Firestone Twin 275's Race Thread

[Marbles]

Can't say the second race lotto was a bad idea. Nice to see a curve ball thrown but maybe we could cut about 45 minutes out of the deal and throw TMS a few bucks to make up for the number of hot dogs and sodas they sold during the break. Ridiculously long intermission.

Congrats to Sato on finishing and finishing well and on not having to hide parts from the team in your pockets on your walk back to pits.

"Old Man Tracy" had no right doing what he did... especially driving for a B team. Some members here must be absolutely peeved at his boldness in being competitive.

Ooohh!!! The Danica Scowl! Who did she wish into the cornfield when she turned that lotto tire? Gulp!
Has anyone seen Jay Howard?

Nice to see the 2 juggernauts split this thing down the middle. Pre-race handshake? Thank God for the even playing field of spec racing. Where were these guys at Indy?

Congrats to Power on his first oval win and no one deserves it more than him but please... get some help from choreography for the post race celebrations. Keep those fists curled in! Ugghh... I'm just glad no one asked him to throw a baseball into the crowd.

It was fun and close but no big moments. 3.0\5 stars.

[FormerFF]

By winning an oval race, Will Power is serving notice that he is the driver to beat for the championship.

[maxmach]

I enjoyed the race......s. The draw was gimmicky and unfair, but it wasn't that long ago that Indy was on the deathbed, a few dumb ideas to (hopefully) draw viewers....what the hell. Hopefully it will be gone next year. The races were good, not great but entertaining. The intermission was way too long, is there a choice in this? Wheldon's obviously got a job when he's done racing, which hopefully won't be for awhile. Nice job Dixie. And props to PT, man if He had a real car......

[beachbum]

While the random draw was gimmicky, racing is entertainment and anything to make the racing more interesting isn't a bad thing. As for the period between races, and hour isn't much time to make changes and fix small problems. Maybe it is time to bring the Lights to Texas to fill the slot.

As an experiment, it had pros and cons. Who knows if we will every see it again.

[BobbyC]

The drawing was a stupid idea in the first place, and the way they did it made it that much worse, much too much like one of those daytime US gameshows. I have no idea why they didn't just do a reverse grid, it would have been much fairer and given the points on offer the drivers are less likely to retire early intentionally to get pole for the next race.

Still, they were pretty good races, and it was good to have a commentator actually commentating rather than just naming sponsors and plugging unrelated shows. I hope that if Wheldon doesn't get a seat then they at least keep him along for that. Sadly I doubt both...

Short track racing has draw for position heat races, with the best known a short-track race in Maine, the Toronto Dominion 250. All 150+ drivers must draw a pill that will assign them to one of six heat races, where only the top four advance to the feature. This is common in short track racing, and some have "top ten" draws where the top drivers must draw for their position after the heat races before the feature.

To spice up the draw a monetary bonus ($1,000 per position gained) would compensate those who had bad draws would add spice. Can you imagine drawing #30, passing all 29 opponents, and cashing in a $50,000 bonus ($29,000 plus $10,000 for most positions gained, and a bonus for going last to first)?

[00steven]

Dario got screwed big time.

But I do have to give props to Will, I think he will win this title quite easy.

[turbofan]

The Texas race needs to ditch the carnival idea of the draw and the two races. It did not come close to the races of the past. There was no multiple lap segments of cars side by side for position and the out come of either race was never in doubt. The drawing for that level of motorsports was a joke. There was no strategy involed in any aspect of the race if they fell back early they couldn't recover after the pitstop. The racers seemed tenative because of the risk reward with the split points, which two race with one yellow flag at Texas confirms not a lot of aggressive racing. I talk to several NASCAR fans and some newbys at the race and they were confused by it all. The biggest hurdle to work around as usual at Texas was Eddies ego, announced as the greastest racing promoter. Texas doesn't need gimmicks for good races. Eddie needs to work on driver intro the lift platform almost dropped a couple drivers as they come off of it. Texas is the low spot of the season thus far.

[downtowndeco]

I'm OK w/a lotto for one race a year. I'm more than fine with it in fact, I think it's a good idea. The only downside was the long drawn out drawing.

If you can't get from the back to the front in 275 miles you don't deserve to be there.

[SarahFan]

As far as attendance goes ..... Eddie campaigned hard to get the race following indy ....

I'm not sure if thats not s mistake .... I get wanting to build on momentum .... But packing Milwaukee in the sports heyday is a heck of alot different than packing Texas in this economy and with the level of the sports current popularity


And while I'm sure the bulk of attendees are locals or near by at least .... I know I'd like to attend Texas at some point ...but at the end of the day it's roughly the same vast to attend as Indy ....and I know I'll choose the 500 everytime


As far as the gimmick goes I can't Imigine we will see it again next year ...

I think it will be an inverted start

[Chris R]

I think an invert is probably better - one thing I did like was the "half-time" - it was cool to get the drivers to talk to/ perform for the crowd - it is a good way to add some personality to the other faceless full face helmet buried in all that padding...... perhaps there is some merit to breaking up a race to get some exposure for your main asset - which is the driver......