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Stats don’t lie - the New Car is racier

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by Charlie Turner

I'm Charlie Turner co-host of the syndicated, mostly NASCAR radio show On Pit Row. Thanks for stopping by OnPitRow.com and the Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie blog. Oh yeah, Steve is an idiot. Follow me on Twitter @onpitrow

February 15, 2008 9:18 am CST 7 Comments

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Statistics from the Gatorade Dual 150’s and the Budweiser Shootout are confirming the feeling that NASCAR’s New Car is going to improve the racing in the Sprint Cup Series.

Untitled PostThere were 36 green flag passes for the lead in Dual #1, won incidentally by Dale Earnhardt Jr as he makes a play to sweep the weekend in his first with Hendrick Motorsports. Race #2 featured 35 green flag passes for the lead and Denny Hamlin and his Toyota Camry made the last one.

Only one time in the last eight Daytona 500 qualifying races have there been more passes for the lead under green and that was race #1 in 2006 with 44. The second Dual 150 that year had 25 passes. The 2005 tilts had 26 and 25 each while the 2007 races had 17 and 11 green flag passes for the lead.

36 lead changes is a bunch in a race with only sixty laps. Saturday night in the 70 lap Budweiser Shootout, Earnhardt Jr’s first win of the week, featured 64 green flag passes for the lead, the most since the inception of the stat in 2005!

One of the main complaints the last several years has been the inability of the old car to pass for the lead and the infamous aero-push. By golly I think they fixed it.

Photo Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR

Filed under: Car of Tomorrow, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Daytona 500, Denny Hamlin, Hendrick Motorsports, Sprint Cup Series, Toyota 

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Comments

7 Responses to “Stats don’t lie - the New Car is racier”

  1. User Avatar Luke on February 15th, 2008 9:51 am

    The broadcast booth kept tying in “the return of the slingshot”. Maybe they covered it a bit much, but the message (thus far) is clear. Let’s go racing.

  2. User Avatar Marc on February 15th, 2008 6:38 pm

    Charlie, that headline is troll bait for the CoT haters.

    Hope the bandwidth allocated by Luke doesn’t take a dump.

    See ya… I’m going to the races. Yes that’s right, the Asian F3 event at Batangas RP.

  3. Mike on February 15th, 2008 8:32 pm

    I got to agree. I like the races that have happened so far. Really found them to be exciting.

    My fiances dad and I were talking and we both agree……..that was some good racin’.

  4. User Avatar Luke on February 15th, 2008 8:45 pm

    What I’m wondering though, is what will be said about the 500.

    Before, they weren’t all out for 500 miles. I don’t expect that to change. However, for the trolls and haters, it will be the end of the world.

    Get the ear muffs ready, Chicken Little is going to make a return next week in one form or another.

  5. Vroom! on February 16th, 2008 5:19 am

    The vrooming in the COT looks better to me!

  6. Matt on February 16th, 2008 10:13 am

    With this car, more things are in the driver’s hands now, shouldn’t that be 9/10’s the law in terms of winning any event in NASCAR racing? I should think so.

  7. Fantasy NASCAR Thoughts on the Coke Zero 400 | Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie on August 5th, 2008 8:35 pm

    [...] but as I said, I’m not real sold on it. Other than Smoke, I like Dale Earnhardt Jr. He was strong in February and has been the best of the Hendrick Motorsport drivers so far in [...]

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