Official NASCAR Richmond Night Race thread

Oh snap a nail biting finish!!!

Invisibris caution.

And I think the drive through put Edwards so far back that Tony got around him after a while. Edwards was fast, but not fast enough.

Neil

Edited by Option1, 29 April 2012 - 02:37.

Only 13 cars on the lead lap and Montoya one of them. Enters in 8th....Allmendinger a lap down so he'll have easy pit stall access

Came out 6th...JJ behind, what happened to the 48? Any result better than P8 is a big win IMO.

FUUUUUUU got trapped outside and just terrible, left his pressures too low.

KyBu vs Jr at Richmond, have a feeling we've been here before...

Edited by Juablo, 29 April 2012 - 02:41.

Juan pissed because the crew chief should have pumped up the rear pressures a fair amount due to it being a short run. This kind of pisses me off because it's a show of inexperience. P12.

Juan is pretty nice about it though. Ganassi is at the track...will he fly to Brazil tomorrow?

Chip came on and told Juan he ran a great race.

Well that was kinda anti-climactic. A race won on pitroad, must be F1.

Thanks for the company folks, have a great evening.

Neil

nice run by the 88
JPM had about the best weekend he's had all season
Kyle Busch is still the best driver by far in Cup, not that I like him much...

Juan pissed because the crew chief should have pumped up the rear pressures a fair amount due to it being a short run. This kind of pisses me off because it's a show of inexperience. P12.

Juan is pretty nice about it though. Ganassi is at the track...will he fly to Brazil tomorrow?

Chip came on and told Juan he ran a great race.

Also it didn't help that he was in Stewarts lane on the restart

Hey I have to be thankful. These races haven't been interminable affairs punctuated by endless cleanup caution periods. Elapsed time under 3 hours. I'll take it.

Also it didn't help that he was in Stewarts lane on the restart

Exactly. He totally got held up there.

Wow a humble Kyle Bush. How do you do it? GREAT TEAM, GREAT CARS. But you've done it with multiple teams. GREAT TEAM, GREAT CARS.

Not a bad night. Better see all you guys tomorrow for the Indycar race.

Hold on a sec, how was Tony the leader? Carl was the only car that hadn't pitted before the caution came out. Jimmie beat the pace car off, Busch got the lucky dog. I saw Tony get waved around the pace car prior to Carl pitting. What was that all about?

If anything, Jimmie should of been first, then Carl, then Tony, then Kyle, and then everyone else. At least to my understanding.

Edited by Dilla, 29 April 2012 - 02:52.

Hold on a sec, how was Tony the leader? Carl was the only car that hadn't pitted before the caution came out. Jimmie beat the pace car off, Busch got the lucky dog. I saw Tony get waved around the pace car prior to Carl pitting. What was that all about?

If anything, Jimmie should of been first, then Carl, then Tony, then Kyle, and then everyone else. At least to my understanding.

Jimmie had a penalty because one of the tyres was not controlled the entire time it was in the pit stall.

Other than that, who knows? T-Stew should have been the leader, I think. Carl was erroneously told he was the leader.

Not a bad night. Better see all you guys tomorrow for the Indycar race.

When's green flag for that one? (Eastern time if possible)

11am Eastern is when coverage starts - almost exactly 12 hours from now.

Forgot about the penalty, but it's still weird. Maybe it was one of those instances were the where the entire row slide up (instead of taking the time of re-organizing) in when someone in front has a problem?

Huh. How rare is that ( to change drivers during a race) ? I don't think I've ever seen that before in a NASCAR race.

It actually used to happen fairly regularly, in times when there were more crashes and injuries, and also different levels of fitness...... It was not uncommon for drivers who retired early to step into another rival's car - Rusty Wallace almost won a Talladega race after taking over from Ricky Rudd in the 1980s, in effect earning points for another driver. I think the best-known instance of this recently was when Dale Jr. drove for Kyle Busch at Texas after the latter had crashed (and bolted on the team). This was the year before he replaced Kyle.

In the years after Dale Sr.'s death there have been actually very few such instances with the safer cars....really not a lot of broken bones. Vickers missed time but it wasn't the result of a crash.

Several years ago Aric Almirola got a Nationwide win for Gibbs despite surrendering the car to Hamlin mid-race (it was Hamlin's car and he was late from another track that weekend IIRC). I think this also caused a fallout between him and Gibbs, but someone could correct me on that if otherwise.

think i remmber jj yaley subbing after the race start for someone. I think the starting driver gets the points ?

RICHMOND, Va.—Paul Menard crew chief Slugger Labbe was more angry Saturday night with what happened after a pit stop when one of the team’s tires rolled across pit road than what happened during it in the Capital City 400.

Front tire carrier Erik Pringle tripped on a tire placed on the ground inside Menard’s pit box by a crew member on Jimmie Johnson’s team, which had the pit in front of Menard. Pringle lost control of his tire and ran out into the middle of pit road to get it.

Following the pit stop, Pringle went to Johnson’s pit box and shoved the Johnson crew member.

Labbe was overheard on the team radio telling his crew that Richard Childress Racing would not tolerate such actions.

“He went after the 48 guy,” Labbe said after the race at Richmond International Raceway. “Our crew member went out of our box into the 48 pit box. He went after the rear tire carrier, and to me that’s unacceptable, we don’t do that.”

While he was upset with his crew member, he understands his frustration.

“He just pushed (Johnson’s crewman) because he was mad,” Labbe said. “He almost got hurt. He almost got run over. So it was a heat-of-the-moment deal.

“When it all settled down, it was fine. (Johnson crew chief) Chad (Knaus) came over and apologized and said it was their fault. Tight (pit) boxes and a lot going on, so it’s all good.”

Labbe seemed to be over the incident following the race.

“It’s just short-track racing,” Labbe said. “At the end of the day, if you’re a crew member or whatever, you’ve got to keep your head on straight and don’t cause no fights. We travel 36 weekends a year, we’re with these guys every weekend and you just don’t do that.”

http://aol.sportingn...hildress-racing
I guess Menard's guys got the last laugh by pointing out the 48's infraction later on

Several years ago Aric Almirola got a Nationwide win for Gibbs despite surrendering the car to Hamlin mid-race (it was Hamlin's car and he was late from another track that weekend IIRC). I think this also caused a fallout between him and Gibbs, but someone could correct me on that if otherwise.

yeah I remember that. It was a sponsor thing I believe. Aric Almirola was heartbroken because while he was credited with the win, Hamlin got to celebrate in victory lane and Aric really wanted the chance to show what he could do with a winning car.

Also, interesting the light shed on the Menard crew member incident. During the broadcast, I (along with the commentators) assumed the reproach was for running out into the middle of pit road. It was actually for assaulting a crew member from another team!

Agreed, I was thinking those crew chiefs are pretty strict if someone was threatened with being canned for rolling a tire!

Watching some of the old pre-1990s races before the pit speed limit (after a fatality at Atlanta) the speeds of the cars thru the pits are really noticeable.

What happened with Montoya on that last stop? He went into the pits 10th came out 6th and then dropped like a rock to 12th. Did he only take 2 tires?

Edited by Watkins74, 30 April 2012 - 23:53.

Had to laugh reading Jayski's Post-Richmond Stats:

#42-Juan Pablo Montoya has finished 12th for the second straight week. In both instances, his team used a carefully orchestrated strategy of not having JPM run into a jet dryer.

What happened with Montoya on that last stop? He went into the pits 10th came out 6th and then dropped like a rock to 12th. Did he only take 2 tires?

That was crew chief inexperience. They left the tyre pressures largely unchanged for the last stint. On a long stint the tyre pressures build gradually over many laps, so on a short stint (ie that close to the end of the race), an experienced crew chief would typically raise the rear pressures significantly (don't ask if that means a pound or five PSI or what). Heroy made an adjustment as if it was the middle of the race and another long stint. Juan had terrible forward bite compared to the other cars on the lead lap, who had crew chiefs who knew what they were doing.

Heroy seemed to think weaving and braking under caution for a couple laps would be enough to bring the pressures up.

They talked about it on the cool down lap and Juan was like it's OK, just another bit of experience. Heroy is a rookie crew chief (but a very good engineer) so you have to expect things like this.

Sorry, but no.

I know that sitting on my ass reading a bulletin board. That level of 'inexperience' would hardly be acceptable at the K&N level.

Hey I have to be thankful. These races haven't been interminable affairs punctuated by endless cleanup caution periods. Elapsed time under 3 hours. I'll take it.

In waxing nostalgic about Bristol's past people may have forgotten the hours spent watching the pace car lead 115 laps....