NASCAR

2013-02-12T17:47:00.001-08:00

NOW WHAT PASTRANA AIMS TO FLIP ARE OPINIONS

Former X Games star knows fans will follow if he succeeds

Travis Pastrana used to be one of those guys who made fun of people watching NASCAR.

Every year on the afternoon of the Daytona 500, when he and his buddies would gather to fire up the grill and take in the spectacle of the Great American Race, the X Games legend would be the one dishing out the most grief. “I had a lot of friends who were really passionate abut NASCAR, and I really enjoyed giving them a hard time,” he remembered. This is, after all, the same guy who for his first visit to a circle-track event chose a T-shirt featuring one word stripped across the front.

Boring.

Pastrana doesn’t wear that T-shirt anymore.

"No matter how many people you bring over, if you don't do well, you're not going to keep them."

-- Travis Pastrana

PASTRANA BRINGS NEW CHARACTER TO ROUSH IN STYLE

“Getting in the car, I’m scared for my life. In a good way, because they have great safety precautions. But I am nervous and on the edge the entire race,” said Roush Fenway’s newest NASCAR Nationwide Series driver. “Everyone’s like, ‘Oh, did you get bored out there?’ I’m like, ‘Bored? I’m running a heart rate of 160 just sitting in a chair, in a seat.’ The car is sliding the whole way. It’s something you just don’t understand. You may watch it on TV, and pick a driver, but until you go to Charlotte, until you go to Daytona, until you go somewhere you can see the speed and the raw power of these things -- it’s something you have to witness.”

Can we get an amen? Although he’s been involved in the sport for only a few years, Pastrana has emerged as one of NASCAR’s most ardent converts, his opinions on stock-car racing having flipped 180 -- or more appropriately given his motorcycle jumping background, 540 -- degrees. The 29-year-old has legions of fans, kids in flat-billed ball caps who were wowed by his exploits in motocross and the X Games, many of whom may be just as skeptical of NASCAR as their idol once was. Pastrana wants to bring them all in, to have them smell the gas fumes and the tire smoke and become as hooked as he is, but he knows one thing has to happen first.

He has to succeed.

He’s done that in every other endeavor he’s been involved with, whether it’s winning 10 X Games gold medals or claiming two motocross titles or launching the Nitro Circus franchise or setting a world record by jumping a car 296 feet from a pier onto a barge anchored off the California coast. Pastrana has built his legend on not just doing crazy things, but doing them exceptionally well, always pushing the limits and never allowing the occasional broken bone to keep him down for very long.

In NASCAR, he’s found perhaps his greatest challenge. He’s leaping in full time, and with an organization that’s won the last two Nationwide titles, because he believes that’s what it will take to prosper in an extremely competitive field. And if he’s going to enthrall all his fans all over again, show them that turning laps in a stock car can be as fascinating as attempting a Superman seat-grab back flip on a motorbike, there’s one thing he has to do.

“I have to be successful,” Pastrana said. “… Hopefully, I can bring that crowd in. Hopefully my fan base will stick with me, and they have done so far, which is great. When (Supercross star) Ricky Carmichael came to NASCAR, he did well, but a lot of his fan base didn’t really transfer. … But I’m hoping that the fan base sticks with us, and that I do learn how to drive these things. Because the bottom line is, no matter how many people you bring over, if you don’t do well, you’re not going to keep them.”

Hence the alliance with Roush, which provided Pastrana with a one-race tryout late last season in Richmond, where the former daredevil qualified fifth and finished 17th. That was enough to convince Jack Roush that Pastrana was serious, that there would be no more incidents like the botched X Games jump in 2011 that resulted in a broken ankle and pushed his NASCAR debut into the next year. Pastrana greatly enjoyed wading into NASCAR, although a limited schedule of 10 national-series starts in 2012 didn’t exactly help him progress behind the wheel. So Roush asked his prospective new driver: Do you want to have fun, or do you want to win?

Pastrana thought it was a trick question. It wasn’t.

“You can go out and do a lot of things in motorsports, and a lot of things in exhibition things, and if you get 80 percent of the potential of yourself … it can be enough,” Roush said. “But in the business of stock-car racing, you’ve got to be able to squeeze every ounce of blood out of this turnip. You’ve got to be able to get well up in the 90 percent of what the potential is, and you can’t do that without undivided attention and without focus and without patience. And I wanted to make sure he understood I thought it was going to require his absolute dedication to do it. And he’s committed to that.”

There’s no question Pastrana showed flashes of promise, even in his limited slate last year -- a 13th-place run at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a surprisingly solid showing his first time at Darlington Raceway, the Richmond event that won over a Roush camp which was very closely eyeing his every move. But committing to a full-time run, in equipment Ricky Stenhouse Jr. used to win the last two Nationwide titles, raises the bar substantially. There will be no excuses. As Roush told him, in his no-nonsense style -- you fail, you know you’ve failed as a driver.

“That puts on a lot of pressure, but it also puts things in perspective,” Pastrana said. “Before, it was fun and games and every race was learning and it was great. … But the bottom line is, this is my year. I’ve got a whole season to figure it out. If I don’t do well, people are going to go, ‘Oh, you failed. You couldn’t make it. You’re not as good a driver as you thought.’ I have more to lose by going to NASCAR than I have to gain. But I do stuff because I’m passionate about it and it makes me happy.”

But what if he doesn’t fail? Granted, Pastrana doesn’t seem quite ready to challenge the likes of Elliott Sadler and Austin Dillon for race victories, but if he succeeds the breakthrough could be felt on many levels.

“If he runs well, that will open more doors. And he’ll have more doors than most to be able to open,” said Roush President Steve Newmark.

Given Pastrana’s immense appeal to the youth market, that’s certainly the hope -- on the part of NASCAR as well as Roush. But it all has to begin with performance first. “I think we’ve all learned in this sport that you don’t just bring someone over because of the appeal you think they may have with a different demographic,” Newmark added. “You only bring somebody into this sport if you think they can drive.”

It took Pastrana five years to master the double backflip he used to win X Games gold in 2006. He may not have that long to master NASCAR, but along the way he’ll continue to preach the sport’s message to the unconverted. He did just that with a group of action sports friends last year, bringing them to the summertime Daytona race, watching them ham it up in the most garish souvenir-stand garb they could find. Then there was a wreck, and Jeff Gordon’s car slid to a stop very near where they were standing, and they all saw the light.

“They’re like glued to the fence,” Pastrana remembered. “Half of my buddies went to another NASCAR race that year, and they brought their friends, and they went to races I didn’t even go to. So I think for me, all you have to do is see it.”

EFI coming next season!!!!!!

2011-10-19T15:56:00.000-07:00

NASCAR's new fuel injected engine sits on display during this week's test session at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Doug Yates, CEO of Roush Yates Engines, says reliability of the new electronic fuel system will be critical to its success at the start of the 2012 season.

NASCAR takes 'really big step' with fuel injection

After several decades of use, sport says goodbye to carburetors, embraces EFI

By Mark Aumann, NASCAR.COM
October 19, 2011 4:44 PM, EDT

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"Gentlemen, start your semiconductors!"

That probably won't be the command given at the beginning of next February's Daytona 500. However, it might be appropriate, given NASCAR's decision to require fuel injection for Sprint Cup engines beginning with the 2012 season.

After ruling the roost since the Kennedy Administration, the iconic -- and museum-worthy -- Holley four-barrel carburetor is finally being put out to pasture as NASCAR's fuel system of choice. The Cup Series is joining the computer age, and that means engine builders and tuners are trading in their wrenches and wet flow benches for laptops and software mapping.

“

The technology's moved on. It's time to move on.

”

-- HOWARD COMSTOCK

"The technology's moved on. It's time to move on," said Howard Comstock of Dodge Motorsports engineering. "But NASCAR understood this is a big step. It's a really big step for racing, it's a big step for these teams.

"We've basically used the same carburetor for 40 years, and there's a lot of people who have made a life's work out of learning carburetors and making them work as efficiently as they are today. It's unbelievable how efficient they are. But they're purpose-built for racing and every car on the road uses fuel injection. NASCAR felt like it was time to update our technology and here we are."

One of those people who has spent a lifetime in that occupation is Doug Yates, chief executive officer of Roush Yates Engines. He remembers getting the opportunity to play with carburetors in father Robert's engine shop.

"I followed my dad his entire career, building engines, growing up around him," Yates said. "He first let me sweep the floors and then he let me help build engines. It was probably in my early teens when I started tinkering with carburetors."

Ever been sprayed by a zealous employee at the fragrance counter of a department store? That's the basic principle behind a modern carburetor: combining fuel and air in a way that allows it to act like an atomizer, spraying the mixture through the manifold and into the cylinders for combustion.

History of simplicity

Watch: Larry McReynolds and Chad Knaus break down air flow into the carburetor

It's all Bernoulli's fault, in principle. In 1738, Swiss mathematician Daniel Bernoulli proved that the speed of a fluid increases simultaneously with a corresponding decrease in pressure. A downdraft carburetor is like a pipe in the shape of an hourglass that allows air to be sucked in from above and to pick up speed as the pipe narrows. At its narrowest point, fuel is combined with the air and the mixture is sent on its way.

The throttle doesn't directly control the fuel flow. Instead, it activates mechanisms that meter the flow of air being pulled into the engine, and the speed determines the amount of fuel being drawn into the airstream.

The idea behind carburetion has been around since well before the invention of the internal combustion engine. Karl Benz acquired a patent for one in the 1880s. Gottlieb Daimler perfected a carburetor with an atomizer nozzle in 1885.

It's an elegant and simple solution, one reason why Comstock said it took so long to come up with an alternative.

“

The beauty of why they've lasted 100 years is because they're a wonderful, mechanical device that works pretty efficiently in this kind of application.

”

-- HOWARD COMSTOCK

"The beauty of why they've lasted 100 years is because they're a wonderful, mechanical device that works pretty efficiently in this kind of application," Comstock said. "The problem with production cars is that with the range of conditions we see, it's hard to keep up with a carburetor."

Herbert Ackroyd Stuart began working on mechanical fuel injection in the 1920s, but it wasn't until 1957 --when Bendix and American Motors combined forces -- that electronic fuel injection began to be commercially viable. The advancement of smaller and more powerful semiconductor computer chips eventually spelled the end of the carburetor.

By 1990, every passenger car sold in the United States had gone to electronic fuel injection. But NASCAR held steadfast to the tried and true carburetor.

"In the racing world, we've got a pretty narrow band of conditions that we see," Comstock said. "So it has worked a little bit better for a longer period of time. But electronic fuel injection is what every car on the street has, and we'll be able to say it's on our race cars, too."

But the switch also means the end of an era of "black magic," as Toyota Racing Development president and general manager Lee White put it.

"They may look like Holley parts, but there's been a tremendous amount of technology and engineering that's gone from what is a pretty archaic mid-'60s design into something that's pretty advanced," White said. "It's pretty amazing how well it really does work."

Comstock doesn't even want to begin to know all of the tricks of the engine tuning trade.

"They're pretty well-guarded secrets," Comstock said. "But they've done some amazing work on making them this efficient. The fact that engines make approaching 900 horsepower, and we can still see 4.5 to 5 miles per gallon on the race track, that's incredible.

"It's incredible how they've been able to squeeze the fuel and still make the power, even this year, when we've gone to a pretty high concentration of ethanol."

And even more impressive is how the lowly carburetor has stood up to the pressures of today's fuel economy racing.

"The carburetor system has a power valve circuit in it, and it's really about how you use part-throttle operation and that power valve to help assist with fuel mileage," Yates said. "As we all know, fuel mileage races have been very instrumental this year. And we work with the drivers on percentage of throttle and how much fuel the engine uses. In recent years, that has been the biggest innovation: How to meter fuel at part-throttle."

The flow of things

Garage Expert: Larry McReynolds explains the technology behind fuel injection

Engine tuning with a carburetor is an amazing combination of engineering know-how, years of expertise and a bit of a craftsman's touch. For Yates, getting a right flow of fuel to an engine is all about making minute adjustments.

"The carburetor has a reservoir in the fuel bowls, and a lot of tracks we go to, we adjust float levels determined by whether the engine is starving for fuel at the higher RPMs or if it's spilling over coming off the corners," Yates said. "It's somewhat of a guessing game.

"Now, with the reservoir actually being in the fuel cell, we won't have those types of adjustments any more. We'll be looking at the data to make sure we fine-tune the system to the best throttle response, the best power and the best fuel economy. It should allow us to do a better job, once we get acclimated to the new system."

“

In many ways, the engine will be much more efficient because we can give exactly the right amount of fuel to each cylinder that it needs.

”

-- HOWARD COMSTOCK

One of the major advantages electronic fuel injection has over a carburetor, according to Comstock, is the ability to adapt to a changing racing environment.

"Not all cylinders of a V-8 engine -- turning left all the time -- get the same amount of fuel," Comstock said. "The carburetor mixes the fuel with the air up on top of the engine and just dumps it into the intake manifold. And when you're turning left, centrifugal force tries to take more fuel to the right-hand bank of cylinders, less fuel to the left-hand bank of cylinders.

"So you physically have to add more fuel than you would want to add, in order to make sure those left-hand side cylinders get enough fuel. We won't have to do that any more. In many ways, the engine will be much more efficient because we can give exactly the right amount of fuel to each cylinder that it needs."

In addition, Comstock said EFI takes care of another problem that carburetors don't.

"Some people don't think about the fact that a V-8 engine is pretty long, with four cylinders on each side, and those two inside cylinders are hotter," Comstock said. "So with a hotter cylinder, you're going to need a bit more fuel. So once again, we can tailor the mix of the fuel to get to the cylinders that need it."

But here's the thing: NASCAR's common plenum manifold throws a curve to the engineers and tuners who might have EFI experience from other racing series.

"In that common plenum manifold, each cylinder is still talking to each other through the firing order sequence," Yates said. "And it does still pull fuel from one cylinder to the other, which is something that's unique to our sport and a challenge, but also an opportunity that other series don't see.

"They run what you call a stack injection, or single fuel and air for each cylinder. So NASCAR still has its uniqueness."

Input and output

So how do you gain an advantage with electronic fuel injection? Is it the guy with the best spreadsheet wins? White said it's a matter of several steps. One, getting the data. Two, interpreting it. Three, making the correct changes to the computer mapping program. And knowing exactly how much data teams can download is still up for determination, White said.

"We're still waiting for NASCAR to tell us how many channels of data we will have available to us when the cars come into the garage," White said. "We know we won't be able to plug in on pit lane. We know there's no telemetry, like we had in sports cars and IndyCar and Formula 1.

An overhead view shows the fuel-injected engine for 2012. (Getty)

'The power'

Kasey Kahne was one of 11 drivers permitted to participate in an electronic fuel-injection engine test on Monday at Charlotte Motor Speedway and disagreed with other drivers who said there is little or no difference to them in the way the car reacts with the new fuel-delivery system.

Little things add up
Video: Testing recap

"Certainly, in IndyCar for example, we harvested about 100 channels of data via real-time telemetry, as well as downloads in the pit lane. So here, we're still waiting to find out from NASCAR exactly how many channels of data we'll be able to pull out of the ECU [engine control unit]. And that will have an effect on the engineering support required for the teams."

That may mean more job opportunities for people with engineering degrees.

"In IndyCar, we had two engineers per car," White said. "Here, certainly you're going to have to have someone with some engineering capability, more than the mechanical support that we've had with this type of engine over the past few decades.

"So there will have to be someone with the ability to go in and run a computer and plug into a box and make mapping adjustments and so forth. And also, someone who's going to be able to harvest the information to provide to the crew chief and the chassis engineers, because in my opinion, this step makes the engine and the whole car more of a package."

Yates can barely contain his excitement at the idea of moving to EFI. It's an opportunity to showcase NASCAR's technology, which he feels sometimes gets a bad rap in the engineering community.

"The exciting thing is we're having interest from an engineering standpoint that we've never had before," Yates said. "We have people who want to be part of our sport who in the past would say, 'Well, I'd rather go work on Formula 1 engines because they are injected and it's a higher tech engine.'

"In fact, NASCAR engines are very sophisticated technology. But sitting on top of all that science -- through coatings and materials and innovation through the years -- is a carburetor, which kind of turns people off. Now people are saying, 'Wow, NASCAR is fuel injected. I want to be a part of that.' "

According to White, "some very bright guys" have already joined forces. Cosworth engine designer Nick Hayes is working with Richard Childress Racing. Roger Penske has the backing of Ilmor. And Jeff Andrews at Hendrick definitely knows his way around the shop.

Nobody wants to be the ones left behind, especially since electronic fuel injection plays directly into the relationship between manufacturers and racing teams.

"I want to make sure people understand how important this is and what a platform it allows us to go and brag about," Yates said. "I had an opportunity to talk to [president and CEO] Alan Mulally from Ford at Michigan, and he is really excited about this coming to NASCAR.

"The manufacturers like the fact that we're advancing our technology and getting closer to stock car racing. We've gotten away from that a bit, especially as it relates to engines. So it's a step in the right direction."

“

There's a reason we're doing all these tests, because until you get it on the track and in some sort of competitive type atmosphere, we won't uncover any problems.

”

-- ROBIN PEMBERTON

Comstock said Dodge is definitely putting its brainpower behind its teams.

"To me, it's been great because this is one project where we from the factory have so much experience that we think we can really help the teams make this transition," Comstock said. "But there's a lot of smart guys in that garage. They'll figure it out pretty quick."

The key, Comstock said, is making sure the drivers buy in. And for the most part, that's been the case.

"Without giving away any secrets, a few impressions -- even in the early testing -- the drivers have said when they get it adjusted right, they can't tell that it's not a carburetor," Comstock said. "And it's going to be those tweaks that we do here in the early stages of development, that hopefully by the time fuel injection sees the first race, it'll be completely invisible to the driver. But everybody will know it's more efficient, more effective and eventually, it'll make for better fuel mileage.

"We've got engines running on the dynamometers that can simulate race conditions, and consequently we've been able to tune on it already. And I think you'll find some surprises at the race track in the early stages of racing. But hopefully, we'll have most of those issues worked out beforehand."

For Yates, reliability of the new system will be critical.

"To start strong and not have any hiccups is very important," Yates said. "There's a lot of new components bolted on this engine, and we want to make sure that when we start the season next year, we have confidence that we understand the life cycle of the parts."

NASCAR vice president for competition Robin Pemberton has been in charge of several test sessions involving EFI.

"There's a reason we're doing all these tests, because until you get it on the track and in some sort of competitive type atmosphere, we won't uncover any problems," Pemberton said. "But it's going well. Teams seem to be dealing with it. And everything's on course."

Carburetors had a nice six-decade run in NASCAR. Now it's time to see what comes next.

"It'll be very interesting to see how the evolution goes into the 21st century with fuel injection," White said.

And for Yates, a chance for some of the old dogs in the garage area to teach a few new tricks to the younger engineers in the sport.

"It's a huge change and it's a very exciting time as an engine builder and engineer in this sport," Yates said. "That's exciting for engine technology. A lot of people look at our sport and see carburetors, and think it's somewhat antiquated. So this is exciting and a big step for us.

"I think it's a big step forward for NASCAR. And it's really the beginning of a new technology, from an engine standpoint. It's very exciting."

2011-10-19T15:51:00.001-07:00

Carl Edwards should expect to see a lot of Trevor Bayne in his rear-view mirror at Talladega. (Getty Images)

Bayne to push points leader Edwards at 'Dega

By Joe Menzer, NASCAR.COM
October 19, 2011 3:08 PM, EDT

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Remember Trevor Bayne and how he shocked the world by winning the 2011 Daytona 500?

Carl Edwards certainly hasn't forgotten the magic that unfolded during that restrictor-plate race at Daytona International Speedway this past February. The current points leader in the Chase for the Sprint Cup has apparently entrusted Bayne with being his drafting partner of choice heading into this Sunday's race at treacherous Talladega Superspeedway.

Bayne spilled the beans on the plan earlier this week following a test session at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

"Talladega? I'm pumped for that," Bayne said. "I think we're actually going to be working with the 99 car [of Edwards], so we've been working on that. I think the first time we went to Daytona [under the current circumstances where cars team up and push each other in pairs], no one was sure what was going to happen so they didn't have partners lined up. But then when we went to Talladega the first time and back to Daytona for the second time, they all had pre-race partners arranged -- and we were out to lunch.

"So I've worked on that a lot harder this time and I've been talking to Carl. He really trusts us. Being the points leader and trusting me to push him, that means a lot to me. So I think we're going to work together there and ride in the back all day. I know our No. 21 [Ford] will qualify good, because the Wood Brothers always build good cars for the superspeedways. So I guess what we'll do is just keep throwing our hand out the window [to signal other cars to go by] and drop to the back and be safe at first, and then be going to the front at the end."

Bayne has made 13 more Cup starts since the Daytona 500. His best finish since then has been 16th at Michigan in June.

But he qualified 11th for the Talladega spring race and actually led five laps before crashing out on Lap 89 of the 188-lap event.

He admitted he is excited about the tentative plan to help Edwards get to the front and, ultimately, perhaps play a role in helping Edwards win the championship.

"I like it. I think it's going to be good," Bayne said. "Carl and I worked together really well in the Nationwide race [this past Friday at Charlotte] and then again some in the Cup race [Saturday night]. We have a comfort level. We understand our goal and our plan, and I'm going to help him as much as I can."

Bayne did help push Edwards to victory in Friday's Nationwide race, in which Bayne finished third. It was his fourth top-five finish in 26 Nationwide starts this season. He also has 12 top-10 finishes.

Bayne also admitted there is a certain amount of added pressure that comes with being chosen to push the points leader at such a tricky venue this late in the season, with so much on the line. But he said he welcomes it.

"I take it as a compliment," Bayne said. "I was thinking about that earlier. It's just like Jeff Gordon in the [Gatorade] Duel when he was on the front row [for the Daytona 500] and had nothing to gain by letting us push him there. He let us push him all day and took a chance with us when he could have just pulled in and said, 'Hey, I'll just start on the front row with this car.' Now Carl is doing the same thing with the points lead -- which is a little bit bigger stakes. But I think he trusts us and we have a good relationship on and off the track. I think he just trusts me that I'm not going to make any boneheaded moves -- and hopefully I don't.

"I don't want to jinx it. But hopefully we're going to ride around in the back all day and take it easy, and then be able to go at the end really hard."

Stenhouse Confident

2011-10-19T15:49:00.000-07:00

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Elliott Sadler both have finished in the top 10 in five of the past six races. Each driver has finished better than the other three times in the same span. (Getty Images)

Stenhouse knows he can't coast to title

With 15-point advantage on Sadler, championship leader must remain aggressive

By Joe Menzer, NASCAR.COM
October 19, 2011 5:24 PM, EDT

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Despite owning a seemingly hefty 20-point lead in the Nationwide Series standings, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. vowed heading into this past Friday's event at Charlotte Motor Speedway not to play it conservatively.

That is not, he said, what got him the lead in the first place. So he went out determined not to drive in some form of football's prevent defense, but to drive instead as he had driven all year -- aggressively, with an eye always focused on getting to the front.

2011 Comparison

Stenhouse vs. Sadler

	Stenhouse	Sadler

Wins	2	0
Top-5s	14	12
Top-10s	23	22
21st or worse	4	2
Laps Led/Races	446/16	157/10
Avg. Start	7.2	9.2
Avg. Finish	9.2	9.3

Results: Stenhouse | Sadler

Nationwide Series Standings

“Elliott Sadler is not going to finish outside of the top 10 -- so you have to do something better to beat him in this championship.”

-- RICKY STENHOUSE JR.

The end results only proved his point that his battle with Elliott Sadler, his closest pursuer, is not yet over. With only three races now left on the Nationwide schedule, time is running out for Sadler to catch Stenhouse -- but Sadler did make up significant ground by finishing fourth to Stenhouse's ninth at Charlotte, cutting Stenhouse's lead to 15 points.

"I think you've got to do what got you here," Stenhouse said. "We go out each and every week and we feel like we have an opportunity to win. We feel like we bring great race cars to the track and that's what we do. We go out there, we practice, we work on our car, we don't worry about what anybody else is doing. We just make our car better and better and we go out and race and try to get the best result that we can.

"I think you have to be on your game. You have to go out and feel like you can win and try to win because Elliott Sadler is not going to finish outside of the top 10 -- so you have to do something better to beat him in this championship. We've got to go out and do the same thing we've done all year and that's go out and consistently run in the top five and challenge for some wins."

Sadler is aware of what he needs to do, as well.

"What we have to do in the 2 car is lead some laps and run up front every time out," he said. "Ricky and his guys are such a good race team, and Ricky has done such a good job. They're the real deal.

"So we feel like we're going to have to run up front, run in the top two or three every race, to even have a chance at the championship by the time we get to Homestead [for the season finale on Nov. 19]."

Stenhouse knows something about accomplishing what others think impossible, so he's careful to make certain he doesn't count on this championship before it's truly secure. Last year he had to rally from a 35-point deficit -- largest in series history -- to earn Nationwide rookie of the year honors. He did so by finishing the season with a flourish -- eight finishes of 14th or better during the final 10 races.

Now that he's trying to win a championship, he knows he'll likely have to be even better than that during these final three races at Texas, Phoenix and Homestead. The Nationwide Series has this weekend off.

"The biggest thing I worry about are the things you can't quite control on a race weekend -- like your transmission or your engine going out on you," Stenhouse said. "Now that we have the lead, we've prided ourselves over the whole year on not making mistakes.

"We made some mistakes in Kansas [two weeks ago], and fortunately for us battled back from it to get a top-five [finish]. But we can't have mistakes on pit road become a big issue. It's tough in these Nationwide races to come back. The competition is so stout throughout the middle that it's hard to start at any point in the back and have to come up to the front."

If it's any consolation to Stenhouse, Sadler is feeling even more pressure than he is.

"They're just too good a race team for us to feel like we can just run top-10 and close the gap," Sadler said. "We ran third [at Kansas], fought all weekend, and only gained two points. I think it's going to be that type of championship battle all the way to Homestead. They're way too good a race team for us to think we do not have to run in the top two or three to gain points on them."

It has been a phenomenal season for Stenhouse, who was worried about possibly losing his Roush Fenway Racing ride last season before rallying to win rookie honors. In 31 starts thus far, he has two wins (both at Iowa Speedway), three poles, 14 top-fives and 23 top-10s.

He admitted that winning the Nationwide championship would be thrilling.

"It would mean a lot. It would definitely be my biggest accomplishment ever in my racing career," Stenhouse said. "After the way last year went, struggling so bad the first part of the year and turning it around at the end of the year, it really makes you appreciate where we are right now as a race team.

"The same guys are on my car as we had last year and it would just mean a lot to everybody at Ford, my family and everybody on this race team to get that championship. We came into the year thinking that we were going be able to run for it and now that we've got [three] races left and have a shot at it, we're exactly where we need to be."

Sorenson out of Turner's No. 32; layoffs may come

2011-10-04T16:45:00.000-07:00

Reed Sorenson, a championship contender in the Nationwide Series and a race winner earlier this season at Road America, is out of Turner Motorsports' No. 32 car in a move that could herald more departures from the NASCAR team.

Sorenson stands third in the Nationwide standings, 49 points behind leader Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Turner has also notified employees of a potential downsizing following this season due in part to the impending loss of sponsor Dollar General, which backs the No. 32 car. Tuesday, Turner announced that Brian Vickers would be in the car Saturday at Kansas and next weekend at Charlotte, with drivers for the final three Nationwide events decided upon at a later date.

Reed Sorenson

2011 Nationwide stats



Races	29
Wins	1
Top-fives	7
Top-10s	18
Poles	0
Laps Led	85
Avg. Start	12.5
Avg. Finish	10.6
Rank	3

Sorenson: Driver Page

"I'm not really sure what's going on," Sorenson said when reached by phone. "It's not good, though."

Trent Owens will remain crew chief of the No. 32 car, according to the team. Vickers competed for Turner on a part-time basis from 2007-10, compiling 15 top-five finishes in 41 starts with the organization. Sorenson had recorded top-10 finishes in his past three starts in the car, including a seventh-place result Saturday at Dover.

"We are continuing to evaluate our racing program as we look to the 2012 season," team owner Steve Turner said in a release. "Brian Vickers is a proven winner at NASCAR's highest level in addition to being a driver at Turner Motorsports over the last four seasons. He has worked with Trent Owens in the past which will allow us to immediately focus on the task at hand. We are confident Brian can help assess where we are, as a company currently, and the direction we are going as we build our programs for 2012 and beyond."

The driver swap continued a tumultuous day at Turner, which is based in Mooresville, N.C., and fields a total of seven vehicles on the Nationwide and Camping World Truck circuits combined. Earlier Tuesday, the team announced that it had notified employees of potential layoffs in order to comply with North Carolina's Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, which requiresemployers to provide 60 days' notice of possible mass layoffs. "It is hopeful," the team added, "the action will become unnecessary as the team continues to work with potential marketing partners for their Nationwide Series and Camping World Truck Series teams."

A Turner spokesperson said the organization would have no further comment beyond the release. The Turner news comes a week after another team, Germain Racing, also served notice of potential layoffs under the WARN Act. Germain's primary sponsor, Geico, plans to expand its Sprint Cup schedule to 22 races in 2012, a decision that puts its Truck Series program in jeopardy. Earlier this season, Germain partnered with Randy Moss Motorsports to keep reigning Truck Series champion Todd Bodine on the track.

Also last week, the Red Bull team on the Sprint Cup level notified employees of potential layoffs under the WARN Act. The energy drink company is pulling its ownership of the two-car operation after this season, leaving executives to try and cobble together a potential new ownership group and sponsor package for 2012.

Founded by Texas native Turner in 2009, Turner Motorsports underwent an expansion prior to this season and emerged as a force on the race track despite its relatively low-profile name. Turner driver James Buescher is currently second in the Truck Series standings, three points behind leader Austin Dillon. Sorenson's victory is one of three on the Nationwide tour this year at Turner, along with those by Justin Allgaier at Chicago and Mark Martin at Las Vegas. Other full-time drivers in the Turner fold include Ricky Carmichael in the Truck Series and Jason Leffler on the Nationwide tour.

Experience gives Gordon an edge at Darlington

2011-05-06T07:51:00.001-07:00

When asked recently what he remembers about his first Sprint Cup race at Darlington Raceway, Jeff Gordon had to divert extra brain power to the memory banks. Not much, he finally said. Just that he wasn't intimidated by one of NASCAR's most intimidating tracks and that he ran well until he got a flat tire or something like that.

Gordon will need to run well again Saturday at Darlington in the Showtime Southern 500. And not just until he gets a flat tire. Sitting 16th in points, he will need to show the form that has carried him to seven victories at the egg-shaped track in the years since that first start in 1993.

Gustafson and Gordon at Daytona.

“

I really love the direction that things are going in and the things that Alan [Gustafson] and the team have found since Texas to make us better.

”

-- JEFF GORDON

Can do, he said. And can do despite the fact he and his Hendrick Motorsports team have been wildly yo-yo-ing in terms of performance this year -- they have a win and two other top fives but also two finishes of 36th or worse.

"I'm not happy with where we've been, no," Gordon said. "I'm pretty happy with where we're headed. I really love the direction that things are going in and the things that Alan [Gustafson, his new crew chief] and the team have found since Texas to make us better."

Gordon is certainly aware of where he is headed this weekend. To the track with all the daunting nicknames. Nicknames, he said, that are well deserved.

"I think it's [earned nicknames 'The Lady in Black' and 'Too Tough To Tame'] because that track can just reach out and bite you so easy and you have to race the track," Gordon said. "It's a one-groove race track typically so it's not one of those tracks -- it's just one of those tracks where you can be riding around by yourself and just make the slightest little bobble and you're in the wall. We've seen it just eat up race cars and competitors over the years."

Darlington has become a tad less terrorizing since it was repaved in 2008. Gordon said the smoother surface has made the place faster and has de-emphasized the driver vs. driver equation.

But, he said, "as the pavement wears each and every year, it starts to get back more and more to the too tough to tame."

What has not changed for Gordon is his approach to racing at Darlington, which has been hosting Cup races since 1950.

"Staying out of the wall," he said, is strategy No. 1. "It's definitely one of those tracks that challenges your nerves. You have to be really committed. It's a fast race track, but you have to be really committed to the line that it takes to go fast around there, which is right up next to the wall."

Gordon knows what he's talking about. His seven wins at Darlington are the most among active drivers. And as impressive as his 11.0 average finish is in his 30 starts, it pales next to his 2.9 in his past seven starts -- all top fives -- at the 1.366-mile track.

"You have to be committed to the gas, especially qualifying," Gordon said. "To me, you just have to be able to go for it there and then just to get the balance right you have to keep that car on the edge through the corners and then compromise because [Turns] 1 and 2 is totally different than 3 and 4 for what it takes to get the car through the corners."

2011-04-03T22:34:00.000-07:00

Even Kevin Harvick was aware of Junior Fever swirling Sunday in the exhaust-choked air at Martinsville Speedway, and Harvick was cooped up inside his race car.
As he came barreling toward the car being driven by Dale Earnhardt Jr. in his No. 29 Chevrolet during the closing laps of the Goody's Fast Relief 500, Harvick said he sensed the crowd on its feet. He didn't sense that they were pulling for him to pass Earnhardt's No. 88 Chevy for the lead.

“

There is definitely a brighter side to what's going on, too, and I won't forget to notice that.

”

-- DALE EARNHARDT JR.

"I could see the people just going crazy coming off of Turn 2 when he took the lead from Kyle [Busch] -- and as I was catching him, I'm like, 'Man, I'm gonna be the bad guy here. But I gotta do what I gotta do,'" Harvick said.
So he passed Earnhardt, much more easily than the way Earnhardt had whipped the crowd into a frenzy only 17 laps earlier by nudging Busch out of the way for the lead on Lap 480 of the 500-lap race.
And in that instant, arguably Earnhardt's best chance at a win in his past 99 Sprint Cup races evaporated in the wake of the No. 29 car's fumes. But for 16 glorious laps, from Lap 480 until Harvick seized the lead for good with three to go, Junior Nation stood poised to celebrate Earnhardt's first victory since June of 2008 at Michigan.
Inside the car, Earnhardt simply was trying to hold on -- knowing deep down that Harvick's car was faster and that Harvick had the time and skill to run him down.
"I was thinking at the end that I was meant to win the damn race ... I knew the 29 was fast. We all watched him come up through the pack there," Earnhardt said. "So I knew he had the speed. But he did have a car in front of him [in Busch, for a while] and I was trying to make it difficult for him to get by."
The silver lining
In the end, he didn't have enough car to hold off Harvick. But new crew chief Steve Letarte was determined as soon as Earnhardt climbed out of the car afterward not to let his driver dwell on this as one that had slipped away. He wanted Earnhardt to focus instead on the bigger, brighter picture.
"He did a great job all day long. He kept the brakes on it, kept the tires on it, kept the fenders on it, and gave us a shot to win at the end. That was great," Letarte said.
"The most important thing is when you're that close, you know you can win races. And that's the whole idea. We need to know we're that good. This is one of his better tracks and [Sunday] we were good. We weren't quite good enough, but we were good -- and it feels good to be that way."
In finishing second, Earnhardt jumped four spots in the point standings to eighth. He trails points leader Kyle Busch by 20 and appears to be gathering momentum as he heads into another track he likes in Texas Motor Speedway next weekend. He has finished in the top 10 in half of his six starts this season, giving this season a totally different feel than Earnhardt's team had most of last season -- despite finishing second in the 2010 Daytona 500.
"I'm just happy we're getting results for the hard work," said Letarte, who replaced Lance McGrew as team owner Rick Hendrick shuffled around the crew chiefs on three of his four Sprint Cup teams last offseason. "The engineers are working tremendously. I've asked the shop to jump through hoops to build new cars. This is a brand-new race car here; that was a brand-new car last week [at Auto Club Speedway in California, where Earnhardt finished 12th]. We'll have another brand-new car in a couple of weeks.
"This right here is a group very committed to running well -- and that group starts at that basic guy sweeping floors in the shop and goes all the way up to the driver and the owner. I'm just glad the driver is seeing results for his extra effort."
Bottom line
Earnhardt often seems to see the negative in something before he can mine out the positive, but Letarte, the ultimate cheerleader, seems to be working on changing that attitude all the time. And it appears to be having the desired effect.

But man, sometimes it's hard. Sometimes it's really, really hard.
"I felt like for the most part of the day, I didn't run up to my standard," Earnhardt said. "I feel like my standard here is a third- through fifth-place run. We all know Denny [Hamlin] and the 48 [of Jimmie Johnson] have been winning all the races here recently. But I feel like I'm right there behind them in how we performed here over the last 10 years."
So in the end, Earnhardt said, he was "happy we were able to steal a few spots at the end of the race." He tried to focus on the positives of finishing second -- his highest finish since that aforementioned second-place effort in the 2010 Daytona 500 -- rather than the fact that he came within three circuits of the .526-mile paper clip of Martinsville of finally getting back to Victory Lane.
Asked what it was going to take to prove to his critics that he's back to the form that enabled him to win a total of 18 Cup races between 2000 and 2008, the bearded Earnhardt grimaced and replied: "Well, I ain't really proved it to myself yet. I'll let you know when I feel like I'm back, personally."
But then his mixed emotions spilled over and he added: "Honestly, the way I feel is I feel fortunate to finish second in a race where we should have finished 10th or ninth or eighth. ... I'm really thrilled. I know it don't look like it, but I know I've got such a hell of an opportunity here. This is such a great group to be around, and I'm having fun with it.
"I'm racing cars. It's all I've ever wanted to do. I want to run like this. I want to finish like this or even run a little better than this every weekend, and we are right on the outside of that. It was frustrating to be that close [to winning]. It was frustrating to be leading the race inside 10 laps to go and be passed.
"But there is definitely a brighter side to what's going on, too, and I won't forget to notice that."
To be sure, neither will his many fans.

2011-03-24T11:38:00.000-07:00

Hamlin's slide, Johnson's run and owners' worries

Debating the runner-up jinx, staying on top and remaining in contention

1. Denny Hamlin slid nine spots in the standings to 17th after Bristol. Runners-up from the previous season don't have a great track record of contending for the title the next year -- is that jinx bound to continue?

Dave Rodman: Not with Hamlin. A brief statistical overview shows that to this point in the season, he's actually doing a little bit better than he did last year -- and we know what he ultimately did last year. I'm not getting too wound up over this point system and how alarming a rise or fall we've already seen people take. Give 'em time.
Mark Aumann: Nope. First, he rarely gets off to a great start. Second, his best tracks -- Martinsville, Texas and Pocono -- are coming up soon. Third, that's one of those "random occurrence seems to fit a trend" stats to me. Now, if he struggles at his better tracks, then I'd worry a little. But we're four races into a 26-race "regular season." And again, Hamlin's strengths are still down the road.
David Caraviello: Well, to answer the original question, I don't know if we can go quite that far yet. Yes, Denny hasn't had the ideal start to a season, yes, he's 17th in points, but he's still not that far out of Chase contention and we still have a very, very long way to go. Is he digging himself a hole? Absolutely. Is he out of it? No chance.
Dave Rodman: You don't want to have to resort to something as flighty as race wins to get you into anything, but more than most teams in the Cup garage, Hamlin and Mike Ford are capable of winning -- just about any time. So that's a great comfort zone to be in.
Mark Aumann: Two things about the new points/Chase format. You don't have to finish first to make the Chase, so he's really only chasing after the top 10. And secondly, winning races will get you a free pass if you don't catch the top 10. That could play a huge factor for someone like Hamlin or Jeff Gordon by September.
David Caraviello: And yet, despite all that, for whatever reason, runners-up from the previous season have had a devil of a time mounting a title campaign the next year. Look at Mark Martin last year. Carl Edwards went from neck-in-neck with Jimmie Johnson in 2008 to not winning a race in 2009. Even Johnson suffered a fall-off between his close call in 2004 and 2005. Really, only Tony Stewart in 2002 has done this kind of thing successfully in recent seasons. There's no sense to it. All those guys are great drivers. But there seems to be some kind of natural letdown after coming so close to a championship the season before. Again, it's too early to cast Hamlin in that role, but he's certainly showing some signs early on.
Mark Aumann: Of those, only Martin missed the Chase the next season, correct? So I guess we're debating whether Hamlin will fall apart enough to not be one of the top 12 cars after Richmond. And I just don't see that being the case right now. Now, one fly in the ointment might be the engine issues that Joe Gibbs Racing seems to be struggling with right now. If they don't solve that, perhaps I could see a letdown season for Hamlin. But there are too many positives in Hamlin's case to think that he's suddenly jinxed.

Easy does it

Off to a slow start this season, Denny Hamlin says he is in no way in panic mode and has high hopes for a strong finish at Fontana.
Watch

Dave Rodman: To quote a famous Goodyear tire spokesman, Phil Holmer, "beats me, pal." Those kinds of jinxes are too irrelevant for me to waste one second on. If I were any of those guys from 26th on back, I might be worried because they're in a little bit of a deficit, they haven't shown much of the consistency needed to mount a charge back into contention and with the exception of Jamie McMurray, have not shown the ability to consistently win. Relatively speaking, this new point format might work no differently in terms of erasing deficits.
David Caraviello: Yes, Mark, I guess there is a difference between making the Chase and legitimately challenging for the title. But this next three-week span may tell is something about where Hamlin in. After we get through California, we go to two of his best tracks -- Martinsville, where only Jimmie Johnson has been better as of late, and Texas, where Hamlin has shown the ability to run away and hide. So he'll have his chance to make up ground, and soon.
Dave Rodman: I'd say Hamlin will win at least twice by July, so there goes that worry.
Mark Aumann: Dave, if I'm Clint Bowyer, Jamie McMurray, Joey Logano or Jeff Burton, winning races becomes the name of the game. Because at some point, you'll wind up expending way too much energy trying to get back to the top 10. Too many people to leap over.
Dave Rodman: Right. Logano and Burton are kind of a long way from making that happen with any regularity. Their truly competitive, race-ending efforts are few and far between -- though we're probably splitting hairs with Joey considering the way he ended last season. Clint's another who could go on a tear, and he might need to.
David Caraviello: Well, we all thought Mark Martin would win last year, too, right? Shoot, and this time last year he was seventh in points, in much better shape (as far as the standings) than Hamlin is now. And look what happened. Now, Gibbs this year looks stronger than Hendrick last year, where only Jimmie won a race. But there are just no guarantees in this deal. You can't say "so and so will win this many times." Because we never really know if they will.
Mark Aumann: David, I can't refute that. Yeah, Martin's 2010 season was somewhat of a head-scratcher. But again, if you would have told me in 2005 that anybody would win five of these in a row -- based on the randomness of a 10-race playoff -- I'd have laughed at you. Fortune is a fickle thing, especially in this sport.
David Caraviello: Mark, no question. In the no-way-could-that-happen department, that trumps all. But this is a difficult deal. There are so many factors that have to align themselves, and if one of them is a little off ... you're not winning. That's just how it is. And it's too early to tell if Denny's just a victim of bad luck right now, or if there's something else going on. Who would have thought at this time last year, for instance, that the Hendrick cars just wouldn't be fast enough en masse? And that at the end of the year three of four crew chiefs would be moved? Clearly, that's an extreme case. But you never know if it's a slump, or something deeper. Right now, we'll give Denny the benefit of the doubt and assume it's the former.
Mark Aumann: I think everybody keeps waiting for Jimmie Johnson to have that one off-year that all drivers go through, and he still hasn't.
Dave Rodman: Could be the same for Jimmie. His start is nothing to rave about.
David Caraviello: Speaking of that ....
2. Jimmie Johnson has won three of the past five races at Auto Club Speedway in Southern California, but he hasn't yet won this year. Is he still a sure thing, or has the field caught up with him?
Dave Rodman: His record probably shows how fine a line winning these things -- or finishing 18th -- is. He could win again. But there are six or eight other people who could just as easily win. And then you have the dark horses.
Mark Aumann: I'd say you keep betting the favorite until he shows why he shouldn't be considered the favorite any more. Still, there are a number of teams that have run well there, particularly Jack Roush's group. And with the early-season strength we've seen from them, I wouldn't be surprised to see Greg Biffle or Matt Kenseth in Victory Lane on Sunday.

Auto Club

Our experts pick the studs and duds for this week.
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David Caraviello: This is another one of those wait-and-see situations. Fontana and Martinsville are probably Johnson's two best race tracks, so over the next two weeks we'll get a good chance to see whether the No. 48 team can rise to the occasion. I wouldn't be surprised if he swept both, I wouldn't be surprised if he came out of that span still searching. Because the competition did make up some ground on Five-Time last year, even though he won the title again.
Mark Aumann: I'm interested in Rodman's dark horses? Who are you considering dark horses there?
Dave Rodman: Paul Menard would be a good start.
Mark Aumann: Wow. You realize RCR has never won at Fontana. And Paul Menard ... has never won. Not saying it won't happen, but there's a real dark horse candidate. I applaud you, Dave.
David Caraviello: California is definitely one of those places where you have a rather defined pool of contenders. The two-mile tracks seem to fit the Roush guys. Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch have historically been very good there. And then of course there's Jimmie. We could have another situation like Bristol, where it's clear that the No. 48 car is strong even if it doesn't win. But historically, Johnson is much better at Fontana than at Bristol.
Dave Rodman: I know Paul has taken his game to another level, he and Slugger Labbe have proven to have a special driver-crew chief bond and there's no denying RCR's overall strength -- or the fact that Menard's been the most consistent RCR car so far this season.
Mark Aumann: Toyota has never won there. Could it be a place for Kyle Busch to break that streak? Heck, maybe even Hamlin (since we've all but ceded Martinsville to him or Jimmie).
David Caraviello: Harvick came mighty close there last spring, chasing Johnson down in the final laps before getting a little too eager and slapping the wall. Harvick has also won at Michigan, so you'd have to consider him a contender going in. As for Menard ... nobody should deny what he's done this year. The guy has just been fantastic. He's in great equipment, and he's showing staying power. But there's a big difference between running up front and winning. A huge difference.
Mark Aumann: And in the "shut up about your stats" department, only once has the pole-sitter won there: Johnson in 2008.

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Dave Rodman: Kurt Busch could break through here, as well. But while I'm on an RCR roll I'd have to agree about Harvick being a pretty strong contender, as well. His effort could be a the proverbial dam preparing to bust.
David Caraviello: Again, nobody is saying Paul Menard can't win, but that's his next step, and it's a big one. Of course, these two-mile layouts do lend themselves to screwy fuel-mileage finishes, and even though this race is 100 miles shorter, who knows what might be in the cards in the Inland Empire.
Mark Aumann: One thing Auto Club folks deserve credit for is cutting the race from 500 to 400 miles. That's a fair distance and should create more intrigue from green to checker. It worked well in the fall. And I'm not saying other tracks should take a look at that (Pocono, hint, hint), but that's almost a perfect distance for a superspeedway. There's nothing like looking at the scoring pylon at Lap 85 and thinking, "We're still an hour from halfway."
Dave Rodman: Tracks have to do what suits their business model. In California's case, maybe they should have tried five 40-lap heat races. Cumulative finish takes all. Do a green flag pit stop after the 40th lap and order out of the pits determines starting order for next heat.
David Caraviello: Too bad Dave isn't a track promoter. We might have the next Humpy Wheeler right here in our midst.
Mark Aumann: Heck, Dave, just have the cars try to beat the traffic from San Bernardino to Malibu. There's more road rage on I-10 than at Bristol.
Dave Rodman: Instead of Lap 41, do a Lap 20 pit stop -- get out, eat a chili dog and belt back in. How's that, Humpy? Wait a minute -- this is California. Make a pit stop, race under the grandstands to greet all those fans and buy a hat, then get back in the car and race on.
Mark Aumann: Just add fireworks, paratroopers, salt to taste.
David Caraviello: Going back to Jimmie -- I do believe the competition has caught up to him, at least to a degree. It was very clear by the end of last year that other teams had matched or exceeded the No. 48 in terms of speed, and that it was Jimmie's savvy and natural talent that helped separate him from the rest. I see nothing so far this season to make me believe that has changed. Even Johnson said last week they're still working on things, trying to get them to where they want them. Now, clearly, he could go on a tear and leave everyone behind. He's capable of that. But I think everything is more evenly matched than it has been in a while, and he'll have a dogfight on his hands all season.
Mark Aumann: I think Ford has made major inroads. Kyle Busch is the kind of guy who could be a huge factor if he can control his poor finishes. But yeah, Jimmie's the king until somebody dethrones him.
David Caraviello: Mark, good point. Last year the No. 48 was as vulnerable as it's ever been, and that was a year where Ford was a mess until the end. Those Roush guys continue to improve at the rate they have ... well, let's just say there's a reason I picked Carl Edwards to win the championship in the preseason.
Mark Aumann: Gratuitous self-promotion seems to be the order of the day here in Track Smack.
3. A few top-tier teams -- like those of Jeff Burton, Joey Logano, and Brian Vickers -- are perilously close to falling outside the top 35 in owners' points. Should they be worried?
Dave Rodman: Yes, they should be, because it only takes one mechanical failure, a driver error -- either their own or a competitor's -- and they're on the outs. And being on the outs creates another whole field of razorblades you have to dance on. Not pretty.
David Caraviello: No question, they ought to be worried. The series begins working off 2011 owner points beginning next weekend at Martinsville, and no top-tier, fully-funded team wants to go there on the brink of falling outside the top 35. With so many start-and-parkers involved right now, that would be an embarrassment for a program from a championship-caliber organization. And yet, some drivers may face just that if things don't turn around.
Mark Aumann: Nope. A quick check of the owners points shows a pretty big swing between even Vickers in 32nd (69 points) and the car in 36th (51). That's 18 positions in one race. No reason to think at a track like Fontana that the big boys won't run away and hide. This isn't Bristol or Daytona, where things happen not of your own accord.
Dave Rodman: It doesn't seem like qualifying has been their issue, and that's a good thing. But getting caught out in that environment would demand the ability to get out of it, quickly -- lest you fall inextricably into the chasm. And right now, none of them has shown the ability to run and finish consistently well enough to avoid it.

Owner Standings

As of Bristol










8.	42	C. Ganassi	126	-24
9.	88	R. Hendrick	124	-26
10.	56	M. Waltrip	123	-27

Mark Aumann: For the most part, there are really only 39 cars racing for 35 spots. The rest are either part-time teams or start-and-park operations. And of those, several are running near the back every week.
David Caraviello: Mark, no question California is a track that puts a premium on aerodynamics and horsepower, two things the big teams hold dominant over the little guys. So yes, this week is a good opportunity for guys like Vickers and Logano to make some space between themselves and that top-35 cutoff line. But we all know, anything can happen. And if you're still in the danger zone going to Martinsville -- well, that's a place where the differences between the haves and the have-nots are equalized, and can bite you on Lap 1.
Dave Rodman: Great point, Mark. It's gonna be hard for any of those teams from 33rd on back to advance much. But that only increases the embarrassment of falling back there for a better funded, more technically-advanced team.
Mark Aumann: Here's a for instance. Dave Blaney's 36th in the points. His best finish is 25th (at Bristol). That means Vickers would have to finish last to get passed by him at Fontana. Gonna happen? I'm not going to say no, but the chances are pretty slim.
David Caraviello: Not likely unless he blows an engine on lap 1.
Mark Aumann: Yeah, the new points system creates a somewhat false closeness, even at the bottom of the standings. And yeah, if I'm Robby Gordon, eight positions is a lot more of a concern than perhaps where Vickers is. But the bottom five or six teams are all fighting around the same spots on the track every week. I just don't see where the 83 and the 31 and the 00 and the 20 can be that consistently unlucky.
Dave Rodman: That's really true. It's going to be a real dogfight among those Front Row cars, TRG, RGM, Tommy Baldwin and the Germain's car.
Mark Aumann: Once we get to the intermediate tracks and things settle down, I think we'll see the standings revert to norm. And maybe we'll get back to normalcy, where Richard Petty doesn't own the Wood Brothers car or the 71.
David Caraviello: Even if the numbers aren't as close as they seem, I'm sure there's a lot of hand-wringing going on at these shops about where these teams are in the standings. It still has to feel too close to those involved. There has to be a lot of nervousness down there -- Burton is a guy coming off a Chase berth, Logano is a guy who seemed on the brink of contending for one, Vickers came back from blood clots that cost him most of last year. It's early, yes, but these guys must be frustrated, to say the least.
Mark Aumann: Certainly, David. I can't imagine any of those teams expected to blow chunks right off the bat. But we seem to see at least one big name stumble out of the blocks. And if there's a poster child for this, Matt Kenseth comes to mind. He made the Chase one season despite being way back in the standings at one point. Just keep doing the little things right and the big things will follow. Gratuitous self-introspection.
David Caraviello: The consolation is, it is early enough that drivers are able to make up points positions in bunches in a single race. Kyle Busch and Greg Biffle -- who just last weekend harbored his own top-35 worries -- both improved eight spots after Bristol. David Ragan improved six, Kevin Harvick five. Of course, things can go the other direction, too -- Hamlin, as we mentioned, dropped nine. But as Mark said, more intermediate tracks are better for the big teams because they have such a technological advantage there, and that's when things will begin to even out,
Dave Rodman: I don't think frustrated even comes close to describing how they feel. It doesn't write off the season, but for all intents and purposes, if they don't turn things around pretty soon, they'll only be racing for wins. Hey, wait a minute... If they could win -- they'd be in the Chase! What a concept!
David Caraviello: Yes, just what we need -- a wild card that's spent most of the year scuffling along at the bottom of the standings. Yes, that's how title contenders are made, all right ...

2011-03-24T11:28:00.000-07:00

Core business

As a soft economy continues to contract, tracks focus on adding value for fans

It was roughly 11 years ago when Bruton Smith, chairman and CEO of Speedway Motorsports Inc., laughed at the thought of empty seats at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Heck, he wasn't yet finished adding them. At the time, BMS had a grandstand seating capacity of 147,000 and Smith claimed he had a waiting list compiled with more than half that many names who had requested additional season tickets.
"We have so many people on the waiting list to come to Bristol, we just stopped taking orders," Smith said then. "I mean, it was foolish. We stopped at 84,000 people. They think they're going to get 'em someday. But with a waiting list of 84,000 people, for most of them it's not likely in their lifetime."

“

At one point, ticket prices weren't an issue -- because, hey, if this guy didn't want to pay X amount of dollars for a ticket, there was a guy right behind him who would. So I think we all got a little fat and happy, and this has brought us into check.

”

-- CLAY CAMPBELL

If those folks are still around, they could have had their pick of seats at BMS for last Sunday's Jeff Byrd 500. By NASCAR's estimate, there were 40,000 empty, unsold seats for the race -- and others, including television analyst Darrell Waltrip, put the estimate at closer to 60,000 empty seats or more.
Bristol seated a mere 71,000 when Smith first bought it in 1996 -- and today seats over 160,000.
So Waltrip, Smith and others also correctly pointed out that in their estimation that still left a crowd of about 100,000 that was huge in its own right and needed to be kept in perspective, especially after strong crowds at the first three races of the season that preceded Sunday's event. But it still was the lowest attendance for a NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Bristol in years -- and it was a stark reminder to all race-track operators that despite the otherwise strong start to this 2011 season, all is not a bed of roses in the business just yet.
With attendance and television ratings up markedly over the first three races leading into the Bristol event, the signs are there that the business side of NASCAR is on the recovery path. But there is still work to be done, and race promoters insist that they are working harder than ever.
"I'd say the past two years in particular have been the most challenging since I've been in the business," said Clay Campbell, who has been president at Martinsville Speedway since 1988. "You seem to be working harder to accomplish the same that you used to, or less. But it's not an isolated case with our sport or anything else. Everybody is facing the same challenges, with the economy being what it is.
"I do think the positive thing this year is that our season seems to be going on the right path. To me, it's gotten off to a positive start. There is just a different feeling in the air."
Explaining Bristol
Smith and Jerry Caldwell, who is in his first full year as general manager at Bristol, candidly admitted heading into last Sunday's race that times have changed since a 55-race sellout streak at the track was snapped in the spring of last year.
Both said that while sales for the Sunday afternoon race that was just held were sluggish, sales for the August Saturday night race at the track have continued to be brisk. That race fell just short of a sellout last August, even in the throes of the bad economy, and Caldwell said he remains hopeful that it will sell out or at least come close to selling out this August.
But the track used to insist that if fans wanted to come to one race at Bristol, no matter which one, they had to buy tickets to both in that given season. That stipulation was dropped this year, which likely has helped save sales for August at the expense of the spring race.
"They still want to come to the races," Caldwell said. "They love Bristol. They may have their job, but they're still very cautious with their money -- so they're going to come to one event and not two. Our August ticket sales are playing out that way. Our August ticket sales are very, very strong."
While many other tracks have slashed ticket prices in recent years, Bruton Smith said he hasn't seen the need to adjust ticket prices too much, and that instead the focus has been on giving the fans the best value for what they do pay. Both he and Caldwell said that they also implored local merchants to work with the track on helping in that regard.
"We've got so much that's going on here, and we just continue to try to add value for the race fans," Caldwell explained. "Because we hear from them and they say it's not $5 or $10 [in ticket prices] that's having them decide what races they're coming to. It's value and the overall expense of the trip.
"So local chambers of commerce in local cities around here, and hotels and restaurants and campgrounds have all worked with us. We met with them at the beginning of this year as well as at the end of last year where we said, 'Hey, guys we're all in this together. We need for you to work with us.' If you'll come down in your prices so we can pass that along to the race fans, we'll relay that to the race fans and promote the heck out of you."
Working with local merchants to help the race tracks bring in fans is something most of the track operators are doing these days. In short, they've discovered that they need to help do more for the race fans in many different areas than ever before.
"We're doing a lot on a lot of different levels," said Marcus Smith, Bruton's son who is president and general manager at Charlotte Motor Speedway. "I think that's the real silver lining on the cloud that was the last 24 months for the race fan. It woke up a lot of people who really were resting on our laurels, not focusing on the core customer.
"All race promoters -- and really anyone in any business -- has really had to refocus on the core customer. For anyone in our business, the race fan is the core customer. So we're focused on delivering a great event with great racing and great amenities at a great value to the race fan."

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Kyle Busch celebrates a weekend sweep with fans at Bristol. Jerry Caldwell, general manager at the track, says he is more mindful of the many aspects of putting on a race, because fans want more for less or they won't come.

No more complacency
When every track was full week after week, television ratings were soaring, and the general economy was rolling along -- as it all was back when Bruton Smith boasted of his long Bristol waiting list -- there may have been a tendency for race promoters to get complacent. They all seem willing to admit that now.
"There was one point -- and we all remember it -- where I don't care what you did, you were going to fill the place up. So you didn't have to do a lot," Campbell said. "At one point, ticket prices weren't an issue -- because, hey, if this guy didn't want to pay X amount of dollars for a ticket, there was a guy right behind him who would. So I think we all got a little fat and happy, and this has brought us into check."
Campbell and others agree that in the long run it may turn out to be a positive. In fact, Campbell insisted that it already can be construed as such for what it has set in motion.

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"Everything is not bad. Everything that has happened is not a negative," Campbell said. "It's gotten us to open our eyes a little bit, and understand what our audience is and what they can afford.
"It's been said time and time again that this is a sponsor-driven sport, and to a degree it is. But if we don't have people in the grandstands watching it, it's much harder to attract sponsors. I've always said if we please the fans first, everything else will fall in line behind it -- and I've never changed my belief on that."
Caldwell said the tough times have forced him and his fellow Bristol employees to change the way they think about many aspects of putting on a race. It isn't enough now simply to advertise a great pre-race concert or blow something up in the infield. Fans want more -- and now they want more for less, or they obviously won't come.
"We have always -- and I'll put it up against anybody -- been the best in the business with customer service, from taking care of the race fans with amenities at the track and other things," Caldwell said. "So in the past we've been able to focus on that experience. It's like none other.
"The areas that we did not have to focus on were the fan-loyalty programs and ticket packages, those kinds of things. We were able to focus on the fans' experience here at the track. The softness in the economy and the contraction, it made us have to focus on how we're going to take care of our season-ticket holders and give them more value. And how are we going to reach out to these other markets and get tour operators to come in."
Tour operators? At Bristol? That in itself is a sign of changing times.
"Years ago, we pushed away from the tour operators -- because we though they were doing a disservice to our race fans because they were charging a lot more than the face value for tickets. So we didn't embrace them," Caldwell said. "With what's going on now, we've started embracing a lot of those folks -- because they're offering much more affordable packages. We're doing lots of things that we've not focused on in the past.
"But it's been good. I think anytime you go through a challenge like this economy has been for the last couple of years, it's going to make you stronger in the end. It's going to make you trim some fat and see where you need to focus and where you need to gain ground. That's what we've done.
"I think that's prone to happen in any industry after a lot of success. I think we all, unfortunately, just had become complacent with our spot and how we interacted with our customers. I don't think going through a challenging time is a bad thing. It's how we grow and become better."

Charlotte Motor Speedway

Marcus Smith is overseeing construction of the largest High Definition television in the world, which his father, Bruton, has insisted will ensure a sellout of the Coca-Cola 600 this May.

What they're doing
Examples of tracks trying to meet these as-yet undefined demands are everywhere. Campbell is selling four seats (two adult, two youth) to the upcoming Sprint Cup race at his track, including four sodas and four famous Martinsville hot dogs, for $99. For the recent race in Las Vegas, which sold out, the general manager of that track, Chris Powell, pushed an initiative to appeal to younger fans by offering 50 percent off all tickets purchased by or for fans 15 and younger. And on the backstretch of Charlotte Motor Speedway, Marcus Smith is overseeing construction of the largest High Definition television in the world, which his father, Bruton, has insisted will ensure a sellout of the Coca-Cola 600 this May.
"We've never offered discounted tickets before," said Powell, whose facility seats 142,000. "And this is not some type of desperate act to fill seats -- because we've had a very good year in selling tickets. We just thought it was a statement we needed to make to get more young people out to the race.
"We're trying to appeal more to the younger set, while at the same time not forgetting the core fan who has made the sport what it is."

“

We've never offered discounted tickets before. And this is not some type of desperate act to fill seats -- because we've had a very good year in selling tickets. We just thought it was a statement we needed to make to get more young people out to the race.

”

-- CHRIS POWELL

Campbell said he is aiming to do the same at his track.
"We've done a lot of things differently in the last couple of years," Campbell said. "One thing we're doing is we're targeting the youth market more, because a lot of our older fans are aging out and we've got to replace them. To that point, we've been targeting a lot of colleges and universities. We've got a lot of great ones all around us.
"We've got special pricing for college students. We've got special pricing for children -- because if you attract the children, obviously you've also got the parents. That's a focus we're heavy onto now that maybe at one time we were not. I would say primarily it's families. We've got that $99 four-pack -- two youths, two adults, four hot dogs, four drinks. Years ago, we wouldn't have attempted to do that -- because there was no need to. Now we're working a whole lot harder to attract youth and the family as a unit."
Marcus Smith insisted that never before have race fans been able to get so much for their money at NASCAR's biggest events.
"When you look at the cost of going to a NASCAR race this year, last year and the year before, it's the best time we've ever had for race fans," he said. "There is more access than ever before, better entry-level prices than ever -- and for the fans who want to see more and do more, you can see more and do more than ever before. Access to pit road and season-ticket packages that really give you more for your money are things that all tracks are doing, and hotels are dropping their rates. The market is really coming to the race fans to supply a lot more for the race-fan dollar."
Some tracks are kicking up their pre-race concerts a notch as well. Brad Paisley played before the season-opening Daytona 500, Smith recently announced that Dierks Bentley will play prior to the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race, and legendary Lynyrd Skynryd has signed on to play prior to the Labor Day weekend race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
"Our fans really enjoy the pre-race concerts. We've done pre-race concerts for a long time, and this is part of how we like to try to bring the race to the fans," Smith said. "A NASCAR race is so much more different than a typical sporting event. It's not a two- or three-hour event like a football game or a baseball game. It's a huge festival that kind of blends in the atmosphere of a state fair and a race and a lot of friends coming together all rolled into one.
"You've got a lot of fans coming in from out of town. An average fan travels more than 300 miles one way to come to a race, and with over 10,000 campsites around most of our speedways, you can see how a festival is really more what a race is than just your typical sporting event."
More challenges ahead
With the average fan traveling such great distances to see races, another obvious stumbling block that played a role in all the empty seats at Bristol last Sunday was high gasoline prices. With Americans paying $3.50 or more for a gallon of fuel these days, many of them are simply opting to stay home.
"I wish I could wave a magic wand and do something about that," Bruton Smith said.
He can't, of course. No one can, although Campbell did say that he is working with a couple of service stations around his track to hopefully have them lower their prices during his race weekend.

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"It's a challenge and there again, it goes back to another way we're now marketing our events," Campbell admitted. "We spend a lot of focus on the 200-mile radius, where fans can make a morning drive to the track for the event. Prices haven't leveled off to where they need to for fuel or anything else, because the economy is still tight. So we need to attract people who can drive to Martinsville to watch the race and then get back home in one day.
"We're still targeting areas outside of that, but a big focus is on that. That's one of the things we've changed. How can we attract people who want to make it but maybe don't want to stay over one night or more? Fuel prices are a big part of that, but we can't control that. It's kind of like the weather. It is what it is -- but it sure puts a dent in someone's wallet when they have to travel great distances. Hopefully that will level off at some point and it won't affect us too bad, but it does have an impact."
Meanwhile, despite attendance being down at Bristol, there have been plenty of positive developments to build on this season, according to Campbell and others. There were the popular wins by drivers Trevor Bayne, Jeff Gordon and Carl Edwards to start the season in front of large crowds at Daytona, Phoenix and Las Vegas, respectively, as well as improved television ratings over a year ago for each of the first three races. (The overnight ratings for the Bristol race were down nine percent, but that race went against the NCAA college basketball tournament).
"The races have been good. I'm optimistic that 2011 will be a year of getting back to what we once had," said Campbell, whose facility seats a more modest 65,000 and had its own lengthy sellout string of 34 consecutive races snapped in 2008.
"I think everything is starting to turn around. I think this year will be a year of improvement. It's going to take us a while to get back -- and I don't know that we'll ever get back to what we had at one point. But I think we are going to start slowly recovering."
One thing is certain in NASCAR. It's no longer business as usual. Race promoters have found that approach no longer works.
"I think some had gotten complacent, some had gotten focused on other things and assumed certain things were taken care of," Marcus Smith said. "But you know, everybody in every business has had to make adjustments for the economy we're in. It's not unique to NASCAR racing. It's the same at the mall, it's the same anywhere you go, really. There is more value for your dollar today because of the tough economy that we've been in, and NASCAR is no different. We've just got to keep working to get the word out about that everywhere we go."

2011-03-24T11:21:00.000-07:00

Hard work helps offset bad luck at Bristol

The season is in full swing after our race last weekend at Bristol. We had a lot of on-track action with some drivers getting mad at other drivers. And after the race at California this weekend, we'll be using this year's owners' points to determine who is locked into each race. We're definitely off and running and things are starting to become routine again following the offseason.
Bristol was a unique weekend for both of my teams. Once again, we had two very fast race cars, but circumstances kept us from getting the finishes we deserved. I've never had three consecutive weekends where I've cut down right-front tires, but that's what we've had with the No. 22 Discount Tire Dodge. I don't know if we had a car that could have won the race, the 18 car [Kyle Busch] was in a class by himself, but it kept us from having the opportunity. Still, to grab a ninth-place finish after the incident was a testament to a lot of hard work by the Discount Tire team. After the year we had in 2010, I guess it is our turn to have some misfortune.

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Keselowski gets caught up in a seven-car wreck at Bristol.
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Hard work was basically the theme of the weekend. The No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge was stupid-fast. I am very excited about how we will race over the next couple of weeks as I think we have hit on a few things that will transition well to other tracks. I really think we could have finished in the top five in the Cup race. But Bristol being Bristol, we were involved in a multi-car wreck on Lap 28 when Jeff Burton had an ignition box problem. We just had nowhere to go and we all just piled into each other. That's just short-track racing. After making repairs, we had a flat right-rear tire and the two incidents combined caused us to lose two laps. No one panicked. Paul [Wolfe, crew chief] and all the guys put together a plan to get both laps back, which we did and were able to scratch out an 18th-place finish. While 18th is a long way from a win, it felt like a win because it showed everyone that their hard work does pay off.
Now we go from one of the smallest tracks we race on, to the 2-mile Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif. Not only is that a big transition in setups and race strategy, it's a big transition mentally for a driver. Bristol is all-out, race-your-guts-out-every-lap, intense racing. You can't lie down in the seat for one second. Fontana is completely the opposite. It's very wide, with plenty of racing room. You still have to race hard, but you aren't fender to fender every lap, like Bristol.
One of the coolest parts about racing at Fontana is seeing what celebrities will make it out to the track. In past years we've had to go up against the Oscars, which probably kept some away. This year we have a new date so hopefully we'll get to see more of them. Sugar Ray Leonard is the honorary starter, which is pretty cool. I'm a big boxing fan and I look forward to meeting him.
From the fans
This week's fan question comes from Gary Lael in Illinois. He asked if there is still a "guys, have at it" decree this year?
Gary, we haven't been told otherwise by NASCAR, so I'm going to proceed this year like it is the same as last year. Clearly, I was the one driver that epitomized the "guys, have at it" mantra from last year. Although, I was on the receiving end of both incidents last season I don't go into any race with retaliation on my mind. That is a disservice to the guys working on my cars because if I'm thinking of payback, I'm not giving them 100 percent to make the car faster. That is my only concern when I get to the race track.
That's it for this week. Make sure you tune in to both races from Auto Club Speedway this weekend. It's never been a very strong track for me over the years, but we ran up front in both Nationwide Series races there last year and I think we've hit on a few things that will make us much better in the Cup car moving forward.

Behind the Wheel with Brad Keselowski runs every other Wednesday on NASCAR.COM as he shares his experiences throughout the season. The opinions expressed are solely those of Keselowski. Have a question for Brad? Submit inquiries to bradkeselowski@penskeracing.com and follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/keselowski.

2011-03-24T11:12:00.000-07:00

NASCAR's remarkable start to the season continued at Bristol Motor Speedway with a fourth different winner in the first four races and there are enough strong drivers remaining that we could easily see a fifth fresh face this weekend.
Roush Fenway Racing has dominated the 2-mile tracks in the past, which combined with the fact that Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth have run strong on occasion in the first four events makes them drivers to watch. And the dramatic win for Trevor Bayne at Daytona suggests even David Ragan could get into the mix if the cards fall right.

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Toyotas run strong on the unrestricted, intermediate speedways; that not only means the two winless Joe Gibbs Racing guys have a shot, but Brian Vickers won at Michigan International Speedway a couple of years ago, which gives him and Red Bull Racing teammate Kasey Kahne a reason to be hopeful.
The doglegged, unrestricted, intermediate speedways dominate the NASCAR circuit with more than one-third of the races contested on a variety of similarly configured, 1.5- and 2-mile tracks and while that favors big-budget, multi-car teams, it also gives drivers like Michael Waltrip Racing's David Reutimann and Martin Truex Jr. with slightly more modest coffers at their disposal an equal chance to challenge for the victory.
Playing by the Numbers
The first three races of the year were challenging for fantasy owners with 22 different drivers scoring top-10 finishes; when half the field proves they can run that well that early in the season, all bets are off the table. That is especially true when drivers like Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, and Jeff Gordon were able to earn only one top-10 compared to two results outside the top 15 in those first three races, but then Bristol finally went according to plan.
True, Kenseth and Biffle became the 23rd and 24th different drivers to score top-10s this season -- and in the case of the No. 16, his previous best result was only a 20th, which made him a surprise contender by most estimations -- but for the most part the drivers at the top of the order were the ones expected to be there.
In fact, if you glance back at last week's fantasy preview, you will notice that the three favorites were (in order): Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards and Jimmie Johnson. If you look at last week's rundown, you notice the same thing.
A pattern is starting to emerge. Kurt Busch is the only driver with four top-10s in the first four races and that is a big part of the reason why he sits atop the point standings, but three other drivers now have three top-10s and quite a few have already logged two strong runs in the books. NASCAR wants parity and is getting it; fantasy owners want predictability, and it is starting to be restored.
The Favorites
Looking at this week's Auto Club 400, odds-makers should be equally divided between the chances that NASCAR will continue its streak of unique winners. This week, we will lean slightly toward keeping the streak alive because two of our favorites are winless in 2011 while the third already has one tally in the victory column.
The driver who has dominated this track in recent years finds himself in unfamiliar territory. Johnson is suffering through a dry spell of 12 races since he last tasted champagne in Victory Lane, which certainly pales in comparison to Gordon's 66-race skid, but it is starting to get the naysayers' tongues wagging. Of course, in those 12 races, he's scored eight top-fives and 10 top-10s, but two meager results came at the start of this season. Auto Club Speedway should remedy that because he has been as close to perfect on this track since 2007 as is physically possible. In the past eight races, he has finished worse than third only once and that was a ninth in spring 2009. His five total victories on this track take precedence by far and he should be on everyone's roster.
Carl Edwards had a bad season last year in California with a 13th in the spring and a 34th in the fall. Before that, however, he amassed 10 top-10 finishes in his first 11 attempts at Auto Club and all of these were results of seventh or better, including one victory in spring 2008. He has an equally strong record on the other 2-mile track in Michigan, which makes this his favorite track type. The biggest reason to start him this week, however, is his current momentum: the driver of the No. 99 has finished first or second in five of the past six races he's entered and if not for an accident at Phoenix a couple of weeks ago, that record would almost certainly be perfect.
Last week was the first time fantasy owners have seen Tony Stewart struggle all season and it was not a comfortable sight. Quite a few drivers ran strong at times and then jumped the fence on their final adjustments. Stewart seemed to be one of those drivers and even though he kept his emotions in check, rest assured that Smoke is smoldering. His only outlet is going to be on track this week and that could be bad news for the competition. Stewart does not have the same long history of success on 2-mile tracks as either Johnson or Edwards, but he does enter the weekend as the most recent winner after taking the checkers at Auto Club this past fall.
Dark Horses
Given Jack Roush's record on 2-mile tracks, perhaps Kenseth and Biffle don't really belong in the dark horse category, but we are going to place them there this week because it took four weeks for them to earn their first top-10s of the season on the bullring in Bristol. Both drivers ended the 2010 season with as much momentum as Edwards and while they ran strong on a few occasions, they just couldn't capitalize and crack that magical mark.

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Kenseth came closest at Phoenix and again in Las Vegas with 12th- and 11th-place finishes, respectively, but he should have finished among the top five in either of those events. Drivers can ignore the raw numbers for a while and concentrate on the strong runs, but there is a limited amount of time they can do so before the overall weight of that disappointment begins to crush them. For Kenseth, this is the perfect time to visit Auto Club because he has four combined victories there and on the sister track of Michigan. When he misses the top spot, it is often not by much and his 17 career top-fives on this track type far outweigh his eight results outside the top 15 in 41 attempts.
Biffle is less flashy than Kenseth, but no less fast. Roush has made a career out of placing all of his drivers in the top five at Auto Club and Michigan sometime during their career and that rising tide elevates everyone in the organization. The No. 16 has had its own share of success with one win on this track and two in Michigan. Biffle has been stronger in the Midwest than California, but there are some recent highlights that must be noted. Biffle earned back-to-back Auto Club top-fives in fall 2008 and spring 2009 and he backed that with a 10th in this race last year.
Underdogs
Richard Childress Racing has had a rough start to its season. With the exception of Paul Menard, who is currently carrying the banner, the seasoned members -- Jeff Burton, Clint Bowyer and Harvick -- have all experienced abysmal luck. Every time a caution waves for an accident, fantasy owners heads are on a swivel to see if one of the RCR drivers is involved and most often they find one of them in the carnage. That could change this week because each of them had some success at Auto Club last year. Burton finished third in the spring race, but fantasy owners will want to skip him this week because that is his only top-15 on this track in his past five attempts. On the other hand, either Harvick or Bowyer should be on your roster because each of them enters the weekend with three consecutive top-10s. With a little more luck, they could have swept Victory Lane last year. Harvick finished second to Johnson in this race, while Bowyer was runner-up to Stewart in the fall.
When bad luck strikes, it can be hard to shake and that makes Joey Logano a risky proposition each week. He was a dark horse candidate to make the Chase before the green flag fell over the Daytona 500 and now he simply wants to pad his position in the top 35 in owners' points after suffering through engine failures and accidents early in the season. Last week, this team struggled early at Bristol but they finally made the car stronger in the closing laps and were climbing toward the top 10 until a loose wheel sent the No. 20 hard into the wall and several laps off the pace. If fate will forgive the kid, however, Auto Club should be a place to shine. He finished fifth in this race last year and enters the Auto Club 400 with a three-race streak of top-15s on this track.

Fantasy Power Ranking

Two-mile tracks (past three years)

Pos.	Driver	PA*	Pos.	Driver	PA*	Pos.	Driver	PA*

1.	Jimmie Johnson	4.50	15.	Kurt Busch	16.65	29.	Paul Menard	29.23
2.	Jeff Gordon	8.89	16.	Clint Bowyer	17.04	30.	Regan Smith	30.00
3.	Greg Biffle	9.69	17.	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	17.53	31.	Marcos Ambrose	31.04
4.	Carl Edwards	9.78	18.	David Ragan	19.16	32.	Andy Lally	33.50
5.	Brian Vickers	9.87	19.	David Reutimann	19.28	33.	David Gilliland	34.22
6.	Tony Stewart	10.03	20.	Joey Logano	19.96	34.	Bobby Labonte	34.73
7.	Matt Kenseth	10.26	21.	Jeff Burton	20.00	35.	Robby Gordon	36.29
8.	Trevor Bayne	11.00	22.	Martin Truex Jr.	22.26	36.	Michael McDowell	36.35
9.	Denny Hamlin	11.40	23.	Jamie McMurray	23.38	37.	Dave Blaney	36.53
10.	Mark Martin	11.66	24.	Ryan Newman	24.78	38.	Tony Raines	36.93
11.	Kyle Busch	12.23	25.	A.J. Allmendinger	25.36	39.	Joe Nemechek	37.11
12.	Kevin Harvick	13.58	26.	Brad Keselowski	27.98	40.	Mike Skinner	37.96
13.	Kasey Kahne	14.42	27.	Casey Mears	29.03	41.	J.J. Yeley	40.32
14.	Juan Montoya	16.49	28.	Travis Kvapil	29.15	42.	Landon Cassill	40.75

* The Power Average is the average finish during the last three years, plus the number of laps spent in the lead, in the top five, and in the top 10 expressed as if they were finishing results. For example a driver who has led the most laps receives a hypothetical first-place finish, the driver who leads the second most laps receives a hypothetical second-place finish, and so on. This rewards drivers who competed at the front of the pack for the majority of the race, even if an unfortunate event takes them out of contention at the very end of the race. A driver's recent record in the support series is also factored in, as is his average running position as provided by NASCAR Statistical Services. Failures to qualify are credited to the driver as if they were a finishing position (i.e. the first non-qualifier is assigned a 44th-place finish). The 2-mile tracks are Auto Club and Michigan.

2011-03-08T12:45:00.000-08:00

Autostock

Clay Rogers has yet to race a full season in any of the three national divisions, but that could change this season.

Rogers looking for career rebirth in a truck

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Clay Rogers is far from a household name, but he once shared a Nationwide Series ride with Matt Kenseth and recently helped tutor a teenager by the name of Trevor Bayne.
Rogers also is a four-time champion in the USARacing Pro Cup Series, including back-to-back championships in 2009 and 2010. Now Rogers sits second in the Camping World Truck Series standings heading into Saturday's Too Tough to Tame 200 at Darlington Raceway. He talked with NASCAR.COM about his season and his exploits with Kenseth, Bayne and his own 16-month-old daughter, Ava.

“

I've talked to Trevor a couple of times ... I told him I was racing for 23 years before I finally got a chance to race at Daytona. Then I finish third [in the Truck race], which I thought was pretty good, and he has to go out and top me almost before I can even get back home.

”

-- -- CLAY ROGERS

Q: What was it like sharing a Nationwide ride with Matt Kenseth, who now is a Cup veteran and champion, back in 2001?
Rogers: That was with Reiser Enterprises. A lot of people thought that was a Roush car, but it really wasn't. It was actually owned by Robbie and his father, John, who has since passed on.
But I got the opportunity to run some races in that car. We were going to run 13 races, but of course when the planes hit the [Twin Tower] buildings [in New York] that year, sponsorship started dropping left and right. I ended up having to give a few of my races back to Matt in the hopes of the team procuring sponsorship in 2002, which didn't happen anyway. It was a lot of fun and a learning experience. I wish I had gotten to race a little bit more than I had, but I definitely got some experience on a lot of the tracks we're still racing on today.
Q: Such as Darlington Raceway, where you'll compete in the Camping World Truck Series on Saturday night?
Rogers: Somebody asked me if I'd ever raced at Darlington and I said, 'The only time I ever got to drive at Darlington was when I got to drive Matt Kenseth's car from Victory Lane around to the tech area.' He won the [Nationwide] race there at Darlington that year we shared a ride together. They were busy taking pictures, so I just drove the car around to the tech area.
Q: You're sitting second in points right now. What were your plans for this Truck Series season initially, and have they changed at all because of your fast start?
Rogers: Well, our original plan at RBR Enterprises was to come in and run 15 races in the Truck Series this year. Ricky Benton, the owner, got his feet wet in the series last year with Dennis Setzer, and decided to make a little bit more of a run at it this year. Then we decided we needed to run the first five races and kind of see where we stack up. Of course, after being second in the points after the first two races, there seems to be a little bit more sense of urgency to try to procure sponsorship.
Ricky's got a very successful business of his own that's a pretty large tire dealer and distributor in North and South Carolina, but we've leaned on those folks awful hard just to get to this point.
Q: Saturday's race is sort of a home race for you guys, isn't it?
Rogers: The race shop is only about 40 minutes from the track, so yeah, we've got some big things planned for this weekend. We've got a lot of hospitality stuff planned for Darlington, so for us to go out and perform at a high level is important. The other thing to remember is that we're second in points going into the weekend, but we've still got to qualify in on speed and you don't know how many quality trucks are going to show up. I'm sure it'll be another tough crowd.
Q: What do you like to do away from the track?
Rogers: I've lived in the Mooresville [N.C.] and Lake Norman area all my life, so I like to spend time on the water -- in the summertime, especially. I just like to go sit out on the pier or sit on a pontoon boat. That's how a lot of our Sundays are spent: out on a pontoon boat, listening to the Cup races on the radio. But in the last year and a half, things have changed for me quite a bit. I have a 16-month-old daughter [Ava] and she occupies my time. I really enjoy spending time with her and my wife, Cheryl.
I had a really interesting [Monday] morning, in fact. Our daughter has been really healthy since she's been born, but this morning she got up and wasn't acting right. ... I dropped her off at my Mom's house and was just sitting there, and she got sick and threw up all over me. That was the first time that happened. Then it was game on for her; she went about chasing the dogs.
Q: What is your long-term goal in racing?
Rogers: Racing started out as my hobby and turned into my career. It was almost 10 years ago when I got to run my first Nationwide race. I feel lucky to be 30 years old and still racing, to be able to be successful and pay my bills doing it. Four or five years ago, I would have said yeah, I'd still like to make a run at the Cup Series. I don't feel like that's a realistic goal anymore, being 30 years old. ... I'm going to have to get going on it if it's ever going to happen.
Q: Do you keep in touch with Matt Kenseth?
Rogers: Matt's a really good guy, but I haven't been able to keep up with him over the years. The drivers I'm friends with are guys like Steve Wallace, Trevor Bayne and guys I've raced against in the Pro Cup Series. Trevor used to stay at my house some when he had first moved to Mooresville from Knoxville, [Tenn.]
Q: So when did Trevor spend time at your house?
Rogers: When he was about 15, 16. He was running in the Pro Cup Series and his dad decided to move his team from Knoxville to Mooresville, which turned out to be an excellent decision -- especially looking back on it now. ... It sounds ridiculous to say now, but I tried to help him out a little. I went testing with him and we talked a lot. I tried to share a little perspective with him about what I had gone through to try to make it to the big-time. But definitely he's giving me advice now, let's up it that way.
Q: Where did he sleep, on your couch?
Rogers: He never stayed weeks at a time. He would stay with me for a couple days; he'd stay at the house of a former crew chief of mine who was crew chiefing him at the time, Blake Bainbridge, who lived up the street. The guy who is spotting for Trevor now, he'd stay with him. It was kind of a group effort there until he got an apartment. He's just a good kid. Everybody knows that now.
Q: Where did you watch the Daytona 500 this year, and what was your reaction when Bayne won?
Rogers: Actually all of my friends and Blake were up at Blake's house, watching it. Me and a couple of guys who had worked with Trevor in the past, we had a pretty good feeling about it because we knew he had a good car. But when he won it, there was an awful lot of jumping up and down and hugging, and maybe even a few tears shed. When he crossed [the finish line] to take the checkered, it was just an unbelievable feeling for all of us.
I've talked to Trevor a couple of times since then. I told him I was racing for 23 years before I finally got a chance to race at Daytona. Then I finish third [in the Truck race], which I thought was pretty good, and he has to go out and top me almost before I can even get back home.

2011-03-08T12:43:00.000-08:00

Earnhardt enjoying progress made with Letarte

Eighth-place finish at Las Vegas gives driver two top-10s to start season

LAS VEGAS -- You can hear it in his voice. You can see it in his face, and in the results on the scoring tower. Dale Earnhardt Jr. is having fun again.
"I'm happy. It's a fun team, a great group of guys," he said. "I'm proud to be a part of it, and hope I can keep working well and keep doing well."

“

I'm happy. It's a fun team, a great group of guys. I'm proud to be a part of it, and hope I can keep working well and keep doing well.

”

-- DALE EARNHARDT JR.

He had good reason to feel that way Sunday, when Earnhardt turned in his third consecutive solid effort to start the season, an eight-place result at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Earnhardt ran as high as fourth late in the event, but got stuck behind several cars that took two tires on their final pit stops, and then had his No. 88 get tight in the final laps of the race. Even so, the performance follows a 10th-place run at Phoenix, and a Daytona 500 where he was among the leaders late before a cut tire ruined his day.
Working with new crew chief Steve Letarte, Earnhardt has now recorded back-to-back top-10s for the first time since New Hampshire and Daytona in the middle of last season, and he stands 10th in Sprint Cup points -- the highest he's been since he was eighth after Talladega last spring. Perhaps most importantly, Earnhardt continues to show signs that he's capable of ending a winless streak that now stands at 96 events.
And he's clearly enjoying the process.
"We're just doing what we're supposed to do, I reckon. We didn't have too bad a car in practice and I just didn't nail it in qualifying. ... But I guess the best thing that we did all day long was the adjustments. I kept telling Stevie what I thought I needed and what the car felt like it was doing wrong, and he was hitting on it every time. We were kind of working together on some ideas and we hit on one idea that was really good and it really woke the car up," Earnhardt said.
"We decided to take four [tires] at the end, and I'll back Stevie's call there. It might have cost us a spot in hindsight, but we just need to run good and get good finishes under our belt and keep their confidence and keep my confidence up. Midway through the race was the first time in a long time I actually was feeling like I could beat them guys, you know? That I was around. It gave me a lot of confidence [Sunday]; we just need to keep doing that."
Car owner Rick Hendrick paired Earnhardt and Letarte in an offseason personnel shuffle because he thought Letarte's penchant for keeping his driver upbeat and confident could help a driver who's struggled since joining NASCAR's top organization. Sunday, Letarte was at his best. "Come on, buddy. You're absolutely doing great," he told Earnhardt as the driver tried to gain positions in the final laps.
That relationship extends off the track, and goes in both directions. Earnhardt and Letarte -- who won 10 races with Jeff Gordon before being moved to the No. 88 team in November -- met Saturday night with team engineers to discuss what changes to make to the car for the race.
"It's fun in this hauler, man," Earnhardt said. "When you're running good, everything is easier to do. But I really enjoy brainstorming with Steve, and I think having worked with him, I've become better at helping him just in a short period of time. But it's fun to brainstorm with and work with him, and I just want to do good."
Earnhardt can sense he's making progress, which for him is paramount. He's on his third crew chief since joining Hendrick Motorsports prior to the 2008 season. If it doesn't work with Letarte, he's not sure where he might turn next.
"Failure at this point is completely unacceptable, and I've got to put it all out on the line and do everything I can to make this work," he said. "If it don't work with [Letarte], I got nowhere else to go. I got no other options, really other than just to race myself into oblivion with my own team and Tony [Eury] Jr. and them guys. But I want this to work. I want to be in a [Cup car] the rest of my career as long as I can, and I want to be successful, and so I'm just trying to work hard, man. We're getting better. It feels like it's working."

2011-03-08T12:39:00.001-08:00

In the Draft: Dancing with the Lady in Black

This weekend is an off weekend for the Nationwide and Sprint Cup series. Many of the drivers are taking short vacations and getting away from it all but not me. I'm headed to the track "Too Tough to Tame" to compete in the Camping World Truck Series event! I'm really excited to go to Darlington. The track has such a rich history and I'm hoping that I get to add to it this weekend.
In the past I've had a lot of success there both in the Cup and Nationwide series. I have several poles, top-five and top-10 finishes. I haven't been able to score a victory yet, but I'm hoping this weekend we can change all of that. I'm ready to slide back into the seat of the No. 2 Chevrolet Silverado. The last time I drove the truck we narrowly missed the win at Daytona. As disappointing as that was, I couldn't think of a better guy to win that race than Michael Waltrip.

"Many of the drivers are taking short vacations and getting away from it all but not me. I'm headed to the track 'Too Tough to Tame. - ELLIOTT SADLER

Not only am I ready to get back to racing in the Truck Series, but Darlington also has one of the best restaurants on the planet. All of the locals know about Red Bone Alley Restaurant and Bar. It is a really cool place, with lots of room to sit and eat. The food is to die for. They have a lot of dishes that are native to the South Carolina culture and you cannot go away from there hungry. I always try to make a point to stop by and I know a lot of the crew members always make a point to carve out a night to head over there. It's not far from the track so if you get a chance, be sure to check it out.
Aside from eating at Red Bone Alley, I will also probably take some time to spend with my spotter Brett Griffin. His family is from nearby Pageland, S.C., and they always take good care of us when we are in town. I know Brett has several members from his family coming to the race so it will be fun to have them over to the motorhome one evening to listen to stories about old Brett Griffin growing up and reminisce about his time as a dancer. In case you didn't know, he was a break dancer when he was younger, so last week while we were in Las Vegas he attended the JabbaWockeeZ show. We got a good laugh after he got back about how skilled he says he was back in his hay day. I'm glad he decided to become a spotter though -- I can't imagine going to see his show!
After we spend time filling up on food and telling stories about old friends we will focus on the task at hand, which is figuring out the fastest way around the egg-shaped Darlington track. The No. 2 team has a little added pressure this weekend as we will be running the Armour Vienna Sausages blue and gold paint scheme. This paint scheme has gone undefeated since they have been a primary sponsor with Kevin Harvick Inc. (KHI). Kevin Harvick has three wins in the colors, including his first Nationwide Series win for KHI at Bristol in 2009.
I'm really excited and I hope the magic of Armour can take us to Victory Lane for the first time this season. I hope everyone has an enjoyable week and if you are in the area, be sure to make your way down to Darlington Raceway to take in some exciting Truck Series action this weekend. Until next time, HOLLA!

2011-03-08T12:38:00.000-08:00

Will Patrick start to run up front consistently?

After record-breaking fourth-place finish at Vegas, pressure is on to keep it going

The buzz is still being felt from Danica Patrick's historic fourth-place finish in the Nationwide race last Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Not only was it a career-high for Patrick, but it was the highest a woman has finished in any of NASCAR's three national series.
But will that success continue for the second-year part-timer? Patrick has one more race at Bristol before her focus returns to her roots of IndyCar racing. Patrick has eight events left in 2011, will she be consistently run up front, or was this just a one-time thing? Joe Menzer and Bill Kimm have their thoughts on Patrick. Read theirs and then weigh in with your own in the comments below. And don't forget to vote for whose argument you agree with more in the poll at the right.

Gordon gets monkey of his back!!!!!!!!

2011-02-28T08:31:00.000-08:00

During the final 20 laps Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway, Jeff Gordon found a way to beat the driver perhaps closest to matching Gordon's talent during his prime.
"We beat Kyle Busch! Are you kidding me? Pinch me, man! Pinch me!"

“

Man, what an awesome, awesome, feeling it is when you've got the car right like that. And they give you 20 [laps] to go and it's your job to go get it done, you've got what you need to go do that and then you pull it off.

”

-- JEFF GORDON

No one stays atop NASCAR's throne forever. Richard Petty. David Pearson. Cale Yarborough. Bobby Allison. Bill Elliott. Darrell Waltrip. Rusty Wallace. Dale Earnhardt. Jeff Gordon. Jimmie Johnson.
And now perhaps Kyle Busch, with his 88 victories in NASCAR's three major touring series, could be considered today's heir apparent. So for Gordon to beat Busch at his best was like turning the clock back 15 years, when it was the Intimidator and the Golden Boy going toe-to toe, week-in and week-out.
"He's tough," Gordon said of his former Hendrick teammate. "I respect his talent, that team, and he's aggressive. I think everybody knows, you don't want to have to restart up against him. He's just won a lot of stuff lately. And to be quite honest with you, to me, there's nothing cooler."
Busch won Friday night's Truck race. He never gave up the lead in Saturday's Nationwide race. And when he wrestled the lead away from Tony Stewart on a restart with 21 laps to go Sunday, it seemed that Busch was destined to sweep all three races at Phoenix. But Gordon had other plans.
"I think he was on a mission [Sunday], that's for sure. And when Jeff Gordon has a good car and he has the opportunity to beat you, he's going to beat you," Busch said. "There's no doubt about that. He's my hero and I've always watched him and what he's been able to accomplish over the years. It's no surprise that he beat us."
Gordon should have won at least four times in 2010 but didn't, for a variety of reasons. So given the chance in the second race of 2011, Gordon didn't let the opportunity slip away.
"Man, what an awesome, awesome, feeling it is when you've got the car right like that," Gordon said. "And they give you 20 [laps] to go and it's your job to go get it done, you've got what you need to go do that and then you pull it off."
Gordon passed Stewart for second on Lap 292, but was still more than a half-second behind Busch with the laps winding down. But as Gordon's No. 24 Chevrolet began to reel in the No. 18 Toyota -- chipping away precious hundredths of a second with every lap -- the estimated 75,000 in attendance began to believe in something special, standing almost in wonder as the gap between the two cars closed.
And on Lap 304, eight laps from the checkered, Gordon found himself in a long-familiar spot. And unlike 2010, when it seemed like everything that could go wrong, did -- he looked again like the driver who seemed at one time to be a shoo-in to join Petty and Pearson as the only drivers to win more than 100 Cup races in their careers.
"I thought, 'Even if I catch him, what am I going to do with him?' " Gordon said. "We caught him, he got loose, I got underneath him and I didn't know what to expect. I got into [Turn 1], he was right on my door. I got loose, got up into him, they said 'clear' and I went. Because I knew I'd need to get away from him as fast as I could."
Busch could see Gordon coming and realized there was little he could do to halt Gordon's charge.
"He was gaining on me really good and I knew he was going to get to me eventually and this place is so flat and it's one groove that we all run the bottom," Busch said. "He got so tucked up behind me in [Turns 3 and 4], he got me loose and I could not put the gas down. I mean, he was so far up underneath me that I could not go forward.

"So I was loose, and he was just waiting for the exit of the turn to turn underneath me and get alongside of me and then once we got down into Turn 1, we both drove off in there pretty deep and I had enough where I could slow down and kind of run on what I thought would be the second lane. And he just drifted up a little bit into me and knocked me out of the way."
Busch admitted the bump didn't matter to the eventual outcome.
"He had a fast enough car," Busch said. "He could have done that, either way. He would have won if he didn't do it, if he did do it. It has nothing to do with how he won."
Once he got by Busch, Gordon continued to pull away, eventually winning by 1.137 seconds. It was a victory that finally tied him with Yarborough at 83 victories, one shy of Allison and Waltrip.
As the fans cheered and clapped and waved their hands, Gordon did perhaps the worst burnout in the history of PIR. But when you haven't won in 66 races, you don't care about style points.
"It's been a long time, I know," Gordon said. "I'm going to savor this one so much.
"I've been tweeting lately for the first time, and all of the stuff the people have been saying, the motivation has been unbelievably inspiring. And then to see that crowd stick around to see my really lame burnout -- because I stink at them -- they loved the show. Man, we hope we can give them some more shows like that this year. That was awesome."

Busch goes wire to wire for victory at Phoenix

2011-02-27T09:18:00.000-08:00

Kyle Busch held off a frenetic challenge from Carl Edwards in the closing laps of Saturday’s Bashas’ Supermarkets 200 at Phoenix International Raceway and collected his 44th Nationwide Series victory, four behind career series leader Mark Martin.
Having won Friday night’s Camping World Truck Series race at the 1-mile track, Busch will try for a weekend sweep Sunday in the Subway Fresh Fit 500 Sprint Cup event.

Bashas' 300

Results

Pos.	Driver	Make

1.	Kyle Busch	Toyota
2.	Carl Edwards	Ford
3.	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet
4.	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet
5.	Reed Sorenson	Chevrolet

Busch became the only driver to sweep races in NASCAR’s top three series at the same track on the same weekend when he accomplished the feat last August at Bristol.
Edwards, who finished .514 seconds behind Busch, made a contest of the race in the final 20 laps, running side-by-side with Busch for extended stretches as the race neared its end.
Busch became the first driver to lead every lap of an event in one of NASCAR’s top three series since Dale Earnhardt Jr. accomplished the feat in July 2003 in a Nationwide race at Daytona.
Kevin Harvick ran third, followed by Ryan Newman and Reed Sorenson, who took the series lead by five points in front of seventh-place finisher Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Sorenson and Stenhouse were the highest-finishing drivers eligible for the Nationwide title.
Though Busch never trailed at the stripe, Edwards gave the driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota all he could handle. During one exchange, Edwards crossed the finish line .039 seconds behind Busch.
Busch was well aware he had a chance to be a wire-to-wire winner.
“I knew after the first run that it was such a long run that nobody stayed out [under the first caution],” Busch said. “The second run was such a long run that everybody pitted again. So I’m like, ‘So far, I’ve led every lap of this thing.’
“It came down toward the end of the race there, and Carl was alongside of me, and we were racing really hard, and he was trying to pass me, and I was like, ‘Man, just beat him back to the start/finish line; man, just beat him back to the start/finish line.’
“I was trying to hold on as long as I could. Finally, it seemed like about 15 laps or so that his stuff would start falling off enough that we could start clicking back away and get away from him a little bit. So I knew that if we could just make it to that threshold, I thought we’d be OK.”
Edwards said he considered giving Busch a bump in close quarters but thought better of it.
“This is a new year, and you’ve got to do the best you can to go out and race everyone all the time with the most respect you can,” Edwards said. “Kyle was driving that car so well, and we were having such a good race.
“It was a lot like the race Kevin [Harvick] and I had in 2006 or 2007. That’s one of the best races I’ve ever had, and it was because we really gave each other all the room we needed to race, and the best car ended up winning. Kyle’s car was the best, and it’s fun to be able to race like that.
“It’s frustrating to lose them, but it’s better to lose them that way than it is to win by running into somebody.”
Danica Patrick finished 17th, three laps down, and posted her third consecutive top-20 result in the series. She is fourth in the Nationwide standings through two races but will take a break from NASCAR competition in March, when the IndyCar Series begins its 2011 campaign.
As Busch continued his domination in the desert, the fortunes of 2010 series champion Brad Keselowski continued to ebb. On Lap 105, Keselowski blew a right front tire and clobbered the Turn 4 wall to bring out the second caution of the race.
Keselowski, who had finished 102 consecutive Nationwide races before falling out of last week’s race at Daytona, suffered his second consecutive DNF.
Saturday’s race featured 40 entries, three short of a full field. That’s the first time since 2008 a Nationwide race has started with fewer than 43 cars.

Sam Hornish

2011-02-26T08:23:00.000-08:00

These days Sam Hornish Jr. has idle time, but not idle hands. With no testing to divert his attention, he spent two weeks in December restoring an old bicycle that belonged to his father. He's been able to stay home and help his wife, Crystal, with their new baby, born just before the new year. He's been able to spend more time with family members and friends who maybe didn't see as much of him when he was traveling the country piloting race cars. In some ways, running only a limited schedule has its benefits.
"My first child, when she was born, I was home for about a day and a half and I was gone for about five weeks straight, running all over the nation," Hornish said prior to the season opener. "Having the opportunity to be home for this one, and spend a lot of time at home, it's been good. If I didn't have so many other things going on in my life, like two little kids, I'd probably be pulling my hair out. But there are a lot of things that can remind me what the real positives are in my life, and what's really important."

“

The only reason I need to race right now is because I want to race. I'm not in it to go out and collect a paycheck. I just want to race.

”

-- SAM HORNISH JR.

That kind of outlook is key for a driver who is beginning perhaps his most frustratingly uncertain season since he hit it big in major auto racing a decade ago. A three-time champion on the IndyCar circuit who moved to NASCAR in 2008, Hornish lost his Sprint Cup ride when car sponsor Mobil 1 left Penske Racing. The points he accrued in the No. 77 car last season were sold to the team of Steve Wallace, who used them to gain a berth in last week's Daytona 500 -- an event Hornish watched. His 2011 plans consist of about a dozen starts in the Nationwide Series for Penske Racing, and a scattered schedule that began at Daytona but won't pick up again until Texas in April.
That means he isn't racing this weekend at Phoenix, the first NASCAR event weekend he's sat out since failing to qualify at Homestead in the final race of his first full-time season in 2008. It would be a humbling transition for any driver, but Hornish isn't just any driver -- he's a former Indianapolis 500 champion whom boss Roger Penske still refers to as "one of the best oval-series drivers I've ever seen." Now he's running a limited Nationwide schedule, hoping to add a few more races along the way, hoping to sow the seeds for a potential return to the Sprint Cup level in 2012.
Fortunately, despite a rocky stint in NASCAR that's led to what some might view as a demotion, Hornish has never lost his sense of perspective. He's still an unassuming guy who lives in out-of-the-way Defiance, Ohio, who's saved much of what he's made, who remains grounded, loyal to Penske, and optimistic about his fortune turning around. He's seen it happen before -- in 2000 he was a struggling IndyCar driver who had just missed his second consecutive race because of a lack of sponsorship when a phone call came asking him to jump in a car at Kentucky. He led 30 laps, finished ninth, and by the following Tuesday had signed a contract with Pennzoil-backed Panther Racing, the team that would launch his career.
"I've been racing professionally for 11 years. I didn't get paid a lot in the beginning, I'm not getting paid a lot right now, but there were times. And I tried to save everything I could. I had a couple of toys here or here, but I didn't have a Ferrari, I didn't have a bunch of expenses. I was engaged or married for most of it, so it wasn't like I was out doing all these different things. The only reason I need to race right now is because I want to race. I'm not in it to go out and collect a paycheck. I just want to race," said Hornish, who was involved in an early crash last week in the Nationwide race at Daytona and finished 36th.
"I just want to give myself an opportunity to go out there and do the best that I can do. It is tough in some shapes and forms that we'll only be able to run at minimum 11 races [in Nationwide], but I also know that 11 or 12 years ago I was sitting there wishing I had something to do, and from Wednesday to the next Tuesday everything changed. And I know I'm a heck of a lot further down the road than I was at that point. I was figuring out whether I was going to work on trucks, drive trucks, what I was going to do. I still have something to do. I'm still a lot better off than I was there."
His experience in NASCAR has been a trying one. Attending a party for former open-wheel sponsor Marlboro, he watched footage of himself winning the Indianapolis 500, and got a little emotional. "It was nice to remember you once did something after getting dirt kicked in your face the last three years. I kind of needed that," Hornish said. The reaction is understandable considering his exploits in stock cars have produced eight top-10 finishes in 108 Cup starts, the few hopeful moments buried beneath wrecked race cars and disappointment.
"I know there have been days that I could have won Cup races if the right things happened, but we never got to the point where we could do it consistently enough to where we could be there all the time. There's been days when I've done everything right, and we've gone out there and finished well, and there have been days when I've screwed up quite a bit," Hornish said.
"Some days it was there, and some days it wasn't. If I could tell you why it wasn't .... Sometimes that chemistry doesn't work out the way you need it to. It was mentally tough. But ... I always felt there was a ray of hope -- all right, I learned this. How come every time we go to Pocono we can lead 10, 15 laps of the race but can't win? We run good there, and if can do it there, you should be able to do it at another place. It's one of those things where, I don't think people understand how closely competitive it is, and how just little things being off can affect a team."
Penske granted Hornish permission to solicit offers from other Cup teams, as long as the driver didn't commit to a vehicle that planned only to start and park. Some organizations showed interest, Hornish said, but those overtures were thwarted by the same sponsorship difficulties that forced him to give up the No. 77 car. The end result is a lot of free time during a very long racing season, some of which Hornish hopes to fill by testing for teammates Kurt Busch and Brad Keselowski, and by attending the races close to home. He seems a little curious about the idea of competing in the 100th Indy 500, but as of last month Penske had no plans to field Hornish in one of his cars.
"As I've said to him, we've got to be honest about this and where we're going," Penske said. "What I said to him was, look, let's step back here. It's like being put back a grade in school. I know a lot of guys who were put back a grade in school who turned out to be pretty good guys."
Time will tell whether being held back to a limited Nationwide schedule will further Hornish's NASCAR education. In the meantime, there are those two little girls -- 3-year-old Addison and infant Eliza -- who are going to get plenty of time with their dad. "I know in my opinion," Hornish said, "this is probably going to be the most fun I'm ever going to have."

Banye Wrecked

2011-02-26T08:18:00.000-08:00

One week after being the belle of the fancy ball, Cinderella shattered the glass slipper. On his first lap in Friday's initial Cup practice at Phoenix International Raceway, Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne knocked a bit of the shine off the victory -- and bent up the entire right side of his No. 21 Ford -- when his brakes failed heading into Turn 3.

Subway Fresh Fit 500

Final practice

Pos.	Driver	Speed

1.	Kyle Busch	136.085
2.	David Ragan	136.034
3.	Carl Edwards	136.024
4.	Jamie McMurray	135.993
5.	Greg Biffle	135.716

PIR: Final | Prac. 1

Bayne realized something was wrong with the car, but his relative inexperience showed when he stayed on the throttle and on the track instead of slowing and heading back to the garage. Heading into the corner, the car washed up the track and slapped the outside retaining wall twice, the first time hard enough to fold in the right front wheel well.
"On pit road I told them the brakes felt like they weren't working right," Bayne said. "I paced myself getting into the corner and the brakes just never worked. It was either just one of them working and it locked them up."
Bayne tried making adjustments in the car during that lap, but nothing helped.
"When I went into the corner, as soon as I let off the gas, I said, 'I'm crashing,' because I knew it wasn't gonna slow down and it happened," Bayne said. "There was not much I could do there."
While some crewmen unloaded the backup car from the hauler, others started scavenging the trashed primary -- which sported an identical paint job to the one that will be on display in Daytona for the next 12 months -- for salvageable parts.
"I don't know what happened there," Bayne said. "I don't know why. It's the first backup car I'm gonna have to go to, but I don't know what happened to the car and why the brakes weren't right there."
Bayne turned 28 incident-free laps in final practice, sitting 33rd on the speed chart with a fast lap of 133.052 mph. Kyle Busch paced the final practice on the flat one-mile oval at 136.085 mph, just a tick faster than Ford teammates David Ragan and Carl Edwards, as drivers made a flurry of mock qualifying runs in the final few minutes.
Travis Kvapil and A.J. Allmendinger scraped the wall twice, once in each practice, while Dave Blaney damaged the front end of his No. 36 Chevrolet in final practice when he spun and collided with the inside retaining wall coming out of Turn 2. The team was expected to use a backup for qualifying.
Landon Cassill was another driver in disbelief when the engine in his No. 60 Toyota let go in a big ball of white smoke just as he crossed the start/finish line on his first practice lap. The team spent the rest of the session putting in a replacement.
"It was an oil-pan failure," Cassill said when pressed for specifics. "The oil pan failed to hold all the parts inside."

Rowdy Buwsh

2011-02-26T08:10:00.000-08:00

After taking the lead under caution on Lap 44 of Friday night's Lucas Oil 150 at Phoenix International Raceway, Kyle Busch led the final 107 laps to post his second win at the 1-mile track and his 25th in the Camping World Truck Series.

Lucas Oil 150

Results

Pos.	Driver	Make

1.	Kyle Busch	Toyota
2.	Clint Bowyer	Chevrolet
3.	Ron Hornaday	Chevrolet
4.	Johnny Sauter	Chevrolet
5.	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet

Phoenix: Results

Busch beat polesitter Clint Bowyer to the checkered flag by .291 seconds, as Bowyer tightened the margin on the final lap.

Ron Hornaday was third, followed by Johnny Sauter and Austin Dillon.

As full-time Sprint Cup drivers, Busch and Bowyer aren't collecting points in the Truck Series. Consequently, seventh-place finisher Matt Crafton left Phoenix with a one-point lead on Clay Rogers [16th Friday] in the series standings.

"We had a really good truck, but I was scared there at the beginning," said Busch, who ran second to a dominant Bowyer at Phoenix in November. "I was like, 'Man, it's going to come down like last fall -- Clint's going to walk the dog on this one.'

"But [crew chief] Eric [Phillips] made some changes to this thing that really brought it to life."

Bowyer faulted himself for not being able to overtake Busch on six restarts in the final 50 laps of the race.

"Whichever one of us had clean air, we were about a 10th [of a second] to a 10th and a half better," Bowyer said. "For me -- and I'm not making any excuses; I was screwing up big-time on the restarts -- I'm just not used to a) not having any power and b) I was hitting the rev what sounded like about 5,000 less rpm than it should have been.

"I was just messing up. It's the difference between a Corvette and an Impala -- maybe a Volt. ... That's that electric car."

Bowyer dominated the opening green-flag run, leading the first 41 laps before Chase Mattioli blew his right front tire and scattered debris in Turn 3. After pit stops, Busch was first off pit road and held the top spot through four more cautions, the last of which [and fifth of the race] was caused by a wreck off Turn 4 involving defending series champion Todd Bodine, David Starr and Dusty Davis.

Busch led the field to a restart on Lap 120, having held the point for 76 consecutive laps. Timothy Peters' spin in Turn 2 on Lap 123 slowed the race for the sixth time.

In the late going, the trucks had difficulty running more than three laps without a caution. Brendan Gaughan spun and backed into the wall in Turn 2 on Lap 128 to bring out the seventh yellow flag.

The win is Busch's second at Phoenix and his fifth consecutive top-two finish in a truck. Busch becomes the fastest driver to win 25 races in a series in any of NASCAR's three national series.

2011-02-24T15:49:00.000-08:00

Bayne smart with his decision to stay the course

Debating the 500 winner's future, Johnson's pursuit and NASCAR's resurgence

1. Should Trevor Bayne and the Wood Brothers have tried to run the full Sprint Cup schedule now that they've won the Daytona 500?

David Caraviello: Bayne was on a conference call Tuesday and basically said he's sticking to their original plan, which is a limited Cup schedule and the full Nationwide slate. That's the smart move. Winning the Daytona 500 is a great thing, but it's such a different animal compared to the rest of the season. It's a little premature to extrapolate greatness for 36 events based on Bayne's one run at Daytona.
Joe Menzer: I'm still trying to figure out how they were granted the option. I thought everyone had to choose a series in which they wanted to run for the championship prior to the season. Now it's like Bayne was granted a do-over option because he won the Daytona 500. I understand why -- I'm just not sure I agree with it.
Dave Rodman: Classic case of Monday morning quarterbacking. Even given the fact that they've won the Daytona 500, hats off to Trevor for cautioning everyone to keep this in perspective. Actually, the Woods' 18-race Cup schedule is an awful lot more solid than Bayne's totally unsponsored Nationwide gig -- which may not have much of a shelf life.
David Caraviello: Joe, I will agree, that did seem like an odd rule alteration on the fly, as if NASCAR's new exclusionary championship system was put to the test the very first week, and somebody in a corner office went, "Uh-oh ...." But either way, they're making the sensible move here and continuing with the plan. The Woods won the Daytona 500 in part because they've been running a limited schedule and not overextending themselves. They don't have the sponsorship to go the whole way, and they realize it.
Joe Menzer: I believe Bayne's win will help him get that Nationwide car sponsored for at least a large portion of the season in short order, so I don't think that's going to be an issue. But you can't just have a plan in place to run 18 races for the season and all the sudden double that in the blink of an eye, no matter who you are or what you've done recently or in the storied past.
David Caraviello: Joe, I don't know about that. I mean, it sounds completely reasonable, but sponsorship is often so slow to come together in this post-recession economy, that things don't happen instantaneously anymore. Maybe Trevor will be different -- goodness, you'd wonder how he could not be. But the kid can't change economic conditions.
Dave Rodman: I know I've said this before, but after listening to the kid for two days, and having watched him since he made his Nationwide debut at Bristol for Jimmy Means, Trevor Bayne really is special and, I think, may be the best-equipped of the current crop of young hooligans to really make some noise in Cup. Just look at his Texas debut! He and the Woods are made for each other.

A star is born

Trevor Bayne recaptured the magic of David Pearson in the Wood Brothers throwback No. 21 Ford at Daytona.
Youngest 500 winner
Exactly what NASCAR needed
An uncertain future

Joe Menzer: Maybe so, Rodman, but how long are they actually going to race together? Not past this year, I don't think.
Dave Rodman: Joe, I got an update late Tuesday on the championship situation. Any driver can change his or her declaration at any time. However, they will only begin gathering points in the "new series" from the time they change the declaration, which in most cases will make it a moot point..
Joe Menzer: Wow. An update Tuesday. Two days into the season and already they've changed a rule again! Sorry, guys, but that's ridiculous. NASCAR is coming off a great opening weekend, but part of their problems in recent years has been a constant tinkering with all the rules. This continues that bad trend. Do something and stick with it for a while for a change.
David Caraviello: Well, Trevor isn't going to try to change series, so the point is moot anyway. And that's the right thing to do. To me, it all goes back to the fact that Daytona is simply not an accurate barometer of the season as a whole. He won Daytona, and yes he was good at Texas last fall, but let's see how he does at Las Vegas, Bristol and Fontana before we begin assuming he could vie for the season championship in Sprint Cup. The feats of last week aside, that's a massive bite of the apple right there.
Joe Menzer: As for Bayne and sponsorship, No. 1, we're talking about him trying to get something on his Nationwide car, not a Cup car. Two, that's a Roush Fenway car and they are going to be positioning him for a push to a full-time Cup ride, probably next season in the No. 6 car if David Ragan doesn't get his act together. So that's less money and a big bang for some sponsor's bucks if they get hooked up with Bayne for all or part of this Nationwide season. I'll bet it happens, and it will say something about Bayne's wide appeal when it does.
Dave Rodman: Phoenix is only the second race but it's the first in which none of the Roush Fenway Nationwide cars are sponsored -- at least as of Tuesday they weren't (if you don't count "Ford" backing on Edwards' car). I bet the money on the 60 is predicated on Carl driving it, so it can't be spread to the "two kids'" cars. It'll be interesting to see just how much "boardroom clout" a Daytona 500 win carries. Potential sponsors have certainly seen what TB has to offer!
David Caraviello: In a perfect world, you guys are absolutely right. But things in the sponsorship market simply don't move that quickly these days. Companies burned the last recession are being very, very careful about where they spend money.
Joe Menzer: Well, the wild card in the Cup debate for Bayne was, in fact, the new rule regarding two wild-card entries into the Chase. History has shown that two wins probably will guarantee at least getting into the Chase as a wild card, and Trevor was already halfway there.
Dave Rodman: Like so much else in racing, this is a tangled web. Yep, I think the heat in David Ragan's area of the world just went up a few thousand degrees. I think Ragan can handle it, and deliver -- as he and Drew Blickensderfer began to prove at the end of 2010, and during Speedweeks. But that head-to-head battle will be interesting in these first six races. Despite Ragan's 14th-place finish in the 500, I'd say they were neck and neck for 99 percent of the 500 -- but that last 1 percent -- wow.
David Caraviello: Listen, I don't want to take anything away from Trevor Bayne. What he did was phenomenal. But goodness, people are projecting a lot onto him based on that Daytona 500. He's 20, and just barely. He'll have plenty of seasons to vie for a Sprint Cup crown. The Wood Brothers just aren't in position to scrap their plans and go racing full-time, which is what dug them into such a deep hole in 2008.
Joe Menzer: And I'm not totally disagreeing with you, David. I just think they'll be able to make something happen with Bayne. In an odd way, it's more likely to happen for less money on the Nationwide side than it would have been for the Wood Brothers to find another half of a season to fund a full Cup campaign all of a sudden. Another reason why it's obvious Bayne made the right call here.
David Caraviello: And let's remember -- Jamie McMurray proved that a successful season isn't necessarily dependent on the Chase. Ideal situation for the Woods: they win another plate event, they get the ball rolling on full sponsorship for 2012, and they come out full-time that year ready to contend for the championship. That's a more realistic plan than jumping right into it now.
2. Daytona is just one of 36 races, so now it's on to Phoenix. Can Trevor Bayne keep it going there? Or is this where Jimmie Johnson takes his first strides toward title No. 6?
Joe Menzer: Jimmie loves Phoenix. And if anyone thinks he's going away anytime soon in his vigorous defense of his five consecutive championships, they are very naive. I wouldn't be surprised at all if Jimmie wins this race. In fact, I'll go ahead right here and now and say I think he will.
Dave Rodman: There's no question the true championship contenders will step up big time at Phoenix. The best thing for Trevor Bayne and the Woods is that they're locked into the first five races, so he'll get plenty of experience. But I see Phoenix being a reprise of the 2010 Chase drama: Johnson, Harvick and Hamlin -- and after the Daytona debacle for all three, believe me they'll have plenty to prove. And this point scheme is so new, and potentially so bizarre, I don't think anyone is too keen on test bedding how far behind they can fall and still make a comeback into the Chase.
David Caraviello: Looks like Bayne has three Nationwide starts at Phoenix -- two with Waltrip, one with Roush -- with an average finish of 20th. He's never made a start there in the Cup Series. Of course, he'd never made a Cup start at Daytona, either, and look what happened. Regardless, whatever he does this week is icing. After winning the 500 and the subsequent media blitz, I'll be amazed if he's just awake at the end of the race. May not be fair to expect another stunning result this Sunday.
Dave Rodman: You gotta take a real wait-and-see attitude. The Woods and Donnie Wingo have some real credibility. But they haven't done this in a while, and Bayne never has. So let's wait and see.

Jimmie Johnson

Phoenix stats

Year	St.	Fin.	Led

2002	37	15	1
2003	3	2	84
2004	13	6	0
2005	12	15	0
	2	7	0
2006	10	7	0
	29	2	28
2007	5	4	0
	6	1	55
2008	7	1	120
	1	1	217
2009	10	4	1
	3	1	238
2010	16	3	113
	21	5	0

David Caraviello: Let's remember, some strange things have happened in this first Phoenix race over the past few years. It's been moved up on the schedule a few weeks, but this was the race last year that Hamlin competed in days after knee surgery, and where Ryan Newman earned his first victory since the Daytona 500 two years earlier. Two seasons ago ageless wonder Mark Martin went to Victory Lane. So expect the unexpected, perhaps. Or Jimmie, who has won four times there.
Joe Menzer: As for Bayne, one race does not make a wonder boy. He's got all the goods, no doubt about that. But I agree with what one of you said earlier. It will be considered a stellar season if he wins another plate race or contends in one, and does little between now and then. We have to be realistic here. Don't expect much from him at Phoenix. I don't. But if he proves doubters like me wrong, wow, look out.
David Caraviello: Speaking of Jimmie Johnson ... boy, what a quiet Speedweeks for the No. 48 car. Were they even there? You had to wonder sometimes, they were so below the radar. But Daytona hasn't been very good to them lately, and they've still managed to run roughshod over the competition the rest of the year. Phoenix, a place where Jimmie is often so strong, will be a nice first indication of what he has under him in 2011.
Joe Menzer: Here's the way the new points deal may profoundly affect this season: you could see guys like Johnson, Edwards, Harvick, Hamlin, Kyle Busch and so on -- veterans of past Chases -- really pushing the envelope through the first 10 to 12 races to get wins in the bank this season. But once any of them get to two victories, which will virtually assure they're in the Chase via the wild card if not points, then I think you may see them start building toward what they want to do in the Chase. That, in turn, could open the door for others to come out of nowhere and contend for wins over the last half of the "regular season."
David Caraviello: So what you're saying, Joe, is instead of forcing everyone to go all-out for victories, some guys might stick a few in the bank and soft-pedal? I don't know about that. We're all making a great leap assuming that two wins would get you in, but we don't really know that. I don't think these guys are just going to assume two wins are enough. You think Chad Knaus operates on assumptions? You think Johnson doesn't want to go out and beat everyone else every week? This is all extending our logic to them, and I'm not sure if that works.
Dave Rodman: The raccoon in the woodpile on that strategy, Joe, is that I hope you're not dismissing how hard everyone is already trying to win every week as it is. I don't think any of those teams have anything magical that will enable them to wave a wand and everyone else will freeze and they'll waltz into Victory Lane. I think how this is going to develop will be a thrill. As of Phoenix, the Daytona 500 winner becomes a footnote because in terms of the Sprint Cup championship, neither he nor his team are a factor in the title hunt. Johnson, Harvick, Stewart, the Busch brothers, Hamlin, etc., on the other hand, are very much in play.
David Caraviello: I wonder if Denny Hamlin has this race track circled after what happened at Phoenix last fall. Or if he feels like a win here would send a message, given how it's kind of been Jimmie's house, and how it effectively lost the Chase for him last season. Either way, if the situation calls for it, I bet he'll save fuel whether he's told to or not.
Joe Menzer: What I was saying earlier, Caraviello, is that if Jimmie Johnson gets two or three wins in the bank early, yes, he and the calculating Chad Knaus will start prepping to kick everyone's butts in the Chase again. That means they'll do some experimenting, and some days they might hit and some days they might miss. On the days they hit, they'll still contend for wins; on the days, they miss, Jimmie probably will still cajole a respectable finish out of a balky car. But when the Chase then commences, look out. So in a weird way, this new points system might play exactly into Five-Time's hands.
David Caraviello: So what makes that any different from the last five years? Whatever system is presented to them, they've been able to use it to their favor. That's one thing that's made them great --- and over the past half-decade, unbeatable.
3. The Daytona 500 crowd was bigger. The television numbers were better. The sponsorship market is stirring. Is NASCAR on the brink of making a comeback?
Dave Rodman: Again, like with so much else we've talked about, it's week to week. Gosh, we won't really be able to assess that until what, April?
David Caraviello: Well, let's not get crazy. This was the Daytona 500, NASCAR's biggest and most important race of the year, so if the numbers are ever going to get a boost, it's going to be here. And the end brought a once-in-a-lifetime storyline that put NASCAR everywhere from Conan to network nightly news programs. No question it was the day they needed. NBC News anchor Brian Williams called it "NASCAR's best day in about a decade," and he was right.
Joe Menzer: Well, I guess you all know I wrote a post-race column about this. The entire Speedweeks, capped by a great Daytona 500 that drew an outstanding crowd and improved television ratings, was just what NASCAR needed. But now they have to build on that momentum. I personally think they will. I think it has that feel to it.
Dave Rodman: Daytona is Daytona, on the one hand. But its attendance and ratings had flagged, of late. How much of a factor was the paving and the hype? Who knows? What will Phoenix, Vegas, Atlanta and Bristol lean on? I'll tell you this -- I'm anxious to see where it goes, but (and I hate to lean on this phrase for the third or fourth time), let's wait and see.
David Caraviello: And yet ... I do see hints of a comeback. Joie Chitwood says Daytona ticket sales were well up for the full week, even before we knew Bayne would come out of nowhere to steal the spotlight. You could sense that hospitality events were back. There were more social occasions during the week that invited media, which I know Joe Menzer: took advantage of. Those may seem small, but they take money to put on, and in recent years they've been nonexistent. Those are good signs.
Dave Rodman: The neatest thing about this Speedweeks? You needed a social secretary.
Joe Menzer: As for the social events I attended, are you talking about the cookout at the NASCAR.COM RV site? Or when I met my cousin to reminisce about my childhood?
David Caraviello: Joe, they didn't call you "Pinot Grigio" Menzer for nothing.
Joe Menzer: My nicknames aside, I'll tell you another positive move NASCAR made during Speedweeks, and that was announcing that they're moving the Daytona 500 back one week beginning next year. It will give them more space between the Super Bowl and take away potential conflict from both a potentially expanded NFL season, and the NBA All-Star weekend in nearby Orlando next year. It will help ensure that they have a marquee weekend all to themselves.
David Caraviello: The key is going to be how much the Daytona bump extends to the rest of the season. Obviously, you can't have Trevor Bayne win every week, and his accomplishments were a large reason why the television numbers went through the roof. You have to assume that some people are going to tune into Phoenix to see if the kid can do it again. And if he doesn't, and they lose interest as a result? That's going to be the real test.

Dave Rodman: This Phoenix race will be critical in a lot of ways. If the championship contenders can have a real knock-down, drag-out race, it will be big. And depending on who wins, particularly early in the season, it casts a dimension that has never existed, and who knows what that ripple effect will be. I can't wait to see what happens the next three or four weeks -- at least through Martinsville.
David Caraviello: You just look at little things. More teams announcing agreements with associate sponsors. More free stuff given out to the media during last month's media tour. Again, I know that sounds crazy, but they're signs that corporations are coming into this will a little more cash to spend. And that lifts everything else as a result.
Joe Menzer: We now come back to the fact that Trevor Bayne won the Daytona 500 in a Wood Brothers Racing Ford. That is a great story that NASCAR can and should capitalize on. In a year when they feel like it's critical to re-engage fans who make up a younger demographic, they are in the best position they've been in for a long time.
David Caraviello: The strange thing, Joe -- the really magical thing about last weekend -- is it does both. Nothing I've ever seen in NASCAR engaged young and old at the same time as much as Bayne winning in a Wood Brothers car. It was a fresh face the kids can relate to, in a car owned by a team that the purists revere. That's just a perfect combination. Everybody wins.
Joe Menzer: I don't think Trevor Bayne winning is the reason the television numbers went through the roof. How can that be when he wasn't leading until the very end? The numbers went through the roof because it was on-the-edge-of-your-seat racing throughout the day with Dale Earnhardt Jr. charging from all the way in the back to run up front much of the day, along with some of the other big names in the sport -- and others, like Regan Smith, who seemingly came out of nowhere to run with the big boys all day.
David Caraviello: If I have my facts right, the numbers peaked sometime after 5 p.m., when the hardcore types realized, "Oh my gosh, the Wood Brothers could win this thing," and the casual fans flipping over went, "who is this kid?"
Joe Menzer: There was suspense all day. You had a sense that anyone could win the race, and "anyone" did. That it turned out to be a fresh-faced kid with a charming personality who was riding in a car owned by one of NASCAR's most storied families was merely a large heap of icing on a cake that already was sweet in the center.
Dave Rodman: I said it from the lead-up to the Budweiser Shootout -- and particularly in the Shootout itself. We had never seen this extent of two-car drafts. The precision and driver ability needed to execute that strategy was fascinating, compelling -- downright riveting. To see veterans like Michael Waltrip and Tony Stewart execute it sometimes, but fail miserably in others, and to have a "know-nothing kid" like Trevor Bayne execute it to a T and win the sport's biggest prize -- it don't get much better.
David Caraviello: And yet, Bayne carried the day. He galvanized viewers and nontraditional NASCAR media outlets alike. The test comes at Phoenix to see if he, and NASCAR, can keep this roll going. Speaking of Phoenix, I believe Joe needs to call his social secretary and see what's on tap. Wine tasting in Scottsdale, perhaps, Menzer?
Joe Menzer: How about beer-tasting in Tucson instead? More my style.

Chase Elliott

2011-02-24T15:47:00.000-08:00

For longtime followers of Cup racing, 15-year-old Chase Elliott is the spitting image of his mother, Cindy, but many of his mannerisms reflect his dad, 1988 series champion Bill Elliott.
Despite his youth, Chase Elliott has proven to be very effective racing late-model stock cars, and his development takes a huge step in 2011 thanks to two things, a NASCAR rule change that will allow 15-year-olds to compete in the K&N Pro Series, and a move by Hendrick Motorsports to sign young Elliott to a driver development deal.

“

It's a once-in-a-lifetime chance and I just need to go and make the most of it.

”

-- CHASE ELLIOTT

"It's taken a few months for it to come together but I'm very excited about this opportunity," Elliott said last weekend at Daytona. "I absolutely thank God every night for the opportunities that's being given and I just got to go and work as hard as I can and whatever comes of that is the best that I can do.
"I don't what to say about it, other than just to thank Mr. Hendrick for this opportunity he's given us. It's a once-in-a-lifetime chance and I just need to go and make the most of it. I'm very excited for the future -- I just have to work hard and everything will be OK."
Elliott's family run team will continue to operate out of its north Georgia base, in Dawsonville, running a variety of late-model events but expanding into the K&N Pro Series East in equipment provided by Hendrick Motorsports.
"The possibility of this [HMS] deal coming together was in the back of our minds," Elliott said. "But the K&N Series lowering its age limit from 16 to 15 [two weeks ago] opened the doors for us to run at a lot of bigger race tracks and have a lot of support from Hendrick. A lot of that stuff wasn't going to begin until next year, but with the age being lowered we're going to be able to have a lot of support from them this year."

While Hendrick's equipment and technical support will be priceless, sponsorship may limit what Elliott can run.

"Our goal is to run as many as we can, and however many that may be, we're not sure [because] we're trying to find some sponsorship for that series," Elliott said. "We'd like to go to as many as we can and make that our main focus."

Maybe the biggest comfort zone for Elliott is he'll race from the same home base.

"It's gonna be the same group of guys I've been working with the past few years out of our shop in Dawsonville," Elliott said. "The backing from Hendrick will be through things like their race cars -- their old Nationwide cars -- their technical support and a lot of their R&D guys.

"Anything they can do to help us out is what we're going to try and look for, but not so much personnel right now because I think we have a great group of guys out of Dawsonville that we can do just as good, with [Hendrick's] race cars and their support."
Locked in times three
Diligence and commitment will pay off this weekend for Sprint Cup owner Bob Jenkins, who struggled mightily to maintain three teams -- funded largely out of his own pocket -- last season in the critical top 35 in the owners' standings.
Jenkins' third car, a No. 38 Ford that this weekend is being driven by Camping World Truck Series championship contender Travis Kvapil, is a guaranteed starter at Phoenix due to a provision in the event's entry blank that calls for the "highest-ranked 35 positions -- in 2010's owners' points -- that are present at the event" being guaranteed a spot.
Roger Penske's No. 77 car, which was fielded in the Daytona 500 by Rusty Wallace Racing, did not enter Phoenix so Jenkins' No. 38, which was 36th in the 2010 owners' points, ostensibly will be a guaranteed starter at Phoenix and through the season's fifth race, at Bristol.
Bayne's valuable perspective
After he won the Daytona 500 in stunning fashion, Trevor Bayne warned everyone not to let the resultant euphoria from his popular victory overwhelm reality, as the Cup Series headed to the season's second race, this weekend at Phoenix.
The stats certainly bear him out. This weekend's event will be the first at PIR for his Wood Brothers Racing team since the penultimate race of the 2008 season -- the last year the Woods raced the full schedule.
A detailed breakdown indicates that if Bayne can finish on the lead lap, or in the top 25, either would be considered a victory for the kid who has three Nationwide Series starts at PIR, with two lead-lap, 14th-place finishes his best results.
In 24 Phoenix races stretching to the 1988 inaugural, the Wood Brothers have only two top-10 finishes, with a best of seventh, in 1995 by Morgan Shepherd. Their No. 21 car has led a lap in only one race, in 1991, when Dale Jarrett was out front for 19 circuits before his engine broke.
In the past 10 years the No. 21 has five lead-lap finishes in 12 starts, with an average start of 32nd and an average finish of 25th. Elliott Sadler had the best finish in that stretch, 10th in 2002. In the same period the No. 21 averaged finishing 2.6 laps behind the leader.
Give me a brake
According to statistics supplied by NASCAR brake systems vendor Brembo, "even though the track is 1 mile long, braking is more like a short track. The brakes used, therefore, are the same as Martinsville and Watkins Glen -- the basic short-track/road-course setup of 6-piston front and 4-piston rear calipers."
According to Brembo's stats "time on the brakes" averages 28 percent of the lap time, as compared to 35 percent at Martinsville, the circuit's most taxing track for brake systems. Brake rotor temperatures run as high as 1,500 degrees and brake pad wear is at its highest because of the lengthy time on the brakes slowing the car while entering the corners.
Brembo's stats indicate the top corner entry speed at about 162 mph and the exit speed at about 99 mph.
Bayne's win gives others hope
David Gilliland's third-place finish in the Daytona 500 was not only his best finish since the 2008 summer race at Infineon Raceway, when he was second, it also was owner Bob Jenkins' first top-10 finish in 191 career starts. Gilliland said the implications of Trevor Bayne's win for the single-car (though affiliated with Roush Fenway Racing) Wood Brothers' team and for his own Front Row Motorsports team were much larger.
"I think it's a credit to NASCAR and the new rules and the new cars and trying to get the rules closer to get teams like us at Front Row Motorsports to have a chance to come out here and be competitive on a track like this," Gilliland said. "A lot of it is the rules, and that's a credit to NASCAR for tightening up the rules and giving us a chance.
"I think [Bayne's] done a great job. He definitely has everybody's respect out there and that's what it takes. It's neat that he won the Daytona 500 and, like Carl [Edwards] said, he's such a great guy, such a nice guy, such an upbeat guy -- I'm glad he won. I wish we could have, obviously, but if we couldn't, it's good for him and the Wood Brothers. They're great people and they deserve it."
Rookie fields expand
Two more drivers have thrown their names into the hat to compete for 2011 rookies of the year in two national tours. Ryan Truex, who has a partial Nationwide Series schedule on tap driving the No. 99 Toyota for Pastrana-Waltrip Racing, will compete with Jennifer Jo Cobb, Timmy Hill and Blake Koch for that award.
Phoenix marks the first event in which all four rookies will be present; and since the entry is short of the full 43 starters, all will race. Cobb failed to qualify at Daytona, Koch and Truex weren't entered and Hill, who turns 18 on Friday, the day practice opens at Phoenix, wasn't eligible.

In the Camping World Truck Series, Chase Mattioli, grandson of Pocono Raceway owners Drs. Joe and Rose Mattioli, has become the 11th contender for that award. His team debuted at Daytona with Chad McCumbee driving, and it'll be a guaranteed starter at Phoenix, running under Cobb's Truck Series number, 10.
Picture this
Hard on the heels of the enormous video screen that Charlotte Motor Speedway's installing on its backstretch, sister track New Hampshire Motor Speedway is calling its $1.2 million Panasonic video scoreboard "one of the best fan enhancements in the 21-year history of NHMS."
The new scoreboard and video system will be in place when NASCAR, with its Cup, Nationwide and several regional tours, returns to New England's largest sports and entertainment facility on July 14-17.
The Panasonic scoreboard has a four-sided video display that stands 80 feet tall, which is 20 feet more than another New England sports venue icon, the CITGO sign at Boston's Fenway Park.
The new scoreboard has three, 32-foot-by-18-foot TV screens on top, providing views of race action and instant replays. Below the video boards will be a scrolling leaderboard with color graphics that give fans running positions and lap times for all 43 drivers, along with race statistics and event information.
McBride signed for Daytona reprise
Country music performer Martina McBride, who presented the national anthem prior to the 53rd Daytona 500, will return to Daytona International Speedway to perform a 60-minute pre-race concert before the July 2 Coke Zero 400.
All fans who purchase a Pre-Race/Sprint FanZone access pass for the Coke Zero 400, in addition to a race ticket (click to order), will be able to view McBride's Coke Zero 400 pre-race show as well as the driver introductions from the grass tri-oval area.

Phoenix

2011-02-24T15:41:00.000-08:00

By the Numbers: NASCAR at Phoenix

PIR home to many outstanding individual and team accomplishments

Phoenix International Raceway is a 1-mile tri-oval with 11 degrees banking in Turns 1 and 2 and 9 degrees in Turns 3 and 4. The frontstretch is 1,179 feet with 3 degrees banking; the backstretch is 1,551 feet with 9 degrees banking.

CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES
2 -- Times in the 20-race history at Phoenix the winner has not started in the top 10: Mike Skinner (16th) in 1995; Greg Biffle (11th) in 2001. In fact, 11 races have been won from a top three starting position and 14 from the top five (five from the pole).
2 -- Times in the 20-race history at Phoenix the driver leading with 10 laps to go has won, including the past 13 in a row. Furthermore, 13 races at PIR have been won by the driver who led the most laps.
5 -- Victories at Phoenix for Kevin Harvick Racing, including the past three in a row: four by Kevin Harvick (who is not entered in this week's race) and most recently Clint Bowyer (who is entered in this week's race) this past November. In 13 starts at PIR, KHI has 10 top-fivess, 10 top-10s.
8.2 -- Average start and average finish at Phoenix for Ron Hornaday, who has two victories, nine top-fives and 12 top-10s in 16 starts. However, he has finished 25th or worse in two of the past three races there, including crashing out this past November (29th).
Very Interesting
2 -- Drivers entered in this week's race who competed in the first race at Phoenix in 1995: Ron Hornaday and Mike Skinner. Hornaday started on the pole that year; Skinner won that 80-lap race, passing Terry Labonte on the final lap (the only last-lap pass at PIR).

NATIONWIDE SERIES
5 -- Runner-up finishes at Phoenix for Kevin Harvick, including the past three races. He has finished in the top 10 in his past 12 starts at PIR, and overall has one victory, 13 top-fives and 14 top-10s in 17 races there.
7 -- Races in the 18 held at Phoenix that have ended with a green-white-checkered finish, the most of all tracks.
9 -- Currently, consecutive races at Phoenix that have been won from the first two rows, including seven from the front row. In all, 15 of the 18 races at PIR have been won from the first two rows, but only three from the pole.
61 -- Percentage of laps led by Carl Edwards (457) and Kyle Busch (277) combined in the past six races at Phoenix. They have won six of the past seven races.
Very Interesting
4 -- Victories at Phoenix for Carl Edwards, most of all drivers. Each win was with a different crew chief -- he won with current crew chief Mike Beam this past November.

SPRINT CUP SERIES
0 -- Laps led at Phoenix by Kasey Kahne, in 13 races. It's one of two active tracks at which Kahne has never led (Watkins Glen).
4 -- Times Phoenix has been won from the pole, all in the past eight races and in three of the past five. Eight of the past nine races at PIR have been won from a top-seven spot; before that, 13 of the first 20 races there were won from outside the top 10.
6 -- Times in the past nine races at Phoenix the margin of victory has been less than 1 second. Ryan Newman won by .130 seconds last spring, the closest race in PIR history.
349 -- Laps led at Phoenix by Greg Biffle, most of any driver who has not won there. Biffle is seventh on the list of the 10 drivers who have led 300 or more laps at PIR. Biffle is one of nine drivers who has finished second there without winning.
Very Interesting
2 -- Times in the past three spring races the leader with 10 laps to go has not won, both times involving Ryan Newman: In 2009, Newman was leading, Mark Martin won; last year, both Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch led within the final 10 laps, Newman won. He led only four laps, fewest of any winner in track history (three drivers led more than 100 laps in that race: Busch and Jimmie Johnson with 113 each and Juan Montoya with 104.

PHOENIX MISC
2 -- Drivers who have won in all three series at Phoenix: Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch.
2 -- Drivers who have won Truck and Nationwide races in the same weekend at Phoenix: Greg Biffle (2001) and Kyle Busch (2007).
16 -- Victories in all three series combined at Phoenix for Roush Fenway Racing: Nationwide (8), Cup (6), Truck (2).
77 -- Winless streak snapped by Ryan Newman with his victory at Phoenix last spring. Carl Edwards ended a 70-race drought with his victory at PIR in the fall race.
Very Interesting
4 -- Victories at Phoenix for Chevolet in the Nationwide Series, none in the past six races. In contrast, Chevy has 14 victories in Cup, including 12 of the past 14 races, and 14 wins in Truck, including the past four in a row and seven of the past nine.

Off the charts

Jimmie Johnson at Phoenix (past 10 races)

Category	No.	Rank	Second

Points	1,751	1	Carl Edwards
Wins	4	1	Kevin Harvick
Top-Fives	9	1	C. Edwards, D. Hamlin
Top-Tens	10	1	C. Edwards
Laps Led	772	1	Mark Martin
Average Finish	2.9	1	Mark Martin

Johnson has led in seven races during that span, including leading the most laps four times
(three times outright). In contrast, Jeff Gordon has never led the most laps in a race at Phoenix.

T BAYNE

2011-02-22T20:12:00.000-08:00

Bayne opts to stick with Nationwide title chase

Daytona 500 champ declines switch to Cup points; 500 ratings up 13 percent

Even though NASCAR would have allowed Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne to change his eligibility for the championship from the Nationwide Series to the Sprint Cup Series, Bayne announced Tuesday he is sticking with his plans to run for the Nationwide title.

As tempting as switching to Sprint Cup would have been -- with NASCAR saying he would become eligible to run for rookie of the year and that his win at Daytona would count toward a possible wild-card entry into the Chase -- Bayne showed he either is mature beyond his 20 years or has gotten some excellent advice -- or both.

Weighted most heavily in his decision is the plan to run a partial schedule on the Cup side -- even with the Daytona 500 win. At this point, barring additional sponsorship, Bayne plans to run 18 races in the Cup Series for Wood Brothers Racing and a full Nationwide schedule for Roush Fenway Racing.

"The only thing that changed is that we get to be the Daytona 500 champions, which is really, really incredible," Bayne said on Tuesday during a conference call with reporters. "But I think that we're still going to have an awesome year at Roush Fenway, running for that Nationwide championship.

"Obviously, they [Roush] have still got a blank car, and I'd love to get some partners on it, but as for now, we're still running full time, and the Wood Brothers only have 18 races. ... I don't regret any of our decisions there. We're off to a good start in both series with a 10th [in Saturday's Drive4COPD 300 Nationwide event] and a first."

Front Row picks up a spot in Phoenix Cup race

Front Row Motorsports likely will have all three of its cars locked in for the Subway Fresh Fit 500 at Phoenix International Raceway this week as the No. 77 Rusty Wallace Racing car is not entered for the second Cup event.

The RWR team wasn't expected to enter, and with that team's top-35 owners points (from Penske Racing) not being used, the 35th guaranteed spot will go to the next team in owners points -- the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports car driven by Travis Kvapil.

All 45 of the entries for Phoenix were entered in the Daytona 500 last week. Three drivers that went to Daytona are not on the entry list: Steve Wallace, Kevin Conway and Michael Waltrip.

Several teams have changed drivers from Daytona. Tony Raines is in the No. 37 Front Row Motorsports car instead of Robert Richardson Jr., Landon Cassill is in the No. 60 Germain Racing car instead of Todd Bodine and Mike Bliss is in the No. 64 Max Q Motorsports car instead of Derrike Cope. All the changes were expected.

Bill Elliott (Phoenix Racing) will be guaranteed a spot as he has a past champions provisional if needed, leaving nine drivers vying for the final seven spots.

Overnight TV ratings up 13 percent for Daytona 500

The 2011 Daytona 500 posted an 8.7 overnight rating, a 13-percent increase over the 2010 event that was interrupted for more than two hours because of a pothole.

The live broadcast on Fox reached 30.1 million viewers, 1 percent higher than the 2010 audience and 15 percent better than 2009, Fox said.

The 2010 audience got a boost from the pothole because the delay lengthened the event. But the rating, which takes into account an average of viewers over the entire telecast, was affected last year by the pothole and possibly the Olympics.

This year's race averaged 15.6 million viewers throughout the broadcast, a 17 percent increase over last year's 13.3 million.

The number of fans tuning in for the start of the race was 7 percent higher than last year, and the ratings peaked at 10.9, with 19.8 million viewers for the 30 final minutes.

Dayton (Ohio) was the country's No. 1 market with a rating of 20.4, followed by Greensboro, N.C., at 20.1.

Trevor WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER

2011-02-20T16:46:00.000-08:00

Autostock

Trevor Bayne is mobbed by his crew in the infield after winning the Daytona 500.

Bayne becomes youngest Daytona 500 winner

Twenty-year-old, in throwback paint scheme, returns Woods to Victory Lane

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Trevor Bayne won the Daytona 500 on Sunday, a day that featured records for cautions and lead changes. Bayne, who turned 20 Saturday, led the final two laps of the race that was decided with a green-white-checkered-flag finish.

Carl Edwards finished second, with David Gilliland, Bobby Labonte and Kurt Busch rounding out the top five. The victory was the first for the Wood Brothers since 2001 with Elliott Sadler. Bayne is the seventh driver to get his first Cup victory in the Daytona 500.

The race went eight laps beyond the scheduled 200 laps because of crashes and needed two green-white-checkered-flag finishes before Bayne became the youngest winner of the 500. He led the field to the green flag on the final restart.

Some of the Sprint Cup Series' top drivers were knocked from contention early at Daytona International Speedway, including five-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, who was caught up in a 17-car pileup early in the race.

Overheating also was an issue, as cars raced in pairs -- nose to tail -- throughout the afternoon.

"Keep an eye on those water temperatures, even if you have to switch every two laps," Richard Childress Racing vice president of competition Mike Dillon radioed to Clint Bowyer and Paul Menard, the only two RCR drivers left after engine failures took out Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton.

It didn't take long to for the "big one" to gobble up more than a third of the field.

In a pack of cars in Turn 3 on Lap 29, Michael Waltrip tapped David Reutimann's No. 00 Toyota -- a car Waltrip owns -- and triggered a 17-car melee that damaged the cars of a dozen potential race winners, including Johnson and Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jeff Gordon and Mark Martin.

The cars of Kenseth, Biffle, Kurt Busch, Marcos Ambrose, Brian Vickers and feel-good story Brian Keselowski also were heavily damaged in the collision, as were Waltrip and Reutimann.

"It's just a product of this type of racing," Reutimann said. "It wasn't Mike's fault. The guys in front of us started moving up, and when you're pushing, you're at the mercy of the guy in front of you. The guy in front has to tell you what's going on, and I probably was a little late there and got us both in trouble.

"I know it tore up a lot of cars, and I hate that ended up happening. It's unfortunately a product of this type of racing. In those situations you wish it was a single-car wreck. You don't want to mess everybody else up."

Ambrose, in his first points race in the No. 9 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford, was trying a conservative approach. It didn't work.

"Everybody is trying to find partners to work with and pull away," Ambrose said. "I think everyone is just trying to work out how to do it. Today, I was just trying to make sure I didn't drop off the back without finding a good partner and got caught up in a mess, too. I was trying to play it safe, and it didn't work out too well for me."

An early casualty was Harvick, the 2007 Daytona 500 winner and one of the heavy pre-race favorites. The engine in Harvick's No. 29 Chevrolet grenaded on Lap 23, erupting in a dense cloud of smoke.

"It looks like it dumped a piston," engine builder Danny Lawrence told team owner Richard Childress, who was concerned about the engines in his other cars. "The oil pan is bent and the block's torn up."

Childress had good reason to be concerned. Burton's motor blew on Lap 93, knocking the half the RCR contingent out of the race.