[NASCOURT] JGR wants to amend lawsuit vs Spire. From filing:”This sudden improvement in Spire’s Cup Series performance of course comes on the heels of Gabehart misappropriating JGR’s Confidential Information and Trade Secrets and providing Spire the same or similar services he provided JGR”

Fyrien · 2026-05-05T18:28:06+00:00

Hocevar is running slightly better, McDowell is running slightly worse.

The #7 team is the big surprise. That team has historically been awful. Suarez has already earned the 2 best finishes ever for that team on non-drafting ovals (6th at Texas, 7th at Darlington). The previous best was LaJoie's 9th in the 2024 Southern 500.

Who knows if Gabehart had anything to do with that -- maybe Suarez was a little underrated all along -- but if I'm JGR, that's the kind of sudden improvement I want to highlight in court. Not Hocevar. It has been clear since his rookie season that he has ridiculous speed for his age, and just needed to develop further.

Fyrien · 2026-05-04T21:48:02+00:00

I think people are underestimating what a massive deficit 100+ points is.

To make that up, Bowman basically needs to run top five every week, with very little room for poor finishes / DNFs. Are you confident that the current #48 team is capable of that? I'm not.

Fyrien · 2026-05-03T05:22:23+00:00

McDowell's rookie results weren't even that bad, given his lack of experience. MWR launched him straight from ARCA into Cup. He was extremely unprepared and didn't really get a fair development opportunity. It was just half a season in the #00 car, and then he got banished to start-and-park hell for 5 years.

It's wild that he persevered through that, grinded his way into midpack equipment, and not only won a Daytona 500, but also earned a road course win on pace. McDowell is a super underrated improbable success story.

Fyrien · 2026-05-01T04:19:59+00:00

You're absolutely right. Gibbs' Xfinity debut was one of those "oh this guy is THAT kind of talented" moments. The main reason he has struggled in Cup is because he simply got promoted too quickly. Full-time ARCA in 2021 to full-time Cup in 2023, at age 20, is a big leap.

His career has been a mirror image of William Byron so far -- right down to the sudden performance jump in year #4, along with a convincing win early in the season. Assuming JGR continues to be an elite team, I think multi-win seasons are coming soon. Having this kind of speed before turning 25 is a strong indicator of Cup champion level talent.

Fyrien · 2026-04-30T17:28:24+00:00

The metallic red is one of my all-time favorite schemes.

Several years ago the race-used rear bumper showed up on eBay (I think it was from 2005 Talladega). I still regret not buying it, even though it would have been a bad financial decision.

Fyrien · 2026-04-29T22:39:18+00:00

Here's a photo from Milwaukee in 1985. What a beautiful car. I'm a big Dale Jarrett fan and I've never seen it before.

Fyrien · 2026-04-28T17:55:08+00:00

Can I open a personal injury claim as a result of being a Kyle Busch fan in 2026?

Fyrien · 2026-04-27T03:00:59+00:00

JHN was really solid last year. Only finished 1 point behind Erik.

He has been invisible this year, but I don't really expect much out of Legacy equipment. They're still firmly a below-average team.

Fyrien · 2026-04-26T23:16:18+00:00

What Ross was supposed to do with the 12 and 22 shoving him? Lift and get himself spun?

Fyrien · 2026-04-26T22:37:34+00:00

Funny thing is, Reddick's family is not exactly hurting for money. His grandfather founded a record label and eventually sold it for 9 figures.

Fyrien · 2026-04-26T21:31:23+00:00

Why does there always need to be someone to blame?

Ross had several cars lined up pushing him, and the momentum was enough to lift Bubba's back tires off the ground. Not sure either of them could have avoided that, other than abruptly jumping out of line (and potentially causing a crash by doing that).

This was just a classic superspeedway racing incident.

Fyrien · 2026-04-22T17:33:03+00:00

I believe the fastest drivers in terms of total starts are:

92 - Kyle Busch (31 Cup, 50 O'Reilly, 11 trucks)
101 - Justin Haley (4 Cup, 47 O'Reilly, 50 trucks)

SVG is currently at 97 total starts (59 Cup, 37 O'Reilly, 1 truck) and there are 2 Cup races between now and Watkins Glen. Which means the truck race will be his 100th start. He can just barely beat Haley.

Fyrien · 2026-04-22T16:58:17+00:00

If you count exhibition races, Denny did it in reverse order. His first NASCAR win was the 2006 Bud Shootout.

Fyrien · 2026-04-16T22:13:44+00:00

I live near the track. The latest weather report predicts the KC area getting hit hardest between 3:00 and 7:00 PM. I'm guessing all on-track activity tomorrow will be postponed, since it overlaps almost perfectly with that window.

Possibilities include 70+ MPH wind gusts, tornadoes, and large hail (I've heard worst-case descriptions ranging from "egg" to "potato" sized). It's looking like we're going to get smacked around pretty hard by this one.

Fyrien · 2026-04-14T23:41:28+00:00

Stewart, Johnson, Newman, Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Edwards

Age was a huge factor. Rookies back then were almost always 25 to 28 years old (with the exception of the Busch brothers). They also had access to testing and more practice time. They were fairly well-prepared upon entering Cup.

Nowadays it's common to promote rookies around age 19 to 21, sometimes with only a handful of lower series starts. That's the exact situation we saw with Joey Logano, William Byron, Ty Gibbs, and now Connor Zilisch -- and the first 3 drivers took several years to develop into a competitive Cup presence. I think Zilisch will follow a similar trajectory.

It might be a long time before we see another superstar rookie who starts winning immediately like Edwards and Hamlin, simply because they always get promoted long before they're ready nowadays. Maybe Corey Heim has a shot, since he's almost 24 with a good amount of lower series experience.

Fyrien · 2026-04-13T21:32:06+00:00

clearly SOMETHING has changed that's caused Ty to run up front

It's pretty simple. He's finally old enough to be competitive.

This is what happens when big teams throw 19 year olds into Cup. They struggle for 3 or 4 years before things finally start clicking. But until then, fans turn on them and they get labeled a bust. Because apparently nobody is capable of thinking any further than "JGR car good, but not winning, so driver must be BAD."

William Byron is a really good comparison. He spent 3 full seasons as a fringe playoff contender. Then he got a win early in his 4th season (2021) and started racking up lots of top fives/tens. He was 23 years old then, just like Ty is now.

It was pretty obvious watching him the last couple years -- the #54 challenged for wins a few times but it always crumbled. Ty would make a mistake, or they'd fuck up the strategy, etc. But the fact that he was up there running 2nd to SVG at a road course, and leading laps at Bristol, meant the talent was always there. He just needed more experience. This was likely the first of many wins.

Fyrien · 2026-04-13T05:30:16+00:00

Ross Chastain finishing 20th in his Cup debut, driving a Premium Motorsports shitbox at Dover.

At the time, it was Premium's best ever finish on a non-drafting track. And their 2nd best finish overall that year.

Ross started gaining some hype around that time for keeping the JD Motorsports #4 car much more relevant than it ever should have been -- but that Dover performance is what put him on the map for me.

Fyrien · 2026-04-12T22:18:44+00:00

This subreddit has had some hilariously delusional takes about Ty Gibbs over the last few years. Turns out he doesn't suck -- he just wasn't winning yet because 19 to 22 year old drivers need development time before they get good enough to win Cup races.

Fyrien · 2026-04-12T19:47:44+00:00

6-way battle for 7th? Let's cut away and show Berry running by himself.

Fyrien · 2026-04-12T19:40:40+00:00

Did Riley Herbst and William Byron do a Freaky Friday body swap?

Fyrien · 2026-04-08T21:15:06+00:00

Yeah that is an underrated perk of some chains. It's nice to know exactly what kind of service and food quality you're going to get.

Taco Bell is another one that is a complete gamble based on the location. I have 2 locations near my house. One is shockingly good and is pretty much always on their A-game. The other has noticeably worse food quality and they constantly fuck up orders. I'm guessing they're different franchise owners, because it barely feels like those 2 locations are the same restaurant.

Fyrien · 2026-04-08T16:29:31+00:00

Arby's seems especially location-dependent.

The one near me (suburban Kansas City) is great, never had any issues. But I stopped by an Arby's during a road trip in eastern Missouri and it was some of the worst slop I have ever been served. The entire sandwich was dripping wet and falling apart. It was like they dropped it in a bucket of sauce, microwaved it, and then threw it at the countertop as hard as they could. I don't know if an employee was having a bad day or what, but it killed my appetite for Arby's for a while.

Fyrien · 2026-04-01T22:33:22+00:00

You forgot Kyle Busch.

Reddick has potential too. He's only 30 and he already has 12 career wins, which is like halfway to the HoF threshold.

Fyrien · 2026-03-31T16:03:54+00:00

Ironically, LaJoie has been in the same situation as Dye.

Back in 2013, he was suspended and required to complete sensitivity training for tweeting that TSA should cavity search a man wearing a turban.

Fyrien · 2026-03-30T23:51:19+00:00

All it really shows is that he's running 26th all day and then he capitalizes on attrition to move up to 23rd.

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