Gettin’ That Old Time NASCAR Religion

By Marc, Thunder Lounge
Published on Thunder Lounge.

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Ah… dem was da days!

The only massaging a stock car body received (aero what!?) was when in very close contact with a competitor or when rim riding, ala Richard Petty as he led the way at Darlington collecting the infamous “Stripe” along the way. As The King said at the time, “We drove for the sheer fun of driving because there wasn’t that much money to be made.”

It was a time of short-sleeve driving attire, 8 inch wide Firestones and the Pure Oil Company being the official supplier of fuel. Did I mention all the Victory Lane kisses given by the Winston Girls or “Winkie Louise”, representing Pure Oil Co. as Miss Firebird?

If any of that sounds familiar, or you have a desire to see some of NASCAR’s past legends live and in action on track 2008 may just be the year for it.

The Old School Racing Champions Tour (OSRCT) has announced a 10 race schedule starting May 18, 2008 at Concord Motor Speedway.

Racing legends David Pearson, Dave Marcis, Harry Gant, James Hylton, Geoff Bodine have all signed to compete. On the probable list are NASCAR stars Jack Ingram, Derrike Cope, Phil Parsons, Robert Pressley, Dave Marcis, Joe Ruttman, Chuck Bown, Randy LaJoie, Carl Long and Ronnie Silver.

From the ranks of ARCA comes Bill Venturini, Bob Schacht and the new owner of The Rock Andy Hillenburg.

The OSRCT will debut at the Concord Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina with a 10 race schedule. A champion will be crowned at the New Smyrna Speedway in February of 2009 during a Last Chance and Championship Race.

With an eye towards safety all events will be held on tracks of less the ¾ of a mile in length to keep speeds down and allow for greater fender-to-fender action. And you can bet with the dirt track at Eldora, the high bank quarter mile at Flat Rock Mi, in addition to South Boston in Virginia the schedule provides just that.

This PDF file provides the full run down on the cars, stars and venues as currently planned.

This series has me so intrigued it’s almost worth looking into a trip back stateside to catch a couple events. For those of you not stuck out in the middle of the Pacific like I am, and hold a interest in NASCAR’s past history, shouldn’t miss this opportunity to catch at least one of the 12 events.

Share your thoughts!.

Filed Under: Busch Series, Marc Boland, Nascar, Nascar History





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By Luke, Thunder Lounge
Tuesday November 6, 2007
11:39pm CST
Published on Thunder Lounge.

This should be saved for tomorrow’s WTF, but I couldn’t help it.

So, before we get out of recovery mode from the Texas Sized Thunder at Thunder Lounge this past weekend, I’ll leave you with a simple statement.

“It’s no wonder Kentucky can’t get a race date. Their media can’t even get their NASCAR coverage right, nor do they have a clue.”

In this article, the fish-wrap generator of “Eastern Kentucky” loses all credibility with a simple line. While most of the article is pimping on Bruton Smith and his purchase of New Hampshire, they had to get their own spin on the title hunt in. That’s what killed it.

“Johnson or Gordon have never won at Phoenix but both have had some success as Johnson has a couple of runner-up finishes including last November and Gordon has a trio of third place finishes.”

Notice anything strange there? I do. Hell, if you can’t even keep up with something that happened this season, what good are you? Well, you’re not. To add to that, you’re obviously not even doing your homework when out of your league.

For the record, and we’ll get to it when we get back on track tomorrow, the event at Texas went off like hot cakes off the griddle. One hell of a show, as always.

Share your thoughts!.

Filed Under: Drivers, Hendrick Motorsports #24, Hendrick Motorsports #48, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Nascar, Nextel Cup, Phoenix, Tracks





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By Luke, Thunder Lounge
Wednesday November 7, 2007
8:53pm CST
Published on Thunder Lounge.

Menard To Get New Crew Chief

So it looks like Paul Menard is going to get a new Crew Chief for 2008, as Dave Charpentier moves up to become the Technical Director at DEI. Well, if the rumors are to be believed.

The only question I have, is how long will it take for the #15 to fall out of the Top-35? Lest we forget that if it weren’t for the Ginn Fiasco, they wouldn’t be in the Top 35 as they were the beneficiary of Sterling Marlin and his effort in the #14.

You know, there’s a reason that a lot of drivers/teams in the garage make comments over the radio about Paul Menard. To be honest, if you thought Tony Stewart was off his rocker or out of line on his Sirius show a couple weeks back, you’re sadly mistaken. He is far from the only one out there with those feelings. Nothing against you personally Paul, you’re a great guy, but could you be over your head a little bit here?

So, WTF is going to save the #15 from the Top-35 cut-off in 2008?

New Hampshire Gets A Facelift?

DW seems to think that New Hampshire could be ripped up and the resulting reconstruction could end up the product of Richmond and Bristol gettin’ it on.

That’s right, a 3/4 mile, high banked short track. Maybe not 36 degrees, but far from 12 or 14 we would imagine.

On top of that, expanding the current 100,000 or so capacity as the stadium builds around it.

While that would be pretty darn cool, is it really something that could happen?

New Hampshire has sold out 26 consecutive dates. Not many tracks can boast consecutive numbers like that. Richmond can, and I’m pretty sure Bristol is in the ballpark as well, but the question at hand is how fast will that number continue to increase?

Here’s the deal.

The majority of speculation is that one of the New Hampshire dates will be petitioned to be moved to Las Vegas for the 2009 season. Most likely the one in September. You know, the date that has kicked off the Chase since its inception in 2004.

However, we have another problem here. The fall date at Texas also coincides with the opening weekend of deer season in Texas. What’s a good ol’ boy to do?

Further speculation is that if the date is moved from New Hampshire to Las Vegas, then in turn Las Vegas and Texas could swap dates. Which would run the schedule out like Las Vegas, Phoenix, Homestead, with a Texas sized party to kick the whole Chase off.

Then again, maybe New Hampshire keeps both dates? While Las Vegas is a great facility, Bristol makes more revenue. If New Hampshire did get a facelift, while it would take some time to build up the capacity, it could generate more revenue than Vegas. Interesting thoughts all around, that’s for sure.

So, WTF is going to happen with New Hampshire?

Speaking Of Racing, Where’s The Leader?

“I’m a hundred miles away, son.”

That’s exactly what the leaders were saying at Texas this weekend. It was almost a given that if you got the lead, you’d end up with a 20+ car length advantage.

Was it the surface? Is the “soon to be extinct” car just that bad in traffic these days? While we have much love for our home track at Texas, the show wasn’t as stellar as it could have been. We’ll leave judgment out of it, and just wonder… WTF happened to the show(s)?

And there you have it. Your WTF’s for this week.

With two weeks to go before the season winds down, we’re going to give a shout out to all those folks that have been working the grind with little downtime since Daytona last February. We, as fans, thank each and every one of you for the job you do to support our sport. From the hauler drivers, to the crew members, to the souvenir drivers/sales folks, to the drivers, and everyone in between we give you a hardy Thunder Lounge salute and thanks.

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Filed Under: Las Vegas, Nascar, New Hampshire, Nextel Cup, Texas, Tracks, WTF? Wednesday's





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By Luke, Thunder Lounge
Wednesday November 21, 2007
12:20pm CST
Published on Thunder Lounge.

Moving right along…

Where’s Luke?

WTF, Luke? Where ya been?

OK, I’ll throw myself in the fire to kick it off.

Believe it or not, and if you know how my schedule goes you’ll know I’m not full of it, I’ve been busier than all get out.

Granted, I’ve been off the posting wagon for a bit, but I have been knee deep in the Lounge on several fronts.

First, as always, a lot of time has been put in behind the scenes to improve Thunder Lounge’s online presence, and the quality service we also provide to you, our loyal and faithful viewers. We’ve been working on quite a few things that will materialize between now and Daytona, such as a hauler full of new themes for folks to choose from, a fresh coat of paint for the Lounge, and a ton of other little goodies. I’ve also been working closely with a couple friends on making their own NASCAR site a lot better, and fully integrating their site with some of their other content, etc. Needless to say, while the posting time has been short, it’s only due to the normal hours normally spent on the lounge in a day being marked for improving and updating.

We’ll get back on the wagon, and we’ll be better than ever.

Penske’s Gonna “Do It”

It’s been rumored, but if they can pull it off they’re going to.

Sam Hornish, as you may have heard, will be in the #77 next season for Penske Racing South in the Sprint Cup Series.

Here’s the moral dilemma. They’re going to try and move the 2007 owner points from Kurt Busch over to the #77, and let Kurt fall back on the Champions Provision for the first 5 races in 2008.

I won’t deny that it’s a business decision, and smart in terms of business. But, is it ethical to take advantage of the loop hole(s) which could allow for this to happen?

To put it lightly, with a favorite phrase of mine, “I don’t think so, Tim.”

It draws serious credibility issues to the sport, the team, and to Hornish. While Sam is no doubt a quality talent, and well deserving of a shot at big time stock car racing, should he compromise his reputation and be “the guy who swiped points”?

It’s a bear to make a race these days with the Top-35 guaranteed a starting spot, and sponsors want in the show. However, would you want to be the sponsor that snuck their way into the field? I’m all for drivers getting a shot, for the most part, but please keep the integrity of the sport and competition by earning your way into the dance.

Hendrick Cup Series

Well, that’s what some folks would like to call it.

All I can say about the dominating year the Hendrick Camp had is “wow”. You’ve just witnessed a season of historic proportion folks. Like ‘em or not, they did their job. They used their early adoption of the COT to their advantage, and it took a season for the other top tier teams to gain ground.

Who would have thought that a 5.1 finishing average in the Chase would come in second? Jeff Gordon certainly didn’t. It was just an incredible year for the Hendrick folks as a whole. Something that should be respected, whether you fall on their side or not. The 2007 season will go down as one talked about for the ages. Not only in terms of competition, the COT, and other various aspects, but one where there was an organization that just flat out hit the nail on the head.

The benefit? All the other teams will step up their game, and as a result the competition will become even more fierce.

Morgan-McClure

Yeah, way to put Mr. Clean in for Homestead. How’d that work out for ya?

For the record, it isn’t Ward. It’s your equipment. Partner up with a bigger Chevy team,
switch manufacturers, whatever it takes. Save Ward!

And on that note, I’m outta here for a while. It’s almost Turkey Day, and we all have a lot to be thankful for this Holiday season. We wish you all well, and a happy Holiday season.

We’ll be back next week with what little news is trickling through the off-season, and maybe with a few goodies to tide you over for another 88 days.

Join the discussion.

Filed Under: Features, Nascar, Nextel Cup, WTF? Wednesday's





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By Luke, Thunder Lounge
Wednesday November 21, 2007
12:34pm CST
Published on Thunder Lounge.

Yeah, even with all the work I have on my back, I’m still finding myself bored as all get out.

However, I did find a way to partially cure my boredom, even if only for half an hour or so.

Thanks to Jay, I managed to have a grin and be content, even if for only a short wait through the 37 people that started out ahead of me.

To be honest, as a programmer myself, this is really pretty darn cool, and very clever. If that were my office, it would probably drive me nuts.

Oh, what is it you ask?

You can wait in line, and through the magic of Adobe’s Flash and wireless signals, you can drive a remote control car around Jay’s office while he’s in. Pretty nifty, huh?

The car (or actually I think it’s a little RC SUV) has a little camera mounted on top, and you can roll all over the office. Watch out for the carpet, you probably will get stuck and have to wait for Jay to notice. Which, as it bit me the first time I tried it (thanks to the person in front of me), will very well cut your play time (of a gracious full minute) down to next to nothing.

Anyway, before I trot off to finish up some code and call it Thanksgiving break, I thought I’d share this cool little gig with you.

Share your thoughts!.

Filed Under: Nascar, Thunder Lounge





Trackback URL for: Are you bored? I sure am, for some strange reason.