Happy Friday everyone. Habbajeeba, we made it through the week! Countdown to Daytona 23 Comments from the Peanut Gallery From Chip Dear NASCAR Momma: Jack Roush's comments in an article published in today's newsletter may have come closer to hitting the nail on the head for many of race fans than anything anyone else has had the guts to say about fan apathy about race coverage. Many have also made reference to comparing NASCAR to the NFL. The only true similarity is that they fight for the viewing audience in the same time slots. Similarity ends there as you consider that the NFL shows many games on a multitude of networks where all the teams and players of NASCAR are competing together in one place on the same day and time (never was and never will be in the NFL) For the powers that be in racing to think that they need to try things to compete for viewership in two completely different sports says to me that they do not understand what a television viewing race fan is. The frustration felt by many fans has more to do with network hopping race coverage than it ever has to do with football. Race fans want to watch racing on Sunday and the pure fan could care less about what the NFL is doing. It becomes frustrating to many when we must continually search to find which network is covering the races as they seem to flip flop from one network to another, you almost need a program to keep track of it. This flip flopping appears to be a revenue generating move not a plan to give fans better coverage. Once the network flipping plan is figured out it becomes a quest for subscriber services to insure we have a package in place that will allow us to follow an entire season. In the current economy it is difficult enough for many to just keep their heads above water. It is not fiscally possible for many to attend races and so we watch intently on our televisions. That being said we then ask how much is a package that lets us do the network flipping going to take from our already strained budgets? I heard one of my camping neighbors sigh after signing up and getting a satellite dish that he got it just 3 weeks prior to a network flip at a cost of $25.00 per month. We may not travel to the tracks to see races but we do spend money to watch and this becomes a larger issue in today's economy. Just a rant from me as we all anticipate the start of the 2010 season. Chip From Pops Momma Didn't see this in your post today...thought maybe you missed it. Denny along with 42 other drivers will be out to unseat Hendrick motorsports this season... Hope to see your man win something this year after all the Jr hype...just hope he can stay focused thru at least one race and win one for you !! Maybe he will miss the big one at Daytona by starting at the back of the field and win!! LOL Had to get you riled up before the season starts...no offense intended! Pops Well, Pops, ya didn't get me riled just yet, but give me time! And don't you worry none…my man Junior will make many a Junior hater eat their words this year (please Lord, make it so). Bits and Pieces Speed moves Jimmy Spencer to Monday nights, tabs Kyle Petty for race-day shows By Bob Pockrass/scenedaily.com Former NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Kyle Petty will replace Jimmy Spencer on Speed's Sprint Cup prerace and postrace shows, and Spencer will move to a Monday night talk show. The cable network also announced Wednesday that, as part of a new Monday night lineup, it is dumping the weekly "This Week In NASCAR," which has featured Michael Waltrip and other drivers and commentators over the years. Speed will continue to have live NASCAR event programming as its had in the past – with the qualifying races from Daytona, the Sprint All-Star Race and all the Camping World Truck Series races. Speed also will televise the NASCAR Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Beyond its event broadcasts, the prerace and postrace Cup shows are its mainstays. Petty will join John Roberts, Kenny Wallace and Wendy Venturini on the prerace and postrace shows. Petty also will continue with the game show "NASCAR Smarts." "Sometimes you have a perspective of the sport – and mine was always inside those four fences of the garages and inside that circle – but to step outside that offers a little different perspective," said Petty, who did not race last year. "I now can see why fans say certain things or do certain things or act certain ways where before I didn't understand it at all." Speed also will unveil a new Monday night lineup with "NASCAR Race Hub" at 7:30 p.m. Eastern, followed by "NASCAR in a Hurry – Monday Edition" and a new 30-minute talk show with former driver Spencer called "What's the Deal?" Three other Monday night shows are in development but won't be rolled out until March. "Everyone at Speed has a tremendous amount of respect for [the 'This Week In NASCAR'] franchise," said Steve Craddock, Speed senior vice president of programming. "While it went through several hosts, set designs and even titles, the basic concept of a little Monday night bench racing amongst friends remained the cornerstone of the production. … We owe a lot to this show and the teams that have worked on it over the years." Speed also is adding Nicky Morse, a chef, to its racing team. Morse will visit restaurants and the campgrounds looking for the best food. The network also announced its schedule for race replays: Sprint Cup races will reair at noon Eastern each Wednesday, with a cut-down version at 8 p.m. Wednesdays. The Nationwide Series replay will be at noon Thursday, and the Truck series races will reair at noon Mondays. Speed, which reaches more than 79 million homes, also will have a 14,400-square-foot, at-track production and marketing compound at tracks. Drive For Diversity candidate claims NASCAR rejected him for looking too Caucasian By Bob Pockrass/scenedaily.com An aspiring candidate for NASCAR's Drive For Diversity has filed a discrimination lawsuit against NASCAR claiming that he was rejected from the program because he looked too Caucasian. Mike Rodriguez filed the discrimination lawsuit against NASCAR and Access Communications last week in U.S. District Court in Pennsylvania. Access Communications is the company that operated the diversity program from 2004 to 2008. Rodriguez does not specify a monetary amount of damages. Rodriguez, who is of Puerto Rican and European descent and who has fair skin and blue eyes, alleges a NASCAR or Access Communications employee stated that he was "the poster boy for the Ku Klux Klan" during the 2005 combine where drivers compete and during the 2006 selection process. He alleges that at the 2005 combine, he said he felt "unwelcome because of his racially identifiable characteristics," that he hit his head on a safety bar in the car and then was not allowed to drive despite being cleared by a doctor. The 15-year-old was never invited to the combine again. "[Rodriguez] was not chosen because defendants believe that [his] racially identifiable characteristics appear too Caucasian and do not fit defendants' stereotyped and preconceived notion of how [he] should look," the lawsuit states. NASCAR has not yet responded to the lawsuit. NASCAR lists banned substances: NASCAR has added a list of banned substances for its drug testing policy to the 2010 rulebook that all teams have been provided, the body's vice president of racing operations said on Thursday. "What we've done is taken the list of substances we provided to owners at the beginning of last year," Steve O'Donnell said. "We've included that in the rulebook. We've also, for a clarity standpoint, included our entire policy in the rulebook for 2010 as well. We're going to continue to vigorously and aggressively defend ourselves on behalf of the teams and facts that are out there believing we have the toughest policy in sports. If we can make that better we will, and I believe we've done that this year," O'Donnell said. The list was added a year after the drug-related suspension of Sprint Cup driver Jeremy Mayfield. At the time, several drug-testing experts questioned the validity of the policy because it lacked a list. Attorneys representing Mayfield, who was suspended after testing positive for methamphetamine, also challenged the validity of the policy without a list. NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston strongly disagreed. "The policy remains the same," he said Thursday. "The misuse or abuse of any drug is a violation. That remains today. That's still the policy. What we sent to the teams was a sample of what those substances are."(ESPN) #51 for Waltrip? UPDATE 2: had the #51 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota scheme sent to me, supposedly Michael Waltrip will run the #51 in the Daytona 500 instead of the #55. No idea why. UPDATE: from Waltrip's Twitter: "i needed a change from the 55. We won Daytona in the 15. 51 is a variation of that. sorta in memory of." UPDATE: #51-Michael Waltrip had announced in July he wasn't going to return to full-time racing. He released his 2010 Sprint Cup schedule on Wednesday night at MWR during the 2010 Media Tour at the Budweiser Shootout and the Daytona 500. "I'm comfortable with that," Waltrip said during the Sprint Media Tour. "I talked to Billy Ballew about running some [Camping World] Truck [Series] races. I definitely am going to run a couple of those. When I think about going to Daytona, I get excited because I know I know how to win that race. & when I think about [the next Cup races at] California and [Las] Vegas, I just haven't performed at a level that makes me say, 'I'm going to go out there and [win].'" Replacing Waltrip in the full-time ride will be #56-Martin Truex Jr. from Earnhardt Ganassi Racing and also new is Pat Tryson from Penske Racing to be the crew chief for Truex. The last time Tryson was seen in the garage; he was crew chief for Kurt Busch on the track but wasn't allowed in the Penske Racing shop except for a weekly meeting because of his pending departure to MWR. Tryson was no longer wanted in the Penske shop, but Penske also didn't let him start at MWR until Jan. 4. Tryson seemed to shrug off the late start with his new team. "The communication here is better than anywhere I've ever worked, between the crew chief, ownership, between the management," Tryson said. "It's really open, and everybody talks to everybody about everything. That's the way it needs to be. Martin is fun. We went testing, and he was fun to be around. He's a great guy." Truex will drive the #56 this year, while Waltrip will drive the #51. Neither car will have the #55 that Waltrip used ever since he started MWR in 2007. "The 55 was getting a little heavy," Waltrip said. "I hadn't won with it. I felt real comfortable coming close to winning a couple of times. But I just wanted a change of pace. The 15 [I once drove] was available, but I didn't feel like that was right. I wanted a variation of the 15, so I went with the 51."(SceneDaily) Earnhardt family ties make for some funny moments in the office Tania Ganguli/ORLANDO SENTINEL CONCORD, N.C. — Working with family has its good and bad sides and nobody knows that better than the Earnhardts — Kelley and Dale Jr.
"It's easy to work with family," said Kelley, daughter of the late Dale Earnhardt and a co-owner of JR Motorsports, before quickly correcting herself. "It's not easy to work with family, don't write that down. It is easy to get by with a lot more things with family. ... You've got that comfort level that that person's going to love you no matter what."
She said that mentality colored Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s relationship with former crew chief Tony Eury Jr. To illustrate her point, she recalled a few months ago when she and her brother argued about a personal matter at the JR motorsports shop.
She stood up and cursed at her brother, at which point he stood up and left.
"About 45 minutes later he came back with a slip of paper," Kelley said. "He had went to the HR office and he had me wrote up. He said, 'HR is scared to come in here and give you this. So I need you to sign this piece of paper.' It said 'Saying a cuss word to the president of the company.'
"Whatever we were talking about was personal I said, 'I just want you to know that situation was brother to sister and not coworker to president so you really can't write me up.' We just all started laughing." NASCAR: Kyle Petty talks about teams, drivers and fans
Al Pearce/autoweek.com Spend a few minutes with retired driver Kyle Petty and you immediately realize he's not shackled by political correctness, isn't shy about his opinions and has some serious ideas about the health of the sport. Among some of his thoughts after breakfast on Wednesday morning: -- "Hendrick Motorsports doesn't work any harder than Joe Gibbs Racing or Roush-Fenway or anybody else. It's just that they're incredibly smart and always raise the bar in the off-season, when so much stuff gets done." -- "Of all the teams that are poised to move up this year, it's the Gibbs crowd. Denny Hamlin matured incredibly last year, both on and off the track. He's not the Denny of old. Last year, and especially late in the year, during the Chase, he stepped it up and asserted himself as the leader of that team. If Gibbs starts this year like it finished last year, they'll give Hendrick a fight. Denny's a top two or three driver right now; that's not to say he'll beat Jimmie Johnson, but Denny realizes now you have to be there in the last 10 races to win the championship." -- "Roush-Fenway has to do something this year. They just can't have another year [two wins in 180 team starts] like last year. I didn't see them getting better toward the end of last year, when you'd have thought they would." -- "Kurt Busch is this year's Cup wild card. That's one team [No. 2 Miller Lite] in one organization [Penske Racing] working with one manufacturer [Dodge] in what amounts to a true factory effort. [New teammate] Brian Keselowski will help and so will Sam Hornish Jr., who's come a long way. His finishes don't show it, but he's had some good runs and made progress. The No. 2 team got better toward the end of last year, and that's what you want to see." -- "There's no silver bullet to fix what's wrong with NASCAR, no single fix. Give them credit, though, for doing something with the wing and the spoiler situation. Whether it's a positive or a negative, they've at least done something and that's good for the sport. Right now, everything's about the economy. Until that clears up and gets better, NASCAR almost has to let things flow and see where they level out." -- "Sure, NASCAR needs to listen to its fans. But they need to listen to its drivers, its owners, its manufacturers and the media, too. With fans, you have to listen, but only up to a point. I mean, some of them will say, 'Hey, y'all run 'em 50 laps one direction then turn 'em around [and do] the run laps the other direction.' Yeah, right, fans." HOF set for May opening NASCAR's new Hall of Fame remains on schedule to open on May 11 in downtown Charlotte, N.C. The 28th-annual Sprint Cup media tour visited the massive under-construction building and got a detailed guided tour by hall director Winston Kelly. The inaugural class was announced last fall: NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. and his son Bill France Jr., plus seven-time champions Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty, and legendary driver/owner Junior Johnson. Speculation surrounding next year's five-person class is focusing on three-time champions David Pearson, Lee Petty, Cale Yarborough and Darrell Waltrip, and perhaps a championship-winning team owner or championship-winning crew chief. Buz McKim, stock-car racing's most knowledgeable historian and the hall's archivist, said he's collected about 99 percent of the antiquities he's gone after. Among them is the 1975 preseason driver profile of a young, rawboned, second-generation wannabe driver from Kannapolis, N.C. Among the notations on Dale Earnhardt's file was that he'd wrestled in high school, a claim some old-timers question since they'd always been told he never got to high school. But this much of the form was undeniable. Under the question "What are your ambitions outside racing?" the 25-year-old Earnhardt wrote in capital letters: NONE!! Camaro update The biggest news from the Nationwide Series is the four-race schedule for the series' new "pony car" entries. Ford will field Mustangs, and Dodge will field Challengers in the July race at Daytona Beach, the August race at Michigan, the September race at Richmond and the October race at Charlotte. Toyota will stay with Camry, and despite what would be a great rivalry, Chevrolet will stay with Impala instead of Camaro. "We'd love to see Camaro in our series because it's an iconic brand," said Nationwide director Joe Balash. "I grew up in an era when Camaro was one of the cool cars, so it would great to see them race with us. But at this point, we've got to focus on the Impala. We'll see what happens in the backrooms at a later date." Nearby, Pat Suey of Chevrolet was answering endless "why not Camaro?" questions. Ford and Dodge loyalists eventually will have a field day taking shots to GM for refusing (in many fans' minds) to accept the face-to-face battles with Mustang and Challenger. "Camaro has been the leader in the [muscle-car] category for several months and I don't see that this would change that," Suey said. "The new car has a look all its own, different from the old one. It's not a retro job, but it does carry some of the same styling. When we talked with NASCAR about what we'd need to get there, we couldn't find middle ground that satisfied us enough to say we'd be proud to put the car out there. "There were plenty of discussions with NASCAR about the Camaro. We really gave it the old college try and then some, but at the end of the day, it just doesn't fit here, in this series." Notes -- Singer/songwriter/actor Tim McGraw will be the prerace entertainment for the Feb. 14 Daytona 500. McGraw, who has 30 No. 1 hits and three Grammy awards, will perform three songs from the stage near the start/finish line in the trioval grass. -- Kyle Petty's 16th-annual Chick-fil-A Charity Ride Across America will begin in Indian Wells, Calif., on May 1 and end at the Victory Junction Gang Camp near Greensboro, N.C., on May 9. The route includes California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and North Carolina. -- Quote of the Day: From Mark Martin, when asked how he dealt with comments last year that inevitably began, "Fifty-year-old Mark Martin does fantastic things," last year's series runner-up said: "I focused on the 'does fantastic things' part and didn't think about the rest of it." -- Quote of the Day II: Also from Martin, when asked about NASCAR perhaps dropping its "yellow line" rule on the last lap at Daytona Beach and Talladega: "I'm willing to wreck between turn four and the start/finish line on the last lap to put on a show. But I'm not gonna do it the first 15 laps." -- NASCAR has added a 200-mile Camping World Truck Series race on Aug. 14 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway to replace the race it had scheduled on the Milwaukee Mile. It's the first truck race at NASCAR's oldest superspeedway since 2004. -- NASCAR officials will address several issues on Thursday at the annual R&D Center visit. Among them, the uncertain status of Cup director John Darby, whether yellow "no passing" lines will be removed or kept at Daytona Beach and Talladega, whether "bump drafting" in the corners at Daytona Beach and Talladega will remain and the size of the carburetor restrictor plates for next month's Daytona 500. Changes I Can Believe In by Jim McCoy/bumpdrafts.com Newsflash: Hell just froze over! Yes, there has been widespread speculation of the rule changes and a new look for the NASCAR Sprint Cup car for some time now, I just wasn't prepared to get real giddy until I heard it straight from the horses' mouth. 'Round these parts, the horse doesn't get any bigger than Brian France, who made it official. "Big Bill's" grandson says "our history is based on banging fenders." Did I hear that right? Yep, looks like we won't be seeing "Technology On Parade" like we did at Talladega last fall. The restrictor plates will also be getting bigger on the tracks where they will be used. What? Horsepower is coming into play? I don't know about you, but I always wondered, if the new car was much safer, why not let the boys run a little faster, provided they don't fly into the stands? Now, let's see what these drivers can do. One would think there'll be a little less clustering than what we've been seeing the last couple of seasons. Then there's the elimination of the wing, to be replaced by a spoiler. However, this won't take place until sometime after a full field test at Charlotte in March. After that, input will be gathered and the decision on "when" will take place. Now that's more like it. Speaking for myself, I was for the CONCEPT of the Car of Tomorrow- the idea of a safer vehicle and other innovations meant to address some of the problems associated with the old car. However, as others have said, it seemed NASCAR rushed into the implementation phase too quickly, and at least on the surface, didn't seem to be gathering enough input from the people who make these cars go. I find it refreshing that this time, the NASCAR brass appears to be listening. Heck, the rule book is even going to tell all the players involved what constitutes a banned substance. There shouldn't be any ambiguity. Now, with all the said, I recognize not all you disgruntled "old schoolers" are getting EVERYTHING you want. The Toyota Camry clicking off laps on Sunday still bear precious little resemblance to the one I can buy at the local dealership. We still have the Chase- something that doesn't bother me, but that's another story for another time. The "cookie cutter" tracks are still "cookie cutter" tracks. I'm just pleased to see someone in Daytona has been paying attention. I've said it before, I'll say it again: for whatever faults you perceive there to be in NASCAR, in baseball, they'd still be debating, talking and generally "lawyering" this discussion to death for another 10 years. Can you say "steroids," or "designated hitter rule?" How big a swing NASCAR took at improving racing remains to be seen. Time will also tell how much latitude officials will give drivers. I still suspect not everyone is going to buy in 100 percent on this, but you can't please everybody. Given the fact NASCAR isn't averse to changing on the fly, it wouldn't be hard to do more if needed. News like this is what NASCAR needs. Speaking for myself, I'm ready for Daytona now! ThatsRacin.com Opinion Fans know: Proof is in the NASCAR product By Tom Sorensen - charlotteobserver.com You can't fool NASCAR fans, not the real ones. I'm talking about fans who bow their head every time somebody invokes North Wilkesboro and drop to one knee before they enter Darlington Raceway. I'm talking about fans who drink one brand of beer, buy one brand of motor oil and shop at one home-improvement store because their driver endorses it. I'm talking about fans who supported NASCAR long before it became (temporarily) trendy and who handed their passion down to their children the way some families hand down furniture or jewelry. These fans understand. So the contention of team owner Jack Roush on Tuesday was ludicrous. Roush said fans did not complain about Sprint Cup racing in 2009. It was the media that complained. He singled out ESPN commentators Rusty Wallace and Darrell Waltrip as well as former crew chiefs. Of course racing fans will respectfully listen to ex-champions such as Wallace and Waltrip and to a former team owner and crew chief such as Ray Evernham. But most fans have reached the age where they can decide all by themselves whether they like a race. They're independent like that. NASCAR's signature Sprint Cup series took substantial ratings and attendance hits last season. Of course the economy was a factor. Fans might drive from Raleigh for a Carolina Panthers game and from Weddington for a Charlotte Bobcats game. But they'll drive from Pennsylvania for a race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and stay all week. Road trips are expensive, and many fans had to give them up. Unless the repo man snuck in and stole the television, however, fans still can afford to sit in a chair and watch a race on TV. So why did the TV ratings tank? Cup racing was as predictable and as bland in 2009 as I remember it. There are places I go where racing is one of the subjects people talk about. Last year it came up primarily when I asked why nobody was talking about it. Roush says the "complaints come from reporters and from the media that have maybe a vested interest." What's our vested interest? I have never gone to a sporting event wanting to be bored. I want to get excited. Roush also said Wallace and Waltrip and the former crew chiefs might have an "ax to grind." Sure they do. NASCAR made them rich and famous and put them in position to enhance their riches and fame by talking about racing on network TV. No wonder they're angry. I understand Roush's frustration as well as the frustration of drivers, owners and officials who spent the past three days of the Speedway media tour praising their sport. It's tough to do something you love and have it ignored or criticized. Trust me, I know. But racing's critics want the same thing proponents do. They want drivers to leave the track with their brains and bodies intact and fans to leave mesmerized by what they witnessed. To contend that fans were mesmerized by what they saw last season mocks their intelligence. Fans know. Fans always know. Yellow line rule stays but NASCAR says 'Let them race' Greg Engle/NASCAR Examiner NASCAR will still enforce the yellow line rule in Sprint Cup Series competition in 2010, but will not enforce a rule against bump drafting.
And according to NASCAR's CEO, the sanctioning body will loosen the reins on the drivers.
"Over the past 10 years we've dramatically increased safety and that mission continues. However, it's time for us to allow the drivers to drive. We don't want the rules and regulations to get in the way of great racing and fantastic finishes," said NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France. "NASCAR is a contact sport – our history is based on banging fenders."
Among the changes: Bump-drafting rules will be eliminated at Daytona and Talladega Superspeedway. Teams also will use a bigger restrictor plate at Daytona. Eliminating bump-drafting rules puts responsibility for on-track moves squarely back in drivers' hands. Larger restrictor plates give drivers more horsepower.
The yellow line rule, which was enforced at both Talladega and Daytona Superspeedways, prevented a driver from going below a yellow line to advance their position.
There was some talk prior to Thursday's annual NASCAR press conference as part of the NASCAR Media Tour that the yellow line rule might be dropped, but NASCAR's director of competition Robin Pemberton said the rule would remain in effect, for now.
The practice where a driver bumps the car ahead in order to gain speed had a great deal of oversight by NASCAR and controversy.
There was some speculation that the practice caused accidents and NASCAR began to enforce a ban on the practice by having 'no bumping' zones at Talladega and Daytona. In particular prior to last years race at Talladega, NASCAR said they would be enforcing the rule, especially in the corners. Some said that the race turned into a show of a long single file line of cars as most drivers wanted to avoid the wrath of NASCAR.
Thursday, however, Pemberton said the rule will no longer be enforced and NASCAR will let the driver's race.
"Boys, have a good time," Pemberton said.
When the Series begins the season at Daytona International Speedway with the Daytona 500 next month, the cars will have increased downforce and drag and thus will have a bigger restrictor plate size, 63/64, which is the largest plate used since the 1989 Daytona 500.
As for the problems of cars flipping at Talladega and Daytona, NASCAR president Mike Helton said that cars would have a 'shark fin' at Daytona to help keep cars on the ground.
Also significant: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Director John Darby has been promoted to Managing Director of Competition, with oversight of all three national series' directors, officials, inspection processes and race officiating. He will continue in his series director's role until his successor is found.
"Probably no one is more qualified for this new job than John," Pemberton said. "He knows and understands the officiating and inspection processes better than anyone and is the perfect fit." Notebook: Humpy Thinks Spoiler will Drastically Improve NASCAR By David Exum, Associate Editor, CupScene.com
CONCORD, N.C. - Legendary race promoter H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler thinks NASCAR's decision to use a rear spoiler will drastically improve the competition in the Sprint Cup Series. During the final stop on Thursday's NASCAR Sprint Media Tour at the NASCAR Research and Development Center, NASCAR announced that it will remove the rear wing currently used on the new car and return to the more conventional rear spoiler used on previous models. NASCAR expects to debut the use of the spoiler on the new car at Bristol Motor Speedway in March. "It will greatly help the racing on the intermediate tracks and that's where we've had some problems," Wheeler said. "I hope it answers the problems about aero push so we can have some back and forth between the leaders." NASCAR officials also announced that it will continue to enforce the yellow line rule at Daytona and Talladega. "The yellow line rule will eventually go away because it's something else to try to officiate," Wheeler said. "These guys are going close to 200 mph and figuring that out is a problem and it leads to self-policing. Eventually, the rule will go away." Sprint Cup drivers in this year's Daytona 500 will use a larger restrictor-plate to increase horsepower at the 2.5-mile track. "Having a bigger restrictor-plate will make it easier to pass because you'll have a little more power there," Wheeler said. NASCAR also will also allow bump drafting at Daytona. "This ruling will really free up the control tower and there will be a lot of self-policing, anyway," Wheeler said. "A driver is not going to bust up his front end and I think it's going to make the racing much more exciting. Wheeler, chairman and chief executive of The Wheeler Company in Charlotte, also stressed that large corporations that pour millions of dollars into the sport each season need to let their drivers express themselves more. "This corporate behavior stuff has gotten to a point where a lot of the drivers are boring and they're not," Wheeler said. "If they can forget about being corporately behaved, it would be a different thing. I think the drivers are all going to take each issue one at a time. It's hard for them to keep their emotions in check and that's what contributed to the overall vanilla ness of some of the drivers." Wheeler also said that he'd like to see World of Outlaws competition Roger Slack become the new Cup director of competition. I think Roger would be terrific at that," Wheelers said. "He's one of the brightest young guys in racing and he worked for me for a longtime in Legends racing. He'd be my first choice." Wheeler's solution to solve the decline in television ratings involves Dale Earnhardt Jr. and more rivalries. "It's going to take Earnhardt Jr. to win some races and battle (Juan Pablo) Montoya and trade some paint and have Tony Stewart get into the mix, too," Wheeler said. "That's what is going to peep things up and get the phones ringing. Dale Jr. winning a fuel-mileage race isn't going to get the needle moving on the ratings. You also must have rivalries and in order to do that you've got to have cars running close together and you've got to have passes for the lead. It's been so long since we've have a sustained rivalry. Nothing sells tickets like a sustained rivalry because they keep erupting. They might go two or three races and everything is OK but then Driver X hits Driver Y and everybody has something to talk about on the ride home from the racetrack. "The corporations and NASCAR need to back off and let the boys have it out. If they take it too far, then step in. That's what people want. They want the unexpected." Competition director Wayne Auton is confident that the bleak economic times won't hurt the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series this season. "We've seen an influx of new talent in our series," Auton said. "We've been getting a lot of phone calls about interest in the series and there's a lot of excitement heading into the 2010 season." NASCAR also announced Thursday that K & N Engineering will be the title sponsor for NASCAR's top developmental series, formerly known as the NASCAR Camping World Series East and West, beginning in 2010. "K&N is a company that epitomizes the spirit of NASCAR," said NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France. "The developmental series are a tremendously integral part of the past, present and future of NASCAR – from the great champions throughout the years to the pipeline of tremendous racers that have made their way up the NASCAR ladder to our national series." K&N will make its on-track debut as the series entitlement sponsor at the 2010 NASCAR Toyota All-Star Showdown – NASCAR's prestigious postseason event which has earned the moniker of the "Daytona 500 of short-track racing." The event will be Jan. 29-30 at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale (Calif.) and will air live on SPEED and SIRIUS NASCAR Radio. Hendrick Motorsports Plane Rescues Americans Trapped In Haiti Greg Engle/nascarexaminer.com A group of American missionaries, who had been stuck in Haiti after the recent devastating earthquake there, are back in America thanks to a flight on a plane owned by NASCAR team owner Rick Hendrick.
The earthquake struck the improvised island nation last week and the damage has been described as catastrophic. Some estimates put the number of fatalities near 100,000 with as many 2 million homeless.
Hendrick Motorsports loaned two 45-passenger Saab 2000 aircraft, which normally carry crewmembers during the season and two flight crews with additional support personnel to Missionary Flights International.
Jean Kruger of Deerwood Minnesota was one of those who were able to escape the devastation this week on board one of the Hendrick planes.
Krueger has traveled to Haiti every six months over the last several as part of a missionary group working on a construction project at three schools and an orphanage about 25 miles outside the capital of Port-au-Prince. Krueger, who normally works as a message therapist, left for Haiti on January 9th with her mother Judy.
Both women were on a bus when the earthquake struck.
"I believe it's a miracle I'm alive right now," Kruger told the Brainerd Dispatch. "Our bus was rocking back and forth - it was so scary - and all this chaos happened. The walls around the bus just crumbled down. This 11-12-year-old girl didn't have her hand anymore, she was bleeding and screaming. People were carrying babies that were bloody in their arms. Everyone was in the street and everyone was screaming."
The walls around their once secure compound were destroyed so the women along with the rest of the group were forced to hire security and slept outside for fear the damaged buildings might collapse.
Judy Kruger is a licensed practical nurse, and she along with a group of volunteers, went to the United Nations building in Port-au-Prince to help in the rescue efforts while daughter Jean and the rest of the group traveled to the orphanage to check on the children.
"I was crying the whole time," Kruger told the paper. "There were bodies in the streets. There were people with bones sticking out of their bodies. Our bus driver just kept trying to get us there."
Kruger told the Dispatch that all the orphans were outside, scared to go inside the orphanage because the walls were cracked and damaged. The walls outside the orphanage and a nearby school were destroyed. A doctor from northern Haiti had hitchhiked her way to Leogane and they helped her set up a makeshift medical clinic to help treat the injured. She said the doctor was performing toe and foot amputations and they only had children's Tylenol for quake victims to numb the pain.
Kruger and her group were finally rescued thanks to the Hendrick planes, which began arriving late Friday. Kruger said they got a call that the first plane had just landed at an airstrip next to the airport in Port-au-Prince and could take passengers out. Her and her mom along with a group of others rushed to the plane and was able to escape the country.
Along with the aircraft, Hendrick Motorsports has sent 10 people total from its aviation department: aviation director Dave Dudley, who will oversee operations; five captain-level pilots; one operations manager; one mechanic; and two flight attendants. Each person on the mission volunteered to participate.
The Hendrick Motorsports aviation team is planning to fly at least one roundtrip flight per aircraft per day. No timeline has been set for how long the missions will continue.
The Hendrick Motorsports organization is covering all costs of the flights.
For more information on Missionary Flights International, including ways to get involved or make a donation the team urges fans to visit www.missionaryflights.org. Success of 2010 rides with drivers after rules changes By David Caraviello, NASCAR.COM
CONCORD, N.C. -- Boys, have at it. You wanted the elimination of bump-drafting restrictions at Daytona and Talladega, you got it. You wanted more power for the Daytona 500, you got it. You wanted to replace the rear wing on the Sprint Cup car with a spoiler, you got it. You wanted the yellow-line rule to stay, it stays. You want NASCAR to go easier on you when you punt and bump and argue with one another, you got it. Perhaps never in its long history has NASCAR acceded to so many of its competitors' wishes at once as it's doing this season, in unleashing a flurry of changes born out of meetings between drivers and top series executives. It's still not a democracy, not by any means. But after a wearying year of hearing complaints and seeing dwindling ticket sales and television ratings, NASCAR has effectively turned the quality of the show over to the men behind the wheel. It's like a parent tossing a son the keys to the family car, and finding out whether he can keep it pointed straight ahead. "They've got the Brahma bull now," said consultant and former race track promoter Humpy Wheeler. "We'll see who can ride it." After a few years of "holding the line on change" -- the NASCAR mantra directed at appeasing traditional fans who may not have been comfortable seeing the car, the championship structure, and the series sponsor all altered during a relatively short span of time -- the changes came fast and furious Thursday during a preseason Media Tour visit to the NASCAR Research and Development Center. The rear wing, reviled by so many for its aesthetics as much as its performance characteristics will be replaced by a rear spoiler sometime after a test at Charlotte Motor Speedway in March. The openings on the Daytona 500 restrictor plate will be the biggest since 1989, giving teams more horsepower. Crackdowns on bump-drafting, which took on an almost draconian quality in the most recent restrictor-plate event, are a thing of the past. There were a number of other modifications, too -- NASCAR competitors will now have a list of banned drugs, Nationwide teams will be limited to 15 crew members including the driver, Camping World Truck events will feature double-file restarts and the return of traditional pit stops. Many of these ideas came out of a series of offseason meetings chairman Brian France and president Mike Helton held with individual teams, following up on the larger "town hall" assemblies the NASCAR executives presided over last spring. According to France, though, some competitors were reticent to speak out during those larger meetings, and the more intimate settings fostered more candid exchange of ideas. The NASCAR chairman said he has personally met with every driver, owner and track operator, and plans to meet soon with representatives of each television partner. "When you're at the race track with them all the time, you have the communication lines wide open. That's true," France said. "But it's too busy now to assume we can get all the issues they want to get resolved with us at the track. So we just changed that around, and we're now having these meetings, and they're very beneficial. I'm real happy with how they have gone. You get them in a smaller environment, they're just around their own teammates, you get some good input, and that's what we wanted." Not everything was changed; as recently as this week, drivers lobbied hard for the retention of the yellow-line rule at restrictor-plate tracks, which presents advancing a position on the apron. The result -- it stays. "Most of the drivers said, look, we have got enough changes, let's move forward the way we are, and we can continue to look at it," said Robin Pemberton, NASCAR's vice president for competition. Make no mistake about it, the fact that NASCAR is listening to its competitors, in very much the same way it listened to fans in its "back to basics" campaign that produced things like double-file restarts and more uniform start times, is very positive. NASCAR wants a little more rubbin' in its racin', wants the drivers to be less worried about penalties, wants the talent and ability of competitors to dictate the quality of events. Nothing is wrong with any of that. For all the grief that France gets from hardliners, under his watch this has without question become a sport that's a little more willing to listen, and a little more willing to make modifications -- to an extent, at least -- when it senses the demand for them. But turning it over to drivers to the extent NASCAR did Thursday practically invites a garage full of headaches. The problem is that competitors are self-serving by nature, and will exploit a more laissez faire control structure if it serves their purpose. After all, we've been here before -- 2010 is less than a decade removed from the days when self-policing and unwritten "gentlemen's agreements" dictated decorum on the race track. And those things went away because the very people they were designed to benefit couldn't help but abuse them. Drivers violating the "gentlemen's agreement" against racing back to the yellow flag -- in particular, competitors zooming Dale Jarrett's disabled car at New Hampshire in 2003 -- ushered in the era of scoring loops and frozen fields. Tony Stewart's warning of "we're going to kill somebody" at Daytona in 2006 led to the limits on bump-drafting at restrictor-plate tracks, which reached such a point at Talladega in October that NASCAR threatened to strip any violators of their finishing position. Time and time again, NASCAR has handed more control to its drivers, and time and time again it's had to slowly take it back. "Throughout the history of our sport, we go and we come back, and we go and we come back," Helton said. "For the last few years, we are on a comeback cycle of backing away from rules and regulations, because I've got to tell you, nobody wants to regulate the sport. We are the last people on earth that want to over-regulate the sport, because it takes a lot to do that. But there's a lot of steps in regulating the sport that we have to take to ensure the safety and the correctness of the competition between the competitors, and also balance the safety between the competitors and the race fans." Make no mistake, NASCAR still is in firm control of things. Reporters on this Media Tour heard one team owner after another -- all of whom had recently met with series officials -- echo a similar message, that the sport was in good shape and all this negativity about low ratings and attendance figures was counterproductive, or the fault of the media, or both. But when it comes to Sprint Cup competition in 2010, direct any complaints or suggestions not to Daytona Beach, but to race shops. Because the drivers got what they wanted, and the success of the upcoming campaign is riding solely on them. "We will put it back in the hands of the drivers and we will say, 'Boys, have at it, and have a good time,'" said Pemberton, who was speaking specifically about eliminating the bump-drafting restrictions, but could just as easily have been referring to the day writ large. "That's all I can say." So she's all yours, guys. Try not to wreck it. The opinions expressed are solely those of the writers. Pocky's Paddock Bob Pockrass/scenedaily.com TNT has big booth decision to make CONCORD, N.C. – Fans know that Mike Joy will be doing play-by-play for the first 13 races of the Sprint Cup season on Fox and Marty Reid will be doing the last 17 on ABC/ESPN. What about the six in between, those six TNT races? No decision has been made yet, according to Turner Sports executive producer Jeff Behnke. Bill Weber, who was replaced midway through last season, is no longer with Turner. Behnke said Ralph Shaheen "did a great job for the three races that he filled in" but added that there are several candidates. TNT will do mock broadcasts during the early part of the season to get Kyle Petty and Wally Dallenbach used to the new play-by-play announcer. The rest of the announcing team, including Larry McReynolds, will return. "We don't ever want our announcers to be the story," Behnke said. "One of the key components of a play-by-play person is to be journalistically sound. We want the race to come to us, get us from here, get us to there and let Kyle, Wally and Larry Mac to do their thing. "There are a lot of great voices out there. You want NASCAR fans to be familiar with [the voice], but over time, whoever we pick will grow to know that person just like they did in years past." And just so you know, Petty isn't applying for the job. "I would never do what those guys would do," Petty said. "Those guys are good." That's true. And that's why TNT has a big decision ahead for its six-race NASCAR schedule.
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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