RicoNascar Land
 

Re: RicoNascar Land
 

INDYCAR missed the boat again

Re: RicoNascar Land
 

The only limiting factor for Rico in NASCAR is possibly the stamina factor. We all know he has the talent, the balls, the tenacity and the want to but those tin top races can be long and grueling at places like Dover, Bristol and Richmond.

That having been said, I wouldn't bet much against him.

Sure wish someone who owns an Indy Car would have given him an offer he couldn't refuse. How much interest would Rico generate by qualifying for the 100th running of the Indy 500? I suspect a lot!!

Re: RicoNascar Land
 

Gonna lose another to taxi cabs turning left!

Re: RicoNascar Land
 

And that surprises who on this forum? Surely not I.

Good luck to the kid in NASCAR. It is the only option to move up.

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I hope he still does some dirt racing, but if he doesn't, I have a feeling in a few years all of us who got to see him run on dirt will consider it a privilege. His stature is part of it, but there is just something about watching him race. Just has the it factor. If he gets in the right equipment, he will make noise in Nascar. Talk about a PR dream!

I echo the sentiments regarding Indy Car. Someone on that side of the house needs to be out in front of some of these kids that come up. Of course it takes money, but the only way for that race to return to something resembling it's former prominence is for guys like Rico, Bryan Clauson, etc to have a consistent path to that series. Bryan is getting a couple cracks at it, but there is not a consistent link.

Best of luck to Rico!! Just might get me more interested in watching some Nascar again.

Re: RicoNascar Land
 

Why would stamina be an issue? "Small" doesn't necessarily equate to "frail"; anybody who can flip out of the park at Angell park, break his collarbone and come back to win 2 weeks later, or go 55 hard laps in Tulsa then do a Superman leap off the cage into Keith Kunz' arms shouldn't have too much trouble anywhere he goes.

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I guess you've got too follow the money!

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He'll still have lots of time for dirt racing. That K&N East series is only a handful of races.

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I went off the topic with the Indy Car mention without giving Rico the big Congrats! It doesn't matter what the path to success is, AS LONG AS THERE IS ONE! and RICO, BELL, LARSON AND CLAUSON and several others DESERVE ONE on talent alone.

I give props to Johnathan Byrd Racing for picking BC and coming out of retirement as a race team. The young man is one of the toughest racers I've had the pleasure to see grow as racer since they started with Armstrong Farms back in dadadada.

Not only that, They're down to earth, genuinely nice people who even if they don't know your name, Will give you a "How are you"? when walking through the pits.

Like Minor league professional hockey, Im a little sad when they leave our hometown or series. But wish them all the best and success they can achieve. Even if you get rides running last place at NASCAR and nationwide. It still tops some of the bigger purses in dirt track racing.

Whats always great about our sport though, is we get to follow them. Watch the new talent develop and blossom and in some cases, IT IMPROVES THE TOP PRODUCT.

Most of Napcar has become a leader running away. But a handful of races last year were just that, GREAT RACES. One of the chase races, I think Chicagoland? Larson and Gordon were swapping sliders. Then later Larson and Harvick near the end of the race.

The more of that, The better as NASCAR is going to have to realize. Their marketing has grown it as big as it probably will ever be and has since declined by a third. The PRODUCT is whats going to have to push and maintain it.

Re: RicoNascar Land
 

Indycar does not even know there is a boat to be missed! :15:

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Very good analogy, Charles. Spot on.

I think the deal with Rico moving to NASCAR boils down to two things:

One, NASCAR is where the big money is, as stated earlier in this thread.

The second is there is no direct way for any open wheel shoe to get to IndyCars. No one is going to take a chance on the sprint car guys when they can pull in a true road racer like a Pagenaud. Then you have guys bringing big money to buy rides. Sure, they are good drivers, but they have the inside track.

Other than BC of late, no one is on the radar for an IndyCar team. So the dirt guys have to go to NASCAR. IndyCar has no feeder series to speak of. Sure there is Indy Lights, and the Mazda Road to Indy, but get real. Low car counts and no TV coverage. Roll back 20 years when you had the Toyota Atlantics. Now THAT was a feeder series.

European open wheel has Formula Ford, GP2, GP3, World Series by Renault, etc. We have a mere shadow of that. Heck, a dirt guy would get more seat time running an SCCA formula (back to no coverage).

Rico is going to the K&N East Series. Remember when that was the Busch North Series? A nice regional series with a few guys that made it to the top. But between NASCAR greasing the skids for a feeder series, whether it be K&N, Trucks, or even supporting ARCA for that matter (i.e. RCR building cars for the grandkids) NASCAR is the only place to go.

Roush has an ARCA affiliate with the Roulo Brothers. ARCA has become a breeding ground for young shoes. Gone are the old veterans who make up the better half of the field.

Was it last year where Dave Darland was trying to get an ARCA ride for Daytona? Here is the top winner in USAC, and he is scraping for a one off in ARCA. That shows you how slight his Indy options are.

Gibbs, Ganassi, Childress (above), Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Penske..... all have feeder teams in the lower NASCAR tiers. Until guys like Penske, Ganassi, Andretti, Dale Coyne, etc., start forming feeder teams in Indy Lights, it's either head for NASCAR or stay on dirt for guys like Rico.

The lack of a good feeder series is what is killing the process.

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When I say this, I am not looking to start anything. Just making a statement. But is he not the same weight and as tall as wonder woman Dania? If she can do a 500 mile race, why can he not do 500 miles? If we get a few more open wheel guys racing in nascar I think you can say that dirt open wheel cars are the farm league for them. K and N is just the last stop before you get there.

Re: RicoNascar Land
 

With Rico in napcar I might stay awake a extra 10 15 laps ;)

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That was kind of my point (without the Danica analogy; no offense to Ms Patrick, but does anyone think she could wheel a Midget half as well as Rico?). And USAC has already been somewhat of a feeder for NASCAR, with Jeff, Tony, Kasey, Carl Edwards, Ricky Stenhouse, Ryan Newman among others, and now Young Money and Rico. Even before that it was really Ken Schrader that started the trend.

Re: RicoNascar Land
 

Will Nascar have to rewrite rules for pedals as in gas, brake & clutch ?

Good luck & go get'em Rico.

Re: RicoNascar Land
 

Did you read the article?
It addresses that.

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I believe Rico will do just fine in whatever type of racecar he decides to attempt to drive.

Re: RicoNascar Land
 

No sir I did not.

Chip has a couple of indy cars. Rico will be a development driver for now with chip. It would great to see rico and Larson both run in the indy 500. You never no what chip has under his sleeve. I will say one thing is that he has two good young guns under his sleeve. Go rico and Larson.

Re: RicoNascar Land
 

Good for Rico! bad for us...lol

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I knew this was coming in September, along with Bell heading south too.Bell already won there. It's a shame that Indy doesn't give them a shot. Oh, I know some fool, to be polite, will say that these guys don't have rear engine experience. Kurt Busch didn't, and he finished fifth at Indy. It has NOTHING to do with rear engine experience at Indy, it has everything to do with CASH! NASCRAP will at least give the guys with talent a shot.

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Hey Jim. Before Schrader there was Foyt, the Unsers, McCluskey, Hurtubise, others. Before them was Paul Goldsmith. Before him was the likes of Walt Faulkner. Before...oh never mind.

The point is, or may be, that once upon a time, open wheelers drove cars with fenders and their fendered cousins drove open wheel cars. (Google NASCAR's open wheel division--which didn't last long).

A few such as Rufus, drove both.

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All true Danny, but I was thinking of the "Modern Era"; back then if you were a shoe, you ran Midgets, Sprint Cars, Champ Cars, Stock Cars and if you were a REAL shoe you ran TransAm and Can-Am or Le Mans. If you were Parnelli you threw in Baja. In this age of specialization people make a big deal when Kurt Busch runs Indy but those guys went back & forth all the time, not to mention the Allisons, Cale Yarbrough & LeRoy Yarborough. I don't think anybody wrote articles about "losing" Gary B. to NASCAR when he drove Matadors for Roger...

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Other then the 500, do you care about Indy car racing? The road races are a bore. Single file racing around some temp race track. With no one watching, in person or on tv. Plus most have to pay to race. I think they are making the right pick to go to nascar.

Re: RicoNascar Land
 

This is SPOT on!
But the difference between then and now is greed! Way more of it!
I would drive for free if I had my expenses paid. Most owners now don't pay to drive but collect to drive.
And if the truth was told, I'm sure Kurt brought a pretty nice chunk of change with him for Indy last year. Maybe from a sponsor, but there was money involved no doubt!

Re: RicoNascar Land
 

The Indy 500 is the only race that matters!

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I have given up on American open wheel drivers going to run Indy Cars. Thankful I have witnessed usac races from the early 70's on. It is what it is. In my opinion Tony George gave it one hell of shot to get sprint and midget guys a shot at the speedway. He got ran out and it looks an awful lot like cart these days again. I hope Rico does well what ever he races.

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I had a Dream

USAC takes the Silver cars out and gets them plated Gold again and finds a Two and a Half Mile track not doing too much at the moment and host their own 500 mile race for front engine cars.

I would be one of the first in line to buy a ticket. NASCAR and Taxi Cabs need some good old fashioned American Competition from the Open Wheel Gang again. We shot ourselves in the foot with the Divorce and all of that foreign crapp and NASCAR took advantage of it. Maybe if we could get the cost of a big car down to $1000,000.00 or so we could fund a few teams to race on BIG TRACKS. Some of these racers would also then have another option

Can anyone that has ever seen the Roadsters race at Indy say that they enjoy the new cars as much. As close as we get today would be the Silver Crown cars at Du Quoin or Springfield.

Honest Dad himself:6::6:

Re: RicoNascar Land
 

Since 1965 there have been tremendous strides in safety and mechanical innovations.It would be interesting to see a roadster class developed to todays standards:22:

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Did the Roadsters even have power steering back then?

Honest Dad himself:6::6:

Re: RicoNascar Land
 

Most did not, However some had them added later as many cars were chopped and run for years after their Indy days were over.

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I think its great for Chip PR wise to put him into a developmental program in NASCAR vs. some kind of Indy Lites deal that he'd have to put together for him, more cost effective as well. Rico will be a marketing machine if he makes it to Cup or Busch or whatever they call it these days or Trucks.

No disrespect to Rico he's a hell of a driver but being the short guy at the track, he will get attention just as Danica did when she was the new thing.

We already have proof of it, go to any racing website and Rico is front page news right now. When have you ever seen a guy getting a K&N East series ride get so much attention? Larson, Bubba Wallace, Chase Elliott got some but nothing compared to this.

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I don't disagree with the sentiment being expressed but the point is totally missed. No one gets an Indy Car ride without bringing sponsorship money. Simple as that. Right or wrong, that is the way it works.

As for going back to roadsters, maybe we should bring back horse and buggy and typewriters. It is over, time to move on. That was a cool time but it is not coming back.

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That's the case with all major brands of racing these days. Yes, there are some drivers that slip through the cracks and make it on their merits in racing but even in NASCAR, how many drivers are there on someone else's dollar? I can name quite a few off the top of my head. If you don't have cash or bring something to the table in the form of sponsorship you're at a great disadvantage. Not saying it can't be done because many have and many still are but it's a tougher route to make it on talent alone anymore.

Re: RicoNascar Land
 

There are two sports in the world; auto racing and everything else. There are two races in the world; the Indy 500 and all the rest! as much as it pains me to think this, to save Indy car racing two things need to happen. First, move the Indy race to Saturday, that way more of the open wheel drivers who went to NASCAR can race at Indy and the World 600. When the Indy race was on the 30th of May and the 600 was on the following Sunday, there was lots of crossover. Bobby Johns, Cale & LeeRoy Yarbourgh, Donnie Allison, I think Bobby Allison also ran at Indy. AJ, & JR ran the 600. Just think of the potential NASCAR guys who would at least think about running. Bump day would become important. The second way is to convince Indy Car to have a oval division, true road course division, street division AND MOST OF ALL A DIRT DIVISION. Then they can really talk about a true champion. I know it will never happen, but I can dream can't I

I think that the wine vineyard in California and chip ganassi racing will bring enough $ for rico and Larson to fulfill their dreams.

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Churchhill Downs,Saratoga,Dover,Preakness etc.:deadhorse:

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Seems to me, That they tried to bring a front engined, big open wheel car for 1mi.-2mi. tracks. It was called USAC Gold Crown.

Must not have happened, USAC and some car owners spent a ton of money and almost totally killed the silver crown division doing it.

Re: RicoNascar Land
 

Charles

Was that thing ugly or what.

They all got together, I think Humpy Wheeler and a few USAC people and designed that stupid thing to look just like an over sized 600 race car that Humpy was pushing at that time. Everybody had to buy the same exact car and paint it however they wanted and every body was supposed to race this one spec car. I don't see anything wrong with that game plan do you? Who needs creativity to get in the way of building a race car. It is a shame that since they were mass produced they couldn't get the cost down some. I think one car manufacture would be a great idea for sprints and midgets too, I could imagine a big reduction in the cost of racing.. Then we could run them things off of Kentucky Bourbon and drink up the fuel left over from the race. A great idea for the start and park teams.:);)

Honest Dad himself:6::6:

http://thunderroadster.com/the_car.html

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