2024 NASCAR

[cooperhawk]

We went to bed and missed the end to the Xfinity. Who won?

[220]

every form of racing has its own set of skills that a driver must master to excel .... the number of formula 1 racers who've successfully crossed over to NASCAR is small .... the same is true for going the other direction .... it will take him a while to get things figured out .... there is no doubt as to his talent so, given time, he'll be fine

I honestly dont expect it to take long for him to figure it out,
Marcus Ambrose finished 8th in points his first season in what is now Xfinity making the switch from supercars and went on to be the most successful international driver in Nascar history with 7 wins 7 poles and nearly 70 top 10 finished across Xfinity and Cup in what were mid tier cars as best. Scotty Mac finished 2nd in his first Indy oval race, won rookie of the year against Jimmy Johnson and Roman Grosjean making the switch from Nascar and F1 respectively and has been a championship contender after a years learning.
SVG did win in his first Cup start, history would indicate the switch, adaptation and success in another racing series from supercars can be very rapid.
All 3 drivers have made the switch as multiple supercars champions and while still in the prime of their careers.
The big difference is Marcus only spent 7 years in supercars, Scotty 8 years in the main game, SVG has been racing in the main supercars series for 17 years, Given supercars and Nascars are now more similar that they have ever been I dont think it will hurt him.
His solo qualifying pace at Dayton, his couple of cup starts last year and even his truck start show he has the driving skills and pace already. Certainly on road or street courses his race craft is as good as the best Nascar drivers just needs to get his oval race craft up to speed.
I expect his oval results will reflect this, top 5 in qualifying but back further in the races until he figures it out.
At 34 he really doesnt have much time to learn, I think the plan with him is a year in Xfinity to learn the ovals, some race craft and make rookie mistakes like last week. Being slow off pit lane and never getting into the draft in the ARCA group qualifying and the contact when he moved up in the Xfinity race are the type of rookie errors we can expect.

[JEBar]

next xfinity Race Saturday .. Feb. 24 .. 5:00 pm ET .. RAPTOR King of Tough 250​ at Atlanta Motor Speedway .. on FOX

next Cup Race Sunday .. Feb. 25 .. 3:00 pm ET .. Ambetter Health 400 ​at Atlanta Motor Speedway .. on FOX

[Vaquero]

next xfinity Race Friday .. Feb. 24 .. 5:00 pm ET .. RAPTOR King of Tough 250​ at Atlanta Motor Speedway .. on FOX

next Cup Race Sunday .. Feb. 25 .. 3:00 pm ET .. Ambetter Health 400 ​at Atlanta Motor Speedway .. on FOX

Hey Jim, today is Friday the 23rd tomorrow is the 24th. Jus say'n.
I've been to a couple races there, and they can flat out truck around that place, or at least they "used" to.

RP

[JEBar]

thanks for catching that typo .... I've fixed it, xfinity tomorrow (Saturday) .... Cup race the next day

Atlanta has been rebuilt to become a Daytona style track that is about a mile shorter

[220]

Nascar do like to do things differently, cant believe straight into qualifying without any practice at all.
For a rookie like SVG who has never turned a lap on the track it has to put them at big a disadvantage, imagine most of the other Xfinity rookies have at least run the track before.
Despite this the Xfinity rookies did pretty well in qualifying, Jesse Love became the first rookie to start a season with back to back poles SVG will start 13th and Deegan 19th.

With a Saturday afternoon Xfinity race start the time difference works pretty well for us down under and results in a 9am race start Sunday morning watching on the east coast. Unfortunately I am going to miss the live broadcast again as to much farm work I cant put off.

[JEBar]

Jesse Love's #2 Camaro was the class of the field in today's xfinity race at Atlanta but he didn't win .... my girl Hailie Deegan and a bunch of others (including Jesse Love) ran out of fuel .... the fuel issue seemed to really hit the Fords harder than the other manufactures ..... when it all shook out, Austin Hill won in his #21 Camaro .... Hailie finished 27th

[220]

Watched the highlights and some race reviews, SVG had a reasonable race and looks to have learnt a bit from last week.
Seemed happy to sit 10-15 for most of the race and stay out of trouble. Went to the back of the pack on one restart after the team pitted him to make an adjustment on all their cars after one of them cut a tire early on due to set up. Drove back through the field into 10-15 on the restart.
On the lead lap with reasonable track position and good on fuel at the final restart and finished 3rd.

Looking forward to seeing how he goes next weekend at Las Vegas, my understanding is tire and fuel conservation play a big part on the intermediate ovals. SVG excelled at both in supercars so will be interested in if it translates.

[JEBar]

Atlanta Cup race is on FOX (channel 50 on our Direct TV) with prerace show starting at 2PM Eastern .... green flag drops around 3PM

[JEBar]

the race is off to a rough start .... big wreck on lap 2 .... 16 cars damaged, mostly minor