Author Archive
Racing Replay: 2001 Cracker Barrel 500
Posted by: | CommentsHere are the last ten laps of the March 11, 2001 Cracker Barrel 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The final laps featured a five-car battle for the win between Jerry Nadeau (25), Dale Jarrett (88), Kevin Harvick (29), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (8) and Jeff Gordon (24) and resulted in one of NASCAR's most memorable photo finishes.
Just a month after Dale Earnhardt's death, Harvick had stepped into the Goodwrench Chevrolet -- repainted to white with the number changed to 29 -- as the team's new driver. Here he is making only his third Winston Cup start.
Mike Joy, Darrell Waltrip, and Larry McReynolds with the call for FOX.
Support Your Local Short Track in 2009
Posted by: | CommentsWith Spring rapidly approaching it won't be long until our local short tracks begin opening up for their regular weekly racing programs. Now would be a good time to check the schedules of nearby tracks and commit ourselves to attending several events in our area for the coming year.
Living in New Jersey, I've become quite familiar with seeing race tracks close their gates. And when they do, it's almost always forever. With the economic forecasts looking rather bleak, now is the time more than ever to support our local tracks if we expect to sustain grassroots racing.
What can we do to support short track racing? There are two things in particular that I think will be most important this season.
The first is obvious: patronize our tracks. If we don't show up and make it profitable for owners to run these events, they're going to close up and move on to something else. Another thing to consider is that for the price of a typical NASCAR Sprint Cup ticket, one can instead attend four or five local short track races. Not only that, but the food is cheaper, the action is much closer, the grandstands are more comfortable, and chances are the races will be more exciting. If that isn't motivating enough to ditch our Cup tickets, think about it this way: the less money we spend on NASCAR, the less money that ends up in Kyle Busch's wallet. (Yeah... I knew that would clinch it.)
The second point is just as important: we have to be more willing to express to track operators -- in constructive ways -- what we like and what we don't like. If there's a particular show or event we enjoyed, we should tell them. If there was something that we didn't think was so great, let them know that too. Having a pulse on what the fans want is pivotal to making good business decisions.
The tracks that understand that their primary customer is the racing fan, and work to expand their customer base by attracting fans (both hardcore and casual) based on their preferences, will, in my view, be more likely to weather the coming economic storm.
So dust off the blankets and goggles and let's get ready for a fun year of racing in 2009.
Engine Woes Plague Top NASCAR Teams
Posted by: | CommentsOne can't help but believe that engine builders on the NASCAR Sprint Cup circuit are looking forward to one of those rare off weeks coming up in mid-March. After a rash of engine failures to start the season, a little downtime will probably be welcomed.
Chevrolet was the first to get in on the action when Hendrick Motorsports teammates Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt Jr. were forced to retire from the race at Fontana with blown motors. Bad valve springs provided by a third-party vendor took the blame for these. In the same race, Kevin Harvick crashed from what was initially thought to be another blown engine. The team later announced that actually the oil cooler had been punctured, which caused Harvick to slip in the oil and crash out of the event.
When the tour rolled into Las Vegas on Friday it was Toyota's turn to feel the pain. Eventual race-winner Kyle Busch was the first to be forced into an engine change, after only logging four laps in the first practice session. By the time the day was done, four other Toyota teams were swapping out engines, three for lubrication problems with the cam lifters and the other for another failed valve spring.
Ford didn't fare much better; the Roush-Fenway Racing team blew up three motors in Sunday's race. Matt Kenseth -- going for three straight victories -- had barely turned a lap until he realized there was a problem. Five laps later he had pulled behind the wall and was done for the day. Then David Ragan went up in smoke, followed shortly thereafter by Martin's second straight blown motor, this time for a broken rod. Carl Edwards almost made it to the finish, retiring with two laps to go.
Jack Roush attributed his teams' failures to a bad car setup, causing broken valves. According to NASCAR.com, the Roush team misjudged the speed increases caused by the new Goodyear tire compound.
"We had a choice of which rear axle ratio to use, and we used the higher of the ratios, and it was 200 RPM more than the other ratio would have been. We just made the wrong choice from a crew chief and from an engineering point of view on that. If we can go back looking at it, I'd say I'd need to have more margin in the engine, and it needs to not be that close to its limit. We'll be wiser going to Atlanta."
Everyone will have to be wiser going to Atlanta. The track is one of the fastest on the circuit of those where engines are unrestricted; topping over 9,000 RPMs on the straights is quite common.
Hey... this is why they run 500 miles.
Save of the Race: Jamie McMurray
Posted by: | CommentsJamie McMurray wins the "Save of the Race" Award for managing to keep his sliding car from hitting the wall or spinning out in Sunday's Shelby 427 at Las Vegas. Joey Logano washed up the track and made contact with McMurray's left rear, pitting him sideways. McMurray slid sideways all through turn two at 150 mph without losing control.
How'd he do that?
Busch Draws Victory at Vegas
Posted by: | CommentsKyle Busch picked up the lead with 17 laps to go and held on through a pair of restarts to win the Shelby 427 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday. By doing so he simultaneously became the first driver to win from the pole and win from the furthest back starting position at Las Vegas. Busch won the pole position on Friday but started at the rear of the field due to an engine change.
Matt Kenseth's attempt to make history by starting the season with a third consecutive victory quickly went up in smoke on lap 6 after engine failure. Roush-Fenway teammates David Ragan and Carl Edwards also retired with blown engines, Edwards with just two laps to go.
With six laps to go, Jimmie Johnson crashed in turn two to bring out a race record 14th caution. On the restart, Busch drove his Toyota away from Jeff Burton and Clint Bowyer to take the checkered flag at his hometrack. Bowyer passed teammate Burton on the final lap to claim second place. David Reutimann finished fourth and Bobby Labonte was the top finishing Ford in fifth.
Jeff Gordon rebounded from a blown tire on lap 220 to finish sixth. Gordon missed pit road coming down for a stop, locked the brakes, and blew out the left front, causing significant body damage. Rounding out the top ten were Greg Biffle, Brian Vickers, Jamie McMurray and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Johnson, Biffle, and Burton combined to lead most of the laps.
The circuit moves to the fast Atlanta Motor Speedway next weekend before taking a week off.
Busch Brothers Break Track Record
Posted by: | CommentsFor the first time in their careers, the Busch brothers have qualified together on the front row for the Shelby 427 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at their home track in Las Vegas, NV. It was Kyle who ended up with the pole, smashing the track record with a lap of 185.995 mph. Kyle knocked his brother Kurt off the pole by just 45-thousandths of a second. The top 7 cars qualified within a tenth of a second of the pole time.
Twelve drivers broke the track record set by Kasey Kahne in 2007. Cool weather conditions and a Goodyear tire with more grip were largely credited for the increased speeds. Mark Martin was the first driver to take time and was the first to break the track record.
Qualifying third-fastest was Jimmie Johnson, followed by David Reutimann, Marcos Ambrose, Ryan Newman, Kahne, Martin, Kevin Harvick and Tony Stewart.
Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. suffered setbacks in qualifying after hitting the bumps in turn one and washing up the track on their first laps. They'll start 28th and 31st, respectively.
Matt Kenseth is looking to make history Sunday by becoming the first driver to win three straight races at the start of the season. Starting 40th, he'll have his work cut out for him, but Kenseth has two career victories at Las Vegas.
Kyle Busch's record-setting pole run is a bit moot; the team had to replace an engine before qualifying and therefore, like Brian Vickers last week, Busch will have to start the race last.
What Happened to Normal Race Distances?
Posted by: | CommentsI got a little queasy when I learned that this weekend's NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Las Vegas is called the "Shelby 427". As in... "427 miles". You've got to be kidding me. Apparently Carroll Shelby's company is sponsoring the race, whose distance now honors his 427 Cobra.
Now I understand the importance of sponsorship in motorsports, and enthusiastic sponsors are great, but hasn't it gotten a bit out of hand lately? We're changing race distances to match sponsor promotions? Like the Aaron's 312. Instead of 300 miles, it's 312 to help promote the sponsor's slogan. Same with the Aaron's 499 (though the race actually remains 500 miles).
When race distances are changed on a whim to meet sponsor slogans I really think it's time to take a step back, take a deep breath, and ask ourselves if integrity should be permitted to play any role in this sport at all.
Fans already feel like they're being fed a four-hour commercial. Enough is enough, let us have some stability... for a change.
