Daytona 500 Open Thread- 2012

Turn Left Racing

I don’t have much respect for the most popular “sport” in the United States.  I’m not talking about Throwball (for which I have very little respect indeed), but Turn Left Racing.  For one thing, the entire skillset is encapsulated in the derisive nickname.

But there are subtleties ek you say, how about that drafting and 4 wide racing?  In the biz they call that packing and makes it one of the most bloodthirsty events in this modern empire of gladiatorial entertainment designed to numb the masses to the atrocities and debauchery of the patrician elite.  These latter day chariot races divide and distract us like the blue and the green.

It’s fortunate for the drivers they build them like bumper cars and make them slow too.  The strict regulations on design and innovation and lack of mechanical connection to their putative brands makes any claim of win on Sunday, sell on Monday mere historic hype.  Who can tell anyway with all the logos?

Motor racing is unique among sports, thanks to its ties to big industry. Nobody ever went to a football game to cheer on a brand of football.

“NASCAR and the Daytona 500 are about as American as you can get, and it’s great to have my campaign represented by one of these incredible machines,” Santorum said in a release. “The race weekend is a wonderful tradition that we’re excited to be a part of as we spread our message. I like how Tony Raines turned some heads last weekend with his qualifying run, and we’d like to keep turning heads, too. I think we’re both looking for a win in the end.”

What’s incredible is that they’re out performed by both the flagship pony cars (and that people still buy this corporate marketing crap).

Packing

(P)ack racing is what the fans want and NASCAR is going to give it to them. Well, so far they got it, and they also have seen multiple accidents in practices/races.

The only way you can push these deliberately engineered bricks through the air is by taking advantage of drafting.  It’s the exact opposite of Formula One.  Drivers are encouraged by physics to get as close as they can.  As if this were not enough, there are frequent cautions mandated like TV time outs simply to draw the field closer together.

So far this year Danica Patrick has crashed twice, once in qualifying (she’ll have to start her backup car) and once in an under card race, booted by a team mate drafting behind her.

Patrick eventually got back into the race after her crew made extensive repairs to her car in the garage area. She finished 38th in a wreck-filled race that was won by James Buescher.

Patrick began the 300-mile event up front after becoming the first woman to win a NASCAR pole position since Shawna Robinson in 1994. She led at the start, spent the first part of the race in the top 10 before getting shuffled out of the draft and falling deeper in the field before the tap by Whitt.

Danica

Personally I think Turn Left Racing fans are only motivated by the prospect of flaming chunks of twisted metal and getting puking drunk on Bud on the Infield.  Danica Patrick represents a chance to broaden the demographic of people who like to watch flaming chunks of twisted metal and getting puking drunk on Bud on the Infield (not that Formula One is noted for its gynocracy and you have the added attraction of having to bribe your way into a seat), just like Jeff Gordon.

It’s a funny thing to call a crash impressive, but that’s what it was, a tremendous, violent, smoldering head-on wreck. All eyes were on Patrick during Thursday’s qualifying races, waiting to see. Basically, waiting to see if the little girl could handle that great big car, and be a worthy competitor when she makes her debut in Sunday’s Daytona 500. What she gave us was something close to a defining moment. We can stop with the haggling over whether to call Patrick a good or bad feminist, and the hand-wringing over her image. Who cares? After watching that wreck, I know exactly what to call her: a pro.

Expect a lot of commentary like that and this

“It’s great for the sport,” said four-time NASCAR champion Jeff Gordon. “Who doesn’t want to see a female driver come in here and be able to race with the guys and do well and be marketable? It’s great for the sport.”

At least until she crashes out.

Daytona 500 Winner Tough To Predict

Out here machinery is show business, and in service of racier racing, the bosses changed up the tech package this year. Now the constant Rube Goldberg recalculation of fuel injection and restrictor plate and spoiler angle and grill opening and water temperature and suspension tuning has everyone flummoxed. Everything you touch affects everything else — push down here and something pops over there — in new and unexpected ways. All at once the cars are light in the tail and skittish at almost every angle of attack. A harsh word or a hard look at the quarter panel of the car in front of you can send it spinning.

To the extent possible, NASCAR recalibrated all of this in the interest of entertainment to break up not only the traditional mass-draft formations of years past, but the more recent two-by-two bumper car pairings as well. The result of this experiment will be made public Sunday. Forecasts I’ve heard around the tool box call for showers of debris and a partly crashy afternoon.

The fact of the matter is that Turn Left Racing is as predictable as professional wrestling, in the sense of-

Who cares?

There will be 43 bumper cars starting today and those that last until the final five laps will be gathered up for a gripping ‘sprint to the finish’.  Rain is predicted and unlike Formula One and IndyCar, Turn Left don’t do wet.  Might get some rain inside your Bud.

(T)he Great American Race remains the Great American Metaphor. All of us racing in circles as fast as we can, going nowhere, chasing a buck.

Now with pretty table.

Grid Driver Number Make Q-Speed
1 Carl Edwards 99 Ford 194.738
2 Greg Biffle 16 Ford 194.087
3 Tony Stewart 14 Chevrolet 193.607
4 Matt Kenseth 17 Ford 193.245
5 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 88 Chevrolet 194.028
6 Regan Smith 78 Chevrolet 191.063
7 Marcos Ambrose 9 Ford 193.999
8 Jimmie Johnson 48 Chevrolet 193.449
9 Jeff Burton 31 Chevrolet 192.777
10 Elliott Sadler 33 Chevrolet 191.270
11 Michael McDowell 98 Ford 190.990
12 Joey Logano 20 Toyota 192.868
13 Kevin Harvick 29 Chevrolet 192.914
14 Kyle Busch 18 Toyota 191.873
15 A J Allmendinger 22 Dodge 193.121
16 Jeff Gordon 24 Chevrolet 193.803
17 Robby Gordon 7 Dodge 188.229
18 Ryan Newman 39 Chevrolet 193.224
19 Jamie McMurray 1 Chevrolet 191.840
20 Kasey Kahne 5 Chevrolet 192.583
21 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 6 Ford 193.665
22 Mark Martin 55 Toyota 193.503
23 Brad Keselowski 2 Dodge 192.992
24 Dave Blaney 36 Chevrolet 191.506
25 David Ragan 34 Ford 193.249
26 Martin Truex Jr. 56 Toyota 193.665
27 Aric Almirola 43 Ford 193.382
28 Kurt Busch 51 Chevrolet 191.363
29 Danica Patrick 10 Chevrolet 191.738
30 Clint Bowyer 15 Toyota Exemption
31 Denny Hamlin 11 Toyota 191.127
32 Bobby Labonte 47 Toyota 190.022
33 David Gilliland 38 Ford 190.046
34 Joe Nemechek 87 Toyota 191.160
35 Juan Pablo Montoya 42 Chevrolet 192.600
36 Casey Mears 13 Ford 193.844
37 Paul Menard 27 Chevrolet 193.374
38 David Reutimann 93 Toyota 189.235
39 Landon Cassill 83 Toyota 190.605
40 Trevor Bayne 21 Ford 193.615
41 Tony Raines 26 Ford 192.534
42 David Stremme 30 Toyota 191.963
43 Terry Labonte 32 Ford 191.522

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  1. UAW to protest Romney at Daytona 500 today

    By David Shepardson, The Detroit News

    February 26, 2012 at 1:00 am

    Washington- The United Auto Workers will fly a banner over the Daytona 500 NASCAR race on Sunday, reminding voters of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s opposition to the auto bailout.

    The Detroit-based union will pay to fly a plane and banner from 10:30-11:30 a.m. that will read “Mitt Romney: Let Detroit Go Bankrupt” – a reference to a headline on a November 2008 New York Times op-ed that Romney wrote opposing a U.S. bailout of General Motors and Chrysler.



    Romney will attend the Daytona 500 Sunday before returning to Michigan for a rally on Sunday night in Traverse City. Romney has insisted he would not have let the U.S. auto industry collapse, but urged a quicker bankruptcy filing without government help upfront.

  2. it’s who you know.

  3. down the gutters like Formula One.

  4. at least it’s not a pothole.

  5. Weather is still bad and from the looks of the radar there is no chance to dry the track and even start the race for the next several hours

  6. we’re running out of crash footage folks.

    Maybe we’ll re-run that moonshining heritage piece from 1964.

  7. Tomorrow Thunderstorms with an 80% chance of precipitation (as opposed to today’s 70%).

  8. Or again, it’s hard to tell.

  9. this does bring up a mildly interesting question-

    What if they are rained out 2 days in a row?

    This is the Superbowl of their “sport”.

    Do we now tax for domed race tracks?  What about the Carbon Monoxide poisoning?

  10. Noon tomorrow.

    If it’s not raining.

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