Thursday, January 31, 2008
Can the car make a difference?
How much of a difference can a change in manufacturers make, really. Well after digging through some numbers, I came up with these facts. Tony has made nine starts in the Daytona 500; 4 in a Pontiac, and 5 in the Chevy. In the 4 Pontiac races, he never lead a lap. He never failed to lead a lap in any of the Chevy races. In the Pontiac, he only completed every lap in one race. Until last year, Tony had completed every lap run in the Chevy.
I'm not expecting the Toyota to be that much better or worse, especially in COT trim. Just seemed interesting when I looked at the Daytona 500 stats by themselves without the July race numbers mixed in there.
I'm not expecting the Toyota to be that much better or worse, especially in COT trim. Just seemed interesting when I looked at the Daytona 500 stats by themselves without the July race numbers mixed in there.
# posted by theStewartFan @ 11:56 PM
2 Comments:
RevJim adds:
Remember also that everybody is a rookie this year with the CoT. Smoke has always been able to adapt quickly to any kind of car, so I think he will do just fine this year.
Thanks RevJim for your comment.
adds:
I agree Smoke can pretty much drive anything on four wheels regardless of make.
There may have been a few teams to dominate the COT races, but this year we run ALL the races on the COT.
I think Tony will do just fine.
Thanks for your comment.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
More Crash Data
Using the stats put together again by USA Today we can see another place where championships are won and lost, and who just seems to be a nuisance on the track week in and week out. Tab 2 of the graphic shows crashes by driver. Rick Mears is quoted saying, "To finish first you must first finish." I'll add that a clean race car can help quite a bit. You don't see many wrinkled up race cars in those Victory Lane photo's.
David Reagan had 22 crashes last year. That's over 60% of his races, and the largest number of crashes in one year as far back as 2003. It was his rookie year though. Second behind him? You guessed it, Robby Gordon. 16 crashes in '07 to beat out all of the other rookies. The data gathered only included drivers that started 30 races or more. I was looking for some other names when I realized that fact. I couldn't expect them to include all active drivers for the last 5 years, that would be quite a list. The fewest crashes is a tie with Kevin Harvick and Jeff Gordon having only 3. Kevin had the least number of DNF's this year, also. Others I'll mention are Rookie Paul Menard with only 6, and J. J. Yeley who went from 17 in '06 to only 9 in '07. Clint Bowyer also cut his numbers in half from 10 in his rookie year to just 4 in '07. A lesson to any young driver looking to make the chase and win races in only two years. Keep that sponsors name looking good on the side of your car, and you'll go places.
# posted by theStewartFan @ 9:07 AM
1 Comments:
adds:
Hey man, glad to see you blogging again! 2008 is going to be great!
Thanks for your comment.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Tony is Fast
'Course we knew that. But these are the first numbers we have to show that Tony will be competitive in 2008. Doing his own testing for the first time in years, I'm sure the single car testing was boring, but the speed figures should have had him sleeping pretty good last night. His fastest lap on day 2 was 185.094, faster than Jimmie Johnson, who was fastest on day one last week. A change in temp can possibly make this much difference, and I'm not sure of the weather differences between both tests. I was stuck in Wisconsin (I'll tell you what the weather was like there: FRIGID!!) due to a broken plane, or I might have gotten to this post last night. Testing the afternoon on day 2 should be a little more interesting as there'll be some cars to draft and pass in the new body style. Trying to beat J.J. Yeley's fastest speed (187.359) in drafting last week will be the numbers I'm looking for. Honorable mention goes to Jr. having the only Chevy (no Ford's, 1 Dodge)in the top 10. Of course, his teammates tested last week.
Friday, January 11, 2008
The Pit Stop
If you're a member of Infield Parking, then you're aware of the hiatus they are taking, leaving us addicted members looking for some web attention. One of the IP members started The Pit Stop on the Ning social networking site so we can get a fix in the mean time. IP's been down a week and is scheduled to be down one more. Come by and see what we've done with the place. Just click on the badge above.
# posted by theStewartFan @ 8:11 PM
1 Comments:
adds:
Looks like it's by invitation only...care to send me one?
Thanks for your comment.
Monday, January 07, 2008
1st test session
Seeing Kyle Bush in the top 10 in both sessions gives me a good feeling about the Toyota program JGR has put together. A few other Toy-motors are up there with him. There was no doubt that Toyota would give 100% to this program, and it would eventually yield results, but there would be a curve. This is a sign that they might be turning the curve. I'll sleep a little easier knowing Tony has an excellent chance to join Kyle at the top of the speed charts. Any guess where Robby Gordon finished? In the bottom 10. Great guy, super team owner, just not smart enough to hire a driver.
Sunday, January 06, 2008
Crash Data
I’d like to start this entry by giving credit to the source of facts and figures that I’m going to give my opinion on. The USA Today has again published it’s year end crash data report. It’s the kind of raw, non-opinionated data you don’t normally find from and inside the Washington beltway news source, with just the numbers themselves left to speak. The opinion I will take care of here.
The first chart shows accidents and cautions per race. There was an average of 6.7 accidents per race in ’07. That’s just a .1 increase from last year. Average from 2001 to ‘07 is 6.18.It appears there is no real spike or valley in this curve. Rule changes like the chase where there are two chances to lose the championship, and the green/white/checker have not increased the accident rate. Unexplained cautions during a race has been the topic of some controversy in the past few years, but the records here show that the number of cautions per race hasn’t fluctuated to reflect this conspiracy theory. Cautions per race for ’07 are the same as ’06 at 9.6, and actually down from 2005 where there was 10.4. Average since 2001 is 8.85.
There is a ton more I’d like to write about this article, and I’ll keep hammering away at it. Anyway, because of the unfortunate cancellation of the Dakar Rally, it appears Robby Gordon will test at Daytona. Fortunately, it won't be in the same session with Tony. Life is still good.
# posted by theStewartFan @ 6:56 PM
1 Comments:
adds:
Happy 2008! Glad to see you back blogating regularly!
Thanks for your comment.
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Question answered!
Seems like Tony is going to man the stick for the testing session at Daytona. I for one am glad to see it. It shows me the commitment of him and the team to bounce back from a year that could've gone better along with the fact that they've switched manufactures. You can read the article at SceneDaily.com
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
I'm looking forward to the New Year
I haven't been this optimistic about a New Year in a long time. 2007 didn't treat me too well in the life department, but it's behind me. And since there's nothing but NASCAR on this blog, that's all I'll say about that. I'm looking forward to the coming year and NASCAR season as much as anyone who's favorite driver switched to Toyota can. It's going to make my year as a Tony Stewart fan as tumultuous as it possibly can. I hope that the boys down at JGR have figured this car out over the off season. It'll be interesting to see if Tony, who traditionally doesn't test at Daytona, gives Mr. Wingtips (Dave Marcus) the bench for at least some of the testing. The one thing I'm sure of is that if the car can make it to Victory Lane, then we'll see some fence climbing (I mean, interviews from the flag stand!). It would make it an interesting season to see him develop the car for a few races, just make the chase, and then have his usual romp of the field in the fall. Better yet, let's win Daytona and show them all they really needed was the right driver!
Hi Toni!
Hi Toni!
# posted by theStewartFan @ 2:33 PM
1 Comments:
adds:
I think you have reason to be optomistic for reasons both on and off the track! I know I do!
Thanks for your comment.
