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  • The Final Word – If only all races were like Talladega

    The Final Word – If only all races were like Talladega

    For the third time this season, NASCAR presented a race worth watching. I am not talking about those good ole boys and girls who have the sport in their blood, who love it, cannot live without it no matter what it looks like. I am talking about those who demand an entertaining three-hour experience if they are going to spend the time to take it all in. Talladega delivered.

    This is what drew people to NASCAR in the first place. They did not know a Fonty Flock from a Smokey Yunick, but they knew what they liked. Tons of action, lots of speed, disaster possibly just around the corner, watching guys doing things we could never pull off on our best day, or even contemplate on our drunkest. On Sunday, Talladega delivered.

    Back in the day, we talked about boys who went by the names of Petty, Roberts, Yarborough, Allison, Earnhardt, Gordon, and Stewart, to name a select few. Today, we once again talk about an Elliott, as the son of Bill from Dawsonville took the prize in the end. Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman, and Ryan Preece led three Chevrolets across the line as, for once, the manufacturers made it known they wanted to win. They wanted their representatives to work together to make that happen. Limit what you do for the Ford and Toyota guys. Win one for the Camaro. In the end, thanks to some fine wheelmen and good fortune, Talladega delivered.

    It was a day when sometimes they got too close to the line, and what you would expect would happen at 200 mph at close quarters did happen. Kevin Harvick lasted just 10 laps. Denny Hamlin survived 80. Jimmie Johnson and Clint Bowyer were running at the end, but their odds of winning were about the same as your own. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was front and center most of the day but wrecked by the end. If you were looking for fireworks, Talladega delivered.

    Were the FOX announcers great, keeping you informed and entertained? They did not have to be. The race, the actual event, kept us watching all on its own. Sure, we could talk once more about what changes FOX should make, and what NBC did last season, but we’ve flogged that horse past the point of what the SPCA or even Rodrigo Duterte could tolerate. You wanted a race, you got a race. Talladega delivered.

    Daytona. Bristol. Talladega. Ten races, but only three that kept the viewing public glued to their seats, even if they were nowhere to be seen at that track in Tennessee a few weeks back. To be honest, I was so focused on the race, I could not tell you how many empty seats there might have been in the wilds of Alabama. If they could not or would not make the effort to take this one in, that would have been a shame. Talladega delivered.

    Next week, they are in Dover. The Monster Mile they call it. It has been around for 50 years. Miles the Monster, holding a full sized Cup car up in the air, has been there since 2008. The last time the Cup boys visited there was last October. The winner, the youngest ever to do so at the venue, was one Chase Elliott. Will Dover bring us the same kind of experience as we enjoyed this past weekend? Hell no. Few tracks deliver like Talladega can.

  • The Final Word – I would absolutely suck as a pit crew member, so why won’t Harvick hire me?

    The Final Word – I would absolutely suck as a pit crew member, so why won’t Harvick hire me?

    A classic. That is what the Southern 500 is. Born in 1950, it predates NASCAR’s jewel events in Indianapolis, Bristol, Talladega, Charlotte, and Daytona. It is the Southern 500, the Labor Day classic at Darlington. It is not a November race, not a race to be branded by Dodge, not run on Mother’s Day or in April. After a dozen years of stupidity, it returned in 2015 to be what it has always been meant to be, the great southern Labor Day NASCAR tradition.

    Kevin Harvick lost Sunday’s race in classic style. If a pit crew can screw things up, it can find work on this car. Two pit stops, two disasters. One dropped him from first to fourth. The next, from first to 12th. It has reached the point where even the most understandable reason is rejected as yet another damned excuse. “Someone slashed our spare tires” or “It is hard to change a tire with no arms” or “The dog ate the air wrench” no longer cuts it. Harvick finished second. He should have been first.

    That was left for Martin Truex Jr. to accomplish. Sometimes, it is just more fun to win a classic event over the holidays. After previous career victories at Dover, Sonoma, and Pocono, this season it has been Labor Day at Darlington and the Memorial Day World 600 in Charlotte. Those are the kind of wins that get a driver remembered.

    Winning a title also does that. With Richmond the last stop before the Chase, a dozen drivers are locked in having won a race or more. Chris Buescher claims a spot if he manages to be within ten positions of David Ragan next weekend, thus staying within the season’s Top 30. Chase Elliott and Austin Dillon are a lock should they come home within 23 and 15 spots, respectfully, of Ryan Newman this Sunday. Jamie McMurray lays claim to the final spot should he be no more than six places behind Newman at Richmond, and a first-time winner does not emerge to steal that final Chase place from him. The question is, do Newman, Kasey Kahne, Ryan Blaney, A.J. Allmendinger, Trevor Bayne, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Greg Biffle, or Paul Menard have the horses to do what needs to be done? The odds are long, but remember that they were for Buescher once, too.

    It was a true classic at Darlington, but it was something of a classic finish in the truck race at MoSport Park in Ontario on Sunday. Well, the finish between John Hunter Nemechek and Cole Custer would have gone down as a classic if it had taken place at almost any other track. Two racers rubbing and racing and scraping against the wall to the finish. Instead, on the outside, they had enough prairie to give me a home where the buffalo roam, along with a couple of elk, before they came across any barrier. Rather than taking Custer to the outside wall, Nemechek wound up taking him into the car pool lane. What could have been a classic finish had all the appearances of a demo derby. Does that make Nemechek a wild man or a guy who did what he had to do on a surface that extended much farther out than what we would have normally seen? He won, so does it matter? I bet to Custer, it does. He seemed downright excited as he tackled Nemechek after the race, sending the pair tumbling to the grass. Vengeance is a bitch, and she just might have some bite before their version of the Chase concludes in the truck series. Just ask Joey Logano.

    Classic. They have been racing at Richmond since 1953, and the list of the winners there is a smorgasbord of NASCAR history, with all the fixings. It is where three generations of Petty boys have a victory, including 13 by the King himself. Both Earnhardts have won there, with Senior having a 5-3 advantage over Junior. Kyle has a 4-2 lead over Kurt in the battle of the Busch boys. Richmond is where Bobby Allison won seven times, with six wins apiece awarded to David Pearson, Darrell Waltrip, and Rusty Wallace.

    Sadly, the one-time Capital City 400 sold its soul to Wrangler more than 35 years ago. Since then, the trail has winded through a brewery, a battery outfit, a car manufacturer, to even include a brand of pistachios for a season. A classic event it is not. A classic venue it most certainly is.

    Here is hoping for a classic finish. This spring Carl Edwards bumped Kyle Busch out of the way to record the first last-lap pass for the win in Richmond history. Why not another?

  • In NASCAR, tenacity inherits a charter spot while success means absolutely nothing

    In NASCAR, tenacity inherits a charter spot while success means absolutely nothing

    Sometimes you earn by doing, sometimes you earn by succeeding. In NASCAR, perseverance seems to trump performance as it announced the Charter teams heading into 2016 and beyond. It has everything to do with how tenacious a team has been in at least attempting to run, and absolutely nothing to do with their success, be it yesterday, today, or even at some future date.

    Thirty-six teams need not worry, at least for the next three years, whether or not they will be racing each week in Cup action after NASCAR granted charters to 19 racing organizations. The agreement, which is slated to run for the next nine seasons, means that the holders of those charters will have no concerns, regardless as to how their seasons have gone or how they qualify. Good news for those seeking some guaranteed stability in their operation, knowing that they can tell sponsors and vendors that they will be running no matter what.

    While 36 will be locked in, only four open slots will be available to anyone else. The field will be reduced from 43 to 40 cars, though when you consider that only a couple a dozen of them have any realistic chance of success any given week, the fans have not lost much.

    Where they lose is that there are some bad teams that will not be going anywhere or replaced by anyone until at least 2025. The only way to lose a Charter is to finish among the three worst Charter teams for three straight years, and even then that would be at NASCAR’s discretion. If you want a Charter, you either got rewarded with one this week or you have to buy it. No Charters can be earned through racing performance. You can get the loan of one from a team for a single season, and that could happen with that particular Charter only once every five years. In addition, the maximum number of Charters an organization can have is four, the same number of cars they actually can own and operate.

    NASCAR came up with the 36 charters after going over the past three seasons to determine which outfits were making the weekly commitment. The Wood Brothers No. 21, driven by Ryan Blaney, did not make the cut as that organization has been running part-time in recent seasons. Performance alone did not cut it, as the Kurt Busch ride, the Stewart-Haas No. 41 and the Joe Gibbs’ No. 19 team of Carl Edwards, also failed to qualify due to their relatively recent formations. Though Clint Bowyer’s entry made it, thanks to a million dollar Charter loan from Premium’s Jay Robinson, Harry Scott’s other car, the No. 46 of Michael Annett did not. With Michael Waltrip Racing going the way of the dodo, its two charters can be purchased from what is left of MWR. It is expected that Busch and Edwards will wind up as the beneficiaries of that.

    Eight organizations, which include Petty, Hendrick, Roush, Gibbs, Childress, Penske, Stewart-Haas and Ganassi, have combined for a total of 942 victories. Two other teams, Front Row and Furniture Row, have a win each. That leaves eight, a list that includes such franchise entities as JTG Daugherty, Baldwin, Germain, Go Fas, BK Racing, Circle Sport and Premium Motorsports, all which have yet to taste the champagne. Meanwhile, the owners of cars driven by Kurt Busch and Carl Edwards, who both won twice in 2015, have to buy Charters to be locked in. Wood Brothers, returning to full-time operations after nine seasons, is an outsider. Those 98 wins, 116 poles over 1405 races since 1950 do not mean squat.

    If one day all this equates into some sort of equality amongst teams, where today’s weak sisters grow and compete with the big boys, then fine and good. However, if we are left with a band of weak sisters at the expense of those who can demonstrate an ability to succeed, we shall all be the poorer for it.

  • The Final Word – Talladega Produces the 100th Cup Victory by an Earnhardt

    The Final Word – Talladega Produces the 100th Cup Victory by an Earnhardt

    Family. Why do we watch these races, even the most boring among them when there are so many other things we could be doing? It is our sense of family that keeps us tuning in.

    It is similar as to why fans of the Chicago Cubs endure the disappointment, year after year. That would be due to sticking with their beleaguered “family” members over the seasons. You know, such kin as Hack Wilson, Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Fergie Jenkins, Bruce Sutter, and Ron Santos, to name just a few from the past. Their highs and lows on the field were their fans’ highs and lows. They were all in it together. They still are.

    In NASCAR, it is also all about family. It was started by a family and has featured such families as the Pettys and Allisons. We were thrilled by their success and crushed by their tragedies. They were and remain a part of us.

    Thus, when Dale Earnhardt Jr. broke a decade-long drought at a track he once ruled to win his sixth race at Talladega on Sunday, one of our own had come through. This is a track on which his late father triumphed ten times and this is where his boy had a run of four in a row. When Dale Sr. died, a lot of fans adopted the lad as a son or brother. We mourned with him, we mourned for him, and we followed him. It just dawned on me that I am 18 years older than Junior, old enough to have been his dad. Not a good one, mind you, not at that age, but old enough. I would rather like to think I would have made one hell of an older brother.

    Family. When the car was not so good at Richmond, Greg Ives had some explaining to do. Not to Junior, not to owner Rick Hendrick, but to his eight-year-old daughter. She does not take such disappointments lightly. Last week, she suffered a bad break near her elbow, and the driver offered his crew chief a chance to fly home to be with her. However, a certain eight-year-old told her daddy to stay right where he was. Ives had a job to do, and on Sunday he and Junior completed the task by winning at Talladega. It was Ives’ first on the box, the 24th victory for the racer over his Cup career and, yes, the 100th Cup victory by an Earnhardt.

    It would seem that one of the toughest people associated with this team spent the weekend back in Charlotte mending and cheering on her favorite crew chief and driver. She no doubt will be doing the same this Saturday night when her daddy and his friend are in Kansas. That day also marks the 23rd anniversary of when I first met my wife, Amy, and on that day we will be celebrating my niece Katie’s third birthday. Yes, we will be spending Saturday following that good ole NASCAR tradition. We will be with our family here as we watch members of our other family race in Kansas.

  • Hot 20 – Remove a dozen from the field and we could still have good racing in Kentucky

    Hot 20 – Remove a dozen from the field and we could still have good racing in Kentucky

    This Saturday we are off to Kentucky, a day early and an entry short. Well, early if you think of Sunday as the usual race day, and short as we will have 42 entries instead of the usual 43. Michael McDowell, who was 24th at Sonoma last Sunday, won’t be joining us.

    No start and park entries this year, which I am pleased to see. However, of the 43 cars out there most weeks, only 24 drivers representing nine teams have the pedigree to actually compete. Even that is debatable, but I include everyone from Hendrick, Gibbs, Penske, Ganassi, Roush, Stewart-Haas, Childress, Waltrip, and Petty. It is more than just talent and experience, but cash and equipment that separate the wheat from the chaff. That chaff, going by last week’s grid, would include 19 drivers from 13 companies. That is not to say they will never compete, but rather they can not run with the big boys at the moment.

    NASCAR deems a driver in the Top 30 in points as worthy of contending for a place in the Chase, via a victory. Taking that into consideration, A.J. Allmendinger, Casey Mears, Martin Truex Jr, Justin Allgaier, and Michael Annett might not be so much chaff, but more like Grade B grain. Time will tell what winds up in the hopper.

    No, I do not think we will lose much sleep having the field down one, or a dozen, as long as they do not include anyone from among our hottest 20 drivers.

    (By points, with race winners given 25 instead of just 3 bonus points)

    1 – Jimmie Johnson – 622 POINTS – 3 WINS
    2 – Jeff Gordon – 602 – 1
    3 – Dale Earnhardt, Jr. – 599 – 2
    4 – Carl Edwards – 553 – 2
    5 – Brad Keselowski – 534 – 1
    6 – Joey Logano – 525 – 2
    7 – Matt Kenseth – 515 – 0
    8 – Kevin Harvick – 514 – 2
    9 – Kyle Busch – 487 – 1
    10 – Denny Hamlin – 475 – 1
    11 – Ryan Newman – 473 – 0
    12 – Kyle Larson – 470 – 0
    13 – Paul Menard – 459 – 0
    14 – Clint Bowyer – 452 – 0
    15 – Greg Biffle – 444 – 0
    16 – Kasey Kahne – 429 – 0
    17 – Tony Stewart – 427 – 0
    18 – Austin Dillon – 427 – 0
    19 – Jamie McMurray – 425 – 0
    20 – Brian Vickers – 424 – 0

     

  • Aric Almirola Destined For Richmond Victory; Richard Petty Returns to Racetrack

    Aric Almirola Destined For Richmond Victory; Richard Petty Returns to Racetrack

    Aric Almirola and Trent Owens are determined and destined to win at Richmond International Raceway (RIR) this weekend; especially after it was announced that Richard Petty, team owner of Richard Petty Motorsports, will be returning to the racetrack for the first time since the tragic and unforeseen passing of his wife, Lynda Petty.

    “It’s going to be great to have our leader back at the race track,” Almirola expressed on Wednesday. “He is the name and the face of our company, and all the guys on the race team and myself included look up to him and enjoy having him around at the race track and having him inside hauler and talking to us after practice and getting his perspective on what he sees with other race cars and with our race cars throughout practice.”

    Almirola attended an appearance with Petty in Nashville, Tennessee on Tuesday and he found ‘The Kings’ attitude to be repaired and prepared for Richmond this weekend.

    “I know (Petty is) itching to get back,” Almirola further explained. “You can’t take the racer out of that guy. He’s not going to sit at home and just sit around and do nothing.”

    Owens, who is the nephew of Petty, also is confident that Petty returning will allow everyone at the organization to take a deep breath and refocus on the task at hand, winning.

    “I think it will be good medicine,” Owens said Wednesday. “When something like that happens, you kind of want to hide for a little bit and just get your feelings straight. But he’s been by the shop and been in good spirits, and I think he’s doing very well considering.”

    “We look forward to definitely getting him back to the race track and getting him back into race mode.”

    Now, with the relief of having the boss back, Almirola and crew chief Owens turn their undivided attention to Richmond, where they’ll hope to deliver their first victory of the season, which would undoubtedly be an emotional one – for multiple reasons

    “I always get excited about going to Richmond,” Almirola commented during a press conference held on Wednesday morning. “I like the racetrack a lot, and then besides the racetrack, it’s a big weekend for us with Smithfield Foods headquarters being right there nearby in Richmond, and we get a lot of people come out from Smithfield headquarters, and it’s just a big weekend, and it’s a lot of fun.”

    “The racetrack is where I made my first (NASCAR) Nationwide (Series) start, and I just got a lot of good memories from there, and I’ve always run well it seems like, so I’m excited about going to Richmond this weekend.”

    Almirola, 30, finished eighth last season at Richmond after starting a dismal 34th position- his first top-10 at the difficult speedway.

    “I think I have a really good understanding of what it takes to run good at Richmond, and I’ve had good runs there,” Almirola expressed about his wisdom within Richmond. “You know, last spring we ran pretty good there.  I think we finished in the top 5 or maybe top 10, I’m not sure, and then in the fall race I thought we had an even better car than we had in the spring race, and we had an incident on pit road on a green flag stop that ended up getting a couple laps down and hurt our day.”

    He’s completed in five Nationwide Series races at Richmond finishing a track-best seventh during the 2011 season with JR Motorsports. This weekend, he’s hoping to utilize that running his previous experience at RIR to help drive him into victory lane.

    “Richmond is a place that I actually have a lot of laps at,” Almirola further commented. “The very first time I ever got to drive a truck, it was a two-day test at Richmond back in 2004 and I’ve done a lot of testing there in trucks and Nationwide cars and even Cup cars back when we were allowed to go test, and I made my first Nationwide start there.  I think I’ve run quite a few Nationwide races there, and I’ve made quite a few Cup starts there.”

    Owens, who joined his Uncle Petty’s operation at the beginning of this season, is also expecting a good placing this weekend, despite the demands being a crew chief calls upon throughout the course of this weekend.

    “Really looking forward to (the) race (at Richmond),” Owens commented during the press conference. “Our short track program seems to be in a decent direction this year.  We’ve got some work to do on our mile-and-a-halfs, but really looking forward to getting in front of the Smithfield folks and putting on a good show.”

    “Practice is so tough here, the tires wear out at Richmond but that does provide for good racing.  You really want to be good off the hauler and just kind of work on a few things, maybe mock up some practice changes that duplicate your race stuff.  But practicing during the day, racing at night at a place like Richmond is just so much different.”

    Almirola and Owens are hoping for success in just their ninth race together, however, they also both understand the ultimate achievement isn’t to win, but it’s to help re-boost Petty’s confidence and moral, even in the toughest of moments.

  • Humpy Must Have Been Reading My Mind

    It’s only mid-week and already a few big stories have hit. First there was the surprise YouTube video of Humpy Wheeler, the legendary promoter who put Charlotte Motor Speedway on the map, giving a critical analysis of what is wrong with NASCAR followed closely by Brian Vickers getting the full time ride in the No.55 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota and the dismissal of Juan Pablo Montoya from the No. 42 Earnhardt-Ganassi Chevrolet. Interesting moves, no doubt, so let’s start with Wheeler’s comments.

    Wheeler was regarded as the number one promoter in racing until his abrupt firing by Speedway Motorsports in 2008. He now owns a consulting company, but his comments on the sport ring true most of the time. I first heard his ideas on the health of the sport on SiriusXM satellite radio last week, but seeing them in print was a real eye opener.

    When considering the lack of attendance and the diminishing TV ratings, Wheeler has many ideas on why this has happened, firstly the corpatizement, as he calls it, of the sport. This rings true. Wheeler contends that the huge sums of money collected by the sport’s teams was good, it also upped the cost of what teams could spend on their teams, leaving a gap of the haves and have-nots in the sport, as well as multi-car super teams, reducing competition. His story about Firestone asking him to help in getting Richard Petty to take diction instruction to do commercials rings true. Today’s drivers tend to be corporate darlings, easily mentioning each sponsor in rote fashion and even taking gulps of their sport’s beverage on cue. Wheeler, to his credit, refused Firestone saying a better speaking King would not be the King. It was what enamored him to his fans.

    Wheeler’s ideas are legendary. Lights at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the big military shows before the Coke 600, and turning the speedway built in 1960 into the crown jewel of the sport are just a few of his accomplishments, but his other ideas may be considered radical..

    Wheeler’s main points are that the sport got too fancy, didn’t emphasize winning and passing enough, and didn’t give a reason for fans to come back after a race. How would Wheeler solve this? Give points for re-passing on the track. Give extra bonuses for winning and passing in a race, and do away with some of the new rules. He didn’t mention them specifically, but one can only surmise he meant the “Luck Dog,” the wave around and the double file restart. That’s what I thought he meant anyway. Maybe Wheeler will expound on this later. One thing is certain; he feels he knows what happened to the popularity of the sport.

    Since about 1990, NASCAR was in power curve that played out about 2001. It was coincidentally the same year Dale Earnhardt lost his life in the Daytona 500. Wheeler calls him the working man’s driver. From that point on, NASCAR started waning in popularity. He says that guys like Richard Petty, Earnhardt, Cale Yarborough, and David Pearson were drivers that the working man could identify with. That is missing today, and I agree. Fans still flock to the tracks with No. 3 flags and stickers on their campers and cars. When asked who their favorite driver is, they are stumped for an answer. As Wheeler articulated so well, we do not have that driver anymore. Wheeler mentioned Clint Bowyer and then said he had been corpatized. We seem to have turned our drivers into walking and driving extensions of their sponsors, refusing to be themselves except in a moment of rage or weakness when they apologize to the sponsor and the fans for being themselves. Makes no sense. The motto is “ye must be a corporate spokesman.” Racing is secondary, and that’s the problem in Humpy’s mind. In my mind, we’ve gotten too fancy. Humpy would be proud. What will bring NASCAR back to the growth they saw in the 10-12 year growth spurt? Excitement and competition across the board and drivers people can relate to in today’s world. Let’s see if anyone is listening.

    Brian Vickers is getting the full time gig in the Aaron’s Toyota in 2014, leaving Mark Martin, who only wants a part-time ride without a car to drive. Where will he go? Some say back to Roush-Fenway for a few races in the legendary No. 6, and others say the same thing in the Wood Brothers No.21. To be honest, where else could he go for a part-time ride? With drivers like Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch, and now Juan Montoya looking, pickings will be slim. If Martin could bring some sponsorship along, all bets are off, of course.

    The dismissal of Montoya was a total surprise. I don’t think Montoya will accept an uncompetitive ride, so only the RCR No.29, the Phoenix Racing No. 51, and the possible 4th car at RCR seem to be in play. Then, you have to consider Newman, who will be in big demand, and what Richard Childress will do with his grandsons. It’s not much of a market out there for displaced drivers. My guess is that Montoya will go back to what he did before coming to NASCAR. I could be wrong, but I don’t see a place for him in 2014. Silly Season should be lots of fun this fall.

  • Dodge Leaves and Allmendinger Comes Clean

    Dodge Leaves and Allmendinger Comes Clean

    [media-credit id=18 align=”alignright” width=”240″][/media-credit]What a day for news! Today we learned that the Dodge brand will disappear from NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series at the end of the year. It’s not the first time for Dodge. They left back in 1977, only to return in 2001, but this has to be a blow to the sanctioning body. America’s Big Three automakers belong in NASCAR. It’s an American series featuring cars you can buy at a dealership. The Ford Fusion, Chevrolet Impala, Toyota Camry, and Dodge Charger are all cars that American families buy in large numbers, and now one of the brands is gone.

    Petty Enterprises brought Chrysler Corporation vehicles into the spotlight in the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s. Richard Petty, the undisputed King of the sport, won more races than anyone else in Plymouths. He later changed to GM cars and even later Fords, but it was always the top brand, even when Chevrolet competed. Add to that successful teams led by Cotton Owens, Harry Hyde, and others. The excitement when Dodge came back was legend. Mopar fans had cars to root for. Ray Evernham, former the crew chief for the fabulously successful Jeff Gordon, spearheaded the new Dodge resurgence along with the Petty family and others. Today it came to an end.

    Looking for reasons is pretty elementary. Dodge had been reduced to a two car team led by Penske Racing. Evernham had sold out to George Gillett which morphed into Richard Petty Motorsports, and with Chrysler’s money problems, only Penske remained. Earlier this year, Penske announced he was switching to Ford and the rest is history. Dodge tried valiantly to find a team, any team, to carry its banner, but in the end, no credible tram wanted them. Just like the 1970’s, when only Ford and Chrysler competed on the NASCAR ovals, the field is reduced to Chevrolet, Ford, and Toyota, the only difference being that three manufacturers are competing instead of four—two of the former Big Three and Japanese Toyota.

    Who can blame successful teams for not considering Dodge? Penske was the sole engine supplier, and it would be unlikely that he could build Dodge engines and campaign Fords. Problem No, 2 was the domination of Chevrolet and Hendrick Motorsports especially. Winners of five of the last six championships (a clean sweep if you consider Tony Stewart’s SHR is a satellite team depending on chassis and engine from HMS), why would any Chevrolet team consider switching? Ford teams are so wrapped around the Roush-Yates engine program that is so good, that changing to a manufacturer that has had little success outside of early Evernham successes would be a real gamble. As hard as Dodge worked, it wasn’t going to be, and so they left America’s premier sedan car series.

    That left a hole in what everyone thought would happen. Many believed that Petty Motorsports would move to Dodge as their top team, but apparently that wasn’t to be. RPM, whose contract with Ford and Roush ends at season’s end, is still debating their options, Toyota is a possibility, but this reporter thinks they will stay with Ford. Time will tell.

    *******
    In what has to be the worst PR nightmare this season, A.J. Allmendinger admitted today that he had tested positive for the prescribed drug Adderall. He said he took it to combat fatigue. He said he didn’t know what it was. He took it from a “friend.” For a guy who said he was for concerned what went in his body, he made a bad decision. The human condition. Allmendinger lost a ride of a lifetime. Now the only speculation is who will get the ride in the No, 22 Dodge ride for the rest of the year and the No. 22 Ford ride for 2013. It won’t be Allmendinger. So the drama continues. And they said 2012 was boring,

  • NASCAR Notebook – Silly Season is Apparently Over

    NASCAR Notebook – Silly Season is Apparently Over

    It looks like the Daytona Pre-Season Thunder event pushed teams to make decisions on 2012. If you remember, David Ragan, David Reutimann, Kurt Busch, and Clint Bowyer were dismissed or left their rides following the 2011 season. One by one, they found employment, but the changes were substantial.

    [media-credit name=”CIA Stock Photo” align=”alignright” width=”253″][/media-credit]1. When sponsorship couldn’t be found for the Roush-Fenway No. 6 after the 2011 season, Roush released David Ragan from his contract. Ragan finally found a ride in one of the Front Row Motorsports Fords this weekend, as I predicted. It was also announced that Nationwide Series Champion Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. will be in the Daytona 500 in this car for seems to be a one-shot effort.

    2. After being released from the Michael Waltrip Racing No. 00 car, David Reutimann finally found a ride with Tommy Baldwin Racing for a limited number of races. Reutimann will be replaced by Mark Martin and owner Michael Waltrip in what will become the No.55.

    3. The No. 5 ride vacated by Martin will be filled with Kasey Kahne at Hendrick Motorsports. Kahne had driven the No. 4 Red Bull Toyota in 2011 after leaving Richard Petty Motorsports late in 2010.

    4. After Kurt Busch and Roger Penske agreed to part ways, and after much speculation on who would drive the No. 22 Dodge, A.J. Allmendinger was hired on what many consider to be a one-year contract.

    5. When Allmendinger was given his release from the No, 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford when main sponsor Best Buy left for Roush-Fenway, it was rumored that Kurt Busch would get that ride. Unfortunately, sponsors didn’t feel comfortable with Busch, so Aric Almirola got the ride and got the bonus of Smithfield Foods as a sponsor.

    6. When Clint Bowyer and Richard Childress couldn’t come to terms or a sponsor could not be found, Bowyer left the No. 33 Chevy for Michael Waltrip racing with NAPA as sponsor and using the No. 15. The No. 33, much like the No. 6 at Roush-Fenway, was retired.

    7. Kurt Busch ended up at Phoenix Racing with the No. 51 Chevrolet, which is considered an arm of Hendrick Motorsports. No sponsor has been announced.

    8. Scott Speed found a ride in the No. 95 Bob Leavine Ford for an unannounced number of races, a place Speed raced last year for a few races.

    9. Sadly, TRG Racing, the home of rookie of the year Andy Lally, has apparently closed shop to concentrate on other forms of racing

    Whew, is that ever a mouthful. In the more than 15 years I have been covering the Sprint Cup Series, I cannot remember any more changes. Most of it is a symptom of a not-yet-recovered economy. Things will get better in time. It will be interesting to see how the move to MWR Toyotas treats Martin and Bowyer, how Stenhouse performs in the No. 6 at Daytona, a race that car has been very competitive in, if Kahne can avoid the slump of the No. 5 at Hendrick, how A.J. does in the Penske organization, whether or not Aric Almirola can lead the Pettys back to victory circle, and finally what Kurt Busch will do in James Buescher’s cars. I can’t wait

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    After all the stuff we’ve heard (and stuff is very appropriate in this context) over the years, we were led to believe that some insurance god somewhere had mandated that under no circumstances could cars run faster than 200 mph at Daytona, and something awful would happen if that were the case. Well in Daytona testing this week, even though single car speeds were well below that, 200 mph was fairly common in drafting. NASCAR went to a bigger plate on Friday, and the result was Kurt Busch topping 206 mph, and went back to the smaller plate on Saturday. The result was still speeds in excess of 200 mph, so I guess we can expect some tweaks before next month if the 200 mph insurance mandated limit is still in effect. Or was it ever? Kurt Busch said this week that was common in the two car drafts. I have no idea, but the last two days saw more pack racing.

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    I cannot imagine how it feels to be David Ragan and David Reutimann these days. Ragan was in the car that Mark Martin almost won numerous championships in, and was featured in UPS commercials the last few years. Now, he’s been relegated to running in a car that, well, hasn’t been all that competitive. Reutimann is in the same position. Both have won races in better equipment, but their chances, except at Daytona or Talladega, are slim (anyone can win there). It also points to the big gap in the haves and have-nots.