Enigmajones wrote:

 Not a big NASCAR fan, but the art work is phenomenal.

I'd have to second this. I've never been a racing fan, but you have some incredible drawings!

sportsfan7 wrote:

Enigmajones wrote:

 Not a big NASCAR fan, but the art work is phenomenal.

I'd have to second this. I've never been a racing fan, but you have some incredible drawings!

Y'all are too nice. I do appreciate it though, and hope I can convince you to follow along here and maybe even give real racing a shot?

It has been a bit since I've been here as I'm in the middle of finals right now, but I did get a chance to sit down and take a mental break and got everything ready for the next post, er uh, this post. Anyway, on with the show:

Race 5. Yutan Speedway. 500 Laps, 420 Miles

Race Summary
    Just like we saw when the tour visited Lynchport, Corey Mason would show speed all weekend, putting up the fastest single lap, the fastest 10 consecutive laps, and the fastest 20 consecutive laps in the practice sessions, and would claim the pole in qualifying. On race day, he would get a chance to show his speed, jumping out to an early lead. However, after a caution on lap 28 would split the field’s pit strategy, he would find himself in 13th. He would soon use his fresh tires to his advantage, cutting through the field like a hot knife through butter, but he wouldn’t do so without a little controversy. While working back up, naturally he found himself in a battle with Stan Gordon for 6th place. Gordon’s old tires were unable to keep his pace up, and Mason would drive his number 22 right to his door. Gordon, hoping to keep his side-by-side position and make a run back down the straightaway, would hold tight on his door, but on corner exit, Mason would go high, nudging Gordon into the outside wall. Though the damage initially appeared to be minor, a tire rub would develop on Gordon’s right front, resulting in a blown tire and a hard impact to the outside wall just a few laps later. Repairs would take up the majority of the race, leaving the 52 team many laps down and unable to recover.

Corey Mason runs wide, forcing Stan Gordon into the outside wall

    Meanwhile, the ensuing caution would get everyone back on the same strategy as the whole field would come back down pit road. Corey Mason would make up a few spots in the pits and would restart in 3rd, just behind Marshall Thorton, who had been leading prior to the caution, and James Chambers. But Mason’s Dodge was just too good, and after just 5 green flag laps, he was back out front. For a while, the race would be pretty uneventful. A few cautions would bunch things back up every now and then, but Corey Mason was simply untouchable. It would take all the way until lap 362 before another driver would lead a lap, and that was Rick Cross in the 95. Running a respectable 9th-13th most of the day, Cross and the rest of the Mansfield Motorsports Group decided to gamble. While most drivers were pushing hard, using up tires and not making a full fuel run before pitting, Cross backed off, saving his tires and going long on fuel. He’d stay out and take the lead for a few laps, and then give it up to make his stop. His goal was to make one fewer stop than everyone else and steal a win, and it looked like everything was playing right into his hands. After the others had made their final stop of the day around lap 440, Cross would take the lead back. He would hold on for the next 49 laps, but in his effort to save his tires, his pace had fallen off dramatically, resulting in Corey Mason making the pass, even on one more stop. Cross would eventually cede second to Johnny Jennings, falling to third, but still netting a gain out of his strategy call, a big step in the right direction for his team. Mason would go on to take a dominant win, though several questions surrounded his early incident with Stan Gordon. When asked about it, Mason replied with a smile, “In that moment, I was a racer making a pass. I thought I had him cleared. Should I have gone all the way up? Maybe not, but he definitely didn’t give me any room to work with.” Many thought his comment was a dig at the comment made by Gordon following their earlier incident, but when pressed further, all he’d say about that was, “I’m just saying the words, you make the interpretations however you want.”

Corey Mason's winning car. Sponsor: Klover Foods

Results:
1. 22, Corey Mason
2. 1, Johnny Jennings
3. 95, Rick Cross
4. 16, Tom Johnston
5. 15, Darren Cannon
6. 55, Lucas Morris
7. 20, Jason Faulk
8. 08, James Chambers
9. 8, James Norman
10. 40, Greg Peterson
11. 90, Caleb Jordon
12. 80, Jordon Nash
13. 5, Ray Kelly
14. 91, Tony Clark
15. 0, Tommy Cunningham
16. 99, Denny Bryan
17. 7, Marshall Thorton
18. 00, Pete Tucker
19. 01, Jared Tyler
20. 18, William Hayes
21. 9, Thomas Copeland
22. 60, Carlton Clark
23. 34, Taylor Patterson
24. 10, Seth Nichols
25. 45, Clay Harris
26. 71, Keller Burns
27. 17, Daniel McCall
28. 52, Stan Gordon
29. 21, Nick Andrews
30. 31, Ross Gill
DNQ: 72, Mike Henderson


Lap Leaders: C Mason (412), R Cross (68), M Thorton (15), J Chambers (5)

Points Standings:


Up next, the teams will head to the Greenville Motor Speedway for 400 laps. Thanks for looking!

Wow, it's been a few minutes. Like, at least 7 minutes. It turns out that when you haven't seen any family members since August, you kinda want to take some time and just hang out with them. Anyway, I've already gotten bored of those weird people I call my family, so I'm back at this again, and just for the hell of it, I'll make it a double post. But first, a (much belated) reply.

Stickman wrote:

Also, poor Nick Andrews.   Already been in 5 races and only has 9 points to show for it!  Heck, Natalie Reid nearly doubled that in her one and only race!   So either Andrews is a REALLY bad racer, or he's really unlucky one.

Nick is... eh. I wouldn't say he's the worst driver ever, but his luck definitely makes things seem worse. In reality, he's just... meh. Like we saw at the Winston Superspeedway, he got himself in position to either win or finish up front, but got caught up in an accident, and several other races have ended in mechanical failures, so luck has been hard to come by early on. However, he'll always struggle to shed the negativity that comes with being a "pay driver." Most guys with his talent probably wouldn't be given a ride in the equipment he has, but his father's company (Andromart, an in-universe Walmart-and-more type of store) can sponsor his car, plus use business-to-business deals to get sponsor on two other cars as well, so it's also kinda hard to turn down that type of money as a team owner, and usually gives whichever driver that brings the funding a bad image if they can't put up winning results.

Now, onto the first part of the main post.
Historian’s Corner
Episode III: The Other Side of the Island

    In 1996, a 31 year old Carlton Clark was in the midst of a 7 win season and about to bring it all together for a championship in the following season, but over in the ARL, another driver was about to begin a dynasty of his own. At 22 years old, Ty Norman was making his professional racing debut in the number 17 Chevrolet for Oswald Motorsports with sponsorship from automotive painting company Royce Auto Finishes. The team would catch eyes immediately with an extremely flashy paint scheme, a natural expectation with a paint company as the sponsor. With a dark gray stripe on the side, the scheme was started out fairly tame, but the rest of the scheme was were the flash was. In the rear, the car started with a neon orange, but the orange would fade into a deep wine red in the front. From certain angles, the car would look like a red-orange gradient while others would make it look black-orange.

Ty Norman's first car

    But a flashy scheme doesn’t create a dominant race car, that comes from behind the wheel. Fortunately, they had a wheelman. Ty Norman would be signed to drive the car, coming from the dirt late model ranks and only a year of pavement late model racing to his name, but that was all Roger Oswald needed to see. It would be a rocky start, but soon everything would start to come together and by the end of the season, the team had managed an 11th place finish in points to go along with Ty Norman’s first career win. 1997 would be the season it all started to come together, as Ty would manage to bring home 4 wins to go along with his 3rd place finish in points. He looked like he might have a shot at the championship, even holding the points lead with 8 races left in the season, but some minor inconsistencies would drag him down at the end of the season. Those inconsistencies would be wiped out over the next two years, as the 1998 and 1999 seasons would result in a pair of championships. In 1998, the 17 crew would bring home 12 wins out of the 33 race schedule, and in 1999, they’d bring home 11, along with 5 more in the ASCRA in only 10 races. Additionally, this season would mark the first time he’d compete head to head with Carlton Clark, though just 3 times, one being a DNF, one being a runner-up behind Clark, and one being a win for Norman, with Clark blowing an engine early. With Carlton Clark declaring that he would attempt the full ASCRA season in addition to his NSCA season, many hoped to see Ty Norman run the full ASRCA season as well, but instead, he’d announce he was running just 5 races in the ASCRA, instead of the previous 10. Over the next few seasons, this would be his schedule, but he admitted it wasn’t to his liking. Unfortunately, as would be revealed years later, Oswald Motorsports was struggling for cash, and simply couldn’t afford the additional races. This began to show in their performance, as 2000 saw the team win 13 times across the two series, but 4 mechanical related DNFs would hold them to 2nd in the standings. 2001 would be similar, with 14 wins in the two series, but the DNFs would drop the team to 4th. 2002 would be the final straw for Ty Norman, as the team refused to let him attempt any non-ARL races and the reliability issue would continue to plague the team with their 7 DNFs matching the win total and points position for the year. At season’s end, Norman would announce his departure from the team, joining Alexander Thompson at Thompson Racing in the team’s number 26. Pepsi, who had been an associate sponsor for Norman for years, would jump up to primary sponsorship. The partnership would be successful, with a 9 win championship winning season in the ARL to go along with 4 in 14 starts in the ASCRA. But the most exciting news of all would come at the end of the season. In 2004, both Ty Norman and Carlton Clark would compete head to head for a championship. Not just in one series, but all three.

The scheme Ty Norris would drive with Thompson Racing

And now for part two
Race 6. Greenville Motor Speedway. 400 Laps, 316 Miles

Race Summary
    As the series moved into Greenville, excitement was high. Through the first 5 races, there had been no repeat winners, 15 different drivers had scored a top 5, 23 had scored top 10s, and the top five in the points standings were separated by just 9 points, including a tie for the lead, and rookies in first and third. Fortunately, this race would live up to the hype with several drivers leading laps and no clear dominant car throughout the day. Early on, pole sitter Caleb Jordan would seem to be quick, leading for the first 23 laps, but he didn’t have much as the run went on, giving way to Stan Gordon. However, Gordon’s lead would be short lived, as Seth Nichols would put up a challenge almost immediately, taking it away after just 9 laps. And as if things hadn’t been hot enough with the action, 4th place driver Pete Tucker would report a vibration, eventually spinning with a blown left rear tire on lap 47, right about two thirds of the way through a run on fuel. Tucker would save the car, minimizing damage, but would find himself stuck at the tail end of the field. Meanwhile, the timing of the caution created some interesting strategies. While most elected to make a stop, Natalie Ride and Lucas Morris would attempt to work their way off the main strategy by staying out. Additionally, several drivers would choose to take just two tires instead of 4. As a result, the front of the filed for the ensuing restart would consist of Natalie Reid, a part-time rookie in her second start leading for the first time in her career, Lucas Morris, in a bit lower-level equipment, and William Hayes, another rookie. This lack of experience at the front of the field (and in Morris’s case, a lack of car acceleration ability) would create a massive mess. Reid would spin her tires, resulting in Hayes attempting to split the middle three-wide. Hayes would not be able to hold this position, losing the car and sliding up into Johnny Jennings, who had restarted 4th. A chain reaction would ensue, wiping out Stan Gordon, Seth Nichols, Jason Faulk, Nick Andrews, and a couple others. Several teams would be able to make repairs and gain a few spots over the start-and-park drivers, but the damage to William Hayes and Jason Faulk would, unfortunately, leave them in the last two position in the race, as they were unable to make repairs.

A massive, track-blocking crash would be the end of several drivers' chances at the win

    Following the pileup, the race would resume with Lucas Morris in the lead, which he would hold for several laps before eventually giving way to Jared Tyler. As the race would approach the quarter mark, it was beginning to seem like Tyler’s 01 Supra would be the car to beat, but another caution, this one for a blown engine in Mike Henderson’s 27, would bunch everyone back up and allow Caleb Jordan to retake the lead. After becoming too loose on long runs earlier, Jordan’s team had adjusted the car, getting it more to his liking, and after a short battle with Tyler on the restart, Jordan would pull out to a lead that would stabilize right around 3.5 seconds. For another brief moment, it looked like the dominant car had been found, but as the run went on, Jordan would start to feel an issue developing. While the car was no longer loose on the long run, they had tightened it to the point were the stress on the right front was too much, and just a few laps before scheduled green flag pit stops, the tire would give out, sending the leader straight into the wall. Jordan’s car would be repaired, but he would find himself too many laps down to salvage anything meaningful out of the race.
    The next stretch of the race would see Pete Tucker work his way back into the mix. His early issues were the incident that kicked off this chain of events, but that had also kept him out of harm’s way for the early portion of the race. After working into the top 5, a quick pit stop would get the 00 team out in the lead, but it would be short lived, as Corey Mason would make a move early after the restart. Mason would hold for a bit, but another caution, this for debris from a damaged car, would leave him vulnerable and Jared Tyler would capitalize. Now past the halfway point in the race, Tyler was once again trying to prove he had the car to beat, but he would almost immediately fall off. Moving past would be Darren Cannon, who had been out of the picture all day. Cannon’s team had struck something that worked as the sun had began to set, but they needed to continue making the adjustments as the track continued to change with the setting sun. But again, just when someone looked to have found something, they would begin to fade. Cannon would hold strong for a majority of the third quarter of the race, but when the sun had finally disappeared around lap 280, so did his speed. The lead that he had built up would quickly vanish, with the JNR teammates Tommy Cunningham and James Chambers taking it away. Cunningham would hold on for 18 laps, but a brush with the wall would drop him off the pace a bit, allowing Chambers to move ahead. He would hold strong, but the caution would fly for the final time on lap 334, bunching everyone up once again. Chambers would restart in the lead, but in a surprising move, Pete Tucker, fully recovered from his early flat tire, would take the lead after just a few laps. Tucker would pull away a bit, but after a few laps, Jared Tyler would begin to run him down. With 15 to go, the two were side-by-side, fighting it out for the win. However, just when it looked like Jared Tyler would get clear and take the win, he’d overdrive the turn and slap the wall, ending any shot he had as Pete Tucker would drive off to his first win of the season.

Pete Tucker on his way to his first win of the season

    Meanwhile, Ross Gill had put together a very impressive run, bringing home his family owned team in 15th, way higher than anyone would expect from him. The excitement was short lived however, as when he pulled his car off the track, the ballast in the left side would fall out on pit road. While it didn’t occur during the race, the violation was severe. An improperly secured ballast is a major safety hazard, and as a result, the team would lose all points and prize money from the weekend, have the crew chief suspended for three weeks, and an additional fine on top of that. For a small team that had put together an impressive run, an absolutely terribly timed accident would leave the best finish in team history as something they’d rather forget.

Results:
1. 00, Pete Tucker
2. 01, Jared Tyler
3. 15, Darren Cannon
4. 35, Kurt Lowe
5. 16, Tom Johnston
6. 0, Tommy Cunningham
7. 91, Tony Clark
8. 7, Marshall Thorton
9. 08, James Chambers
10. 8, James Norman
11. 99, Denny Bryan
12. 22, Corey Mason
13. 5, Ray Kelly
14. 80, Natalie Reid
15. 31, Ross Gill*
16. 55, Lucas Moris
17. 45, Clay Harris
18. 9, Thomas Copeland
19. 40, Greg Peterson
20. 90, Caleb Jordan
21. 10, Seth Nichols
22. 52, Stan Gordon
23. 21, Nick Andrews
24. 95, Rick Cross
25. 1, Johnny Jennings
26. 71, Keller Burns
27. 27, Mike Henderson
28. 34, Taylor Patterson
29. 20, Jason Faulk
30. 18, William Hayes
DNQ: 66, Peter Miles


Lap Leaders: C Jordan (87), J Tyler (83), D Cannon (71), P Tucker (52), J Chambers (36), T Cunningham (18), S Nichols (17), L Morris (14), C Mason (12), S Gordon (9), N Reid (4)

Points:


That was a ton, and honestly, I don't blame you for skipping over most of it. It's been a while, so I figured a larger post would help to make up for it. My schedule is still a bit weird though, so the posts may still be a bit erratic for the time being. As usual though, I just want to say thanks to everyone for reading and happy new year!

Stickman wrote:

The race itself sounds like it was total chaos, which was fun to read as well!  While I find Busch beer to be terrible personally, I will admit that light blue with gold trim design does lead to a nice looking car for Pete Tucker.

Stinks for Ross Gill to have that penalty, can't imagine that suspension will do his race team any good, plus losing that money sounds like that could be devastating.  

Great work as always! 

 
Thanks for the kind words! Chaos is a fair description of the race lol. As for the Gill situation, that’s as close as I’ve ever been to ignoring the random results. For each race, I include almost impossibly small odds of a penalty and if it actually hits the number required for one to occur, there are then odds for who to apply that penalty to, with bigger teams (as they tend to run up front) having a larger chance of a penalty than small teams (since they’d have more to lose by bending the rules). Combine that with the fact that it was the team’s best result in their history and the odds of this happening were literally astronomical. I have to be impartial in this, obviously, but I’m real life I’m always a supporter of underdogs, so yeah, that one hurt my heart to have to do, but it’s just how everything generated.


Side note/general question: title editing. I’ve been able to update it with each race to this point, but when I go back to edit the first post it won’t let me adjust the title anymore. Anyone know what I can do with that?

QCS wrote:

Sadly, the board just occasionally decides to not let people edit their titles. You can get a mod to edit it to be a generic name, but we don't have a fix for it.

Congrats to Tucker, and you hate to see what happened to Gill.

JN8, yeah, it's a weird quirk of this board. Some of us can edit titles on mobile still when that happens. I'll adjust your title to the series name for now.