KANSAS CITY, KS. – Team Rensi Motorsports is looking for sponsorship for both of their Fords for the 2008 season. President Ronnie Russell said Saturday that the team will not operate next season unless sponsorship is found before the season finale in Homestead.
“Today we don’t have anything. We do have a reasonable commitment from a huge company that we feel good with on Bobby (Hamilton, Jr.)’s car. We feel very good about it but we do not have anything signed,” Russell said.
Prior to the start in Kansas Russell confirmed without hesitation that Hamilton, who is currently sixth in the overall driver standings, will be the driver of the No. 35 barring the sponsorship but as for current driver Richard Johns in the No. 25, that is yet to be determined, based on the funding.
“McDonalds is leaving. FreeCreditReport is leaving. From what we understand with McDonalds is they have always wanted Kasey Kahne. FreeCreditReport, there has been rumblings that they want Greg Biffle. Our sport is being run by about 12 Cup guys, over there and over here. Those 12 guys can’t do all of it. Even when you have 27 Cup guys running, people in the seats don’t come to see 27 Cup guys. They come to see five or six of them. We all know that. All you have to do is look at t-shirt sales,” he explains of the team’s forced financial troubles.
“We get things to where potential sponsors say ‘ We will never see it on TV.’ They won’t show a Busch guy on TV. That affects our sponsorship. We’re 42 points out of fifth place in this series. You would think that you would get something. You never get talked about. It’s like you don’t even exist.”
“I’m trying to work with every angle I can. I’m working with certain celebrities to maybe bring somebody in. If you don’t have a Cup guy you need a celebrity as an owner. You are trying to get in front of people and get talked about.”
HAMPTON, Ga. -- Jeff Burton made it two Busch Series victories in a row Saturday, easily holding off Richard Childress Racing teammate and reigning Busch champion Kevin Harvick to win the Nicorette 300 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Kyle Busch again appeared to be on his way to a victory Saturday, building leads of a full straightaway before the last of six caution flags came out on Lap 167 of the 195-lap race when Todd Kluever hit the wall after being hit from behind by open-wheel star Sam Hornish Jr. All the leaders pitted and Busch easily led everyone back onto the track. But a NASCAR official spotted a missing lugnut on Busch's left front wheel and called him back into the pits. The Hendrick Motorsports driver fell all the way to 15th for the restart. The race restarted on Lap 174 and Busch charged through the field. He got all the way to third before running out of laps.
Series points leader Carl Edwards finished fourth, followed by Casey Mears, Clint Bowyer -- in the third RCR car, Kasey Kahne, rookie Juan Montoya -- the former Formula One star's best stock car finish on an oval -- Matt Kenseth and Tony Stewart, all cup regulars who will also race on the 1.5-mile oval in Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500.
Jeff Burton may not have been the fastest car, but he was fast enough. Burton battled a vibration the final four laps. “These things are never over until their over. We’ve just been on it here, lately,” said Burton. Obviously we had a little bit of luck." It is Burton’s second victory of the 2007 campaign and 24th of his Busch Series career.
Teams fought tire wear problems most of the day. Because of heavy rain that fell on Friday and the consequence of lost practice time, NASCAR mandated a competition caution early in the race and allowed teams an extra set of tires.
At one point during Saturday’s race, Burton felt a vibration while running in the top-10 and was forced to pit for new tires under green. Luckily for him, the rest of the lead lap cars did as well shortly thereafter and he didn’t fall out of sequence.
"I had to pit with a big vibration there at one point and I thought it was over then. But they found what was wrong," he said. "Then I got another vibration with about five laps to go, but I couldn't pit then." “We had some luck today. Nonetheless (our car) was fast,” Burton said. “That’s the key to racing – get yourself in position and good things can happen.”
"Obviously, the 5 car today, he was the class of the field," said Burton. "The last run, I thought we might be able to have something for him, but he was so fast and just had some bad luck."
Jeff Gordon won the pole for Sunday's race in Friday's qualifying. During practice on Saturday, however, the No. 24 Chevrolet was too loose for Gordon's liking. Consequently, the team adjusted the car's suspension setup.
But the weather changed. Cloudy skies greeted fans and racers in Fontana. It was cooler Sunday. Consequently Gordon's adjustments went too far.
The mood appeared light as drivers headed into the first turn with Gordon on the pole and Kasey Kahne in second. By the time they reach Turn 2, Kahne left Gordon behind.
Jimmie Johnson started in the middle of the pack, but quickly moved up and ran his No. 48 Chevy in the top 10 most of the day.
On lap 19, David Ragan spun out, which brought out the third caution in less than 20 laps. Kahne, Kevin Harvick and Gordon were among those who pitted, giving the lead to Kyle Busch, followed by Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth. Gordon adjusted the track bar and air pressure in the tires to get the setup right, and fell as far back as 33rd place.
Kenseth, who won last year's race for owner Jack Roush, led after 125 laps, leading Gordon to the start line on the restart following a yellow flag.
Kenseth and Gordon actually touched side by side about lap 136. They've had issues before. Gordon, after getting spun out by Kenseth last year at Bristol, shoved Kenseth after the race. A few weeks later, Gordon spun out Kenseth at Chicago.
Tony Stewart had a memorable lap 144, when he was third, behind Kenseth and Gordon. Gordon went low to attempt to pass Kenseth, and Stewart went even lower to pick off Gordon in the backstretch. He then passed Kenseth before reaching the start-finish line.
At the stripe on lap 175, Kenseth remained the leader in a Ford owned by Jack Roush. Gordon was running second.
Kenseth led 133 of 250 laps, but after making a green-flag stop on Lap 196 he found himself about two seconds behind Jimmie Johnson, an El Cajon native. He might have bettered his third-place finish if not for a bit of bad luck. Johnson built a 2.6-second lead over Kenseth at the 225-lap mark, then out came a yellow flag and misfortune for the defending series champion. The reason for the yellow: Debris.
“We had a nice lead there,” Johnson said. “And then, the wonderful debris caution came out. I think we all saw it coming.”
Was Johnson questioning the validity of that yellow? You bet. “If anyone has seen the debris, I would like to know what it was,” he said. “I think they had five trucks looking for it.” It looked like a show caution to me.
All of the leaders would have had to make pit stops anyway. Now, they would all come under yellow and at the same time. Johnson took four tires, and so did Kenseth. Kenseth’s crew got it done while Johnson’s had a slight misstep and got their driver back out in the fifth spot.
When they excited the pits on lap 228, Kenseth was the new leader, followed by Jeff Burton, Harvick, Gordon and Johnson.
Harvick’s charge was blunted when David Reutimann’s crash on Lap 243 brought out a yellow and then a red flag. After a delay of just more than 15 minutes, as the field lined up for a four-lap race to the finish, Harvick had a flat left-front tire and had to pit.
That left Burton in second as the green flew, but he spun his tires on the restart and got passed by Gordon for second and Johnson for third.
Gordon finished a second ahead of teammate Johnson. Kenseth's Ford finished 0.679 of a second ahead of Gordon's Chevrolet.
"I'm very happy with that second-place finish," Gordon said. "We started on the pole and we faded early. We just overtightened the car from practice. I think the overcast really hurt us more than we thought it was going to. It took a while for us to make those adjustments, and once we did, we were a top-three or four car all day."
Gordon's finish left him third in points. "I think it's extremely important (to get off to a good start)," Gordon said. "I know it's early in the season, but we're trying to build a championship right now, not just with points, but with the team."
"It wasn't a bad day," Johnson said. "The mysterious debris caution cost us, and then we had some issues on pit road. But it was solid. We had the speed. We just had that stop at the end that kind of hurt us."
The top-five finish came at a good time for Johnson. After finishing 39th in the season-opening Daytona 500 last week, the reigning Nextel Cup champion vaulted into 15th place in the points standings with Sunday's third-place finish. "It's good to get some points back and get back going in the right direction," Johnson said.
Jack Roush was on the dais with his victorious driver, Kenseth, after Sunday's Auto Club (AAA) 500 at California Speedway, but Hendrick Motorsports had an equally successful day.
Mark Martin, who drives with Hendrick power for Ginn Racing moved to the top of the 2007 NEXTEL Cup point standings after the February 25th Auto Club 500 at California Speedway. Martin, driver of the #01 U.S. Army Chevrolet, finished 4th in the race and moved up one spot to lead the standings by 5 points over Burton. Harvick, who led the standings after last week's race, finished 17th in the race and dropped three spots to 4th in the points.
Kyle Busch finished ninth.
Oh yeah, don't forget. The fries are free at Arby's today. Just show the results of the race and thank Matt.
FONTANA, Calif. (Feb. 23, 2007) - Driving a No. 24 DuPont Cromax Pro Chevrolet, Jeff Gordon, captured his career-second pole position at California Speedway on Friday. He will lead the field to the green flag in Sunday's Auto Club 500. "This DuPont Cromax Pro Chevrolet has been awesome ever since we unloaded off the truck," Gordon said. "We do that because of a lot of hard work by the guys at the shop on this race car, from the aerodynamics to the geometry, and of course under the hood with this Hendrick Motorsports horsepower.
Riding a wave of momentum from last week's Daytona 500 runner-up finish, Mark Martin and the U.S. Army team will start Sunday's Auto Club 500 on the inside of the second row. Martin's 01 Chevrolet laid down the third fastest lap in Friday's qualifying session at California Speedway. Kasey Kahne was second at 185.519.
For a while, the accomplishments of Kyle Bush were attributed to precocious driving. His mistakes? Simply youthful error. Now, starting his third Nextel Cup season and approaching 22, Bush is ready to be judged strictly on his merits. Bush had a good week at Daytona, but a rookie-like miscue on the last lap of Sunday's Daytona 500 ruined everything he had built to that point. Bush will start 12th on Sunday and looks to have a better finish in Fontana.
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