Happy Hump Day. Today In Nascar History Nov. 11, 2000: For the first time in Busch Series history, three rookies finish in the top 10 in points: Kevin Harvick (third), Ron Hornaday (fifth) and Jimmie Johnson (10th). Quote of the Year There's an unwritten rule in NASCAR: Thou shalt not take on Dale Earnhardt Jr. --Terry Blount/espn
Vote for your driver! www.chexmostpopular Comments from the Peanut Gallery From RD I disagree with Chip on this issue. I don't mind hearing the points as they stand, at the every moment in time. I feel it exactly akin to knowing the score of some stick an ball game. In those games we know the only score that counts is the final score. I see this as a good thing not bad at all. I can still remember when the Nets only showed the leading car, rarely showing the race in the pack. I feel race broadcast are far better then they ever were. Unless of course, there is a Waltrip involved. Then it surly is time to watch with the sound muted. rd Bits and Pieces Brad Parrott Released From RAB Racing Concord, NC – RAB Racing announced Tuesday that Brad Parrott was released from his duties as crew chief on the No. 09 Zaxby's Ford Fusion in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, effective immediately. Car Chief Ben Gable will assume those responsibilities for the final two races of 2009. A permanent replacement for 2010 will be named at a later date. Clinching Scenarios: What Johnson Can Do To Lock Up The Championship: With two races left in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, #48-Jimmie Johnson leads the standings by 73 points over second-place #5-Mark Martin and 112 points over third-place #24-Jeff Gordon. With the standings tight as the season comes to a close, everyone wants to know what Johnson has to do to clinch the title. WIX Filters Inks Deal with Richard Petty Motorsports: WIX Filters has signed on with Richard Petty Motorsports in 2010 as an associate sponsor of the #43 car in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. In addition, WIX is offering their customers the unique opportunity to join the WIX team to cheer the #43 car in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Banking 500 in October 2010 and the ability to treat their best customers or salespeople to a once in a lifetime race weekend. The associate sponsorship with Richard Petty Motorsports provides WIX secondary brand placement on the #43 car, and driver and pit crew suits, pit box and car hauler for the entire 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule. It also puts WIX as the primary sponsor of the NASCAR Sprint Cup paint scheme for the October 2010 NASCAR Banking 500 at Charlotte.(Camp and Assoc) Three drivers attempting triple duty at Phoenix: Two drivers will be aiming to make history this weekend by becoming the first to win in all three NASCAR national series at Phoenix International Raceway Kyle Busch [#18 Cup, #18 NNS, #51 CWTS] and Kevin Harvick [#29 Cup, #33 NNS, #4 CWTS]. And Kevin Conway is attempting to make all three races [#70 Cup, #26 NNS and #71 CWTS]. Busch came close to scoring the feat last weekend at Texas when he won both the NASCAR Camping World Truck and NASCAR Nationwide Series races, but fell just short when he ran out of gas a few laps short of the checkered flag in the NASCAR Sprint Cup race, relegating him to a 11th-place finish. Both Busch and Harvick have won at Phoenix in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Conway will be attempting to make his Sprint Cup and Camping World Truck Series debuts. Conway is guaranteed a spot in the NNS race, the Cup and Trucks race, he needs to qualifying by speed to make the races. Almirola files lawsuit: Aric Almirola has filed a lawsuit in North Carolina Superior Court alleging that Earnhardt Ganassi Racing and Dale Earnhardt Inc. have breached their contract with him. Almirola, who drove in seven Sprint Cup races this year for the team before his car was parked because of a lack of sponsorship, filed the complaint last Thursday. DEI had announced last year that Almirola would run a full season in 2009, but the organization later merged its Cup operation with Chip Ganassi Racing to form Earnhardt Ganassi Racing. The complaint does not detail the circumstances surrounding the breach-of-contract claim and asks the court to refer the matter to arbitration. Almirola had filed two notices of a claim last month, and he had until Thursday to file the actual complaint. He is dismissing his claim against Chip Ganassi Racing and EGR co-owner Teresa Earnhardt but proceeding in the one against EGR and DEI. The team had no comment.(SceneDaily Dale Earnhardt Sr. honored by NC Motorsports Association: The North Carolina Motorsports Association (NCMA) announced that Dale Earnhardt Sr. will be the 2010 Achievement in Motorsports Tribute Award Recipient. Earnhardt will be honored on January 25th, 2010 at the NCMA's 4th Annual Motorsports Industry Awards Banquet. Past recipients have included; Benny Parson's (2007), Richard Petty (2008) and Richard Childress (2009). In addition, 10 Industry related organizations were announced to be awarded at the upcoming banquet for their 2009 achievements and contributions to the industry. The announcements were made during the NCMA's Annual Membership Luncheon held at Lowes Motor Speedway. (NCMA) #1 Chevy deemed too low UPDATE: The #1 Bass Pro Chevy driven by Martin Truex Jr. failed a post-race inspection when NASCAR officials found the height of the car was too low. The violation was discovered because the #1 Chevy was the random car selected for inspection after the Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. Truex finished 14th. Any penalties for the team will be announced on Tuesday, NASCAR officials confirmed. NASCAR also is taking three cars back to the Research and Development Center in Concord, N.C. -- the #2 Dodge of race winner Kurt Busch, the #24 Chevy of Jeff Gordon, who finished 13th, and the #5 Chevy of Mark Martin, who finished fourth. NASCAR also will take three engines to the R&D Center -- the #2 Dodge, the #11 Toyota motor of driver Denny Hamlin, who finished second, and Gordon's. The winning car and the engines from the top two finishers always are inspected in the R&D Center.(ESPN) Penalties Issued For Car #1 Team: NASCAR announced penalties for the car No. 1 team in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series for a violation that occurred during post-race inspection last Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway. The team was penalized for violating Sections 12-1 (actions detrimental to stock car racing); 12-4-I (any determination by NASCAR officials that the race equipment used in the event does not conform to NASCAR rules); and 20-12.8.1B (front of the car did not meet the required height specification; too low in post-race inspection). Crew chief Kevin Manion was fined $50,000 and remains on NASCAR probation until Dec. 31, 2009. Car owner Teresa Earnhardt and driver Martin Truex Jr., were penalized with the loss of 50 championship owner and 50 championship driver points, respectively. NASCAR needs its critics, not old drivers and crew chiefs Greg Engle/nascarexamine A couple of weeks ago NASCAR reporter Dustin Long, one of the best in the business, gathered three men connected to NASCAR, Kyle Petty, Jimmy Spencer and Larry McReynolds Did You Notice? Thomas Bowles · Frontstretch. Championship Collusion, Poor Media Manners, And Salvaging 2009 Did You Notice? … That during Jimmie Johnson's marathon "Fix It" job inside the Cup garage Sunday, it was not just his own team but crew members from one of his main championship rivals helping out? Mechanics from both Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s No. 88 and, yes, Jeff Gordon's No. 24 were among Hendrick's King's Horses and Hendrick's King's Men who helped put Humpty Dumpty Johnson's car together again. Now Earnhardt's crew helping out is one thing … but Gordon's? The same guy who actually stands to gain in the standings if Johnson's car was deemed unfixable? That's a really hard concept for me to stomach. Sure, it's not the first time other teams have chipped in to help a championship rival at a crucial moment. In the final race of 1973, Benny Parsons' car crashed on Lap 11, limping to the garage a mangled heap of sheet metal with a title hanging in the balance. What transpired afterwards was an incredible outpouring of support, as team members from other organizations came around and helped in whatever way they could to ensure Parsons' No. 72 made it back on track. In the end, he toughed it out for enough laps to jump from a 43rd-place finish to 28th, assuring him the title over Cale Yarborough and Richard Petty. But I'm sure you can realize the differences between then and now. Despite the overwhelming support that day, no one from Junior Johnson's (Yarborough) or Petty's team came to help Parsons fix their car. After all, why would you help someone when it would cost you the championship yourself? Certainly, there's a philosophy that you don't want to win based on someone else's misfortune. But that type of stuff happens in sports all the time! A few years back, my alma mater, Colgate, played Delaware for the Division I-AA championship. On the first series, our star quarterback injured himself and was all but knocked out of the game. Did Delaware take out their star quarterback to make things fair? Of course not. We went on to lose 40-0 … and no one was blaming Delaware for capitalizing on someone else's misfortune (although I'm sure we were calling them plenty of names on the way out). The beauty of sports is good ol' fashioned competition, and there would be no such thing as bad luck if someone else didn't wind up benefiting from it. So that's why using any member of Gordon's crew rubbed me the wrong way … and then some. Even if it was just the catch can man, it's an element of favoritism one team shouldn't have over another. And to add insult to injury, let's not forget how badly Gordon struggled on the race track all day long. When your car is dropping like a rock, wouldn't you want your car chief by your side instead of busy consulting on how to put your biggest rival's car back together from scratch? I've been worried for years that team orders are one day going to take center stage in the battle for the championship. And that's why I'm sure for people who aren't Hendrick fans, it's very hard to get amped up for a championship battle between three cars that all depend on the same organization to put them together. If Johnson's in trouble at Homestead, what happens then? What script will HMS write? After running 13th, Gordon referred to Sunday's race as a missed opportunity. But after the way things played out behind the scenes, you wonder if it's one he was simply choreographed not to have. Did You Notice? … Some questions from my media brethren that made me blush this week? I've gotten several comments from readers complaining about some columnists "packing it in" with the '09 title Chase turning into a Jimmie Johnson runaway. I think that was at the heart of Ramsey Poston's comments last week, too. I have too many friends, too many connections from a life in TV to make my thoughts on the matter public as it'll be tinged with too much bias. But one thing I will say that sticks with me always with anything I do in NASCAR — be it TV, writing, or on-air work — is the willingness to focus on all 43 drivers, all 43 stories over the course of a race instead of just one. In my experience as a fan for 20 years, eight of which with a driver long faded from title contention, my top priority when watching was always to see how my particular driver was doing. Sure, maybe you want to know every once in awhile how the championship Chase is shaking out, but if you're a Clint Bowyer fan for example you're always looking to know how his race is going, where he is on the track, and what news items happened during the week that impacted his team directly. So too often lately with the media in general, I think we've been losing this basic concept based on the Chase overtaking our lives – and Texas was a perfect example of that. Once Johnson wrecked on Lap 3, yes, that allowed for two, maybe three drivers to get back in the title race depending on how Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon, and Juan Pablo Montoya did. But with everyone else at least 279 points behind Johnson with three races left, there was no way anyone else could work their way back into title contention. Remember the record for the largest deficit overcome to win a championship? Alan Kulwicki was 278 points behind with six races to go in 1992 before coming back and squeaking by Bill Elliott to take the title. So what in the world would make anyone think guys like Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin, Kurt Busch, etc. could make that deficit up in three? Yet to the media and questioners assembled, the word "championship" just couldn't get out of their minds. Now I wasn't present for these interviews this weekend, so all I can go through is the post-race transcripts. But why in the world would you ask Carl Edwards or Denny Hamlin if they're upset about Jimmie wrecking? Here's an actual question posed to Edwards… "Is it frustrating to not be able to make up ground on Jimmie when he's having problems?" Now, Mr. Edwards is the epitome of positivity, one of the most optimistic people I know. But at 437 points behind after Talladega, he was well aware his bid for the championship this season was over. Done. He's just thinking about winning races and building momentum for next year. What the heck does catching Johnson have to do with that? Bottom line, the only people that should be concerned with Johnson are Martin, Gordon, and Montoya (who blew his shot by wrecking himself later in the day). That's it. So what do you ask the other guys? How a bad run effects their momentum for 2010, the track conditions, what things they experimented with … anything but questions about the freaking championship. We just need to be careful not to forget that in the midst of the playoffs, an actual race breaks out each week. That's what so many of the fans are looking to see … and that should be at least a small part of what we analyze. Did You Notice? … I better practice what I preach, considering I started this column with a championship note. So I wanted to point out a few teams that have picked it up during the playoffs you might not have recognized. They're sitting on the margins, simply trying to build momentum for a Chase bid in 2010. But as we've seen so many times before, making the right changes now can pay dividends later and can lead to a strong start come Daytona in February. So here's a quick look at who's stepped up: Jeff Burton: Has four straight top 15 finishes for the first time since April and early May. Considering this is a driver who had fifteen straight top 15 finishes to start 2008, it looks like he's headed back in the right direction for what could be a critical year for him in 2010. Honorable mentions go to the entire RCR organization, which has collected 10 of its 35 top 10 finishes this season in just the last eight weeks. Matt Kenseth: More top 5 finishes by a non-Chaser than any other driver out there (three). If only Roush had the next generation chassis ready to use in August, this team might have made the Chase after all. But it's crew chief Drew Blickensderfer breathing the biggest sigh of relief, because this late season surge is probably enough for him to keep his job. Bobby Labonte: Scored the first ever top 10 finish for fledgling TRG Motorsports as part of a sudden late season surge to stay relevant again. Add in a 13th place at Martinsville in his final start for Hall of Fame Racing, and you realize what adrenaline can do for a champ desperate to secure a ride for 2010. Joey Logano: Yeah, he won at New Hampshire in June, but this past month is the best we've seen him run all year. Two top 5s in the last four weeks – coming after the worst crash of his career at Dover – remind us the Chase will have a new driver looking to break out come 2010. Did You Notice? … Some quick hits before I take off for the week… - Denny Hamlin has now hit the wall twice in the last three November Texas races. Each time, it cost him a shot at a possible victory, although in a touch of irony Hamlin's nursing of the FedEx Toyota got him better fuel mileage and a second-place finish on Sunday. But Hamlin still has yet to win a race in his career at any track 1.5 to 2 miles in length, which make up five of the ten Chase races for the championship. Mistakes like that are the reason why … and he's got to get them corrected. - The four-driver audition for Phoenix Racing's seat in 2010 tells me two things: Number one, how desperate is the free agent pool this year that the only quality ride they're going after is a single-car team that isn't even assured Hendrick Motorsports support in 2010? And number two, there's no guarantee this car is even going to go the distance for all 36 races in 2010. Which means … drivers are fighting over the right to start and park for a handful of events. Yuk. - Seeing the ratings for the Texas race Sunday, one number popped out at me. NASCAR scored just a 1.6 share for males 18-49 during the final half-hour of the broadcast, dead last in the timeslot compared to FOX, NBC, and CBS. NASCAR is looking to bring in a new generation of fans and draw them into the sport … yet the very demographic they need is the one that's lagging. Will Danica help fix that? Possibly. But I think there's a bigger problem here. In the middle of the desert, an old Southern race track By David Caraviello, NASCAR.COM Phoenix International Raceway sits in perhaps the most picturesque setting on the Sprint Cup circuit, a valley surrounded by ochre hillsides and giant cacti. In the evenings, the sunset-tinged sky radiates with color. Clamber to the top of Monument Hill, the promontory overlooking the race track where fans can buy a general admission ticket for $35, and the natural splendor of the Sonoran Desert and the Estrella Mountains unfolds before you. Remove the speedway and its man-made surroundings, and it looks very much like the kind of place you'd be hard-pressed to survive. Yes, this is very much the American West, the desert just as you'd envision it -- with rocky outcrops, valley floors covered in sage and mesquite, and small, half-hidden scaly things slithering around in the underbrush. There are rattlesnakes and scorpions and Gila monsters out there, for sure. Given the landscape, you'd seem just as likely to run across Pancho Villa or Wyatt Earp. The race track, though, is a different matter altogether. Certainly it fits in with its surroundings, its somewhat rustic design consistent with the countryside, its bleacher grandstands and modest suite towers complementing rather than overwhelming the stark environment around it. But strip away all the geographic references and focus on just that 1-mile, blue-walled oval, and any sense of place begins to dissipate. As glorious as they are, forget the mountains. Forget the desert. Forget the rattlesnakes and the Gila monsters. Remove all the tangential qualities, and you finally have the essence of what makes Phoenix great -- the fact that this could have been a track built 60 years ago, in the middle of NASCAR's heartland. Make no mistake about it, this is a big-city speedway. Standing atop Monument Hill, looking away from the race track, the skyscrapers of downtown Phoenix and the area's bulbous silver football stadium shimmer in the heat-haze. More than 4.2 million people live in the region, making it the sixth-largest market that NASCAR visits each season. From a track perspective, the starting point for NASCAR's expansion into major cities might well have been Bill France Jr.'s decision to award a race to Buddy Jobe's desert raceway for the 1988 season -- a decade before Las Vegas, Homestead-Miami, California and Texas came on the scene, and the national push began in earnest. And yet, to look at it, a large base of potential ticket-buyers is about the only thing Phoenix has in common with its big-city brethren. From a facility standpoint, the track is far from a showpiece. Its sea of bleacher seats affords all the creature comforts of a high-school football stadium. It's been upgraded over time, with the addition of newer grandstands and suite areas and lights, but it will never be as overwhelmingly large as Texas or as glitzy as Las Vegas or even as sparkling as California. And you know what? That's fine. One reason Phoenix is almost universally beloved it because it is so unassuming, because at heart it is still a quirky track built in 1964, because you could plop the thing down in the middle of the Carolina piedmont or the north Georgia mountains and no one would blink an eye. That's your first reaction upon seeing Phoenix International Raceway -- what is this old South race track doing in the middle of the Southwestern desert? Aren't big cities supposed to have bland or predictable tri-ovals surrounded by 150,000 seats? Not Phoenix, which is an ideal 1 mile in circumference, which features four corners that are all different, which includes a bend on the backstretch dictated by the terrain. It has a refreshingly modest 76,812 grandstand seats. It's the kind of place Harold Brasington might have built, or Lee Petty and Curtis Turner might have stopped by on a weeknight between Martinsville and Spartanburg. The founders, who built the place primarily for open-wheel competition, inadvertently constructed a masterpiece of a traditional stock-car track in quite a nontraditional locale. This weekend, Phoenix stands out for another reason. All three championships in NASCAR's national divisions could be clinched in the desert, a week before the season ends. Ron Hornaday can lose two points off his lead in the Camping World Truck Series, and still clinch on Friday. Kyle Busch can wrap up the Nationwide title Saturday if he finishes with a 195-point advantage. And Jimmie Johnson needs to gain 122 points -- roughly the difference between first and 34th, not including lap bonuses -- Sunday to secure his fourth consecutive Sprint Cup crown. In any of those instances, NASCAR will hold a "soft" celebration with photos and a trophy presentation, but delay the official crowning until the next week in Homestead. But in all honestly, Phoenix doesn't need such window dressing. Certainly, the track would like to see those events unfold, and play host to an almost unheard-of triple-early- Could it use a few more chair-back seats and a more spacious media center? Undoubtedly. But in between those blue walls, everything is perfect. Drivers and spectators both look forward to Phoenix's arrival on the schedule, a true rarity for a track west of the Mississippi. Despite those tall buildings off to the east, the place feels traditional. Despite its relatively recent addition to the NASCAR schedule, the place feels old-school. Despite its location, the place feels somehow connected to tracks like Rockingham and North Wilkesboro, much more so than its neighbors in Las Vegas and greater Los Angeles. Phoenix's meandering design makes it feel a little like a Darlington of the West, somehow appropriate given that it was Phoenix that took one of the South Carolina track's races in 2004. Yes, that's right, Phoenix. People tend to get so caught up in the Labor Day move to Southern California that they tend to forget that it involved only a calendar spot -- Darlington actually held onto two race weekends for another year, until NASCAR and International Speedway Corp. realigned the schedule and shipped the original incarnation of the Southern 500 to Phoenix. Looking back on it now, it almost appears kismet. After all, one architect had to adjust his backstretch for a cactus-covered mountain, and the other had to accommodate a minnow pond. The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer. Former Gibbs driver JJ Yeley on comeback trail after accident Greg Engle/nascarexamine I once tried to interview J.J Yeley. We were at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Yeley took me for a few laps on the legendary track in a new Chevy Corvette. At the time I was working in radio and taping the interview. My intention was to ask him questions while the sweet sound of a V-8 at full song hummed in the background. 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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