NASCAR had better be willing to upset some of their sponsors by banning beer cans at the track. Not only did these people (and it was not just a case of a few people ruining it for others) make the sport look bad but made the whole country look bad. Not even the Itailian Tifosi are that fanatical (which equals brain dead) as to throw projectiles at a rivals car endangering the driver and other fans. They only do stupid things like run out onto the track afterwards but not to threaten a drivers life. Just because Schumacher, who had a personality of a slug, broke records of more loved drivers, even though it may not have been popular, people still respected the achievement. Big deal if Gordon beat Earnhardt's record. Would Dale have thrown a can of beer at Gordon for breaking his record? I don't think so. He loved the sport and even if there had been a personality conflict between the two, Dale would have respected the achievement. All the work NASCAR has done to convince the world that NASCAR is a series to be respected and not just a bunch of low lifes running their road cars in circles just got thrown out the window. Congratulations to those fans that did the throwing of these cans. You just brought the sport you suppossedly love back quite a few years.
Nick Heidfeld claims he is driving as well as always but that people are noticing his driving due to being in a great car. Does this mean that he believes that Jacques Villeneuve would still kick his butt on the track like last year? This either says that Nick does not believe much in his abilities or that BMW let go the better driver (personally, from what I've seen, it was BMW that made the mistake).
Yes, every driver would love to have the perfect race car but then anybody could win in a perfect race car and only those with talent can drive around problems. As for Kurt Busch's comments about the COT, shut up and drive what you are paid huge bucks to drive. The cars will get better but even if they don't, just drive it better than the next guy. Do you think Richard Petty's old Dodge handled as good as todays cars? No, those cars did not just stick to the road like todays, they had to be man-handled to a point.. So, maybe you can now say you are just as talented as The King because you won in a car that handled about the same as his. The problem when a driver gets to the top of the rung is they sometimes forget how to drive cars like the ones they started out in, without all of the bells and whistles. Once you drive a brand new Cadillac it is hard to go back to driving and AMC Gremlin.
After spending the whole race showing everyone else how it is done, in the last few laps he punts the leader out of the way to go for the win. While it did not look to be intentional it was still not cool. He would have won anyways with an easier passing opportunity. Aggressive driving is exciting and denting fenders is the way of tin-top racing but a little more caution is required in his next win to get the respect he will be wanting from fellow competitors and fans alike. God knows he has the talent and guts. What he needs is patience.![Shakehead [:shakehead]](/emoticons/shakehead.gif)
Perhaps I am not the right person to be commenting on the results of the Daytona 500 as it and the road races are the only NASCAR races that hold any interest for me but it seems that rules are rules and not made to be broken for entertainment purposes (it's a sport not WWF right?). I don't really care who won just as long as rules were followed and the real winner was declared.
To the guy who voted thousands of times in favour of Allmendinger over Montoya, do you still belive in your vote? He's good but he is no Montoya. So far Montoya has won Indy, Champcar, F1 (where even the pay-for-a-ride drivers are still better than most anywhere else in the world) and now the Daytona 24hrs.. In ARCA and his end of season drives last year he was a outstanding considering his lack of experience in these cars and in testing for this year he has still proven his talent. I am not a huge fan of his but have enjoyed his daring in F1. The only reason I am even writing this is because I know the guy who kept voting over and over again in the Racing One polls did so because he can't handle the fact that a Columbian could outdo the good old boys. I am White Anglo Saxon so no vested interest here but hate to see blatant ignorance due to blind nationalistic pride. Give credit to those who are the best at their given sport or profession, not by their color or citizenship. Here's hoping Lewis Hamilton and Katherine Legge can show up the hick.
Can anyone tell me why you can vote as often as you want on one subject with Racing One's polls? You can tell when someone has gone on to add a couple of thousand votes at once. What happens is that people with a vested interest in having the vote go one way, whether for marketing purposes, sexist or racist slants, will vote heavily in one way knowing that most people will think "this must be right because most people voted this way" or "this series must be the best because the polls tell me so". The problem of course is that there is a good chance most people feel the opposite way but it looks not because of all the false votes. In most European racing sites you can vote once and after that any future vote under that poll will not be processed (democracy, remember that)? It is actually rather comical to watch. After a week the yes vote, for example, may be 250 and the no vote 246. Suddenly in one night it changes to yes vote 254 to no vote 12,437. Wow, almost dead tie for a week and then suddenly in one night over 12,000 votes in one direction and this happens on a regular basis. Let's have the true vote prevail and keep the jerk factor out of the polls.