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Kurt Busch Working To Rebuild Career In 2012

2012-01-30T12:18:00.000-05:00

The 2011 season was one of the most tumultuous years in Kurt Busch’s NASCAR career. The former Sprint Cup Series champion scored two victories and qualified for the Chase, yet had hostile incidents with his team throughout the course of the year and had confrontations with the media on multiple occasions.

The obviously talented driver had an obvious problem controlling his temper and his anger, both in and out of the car. Enough so, that an amateur video of a confrontation with veteran ESPN reporter Dr. Jerry Punch landed the driver in hot water with both NASCAR and Penske Racing.

It was not long before Penske Racing announced it had “mutually agreed” to a split with the driver, leaving Busch looking for a ride – and a second chance.

That second chance has come in the form of James Finch’s Phoenix Racing.

Busch will pilot the No. 51 Chevrolet for the 2012 season thanks to a “handshake deal” between owner and driver. Busch is looking for a second chance, and Finch is simply looking for the chance to compete.

Understanding the consequences of his actions last season, Busch is taking this reality check as an opportunity to grow both as a driver and a person.

“I’ve been up, I’ve been down,” Busch said. “A guy that I’ve always looked up to, Mark Martin, he said just draw a line and try to stay in the middle. It’s funny how times where I get excited and drag myself back in a hole. Yeah, I’ve got to work my way out of this (situation). But it’s going to be fun because I don’t shy away from challenges.”

Working with a smaller organization such as Finch’s team, Busch contends “there is only one way to go, and that’s up.”

With limited resources at their disposal, Busch understands the team may struggle throughout the year, but also has a shot at times as well, especially at tracks such as Daytona, Talladega and Bristol.

One of those opportunities may very well come in the season-opening Daytona 500. In preseason testing, Busch was among the fastest cars in the two-car draft, reaching speeds of 206 mph at times. Given the style of racing and the Hendrick horsepower under the hood, Busch has a solid shot at the win in Daytona.

Busch admitted after not hearing from Finch right away, he worried Rick Hendrick had expressed concern about Busch driving his equipment. Through a long-standing agreement, Phoenix Racing receives Hendrick Motorsports chassis, motors and information.

Yet when asked about Busch’s worries, Hendrick said he had no role in the discussion to add Busch to the Phoenix Racing roster.

“James Finch is a customer, just like Tony Stewart is, and they don’t have to ask me what they do,” he said. “Somebody had said I blackballed Kurt, and I never even talked to James, James never talked to me. So, when Kurt asked about it, I said, ‘Hey, I don’t have anything to do with that and I sure don’t have any problem with you.’
“If I was James Finch, I’d put the best driver I could put in the car. I think James Finch did, and I think they’ll run really well.”

Hendrick explained having Busch behind the wheel of his equipment would prove beneficial in the long run. Much like when Tony Stewart beat all four Hendrick cars using Hendrick equipment, Hendrick pointed out, “Kurt Busch might beat us with our own stuff.”

“It only makes you better,” Hendrick said. “If they start beating us real bad, I think I’ll hear some grumbling. I’m happy for James, and Kurt. I think Kurt has made some mistakes, and admitted it. He’s got to step back and prove himself. James has been in the sport a long time and he deserves to run good. If I was James Finch, I’d put the best shoe in (the car). There’s no substitute for talent in the seat, I don’t care what you’ve got. You’re not going to win if you don’t have someone that can drive it, and you know (Kurt) can drive it.

“I guarantee you James Finch can handle him,” he said. “It might be something for Saturday Night Live, but he will handle it. You don’t have to worry about it. It might be a show, but he’ll handle it.”

Busch will certainly be keeping busy this year, racing full-time for Finch in the Sprint Cup Series, as well as running over 20 Nationwide Series races with his brother Kyle at Kyle Busch Motorsports.
The key to a solid, quiet year for Busch, he says, is the type of people he surrounds himself with.

“That business is going to keep me busy, but you’ve got to surround yourself with good people to make it all come together,” he said. “You can’t do it on your own. That’s what we’re trying to do.”

2012 NASCAR Sprint Media Tour Highlights

2012-01-26T19:05:00.000-05:00

Thursday afternoon the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Media Tour wrapped up with NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France's annual state of the sport address at the NASCAR Hall of Fame. However, the week was full of team visits, sponsor announcements, some baby news and an over-use of the word "excited."

There is a lot to work through from this week's Media Tour in Charlotte, and over the coming days and weeks, stories gathered from the numerous interviews and announcements will be coming your way.

For the time being, here are some of the biggest highlights from the week:

Monday:

Danica Patrick announced she would skip the Indianapolis 500 this year to run the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway for Stewart-Haas Racing. She also firmly believes she has a shot to win the Daytona 500, channeling Trevor Bayne's unexpected win in last year's race.

Joe Gibbs Racing introduces Darian Grubb and Jason Ratcliff as new crew chiefs on their Sprint Cup Series teams. Grubb, Ratcliff and Dave Rogers are working closely together to provide a new direction for the organization as a whole.

Clint Bowyer will not let new owner Michael Waltrip drive one of his dirt cars. "You used to be a good driver, now you're a good owner," Bowyer joked. "Let's stick with that."

Mark Martin is extremely comfortable with his schedule at Michael Waltrip Racing and eager to help the team grow. He explained that in the future he could be interested in helping a smaller team with their growth in the sport outside the race car.

Tuesday:

Team owner Chip Ganassi was clearly upset with his team's performance in 2011, saying it was "pathetic" give the "ability and resources" within the team. Despite the poor performances of both cars in the stable, Earnhardt Ganassi Racing has a full line of sponsorship lined up for both the No. 1 of Jamie McMurray and the No. 42 of Juan Pablo Montoya

Charlotte Motor Speedway may have three NASCAR Sprint Cup Series events throughout the year, but the calendar is stacked full with other events - 114 in all. Along with the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race, Coca-Cola 600 and Bank of America 500, the track will play host to a Fan Appreciation Day on March 17, as well as a Vietnam Veteran Welcome Home event on March 21. For a full list of events, head over to http://www.charlottemotorspeedway.com/

Roush Fenway Racing drivers Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards were the first no-shows of the week. Kenseth was dealing with a family issues, while Edwards was on vacation.

Team owner Jack Roush is very eager to win his 300th NASCAR race, which will happen the next time one of his cars goes to Victory Lane.

Roush Fenway Racing has poured a lot of resources into the No. 16 team with driver Greg Biffle, after a disappointing performance in 2011. With the contraction at the team, Biffle will now enjoy many elements from the now-defunct No. 6 team, as well as increased engineering.

Ford became the first of the four manufacturers to unveil their new 2013 car design for the Sprint Cup Series. The new Ford Fusion is sleek, sexy and looks like a race car. "This thing is bad ass," Greg Biffle said. The other manufacturers are also working on their new cars, with their announcements taking place in the coming weeks.

Nationwide Series veteran Kenny Wallace will attempt to make the Daytona 500 with RAB Racing, using former Red Bull equipment. Running for the Nationwide Series title, Wallace would also like to see NASCAR limit the involvement of Sprint Cup Series teams in the Nationwide Series to allow for better parity among the teams.

The fallout from Kurt Busch's departure from Penske Racing has taught the former champion that he was "doing a lot of things wrong" over the past few seasons. Teaming up with James Finch's Phoenix Racing, Busch understands his chances for success are still high at tracks like Daytona, Talladega and Bristol, but there will be struggles throughout the year as well.

Wednesday:

Kentucky Speedway spent about $10 million to improve the parking and traffic situation at the track that marred the speedway's inaugural race in 2011. Track owner Bruton Smith said thanks to the work the facility is better prepared, and ready for a second chance at its inaugural race.

Regan Smith recently shot a video in Colorado with professional skiers, in which he drove the No. 78 Furniture Row Chevrolet through the snowy mountains of Colorado. During the first day of shooting, Smith wrecked the left side of the car, but was able to finish the project.

Furniture Row Racing's competition director Mark McArdle is confident in his team's ability to improve upon 2011. A lot of that confidence comes from the team's partnership with Richard Childress Racing. "Think of Furniture Row as the fourth car in the RCR operation," he said.

Not even Kasey Kahne can get out of jury duty. The newest Hendrick Motorsports driver was unable to attend the team's media day event as he was in his third day of jury duty.

Rick Hendrick is extremely confident in his organization's ability to contend in 2012. The long-time owner explained he expected all four of his cars to make the Chase and one of them to win the title, otherwise he would be disappointed, saying he "never had all four teams this strong."

Dale Earnhardt Jr. asked crew chief Steve Letarte to stay hard on him this year, explaining he was worried his crew chief would become too comfortable with him and not keep the pressure on. Earnhardt Jr. explained he wanted Letarte to serve as a "field general" on team and expected the results to show.

Those at Hendrick Motorsports are already benefiting from the addition of crew chief Kenny Francis. One of the hardest working and most respected crew members in the garage, Francis has already been able to contribute significantly to the entire organization in their short time together.

Drag racing a V-6 Ford Mustang at the zMAX Dragstrip is pretty bad ass.

NASCAR is to eliminate the practice of issuing secret fines to drivers. Any fines handed out from the sanctioning body will be made public.

Richard Childress was on a charity fishing trip, becoming the fourth no-show of the Media Tour.

Elliott Sadler will compete in the Daytona 500 for Richard Childress Racing in the No. 33 car with Kroger and General Mills as the sponsor. Brendan Gaughan will pilot the No. 33 for the next four races of the season with South Point Casinos on the hood. Gil Martin will serve as crew chief for all five races.

The final piece of the puzzle came together about Kevin and DeLana Harvick's decision to give up Kevin Harvick, Inc. when Kevin announced his wife was 14 weeks pregnant with the couple's first child. Don't expect to see DeLana in a firesuit anytime soon.

Friday:

Walmart will sponsor veteran Bill Elliot in the No. 50 Turner Motorsports Chevrolet in the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway on July 7. This will mark the first time the major retailer will sponsor a car in the Sprint Cup Series.

Brad Keselowski is comfortable leading the Penske Racing organization, saying sometimes you have to "step up in the pocket" and take charge. Both he and crew chief Paul Wolfe inked contract extensions at the end of the 2011 season, while Miller-Coors extended their partnership with the team as well.

NASCAR admits it would like to return to the traditional pack racing at Daytona and Talladega and eliminate the tandem draft utilized in recent races. Robin Pemberton, NASCAR's president, competition and racing development, explained the rules will not be able to "totally eliminate" the two-car draft, and that it "will be a tool" used by the drivers. NASCAR has also eliminated driver-to-driver in-car communication that has allowed the tandem drafting to flourish.

The use of electronic fuel injection (EFI) will eventually make its way into the NASCAR Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series.

While the practice of secret fines has ended, Brian France explained fines will still occur if someone makes disparaging remarks about the sport. "If you challenge the integrity of the sport, we'll deal with that," he said. "We have to deal with that."

NASCAR Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Steve Phelps feels the lack of consistent sponsors on a car "clearly hurts" the casual fans of the sport. With sponsorship deals now coming in blocks of races, color schemes and sponsorship for one driver often changes multiple times a year. Phelps said they are working with teams, tracks and broadcast partners to build on the identity of the drivers, and that NASCAR would also increase the use of drivers in their promotional content.

Look for more in-depth stories on these topics, and many more, in the coming days and weeks as the official start to the 2012 NASCAR season quickly approaches.

Furniture Row Racing: Think Of Us As Fourth RCR Car

2012-01-26T18:59:00.004-05:00

(Note: This story was originally published in the Frontstretch.com newsletter. Please be sure to visit their site and sign up for the free newsletter.)

The Furniture Row Racing operation is perhaps the most unique in all of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Unlike the other full-time operations, Furniture Row’s "home base" is located in Denver, Colo. – a far cry from Race City, U.S.A.

Yet despite their separation for the rest of the sport, the team has been able to find success at the highest level of American motorsports. A lot of that success, though, is thanks to their partnership with Richard Childress Racing, a theme that echoed throughout their stop on the Sprint Cup Media Tour.

“Our relationship with RCR couldn’t possibly be any closer,” Competition Director Mark McArdle said. “Every aspect of their activities get communicated to us real time.”

That includes a constant and instantaneous sharing of information at the shops, during practice sessions and during races.

“They essentially operate as an open book for us,” McArdle added. “I think the easiest way to think about it now that RCR has retracted down to three cars is to think of Furniture Row Racing as essentially the fourth car in their stable, in the perspective of sharing technical information.”

McArdle said the biggest advantage the team gains through its partnership with RCR can sometimes be difficult to see, but gives them the feel of a multi-car organization.

“If you’re stuck on island as a one-car team – with only your input, with only your DNA and only your own thought process to carry you forward – it’s very easy to get off on the wrong path,” he said. “What’s beneficial about essentially being part of a four-car team is we can instantly share information.”

Along with that “open book” policy, McArdle said the second most beneficial aspect of the partnership is the simple “assurance” that they have quality equipment, the same used by Kevin Harvick and the rest of the RCR drivers.

However, according to members of both teams, the relationship is not as one-sided as you might believe.

“They have a great group of people over there,” said RCR Vice President of Competition Mike Dillon. “Their engineering staff is super strong; we lean on them too. They’re great people and it means a lot.”

Dillon explained the distance between to two organizations – over 1,500 miles – can actually be an advantage in creating such a strong partnership.

“That probably makes it easier,” Dillon explained. “They don’t have people leaving them. When people move out there to work for them, they’re going to be there. So, when you’re sharing information with them you’re not worried about them carrying it to other teams.”

Regan Smith, driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row Chevrolet, explained the relationship has “always been close.”

“Personally, I don’t compare it to any other relationship (in the garage), because I think ours is more open than anybody else is out there and continues to get that way,” he said. “We’ve grown as a team to the point
where they’ll come to us and say, ‘We need that part or piece, and you guys make it. Can you get your guys to make it for us?’ That was the moment, for me, when I realized this thing is working now, this is how we want it to be."

Sadler And Gaughan To Split RCR's No. 33 In First Five Races

2012-01-26T18:50:00.000-05:00

(Note: This story was originally published in the Frontstretch.com newsletter. Please be sure to visit their site and sign up for the free newsletter.)

Richard Childress Racing announced on Wednesday driver Elliot Sadler will run the No. 33 Chevrolet in the season-opening Daytona 500 with sponsorship from General Mills and Kroger.

After that event, Brendan Gaughan will climb behind the wheel of the No. 33 for the next four races with backing from South Point Casinos. Nationwide Series team manager Gil Martin will serve as crew chief for the car during the first five events.

Using the 2011 owner points, the No. 33 team will be locked into those first five races of the season and run the distance in each.

"It's great to be back in the Daytona 500," said Sadler, who is running for the Nationwide title full-time with RCR and feels he has a second shot at winning the Great American Race - the Virginian was leading in 2009 moments before Matt Kenseth blew by in a rain-shortened finish. "When we started putting this program together, the first thing that came to mind is how strong RCR's plate program has always been. We're going to go out and have a legitimate chance to win the race. Speedweeks can't get here soon enough!"

While Sadler will run his 13th Daytona 500, Gaughan will run the next four Sprint Cup Series events. Already slated to run 10 Nationwide Series and eight races in the Camping World Truck Series for RCR, Gaughan is mirroring Sadler and attempting to climb his way back to the top. A former Sprint Cup Series driver, Gaughan has spent the last eight seasons racing in the
Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series, but jumped at the opportunity to join a high quality race team, knowing he was climbing into solid, proven equipment.

“This, for me, is the dream come true of a second chance,” he said. “You don’t normally get them. If you do get them, they’re normally not of this caliber. You’ve usually got to do something on that’s in that little bit lower-tier to come out and shock the world. To be able to come out with a team that’s close to the Chase, in it, just barely out of it this year, a crew chief with four Cup wins last year with the organization, for me, this is the chance I’ve waited eight years for."

“I always said, if I ever go back it’s going to be more on my terms and the right opportunity. I think I waited just about right.”

A lot has changed in the eight years since Gaughan last competed in the Sprint Cup Series full-time. But he feels his experience with the Nationwide Series car, and some testing in Cup - he even ran a race for TRG Motorsports - plus the high quality of the team have him prepared to make a return.

“The biggest thing that gives me confidence," he explained. "Is Shane Wilson (crew chief on Kevin Harvick’s No. 29 car) was in the shop yesterday and he said, ‘This car was built for you."

While he is open to more Sprint Cup races if the proper funding comes about, Gaughan is content with his schedule and committed to working his way up within a proven organization - although he won't rule out any possibility.

“Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered,” he said. “All I’m looking forward to is four races. I’m not going to sit here and say, ‘If we get a top-5, we can get it!’ Nope. If I get top-5, I’m going to sit here and cry my ass off. It’s going to be phenomenal for me to get it. I’m going to do every bit I can in those four (races).”

Harvicks Expecting

2012-01-26T18:46:00.000-05:00

(Note: This story was originally published in the Frontstretch.com newsletter. Please be sure to visit their site and sign up for the free newsletter.)

Speculation raged late last season after the surprising merger of Kevin Harvick Inc. with Richard Childress Racing. Many pointed to potential marital problems between owners, not to mention husband and wife, Kevin and DeLana, as the "real" reason for the changes.

Yet, when asked about life after KHI Wednesday on the Media Tour, Harvick set things straight on why the couple decided to give up control of the company they had built from the ground to become a championship-caliber team - and the answer produced a surprise for most everyone in the room.

“For me and my wife, to not have the race team this winter has been pretty different,” Harvick said when asked about not having to worry about running a team this offseason. “As we worked through a lot of things, basically what we’ve got to do is go on vacation, we got to try to learn how to be normal, and DeLana is 14 weeks pregnant.”

A shock to most in the crowd, including those within RCR, Harvick’s announcement cleared the air on the couple’s decision last year to merge their organization with RCR.

“I think this is the last piece," the driver confirmed. "Where everybody can finally put all the pieces together and say, ‘Oh, I guess it all adds up, I guess they wanted to move to a different phase of their life and do
something different.’”

The baby is due midsummer, roughly a month before the Chase for the championship and, without KHI has changed DeLana's role from business owner to expectant mother. But now that DeLana is carrying their first child, don’t expect to see her donning a firesuit anytime soon.

“You might not ever see her in a firesuit again, to be honest with you,” Harvick said, beaming with a smile. “You might have seen the last days of that. I guess that’s still to be determined, but you won’t (see it) any
time soon.”

Michael Waltrip Racing Boasts New Driver Lineup, Expects To Contend In Chase

2012-01-26T18:41:00.000-05:00

(Note: This story was originally published in the Frontstretch.com newsletter. Be sure to visit the site and sign up for free.)

Michael Waltrip enjoys the spotlight, and Monday’s Sprint Media Tour stop at Michael Waltrip Racing was no different. Instead of the normal press conferences where owners tout the talents of their drivers, Waltrip hosted a talk show-style event where he interviewed his new team.

The over-the-top owner prodded Clint Bowyer about letting him run a dirt car, which Bowyer laughingly declined. Waltrip then played the age card with 53-year-old Mark Martin, saying when he gets out of the car and Mark gets in he likes to say, “Out with the old and in with the older.” He then pointed out Martin Truex, Jr. had done a lot of the hard work in paving the way at MWR, to which Truex told his new teammates, “I took all the lumps for you guys.”

All kidding aside, MWR is in a no-excuse year with new drivers Martin and Bowyer joining the team, pairing with the "veteran" Truex who endured an up-and-down year in 2011. But new technology, new chassis and a partnership with Toyota Racing Development have the organization poised to move into
that next level of Sprint Cup Series organizations in 2012.

“The hopes have been replaced with confidence that we can contend, we can win and we can earn a spot in the Chase,” Waltrip said, claiming the team’s partnership with TRD has elevated MWR into the top tier.

After a rough few years in the sport, MWR has honed its technology and the resources at its disposal to run consistently week-in and week-out.

“I feel like we have the best I’ve ever seen in the engineering department,” Truex, who joined the team in 2010, said. “Our simulation stuff is second to none. You can ask anyone in the garage, they’ll tell you
that. We have a lot of things going for us, and we need to make it happen now.”

Bold But Breathtaking Move: Ford Unveils 2013 Ford Fusion Body Style

2012-01-26T18:32:00.000-05:00

(Note: This story was originally published on Frontstretch.com. Please be sure to visit their site.)

Ford took a bold step Tuesday afternoon on the NASCAR Sprint Media Tour when it unveiled the new 2013 Ford Fusion body style at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The first manufacturer to debut the new design, Ford’s announcement drew NASCAR brass, Ford design team members and Sprint Cup Series drivers.

Focusing on making the car look more like the product sold in the showroom and parked in the driveways, Ford made a concerted effort to produce a sleek, eye-catching car, while remaining in the limits placed on them by NASCAR.

The entire process of developing a new body style began when Ford introduced the Mustang into Nationwide Series competition. Jamie Allison, the Director of Ford Racing, called the use of the Mustang in the series a “tipping point in the sport” that generated tremendous excitement within the company and with fans in the stands.

Originally planning on introducing the Mustang as the next Sprint Cup Series model, Allison explained that decision was scrapped once they saw the design of the 2013 production model Fusion.

“For many years, we kind of lost our way. This is car racing, and the cars on the track need to look like the cars in people’s driveway, and that is what this car is,” he said. “Hats off to NASCAR, because without NASCAR’s leadership, this would not be possible. It took them ensuring the four manufacturers were working together, and building on the competition that exists. NASCAR led and we the manufacturers stepped up to give the fans what they want, which is a car that they love and a car that looks like a car in their driveway.”

The process of making the cars look like the production models, while remaining competitively equal was not a simple task. Each manufacturer met with NASCAR to determine common areas for each of their individual cars.

The group agreed on common specifications for the A-pillar, back to the rear spoiler, down to the door posts, then worked on the tail, rocker panels, wheel arches and lower air dams. Aside from these areas, each individual manufacturer has been able to mold the car to their own brand identity.

“From time to time we did our meetings and brought everybody back to make sure that nobody was getting too far out or that there wouldn’t be too much of a deficit,” NASCAR Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton said. “We also encouraged them quite a bit to get all their identity that they could in the race car and we would do what we do best, which was regulate and make sure everybody has a fair shot and an even playing field. As much as we all worked together, we worked independently because we didn’t want to stifle any of the manufacturer’s ideas that they had about putting the brand identity into the cars.”

The interesting turn of events here is NASCAR’s concerted effort to put the “stock car” back in NASCAR. Just a short time ago, NASCAR scrapped the idea of brand identity for a safer car that was simple to inspect on a common template.

Drivers and fans alike bemoaned the design, lamenting it was more of a spec race car and a departure from the glory days of NASCAR.

“For the Car of Tomorrow a couple of years ago, (NASCAR) decided they didn’t really care what the manufacturers wanted,” Roush said. “They wanted the cars to look the same so they were easily inspected and maintain the aero balance. It was only after they got the resistance to the car from the fans, the criticism of the car from the consumers, that they decided maybe they had gone too far.”

Greg Biffle admitted many of the drivers felt the pain of fans, believing they had gone from “a cool race car” to a car that was not as cool or sleek when the switch was made to the current body style.

“(The fans) aren’t going to be complaining about that thing,” he said with a smile. “This looks like a race car. This thing is bad ass.”

While Ford’s dramatic announcement created buzz and excitement, a lot of work still has to take place before the body style is officially approved by NASCAR. Changes could still be made to the model unveiled Tuesday, but the overall design of the car should remain the same.

Team owner Jack Roush explained there are a total of three 2013 Ford Fusions already produced, but the third was at the wind tunnel with NASCAR.

“We’ve got to get the templates finally solidified, as far as what NASCAR wants the car to be. This is a 90% car here that we have today,” he said. “When we get past the NASCAR approval, we’ll be building cars so they’ll be track testing and verifying the function of various things in the car by the third or fourth quarter of next year.”

Regardless, Biffle and teammate Ricky Stenhouse Jr. hit the track at Charlotte Motor Speedway to show off their new rides.

“It’s great to see them on the track on a beautiful sun-shining day here in Charlotte,” team owner Jack Roush said. “It has been six months of hard work for the engineers in Dearborn (Mich.) and the technicians in the race shops here in North Carolina have put in on these cars.”

There is no word as to when Chevrolet, Dodge or Toyota plan on unveiling their new designs. Dodge is expected to stick with the Charger, Toyota is expected to remain with the Camry, but it is believed Chevrolet will introduce an entirely new model to both consumers and NASCAR.

“The other manufacturers have got cars that they’re as excited as we have,” Roush said when asked if the early debut put the pressure on Chevrolet, Dodge and Toyota. “It’s a great opportunity for all manufacturers to carry their brand identity to their race cars.”

Dialing It In: Close-Knit Group Of Racers Sets Stewart-Haas Apart

2012-01-26T18:12:00.002-05:00

(Note: This story was originally published on Frontstretch.com. Please be sure to visit their site.)

Stewart-Haas Racing has a lot going for it these days.

Tony Stewart and his No. 14 team put on a clinic during the 2011 Chase, charging to the championship, then brought in proven crew chief Steve Addington to lead the way in 2012. Ryan Newman’s No. 39 team has been able to attract multiple sponsors new to the organization and NASCAR itself, paired with a crew returning virtually intact for the coming season. Newcomer Danica Patrick is slated to race ten Sprint Cup Series events, bringing with it the publicity and hype surrounding her that will lead to millions in additional sponsorship and exposure.

Yet, perhaps the best thing SHR has going for it in 2012 isn’t its past on-track success; it’s the present, off-track camaraderie within the team itself. Unlike many Sprint Cup Series organizations, Stewart-Haas is a small, close-knit group of people with one common interest – racing.

“It’s a smaller group, which allows you to be a race team, for a lack of a better way of saying it,” said Vice President of Competition Matt Borland. “We’ve managed to build a group of people that love racing. They’re not doing it because it’s a job or because it’s a management experience. They want to win, they want to go race.”

For Borland, that love of the sport comes right from the top in team owner Tony Stewart. Not only does Stewart give back to racing, in all forms as the owner of multiple racetracks, he is always competing in something on wheels when not focusing on the NASCAR side of things.

“Tony is an incredible leader, yet he doesn’t say a whole lot of words,” Borland said. “He draws people to have that same passion for racing. That has helped our program get better faster.”

Along with the tight-knit group of people, perhaps one of the biggest advantages for Stewart-Haas is their information and engine sharing program in place with Hendrick Motorsports. While larger teams concern themselves with building motors and chassis, Borland explained their team is able to, in a way, “ignore engines completely.”

“We’re able to trust completely in Hendrick,” Borland said. “They’re the best at what they do. They provide us great motors, so we focus on things other than motors. Same thing on the chassis side, they build the best chassis out there.”

“It frees your people up to think about aero, all those other little parts of these cars that get you just that little bit better.”

Joining Stewart-Haas after years at Joe Gibbs Racing, new Director of Competition Greg Zipadelli has also noticed the solid chemistry. He said the smaller group of people in the shop makes it “easier to get things done.”

“There’s more racers because of the amount of the people there,” he explained. “The systems work pretty good. Joe Gibbs Racing had gotten so big, the systems were bigger, it took more to get things through, but they could do more in a shorter amount of time when needed. There’s a balance there in our sport of not taking the racing out of racing, but yet still being efficient at what you do in getting a very good product out there to race week-in and week-out.”

For Addington, the biggest difference he has noticed since joining has been the people within the organization.

“Every guy in (the shop) has worked on short track cars, late models or Saturday night stuff, even in the engineering department,” he said. “That’s the key, this is a group where the engineering department has respect for the group that goes to the track every week, and the guys that go to the track every week have respect for the engineering department.”

That environment of mutual respect allows guys from various departments to bounce ideas off each other, finding answers quickly that produce better race cars. Ultimately, though it creates an environment where work is fun, employees enjoy what they do and the product shows once on the track.

It’s a model they hope will continue to bring home championships in 2012.

Pocono Raceway Founder Dr. Joe Mattiolo Passes Away

2012-01-26T16:10:00.001-05:00

Dr. Joe Mattioli was a figure in NASCAR that stood above many others. The founder of Pocono Raceway, Doc Mattioli and his family have been a staple in NASCAR for many years and have contributed to the sport in innumerable ways.

Mattioli had been battling a lengthy illness, and had in the past year stepped aside from the day-to-day role of running the racing facility he created. Thursday, surrounded by his friends and family, Doc Mattioli lost his battle. He was 86.

The news came Thursday afternoon, as NASCAR's Brian France and Mike Helton were wrapping up a media question and answer session.

"The entire NASCAR family is saddened by the loss of a true icon in our sport, Dr. Joe Mattioli," France said in a statement. "Doc’s relationship with my family reaches three generations, all the way back to my grandfather. His passion for the sport will live on in the hearts of his family and our fans. His contributions to our sport are wide-spread. We have lost a great leader – and a great person. NASCAR offers its deepest condolences to his wife Rose and the entire Mattioli family."

Ganassi Calls 2011 Performance “Pathetic” And Expects Success After Changes

2012-01-24T16:37:00.000-05:00

Team owner Chip Ganassi was straight and to the point Tuesday morning when discussing the disappointment in his organization’s 2011 performance.

Ganassi opened his session of the Media Tour on Tuesday by thanking the media in attendance and saying, “I hope it’s the last time I have to say we finished 21st and 27th in points last year.”

The 2010 season was a benchmark for the organization, in which Jamie McMurray won three races, including the Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400, and Juan Pablo Montoya went to Victory Lane at Watkins Glen.

The 2011 season, however was a much different story. Collectively, the pair scored only four top-five and 12 top-10 finishes, never went to Victory Lane and were never a factor in the Chase discussion.

“It’s pretty obvious what spurred (the changes),” Ganassi said. “We were 21st and 27th in the points. That’s pathetic for a team with our ability and our resources.”

During the off-season, Earnhardt Ganassi Racing underwent a host of major changes within the shop, which saw long-time team manager Tony Glover, competition director Steve Hmiel, and lead engineer Ed Natham released from the team. EGR brought in John Probst to fill the role of head engineer on the team in October, while Max Jones was hired in December to become the new team manager. In addition, Chris Heroy, formerly with Hendrick Motorsports, was hired as crew chief for Montoya’s No. 42 team.

“I think we’ve got the right people, I know it’s very early, but you can see the changes,” Montoya said. “You can see there’s a direction moving forward. The team is heading somewhere that is good.”

Ganassi was clear that if the changes made during the off-season do not produce the desired results, more changes were possible down the road. Team co-owner Felix Sabates pointed out the changes will not produce results right away, but said both the No. 1 and the No. 42 teams need to be strong right out of the gate and assess their program by the fourth race of the year.

“One of the problems we’ve had in the past, was we kept people too long,” Sabates said. “That’s not going to happen again.”

According to Sabates, the turning point last year came when Montoya struggled on the road course at Sonoma in June and finished 22nd. For McMurray, the frustrations culminated in May or June when he and Montoya collectively went to their team owner to voice their concerns.

“It’s really hard as a driver to go into someone like Chip and say, ‘Hey, this is what we think is wrong,’ because we’re not there every day,” McMurray said. “When drivers go and complain, a lot of what they’re complaining about is what people are telling them at the track.”

However, for Ganassi, that timing was simply a culmination of driver feedback, poor results and frustration.

“When you have a year like we had last year, you obviously have to make big changes,” Ganassi said. “You look from time to time at yourself and at your management team, the way you’re operating and you try to weigh all factors. I don’t know when it actually hit me, per say, but when it did hit me my mind was made up. Once I made the decision in my own mind, it didn’t take long to carry it out.”

Crew chief Kevin ‘Bono’ Manion explained the entire team has a new look to it, as well as a new approach to building cars in the shop. Much like Sabates, Manion believes the changes currently taking place in the shop will not produce results for “six to eight months.”

“I think we’ve got the right people, I know it’s very early, but you can see the changes,” Montoya said. “You can see there’s a direction moving forward. The team is heading somewhere that is good.”

Joe Gibbs Racing Crew Chiefs Working Closely To Move Team Forward

2012-01-23T16:38:00.001-05:00

The NASCAR off-season saw a number of changes take place throughout the sport, and Joe Gibbs Racing is no exception.

Long-time crew chief Greg Zipadelli departed for Stewart-Haas Racing, while Mike Ford was replaced as crew chief atop Denny Hamlin’s pit box.

With Zipadelli gone for SHR, JGR opted to promote Jason Ratcliff from the Nationwide side of the organization to work with Joey Logano in the Sprint Cup Series. Ratcliff certainly knows how to win races in the Nationwide Series. In the past three years, the No. 18 car under Ratcliff’s direction scored back-to-back owner championships, 30 wins, 68 top-five, and 85 top-10 finishes.

Replacing Ford on the No. 11 team is championship winning crew chief Darian Grubb. Joining the organization after his title run with Tony Stewart, Grubb brings confidence, experience and a championship ring to the table.

After adding two new faces to the Sprint Cup organization, the Gibbs crew chiefs have been working hard during the off-season to mold a solid direction forward for the team. While crew chief Dave Rogers admitted the trio of crew chiefs are still “on our honeymoon,” he indicated the communication has been “very open.”

“I think we’re challenging each other, and most importantly, giving direction to this shop,” Rogers said.

“The last couple weeks we have done nothing but performance meetings, which are brainstorm sessions” he said. “Where do we have to be in six months? Where do we need to be in two years? Jason, Darian and I all seem to have a common thought process of what makes a race car go fast. Through that, we are able to make some changes fundamentally in the shop, help organize people with what type of projects we want to work on, and how we want our race cars to go.”

While Ratcliff has found success in the Nationwide Series, he is a rookie when it comes to running a Sprint Cup team. Despite his inexperience, he hopes to bring a simplistic approach to the organization on a whole.

“You can be really overwhelmed with how technical this sport can be, and how that has grown over the last five years is phenomenal,” he said. “You can get caught in that pretty quick and overlook the simple approach, the things that got us here. Those simple things will always work.”

With Grubb and Ratcliff joining the Sprint Cup organization so late in the off-season, Rogers admitted it would take some time before new cars and new ideas start to show up at the track, but the final product could look much different.

One of the most important parts of this process has been the feedback provided by JGR drivers Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Joey Logano. At the end of 2011, Hamlin often called for major changes within the organization, while Busch saw things much differently. By gathering their feedback and working closely together, all three drivers have already seen improvement.

“It’s very hard to pinpoint one thing that’s wrong with your race car,” Logano said. “All three of us drive differently, so there could possibly be three separate issues that are there. You’ve got to look at every bit of it, and try to find something, and work on all of them and hit on something eventually. We all put our two cents in it and sometimes we agree with each other, sometimes we don’t, but I value Kyle and Denny’s opinions as much as I value my own opinion and we look at it all equally.”

“All I can do is give the best feedback I can to these guys to send them in the right direction,” Hamlin said. “Hopefully that’s the right direction at the end when all is said and done. Just looking at some of the changes that have taken place in the off-season, I feel like a lot of things that I've said we should improve in this area or that area, is starting to really get a lot of attention right now.”

Team owner Joe Gibbs and team president J.D. Gibbs are not absent from this process either. On the contrary, the pair take a hands-on approach to the decisions that dictate the future of the team. Grubb explained this was one of the best things he has noticed in his short time at the organization.

“I think it’s good that (Joe and J.D. Gibbs) talk to everybody, communicate with everybody – competition side, engineering side, drivers, crew chiefs,” Busch said. “We all talk about it and figure out what’s best for Joe Gibbs Racing and how to make all of us the most competitive.”

NASCAR Preview Brings Drivers To The Fans

2012-01-21T20:57:00.000-05:00

The Charlotte Convention Center and NASCAR Hall of Fame were abuzz Saturday afternoon, as the 2012 NASCAR Preview brought the stars of NASCAR to the fans a month before the season officially kicks off in Daytona.

The day was full of autograph sessions with drivers from NASCAR’s top-three divisions, as well as NASCAR Hall of Fame inductees and media personalities The drivers ranged from 2011 Sprint Cup Series champion Tony Stewart, to young Nationwide Series stars such as Timmy Hill and Blake Koch.

Fans could be heard bragging about short conversations they had with the drivers, the smiles they got and the perfect autograph on that hero card or souvenir. One teenage girl boasted to her father how Danica Patrick liked her new Stewart-Haas Racing t-shirt featuring Patrick's No. 10 Sprint Cup car.

"They're just really friendly, they're excited," Patrick said of the NASCAR fans in attendance. "You just really get that sense of care from many of them, and they're all wearing your shirts. They're just really into it. That's a good feeling for a driver, an athlete in general, to see someone cheering for you and your sport, and you're just part of something really big."

A number of tracks were also on hand Saturday, promoting their events and providing fan giveaways. Among those, was Bristol Motor Speedway. The track hosted a car unveiling and after party with the ever-popular Patrick in advance of their St. Patrick's Day Nationwide race.

Along with the autograph sessions and interactive events, fans were also able to enjoy things often held away from the public’s view. Jeff Gordon and Richard Petty rekindled memories of that famous day in 1993 in which The King made his final career start, just as Gordon was making his first.

Petty got a chuckle out of the crowd by describing a young Jeff Gordon as a "pipsqueak of a guy" who "looked about 14 years old."

Following the conversation, Gordon unveiled his DuPont paint scheme for 2012, commemorating the 20th anniversary of his partnership with the company.

Tony Stewart joined NASCAR Hall of Fame executive director Winston Kelley to unveil a new exhibit in the Great Hall honoring Stewart's dramatic 2011 championship win. Stewart donated his firesuit, gloves, helmet and shoes worn during last year's season finale at Homestead, along with the check he was presented on stage, a champagne bottle and cork, as well as the tuxedo he wore to the awards banquet.

Walking around the convention center, fans posed next to the number of 2012 Sprint Cup Series cars, with new paint schemes and driver/team combinations drawing the most attention, as well as the three 2011 series champion cars and trophies.

Mainly absent from the event, however, were race cars from NASCAR's other divisions, namely the Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series.

While a number of Nationwide drivers were in attendance signing autographs, there were only two 2012 NASCAR Nationwide Series cars on display - one of which being Tony Stewart's No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.

Aside from the 2011 championship truck of Austin Dillon, there were no CWTS vehicles at the event.

According to a NASCAR spokesperson, Sprint Cup Series teams received the initial invites, with involvement coming on a first-come, first-serve basis. Due to limited space at the convention center and various building codes, the idea was to bring as many cars as possible for fans to enjoy.

Following the inaugural event, NASCAR will examine its success through fan feedback and evaluate what changes, if any, need to be made in the future.

2012 NASCAR Season Ready To Get Underway

2012-01-11T13:43:00.007-05:00

The dust has officially settled on the 2012 NASCAR off-season as drivers, teams and media outlets make their way to Daytona Beach, Fla. for this weekend's preseason testing for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

Hitting the track for an official test for the first time since the dramatic season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, teams will be testing new rides, new relationships and new rules.

Teams will be testing new rules put in place by NASCAR in the hopes of breaking up the two-car tandem drafting. NASCAR has implemented smaller radiators, a smaller overflow tank and a smaller spoiler, among other things.

Here is a look at the new rules package teams will be testing this weekend:

Smaller radiators (maximum of 2 gallon capacity)
Smaller overflow tank (maximum capacity of 1/2 gallon)
Radiator inlet is moved up closer into the front center bumper area
Rate reduction in the springs - softer springs
Smaller rear spoiler
Base line restrictor plate of 29/32 inch (1/64 inch larger than 2011 Daytona 500 plate)

Fans can follow along the action this weekend in Daytona by watching live coverage on SPEED, while SPEEDTV.com will also provide free streaming access from 9 a.m. until Noon Thursday through Saturday.

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series will have a much different look in 2012, as a number of drivers, crew chiefs, spotters and sponsors have moved around during the short off-season. The changes came early and often this off-season, making it tough to keep track of all that was going on.

So, here is a brief run down of the changes for the 2012 season:

Car: No. 1 Bass Pro Shops/McDonald's/Belkin/Liftmaster/Banana Boat Chevrolet (New sponsors)
Driver: Jamie McMurray
Crew Chief: Kevin "Bono" Manion
Team Manager: Max Jones (Previously held by Tony Glover)

Car: No. 5 Farmers Insurance/Quaker State Chevrolet
Driver: Kasey Kahne (Moved from Red Bull Racing)
Crew Chief: Kenny Francis (Moved from Red Bull Racing)

Car: No. 10 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet
Driver: Danica Patrick
Crew Chief: Greg Zipadelli
Note: Patrick and the No. 10 team will run 10 races for Stewart-Haas Racing, including the Daytona 500, Darlington and the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway

Car: No. 11 FedEx Toyota (Will use Toyota Racing Development for engines)
Driver: Denny Hamlin
Crew Chief: Darian Grubb (Moved from Stewart-Haas Racing)
Spotter: Chris Lambert (Moved from Red Bull Racing No. 83 team)

Car: No. 13 GEICO Ford (was Toyota)
Driver: Casey Mears
Crew Chief: Bootie Barker

Car: No. 14 Office Depot/Mobile 1 Chevrolet
Driver: Tony Stewart
Crew Chief: Steve Addington (Moved from Penske Racing)
Director of Competition: Greg Zipadelli (Moved from Joe Gibbs Racing, will also serve as crew chief to Danica Patrick)

Car: No. 15 5-Hour Energy Toyota
Driver: Clint Boywer (moved from Richard Childress Racing)
Crew Chief: Brian Pattie (Former crew chief at Earnhardt Ganassi Racing)
Spotter: Ty Norris

Car: No. 17 Best Buy/Valvoline Ford (Best Buy moved from Richard Petty Motorsports)
Driver: Matt Kenseth
Crew Chief: Jimmy Fennig

Car: No. 18 M&M's/Combos/Snickers/Pedigree/Doublemint/Interstate Batteries Toyota
Driver: Kyle Busch
Crew Chief: Dave Rogers
Spotter: Todd Hirscham (Moved from Richard Petty Motorsports No. 43 team)

Car: No. 20 Home Depot/Dollar General (Dollar General new to Joe Gibbs Racing in 2012)
Driver: Joey Logano
Crew Chief: Jason Ratcliff (Moved up from Nationwide Series with JGR)
Spotter: Rocky Ryan (Moved from Roush Fenway Racing No. 6 team)

Car: No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge
Driver: AJ Allmendinger (Moved from Richard Petty Motorsports)
Crew Chief: Todd Gordon (Moved up from Nationwide Series with Penske Racing)

Car: No. 24 AARP Drive to End Hunger/DuPont Chevrolet
Driver: Jeff Gordon
Crew Chief: Alan Gustafson
Spotter: Eddie D'Hondt (Moved from Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 team)

Car: No. 29 Budweiser/Jimmy John's/Rheem Chevrolet
Driver: Kevin Harvick
Crew Chief: Shane Wilson (Previously crew chief for Clint Bowyer's No. 33 team at RCR)

Car: No. 31 Caterpillar/Wheaties/General Mills/BB&T Chevrolet (Wheaties/General Mills/BB&T moved from now defunct No. 33 team)
Driver: Jeff Burton
Crew Chief: Drew Blickensderfer (Moved from Roush Fenway Racing)

Car: No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford
Driver: David Ragan (Moved from Roush Fenway Racing)
Crew Chief: Jay Guy

Car: No. 35 Tommy Baldwin Racing Chevrolet
Driver: David Reutimann (Reutimann moved from Michael Waltrip Racing, will run partial schedule)
Crew Chief: Tommy Baldwin Jr.

Car: No. 38 ModSpace/Taco Bell/Long John Silver's Ford
Driver: David Gilliland
Crew Chief: Derrick Finley (Interim crew chief/Competition director)

Car: No. 39 U.S. Army/Tornados/Quicken Loans (new)/Outback Steakhouse (new)
Driver: Ryan Newman
Crew Chief: Tony Gibson

Car: No. 42 Target Chevrolet
Driver: Juan Pablo Montoya
Crew Chief: Chris Heroy (Moved from Hendrick Motorsports, where he was an engineer)
Team Manager: Max Jones

Car: No. 43 Smithfield Ford
Driver: Aric Almirola (Moved from JR Motorsports Nationwide Series team)
Crew Chief: Greg Erwin (Starting his first full year with the team)
Spotter: Tyler Green (Moved from JR Motorsports No. 88 team as Almirola's spotter)

Car: No. 51 TAG Heuer Eyeware (Budweiser Shootout sponsor) Chevrolet
Driver: Kurt Busch (Moved from Penske Racing)
Crew Chief: Nick Harrison
Spotter: Steve Barkdoll (team general manager)

Car: No. 55 Aaron's Dream Machine Toyota (Changed from No. 00)
Driver: Mark Martin/Michael Waltrip (Martin moved from Hendrick Motorsports)
Crew Chief: Rodney Childers

Car: No. 99 Fastenal/Best Buy/UPS/Aflac/Scotts/Subway/Kellogg's Frosted Flakes/Cheez-It Ford
Driver: Carl Edwards
Crew Chief: Bob Osborne

This massive upheaval during the off-season cost many in the sport their jobs, including a handful of race-winning drivers. Brian Vickers and David Ragan are still without a ride as the season opening events near, while Landon Cassill is also on the market after Phoenix Racing announced the addition of Kurt Busch.

In addition, Travis Kvapil, David Gilliland and J.J. Yeley also have uncertain futures, as Front Row Motorsports has yet to officially announce their driver lineup for the 2012 season.

Check back throughout the week to follow the action from Daytona.

Charlotte-Area Ben & Jerry’s Scoop Shops To Host Benefit Night For The NASCAR Foundation

2011-05-26T17:00:00.003-04:00

In the Charlotte area for the weekend's NASCAR action? Looking for something to do on Friday when there is no action at the track? Why not head to the closest Ben & Jerry's scoop shop and help a good cause at the same time?

The Charlotte-area Ben & Jerry's scoop shops have partnered with The NASCAR Foundation to host a Benefit Night from 3 p.m. until 7 p.m. on Friday, May 27. During those hours, Ben & Jerry's will donate 20% of its sales to The NASCAR Foundation's NASCAR Unites campaign which helps children live better lives.

Fans can visit the six Charlotte-area Ben & Jerry's scoop shops at the following locations:

Arboretum
8200 Providence Road, Suite 300
Charlotte, NC 28277
Phone: 704-543-8333
www.benjerry.com/arboretum

Davidson
202 South Main Street
Davidson, NC 28036
Phone: 704-892-0604
www.benjerry.com/davidson

Foxcroft
Foxcroft East Shopping Center
Charlotte, NC 28226
Phone: 704-364-7600
www.benjerry.com/foxcroft

Myers Park
507 Providence Road
Charlotte, NC 28207
Phone: 704-333-1003
www.benjerry.com/myerspark

ParkTowne Village
1600 East Woodlawn Road, Suite 110
Charlotte, NC 28209
Phone: 704-525-9945
www.benjerry.com/parktownevillage

The Shops at Franklin Square - Gastonia
3908 East Franklin Boulevard
Gastonia, NC 28056
Phone: 704-824-7391
www.benjerry.com/gastonia

NASCAR Unites wristbands will also be available at all six locations for a donation of $5.

2nd Annual GASTON SPEEDFEST

2011-05-11T15:27:00.000-04:00

Looking for a fun, family-friendly racing event the Sunday after the Sprint All-Star Race? Why not make the short trip down I-85 South to Gastonia and have a great time at the 2nd Annual Gaston Speedfest?!

With a day off after the All-Star event and the NASCAR Hall of Fame induction ceremony the following day, get your racing fix by watching live pit crew demonstrations, meet NASCAR legend Humpy Wheeler, see various show cars and actual race cars from all forms of motorsports, while enjoying great food and drinks, along with Ben & Jerry's ice cream - which I will be out there scooping for part of the day!

The event is free to attend and lasts from Noon-7PM in the Gaston Gazette parking lot. See below for more details.

GASTONIA, N.C. (May 11th, 2011) – The Home Builders Association of Gaston County will be presenting the 2nd Annual GASTON SPEEDFEST on Sunday, May 22, 2011 from Noon until 7 pm in the parking lot of the Gaston Gazette. The Home Builders Association of Gaston County is proud to present this event in an effort to continue building a stronger local community.

GASTON SPEEDFEST will provide a fun filled day for race fans and local residents who want to take part in the excitement of NASCAR on one of Charlotte's busiest weeks of the year.

GASTON SPEEDFEST will include race cars, new and classic cars, motorcycles, and a host of other fun and exciting elements. Again this year, several NASCAR Sprint Cup Series pit crewmen will be performing live pit stops. Local dirt track, Carolina Speedway will be on hand to allow attendees to get a closer look at the various dirt track cars that race at their venue. There will also be other cars and displays from various forms of racing.

Along with live music, the event will offer food from local vendors RO’s Barbeque, HoneyBaked Ham, Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, and drinks from Choice USA Sun Drop.

We are excited to announce that H.A. “Humpy Wheeler” will be appearing and signing his new book “Growing Up NASCAR: Racing’s Most Outrageous Promoter Tells All.” In addition to several race car drivers and other personalities, the Gastonia Gazette’s NASCAR writer Monte Dutton with WRFX DJ and Gaston resident Melany Myers will be on hand.

“This is going to be an outstanding event since it is race weekend and Gaston County has always been one of the strongest motorsports strongholds in the very area where NASCAR was born,” said H.A. “Humpy” Wheeler about the 2ndAnnual GASTON SPEEDFEST. “There has been four speedways in that county. The Gastonia Fairgrounds (or Lowell), the high banked Robinwood Speedway, the current Carolina Speedway, which is running today and is quite successful and the Belmont Midget track which was a dirt eighth- mile.

“While Gaston County missed many opportunities to get the multi-million dollar stock car operations in the past,” he added, “attitudes have changed drastically and its locale to the Charlotte Airport could give it a second chance to really garner the opportunities of NASCAR's second growth spurt. This event could help community attitudes in seeing the opportunities that racing has to offer.”

New this year will be a CAR SHOW for everyone to participate in with their classic or custom cars, as well as, motorcycles. There is a $10 donation entry fee, however that is not required. It is encouraged that everyone comes out and shows off their rides.

The GASTON SPEEDFEST is proud to announce the title sponsors of this year’s event are McKenney Family Dealerships, McKenney-Salinas Dealerships, and McKenney Powersports.

The Home Builders Association of Gaston County is proud to announce its continued partnership with Habitat for Humanity of Gaston County, and this year adding The United Way of Gaston County as its second charity partner. Habitat for Humanity will be on hand to discuss some exciting projects they currently have in the works. A portion of the proceeds from the entire event will go to Habitat for Humanity and The United Way. There will also be several raffles including race ticket packages, actual race car sheet metal, and car rental packages.

The GASTON SPEEDFEST is free to attend and will get started at Noon and last until 7pm. The first 200 guests will receive a "goodie bag". We look forward to seeing you on the 22nd - come hungry and ready to have fun!

The address of the event is 1893 Remount Road, Gastonia, N.C. 28053.

For more information, directions and updates, please visit Gaston Speedfest Face book page (www.facebook.com/pages/Gaston-Speedfest/136008836469564).

Sponsorship and entertainment news will be updated prior to the event as needed.

Race Day Links

2011-04-30T18:16:00.004-04:00

Here are some stories from yesterday's action at the Richmond International Raceway from Fronstretch.com and AllLeftTurns.com:

Earnhardt Jr. Not Ready To Celebrate (AllLeftTurns.com)

Beyond The Cockpit: Chris Buescher Gets Called To The Big Leagues (Fronstretch.com)

Follow me on Twitter for live race updates tonight in Richmond (@jaywpennell)

Frontstretch.com Newsletter News & Notes

2011-04-30T17:57:00.006-04:00

I encourage you all to head over to Fronstretch.com and sign up for the free daily newsletter. Here are a few tidbits from Saturday's edition with news and notes from the Richmond International Raceway.

Sprint Cup News and Notes
by Jay Pennell

Can Junior Break The Streak At Richmond?

Sitting third in the standings, Dale Earnhardt Jr. comes into this weekend’s race in Richmond facing a 101-race winless streak that extends back to 2008. With three wins at Richmond, many see this weekend as yet another potential opportunity for the driver of the No. 88 Chevrolet to end the winless draught.

However, since his third Richmond win in 2006, Earnhardt Jr. has not fared so well on the 0.75-mile track. Despite battling Kyle Busch for the win in 2008, Earnhardt Jr. has only one top 10 at Richmond in his last nine races. Since contending for the victory in both 2008 races, Earnhardt has gone on to finish 27th, 21st, 32nd and 34th. Not exactly the kind of numbers that would indicate a strong run in the works.

Yet for Earnhardt Jr., these statistics are more indicative of his overall struggles, not just at Richmond.

“I’ve run good at a lot of race tracks in my career, but if you take out the three or four (tracks) that are my best, I struggled at all three or four of them in the last couple years. My last couple years I have struggled every weekend and it’s not a good reflection of how well I can do at this place. Hopefully with the changes we’ve made that seem to be working everywhere else and I hope they work this weekend.”

Even though he has put together two top 5s and five top 10s, Earnhardt Jr. is not ready to celebrate his success.

“I hope I can come into the next race and keep up the consistency and do it again and do it again. I don’t have time to worry about anything else other than to just keep going,” he said. “It’s a lot of pressure to try to keep going and to try to keep up with all the expectations everyone has for you.

“When we accomplish certain goals like winning a race, winning a couple races, or make the Chase, or win a race in the Chase, or battle for the championship – those are the things I can get excited about and get happy with, I’ll enjoy those moments. I’m happy to be consistent, but we still have another step to go.”

Kurt Busch Still Searching For Answers And A-Plus Performances

Through the first eight races of the season, Kurt Busch has been among the frontrunners and sits fifth in the points. Yet despite his strong runs, Busch is still searching for improvement in all areas of his team. Critical of his team, the engineering and their in-race adjustments week-in and week-out, Busch knows if he wants to hoist the Sprint Cup Series trophy at the end of the year it will take A-plus performances and nothing less.

“There are different areas all over the place that you always have to continue to look at and evaluate,” he said. “If we don’t have an “A” or an “A-plus” in that category, we need to work on it.”

Among the things Busch says his team needs to work on heading into the summer stretch is tweaking the chassis to help the front end turn better in the corner. Coming off a championship season in the Nationwide Series with Brad Keselowski, Penske Racing is trying to incorporate some of the same front end technology used on the Nationwide side of things last year into their Cup program this year – with mixed results.

Looking at nearly all areas of the organization, Busch described team owner Roger Penske as using a feather to “polish things here and there.” Through testing, continued work with the engineers, engine builders and pit crew, the goal is to run top 5 each and every week.

“We find improvement all the time, especially these next few weeks with our testing schedule,” Busch said. “We’re going to hit Indianapolis, Gresham Motorsports Park and Road Atlanta. We’ve got three tests in three weeks coming up. We’re just trying to move forward and not sit still. You always have to keep looking, whether it’s front end geometry, whether it’s a road course, getting that forward bite. You name it; we’re out there working hard for it.”

Nationwide Series News and Notes
by Jay Pennell

Chris Buescher Thrust Into Nationwide Debut

When the telephone rang on Thursday and young Chris Buescher was told to grab his stuff and head to the airport, he thought he was in trouble. The 18-year-old Roush Fenway Racing development driver was preparing to run this weekend’s race ARCA race when he was summoned to the Richmond International Raceway to fill in for the ailing Trevor Bayne.

Hospitalized for symptoms from an insect bite following the Texas race, Bayne was suddenly hospitalized again prior to the Richmond race. Struggling with bouts of fatigue and nausea, Bayne is currently being evaluated in a North Carolina hospital as doctors try to find answers. While the thought is the symptoms are a result of the insect bite, nothing has been confirmed.

“Obviously Trevor wanted to be in Richmond and he’s upset about not being able to compete. However, his health is our top priority and we insisted that he have these tests to get to the bottom of his symptoms,” team president Steve Newmark said in a team release Thursday. “We will work to provide you with further updates as they become available.”

Jack Roush said he had not talked to Bayne on Friday, adding he had not put any thought to keeping Buescher in the car past this weekend. Team officials explained they were talking all precautions to ensure Bayne’s health and letting the doctors do what they need to do. According to one team official, Bayne never fully recovered from his initial hospital visit, with the symptoms – fatigue, nausea, etc. – getting worse and worse.
ARCA regular Chris Buescher – the cousin of James Buescher – has been tapped as Bayne’s replacement for the weekend, making his first Nationwide Series start of his career. At only 18 years old, Buescher has only 17 ARCA starts, with two wins last season both coming at the Toledo Speedway.

Preparing to race this weekend in Salem, Buescher suddenly found himself piloting a car he had never driven at a track he had never raced at. The move occurred so fast, Buescher was seen at the track for practice in an apparently borrowed firesuit with Ricky Stenhouse Jr.'s name on it.

“We planned on running some of the speedways in ARCA this year, and trying to run the full schedule, we’re still going to run Salem tomorrow and Sunday,” he said. “As of two days ago this wasn’t even planned at all. It’s a little earlier than expected, but I’ll take it. I’m excited, a little nervous, but I think it’s a good car and we’ll run good.”

Roush Fenway Racing teammates Carl Edwards and David Ragan express concern for Bayne’s condition, but were confident the Daytona 500 champion would pull through.

“I don’t know exactly what is going on with Trevor,” Edwards said. “I got to know Trevor a little bit like you guys have here lately and he is a real strong young man physically, mentally, emotionally. I think whatever they find out through all of this I am sure he will deal with it better than any of us expect. He is a heck of a guy. We are all behind him 100-percent.”

One of Bayne’s closest friends, fellow driver Michael McDowell would not go into any specifics about Bayne’s condition. Refusing to say whether or not the illness was related to an insect bite, McDowell had a look of concern on his face, but remained steadfast to respect his friend’s privacy.

Buescher finished a solid 17th without incident in Friday's race. For more information, be sure to check out the full interview with Jay Pennell only on Frontstretch.

Kahne Prepares For First Race After Knee Surgery

2011-04-30T17:43:00.006-04:00

While other drivers were vacationing and enjoying their time away from the race track, Kasey Kahne was recovering from knee surgery on his off-week. The Red Bull Racing driver tore the meniscus in his left knee when he slipped while working out. The seemingly innocent slip tore an earlier repair in November that was a result of a basketball injury last year.

Back in the car for the first time since the surgery on April 18, Kahne is not walking with a visible limp and does not believe it will affect him in the race car Saturday night.

“I hope it doesn’t, but it’s still a little bit sore,” Kahne said. “I think it may be sore throughout the race, but really as far as affecting the speed or the way that the race plays out, I don’t think it will affect that at all.”

Trying to put off surgery, Kahne knew he was in trouble as the pain persisted throughout the early season.

“You should have seen me at Bristol,” he said. “I couldn’t even walk for like 10 minutes after the race. It feels better than all that now. It’s only been a week – 10 or 11 days. And, it already feels better. I’m glad I got it fixed. I needed to. I was tired of limping.”

Talladega Post-Race Links

2011-04-18T18:41:00.003-04:00

This weekend's Aaron's 499 at the Talladega Superspeedway saw Jimmie Johnson edge Clint Bowyer by only just 0.002 seconds at the start-finish line.

Here is the recap of Sunday's race from AllLeftTurns.com:

Johnson-Earnhardt Tandem Pushes To Win

In addition to my coverage on All Left Turns, this week I was also able to sit in with Buzz Culter (http://twitter.com/#!/Buzz_Cutler) for the Rowdy.com podcast and Big 3 video. Thanks again to everyone over at Rowdy headquarters.

Here is the link for the Rowdy.com Big 3: http://www.rowdy.com/videos/558/big-3-04-18-11-talladega-wrap-up

Here is the link for the podcast: http://www.rowdy.com/flash/standalone/podcast.html

David Ragan Needs To Capitalize On Speed

2011-04-08T12:59:00.005-04:00

If the Sprint Cup Series went by practice speeds, David Ragan would be one of the best on the circuit.

Throughout much of the early 2011 season, Ragan and his Drew Blickensderfer-led team have shown up to the track with fast cars and proved it in practice and qualifying. Yet when the checkered flag falls on Sunday, the No. 6 UPS Ford is typically far off from their Friday and Saturday showings.

Looking at the speed charts from Thursday’s opening practice session at the Texas Motor Speedway is further proof this team is continuing to show speed and strong potential. When the session was over, Ragan was once again atop the charts – something that is starting to become a trend. Last week in Martinsville Ragan led final practice, doing the same two weeks ago in Fontana. He was a top 10 car in two of the practices in Bristol and was second-fastest in final practice at Phoenix. In addition to being fast in practice, Ragan also has three qualifying runs of 11th or better.

For all the speed shown in practice and qualifying, it seems this team has struggled to put the complete package together and record solid finishes on race day.

Perhaps the best chance for the young driver to score his first career win was the season-opening Daytona 500. Working with fellow Ford driver Trevor Bayne in the closing laps, it appeared Bayne was content pushing Ragan to the win. However, when Ragan changed lanes prior to the start-finish line he was black flagged by NASCAR and his chances at Daytona 500 glory vanished.

Since that mistake, Ragan has shown time and again he has a fast race car, but much like the end of the Daytona 500, he has yet to capitalize. After finishing 14th in the Daytona 500, Ragan finished 36th in Phoenix, 22nd in Las Vegas, 16th in Bristol and 22nd in Fontana.

Last week in Martinsville, Ragan was again fast in practice, qualified 14th, but was finally able to put together a solid finish. Coming home eighth, Ragan was hoping for a better result.

“I felt like we had a top 10 car going into the race,” he said. “If we could have caught a couple of lucky breaks, we might have had a shot to finish in the top three or four. We got hung out there on one of the green flag pit stops and got caught a lap down. We were fortunate to make it back and pass a lot of cars to end up in the top 10. It was certainly a good run. I thought there with about 100 [laps] to go I was like, ‘Man, we’ve run good all day and we’re gonna finish 20th,’ but the UPS Ford was very fast. Drew made some really good pit calls toward the end when things were cycling through the green flag stops to be on the good side of things. It was a good day and our car was a top 10 car, so it was good to finish there.”

This team needs to keep putting together weekends like they had in Martinsville. Now in his fifth full season in the Sprint Cup Series with Roush Fenway Racing, Ragan has yet to live up to expectations. After having his best season in 2008, in which he scored six top 5s, 14 top 10s and finished 13th in points, Ragan has struggled. In 2009, he had only two top 10s and finished 27th in points. Last season Ragan recorded three top 10s and ended the year 24th in points.

Now with Blickensderfer calling the shots, the team has the added pressure of being in a contract year with sponsor UPS. The performances have been there throughout the weekend, but the work continues to finish strong on race day.

“We just got to be more perfect in our jobs,” Ragan said. “It seems like we get here we make adjustments during practice day, during happy hour – in qualifying we’ve been fast. It’s just the small things, mishaps on pit road, I make mistakes, on restarts we lose track position. It’s a lot of those small things. Drew and I still have to get better adjusting on the race car from Saturday to Sunday and from Lap 1 to the end of the race. That’s what separates the winners from a top-15, top-20 car. We know the fight that is in front of us and we’re just glad we’ve got some pretty good cars here.”

Both looking to show they can get the job done, Ragan and Blickensderfer continue to work on the small things to put together the complete package and finish out each weekend as strong as possible.

“I think a lot of it as a team we’ve got to get a little better,” Blickensderfer said. “As a team we’re a top-5 team on Friday, I’d call us a tenth-place team on Saturday and a 15th-place team on Sunday. I think that just comes as the pit crew, myself and David all building confidence in each other. It’s so hard to run in the top 10 in this series, and the difference between 17th and 10th usually it’s not the driver, the crew or the calls; it’s just luck of the draw and everything falling your way. We’ve had a little bit of bad luck this year, had a couple things go wrong in the races that were unfortunate and we’ve had some races where we didn’t perform to what we thought the car was on Saturdays.

“As a whole, I think we’re just building everyday at the race track and at the shop to be a top 10 contender,” he added. “I think it’s David having confidence in the race cars being as fast as they are. For the last couple years, Roush Fenway hasn’t been great qualifiers. We haven’t had fast race cars when we showed up. We’ve had to make special things happen during the race to be up front and now we have fast race cars. It’s just kind of realizing we don’t have to do anything extraordinary, we’ve just got to go out there and do our jobs, get the thing on and off pit road and David having that confidence and it will build and come around.”

The work continues and will have to continue if this team wants to break this trend of running well in practice and not backing it up during the race. With both driver and crew chief on the same page, knowing full well they have their work cut out for them, progress might not be too far off.

“We’re all working very hard and the racing here, you’ve got guys who are perfect through the whole weekend, that don’t make mistakes, the pit crews are good, their engines are good,” Ragan said. “In order to win and run in the top 5 in these Sprint Cup races, you’ve got to have perfect races. We’ve got a lot of the parts of the puzzle figured out, we just got to get better at doing our jobs on Sundays.”

Time To Write Off The Season?

2011-04-04T08:32:00.005-04:00

For most drivers, sitting fourth in points with four top 10s six races into the season would be signs of a positive season. Not for Penske Racing's Kurt Busch.

Throughout the early season, Busch has had one of the strongest cars. He won the Budweiser Shootout in Daytona, as well as his Gatorade Duel 150 qualifying race. In addition, he was the only driver to score four top 10s in the first four races. Yet, despite his positive start to the year, Busch has been anything but positive behind the wheel.

Struggling to make the right adjustments throughout the course of a race, Busch has been highly critical of himself, crew chief Steve Addington and the Penske Racing engineering department on the radio.

Starting 20th on Sunday in Martinsville, Busch's No. 22 Dodge quickly fell back to 34th as they fought an ill-handling race car. The frustration once again reared its head with Busch stuck on the outside and going to the back.

Racing with Michael McDowell, Landon Cassill and Ken Schrader in the opening laps, Busch hit the radio letting off a tirade of comments directed at his team.

"In case you were wondering Roger (Penske, team owner), this is who we raced all last week too."

"My cool attitude today will prevail. It will get us a top 30."

"You can do whatever you want. I have no idea what to do to fix these cars anymore, and neither do our computers."

"I really don't like racing these guys. Can we make our cars better so I can run with somebody up front instead of a go-or-go-homer?"

Perhaps most striking of his early-race comments was his attitude towards the overall season.

"Somebody get the pen so they can write off this season."

Write off the season? Busch is only 14 points out of first in the standings with one top 5 and four top 10s. Hardly the fate seen by other would-be contenders such as David Reutimann, Joey Logano and Jeff Burton - who leave Martinsville 26th, 27th and 28th in points.

Yet the team's struggles to keep up with the changing track conditions throughout the course of a race has the former series champion concerned about their championship hopes.

"We just need to do a better job finishing off the races," Busch said Friday in Martinsville. "When we're running top 5 we've been credited for eighth, ninth and seventh our last three races. So that wears on you because those few points that you lose each week will continue to add up and the next thing that you know, you're right at the cusp of eighth, ninth and 10th in points. We just need to find better adjusting tools during the race. Whether it's done with our engineering staff or something Steve Addington finds, it's just a matter of being the best that we can be and make adjustments on the car as the race progresses."

Having dealt with both Kyle and Kurt Busch, Addington has heard his share of complaining on the radio, but knows he has to keep the team focused on the big picture.

"When you get that close, you just want to win," Addington said. "The frustrating part is the guys seem to be able to go right there at the end and we're still a top-5, top-8 car. That's just the frustrations, that's all that is.

"We just have to get better at making adjustments during the race," he said. "That's the big key to it, is to get better at the end of the race instead of being good at the beginning of the race. That's our focus right now."

Despite their struggles and frustrations, Busch and his No. 22 team have shown time and again that they can run up front and contend for wins. Addressing these issues early in the season is essential if they want to make a run for the title, but being overly critical and harsh on the radio may do more harm than good. Perhaps they should put that pen away and not be so fast to write off the season.

Martinsville Links

2011-04-04T07:59:00.006-04:00

Here are a few of the stories from AllLeftTurns.com about this weekend's action at the Martinsville Speedway.

Luck Has Not Been On Stewart's Side In Pits

Former F1 Champ Raikkonen Coming to NASCAR

Dyno Fire Not Cause Of JGR Engine Woes

Harvick Crushes The Hopes Of Junior Nation

Hamlin-Johnson Dominance Ends In Pits

Also, some News & Notes from this weekend's Fronstretch.com newsletters:

Saturday 4/2/2011:

Drivers Offer Thoughts On Raikkonen
News broke earlier this week that former Formula 1 champion Kimi Raikkonen was approved by NASCAR to run the Camping World Truck Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway with a newly formed team funded, in part, by Foster Gillett.

After learning of the news, some in the NASCAR garage offered their thoughts on the former F1 driver making the jump to NASCAR.

“The only thing that I heard is that he was being approved for Charlotte,” former F1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya said. “I don’t know if he’s even confirmed he’s doing it. I think it would be cool if he comes here. He’s a cool guy and I think he would fit right in. [But] my first choice wouldn’t be Charlotte to start my first race.”

“I think it’s cool,” Kyle Busch added. “I think that some of these guys from the Formula 1, or from the open-wheel background I should say, trying to take a step in NASCAR and see how it is is pretty neat. It kind of gives a world presence to NASCAR. Everybody thinks that Formula 1 is the World Series -- I don’t mean that in baseball terms, I just mean that in the racing world globe. I think that NASCAR, as big as it is a lot of drivers want to see how they can do over here and how they can have a feel for the race car over here. I think it’s neat and I hope that he gets the things worked out that he wants worked out and that he can come over here and run some Trucks or run whatever he is going to run.”

Rumors have been circulating that Raikkonen will test a truck for Kyle Busch Motorsports on Monday at the half-mile Gresham Motorsports Park in Georgia, a claim autosport.com is confirming through KBM officials - although they've also offered denials to several others, including Frontstretch.com. In a tweet late Friday, Tom Jensen of SPEEDTV reported the driver will not team up with Gillett but did not offer any additional information.

Gibbs Starting To Pinpoint Engine Issues
After numerous motor problems in the opening weeks of the season, Kyle Busch explained the team is starting to figure out some of the issues that have plagued all three of the Gibbs cars to start off 2011. To date, the team has three engine failures over fifteen starts in Cup, an alarming DNF rate of 20% across the board.

“I’ve heard a little bit about the problems that we’ve had [in Fontana],” Busch said Friday. “I know there were some valve issues and things like that. I don’t want to elaborate too much on it. It’s something that at least we know what happened and where the source of the problem is. Anytime that you can figure all that out, you’re moving forward. For us, it was like my bottom end issue that we had at Las Vegas -- that was catastrophic failure. We don’t know what happened so we haven’t been able to diagnose that, but we haven’t had any of those in so long that we don’t know if it was just a part malfunction or something that we missed or what. We already found the source of last week’s issues with both Denny (Hamlin) and Joey (Logano) so we feel pretty confident that we’re heading in the right direction with that stuff.”

An explosion on the dynamometer prior to the season in January damaged two of the team’s dynos and has left them behind the curve. With that testing area still out of commission, the team is receiving a good amount of help from Toyota Racing Development in the interim.

“I don’t know when that is going to be up and running again, but I would presume that it’s still down,” Busch continued. “I have not been back there lately and I hate that I haven’t been. We do have a lot of support still through the TRD (Toyota Racing Development) guys out in Costa Mesa. They’re doing a lot of stuff. They’re doing a lot of testing. We work hand in hand together. They do a lot of stuff for us and we do some stuff for them and vice versa all of the time. I don’t think that it’s necessarily a huge issue. It would definitely be better [to have it back] so we could have all of our resources back up and running to an optimum and trying to move along with where we are at.”

Logano Wrecks In Final Practice
After being one of the fastest cars in the day’s opening practice session, Joey Logano spun his No. 20 Home Depot Toyota into Turn 3, backing it into the wall in Friday’s final session. Even before Logano was able to pull away, crew chief Greg Zipadelli came on the radio saying, “Get the backup car out, that’s what we’ll do. Let’s see what we’re made of here.”

As the team scrambled working on the backup and the wrecked car, Logano simply walked into the hauler with a look of disgust. A team representative said Logano had no idea what caused him to spin, saying he hit the brakes and jumped around.

This crash is simply a continuation of the poor luck that has hit Logano in his third year in the Sprint Cup Series. The driver started off the year going to a backup car in Daytona, suffered an engine failure in Phoenix the next week, was down about 100 horsepower 50 laps into the race at Bristol and went to the back at the start of last week’s race in Fontana due to an engine change.

Kyle Petty Charity Ride Going North To South
Kyle Petty announced Friday he will be holding his annual charity motorcycle ride for the 17th year, this time going from Lake Placid, N.Y. to Amelia Island, Florida. The ride will be held from May 7th-14th.

Benefiting the Victory Junction Gang Camp, the annual event will have approximately 175 participants featuring current and former NASCAR drivers and other celebrities. Starting in Lake Placid, the ride will also hit Corning, New York, Farmington, Pa., Irvington, Va., Wilmington, N.C., and Mt. Pleasant, S.C. before finishing in Amelia Island, Florida.

Since 1995, 9.8 million cumulative miles have been logged by 6,850 riders in this charity event.

Sunday 4/3/2011:

Tires Causing Concerns, Again
For the second time in three weeks, tire concerns are dominating the weekend conversation leading into Sunday’s Goody’s Fast Relief 500. Much like two weeks ago in Bristol, Goodyear brought a new tire compound, but it has failed to rubber in the track. Instead, the rubber is coming off the tire like a powder and not opening up a second groove.

“After 12 laps, everybody was kind of falling off pretty fast,” said Dale Earnhardt, Jr. “There was no rubber built up and there was a lot of marbles. You couldn’t get out of the bottom groove. You had to run right next to the curb. If you got in the marbles, it would ruin you. Once you got in the marbles, you ruined that set. I mean, there is no way to get them off. We don’t go fast enough here to really grind them off. It was messy. It was just real messy all day.”

For Earnhardt, it's no surprise this issue marks the second in three weeks for Goodyear.

“No, it is not coincidence,” he said. “I think there’s a good explanation for it. I talked to some people at NASCAR and got a good explanation and you guys can probably go get the response that I got and it made a little bit of sense. We’ve had some good events here and hopefully we’ll get lucky and the track will rubber up. But it’s not looking so good right now.”

Outside pole-sitter Ryan Newman said there is really no telling what the tire will do under race conditions and that has presented a unique to drivers and crew chiefs alike.

“From what I was told, [Goodyear] made a minor tweak to the tire and came here and I guess didn’t know the answer of what it was going to do. They speculated,” he pointed out. “It could change all over again tomorrow. That is the biggest question we all have in our head. What is the track going to do when we have 43 cars out there with the exhausts being down on the race track? Is it going to lay rubber or not? If it does, it is going to change a lot of things.

“I think it will take two different setups to be able to be successful in either of those situations,” Newman added. “Whether it rubbers up or whether it doesn’t and it continues to eat tires up throughout a run. The way it looks on paper, there is no way we could do even close to a fuel run tomorrow. But I think the track will change, I just don’t know how much and when that will happen - if that will happen on the first run or the last run of the race. We have seen places like Indy (Indianapolis Motor Speedway) not change until later in the race and I don’t think that is the same type of situation that we have but you never know if that is going to happen, if it does.”

Jeff Gordon said the issues were different than those seen two weeks ago in Bristol, but that still left him worried about why and how those issues came about.

“The only concerning thing that I have is that we’re making tire changes without testing,” Gordon said. “And they keep coming back and saying they’re minor tire changes. So I don’t know. There are so many things that come along with tire changes; it’s not just a compound change or a construction change these days, there’s all kinds of different chemicals in the tires that we don’t know about. But I’m definitely a fan of if you’re going to make a tire change from the last time we were there; I’m a fan of a tire test. So that’s kind of the only thing I have to add to it.”

Looking ahead to the Camping World Truck Series race that afternoon, many drivers and crew chiefs expected the 35-truck field to lay rubber down over the course of 250 laps. That did not happen, however, as the tires continued to shed rubber in balls instead of laying into the track. The inside line was the best way around, as a number of trucks that got high ran over the marbles and struggled for the next few laps.

“I’ve never raced for third or fifth in my life, just so I didn’t have to start on the outside,” third-place finisher Ron Hornaday, Jr. said. “If you were fourth or sixth or started on the outside, it was tough because the rubber would get on the tires and you would just fall back.

“Have you ever seen me let anybody pass me?” Hornaday asked. “I’m going down the straightway counting and then I’d stop and let somebody pass me to get behind them. That was the stupidest racing I’ve ever done here at Martinsville.”

Runner-up and Cup Series driver Kyle Busch was disappointed with the lack of rubber laid down on the track and said to expect wrecked race cars on Sunday.

“There’s no rubber on the race track. It’s all marbles and balls – that’s it,” he explained. “To be honest with you, I wish it would [rubber up] because it would make for better racing. We could actually probably get two grooves going, but right now there’s one groove. If you run on the inside down the straightaway, you’re running through marbles. If you run on the outside in the corners, you’re running through marbles. There’s only one particular lane that you’re not running through balls of rubber then you just slide in the next corner. As soon as you get into the next corner, you might as well just park it because you’re just going to go through the corner. I don’t see it getting any better tomorrow. Anything could surprise us, but I doubt it.”

Not expecting a competition caution from NASCAR, Busch said a lack of cautions would not be a problem.

“We’ll just wreck each other so we’ll make our own cautions,” he said. “I don’t think we’ll have to throw cautions because we’re blowing tires or anything like that. We’ll wreck ourselves.”

Official: Raikkonen To NASCAR With KBM
Kyle Busch Motorsports made it official Saturday morning that former Formula One champion Kimi Raikkonen would run the May 20th NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Previously rumored to be coming to NASCAR with help from Foster Gillett, KBM’s announcement on Saturday put those to rest.

“I am really excited to have the opportunity to start my venture into NASCAR with Kyle Busch Motorsports,” Raikkonen said in a team release. “Kyle is one of the best in NASCAR, and being able to draw on his knowledge will be a valuable asset as I make my transition to a new form of racing. He has put together an experienced team that builds fast race trucks. I look forward to being a part of a team that has proven to be a winner on and off the race track.”

The current deal in place is only for the May 20 race in Charlotte, but Busch explained Raikkonen is interested in running three to five races in 2011.

“Apparently there’s an interest in him that he wants to run in NASCAR,” Busch said. “He’s shopped it around to quite a few teams and apparently we won the war. It’s exciting for us at Kyle Busch Motorsports. Kimi, from what I understand, was real adamant about trying to work with me and our teams and being able to put a deal together to go out there and try to get him success in NASCAR. With our trucks, the way we’ve been running this year, he felt like that was a good place for him to come.”

Raikkonen’s transition to NASCAR will begin on Monday, when he will test a KBM truck at Gresham Motorsports Park. The test will be closed to the public and media while Busch will not be in attendance.

McMurray Scores Pole In Martinsville
Chevrolet claimed the top two spots for Sunday’s Goody’s Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville with Jamie McMurray and Ryan Newman sitting on the front row. Running a lap of 19.621 seconds at 96.509 mph, McMurray earned his first pole at the .526-mile paperclip.

“We have a really good car,” McMurray said. “This is one of my favorite tracks. I’ve always loved coming to Martinsville. It’s a unique race track and I think the guys that enjoy coming here typically run well. We had a really good car in race trim yesterday. We struggled in qualifying trim. "Bono" (Kevin Manion, crew chief) and the guys made a couple of small adjustments.

“I didn’t think I drove quite hard enough, but in practice it was so easy to slide the tires and I felt like I was better off to just take what I could get and not try to get too much. It was a good run for our Widia Chevrolet, the first race with this sponsor. It is a really bright car, be cool to have it up front. Excited with our run.”

Sitting second in points, Newman continued his early season success with a second-place run – his third top-10 start of 2011.

“I could tell that my first timed lap was a good one because I had hit the chip," he said. "I knew I ran a .77 yesterday and .62 was quick at the time when I hit the chip going into turn three."

"I knew the first timed lap was really good. Just got a little bit free on my second timed lap which should have been a little bit faster... I think it was four thousandths slower or a tenth slower. But either way, a good effort. I am proud of the guys to be sixth yesterday and step it up to second today. We’d have been fine if it wasn’t for McMurray.”

Kasey Kahne put his Red Bull Toyota third on the starting grid, while Joey Logano posted the fourth-fastest time in a backup car. Four-time Martinsville winner Denny Hamlin was fifth, while A.J. Allmendinger, Bobby Labonte, David Reutimann, Kevin Harvick and Regan Smith rounded out the top 10.

When the No. 92 of Dennis Setzer withdrew after wrecking his only car in Friday practice, no cars were forced to race their way into the show. The qualifying time of Joe Nemechek was disallowed, however, after post-qualifying inspection found the car was too low. He'll start Sunday's race from the rear of the field.

Welcome Back

2011-04-04T07:43:00.003-04:00

After nearly a year away from posting on this blog, I would like to welcome all of the readers back to Your NASCAR News.

Throughout the year I will be posting a variety of articles and commentary pieces not featured on either AllLeftTurns.com or Frontstretch.com, as well as links to stories posted on both of those sites.

You can also follow any breaking news or live race coverage by following me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/jaywpennell.

Thank you all for reading and I look forward to bringing you Your NASCAR News.

Peters Wins Wreck-filled Thrill Ride

2010-02-13T22:51:00.001-05:00

The wrecking began before the drop of the green flag and it didn’t stop until after the checkered flag had fallen. When the flag flew, it was young Timothy Peters that was at the front of the pack to score his second career win and first at the World Center of Racing.

“I’m going to Disneyworld,” Peters said with a beaming smile in victory lane.

In one of the most thrilling races all Speedweeks, the battle for the win came down to a last lap pass and a side-by-side finish with the lead pack crossing the line pushing and shoving.

Running behind Todd Bodine for the closing laps, Peters jumped to the outside down the backstretch to take advantage of the same move made behind him by pole-sitter Jason White. As second and third shot to the outside, Bodine moved up to throw the block. Timing it just right, Peters dove under Bodine’s No. 30 Toyota as the rest of the field stacked up behind them.

Coming off the final corner, Bodine crowded Peters on the bottom, but the young driver refused to give. Going into the tri-oval, Bodine got a push from Dennis Setzer on the outside, but it was not enough as Peters crossed the finish line first.

“That was very cool,” Peters said. “And knowing that Todd is out there and I knew he was going to try to stall us out by hanging on the quarter panel and get that side draft. As far as I'm concerned, I had the drag racing visor on and I didn't see him out there, and that yellow line was my best friend, and I wasn't moving, so it worked out.”

Getting pushed by Setzer, Bodine slid down into another truck and nearly saved it from wrecking, but as they exited the tri-oval the No. 30 spun down the track, collecting Johnny Benson.

“Out there in the lead you’re pretty much a sitting duck,” Bodine said. One of the best at the restrictor plate track, Bodine was a mere 0.068 seconds from his third-straight season opening win. Obviously upset he was unable to win, Bodine explained he didn’t feel as bad because it was Peters that got the best of him.
“I’ve got a tremendous amount of respect for Timothy,” Bodine said.

“A kid like Timothy, he's got such a future in our sport,” he went on to say. “He's one of those kids that, with the right break, would be sitting over in a Cup garage right now. He's that good, that good a kid. That's how much I respect him. To get beat by him, that takes a little of the edge off.”

While the race came down to a thrilling finish, the majority of the trucks in Saturday night’s 250-mile race were caught up in one wreck or another. The trouble started before the green flag even dropped, when Sean Murphy spun warming his tires. As many laughed about the incident, few could have guessed it would be an omen for things to come.

The much anticipated debut of Austin Dillon in the black No. 3 truck did not last long as the young driver got stuck three-wide on the first lap. Stuck in the middle, Dillon made contact with Aric Almirola and lost control of his Chevrolet, shooting up the track and into Johnny Sauter. When the smoke cleared, nine trucks were involved, including one of the favorites Kyle Busch.

As the pack got back to racing, the intensity picked up – and so did the bump-drafting. Unfortunately for these guys, the nose on the trucks do not line up with the rear bumper. That was clearly illustrated when Ricky Carmichael barely touched the rear bumper of Ron Hornaday on Lap 33. Hornaday shot into the outside wall, triggering another massive pile-up. This time ten trucks were collected.

After the race, Bodine explained the new shock package NASCAR implemented for 2010 was one of the reasons trucks were all over the place.

“They changed the rear shocks and I don’t think the guys really adapted to them,” Bodine said of Saturday night’s wild racing. “You had to do some different things with your truck to make them work and that’s one thing why they were all over the place. It’s a shame to see some of the things that happened, because a lot of what happened was just – let’s call it what it was, it was stupid, it was ignorant.”

Peters agreed the new package had a major influence in the race, but explained his crew worked hard in Thursday’s practice to find the perfect balance in the truck and in the draft.

“We ended final practice Thursday morning where I could just pull on the wheel comfortable and still run really well in the pack,” Peters said. “You know, obviously all that changes once you get 20 deep side by side.

“The bump drafting deal was kind of crazy,” he added. “The new bumpers that we can run now, they line up a little bit, but not as well as we'd like. I pushed the 5 (Mike Skinner) down the back straightaway and kind of got him a little out of whack. I'll take credit for that. But, you know, it's Daytona. Everybody wants to win. I'm glad that we're sitting here, though.”

While he had harsh words for some of the actions drivers took tonight on the track, Bodine was quick to point out the stars of the Sprint Cup Series and Nationwide Series also make avoidable mistakes.

“You put a driver in a box and he’s going to do what he’s got to do to get out of that box, and the trucks are no different,” Bodine added. “Don’t just look at these drivers and say wrong, because your superstars in the Cup Series are doing the same thing.”

Saturday’s NextEra Energy Resources 250 saw 23 lead changes among 12 different drivers and was slowed seven times for a total of 33 laps. Only 14 trucks finished on the lead lap, while 19 of the 36 starters were involved in some kind of on-track incident. The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series takes the next few weeks off and will return to action at the Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 6th.

Stewart Hard To Beat In Daytona

2010-02-13T17:59:00.001-05:00

(Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Tony Stewart has proven he belongs among the best in NASCAR and on Saturday he solidified his place among the best that can get the job done in Daytona. Piloting the No. 4 Kevin Harvick Inc. Chevrolet, Stewart was able to come from the back, avoid a number of incidents and hold off a late-race charge to score his fifth win in the last six Nationwide Series races at Daytona.

Stewart jumped out to the lead for the final time on Lap 96 and from then on kept one eye out front and the other in the mirror. With a hungry Justin Allgaier on his back bumper and Carl Edwards and Kevin Harvick charging hard, Stewart was able to hold on for the final laps to score the win.

“You know they’re not going to just sit there and ride and stay where they’re at,” Stewart said. “Everybody’s trying to win it, so you just kind of have an idea of how much longer you need to do what you’re doing.”

“I was pushing (Tony) Stewart as hard as I could,” Allgaier said. “I probably could have got a run there at the end and gone for the win, but I got loose with the 60 (Carl Edwards) behind me and didn’t want to get out of line and get shuffled back. I wasn’t going to wreck the field and made the decision that I wasn’t going to leave the 4’s bumper. Unfortunately, I lost a few spots their coming out of Turn 4, but we’ll certainly take a fourth-place finish.”

Leading three times for a total of 38 laps, Stewart kept his nose clean and out front to earn his sixth restrictor place victory in the series – tying Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Dale Earnhardt Jr. for the most (Earnhardt Sr. has two addition victories at Daytona, but they occurred before the use of the plates).

The win was also the two-time Cup Series champion’s 15th in a stock car at the 2.5-mile speedway, making him third on the list, tied with Cale Yarborough.

“This is really because of Kevin and DeLana Harvick,” Stewart said from victory lane. “Kevin and DeLana have always given us great race cars, I mean every time. So, from that standpoint I’m not surprised, just glad to be here again.”

The 120-lap DRIVE4COPD 400 was marred by a seven caution flags, two of which were for major wrecks that caught up some of the biggest stars of the day.

For much of Speedweeks the television coverage has focused on one driver – Danica Patrick. Making her much anticipated NASCAR debut, the open-wheel driver started from the 35th position and struggled in the early stages, nearly getting lapped at one point.

As she began to get more aggressive and more comfortable in the draft, Patrick’s No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet began to move through the pack. That is until the slow car of Josh Wise triggered a massive 12-car pile-up.

(Credit: Jerry Jordan/The Examiner Newspaper)

Running laps down, Wise’s No. 61 made contact in the door with the No. 10 of Jason Leffler and then shot up the track into rookie Colin Braun. The incident sent cars scattering as they tried to make it through in one piece. Patrick drove straight through the smoke, but was hit by the wildly spinning No. 16 of Braun. Shooting up into the outside wall, Patrick’s day was done on Lap 69.

(Credit: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)

After a lengthy clean up on the frontstretch the field restarted the race, but they were not done wrecking.

Running down the backstretch on Lap 91, Brad Keselowski moved down the track just as Carl Edwards looked to duck in line behind him on the high side. The two made contact, sending Keselowski into the right rear of Dale Earnhardt Jr. The No. 88 Chevrolet dug in and rolled on its side before smacking the wall with its nose. Brendan Gaughan was tucked behind Keselowski and had nowhere to go but into the flipping car of Earnhardt. Kyle Busch drove into the windshield of the No. 88 car as others piled into the wreck.

“I saw (Dale Earnhardt) Junior get turned in the middle like I just saw him come in the middle of the two lines and when I saw him turn sideways I started to see the under-carriage,” Gaughan said. “Knowing where I was sitting I thought, ‘I’m screwed, my Toyota is coming back in a heap.’”

Thanks to the safety of the cars, Earnhardt Jr. was able to climb out unharmed to look at his tore up race car. With two wrecked race cars, he could do little but think about how much this was going to cost the team he owns.

"That was expensive right there” Earnhardt Jr. said. “We'll have to go back and balance our books. Rough day for JR Motorsports."

After getting turned by Earnhardt Jr. in the ten car wreck, Kevin Harvick’s car was full of grass, but still in one piece. Restarting the race in eleventh, Harvick was hungry to get to the front, but just didn’t have the help to mount a successful charge. As Kyle Busch lost control of his ride in the final turns, Harvick made his move and dove under Allgaier for the third spot. Perhaps one of the strongest cars in the field, Harvick could not help but be pleased as his other car sat in victory lane.

“I think the competitor in you wants to win,” Harvick said. “Shoot, I’m just lucky that my car was still rolling. I hadn’t spun out and not hit anything in about a year, so it was nice to have that happen.”

Next week the series heads to the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif. for the Stater Bros. 300. Patrick will be back behind the wheel of the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet and is sure to steal much of the attention. Yet, after Saturday’s opening race of the 2010 season, it appears a number of younger drivers are ready to step up into the spotlight in the Nationwide Series, most notably Allgaier.

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RCR Tops Charts In Final Practice

2010-02-13T12:46:00.002-05:00

The field for the 52nd running of the Daytona 500 got one final chance to feel out their cars in the draft around the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway on Saturday morning and when the red and black flag ended the session it was Richard Childress Racing that held the top two spots.

Jeff Burton overcame a blown tire during Thursday’s Gatorade Duel 150 to post the fastest time of the final practice session. The fast lap of 46.108 seconds at a speed of 195.194 mph came on only his third lap around the track. Continually working on the car’s handling, Burton was the only driver in the 195 mph zone and he also logged the most laps of any driver in practice with 60.

With Burton running the most, teammate Kevin Harvick took only 16 laps to determine he was pleased with his car. The winner of the Budweiser Shootout, Harvick posted the second fastest lap of the session with a time of 46.239 seconds at a speed of 194.641 mph. Reports were Harvick got out of his car and held his head high as he strolled to his hauler, obviously confident in his ride.

Perhaps one of the dark horses of the weekend, Marcos Ambrose powered his No. 47 Toyota to the third fastest time of the practice. Not only strong on the speed charts, Ambrose looked to be one of the best cars in the draft during the past week. Ambrose rolls off 18th for tomorrow’s event.

David Reutimann and defending Daytona 500 champion Matt Kenseth rounded out the top-5, while pole-sitter Mark Martin was 13th fastest and outside pole-sitter Dale Earnhardt Jr. was 21st.

More important than finding a fast lap, today’s final practice session was more about finding the perfect set up to have a strong car all day in the draft. Judging by the view in the press box, it appeared the strongest cars in the draft were Kurt Busch, Kasey Kahne, Ambrose, Denny Hamlin and AJ Allmendinger.

Unfortunately for Allmendinger, the engine under the hood of his No. 43 Ford was not strong enough. Allmendinger pulled on to pit road in the final moments of the session with steam shooting from the overflow. The team pushed the car back to the garage and was forced to change engines. Slated to start 15th, Allmendinger will now have to go to the back of the pack for the start of Sunday's race.

While the racing was fairly calm for the most part during Saturday’s practice, there were a few close calls with cars blending into the track. The biggest scare of the session came when the pack was racing three-wide two rows deep off Turn 4. The No. 82 of Scott Speed made contact with the No. 71 of Bobby Labonte, sending him sliding quickly towards the inside wall. Hard on the brakes, Labonte came within what appeared to be inches of backing the car into the wall, saving the team from going to a back-up car.

All the on-track work is done and now the crews are hard at work making the final adjustments before tomorrow’s race. So much work and planning during the winter goes into this race and now the teams just have hours to make cars as good as possible before hitting the track for the big show tomorrow. For some, like Harvick, the work is pretty much done, but for others the work will not stop until the garage is closed and the teams are forced to lock up.

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NASCAR Alters Green-White-Checkered Policy

2010-02-11T20:51:00.000-05:00

(Daytona Beach, Fla.) - During Thursday’s drivers meeting for the Gatorade Duel 150s, NASCAR announced the field will now get three attempts at a green-white-checkered finish. Stemming from confusion following Saturday night’s finish to the Budweiser Shootout, the sanctioning body has made the move to ensure the race has every opportunity to finish under race speed.

While rumors swirled that NASCAR was considering unlimited attempts at the finish, Thursday’s announcement set the cap at three. If the field takes the white flag and a wreck occurs at any point, the field will be frozen and the race finished under caution – same as the old rule.

“We want to do all we can to finish our races under green flag conditions – the fans want to see that and so do the competitors,” said Robin Pemberton, NASCAR vice president of competition. “We felt that putting a cap at three attempts to finish the race under green is the way to go. It gives the fans what they want and it also gives the teams a better opportunity to prepare for their end of race strategy.”

Four-time champion Jeff Gordon brought up concern in the meeting about fuel mileage issues with extending the race by at most nine laps. Gordon was quickly told it is up to the crew chiefs to now plan accordingly.

The feeling in the garage is this amendment to the policy will lead to more wrecked race cars and more man hours for fabricators back at the shop.

Team owner Richard Childress added his thoughts saying, “I think it’s good for the fans. It could get costly for the owners.”

Kahne Wins Second Duel In Dramatic Fashion

2010-02-11T18:48:00.000-05:00

(Daytona Beach, Fla.) - While the second Gatorade Duel 150 was not as close a finish as the first, Kasey Kahne and Tony Stewart did their best to make it so. Earlier in the day, Jimmie Johnson edged Kevin Harvick by just 0.005 seconds – the second closest since electronic scoring was implemented in 1993.

The second 150-mile qualifying race was much more aggressive than the day’s earlier race, but featured just one single-car incident. Within the first few laps of the 60-lap event the field broke into two- and three-wide racing throughout the entire pack.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. led the race early, but battled hard with Matt Kenseth, Kurt Busch, Brad Keselowski and Juan Pablo Montoya. Much like the first race, the high line around the 2.5-mile speedway was the way to go, but once the Penske teammates of Keselowski and Busch pushed their way to the front it was the bottom side that had the momentum.

Looking to get in the action with his teammates up front, Sam Hornish Jr. sliced and diced his way through the field, ruffling a few feathers along the way. Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s spotter, T.J. Majors, radioed his driver warning, “That 77 (Hornish) is dying to get up there and tear it up.” After a number of close calls, Hornish was forced to the garage with an engine issue late in the race.

When David Gilliland brought out the event’s only caution on Lap 26 the field headed to pit road for service. Kenseth won the race off, while the No. 88 crew went to work pulling out fenders. The lengthy stop upset their driver as he was hoping to race for the win.

After the stops, Kahne’s No. 9 Ford came to life, but it was Kurt Busch who remained the car to beat. With a nice push from fellow Ford driver Matt Kenseth, Kahne was able to power around the outside of Busch’s Dodge as they headed into the first turn.

As the laps clicked away, Tony Stewart moved his No. 14 Chevrolet into the lead after a slow start to the event. With two laps remaining a strong push from Busch put Kahne out front once again. With Montoya tucked behind him on the high side, Stewart made his move for the win through the final two corners.

Coming through the tri-oval Montoya abandoned the back bumper of Stewart as he contemplated going three-wide for the lead. The move killed Stewart’s push and allowed Kahne to win by only 0.014 seconds.

“I pushed (Tony) to the front and from there Kurt pushed me hard,” Kahne said. “I had an open shot to get by him and it ended up close. It was closer than I thought at the line. Cole, my spotter, said ‘Good job.’ I couldn’t tell if I won or not, so once he told me I was pretty happy.”

As Kahne celebrated the victory, Mike Bliss and Tommy Baldwin Racing relished in the fact they had raced their way into Sunday’s race. A wreck in practice Wednesday forced the team to pull out a back-up, but the determination of Bliss behind the wheel during Thursday’s Duel made up for the extra work.

Also racing his way into the 500 was Red Bull Racing’s Scott Speed. Finishing in the 14th spot, Speed was not thrilled with his performance, but happy about what his result meant – fellow Toyota driver Michael Waltrip was going to make the Daytona 500.

Since Speed’s qualifying time was good enough to get in the show already, by finishing in one of the transfer spots the next fastest qualifier outside the top-35 was guaranteed a spot in the field. After wrecking his car in the day’s first race, Waltrip nervously watched as his fate lay in the hands of either Speed or Labonte.

“I figured when I woke up this morning I’d be crying before the day was over,” Waltrip admitted. “I just didn’t know if it would be because I was happy or because I was sad. And then I damn sure didn’t know it would be both within an hour of each other.”

While Waltrip was in seventh heaven, a host of other drivers and teams were forced to pack up their equipment and head back to the shop. Casey Mears, David Gilliland, Derrike Cope, Aric Almirola, Dave Blaney, Mike Wallace and Norm Benning all failed to make the Daytona 500 in the second Duel race.

Bobby Labonte is locked into the race thanks to the Past Champion provisional.

Johnson Narrowly Edges Harvick For Duel Win

2010-02-11T15:57:00.001-05:00

(Daytona Beach, Fla.) - In the second closest finish in recent Gatorade Duel history, Jimmie Johnson was able to hold off a charging Kevin Harvick to win the first of two 150-mile qualifying races. The defending series champion dropped to the rear of the field at the start of Thursday’s race, but in the end Johnson was right up front thanks to a bit of strategy from crew chief Chad Knaus.

When Michael Waltrip brought out the final caution of the day (more on that later), the leaders hit pit road for tires before the final four lap shootout – that is everyone but Johnson and Max Papis. Knaus told his driver to stay out, while Papis had nothing to lose and everything to gain.

On the final restart, Papis’ car stalled the high line, and Kyle Busch jumped to the outside of Johnson to battle for the lead. With little help from behind on the top, Johnson maintained the lead as the field jockeyed for

The big winner in those closing laps was Budweiser Shootout winner Kevin Harvick. After shuffling Jamie McMurray up the hill in Turn 2, Harvick set his sights on the leaders. With a push from teammate Clint Bowyer, the Richard Childress Racing teammates got a great run down the backstretch on the last lap and moved to the outside of Johnson to take the win. As the pack came to the checkered flag the fans rose to their feet as Johnson and Harvick finished just 0.006 seconds apart.

With the majority of the attention placed on the photo finish up front, Michael McDowell and Papis celebrated as they raced their way into the Great American Race.

Unfortunately, two-time Daytona 500 champion Michael Waltrip lost control of the No. 51 Toyota on Lap 54 of 60 exiting Turn 4. Waltrip slid down the track and nosed into the inside wall. Attempting to make his final Daytona 500, Waltrip now has to wait. If Scott Speed or Bobby Labonte are able to race their way in during the second Duel race, Waltrip will be able to fall back on his qualifying time and make the show. If not, Waltrip will be out of luck and sitting out of the race he won two times.

More Possible Rule Changes In Store

2010-02-10T19:16:00.000-05:00

(Daytona Beach, Fla.) – Less than a week after the confusing finish to the Budweiser Shootout, NASCAR appears poised to alter the Green-White-Checkered rule for the Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Truck Series.

According to reports, starting with Thursday’s Gatorade Duel 150s NASCAR will attempt to finish every race with a checkered flag and not the yellow. As the rule stands now, the field has one attempt to complete two extra laps in the case of a late-race caution. If the caution is thrown at any time during that time the field is frozen and the race is ended. Thursday that could all change.

With such confusion over Saturday’s finish, NASCAR is now ready to implement the ‘have-at-it-boys’ policy on the green-white-checkered rule. Under the new policy, NASCAR would allow the field to reset and try as many times as necessary to finish the race under green. If the caution is thrown before the field takes the white flag, they will double up and try again. Rumors are that if an incident occurs on the white flag lap behind the leaders, the race would be to the checkers (much like the 2007 Daytona 500).

“I think it’s good,” Denny Hamlin said. “Me personally, as a fan, I would’ve thought that the (Bud Shootout) finish was kind of not that great on Saturday night, but once again they can’t change the rule right in the middle of the race. Once again, they’re doing everything they can to make everyone happy and make sure we have good finishes and it’s just another step in the right direction.”

Adding his two cents to the mix, Ryan Newman admitted he was unsure how the new rule would come into play, saying, “I think every time we can end a race at the checkered flag at speed, then it is great for the fans. That is ultimately what it is all about.”

Four-time champion Jeff Gordon was involved in the last-lap incident in Saturday’s Shootout and believes the finish was good enough the way it was. While he understands NASCAR’s perspective, Gordon wouldn’t allow unlimited tries at the finish.

“They could do ten green-white-checkereds and we’re still not going to make it to the checkered,” Gordon argued. “It just needs to be one lap, take the green and finish after we attempt one green-white-checkered.”

Gordon went on to make the point fuel mileage is such a concern late in the race that by extending the race to unlimited attempts there will be more problems than it is worth.

The argument, much like Gordon’s point, is the new rule would simply lead to more wrecks and destroyed race cars. Gordon’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate Mark Martin believes this would be a slippery slope.

“At this level, I feel that we have to try to hold on to some sort of integrity,” Martin said. “And for me, it gets a little bit like a circus.”

While nothing official has yet to be announced by NASCAR, it is expected that will occur at some point tomorrow prior to the Gatorade Duel 150s. Whether this rule will add to the excitement or lead to more wrecked race cars is uncertain and time will only tell.

Addressing that issue, Newman explained the action on the track is in the hands of the drivers, not NASCAR.

“Drivers control the race cars,” Newman said. “We can crash on the first lap or we can crash on the last lap. It is up to us to decide when.”

Ambrose Tops The Charts In Second Practice

2010-02-10T18:24:00.000-05:00

(Daytona Beach, Fla.) – In a wild and crazy session of Sprint Cup Series practice for Thursday’s Gatorade Duel 150s, it was Marcos Ambrose that topped the speed charts, but wrecked racecars that topped the headlines. The action on the track was dicey and aggressive in the draft and unfortunately for three drivers it led to back-up cars for Thursday’s qualifying race.

The first incident of the final 50-minute practice session occurred when Brian Vickers cut a tire exiting the tri-oval. The No. 83 Toyota spun down into the grass in a single-car incident and was able to limp around to the garage without significant damage.

Mike Bliss, Joey Logano and Jimmie Johnson were not so lucky. As Bliss made his first laps in the session he was caught ahead of a large pack. Attempting to blend in with the group of cars around him, Bliss lost control of his No. 36 Chevrolet and shot into Logano’s No. 20 Toyota.

The two suffered heavy damage as the rest of the pack was sent scurrying to avoid damage. In doing so, 2006 Daytona 500 champion Jimmie Johnson ran into the back of Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota. The damage to the No. 48 Chevrolet did not look significant, but it was enough for the team to pull out the back-up car.

“Yeah, unfortunately the only thing I hit was the No. 11 car,” Johnson said. “When he checked up, I got into him really hard, but it did some damage to the front-end of the car and we just can’t get it ‘right’ here. So we know we’ve got a great race car in the truck.”

After extensive clean up for the incident, it did not take long for the yellow flag to come out again. This time it was Michael Waltrip who was forced to save his out of control ride. The two-time Daytona 500 champion apparently cut a tire exiting the fourth turn and his No. 51 Toyota shot off the track and slid through the backstretch grass. With minimal damage, Waltrip was not forced to a back-up.

As far as the actual speeds in practice, it was Aussie Marcos Ambrose who was fastest with a lap of 46.535 seconds at 193.403 mph. Perhaps saving his equipment, Ambrose only ran six laps in his No. 47 Toyota.

For the second time in the day Kyle Busch was second on the speed charts in his No. 18 Toyota. Busch was impressive in the draft and narrowly avoided the incident between Logano and Bliss with a nice piece of driving.

Reed Sorenson was third-fastest, while Logano was fourth-quick prior to the incident. Matt Kenseth was fastest in the day’s first session and was fifth in the second.

All practice for the Gatorade Duel 150s are now in the books. The two qualifying races are scheduled for a 2 p.m. ET start. With all of the action we have already seen in the last week, these two dash races are sure to be full of excitement and drama.

Wednesday A Headache For Many Teams

2010-02-10T17:50:00.000-05:00

(Daytona Beach, Fla.) – As teams looked to feel their cars out before Thursday’s Gatorade Duel 150 qualifying races, six teams were forced to pull out their back-ups. The day’s practice sessions saw a number of close calls in the draft, as well as tire problems. Five days before the biggest race of the season, the drivers shook off the rust and some paid the price.

Clint Bowyer, David Reutimann and Derrike Cope were all involved in an incident during the first session after Bowyer cut a tire between Turns 1 and 2. The No. 33 shot up the track leaving Reutimann with nowhere to go but into the back bumper of Bowyer. For some reason, Cope was unable to slow his ride down and piled into the back of Reutimann.

As the first practice session came to an end, the aggressiveness in the draft did not. Half an hour later the cars were back on the track and jockeying for position two- and three- wide. The faster cars worked on the handling of their rides and searched for the best drafting partner, while slower cars did everything they could to gain speed for a shot at making the race. Unfortunately, that did not make for a good mix off Turn 4.

At the front of the pack and in the middle of the track, Mike Bliss did all he could to hang on to his Tommy Baldwin Racing ride. With a car to his inside, Bliss lost control of the No. 36 and shot up into the No. 20 of Joey Logano. The two made heavy contact with the wall and sent the rest of the cars in the pack scrambling to avoid the wreck.

“I knew I was going to be a sitting duck,” Bliss admitted as he sat in his back-up car. The driver of the No. 36 Chevrolet explained he felt he got hit in the left rear just a bit and that triggered the incident. Looking at the replay, however, it was clear Bliss simply lost the car and was unable to get it together in front of the pack.

While Bliss and Logano suffered the majority of the damage, defending series champion Jimmie Johnson drove into the back of Denny Hamlin and spun down the track. The No. 48 did not have significant visible damage, but the team opted to pull out the back-up just to be safe. As the team went to work pulling out the back-up the damaged car was being sent back to Charlotte for repairs.

Just minutes after the three-car wreck off Turn 4, Michael Waltrip shot out of line going down the backstretch. The two-time Daytona 500 champion apparently cut a tire and was forced to save his No. 51 Toyota as it slid through the grass down the backstretch. He did not have to go to a back-up car however.

For the drivers that were forced to go to the back-ups, they will have to drop to the rear of the starting grid for their respective 150-mile qualifying race. Once in that race, they can go as planned and improve their starting spot for Sunday’s Daytona 500.

If Wednesday’s practice is any indication of the kind of racing we’ll see Thursday, the wrecking may not be over.

Kenseth Leads Wednesday’s Opening Practice

2010-02-10T14:17:00.000-05:00

(Daytona Beach, Fla.) Wednesday afternoon the Sprint Cup cars hit the track for an hour and a half practice session for Thursday’s Gatorade Duel qualifying races.

Sporting new colors for 2010, Matt Kenseth was the fastest of the fastest of the 54 drivers to run around the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway. Kenseth ran a total of 25 laps, with his best (46.331 seconds at 194.254 mph) coming on just his third lap.

Last year’s Daytona 500 winner was only 0.008 seconds faster than Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch. One of the strongest cars in last year’s event, Busch ran 46 laps in the draft as he tested not only his car, but the competition in the draft.

The first session of the day was not without incident, however, as Clint Bowyer cut a tire going through Turn 2. Chasing the car up the hill, Bowyer’s No. 33 Chevrolet shot right across the nose of David Reutimann who was unable to slow down. Making matters worse for Reutimann and his Michael Waltrip Racing team, Derrike Cope ran into the back of the No. 00 and sent him spinning. All three teams were forced to pull out back-up cars.

Scott Speed as the fastest of those drivers outside the top-35, but is locked into Sunday’s race thanks to his qualifying time. Of those needing to race their way in during Thursday’s Duels, Mike Bliss was the fastest in 23rd.

The Cup cars are back out on the track for their second and final practice prior to Thursday Gatorade Duel 150 qualifying races.

Drivers Struggle During Bud Shootout Practices

2010-02-04T20:11:00.000-05:00

Thursday evening the NASCAR Sprint Cup cars hit the track for the first time in 2010 for two practice sessions for Saturday’s Budweiser Shootout. With a larger restrictor plate, a new shock package and a different side wicker the drivers struggled to shake off the cobwebs and the number of wrecked race cars proved just that.

Getting aggressive early in the first session, drivers spread two- and three- wide around the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway. Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s hands were sawing on the wheel, Greg Biffle slid sideways off the corner and even Jimmie Johnson lost the rear end of his car off turn two.

Late in the first practice, the pack headed into turn one with Mark Martin and Denny Hamlin racing at the top of the track. Being pushed by teammate Joey Logano, Hamlin got a great run through the tri-oval and closed quickly on the back bumper of Martin’s No. 5 Chevrolet.

Seeing Hamlin’s charge, Martin dropped to the inside to give the No. 11 room to the outside, but Hamlin decided at the last minute to stay behind Martin. The two got together, sending Martin hard into the outside wall and triggering a six-car incident. Jamie McMurray, Kyle Busch, Greg Biffle and Clint Bowyer (practicing for the ill Kevin Harvick) were also involved.

After the incident, Martin and Hamlin talked about the incident on the track using the universal drivers’ language – their hands.

“I talked to Mark,” Hamlin said. “I had a huge run going and I was going to go to the outside of him and I chose against it at the last minute. He was courteous enough and was going to give me the lane high and I guess when he checked up to give me the high lane I had already committed to go ahead and get behind him. Just a conflict of two lines, two cars going at the wrong place at the wrong time…Just a total miscommunication, that’s the thing.”

“Probably a case of both of us anticipating something where it caused a flash,” Martin said of the wreck. “I anticipated him. It looked like he was going to try to squeeze in on the outside of me, so I made an effort to give him the lane. And, he anticipated to get behind me, not that it wasn’t worth it to get in behind me instead. So, if either one of us had just anticipated something else, then it wouldn’t have happened. I saw him look for the outside and you know, it was practice, no reason to put the squeeze on him. I made an effort to give him a lane. I think at that same time, he decided it wasn’t worth pushing it so he decided to get in behind me so that caused us to come together.”

Hamlin, Martin, McMurray, Biffle and Harvick were forced to pull out the back-up cars for Saturday’s Bud Shootout.

As the teams scurried to prepare the back-ups, the second practice got underway. After the big wreck in the earlier session, many expected the drivers to take it a bit easier in the final practice before Saturday night’s race.

That was not the case, however, as just minutes in the practice Kurt Busch was sent hard into the outside wall in the tri-oval. Looking to make a move under John Andretti, Busch ducked low with Juan Pablo Montoya tucked on his back bumper. Montoya made contact and the No. 2 Dodge shot hard into the outside wall.

“It’s a shame. I pushed [Kurt Busch] through the straight and he got inside I think the 34, I think it’s probably John [Andretti], and John just went all the way down to the bottom and the 2 checked up and that was that,” Montoya said. “What happened in the first practice was they were so out of control I parked the car. I didn’t want to be involved in any wrecks so I parked the car. We’re single file, pushing through, getting inside the 34 and the 34 just cut him down. It doesn’t matter, it is what it is.”

“Really, following guys, trying to get up to speed in the draft and we can’t do that,” a disappointed Busch said. “I don’t really know what to say or what’s going to happen. We’ve just got a lot of wrecked race cars in short practice already.”

The drivers were not so much pushing the ‘have at it boys’ mindset NASCAR now has, but figuring out a faster closing rate due to the rule changes. The move to a larger restrictor plate and the new side wicker down the rear windshield forced the drivers to readjust how they ran in the draft.

A number of drivers explained the closing rate in the draft was much different than in previous years, but Hamlin explained that had little to do with his incident. David Newton reported Hamlin as saying, “Actually, the cars don’t suck up that well.” (via @DNewtonespn)

At the end of the day, Jeff Burton led the first session while Kasey Kahne was fastest in the evening’s final practice. Eight cars were involved in the two wrecks and five of those were forced to pull out the back-up. If Thursday’s practice sessions are any indication of what the racing will look like this speedweeks, the crews better get ready to fix a lot of torn up race cars.

2010 Media Day Round Up

2010-02-04T18:37:00.000-05:00

Jeff Gordon adds to the NASCAR baby boom

The four-time Cup Series champion announced Thursday he and wife Ingrid are expecting their second child in 2010. There must be something in the water around the NASCAR compound because Gordon joins teammate Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards, Juan Pablo Montoya, and Elliott Sadler as fathers-to-be.

NASCAR Thinking of Lynda Petty

The NASCAR community learned on Wednesday the First Lady of the sport, Linda Petty, has been diagnosed with Central Nervous System (CNS) Lymphoma. The wife of Richard Petty, Linda will undergo treatments at the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke University Medical Center.

"My family has always been my number one priority. I hate to miss any racing or racing-related event but at this time being with my wife Lynda is where I need to be," Richard Petty said.

Hamlin not worried about his torn ACL

Continuing to show confidence in his abilities to race with his injury, Hamlin explained, “My 80 percent is better than most guys’ 100.” A knee brace has been made for the Joe Gibbs Racing driver, however Hamlin doubts he will wear it due to how tight the cockpit of the car is.

Danica, Danica, Danica

Danica Patrick and JR Motorsports are still waiting on their decision about the Nationwide Series race at Daytona. The determining factor will be a “stellar” ARCA race this weekend. Patrick also made it clear while she will respect the other drivers around her on the track, she won’t back down. "I plan to respect everybody from the start and if they give me reason to not respect them, then I won’t," Patrick said.

Jimmie Johnson not too happy with Sam Hornish Jr.

The one hiccup during last year’s Chase for Jimmie Johnson came at Texas when contact with Sam Hornish Jr. sent the No. 48 to the garage early in the race. This was not the first time Hornish and the four-time champ got together and Johnson is well aware.

“He hits way too much stuff, including me, at important times of the year,” Johnson said. “And then he's never said a word. I wish he'd just walk up and say, Man, I meant to crash you. Either way, wouldn't you think with what is on the line, you would just walk up to a guy, it wasn't my fault, somebody hit me. The guy just doesn't talk, doesn't say anything.”

Hornish agreed with Johnson, admitting he should have apologized earlier. "I feel that maybe he’s right, I should have went over and talked to him," Hornish said "…I should have said something to him about it. I don’t have any problems with Jimmie, I certainly would never try to take him out."

Drivers sound off on NASCAR’s ‘Hands Off’ approach

- Tony Stewart:
“I think we got to the point where we got too conservative and too corporate minded on that, and even corporate America has kind of said, hey when corporate America gives you their blessing, I think it's all right to go ahead and loosen the reins a little bit. I think NASCAR is really smart and conscious of that. They never just say, What we've got is good enough. They never sit on their hands with it. They always look at how they can make it better.”

- Jeff Gordon:
“I think that maybe what's happened it's maybe just been a little bit too much policing. I think you still have to manage the people and the sport. That would be like saying, Okay, there's no rules for the car, so just bring whatever you want to bring. They still have to step in there and keep those intact. They still have to do that with the drivers…You know, I think now if they truly are going to let us police that on our own, you're going to see some, you know, tempers flaring and definitely a lot more action on the track as well as in the pits. I think that's certainly a good thing.”

- Jeff Burton:
“I honestly don't know what it means. And we won't know what it means until the incident happens, right? I think what they're saying is they're going to police Daytona and Talladega the same way they police Charlotte. That's the way I understand it. Which means rarely does NASCAR penalize a driver for rough driving. Typically those things are when they're blatantly obvious. A lot of those things are post race infractions. So I think what NASCAR is looking at is just taking that same approach for Daytona and Talladega…I think that's how it should be.”

***
Photo courtesy of www.thatsracin.com

Got Game? You Could Be A NASCAR Champion

2010-01-21T15:32:00.000-05:00

Moving into the world of online gaming, NASCAR announced Thursday it has partnered with iRacing.com to create the NASCAR iRacing Series. The first of 18 events will be held February 9, 2010, which will kick off a 39-week NASCAR iRacing Drivers World Championship.

Establishing this a serious undertaking, not every gamer will be able to partake in this new top-level online racing series. Instead, the 50 top-rated drivers currently competing in iRacing’s Pro Series will be eligible to participate. Included among that top-50 is NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver and avid online racer Dale Earnhardt Jr.

“iRacing is the most modern racing simulation ever created,” Earnhardt Jr.’s testimonial reads on iRacing.com. “Every inch of every track in modeled perfectly. I’ve used iRacing to learn new courses such as Virginia International Raceway, or to keep the rust off at tracks such as Infineon Raceway.”

Online racing has helped a number of younger drivers over the years as they transitioned into the world of NASCAR. Denny Hamlin swept the races at Pocono in 2006 despite never being to the track and credited the win in part to weeks of training on his computer. This phenomenon has become an even more important tool now that NASCAR has eliminated testing for the top touring series.

While it is safe to say none of those that founded NASCAR could have ever imagined an online racing series falling under the NASCAR umbrella, one man was far beyond his time. The late Bill France Jr. envisioned an online racing series nearly 15 years ago.

“Bill France Jr. was ahead of his time when he initially had the vision of an online racing series. Thanks to evolving technology NASCAR fans can virtually compete at their favorite track and have their chance to end up in a victory lane,” said NASCAR Senior Vice President Paul Brooks.

Over the last year NASCAR has worked with iRacing to develop what they call a “sporting code” that will serve as the series rule book. In addition to the NASCAR iRacing Drivers World Championship, NASCAR will also sanction five amateur series. These lower series will be available to anyone with a membership to iRacing.com (a one month trial subscription is only $14 according to iRacing.com).

For those serious about getting involved in the most available form of NASCAR racing, you will have to work your way up to the NASCAR iRacing Pro Series. Consisting of the 250 top-ranked drivers, this series will be the launching pad into the more elite Drivers World Championship. Racing will begin in May 2010 to set the stage for the 2011 NASCAR iRacing Drivers World Championship.

“We’ve created our online racing service for racers and fans,” iRacing president Tony Gardner said. “We’ve done the hard work to make it simple and easy for NASCAR fans to join iRacing and get behind the wheel. You don’t have to be a computer geek to do this. PC owners with a broadband connection, only need to purchase an inexpensive wheel-and-pedal set from their local consumer electronics store or online. In an hour, they can be racing. It’s that simple. Everything an aspiring racer needs to know to get started is on our Web site, at www.iracing.com.”

The series will be broken up into four 12-week seasons and feature various forms of racing including modifieds, late models, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series trucks, NASCAR Nationwide and NASCAR Sprint Cup Series cars. Much like the typical career progression, participants will have to work their way up from the short tracks to the top three NASCAR series.

So if you think you have what it takes to beat the best of the gaming world and call yourself a true NASCAR winner, sign up at iRacing.com and let the dream begin. Who knows, you may end up racing Dale Earnhardt Jr. some day.

****
Jay W. Pennell
jaywpennell@yahoo.com
http://twitter.com/@jaywpennell

Mears Starts Again With Start-Up but Keyed-Up Motorsports

2010-01-21T01:56:00.000-05:00

With no sponsor support following the 2009 season, seven year Cup Series veteran Casey Mears was left without a ride and once again shifting gears. Searching for a team and sponsor in this economic climate was no easy task and other open rides quickly became secured by other drivers.

Wednesday, that all changed as Mears announced he would be joining one of the newest teams in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series – Keyed-Up Motorsports. Making their debut in Daytona, Keyed-Up Motorsports also has veteran crew chief Doug Richert on their side.

“Keyed-Up Motorsports is very excited to have Casey Mears driving our No. 90 Chevy Impala.” said team owner Raymond Key. “With Casey’s proven ability as a top driver and Doug’s vast experience as a winning crew chief, we think 2010 is going to be a great year. We expect full-season sponsorship to come, soon.”

Since his debut in 2003, Mears has raced with three of the sport’s top three teams in five different car numbers.

Starting out with Ganassi Racing, Mears began driving for Hendrick Motorsports in 2007. He took the National Guard to victory lane on Memorial Day weekend by winning the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway that first year and things began to look up.

The following year, Mears was moved to the No. 5 Chevrolet and started the year with a flat tire at Daytona and a major wreck the following race in Fontana. With the return of Mark Martin in 2009, Mears was once again headed to a new team.

Following a rough year with Richard Childress Racing Mears is now ready to start again, this time helping a new team on the scene.

In 1980, Richert (who was only 20 years-old) called the shots for Dale Earnhardt Sr. while edging out Darrell Waltrip and Junior Johnson for their first NASCAR Cup Series title. The addition of Richert atop the pit box brings proven success to this team ready to make it work.

“I’m really excited about this opportunity to drive the Keyed-Up Motorsports No. 90 Chevy.” said Mears. “I’m looking forward to working with Raymond, Doug and the entire team during the 2010 Cup season. We’re a new team, but I feel we have everything in place to race. It’s going to be a rewarding endeavor.”

http://www.keyedupmotorsports.com/Casey-Mears-Driver-Announcement.html

Perhaps the mixture of Richert’s knowledge and Mears’ work with some of the best teams in the business will lead to success for this brand new team.

****
Jay W. Pennell
jaywpennell@yahoo.com
http://twitter.com/@jaywpennell

New Spoiler Put To The Test In Texas

2010-01-20T01:41:00.000-05:00

With the majority of the NASCAR media huddled in Charlotte, N.C. for the annual Media Tour, four drivers headed to the Texas Motor Speedway on Tuesday to test out the new rear spoiler planned for use in the Sprint Cup Series in 2010. After listening to comments from driver and fans, NASCAR decided it was time to work on replacing the current rear wing on the CoT and go back to the spoiler.

Tony Stewart, Kurt Busch, Brian Vickers and Greg Biffle – each representative of the four manufacturers –participated in the two-day test at the 1.5-mile speedway in Fort Worth, Texas. The day’s event was not an exclusive test of the new spoiler, however. The session was held by Goodyear and the four drivers used both the current wing and the proposed spoiler.

“I thought it (spoiler) was good,” Vickers said. “I thought it added a little bit of front downforce, which is a good thing. I think it’s going to be more accepted to the fans. It looks cooler – a little more retro back to the older car.”

Citing fan complaints, NASCAR’s decision to move back to the traditional rear spoiler is one step in their off-season effort to revitalize the sport. Declining television ratings and attendance records have left NASCAR scrambling to find a solution and for answers they turned to their two biggest assets; the fans and the drivers.

“We’ve got one of the biggest spectator sports in America and they want to keep it interesting,” Biffle said. “They want to keep our fans interested and they listen to the fans. They wanted double-file restarts and they did it, and a lot of fans don’t like the wing because they say it’s not traditional NASCAR. NASCAR asked us about it (the change) and we thought it would be good to put a spoiler back on the car or at least try it. I think it will be good.”

While Tuesday’s test saw the debut of the rear spoiler, there is no guarantee this will be the final product once NASCAR decides to implement this full time into the Cup Series. This version of the spoiler was 64.5 inches wide and four inches high. In addition, the rear quarter panels were lowered four inches towards the ground.

“We haven’t been in a lot of traffic yet, so the big question is how it’s going to handle in traffic,” Vickers added. “Theoretically, from what I’ve been told, the difference between the two is that the spoiler is better in traffic. The spoiler is going to be more efficient in dirty air and a wing will be more efficient in clean air. Once you get in a lot of turbulence, the spoiler’s not going to lose a lot of efficiency while a wing really will.”

Busch, the most recent winner at Texas, had the least amount of track time with the new spoiler, but was overall pleased with what he felt.

“I think we’re stirring up the pot (with the change), but it’s in a positive direction,” Busch said. “A lot of times NASCAR throws changes our way and the drivers and owners grumble about it. With the spoiler, it seems like a positive reaction has been made already and just driving in it today, I don’t see any problem with it at all.

“I hope it creates the aesthetic view that the fans want to see with the spoiler back on the deck lid of these cars. The wings were a change for more of the four-cylinder cars that you see driving around on the streets; they weren’t our hardcore fans that drive V-8s.”

The four will wrap up the Goodyear Tire Test from TMS Wednesday, and NASCAR plans on holding another spoiler test March 23-24 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. There have been no announcements as of yet as to when the new rear spoiler will be introduced full time into the Cup Series, however speculation is mounting that could take place within the first ten races of the 2010 season.

“If you do that math, that’s a very good guesstimate on what’s going to happen, because if we test Charlotte at the end of March, the next mile-and-a-half is here at Texas in April,” Busch said.

“I think six to eight races into the season they can implement the spoiler easily,” Biffle said. “The only thing they have left to do is restrictor plates. For all the intermediate tracks (like Texas), this car will respond fine to this spoiler or if they adjust it some.”

RCR Back On Track With Black No. 3

2010-01-19T15:53:00.000-05:00

After years of absence, Richard Childress Racing is poised to bring the black No. 3 back into action. Climbing behind the wheel of one of the most famous color/number combination in NASCAR history will be 19 year-old Austin Dillon, grandson of team owner Richard Childress.

RCR announced today a partnership with Bass Pro Shops that will allow Dillon to make a run at the Rookie of the Year title in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series in 2010. The exact number of races Bass Pro Shops will be the primary sponsor has not been announced, but an official with the team explained it will be for the majority of the 25-race season.

“I’m very excited about welcoming Bass Pro Shops back to RCR,” said Dillon. “Hunting and racing have always been two of my family’s biggest passions and to be able to bring them together through Bass Pro Shops is truly special. This great partnership will create more awareness to hunting and wildlife conservation.”

As the third-generation driver described, this partnership between RCR and Bass Pro Shops is nothing new. The two first came together when Bass Pro Shop came on as an associate sponsor on Dale Earnhardt’s No. 3 in 1998. Bass Pro Shop continued the partnership with RCR with current driver Kevin Harvick, and served as the primary sponsor for Kerry Earnhardt – Dale’s oldest son – when he competed in six Cup races in 2004.

“All of us at Bass Pro Shops and Tracker Boats are tickled to death to once again partner with Richard Childress and the RCR team,” Bass Pro Shops founder Johnny Morris added. “Austin is a promising young driver with a great future ahead of him,” continued Morris. “He also has a passion for hunting, fishing, and conservation just like his grandpa.”

While Dillon ran made two previous starts in the black No. 3 in the Camping World Truck Series in 2009, this season will mark his first attempt at the full season with the famous number.

“It’s great to see the black No. 3 Chevy Silverado back on the track, especially with Bass Pro Shops on board with the program,” said Richard Childress “I’m proud to have personally endorsed Bass Pro Shops since 1998 and I look forward to this exciting new chapter of our partnership. The great things Johnny Morris and Bass Pro Shops do for wildlife and outdoor conservation is very important. Austin and I are proud to spread the word about conservation as well as making the youth of America more aware of the importance and fun of hunting and fishing and conserving the great outdoors.”

McMurray Wins As NASCAR Steals The Show

2009-11-02T11:19:00.000-05:00

Sunday’s AMP Energy 500 was billed as one of the most exciting and heart-pounding races of the season. The promos of the spectacular last-lap crash from April’s race prepped those watching at home for a race full of intense action. However, Sunday’s race was one of the strangest events in recent memory at the 2.66-mile superspeedway.

Prior to the event, NASCAR announced it would implement a smaller restrictor plate to slow down the cars in an effort to ensure safer racing. Aggressive bump-drafting throughout Friday’s practice led NASCAR to park Michael Waltrip before the end of the session. During the pre-race drivers’ meeting, NASCAR president Mike Helton told the teams that if any bump-drafting occurred in the corners, the black flag would be thrown. "If you win the race by drafting through Turn 1 and 2 with help, then you’re going to have a problem," Helton said.

This rule change upset drivers and fans alike. A number of teams were forced to reexamine their race strategies. Dale Earnhardt Jr. told ABC/ESPN’s Dale Jarrett during the pre-race show the new rule was like telling the NFL to go from tackle football to two-hand touch. Also unhappy with NASCAR’s decision, Denny Hamlin said his team had set its car up specifically to push in the draft. To top it all off, Jimmie Johnson led the field to the green.

After Paul Menard brought out an early caution that also caught up Joe Nemechek, the drivers sent a message to NASCAR. Instead of dicing it up two- and three-wide, the field fell in line and drove around the top of the track single-file. Lap after lap the field snaked around as the fans sat and watched and those at home checked football scores. Tony Stewart even radioed his crew asking them to tell him something interesting so he could stay awake.

The racing eventually heated up late. A mistimed bump-draft between Ryan Newman and Tony Stewart left the No. 39 U.S. Army Chevrolet on its roof. Stewart caught the outside wall as Newman shot down the track into Kevin Harvick. Newman’s car spun around with its rear wheels lifting into the air. The car cart-wheeled upside down onto the hood of Harvick’s car, slid up the banking into the wall and then flipped again, landing on its roof in the grass. Elliott Sadler and Marcos Ambrose also were caught up in the incident. The safety crew had to cut the roof off the car to get Newman out.

One of the biggest critics of NASCAR’s rule package, Newman has been vocal about NASCAR keeping cars on the ground. After Sunday’s wild ride, his criticism only grew louder.

“The more rules, the more NASCAR is telling us how to drive the race cars, the less we can race and the less we can put on a show for the fans,” Newman said. “As I said, I will go back in the day, Richard Petty, Bobby Allison, Dale Earnhardt, Darrell Waltrip, all those guys, they respected each other. In the end there were some big accidents, but geez, we don't need the cars getting upside down like this. This is ridiculous.”

Despite having just three laps to go once the race restarted, Newman was not the last car to land on its roof. Coming to get the white flag, April winner Brad Keselowski got into the back of Kurt Busch going into the tri-oval. The No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge turned down across the pack causing the second big crash of the day. Mark Martin wound up rolling the No. 5 Chevrolet in the multi-car crash.

Jamie McMurray scored the win, but the bigger story seemed to be NASCAR’s intrusion on the track, and how the drivers reacted. Single-file racing has been a feature of races at Talladega in the past, but Sunday’s seemed much more deliberate. Following the race, opinions differed on how the new rules changed the game.

“It was just kind of a terrible race today in general,” David Ragan said. “There was a lot of single-file racing. I know it’s exciting there at the end, but what happens is NASCAR slows these cars down. They’re too easy to drive and everyone just gets kind of crazy. It’s a shame to tear up a lot of good race cars like that for kind of being stupid, but that’s restrictor plate racing.”

Said Elliott Sadler, “I think NASCAR and all the drivers should sit in a private room, lock the doors and have a discussion and try to fix this together. That’s what I’d like to see.”

Said Jimmie Johnson, “At the end of the day, the restrictor plate is still here because it's a good show for the fans. So at some point when the fans dislike it, I guess we'll make a change, and we won't have this stuff. But until then, we're a product of what the fans want to see.”

Judging by the response on various social media sites on Sunday, fans were none-too-pleased with Sunday’s race. The single-file action bored fans and the rule change left drivers unsure how far they could push the envelope. On top of that, two cars flipped over and the restrictor plate adjustment did little to separate the cars. Johnson suggested the only way to fix restrictor plate racing was to bring out the bulldozers and eliminate the banking.

Restrictor plate racing has always created controversy and drawn complaints from both drivers and fans. The sanctioning body has done a number of things to ensure safety for everyone, yet pack racing and big crashes remain.

Will Sunday’s controversial race change the way NASCAR looks at the future of restrictor plate racing? One can only hope so. Three cars have gone airborne this year at Talladega despite the roof flap safety feature. As Sadler said, this seems to be an issue NASCAR and the teams need to meet on and figure out before next season.

Family Of Girl Injured At Talladega Returning To Track This Weekend

2009-10-26T14:03:00.000-04:00

Terry Bobbitt took his 17-year-old daughter Blake to her first NASCAR race at Talladega Superspeedway in April. Sitting close to the track, the father and daughter from Rogersville, Ala., felt the rush of the pack as it screamed by. When they rose to their feet at the sight of the checkered flag, the Bobbitts never imagined what would happen next.

Carl Edwards was leading through the tri-oval as Brad Keselowski made a move to the inside. Edwards threw a block and Keselowski refused to give. The two made contact and the back of Edwards’ car lifted into the air as it flew up the banking. With nowhere to go, Ryan Newman hit Edwards’ car at over 200 mph and sent it flying into the catch fence in one of the most spectacular crashes in recent memory.

Terry Bobbitt told me over the phone last week that he saw the wreck coming and pointed it out to Blake. Realizing the car was headed straight for them, he attempted to shield his daughter from the wreck and the debris flying through the fence. He was knocked off his feet. When he regained his footing, he asked his daughter if she was OK, but there was no response.

A piece of debris had struck Blake, knocked her unconscious and broken her jaw. Bobbitt realized his daughter was in trouble and called over to a deputy sheriff who was standing in front of him. A number of doctors who were in the crowd quickly made their way to Blake. Within a minute of the incident, representatives from the speedway also were at the scene.

To avoid traffic, Blake was airlifted to UAB Hospital in Birmingham while Terry was driven by a speedway official. Doctors performed surgery on Blake’s jaw and wired it shut. The official sat with Terry at the hospital and drove him back to the speedway to get his car.

The following day the family received calls from speedway representatives, NASCAR officials and drivers. Edwards was one of those who called. Deeply sorry for the incident, Edwards checked in on Blake’s condition on a regular basis.

“Yeah, we’ve been talking a little bit and I think she’s gonna come out to the race,” Edwards said on Friday in Martinsville. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to meet up, but that was crazy. I hope nothing like that happens again. That’s the worst feeling I’ve had in racing. When I landed my airplane in Washington after that race, I was going to a Ford appearance. Randy, my PR guy, told me, ‘Look, there were some people injured.’ That was a really bad feeling… She’s really nice and she’s a pretty cool chick.”

A NASCAR official said Blake’s family was not compensated for the injuries because the family’s insurance covered her medical costs and the family did not file suit against NASCAR or the track. Talladega Speedway president Rick Humphrey told All Left Turns the speedway has had conversations with Blake. He did not elaborate on the specifics of those exchanges. He did say that the track consulted an outside engineering firm after the incident, which led to the extension of the fence from 14 to 22 feet.

“Obviously fan and competitor safety is our top priority and we were pleased that the fence functioned properly during the incident in the spring at Talladega,” Humphrey said. “Whenever our safety systems are tested, we take the opportunity to closely examine how every element functioned and see if there is anything more we can or should be doing."

NASCAR said it will use a smaller restrictor plate for the Nov. 1 race. The hope is that these changes will ensure a safer race for both the competitors and fans.

“I think they’re doing an adequate job with what they’re doing,” Terry Bobbitt said. “A lot of times you might not know what you have to do until something happens. What’s there, you could assume it’s safe until something happens, then you have to modify that. I think they are looking at the situation, even before this wreck, the cables that are in the fence weren’t there a few years ago. Now they went even further with raising the fence.”

Blake is now in college, helps her father out at the store he owns and also works with a local farmer. Early next year doctors will re-break her jaw and perform bone grafts. Bobbitt said that his daughter’s jaw hurts at times, but she is not in constant pain.

With no hard feelings or fears about returning to the track, the Bobbitts met with Humphrey to make plans to attend Sunday’s race. Last week the family learned it will be allowed to attend the drivers’ meeting, walk through the pits and tour the garage before heading to the stands, where Blake and her family will watch the race.

- Photo credit: Mark Almond/The Birmingham News

http://www.allleftturns.com/family-girl-injured-talladega-will-be-race-weekend-0

Hamlin Scores Career-High Third Win of Season At Martinsville

2009-10-26T13:50:00.000-04:00

From the drop of the green flag on Sunday’s TUMS Fast Relief 500, it was clear the race was going to be a battle between points leader Jimmie Johnson and fellow Chasers Juan Pablo Montoya and Jeff Gordon. But in the end, it was Virginia native Denny Hamlin able to hold off Johnson on a green-white-checkered finish to score his third win of 2009 and second at the short track in his home state.

Not a major factor during the first hundred laps of Sunday’s race, Hamlin was one of the only cars to hit pit road under the fifth caution of the day on Lap 158. Taking two tires and getting off sequence with the rest of the field, Hamlin was able to get track position and take the lead for the first time on Lap 183 once the leaders came in for service. Able to get back on sequence following a long green-flag run, Hamlin went on to lead three times for 206 laps and looked to make up for his second-place finish to Johnson in the Spring.

A string of cautions at the end threatened to steal the win from Hamlin as the field bunched up for double-file restarts. Yet despite Johnson, Montoya, and Gordon surrounding him, the No. 11 Fed Ex car jumped out to an advantage and was able to hold them off on each one.

“I know all those guys are going to be aggressive and try and get a win,” Hamlin explained after climbing from his Toyota. “We just had the best car there at the end. The 48 didn’t do anything that he shouldn’t have, and made sure he protected his points lead. He gave us a little respect as well.”

It was a bittersweet moment for a man whose own title bid has already slipped away. Despite having strong cars the last two weeks, a self-inflicted wreck in Fontana and an engine issue in Charlotte resulted in two straight DNFs for the first time in his four-year career. Those poor
finishes dropped Hamlin to eleventh in the standings and out of contention for the championship.

“It’s a good bounce back,” he said. “I’ve just got to thank all the fans sticking with me on Twitter, and everyone giving me some hope that the last two weeks were in the past.”

Coming home in second place, Johnson extended his lead in the Chase to 118 over teammate Mark Martin, who finished eighth. Leading five times for a total of 164 laps, he had one of the strongest cars but just did not have enough for Hamlin at the finish despite plenty of chances.

"I just lacked a little bit of forward bite,” Johnson explained. “We had it turning, which is hard to make it do here. It was just a little too much. Denny (Hamlin) had the best car there on that last run, and maybe the two runs before that he had the best. I knew at the end of the race that No. 11 car was going to be there and was going to be strong. Congratulations to him. It was a great day for us. I wish we could have won, but second, there's nothing wrong with that.”

Having a car that was beat up in true short track fashion, Juan Pablo Montoya held off a hard-charging Jeff Gordon to score a third-place finish. Racing hard from the start, Montoya was able to work his way from his 21st-place starting spot to the top-10 by Lap 26. But that early
aggressiveness seemed to hurt his chances to win late in the race. Wearing out his brakes and battling an ill-handling car, a potential win slipped away as Hamlin and Johnson wound up deciding it amongst themselves.

“We lost our balance there a little bit there right before the long run. We got it a little bit back, but not all back,” he said in notching his fifth top 5 finish in six Chase races to date.

Meanwhile, some hard racing with Jeff Gordon around the 100-lap mark ruffled the feathers of the four-time champion, who was none too happy with the driver of the No. 42. After Montoya bumped his way past Gordon for the fourth spot, Gordon keyed his radio saying, “He has the best car I’ve seen, but he doesn’t know what to do with it.”

Running in the top-5 for much of the first 150 laps, Gordon was mired in traffic when varying pit strategies allowed a number of cars to stay out on Lap 178. Restarting 23rd, Gordon struggled to pass cars and spent the rest of the race fighting his way back to the front. Charging hard during the last two runs of the day, he made his way up to fourth late in the going, but lost a spot to Kyle Busch as the field came to the checkered flag.

“We got way behind at times, and it didn't look like we were going to make our way back to the front,” he said. “But we needed more long runs, and we finally got it -- that long run is what got us back into it. We drove all the way back up to third or fourth. Real happy. Wish we could have won it, but we'll take it.”

Coming home fourth was Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch. Although he has struggled at Martinsville (he has finishes of 38th, 29th, and 24th in his last three starts there), Busch took advantage of a late-race pit stop and two fresh tires to score his first top-5 at Martinsville since 2007.

“Tires were the name of the game,” Busch explained. “We just seemed to be on the right strategy when we could come get tires and drive back through some guys. We had a good enough car to do that with. Glad we came down there with like 15 or 18 to go, whatever it was, and put right sides (tires) on it because that probably gained us about eight spots today. Real proud of the effort.”

Jamie McMurray was sixth (his season-best performance), with Ryan Newman, Martin, Tony Stewart, and Kevin Harvick rounding out the top 10. Joey Logano was the highest-finishing rookie in 12th.

Sunday’s TUMS Fast Relief 500 saw twenty-one lead changes among twelve different drivers and was slowed fifteen times by the yellow flag. With only four races left on the year, the series heads to the high banks of Talladega next week for what many consider the "wild card" race of the Chase.

http://groups.google.com/group/thefrontstretch/browse_thread/thread/c92951120abca349

The Hits Keep Coming For Earnhardt Jr.

2009-10-26T13:46:00.000-04:00

Just when you thought Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s season of unrelenting misery and inexplicable failure could not get any worse, it did.

The sport’s most popular driver entered the weekend at Martinsville Speedway 22nd in the standings and without a top-10 since Bristol in August. A fairly good run last week in Charlotte went south when the transmission on the No. 88 gave out, relegating him to a 38th place finish. With frustration and disappointment mounting, Junior headed to a track where he had three straight top-10 finishes.

Starting from the 12th spot, Earnhardt Jr. made his way into the top-10 during the first 75 laps of the TUMS Fast Relief 500. Running with his Hendrick Motorsports teammates, things started to look up as the laps clicked away.

That optimism ended when a flat tire on lap 90 sent the 88 into the outside wall. Knocked to the back of the pack, Earnhardt Jr. went to work making up the ground he lost, but it was all for naught. He blew a second tire on lap 130. Clearly upset with his misfortune, Earnhardt Jr. radioed his crew saying, “If you got any ideas on how to not keep blowing tires, that would be good.”

Again he worked through traffic to regain the spots he had lost. Earnhardt Jr. made his way to 16th by lap 300. Just as things were starting to look up for the 88, a third blown tire struck. Adding insult to injury, NASCAR opted not to throw a caution as Junior limped his car around the track and navigated his way to pit road.

Earnhardt finished 29th, one lap down, as the string of disappointing finishes continued. Earnhardt Jr. is in the biggest slump of his 11-year career. With only four races remaining this season, Earnhardt Jr. has only two top-5s and five top-10s compared to five DNFs and 17 finishes of 25th or worse.

While this year has been a major disappointment, it does not mean Earnhardt Jr. has lost his ability as a driver. He is not the first to go through a slump. After winning back-to-back championships in 1990 and 1991, Dale Earnhardt Sr. struggled in 1992 and finished a disappointing 12th in the standings. The Intimidator came back to win the title again in 1993 and 1994.

This slump will end, but don’t expect it to happen in the next four races. The frustration and disappointment of this season may serve as a motivating factor for the No. 88 team in 2010. Team owner Rick Hendrick said everyone in the organization is committed to getting the team back on track, but when a slump hits it is hard to pretend everything is great. Unfortunately for this team the hits keep coming.

http://www.allleftturns.com/earnhardt-losing-streak-reaches-53

Cooperation A Foreign Concept For Montoya

2009-10-25T13:03:00.000-04:00

When Juan Pablo Montoya made the transition from open-wheel racing to NASCAR three years ago there were a number of new concepts he was forced to learn. The adjustment from the sleek, high-tech Formula One cars to the heavier and boxier stock cars was a big hurdle to overcome, but perhaps the biggest adjustment Montoya had to learn was working with the competition.

In other forms of racing – open-wheel especially – the competition amongst the drivers and the teams is intense to say the least, both on and off the track. In Formula One, hordes of engineers and scientists have poured countless amounts of money into their programs and sharing tips and advice is rare to say the least. The NASCAR garage is a much different place. With teams working in close quarters week-in and week-out the atmosphere of the NASCAR garage is a much friendlier one.

“Yeah, it makes no sense,” Montoya explained. “There’s something great about this sport. People are really open about it. Once you’re on the race track you are by yourself. You’re on your own. Off the race track you can go to anybody and they’ll help you. That is great to see.”

After coming over from open-wheel racing, Montoya admitted he was struck by just how open other drivers are and the fact they go out of their way to help. The former Indy 500 champion’s first experience with this openness happened early in his transition to stock cars.

“The first person that did it was Kevin Harvick,” described Montoya. “We were testing in Miami for that first Cup race and there was an open test there and he came down and said you’ve got to try to do this. I didn’t even go to him, he came to me and said you’ve got to go a little deeper and do a little of this and a little of that. I was like, are you kidding me? You actually came here to help me?

“It’s crazy because in Formula One if you see somebody doing something wrong you probably actually enjoy it and don’t help them,” Montoya pointed out.

Working over the last three years to become the contender he is today, Montoya explained there is something to learn from everyone in the garage. Taping the experience of drivers such as Mark Martin, Montoya has emerged as one of the strongest threats during this year’s Chase.

“I ask Mark Martin a lot of questions and he helps me out a lot. Whatever I need and it’s very helpful,” said Montoya. “On the race track, whoever is doing something different you’ve got to see how they are doing it and how they are making it work, anybody from the front of the grid to the back of the grid.”

Coming up the ranks in a much different era, Martin has been one of the main go-to guys for advice in the NASCAR garage. During his American Speed Association (ASA) days, Martin traded set-ups and techniques with fellow competitors such as Rusty Wallace and Dick Trickle. That experience and openness has allowed the 50-year-old veteran to provide honest and sound advice – even to some of his biggest competitors.

With all of this openness and sharing going on in the NASCAR garage, where do drivers draw the line?

“When they’re beating you, you stop,” former open-wheel convert Tony Stewart said with a smile. “When they’re out-running you, you go back to them and say ‘hey, now what do I need to do?’ You don’t tell them how to do everything, but you explain to them the etiquette involved and little things that will help as the day goes on. It’s not always things that is going to help them beat you, but it’s things that are going to help them have a more enjoyable day and keep them from having problems at the race track.”

"Do I think (Juan Pablo) Montoya could beat me? Sometimes,” Martin admitted. “He's probably going to beat me whether I answer his question honestly or not. And I'd much rather be honest than dishonest. And I'm flattered that he asked me the questions. He'll figure out a way to beat me on any given day whether I answer honestly or not. So, we don't share technical race car information today like we did 15 years ago. Rusty and I always told each other what we had in our cars 15 years ago here at Martinsville. And the drivers don't do that.”

Another open-wheel convert that is trying to make his mark in NASCAR is Italian-born Max Papis. After eight years in the CART Series, two in the IndyCar Series and one year racing on the F1 circuit, Papis has spent the last four years learning the ropes of NASCAR. Despite his limited stock car knowledge, Papis has scored a top-10 in each of NASCAR’s top three divisions, something he credits partly to the help and advice he has received from those in the garage.

“When I grew up they told you if you want to beat your opposition, you have to hate your opposition,” Papis explained before Friday’s Camping World Truck Series practice. “I walk the garage a lot and I’ve felt I’ve built other friendships and there are more people that want to see me successful than people that don’t want to see me successful. This is what I need for me, to lean on people like Jimmie Johnson, that is a friend of mine for over ten years, but it’s great to know you have his full support.”

“I think a lot of the other forms of racing out there you didn’t see that a lot,” Stewart went on to say. “Here you see that more, I think it’s because the guys respect each other more here. At the same time if the guys you are racing with are out there making mistakes they put you at just as much risk, especially in a 500-lap race, at some point you’re going to be around them and if they’re doing things wrong that puts you in a bad spot.

“The thing is it’s kind of a cycle,” Stewart added. “There was somebody that helped us all when we first came in and as our careers progress and mature, we all do the same thing for the new guys coming in as it is their turn.”

There is a long checklist of things to adjust to when moving from to NASCAR after racing for years in another series, in another atmosphere. Yet, perhaps the most important is the relationship drivers have with one another. Until you are confident enough to ask for help and willing enough to listen, you’re not going to have the success you hoped to have.

http://www.allleftturns.com/nascars-friendly-garage

Newman Earns Second Pole Of 2009

2009-10-23T17:32:00.000-04:00

On a day in which the talk center on knocking Jimmie Johnson off his ivory tower, it was ‘Rocket Man’ Ryan Newman that stole the spotlight for a day, earning his second pole of 2009, third at Martinsville and forty-fifth of his career. With a lap of 19.563 seconds at a speed of 96.795 mph, Neman bumped Jeff Gordon from the top-spot to put the No. 39 U.S. Army Chevrolet P1.

“It’s the place to be no doubt and it’s the place to finish, obviously it’s what we want,” Newman said after his pole run. “Tony Gibson and the guys did a great job with this car. It hasn’t actually been run since our race here in the spring. So it’s nice to get it back out, they’ve shined it up a little bit. Bottom line is it was a really good lap. It helped to go out a little later and to see Mark (Martin) and Jeff (Gordon)and see what the track had in it and to watch them and see where there might be some gains to be made. Kind of just ran my lap and it’s equally important here to charge a corner and not over charge a corner and I just got everything I could.”

Earning his eighth front row start of 2009, Jeff Gordon went out early and held the top-spot for much of the session until Newman knocked him back to second. Piloting the No. 24 Dupont/NationalGuard.com Chevrolet, Gordon posted a lap of 19.619 seconds at a speed of 96.519 mph.

Martin Truex Jr. just missed out of Gordon’s time when he drove his No. 1 Vasoline MEN Body Lotion Chevrolet around the Martinsville Speedway at a time of 19.621 seconds at a speed of 96.509 mph – just 0.002 seconds off Gordon’s lap. Sporting his Philadelphia Phillies hat, Truex was pleased with his eighth top-5 starting spot of the year.

“We had a good practice today,” Truex Jr. said despite having a miss in the engine early in the session. “We had a good productive fifty minutes or so. We worked in race trim most of the day and did one qualifying run there at the end and it wasn’t really good so we just kind of took a shot in the dark and in qualifying it worked good.”

Chase contender Mark Martin was fourth-fastest in the day’s qualifying session, followed by David Reutimann in fifth. Non-Chasers rounded out the rest of the top-10 with Casey Mears, Joey Logano, Bobby Labonte, Reed Sorenson and Kevin Harvick.

Come Sunday the twelve Chase drivers will be scattered throughout the 43-car field. Tony Stewart will roll off thirteenth, points leader Jimmie Johnson was fifteenth fastest, followed by Denny Hamlin in seventeenth and Greg Biffle in twentieth. Outside the top-20, Juan Pablo Montoya was twenty-first fastest, Brian Vickers was twenty-fourth, Kasey Kahne was twenty-sixth and Carl Edwards was twenty-ninth fastest. Kurt Busch fared the worst of the Chase drivers, posting a time only good enough for thirty-seventh.

Josh Wise was the only driver that failed to make the race. It was Wise’s first attempt at a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.

Ford To Debut FR9 Engine At Talladega

2009-10-20T13:33:00.000-04:00

With only two wins thus far in the 2009 season, Ford Motor Company has spent much of the year playing catch-up to Chevrolet, Toyota and even Dodge. The manufacturer – who weathered the economic storm much better than General Motors and Chrysler – seemed to have been caught off guard with the lack of success, especially following a year in which they scored eleven wins and one of their drivers was runner-up in the championship hunt.

After sweeping the season’s opening two weekends, Ford has fallen behind each of its competitors. Chevrolet leads the manufacturers in the win column with seventeen, followed by Toyota with nine and Dodge with three. In fact, this has been Ford’s worst showing since 1982, when they only scored two wins in thirty races. Granted, there are still five races left in the season, but time is running out for Ford on the 2009 season.

Understanding they are slightly behind to their competitors, director of Ford North America Motorsports Brian Wolfe announced Tuesday the new FR9 engine will make its debut on the high-banks at Talladega.

“We’re excited about it,” Wolfe explained. “The one thing is when you’ve had such a rough year as we have with so few wins, it’s always easy to point to one thing. A lot of fans and supporters have said, ‘We’ve got to get that new engine out there. It’s going to be really, really important to get us to win.’ But the reality of the situation is the current engine is either tied or above all the others for both peak power and average power over the operational range. So to jump in and say, ‘We’re going to throw the new engine out there,’ when we’re really good for fuel and power could have some unintended consequences. I know it looks like we’re really, really slow-walking this, but we want to make sure we’re getting the cars most competitive as quick as we can.”

Wolfe went on to explain Talladega is a perfect place to debut the new engine because power under the hood could give a Ford driver more of an advantage over a track such as Charlotte or California. With the cars so equal and bunched together in a pack on a restrictor plate track, a bit more power under the hood could provide the extra push needed to shove another blue oval across the finish line.

“There are significant differences,” Wolfe said describing restricted engines and non-restricted engines. “The engines have a much different stress level on them because you’re making a lot less power with the restricted motor than you’re making with an open motor. So it’s not so much the differences in having it ready or not, it’s when is there a reason to really put it out there. We think the restricted tracks, there are some benefits of the new architecture there to make the performance a little bit better than it would be with the current motor.”

In introducing this new engine, Wolfe explained Ford wants to ensure their unrestricted engine is ready to be debuted and will not be rushed into use. Arguing their engine is competitive against the competitors, Wolfe pointed out they want to ensure the introduction of the new engine has no “unintended consequences” and the switch to the new motor does not cost teams more than it should.

“The thing is, like anything else, it’s not only about making sure it’s durable and it’s going to win races and there are no unintended consequences, but the other thing we can’t lose track of is that the economic times are very, very tight,” Wolfe added. “The last thing we want to do is obsolete parts that are still good and still very competitive, so that’s another factor that also goes along with that. The current engine is very, very good. All of our competitors have their new architecture out there and our current motor is running the same power and same fuel economy as they are, so a new unrestricted motor isn’t going to give us another 10, 15, 30, 40 horsepower.”

Content with their current motor, it appears Ford is willing to take its time on introducing the unrestricted FR9 into NASCAR competition. Despite their struggles on the track this year, Ford feels confident the lack of wins has not been an issue under the hood. It has yet to be announced which drivers will have the new FR9 engine next week at Talladega.

Good For Johnson, But Good For The Sport?

2009-10-19T13:43:00.000-04:00

Winning his third of five Chase races on Saturday night, Jimmie Johnson appears to be on his way to a record-breaking fourth-straight Sprint Cup Series title. Thanks to the misfortunes of some of his closest competitors, Johnson’s lead at the halfway mark in the Chase now sits at a comfortable ninety points. With a string of tracks coming up that fall right into the hands of Johnson, the question is will anyone be able to stop another title run for the No. 48 team and is it good for the sport?

The talk circulating the media Saturday night following Johnson’s dominant weekend was how another title run for the team would hurt NASCAR. With attendance slipping and television ratings not where NASCAR would like them, is the dominance of the No. 48 actually turning fans away from the sport?

In other sports we have seen dominant performances by the New York Yankees, The Chicago Bulls, Tiger Woods, Lance Armstrong and the New England Patriots, and even in NASCAR, Johnson is not the first driver in the sport’s history to go on a tear. Yet, despite his amazing success over the last four years, Johnson seems to command little respect from the fans and some of those in the media.

The legendary Junior Johnson, named one of the first five inductees in the NASCAR Hall of Fame, told media members Friday he believed the No. 48 team had a strong chance at winning their record-breaking fourth-straight Cup Series championship. However, the feeling amongst many pundits and fans is the 48 team is simply stinking up the show and hurting NASCAR in the process.

“Man, I'm just out there doing my thing. People -- I don't think we've been stinking up the show for starters,” Johnson argued. “I mean, I guess I don't understand why people would have a problem with it. Everybody tunes in to watch Tiger win. Everybody tunes in to watch Federer do his thing on certain courts. I'm just doing my thing. I think there's a lot of fans out there that are excited to see what this 48 car is doing, and a lot of people are happy and rooting for us to win a fourth. The rest of them, oh, well.”

The argument against Johnson and his success is the dominant performances put on this team are turning fans away. Television ratings seem to support this argument; Nielson Media Research reported Saturday night’s NASCAR Banking 500 earned a 3.0 overnight rating, down 14.3 % from 2008. Unable to appreciate the historical significance of his accomplishments, it seems fans would rather see more parity in the competition and a fresh face in Victory Lane every once and a while and this may be leading them to change the channel.

Team owner Rick Hendrick understands the sentiment of the fans and skeptics, but explained after Johnson’s seventeenth Chase victory, his time will come.

“There's some great drivers that have been in our sport, for sure, but you look at his record since he entered this sport, and you've got to say that he'll go down as one of the greatest drivers that's ever been in the series,” Hendrick argued. “Sometimes you don't get that recognition until later on in your career, and I think that's just normal.”

As a fan when one of Hendrick Motorsports’ other drivers – Jeff Gordon – went on a tear from 1995-1998, I can understand the points being made. During that four year span, Gordon won three titles, was runner up the other year, compiled forty victories, eighty-six top-5s and ninety-eight top-10s in 126 races. Sitting in the stands as he dominated, sure it was frustrating, but looking back on that time it is more special to know every fan that was a part of the sport at that time was witnessing something special. The same should be said for those complaining about Johnson’s dominance today.

Putting all the debate out of their minds, this team is simply focused on getting the job done each week. The 33-year-old is humble in his success both this year and in years past. Not comfortable with the lead they currently have in the standings, Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus understand that anything can happen over the next five races.

“I feel very good about racing for the championship,” Johnson explained. “If we don't have any problems, I feel that we've got a very good chance to win the championship, racing for it. But the unknowns is what we can't control. We don't want to get ourselves too emotionally wrapped up in this thing and have something come by and slap us in the face and take us out, so we're just trying to keep our guard up.”

With that determination and focus, this team will be a threat throughout the rest of the Chase – like it or not. That being said, there is still a lot of racing left to go and with tracks like Martinsville and Talladega in that mix anything can happen. This Chase is over by no means, so don’t tune out just yet. If Johnson is able to pull off another title it will be history in the making and twenty years down the road you can say, ‘I remember when…’ If someone is able to come back in this title hunt and wrangle the trophy from the hands of the 48 team it will make for an exciting and compelling end to a great season.

Mr. Perfect

2009-10-18T00:57:00.000-04:00

He dominated practice, he dominated qualifying and at the end of the night the right team was celebrating in Victory Lane. Clearly having the best car all weekend long, Jimmie Johnson was able to give crew chief Chad Knaus the one thing he wanted his entire career – the perfect weekend.

Leading five times for a total of 92 laps, Johnson moved past his teammate Jeff Gordon with thirteen laps to go to take the top-spot. Once he cleared the No. 24, Johnson set sail towards the checkered flag.

Coming to the line to score the win, Johnson keyed the radio saying, “You have got to be kidding me!” Celebrating atop the pit box, Knaus thanked his driver telling him, “We just completed the biggest goal in my life, just so you know.”

This weekend the Lowe’s No. 48 simply owned the competition. Blisteringly fast in opening practice, record-breaking fast in qualifying, backing it up twice on Friday and proving it was no fluke Saturday, Johnson and the No. 48 team proved why they appear headed to their fourth-straight title.

Making it even more special, carrying the Lowe’s colors, Johnson and Knaus were able to score the victory in the final race at the Lowe’s Motor Speedway as the sponsor is leaving the track at the end of the year.

“It is so special to me to win here at the Lowe’s Motor Speedway in the Lowe’s car their final race here at the speedway with their sponsorship.”

In addition, Saturday night’s win marks Johnson’s sixth victory at his sponsor’s home track, tying him with Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip for the most all-time. The win also marked his third win in the last four races, enough to propel him to a 90-point lead in the series standings headed to Martinsville next week.

Even though Johnson dominated the weekend, he did not exactly dominate Saturday night’s NASCAR Banking 500. In what proved to be a very competitive race, five cars led the field for 45 laps of more. A rash of cautions late in the going stacked up the field for a number of double-file restarts, and with less than twenty laps to go Jeff Gordon popped up and looked to take the victory from his teammate.

Restarting to the outside of the No. 48, Gordon was able to hang with Johnson and pin his car to the bottom of the track. After Johnson bobbled a bit in Turn 4 Gordon took the advantage, but it did not last long. With a great run off the corner, Johnson moved under the No. 24 with thirteen laps to go.

“I knew he was going to be tough,” Johnson said of racing with Gordon on the final restart. “He got by me and I was pretty nervous. He had the outside and I needed it to clear him. The restarts before him on the bottom I was able to get by him, but he got a great restart on that last one and I really had to earn it.”

While Gordon gave Johnson trouble late in the going, it was Kasey Kahne who looked to be on cruise control to his fourth win at Lowe’s. Leading twice for sixty-seven laps, Kahne’s No. 9 Budweiser Dodge hugged the high line to open up a seven second lead at one point. A blown engine by the No. 13 of Max Papis erased that lead when oil was laid down on the backstretch.

Hitting pit road for the final time of the day, Kahne’s pit crew got him away with a good stop, but Johnson’s crew did as well. As the No. 48 team dropped the jack and Johnson sped away he crossed the timing line ahead of Kahne by a matter of inches.

On all but the final restart, Johnson was able to power past Kahne and hold on to the top-spot.
“I thought the 9 had this thing in the bag,” Johnson said in Victory Lane. “Then from the last pit stop on when it came to the restarts we had what we needed for five or six quick laps. This baby was fast, it worked.”

“I’ve always had a problem when I start off the front row this whole year with restarts,” Kahne pointed out. “I just spin my tires. I try not to give it throttle to spin my tires and I get pushed from behind.”

Passed by Matt Kenseth with just four laps to go, Kahne was forced to settle with a third-place finish.

“The tires we took on the last stop shook and didn’t turn,” Kahne explained. “I guess that was our bad set for the night. It’s disappointing. We had the car to beat and the guy who beats everyone beat us tonight. Our car was good as anything here. We just didn’t get it done at the end.”

Scoring his second top-5 in the last four races, Matt Kenseth came on late to come home in the runner-up spot. The No. 17 Carhartt Ford paced the field four times for a total of forty-five laps. Struggling for much of the 2009 season, Saturday night’s performance has the No. 17 team looking up.

“It’s been getting better,” Kenseth said. “I thought tonight we had a really solid night on the race track and on pit road. All of these Carhartt guys did a good job for me. We made good adjustments and it seems like maybe we’re starting to understand what’s going on a little bit more at these mile-and-a-halfs and had really good track position all night, so it was a great night for us.”

A number of Chase drivers had rough outings on Saturday night including Mark Martin and Juan Pablo Montoya who entered the day second and third in the standings. Coming to the restart on Lap 124, the field stacked up behind Jeff Gordon. Montoya checked up to keep from getting in the back of Clint Bowyer, but Martin was not able to get slowed down in time and drove into the back of the No. 42, tearing off the right rear of Montoya’s car. Martin suffered slight damage and was able to limp home 17th, however Montoya struggled to finish 35th, four laps down.

"Well they all kind of went and then they checked up and I checked up and I don't know somebody didn't slow down and just ripped of the whole rear of the car,” a frustrated Montoya said after climbing from his car. “Then I got hit into the car in front of us. I don't know, just one of those deals. It was weird, actually a lot of things on the race track you could see and the cautions never came out. I think they got criticized last week and I think they went too far this week. It is what it is. Whether you like it or not they are in charge.”

For the second week in a row Denny Hamlin went from contending for the win to sitting in the garage before the end of the race. Leading four times for fifty-four laps, Hamlin was one of the strongest cars of the night however a broken valve ended the No. 11 team’s night and essentially their hopes at the title.

“It’s just a tough night for everyone at FedEx. We’ve just had a rough couple weeks, you know. The driver made a mistake last week and it cost us and this week, just a parts failure. It’s the best I’ve ever ran at this race track. Had a shot to win it, felt like. I was being so patient behind those guys, not trying to push it and not show everything I had until the very end,” a dejected Hamlin said from the garage. “We’re definitely done as far as the championship is concerned.

Carl Edwards also suffered an engine failure and dropped two spots to tenth, also out of contention for the title.

Next week the series heads to the short-track in Martinsville, Virginia for the sixth race of the Chase. Unfortunately for the competition, Jimmie Johnson has six wins and shows no signs of letting up.

Photo Credit
- Jimmie Johnson passes teammate Jeff Gordon on the inside late in the race. (Photo Credit: Geoff Burke/Getty Images for NASCAR)

- The top-four battle for the win at Lowe's Motor Speedway. (Photo Credit: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

The Most Important Relationship In Racing

2009-10-17T16:53:00.000-04:00

When it comes to being successful in NASCAR and competing for the Sprint Cup title, you need to be better than the rest. Your average finish needs to be better, your consistency needs to be better and overall your team needs to be better. One of the most crucial parts of that winning combination needs to be the relationship between the man behind the wheel and the guy calling the shots atop the pit box.

While the race can be won on or lost on pit road, the real difference maker seems to be the communication between the driver and crew chief. When things are good they are good, but how that combination reacts when things are not going well is the difference between leading the standings and fighting for also-ran.

Over the last three years Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus have set the bar – and man is it high. One of the most calculated and hard-working men in the sport, Knaus has changed the game in NASCAR’s top-division and the working relationship he has with his driver Jimmie Johnson has rarely waivered.

“Over the years there definitely have been ups and downs,” Johnson argued. “In 2005 was the toughest period in time for us. Chasing Tony (Stewart) for the championship I came up short and was frustrated and we had a talk with Mr. Hendrick and went through some things. There are ups and downs and that's what I feel makes our relationship stronger. It's not always perfect and great. He speaks his mind and I speak mine. We fight and do all the things that go with it. But we don't cross certain lines and there is a great deal of respect that we have for one another And I know at the end of the day, he's doing everything he can and he knows I'm doing everything I can and some days you get beat. Some days you don't have it. We've worked through it enough over the years to have a good understanding of each other and have found a way to work together."

Despite miscalculations by Knaus on two occasions this year – when his gamble on fuel came up short in both Michigan events – Johnson and the rest of the team refused to give in. Neither pointed the blame and each looked at the situation as something that comes with the job. It’s this type of interaction that has led to three consecutive championships.

Johnson’s teammate Jeff Gordon knows what is like to work with the best of the best. The veteran driver made his mark in the sport with the man Knaus learned the ropes from, Ray Evernham. Together until 1999, the combination was the best in the business – the Jimmie and Chad of their time, if you will. Since Evernham departed the No. 24 pit box, Gordon has had only three crew chiefs; Brian Whitesell (who finished out the rest of the 1999 season and led the team to two wins), Robbie Loomis and current pit boss Steve Letarte.

Since taking over atop the pit box in September of 2005, the Gordon-Letarte combination has led to ten victories; their first coming just five races after Letarte took command of the team. When they began to struggle in 2008, producing no victories for the first time in Gordon’s career since his rookie season, Letarte caught the brunt of the criticism. Through it all, Gordon stuck by his crew chief and refused to let Letarte be the scapegoat.

“I think sometimes those relationships can happen immediately,” Gordon pointed out. “Sometimes they take years. You have to understand that Steve has been on our team a long time. The reason why I believe he is my crew chief right now is because he and I clicked when he was car chief. Even when he was doing tires for us years and years ago. I liked his attitude. I liked his energy level. I liked his personality. I felt like he and I meshed very well. When he became the car chief, I realized how smart he was and how capable he was far beyond what a car chief but even more so. He has only impressed me even more as a crew chief.”

This year the combination has once again found the magic and have proved to be a threat. Scoring a win at Texas Motor Speedway, the No. 24 team led the series standings twice for a total of nine weeks. Currently sitting fifth in the Chase, this team appears as strong as ever and shows no signs of giving in to teammates Jimmie and Chad.

Much like Gordon and Letarte, Carl Edwards and crew chief Bob Osborne have been together for quite some time. Entering their fifth year together (the pair was briefly separated in 2006, but reunited in 2007), the combination has produced sixteen wins – including an amazing nine last year. However, this season has not gone according to plan. Although they made the Chase, the team is still winless with only six races left in the year. Edwards has been left scratching his head, but one thing is sure, he does not question Osborne’s ability as a crew chief.

“What’s going on right now, for instance Bob and I, we won all these races last year, we did great and everything was wonderful. It seemed like we could win every week. He’s the same guy. I’m the same driver,” Edwards explained. “I feel like we’re even better than we were, our capabilities. I don’t think changing personnel at this level is what we need to do, and I don’t think Jack (Roush) feels that way. We just have to figure out mechanically what is different about our race car and the cars that are beating us, and that’s where it comes in. That’s where the problem-solving needs to be done. I don’t know about other teams, but I know for the 99 team, Bob Osborne is my crew chief. I would give up almost anything before I’d give up Bob Osborne.”

One driver that does not have that luxury is Penske Racing’s Kurt Busch. A contender in this year's Chase, Busch is now racing with a lame-duck crew chief in the final ten races. Pat Tryson announced in Richmond, just prior to the beginning of the Chase, that he would be leaving the team at the end of the year. After learning Tryson would be heading to Michael Waltrip Racing, Penske barred him from the shop except to take part in post-race debriefs on Tuesdays. Upset with his crew chief’s decision, Busch has voiced his displeasure in the media and over the radio during a number of races.

“Since Pat made the decision to leave our program, I’ve been a bit more sarcastic with him and a bit shorter with him just to kind of rub it in that he is leaving and this was a good thing that we had going on,” Busch said Thursday at the Lowe’s Motor Speedway. “Sometimes sarcasm over the radio can be spun 180 degrees…that it’s negative…and that it’s not the proper thing to be saying. But other than that, we’re business as usual. We’re jousting with each other, joking around here and there. It’s a fun situation right now because we feel like this is our best opportunity to win this championship and we better take advantage of this now because in six weeks we won’t be working together.”

“It hasn’t been all that bad,” Tryson said of his situation. Despite his restrictions at the shop, Tryson went on to explain he has been able to communicate with team members through email and phone calls and is still hungry to win this year.

“Nothing has changed over the last four (races) that wasn’t happening before," Tryson went on to say. "He just wants to win. There are times when he has made a few more sarcastic remarks, but I know what he is doing and it is all good.”

As Jeff Gordon put it Thursday in the media center, when one person is excited on the radio, the other needs to be the calming voice. With Busch and Tryson say everything is good they are continually at each other, with Busch admittedly using sarcasm over the radio. The level of production is hurt and the team’s performance will suffer. Compare the tattered relationship of Busch and Tryson to that of veteran Mark Martin and his crew chief Alan Gustafson.

In his first full season since 2006, Martin has turned some heads to say the least. With five wins – his most since 1998 – the 50-year-old veteran has a renewed spirit and hunger that has led him to become one of the top contenders for this year’s title. What has fueled Martin’s strong performance this year? Is it his twenty-seven years of experience? When you ask the Batesville, Arkansas-native his answer is simple – crew chief Alan Gustafson.

Now in his tenth year with Hendrick Motorsports, Gustafson has worked on the No. 5 car since 2000. His tenacity and diligent work ethic allowed him to move to the crew chief position in 2005. Calling the shots for drivers such as Terry Labonte and Kyle Busch, Gustafson has hit his stride with Martin this year and the combination’s success has shown on the track.

“What Alan and I have going on is really special and the communication and mutual respect and the way it is working,” Martin said Thursday at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. “A thing I think that everybody should take note of is that one of the things I’m most proud of about Alan is I bet you he probably might be a little bit intimidated by me but it never shows and that’s big. That’s helped me as much as anything he could do is to not let me intimidate him and prevent him from doing his very best job for me. Not that I try to, I have been around a long time and a lot of times have gotten into situations where the crew chief gave in to what I thought or what I said too quick and I’m certainly not always right. We’re getting it right together and that was my point. We are able to get it right so much we hope to keep doing it.”

Over the years Martin has worked with a number of crew chiefs, yet has never meshed with one quite as well as he has with Gustafson this year. Learning from his past mistakes, Martin understands how important his relationship with the man atop the pit box is to having success on the race track.

“I know over a period of time I have beat down some crew chiefs in the past and I realized that and when you get to that point you can’t fix it. That damage is done, so from that experience I’ve learned too. I’ve learned how to handle things and my frustration, I am still conscious that will hurt me and I know that no matter how much those guys, when you kick them and you kick them again, I don’t care, I’m telling you it affects them.”

Former Mark Martin crew chief Steve Hmiel explained the job of the crew chief has evolved so much of the last few years as a result of engineers behind the scenes, simulations at the shop and various other technologies. Hmiel, as well as Tryson, pointed out the crew chief used to have more hands on involvement, but now the role has turned to more of a motivating coach.

“The crew chief needs to get in the drivers head,” Hmiel explained. “The driver needs to have confidence in the crew chief and has to feel comfortable with the changes being made.”

The ability of the driver and crew chief to communicate well and have confidence in one another has become one of the most crucial parts of having a successful season. Those atop the standings understand that and the relationships they have built have led to those results. For any team that wants to contend for a title and make their mark on the sport, this relationship needs to be atop their priorities and once that happens, things should fall into place.

You Can’t Keep Kyle Busch Down

2009-10-17T01:33:00.000-04:00

On a night that started out like a mix between short track aggression and plate racing crashes, nothing could stop Kyle Busch at the Lowe’s Motor Speedway – not even pneumonia. One week after climbing out of the car with the flu, Busch showed little signs of slowing as he dominated Friday night’s Dollar General 300 NASCAR Nationwide Series race.

Leading 137 of the 200 laps, Busch was in a class of his own as he drove away from the field once the pace of the race settled down. Continuing his stellar season, Friday night’s win was his seventh of the year and helped the 24-year-old extend lead in the series standings over Carl Edwards to 195 points.

“This thing was on a rail tonight. It was such a great race car,” a tired-looking Kyle Busch said after climbing from his winning ride. “It’s awesome to come out here on such a cold night and have this many people in the stands, so we appreciate their support.”

Suffering from flu-like symptoms following the Kansas race, Busch exited the No. 18 Toyota early for the first time of his career last week at the Auto Club Speedway. Calling it one of the toughest things he has had to do, Busch could only watch as his relief driver Denny Hamlin was taken out battling for the lead. Taking a hit in the points, Busch was diagnosed with pneumonia on Monday but on Friday celebrated in Victory Lane.

Starting fifth, Busch took the top-spot for the first time on Lap 22 and went on to lead three times for a race-high 137 laps, good enough for ten additional bonus points.

“We had some points to make up and we made up some tonight hopefully,” Busch said from Victory Lane.

As Busch was just getting started with his dominant performance, three cautions eliminated some of the top contenders, including outside pole sitter Matt Kenseth – who led twice for a total of twenty-four laps.

“I felt like some of my best competition fell away,” Busch admitted. “I don’t know what happened to the 16, but Kenseth was really good there in the beginning, he led the first 20-30 laps, but he was fast. Kasey Kahne I kept seeing his number on the board there, (Ryan) Newman came on late, the 11 was really good. (Bliss) probably had a car that could have run with us there at the end of the race, but we got out far enough ahead where it was going to be a while before he could run us back down.

“I felt good about our car. I felt like we were in a different zip code tonight and it was going to take some big changes on some guys parts to get up there and battle with us.”

Scoring the win, Busch earned his fifth Nationwide Series victory at Lowe’s Motor Speedway and twenty-eighth of his career, moving him to third on the all-time series win list.

“I love this place. This is my house on the Nationwide side,” Busch said with a smirk. “Jimmie (Johnson) can call it his on the Cup side, I’ve got some work to do there.”

While Johnson may have things in control on the Cup side of things, Busch has been in command this year in the Nationwide garage. With seven victories and twenty-six top-10 finishes in thirty-one races, Busch is beginning to eye his first NASCAR title.

“We have to go through these final races,” Busch said. “I feel like here, Texas, Phoenix and Homestead are tracks I can win at. We’re going to Memphis next week, which is a track Carl (Edwards) can win at. We know we need to keep up to our best game and do what we need to do in order to put this championship away. I would love to have done what Kevin Harvick did a couple years ago. I think the championship was over here at this race, he just started this race and he was done. I wish that was the scenario that we were in. We’ve got a couple more weeks that we can gain some good points and hopefully put it away at Phoenix.”

NASCAR Banking 500 Final Practice

2009-10-16T19:49:00.001-04:00

1. 48 Jimmie Johnson Lowe's Chevrolet 29.114 185.478
2. 5 Mark Martin Pop-Tarts / CARQUEST Chevrolet 29.213 184.849
3. 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Office Toyota 29.239 184.685
4. 7 Robby Gordon Freightliner Toyota 29.310 184.237
5. 18 Kyle Busch M&M's/SusanGKomen Fndtn Toyota 29.352 183.974
6. 39 Ryan Newman U.S. Army/Trnsfrmrs 2 Chev 29.391 183.730
7. 47 Marcos Ambrose CloroxKingsfordBush'sBkdBns Tyta 29.402 183.661
8. 9 Kasey Kahne Budweiser Dodge 29.410 183.611
9. 98 Paul Menard Johns Manville/Menards Ford 29.420 183.549
10. 17 Matt Kenseth Carhartt Ford 29.423 183.530
11. 25 Brad Keselowski GoDaddy.com Chevrolet 29.438 183.436
12. 14 Tony Stewart Old Spice/Office Depot Chevrolet 29.453 183.343
13. 71 Mike Bliss TaxSlayer.com Chevrolet 29.460 183.299
14. 24 Jeff Gordon Dupont/Trnsfrmrs 2 Chev 29.486 183.138
15. 31 Jeff Burton Caterpillar Chevrolet 29.498 183.063
16. 16 Greg Biffle 3M / IDG Ford 29.501 183.045
17. 20 Joey Logano # The Home Depot Toyota 29.506 183.014
18. 29 Kevin Harvick Shell / Pennzoil Chevrolet 29.518 182.939
19. 00 David Reutimann Aaron's Dream Machine Tyta 29.519 182.933
20. 77 Sam Hornish Jr. Mobil 1 Dodge 29.533 182.846
21. 1 Martin Truex Jr. Guitar Hero / DJ Hero Chevrolet 29.536 182.828
22. 33 Clint Bowyer Cheerios/Hamburger Helper Chev 29.541 182.797
23. 6 David Ragan UPS Ford 29.554 182.716
24. 83 Brian Vickers Red Bull Toyota 29.555 182.710
25. 42 Juan Pablo Montoya Lysol Chevrolet 29.587 182.513
26. 02 David Gilliland Farm Bureau Toyota 29.587 182.513
27. 44 A J Allmendinger Best Buy Dodge 29.590 182.494
28. 43 Reed Sorenson Super 8 Motels Dodge 29.590 182.494
29. 26 Jamie McMurray JeremiahWeedSthrnStyleSwtTea Ford 29.591 182.488
30. 07 Casey Mears Jack Daniel's Chevrolet 29.594 182.469
31. 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. AMP Energy/NationalGuard Chev 29.602 182.420
32. 99 Carl Edwards Aflac Ford 29.603 182.414
33. 12 David Stremme No. 12 Penske Dodge 29.620 182.309
34. 82 Scott Speed # Red Bull Toyota 29.624 182.285
35. 19 Elliott Sadler Stanley Dodge 29.668 182.014
36. 2 Kurt Busch Miller Lite Dodge 29.670 182.002
37. 87 Joe Nemechek NEMCO Motorsports Toyota 29.700 181.818
38. 96 Bobby Labonte Ask.com/Search for the Cure Ford 29.703 181.800
39. 55 Michael Waltrip NAPA/SusanG.KomenFdtn Toyota 29.762 181.439
40. 21 Bill Elliott Warriors in Pink Powered by Ford 29.850 180.905
41. 34 John Andretti Taco Bell Chevrolet 29.937 180.379
42. 13 Max Papis # GEICO Toyota 30.032 179.808
43. 08 Terry Labonte Carter/Simo Racing Toyota 30.097 179.420 27

Johnson Looking To Stink Up The Weekend

2009-10-16T19:21:00.001-04:00

The feeling after Jimmie Johnson's victory last week at the Auto Club Speedway was that some were too quick to give the championship title to the three-time defending champ. Sure, Mark Martin is only twelve points back and Juan Pablo Montoya is hot on their heels, but this weekend at Lowe's Motor Speedway Johnson has done his best to prove it is once again his year.

Once the rain showers cleared Thursday evening and the track was dry, the No. 48 rocketed to the top of the speed charts in the opening practice session with a lap at the average speed of 192.486 mph. Clearly excited over the radio after the lap, Johnson backed up his performance later that night in Coors Light Qualifying. Setting a new record for the fastest qualifying lap ever laid down in the new car, Johnson and his No. 48 took earned the pole position.

Surely he couldn't keep up the pace on Friday could he? Well, of course he did.

In the day's first session, Johnson once again bettered his teammate Mark Martin to claim the top-spot. Think things would change in the hour-long final practice? Nope.

Running a total of 48 laps, Johnson took his familiar place atop the leaderboard. With a fast-lap of 185.478 mph, Johnson has made a clean sweep of the weekend's Sprint Cup Series events thus far. The only thing left is Saturday night's NASCAR Banking 500.

"We've got 500 miles to run," the five time Lowe's Motor Speedway winner explained after qualifying. "So I think if we can lead a lot of laps, win the race, and something along those lines will send a statement."

After Saturday's practice sessions I think it's time the competition started getting the message.

NASCAR Banking 500 Practice 2 -- 10/16/09

2009-10-16T18:30:00.001-04:00

1. 48 Jimmie Johnson Lowe's Chevrolet 28.852 187.162
2. 5 Mark Martin Pop-Tarts / CARQUEST Chevrolet 29.065 185.790
3. 16 Greg Biffle 3M / IDG Ford 29.151 185.242
4. 17 Matt Kenseth Carhartt Ford 29.220 184.805
5. 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Office Toyota 29.223 184.786
6. 39 Ryan Newman U.S. Army/Trnsfrmrs 2 Chev 29.251 184.609
7. 99 Carl Edwards Aflac Ford 29.290 184.363
8. 18 Kyle Busch M&M's / SusanGKomen Fndtn Toyota 29.315 184.206
9. 47 Marcos Ambrose CloroxKngsfrdBushsBkdBeans Toyota 29.331 184.106
10. 9 Kasey Kahne Budweiser Dodge 29.331 184.106
11. 42 Juan Pablo Montoya Lysol Chevrolet 29.338 184.062
12. 20 Joey Logano # The Home Depot Toyota 29.338 184.062
13. 83 Brian Vickers Red Bull Toyota 29.338 184.062
14. 14 Tony Stewart Old Spice / Office Depot Chevrolet 29.359 183.930
15. 2 Kurt Busch Miller Lite Dodge 29.390 183.736
16. 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. AMPEnergy/NtlGuard Chevrolet 29.398 183.686
17. 31 Jeff Burton Caterpillar Chevrolet 29.422 183.536
18. 7 Robby Gordon Freightliner Toyota 29.476 183.200
19. 24 Jeff Gordon Dupont / Trnsfrmrs 2 Chev 29.499 183.057
20. 00 David Reutimann Aaron's Dream Machine Toyota 29.511 182.983
21. 29 Kevin Harvick Shell / Pennzoil Chevrolet 29.512 182.976
22. 26 Jamie McMurray JeremiahWeedSthrnStyleSweetTea Ford 29.531 182.859
23. 33 Clint Bowyer Cheerios / Hamburger Helper Chevrolet 29.536 182.828
24. 25 Brad Keselowski GoDaddy.com Chevrolet 29.589 182.500
25. 82 Scott Speed # Red Bull Toyota 29.596 182.457
26. 1 Martin Truex Jr. Guitar Hero / DJ Hero Chevrolet 29.599 182.439
27. 44 A J Allmendinger Best Buy Dodge 29.609 182.377
28. 77 Sam Hornish Jr. Mobil 1 Dodge 29.623 182.291
29. 98 Paul Menard Johns Manville / Menards Ford 29.653 182.106
30. 02 David Gilliland Farm Bureau Toyota 29.676 181.965
31. 12 David Stremme No. 12 Penske Dodge 29.697 181.837
32. 55 Michael Waltrip NAPA/SusanG.KomenFndtn Toyota 29.703 181.800
33. 71 Mike Bliss TaxSlayer.com Chevrolet 29.728 181.647
34. 87 Joe Nemechek NEMCO Motorsports Toyota 29.778 181.342
35. 96 Bobby Labonte Ask.com / Search for the Cure Ford 29.792 181.257
36. 07 Casey Mears Jack Daniel's Chevrolet 29.795 181.238
37. 6 David Ragan UPS Ford 29.804 181.184
38. 43 Reed Sorenson Super 8 Motels Dodge 29.849 180.911
39. 19 Elliott Sadler Stanley Dodge 29.851 180.898
40. 34 John Andretti Taco Bell Chevrolet 29.866 180.808
41. 21 Bill Elliott Warriors in Pink Powered by Ford 29.890 180.662
42. 08 Terry Labonte Carter/Simo Racing Toyota 30.083 179.503
43. 13 Max Papis # GEICO Toyota 30.086 179.485

Dollar General 300 Starting Line-Up

2009-10-16T16:56:00.001-04:00

1. 60 Carl Edwards Ortho Ford 29.380 183.799
2. 16 Matt Kenseth CitiFinancial Ford 29.425 183.517
3. 12 Justin Allgaier # Verizon Wireless Dodge 29.439 183.430
4. 1 David Gilliland MiccosukeeIndianGaming&Resort Chevrolet 29.457 183.318
5. 18 Kyle Busch Z-Line Designs Toyota 29.469 183.243
6. 6 Erik Darnell # Nothern Tool + Equipment Ford 29.502 183.038
7. 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Save-a-Lot Ford 29.528 182.877
8. 10 Reed Sorenson Dollar General Toyota 29.545 182.772
9. 32 Brian Vickers Dollar General Toyota 29.550 182.741
10. 20 Joey Logano GameStop Toyota 29.578 182.568
11. 11 Mike Bliss Ridemakerz.com Toyota 29.602 182.420
12. 87 Dave Blaney AccuDoc Toyota 29.607 182.389
13. 99 David Reutimann Lowe's Foods Toyota 29.624 182.285
14. 28 Kenny Wallace U.S. Border Patrol Chevrolet 29.643 182.168
15. 33 Ryan Newman Hungry Man Chevrolet 29.673 181.984
16. 43 Kasey Kahne Auto Value Bumper to Bumper Toyota 29.730 181.635
17. 49 Mark Green Anderson's Pure Maple Syrup Chevrolet 29.735 181.610
18. 92 Dennis Setzer K Automotive Dodge 29.742 181.561
19. 27 Jason Keller Kleenex / Bi-Lo Ford 29.765 181.421
20. 0 Jeremy Clements Nutone Chevrolet 29.778 181.342
21. 07 Danny O'Quinn Jr. Dynamics Technology Chevrolet 29.783 181.311
22. 5 Tony Stewart DELPHI Chevrolet 29.826 181.050
23. 02 Andy Ponstein CorrieStottRacing.com Chevrolet 29.828 181.038
24. 90 Johnny Chapman MSRP Motorsports Chevrolet 29.830 181.026
25. 29 Jeff Burton Holiday Inn Chevrolet 29.841 180.959
26. 31 Tim Andrews Libertyport.com Chevrolet 29.859 180.850
27. 09 John Wes Townley # Zaxby's Ford 29.868 180.796
28. 96 Michael McDowell # AT&T Dodge 29.873 180.771
29. 88 Brad Keselowski Hellmann's Chevrolet 29.887 180.681
30. 42 Aric Almirola Smith Ironworks Dodge 29.891 180.656
31. 91 Terry Cook # MSRP Motorsports Chevrolet 29.899 180.608
32. 62 Brendan Gaughan # USfidelis Chevrolet 29.912 180.530
33. 15 Michael Annett # Lumber Liquidators Toyota 29.923 180.463
34. 78 Kevin Lepage Derrike Cope Inc. Dodge 30.019 179.886
35. 26 Kevin Conway Extenze Chevrolet 30.031 179.814
36. 38 Jason Leffler Great Clips Toyota 30.043 179.742
37. 66 Steve Wallace 5 Hour Energy Chevrolet 30.049 179.706
38. 34 Tony Raines Long John Silver's Chevrolet 30.096 179.426
39. 05 Casey Atwood 31W Insulation / CertainTeed Chevrolet 30.096 179.426
40. 47 Chase Miller ConstructionJobs.com Toyota 30.103 179.384
41. 23 Ken Butler # Aaron's Dream Machine Chevrolet 30.182 178.915
42. 01 Mike Wallace Sundrop Chevrolet 30.204 178.784
43. 24 Eric McClure Hefty Ford 30.205 178.778 O
44. 73 Derrike Cope CKR Dodge 30.341 177.983
45. 77 Peyton Sellers SFP Chevrolet 30.369 177.813
46. 89 Morgan Shepherd LaginaPlumbing/EldoraSpeedway Chevrolet 30.439 177.404
47. 40 Scott Wimmer Westermam Companies Chevrolet 30.464 177.258 O
48. 81 Kevin Hamlin DH Griffin Companies Chevrolet 30.591 176.523 O
49. 61 Matthew Carter Specialty Racing Ford 30.750 175.610

Frustration Not Strong Enough To Describe Earnhardt Jr.’s Feelings

2009-10-16T15:05:00.000-04:00

His last top-10 came seven weeks ago at Bristol; it was only his fifth of the year – the fewest since his first full year in the Cup Series in 2000. To say Dale Earnhardt Jr. is frustrated would be a gross understatement. In his second season with Hendrick Motorsports, Earnhardt Jr. has continually struggled, failed to show improvement and has been subject to a crew chief change that clearly shook the driver’s confidence.

With teammates Jimmie Johnson and Mark Martin smoking the competition this year, not to mention a stout showing by Jeff Gordon, Junior has been left wondering what went wrong and when, and if, it will be fixed. Those frustrations came to a head Thursday night after the No. 88 made its qualifying run. After running a lap of 189.913 mph in the evening’s practice session (good enough for 13th), Earnhardt Jr. looked for a top-10 starting spot in front of his hometown crowd. Instead, Junior’s pace fell off nearly three miles an hour, leaving him a dismal 39th and with even more frustration.

Speaking with the media after a sponsorship announcement Friday afternoon at the Lowe’s Motor Speedway, the aggravation and disappointment were visible on his face.

“Last night we go out, we were top-15 in practice, and we went out to try and qualify and we were one of the worst cars here,” Junior said looking at the ground. “We don’t know why and don’t have an explanation for it. All the other (Hendrick) cars qualified well, gripped well, backed their times up from practice and we didn’t even get close. We looked ridiculous last night. It’s really encouraging one day and the next day it’s equally discouraging and that gets really old. I’m about to the end of my rope on it.”

This year Earnhardt Jr. has struggled to maintain his grip on that rope and there have been many things that have tried to shake him off. Criticisms for his aggressiveness in the season-opening Daytona 500 pit some fans against him for one of the first times in his career. A blown engine the following week seemed to only make things worse.

With things getting worse and no end in sight, team owner Rick Hendrick made the decision to pull Earnhardt Jr.’s cousin Tony Eury Jr. off the pit box and give Lance McGrew a shot at turning things around. Since taking command of the team in Dover in May, Junior has only one top-5 and two top-10s – hardly anything to write home about.

“I’ve been riding it out, but I think there comes a point when you don’t want to ride it out anymore,” the discouraged Earnhardt Jr. went on to say. “You’ve just had enough. It’s been a long year. I really don’t want the year to be over with because I like going to the racetrack every week and racing. The last several – well, all year – it’s been so low, the highs have not been very high and the lows have been terribly low. It’s hard to want to get back up and try again the next week when you take such a beating, but I don’t know what else to do.”

As the season winds down, the frustration continues to mount for Earnhardt Jr., especially with performances like Thursday night. Unsure of what will be in store for next year, the sport’s most popular driver is unsure of what will fix the situation. Should Lance McGrew stay? Will there be another crew chief change? Even Dale Jr. is uncertain of what it will take to turn his misfortune around.

“I don’t know what’s next,” Junior admitted. “I was thinking about that last night. I don’t know what the logical next step would be. We seem to be getting better, but even getting better is not satisfying me at all.

“Whoever I work with needs to be a dictator,” Junior said of his crew chief. “The most success I had was with Tony (Eury) Sr. and you know how he runs his ship. I just don’t think I’m the guy to leave that decision up to because I would not make the right one. There’s a lot better people to make it, especially in the organization there’s a lot of smart people around there. I’m just waiting on somebody to make the call, just put the damn team together and say this is what you’ve got and what you’re going to do next year. I’m just waiting on that to happen.”

While he waits for that decision to be made, Junior simply hangs his head, shows up, climbs in the car and, as he put it, “if it goes fast, it goes fast.” Sure, Earnhardt Jr. has some tracks coming up that he has typically run well at – namely Talladega and Texas – but can the 35-year-old overcome his setbacks and frustrations, pick his head up and get the job done? That’s a question only Dale Earnhardt Jr. can answer and he needs to do it on the track.

Thoughts From A Rainy Day In Charlotte

2009-10-16T03:02:00.000-04:00

With rain blanketing the area for much of Thursday, the main action at the Lowe’s Motor Speedway took place in the Time Warner Cable Media Center. With some of the sport’s biggest names taking questions from the room full of media, a few things stood out while others were just plain strange.

Jeff Burton on making his 850th career NASCAR start on Friday:

“I have always wanted to do this since I was five, six seven years-old. I look forward to being able to do it with really great people. It is a lot of fun. I still enjoy doing it. I love doing it for that matter. Every driver says that their goal is to do it for a long time. I have been real fortunate to get to do what I love to do. I am just real fortunate.”

Getting beat by Hendrick equipment kind of irks Jeff Gordon:

“We pride ourselves on being the best out there and winning and continuing that tradition, not only for our No. 24 team but also Hendrick Motorsports. It’s a great problem to have that you’re the best organization out there providing the best equipment and resources and people and that’s exactly what you’re up against each and every weekend. It’s been the philosophy of Rick’s since I first came to Hendrick that you hope that you’re battling against your teammate.

“And so we kind of know that going into it and while at times it’s tough, it’s very competitive, and it can be frustrating as well, when you get beat it’s just because of the way that competition is driving one another.”

Ryan Newman is hungry for a win…really hungry:

“We haven’t achieved all of our goals. We haven’t won that race. So yes, there is a huge desire to win that first race. I’m as hungry as an Ethiopian; they still aren’t getting fed are they?”

Carl Edwards is having a baby...well make that his wife Kate:

"I'm real excited," Edwards told the media Thursday. "Kate is pregnant and we're having a little girl and I'm really, really excited about it. It's crazy. You guys that have kids know this, but we went in there for the ultra-sound, the first one, and I had seen all the pictures of what the baby was supposed to look like and we were sitting there and all of a sudden she started moving and I almost passed out. It was just wild. We're due in the middle of February, so it's perfect timing. We'll call her Daytona," Edwards said to a room full of laughter.

Jeff Burton and Jeff Gordon want to trick-or-treat in the infield of Talladega on Halloween:

“I think the coolest thing about Talladega is going to be Halloween,” Burton said. “I think Saturday night is going to be a pretty good time myself. I’m thinking about dressing up and nobody will know who I am.”

“I would just like to have a disguise that nobody could recognize me so I could go out in the infield to check out all the fun that is going to be happening out there on Halloween. Whatever costume that is, I don’t know. But I don’t want to give it away here.”

Greg Biffle still upset at Joey Logano, not so much his dad:

After last week’s on-track incident with Joey Logano in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, Greg Biffle explained the young driver did not take to their discussion afterwards as Biffle would have hoped.

“That’s pretty disappointing because I got talked to by Sterling Marlin and a few other guys and I learned a lot from it because there were things I was probably doing on the race track being a younger guy and not realizing probably what I was doing.”

Biffle went on to say while he had not yet received an apology, he felt the incident with Tom Logano - Joey’s father – was blown out of context.

“No, he hasn’t (apologized) and I have to say that it really got taken out of context,” Biffle admitted Thursday. “Him losing his hardcard and that whole thing was maybe a little overbearing because he was jogging down pit road heading for Victory Lane, which was right behind us where we were all coming in to stop and get the restrictor plate off the car. There was a two or three-car length gap between me and the guy in front of me and he kind of swerved out into the lane and gave me the sign that I was number one, and kind of veered back over and continued on down to Victory Lane. That was it. I waived to him as he went by. I wasn’t gonna do that (give the same number one sign) because I didn’t want to get fined or anything like that, so I just waved out the window and went off. That’s all he did.”

Waiting around for qualifying was worth it:

Halfway through the day I would have bet the house there would be no on-track action at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Rain had lingered at the speedway for much of the day and it appeared I would be able to catch the 8:07 pm E.T. start of the Phillies-Dodgers game. However, NASCAR – never one to give up – continued the track drying efforts and were able to fit in an abbreviated Cup Series practice session, full Nationwide Series practice session and Cup qualifying – and let me say, I’m glad I stuck around.

With track conditions about as perfect as one could hope for, Jimmie Johnson laid down one of the quickest laps in recent history – and that was before qualifying. During the abbreviated practice session, Johnson pulled his No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet out on the track and laid down a lap of 192. 486 mph – enough to get even Chad Knaus excited. By the time qualifying rolled around the track had rubbered up and gained a lot of grip.

Once he rolled out Johnson laid down a lap, while not as quick as his practice speed, still good enough to break the record for the fastest qualifying lap run in the new car. Johnson’s blisteringly fast lap time earned him his third pole at Lowe’s Motor Speedway and 22nd pole of his career.

Fact: Mark Martin will not admit championship hopes until after Talladega:

Despite the fact most Chase contenders feel he is one of the only guys capable of giving Jimmie Johnson a run for his money, Mark Martin is not quite ready to talk about the championship just yet. Citing his previous disappointments, the 50-year-old veteran admitted once the series has moved past Talladega, then he’ll start to consider the points situation.

“I'll see you after the race at Talladega and after the race at Talladega, we'll talk about our championship,” Martin said after qualifying Thursday. “I think everybody will know then who the real contenders are and a lot of things can change between now and then. If you'll look back, you will find that I led the points back in '90 from May, Phoenix was the next to the last race and then Atlanta was the last race, and I led the points from May until Phoenix. I really thought I was going to win. That ain't going to happen to me again. I am never going to think I'm going to win and it not happen. So, we'll race and we will let the racing decide the points tally. I'm not going to think about it and I don't have to. I won't change that points tally, so I refuse to look at it. I'm not going to look at it. I'm not going to be thinking about all that. I'm going to think about trying to win this race and then try to win Martinsville.”

While Thursday might not have been the most exciting or compelling day I have ever spent at a race track, it was definitely not without its moments. Some entertaining, some insightful and some down-right informative, Thursday went to show that even if the action on-track is slowed by rain, the action off the track is never dull.

NASCAR Banking 500 Qualifying Results

2009-10-15T23:10:00.001-04:00

1. 48 Jimmie Johnson Lowe's Chevrolet 28.070 192.376
2. 5 Mark Martin Pop-Tarts / CARQUEST Chevrolet 28.152 191.816
3. 9 Kasey Kahne Budweiser Dodge 28.264 191.056
4. 17 Matt Kenseth Carhartt Ford 28.339 190.550
5. 14 Tony Stewart Old Spice / Office Depot Chevrolet 28.351 190.469
6. 39 Ryan Newman U.S. Army/Trnsfrmrs 2 Rvnge of the Fallen Chevrolet 28.359 190.416
7. 71 Mike Bliss TaxSlayer.com Chevrolet 28.360 190.409
8. 25 Brad Keselowski GoDaddy.com Chevrolet 28.367 190.362
9. 24 Jeff Gordon Dupont / Transformers 2 Revenge of the Fallen Chevrolet 28.384 190.248
10. 18 Kyle Busch M&M's / Susan G. Komen Foundation Toyota 28.384 190.248
11. 33 Clint Bowyer Cheerios / Hamburger Helper Chevrolet 28.388 190.221
12. 20 Joey Logano # The Home Depot Toyota 28.417 190.027
13. 47 Marcos Ambrose Clorox / Kingsford / Bush's Baked Beans Toyota 28.424 189.980
14. 02 David Gilliland Farm Bureau Toyota 28.462 189.727
15. 2 Kurt Busch Miller Lite Dodge 28.470 189.673
16. 82 Scott Speed # Red Bull Toyota 28.480 189.607
17. 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Office Toyota 28.486 189.567
18. 42 Juan Pablo Montoya Lysol Chevrolet 28.501 189.467
19. 7 Robby Gordon Freightliner Toyota 28.539 189.215
20. 26 Jamie McMurray No. 26 Jeremiah Weed Southern Style Sweet Tea Ford 28.546 189.168 21. 00 David Reutimann Aaron's Dream Machine Toyota 28.552 189.129
22. 77 Sam Hornish Jr. Mobil 1 Dodge 28.557 189.095
23. 16 Greg Biffle 3M / IDG Ford 28.584 188.917
24. 96 Bobby Labonte Ask.com / Search for the Cure Ford 28.611 188.739
25. 1 Martin Truex Jr. Guitar Hero / DJ Hero Chevrolet 28.620 188.679
26. 44 A J Allmendinger Best Buy Dodge 28.625 188.646
27. 12 David Stremme No. 12 Penske Dodge 28.636 188.574
28. 99 Carl Edwards Aflac Ford 28.639 188.554
29. 6 David Ragan UPS Ford 28.649 188.488
30. 83 Brian Vickers Red Bull Toyota 28.692 188.206
31. 98 Paul Menard Johns Manville / Menards Ford 28.696 188.180
32. 29 Kevin Harvick Shell / Pennzoil Chevrolet 28.719 188.029
33. 55 Michael Waltrip NAPA/Susan G. Komen Foundation Toyota 28.726 187.983
34. 31 Jeff Burton Caterpillar Chevrolet 28.741 187.885
35. 87 Joe Nemechek NEMCO Motorsports Toyota 28.757 187.780
36. 21 Bill Elliott Warriors in Pink Powered by Ford 28.774 187.669
37. 43 Reed Sorenson Super 8 Motels Dodge 28.795 187.533
38. 19 Elliott Sadler Stanley Dodge 28.819 187.376
39. 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. AMP Energy / National Guard Chevrolet 28.859 187.117
40. 13 Max Papis # GEICO Toyota 28.893 186.896
41. 36 Michael McDowell Wave Energy Drink Toyota 28.900 186.851 DNQ
42. 09 Sterling Marlin Miccosukee Indian Gaming & Resort Dodge 28.950 186.528 DNQ
43. 66 Dave Blaney The Denny Hamlin Foundation Toyota 28.965 186.432 DNQ
44. 34 John Andretti Taco Bell Chevrolet 29.078 185.707 DNQ
45. 08 Terry Labonte Carter/Simo Racing Toyota 29.081 185.688
46. 37 Travis Kvapil Long John Silver's Dodge 29.165 185.153 DNQ
47. 07 Casey Mears Jack Daniel's Chevrolet 29.225 184.773

Johnson Blows Them Away In Qualifying

2009-10-15T23:06:00.000-04:00

It took all day to get in but once the rain-delayed qualifying session got under way, Jimmie Johnson showed he’s going to be the man to beat again this weekend. The Chase leader posted the fastest time in the evening’s only practice session with a blistering lap of 192.486 mph. Rolling off twelfth for his qualifying run, Johnson put the hammer down and blew the competition away.

Laying down a lap of 28.070 seconds at a blistering speed of 192.376 mph, Johnson posted not only the fastest time of the session, but the fastest qualifying lap ever run in the new car. The previous record for the fastest qualifying time was set by Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Texas Motor Speedway in 2008 at a speed of 190.907 mph. Johnson’s lap was nearly a one-and-a half miles per hour faster.

“What a lap,” Johnson humbly said after his record-setting lap. “The speeds that we're running around here in the COT car are pretty amazing. It was just a great lap. We were great off the truck and were able to fine-tune a little bit and lay down another good one in qualifying.

“Man, its fast. You're not out of the gas long,” Johnson went on to say. “At the end of the straightway it doesn't seem that fast because you're going so fast through the turn that the novelty has worn off once you get on the straightaway and you can catch your breath and okay, here comes that corner again and you bomb it in there and blast another lap. Whatever is going on with the tire combination right now and the track, there is a ton of grip. These cars are putting up some fast laps."

Teammate Mark Martin gave Johnson his only scare of the session with a lap of 28.152 at 191.816 mph. Martin’s lap also broke Earnhardt’s previous mark in the new car. The second-place qualifying run gave Martin his tenth front row start of the season.

"I'm just so thankful,” Martin said with his usual smile. “I feel like I'm one of the luckiest guys around to get a chance to drive Alan Gustafson's car and work with these guys. Man, they put some great stuff under me. It was so much fun to drive that car today, even though I only ran four laps. They were four great laps. I knew I needed to step up my game from practice and I did but it wasn't enough. I wanted to make sure I made it back, so at least I made it back.”

Also breaking the previous fastest-qualifying mark in a CoT was third-place qualifier Kasey Kahne. At one of his best tracks, Kahne is looking for his fourth win at the 1.5-mile Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Only tenth-fastest in the earlier practice session, Kahne was able to pick up over one mile an hour to earn his sixth top-5 qualifying run.

“It was a really good lap for our Budweiser Dodge,” Kahne said after his run. “We ran right about where we were in practice earlier today. I think that I gave up a little on entry in Turn 3 and that's probably where I lost time to Jimmie (Johnson). There's a lot of grip out there. It's really fast. It's really good right now. It was a good qualifying lap for us. I wish that I had another lap.”

Roush Fenway Racing’s Matt Kenseth and Chase contender Tony Stewart rounded out the top-5. Ryan Newman, Mike Bliss, Brad Keselowski, Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch made up the rest of the top-10. Other Chase drivers outside the top-10 included Kurt Busch in 15th, Denny Hamlin and Juan Pablo Montoya in 17th and 18th respectively, Greg Biffle in 23rd, Carl Edwards in 28th and Brian Vickers in 30th.

Michael McDowell, Sterling Marlin, Dave Blaney and Travis Kvapil failed to make the race.

Dollar General Final Practice NASCAR Nationwide Series

2009-10-15T21:17:00.001-04:00

1. 11 Mike Bliss Ridemakerz.com Toyota 29.677 181.959
2. *43 Kasey Kahne Auto Value Bumper to Bumper Toyota 29.687 181.898
3. 6 Erik Darnell # Nothern Tool + Equipment Ford 29.691 181.873
4. 18 Kyle Busch Z-Line Designs Toyota 29.707 181.775
5. 16 Matt Kenseth CitiFinancial Ford 29.711 181.751
6. 12 Justin Allgaier # Verizon Wireless Dodge 29.716 181.720
7. *17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Save-a-Lot Ford 29.740 181.574
8. 20 Joey Logano GameStop Toyota 29.744 181.549
9. *5 Tony Stewart DELPHI Chevrolet 29.791 181.263
10. 88 Brad Keselowski Hellmann's Chevrolet 29.825 181.056
11. 32 Brian Vickers Dollar General Toyota 29.836 180.989
12. 87 Dave Blaney AccuDoc Toyota 29.853 180.886
13. 60 Carl Edwards Ortho Ford 29.856 180.868
14. 38 Jason Leffler Great Clips Toyota 29.908 180.554
15. 10 Reed Sorenson Dollar General Toyota 29.910 180.542
16. 99 David Reutimann Lowe's Foods Toyota 29.923 180.463
17. 33 Ryan Newman Hungry Man Chevrolet 29.929 180.427
18. *09 John Wes Townley # Zaxby's Ford 29.930 180.421
19. 66 Steve Wallace 5 Hour Energy Chevrolet 29.955 180.270
20. 29 Jeff Burton Holiday Inn Chevrolet 29.965 180.210
21. 27 Jason Keller Kleenex / Bi-Lo Ford 29.966 180.204
22. *92 Dennis Setzer K Automotive Dodge 30.011 179.934
23. *31 Tim Andrews Libertyport.com Chevrolet 30.026 179.844
24. *90 Johnny Chapman MSRP Motorsports Chevrolet 30.038 179.772
25. 15 Michael Annett # Lumber Liquidators Toyota 30.071 179.575
26. *42 Aric Almirola Smith Ironworks Dodge 30.093 179.444
27. *91 Terry Cook # MSRP Motorsports Chevrolet 30.112 179.330
28. *02 Andy Ponstein CorrieStottRacing.com Chevrolet 30.191 178.861
29. *96 Michael McDowell # AT&T Dodge 30.192 178.855
30. 47 Chase Miller ConstructionJobs.com Toyota 30.212 178.737
31. 62 Brendan Gaughan # USfidelis Chevrolet 30.245 178.542
32. *78 Kevin Lepage Derrike Cope Inc. Dodge 30.261 178.448
33. *73 Derrike Cope CKR Dodge 30.272 178.383
34. *49 Mark Green Anderson's Pure Maple Syrup Chevrolet 30.310 178.159
35. 01 Mike Wallace Sundrop Chevrolet 30.356 177.889
36. 26 Kevin Conway Extenze Chevrolet 30.370 177.807
37. *77 Peyton Sellers SFP Chevrolet 30.373 177.789
38. 34 Tony Raines Long John Silver's Chevrolet 30.374 177.784
39. *05 Casey Atwood 31W Insulation / CertainTeed Chevrolet 30.396 177.655
40. *07 Danny O'Quinn Jr. Dynamics Technology Chevrolet 30.446 177.363
41. *0 Jeremy Clements Nutone Chevrolet 30.456 177.305
42. 40 Scott Wimmer Westermam Companies Chevrolet 30.510 176.991
43. 81 Kevin Hamlin DH Griffin Companies Chevrolet 30.591 176.523
44. 1 Sterling Marlin Miccosukee IndianGaming&Resort Chevrolet 30.614 176.390
45. 28 Kenny Wallace U.S. Border Patrol Chevrolet 30.720 175.781
46. 23 Ken Butler # Aaron's Dream Machine Chevrolet 30.752 175.598
47. 24 Eric McClure Hefty Ford 30.893 174.797
48. *89 Morgan Shepherd Lagina Plumbing / Eldora Speedway Chevrolet 30.897 174.774
49. 61 Matthew Carter Specialty Racing Ford 31.187 173.149

*- Required to qualify on time
# - Rookie

NASCAR Banking 500 Practice 1

2009-10-15T19:45:00.000-04:00

1. 48 Jimmie Johnson Lowe's Chevrolet 28.054 192.486
2. 5 Mark Martin Pop-Tarts/CARQUEST Chevrolet 28.213 191.401
3. 33 Clint Bowyer Cheerios/Hamburger Helper Chevrolet 28.267 191.035
4. 16 Greg Biffle 3M/IDG Ford 28.296 190.840
5. 14 Tony Stewart Old Spice/Office Depot Chevrolet 28.330 190.611
6. 39 Ryan Newman U.S. Army/Trnsfrmrs 2 Chevrolet 28.333 190.590
7. *71 Mike Bliss TaxSlayer.com Chevrolet 28.363 190.389
8. 24 Jeff Gordon Dupont/Trnsfrmrs 2 Chevrolet 28.384 190.248
9. 77 Sam Hornish Jr. Mobil 1 Dodge 28.392 190.194
10. 9 Kasey Kahne Budweiser Dodge 28.415 190.040
11. 26 Jamie McMurray JeremiahWeedSouthernStyleSweetTea Ford 28.420 190.007
12. *25 Brad Keselowski GoDaddy.com Chevrolet 28.427 189.960
13. 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. AMPEnergy/NationalGuard Chevrolet 28.434 189.913
14. 20 Joey Logano # The Home Depot Toyota 28.464 189.713
15. 42 Juan Pablo Montoya Lysol Chevrolet 28.464 189.713
16. 18 Kyle Busch M&M's/SusanGKomen Fndtn Toyota 28.491 189.534
17. 12 David Stremme No. 12 Penske Dodge 28.498 189.487
18. 7 Robby Gordon Freightliner Toyota 28.498 189.487
19. 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Office Toyota 28.507 189.427
20. 2 Kurt Busch Miller Lite Dodge 28.516 189.367
21. 47 Marcos Ambrose Clorox/Kingsford/Bush'sBkdBeans Toyota 28.523 189.321
22. 55 Michael Waltrip NAPA/SusanGKomen Fndtn Toyota 28.554 189.115
23. 98 Paul Menard Johns Manville/Menards Ford 28.561 189.069
24. 44 A J Allmendinger Best Buy Dodge 28.565 189.043
25. *82 Scott Speed # Red Bull Toyota 28.585 188.910
26. 29 Kevin Harvick Shell/Pennzoil Chevrolet 28.586 188.904
27. *87 Joe Nemechek NEMCO Motorsports Toyota 28.639 188.554
28. 17 Matt Kenseth Carhartt Ford 28.652 188.469
29. 07 Casey Mears Jack Daniel's Chevrolet 28.680 188.285
30. 1 Martin Truex Jr. Guitar Hero/DJ Hero Chevrolet 28.682 188.271
31. 6 David Ragan UPS Ford 28.683 188.265
32. *02 David Gilliland Farm Bureau Toyota 28.684 188.258
33. 00 David Reutimann Aaron's Dream Machine Toyota 28.694 188.193
34. *66 Dave Blaney The Denny Hamlin Foundation Toyota 28.789 187.572
35. 96 Bobby Labonte Ask.com/Search for the Cure Ford 28.834 187.279
36. 99 Carl Edwards Aflac Ford 28.843 187.220
37. 31 Jeff Burton Caterpillar Chevrolet 28.852 187.162
38. 83 Brian Vickers Red Bull Toyota 28.893 186.896
39. *37 Travis Kvapil Long John Silver's Dodge 28.949 186.535
40. *21 Bill Elliott Warriors in Pink Powered by Ford 28.953 186.509
41. 43 Reed Sorenson Super 8 Motels Dodge 28.957 186.483
42. *36 Michael McDowell Wave Energy Drink Toyota 28.957 186.483
43. *13 Max Papis # GEICO Toyota 29.022 186.066
44. 34 John Andretti Taco Bell Chevrolet 29.059 185.829
45. 19 Elliott Sadler Stanley Dodge 29.103 185.548
46. *08 Terry Labonte Carter/Simo Racing Toyota 29.185 185.027
47. *09 Sterling Marlin Micco. Indian Gaming & Resort Dodge 29.813 181.129

* - Required to qualify on time
# - Rookie

Chase Update - Lowe's Motor Speedway

2009-10-15T11:48:00.000-04:00

Chase for the Sprint Cup
1. 48 (--)
2. 5 (-12)
3. 42 (-58)
4. 14 (-84)
5. 24 (-105)
6. 2 (-121)
7. 16 (-188)
8. 99 (-192)
9. 11 (-219)
10. 39 (-223)
11. 9 (-306)
12. 83 (-351)

Jimmie Johnson:
- 5 wins, 8 top-5s and 12 top-10s at Lowe's Motor Speedway
- Johnson has only one top-5 and two top-10s in last five races at Lowe's Motor Speedway
- Last win at Lowe's was in 2005
- Coming off a strong win at the Auto Club Speedway last week
- 2 wins, 3 top-5s and 4 top-10s in four Chase races

Mark Martin:
- 4 wins, 17 top-5s and 22 top-10s at Lowe's Motor Speedway
- Only one top-5 in last five races at Lowe's
- Last win at Lowe's was in 2002
- 1 win, 3 top-5s and 4 top-10s in four Chase races

Juan Pablo Montoya:
- Only one top-10 at Lowe's Motor Speedway
- In last five races at Lowe's, Juan Pablo Montoya has four finishes outside the top-25
- Finished 8th in May at Lowe's
- 4 top-5s in four Chase races

Tony Stewart:
- 1 win, 6 top-5s and 11 top-10s at Lowe's Motor Speedway
- Stewart has finished outside top-10 in last three races at Lowe's
- 1 win, 2 top-5s and 3 top-10s in four Chase races (finished 14th in Loudon)

Jeff Gordon:
- 5 wins, 15 top-5s and 18 top-10s at Lowe's Motor Speedway
- 1 win, 2 top-5s and 3 top-10s in last four races at Lowe's
- Gordon has back-to-back runner up finishes in last two Chase races
- 2 top-5s and 2 top-10s in four Chase races (finished 15th in Loudon)

Kurt Busch:
- 3 top-5s and 3 top-10s at Lowe's Motor Speedway
- Busch has only one top-5 at Lowe's since 2006
- Finished 34th at Lowe's in May earlier this year
- 1 top-5, 3 top-10s in four Chase races

Greg Biffle:
- 2 top-5s and 5 top-10s at Lowe's Motor Speedway
- 1 top-5 and 2 top-10s in last five races at Lowe's
- Biffle finished 20th in Fontana and has 1 top-5 and 2 top-10s in the four Chase races

Carl Edwards:
- 4 top-5s and 7 top-10s at Lowe's Motor Speedway
- Edwards finished 4th in May at Lowe's and has 2 top-5s and 3 top-10s in the last 5 races at Lowe's
- His last top-5 was eight races ago in Michigan
- Only 2 top-10s in four Chase races

Denny Hamlin:
- 3 top-10s at Lowe's Motor Speedway
- Hamlin has finished outside the top-10 in last four races at Lowe's
- 2 top-5s in four Chase races, but has a 22nd at Dover and 37th in Fontana
- Hamlin could have had a good day last weekend, but wrecked himself while leading

Ryan Newman:
- 4 top-5s and 6 top-10s at Lowe's Motor Speedway
- Newman finished 2nd at Lowe's in May after starting from the pole
- 2 top-10s in four Chase races, but has finished 22nd and 15th in last two events.

Kasey Kahne:
- 3 wins, 4 top-5s and 6 top-10s at Lowe's Motor Speedway
- 1 win, 2 top-5s and 4 top-10s in last four races at Lowe's
- 2 top-5s in Chase, but 38th in Loudon and 34th last week in Fontana
- Kahne blamed NASCAR last week for throwing a caution for excitement, not debris

Brian Vickers:
- 2 top-5s and 3 top-10s at Lowe's Motor Speedway
- Vickers is always a strong contender at Lowe's and finished 5th in May
- The team has had a dismal Chase this year with no top-10 finishes and one DNF
- Vickers told media in Charlotte Thursday, "Man, this Chase has not started off well. I think we used up all our mojo getting into the Chase."

Walking In The Shadows Of History

2009-10-14T23:14:00.000-04:00

What a day. Wednesday marked a special day in NASCAR history and a special day for anyone – competitor, media or fan – involved in the sport that has so many of us enthralled. Finally, after years of waiting and months of wondering, the first class of five inductees was announced at the Charlotte Convention Center in Uptown Charlotte. When all was said and done, the first class of inductees into the NASCAR Hall of Fame will be William H.G. France, Richard Petty, Bill France Jr., Dale Earnhardt and Junior Johnson. On a cold and rainy evening in Uptown Charlotte history was made and I could not have been more proud to have a small part in it.

Pulling up to the event, the first view I got of the new facility was the parking deck. Unsure of where I was to go, I ventured into the lobby of the new 19-story NASCAR Plaza. A wonderful entrance to the building, one thing I noticed was the lack of motorsports…well, anything. The lobby could have been the entrance to any high-rise building in Charlotte and was very unassuming to this first time guest. After a little help from a NASCAR employee – and the legendary H.A. Humpy Wheeler – I made my way down to the Charlotte Convention Center, where the event was being held.

After checking in at the media table my first stop was the NASCAR Hall of Fame car sitting in front of the ballroom doors. The Sam Bass designed car was a sharp and poignant welcoming piece for all the guests gathering for the announcement.

Once in the room I chatted with other members of the media about who would be in the first class and who would be left out. Each had their opinion and each offered their reason for why their choices deserved to be inducted. With Mike Joy, Darrell Waltrip, Kyle Petty and Ken Squire behind us bringing the event to all the fans across the nation, people began filing in and taking their seats. In attendance was David Pearson, Waddell Wilson, Ned Jarrett, Bruton Smith, Ricky Rudd and others. Watching the former competitors and future Hall of Famers mill around and laugh with each other was definitely quite the sight.

The much anticipated ceremony was nothing to write home about. The typically flashy NASCAR opted to do things in a classier fashion – short and to the point. A representative from Ernst & Young handed NASCAR Chairman & CEO Brian France the five envelopes one at a time. After each name was announced, a short video clip played about their career – however, Dale Earnhardt’s video lacked sound on the first go round and had to be played again.

From there it was on to the media frenzy of interviewing some of those involved in the voting process – including Humpy Wheeler, Lee White of Toyota and Winston Kelley, Director of the Hall of Fame – and then to the makeshift media room assembled in the Charlotte Convention Center.

Making a rare appearance was Teresa Earnhardt, Dale’s widow. All smiles after the announcement of his inclusion in the first five, Teresa made her way out to the NASCAR Hall of Fame car in the lobby where five girls stood in black dresses, black ‘Intimidator’ sun glasses and the iconic mustache Earnhardt sported for most of his career.

Media members and other guests were then invited by Teresa Earnhardt to a champagne toast in honor of late husband at the Ritz Carlton in Uptown Charlotte. The girls with the iconic Dale look again greeted guests who were given champagne and talked amongst themselves. Winston Kelley introduced Teresa before she thanked everyone for coming and said a few heartfelt words in honor of her late husband before showing a few new commercial spots promoting the Dale Earnhardt Foundation.

Standing in a room full of strangers, I kept out of the way and conversed with fellow media members Jeff Gluck of the NASCAR Scene, Jim Pedley of RacinToday.com and Brant James of the St. Petersburg Times. Eventually Teresa made her way over and kindly spoke with us about the day. For someone who draws so much attention and contempt from so many people, she was very friendly and cordial.

After receiving my own signature Earnhardt glasses and mustache, I walked back to the Hall of Fame through the cold misty rain. Thinking of the day’s events along the way I could not help but think how lucky I was to be a small part of one of the most historic days in NASCAR history. Sure, I was not on the Voting Panel – however, I did cast my vote online – and in no way was I anything more than another body in the room, but the important thing was that I can say I was there. Sitting amongst legends such as Cotton Owens, Bud Moore, Tom Higgins, Barry Dodson and others was truly an honor. Add to that the chance to meet Teresa Earnhardt in such an intimate setting and Wednesday was something I will remember for years to come.

As I came back to the parking deck I could not help but stop and look up into the dark sky at the curved architecture of the Hall of Fame and the towering NASCAR Plaza behind it. All of my life I have been dreaming of being a part of this sport and somehow that dream has come true. While I have yet to make my mark on this sport, I am honored to walk in the shadows of NASCAR’s storied history.

Building The Mount Rushmore of NASCAR

2009-10-14T21:11:00.000-04:00

Besides the obvious story of who was named to the inaugural class of NASCAR Hall of Fame, one of the day’s hottest topics was the two-and-a-half hour long discussion amongst the 50-person Voting Panel that took place earlier in the day. With so many of NASCAR’s biggest names gathered in one place to determine the inaugural class of inductees, the discussion was in a word “passionate.”

The Voting Panel that gathered Wednesday morning consisted of Kenny Bruce, NASCAR Scene; Dustin Long, Landmark Newspapers/NMPA President; Nate Ryan, USA Today; Jim Pedley, RacinToday.com; Duane Cross, NASCAR.com; Ernie Saxton, Eastern Motorsports Press Association President; Dusty Brandel, American Auto Racing Writers & Broadcasters Association President; Ken Squire; Mike Joy, FOX; Jerry Punch, ESPN; Barney Hall, MRN; Doug Rice, PRN; Rick Allen, Speed; Ed Pepper, Chevrolet Vice President/GM North America; Edsel B. Ford III, Ford Board of Directors; Mike Accavitti, former Director of Dodge Brand Global Marketing, Motorsports; Lee White, President/General Manager, Toyota Racing Development USA; Ricky Rudd; Harry Gant; Ned Jarrett; Bud Moore; Cotton Owens; Junior Johnson; Barry Dodson; Waddell Wilson; Buddy Parrott; H.A. Humpy Wheeler; former journalist Tom Higgins and retired Associated Press writer Mike Harris.

Prior to the formal announcement that Bill France Sr., Richard Petty, Bill France Jr., Dale Earnhardt and Junior Johnson will be the first class inducted, the panel met to discuss the twenty-five nominees and voice their opinions on who should have been included and who should have to wait.

Former champion crew chief Barry Dodson likened Wednesday’s discussions to the Health Care debate raging in Congress right now. One of three crew chiefs on the panel, Dodson explained he was surprised at how many people spoke their opinions in an attempt to plead their case for who they felt belonged among this initial class.

NASCAR Hall of Fame Director Winston Kelley said that from the start the fifty people in the room knew they were about to make history. “We were selecting, somebody put it, the Mount Rushmore of NASCAR,” Kelley explained. “There was incredible passion, incredible professionalism and just appreciation and recognition of what we were about.”

“The atmosphere was fantastic,” Buz McKim, Historian of the Hall of Fame added. “We had a two-and-a-half hour discussion time between 10 and 12:30 and we got to thinking, ‘Hmm, how are we going to fill up that time?’ Man, it was awesome. Everybody that was on the Voting Panel was so diligent about their job, they took it so seriously. Everybody had great ideas and great suggestions.”

Former President of Lowe’s Motor Speedway Humpy Wheeler described the gathering had the feel of the initial founding of the sport more than sixty years ago. “It was a very historic feeling. I think a lot of people remarked it was like being at the Streamline Hotel when NASCAR was founded – without all the unfiltered Camel cigarettes and probably whiskey bottles, although we could have used a few of them.”

Wheeler went on to say once the conversation got underway the atmosphere was full of concern and consisted of very frank discussions about who belonged in this all-important first class. “I hadn’t totally decided who I was going to vote for before I went in there,” Wheeler admitted, saying he knew Bill France Sr. and Junior Johnson were among his shoe-in votes. “But when you’ve got to narrow it down to five and you’ve got all these people that did so much it’s really tough.”

With so much passion and importance placed on the responsibility of the panel some indicated the room was a bit nervous at the outset. There to calm the nerves and get the conversation started was NASCAR Vice President of Communications Jim Hunter. “I said, ‘Look, we want you to speak out. We want you to express your opinions, this is an open forum. No one in here will take it personally, including me.’”

A number of those on the panel explained the day’s discussions had swayed their vote and changed their minds. Lee White, who represented Toyota on Wednesday’s panel, called the debate “amazing,” saying that it was a complete surprise. He also believed that everyone’s vote changed four or five times due to the discussions taking place. McKim noted one panel member changed his mind four times before making his selection and signing his name and submitting his ballot. However, both McKim and Kelley had their choices made long ago.

“Buz McKim and I have probably spent more time thinking about this than most people in there because we eat, sleep and breathe this 24/7 for the past three years,” Kelley explained. “There weren’t many perspectives that I hadn’t thought of and many of them had come up to me at some point and time we have had those discussions. Some of the people it’s not their full-time job like it is mine. I thought about all of those perspectives, I listened to them and decided at the end there wasn’t anything that changed my perspective.”

“I considered a lot that was spoken a lot today, but it didn’t change my mind,” McKim added, “I still voted for the five I wanted to originally.”

Wednesday’s announcement was not full of the glitz and glamour that many expected. The event was short and to the point, with NASCAR Chairman/CEO Brian France opening the five individual envelopes that contained the names of the first class. A short video clip was played for each inductee, but Dale Earnhardt’s video was lacking sound and had to be played twice. Reports are that David Pearson, Cale Yarborough and Bobby Allison were the sixth, seventh and eighth choices of the panel.

Much like the four faces on Mount Rushmore, these five individuals characterize the sport of NASCAR in different ways. Each left their own mark on the sport and forever changed the game. Each year following this one, another five names will be selected, but these five will forever be known as the first five. A true honor that each deserves.

The Kid Got The Keys To The Mustang

2009-10-14T02:00:00.000-04:00

Mark this day, NASCAR race cars are once again cool.

Tuesday in Concord, N.C., Ford Motorsports debuted the 2010 NASCAR Nationwide Series Ford Mustang that will be run in four events next season. Colin Braun drove the No. 16 Con-Way Freight Mustang to the podium of the press conference at Roush Fenway Racing, while team owner Jack Roush was joined by Nationwide Series Director Joe Balash, Bill Wynne, Vice President of Marketing for Con-Way Freight and Member of the Board of Directors for the Ford Motor Company, Edsel B. Ford III.

“This truly marks the start of the next era of Mustang racing,” Brian Wolfe, director, Ford North America Motorsports, who was also in attendance told the gathered media. “We fully expect this Mustang, with drivers like Colin behind the wheel, to start to enjoy the kind of success so many other Mustang racing programs have enjoyed throughout the last four decades.”

“Mustang is a proud and historic brand for Ford. This is a car born to race, and NASCAR is the next logical step for its racing pedigree.”

For Braun and Roush Fenway Racing, this is the next logical step in the young driver’s development. Last year’s Rookie of the year in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, this 21 year-old driver is making the move to the Nationwide Series in 2010 and is bringing sponsor Con-Way Freight with him.

“I’m so happy that Con-way Freight decided to move up with me to the Nationwide Series for 2010,” Braun said after climbing from his new ride. “They have been a great sponsor for the past two years in the truck series so it means a lot to me that they will continue to support me in the future. I’m also looking forward to driving a Mustang next year. I’ve always thought they are such incredible cars, but have never owned one. Maybe when I win my first race the guys at Ford will want to give me one of my own.”

Braun’s chances at earning his own Mustang are pretty good. One of the most iconic cars in American history, the Mustang has scored in excess of 2,000 racing trophies across the globe. Add to that the fact that Jack Roush’s Nationwide organization has a series-high 107 wins, along with two drivers titles and things start to look up.

A muscle car junkie at heart, there is no one more appropriate to welcome the Mustang to the NASCAR world than Jack Roush.

“I have been a Mustang owner and enthusiast for many years myself so this is an exciting day to see this car racing in NASCAR,” the ‘Cat in the Hat’ told the gathered crowd. “My teams have won several road racing championships over the years in Mustangs, and I look forward to winning more with Colin, Carl (Edwards) and Ricky (Stenhouse, Jr.). With the continued support of Ford and Con-way Freight we plan to give Colin the opportunity for his second Rookie of the Year title in NASCAR, and ultimately a Nationwide Series championship.”

While Braun will get his chance at those goals right away in 2010, the Mustang will have to wait a bit. The Nationwide Series will run their new car only on four occasions next season, in Daytona in July, Charlotte, Michigan and Richmond.

* Photo credit Ford Racing

Who Should Be In The First Five?

2009-10-13T12:27:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow, NASCAR history will be made when the first five inductees into the new NASCAR Hall of Fame will be announced. Twenty-five former drivers, owners, mechanics and NASCAR personalities have been nominated, but only five will have the honor of being named to the first class.

Among the nominees there seems to be a few shoe-ins for the first class, including NASCAR founder and long-time president Bill France Sr. and the 'King' Richard Petty. Many also consider Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Bill France Jr. likely picks for the inaugural class, but with so much talent to choose from the final five may surprise some out there.

Now, you may be wondering who selects the five men that will forever be enshrined in NASCAR history. The answer is simple; NASCAR set up a 50 member Voting Panel which includes 14 members of the media, four representatives from the manufacturers, nine retired NASCAR competitors - three drivers, three owners and three crew chiefs - and two recognized industry leaders. The 51st vote will come from fans.

Without a vote on the panel, I made my voice heard by being a part of the fan vote online. Like many, my first choices were Bill France Sr. and Richard Petty, but from there I decided to take my time to think over who truly deserved to be among the most historic names in the sport.

With names like Bill France Jr., Dale Earnhardt Sr., David Pearson, Buck Baker, Lee Petty, Red Byron, Raymond Parks and others on the list, the decision was not going to be easy. To narrow down my choices I chose to focus on those individuals that truly shaped the sport of NASCAR and brought it to the next level. Obviously Bill France Sr. and Richard Petty had done that, but who else had made the most impact on the sport of NASCAR and deserved the honor of being among the first to enter the Hall of Fame?

For me, Bill France Jr. was a no-brainer. Working closely with his father as the sport grew out of the sands of Daytona and the clay tracks of Georgia, Bill Jr. assumed control of the family business when his father stepped down in 1972. At the helm of the company, Bill France Jr. took the sport to the next level by bringing national attention in the form of new fans and lucrative sponsors such as Winston.

With only two more choices I looked towards the Intimidator. There is no question Dale Earnhardt Sr. left his mark on the sport of NASCAR. An everyday hero from the mill town of Kannapolis, N.C., Earnhardt was a hard-nosed driver that refused to be pushed around. His toughness on the track made him one of the sport's most popular drivers and led to seven championship titles and 76 Cup Series victories. In addition to his success on track, Earnhardt's legacy continues to this day after tragically losing his life on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500. Through his death, NASCAR has taken numerous steps to ensure the competitors are as safe as can be and another tragedy like the loss of the sport's biggest name never happens again.

Twenty-one names left to choose from and so many greats, this was going to be tough. Should the honor go to Lee Petty, who paved the way for the Petty family and won the first Daytona 500? What about the first consecutive champion Buck Baker or the first NASCAR champion and war veteran Red Byron? Then there was the legendary Junior Johnson, who bridged the sport's history of bootlegging to the modernization of the sport in the early 1990s.

My last vote, while a tough one, was a clear choice - the legendary car owner Raymond Parks. Growing up in Atlanta, Parks' family ran moonshine, tuned cars and when stock car racing began in the Southeast Parks' cars were always among the front runners. One of the earliest car owners, Parks employed some of the stock car racing's earliest stars in Llyod Seay and Roy Hall and had legendary wrenchman Red Vogt. Tormenting drivers such as Bill France Sr., Parks' teams were among the toughest to beat on the beach course in Daytona and on the clay tracks speckled the South. When NASCAR was created, Parks played a crucial part in the process of legitimizing the sport. Once NASCAR was founded, Parks' driver Red Byron went on to win the first series championship. During his tenure in NASCAR after its founding, Parks' cars won only two races, but his impact on the earliest days of the sport earned my final vote for the Hall of Fame.

The NASCAR Nation and its hordes of fans will learn on Wednesday which five men will forever be known as the first class of inductees into the NASCAR Hall of Fame. One of the greatest days in the history of the sport, Wednesday's announcement will be sure to raise some eyebrows and get the sport talking for years to come. That being said, who would you like to see among the Hall's first class? Send your emails or leave comments letting me know who you would choose to be among the inaugural class.