By Luke, Thunder Lounge
Friday November 14, 2008
7:23pm CST
Published on Thunder Lounge.

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The image pretty much sums it up.

NASCAR, you’re f***kin’ up. With a ban on testing at tracks where NASCAR plays ball in any of the touring series (Cup, Nationwide, Trucks, and East OR West), you’ve forced these teams (who are going to damn well test anyway, and you know it) to travel that much further to run a car.

How dumb is that? Pretty lame, if you ask me. Although I bet Andy Hillenburg is chomping at the bit. Silly to add a half-mile right outside the backstretch? I think not.

What NASCAR has done
NASCAR has saved face, and created positive press. Does anyone really think this is going to save anyone any money? Are there tracks out there where the teams can go?

The answers to those questions are, “No”, and “You bet your ass”.

Teams need data to make their cars better. They get the best data from a car on a track, with telemetry.

Ever hear of Texas World Speedway? From their website:

“TWS is located on approximately 375 acres with direct access to Highway 6 south of College Station, Texas. In addition to the two mile “D” shaped oval with 22 degree banking turns with 8 degree banking in the front of the grandstands, TWS is a road racers speedway with a 1.8, 1.9 and 2.9 mile high speed road courses. These are the primary track layouts for TWS; however, there are other layouts that can be customized (for example, a 3 mile grand prix road course).“

Sure is a long drive from Charlotte.

What NASCAR should have done
Ban any and all testing at tracks other than Charlotte, Martinsville, Rockingham. Period. Sanctioned by NASCAR or not.

Let teams test all they want, whenever they want, but keep it close enough to home to make it cheap.

OK, the only real benefit there is Charlotte. There are several short tracks in the area they could test at, and (unfortunately) Rockingham is still fair game.

However, what makes up the meat of the schedule? Mile and a half cookie cutters. Where do teams spend a ton of time testing at? Kentucky. See where this is going? Now those will shift to more runs down in Texas. More fuel, further distance, more days away.

So NASCAR may have put on a good game face for the media, but all we have to say is, “Gentlemen, hit your buttons.”

Share your thoughts!.

Filed Under: Nascar, Nationwide Series, Sprint Cup

Tagged As: Bullshit, NASCAR Policies, testing

Trackback URL for: No what? No Testing? Mooooooo…

By Luke, Thunder Lounge
Wednesday October 29, 2008
5:15pm CDT
Published on Thunder Lounge.

You’re two days away from the biggest Halloween party on the planet.

You know how we roll, and unlike Wheaton, we won’t be rickrolling you on this one. Come one, come all, come often. Halloween was made for Thunder Lounge, racing, watching NASCAR and drinkin’ beeeeeer.

(Someday we’ll get back to covering the series, we swear. Until then, check out some posts from a few of the Lounge Lizards.)

Share your thoughts!.

Filed Under: Nascar, Texas, Thunder Lounge, Tracks

Tagged As: Nascar, Texas Motor Speedway, Thunder Lounge

Trackback URL for: Two Days and Counting

By Luke, Thunder Lounge
Friday September 26, 2008
10:44am CDT
Published on Thunder Lounge.

October 31st: Thunder Lounge
Texas Motor Speedway Infield
Live DJ, BYOB
Party ’til the cops send ya home.

Thunder Lounge is not affiliated with Texas Motor Speedway. We just live there 12 days a year.

Look for more details in the next couple of weeks.

Share your thoughts!.

Filed Under: Nascar, Nextel Cup, Texas, Thunder Lounge, Tracks



Trackback URL for: Coming October 31st…

By Charlie Turner, Thunder Lounge
Sunday April 6, 2008
10:39pm CDT
Published on Thunder Lounge.

Forty two Sprint Cup drivers hated NASCAR’s experiment in stock car design after the Samsung 500 Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway.

Jeff Gordon actually parked his car early - after an inevitable spin and wall wack - and insisted that crew chief Steve Letarte “fix the dang thing”. Gordon later returned to the track to taste the results of Letarte’s efforts. The leftovers weren’t much better and after a few more laps Gordon called it a day. Jeff said that they tried every possible set-up. Nothing works for the team. That is not a good sign.

Gordon’s teammate Jimmy Johnson finished second and led sixty-some laps. All-in-all that is a big improvement from recent results, but Johnson says the new car needs help. You can’t drive it in traffic, it needs more down-force. And this is a team that has tested the new car nearly every non-race day for the last two weeks. Hell, Chad - can I hear a hallelujah - Knauss is the crew chief! If they can’t figure it out ……?

Maybe Joe Gibbs Racing can. Not according to third place finisher Kyle Busch who said;

“Was it fun to drive? No. Was it hard to drive? Yes,” Busch said. “Did it survive the day? Yes. So was it a good day? Sure.”

Kyle was asked to talk further about the car and said:

“I’m not going to answer that question. Ask NASCAR that question.”

Ryan Newman finished fourth, but flunked the post-race rectal and will undoubtedly lose points, cash and crew chief attendance for a while. Presumably because they exceeded legality in the effort to fix the problems with the car. So much for the cheating solution.

The race winner was Carl “flipper” Edwards - for the third time this year. Carl doesn’t see the problem. At all. It isn’t so much that Edwards thinks that his new cars handle any better than his competitor’s rides. He just thinks the way that they are is OK. The same for everybody, a challenge to drive for sure but rewarding to master. He likes it.

NASCAR says they have no intention of making big - or even small - changes to the former CoT. That fact may make Carl Edwards the eventual champion of the first Sprint CoT Cup Series.

Join the discussion.

Filed Under: Carl Edwards, Charlie Turner, Guest Authors, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch, Sprint Cup, Texas

Tagged As: Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon, Jimmy Johnson, kyle busch, Nascar, Samsung 500, Texas Motor Speedway

Trackback URL for: Carl Edwards says “what problems” to new car critics

By Charlie Turner, Thunder Lounge
Sunday April 6, 2008
9:05am CDT
Published on Thunder Lounge.

NASCAR’s annual silly season is off to an early start.

Last week the story was of Richard Childress Racing capturing the General Mills flag from the Petty #43 and planting it on the hood of a fourth RCR Cup car. Where there’s a car there must eventually be a driver and the speculation began that Petty Enterprises’ Bobby Labonte might make the move to that ride in 2009. The last few days have seen the names of Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards, Martin Truex Jr emerge. Earlier, others had speculated that Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman were possibilities.

Next up came the news that Kyle Petty was pulling himself or being ranked - you decide - from the Petty #45 and being replaced by young Chad McCumbee - at least for the Texas race. The #45 is well out of the top thirty five in owner’s points now and it feels like Kyle may be on the way out of the picture as a full time driver for the venerable team.

Then yesterday came rumblings from Florida, where Chip Ganassi is watching over his Indy Car investment and stewing about the performance of his three Cup teams. Chip isn’t happy with either Dario Franchitti’s or Reed Sorenson’s seasons so far. Ganassi talks as if he feels the problems are more team than driver related. But that wouldn’t make me feel all that comfortable if I were Dario or Reed.

The top thirty five qualifying rule puts more focus and pressure on the tail-enders of Sprint Cup. We’ve only had one race since the automatic qualifiers started being based on this year’s owners’ points. The sixth race of the year is now opening day for NASCAR’s silly season.

4 comments. Add your 2 cents!.

Filed Under: Bobby Labonte, Carl Edwards, Charlie Turner, Chip Ganassi Racing #40, Dario Franchitti, Greg Biffle, Guest Authors, Kyle Petty, Petty Enterprises #45, Reed Sorenson, Ricky Rudd, Sprint Cup, Teams

Tagged As: Chad McCumbee, Chip Ganassi, Greg Biffle, Indy Car, Kyle Petty, Nascar, Petty Enterprises, Richard Childress Racing, silly season, Tony Stewart

Trackback URL for: The six race NASCAR honeymoon is over