Friday, March 25, 2011

Off The Wall Racing News


NASCAR Edition

Fontana!(?)

Along with Pocono, probably the most maligned racing venue in NASCAR is Fontana Speedway. This weekend Southern California’s Inland Empire populace gets a chance at redemption with a new, shortened Auto Club 400 race moved from the second to the fifth racing date of the season.

The relatively new track built in 1997 by a consortium led by Roger Penske and later sold to International Speedway Corporation, features an asphalt 2 mile long “D” oval with uniform 14 degree banking through the turns, 11 degree banking on the frontstretch and only 3 degrees of banking on the long straightaway. The early on races went along glowingly until 2004 when NASCAR pulled Rockingham’s late season race and moved it to the Southern California track. It suddenly became apparent that the Southern California market is a one race town as attendance dropped even though Fontana was hosting a very meaningful race late in the racing season. The laid back Southern California lifestyle had struck yet another professional sport. This coupled with the ill-will NASCAR generated with its core fan base in the Southern United States by pulling this important race date from one of the South’s historic tracks located in North Carolina has worked to denigrate Fontana.
Even though the track’s layout has led to a refreshingly different style of racing in NASCAR with three wide or more side by side competition being commonplace, the fans haven’t returned after the track’s early success. Today it appears the local politicians have taken notice of just how important the NASCAR race date has been to the local economy and they are openly encouraging everyone in the area to get involved or the region might lose as much as $100 million in revenue if NASCAR completely pulls out…
_________________________________________
Kevin Harvick and Fontana

Fontana can be called the home track to a formidable group of NASCAR stars that includes Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Kevin Harvick. Of this group, JJ has by far had the most success here while Kevin Harvick for some reason just can’t seem to put it together at Fontana. In 17 career Sprint Cup starts on the D oval, Kevin has just 2 top five’s and an average finish of 17th place. The problems have persisted in the Nationwide Series races as well where Kevin, despite 7 top three finishes in 16 starts still hasn’t won a race. Sometimes when athletes know they have family and friends in the stands they simply try too hard and things go haywire…

Is this the year Kevin breaks out of his Fontana funk?
____________________________________
The NASCAR Points Racing Change Effect

Can you tell me off the top of your head who the points leader is right now in NASCAR’s Nationwide Series? How about Jason Leffler! In a move that makes a lot of sense, NASCAR has shined the media attention light on a group of young up and comers (with the exceptions of Kenny Wallace and Elliot Sadler) racing in the Nationwide Series. Here are the current top 10 in the Nationwide standings:
1. Jason Leffler – 142 Points, 2. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – 140, 3. Justine Allgaier – 124, 4. Reed Sorenson – 121, 5. Aric Almirola – 119, 6. Trevor Bayne – 112, 7. Kenny Wallace – 111, 8. Elliot Sadler – 110, 9. Danica Patrick – 109 and 10. Brian Scott – 107…

Here’s another example of a home track not yielding success. Long Beach native Jason Leffler hasn’t had much luck at Fontana. Driving for Turner Motorsports, Jason’s unbridled optimism remains intact as expressed in a San Bernardino Sun article by staff writer Louis Brewster:

"This is a really fun race track. It's wide open pretty much all the way around and has multiple grooves, so there is a lot of two- and three-wide racing," said the driver of the No. 38 Great Clips Chevrolet. "You're always searching for that groove where your car is the fastest."

Leffler will debut a new chassis for the race, and the powerplant is supplied by Hendrick Engines.

"I feel we have the right equipment to make a run for the championship," said Leffler, who's benefitted from NASCAR's new rule the says drivers must choose a series in which to compete for the driving title.
"It's great to race with the Cup guys - certainly we can learn from them - but it's good that NASCAR has decided to strengthen the Nationwide identity."
__________________________________
The He Said-She Said Rick Russell-Jennifer Jo Cobb Deal Devolves

The owner of 2nd Chance Motorsports (interesting name considering the
circumstances), Rick Russell, has reportedly filed charges accusing Cobb and her crew chief Steve Kuykendall of larceny (stealing/theft). This is a serious matter if true but Ms. Cobb explained it as follows:
"I'm not sure how you steal something from someone when you move it from their property A to their property B," Cobb said, "It's just him trying to stir up more trouble. I'm not concerned. He's just trying to rattle us.
"Picture a divorce,” Cobb added. “You move out of the house and accidentally take the ex-wife's favorite hair brush you both use. That's what this is like."

We all know what happened just prior to last weekend’s Bristol Nationwide race and now this…

As of yesterday, Sgt. S.D. Elliott of the Mooresville North Carolina police department commented that Russell accused both Cobb and Kuykendall adding he’s talked to all parties in the case, and that no charges have been filed and no arrests have been made.

And the beat goes on… And watch as Jennifer Jo shows up at Fontana driving for Rick Ware Racing.
__________________________________
Bobby Labonte


Let’s all pay close attention this weekend to former Cup champion Bobby Labonte as his comeback continues. Back driving full-time after a two year hiatus of poorly funded driving, Labonte has been very competitive so far in 2011. Marcos Ambrose’s old number 47 Toyota ride with JTG-Daugherty has been a Godsend for Labonte who has responded, not only thankful to the car’s owner for putting him in a well-funded racing effort but also for the team atmosphere surrounding JTG-Daugherty working with Michael Waltrip Racing’s drivers (Martin Truex Jr. and David Reutimann) and shop personnel.


Here’s hoping Bobby remains in the heat of things throughout the season!
_________________________________

Honoring Ronald Reagan


Watch for Richard Childress Racing’s number 33 car driven by Clint Bowyer this weekend. It will feature a new paint job honoring who I consider to be the greatest President so far in my lifetime, Ronald Reagan. This will be part of the year-long Ronald Reagan Centennial celebrating what would have been Reagan’s 100th birthday. Oh how I wish another man of integrity would emerge on the scene to run for the Presidency next year…
___________________________________
Finally, here’s a look at the forecasted weather this weekend –

The Fontana weather forecast:

Today: Showers likely, mainly before 11am. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 58. East wind 5 to 10 mph becoming south. Chance of precipitation is 70%.

Tonight: Areas of fog after 11pm. Otherwise, mostly cloudy, with a low around 43. Southwest wind 5 to 10 mph becoming east.

Saturday: Partly sunny, with a high near 57. East wind 5 to 10 mph becoming southwest.

Saturday Night: Rain likely, mainly after 11pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 46. South wind between 5 and 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%.

Sunday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 61. South wind around 5 mph.

It looks like practice and qualifying will be rained out today… And green tracks may be in the offing for both the Nationwide and Sprint Cup races but hopefully the races won’t be hindered by rain beyond that.
___________________________________

For you open wheelers…
Melbourne Australia is forecast to have a chance of rain right up through Saturday night and then have a bright, blustery (winds from 7 to 20 mph) sunshiny day while St. Petersburg Florida will be partly cloudy with daytime highs in the low 80’s all weekend…
___________________________________
Here we go!


8 comments:

  1. That JJC situation is getting a bit ridiculous - great pic BTW makes her look psycho! LOL I heard her new hauler parked right next to 2nd Chance racing in the garages this weekend so maybe she can return that "hair brush."

    Great to see LaBonte doing well - Terry is too!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nice stuff, D-Man!

    Couldn't post a comment with google chrome. What's up with that?

    Leffler doesn't really do too well on ANY track!

    Go Bobby, and Terry!!

    High 50s at Fontana this weekend.... prolly mid-70s at Rockingham.... just sayin'.

    So, Ronnie was the best Pres in your lifetime. I thought you may have chose Lincoln.... zing!!!

    Just like a hairbrush.... a $16,000 hairbrush! LOL

    ReplyDelete
  3. No Gene. I chose Lincoln. I am older.

    Why is it that there is alway dirty lundry to hang out when it comes to female drivers?

    Cheeze. Lets stay focused on racing and drop the silly stuff.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Kristen,

    Now that's quite a statement coming from my favorite psychologist... A psycho? She does look "rattled" as she put it! Hadn't heard about the hauler parking scenario... That close proximity could lead to more media coverage of the undesireable sort if something goes wrong...

    I've got a feeling Fontana might just prove to be a decent race. We'll see.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Not a Leffler fan Gene? LOL!

    I'm thinkin' those Texas boys are really enjoying themselves lately.

    I can understand why you're bitter about the raw deal Rockingham got.

    I may have a couple of years on ya, you young whippersnapper... And I suppose you're a big Woodrow Wilson fan, right?

    Thanks Gene!

    ReplyDelete
  6. photogr, have you gazed upon the Cope twins? They're Derrick Copes' nieces and both have been driving in ARCA and a couple of CWTS Series races. They're both knockouts and doing a good job working their way into NASCAR...

    Here's a link for a look see...
    http://sports.yahoo.com/nascar/blog/from_the_marbles/post/Cope-sisters-finish-26th-and-30th-at-Martinsvill?urn=nascar-279690

    Thanks for the comments!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hey Dwindy!

    JJC looks like she's apoplectic in that shot! Great shot of her! I think Harvick breaks out of his Fontana funk, at least in the Nationwide race. As for the Cope twins, they're hot AND good race car drivers!

    ReplyDelete
  8. jon...

    You got me with apoplectic! I had to go look it up. Geez!

    Harvick's due and this would be the right place to put up a W or two!

    You ready for baseball? I couldn't believe the Giants won it all last year. I knew they had the pitching but with that weak lineup I thought there was no way. Just goes to show ya! Have the Dodgers ironed out their front office problems with the owner's divorce? I'll be interesting to see if they can make a run under the circumstances.

    Thanks jon!

    ReplyDelete