He just brings sponsorship to the table while not tearing up equipment and getting decent finishes. 48. cjs3872 posted: 08.27.2012 - 3:43 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Anonymous (#40), the way I saw it, what happened with Nelson Piquet, Jr. and Benny Gordon appeared to be caused by aerodynamics. Because of how close they were forced to run in that race (unlike the Cup race), the air would cause the inside car to get loose. On the other hand, what happened between Austin Dillon and Trevor Bayne looked as intentional as it could get. Dillon body-slammed Bayne, then flat wrecked him on the next lap, taking Kasey Kahne with him. If that's not intentional, I don't know what is. And as for Bayne racing the way he did, and I assume you mean the incident with Cole Whitt, that was problematic of the racing all weekend long, no matter what series it was. It was just plain impossible to pass, no matter how much faster you were that the car/truck you were trying to pass. The only way Joey Logano could have ever passed Kevin Harvick was to get him stuck behind slower cars, and that's how he did it. The only way Denny Hamlin was able to pass Carl Edwards late in the Cup race was to force it, which Brian Vickers refused to do just minutes earlier, which cost him the race. And the same driver led every lap of the Truck race. The only position changes occurred on restarts, and that purely depended on what line you were in. If you were on the inside line, you went backwards, plain and simple, and if you did try a move on the inside, the result was similar to what happens when you get out of the draft at Daytona and Talladega, you go straight to the back, unless someone else is kind enough to let you in. And in the incident between Bayne and Whitt, Bayne was on much fresher tires, yet stil could not pass Whitt after racing him for about 10-15 laps, another indicator that it was virtually impossible to pass all weekend long. Instead of making it so the inside line had a better chance, Bruton Smith made that situation far worse than it's ever been just about anywhere, because the guy on the outside line seemed to have about 50 more horsepower than the guy on the inside line, a fact that made passing almost impossible. 49. Talon64 posted: 08.27.2012 - 4:35 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "Menard is a mediocre driver. He is having an alright season because he usually finishes 15th every week. He isn't a roadblock like Kevin Conway but he isn't showing any speed to win races. Infact, he has no top 5s yet this season. He just brings sponsorship to the table while not tearing up equipment and getting decent finishes." He had some legit top 5 runs last year, but losing Scott Miller to MWR has really taken the entire Cup organization down a notch. That's had more of an effect on MWR replacing RCR on the team totem pole than anything, and why Menard, Harvick and Burton have been invisible as far as the top 5 goes (5 top 5's in 78 starts for RCR this year). BTW, Menard's top 10 was the 900th career top 10 for Richard Childress Racing in Cup (2237 starts, 40.23%). 348 of them belong to Dale Earnhardt in 529 starts (65.78%). 50. murb posted: 08.27.2012 - 4:51 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "He isn't a roadblock like Kevin Conway but he isn't showing any speed to win races." Burton and Harvick aren't either. Talon said it best. Scott Miller was a huge part of the team over there and it seems like they are missing him. And in addition to that, it just seems to me like Richard cares way more about how his grandsons are doing in the lower divisions than how his Cup program is running. So I think all of that just adds up into why they have been so bad this year. 51. Talon64 posted: 08.27.2012 - 5:03 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) oh, and it was just pointed out to me that Paul Menard's been the highest finishing RCR driver in each of the last 4 Cup races. You're only as good as what you've got, and Menard's been making more of it than Burton or Harvick. Joey Logano picks up his 15th career Nationwide Series victory, tying him with Todd Bodine, Randy LaJoie, Larry Pearson and Morgan Shepherd for 18th on the all time list, and his career-high 6th win of 2012 in only 15 starts. Logano also picked up his 80th career top 10 in 103 series starts; his .7767 top 10 % ranks 1st all time among drivers with at least 100 starts. Logano also surpassed 2000 career laps led in this race. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finishes 2nd in a race for the 7th time in his career and 4th time in 2012. It's his 7th top 2 finish in 23 races this season, compared to 5 in 34 races in 2011. It's also his 9th top 5 in 19 career short track starts (10.0 avg fin). Kyle Busch finishes in the top 5 for just the 3rd time in 14 starts in 2012 (1st top 5 since Charlotte back in late May), but his 3rd straight top 10 (4 straight finishes between 22nd and 28th prior to that). Austin Dillon's the highest finishing rookie of the race in 4th, his first top 5 in 4 races but his 17th top 10 of the year which ties RCR teammate Elliott Sadler and Stenhouse Jr. for the series lead. Elliott Sadler has back-to-back top 5's for the first since Iowa and Charlotte back in May, but it's his 4th top 5 in the last 6 races. Cole Whitt picks up his first top 10 in 5 races and just his 2nd in the last 9 (7 in the first 14 races of 2012). Ryan Blaney picks up his 3rd top 10 in his first 6 career Nationwide starts, tying his best finish in 7th. It's his 4th top 10 in 7 starts between Trucks and NNS (16.5 avg fin, but that includes his last place finish in his 2nd NNS start). Michael Annett picks up his 6th top 10 in 25 career short track starts (16.6 avg fin, best at any type of track). Danica Patrick gets just her 5th top 10 in 48 career Nationwide starts and just her 2nd top 10 of 2012. It ended a 17 race top 10 drought for her. It's also her first top 10 in 7 short track starts (20.1 avg fin). Sam Hornish Jr. extends his top 10 streak to 11 races, but his streak of top 3 finishes comes to an end at 4. Trevor Bayne picked up his 5th career Nationwide pole in 85 series starts, but his first since 2010. 4 of them are at short tracks. 52. cjs3872 posted: 08.27.2012 - 5:52 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Murb, Burton doesn't have it any more. I think last year showed that without a shadow of a doubt, because while all of his teammates were running up front and winning races (even Menard ran up front and won a race, albeit on fuel mileage), Burton couldn't find the front of the field with a compass, except on the plate tracks. However, it must also be said that the overall performance of the Childress cars were lacking even last year, even though their cars won six times. Remember that in Kevin Harvick's first three wins last year, he led a TOTAL of nine laps in those wins, and Menard's win was on fuel mileage, though it car was fast enough to run up front, having led earlier in that same race. In other words, Scott Miller leaving is not the only thing affecting Childress' Cup program this year. I've said this before, but Childress is just not putting a whole lot of effort into his Cup program now, and is instead focusing on his Nationwide and Truck series teams, since his grandsons are racing there. Once Austin moves up to Cup, you'll see more emphasis put on the Cup program, but not until then. 53. 10andJoe posted: 08.27.2012 - 7:54 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Atlanta entry list is out, 44 cars: -Koch in the SR2 #00 -Kyle Fowler in the #08 -Efland in the #4 -Hill in the #15, Fain Skinner in the #41, Scott Riggs in the #71, no #75 -Hamilin in the #18 -Benny Gordon in the #24 -Buescher in the #30 -#39 and #52 TBA -DiBenedetto in the #42, Yeley in the #47 -T.J. Bell back in the #50 -Kyle in the #54 -John Jackson in the #72 -Harmon back in the #74 -Sorenson in the #98 -Pastrana, throwing away his future ROTY candidacy, in the #99 54. DaleSrFanForever posted: 08.27.2012 - 8:17 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Yeesh, Dale still has well over 1/3 of RCR's Top 10's. And it is even worse with wins, Top 5's, and laps led. 55. Rusty posted: 08.28.2012 - 7:07 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Kyle Busch's streak of consecutive seasons with a win in the Nationwide Series (which has gone back to 2004) is in serious danger. This race was probably his best chance. He will be in the race this weekend at Atlanta, but after that his only scheduled start in the #54 will be at Texas in November. The mile and a halfs have been pretty poor to KBM this year (minus Kurt's 2nd place finish at Kentucky), so I don't see him getting a win. 56. Daniel posted: 08.28.2012 - 9:46 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) -Josh Wise now in the #42 -Stephen Leicht now in the #47 -Joey Gase in the #52 57. Daniel posted: 08.30.2012 - 4:42 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) -Matt Carter now in the #39 58. Dave #38 Fan posted: 08.31.2012 - 9:30 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) pastrana could still be a rookie of the year candidate next year, i believe. since the "points in one series rule" started, roty eligibilty has changed. at the beginning of this year nascar told trevor bayne that he could run for cup rookie of the year, despite having run 17 races the previous season, because he had not been running for cup points. 59. ch posted: 01.19.2014 - 1:15 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) 00 Owner: Jason Sciavicco 00 Sponsor: SR2 Motorsports ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: