Anyone else watching NASCAR on the road course . . . in the rain?!??!

Didn't realize it was on, since I'm not a regular follower.  Pretty hilarious watching the "full throttle boys" try to wheel these things in the wet.  I can't even imagine how hard it must be, but it sure is entertaining. 

Been watching it on and off all day.  COTA's length makes the laps seem really long (looks like about 1:58 in the wet).  Glad they brought out the track dryers after the big accident. 

It's interesting to see the different lines the drivers take and which one works better depending on the track conditions on that particular lap.  I hope they add COTA to the schedule regularly (but doubt it).

-Rob

In reply to rob_lewis :

I missed that wreck live (tuned in too late), but the in car made conditions look pretty sketchy when is occurred.  It may have been the location of the camera, but it didn't look like they could see more than about 20 feet in front of them.  I'm assuming that caused the full speed punt.  Now looks like they may be done with 14 to go.  

OHY!!!  windshield wipers that don't "WIPE".....who knew there'd a WRECK...DUH... and when it goes red flag I'm, watchin' Phil Mickelfat tear it up on the 'other' track...peace out late

I'd like to see NASCAR do 1/3 road courses, complete with wipers and rain tires (not sure what the actual breakdown is),  but I'll admit that there was too much standing water at COTA today for Cup cars with windshields. 
 

With a little bit of rain, that could have been the best NASCAR race of the year. 

I was entertained, even when it turned into a Rain-X commercial for a while.

I'm all for racing in the rain, but that was lunacy.  Truex getting jacked up like that was scary as hell.

I can only imagine what visibility was like anywhere behind the leaders. It's no wonder they were always 3-5 wide. If they weren't they couldn't see. 

It was awesome. 
 

As far as truex and the perpetually whining harvick, "that's racing.".

I only saw the clip where Kurt Busch slipped it right between 2 other cars and into the mud trap, but it looked like a wild race.

I don't hate or love NASCAR but I am pretty much only interested in the road courses.

Love stock cars on a road course. In the rain is even better,   but it was a little sketchy at the end.

I know, there is nothing "stock " about those cars. 

I found it interesting that there were so many issues with cars piling into other cars in the rain.  I know that visibility was horrible but other series that run in the rain don't have as big a problem as the Cup guys were having.  I think there were three reasons why this was worse.

1. Lack of experience running in the rain.  This was the first time many of those guys have raced in the rain
2. The Cup cars may produce worse visibility issues than other series.  The aero package on the Cup cars is designed to punch a big hole in the air and may produce a bigger cloud than something that leaves less turbulence in it's wake
3. Spotters.  I certainly could be wrong about this but I think the wrecks that I saw were the result of a spotter advising a driver to slow early to avoid a wreck and drivers further back not getting the same message.  The Cup teams had three spotters scattered around the course.  Since the teams typically use one that means that at least two of the spotters were less experienced than usual and none of them are used to spotting in the rain.  Without spotters the cars may have punted someone but they wouldn't have slowed dramatically part way down the straight to be pile driven by other cars that were still hard on the throttle.

Whatever the cause(s) it was a bad situation.  I'm sure that with more experience the teams will figure things out but it would be better if some route causes could be identified and some changes made before the next road course race.  I love watching the Cup cars on a road course but I don't enjoy seeing those horrific wrecks.  I don't think cars being hit from behind so hard that they almost flip over is really just racing and Cole Custer hitting the fence after the crush area on the front of his car was used up by the initial impact with Truex was downright scary. 

I hope they keep this and name turn 19 Whataburger Corner.

imagine hearing at F1, " Verstappen follows Hamilton into Whataburger"

It looked like a big field of Rookie kart drivers in the rain. They made up there own racing lines, lots of wrecks and offs.