Happy Friday everyone. Habbajeeba, we made it through the week! Today In Nascar History February 26, 1956: Tim Flock leads all but two laps of a scheduled 39-lap race on the 4.1-mile Beach & Road Course in Daytona Beach, Fla. The race is shortened to 37 laps because of the incoming tide. Billy Myers finishes second and Ralph Moody third in the field of 76 cars. It is Flock's second win in a row in the race. Flock and Marshall Teague (1951-52) are the only drivers to win the race in back-to-back years.
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. Comments from the Peanut Gallery From Jo Michigan bans smoking in grandstands, suites Good deal for those of us who are asthmatics and/or allergic to smoke. Not being able to breathe because someone sitting near you is smoking is a very frightening and excruciating experience. Thank you, Michigan! Jo, Florida
Bits and Pieces Sad News: Jake Elder: His name was J.C. Elder, but virtually everybody who knew him called him Suitcase Jake. Elder, one of the most successful crew chiefs in the history of NASCAR, died Wednesday. He was 73 years old and had been in failing health since suffering a stroke in 2006. Elder was the top wrench for driver David Pearson when Pearson won Sprint Cup championships in 1968 and '69. Over a career that began in the late 1950s and stretched over the next 40-plus years, Elder worked either as a crew chief or leading mechanic for some of racing's best drivers, including Dale Earnhardt, Darrell Waltrip, Fred Lorenzen and Benny Parsons. He attended public schools for only three years, but he might have been the best "shade-tree" mechanic ever in NASCAR racing. During Elder's crew-chief years, the job was more about preparing the car and less about organizing and scheduling, as is the case today. Elder's main task was to produce durable, winning race cars. Elder also is remembered for one of the best quotes in the history of the sport. It was been repeated in numerous versions over the years, but after crew-chiefing for Earnhardt in his first win, Elder told the young driver: "Stick with me, kid, and we'll have diamonds as big as horse turds." Ironically, it was Elder who did not "stick with" Earnhardt. A season after helping Earnhardt win the Sprint Cup Rookie of the Year title in 1979, Elder left the Earnhardt team for other pastures. It was a process, Elder, a committed perfectionist, would repeat many times during a career that saw him in more jobs than a normal resume sheet could hold. His frequent job-hopping earned him the nickname Suitcase Jake.(See full article by Mike Hembree at SPEED) AND J.C. "Jake" Elder, 73, formerly of 125 Tree Lane, Statesville, NC, died Wednesday, February 24, 2010, at Autumn Care of Statesville. He was born November 22, 1936, in Statesville, and was the son of the late Dewey Lee and Mable Mae Sprinkle Elder. He was a retired crew chief with NASCAR and was known as "Suitcase Jake." Beginning his career in 1959, he worked with 30 different drivers including, Lee Petty, David Pearson, Darrell Waltrip, Dale Earnhardt, Richard Petty, Benny Parsons, Bobby Allison, Davey Allison, Terry Labonte, and Sterling Marlin, and served as crew chief for two Winston Cup championship teams. In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his wife, Debbie Elder; a son, Randy Lee Elder; a sister, Maude E. Cline; and two brothers, Robert and Johnny Elder. McDonald's to sponsor McMurray? UPDATE: Hearing McDonald's will sponsor Jamie McMurray's #1 Chevy in some capacity in 2010. No word if they will still sponsor any of the Richard Petty Motorsports cars. McDonald's sponsored the #43 RPM Dodge of Reed Sorenson in a few 2009 races. UPDATE: Daytona 500 winner Jamie McMurray will be sponsored by McDonald's for 11 Sprint Cup races this season, beginning with Sunday's event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, a source close to the situation tells ESPN.com. The source said the deal has been in the works since last year and was not sparked by McMurray's win in the 500. Earnhardt Ganassi Racing has been looking for a second primary sponsor since Bass Pro Shops, on McMurray's car for the 500, announced last season it was cutting back on the number of races it would sponsor the #1 car.(ESPN.com) Congrats - Carl Edwards: from Carl Edwards Official facebook page: Kate and I have a beautiful baby girl! Anne Edwards is 8 lbs, 4oz and likes to eat and cry. all of the well wishes and support from everyone mean a lot to us. kates doing great, though shes having a little trouble burping annie....whole new world. Bill Weber....a magician: Bill Weber, who was TNT's lead NASCAR race announcer before being suspended before a race in July and not returning, says he's performing as a magician. "It's a passion I hope to turn into a profession," says Weber, who says his TNT contract wasn't renewed. "I hope to continue sports announcing, but this is something I've wanted to do for a long time." Weber, saying he worked some NBC motor sports last year, adds he's "waiting for NBC to get back from Olympics to see what motor sports opportunities they might have."(USA Today) McMurray to be honored by home state: Earnhardt Ganassi Racing's #1-Jamie McMurray will return to his home state of Missouri on Thursday February 25th to accept recognition from state legislators, in the capitol Jefferson City, for his Daytona 500 victory. McMurray will be recognized by both the Senate and the House of Representatives for his achievement on the high banks of Daytona International Speedway two weeks ago. McMurray was born and raised in nearby Joplin, Mo.(EGR) New TV deal allows UK fans to watch NASCAR races: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races are again on television in the United Kingdom as the Open Access 3 channel starts covering the series this weekend from Las Vegas. Previous UK NASCAR broadcaster Sky ceased its live coverage at the end of last season, bar a one-off reappearance for the Daytona 500. But NASCAR has now announced a new deal with Open Access 3 - channel 190 on Sky - starting from the next race, with the broadcast beginning Sunday.(AutoSport) Jeff Gordon's Crew Wins Tissot Pit Road Competition in California: #24-Jeff Gordon's pit crew claimed top honors in Sunday's (Feb. 21) NASCAR Sprint Cup race in Fontana, Calif., winning the Tissot Pit Road Precision Award. Gordon's crew, a five-time winner in the Tissot competition last year, had another outstanding performance as the team's DuPont Chevrolet spent the least amount of time on pit road during the 250-lap, 500-mile race at Auto Club Speedway. Gordon's over-the-wall crew consists of: Clay Robinson (front-tire changer), Mike Houston (front-tire carrier), Joe Slingerland (rear-tire changer), Matt Ver Meer (rear-tire carrier), Jeff Cook (jackman), Caleb Hurd (gasman), Jamie Frady (catch can), Colin Fambrough (back-up tire changer) and Andy Kruep (eighth man). The team's pit crew coach is Greg Morin. The winning pit crew in each Sprint Cup race will earn $5,000 and a Tissot V8 Quartz Chronograph watch. The team with the most Tissot Pit Road Precision Award wins at the completion of the 36-race schedule will receive a $105,000 bonus plus Tissot watches for the over-the-wall crew members and driver.(Tissot/ Roush rookies win cooking challenge: Roush Fenway Racing drivers Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Colin Braun teamed to win the Fifth Annual Raybestos Rookie Cooking Challenge Thursday afternoon at ESPN Zone Las Vegas. Both drivers compete full-time in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. Stenhouse Jr. and Braun prepared a tasty dish of macaroni and cheese. Other drivers competing in the event were Kevin Conway, Terry Cook, Brian Scott and James Buescher. The event was judged by members of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Las Vegas. "I do a lot of restaurant cooking," Stenhouse Jr. said when asked about his culinary skills. "I usually go out and pay somebody else to do it but our macaroni and cheese looked pretty good. We've got a lot of good race fans a lot of good fans out here." Teammate Braun added that the contest was a challenging but enjoyable experience. "I had a lot of fun cooking," Braun said. "This was quite a challenge. I think this was harder than anything we do in a race car." All drivers who participated in the cooking competition were assisted by members of the ESPN Zone Culinary Team, led by chef Chris Gagen. Each child from the Boys and Girls Clubs sampled the dishes prepared by the drivers and their applause determined the overall winner. Following the contest, drivers and kids played games in ESPN Zone's interactive Sports Arena.(Raybestos) Nationwide Series crewman suspended: Kenneth Luna, a crew member for the No. 23 team in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, has been indefinitely suspended from NASCAR for violating the sanctioning body's substance abuse policy. On Feb. 24, Luna was found to have violated Sections 12-1 (actions detrimental to stock car racing) and 19 (violation of the NASCAR substance abuse policy) of the 2010 NASCAR rule book. (NASCAR) Atlanta, Martinsville, Charlotte, Infineon announce ticket deals for upcoming Cup races By SceneDaily.com Staff Several tracks have recently announced ticket deals as they try to fill the seats for upcoming Sprint Cup weekends. Among them: • Atlanta Motor Speedway is offering a $19 ticket for students with a valid ID for its Turn 3 grandstands for its March 7 Kobalt Tools 500. • Charlotte Motor Speedway is allowing fans to spin a prize wheel for a chance to save from 10 to 50 percent off tickets for its May all-star and Coca-Cola 600 Sprint Cup Series events, scheduled for May 22 and May 30, respectively, as well as the inaugural NHRA Four-Wide Nationals scheduled for March 28 at zMax Dragway. Fans must go to the ticket office between 9 a.m.-5 p.m. EST through March 5, except for Feb. 28 when the ticket office will be open from 1 p.m.-5 p.m. EST. Each fan that spins the wheel can purchase up to 10 total tickets at the winning discounted value. The 10 tickets can be used for one race or spread across the three feature events. • Infineon Raceway is offering packages for the June 20 Toyota/Save Mart 350 that include four tickets, four hot dogs, four sodas and an exclusive race-day Q&A with four-time defending Cup champion Jimmie Johnson for $195. Racer Jake Elder dies at 73 By Bob Henry - ThatsRacin.com Editor J.C. "Jake" Elder, a fixture, apparent magician and certainly a monumental figure of stock car racing the way it used to be, has died. He was 73. Elder, also known as "Suitcase Jake" for his temperament – often irreverent and unwielding in the view of many NASCAR executives and team owners – died Wednesday in Statesville, N.C. Elder is survived by three children, Randy, Andy and Sandy Elder Maxwell. In 1960, Elder went to work as a fabricator with Petty Enterprises. He later worked with Benny Parsons, Darrell Waltrip, David Pearson, Dale Earnhardt and many others in a colorful career that saw him become one of television's first behind-the-scenes heroes. Elder claimed little in the way of formal education. And those who competed against and knew Elder best said he never wrote anything down. Still, Elder passed a hard-drive's worth of history and know-how along to the next generation in the garages and pit lanes of stock car racing. "Witchcraft? "I don't know if that's the term I'd use because it sort of seems like it diminishes the 'black art.' " Waddell Wilson, himself a legendary crew chief, said Elder could just put a knee against each wheel of a race car and recite the spring rating. "Jake Elder was among the very most colorful characters I met and wrote about," said Tom Higgins, the veteran writer and racing historian who preceded Poole on the Observer's racing beat. "Jake's eye for talent obviously was as good as his ability to make a car handle." "We are saddened to learn of the passing of Jake Elder," said Winston Kelley, executive director of the NASCAR Hall of Fame. "He was one of the true pioneers and classic personalities of our sport. "One of my most vivid memories of Jake is asking him what happened to one of his meticulously prepared cars and Jake putting it so succinctly and simply in saying, 'It blowed up.'" Neither Elder nor Pearson will be honored in May, but NASCAR founder William "Big Bill" France, his son Bill France Jr. and Richard Petty will join Earnhardt and Junior Johnson in the hall's inaugural class. Elder grabbed even DW's attention By Steve Waid - ThatsRacin.com Contributor With the passing of J.C. "Jake" Elder, at age 73, on Feb. 24, a large part of NASCAR's past came to an end. He was a crew chief during a time when that meant more presence and command, if fewer responsibilities, than it does today. There was a time when a crew chief had a relatively basic chore, which was to completely oversee the team. His word was the law and he was seldom overruled. Teams didn't have hundreds of employees, so the crew chief wasn't burdened with an abundance of personnel issues. Engineers didn't exist and there were few specialists. There was no such thing as a car chief, a team manager or a vice president for competition. The chain of command started with the owner. Next in line was the crew chief. As such, he could run things as he wished. He had power. And many crew chiefs were good at what they did: To make the car go very fast, handle well and win. But then there was J.C. "Jake" Elder. Perhaps there was not a more truly gifted shade-tree mechanic in stock car racing, one who succeeded without formal education. Elder never got past the third grade and could neither read nor write. After he began his career at Petty Enterprises and moved on to the Holman & Moody team, Elder was the crew chief for David Pearson when he won championships in 1968 and 1969. In the mid-1970s, when a young Darrell Waltrip showed up to make his mark in NASCAR with limited equipment yet high hopes, Elder was his crew chief. Elder had the experience Waltrip needed. There are tales of the crew chief grabbing his young charge by the collar of his driving suit and telling him, with an assortment of expletives, what he did wrong and to never, never do anything that strayed from Elder's way. Elder was never one to settle in with a single team. He was a colorful character with a sense of humor, but when it came to competition, he was focused, a man dedicated to his tasks. He suffered lightly those he perceived as fools. If what he wanted to do was challenged or ignored, he simply moved on. He did it so many times that he earned the nickname "Suitcase Jake." It was said he never took a job without leaving his bags packed – just in case. In 1979, he was the crew chief for Rod Osterlund's team. While there, the belief that Elder knew how to mold young talent – as he did with Waltrip – was reinforced. Osterlund's driver was a kid named Dale Earnhardt. He knew what Elder told him was the way it was going to be. That was one reason Earnhardt picked up his first career victory at NASCAR's top level at Bristol on April 1, 1979. Check out colleague Tom Higgins' recollection (below) to see what I'm talking about. Elder served as a crew chief for several teams over the course of many years. But, in time, his life took a downward turn. He lost his wife, Debbie, to cancer. Four years ago he suffered a stroke. He served his last days mostly in a nursing home in Statesville, N.C. He recognized few people, if any. He could do little for himself. Friends and associates helped all they could. Elder's three children, Randy, Andy and Sandy Elder Maxwell, always had the utmost respect and admiration for their father. Randy spent a decade in racing, working for more than seven years for Waltrip. They realize their father is not widely known among many of today's fans and wonder if the sport will forget him. The answer is no. His longtime friends and peers have said they owe a debt to Jake Elder. They have said a man who contributed so much to the growth of NASCAR and influenced so many of its competitors would not pass into the mists of time. He will be appreciated and respected – now and forever. Nothing else could more meaningfully define the true measure of the man fondly known as "Suitcase Jake." Tom Higgins: Template?! Which one? ThatsRacin.com Report Tom Higgins, a veteran beat writer for the Observer and a stock car racing historian, on Jake Elder: "In all my years of covering stock car racing, Jake Elder was among the very most colorful characters I met and wrote about. "His comment to rookie Dale Earnhardt at Bristol's spring race in 1979 was and will remain a NASCAR classic. Jake, the crew chief for Earnhardt in his rookie season, told Dale on the eve of the race, 'Stick with me, kid, and we'll both be wearing diamonds as big as horse turds.' "Jake's eye for talent obviously was as good as his ability to make a car handle. Dale won the race the next day, his first victory in a career that produced seven Cup crowns. "As Jake had foreseen, Dale won enough money to encrust all these crowns with diamonds. "Jake loved getting something on NASCAR officials, some of whom he suspected had a vendetta against him. "I think the happiest I ever saw him was a time in the 1970s at Talladega when an official told Jake a car he was fielding for Benny Parsons had failed inspection because it didn't fit the template. "'You dummy!' screamed Jake. " 'You're using the template for another make of car!' " And he was right. Friends, former rivals salute Elder THATSRACIN.COM OPINION By David Poole - charlotteobserver. Saturday, Mar. 14, 2009 MOORESVILLE, N.C. - When NASCAR inspects a new car of tomorrow at its research and development center in Concord, it uses a device called a Roamer arm to mark elements of that chassis on a three-dimensional grid plotted on X, Y and Z axes. Jake Elder would have used a tape measure. Or two. Or three. And his measurements would have been, in every way that matters, every bit as useful as those made by the fancy-schmancy machine used today. As modern-day stock-car racing takes the weekend off, another era of the sport was showcased Saturday at the Memory Lane Motorsports & Automotive Museum in Mooresville. Despite a cold rain that washed out some activities outside the museum, the third annual Legends Helping Legends of Racing event was a rousing success. Hundreds of race fans found room indoors to meet and talk with dozens of former drivers and mechanics who turned out to honor one of their own. That would be Elder, a longtime crew chief known in racing circles as "Suitcase Jake" because of the many stops he had along the path in his racing career. Elder won championships with David Pearson and Dale Earnhardt, but there's more to him that just what you can list in record books. Elder had next to no formal education and those who know him will tell you he never wrote anything down. That does not mean that he was not also a great teacher who passed on some of his knowledge about racing and race cars to the generation who followed. Jeff Hammond, now an announcer with Fox Sports, considered it a great honor and privilege to learn the craft of being a NASCAR crew chief from people like Elder, Herb Nab and Junior Johnson. "Witchcraft? There certainly are car owners who'd say Elder's talents were Merlinesque. Jack Roush once said that when he had a 'demon' in one of his car he'd call Elder to come get it out. Waddell Wilson said Elder could walk up to a car, put his knee on each corner and tell you what the rating was for each spring. The tape measures were part of the spell. Elder had several, ones for different measurements on the car and others for different types of cars. Elder would use permanent markers to put his own lines on these rulers, each defining something he believed to be critical to a car's proper construction and assembly. Elder sat Saturday in a room lined with tables full of people he'd once raced with and against. It would have been wonderful if Elder could have a told a story about each person willing to tell a story on him, but Elder's health no longer allows that. This was Elder's first trip in a year or so outside the assisted-care facility in Statesville where he now lives. Elder's friends came to raise money to help the family deal with the financial burden of his long-term care, and whatever amount that will be totaled will provide perhaps what one might consider the precise measure of the day's success. There was more to this than that. Saturday was also about having racing legends come together to be remembered by the fans and to renew their acquaintances and friendly rivalries. Any way you mark or measure that, this day was a success. MPM2Nite: Remember When? Matt McLaughlin · Frontstretch. Folks who've been reading (enduring?) my missives a long while know that I don't frequently do columns that are autobiographical in nature. I figure you're here at Frontstretch to read about racers and racing – not writers. But as I searched for something to write about this week, I was led in this direction by one of my FS colleagues, Jeff Meyer's, recent decision to take a hiatus from his popular Voices From The Heartland column. Jeff gave the reason for his decision as no longer having the same interest or passion about our sport given the changes made over the last few years, and the resultant less than compelling racing we've endured since Brian France went from the Boss's Idiot-Boy son kept safely out of the way in Hollywood to the Boss. (Trust me, if Clarence and Little Stevie were to stage a mutiny and replace the Boss with Justin Timberlake, the results couldn't be any worse for the E Street Band.) Well, Jeff isn't alone in his declining interest in the sport. I hear from fans who feel the same way all the time. I see evidence of the sentiment in declining TV ratings and empty seats at the track. I hear it at the local taprooms, where conversation about NASCAR, once a staple that occasionally got so heated fistfights loomed (I do tend to hang out in the worst sort of joints, where the beer is cheap and the women are cheaper) has all but tapered off. And I feel it myself. There were countless pretty Sundays last year I just wanted to chuck it all, go ride the Harley, or head down the shore for a weekend instead of watching a single-file parade. So why do I keep doing this job? I get asked this question all the time. Usually, the wording is along the lines of, "If you hate NASCAR so much, why do you write about it?" (I'm going to have to admit that "NASCAR, Love It or Leave It" attitude has always gotten my Irish up.) Let's make one thing clear: I don't hate NASCAR. I hate current NASCAR management and what they have wrought. I, in fact, love stock car racing in its purest form – and I have for decades. I'm still convinced if Brian France were given a new job description that involved his taking the orders for the deli at lunchtime, other NASCAR officials could pull us out of this tailspin. And I remember when… I remember when the start of the season was something my friends and I started counting the days down to as soon as we sobered up after the New Year's parties. (Which admittedly sometimes took until mid-January. Nowadays, the season kicks off at Daytona, then moves on to Fontana and Las Vegas. As I see it, that's one of the stupidest moves NASCAR has made in this era. Talk about a momentum killer at the start of the season – especially given the late start times for West Coast events. Back in the day, the season started at Daytona, then moved on to Rockingham, Richmond, Atlanta, Darlington, Bristol, North Wilkesboro, and Martinsville. Talk about a great slate of races! Before the first pitch was thrown out in MLB, fans' fascination with the NASCAR season had been heated up white hot. Kenny and I would always try to hit the Richmond race as our first event of the season, as Dover and Pocono were just too far away to wait. Luckily, we had an ace in the hole in that regard. I have four sisters, all of whom I love dearly. I'm a year older than Maryellen, who is eighteen months older than Jeanne, who is eighteen months older than Donna. Our tail gunner Charlie was Kat, who is four years younger than Donna. In the early '90s, Kat and her husband moved to Richmond. As DINKS (dual-income, no kids) back then they had a magnificent house about twenty minutes outside of city limits. Kenny and I heard Kat was moving to Richmond and immediately hollered, "Road trip!" Now, Kat is no great NASCAR fan. She feigns some interest because of my obsession, but as the only family member not living in the greater Philadelphia area she loved having mom and her siblings visit. If attending a race was going to get big brother and Kenny to come spend a long weekend, she was going to find tickets for the race. Newer fans might find this hard to believe, but it was once quite difficult to get tickets for Winston Cup races. Families had had renewal rights for generations and clung to them like heirlooms. But for various reasons, sometimes they couldn't attend, so Richmond would sell those tickets as "non-renewable." Kat actually snuck through a chained fence to get the tickets to the first race we attended as her guests, and she's usually a pretty straight shooter. Eventually, she developed contacts to make sure there were always four or five tickets available to those races. Kenny and I would take half-days Friday, jumping in the car and driving down to Richmond and Kat's palace. Now back in those days, there was no GPS. He'd man the wheel while I'd navigate, using an Exxon road map replete with greasy KFC fingerprints after the first ride. We'd have Bruce, the Dead Jimmy Buffett and REM cranking for the ride, and a few libations to pass the time. (Don't yell at me…I was just navigating… poorly at times as we always seemed to take an extra lap of the Washington Beltway.) Naturally, seeing my sister was a thrill, and she'd cook spectacular meals while we'd stay up late catching up. But Sunday was the big deal. That first year, we followed the herd and got caught in miserable traffic. I do recall cracking a beer in the backseat and having a fellow in a pickup truck rushing over to ask if I could spare two beers, one for him and one for his buddy. They were already out of brew and hadn't even reached the track. Poor planning on their part, I'd say. In exchange, he promised to lead us to a secret parking area where we could avoid much of the post-race traffic. The deal was struck, and from that very first year our party would park behind the MAB building across from the track's main entrance. You had to walk a ways, but we were all young back then. Post-race, we'd take the backstreets until well clear of race traffic, me again serving as navigator while Kenny criticized my incredible ineptitude at the task. Yeah, we'd cruise through a few sketchy neighborhoods, but we were usually home in a half-hour, well before most fans had even cleared RIR's parking lot. The big thrill, of course, was the quality of the racing. Richmond was on a roll in that era, and many of the best races I've seen in my life were at RIR. February in Richmond can be tricky… and downright cold. I recall one event – Terry Labonte won, so it must have been 1995 – it actually hurt to sit on the concrete slab that was my seat as a howling wind lowered wind chills into the teens. But nobody gave a damn. If the air was cold, the racing was hot, and we were all on our feet between caution periods, anyway. Even Kat was caught up in the moment, cheering on the leaders who were normally running side-by-side, inches apart for lap after lap. At RIR, it didn't matter if you were a Yankee. If you were a race fan, you were a friend, and the electricity in the crowd was contagious. I remember one race when the pretty young lady seated beside me insisted on hugging me (and everyone else within reach) every time Dale Earnhardt passed for the lead. I remember screaming, cheering on Dale all afternoon which Kenny found tremendously amusing. I wasn't a fan of Earnhardt in that era, but I really, really like blonde women with big racks and Southern accents hugging me. How much? I gave her my last beer. Poor planning on my part, I'd say. Our Richmond trips were not without incident. I upset some uber-Baptist Henrico County sheriff's department police lady by exiting the track with an open beer. (Alas, no comely blondes seated beside me that day.) She pointed to a trash can with her night-stick and told me to throw it away. I did… after I'd stood there and chugged it down to the last drop, of course. She was of the mind to arrest me, but her partner pointed out if they arrested everyone violating the open container law, they were going to need a lot of buses to transport us all… so I went free. Another time, the day of the ultra-cold race I decided that that I needed to take Kat and Rob to a nice dinner on the way home in exchange for their hospitality. As I remember it was a raucous dinner, a great meal, and thankfully quite warm inside which made it all that much better. When the check arrived, it was a bit higher than I expected but the food and service had been great and I could feel my fingers again. I laid down my credit card… and that's when a confused waitress told me the establishment didn't accept them, as noted by a postage stamp-sized sign in the door. Around me I could see other panicked diners facing the same dilemma, frantically searching for ways to pay for their meal. Luckily for me, I tend to travel with a decent amount of cash just in case I find a project car along the way, so between Ken and I we scraped up enough money to pay the bill (Kat caught the tip) because back in that era, your ATM card was useless if you were more than 25 miles from home. Nowadays, wait-people still look at me weird when I sit down at a new place and ask if they take plastic… but I never want to be piling quarters into stacks to pay for dinner again. Unfortunately, Rob's job meant he and Kat had to move from Richmond to Atlanta, home of another fine track but a bit far for a long weekend's drive. I haven't seen her again since. (Yes, of course, actually I have. We just haven't gone to any more races together. She lives in Chicago now, and why would I drive halfway across the country to go to a race at Joliet?) Fast forward to 1997. A fellow by the name of Mike Calinoff read your humble scribe's letter posted in the late and lamented Winston Cup Scene paper. He decided he wanted to give me a go as a writer for the newspaper he was publishing back then. The pay wasn't great, in fact I think I lost money on the venture, but it came with a promise of garage area access for the races. Together, we started the first of many NASCAR websites he owned and operated. In 1998, we decided that we were going to kick things into high gear. If the race was within driving distance of his Charlotte apartment, I was going to be down south covering the event while he worked as a spotter (first for Brett Bodine, then Ricky Craven and eventually Matt Kenseth). Daytona wasn't within driving distance, so the first race I covered was Rockingham, the second race of the year. Garage access was cool. I was still new enough at the game, I was like a golden retriever puppy bounding into the garage wanting to run in every direction to take it all in. But Mike had a special surprise for me. I had been (doubtless without Brett Bodine's knowledge or NASCAR's approval) promoted to "Assistant Spotter" for the Paychex team. My tasks were menial: I had to run and find Mike bottles of water when he got thirsty, and using a marker, I'd note the number of laps left to run in ten-lap intervals late in the race. Because I was listening to both the MRN broadcast and the team radio over my headset, I'd also let Mike know if a car was experiencing mechanical issues ahead of Bodine's car. Then, I'd drive Mike home. Normally, he was so worn out after spotting a race he'd be asleep before we left track property. It was a rare privilege. I don't care what you paid for your ticket, there's no seat better in the house than atop the spotters' stand at places like the Rock, Martinsville, Darlington, and Bristol. It's a view damn few fans or media members ever get to experience, and one I doubt I will ever be able to enjoy again. But I'll never forget those afternoons with a hawks-eye view of the action. Down in the garage, I tried to do the job while Mike was busy. But I was crushed to learn that just because I had a proper media credential didn't mean Earnhardt was going to have a private half hour chat with me to give me a front page story. The guys who would talk to me when they weren't busy were team members, the guys who didn't get the glory; the tire changers, the transporter drivers, the mechanics and the rest. I started a series of "Behind the Scenes" interviews, and the guys seemed to like that. They could see their name, their wives' names, what they did, the sacrifices they made, and their lives outside of racing on the internet on or in the paper. Even after all these years, the guys I interviewed for "Behind the Scenes" remain some of my best and most loyal sources for the inside scoop. Like those Richmond races, travels with Calinoff were not uneventful. It was a gamble every week that I was going to get past security to the spotter's stand wearing my official team uniform shirt and headset, while Mike dressed up in his street clothes but with a proper credential. Kyle Petty's spotter in that era, who was the size of a mountain, almost decked me when Bodine got into Petty one race. He wanted to know if I was blind. I finally had to tell him my mike didn't even work. He was going to have to hit Mike. Another time, we all packed into the elevator at Bristol for our ride down out of the stratosphere, and the combined weight tripped a breaker on that elevator so we were all trapped between floors. Remember, this was by and large a group of largish men who'd been standing sweating in the sun all afternoon (and only one of them had a loyal gopher to go find water) plus, we were packed in there like sardines. Imagine finding yourself buried under a cubic ton of dirty socks and drawers… Then, there was the Friday night after qualifying at Darlington that first year. Storms had been threatening all day, but they got qualifying in. Mike and I were headed back to Charlotte afterwards… and he was hungry. It was a challenge to find the right place to stop because it was Lent, and as a Catholic I don't eat meat on Fridays during Lent. I can't do pizza because of food allergies, so Mike finally suggested a place he knew with a good salad bar. I'd forage through the salad bar while he had a steak. While we were having dinner a wild thunderstorm, maybe the worst I'd seen in my life, commenced outside. I mean, it was raining so hard you couldn't see the car in the parking lot. The winds grew increasingly violent, and then the rain turned to hail the size of golf balls. Mike was methodically enjoying his dinner while I was picking up on the anxious vibes of the rest of my fellow diners. Then, the lights went out and the manager was screaming for all of us to get down under the tables and away from the windows because a twister had been sighted in the area. I didn't need any more coaching. Grabbing my beer, I was under that table and praying like I'd never prayed before. I remember that telltale freight-train sound not far away and fumbling for a cigarette. Meanwhile, Mike was calmly reaching up from under the table to reach more French Fries. The twister bypassed that restaurant, but set down with devastating and deadly consequences not far up the road – though we wouldn't learn that until we saw the 11 o'clock news that night. As we left to head home, I remember telling Mike that I wasn't sure I could drive. He punched me in the left arm and told me, "It was just a tornado. That crap happens down here sometimes." He then took note of the hood, roof, and decklid of the purple Cavalier rental car I'd hired, laughed and told me that he sure hoped I'd sprung for the optional accident insurance. I had, but it was a tough sell back here in Pennsylvania trying to explain why the once pristine if hideous rental unit I was returning looked like it had been beaten with a ballpeen hammer stem to stern. I think I'm still on Enterprise's Double Secret Probation list. It's odd for me this season because I've been getting a lot of emails and comments on my columns asking me if I've gone soft. Some even accuse me of going over to the dark side. That's not the case. It's just I realize now that the end of my career is a lot closer than the beginning. If things don't improve real soon… maybe even closer than I realize. By April I ought to be my usual cranky, cynical, negative self grinding my teeth looking for more invective to sling NASCAR's way, accusing them of everything short of buggering lambs in the control tower while they drive our sport down the way the Union Army leveled Richmond on May 10th. But not only is my career more in the rear-view mirror than through the windshield… so is my life. There's only so many more shore weekends and Harley rides I'm going to pass on to get pissed off, even if I do "pissed off" pretty well. I used to love the start of the stock car race season the way I love cold beer, Harley Davidsons, and fast, loud classic cars… just not so much anymore. So Jeff, save me a rocking chair on your back porch and throw another six pack in the fridge. They can take our sport away from us, but they can't take the memories away as long as we can remember when… And, oh, the stories we could tell, NASCAR Loses a Legend On Wednesday NASCAR lost one of its best crew chiefs of all time. J.C. Elder, better known as "Suitcase Jake," lost his life after complications of a stroke in 2006. Nicknamed "Suitcase Jake" for having many jobs in and around NASCAR, Jake Elder was considered one of the best crew chiefs of all time. "Jake was old-old school. He worked for soooo many teams. But he was the guy you would call when you needed some help. If your old car wasn't running right, and you were confused, you'd want to call Jake and say, 'Hey, can you come bail me out?' And he could help you fix it. I called him once, when my car wasn't running right, and asked, 'Jake, can you come over and crew chief this car for me?' And he said, 'All right, just one race.' And he came over with his tool box -- which was filled with so much doggone prehistoric stuff that it was unreal. He had the string out, and the levels, and said, 'You do this and this.…' And I took it to Charlotte and had my best run ever," said Rusty Wallace 1989 NASCAR Winston Cup Champion. Mike Joy Said "Jake Elder has forgotten more about racing then most crew chiefs have ever learned. He's the one guy in the garage area who could put just about any decent driver on the pole. He's that good of a chassis man and he's proven it time and time again. Every time he packs up a suitcase and moves he makes a contender out of somebody." NASCAR writer Steve Waid, wrote an article about Elder in 2008 and said " perhaps there was never shade tree mechanic in stock car racing" and "perhaps there was never a keener observer or a nurturer of raw talent." Suitcase Jake Elder started his career in NASCAR in the late 1950's when he worked for Petty Enterprises as a fabricator. From that point on he went on to work for some of the best drivers in NASCAR history, including David Pearson, Dale Earnhardt, Darrell Waltrip, Fred Lorenzen and Benny Parsons. Elder worked for Holman-Moody with driver David Pearson. Under Elder Pearson won 27 races and the 1968 and 1969 Grand National (Sprint Cup) Championships. Also he led Mario Andretti to victory in the 1967 Daytona 500. After Holman Moody Elder moved to work with a young driver from Kentucky, a young driver named Darrell Waltrip. Elder's experience is exactly what the youngster from Kentucky needed. Although Waltrip's cockiness and Elder's personality didn't mix that well but results came and Waltrip learned a lot from the veteran. From Waltrip Elder moved on to Ron Osterlund's No. 2 Chevrolet. It was there that "Suitcase Jake" would meet another up and coming star. Dale Earnhardt and Jake Elder mixed well and under Elder's guidance Earnhardt picked up his first win at Bristol in 1979. It was with Earnhardt that Elder uttered perhaps his most famous line "Stick with me kid and you will have diamonds a big as horse turds." Earnhardt would win the 1979 Rookie of The Year title and all looked great for 1980. However, 18 races in, Elder was gone. Conflicts with Osterlund forced Jake Elder to move yet again and leaving Earnhardt with Doug Richert. After that Elder worked for many teams bouncing around more than a pin ball. Elder said "I have a problem getting people to understand how I want things done, Usually, I can get it done myself quicker than I can explain to them how I want it done." Nearly four years after the stroke Elder is gone. His life may be but the legacy he left on the sport of NASCAR will live on forever. Hard Work Fizzles Rick Minter | Senior Writer, RacinToday.com A few random racing thoughts on a cold, windy Thursday morning in Georgia: There once was a time when I started my day by picking up the newspaper first thing in the morning and reading a great columnist like the late Lewis Grizzard. Now, I get my day off to a good start by turning on the computer and dialing up a column by my RacinToday colleague Larry Woody. As quick-witted as Woodrow can be live and in person, he's even better in print, or online I should say. His commentary on the TV coverage of the California race was spot-on. I listened to most of the race on the radio, and I kept wondering to myself whether I'd somehow tuned in to a race at Rockingham the way the announcers were excitedly calling the action. But the fact is that Auto Club Speedway's races just aren't that good, especially compared to those at shorter tracks elsewhere, and its crowds are disappointing as well. Now there are stories out there making the case for taking one of the track's races and moving it to Kansas Speedway, where a casino is to be built adjacent to the track. The sad part of all of that is that Auto Club track president Gillian Zucker isn't being rewarded for her Herculean efforts to promote her race track. But, as it is with a lot of things in racing today, including some involving the struggling media corps, hard work doesn't necessarily deliver the payoff it should. — One-year wonder: It looks from here like Kevin Harvick ought to try for one-year driving contracts. In 2006, the last time Harvick's contract with Richard Childress Racing was about to expire, the early season speculation was that Harvick would soon be leaving for greener pastures. The next thing we all knew, he suddenly found himself driving one of the fastest cars in the garage. He wound up winning a career-high five Cup races that season and finished fourth in the points. Now, he's in another contract negotiation year and just about the time the ink dried on all those stories about Harvick moving on, he's back in one of the best cars again. He had a good shot at winning the first two races of the season and is leading the standings heading into this weekend's race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Harvick was asked about the similarities in 2006 and this year on the weekly NASCAR teleconferences and here's his response, in full: "You know, we are just going to go out and do the things that we have been doing and race as hard as we can. They can worry about all of that stuff." Too bad for him he didn't do as good a job dodging the wall at California as he did that question. — Shrinking Bristol: The folks at Bristol Motor Speedway seem to have found a way to make the close-quarters racing even closer. They're adding 160 feet of SAFER barriers, at the exits of Turns 2 and 4. The new walls will be in place for the March 19-21 Food City 500 weekend. "We believe with these modifications, we will not only increase driver safety, but will also create a different transition at the exit of the turns," Jeff Byrd, BMS President and General Manager said in a statement. "While we don't know exactly how this will impact the racing, the more confined racing area should create less elbow room and tighten up the racing groove at those points." In 2007, when the track put down a fresh layer of concrete, an additional four feet of width to the racing groove was part of the change. The walls will use up a good bit of that added room. "Without question, this extra four feet added room and aided in creating three and, at times, even four-wide racing," Byrd said. "However, while it is breathtaking, many of our fans have responded that we went too far, in actuality, giving too much racing room to the greatest drivers in the world." So far, so good in this vital season Ed Hinton/espn. If you like the kind of racing that newly free-and-breezy NASCAR has been churning out lately, well … Just know that it promises to get even better. If you haven't liked it … Still, it promises to get better soon -- although some of your expectations have grown impossible to meet, in any racing league. The racing has been pretty darn good so far, even at notoriously boring Auto Club Speedway near Los Angeles. If the drivers can put on a show there, they can do it anywhere. "The first two weeks have definitely been a huge improvement from what we've been seeing," Kevin Harvick, who has been in the forefront of putting on the show so far, said Wednesday. "I think a lot of that is the rule changes and things that NASCAR has done." He meant the much-credited liberation of drivers to race as they see fit, and larger bores on restrictor plates that give them new throttle response on plate tracks. But there's a key component nobody has talked about yet, said Harvick, who's been the driver to beat in both races. He got shuffled back in the draft at Daytona to finish seventh and had to settle for second after clipping the wall at Fontana while trying to run down Jimmie Johnson. The one entity "that a lot of people aren't giving a lot of credit to is Goodyear," Harvick said. "You haven't heard a lot about the tires." But lately, "You're able to really be aggressive with the car," he said. "And the tires aren't falling off as much as they have been." After a few years of seeming in the doldrums -- bottoming out with the 2008 tire debacle at Indianapolis -- Goodyear seems to have its mind right. "They've done a really good job of making a real effort in making the tires better," Harvick said. "It's been a constant improvement since they've really put a full effort back into doing that." The return of the spoiler in replacement of the wing on the COT, beginning March 28 at tiny Martinsville Speedway, might not make much visible difference in the racing because Martinsville is such a bumper-car show anyway. By the next plate race, at Talladega on April 25, spoilers on the boxy cars that knock such huge holes in the air, and even larger restrictor-plate bores than at Daytona, just might produce a kaleidoscopic scramble for positions that you have never witnessed before -- unless you've been following NASCAR more than 30 years, back to when the slingshot pass was in flower. "I think the closing rate is definitely going to be a little bit faster than it is now -- even than it was at Daytona with the wing," Harvick said. And at Daytona, you could see inklings of drivers being able to pass one another one-on-one, not necessarily dependent on long drafting lines. "I think the superspeedway racing should get even better than it was at Daytona," Harvick said. Even with the wings, the Daytona 500 would have spoken for itself, with its record 21 different leaders, if not for the now-infamous pothole delays which had zero to do with the quality of green-flag racing. As for California, drivers Sunday seemed to have mastered at last the track's most distinct feature -- its width. The numbers, 26 lead changes among 13 drivers, understated the reality of the race, with all those challenges for the lead that fell short. The leading car riding up high with the challenger diving low was a frequent occurrence throughout the race. And although it didn't produce many official lead changes, think of it as a football defense's "hurries" of a quarterback. No official sack recorded, but plenty of excitement at the moment. Back in the pack, the track width allowed for scrambles three, four, five and even six wide at moments. Yet in this brightest dawn of a season in years, some of you remain insatiable, even asking in one e-mail for "fairly constant side-by-side racing." The only time I recall that type of motoring -- I won't call it racing -- was when plate racing was so restricted, so stifled that drivers simply couldn't get away from one another and rode around in a de facto traffic jam. That was bad racing, indeed not really racing, posing as good racing. On the more rational side, I have a neighbor here in North Carolina who, over the years, has proven to be a bellwether of public opinion on NASCAR. He is a knowledgeable, objective enthusiast who can afford to go to races when he feels like it. He hadn't felt like it for a couple of years, for the same reasons as many of you -- disappointment with the racing, and with the sheer doldrums of the spirit of NASCAR. But this week, he said something profound: "Sunday, for the first time in a long time, I looked forward to the race coming on [TV]." That's how interest and enthusiasm are rekindled. The way NASCAR built attendance in the 1990s was that people were excited enough by what they saw on TV that they decided to go see it live. Now, you figure even the most disgruntled NASCAR fans are going to sneak a peek via TV, and if they like what they see, the return will begin. That's not to say that all those grandstands that were so overbuilt at all those tracks will be jam-packed again for the foreseeable future. The consensus of economists, all the way up to Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, is that the nation's unemployment rate will remain high for several years, because many of the jobs lost are never coming back -- ever. But many of you have told me that the economy isn't the reason you stopped going to races. It was the boring, watered-down, hyper-controlled nature of the NASCAR product. That is changing. Fast. Top Ten… Doug Turnbull · Fronstretch. Reasons Auto Club Speedway Should Keep Its Two Race Dates 10. So Jeff Hammond can work on his tan while on the job. 9. Angie Harmon loves NASCAR, but hates road courses and traveling long distances. 8. The rising number of California natives in the Cup Series can crash at their parents' houses instead of bringing their motor homes cross country. 7. Because The Governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger, will pulverize those who take a date away. 6. Hey, Jay Leno ended up getting The Tonight Show back after low popularity and bad ratings, didn't he? 5. Hasn't NASCAR listened to the fans enough this year? 4. So Gillian Zucker can remain the most notable track president outside of Marcus Smith, as she pleads her track's case on TV every other week. 3. Not one fan would want NASCAR to make a move admitting they were wrong about something. 2. An endless list of California references means writing filler for TV race broadcasts is easier than getting Heidi Montag to go under the knife. 1. Eventually California will lose both its race dates … when California falls into the Pacific. 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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