Archive for NASCAR
FOX: GM to Scale Back NASCAR Support
Posted by: | CommentsUnder its bankruptcy restructuring plan, General Motors is expected to scale back support of NASCAR Nationwide and Truck Series teams, according to a report from FOXSports.com, which attributed the story to the SportsBusiness Journal.
The cost-cutting measures are likely to have the greatest affect on larger organizations, such as Kevin Harvick Inc., which fields teams in both series, and Rusty Wallace Inc. and JR Motorsports, which field teams in the Nationwide Series, according to SportsBusiness Journal's Michael Smith, who wrote the story.
As Smith points out, support from manufacturers typically comes in the forms of engines, parts and cash. In most cases, factory support goes to larger, more substantial organizations, while smaller teams receive little assistance, if any.
GM participates in NASCAR's top three touring series under the Chevrolet brand.
Eury Jr. Out, McGrew In
Posted by: | CommentsHendrick Motorsports announced today that Tony Eury Jr. will be replaced as crew chief for Dale Earnhardt Jr. Lance McGrew will step in as acting crew chief effective with the June 7 Pocono 500. Eury will move on to a research and development position within Hendrick Motorsports.
McGrew has one Sprint Cup win, the 2006 Talladega 500 with Brian Vickers.
"Our performance hasn't been where it should be," said Rick Hendrick, owner of Hendrick Motorsports. "It's impossible to pin that on any one factor, but a change is the right decision at this point. We have a plan in place, and we're going to move forward with it."
This change has been a long time coming. Earnhardt Jr. is mired back in 19th in the points standings and since moving to Hendrick Motorsports has only a single win on a fuel mileage run at last year's Michigan 400. Meanwhile teammates Jeff Gordon (points leader), Jimmie Johnson (4th) and Mark Martin (12th) have experienced wins in 2009.
See the full press release from Hendrick Motorsports.
Town Hall Meeting?
Did anyone else get a little queasy when they heard that NASCAR held a "town hall"-style meeting on Tuesday? The purpose of the meeting was to examine some of the difficulties facing the sport in recent times (read: declining interest / TV ratings). I mean at first it sounded like a great idea... until I heard that it was going to be for car owners and drivers only.
I applaud NASCAR for acknowledging that there are problems and looking to address them before it's too late. Ostrich-like behavior, after all, is rarely ever rewarded. But NASCAR needs to stop listening to car owners and drivers and start listening to THE FANS.
Most of the tumultuous change heaped on the sport in recent years -- often pushed by the car owners and drivers through NASCAR -- has been met with much opposition by the fan base. The "Car of Tomorrow". The schedule "Re-Alignment". All the crazy rules they have now. Fans didn't want any of this stuff... they complained when it was proposed... they complained when it was implemented... and now they're voicing their complaints with their feet and remote controls.
Hopefully NASCAR will listen to the right people before it's too late.
Was Carl Long in Attendance?
Carl Long is both an owner and a driver... I wonder if he was invited to the town hall meeting? His mere presence would have been enough to point out what's wrong with the new NASCAR.
Long is a throwback to old-school NASCAR: an average guy with not a lot of money running an independent team -- all for the thrill of racing. He attempted to enter the non-points paying Sprint All-Star event through the Sprint Showdown qualifier. Before the race he blew his motor and sent it to NASCAR for tech inspection where they found it to be oversized by 0.17 cubic inches. Yeah, that's right -- 0.17.
His crew chief, Charles Swing -- another average guy --, was fined $200,000 (!) and both he and Long were placed on a 12-race suspension. Long was also penalized 200 championship points, which is interesting since he currently has ZERO because he hasn't qualified for any 2009 events.
Now where the hell is this guy going to get $200,000?
It's clear: NASCAR's intention is to simply ruin the guy, plain and simple.
Briscoe, Gordon Lead Practice Sessions
Posted by: | CommentsTeam Penske on Top
Ryan Briscoe turned the fastest lap early during practice Friday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. His fastest lap speed was 225.981 mph. Second-quick was Penske teammate Helio Castroneves at 225.438 mph. Balancing out the top five were Dario Franchitti (224.984 mph), Scott Dixon (224.822 mph) and Danica Patrick (224.755 mph).
Practice was run under threatening skies all day but was only interrupted occasionally for light drizzle.
There were two on-track incidents during the day. Early on rookie Robert Doornbos hit the turn 2 wall and coasted to a stop on the back straightaway. Later in the afternoon, Scott Sharp lost control of his car exiting turn 1, spun and made hard contact with the turn 2 outside wall. Sharp climbed from his car apparently uninjured but the car sustained heavy damage.
Pole Day Qualifying is Saturday, May 9.
Gordon Shows the Way
Jeff Gordon posted the fastest time (177.633 mph) in the final seconds of practice for Saturday night's Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. Moments before, Jeff Burton turned a lap at 177.608 mph. Jimmie Johnson, Denny Hamlin, and Mark Martin rounded out the top five.
Rain, Rain Go Away
Nationwide Series qualifying for Friday night's Diamond Hill Plywood 200 at Darlington was rained out, giving the front row to points leaders Kyle Busch and Ryan Newman. The thunderstorm delayed Sprint Cup qualifying by more than a half-hour, but rain is not expected to interfere with the remaining weekend's events.
A Sign of the Times?
At Indianapolis, 32 drivers took to the Speedway for IndyCar practice. Meanwhile in Darlington, 45 Sprint Cup drivers practiced in an attempt to qualify for the Southern 500. Will there even be a need for Bump Day at Indy?
Also, Sprint Cup practice was televised live on SPEED while Indy boasted no television coverage of practice. An outsider might wonder which event is more prominent. I wonder if the Southern 500 will pull in a higher TV rating than Indy?
Martin to Run Full Schedule in 2010
Posted by: | CommentsIt looks like Mark Martin will be making another run for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship in 2010. NASCAR.com is reporting that his contract with Hendrick Motorsports has been adjusted to run all 36 races in 2010. Martin, running full time this year, originally agreed to run just 26 races next season.
"It means a lot to drive the No. 5 Chevy for Rick [Hendrick] and for Hendrick Motorsports," said Martin, 50, of Batesville, Ark. "I'm in the best condition of my life, I'm recharged, and I'm motivated. Going to the race track every weekend is still really fun, and that's the key. There's more gas in my tank."
Mark Martin will run a full Cup schedule with Hendrick Motorsports in 2010.
(Photo by cbgb_chopper on flickr.com, CC 2.0.)
After 10 races in 2009, Martin has a win (at Phoenix) and three poles, but three finishes of 40th or worse have relegated him to 15th in the point standings.
The 2009 season started off well for Martin and the #5 team, starting the Daytona 500 from the outside pole. But then the team suffered engine failures in the next two races at California and Las Vegas. The team quickly bounced back with consecutive poles at Atlanta and Bristol, and then four consecutive top-tens, including the win two weeks ago at Phoenix. Martin got caught up in the first big crash at Talladega and finished last, but rebounded to a fifth place finish at last week's Crown Royal 400 at Richmond.
Smith: NASCAR Should Mandate Fence Standards
Posted by: | CommentsHere's an interesting article from ESPN.com:
CONCORD, N.C. -- The chairman of Speedway Motorsports says NASCAR should mandate a standard catch-fence system for all sanctioned tracks following the recent crash at Talladega Superspeedway.
"Let's fix it because the sport is at risk," Bruton Smith said on Monday at Lowe's Motor Speedway. "Cables [that provide strength to the fence] are just like fishing lines. You have a certain test lines. Cables can be like a quarter inch and have a 90,000 PSI [pounds per square inch].
"That's the things we need to do at all these speedways to make sure we have the strongest there is."
Smith's Speedway Motorsports Inc. owns about half the tracks on the NASCAR circuit. NASCAR's sister company, International Speedway Corp., also owns about half of the tracks, including the Talladega Superspeedway.
I picked up on a bit of Smith's obligatory adversarial tone towards NASCAR in this article. Though, I agree with him on this one. NASCAR should lead the way and at least offer guidance on fence heights and strengths -- then maybe phase in a mandate.
I Predict a Taller Fence at Talladega
Posted by: | CommentsWow.
Twenty-two years ago Bobby Allison almost went through the fence at Talladega Superspeedway and a rookie, his son Davey, later went on to win his first race. History has a way of repeating itself as rookie Brad Keselowski took the checkered flag today while Carl Edwards was thrashing the catch fence along the main grandstand behind him.
Fortunately the fence held up, but looking at the replay it isn't hard to imagine that if Edwards' car had been a little closer when it went airborne, or a little higher, or at a little different angle, things could have been much worse.
Even still, the speedway is reporting that eight spectators were injured -- not seriously -- by flying debris.
How will NASCAR respond? The video will certainly be played over and over again on the news networks and the spectator injuries are not going to go over well. I think we'll see a couple feet added to the height of that catch fence before the fall race. Same at Daytona. Both of the fences are pretty lame compared to other tracks. I suspect NASCAR will tighten the restrictor plates in time for the July race at Daytona, like that will somehow help.
So what happened?
Well... The first point is that NASCAR created an "out of bounds" line and for years drivers have been taking advantage of it by cutting off the challenging car, forcing the driver below the yellow line. This all came to a head at last fall's race when Regan Smith tried to pass Tony Stewart, was forced below the line at the checkers and then was penalized for it and ultimately lost the race. So this year, Keselowski held his line and when Edwards tried to cut him off he ended up in the fence.
The second thing is that, in my opinion, the drivers have become a little too comfortable out there with reckless driving. Between the COT and the pillow walls they think they're invincible now and drive like nuts. That's cool and all but when spectators are put into play, I'm not sure it's the best way to race.
I think the wreck will sober Carl Edwards up a bit... at least for awhile.
Here's the finish with Mike Joy, Larry McReynolds and Darrell Waltrip for Fox.
"Shades of Ricky Bobby..." lol... even the bad wrecks are a big joke at Fox.
This Glenn Smith / AP Photo shows just how high Edwards got and how flimsy that fence looks.
Super Bowl vs. Daytona 500?
Posted by: | CommentsHere's a headache that NASCAR just really doesn't need to deal with right now. According to USA Today, the NFL is considering expanding its regular season by one or two games, which would likely shift the Super Bowl to Presidents' Day weekend.
Talk about the Super Bowl as a national holiday.
How about as a lead-in to Presidents Day?
The prospect of extending the NFL's calendar and staging the league's signature event in the latter half of February is gaining momentum as team owners contemplate an expanded schedule with a typical end-game mission: More money.
What does that mean for NASCAR? Well their own Super Bowl, the Daytona 500, would most certainly have to move to a new weekend as well. But moving the race would be a logistics nightmare. The schedule is already packed with nearly 40 events across 22 venues as it is. The series begins and ends in cold months, limiting its early- and late-season races to Southern tracks.
The NASCAR season hasn't always started with the Daytona 500, but the 500 has always been run in mid-February. Some would argue that NASCAR will have to buck tradition and move the race off Presidents' Day weekend to, perhaps, the end of the season. However, the Daytona 500 is not just a race, but also the premier event of Daytona Speedweeks. NASCAR and the Speedway have built a nice little two-to-three week series of races and events to help build excitement leading into the 500 (let alone the pre-season testing traditionally done in January at the facility). NASCAR would have to abandon the Speedweeks approach altogether or attempt to juggle a variety of racing series' schedules to move it later in the year.
Running the Daytona 500 at the end of the season in November would pit it against the heart of the NFL season, a clear detriment to TV ratings and advertising revenue. Running it in summer is out since the facility already hosts a 400-miler on Independence Day weekend.
What we do know is that the 2010 Daytona 500 is scheduled for February 14. But as for 2011...? Maybe it's best to hold off making those hotel reservations.
