[Bob Tanner]

It's 1202 and the trucks are running the 1/2-mile at Mansfield. It just won't get any better than this, as far a "stock" racers go, all weekend. I'm tuning in!

[Bob Tanner]

If any of you arten't watching this race, you're missing a great one. Drivers going for the lead almost every lap! This is what stock car racing is all about! No "big picture" or "Mark Martin gentleman" racing. It's wreckers or checkers all the way!

[wingkey1]

It's what racing on a short track can produce with (nearly) little regard for vehicle/equipment type. AND it is much more feasible to compete with equipment that approaches more the "stock" appearance.

Unfortunately the 1.5 mile (or thereabouts) venue and its inherent high speed are what appears to be in demand amongst enough folks to influence.

Oh well.

[bears9]

Donnie Lia passes David Starr on the last lap to win at Mansfield.

[Bob Tanner]

Originally Posted by bears9

Donnie Lia passes David Starr on the last lap to win at Mansfield.

I don't think there is any more short track racing around Chicago. I know both Santa Fe and Raceway Park in Blue Island are gone. Also, I have the impression that you are a relative newcomer to NASCAR.

Bears, just for your information, that race today is fairly typical of what you'd see at a local track and was very symbolic of what NASCAR Grand national and Winston Cup used to be.

Did you notice that David Starr didn't whine or complain after being punted in turn 4 of the last last. I think his statement was, "It was just good old short track racing. It's what happens."

Todd whimpered a little when he called Lia's move "ridiculous," but he even admitted that Lia was a hard racer out of New England Mods and he knew what he was going to do.

You can go to Wrigley tomorrow (if the Cubbies are in town), go to Lincoln Park, go down to the lake front for the fireworks, or just go out tomorrow evening and enjoy the holiday. You've seen, by far and away, the best racing you'll see all weekend.

You got a glance today of what "The Old NASCAR" was like.

[Bob Tanner]

Originally Posted by wingkey1

It's what racing on a short track can produce with (nearly) little regard for vehicle/equipment type. AND it is much more feasible to compete with equipment that approaches more the "stock" appearance.

Unfortunately the 1.5 mile (or thereabouts) venue and its inherent high speed are what appears to be in demand amongst enough folks to influence.

Oh well.

Three wide, coming for T4 for the checkers. I ask you, how much better could it get?

Also, the driver who got punted (David Starr) didn't whine or complain. Just good, hard, short track racing," I believe he called it.

Note to NA__AR: Consider kicking the whiny, pouty primadonna's you now glorify in Cup back to where ever they came from. Replace the silly new race car with a car that can actually race, like the trucks. Turn the cookie-cutter 1.5-mile and 2-mile tracks into theme parks and run almost solely on tracks 1-mile or less in length. If you can keep the lower key atmosphere you have in CTS today, you just might sell some more seats and have some happier fans. Just a thought.

[jks812]

That was a great race. Those guys run wide open and act like they are racing for the win on lap 1. Cup drivers should watch the trucks and it might jar their memory of what "racing" is really like. Was nice to see a driver who had led so much, but finished 2nd after a bump, not get on camera and cry and whine about it.
Didn't they also say this was the 1st time a rookie had won a race since 2003?

[Bob Tanner]

Originally Posted by jks812

That was a great race. Those guys run wide open and act like they are racing for the win on lap 1. Cup drivers should watch the trucks and it might jar their memory of what "racing" is really like. Was nice to see a driver who had led so much, but finished 2nd after a bump, not get on camera and cry and whine about it.
Didn't they also say this was the 1st time a rookie had won a race since 2003?

I heard the same thing, and, as usual, someone put that stat in front of them without doing due diligence.

The last rookie in CTS to win a race was Shane Hmiel in 2004.

That is the kind of racing you get when you don't have 400-500 miles to "develop your strategy." Hornaday was going for it from the drop of the green flag, and didn't hold back until the last 50 miles.

That race ended the way a race should end... Skinner was mad, Starr was mad, Gaughn was mad, my homeboy Rick Crawford was mad (at NASCAR), Hornaday was mad and Bodine was mad. The only one to whine any at all was Todd but he's a Bodine so go figure... Everyone else said it was just normal short track CTS racing!

I enjoyed the race from the drop of the green to the checkered. My wife was up screaming "Look at that! They'll all wreck before they get to the line!" followed by a sigh and "Wow!"

I'll make a really bold prediction here that if you put the excitement of the Cup Lite race tonite, and the Cup race tomorrow together, that excitement won't come close to equaling what the CTS gave us this afternoon.