The Fast and The Furious - Did you see the movie? Did you like it? If you were a car fanatic, you had to. So did a whole new generation of potential NASCAR race fans.
As early as 2000 NASCAR was starting to think about a uni-template car. Dodge came back into the NASCAR series that year. The discussions regarding the Dodge body that would be approved sparked the uni-template discussion.
After Dale Earnhardt died at Daytona in 2001, NASCAR knew it had to focus on safety. This safety consciousness led to the design of a new NASCAR race car and the uni-body became part of the total package.
In the 2001 movie, The Fast and The Furious, we saw the height of cool in automobiles. The cars in the film were a hit in any language. That is huge when movies make their bucks on rentals worldwide.
The Fast and The Furious was released in June 2001 and became a surprise hit. NASCAR took notice. Is it any surprise then that the uni-body car began to resemble the vehicles from the film?
The COT looks fast and furious. This is huge as NASCAR attempts to grow the sport by marketing itself to a new generation of potential NASCAR fans. I think the COT is a hit in any language as well. I think NASCAR has its future right.
and that could result in him leading after Bristol. Stop discussing it. Mark Martin will not be there. The threads have been fun while they lasted but it is over and the fat lady is singing on that one. Mark is going out on top as far as full time racing but not ready for the rocking chair yet. Besides, he still can race for that owners championship and not have that pressure on him. And that is opening the door wide open for Mr. Gordan.
It has been stated that if you finish twelfth or better in all the Nextel Cup races, you will win the championship. It's that simple, well, not simple, but if you want to be Mr. Consistency and can pull that off, then you can be a Cup champion. That's exactly what Gordon did on Sunday.
Gordon Digs From Behind After Pit Problems To Finish 12th At AMS
"We were awesome. I'm very disappointed obviously. We had a couple of issues we'll have to work through. We had a crush panel come loose and we're getting to the bottom of that and we made little mistakes where we got a lap down in the pits. That shouldn't have ever happened. We all recognize it.
We make mistakes and we learn from it but what an incredible race car we had. Man, that thing was fast. I know we had a shot at certainly a top three but I think we had a shot at winning. It doesn't matter. We came out of here 12th, got the best finish we could. We're still second in points so in some ways we were fortunate."
"Well, it (the last caution) kept us from finishing in the top five. The neat thing about this race track and today is that even though we had a lot of green flag laps and we didn't have many cautions, we still saw great racing throughout the entire race all the way down to the end and that's what makes Atlanta such a great race track. I wish we had more race tracks like this out there but typically it's boring when you see that but it wasn't today. There was just racing going on constantly. Tire wear was an issue and you saw cars drive to the front and fade to the back and that's the way racing should be."
Martin Ends Streak of 621 Consecutive Starts on Top
Mark Martin closed out the current longest consecutive streak start in NASCAR with a top-10 finish in Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. With the finish, Martin maintained his lead in the Nextel Cup point standings, despite the fact that he will not race next week in Bristol. With the finish, Martin opens the season with four consecutive top-10 finishes, for the first time since 2000 and for only the third time in his career. Martin will now bow out of the car next weekend as the oldest driver in NASCAR history to lead the points for more than one week. Martin and the U.S. Army Team started the race fourth after a strong qualifying effort on Friday, but struggled early with a loose race car, dropping as far back as 16th during the race.
"It is really cool and I guess it's kind of a story book way to go out leading the points after chasing those points so hard for the last 20 years," said Martin. "It's definitely the way to do it and I just can't say enough about this U.S. Army Race team. They are a fabulous team and an awesome group of guys and it's just so awesome to finally see them get the recognition they deserve. I sure wish I had been driving their car a little sooner."
"We weren't as good today as we had been the first couple of races," said Martin. "But the guys on the Army team never gave up and we kept getting a little bit better each time. They were able to gain positions on pit road during those last two stops and we were able to bring home a top-10 finish. "They also allowed me to leave here the point leader and I have to thank them for all they have done for me this year," added Martin. "These guys are just fabulous and they give their heart and soul and they are finally getting the recognition they deserve."
Check out that smile on Mark's face and tell me he is not having the time of his life.
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COT
Impala LT
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