Happy Monday. Today In Nascar History February 22, 1970: Motor Racing Network, founded by Big Bill France, signs on and broadcasts its first race, the Daytona 500, which is won by Pete Hamilton. Picture yourself cruising in Tony's 2010 Camaro Coupe 2SS. It's a "Summit White", list price at over $35,000! Tony asked Will Castro of Unique Autosports to work his magic and add a few customizations! Buy a ticket for $50 – you'll be entered to win the Grand Prize including the Camaro, A VIP Trip to Stewart-Haas Racing and a personal meet & greet with Tony!!! 70 Early Bird prizes starting March 15th. Get 'em while you can!!!! Just go to www.smokescamaro.
Bits and Pieces NASCAR confiscates the #66 car: watching start-and-parkers? When Dave Blaney headed to the garage in his #66 Prism Motorsports Toyota after 43 laps [at Auto Club Speedway], NASCAR officials were waiting. Three laps earlier, #55-Michael McDowell drove the other Prism Motorsports car to the garage. The final race report concluded that both cars had engine failures. So why did the sanctioning body confiscate the #66 car? "Because they can," said Bill Henderson, crew chief of the #66 team and general manager for Prism Motorsports. Mayfield's files motion to move case; for NASCAR to pay attorney fees: There's a lot of politicking going on in Jeremy Mayfield's case against NASCAR and both sides recently filed court documents hoping to sway the judge on an upcoming decision that could be pivotal. Included in those documents is a motion by Mayfield's side to move the case back to state court and for NASCAR to pay for Mayfield's attorney fees that were related to this issue alone. Based on court documents, Mayfield's attorney fees were listed at nearly $70,000 on just this issue. NASCAR filed paperwork that the case remain in federal court. Remember that Mayfield's former attorney, Bill Diehl, filed a lawsuit in November claiming that Mayfield owed Diehl's law firm at least $371,973.66, plus attorney fees, interest and late charges. Diehl's firm represented Mayfield from May until October when Mayfield hired attorney Mark Geragos. Matt McLaughlin's Thinkin' Out Loud Matt McLaughlin · Frontstretch. Auto Club 500 The Key Moment: Kevin Harvick reeled in and ran down race leader Jimmie Johnson but slapped the wall with three laps to go, breaking his momentum and handing the victory to the No. 48. In a Nutshell: Foul weather in the area and uncertainty as to whether the race would run its full distance ignited something fans have never seen during a Cup event at Fontana before … real racing. Dramatic Moment: The final twenty laps of the race featured some intense racing within the top 10. A nod also has to go out to the rear tire changer for the No. 1 team, Adam Mosher, for his leap over the hood of the No. 29 exiting the pits. What They'll Be Talking About Around the Water Cooler This Week Fans were treated to two memorable finishes at Fontana this weekend, but let's put things in context. On Saturday, Joey Logano completely dominated the Nationwide race until the last lap of a green/white/ Despite Sunday's finish, I'm still convinced that the races at Fontana need to be cut back to 400, if not 300 miles – and the track still attracts a crowd that could be described as "a bit sparse." Official estimates seem to indicate that the grandstands were half empty for the event – or, as my dear friend KevinInSoCal will term it – they were half full. Wow, ratings were down sixteen percent for the Daytona 500. This was supposed to be the year that NASCAR turned around declining TV ratings, but I guess along the path there's going to be a few bumps… or potholes… in the road. After several less than successful attempts at fixing the potholes at Daytona, what was the high-tech solution that allowed the race to at least continue? Bondo. You're kidding me, right? Bondo may be the third eldest element in the universe behind dirt and rust. Rust was, of course, the nemesis that caused Bondo to be created, as all of us car guys have used that quick curing pink stuff to patch holes in our rides that'll last long enough to pass state inspection. Some guys were artisans with it while others, generally derided as Bondo Barbarians, slathered the stuff on rusted sheet metal several inches thick to avoid costly repairs or to hide sheet metal sinfulness under a new coat of paint for resale. But in this new century, if the most "high tech" weapon NASCAR has for combating crumbling tracks is Bondo, I'd suggest they also use the old school method for putting butts in the seats… Cheap Beer. As countless untalented bar bands can attest, nothing packs a roadhouse like cheap beer… Danica-Mania, Part Deux: Ms. Patrick charged to an electrifying 31st place finish Saturday, a mere three laps from competing for the race win. At least she looked quite pretty in doing so as, after all, next to actually succeeding we all want to look good in failure. Ms. Patrick has been entrusted with a solemn duty of putting paying butts in the seats, and at California she succeeded notably. If the crowd for last year's Fontana Nationwide race was humiliatingly small, this year it was merely pitiful. Patrick will run just one more time in NASCAR, next week at Vegas, before returning to her day job in IndyCar for several months. What happens then? My guess is the Nationwide series announcers will be rendered mute by her departure, since they seem to talk about little else other than "Herself." Maybe it's time to roll out those Mustangs and Challengers a bit early? Superstition is apparently still rampant in NASCAR racing. At Fontana, there is no pit stall "13" but instead pit stall 12A, which was chosen by outside pole sitter Juan Pablo Montoya and his team because that stall had a clear exit path through an entry to the garage area. Joe Weatherly would be proud. Weatherly, a NASCAR champion, was so superstitious about the number 13 that he refused to run in the thirteenth Southern 500 until the promoters billed it as "The 12th Renewal of the Southern 500." Sadly, Weatherly eventually died in a wreck not far from Fontana at the Riverside road course. Had he won that day, he'd have scored his 26th Grand National win (and 26 is, of course, two times 13.) Maybe I'm reading too much into something, but in light of the track problems at Daytona last week might NASCAR want to redo their commercial promoting standardized start times that shows the animated track blowing apart? Oh, and for the record, if they're going to promote one o'clock and three o'clock start times, how about fans that tune in at 1 or 3 see the cars already on the pace laps? Styx? You've got to be frickin' kidding me. I remember meeting those guys at the record store where I worked during college, and I graduated college three decades ago. I suppose I should be grateful that they haven't aged any more gracefully than I have. But what's up with these pre-race concerts? When's the last time you went to a concert and they used footage of a NASCAR race as a lead in? Are any of you out there old enough to remember that NASCAR was officially incorporated on this date in 1948? We can mourn what we've lost or we can celebrate what we've achieved, often at the same time. To put it musically, "It was 62 years today, Bill France taught the band to play, they've been going in and out of style, but can still occasionally raise a smile, may I introduce to you, the one and only National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing… What would you do if I sang out of tune, would you stand up and walk out on me…" The Hindenburg Award For Foul Fortune While his boy Jamie McMurray engaged in a whirlwind media tour, Daytona 500-winning team owner Chip Ganassi ended up with a rack of broken ribs in a skiing accident Saturday. Some folks were ready to pronounce Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s problems behind him after that stunning second place finish in the Daytona 500. But the No. 88 team and Earnhardt returned to mediocre form at Fontana before some sort of problem in the rear of the car finally stuck a fork in their day. Joey Logano had a career day at Fontana on Saturday until a little brush to the rear bumper, courtesy of his good buddy Greg Biffle, ended his chances at a win. At least a fifth place finish on Sunday had to ease a bit of the sting for the young driver. Juan Pablo Montoya ran strong early in the Fontana event, but was sidelined by engine failure shortly before the 300-mile mark. Only two races into the season, it's a bit too early to hit the "panic" button in earnest, but two consecutive DNFs are obviously not the way Ryan Newman and his team wanted to start their 2010 campaign. While his engine held together well enough to allow him to finish the race, three-time Fontana Cup winner Jeff Gordon could garner no better than a 20th place result. The "Seven Come Fore Eleven" Award For Fine Fortune Jimmie Johnson's title defense didn't start out well with a miserable finish in the Daytona 500. But he returned to form at Fontana, exiting the pits ahead of leader Jeff Burton as a caution flag flew for Brad Keselowski's spin with 25 laps left. That eventually left him on the lead lap and back up front for the final restart once everyone else had to pit. Clint Bowyer's car was doing its best imitation of Mount Vesuvius late in the race, blowing water out the overflow, but the engine hung on well enough to allow Bowyer to post a top 10 finish. Second and third place Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton both had to overcome pit road speeding penalties earlier in the race to contend for the win. Whoever was handing out the speeding tickets at Fontana this weekend seemed rather trigger happy. Or, maybe, with passing at such a premium out on the track with these new cars, drivers are in fact pushing the limits to the breaking point on pit road. It was another great weekend for Richard Childress Racing, with all three of Childress' drivers finishing in the top 8. It was a pretty good day for Red Bull Racing, as well, with Scott Speed finishing eleventh and Brian Vickers twelfth. Worth Noting · Johnson and the No. 48 team have now scored 48 points-paying Cup victories – although the Fontana win was only the second that they've managed in the month of February. · Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Clint Bowyer, and Greg Biffle have scored top 10 results in both of this season's Cup points races. · The top 10 finishers at Fontana drove six Chevys (including the cars of the first four finishers), two Fords, a Toyota, and a Dodge. · Half the drivers who finished in the top 10 in this race last year did so again in 2010: Johnson, Kenseth, Kurt Busch, Tony Stewart, and Greg Biffle. The cream always rises to the top, it would seem. What's the Points? Kevin Harvick assumed the points lead by nineteen over teammate Clint Bowyer. But as Harvick himself stated, it's kind of hard to read too much into that with 34 races left to run. Greg Biffle's season is starting out well, and he's currently third in the standings. Behind him … fame is fleeting, as Daytona 500 winner Jamie McMurray has already slipped to fourth. The Great American Race pays pretty well to win, but it provides no more points than any other race. Rounding out the top 5 in the championship is Jeff Burton, meaning that all three RCR drivers are currently 5th or better in points. In comparison, at this time in 2009 just one of them was in the top 15. Further back, Jimmie Johnson's win propelled him forward 23 positions in the points to twelfth after his disastrous Daytona finish. My guess is he'll easily maintain that top 12 ranking the rest of the season. Overall Rating (On a scale of one to six beer cans, with one being a stinker and a six pack an instant classic) – I'll give this one three-and-a- Next Up: The Western Swing continues with an event at Las Vegas. Is there anyone else here old enough to recall that NASCAR once headed to Rockingham and Richmond after the Daytona 500, gathering momentum for the season rather throwing it away at cookie cutter tracks? Johnson uses pit break to win again at Fontana Scored his fifth victory at ACS, 48th of his Cup career By Sporting News Wire Service FONTANA, Calif. -- A career came full circle for Jimmie Johnson, who won his first Cup Series race at Auto Club Speedway in 2002 and Sunday claimed his fifth victory at the 2-mile track and the 48th of his career -- matching the No. 48 on his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. After gaining the lead in the Auto Club 500 during a fortunate exchange on pit road, the four-time defending series champion held off Kevin Harvick during a 20 lap green-flag run to the finish. Harvick had narrowed a 1-second lead to .311 seconds on Lap 246 of 250 before a brush with the wall slowed his progress. Jeff Burton ran third, followed by Mark Martin and Joey Logano. Kurt Busch, Matt Kenseth, Clint Bowyer, Tony Stewart and Greg Biffle completed the top 10. With the win, Johnson tied Herb Thomas for 12th on the career victory list and showed the rest of the field that he's back on course after a 35th-place finish in the season-opening Daytona 500. The key sequence came on Lap 223, when Brad Keselowski spun his Dodge off Turn 4 after contact with David Reutimann's Toyota and brought out the sixth and final caution of the race. Johnson was on pit road when NASCAR called the caution but beat the pace car to the scoring line at the exit. When the rest of the lead-lap cars pitted under the yellow, Johnson inherited the lead and held it for a restart on Lap 231. "They're really good, but they're also really, really lucky," Harvick said. "They have a golden horseshoe stuck up their a** -- there's no getting around that." Johnson acknowledged his good fortune after climbing from his car in Victory Lane. "[Sunday], fortune came our way," Johnson said. "We hit pit road, and the caution came out and gave us track position. We lost the handle in the second half of the race. We were making gains coming back, but a lot of other guys were ahead of us, and I knew it would be tough to pass them. "I'm not going to lie -- the fact that we were on pit road gave us track position, and I drove my butt off. We finally got the car turning -- it was just a little too loose. The 29 [Harvick] was coming, but then he hit the wall and let us get it. "Yes, we were lucky [Sunday], but you don't get lucky and win four championships and 48 races." Just as intense as Harvick's pursuit of Johnson was Burton's battle with Harvick, his Richard Childress Racing teammate and the new Cup points leader through two races. "I kept running the bottom, because if [Harvick] slipped, I could get the spot," Burton said. "But me running the bottom, him running the top -- we weren't slowing each other up. Just the way he was running his fastest line, I was running my fastest line. "I think when we were doing that, we were running down [Johnson]. And then we got a little bit looser. Kevin looked like he got better. When he did, I thought he was going to win the race." The brush with the wall, however, ended his prospects for victory. Harvick's Chevy slid into the barrier after Johnson moved up the track to block the line he was running. "I caught the wall there just enough to knock the right-front fender in," Harvick said. "You know, if he doesn't move up, he's going to get passed pretty easily. He moved up and did what he was supposed to do to take that line away. He was able to drive off. So he did exactly what he had to do." ACS takes toll on engines during course of 500 miles By Joe Menzer, NASCAR.COM FONTANA, Calif. -- Shortly after climbing out of his No. 24 Chevrolet and discussing his strange Sunday briefly with crew chief Steve Letarte and a gaggle of other Hendrick Motorsports officials who were huddled in a small, serious group, driver Jeff Gordon was handed a very special package. Hoisting his daughter, Ella, under his left arm, Gordon told her, "You make me smile." That was no easy feat Sunday after all Gordon endured for more than three and a half hours on the 2-mile track at Auto Club Speedway. In the span of about 10 laps beginning when Gordon first came over his radio to report to Letarte that he suspected engine trouble on Lap 174, Gordon went from thinking he might just win the Auto Club 500 to fearing that he wouldn't even finish it. In the end, he had to settle for something in between. When Gordon reported to Letarte that the engine was missing, Letarte told his driver: "Run it for all it's worth. The rain is coming." And it did, bringing out the caution on Lap 194. But the rain showers didn't last for long -- while the engine problems for the No. 24 car did. "We were third or fourth and looking good," Gordon said. "The rain was coming. We weren't in bad shape. We certainly were in position to have a top-four or -five, if not have a chance at winning. "Instead, now I'm feeling pretty fortunate that we finished 20th." Letarte added: "Honestly when we were sitting fourth there and it was raining, I just wish it would have just gotten rained out there -- because we knew we had a motor problem, and I've never seen those fix themselves yet. "It started to fire again, but you knew it was just temporary. Those things never fix themselves. So it would run for a little while and you'd start to think maybe you were going to be OK, and then on that one restart he got into the gas and there was nothing there, and then we gave up all that track position." Letarte and Gordon said that their problems were related to spark plugs that were misfiring. At times over the final 75 laps the car would run smoothly on all cylinders -- and others, it was running on only seven or even just six. "All I know is I was down two cylinders," Gordon said. "I don't know enough about spark plugs to know exactly what happened. But I know when an engine isn't running right." Experiencing engine problems are nothing new for the Cup Series cars at Auto Club Speedway, which is considered one of the toughest tracks on the circuit for the punishment it deals out to the motors in the cars that dare to negotiate it. And Gordon was not alone in having his engine go sour Sunday. The No. 56 Toyota of Martin Truex Jr. was running strong early in the race before faltering, taking him out after only 64 laps. Juan Montoya led the first 29 laps in his No. 42 Chevrolet, but his engine blew up on him on Lap 140. Seven laps after that, the No. 39 Chevy of Ryan Newman started billowing smoke and followed suit to the sidelines. Several others battled various engine issues throughout the day. "My best year ever, we did the same thing and came here to California and blew up in the second race of the season," Truex said. "So hopefully this will mean we're going to go on to have a good season again. ... That's the only way I can look at it." Newman added: "We just lost an engine. We had a really horrible restart, and it just grenaded basically. I couldn't tell you what it was exactly, but it was big and there was smoke and that was the end of our day. "Something let go in the bottom of the motor. I spun my tires on the restart, but didn't over-rev it or anything. It was a horrible restart on my part. But either way, it grenaded and that was the end of our day." Winning crew chief Chad Knaus explained that all the grenades going off around him sure made him edgy, especially when his own driver, Jimmie Johnson, complained about the engine in their No. 48 Chevrolet not making enough power. It was then that Knaus wondered if it might be related to the problems he already knew Newman and Gordon had experienced in their Hendrick Motorsports engines. "We were pretty nervous, actually, because Jimmie made a couple comments that he thought we were just a little bit down on power." Knaus said. "Then the [39] had their engine blew up and the 24 had a miss and then it cleared up, and then it came back, and I guess they struggled to the finish with it. So I was pretty concerned. "This track is so difficult. It's not really the amount of RPMs you turn; it's the amount of RPM that you turn for the duration once you turn it. You're on the throttle for so long here. Once you start to move up the race track, your minimum RPM drops considerably and you carry a good sustained RPM all the way down the straightaways. Sunday's strange weather didn't help, either, according to Knaus. The temperature dropped dramatically during the course of the 250-lap event as the sky over the track alternated between bright and sunny and dark and overcast. "Obviously, with the fluctuation in ambient temperature, track temperature and air quality [Sunday], that played a contributing factor in that," Knaus added. "So this race track is really, really tough on engines. Plus, you have to realize that it's 500 miles. So it's a grueling place." Gordon and Letarte know all about it. "It was a crazy day for us. We struggled on new tires, but we were rocket fast," Gordon said. "We were driving up through there and came from 28th to the front, and that was a lot of fun. The pit stops were great. We were going to battle through the restarts no matter what, but then we had the problem with some spark plugs. It's something that we've seen in the past and felt like we had fixed. Now we have to go back and address it again." Letarte added: "We saw it happen with Jimmie last year at Pocono. When it was running OK there at the end, I thought we were going to get back into the top 15. But then it went back out and we went to six or seven cylinders, and that's just not going to work around here. "I will say Hendrick engines are as good as any out there. There is not another engine I would like to have in the car. And I'll also say that all 43 cars have to run on the same track. So to say it's hard on engines is like saying the tires are no good -- when everyone is running on the same tires. You just have to deal with it." Some dealt with it better than others on Sunday. At Fontana, fifth place feels like a victory for Logano By David Caraviello, NASCAR.COM FONTANA, Calif. -- Joey Logano did not relish the idea of coming back to Auto Club Speedway. Not in the Sprint Cup car, at least, and not after a finish of 26th in last season's spring race that left the then-rookie questioning his own confidence. Sunday, though was a different experience entirely, a fifth-place result that gave some indication of just how far the 19-year-old has come over the past 12 months. "I was not excited to come here," Logano admitted. "Maybe in the Nationwide car I was, because we won here last time. The Cup car, I was kind of skeptical just to see what was going to happen. We unloaded good and then we went back on Saturday, just never found a handle on it again. We got it right there at the end. It was the best the car handled, maybe because it was closest to the front and we had more clean air. That's a big deal, and I'm very happy. It feels like a win after a year ago with what we had. It definitely feels great." The yellow stripes may no longer adorn the back bumpers of his No. 20 car, and he may have claimed a victory in a rain-shortened Sprint Cup event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway last summer, but California showed that the young driver's education still continues. How different is Logano from the rookie who came to Auto Club Speedway last season? "Night and day," he said. "I say that now, but it's cool to see all the hard work, the studying tape and looking at notes, everything we went through last year struggling. I got down on myself. So it's cool to come back and see all the hard work pay off. That's motivating, that's why it feels like a win. We can see the front, now we've just got to get there." To crew chief Greg Zipadelli, the reason for the improvement is clear -- Logano now has the time and ability to focus on details that were superseded by other priorities last year. He was so busy trying to learn, he wasn't always able to help his Joe Gibbs Racing team make the car better. Now, he can. "He did a lot better job feeding us information, and I thought we did a lot better job of making adjustments because of that," said Zipadelli, who won two championships with Logano's predecessor, Tony Stewart. "Last year he wasn't sure if he was going to make it or not, and the pressure was on him. This year, it's business, you know what I mean? I think there's some confidence that comes from that." The fifth-place result in Southern California was a result of effort. Zipadelli said the No. 20 car was good Friday, but went awry in final practice Saturday. Over pizza that night, the crew chief and his engineers drew up a strategy that they hoped would improve the vehicle as the event went along. Logano ran consistently in the top 20 all day, moved into the top-10 with 25 laps remaining, and improved enough from there to record his fourth top-five finish in NASCAR's premier division and his first at the 2-mile track. "I think Zippy did a good job keeping up with the race track," said Logano, coming off a 20th-place finish in the Daytona 500. "He made great pit calls all day and, [I knew] what part of the race track we need the most. Me and Zip talked about that this week. I feel like we struggled a little bit with that in Daytona, and to come back this week after having a long talk to try to figure things out, to be able to come out with a top-five, you've got to be pleased with that." It also helped ease the sting from Saturday's Nationwide Series event, where Logano led 160 laps but got taken out on the last restart. "I was ready to shoot myself [Saturday]," he said, laughing. Conversely, Sunday felt like a win, even if another driver was in Victory Lane. Harvick leads RCR charge, tops early season standings By Ron Green Jr. - charlotteobserver. FONTANA, Calif. – Kevin Harvick wanted to win the Auto Club 500 Sunday afternoon and he almost did. Harvick hasn't won a Sprint Cup race since 2007 and he was on Jimmie Johnson's rear bumper with three laps remaining but wound up second after brushing the wall late. The consolation prize for Harvick was finding himself atop the Sprint Cup points standings two races into the season. "It's just what we're supposed to do," Harvick said. "That's what we get paid to do. We get paid to go out and drive the car as hard as we can and we're supposed to run up front. "We're happy to have a shot. We just keep building on those things. It leaves that sour taste in your mouth when you don't win and you want to go back and win again." Two races into the season, Harvick leads the points over Clint Bowyer, his teammate at Richard Childress Racing. Jeff Burton, who finished third Sunday while dueling Harvick late, is fifth in points. For a team that failed to win a Cup race last year, it's a strong start. "We felt good about what happened in the fall and over the winter, but until you start racing, you don't know where you are honestly," Burton said. "I had quite a bit of confidence coming in, but until everybody gets out here and they're going to give somebody a trophy, you don't really know where you stand. "I think (Harvick) had a shot to win both races, for sure. I think the (No.) 29 by far, the first two races of the year, has been the best car." Before the sun had set, Harvick was already looking forward, not backward. "You always need to get better," he said. "We don't need to get behind again. We need to progress forward before everyone else. "That's going to be the thing that's most challenging for us. It's not catching up. We did that. It's getting in front of everybody else." Strong Debut for New Crew Chief By Reid Spencer Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service) "I'm feeling great as far as the two finishes that we've had," Kenseth said. "It sounds dumb, me saying that, since we won the first two last year, but to get out of Daytona with all the troubles we had and finish eighth, and then to come here in Todd's first weekend and finish seventh is pretty good. "We ran a little worse than some of our teammates at times and a little better at times, and it seemed like we ran as good as most of the Fords did. I still think we've got some work to do to get all of our cars better as a group, but I thought, overall, that our team did a good job." Parrott agreed. "I was very, very happy," he said. "I would have liked to have gotten the car closer for Matt, but we just tweaked on it all day long. It wasn't too bad. We've got some work to do. Those guys up front, obviously, have some really fast racecars, but I think we made some huge gains from where we were over the winter, so I think we're heading in the right direction." Jimmie Johnson and the Golden Horseshoe Greg Engle/nascarexamine Kevin Harvick did all he could to beat Jimmie Johnson in Sunday's Auto Club 500. Harvick drove his Richard Childress Racing Chevy back from a penalty and was battling Johnson for the lead as he had done earlier in the event. Same As It Ever Was For Dale Earnhardt Junior Greg Engle/nascarexamine After last Sunday's second place finish in the season opening Daytona 500, Dale Earnhardt Junior was one happy guy. Racing at Fontana Was Fun? Seriously? Greg Engle/nascarexamine It was a word not normally associated with racing at Fontana, but after Sunday's Auto Club 500, it was word uttered by many racers: fun. Holding a Pretty Wheel Amy Henderson · Frontstretch. UNqualified Failure: Racing Isn't About Speed Anymore While 43 race teams prepared their cars for Saturday's last practice sessions and Sunday's race at Auto Club Speedway, what was happening to three other teams told an entirely different story. As race preparations began, the No. 90 Keyed-Up Motorsports entry driven by Casey Mears, the No. 36 Tommy Baldwin Racing Chevrolet driven by Johnny Sauter, and the No. 46 Dodge of Whitney Motorsports and driver Terry Cook were packed up and pushed onto their haulers for the long trip home, having qualified 44th-46th for 43 spots. It happens every week, and it's never fun to watch. But the slowest cars have to go home, right? Wrong. The slowest cars didn't leave Fontana. Mears, the fastest of the three drivers cut out of the field, was faster than five drivers who raced on Sunday, and would have made a field based on speed and not politics. So would Sauter and Cook, whose runs clocked in at 42nd and 43rd fastest on the day. But politics have shaped qualifying in a sport once shaped by speed, and it only continues to get uglier as time marches on. There have been numerous changes to qualifying over the last dozen or so years, all catering more to the complaints of a few than to the good of the sport. In the mid-90's, qualifying was a bit of a complicated process. On Friday, all entries made an attempt to qualify. The fastest 25 were locked into those positions. Anybody from 26th on back had a decision to make: stand on Friday's time, or make a second attempt on Saturday. Any team choosing to make a second run would take Saturday's first practice in qualifying trim, preparing for that qualifying attempt. Everyone else practiced in race trim. The cars making a second run would slot in on speed from 26th on back. If the fastest car beat the pole speed, it still started 26th. What usually happened though, was that the cars making a second run slotted in around those who had stood on time. A driver who, in his second run, was slower than one who stood on time but faster than the next one would start between them. Positions from 39th to 43rd were provisional positions based on points and the past champion's provisional, which was awarded first to the most recent champion. But teams complained that this system was unfair to those who chose, or were forced by their first run, to re-qualify, because it robbed those teams of practice time in race trim, given that the locked in teams ran Saturday morning practice in race trim. So NASCAR changed it. The next incarnation for the qualifying procedure implemented circa 2001, was simple enough: One round for the top 36 spots, and then provisional's awarded in the same manner as before-by points and past champion's provisional. That way, the lineup was determined all at once, and everyone had equal practice time in race trim. But under this system, teams complained about the use of unlimited provisional starting spots, thus allowing teams to gain more points and therefore, more provisional spots. So NASCAR limited the number of provisional's to six, with the opportunity to earn a handful more by attempting races all season. The complaint here was that teams would wait until many teams had exhausted their allotment and then make races on provisional's when they were clearly not good enough to make the field otherwise. In a final attempt to appease the latest group of complainers NASCAR devised the current system, locking in the top 35 in owners' points and making everyone else race for what has become only seven other positions, as teams use semi-retired champions to make the field in the 43rd spot, which remains the past champion's provisional. Now, nearly every week faster teams go home while slower teams race. It was especially pronounced at Talladega a few years back, where teams qualifying in the top 10 and top 20 were sent home while slower cars limped in based on past accomplishments. The system is still abused. Teams are allowed to use points that they buy at the end of the season-points the team or driver never earned-to make races over faster teams. This past week at Fontana, Mears out-qualified three teams who bought the owner points they used to make the race over him. Sauter and Cook each outran two of those. Only Robby Gordon and Travis Kvapil's teams actually earned the points they used to vault in over these three teams (while Kvapil did not drive the No. 34 in 2009, the team finished 35th with John Andretti behind the wheel). And that's unacceptable. In a sport based on speed, no team who relies on recycling somebody else's points should be racing. Really, why should anyone be allowed to rest on their laurels and slide into the field based on something they did last week, or even last year? That's not racing, that's politics. Compounding the problem was the cars who made the race and then promptly parked-that must have been a real comfort, particularly to Mears, whose team says that they will not start and park. It's unfortunate that trying to accommodate a few teams' complaints has turned into a joke. There are options, but does NASCAR want to hear them? The best option for the sport would be to drop locked in positions completely. This is easily done-if NASCAR kept the past champion's provisional and perhaps two "regular" provisional's based on points, the field would be set the way it should-by the fastest cars this week. Not last week or last year, but right now. But wait-it's not quite that simple, you say. What if a top driver wrecks in qualifying? Should he go home? Well, yes. And no. So, to fix that, the simplest thing is to go back to the second round of qualifying. That's right, with a few minor issues, NASCAR had it right 15 years ago, and only got this screwed up by their subsequent changes. But it would be easy to correct those issues. So, if the top 25 in qualifying lock in, and the others are forced to either stand on time or re-qualify, what about the complaints regarding practice time? Easy enough. Simply have one half-hour practice before second round only for those teams who have relinquished their times to make a second attempt, and hold either two practices after the morning qualifying runs or one extended happy hour practice later. The practice issue is solved, and that way, one mistake during Friday's run isn't fatal. And as for the worries that a top driver might still go home-this is racing, not little league soccer where everyone gets to play. If you can't get the car fast enough to make the race after two attempts, you don't deserve to race, whether your name is Johnson or Earnhardt, Mears or Sauter or Cook. If NASCAR can't see it clear to base the race on speed, they need to at least look at dropping the number of locked in teams drastically to ten or fifteen at the outside. From there on back, it should be go or go home. Also, the sanctioning body should not allow the transfer of points from one team to another-only the team that earns those points should benefit. If a team goes away, like the No. 44 at Richard Petty Motorsports or the No. 07 at Richard Childress Racing, those points should go away as well. The only possible exception to this should be if a team should choose to transfer those points to the driver's new team, or, in an even bigger stretch, if the crew goes intact to a new team and wishes to negotiate for them. In other words, only the No. 90 should have even been considered to be eligible to buy the No. 07's points-as Mears, not Regan Smith in the No. 78 who reaped the benefit, earned the points. But even that's a gray area. Racing is, and should be, a sport based on one thing-how fast a competitor can go on any given day. What he did last week, or last year, shouldn't be a part of that equation. There shouldn't be seven spots up for grabs, there should be at least 40, if not all 43. It's about racing, and regardless of your name or the number of trophies on your shelf it should all come down to one thing. Go. Or go home. And another thing… I really can't wait until the first Nationwide race Danica Patrick isn't in. Better yet, is there a race on the schedule that will not feature Patrick OR Kyle Busch? That one might be worth watching, as the other drivers might actually get some airtime. Fontana was almost a good race. It was same old, same old for much of the day, but Kevin Harvick tried to make for a good finish-but got into the wall, allowing Jimmie Johnson to coast home with an easy lead. It was better than most Fontana races, though, which isn't really saying that much. Speaking of Fontana, there were a LOT of empty seats there…and that's different from Rockingham was how, exactly? Oh that's right, Rockingham had good racing for those of us watching on TV. Finally, I think I'm going to give a shout out each week to a driver who didn't win the race but had a great day. This week, that's Scott Speed, one of the drivers competing for those seven spots each week-Speed finished 11th at Auto Club Speedway, vaulting himself into 15th place in drivers' points-for those looking this early in the season, that's ahead of such notables as four-time champ Jeff Gordon, two-time title winner Tony Stewart, or Most Popular Driver Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Tom Higgins Scuffs Asphalt issues, early flag sparked fan riot in 1961 Imagine winner Jamie McMurray, runner-up Dale Earnhardt Jr., Cup champion Jimmie Johnson and their crews being held hostage for ransom by fans, angered over the pothole pratfall taken by NASCAR last weekend during the Daytona 500. Unthinkable? Certainly so nowadays. But just such a thing happened many years ago, and I was there as a young reporter to see it. The date: Aug. 13, 1961. The site: Asheville-Weavervil The event: The Western North Carolina 500. Trouble developed almost immediately after the green flag as the speedway's asphalt began tearing apart. Flying pieces of pavement soon were pummeling the race cars and even some fans among an estimated 10,000 on hand. Rather than going to the press box, I sat in a concrete grandstand along the frontstretch with my new bride. I vividly recall an acquaintance from high school in nearby Burnsville, Louetta Randolph, being hit in the temple by a baseball-sized bit of asphalt that had flown over the fence. Louetta, dazed, was taken to an Asheville hospital as a precaution. She wasn't seriously hurt. The race rolled on with Junior Johnson dominating in a Pontiac. Junior seemed able to avoid the potholes better than his rivals, perhaps traceable to experience from his years of hauling moonshine on rutted, backwoods roads. Johnson started on the front row with fellow Pontiac driver Joe Weatherly, the pole winner at 65.704 mph. Junior grabbed the lead on the first lap and didn't relinquish it. He eventually charged three laps ahead despite having a large chunk of asphalt puncture a hole in the windshield right in front of his face. Relatively feeble efforts were made to repair the pavement, all to no avail. With the race under a red flag on the 208th of the scheduled 500 laps, NASCAR official Pat Purcell told the drivers and their crews the race would end after 50 more laps. The drivers were to get a final red flag and the checkered flag simultaneously. Best I recall, no announcement of the decision was made on the track's loudspeakers. So it was a surprise to many fans when Johnson was flagged the winner on Lap 258. And it riled about half those in the crowd at the speedway, destined to shut down in 1969. Some started screaming and yelling in protest. "I've seen half a race, I want half my money back!" one obviously inebriated guy kept hollering. Not surprisingly, promoter Gene Sluder had left the premises much earlier with the gate receipts. The protest grew in intensity. It quickly became a riot when a large logging truck was pushed onto the cross-over point leading to the infield and pit road. The track had no tunnel, so the competitors were trapped inside. A would-be mediator appeared from the midst of the irate throng. He was picked up and thrown into a pond. Additional law enforcement officers – from the Buncombe County Sheriff's Office and the N.C. Highway Patrol – were summoned. But they were outnumbered and could do little. As dusk neared, a few crewmen went to the spot where the route out was blocked, hoping to reason with the fuming fans. It didn't work. Some people had come to the speedway atop a long, low-lying ridge hoping to see controversy. At the time, NASCAR founder Big Bill France was battling a group of drivers – led by pioneers Curtis Turner and Tim Flock – who wanted to affiliate with the Teamsters Union. It had appeared a showdown would take place at the WNC 500. But Turner and Flock weren't at the track that day. Rowdies decided to create their own controversy. Finally, one of them made a big mistake. "I remember it vividly," says Johnson. "We'd lost patience, and one of the crew fellers, Pop Ergle, went to the gate to tell 'em we were coming out. "A riot ringleader had a two-by-four, and he poked Pop in the belly with it. Well, Pop, who worked for the team owned by Bud Moore, was a giant of a guy at about 6-6 and 285. "Pop took the board away from the guy and started swinging it. Before long, the place cleared out and we left." Not a single refund – and no ransom – was paid.
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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