TBK-Light.com

It's back......... granted it looks like they could only do it for 2 laps before switching.

Banning driver to driver communication is dumb if they can still do this 2 car drafting.

Oh well, prepare for a crash filled speedweeks......

We are going to have a lot of cautions on the plate tracks this year... That looked sketchy.

DW is saying these cars will be safer with less radio communication. "They had been doing it for years the old way."

Yeah, but they weren't literally pushing each other bumper to bumper. If Driver 1 feels a problem with a car he needs to be able to tell driver 2 to get off of him as fast as possilbe. Now we gotta go through driver 1 to spotter 1, spotter 1 to spotter 2, and then spotter 2 to driver. That is probably going to be 10-15 seconds right there. Plus we have to ad the element of switching places.

You know these guys won't go to pack racing if the tango method still works, even if you have to switch a lot more.

He'll change his tune once his brother wrecks 3 or 4 other drivers in the bud shootout or whatever its called. I assume he is in it.

Front Row Joe Sighting!

Mark Martin spins Clint Boywer

No contact with the wall. Mark was pushing on the left side. That is a no no.

And there you have the first wreck. The back of the 15 is toast.

Clint Bowyer "you have to watch what you say"

Cause NASCAR will fine your ass if bad mouth them.

Gotta love it.

Mark Martin gets shorter and shorter every year.

Here are the 32 teams testing this week.

29 full time teams plus Stenhouse(#6), Danica(#10), Bayne(#21)

#1-Jamie McMurray
#2-Brad Keselowski
#5-Kasey Kahne
#6-Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.
#9-Marcos Ambrose
#10-Danica Patrick
#11-Denny Hamlin
#13-Casey Mears
#14-Tony Stewart
#15-Clint Bowyer
#16-Greg Biffle
#17-Matt Kenseth
#18-Kyle Busch
#20-Joey Logano
#21-Trevor Bayne
#22-A.J. Allmendinger
#24-Jeff Gordon
#27-Paul Menard
#29-Kevin Harvick
#31-Jeff Burton
#36-Dave Blaney
#39-Ryan Newman
#42-Juan Pablo Montoya
#43-Aric Almirola
#48-Jimmie Johnson
#51-Kurt Busch
#55-Mark Martin
#56-Martin Truex, Jr.
#78-Regan Smith
#87-Joe Nemechek
#88-Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
#99-Carl Edwards

Top 35 Teams Not Testing:
#47-Bobby Labonte
#32 FAS Lane Racing
#34 Front Row Motorsports
#38 Front Row Motorsports
*#4 Red Bull
*#33 RCR
*#83 Red Bull

*Team Shut Down

We will suffer short fields at some point this season but overall we are still very blessed to have such a good number of quality cars in the Cup series. I think everyone will race at the 500 but most weeks we're gonna see quite a few start and parkers. To help add to the field most weeks you'll have Robert Richardson's new Cup venture, Whitney Motorsports, Phil Parsons will probably go back to two cars, hopefully Robby Gordon will be able to run a race every now and then, David Stremme's team, David Reutimann in a second TBR car, Larry Gunselman's team, Leavine Family Racing with Scott Speed, Brian Keselowski might try it again, Kevin Conway might run a second NEMCO car, Senica Motorsports will hopefully show signs of life, plus I think Austin Dillon will end up running quite a few races in a fourth RCR car. I hate that TRG shut down their Cup team, they were getting better and better. The entry lists will be very interesting each week as we try to get a field of 43. Whatever the case, it's great to still have 30 solid full time teams. I think the top 35 rule won't factor in at all this season.

I doubt we see short fields. I mean, its always a possibility but I bet we get at least 43 teams at all the races. We will get people like Derrike Cope or maybe even Morgan McClure (don't know if they sold all the way out or not there website still works so someone is paying that bill) dusting the mothballs off the cars to start and park. Pretty sure some random Nationwide teams have a cup cars too.

Wouldn't shock me to see James Finch run Mike Bliss (or anyone) in a 2nd car to help fund the 51 for Kurt Busch
Nemecheck could always run Kevin Conway the full year start and park.
FRM still have Yeley and the #55 with partial sponsorship.
TBR is going to 2 cars for most races.
Inception Motorsports is supposedly full time this year.
#95 is 15 races with Scott Speed.
Robby Gordon's team will run all the races if I had to bet on it. He says every year that he doesn't know what he is doing, yet he shows up with someone in the car. Plus, they will run a second car if they think they can qualify for big money races.
Brian Keselowski will attempt the 500 and go from there. That is confirmed on his facebook. Hope your in the same qualifier as your brother.
Hell, if they have the cars, maybe Fas Lane Racing will run two cars sometimes? You really don't hear much about them. They seem to always have some kind of sponsorship so who knows.
You never know with Phil Parsons either.
Whitney Motorsports is running Fords this year I believe. No drivers announced yet that I know of.
Hell someone could still buy the Red Bull equipment and race. The MWR deal has fell through according to various websites.

A lot of assumptions on my part. It's what makes the internet fun.

How fast are the drafting speeds?

199mph, but the only pair has been AJ and Brad. Mark and Clint didn't make a full lap on each other's bumper.

Joey and Kyle are running now.

AJ and Brad are about to go out again

Joey and Kyle are 198.3ish

I'm assuming nobody's gone out in a regular line or small pack yet?

all the cars look like they've got mustaches now that they've got the grilles higher.

Correct, I have a feeling when they do tomorrow or Saturday we wont see a big difference between the tandems and the pack. Fingers crossed, because right now the tandems are only 6 mph off the single car runs, they have closed the speed gap significantly.

Johnson and Earnhardt jr drafting

Chad Knaus is on vacation this week. Surprised Hendrick would allow this when you have other off weeks where your not doing anything. Kind of Strange

201.000 Earnhardt and Jimmie

4 car drafting

Top Speed 202

_________________

Wow, so NASCAR actually wants them to go faster than 202mph.

Increasing the power might not increase the top speed, with the fixed gearing eventually you reach a point where the engine starts to choke itself long before it hits the limiter, dunno, maybe they've figured out that increasing the power just makes the single car / multi-car packs faster but doesn't do anything to increase the speed when running tandem because the tandem cars revs get past the power band and start choking themselves?

_________________