9 replies to this topic

[HandyNZL]

This would otherwise get buried in Eric's Daytona thread, which no one but me, James and Eric ever read...so...here's one for all you other folks:

[Caesar]

[BradSpeedMan]

Caesar, on 28 February 2012 - 07:07 PM, said:

guess you have'nt noticed Handy's thread

[Massa]

Cheers Caesar, I wanted to know how the merge function worked and now I've gotten to do it.

The race took about 36 hours to complete from the scheduled start time on Sunday.  I am so glad no one was hurt.  This is my thirteenth year watching NASCAR...there will never be another race quite like that.  Thankfully.

[Caesar]

BradSpeedMan, on 28 February 2012 - 07:15 PM, said:

guess you have'nt noticed Handy's thread

i saw it, i just wanted to see how will moderators react. i thought Handy will react first.

[Argento Reloaded]

lucky he comes with "fatbags " as std equipment!!!

[BradSpeedMan]

Massa, on 28 February 2012 - 08:02 PM, said:

Cheers Caesar, I wanted to know how the merge function worked and now I've gotten to do it.

lovely lovely... but now we've lost Handy's glorious title thread yeah, it's in the subtitle, but anyway...

[HandyNZL]

Wasn't me that merged it and ruined my title (which was subtitled "aka You're not on fire Ricky Bobby!!").....it was that damn pesky Eric wasn't it?....quick, let's mutiny!!!

[JHS18]

Montoya's a lucky boy. For how amusing it is looking at it now, that could have been a lot worse.

Question for Eric - do you think this will make NASCAR change its protocol surrounding this sort of thing? Do you think it is likely that you could see NASCAR doing what F1 has - a speed limit for cars when under a safety car?

I'd personally be very surprised if this incident didn't change some things...yeah, it's a Juan one in a million chance of it happening again - but this shows that it can happen.

[Massa]

HandyNZL, on 29 February 2012 - 04:34 AM, said:

Wasn't me that merged it and ruined my title (which was subtitled "aka You're not on fire Ricky Bobby!!").....it was that damn pesky Eric wasn't it?....quick, let's mutiny!!!

If you had spelled "Colombians" correctly, I would have left it, but...

Naah, just lazy.  I did the merge from Caesar's thread (that was the one I was reading when I was like "wait we have two") so I just left what was already there.

JHS18, on 29 February 2012 - 12:46 PM, said:

Montoya's a lucky boy. For how amusing it is looking at it now, that could have been a lot worse.

Question for Eric - do you think this will make NASCAR change its protocol surrounding this sort of thing? Do you think it is likely that you could see NASCAR doing what F1 has - a speed limit for cars when under a safety car?

I'd personally be very surprised if this incident didn't change some things...yeah, it's a Juan one in a million chance of it happening again - but this shows that it can happen.

So lucky that happened where it did, and not near grandstands.  Explosion was big enough, and enough fuel sent flying...incredible isn't, it?  To think this incident plays out one way and it makes this the most-watched race in the last few decades of American history.  Plays out another and NASCAR is condemned and lawyers look for loopholes in all the waivers you agree to when you buy a ticket.

NASCAR already has a speed limit for cars under the safety car, James.  They have to go pit road speed, which varies based on the size of pit road (usually around 45-55 at most places, never more than 65, never less than 35, I think...).  Because Montoya was the only car to pit on a certain lap, he has to catch back up to the rest of the field for the restart, hence he was going faster.  So much of NASCAR strategy involves coming in multiple times under caution to either fix damage and avoid going a lap down, or to top off with fuel if you're toward the end of the field to try to stretch it on gas and get a good finish, etc.  They need to allow those cars to catch back up to the field, so there's no way to eliminate it.

Figure NASCAR will just tell the drivers "hey dumb***es, if you get on your radio and say you have a serious vibration and suspect a suspension problem, don't hit the throttle."  Not fully blaming Montoya, but no other driver would diagnose a problem over the radio, and then ignore it.

I guess they could say something like "don't accelerate to catch the field until one to go before the restart," when the safety vehicles would be off the track.  HOWEVER, this still would make it impossible to stay on the lead lap under caution if you were pitting for repairs, which I think Montoya was doing.