Author: SM Staff

It all makes sense – Kevin Harvick needs a sponsor and Budweiser needs a new star driver. It’s a prediction that the majority of NASCAR Nation were predicting earlier this year. Well, this prediction may actually come true.

Harvick was left without a sponsor for 2011 after Shell/Pennzoil made an announcement in April that they’d be leaving RCR for Penske Racing driver Kurt Busch.

On August 7th, Marty Smith revealed in his door-to-door article on ESPN.com that sources were telling him that Harvick would have split sponsorship in 2011, with Budweiser taking the majority of the races.

At the time, Richard Childress Racing and Budweiser both had no comments for Smith.

Though Smith went on to add that his sources did say, “Harvick did himself a huge favor with the way he conducted himself in Victory Lane at the Shootout in February — beer in hand while saying and doing the right things in front of the company’s new management.”

Yesterday, SceneDaily confirmed Smith’s findings as their sources told them that the deal is close to being done and is in it’s final stages with an announcement coming next week.

Currently, Budweiser sponsors the No. 9 Ford driven by Richard Petty Motorsports (RPM) driver Kasey Kahne. However, Kahne will be leaving at season’s end to drive for Red Bull Racing in 2011 and Hendrick Motorsports in 2012, replacing Mark Martin. As the deal looks right now, GoDaddy will carry their sponsorship from Martin to Kahne, but that hasn’t been confirmed yet.

Budweiser, meanwhile, decided to also leave RPM after Kahne’s departure.

“Budweiser has decided to go in another direction with regard to its driver/team sponsorship and will announce those plans in the very near future,” Mark Wright, Vice President, Media, Sports & Entertainment Marketing for Anheuser-Busch, Inc., said in a statement provided by the company.

“We enjoyed our three-year relationship with Kasey Kahne and wish him all the best in the future.”

Budweiser has been involved with NASCAR since 1984 when they were paired up with team owner Junior Johnson. They have also spent time at Hendrick Motorsports (1995-1999) and at Dale Earnhardt Incorperated with Dale Earnhardt Jr. from 2000-2007. When Earnhardt Jr. made the move to Hendrick, Budweiser paired up with Kahne and Gillett Evernham Motorsports, which is now known as Richard Petty Motorsports.

This looks to be the perfect partnership, once again, for Budweiser, though one could argue there could be brand identity problems. NASCAR fans like to align brands with drivers, though with Budweiser constantly moving star-to-star, that could cause some issues in the fans eyes.

As far as the current sponsorship situation at RPM, officials haven’t announced any plans yet though co-owners Richard Petty and Foster Gillett said announcements are planned for the future.

So far they’ve announced a contract extention with driver A.J. Allmendinger while both Elliott Sadler and Paul Menard look to be following in Kahne’s footsteps. Sadler told SceneDaily last month that he’s had no talks with team officials and doesn’t expect to be back. Meanwhile, Menard is rumored to be heading over to RCR in a fourth car there.

With regards to who will replace Kahne, which could possibly be Marcos Ambrose, who recently announced that he was leaving JTG-Daughtry Racing.

With Four races to go until the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Race for the Chase starts I will give you my predictions on who is still alive and who will make the chase, and who just won’t have enough to get there.

To me there are just two slots open for the chase and there are about ten drivers that still have a shot at those last two spots.

The first of those drivers is the man in 11th, Greg Biffle

Biffle won two weeks ago at Pocono Raceway. It has finally looked like that Roush Fenway Racing has finally turned a corner. Although Biffle struggled to a 24th place run on Sunday at the Glen, I believe he will make the chase with some great tracks for him and his team coming up.

The 12th spot is currently held by Mark Martin. It’s hard for me to believe I am listing him as a pretender but let’s take a look at Martin’s year. It’s a struggle for Martin to get into the chase. So you might ask what’s wrong. There are a couple things. Engineers from Martin’s team last year went over to help the 88 and Dale Earnhardt Jr this year to help that team be more competitive. My theory is “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it!” and Mark Martin’s team wasn’t broke. However, it seems it is now.

I understand Martin’s in the chase now but to me this team is too far off to make the chase. Look at Sunday. Bowyer has a bad day and Martin has a chance to capitalize and ends up 19th. Not exactly chase material. Martin in my opinion will miss the chase and Rick Hendrick will look to improve this team for 2011. Maybe move some engineers back to his team so Martin can be competitive again.

Clint Bowyer is sitting 13th in the standings just ten points out. Mechanical problems had him finish 32nd Sunday, but fortuatly for Bowyer, Martin didn’t capitalize much. Richard Childress Racing has rebounded from the disaster that was 2009 and Bowyer has had some bad luck this year. However, Bowyer needs to qualify better if he wants to get into the chase.

Sitting 14th and 83 points back is Ryan Newman. Newman has had an up and down year this season. Lately, however Newman has gained some points, with back to back 12th place finishes. Will Newman get in? It’s hard to say. Teammate Tony Stewart has run much better as of late and who will say Newman can’t have the same late regular season surge Stewart has had?

Sitting 15th 94 points out of the chase is Jamie McMurray. McMurray has two big wins this season and is having a surprisingly really good year. Yet, his finishes have been really inconsistent this season. Should be interesting to see what he does with four races to go.

Sitting 16th is Dale Earnhardt Jr, who just continues to fall in the standings. In the last four races Earnhardt has fallen from 11th to 16th in points. In that same span he’s gone from 46 points in the chase to now 121 points out with four races to go. Momentum is huge for drivers this far out of the chase and Earnhardt doesn’t have any right now. I will wonder if Michigan will provide him any luck.

And the last driver who has a chance is Kasey Kahne. I know you may think I am crazy, but I still believe this team has an outside shot at it. Kahne needs to have four great runs to get in. Can he do it? Well fords run great at Michigan, he runs well at Bristol, Atlanta and Richmond. The tracks play in his favor. That’s the only reason why I don’t rule him out.

Looking at all these scenarios it should be interesting to see who makes the chase and who is on the outside looking in. What do you all think?

As one of the originators of the NASCAR baby boom three years ago with the birth of daughter Ella Sofia, Jeff Gordon and Ingrid Vandebosch added to their own brood, as well as the burgeoning baby boom in the garage area, with the birth of Leo Benjamin Gordon.

“He’s happy and healthy and Mom is doing great,” four-time champion and second time dad Jeff Gordon said.

Baby Leo was born on Monday, August 9th at 8:53 AM. The newest Gordon weighed 7 lb. 2 oz. and was 19 inches long.

Gordon may be the most recent NASCAR dad in the garage area, but he is certainly in good company. Gordon’s Hendrick Motor Sports teammate Jimmie Johnson recently welcoming his first daughter Genevieve Marie.

Most recent race winner Juan Pablo Montoya, who celebrated a road course win at the Glen this past weekend, also joined the ranks of fatherhood recently, adding daughter Manuela as the third Montoya in his family.

Gordon notched another top ten finish at Watkins Glen before heading to the hospital for the birth of his son. He will next race at Michigan International Speedway this weekend and intends to participate fully in all race activities.

NASCAR’s two top series just finished a weekend of racing at Watkins Glen International. Twice a year (we’re including Infineon Raceway here), the sport’s top drivers are asked to get out of their comfort zone (if there is such a thing) and do what most of them never do but twice a year. In the meantime, the teams have to build special cars (sometimes two special cars) for these races and even hire “ringers” on occasion. For a group that is continually telling us that they are seeking to cut costs for the race teams, it seems kind of strange that these two events stay on the schedule.

In the half-century plus that NASCAR has existed, they’ve always ran road courses. My first memories are of Riverside, California and the first race of the season in January. As is the case today, some teams hired what I call “ringers,”—drivers from other racing series that had experience on road courses. The Wood Brothers had Parnelli Jones, Dan Gurney, and A.J. Foyt in their cars there, especially when they weren’t running a full schedule. And guess what? Those guys won regularly. In recent years, though, the regulars have won these races because their equipment is so good. The “ringers” usually end up in second-tier cars and give the regulars fits. Is that fair to the regulars who are running for a championship? You tell me.

I have always maintained that 3,700 pound stock cars have no place on a road course. These cars are too big, too heavy, and don’t handle well enough for the narrow courses at Infineon and Watkins Glen. Couple that with what is usually a non-competitive race and you have to scratch your head. I’m sure the 90,000 folks at the Glen today would dispute this, but you have to remember that most folks watch on television. On the tube, the race looked like a runaway. Sure, it was exciting back in the pack, but Juan Pablo Montoya had them covered with only a little competition from Marcos Ambrose. It was no surprise that both of them have navigated road courses for most of their careers.

With several race tracks wanting a date on the Sprint Cup schedule or even wanting a second date, it would make sense to me to eliminate these two tracks and move the races to these other tracks. This plan would save a race in the place where the circuit began and even up the competition a bit. I am sure that many of the Sprint Cup drivers would give out a sigh of relief.

Word came down this week from Atlanta that they would only have one race next year. Apparently the racing will be done 477 miles north in Sparta, KY. Rumors came out this week that California’s Auto Club Speedway will lose one of its races also, presumably to add a race at Kansas Speedway. A 50-year tradition is gone at AMS and a big experiment has failed at ACS. Will Kentucky Speedway be more successful than Atlanta Motor Speedway? Will Kansas Speedway be able to support two races or will it be the next California Speedway? Time will tell, but I know a lot of fans who are not happy, especially those in the southeast, which lost another track and another tradition.

See, if we got rid of the road courses, races could have been awarded to Kentucky and Kansas without raising the dander of the folks in the south. No one would complain about taking a race from California, especially if they added one at Darlington. That would be a tremendous peace offering to the core fans. But that’s not going to happen. We will continue to have road races and we will lose a great race at Atlanta, but the next time an announcement is made saying they are trying to save the race teams money, I’m going to laugh. To the powers that be, it’s money that matters. Their money. That’s why they call it a business.

Road racing at its finest. Describing the race today here at Watkins Glen. Today’s race was full of action and extraordinary weather. This capped off once of the nicest race weekends I can remember here at Watkins Glen.

Juan Pablo Montoya claimed victory in the Sprint Cup Series for just his second time in 131 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts. It was not for lack of effort as Montoya had been close to victory in a few races this season, most notably last month in Indianapolis at the Brickyard. His victory breaks a 113-race winless drought as his last victory came at the second road-course that the Sprint Cup Series visits at Infineon Raceway in 2007.

Pole-sitter Carl Edwards did not last long at the front of the field as Jamie McMurray slid past for the lead on lap number two. McMurray was also the next driver to see only a brief stint at the front of the field, as Juan Pablo Montoya wasted no time showing that his car was the one to beat today. Montoya made a pass on McMurray to gain the lead on only lap number five. The 42 car had all but checked out in the first stint as the race as other pre-race favorites like Marcos Ambrose and Tony Stewart were caught in traffic behind Montoya.

Road course pit strategy started around lap 27 when Montoya pitted from the lead for four tires and fuel. The field followed pace with leader Montoya the following lap where Ambrose, Stewart and Carl Edwards all came to the pit lane under green for four tires and fuel.

A Caution on lap 29 bunched the field up and was the first time where we saw that there was more than one car that could win. When the green flew on lap 31, Marcos Ambrose made it a statement that his car was good enough to win, passing Carl Edwards for second and keeping pace with Montoya at the point.

It took around nine laps for Ambrose to finally make a move on Montoya for the lead, gaining the top spot on lap 40. This move, like many others here at Watkins Glen came as a dive-bomb into the right hand turn one, out-breaking Montoya for the lead.

Just after Ambrose took the lead, the caution flag waived for the second time as Bobby Labonte was sidetracked in the Inner Loop. During the caution, Crew Chief for Juan Montoya told his driver to “Drive it like a maniac”. And drive like a maniac did Juan as the green flew again on lap 46, as Ambrose and Montoya made it to Turn 1, Montoya trapped Ambrose on the bottom and drove off with the lead.

The field went single file with a few changes, but the mix came on lap 60 when Montoya hit pit road for tires and fuel, followed by Ambrose. Again, the leaders caught a break when the third yellow flag of the race came out for debris on lap 62. When the dust settled from that yellow, Juan Montoya and Marcos Ambrose were shown at the top of the leaderboards.

The next news came from defending Sprint Cup Champion Jimmie Johnson on lap 70, when he spun in Turn 7, sending he and Denny Hamlin into the outside wall. The wreck collected two of this years Chase contenders out for the win here as Hamlin later stated that drivers were “dive-bombing” each other when racing for position.

When the field took the green with 15 laps to go on lap 75, the top two spots had remained stagnant. Montoya leading Ambrose, Kurt Busch, A.J. Allmendinger, and Jamie McMurray into Turn 1 following the fifth caution of the day.

From then on it was smooth sailing for Montoya at the front of the field as he stretched his lead to over four seconds over Kurt Busch by the time the checkered flag flew on lap 90. Montoya had lead an amazing 74 laps when his Chevy crossed the stripe, winning the Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at The Glen in commanding fashion.

The rest of the top five looked like this; Kurt Busch in second, yesterday’s winner in the Zippo 200 Nationwide Series race here at Watkins Glen – Marcos Ambrose in third, AJ Almendinger in fourth, and pole-sitter Carl Edwards in fifth.

In the points, Denny Hamlin took the biggest hit out of all the Chase contenders dropping three spots to sixth, where Kurt Busch did the opposite and gained three spots with his second place finish. Mark Martin traded places with Clint Bowyer for the twelfth and final spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup. The top twelve after today’s race looks like this:

Kevin Harvick

Jeff Gordon

Jeff Burton

Kurt Busch

Jimmie Johnson

Denny Hamlin

Kyle Busch

Tony Stewart

Carl Edwards

Matt Kenseth

Greg Biffle

Mark Martin

Another successful weekend comes to a close here at Watkins Glen, and again I have to give Kudos to the staff at Watkins Glen International for treating all the members of the media to the always-delicious fare of Dinosaur Barbeque.

With the signing of AJ Allmendinger to a multi-year contract, the driver of the infamous No. 43 Petty blue race car officially becomes the lead alpha dog at Richard Petty Motorsports.

In fact, Allmendinger may be the only dog left at RPM, with Kasey Kahne and Elliott Sadler both announcing plans to leave after the close of the 2010 season. Even Paul Menard is rumored to be taking his family sponsorship elsewhere, most likely to Richard Childress Racing.

Given those circumstances, with drivers and sponsors alike apparently jumping the RPM ship, Allmendinger was skeptical about re-upping with the ‘King’. In fact, it was not so long ago that the two had a very heated exchange with one another after a particularly disappointing day on the track.

“We have potential here,” Allmendinger. “But I needed the right answers. In the end, we got the answers we wanted, that this is a stable place and a place where we can build the future.”

“It excites me to know I can the ‘the guy’ here,” Allmendinger said. “That was another huge selling point.”

RPM principal Foster Gillett was a major playing in selling Allmendinger on the concept of staying with the company and being the lead dog in the RPM pack.

“AJ has a passion for the sport,” Gillett said. “That’s obvious. He is in our shop daily and knows every single person on our team. Our guys root for him.”

“One of the great moments for an athlete is the chance to choose what team he wants to be with,” Gillett continued. “We wanted AJ to choose the right reasons to be here. AJ is a big part of what we do and a bigger part of the future.”

Allmendinger acknowledged that he did talk to several other teams before deciding that he would re-up with Richard Petty Motorsports. He cited not only the ability to be that ‘alpha dog’ but also the potential he sees in his team as reasons for staying.

And quite frankly, the ‘Dinger, at age 28 years, just did not want to have to start over with a new group at this stage in his career.

“For me, it was tough to go out there and know everything that we’ve built up and maybe go to a different team and just completely start over,” Allmendinger said. “You look at all the great teams and they’re not one or two-year teams, they’ve been around five, six, seven years and I look at that and it just made it easy to know that we had potential here. That’s all I wanted to see.”

One of the other major factors in Allmendinger’s decision to stay with RPM was the support that Ford has provided, particularly with the new engine. The ‘Dinger shared that the proof of that was seeing Greg Biffle in victory lane at Pocono Raceway last weekend with the new Ford engine under the hood.

“Ford gives us all the tools that we could ask for to go out there and have a chance to win races every weekend,” Allmendinger said. “Obviously the new motor is getting better and it was great to see Ford finally back in Victory Lane last week with the new engine.”

Allmendinger joined Richard Petty Motorsports late in the 2008 season after a tumultuous period in his career, especially his time at Red Bull Racing. In his four year NASCAR Cup career, he has one top-five, eleven top-tens, and one pole.

With the ability to now build upon this record, Allmendinger may not only be the alpha dog at RPM, but he may be the savior of the team as well. And he may just be the one that attracts other drivers, perhaps even Marcos Ambrose who is now homeless after leaving JTG Daugherty Racing, and new potential sponsors to replace the most likely outgoing Budweiser.

When asked about these possibilities, the ‘King’ just smiled mysteriously and said that future announcements would be forthcoming.

“We have a lot more good news coming as an organization in a few weeks,” Gillett said. “I think AJ saw how committed we are. And we have some partners that will continue to support us. Some things already are done. Things are very good here.”

For Allmendinger, who just marked the milestone of his 100th career start in the Brickyard 400 at Indy, his RPM contract extension also seems to have settled him.

“It’s the first time in my career I can say I’m in a place where I can build something special,” Allmendinger said. “A lot of great things are happening at Richard Petty Motorsports.”

“We’re not where we want to be, but I see the potential to get better and contend for victories and ultimately win a championship. It’s a good energy here. Hopefully this is the start of great things.”

“I am ready to be a leader of this race team,” Allmendinger said. “It is something that I thrive on and excites me every day to know that I can be the guy. I have the confidence in myself to know I can lead this team and represent it to the best of its abilities.”

Alpha dog Allmendinger will race this weekend in the Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at the Glen on the road course at Watkins Glen. The ‘Dinger was eighth in first practice and ninth in second Cup practice at the Glen.