blksn8k2 Posted May 6, 2017 Share Posted May 6, 2017 I missed the FS1 coverage of Cup practice earlier today but I see that the last nine cars in the qualifying order are all Fords. I believe qualifying order at the plate tracks is set by practice speeds. In other words, the fastest cars in practice go out last to run their solo qualifying laps. The idea being that as qualifying proceeds the speeds should theoretically get faster. Another made for TV gimmick (IMO) to hold fan interest since single car runs are pretty boring. Because qualifying doesn't start until 4 PM I suppose their is also the chance that track conditions (lower temps) will be better toward the end of qualifying which might lend some importance to practice speeds. Today's first practice was only a few minutes long before it was red flagged due to rain and final practice was cancelled for the same reason. I assume all of those Ford teams must have lined up together in a draft which would explain why they had the fastest speeds. Bowyer was fastest at 196.822 mph with SHR teammate Harvick second at 196.439. Unfortunately, if qualifying were to be rained out tomorrow afternoon the field would be set by driver points which means those practice speeds wouldn't mean squat. Not that they really mean much anyway... On the bright side (pun intended) the Intellicast weather report for Talladega shows clear skies with 0% chance of rain between 4 and 6 PM. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdegrand Posted May 6, 2017 Share Posted May 6, 2017 Ford sets new speed record at Talladega at 212.809 MPH!!! Oops, sorry, that was 30 years ago! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blksn8k2 Posted May 8, 2017 Author Share Posted May 8, 2017 Congrats to Ricky Stenhouse Jr and Roush-Fenway Racing on their win today at Talladega and Ricky's first in the Cup series. That makes five wins in the first ten races of 2017 for Ford Performance. Ricky also won the pole for today's race which gets him into next year's Clash and the win gets him into the Chase and the All-Star race. Well done! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdegrand Posted May 8, 2017 Share Posted May 8, 2017 Congrats to Ricky Stenhouse Jr and Roush-Fenway Racing on their win today at Talladega and Ricky's first in the Cup series. That makes five wins in the first ten races of 2017 for Ford Performance. Ricky also won the pole for today's race which gets him into next year's Clash and the win gets him into the Chase and the All-Star race. Well done! Ricky was awesome...I think he should give thanks to Johnson who pushed him past Kyle.Amazing how he was able to catch and pass him for the win. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Rosadini Posted May 8, 2017 Share Posted May 8, 2017 Great finish-wonder how many Fords would have been in top 5 without the "Big One". "Cat in the Hat" must be smiling today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akirby Posted May 8, 2017 Share Posted May 8, 2017 And he gets to go home with Danica...... Win/Win! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blksn8k2 Posted May 9, 2017 Author Share Posted May 9, 2017 Ricky was awesome...I think he should give thanks to Johnson who pushed him past Kyle. Amazing how he was able to catch and pass him for the win. Johnson may have helped him get there but Stenhouse kind of stalled out once he and Kyle were side by side. There was a lot of skillful side drafting that finally got him into the lead and then a lot of lane changes to stay there. I still say this is not real racing. Its just bait for "fans" who like to see wrecks. Too bad they have to rely on aero manipulation and blocking to win these races. Both of those tactics are what lead to the majority of crashes. Not sure what DW was talking about when he said there have always been "big ones" ever since he started racing on the superspeedways. I went to several Daytona 500s before 1988 and I don't recall seeing a lot of multi-car wrecks. Back then the cars got spread out just like they do today on mile and a half tracks. If somebody blew a tire and hit the wall they didn't take out half the field. Not saying it was all that exciting but the fastest car and/or the best driver usually won which is what racing should be all about, instead of just holding your right foot on the floor and hoping like hell you don't hit anything or get hit by somebody else which is damn near impossible when all the cars are separated by two feet or less and running 190 mph. These races always come down to a mad scramble in the last five laps between those who were lucky enough to survive the "big one" and not be the cause of another one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fuzzymoomoo Posted May 9, 2017 Share Posted May 9, 2017 DW's definition of "big one" is very broad. Remember he comes from the days when a hard crash was a big deal. He's also the guy who had one of the most infamous flips in Daytona history. It's a generational thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blksn8k2 Posted May 9, 2017 Author Share Posted May 9, 2017 (edited) That may be but I suspect he is more likely just defending the chaos. If you are referring to his 1991 crash during the Pepsi 400 that was also a restrictor plate race. Edited May 9, 2017 by blksn8k2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fuzzymoomoo Posted May 9, 2017 Share Posted May 9, 2017 If you are referring to his 1991 crash during the Pepsi 400 that was also a restrictor plate race. That's the one. In the days when cars were still a little more strung out and pack racing was only just starting to be a thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdegrand Posted May 10, 2017 Share Posted May 10, 2017 That may be but I suspect he is more likely just defending the chaos. If you are referring to his 1991 crash during the Pepsi 400 that was also a restrictor plate race. 3 years later NASCAR requires roof flaps on the cars. I wonder if Allison's car would have flipped so violently if it had roof flaps? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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