GG brad

Quote from Cornys :

To be fair, he dominated V8 SuperCars, so what could be expected. The series' in my opinion are pretty similar in tallent

He didn't 'dominate' V8 Supercars in either of his championship years. There's absolutely no doubt he was among the best drivers in the series at the time, but his performances in 2003-2004 shouldn't be described as domination. In 2003 he won 6/13 rounds and won the championship by 186 points (about 9% of his points total). In 2004 he won 11/26 races, finished 2nd in a further 4 and 3rd in a further 5. He won the championship by 238 points (about 11% of his points total). Compare these numbers to the 2002 championship winning performance by Mark Skaife. Skaife won 7/13 rounds and won the championship by 658 points (about 30% of his points total).

I'm not trying to minimise Ambrose's achievements in V8 Supercars at all. He was a great driver who was always at or near the front in good equipment. He also showed on a number of occasions that he was a thinking driver who had a degree of spare mental capacity available for strategy whilst driving as hard as necessary. He didn't 'dominate' V8s in 2003 or 2004 though.

Quote from amp88 :

He didn't 'dominate' V8 Supercars in either of his championship years. There's absolutely no doubt he was among the best drivers in the series at the time, but his performances in 2003-2004 shouldn't be described as domination. In 2003 he won 6/13 rounds and won the championship by 186 points (about 9% of his points total). In 2004 he won 11/26 races, finished 2nd in a further 4 and 3rd in a further 5. He won the championship by 238 points (about 11% of his points total). Compare these numbers to the 2002 championship winning performance by Mark Skaife. Skaife won 7/13 rounds and won the championship by 658 points (about 30% of his points total).

I'm not trying to minimise Ambrose's achievements in V8 Supercars at all. He was a great driver who was always at or near the front in good equipment. He also showed on a number of occasions that he was a thinking driver who had a degree of spare mental capacity available for strategy whilst driving as hard as necessary. He didn't 'dominate' V8s in 2003 or 2004 though.

Yes, that's true, but in 4 years of competition he finished 3rd, 1st, 1st, and 3rd in points. That alone says a lot . Especially winning the championship in his 2nd and 3rd seasons

Jimmie Johnson finished 5th, 2nd, 2nd and 5th in his first 4 season in the Sprint Cup with a total of 18 wins in 144 events (12.5%). Sebastian Vettel finished 8th, 2nd, 1st, 1st in his first 4 seasons in Formula One with 21 (11 in year #4) wins in 73 races (~28.75%).

By those standards Ambrose was still very dominant as far as motor sports are concerned.

Quote from Cornys :

By those standards Ambrose was still very dominant as far as motor sports are concerned.

Successful, not dominant.

edit: Dominance in motorsport is when you win all (or very nearly all) events in a season by a considerable margin. See McLaren's 1988 F1 season, Mark Donohue's 917-30 championship winning season, Jim Clark's 1963 F1 season.

Quote from amp88 :

Successful, not dominant.

edit: Dominance in motorsport is when you win all (or very nearly all) events in a season by a considerable margin. See McLaren's 1988 F1 season, Mark Donohue's 917-30 championship winning season, Jim Clark's 1963 F1 season.

Quote from amp88 :

He didn't 'dominate' V8 Supercars in either of his championship years. There's absolutely no doubt he was among the best drivers in the series at the time, but his performances in 2003-2004 shouldn't be described as domination. In 2003 he won 6/13 rounds and won the championship by 186 points (about 9% of his points total). In 2004 he won 11/26 races, finished 2nd in a further 4 and 3rd in a further 5. He won the championship by 238 points (about 11% of his points total). Compare these numbers to the 2002 championship winning performance by Mark Skaife. Skaife won 7/13 rounds and won the championship by 658 points (about 30% of his points total).

I'm not trying to minimise Ambrose's achievements in V8 Supercars at all. He was a great driver who was always at or near the front in good equipment. He also showed on a number of occasions that he was a thinking driver who had a degree of spare mental capacity available for strategy whilst driving as hard as necessary. He didn't 'dominate' V8s in 2003 or 2004 though.

I would consider winning around 50% of races pretty dominant.

Quote from Bmxtwins :

I would consider winning around 50% of races pretty dominant.

Only true if you redefine "dominant". As I said, it's very successful and very impressive, but it isn't dominant.

Quote :

Dominant (adj.) - occupying or being in a commanding or elevated position.

From there it's open to one's opinion of what that is exactly . By definition, just winning a championship would put a driver in a "commanding" AND "elevated" position. I wouldn't call that alone dominant myself, but, by definition, it actually is.

aaaaaaaaaand the thread turned into a dictionary

Somebody has to educate the Americans. We know that their school system certainly won't.

Quote from CodeLyoko1 :

aaaaaaaaaand the thread turned into a dictionary

I think it's a point worth making though. The problem is that the coverage by the NASCAR commentators during road races makes it seem as though Ambrose was 'dominant' (read: head and shoulders above the competition) in V8 Supercars. This leads people watching NASCAR (who otherwise likely have very little or no information about V8 Supercars) to think that the rest of the field was demonstrably inferior in talent to Ambrose to a great extent. This wasn't the case and the field in V8 Supercars has (almost) always been one of the most competitive in the world, with a generally very high standard of driving. It's not unusual, for example, to have the top 20+ cars separated by less than a second in qualifying, even at demanding tracks. By simply saying that Ambrose was 'dominant' in V8 Supercars does a disservice to the fans of both series (NASCAR and V8 Supercars) and to the drivers (past and present) in V8 Supercars.

Quote from amp88 :

He didn't 'dominate' V8 Supercars in either of his championship years. There's absolutely no doubt he was among the best drivers in the series at the time, but his performances in 2003-2004 shouldn't be described as domination. In 2003 he won 6/13 rounds and won the championship by 186 points (about 9% of his points total). In 2004 he won 11/26 races, finished 2nd in a further 4 and 3rd in a further 5. He won the championship by 238 points (about 11% of his points total). Compare these numbers to the 2002 championship winning performance by Mark Skaife. Skaife won 7/13 rounds and won the championship by 658 points (about 30% of his points total).

I'm not trying to minimise Ambrose's achievements in V8 Supercars at all. He was a great driver who was always at or near the front in good equipment. He also showed on a number of occasions that he was a thinking driver who had a degree of spare mental capacity available for strategy whilst driving as hard as necessary. He didn't 'dominate' V8s in 2003 or 2004 though.

After 2002 I think it was they changed the regs and the cars where much closer, I used to watch V8s back then and when you consider where Ambrose was compared to the rest of the Fords, it was quite incredible, SBR was a Midfield team when he joined and as a rookie instantly was a front runner.

2005 I think he had a slump in the last half when he announced he was going to Nascar and well thats how I think he lost to Ingall but there is no doubt in my mind at the time he was the best driver in the series, but it wasn't anything like how Whincup is over the field today.

Well, in any event . We get to see Ambrose try and make it three in a row at Watkins Glen in the Sprint Cup today starting at 17:14 GMT. As stated before, he's on the pole. (Line-up)

Ambrose was only 17th fast in final practice though, and Edwards topped the charts. http://www.jayski.com/stats/2013/pdfs/22wgi2013prac2.pdf

Owen Kelly who also came over from Australia is making his Sprint Cup debut.. He's been strong in his 2 starts in the Nationwide Series. 2 starts, 2 top 5's (both at Road America)

Really not a big Austin Dillon fan, wanted to see someone else drive the #14 while Stewart is out. Really would love to see what Kyle Larson could do in a Cup car, but he'll definitely get his shot somewhere down the line.

ew austin dillon ew ew ew ew ew

Quote from JackDaMaster :

ew austin dillon ew ew ew ew ew

Did someone say sponsorship?

and to add to A.Dill being in the 14, Brendan Gaughengnehthgh in the 51. ew ew ew ew ew

edit: AND johnny solder in the 98

Bass Pro Shops.

Still disgusting to see.

Vickers confirmed in the #55 next 2 years.

Edit:

Glad to see Vickers in the Cup Sereis again full time, but Dillon..

Good stuff for Vickers.

Supposedly, Chase Elliott may still be keeping his Aaron's sponsorship and be bringing it to JRM in NNS. He is a Hendrick development driver so this could end up happening.

http://racing.ap.org/article/m ... wont-be-back-ganassi-2014

Hello Kyle Larson.

I sure hope they don't put Larson in that car full time already, its too soon. Doesn't Ganassi have a history of ruining careers by throwing young drivers in Cup cars too early though?

I think Larson could handle it tbh. But they should let him drive part time with Montoya if he wants to stay IMO. Ganassi could go with Kurt Busch if they want to have a successful year and get some good setups ready for Larson. IMO Bush is having his best year this year with underpowered equipment.

Casey Mears and Reed Sorenson come to mind.

Busch should remain where he is, RCR and Ganassi would not be upgrades. Expecting Newman or a Larson/Martin split.