Post by dalejrfan on Feb 15, 2006 4:54:24 GMT -5
Driver complaints, complicated inspections: Yep, the season's started now
It had been such a slow start to Speedweeks, you just knew stuff was going to break loose on Sunday. As soon as the sun set, that's precisely what happened. Tony Stewart started decrying the practice of bump drafting, which is every bit as ridiculous as he says it is, and then NASCAR started hinting that post-qualifying inspections were still a "work in progress." Now, the season has officially started.
When the Budweiser Shooutout started, Denny Hamlin told his crew chief Mike Ford he figured that because he's a rookie he'd get no help in the draft and just hoped to earn a little respect from the people he raced against. I'd say he accomplished that mission quite nicely.
You have to laugh at guys who say they don't mind when they qualify poorly for the Daytona 500. Teams spend thousands of dollars testing and tweaking on their cars for the better part of a month leading up to Sunday. Jeff Gordon's team painted everything on the No. 24 Chevrolet instead of using decals for sponsor logos because the infinitesimally small raised level of decals might add a tiny amount of drag, which is the mortal enemy of speed on a restrictor-plate track.
It looked like Daytona, but it sure felt more like Rockingham as fans showed up around 9 a.m. for the Automobile Racing Club of America race on a busy Sunday. It was about 40 degrees with a mean wind blowing. Maybe it just felt colder because you expect it to be warm in Florida.
It had been such a slow start to Speedweeks, you just knew stuff was going to break loose on Sunday. As soon as the sun set, that's precisely what happened. Tony Stewart started decrying the practice of bump drafting, which is every bit as ridiculous as he says it is, and then NASCAR started hinting that post-qualifying inspections were still a "work in progress." Now, the season has officially started.
When the Budweiser Shooutout started, Denny Hamlin told his crew chief Mike Ford he figured that because he's a rookie he'd get no help in the draft and just hoped to earn a little respect from the people he raced against. I'd say he accomplished that mission quite nicely.
You have to laugh at guys who say they don't mind when they qualify poorly for the Daytona 500. Teams spend thousands of dollars testing and tweaking on their cars for the better part of a month leading up to Sunday. Jeff Gordon's team painted everything on the No. 24 Chevrolet instead of using decals for sponsor logos because the infinitesimally small raised level of decals might add a tiny amount of drag, which is the mortal enemy of speed on a restrictor-plate track.
It looked like Daytona, but it sure felt more like Rockingham as fans showed up around 9 a.m. for the Automobile Racing Club of America race on a busy Sunday. It was about 40 degrees with a mean wind blowing. Maybe it just felt colder because you expect it to be warm in Florida.