The Roar Of A Nation
Saturday, February 9th, 2008 11:04pm EST
By Luke, Thunder Lounge
Published on Thunder Lounge.
That would be the Junior Nation.
The same Nation that folks wondered about, and were skeptical whether or not it would remain strong. Dale’s first pass for the lead shot that question straight into the hand basket, and on a one-way trip.
The 2008 Bud Shootout was interesting on several fronts. First being the debut of the car at Daytona in competition. I thought it went rather well. Not perfection or racing bliss by any means, but the guys could get out there and pass, and they ran 2-by-2 most of the night with occasional mixing of wider runs at times. A note that even surprised the broadcast team was that the pack never really strung out as it had in the past. However, we still haven’t seen it in a race of any real distance yet. We’ll know more in a week.
It wasn’t as squirrelly of a race as we might have expected after last nights final practice session. Tony and Kurt ended up around each other several times, but as NASCAR warned they gave each other plenty of room.
While there were a few accidents, it wasn’t anything that was really bad. What was interesting were the saves. As the broadcast team pointed out, and I’ll have to agree, the wing on the back of the car is really looking like it has the side effect of helping knock a car back straight when the back end steps out a bit. With the larger hole knocked in the air by the car, leading to less air on the car behind (and therefore less down force), we saw several examples this evening of the car being saved where in the past the car most likely would have went around. Whether this was an intended factor by NASCAR or not, I can’t say, but the results are interesting just the same.
Overall it was decent racing, a welcomed and needed finish, and on top of it all it cured the withdrawal symptoms that have plagued me since Thanksgiving.
Filed Under: Dale Earnhardt Junior, Daytona, Drivers, Hendrick Motorsports #88, Nascar, Sprint Cup, Teams, Tracks
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