Happy Tuesday. Today In Nascar History February 23, 2003: Rusty Wallace leads a race-high 182 laps and finishes sixth in the Subway 400 at Rockingham in his 600th Cup start. Dale Jarrett wins the race by .966 seconds over Kurt Busch. Jamie McMurray finishes fifth in his eighth Cup start. This race brings to a close an amazing streak for Wallace: he leads the most laps in his 300th, 400th, 500th and 600th starts, but gets the win only in his 300th. 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. Quote of the Day "(Jimmie Johnson and the No. 48 team) did a good job today in winning the race, but they have a golden horseshoe stuck up their ass. I mean, there's no way to get around that." --Kevin Harvick after Johnson's win Sunday. Comments from the Peanut Gallery From Chip Dear NASCAR Momma: Does HMS have an equipment problem to look at? Considering that Jimmie Johnson had to drop out of the Daytona 500 early with a broken axle and Dale Jr lost 12 laps to the same thing, one has to wonder just a little bit. I know there are some who say Jimmie hit the pothole to break his and Jr. snapped his coming off the jack in the pits. If that is the case then I guess they can't really blame the equipment but could a case be made for sub standard stuff to make its way into HMS. I remember a few years back that Roush went through their engine shop and found a bunch of defective parts that were causing engine failures and I just wonder if there may be a gremlin at HMS somewhere. I am sure that HMS will be looking at that issue or at least hope they do. Chip From Lou Hi Momma, A comment about Auto Club Speedway at Fontana, Ca. To be absolutely fair about it I would have to say that from what I saw on TV, and from what I heard from people who were there, there was actual racing this year. I did not attend the race again because I am not physically able to handle the situation there. I have never tried to hide the fact that I find ACS far from fan friendly to the elderly and disabled, and from what the people who were there told me nothing has changed. They said the stands are still inaccessible to the handicapped and the concessions are still way too costly for those of us on fixed incomes. All this brought to mind something Kyle Petty once said about Darlington Speedway and I believe it applies to ACS. He said they should fill it with water, stock it with bass, and hold fishing tournaments there. A few weeks ago in your newsletter someone said if they want to give another race to Kansas Speedway they should take it from ACS. Let's take both dates from ACS and give one to Kansas and the other to Las Vegas. The Old Man of NASCAR, Lou Elliott Bits and Pieces Planet Hollywood to be #34 & #38 assoc sponsor at Vegas: The glitz of the Las Vegas strip is coming to the cars of Front Row Motorsports with Yates Racing. The NASCAR Sprint Cup team will showcase Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino Las Vegas with associate sponsorships on Travis Kvapil's #34 and David Gilliland's #38 Ford Fusions during this weekend's Shelby American 500 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Fans will see the resort and casino's logo on the lower-rear quarter panels of the teams' Fords at the 1.5-mile tri-oval in the Nevada desert.(Front Row Motorsports/ California TV Ratings down from 2009: The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race on FOX earned an overnight rating of 5.0 rating /10 share opposite the Olympics yesterday for racing from Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA. That's down -6% compared to last year's 5.3/8 in a later time period. Yesterday's 5.0/10 is the lowest overnight for FOX's Fontana race since it moved to February, and the lowest for the race since 2003 when it drew a 4.9/11 in April. Greensboro, NC topped all markets yesterday with a 13.0/23. Charlotte was next with an 11.9/23, up +1% over last year's 11.8/17. NASCAR confiscates the #66 car: watching start-and-parkers? UPDATE: 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. #36 to feature "Scale the Strat" decal: Tommy Baldwin Racing (TBR) has partnered with the Stratosphere Hotel & Casino to support "Scale the Strat," an event in Las Vegas on March 13-14 that will raise funds to prevent lung disease and promote lung health. Tommy Baldwin Racing's #36 Kim Kardashian Fragrance/Sephora. NASCAR team donates car to school By Joe Marusak - charlotteobserver. Mooresville- The NASCAR Sprint Cup team fields cars for drivers Brian Vickers and Scott Speed. The donated car will serve as a laboratory for students in the Motorsports Management program, allowing them to see how Sprint Cup Series cars are designed and manufactured, said Richmond Gage, program head for Motorsports Management at the school. The program eventually plans to build an engine and transmission for the car and also use it for show purposes at college and community events, Gage said. The RCCC Motorsports Management Technology program is in its 13th year. It was the nation's first accredited motorsports- 11th-place finish a victory for Speed By Martin Henderson FONTANA, Calif. -- The sunglasses were propped on his head, and a smile easily crossed his face. For once, Scott Speed not only looked California cool, but also felt it. Relief, happiness -- no one in the garage Sunday felt better than Speed after the Auto Club 500. Not even race winner Jimmie Johnson. Speed, the Californian from Manteca beginning his second full season in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, is in a situation where he must prove himself. A refugee from Formula One, but without the credentials of Juan Pablo Montoya, Speed needs to show he belongs. Otherwise, he could go the way of other open-wheel drivers such as Dario Franchitti. Out of the series. But as long as Speed continues to show the kind of results he posted Sunday, when he finished 11th, he will continue to climb into his Red Bull Racing Toyota for crew chief Jimmy Elledge. "If we have another year like we did last year, it doesn't make sense to keep going," Speed said after he was robbed of a top-10 finish when he was passed by Greg Biffle in the final corner of the final lap of the 250-lap race. "We sort of expected this progression, but I don't think we expected it this much." Speed has had only one finish better than the one that came at the two-mile Auto Club Speedway: He finished fifth last season in a race at Talladega. Coupled with his 19th-place finish a week ago at Daytona, Speed is 15th in the standings. "We were in circumstance in Daytona," Speed said, referencing his being out of pit sequence and it lending itself to a good finish at the restrictor plate race. "But this time it's for real. When you're running up here like this in California, it's no disputing. For everyone that's up there [at the front], it's for real, absolutely." Finishing 11th, he said, "means a ton." And he might have cracked the top 10 -- he had been running ninth with 10 laps to go -- but he says he "burned off" the front tires trying to pass Tony Stewart for eighth early in the stint. Speed finished 35th in the series as a rookie last season while teammate Brian Vickers -- in his fifth full season -- finished 12th. Vickers, 26, grew up in stock cars; he was 25th as a rookie in 2004 with owner Rick Hendrick's team. On Sunday, Vickers finished 12th, giving Red Bull Racing one of its best days ever. "It's not easy for us open wheel guys," the 27-year-old Speed said. "We made a lot of progress in the offseason. What's cool for me is how much I've learned. When I'm out there I'm doing stuff and I'm like, 'Man, I felt so dumb last year because I'm taking stuff for granted now.' I'm just learning with time and experience, and that makes the whole process easier." Jay Frye, vice president and general manager of Red Bull Racing, said that Speed has always reached a point, in whatever series he is in, when he "gets it." And when Speed reaches that point in Cup, Frye expects his driver to take off. It just needs to happen this season. "Circumstances probably had us put him in a car a year earlier than what we originally planned," Frye said. "Last year was tough, and we knew it would be tough, and we threw him to the wolves." However, "the Mulligan we had last season is over and it's time to go," Frye continued. "We had great expectations for him, great confidence in him. We certainly think he can do it, but now's the time to prove it. Now's the time to go. "As long as the curve is pointed in the right direction, I think we'll be fine. He continues to do things in the car this year that he wasn't necessarily able to do last year." Like perform the way he did on Sunday. And, with any luck, he will click the way he did in the 2008 ARCA RE/MAX Series, when he won four races and moved up the standings to finish third. Speed himself says he is probably a year away from reaching that point where it all clicks for him, "but to be where we are now and to be able to run where we are … it feels pretty fantastic." Meager crowd should make NASCAR rethink California schedule Pete Pistone/Special to CBSSports.com The racing in Sunday's Auto Club 500 was some of the best we've seen at Fontana in recent years. But unfortunately there weren't very many fans in the grandstands to witness it. One of the track's smallest crowds in history turned out to watch the second race of the Sprint Cup Series season and the annual game of guessing whether or not NASCAR visits Southern California twice next year went into overdrive. The brutal California economy combined with a less-than-perfect weather forecast most likely combined for the disappointing turnout. But while both issues are legitimate reasons for poor attendance, the track may have finally run out of excuses. Parent company International Speedway Corporation plans to bring a second race to its Kansas Speedway in 2011 now that a brand new casino and hotel complex is on the fast track. That date needs to come from another ISC property and at this point in the game, Auto Club Speedway might make the most sense. It's true that the Los Angeles market is the second largest in the country and presents a wealth of media opportunities for the sport. However, making the trek to L.A. two times a year doesn't appear to be worth the effort and you have to wonder if the track hosted only one race, the second race of the Chase lineup, whether the grandstands would be full. When the gates first opened in Fontana back in 1997, sellout crowds were the norm. But when a second race was added to the track's schedule, each date suffered at the box office. Positioning Fontana as a one-stop track that has championship implications with its Chase spot in the schedule may be the cure to those woes. Shedding one date and combining efforts for its playoff weekend seems to make the most sense for ACS's future. While the on-track product has improved, it's hard to ignore how the grandstands have thinned out. My guess is there will be only one trip to Fontana in 2011 and that will be a wise decision indeed. The Fast Five 1. Luck has always been a big part of racing's success and that again proved to be the case Sunday with Jimmie Johnson. A split second the other way and Johnson's late race pit stop could have turned out to be disastrous rather than the winning move. Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus were the first to admit the call had its share of fortune behind it, but after winning four straight championships nobody should be surprised that the equation for success has its share of four leaf clovers and rabbit feet. 2. Richard Childress Racing appears to have returned to its successful ways after a dismal 2009. Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton finished second and third Sunday coming on the heels of the solid performance by the entire three-car stable last week in Daytona. Harvick has the points lead and RCR should be on the Chase radar this season. 3. The Roush Fenway Racing stable is headed in the other direction, and at a track the team has dominated over the years. Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle were able to only eek out top-10 finishes. If RFR doesn't begin to excel at the next string of intermediate tracks on the schedule, including Las Vegas and Atlanta the next two weekends, the removal of Drew Blickensderfer as Matt Kenseth's crew chief last week may not be the only personnel change. 4. One of the preseason's championship favorites, Denny Hamlin, isn't off to a particularly impressive start. All kinds of problems plagued Hamlin on Sunday as he ended up in 29th place. Speaking of panic, you have to wonder what's going on in the 11 car's headquarters right now. 5. Also on the disappointing side of the ledger is Martin Truex Jr., who followed up his impressive Daytona performance with an engine failure, a trip into the wall and a 39th-place finish on Sunday. Coupled with a 15th-place finish for David Reutimann and a 35th for Marcos Ambrose and MWR/JTG Daugherty no doubt couldn't wait to get out of California. Five Points to Ponder… Bryan Davis Keith · Frontstretch. A Surprisingly Solid Western That Nobody Witnessed ONE: Is NASCAR sending a message to Prism Motorsports and their fellow S&P brigadiers? Lee Spencer of FOX Sports reported that as soon as Dave Blaney pulled his No. 66 car into the garage at Fontana — after running 43 laps and leading for five of them — to having a sudden engine failure, NASCAR confiscated his car…and may not return the machine in time for the team to race it at Las Vegas. Immediately, everyone's jumping on a potential storyline that maybe, just maybe, NASCAR is finally stepping up and sending a message to these freeloaders carpet-bagging millions out of racing for no other reason than cold, hard business. And maybe they have a point. Fellow Frontstretch writer S.D. Grady was quick to note how, surprisingly, both Joe Nemechek and Boris Said parked their cars early…only to return to the track to run some more before parking for good (and this after Said publicly said his team would start and park if the budget made them do it…as well as skipping out on practice sessions at Daytona and at Fontana). But personally, I think everyone's reading way too much into this. NASCAR has actively ignored this issue for years, and even encouraged it in their lower level series. Why all of a sudden would they change their tune, especially considering it's with a team that influential Phil Parsons continues to have a significant interest in? Let's not forget this is the same sanctioning body that last March at Atlanta claimed that they had a responsibility to make sure teams were on the up and up, only to watch Mike Bliss and the same Blaney take spots in the field away from fully-sponsored entries of Jeremy Mayfield and Scott Riggs, and to say nothing when these respective cars came in early to their pits, well short of the tires and equipment needed to actually run 500 miles. If anything, what's happening here is that NASCAR is checking their cars, not their intent as a race team. As Frontstretch reported last fall, Prism Motorsports' previous partners on the Nationwide Series circuit, MSRP Motorsports, had built their cars so far into a qualifying setup that it would not be possible for their entries to last a full race distance, even if a sponsor came calling. Chances are that's the issue here. Blaney scoring a top 5 qualifying run in an unsponsored car turned heads in the broadcast booth on Friday, and likely in the garage. NASCAR's going to check the car, find that while it can't run a race distance that it is legal, and will soon return it to Prism with a request that maybe they try to run 50 laps a race instead of the 20 they've made a habit of. If you want to learn about the present, look to the past…and the past says that Prism Motorsports is still going to do their start and park thing all year long, make a fortune doing it, and face no repercussions from NASCAR. TWO: Did Goodyear finally put a good tire on the track? While Greg Engle and others may disagree with me, I found the racing at Auto Club Speedway, in both the Cup and Nationwide races, to be markedly improved from what fans have become accustomed to seeing (until they fell asleep anyway) at one of the circuit's cookie cutter race tracks. Maybe that was the result of better TV coverage, I can't say for sure. But I feel pretty confident saying that softer tires had something to do with it. Seriously, when was the last time that Goodyear managed to balance having tires that actually went away as a run progressed with a tire that didn't blow out near the end of a tank of gas? The tires obviously didn't pose a problem for the drivers, as a mid-race battle between Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick or a later duel between Harvick and Jeff Burton produced continual side by side racing later in a run that was both uncharacteristic of Auto Club Speedway…and of the rock hard tires that Goodyear has been putting on the track of late. Goodyear got one right, and the product on track improved as a result. This isn't rocket science, Goodyear. Keep it up. THREE: Maybe Furniture Row Racing wasn't so crazy about going full-time racing again… Regan Smith and his No. 78 team nearly pulled out a top 5 finish thanks to rain strategy, but watched with the rest of the teams and the 20 people in the grandstands as the big precipitation just missed the speedway. Smith then restarted in the top 10…and actually stayed there for a while. Though Smith eventually got shuffled back into the middle of the lead lap pack, he eventually posted a 19th place finish. The result was the first lead lap finish for the No. 78 team since Daytona last July. What's more, it served as early notice that the team's decision to return to full-time Cup racing may not have been such a reach after all. While Smith ran well in a number of races during the team's limited 2009 campaign, the season before that saw the Colorado based race team completely overwhelmed by season's end, despite having veteran Joe Nemechek behind the wheel and Hendrick horses under the hood. Obviously, it's too early to tell whether a full 36 race slate will do the same thing to this organization again, but Regan Smith ran very well on Sunday. And with Smith behind the wheel, the chances go up that the team's limited equipment will not fall victim to the rash of wrecks it endured with Nemechek behind the wheel. It's only been two races. But after a strong Speedweeks at Daytona before an early wreck and a legitimate top 20 at Fontana, this just might work out for the No. 78 team yet. FOUR: Improved racing or not, a poor crowd at Fontana is a good thing. Despite a race weekend far better than last year's absolute debacle that saw maybe 15,000 show up for the Truck and Nationwide Series races combined, only to be followed by a crowd that was maybe two thirds full on Sunday, this year's Cup race drew what has been estimated as a generous 55,000. Martinsville draws more fans than that. The last Nationwide race run in Mexico City drew a comparable crowd. Kansas Speedway and its similar brand of cookie-cutter racing is going to be getting a second Cup race in the near future. And the priceless, ageless relic that is the Martinsville Speedway for a while seemed to be the track in the crosshairs to lose a date in the ISC stable. Fortunately, the fans (or lack thereof) that showed up this past Sunday less than en masse to ACS may have done the sport a huge service…they may well have put Auto Club in the target to lose a date. This is good for two reasons. First of all, as much as the racing we saw was improved on Sunday, it still couldn't hold a candle to 500 laps on the circuit's shortest bullring. Second, it provided NASCAR with a golden opportunity to follow through on its commitment to bringing the sport back to its roots. What better way to do this than to finally strip a race date away from the track that has been a symbol for fans to rage against over the loss of the Southern 500? Fortunately, thanks to Sunday, some of the pressure to strip a date from Martinsville disappeared. And it's not like Fontana would lose under that scenario. Just look at what happened to Darlington when they went to one race date…they've been selling out ever since. FIVE: The Drive for Five is alive and kicking… See that guy in Victory Lane? Yeah, that Lowe's dude that has hoisted the Sprint Cup the last four seasons? He won again on Sunday. It only took the No. 48 team two tries to win in 2010. Anyone else out there still think their luck just has to run out this season? Fontana countdown: Jimmie Johnson back on top Jorge Mondaca/foxsports. 5 things we learned this weekend He's back – Reports of Jimmie Johnson's disappearance from atop the NASCAR mountain after a 35th-place finish at Daytona are wrong. Yes, he needed a little bit of luck to end up in Victory Lane Sunday at Auto Club Speedway, but there's no denying that Johnson's No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet was the best of the bunch. Not only did he lead a whopping 101 of 250 laps, but he also maintained an average running position of 3.376 through the entire race and ran 31 total fast laps (all race-leading figures). Sending a message? NASCAR confiscated the No. 66 Prism Motorsports ride shortly after it start-and-parked Sunday, and some are crying foul. False start? All that momentum Dale Earnhardt Jr. gained by going from 10th to second on the final lap of the Daytona 500 last week … yeah, it's gone. Jimmie Johnson – There's a reason he's a four-time defending Sprint Cup champion. And right now, No. 5 doesn't look unlikely. "(Jimmie Johnson and the No. 48 team) did a good job today in winning the race, but they have a golden horseshoe stuck up their ass. I mean, there's no way to get around that." Kevin Harvick after Johnson's win Sunday. "(Greg Biffle) decided to hit us again. I don't know what his deal is with me, but for some reason in California he feels like putting me in the fence or hitting me towards the end." Joey Logano after Saturday's Nationwide Series race | "If I wanted to do that, it's pretty easy to do." Greg Biffle upon hearing Logano's quote. Another race weekend at Auto Club Speedway, another chance for track president Gillian Zucker to play spin doctor as she explains why the 92,000-seat track wasn't at full capacity. Why were there so many empty seats in 2006? Fans were "shopping during the race." (Quote courtesy of Yahoo! Sports). 2007? "We're trying everything we can. ... Some ideas stick, some don't. We're certainly having fun with it." (Sporting News Wire Service) 2008? "We have a five-year plan, the company has a five-year vision, we have a fantastic foundation built to experience growth and we are poised and ready for that."(NASCAR. You get the idea. Johnson's Mystique Grows with Fontana Win By Reid Spencer Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service In the eyes of their NASCAR Sprint Cup rivals, driver Jimmie Johnson, crew chief Chad Knaus and the No. 48 Chevrolet have ample supplies of both excellent performance and remarkable good fortune. Capitalizing on an opportune caution, Johnson began the quest for his fifth straight Cup title in earnest Sunday afternoon with his fifth victory at Auto Club Speedway and the 48th of his career. Two races into his ninth full season of Cup racing, Johnson is tied with Herb Thomas for 12th on the all-time victory list. "They're really good, but they're really, really lucky, too," said Kevin Harvick, who chased Johnson for the final 20 green-flag laps on Sunday but fell short after scraping the wall. "I mean, Jimmie is a good friend of mine, but there's no way of getting around how lucky they are." Harvick went on to say, bluntly, that Johnson carries a golden horseshoe where the sun doesn't shine. There's no doubt Johnson turned a tough situation into Shinola after Johnson, who led a race-high 101 laps was shuffled back in the running order more than halfway through the race. Johnson brought the No. 48 Chevy to the pits for a green-flag stop on Lap 223, moments before Brad Keselowski's Dodge spun off Turn 4 to bring out the sixth caution of the race. Johnson beat the pace car to the scoring line at the end of pit road by approximately three seconds. Two drivers on pit road behind him, Kyle Busch and Greg Biffle, weren't as fortunate, and each lost a lap. As the cars circled the track under caution, preparing for a restart on Lap 231 of 250, crew chief Kevin "Bono" Manion told his driver, Daytona 500 winner Jamie McMurray, that Johnson was leading the race. "How can he be leading?" McMurray radioed back in amazement. "He was on pit road, wasn't he?" "It's the 48, man," Manion replied. Apparently, Johnson is as far into the heads of his competitors as the horseshoe is … elsewhere. That only increases the likelihood of a fifth championship for a team that's already very, very good—and really, really lucky. Sunday's Auto Club 500 gave us a number of results that are outside the norm for recent years. Here are five: Paul Menard, 18th in the standings, is the top driver for Richard Petty Motorsports. Kasey Kahne, 33rd, ranks lowest in the RPM camp, with Elliot Sadler (24th) and AJ Allmendinger (27th) also ahead of him. "I got loose and I didn't catch it," Kahne said of an early wreck at Fontana that relegated him to a 34th-place finish. "I did a bad job. We had a pretty good car. … I think we had a great shot at running up front, and I just made a mistake. Now we're in a big hole." Absolutely Hilarious! New Associate Sponsor for Dale Earnhardt, Jr. - Absolut! By Rob Quillen/racejournal At the start of the race today Fox was talking about how the officials were cutting the track to fix the "weepers". Not sure about you, but I don't think cutting the track will help the attitude of the Busch brothers. Chip Ganassi celebrated his Daytona 500 championship by going snow skiing. Unfortunately he was involved in an accident where he broke four ribs and can't travel for a couple of weeks. In an unrelated story, several NASCAR fans asked Danica Patrick if she wanted to go skiing this week before the Vegas race. Getting back to Chip, my first reaction when I heard the news was, "Chip skis? Really??" How ironic is it that AAA Auto insurance sponsors both the 12 and 77 cars. Both spun on Sunday. Even more ironic, AAA started their "safe driver" commercials this week. The first one featured Sam Hornish. I'll let you finish that joke. For the Super Bowl we got to see The Who. For the Daytona 500, we got to see Tim McGraw. For today's race, we got to see Styx. I don't think we are trending well. I am guessing that by the time we get to Homestead, we'll be watching Los Del Rio. To save you some time on Google, those are the two guys who gave us the Macarena. Help me understand the difference between a weather man and a Storm Scout? And why does the Storm Scout guy have to wear such tight pants? The pre-race today was an hour and 18 minutes. The only thing I learned: Junior likes vodka with his orange Amp Energy drink. Speaking of Junior, in his mid-week media conference call, he announced that he no longer wants to be called Junior. He would simply like to be called Dale. He is driving so bad, even he wants to get away from the name that made him so famous. More on Junior..I mean Dale in a bit. Before Martin Truex wrecked, he said that he was really tight around someone, but fine when he was by himself. Reminds me of one of my brothers when the bar tab comes around. You've never seen anyone with alligator arms like this guy. Kevin Harvick on the radio. "Are we pitting behind the 1 car?" 10-4 Kevin, why? "I think that right rear tire changer has been hitting on DeLana, I'm going to teach him a lesson" When the 39 blew an engine, DW said it was "self-inflicted". Really? Like when Cole Trickle purposely blew up in Days of Thunder because he lost his confidence? In a very cool promotional move by the California Speedway, depending on what section you were sitting in you got either a red or yellow t-shirt to wear during the race. Speaking of empty seats, best Twitter regarding the subject: "I bet some Bondo would help fill those holes!" Clint Boyer on the radio "Are we in California?" 10-4 Clint, why? "No reason, was thinking of heading over to see Old Faithful…never mind." The commercial where Carl Edwards is promoting the Subway five-dollar foot-long, he talks about the numbers that go through his head. "I think of my speed limit, my car number, five-dollar foot-longs and how many centimeters my wife currently is." On this one, feel free to send me hate mail at Nascar2dozen@ Instead of: It should be: Ok, now I'm a Dale fan, but even I can laugh at the above. It you ain't got a sense of humor, you have a very serious life! The REAL Story of Moonshine and NASCAR - Part I Daniel Pierce/Real NASCAR.com I've devoted about twelve years of my life to conducting in-depth research on southern stock car racing and NASCAR's history from the mid-1930s up to the early 1970s. The result of that research—fair warning here; this is a self-promoting advertisement—is a book entitled Real NASCAR: White Lightning, Red Clay, and Big Bill France http://uncpress. In doing that research, I've found that one of the most important and persistent stories handed down in almost every account of the early days of NASCAR is the alleged role of moonshiners and bootleggers in the origins of the sport. In the common mythology of NASCAR, the sport arose solely and directly from liquor-running drivers and their souped-up cars. According to "Humpy" Wheeler at "the average race in 1950, particularly in western North Carolina or maybe the Peach Bowl down in Georgia, maybe 25 to 30 percent of the participants had run or was running moonshine at the time. And probably that many mechanics had either built or worked on moonshine cars." Ned Jarrett estimates that "at least half the people I was racing against at Hickory and North Wilkesboro [in the early 1950s] were in bootlegging." Most folks who have written about NASCAR's history have recounted Tim Flock's account of how the bootleggers started the sport. This version is from Sylvia Wilkinson's fine 1983 book Dirt Tracks to Glory: "I know exactly how racing got started. . . . In the mid-thirties, in a cow pasture in Georgia, that's where racing [of the NASCAR variety] began. We didn't have no tickets, no safety equipment, no fences, no nothing. Just a bunch of bootleggers who'd been arguing all week about who had the fastest car would get together to prove it. . . . Thirty or forty of these bootleggers showed up in this cow pasture at Stockbridge, which is about fifteen miles outside Atlanta. They made a track by running around and digging their wheels in the ground in about a half-mile circle. These guys would run and bet against their own cars, betting who had the fastest car. That night they'd be hauling liquor in the same car. About fifty people saw this dust cloud and came up trying to see what was causing it. Next time, a hundred would show up. Then three or four hundred would show up. . . . Pretty soon, they raced every Sunday. Five and six thousand people started showing up. Then Bill France came along and he started putting up fences, the whole bit. He made stock car racing what it is today." Some observers, however, dispute this standard version of NASCAR history. Geographer Richard Pillsbury asserts, "it seems questionable that moonshining has been a significant force in the development of stock car racing as we know it today." Sociologist Jim Wright offers no qualifiers when he argues, "The idea that NASCAR was created by or was at least a tolerant, much less congenial, home for a gang of wild-eyed whiskey-runners is nonsense." NASCAR founder, Bill France, Sr. regularly downplayed any alleged moonshine connection to NASCAR's founding. Some observers have contended that France did not like bootleggers, tried to run them out of stock car racing, and that his motivation may have been due to a "puritanical" streak. France himself dismissed questions about any purported relationship between him and bootleggers. As Sylvia Wilkinson observed after interviewing France in the 1980s, "Thunder Road [the general name for highways where trippers hauled liquor], the path that excites the legend-seekers, is a road he never drove down, and one he is tired of hearing about." The NASCAR party line continues in this vein, admitting that there were bootleggers around in the early days—Junior Johnson's name regularly comes up here--; they were a quaint and curious part of the sport's beginnings but their influence was limited. Of course the subject has come up recently as NASCAR has had to look at its past in terms of deciding what stories it will tell in its brand new, state-of-the- In a recent interview the NASCAR Hall of Fame's historian Buz McKim gave an early indication of how the museum will deal with bootlegging/ Early on in my research, I tended to agree with Big Bill France, NASCAR, most of the academics who have written on the subject, and with Buz McKim that writers and participants in NASCAR, more interested in titillation than accuracy, vastly exaggerated the role of moonshining and bootlegging in the sport's origins and early years. However, on much closer inspection, I have discovered that if anything NASCAR's connection to the manufacturing, transportation, and sale of illegal alcohol has been both underestimated and misunderstood. Indeed, the deeper I have looked into southern stock car racing's early history, the more liquor I have found. Indeed, there is no disputing the fact that significant numbers of the early drivers in stock car racing—especially the most successful ones--had their initial high-speed driving experiences evading the law at the wheel of a souped-up 1939 or 40 Ford V-8 loaded with 120 gallons of illegal whiskey. What most historians of stock car racing and NASCAR have failed to note, however, is that a large percentage of the early mechanics, car owners, promoters, and track owners had deep ties to the illegal alcohol business. Indeed, the very foundations of the sport were built on the proceeds of the manufacture, transport and sale of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of cases of white liquor, and legally produced/illegally sold bootleg "red" liquor, in the Piedmont region of the South and its adjacent foothills. In the coming weeks I'll give you more specifics about the fascinating history of how Big Bill France partnered with these purveyors of illegal alcohol to take NASCAR from the back roads of the Piedmont South to the main street of American professional sports. Next week: The REAL Story of Moonshine and NASCAR - Part II - The Bootlegger Drivers Follywood: How long can NASCAR justify two dates for LA area track? Richard Allen/racingwithric Not even the best political spin doctors in Washington, D.C. could find a way to put Sunday's attendance, or lack thereof, at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California in a positive light. Ever since this track was given a second date on the NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule the attendance has been disappointing, or rather embarrassing. Sunday's Auto Club 500 was perhaps the most pathetic showing of all in Southern California. Less than an hour before the green flag was to fall on the event Fox Network television cameras showed driver Kevin Harvick signing autographs on pit road. In the background the vacant grandstands were visible which caused me to think the footage of Harvick must have been shot earlier. Turns out it was live. The stands were really that empty so close to start time. Entire sections of seats were obviously empty or nearly so despite Fox's best efforts to use close up camera angles as cars raced on the front stretch. Pictures posted on twitter and Facebook by various media members further revealed just how poor attendance was. Of course, track president Gillian Zucker was at the ready with the typical excuses. The economy and potential rain were cited as reasons for the lack of fan patronage. Both, and any other excuses, are ridiculous. This track has what should be a perfect date. It is only one week removed from the Daytona 500, the sport's marquee event. Coming after that race allows for tremendous publicity as almost every major sports media outlet in the country covers the 'Great American Race'. The Daytona race is almost always exciting, and pothole withstanding, this year was no different. When asked if the track would fare better with one date instead of two, Zucker replied, "I really don't know if selling out one race is better than having two races." Seriously, Ms. Zucker? And to make matters worse, the racing on this facility is awful. 500 miles of eventless parading followed by a contrived finish is all those in markets who actually care about the sport have to look forward to from this two-mile facility. The bottom line is this track was given a second date which it never deserved. This is a region which is only casually interested in NASCAR at best. Having one race here is plausible because of the sheer size of the market and the fact that having only one race might attract enough people who want to see what racing is all about to make the place not look so empty. Two dates is a joke, or better a folly. "We're going to fight tooth and nail to keep our events," Zucker declared in a mid-race press conference. Frankly, Ms. Zucker, this is a fight I hope you lose. Last week I wrote that if any track was to lose a date so that Kansas might add another it should be this one. I saw absolutely nothing on Sunday that would cause me to change my mind. One Follywood 500 is plenty for the Los Angeles area. Remembering Dale Ryan McGee/espn.com I don't know how or when it happened last Thursday. Perhaps I looked at the date on the top right corner of my newspaper, or saw the date on my computer, or in the time stamp of an email. But I do remember my reaction when I realized that it was the 18th of February. Damn. To NASCAR fans, February 18 is our version of The Day The Music Died. It was the day that the celebration of the 2001 Daytona 500 -- not to mention our innocence as a sport -- was forever vanquished by four crippling words from NASCAR president Mike Helton. "We've lost Dale Earnhardt." Next year will mark the 10th anniversary of that day and I am curious to see how we as the media and as race fans will commemorate it. Tragic anniversaries are curious things. My mother passed away three years earlier than Earnhardt, nearly to the day, and my family has an unwritten, unstated rule that we just don't bring it up. We'd rather remember her on her birthday or on my parents' wedding anniversary than on what was easily the worst date of our lives. Earnhardt fans largely take the same route. They gather at the headquarters of Dale Earnhardt Incorporated every April 29, "The Intimidator' But last Thursday I was curious to see what NASCAR fans remember about the worst day of our racing lives, February 18, 2001. So I posed the question on Twitter and via email: Where were you when you learned that Dale Earnhardt had died? The response was pretty overwhelming. John Schwarb, a great writer based out of Indianapolis and a former ESPN.com colleague, was working in Tampa at the time. He wrote via email: "Will never forget the impromptu Dale memorial I covered the day after the accident. Was on a little spit of beach between Tampa and St. Pete, a guy parked his Pontiac (in full Wrangler livery, circa 1982) there and it attracted a HUGE crowd. Had to be 1,000 folks or more, everyone from fans to onlookers to entrepreneurs who were already selling the "3 Forever" window stickers that would soon be on every other car in the state. Guy looked at me with his watery, bloodshot eyes and said he would be on that spit of beach on this anniversary every year. If I still lived down there, I'd check it out. And I bet he'd be there." Via Twitter, dozens of fans said they'd been watching on television, many of them watching their first NASCAR race, drawn to the 500 by the launch of the sport's new billion-dollar TV package and the super-hyped debut of FOX's inaugural race. Courtlyn1 said: "watching my first NASCAR race. I was terrified to watch again for a few years." Jesslyn8706: "That was the day I turned on my first race. Had no idea what was going on, but could tell from DW's voice how bad it was." Goldracnmama: "First race my hubby ever watched. I'd been a lifelong fan. We sat in our living room with him asking if this happened a lot." CeeKay74: "On my couch watching a race from start 2 finish 4 first time. Left b4 official report. Called my bro-in-law a liar when he said Dale Sr. died." Some of those watching their first race were kids. Nearly a decade later they are grown adults, but their memories of that day are still vivid. Like jr88freak, who was a freshman in high school and is now a mother and wife of a U.S. Marine in Washington, D.C.: "Didn't find out until much later that night. Sat in the cafeteria next day watching it on the news." Sherm39: "I was 10 years old and my dad said Son Dale died today at Daytona and i cried all night i was just a kid but i knew what he meant." A Tweep named mybrandneweyes was watching in upstate New York with her grandfather. For so many fans, losing Earnhardt felt like losing a member of the family. For a select few unfortunate others, his death was yet another loss of a loved one. For example, Twitter user southernmiss1, who had to deliver the news to her husband: "Home by myself, hubby in AL working. Had to call & tell him that his fave driver died. His Mom had just passed away couple weeks before." Jordan Thompson, aka Yar8pack, said: "Crying at home. Brother and I lost our dad to a vicious wreck just a month earlier. Lost our 1st and 2nd greatest paragons." Others recalled how they heard the news. Jess9ladybug, a longtime Twitter friend in New York, wrote: "Watched the race, saw the crash. Went to the store, I heard on the car radio he passed away. I pulled over and cried my eyes out." And poor Steve James (stevejamesmedia on Twitter) was in Gatlinburg, Tenn. on his honeymoon when he received the news. Sara Dewey, aka jr88countrygirl, recalled how she was already in bed, but when her father called home and she heard her mother's reaction she instantly knew what had happened. Robyn McFarland of Fort Mill, S.C., remembered how difficult it was to find post-race information during that time when instant NASCAR news wasn't available 24/7. "(Husband Derek and I) watched the race but then must have turned the channel or turned the TV off and later (I can't remember what time) Derek was on the computer and yells down from his upstairs office ... 'They're saying he's dead.' Me: 'Who's dead?' Him: 'Dale.' Me: 'Dale Jarrett is dead?' (because Earnhardt's crash just didn't look that bad.) Derek: 'No, Earnhardt. Turn on the TV!' I turn on the TV ... nobody has it on, not the networks, not Headline News, not ESPN. I think it's an internet hoax, how would it get on the internet before it's on TV anyway." Dozens of Tweeps wrote those same stories in 140 characters or less. That day they scrambled for info. RVnGrammy was online with fellow race fans in a chat room. DarlingtonChick was in Massachusetts with her family and sat in front her computer repeatedly clicking "refresh" on Jayski.com looking for news updates. In Pennsylvania, Leanna Knight had gone to a local bar after watching the race and saw the breaking news on one of the bar televisions. When she tried to explain what she'd seen to her fellow patrons, no one believed her. Many people told me that the next morning they got into their cars and went looking for somewhere to mourn. At least 10 people told me that they went to Mooresville, N.C. and DEI to stand among the thousands who gathered for what became a nearly month-long vigil outside Earnhardt's offices. Among those was fellow ESPN.com NASCAR writer David Newton (DNewtonESPN) And TominBristol, aka Tom Duwe, wrote: "Was living in TX 9 yrs ago, the next morning took 3 black balloons to the base of the flagpole at TMS to add to flowers there." I heard from multiple media members who were there that day covering the race. Though they are paid not to be emotional about such moments, they clearly still are. Thomas Pope, the great writer for the Fayetteville Observer recalled watching the crash from the Daytona press box and not thinking much of it, only realizing later that "Man, was I wrong." I even received a Tweet from David Smith, longtime Richard Childress Racing employee and former jackman on Earnhardt's legendary Flying Aces pit crew. Where was he? "Sitting on the RCR #31 pit box at Daytona." Smith was helping manage the crew for Mike Skinner, Earnhardt's teammate. But perhaps the most surprising reaction to my call for Dale stories was the number of people who said that February 18, 2001 was the day that they first became a NASCAR fan and, despite the horror and lingering sadness from that day, they still are nine years later. Nearly all said that they haven't missed many races since and, not surprisingly, they are now Dale Earnhardt Jr. fans. For example, Cape Cod's Arleen McGovern (ArMcG88): "That's the day I went from casual watcher to a fan to tune in each week to see how Jr did and root him on after such a loss." Nearly a week after I first asked for them, the stories, emails and Tweets keep coming in, far too many to transcribe here. But I think that this one from snichols59 pretty much sums it up. Where were you on 2/18/01? "Watching the race ... then praying. Incredible that it can hurt so much to lose someone you never even met. RIP Dale, we miss you." 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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