Behind the Wall: 2014 All-Star Race

Showing posts with label 2014 All-Star Race. Show all posts

Monday, May 19, 2014

Driver Spotlight: Josh Wise

Josh Wise's Greatest NASCAR Weekend: All-Star Race

By Richard Tix

Last Friday it was announced that Josh Wise, not to be confused with Danica Patrick, won the Sprint All Star Race Fan Vote. Early last week I started to become a believer in the movement that Dogecoin and the Reddit community was making. I even stated on Twitter that I thought he had a great shot at winning the vote.

Now as I mentioned in my last driver spotlight which was on Danica, she is great for the sport. In that same sense so is Josh Wise and this huge win for that team. Heck this fan vote win was almost David v Goliath.

Some fans have been critical of this fan vote win. They all think it's just a bunch of computer generated votes. Even if there was a possibility of that, the Reddit community actually released a statement of how they won. I was on Reddit and there were a ton of real fans on those boards before this race.

This community has to be looked at as legit, heck they helped this small team get a sponsor on the car. Danica's fan following is awesome but she was given her sponsor because of her marketability, Josh got his through fans! That's huge for a little team and it has brought him more publicity.

How is this not good for NASCAR? Fans helped bring in a sponsor that would never be in the sport. They helped a small team in a sport that is taking a hit in the sport, sponsorship. Maybe NASCAR can take this and learn from it.

When NASCAR was starting it wasn't huge sponsors and at some point huge corporate sponsors came in. Now, NASCAR is all about money and it's even harder on the small teams. Times change and if we are not willing to at least accept the idea that a community like his could help NASCAR in general then we will be just as responsible for the decline of NASCAR as. Mr France will be.

But enough of why I think we need to be open to the idea a moment like this could bring good things, let's get back to one of Josh Wises best weekends in NASCAR. The real story was Jose Wise, Reddit, and the Doge Community winning the fan vote. But Josh Wise also got to race because of wining that vote. Now, his results were not amazing, and I think some fans took offense to where he was during the race after he won the fan vote.

I will remind everyone of this, he is still running a small team car. Jose Wise got the chance to go out there and run with past winners and learn how Charlotte would handle the next two weeks. Was he ever going to win on Saturday? Most likely no. Will everything he learned on Saturday help him out this weekend? Most likely yes. It isn't likely he will win the 600 but for a little team some extra track time can be nothing but a good thing.

Also, Wise kept his car out of trouble when there was tons around. Now, I do think it would have been more exciting to see him mix it up with the others, but fact is this small team can not afford to tear up car after car. Wise does not have a SHR or Hendrick backing that can just give him another car if he gets in trouble. Time and time again we see teams that have to cut back or even shut down because of money, some of that coming from all the wrecked cars.

In any sense, it is still a great story at the end of a great weekend for Josh Wise. Him and his community helped raise awareness that there are new and different ways NASCAR can bring in fans and maybe even sponsorship. We as NASCAR fans may never see another vote like this either (I am just making an assumption here, but I feel like some voting rules may change. I know Reddit users and Josh Wise fans did everything under the rules, but that doesn't mean NASCAR will keep the same rules). As we all know, NASCAR is the king of making changes, so Josh Wise fans, don't be surprised if some changes happen.

My last line will go like this: Congrats to Josh Wise, Dogecoin, and the Reddit Community. It was a huge win and will be a part of NASCAR history.

Thursday, May 15, 2014

2014 All-Star Race Preview

Random Stats on the NASCAR All-Star Race

By Richard Tix

Well I said this week I wouldn't have many articles. Then I released a Power Rankings Review Article. Ok, still under my normal amount of NASCAR coverage. The same day I also released this weeks, This Week in NASCAR: 5/12. Then I released a Danica Partick Driver Spotlight. Up to three articles, didn't I say this was a bye week on the blog? Wait, I released 2014 All-Star Week as well this week? Man, I can not just sit back and relax!

So, here we are...A week where I wasn't going to have many articles and I'm already long gone, I may as well write up a fast preview to this weekends ASR. All this article is going to contain is some random stats and links for more All-Star Weekend information, so enjoy!

Random Facts:

This will be the 30th All-Star Race. First race was held on 1985.
In 1986 the race was held at Atlanta Motor Speedway and is the only All-Star Race not held at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Bill Elliott won the 1986 race at Atlanta.
Jimmie Johnson has the most All-Star Race wins (2006, 2006, 2012, 2013).
In 29 races there have been 19 different winners.
Jimmie Johnson (2012 and 2013) and Davie Allison (1991 and 1992) have both won back to back.
Jeff Gordon is the youngest to win the ASR at 23 years, 9 months, 18 days (1995).
Of current drivers, Terry Labonte and Jeff Gordon have run the most races, 20 times.
Of current drivers, Dale Earnhardt Jr has the most top 10's with 11 in 14 tries. Matt Kenseth has the second most with 10 in 13 tries.
Of current drivers Jimmie Johnson and Tony Stewart have the most top 5's with 8.
Of current drivers 12 drivers have a ASR win. This includes Michael Waltrip and Terry Labonte.
Mark Martin is the oldest driver to win the ASR at 46 years, 4 months, and 12 days (2005).
Terry Labonte won the first Pole in 1985.
Of current drivers Jimmie Johnson had led the most laps at the ASR (218). Kyle Busch has led the second most 201 in only 8 career tries.
16 drivers have won the Pole for the ASR. Bill Elliott has won a career high 5 Poles.
Of current drivers Kyle Busch has the most career Poles with 3.
The All-Star Race has been won from the Pole 4 times, most recently 2010 by Kurt Busch.
The furthest back a winner has started was 27th in 2002 (Ryan Newman).
Of current drivers Jeff Gordon has logged the most All-Star Race laps (1,624).
9 current drivers gave an average finish of 10 and under. Joey Logano leads with an average finish of 4.3 in 3 career starts.

So hopefully now you are ready for All Star Weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The schedule above should get you by if you are looking for when to catch the action on TV. I will be in Iowa this weekend for the Nationwide race, but I will hopefully be down there in time to catch everything at Charlotte. I am really pulling for Josh Wise to get in on the fan vote because I think that would be an awesome story and a huge win for him and Dogecoin. The fact that we are even talking about the possibility of him beating out Danica is an accomplishment of its own.

Normally I hold off on my race winner predictions until after cars hit the track, but this week I will go out on a limb and state it right here on NASCAR Behind the Wall. I am going to take Joey Logano to win the All-Star Race in his 4th try. He has a great track record here in only 3 All Star races and he is off to his best season in his young career.

Jimmie Johnson is the safe bet this weekend to run well and win. He can extend his career leading 4 ASR wins to 5 this year and make it 3 straight. I also will go out on a limb and think Tony Stewart could finally have a bounce back race in a race that gives him no points. In his 15 All-Star starts he has some awesome stats to back that idea up, but 2014 has been a shaky start (which is nothing new to Smoke). Maybe he will start his "Summer run" at Charlotte?

If you need more, check out those links above. 2014 All Star Week has a lot of great links for all the ASR info you need. It also has some past video's of some cool ASR moment's. ThisSportz also has early fantasy advice for Charlotte next week so check that out. Also, if you are in the mood to watch some old NASCAR races, check out Avery Hage's new blog! He is making finding old race footage easy by giving fans easy year by year links to YouTube videos on NASCAR Video Archive. I have also added a link to his blog and ThisSportz on the left NASCAR Sites/Blogs.

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

2014 All-Star Week

By Richard Tix

All-Star week is my week off. This week there will be no race previews, or reviews, or after race power rankings. So to get you through the week NASCAR Behind the Wall will dedicate a All-Star Week Article with some interesting notes and some past photos and video clips.

Articles: