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Category: Flashman’s Take

Fleshman’s take on NASCAR

  • Martinsville – A Love Affair With a Track

    Martinsville – A Love Affair With a Track

    It is common for this writer to say I love Martinsville Speedway. Some say it’s because my home is only 150 (give or take) miles from the speedway. Some try to get into my mind and say it’s because it was the first speedway I ever visited, but the truth of the matter is that little paper clip-shaped track is exactly how the whole phenomenon we now call NASCAR started. It is and was a short track where the competition is and was fierce and difficult. Everyone has and had a good seat. It’s nearly perfect as any track can be. As I calculate it, I haven’t missed but one Sprint Cup race there in 44 years.

    The track is close enough to the hub of NASCAR racing (about 130 miles) that drivers can drive up on Thursday or Friday and be home Sunday night. Fans will normally run into a driver or two—it’s too small to get lost or hide—and chat with the friendly track personnel. Its position on the calendar mystifies me.

    It was cold over the weekend. Friday, it didn’t get to 40 and Saturday didn’t do much better. After spending a week in 50-60 degree temperatures at my home 150 miles north, I had to pack my winter coat this time. Sunday broke the 50 degree mark, but I had to wonder why this race that traditionally (and I’m dating myself here) was run in mid April is now in late March. Mid April in southern Virginia is very nice. Late March is hit or miss.

    I looked at the schedule and had a rough time understanding why Texas Motor Speedway’s race is held two weeks later in what is a much warmer climate. Why not switch these two races? It would give the series three straight short tracks, kind of a short track swing. Yes, I know that Texas is close to Talladega and having them back to back might be the reason, but asking fans to come out when the daytime temperature is 40 or less and the nighttime temperature is in the 20’s is a bit much.

    In the fall, the Martinsville race is in the Eliminator Round on, you guessed it, November 1. That time of year, there could be snow in Henry County. Note that Texas is properly scheduled the week after Martinsville, but why have Talladega in October?

    The attendance was good this weekend despite the weather. Most folks were bundled up in down coats, but one has to wonder what the attendance would be if they could have a comfortable experience in April or early October. And yes, where would they put all these fans? I don’t imagine Clay Campbell would complain too much.

    It always seems like the big news comes out at Martinsville. This year was the buzz about doctoring tires, the announcement that Coach Joe Gibbs’ son, JD, was having a health problem and Kyle Larson fainting on Saturday and having to sit out Sunday’s race. Chase Elliott made his Cup debut. The racing was filled with drama and we saw two extremely close finishes. Joey Logano’s pass on the last lap of the truck race was breathtaking. Denny Hamlin holding off a determined Brad Keselowski was very exciting. Domination like we saw at other venues didn’t exist here. Oh yeah, and the hot dogs. I’m proud to say that I sampled a few and they’re just as good as they have been for 40 years. A little controversial for sure, but I’m not the business manager at the speedway.

    I always look forward to two weekends a year at the Paper Clip, making sure my schedule is clear during race week. I’m never disappointed at what I see, and dread the cookie cutter tracks that just don’t hold up to what I see at this little track. I just wish it could be held in warmer weather.

  • Not Much Has Changed in 2015

    Not Much Has Changed in 2015

    Despite the wringing of hands and the nervous comments of many in fan forums, not much ever changes in NASCAR. The teams with great funding always rise to the top. That’s been the case since people began racing cars. It’s only four races into 2015, but no one can begin to predict how the season will go right now. Let’s look at the first four races of 2014 and compare them with 2015.

    Last year, as you know, Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the Daytona 500. Score one for Hendrick Motorsports. Daytona is so different from the other tracks that one cannot make any judgments based on that, but this year it was Joey Logano. In both races, the winner could have been one of a dozen other drivers.

    In 2014, they moved on to Phoenix and last year’s race looked a lot like this year’s race. Kevin Harvick won and was the class of the field, but while the top five were Chevrolets on Sunday, in 2014, the Penske cars were second and third while this year they were sixth and eighth. The next race in 2014 was Las Vegas when a leading Dale Earnhardt Jr. ran out of gas giving the win to Brad Keselowski. Joey Logano was in fourth and Carl Edwards finished fifth.

    Finally, last year saw a real surprise in the fourth race. Carl Edwards won when a track worker accidentally leaned against a button in the flag stand that manually turns on the caution lights with three laps to go. That slowed the field and then came a cloudburst that stopped the race and gave the victory to Edwards. You really can’t predict who is going to win a Sprint Cup race, but I have to wonder if the rules changes for this year might have given some teams an unintentional advantage. Let’s go back to 2007 and the Car of Tomorrow.

    From the start, Chevrolet teams had a big advantage. Even though the car was only used in 16 races, the bow-tie bunch won 17 of the first 18 races. Jack Roush, then one of the better teams, and the best Ford team complained that Hendrick Motorsports had done testing when others did not. Regardless, by 2008, things had returned to normal with Ford, Dodge, and Toyota winning their share of races. The feeling here is that something similar is going on this year. As the season progresses, expect the teams behind to catch up to the teams dominating this year. One team was rumored to have been given a very expensive piece of equipment this year to set up their cars. The validity of this rumor cannot be determined, so form your own opinions on this.

    One thing is certain. The Chevrolets of Hendrick Motorsports, Richard Childress Racing and their satellites are performing well. Team Penske’s Fords and Joe Gibbs’ Toyotas are a little behind Team Penske. Roush Fenway and Richard Petty Motorsports are far behind. That will change as the season progresses. Just like last year after four races, it appeared that Earnhardt was going to be the champion, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano would challenge, and Jimmie Johnson would make the final four. None of that happened. Calm down. The season is just beginning.

  • The Insanity of Speedweeks – A Look Back

    The Insanity of Speedweeks – A Look Back

    As the cars and drivers head to Atlanta to test, just one more comment about Daytona wouldn’t hurt, would it? Never has there been a more insane Speedweeks. We saw a period when two stars, brothers to be honest, get eliminated from competition. We’ve seen two drivers who had never won before in the NASCAR Camping World and XFINITY Series. We’ve seen the latest Wonder Boy win the Daytona 500. We saw Ford sweep the entire week, something that most people, including the media, said was impossible. It was quite a ten day period, but it was insane.

    First was the Kurt Busch indefinite suspension by the sanctioning body. Once the order by the judge in Delaware was revealed, NASCAR acted swiftly. Within a matter of what seemed like minutes, Chevrolet severed all support for Busch, which is unprecedented in my lifetime. So in one action, Busch lost his ride and his manufacturer. His future is teetering on the edge of disaster. If you read the report from the legal authorities, you see two persons who are troubled. Domestic violence has become a big deal. That was Friday.

    On Saturday, Kyle Busch, driving an XFINITY race for Joe Gibbs Racing, got clipped into an area not protected by SAFER barriers. No one knows if those barriers would have minimized the damage, but another Sprint Cup top driver was sidelined indefinitely with a compound fracture of the leg and a broken foot. It didn’t stop there.

    On Friday night and Saturday, Tyler Reddick won the Camping World Truck series race in a Ford F-150 owned by Brad Keselowski. It was his first win. On Saturday, Ryan Reed, who has Type 1 diabetes, won the Xfinity series race in a Ford. On Sunday, Joey Logano won the Sprint Cup race in a Team Penske Ford Fusion, when everyone had given the race to Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson or Dale Earnhardt Jr. It shook up the media and the pundits. A clean sweep of Speedweeks is something reserved for Chevrolet. Add in the 24 Hours of Daytona win by a Ford and it just goes to show you that listening to those we see on television or listen to on radio, like most of us, cannot predict what will happen at the 2.5-mile speedway that we call Daytona International Speedway.

    That said, please understand that Daytona is no predictor of what is to come. It’s a different animal. Anyone can win at Daytona. The years since Bobby Allison’s catch fence crash at Talladega has ensured that. David Ragan, Michael Waltrip and others can testify to this, but there is something to take from the results of the opening of the season. Joey Logano is the real deal and Team Penske is a real threat to the usual favorites like Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing. Last weekend, Brad Keselowski Racing (essentially Team Penske), Roush Fenway Racing and Team Penske flexed their muscle and asked that someone, anyone, realize that there is another player. I know that it does not make any difference to the fan base. The legions of fans of Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing will win early and often, but those other teams that were written off by most of the people who cover racing via TV or radio, and many fans, actually came out on top. It’s healthy for NASCAR and the sport. With Jeff Gordon retiring and several others not far behind, do we really want the sport to go through what it did when Dale Earnhardt Sr. was taken from us so suddenly? I don’t think so.

    Kyle and Kurt are gone for the moment and Jeff, Jimmie and Junior proved to be human for a day, even if they were second and third. Matt, Denny and Carl kind of fizzled out and Tony got stopped before he had begun. Danica was just there.

    NASCAR is a sport where there are many drivers who have fans that have been neglected for too long. Go into your local Walmart and try to buy a Greg Biffle or a Martin Truex Jr. die cast. They don’t exist except on the internet. A big diet of what Jeff or Jimmie or Kasey or Junior, or Tony or Harvick or Kyle or Denny or Matt are doing tends to turn many people off. Speedweeks kind of shifted the conversation a bit and that is, in my opinion, a good thing.

  • What It Was, Was Not Qualifying

    What It Was, Was Not Qualifying

    They were supposed to qualify for the Daytona 500 on Sunday, but what happened was really not qualifying. The tradition of the sport of auto racing is that the fastest car starts first and the slowest car starts last. The knockout qualifying has shattered that tradition all season, and one has to suppose that the procedure will be used for awhile, but its flaws outweigh its benefits. That’s totally an opinion.

    First of all, this writer has never attended a qualifying session except at Martinsville Speedway two times a year. What is the reason? It is just a way of lining up the cars for the start of a race. The pole winner rarely dominates a race, and the guys in the middle put on a good show. With the advent of television getting largely involved, trying to develop a show for people to watch has become the main job of the sanctioning body. Though some people like it, and it has generated some fan interest, the number who attend qualifying is small at best. A look at the sparse crowd at Daytona verifies this. It is a television show. With the huge sums that networks pay NASCAR for the rights to broadcast the events, this gimmick is one thing. It is a way to generate sponsor dollars and nothing more.

    On Sunday, we saw the fastest cars in practice be not much of a factor. Teams lined up together and tried to go out with just enough time for a couple of fast laps. The train wreck that played out on who would go out first was the worst thing seen at Daytona 500 qualifying. The wreck that happened in Segment 1-A was the result of putting slow cars on the track with fast cars. At restrictor-plate (or tapered) races this allows cars that would not be the fastest a chance to win the race. Unfortunately, the knockout qualifying also allows for desperate mistakes.

    If this procedure is to continue at superspeedway races, all cars should go out following a pace car. Sitting on pit road for the time to run out so you have time to only run two laps is ridiculous. To make it fair, everyone should start at the same time. Better yet, go back to two-lap qualifying by each individual car. It’s just a way to start the race, and in Daytona’s case, only going for two positions anyway. Did Reed Sorenson really think he had a chance for the pole? Is it really boring? It’s time for NASCAR to look at things objectively and change things accordingly. The qualifying races are interesting and make Speedweeks special, but the knockout qualifying here and at Talladega is not the way to go.

  • The Long Off Season is Finally Over

    The Long Off Season is Finally Over

    It’s almost time. Late in the week and over the weekend, engines will roar at Daytona International Speedway as Speedweeks continues. Of course, it’s a little different this year. It will be the last Speedweeks for Jeff Gordon and the first for Mike Helton with his new position at NASCAR. Carl Edwards will go from Ford to Toyota in Cup for the first time and Elliott Sadler and teammate Darrell Wallace Jr. will move from Toyota to Ford in the Xfinity Series. As much as things stay the same, there are a lot of changes.

    The biggest change is the Sprint Cup car itself, but we won’t know how that will go until the second race of the season at Atlanta since the Daytona car is essentially the same as last year. Qualifying for the front row for the Daytona 500 will follow the procedure used at the rest of the tracks last year for the first time. The two qualifying races on Feb. 19 will determine the rest of the field in what has to be the most complicated formula in racing. We love it because they’re finally racing again. One has to wonder if any of the usual suspects will not make the field much like Ricky Stenhouse Jr. at Talladega last year. We will soon know.

    Will Kevin Harvick continue to top the speed charts? Will the change of scenery lift Carl Edwards to the heights that rocketed Matt Kenseth to the most wins in 2013? Will Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski continue to win multiple races? Will Roush Fenway Racing make a comeback or will they continue to flounder? Will Tony Stewart rebound to his usual winning ways? Can Ryan Newman play the consistency card once again and contend again? Will Jimmie Johnson become dominant again and win his seventh title or will Jeff Gordon, in a final run, beat him out? This guy is getting excited already, and it hasn’t even started yet.

    The first real race of the season is on Saturday night in the Sprint Unlimited, which has invited most of the world to race in the short race that once was a race for pole winners. No more. Almost everyone is in the pool, except for teams who just don’t have the finances to run one more race at Daytona. That said, from Friday’s practice until the Great American Race (thank you Ken Squier for making that popular) on Sunday, Feb. 22, every race fan will be glued to the television, and hopefully with gas prices being so low, a few more people will actually show up in the stands. It’s NASCAR season again and this reporter is pumped!

  • Richard Childress Racing Plans to Build on 2014’s Successes

    Richard Childress Racing Plans to Build on 2014’s Successes

    Charlotte, NC – Richard Childress Racing will come back with the same drivers in 2015. Sprint Cup runner up Ryan Newman in the No. 31 Chevrolet, Paul Menard in the No. 27 Chevrolet, and Austin Dillon in the No. 3 Chevrolet. Newman said the second place season almost didn’t happen.

    “There was a point right around May when we got caught looking in the wrong direction and just were behind,” Newman said during the fourth and final day of this year’s Charlotte Motor Speedway Media Tour.

    “They did an awesome job of continually stepping up, bringing better and more competitive pieces to the race track. Everyone at RCR stepped up. It was an awesome thing to be a part of.”

    Nothing has changed on his team, so Newman is looking to make the No. 31 even better. Last year was the first year in four that he didn’t win a race.

    “No reason for it not to,” said Newman. “Even though there were no (wins) in the win column, we achieved some amazing things for a first-year organization, no reason we can’t keep that incline going.”

    The potential for success, he said, was there from the beginning, “but I didn’t think it would explode the way it did.

    “I think we all saw gunpowder laying on the floor, but we didn’t know who was going to light it, when it was going to light and how much of it was going to go off. I think every bit of it went off, and then some.”

    Austin Dillon went through his rookie year with some success and some disappointments, but thinks he will use the experience to have a better sophomore season. Battling side-by-side with Kyle Larson for the rookie title all season, he came up short, but no one could say he didn’t have a successful rookie season.

    “There’s a lot of pressure any time you move to a new series,” said Dillon, who immediately backed off the naysayers by winning the Coors Light Pole Award ahead of the 2014 Daytona 500. “Having the 3, there’s so many fans behind it and it was a great year to go through. Nothing crazy happened. This year, I think we’ve got to start getting crazy. We’ve got to start making things happen.

    “When I say that, we need to be in the Chase; we need to be part of the chaos at the end of the year. I want to put more pressure on (myself) and you can more focus on the competition side of things. People know how we approached that first year; I think we did it right. Now it’s time to make fire and go fast.”

    The 24-year-old is also scheduled to run 20 XFINITY Series races in 2015, which he believes will help him figure out the ins-and-outs of his Cup ride. The new technical package for Sprint Cup cars in 2015 is much more closely aligned with NASCAR’s second series than in years past.

    There’s a lot for Dillon to build on for 2015 and a Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup berth is not out of the question. With the initial attention around the No. 3 car’s return now mostly a thing of the past, it should allow the RCR driver to stay steady throughout the year and keep his head down.

    “The good thing is, we had a decent year last year, but when you can find places to improve, and you know where those are, you should be able to take those and make them better,” Dillon said. “I think that’s what I’ve been able to do the last couple of years when we go from say, rookie year in Trucks or (XFINITY), then second year and you win a championship.”

    “I’m not saying we’re going to go out there and win a championship, but that’s our goal. I think we can, and what Ryan and Luke (Lambert, No. 31 crew chief) were able to do, I think me and Gil want to accomplish that, have a shot at the end of the year.”

    RCR owner Richard Childress announced that Wix Filters had re-upped with the organization and Grainger will join the No. 31 Chevrolet with Ryan Newman.

  • Hendrick Motorsports Fills a Fifth Chair

    Hendrick Motorsports Fills a Fifth Chair

    Charlotte, NC – There was lots of news during Hendrick Motorsports’ presentation at the 2015 Charlotte Motor Speedway Media Tour on Thursday. The biggest news of the day was what we all knew was going to happen. Chase Elliott will be driving the No. 24 Chevrolet in 2016. It’s a year off yet, but that was the buzz around the Charlotte Civic Center.

    Before Thursday afternoon’s presentation from Hendrick Motorsports, five director’s chairs stood empty on the stage, one earmarked for team owner Rick Hendrick and the rest for his four drivers. One chair rested to the side, awaiting its moment to join the group.

    In the same way, Chase Elliott has waited for his seat in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. And now his time is just around the corner.

    Hendrick Motorsports announced Thursday that Elliott, the defending NASCAR XFINITY Series champion, will join the sport’s premier circuit full-time in 2016 after running a partial schedule of five races this season in the No. 25 Chevrolet. In making the step forward, Elliott, 19, will take over the Hendrick-owned No. 24 Chevrolet made famous by four-time champion Jeff Gordon, who announced last week that this will be his last full-time season in NASCAR’s top division.

    Elliott said he was informed of his impending promotion to Sprint Cup by a phone call from Hendrick, shortly after Gordon made his intentions known to his team. As big a shock as news of Gordon’s decision was, Elliott said the piece of the story involving him was an even bigger surprise.

    “That’s a phone call I was not expecting that day. That is for sure,” Elliott said. “I didn’t know anything about Jeff’s announcement until that morning and to have Mr. Hendrick tell me that he wanted me to be that person to go in and drive that car whenever Jeff got done was just an unbelievable phone call — one that I was not expecting and something that I couldn’t have dreamt happening.”

    Dale Earnhardt Jr. was sporting his new primary sponsor’s logo on his firesuit, but wanted to talk about his new crew chief, Greg Ives. It appears Earnhardt and Ives hit it off quickly.

    “We’ve run things over in our mind about things to try and all that,” Earnhardt said. “We’re going to be fine and I think Greg will be beneficial to both Jimmie (Johnson) and I.”

    It will be the first season in a long time that anyone other than Kenny Francis has been Kasey Kahne’s crew chief. In 2015, Francis moves on to other duties at Hendrick Motorsports and Keith Rodden takes over the reins. Kahne was confident that the turnaround in the No. 5 Chevrolet will be dramatic.

    Gordon revealed that he had made up his mind to retire last summer, and only timed his announcement when he thought it was best. Car owner Rick Hendrick said he tried to get his star driver and had been trying for some time.

    “You know I’m a pretty good car salesman, and I was very persuasive for awhile, but I ran out of good lines, I guess.”

    Gordon apparently had been pondering this for several years, but came to his decision this year. When that decision was made and the announcement became public, Hendrick wasted no time in calling young Chase Elliott to place him in the No. 24 for 2016, a phone call that Elliott didn’t expect. It happened on the same day that Gordon made his announcement.

    After the blockbuster news, the typical excitement for Jimmie Johnson was kind of lost in the dust. Johnson and Hendrick did pledge that the No. 48 would be back in the thick of things next year, but Hendrick did say what he thought would be a fitting end to an awesome career for Jeff Gordon.

    Without blinking, Hendrick said, “Fourteen wins and a championship.” Now, THAT would be the way to go out.

  • Furniture Row Racing Has a New Crew Chief and Outlook

    Furniture Row Racing Has a New Crew Chief and Outlook

    Charlotte, NC – Furniture Row Racing, the only NASCAR racing shop located west of the Mississippi, had plenty of announcements and exciting news in their stop on the Charlotte Motor Speedway Media Tour on Thursday.

    The first announcement was that the team has a new associate sponsor in Visser Precision LLC. It’s a limited liability company owned by Barney Visser, who also owns Furniture Row Racing and its main sponsor. The advanced manufacturing solutions provider, utilizing special alloys and proprietary manufacturing methods, is headquartered in a state-of-the-art facility in Denver, Colorado, which also serves as the team’s home base. The business grew out of the race team, and its president, Ryan Coniam, is a former race engineer and crew chief in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

    Cole Pearn was also announced as the crew chief for the Furniture Row Chevrolet. Pearn has been promoted from lead race engineer to crew chief of the No. 78 Chevrolet driven by Martin Truex Jr. in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Furniture Row Racing announced Wednesday. Pear replaces Todd Berrier, who has been offered a key position to remain at Furniture Row Racing.

    Joe Garone, Furniture Row Racing’s general manager, said the team has also made new hires to strengthen the engineering staff.

    “In an effort to continue to move the team forward we feel the personnel changes and new additions will yield positive results on the race track,” said Garone in a statement. “Cole has played a vital role in our growth. The well-rounded skill sets that he brings to the table in his new position as crew chief will be instrumental in our commitment to once again become a Chase participant. As a former racer and an experienced engineer, Cole has a thorough understanding of what it takes to bring us to that level.”

    After a less than successful season, Martin Truex, Jr. is looking forward to 2015 with girlfriend, Sherry Pollex who battled cancer last year.

    “Honestly, there were times last year when I felt like when Thursday came around and it was time to go to the race track, I really enjoyed that. I needed that getaway; I needed to get to the race track and take out some frustration and get with the guys and be a part of the team, even though it wasn’t going good. At times, it was still therapeutic for me just to be there and be doing my thing and getting in the zone and trying to forget about everything else that was going on.”

    Pollex announced Aug. 13 her diagnosis with ovarian cancer, two days before she underwent surgery to battle the disease. Though Truex said he found a sort of refuge in competing, he skipped that Friday of practice and qualifying at Michigan International Speedway to be with Pollex through the procedure.

    He has to thank Barney Visser for the support given him.

    “When Sherry got diagnosed, he called me and said, ‘You don’t have to race. You can take off the next 10 races and the car will be there for you next year,’” Truex said. “That’s the kind of guy he is, and to have somebody like that stand behind you and say, ‘Hey, we’re here for you and we’ll do whatever it takes,’ it means the world to me, and I’m going to do my best this year to make that up to him.”

  • Richard Petty Motorsports Moves to Greater Space and Individuality

    Richard Petty Motorsports Moves to Greater Space and Individuality

    Charlotte, NC – They are doing things different over at Richard Petty Motorsports. First, they’ve moved from a shop over near the Concord Airport to a shop in Mooresville. The shop in Concord was adjacent to Roush Fenway Racing and their souvenir shop. It only had 40,000 square feet of space. In Mooresville, they will have twice the space and they can do different things, like hanging their own chassis parts and really building cars like they want to.

    It was a breakout year for RPM. Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 43 Ford, won his first race in July at Daytona International Speedway and Marcos Ambrose decided to head back to Australia to drive at home after nearly winning a race and joining Almirola in the Chase. Ambrose was replaced by Sam Hornish Jr. who will drive the No. 9 Ford in 2015. Hornish has the endorsement of the owner.

    “I think Sam brings a lot of versatility,” said team owner and seven-time Cup champion Richard Petty. “Marcos (Ambrose) was super on road courses and stuff, but he never got the hang of being ready. He could have good races and bad races and good times in the races, but I think Sam will be much more consistent with it.

    “In our testing, (Hornish and Almirola) both felt the same thing in the car. Whether they’d change the air pressure or they’d change the springs and both of them feel the same thing. With Marcos, he was one way and Aric was the other way and so it was hard to compare them. Now we’ve got two cars that we can sit down and say, ‘OK, you try this and I’ll try that and if it works, we’ll put it on the other car.’ That should be an advantage for all of us.”

    It should be noted that Hornish has won the Indianapolis 500 and finished second in points in the Xfinity series in 2013. He has credentials, something Ambrose did not when it came to oval racing.

    Despite an announcement on Wednesday that Hornish only has sold sponsorship for just 10 of the schedule’s 36 races thus far, Hornish will be running a full slate, starting with the season opening Daytona 500. With less than a month to go before the Great American Race, the lack of sponsorship is daunting but offers a view into what the Petty and Co. think of Hornish’s talent behind the wheel. Performance on the track comes first, sponsorship later.

    For an organization and owner that have long been at the helm of motorsports innovation, albeit in the past, the investments that RPM is making to grow and build for the future is clear. Its current focus is on testing new ideas and implementing them into the cars, something that they haven’t necessarily been able to do in recent years.

    With the tools and space that the new shop allows it to explore and take advantage of, combined with two drivers that are very much on the same page to start the season, something that Petty alluded to not being the case with Almirola and Ambrose, it should give RPM the flexibility to continue its growth from last season to expand its goals and increase performance in the coming years.

    “Aric came to all three of the tests and we got the opportunity to jump back and forth out of the car to see what each of us liked as far as driving goes and I feel like that’s one of the main benefits right now,” said Hornish, who led the eighth-most XFINITY Series laps in 2014 despite running just eight of the schedule’s 33 races.

    “It seems like we both want similar things out of the race car. When we get to the race track, hopefully we’ll be able to cover twice as much ground as far as finding what’s going to be a direction to head and make our cars better each weekend.”

    Hornish’s last full-time Cup season was in 2010 in a Team Penske Dodge so there’s certainly going to be some adjusting to do in the early going, especially considering he hasn’t competed full-time at all since 2013. He knows there are going to be bumps in the road, but he’s willing to put in the work necessary to make his mark on this avenue of motorsports before the 35-year-old starts to think about wrapping up his racing career.

    “Going back to the Cup Series full-time, it’s a lot different than when I did it last time. I feel like we’ve got a lot of things to look forward to,” Hornish said.

    “I want to be a part of building something. I feel like the best thing that I can do in the situation that I’m in right now is to try to be a good leader and keep people excited about what’s going on and to move the program forward because I know that I’m not going to be racing forever. If I can get to the point where I leave it better than when I found it, I feel like that’s my main goal.”

  • The Wood Brothers and Leavine Family Racing Look Forward to the New Season

    The Wood Brothers and Leavine Family Racing Look Forward to the New Season

    Charlotte, NC – The legendary Wood Brothers and Leavine Family Racing held a joint press conference on Wednesday during the 2015 Charlotte Motor Speedway Media Tour. Neither of the Ford teams won a race in 2015, but the excitement was evident.

    The Wood Brothers will be celebrating their 65th year in NASCAR this year. NASCAR has certified that they are the oldest continuing team of all time. Eddie Wood spoke to the media on what he expects in 2015.

    “It is just an honor I guess. I wasn’t around when it began obviously but my dad and his brothers, the first race they ever went to on the way home they burned their car to the ground,” said Wood. “There was a group of people there that I think we’re kind of second guessing our dad, kind of saying that would show old Glen that he doesn’t want to do that. I think that made him mad and gave him incentive to go do it again and they won the second or third time out.

    “To still be in the sport is really humbling and we owe all our partners, Ford Motor Company especially, we have had Ford products throughout our entire existence and that is really the basis of what has kept us going. I think our role with Ford Motor Company is to help develop younger drivers and over the past four years I think we have tried to do that with Trevor Bayne, which we had success at the 2011 Daytona 500, so when he moved on to the full time deal for 2015 we were looking for who would be the next guy,” Len Wood said.

    “Ryan Blaney’s name kept popping up as the guy we need. I think with choosing Ryan, he was a Team Penske affiliated driver so it made perfect sense to switch the alliance to Penske. Ford helped us through that whole process. I think he has been a winner pretty much everywhere he has been. We lack a couple wins to get to 100. Maybe he can fill the trophy case out.”

    Bob Leavine was satisfied with Leavine Family Racing’s year, but looks for more successes in the coming year.

    “It was an exciting year, 2014 was an exciting year for us,” Leavine said. “We made some gains and advances and as always sometimes it is one step forward and two steps back but we are excited about what we did. We had some personal bests including Daytona where Michael (McDowell) finished seventh and obviously it was our best finish also. We had solid finishes in Bristol with an 18th and 21st at Homestead. We are excited about that and the steps that we made. In 2015 the momentum is really built off of what we didn’t get done last year. That is motivation. The successes are okay but if you don’t learn from what you did wrong you aren’t going to get any better.

    “Our team is motivated by getting better. We are obviously a small team but a team with a lot of heart. I really appreciate the family, my wife and I, this group has become family to us and that is important to us. They really, really give it their all.

    “Wally Rodgers has assembled a great group of guys and the desire and determination they show is awesome. We are going to run a minimum of 20 races this year and we are excited about our partners which you will hear about. We are excited about several things, our equipment we get, we run great equipment and I feel really good about it. Secondly, our resource are people and our partners and with that we are looking forward to an improved 2015. Our goals this year, we all set goals, I was asked about that a while ago and our goal is to qualify for every race we go to, qualify well, run strong and run in the top-25. With our people, I believe we can do that. Those are realistic goals for our team.”

    Leavine Family Racing driver Michael McDowell is driving the No. 95 Ford and he talks about how 2015 will improve on 2014.

    “A lot of what will transfer over is just my relationship with Wally Rodgers,” McDowell said. “It was my first year with Leavine Family Racing last year and we started building momentum halfway through the season. By the end of the year we were starting to figure out the cars and what I needed. I am looking forward to working with Wally again. He has assembled a great team. We had a few changes in the off season and feel like we have been fortunate to add a lot of great people to our organization and with our partnerships and alliances with Ford and Team Penske we feel like we have the tools to go out there and be competitive and like Bob said, we are a small team but still have great equipment and great people.

    “I am thankful to be back here racing the Sprint Cup Series and excited to tell you guys a little about what we have going on with our partnerships as well. For us, we can’t do this without our partners and I am excited to have Thrivent Financial back on board again this year. They did a handful of races last year including a debut at Bristol. We are excited to bring new sponsors into the sport and Thrivent is back with us again and we extended their schedule and they are coming on to do a minimum of 10 races and we are really thankful for that and excited about that. For those of you that don’t know what Thrivent is, it is a financial institute that helps Christians be wise with money so that they can live generously. For those of you that know me, it is really cool for me to be partnered with faith-based organizations that understand the value that I have for myself and my family and it gives me a platform to share that. It is more than just a partnership, it is personal and something that is special and that is what makes it authentic and we believe that is where the success will come from.”