Patrick is making his Sprit Cup debut this weekend at The Glen. He has run some NASCAR events before, but this will be his first showing in the series' top level. He's driving the #30 car for Inception/Humphrey-Smith, and they're hoping for a top-20 finish.
You can follow his weekend at @pLmotorsport.
And then next week he gets to help us with a GRM article. (Shhh, he doesn't know about that yet.)
But the engine will be at the wrong end of the car....
he must be one of those "road course ringers" that have never won a race yet..
You can bet I'll be watching. Pat Long is a billy badass.
novaderrik wrote: he must be one of those "road course ringers" that have never won a race yet..
No, he's one of those "road course ringers" that's never been in a NASCAR race yet.
Ambrose & Piquet Jr didn't exactly come from dirt tracks either.
Dashpot wrote:novaderrik wrote: he must be one of those "road course ringers" that have never won a race yet..No, he's one of those "road course ringers" that's never been in a NASCAR race yet. Ambrose & Piquet Jr didn't exactly come from dirt tracks either.
Ambrose isn't a "ringer"- he's a regular.. someone like Boris Said is a "road course ringer" that some smaller team usually brings in for the road course races, and in the entire history of the NASCAR Cup series a "ringer" has never won a race...
The teams that hire the "ringers" aren't really hoping for a win, they're just hoping a better road course driver can bring their mediocre car in for a decent finish.
Dashpot wrote:novaderrik wrote: he must be one of those "road course ringers" that have never won a race yet..No, he's one of those "road course ringers" that's never been in a NASCAR race yet.
He's done NASCAR before, but this is his Sprint Cup debut.
Ian F wrote: The teams that hire the "ringers" aren't really hoping for a win, they're just hoping a better road course driver can bring their mediocre car in for a decent finish.
^This...........
Those with differing viewpoints may not be paying attention or are simply trolling. It's all about points and money; always follow the money.
Honestly, I'd imagined that these 'ringers' would always have an advantage over the Nascar-types in driving acumen on the road circuits. Unfortunately, the results really do not seem to reflect this...
Evidently, some of those guys can really drive 
Evidently
I heard Pat wrecked his car in practice and is out in a backup car. He said it's not as good.
Yeah, blew an engine (without warning) and wiped out in his own oil.
GTB_ZR1 wrote: Honestly, I'd imagined that these 'ringers' would always have an advantage over the Nascar-types in driving acumen on the road circuits. Unfortunately, the results really do not seem to reflect this... Evidently, some of those guys can really drive
I'd imagine that even if you are good enough to make it to F1, that driving a Sprint Car is a HUGE learning curve by comparison.
Not something you're going to really figure out doing it a few times a year.
Seems like what usually does the ringers in isn't their driving skill, but restarts, pit stops, car adjustments,etc. that you only learn by experience in the car.
z31maniac wrote:GTB_ZR1 wrote: Honestly, I'd imagined that these 'ringers' would always have an advantage over the Nascar-types in driving acumen on the road circuits. Unfortunately, the results really do not seem to reflect this... Evidently, some of those guys can really driveI'd imagine that even if you are good enough to make it to F1, that driving a Sprint Car is a HUGE learning curve by comparison. Not something you're going to really figure out doing it a few times a year.
Some never do. Ask the X-Indy car, Sprint car, SCCA champs and, yes, even F1 pilots that have never done much in NASCAR.
Love it or hate it-its a tough gig.
If you remember, a little back we interviewed Andy Lally about going from sports cars to NASCAR. He's been successful in Porsches, prototypes, sedans and just about everything else. He said NASCAR was a whole different animal--something about driving a car that handled like a dump truck.
In reply to David S. Wallens:
And braked like one too. 
Good Nationwide race today.
iceracer wrote: Good Nationwide race today.
Yeah, those dodges look really wicked coming toward the camera; to bad the side profiles are all so similar. All the bad mouthing about the hillbillies and whatnot I saw some driving out there today!
In reply to chandlerGTi: It would be nice if they would get rid of all the aero, all the three ring circus, and let it go back to what it was way back when (well, without the racism anyway) it was a bunch of guys driving the crap out of cars that handled little better than dump trucks.
chandlerGTi wrote:iceracer wrote: Good Nationwide race today.Yeah, those dodges look really wicked coming toward the camera; to bad the side profiles are all so similar. All the bad mouthing about the hillbillies and whatnot I saw some driving out there today!
The Dodges are the best looking ones. Shame they won't be around next year.
06HHR wrote: In reply to chandlerGTi: It would be nice if they would get rid of all the aero, all the three ring circus, and let it go back to what it was way back when (well, without the racism anyway) it was a bunch of guys driving the crap out of cars that handled little better than dump trucks.
Truthfully, I'm ok with what's run now. Every type of racing that goes on is ok with me. Going in a circle for four hours is an incredible test of endurance for man and machinery it just isn't very exciting for me to watch. I lived upstate NY for years so I have a ton of memories of NASCAR at the glen from back in the days of Regals and tbirds and general awesomeness and really I equate ALL racing with that to this day.
Why dodge can't keep the teams going and with them is beyond me but that new shape was really wild looking. I'm going to miss the race tomorrow since I'm taking the kiddos to sauder village tomorrow but I'm hoping to catch the highlights. Go Long!
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