Monte Carlo Forum - Monte Carlo Enthusiast Forums

Points and Congratulatory Remarks

A congrats to Mike Beck, 03JGMonte, for a winning at Dover!! With that win, he assumes command of the Segment 4 poitns just two races into it! Also, he put anoter dent into the overall poitns lead... and with Talladega looming on Sunday afternoon, Mike is right there within striking distance.

The overall points are looking like this....

1) carlm54stl 3023 Leader
2) JuniorCar 3002 -21
3) 03JGMonte 2977 -46
4) SupplySgt 2950 -73
5) Leprechaun93 2934 -89
6) bblackstone 2923 -100
7) Cowboy6622 2914 -109
8) zjerry 2890 -133
9) montecarlo3831 2889 -134
10) 02 Earnhardt 2845 -178
11) butch049 2802 -221
12) lougreen03 2785 -238
13) 77GP 2704 -319
14) STUMPMI 2560
15) silverfish33 1988
16) adgm2005 1905
17) RocknSS04 1142
18) MnteCrloSS47 1106
19) Ricks 2006 SS 997

And the segment looks like this...

1) blackstone 255 Leader
2) 03JGMonte 253 -2
3) Cowboy6622 243 -12
4) carlm54stl 238 -17
5) zjerry 232 -23
6) lougreen03 231 -24
7) JuniorCar 231 -24
8) STUMPMI 227 -28
9) SupplySgt 227 -28
10) monte carlo 3831 226 -29
11) butch049 223 -32
12) MnteCrloSS 222 -33
13) 02 Earnhardt 213 -42
14) Leprechaun93 205 -50
15) 77GP 205 -50
16) silverfish33 184 -71

Intro to Talladega

Talladega is wild and crazy. Momentum doesn't matter. Previous good runs don't matter. I suspect we will see a range of points of about 60-90 points this week, where we normally only have 20-30. I think anyone in about the top 3-4 in overall points could leave Talladega with an overall points lead. The Segment could get flipped over, because practically anyone could walk away from Talladega leading this segment if the circumstances bounce around just right!!!

Talladega History

Everyone knows I love talking about some Torino and Talladega history!!!

The first time they came here, I've talked about before, but will talk about again. They came down in 1969 and the speeds were so hihg, and the tires were falling off so fast, that the lead drivers, led by Richard Petty, wanted the race postponed until a stronger tire could be developed and more safety implemented to keep drivers from getting injured. Bill France just told them to slow down. And to prove his point, Bill France personally climped inside a Ford Torino prepared by Holman-Moody and ran laps to prove how fast it was.

The trick is... I've actually had the privilege of finding a guy on FAcebook whose dad was a founder of NASCAR, Red Vogt, and the guy absolutely despises Bill France Sr. No offiical timing was done of France's lap, although news reports said he ran several laps near 170-180 mph average. Vogt claims the lap couldn't have been faster than 150 mph according to their "unofficial timing", and that in fact, only 3 laps were run. One of the Dodge teams recorded his laps as "Lap 1: Out; Lap 2: Slow; Lap 3: In."

Here is the car...

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...ancetorino.jpg

And of course, the manufacturers are always trying to undercut each other. Earlier in '69, Dodge called out Ford on the production of their 429 engine and forced Ford into using the older 427 in Daytona and premiering the 429 in March at Atlanta. Ford tried to strike back. Jacque Passino, leader of Ford Motorsports division, wrote this letter ot NASCAR questioning hte production of the Daytona 500 Dodge they called it... or basically, what we know as the winged Charger Daytona.

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...quepassino.jpg

Here is a photo Talladega released on Facebook of the construction of hte speedway...

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...gafacebook.jpg

This is a shot of the winged cars preparing to go to battle at Talladega... they were fast, yet at the same time, would pit for tires and fuel every 10-15 laps tops. The tires were just being eaten like candy.

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...rJohnCraft.jpg

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...ctalladega.jpg

Here are some photos taken in 1971 by a fan...

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...1mirabelli.jpg

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...onbrothers.jpg

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...one1971MGC.jpg

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...amirabelli.jpg

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...amirabelli.jpg

And of course, we all know Talladega for the big one... like this incident in 1983.

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...cottBrooks.jpg

This Week at Talladega

We've seen a somewhat return of hte big pack at Daytona, but Talladega still seems to let the two car tandem work a little for a lap or so.... so you need a good friend and a lto of power to win Talladega... but you need luck, and a strong car to get into that position anyway!

Soem strategies need to be looked at. Some guys are going ot hang in the back and try to save hteir car... and charge at the end. This might get you to teh end, but these guys often wreck on a last lap charge as well because they're not used to running ni heavy traffic all day.

Also, some guys far back in the chase and out of the chase come here just trying to win the race, lead laps, or do an impressive show.

Also, in the middle of the race, thos eguys in the chase will be tryign to sneak up to the front by powering their way up, doing a 2 car tandem, or some other trick such as staying out under a yellow to get a lap led.

The Favorites

This should be an easy one... Kenseth and Biffle have been the dominant pair on every restricter plate race this year, yet only won one of those. I thin kthey have learned from some of their mistakes yet at the same time, Kenseth is having a lot of issues as of late... perhaps a Talladega win will help him out.. .lame ducks have won here before, like Brian Vickers when he was a lame duck for Hendrick. He wrecked Jimmie and Junior to do it!

Other than that.... I don't really have any other "favorites."

Keselowski is good at this kind of racing.

The Toyotas were strong at Daytona in July...

And some other things to keep in mind...

Everyone loves Junior in Talladega, nad he'll lead a few laps for sure, but he hasn't won a race here since George Bush's first term as President. Keep that in mind....

Jimmie Johnson eitehr scrapes his way out of here or has a bad run most years at Talladega. I believe the only year he won here was the year he had to get back in contention. I don't really look for Jimmie to win but it is possible.

I'm also going to say I look for Regan Smith and Kurt Busch to both run well and try to make one last impressive run for those sponosrs....

But my pciks will be....

1) Matt Kenseth
2) Denny Hamlin
3) Clint Bowyer

Let's try those out for size....