NASCAR
Last week’s NASCAR Media Tour included close to 200 racing journalists who spent four days being wined and dined by the various NASCAR owners and teams to drum up interest in the new racing season now nearly upon us. This resulted in so many interesting stories and quotes that I’ve just put together some bits and pieces here…
First off... Of the busloads of journalists on the tour, I found it very interesting that there was only one foreigner in the group and he was from Germany. Remember the reports last year about Volkswagen considering entry into NASCAR? It sure makes me wonder… Then there were reports that Roger Penske might be a likely candidate to join forces next season with the German auto manufacturer since his contract with Dodge runs out after 2011. Busch is a German name isn’t it???
Speaking of Roger Penske, here’s a quote from the man when asked about Brad Keselowski’s emerging “Bad Boy” image…
"I want a guy who I'm holding by his belt not wanting to kick him to get going… I don't mind our guys being the bad boys, as long as they stay out of trouble."
I don’t know about you, but that sure seems like a fine line between being a bad boy and staying out of trouble to me.
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FOX Weighs In…
Fox Sports chairman David Hill pulled more than just a few chains with his comments last week… He made it clear he’d like to ditch the homogenized Car of Tomorrow, make the focus on drivers, and shorten race times.
"The Car of Tomorrow became the biggest red herring in the history of this sport," Hill said. "It took the emphasis away from the heroes. And what we're trying to do with our programming is move it back.
"There were two things people fell in love with: The heroes who drove these cars at breakneck speed and risked death for glory, and the car that they drove their kids to school or to church in. You were either a Ford or a GM man…I think there's been so much discussion about this or that that the whole issue has been confused."
In conclusion Hill stated: "NASCAR doesn't negotiate,"
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There’s a Growing Chorus…
Both Rick Hendrick, the most successful team owner in NASCAR and Dale Earnhardt Jr, the most popular driver in NASCAR, came out on the growing side of shortening the length of races and having a more compressed racing season.
"I absolutely think the races ought to be shorter and the season ought to be shorter," said Hendrick.
"The Pocono races are entirely too long," Earnhardt said. "I think NASCAR should shoot for a
three-hour or three-hour and 15-minute televised event, and try to fit into that sort of time frame. It can't be done at all times, I understand. I think you've got to have races like the 600-miler [Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte] and the Daytona 500 and things like that – but there are certain events [that should be shortened]."
NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France noted that several Sprint Cup races have been shortened already, and indicated more adjustments could be forthcoming.
"There will be alterations as we go down the road to shorten [races] up by a little bit. There are no expectations from us to make any drastic changes – 100 miles changes the complexion of a race, depending where you are, for sure. And we're going to continue to look at that. And we'll look at the Nationwide events where we want to have good separation between a Sunday and Saturday show. We'll be looking at the length of Nationwide events as we go down the road."
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A Change is coming for the Race Start Times Next Fall
Television is the dog and NASCAR is the tail… The problem being that NASCAR’s 1 p.m. EST start time in the fall is in direct conflict with NFL football broadcasts. The remedy will be moving NASCAR to a later start time at 2 p.m. This should also alleviate the problem of NASCAR’s races finishing when the late Sunday afternoon NFL games are coming on the air at 4:15 p.m. This move will affect 6 late season races: Chicago, New Hampshire, Dover, Kansas, Talladega and Martinsville. Texas, Phoenix and Homestead will start at 3 p.m. while Charlotte is a night race…
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Here’s a look at Michael Waltrip’s Daytona 500 number 15 Toyota painted black to honor Dale Earnhardt on the 10th anniversary of his death.
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Richard Childress is set to Overthrow the Evil Empire!
"Nothing lasts forever in life," Childress said of Johnson's five-year reign as Sprint Cup champion. "His time is going to run out. When it does I feel that RCR will be there."
Putting his money where his mouth is, Childress will field a four driver team this season.
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JGR Twentieth Anniversary in NASCAR
Several of Joe Gibbs’ past NASCAR personnel (including Tony Stewart and Bobby Labonte) were on hand to commemorate Joe’s twentieth anniversary in the sport on the last day of the media tour. Several good stories came from the friendly bantering back and forth during the festivities.
On trying to recruit Stewart, Joe said, "I had the hardest time tracking him down. But I remember that he had three girlfriends at once. So I got all their numbers and I would call them and ask for him. Sometimes they would yell at me, 'Don't ever call this number again!' Then I knew he'd broken up with that one!"
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HMS Expands JJ’s and Junior’s Pit Crews
Jimmie Johnson’s crew chief Chad Knaus and Steve Letarte, Jeff Gordon’s old crew chief now with Dale Earnhardt Jr., will take three pit crews to the track each weekend. That will give them a total of 18 crewmen to draw on if they encounter circumstances similar to what happened in Texas last fall.
"We've always tried to work on the depth of our crew, but we've never been able to successfully pull that off," Knaus said on Wednesday during the NASCAR Media Tour. "We think we've got it going in the right direction. It might take a little bit, let's be honest, to get everything gelling in the right direction. But once it hits it'll be exciting."
The Gordon and Mark Martin teams will work under a slightly different system, with six full-time crewmen for each car and another four to share between them for depth.
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Mark Martin Doesn’t Plan to Quit After 2011
Even though his contract with Hendrick Motorsports runs out at the end of this season, Mark Martin will be back next year.
“I’m absolutely, without a doubt, going to be driving race cars next year, just not going to be in any hurry to worry about that,” he said. “I’m focused on 2011 and really enjoying being a part of Hendrick Motorsports.”
He added he’s looking forward to working with new crew chief Lance McGrew. Beyond that, Martin isn’t commenting on or worrying about next season. Right now, he's focused on 2011.
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Kyle Busch will race and race again this season…
When on the last day of the NASCAR media tour, the roving reporters gathered at Joe Gibbs Racing, Kyle Busch revealed that beyond the 36 race Cup schedule he would run between 20-22 Nationwide races during the upcoming season as well as 15 Camping World truck races for his Kyle Busch Racing team.
Another full schedule like this will yield more opportunities for a Kyle-fecta but I have to wonder if this heavy involvement is simply too much. Last season he entered the Sprint Cup Chase with a genuine shot to win it all (starting in fourth place) but faded badly. Was it the culmination of an overbearing racing schedule? Kyle, you better think about this…
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Other NASCAR News
ESPN will air a one hour docudrama later this month on NASCAR pioneer Wendell Scott.
Scott is the only African-American to win a race in NASCAR’s top series and the program is being aired as part of the network’s Black History Month offerings. Scott is often referred to as auto racing’s Jackie Robinson.
Wendell Scott: A Race Story will air on ESPN on Feb. 20 at 9 p.m. ET, just hours after the scheduled running of the 53rd annual Daytona 500.
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You Wanna Bet??? Daytona and Sprint Cup Odds Released
The Las Vegas Hilton Super Book has recently released the betting odds on the Daytona 500 as well as the odds on the 2011 Sprint Cup Season…
Odds to Win 2011 Daytona 500---------- Odds to win 2011 Sprint Cup
Kevin Harvick-----------6 to 1----------------Jimmie Johnson----------5 to 2
Kyle Busch---------------8 to 1----------------Denny Hamlin-------------6 to 1
Tony Stewart------------8 to 1----------------Carl Edwards--------------6 to 1
Jamie McMurray------10 to 1----------------Kevin Harvick-------------8 to 1
Jeff Gordon-------------12 to 1----------------Kyle Busch-----------------8 to 1
Clint Bowyer------------12 to 1----------------Jeff Gordon--------------10 to 1
Dale Earnhardt Jr.----12 to 1----------------Greg Biffle----------------10 to 1
Carl Edwards-----------15 to 1----------------Tony Stewart-------------12 to 1
Kurt Busch--------------15 to 1----------------Matt Kenseth-------------12 to 1
Mark Martin------------20 to 1----------------Clint Bowyer-------------18 to 1
Joey Logano-------------20 to 1----------------Kurt Busch---------------18 to 1
Juan Pablo Montoya---20 to 1----------------Mark Martin------------20 to 1
Jimmie Johnson--------25 to 1----------------Joey Logano-------------30 to 1
Denny Hamlin----------25 to 1----------------Jeff Burton---------------30 to 1
Jeff Burton--------------25 to 1----------------Juan Pablo Montoya----30 to 1
Greg Biffle---------------30 to 1----------------Kasey Kahne-------------40 to 1
Matt Kenseth-----------30 to 1----------------Jamie McMurray--------40 to 1
Kasey Kahne------------30 to 1----------------Ryan Newman------------50 to 1
Ryan Newman----------30 to 1----------------Brian Vickers-------------50 to 1
Brian Vickers------------30 to 1----------------David Reutimann-------50 to 1
David Reutimann-------30 to 1----------------Dale Earnhardt Jr.-----50 to 1
Martin Truex Jr.--------30 to 1----------------A.J. Allmendinger-----100 to 1
Paul Menard-------------30 to 1----------------Martin Truex Jr.-------100 to 1
David Ragan-------------30 to 1----------------Paul Menard------------100 to 1
A.J. Allmendinger------40 to 1----------------David Ragan------------100 to 1
Brad Keselowski--------50 to 1----------------Brad Keselowski--------300 to 1
Marcos Ambrose-------60 to 1----------------Marcos Ambrose--------500 to 1
Regan Smith-----------100 to 1----------------(All Others)--------------100 to 1
Bobby Labonte--------100 to 1
(All Others)-------------25 to 1
Jimmie Johnson still has a considerable 5-to-2 edge to win his sixth straight title.
Here’s the promo… The Las Vegas Hilton Super Book has become the clear leader in Las Vegas for auto racing odds. Not only do they offer a multitude of weekly propositions for each Cup race, but they also carry the weekly Nationwide and Camping World Series odds as well. In addition to NASCAR, the Hilton also offers weekly Indy Racing and Formula-1 odds, a package of odds that no sports book in the state offers.
Thought I'd throw in another Las Vegas books’ odds from Micah Roberts’ Weekly Predictions for all you Jr. fans...
6-Feb Budweiser Shootout
#18 Ky. Busch-(6/1) #14 T. Stewart-(7/1) #48 J. Johnson-(9/1) #31 J. Burton-(20/1) #9 K. Kahne (20/1)
11- Feb Gatorade Duel 1
#24 Jeff Gordon -(8/1) #1 Jamie McMurray -(25/1) #18 Kyle Busch -(5/1) #48 Jimmie Johnson-(6/1) #29 Kevin Harvick -(10/1)
11- Feb Gatorade Duel 2
#88 Dale Earnhardt Jr -(5/2) #2 Kurt Busch -(5/1) #12 Brad Keselowski- (20/1) #14 Tony Stewart -(2/1) #42 Juan Pablo Montoya - (10/1)
20-Feb Daytona 500
#18 Kyle Busch -(8/1) #88 Dale Earnhardt Jr -(12/1) #48 Jimmie Johnson -(12/1) #5 Mark Martin -(12/1) #24 Jeff Gordon -(12/1)
Oh!, Kyle's favored in that one!
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There was actually some racing last weekend!
Travis Pastrana finishes sixth in Toyota All-Star Showdown!
This guy’s a rookie? In one of the messiest races ever run on the Irwindale Speedway in California, Travis Pastrana avoided numerous crashes and finished sixth. He made a daring three wide pass with two laps to go after the final restart to jump up from his ninth place final starting position. It was Pastrana’s first NASCAR event!
"This sport is so much fun, it's super competitive, but I have so much to learn," Pastrana told SPEED. "If this is our starting point -- hopefully it's our starting point, then we'll continue to learn from here."
Jason Bowles of Rusty Wallace Racing won the race, which featured 12 cautions and didn't conclude until almost 2:30 AM ET Sunday morning.
Top Finishers:
1. (9) Jason Bowles, Ontario, Calif., Toyota, 225 laps, 61.401 mph, $30,000.
2. (15) D.J. Kennington, St Thomas, Ontario, Toyota, 225, $26,000.
3. (14) Jonathon Gomez, Twin Falls, Idaho, Chevrolet, 225, $17,000.
4. (27) Luis Martinez Jr., Long Beach, Calif., Ford, 225, $16,250.
5. (37) Johnny Borneman, Ramona, Calif., Ford, 225, $16,000.
6. (20) Travis Pastrana, Annapolis, Md., Toyota, 225, $10,000.
7. (1) Derek Thorn, Lakeport, Calif., Chevrolet, 225, $12,200.
8. (23) Travis Motley, Tucson, Ariz., Chevrolet, 225, $8,500.
9. (21) Moses Smith, Tempe, Ariz., Toyota, 225, $9,200.
10. (16) Steve Wallace, Greensboro, N.C., Toyota, 225, $7,750.
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Grand Am
Rolex 24 at Daytona
What a great finish! After a late caution brought the three Daytona Prototype leaders in line (two Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates BMW cars driven at the end by Scott Pruett and Scott Dixon as well as the Action Express Racing Porsche driven by last year’s champion Joao Barbosa) with just a couple of minutes remaining it was edge of your seat excitement after a grueling, fog delayed 24 hours at Daytona. In the end, the two BMW’s were able to hold off the Porsche with Pruett finishing first and Dixon in second. This ended a two year Ganassi drought at the Rolex 24 and added to an amazing Ganassi Racing teams run of consecutive victories that have garnered some of the most prestigious titles in auto racing, the Daytona 500, the Indianapolis 500, the Brickyard 400 and now the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona… Quite an accomplishment to hold all four trophies at once… The Ganassi Slam! 
By the time Dale had won his seventh championship at 43 years of age he was known across the country as “The Intimidator”. Today we have a current driver who at the age of 35 has won an unprecedented five championships in a row and yet Jimmie Johnson has not been bestowed with a regal nickname. Yes, we know him by the acronym “JJ”, but that simply doesn’t fit the monumental achievement he’s made in this sport. Why do you think this is so? What do you think would be a good nickname for him?
