Tag: Phil Parsons Racing

  • Michael McDowell to make 500th Cup start at Martinsville

    Michael McDowell to make 500th Cup start at Martinsville

    With the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season down to its final two races on the schedule, Michael McDowell is primed to achieve a milestone start. By competing in this weekend’s Cup Playoff event at Martinsville Speedway, the driver of the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford Mustang Dark Horse will make career start No. 500 in NASCAR’s premier series.

    A native of Glendale, Arizona, McDowell, who grew up competing in BMX bicycles before transcending to go-karts, open wheels and the Grand-Am Series, where he claimed the Star Mazda championship in 2004, made his inaugural presence as a Cup Series competitor at Martinsville Speedway in April 2008. By then, he had made four career starts in the Xfinity Series and one in the Craftsman Truck Series. Driving the No. 00 Toyota Camry for Michael Waltrip Racing (MWR), McDowell started 34th and finished 26th in his series debut after cutting a tire in the closing laps.

    The following weekend at Texas Motor Speedway, McDowell was involved in a harrowing accident while qualifying for the event, where he slipped sideways after breaking a right-front sway bar and veered head-on into the outside wall in Turn 1 at full speed. The impact was enough for McDowell’s No. 00 Toyota to roll over on its roof, which it briefly slid and spun upside down towards the outside wall before the car tumbled seven times towards the bottom of the track and came to rest right-side up. Following the wild ride, McDowell managed to escape uninjured and he would proceed to finish 33rd in the main event while racing in a backup car.

    Following his first two Cup career starts, McDowell would make 18 additional starts in the No. 00 MWR Toyota over the next 21 races of the 2008 season, which started at Phoenix Raceway in April before concluding at Dover Motor Speedway in September as he was then released by the organization. During the span, McDowell achieved a season-best 20th-place result at Richmond Raceway in September. Combined with his first two starts of the 2008 season, he notched a total of 12 top-30 results and recorded an average-finishing result of 30.2.

    In 2009, McDowell made a total of eight Cup starts, all of which occurred in the closing stretches of the season. Driving the No. 36 Chevrolet Impala for Tommy Baldwin Racing in eight of the remaining 11 events on the schedule, he recorded an average-finishing result of 40.3 and a season-best 38th-place run at Dover in September despite retiring due to braking issues. He then competed in 24 events in 2010 between Prism Motorsports and Whitney Motorsports. After finishing in 14th place during the first of two Daytona Duel events, he qualified for the 52nd running of the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway in February, where he would record a season-best 33rd-place result.

    During the 2011 season, McDowell competed in all but two of the 36-race Cup schedule. Thirty-one of his starts occurred with HP Racing, where he recorded a season-best 30th-place finish at Sonoma Raceway in June. His lone other start occurred in the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota entry at Texas in November, where he filled in for veteran Kyle Busch after Busch was suspended for the remainder of the Texas weekend due to intentionally wrecking four-time Truck Series champion Ron Hornaday Jr. during the Truck race earlier in the weekend. Despite starting the event in 17th place, McDowell settled in 33rd place, four laps down.

    Over the next two seasons, McDowell primarily competed for Phil Parsons Racing in the Cup Series. During the 2012 season, where he surpassed 100 Cup career starts, he competed in all but three of the 36-race schedule and recorded a season-best 23rd-place finish at Bristol Motor Speedway in August. He then notched his first top-10 career result by finishing in ninth place during the 65th running of the Daytona 500 in February 2013 and he would also record a 15th-place run at Talladega Superspeedway in October. Throughout the 2013 season, he also made a single start with Front Row Motorsports at Watkins Glen International in August and with HScott Motorsports at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in September.

    From 2014 to 2017, McDowell made a total of 102 Cup starts with Leavine Family Racing, where he spent the latter season as a full-time competitor. Throughout the four-year span, the Arizona native recorded a total of four top-10 results, 10 laps led and his first top-five career result, which occurred at Daytona in July 2017 by finishing fourth. He also finished in the top 20 a total of 28 times and qualified for the Daytona 500 three times. After cracking the top-30 mark in the final standings in 2016, McDowell settled in 26th place in the final standings in 2017. By then, he boosted his average finishing result up to 22.3 and had surpassed 200 Cup career starts.

    The 2018 Cup Series season generated a new beginning for McDowell, who joined forces with Front Row Motorsports to pilot the No. 34 Ford entry as a full-time competitor. Despite recording a ninth-place finish during the 60th running of the Daytona 500, he would tally a total of nine top-20 results for the remainder of the season and tie his previous-best result in the standings in 26th place with an average-finishing result of 24.5. He then commenced the 2019 season by finishing fifth during the 61st running of the Daytona 500 and proceeded to record nine additional top-20 results for the remainder of the season before dropping to 27th place in the final standings and with an average-finishing result of 24.2. By then, he surpassed 300 Cup career starts.

    Then after concluding the 2020 Cup season with a total of four top-10 results and a 23rd-place finish in the final standings, McDowell commenced the 2021 season on a high note by winning the 63rd running of the Daytona 500 after dodging a final lap multi-car accident to escape with the victory with two turns remaining. The victory made McDowell the 40th competitor overall to win the 500 and the eighth to claim a first Cup victory in the Great American Race, with the event marking his 358th career start in NASCAR’s premier series. With the victory, the Arizona native became the 196th competitor overall to win in the Cup Series and he earned a guaranteed spot into the 2021 Cup Series Playoffs as he also delivered the first 500 victory for Front Row Motorsports.

    Following his Daytona 500 victory, McDowell finished in the top eight during his next two Cup starts. He would proceed to finish third at Talladega in April and seventh during the series’ inaugural event at Circuit of the Americas in May for the remainder of the 26-race regular-season stretch before he entered the Playoffs for the first time as a title contender. After finishing no higher than 24th during the Round of 16, however, McDowell’s 2021 title hopes came to an early end as he was one of four Playoff contenders to be eliminated from the title hunt. With four finishes in the top 17 to cap off the season, McDowell settled in 16th place in the final standings. By then, he boosted his average finishing result to 20.5.

    The 2022 Cup Series season generated McDowell’s best result in top 10s, where he tallied a total of 12, including two top-five results as he notched a pair of season-best third-place finishes at Sonoma in June and at Talladega in October. Despite concluding the season winless and missing the Playoffs, McDowell, who settled in 23rd place in the final standings, recorded a career-best average-finishing result of 16.7. By then, he surpassed 400 Cup career starts.

    The following season, McDowell finished in the top 20 six times during the first nine scheduled events. Despite finishing no higher than 22nd during his next five starts, he rallied by finishing in the top 10 four times over his next five. By Michigan International Speedway in August, McDowell was battling for a Playoff spot by points. Then at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course in August, he led a race-high 54 of 82-scheduled laps, including the final 30, en route to his second Cup career victory as he also raced his way into the Playoffs for a second time. After capping off the regular-season stretch by finishing as high as 13th over his next two starts, McDowell’s Playoff hopes came to an early end following respective finishes of 32nd, 26th and sixth throughout the Round of 16. Finishing as high as ninth during the final seven events on the schedule, McDowell proceeded to finish a career-best 15th place in the final standings. Despite achieving four fewer top-10 results from his previous season at eight, he led 97 laps throughout the 2023 season and notched an average-finishing result of 19.0.

    This season, which marks his seventh driving on a full-time basis for Front Row Motorsports, McDowell ended up in 36th place during the 66th running of the Daytona 500 despite starting on the front row. He then notched his first Cup career pole position during the following weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway, where he led 27 laps and rallied from being involved in an on-track incident towards the pit road entrance to finish eighth. Throughout the 26-race regular-season stretch, McDowell recorded a total of four Cup poles, which occurred at Talladega in April, World Wide Technology Raceway in June and at Daytona in August. Amid the qualification success, he notched a strong runner-up result at Sonoma in June, two top-five results and six top-10 results. The results, however, were not enough for him to make the 2024 Cup Playoffs. Nonetheless, he has since achieved two additional poles, the first at Atlanta in September and the other at Talladega in early October, and a seventh-place result, which occurred at Watkins Glen International in September, throughout eight of 10 Playoff events. With a current average-finishing result of 20.7, McDowell is ranked in 22nd place in the driver’s standings. The 2024 Cup Series season is set to mark the Arizona native’s final one with Front Row Motorsports as he is set to join Spire Motorsports in 2025.

    Through 499 previous Cup starts, McDowell has achieved two victories, six poles, 11 top-five results, 44 top-10 results, 534 laps led and an average-finishing result of 26.9.

    Michael McDowell is scheduled to make his 500th Cup Series career start at Martinsville Speedway for the Xfinity 500. The event is scheduled to occur on Sunday, November 3, and air at 2 p.m. ET on NBC.

  • McDowell to make 400th Cup career start at Richmond

    McDowell to make 400th Cup career start at Richmond

    Competing in his 16th season in the NASCAR Cup Series, Michael McDowell is scheduled to achieve a milestone start. By taking the green flag in this weekend’s event at Richmond Raceway, the driver of the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford Mustang will make his 400th career start in NASCAR’s premier series.

    A native of Glendale, Arizona, and a former champion of the Star Mazda Championship region, McDowell had made five career starts between the Xfinity and Camping World Truck Series before being announced as a Cup Series competitor and in Michael Waltrip Racing’s No. 00 Toyota Camry for Michael Waltrip Racing, beginning at Martinsville Speedway in March 2008. McDowell’s promotion to NASCAR’s premier series came after Dale Jarrett, the 1999 Cup Series champion and NASCAR Hall of Famer, retired from competition while David Reutimann took over Jarrett’s No. 44 Toyota. Starting in 34th place, McDowell finished 26th in his Cup debut after cutting a tire in the closing laps.

    The following weekend at Texas Motor Speedway, McDowell was involved in a horrific accident during his qualifying session, where he got loose entering Turn 1, veered into the outside SAFER barriers head-on at over 180 mph, rolled over on his roof and barrel rolled seven times down to the apron before coming to rest on all four wheels. Despite the wild ride, McDowell was able to emerge uninjured as his wreck exemplified the effectiveness of modern safety enhancements made, from the SAFER barriers to the HANS device and the 2008 Car of Tomorrow stock car, to keep the competitors safe in the event of an on-track incident. McDowell went on to finish 33rd in the main event.

    Following the Texas incident, McDowell continued to drive MWR’s No. 00 Toyota in the Cup Series from Phoenix Raceway in April through Kansas Speedway in September. During this span, his best on-track result was 20th at Richmond Raceway in September. McDowell, however, was released by the team for the rest of the season after he failed to qualify at Kansas Speedway in September.

    The following season, McDowell campaigned on a full-time basis in the Xfinity Series, starting with JTG Daugherty Racing before transitioning to MacDonald Motorsports and Whitney Motorsports. His first Cup Series start of the 2009 season did not occur until September at Richmond, where he drove the No. 36 Toyota for Tommy Baldwin Racing to a 41st-place result after retiring early due to an engine issue. He competed in seven additional Cup races with Tommy Baldwin, where he did not finish in all of them and was credited with a result no higher than 38th place.

    McDowell started the 2010 season on a high note by driving the No. 55 Toyota Camry for Prism Motorsports to a 14th-place result in the first of two duel races at Daytona International Speedway in February. The result rewarded him with one of two transfer spots to the 52nd running of the Daytona 500. During the main event, however, he finished 33rd due to a drive shaft issue. He competed in 23 additional events throughout the 36-race schedule, where he failed to finish in all but one race, which was at Talladega Superspeedway in October as he finished 35th, two laps behind the leaders.

    McDowell competed in 32 of the 36-race schedule in 2011 with nearly all of his starts occurring with HP Racing. His best result with HP Racing was a 30th-place result at Sonoma Raceway in June. Then in November at Texas, he served as an interim competitor in Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 18 Toyota Camry and in place of Kyle Busch, who was suspended by NASCAR throughout the weekend as a result of intentionally wrecking NASCAR Hall of Famer Ron Hornaday Jr. in the early stages of the Truck Series event at the Lone Star state two days prior to the Cup event. During the event, however, McDowell, who struggled with pace, finished in 33rd place, three laps behind the leaders. He went on to conclude the season in 36th place in the final standings.

    In 2012, McDowell remained with HP Racing that was renamed to Phil Parsons Racing. Driving the team’s No. 98 Ford Fusion in all but six of the 36-race Cup schedule, his best result was a 23rd-place finish at Bristol Motor Speedway in August as he settled in 37th place in the final standings, one spot lower from 2011. By then, McDowell surpassed 100 career starts in the Cup Series.

    Following the 2013 Cup season, where he competed in all but three races between three organizations (Phil Parsons Racing, Front Row Motorsports and HScott Motorsports) while achieving his first top-10 career finish during the 55th running of the Daytona 500 in February (ninth place), McDowell joined Leavine Family Racing to pilot the No. 95 Chevrolet SS for the 2014 season. He failed to qualify for the 56th running of the Daytona 500, but went on to compete in 19 of the 36-race schedule. His best on-track result during this span was seventh place in the rain-shortened Coke Zero 400 at Daytona in July.

    McDowell continued to drive for Leavine Family Racing in 2015, where he made 16 starts with the team and finished no higher than 20th place at Watkins Glen International in August, and in 2016 when LFR formed an alliance with Circle Sport and changed manufacturers from Ford to Chevrolet. Starting the 2016 Cup season in the No. 59 Chevrolet SS, McDowell finished in 15th place in the 58th running of the Daytona 500. He then split driving responsibilities of the No. 95 LFR Chevrolet with Ty Dillon throughout the season, where he finished 10th at Daytona in July, 12th at Richmond in September and 14th at Charlotte Motor Speedway in October. He concluded the season by finishing in 10th place at Homestead-Miami Speedway and a career-best 30th place in the final standings. By then, McDowell surpassed 200 career starts in NASCAR’s premier series.

    The 2017 Cup Series season marked McDowell’s first time competing the entire 36-race schedule as he remained at Leavine Family Racing for a fourth consecutive season. Throughout the season, he earned his first top-five career result after finishing fourth at Daytona in July along with 14 top-20 results before finishing in 26th place in the final standings, which marked his first top-30 result in a driver’s standings.

    In 2018, McDowell moved to Front Row Motorsports to pilot the No. 34 Ford Fusion, where he replaced Landon Cassill. He commenced the season with a ninth-place finish in the 60th running of the Daytona 500 in February. He went on to record nine additional top-20 results, a career-high 33 laps led and a 26th-place result in the final standings for a second consecutive season.

    Returning to Front Row Motorsports for the 2019 season, McDowell started the season by finishing in fifth place in the 61st running of the Daytona 500. This marked his third top-10 result in the 500. He then achieved three additional top-15 results over the next 29 Cup races before he logged in another fifth-place result at Talladega in October. He went on to finish in 27th place in the final standings. Following the 2019 season, McDowell surpassed 300 Cup career starts.

    In 2020, McDowell notched a career-high four top-10 results throughout the 36-race schedule with his best on-track result being a seventh-place finish at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in July. He ended the season improving four spots from his result in the 2019 driver’s standings by settling in 23rd place in the 2020 standings.

    Then in 2021, McDowell, who returned to FRM for a fourth consecutive season, pulled off the upset by claiming his first elusive Cup Series victory in the 63rd running of the Daytona 500 after dodging a multi-car wreck on the final lap while running in third place. The victory snapped McDowell’s 358-race winless drought, which marks the second-largest winless streak in NASCAR history prior to a first victory and right behind Michael Waltrip’s 463-race drought prior to claiming his first win in the 2001 Daytona 500. With the victory, McDowell became the 40th different competitor to win the Daytona 500 and the 196th different competitor to win in the Cup Series as he recorded the first 500 victory for Front Row Motorsports. The 500 win guaranteed McDowell and his No. 34 FRM team a spot into the 2021 Cup Playoffs.

    The early momentum into 2021 for McDowell did not stop there as he finished eighth during the following weekend at the Daytona International Speedway Road Course, which was followed by a sixth-place result at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Seven races later, McDowell collected a strong third-place result at Talladega in April following a late battle with eventual winner Brad Keselowski. He went on to collect a seventh-place result at the Circuit of the Americas in May before entering the 2021 Cup Playoffs for the first time in his career. His title hopes, however, came to an end during the Round of 16 after finishing no higher than 24th during the opening round’s three events. Nonetheless, he finished a career-best 16th place in a season where he claimed his first victory, a career-high five top-10 results and a career-best average result of 20.5.

    Through 399 previous Cup starts, McDowell has achieved one victory, five top-five results, 18 top-10 results, 118 laps led and an average-finishing result of 29.0. His highest-finishing result through the first six scheduled events of 2022 is seventh, which occurred in the 64th running of the Daytona 500 in February, and he currently sits in 26th place in the regular season standings.

    McDowell is scheduled to make his 400th Cup Series career start at Richmond Raceway on Sunday, April 3, with coverage to occur at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX.

  • McDowell to make 350th Cup start at Bristol

    McDowell to make 350th Cup start at Bristol

    A significant milestone is in the making for Michael McDowell, driver of the No. 34 Ford Mustang for Front Row Motorsports in the NASCAR Cup Series. By taking the green flag for this weekend’s Cup race at Bristol Motor Speedway, McDowell will reach 350 career starts in NASCAR’s premier series.

    A native of Glendale, Arizona, McDowell was in the early stages of his racing career in NASCAR when he was selected as driver of the No. 00 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota Camry for Michael Waltrip Racing at Martinsville Speedway in March 2008. The move came as David Reutimann, who started the season as the No. 00 driver, moved over to drive MWR’s No. 44 UPS Toyota Camry for the remainder of the season when the 1999 Cup champion and NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Jarrett retired as a competitor. Starting in 34th place, McDowell finished 26th in his Cup debut after sustaining a flat tire in the closing laps.

    On April 4 at Texas Motor Speedway, McDowell was qualifying for the upcoming Cup weekend race at the Lone Star state when he got loose entering Turn 1. Trying to straighten the car, the car turned back to the right and made heavy head-on contact into the outside SAFER barriers at over 180 mph as the car rolled over. With the car spinning sideways while upside down across the barriers, the car rolled back over and proceeded into a series of barrel rolls down to the apron before coming to rest on all four wheels with fire bursting out at the front. Despite the accident that left the No. 00 Aaron’s Toyota demolished, McDowell was able to escape uninjured and make the mandatory trip to the infield care center. His wreck was a prime example of how the safety enhancements and features made within the sport throughout the modern era, from the SAFER barriers to the HANS device and the Car of Tomorrow, keep the competitors safe in the event of an on-track incident. The cause of the accident was later revealed due to a loose sway bar on McDowell’s car.

    From Phoenix Raceway in April through Dover International Speedway in September, McDowell continued to drive Michael Waltrip Racing’s No. 00 Toyota in the Cup Series, where his best result was 20th place at Richmond Raceway in September. After failing to qualify for the following race at Kansas Speedway, McDowell was released from the team.

    Starting the 2009 season as an Xfinity Series competitor for JTG-Daugherty Racing, McDowell did not make a Cup start until September at Richmond. Driving the No. 36 Wave Energy Drink Toyota for Tommy Baldwin Racing, McDowell started and finished 41st in his first Cup start of the season. He competed in seven additional Cup races with Tommy Baldwin, where he finished no higher than 38th.

    McDowell started the 2010 season by driving the No. 55 Toyota Camry for Prism Motorsports. He finished in 14th place in the first of two duel races at Daytona International Speedway in February and earned one of two transfer spots to the 52nd running of the Daytona 500 along with Max Papis. He went on, however, to finish 33rd in the main event due to a drive shaft issue. Throughout the 2010 Cup season, he competed in 24 of the 36-race schedule and he failed to finish in all but one race, which was at Talladega Superspeedway in October as he finished 35th and was two laps behind the leaders.

    Throughout the 2011 Cup season, McDowell competed in 32 of the 36-race schedule, 31 with HP Racing. His best result with the team was 30th place at Sonoma Raceway in June. In November at Texas Motor Speedway, he drove the No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing in place of the suspended Kyle Busch, who was parked by NASCAR throughout the weekend as a result of intentionally wrecking NASCAR Hall of Famer Ron Hornaday Jr. in the Truck Series race at Texas at the start of the weekend. McDowell finished in 33rd place, three laps behind the leaders, in his lone Cup start with JGR.

    In 2012, McDowell remained with HP Racing, which was renamed to Phil Parsons Racing. Competing in 30 of the 36-race Cup schedule and in the No. 98 K-Love Radio Ford Fusion, his best result was 23rd at Bristol Motor Speedway in August while he sustained 25 DNFs. Prior to the conclusion of the 2012 season, McDowell reached 100 career starts in the Cup Series.

    Following the 2013 Cup season, where he competed in all but three races while achieving his first top-10 career finish in the Daytona 500 in February (ninth place), McDowell was named driver of the No. 95 Ford Fusion for Leavine Family Racing for the 2014 NASCAR Cup Series season. He failed to qualify for the Daytona 500, but went on to compete in 19 of the 36-race schedule. His best result was seventh place in the rain-shortened Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway in July.

    McDowell continued to drive for Leavine Family Racing in 2015, where he made 16 starts with the team and finished no higher than 20th place at Watkins Glen International in August, and in 2016 when LFR formed an alliance with Circle Sport and changed manufacturers from Ford to Chevrolet. Starting the 2016 Cup season in the No. 59 Thrivent Financial/K-LOVE Chevrolet SS, McDowell finished in 15th place in the 58th running of the Daytona 500. He then split driving responsibilities of the No. 95 LFR Chevrolet with Ty Dillon throughout the season, where he finished 10th at Daytona in July, 12th at Richmond in September and 14th at Charlotte Motor Speedway in October. He concluded the season by finishing in 10th place at Homestead-Miami Speedway and a career-best 30th place in the final standings. By the time the 2016 season concluded, McDowell had surpassed 200 career starts in the Cup Series.

    Following the 2017 Cup season, where he competed the entire 36-race Cup schedule with Leavine Family Racing, achieved a career-best fourth-place finish at Daytona in July and finished a career-best 26th place in the final standings, McDowell moved to Front Row Motorsports to pilot the No. 34 Ford in 2018. He started the season by finishing in ninth place in the 60th running of the Daytona 500 in February. For the remainder of the season, he achieved nine additional top-20 results, led a career-high 33 laps in total and he concluded the season in 26th place in the final standings.

    Remaining with Front Row Motorsports for the 2019 season while paired with former Daytona 500-winning crew chief Drew Blickensderfer, McDowell started the season on a high note by finishing in fifth place in the 61st running of the Daytona 500. He achieved three additional top-15 results over the next 29 Cup races before he logged in another fifth-place result at Talladega in October. He went on to conclude the season in 27th place in the final standings. Following the 2019 season, McDowell surpassed 300 Cup career starts.

    This season, which marks his third with FRM, McDowell has achieved three top-10 results and nine top-15 results through 28 Cup races. He is ranked in 22nd place in the standings, he holds a career-best average result of 19.9 and is coming off a 25th-place result at Richmond while he also continues to pursue his first elusive victory in NASCAR’s premier series.

    Catch McDowell’s milestone start at Bristol Motor Speedway for the Bass Pro Shops Night Race on Saturday, September 19. The race will air at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN.

  • The Final Word – NASCAR is back, but how many of the fans have also returned?

    The Final Word – NASCAR is back, but how many of the fans have also returned?

    The return of NASCAR for 2016 was a smashing success. I mean, if smashing cars was the intent, they could not have done better. By the time the Sprint Unlimited, which is actually limited to 25 drivers, came to a conclusion, someone had tallied up that an estimated $2.5-million in damages had been racked up.

    Was it worth watching? I think so. So does Denny Hamlin who, despite some early right side damage, came through to take the checkered flag. What I love about NASCAR are the close calls; the drivers who can demonstrate why they are in those cars and I am not. Any damn idiot can wreck a car, which is why the smart folks ensure the idiots are left typing up columns such as this and leave the professionals to do what they do best. Sure, there was some carnage out there, but I failed to see any idiots. I did see some folks taking chances, some who got bit when the rubber no longer wanted to meet the road, and one or two who made 200 mph mistakes.

    Was I burning with excitement, did I feel an itch scratched as the three-month layoff came to an end? Not really. Something is missing, something more than just the disappearance of the backstretch seats I sat in when Kevin Harvick won the Daytona 500 in 2007. Back then, we sat in the southwest corner in a grandstand that was quite full for both the big race and the Saturday Busch event. In recent years, those numbers dwindled to the point the seats and the butts that once filled them are no longer to be seen. Attendance overall has fallen so far NASCAR is too embarrassed to even announce attendance figures for any event.

    Do you remember those commercials from back in the day? While they started coming out in the late 1990s, most of us got to see them and the races on a regular basis from 2001 through to about 2011. They were funny, clever, and certainly aimed at NASCAR fans. Not so much these days. It seems even the sponsors no longer have it bad. I got me a nice black Goodwrench jacket hanging in my closet. I have not worn it in ages. My ole No. 3 ballcap and the National Guard edition have since been replaced by a L.A. Dodger chapeau. At one time my family would gather at each other’s homes for races, especially the big ones. Now, I am the only one who continues to follow the circuit. Why is that?

    NASCAR has done some good things; more SAFER barriers, but the job is not yet done. The cars are safer and back to looking more like stock cars. At least that damned unsightly flat decked splitter is gone. Still, for every good thing we can come up with, a lot of fans, or former fans, can pick out a handful of examples of where things have gone wrong. Handing out franchises, or charters, makes business sense, but when all they do is select the 36 entries that attempted each of the last 108 races in order to make the determination who gets what, it comes across as amateur hour. In fact, an hour is about all it would have taken any of us to come up that idea.

    The No. 98 of Premium Motorsports, and formerly owned by Phil Parsons Racing, failed to attempt five races the past three seasons and lost out. The team led by Kurt Busch did not exist in 2013 while Carl Edwards got into his new car last year. Despite their victories won in those rides, both needed more than a million dollars spent to buy a Charter from Michael Waltrip’s defunct operation. A team has to finish among the worst three Charters for three straight seasons to be in danger of losing it, and there is no provision to earn one through success. What in hell is up with that?

    I am sure there are some who totally disagree with me. I envy those people, who still can hardly wait for the next Sunday afternoon, or Saturday night, who go into a funk on those rare off weekends wondering how they might fill the void. I still get excited when Daytona, Talladega, or Bristol are the feature tracks. I have learned to love watching the action from Fontana and Watkins Glen. I still look forward to each race, but it is nowhere like it was a few years ago. Sadly, as FOX Sports does not broadcast to the north country, the truck series for us has gone the way of the dodo. As for the XFINITY Series, when 23 races are claimed by Cup guys, obviously the regulars of the circuit must not be worth watching, so I do not.

    In truth, it does not really matter if one schmuck from Canada is losing the spark. However, I get the feeling that I am not alone. I might not even be any longer in the minority. If that is true, then maybe it should start to really matter, at least to NASCAR.

    How bad have you got it? I do not know where it went, but I sure would love to feel that way again.