I just flipped the TV off of football late here on a Saturday night and Boom! There it was.
"Welcome to the Nikon Indy 300, the final event of the 2008 IndyCar® Series season."
Dario Franchitti is already back in an Indy Car in the Target ride he will wheel for Chip Ganassi next year. Cool.
But alas, times have changed. I am now a Wheldon fan. Sorry Dario.
GO DAN! Best of luck in your new #4 ride with Panther racing next year. Hope you feel back at home and have much success. Chip's not that nice of guy, really, is he?
Well, Bobby Hamilton Jr. is not running in Mexico, which results in him not being a Nationwide Series regular, in my opinion. I have known this for a month and had been hoping Bobby would get another ride. But it hasn't happened.
MOORESVILLE, N.C. (March 19, 2008) -- Team Rensi Motorsports announced today the signing of Boris Said to pilot the No. 25 No Fear Energy / Smithfield Foods Ford Fusion for the two NASCAR Nationwide Series international races -- in Mexico City (April 20) and Montreal (Aug. 2).
So it is time to change horses.
This week, the Germain Racing team heads south of the border to Mexico City, Mexico, for NASCAR’S first road course race of the 2008 season. Mike Wallace and the #7 GEICO Camry will hit the track at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez for their first practice on Friday, April 19th, at 2:00 PM (ET). Final practice is also on Friday at 4:05 PM (ET), followed by qualifying on Saturday afternoon at 11:35 AM (ET). The Corona 200 is on Sunday, April 20th, and it will be televised live on ESPN beginning at 1:30 PM (ET), while the Motor Racing Network (MRN) will carry the live radio broadcast.
To listen to the hype surrounding the beginning of this NASCAR season, the Hendrick Motorsports behemoth is poised to roll over everyone in its path. This amuses Jack Roush, who not so long ago was the other behemoth in the garages.
By JIM ALEXANDER The Press-Enterprise
Two years ago, when Matt Kenseth won the winter Cup Series race at Fontana, it finished a Roush sweep of the weekend after Mark Martin had won the truck race and Greg Biffle the Saturday Busch Series race. Roush had just come off two championships in the previous three years (Kenseth in 2003 and Kurt Busch in '04), and had placed all five of its drivers in the Chase for the Cup in '05. They were, some daffy columnist suggested at the time, the Yankees of NASCAR because of their financial resources and research and development assets.
The point is that Hendrick ascended to what appeared to be super-team status when Dale Earnhardt Jr. signed on, creating a colossal marketing/competitive triumvirate of Earnhardt, two-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon. Yet through the first two weeks of the 2008 season, Penske's Ryan Newman and Carl Edwards have won races, and Joe Gibbs Racing's Kyle Busch -- the guy Hendrick tossed overboard to make room for Earnhardt -- leads the points standings.
Edwards, Kenseth, Biffle, David Ragan and Jamie McMurray acquitted themselves fairly well at Fontana in Roush Fenway's Ford Fusions. Besides Edwards' triumph, which he celebrated with his traditional back flip, Kenseth finished fifth, Ragan 14th, Biffle 15th and McMurray 22nd.
CitiFinancial announced it will be the primary sponsor on a variety of Roush Fenway Racing entries in all 35 Nationwide Series events in 2008. Citi will become a major associate sponsor on all Roush Fenway Racing teams, including the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series entries of Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth, Jamie McMurray, and David Ragan. In the Nationwide Series, Biffle, Kenseth, McMurray, Erik Darnell, Colin Braun and Carl Edwards will split seat time in the CitiFinancial Ford Fusion - which will rotate among the Roush Fenway #s 16, 17, and 60 Fords throughout the season.
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.”
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