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Happy Monday. Only 9 more days to my vacation and trip to Phoenix!!!!!
Today In Nascar History
04/10/1958-Speedy Thompson wins at Columbia, win #1 of the season, and #15 of his career.
04/10/1960-Richard Petty wins at Martinsville, win #2 of the season, and #2 of his career.
04/10/1971-Bobby Isaac wins at Greenville, win #1 of the season, and #33 of his career.
04/10/1983-Harry Gant wins at Darlington, win #1 of the season, and #3 of his career.
04/10/1988-Bill Elliott wins at Bristol, win #1 of the season, and #24 of his career.
04/10/1994-Dale Earnhardt wins at Bristol, win #2 of the season, and #61 of his career.
“I’m sure Sterling Marlin’s hairpiece fell down in his face and he couldn’t see me.”
— Ryan Newman, assigning blame for his crash on lap 201 at Texas Sunday~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
from RD
from Lou
Too Many Cautions?
A coupla years ago there was a guy had a very interesting web site. He would go through the race lap by lap, and and critique every thing form the commercials, to what and how the drives conducted themselves. He also broke down the time spent on racing, and the time spent on TV adds. He found that TV adds varied from broadcast to broadcast, and no network had any more or any less then anyone else, over the course of a season. The adds took up anywhere from 15 mins pers hour, all the way up to 17-18 mins per hour. The time spent on adds was not determined by the networks, it was determined by the number of adds bought by the various companies that wanted their product shown.
I think why the adds seem more and longer on Fxx is the fact that so many Waltrips are being shown. That in itself would tend to make the adds seem longer then that really are. Thank goodness for my DVR...
rd
ESPN plans to pull out all the stops in 2007
ESPN plans to pull out all the bells and whistles when NASCAR returns to the cable sports network in 2007.
"ESPN has really morphed or grown since we were last in the sport," said ESPN president George Bodenheimer, who was at Texas on Sunday. "We're really considered a multimedia network now. We're looking to take this property and blow it out, if you will."
The network will offer plenty of coverage in studio shows, analysis and a heavy online presence. Much of it has yet to be formalized, said Bodenheimer, also president of ABC Sports.
ESPN and ABC will broadcast 17 Cup races beginning in 2007, the first year of an eight-year contract the networks signed with NASCAR.
ABC was one of the first networks to televise stock car racing in the 1960s, and ESPN introduced flag-to-flag race telecasts in the 1980s. The network was NASCAR's leading carrier through the 1990s, but has not aired a race since 2000, when it lost the rights to NBC and Fox.
Bodenheimer said the return of NASCAR to ESPN marks an emotional reunion after both grew to national prominence. ABC Sports/ ESPN president George Bodenheimer, whose networks return to the mix of televising NASCAR events for the first time in six years next season, said he prefers late afternoon starting times for Sunday Nextel Cup events in 2007.
"Generally we're looking to televise the sport when we can attract the highest ratings that we can," Bodenheimer said.
Tony Stewart led twice for 99 laps to win the WIX Filters Lap Leader of the Race Award in the Samsung/RadioShack 500. He also led the most laps in the race. Stewart claimed the WIX Filters Lap Leader of the Race honors for the third consecutive event. He took the lead in the overall standings (3-2) over Greg Biffle.
* The Samsung/RadioShack 500 is the third consecutive race where Stewart has led the most overall laps.
* Stewart has led 28 times in seven races this season for a total of 784 laps. He has led more laps than any other driver in the NEXTEL Cup Series. He has led at least one lap in each of the seven races this season.
* Stewart finished third, his fourth top-five finish in seven races this season. He climbed three spots in the NEXTEL Cup Series championship standings, from eighth to fifth. Stewart trails point leader Jimmie Johnson by 97 points.
Martinsville Speedway Television Ratings Highest Ever: Not only was the DirecTV 500 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway a sellout last Sunday afternoon, it was a huge hit on television. The race scored a 6.2 final national rating on FOX, up 22 percent over the 5.1 final national rating a year ago. The 2006 DirecTV 500 was the highest rated, most viewed NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series event in the history of Martinsville Speedway, out-performing the previous record rating by 15 percent. The previous record had been a 5.4 on FOX for the 2001 and 2004 spring events. The 6.2 final rating meant that 9,766,000 people watched the race in 6,810,000 households. The Kroger 250 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race on Saturday also drew record television numbers for Martinsville Speedway. The Kroger 250 earned a 1.1 rating on SPEED, up 10 percent from the 1.0 rating for the 2005 race. - Martinsville Speedway PR
Shamu To Join Johnson At Daytona In July: Lowe’s and SeaWorld announced today that Jimmie Johnson will feature a Shamu paint scheme on his Chevrolet when the Daytona 500 champion returns to the superspeedway on July 1. “The No. 48 Lowe’s team has done some great family-themed paint schemes in the past few years,” said Johnson. “This Shamu scheme is no different. All kids love Shamu. I know I did growing up in San Diego. Now, I’ll be able to bring Shamu to the beaches of Daytona and hopefully introduce him to victory lane.” Lowe’s is the official Home Improvement Store of all the Busch Entertainment Corp. (BEC) theme parks, including SeaWorld. The paint scheme is part of SeaWorld’s introduction of its all new Shamu show, called “Believe” at each of the SeaWorld parks this year. In addition to the Shamu paint scheme, a lucky race fan will have the opportunity to see the new show and watch as Jimmie Johnson races the Shamu No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet. Fans can log on to www.lowesracing.com, sign up for a free Team Lowe’s Racing fan club membership, then race the specially designed No. 48 Chevrolet online. The fan with the fastest time will win a trip to Orlando to visit SeaWorld and Discovery Cove as well as the opportunity to watch Jimmie race. The Contest will run from April 7 to May 12. “Lowe’s is pleased to offer this unique experience to our race fans,” said Bob Gfeller, Lowe’s senior vice president. “We are always looking for ways to maximize the racing experience for Team 48 fans and their families. This experience allows a lucky fan to see two great shows- Shamu at SeaWorld and Jimmie Johnson at the racetrack.” “The new Shamu show is the most ambitious show attraction in SeaWorld’s 42-year history, and is unlike anything our guests have ever seen. We are excited to see Shamu on the car and fortunate to have Jimmie Johnson and Lowe’s help us launch our new show, which, like racing, is great family entertainment.” Said Robin Carson, BEC’s corporate marketing vice president. The Daytona race kicks off NBC’s broadcasts of the second half of the 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup season. - GMR Live PR
Holds off champs Kenseth, Stewart for second victory this season
By Stephen Hawkins, The Associated Press
FORT WORTH, Texas -- Kasey Kahne couldn't believe his rearview mirror when he crossed the finish line Sunday in Texas.
There was nobody there.
Not Matt Kenseth, not Tony Stewart.
"I definitely thought I had my hands full with those guys,'' said Kahne, as shocked as anybody about his 5-second victory.
Kahne sped away from the field -- and his closest competitors -- after the final restart with 17 laps to go to become the 11th different winner in as many Nextel Cup races held at Texas Motor Speedway.
"This is a great victory. It's one of the tracks I have looked at since I started racing. This is a track you want to win at,'' said Kahne, who turns 26 on Monday. "This track, Indianapolis and Daytona. If you can win at one of these tracks, you have really done something.''
In his 2004 rookie season, Kahne finished second at Texas -- only two-hundredths of a second behind with his nose on the rear bumper of winner Elliott Sadler. He didn't have to worry about a close finish this time.
Kahne even scored a Texas first, becoming the first driver to win from the pole at the 1.5-mile, high-banked track.
After taking the lead from Stewart with 27 laps to go, Kahne built a 1.4-second cushion over Stewart and Kenseth before a caution flag for debris on the track. All three cars took four tires on the pit stop and came out in the same order they went in.
It took Kahne a couple of laps after the restart to finally clear the lapped car of Robby Gordon. Once he did, he cruised to the checkered flag at the Samsung/RadioShack 500. Kenseth got past Stewart, who led 99 laps after winning last weekend at Martinsville, for second place.
"I don't think I could have caught him on eight tires he was going so fast,'' Kenseth said.
Kahne won for the second time this season, in the same No. 9 Evernham Dodge he took to Victory Lane from the pole in Atlanta last month. It was his third career victory.
The last three times Kahne's been on the pole, he's won, including Richmond last season.
"The car got loose at the start. It took us a while to get going,'' Kahne said. "It was a heck of a run with Tony there.''
Stewart had been the one cruising ahead of the field until Lap 302. That's when the reigning Cup champion came up behind the lapped car of rookie J.J. Yeley on the backstretch. That allowed Kahne to catch up and even nose ahead, though he didn't officially lead until a few laps later.
Kahne crept alongside Stewart and was on the champion's bumper several times before finally taking the lead. Kahne went around Stewart in the fourth turn at the end of Lap 307 and made the final pass right at the line.
"It was fun racing like that. Obviously, if there had been 80 laps to go, neither one of us would have been racing each other that way,'' Stewart said. "Definitely, he was better. We weren't. We were extremely loose there at the end.''
All 10 past Texas Cup winners were in Sunday's 334-lap race at the track marking its 10th season of racing; none won from the pole position.
Denny Hamlin was fourth Sunday, his first career top-five finish. He led three times for 41 laps.
Kevin Harvick was fifth, followed by Jeff Burton, Scott Riggs, Joe Nemechek, Mark Martin and Bobby Labonte.
Martin, the 47-year-old Roush driver who initially hadn't planned to race this season, had his fifth top-10 finish and is fourth in points. Martin insists that this will be his last full-time Cup season no matter what happens.
Points leader Jimmie Johnson was two laps down at one point Sunday, but came back to finish 11th and kept the points lead, 15 ahead of Kenseth. Kahne is third.
Carl Edwards was in the second spot on Lap 257 when he got loose, spun out of control and was done for the day. He missed hitting the back end of Stewart's passing car by mere inches.
Edwards led 50 laps, one more than his Roush Racing teammate Greg Biffle, who was knocked out by Kurt Busch, their teammate from a year ago. Edwards and Biffle won the two Nextel Cup races held at Texas last year.
Busch, the 2004 Cup champion who won his Busch Series debut Saturday, got stuck in the pit for nearly a minute during his first stop because of a problem with the jack lifting the car. Busch dropped to 40th place and two laps down by time he got back on the track.
He was still a lap down when he bumped Biffle from behind on Lap 83 and sent the No. 16 Ford into the wall. The impact damaged the safety barrier in Turn 3 and repairs were made during a 10-minute red flag.
"It was clear that we had a winning car,'' said Biffle, who won last April before Edwards won the first fall race at the track.
"I don't know what he was doing. I was a lapped car trying to get out of his way,'' Busch said. "He checked up. ... I tried not to get him. I had nowhere to go.''
While he came up short in Sunday's Cup race, Stewart finally took a checkered flag at Texas in Round 2 of the International Race of Champions on Friday night. He had been in 13 races on the track before then, including Cup, Busch and Indy Racing League cars.
by Monte Dutton
Gazette Sports Writer
JUSTIN, Texas — Once again Kurt Busch ran afoul of one of his former Roush Racing teammates.
Matt Kenseth took exception earlier this season at Bristol when a bump from Busch took Kenseth out of the lead, and Greg Biffle seemed to have a considerable shot at winning the Samsung/Radio Shack 500 at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday before Busch’s lapped Dodge sent his Ford spinning.
The aftermath of the lap-83 altercation involving Busch and Biffle apparently also resulted in a verbal exchange between Biffle’s girlfriend, Nicole Lunders, and Busch’s fiancé, Eva Bryan, behind Busch’s pit stall.
Biffle wasn’t much happier than his girlfriend. He noted that Busch was a lap behind at the time.
“… You’ve got to have a little bit of respect for the other drivers you’re racing with,” said Biffle, “and Kurt hasn’t shown respect, or that surely wasn’t showing respect.
“At some point, common sense has to set in and say, I can’t run into the back of a guy at a superspeedway, a mile-and-a-half track, going 175 miles an hour, unless we have restrictor-plate bumpers or our bumpers line up. You just can’t do it, and if you continue to do that, then stuff is going to happen."
The incident — between the drivers, not the girlfriends — also led to a red-flag stoppage that lasted 9 minutes, 27 seconds, while officials repaired a section of the soft walls (aka SAFER barriers) that had been punctured on impact from Biffle’s car.
So … the race was stopped because the barrier became less safe, but after the repairs were completed it became safer again.
What’s he gonna say?
Reed Sorenson will likely receive harsh treatment by NASCAR officials in response to an incident during Saturday’s O’Reilly 300, a Busch Series race.
The Cup rookie, competing full-time in both series, allegedly tossed a chunk of roll-cage padding out the window in order to cause a caution flag. Sorenson claimed later the padding flew out the window without any action on his part, but what made the whole matter doubly suspicious was the fact that Sorenson, not any of the other drivers, then reported debris on the track via radio the following lap.
Greatly exaggerated
The vacuous remarks of TV shills notwithstanding, Sunday’s race wasn’t close to a sellout. The back-straight grandstands, which allegedly accommodate 30,000, were far from full.
Although local estimates of the crowd ranged from 200,000 to 250,000, it was nothing of the sort. With a seating capacity of 155,000 — at least 5,000 of which was lacking — and a realistic infield capacity of no more than 15,000, the likely size of the crowd was about 165,000.
Absent leader
The command “Gentleman, Start Your Engines,” usually delivered by a dignitary at the track, was delivered by Pres. George W. Bush via video. It came at the end of what was basically an infomercial.
Oh the humanity!
Fox’s “cutaway car” — the one used most frequently by Jeff Hammond in technical explanations — crashed from its pedestal in front of the broadcast area behind pit road during the race. The expensive prop landed on its roof and, perhaps to hide the embarrassment, was covered rather hastily with a black tarpaulin.
Quick Carl
Carl Edwards raced twice on Saturday. After competing in the Busch Series race at TMS, he spent the evening racing a sprint car at Cowtown Speedway in Kennedale, Texas, where he finished 10th in the ASCS Sooner Region race. Cowtown Speedway is a quarter-mile dirt track.
Sluggish start costly for Raines in his second start of the season
By CATHY HARASTA / The Dallas Morning News
FORT WORTH – Roger Staubach was itching to contribute to fledgling Hall of Fame Racing's TMS debut Sunday.
"I got my ankles taped," Staubach said, smiling, as he signed autographs in the garage area before the Samsung/RadioShack 500. "When you were playing, you had some control over it."
Staubach owns Hall of Fame Racing with Troy Aikman. As first-year NASCAR Nextel Cup team owners, the former Cowboys quarterbacks have avoided setting unrealistic goals for the No. 96 DLP HDTV Chevrolet. Staubach said that a top-25 finish Sunday would be a reasonable goal, though he understood how much Hall of Fame team members want to win.
"When we [the Cowboys] were 8-6 one year, we felt like the world ended," he said. "We're learning more and more."
Driver Tony Raines, making his second start for Hall of Fame, finished 24th after struggling early in the 334-lap race. The team remained 29th in owners points.
"It didn't start off good," said Raines, who took over the ride after Terry Labonte drove the car in the first five races to help the team get its footing. "It got a little better. We worked on the car at every stop. We got closer to the speed we needed to be at in the middle third of the race. We needed to start from there, not get to there."
Staubach watched the first hour of the race from the roof of the DLP pit box, standing behind the row of chairs where Aikman and crew chief Philippe Lopez sat. Then Staubach, who returned to Dallas on Saturday night from business in Hong Kong, joined corporate sponsors and clients in a private box.
"Tony and the guys worked hard today," Staubach said. "I'm impressed with the effort to never give up, even though we struggled early."
But no cardiac comeback was in the cards Sunday, when Kasey Kahne captured the race.
Aikman said he was proud of Hall of Fame's team effort. "I know we learned a lot as a team," he said. "We'll continue to get better."
Raines has made no secret of his desire to get the TMS race behind him because of the pressure he put on himself concerning Hall of Fame's Dallas Cowboys and North Texas sponsorship connections.
"I wanted to run good here in front of the DLP folks and Roger and Troy," Raines said. "We got top 25, the bottom line of where we want to be."
FORT WORTH, Texas (Ticker) - Kurt Busch and Greg Biffle may have been teammates at Roush Racing, but they weren't exactly friends.
The combination of Busch's odd personality and Biffle's serious approach only added to owner Jack Roush's unique collection of drivers, which also included stoic veteran Mark Martin, Wisconsin native Matt Kenseth and colorful newcomer Carl Edwards.
Both Busch and Biffle certainly contributed to the winning tradition at Roush Racing, with Busch capturing the 2004 Nextel Cup championship and Biffle winning a career-high six races in 2005.
But when Busch decided to leave for Penske Racing at the end of last season, Roush took it as a slap in the face.
Roush had endured Busch's moments of immaturity and invested in his career. After Busch's highly publicized dispute with the police in Maricopa County, Arizona last November, Roush took the opportunity to suspend his driver for the final two races of the season.
There are plenty of hard feelings between Roush Racing and Busch to this day. Two weeks ago at Bristol Motor Speedway, Busch knocked Kenseth out of the way late in the race to win the grueling 500-lap short-track contest.
But the dispute may have hit its boiling point in Sunday's Samsung/RadioShack 500.
Biffle had the best car in the race, running away from the field in the early portions to build a commanding lead. On the 83rd lap, Biffle's Ford Fusion was driving through traffic when it was tagged by Busch's Dodge Charger.
The impact lifted the rear wheels of Biffle's Ford off the ground before it slammed hard into the third-turn wall, knocking a hole in the wall which prompted a red-flag caution that lasted nearly 10 minutes.
"The motor just zinged and at that point there isn't a whole lot you can do," Biffle said. "I did my best to try and recover from that. I have to rate myself pretty good at saving stuff that's out of control, and there wasn't any saving it."
Busch would eventually return to the race and finish 34th.
"I don't know what (Biffle) was doing," Busch said. "I was a lapped car trying to get out of the way. He had trouble passing the 21 (Ken Schrader), and he checked up down the straightaway. I tried not to get into him, but I had nowhere to go."
Biffle entered 2006 as a championship contender, but several early-season incidents have dropped him to 23rd in the Nextel Series points standings, creating a huge obstacle to make the 10-driver Chase for the Championship later this season.
"It was clear that we had a winning car," Biffle said. "We were working our way back up through there and it's really unfortunate. I knew he was a lap down. They're all racing for position too, but the thing about it is you've got to have a little bit of respect for the other drivers you're racing with. Kurt hasn't shown respect, or that surely wasn't showing respect."
To Biffle, it was an incident that was easily avoidable and quite unforgivable.
"When you're the guy that all you have to do is lift on the gas pedal a little bit and elect not to and run into the car in front of you on the straightaway, that's pretty unforgivable," Biffle said. "He had plenty of time to react. He consciously thought about it before he turned us into the fence, so I don't know what he was upset about."
Even after leaving Roush Racing, Busch continues to give his old team plenty of heartache.
Well, that's all for today. Until the next time, I remain,
Your
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!"
"Don't come here and grumble about going too fast. Get the hell out of the race car if you've got feathers on your legs or butt. Put a kerosene rag around your ankles so the ants wins't climb up there and eat that candy ass." - Dale Earnhardt – 1998
This list is authored by:
Sandra Monacelli
221 W. 57th Street 18B
Loveland, CO 80538
970/663-6967
Today In Nascar History
04/10/1958-Speedy Thompson wins at Columbia, win #1 of the season, and #15 of his career.
04/10/1960-Richard Petty wins at Martinsville, win #2 of the season, and #2 of his career.
04/10/1971-Bobby Isaac wins at Greenville, win #1 of the season, and #33 of his career.
04/10/1983-Harry Gant wins at Darlington, win #1 of the season, and #3 of his career.
04/10/1988-Bill Elliott wins at Bristol, win #1 of the season, and #24 of his career.
04/10/1994-Dale Earnhardt wins at Bristol, win #2 of the season, and #61 of his career.
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Quote of the Day“I’m sure Sterling Marlin’s hairpiece fell down in his face and he couldn’t see me.”
— Ryan Newman, assigning blame for his crash on lap 201 at Texas Sunday
News gathered from multiple sources, including but not limited to: Jayski.com, Cup Scene Daily, Thatsracin.com, catchfence.com, nascar.com, yahoo!, espn.com and others.
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Comments from the Peanut Galleryfrom RD
from Lou
Too Many Cautions?
A coupla years ago there was a guy had a very interesting web site. He would go through the race lap by lap, and and critique every thing form the commercials, to what and how the drives conducted themselves. He also broke down the time spent on racing, and the time spent on TV adds. He found that TV adds varied from broadcast to broadcast, and no network had any more or any less then anyone else, over the course of a season. The adds took up anywhere from 15 mins pers hour, all the way up to 17-18 mins per hour. The time spent on adds was not determined by the networks, it was determined by the number of adds bought by the various companies that wanted their product shown.
I think why the adds seem more and longer on Fxx is the fact that so many Waltrips are being shown. That in itself would tend to make the adds seem longer then that really are. Thank goodness for my DVR...
rd
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Bits and PiecesESPN plans to pull out all the stops in 2007
ESPN plans to pull out all the bells and whistles when NASCAR returns to the cable sports network in 2007.
"ESPN has really morphed or grown since we were last in the sport," said ESPN president George Bodenheimer, who was at Texas on Sunday. "We're really considered a multimedia network now. We're looking to take this property and blow it out, if you will."
The network will offer plenty of coverage in studio shows, analysis and a heavy online presence. Much of it has yet to be formalized, said Bodenheimer, also president of ABC Sports.
ESPN and ABC will broadcast 17 Cup races beginning in 2007, the first year of an eight-year contract the networks signed with NASCAR.
ABC was one of the first networks to televise stock car racing in the 1960s, and ESPN introduced flag-to-flag race telecasts in the 1980s. The network was NASCAR's leading carrier through the 1990s, but has not aired a race since 2000, when it lost the rights to NBC and Fox.
Bodenheimer said the return of NASCAR to ESPN marks an emotional reunion after both grew to national prominence. ABC Sports/ ESPN president George Bodenheimer, whose networks return to the mix of televising NASCAR events for the first time in six years next season, said he prefers late afternoon starting times for Sunday Nextel Cup events in 2007.
"Generally we're looking to televise the sport when we can attract the highest ratings that we can," Bodenheimer said.
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Tony Stewart WIX Filters Lap Leader of the Race at TexasTony Stewart led twice for 99 laps to win the WIX Filters Lap Leader of the Race Award in the Samsung/RadioShack 500. He also led the most laps in the race. Stewart claimed the WIX Filters Lap Leader of the Race honors for the third consecutive event. He took the lead in the overall standings (3-2) over Greg Biffle.
* The Samsung/RadioShack 500 is the third consecutive race where Stewart has led the most overall laps.
* Stewart has led 28 times in seven races this season for a total of 784 laps. He has led more laps than any other driver in the NEXTEL Cup Series. He has led at least one lap in each of the seven races this season.
* Stewart finished third, his fourth top-five finish in seven races this season. He climbed three spots in the NEXTEL Cup Series championship standings, from eighth to fifth. Stewart trails point leader Jimmie Johnson by 97 points.
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Kahne becomes 11th Texas 500 winner in 11 races: Kasey Kahne couldn't believe his rearview mirror when he crossed the finish line Sunday in Texas. There was nobody there. Not Matt Kenseth, not Tony Stewart. ...In his 2004 rookie season, Kahne finished second at Texas -- only two-hundredths of a second behind with his nose on the rear bumper of winner Elliott Sadler. He didn't have to worry about a close finish this time. Kahne even scored a Texas first, becoming the first driver to win from the pole at the 1 1/2-mile, high-banked track. After taking the lead from Stewart with 27 laps to go, Kahne built a 1.4-second cushion over Stewart and Kenseth before a caution flag for debris on the track. All three cars took four tires on the pit stop and came out in the same order they went in. It took Kahne a couple of laps after the restart to finally clear the lapped car of Robby Gordon. Once he did, he cruised to the checkered flag. Kenseth got past Stewart, who led 99 laps after winning last weekend at Martinsville, for second place. ...Denny Hamlin was fourth Sunday, his first career top-five finish. He led three times for 41 laps. Kevin Harvick was fifth, followed by Jeff Burton, Scott Riggs, Joe Nemechek, Mark Martin and Bobby Labonte. - AP/CBS SportsLine~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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New Bumper at 'Dega: Teams will have a new bumper configuration for the Talladega race later this month that is intended to reduce the amount of bump drafting. Drivers complained about bump drafting at Daytona. Bump drafting is where the trailing car rams the rear end of the leading car to help them push forward. It's an accepted practice in the straightaways, but when done in the corners it can lead to an accident. While the new rule reduces the strength of the bumpers, opinion is mixed if the rule change will make a difference. The new rule forces teams to remove steel plates underneath the bumper. NASCAR wanted to maintain the bumper strength for safety but not make it so strong that drivers used it to constantly bump draft.(Roanoke Times)
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Sadler's old crew chief leaves RYR: Kevin Buskirk, formerly head engineer at Robert Yates Racing and Elliott Sadler's interim crew chief at the end of 2005, has gone to work at Richard Childress Racing as the engineer for driver Kevin Harvick's #29 GM Goodwrench/Reeses Chevy. "Kevin joined the organization a couple of weeks ago, and he's a great talent and a great find," Richard Childress said Saturday. "Him and [crew chief] Todd Berrier think and work a lot alike, and I think he'll do a lot of things. I'm excited to see how that will work out."(NASCAR.com) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Francis Wins WypAll Wipers Crew Chief of the Race Award: Kenny Francis and Kasey Kahne teamed up to capture another win this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway. For the second time this season, Kahne started on the pole and held on to take the checkers, this time out-dueling Tony Stewart and Matt Kenseth in the final stages of the Samsung / Radio Shack 500. Francis' dominant weekend earned him the WypAll Wipers Crew Chief of the Race. A panel of voters; including Tony Eury Sr., a member of the local media and a WypAll Wipers representative; all cast their vote for Francis as the Crew Chief of the Race. For winning the Crew Chief of the Race award, WypAll Wipers gave Francis $1,000. At the end of the season, the crew chief with the most weekly wins will receive $20,000 and be crowned the WypAll Wipers Crew Chief of the Year. This was Francis' second Crew Chief of the Race award in 2006, which ties him with Robbie Reiser for the lead. Darian Grubb and Roy McCauley are tied for second-place in the standings, each with one win.(Wypall PR)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kahne becomes first polesitter to win at TexasHolds off champs Kenseth, Stewart for second victory this season
By Stephen Hawkins, The Associated Press
FORT WORTH, Texas -- Kasey Kahne couldn't believe his rearview mirror when he crossed the finish line Sunday in Texas.
There was nobody there.
Not Matt Kenseth, not Tony Stewart.
"I definitely thought I had my hands full with those guys,'' said Kahne, as shocked as anybody about his 5-second victory.
Kahne sped away from the field -- and his closest competitors -- after the final restart with 17 laps to go to become the 11th different winner in as many Nextel Cup races held at Texas Motor Speedway.
"This is a great victory. It's one of the tracks I have looked at since I started racing. This is a track you want to win at,'' said Kahne, who turns 26 on Monday. "This track, Indianapolis and Daytona. If you can win at one of these tracks, you have really done something.''
In his 2004 rookie season, Kahne finished second at Texas -- only two-hundredths of a second behind with his nose on the rear bumper of winner Elliott Sadler. He didn't have to worry about a close finish this time.
Kahne even scored a Texas first, becoming the first driver to win from the pole at the 1.5-mile, high-banked track.
After taking the lead from Stewart with 27 laps to go, Kahne built a 1.4-second cushion over Stewart and Kenseth before a caution flag for debris on the track. All three cars took four tires on the pit stop and came out in the same order they went in.
It took Kahne a couple of laps after the restart to finally clear the lapped car of Robby Gordon. Once he did, he cruised to the checkered flag at the Samsung/RadioShack 500. Kenseth got past Stewart, who led 99 laps after winning last weekend at Martinsville, for second place.
"I don't think I could have caught him on eight tires he was going so fast,'' Kenseth said.
Kahne won for the second time this season, in the same No. 9 Evernham Dodge he took to Victory Lane from the pole in Atlanta last month. It was his third career victory.
The last three times Kahne's been on the pole, he's won, including Richmond last season.
"The car got loose at the start. It took us a while to get going,'' Kahne said. "It was a heck of a run with Tony there.''
Stewart had been the one cruising ahead of the field until Lap 302. That's when the reigning Cup champion came up behind the lapped car of rookie J.J. Yeley on the backstretch. That allowed Kahne to catch up and even nose ahead, though he didn't officially lead until a few laps later.
Kahne crept alongside Stewart and was on the champion's bumper several times before finally taking the lead. Kahne went around Stewart in the fourth turn at the end of Lap 307 and made the final pass right at the line.
"It was fun racing like that. Obviously, if there had been 80 laps to go, neither one of us would have been racing each other that way,'' Stewart said. "Definitely, he was better. We weren't. We were extremely loose there at the end.''
All 10 past Texas Cup winners were in Sunday's 334-lap race at the track marking its 10th season of racing; none won from the pole position.
Denny Hamlin was fourth Sunday, his first career top-five finish. He led three times for 41 laps.
Kevin Harvick was fifth, followed by Jeff Burton, Scott Riggs, Joe Nemechek, Mark Martin and Bobby Labonte.
Martin, the 47-year-old Roush driver who initially hadn't planned to race this season, had his fifth top-10 finish and is fourth in points. Martin insists that this will be his last full-time Cup season no matter what happens.
Points leader Jimmie Johnson was two laps down at one point Sunday, but came back to finish 11th and kept the points lead, 15 ahead of Kenseth. Kahne is third.
Carl Edwards was in the second spot on Lap 257 when he got loose, spun out of control and was done for the day. He missed hitting the back end of Stewart's passing car by mere inches.
Edwards led 50 laps, one more than his Roush Racing teammate Greg Biffle, who was knocked out by Kurt Busch, their teammate from a year ago. Edwards and Biffle won the two Nextel Cup races held at Texas last year.
Busch, the 2004 Cup champion who won his Busch Series debut Saturday, got stuck in the pit for nearly a minute during his first stop because of a problem with the jack lifting the car. Busch dropped to 40th place and two laps down by time he got back on the track.
He was still a lap down when he bumped Biffle from behind on Lap 83 and sent the No. 16 Ford into the wall. The impact damaged the safety barrier in Turn 3 and repairs were made during a 10-minute red flag.
"It was clear that we had a winning car,'' said Biffle, who won last April before Edwards won the first fall race at the track.
"I don't know what he was doing. I was a lapped car trying to get out of his way,'' Busch said. "He checked up. ... I tried not to get him. I had nowhere to go.''
While he came up short in Sunday's Cup race, Stewart finally took a checkered flag at Texas in Round 2 of the International Race of Champions on Friday night. He had been in 13 races on the track before then, including Cup, Busch and Indy Racing League cars.
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Notebook: Newest spat involves girlfriendsby Monte Dutton
Gazette Sports Writer
JUSTIN, Texas — Once again Kurt Busch ran afoul of one of his former Roush Racing teammates.
Matt Kenseth took exception earlier this season at Bristol when a bump from Busch took Kenseth out of the lead, and Greg Biffle seemed to have a considerable shot at winning the Samsung/Radio Shack 500 at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday before Busch’s lapped Dodge sent his Ford spinning.
The aftermath of the lap-83 altercation involving Busch and Biffle apparently also resulted in a verbal exchange between Biffle’s girlfriend, Nicole Lunders, and Busch’s fiancé, Eva Bryan, behind Busch’s pit stall.
Biffle wasn’t much happier than his girlfriend. He noted that Busch was a lap behind at the time.
“… You’ve got to have a little bit of respect for the other drivers you’re racing with,” said Biffle, “and Kurt hasn’t shown respect, or that surely wasn’t showing respect.
“At some point, common sense has to set in and say, I can’t run into the back of a guy at a superspeedway, a mile-and-a-half track, going 175 miles an hour, unless we have restrictor-plate bumpers or our bumpers line up. You just can’t do it, and if you continue to do that, then stuff is going to happen."
The incident — between the drivers, not the girlfriends — also led to a red-flag stoppage that lasted 9 minutes, 27 seconds, while officials repaired a section of the soft walls (aka SAFER barriers) that had been punctured on impact from Biffle’s car.
So … the race was stopped because the barrier became less safe, but after the repairs were completed it became safer again.
What’s he gonna say?
Reed Sorenson will likely receive harsh treatment by NASCAR officials in response to an incident during Saturday’s O’Reilly 300, a Busch Series race.
The Cup rookie, competing full-time in both series, allegedly tossed a chunk of roll-cage padding out the window in order to cause a caution flag. Sorenson claimed later the padding flew out the window without any action on his part, but what made the whole matter doubly suspicious was the fact that Sorenson, not any of the other drivers, then reported debris on the track via radio the following lap.
Greatly exaggerated
The vacuous remarks of TV shills notwithstanding, Sunday’s race wasn’t close to a sellout. The back-straight grandstands, which allegedly accommodate 30,000, were far from full.
Although local estimates of the crowd ranged from 200,000 to 250,000, it was nothing of the sort. With a seating capacity of 155,000 — at least 5,000 of which was lacking — and a realistic infield capacity of no more than 15,000, the likely size of the crowd was about 165,000.
Absent leader
The command “Gentleman, Start Your Engines,” usually delivered by a dignitary at the track, was delivered by Pres. George W. Bush via video. It came at the end of what was basically an infomercial.
Oh the humanity!
Fox’s “cutaway car” — the one used most frequently by Jeff Hammond in technical explanations — crashed from its pedestal in front of the broadcast area behind pit road during the race. The expensive prop landed on its roof and, perhaps to hide the embarrassment, was covered rather hastily with a black tarpaulin.
Quick Carl
Carl Edwards raced twice on Saturday. After competing in the Busch Series race at TMS, he spent the evening racing a sprint car at Cowtown Speedway in Kennedale, Texas, where he finished 10th in the ASCS Sooner Region race. Cowtown Speedway is a quarter-mile dirt track.
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HOF Racing happy in 24thSluggish start costly for Raines in his second start of the season
By CATHY HARASTA / The Dallas Morning News
FORT WORTH – Roger Staubach was itching to contribute to fledgling Hall of Fame Racing's TMS debut Sunday.
"I got my ankles taped," Staubach said, smiling, as he signed autographs in the garage area before the Samsung/RadioShack 500. "When you were playing, you had some control over it."
Staubach owns Hall of Fame Racing with Troy Aikman. As first-year NASCAR Nextel Cup team owners, the former Cowboys quarterbacks have avoided setting unrealistic goals for the No. 96 DLP HDTV Chevrolet. Staubach said that a top-25 finish Sunday would be a reasonable goal, though he understood how much Hall of Fame team members want to win.
"When we [the Cowboys] were 8-6 one year, we felt like the world ended," he said. "We're learning more and more."
Driver Tony Raines, making his second start for Hall of Fame, finished 24th after struggling early in the 334-lap race. The team remained 29th in owners points.
"It didn't start off good," said Raines, who took over the ride after Terry Labonte drove the car in the first five races to help the team get its footing. "It got a little better. We worked on the car at every stop. We got closer to the speed we needed to be at in the middle third of the race. We needed to start from there, not get to there."
Staubach watched the first hour of the race from the roof of the DLP pit box, standing behind the row of chairs where Aikman and crew chief Philippe Lopez sat. Then Staubach, who returned to Dallas on Saturday night from business in Hong Kong, joined corporate sponsors and clients in a private box.
"Tony and the guys worked hard today," Staubach said. "I'm impressed with the effort to never give up, even though we struggled early."
But no cardiac comeback was in the cards Sunday, when Kasey Kahne captured the race.
Aikman said he was proud of Hall of Fame's team effort. "I know we learned a lot as a team," he said. "We'll continue to get better."
Raines has made no secret of his desire to get the TMS race behind him because of the pressure he put on himself concerning Hall of Fame's Dallas Cowboys and North Texas sponsorship connections.
"I wanted to run good here in front of the DLP folks and Roger and Troy," Raines said. "We got top 25, the bottom line of where we want to be."
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Toyota talk continues around Gibbs, Harvick
COMPILED BY MIKE MULHERN
• Toyota continues to make headlines - and waves in the NASCAR garage - as the Japanese auto maker rolls toward its Daytona 500 Nextel Cup debut next February.
There is still no word on which drivers Toyota might back, but Toyota may be making a run at car owner Joe Gibbs, with hopes of persuading the veteran Chevy man, and his three-man team of Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin and J. J. Yeley, to jump to the Camry brigade, according to sources.
Chevy's Kevin Harvick continues to be a focal point of Toyota speculation. However, there is word that Harvick may be under consideration by Ford's Jack Roush for a driving job next season, though Harvick insists "I've not talked with Jack Roush, and I don't know Geoff Smith (Roush's contract attorney)."
Smith was not here to discuss the situation, and Roush demurred: "I hear Toyota goes with Kevin Harvick, and there's not a Toyota in my future."
Car owner Richard Childress, when asked about the Harvick-Roush report, offered only a no-comment smile. And Childress said "there's no timetable" for him and Harvick to conclude their contract renegotiations, even though the two had said in January and again in February that "the first of April" was when they wanted to make a decision.
"What I do know," Roush said, "is Toyota just hired (engineer) John Propst from Ford, and that gives Toyota access to everything all the Ford teams have known about the engineering of the cars, and that's a cheeky move by Toyota, and it's certainly a coup for Toyota.
"The thing that is more distressing is Toyota is in position to make their own tires, with its relationship with Bridgestone....
"And I've heard Toyota has acquired 100 acres of land in Charlotte to put together a test track."
Roush himself once looked at a Charlotte test track, but he said that was more of a perimeter road as a shakedown track, at the entrance to an industrial park, rather than a pure test track.
• Goodyear's new Charlotte tires have become a major issue over the past two weeks, with drivers and crews increasingly worried about what might lie ahead at that track.
One question: Why hasn't Goodyear asked Ryan Newman to test its new tires? Newman is usually one of the sport's fastest qualifiers, and he has been one of Goodyear's sharpest critics lately.
Don Miller, with the Newman-Roger Penske team, said Goodyear appears to be trapped in no-man's land, with NASCAR and track promoters demanding tires that will allow drivers to pass, rather than simply the safest tire possible. Others, however, said they are baffled that Goodyear seems to have so many tire problems since it has no competition in NASCAR.
Regardless, Miller says "The whole thing comes down to one simple thing - build a tire that will run a full gas stop (100 miles). Stop messing around with all these fancy designs that are supposed to enhance the competition, because it's obvious they don't add to the competition.
"Now, they're giving us another crutch, with the smaller fuel tank, so we don't run long enough to blow the sides of the tire off."
Another car owner has suggested that NASCAR scrap its exclusivity contract with Goodyear and open up the sport to competition from rivals like Bridgestone and Michelin.
But Miller doesn't agree: "We've proved that a tire war is disastrous in this series.
"We need a tire that is reliable and safe, and we know Goodyear can build because they have in the past.
"Let Goodyear build us a tire that is safe and that we can run 100 miles on."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~COMPILED BY MIKE MULHERN
• Toyota continues to make headlines - and waves in the NASCAR garage - as the Japanese auto maker rolls toward its Daytona 500 Nextel Cup debut next February.
There is still no word on which drivers Toyota might back, but Toyota may be making a run at car owner Joe Gibbs, with hopes of persuading the veteran Chevy man, and his three-man team of Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin and J. J. Yeley, to jump to the Camry brigade, according to sources.
Chevy's Kevin Harvick continues to be a focal point of Toyota speculation. However, there is word that Harvick may be under consideration by Ford's Jack Roush for a driving job next season, though Harvick insists "I've not talked with Jack Roush, and I don't know Geoff Smith (Roush's contract attorney)."
Smith was not here to discuss the situation, and Roush demurred: "I hear Toyota goes with Kevin Harvick, and there's not a Toyota in my future."
Car owner Richard Childress, when asked about the Harvick-Roush report, offered only a no-comment smile. And Childress said "there's no timetable" for him and Harvick to conclude their contract renegotiations, even though the two had said in January and again in February that "the first of April" was when they wanted to make a decision.
"What I do know," Roush said, "is Toyota just hired (engineer) John Propst from Ford, and that gives Toyota access to everything all the Ford teams have known about the engineering of the cars, and that's a cheeky move by Toyota, and it's certainly a coup for Toyota.
"The thing that is more distressing is Toyota is in position to make their own tires, with its relationship with Bridgestone....
"And I've heard Toyota has acquired 100 acres of land in Charlotte to put together a test track."
Roush himself once looked at a Charlotte test track, but he said that was more of a perimeter road as a shakedown track, at the entrance to an industrial park, rather than a pure test track.
• Goodyear's new Charlotte tires have become a major issue over the past two weeks, with drivers and crews increasingly worried about what might lie ahead at that track.
One question: Why hasn't Goodyear asked Ryan Newman to test its new tires? Newman is usually one of the sport's fastest qualifiers, and he has been one of Goodyear's sharpest critics lately.
Don Miller, with the Newman-Roger Penske team, said Goodyear appears to be trapped in no-man's land, with NASCAR and track promoters demanding tires that will allow drivers to pass, rather than simply the safest tire possible. Others, however, said they are baffled that Goodyear seems to have so many tire problems since it has no competition in NASCAR.
Regardless, Miller says "The whole thing comes down to one simple thing - build a tire that will run a full gas stop (100 miles). Stop messing around with all these fancy designs that are supposed to enhance the competition, because it's obvious they don't add to the competition.
"Now, they're giving us another crutch, with the smaller fuel tank, so we don't run long enough to blow the sides of the tire off."
Another car owner has suggested that NASCAR scrap its exclusivity contract with Goodyear and open up the sport to competition from rivals like Bridgestone and Michelin.
But Miller doesn't agree: "We've proved that a tire war is disastrous in this series.
"We need a tire that is reliable and safe, and we know Goodyear can build because they have in the past.
"Let Goodyear build us a tire that is safe and that we can run 100 miles on."
Busch, Biffle square off at Texas Motor Speedway
By Bruce Martin
SportsTicker Contributing Editor
By Bruce Martin
SportsTicker Contributing Editor
FORT WORTH, Texas (Ticker) - Kurt Busch and Greg Biffle may have been teammates at Roush Racing, but they weren't exactly friends.
The combination of Busch's odd personality and Biffle's serious approach only added to owner Jack Roush's unique collection of drivers, which also included stoic veteran Mark Martin, Wisconsin native Matt Kenseth and colorful newcomer Carl Edwards.
Both Busch and Biffle certainly contributed to the winning tradition at Roush Racing, with Busch capturing the 2004 Nextel Cup championship and Biffle winning a career-high six races in 2005.
But when Busch decided to leave for Penske Racing at the end of last season, Roush took it as a slap in the face.
Roush had endured Busch's moments of immaturity and invested in his career. After Busch's highly publicized dispute with the police in Maricopa County, Arizona last November, Roush took the opportunity to suspend his driver for the final two races of the season.
There are plenty of hard feelings between Roush Racing and Busch to this day. Two weeks ago at Bristol Motor Speedway, Busch knocked Kenseth out of the way late in the race to win the grueling 500-lap short-track contest.
But the dispute may have hit its boiling point in Sunday's Samsung/RadioShack 500.
Biffle had the best car in the race, running away from the field in the early portions to build a commanding lead. On the 83rd lap, Biffle's Ford Fusion was driving through traffic when it was tagged by Busch's Dodge Charger.
The impact lifted the rear wheels of Biffle's Ford off the ground before it slammed hard into the third-turn wall, knocking a hole in the wall which prompted a red-flag caution that lasted nearly 10 minutes.
"The motor just zinged and at that point there isn't a whole lot you can do," Biffle said. "I did my best to try and recover from that. I have to rate myself pretty good at saving stuff that's out of control, and there wasn't any saving it."
Busch would eventually return to the race and finish 34th.
"I don't know what (Biffle) was doing," Busch said. "I was a lapped car trying to get out of the way. He had trouble passing the 21 (Ken Schrader), and he checked up down the straightaway. I tried not to get into him, but I had nowhere to go."
Biffle entered 2006 as a championship contender, but several early-season incidents have dropped him to 23rd in the Nextel Series points standings, creating a huge obstacle to make the 10-driver Chase for the Championship later this season.
"It was clear that we had a winning car," Biffle said. "We were working our way back up through there and it's really unfortunate. I knew he was a lap down. They're all racing for position too, but the thing about it is you've got to have a little bit of respect for the other drivers you're racing with. Kurt hasn't shown respect, or that surely wasn't showing respect."
To Biffle, it was an incident that was easily avoidable and quite unforgivable.
"When you're the guy that all you have to do is lift on the gas pedal a little bit and elect not to and run into the car in front of you on the straightaway, that's pretty unforgivable," Biffle said. "He had plenty of time to react. He consciously thought about it before he turned us into the fence, so I don't know what he was upset about."
Even after leaving Roush Racing, Busch continues to give his old team plenty of heartache.
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Biffle joins in Busch bashing
By BRIAN DAVIS / The Dallas Morning News
FORT WORTH – Add Greg Biffle to the growing list of those unhappy with Kurt Busch.
Biffle said it was "pretty unforgivable" how Busch lifted the back end of Biffle's No. 16 National Guard/Subway Ford and sent him crashing into the wall in Turn 3 during Sunday's Samsung/RadioShack 500.
The incident on Lap 83 brought a quick end to what appeared to be a promising day for Biffle, the defending champion. Biffle led 49 laps before the crash. He finished 42nd in the 43-car field.
"I knew he was a lap down," Biffle said. "They're all racing for position, too. But the thing about it is that you've got to have a little bit of respect for the other drivers that you're racing with.
"Kurt hasn't shown respect, or that surely wasn't showing respect."
Biffle said he thought Busch should have eased off the gas on the straightaway going into the turn. Replays showed that Busch pushed the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge forward. The car dug into Biffle's bumper and lifted the Ford just enough that Biffle lost control.
Busch said he was trying to get out of Biffle's way but that he had nowhere to go. When pressed by the media, Busch became agitated and a team official physically pushed Busch away from the pack.
Busch faced reporters again 45 minutes later, but he was still upset about the line of questioning.
"I hate to see guys get wrecked like that," Busch said. "I tried to check up. I know you guys are here to report it and either, A, blow it out of proportion, or B, write the real story. Try to do a good job."
Busch then tried to change the subject
"You know, there was a guy who got dumped on the last lap," he said. "Are you guys going to even try to dig into that?"
Biffle's car had its back end almost torn off completely. Biffle suffered just a minor scrape on his left elbow, though. Busch's car had some front-end damage that would eventually force him into the garage for repairs and a 34th-place finish.
Track officials spent almost 10 minutes repairing the wall while the race was red-flagged.
"If he slid up the corner or caught me or something on accident, or couldn't react quick enough, that would be something," Biffle said. "But he had plenty of time to react."
This is the second race Biffle hasn't finished this season, and he's slipped to 23rd in the Nextel Cup standings. Last year after seven races, he was second. Biffle said he has to put this issue behind him. The Cup series takes a week off before heading to Phoenix for the Subway Fresh 500.
By BRIAN DAVIS / The Dallas Morning News
FORT WORTH – Add Greg Biffle to the growing list of those unhappy with Kurt Busch.
Biffle said it was "pretty unforgivable" how Busch lifted the back end of Biffle's No. 16 National Guard/Subway Ford and sent him crashing into the wall in Turn 3 during Sunday's Samsung/RadioShack 500.
The incident on Lap 83 brought a quick end to what appeared to be a promising day for Biffle, the defending champion. Biffle led 49 laps before the crash. He finished 42nd in the 43-car field.
"I knew he was a lap down," Biffle said. "They're all racing for position, too. But the thing about it is that you've got to have a little bit of respect for the other drivers that you're racing with.
"Kurt hasn't shown respect, or that surely wasn't showing respect."
Biffle said he thought Busch should have eased off the gas on the straightaway going into the turn. Replays showed that Busch pushed the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge forward. The car dug into Biffle's bumper and lifted the Ford just enough that Biffle lost control.
Busch said he was trying to get out of Biffle's way but that he had nowhere to go. When pressed by the media, Busch became agitated and a team official physically pushed Busch away from the pack.
Busch faced reporters again 45 minutes later, but he was still upset about the line of questioning.
"I hate to see guys get wrecked like that," Busch said. "I tried to check up. I know you guys are here to report it and either, A, blow it out of proportion, or B, write the real story. Try to do a good job."
Busch then tried to change the subject
"You know, there was a guy who got dumped on the last lap," he said. "Are you guys going to even try to dig into that?"
Biffle's car had its back end almost torn off completely. Biffle suffered just a minor scrape on his left elbow, though. Busch's car had some front-end damage that would eventually force him into the garage for repairs and a 34th-place finish.
Track officials spent almost 10 minutes repairing the wall while the race was red-flagged.
"If he slid up the corner or caught me or something on accident, or couldn't react quick enough, that would be something," Biffle said. "But he had plenty of time to react."
This is the second race Biffle hasn't finished this season, and he's slipped to 23rd in the Nextel Cup standings. Last year after seven races, he was second. Biffle said he has to put this issue behind him. The Cup series takes a week off before heading to Phoenix for the Subway Fresh 500.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
RCR takes Texas-size steps with solid finishes
Circumstances contributed to success despite Bowyer's wreck
By Dave Rodman, NASCAR.COM
FORT WORTH, Texas -- With less than five laps remaining in Sunday's Samsung/RadioShack 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, Richard Childress Racing was looking at an achievement that few in the garage area could remember it attaining.
At that point, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton and rookie of the year candidate Clint Bowyer were all running in the top six positions, and seemed a lock to score Childress' first triple top-10 in two and a half years (August 2003).
But in the last four laps Bowyer, who used a two-tire gambit on the race's final caution with 17 laps remaining to gain top-five track position, had his tires go bad. His No. 07 Chevrolet was nearly undriveable.
It left the rookie, along with Harvick, wishing for one more caution. Burton, the one in the trio with the most Cup experience, simply wanted the day to end.
Burton got his wish and his No. 31 Chevrolet followed Harvick's No. 29 Monte Carlo to the line to finish sixth and fifth, respectively.
"We ran mostly right around 10th all day," Burton said. "The pit crew guys picked up four spots there at the end and got us a sixth [so] I'm real proud of those guys.
"They had a couple of bad stops in the middle portion of the race, and every other stop was great. And then the last stop was phenomenal. That picked us up three or four spots and that's why we finished sixth."
But Burton's dream became Bowyer's nightmare, as the rookie's wickedly loose mount spiraled backward until it got too loose coming off Turn 2 on the race's final lap.
Kyle Busch gave Bowyer the coup de grace and the black 07 speared the inside wall midway down the backstretch, where its day ended in 19th, the first car one lap down.
"It's been a while [since I drove one that loose]," Bowyer said with a laugh. "It was a handful, but it was going to turn out to be a decent day.
"It was a good call [to take two tires] and if we could have caught a caution right there, hell, I think we could have got a top-five out of it."
The most significant aspect of the day for Childress' trio was that Harvick moved up three spots and made it back into the top 10 in the standings -- in ninth -- for the first time since last summer. Bowyer advanced three spots to 13th, and Burton moved up five positions to 16th.
Burton was in the top 10 in the standings after three races before runs of 25th, 34th and 33rd dropped him to 21st in points. It left him cherishing Sunday's run.
"Yeah, we needed it," Burton said. "It was a good solid run with no problems, and that's what we needed. The way we've been snake-bit, I was damn glad to see the race end."
And unfortunately for his youngest teammate, the 334 laps was one too many.
"We were behind and we just made a last-ditch effort and put two tires on the left side," Bowyer said. "It was a good call and it would have worked out good. If we could have had one caution between there [and the end] we would have been sitting pretty, but unfortunately we kept getting looser and looser.
"We just got loose over there [off Turn 2 on the last lap]. I got sideways, but Kyle pretty much drove through me, so what goes around comes around."
Bowyer said he couldn't give his fellow Cup newcomer much slack even though they were on the last lap and racing for position. Bowyer started the lap 13th and Busch ended up 15th.
"Yeah, I'm sitting here with a torn-up car," Bowyer said. "You can remember it -- that's what you can do. It just got loose over there and [Busch] elected to drive through me and oh well."
But none of the trio will forget the overall successful day any time soon.
"If you take away the last lap, it was a great day for RCR," Bowyer said. "We were just tight all day. We weren't as good as the other two [Harvick and Burton] but we know we're headed in the right direction and we're going to get this thing."
Harvick has gone on a three-race march, moving from 23rd to ninth in the standings.
"I think we just went to work on the [1.5-mile program] and our bodies and setups are really good right now," Harvick said. "We've just got to keep working on the whole package, so we'll get the rest of the pieces in place and everything should keep going good."
Despite having a new engineer on his car -- former Robert Yates Racing head engineer Kevin Buskirk -- Harvick claimed the day was simply a continuation of his team, and the organization's, upswing this season.
"We had a solid run from the start to the finish," Harvick said. "We got off on one run and just had to recover there at the end. It was a good day for us because our Reese's Chevrolet was strong all day and recovered from one bad stint there.
"If we had a caution at the end, it might have been a different story."
The result for Harvick was more in line with what he expected at Atlanta, the last mile-and-a-half venue, where he qualified sixth but finished 39th after being sandwiched in an accident by rookie David Stremme and Kurt Busch.
"This is the same car we had at Atlanta," Harvick said. "It was really strong in Atlanta and it was really strong [Sunday], so I think both runs were really good, it was just that circumstances helped us out.
"This is not the first time we've been good as an organization this year. We've run good all year and we're just starting to get the circumstances to go our way."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Circumstances contributed to success despite Bowyer's wreck
By Dave Rodman, NASCAR.COM
FORT WORTH, Texas -- With less than five laps remaining in Sunday's Samsung/RadioShack 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, Richard Childress Racing was looking at an achievement that few in the garage area could remember it attaining.
At that point, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton and rookie of the year candidate Clint Bowyer were all running in the top six positions, and seemed a lock to score Childress' first triple top-10 in two and a half years (August 2003).
But in the last four laps Bowyer, who used a two-tire gambit on the race's final caution with 17 laps remaining to gain top-five track position, had his tires go bad. His No. 07 Chevrolet was nearly undriveable.
It left the rookie, along with Harvick, wishing for one more caution. Burton, the one in the trio with the most Cup experience, simply wanted the day to end.
Burton got his wish and his No. 31 Chevrolet followed Harvick's No. 29 Monte Carlo to the line to finish sixth and fifth, respectively.
"We ran mostly right around 10th all day," Burton said. "The pit crew guys picked up four spots there at the end and got us a sixth [so] I'm real proud of those guys.
"They had a couple of bad stops in the middle portion of the race, and every other stop was great. And then the last stop was phenomenal. That picked us up three or four spots and that's why we finished sixth."
But Burton's dream became Bowyer's nightmare, as the rookie's wickedly loose mount spiraled backward until it got too loose coming off Turn 2 on the race's final lap.
Kyle Busch gave Bowyer the coup de grace and the black 07 speared the inside wall midway down the backstretch, where its day ended in 19th, the first car one lap down.
"It's been a while [since I drove one that loose]," Bowyer said with a laugh. "It was a handful, but it was going to turn out to be a decent day.
"It was a good call [to take two tires] and if we could have caught a caution right there, hell, I think we could have got a top-five out of it."
The most significant aspect of the day for Childress' trio was that Harvick moved up three spots and made it back into the top 10 in the standings -- in ninth -- for the first time since last summer. Bowyer advanced three spots to 13th, and Burton moved up five positions to 16th.
Burton was in the top 10 in the standings after three races before runs of 25th, 34th and 33rd dropped him to 21st in points. It left him cherishing Sunday's run.
"Yeah, we needed it," Burton said. "It was a good solid run with no problems, and that's what we needed. The way we've been snake-bit, I was damn glad to see the race end."
And unfortunately for his youngest teammate, the 334 laps was one too many.
"We were behind and we just made a last-ditch effort and put two tires on the left side," Bowyer said. "It was a good call and it would have worked out good. If we could have had one caution between there [and the end] we would have been sitting pretty, but unfortunately we kept getting looser and looser.
"We just got loose over there [off Turn 2 on the last lap]. I got sideways, but Kyle pretty much drove through me, so what goes around comes around."
Bowyer said he couldn't give his fellow Cup newcomer much slack even though they were on the last lap and racing for position. Bowyer started the lap 13th and Busch ended up 15th.
"Yeah, I'm sitting here with a torn-up car," Bowyer said. "You can remember it -- that's what you can do. It just got loose over there and [Busch] elected to drive through me and oh well."
But none of the trio will forget the overall successful day any time soon.
"If you take away the last lap, it was a great day for RCR," Bowyer said. "We were just tight all day. We weren't as good as the other two [Harvick and Burton] but we know we're headed in the right direction and we're going to get this thing."
Harvick has gone on a three-race march, moving from 23rd to ninth in the standings.
"I think we just went to work on the [1.5-mile program] and our bodies and setups are really good right now," Harvick said. "We've just got to keep working on the whole package, so we'll get the rest of the pieces in place and everything should keep going good."
Despite having a new engineer on his car -- former Robert Yates Racing head engineer Kevin Buskirk -- Harvick claimed the day was simply a continuation of his team, and the organization's, upswing this season.
"We had a solid run from the start to the finish," Harvick said. "We got off on one run and just had to recover there at the end. It was a good day for us because our Reese's Chevrolet was strong all day and recovered from one bad stint there.
"If we had a caution at the end, it might have been a different story."
The result for Harvick was more in line with what he expected at Atlanta, the last mile-and-a-half venue, where he qualified sixth but finished 39th after being sandwiched in an accident by rookie David Stremme and Kurt Busch.
"This is the same car we had at Atlanta," Harvick said. "It was really strong in Atlanta and it was really strong [Sunday], so I think both runs were really good, it was just that circumstances helped us out.
"This is not the first time we've been good as an organization this year. We've run good all year and we're just starting to get the circumstances to go our way."
We Wonder...
Texas
would you pay to see the women of Kurt Busch and Greg Biffle fight?
By Mark Spoor, NASCAR.COM
... did NBC get exactly what it wanted this week?
As I listened to Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne express dismay when they were told Friday about Dateline NBC's attempt to generate conflict between Muslim and Arab "spectators" and NASCAR fans at Martinsville, a strange thought came across my admittedly often-misguided brain.
Is this exactly what the news magazine wanted?
Let's face it: Dateline NBC and shows like it are facing an uphill battle. Namely, increasing apathy among Americans across the board. Need proof? Dateline's Friday edition was bumped from NBC's schedule back in March after producing less-than-robust ratings and its current Sunday edition is noticeably floundering.
Meanwhile, American Idol continues to shatter ratings records and kill brain cells, but that's another story.
Dateline received a bit of publicity earlier this year when it aired a series of shows that nabbed pedophiles in the act. While exposing prejudice against Muslims and Arabs is hardly the same thing, the NASCAR community is already talking about the segment -- and it hasn't even been fully produced yet.
Some have said that Dateline's methods were born of ignorance. Maybe. But maybe the show's producers knew how fiercely loyal NASCAR's fan base is and also knew that calling it into question would get folks talking about -- and watching -- the show even before the piece aired.
Bruton Smith will be. He told us so Friday.
"We're going to be very watchful to see that things are done properly," he said.
It's unlikely Smith will be the only one.
... has anyone in the Nextel Cup Series worn a hairpiece?
Ryan Newman accused Sterling Marlin of having a little scientific help with his hairline Sunday after Newman was wrecked out at Texas. The quote -- which you'll certainly see again at the end of the year in our top-10 countdown -- got us thinking what drivers -- past or present -- did the same.
Talk amongst yourselves.
... can we please get Kurt Busch a victory celebration coach?
If you missed Saturday's Busch Series event, you missed one of the great unintentionally comedic performances of our time. Kurt Busch, a winner in his first career Busch Series start, kissed the hood of his car -- with his helmet on -- ran out on to the Texas Motor Speedway infield, promptly tripped over his own feet and did a face plant.
Now, the more reserved of us would just laugh it off and move on, but not our boy Kurt. He followed it up with a snow angel.
In Texas, where it was in the 70s and sunny.
Couple this with his other bizarre celebrations -- like kissing the start-finish line at Richmond -- not Indianapolis, but Richmond -- and Busch making "what the ...?" his own personal phrase.
As FOX was waiting for the green-white-checkered finish for the race, Larry McReynolds announced that Busch and fiancée Eva Bryan are to be married in July.
Can't you just picture Busch doing the ol' Tom Willis at the reception?
Speaking of the future bride ...
... who would win in a fight between Eva Bryan (Busch's fiancée) and Nicole Lunders (Biffle's girlfriend)?
I smell a big pay-per-view buy here. Someone get Vince McMahon on the phone. You can almost here Jim Ross screaming, "Oh my God!" after Lunders hits Bryan with the dreaded steel chair after throwing her over the top rope.
Good times, indeed.
... is the Nextel Cup schedule robbing the series of its best drivers?
When Rusty Wallace left NASCAR's top series last season, he made no bones about the fact that he was leaving because he couldn't take the schedule, (some would argue his schedule is pretty busy now, but that's beside the point). Mark Martin has said the same thing for the past 18 months.
Neither of these guys were -- or are -- just turning laps. They both made the Chase last season and Martin is poised to do so again this season. Both have fiercely loyal fan bases and sponsors lining up for their services.
At the same time, the Cup Series roster is looking more and more like roll call for a freshman-level English class and we're forced to endure stories about how younger drivers -- who are better equipped to handle sponsor commitments -- aren't going about things the right way on the racetrack.
The sport may not be approaching any sort of watershed moment, but true change never happens all at once. It happens in little, vague situations just like this one.
... wait a minute, Cooter was a congressman?
Last week I asked if Carl Edwards would make a good congressman. I mentioned other celebrities that have been elected. Over the past seven days, I received an alarming number of e-mails alerting me that I had omitted Ben Jones, aka Cooter on The Dukes of Hazzard.
Turns out, Cooter was a Georgia congressman from 1989-93. What's more, he once ran against Newt Gingrich -- and lost -- in Georgia 6th District in 1994.
When I was a kid, Daisy Duke was certainly the first lady.
The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~would you pay to see the women of Kurt Busch and Greg Biffle fight?
By Mark Spoor, NASCAR.COM
... did NBC get exactly what it wanted this week?
As I listened to Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne express dismay when they were told Friday about Dateline NBC's attempt to generate conflict between Muslim and Arab "spectators" and NASCAR fans at Martinsville, a strange thought came across my admittedly often-misguided brain.
Is this exactly what the news magazine wanted?
Let's face it: Dateline NBC and shows like it are facing an uphill battle. Namely, increasing apathy among Americans across the board. Need proof? Dateline's Friday edition was bumped from NBC's schedule back in March after producing less-than-robust ratings and its current Sunday edition is noticeably floundering.
Meanwhile, American Idol continues to shatter ratings records and kill brain cells, but that's another story.
Dateline received a bit of publicity earlier this year when it aired a series of shows that nabbed pedophiles in the act. While exposing prejudice against Muslims and Arabs is hardly the same thing, the NASCAR community is already talking about the segment -- and it hasn't even been fully produced yet.
Some have said that Dateline's methods were born of ignorance. Maybe. But maybe the show's producers knew how fiercely loyal NASCAR's fan base is and also knew that calling it into question would get folks talking about -- and watching -- the show even before the piece aired.
Bruton Smith will be. He told us so Friday.
"We're going to be very watchful to see that things are done properly," he said.
It's unlikely Smith will be the only one.
... has anyone in the Nextel Cup Series worn a hairpiece?
Ryan Newman accused Sterling Marlin of having a little scientific help with his hairline Sunday after Newman was wrecked out at Texas. The quote -- which you'll certainly see again at the end of the year in our top-10 countdown -- got us thinking what drivers -- past or present -- did the same.
Talk amongst yourselves.
... can we please get Kurt Busch a victory celebration coach?
If you missed Saturday's Busch Series event, you missed one of the great unintentionally comedic performances of our time. Kurt Busch, a winner in his first career Busch Series start, kissed the hood of his car -- with his helmet on -- ran out on to the Texas Motor Speedway infield, promptly tripped over his own feet and did a face plant.
Now, the more reserved of us would just laugh it off and move on, but not our boy Kurt. He followed it up with a snow angel.
In Texas, where it was in the 70s and sunny.
Couple this with his other bizarre celebrations -- like kissing the start-finish line at Richmond -- not Indianapolis, but Richmond -- and Busch making "what the ...?" his own personal phrase.
As FOX was waiting for the green-white-checkered finish for the race, Larry McReynolds announced that Busch and fiancée Eva Bryan are to be married in July.
Can't you just picture Busch doing the ol' Tom Willis at the reception?
Speaking of the future bride ...
... who would win in a fight between Eva Bryan (Busch's fiancée) and Nicole Lunders (Biffle's girlfriend)?
I smell a big pay-per-view buy here. Someone get Vince McMahon on the phone. You can almost here Jim Ross screaming, "Oh my God!" after Lunders hits Bryan with the dreaded steel chair after throwing her over the top rope.
Good times, indeed.
... is the Nextel Cup schedule robbing the series of its best drivers?
When Rusty Wallace left NASCAR's top series last season, he made no bones about the fact that he was leaving because he couldn't take the schedule, (some would argue his schedule is pretty busy now, but that's beside the point). Mark Martin has said the same thing for the past 18 months.
Neither of these guys were -- or are -- just turning laps. They both made the Chase last season and Martin is poised to do so again this season. Both have fiercely loyal fan bases and sponsors lining up for their services.
At the same time, the Cup Series roster is looking more and more like roll call for a freshman-level English class and we're forced to endure stories about how younger drivers -- who are better equipped to handle sponsor commitments -- aren't going about things the right way on the racetrack.
The sport may not be approaching any sort of watershed moment, but true change never happens all at once. It happens in little, vague situations just like this one.
... wait a minute, Cooter was a congressman?
Last week I asked if Carl Edwards would make a good congressman. I mentioned other celebrities that have been elected. Over the past seven days, I received an alarming number of e-mails alerting me that I had omitted Ben Jones, aka Cooter on The Dukes of Hazzard.
Turns out, Cooter was a Georgia congressman from 1989-93. What's more, he once ran against Newt Gingrich -- and lost -- in Georgia 6th District in 1994.
When I was a kid, Daisy Duke was certainly the first lady.
The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.
"Championships have always driven me to win races. That 3 car pulling into the track would cause people to look around and wonder what we were doing, to see how to beat us."
-Dale Earnhardt
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-Dale Earnhardt
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Your
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!"
"Don't come here and grumble about going too fast. Get the hell out of the race car if you've got feathers on your legs or butt. Put a kerosene rag around your ankles so the ants wins't climb up there and eat that candy ass." - Dale Earnhardt – 1998
"It's nothin' personal, it's just racin'
-Dale Earnhardt Sr.
This list is authored by:
Sandra Monacelli
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