Atlanta Cup Race Thread

[Jonesi]

48 cars entered, a CoY race.

Top 35 - Mark Martin in #01. Jeff Green is out of #66 imediately replaced by Jeremy Mayfield, who is being replaced at #36 by Mike Skinner (and Johnny Benson through the end of the year.


Need for speed - Bill Elliott in #21 (has champion provisionals left), Mike Skinner in #36, (and no entry from Kevin Lepage in #37.)

Part time - Sam Hornish Jr in #06, Burney Lamar in #08 E&M entry which Carl Long tried to qualify at Charlotte.

[Jonesi]

Cup Grid
16 GREG BIFFLE
2 KURT BUSCH
44 DALE JARRETT
9 KASEY KAHNE
8 DALE EARNHARDT JR
48 JIMMIE JOHNSON
40 DAVID STREMME
12 RYAN NEWMAN
24 JEFF GORDON
19 ELLIOTT SADLER
--
43 BOBBY LABONTE
01 MARK MARTIN
38 DAVID GILLILAND
83 BRIAN VICKERS
25 CASEY MEARS
99 CARL EDWARDS
17 MATT KENSETH
11 DENNY HAMLIN
5 KYLE BUSCH
1 MARTIN TRUEX JR
--
42 JUAN MONTOYA
18 J.J. YELEY
78 JOE NEMECHEK
55 MICHAEL WALTRIP
26 JAMIE McMURRAY
07 CLINT BOWYER
10 SCOTT RIGGS
31 JEFF BURTON
49 JOHN ANDRETTI
20 TONY STEWART
--
84 AJ ALLMENDINGER
41 REED SORENSON
7 ROBBY GORDON
29 KEVIN HARVICK
70 JOHNNY SAUTER
15 PAUL MENARD
6 DAVID RAGAN
88 RICKY RUDD
45 KYLE PETTY
96 TONY RAINES
--
66 JEREMY MAYFIELD
22 DAVE BLANEY
21 BILL ELLIOTT (Uses Champ Prov)

DNQ
00 DAVID REUTIMANN (misses after having a fast time in practice)
08 BURNEY LAMAR
06 SAM HORNISH JR
4 WARD BURTON
36 MIKE SKINNER

[muggle not]

Where is Harvick????

Oh, I see him, back in 34th position. :D

[harvick#1]

the problem is that since this is the last year with these cars, there is no need to build newer cars :( and Harvick doesn't really have a good 1.5 cookie boring cutter track chassis

[Vez]

What an amazing qualifying attempt for DJ :s hock: 3rd place.

I'm glad that Vickers has made the race :bounce: especially after missing the last two.

What happened to Blaney?

[RaikkonenRules]

No idea what happened to Blaney. Thank god he's in the Top 35. Bill Elliott now only has 2 champ provisionals left now :p :

[Vez]

I've found what happened to Blaney (on Jayski)

Some Qualifying Notes:
#22-Blaney appeared to break a suspension on his first lap and made slight contact with the wall in turn 3

To The Back [2]: #17-Kenseth (engine change), #22-Blaney (backup car)

[RaikkonenRules]

Once again we are lacking a race thread. Good to see Truex having a good race again and leading.

[RaikkonenRules]

Just tuned into live leaderboard while watching Top Gear :D . David Ragan's tyre blows bringing out a caution.

[Jonesi]

Blaney had trouble early (missed what it was) but is back out picking up places of cars that drop out. Petty's seems to be running at the tail end of the lead lap. This may be Bill Elliott's best/only chance to get back into the top 35, but he's not running fast either.

[Jonesi]

Lap 168. Another crash on the restart. Mayfield crashes the #66, kind of went wide and kind of had help from #6. Either way not a good way to start with a new team.

[Alexamateo]

THat was one bizarre finish. Hamlin, Junior, Truex WOw!

[harvick#1]

once again, another pathetic finish screwed up by Badyear tires, was gonna be finally interesting for the win and all this crap happens agan

[dont_be_jack]

once again, another pathetic finish screwed up by Badyear tires, was gonna be finally interesting for the win and all this crap happens agan

The GWC? That was caused by the wheel, not the tire. Granted, the tires have been **** this year, but that was not a tire issue on the GWC.

[SmokeFan20]

once again, another pathetic finish screwed up by Badyear tires, was gonna be finally interesting for the win and all this crap happens agan

Badyears junk grenades ruined this race.
NASCAR should have kicked Badyear out and signed with Firestone or Bridgestone last year when Badyears contract was up.

Weasel Johnson steals another. Was nowhere near the front all day long but with 50 to go he sneaks into the top ten and then with 5 to go his cheatmobile weasels into the lead.
I'd love to see his car weasel it's way to the garage over the next three races.

[Speedworx]

That was an exciting finish!

[harvick#1]

The GWC? That was caused by the wheel, not the tire. Granted, the tires have been **** this year, but that was not a tire issue on the GWC.

when Sauters tire blew out with 7 to go.

Goodyear can't even make a tire last 50 laps :mark:

[dont_be_jack]

when Sauters tire blew out with 7 to go.

Goodyear can't even make a tire last 50 laps :mark:

That was a problem. Everyone was gearing up for a great finish, but even the announcers said that a tire was likely to go on someone's car because they had been failing near 50 laps.

[SOD]

I was hoping that the race would have gone green all the way to see who was swiming naked with the fuel.

what an anti-climax , Jimmy Johnson & Jeff gordon are the guys to fight for the championship. I wonder if it'll turn into an Alonso-Hamilton situation? ;)

[Jonesi]

NASCAR studying how Hamlin, Blaney had water in fuel
http://www.scenedaily.com/stories/2007/10/22/scene_daily182.html

[harvick#1]

maybe I should put sugar in Gordons and Johnson tank next week

[Galveston dunes]

Well that was fun. Kinda scared me for a moment with the Little E thing near the end though. That looked really bad. Then Truex- Where was his spotter on that one,I clearly heard someone say that Hamlin was slow off the jump and in the middle of the track. Maybe he should have stayed on top of the tower till the end. Any way I guess its all up to Gordon and Johnson; Guess I'll be pulling for Johnson the next couple of weeks. Unless they both have a turn of bad luck-hehe.

[BobbyC]

The problem with Sauter, like some drivers, has been how the team engineers let the tyre wear go excessively poor on the sandpaper-abrasive surface (the track has never been repaved since its reconfiguration ten years ago). The track is extremely fast that engineers look for maximum speed and forget tyre wear; also tyre wear is always worse when the car is in the lower lanes; the upper lane is usually less taxing on tyre wear, especially since it is less abrasive in that area.

The track may be due for repaving.

Too much caster or camber on the tyre leads to excessive wear, and that leads to the trouble they had in Atlanta. Daytona (1979), Phoenix (1993), Michigan (1995), Pocono (1996), and California (1997) are the three tracks with older surfaces than Atlanta. Dover was also set to concrete in 1995, but the surface was milled in 1998 and 1999 when the IRL raced, in order to perform on a smoother surface for the two years they had IRL races. (Dover Motorsports organises one IRL race, Lebanon, TN.)

Last track makeovers:
1979 - Daytona
1993 - Phoenix
1995 - Michigan
1996 - Pocono
1997 - California, Atlanta (reconfigured for November 1997)
1999 - Dover (concrete surface milled)
2001 - Joliet, Kansas
2002 - Infineon (reconfigured), Texas (for fall NCrTS/IRL race), New Hampshire (reconfigured)
2003 - Homestead (reconfigured banking)
2004 - Martinsville (concrete breakup in spring race caused repaving of both surfaces), Richmond
2005 - Watkins Glen (changes to track surface for IRL race), Indianapolis
2006 - Lowe's, Las Vegas (for fall NCrTS race), Talladega
2007 - Bristol (new concrete, reconfigured banking)
2008 - Darlington

[SOD]

I thought that Daytona had been repaved??

[RaikkonenRules]

I think you mean Talladega last year. ;) It's missing from Bobby C's list.

[Jonesi]

Earnhardt Jr. blames himself for wreck

http://www.scenedaily.com/stories/2007/10/29/scene_daily4.html