NASCAR News with Indy in the look back...

Jamie McMurray wins the Brickyard 400!

The Tampa Bay Rays’ oldest starting pitcher is James Shields at 28 years of age.
Shields’ claim to fame is the ability to bring his game up a notch when faced with stiff competition. Apparently Jamie McMurray fits that same mold as he seems to rise to the occasion too. For this reason I’m going to borrow James Shields’ nickname and lay it on Jamie McMurray… BIG GAME JAMES! So far in 2010, BIG GAME has won the two most lucrative race purses on the NASCAR schedule, the Daytona 500 with a 2010 total purse of $16,280,466 and the Brickyard 400 with a 2010 total purse of $8,055,895. In those two wins, McMurray brought in a total of $1,947,826 or just over 8% of the two race total.

Not too shabby there BIG GAME!

Eleventh place is the best you can do?

HMS has problems at Indy.

Mark Martin ended a long day for Hendrick Motorsports at the Brickyard 400 by placing 11th, eleven places ahead of Hendrick’s second place finisher Jimmie Johnson in 22nd. Jeff Gordon, klvalus’ new favorite driver, came in 23rd while Dale Earnhardt Jr. was taken out as an innocent bystander when Juan Pablo Montoya’s run for the checkered flag came up short once again. A four tire pit stop left Juan back in the pack, this after Montoya accumulated 86 laps leading the race. Gotta love that road rage Gene! As a result, Junior came in a distant 27th. Gordon was never comfortable in his ride while Jimmie seemed to be taking one step forward and two steps back the whole race…

Junior in the wrong place when things went bad for Montoya...

This is very unfamiliar territory for Rick Hendrick and with Pocono on the immediate horizon things may not improve too much next weekend.

Who came up with this racing trifecta anyway?

Yeah, yeah, Ganassi Racing won the Daytona 500, the Indianapolis 500 and now the Brickyard 400 in the same year, but who else is in a position to do such a thing? Penske is the only other team to come to mind so what’s the big deal? Why not have a trifecta where every team has a chance at winning it? Personally I think NASCAR should put together an “In-house” trifecta if it’s such a big deal or better yet, a Grand Slam of NASCAR and throw in an incentive of a million bucks or so to anyone who can win it in one racing season. That might stir up some interest. Now, which four races would be logical? First off you’ve gotta have the Daytona 500. Next could be Charlotte’s Coca Cola 600 followed by Bristol’s Irwin Tools 500 lap night race in the stadium and then to put the finishing touch on it, Talladega’s Amp Energy 500. Daytona's 200 laps on the 2.5 mile tri-oval, the 400 laps of 1.5 mile quad-oval racing at Charlotte, Bristol’s 500 laps on the .533 mile stadium oval and finally 500 miles on the Talladega Superspeedway! Got a better idea?

Daytona 500 in February------------------------------------------------Coca Cola 600 in early July

Bristol's 500 laps of night racing in late August-----------------------------------------------Talladega's Amp Energy 500 at the end of October.

You listening Mr. France?

Kyle Busch spins his way to an 8th place finish on the bricks

Love him or hate him, what Kyle pulled off at Indy on Sunday was truly something given the type of line dancing the Indianapolis Motor Speedway spawns. After spinning out of control on the green track during the first lap of the Brickyard 400, Kyle and his crew put together a quiet, steady and consistent run that placed him in the top ten at the end.

NASCAR News…

A spokesman for NASCAR confirmed Monday that the nation’s foremost auto race sanctioning organization had fined at least two of its most prominent drivers for making critical comments concerning the Sprint Cup racing series. The Associated Press granted anonymity to the people who spoke to them. NASCAR is not making public the top driver’s names. It’s thought that one driver in particular was fined 50 grand… The NASCAR spokesman, Ramsey Poston, stated it was a move to protect the sport’s brand.

My two cents: Why the fines? Considering the current financial woes and some of the moves already made and others that NASCAR may institute in 2011, it seems to me they should welcome a public airing of what’s perceived to be the sport’s problems. This should be especially true of the people that have a vested interest in seeing the sport succeed.

After 20 races in the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup season,

here are the average team earnings standings:

---------------------------# of
-----Team------Earnings ----Teams Ave./Team
1----EGR ------$7,452,138 ----2 --$3,726,069
2----HMS -----$13,222,919 ----4 --$3,305,730
3----RCR ------$9,817,673 ----3 --$3,272,558
4----JGR ------$9,729,844 ----3 --$3,243,281
5----Front R---$6,131,437 ----2 --$3,065,719
6----SHR ------$5,925,143 ----2 --$2,962,572
7----RFR -----$11,200,143 ----4 --$2,800,036
8----Penske ---$8,042,833 ----3 --$2,680,944
9----RPM ------$7,917,588 ----3 --$2,639,196
10---Daughrty--$2,440,198 ----1 --$2,440,198
11---Red Bull--$4,700,617 ----2 --$2,350,309
12---MWR-------$6,861,852 ----3 --$2,287,284
13---Phoenix --$2,190,056 ----1 --$2,190,056
14---RGM-------$2,168,811 ----1 --$2,168,811
15---Furn. R---$2,034,105 ----1 --$2,034,105
16---NEMCO ----$1,665,410 ----1 --$1,665,410
17---Latitude -$1,583,695 ----1 --$1,583,695
18---Germain --$1,461,444 ----1 --$1,461,444
19---Prism ----$1,260,906 ----1 --$1,260,906
20---Wood Br. ---$828,020 ----1 ----$828,020
21---Baldwin --$1,472,905 ----2 ----$736,453
22---TRG ------$1,438,910 ----2 ----$719,455
23---Whitney ----$601,195 ----1 ----$601,195
24---Gunselman --$492,745 ----1 ----$492,745
25---Keyed-Up ----$72,575 ----1 -----$72,575

Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing, on the strength of BIG GAME JAMES’ two BIG wins, has solidified its position at the front…