Happy Tuesday. Today In Nascar History Oct. 20, 1968: Charlie Glotzbach wins the National 500 at Charlotte for his first Cup victory. Glotzbach finishes 7 seconds ahead of Paul Goldsmith. David Pearson finishes third, the only other car on the lead lap. Glotzbach makes 124 starts from 1960 to 1992 and finishes his career with four Cup wins and 12 poles. Quote of the Year There's an unwritten rule in NASCAR: Thou shalt not take on Dale Earnhardt Jr. --Terry Blount/espn Quote of the Day I don't want to wish any trouble on them. But really, the only chances we have to win this championship is to go win the next five races in a row -- or if they run into some problems. -- JEFF GORDON Well, he may not want to, but I sure the heck will. I may be a Chevy girl, but I'm about sick and tired of see JJ win. Vote for your driver! www.chexmostpopular Bits and Pieces Tryson could leave Penske early...if UPDATE If #2-Kurt Busch isn't a factor in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship entering the season finale in Homestead next month, don't be surprised to see crew chief Pat Tryson make an early exit from the #2 Dodge team. "If we find ourselves out of championship contention, that's when we'll make a big change and maybe get the new (crew chief) in there and get a couple races under our belt before we show up back in Daytona," said Busch, who is currently sixth and 121 points behind Johnson in the Chase standings. Tryson announced last month that he'll leave the Penske organization at season's end and become Martin Truex Jr.'s crew chief at Michael Waltrip Racing in 2010.(Racin' Today) UPDATE: Kurt Busch told Sirius NASCAR Radio's Sirius Speedway with Dave Moody Monday that the search is narrowing for a 2010 crew chief for the Miller Lite Dodge. "We've got a guy internally that we're extremely interested in," said Busch. "I'm also going to sit down with our team president, Tim Cindric, tomorrow to talk about some of the other people that he has spoken to about the job. I have a long list of emails and messages from guys who have contacted me and are interested in the job, and that's a good thing. Old guys, young guys, experienced guys, and not-so-experienced guys; we've heard from them all." Busch repeated his earlier assertion that if he falls out of championship contention, outgoing crewchief Pat Tryson could be cleared to leave the team before the final race of the season at Homestead-Miami Speedway. (Sirius NASCAR Radio) All cars cleared after post race inspection: All of the cars that NASCAR took back from Lowe's Motor Speedway following Saturday night's NASCAR Banking 500 Sprint Cup race have cleared inspection and there are no issues. The cars of race-winner #48-Jimmie Johnson and his Hendrick Motorsports teammate #5-Mark Martin and Roush Fenway Racing's #16-Greg Biffle were inspected Monday, and all were cleared, according to a NASCAR spokesman. Officials typically take two cars (the winner and at least one other) back to the sanctioning body's research and development center in Concord, N.C., for a closer look, and the two it took back after Dover Johnson and Martin were legal but pushed the limits of certain tolerances, NASCAR officials said. In the three weeks since that race, NASCAR has taken the Johnson and Martin cars, as well as others, back to the center.(SceneDaily) Burton says decision on crew chief is near UPDATE: #31-Jeff Burton met with members of the media at Lowe's Motor Speedway and discussed his thoughts on the status of his team: HOW CLOSE WOULD YOU SAY YOU GUYS ARE TO RESOLVING THE CREW CHIEF SITUATION ON THE #31 FOR NEXT YEAR? "We're real close. I don't have a definite date but we're real close to having all that figured out. There's a lot of things that are changing at RCR. There's a new way of doing business going into next year and in the midst of that crew chief search for the #31. We're really optimistic that we have that put to bed and we'll be able to talk about that fairly soon."(Chevy Racing) UPDATE: Sirius Speedway has learned that a press conference will be held early next week to announce personnel changes on Jeff Burton's #31 Caterpillar Chevrolet team, including the signing of crewchief Todd Berrier. Berrier will replace Scott Miller, who was recently promoted to Director of Competition at RCR. Berrier has been a crew chief in the RCR organization since 2002. Sources close to the team say a meeting was held this week between Childress, Miller and Berrier to implement a transition plan, and to decide which members of Burton's over-the-wall and race day crews will be retained. Sources say some personnel changes will be implemented as soon as next week, with an official announcement expected on Tuesday.(Sirius Speedway) Stewart to tell if the Whopper is...: #14-Tony Stewart will go head-to-head with a lie detector machine to answer a list of questions. Among the queries will be a question about whether he likes the Whopper-brand hamburger served by one of his sponsors, Burger King. The session will begin at 1:00pm/et, Tuesday, Oct 20th. This is a live Web event, so you must log onto bk.com/TruthAboutTo Raikkonen: I could race in NASCAR...but: 2007 F1 World Champion Kimi Raikkonen reveals that his options are entirely open as to what the future might hold. Kimi Raikkonen has joked that he could race in the North American NASCAR series in 2010 should he so desire as he remained adamant that he still has 'no plans' beyond the end of the current F1 season. The 2007 world champion is being dropped by Ferrari for whom he has driven since that title-winning campaign at the end of the year in favour of Fernando Alonso, the man Raikkonen beat by just a single point two years ago. However, Raikkonen insists he has yet to make any decisions regarding next season, when it has similarly been suggested that he might further indulge his nascent forays into rallying by way of a more full-time switch, or even follow in the wheel tracks of fellow former grand prix stars Jacques Villeneuve and Juan-Pablo Montoya by heading across the Pond to NASCAR, a mooted destination for 'Singapore-gate' protagonist Nelsinho Piquet too. "I have no plans," Raikkonen is quoted as having said by The Associated Press, almost two years to the day to when he claimed his first and thus far only F1 title at Interlagos. "I do what I want with my life. I could race there (in NASCAR) if I wanted but I'm not one of the biggest fans of NASCAR."(Crash. NASCAR seeks recruits at JCSU: The NASCAR College Tour visited Johnson C. Smith University last week, and a group of about 50 students gathered at Biddle Hall to hear from African Americans the stock car racing company hopes represent a significant part of its future. There was Marc Davis, a 19-year-old driver and team owner in NASCAR's Nationwide Series. There was Arionne Allen, a 23-year-old who went through NASCAR's Diversity Internship Program. There was Mike Phillips, a senior manager for track services, who helps run emergency crews at Lowe's Motor Speedway. For the past nine years, NASCAR has sent a team of officials every year to historically black colleges and universities. The goal is to recruit minorities into a sport that hasn't always welcomed them. JCSU was the last of five stops on this year's tour; the others were at Clark Atlanta and Morehouse College in Atlanta, Virginia State University in Petersburg, and Delaware State University in Dover. The college tour dovetails with NASCAR's Drive for Diversity program, a 5-year-old initiative that tries to develop minority and female drivers and pit crew members.(Charlotte Observer) Overnight TV Ratings down for LMS: ABC's broadcast of Saturday night's NASCAR Banking 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte earned a 3.0 overnight rating with a 6 share. Down over 2008's overnight rating of the same race [held 10/11/2008] with a 3.5 rating with a 7 share for the overnights. 2008's final national household rating was 3.8 with a 7 share. Hamlin subbing for Busch in Truck race: Denny Hamlin will take to the track in the #51 Miccosukee Resort/Graceway Pharmaceuticals Toyota Tundra at Martinsville Speedway Saturday, October 24, 2009 in the running of the Kroger 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race. Kyle "Rowdy" Busch, who has typically piloted the Billy Ballew Motorsports entry at companion races, will be at Memphis Motorsports Park with the NASCAR Nationwide Series. Busch leads the Nationwide Series Driver Points Championship. Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Denny Hamlin will step-in for Busch and pilot the Billy Ballew Motorsports NASCAR Camping World truck at Martinsville, Virginia track for the first time since the spring 2008 event. In his last appearance for Ballew in 2008, Hamlin led 64 laps but was caught-up in an on track incident causing rear end damage relegating him to a 21st-place finish. Hamlin has three career Camping World Truck Series starts at Martinsville, posting a best finish of eighth-place in 2006.(Billy Ballew Motorsports) Rudd retired from NASCAR but...: Although Ricky Rudd no longer races in NASCAR, he hasn't stopped competing. He's racing a mountain bike. Rudd, who rides a mountain bike about 12 miles a day four times a week, entered a race about a month ago. It was his first mountain bike race. He said he finished about the middle of his age group in the 11-mile race. "I entered my 50-year-old class and got my butt kicked,'' Rudd said smiling."I wasn't really ready for it, but I thought I'm just going to see where I'm at. Unfortunately, it was a lot of hills and that's where I'm weak at.''(Roanoke Times) LVMS to host fan, charity event during NASCAR Champion's Week: Las Vegas Motor Speedway and NASCAR are bringing Champion's Week to the race fans. Speedway and NASCAR officials have created the Chasers for Charity Fan fest to be held Dec. 2 in the Neon Garage and Blackjack Club at LVMS. The event will include a free-admission fan event throughout the afternoon as well as a charity roast of the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion. The fan fest will serve as the kickoff for NASCAR's inaugural Champion's Week in Las Vegas. Aaron's increases their sports marketing budget: Aaron's has boosted its sports marketing budget by 10% about $1 million a year inking deals with the University of Alabama, NASCAR [Michael Waltrip Racing's #00 Toyota] and Philips Arena, home to the NBA's Atlanta Hawks and NHL's Atlanta Thrashers. Aaron's, which has seen its sales grow during the Great Recession, leases and sells residential and office furniture, consumer electronics, and home appliances and accessories. With an 18% increase in customers compared with a year ago, Aaron's has the cash flow to spend on sports sponsorships, which the company has found to be a very effective way to reach its target market: households with annual incomes of $50,000 or less. Aaron's has existing sports partnerships with Georgia Tech, the University of Texas and NASCAR's Michael Waltrip Racing. "Companies continue to tighten their marketing dollars," said William Chipps, senior editor at IEG Sponsorship Report. "It doesn't surprise me that Aaron's has ramped up [its sports marketing]. They've been involved in sponsorships for years. They've played a lot in motor sports." Aaron's sponsorship with NASCAR, in particular, "gives them a chance to directly communicate with people who tend to be their customers," Chipps said. IEG has seen other "value retailers" increasing their sports sponsorships, as the economy has sagged, to more effectively reach their customers, he said. "Dollar General has also been increasing its involvement with motor sports, too," Chipps said. And Aaron's is looking for even more sponsorship opportunities, Aaron's CEO Robin Loudermilk said. "A lot of opportunities are coming our way and we're taking advantage of it to increase our exposure," he said. "Sports marketing will be a major part of marketing in our foreseeable future."(in part from the Atlanta Business Journal) Them lyin' cheatin' no good Hendrick boys stole another race Greg Engle/nascarexamine The checkered flag was still waving at Lowe's Motor Speedway Saturday night over Jimmie Johnson giving him his sixth win of the year and cementing his lead in the points when the Internet message boards began to light up with the same message, "Jimmie Johnson Cheats." Looking for answers to Junior's disastrous year by Lee Spencer/foxsports. Is there a fix for Dale Earnhardt Jr. — quick or otherwise? First thing first. With five races remaining in the 2009 season, Hendrick Motorsports' first responsibility is locking up its fourth straight championship. Once that's accomplished — and there's little doubt that a Hendrick driver will raise the Sprint Cup title at Homestead in November — the next point of business must be creating a working solution for Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the No. 88 team. In his second season of a five-year contract, Earnhardt is 22nd in the point standings. He's never finished outside of the top 20 since moving up to the Sprint Cup level full-time in 2000. On Friday, Earnhardt could no longer mask his disappointment. "I'm about to the end of my rope on it," Earnhardt said. "I've been riding it out, but I think there comes a point, though, where you don't want to ride it out anymore. 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, but the last several — well, all year, it's been so low. "The highs have been not very high, and the lows have been terribly low. So that'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." Tony Eury Jr., Earnhardt's cousin, long-time crew chief and a casualty of the team's lack of performance this year, shares the pain. "It's a real shame," Eury Jr. said. "I feel real bad for him. People that have been around Dale Jr. for any length of time know he's capable of driving a car. Sticks ain't lined up. Sometimes things don't jell, and I think that's what you have." In late May, owner Rick Hendrick replaced Eury Jr. with veteran Lance McGrew — but not before three other potential crew chiefs declined the offer. Neither Earnhardt nor McGrew knows at this point whether they will remain together in 2010. Earnhardt acknowledges the position is a "tough job." Anyone who signs up to be Earnhardt's crew chief faces intense scrutiny from NASCAR's largest fan base. Any crew chief who accepts the role must be willing to deal with flak from a driver that has an acute feel for the car but struggles if the setup does not suit him. The perfect candidate would dictate the direction of the team and command the respect of the driver. Earnhardt thrived under the authoritarian style of his uncle, Tony Eury Sr., who leads the No. 88 Chevrolet at JR Motorsports in the Nationwide Series and remains fiercely loyal to his nephew. But Eury Sr. insists he's content with his current job. Earnhardt doesn't want the sole responsibility of making the decision on a crew chief. He believes HMS management is better qualified to make that call. But Earnhardt "has fun hanging out with" McGrew and has shown improvement throughout races, even though the results don't reflect their gains. "Nothing's wrong with how that's going for the most part," Earnhardt said of his relationship with McGrew. "Hell, you don't even know if Lance wants to do it. What the hell? I wouldn't want to do it." In the 19 races since McGrew jumped in, Earnhardt has posted one top-five and two top-10 finishes and dropped three positions in the point standings. "We just haven't been able to put the finishes together for one reason or another," McGrew said. "I'm hoping that, with a little bit of time, that consistency comes for both of us." But the melodrama continues. Earnhardt hit a low at Auto Club Speedway on October 11th. That followed a promising run at Kansas Speedway the week prior, where Earnhardt led 41 laps before the engine expired with 35 laps remaining in the race. The team picked itself up and rolled into California, where Junior qualified 37th, ran as high as second and averaged a 12th-place position in the race. Earnhardt was riding 10th when Ryan Newman hit the rear quarter panel and knocked the valve stem out of his tire. With five laps left, the tire deflated, causing Earnhardt to slow on the front straightaway and trigger an eight-car crash. When the team unloaded at Lowe's Motor Speedway on Thursday, the results were no better. "We go out, and we were top 15 in practice, and we went out and tried to qualify, and we're one of the worst cars here," Earnhardt said. "We don't know why or have any answer for it. All the other cars qualified fine, did well, backed their times up in practice, and we didn't even get close. "We looked ridiculous (Thursday) night. So it's like really encouraging one day, and then the next day it's equally discouraging. And that gets really old." Earnhardt is not comfortable being the odd man out. Certainly, he knew in an organization that boasts two champions, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, he'd be expected to deliver. Eury insists that was a challenge Earnhardt embraced. Now add Mark Martin to the equation. Not only is Martin one of the most respected racers in the garage, he also developed almost immediate chemistry with his crew chief, Alan Gustafson, scored five wins this season and is currently sandwiched second in the point standings between Johnson and Gordon. Given Earnhardt's immense popularity, it's detrimental to both the driver and ultimately the sport to have the situation fester this long. Despite the depth and wealth of talent at Hendrick Motorsports, no one within that organization has developed a solution for the No. 88 team — the only full-time Hendrick car outside of the Chase. Hendrick met with the No. 88 crew on Saturday. Following the race, he admitted that he's "as frustrated" as the team. Hendrick added the entire organization is "committed to helping get that car on track." "I thought we had turned the corner at Loudon," Hendrick said of Earnhardt, who was sixth before he tangled with David Reutimann with 17 laps remaining in that race. "It was probably one of our better cars, and then California, Kansas, good car, real good car, and then this week a very disappointing qualifying run, and then we had the problems with the transmission in (Saturday night's) race." Saturday, Earnhardt was plagued with mechanical problems again when the No. 88 Chevrolet lost fourth gear after Lap 124. Prior to the malfunction, Earnhardt had climbed from 39th to 18th. "When you feel like you're snake bit, it's hard to show up and try to pretend that everything is great," Hendrick said. "I told them, this can't last. We've got too many smart people over there to not fix it. We've been right on the edge of if we could have finished two or three of those races and not have been swept up in a wreck, we wouldn't be really talking about it." For Earnhardt, however, not finishing races has been a reoccurring theme. In 14 of 31 events this year he failed to finish on the lead lap. Hendrick said the perception that "people doubt Earnhardt's commitment" has been "eating him up." Eury Jr., who has raced with and against Earnhardt since they were teenagers, knows the depth of his former driver's commitment and ability. He worked alongside his cousin for most of his 18 Cup wins and both Busch (now Nationwide) Series titles at Dale Earnhardt Inc. Eury refuses to interject himself into the situation, but he believes Earnhardt could benefit from additional testing of the new car. He uses Richard Childress Racing as an example of an organization that fell behind the curve when NASCAR implemented its testing ban. Eury exhausted his own arsenal of setups with Earnhardt while he was still crew chief. Earnhardt showed promise the first season at Hendrick with wins in the Budweiser Shootout and Gatorade Duel at Daytona and a points race at Michigan. He posted seven top fives and 11 top-10 finishes in the first 15 races. Not long after, the team attempted to use the No. 48 team's setups even though Johnson enjoys an extremely loose-feeling car. As the new car evolved, Eury had difficulty adapting the platform to suit the driver. "Testing would help benefit him because they could try to learn that profile quicker," Eury said. "You come to a race weekend and try to figure stuff out, well, you're kicking a ball. This was my problem at the beginning of the year, and I told Rick this. I had no confidence walking into the racetrack. I had Jimmie's setup. I had my old setup. I had (Jeff Gordon's) setup, and I walked in the garage with all three. And I was totally confused on which way to go when I got there because I wondered, 'Which one is he going to want this week?' "But when I came to Hendrick, I was like, 'I'm doing this right here. If it don't work, it's my ass. I'm fine with it. I'm confident with it, because I knew that's what works and that's what I'm going to run. And when we came out of the gate, we ran." The team led laps in 22 of 36 races and qualified for the Chase the first season. Earnhardt's only two DNFs came at Talladega in October after Carl Edwards ignited a 12-car wreck and in the season finale at Homestead when a wheel bearing failed. The 2009 campaign, by contrast, started with Earnhardt missing his pit stall at Daytona, drawing a one-lap penalty for parking outside the box and wrecking his Chevy in an incident with Brian Vickers that collected 10 cars. Earnhardt was plagued with an engine failure in Fontana the next week. In the first third of the season, Earnhardt posted a season-high second at Talladega and top-10 finishes at Las Vegas (following a stern admonition from Hendrick) and Martinsville. After a miserable 40th-place finish at Lowe's Motor Speedway in May, where no adjustment could be found to appease the driver, Eury knew a change was imminent. "When they removed me, I knew things weren't going to get any better," Eury said. "No matter what I did over here, one person isn't going to make a race team. It never has, it never will, and whoever says it does is a liar. "If you look at a good race team and you look at the two or three people down below that guy — that's your race team. That's who makes it happen are those three together. There's no one person that's going to make a race team great. That's what they're missing. They need to make a couple of changes and make things better and get their driver's confidence back up." Eury has heard all the armchair analysis — "He falls out of the seat. He has too many outside interests." But he doesn't buy it. Although there were times he lost faith in his own ability, he never stopped believing in Earnhardt. Eury is convinced that Earnhardt is willing to do whatever it takes to return to his old form — even if it means seeking the support of a sports psychologist. "I've talked to him several times and said, 'Look, you're still a great race car driver. You just have some bad things happening. You just have to do your time here and do the best you can every week and try to make it better.' He's definitely stepped that way, but they've got a long way to go." If there is no vast improvement on the No. 88 team next season, what are Earnhardt's options? At 35, Earnhardt is still young enough to appeal to many organizations. His father's former boss and friend Richard Childress was interested in Earnhardt during the last round of negotiations and still believes there's "a lot more he will accomplish." Certainly, JR Motorsports could eventually expand into an operation similar to the arrangement that Stewart-Haas Racing shares with HMS. Earnhardt enjoyed the best years of his career at DEI, a smaller, family-owned organization. Driving for JRM would offer Earnhardt the best of both worlds without losing his own identity in the process. But for now, everybody is committed to finding a fix at Hendrick Motorsports. Are There Any "Dales" Out There? Jim McCoy/bump-drafts. He may have been a second generation racer, but his father was gone before his career even really got started. He had some help along the way, but truly, he battled for every inch of ground he ever gained. A lot of today's young drivers have backgrounds that actually bear a greater resemblance to that of many Olympic athletes than a hardscrabble stroker trying to catch a break. The parents make personal sacrifices to get their prodigy's career started, moving to whatever location necessary, spending whatever money was needed. There's nothing wrong with that. That's pretty much how Jeff Gordon's career was launched and Joey Logano followed a similar path. Quite simply, parents spotted a precocious talent and nurtured the best way they knew. Others come to NASCAR with racing in their blood. David Ragan comes to mind, as do the Busch brothers, Kurt and Kyle. The most notable examples of such are no less than the sons of two (actually three) members of NASCAR's first Hall Of Fame class- Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kyle Petty and Bill France Jr (not as a driver, but you get what I mean). T You can't change what family you were born into, but you can see where I'm going with this by now. What we don't have is a notable young racer who battled and clawed to get to the top a la Dale Earnhardt. Not making it, for Earnhardt, meant becoming a "Linthead" at Fieldcrest Cannon. Yeah, there are some guys who've trod a less than smooth path to get to the Cup level- but had Carl Edwards not made it racing cars, he'd likely be teaching somewhere. If Kurt Busch had not found NASCAR success, he'd likely be filling your prescription. I'm probably being a bit simplistic, but I think you see what I'm getting at: today's NASCAR just doesn't have that rough hewn survivor, fresh off the factory floor taking his one shot at glory. I get the sense, that the Chase, the Car of Tomorrow and all the rule changes aside, that what NASCAR is really lacking is a folk hero, a driver of whom you can say, "He is one of us", like you could Earnhardt. I don't know if that's possible, given the world in which we live. In a broader sense, our culture has changed. The youngest athletes, be it racing or football, have chosen a specialized road much earlier, becoming the new Jeff Gordon's of their sport. That blue collar guy, well, there's a lot fewer of him, as manufacturing jobs have gone overseas and technology has advanced. Breaking in to racing has gotten more expensive than ever. The Hamlin's sank nearly every penny they had in to getting Denny's career off the ground. Thank goodness, for them, the investment paid off several times over. It's not a pleasant thought to consider what would have happened had he failed at his endeavor. Look at all the fledgling teams trying to get off the ground. It's been said more than once, that to make a small fortune in NASCAR, you have to start out with a large one. I guess my point is summed up in this question: Could a young Dale Earnhardt have survived trying to break into today's NASCAR? Can that driver with the humble beginnings, somehow claw and scrap his way in? Please don't misunderstand me. This is not a criticism of today's driver, nor a criticism of today's NASCAR. As they say, "It is what it is." You can't make someone something that they're not. A fabricated folk hero, such as you often see in politics, is worse than no folk hero at all. Perhaps now, more than ever, I have an appreciation for those racers of days gone by, drivers that pretty much had to fight to get in on their own. Through no fault of their own, such drivers are becoming more and more rare. So when asking the question, "Are there any Dales out there?", the answer is probably, "not likely." In the world in which we live, they're harder to come by. But it wouldn't be cool if there were? Maybe somewhere- perhaps in an inner city, perhaps in some dying farm community somewhere- the next Dale Earnhardt is out there. Do you know of anyone out there? Is there someone for whom we should be on the look out? If there is, the story has not yet been told. And what a story that would be. Jimmie's current run is stuff of legend Ryan McGee/espn.com When Jimmie Johnson walked into the Lowe's Motor Speedway media center on Saturday night -- barely 45 minutes after his Chase-crushing third win in five races -- he invoked the names of Tiger Woods and Roger Federer to describe the No. 48 team's current four-year run of dominance. In an instant, NASCAR-themed message boards and Twitter accounts were ablaze with cries of "How dare he!" Guess what, though? He's right on the money. To crunch the numbers on Jimmie's greatness with Ryan McGee -- comparing several other legendary drivers to No. 48 -- you must be an ESPN Insider. This is despite the fact -- noted by my colleague Ed Hinton on Friday -- that no one wants to appreciate what Johnson and his team are doing. Another colleague, Marty Smith, has contended Johnson might be the best driver ever. I should have warned Marty and Ed about the inevitable reaction they'd get. Trust me on this, folks. I wrote a feature in The Mag three issues ago, wondering aloud if Johnson might be the greatest, and my inbox has been filled with even more "You're a moron!" e-mails than usual. Like it or not, what we are currently witnessing is a four-year term of stock car destruction the likes of which we've never witnessed. Don't believe me? Let's see how JJ's hotness compares to other great four-year runs of NASCAR seasons past:
Richard Petty 1972-75 The year before NASCAR's Modern Era began (1971), "The King" won his third championship, thanks to 21 wins in 46 starts. In '72, NASCAR contracted the schedule and started moving away from short and dirt tracks, and concentrating more on superspeedways. Didn't matter. Petty won the '72 Cup, finished fifth in '73 (congrats to Benny Parsons), and then won the next two titles to bring his career total to six. By the way, don't read too much into the difference in laps led between Petty and Johnson. There were 10 short-track races on the '72 schedule and only six this year. It's a lot easier to rack up laps led on a half-mile track than a one-and-a-half- Cale Yarborough 1976-79 Prior to 1974, Yarborough had showed signs of greatness throughout his career -- even starting a handful of Indy 500 races. But when he signed on to drive Junior Johnson's No. 11 Chevy, he was propelled into the ranks of the immortals. He became the first driver (and until last year, the only) to win back-to-back- Darrell Waltrip 1981-84 When Yarborough left Junior Johnson's team at the end of the 1980 season, he was replaced by DW, who picked right up where Cale left off. He won back-to-back titles in '81 and '82, finished second to arch-nemesis Bobby Allison in '83 and wound up fifth during Terry Labonte's improbable title run of '84. Waltrip bounced back the following season to win his third title in five years, then left Johnson for Hendrick Motorsports in '87 amid a very ugly and very public squabble. Now, both Junior and DW admit that split cost them many more wins and at least one more championship. Dale Earnhardt 1990-93 When it comes to "The Intimidator, Jeff Gordon 1995-98 Even if Johnson wins his fourth straight Cup this year, he'll be hard-pressed to top his teammate/boss when it comes to reigns of terror. Gordon's dominance was literally demoralizing to the entire garage. The only year in this span without a championship was '96, when Gordon finished second to teammate Terry Labonte by a mere 37 points, despite having won 10 races to "Texas Terry's" two, and leading 2,314 laps to Labonte's 973. "It was like I've heard Jack Nicklaus say about the height of his career," says Ray Evernham, Gordon's former crew chief. "He knew he had 90 percent of the field beat just by showing up. That's how we felt." Sounds a lot like another Hendrick Motorsports team these days, doesn't it? Father's experience helping Coleman Pressley navigate move into NASCAR By Mike Hembree/scenedaily. For Robert Pressley, once labeled as a can't-miss Sprint Cup driver, the run at the big time did not work out. For Coleman Pressley, Robert's 20-year-old son, there are lessons to be learned. He's edging into NASCAR major-series racing with a few starts in the Nationwide Series this year, and he has a long history as an observer to build upon. He watched his dad at almost every turn. "He's been at every race I've probably ever run," Robert Pressley says. "The times I thought he wasn't paying attention, he was. He knows what he has to do. He knows this is tough. Usually, you get one shot. Some get a second. He knows he has to take full advantage of the opportunities he gets. He knows he can be here one day and gone the next." Coleman has raced in four Nationwide events this year and failed to finish any because of mechanical problems. He hopes to attempt a full-schedule run either next year or in 2011, the choice largely depending on the economy and the availability of sponsor money. He knows there is a particular spotlight on sons of drivers in racing, but he says he is working on finding his way while dealing with that eventuality. "I've seen everything from people who have made it to people on their way to making it to people who haven't," he says. "I don't really base myself off them. I just do the best I can and let the chips fall where they may. "I put a lot of pressure on myself to run good. I think what people think about drivers' sons is that you have a golden road ahead of you and that everything is given to you. You don't have to work for anything. That's not true. Yeah, we got some good help from friendships my dad has made along the way, but we're racing like any other backyard team does in Late Models, and we're making sure we work for it." Coleman's father turned a successful career in what is now the Nationwide (then Busch) Series into what was at the time a coveted Cup ride. He replaced the retiring and ultra-popular Harry Gant as driver for the Leo Jackson Motorsports team, and big things were expected when they ran their first full season in 1995, when Coleman was 7 years old. The combination never clicked. The Jackson team had begun a slow decline, and Pressley, despite winning 10 times in Nationwide racing, failed to crack victory lane in Cup. He ended his full-time driving career in 2005 in NASCAR's Truck series, where he scored a pair of victories in 2002. "I can say I made a lot of wrong choices along the way, with opportunities I had that I didn't take, but I feel like I did a lot with what we had to do with," Robert Pressley says. "We had some good runs and opportunities to knock on the door to win races, but the one thing I've told Coleman is that I'll never say that I regret any of the decisions I made. Maybe they weren't the right ones at the time, but we made the best of what we had all the way through. "I guess it's easy for somebody to sit around on Monday morning and talk about a football game that was played Sunday and how they would have done it. I feel like I made all the right decisions. "We had some good years with Jasper Racing [in Cup, after the Jackson team] before I went into trucks and won some races. At least I knew I could still drive. We had some good success there." Coleman Pressley followed his father (and grandfather, Asheville, N.C., legend Bob Pressley) onto short tracks and targeted driving as a career. It was time, in 2005, for Robert to park as a driver and concentrate on boosting his son. "I was not at my peak anymore," he says. "There were a lot of young kids coming in. Coleman was coming along, and who better to work with him than me." Coleman is driving for JTG Daugherty team owner Brad Daugherty, who also put Robert in top-of-the-line Nationwide cars as he was building his career. "Brad was at the hospital the day after Coleman was born," Robert says. "Here it is 20 years later, and he's driving for him." Currently a full-time driver in the United Auto Racing Association, Coleman says he wants to race in the Nationwide Series as a regular as soon as possible but takes a realistic overview. "It is hard to wait, but you have to realize the way the economy is," he says. "I want to move up. It's a matter of getting the financial backing. Whenever the opportunity comes, I know I'm going to be 100 percent ready. "When I turned 6 years old and got my first go-kart, I knew racing is what I wanted to do. I tried other sports – baseball, basketball – in high school, and I enjoyed it, but I didn't have the passion for it like I did for racing. During my sophomore year, I said I'm going to make it racing. I went straight to work at JTG out of high school. I've done everything from building shocks to tearing down cars to sweeping floors. I drive the pit practice car. I'm an extra set of hands." Now it's mostly a matter of waiting until the right circumstances merge for Coleman to get his best shot. "From the day he started, he's done better than I expected," Robert says. "He adapts to so much so quickly. The first time he ran Late Model, I was trying to coach him along, but, man, it was like every time I got ready to say something he had already done it. "I know he gets impatient waiting, but he has taken my advice on everything and waited it out. He's a lot more patient than his daddy has ever been." On the Right Track A NASCAR BLOG BY Jeff Gluck A full day of watching football from my couch yesterday reminded me of one of NASCAR's most important marketing tools: commercials featuring drivers who cross over into mainstream sports telecasts. The two primary examples yesterday were Burger King's "Truth About Tony" spots featuring Tony Stewart being hooked up to a lie-detector machine and Jimmie Johnson's oft-played Lowe's/Kobalt Tools commercial where he's fixing various items in disrepair. NASCAR is constantly searching for ways to penetrate the "stick-and-ball" sports market and attract new fans, occasionally with a little success. But as the sanctioning body well understands, a terrific way to spread its message is to have sponsors that use the drivers in advertising campaigns. Most NASCAR drivers are featured in commercials that play only during races. Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Carl Edwards have been occasional exceptions to that, but Stewart has gotten the most non-racing airtime this year through the Old Spice commercials and now the Burger King ads (every sports fan is familiar with the "Estrada" spot by now). The Stewart ads are good for the sport because he's clearly identified as a race-car driver. Johnson's Kobalt ads lack that same quality, however, because Johnson just looks like a regular guy – no firesuit, no race car, no writing on the screen that says "Jimmie Johnson: NASCAR driver." To non-fans, the fact a three-time NASCAR champion was even in the commercial would be totally lost. And certainly non-fans would have no idea who crew chief Chad Knaus is. Burger King seems to be using the "new" sponsor model of not being on the car for many races but promoting its association with the driver anyway. The fast-food chain has only appeared on Stewart's car twice so far this season, but judging by the advertising, you'd think it was all 31 races. The teams may not benefit as much financially from such arrangements, but NASCAR as a whole does. Tom Higgins Scuffs Recalling Schrader's big win, it's about time to come clean Few NASCAR drivers have been more fun-loving than Ken Schrader. It appears the torch has officially been passed Try as he might, Gordon just cannot catch Johnson By Joe Menzer, NASCAR.COM CONCORD, N.C. -- There was a brief moment at Lowe's Motor Speedway on Saturday when it appeared the clock had been turned back. But then, just as quickly as Jeff Gordon passed Jimmie Johnson for the lead late in the NASCAR Banking 500, it was back to the future. Or at least back to the present. That the present belongs to Johnson, and not Gordon, cannot be disputed. Even Gordon, his crew chief Steve Letarte and his car owner Rick Hendrick have a difficult time contesting that at the least the immediate future already is in Johnson's firm ownership grip as well. Yet, there it was on Saturday for the racing world to behold -- like the days of old: Gordon's No. 24 Chevrolet passing Johnson's No. 48 Chevy for the lead with just 15 laps remaining in a 334-lap event. Alas, it was a mirage. Gordon and Letarte and, well, really anyone who had been paying close attention knew it. On Letarte's command, the No. 24 team had gambled on the previous pit stop -- taking on only two tires to gain valuable track position while Johnson and most of the rest of the cars running up front took on four. So Gordon's breath of fresh air -- or was it a blast from the past? -- lasted a mere two laps. Then Johnson not only passed him, but so did Matt Kenseth and Kasey Kahne. Those drivers eventually finished one-two-three in the event, leaving Gordon surprisingly upbeat and satisfied despite having to settle for fourth. "We were able to get to the outside of Jimmie and I thought, 'I don't know, if we're able to get out front, maybe these two tires will hold up,'" Gordon said. "We gave it everything we had. But if we hadn't taken two, we would never have had a shot at him. We just wouldn't have been able to get up through there and pass enough cars and probably would have finished ninth or 10th. So just to be battling up there for the win made for a spectacular night." Back in the day There was a time when fourth would not have been considered a spectacular night for Gordon under almost any circumstances. But then again, there was a time when Gordon regularly won races and championships. Now he contends for them -- or at least this season, he is -- but rarely gets to enjoy the spoils of either because Johnson, his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, always seems to be getting in his way. Hendrick admitted it puts him in a difficult emotional state at times. But then he sort of shrugged and admitted that as long as the person beating Gordon also is in his employment, it is up to Gordon and his team to learn to deal with it. After all, Gordon is the one who recommended that Hendrick hire the unknown Johnson in 2001. Gordon is the one who is listed as Johnson's car owner. "Jeff's been in this long enough to know that he was that guy that everybody said, 'I can run second to him every week, but I can't catch him,'" Hendrick said. "He's proud of Jimmie, but he wants to beat Jimmie. It's one of those deals where somebody's got to finish second or third or whatever, but I think he's been in that top position before just like Jimmie -- and one day Jimmie's going to have to face that from somebody else. If you're going to do this long enough, you've got to deal with it." Lord knows, Gordon is trying mightily. He has finished second eight times this season. His fourth on Saturday snapped a string of two consecutive second-place finishes -- yet he keeps losing ground to Johnson in the Chase. Changing of the guard While Gordon has won one race this season -- one in the past two seasons combined, in fact -- Johnson has now won a series-high total of six this season and 13 in the past two. Take it back three-seasons plus and Johnson holds a 28-9 advantage on Gordon in victories. That's why Gordon can take solace in a fourth-place finish that moved him up to third from fifth in the points standings, even if he dropped further behind Johnson overall -- falling from 105 points off the pace to a more daunting 135 with five races to go. "We're not gaining on the 48, but we're gaining on everybody else. That's just as important," Gordon said. "I don't think we can beat those guys straight up if they don't have problems. They're just too strong, too fast. We proved that in clean air and with four tires, we can be faster than everybody. But you're still not going to make up 100 points that way. "I don't want to wish any trouble on them. But really, the only chances we have to win this championship is to go win the next five races in a row -- or if they run into some problems. They're just too strong. They're not going to have a 12th-place day. It just doesn't happen to them." Letarte tried hard to sound optimistic after the race -- and, in fact, he pulled it off. But he seemed more optimistic about being happy about solid second- and fourth-place finishes in the No. 24 car's future than he did about actually catching Johnson. "We did not do all we could do. We finished fourth. We could have won," Letarte said. "I mean, it's frustrating because we're not winning races -- but it's really great to see the team, how motivated they are. Jeff's driving the wheels off it; I felt like I called a great race. I think we could have given him a little bit better of a car -- but is it frustrating? "It's frustrating anytime you didn't win. It may be a little consolation that we're moving up in the points, even if we're losing ground to the leader. We started off a little slow; it's our own fault. But we're only halfway [through the Chase] so we've still got a chance." Maybe so, but Johnson's got a far better chance to catch Gordon -- in total Cup titles, that is. Once, not so long ago, it was all the rage to speculate about how Gordon, who won his fourth championship in 2001, might eventually challenge the all-time record for championships held jointly by recent NASCAR Hall-of-Fame selections Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt. Now Johnson is poised to win his fourth -- an unprecedented fourth consecutive championship, no less. If someone is going to stop this runaway train into the future, he hasn't yet appeared in the 34-year-old Johnson's rear-view mirror long enough for anybody to get a good look at him, least of all Johnson. And he shows no signs of slowing down to permit that to happen anytime soon. The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer. NASCAR ON TV THIS WEEK
All times Eastern Well, that's all for today. Until the next time, I remain, Your Nascar Momma Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, wine in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOO HOO what a ride!"
"Don't come here and grumble about going too fast. Get the hell out of the race car if you've got feathers on your legs or butt. Put a kerosene rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up there and eat that candy ass." -Dale Earnhardt - 1998 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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