Daytona 500

[Bumble Guy]

Long overdue for repaving track,I am in paving business and that patch came apart becouse it was pumping water under asphalt from all the rain they had,was hard to stay awake just didnt seem like the good old days with Richard Petty,Dale Enheart,saw Petty crash there around 1986 ish,car got airborne so high almost went in stands messed up fence pretty good

 

[WH401]

6+ hours was a little much, that track repair was interesting.

I thought they said the track hasn't been paved since 1978, could that be possible, for the kind of traffic and abuse it gets?

JB.

Nope your correct, it hasn't been paved since 78'. It's scheduled for a $20 million repave in 2012, but it could be moved up if necessary.

All in all I thought this year's 500 was pretty interesting, even with the 2:xx hour red flag periods for the "pot hole". That was a fantastic finish, and I haven't seen Jr drive like that in a long time. He went from 10th to 2nd in less than a lap. It looked like he had another gear, he just shot by and between everyone.

 

[JB4310]

I like all types of motor-sports, don't follow Nascar closely but do like watching the races. They need to tweak those rules a little more to guarantee green flag finishes for the fans.

My buddy raced motorcycles at Daytona, he said those banks are very intimidating, said all the newbies would end up down on the apron the first few laps.

JB,

 

[emmy71]

I began to think the Daytona 500 wasn't going to finish today. It was an unusual race, and I suppose a surprising end, although I haven't kept up at all with who's who in the racing business.

How many watched the beginning and heard Harry Connick, Jr. sing our National Anthem? Maybe it's just me. I know our National Anthem is very difficult to sing as it was written since almost no one has a voice with the necessary range. But it seems that almost every sports event that has some current popular singer to sing it, has their own "arrangement" and just butcher the song. I don't really know much about Harry Connick, Jr., but in my opinion, he did the best job of singing the National Anthem that I've heard in years.

He did do a good job of singing it. I hate when someone tries to put their own twist to it. Just sing it like it was meant to be sung. I heard an interview with a singer one time (don't remember who) but he was talking about how difficult it was to sing the anthem at a race because they try to time the end with the fly over of the military planes and he said you had someone telling you to speed up or slow down to time the planes.

Being from Earnhardt's home town I like to see him do well. Hopefully he will continue.

Terry

 

[jimmyj]

I enjoyed the race. The pot holes were an odd twist but I was at Charlotte once and had a 45 min delay for water seeping up through the track due to rain the night before.

Good finish, I like the green white checker vs finishing under yellow. I used to hate yellow finishes.

It is interesting how Junior can run at the restrictor plate races. It is as said, like he has another gear!

$20 million to repave, wow, that seems like a lot!

 

[/pine]

The track is banked at 31*...

getting a (low center of gravity) paving machine to ride the bank is one thing but to keep a supply of material going into the hopper is another...

if you took a typical 18 yd dump truck length-wise on 31*s and lifted the bed to dump a load we all know what would happen....

there is a lot more to it than just paving a 2.5 mile oval...

 

[MikePA]

Found this on the Internet, so it must be true.

They have a paver that will pivot so it can pave the angles.They have a belt at the bottom of the track that feeds the hopper on the track.They do 2 lanes at a time.

How Daytona Was Created (Click Here) also includes the following.

No one had tried to pave at that degree of incline, so Moneypenny came up with an ingenious solution. He connected the paving equipment to bulldozers anchored to the top of the banking. In addition, very fine iron fillings were mixed with the asphalt to help with the track's adhesion.

 

[jimmyj]

I saw pictures years ago from when they were building Talladega. There was equipment on the bank tied with a cable or something to another heavy vehicle at the top of the bank on the flat or other side (can't remember exactly).

 

[arrow]

I remember watching Freddy Lorenzon and Fireball Roberts back in the late 50's early 60's. These were cars that you could buy. The doors were welded but they were "cars" and not the cookie cutter renditions of todays Nascar. Nascar went Hollywood when they made the drivers the stars and the competition between factories almost non-existent. To this day, there is still something about being able to have bought in 1963-64 a 427 Ford Galaxy 4 speed or a 426 Plymouth Belvedere or a 427 Impala coupe because you knew that these were the same cars (albeit with a lot of cheating "alterations") that were on the track. Anybody remember when Ford built 50 429 Falcons back in 69 to be legal for NHRA drags?