Competitive or not? 12 Winners in 2009

dpkimmel2001

dpkimmel2001

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Denny Hamlin's victory at Pocono Raceway on Monday made it 12 different race winners in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series this season. There were 12 different race winners all of last season. There are six race winners from last season still awaiting their first victory of 2009: #99-Carl Edwards, #16-Greg Biffle, #33-Clint Bowyer, #31-Jeff Burton, #88-Dale Earnhardt Jr. and #39-Ryan Newman (NASCAR). The record for most different winners in a season is 19 in the 1956, 1958, 1961 and 2001 seasons.

Does that point towards this being a competitive season? 12 seems like a decent number IMO, especially with the races left to run this season. Have we seen all of the winners that we're going to see this season? Do you think one of last years remaining 6 winners will get a victory yet this year? How many different race winners do you think we'll see this season. I'll go with 15.
 
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DexterMorgan

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I think the amount of teams that are capabale of pulling out a W any given week has slightly increased, but the on track competition is still as bad as its been since the 80's. The feilds still get spread out too quick, the leader is still difficult to pass, and changes need to be made.

The IRL made changes to their car to increase the show and people were thrilled, why cant Nascar.
 
Snoozer

Snoozer

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Canada Eh!
As a newer fan one thing I don't understand is when people talk about how great competition used to be. Weren't people winning by laps over the rest of the field? With top drivers having double digit victories for a season quite a bit back then?
I'm not saying competition couldn't be better now but I really wonder sometimes how great it actually was back then? Two drivers from back in the day have over 100 wins, one of them has 200. I don't think we'll ever see numbers like that again.
 
dpkimmel2001

dpkimmel2001

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Snoozer said:
As a newer fan one thing I don't understand is when people talk about how great competition used to be. Weren't people winning by laps over the rest of the field? With top drivers having double digit victories for a season quite a bit back then?
I'm not saying competition couldn't be better now but I really wonder sometimes how great it actually was back then? Two drivers from back in the day have over 100 wins, one of them has 200. I don't think we'll ever see numbers like that again.
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Wining by laps wasn't the norm. Far fewer cars on the lead lap was though. Many times there were only a handful of cars on a lead lap capable of fighting for the win. There also were far more cars falling out of a race due to mechanical issues. Not the start & park type! I don't really remember double digit wins ever being the norm outside of Petty.

I liked the racing back in the day & continue to like the racing today. That's certainly not the nom either. LOL
 
Snoozer

Snoozer

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I'm probably wrong on the double digits, no doubt. Was just pulling numbers off the top of my head as I posted. ;)
 
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DexterMorgan

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I just watched the 1990 Pocono 500 where at one point there were 7 cars fighting for the lead at the halfway point. But to my the golden era of racing in the sport was 1999-2002. Thet was when this sport was its most competitive.
 
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DexterMorgan

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dpkimmel2001 said:
Seriously? People are thrilled with the IRL. :scratch:
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Yeah, go read the speedtv articles about the Kentucky race. The IRL races this year have been awful, so they made some simple aero adjustments and they had a fantastic race. Side by side for many laps and a good finish.

What gets me is this, when Daytona and Talladega have a bad race, they change the rules. Why is it when California/Texas/Pocono/Mighigan/Phoenix are complete snoozers we cant change the car due to the economy.
 
mghtx

mghtx

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The feilds still get spread out too quick, the leader is still difficult to pass,
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Anybody else hear the interview with Jimmie where he basically said that to pass you have to nudge or knock the car in front of you out of the way or get along side of them and take the air off? Because if you're not in the front it's darn near impossible to pass.
 
mghtx

mghtx

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That race @ Kentucky last week was better than any Nascar race in the last 5 years.
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ORP and Iowa. That's the kind of track and race nascar was built on. And that's what's needed now. Forget the aero deal at those short tracks.
 
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DexterMorgan

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mghtx said:
ORP and Iowa. That's the kind of track and race nascar was built on. And that's what's needed now. Forget the aero deal at those short tracks.
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I dont buy that. You can build a car to race good on the big tracks. Nascar chooses not to do so for either a lack of caring, or a lack of knowing how.
 
dpkimmel2001

dpkimmel2001

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mghtx said:
ORP and Iowa. That's the kind of track and race nascar was built on. And that's what's needed now. Forget the aero deal at those short tracks.
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I agree completely. Short tracks are the only ones that produce good racing on a consistent basis. Sure, there will be exceptions but they are few and far in between. Aero push was a huge issue before the COT and it remains so today. Don't think for a second that it is anything new with the implementation of this car.
 
mghtx

mghtx

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Aero push was a huge issue before the COT and it remains so today.
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Who's that fella that used to work for nascar that Moody talks about and he couldn't beat the aero push?
 
flap_jackson

flap_jackson

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The more different winners in a year the better... I hated last year when Johnson, Carl & Kyle Bush won all the races... New winners are also great, which we didn't have too much of last year, and we've had a few times this year:bigthumbup:
 
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