Happy Thursday...only one more day!  

Today In Nascar History

April 2, 1950: Driving a 1949 Lincoln, Tim Flock wins a 200-lap race on the three-quarter-mile dirt track of Charlotte Speedway for his first Cup win. His brother, Bob, is second, a half-lap back, and Clyde Minter is third.

Quote of the Day

I think Kyle is a little more savvy off the racetrack every week because he's in the situation he's in. That comes in time as you get older and you get in more situations and you become more comfortable with what you do and say off the track. But, as long as he keeps having the results on the racetrack, it isn't gonna matter.

-- Kevin Harvick

Bits and Pieces

Revised Post-Race Engine Tear-Down Procedures: In a move that should be more cost-saving to the industry and help enhance the inspection process, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series will begin conducting its post-race engine tear-down at the NASCAR Research and Development Center in Concord, N.C. “Along with cost savings, this will provide our officials and teams with the means to analyze the engines in a more controlled setting,” said Robin Pemberton, NASCAR vice president of competition. “We have been moving towards doing this in the past, and as the stakes continue to rise in our sport, we believe it’s the most effective way of doing things.” As part of its post-race inspection, NASCAR typically tears down the engines of the event’s top-two finishers, in addition to a random car. The height and weight measurements, in addition to the shock and gear inspections, will still take place at the track following the race. Post-race inspection of the engines at the R&D Center will remain open for observation as it did at the race track. Should any violations be discovered during the tear-down process, forthcoming penalties will be handled just as they have before through the NASCAR competition department. (NASCAR PR)

Richard Childress Racing mourns death of hauler driver

By SceneDaily Staff

Michael “Sweats” Lance, who worked for Richard Childress Racing as a transporter driver of the No. 33 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team, died Wednesday, according to a team news release.

He was 42.

Lance, a native of High Point, N.C., had been a member of the NASCAR community for several years, previously working for Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Joe Gibbs Racing. He is survived by his wife, Debbie Boose, and step-children Brandon and Bailey Boose.

Funeral plans are incomplete.

Need for speed: Regan Smith will have to be fast to make Cup race at Texas

By SceneDaily Staff

Regan Smith will attempt to qualify this weekend for just his third race of the NASCAR Sprint Cup season’s first seven events.

The driver, who is running a partial schedule for Furniture Row Racing and hasn’t competed since Las Vegas on March 1, hopes to make the field for Sunday’s Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

"Since Las Vegas, we've had two successful test sessions at Pikes Peak International Raceway [in Fountain, Colo.], and that was very encouraging," Smith said. "We want to keep on improving. We all felt we were better than the finishes we had in Daytona and Las Vegas."

Smith finished 19th at the 1.5-mile Las Vegas, pretty good considering that mile-and-a-half tracks have admittedly been a challenge for Smith since his Cup debut with Ginn Racing in 2007.

Now, the 2008 Raybestos Rookie of the Year is hoping that will bode well for Texas, another 1.5-mile track where horsepower and aerodynamics play the biggest role in going fast.

"I have not made it a secret that I've struggled on the mile-in-a-half tracks in the past," said Smith, who doesn’t have a DNF in 43 career Cup starts. "That's why the finish in Vegas was such a morale boost."

Smith especially wants to run well this weekend since he’s not running a full season. Texas represents one of just 13 opportunities for him to show potential sponsors what he and his team can do.

The pressure starts on Friday, when Smith will attempt to qualify for the race based on speed since he and his team are outside the top 35 in Cup owner’s points. If qualifying were to be rained out, Smith would miss the race.

"Even though I hate to watch races, I make the best of it," he said. "I watch closely in an attempt to constantly learn as much as I can. But it's still pretty awful to watch. And when it's my next race to drive, I worry about qualifying since we're a part-time team and not in the top 35 in [owner] points.

“Once a 10-day forecast comes out for where the race will be held, I check it out immediately. It has become an obsession. The good news with regards to weather in Texas is that it looks like we'll be OK for Cup qualifying on Friday."

Texas Motor Speedway full of memories for Hendrick Motorsports' Dale Earnhardt Jr.

By SceneDaily Staff

Hendrick Motorsports’ Dale Earnhardt Jr. is returning to the place where his trips to the NASCAR Cup victory lanes began: Texas Motor Speedway, site of the driver’s initial Cup win in April 2000.

At the time, the then-Dale Earnhardt Inc. driver was just seven races into his rookie campaign. He led 106 laps on the way to victory that day. He also posted his first win in what is now known as the Nationwide Series at the track, with that coming in April 1998.

So its little wonder the place is special to Earnhardt Jr. Since then, he has added more wins to enter this weekend’s Samsung 500 with a total of 18 career victories.

"When you first come into this sport and you don't have a win, the anticipation of when that is going to happen is building and building,” Earnhardt Jr. said of that initial victory. “You just wonder if it will and when it will. It's not something you expect to happen, so when it does, it is such a surprise. You've never been in that situation before where you have won a race.

“To see how surprised everybody and your team gets and how excited they get just adds to it. It's hard to explain to people how that feels - that first win and how it felt."

Current crew chief Tony Eury Jr. was with Earnhardt Jr. for that win, though not in his current role. His dad, Tony Eury Sr., was Earnhardt Jr.’s crew chief that rookie season.

“Texas just kind of fits Dale Jr.'s driving style, and Texas is a lot of fun for us,” Eury Jr. said. “We look forward to going there. It's a real fast place. Just got a lot of memories there. It's just so big and the cowboys are from there. All that stuff mixed in - it's got to be a great place."

Now, Earnhardt Jr. heads to the track as part of the Hendrick arsenal – one that has a solid intermediate-track program. While he has endured some setbacks this season, Earnhardt Jr. has rallied in the last four weeks with two top-10 finishes and a worst of 14th. That stretch has boosted him from 35th to 16th in the standings.

He hopes to continue that type of improvement in the coming weeks, beginning with Sunday’s race.

"I want to get us some top-five finishes and challenge for a win or two if not get a win,” he said. “We don't have any top-fives yet, so I'd like to start stacking them up."

Tony Stewart glad to be back in a Kevin Harvick Inc. Nationwide car

By Bob Pockrass/scenedaily.com

FORT WORTH, Texas – It’s up to Tony Stewart to keep the Kevin Harvick Inc. momentum going this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway.

KHI is on a roll, with team co-owner Kevin Harvick winning the Nationwide Series race two weeks ago at Bristol Motor Speedway and then winning again Monday in the Camping World Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway. Now Stewart replaces Harvick in the No. 33 car for a one-race Nationwide deal.

Stewart won the first Nationwide race in KHI history when he claimed the victory in the 2005 season-opener at Daytona. He has driven 31 times in the series for KHI, but his last outing came in September 2007 at Kansas. He obviously couldn’t run any last season because of Joe Gibbs Racing’s move to Toyota, but Stewart is back in a Chevrolet on the Cup side and now can drive for KHI again.

“I still remind him that I won in my second [actually third] time out in his car, and it took him 40-some-odd races to win in his own car, so he hasn’t put any pressure on me,” Stewart joked Wednesday. “That’s something that’s fun to come back [to], and I’m glad we had the opportunity to come back and drive for him and [wife] DeLana this year. We had so much [fun] running with them before, and they’re really good friends of mine.”

This is the only Nationwide race Stewart has planned to drive for KHI this year. He won the season-opening Nationwide race for Hendrick Motorsports and will drive for JR Motorsports in the October race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

Running Nationwide events isn’t as beneficial to Cup drivers as it was a few years ago when the cars were more similar.

“The only thing you can learn is about the tire, but that’s about it,” Stewart said. “If you learn something tire-pressure wise, you might be able to transfer it over. Beside from that, the package is so different now with the [new model Cup] car, that you really can’t transfer anything over.”

Stewart, in his first year as driver and co-owner at Stewart-Haas Racing, doesn’t anticipate owning a Nationwide Series team soon, even when the series moves in the next few years to using a new car that could use current Cup chassis and parts and pieces.

“Right now, we’re still trying to get two [Sprint Cup] teams running really well,” Stewart said. “We’re gaining on that. We want two teams that are capable of running for a championship. I feel like that’s more important right now. We, as an organization, want to have a third and fourth car eventually. That probably is going to take a priority versus trying to build a Nationwide program.”

Kyle's star is rising, on the track and off

By Ed Hinton/ESPN.com

Kyle Busch is 23 years old going on 24 (May 2), but in terms of a driving prodigy growing up, he's about 40 going on 45.

He's beginning to get it. To understand. To make sense of it all (whether any of it is supposed to make sense or not).

And once he gets it all, there will be no bigger star in NASCAR.

You can sense his enormous transition in the public perception from being a brat to being cool.

Take his relationship with the media, no small element in a sports figure's image (whether you, the public, admit you pay attention to us or not).

He has grown comfortable with the media and actually seems to be having fun with us, and that will take him a long way.

He has learned to take us in stride, even when my breed has pulled shenanigans on him, as in the past couple of weeks vis-a-vis unwitting -- and unwilling -- American icon Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Busch was trying to answer, honestly, a question asked of him after he won at Bristol on March 22, and in the era of the sound bite, the media took one sentence and sprinted with it, raising the alarm to you, the public: "There's probably too much pressure on one guy's shoulders who doesn't seem to win very often."

You simply cannot get any more truthful than that, unless you omit the "seem to," for it is fact that Earnhardt doesn't win very often, and it is fact that there is entirely too much pressure on the shoulders of a man who never asked for the task of trying to come from the towering shadow of a ghost.

Ah, but the brat Busch had taken a shot at the suffering hero Earnhardt, and we the media shrieked at you breathlessly. We were like 1920s newsboys hawking papers on the sidewalks of New York.

Then at Martinsville this past weekend came Busch's finest hour yet with my kind.

No, it wasn't Monday, when he parked his truck running after the rain-date race and marched out of Martinsville Speedway without talking to anybody, after losing a shot at winning thanks to a NASCAR penalty. Volatility from a serious competitor in defeat is by no means a mark of immaturity, just grit. I know -- I spent too many years covering A.J. Foyt in his prime.

No, this was during the Cup portion of the weekend when somebody asked him about all the "attention" the candor about Earnhardt had brought him -- and whether he might "relish" his outperformance of the driver who replaced him at Hendrick Motorsports last year.

He has been taught to talk in sound bites by some pretty savvy media handlers, and so he virtually repeated the question as a statement.

"I'm proud of the fact that I'm outperforming a guy that replaced me at Hendrick," he said. That was the part that went out to the nation. But there was a comma after that in his sentence, and he added, "but that's not what this sport is all about."

What he said the sport was about isn't sexy as a sound bite, but for the sake of getting the truth out to the nation, what he said was, "This sport is to be the most consistent and to keep learning and to keep getting better and ultimately to try to win championships."

There now. At least the whole statement has been printed.

He added more truth to his assessment of Earnhardt. "As far as comments I made last week, listen, he's got a lot of weight on his shoulders, but he's out there doing the best that he can do."

Again, more truth, and clearly articulated compassion. But for sure, more media shenanigans, slicing and dicing what he really said, would follow.

Then when he was asked again whether the post-Bristol media "attention" had surprised him, he nailed his new viewpoint and attitude about it all.

"I didn't see the attention," he said. "I heard about the attention from Jeff [Dickerson, his agent] and some other people."

He shrugged, tossed his head, smiled a little. "But, that's the media for you," he said.

He drew some laughter, and somehow you sensed ice melting, sensed a milestone.

He had come at least a light-year from the Kyle Busch who as a rookie in 2005 had stomped out of the media center at Phoenix, aborting the winner's interview, when asked about an altercation that his brother, Kurt, had been involved in with local sheriff's deputies that weekend.

In his way, Kyle Busch has adopted almost precisely what was Richard Petty's view of the media during his time.

"If you misquote me," Petty once said, "that's gone. It's over. The damage is done. Me getting mad about it is not going to change it. Might as well forget it, let it pass."

Now, "I think Kyle is a little more savvy off the racetrack every week because he's in the situation he's in," said Kevin Harvick, meaning that Busch is in the limelight for winning. "That comes in time as you get older and you get in more situations and you become more comfortable with what you do and say off the track.

"But, as long as he keeps having the results on the racetrack, it isn't gonna matter."

If Kyle Busch can do both, however -- win and have fun with the media and public, and not let the new-age breathless journalism get to him -- he'll be a household name.

The only real precedent for what he can be was the young Darrell Waltrip. He was booed terribly through his early years. Yet he clung to the belief of "If I win enough, they'll have to quit hating me sooner or later," Waltrip told me a while back, speaking of himself and Kyle Busch in the same sentence.

Sure enough, Waltrip became a favorite of the fans, largely because he learned to have a good time with the media and public, leaving us with little else to write about him except how much fun he was.

Heading into the Texas race this weekend and the Texas Motorsports Hall of Fame gala that accompanies the spring race, my colleague Terry Blount told me a story about last year's dinner.

Jimmie Johnson had been voted NASCAR driver of the year, but he didn't show for the gala. Sam Hornish Jr. had been voted sportsman of the year, but didn't show. Blount went on down the no-show list.

But Kyle Busch showed even though he wasn't getting an award, and, "he saved the show," Blount said. "Clearly."

Busch lit up the room, answered questions freely, had 900 or so serious Texas movers and shakers -- who'd been pretty angry about the no-shows -- laughing, happy, eating out of his hand.

If you make people happy like that enough times, and you shrug and say "That's the media for you," and you win races with sheer talent that wows even NASCAR's best of present and past, there's no amount of stomping off the pit road angry over losing that will keep you from being an enormous star … and, inevitably, a legend.

Sprint Cup driver Jeremy Mayfield tries hand at acting in music video

By Jeff Gluck/scenedaily.com

HARRISBURG, N.C. – In the near darkness of his Mayfield Motorsports NASCAR Sprint Cup shop, Jeremy Mayfield leaned on one of his race cars and stared into the engine compartment.

A light haze drifted in the air, and Mayfield stood up and looked away, wiped his brow, took a step back and leaned against a counter.

He crossed his arms and looked pensive, appearing to let the solitude wash over him.

“Annnnnnnd CUT!” someone suddenly yelled, and the moment of quiet was suddenly transformed into a frenzy of activity.

Just like that, Mayfield was all smiles, surrounded by crew members from his team. And why not?

This wasn’t a day to reflect on the struggles of creating a Sprint Cup Series team, but to have fun filming a music video for the rock band Saving Abel.

The video for the song “Drowning (Face Down)” is based on an underdog NASCAR driver who is trying to break through into the elite level of the sport – though the song lyrics themselves concern someone who is lost and down.

And Mayfield, trying his hand at acting, happens to play that driver.

“That’s what’s cool is, it was a good fit,” he said, dressed in jeans and a black shirt with a long-sleeve T underneath. “It’s not about my story as much as theirs, but it kind of fit with the same thing.”

On this day, just prior to the Bristol race, the Mayfield Motorsports shop was transformed into an impressive-looking set worthy of a Hollywood movie.

There were director’s chairs, playback monitors, major-league lights and screens, a smoke machine and cameras that seemed ready to record an Oscar-worthy flick. Compared to a commercial shoot, this was big time.

Everyone’s focus was on one of Mayfield’s cars in the corner of the shop. Mayfield and several of his crew members, who arrived at 8:30 a.m., rehearsed one brief scene several times before director Shaun Silva finally began filming at 9:35.

Silva has directed many country music videos for the likes of Kenny Chesney, Rascal Flatts and Sugarland, as well as rock videos for 3 Doors Down. He knows what he wants out of a shot and told Mayfield, the team and the film crew exactly what he was looking for.

The scene in question had Mayfield walk into the shot and lean on the car, conversing with crewmen as they looked at the engine and poked around inside the hood. After a few seconds, the crewmen stood up to leave.

Now came the tricky part: One crewman was supposed to pat Mayfield on the shoulder while walking out, and the other was supposed to do a fist-bump. But it was tough to get the camera at just the right level to capture the first-bump.

Several takes went by, and Silva seemed satisfied. It was a new experience for one of the crewmen, Marty Forcier, who will star as the shoulder-patting crew guy.

Had Forcier ever done anything like this before?

“A music video? Nah,” he said. “I have a hard enough time shooting video on my cell phone.”

And what did Forcier and Mayfield talk about during their scene? Were they really talking about the car or maybe planning for the upcoming race?

“It was more like, ‘What do you like on your Martinsville hot dogs?’” Forcier said.

At least Mayfield had some music video experience. He co-starred in the 1997 Alan Jackson video for “Who’s Cheatin’ Who,” along with several other NASCAR drivers.

But he still didn’t feel entirely comfortable in front of the camera.

“Just because I’m not an actor,” he said. “You always wonder whether you’re doing the right thing for them. It doesn’t really get exhausting; you just don’t feel like you’re doing a good job.”

The camera crew spent all day at the shop, and the band flew into the Charlotte area later in the afternoon to join Mayfield in some of the scenes.

There will be some footage from the track in the video as well, including cameos from drivers Carl Edwards, Martin Truex Jr., Clint Bowyer and Brian Vickers, who are supposed to be giving Mayfield’s character some driving tips.

Mayfield said he enjoys Saving Abel’s music, but he’s not a fan of any genre in particular. His tastes range from Kid Rock to Hank Williams Jr. to everything in between, he said.

“But Hank Jr. is probably my favorite of all time,” he said. “I’m partial to him. His songs are all good, you know?”

The video for “Drowning” is expected to premiere in mid-April.  

Where are they now?

W.C. “Junie” Donlavey

Former NASCAR team owner W.C. “Junie” Donlavey turns 85 in April, but he still spends time at his Richmond, Va., shop every day.

You would think that after decades of long hours, hard work and travel, a man Donlavey’s age would prefer watching the grass grow from the comfort of his rocking chair on the front porch.

Think again.

“I’ve got to get out of the house,” he said. “Besides, that’s where everyone is. Why would I not go? I enjoy it.”

While Donlavey no longer actively participates in NASCAR, the sport remains in his blood. In addition to daily visits to the shop, he stays in touch with former drivers, follows the races and keeps up with the news.

“When you do something as long as I have, you don’t want to let it go,” he said. “My whole life has been NASCAR and it is going to stay that way.”

After a stint in the Navy, Donlavey entered a car in a NASCAR race for the first time in 1950 with Runt Harris, a fellow Richmonder, as his driver. His team made its final start in 2002.

Although Donlavey’s Fords were sponsored, the operation was never lucrative enough to run up front consistently. Donlavey’s team made 863 starts, but the only win came when driver Jody Ridley took the checkered flag at Dover in 1981.

“But that didn’t matter,” Donlavey said of his team’s lackluster results. “We raced because we loved it.”

The roster of Donlavey’s drivers over the years is impressive. Some of NASCAR’s most notable figures — such as David Pearson, Fred Lorenzen, Bobby Isaac and Lee Roy
Yarbrough — competed with him. And there were plenty of up-and-comers as well — drivers like Ricky Rudd and Ken Schrader.

“If I had it to do all over again, I would,” he said. “And I wouldn’t change a thing. Not a thing.”

This article originally appeared in the February 2009 issue of NASCAR Illustrated.

Lots to like at Martinsville

by Larry McReynolds/foxsports.com

I think on one hand, Denny Hamlin has to feel upbeat and good about these last two weeks. Both were at short tracks. Both were on tracks he had performed well at in the past. So there has to be one part of him that has to be pumped up.

On the other hand, the win column still has a goose-egg in it. Obviously we are headed to race tracks where your short track success has no bearing. Now granted, the 11 goes in to Texas with renewed confidence, some positive momentum and the team has to have a bounce in its step. Plus let's not forget that Phoenix isn't that far away. Even though Phoenix is a one-mile race track, it's a fairly flat race track and teams always approach that place and treat it like a short track race.

Darrell Waltrip, Mike Joy and I spent time with Denny in Bristol. He gave us a little insight as to why he was getting somewhat discouraged. In his rookie season in 2006, they put themselves in position to win two races and they won them. They capitalized at both Pocono races. Then in 2007 and 2008, he felt they put themselves in position to win 8, 9, maybe even 10 races over that period but they only won a single race per year. So that has him a little down right now.

I was very impressed with his Martinsville post-race interview. It was very professional and he showed a lot of class. I am sure he was churning inside having just lost that race, but he showed a lot of poise in that interview. I think he personally felt the way he spoke. He did make a point to mention that if the shoe is ever on the other foot next time, the outcome would be the same and I firmly believe that.

When it comes to short tracks, Denny Hamlin is a good racer. He's a clean racer, but he's going to race you hard. All you can say about he and Jimmie getting together last Sunday was it was good, hard short-track racing. I can't sit here and say either driver did anything wrong.

Earlier in the race, Denny showed a textbook restart to dive under Jimmie and take the lead. He knew if he was going to get by that 48 car, he better do it and do it quick.

I thought despite having very limited practice due to the weather, a very green race track and Goodyear having a new right side tire combination, it was by far the best racing we've had from start to finish other than the Daytona 500.

Going back to Goodyear a second, as I have said many times in the past, they put a lot of blood, sweat and tears (and a whole lot of money) into putting together the right tires for the races. I hope we made it clear Sunday on the broadcast that the tires that were going flat were not because of a Goodyear tire issue. It was simply that teams were cooking the beads, basically overheating the tire.

We really didn't see our front-running cars with a tire problem. Carl Edwards had a tire go down, but we saw it was from the splitter of another car. So those teams that had tire issues were the ones that were struggling on the race track and were over using their brakes. Overworking and over using the brakes created simply too much heat for the tires to stand.

Like Gordon, Johnson and Hamlin, Tony Stewart was solid all day long. If he had been a couple car lengths closer to Denny and Jimmie when they got together, we might have been talking about Tony Stewart winning his first race as a Cup owner. Tony is a very determined individual who wants to win his first race in his own race car.

It just kills me that in the NASCAR on FOX portion of the 2009 season, we only have one more short track race and that's in May at Richmond. Again though, I am looking forward to Phoenix because it's treated like a short track race. I simply tell everyone that Phoenix is a one-mile short track.

Ramblin’ Man  On Junior, Digger, and Qualifying

Thomas Bowles · Frontstretch.com

Here are some brief thoughts on a variety of NASCAR topics while waiting for fickle Spring to make its long overdue arrival…

Qualifying When the Rain is Flying – The record books will show that Jeff Gordon earned the pole at Martinsville this weekend. But he did so without having to turn a lap in anger, instead relying solely on his point lead when arriving at the track to get the spot. With rain washing out the chance to qualify, some folks will say that Gordon earned the pole based on his performance this season to date. In all honesty, Gordon hasn’t qualified outside the top 10 at Martinsville since 2002, and he’s won four pole positions in that period — so it’s likely the No. 24 car would have been starting at or near the front, anyway.

Starting up front at Martinsville is a huge advantage, but the ability to pick a pit stall first is an even bigger one on its notoriously treacherous pit road. Thus, Gordon was handed a two-fer advantage on a track where he’s already a favorite.

Now, it wasn’t that long ago that the reigning (no pun intended) Cup champion got to select his pit stall first at every race. That didn’t guarantee Dale Earnhardt seven titles — but it didn’t hurt him any, either. Earnhardt was a notably lackadaisical qualifier whose average starting spot in his final three full seasons was around 24th. Earlier this decade, NASCAR finally decided to take that advantage away from reigning Cup champions to the general approval of those in the garage area.

Much like the State of the Union Address, FOX television’s primetime lineup, and the presence of your uncouth uncle who starts drinking at 10 in the morning at family gatherings and hasn’t been able to hold a job for more than a month, rain at race tracks has been, is, and always will be one of those unpleasant, unfortunate, but unavoidable circumstances we must endure. As long as races are held outdoors, it’s going to rain during race weekends. (Though sometimes during seasons like last year’s weather-plagued schedule, it seemed the Higher Power was getting in on the act to hand down his views on the unholy abomination that is the Car of Sorrow.)

I know Jeff Gordon didn’t make it rain, and Jeff Gordon couldn’t stop it from raining. But I’d like to see a different set of rules devised for use in the event of inclement weather. First and foremost, if there’s a window of opportunity for additional track time, I’d like to see qualifying rescheduled prior to the race itself. If they have to run it Saturday morning prior to the Nationwide or Truck Series event, that’s fine. With a dreary and damp Saturday at Martinsville, that wouldn’t have worked this weekend, though.

Another idea is to use practice speeds from the last session that was run on a race weekend to set the field. A rainy forecast for the qualifying spot would certainly spice up those practice sessions. If the weather is so bad there’s no on-track activity prior to the race, I’d suggest NASCAR go to a random draw to set the race lineup and pit road selection. That would be equally fair to all drivers and might add a little excitement to the early stages of the race. A random draw is already used to select the qualifying order of the top 35 teams, which often gives an advantage to drivers who run during climactic conditions more favorable to speed during those sessions.

A demented part of me wants to suggest that NASCAR actually invert the field if qualifying is rained out, with the points leader starting dead last. That would make for some excitement for the first hundred laps or so of a race and give the backmarkers and their sponsors some much needed airtime. My guess is the cream would still rise to the top, but there’d be some bent fenders and frayed tempers as things sorted themselves out.

Heck, I’d be open to having the drivers run their qualifying laps using a video game console in the press box in the event of rain. For if history has taught us nothing else, we’ve learned that if there’s anything more dangerous than a toddler with a full loaded assault rifle it’s FOX or SPEED having to fill air time during a rain delay.

Ratings and Racing — Nielsen ratings for this season’s races are down significantly… to a point all the usual “top rated sports event of the weekend” spin can’t hide the bleeding. I’m not a TV guy, but it seems obvious to me whether you’re talking primetime sitcoms, late night talk shows, reality shows, stick and ball sport broadcasts, or racing, ratings are a reflection of how people feel about the “product” being presented to them on the TV screen. If they like the product, they watch it. If they don’t, they channel surf away.

Obviously, some percentage of race fans don’t like the product that is being presented to them this year — they’re not watching. Still, there’s a valid question to be asked as to what exactly those folks voting “no” with their remotes don’t like. Is it the racing itself — an increasingly homogenized and bland form of motorsport with the new cars and venues, less green flag passes for the lead, less displays of genuine human emotion from the drivers, and some venues that have provided less than stellar racing to date replacing longtime fan favorites like Darlington and Rockingham? Or is it the gimmicky, rodent-infested, ego-driven pabulum that FOX tries force-feeding fans?

The answer seems obvious: it is a combination of the two. For better or worse, a whole lot more fans will see racing on TV than will watch it from the stands, and even the best network with a stellar broadcast team can’t make a boring race fun to watch. Likewise, even the greatest race the sport can produce is doomed if the TV coverage is poor and even downright annoying. The cold, hard truth is that both NASCAR and its “broadcast partners” aren’t in this game to please the fans. They’re in it to make money… and lower TV ratings mean all entities make less money. It behooves NASCAR, FOX, and ABC/ESPN to take a long, hard look at what they’re doing wrong and make some rapid corrections — even if they’re painful up front. Both sides of the equation need to work together. A good start would be to dump the Hollywood Hotel and Digger, start races at one o’clock EST, and get rid of Fontana, New Hampshire, and Joliet.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and the Media — Even though I am little league media, I realize that the media needs Dale Earnhardt, Jr. more than Dale Earnhardt, Jr. needs the media. That having been said, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. does need us to keep his sponsors happy, and the coverage he receives is all out of whack to what he’s accomplished as of late.

Junior went on record recently telling the media to back off his crew chief Tony Eury, Jr. and the jungle drum beat that Eury has to go if Earnhardt is ever going to win more than an occasional race. Earnhardt even cowboyed up a bit and said if anyone has to be blamed for his recent lack of success at Hendrick, he’ll gladly take the blame himself. (Larry McReynolds never got that sort of backing from Junior’s old man when they hit a slump. Ponder that for a minute to decide if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.) Certainly, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. is a lot closer to the situation than anyone in the media. But with that closeness there lies a danger — he can’t see the forest for the trees.

When Dale Earnhardt, Jr. failed to live up to the hype at DEI, everyone was ready to pile on Teresa Earnhardt as an absentee owner who was destroying the team that was her husband’s legacy by refusing to spend the money to give the No. 8 team the tools it needed to win races and contend for titles. While tactfully defending his stepmother, Junior acknowledged he wanted more control at DEI, which at least implies there were things he wanted to change within the organization. When he didn’t get a stake in ownership, Earnhardt moved on to what was perceived as greener pastures at HMS. On paper, he’s right: Rick Hendrick’s organization has won oodles of titles and over a hundred races in its 25-year tenure.

Yet somehow, the problems that plagued Junior at DEI continue at HMS. It’s kind of hard to blame Teresa Earnhardt for that. Rabid Earnhardt fans are already blaming Rick Hendrick for Junior’s lack of success, claiming that Gordon and Johnson get all the good stuff while Junior gets junk.

I don’t buy it. Like Kyle Busch might say, “Negatory, Night-Rider.” At least in the current climate, Hendrick’s decision to replace Busch with Earnhardt might seem like the most foolhardy deal since the French signed off on the Louisiana Purchase.

Nobody is saying Tony Eury, Jr. is a bad guy. I don’t know the man, so I’m not going to shovel dirt into his grave while he tries to dig himself out. Given another driver, he might be an outstanding crew chief. But sometimes, the chemistry just doesn’t work between a good driver and a good crew chief. What he brings to the table as a broadcaster is a matter of opinion, but Larry McReynolds was a brilliant crew chief in his day. He enjoyed a ton of success with many different drivers, and his pairing with Davey Allison was pure magic. Richard Childress saw hiring McReynolds away from Robert Yates Racing to call the shots for the No. 3 team as a strategic move to help his old buddy Dale Earnhardt out of a slump. Now, no sane man can doubt the elder Earnhardt’s talents as a race car driver. Larry McReynolds did, in fact, play a key role in finally getting Dale that elusive Daytona 500 victory and, for that weekend at least, all was sweetness and light. But the honeymoon didn’t last very long, and eventually Childress had to move McReynolds over to the No. 31 team at Earnhardt’s behest.

When a driver-crew chief combination isn’t working, there’s some who will say that given a little time, the pair still might gel. Eventually, though, changes have to be made — even if its temporary — to eliminate that issue as the source of the problem. In the Earnhardt-Eury relationship, there’s no doubt who’s the Alpha Dog. Sometimes, a crew chief needs to have the gumption to tell his driver to quit bellyaching and tell him what the car is doing so he can make improvements on the next stop. Sometimes, a driver is going to want changes that a good crew chief knows won’t work, and that crew chief is going to have to convince his driver to trust him. But when you hear Earnhardt tell Eury, “I’m pitting this time by whether you want me to or not…” that suggests theirs is a lopsided relationship that’s going nowhere.  

Looking Back

Tire Wars

By Steve Waid

NASCAR faces a turbulent season in 2009, and the sanctioning body can’t afford another debacle like last year’s Allstate 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

That “race,” you’ll recall, was reduced to a series of 10-lap runs separated by competition cautions as Goodyear tires shredded at an alarming rate.

To prevent a repeat performance, it’s been suggested that NASCAR might be better served if more than one manufacturer supplied tires for the Sprint Cup Series.

History shows, however, that having more than one tire manufacturer is a very bad idea.

In the late 1980s, Hoosier and Goodyear waged an expensive and sometimes dangerous battle to provide tires to NASCAR’s top circuit.

Some teams felt that the less expensive, softer Hoosier tires were the way to go. Most of the top organizations, however, remained loyal to Goodyear.

That loyalty was put to the test when the teams running Hoosier tires won eight of the first 16 races.

As a result, Goodyear began designing tires that sacrificed durability for performance.

But with both tire suppliers trying to produce a quicker tire, drivers started to worry.

They didn’t want to suffer injury because of a tire failure.

At Lowe’s Motor Speedway in 1988, Goodyear pulled out of the Coca-Cola 600 citing safety concerns and left the entire field to use Hoosiers.

Four drivers went to the hospital with injuries after tire-related accidents.

Teams also started complaining to NASCAR about spending a fortune buying tires from two manufacturers. But the sanctioning body would violate antitrust laws if it simply told one tire manufacturer to leave.

At the start of the 1989 season, Goodyear unveiled a new weapon — the radial tire. The new tire could endure long runs far better.

After lengthy testing, the tire made its debut during Speedweeks at Daytona. But during practice, Dale Earnhardt and Bill Elliott slammed into the wall after tire failures. Elliott sustained a broken wrist.

Goodyear pulled out of the Daytona 500 but returned in April at North Wilkesboro.

Hoosiers were faster, but Goodyear’s radials sustained speed while Hoosier’s bias-ply tires faded badly.

Goodyear was jubilant. It became obvious radial tires were in stock car racing to stay.
On May 8, 1989, Hoosier gave up. Since the company didn’t manufacture radial tires at the time, there was no way it could stay in NASCAR.

The tire war was over, at least for a little while.

Six years later, the same scenario repeated itself, with the same results. Teams using Hoosiers were fast at times, but catastrophic failures plagued the series all season. And, once again, the tire war ended.

The teams were relieved. What they experienced had been aggravating, costly and dangerous.

And while the topic of adding a second tire manufacturer arose after Indy, it would be a major surprise if NASCAR ever permitted another tire war to begin.

This article originally appeared in the February 2009 issue of NASCAR Illustrated.

Stewart Beaming as Proud Team Parent

Holly Cain/fanhouse.com

I'll admit, I initially questioned Tony Stewart judgment in leaving a championship operation like Joe Gibbs Racing to shore up a needy team and prove he could go it alone as a capable a car owner in NASCAR's big leagues in addition to being exceptionally talented car driver.
He's a two-time Cup champion, an IndyCar champ and an USAC legend. Why alter course?
I never doubted Stewart's ability to do whatever he sets his mind to, but wondered whether the success would come before frustration. His World of Outlaws team has won championships, but this is a different game.
And even with an impressive debut at Daytona's season-opening Speedweeks -- a runner-up in the Daytona 500 qualifying race, third place in the Bud Shootout and eighth place in the Daytona 500 -- there was still an air of wait-and-see. Well, I've seen and, like millions more, I'm a believer.
Stewart insisted Tuesday he never made a list of goals for his maiden season as a Sprint Cup team owner; never put his new Stewart-Haas Racing team on any achievement timeline.
"It's been more on a week-to-week basis versus a timeframe of saying this is where we feel like we have to be,'' Stewart said. "I don't know that we really put a timeframe on it as much as we know that we just want to make improvement each weekend.
"As long as we're going forward, that process may be longer or shorter than we all anticipate, but as long as it's making forward progress, I think we're all happy right now.''
Real happy.
Stewart's third-place finish in the No. 14 Old Spice Chevrolet at Martinsville, Va. on Sunday, coupled with teammate Ryan Newman's sixth place in the No. 39 U.S. Army Chevy marked the first time the team has had two top-10 runs in one race. It was the first top-five among four top-10 efforts for Stewart, whose seventh-place ranking is solidly among the early Chase favorites.
It was a huge step for Newman, whose unfortunate start to the year included going through three cars before the drop of the green flag at Daytona and whose misfortunes continued for the next three weeks of the season. He didn't get his first top-20 until two weeks ago at Bristol, Tenn., yet the apparent turnaround has pulled him to 18th in the standings -- only 79 points behind 12th-place Matt Kenseth in the final Chase qualifying spot.
"The atmosphere at the shop (on Monday) was unbelievable,'' Stewart said. "Since I've joined the organization, I've not seen everybody in such a good mood and the morale so high. You're kind of like a proud father when you walk though there and you see all the people that are working for you be so excited about what's going on and be that happy.
"Some of them, that's the best finish they've ever had. So it's nice to be able to say you're the guy that's helped them get that," he said. "But you look at them at the same time and say, 'We're not settling just for third. That's not a win for us. We want to win races, win championships and hopefully that's just scratching the surface of what this team's capable of in the future.' ''

Listening to Stewart talk about the team is truly like listening to a proud parent and it's the analogy Stewart uses most. He modestly considers his role since joining forces with the former Haas team, more of a resource of influence, experience and devotion. The missing piece of the puzzle.
And clearly if you're going to be a satellite team -- Hendrick Motorsports is a good orbit to be in. Stewart-Haas gets all its engines and chassis from Hendrick. Stewart also took with him one of the organization's key technical wizards, Darian Grubb, to be his new crew chief and calls that relationship "very comfortable.''
"We got an opportunity to come into an organization that already had pieces in place, it was just a matter of getting the right people in the right places,'' Stewart said. "To start from scratch, I don't think I would have tried that.''
Stewart said the biggest key to his success as team owner is hanging up that hat every weekend when it's time to climb into the car. He promised that would be the crucial difference and insists he's had no problem separating the two jobs.
"Now that I've got Ryan as a teammate and as his car owner, I'm a little more curious about where he's at sometimes during the race than I have been in the past with other teammates,'' Stewart allowed. "But for the most part, I play strictly in that driver mode and concentrating on what I've got to do to get to the front.''
It's working well.
The good days are outweighing the bad days and it's happened sooner rather than later. The far easier course for Stewart would be ride out his superstar career at Gibbs, but that's not how he does things.
Stewart has never shied away from a challenge and looked at this endeavor as simply another to tackle. And he's taking along 150 employees to enjoy the ride.
"I've left Martinsville after a third-place finish before and left mad 'cause I knew we had a shot at winning the race or a shot at a better finish than third,'' Stewart said. "This weekend a third was like a win for us. A year from now it won't necessarily be like that.
"You constantly adjust that. ... I think you have to keep it in perspective. That's where the car owner side of knowing where we're starting and what we're up against. I like that success and I like that feeling when we have a good day.
"When you're at that shop as much as we are and when you're there to build this organization and to see these people come in from all these different great teams and to see it grow, I mean, it makes that satisfaction watching it grow that much greater.'' 

By The Numbers: Texas

Kenseth hopes to get back on track in Lone Star State

By Bill Kimm, NASCAR.COM

It's not often you see a guy win the first two races of the season and then fall off the face of the earth -- but that's exactly what has happened to Matt Kenseth.

Kenseth started the season 2-for-2, winning the rain-shortened Daytona 500 and backing it up with an impressive Fontana victory, leading 84 laps and winning by more than a second. Since then, it's been one debacle after another. Kenseth hasn't seen a top-10 finish in the last four races and has fallen from the point leader to 12th.

If Kenseth is to turn his season around, the Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday (1:30 p.m. ET, FOX) could be just the event.

In the last four races in Fort Worth, Kenseth has scored more points than anyone (631) and he ranks among the top-five in almost every statistical category at Texas Motor Speedway.

"We've had a lot of strong races there and we expect to go there and run well this weekend," Kenseth said. "We've had a pretty rough couple of weeks and I can't think of a better track that we'd like to go to get back on track."

Inside the Data

Matt Kenseth at Texas Motor Speedway

5  Number of top-fives for Matt Kenseth in 13 Cup races at Texas, tied for second-most at the track. Jeff Gordon leads with six and Kenseth is tied with Jimmie Johnson and Mark Martin.

8  Number of top-10s for Matt Kenseth in 13 Cup races at Texas, the most at the track. Kenseth's eight is matched by Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin, Tony Stewart and Jimmie Johnson.

10  Number of lead lap finishes for Matt Kenseth in 13 races at Texas, tied for second-most at the track. Mark Martin leads with 11 and Jeff Gordon joins Kenseth with 10.

10.1  Average finish for Matt Kenseth at Texas, second-best at the track. Jimmie Johnson leads all active drivers with an average finish of 9.1.

442  Number of laps Matt Kenseth has led in 13 Cup races at Texas, third-most at the track. Kenseth ranks behind Carl Edwards (467) and Tony Stewart (453).

3,348  Number of laps Matt Kenseth has completed in the last 10 races at Texas, tops among all drivers. Kenseth has completed all but two laps in those 10 races.

Necessitous Numbers

2  Number of tracks Jeff Gordon has yet to win a race at on the Cup Series schedule -- Texas and Homestead. Gordon has no wins at Texas and the track is the only place Gordon has finished 43rd -- and he's done it twice.

4  Number of drivers who have competed in all 16 Cup Series races at Texas Motor Speedway -- Jeff Burton, Jeff Gordon, Bobby Labonte and Mark Martin. All four drivers will take the green flag for the 17th time on Sunday.

7  Number of races, out of 16, Roush Fenway Racing has won at Texas. (Jeff Burton, '97; Mark Martin, '98; Matt Kenseth, '02; Greg Biffle, '05; Carl Edwards, '05, '08, '08).

9.25  Average starting position of the winner at Texas. Twelve of the 16 races have been won from a starting position of eighth or better with two race winners starting 30th or worse. Only one race has been won from the pole (Kasey Kahne, 2006).

341  Number of laps Jeff Gordon has led at Texas, tops among active drivers without a win. In 16 races he has six top-fives and eight top-10s but also has five finishes of 25th or worse with three DNFs.

495  Number of points Kyle Busch has earned in the last three races at Texas, tops among all drivers. Busch finished fourth, third and sixth and led laps in each race. The second-most points in that stretch goes to Jimmie Johnson with 483.

Defensive driver

Earnhardt Jr. growing testy over criticism

By Don Coble| Morris News Service

As racing's most-popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr. can't escape the spotlight. But that level of notoriety also creates a lot of unrealistic expectations and unfair comparisons to his famous father, seven-time champion Dale Earnhardt.

Although Forbes magazine estimated his annual income at nearly $36 million, the one thing Earnhardt Jr. can't seem to buy is patience and understanding. His fans are becoming increasingly concerned about his lack of success at Hendrick Motorsports. His normally reserved, yet playful, persona has been replaced recently with guarded annoyance as he tries to absorb the criticism.

His departure from Dale Earnhardt Inc. a year ago was hailed as a coup for car owner Rick Hendrick. But so far, one of the sport's most-successful teams hasn't produced the kind of results everyone expected.

Including Earnhardt Jr. and Hendrick.

Earnhardt Jr. now spends as much time defending his race team, especially cousin and crew chief Tony Eury Jr. The more Earnhardt struggles, the more fans and media want to pin the blame on Eury. But Earnhardt -- and Hendrick -- remain adamant that Eury is the key to success.

"We haven't run well, and it is obvious," Earnhardt said. "It is OK for people to point that out because it is a fact. I put myself in this position. I'm willing to accept the ups and downs and the goods and bads that come with it. We haven't run like we want to, like I think we should. It's all right for everyone to point that out.

"I have said it a hundred times, and it just doesn't seem to make a dent, but, the guy that I feel bad for is Tony Jr. (Eury) because he gets criticized so badly. You know how smart a guy he is. Truly know that he is a good mechanic and a solid crew chief. He just wanted to do this for a living, just like I do, but I'll take the fall. I would rather be crucified than him."

Compounding the frustration is that Hendrick forced Kyle Busch off the team to make room for Earnhardt Jr. Busch has won 10 races for Joe Gibbs Racing since the split; Earnhardt Jr. one.

The Sprint Cup Series moves to Texas Motor Speedway this week, where Earnhardt Jr. won his first race in 2000.

Now 34 and in his 10th season, Earnhardt Jr. seems to be running out of time to win a championship.

Only two drivers won a championship after competing for 10 years at the Cup level.

McDowell trying to leave Texas crash behind him

By David Caraviello, NASCAR.COM

Michael McDowell was making an appearance at a Toyota dealership Monday when the man approached him, leading with the one question the driver has heard too many times to count. "Aren't you," the man asked the Nationwide Series rookie, "that guy who crashed at Texas?"

And of course McDowell smiled and shook his hand and said yes, he was. One year later, it's still hard to shake the imagery of one of the most spectacular accidents in recent NASCAR history -- the blue-and-white car wiggling as it entered the corner on a qualifying run at Texas Motor Speedway, slamming into the outside wall, and rolling a dozen times before the smoldering husk of a vehicle finally came to rest. It was a complete validation of the improved safety systems implemented within the current Sprint Cup chassis. And it was an event that's come to define McDowell, who walked away uninjured from the crash.

In the year since, much has changed for the 24-year-old native of Glendale, Ariz. His program at Michael Waltrip Racing was shuttered due to a lack of sponsorship. He hooked on with JTG/Daugherty Racing, and currently drives the No. 47 car on the Nationwide Series. There have been signs of progress, like a third-place qualifying result at California and a sixth-place finish at Las Vegas. But just mention McDowell's name, and the Texas crash is still there, at the forefront of many minds -- except, that is, his own.

"I've got a solution for it," McDowell said. "All I've got to do is go sit on the pole at Texas, and then we won't have to worry about it anymore. People won't be like, 'Are you scared? Do you think about it? Do you worry about it?' We go sit on the pole, then it will be evident that we don't care."

It's been sort of a blessing and a curse. McDowell's crash last year at Texas, in just his second career Sprint Cup event, earned the driver an instant degree of celebrity, landing him on news magazines and morning shows that rarely if ever discuss the sport. It gave him a national audience to pitch his race team, his car sponsor and himself. But is also colored many perceptions of him, making McDowell infamous in the eyes of casual sports fans for something no driver wants to be known for -- wrecking a car.

"It's tough, because you don't want the attention, you really don't," he said. "What are you getting attention for, for wrecking a race car, which I always thought was a little crazy. But at the same time, I was trying to build a brand, and Michael Waltrip Racing was trying to build a brand, and we had Aaron's on the car, and it gave us a window of opportunity to tell the world who I am and about the race team. You couldn't bypass the opportunity that was given to us, but at the same time as a driver, it kind of hurts your ego a little bit, because all these folks want to talk to you because you wrecked a race car, not because you spent your whole life sort of getting to this point."

When it came to McDowell, the Texas crash obscured everything else. The accident, along with some scathing criticism from television commentators, earned him a somewhat reckless reputation. People questioned the experience and ability of a driver who had won four times on the ARCA circuit the year before, and kept a financially lean No. 00 operation in the top 35 for 20 consecutive races. Looking back on it now, he says there were some mitigating circumstances: a drying agent applied to the part of the track where his No. 00 car broke loose, a deflating right-front tire, his brakes wired back as part of the ultra-fast qualifying setup. No matter. It all came back to him.

"It's just one of those deals that didn't work out that well," McDowell said. "But there were a lot of things that happened, and it sort of led to, 'What's this guy doing in a Cup car with no experience?' But it doesn't really affect me too much, because I sort of know the behind the scenes of what happened."

While McDowell seems to accept his degree of infamy in stride, it's clear he'd rather be known for something else. Although he'll still smile and fess up to the fact that, yes, he is indeed the driver who crashed last year at Texas, he'd like to walk away from the accident just as he walked away from his smoking race car a season ago. He knows there's only one way to do that, to alter peoples' perceptions of him, to make them think of something else each time his name pops up on television.

"We've just got to go win races," he said. "That's what it's always been about for me. In NASCAR there are so many great drivers and teams, it's hard to win races at any level. For me, it's going to take a little bit longer than I wanted, and it's going to be a little bit of a learning curve even this year, but I feel like if we put good race cars on the track, and we can run in the top five like we showed at Vegas, we're going to win a race. And when we win a race, that's when we're going to change the perception. The toughest thing for me is just not getting too worked up about what people think. I can't control it. All I can do is run the best I can and do the best I can for the team. At the end of the day, if that doesn't make you happy, maybe nothing will."

McDowell indeed sounds happy racing on the Nationwide tour for JTG and veteran crew chief Gene Nead. Although the Waltrip team kept him under contract through the end of last season, McDowell knew the financial reality and that he would need to find a new ride for 2009. One day at lunch with his No. 00 team, crew chief Frank Kerr told McDowell that he should call Tad Geschickter, whose JTG/Daugherty team was partnering with Waltrip to run his No. 47 Sprint Cup car under the MWR umbrella. Geschickter also wanted to field a Nationwide car, and needed a driver. He and McDowell put together a program currently backed by Tom's Snacks.

The fact that McDowell is driving for the Nationwide arm of a race team affiliated with Waltrip, his old Cup shop, is "100 percent a coincidence," he said. Although Marcos Ambrose's JTG cars are fielded out of the Waltrip shop, the Nationwide program is a separate entity that operates out of a facility in Harrisburg, N.C. "It had nothing really to do with Michael Waltrip Racing, as crazy as it seems," McDowell said. "It seems like it all fits together."

So now it's back to Texas, for the first time since that spectacular accident last year. McDowell, who was out of the No. 00 car by the time the series returned to Fort Worth in the fall, doesn't give it a second thought. In the days immediately following the crash, he was back in the car making practice and race laps. Whatever nervousness he had about getting back on that 1.5-mile track, he said, is long gone. When he rolls out to qualify Thursday afternoon, there will be only one thing on his mind: Win the pole.

"It doesn't really haunt me," he said. "[Monday] I was at a Toyota dealership, and a guy was like, 'Hey, aren't you that guy who crashed at Texas?' Yes. I am the guy who crashed at Texas. And that's OK. That's OK right now. For the time being, until I do something more impressive like win a race or a championship, that will be what follows me. But eventually, that will change."

NASCAR ON TV THIS WEEK

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Well, that's all for today.  Until the next time, I remain,

Your Nascar Momma

Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, wine in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOO HOO what a ride!"

his list is authored by:

Sandra Monacelli
221 W. 57th Street 18B
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