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Hot 20 – Joey and Jimmie Lead the Way West to Las Vegas for Some Action…and Some Warmth

While Daytona was good, Atlanta was tolerable. I wonder, if I was a transient type flipping channels, how long would I have lingered on the action beaming in from Georgia? A decade ago, the sport and its sponsors marketed the heck out of their product, but not so much anymore. Now NASCAR is seeking a new title sponsor for the Cup series to, in a couple of years, cough up $1 billion over a 10 year span? It is certainly nice to dream.

A Daytona 500 win is nice. A Southern 500 victory is okay. A World 600 triumph is cool. A Brickyard 400 is lovely. However, just imagine the life long memories one will have just racing in the SpongeBob SquarePants 400 in Kansas. Just imagine. Good grief.

News flash…except for the Daytona 500, most fans could not care less about qualifying. Check out the television ratings or, better yet, all those empty seats in the grandstands. Nobody cares. Put all those guaranteed a spot on the grid based on points, then have all those not locked in go through tech inspection first before they hit the track to qualify. As for the rest, take your time checking them all out. Take the whole day if you need it. That would eliminate another embarrassment like they had in Atlanta. Would that not be a good thing?

Being good and lucky can go a long way in keeping one among our top drivers in the rankings. Ryan Newman, Brad Keselowski, Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart are good drivers. They just have not been very lucky thus far in 2015.

Among those for whom things have gone better….

Hot 20 after Atlanta

1. Joey Logano – 1 Win – 88 Points
A new bride, a winning ride, Joey’s horizons have opened wide.

2. Jimmie Johnson – 1 Win – 87 Points
The early favorite to win a seventh championship is…

3. Kevin Harvick – 86 Points
Still wearing that bridesmaid fire suit.

4. Dale Earnhardt Jr – 84 Points
I am reminded by my wife, Amy, that Las Vegas has chapels. What’s with that?

5. Martin Truex Jr – 75 Points
So far he has all his ducks and furniture in a row.

6. Casey Mears – 68 Points
It appears there are a lot more numbers unluckier than 13.

7. Kasey Kahne – 65 Points
Discovered that Atlanta in March is not Atlanta in late August.

8. A.J. Allmendinger – 62 Points
Better Than Bouillon, better than most.

9. Aric Almirola – 62 Points
Yet another Cup regular taking an Xfinity seat in Las Vegas.

10. Clint Bowyer – 58 Points
May have lost a cylinder, but he gained a Stenhouse…then a Biffle.

11. David Gilliland – 56 Points
At 38, I was watching my sons being born while this guy is watching his son race.

12. Sam Hornish Jr – 55 Points
2014 ‘Vegas Xfinity winner not in Saturday’s race…four other Cup guys will be.

13. Carl Edwards – 54 Points
If he aged 20 years, shrunk 6 inches, gained 50 pounds, and melted, I could be his body double.

14. Greg Biffle – 54 Points
And THAT is how a bad day can get worse.

15. David Ragan – 53 Points
Take your time, Kyle. Take your time.

16. Danica Patrick – 51 Points
No. 1 woman, No. 2 SHR driver

17. Paul Menard – 50 Points
If Menard’s sold heated hunting blinds, they could have made a mint last week.

18. Matt Kenseth – 49 Points
Qualifying means more to him than it does to us. Let him roll out in 18th, with Joey on the pole.

19. Denny Hamlin – 48 Points
Twice this week his vehicle gets broadsided…once when he was awake.

20. Michael Annett – 47 Points
Don’t expect to see him here next week.

March 4, 2015
The Final Word – Four were hot at Atlanta while most others were in a deep freeze

Any more global warming and a guy could freeze to death. Last week, we had temperatures higher than Sunday at Atlanta. It is actually snowing where I am, a ten hour drive north of the Montana border, so seeing somewhere warm at this time of year is a good thing. Atlanta did not provide that good thing, unless you happened to be a fan of one of four drivers.

Joey Logano took the pole, led early, and finished fourth. Kevin Harvick then led a bunch, the most of anyone, and wound up second. Dale Earnhardt Jr. led for a moment, a brief moment, but was near the point the entire day, finishing third. Then there was Jimmie Johnson, who closed the door on the Closer, after he got caught up in traffic, to claim his 71st Cup victory.

Johnson started beyond 30th, as did 13 others who failed to even make it through tech inspection, never mind even attempting to qualify. Jeff Gordon failed four times. We are left to wonder if all these teams became that dumb that quick, or have the lasers used for measuring become that precise that quick, or is there another explanation? Only 15 of 49 cars made it through on their first attempt, with Tony Stewart and Matt Kenseth among those who failed to get in a qualifying run.

Okay, Travis Kvapil did not either, but he had better reason. Among the many reasons the cars get taken to the track in a majestically painted hauler apparently is to warn thieves that this is something too hot for them to handle. Put the car in a plain white trailer towed behind a pick-up truck, park it outside a hotel, and a thief could wind up with the surprise of his life. They found the car left parked in a rural area after the thieves unloaded it, but the tools, and spare engine are as gone as the trailer they were in at the moment. You can see the No. 44 car at Las Vegas this weekend.

Winning or being in the Top 16 is the goal in order to make the Chase. Logano and Johnson are pretty much locked in. A.J. Allmendinger (seventh on Sunday), Carl Edwards (12th), and Danica Patrick (16th) are now in, while Denny Hamlin (38th), Michael Annett (29th), and Austin Dillon (39th) have slipped to the outside. Others heading to Las Vegas seeking to move up are such veterans as Kenseth (18th in the standings), Ryan Newman (21st), Brad Keselowski (23rd), Jamie McMurray (32nd), Gordon (35th) and Stewart (36th).

Brian Vickers returns to the No. 55 Toyota this weekend after mending from a heart issue. His stand-in at Atlanta was 22-year old Brett Moffitt, who finished eighth in just his eighth Cup event. Interestingly enough, that one result has him just 14 points out, 24th in the rankings, and just two behind Keselowski. I hope somebody has the kid’s phone number.

There is no excuse to have a bad announcer who was a former driver. Keselowski did a good job during his Xfinity broadcast stint. Harvick was great during his. I still love Kyle Petty and Wally Dallenbach. There is a lot of talent out there. While announcing is a very important component to keeping fans watching and listening, I have noticed some other components.

There is the visual excitement, like a tight battle for the lead, a formation of drivers only inches apart, or charging at break neck speed down city streets, as they do at Monte Carlo. Atlanta was not like that, at least it wasn’t until Hamlin or Greg Biffle went sideways. Then it became exciting, in a video game kind of way.

There is the leader of the race. You like that driver, it is entertaining. If you do not, it is not as enjoyable. I found my own enjoyment factor went up when Kevin and Jimmie replaced Joey on point. I am sure the new Mrs. Logano saw this differently, as she should.

There was a time when we were made to feel like we were part of a fraternity, with promos and commercials geared to fans just like you. When was the last time we were asked “how bad have you got it?” Do you look at a big brown truck any differently? NAPA was not just car parts, it was about teammates and being at the wrong track. Is anyone still sorry about what happened to Tony’s little car? In the words of Hank Williams, why doesn’t NASCAR and its sponsors love us like they used to do?

I loved being in Las Vegas 14 months ago. It got so cool there I damn near had to put a jacket over my T-shirt, shorts, and sandals. What a wonderful way to experience winter. Yet, the Deep South was almost a deep freeze Sunday at Atlanta, and when I was at Daytona one February a few years ago. If that is how things are now in the south, there is no way I am visiting Boston until the Red Sox are playing in front of a short-sleeve crowd at Fenway. I will risk a sun burn over frost bite any day.

March 2, 2015
Surprising and Not Surprising: Atlanta Folds of Honor QuickTrip 500

With several of the sport’s biggest names starting from the back of the field, from missing qualifying sessions to missing driver introductions, here is what else was surprising and not surprising from the 56th annual Folds of Honor QuickTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Surprising: The top ten finishers at Atlanta were a fascinating mixture of everything from four past champions to two one-car team drivers and one young replacement driver.

The four past champions included winner Jimmie Johnson, runner up and immediate past champ Kevin Harvick, fifth place finisher Matt Kenseth and Brad Keselowski, who finished ninth. And in the midst of those champions ran young Brett Moffitt, who replaced Brian Vickers in the No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine for Michael Waltrip Racing to finish eighth, as well as the single car teams of Martin Truex Jr. and AJ Allmendinger, who finished sixth and seventh respectively.

“This thing was just bad fast,” the race winner and driver of the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet said. “I had a blast racing with the No. 4 (Kevin Harvick). He was awfully strong today. I think track position there at the end just kind of set things in place. We had the restart we needed to and off we went.”

“This is truly amazing,” Moffitt said after finishing top-ten in his No. 55 replacement ride. “We showed good speed all weekend long. We just couldn’t bust off a quick lap on fresh tires and we kept adjusting on the car during the race. It wasn’t where we needed it to start and I kept learning how to be more aggressive on the restarts and use other people’s air to benefit me.”

“I can’t thank Michael Waltrip Racing, Toyota and Aaron’s enough for this opportunity. Definitely learned a lot out there. Wish I could be in the car more often.”

Not Surprising: Jeff Gordon had an immediate partner in commiseration after again hitting hard into a wall sans a safer barrier.

“Pretty convenient to see that SAFER Barrier end just before @jeffgordonweb pounds wall,” Kyle Busch tweeted ironically from his home while recuperating from his lack of safer barrier crash injuries. “Hope he’s healthy! When will this end @NASCARsafer barrier.”

“I’m very frustrated the fact that there was no SAFER barrier down there,’’ Gordon said after exiting the infield care center. “I know it was a hard hit. I didn’t expect it to be that hard. I go out and looked and ‘Oh well, big surprise I found the one wall on the back straightaway that doesn’t have a SAFER barrier.’ ‘’

“I don’t think we can say any more after Kyle’s incident at Daytona. Everybody knows they’ve got to do something. It should have been done a long time ago. All we can do now is hope they do it as fast as they possibly can and get it done.’’

Surprising: While he treasured his former crew chief Steve Letarte in the role, there is apparently a new cheerleader on top of the box for fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. And this new cheerleader helped his driver right to a 3rd place finish at Atlanta, backing up his 3^rd place finish at Daytona the week before.

“The communication is great and he’s actually a pretty good cheerleader to be honest with you,” Dale Jr. said. “Who knew? I think he’s going to be awesome to work with and he’s got a hell of a future and I’m glad to be able to have a few years with him here while he’s sort of learning the ropes.”

Not Surprising: Reviews were mixed on the use of track bar adjustability, from drivers who loved it and felt it made a tremendous difference to those that did not use it at all.

“I thought it was great,” Martin Truex, Jr., driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet said about his track bar use after finishing sixth. “I used it all day. I thought it was something neat to play with.”

“We made a decision last night to drop ours a little bit for the start of the race. Had we not had that adjustment we would have been in big trouble. It helped us a lot today just having that. We were up and down, back and forth with it.”

“I thought it was a great little tool. It wasn’t like you were going to go from a 10th-place car to winning the race with it. But it was something there that you could tune on to make your car more comfortable on shorter and longer runs.”

“My crew chief Brian Burns says I’m not smart enough to have one in there right now,” AJ Allmendinger, driver of the No. 47 Better Than Bouillon Chevrolet, said about the track bar. “We never had one all weekend. We were letting everybody get the bugs worked out of it.”

“I don’t like having it in there because it gives me one less excuse to yell at my crew chief about why my car is not very good (laughs),” the seventh place finisher continued. “We will work on that.”

Surprising: For Danica Patrick, it was all about the tape, ‘bout the tape.

“I’d have to say one of our biggest problems today – aside from getting going on the start and getting the car tuned in – was that the tape kept coming off the front,” the driver of the No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet said after finishing 16th. “The tape was making me handle. It wasn’t only running pretty cool but the tape helps front downforce.”

“It was pretty noticeable when the tape came off. That was our biggest problem today as far as a better result goes. I believe we wouldn’t have been a lap down if we had kept that tape on.”

Not Surprising: For many drivers, it is sometimes where you are happy not to be that makes all the difference.

“That’s kind of been our goal going into the season is to not start in such a big hole like we did last year,” Aric Almirola said after finishing 11th in his No. 43 Fresh From Florida Ford for Richard Petty Motorsports. “We got a little bit behind right before halfway and then we got it back, so I’m proud of this run and proud to start this season off with two top-15 finishes.”

“Last year I think going into the third or fourth race we were outside the top 30 in points, so so far, so good. “

Surprising: While not a superspeedway per se, Atlanta did see the ‘big one’ late in the race when Greg Biffle got loose and collected five other cars.

“I think the 16 and 34 got together, something up front there,” Ricky Stenhouse Jr., driver of the No. 17 Fifth Third Bank Ford, said after being involved in the crash. “I was committed to the top and got in the brakes and got in the back of the 15, which was down on power I guess.”

“And then a lot of smoke and somebody was in front of me as I was still on the brake and went ahead and ended our day.”

Not Surprising: Replacement drivers Regan and Ragan had solid runs but were not stellar, finishing in 17th and 18th place respectively.

“It was a battle all day,” Regan Smith, replacement driver for Kurt Busch, said. “We kind of struggled with the handling on the No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet SS. Finally when we got it where I was happy with it, we were a lap down already. It was kind of too late at that point.”

“Right after we got it where I was happy, we got damage on the nose. I don’t know… somebody up there wrecked and everybody stopped. Tony (Gibson, crew chief) made some great pit calls to somehow get us back to one lap down. I still don’t know how that happened. It was a good job by him to salvage the day for the team.”

“The first 100 laps of the race, our M&M’s Crispy Camry was fast, had speed and track position means a lot at any race and as we fell back a little bit and I think it was a snowball effect,” David Ragan said, in for the recovering Kyle Busch, said. “We just really probably were a little behind on our adjustment and that’s probably just my inexperience with these guys and being a little timid on making a few adjustments.”

“We had some good speed, but we had lost too much ground. We learned a lot, brought the car back in one piece, but we can run better than that.”

Surprising: Landon Cassill experienced déjà vu all over again. For the second time in two races, his engine let go in the No. 40 Snap Fitness Chevrolet. Cassill finished the race dead last in the 43rd spot and fell to the basement as far as the points standings.

Not Surprising: Although the Team Penske drivers described their race day as being up, down and all over the place, both Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski managed to finish top-ten at Atlanta. In fact, Logano, who started from the pole position, finished fourth in his 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford, while teammate Keselowski finished ninth in his No. 2 Detroit Genuine Parts Ford.

“We raced hard and raced up toward the front all day,” Logano said. “Those Hendrick cars are fast, and obviously the 4 car, but the other guys would just take off and leave me. I did everything I could to maintain on restarts and be aggressive and that’s where we ended up.”

“We were just kind of up and down and floating all day long,” Keselowski said. “At one point, I thought we were gonna have a 15th-place day and towards the end I thought we were gonna have a fifth-place day.”

“We cycled out to a ninth-place finish, which wasn’t our best and wasn’t our worst today. It just was what it was.”

March 1, 2015
Logano Wins Atlanta Pole but Inspection Issues Plague 13 Teams

February 27, 2015
Inaugural Century Poll Picks Jimmie Johnson as 2015 NASCAR Champion

There is a new poll making its way through the NASCAR garage and media center. The Century Poll, instituted by Mike Siberini, asks a question a month of the NASCAR community to get a pulse of what is really happening in the world of stock car racing.

There are currently 100 voters in The Century Poll, 50 from the NASCAR media and 50 from the NASCAR garage, which includes drivers, crew chiefs, crew members, team owners, PR reps, sponsors and even track officials.

For the first question of The Century Poll, all voters were asked to choose their pick for the driver that will win the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup championship.

The results showed that the early championship pick was none other than six-time champ Jimmie Johnson. The driver of the No. 48 Lowes Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports garnered 23 of the 100 votes. He captured 10 of the 50 garage votes and 13 of the 50 media votes.

The second highest vote getter was perhaps the most sentimental. Jeff Gordon received 22 total votes, 10 of which were from the garage and 12 of which were from the media.

There were only two other drivers with double digit votes, Carl Edwards, who received 18 total votes, and Kevin Harvick, who garnered 14 votes to go back to back as champ.

The fifth highest vote getter was Daytona 500 winner Joey Logano. The Team Penske driver scored 4 garage votes and 5 media votes for a total of 9 votes. His teammate Brad Keselowski scored only a total of 3 votes, all of which were from the media.

Matt Kenseth received 3 garage votes and 1 media vote for a total of 4. Surprisingly perennial fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. only received 3 total votes to be this year’s champion, all of which were from the garage.

The final vote recipients were Denny Hamlin, with a total of 3, including 2 from the garage and 1 from the media, and Tony Stewart, who received 1 vote, the sole one being from the garage.

As one of the voting members, I was one of the many who picked Jimmie Johnson. So apparently I am in good company!

But we need to hear now from our loyal Speedway Media readers…..who would you pick right now with the second race looming as your 2015 champ?

Weigh in and let’s see where YOU fit in The Century Poll!

February 26, 2015
NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Daytona

Note: The quotes in this article are fictional.

1. Joey Logano: Logano surged to the lead late at Daytona and held off Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Denny Hamlin to win his first 500.

“Oh what a feeling,” Logano said. “I feel like this win validates my nickname. So, this is the greatest thing, hence ‘Sliced Bread.’ And enrollment in my fan club, ‘Flour Power,’ is growing exponentially.

“I guess I have to thank my father, Tom Logano, for much of my success. I fondly remember fondly being strapped unwillingly to the seat of a midget car at a very young age. I guess that was my introduction to racing ‘restraint’ systems.”

2. Kevin Harvick: Harvick finished second in a tightly-contested Daytona 500, taking the runner-up spot behind Joey Logano.

“Logano is lucky I couldn’t get close to his bumper,” Harvick said. “After what he did to me in the Sprint Unlimited, I owed him. But I’m sure Joey doesn’t want to mess with me. To Logano, I’m like a weight scale to Tony Stewart—-he wants no part of it. If you’re gonna tell Tony to ‘step on it,’ you might want to be very specific.”

3. Denny Hamlin: Hamlin started 42nd and methodically worked his way to the front and into position for a last-lap run at Joey Logano. Hamlin came up short for the win, but posted a solid fourth as Toyota’s top finisher.

“I tangled with Danica Patrick in the second Gatorade Duel,” Hamlin said. “I found out that there’s only one thing worse than racing with Danica, and that’s talking to her.”

4. Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Earnhardt led 32 laps and fell back late before a strong, final charge gave him a third-place finish. On a restart with 19 laps to go, Earnhardt lost the draft and was shuffled back to 19th before charging back to the front.

“I let down the fans of Junior Nation,” Earnhardt said. “When I fell back, you could hear the collective gasp emanate from the mouths of the Nation. What’s worse, you could smell it.”

5. Jimmie Johnson: Johnson overcame an early drive-through penalty, charging from the back of the field to claim fifth, joining Hendrick teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr., who finished third, in the top five.

“At first,” Johnson said, “NASCAR officials wouldn’t tell us why we were being penalized. Usually, they can’t wait to tell us what we did wrong.

“We were penalized for having too many men over the wall,” Johnson said. “As we found out, it’s easier to get over the wall than get over the hump.”

6. Jeff Gordon: Gordon won the pole and dominated early, leading 87 laps at Daytona, but found himself mired in traffic late and vulnerable to the inevitable accident. It happened on the final lap, when the No. 24 was clipped and spun by Austin Dillon. Gordon finished 33rd.

“That’s certainly not what I meant when I said this would be my last ‘go-round,’” Gordon said.

“But let’s be serious. Do you really think I’ll never race in a 500 again? I just got a retirement gift from Mark Martin. It’s a shirt that says, ‘Retirement is for quitters.’”

7. Clint Bowyer: Bowyer gave Joey Logano a push to the front late at Daytona, a lead Logano maintained while Bowyer finished seventh.

“Penske drivers are always getting a ‘push’ when they least expect it,” Bowyer said. “I don’t think Logano’s been pushed that hard by anyone except his father. Ton Logano is the Joe Jackson of NASCAR.”

8. Casey Mears: Mears finished sixth at Daytona after starting 41st, giving Germain Racing a huge boost to start the season.

“The No. 13 car is sponsored by Geico,” Mears said. “Usually, when you see a reptile in NASCAR, you’re looking at one of the repulsive track owners.

“A good showing for me at Daytona always draws comparisons to my more famous uncle, Indy car great Rick Mears. I like to tell myself I’m just like him, and I am—he never won a Daytona 500, either.”

9. Greg Biffle: Biffle quietly finished 10th at Daytona after qualifying eighth and avoiding trouble throughout the day. Biffle was the top finisher for Roush Fenway Racing, as Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Trevor Bayne finished 29th and 30th, respectively.

“With Carl Edwards gone,” Biffle said, “I’m now the face of RFR. And that’s scary.”

10. Martin Truex Jr.: Truex finished eighth at Daytona, giving Furniture Row Racing a strong start to the 2015 season.

“We had a great run,” Truex said, “and it was great publicity for Furniture Row. By the way, Furniture Row has some of the best furnishings in the business, especially our tables, which are varnished to a brilliant sheen. You could say they all come with a ‘top 10 finish.’”

February 25, 2015
Hot 20 – Weights and measurements not a good Jeopardy category for Logano

Three of last Sunday’s top drivers failed to make the cut simply due to not being registered to run for Cup points. Regan Smith, Matt Crafton, and Johnny Sauter all were within the Top Twenty, but their focus is on one of the other two national series. Smith will be kept busy, though, as he sits in for the suspended Kurt Busch. Considering the ride was especially created by Gene Haas for Busch to wear his company colors, one has to wonder about the long-term fate of the No. 41.

What is 3100 pounds yet weighs in at under a ton? It appears Logano did not just have the winning ride at Daytona…he had a magic car.

The Hot 20 after Daytona

1. Joey Logano – 1 Win – 47 Points
Daytona 500 winner provided a “ton” of laughs on Letterman.

2. Kevin Harvick – 42 Points
If only it were the Daytona 505, all green, all of the time.

3. Dale Earnhardt Jr – 42 Points
A late change to the slow lane proved costly.

4. Denny Hamlin – 41 Points
Got yelled at so much, he thought he was Stenhouse for a moment.

5. Jimmie Johnson – 40 Points
Car was fast at Daytona, his pit crew even faster.

6. Casey Mears – 39 Points
Car just got better and better thanks to a Bootie call…or two.

7. Clint Bowyer – 37 Points
If you cannot be the man to beat the man, be the man who makes the man unbeatable.

8. Martin Truex Jr – 37 Points
Last year he was no Kurt Busch, this year that is a good thing.

9. Greg Biffle – 35 Points
This season you can discover “What’s Buggin’ Biffle.”

10. Kasey Kahne – 35 Points
Won just once in 2014, but Atlanta was the place.

11. David Gi_ _i _ and – 33 Points
I’ll take an “L”, Pat Sajack.

12. Michael Annett – 32 Points
14th on Thursday, 13th on Sunday, a Top Ten in Atlanta?

13. Sam Hornish Jr – 32 Points
Welcome back to Cup, Sam.

14. Austin Dillon – 30 Points
The No. 3 now driven by the man in the black hat.

15. Aric Almirola – 29 Points
Somewhere there has to be someone named Eric Elmirola.

16. David Ragan – 27 Points
Loaned out by Front Row to sit in for Kyle at Gibbs.

17. A.J. Allmendinger – 25 Points
No sponsor, no Sprint Unlimited.

18. Danica Patrick – 23 Points
Kurt sits, Tony wrecks, and Danica gets a written warning. Thank God for Harv.

19. Carl Edwards – 22 Points
Is there a doctor in the house? Why yes, yes there is.

20. Cole Whitt – 22 Points
Good funding stems from good finishes. I hope this helps.

February 25, 2015
NASCAR BTS: A Peek Behind the Curtain of the Ford Technical Support Center

Ford Racing’s domination of Daytona Speedweeks, including wins in the Truck, XFINITY and the Daytona 500, may just be traced back to all of the technology developed in the off-season by the manufacturer.

This week’s NASCAR Behind the Scenes takes a peek behind the magical technology curtain of the Ford Racing Technical Support Center.

“The main thing that we’ve worked on with the Ford Racing Technical Center in Concord, North Carolina is really combining a lot of the tools we had in other facilities before, from the kinematics machine measuring camber and toe to the chassis torsional twist rig used to determine stiffness of the car.”” Mark Rushbrook, Ford Racing Engineering Motorsports Manager, said. “We also have a vehicle center of gravity machine used to measure the height of the car and a coordinate measurement machine that enables teams to measure their components for quality control.”

“But the key thing that we have which has really moved things forward in terms of technology is the driving simulator. It runs a full dynamics model for the vehicle, whether Sprint Cup car, Xfinity car or IMSA car.”

“It allows full driver engagement where they sit in the cockpit to get the motions of what is happening in the car,” Rushbrook continued. “They are viewing a giant screen in front of them with a three meter radius with projectors that give them the full sensation that they are actually driving the car. So, this is a tool that has been used in Formula 1 and some other road racing successfully and we’re using that now as a tool in our arsenal to help with driver training, as well as car and chassis set ups for both NASCAR and IMSA.”

Because of the NASCAR testing ban, the driving simulator has become even more important in the off season and during this new season. And the Ford Racing Technical Support Center has risen to that challenge by virtually making every track available through that simulator.

“At this point, we have all of the NASCAR tracks programmed,” Rushbrook said. “It is a very high graphics representation of the race track itself and everything in the surroundings. You really want the driver to feel like he is there at the track. So, it’s even got the graphic detail for the stands, for flags, for trees, for everything that is on the sides of the track.”

“So, as the driver drives around the track, it’s the same visual cueing that he would get as if he is driving the real car. It’s a laser scanning of the track surface to get the representation of it.”

“It gives the full six degrees of freedom to move the drivers up and down as they go over bumps, have the pitch and yaw and roll. It doesn’t do exactly what you see on the track but it’s the cueing representation of it such that they are immersed in it.”

“The drivers believe and feel that they are driving around the actual track with the motion they are doing. We also have helped it be even more real through high frequency vibrations that are piped in through the structure of the cockpit to make it feel even more real. So, you get that vibration that you would feel from the engine actually coming up through the structure of the cockpit and up through the seat.”

According to Rushbrook, the driving simulator even helps the drivers when they take an unexpected excursion off the track or into another race vehicle.

“If you hit the wall and spin out or whatever you do, it’s not the same sensation of having the thirty or sixty ‘g’ force feeling but you do get the sensation of the car spinning into the infield or down into the grass,” Rushbrook said. “So, there is some realism there for sure.”

With Ford Racing’s success during Daytona Speedweeks, there is no doubt that the drivers, crew chiefs and teams will continue to be lined up at the front door of the Technical Support Center.

“At this point, we are continuing to develop our tools to make sure it is very well correlated,” Rushbrook said. “We have the race teams come in and have time slots available. It will be almost like a test session at each track. The driver, crew chief and race engineers come in. You don’t need the pit crew because you are not physically changing parts but they all come in. You change the set up in the computer model, the driver drives those changes, provides feedback and they can keep iterating through their setups just like they do at the track.”

While Ford Racing declines to disclose the investment made in the Technical Support Center, they do acknowledge that it is significant. And according to Rushbrook, “It reflects our seriousness and how well we want to do in racing.”

“We know the real payout will be in the 2015 season as we are truly applying it.”

The payout has most certainly begun for Ford Racing after such a dominating Speedweeks and much of that success may be the responsibility of the Technical Support Center.

“You can’t ask for a better weekend starting out with the truck race and Brad Keselowski’s truck team winning and then Ryan Reed wining the XFINITY race for Roush Fenway Racing and now Team Penske and Joey Logano with the Daytona 500 championship,” Raj Nair, Group Vice President, Global Product Development, Ford Motor Company, said. “What a start for Ford in 2015. We are now 4-for-4 in all the major races we have competed in. We couldn’t ask for a better start to the year.”

“I think it is really starting to pay dividends with all the work we have done on the technical front and all the homework we did in the off-season.”

“Whether it is the EcoBoost engine of the FR9 engine all the engines in all three NASCAR series’ I think it really shows the teamwork of working together in a One Ford way and that it can really pay dividends.”

February 25, 2015
On the Edge with Ed

It’s time for me to get back to covering NASCAR as I have for the past 10 years. As an editor at www.speedwaymedia.com I spend a lot of time behind the scene trying to bring everyone quality coverage on all sorts of motorsports. I must note that coverage of the sport has changed significantly since I started in what was the last century. Many print publications have gone away and with those changes we have lost some incredible talent. I can recall when internet racing sites were frowned upon by the sanctioning body, not supported by the tracks or sponsors. So much has changed in how the fans interact with teams, sponsors and drivers. Who would have thought that you could actually get a message to a driver in just a few seconds by “tweeting” them? So I decided that I would start up a weekly column, “On the Edge.” I will not always cover the obvious. I may just recap, as I am this week because so much happened during 2015 Speedweeks in Daytona.

DAYTONA RECAP: The 2015 NASCAR season roared to life just a couple of weekends ago with the Sprint Unlimited. The non-points paying event is usually chaotic and this year’s edition was no exception. The field saw at least three significant wrecks that saw only 12 survive all 75 laps of the race. Matt Kenseth won the race but there were some disgruntled drivers after the race including Kevin Harvick who felt he was run over by Joey Logano. “He just drove us straight in the fence,” Harvick said post race. Everybody is trying to be aggressive, but you still have to know when and where you can do things. You can’t just drive somebody in the fence. Whether it is an all-star race or not, it doesn’t really matter, you can’t just take your head off and throw it on the floorboard and not use your brain. Like I told him last year that kind of stuff catches up with you. It caught up with him last year and you can only do things like that so long before it catches up with you.”

The drama just continued on the following day when it came time for the Sprint Cup cars to qualify, shoot-out style. There were multiple wrecks during the sessions and eventually team Hendrick made up the front row with Jeff Gordon taking the pole award and Jimmie Johnson taking second. Gordon had announced previously that this would be his final Daytona 500. With all the wrecked race cars many teams were unhappy with the format, including Martin Truex Jr. who said, “My thoughts are they need to do something different. I don’t know, it just doesn’t seem like it’s a good show. It’s not fun. It’s kind of chaos. I don’t know, seeing cars get tore up and other stuff. I’m not a fan of it, but hey, it is what it is. It’s fun at every other race track, it’s just plate tracks we need to figure something else out.”

On the Monday after qualifying things began to get bizarre as NASCAR announced that they were aware of the ruling in a civil matter regarding some domestic violence allegations against beleaguered Stewart-Haas driver Kurt Busch. The announcement was they were “waiting on the full findings from the commissioner and any actions by the Attorney General.” We fast forward to Friday afternoon, when the commissioners’ findings were released, and Kurt Busch is indefinitely suspended from NASCAR participation. By Saturday he has lost all appeals and he is erased from existence in souvenir haulers and on the team cars and gear. For the record, no actions were taken by the attorney general and I am old enough to know and understand, that the reality of what happened in the privacy of that motor coach lot, lies somewhere in between the testimonies of Busch and his ex-girlfriend.

We had on-track festivities that got out of hand, when Danica Patrick and Denny Hamlin had issues during a practice session and more importantly the qualifying race on Thursday that had Patrick nearly missing NASCAR’s big event. Patrick was clearly upset and got in Hamlin’s face after the race but as one would expect, nothing more came of it. More significantly both the Camping World Truck Series and newly named Xfinity Series races were wreck fests that saw Sprint Cup driver Kyle Busch sent to the hospital with a compound fracture to his right leg and a left broken foot. Daytona International Speedway president Joie Chitwood took responsibility for the track not having all track walls covered with the SAFER barrier and vowed to have it fixed immediately. No timetable for Busch’s return to his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing team was discussed as this went to press.

JOEY LOGANO – In 2007 I had the pleasure of meeting a young up and coming star named Joey Logano at a local track on the outskirts of the Adirondack Mountains. He was just 17 years old and had already won three races in the NASCAR Busch North Series. He was an extremely personable young man and I recall that the customary pre-race autograph session was extended due to the large crowd that was present not only to watch him race, but to meet him. During the race Logano, who started on the pole due to him being the points leader, faded back to third or fourth place as he struggled to figure out the D shaped track. He had fought his way to third when the white flag was flying and as the leaders battled side by side coming off turn four they touched and began to spin out and Logano pounced, diving low in a remarkable fashion, keeping it on the track and taking the checkered flag. I recall looking at my friend who was with me in the pits and say, like others before me, ‘that kid is the real deal!’

In 2009 when Logano was a rookie with Joe Gibbs Racing I had an opportunity to speak with him about that race at the Adirondack Speedway. At the time Logano had a lot to say about Adirondack. “Adirondack was nowhere!” he said a bit loudly when I asked. “It’s one of a kind.” But he also recalled it took some time to learn how to get around the place. “That was one of the most frustrating places I have been to,” he said. “I remember we started practice there and I was off a little bit and I was mad. I mean you never stop turning. You turn the wheel here (motions to the left) and that’s it. You never get full throttle or anything. I was trying to get full throttle, I was over driving it. I came in and they’re like, ‘What’s the deal, Joey?’ and I said, ‘I don’t freaking know!’ I got out of the car and I was like, ‘I just don’t know. I don’t know what to tell you.’ I went and watched the other cars to see what the heck they were doing; I got back in the car and tried again. Qualifying rained out and I got the pole so I’m like, ‘I’m cool with that.’” Logano mentioned that Matt Kobyluck, a Busch Series East veteran, had the place figured out. “So did I by the end,” he explained. Logano’s last lap pass as the two leaders got tangled up with a lapped car coming to the checkered flag was one of the most exciting finishes of the NASCAR races held there. Logano said he looked fondly upon his days in the series and his interactions with the fans. “Of course it was all worthwhile with the fans, he said smiling. “They’re fans, real good fans. We had autograph sessions before every race. That was kind of cool, to meet the fans.”

Things looked bleak for Logano after a few disappointing years in the No. 20 car and he needed a new home. He found it at Penske where he is teamed up with 2013 Sprint Cup champion Brad Keselowski. Logano was one of the final four cars that were in the hunt for the Sprint Cup at Homestead last November after a breakout season for him. He had five wins and led almost 1,000 laps in 2014 and he began living up to the nick-name veteran Mark Martin had given him when he was a teenager, “sliced bread.”

One weekend into the 2015 season and Logano has secured himself in the final 16 cars that will go for the 2015 edition of the Chase for the Sprint Cup, the new playoff system that started last season and eliminates participants from contention based on performance. He did that by winning the Daytona 500, the second youngest driver ever to win it. Something that is hard to believe since he’s been driving in the Sprint Cup Series for so long.

February 24, 2015
The Final Word – Daytona saw no Kyle, no Kurt, but for Joey, oh my

Speeds over 200 mph. Three wide racing to the end. Dale Earnhardt Jr. had time at the front. So did Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson. Excellent announcing on FOX. Nice weather. What was there not to love about the Daytona 500?

Okay, if you were not a fan of Joey Logano and saw that caution come out as they were wrecking behind them on that final lap, maybe you were upset. Especially so as Kevin Harvick and Junior were trying to challenge at the end. Yet, they kept wrecking back there so NASCAR decided to err on the side of safety.

Gordon was involved in the melee, and was ranked 33rd, the final car on the lead lap of a race that went to green-white-checkers. If you were a fan of Tony Stewart or Matt Kenseth, early damage left them non-factors the rest of the day, with Smoke finishing 42nd. With 40 laps to go, Brad Keselowski went up in smoke to sit 41st. Danica Patrick was 21st, but rarely to be seen on the day.

If you are a Busch fan, any Busch, you were left cheering for Matt Crafton, who was 18th in his Cup debut, while Regan Smith was 16th. Neither picked up drivers’ points with each being registered in one of the other two national series. Both Casey Mears and Martin Truex Jr. each earned a Top Ten, with David Gilliland, Sam Hornish Jr., and Michael Annett all in the Top Fifteen. Now if they can only follow that up with solid results next week in Atlanta.

Still, not a Busch to be found in Georgia, either. I have always thought that by running an average of 25 races in the junior circuit, Kyle Busch was taking a seat away from an up and comer. That has been solved for the time being, but not in a fashion any of us wanted. That was a damn scary hit last Saturday, on a regular concrete wall, causing Busch a broken right leg and left foot. If there is a need for a wall, it is due to the possibility a car might hit it, and if the possibility exists, so does the need for a safer barrier to exist. I dislike Kyle driving so much in the Xfinity Series, but I dislike even more him having to be in hospital.

A Daytona 500 with neither Busch brother. At least Kyle’s situation is straight forward, which is more than one can say about that of Kurt. From my understanding, a despondent Busch texted his former girlfriend who then sent these along to his coach driver who encouraged her to visit. This she did, out of either compassion or to get Kurt to tell her son the relationship was over, I am no longer sure as to which. Kurt was naked the entire time of the visit, an image I am trying to keep out of my head. He tried to get her to leave by either cupping her face aggressively or choked her and slammed her head into a wall. No charges have yet been laid and a judge says he believed more of her story than that of the driver yet stated she lied during her testimony. In the end, he gave her a protection order to keep Busch away, causing NASCAR to react with the suspension. I find this whole situation a train wreck with more drama than most of us can be bothered to dwell upon. I wish them both well.

For most others, the season opened well, especially for the fans. While Junior had a strong car, Logano had the one that could challenge him. Sometimes luck decides how things work out, but Sunday at Daytona the car that was the stoutest when it counted, won. Sure, he was helped when Junior made a lane change that cost him too much for too long too late into the event, but Joey was the one guy who could, and did, take full advantage. Now it is off to Atlanta for 500 miles, the scene of Kasey Kahne’s lone victory of 2014. If you loved Daytona, you might as well stick around to see how Atlanta might measure up.

February 23, 2015