Informatika és tudomány

  • Dougie
    #15273
    Want to know how difficult the racing is going to be this weekend at Darlington?

    Jimmie Johnson has already wrecked – twice.

    Speculation is that Friday night's Nationwide Series race and Saturday's Dodge Challenger 500 Sprint Cup event at Darlington Raceway are not only going to see drivers putting the pedal to the metal, but likely also fenders to the wall.

    Make that lots of fenders to the wall.

    "It's not Darlington," Denny Hamlin said. "The characteristics are the same, but it's a whole new beast out there, a lot different and harder to drive, really, than I expected."

    Darlington's brand new $7 million repaving job leaves the legendary track's racing surface extremely fast and green. Add those elements together and the result looks to be a wreck fest.

    Aside from Johnson, Travis Kvapil, Paul Menard, Robby Gordon, Clint Bowyer and Denny Hamlin (and probably more) all got into the wall during Friday's two practice sessions. This is in addition to Patrick Carpentier, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Scott Riggs and Carl Edwards, who got into the wall on Thursday.

    Both Johnson and Menard were forced to their back-up cars.

    On the Nationwide side, Steven Wallace obliterated his car in a solo wreck on Thursday. Also hitting the wall were David Ragan, Mark Martin, Chase Miller and Kasey Kahne (twice).

    Darlington proving tough to tame

    DARLINGTON, S.C. (AP)—On a fast new surface, 41 of 44 drivers broke the qualifying record at Darlington Raceway.

    But it was Greg Biffle who set the pace, turning a blistering lap of 179.442 mph Friday night to win the pole at Darlington. He shattered the previous record of 173.797 mph set by Ward Burton in 1996.