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Daytona Weekend


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Should be a good weekend. Got the big race on Sunday, and whether you love her or hate her, watching Danica always makes it interesting. Not a big fan of her personally, but enjoy when she is in the race. Any other NASCAR fans?

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Should be a good weekend. Got the big race on Sunday, and whether you love her or hate her, watching Danica always makes it interesting. Not a big fan of her personally, but enjoy when she is in the race. Any other NASCAR fans?
I'm a Nascar fan, grew up watching The Intimidator. I think Danica will struggle but she will have good cars so she won't be just riding around like Shawna Robinson and some of the other females that have attempted to race have. She will bring in alot of new fans which won't hurt the sport any, and give it more coverage which has already been growing quickly in the last 10 years. Nascar has changed alot from when I was younger, but I still catch most every race but you have to have TrackPass to not be bored at some of the tracks.
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"Any other fans here?"Well, duh. Yeah, there will be mocking from some, but I'll always have the back of a fellow NASCAR fan. Dale was my guy, too. If you click on the "NPR" link in my sig, you can hear the commentary I did for NPR commemorating his death.Is Danica in Nationwide or is she in the big show? I thought it was just Nationwide. Either way, she will make mistakes, but (like Montoya) will get a lot more negative attention for them than she deserves and more than any white southern male rookie would get. It will take 2-3 years, minimum, before we know whether or not she can handle a stock car. Even with a background in Indy racing, she is just like every other rookie out there and will have a learning curve. Part of joining NASCAR is spending two or three years with other drivers calling you an idiot.We'll see about this "please be aggressive" strategy. I hate seeing NASCAR try to orchestrate the race, whether it's to make it "more exciting," which often leads to pointless cautions and huge pile-ups, or whether it's to make the drivers more "presentable," a strategy which has lasted for decades and damn near killed the sport. Their job is to organize the event and make sure the cars are safe. It's a driver's job to provide the excitement, and their personalities are their business (or, in the case of JJ, their complete vacuum where a personality ought to be).In terms of ratings and ticket sales, the sport has slowly drifted downward ever since Dale was killed, then the recession really hammered ticket sales. This will be a pivotal year for them, and obviously they've made Danica and a hoped-for resurgence of Junior the focus of all their hopes. That's another way they attempt to orchestrate the sport -- they believe that so-called "fairy tale" stories, like the 1980 hockey team, can be written by committee and then forced into reality by dictatorial will.But, much as I vent about the leadership, come this Sunday I'll be there looking for Smoke, the 88, and a few others.

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Any thoughts on the impact of the "chase" playoff style format? I like the concept, but I think they should have kept tweaking it - I still don't bother tuning in to probably the last 2 races when the champion is a forgone conclusion, just as it was in the past.

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Any thoughts on the impact of the "chase" playoff style format? I like the concept, but I think they should have kept tweaking it - I still don't bother tuning in to probably the last 2 races when the champion is a forgone conclusion, just as it was in the past.
I'm on the fence about the Chase format. On one hand it makes the end of the season more exciting but takes away from a team that dominated 26 races by wiping the points lead away. It's great for the fans but I would hate to have a comfortable cushion in the points then have it cleared away and then have a bad race or two and end up 10th in the points.
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Any thoughts on the impact of the "chase" playoff style format? I like the concept, but I think they should have kept tweaking it - I still don't bother tuning in to probably the last 2 races when the champion is a forgone conclusion, just as it was in the past.
I still hate it. NASCAR is trying to be more like the stick-and-ball sports by having a playoff, but they have the best versus the best EVERY WEEK. They don't have to create a post-season to make that happen.The only thing I like about it is that it has the potential to make the points race go down to the wire, but that potential hasn't really been fulfilled.If I ran NASCAR, I would think about retooling the enitre year-long points system so that points would be tighter without a fake playoff. Or, if I absolutely had to have a Chase, I'd reset the points, then cram several non-points events in a row, so they could race ballls to the wall for a whole month, then, once they're all wound up, have only the last five races count.But they're using the Chase to mask the fact that teams are far from equal, and it's going to boil down to just a handful of guys each year with any real chance to win.
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Or, if I absolutely had to have a Chase, I'd reset the points, then cram several non-points events in a row, so they could race ballls to the wall for a whole month, then, once they're all wound up, have only the last five races count.
For what it's worth, I'm not a NASCAR fan, but I start following it during the chase. I also like Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon, which probably also shows I'm not a true NASCAR fan.I also think your idea of having non-points events would lead to the exact opposite of what you want. Why go all out when it doesn't mean anything? It would just lead to teams experimenting with different set-ups and strategies and winning would be the secondary goal.
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For what it's worth, I'm not a NASCAR fan, but I start following it during the chase. I also like Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon, which probably also shows I'm not a true NASCAR fan.
I am pretty much the same minus Jeff Gordon. He is a little too hicky for my taste but I like Jimmy. I pretty much only watch F1 and German and British Touring. Ovals bore me, road courses are for the real drivers.I will watch highlights on Sportscenter now just to see Danica have one of her girlie temper tantrums like she had often in the IRL. She is such a dink.
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Hicky? Isn't he a California boy?I like Danica. Go daddy.
According to Wiki, because I have no idea, he was born in Cali, raised in corn country Indiana and not in North Carolina. I find him hicky.She has no hips nor breasts and kind of dumb. I get turned off by dumb girls with no boobs.
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She has no hips nor breasts and kind of dumb. I get turned off by dumb girls with no boobs.
She can be pretty hot at times.danica-patrick-si-swimsuit-feb-08.jpgEdit: I think this is what happens when non-racing guys get talking about racing.I liked JJ's comment: "I'll race anything if there's a trophy."
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She can be pretty hot at times.danica-patrick-si-swimsuit-feb-08.jpg
Still, no boobs. I need boobs. I used to be a butt man but as I get older boobs became my focus. Not HUGE boobs but something decent to grab and this girl ain't got em. Look at her left boob. You can clearly tell that bikini top is all padding. Shame. But she can drive. I will give her that. Most women can't.
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For what it's worth, I'm not a NASCAR fan, but I start following it during the chase. I also like Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon, which probably also shows I'm not a true NASCAR fan.I also think your idea of having non-points events would lead to the exact opposite of what you want. Why go all out when it doesn't mean anything? It would just lead to teams experimenting with different set-ups and strategies and winning would be the secondary goal.
Y'know, this makes perfect sense but it's never been the way NASCAR drivers think. For them, the championship is so important that they _only_ really go balls-out during the non-points events. That's their chance to get payback on a driver they dislike, wreck someone to get them out of the way, and generally go ape-shit. It's entirely possible that this mindset will change to something more like what you describe, but in the past the non-points events were the ones where winning was absolutely the only thing that mattered. Points events were so important that a driver would be smart and careful and think about the big picture and take a sold, boring fifth rather than go for a win and risk winding up 30th after crashing.
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Here's a thought....why do they need to have an annual champion at all?I'd probably be more inclined to watch races if they were just one-off races for cash, kind of similar to how pro golf used to be before they came up with their stupid fedex cup crap. I think they'd be more likely to go all out every week without having to be conservative and just keep getting their championship points.

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Here's a thought....why do they need to have an annual champion at all?I'd probably be more inclined to watch races if they were just one-off races for cash, kind of similar to how pro golf used to be before they came up with their stupid fedex cup crap. I think they'd be more likely to go all out every week without having to be conservative and just keep getting their championship points.
Most sports crown a national champ, and NASCAR has a huge inferiority complex when it comes to other sports. If it weren't for that, if they could think as clearly as you, this would be the perfect idea. Alternately, they could just call the champ the guy who won the most races in the year. That way, they would indeed go all out for the win every week.The background is that the sport used to be like this, in the 1950s and 60s. The problem then was that the sport paid so little (not enough to live on) that some drivers sat out the small events and only raced in the big ones. The instituted a points system to discourage that. But that's miles from being the case today. Drivers would race every week no matter what. So doing away with the point system would be for the best.
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It was a great race, especially at the end. Nice start to the season -- I think I was more excited watching this race than I was for the whole of the last couple of years. So sweet to see McMurray cry in Victory Lane. When NASCAR told the drivers they could express emotion, I don't think they expected weeping, but it was genuine.

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Happy for Jaimie but crying? Seriously?What a vag.
You wouldn't shed a few tears if you accomplished something you had dreamed about your whole life? Whatever you do for a living, imagine getting the highest honor/biggest payday or whatever would be the pinnacle of your profession. I guess some show more emotion than others, but I probably would lose it as well in that situation. Glad for McMurray, one of the good guys in the sport and thought he got a raw deal from Roush(although Roush was forced into it) so it's good to see him win.
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Despite the two hour plus delay, awesome race to watch. Really happy for McMurray.I thought this was Stewart's year, and he was a nonfactor.
I think your sig has been proven wrong. Too many others being paid to play with them.
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  • 1 month later...

This weekend -- Bristol, baby!!!!! Woot!The screaming, foot-stomping, black-wearing, cage-rattling heart and soul of NASCAR.If a casual non-fan wants to know what the sport is really about, don't bother watching Daytona. Watch Bristol (this is even truer for the night race in August).This track is magic.

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