There's so much that baffles me about races like this. I'm a total n00b so please forgive my stupid questions:

1. When you make a pit stop, how do you ever recover or re-take your place? Don't these stops completely screw you over, even if they are only 15 seconds long (I think that's what I heard)?

2. When there's a caution flag, how do they ensure people don't move up and/or pass? I mean if I'm .5 seconds behind one dude, am I supposed to be exactly .5 seconds behind him again when they wave the green flag?

3. When there's a caution flag I see these guys zig-zagging back and forth -- I kind of deduced that this was to keep their tires warm? Is that true?

4. What's the skill in driving these and/or are certain drivers really that much better than others? Isn't it just all about the car? I mean when that 2nd place dude passes Marco right there before the rain, why doesn't Marco just.. you know... go faster?

5. I totally don't understand the whole team-individual competition thing. 4/5 frontrunners are from one team so they're helping each other (how?) but also trying to beat each other asses? Just confusing to me.

6. These are pretty long ass races, right? So what do drivers do about peeing / drinking / eating?

the pit stops kinda even out everyone has to make a certain number to get gas to make the distance If your team does it faster, you have an advantage If you have to stop under green that is generally a disadvantage

under caution the order is important not the time distance between the drivers, they have many officials watching the race in addition to computer scoring to help determine the order(as well as replays)

the guys are zigzaging to clean off their tires they are trying to remove debris from the tires

the other questions require why too much of an answer for this space i ll let others take them

as for #3... it's not just to keep tires warm, it's mostly to get debris off of them.

for oval races, there's a lot less driver input and it's obv more about the car. on the other end of the spectrum, take a formula 1 race at monaco. obv one of the most difficult circuits on the planet, and highly skilled drivers drive in F1.

they might be the same "Team" (just means owned by same person) but they're out individually to win the race. they help each other by pitting together (giving their teammate a drafting partner when they come out of the pits), drafting together, communicating together and sharing info. trust me, when the final lap comes, it doesn't matter anymore, it's everyone for themselves.

they don't really pee and if they do they just piss themselves, but it's rare. you don't eat a big meal before a race, for obvious reasons.

1) you recover when when everyone else makes a pit stop as well. If you make a pit stop on lap 21 and drop a few spots, you will regain that position when everyone else makes a pit stop on lap 22.

2)It goes by position not time. So if your in 7th place when a caution flag comes out you have to remain in 7th. It dosen't matter if you are 0.5 behind at the start of the flag and the 0.3 after the flag, just as long as you remain in the same position.

3) yes

4) its about the drift/pocket. it dosen't matter how powerful your car is, if the 2nd place dude is in the pocket of the first place, then he gets that extra boost coming out of it on a straightaway that the first place drive has little to do about.

5) The "team" wants to win. So yes, they help each other. Its based on a point system, so the "individual" drive who has racked up the most points gets help from his team mates to get him into first. This help usually includes the lower ranked drivers blocking out the pack to the best of their abilities.

6) Not to sure.

Hope some of this helped.

You guys pwn, ty ty. More questions...

If drafting and these air pockets are so important, why would you ever want to be in first? I mean like on the last lap, the guy leading is pretty much screwed right? The guy right behind him can wait until the very end then just blow by...?

Can/do you tune your car to where you think you'll be in the pack? I keep hearing this slang that seems to imply one car might do excellent when in first or free of a pack, but do poorly when grouped... something like that? Like if Andretti's car was tuned a little differently he might've been able to hold off that 2nd place guy?

well i think formula 1 drivers are generally assumed to be the best in the world. i don't know where rally car drivers would fit in but i would imagine they are much more skilled than i could imagine. i don't think anyone looks "down" on nascar drivers (other than the super-snooty euro f1 drivers... michael schumacher obv one of them) especially considering how much money they make now.

as for just going around in circles... very true, but (and keep in mind i like all forms of racing really) road racing is prob even more of a bore, because passing is so scarce.

4. They have a push to pass button, which they can only use a set amount of times during a race. If marco uses all his up, and 2nd place passes him... well hes fucked.

borderline mainstream? nascar is the 2nd most popular sport behind football in just about any way you can measure it

nascar is the suck. I would rather not watch N/A cars that are identical race around a boring track.

Did you know a top fuel dragster has more horsepower then the starting 5 rows of nascar? balla! It can catch up to AND PASS a porsche going steady at 200, yea 200mph in only a quarter of a mile.