jr

[HiTech]

Nothing like rain to make racers go at it most of the race ...i am starting to like rain ...the first nascar race i have sat down to watch for 400 miles in a few years ......as for jr you cant take away that win .he earned it ..he out raced all others .he started to look like his dad in useing the draft the way he did ... i think he needs to keep that bond he picked up during the yellow .that sure helped him though gordon gave him a much needed bump.. and even with out that he may have won anyway ........now the proof will come in winning more races this year to prove he is no flute ..

[arob]

I'm glad Jr. won also.Happy with 2nd,3rd and 4rth too.Don't think Mr.Dillon made a lot of friends though! Was fun race to watch.

[AMRacer89]

Haven't been that excited watching a race in a while. Wanted Gordon to win of course, but if not him I was all for Jr. winning it.

[NickHolt]

I actually stayed awake for most of this one. Only dozed off a few times, but actually thought the race was worth watching...

[BeachBum]

A perfect Daytona 500. Ran a few laps ... then we all got a 6 hour break to do whatever. It was like unexpected bonus time.

 

Once the track was green ... the grip was tremendous. Action and intrigue on almost every lap.

 

My takeaway. Dillon ain't ready for primetime. Harvick thinks racing is bumper pool and the other cars are there to keep him from crashing. Gordon is a great team mate and there's a reason they call Panica ... Panica!

 

Congrats to Dale. He earned that win fair & square. It was great to see him so appreciative of the accomplishment. Hope he's turned the confidence corner and winning becomes a habit.

[Jamie]

Quote of the night:

 

“The world is right, right now,” said Gordon, a teammate at Hendrick Motorsports. “Dale Jr. just won the Daytona 500 to kick off 2014. That is a sign that the NASCAR season is going to be a good one.”

[Truck99]

Quote of the night:

 

“The world is right, right now,” said Gordon, a teammate at Hendrick Motorsports. “Dale Jr. just won the Daytona 500 to kick off 2014. That is a sign that the NASCAR season is going to be a good one.”

 

Stuff like this why I'm still a Hendrick fan. Way to go Dale Jr.!

[PAPosse]

I'm glad Jr. won also.Happy with 2nd,3rd and 4rth too.Don't think Mr.Dillon made a lot of friends though! Was fun race to watch.

 

Dillon looked like the guy I saw in a dirt late model at Volunteer Speedway in Tennessee about 7 years ago. He's better than what he showed, but when I saw him back then I wondered if he'd ever make it. In fairness, it seemed like Harvick was running into everyobody too.

 

Also need to give a "Welcome to the big time" to Kyle Larson. The kid is going to be good, but I think he's going to face a learning curve like never before and hopefully the expectations won't get the best of him.

 

All in all a good race. I'm not a big Jr. fan, but he drove a good race. I sort of like a Sunday Night Daytona 500....

[jwmbishop]

that was an awesome race. The rookies all showed well, the big guns ran and RACED up front and the finish all the way TO the checkered flag was a real interest grabber.

 

But after the flag flew? dale won and oh by the way there are 40 something OTHER cars (one going at least 75 MPH BACKWARDS down pit road) and some in a crash (how did that car get its nosed flattened - not IN bt DOWn as if a steamroller squashed it?) - but lets show Dale's in car for the next five minutes and forget the finishline excitement for everyone else.

 

I AM glad he won. But gee - would even ONE replay of the last lap wreck in place of 30 seconds of those 5 minutes of riding with Dale have killed anyone?

 

Good NASCAR - BAD Fox...

 

Oh yea and down south somewhere a fellow named Juan is saying "SEE. I told you it was the car and not me...."

[HiTech]

I'm glad Jr. won also.Happy with 2nd,3rd and 4rth too.Don't think Mr.Dillon made a lot of friends though! Was fun race to watch.

YOU SEE IT .EVERY racetrack .someone with to much car with one of the best backing . good team .great equipment ect .and do what he did ..one he is a rookie who jumped from bronze to gold with out hitting silver ....he will learn but i put the blame on his team owner and spotter and crew chief .they should have had him way back the whole race ..

[PAPosse]

 

I'm glad Jr. won also.Happy with 2nd,3rd and 4rth too.Don't think Mr.Dillon made a lot of friends though! Was fun race to watch.

YOU SEE IT .EVERY racetrack .someone with to much car with one of the best backing . good team .great equipment ect .and do what he did ..one he is a rookie who jumped from bronze to gold with out hitting silver ....he will learn but i put the blame on his team owner and spotter and crew chief .they should have had him way back the whole race ..

 

 

Dillon doesn't need to make any excuses because it seemed like everytime he hit someone the announcers blamed it on someone/something else. Except Mikey in the post race who said something to the effect of "Dillon had an interesting race. He got spun out and spun a few others"

 

I think he showed in the trucks and Nationwide races that he can run that type of car...but it's like going from college to the NFL...everything is faster, the competition that much better. Heck, I wanted him to do well because I wanted to hear the conspiracy theories when he drafted with Jr across the finish line.

[Danielsen Motorsports]

Dillon is kind like the other 15 or so teams out there,over his head, but Im sure his learning curve will be quicker at least thats what Childress is hoping. Going to be an expensive year for RCR!

[HiTech]

Dillon is kind like the other 15 or so teams out there,over his head, but Im sure his learning curve will be quicker at least thats what Childress is hoping. Going to be an expensive year for RCR!

yeppers .

[racer61]

I'm gonna get hammered for this but here goes:

I think the race sucked. This new aero package has made single car passing very very difficult. The lead car had the benefit considering the following car couldn't make it to there bumper without help from yet another car. Whether the 88 won or anyone elses is beside the point. It was evident at 20 to go that whoever was leading could hold off the pack (unless it was teammates and even then its sketchy). Nascar got the ratings it was after and yes, Jr was one of the fastest cars and probably the best modern day plate racer there is. But it still doesn't change the way the racing turned out. The last yellow was caused by cars making desperation moves. All in all, disappointing. Half the field tore up isn't a "good" race.

That being said, congrats to jr on the win. On to the rest of the season.

[HiTech]

I'm gonna get hammered for this but here goes:

I think the race sucked. This new aero package has made single car passing very very difficult. The lead car had the benefit considering the following car couldn't make it to there bumper without help from yet another car. Whether the 88 won or anyone elses is beside the point. It was evident at 20 to go that whoever was leading could hold off the pack (unless it was teammates and even then its sketchy). Nascar got the ratings it was after and yes, Jr was one of the fastest cars and probably the best modern day plate racer there is. But it still doesn't change the way the racing turned out. The last yellow was caused by cars making desperation moves. All in all, disappointing. Half the field tore up isn't a "good" race.

That being said, congrats to jr on the win. On to the rest of the season.....

JUST A SMALL HAMMER GIVING WHAT NASCAR GIVES US NOW DAYS IT WAS NOT A BAD RACE . WAS NOT THE BEST WE HAVE SEEN .....DO MOST OF US WISH FOR THE OLD WAYS ..HELL YES ..

[PAPosse]

I will go with Hi-Tech on this one. A ball-pean hammer will do. It's all relative to NASCAR plate racing in this day and age. I still thought it was a good race relatively speaking. I also think when you look at the accidents that took out 1/2 the field there was a definite lack of experience that was involved in triggering them....not just Dillon either.

[AMRacer89]

I'll take it over wheelbarrow racing like we had a couple of years ago; and throughout the weekend, it sounded like the drivers felt the same. I liked it from a tactical standpoint. If you weren't the leader, you had to be strategic in timing your runs, making sure you laid back enough to get a run and slingshot by faster than they could pull up or down to block. If you were the leader you had to either block like crazy, or once a guy behind inevitably pulled alongside, you had to work the side draft in a way that it wasn't advantageous to them.

 

Personally, I'd like to see them replicate the 2001 package. Yeah the 500 that year ended badly, but watch the other events like the Shootout, Twin 125s, and the spring Talladega race. That was some crazy racing!

[HiTech]

I will go with Hi-Tech on this one. A ball-pean hammer will do. It's all relative to NASCAR plate racing in this day and age. I still thought it was a good race relatively speaking. I also think when you look at the accidents that took out 1/2 the field there was a definite lack of experience that was involved in triggering them....not just Dillon either.

lack of experience i would agree with some ..but one or two of the experience driver were the cause of one or more wrecks .... when you run that close for four hours and sitting on the end of your nerves that long .your mind gets tired your not where you want to be stuck back there with not much chance of getting to the front you make mistakes ...i cant make ten laps on a short track and not make a mistake somewhere ..lol

[arob]

Although this was a "better" 500 one thing hasn't changed in my opinion.The Truck Division is still the best NASCAR has as far as entertaining racing.

[poorboy]

Glad that crap is over, now on to some races. It was boring to me as always. I don't think I will ever like Datona or Taladega unless they remove the restrictor plates. If that's to fast for the drivers they can let off and use the brakes.

[PAPosse]

Glad that crap is over, now on to some races. It was boring to me as always. I don't think I will ever like Datona or Taladega unless they remove the restrictor plates. If that's to fast for the drivers they can let off and use the brakes.

 

It was never about it being too fast for the drivers.....it's about trying to keep the cars out of the stands, which is danger enough at 200MPH.....let alone 230+.

 

Improving fan safety is also part of the plan as Daytona rebuilds their grandstands to have them a little further back and the lowest rows a little higher from the racing surface..

[HiTech]

i agree with keeping the cars from ending up in the stands is why they restrict them ...i do miss what poorboy says with letting off and using brakes ..........................BUT we all remember when ford was ford .gm was gm teams were single car owners and so on ..innovative ...but that also created 500 mile boring races with two to three cars and at times a single car running by itself for 500 miles and lapping everyone ...alot was aero. alot was power .gm .ford and fans complained about the different ....for years nascar tried to give each make something to equal them out ..finally the makes made nascar do something for all ...tons more rules and equal balance ..now we have this ...what can be done .who knows ..but i would like for ford /gm and what nots to be innovative again .take off some aero and make these racers drive .......we complain about nascar .but local racing has followed ..just look at the local rule book and you will see they have also changed the rules on motors could only have this max .chassis can only have size and certain parts .weight rule.s ..left side rules .and so on .why ..to make it more equal and make for betting racing ..the best teams with the most money and a decent driver will always be in the fore front .........i will add on short tracks where they need more of em .let the teams go back to innovation ..open that up..

[PAPosse]

I agree with you. Long gone are the days of hearing owners whine about Chevy's air dam, Ford's cylinder heads, Pontiac's spoiler, Buick or Oldsmobile's.....well, there weren't usually too many complaints there. ;-)

 

But sometimes I think people forget that even in the 70's you'd have 2-3 cars or a few more break away from the field, and there's be a last lap "slingshot" pass. It got to the point to where it was predictable. The difference being one car could do it by themselves. On top of that, it wasn't out of the ordinary to have less than 10 cars on the lead lap...and knowing going into the race there were only 5-6 cars that were truly capable of winning - barring some sort of major upset. So the debate continues - is that truly any better? In some ways yes, in other ways no....and it really comes down to your personal preference as a fan.

 

I personally don't like the big pack, one mistake takes out 20 cars type of racing. But on the other hand, I like that a smaller team can eek out a top 10 finish or even win. Unfortunately, You can't have one without the other it seems. For the most part, those smaller teams are "out of it" in 32 races a year, so I can deal with it in the 4 restrictor plate races.

 

Regarding the short tracks - I've been away from the pitside of it too long to get too specific about it. I do know that it's moved to mostly off the shelf, if you've got the money you can go fast - especially in the top divisions. I think that is the appeal of the Street Stock Shootout. I never thought I'd see the day when I would travel 2 hours or more to see a street stock race, but I did it while living in Texas. There's probably more money flying around in those cars than I realize, but it was a lot of fun, a good field of cars, and it seemed like there's more leeway on making your car go fast on a more limited budget.

[HiTech]

Gone are the day of dirty faces .soaked hair .over heated drivers who wanted space to breath and get some cool air before they spoke ... ricky rudd comes to mind ...not anymore with the cadillac they racecars ..but nothing like local racig to get your fill of that it is not lost ..

[arob]

Yessir , local racing is where it is at.And the truck division is the closest NASCAR has to that.The truck race at Eldora was the most talked about race in years.Not to mention the great big grins on every driver interviewed face.I think it is time to make the races shorter.Outside of Daytona and Talladega the races should all be 300 or 400 miles max.Again I point to the Trucks that run the shorter races and the excitement level is up and the boredom level is down.