Donster Posted February 18, 2018 Report Share Posted February 18, 2018 Morning all. 15F under overcast skies and dense fog. Received two inches of snow yesterday afternoon. But it won't last as temps will warm up to 50F and it will be windy with gusts out of the South at 30 MPH. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stans Posted February 18, 2018 Report Share Posted February 18, 2018 Wintry morning y'all. An hour ago it was 32F and there was a thin glaze of ice and frost on roofs, cars, trees, shrubs, and grass. We have mostly cloudy skies and the temperature is up to 36F. Expecting a partly cloudy day and a high of 55F. Looks like we might be in for a nice run of spring-like weather for the next 10 days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Guy Posted February 18, 2018 Report Share Posted February 18, 2018 Blizzard conditions here in NW Montana. Temp around 11degF. Wind 20-30 mph. I have drifts blocking the front door and driveway. Won't be able to play with, I mean WORK with my snow blower until tomorrow. Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stans Posted February 18, 2018 Report Share Posted February 18, 2018 4 hours ago, Old Guy said: Blizzard conditions here in NW Montana. Temp around 11degF. Wind 20-30 mph. I have drifts blocking the front door and driveway. Won't be able to play with, I mean WORK with my snow blower until tomorrow. Jim No snow here in central VA, thank goodness! Stay warm, stay safe, Jim. I'm sitting back and watching the Daytona TV Commercial 500, but they keep interrupting the commercials with a little coverage of a bunch of race cars going around a huge, oval track. Now tell me, who wants to see their tv commercials interrupted by a gaggle of cars going nearly 200 mph? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donster Posted February 18, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 18, 2018 I tell you what. NASCAR is nothing like it used to be, what I enjoyed. Lottie and I went out to eat at our favorite sports bar, and was watching the race. Watched some guy win the second stage of the race. Stage? So I find out that there is a Stage 1, Stage 2 and the final stage... After constant overhauls with the rules in recent years, NASCAR isn’t the same NASCAR as it was a few seasons ago. If you want to tune into the Daytona 500 on Sunday and start following the rest of the 2018 season, you may need a refresher course first. Welcome to class. This year, there are fewer changes than in years past. We’ll get to those later. But we all kind of need the break to get used to how different the sport is now, so fewer changes are a good thing. How Modern NASCAR Works After a few years of trial and error, NASCAR seems to have finally decided how to run races: with stages, playoff points, a knockout championship format and overtime. Here’s what you should know. How Individual Races Are Now Run Each race across NASCAR’s top three series, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, Xfinity Series and Camping World Truck Series, is now divided up into segments, or stages, as NASCAR likes to call them. NASCAR introduced them last season, along with a complicated new points system. There are three stages in most races, with each of the first two being about a quarter of its length and the last stage being the last half. NASCAR changed that on the fly for its longest race last year, breaking it into four quarters. That broke up a typically dull 600 miles at Charlotte Motor Speedway, one of NASCAR’s cookie-cutter tracks. The only events that don’t have stage lengths set yet are the Cup Series and Xfinity Series races at Charlotte this fall, since they’ll be run on its road course. Those race lengths haven’t been announced. The end of each stage is basically a pre-planned caution, which brings the field back together for the next stage. Laps count during the caution, which can make a person feel robbed of racing since nothing happened to bring the yellow out. But stage breaks aren’t just for bogus cautions. They’re for points. Click here for more info on how fucked up NASCAR has become IMHO. Sorry, but this isn't auto racing. This is a fucking board game. Well they can have it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Guy Posted February 18, 2018 Report Share Posted February 18, 2018 Donnie, forget NASCAR. The local dirt track or paved oval is the place to be. They run real races and the air stinks of gasoline and burned rubber. Sometimes they even have demolition derbies and school bus races. And everybody stands for the national anthem. Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikew Posted February 19, 2018 Report Share Posted February 19, 2018 Glad I wasn't the only one confused. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krycztij Posted February 19, 2018 Report Share Posted February 19, 2018 Wow, so your NASCAR has become just as awful as europe’s Formula One? That’s sad, I used to enjoy it in the 90’s … thank you for the explanation! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stans Posted February 19, 2018 Report Share Posted February 19, 2018 It's all about creating excitement, at least that is what little Brian France thinks. He's in touch with the younger generation and he knows they like football because it is exciting, and it is unpredictable when it comes to the playoff portion of the season and that's what he wants NASCAR to be. The NFL of the auto racing world. Now I will admit that stage racing is more exciting, but the concept of winning one race automatically means you go to the playoffs does not sit well with me. We have had an instance in which a race was ended early due to weather and the leader simply inherited the lead during pit stops. He went to the playoffs and was the first car eliminated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donster Posted February 19, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 19, 2018 12 hours ago, Old Guy said: Donnie, forget NASCAR. The local dirt track or paved oval is the place to be. They run real races and the air stinks of gasoline and burned rubber. Sometimes they even have demolition derbies and school bus races. And everybody stands for the national anthem. Jim Couldn't agree more Jim. I grew up around dirt track racing and demo derbies. Even participated in a few demo derbies. Did some mechanic work with a stock car racing team. We ran on dirt tracks around eastern Iowa in the late 1970's. Was a lot of fun, and hard but enjoyable work. Fueled on beer of course! Ah to be young again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whizkid Posted February 19, 2018 Report Share Posted February 19, 2018 What the hell are you guys talking about? It surely can't be about racing. RACING? Isn't that where a bunch of high-powered cars, trucks, whatever, get together and try and get to the checkered flag first? At least it was in my day. What you described, Donnie, sounds more like a politically-correct Democrat version of it, with EPA Approved gasoline, USDA Approved leather Drivers gloves, NRA Approved Exhausts, etc, etc! I really think this poor old World is going tits-up in so many ways, but I didn't think it would be this bad. Imagine if some super-wealthy guy said, "Screw this bunch of stupidity" and opened a competing track system to NASCAR where they actually RACED flat out with minimal restrictions, and old-world rules! He'd make a killing, I bet. Even the Techno-Idiots would flock to see such a novel idea. Ah, me, what old age does to your brain! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikew Posted February 19, 2018 Report Share Posted February 19, 2018 Like this? https://www.theonion.com/nascar-unveils-new-car-of-yesterday-1819569023 I couldn't be bothered watching the third half yesterday, and turned off just after the crash that Danica caused. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stans Posted February 20, 2018 Report Share Posted February 20, 2018 16 hours ago, mikew said: Like this? https://www.theonion.com/nascar-unveils-new-car-of-yesterday-1819569023 I couldn't be bothered watching the third half yesterday, and turned off just after the crash that Danica caused. The Car of Yesterday! I remember some of that racing and it was wild. Drivers think the modern race cars are poor handling? They don't know how lucky they are to have what they have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donster Posted February 20, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 20, 2018 It took real men to race those cars of the 1960's and 1970's around the track for 500 miles. The only Japanese cars were in the parking lot. It was all American, no holds barred, winner takes all, get down and dirty racing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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