Cup Schedule kicks off tomorrow with The Clash..............Sunday 11 Feb 3 PM Eastern on FS1

Duels 1 and 2 .............Thursday 15 Feb 7 PM Eastern on FS1

Daytona 500................Sunday Feb 18 230 PM Eastern on Fox



Xfinity Daytona Race...........Saturday Feb 17 230 PM Eastern on FS1

Just watched practice for the “Clash”....the Fords look good in the draft!

I'd like to see Chase Elliott win a few races this season. Just wish he was driving a Ford, and the #9 one at that.

Exactly!

It will be the first time in 35 years that a beer sponsored car will not be in the race.

1983
Budweiser – Terry Labonte
Miller High Life – Bobby Allison
Old Milwaukee – Tim Richmond

1984
Budweiser – Darrell Waltrip, Neil Bonnett
Old Milwaukee – Tim Richmond
Miller High Life – Bobby Allison

1985
Coors – Bill Elliott
Budweiser – Darrell Waltrip, Neil Bonnett
Miller – Bobby Allison
Old Milwaukee – Tim Richmond

1986
Budweiser – Darrell Waltrip, Neil Bonnett
Miller American – Bobby Hillin Jr., Bobby Allison
Coors – Bill Elliott

1987
Coors – Bill Elliot
Miller American – Bobby Allison, Bobby Hillin Jr.
Budweiser – Terry Labonte

1988
Miller High Life – Bobby Allison, Bobby Hillin Jr.
Budweiser – Terry Labonte
Stroh’s Light – Mark Martin
Coors – Bill Elliott

1989
Budweiser – Terry Labonte
Miller High Life – Mike Alexander, Bobby Hillin Jr.
Stroh’s Light – Mark Martin
Coors – Bill Elliott

1990
Coors – Bill Elliott
Miller Genuine Draft – Rusty Wallace
Budweiser – Geoffrey Bodine

1991
Miller Genuine Draft – Rusty Wallace
Coors Light – Bill Elliott
Budweiser – Geoffrey Bodine

1992
Keystone – Wally Dallenbach
Budweiser – Bill Elliott
Miller Genuine Draft – Rusty Wallace

1993
Keystone – Wally Dallenbach
Miller Genuine Draft – Rusty Wallace
Budweiser – Bill Elliott

1994
Budweiser – Bill Elliott
Miller Genuine Draft – Rusty Wallace

1995
Budweiser – Ken Schrader
Coors Light – Kyle Petty
Miller Genuine Draft – Rusty Wallace

1996
Budweiser – Ken Schrader
Miller – Rusty Wallace
Coors Light – Kyle Petty

1997
Budweiser – Ricky Craven
Coors Light – Robby Gordon
Miller Lite – Rusty Wallace

1998
Miller Lite – Rusty Wallace
Budweiser – Ricky Craven
Coors Light – Sterling Marlin

1999
Miller Lite – Rusty Wallace
Budweiser – Wally Dallenbach
Coors Light – Sterling Marlin

2000
Miller Lite – Rusty Wallace
Budweiser – Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Coors Light – Sterling Marlin

2001
Budweiser – Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Miller Lite – Rusty Wallace
Coors Light – Sterling Marlin

2002
Coors Light – Sterling Marlin
Miller Lite – Rusty Wallace
Budweiser – Dale Earnhardt Jr.

2003
Coors Light – Sterling Marlin
Miller Lite – Rusty Wallace
Budweiser – Dale Earnhardt Jr.

2004
Budweiser – Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Miller Lite – Rusty Wallace
Coors Light – Sterling Marlin

2005
Budweiser – Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Coors Light – Sterling Marlin
Miller Lite – Rusty Wallace

2006
Budweiser – Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Miller Lite – Kurt Busch

2007
Coors Light – David Stremme
Budweiser – Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Miller Lite – Kurt Busch

2008
Miller Lite – Kurt Busch
Budweiser – Kasey Kahne

2009
Miller Lite – Kurt Busch
Budweiser – Kasey Kahne

2010
Miller Lite – Kurt Busch
Budweiser – Kasey Kahne

2011
Miller Lite – Brad Keselowski
Budweiser – Kevin Harvick

2012
Budweiser – Kevin Harvick
Miller Lite – Brad Keselowski

2013
Miller Lite – Brad Keselowski
Budweiser – Kevin Harvick

2014
Miller Lite – Brad Keselowski
Budweiser – Kevin Harvick

2015
Budweiser – Kevin Harvick
Miller Lite – Brad Keselowski

2016
Miller Lite – Brad Keselowski

2017
Miller Lite – Brad Keselowski

The Fords do look fast and I too would like to see Chase in one.
Looks like this will be it for Danica in a Cup race, I'll not miss the Danica presence.

Whack, interesting, it's still Winston Cup to me....

I still remember Awesome Bill from Dawsonville and that #9 back when the T-Birds were racing.

Like him or not, but being a "local" boy I have always been a Kenseth fan, but with him out, I can't drum up any enthusiasm this year.

I really enjoy watching those guys running full throttle 3 abreast and 3 feet off the bumper of the guys in front of them. Man, you gotta have balls that clang to stay in the throttle like that. Not trying to hijack the thread, but who does Danica get to wreck cars for or come in 25th in every race this year?

She's driving the #7 car for Premium Motorsports . They bought the assets from Tommy Baldwin Racing and the #15 charter.

She's driving one race, only one.

Danica only has a 1 race deal in NASCAR and has announced her retirement from racing after she runs the Indy 500 later this year.

Maybe she and Ricky plan to get pregnant!

Her and Ricky slit up. She's doing Arron Rodgers now.

Wow! Someone has to have written a great joke about that.

That's when NASCAR was at it's best. I think it made a huge difference when fans could actually identify with a certain make and model of a car, instead of today's setup when they are all pretty much the same. Back in those days, a T-Bird that raced on Sunday looked pretty much like the T-Bird that the Ford dealer had in his showroom. I just don't see that in today's cars.

The Pied Piper of plate-racing is gone.

Ain't right.

The Winston cup was what racing was about, the schitt show you watch now is the big time wrestling of wannabe's, what kind of man could raise not one but two of the biggest hemorrhoid host's in the world as the elder Busch?

I think I would rather floss the neighbors cats teeth, than watch today's version of Iroc racing Daytona 7 1/2 mile race!

I haven't watched a race over 5 minutes since Bill Elliott retired. Agree about the Winston Cup.

You're pretty much on target..............WWF at it's best.

Also, 1st time w/o an Earnhardt in the race since around 1980 or so............and that's sad.

Dale Sr. was the best to ever sit behind a wheel, like him or not.

MM

I'm gonna watch some of it.

I met Matt DiBenedetto through one of his high school friends that I work with in the USAF at Vegas a couple years ago. That dude is just plain cool and is really loving his racing career. His team is growing (GoFas) and has recently partnered with Wood Brothers. I am very excited to see what that small team may be able to pull out.

Lot of driver/ car changes this year
Daytona will be a demolition derby.
Anyone watch the ARCA race?

An old Coast Guard buddy of mine has been working on pit crews since he got out. In 14 he won a championship with Harvick, and last year he won a championship with Truex. He's with Kurt Busch this year, so I am pulling for them. His name is Tony Cardamone. He was a mechanic at our SAR station and LOVED to put a wrench on things. He's living the good life now.

Actually, there is an Earnhardt in the race. Jeffrey Earnhardt, grandson of Dale Sr, is driving the 0 car for StarCom Racing.

I agree that senior was arguably the best ever!

GK

I still think of Dale at times and his many post race interviews explaining how some driver he was racing managed to wreck, or if he happened to be in victory lane the way he always thanked Speedy and the Boys back at the shop. After he passed you might say NASCAR kind of drove off and left me. Partially because there had been a spate of fatalities in NASCAR preceding Dales fatal crash including Adam Petty and Kenny Irwin Jr both at Loudon and serious life changing injuries for Ernie Irvin, Ricky Craven and Steve Park.

With nobody left to torment Jeff Gordon and the added influx of young talent, it was easy to slowly step away from watching the sport over the next couple years. About 5 or 6 years ago I started getting back into watching. NASCAR is loaded with talent, the cars and tracks are safer, the points system having been tweaked several times makes sense and is more fair in rewarding performance and helps keep the races compelling.

Your right Sawbuck. There is more talent in NASCAR now then there ever was. The racing is so much better and the cars are better.
In the good old days there would only be a dozen cars left on the tack by the end of any race and two or three on the lead lap. Most cars dropped out because of mechanical faliure. Nowdays only a couple will have a failure. There was only 3 or 4 drivers that had a chance of winning a race. Now there are 20 drivers with a good shot at winning.
I've never been a huge Jimmy Johnson fan but you have to give him credit for being in the top three drivers to ever climb into a cup car. It's amazing how him and Chad can make a car that's a slug at the start of a race and by mid race have the fastest car on the track.
The kids coming in are unbelievably talented. Look at Chase Elliott. At his age he is a much better driver than is father was. Ask his dad, he'll tell you.

The King was much better than the Intimidator. Same number of championships and way more wins.

I remember one year Dale was racing toward the finish with Terry Labonte at Bristol. Jeremy had the lead with a lap to go. Dale did what Dale did best when he couldn't find the speed to pass. He spun Labonte out, and he was just rattling his cage a little bit. At a Pocono race shortly thereafter Dale found himself in the lead late in the race with none other than Jeremy Mayfield behind him. Jeremy pulled an Intimidator on Dale and won the race. Crybaby Dale didn't think that Jeremy was "just rattling his cage a little bit." I have to admit to laughing pretty hard when Mayfield made him eat his own words.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C79DaWrMD70

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wF-VhY6fitU

Don't know how much racing you've been around,but to call today's NASCAR as the best ever is a huge reach at best. There are some talented drivers but the racing is pathetically boring. The tracks are mostly one-groove, the cars so aerodynamically sensitive that the racing is unending follow-the-leader. In the name of safety the "car of tomorrow" was introduced in 2008. The outspoken drivers all called it a POS. NASCAR has declined ever since.

The Bristol night race is the best race of the series. Short tracks under the lights is what it's all about. And there's always someone bumper to bumper and fighting for position somewhere on the track.

Then there's the overload of commercials, and never ending caution laps......10 yellow flag laps for a spring rubber on the track, bunch everybody back up for a monster pileup and a red flag.....

The spring-rubber cautions are how NASCAR superficially injects some actual racing back into the one-groove monotony.

88 car on the pole. Alex Bowman filling some big shoes.

I don't hate NASCAR but I like road racing better.

The good news is that Road America is starting their season with an AER race on the 16th.

I bet there is a lot of pretty women there.

Does his boyfriend know?

Nascar must have issued that magic plate again like they did for Dillon in the 3 and Danica in the 10, and many others in the past.

Car owners control their number(s).

Poor Jimmy. Bring on Thursday!

Yeah, but I was talking about that magic (oversize) plate that delivers extra speed for selected racers to qualify

Glad to hear NASCAR is starting back up. Perfect napping sport. Can watch the start and a few laps, take a couple hour nap and wake up for the ending.

The homeless bums in Daytona will eat good.
Damn that place is schithole.

Well Aaron has a $22,000,000. a year paycheck for throwing a football and Danica's mother didn't raise no dummy. She could drive or let Aaron do the driving. The problem with all the NASCAR hype is that people use that same NASCAR spacing out on the streets and Interstate with no thought what so ever for the reaction time that it would them to control their own car.

I have been involved with professional racing for over 50 years.
Your talking points are BS.
Most tracks have more grooves than ever. Progressive banking??? Most tracks last year they were running three wide for most of the race. That's exciting!
I know it is a sin to criticize the King but the fact is he padded his wins with Saturday night dirt track wins. Back then any NASCAR event counted as a win. He would haul his cup car out to some podunk track and beat up on locals. Pull out his bogus wins and he would barely be in the top five.
The cheating back then was rampant. That is why there was only a couple cars that had any chance of winning.
Case in point,
Bill Elliott's 1985 Winston 500 win at Talladega Superspeedway where he came back from being two laps down to win with a 1.72 seconds lead. There was no "lucky dog" or wave arounds back then. He was running over 1 second a lap faster than the fastest cars on the track.
As a engine builder and engineer I can tell you the only way someone could do that is to have a illegal car.
Sure, it was a exciting race to watch but it was cheating.
Junior Johnson laughs and brags about the ways he cheated.
Dale Inman is a little more tight lipped but he will give you a sheepish grin and say he doesn't know nothing.
Smokey Yunick was my mentor. Best damn cheater ever.
Herb Nab was very innovative.....
Bud Moore could really dance around the rules too.
The system was rigged back then. Big Bill France could be easily bought off. When one manufacturer would start winning the others would go to him and cry (and slip some money under the table) and the rules would change.
It is almost impossible to cheat now.
Joey Logano had his Richmond win taken away from him because of a rear suspension violation. The truck trailing arm spacer/pinion angle shim mating surfaces must be planar and must be in complete contact with corresponding mating surfaces at all points and at all times.
In Todd Gordon words,
“I’ll start with a short synopsis of what our rear suspension is made up of,” Gordon said. “Our rear suspension has two trailing arm. We call them truck arms because it’s much like out of a mid-60s Chevrolet truck. There’s two 51-inch long trailing arms and two I-beams that come back and bolt to the rear housing. Then there’s a bar we call the track bar that bolts from the chassis on the right to the left-side truck arm. That’s kind of the make-up of the rear suspension that our cars have.

“In order to set the pinion angle — and that’s part of what the ruling was, the pinion mating surfaces — there are pads on the rear end housing that are part of the bolting mechanism. There’s a U-bolt going down over the housing to bolt it together. Where that pad is and the truck arm is, we can put an angled shim in there to change where the drive shaft angle is coming to the rear end. We call that pinion angle.

“What NASCAR found is, the pinion shims and the mating surfaces have to be full contact at all the time. That’s what we violated. On the right-side truck arm at the back of the pinion shim, there was a 32nd of an inch gap. And the rule says it has to be in contact the whole time. It’s unfortunate, it’s not something I thought we’d have an issue with it but it’s part of the system we’ve got.”
So basically they lost a win because there was a 0.03125 gap between the right-side truck arm at the back of the pinion shim.
How many wins from the good ol days would have been thrown out because of such a minor infraction?
Do you think racing today would be better if Kyle Bush and Brad Keselowski were 3 laps ahead of the field with only 10 cars left on the track? That is how it was back in the day.
I have found that most of the people that complain about the racing not being as good as it was are not now or ever have been real fans of the sport or understand the sport.

If the racing is so much better than the "good ole days" then why are the stands empty ?

Tracks that have been sold out forever, are now tearing out seats because its embarrassing how few fans they have left.

The puke pack can't buy the fans that big time wrestling has, the IROC style of cars driven by pre puberty age brats, on cookie cutter tracks with every finish under caution is not the racing that race fans care to see. NASCar simply sucks in comparison to the racing most of us grew up with.

I have to agree. my main problem with the sport today is the changing of rules mid-season. no way busch would have won a title without nascars help. lets wait til sunday and see how many fans they lost when Earnhardt retired. then we'll know what kind offan base they will have this year.

Really???

Yea, that's what I thought. It's rare that they finish under yellow, only when it comes after they reach half way on the last lap in overtime. Cookie cutter tracks? Even though a lot of them look the same, they are far from being cookie cutter.

Personally, I think the racing has never been better, especially with the segments and point system.

I'm glad to see them on the track again. I love it more than any other pro sport. It rained here all weekend, so I watched all the racing that was on. The restrictor plate tracks can be a little boring, but this years aero package allows them to pass.

Oh yea, poor Jimmy Johnson........crashed again.

Never said one thing about the good-old days. I know boring when I see it. Three-wide racing for the whole race? Unless you're talking about a plate race you've lost your mind.

Tony Stewart couldn't wait to get away from NASCAR bulls*** racing.

Does Bush pit Keselowski's little gaybutt in this scenario? If so, then yes is the answer to your question.

I think more than anything else NASCAR has lost some of its novelty. Beyond that young people aren't watching it and a lot of old timers quit when their favorite drivers retired.

When he could no longer compete against better talent the crybaby took his ball and went home.

I don't understand why anyone would think today's racing is better than 10 - 20 years ago, in today's racing everyone drives an IROC style car, with a different paint scheme,and more places are gained or lost in the pits then during the race itself. Once again the seats are empty, that says it all, ten lap cautions of "debri" on the track, so they have time to get enough commercials in before the race finishes under the mandatory white flag lap wreck.

Racing would be so much better with fewer rules, maintain the 3550 lb weight limit and the limit on cubic inches, and the valuable safety "stuff" it is very much needed, trash the restrictor plates and similar restrictions.

Tire size and width should be the only thing that should change from track to track, let the drivers and the crew chiefs figure out how to go fast and win races and not just the luck of the draw, or luck of the crash.

I'll take his anti -establishment attitude any day. He wanted to drive the car, not deal with douchebag sponsors, media or fans who couldn't possibly know what goes on behind the scenes.

The above ten times, there is no racing today, it's what pace car team, can change tires fastest throughout the selected number of laps, or until commercial sponsors say that they must get alap or two before we call it a ............win.

It must have been so difficult for him to have fans that just didn't understand. If I had know that I wouldn't have criticized him.

Time for the Can Am Duel!

Watching racing on TV is getting worse. Watching on a 48" screen in hi def and way to much I'm seeing the cars in a 12" square box while positions, crew chiefs, and graphics take up the rest.
I know the techs love all their fancy gadgets, but don't they know we want to see the damn race?
Somehow I managed to get all the commercials in full screen.

I usually wait for NBC to take over coverage before getting too bent about it.

The cars and the racing might be technically better.

But the segments, the cautions, and the France family suck!

Just look in the stands.

POS Silver-spoonfed Austin Dillon wrecks Almirola for the win.

That SOB! I despised him before but more now. He needs to get his ASAP. Don't like his grandfather either even if he is an NRA board member. He kept Mark Martin from winning a championship one year. Something to do with a part on his engine that everybody else had too.

I wanted Danica's old car to win. That would have been great!

Dillon did the same thing Dale would have done!

Or anybody else in the race that wanted to win, the gloves were off in that race.

Lead, follow, or GTF out of the way.

Amirola did not have the speed. He should have chose option three.

Wrong! Watch the clip. Dillon stalls out before he reaches Almirolas bumper. He then proceeds to move off to the side to turn him.

Not speed.... tactics

Dillon caught Amirola, and as has been pointed out did exactly what what DE would have done.

This

I like that bubba Wallace kid hope he is was what petty Motorsports needs.. too bad about all the Hendrick cars getting wrecked out..

Who here wouldn't drive over somebody to achieve a life long goal when it was right in front of them?
Like the movie "major league", the train is coming and you're on the track.

I was rooting for Bubba!

A lot of them including Dale Jr.

If interviewed, he would not agree with your love of Dillons driving.

Odd race without Stewart, Gordon and Junior, no?

Never Jr. fan.
He never won a championship, his dad did.

Dale jr is a nutless puss. You can defenitely say that apple fell far from the tree. Liberal POS. His dad would be embarrassed...

But your daddy's real proud

How’d you know?

It’s bad when another man idolizes someone so much they wear their jersey, or even choose their race car number as their screen name.


That’s a real man..

I was happy for Petty and Bubba.

He is a darn good driver,just needed a good ride.

I really dont understand how folks think that the racing back in the day so to speak was better then it is today. The level of competition today is so much higher and the introduction of stages or segments has added a degree of urgency that was missing. Just look at how hard they were racing yesterday at the ends of the segments!! Absolutely crazy hard racing and sure beats the hell out of just watching them ride. And the race was a sellout again this year. I think they've got it right!!

WWDED!

LMAO.

glad to rcr get a win in the 3 again. dale only stopped racing because of his health problems. sure he rode the Earnhardt name but he proved he could win for a few years. i'd loved to seen him get a championship but he just could keep it together long enough . he brought a lot of very good drivers to the sport by giving them a chance to show what they could do.

I was there, and near that end of the track, the 3 car did the same thing to the 10 car that Logano did to Kensith a couple of years back not a clean win. I can only hope the 10 car takes out the 3 and puts him out of the chase near they end of season just like Kensith did to Logano.

On to Atlanta!

Yeah, great racing & formats so long as you enjoy continuing to see crashemups at the ends of races.............green-white-checkers are a bad joke; the only thing that surprises me is that no one has gotten killed in one ......................yet.

Sure has torn up a lot of equipment though.

Nascar has become a bad joke akin to the WWF. None of the current drivers could carry Dale Sr's jock strap.

MM

I predict NASCAR will not exist in 10 years.....When they closed down Tracks like North Wilkesboro , Rocking Ham and others to go after the Big bucks....They F.U.C.K.E.D up and gave the finger to the Fans that got them to the Major leagues .....The new Kids Don't even Know The difference between a Lug wrench and a Spark plug....So they have no interest in watching a Car with some Rich Prick Driving go in Circles........They can Not relate to these new drivers......When I moved to NC 30 years ago....It was still possible to Build a Car go to one of the Many local tracks and Win Races and make your way to NASCAR... Try that Now...Not going to Happen....

I've followed NASCAR since the early 1960s. I predict you are wrong in predicting the end of NASCAR.

I will stand by my prediction.....They can't stay in business if there is no one to fill the stands.......1/2 the seats look empty Now...What is it going to be like in ten years....


Do a Google search...It a big problem....

I'm not a huge racing fan. However, I do like to watch NHRA, NASCAR, Indy, Trans Am and Formula 1 racing from time to time.

Spectrum Cable and whoever they carried Fox through are in a contract dispute and we haven't had Fox in about three weeks now. I had to watch the Daytona 500 on a Spanish speaking channel....I have all I can to handle English and know no Spanish. Once Chase Elliot wrecked out I couldn't take it anymore and went and did something else.

NYH1.

All Nascar needs to do is stop having their "rule change of the week" and let things settle down a bit.
Leave the cars alone for a while and above all don't hold the first race of the year with cars that haven't been tested in race conditions
New cars in the hands of overeager kids are a sure bet to provide wrecks.

Oh yeah for all those remarking how Dillon was handed a top flight ride because of his family, where were you when Jr. got the same treatment?