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July 31, 2007

Driver by Driver: Indy

I didn't get to watch much of this race, but that won't stop me from having some comments about some of the drivers who took part and some of the events during and after the race.

1Tony Stewart - After a week off Tony picks up right where he left off with another win. It's expected that Tony might get penalized for saying "bullshit" during post-race interview in Victory Lane. I'm not offended by cursing, but I can understand why Nascar polices the drivers in relation to cursing and giving each other the finger given how image conscious they are, not to mention they don't want to get in trouble with the FCC. I'd like to see Nascar be more tolerant of drivers cursing over their radios or giving each other the finger in the heat of the moment when emotions are running high during races, but when the races are over I think the drivers should be able to give an interview without cursing. After all, if they have enough presence of mind to remember all their sponsors, they can think of how to express themselves cleanly.

2. Juan Montoya - Juan's fine finish at Indy, his best finish on an oval so far, has gotten zero attention. I guess the only time fans care about what he does is when he's causing wrecks or otherwise annoying them. Down the road I suspect it will be hard to ignore his talent behind the wheel.

3. Jeff Gordon - Another race, another top ten for Jeff. It's incredible to me that in 20 races this season Jeff has finished in the top ten eighteen times!

4. Kyle Busch - This weekend Kyle met with his Hendrick teammates to apologize and clear the air after some of his recent comments in which he expressed some displeasure with them and the atmosphere at Hendrick. That was a wise move on Kyle's part because he might end up needing their help in the Chase.

5. Reed Sorenson - Another driver with an outstanding weekend that hasn't seemed to get much attention for it. Not only did Reed win his first ever pole in Cup, but he backed it up with a top five finish.

6. Mark Martin - The turmoil surrounding Ginn Racing merging with DEI hasn't seemed to effect Mark much. Not only is he the top finishing DEI driver, but this is his best finish since Pocono in June.

7. Kevin Harvick - I only saw one quick replay of the hard racing between Tony Stewart and Kevin that led to damage to Kevin's car and the loss of some spots late in the race so I can't really say who, if anyone, was at fault. Kevin apparently wasn't too happy with Tony after the race, but Tony is telling everyone who will listen that it was just hard racing and that Kevin understands. It'll be interesting to see if he's really as understanding as Tony thinks, particularly since Tony races for Kevin in the Busch Series.

8. Jeff Burton - Fifth top ten for Jeff in six races. This team appears to be getting better right when they need to be - heading into the Chase.

9. Dave Blaney - I don't usually have much good to say about any of the Bill Davis Racing teams because I think that organization is a mess, but this team definitely stepped it up when they needed to. By finishing in the top ten, Dave was able to move his team into the top 35 in owner's points which means that he's locked in this week at Pocono, the only Toyota team that will be locked in. There's only 37 points separating the #22 team from the 36th place team, the #21, but more fine finishes like this could keep this team in the top 35 for the rest of the season, which would likely convince CAT to re-sign as the primary sponsor and also make Toyota very happy.

10. Matt Kenseth - Started 31st and finished in the top ten which is very good, particularly considering he was involved in some trouble on the track and on pit road.

11. Kurt Busch - The battle for the 12th and final spot in the Chase is getting very interesting. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. has it, but a solid finish at Indy for Kurt and a poor finish for Junior, moves Kurt just 13 points out of 12th, with Ryan Newman not far behind Kurt.

12. Martin Truex Jr. - A solid finish for Martin considering he had to overcome some damage from a wreck and two pit road penalties.

13. Clint Bowyer - Clint had to start from the rear due to an engine change, and was involved with not just one but two collisions on pit road but he still managed a top fifteen.

14. Ward Burton - Best finish of the season for Ward. A top 15 finish has to feel like a win for this team since they struggle to even make races since they don't have a guaranteed spot each week.

15. Greg Biffle - A top 15 is decent but this team will have to do more if they want to have any hope of making the Chase.

16. David Ragan - This is David's third top 15 in the past four races which I think is pretty good for a rookie driver who has struggled at times.

17. David Gilliland - Got damage during a pit road incident but still managed a decent finish. David's supposedly been re-signed for the #38 for next season and I'm not surprised. He'll probably never be an elite driver but it seems like he's a fairly solid driver. It would be interesting to see how much better the results might be with cars that are more competitive.

18. Carl Edwards - Finished in the top five in the Busch race the day before, but things didn't go as well for Carl on the Cup side. He qualified poorly, and then battled an ill-handling car for most of the race, plus his crew had to make some repairs after he got minor damage from being swept up in a wreck.

19. Bobby Labonte - Never had a very good handling car.

20. Paul Menard - Not an incredible finish but it's Paul's best finish since Michigan when he finished 12th.

21. Brian Vickers - Battery issues were a problem for this team but Brian was still able to finish as the last car on the lead lap.

22. Denny Hamlin - Denny didn't win many friends on the track on Sunday with his aggressive style of driving. Junior even threatened to "park" Denny at one point. Running out of gas with just 40 laps to go while he was in the top ten had to be incredibly frustrating for him.

23. Bill Elliott - Considering Bill got damage in an incident with Scott Riggs and also ran out of gas once this isn't a terrible finish. However, it wasn't enough to hang onto 35th in owner's points. Of course regardless of what happens this week during qualifying at Pocono, Bill will be in since he has a past champion's provisional to use.

24. Ricky Rudd - Got a lot of damage in the lap 46 wreck.

25. Ken Schrader - A top 25 isn't bad for a driver who hasn't raced in Cup since May for a team that isn't very competitive.

26. David Stremme - Rumor has it that David might be in the running for the #8 at DEI. Huh? David's made some improvements between this season and last, but enough to where he's under consideration for a good ride like the #8? I didn't even know his contract at Ganassi was up this season.

27. Robby Gordon - Got caught up in the lap 46 wreck, also had brake issues to contend with.

28. Elliott Sadler - Got wrecked on lap 54, but from the sounds of it the #19 wasn't very competitive even before then.

29. Scott Riggs - Involved in a few incidents. Not a very good day for a driver and team that could really use a few races in a row with strong results.

30. Terry Labonte - Appeared to be on his way to a solid top 25 finish until the engine of the #55 gave up the ghost towards the end of the race. Michael Waltrip had said on his XM show last week that they did something to the MWR cars that they thought would result in added horsepower. Unfortunately it might have resulted in engine woes as well.

31. Scott Wimmer - There's been a lot of names mentioned as candidates for RCR's 4th car next season - I wonder if Wimmer is still under consideration?

32. Kyle Petty - Kyle's 800th Cup start didn't go the way he would have wanted, but then again not many races these days seem to go very well for Kyle and his team. Got damaged in a wreck and had to spend time behind the wall while his team made repairs.

33. Jamie McMurray - Spent 21 laps in the garage to repair damage from the wreck he was involved with.

34. Dale Earnhardt Jr. - Looked like he was on his way to good finish until the engine on the #8 blew. That was costly for Junior because he's not very far ahead of Kurt Busch for the last spot in the Chase. Some of his fans are crying about sabotage or a conspiracy against him by those at DEI now that he's leaving, but it makes no sense why DEI would sabotage their own success.

35. Casey Mears - Got into Johnny Sauter and wrecked both of them. Casey actually took responsibility for this wreck which is something some drivers have difficulty doing.

36. J.J. Yeley - Got wrecked on lap 47.

37. Johnny Sauter - Got wrecked by Casey Mears.

38. David Reutimann - His second blown engine in a row ended his day on lap 91.

39. Jimmie Johnson - A scary wreck for Jimmie which ended in him fleeing his flaming car. Luckily he's okay, but he took yet another hit in the points dropping him to 9th. After four wins in the beginning of the season the results for the #48 team have gotten progressively worse since Darlington. Some of that is due to bad luck which the team can't do much about, but they need to make sure they do everything they can with things they can control to ensure good results otherwise they might find themselves out of the Chase.

40. Kasey Kahne - Got wrecked.

41. Tony Raines - Also got wrecked.

42. Ryan Newman - Got spun and then got into the wall. Ryan needs as many solid finishes as he can get if he wants to get into the Chase.

43. Jeff Green - A blown tire led to an early end to the day for Jeff.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:02 AM | Comments (0)

July 28, 2007

Photo of the Day - Cape Porpoise

Cape Porpoise, Maine. July, 2004.

Posted by silverdsl at 11:38 PM | Comments (0)

Random Thoughts on Random Thoughts

*Great Busch race tonight at ORP! Jason Leffler got Toyota their first Busch Series win and the racing was outstanding, particularly towards the end of the race. David Reutimann finished third, but he was clearly upset after the race with the way that Leffler raced him though he tried to take the high road. I'm sure it was also disappointing for David that he wasn't the one to put Toyota into Victory Lane in the Busch Series for the first time - I sure would have loved to have seen that happen! But odds are David will end up in VL himself before this season's over - that #99 is fast every week and David is a terrific driver! As for what happened between he and Jason, I would have preferred to see Jason race him cleaner but I can also understand how hungry Jason was for that win, knowing he had a good car and not many laps to get to the front. If I remember correctly Jason once wrecked both Michael Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt Jr., who were teammates in Cup at the time, in another Busch race, so I'm sure Michael was extremely displeased to see Jason racing a driver in one of his cars so aggressively in this race.

*I'm usually one who tries not to judge drivers when they have a lot of poor results or get into a lot of incident on the track since I know that there's often so many factors that are out of a driver's control that can make situations they're involved in look bad when in reality it might not be entirely - or at all - their fault when something happens. However, Steven Wallace seems to wreck himself or others every single week, and it's really hard for even me to write it off as bad luck, non-competitive cars or the fault of other competitors. Usually I think that teams should have patience with their young drivers even if they tear up some cars, but when Steve seems to cause chaos on the track every single week I think it's time for RWI to re-evaluate things. That doesn't mean they should write Steven off for good - he might very well turn into a great driver who wins a lot of races some day. But it seems to me that he might benefit from being brought along slower. Maybe racing some ARCA races, along with the occasional truck race, where there's less pressure might be something to consider. I think racing where there might be less attention on him might also be beneficial. I have to wonder if Steven wasn't racing for his father if he would still have a ride - most teams would want to see some signs of improvement and there haven't seemed to be many for Steven so far.

*Junior said today that not only is he trying to sign Brad Keselowski to race the #88 for the rest of this season (excluding the road course races), but that he's considering signing him for next season as well. So it's probably unlikely that Steve Park will end up in that ride even for a race or two. For those who think that JR Motorsports should put a "real" driver (Steve) in that ride, well "fake" drivers don't finish 10th like Brad did tonight in only their third race with a team that's had their struggles at times. Brad did a good job of racing into the top ten tonight on a track he's only raced a truck on. If JR Motorsports can provide him with competitive cars then it appears he might be able to race up front with them. Three races is a small sample, but I like what I see from him so far, particularly since the #88 probably hasn't been one of the best teams in the garage this season, but Brad has done a nice job of getting all he can out of that car so far.

*Greg Biffle might be in trouble with Nascar. Not for anything he did during a race but because after tonight's Busch race he wouldn't go to the press box to fulfill his media obligations as is required of top finishing drivers. Biffle did speak with members of the TV and radio media, but refused several requests to go to the press box. While I think the drivers need to make themselves available to the media and fulfill their obligations, Biffle did speak with some of the media so it's not like he refused to speak with them at all. He may have felt that speaking with the TV and radio folks by his car was enough to complete his obligation, or maybe there was some reason that he had to leave the track immediately. But in a situation like that his PR person needs to step in, either to explain to Biffle why he needs to go to the press box and find a way to make sure he follows through, or to run interference for him with the media he didn't speak with and Nascar in terms of making the reasons why he refused to go to the press box known. Of course he might not have had a very good reason in which case it puts his PR person in a bad position where they have to make excuses for something there's not much of an excuse for.

*After months of rumors that had Robert Yates Racing merging or being sold to just about every other team in the garage area, they finally went through with a merger of a sort (they're calling it a partnership), only it was one that no one expected. RYR has joined forces with Newman/Hass/Lanigan Racing, and RYR will now be known as Yates/Newman/Hass/Lanigan Racing, which is a clumsy mouthful (but they do have a cool looking logo). I think this is a good move for Yates. It's been clear for a while that they need some help to improve and from the sounds of it Newman/Hass/Lanigan Racing will be able to help them with one of their biggest weaknesses - engineering. Supposedly David Gilliland has been re-signed to race the #38 next season, but it still remains to be seen whether Ricky Rudd will return to the #88 and how this partnership will effect who races that car next season.

*Yet again Mike Mulhern made me shake my head. He wrote the following:

"According to one report, which could not be immediately confirmed, John Menard, the wealthy businessman whose son, Paul, is a first-year tour racer at DEI, apparently stepped in with a check to help make the merger happen."

It couldn't be confirmed because according to John Story of DEI, it's not true! According to Story, John Menard didn't even know about the merger until after it was a done deal, though I question why DEI was moving forward on a major merger without giving their sponsors some prior warning. These days until another source reports it, I find it difficult to believe much of what Mulhern reports because so much of it turns out to be inaccurate. What bothers me is that Mulhern could have called Story or others to find out whether this "report" was true or not, in which case he would have found out that Menard wasn't involved in the merger, but instead he opted to run with the story as he does so often without confirmation or sourcing. It amazes me that his editors let him get away with this kind of thing so often, but I guess it would make for more boring stories and less readers if he didn't print all the rumors and speculation he hears.

*Robby Gordon wrecked during practice today, so badly that his team had to pull out the back-up car. I went to Robby's forum on Nascar.com to see what his fans's reaction was and there was immediate speculation that Robby had put his primary car into the wall deliberately because he wanted to go to his back-up since the primary was so ill-handling. I was skeptical - what driver deliberately wrecks a car that their team works so hard on, and especially when that driver is also an owner and knows how much money does into each car. Well, if someone who was at the track listening in on Robby's radio can be believed Robby told his team to start getting the back-up ready... the lap before he got into the wall. That's pretty disappointing to me to find out that a driver might have actually done something like that deliberately. I'll never know if Robby really did wreck himself deliberately or not, but it would make me lose some respect for him if he did. Every other team on the track made due with what they had and I'm quite sure that some of the other teams were very unhappy with their primary cars too. What's ironic is that the back-up car appears to be pretty lousy too. Of course his team can make adjustments so things might be different during the race tomorrow but Robby was one of the slowest cars in qualifying.

*Ray Evernham finally discussed his relationship with Erin Crocker this week, and admitted that it hurt her racing career. Well, duh. No one - and especially not sponsors - are going to look favorably on a 50-year old dating a 26-year old, and especially not when he's her car owner who is recently divorced. But I have to give them credit for seemingly weathering the storm and staying together in spite of the negativity that's been directed towards them. I wouldn't make the same choices that either one of them did, but they are adults who can live their lives the way they choose, and if they've been together this long there's likely something real there. It's a good move for Erin to look for opportunities to race outside of Evernham Motorsports. That will be best not just for her career but also for their relationship.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:49 PM | Comments (0)

July 26, 2007

More on the DEI-Ginn Racing Merger

*A significant amount of Dale Earnhardt, Jr. fans seem to be furious about the merger between DEI and Ginn Racing, and I'm not sure I entirely understand why they're so upset. I get that a lot of Junior fans are angry to begin with at Teresa Earnhardt and DEI as a while over Junior leaving, but some of what's being said about this merger seems completely irrational. This deal makes DEI a stronger organization than they were a week ago, but some fans are insistent that these are moves that are going to cause DEI to collapse. But what is there to back up that line of thinking? DEI has gotten the #15 into the top 35 in owner's points, added some quality drivers to their roster, got the physical space they needed, added the fourth Cup car they wanted, and based on what John Story was saying yesterday on XM might now have the resources to expand back into the Truck Series and elsewhere. Of course the races still need to be run and there's no telling how good the results are going to be, but it's hard for me to see too many negatives about this deal for DEI.

*Some fans are upset that Teresa seems willing to hand over some ownership to Bobby Ginn, but wasn't willing to give Junior the 51% of DEI that he wanted to stick around. But let's be clear about what Bobby Ginn's name on the #01 and #15 cars is all about - owner's points. It's not about control or running DEI, it's about making it possible for the #15 to be in the top 35 in owner's points. Claire B. Lang played some comments yesterday on XM in which John Darby cleared up some misconceptions that many fans, including myself, have about owner's points and numbers. Darby said that Nascar doesn't allow owner's points or car numbers to be directly bought or sold. Ever. He couldn't have been more clear or insistent about this point. But because owners and teams are independent operators what they are allowed to do is enter into business arrangements with each other that may include mergers that make it possible for numbers or owner's points to move from one team to another. So for DEI to get the owner's points from the #14 they had to merge with Ginn Racing, and Bobby Ginn has to be listed as the owner of the #15 since he previously owned the #14. He remains listed as the owner of the #01 as that was a Ginn Racing car previously. While there's been talk of Teresa and Bobby working together on some things, it appears that the only ownership stake Bobby really has in DEI is in those two cars, not in DEI itself. The current management at DEI is going to continue to make decisions as they always have. But if Junior had gotten the 51% ownership in DEI that he wanted it would have been all about control and his ability to make the decisions that he wanted, a very different scenario than what's happening with this merger. Teresa isn't handing over a chunk of DEI to Bobby, she's actually taking over his entire operation, and folding it into DEI.

*One interesting thing that was mentioned on Sirius yesterday is that when Junior made the announcement that he was leaving DEI he made mention of how he wanted to go to an organization where he could win races and contend for a Championship immediately. His comments seemed to indicate he didn't think that was possible right now at DEI. In addition, I think there were some comments made that indicated that he didn't think they were going to do much to improve in the near future. So Dave Moody said that some at DEI viewed Junior's comments as an insult and it was a call to arms, almost a challenge to prove him wrong. On one count at least they've achieved that goal, in that they've very definitely made some changes that are an effort to improve the organization as a whole.

*Speaking of moving forward, some fans seem to feel that DEI should remain frozen in the past. It's funny because when Junior was negotiating with DEI to stay, and then after he announced he was leaving, Teresa was criticized for focusing more on Dale Earnhardt's legacy than on the competition side. However, now that she's done things to try to strengthen DEI, and move past Junior not re-signing, she's still getting criticized. Some seem to think that she's somehow not being true to what Dale would have wanted. But as I've said before, no one really knows for sure how things would have played out if Dale were still alive or what exactly he might or might not have wanted Teresa to do. Some think that if Dale were still alive the driver lineup at DEI would still be Junior, Michael Waltrip and Steve Park, and it would remain that way until all three retired, but I suspect that might not be the case. I loved that lineup as much as anyone else, but I'm not sure that would work in 2007 and beyond as well as it did in 2001-2003. (For one thing Michael couldn't have stayed with DEI and also aligned himself with Toyota as an owner of three Cup teams). Times changes, people change and organizations have to react to the current situations they find themselves in if they want to survive. The other thing is that ultimately DEI is Teresa's company to do with as she likes. The decisions she makes might be the right ones or they might be the wrong ones, only time will tell, but they are her decisions to make, regardless of what the fans think she should do.

*Other fans feel that it was a waste for DEI to get owner's points for the #15 because Paul Menard is just going to fall out of the top 35 in a few weeks because the team and Paul are so lousy. Let's be realistic here. There's a 300 point gap between 30th in owner's points where the #15 now is, and the 36th place car, so Paul's not going to fall out of the top 35 as quickly as some think. Paul has made 13 races this season and finished outside the top 35 only three times. He's shown when he has a good car that he's capable of getting a decent finish. The key is that DEI has to provide him with a car that's going to be competitive on race day. Since the team won't have to worry so much about their qualifying set-up anymore, they can concentrate on their race set-up, so they won't have to play catch-up during races to try to change their car from a qualifying to a race set-up anymore. That should help improve their results. Plus, the reality is that even though the results haven't shown it, Paul has talent behind the wheel. I think we'll likely see some more of it from here on out since the mindset of the team is going to be entirely different than it was just a week ago.

*John Story was on XM yesterday and he put to rest a few rumors that have been circulating. For one thing Mark Martin won't be driving the #8 car next season. John said that right from the start Mark made it clear that he had no intention of returning to racing full-time, that he liked having weekends off. What Mark did offer is his help in any way possible moving forward, and also expressed his desire to continue mentoring young drivers as he had been doing at Ginn Racing. John spoke very highly of Mark and made it seem as if Mark was very enthusiastic about what was going on. Mark is expected to make some public comments today for the first time about all of this so we'll see how enthusiastic he really is.

Apparently another rumor making the rounds is that DEI's existing space, the "Garage Mahal," was going to be emptied and turned into either a museum or Dale Earnhardt themed amusement park. John said that was absolutely untrue, that the current space that DEI was in would continue to be utilized for race operations, specifically for the Busch team, and I think potentially a truck team if DEI decides to get back into the Truck Series. However, by next season all four of DEI's Cup teams would be housed at Ginn Racing's old space. Having them all under one roof makes sense to me as that will make it a lot easier for them to work together. John said that it was possible that Teresa and Max Siegel might look into ways to have more things at DEI's current space that would draw fans in such as more access to the race shops that were there, but that was something for the future, and there were no definite plans about anything related to a museum or amusement park.

*There's been a lot of speculation by fans about the deal that Ginn Racing had with Hendrick Motorsports for engines. Apparently the #01 car will continue to use Hendrick engines for the next two races, with the goal of changing over to DEI engines by Watkins Glen. According to John there's a variety of things that have to be done technically to the cars to make DEI engines fit. Contrary to what some fans think that DEI is going to pull apart the Hendrick engine to learn all they can from it, John said they wouldn't be doing that. In fact he said there was no need because he felt the current DEI engines were among the best in the garage area. Which was an interesting comment because Junior has complained about a lack of horsepower in his engines in the past.

Posted by silverdsl at 08:32 AM | Comments (0)

July 25, 2007

Photo of the Day - Lizard

Aruba, September, 2005.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:21 PM | Comments (0)

DEI to Merge with Ginn Racing

Now it's clear why Sterling Marlin's lawyers weren't getting their calls returned by representatives from Ginn Racing - that organization was in the process of working out the final details of a merger with DEI as has been rumored for a while.

I think this is a tremendously good move for DEI that will strengthen that organization substantially. As part of the merger DEI will add an accomplished veteran who is highly respected in the garage area in Mark Martin, they now have three extremely talented young drivers - Paul Menard, Martin Truex, Jr. and Aric Armirola, the #15 is now locked into races for the rest of the season since that team will get the #14's owner's points, DEI gets some much needed physical space via the acquisition of the Ginn Racing shop, they've added sponsorship in the form of the Army, plus they will now be fielding four Cup cars, the desired number that most organizations strive towards.

In addition, for the rest of the season they still have Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and once he leaves they plan on replacing him with another top driver. When Junior announced he was leaving DEI earlier this season, more than a few people predicted that DEI would turn into nothing more than a museum of past glories, and would eventually crumble to pieces. I thought that was unlikely to happen even prior to now, but I think this merger with Ginn Racing virtually ensures it won't happen. The driver lineup that DEI has put together not just for this season but into the future is capable of a lot of success - Martin and Truex are proven winners, and if Armirola and Menard Menard develop as expected they too will likely end up in Victory Lane more than a few times. And that's before DEI has even signed a replacement for Junior. Let's also not forget that DEI had already entered into an agreement with Richard Childress Racing to build engines, another move which made them better than they had been.

For as much as DEI is coming out as winners in all of this there are very much some losers as a results of this merger. Marlin, Joe Nemechek and Regan Smith are now all out of full-time rides. Smith has to be particularly upset since last week it was announced that he would be racing the #14 full-time for the rest of the season. But before he could race even a single race in that car, he's lost the ride completely, and there doesn't appear to be room for him at DEI. In addition Ginn Racing had a driver development program featuring Jesus Hernandez, Kraig Kinser and Ricky Carmichael, and it remains to be seen what will happen with those drivers. There's also likely going to be a lot of Ginn Racing employees out of work, although some may find positions at DEI.

I also think the sport overall is a loser when a well-funded, multi-car organization like this one closes their doors after less than a year. Bobby Ginn entered the sport with a big splash and talked about his commitment to making his teams successful, and although he will be listed as the owner of the #01 and #15 cars, which is likely more about the owner's points than anything else, at least through the remainder of this season, I'd guess he's probably going to eventually fade away out of the sport completely. As it turned out maybe the demands, financially and otherwise, were much greater than he anticipated. To me this is an indication of how hard it is for new teams to survive and succeed. That's not a good thing because it's essential that the sport expands not just in terms of an audience but on the competition side as well. It's astonishing to me that this organization went from being seriously considered to land Junior to virtually non-existent. Even Kelley Earnhardt-Ellledge talked about Ginn Racing as an organization that they were going to consider for Junior - imagine if he had signed with them? He could have ended up right back at DEI, the organization he was so anxious to leave.

Of course there's still some unanswered questions. For one thing what's going to happen with the owner's points from the #13 team? This morning on Sirius it was said that Nascar isn't going to allow the #13's owner's points to be sold. So then the question becomes what happens to that team's guaranteed spot in the top 35? Odds are that the #21 team who are 36th in points will move up into that 35th spot, but the question is whether Nascar will allow that to happen as soon as this weekend or not. I'm also curious about why Ginn Racing as recently as a day or two ago was talking about the possibility of having enough sponsorship to field the #13 with Nemechek this weekend. Surely they knew that wasn't going to happen. It was also announced on Monday that Ginn had hired Champion Motorsports Marketing to help them find sponsorship for the #13 and #14 - why would they go through the trouble of hiring a marketing company to help them find sponsorship if they knew they were on the verge of merging with DEI? Also, what happens to Slugger Labbe, who was the crew chief of the #14? I got the feeling he didn't part ways with DEI in 2005 on the best of terms, so it's hard to picture him going back, not to mention there likely isn't a crew chief position open there for him anyway.

One things for sure is that this move benefits all the go-or-go-home teams. Two additional teams are going to be locked in each week after this merger, either by gaining new owner's points or being able to move up into the top 35 in points. That means that there's going to be two less teams trying to qualify in on time each week. I'm thrilled about that because it will make it a little easier for the Michael Waltrip Racing teams to make the races from here on out. On last night's XM show Michael said that he was confident that himself and David Reutimann wouldn't be missing anymore races (he was less confident about Dale Jarrett). Aside from the improvements that MWR has made themselves recently, having two less teams to worry about having to beat is definitely going to help them as well.

I have a feeling there's going to be some more fallout from all of this and it's going to be very interesting to see how this all shakes out.

Posted by silverdsl at 08:07 AM | Comments (0)

July 24, 2007

Random Nascar Thoughts

*Sterling Marlin says that he's been contacted by a number of teams about racing for them, but he can't do anything until his lawyers sort out his contract with Ginn Racing since taking a ride with another team would void his contract with Ginn, and apparently they owe him money. I have to wonder what teams are contacting Marlin and whether any of them are competitive? When he was released Marlin said he would consider racing in the Busch Series, and I think he'd be a good fit in the Truck Series as well. In either of those two series he might be able to find a more competitive ride than he might be able to in Cup. Marlin says that Ginn Racing won't even return his lawyer's phone calls. Why? It's clear the organization is in disarray at the moment but they should have respect enough for Marlin to take care of the remaining business they have with him.

*Bill Davis Racing has made a few changes to the #36 team heading into this weekend at Indy, including naming a new crew chief, Joe Lax, now that the old crew chief, David Hyder headed back to BAM Racing. I can't say I expect to see too much of an improvement in performance, which is unfortunate for Jeremy Mayfield who must be frustrated beyond belief with non-competitive cars and the overall situation at BDR. I'm sure Lax is a very knowledgeable person who will give 100% effort towards his role as crew chief. However, his previous role at BDR was as a shock specialist. How exactly does that qualify him for the crew chief position? Why couldn't BDR find someone who has actual crew chiefing experience, or even car chiefing experience, to work with this team? Maybe no one was interested given the qualifying problems this team has experienced or BDR wanted to promote someone internally, but it seems curious that a shock specialist is suddenly the fourth crew chief for this team this season.

*JR Motorsports is going to control licensing rights to Dale Earnhardt, Jr. instead of Hendrick Motorsports handling that for him next season. JR Motorsports says that Junior will be the only driver to control their own licensing through their own company this way, but I wonder - doesn't Michael Waltrip control his own licensing through Michael Waltrip Racing? If the normal way of doing things is that the team controls licensing rights to anything related to the car, sponsor and driver, then since Michael races for himself at MWR, doesn't he have that same control that Junior will have next season?

When I first heard about JR Motorsports having that control I was wondering why Hendrick was willing to let that happen since it could cut into their potential revenue quite significantly, but it turns out the deal that Junior has with Hendrick is that they will get a share of the revenue from any licensing deals that Junior enters into. Presumably whichever sponsor Junior ends up with will get a cut when their logos are used on merchandise as well. What's interesting is that JR Motorsports is going to supposedly be more discriminating than DEI, who has controlled Junior's licensing until now, but recently with all the deals that Junior has been entering into, it's seemed like he's entering into more deals than he had the freedom to at DEI.

*Apparently Rusty Wallace has big plans for Rusty Wallace, Inc. Not only does he plan to add a second Busch team next season, but he wants to eventually expand to the Cup Series, something that will require him to sell the majority ownership in RWI to an outside party due to his ESPN contract which would prohibit him from working for them in the booth during Cup races and owning a Cup team due to conflict of interest issues. Apparently the second Busch team will be a shared ride. Chase Austin will race in non-companion races, and a still unknown veteran driver will race in companion races. Before anyone starts thinking that could be an opportunity for Steve Park, apparently Rusty plans on using a Cup driver, which unfortunately Steve isn't at the moment.

*Speaking of RWI, and Rusty, I have to wonder what the future holds for his son, Steven? Apparently the plan is for Steven to also race a Busch car full-time for RWI in 2008, but his continual issues in Busch this season make me wonder if he would do better if they took a step back with him and had him race some ARCA races, with only some occasional Busch races. I rarely say that any driver should take a step back. After all, to have made it to one of Nascar's three highest levels, a driver has to be extremely talented behind the wheel, and presumably the same is true about Steven. However, it seems that every race he's wrecking himself or others, and he seems to have trouble keeping himself under control. Perhaps in 2008 after having raced a full season in Busch he'll be a different driver, but right now he looks like he needs to improve his approach significantly if he wants to have a long career in Nascar. If he was racing for a team other than his father's I have to wonder if he'd still have a ride right now.

Posted by silverdsl at 04:12 PM | Comments (0)

Joe Nemechek Will Race at Indy; John Andretti Will Not

The original entry list for the Cup race at Indy this weekend listed John Andretti as the driver of the #08 for E&M Motorsports and TBA listed for the #13 car which had still been entered by Ginn Racing even though they weren't sure they were going to actually field the car in the race (or possibly sell off the owner's points associated with that team). But apparently Andretti won't be racing after all, and will instead be in the booth for IMS's radio broadcast of the race, and Joe Nemechek will race either the #08 in Andretti's place or even possibly the #13, the car he was recently released from, since there's a sponsor who might be interested in sponsoring the #13 for one race at least. I think it would be a good move for a company to sponsor the #13 at Indy - it's the second biggest race of the season in Cup and they would be guaranteed a lot of exposure because there would be a lot of media attention on the #13 given all the turmoil not just with that team but at Ginn Racing overall.

I have to admit to being somewhat surprised that Nemechek might return to the track so soon with a different team that isn't the Busch team he owns. I didn't figure there would be that much interest in his services given his age and lack of good results recently. But then again, look at the kind of ride that Nemechek might have to race if he wants to continue racing Cup assuming Ginn Racing can't find a sponsor for the #13 - the #08 team probably isn't very competitive and might have a hard time making the field, which is likely one reason why Andretti opted not to work with them this weekend.

One interesting note on Andretti is that the news that he'll be in the radio booth this weekend came as part of a Petty Enterprises press release. Andretti raced four races for PE in the #45 while Kyle Petty was in the booth for TNT. I wonder if that indicates that the relationship between Andretti and PE might continue past those four races?

Posted by silverdsl at 02:05 PM | Comments (0)

July 23, 2007

Photo of the Day - Cape May

July, 2007. Cape May, New Jersey. One of my favorite houses on one of my favorite streets in Cape May.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:56 PM | Comments (0)

Carl Edwards Injured (Not Seriously) in Short Track Wreck

While racing a late model car at I-80 Speedway in Nebraska, Carl Edwards got into a wreck during which he injured his hand, badly enough to result in a trip to the hospital. Although there's been no confirmation on exactly what the extent of his injury is, the Omaha World-Herald is reporting that he dislocated his thumb. Many fans are brushing it off as no big deal, but is it really such a minor incident? Edwards was scheduled to test at Milwaukee today, and that had to be changed so even if it's a minor injury, it's already effected his ability to fulfill his obligations to Roush Racing, who have to be pretty displeased that Edwards injured himself off the track in this way. And I don't blame them one bit.

Many of the drivers love to race so much that they'll jump at any opportunity to race anything, at any time, even if it's in a series outside of Nascar. However, should teams and sponsors be so willing to let their drivers race anytime they want considering what the consequences of an injury might be? Yes, a driver could get injured just getting out of bed in the morning or walking down the street, but racing carries an much higher risk of injury - hence all the safety precautions - than engaging in day-to-day activities. Other sports such as baseball have language in the players contracts that prohibit them from taking part in certain high-risk activities, anything from basketball, to certain water sports, to riding motorcycles, and with good reason. With the amount of money invested in these players a serious injury could be very costly. The same is true for a Nascar driver - it could be extremely costly to a team, sponsor and the driver themselves if a driver in the Chase was injured badly enough to the point where it effected their ability to race. So it's somewhat surprising that there doesn't seem to be too many limitations on the majority of drivers in terms of racing in series outside of Nascar. Yes, I understand their competitiveness and the desire to race, but I also think they have an obligation to their team, their sponsor and themselves to avoid putting themselves at extra risk for an injury.

ETA: An updated version of the Nascar Scene article indicates that Edwards is going to visit a hand specialist to determine the extent of the injury, and not only will he miss testing at Milwaukee, but also a test session for his Busch car at Bristol, and an appearance in a race at I-55 Speedway. Interestingly enough the article says that Edwards will "likely" race at Indianapolis as opposed to that he'll definitely race there.

ETA2: I missed this earlier but apparently Edwards was kept overnight for observation at an Omaha hospital. If his only injury was a dislocated thumb why would he need to be kept overnight? I've seen some speculation that he was being observed because he showed signs of a concussion, but there's also the possibility that the hand injury is worse than what was reported. Either way I'd guess there's likely more going on here than just a simply dislocated thumb otherwise more would have been heard by now from Roush and Edwards himself.

Posted by silverdsl at 01:07 PM | Comments (0)

July 20, 2007

NAPA Films a New Commercial with Michael Waltrip

There's been a lot of speculation that NAPA Auto Parts was looking for a way out of their sponsorship agreement with Michael Waltrip Racing as soon as possible due to the woes of the #55 team and the organization overall. But just last week NAPA was at Raceworld USA filming a new commercial to air later this year with Michael. It seems to me if NAPA was really unhappy with sponsoring Michael and the #55 car they wouldn't want to spend time and money on that commercial. It's also an indication that they don't have an qualms about Michael representing their brand either.

Of course things can always change and often do in this sport, but I have a feeling that NAPA will remain with MWR through next season at least as they are contracted to do, as opposed to opting out as many seem to think they'll do. In spite of all the problems this season Michael has still found ways to get NAPA exposure such as by making them a part of Raceworld. Other teams might be able to provide NAPA with a guarantee that their car would be in the race every week, but I'm not sure that there's too many other organizations that can provide NAPA with so many varied and creative ways of getting them exposure like Michael has. Even by just showing up at his merchandise trailer, something Michael has done quite a bit of this season can create good will for Michael and his sponsors with fans. Some race weekends Michael has spent hours signing for fans at his trailer, and I'm pretty sure any number of them spent money on merchandise that had NAPA's logo on it. And of course there's all the TV appearances and everything else Michael does to get exposure for his sponsors.

Because of how bad things have gone this season for Michael and MWR it's natural that there's a lot of speculation about what the future might bring. But some of the assumptions that some have made, often based on supposed inside information that they've heard which of course they can't back-up with any real proof, are ridiculous. Like MWR folding at the end of this season, something that more than a few fans have insisted they know for sure is going to happen. Please let's be realistic. MWR isn't a one-car team with no sponsors. They have four major sponsors on the Cup level and a sponsor on the Busch level that they're obligated to field cars for beyond this season, plus an agreement with Toyota that extends past this season. In addition, I find it hard to believe after all the time, money and effort that went into Raceworld, plus all three Cup teams and the Busch car that MWR would throw in the towel at the end of the season.

I'm thinking we'll be seeing MWR continuing to field cars (and a truck if one counts DW's truck team that MWR apparently fields for him) for years to come, and while it may take time eventually the results are likely to improve, which will probably drive some of those who are wishing that MWR will fail absolutely insane. Which is something that I've discussed in this space before - it's really disconcerting how many fans take joy in the failures of the teams and drivers they don't like, almost more than they do in the successes of the drivers and teams they do like. There's really no use in rehashing it again - it is what it is, I don't like that kind of attitude, but there's nothing I can do to change the way some view some drivers.

At any rate, I was really happy to hear that NAPA filmed this commercial with Michael and hopefully by the time it starts airing things will have continued to steadily improve for the #55 team and MWR overall, as it's seemed like they have over the past few weeks.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:06 PM | Comments (0)

Steve Park and JR Motorsports

Steve Park has been taking part in the Kyle Petty Charity Ride this week, and at one of the stops he told someone that his fans should email JR Motorsports to encourage them to give him a ride. Because I'd love to see Steve race the #88, even if just for a race or two, I sent an email to JR Motorsports expressing how much I'd like to see Steve race for them. But I didn't feel entirely comfortable about it. Fans send emails to teams and sponsors all the time, and I think they should to make sure their voices are heard, but when was the last time a driver being considered for a ride asked his fans to make a pitch to the team on his behalf? It struck me - and I know a few others as well - as odd. Generally drivers are very close-mouthed about the teams they're talking to and with good reason. In Nascar deals that seem like a sure thing can fall apart in an instant. sponsors disappear, drivers get rides stolen out from under them, teams change their mind about the direction they want to go in, and some drivers just feel it's bad karma to talk about the specifics of deals before they're finalized.

In all fairness maybe Steve wasn't all that serious with his request but asking fans to contact JR Motorsports also has a hint of desperation to it. Steve should have the confidence in himself and his talent as a driver to believe that he can get a ride with JR Motorsports on his own merits, not because fans pleaded for him to get the ride. But I can understand why Steve might feel he needs to do everything he can to try to ensure that JR Motorsports puts him in the #88. It would be a tremendous opportunity for Steve to showcase himself in a car that's likely a lot more competitive than anything he's raced in a few years. Even just a handful of races could open the door to bigger and better things for Steve. I also think it would be really good for him if a prominent person in the garage area like Dale Earnhardt, Jr. showed that they have confidence that he could succeed in one of their cars. But more than all of that the reality is that there likely aren't going to be too many opportunities that come Steve's way to race a good car or truck. That's not because he's lacking in talent - there's no doubt he can race up front and contend for wins in a competitive ride. But for the past few years it hasn't seemed like an abundance of quality teams are knocking down Steve's door with job offers.

The other thing that makes me slightly uneasy about Steve asking his fans to contact JR Motorsports on his behalf is that the signs are pointing to Junior wanting to put Brad Keselowski in the #88 regularly. Junior has stated that these three races are an audition for Brad being in the car for more races, but the biggest sign is that Brad is staying with Junior in his house. I can't see Junior letting someone live with him and then turn around and say "Sorry, I have no use for you" after just a few weeks. On some level it seems to me that Junior wants to take Brad under his wing as he's done with others like Martin Truex, Jr. So while it's certainly not definite that Brad will race the #88 for any more races this season, it feels to me almost as if Steve is lobbying for another driver's ride. And I'm not sure how well that's going to be perceived by those at JR Motorsports and elsewhere.

In the past I've wished that Steve would be more aggressive about trying to find a ride. So I've been very happy this season to see that for the most part I think Steve's done an excellent job this season of keeping himself visible and trying to do what he needs to do to find a ride. This just doesn't feel right to me. But what do I know - I'm just a know-nothing fan.

On a semi-related note, one other thing that I noticed is that the timetable that Steve's laid-out for putting a deal together for that truck ride that he's been talking about seems to coincide with the last of the five races that Ryan Mathews was supposed to race in the #22/#36 truck for Bill Davis Racing. I sure hope that wasn't the ride that Steve was counting on since I've seen yet another reference to Ryan being signed to race that truck for the rest of the season. Maybe that's not accurate or there's some other team that Steve's been talking to, but seeing how those two time-frames lined up didn't give me a very good feeling.

And on another semi-related note, I'm still wondering - where is Steve going to find a sponsor who is willing to hand over $3-5 million a season through 2009? Ginn Racing cut lose Sterling Marlin, a two-time Daytona 500 winner, and Joe Nemechek, another proven winner, because they couldn't find sponsorship for either of their teams. Granted it's a lot more expensive to sponsor a Cup car, but that doesn't fill me with confidence that sponsorship is going to be found for whatever ride Steve hopes to end up in. Which is why it would be a good thing if something could be worked out with JR Motorsports since that car is fully sponsored, so Steve wouldn't have to worry about bringing sponsorship with him to a team to make a ride happen for him.

I guess I'm just a worry-wart by nature, and I think a lot about things. Some will say, trust in Steve, believe in Steve, have faith in Steve, etc... but it's hard for me to see where the pieces fit together with some of these scenarios. Hopefully things will play out in Steve's favor...

Posted by silverdsl at 11:43 AM | Comments (0)

July 19, 2007

Do They Try to Help or do They Turn Away?

One thing I've been wondering about in relation to Aaron Fike recently getting busted for heroin possession is whether anyone in the garage area suspected or knew he was using heroin. After all, heroin is a hardcore drug that can dramatically effect the person who is using emotionally, physically and behaviorally. One would think that if someone suspect that Fike was using drugs that they would have said something to Red Horse Racing or to Nascar since a competitor potentially being under the influence of drugs on the track would be a danger to the rest of the drivers. However, that's a lot easier said than done - no one wants to be thought of as a tattle-tail who interferes in other people's business if they were to be found out. But Nascar finds out somehow and tests when they have reasonable suspicion to do so - I would think that at times they likely perform tests when someone shares information with them about a driver's possible drug use.

But sometimes drivers try to handle things themselves. In 2000 Mike Skinner's son was arrested for drugs, so he's familiar with some of the signs of someone heading for trouble. So when he became concerned about Tyler Walker, his teammate at Bill Davis Racing, who was eventually suspended for violating Nascar's substance abuse policy, he took it upon himself to talk to Walker.

"I sat down with Tyler and his father and had a good, long talk. Not that I had to, but sometimes I take my driver hat off and put my company hat back on. I told him, 'You've got the world by the butt, you're a good little driver, you just need to basically marry this race car the next four or five years and you'll find yourself in a really good spot.'"

I wonder if Skinner actually touched upon how to keep out of trouble and the importance of being involved with the "right crowd" in that discussion? But regardless at least he tried to keep a young driver on the right path - I wonder how many others would bother? In the past it's been said that the garage area is like a big family where they all rally around those who are in need, but these days I sense that at times it's very man (or woman) for himself, and some might not be so willing to try to show support, give advice or help out a fellow driver given how competitive things have gotten.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:17 PM | Comments (0)

July 18, 2007

Photo of the Day - Cape May Flowers

Cape May, NJ, July, 2007. It seemed like everywhere I turned in Cape May there were beautiful flowers in bloom!

Posted by silverdsl at 10:32 PM | Comments (0)

Terry Labonte to Race the #55 at Indy

To say that myself and a lot of other Michael Waltrip fans are disappointed by the news that Michael has decided to replace himself in the #55 with Terry Labonte for the Cup race at Indianapolis is an understatement. It was bad enough that Michael opted to step out of the car for the road course races, but now for another race as well? Very hard to take. However, to me at least, it's completely understandable even if I don't like it too much to see another driver behind the wheel of the #55. Indy is one of the biggest Cup races of the season after the Daytona 500 so there's no doubt that NAPA would want their car in the race for exposure purposes. Usually there's also a lot of cars entered so even a very good lap in qualifying might not be enough to make the race, so Terry's Champion's provisional will guarantee that NAPA and Michael Waltrip Racing will have a car in the race.

In addition, Michael DNQ'd for this race last season, and Terry has better results overall at Indy than Michael. So there's the performance aspect to consider as well. I think Michael is a terrific driver, a lot better of a driver than most people think he is, but on the surface at least, it appears that Indy isn't one of his better tracks. I was upset when Michael took himself out at Somona because he's finished so well at that track in the past, but it's more understandable when the results haven't been there at this track for Michael. So as sad as I am that Michael won't be racing at Indy, both because I'll miss seeing him on the track and also because I know how hard it is for him to not race, it makes a lot of sense, particularly from a business standpoint, why Terry will be in the #55 at Indy.

But neither performance nor business was cited by Michael as reasons why he made this decision. He said,

"While we've planned to bring Terry back for the Watkins Glen road course event, I felt having him in the car next weekend at Indianapolis would be a great opportunity for me to continue to evaluate my entire organization from an owner's perspective,. The feedback related to road course racing that Terry was able to provide my team after Infineon Raceway was very valuable. We look forward to more of the same input after Indy."

Anyone who has taken even the briefest of glances at this blog has to realize how much I adore Michael, and how highly I think of him. However, it was a little hard for me not to roll my eyes when I read that statement. Fact is, Michael's had plenty of opportunities to "evaluate his organization from an owner's perspective" during the weekends when he's not been able to qualify for races. Granted at Indy, he'll be acting solely as owner right from the start, as opposed to worrying about trying to qualify the #55, but it sounds a little hollow to me for Michael to cite a desire to act as owner as why he would put Terry in the car. As for the feedback issue, maybe the opinions of someone outside the organization are very helpful, but it seems to me that Michael is very capable of providing feedback to his team, particularly since as owner, he's very motivated to find way to improve performance. As much as the team might like to spin things differently, it's hard for me to see this as being about anything other than Terry's Champion's provisional and a desire to guarantee NAPA and MWR a car in the race. And it's something I can't blame them for. Whether it's MWR or the Wood Brothers putting a driver in a car because he's a former champion, I don't like the way the champion's provisional has come to be used, but if Nascar's rules allow it, I can't find fault in these teams for doing everything they feel they have to succeed or make their sponsors happy. But that a lot of other fans also feel the same way I do is likely why there's such a big effort to make Terry being put in the car about a way to get feedback to help the team as opposed to way to lock them into the race.

More than a few of Michael's fans are having difficulty with this decision. It seems that some fans in general, not just Michael's fans, have trouble accepting decisions that are made from a business standpoint, even if they're aware of the reasoning behind why those decisions were made. Anytime a driver is released or some other decision is made that appears to relate to sponsorship or other business issues, it's very hard for some fans to relate to the team's position or understand why they felt they had to make that decision. It's a bit troubling to me to see so many die-hard, long-time fans express so much displeasure with some of the business decisions that Michael's made this season when they've generally been accepting of everything else he's said or done in the past. Sometimes it seems as if some of Michael's fans are more accepting and understanding about the Daytona mess or his accident than about some of the decisions he's made as owner. Which is unfortunate because Michael is going to continue to make the decisions he feels are best for MWR, and that might not be decisions that fans agree with.

So I suspect that some, but certainly not all, of Michael's fans may fade away as time goes on because they're going to have a hard time stomaching him in the role of owner, a role he will likely step into full-time in the next few years. I won't be going anywhere though. I might not always agree with the things that Michael says or does, but I respect his right to do the things he feels is best for himself and his teams, and I'll always support him. In addition, where some are uncomfortable with Michael acting as an owner, probably because they're not used to his serious side, as opposed to the goofy persona he often has on TV or when meeting fans, I find that side of Michael just as fascinating as any other. I've always had an interest in the business side of the sport and I think Michael is a lot more intelligent and creative about that aspect of things than he's given credit for. Doing all that he does outside the car, from media work to ownership also ensures that he'll be involved in the sport for many years to come and I have no complaints about that either.

Indy won't be the same without Michael racing, but I'll still be watching anyway. Hopefully the other MWR cars will make the show, and I'll be able to cheer on Dale Jarrett and David Reutimann in addition to Terry.

Posted by silverdsl at 01:17 PM | Comments (0)

Big Changes at Ginn Racing

As expected, Ginn Racing made some moves yesterday, replacing Sterling Marlin in the #14 with Regan Smith, and likely suspending operations of the #13 team, which leaves Joe Nemechek also in search of a new ride, unless there's a last minute reprieve for the #13. In addition, Aric Armirola has been granted his release by Joe Gibbs Racing so he can join Ginn Racing to share time in the #01 with Mark Martin, though Armirola will still race five Busch races for Gibbs. What remains undetermined is whether Ginn is going to sell the owner's points from the #13 or merge with DEI, as has been heavily rumored.

Naturally Sterling was less than pleased to find out he was being released since it caught him by surprise. He said in an interview with Dave Moody on Sirius,

"[It] caught me by surprise. They called me yesterday, late yesterday, told me what's going on. I ain't got no problem with that. I was planning on cutting back next year but still would have liked to finish the year out like you're supposed to and do everything that was in the contract that we're supposed to do and we just don't look like we're gonna do it."

Of course rumors have been circulating for quite some time that there might be changes in the works at Ginn Racing. However, Sterling said that he talked to Jay Frye, Ginn Racing's CEO and general manager at Daytona, and at that time Frye assured him there was nothing to worry about. Well, obviously there was something for Sterling to worry about. I find it hard to believe that two weeks ago Frye had no idea that they might release Sterling. Things might not have been completely in place at that time, but out of respect to Sterling I think they at least owed it to him to give him a head's up that he might have to find a new ride sooner than he thought he would have to.

A few weeks ago a rumor circulated that Sterling might race for Furniture Row Racing part-time next season as a teammate to Kenny Wallace, but Jayski is reporting that Sterling could end up in a second car at Morgan-McClure Motorsports this season. Neither option would likely be very competitive since both of those organizations have problems getting one car in the race each week let alone two. Still, it's not like the #14 has been one of the better cars on the track this season, though they're in the top 35 in owner's points, so Sterling's used to having to deal with a car that's not as competitive as he'd like. And he did an excellent job of qualifying in for every race that he needed to when he started the season without owner's points.

As for Joe, on one of the forums someone mentioned that they heard on XM that it was possible that Joe might replace Tony Raines in the #96 for Hall of Fame Racing as soon as at Indy. I wouldn't be surprised to see that happen since those at HOF have made some comments that indicate that they aren't 100% committed to Tony and that they'd like to see the results improve. But if he doesn't end up in HOF, I'm not sure how easy it's going to be for Joe to find another ride given his age and lack of strong results recently.

Of course a lot of this is driven by sponsor woes. The #14 has partial sponsorship and the #13 has no sponsorship, but both teams need to be fully sponsored. As wealthy as Bobby Ginn, the owner of Ginn Racing, is he probably doesn't have unlimited money and it takes $15-20 million a year to fund a good Cup team. Few people have that kind of money lying around, and it really doesn't make good business sense to field a unsponsored team without any outside money coming in for more than a limited amount of races.

However, in the discussion about this on Sirius this morning, a good point was brought up - why didn't Ginn Racing realize when they put their driver lineup together heading into this season that it might be difficult to find sponsorship for two drivers who are over 40 given that most sponsors these days seem to want to be affiliated with young drivers. To be fair Ginn thought they had Panasonic lined up to be the sponsor of the #14 but that deal fell apart at the last minute. Still, unless an older driver has a gift for getting his sponsors exposure like Michael Waltrip, or is still contending on a weekly basis like Mark Martin, it seems to be hard to sell veteran drivers to sponsors.

What will be interesting to see is how everything plays out regarding the #13's owner's points. If Ginn is really in need of an infusion of outside cash I can't imagine them not taking advantage of an opportunity to sell that team's owner's points since it would likely go for a lot of money given that the #13 is inside the top 35 in owner's points.

Posted by silverdsl at 11:43 AM | Comments (0)

July 16, 2007

Photo of the Day - Flag

Cape May, New Jersey, July, 2007.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:32 PM | Comments (0)

Lots of Random Nascar Thoughts...

There's quite a bit for me to comment on. That's what happens when silly season gets cranked up and when I'm not around for a few days to blog due to being on a mini-vacation. The Cup Series is also taking a vacation for two weeks, but I have a feeling there's going to be a lot of news breaking heading into Indy, so I don't think things are going to be that quiet in Nascar. It sure was busy the past few days.

*I can't let it go unmentioned that Bill Davis Racing's Ryan Mathews put his unsponsored, newly numbered #22 truck on the pole for Saturday night's truck race, then raced his way to a 4th place finish in spite of some problems on restarts. I don't know much about Mathews, but I have to say that I'm starting to be impressed. In seven races, Mathews has only one finish outside the top 20 and over his last four races he's continually improved his finishes to where he got a top ten at Memphis and now a top five this past weekend at Kentucky, plus the pole. All this in spite of these seven races being the first truck races he's ever raced! If Mathews can get such good results with such limited experience, it seems to me with more time behind the wheel, he has the potential to be an extremely good driver. So it's not surprising that it appears that BDR is going to keep Mathews behind the wheel of the #22/#36 for the rest of the season according to the Wisconsin State Journal.

*Mathews' BDR teammate, Mike Skinner ended up winning the Truck race in Kentucky, his fourth win this season. Skinner is putting together an incredible season - four wins, seven poles, 11 top fives and 13 top tens. That means in 13 races so far this season Skinner hasn't finished outside the top ten once. What's really amazing about all this to me is that apparently Skinner had been thinking about retiring at the end of last season until BDR came to him with a contract extension. Now it's looking like he might win his second Truck Series Championship, something that he would have missed out on had he retired. I've never been a big fan of Skinner's but there's no doubt he's one of the best drivers in the Truck Series and has been for quite some time.

*Last week it was announced that not only would Budweiser not be sponsoring Dale Earnhardt, Jr. next season at Hendrick Motorsports, but that he'd also be ending his personal services deal with them that extended through next season. I'm not surprised that Budweiser won't be sponsoring Junior next season because of some comments that his sister and business manager, Kelley Earnhardt-Elledge made on XM a while back where she talked about how there were conflicts between Bud and some of Hendrick's existing sponsors (Pepsi) because Bud considers any beverage sponsor to be a competitor. That seemed like a conflict that was going to be extremely hard to resolve. And apparently Pepsi also feels that they can't be associated with a beer company either.

Odds are that Junior will be sponsored by some sort of Pepsi product(s) in 2008, which will end up working out well for him because it will allow him to market himself more easily to a wider age range than was possible while he's been sponsored by Bud. In addition, while not being associated with the sport's most popular driver probably isn't something that makes Bud 100% happy considering how profitable their relationship with Junior has been over the years, in the long-run the change might be good for Bud too since it will allow them to possibly sponsor a younger driver like Kyle Busch or Kasey Kahne, and market to an age group that might not have made up their minds regarding their preference when it comes to the brand of beer they drink.

*There was a rumor that Hendrick was going to release Kyle Busch today because they were so upset with the way he's been complaining about a lack of support from his teammates and the Hendrick organization overall recently. That report's been denied but if Busch signs with DEI, as some rumors have suggested, I wouldn't be surprised to see a driver swap. I can't see Hendrick releasing Busch just to release him unless he does something really awful or drops out of the Chase. I don't think Kellogg's would be too happy with that. But a driver swap would make sense. That would be one Chase drivers swapping places with another Chase driver (assuming Junior hangs on to that last Chase spot) so there probably wouldn't be too many complaints from the sponsors involved, plus it would give the two drivers time to adjust to their new teams and organizations.

*A lot of fans think that Busch's comments are just one more example of what a horrible person and spoiled brat he is. Although I don't agree with his comments regarding his perceived lack of help from his teammates at Daytona, and I think he would be better off taking the high road, at least publically, I understand where Busch is coming from. Based on what Brian Vickers said last year about being left out of team meetings and the way he felt after it was announced he was leaving Hendrick, I would guess that Busch isn't entirely off-base in feeling that he's getting the cold shoulder in some ways at Hendrick now. I think his comments also reflect his hurt at being dumped out-of-the-blue by Hendrick in favor of Junior. Busch is in a difficult position that no driver would enjoy being in. I'd like to see him handle himself differently, but I'm also sympathetic to what's behind his comments. The drivers are human beings who feel hurt, and a full range of other emotions, just as much as anyone else does.

*Ginn Racing continues to be a part of the silly season rumor mill. Lee Spencer is reporting that Ginn may eliminate the #13 team as soon as in the next two weeks, and put Regan Smith in the #14 for the races he's not already scheduled to race in the #01. The reason for doing that would be so he would be prepared to take over the #14 full-time next season, and that way he'd get as much experience as possible. Sterling Marlin would race the remaining races in the #14. Although it would stink for Marlin to be reduced to a part-time driver sooner than he anticipated, I think that would be a smart plan for Ginn to try to get Smith as prepared as possible to race Cup full-time. It's also rumored that Aric Armirola will do in 2008 what Smith is doing this season in the #01 - share time in that ride with Mark Martin. I wonder how Gibbs Racing feels about a driver who they indicated was a big part of their future plans potentially moving to another organization?

*Another Lee Spencer rumor is that David Hyder is leaving the #36 team at BDR to become the competition director and crew chief once again at BAM Racing. In addition, Ken Schrader may also race some races in the #49. There's apparently some truth to the rumor that Hyder's leaving BDR since some of the Jeremy Mayfield fans heard something to that effect over the radio at the end of yesterday's race. I don't think it's a good sign for the #36 team that Hyder is leaving an established organization to potentially go to one that's on life-support like BAM Racing, though BDR certainly hasn't fared very well in Cup this season either. As for Schrader re-joining BAM - why Kenny, why? I understand that Schrader loves to race, and that he'll race anything, but that car is extremely non-competitive and isn't likely to get much better even with Schrader behind the wheel. I think Schrader's better off concentrating on his truck ride than having to worry about trying to get the #49 into races.

*Speaking of Mayfield, there's an active fan forum for him on team-mayfield.com, where there's been a lot of discussion about the sponsor of the #36, 360OTC, and how they seem to possibly be somewhat shady. A number of fans have dug up some information that really doesn't reflect well on 360OTC (that's an understatement). Well, apparently someone, presumably from 360OTC's parent company, TSXT called the administrator of that forum and threatened to sue for slander if she didn't stop her users from talking about 360OTC in such a negative way. That really says it all to me about what that company's about if it's true that they threatened to take some of Jeremy's fans to court.

*Joe Gibbs apparently thought the issues between his drivers were serious enough that he flew to Chicago on Saturday to speak with Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin, a discussion that caused both drivers to miss part of Happy Hour practice. On Sunday Tony claimed that things were fine between him and Denny, and that the media blew things out of proportion. Well, if the incident between Tony and Denny really was no big deal, then why did Joe Gibbs himself make a special trip to the track to have a chat with them? Tony also claimed that he and Denny worked very well together at Chicago, the best they ever have in any race, and overall made it seem as if the two were the best of friends. I wonder if that's really true though and whether this is as over and done with as everyone is trying to make it seem?

Posted by silverdsl at 01:20 PM | Comments (0)

Driver by Driver: Chicago

This race could be summed up in one word: boring. There seemed to be very little passing and actual racing for the majority of the race, and while I'm sure to the drivers there was plenty of excitement in spite of that, to the fans watching at home on TV that doesn't make for a very interesting race to watch. The highlight of the race for me was that Michael Waltrip got to race - I enjoyed listening to him over the radio via Trackpass even though his car wasn't very good.

1. Tony Stewart - Finally a week in which Tony doesn't complain about something after a race! Hopefully winning will ease some of Tony's frustrations and he'll be a little more pleasant towards his peers and the sport in general.

2. Matt Kenseth - When he raced Tony for the lead late in the race it was probably the best racing viewers at home saw all race, but in the end Matt didn't have enough to challenge Tony.

3. Carl Edwards - Second top five in a row for Carl and his team.

4. Kevin Harvick - Led 54 laps and got his fourth top ten, and second top five in five races. Heading into the second half of the season is a good time for the #29 team to pick up some momentum.

5. Casey Mears - After three races in a row with so-so results, this was a really solid weekend for this team. Not only did Casey finish 5th, but he started the race on the pole.

6. Kurt Busch - A great finish for Kurt considering how hard it appears to be for cars to pass yesterday, and especially since he started 35th.

7. Jeff Burton

8. Ryan Newman - With this top ten Ryan moves up one spot in the points to 13th, just 30 points out of 12th and a spot in the Chase. I definitely think Ryan and his team are going to make it hard for Dale Earnhardt, Jr. to hang onto that last Chase spot.

9. Jeff Gordon - "Only" finished 9th, his worst finish in four races. That's the kind of season that Jeff's having where a 9th place finish is probably a disappointment to this team.

10. Clint Bowyer - Second top ten in a row for Bowyer. Many felt that he would have already won his first Cup race by now, but he's still waiting.

11. Greg Biffle - Greg complained again this weekend about his team's lack of competitiveness at times after qualifying 33rd. But an 11th place finish isn't bad. It just seems like this team struggles to put together a string of solid finishes. In some ways that's not all that surprising considering Greg got a new crew chief this season so there was a period of adjustment, and there's been rumors that Greg is looking to leave, so things are somewhat unsettled with the #16 team.

12. Reed Sorenson - Best finish for Reed since he finished 4th at Charlotte in May. Sometimes I wonder what Ganassi's plans are for Reed long-term, whether they'll have patience with him since the results haven't been all that impressive for him in Cup so far, or whether they'll look to make a driver change at some point soon.

13. Kyle Busch - A decent finish for Kyle, but it's his worst finish since Dover, seven races ago.

14. Mark Martin - Mark's the only Ginn Racing driver around whom no rumors are swirling. I can understand why. In the 14 races that Mark's raced this season, he only has three finishes outside the top fifteen, and one outside the top twenty. I'd think that's not all that easy to achieve since it's probably hard for Mark and the team to build momentum when he's not behind the wheel every week.

15. Juan Montoya- Best finish since he won at Somona. Before the race started Michael Waltrip commented over his radio that he bet that Juan, who had qualified in the row behind him, would try to pass him on the first lap, and how he wasn't going to let that happen since he doesn't get to race often and he didn't want any problems on the first lap, presumably due to Juan possibly doing something stupid while he was passing. Juan eventually passed Michael a few laps later and had an incident-free race. He'll need to have several incident-free races in a row to get fans off his back a little.

16. David Gilliland - Not a terrible finish for David, but he and his team might have to impress over the next few races since rumor has it that M&M's might be interested in leaving Yates to reunite with Elliott Sadler at Evernham.

17. Denny Hamlin - Denny said after the race that the team decided that they would do some experimenting with set-ups during this part of the season, and apparently this one just didn't work out so great for them.

18. John Andretti - This is a good finish for John and this team, John's best in the five races he was in the #45 for. I wonder if we'll see him work with Petty Enterprises again in the future?

19. Dale Earnhardt Jr. - Looked like he had a pretty strong car for the first part of the race but he lost his power steering while he was racing in 3rd on lap 211. So Junior had to spend the rest of the race driving without power steering, something he had never had to deal with during a race before. Apparently his father won at Bristol one time without power steering, something it sounds like Junior has even more appreciation for based on his post-race comments after having had to race under those conditions yesterday.

20. Bobby Labonte - It must be pretty frustrating for Bobby sometimes. Not that long ago he was in competitive cars at Gibbs, now finishing in the top twenty for Petty Enterprises is a good day. Bobby has just one top ten and two top fifteens this season.

21. Ricky Rudd - Also needs to improve his results if there's any truth to the rumor that M&M's might be looking to leave Yates since Masterfoods owns Snickers as well.

22. Johnny Sauter

23. Sterling Marlin - Best finish in four races, but rumor has it that both Sterling and his teammate, Joe Nemechek, might be out of their rides by the next race in Indy, which is in two weeks.

24. Tony Raines - Another driver who might be out of a ride by the end of the season.

25. David Ragan - Struggled with an ill-handling car, but this was actually David's best finish on a mile and a half track.

26. Jeremy Mayfield - Best finishing Toyota. Jeremy may get his third crew chief of the season in the next two weeks if it's true that David Hyder is going back to BAM Racing.

27. Jeff Green - Brought out the first caution of the race on lap 58 when he spun off of Michael Waltrip.

28. Bill Elliott - Never had a very good car.

29. Joe Nemechek - Could be out of a ride in the next couple of weeks, and even if Ginn keeps him in the car through the end of this season, I doubt he'll be back next year. The finish wouldn't have been any better even if he didn't spin towards the end of the race.

30. Michael Waltrip - Based on what was said over his radio, he and the team felt they had a decent car at the beginning of the race and at the end, but a poor car in the middle of the race. Was hurt by losing a lap on pit road due to a poor pit stop by his crew. Also, struggled in the early part of the race because his team twice forgot to give him water during pit stops on a very hot day. Not a good finish by any means, but still it's good for this team just that they qualified in solidly and finished the entire race.

31. Chad Chaffin - This could be Chad's last race in the #49 if it's true that Ken Schrader is going back to BAM Racing along with David Hyder.

32. Kasey Kahne - After a tenth place finish last week, Kasey goes right back to racing poorly. Yet again his car was ill-handling and non-competitive from the start, and the team lost laps in the pits trying to make adjustments.

33. Elliott Sadler - Not a good weekend for Elliott and the #19 team, but when is any weekend a good one for any of the Evernham teams these days? Elliott wrecked his primary car in happy hour and the team had to pull out a back-up car that saw no time on the track before the race. Not surprisingly the car wasn't very good and then to make matters worse Elliott got into the wall a little too.

34. David Stremme - Lost an engine with less than ten laps to go.

35. J.J. Yeley - Got into the wall on lap 245 as a result of a cut tire.

36. Robby Gordon - Got loose and ended up in the wall on lap 164.

37. Jimmie Johnson - Led 82 laps but blew a right rear tire on lap 223 and hit the wall hard. Jimmie lost three spots in the points, and one has to wonder if his fears about missing the Chase that he discussed on his show a couple of weeks ago, might be realized if this team doesn't break out of the slump they've been in lately. It's particularly a concern since Chad Knaus is still going to be serving his suspension over the next few weeks.

38. Jamie McMurray - Last week's winner wrecked on lap 154.

39. Martin Truex Jr. - Qualified on the front row for this race but an engine problem ruined his day.

40. Dave Blaney - A blown tire sent him into Ward Burton and then into the wall, ending his day early

41. Ward Burton - Got wrecked by Dave Blaney.

42. Paul Menard - The team had to change engines after practice, then an oil line problem caused the car to catch on fire and necessitated a lengthy stay in the garage for repairs before Paul could return to the track.

43. David Reutimann - A blown engine put him out of the race.

Posted by silverdsl at 08:32 AM | Comments (0)

July 15, 2007

Photo of the Day - Wave

Cape May, New Jersey, July, 2007. Not a spectacular photo by any means, but I like the way the wave is frozen in place as it crashes to shore. I wish I had gotten to spend more time watching the waves come to shore in Cape May, but a little time walking along the beach is better than no time!

Posted by silverdsl at 10:04 PM | Comments (0)

How is it Possible?

Sometimes I feel like I'm watching completely different races and listening to completely different interviews than other fans. How is it possible that I interpret things so completely different than others sometimes? I see fans post what's supposedly direct quotes from drivers or owners, and I've listened to the exact same interviews and hear them say something different, and sometimes just a few words here or there can make a quote have an entirely different meaning. I guess sometimes we hear or see what we want, and our impressions of things are influenced by emotion or our opinions. But it's frustrating sometimes how fans hear or interpret things to suit what they believe to be true as opposed to what's actually true. Of course I have my own biases - every fan does for their favorite or least favorite drivers. Though I certainly make plenty of mistakes, I try to be as accurate as I can when it comes to repeating what I've heard in interviews or seen during races. I also try to listen and watch with an open mind and be as objective as I can - I'll defend even the drivers I don't like if I think they're getting picked on for no reason. But as I've complained about before I feel like there's a lot of fans who make up their minds about how things are and have trouble seeing things in any other way.

Posted by silverdsl at 06:19 PM | Comments (0)

July 12, 2007

David Green Will Race the #1 For the Rest of the Season

When David Green was picked to race the #1 truck for Red Horse Racing this weekend in Kentucky, I had hoped that he wasn't named the full-time driver right away meant that there might be an opportunity for Steve Park in that truck. But that's not going to happen as Red Horse Racing announced today that David will race the #1 truck for them for the rest of the season. It's natural for the team to turn to David to race the truck for them since he's been working with them since the start of the season, but I thought this truck would be one in which Steve could have been very successful in. In addition, as I discussed the other day, I also think it's a bad sign that the team selected someone with so little experience racing a truck regardless of how familiar he is to them, over Steve who not only has so much Truck Series experience, but has also won in a truck. I really hope his mystery ride comes through in August because unfortunately it might end up being his last opportunity for a ride, at least for a full-time ride.

In related news, Aaron Fike and because she was also employed in some capacity for the team, Cassandra Davidson, were suspended indefinitely by Nascar, which is likely what prompted David to be named the full-time driver of the #1. It's no surprise that Nascar took such swift action against Aaron, though some fans feel that Nascar should have waited to see whether he was convicted or not. However, once the police report was made public, and it was revealed that Aaron admitted his heroin use to a police officer, Nascar had all they needed to suspend him, though I'd guess they also did some investigating of their own. With an offense this serious, that could put Aaron's fellow competitors at risk should he be allowed to continue to race, Nascar did the right thing. Since they aren't a part of the legal system, they aren't under any obligation to wait to see how things play out before they act.

Posted by silverdsl at 02:59 PM | Comments (0)

July 11, 2007

BDR Truck Team Gets a New Number

I'm not sure exactly what this means other than there might be a new development in the continuing saga of 360OTC's involvement with Bill Davis Racing. They were supposed to be the primary sponsor not only of Jeremy Mayfield's #36 Cup car, but also the #36 truck. A few weeks ago it was announced that they'd temporarily be off the car until late June when their new product was going to debut in stores, but now it's July, they're still not back on the truck and the truck's been re-numbered to #22. BDR is spinning it like crazy, trying to make it appear like it's a good thing, but there's nothing good about losing a sponsor, and having to renumber a truck and run a black paint scheme as a result. It's possible that 360OTC will return to this truck, as will the #36, when the product, which has apparently been delayed, finally appears, but it could also be a sign that BDR is losing patience with this sponsor.

If Steve Park were to somehow end up in this truck, it's definitely good that 360OTC is, at least temporarily, no longer the sponsor. Which might explain why the deal he's working on is contingent on sponsorship... just like his deal last season with BDR that never happened. But given a lot of what's been circulating about BDR and 360OTC Steve would probably be wise to stay far away from this organization until 360OTC is long gone and all the repercussions of that deal have come to pass. Of course that's if BDR actually has any interest in Steve anyway, given that they have a young driver from their development program in the truck who has shown he can race well when he has a good truck.

Posted by silverdsl at 04:20 PM | Comments (0)

DEI to Buy the #13 Team?

A few days ago I discussed the problems that Ginn Racing is having, and it appears that things are so bad that they're looking at selling the #13 team, maybe even before this season is over. Since the team has no sponsor, Joe Nemechek isn't signed past this season and Ginn isn't likely to re-sign him, the #13 seems like the most likely team to eliminate. Which makes the owner's points associated with that team extremely valuable since the #13 is in 33rd in owner's points thus locking it into every race. And the biggest suitor for the #13 might be DEI. Although they're talking about their potential purchase of a team as a way to expand, apparently if they were to buy the #13, they would shift the owner's points associated with it to Paul Menard and the #15 who are currently 39th in owner's points and not guaranteed a spot to race each week.

If there's any truth to this rumor, I can understand why DEI is looking to do this - the #15 is unlikely to be able to get into the top 35 on their own, so if Nascar's rules allow it, why not buy the necessarily points to lock the team in, which would surely make John Menard very happy. Although I'd rather see one of the Michael Waltrip Racing drivers locked in, particularly Michael, I wouldn't be disappointed if DEI made it so that Menard was locked in. I like him and like so many of the other go-or-go-homers who have the cards stacked against them due to the circumstances they're in, I think he's a far more talented driver than he's been able to show this season. I don't see MWR buying the #13's owner's points since they've already made a number of moves like this that haven't gone over very well, particularly with the fans. In addition, I think the most likely team to buy owner's points for is the #00 of David Reutimann because that might encourage Burger King and Domino's to re-sign for next season if they thought they'd be locked in. However, MWR already bought owner's points once for the #00 team, via the deal with Cal Wells for the #32's owner's points, so I'm not sure it would be possible to do it again.

The big loser in all of this would be Nemechek who would likely find himself without a ride, or at the very least in a car without any owner's points, forced to qualify in on time, after having started the season in that position and having raced his way into the top 35. But the reality is that the results haven't been very good for Nemechek this season, or for a while. Given his age, and that he's not as marketable as some other drivers, he's exactly the type of driver that a lot of teams don't have much use for these days.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:37 PM | Comments (0)

Another Loss for the France Family

I wasn't able to do any entries yesterday due to how little access I had to a computer, but the plane crash that took the life of Dr. Bruce Kennedy, the husband of Lesa France Kennedy, the President of ISC and daughter of the late Bill France, Jr. was truly a horrific one. Not only did Kennedy and a long-time Nascar pilot die in this accident, but also three other people on the ground who were in the two houses that the plane hit. So in a little over a month, Lesa Kennedy has lost her father and her husband - awful. There's been a lot of aviation accidents involving people from Nascar, but I suppose that's to be expected considering how often they fly around the country.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:28 PM | Comments (0)

July 09, 2007

Photo of the Day - Ogunquit

Ogunquit, Maine, July, 2005.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:56 PM | Comments (0)

David Green to Replace Aaron Fike in Kentucky

Due to Aaron Fike's unavailability to race in Kentucky this weekend since he's sitting in jail after being arrested for the possession of heroin, David Green has been named to race the #1 Toyota Tundra truck for Red Horse Racing. At first I was puzzled that David would end up in this truck. Although he's an accomplished Busch racer, David has only made four starts in the truck series previously. Then I realized that this likely came about due to David's already existing connections to Toyota since he raced three Busch races for Riley-D'Hondt Motorsports this season, and also works with Red Bull Racing in the Cup Series. In addition, David is also from Owensboro, KY, so it makes sense to put him in the truck in front of a hometown crowd. (It just now occurred to me that most of the people in Nascar from Owensboro, except for Jeff Green are affiliated with Toyota.)

Still, it seems a little surprising that with an experienced Truck Series driver who has shown he can race up front and win like Steve Park available that Red Horse Racing would go with David. Maybe Steve will end up in this ride yet, but if he doesn't I don't think it bodes well for him. Of course it's possible that Red Horse Racing asked Steve to race for them and he turned them down due to the ride not fitting what he's looking for or because he has obligations he can't get out of (he's slated to take part in the Kyle Petty Charity Ride starting on Saturday). But this is exactly the kind of ride that seems like it would be a good fit for Steve because it's a fairly competitive truck with some sponsorship.

WIthin the past week there was talk on Steve Park Central about how close Steve came to racing at Kentucky for an unnamed team. I literally laughed out loud when I read that. How many times in the past year or two has Steve been close to a deal for a ride? Close doesn't mean much of anything because until there's an actual done deal Steve isn't racing. Someone said to me that it's like saying that you're close to winning the lottery - you don't actually end up with any money by being "close" to winning. I would dearly love to see Steve racing again as much as any other fan of his, but after his long, with so many announcements about announcements that have amounted to nothing, and talk of deals for rides that haven't come to pass, it's really hard to think that a full-time or even semi-full-time ride is actually going to come through for Steve, as much as I'd like to see that happen. At this point, I'd even like to see him race just one or two races for some team that needs some help from a veteran driver!

After I saw Steve just a few weeks ago in early June I had gotten pretty optimistic that he'd be back on the track racing before the end of the season. He spoke so confidently about how he was working on a deal with a good team for later in the season, and he sounded absolutely sure that it was going to happen. Then on June 29th he posted on his site that he had "no luck so far" when it came to finding a ride. Just a few days later it was said on ESPN2 during Busch coverage that he told people in the garage area that if he was trying to find a sponsor to do something in August (and he also showed interest in the #88 for JR Motorsports). With the way the story's changed three different times in a month, I'm not really feeling all that optimistic any more because it doesn't sound like Steve has anything concrete in the works at all.

I'm especially feeling pessimistic if whatever he's working on is contingent on sponsorship. Steve hasn't had a full-time primary sponsor since 2003 when he had AOL on the #30 car for Richard Childress Racing. Why would a sponsor step up to the plate to sponsor Steve full-time now when that's not happened in the past few years? Oh sure, there were all those rumors about the ride that never happened with Bill Davis Racing, but that fell apart due to a lack of sponsorship, and at the end of the day a non-viable sponsor that Nascar won't approve (if there was actually any truth there as I've heard some conflicting things regarding that non-deal) is the same as no sponsor at all. There was also the rumor that Steve had partial sponsorship to bring with him to a team, but if he did he'd have some sort of ride right now since it doesn't take much sponsorship to get a ride considering how desperate all the truck teams are for sponsorship.

And the other thing that I can't get past - how is Steve going to sell a company on sponsoring him from August on? Where's the benefit to this sponsor in terms of exposure and the promotion of their company or product? The series's biggest race was the first one at Daytona, and the two races that would garner the most exposure are two that already happened - those that were broadcast on FOX. Perhaps Steve is looking to put something together for the end of this season and through next season, but then we're talking about a significant investment of money ($1-3 million or more) in a driver that hasn't raced in almost a year, and potentially with a new team should this deal be with and organization like Wyler Racing that only fields one team currently. I love Steve, but I think it's a hard sell, particularly when one considers that established teams with drivers who have been racing regularly are having a hard time in some cases finding and keeping primary sponsors.

What it boils down to is that unless Steve somehow ends up in this ride after Kentucky, I don't have a very good feeling about things. What he's been talking about for later in the season is way too nebulous for me to be confident that it's actually going to happen.

Back to Aaron Fike, I've seen some fans express skepticism in relation to his arrest for heroin possession, that maybe it was just his fiancee who was using. Well, according to the police report, aside from finding quite a bit of drug paraphernalia in the SUV, including a syringe filled with heroin, both Aaron and his fiancee admitted to using black tar heroin. I've also seen some fans shrug this off because after all, doesn't everyone experiment with drugs? It's truly astonishing to me that some don't understand just how serious this is. Using heroin is vastly different than smoking the occasional joint. It's a hardcore drug that's extremely addictive. Aaron will be lucky if he doesn't lose his life to heroin, let alone his career in Nascar.

I also have to ask - and not for the first time - if Aaron and his fiancee were heroin addicts, didn't anyone in the garage area notice that something wasn't right with them? Yes, people who have drug problems hide their addictions, but the use of a hardcore drug like heroin causes physical, emotional and behavioral changes. If there were some in the garage area who were aware that he had a problem and said nothing, shame on them. There are enough risks in racing to the competitors without racing side-by-side with someone who has a problem with heroin. I really hope Nascar starts regular drug testing for drivers and pit crew members.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:07 PM | Comments (0)

Driver by Driver: Daytona II

1. Jamie McMurray - Won his first race in five years. I admit I wasn't too sure that Jamie would ever end up in Victory Lane again because he's a driver that I think is somewhat over-rated. Not a terrible driver by any means, just not a driver that I think is deserving of all the hype that he's gotten. But he proved me wrong. It was nice to see some genuine emotion from a driver in VL - it was obvious how happy Jamie was to have won. This win should give him and his team a tremendous boost of confidence that could give them the momentum to race better in the second half of the season than they did in the first half.

2. Kyle Busch - What a day for Kyle Busch! Wins the postponed Busch race in the morning, then finishes second in the Cup race the same night. After the Cup race Kyle said that he didn't get much help from his Hendrick teammates, and as they pointed out on Sirius this morning, what did he expect would happen after it was announced that he'd be parting ways with Hendrick at the end of this season? Last season after Brian Vickers signed with Red Bull Racing, he was excluded from team meetings. It's likely that Kyle will get the same kind of treatment.

3. Kurt Busch - First finish inside the top ten, let alone the top five, for Kurt in eight races. Ties his season's best finish, but it still wasn't enough to move him up any in the points.

4. Carl Edwards - Was there at the end to help push his teammate to Victory. This is Carl's best finish by a lot at Daytona.

5. Jeff Gordon - Entering the second half of the season Jeff shows no signs of slowing down, even after the birth of his daughter. In 18 races he's got 16 top tens and 12 top fives. The only time he finished outside the top 15 is due to a wreck. Really an incredible season so far for a driver who already has accomplished a lot in the sport.

6. Greg Biffle - This is Greg's best finish at Daytona since he won this race in 2003. In his past three races Greg has a top five and a top ten so maybe things are starting to turn around for him and his team.

7. Clint Bowyer - Led 55 laps and had a strong race, including overcoming an ignition box problem.

8. Matt Kenseth - Second top ten in a row for Matt after two poor finishes in a row.

9. Kasey Kahne - Hard to believe but this is only the second time this season that Kasey finished in the top ten. Both of those top tens have come at Daytona. Kasey got caught in a wreck on lap four, but his team did a good job of making repairs to his car without him losing a lap. Maybe the second half will bring better results for Kasey than the first half did.

10. Jimmie Johnson - Jimmie was disappointed with a 10th place finish because he thought he had a car capable of being up front at the end, but compared to how poorly he's finished the last two times he's raced at Daytona, this is a great finish.

11. David Gilliland - Seems like David is pretty good at restrictor plate tracks since he finished 8th in the Daytona 500, 4th at Talladega and 11th in this race.

12. David Ragan - A strong race for Roush Racing since all five of their cars finished in the top 15, with four of them in the top ten.

13. Martin Truex Jr. - It's probably surprising to some that at a track where DEI is traditionally very strong, none of their cars finished in the top ten.

14. Ryan Newman - Started 14th, finished 14th, and ended up losing a spot in the points standings to 14th. Spent a lot of time in the top ten, but towards the end of the race he lost some spots and was unable to regain all of the positions he lost.

15. Robby Gordon - A top fifteen is a pretty good finish for a team that's struggled at times to finish this well. Still, based on what was said on his Nascar.com forum, the team experienced quite a few problems which might have kept them from finishing better, especially when one considers that Robby had one of the fastest cars in practice on Thursday.

16. Jeff Burton

17. Mark Martin - Had to pit due to a cut tire during a caution on lap 147 just before the green flag waved. When Mark restarted he was 30th, but he picked up 13 positions over the last few laps of the race.

18. Johnny Sauter - Although Johnny's doing better in his second time in Cup than in the first, the results still aren't all that impressive.

19. Casey Mears - Led 11 laps towards the end of the race, but wasn't able to stay up front after a late restart.

20. J.J. Yeley - Spent some time up front but like Casey also faded towards the end of the race.

21. Paul Menard - Highest finisher of the go-or-go-homers who started the race with a qualifying set-up and had to make changes during the race more suited for race conditions.

22. David Stremme - Had a good car, but during a lap 116 pit stop while he was in 4th he tangled with Paul Menard on pit road, which resulted in a spin and damage to the car.

23. Dave Blaney - Highest finishing Toyota, but a tangle with David Gilliland caused some damage.

24. Bill Elliott - Had to deal with an ill-handling car for most of the night. This actually isn't a terrible finish for this team considering how poor the results have been for them in some other races this season.

25. Kenny Wallace

26. David Reutimann - Radio problems and a tight race car made for a long night for David.

27. Dale Jarrett - The team brought a new car to the track with them, didn't get as much time in practice with it as they would have liked, and then qualifying was rained out, so DJ was racing a car that he hadn't had much time in. The car ended up being loose for much of the night.

28. John Andretti

29. Joe Nemechek - Got into Brian Vickers and wrecked both himself and Brian. To Joe's credit he took responsibility after the race, and said it was related to being on old tires. Also, got spun on the last lap by John Andretti.

30. Brian Vickers - Made the race because qualifying was rained out since in the part of qualifying they were able to get in he had already been bumped out. Got wrecked by Joe Nemechek, but based on Brian's comments after the race, it doesn't sound like he had a car good enough to get a very impressive result.

31. Ricky Rudd - Got damage after Sterling Marling got into him when he blew a tire.

32. Juan Montoya - Got into Kevin Harvick on lap 55, but was mostly okay after that incident. However, on lap 131 he was involved in another wreck which more severely damaged the car.

33. Elliott Sadler - Had problems even before the race started when he discovered that he didn't have 1st or 2nd gear. That led to a trip to the garage for repairs.

34. Kevin Harvick - On lap 55, Juan Pablo Montoya shoved Kevin into the wall which led to time on pit road while his crew made repairs.

35. Bobby Labonte - As an after effect of the Tony Stewart/Denny Hamlin incident on lap 14, Bobby got hit from behind by Reed Sorenson which shoved him into Dale Earnhardt, Jr. That led to steering issues and other damage to the car.

36. Dale Earnhardt Jr. - Many probably figured that Junior would contend for the win in this race, particularly since Tony Eury, Jr. was returning as his crew chief, but it ended up being a tough night for Junior. Besides having to spend significant time behind the wall to repair damage suffered during the lap 14 incident, he was also swept up in the lap 131 wreck as well.

37. Jeff Green - Got into Kasey Kahne on lap 4. Green says he didn't see Kasey, and that his spotter didn't say anything. Kasey was able to drive away but Jeff wasn't so lucky.

38. Tony Stewart - I discussed the incident between Tony and Denny at length in a previous entry, but I think Tony's impatience was really costly for his team, Denny's team and a few other teams on Saturday night.

39. Tony Raines A tangle with David Stremme on lap 23 ruined his night.

40. Sterling Marlin - Cut a tire on lap 115 which sent him into the wall and out of the race.

41. Scott Riggs - Engine problems put Scott out of the race early, which is exactly what he didn't need because it allowed the #22 and #21 teams to move ahead of his team in the owner's points standings.

42. Reed Sorenson - Got hit from behind in the Tony Stewart/Denny Hamlin incident which sent him into Bobby Labonte, and caused so much damage that he couldn't finish the race.

43. Denny Hamlin - Got wrecked by his teammate.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:22 AM | Comments (0)

July 08, 2007

Photo of the Day - Eagle

Highland, NJ, May 2007.

Posted by silverdsl at 08:56 PM | Comments (0)

Aaron Fike Arrested for Drug Possession

Turns out Tyler Walker, who was recently suspended by Nascar for failing a drug test, might not be the only Truck Series driver with a drug problem. Over the weekend, Aaron Fike, driver of the #1 truck for Red Horse Racing, who is currently 8th in the Truck Series points was arrested for drug possession along with his fiancee Cassandra Davidson at Kings Island, an amusement park in Ohio. As Fike was driving out of the parking lot he hit a security guard with the driver's side mirror on his SUV. When police arrived they discovered the heroin, along with drug paraphernalia with residue in the SUV.

Of course Fike hasn't been convicted of anything yet, but I'd think Nascar is probably not going to want to let someone who might have a problem with heroin back on the track to race. So that means that Red Horse Racing might be in need of a driver. Naturally some of my fellow Steve Park fans are already thinking that this would be an opportunity for Steve, and he certainly is available, assuming he's willing to give up taking part in the Kyle Petty Charity Ride that starts next weekend, the same day as the truck race in Kentucky. It would be a decent truck too - Fike was able to race his way to two top tens and most recently a 5th place finish at Memphis. I can't really think of too many other drivers who would be available to step into this ride, but I've thought this in the past, only to see Steve still sitting on the sidelines while other drivers, some of whom I've never even heard of have gotten rides. The other issue is sponsorship. It doesn't appear that Red Horse Racing has much of it, and I think one reason Fike got this ride was because he brought a sponsor with him. So if they end up without a sponsor if Fike is parked by Nascar, I have to wonder what the future of the team would be.

Some fans seems shocked that a young driver with his entire life ahead of him would waste an opportunity to make a name for himself in Nascar on drugs. But I'm not surprised. Outside of Nascar there's countless people in all walks of life who lose everything they have and are to drugs. As much as Nascar likes to pretend that their sport is somehow above all the problems that other sports have, why would Nascar be any different? Particularly when drivers and crew members aren't tested for drugs unless they have reason to suspect that someone is using. I have to wonder though about Fike - if he really was using heroin, how is it that no one around him in the garage area noticed that there might be something off about him? Heroin is a hardcore drug, not just a drug that often gets used casually like pot.

I think the time is well past for Nascar to take their heads out of the sand and start doing random testing for drugs. I'd like to think that the majority of drivers would be smarter than to use drugs, but that there's been three young drivers who have been suspended for drug use in the past few years, plus another driver arrested for possession of drugs speaks to the need for Nascar to re-evaluate their policy as it relates to drugs.

Posted by silverdsl at 04:54 PM | Comments (0)

Put a Cork in it Tony!

I've come to expect that every week Tony Stewart is going to whine and complain about some injustice that was done to him, but I never thought that he'd unload on a teammate. In last night's race Tony came up on Denny Hamlin who was clearly slower than he was. But instead of trying to avoid Denny or slow up himself, Tony simply ran over Denny which led to both cars being wrecked. To be fair to Tony, it can be difficult to slow up or avoid another car at such a high rate of speed when there's so little time to react, and it's unexpected that another car slows down. So in essence this was an accident, but that didn't stop Tony from ripping into Denny.

In an interview with TNT Tony said,

"The No. 11 (Denny Hamlin) just stopped for no reason, right in the middle of Turn 4. I'm sure he was getting tight because for three laps in a row we were catching him through the center and the exit of the corner. All of a sudden he just stops on the exit of (Turn) 4 in front of 42 cars and I guess expects all of us to drive around him. I don't know. It's tore up two really good race cars. He tried to crash us on Friday in practice and didn't get it done so he finished it off today... I mean he's a young guy and he wants to be successful, but I don't know if he knows the definition of 'team' right now."

Those comments are ridiculous, and I think Tony made himself look like an asshat. First of all, Denny wasn't stopped - he was simply slower, and whose fault is it that Tony didn't notice - or didn't care - that Denny was slower than he was? Not only that, but 42 other cars didn't seem to have any problem racing with Denny up until that point. Secondly, Tony couldn't possibly believe that Denny was deliberately trying to wreck him either in practice or during the race? To me that's just crazy talk. No driver deliberately stops on the middle of the track, less than 20 laps in, when they have a good car in a deliberate attempt to wreck a teammate.

In addition, if there's anyone who needs a reminder on the definiation of team, teammate and teamwork, it's Tony. No matter how angry he was about what happened, there's no excuse for lashing out at his teammate during a TV interview, especially since it's likely that Tony hadn't even seen a replay of the incident before he opened his big mouth. Yes, I understand that Tony gets emotional, but that doesn't excuse him for his poor judgement in accusing his own teammate of wrong-doing, when it was really nothing more than hard racing. If he's got a problem with Denny he should have enough respect for him to speak with him privately about it instead of mouthing off to the media. Tony embarassed himself and I think he also embarassed Joe Gibbs Racing because he made it seem as if there's problems between himself and Denny that the organization needs to get a handle on. I hope that Tony has the good sense to keep any lingering hostility towards Denny to himself when he does his Sirius show this week. His pattern has been to continue to rip into his chosen target of ire from each race weekend, and that would not be a good thing when it came to his own teammate. A teammate, it should be noted who took the high road and didn't respond in kind to Tony's comments.

Because Tony has so much talent behind the wheel, does a lot for charity, and is very good with fans at appearances, these incidents are brushed off or excused. He wins races and he's a former Champion so it seems as if that's enough to make bad behavior acceptable. Well, if Tony was an office employee instead of a race car driver he might be looking for a new job if he made the working environment a hostile one by constantly lashing out and bullying others. I respect Tony's racing ability, but I think there's a really ugly side to Tony that's been coming out a lot this season.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:55 AM | Comments (0)

In the News: Michael Waltrip (7/8)

It's two days later and it's still no easier to take Michael Waltrip qualifying so well on Friday and still not getting to race due to qualifying being rained out with some cars still left to go. I'm pretty understanding of the difficulties involved with post-poning events, particularly when there's so much going on at the track, but if they were able to post-pone the Busch race until this morning, it seems like they should have been able to do the same with qualifying. Had they started qualifying completely over again, there would be no guarantee that Michael would have been able to qualify as well as he did yesterday, but at least he would have had a chance. There are reports that Nascar is looking at making some modifications to the top 35 rule, and I hope they also consider making some changes that would allow them to post-pone qualifying until the following day, particularly if they've already qualified more than half the field, if need be due to bad weather instead of setting the field by owner points. I can't really say it's unfair to Michael the way things played out, because he's well aware of the rules, and those rules kept more deserving drivers than just him from racing, but it's really, really, really disappointing and frustrating that Michael's not racing tonight when it seemed almost certain at one point yesterday that we would.

On Thursday, Michael had a busy day. Not only did he participate in two practice sessions, but he also met with the media and took part in an event for former winners of the Daytona 500. With how badly this season has gone for him, being reminded that he's part of a very special group had to feel really good to him. And no matter how much some try to brush off Michael's two Daytona 500 wins as meaningless, they aren't - the Daytona 500 is still Nascar's biggest and most prestigious race. Michael will always be a part of Nascar's history books as a two-time winner of the Daytona 500, and I hope being with the other former winners was something he enjoyed - I know I would have loved to be there to hear them exchange stories and talk about their experiences as Daytona 500 winenrs! Of being at the event Michael said,

"I was in their company. I can't say I'm in their league. Being able to hang with those guys was so cool," Waltrip said. "I never will get over the fact I get to sit with those guys and be a part of their fraternity."

One thing about Michael that's pretty neat is that he's not just a driver, but he's also a fan of the sport and those who have come before him.

As for Michael's comments to the media, he revisited what had put him in front of the media the last time he was at Daytona - the illegal fuel additive in his car that resulted in penalties his team and organization still hasn't recovered from. When asked if it was difficult to come back to Daytona Michael said,

"It's not tough coming back here. Daytona is what NASCAR is all about. Coming here makes me smile. As far as how it felt in February, it strengthened my confidence and my faith in people who supported me. And it distanced me from people that doubted me and didn't know the facts and prosecuted me and put me in jail."

If Michael can still like racing at Daytona after Dale Earnhardt's death, then I think the mess from this past Febuary isn't going to spoil his enjoyment of this track, particularly since he's always had so much success at Daytona. I'm glad that going to Daytona makes him smile - I just wish he had been smiling on Saturday night after a fine finish instead of having to watch as a spectator.

I suppose that learning who really supports him and who doesn't has some benefits, but it had to be very painful to Michael to discover that some, maybe even some people he thought he was friends with or felt close to, were willing to think the worst of him or in the case of a lot of fans and the media ripped into him. I think almost as bad as what someone did to the #55 car is the hurt that it caused Michael in terms of what people said about him and how many still view him. That's something that I think Michael is probably still recovering from.

As for the incident itself Michael said,

"We pieced together all the information we could get and we were able to feel comfortable with who did it. We don't know what it was. We just have circumstantial evidence that implicates a couple of guys, and they're no longer with us now. We've done all that we can do and cooperated with NASCAR in every way we could. We still have an ongoing investigation about what it was and where it came from in hopes that if we find out the answer to those two questions we'll be able to positively identify who did it. But as far as today, the circumstances have led us to believe that we've separated ourselves from the people that were responsible.''

Since they parted ways with David Hyder and some people who had been hired with Hyder, that's pretty much saying that they feel that Hyder was responsible, though Hyder has proclaimed his innocence from day one... or at least as much as his lawyers will allow him to. Fact is, even if Hyder didn't put the illegal substance in the car himself, he's still guilty of negligence in a way since the crew chief is responsible for the car. For something like that to have happened without his knowledge would be almost as bad to me as if he actively took part in putting the fuel additive into the car. I hope that someday what happend at Daytona is a distant memory to Michael and his organization, faded into the past by the successes of the present.

Michael also addressed David Reutimann's future at MWR since that had been a topic of much debate recently when it was revealed that David was unsigned for next season and might be entertaining offers from other teams. As it turns out the driver lineup for next season is, as of now, set. Michael said,

"Dale [Jarrett] and I will continue to drive our cars, and I'm 99 percent sure David will drive the third Cup car. We'll just have to see how the sponsorship looks - whether it's Burger King and Domino's again or Burger King, Domino's and someone else."

I can't express how thrilled I am that not only does MWR plan on re-signing David for next season, pending the sponsorship of the #00 being settled, but also that Michael plans on racing next season as well! I expected that DJ would continue to race next season because I would guess that UPS already has plans for a big champaign tied in with DJ's retirement, but with how much Michael has struggled this season I was worried that he might decide to replace himself. I'm glad that for now at least, the plan is for Michael to continue to race!! His 10th place finish at Michigan should be a sign to all that not only is MWR capable of good results, but he's also still capable of racing up front when he has a good car. I also think that David is a tremendous asset to MWR, both because of his talents behind the wheel, but also because of his great attitude overall, so I'm glad that MWR is going to keep him. As for Domino's and Burger King, I really hope they both stick around. Domino's especially since I really like all the promotions and contests they do. They really seem to understand how to find creative ways to get exposure and maximize their involvement in the sport. Of course plans can change, particularly depending on what the sponsors do and want, but I was really happy that Michael put the rumors that have been swirling around to rest.

As for this weekend and the race, Michael's team didn't go home on Friday even though his car did. Instead, Michael Waltrip Racing decided that since the #55 team had performed so well at Dover and Michigan to the point where they were the best of the three Cup crews, they would pit the #00 of David Reutimann in last night's race. Ty Norris said,

"The No. 55 crew really started to get to come to races at Dover and Michigan and we're knocking out 12 1/2-second and 13-second pit stops and the No. 00 had intermittent struggles. We kept having issues and having longer pit stops. So, when the No. 55 missed the race we thought Reutimann has a really good car, we have a good chance to run up front. The one thing you absolutely cannot do here is lose the draft. We couldn't take the chance to give up two-three-four seconds on pit road and lose the draft."

I would guess that MWR was hoping that David would be able to race up front and possibly contend for the win last night like he did at Talladega until his engine blew. Given all the struggles for the organization this season, I can see why they'd want to do everything they can to try to put themselves in a position to finish as good as possible, if not win. However, it was not to be as David never seemed to have a very good car, and ultimately finished 26th.

Apparently this is a scenario that we'll see again when MWR fails to qualify all three of their cars into races. Ty said,

"We decided in our competition meeting this week in the situation where if the three cars didn't make it, we would make sure we would bring the best of the pit crews that were left. This is a competitive business. If I were working for a car and I thought somebody had a second on me, I'd want them to pit the car because I'd want the organization to do better."

and

"The days at our place of being an individual are over. It's all about MWR as an organization that has stumbled more often this year than not. They are understanding that the best product we can put on the track is what we're going to do."

Although I understand why MWR switched pit crews last night, and I can understand what their reasoning is behind why they might do something like this again, I hope that the benefits in the short-term won't be outweighed by the drawbacks in the long-term. I have to wonder just how understanding the #00 crew was about being replaced, or David about losing his crew, who I saw first hand he has a very good relationship with. I wouldn't feel too good about finding out that my employer felt I wasn't good enough to get the job done to the point where I needed to be replaced, even if for just one race. No matter how carefully it's explained I doubt that decision went over very well, and I hope it won't effect team morale.

I suppose this same line of thinking is why David was taken out at Sonoma, as well as why Michael replaced himself - the focus is on doing whatever needs to be done in the short-term to ensure the best possible results for an organization that hasn't had much go right for them. I just hope that some of these decisions don't end up costing them in the long-term if people aren't as understanding as MWR thinks they are or should be.

I just hope that there's some more positive things on the horizon for Michael and MWR this season. Michael said on Thursday,

"I hate to look back. I'm not made that way. A lot of times if you look back you'll decide it ain't worth going forward."

Which is a great attitude to have, focusing on what the future might bring instead of dwelling on the failures and disappointments of the past. My hope for Michael and MWR is that there's a lot of happiness and success down the road!

Posted by silverdsl at 09:48 AM | Comments (0)

July 07, 2007

Random Nascar Thoughts...

...on topics not worthy of their own entry...

*As expected the Cup Series will change names from the Nextel Cup Series to the Sprint Cup Series. Yawn. Some fans are up in arms about the name change, but it doesn't matter to me in the slightest who the sponsor of the series is or what they call it. I refer to it as the Cup Series without mentioning the sponsor in most instances. There's been some concern that some might confuse the Sprint Cup Series with the open-wheel spint series, but I think that confusion is going to be pretty minimal since the sprint car series is very different and much less popular than Nascar's Cup Series.

*Steve Park is apparently interested in racing the #88 Busch car for JR Motorsports, but is Dale Earnhardt, Jr. interested in putting him behind the wheel? For now at least, the answer is apparently "no." Brad Keselowski is likely to race the #88 for the next three races and then Junior would like to put a road course specialist in the car for the road course races. There's still plenty of races after that, but I suspect if the results are good Junior will put Keselowski behind the wheel on at least a semi-permanent basis since he seems to have some ability behind the wheel. I can see Junior giving Steve the opportunity to race the #88 once or twice since he's put veteran drivers in the car on a limited basis before, but Junior has said that he wants to develop young talent, and Steve's not considered a young driver anymore. In addition, Junior clearly wants results and unfortunately the results haven't been very good for Steve recently (though that's because he's raced non-competitive cars and trucks).

*Speaking of Junior, it was announced yesterday that he signed a personal services deal with Adidas which will result in a line of Dale, Jr. Dale Jr. footwear, apparel and accessories. In addition, Adidas will design Junior's firesuit and racing shoes next season. It's incredible how much money Junior is going to make next season and beyond. It's not just all the personal services deals he's entered into recently or his new deal with Hendrick Motorsports, but last year Junior gained the rights to his name so he stands to make a lot more profits from merchandising than in the past.

*CAT is continuing to have discussions with Bill Davis Racing regarding an extension to their contract to sponsor the #22 car. I have to wonder if there's a possibility that BDR could end up with two cars without sponsors next season? I've documented the troubles of 360OTC, but clearly CAT is less than pleased with the way this season has gone. Unlike the other Toyota teams that were expected to struggle as new teams, most thought that the #22 team would be the best of all the Toyota teams this season. Instead they're also outside the top 35 in owner's points and have missed races. CAT has sponsored the #22 since 1999 so there's probably a strong relationship and a lot of loyalty there, but the results the past few seasons haven't been very impressive, and if CAT thinks that things may not improve next season they might explore other options besides continuing their sponsorship of the #22. Which makes me wonder what BDR would do without a sponsor for either of their cars? Finding just one primary sponsor is tough enough, but if they have to find two that's a tall order, particularly when the results have been so poor this season.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:55 PM | Comments (0)

Nascar Bans Suspended Crew Chiefs from Track

Thanks mostly to Tony Eury Jr. flaunting being at the track while he was suspended and the resulting uproar from fans and the media, Nascar has amended their rules related to suspended crew chiefs that not only will their Nascar liscenses be revoked while their suspended, which means they can't access the garage area or pit road, they will no longer be allowed to be at the track at all. Based on what Ramsey Posten from Nascar said on XM, if a suspended crew chief is caught at the track their suspension could be extended. Of course Nascar can't do anything about a crew chief being near the track, nor can they prevent the suspended crew chiefs from communicating with their teams during race weekends by cell phone, IM or email, but at least they're trying to do something about the problem. Otherwise, why bother suspended the crew chiefs at all if they can just sit on top of an RV and call the race from there? Which is clearly what Eury, Jr. was doing - there's a photo in this week's Nascar Scene of Eury, Jr. on top of the RV wearing a headset with a microphone and with a laptop on his lap. Everyone knows that the suspended crew chiefs continue to communicate with their teams while under suspension and that there's not that much that Nascar can do about it, but at least be subtle about it.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:42 PM | Comments (0)

Problems for Ginn Racing?

Just a few weeks ago, Ginn Racing was being talked about as an organization on the rise, and as a serious candidate to sign Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Now, they appear to be an organization in trouble. Although they have sponsorship in the form of the U.S. Army for the #01 set for next season, they don't have primary sponsors for either the #13 or #14, and the drivers for both of those cars is also undetermined since Sterling Marlin and Joe Nemechek are unsigned for next season. Apparently Ginn feels that they expanded too much, too soon and are in the process of re-evaluating. CEO Jay Frye said,

"When you look at a list of [employee] names and say, 'What do these people do?' and no one can answer it, it's time to look at what you're doing and how you're doing it."

I don't really understand how an organization can hire employees and not know what their role is. But even worse is the sponsorship situation. Apparently Ginn Racing fielded three cars thinking they had sponsorship secure for the #13, only to have those deals fall apart, and since they've not been able to find replacement sponsors so far, that leaves the future of the team in jeapardy. Frye said, "We have no intention to shut it down, but there comes a point that you have to get it funded." From the sounds of it they're closer to finding sponsorship for the #14, with the hope that the sponsor will be with the team for the rest of this season and then into next, but until that deal is completely done, I would imagine that there's still plenty of nervousness around the Ginn offices that they could end up with two sponsorless cars, which was the situation at New Hampshire where they fielded cars with black paint schemes.

As for Marlin and Nemechek, I suspect that neither one will be back with Ginn. Although both did a good job of racing their way into the top 35 in points to start the season, the results otherwise haven't been very good, particularly for Nemecheck who is 33rd in points. From the sounds of it Marlin is only going to be racing part-time next season, but it might be for Furniture Row Motorsports instead of Ginn. As for Nemechek, I suspect if he loses his ride with Ginn, he might have a hard time finding another ride given his age and less than stellar recent results.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:21 PM | Comments (0)

Kahne Says He's Not Leaving Evernham Motorsports

Despite a contract with Evernham Motorsports that goes through 2010, there's been rumors circulating that Kasey Kahne might be looking to leave Evernham for another team due to how poor the results have been this season. One of the most persistant rumors connects Kasey to DEI as a replacement for Dale Earnhardt, Jr. in the #8. However, ysterday Kasey denied that he's been talking to other teams or that he has any plans to leave Evernham. He said,

"I've had plenty of different teams calling to talk to me because we're running bad. I haven't talked to any other teams. I have never once talked to another team owner. It's just another reporter putting something out there with no facts. It's not true."

Everytime a driver denies rumors like this, I laugh. Most, if not all, of the drivers likely have a clause in their contracts that prohibits them from speaking with other teams about a ride while they're still under contract to their current teams. But to get around that prohibition, a driver's business manager or other respresentative can act as a go-between to speak with teams on that driver's behalf. So the driver can then say that he's never talked to any other team or team owner about a ride and be telling the truth. But that doesn't mean that they're not listening to offers.

If Kasey's really signed through 2010 it would seem like it would be hard for him to go to another team next season. However, another rumor making the rounds is that Kasey has an out-clause in his contract that would allow him to leave Evernham if ownership changed hands, and Ray Evernham is considering bringing on George Gillett Jr. in an ownership role of some kind. I would think that with a driver like Kasey who has such a huge fanbase, sells a tremendous amount of merchandise and is extremely marketable, that it might be worth it to buy out the remaining years on his contract if Evernham would be willing to let Kasey go.

I can completely understand why Kasey might have interest in going to another organization. Last season Kasey won six races, and made the Chase. This season not only has Kasey not won any races, he only has one top ten and is 26th in points. I highly doubt that Kasey forgot how to race up front between last season and this, particularly since the results for his teammates, Scott Riggs and Elliott Sadler have also been extremely poor. Bad luck is something that can change from race to race, but when an entire organization is struggling it can be hard to turn things around quicky.

Posted by silverdsl at 08:59 PM | Comments (0)

July 06, 2007

Michael Waltrip is Fast During Qualifying, Still Won't Get to Race

It's unbelievable how bad Michael Waltrip's luck is. He goes to Daytona, a track he's had a great deal of success at, with a good car. During qualifying he does exactly what he needs to do - put down a fast lap that puts him in the top five, likely good enough to make the show, among other go-or-go-home cars with just 14 cars left to go. What happens? It starts raining, so hard that qualifying is rained out before it can be completed, which means that all the qualifying results to that point, including Michael's great lap are thrown out and the field is set according to owner's points. So Michael won't get to race. Nor will Boris Said who was on the pole. Nor will Jeremy Mayfield who had also seemingly qualified well enough to race. Instead Jeff Gordon, who had only put down a 30th best qualifying lap gets the pole. Brian Vickers who had already been bumped out during the qualifying session due to how slow his lap was will get to race by virtue of having won a race last season. But Michael, Boris and Jeremy go home.

Jeff wasn't exactly dancing for joy about the way he won the pole. He said,

"I definitely don't feel comfortable being here right now. As much as we needed the rain for as bad as we qualified, it's bad for those guys outside the top 35 like Boris, who put up such a great effort. It's unfortunate ... but the rules are what the rules are. You can't control Mother Nature. But it's still hard to be too overjoyed about this pole."

How can anyone be overjoyed with the way the field was set and that good cars were loaded up and sent home? While every team is well aware of the rules and know full well that if qualifying gets rained out, the field is set based on the current owner's points, it seems incredibly unfair that cars that qualified so well won't get to race. It's yet another example of how the top 35 rule is making it impossible for some teams to compete. What was created as a way to protect teams and sponsors is now hurting some of them terribly - how are they supposed to make any progress and improve when the rules make it so difficult for them? I really hope that Nascar makes some changes for next season - even if they just make it that the top 20 is locked in as opposed to doing away with the rule completely, or make it possible for qualifying to be post-poned if it's cancelled due to rain. Just throw these teams a bone - teams that qualify in the top five shouldn't be going home.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:37 PM | Comments (0)

July 05, 2007

Is it Any Wonder Nascar is Cracking Down on the Suspended Crew Chiefs?

With photos like the one that was posted on the Infield Parking blog of communications director for JR Motorsports, Mike Davis, it's no wonder that Nascar is talking about what they can do to prevent teams from communicating with their suspended crew chiefs. That's a photo of Tony Eury, Jr. who was recently suspended for six races for a COT rules violation on the #8, sitting on top of an RV just outside the track at Louden, looking down on the action with a view just about as good as he would get if he were sitting on top of the pit box on pit road. In seasons past, it seemed as if the teams played it close to the vest as to how much contact they were having with their teams during race weekends while they were suspended, but no more - now the teams are so open about what they do that it's almost making a mockery out of things. Why go so far as to post photos and openly talk about contact with the suspended crew chiefs - it's almost forcing Nascar to have to address this.

Of course the problem is that it may be impossible for Nascar to prohibit suspended crew chiefs from communicating with their teams, unless they're willing to get into monitoring cell phones, emails and instant messages. Not only is that not practical, but that would raise some right to privacy questions - what would give Nascar the legal right to access cell phone records or conversations, as well as email or instant message accounts? In addition, if a team wanted to meet with their suspended crew chief after practice at a location outside the track how could Nascar prevent that from happening? Would they follow drivers and crew members to see where they're going when they leave the track just to be sure no meetings take place that shouldn't be? And what about crew chiefs who do what Eury Jr. did - are they going to check to see who parks their RV close to the track and bar the crew chiefs from doing so even if they on property that Nascar has no jurisdiction over? The only thing I can think of is that Nascar could threaten to extend the suspensions or take more points away from teams who are found to be in communication with their suspended crew chiefs.

It seems to me that this was one of those wink-wink, nudge-nudge, don't ask, don't tell situations, where Nascar was aware of what was going on, but turned a blind eye until now because they're being forced to address it because of all the media and fan attention. I think some of these teams would have been better off not flaunting having communication with their suspended crew chiefs quite so much - it may result in harsher penalties and things being more difficult for other teams in this position down the road.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:08 AM | Comments (0)

July 04, 2007

Photo of the Day - Natural Lights in the Sky

Aruba, October, 2005. All across the country the sky's lighting up with fireworks, but nature can provide some pretty nice sights in the sky too.

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July!

Posted by silverdsl at 09:33 PM | Comments (0)

July 03, 2007

Shane Huffman Replaced in the #88 Busch Car

JR Motorsports has decided to take Shane Huffman out of the #88 Busch car and replace him with a driver to be determined at a later date. But since there's a Busch race on Friday, and someone needs to be in the car for that race, team owner Dale Earnhardt, Jr. is going to get behind the wheel. I was surprised that DEI wasn't going to be fielding a Busch car for Junior at Daytona considering how well he races there, but I figured maybe they had decided to concentrate on their Cup effort. However, maybe it was known that Junior was going to make a move with his Busch team and might race one of his own cars. This will be the first time that Junior's ever raced one of his own cars so it'll be interesting to see how he does when he races for himself, and whether he likes it.

A little more than a year ago, Junior put Shane in the #88 in place of Mark McFarland citing a lack of performance. Well, Shane's done better than Mark in the #88 with four top tens and a top five in 18 races. Now that's a far cry from running up front in every race, winning races and contending for a Championship, but it's not horrible either, especially for a driver with limited Busch experience. It's possible that the sponsor, the U.S. Navy got impatient, Junior did, or maybe something happened behind the scenes to prompt a driver change, but it seems to me that 18 races isn't all that much time to give a driver to develop and see what they're truly capable of. But maybe JR Motorsports isn't really all that interested in developing drivers. After all, they don't have a Cup program as of yet, so there's only so far a driver can advance at JR Motorsports.

Maybe Junior will put one of the other drivers at JR Motorsports like Curtis Truex in the #88, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him put a variety of Cup drivers, aka Buschwackers behind the wheel in an effort to get better results.

ETA: I went to see the reaction on the Jr Pit Board and I saw speculation about a rumor going around that relates to Shane's personal life and whether that might have anything to do with him being taken out of the car. I'm sure no one will admit to it if there's any truth to it, but I can see where that might play a role since that particular rumor (which is likely true) spread pretty far and wide. Unfortunately the garage area is pretty conservative, and while I have no doubt that plenty of the drivers have skeletons in the closet, some sponsors and organizations are probably more image-conscious than others. I can see where the Navy might have some concerns regarding this particular rumor since I'd guess that good character is something they value in their personnel.

Posted by silverdsl at 04:40 PM | Comments (0)

July 02, 2007

Random Nascar Thoughts

*It's pretty sad to read all the excuses that some fans have come up with as to why Ted Musgrave shouldn't have been suspended for intentionally putting Kelly Bires into the wall as retalitation. "It wasn't such a hard hit." "This used to be a man's sport - Bires needs to suck it up!" "Nascar has something against Ted and wants to stick it to him!" Ridiculous. There's no conspiracy against Musgrave - if there was it's unlikely he would have won the Truck Series Championship in 2005 - and there's also no excuse for a Champion like Musgrave unapologetically ramming another competitor's truck so hard in the driver's side that he gets planted into the wall. As I said in a previous entry I agree that there's been other drivers who have also deserved suspensions for similar behavior, but that doesn't mean that Musgrave should be excused for what he did, or that he didn't deserve his suspension.

*Musgrave's replacement in the #9, Brad Keselowski, impressed. Not only did he put the truck on the pole, but spent the majority of the race up front and led so many laps that it looked like he was going to create quite a name for himself by winning the race as a fill-in driver. However, with just seven or eight laps to go, Travis Kvapil bumped Keselowski out of the way, and the resulting spin meant that Keselowski could finish no better than 16th. Regardless of the final result, how well Keselowski raced should open some eyes to what he's capable of with a good truck.

*Another driver in the truck race who had a good race was Ryan Mathews. He finished 10th in the #36 truck for Bill Davis Racing, and in the six races he's been in that truck his worst finish is 21st. Two top fifteens and a top ten in six races from a driver with no previous experience in a truck seems pretty impressive to me. According to someone on Jeremy Mayfield's forum, Mathews also brought sponsorship with him to BDR, which is why they signed him for another five races. So if Mathews is capable of getting good results and has a reliable sponsor that isn't 360OTC, it seems to me that Mathews won't be getting out of the #36 anytime soon.

*Jon Wood's recovered from his headaches enough to return to the track, but not in the Busch or Cup car as expected. Intead he'll be racing a truck in July. Why? It's been said that Wood's headaches were caused by being misdiagnosed with ADD, and being perscribed medications that caused headaches. All of that's certainly possible, but something strikes me as odd about the whole thing, particularly why he's not returning to his Busch ride as expected. If he's not ready to race the Busch car, then why is he ready to race a truck?

*There's been a lot of back and forth about the #8 and whether DEI will give it up to Hendrick Motorsports so Dale Earnhardt, Jr. can use it. An interesting point was made by someone on Sirius (David Poole?) last week in that they said that Junior and Kelley are being very smart about the #8 by asking for it even if they don't really care whether they get it or not, because they don't have anything to lose either way. By asking for it, they put DEI and Teresa in a bad position where they might be the bad guys by refusing to part with it. But it wouldn't be a bad thing if they didn't get the #8 and had to start over because it would generate a huge amount of merchandise sales because the Junior Nation would want to rush out to get stuff with Junior's new number on it. So it's really a win-win situation for Junior either way.

*Kyle Busch made a visit to Evernham Motorsports recently as he meets with teams who are interested in signing him for next season and beyond. I don't understand why Kyle would sign with Evernham though considering how much they've struggled this season. It seems to me that Kyle's going to want to go somewhere that he can contend for wins right away rather than have to deal with helping Evernham rebuild and struggle for good results like all the current Evernham drivers are this season. It would be one thing if it was only one Evernham team struggling, but that they all are indicates the problems on the competitive side at that organization might not be so easy to fix if they're effecting all three teams.

*From the sounds of it, Scott Riggs might be in the hot seat at Evernham, and I wouldn't be surprised if he had to find himself a new ride for 2008. I don't think the struggles of the #10 team are Riggs's fault by any means, considering all the Evernham teams are struggling, but his team is doing the worst of the three, so that's not a good thing for him since Evernham is likely going to look at making dramatic changes before next season in an effort to improve their performance.

*Penske Racing may add a third team in 2008 with Mobil 1 as the sponsor. There's several other teams who are looking to add additional teams too - Evernham, DEI, Robby Gordon Motorsports, Furniture Row Motorsports, Richard Childress Racing, and possibly others. It's hard enough now when there's 50 full-time teams showing up to the track each week, what's going to happen if there's potentially six or seven extra fully sponsored full-time teams?

*There's been some rumors recently that Joe Gibbs Racing has a done deal to switch manufacturers to Toyota starting next season. Well, from the sounds of it, right now at least, there's not much truth to that rumor. I wouldn't at all be surprised if Toyota did lure an established team into the fold at some point soon, but I also wouldn't be surprised if Gibbs stayed with Chevy. The entire garage area is well aware of all the struggles that all the Toyota teams have had to endure this season, and I'm not sure that an established team is going to be magically immune from the issues on the competition side - after all, BDR is an established team and they've had a significant amount of problems this season. So some organizations may want to see better results before joining up with Toyota.

*From the sounds of it, Greg Biffle's probably going to be staying at Roush-Fenway Racing, even though I'm not sure he's entirely thrilled about that. Apparently Roush has a sponsor lined up for the #16 for next season, and if that's the case I don't see them letting Greg get out of the last year of his contract.

*I didn't see the interview myself but apparently during the pre-race show, Carl Edwards, whose #99 car had a Red Sox paint scheme this weekend, was asked who Ted Williams was, and he had no clue. I don't expect Carl to know every detail about the Red Sox, but it seems to me that the Red Sox were a sponsor (along with Lumber Liquidators) like any other, and Carl should be prepped for interviews with important information about the Red Sox like he surely is about his other sponsors. He should have at least had some vague idea who Ted Williams was and that he didn't must have really made the Red Sox contingent in attendance at the race cringe.

*There might be major changes to the driver lineup at Ginn Racing next season. Both Sterling Marlin and Joe Nemechek's contracts run out at the end of this season, and I suspect neither will be back, though there's a possibility that Sterling will be on a part-time basis. Ginn also needs to find additional sponsorship, and as a way to make that clear, both Sterling and Joe's cars had black paint schemes this weekend instead having a Ginn Resorts scheme as they have on other weekends when there's not been outside primary sponsors. It seems to me that Ginn may look to add drivers instead of Sterling and Joe who have a greater appeal to sponsors.

Posted by silverdsl at 04:09 PM | Comments (0)

Driver by Driver: New Hampshire

I wasn't overly impressed with this race. There were a few instances of good racing, particularly towards the end among the leaders, and it was certainly a good battle for the win between Denny Hamlin and Jeff Gordon, but the race overall really wasn't very exciting to me.

1. Denny Hamlin - I wonder if there's going to be any complaints about Denny winning this race based on good pit strategy because his team gambled and took two tires to get Denny out of the pits first after a lap 255 pit stop when the other leaders took four tires. After all, fans complained bitterly when Juan Pablo Montoya won at Somoma because of good fuel strategy, and there was some grumblings when Casey Mears won the same way previously. Personally, I think strategy is an important part of the sport and I have no problem when a race is won because a driver's team made a good decision in the pits. As much as it's important what the driver does behind the wheel, it's very much also a team sport where what the crew chief and crew does matters too.

2. Jeff Gordon - If the race was just a couple of laps longer, Jeff probably would've been able to pass Denny for the win. Jeff now has four 2nd place finishes to go with his four wins.

3. Martin Truex Jr. - The #1 team continues to race extremely well. Although Martin struggled at Sonoma, he has four top ten finishes in his last five races, including the win at Dover. After a mediocre rookie season some fans had written Martin off as being overrated, but I think there's no question that he's showing that he's a very capable Cup driver.

4. Dale Earnhardt Jr. - Junior led 64 laps in this race, and I think he spent the majority of the race in the top five, so although I'm sure the #8 team is disappointed that the laps they led weren't at the end of the race, this really was a strong race for this team. This was Junior's best finish of the season.

5. Jimmie Johnson - Led 12 laps and got his first top five since Darlington in May.

6. Jeff Green - This is Jeff's third 6th place finish of the season. Hard to believe that he has more top tens than Kasey Kahne, a driver who won six races last year, this far into the season.

7. Jeff Burton - After a string of eight races in which the results were only so-so, Jeff and his team have put together two strong races in a row - 3rd last week, and 7th this week.

8. Kevin Harvick - In his last three races, Kevin has two top tens and a top five.

9. Matt Kenseth - After two poor finishes in a row, a much needed top ten for Matt. Although the results in the races are usually very good more often than not for the #17 team, I've noticed that they seem to struggle in qualifying - yesterday for example, Matt started 30th. I have to wonder if the results might be even better for Matt if he didn't have to race his way to the front from the back all the time.

10. Ryan Newman - Ran over his air gun leaving his pit, and Ryan had to overcome a penalty as a result to get this top ten.

11. Kyle Busch - His car was found to be too low in a post-race inspection, so the #5 team could be the third Hendrick team to be penalized for rules infractions in less than a week.

12. Tony Stewart - I wonder who Tony Stewart was angry with after this race? After all, each week he has a complaint about someone or something. This week the person he should be angry with is himself - during the last pit stop he came in 10th, but left the pits 19th because he overshot his pit stall and ended up pitting at an awkward angle, which caused a longer than normal pit stop. He was never able to make up all the positions he lost. Of course Tony will probably find some way to blame his pit problems on someone else.

13. Carl Edwards - Another driver who found misfortune in the pits. Carl had an extremely strong car and came into the pits leading the race. Unfortunately his car fell off the jack during the stop, leading to the loss of a significant amount of time and positions on the track.

14. Johnny Sauter - Both Haas/CNC cars finished in the top 15, but Johnny's team could end up being penalized since the #70 was found to be too low in post-race inspection.

15. David Ragan - This is David's best finish since he finished 15th at Martinsville in April, but this race wasn't without incident for him. On the final lap of the race David appeared to get into Kurt Busch, which didn't seem to hurt David any, but send Kurt into the wall.

16. Jamie McMurray - Although Jamie had an outstanding race last week at Sonoma until he ran out of gas, this is another just okay finish for Jamie. He's had some good races, but the results have been very inconsistant for him.

17. Robby Gordon - The results have been better lately for Robby than they were earlier in the season, but I think Robby still has some work to do. He was impressive for the first half of the race at Sonoma, but if he wants to attract sponsorship and expand Robby Gordon Motorsports to a second team, he really needs to start getting some better finishes.

18. Bobby Labonte - Just one top ten for Bobby this season, and that came at Phoenix. Although Bobby's done better than his teammate(s) this season, it's not been a stellar season for him so far.

19. Juan Montoya - Aside from JPM's win last week, this is actually his best finish since his top ten at Texas in April. I'd say that we'll eventually be seeing much better results from JPM on the ovals once he gets used to racing on these tracks.

20. Tony Raines

21. Kurt Busch - Would have finished in the top 15 if not for a tangle with David Ragan on the last lap that sent Kurt into the wall and then for a spin.

22. J.J. Yeley - Had trouble on all of the restarts due to a loose handling car.

23. Casey Mears - Has struggled the last two races to finish well.

24. Sterling Marlin - Never had a car that handled the way he needed it to so he could get a better result.

25. Kasey Kahne - Kasey has one top ten this season, and that was the first race of the season. He hasn't finished in the top 15 since Dover, five weeks ago. And his 25th place finish is the best finish for an Evernham car in this race. I ask myself the same question every week - what's going on at Evernham Motorsports that the cars are so non-competitive this season?

26. Reed Sorenson - Never had any mechanical issues and wasn't involved in any incidents on the track, but due to an ill-handling car, still only finished one spot ahead of his teammate who had to deal with both of those things.

27. David Stremme - Not a very good race for David - had a battery issue and then got spun, but his team was able to make repairs without him losing laps.

28. David Gilliland - A penalty for speeding on pit road put him a lap down and the team was never able to recover.

29. Dave Blaney - Highest finishing Toyota. This result had to be a big disappointment to Dave, his team and Toyota since he started on the pole. But Dave faded pretty quickly due to an ill-handling car and brake issues.

30. Ricky Rudd - Battled handling problems, an ignition issue, and the car popping out of gear. It's a shame that a lot of people are just going to look at the results and see that Ricky finished 30th, and assume that had something to do with him rather than all the issues with the car.

31. Greg Biffle - There was definitely something wrong with the way this team calculated what reading Greg should use to determine his pit road speed as he was penalized for speeding on pit road, not just once but three times! But that wasn't the only issue for this team as they struggled to get the set-up right for this race. It's unfortunate because I had been hoping that finishing 5th at Somona would give them some momentum and they'd put together a string of solid finishes.

32. Regan Smith - The results haven't been impressive for Regan in the #01, but he seems to stay out of trouble on the track.

33. Elliott Sadler -

34. Bill Elliott - Had a bad vibration that forced him into the pits for an unscheduled pit stop, and then had to deal with a poorly handling car.

35. Kevin Lepage

36. Chad Chaffin- The finish wasn't good, but Chad was probably happy just to be racing in this race.

37. Clint Bowyer - When Ryan Newman ran over his air gun, part of it went into pit road, and Clint unfortunately ran over it, which knocked an oil line off the bottom of his engine, and necessitated repairs on pit road which put him a number of laps down.

38. David Reutimann - Had engine problems due to a loose plug wire.

39. Paul Menard - A broken sway bar bolt caused front end vibrations that led to Paul being laps down by the end of the race.

40. Jeremy Mayfield - The splitter hitting the track at the start of the race caused two front brackets to come loose and eventually Jeremy had to go behind the wall for repairs.

41. Joe Nemechek - His right rear tire came off completely which sent Joe into the wall and out of the race. Luckily for the catch-fences along the track because that prevented the tire from going into the stands.

42. John Andretti - A blown engine ended his day early.

43. Ward Burton - His engine also expired early in the race.

Posted by silverdsl at 08:29 AM | Comments (0)

July 01, 2007

Photo of the Day - Kennebunk

Somewhere on Route One, near Kennebunk, Maine. July, 2002. I've never gotten around to writing about this unusual but interesting place I came across in Maine.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:07 PM | Comments (0)

Would This Be Considered a Good or a Bad Weekend for Toyota?

History was made on Friday when Dave Blaney got Toyota their first pole in Cup. Toyota had to be thrilled, as was Dave I'm sure since it was only the second pole of his career, the last one being at Rockingham in 2003. In some ways it's not that surprising that Dave is the first Toyota Cup driver to get a pole since the #22 team is Toyota's only established Cup team and the expectations were higher for them than for the other teams heading into this season. However, the #22 has had their struggles as well, including failing to qualify for two races. I've been wondering when the last time a team got a pole after having failed to qualify for several races in the same season. Surely it must have happened previously, I just can't remember it having happened in recent memory. At any rate, Toyota has to be very pleased that one of their teams won a pole this season. It's an indication that their teams are capable of fielding cars with speed.

Unfortunately Dave's pole was the lone highlight of the weekend for the Toyota Cup teams. David Reutimann was the lone driver to qualify for today's race among the three Michael Waltrip Racing entries, and although Brian Vickers qualified fast enough to race, his qualifying time was disallowed after his car was found to be too low in post-qualifying inspection, so both Red Bull Racing cars ended up going home as well. So that left David, Dave and his Bill Davis Racing teammate, Jeremy Mayfield in today's race, and the results weren't very good for any of them. Dave was the highest finishing Toyota in 29th, which had to be a huge disappointment to him and his team since they probably had high hopes for a good results after starting on the pole. David had engine woes caused by a loose plug wire, which left him with a 38th place finish, seven laps down. Lastly, Jeremy's day was ruined by a broken front splitter, and he could finish no better than 40th, 41 laps down. Very unimpressive. It's great that Dave was on the pole, but the Toyota teams really need to do better when it comes to cutting down on the mechanical woes. I suppose that's too be expected that the teams are so focused on trying to qualify for these races that they aren't able to concentrate on making sure the cars are the way they should be to last an entire race, forget about actually being able to get good results.

Hopefully as the season continues, there will be more poles for the Toyota teams, and better results.

Posted by silverdsl at 06:46 PM | Comments (0)

Other Teams With Inspection Issues

Brian Vickers t's team wasn't the only team who was found to have issues after inspection. Two of Roush-Fenway Racing's teams t found themselves potentially in hot water, but not in the Cup Series. After the Busch race on Saturday, Nascar confiscated the rear-right shock from the #60 driven by Carl Edwards to a 2nd place finish so they could inspect it further, and they did the same with the engine from race winner Travis Kvapil 's #6 truck. In both case Nascar indicated there were unspecified "issues" they wanted to take a closer look at which could result in penalties, or could amount to nothing. Both drivers will be allowed to keep their finishes regardless of what the outcome is which I think is ridiculous. Vickers had his qualifying time disallowed on Friday because his car failed a post-qualifying inspection, which resulted in him not being able to race today, so if it's found that there is something with the shock or engine that violates Nascar's rules, why should those drivers be allowed to keep their finishes?

But it'll be very interesting to see how both of these situations play out, particularly regarding the engine from the #6. In 1999, Greg Biffle and his Roush Racing team was subject to the biggest penalty ever given out in the Truck Series, a loss of 121 points and a fine of almost $50,000 for an illegal intake manifold. I would doubt that any Roush team would take the chance of doing something like that again, but if there really is a rules violation with the engine it could still mean big trouble for the team since Nascar takes infractions with the engines very seriously. It would be interesting to see how much heat Travis would take from fans if he were penalized because his team were caught doing something they shouldn't have been since some fans are already unhappy with the way Travis won by (unintentionally) spinning Brad Keselowski, who was filling in for Ted Musgrave in the #9, with just nine laps to go for the win.

Posted by silverdsl at 05:03 PM | Comments (0)

Brian Vickers Qualifies for Louden, Gets DNQ'd for Failing Inspection

Brian Vickers had to be furious on Friday. After qualifying 28th for today's race, his car was found to be too low in post-qualifying inspection, and even though Nascar gave the team numerous opportunities to correct the problem, they were unable to do so, and Vicker's qualifying time was disallowed. Unfortunately since Vickers isn't in the top 35 in owner's points, he's not locked in to race, so that meant that it was as if he had never taken a qualifying lap at all, so he and his team were sent home. It's one thing to not be fast enough in qualifying - that's disappointing enough. But to be fast enough and then be sent home because the car is 1/8 of an inch too low has to be incredibly infuriating for everyone involved. I have to give Nascar credit for trying to work with the team - obviously they were well aware that throwing out Brian's qualifying time would send him home, but there comes a point where if the car's too low, it's too low, and the team needs to deal with the consequences. Nascar has said that they don't expect that there will be further penalties, and rightfully so since the team not being allowed to race today is a pretty big penalty as it is.

Misfortune for the #83 team turned into good fortune for Chad Chaffin and the #49 team since Vickers being disqualified meant that Chaffin would race today. This is a team that has struggled mightily to make races to the point where Mike Bliss resigned from the team this week, which is how Chaffin ended up behind the wheel. At one point earlier this season Chaffin had put racing on the back burner to concentrate on his recycling business, but it seems like his racing career isn't quite over just yet. Chaffin's currently 36th, 4 laps down, so it's hardly a competitive race for him, but at least he's got an opportunity to race which is more than Vickers got this week.

But this shows how little margin of error the teams outside the top 35 in owner's points have - an 1/8 of an inch mistake and they're done for the weekend.

Posted by silverdsl at 04:39 PM | Comments (0)