Windtunnel 2008 - The TrekBBS Racing Season Thread

[Calhoun24]

Football's almost over (Thank God), and you know what that means: the 2008 racing season is upon us again. Whether it be NASCAR, IRL, Champ Car, F1, MotoGP, or anything else, you can discuss it here at the old Windtunnel.

Ditto about Fantasy Racing! In fact, we should start preparing those leagues again ASAP.

So, it time to bring out all your racing gear, because within a month, we're off racing all over again.

 

[Turbo]

"Thank God"? Oh, Calhoun24, you kidder!

On the subject of racing...

1) I just saw that the East Coast start times have been moved up this year. Nearly all of the Sunday races on the East Coast will start at 2:00 pm. (Huzzah.) The later start times certainly did not help the ratings; glad to see they're coming to their senses. The only two East Coast exceptions are the Daytona 500 (3:20 pm) and the Ford 400 (3:45 pm), and a later start time makes sense for the opener and the closer.

2) Dale Earnhardt, Jr. - I think he'll be much better this year. As much as I hate to admit it, Hendrick is a fantastic racing company. DEI is being mismanaged, IMO. (Anyone notice that they still haven't announced the sponsors for the #01 this year?)

3) Roush Racing has got to take a page out of Hendrick's book and start acting like one team instead of five. It's very frustrating seeing these five drivers beat each other up instead of playing teammates, like Gordon and Johnson do. Get to the front, then race each other. Also, Roush needs to get off his high horse and test his cars. They were terrible in the COT races.

4) JGR is going to be very interesting to watch. If they want to be successful with Toyota, they also need to act like one team instead of three (which is what screwed JJ Yeley).

5) Please, please, please drop the Top 35 rule. At least they didn't change the Chase again.

ETA: Oh, I plumb forgot to mention. Last year, I found that the team I was cheering for the most aside from my favorite drivers (Mark Martin and Carl Edwards) was RCR. Childress has finally gotten his organization back on track, and it's great to see Harvick, Burton, and Bowyer competing.

 

[tomalak301]

Looking forward to the Daytona 500 and to see how Dale Jr. will do this year with Hendrick. Hopefully someone can take Jimmie Johnson off the top spot so he doesn't three peat. And as always, I'm rooting for Jeff Gordon to do well (Whether he wins or not is another issue) but I hope it's a good season with some excitement.

 

[Captain Ice]

It's going to be interesting to see how Earnhardt, Johnson, and Gordon do driving for the same team.

Anyone else actually been watching NASCAR Angels?

 

[Calhoun24]

Actually, can't find the show, but I hear it's still on and still doing good.

I like the new start times as well. The Daytona 500 ending in darkness was very cool last year, and it will be again, as will the finaly at Homestead.

I agree with respect to every other team out there. They have got to look more to what Hendrick is doing and actually act like teammates. Roush may have gotten all his cars in the Chase two years back, but now, the chemistry is falling apart. RCR will be the big threat to Hendrick this year, since they have the most team cohesion besides Hendrick at the moment. With Clint Bowyer's third place finish in the 2007 standings, and Happy Harvick's impending defense of the Daytona 500 crown, they'll be a dark horse team. JGR will struggle with the transition to Toyota, and with that in mind, I don;t think Tony Stewart will be too happy with his ride this year. As for the Dodges, I'm glad they are going back to the Chargers, but Evernham and company have to make the car work one way or another, and Kasey Kahne has to step up again.

Other than that, I just want that pesky football game in Arizona done with so that we can get to some racing!

 

[Gaseous Anomaly]

I just wonder how JGR and Toyota will do this season? I think it was a bad move on their part.

 

[Calhoun24]

I think they're looking at long term benefits. They're now the face of the Toyota brand as of 2008. They might not be good now, but in a year or two, they'll be competitive. And in the end, they're willing to sacrifice one year of mediocrity for long-term competitiveness.

But this year, they'll be the team that will win 1-2 races tops.

 

[Captain Ice]

^ Yep. I envision them coming up with some sort of alliance with the other two Toyota teams and all being competitive at the end of this year or early next.

 

[Gaseous Anomaly]

I still don't see them winning any races. Last year Toyota had trouble just qualifying and getting in the races without using provisional’s.

 

[Calhoun24]

That's because they were just getting into the sport. Now with Gibbs on board, things have changed. Hendrick anchors Chevy, Roush-Fenway anchors Ford, and Evernham anchors Dodge. I think Gibbs made the move to eventually be with those guys in their respective makes.

 

[Turbo]

Actually, I think that Gibbs is going to have the same problems Evernham did last year. Evernham's technical director screwed them by not implementing needed changes, and Ray himself didn't discover that until it was far too late. It took them all year to fix their problems. I think that Gibbs may have a similar situation since they were not able to start working with Toyota until the end of the year, when their Chevy contract expired. They've only had two months to get everything ready and I don't think that's enough time, especially considering Toyota's struggles last year.

 

[Turbo]

Oh, and just to go ahead and get this party started:

Yahoo Sports Fantasy Auto Racing:
http://racing.fantasysports.yahoo.com/auto/group/23522
Group Name: TrekBBS
Password: vbulletin

ESPN Stock Car Challenge:
http://games.espn.go.com/stockcar/group?groupID=3411
Group Name: TrekBBS
Password: vbulletin
ESPN's league is different from the other two in that you have a salary cap instead of a limit on the number of times you can use a certain driver.

FOXSports.com - Fantasy Auto Racing
http://msn.foxsports.com/fantasy/auto/
You'll have to search for our league once you've made your entry.
Group Name: TrekBBS
Password: vbulletin

ETA: I seem to have found ESPN's mini-game instead of the real thing. I shall investigate further into the "real" league and see what the deal is.

ETA2:
ESPN Fantasy Stock Racing 2008:

This one acts differently from the other three. You will have five drivers - four active and one benched. You will receive points based on how they finish in races (using Sprint Cup scoring). The person will the highest score at the end wins.

Here's how to join:
1) Sign up to ESPN.com (if you haven't done so already). Use a working email address. If you don't want to use your real name, use your forum name.
2) Post the email address and name you have in your ESPN.com account in this thread. I will then add you to the league and you should recieve an email.
3) Click on the link in the email. You should be set up and ready to go.

Now, there is one small problem with this league. Picking drivers is done via a draft. Do you guys want to set up a time to draft drivers, or would you rather make a TrekBBS thread about it?

ETA3: You might be able to request to join the league by clicking here: http://games.espn.go.com/fsr/leagueoffice?leagueId=4608

 

[Turbo]

(Sorry for the triple post, but...)

It's official! I'm going to the Daytona 500!

 

[tomalak301]

Turbo said:
(Sorry for the triple post, but...)

It's official! I'm going to the Daytona 500!

Wow. Awesome. Hope you have a fun time.

 

[Calhoun24]

Turbo said:
(Sorry for the triple post, but...)

It's official! I'm going to the Daytona 500!

Have fun, and have a picture with the gold-lined trophy for us that can't be there!

(For those looking in on the thread and don't know, the Daytona 500 is running their 50th race. In honor of the event, they are giving the race a gold feel...including the trophy.)

 

[Captain Ice]

The gold plated cars are just so wrong...

 

[The Doctor]

My racing season starts the first weekend in May. I'm off to road-race school in Gimli Manitoba and will hopefully start my Solo II season a few weeks later. Of course, my car is not at all ready and I'll probably be scrambling to get everything together in time, but that's what racing is all about.

Plans for this year include:

-Further tuning for my new Weber carburetors
-A six-point roll cage
-Additional camber adjustment in the front

I'm also hopefully going to hit some regional events in Alberta and Manitoba this year and get into the points for my class (C-Street Prepared). I'm also responsible for Solo competition in my club this year, so I've got to start looking into track designs and ideas for the coming season, arrange racing insurance and book dates at our venue.

Anyone else hitting the track in '08?

 

[The Habs Fan]

Turbo said:
Oh, and just to go ahead and get this party started:

Yahoo Sports Fantasy Auto Racing:
http://racing.fantasysports.yahoo.com/auto/group/23522
Group Name: TrekBBS
Password: vbulletin

Joined as The Big Machine

 

[Calhoun24]

Two reminders:

1) The Daytona 500 is on Sunday at 2 PM ET on FOX.

And

2) Fantasy racing is still open in the Yahoo, Fox, and ESPN leagues...

 

[tomalak301]

Looking forward to the Race. Congrats to Dale Jr for winning second row. I think right now he is the odds on favorite to win this thing. I hope he does just to make the Earnhardt fans happy this early in the season. I remember when they were saying how the races were fixed last year. I wonder what they will say now that Earnhardt and Gordon and on the same side.