2025 NASCAR

[220]

Might be a bit of carnage at Dover early, practice and qualifying both washed out so grid set on results from the last race and championship position.
No one will know what sort of car they have under them or how it is driving, even worse for SVG he will start the race from 6th having never even driven a single lap of the track in a cup car.
He has said multiple times the lack of meaningful practice is what is holding him back and the biggest challenge on ovals. Usually rolls out and is 2-3sec a lap slower, by the end of practice with a little tunning and a few laps under his belt he is within 1 sec but tires are shot so he still never really knows how close he is on pace. Then has to go out and put in one lap on fresh tires for qualifying not knowing how the car will drive at the limit.

[220]

Another win yesterday for Connor Zilisch in the rain shortened Xfinity race, the kid is on fire second oval win for the year, makes him the youngest driver to 4 career wins in Xfinity, youngest with back to back wins and a heap of other minor records.
He has moved to 2nd in regular season points and leading playoff points, he missed the Texas race after injuring his back in a big wreck. Since returning he has been on a tear 3 wins 3 2nds a 4th and 5th. Probably should have won in Mexico, that was his 5th place finish and one of the 2nds was to SVG at Chicago. Since returning he has an average finish over the last 8 races of 2.2 prior to his wreck his average oval finish was 18.4.
He is generational talent, still no announcement of him moving up to cup next year but with him contracted to Trackhouse and them announcing a few weeks back that Suarez contract will not be renewed for next season it is a foregone conclusion.
Trackhouse might just be putting together the most dominant driver lineup Nascar has seen, certainly with road courses I can see them winning every race if Zilisch steps up to cup. He is already the only driver that can get anywhere near SVG on pure pace on a road course, looks like he has worked out ovals.

[220]

Win number 4 for the year for Hamlin.
Another bad oval result for SVG that doesnt reflect the pace he had. Was on the radio screaming the car was undrivable and something must be broken from the drop of the green, circulated for a few laps and dropped to last before pitting. Slow puncture and 8psi in the front right, came back out numerous laps down just ahead of Elliot leading and drove away from him for 30 laps until the first yellow, turned in lap times all day that would have comfortably had him running inside the top 20.

[Cowboy Gun Fan]

Well, I have to say that I sure saw it different. He was 4 laps down after the tire issue, but ended up 7 laps down by the end of the race.

[220]

Well, I have to say that I sure saw it different. He was 4 laps down after the tire issue, but ended up 7 laps down by the end of the race.

Look at the actual average long and short run pace etc.
When you are laps down you are restarting every green at the back, on a track like Dover with a 23/24sec lap time that means you loose half a lap every restart by the time cars are up to pace. You are then running in dirty air trying to work forward while the leaders are in clean air.
He was passing a dozen or so cars every green flag run actually pulling laps back against those he was restarting with.
If you restart 10th and loose 20sec to the leader over a green run you will stay on the lead lap, if you restart 36th and loose 10 sec to the leader over the same run you will go down a lap simply because of the compromised track position you are restarting from event though your actual pace is better.

[Cowboy Gun Fan]

Once the leader came around, for 3 additional times they were in the same air. And for 3 additional times, he got passed.

[Vaquero]

From a Racecar driver. If it has wheels, he's competitive.

Screenshot_20250724_173928_Facebook.jpg (789.13 KiB) Viewed 1044 times

RP

[220]

The trouble is most nascar watchers want to see close races, wrecks and the winner decided in the last lap.
They dont want to see the best driver on the day win and certainly not comfortably unless it is their favorite driver.
Nascar have delivered what fans wanted, was listening to Hamlin the other day and I think he is right with his claim the best car/driver on the day only wins about 20% of oval races. Sad but that is the reality, road course on the other hand that percentage is over 50% and despite stage racing, cautions and everything else nascar throw at it the best still win most of the time.

Anyway Indy should be interesting, 7 cars qualified in the top 10 that are not locked into the playoffs with a win, SVG will line up on the 6th row P11. The only surprise with his starting position is the 2 other team cars are back around 30th. Shallow banking, 90 degree turns that require braking and a limited playbook for teams/drivers with this car due to running the road course for a number of years mean he isnt going into the weekend as far behind as normal.

[markiver54]

Sorry for my ignorance in asking, but short of going back through this entire thread looking, who is SVG?

[Vaquero]

Like I've said many a time I "was" a Big fan for a Long time, the stupid stage thing was the straw that killed for me.
That is not racing!!! You don't see any kind of that stupidity in any other form of racing.

Drop the damn flag and race to end of the predetermined distance, and slow the race for cautions that occur on the track, ONLY.
Pausing it so that everyone can get caught up is not real racing. If you can't keep up with the pace. You Lose, plain and simple.

One of the best short track races I ever saw in person was right down the road from me in Millington TN. (it was actually an hour away) it was a 5/8's mile. It has since be torn up.
The Busch series and the truck series each raced it once a year there for a few years.
Kevin Harvick qualified 2nd, and was accused of jumping the initial start and was black flagged and sent to the back.
It was something to see, he was a man on a mission. He eventually passed every car and came back to win.
It was one Hell of a show he put on that day.

You'll "never" see anything like that with the stupidity of the stage crap.

220, where is the Indy race? hot as it is here right now, I don't plan on being outside tomorrow. I might look it up.
At the least there won't be any dumb stage pauses.

RP

[Vaquero]

Sorry for my ignorance in asking, but short of going back through this entire thread looking, who is SVG?

A big time racer from the land down under. New Zealand I believe to be exact, Shane Robert van Gisbergen .

RP

[markiver54]

Sorry for my ignorance in asking, but short of going back through this entire thread looking, who is SVG?

A big time racer from the land down under. New Zealand I believe to be exact, Shane Robert van Gisbergen .

RP

Oh!..now I know why I didn't know who it was. Never heard that name before.
No offense intended 220. Enjoy.

[Sir Henry]

Like I've said many a time I "was" a Big fan for a Long time, the stupid stage thing was the straw that killed for me.
That is not racing!!! You don't see any kind of that stupidity in any other form of racing.

Drop the damn flag and race to end of the predetermined distance, and slow the race for cautions that occur on the track, ONLY.
Pausing it so that everyone can get caught up is not real racing. If you can't keep up with the pace. You Lose, plain and simple.

One of the best short track races I ever saw in person was right down the road from me in Millington TN. (it was actually an hour away) it was a 5/8's mile. It has since be torn up.
The Busch series and the truck series each raced it once a year there for a few years.
Kevin Harvick qualified 2nd, and was accused of jumping the initial start and was black flagged and sent to the back.
It was something to see, he was a man on a mission. He eventually passed every car and came back to win.
It was one Hell of a show he put on that day.

You'll "never" see anything like that with the stupidity of the stage crap.

220, where is the Indy race? hot as it is here right now, I don't plan on being outside tomorrow. I might look it up.

RP

Same here.

[220]

Iowa this weekend, the win went to Bubba last week, well deserved in my opinion, ran at or near the front the whole race and held of Larson twice on overtime restarts. SVG finished with a top 20 despite an evil car that was way off the pace on long runs.

Iowa is another track that SVG has not run in a cup car but being only the 2nd year they have raced it in these cars no one has much of a playbook to rely on for setup so I expect him to qualify well. Hopefully they can give him a race car that is a bit better than last week on long runs.

[220]

Classic example of why oval racing is all about luck and rarely does the best driver/car win.
170 laps before the first caution, 12 in the next 100 and they would be lucky to have raced 10 laps under green, might as well be watching a demolition derby.

[Vaquero]

RP

[BigAl52]

And the third place driver had more points than anyone so didn’t he win the race

[Vaquero]

And the third place driver had more points than anyone so didn’t he win the race

Tht sounds about right for today's "NASCAR"


RP

[220]

And the third place driver had more points than anyone so didn’t he win the race

The 4th place driver also had more points than the driver that finished 1st, heck the 12th place driver managed to accumulate 41 points, a win is only worth 40.

[220]

SVG update for the race, qualified 21st, bit lower than I was expecting but around 10 places ahead of both team mates. Ran around 20th for the first third of the race before spinning on his own damaging the rear and dropping 2 laps and bringing out the 1st caution.
Managed to get back to 1 lap down through strategy, then passed half a dozen cars that were also a lap down on pace got the lucky dog and put back on the lead lap. Passed a heap of cars again and was running around 15th when he got hit and spun, dropped to the back and stayed there for the remainder of the race.
Pretty typical oval race for him, top 20 car on pace but found a way to back on his own, overcame that and then got some assistance to go to the back again.
Next race is Watkins Glen, SVG will no doubt start as an unbackable favorite, might be an interesting race as Trackhouse will be running a 4th car for Connor Zilisch. Zilisch continued his amazing run in Xfinity with a 4th at Iowa, since his return from injury 10 races ago he has not finished worse than 5th.