Happy Tuesday!  

Today In Nascar History

April 7, 2001: Scott Riggs gets his first NASCAR victory, winning the Truck Series' Advance Auto Parts 250 at Martinsville. Riggs completes the season with five wins and finishes fifth in the point standings. He has not raced in the Truck Series since. After running two full seasons in what is now the Nationwide Series (2002-03) and winning four races, Riggs moved up to the Cup Series in 2004.

Comments from the Peanut Gallery

From Jack

Momma, do you know if there were any films made of the recent Legends race?  It would be nice to see them if any exist.

Smilin' Jack

Are you talking about the race at Bristol?  I recorded it, but then I think I deleted it later.  If it isn’t deleted, I can copy it to DVD and send you a copy…

Bits and Pieces

ISC Net Income Falls 31 percent: International Speedway Corp.'s fiscal first-quarter net income fell 31% on falling revenue amid price cuts as the racetrack operator cut its fiscal-year outlook, citing a worsening economy. The company has seen attendance at its events fall. The average income of NASCAR fans is below the national median, making them more susceptible to the recession. The company had also said it had begun to see a slowdown in corporate spending for hospitality, making the process of securing deals more time consuming. The company cut its fiscal-year earnings outlook to a range of $1.80 to $2 on revenue of $700 million to $720 million from December's estimate of $2.35 to $2.45 a share on revenue of $745 million to $765 million. It also said it wasn't including its Motorsports Authentics business in that estimate, saying that division's management was re-evaluating it given the challenges of selling licensed sports goods in the current market. President Lesa Kennedy said the company had reduced ticket prices to make it more affordable for fans to come to events. For the period ended Feb. 28, the motorsports promoter reported net income of $25.1 million, or 52 cents a share, down from $36.2 million, or 71 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding items, earnings fell to 56 cents from 78 cents. Revenue decreased 14 percent to $166.1 million.(Wall Street Journal)

Official - Petty to co-own Indy 500 car UPDATE 3: According to a press release from TB Communications, a press conference has been scheduled for Monday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for a "NASCAR team owner" to announce an entry into the 93rd running of the Indianapolis 500 on May 24. The release said the team owner will be making his debut as a car owner in the Indy 500. Two Sprint Cup Series team owners can be eliminated. Roger Penske and Chip Ganassi have both won the Indy 500 as car owners. The NASCAR team owner announcing the entry is also expected to announce a major sponsor for the deal and also who will drive his car. The release did not say if the NASCAR team owner involved is an owner in the Sprint Cup Series.(Hartford Courant) UPDATE: Richard Petty Motorsports will field an Indy 500 entry for driver John Andretti, sources have confirmed to NASCAR.COM. The official announcement will be made Monday. Given that RPM currently does not have an IndyCar operation, it was unclear Friday how the program would take shape.(NASCAR.com) UPDATE 2: Richard Petty will make his first foray into the Indianapolis 500 as an owner when he fields a car for John Andretti in next month's race. A news conference is scheduled Monday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but details were confirmed Friday by a person familiar with the arrangement. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to The Associated Press because the deal has not been announced. In 1994, Andretti became the first driver to run both the Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR event in Charlotte on the same day, finishing 10th at Indianapolis and crashing and finishing 36th at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Tony Stewart and Robby Gordon have both since done the double, but the grueling feat is no longer possible since Indianpolis changed its starting time several years ago. Petty is a partner in NASCAR with George Gillett in Richard Petty Motorsports, the team formerly known as Gillett Evernham Motorsports. Gillett is not expected to be part of the Indy deal. Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, which runs the full IndyCar Series, will work with Petty at Indy, providing equipment and personnel.(Associated Press) UPDATE 3: Richard Petty will field an entry for the Indianapolis 500 for the first time, with John Andretti driving the Window World-sponsored car in the 2009 edition of "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing" on Sunday, May 24. Seven-time NASCAR champion Petty unveiled the #43 Window World Dallara/Honda/Firestone for Indy 500 veteran and NASCAR regular Andretti on April 6 at the legendary Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Window World, the world's largest replacement window company, brought Andretti to the Daytona 500 earlier this year. Petty's new entry will feature the traditional "Petty Blue" and "Day-Glo Red" from his stock cars in the "King's" debut as a team owner in the Indy 500 after participating in the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard for the past 15 years. Richard Petty Motorsports currently campaigns four Dodge cars in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Window World and Petty will combine efforts with the Indy-based Dreyer & Reinbold Racing team to field the #43 Honda-powered Indy car for Andretti, an Indianapolis native.(see more, a transcript and photos at Indy500.com)

Camping World to leave Truck Series? UPDATE denied: NASCAR is putting out feelers for a sponsor to replace Camping World for the Truck Series. Camping World entered the sport as the sponsor for Richard Childress Racing and Kevin Harvick Inc. on Ron Hornaday's truck in 2007. Later that season CW expanded to include what was formerly the NASCAR Busch East and North developmental series. Camping World was named title sponsor of the Truck Series last fall following an extensive search after Craftsman Tools bowed out.(FoxSports) UPDATE: Sources confirmed to SPEEDtv.com late Monday that Camping World intends to remain as the title sponsor of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Published reports said NASCAR was shopping for a replacement Truck Series sponsor for Camping World, which is in the first year of a multi-year agreement with the sanctioning body. But a spokesperson for the retailer said the company is actually helping locate a replacement sponsor for the Camping World East and West Series. Camping World previously had announced that 2009 would be its last year as title sponsor for the East and West Series. “We have no intention at this point of trying to pull out of the Truck Series,” said Diana Ardelean of Camping World. “We’re very excited and fully in support of the Truck Series.”(SPEEDtv)

What is the 'Hat Man' up to? Bill Brodrick, known as the 'Hat Man', who worked for Unocal's 76 [formerly the official fuel of NASCAR] and used to greet the winning drivers in the winner’s circle. Brodrick, emailed with an update: "I am back running my gin joint, the Tavern at the Bridge, here in Algonquin, IL located at Route 62 at the Fox River. After turning the business over to my son in 2007 he decided he wanted out and I went back to running things in January of' 2008. Heck, I had 34 years of racing experience. Might as well put it to good use and run a tavern. I still get one of my trading cards in the mail (P. O. Box 14, Algonquin, IL 60102) once in a while for an autograph which I'm more than happy to do. I have a lot of old racing memorabilia in the Tavern and fans come in to watch the big screen and BS. That's the one thing I miss about being out of the business.....the fans. Race fans are the greatest people in the world. And they never forget you. If anyone comes through Algonquin (40 miles NW of Chicago) they're more than welcome to stop by. The beer is always cold and the popcorn fresh. God bless"

Texas Overnight TV Ratings: NASCAR on Fox posted a 4.2/10 Sunday for Sprint Cup racing from Texas. The 4.2/10 is down -11% compared to last year's 4.7/10 for the same race. Once again FOX had trouble getting viewers to the set, as tune-in at the green flag was down half a rating point compared to last year (-13%, 3.4/9 vs. 3.9/9). That half-point decline at the start matches the half-point decline for the entire race, showing that the build of the rating through the race was normal. More positively, yesterday's race was far and away the day's highest-rated sports event, it delivered FOX's best NASCAR rating in a month, and the year-to-year decline of five-tenths of a point is an improvement over the average of nine-tenths for FOX's previous races this season. Season-to-date, NASCAR is now averaging a 5.1/10 in the metered markets, down -15% compared to last year's 6.0/12.

Ken Schrader wins ARCA Re/Max race at Salem Speedway

By SceneDaily Staff

Ken Schrader may not have been in the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway Sunday, but he was certainly running a competitive event.

Schrader finished fifth in the ARCA Re/Max Kentuckian Ford Dealers 200 at Salem Speedway.

Patrick Sheltra, who was hospitalized following a crash in the season-opening race, returned to the series and won the event. In another outing with NASCAR ties, 16-year-old Chris Buescher finished fourth in the DavidRagan.com Ford in his career-first series start.

Miss America to perform national anthem at 'Dega

By Official Release

TALLADEGA, Ala. -- Miss America 2009, Katie Stam, will perform the national anthem prior to the Aaron's 499 at Talladega Superspeedway, in addition to appearing in the Dodge Speedway Sports Club and Pepsi Pit Tour Experience Zone hospitality areas on April 26.

Stam also will make a special appearance at the International Motorsports Hall of Fame induction ceremony on April 23.

"We are excited to welcome Miss America to Talladega Superspeedway," Talladega president Rick Humphrey said. "Anyone who heard her sing during the Miss America competition will agree that this should be an excellent rendition of The Star Spangled Banner.

Talladega will be Stam's first time attending a NASCAR race and the Indiana native is excited about visiting NASCAR's Most Competitive Track.

"Being from Indiana, naturally I'm a race fan," Stam said. "I'm thrilled to sing the national anthem at Talladega and be a part of a great racing tradition!"

Stam attends the University of Indianapolis and is pursuing a degree in Communications. Her career ambition is to become a television news reporter and anchor. Stam also is the National Goodwill Amabassador for Children's Miracle Network and is the official spokesperson for Zerosmoke.

In 2009, Talladega Superspeedway proudly celebrates 40 years in NASCAR. Race fans should make plans now to experience part of Talladega's history in 2009 during the triple-header Aaron's Dream Weekend, April 24-26, featuring the ARCA Re/Max Series, the Nationwide Series and the Sprint Cup Series.

For tickets, visit www.talladegasuperspeedway.com or call 1-877-Go2-DEGA. For our hearing impaired guests, please call TDD 1-866-ISC-TRAK (1-866-472-8725). Tickets also are available in person by visiting the Talladega Superspeedway ticket office from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. CT, Monday-Friday.

First of four Dash 4 Cash races Saturday at Nashville

By Official Release

Prior to the start of the 2009 Nationwide Series season, Nationwide Insurance announced the Dash 4 Cash program. Aimed at creating additional support for the teams in the Nationwide Series, the program provides an extra incentive at four stand-alone series events this season.

The Nationwide Dash 4 Cash provides an additional payout to Nationwide drivers -- $25,000 to the eligible winner of each of the four races and a $50,000 bonus to the driver who accumulates the most drivers' points during the four stand-alone events within the program.

It begins Saturday at Nashville Superspeedway. Here are the details:

• The program is open to all Nationwide Series regulars and up-and-coming drivers, regardless of whether they have a full-time or part-time ride in the series. Drivers who have a full-time ride in the Sprint Cup Series must enter, qualify for and compete in every Nationwide Series event to be eligible for the bonus cash.

• Should an eligible driver not win the opening race at Nashville and collect the Dash 4 Cash bonus, the $25,000 prize will roll over to the next race, June 13 at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, Ky.

• The two remaining races in the first-of-its-kind program are Aug. 1 at Iowa Speedway and Oct. 24 at Memphis Motorsports Park.

• The final aspect of the Dash 4 Cash is its cumulative bonus. The driver with the most drivers' points accrued in the four-race series wins $50,000 and will be honored at the Nationwide Series championship banquet at year's end.

Quotes & Notes: Texas

April Fool's joke no laughing matter to France, NASCAR

By NASCAR.COM

The biggest voice of all let that voice be heard Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway, and he wasn't happy.

According to the Sporting News Wire Service, NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France said the sanctioning body is looking at possible remedies in the aftermath of the April 1 story that indicated -- in ill-conceived jest -- that President Barack Obama had ordered carmakers General Motors and Dodge to withdraw their support from NASCAR racing.

Originally run without a disclaimer, the story, which appeared on the Web site associated with Car and Driver magazine, subsequently had a tagline added to indicate the report was an April Fool's prank. When the story first appeared, however, NASCAR vice president of corporate communications Jim Hunter was besieged with requests for NASCAR's reaction to what many thought was a legitimate article.

"We were really very upset about that," France said Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway. "And it may not be over with how we're going to approach that. That was an outrageous thing that those guys did, and we were very, very unhappy.

"We're still looking at our options how to make sure we remedy that. It was irresponsible -- very irresponsible."

The story has been pulled from the site.

France had his say pre-race. Here's what they were saying post-race.

Quotebook

"We felt like we couldn't run with the big dogs [Sunday] but could have a good points day. That's exactly what we needed."
-- Kurt Busch, on his eighth-place finish

"That wasn't much fun. We had a fuel-pump issue and that sent us behind the wall and ruined our day."
-- Reed Sorenson, on his 36th-place finish

"This car is just pretty tight, you know, and it really likes clean air. There were some guys that could do it ... but it's pretty important to be positioned in the front."
-- Matt Kenseth, on the difficulty to pass

"I feel like we had a top-five car. It's just, you know, something that was out of our control is what put us out. We got some trash on the grill and tried to get it off on the track before our last resort, which was pitting. We pitted and lost a lot of water and then ultimately blew up. Just by chance, something like a hotdog wrapper cost us a top-five finish."
-- David Ragan, on the engine failure that resulted in a 37th-place finish

"I was driving as hard as I could and seemed to be going nowhere."
-- Ryan Newman, who complained about a lack of grip

"I have to tell you, David's coming ... I hope people are paying attention to him because he's a coming."
-- Roy McCauley, crew chief for David Stremme, who finished 14th after starting 32nd

Notebook

• Jeff Gordon won the Samsung 500, his 82nd victory in 552 Cup Series races, giving him an average of one victory every 6.7 starts.

• This is his first victory and sixth top-10 finish in 2009. Gordon ends a career-long 47-race winless skid

• This is his first victory and ninth top-10 finish in 17 races at Texas. Gordon now has a win at every active track but one -- Homestead-Miami Speedway.

• Jimmie Johnson (second) posted his ninth top-10 finish in 12 races at Texas. It is his fifth top-10 finish in 2009.

• Hendrick Motorsports (Gordon 1, Johnson 2 and Mark Martin 6) and Roush Fenway Racing (Greg Biffle 3, Matt Kenseth 5 and Carl Edwards 10) each had three drivers in the top 10.

With drought over, Gordon will roll

By Reid Spencer, Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

Resume the countdown.

Like a space shuttle mission placed on hold during a prolonged stretch of bad weather, Jeff Gordon’s assault on NASCAR’s record books took a temporary, albeit extended hiatus of 47 races, a dry spell that ended Sunday with a victory in the Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

Eventually, though, there’s a break in the weather, and the shuttle takes off, just as Gordon’s No. 24 Chevrolet did Sunday. Not only did Gordon break the longest drought of his career, he did it a track that had frustrated him in his 16 previous starts there.

With victory in hand, not to mention a comfortable lead in the Sprint Cup championship standings, Gordon can look ahead toward milestones that will define in detail his Hall of Fame career.

With 82 victories, Gordon stands head and shoulders above the next most prolific active driver, Bill Elliott, who has 44 wins. Gordon’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson is third with 41, driving a car in which Gordon has a minority ownership.

One more win and Gordon will tie Cale Yarborough for fifth on the all-time list. Two more, and he’ll tie Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip for third. Three more, and only Richard Petty’s unassailable mark of 200 victories and David Pearson’s formidable 105 will be ahead of him.

Gordon’s resurgence isn’t an accident. During the offseason, he made sure he and crew chief Steve Letarte were on the same page as the 2009 season approached.

During Gordon barren 2008 season, no other crew chief in the Cup garage was vilified by outsiders as roundly as Letarte was for Gordon’s struggles, even as Gordon stood staunchly by his man. But Letarte didn’t take a refresher course in crew chief school, as Waltrip blithely suggested on the Fox telecast of Sunday’s race. His efforts and Gordon’s simply have begun to bear fruit.

“I feel like we had some missed opportunities last season, even as we didn’t have a great year,” Gordon said after celebrating his win in victory lane. “But there were still times we could have won. And so that just keeps you driving and driving hard and pushing forward.

“At the end of this season, I wrote Steve an e-mail, and we talked a lot. And I just saw the progress that was being made in the final 10 races (of 2008) with how Steve’s restructuring the engineering and the team and his efforts.

“And it just fired me up to want to do even more than I already was. The whole year has just been like that since Daytona–just see a different look in the guys’ eyes. You see a different effort that’s being put out.”

Just as a racecar has to have a comfortable balance, so does a racecar driver’s life. After struggling with the newness of fatherhood in 2008, Gordon has found a pleasant equilibrium that allows him to focus on the job at hand.

It’s no accident that wife Ingrid and daughter Ella, who was born June 20, 2007, weren’t in Texas to witness Gordon’s breakthrough victory. Last year, Ella had begun sleeping through the night, and the Gordons decided to bring her to the spring race in Fort Worth.

The weekend went haywire. Ella was up all night on the eve of the race, and so was Gordon. Sleep deprived and fighting a car that drove like a snowplow, he suffered through a miserable afternoon–while it lasted. Hard contact with the Turn 4 wall knocked Gordon out of the race after 124 laps and dropped him to the second 43rd-place finish of his career–both at Texas.

Ingrid and Ella were nowhere to be found this past Sunday, except in Gordon’s thoughts and words after he exited the car.

“We just made a decision that this is a tough sport,” Gordon said. “You got to take it serious, and you’ve got to be committed. And this is my job. They come every chance that they can, and when it doesn’t work out, you know, it doesn’t work out.

“I really hate that they weren’t able to celebrate with me (Sunday). But I think, because of this win, we’re going to win more races this year, and they’re going to be there for those.”

Gordon won four Cup championships under NASCAR’s previous scoring system. Before he retires, he wants to win one under the Chase format, which was introduced in 2004.

There may be miles to go before he sleeps, as the poet said, but the milestones are likely to come quickly, now that Gordon and Letarte have found their way back to victory lane.

For Gordon, life is good–and getting better.

Texas just the pits for Roush Fenway Racing

By Ed Hinton/ESPN.com

You'd have thought Roush Fenway Racing's top three teams were pulling for Jeff Gordon to break his 47-race losing streak.

That, or they'd better check their lug-nut glue.

One by one on Sunday, Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards dropped back with bad pit stops, leaving Gordon to cruise to his first win at Texas Motor Speedway.

But the Roush drivers weren't exactly cheering afterward.

"It burns me up," Biffle unabashedly told Fox TV reporters on pit road after battling back to a third-place finish. "This is the second time we should have won the race" this season, but for pit foul-ups. At Fontana, Calif., in February, Biffle stopped on his air hose and lost a solid shot at winning.

This time, "We had some lug nuts fall off or something," Biffle told reporters at a postrace news conference. "We lost a lot of track position. It was really, really hard here to fight your way back on track position.

"Just ran out of time," Biffle concluded resignedly after leading the most laps of the Samsung 500 before falling back. "Fifteen more laps, would have passed the 24 [Gordon] or 48 [Jimmie Johnson, Gordon's Hendrick Motorsports teammate, who finished second].

"Had the fastest car today, looked like. Not always the fastest car wins."

Just before the final caution, Edwards appeared to have the fastest car on the track, and he took the lead with 38 laps to go after a duel with Gordon. But yet another disastrous Roush pit stop dropped Edwards all the way back to 11th for the final restart, and he couldn't recover.

Tony Stewart had pushed Gordon back to third before that last caution, but Gordon's crew performed flawlessly and got him out of the pits first.

In fact, said Gordon's crew chief, Steve Letarte, "Without that last pit stop, I don't think we'd have had the opportunity to win today."

Before the previous caution, with 85 laps to go, Kenseth was running second to Gordon. Then, under that caution, Kenseth had a bad stop because of a dropped lug nut.

That dropped him back to midpack, "and it was extremely tough to pass," Kenseth said. "Then the last stop, we had a good pit stop, and the guys redeemed themselves and picked me up three or four spots -- I think got us up to sixth -- and we were able to move our way to fifth [where he finished]."

Later, Biffle softened on his crew's performance.

"The stops were really good," he said of the overall race. "It's just that on the two stops, the lug nuts fell off. … It's kind of contradictory, but the other stops were very good. The other pit stops were excellent.

"It's not really the jack man or the tire-changer, it's not actually the guys doing the physical work," Biffle said. "It's the prep of the guy who glued it up."

He meant the man responsible for gluing lug nuts to wheels before the race to facilitate the tire-changers' tightening the nuts lightning-fast with their air guns.

"Either it got glued up too early, too late," Biffle said, referring to the viscosity of the glue changing in the heat of a sunny day. "There's some technique to it, which I know nothing about."

Maybe the whole Roush Fenway organization ought to focus on glue during its off week heading into Easter.

Nationwide Series: Growing pains for Logano

You know how sports cars run in several classes in the same race? Prototype, GT, etc.? Well, Brad Keselowski won his class, and Joey Logano lost his in Saturday's O'Reilly 300.

Several de facto classes exist within the Nationwide Series. There are the Cup drivers dropping down to cherry-pick, such as Logano.

There are the "haves" among regular Nationwide drivers, such as Keselowski. Then there are various levels of have-nots.

Keselowski finished first in his class by finishing third in the race, while Kyle Busch held off Tony Stewart for the win.

Logano finished 12th after challenging Keselowski for second on a restart with seven laps to go, then falling back to get himself into more and more trouble.

After his rough finish, Logano, 18, said something interesting -- almost frightening -- when questioned by ESPN's Jamie Little about the pressure of his rookie Cup season and his spotty Nationwide performance with Joe Gibbs Racing.

"We're in a pressure business," said the most heralded Cup rookie since Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 2000. "If I haven't got used to that yet, I never am."

Scary, because Logano's finish Saturday made you wonder, beginning with his duel with Keselowski.

On the restart, Keselowski appeared to spin his tires, allowing Logano to bump him and pull alongside. Keselowski saw it a bit differently.

"The 20 [Logano] got a good run on me, got in the back of me a little bit, and we got side by side."

That allowed Busch to get away, but Keselowski won the duel with Logano.

From there, Logano drifted up in front of Carl Edwards, clipped him and put him in the wall.

Trying to clear Keselowski, "I drove into [Turn] 1 too hard and scraped the left a little bit and went up the track," Logano told Little. "At that point, the 60 [Edwards] was looking outside, and the 33 [Stewart] was looking inside.

"I was hoping to keep my foot in it and clear the 60. If I'd checked up, the 33 was right there. I didn't know what to do to get out of that hole. It's my fault."

Not the greatest exhibition of dealing with pressure.

If Keselowski spins his tires on the restart while sandwiched between two Cup drivers, it's the kind of mistake a Nationwide regular is allowed to make while still in the upper developmental stages. And he later gave up second place to Stewart because Stewart was on fresher tires.

For Logano, dealing with Edwards outside and Stewart inside is the sort of thing he'll have to face his entire Cup career.

So you have to hope, for his sake, that he was wrong about being as accustomed to pressure as he'll ever be.

Camping World Truck Series: Bring on Kansas

The Trucks were off this past weekend. Their next race is at Kansas on April 25.

Tracks of Yesterday - South Boston Speedway

Allen Madding/insiderracingnews.com

South Boston Speedway was constructed at South Boston, Virginia by Buck Wilkins and Dave Blount. The quarter-mile dirt track officially opened on August 10, 1957 to 1,000 spectators and a host of local racing divisions.

In 1960, South Boston acquired NASCAR sanctioning and hosted its first NASCAR event on April 16th – a 50-lap NASCAR Sportsman event won by Johnny Roberts. The NASCAR Grand National Division first visited South Boston Speedway in South in August 1960. Junior Johnson qualified second, led 42 laps, and scored the win in the 150 lap event.

South Boston paved the track prior to the NASCAR Grand National tour made its 1961 visit and lengthened the event to 200 laps. Junior Johnson led 168 laps and recorded the win in the No. 27 Holly Farms Pontiac.

South Boston lengthened the track from .25 to .375-mile length prior to the 1962 NASCAR Grand National event and added a concrete retaining wall. Rex White and Jack Smith each took turns leading the event with White scoring the win.

NASCAR signed an agreement with R.J. Reynolds tobacco to sponsor the series beginning with the 1972 season. The Grand National Division would be renamed the Winston Cup Series. Additionally, tracks shorter than ½-mile and/or races less than 500 miles were to be dropped from the schedule. So, 1971 was the last time the series competed at South Boston Speedway for the Halifax 100. Benny Parsons, driving the No. 72 Ford of L.G. Dewitt scored the win and lapped the entire field.

The speedway hosted asphalt late model division events on a weekly basis after parting with NASCAR in 1972 and became popular with drivers around the south.

In 1982, the NASCAR Busch Grand National Series visited the south Boston Speedway for the Busch 200. Sam Ard, driving the No. 00 Oldsmobile, won the event with Jack Ingram and Jimmy Hensley hot on his trail. The Busch Series would visit South Boston three times in 1982, five times during 1983, three times in 1984 and 1985, and four times in 1986, before settling to a two event per year schedule in 1987.

At the end of the 1984 season, a local businessman, Mason C. Day Sr., and his son Mike Day, purchased the track and began making improvements to the facility.

The Busch Series ceased competing at South Boston after the 1991 Coors Light 300, but returned in 1994. The track was lengthened slightly from .375-mile to .4-mile prior to the NASCAR Busch Series return.

In 2000, the series made its final visit to South Boston for the running of the Textilease / Medigue 300. Jeff Green recorded the win driving the No. 10 Nestle’s NesQuik Chevrolet. The Day’s sold the track in April 2000 to Joe Mattioli III whose family owned Pocono Raceway.

With the NASCAR Busch Series gone from South Boston’s schedule, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series added the track to its schedule for 2001. Ted Musgrave led 207 of the 250 laps in the NetZero 250 Presented by John Boy and Billy. The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series elected to drop South Boston from their schedule following the 2003 John Boy and Billy 250. Dennis Setzer recorded the win in the No. 46 Acxiom Chevrolet.

South Boston continues to host weekly short track racing schedules and provide a training ground for the NASCAR stars of tomorrow.  

The Yellow Stripe

Can Tony Stewart Win A Sprint Cup Title In His First Year As An Owner?

Danny Peters · Frontstretch.com

When Tony Stewart signed on the dotted line in July 2008 to assume 50 percent ownership in what was the struggling Haas CNC Racing outfit, there were plenty of people lining up to tell the irascible Columbus, IN native that he was making a colossal mistake.

That it was a great deal financially speaking was the one thing that couldn’t be argued; Stewart didn’t have to pay so much as one dollar for a half-stake in the two car outfit. But all numbers aside, the real issue was that Haas CNC Racing had hardly set the racing world alight in its first six years of operating. Indeed, a driver who’d spent the last decade defined by stock car success had purchased a team seemingly destined to fail.

Having started life in 2002 as a Research and Development car for the mighty megalith that is Hendrick Motorsports, Haas CNC drivers snagged just 14 top 10 runs in 284 attempts in the Cup Series, with Johnny Sauter’s fifth place effort at Richmond in September, 2007 the highest ever finish for the fledgling team. So, why on earth would Tony Stewart — with two championships, 33 race wins, 129 top 5s, 207 top 10s, and an almost uninterrupted history of success at the Sprint Cup level — want to leave the safety of the No. 20 car and Joe Gibbs Racing after ten glorious years? Especially when you consider that the team he drives for is the car that finished 43rd in owner points in 2008?

Well, turns out Stewart seemed to know something the rest of us didn’t, right?

Let’s take a look at his season so far. Smoke recorded his first top 10 at Daytona – despite his and Ryan Newman’s efforts to wreck as many cars as possible – with an 8th place effort in the 500. Now Daytona, a restrictor plate track, is far from a reliable guide to the season. But when Stewart duplicated his 8th place finish in Fontana the following Sunday, signs were there that maybe, just maybe, Stewart-Haas Racing could be a contender for a Chase berth. 26th in Vegas, Stewart’s lowest finish to date, tempered the optimism a smidgeon; but another 8th place effort at Atlanta gave him three top 10 runs in his first four races – a tremendous start by whichever measure you want to use. A 17th place run at Bristol was followed by his highest finish to date at Martinsville (3rd) and backed up by another strong run at Texas Motor Speedway, where the No. 14 car led 16 laps on the way to a very respectable 4th place.

To say such a start was unexpected is fast becoming an understatement of the year. Even if you told Stewart three months ago he would lead laps in three races (Daytona, Fontana, and Texas) and have two top 5s and three other top 10 finishes by the second off week, he’d have pretty much bitten your hand off. So, how has Tony managed such a good start? Well, as you might expect, there are a number of good reasons; and as always in NASCAR, it starts with the people.

Hiring Bobby Hutchens, a DEI veteran, as Stewart-Haas Racing’s Director of Competition was both inspired and paid major dividends as the team reorganized under a major shift of personnel. Even Tony noted at the time that “Bobby brings a ton of technical and management experience to SHR.” It’s that level of experience that the “new” team needed in order to operate effectively. The other crucial hire for Stewart was crew chief Darian Grubb from Hendrick Motorsports, where he had been temporary crew chief for Jimmie Johnson — winning the Daytona 500 when NASCAR’s Doctor Evil himself, Chad Knaus, was suspended for (yet another) rulebook violation. Grubb then spent a year atop the pit box with the hapless Casey Mears before spending 2008 working on the No. 5 and No. 88 programs.

After such a symbiotic relationship with the savvy Greg Zipadelli, how Stewart reacted to the new voice in his earpiece was in some ways going to define his season. But as Stewart pointed out after Martinsville, it seems to be going a-OK so far: “I feel like Darian makes good calls,” he said. “There were times during the race [at Martinsville] he was making changes that I questioned, but they were better and made the car work. He’s really good. The thing is, he’s very sure of himself. He’s very sure of his decisions.”

Those decisions from Hutchens and Grubb don’t just stop at the race track, either. The softening economy and the sheer number of talented and dedicated workers available in the NASCAR pool helped, too; and both men found exactly the right combination of old and new crew members to work for them.

“Hiring those right people in those right spots, it’s taken a lot of pressure off of me having to oversee everybody,” said Stewart. “I feel like I could literally not go to the shop for the whole year almost, and other than signing paperwork, it would run just fine with or without me [there].”

Another crucial component in Stewart’s early success has been the equipment and technical support from Hendrick Motorsports. This vital element gives Stewart a baseline to build from, and for a racer with as much street smarts as driving ability, this was a gift horse of the highest order — a key component in Stewart making the move in the first place. The fact that Rick Hendrick makes himself available as a sounding board just enhances the deal, giving Smoke a fantastic outlet as he takes his formative steps into Sprint Cup ownership. But then again, Hendrick was a believer from the first day Stewart made his announcement that he can be successful on his own. “I think Tony has put a lot of sweat equity into it,” he explained. “I think he’s surprised a lot of people. I haven’t been surprised because I know the dedication and what they’ve tried to do.”

Of course, Stewart was not brand new to team ownership in one sense, having presided over World of Outlaws and USAC racing teams for the past three years. Coupled with that responsibility is Stewart’s ownership of Eldora Speedway, that jewel of a half-mile, high-banked dirt track in Ohio which plays host to some of the largest dirt racing events in the country. The Prelude to the Dream, Kings Royal, and World 100 all attract over 20,000 spectators annually to a speedway that only continues to grow.

But while this has been useful training, it’s fair to say there’s nothing quite like Sprint Cup ownership these days; just ask Michael Waltrip, who has stumbled and bumbled his way through the past couple of years and is only now coming out the other side, so to speak. But making matters slightly easier, too, is Stewart’s solid sponsorship situation. Office Depot will sponsor the car for 22 races, while Old Spice will do likewise for 14 events — with Burger King picking up the final two remaining events of the 38-race slate.

So, with this team already well above their expectations, can Stewart do the unthinkable and actually win the Championship in his first year as an owner? Well… why not? He has the engine and technical support, a fantastic group of dedicated employees, a crew chief not scared to argue and overrule him in terms of setup changes — not to mention years of accumulated experience working with the good folks of Joe Gibbs Racing. He’s firmly ensconced in 5th place, some 144 markers up on 13th place Juan Pablo Montoya, and has notched top 10 efforts at all three of the Chase tracks we’ve run thus far (Fontana, Martinsville, Texas).

Cautiously, then, there is plenty of reason for optimism. In sport, like in life, it’s all about taking the opportunities you’re given and running with them as hard as you can. In the first few months of operation, Stewart and indeed the entire SHR team has done just that… and it’s a team that only seems to be getting better with time. Even teammate Ryan Newman in the No. 39 has picked up the pace, scoring three straight top 15 finishes after four poor-luck performances to start off the 2009 season. As Smoke himself observes: “It’s like we say every Monday in our competition meeting, we’ve just got to build a database first. Once we get that established, then I think the second time we come around we’re going to be a little better yet.”

Now, other than my slight discomfort here with a guy like Smoke talking databases, if ever there’s proof positive SHR is moving on up — then this is it. There are still 19 races to run before the Chase field is set, but there’s every reason to believe Stewart can be part of the elite field. He’ll still have to go through the Jimmie-Robot, Big Daddy Jeff Gordon, Rowdy Busch, and his collection of oversized, ridiculous sunglasses (among others) to win it all. But remarkably, all things considered, there’s no compelling reason not to assume Stewart can challenge for a third Sprint Cup crown.

And were he to win one as an owner/driver — this season or in the future — it would have to go down as one of the best stories in NASCAR for years.

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
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