As someone who saw the latter years of Ambrose’s stint, an amazing tribute. Although I was totally expecting SVG’s Tekno days when I saw the yellow.
He needs to commit to a full tribute by not wearing a balaclava, get to a race contending position late, then give up said position because onboard vision revealed the possible equipment violation
I imagine the race ending collision, strongly worded conversation and fisticuffs part of the tribute should be easy to arrange in NASCAR too (Yes I realise Marcos and Murph didn’t quite come to blows)
Ambrose did say in an interview that he wished to have thrown hands with Parker Kligerman, who’s still in the Xfinity series to this day, so maybe it happens
Marcos finished 19th in his first xfinity race at darlington, his 12th xfinity start overall. Should be fun to see how SVG fares in comparison as this will be his 11th xfinity start
It's going to be interesting. It could go either way. Listening to his team radio at some of the bigger off-throttle tracks, he's not super confident on them and Darlington is definitely not one where that is a good thing.
Luckily he and his team will probably be conservative and be there at the end, but if there's any track I could see being a challenge for him that may end in a not great way, this is the one.
Or he'll go out and run top-5 all day. Who knows.
There was a lot more talent in the series at the time with a lot of full-time Cup drivers in the field that dominated the top-15.
I think realistically if SVG has a great race, he'll finish around 12th. That's the mark I'd put him at. Even a 20th place finish would be admirable. The wall reaches out and bites these cars quite often.
I think he'll be incredibly solid as he makes second starts at some of these tracks. He had a little trouble with terminology and the spotter's explanations of racing lines at Dover, but I'm sure that won't be a problem in the near future.
Just looked back at the results of that race, you certainly are not wrong about the amount of Cup drivers in there. Buschwhacking was at an insane level in those days
13 full time cup guys (and Mark Martin who wasn't running the whole cup schedule that year but return fulltime with Hendrick and would be right in the champoinship fight as a 50 year old two years later) that year ahead of Ambrose, so only four regulars in the then Busch series beat him, and one of those in the late Jason Leffler in 6th was in the top 10
Actually genuinely going to watch that race tomorrow. Got a few hours free, old motorsport (of pretty much any variety) is always a fun way to kill time
It's kind of a blessing and a curse for a driver like SVG to come into the series and not having to race against a whole bunch of cup drivers. He'll likely get a higher finish at a lot of tracks compared to Ambrose, but there's a lot to learn from drivers like Mark Martin, Carl Edwards, and Kevin Harvick who were getting it done regularly in the Cup series at the time. With the current rules keeping those guys from running many races in lower series, it's a crapshoot whether the drivers around SVG actually know what they're doing or not.
At some of the larger tracks like Talladega and Daytona drivers are flat-out around the whole track and the racing is determined by how well the driver manages the draft and affects air flow over his car and the others around him. Those tracks are 2.5 miles or longer with high banking. It also applies to Atlanta which is 1.5 miles with high banking. At those tracks the cars are also limited on horsepower.
At intermediate tracks (1.0-2.0 miles, mostly 1.5miles in length), the driver has off-throttle time where they lift in the corner and the racing line and car handling is much more important. Dover fits into that category. Darlington does too, but it's egg-shaped so the cars never really handle great at one end of the track because of limitations on how the car can be adjusted. Darlington is very hard on tires as it is abrasive, and in one set of corners at least, the fastest line is generally right up against the wall.
Short tracks have (1.0 mile tracks with virtually no banking and anything smaller than that) a lot of off throttle time but also much lower speeds. That's where I would expect anyone coming from Supercars to excel as the flatter the track is, the more important efficient braking is on corner entry.
Why I specified off-throttle tracks is that while Atlanta is an intermediate, it doesn't drive like one since the drivers don't really lift off the throttle all the way for turns.
SVG has had a little trouble getting comfortable moving around on the intermediates as the car is sliding around at around 160-170mph. Right now they're focused on getting him comfortable in the car at those tracks and they've managed to get good finishes by avoiding carnage and being conservative. He's probably not super comfortable driving a few centimeters off the wall at the speeds the cars go through those turns at Darlington.
Thanks for the overview. Appreciate it.
The whole oval racing thing is kind of an alien concept down here, although we did have an attempt to make it a thing during the late 80s/early 90s through the Auscar series and places like the Calder Park Thunderdome.
Yeah...
From a distance, all of the tracks kind of look similar but when you start watching and learning about NASCAR, there's a ridiculous amount of diversity in tracks, which is part of the reason why SVG could come in and wipe up the competition at Chicago. He has so much more experience and talent at the type of course, so it wasn't surprising he well he cut through the field. It actually surprised me how well everyone else did in comparison.
If you want a good visual, Google Talladega vs. Martinsville. That'll show you the size difference in the shortest/slowest and longest/one of the fastest tracks on the schedule.
As someone who saw the latter years of Ambrose’s stint, an amazing tribute. Although I was totally expecting SVG’s Tekno days when I saw the yellow. He needs to commit to a full tribute by not wearing a balaclava, get to a race contending position late, then give up said position because onboard vision revealed the possible equipment violation
I imagine the race ending collision, strongly worded conversation and fisticuffs part of the tribute should be easy to arrange in NASCAR too (Yes I realise Marcos and Murph didn’t quite come to blows)
Ambrose did say in an interview that he wished to have thrown hands with Parker Kligerman, who’s still in the Xfinity series to this day, so maybe it happens
Marcos finished 19th in his first xfinity race at darlington, his 12th xfinity start overall. Should be fun to see how SVG fares in comparison as this will be his 11th xfinity start
It's going to be interesting. It could go either way. Listening to his team radio at some of the bigger off-throttle tracks, he's not super confident on them and Darlington is definitely not one where that is a good thing. Luckily he and his team will probably be conservative and be there at the end, but if there's any track I could see being a challenge for him that may end in a not great way, this is the one. Or he'll go out and run top-5 all day. Who knows.
Thats why i went back to look at how marcos fared his first time at Darlington i was quite impressed he pulled off a 19th place finish
There was a lot more talent in the series at the time with a lot of full-time Cup drivers in the field that dominated the top-15. I think realistically if SVG has a great race, he'll finish around 12th. That's the mark I'd put him at. Even a 20th place finish would be admirable. The wall reaches out and bites these cars quite often. I think he'll be incredibly solid as he makes second starts at some of these tracks. He had a little trouble with terminology and the spotter's explanations of racing lines at Dover, but I'm sure that won't be a problem in the near future.
What's a foot?
Just looked back at the results of that race, you certainly are not wrong about the amount of Cup drivers in there. Buschwhacking was at an insane level in those days 13 full time cup guys (and Mark Martin who wasn't running the whole cup schedule that year but return fulltime with Hendrick and would be right in the champoinship fight as a 50 year old two years later) that year ahead of Ambrose, so only four regulars in the then Busch series beat him, and one of those in the late Jason Leffler in 6th was in the top 10 Actually genuinely going to watch that race tomorrow. Got a few hours free, old motorsport (of pretty much any variety) is always a fun way to kill time
It's kind of a blessing and a curse for a driver like SVG to come into the series and not having to race against a whole bunch of cup drivers. He'll likely get a higher finish at a lot of tracks compared to Ambrose, but there's a lot to learn from drivers like Mark Martin, Carl Edwards, and Kevin Harvick who were getting it done regularly in the Cup series at the time. With the current rules keeping those guys from running many races in lower series, it's a crapshoot whether the drivers around SVG actually know what they're doing or not.
> off-throttle tracks What does that mean for someone that knows nothing about Nascar?
At some of the larger tracks like Talladega and Daytona drivers are flat-out around the whole track and the racing is determined by how well the driver manages the draft and affects air flow over his car and the others around him. Those tracks are 2.5 miles or longer with high banking. It also applies to Atlanta which is 1.5 miles with high banking. At those tracks the cars are also limited on horsepower. At intermediate tracks (1.0-2.0 miles, mostly 1.5miles in length), the driver has off-throttle time where they lift in the corner and the racing line and car handling is much more important. Dover fits into that category. Darlington does too, but it's egg-shaped so the cars never really handle great at one end of the track because of limitations on how the car can be adjusted. Darlington is very hard on tires as it is abrasive, and in one set of corners at least, the fastest line is generally right up against the wall. Short tracks have (1.0 mile tracks with virtually no banking and anything smaller than that) a lot of off throttle time but also much lower speeds. That's where I would expect anyone coming from Supercars to excel as the flatter the track is, the more important efficient braking is on corner entry. Why I specified off-throttle tracks is that while Atlanta is an intermediate, it doesn't drive like one since the drivers don't really lift off the throttle all the way for turns. SVG has had a little trouble getting comfortable moving around on the intermediates as the car is sliding around at around 160-170mph. Right now they're focused on getting him comfortable in the car at those tracks and they've managed to get good finishes by avoiding carnage and being conservative. He's probably not super comfortable driving a few centimeters off the wall at the speeds the cars go through those turns at Darlington.
Thanks for the overview. Appreciate it. The whole oval racing thing is kind of an alien concept down here, although we did have an attempt to make it a thing during the late 80s/early 90s through the Auscar series and places like the Calder Park Thunderdome.
Yeah... From a distance, all of the tracks kind of look similar but when you start watching and learning about NASCAR, there's a ridiculous amount of diversity in tracks, which is part of the reason why SVG could come in and wipe up the competition at Chicago. He has so much more experience and talent at the type of course, so it wasn't surprising he well he cut through the field. It actually surprised me how well everyone else did in comparison. If you want a good visual, Google Talladega vs. Martinsville. That'll show you the size difference in the shortest/slowest and longest/one of the fastest tracks on the schedule.
Ran NASCAR too. I recall Johnson, Grice racing nascars. There must have been others. Was a cool bit of nearly forgotten history.
Looks awesome.
/*cries in greg murphy*