Happy Hump Day! Countdown to Daytona 18 Comments from the Peanut Gallery From David NASCAR MOMMA "Tell Denny Hamlin", should stick to Racing, seems that Basket Ball is not his Cup of Tea". Dave Bits and Pieces Earnhardt, Sr., others honored by North Carolina Motorsports Association: Dale Earnhardt was honored with the Achievement in Motorsports Tribute Award Monday night at the 4th Annual North Carolina Motorsports Industry Awards hosted by the North Carolina Motorsports Association (NCMA). For the first time all seven of Dale Earnhardt's former crew chiefs gathered on stage for a fireside chat moderated by long time Earnhardt gas man and Sirius NASCAR radio show host Danny "Chocolate" Myers. The crew chiefs, Bobby Hutchens, David Smith, Larry McReynolds, Kevin Hamlin, Andy Petree, Doug Richert and Kirk Shelmerdine, talked about the mischievous sense of humor that Dale had and his "never give up" attitude. Legendary NASCAR artist Sam Bass dedicated a one-of-a-kind creation designed specifically for the event. All Crew Chiefs and Richard Childress autographed the artwork, which will be auctioned off in support of the NCMA and the Dale Earnhardt Foundation.
In addition, 9 companies were awarded for outstanding contributions to the motorsports industry. The companies awarded were: NASCAR, BSCI Energy Impact Systems, Victory Junction Gang Camp, Mel's Custom Products, Hoosier Asphalt Oval South, NASCAR Technical Institute, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Safety-Kleen Systems, and JKS Motorsports Awards are initiated by a nomination process from NCMA membership with the winners determined by the NCMA Board of Directors.(North Carolina Motorsports Association PR) Riggs returns to NASCAR with Daytona Nationwide entry By Greg Engle CupScene.com Editor, NASCAR Examiner
Scott Riggs will return to action in NASCAR with an entry in the upcoming Nationwide Series season opener at Daytona next month. Riggs will race a Ford Fusion fielded by RAB Racing in the race on February 13th. "We are thrilled to have Scott in our car at Daytona," stated Robby Benton, Co-owner and General Manager of RAB Racing. "Scott's experience in all three levels of competition in this sport and the solid foundation of this team will produce a great combination for success. We're on track to deliver great results for the 2010 season opener at Daytona and hope to build the partnership between RAB Racing and Scott Riggs to run a full 2010 schedule." Riggs last raced with Tommy Baldwin in NASCAR's Sprint Series last season. He and the team parted ways halfway through the season. Prior to 2009, Riggs campaigned for Haas-CNC Racing in 2008. He's best known for the two seasons he spent at Evernham Motorsports in the No. 10 Dodge.
The Bahama North Carolina native was the 2002 NASCAR Nationwide Series Rookie of the Year and will be making his 81st NNS start and his fifth NNS start at Daytona International Speedway. Overall he has four wins, 19 top-5 and three poles in his Nationwide Series career, including two top-10 finishes at Daytona.
"I've been out of the Nationwide Series for two years now and I honestly don't think there is a better team for me to be involved with," Riggs said. "RAB Racing is an independent team of dedicated individuals that have the same goals and have invested themselves in what it takes to win. It's an honor to be partnering with such a driven team for such a prestigious race." Front Row names crew chief for #38 team: Randy Seals will crew chief the #38 Front Row Racing Ford for David Gilliland. Seals returns to Front Row after a short stint as crew chief on the #61 car with Chad Chaffin in 2006. Seals worked as a crew chief for Bobby Hamilton Racing for five years prior to moving to the Sprint Cup Series. For the last two seasons, he worked in the research and development as validation manager at Richard Petty Motorsports. "I think it's a really good opportunity," Seals said. "When Ray hired me in 2007, he wanted me to start a second group for Pete Rondeau in the R&D department. We shifted and became a separate component but the leadership skills that Pete taught me will make me better prepared for the crew chief's role this time around. I'm really happy to be a crew chief again and have an opportunity to work with David Gilliland. It's a great opportunity to get back up on the pit box." Gilliland, who just returned from Costa Rica, met Seals for the first time Monday morning. "He's eager to get back in there," Gilliland said. "He's had a couple of years of being home on the weekends, and I think he's ready to go again. He feels he's recharged his batteries. We both know it's going to take a little bit of time to get up to speed with having three teams, but I think we can get where we need to be."(FoxSports) NASCAR Drivers to drive in Rolex 24 at Daytona: Eight NASCAR drivers will crossover to sports cars and compete in the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Four-time defending NASCAR Sprint Cup champion #48-Jimmie Johnson will drive with GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing; #42-Juan Pablo Montoya will be joined by #26-Jamie McMurray and #13-Max Papis race on the TELMEX/Target Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates entry. In addition, #43-AJ Allmendinger will drive Michael Shank Racing, #98-Paul Menard will be on the Spirit of Daytona team, #71-Bobby Labonte will be in a TRG Porsche and NASCAR Nationwide Series driver Colin Braun returns with Krohn Racing. Other current/former NASCAR drivers [full or part-time in one of three National series] include Boris Said, Bill Lester, Dario Franchitti, last year's winner David Donohue [son of Jayski fave Mark Donohue], Butch Leitzinger, Andy Lally, Anthony Lazzaro, Davy Jones, Jack Baldwin, Mike Borkowski and Buddy Rice. The 48th running of the Rolex 24 at Daytona will begin at 3:30pm/et on Saturday, Jan. 30th with the checkered flag falling at 3:30pm/et on Sunday, Jan. 31st. The race is scheduled to be broadcast on SPEED which will cover 16 hours of the event on TV. More info about the race at grand-am.com. Jeff Gordon's episode of Extreme Makeover to air in April: The episode of ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition that #24-Jeff Gordon filmed this month in Horry County, SC is scheduled to air on Sunday April 11, 2010 at 8:00pm/et on ABC. See images of the build at jeffgordon.com and at extremehorry.com. Miccosukee sponsorship leaving the sport?: Sponsorship from Miccosukee Indian Gaming in all three of NASCAR's national series - Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Camping World Trucks - could be terminated as a result of an early February vote by the Indian tribe. The tribe, which runs Miccosukee Resort and Gaming located in Miami and along the southeastern edge of the Florida Everglades, elected a new chairman, Colley Billie, on Jan. 5 who campaigned on promoting a new and "proactive" economic development platform. Several sources confirmed the tribe plans a Feb. 4 vote to decide whether it will continue its sponsorship in NASCAR, which includes Cup [#09-Almirola] and Nationwide teams [#1-James Buescher] to be fielded in 2010 by team owner James Finch and a Truck team [#18] owned and driven by Kyle Busch. The chances the NASCAR sponsorships will continue are considered slim, sources said.(Charlotte Observer) New crew chief for Robby Gordon: Iain Watt has been named crew chief for [#7 Toyota] Robby Gordon Motorsports. Watt, who worked at Gillett Evernham Motorsports (now Richard Petty Motorsports) starting in 2007 and was director of performance engineering prior to the merger with Yates Racing at the end of last season, has an extensive racing background in IndyCar racing and sports cars. "He's ready for this level," Gordon said. "He's been here since the new year. We started talking back in November about this position. Let's let the results speak for themselves." As for formalizing Gordon's 2010 NASCAR plans, the exact number of races has yet to be determined. It was announced early this year that RGM will have an alliance with BAM Racing [#49 Toyota]. Gordon and David Gilliland will drive cars prepared by RGM for the Daytona 500. "We're going to run as many races as we can run," Gordon said. "We started discussions with BAM in late October, early November. David's racing for BAM at Daytona. We'll drive virtually two identical cars."(FoxSports) #36 team names crew chief: Tommy Baldwin Racing (TBR) announced that Kevin Buskirk will serve as the crew chief for the #36 Chevy driven by Mike Bliss. "I'm excited to have Kevin Buskirk on board as he brings a lot of experience to the race team," said team owner Tommy Baldwin. "It's nice to have someone I have full confidence in working on the #36. Now I can relax a little on the car side of things and shift more of my focus to building the Tommy Baldwin Racing business." Buskirk most recently served as crew chief for the #19 Richard Petty Motorsports car driven by Elliot Sadler in 2009. Buskirk is a NASCAR team veteran and also has previous experience with Robert Yates Racing, Richard Childress Racing and Dale Earnhardt, Inc. He won two races as race engineer at Robert Yates Racing with Elliot Sadler in 2004 and was part of six race victories with the #29 Richard Childress Racing car driven by Kevin Harvick. Buskirk's victories at Richard Childress Racing include Harvick's Daytona 500 victory in 2007.(Tommy Baldwin Racing) Two NASCAR drivers in Top 50 athlete earnings: For the sixth consecutive year, Sports Illustrated has compiled a list of the 50 top-earning American athletes in salary, winnings, endorsements and appearance fees. And for the first time, the average earnings of those on the list fell -- down $1.5 million per athlete to $23.6 million. That falloff is mostly due to lower earnings for No. 1 Tiger Woods and No. 2 Phil Mickelson, both of whom saw their on-course income shrink while also losing key endorsement deals. This year's list features 22 basketball players (a record nine who earned more than $20 million), 14 major leaguers, nine football players, three golfers and two NASCAR drivers. The two NASCAR drivers are #88-Dale Earnhardt Jr. at 13th and #24-Jeff Gordon at 21st. #48-Jimmie Johnson, who won his 4th NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship in a row, is not on the list.(Sports Illustrated) Joe Gibbs Racing Sends Plane to Aid in Haitian Relief Efforts By Greg Engle CupScene.com Editor, NASCAR Examiner
Joe Gibbs Racing has joined Hendrick Motorsports by donating its own aircraft to the relief efforts in Haiti. The JGR plane is a 45-seat Saab 2000 identical to the two sent by Hendrick Motorsports last week. The team fields cars for drivers Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano. The aircraft are ones used by the teams during the season to carry crews to and from NASCAR events. The planes, including pilots and crews, are on loan to Missionary Flights International based out of Ft. Pierce Florida and are now being used to carry medical personnel and supplies to the island, which was devastated by an earthquake two weeks ago. The aircraft have also been flying survivors out. "Each plane can carry 32 to 34 doctors and nurses, plus all their baggage and supplies," Richard Snook, president of Missionary Flights International told the Vero Beach Press-Journal. "Then we have cargo planes chasing them with even more supplies." Snook said he isn't sure how long the aircraft will be on loan to the organization. "They're here at least through the end of the week," he said, "but racing season is about to start up, so we'll be losing them soon except for maybe a flight here and there. Hopefully, airline service (to Haiti) will gear up in the next few days and take some of the pressure off of us."
Also Wednesday the NASCAR Foundation has announced it will donate $250,000 to Missionary Flights International to help in its relief efforts.
"We are humbled by the support we have received from the NASCAR community," said Snook. "The support Hendrick Motorsports have made an immediate and critical impact on many lives that were nearly destroyed in the earthquakes. This added generosity from the NASCAR Foundation will help us continue our work to save lives."
The group has sent at least 450,000 pounds of supplies and 1,000 passengers or more to Haiti.
To contribute, check out the organization's Web site: missionaryflights.org. SPEED sets Daytona Speedweeks Schedule: SPEED will open its 2010 Daytona Speedweeks coverage Feb. 4 with live coverage of Budweiser Shootout practice, the Budweiser Shootout Selection Show and the Fourth Annual SPEED Performance Awards. On Feb. 6, SPEED will bring race fans live and exclusive coverage of Danica Patrick's stock car debut, as the popular open wheel racer makes her first ARCA Racing Series start for Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s JR Motorsports race team. To enhance television coverage of Patrick's effort, SPEEDtv.com, will offer exclusive in-car and ISO streaming videos, along with pit-to-car radio communication between Danica and her team. The Gatorade Duel at Daytona takes center stage Feb. 11, beginning with a special edition of NASCAR RaceDay Built by The Home Depot at 1 p.m. ET, followed by live race coverage at 2 p.m. ET. Krista Voda and Jeff Hammond will host. The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series opens its season Feb. 12 with Krista Voda hosting NCWTS Setup at 7:30 p.m., followed by race coverage at 8 p.m. ET. Rick Allen, Darrell Waltrip and Phil Parsons will call the race for SPEED, with Ray Dunlap and Adam Alexander in the pits. And on Sunday, Feb. 14, SPEED delivers a special three-hour edition of NASCAR RaceDay Built by The Home Depot, leading into FOX coverage of the Daytona 500. John Roberts hosts, with Kyle Petty and Kenny Wallace sharing their observations as teams prepare for The Great American Race. Wendy Venturini and Hermie Sadler lead a team of SPEED RaceDay voices reporting from all around the race track.(SPEEDtv PR) Denny Hamlin tears ACL: UPDATE: #11-Denny Hamlin, widely considered Jimmie Johnson's top threat in 2010, tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee [clutch foot] Friday playing pickup basketball. Hamlin said he still expects to compete, but surgery isn't an option at this time since the Sprint Cup season begins in two weeks. He plans to have surgery to repair the knee after the 2010 season. A team spokesman said the injury should not affect Hamlin's ability to drive the car. "I planted my foot to make a move toward the basket, and my knee just shot directly out to the left," Hamlin said. On Dec. 16, Hamlin had surgery on his right knee to repair the meniscus [also from basketball].(ESPN) UPDATE: Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin shouldn't have too much trouble driving a race car despite a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, according to JGR President J.D. Gibbs and doctors familiar with ACL injuries. Hamlin, 29, uses his left foot to brake as well as to control the clutch in his #11 Toyota. "In essence, it's not that big a deal given what drivers normally have to do in the car," said ESPN analyst Dr. Jerry Punch, a former emergency-room physician. "No two people are the same in terms of how much instability they have when they tear an ACL. Typically, somebody that is Denny's age, young and in great physical shape, can rehab that knee without having it operated on." The ACL keeps the lower part of the leg from moving forward when a person stops running. Starting and stopping quickly would make the knee feel unstable. It doesn't have to do with rotation or side-to-side movement, Punch said, and the pedals could be adjusted to make it more comfortable. Reconstructive ACL surgery requires six to 10 weeks of immobility, and that's why Hamlin plans to wait until after the season is over, Punch said. He could have arthroscopic surgery to clean out the injured area and that would require only 10 days of being off his feet, but Gibbs said that no surgery is planned.(Scene Daily) Drivers Test at New Smyrna: Tuesday Marcos Ambrose tested his #47 Kroger NASCAR at the half-mile high-banked New Smyrna Speedway. Preparing for his second full-time season in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season, the Australian driver shared the track today with #13-Max Papis, #00-David Reutimann and #5-Martin Truex Jr. It's the first time Ambrose has been in a car in over two months. "I just want to dust off the cobwebs," said Ambrose. (MarcosAmbrose.com) Linda Petty slated to undergo medical procedure By NASCAR.COM STATESVILLE, N.C. -- Lynda Petty, wife of NASCAR legend Richard Petty, will undergo a medical procedure Friday to determine the underlying cause of an ongoing medical condition. "My family has always been my number one priority. I hate to miss any racing or racing-related event but at this time being with my wife Lynda is where I need to be," Richard Petty said. The Petty family is thankful for the support from family, friends, fans, and all those in the racing community and asks for the continued respect for their privacy during this time. Richard and Lynda Petty celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 2009. Power to the People! By Greg Engle CupScene.com Editor, NASCAR Examiner
The French stormed the Bastille. The Russians revolted in the streets. The NASCAR Nation took to the Internet. The theme for this year's NASCAR preseason has been 'we've listened to the fans'. Wings on the COT? Gone, replaced with the old fashioned spoilers. More consistent start times? Check. Less rule enforcement, ala bump draft to your heart's content? Done. Or as NASCAR's vice-president of competition Robin Pemberton so eloquently put it: "We will put it back in the hands of the drivers and we will say boys, have at it and have a good time." According to NASAR all the changes came after they met with drivers, and team owners on a one on one basis. And with fans who were members of a 12,000 member strong council. No doubt NASCAR also perused the Internet message boards where many fans hang out. With shouts of 'boring', when talking about the racing in 2009, overriding everything else. All will most likely welcome the changes for 2010, but one question still remains: how did NASCAR get to this point to begin with? It didn't seem all that long ago that NASCAR's product, the racing on the track, never drew a cross comment, except maybe from drivers who had been taken out on the last lap. But as the sport's popularity grew, it seems that it may have strayed.
I was fortunate enough several years ago, before he went to the superspeedway in the sky, to be in a reporter's scrum with Bill France Jr. Although he had handed the reins over to his son Brian, France Jr. could still hold court and when he began talking everyone listened.
While the actual tape has been lost long ago, to paraphrase one thing he said was that at the time, NASCAR was still climbing to the top. The sport had yet to reach its pinnacle. He admitted that it would never be the most popular sport in America, but it still had room to grow. The trick he said was to know when they had reached that pinnacle.
Looking back on the last few years, one has to wonder if maybe NASCAR had reached its pinnacle, and actually fallen off. It seems that several years ago, that maybe NASCAR lost sight of the product on the track and became more focused on the product off the track.
High-dollar sponsors were catered too, while drivers were held in check so as not to offend any part of those sponsors demographic. Television contracts were debated, negotiated and the old start times gave way to start times that would fit more into advertisers projections and less into viewers old habits.
Meanwhile drivers became smiling PR speaking machines that became so vanilla that it seemed as if they stood still too long they might melt. And while no one could ever argue against the changes made for safety's sake, the restrictions put on the drivers on and off the track turned a once shiny, edgy product into a dull shell of what it once was.
And maybe it finally have caught up with them.
The shouts of 'boring' grew to a steady roar, TV ratings dropped and even drivers began to grumble.
To NASCAR's credit though, they have heard the masses and are willing to make changes.
Less rules, start times more consistent with the old and changes to the next generation racecar that will make the new old, again.
Did NASCAR reach its pinnacle and go one step too far, as Bill France Jr. had talked about? Perhaps. But one thing's for certain, NASCAR isn't afraid to change and while only time will tell if the changes they made for this season will be the right ones, the fans have spoken, NASCAR has listened, and if it works the top of the pinnacle may be back in reach once more.
Power to the people... What are the NASCAR memories you hold on to? Dustin Long/hamptonroads.com Lots of work going through interviews from the media tour last week. As I was transcribing part of Jimmie Johnson's interview session, I came across an interesting comment he made when asked about his dominance in the Cup: "I think, in any sport, to see someone make history is pretty special,'' Johnson said. "I've only see a few things in my life (like that). There's only certain things that you can remember and hang on to in sports.'' That last line really struck me. It's true. For all the sports viewing, whether it's NASCAR, basketball, football or some other sports, there are only a few standout moments we take with us from day to day and come to mind from time to time. Yes, if you've followed this sport long enough, there are certain days that will be forever remembered from the 1979 Daytona 500 finish to Bill Elliott going for the Winston Million to Dale Earnhardt's death. What other moments are special to you, the memories you'll hold on to as long you live? It's a tough question even for me as I head into my 12th season covering the sport. Yes, Dale Earnhardt's death will always be with me as I was there that day. It will be with me as much for the shock as the reaction of so many people. I also won't forget the spring weekend in 1999 in Martinsville when Petty Enterprises swept the events with Jimmy Hensley winning the truck race and John Andretti winning the Cup race. I want to say Richard got a ride to Victory Lane on one of those vehicles. Until RPM won last year with Kasey Kahne, Petty hadn't been to Victory Lane since that weekend. One moment I'll never forget is that while working on a story in 2005 about Dale Earnhardt's last win (the 2000 Dega race where he went from like 18th to first in the last five laps). I got a video of the last 20 laps and took it to the key drivers in the race that day and had them tell me what they were doing and how Earnhardt got to the front. I sat down with Dale Earnhardt Jr. in his motorhome at Dover that fall and talked to him about the race and then he popped the disc into his DVD player and the race popped up on his big screen in there. Right toward the end, Earnhardt makes this big charge where he passes about 7 cars from the exit of turn 2 to the entrance of turn 3. I had Dale Jr. stop the disc, told him what was going to happen and then let him watch it. I had seen that run dozens of times in my research. This time, I turned toward Earnhardt Jr. as he sat and watched it. As his father, motored to the front, a small smile creased Dale Jr.s' face and then he spoke only one word. "Wow.'' Maybe not the most historic or significant moment in the sports, but it's a memory that I've kept all these years and will likely stay with me for a long time. Well, time to get back to transcribing. I'm anxious to see what you say. Dale Jr.: Problems Pitting 'Broke the Camel's Back By Reid Spencer Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service
For those who write about motorsports, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Media Tour, hosted and administered by Charlotte Motor Speedway, makes up the most interview-intensive four days of the year. There's a lot of predictability to the tour. Before competition on the racetrack has a chance to separate the wheat from the chaff, almost everyone is optimistic about the coming season. Drivers and crew chiefs who have changed jobs are full of praise for their new situations. Owners promise to field stronger teams than they did last year—even Rick Hendrick, who has won the past four Cup titles with driver Jimmie Johnson. Nevertheless, there were surprises, and here are four major ones from this year's tour: To hear Dale Earnhardt Jr. tell it, a succession of pit-road mistakes during Speedweeks at Daytona derailed his entire season. After sliding through his pit stall in the Feb. 14 Nationwide Series race, Earnhardt drove past his pit box under caution early in the following day's Daytona 500. Later in the race, he drew a one-lap penalty for pitting on the front white line of his pit box. Trying to regain the lost lap, Earnhardt subsequently triggered an eight-car wreck that took out several of the strongest cars in the field. "Nothing is easy, but coming down at Daytona and getting in your stall is like breathing," Earnhardt said when the media tour visited the Hendrick Motorsports campus. "It's like shifting—you don't think about when you're doing it. You just do it. But it made me start thinking about it, and I started to backtrack and I didn't progress and fix it, actually I got a complex about it and became sort of definitely not confident about doing it.
"I didn't anticipate missing my stall. That was kind of the beginning of it. Who knew that would be the little straw that broke the camel's back?" Status quo would please Juan Pablo Montoya. Unlike most drivers interviewed on the tour, Montoya is more interested in validating the strong run his No. 42 Earnhardt Ganassi team had in 2009 than in setting his sights higher in 2010. Montoya qualified for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup for the first time last season, and he'd be happy with a similar result this year. "If we could match last year, it would be an awesome year—because you look at where the team was before and what happened last year, and you need to make sure it wasn't a one-off," Montoya said. "I think if we could run the same and have a very strong foundation for the team, it would be great for the future of the team." If Speedway Motorsports Inc. chairman Bruton Smith ran NASCAR, so-called start-and-park teams would be a thing of the past. "(Something) that has to be stopped—and I hope NASCAR will do something about it, and I think they will—is start-and-park." Smith said during the announcement of a four-lane NHRA drag racing event, the Four-Wide Nationals, at zMAX Dragway, scheduled for March 25-28. "That's a disgrace to our sport. I haven't understood that yet, but they've learned now that they can make a lot of money by doing that 'cause they're not expending any if they go out and run 10 laps and park. So I hope NASCAR will put a stop to that." There's a huge divergence of opinion about the possible effects of a spoiler on the Cup car, despite almost universal agreement that the switch from the rear wing to the spoiler is the right thing to do. Driver Jeff Burton, who tested a spoiler recently on the large and small tracks at Rockingham, cautions against thinking the transition will be plug-and-play. On the other hand, Brian Pattie, Montoya's crew chief, said wind-tunnel data varied only marginally between the spoiler and the wing and that an anticipated lack of sideforce wasn't an issue, given the right and left quarter panel extensions that will be added to the car when the switch is made to the spoiler. NASCAR hopes to have the change in place by mid-April.
Teams will learn a lot more—including how the car behaves in traffic—during a full-field test at Charlotte in late March. Dale Earnhardt Jr.: New Season, New Opportunities, Same Negative Attitude David Yeazell/bleacherreport.com The NASCAR Media Tour, presented by Charlotte Motor Speedway, gathered at the sprawling Hendrick Motor Sports Complex for a catered lunch and interviews. Once introductions were complete, five chairs on the stage were occupied with one owner and four NASCAR stars. From the beginning, it was hard not to see a difference between three Hendrick Motorsports drivers and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Looking fresh, clean shaven, and projecting a positive attitude about the new season with their words and actions, Mark Martin, Jimmie Johnson, and Jeff Gordon seemed to be in a different zone than Earnhardt Jr. Sporting a collection of winter wheat on his face, Jr. not only arrived at the function separately from Hendrick and the rest of the teams, he brought along the familiar black cloud that has been plaguing him for the past year. Doug Rice, Performance Racing Network broadcaster and emcee of the day's event, asked Jr. if he felt there was chemistry between him and relatively new chief Lance McGrew. Chemistry is a huge part of success, especially when success depends on the collaboration of multiple participants. In a slow, almost depressively drawn voice, Earnhardt Jr. made it clear he's never had chemistry with anyone. "I can't really say I have been in a situation yet where the chemistry for me was really going. I have been with some great teams and had some good wins and great success, but it's hard for me to point out what great chemistry is just yet." The tone and deliberation in Earnhardt Jr.'s voice seemed to grasp the crowd quickly. As he continued to elaborate on the question, his words also seemed to catch the attention of his boss Rick Hendrick to such a degree that Hendrick actually leaned forward and momentarily stared at his most popular driver. "I get along great with Lance, and he's a lot of fun. We enjoy being around each other and we can build on that friendship and learn from each other at the race track. All that stuff will eventually work itself out. I think we are definitely going in the right direction, which is good compared to the direction we were going last year." A short time later during the interview sessions, McGrew seemed un-fazed by Jr's comments. He was, however, quick to defend his boss and point out most of the problems surrounding the team are media created, not actual problems. "I don't know what happened in American culture that everyone has to be so negative," said McGrew. "There are so many positives in the guy and this organization, but everyone focuses on the negative." $22 million a year in endorsements and a seventh most popular driver award is hardly focusing on the negative. Jr.'s situation going into this season isn't much different than his final seasons at DEI. His poor performances were blamed on Theresa and her inability to provide good equipment. A highly publicized change to powerhouse Hendrick Motorsports was heralded as Jr.'s ticket to a championship. After a tiny glimmer of success, here we are again, same story, different owner, and, well, different crew chief. Maybe the negativity driving the lack of success is coming from within—within the cockpit of the No. 88 car. Jr.'s comments from the stage didn't exactly paint a masterpiece of his relationship with McGrew. Whether he felt that way or not, there is a time to put on a happy face and speak positive about your future and your teammates, especially when the majority of mainstream media is looking on. While McGrew may think it's the media driving the negativity, he's wrong. All a person had to do was listen to what Jr. had to say away from the stage. "Everyone keeps asking what went wrong or what was bad about the car. I am tired of being asked that question over and over again. I can't always tell what's wrong or why we ran badly, but you keep asking and it gets old." He then abruptly finishes with this statement, "I guess I dug that ditch, so I guess I have to lie in it." Whatever ditch Jr. is talking about, he is the one who must crawl out if it. He's the only one who can remove the black cloud and change his negative attitude, or someday soon, someone will realize there are only so many people who will fit under a bus. On The Loose Side Kenny Bruce/scenedaily.com Texas Motor Speedway officials are at it again Texas Motor Speedway officials have never been known to err on the side of caution when it comes to promoting their 1.5-mile track.
So it's no surprise to see that they're up to their old tricks, using 15 billboards in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex to tout NASCAR's "relaxed" attitude regarding on-track action heading into the 2010 Sprint Cup Series season.
The Daytona 500 may be on the minds of most race fans, but TMS President Eddie Gossage and his staff aren't sitting idle.
The most recent ad campaign meshes the slogan "Approved" with a variety of Cup drivers and on-track incidents. Examples include a photo of Joey Logano's No. 20 Toyota in mid-crash (Approved: Tailgating); a battered No. 48 of Jimmie Johnson (Approved: Door Dings); and a larger-than-life mugshot of Juan Pablo Montoya (Approved: Road Rage).
The Speedway generated plenty of publicity two years ago with billboard ads referring to the strained relationship between Dale Earnhardt Jr. and stepmother Teresa Earnhardt. The billboards were eventually removed at the request of Earnhardt Jr.'s sister, Kelley.
NASCAR returns to TMS April 16-18 for the Samsung Mobile 500.
• And that leads me to … yet another difference between NASCAR and the stick-and-ball sports: A couple of NBA players found themselves facing charges recently for bringing guns into the locker room. At TMS, the pole winner for the Cup race is presented a shotgun and the race winner receives six-shooter pistols.
I'm not exactly sure what to make of that.
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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