Hap-py Tuesday. 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 Dave B Replying to Momma's opening comment: Anyone else fed up with Jimmie Johnson?
Come on now, Momma, it's the other drivers who aren't stepping up that we need to be fed up with. Jimmy (who is not my favorite driver at all!) is doing an awesome job, and is deserving of being celebrated for the incredible job that he and his team have done. It is the OTHER drivers who can't seem to get their collective acts together to challenge him that we need to berate! Why can't Jr. and Lance beat him? Why can't Jeff and Steve beat him? THEY are the ones that are not getting the job done. I agree with you 100% that it's frustrating that Jimmy seems to be dominating everything. BUT IT IS NOT HIS FAULT – IT IS THE FAULT OF HIS COMPETITORS! From Jo Yes. Give some of the other guys a chance to celebrate! Give us a chance to cheer for our own drivers! Jo, Florida From David L YES I AM Now, I didn't say that it was Jimmie's fault…just that I was sick of seeing him win! I think the other drivers need to start putting him in the wall so the others can step up to the plate…LOL Bits and Pieces A Horse is a Horse of Course, Especially to Tony Stewart By Greg Engle CupScene.com Editor, NASCAR Examiner Stewart, through his Tony Stewart Foundation, recently gave $20,000 to Friends of Ferdinand Inc. an Indiana based non-profit organization that supports the retirement and adoption of Thoroughbred racehorses. "These are animals that are all racehorses that have been retired versus being destroyed," Stewart said. "Friends of Ferdinand is a great organization that will take these horses, rehabilitate them, fix their injuries, and get them trained and adopt them to new homes. Their racing careers may have ended, but their lives don't have to." Stewart began the program, called 'Tony's Ex-Racers', in 1998 with 10 Thoroughbreds from racetracks from across Indiana. The current donation will allow 20 horses who faced an uncertain future an opportunity for safe haven, training, and new homes through Friends of Ferdinand. The horses are evaluated for temperament and ability and provided professional re-training for second careers. Through FFI's programs, more than 250 horses have been transitioned from the track into new homes and careers. "Friends of Ferdinand is an all-volunteer run organization that puts the horses first," Joni Thompson, executive director of the Tony Stewart Foundation said. "We are pleased to support their work and do our part to 'accelerate change' and encourage the humane and responsible retirement of racehorses in Indiana." NASCAR Hall of Fame Kicks off Final 50 Days: The checkered flag is in sight for the NASCAR Hall of Fame grand opening. To mark the final days before the 150,000-square- Charlotte Motor Speedway Opens Sprint Cup Series Test to Fans REPOST: Fans will have the opportunity to see their favorite drivers in action at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the first time in 2010 during Sprint Cup Series testing March 23-24. The test will be held for the new spoiler that will soon replace the rear wing on the current Sprint Cup Series car. Ticket holders to any 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway including the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race on May 22, the Coca-Cola 600 on May 30 and the NASCAR Banking 500 on Oct. 16, will be granted special access to watch testing from the infield. The VIP seating area located behind pit road near Victory Circle will be open from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday and 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Ticket holders will also have the opportunity to take part in a question and answer forum with available drivers; meet Miss Sprint Cup during an autograph session in Victory Circle; and take their picture with the Charlotte Motor Speedway show car. Concessions and souvenirs will be available in the infield. More info at charlottemotorspeed Gander Mountain Sponsors Gilliland at Martinsville: Gander Mountain will be the primary sponsor of Front Row Motorsports' #37 Sprint Cup entry at the Martinsville Speedway on March 28. The car will be piloted by David Gilliland, currently 35th in driver point standings in the Sprint Cup Series. Gander Mountain became a sponsor because of the number of NASCAR fans who also enjoy the outdoors, according to Steve Uline, Gander Mountain's executive vice president of marketing. The company will also sponsor Gilliland's car for the August 1 Sprint Cup race at Pocono Raceway. "David Gilliland is an avid outdoorsman, as are many NASCAR fans," Uline said. "One of David's favorite pastimes outside of NASCAR is fishing. He understands Gander Mountain's 'We Live Outdoors' culture and is the perfect driver to help us take our message to race fans." Gander Mountain, with 119 stores in 23 states, is the nation's largest retail network of stores for hunting, fishing, boating, camping, marine and outdoor lifestyle apparel, products and services. The company offers thousands of products in its online store and now includes free standard shipping. In addition, the site now offers a firearms department with a broad selection of ammunition, rifles, handguns, shotguns and accessories. Gander Mountain is also the parent company of Overton's (www.overtons. Newman's release 2nd book about pets: Last weekend, Ryan Newman and wife Krissie, released their second book Pit Road: NASCAR Stars and Their Pets, the Second Lap at Bristol Motor Speedway [a must read for Jayski's pets]. The book celebrates the NASCAR community and their beloved furry and sometimes even feathered families. Pit Road Pets: NASCAR Stars and Their Pets, the Second Lap, gives fans an intimate look at some of NASCAR's most loved drivers both past and present, their families and their love for animals. Crew chiefs, broadcast personalities and the people who work behind the scenes at races each weekend are all part of this picturesque book. The book is a follow-up to the Newman's first Pit Road Pets book which was published in 2006. The book is available for $24.95 and the proceeds from the first book helped build a regional spay/neuter clinic at the Humane Society of Catawba County in Hickory, N.C. Johnson has won 7 of 14: After winning three of five races this season, #48-Jimmie Johnson has now won seven of the last 14, a NASCAR-best since Jeff Gordon won seven of nine in the summer of 1998. Supposedly the only other time this has happened in the modern era [1972 to present] was in 1987 when Dale Earnhardt won 6 of 8 and seven of the first 14. Both Gordon and Earnhardt won the championship that season.(Sports Illustrated) Earnhardt downplays Bristol radio rant By JENNA FRYER - AP Auto Racing Writer CONCORD, N.C. Dale Earnhardt Jr. blamed his profanity-laced rant at Bristol Motor Speedway on frustration from a speeding penalty. And being mad in the car, he figured, is a good thing. "You're going to have days where you get a little hot on the radio and I haven't really been hot on the radio in a long, long time," Earnhardt said Tuesday during a test session at Charlotte Motor Speedway. "And we ain't run worth a (crap) in a while, either. There ain't been no reason to bitch and complain when you're running like (crap)." Earnhardt, in the midst of a 62-race winless streak, had just cracked the top five in Sunday's race when NASCAR flagged him for speeding on pit road. He vented over his radio for several minutes, and snapped at crew chief Lance McGrew's attempt to calm him down. Some die-hard listeners to Earnhardt's in-race radio speculated that Earnhardt was angry over McGrew, who at one point urged Earnhardt not to "lay down" the rest of the race - instructions that infuriated NASCAR's most popular driver. Earnhardt quickly dismissed a potential driver-crew chief rift. "When we're running pretty good and you can almost reach that top-five, or see yourself almost in a position to get a win, and it gets snapped away from you that quick, man, it's hard to bite your tongue," Earnhardt said. "Running my mouth, that's my pop-off valve. It gives me a little bit of relief so I could get back to what I was doing. It's open for interpretation, I guess. "Lance handled it pretty good. I was at no point mad at him. We haven't really gotten into it since we started working together over anything. So we've got a pretty good balance between our personalities to keep us from doing that." The penalty dropped Earnhardt to 26th, but he rallied to finish seventh and moved up five spots in the standings. Although Earnhardt was second in the standings after the season-opening Daytona 500, his current points position is the highest he's been after consecutive races since he was eighth after Kansas in Oct., 2008. Team owner Rick Hendrick said following Sunday's race he's pleased with Earnhardt and the No. 88 team's progress, and Earnhardt agreed that he likes the current direction. "I'm happy with how things are going in a positive manner and we're doing better," he said. "But we're still real thirsty to get better. We had a top-five car Sunday, but we want to be better than that." Five Points to Ponder… Bryan Davis Keith · Frontstretch. Johnson Stays, Gordon Goes, and Penske's Back ONE: Outsider perspectives are paying big dividends for Penske Racing Outside of the restrictor plate tracks, it's been a long time since both the No. 2 and No. 12 cars were contending for the win on the same day. But that was the case Sunday at Bristol, with Kurt Busch leading over half of the 500 laps run while Brad Keselowski led twice and managed to stay up front after early pit strategy for track position paid off. At this point in the season, the No. 2 car is looking every bit the Chase contender that it was in 2009, and the No. 12 over the last two weeks has looked the best it has since Ryan Newman wheeled it to the 2008 Daytona 500 title. What's the common denominator between these two outfits? They're being led by the new kids on the block at Penske, personnel brought from the outside into a camp that had grown rather stale. On the one hand, the No. 2 team is now being headed by crew chief Steve Addington, the winningest Cup crew chief over the last two seasons not named Chad Knaus. On the other, there is Jay Guy, who – after a tenure leading Furniture Row Racing while maximizing every scarce resource they had – is proving to have the skill to compete once given the tools he needs to run up front. Of course, having Brad Keselowski in the driver's seat instead of David Stremme isn't hurting things, either… This track record of going to the outside to shake things up is the very same way that Kurt Busch returned to Chase contention after the organization picked up Pat Tryson. Penske Racing has always done things their own way: be it their heavy reliance on engineering when Ryan Newman was the hottest thing in Cup in 2002 and 2003, or a corporate culture that is different from anything else seen in NASCAR. Unfortunately, that's led to an organization that's also had a hard time adjusting when things got off. Kurt Busch and Newman were maligned for over a year with handling problems, even running year-old noses to try and improve their cars, while Sam Hornish's team took "crab-walking" to a new extreme with the No. 77 at Charlotte a few years back. But this time, Penske got it right. They went out there and picked up personnel that know how to make these current cars go fast, and now they're using each individual strength in order to build the team from the ground up. It's the perfect triangle of knowledge to build on: Addington's dealt with perhaps the most demanding driver in racing today (Kyle Busch), Guy's done plenty with less, and Keselowski brings a perspective from Hendrick Motorsports that good people, and lots of them, are absolutely key. People called Brad arrogant for suggesting that Roger Penske had to hire tons more staff to compete with Hendrick. Well, Penske listened anyway… and the results are already starting to show. TWO: Bristol stole Joey Logano's lunch money Joey Logano looked to be on top of one of the circuit's most ferocious bullrings, winning his first career pole on Friday with a car that left him smiling from ear-to-ear at Bristol. Too bad the joy stopped there. In the Nationwide Series on Saturday, Logano got absolutely pile-driven by Kevin Harvick on the final lap, losing a top 5 finish and apparently all words in the process. Doing his best imitation of teammate Kyle Busch, Logano stormed away from his car without comment as soon as the race was over, unwilling or unable to confront Harvick – a point that ESPN's commentators harped on. Sunday was a different story, as Logano just couldn't get a handle on the No. 20 Toyota. Failing to lead the first lap from the pole, the crew severely over-adjusted their car during the first cycle of pit stops before picking up a flat under green. From there, the day simply crumbled, and the 19-year-old's first career pole run ended with an ugly 27th place finish, five laps off the pace. But here's the kicker: that still was his best career run in Thunder Valley. So for all the progress that Logano has made as a driver over his first season in Cup, Sunday was a stark reminder that the youngster still has a long way to go on the short tracks that make up five of the 26 races that determine a Chase berth. Looking ahead, Martinsville may very well be the race that determines whether or not this team can credibly hope to make the playoffs, as Logano did score a 12th place finish in the fall event there one year ago. If he scores a solid top 15 finish in Virginia next week, Bristol may appear as an aberration. But if Sliced Bread goes 0 for 2 on the bullrings to start 2010, it won't be too early to count the No. 20 team as a pretender, not contender, for a spot in the Chase. THREE: The last gasp for Robby Gordon Motorsports? Headed to Martinsville, Robby Gordon and his No. 7 team are now in territory they haven't been since September, 2008: They have to race themselves into the field. Those words can and should strike terror into this organization's hearts. Who can forget Gordon's foray into ownership back in 2005, a season that saw him miss so many races that sponsor Jim Beam reportedly asked the driver/owner for a rebate? The fact that this operation felt the need to partner with BAM Racing, a team that hadn't even seen the track since 2008, says a lot about why through five races the No. 7 car hasn't finished better than 22nd. Though Gordon has defied the odds for longer than even his staunchest fans could have imagined, being a single-car operation that has gone through every manufacturer in NASCAR and countless sponsors appears to finally be catching up with the team. What's more, though, one can't help but notice that Gordon's fire really doesn't seem to be in NASCAR anymore. Between running more SCORE races than he has since he full-timed that gig back in the late '80s and early '90s, and all but acknowledging that he will not be in his own cars full-time in 2010, the ever-defiant Gordon seems to have lost a step when it comes to tackling Sprint Cup. Gordon has always had a tremendous passion for off-road racing, but it's never been something that's taken focus away from his Cup car. Until now. As chronicled on Frontstretch last season, Jeremy Mayfield learned the hard way that trying to be an owner/driver without a total, consuming focus on the Sprint Cup ride isn't possible. If Gordon's performance, and his ever-expanding off-road schedule is any indication, the most successful owner/driver in recent memory is walking down that same road. And that may well mean the No. 7 is out of the top 35 for good. FOUR: NASCAR comes up empty on start and park… again. A few weeks back, I wrote an open letter that praised NASCAR for their decision to begin confiscating the engines of the first teams to bow out without crash damage in a Cup race. Coming on the heels of Dave Blaney's car being confiscated at Fontana, it seemed that maybe, just maybe NASCAR couldn't handle seeing start and park become an epidemic in its premier ranks. But just as when officials made statements committing to ensure that teams were "on the up and up" at Atlanta last season, the sport proved Sunday their new policy isn't going to do a damned thing – and that I was an idiot for complimenting them on the matter in the first place. This Sunday's Cup race featured as many start and parkers as did the Nationwide Series race. And if the actions of Joe Nemechek, Aric Almirola and the Prism gang are any indication, they're not concerned at all about having their engines taken. If they were, they'd be staying on the track for more than 30 circuits. But that's not the case. It's pretty clear that there's no threat from NASCAR to curb start and parking, as evident by the fact that Dave Blaney's No. 66 bunch (Prism) voluntarily dropped to the back from their third place starting position, making their intent not to race fully visible. What a shame. A few weeks ago, I got excited and thought hey, maybe NASCAR is finally doing something about this issue. They're not. Go figure. FIVE: Chad Knaus has released the Kraken No one doubts that Chad Knaus will go down as one of, if not the greatest crew chief in the history of stock car racing. Nonetheless, there is no disputing the fact that the No. 48 team has taken enormous amounts of criticism for becoming dominant only after the Chase format took hold of the Sprint Cup Series. Apparently, that doesn't sit too well with Mr. Knaus, because the modus operandi of the No. 48 team appears to have changed… they're not saving anything for September, but instead are winning this week, next week, and as often as humanly possible. The defending champion has won three of the first five races, including scoring a win at the same bullring that he went out of his way on to race a truck at in an attempt to garner more seat time… during a title run. Right now, his teammate and car owner's modern era record of 13 wins in a season is well within reach. Between that and Denny Hamlin's 2010 title campaign looking like the biggest flop this side of Green Zone, a five-peat already appears a foregone conclusion. But make no mistake: this year's dominance is no accident. If one thing has been learned about the No. 48 bunch, it's that everything they do is deliberate. Is it really too much of a stretch to think that Knaus has had it up to here with fans and media alike that question and differentiate what he and his team have done in the grand scheme of NASCAR history? That he's unleashed the hounds on his competitors this season in attempt to shut up every critic, hater, and doubter out there? I think not. Rest in Peace, Rear Wing By Reid Spencer Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service A memorial service is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. ET Friday, the same time spoiler-equipped Cup racecars take to the track for their first practice session at Martinsville Speedway. No one is expected to mourn. Robin Pemberton, NASCAR's vice president of competition, provided the post-mortem for the wing four days before it was officially pronounced dead. "Quite frankly, the wing wasn't accepted as widely as we had hoped it would have been, by competitors and the fans alike," Pemberton said last Wednesday after a news conference promoting the May 22 Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. "So, after a bunch of effort, we started looking and decided to go back to the spoiler." That's about the closest thing you can expect to get from NASCAR to an admission that perhaps the wing wasn't such a great idea in the first place. All told, the wing was part of the Cup car for 93 points races, from a 16-race phase-in in 2007 to 72 points races as the full-time car in 2008 and 2009 through the first five events of 2010. Three drivers collectively won 46 of those 93 races: Jimmie Johnson 22, Kyle Busch 13 and Carl Edwards 11. In three years, the wing era of Cup racing came full circle. It was born March 25, 2007, at Bristol with Busch's victory in the Food City 500. It died March 21, 2010, at Bristol with Johnson's victory in the Food City 500, the four-time champ's first win at the .533-mile short track. If the wing was a bad idea, however, NASCAR's new racecar in its entirety was an exceptionally good one. The enhanced safety features speak for themselves, from the first real test—Michael McDowell's 2008 qualifying crash at Texas Motor Speedway—to the most recent—Brad Keselowski's airborne excursion March 7 at Atlanta, with an assist from Edwards. In truth, the return to the spoiler has everything to do with the appearance of the car and little or nothing to do with safety. Though intuition might suggest otherwise, a car is only marginally more likely to become airborne with a wing (as Keselowski's did at Atlanta) than with a spoiler (as Matt Kenseth's Nationwide Series car did at Talladega last year). The difference between the two is so small, says Ford aerodynamicist Bernie Marcus, that it becomes statistically insignificant. "It's not the wing," says Marcus, who has spent countless hours observing wind tunnel tests with both wing and spoiler. "It's the air trapped beneath the car (as it spins and travels backwards) that creates liftoff." So when NASCAR sets out to keep cars on the pavement, it's not a wing-vs.-spoiler issue. That's not to say, however, that switching to the spoiler doesn't create its own unique set of challenges. The endplates on the rear wing gave the cars substantial sideforce and consequent stability in traffic. Since a spoiler provides no sideforce, NASCAR has compensated with rear quarter panel extensions and a 3.5-inch "shark fin" that can run the full length of the rear deck lid. Marcus says the combination of those two features will reinstate the sideforce—and stability—lost with the removal of the wing endplates. At a full-field test Tuesday and Wednesday at Charlotte, teams will try to find a comfortable balance with the spoiler for the debut at Martinsville and beyond. And the wing that was never accepted will gradually recede into the oblivion it deserves—not because it was a safety hazard, but because it was an eyesore to stock car racing enthusiasts. Rest in peace, rear wing—but stay buried. All time winners running the COT: Car of Tomorrow with the Wing. 93 races: If possible, after this weekend I have even more respect for Richard Petty Richard Allen/racingwithric In my mind Richard Petty has always been a man worthy of whatever respect he has been given. Millions of adoring fans have followed him for decades, and for good reason. Not only are his records as a driver outstanding, but his record as a person is even better. This past Friday night at the Volunteer Speedway in Bulls Gap, Tennessee the World of Outlaws put on a sprint car race just a few miles from the site of this weekend's NASCAR activities in Bristol. Needless to say, there were a number of dignitaries from Bristol who visited the dirt track to take in the high speed action. Helicopters shuttled NASCAR drivers and owners from one site to the other throughout the evening. Each time a landing took place a crowd of on-lookers would assemble to see just who had arrived. One such landing provided a special treat for the racing enthusiasts as 'The King' himself emerged from the flying machine. A golf cart carried Petty to the pit area where he began to mingle with a number of WoO drivers and other NASCAR folks. While he could have easily disappeared into the darkness of the hauler parking area, Petty remained out in the open among his legion of fans. Although the requests for autographs and pictures was constant, he never wavered or turned anyone down. His patience and generosity are as legendary as his driving ability. The man who will soon be inducted into the first class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame never got to do very much of what he likely came to Bulls Gap to see. He mingled much more with fans than with his counterparts. He only climbed to the top of a hauler for a short time to watch a portion of the racing and then back down to his followers. On the night of March 19, 2010, the man I am actually named after rose in status in my eyes which is something I did not think possible because he already held such a lofty status in my mind. Even in the time of his wife's sickness, which must be a time of tremendous stress and anguish, Richard Petty seems to always have time for the people who care so much about him. He is definitely a king worthy of admiration. The Yellow Stripe Danny Peters · Frontstretch. High Time For Kurt Busch To Ruffle Johnson's Feathers I love Bristol. Always have, always will. From the very first race I witnessed at the famed half-mile bullring, I was utterly hooked at the nail-biting competition we so often have at Thunder Valley. After a week off, like many of you I was more than ready to settle down and watch some serious action from the track with the self-titled moniker of the "World's Fastest Half-Mile." But as I watched the race unfold Sunday, I couldn't help but feel a little depressed. You had Kurt Busch practically eviscerating the field, leading on ten separate occasions for a total of 278 of the 500 laps. But right along with him was Jimmie Johnson, running second and contending at a track, I might add, where he had never won. And it got me to thinking, given the fact that the four-time champion is about as popular as a scorching case of syphilis, what could be worse for the overall health of the sport than Johnson winning again? I couldn't help but feel that Kurt winning a second straight race had to happen instead – but as we all know now, he couldn't close the deal. Rather, it was the relentless automation that is the four-time champ with his iron-clad, drive it straight to Victory Lane approach that prevailed on a late-race restart. Breaking an 0-for-16 lifetime drought at Bristol, his 50th win made it three victories in five races for the No. 48 in 2010. How depressing. Kurt, as you might expect, reacted to the unpalatable defeat like he was drinking a cup of cold sick. "I'd rather lose to any of the other 41 cars out there than the No. 48 car," he said after slumping to third at the finish. "I thought we had him beat. I gave it my heart today… but we came up short." In the last four years, coming up short to the No. 48 car has been a far too regular occurrence, so it's not like Busch is in the minority here – not by any stretch of even the wildest imagination. All luck aside, some of Johnson's dominance is simply a question of one team being unbelievably synced as a group in a way no one else quite is. I'm not knocking the efforts and good intentions of the rest of the competition; it's just the No. 48 group is that historically and unprecedentedly good. Actually, scratch good — make that phenomenal. So what can be done? Not an awful lot, it seems, especially as we head to a track where double J is unconscionably outstanding: Martinsville. Let's review his stats there for a minute because, simply put, they're frightening. We'll start with five wins in the last seven races at the paper-clip, an average finish of 5.1, 15 straight top 10s, and 1,551 laps led. Incredible. Then, after the off week for Easter, we head to Phoenix where Johnson also has an average finish of 5.1 – not to mention four wins in the last five races. So there's every reason to believe that once we're done with the first race in the desert out West, the presumptive five-time Champ will have five wins in the first seven races, collecting fifty bonus points for a Chase he'll already be a cinch to make. Before we even hit Mother's Day, the No. 48 will be in perfect position to press the cruise control button – and fans will have already had enough. So what's the solution – if indeed there is one? Well, here's an idea. Have at it, Mr. Busch. Have at it. What I'm talking about is taking on Jimmie with the force of his front bumper, at a track where it makes sense to do some judicious rubbing. Don't get me wrong; I'm not advocating Busch employs the sort of lack of thought and idiocy we saw at Atlanta between Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski. Rather, I'm suggesting the man start to back up his words in any way possible that's not putting innocent lives at risk. It's one thing to say, "I'd rather lose to anyone else," but it's another to actually do something about it. Actions always speak louder than words – so can Kurt step up to the plate? It won't be easy. Martinsville is not one of the favorite venues of the man who won the inaugural Chase by a measly eight points back in 2004. Statistically speaking, the lil ol' paper-clip is Busch's worst track, where he carries an average finish of 21.5 and has nary a top 10 since the Spring race of March 2005. He does have a win, but that was in the Jack Roush-powered Rubbermaid Ford back in 2002 – right about the time Joey Logano was getting his first pair of long pants. So what better place is there than Martinsville for Busch to back up his words by ruffling Johnson's seemingly impervious feathers? It's clear the reigning four-time champ has the respect of most in the garage, but it's also clear it's about time someone shook him out of his comfort zone. In the last couple of years, it's all looked a little bit too easy for Jimmie: someone needs to shake him up. Don't think it can happen? Let's not forget this man was still bleating about the tangle he had with Sam Hornish, Jr. in the Texas Chase race last year headed into the 2010 Daytona 500. A little over three months had passed, but the three-time IndyCar champ was still boiling the blood underneath this NASCAR champ's typically unyielding skin. So Busch needs to do exactly that – and more – this weekend to keep his momentum rolling. How will it work, you ask? Well, let's start with the media. Busch is an eloquent guy. He needs to reinforce his comments during Friday's pre-race publicity, making the point that the time has come to see Johnson's rhythm get interrupted. Make a statement that gives him something to think about; and at the same time, he needs to put out the clarion call to his fellow challengers to rough up the champ – giving Johnson a taste of the unpalatable medicine most other drivers are forced to slurp up each week. Again, don't get me wrong. I'm not advocating someone intentionally wrecks Jimmie. But there's no reason why, when the time comes, Kurt can't leave a fender where it doesn't necessarily belong. Don't give the champ an inch. In fact, don't give the champ so much as a millimeter. Make him uncomfortable, a little edgy, as it's perhaps the only chink Busch can make in Johnson's armor. Make the champ fear seeing the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge in his rear-view. Who knows, some judicious reminders for Johnson that his car is still made of bendable sheetmetal, and his tires of breakable rubber, might just endear Busch to a fan base he's never quite won over. Likely the only way he'll do that is by getting tough. Tell NASCAR Nation you've declared war, in the words of that legendary cartoon character Popeye: "That's all I can stands, I can't stands no more!" Then get out there on the track and back it up. The gloves, per the governing body, are off. You can deliberately wreck a competitor, even if you're 150 laps down, and get away with it. So I don't think stepping up the aggression a bit will do him one bit of harm – and at this point, he's got nothing to lose. So have at the champ, Kurt. It might be the only way anyone can stop him. One final thought: Congratulations to Justin Allgaier on winning his first ever Nationwide race this past weekend. Seeing a first time winner in Victory Lane is amongst the more special aspects of our great sport, and I couldn't be happier for the kid – snagging the trophy in just his 43rd race in NASCAR's number two series. I actually got the chance to interview Allgaier for Frontstretch last season, and I was struck by how level-headed and decent he so clearly was. It's not often the good guys win one, but Saturday afternoon's race was just such an example. Competitors frustrated by Jimmie Johnson's dominance Jeremy Dunn /Atlanta NASCAR Examiner The look of disappointment on the face of Kurt Busch was easily discernible after he climbed out of his Miller Lite Dodge at Bristol Motor Speedway. After all, he led a race-high 278 of the 500 laps paced around the 0.533-mile bullring. That is over fifty percent of the race. Busch clearly had the car to beat. Unfortunately, for the 2004 champion, a debris caution on lap 482 added pit strategy to the equation. Busch opted for four tires. Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards, and Tony Stewart opted for two. Busch was the first car with four fresh tires, so clearly, he was in the catbird seat, right? Biffle chose to restart on the outside lane, which meant that the cars on the inside lane would likely lose ground. Outside of Busch on row three was none other than Jimmie Johnson. Johnson had the preferred position, and with only ten laps remaining, he charged to the front, leaving Busch and his Penske Racing team shaking their heads in bitter frustration. "We just ended up in the wrong lane for that last restart. We would have been better off if we had lost a spot on pit road and started up on the outside. It's just luck of the draw…I'd rather lose to any of the 41 cars out there than the 48 car. I thought we had them beat. I gave it my heart today, but came up short," said Busch. "To lose to the 48 sucks, but that's the way it goes." Busch is not the only driver feeling this way. These drivers are fierce competitors; therefore, nothing stings worse than losing to the same person repeatedly. These drivers are tired of watching the No. 48 Chevrolet doing celebratory burnouts, victory lane high fives, and the typical mechanized victory speeches by Johnson, Rick Hendrick, and Chad Knaus. The fans have spoken, as indicated by the bare seats. Blame it on a variety of state of affairs, but according to fan polls, forums, and just general conversation regarding the state of NASCAR, they are tuning out due to Johnson and his victorious ways. Now, the drivers are speaking. Jeff Gordon is obviously growing weary of losing to his Hendrick Motorsports teammate. After losing to Johnson at Las Vegas last month, you can sense that there is nobody he would rather beat than that No. 48 car. Kevin Harvick was not only frustrated by losing to Johnson at California last month, but he was amazed by their knack for being in the right place at the right times. He even said they had a 'golden horseshoe stuck up', well you know the rest. Johnson seems to enjoy the hold he has on his competition. "I get caught up in that mind game stuff, and find a lot of satisfaction in it. I told Chad, before the year was over, I don't have a number of wins, but I wanted to win a lot to frustrate the competitors," he said. There are just a few things that Jimmie Johnson has yet to accomplish throughout his NASCAR Sprint Cup career. Prior to Sunday, winning at the Bristol Motor Speedway was one of them. For Johnson, it was fitting that his first victory at the bullring in Bristol was the fiftieth victory of his career. What is there for Jimmie Johnson to achieve in the sport of NASCAR? Clearly, he will aim for his first win on a road course when the Sprint Cup Series visits Infineon Raceway in June, or Watkins Glen in August. Victory lane also eludes Johnson at Michigan, Homestead, and Chicagoland. Johnson led 84 laps at Bristol on Sunday. He opted for four fresh tires on the final pit stop, leading to his charge to the front. He bypassed Greg Biffle and Tony Stewart with eight laps to go en route to the victory. He has won three of the first five races of the 2010 season. And may I say…I heard the collective OH S*IT throughout the country when JJ won again…when is this guy gonna choke!!!! Turner's Take Jared Turner · Frontstretch. Hamlin Who? Kurt Busch Steals The Limelight Instead Everyone was wrong about Denny Hamlin. Contrary to popular preseason chatter, he's not the guy with the best shot at ending Jimmie Johnson's reign atop the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Instead, the first five races of 2010 have proven differently, with Hamlin failing to even post a top 10 finish to date. In his place, there's now another man with the goods to deny Johnson a once unthinkable fifth straight Cup title. He's a couple years older than Hamlin, has been in the Cup series longer; and oh, yeah, he's a past champion, too. So let me go on the record as saying that if anyone not named Jimmie Johnson wins the championship this season, it'll be Kurt Busch. Why? While Johnson has won three of the first five races and appears well on his way to another outstanding campaign, Busch has been only slightly less formidable. His fast start has included a win, a pole, three finishes of sixth or better, and leading all but one race. On Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway, Busch led 278 of 500 laps and had the dominant car before falling behind on a late pit stop and finishing third. Johnson, meanwhile, celebrated his first win at BMS after following in Busch's tire tracks for most of the afternoon. Due to poor finishes at Daytona and Las Vegas, Busch ranks just sixth in the standings heading into this weekend's race at Martinsville Speedway, where he's been just mediocre in recent outings. But Busch doesn't need to smoke the field at Martinsville to make a serious title bid. He just needs to make the Chase for the Sprint Cup and put together 10 strong races at the end of the season. With new crew chief Steve Addington calling the shots, Busch appears to be even better this year than 2009, when he won twice and finished fourth in points with crew chief Pat Tryson. And that's why Johnson should be concerned about the 2004 Cup champion, who was the highest-finishing non-Hendrick Motorsports driver last year. Days like Sunday, when Busch leads over the half the laps but loses in the end, are going to be few and far between. Like Johnson, Busch and his team are simply too good to regularly squander opportunities to win. And based on the No. 2 car's early performance, more of those chances should be on the horizon in the coming weeks. It's also not surprising that the Busch/Addington combination appears to be working. Busch brought 20 wins with former crew chiefs into the pairing, while Addington brought 12 Cup victories – all over the last two years with Busch's younger brother, Kyle, at Joe Gibbs Racing. Unlike Hamlin, who has completely failed to impress after being billed as a title contender on the heels of a career-high four wins in 2009, Busch has simply picked up where he left off last season. And while fellow preseason title favorite, 51-year-old Mark Martin, must live with the burden of never winning a championship (despite five runner-up points finishes), Busch doesn't face the same type of outside pressure. Entering 2010, he's just five-and-a-half years removed from a title himself; and, at age 31, is probably in the prime of his career. The recent revelation that team owner Roger Penske has picked up the option on Busch's contract for 2011 is also good news. While the veteran is technically not off the free agent market yet, all indications point towards him returning to Penske next season. This should minimize potential distractions or offers from other teams who covet his services. So if Busch and his No. 2 bunch live up to their potential and have a little luck on their side, they can bring Johnson's stranglehold on the championship to a halt. Of course, that doesn't mean they will. But based on how the season has started, it's more than Hamlin and most everyone else can say. Tired of Seeing Jimmie Johnson Win? Join the Club Allen Madding/insiderraci Most of the teams competing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series are certainly tired of finishing behind the Hendrick Motorsports' No. 48 Chevrolet -- driven by Jimmie Johnson. Penske Racing seems to be attempting to do something about it. Since the beginning of the season, Kurt Busch has led 441 laps of the 1555 laps run in the first five events of the season in the Penske No. 2 Miller Light Dodge. Johnson has led 203 laps so far in the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. Johnson has won three races, the Auto Club 500 at California, the Shelby American at Las Vegas, and the Food City 500 at Bristol this past weekend. Busch scored his first win of the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season in the Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta, ironically the race sponsored by Kobalt Tools, the tool brand of Lowe's the primary sponsor of the Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 Chevrolet that Jimmie Johnson drives. Five races into the season, Busch has led more laps in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series competition than Johnson, but on three occasions Johnson has led the most important lap -- the last one -– the money lap. But, there is one old adage in racing: if you start leading a lot of laps, you are going to eventually start winning some races. Busch seemed to fulfill that prophecy at Atlanta. A late race debris yellow at Bristol left Busch and the Penske No. 2 team relegated to a third place finish. But one has to consider, before Carl Edwards gave Brad Keselowski a punt at Atlanta, Penske had two cars in the top ten. Keselowski finished 13th in the Food City 500 at Bristol. Penske Racing has stepped up its game over the winter, and the results are becoming quickly apparent on the race track. While many fans are filling blogs, facebook, and twitter postings expressing their dismay with Johnson's dominance in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Kurt Busch is quickly becoming the dog nipping at his heels. Busch only recorded two wins and ten top five finishes last season. In the first five races of the 2010 season, Busch already has one win and two top five finishes. Even more notable, Busch led a total of 738 laps in 2009 for the season. He is already over half that mark in five events this year. There are four distinct types of tracks on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule, Superspeedways (like Talladega and Daytona), intermediate tracks (like Atlanta and California), short tracks (like Bristol and Richmond), and road courses (like Watkins Glenn and Infineon). The bulk of the schedule is intermediate tracks. To date, Kurt Busch won at Atlanta, a 1.54-mile intermediate race track, finished sixth at California on a 2-mile speedway, and he led the most laps this weekend at Bristol, a .533-mile short track. This seems to indicate the folks at Penske Racing have stepped up their intermediate program and their short track program. Throw in the fact that Busch led 33 laps in the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 and Kurt Busch and the Penske No. 2 Miller Light Dodge team appear to be well on their way to disturbing Jimmie Johnson's stranglehold on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Victory Lane. Now We Know Why There's No Geezer Tour Larry Woody | Senior Writer, RacinToday.com A Seniors Tour is fine in golf. But not in racing. In golf when an old dude hits one out of bounds he simply mutters, drops another ball and keeps playing. In racing when they hit one out of bounds they go to the hospital. That's what happened last Saturday at Bristol when Larry Pearson and Charlie Glotzbach crashed during a Legends race for retired drivers. Both were reportedly knocked unconscious and transported to the hospital. Pearson was treated for a compound fracture of a broken ankle, fractured pelvis and broken hand. At last report Pearson remained in fair condition. Glotzbach's injuries were less serious. The crash was a stark reminder of why a "Legends Serious" proposed a couple of years ago never got off the ground. It's too dangerous. Racing – even on a small track at relatively slow speeds – is never entirely safe. There's always an element of risk involved. At any moment, on any lap, disaster can strike. To think that such legendary racers as Richard Petty, Cale Yarborough, Bobby Allison and others of their era would participate in such competition is absurd. They're too smart to even consider it. Racing is dangerous. It always has been and always will be. NASCAR has done a great job of making its Sprint Cup cars as safe as possible – witness such recent tumbles as Brad Keselowski's upside-down flight at Atlanta – allowing drivers to walk away without a scratch. But anybody who thinks it's safe to speed around concrete walks in any type of race car is kidding themselves. A few years ago a "Celebrity Race" was held at Nashville Speedway. Several country music stars competed, along with members of the media and a couple of area football coaches. They drove deceptively- A few laps into the race a TV sports director crashed into the wall. He suffered a severe head wound and almost bled to death en route to the hospital. He spent weeks recovering from the near-fatal crash. That was Nashville's final Celebrity Race. There will never be a Geezer's Tour in racing for the same reason why there'll never be a Senior League in pro football: Too much hard contact for brittle old bones. I think it's a great idea to pay homage to retired drivers by keeping them in the spotlight. Bring them to the track and let them sign autographs. Let them meet the fans. Let them tell stories and ride around the track and wave. Let them do anything but race. I think we've seen our last Old-Timers race. What happened at Bristol could happen anywhere and anytime a retired racer climbs into a car. Pearson's close call should scare some sense into them. Drivers didn't become old-timers by pushing their luck. Gordon On Racing: Everything's So Different Today Rick Minter | Senior Writer, RacinToday.com Editor's note: This is the first installment of a three-part series in which RacinToday.com's Rick Minter talks with four-time Sprint Cup champion Jeff Gordon. During a sit-down interview conducted last weekend, Minter and Gordon had a wide-ranging talk about everything from having at it to rearing children. Parts two and three of the interview will appear Wednesday and Thursday. — A few weeks back in the media center at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Jeff Gordon's publicist, Jon Edwards, and I were chatting about the state of media affairs in NASCAR. NASCAR's standard procedure of bringing the top 12 drivers in the point standings to meet the media for a brief, group session on race weekends, is OK. But it's not nearly as useful as an old-fashioned one-on-one interview. Edwards pointed out that even with the demands on Gordon's time, he still does as many one-on-ones as practical. So we agreed to meet in last Friday morning at Bristol Motor Speedway. After exchanging greetings, we sat on the sofa in the driver's compartment of the No. 24 hauler. I pulled out two well-worn tape recorders (past bad experiences have proven that its always safe to have a back-up) and we got down to business. I told Gordon that just a few minutes before, a colleague, Mike Hembree of SpeedTV.com, had told me that I had now surpassed Larry Woody as the grumpiest columnist on the RacinToday.com staff. Gordon laughed and said, "You're not going to let him get away with that are you?" I responded that I wanted to hear what he had to say about some of the bigger issues of the day before I decided how grumpy I really was. I told him that I had reservations about whether it was in the best long-term interest of the sport for NASCAR officials to tell the boys to "Have at it." Gordon responded with a history lesson. "Everything's so different these days because there's so much more access to information from the fans, the media, the teams," he said. "We scan everybody's radio and listen to everything every other team is saying and doing. And it's the same thing with the media. You go back 15 or 20 years ago, and if all this had happened nobody would be saying anything about it." Gordon said that around 1990, the sport went through a major transition. "The numbers are growing, and we're going to be professional," he said of the thinking at the time. "We're one of the elite sports out there, and we're going to be compared to the NBA, the NFL and Major League Baseball and hockey. We've got to be professional. We've got to do things a little bit different and expect things out of people at a higher level professionally." But, he said, the pendulum swung too far. "Along the way, that professionalism made the sport a little more corporate and less appealing to the core fans," Gordon said. "Now they're going. 'Wait a minute. Now we need to step back a little bit and go back to the way things used to be where guys took care of things on their own on the track.' "I'm fine with that. I have no issue with that." Gordon went on to explain that in the big picture, there are players more important than NASCAR officials and the drivers. "None of what they're doing is affecting me at all, because my sponsors are what dictate my actions, not NASCAR," he said. "The sport has gotten so expensive, and we've now gone to these major companies. Their expectations of us and who we're representing and how we're representing their company is what drives how I act out there and what I do. "I want to win races for them and be competitive, but I also want to represent them well. If NASCAR says, 'Have at it boys, go out there and tear one another up, matter of a fact, come back in the garage area and have a fight,' it doesn't matter to me because I don't want to lose my sponsors. But if it's something that is going to be good for them and help them sell more of their product, then I'm all for it." Gordon said "Have at it" might work in some situations. "For some guys out there, that is going to work and for some fans out there it's going to work, but that's not who my fan is, so I'm not going to do anything different than I have in the past." About that time one of my two old tape recorders ground to a halt, so I reached in my jacket pocket and pulled out a third and pressed "Record." "My goodness," Gordon said. "How many of those things do you have?" I told him that I have several, but none that are really reliable. "I can see that," he said, laughing.
The REAL Story of Moonshine and NASCAR – Final chapter Daniel Pierce/Real NASCAR.com The Bootlegger Tracks In previous weeks I've written about the key role played in the early days of southern stock car racing by bootlegging drivers, car owners, and mechanics. If you've been around stock car racing for a while, there probably weren't huge surprises there. Today's subject, however, is one that I came across quite by accident in conducting research for my book Real NASCAR: White Lightning, Red Clay, and Big Bill France; the foundational role played by big-time bootleggers in promoting races and constructing and operating race tracks. When I mention this to folks they usually say, "Oh yeah, they found a still at a racetrack in Macon, Georgia." That's true, but that was in 1967 and like Junior Johnson was more of an end-of-an-era story than a beginning story. The story of bootleggers and race promotion and track ownership begins in the late 1930s with Spartanburg, South Carolina pioneering driver, promoter, and bootlegger Joe Littlejohn. As I mentioned in my second article in this series, Littlejohn was the first of the Piedmont bootleggers to make the trip to Daytona Beach for the races in 1938. Soon after this he began promoting races himself (often in partnership with Big Bill France) at the Spartanburg Fairgrounds and became one of the most important figures in bringing the sport of stock car racing to North and South Carolina. Littlejohn was one of the great characters in racing history, a great racer, talented promoter, and evangelist for the sport. He was also—according to numerous sources I've talked to—a big-time bootlegger. Littlejohn was known to take a load of, as he called them, "turnips" (moonshine) with him to Daytona and trade it for bonded whiskey (probably with Smokey Purser), haul that back to Asheville, North Carolina, and sell it for a big profit. According to several reliable sources, Littlejohn remained—at least on the fringes—of the illegal liquor industry well into the 1950s. Like many of his compatriots in the promotion and race track business, he gradually moved into more legitimate economic pursuits and purchased several motels in the Upstate. It was after World War II, however, that the connection between moonshine/bootleggi The first of these was built in 1947, when five Wilkes County, North Carolina "businessmen" pooled their resources and labor to build one of the great race tracks in NASCAR history; the North Wilkesboro Speedway. The two principle figures in the project were 6'4" inch bootleggers Enoch Staley and Charlie Combs. Staley's family had a long history in the moonshine business and his father Ranse was one of the biggest bootleggers in the county—and that's saying a lot in Wilkes County. Enoch himself got involved early on in the business and even hauled liquor in a milk truck he used in his day job for Coble Dairy. Brother Gwyn regularly hauled liquor with Junior Johnson and became a star driver in NASCAR until his career and life were tragically cut short due to a race track accident in 1958. Combs was a "black sheep" in his church-going family, but like a lot of young men in Wilkes County, was drawn to the moonshine business by the excitement and big money. He worked in auto sales on the side, but he and his brother Jack—who would later come into the race track business with him—made most of their money off moonshine. The construction of the second of the bootlegger tracks came quickly on the heels of North Wilkesboro, not far away across the Virginia line in Martinsville. The Martinsville Speedway was the brainchild of bootlegger Clay Earles. Earles was another of the great characters in NASCAR history, a talented poker player, savvy investor, and beloved promoter who came up with one of the most creative trophies in sports history; the famous Martinsville grandfather clock. Earles partnered with bootlegger J. Sam Rice, noted early driver, race winner at Daytona, and car owner. While generally affable, he could also be a tough customer when he felt the need and always went out "fully dressed," packing a pistol. North Wilkesboro and Martinsville were both immediate successes, quickly became the most important tracks where Big Bill France promoted races—even before NASCAR was created--and helped create a building boom for new racetracks all over the region. Indeed, in 1948, France went into partnership with Staley and Combs to build a new track in Hillsborough, North Carolina; the Occoneechee Speedway. That same year, another key track built by bootleggers Harvey and Pat Charles opened off Wilkinson Boulevard in Charlotte; the Charlotte Speedway. This speedway would quickly become one of the most important of the tracks hosting Bill France promoted races, most notably when it was selected to host the first NASCAR "Strictly Stock" race in 1949. In the early 1950s, two more tracks joined the ranks of bootlegger financed and constructed tracks; Asheville-Weavervil Hickory Speedway was the result of a partnership between Charlie Combs and Alexander County, North Carolina illegal liquor kingpins Ralph and Grafton Burgess (better known in bootlegging and racing circles as "Puff" and "Tuff"). The colorful trio carved out a gem of a short track which produced some of the great stars of NASCAR history and still hosts exciting Saturday night racing. Together, these six "bootlegger" tracks formed the core of Big Bill France's growing promotional empire and the very foundation of NASCAR. The obvious question here is what did Bill France and NASCAR know about the moonshining/ The evidence seems pretty clear that while France and NASCAR did not participate directly in the illegal liquor business they had to have known what the most important drivers, car owners, promoters, and track owners in the sport's early days were all doing away from the track. Indeed, while "Thunder Road" may have been a road France "never drove down," he sure had lots of friends and close business associates who did. It's somewhat understandable-
***Next Sunday, I'll be making the trip to Martinsville for the Goody's 500—that is if track president Clay Campbell doesn't post my picture and ban me from premises for what I've written about his granddaddy, Clay Earles. Anyone who cares anything about NASCAR history needs to make it a point to support this grand old track and insure that its two Sprint Cup races are preserved. It's the last of the bootlegger tracks on the circuit, has great racing in the old "beating and banging" style, and some of the most reasonable ticket prices anywhere. For me, there's no better experience than sitting in the Clay Earles Tower, watching the action on the track, and eating one of those wonderful Jesse Jones hot dogs. Hope to see you there. 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 |
knowyournascar-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To post message, send an email to:
knowyournascar@yahoogroups.com
-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To post message, send an email to:
knowyournascar@yahoogroups.com
No comments:
Post a Comment