[nashcar]

Watched part of the Xfinity race yesterday and some Cup today. I think Nascar should wet the track after each stage.

[The Champ]

It was a good race, but no need to create unnatural conditions for racing. It was interesting to see the early decision by Ty Dillon's team to put the slicks on before the track was totally dry. It was the right decsion.

Chase Elliot just won his 4th road course in a row. Next year there are 6 road courses - the traditional Sonoma and Watkins Glen, the relative newcomer Charlotte Roval for the 4th time and then they're dropping the Brickyard oval for the Indy road course, Road America in WI and then Circuit of the America's in TX. Kentucky and Chicagoland are off the schedule and they are adding Nashville.

I like the changes to the schedule!

[tom s]

yesterdays race was mayhem,I hope they make some changes to the track to cut down on standing water.Need way better drainage. I read the avg speed was 58 MPH for a race that has 160-170 MPH runs on the high bank part of track.Glad the Cup race was good.Tom

[Goatracer1]

Years ago I watched a Formula 1 race from England. It was pouring rain and those guys were running 160 mph down the straights with rooster tails 10 feet in the air. I have no idea how they could turn the sharp corners or how the guys behind could see where they were going. Best race I ever watched.

[The Champ]

Originally Posted by tom s

yesterdays race was mayhem,I hope they make some changes to the track to cut down on standing water.Need way better drainage. I read the avg speed was 58 MPH for a race that has 160-170 MPH runs on the high bank part of track.Glad the Cup race was good.Tom

The average speed yesterday for a race that started in the rain was actually 76.948 MPH, not 58 MPH.

You have to remember that there are 18 turns on the course and some of those corners are very low speed turns vs the 160 MPH straightaways.

In qualifying last year (no qualifying this year), Chase Elliot set the course record with a one lap speed of 102.101.

But remember, in a race you have cautions and pit stops that will dramatically affect the average speed. Case in point, this year's race actually had a faster average lap speed than last year's race (run totally in the dry) - 76.948 vs 75.499.

All racers ran the 2nd and 3rd stages of the race on slicks, so there wasn't that much standing water on the track (at least before some drivers decided to run through the grass which ended up making parts of the track wet again).

When they changed from rain tires to slicks, the average speed went up dramatically. Instead of typical 97 second lap times, they were down in the 80 second range.

Rain tires just aren't as fast as slicks unless the track is wet. They use a very sticky compound that wears much faster than the normal tires too.

[tom s]

Saturday race was 58!Not the Cup.Tom

[The Champ]

Tom

I'm sorry. I thought your comment on average speed was referring to the Cup race. I didn't notice that you posted last night - I was posting this morning and to me, yesterday's race was the Cup race....

As to the Xfinity race, obviously the average speed was much lower. The entire race was run under extremely adverse conditions with rain tires. It's acutually surprising the average speed was 58 MPH...

[Wareagle]

For Nostalgia this one is cool Paul Goldsmith driving a 1963 SD-421 Lemans Tempest averaged 145 mph in Intermittent rain Winning the 63 250 Daytona Challenge Cup - Finished 2 laps 5 miles ahead of AJ Foyts 63 427 Vette - also lapping Ferrari's etc. a # of times