2023 NASCAR Season

[Vaquero]

Kyle's wins greatly increased after Hendrick let him go. I always wondered how Rick felt every time Kyle won a race. Regrets??
Me too, and I laughed every time, and still say Kyle could/can out drive him any day of the week.

RP

[cooperhawk]

I've watched KB for a long time, even when he was Mr. 110% and always wrecked. I figured he'd find his niche and make a go do it and he sure has. I still root for him. I just like his tenacity and drive to win. He's really why I watch NASCAR.

Go Rowdy!

[Cowboy Gun Fan]

Great win by Ross Chastain.

The pole winner ran a clean race to boot.

Kyle Busch had a flat early, pit road penalty, hit Blaney when everyone checked up, went sliding sideways through the grass and still salvaged a 9th.

[JEBar]

I was glad to see Chase have a strong finish .... while a long shot, its still possible for him to get into the chase through points but realistically he needs a win

[Cowboy Gun Fan]

I was glad to see Chase have a strong finish .... while a long shot, its still possible for him to get into the chase through points but realistically he needs a win

Possible as you have mentioned, but he is 64 points away from 16th and would have to pass 9 other drivers in 9 more races.

The way he is going, he should be able to produce a win though, unless his luck is really against him.

[220]

Fairly good start for SVG in Chicago topped the 1st practice session and qualified 3rd.
Certainly looks to be on track for a top 5 or 10 result and a race win is certainly still a reality.

Should be an interesting race, SVG is well used to rubbing and race contact. Will be interesting how the regular drivers deal with him, it is a bit of a double edged sword, they dont have to worry about SVG getting even next weekend or latter in the season if they push him out of the way but at the same time SVG doesnt have to worry about a championship or racing with them for the rest of the season.

[Vaquero]

Fairly good start for SVG in Chicago topped the 1st practice session and qualified 3rd.
Certainly looks to be on track for a top 5 or 10 result and a race win is certainly still a reality.

Should be an interesting race, SVG is well used to rubbing and race contact. Will be interesting how the regular drivers deal with him, it is a bit of a double edged sword, they dont have to worry about SVG getting even next weekend or latter in the season if they push him out of the way but at the same time SVG doesnt have to worry about a championship or racing with them for the rest of the season.

I wish him good luck.

RP

[JEBar]

for the drivers Chicago is a major unknown .... I suspect that it will take most of the race for most of them to get a handle on just how to run the course .... I'll probably watch it but am not a road course fan

[220]

Looks like we will be lucky to get a race, rain delayed and with such a late start not holding much hope of anything happening today.

A wet race would only increase SVGs chances, well used to racing in the wet and regarded as a very good wet weather racer even here in Aus where they regularly run in the wet.

The bit of coverage I have been watching they are making a lot of him being a 3 times Aus supercars champion with 80 race wins. While our supercars are quite similar to the current generation of nascar I think even more impressive is what he has done in one off drives in other series.
Last year he competed in a round of the World Rally Championship and delivered on debut. Entered the WRC2 class, it is for production based cars but runs right along side the custom built WRC monsters. He finished 2nd in WRC2 and 9th outright ahead of many WRC cars. This was against the best rally drivers in the world who have spent their entire careers perfecting driving fast on dirt and in mud.
He did similar in open wheelers when he raced the 2020 NZ Grand Prix, that unfamiliar with the car he set off the in car fire extinguisher on the formation lap and was forced to start from the pits. He came through the field to win.
He has done a fair bit of GT racing around the world including the USA so the left hand drive thing probably isnt quite as foreign to him as they are making out.

If you were looking for a driver from anywhere in the world that could deliver the best result possible in a one off drive I dont think you could find anyone better. Not just nascar, I think you could drop him in a Indycar or F1 and he would be at the limit of the car first race weekend.

[JEBar]

A wet race would only increase SVGs chances,

he only had two good restarts and they came when it counted the most .... SVG most certainly lived up to the hype

[RetiredSeabee]

Enjoyed watching the race more than I expected. SVG got the job done!

[cooperhawk]

Our company left just in time for us to watch the last half of the race. Carol's Father
was a Surgeon and had an office right on on of the streets where they raced and we've
been to that park several times when she was showing me around Chicago. She grew
up there. That said I hope NASCAR does some more of this kind of racing. I really
enjoyed it. The last few laps SVG simply would not be denied the win. He drove a
great race.

[220]

Probably as good a street race as you will get but they arent all that good. A lot of it was down to yellow flags and dubious decisions.
At the start of the race the lead 3 or 4 cars were taking 2 seconds a lap off the rest of the field, yellow flags every 5 laps kept bringing them back to the pack.
Can not believe Nascar shortened the race mid race. Here in Aus all our supercar races are time certain. The races finish at a set time regardless of the distance covered. It is known well in advance of race start so no one disadvantaged and pit strategy is adjusted on the fly by teams. Not that often races finish due to time and you still get teams running back in the pack gambling but you dont get the situation in Chicago of the leaders all day suddenly being mid pack, SVG was probably the most disadvantaged buy the shortening, not only did he drop behind the 10 or 12 cars that had already pitted he had a slow stop and lost another 3 spots dropping him to 19th.
I cant understand the restart positions after the track blockage, SVG made it through and was back up to 10th before the order was rearranged and he was dropped down to 18th again. Have not seen it any any racing series around the world and even in Nascar if there is a big crash at somewhere like Daytona the cars involved dont get put back in their pre crash running order for the restart. In the post race interviews SVG said if it had been any other series he has raced in he would have ploughed straight into the crash. Spotter that he has never raced with before guided him around it.
What those 2 decisions did do was fire SVG up and force him to drive closer to his and the cars limit. We didnt get to see a lot of it until he was back with the leaders but 18th to 1st in around 10 laps. Yes he had a tyre advantage over the early stoppers but it also involved passing multiple cars on the same age tyres driven by the best Nascar racers. Even the tyre advantage wasnt that great as most of the laps had been run behind the pace car if anything SVG should have blown the tyres of his car driving like he did and using them up coming through the pack but he showed he still had a pace advantage when he got to the front.
It really was a showcase of the driving talent he has shown in supercars, where he often is as quick or quicker than anyone on track but somehow makes his tyres last significantly longer and they way he thinks about his racing setting up overtakes well in advance. In a post race interview he was talking about looking at car numbers as he came through the pack and trying to remember who the driver was and their reputations so he knew how aggressive he needed to be to make the move stick.

[BigAl52]

I see Bubba Wallace as usual was showing his maturity

[220]

I am just waiting for teams to start looking at Aus supercars for drivers now.
What SVG did and the way Scotty Mac is going in Indycar highlights the level our top drivers are at and their versatility in different cars.
Certainly not the entire field is at their level but there are a few that have pushed and beaten them regularly.
One of them was running around in Europe over the weekend and claimed a class victory in the Spa 24hr it comes on the back of already having done the same thing in the Daytona 24hr.

[Vaquero]

Probably as good a street race as you will get but they arent all that good. A lot of it was down to yellow flags and dubious decisions.
At the start of the race the lead 3 or 4 cars were taking 2 seconds a lap off the rest of the field, yellow flags every 5 laps kept bringing them back to the pack.
Can not believe Nascar shortened the race mid race. Here in Aus all our supercar races are time certain. The races finish at a set time regardless of the distance covered. It is known well in advance of race start so no one disadvantaged and pit strategy is adjusted on the fly by teams. Not that often races finish due to time and you still get teams running back in the pack gambling but you dont get the situation in Chicago of the leaders all day suddenly being mid pack, SVG was probably the most disadvantaged buy the shortening, not only did he drop behind the 10 or 12 cars that had already pitted he had a slow stop and lost another 3 spots dropping him to 19th.
I cant understand the restart positions after the track blockage, SVG made it through and was back up to 10th before the order was rearranged and he was dropped down to 18th again. Have not seen it any any racing series around the world and even in Nascar if there is a big crash at somewhere like Daytona the cars involved dont get put back in their pre crash running order for the restart. In the post race interviews SVG said if it had been any other series he has raced in he would have ploughed straight into the crash. Spotter that he has never raced with before guided him around it.
What those 2 decisions did do was fire SVG up and force him to drive closer to his and the cars limit. We didnt get to see a lot of it until he was back with the leaders but 18th to 1st in around 10 laps. Yes he had a tyre advantage over the early stoppers but it also involved passing multiple cars on the same age tyres driven by the best Nascar racers. Even the tyre advantage wasnt that great as most of the laps had been run behind the pace car if anything SVG should have blown the tyres of his car driving like he did and using them up coming through the pack but he showed he still had a pace advantage when he got to the front.
It really was a showcase of the driving talent he has shown in supercars, where he often is as quick or quicker than anyone on track but somehow makes his tyres last significantly longer and they way he thinks about his racing setting up overtakes well in advance. In a post race interview he was talking about looking at car numbers as he came through the pack and trying to remember who the driver was and their reputations so he knew how aggressive he needed to be to make the move stick.

Thanks for this, after reading this I wish I had at least seen the end of it.
I may have to look on You tube and see if it's there.

RP

[220]

Lots of talk and discussion about SVG doing another race and where people would like to see him race.
I think if he does another it will be a road course but the one I would love to see him race would be Bristol on dirt.
Probably comes as a shock given his road course racing success but besides the rally experience I have talked about he has also do a bit of speedway dirt track stuff in sprintcars and the like.
I dont think anyone would be surprised if he went 2 from 2 with another road course win and it would be easy to dismiss it with him being regarded as a road course specialist. A top ten result at Bristol would really awaken the world to his talent and I would go as far as to say a win while far less likely than on a road course wouldnt be out of the question.

[220]

Thanks for this, after reading this I wish I had at least seen the end of it.
I may have to look on You tube and see if it's there.

RP

I found the whole race from his incar last night, didnt watch it all just the last 25laps.
Apart from Haley very briefly being let back through for one corner there was only one other car that came back past him and then managed to hold him off for a few laps. The lack of contact and how clean the passing was surprised me.
I expected drivers to bump rub and fight him much more. In most case he was far enough ahead by the next turn that trying to bump him would have resulted in the regular drivers wrecking themselves. The moves were clean and he was leaving enough room for the other cars to safely make the turn even if he was compromising their exit speed. I guess they didnt feel aggrieved enough to feel the need to wreck him and themselves.
2 cars that tried to dive bomb him from well back the next turn and made contact, not sure who it was that hit him hard enough to tear the front fender off their own car but that was about it for contact.

[220]

SVG was back in a supercar today in the first 2 practice sessions for this weekends round. 3rd and 4th in the two sessions.

Came across this today, sort of what I was saying about most of the racing world knowing who he was well before last weekend even if lots of Nascar fans had never heard of him. Pretty high praise coming from the current F1 world champ.


"I stayed awake to watch it," said Verstappen during a media session at Silverstone. "And I've never felt so nervous in my life watching someone else race and trying to win it. So yeah, I was literally screaming in front of my monitor for him to win that.
"I mean that's really really impressive to jump in the car and you don't know ... they are very hard cars to drive. And he just goes in there and he absolutely dominates the race. So yeah, I know he's a great driver. I know what he's capable of. And I know how good he is in different kinds of disciplines. And he is great of course in V8s, that is what he knows, he's great in the rally car as well, and clearly he is great in a NASCAR as well. And I mean thats Shane. He is a crazy right-foot braker still."
Verstappen says he contacted Van Gisbergen after the win to congratulate him.

I have found it amusing the number of fans and even commentators saying Nascar drivers should be embarrassed and have been shown up. Really those saying it should be the ones embarrassed for their limited motorsport knowledge and never having heard of a driver who is arguably the best all around race driver in the world. I thought Scott McLaughlin jumping from a supercar into Indy at the same time Jimmie Johnson made the switch from Nascar and not only embarrassing him performance wise in their first season but also beating Roman Grosjean who made the switch from far similar F1 cars the same season to rookie of the year honors might awaken people to the level and versatility of the top supercar drivers.
With talk of SVG possibly making a switch full time plenty of talk he wont handle ovals, I think the best indicator of how he will handle ovals is how Scotty Mac who had never raced an oval before sitting in a Indy car has gone. His very first oval start he finished 2nd last year he had 3 top 3 finishes from 5 oval starts.

[Vaquero]

220, I found it on You-tube in it's entirety, and watched the last 10 or so laps.
He really did a well job. Congrats to him and the team.

RP