One of the funny things about it, is I think he only needed to pass one car, to get in at 4th for the Championship, and he and Hamlin would have been tied in points. Because, Chastain had the tie-breaker with he and Hamlin. But, instead of passing one, he passed FIVE, including Hamlin at the finish. And, Keselowski (who Chastain bumped as he crossed the line) ended up getting DQ'd from 4th, so Chastain got 4th and is actually 3rd in the championship points. And, yes, he had mentioned trying it out of desperation on the radio, if they needed it. It's hard to know exactly where you stand at 100 mph, with several cars in front of you and you're not racing to win, you're racing for 1 point. So, his crew knew he might. Also, Kyle Larson tried a mini-version of it in Darlington last year, to try and pass . . . Denny Hamlin. But, Larson's was more of just a couple bumps into the wall.
I think I read somewhere that his average speed for that last lap was 54 mph faster than the average lap speed record for that track.
Fastest lap a stock car has ever run at Martinsville Speedway, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary. The track record was 18.954 seconds. Chastain's final lap was 18.845 seconds.
Yeah, that math doesn't work out to 54 mph faster. Maybe it 54 mph faster through that turn than normal. Or maybe I'm just losing my mind and didn't read it at all.
The math doesn't work, but they typically take the turns in the 60-80mph range, and get it up to 120mph in the straightaways. It's the same car that can do 190mph at Atlanta. So, he might've been doing 54 mph faster than the rest of the cars as he went by.
Well, not sure if you have been following the drama of virtual racing, but Max Verstappen competes in a virtual racing series that is the 24 Hours of LeMans. This year's race, much like the previous ones, was a gong show of shit technology. Well, Mad Max let loose this year... both barrels, point blank range. While on stream, with thousands of fans watching, he got forcefully disconnected, lost some laps, and basically said "enough of this shit... this game is crap, get your shit together... I'm done with it, I'm going to uninstall the game and I encourage everyone else to as well." Fucking hilarious. He later posted on their discord server:
Formula One is here. The Grand Prix of Bahrain is in half an hour. Finally have my reason to get up early on Sundays. I personally am rooting for the Aston Martin team mostly as I think Fernando Alonso is a throwback to the 60s and 70s drivers of driving anything for a buck. In this age of specialization, that is unheard of.
Halfway through it now and I think that the latest regs that have reduced development for the leaders and increased it for the lower ranked has really been effective. The entire qualifying grid was within 1.2 seconds. Insane. Mercedes seems really, really fucked again this year. Toto is pretty realistic right out of the gate, and you can hear desperation in Hamilton’s voice on the radio, “what can I do guys? tell me.. give me something”. And fucking hell did Red Bull seem to get it right so far. Perez already stepping up big time. And poor fucking Ocon… halfway through the race and he’s already got all the penalties.
Not sure if anyone saw today's F1 race in Melbourne, but holy shit was it ever a gong show. 2 questionable red flags caused a big strategy mix up, and a 2nd restart that was all carnage, followed by a slow roll finish that will for sure be argued about for quite a while. Crazy shit. At least the red flags weren't due to anyone being hurt or anything... just seemed like they were called due to an overabundance of care for some relatively minor incidents.
An old friend started his dream job recently, and today was his first weekend as a pit mechanic for one of Penske's indy teams. I didn't get watch it, but I think his team won today. Edit: I was wrong. A Penske driver did win. Friend's team finished 16th.
Finished the "Drive To Survive" (Season 6?) from the 2023 season. Holy Shit, Max Verstappen's historic season was so impressive it was barely acknowledged. It is boring, no drama television for him to be so dominant. Winning 19 of 22 races? That obliterated his own record of 15 from the year before. Emerson Fittipaldi, a fairly well-known name, had 14 victories. IN HIS WHOLE CAREER. When Verstappen guaranteed he'd win the season title, there were still SIX Grand Prix races left. Verstappen's point total was more than DOUBLE his teammate on Red Bull, and he finished second. lol And he's dominating this season, too. I almost feel like there is going to be a report coming soon that reveals Red Bull is/was cheating, but then it seems Checo would be winning more often.
F1 success is not just due to the driver. Much has to do with how the auto is developed. How well the crew works together. Back when Fittipaldi was winning two world championships the money available to the teams were much more equal. Most of the teams were using the same engine maker and maybe most important, 25% of the field would die each year in races.