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Written by Robert Trammell
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Thursday, 05 February 2009 12:19 |
MEDIA POLL PREDICTS NEW CHAMPION FOR '09
NASCAR's annual pre-season media poll has Jimmie Johnson and Carl Edwards finishing in the top two spots of the Sprint Cup Series standings again, but with the order reversed from 2008. The poll has Edwards ending Johnson's three-year reign. Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. complete the top five.
WIMMER TO DRIVE FOR KEY MOTORSPORTS
Key Motorsports has tapped Scott Wimmer to drive its Chevrolet for the first three races of the 2009 NASCAR Nationwide Series ... in Daytona, California and Las Vegas. There'll also be a car number change, from 31 to 40. The team is planning to compete full-time this season, but Wimmer's status is uncertain beyond Vegas. He formerly drove for Richard Childress Racing's Nationwide Series team and had one win last year, at Nashville Superspeedway in March.
McDOWELL LANDS NATIONWIDE SERIES RIDE
JTG Daugherty Racing in the Nationwide Series has announced that Michael McDowell will replace Kelly Bires in the team's Number-47 entry, starting in the February 14th season opener and extending at least through the first half of the schedule. Veteran crew chief Gene Nead will direct the team. Bires, who finished thirteenth in last year's driver standings, still is under contract and the team is actively pursuing sponsorship on his behalf.
BELL JOINS BENSON AT RED HORSE RACING
T.J. Bell has filled the seat vacated by David Starr at Red Horse Racing and will team up with 2008 champion Johnny Benson in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series that opens February 13th at Daytona.
IT HAPPENED ON THIS DATE
February 5th, 1950
Harold Kite, a former Army tank driver who began racing on short tracks after World War two, won the forty-eight-lap, two-hundred-mile NASCAR Grand National Series race on the Daytona beach and road course. Kite, in a 1949 Lincoln, passed Red Byron for the lead with 24 laps to go and beat Byron to the finish line by 53 seconds. An estimated crowd of 9,500 watched Kite score his first victory in his very first career start in the Grand National Series, precursor of today's Sprint Cup Series. |
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Written by Robert Trammell
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Monday, 02 February 2009 10:53 |
THIS IS THEIR FIRST MORNING DRIVER OF THE YEAR... WHILE THEY WERE AWAY...
Ray Evernham went from team owner to track owner, purchasing East Lincoln Speedway in Stanley, North Carolina ... a three-eighths-mile clay oval near Charlotte.
Jimmie Johnson was in New York City the first week of December to collect the spoils of his third straight Cup Series championship and received a surprise visit while on stage from the only other driver in NASCAR history to win three in a row ... Cale Yarborough.
2008 Craftsman Truck Series championship Johnny Benson got a new ride. He left Bill Davis Racing and is now behind the wheel of the Number-1 entry at Red Horse Racing.
Mike Skinner, who was Benson's teammate at BDR, joined Randy Moss Motorsports and will be part of a two-truck team with rookie Tayler Malsam.
The entire series has a new sponsor this year. It's now the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, with the new season opening February 13 in Daytona.
2000 Cup Series champion Bobby Labonte was released from Petty Enterprises and joined Hall of Fame Racing to drive the Number-96 Ford ... which used to be the Number-96 Toyota.
"Merger Mania" hit the Sprint Cup Series with the following blends now available on the 2009 menu: Dale Earnhardt, Incorporated with Chip Ganassi Racing; Gillett Evernham Motorsports and Petty Enterprises; and Hall of Fame Racing with Yates Racing.
And 1988 Cup Series champion Bill Elliott is back with the Wood Brothers in 2009 for a nine-race schedule that'll kick off in Daytona.
TRACK FACT
The traditional opening race of NASCAR speed Weeks at Daytona International Speedway, the Budweiser Shootout non-points special event, will be run Saturday night. The race used to be for pole winners from the previous season and drivers who had won the race before. A format change now has each of the four auto manufacturers entering their top six teams based on car owner points from last season, along with one "Wild Card" driver for each make ... bringing the size of this year's field to twenty-eight cars.
JOHNSON CHASING HISTORY
In 2008, Jimmie Johnson became just the second driver in NASCAR's sixty-year history to win three consecutive Cup Series championships. Cale Yarborough was the first, from 1976 to 1978. Johnson's Number-48 Hendrick Motorsports team will be after its fourth straight in 2009. How did Yarborough fare in his quest for a fourth straight crown in 1979? He won two of the first eleven races that season. But Richard Petty won the season opening Daytona 500 and tacked on four more wins to claim the last of his seven career Cup Series titles. Yarborough placed fourth in the final standings. |
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Written by Robert Trammell
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Monday, 17 November 2008 12:27 |
Nationwide Series News:
The order of the top ten drivers in the Nationwide Series point standings was the same coming out of Saturday's Ford 300 as it was going in ... with Clint Bowyer remaining Number-1, thus claiming his first Nationwide Series championship. Carl Edwards won the race but with Bowyer needing only to finish eighth or better, his fifth-place showing was more than enough to keep the Number-2 Chevrolet atop the standings as it has been since March. Edwards started second in Saturday's race and took the lead for the first time at lap thirty-nine. He passed Kyle Busch for the final lead change of the day less than thirty-four laps from the finish and motored on to his seventh victory of the season. Bowyer started thirteenth and while failing to lead at least one lap, the Richard Childress Racing driver was steady enough to finish the year twenty-one points ahead of Edwards in the final standings.
| DRIVER |
POINTS |
BEHIND LEADER |
| Clint Bowyer |
5,132 |
---- |
| Carl Edwards |
5,111 |
-21 |
| Brad Keselowski |
4,794 |
-338 |
| David Ragan |
4,525 |
-607 |
| Mike Bliss |
4,518 |
-614 |
| Kyle Busch |
4,461 |
-671 |
| David Reutimann |
4,388 |
-744 |
| Mike Wallace |
4,128 |
-1,044 |
| Jason Leffler |
4,086 |
-1,046 |
| Marcos Ambrose |
3,991 |
-1,141 |
Sprint Cup Series News:
FORD 400: Jimmie Johnson drove to a fifteenth-place finsih in Sunday's Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, joining Cale Yarborough as the only drivers in Nascar's sixty-year history to win three consecutive Cup Series championships. Johnson's final margin of victory in the 2008 Chase for the Sprint Cup is sixty-nine points over Carl Edwards, who did all he could to pressure Johnson - winning Sunday's race and leading the most laps (157 of 267). It was Edwards' ninth victory of the year, bit it was Johnson who put the finishing touches on the eighth Cup Series crown for Hendrick Motorsports. Johnson went into the race needing only to finish thirty-sixth or better to win the title. In his final start for Joe Gibbs Racing, Tony Stewart placed ninth. He'll be part owner of Stewart-Haas Racing when the new season begins at Daytona ... in ninety days.
| DRIVER |
POINTS |
BEHIND LEADER |
| Jimmie Johnson |
6,684 |
--- |
| Carl Edwards |
6,615 |
-69 |
| Greg Biffle |
6,467 |
-217 |
| Kevin Harvick |
6,408 |
-276 |
| Clint Bowyer |
6,381 |
-303 |
| Jeff Burton |
6,335 |
-349 |
| Jeff Gordon |
6,316 |
-368 |
| Denny Hamlin |
6,214 |
-470 |
| Tony Stewart |
6,202 |
-482 |
| Kyle Busch |
6,186 |
-498 |
| Matt Kenseth |
6,184 |
-500 |
| Dale Earnhardt Jr. |
6,127 |
-557 |
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Written by Robert Trammell
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Wednesday, 12 November 2008 11:07 |
NEWS UPDATE ... A report earlier this week that Mark Martin would drive the Number-84 Red Bull Racing Toyota in Sunday's Cup Series season finale at Homestead has now been reversed, with driver Scott Speed's name - not Martin - on the early entry list for the Ford 400.
Nascar has fined Gillett Evernham Motorsports crew chief Wally Rogers, who works with driver A.J. Allmendinger in the Nationwide Series, one thousand dollars for suspension irregularities that were discovered on the team's number-9 Dodge during opening-day inspection November 6th at Phoenix.
Richard Childress will receive the North Carolina Motorsports Association's Tribute Award at the group's annual banquet in January 2009. The owner of Richard Childress Racing is being recognized for his years of achievement in Nascar competition. He's amassed eleven championships, two Daytona 500 victories with Dale Earnhardt and Kevin Harvick, and eighty-nine Cup Series wins overall. The NCMA represents businesses that support more than twenty-six thousand racing-related jobs in the state of North Carolina.
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Written by Robert Trammell
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Wednesday, 05 November 2008 11:04 |
Numerous reports continue to suggest that Dale Earnhardt, Incorporated is vigorously seeking a merger with another Sprint Cup Series organization for the 2009 season. The latest prospect is Chip Ganassi Racing, although a major sticking point would be that DEI runs Chevrolets while Ganassi Racing is a Dodge team. DEI has Martin Truex Junior and sponsor Bass Pro Shops under contract for next year, but no funding for its three other cars. Ganassi has sponsorship from Target for on car but no driver, and only a half-season of funding lined up for Juan Pablo Montoya.
Bill Davis Racing has signed nineteen-year-old Tayler Malsam to drive in the 2009 Nascar Camping World Truck Series. He's expected to drive a fourth truck for the team, which currently fields Toyotas for 2008 series leader Johnny Benson, Mike Skinner and Scott Speed. Malsam moves to Bill Davis Racing from the ARCA Remax Series, where he finished ninth in this year's championship standings. To begin preparations for next year, Malsam will be entered in one of the BDR trucks for the season finale next week in Homestead. |
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Written by Robert Trammell
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Monday, 03 November 2008 12:19 |
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 Reo Speedwagon sang, "Time for me to Fly" before the Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. When the green flagged dropped, Carl Edwards took that song to heart. Edwards started sixteenth and from the drop of the green flag, Edwards started making his move to the front. When most cars started their green flag pit stops at lap 50, Edwards stayed on the track. By lap fifty-seven, Edwards took the lead and led 198 of the next 206 laps. Edwards gave up the lead for a four-tire-change and a full tank of gas sixty nine laps from the finish. During the final laps of the race, Edward's crew chief, Bob Osborne came over the radio, first asking Edwards that they were a lap short on fuel, then seconds later saying they were four-laps short from making it to the end. In his post race interview, Edwards said that, "he had an idea that Osborne had no clew as to how much gas Edwards had or didn't have, so he decided to take a chance and finish the race instead of coming in one last time for fuel". While others a head of Edwards did ahve to take on fuel, Edwards kept moving along and end the end finished with his second consectutive win in the race for the Nascar Sprint Cup Series championship. Chase leader, Jimmei Johnson started seventh in the field, but was no factor in the race as Johnson delt with handling problems most of the race, falling a lap down ans as far back as thirty-third place. Johnson did rally lat to finish fifteenth.
2008 CHASE FOR THE SPRINT CUP:
| Jimmie Johnson |
6,366 |
----- |
| Carl Edwards |
6,260 |
-106 |
| Greg Biffle |
6,223 |
-143 |
| Jeff Burton |
6,154 |
-212 |
| Jeff Gordon |
6,111 |
-255 |
| Clint Bowyer |
6,099 |
-267 |
| Kevin Harvick |
6,087 |
-279 |
| Matt Kenseth |
5,973 |
-393 |
| Tony Stewart |
5,962 |
-404 |
| Kyle Busch |
5,938 |
-428 |
| Dale Earnhardt Jr. |
5,937 |
-429 |
| Denny Hamlin |
5,935 |
-431 |
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Written by Robert Trammell
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Friday, 31 October 2008 08:21 |
FORMER NASCAR TEAM OWNER INDICTED
The Bristol, Tennessee, Herald Courier is reporting that Larry McClure, general manager of Abingdon, Virginia-based Morgan-McClure Motorsports, has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges relating to wire fraud, mail fraud and violations of federal tax laws. Central to the indictment are claims by the Internal Revenus Service that tax returns filed from 2002-2004 omitted several large payments from an unidentified Florida man who leased racecars from MMM to enter in ARCA races. Morgan-McClure Motorsports won fourteen Nascar Sprint Cup Series races in the 1990s, including Daytona 500 victories with Sterling Marlin and Ernie Irvan. The organization is no longer active in Sprint Cup Series competition. If convicted on all counts, McClure could face 115 years in prison and up to 2.75 million dollars in fines.
TWO NATIONWIDE SERIES CREW CHIEFS PENALIZES
Nascar has fined and placed on probation two Nationwide Series crew chiefs for rules violations last weekend at Memphis Motorsports Park. Chris Rice, crew chief for Kenny Wallace, was fined eleven thousand dollars and placed on probation until December 31st. He was found to be in violation of five different sections of the Nascar Rulebook, including issues with fuel cell safety foam and rear coil springs. Jimmy Means, crew chief for Brad Teague, was fined six thousand dollars and put on probation until December 31st for carburetor and brake caliper irregularities that were found in pre-race inspection.
POINTS BREAKDOWN
With the top thirty-five teams in Nascar Sprint Cup Series car owner points guaranteed starting positions each week, some drivers and crew chiefs are as interested in the number-35 spot as they are in the top tier of the standings. Red Bull Racing (driver Scott Speed) currently holds that position entering this weekend's Dickies 500. Michael Waltrip Racing (car number-47) and Penske Racing (number-77) are in pursuit - trailing by eighty and 130 points, respectively.
Jimmie Johnson leads the Chase fot the Sprint Cup, 183 points ahead of Carl Edwards and 185 in front of Greg Biffle after seven races. Jeff Burton and Kevin Harvick complete the top five.
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