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…
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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?
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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."
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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.
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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!
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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…
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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.
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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…
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Here we go!