By Rob D'Amico and Michele Rahal from Race Day on Fox Sports Radio. Heard Sunday mornings from 6-9am (eastern) on 220 FOX Sports Radio Affiliates and XM Radio Channel 142.
The 2009 Rookie of the Year battle has already begun. Joey Logano and Scott Speed will go head to head in several series, including the Sprint Cup Series, before the flag falls at the 2009 Daytona 500 in February. We have seen both of these drivers win in other series and both have seemingly experienced a meteoric rise. That, like so many ‘overnight sensations’, would be a false assumption. Many in the industry who witnessed Logano’s rise through the ranks on the short tracks of America feel he’s a shoe in for the title. Mark Martin is certainly one of those having repeatedly stated, when Logano was fifteen, “He’s the real deal”. In fact, that message became so ingrained in the NASCAR lexicon that he now has the nickname, ‘Sliced Bread’.
However, a driver that emerged on the scene last year may spoil the aspirations of Logano. That driver is American Scott Speed. Scott Speed was unceremoniously dumped from the Formula One team, Toro Rosso two years ago amid physical altercations with the team director, open press arguments and name calling between himself and team principal, Gerhard Berger. This left the relationship in shambles, the remaining Formula One teams unwilling to look further at him and Speed stating that “there is not enough money in the world for me to stay with this team”.
Dietrich Mateschitz, the owner of Red Bull, felt he owed Scott Speed a chance to continue racing under the Red Bull banner and has made good on that promise. Speed had his choice of where to race and he chose coming back to America to take on NASCAR. To be sure, an active Formula One driver making that move is no longer a precedent, given Montoya’s shocking switch from a world championship team, McLaren, to Chip Ganassi’s NASCAR Dodge team. The difference is Red Bull had put Speed on a ‘training’ program with ARCA, which he leads in points, and the NCTS where he already has one win. He’s going into his Sprint Cup debut at Lowe’s Motor Speedway with a baseline of experience underneath him, albeit abbreviated. Speed is 25 years old.
Taking a completely different, and more traditional path, Joey Logano made his mark in every series in which he’s participated including the Nationwide series with top ten finishes and a win. He recently made his debut with Hall Of Fame Racing in Sprint Cup at Kansas, but did not achieve the results he wanted and it showed in his face. But will the switch to a Joe Gibbs run car in Atlanta make the difference? According to Logano, “We’re going to run the No. 02 Home Depot Toyota in Atlanta and possibly a couple more races. I feel like I’m going to be in a really good car”.
Meanwhile, as if no one was watching they raced each other in both the NCTS and ARCA races this past weekend. They both ran up front in both series and both had troubles that either put them out of the races or kept them from bringing home stellar finishes. Logano lost a right-side window in the truck race losing him precious laps and Scott Speed had a tire go nuclear in the ARCA race but still holds the points lead by 85 points heading to the season final at Toledo next weekend.
Justin Allgaier, with no drafting help, drove to the outside of Logano which let Allgaier sail away with the biggest victory of his career and Logano who knew he had been schooled. “I don’t know; I did everything I could do; I just got beat,” said Logano. “He just schooled me. I learned a lot and I will do things different next time. That was a lot of hard work a lot of hard hours by all those guys. I’m just mad that I didn’t live up to it for them.” The self-inflicted pressure from Logano shows through.
Scott Speed had virtually nothing to say about his tire problems. In both instances these two drivers were up front and posturing for a potential win. It’s obvious that the two have taken different paths to achieve the same end. To win.
If you compare the experiences of the two drivers you find two starkly different personalities. One is intense, driven, self-critical and under pressure. That’s Logano. The other has exudes liaise faire attitudes, feels no pressure and paints his toenails now and again. We know who that is. Both have paid their dues rising to their present levels and both are inveterate competitors. The difference between Joey Logano and Scott Speed is that Speed has experienced pressure at a level that no other sport can produce, Formula One. In Formula One, the teammates hate each other, the drivers hate the team principals and the team principals consider the drivers nothing more than robots and expendable commodities. The threat of termination is a daily possibility. To Scott Speed his NASCAR experience to date has been a vacation.
Alternatively, Joey Logano has been placed under intense pressure that most 18 year olds, other than those serving in active combat, will ever feel. Logano said he didn’t feel that the Sprint Cup car he raced in Kansas was responsive and that the set-up felt alien. Speed said the Cup Car he tested was great, more fun than the ARCA car and more responsive than the trucks. What? That sentiment is totally opposite of most who are now racing this latest iteration of the Cup car. During the recent Lowes Motor Speedway test Speed set the fastest evening time among all drivers, except Jeff Gordon and that was less than a tenth of second difference. Logano was 49th fastest.
Logano certainly has the race craft to get into the top ten in 2009. He’s been successful at every endeavor he’s undertaken, but this is Sprint Cup, the highest level. Speed has already endured that pressure but doesn’t have the day-to-day experience in these heavy, but very competitive cars.
Get ready for a glimpse of the remainder of 2008 and perhaps a looking glass view of the 2009 Rookie of the Year battle.
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By Rob D'Amico and Michele Rahal from Race Day on Fox Sports Radio. Heard Sunday mornings from 6-9am (eastern) on 220 FOX Sports Radio Affiliates and XM Radio Channel 142.
“What a Wicked Game We Play” are lyrics made famous by romantic crooner Chris Isaak. On Sunday at the Kansas Speedway Carl Edwards changed the meaning of ‘wicked’ and made it wild. By now, everyone has seen the footage of Edwards dive bombing underneath Jimmie Johnson, sliding up the track, along the wall and then diving down again to finish a mere two tenths behind Johnson. Edwards statement was that he meant to do it.
Despite the fact that it was a move reminiscent of days of old, Edwards astonished the fans and media alike by stating, “I planned on hitting the wall, but I didn't plan on the wall slowing me down that much,'' Edwards said. He added, "In video games, you can just run into the wall and run it wide open. That's what I did, but it didn't quite work out the same as the video game. I just really, really wanted to win this race.'' Can he be serious?
The use of SIM games has become a regular staple of many of the Sprint Cup drivers as a way of perfecting technique, strategy and generally imprinting the track in their minds in an effort to create a baseline from which to operate. McLaren, the British Formula One organization, uses a $50 million simulator that moves, is peripheral and has intense feedback. So we know that simulators have become serious tools for racing drivers. The Cup drivers have developed very elaborate home systems to get their fix. Carl Edwards included.
However, the question is once again, did Edwards really mean what he said? In that split second he made a conscious, or unconscious decision to switch from reality to the virtual world. It was a chance that he took without taking into account the physics of reality. "That's as hard as I can go there at the end. I couldn't sleep a wink if I didn't try everything I could to win. Now I know it doesn't work the same as in video games," Edwards said.
We are not in outer space where a moving body continues to stay in motion until met with an opposing force. On the contrary, everything about being here on good old Mother Earth says that gravity, opposing forces, such as racetrack walls, will slow you down. Just ask Mark Martin who crashed into the wall the day before in the Nationwide Series so hard he had trouble walking away.
In theory, however, Edwards move was brilliant. If he could have just slightly glanced or not hit the wall at all, he may very well have pulled off a stunning win, but he rode the wall too long. It’s debatable whether it would have ever worked at all, but he certainly tried.
Back in 2006 Denny Hamlin used an EA Sports video game for his first start at Pocono and won, "They got every tree on the site, everything's mapped out perfect, Hamlin said. Visually, I know where my let off points are." He added, "I honestly didn't think it would be this easy."
Let’s face it, some of the things we’ve done in the virtual world, whether in a SIM game or in our fantasies include robbing banks, shooting up the streets of New York, working for the mob or even being the Guitar Hero in the Rock Band Aerosmith. We don't live in fantasy land so consummating that liaison with Angelina Jolie (a real crowd pleaser) is still just that, fantasy. So don't think that it'll work for you, most of us don’t look like Brad Pitt and if we did, it doesn’t mean you would be guaranteed a date with Mrs. Jolie.
The games we play can be tools for learning and that is why racing car drivers, fighter pilots and operators of UAV and UUV (Underwater Un-manned Vehicles) use them to achieve greater results in the real world. We receive a great benefit from their use. But the danger in using these tools without clearly separating the real and virtual world could have consequences beyond what we anticipated.
On the other hand, Carl Edwards delivered exactly what we all craved and anticipated. One hell of a race, Game On!
AUDIO: > Carl Edwards: Talks about using a video game move that did not work for him. > Cale Gale: (KHI Development Driver) Talks about using video games to train. Cale will join Rob and Michele this Sunday on Race Day.
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By: Rob D'Amico and Michele Rahal from Race Day on Fox Sports Radio
Go ahead and admit it. You love a good feud as much as the next guy or girl and surely as much as we do. Earnhardt vs. Busch, Carl Edwards vs. Busch or Robby Gordon vs. everybody. It’s in our nature as humans to slow down for the car wreck, fight or stretch our hearing just a little bit further for a good screaming match. Jerry Springer figured that one out a long time ago.
What we saw at the Camping World 400 at Dover, Delaware this past weekend wasn’t your traditional driver vs. driver feud. It was the best race of the year. Funny thing was, it was among the three Roush cars of Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards. In fact, if Jamie McMurray hadn’t been taken out, chances are he would have been in the fray. The teammates tried everything known to man to best each other including switching lines, rubbing on each other and three-wide racing. In the end what was obvious is that the power plants were powerful and evenly matched.
But in the grand scheme of things the show Roush created was much more important. It was the first musket ball that found its mark. Who shot it? Jack Roush. Who caught the lead dead on? Toyota. Roush Fords finished in the first three spots while the Joe Gibbs cars blew up, came apart or couldn’t get out of their own way.
In Roush’s own words he stated last year that, "We're going to go to war with them, and they should give us their best shot because we'll be giving as good as we take," He added, "Toyota will bring changes in the way we conduct business. They have deep pockets … they'll try to put the rest of us in a catch-up scenario, and I'm trying to prepare for that. I expect to hand Toyota their head over the short term." Indeed.
Roush has been on a two-pronged mission since 2004 when Toyota announced that they would enter the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and escalated that strategy in 2007 when Toyota stated it would enter the Nationwide, formerly Busch, and the Sprint Cup series. That mission involved a very public outcry that would have made Paul Revere’s famous ride, warning of the imminent British invasion, seem like the pitiful little pony that shows up at the rich kids birthday party.
The second part of this strategy is genius. If Roush could make enough noise and get the fan base to go along with it, then Ford might pony (no pun intended) up more technology, money or services in kind. He screamed often and loud and Ford wrote big checks. Why? It all stems from the deep pockets that Toyota does indeed possess. Although it’s a misnomer, the general perception is that everything Toyota enters they spend until they win. The truth is Toyota have been in Formula One for 6 years with a yearly budget upwards of $400 million and have never come close to winning.
Toyota struggled in the trucks and then began to win. They struggled in Sprint cup and Nationwide in 2007 and now, in 2008, they are winning in all three manufacturer series. Now comes the adjustment in the Roush strategy. Roush, Ford, Chevrolet and Dodge lobbied to hobble the horsepower that Toyota has found in the Truck series and the Nationwide Series. What’s up next? Is there any doubt that the next salvo fired will be at the Toyota Sprint Cup Series engines? Genius.
The other side of this Hatfield and McCoy story is that Toyota hasn’t taken the assault lying down. Lee White, once a friend and employee of Roush’s, is now the President of Toyota Racing Development, the racing arm in America for the Japanese manufacturer. Often Roush would accuse Toyota of cheating or down right espionage. When Carl Edwards was caught with an oil lid removed from the interior of his car, White stated, "I guarantee you the cover bolts didn't fall out, because if they fall, the engine leaks and you can't run," he said. "If you want something to fall off, you fix it so it can." The absence of the oil tank cover can allegedly give the car 240 more pounds of down-force.
Lord knows Lee White didn’t stop there. On the subject of NASCAR restricting the Toyota’s horsepower in the Nationwide series recently, White said that the ruling “could be more far-reaching than simply mandating Toyota adjust its Nationwide engine.” His words may be regarded as prophetic if Toyota catches it breath in early 2009. NASCAR could restrict the horsepower of the Toyota’s across the board. As it stands now Toyota has taken the big Chase hit with Busch, Hamlin and Stewart. That won’t stop Jack.
Dover was the proof that Roush’s strategy has worked, if only temporarily. The Ford’s even sounded different than the other marques. Toyota is now faced with stressing their power plants with the only thing they can, higher RPM’s and a smoother drive train. The drive train stress was evident this weekend with the mechanical failures suffered by the Joe Gibbs Racing, the default factory team for Toyota.
Make no mistake, this is a self-proclaimed war between Roush-Fenway and Toyota, but behind the scenes it goes further. The remaining manufacturers don’t mind if Roush is the mouthpiece, but concurrently they to are lobbying NASCAR to slow down the perceived juggernaut Toyota. That’s fine with them.
The biggest problem with this type of fight is that it looks great in the press, but it rarely comes to a resolution. Roush is gaining ground rapidly in the Chase and isn’t that the real end game? Jack Roush craftily got exactly what he wanted but the war goes on. It will be a very expensive war indeed.
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Race Day on Fox Sports Radio can be heard every Sunday Morning from 6-9am eastern time on 220 FOX Affiliates, XM Radio Channel 142 and streamed live 24/7 at FoxSports.com Rob D'Amico and also be heard every Friday at 1pm eastern on SPEED Radio at SPEEDTV.com Keyword: Radio Get the show archives here
By: Rob D'Amico and Michele Rahal from Race Day on Fox Sports Radio
Michele Rahal's Side
The first round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship at Louden, New Hampshire is one in the books and a dark-horse takes the win, if you can call Greg Biffle a dark-horse. That’s what the Chase is supposed be and Sunday’s Sylvania 300 race didn’t disappoint, at least as it shook up the points. On the other hand, it was still a race where cars couldn’t turn, splitters hit the ground rendering the cars uncontrollable and passing was still a restart process rather than battling side by side on track racing. The common catchphrase by all the commentators has now become ‘track position’.
Aerodynamics are paramount on tracks like Lowes, Texas and Atlanta but the negative effects of it should not be as severe as it is on one mile tracks, no matter what the configuration. The mechanical grip should be the dominant force that controls whether a car can turn and actually pass in the corners. If you have grip coming off the corner then you have speed at the end of the straight, hence an ability to pass. This is still not happening and the New Hampshire race was more of the same.
Greg Biffle drove his heart out and beat an oncoming train across the tracks, the said train being Jimmie Johnson. It’s obvious that everyone has the same chassis to work with but those teams that have more money can make them work. Add to that the disparity that exists in horsepower from manufacturer to manufacturer and further exacerbate it with the ‘have and have nots’ and you end up with races that have not lived up to the hype.
It was great to see Greg Biffle win. It was sad to see a small bolt destroy Kyle Busch’s day. It was dramatic entertainment with dialogue between Dale Earnhardt, Jr and Rick Hendrick. Having stated this one would think that everything NASCAR wants to see happen to make a great race, but everything else in between was a continuation of the problems that have painfully existed the day the first COT hit the track.
It’s time to stop blaming Goodyear for its tires, after all, you can dress up a horse with new shoes, but it doesn’t make it run any faster.
Rob's Side
First it’s not the Car of Tomorrow. It’s here already and it’s called the “New Car”. Are there problems? Yes. Can they be fixed? Yes and they will over time, real competition time, not in Formula One simulators. The car hasn’t raced a full season to date and it has shown marked improvements.
The teams are finally beginning to find the correct direction for this car. Bob Osbourne, Carl Edwards crew chief, couldn’t get their car to handle this past weekend at New Hampshire. Things looked dismal. What did he do? He immediately went back to the hotel to pour over his notes and ultimately changed virtually everything. Bob shows up on Sunday morning and told Carl “we changed virtually everything on the car” and it’s going to work! The net result is that Carl, without even turning a lap to test it out, jumps in and takes the green then shoots out to an early lead ultimately finishing third.
Whining about the new car is like whining that the Chase is all wrong because a driver like Kyle Busch goes into the Chase dominating and comes out of the first round in 8th place. Whether or not that is fair is debatable, but the bottom line is that ‘it is what it is’. Work with it.
It’s disappointing that a $25 part takes Kyle Busch from the top spot but that same part could have failed on Reed Sorenson’s car as well. The positive in all this is that the chase is not like the NFL’s playoff system where a team is knocked out every week. Kyle Busch can come back next week and show us what he can do best when the car will let him.
This car was designed by NASCAR’s Research and Development Center for safety. The fact that it has taken the teams time to sort out the handling is irrelevant. They are all playing with the same rules, the same chassis and ultimately the racing will be better off for it.
My point here is to forget all the stuff you hear people saying about the “New Car” and look at the real stories in this sport. The teams will get this car right, Goodyear will catch up and the racing will speak for itself.
Has anyone given serious thought to the possibility that it may not be the cars handling at all, but the commitment of the manufacturers to deliver a competitive power-plant?
Target Chip Ganassi Racing announced that Dan Wheldon, driver of the No. 10 Target Honda Dallara in the IndyCar Series have agreed to part ways opening the seat for Dario Franchitti to make a Indycar come back. Former Indy 500 and IndyCar Series champion will return to open-wheel racing but this time behind the wheel of the vacated No. 10.
The native of Scotland has over 180 starts under his belt between the CART and IndyCar Series resulting in 18 wins, 17 poles, 63 top-five and 95 top-10 finishes (1997-2007). Franchitti is the winningest driver in U.S. open-wheel history from Great Britain. This creates a team that will have the last two Indy 500 winners as they take the green flag next year in St. Petersburg.
“Dan Wheldon has done everything this organization has asked of him, Chip Ganassi said. He was competitive from the moment that he stepped into the car for us back in 2006 and has provided Target Chip Ganassi Racing many highlights over his three years with the team. Dan is a class act both on and off the track and we wish him nothing but the best.”
Wheldon, who is 4th in points 142 back behind leader and teammate Scott Dixon said, "I have enjoyed these last three seasons with Target Chip Ganassi Racing, but will be moving on to pursue a very exciting opportunity for 2009. I want to personally thank Target and the whole Chip Ganassi Racing organization for the success and enjoyment we shared together. I will be announcing my plans for next season in the near future. In the meantime I want to focus my efforts on winning the last race of the season. I wish the team well for 2009 and beyond."
Scott Dixon along with teammate Dan Wheldon combined have eight wins of 16 races this season – second only to the Target team’s CART championship run in 1998 that tallied 10 wins at the hands of former Target champions Alex Zanardi and Jimmy Vasser.
Franchitti who has 25 combined starts in the Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Truck Series did not see much success with only 1 Top 5 and 2 Top 10's all coming from the Nationwide Series where he suffered a fractured left ankle and minor contusions during a lap 11 crash in the Aaron's 312 at Talladega Super Speedway. "I have really enjoyed this last season in stockcars and have not completely closed that chapter of my professional career," Franchitti said. Back in July, Chip Ganassi announced that they would be shutting down its No. 40 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team leaving Franchitti without a ride. Dario's Dodge was without sponsorship most of the 2008 season which eventually lead to the teams decision.
The demise of Dario Franchitti wasn't his team but the car itself. Dodge needs to get their act together because if Kasey Kahne doesn't make the "Chase" Dodge will not be running for the 2008 Championship. But I will say, it'll be a shame
not see Ashley Judd, Franchitti’s wife, in the pits running through a
rainstorm in a sundress as if she were starring in one of her films we’ve all learned
to enjoy.
Franchitti who is the 2007 Indycar Champ will be back in that series fighting for the 2009 Championship for Chip Ganassi. “Part of the reason that I signed with Ganassi last year was because of how many options that Chip has at his disposal for a driver. You can do almost any form of racing that you want. With unification and the new schedule having more road and street courses it made me think about this more and more. I am really looking forward to getting behind the wheel of one of those Target cars and be a teammate to Scott Dixon.”
Dan Wheldon not ready to release plans for next year. "I will be announcing my plans for next season in the near future," Wheldon said. "In the meantime I want to focus my efforts on winning the last race of the season. I wish the team well for 2009 and beyond."
By Rob D'Amico and Michele Rahal from Race Day on Fox Sports Radio
True Champions have attributes that separate them from the rest of the world. Earnest Hemingway embellished a famous misquote between himself and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Hemingway said simply, “The rich aren’t like you and me”, to wit Fitzgerald replied, “They have more money”. Racing car drivers aren’t like you and me, they have more talent and if the stock car racing world wants to crown a true champion then one would do well to find what that true talent really means. NASCAR needs to add a road course to the Chase for the Championship.
Since NASCAR decided to use the new “chase” format, which is a 10-race shootout with the top twelve drivers in points resetting their points to 5000 each and additionally giving them 10 bonus points for each win during the first 26 races, a road course has not been a part of the equation for the championship. Why?
In all corners of the globe, in almost every form of racing a road or street course is part of the championship. NASCAR should be no different. In a sport that prides itself on history and tradition, road racing has been hand in hand with the boys from the South in every step of NASCAR’s ascension. If we are going to consider NASCAR’s drivers the best in the world then adding a road course to the Chase isn’t an option, it’s a requirement.
If you were to scan the garage and ask the question, should a road course be in the Chase for the Championship you would get many mixed results. “No, I don’t think one belongs in the Chase”, Jeff Burton, driver of the #31 Chevy said. “I think the Chase should have a fair representation of the race tracks we run the majority of the time. I’m a proponent of the fact that we have 36 races a year and two of them are road courses, which is a small percentage, so the Chase shouldn’t have a road course in it because it would be unfairly represented in what we currently know the Cup Series to be.”
Ask anyone outside the United States who the best racing car drivers in the world are and 9 out 10 won’t mention a NASCAR driver. Some say that it’s because NASCAR isn’t very popular outside the U.S. but the truth is, these detractors just don’t take ovals seriously. The rest of the world doesn’t believe that ovals require skill. On the other hand, now that the so-called open wheel invasion in NASCAR has slowed and the drivers who were part of that influx have seen how difficult it is to compete on a level with the stock car racers, that mindset may be beginning to change. A road race would be a significant step towards that change.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races on two road courses a year, Infineon, in California, and Watkins Glen, New York, but neither are included in the all important last ten races of the season. NASCAR has road raced from the day it was created from the beaches of Daytona to Riverside, California to the backwoods of North Carolina where the sport was born.
Ask Junior Johnson if when, in moments of youthful indiscretions, he could only turn left. The police would have merely had to stand there until he ran out of gas. He had to hone skills that all racers do; Up-shifting, downshifting, four wheel drifting, heel and toe braking techniques all the while doing it better than Johnny Law. It’s what made him a legend.
Next comes the question that, if you are going to add a road race to the Chase then which should it be? The answer is obvious. Watkins Glen, New York. “The Glen is just a great racetrack with a lot of history”, Kyle Petty, driver of the #45 Dodge said. “It’s one of the few places in the country where we get a chance to race where Jackie Stewart, Niki Lauda and Emerson Fittipaldi competed. My 1992 win there is one of my favorites.”
No other tracks in America, other than Daytona and Indy, have more history and prestige than this magnificent piece of real estate in upstate New York.
It started as a somewhat selfish endeavor in 1948 when attorney Cameron Argetsinger, who is recently deceased, dreamt of bringing European style, street racing to his favorite vacation spot. The 6.6 miles course consisted of asphalt, cement and dirt roads that ran through the middle of this sleepy little town and around the state park, which is listed in the New York State and National Registers of Historic Places.
Labeled “The Day They Stopped The Trains”, it was the first post-World War II road race in the U.S. and for the next five years brought the biggest names in American sports car racing to this small town, but after a car left the road in a 1952 race, killing one spectator and injuring several others, the race was moved to a new location on a wooded hilltop southwest of town.
By 1956 a 2.3 miles permanent circuit was built and the following year the NASCAR Grand National Stock Car Series made their first stop at the circuit where it was Buck Baker finding victory lane. It didn’t last long though for NASCAR as they only raced at The Glen in ’57, ’64 and ’65.
It was 1958 when the true international competition began with the Formula Libre’ race. In 1961 Formula One made it’s mark with the first Watkins Glen U.S. GP and for the next 20 years it would bring in the biggest names in the world such as Jimmie Clark, Graham Hill, Sir Jackie Stewart, Niki Lauda and Mario Andretti, just to name a few.
As the seventies ushered in a greater variety of competition and an expansion to the circuit itself, Throughout this period The Glen added Can-Am, Trans-Am, Endurance races, Formula 5000, CART and the Indy Car Series. NASCAR, never to be left behind in an era of opportunistic expansion, would return to the “short” course in 1986 when Tim Richmond started from the pole and won the race for team owner Rick Hendrick.
The NASCAR Sprint cup drivers today have shown that they possess the skill, technique and passion to race left and right, and yes, even in the rain as evidenced by the recent, historic Montreal Nationwide event. Bill France, Sr. believed in road racing having participated in several himself with sports cars.
It should be evident to all how important road racing is to the international racing community and NASCAR is achieving a degree of success in reaching the Global market with its unique product. But in order for the drivers in NASCAR to be taken seriously abroad as truly world class, NASCAR must make that step forward by adding Watkins Glen and it would be sheer folly not to make a huge deal to the world that their champion got there by racing on a road course.
A true champion should be able to say ‘I can win on short tracks, intermediate tracks, superspeedways and road courses’. Precious few other drivers in the World could say that, could they? 2008 marks the 60th Anniversary of the first race held in the streets of Watkins Glen. Let’s make 2009 the year that the World sat up and truly took notice.
Listen to Race Day on Fox Sports Radio with Rob D'Amico and Michele Rahal Sunday mornings from 6am-9am eastern on 216 Fox Affiliates, XM Radio Channel 142 and streaming LIVE 24/7 at www.FoxSports.com
IndyCar announced its 2009 schedule featuring 18 races including two new destinations and bookend dates for the state of Florida; boy does that sound familiar. NASCAR opens their season in Daytona and ends with the last race of the Chase at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
IndyCar season will now open its season running through the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida April 5th and will now end their championship run in Homestead-Miami on October 11th. As you can imagine the excitement that Homestead-Miami has, “That the IndyCar Series has chosen to move its Championship to Homestead-Miami Speedway says more about our facility and Miami as a Championship host city than anything I can put into words,” said Homestead-Miami Speedway President Curtis Gray.
“IndyCar is anchored by such a decorated open-wheel history, and now the series is poised for a phenomenal future driven by the momentum of this year’s reunification with Champ Car, as well as by last year’s stunning Championship finish.”
The season will now feature 10 ovals, three permanent road courses and five temporary circuits including a debut in Toronto on July 12. The Indy Toronto, which dates to 1986, will be the first of back-to-back temporary course events in Canada with Edmonton scheduled for July 26.
You will notice that New Hampshire Motor Speedway was dropped from the 2009 schedule and this has definitely upset the track and fans in this area. “I don’t understand the decision not to include our facility on next year's schedule,” said Executive Vice President and General Manager Jerry Gappens.
“I think it’s a slap in the face to Bruton Smith, our Chairman, and to our company who have both been very supportive of the Indy Racing League since its inception.”
The IndyCar Series will return to Kansas Speedway, The Milwaukee Mile, Texas Motor Speedway, Iowa Speedway, Richmond International Raceway, Watkins Glen International and Infineon Raceway at approximately the same time on the calendar as 2008.
“We are thrilled with the schedule we have developed for 2009,” said Terry Angstadt, the president of the commercial division for the Indy Racing League, the sanctioning body for the IndyCar Series and Firestone Indy Lights. “When unification was announced earlier this year, we talked about the opportunity of developing future schedules on a blank piece of paper, and with today’s announcement we have a solid foundation for developing a consistent, long-term schedule for the IndyCar Series.”
Next season’s schedule will feature four Saturday prime-time events, and unlike the previous two seasons the 2009 schedule affords a couple more in-season off-weekends for drivers and teams.
“Looking ahead to 2009, and with one season of unification under our belts, we know that the IndyCar Series continues to offer the most diverse schedule in all of motorsports,” said Brian Barnhart, president of the competition and operations division for the Indy Racing League. “As our schedule has evolved in the past few years, the race for the IndyCar Series championship has become one that demands the ability of both drivers and teams to master a variety of venues and the challenges each one brings with the end result being a true champion.
“We are also pleased to respond to our teams and offer a couple of more off-weekends during the core of the season.”
Date Location Venue
Sunday, April 5 Streets of St. Petersburg 1.8-mile street course
Sunday, April 19 Streets of Long Beach 1.968-mile street course
Sunday, April 26 Kansas Speedway 1.5-mile oval
Sunday, May 24 Indianapolis Motor Speedway 2.5-mile oval
Sunday, May 31 The Milwaukee Mile 1.0-mile oval
Saturday, June 6* Texas Motor Speedway 1.5-mile oval
Sunday, June 21 Iowa Speedway .875-mile oval
Saturday, June 27* Richmond International Raceway .75-mile oval
Sunday, July 5 Watkins Glen International 3.4-mile road course
Sunday, July 12 Streets of Toronto 1.721-mile street course
Sunday, July 26 Edmonton City Centre Airport 1.973-mile airport course
Saturday, August 1* Kentucky Speedway 1.5-mile oval
Sunday, August 9 Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course 2.258-mile road course
Sunday, August 23 Infineon Raceway 2.245-mile road course
Saturday, August 29* Chicagoland Speedway 1.5-mile oval
Sunday, September 6 The Raceway at Belle Isle Park 2.906-mile street course
Saturday, September 19 Twin Ring Motegi 1.5-mile oval
Sunday, October 11 Homestead-Miami Speedway 1.5-mile oval
* Denotes Night race Schedule Subject to Change
Listen to Race Day on Fox Sports Radio with Rob D'Amico and Michele Rahal Sunday mornings from 6am-9am eastern on 216 Fox Affiliates, XM Radio Channel 142 and streaming LIVE 24/7 at www.FoxSports.com
Internet reports have Ryan Newman verbally agreeing to drive for Stewart-Haas Racing next season. A network website is reporting that a NASCAR source close to the situation told them that the deal and announcement could be made official within the month.
Newman supposedly reached the agreement after Joe Gibbs Racing was unable to finalize a deal for sponsorship to start a fourth team.
JGR president J.D. Gibbs confirmed on Sunday at Indianapolis that it was every unlikely that they could get sponsorship for both Newman and a forth team, making Newman a non-factor. "Another time, another day, maybe. He's a great individual. You would love to have him on your team. It's just all those ducks aren't in a row."
Stewart will drive the #14 for the new company that bears his name, Stewart Haas Racing in 2009. The #14 means so much to Tony and can't wait to run it next year. “It's everything to me. We're going to have both the 4 and the 14. And 4 was my first-ever go kart number that I started with, and obviously unless you don't follow auto racing but about once a year, everybody knows that A.J. Foyt has always been my all time hero. And when this opportunity came about, it was about a five-minute tug of war between, ‘Do I want my first number back or do I want A.J.’s number?’ And it was pretty easy to decide that I wanted the number that my all-time hero had.
So who will drive the #4, well it could be Newman so look for the deal and sponsors to be announced in the near future. Newman has had his hands full with many different options since his announcement that he was leaving the #12 at Team Penske, he's rumored to have been pursued by Evernham Motorsports, Richard Childress Racing and Petty Enterprises who are are still looking for a driver.
Listen to Race Day on Fox Sports Radio with Rob D'Amico and Michele Rahal Sunday mornings from 6am-9am eastern on 216 Fox Affiliates, XM Radio Channel 142 and streaming LIVE 24/7 at www.FoxSports.com
Call it a recession, call it an economic downturn, call it whatever you like. We’ll let the economic pundits argue over the technicalities, or tea leaves if you will, of where the economy is heading.
The marketing departments of the corporations that breath life into the NASCAR Sprint Cup series don’t care what we, or the economists think it is. If the corporations believe its anything even close to ominous, NASCAR is going to feel the pinch for far longer than one might think.
Anyone can clearly see the wagons circling among the Super Teams of JGR, Hendrick and Roush. How? They’ve begun to consolidate the most marketable drivers who are available and, if necessary, helped these drivers extricate themselves from contracts that are nearing an end.
The losers in this consolidation are clearly the satellite operations such as Yates and other teams that have become second and third tier teams such as Ganassi, DEI and, though it seems ironic, Penske. Dodge has an apparent power-plant problem and the introduction of a new engine this year is still debatable as to what success that might bring the teams who are sticking with the marquee.
What of the newly formed Stewart-Haas team? If Stewart doesn’t choose a marketable driver or drivers and produce relatively quick results, the sponsors won’t remain. The news that GM is cutting costs doesn’t bode well for this team, other than GM has heavily invested in Stewart. GM cannot afford to pull out of Sprint Cup under the perception that Toyota has chased them out. Forget “Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday”, its more a perception of defeat that would further push GM into a financial hole.
However, Troy Clarke, President of GM North America, stated: Motorsports "have not gone without scrutiny. I'm not going to get into specifics about NASCAR. But there will be modifications-changes in our marketing footprint-in this area." He added, "NASCAR, SCCA club racing-we are looking at where we need to be." Funding a championship-winning team such as Chevy's Hendrick Motorsports and drivers of the caliber of Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. costs GM at least $30 million a year.
Very few of the best of the rest have the sponsor or investor power to hang on, Red bull is one that has deep pockets in the person of Dietrich Mateschiz, the owner of Red Bull who fully intends to bring Vickers, Allmindinger and now Scott Speed to the front. Mateschitz does not like to lose and his Formula One efforts have proven that he will spend the money, direct the resources and stay the course until he succeeds.
At the very bottom of this sponsorship crisis lies the basic truth that when a corporation sponsors a team they have to extraneously spend $2 for every $1 they give the teams in order for the investment to pay off in sales, branding or shareholder value. It’s called activating a sponsorship and very few corporations can spend the additional $30-60 million to convert that investment into profits.
On the other hand, make no mistake this isn’t all doom and gloom as NASCAR has seen harder times than we have now. The 1970’s and 1080’s had their share of difficulties with limited manufacture involvement, less expensive sponsorships and, yes, less intensive competition among teams. NASCAR will change, but it will survive.
The pressure to win is great, the pressure to make the Chase is almost unbearable, but the pressure to win the Championship is beyond anything we’ve seen in any of the past years. Toyota has seen to that, thus validating Jack Roush’s cries of more support from Ford.
Roush’s ride through the streets on horseback shouting ‘The Japanese are coming! The Japanese are coming!’ have come true and his early campaign aimed at increased Ford support paid off. Chevrolet stayed the course, introduced a new engine and carefully consolidated its efforts under Hendrick and now Tony Stewart.
Dodge has, unfortunately, found itself painted into a corner as only Gillett-Evernham has risen anywhere near the top. Penske can only skirt the outer reaches of the Chase. Dodge has a great deal of development to do in order to keep from collapsing in its NASCAR efforts. That scenario isn’t so far fetched as the controlling interest in Chrysler is a private equity firm called Cerberus.
Private equity firms have one thing on their minds and that is cost efficiencies. If GM has put their racing programs on the block, imagine what Cerberus might do.
What’s the answer? There is none. The old adage that only the strong survive will be the order of the day and no one will actually have answers about who will be absorbed and who will go away until the Chase is over. Once that happens the silly season we’ve all become used to talking about will seem very small in comparison to who is left standing when we turn our thoughts to Daytona 2009.
Kyle Busch is making his bid to a modern-era record of 13 wins in a season and collecting the most bonus points in the chase for the championship.
After getting win number seven at Chicagoland, Kyle Busch is living the dream “This is a dream season, man,” Busch said. With seven events remaining in the race to the chase drivers hoping to catch leader Kyle Busch should make their moves now because time is running out.
With seven victories in 19 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races this season, Kyle Busch is making his bid towards tying, or perhaps breaking the NASCAR modern-era record of 13 wins in a season, set by Richard Petty in 1975 and Jeff Gordon in 1998.
Busch’s series-high seven wins in ’08 also give him 70 bonus points, 10 points for each win toward chase seeding. That’s a 50-point lead over Carl Edwards and Kasey Kahne who each have 20 bonus points.
Yes I know that Carl Edwards has three wins but with a post-race inspection violation at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March he'll have to forfeited 10 bonus points.
Following race No. 26 at Richmond International Speedway, chase-eligible drivers have their point totals reset to 5,000 and are seeded according to the number of wins the first 26 events. The chase is contested during the season’s final 10 races and coming to an end at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
If the chase began now and we all know it doesn't but Busch would grab the top seed, followed by Edwards (who claims the tiebreaker), Kahne, reigning and two-time series champion Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Denny Hamlin, Jeff Burton, Jeff Gordon, Greg Biffle, Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick and Matt Kenseth.
Remember you still have drivers like Jeff Gordon, Greg Biffle, Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick and Matt Kenseth looking for their first win of the season. Last year all these drivers accounted for 13 trips to victory lane Gordon had 6, Biffle (1), Stewart (3), Harvick (1) and Kenseth (2).
Johnson, Earnhardt, Hamlin and Burton each have one win in '08 but in '07 Jimmie Johnson had walked away a two-time champ with 10 overall wins, three shy of the record.
It sounds like the title from a Hollywood science fiction film that was written about a future event from the past. In some respects it is. The reference here is, of course, the dominant teams that we are seeing consolidate in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Hendricks, Joe Gibbs Racing, Roush-Fenway and Richard Childress Racing. The rest are aspiring to reach these levels of power, though they will require deals with Venture Capitalists, Investment Bankers and, to a lesser degree, wealthy privateers.
Let’s state here and now that this movement is in no way a precedent. Without reverting this into a history lesson, this methodology began long before World War II with Auto Union, whom we now know as AUDI and after World War II became a global mission by the great manufacturers of the day to see who could dominate whom. During the Post War years the most notable of these legendary brands were Mercedes-Benz and Ferrari.
Fast forward to the 1960’s and you see the American racing scene, through NASCAR, begin to adopt the same practice, though with fewer multi-car teams such as Holman-Moody, the Woods Brothers, Junior Johnson and, of course, Petty Enterprises. The idea that a one or two car team could lay claim to the label of ‘Super Team’ was largely dependant on the manufacturer itself and whether that manufacturer, whether it be Ford, Chevrolet or Oldsmobile gave the team the “Factory” blessing.
My, how times have changed, or have they? The Daytona 500 broadcast on live television in 1979 jumpstarted the change that would ultimately bring NASCAR into the American lexicon. The demise of Open Wheeled racing (CART) and the numerous Baseball strikes combined with Bill France, Jr’s ingenious television deals convinced the corporations that they had discovered the great marketing vehicle of the modern era.
Though NASCAR has never looked back, it has had its challenges and faces one today. A weak economy, let the pundits argue whether it’s a recession or not, will inherently slow down the investment of corporations in their marketing budgets. It has never made sense to me that the first thing these companies cut is advertising and marketing, but that is the historical process in all businesses. “Cost-Efficiencies” actually appear as revenue on their books. However, not everyone in the NASCAR garage will suffer shut downs and layoffs from this plight. This leads us to the next level of the rise of the Super Teams.
The manufacturers are fighting hard against each other and if you look at the situation between them carefully you discover a method to the madness. Mark Martin un-retiring, again, to drive the #5 Chevrolet for Hendrick and stating that it’s because he wanted to simply “Drive the #5”, Tony Stewart bailing on Toyota and heading for Chevrolet with the promise of ownership and Lord knows what else behind the scenes he’s been promised and Roush-Fenway still managing to prop up Yates Racing without sponsors. All of these moves could be sold to the public on the surface that Toyota is the Evil Empire.
What is actually happening is that the larger teams are grabbing the most marketable, salable and best drivers in order to get the best sponsors, more money, better equipment and some information sharing system that they can use across their platforms whether their drivers like it or not. The smaller teams, such as Waltrip Racing, Petty Enterprises and the Woods Brothers are now left scrambling to find investors that can bring them at least to a level where the light at the end of the tunnel isn’t an on-coming train. These are the second tier teams with no big brother.
Joe Gibbs Racing and Red Bull will lead the Toyota assault. Hendrick, without a doubt, and perhaps Stewart-Haas will lead the Chevrolet camp. It may be too late for DEI as the rumors have already begun to swirl that they are dressing up for the investor-mating dance. In Dodge’s case only Evernham can be considered a contender for the moment as the manufacturer is still reeling from what its new masters, Cerberus, a private equity firm, may be doing to their racing program internally. A new engine this year wont be enough to keep up with the other manufacturers as the driver pool shrinks.
What does this mean to the smaller teams that can still manage to compete in the Sprint Cup Series? It means they will be competing for scraps for the foreseeable future even if they are aligned with a manufacturer. If they aren’t a satellite team, they won’t get what they need. It doesn’t mean that the fans won’t tune in, after all their favorite drivers are still in the hunt, they may not travel to the events with the frequency they have in past years, but they will tune in. Television ratings are up as a result of a phenomenon that has been observable when economies are bad or are perceived to be in decline, entertainment such as television, movies and sports in general increase in interest.
How do all these movements relate to the sport in general? It is becoming a manufacturers series much like Formula One. It wasn’t intended to be that way, but in order for it to survive at the popularity level it presently enjoys, it is necessary. It never ceases to amaze me how history, even racing history, repeats itself.
So pick your Super Team, root for that driver in that team and watch NASCAR evolve once again.
This past week Sirius Satellite Radio reported that Teresa Earnhardt has hired Bear, Stearn & Co. to find a buyer or at least a major investor in DEI. Bear, Stearn & Co. recently merged with JP Morgan whose business model is to partner with select clients to find innovative solutions in order to reach their companies goals.
Internet reports have DEI President of Global Operations Max Siegel saying; "We have not engaged Bear, Stearns or Goldman Sachs or anyone else. We are contacted all the time by outside firms about getting involved in the sport. We are not for sale right now. Nothing is imminent. Are we constantly weighing that as an option? Does that make sense? Quite frankly, we don't know.”
Siegel continued to explain how they are contacted all the time by financial companies and they’re not the only ones, "Every team is looking for a way to bring in appropriate resources. Every single one. We haven't engaged anybody. People obviously approach us, they're approaching everybody. We're looking to be around for a long time in future. We're feeling pretty damn good about where we're going, competition-wise.”
So let’s assume for the moment that DEI is on the market, why now?
Is it the economy? Could it be the fact that Dale Earnhardt Jr. no longer races for his father’s company and the value of the teams has plummeted? Could it be that Mark Martin, who drives the #8 part-time will leave DEI for a full season with Hendrick Motorsports in 2009? Doesn’t that sound familiar? Not to mention that it doesn’t look like the U.S. Army will be back with the team in 2009 either. The question begins to more like; Why not now?
Last week DEI made an announcement that Aric Almirola will pilot the #8 team full-time and no sponsor was named at that point. Max Siegel says an announcement is coming soon. “We’re fine,” Siegel said. “We’ll make the announcements of who it is over time.”
It certainly seems that DEI needs some financial and sponsorship backing for 2009 and this is nothing new in the NASCAR Sprint Cup garage. Petty Enterprise, the oldest team in the sport entered into a deal with Boston Ventures, which hopes to leverage the Petty brand, thus bringing in badly needed sponsorship and financial backing to help the Petty’s find their way back to victory lane.
Who would have ever thought the King Richard Petty would let go of the family business, but he did because it’s not your father’s race team anymore its big business. Just ask, Roush-Fenway Racing, Michael Waltrip Racing, Gillette Evernham Racing and others who have also taken advantage of their value in the sport.
So let’s take a look at that value, where does Dale Earnhardt Incorporated fall on the most valuable teams list? According to Forbes Magazine it’s 6th. Four other teams are cited as more valuable as the list below shows. DEI has been valued at $109 million with revenue estimated at $86 million, which is based on past and pending sponsorship agreements and scale of operations.
Forbes Top 10 Most Valuable NASCAR Teams in 2008 are: (Dollar amount in millions) 1. Henrick Motorsports - $335 2. Roush-Fenway Racing - $313 3. Joe Gibbs Racing - $184 4. Gillette Evernham Racing - $150 5. Richard Childress Racing - $130 6. Dale Earnhardt Inc. - $109 7. Penske Racing - $100 8. Chip Ganassi Racing - $94 9. Michael Waltrip Racing - $86 10. Yates Racing - $74
It wasn’t long ago that Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his sister Kelley Earnhardt-Elledge tried to negotiate 51% of their father’s company but the pair and stepmother Teresa Earnhardt had ‘irreconcilable differences’, ultimately seeing Dale, Jr. move to Hendrick Motorsports.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. was asked after practice at Chicagoland if he had interest in buying DEI, if it were for sale and he said "I don't mean this in a bad way, but I would not
have any interest in purchasing it." Enough said.
If I look into my crystal ball, just assume I have one, DEI, in my opinion, will have a partner in the near future. It’s just a matter of time. It’s where the sports is heading with primary sponsorships reaching anywhere between $17-20 million dollars per team, it’s not easy for teams to focus on the business and competition side of this sport at the same time.
You know I’m not suppose to say the “F” word, so cover your ears, here it goes. Franchise. NASCAR doesn’t like it but most of the teams want it or least want the benefits of it, because it would give them something to sell if they were to walk away the sport. A value for something that they’ve put their blood, sweat and tears into. Creating ownership partners gets you as close as you can to franchising without saying it’s a franchise.
The reason NASCAR does want franchises' is because it would keep other teams from entering the sport at anytime.
DEI has a long history in this sport starting back in 1996 with a three-bay garage to its current 200,000 square foot Garage-Mahal that sits on 14 acres. So if they plan on keeping it that way then bring on the partners, soon!
