DAYTONA BABY!!!
 

Gordon's back in VICTORY LANE!!!! WOO!! Attachment 19967

You're a Gordon fan?! Now I totally understand why we don't always get along...'twas a great race though

Life-long. As long as he's driving a race car, I'll be cheering for him. Jeff is a great guy, he treats his fans with a ton of respect.. He treated my brother (who has CP and is in a wheel chair) like a king. Pulled him to the front of the autograph line, sat and talked with him for a few minutes, signed all kinds of stuff for him, it was just awesome..

I pretty much pull for anyone but Jimmie Johnson or Carl Edwards. The rookie battle is going to suck major butt this year, Can't stand Joey Logano or Scott Speed..

That's cool, and he is a generally nice person...I just can't cheer for him. I'm a Carl Edwards fan and I can't stand the rookies either.

However last years rookie is driving for the Denver team, so that's pretty cool. I was a Regan Smith fan ever since Talladega so to see him come to my buddies team is pretty neat stuff. I'm really hoping they have a media day here in state sometime this year, that deal with Smith came together so late that they couldn't put a media day together before Daytona.

If liking an awesome (and under-appreciated) sport makes me a redneck then I guess I am one.

admitting you have a problem is the first step

I don't see why you're so against it. I've been hooked for years, I even go out and work with some of the local racers and whatnot...been trying to get an internship for the local cup team, but that's not happening.

I don't hate it that much or really at all. One of my best friends works in a pit crew in the amatuer circit or whatever they call it. He always told me how exiting it was..... then I got him into autocross. He still works with the crew but he autocrosses every chance he gets even if it means missing a race.

I just find guys going around in a circle hundreds of time a little boring. Once and year when they actually drive on a "track" not a circle I will tune in to see them try to turn the other direction

Yeah, I'd love to do autox sometime but we don't have any of that around here that I'm aware of. Anyway, what amateur circuit? Weekly racing, touring, ASALMS, ARCA, ASA, what?

I don't remember what it's called but the cars look pretty much the same but they only do like 150-170 instead of 200ish his driver owns the three cars and the shop they have I'm not sure if they are sponsored or anything

Sounds a lot like ARCA maybe....they're stock cars right?

I'm pretty sure

I'm hanging out with the guy tonight so I will ask him

Yeah let me know, I know a bunch of those guys so I'm interested to know who it is.

The drivers last name is ponstien or ponsteen

Alright, I officially have no clue. Could be the Camping World west/south series too maybe...

http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/driver...605&seriesId=3

found him

he did some nascar races in 03 and 04 I didn't know that

Hmm...I'm still not familiar. Weird, normally I at least know the names of everybody...guess I let one past me.

wheee! mommy I'm dizzy from watching 60 of the same car go 'round and 'round in a circle the same direction for hours and hours...I wanna see some real racing... like FIA Rally, or any SCCA club race. hmm...24 hr of LeMans...so many more, and far more challenging and interesting racing forms... and then topping all those...Moto GP.

I can't stand Moto GP, and it's 43 cars in NASCAR...duh! lol

Although I must agree with SCCA club racing

Eh' I've heard 'em all when it comes to "driving in circles, blah blah blah.." Mostly that just shows ignorance..

Nascar is an amazing sport that requires split-second reflexes, and intense physical stamina.. Drivers have been known to lose nearly 10lbs in a single race, Imagine working so hard that you lost even 2lbs in 5 hours or less all while driving around 42 other cars doing nearly 200mph or even faster at tracks like Atlanta, Pocono, and Charlotte, do you think you could maintain your concentration with all of those obstacles?

Drivers like Montoya, and Speed among others have said that it is the most demanding and difficult thing that they have ever done and they still can't get a grip on it. Look at drivers like Dario Franchitti, he is one of the worlds best drivers and he couldn't even keep a ride at the cup level. Other drivers that have competed in open wheel and been extremely successful, but had absolutely no success in Nascar include people like Max Papis, PJ Jones, Brian Simo, Jacques Villeneuve and Patrick Carpentier.

I personally have never raced above about 140mph and max of 15-20 other cars on the track, and that was difficult enough. I raced in the same series that Carl Edwards did before he moved to the Truck series, Baby Grands (at the time sanctioned by BGSCA and SCCA) and held the track record at one of my local tracks for about 3 seasons which was a 1/4 mile high-banked oval. My record was 10.25 sec, if you need something to compare that to, I don't think that any of your cars can even run in a straight line in under 11-12 seconds, Imagine driving the same amount of track with two turns on each end with 20 other cars on the track with you.

I should really stop arguing this point, because it seems like people never learn, but ignorance annoys me.


Oh yeah, BTW Ben, working on a race team and driving a car are two different things.. Your buddy was probably an aspiring race car driver that never wanted to be on a pit crew to begin with so ofcourse putting him in a situation to drive a car rather than work on one would fit him much better.. Also, if he skips races to autox, he's obviously not a very important part of the team so chances are that he probably just tags along with one of his buddies to hang out at the races.

Did you even watch the 24hrs @ Daytona this year? That was hoenstly one of the worst races I've ever seen. Porsche had the field licked flat-out with their horsepower advantage in both classes.

Most SCCA "club" classes are pretty crappy, 5-10 beaters driving around some old run down road course.. Sounds real exciting to me. You usually get one guy that has more funding that just runs away with it. AutoX has come a long way, it is probably the most enjoyable class that SCCA has to offer people with street cars and track machines.

I'd have to say that by far some of the best racing you'll ever see is in shifter carts, those guys are insane 90+mph in a gokart with no seatbelt and basically only a helmet to protect them.. Other than that, the atlantic series has been pretty good and F1 was pretty damned amazing last year.

Ive ridden in a nascar being driven by a pro driver. I understand to a tiny degree, the stresses that the drivers face. I just think its more interesting to see drivers go through similar stresses and do more that just left hand turns around an oval 90% of the time.

King: you dont like Moto GP because you probably haven't the slightest clue as to what is required to do what those riders do. Your view is quite common though, everyone drives a car...not nearly as many ride a motorcycle.

No it doesn't it shows that it is boring to Watch I'm sure it would be exiting as hell to drive but most people will never get to do it. You can say that it's interesting to watch but it's just not I can watch a tolet flush and my shit go around in a circle

yeah what he said too.

The friend I have who works in the pit crew changes tires and rivets just as important as any other job there

I love when you talk about ignorance because when you do it's because you are ignoring what people are actually saying Evan

No one said it wasn't difficult and didn't take skill we just said it's not worth the time to watch

No, I know exactly what is required of them to race the way they do. I just can't stand watching a bunch of losers in leather turning left and right on crotch-rockets. Not to mention it's boring as hell to watch too...definitely not my cup-o-tea.

Important, true....but it's not as hard as you might think. I used to be a tire changer for one of the local guys...it's not all that it's talked up to be. And if your buddy it riveting too, he sounds like a middle of the week worker, and not really a pit-crew member.

i had a chance for free tickets for the 500 but i couldnt get off if i tried

Here is the old car I worked on...it's the red/yellow #61

http://a315.ac-images.myspacecdn.com...7e5aba7eca.jpg

FAIL.