Personal Best

Matt Kenseth is off to the best start of his Sprint Cup Series career, thanks in big part to his new crew chief Drew Blickensderfer. Kenseth, the 2003 Cup Series champion, started the season with a victory in last week's rain-shortened Daytona 500, and then followed up by holding off Jeff Gordon in the closing laps to win Sunday's Auto Club 500 in Fontana, CA. He joined Marvin Panch (1957), Bob Welborn (1959), David Pearson (1976) and Gordon (1997) as the only drivers to win the first two races of the Cup season. No driver has ever started the year with three consecutive wins. Although Kenseth made the "Chase for the Sprint Cup" in 2008, his fifth- straight year in the playoffs, the Roush Fenway Racing driver had a winless season for the first time since 2001. That led team owner Jack Roush to make changes to Kenseth's team during the offseason, with Blickensderfer taking over crew chief duties. After winning the last two Nationwide Series races with driver Carl Edwards last year, Blickensderfer is now two-for-two in his first season as a Sprint Cup crew chief. "Drew has brought magic to the team," Roush said. "We'll credit what we've got going for us early as 'the Drew factor' and look forward to carrying that forward." Blickensderfer spent the past three seasons as a Nationwide crew chief in the Roush Fenway organization. He worked with Kenseth in his Nationwide efforts in 2007 and half of 2008 before moving over to Edwards' team for the final 19 races of the season. Edwards finished second in the series point standings, 21 markers behind champion Clint Bowyer. Two months ago, Blickensderfer replaced Chip Bolin, who returned to his previous role as team engineer. Bolin took over as Kenseth's crew chief at the start of the 2008 season when Robbie Reiser was elevated to team general manager. Reiser guided Kenseth in the Sprint Cup from 2000-07. "A lot of things that Robbie did, a lot of organizational skills, a lot of leadership skills that Robbie did, I tried to mold myself around," Blickensderfer said. "Robbie is an extremely large part. He's pulled me aside probably three times this (past) week when I was at the shop. He talked to me about different things. It's huge to have Robbie Reiser 60 feet away from your office that you can go over and talk to."
After taking the win at California, Kenseth is probably even more enthusiastic about his team right now than he was after the triumph at Daytona. "I just feel great about the group we have assembled," Kenseth said. "Everybody's having fun. Everybody's loose. Everyone's performing at the same time. I think that Drew has given the leadership and the spark they kind of need, and Chip has all the extra time to work on the cars and keep up with engineering and the data, sift through all that stuff. They've been able to work great together so far." Kenseth's crew did a superb job in getting him out of the pits the quickest at California, especially when he beat Gordon on the final round of stops. Winning the Daytona 500 will perhaps go down as the biggest victory in Kenseth and Blickensderfer's career, but taking the checkered flag at California has certainly added momentum towards a possible championship campaign this year. Las Vegas is the next stop on the schedule, and the two are optimistic about their chances of winning at the 1.5-mile track. Kenseth scored back-to-back victories at Las Vegas from 2003-04. "I feel really good about Vegas," Kenseth said. "I felt good coming here (at California). I don't think a win will ever be as big in our career as winning the Daytona 500. In a way, this feels almost better. This isn't restrictor plate. You don't need other people's help. Luck is not involved quite as much.
"We had to come here and figure out how to beat the other 43 teams on speed and strategy and adjustments and all that stuff. Really these are the races that make up the bulk of the schedule. Whether you run good or bad at these tracks has more of a determining fact on making the Chase or running for a championship. It feels pretty unbelievable to win the first two races."
While Jimmie Johnson and the No.48 team attempt to win their record fourth straight Sprint Cup championship, it's probably safe to say with two wins already under their belts and a new crew chief that has brought along some "magic" tricks with him, Kenseth and the No.17 team have now established themselves as serious title contenders this year.

And your Leader is...

In racing, there’s that old analogy of “second place is the first loser.” And in certain ways Sunday, Jeff Gordon did come up short. As Matt Kenseth celebrated in Victory Lane late into the night at Fontana, Gordon saw his winless streak extended to 42 points-paying events — tying the worst stretch of his 16-year career. But for Gordon, losing out on the California Oscar couldn’t completely erase the momentum of finishing runner-up. Two races in, a second place finish — combined with a strong Daytona performance derailed only by the weather — has momentum back in the corner of Team No. 24. And when you’re dealing with a man who’s won more Cup races in the past 20 years than anyone else, that’s not something to be taken lightly by the rest of the competition. “I’m so excited about this race team right now,” a fired up Gordon said after leading 64 laps Sunday — his highest total since Martinsville last Spring. “I love the way the car was driving. To be able to battle and go to the front like that, have solid pit stops… felt like we had the car [to win].” To do so, he had to fight the momentum of the No. 17, whose net gain of 10 spots on pit road consistently stymied the competition. Their final stop left Gordon in the role of the challenger, giving Kenseth the lead for the race’s final restart on lap 216. But while this year’s Daytona 500 winner darted out to a quick, seemingly insurmountable lead, it was Gordon who refused to give up, cutting the deficit to a handful of car lengths in fighting to the final corner of the final lap. “I put a lot of heat on him,” said Gordon in an obvious admission even the casual racing observer could see from a distance. “I drove as hard as I’ve driven in a long time. He didn’t make any mistakes. Maybe one little slip up, but just wasn’t enough for me to do anything with him.” One person Gordon and Company were able to handle quite easily for a change was the No. 48 team of Jimmie Johnson. The man who’s stolen Gordon’s thunder as top dawg at Hendrick Motorsports showed no signs of slowing early on, leading 74 of the first 77 laps and threatening to turn the race into a runaway. But as track conditions shifted with the darkness, the setting sun brought a surprising fade to Johnson’s No. 48. For the first time in recent memory, it was Steve Letarte outadjusting Chad Knaus atop the pit box, as the track fell right into the hands of the DuPont Chevrolet. By race’s end, Johnson was struggling to simply hold onto a top 5 finish, while Gordon was the sole Hendrick contender left standing. The final results didn’t show Gordon and Johnson separated by all that much: second and ninth is just a 32-point difference, after all. But it’s the mental confidence boost that gives Gordon’s corner in 2009 that makes this comparison worth mentioning. After two years of getting beaten down repeatedly by the former mentee, the mentor and his oft-criticized crew chief are looking for any sort of ammo he can get.
“It’s called getting beat and not liking it,” said Gordon of his and the team’s sudden focus in 2009. “ I’ve worked harder over this offseason getting myself in shape than I have in a long time. I’m refocused.”

“I’m a little bit more used to being a dad now.” It’s that word “dad” which many thought would bring a quick end to Gordon’s career; and in time, perhaps it will. After all, talk went wild in Daytona of the man’s impending retirement once Gordon mentioned how he’d like to have a role at Hendrick Motorsports once his driving career is over (for the record, his contract in that department runs only through 2010). With Johnson going for four straight titles, Mark Martin going for his first at 50, and Dale Earnhardt, Jr.‘s quest for legitimacy in the No. 88, it’s easy to lose the most accomplished man in the bunch to “also ran” status a bit too soon. At 37, it’s true that youth of the man they once called Wonderboy has been replaced by experience — and the rigors of modern-day NASCAR point to a career ending sooner rather than later. But one thing about the best athletes we often forget is how many are capable of one final flash of greatness before it all fades to black. For all the talk of Brett Favre’s final year in the NFL, people forget his second-to-last season, when he fell one pass short of leading his Green Bay Packers to the Super Bowl. There was the late, great Dale Earnhardt, who recovered from a four-year slump to finish runner-up in the 2000 standings at age 49. For every Darrell Waltrip, there’s a Rusty Wallace who fills the backside of his career with results to be proud of, not scorned upon. Whether this will be the season of Gordon’s renaissance is yet to be determined. But just two years removed from what could have been his sixth championship under the old points system, we at least know this much … Jeff Gordon is determined not to be fourth on the Hendrick totem pole. And — at least for the moment — that’s been enough for him to end the month of February back on top of it.

It's an "awesome" Crowd?

Auto Club Speedway president Gillian Zucker admitted she arguably has the toughest sales job in NASCAR Nation. "It's pretty simple," she recalled of her time spent at the International Speedway Corp. track in Kansas City, Kan. "You know what your geographic region is and you kind of put out your noise. "But here, it's very, very different. I think the complexity of it is something that people in other regions of the country do not understand."
Zucker, president of the Fontana facility for nearly four years, apparently is still struggling to get Southern Californians to the track. On Sunday, the estimated 55,000 people in attendance arguably were the fewest in all of the 18 NASCAR Cup races held at the two-mile oval. It even was fewer than those who attended the 2007 Labor Day weekend race despite temperatures that reportedly got as high as 110 degrees. ISC has a longstanding policy of not releasing attendance numbers. A lot has been made by the continued lack of attendance. This year, because of the slumping national economy, it had been predicted those numbers might be even smaller. "It's an awesome crowd; that's my estimate," Zucker said. "This says a lot about what Southern California feels about NASCAR. There is not any kind of question that this part of the country has been hit by the economy. To see this kind of a crowd in the grandstands says a heck of a lot. "The doom and gloom that California cannot support NASCAR is dead wrong."

Before Sunday, Zucker had said she would be happy if attendance numbers showed only a 10 percent decrease over last February's race. "I'm happy," she said. "We are absolutely thrilled with the crowd, especially given the economic climate. This is already a late-buying market, so we sell a lot of tickets at the last minute anyway. We sold a lot of tickets (Saturday)."
Seating patterns definitely were different on Sunday. The seats directly below the outside suites and scoring tower typically are filled with season-ticket holders. Seats closer to the track are not as full. But on Sunday, those season-holder seats were about 30 percent full, and the seats closer to the track, which were sold at a new $35 price, were filled. Seats in the upper section of that grandstand area, which has a full view of the track, range between $55 and $105. Zucker said those seats could have been purchased Sunday. On Friday, Cup driver Elliott Sadler suggested Zucker should just give away tickets to boost attendance. "Elliott Sadler drives a race car for a living," she said. "I don't tell him how to drive it, I'm not about to because I don't really know much about it, and he doesn't really know much about promoting a race track. As soon as you do (start giving out free tickets), you destroy your market and your product. That is the great thing in the grandstands today. We did this with cross-promotions with partners." Those promotions included a ticket with every $75 purchased at Stater Bros. supermarkets. "This is a market that is very challenging, and people don't understand if you're not from this area," Zucker said. "People don't realize that if you want to reach the Inland Empire, you have to have people in Los Angeles feel excited about the sport. So, when people say, `Gosh, why are you doing marketing in Los Angeles?' It's because that's where our media market is. "We have an enormous geographic areas with four different media centers. It's different than any other part of the country. We've had to be real creative about promotions and how we spend our dollars."
And then there's criticism about the lack of racing on the track. The circuit's wide, flat surface has been called "boring." "It's not any secret that this track was built for open-wheel racing and that's not what we run right now," she said. "The races are not boring. They're different. If you're interested in tracks like Bristol or a track like Daytona or Talladega, we don't provide those type of fireworks here." She said the track is searching for ways to improve racing.
"But I haven't seen anything to convince me to go to the board of the ISC and say, `Hey, we need tens of millions of dollars to make this happen,' " she said "But it doesn't mean we're not continuing to study it."

California Top 5

Ok, so all the talk is about Matt Kenseth winning his second consecutive race and being the first driver since 1997 to win the first two races of the season, but a lot of other things happened Sunday night at Auto Club Speedway.

#1. Jeff Gordon is pumped:

Gordon struggled most of last year at the 1.5 to 2-mile tracks until the end of the year. His runner-up spot has him excited for the end of the season. After the race, he said: "We keep putting cars like that on the race track, it's not going to be about trying to win a race but how many.'' Still, he didn't win Sunday. His winless streak is 43 races. It took him 42 races to win his first race and he hasn't had a winless streak as long until now. Gordon was upset with himself on the radio after the race for making an adjustment on the last stop. It also could be argued his pit crew could be sharper. A couple of times Gordon lost a position on pit road, including the final pit stop when he came in first but Kenseth beat him out. Getting the lead and that clean air is critical at these tracks and Gordon couldn't overcome that.

#2. Dale Earnhardt Jr. is stumped:

Guess who is 35th in points after 2 races? Yes, it's Junior. The pit problems and crash at Daytona and now he has an engine problem. Certainly this is no time to panic and he'll likely climb the standings starting next week at Las Vegas, still this has not been the start he wanted. Of course there is plenty of time for him to recover. Still, it was interesting to see Earnhardt and teammate Mark Martin both have engine problems and both appeared to be similar _ valve spring issues.

#3. Look who is third in the points:

Yes, it's early, but yes it is Tony Stewart.,who is tied with Kurt Busch. Stewart finished 8th Sunday. "We've done it two weeks in a row now, but I mean, it's still a little early to tell but I thought this week was a truer test than last week was,'' he said. "I was satisfied with the results of it.'' It's a lot better than teammate Ryan Newman mustered. He finished 28th.


#4. The big teams reign:

Six of the top seven spots were taken by drivers from either Roush Fenway Racing, Hendrick Motorsports or Joe Gibbs Racing. The exception was Kurt Busch, who placed fifth in a Penske Dodge that had that new Dodge engine. Richard Childress Racing, which has been among the top four organizations the last two years, was disappointing. Kevin Harvick was the only one who ran well until his engine blew and he slammed the wall (that ended his streak of running at the finish at 81 consecutive races). Jeff Burton (31st), Clint Bowyer (19th), Casey Mears (24th) were all non-factors. One race doesn't make a season, so let's see what they do at Las Vegas and Atlanta, but if they are this far back in those races, then there are some big issues there.


#5. Odds and ends:

Matt Kenseth won $341,615 for the victory. ... The crowd was estimated at 78,000 (place holds 92,000 grandstand seats). The estimate, which included those in the infield RV lots was about 8,000 more than the crowd estimated for the Labor Day race here last year. Sunday's crowd did look larger than the crowd on Labor Day. Four of the five cautions Sunday were for rain. Joey Logano was the top finishing rookie. He placed 26th.

Change is Needed

The biggest event of the year in Southern California starts late Sunday afternoon and continues into the evening on the West Coast. No, we aren't talking about the Auto Club 500. We're talking about the Academy Awards. Nothing all year comes close to rivaling the buzz, hype, gossip and media attention of the Oscars. But for some bizarre reason, NASCAR continues to schedule its spring Fontana, Calif., race head-to-head with Hollywood's Super Bowl. Do they think Meryl Streep is going to grab her Oscar and rush down to the track in her evening gown? More importantly, do they think all those people watching at home in the L.A. market are going to skip the telecast and come to the race? The theory is these two culture crowds don't intermingle. Right. It doesn't matter for the gearheads and hardcore racing fans. Are there many of those in SoCal? But casual fans who might have considered going to the Cup race will stay home and watch the Academy Awards. ACS officials are hoping for a crowd of 70,000. The facility has 92,000 seats. Economic hard times are making it more challenging to sell tickets. But there are 18 million people who live in a five-county area around the track. No matter what's going on in Tinsel Town or how bad things are with the economy, how can ACS not find 90,000 people who want to see the race out of 18 million? NASCAR has been in SoCa for over 30 years, there are fan in SoCa, they just havn't had a good race in over ten years. To add to that, some Cup tickets aren't available unless the purchaser also buys a season-ticket package or a two-day weekend package. Wouldn't it make more sense to fill up the seats with anyone who wants to buy them? The real test for the Fontana track comes in October when ACS gets its first Chase race. If that race fails to sell out, it's time to seriously consider whether this track deserves two Cup dates. However, it isn't just about selling tickets. Sponsors want races in the country's second-largest market. It's good for business. If Fontana keeps both Cup dates, do the right thing and move the February race to another weekend. Anything is better than going up against Oscar night.

The Problem may lie with the track itself. Long green flag, follow the leader racing is what many fans use to describe the racing "action" out at Fontana. The race itself comes down fuel mileage more than who can get off of two better. Some fans say that they would like to see the track repaved, after the February 2008 the race track president herself was playing with the idea of turing the two-mile D-shaped oval into a super speedway with +30 degrees of banking. Other ideas for the track include, turing it into a 3/4 mile track or simply using the 21 turns, 2.8 miles road course that the track already has. Fan don't like the track not only for the lack of side-by-side racing but because of the long walk from there cars to there 'sky high seats.' To get from the stands at the speedway to the nearest bathroom, one has to go down 7 flies of stairs, walk over 1000 feet and wait in line for one of the 12 port-a-potles to open up. The crew members of the teams aren't fans of the track either, the 3 garages with 100 spaces are out dated and too small, making the simplest task imposable. The only thing that the track has going for it is it's over side pit road with 44 stales. If Fontana wants to keep it's doors open and keep it's two cup dates it has upgrade, repave, move it's date, and make the track more fan friendly. They have a great sponsor with Auto Club, it's time to use some of that money on more than just new paint.

Great Marketing Minds

The marketing departments at both Verizon and Penske are to be commended for their efforts. After a week of seeing what the 12 Dodge looks like during the broadcast one can't help but see how much the car looked like it was sponsored by Verizon despite the absence of logos. With the exception of the colors, nothing on that car advertised Verizon. NASCAR had no reason not to approve the scheme. If you looked closely you noticed that Penske changed their own logo, making the normally black road surrounding ’Penske,’ red, obviously mimicking the Verizon logo. From one of the aerial cameras or honestly any camera that didn’t give a close up, you wouldn’t know that wasn’t a Verizon logo. The human mind tends to put similar things together even if they aren’t there. If they can build the perception that the car is sponsored by Verizon, then a Verizon logo never needs to be on the car; it is part psychology, part marketing. Adding to this perception was the advertising blitz the company went on this weekend. Fans were so inundated with Verizon logos you couldn’t help but place it on that car. I even saw at one point they went on board with Stremme and the on-board camera was sponsored by none other than Verizon. While they are taking part in normal marketing practices they are having to get very creative to get people to put two and two together. The funny thing is, this isn’t the first time Penske has done this. When Marlboro was no longer able to appear on Penske’s Indy Car effort, Penske removed the logos, replaced them with familiar Team Penske logos and kept the paint scheme. Marlboro was still giving them money and fans still identified the car as the Marlboro car. The company continued to see returns for their investment. By mid-season, or earlier, the seed will have been planted and everyone who regularly watches a race will easily put David Stremme, the #12 Cup car and Penske together. And they were all able to avoid costly litigation. Bravo to both companies for finding a way around NASCAR’s restrictive policies. If only AT&T could have learned from this.

Save the Date

Bruton Smith amped up his Kentucky Speedway rhetoric this week, with the help of Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear, as they announced plans for a $75 million expansion (with help from the state) to aid them in their quest for a Sprint Cup Series date. And why not? Kentucky is a great facility. The mile and a half, 68,000 seat tri-oval was built in 2000 and has consistently had great attendance numbers. The IRL and NASCAR Nationwide races are usually a sell out and the Truck Series always performs well. Not to mention it is just 45 minutes from Cincinnati, Ohio and about an hour from Louisville, Ky.
Even so NASCAR is not excited about the prospect of another mile and a half, cookie cutter track on the schedule. It doesn’t hurt that they’re embroiled in a continuing legal saga with former track owner Jerry Carroll. They have said they won’t even consider a date for the track until that matter is resolved. Beyond the lawsuit, NASCAR has said they are not interested in giving the track a Cup date because of the close proximity the track has to Indianapolis (just about 150 miles away). Bristol isn’t that far either (about 300 miles away). As a side note the infrastructure around the track isn’t great either.
When Smith announced the purchase of the track last summer, the dynamic certainly changed. Smith had been lobbying NASCAR for a date for 2009, but was unsuccessful. He now says he wants a date for next season. Now NASCAR won’t be supplying the track a date, obviously, so Smith has two options. First, he can buy another track that currently has a Cup Series date and move it to Kentucky. What are his options? Pocono and Indianapolis. Since Tony George is not about to be sell his family’s crown jewel, that leaves Pocono. Pocono though, like Indy, is family owned, and is not likely to change hands soon. If and when Pocono is sold, my bet is Bruton is not the one that gets it. Likewise given the weak reception shareholders gave him after he announced the purchase of Kentucky just months after buying New Hampshire, I doubt they would be too thrilled if he bought another, piling more debt on the company. His second option is taking a date from a track he already owns. Right off the bat, take out Bristol, Las Vegas, Infineon and Texas. That leaves us with Lowes, Atlanta, and New Hampshire. From there, Atlanta is not even contender; if it is SMI isn’t letting on. So we’re down to two. While it is can’t be said that the racing is always great at Lowes, it does makes fans sick to there stomach to think about the track only having one date. Lowes has had at least two dates since 1960. It is part of Charlotte. As for New Hampshire, Smith has said he won’t take its second date away (you’ll remember it got its second date after Bob Bahre and Smith bought North Wilkesboro Speedway), whether or not he sticks to that though is really up to him. In the end whatever means Smith pursues for getting Kentucky a date will be bad for the sport in the end.

Disappointment

It seems like the overwhelming reaction to the Daytona 500 was one of disappointment, not only in the press, but among the fans. Unanimously, everyone was disappointed with the finish. Plus, it's much easier to be disappointed with a rain-shortened race when the winner happens to be Matt Kenseth. If the outcome is going to be determined by the indiscriminate luck of a weather event, give me Robby Gordon, Juan Pablo if you must, hell, I'd even take Tom Cruise so we could watch him go Oprah in victory lane, but sadly Flat Matt only adds to the discontent. Other fans were disappointed with Jr. The major debate was, and I know we were not alone, deliberate or accidental. The general census seems to be deliberate. But I'm not so sure. I simply think he slipped through the race's random pre-screen test.
The moment the weather became a factor, we saw racing in its purest form: get to the front as fast as you can, then stay there. This actually seems like a great new method for turning a sour race into a competitive one. Every time a boring 1.5-mile cookie-cutter race breaks out (take your pick), NASCAR, being omnipotent and never one to shy away from conspiracy, should doctor the Doppler feed, convince all the crew chiefs that rain is imminent, and have them work the drivers into a froth. Then we, the fans, can sit back and watch the action ensue.
Until the rain actually began, that was damn fun to watch. Guys were throwing their cars into the tiniest of holes, changing lanes in rapid sequence, running four wide and bumping anywhere and everywhere they could. It looked like a race choreographed for a movie, complete with the requisite dumb ass move and big wreck. It was enjoyable to say the least - until that anti-climactic ending, of course. Hopfully, the California race dosen't rain out, but who knows. We all know that the California race is follow the leader anyway.

Petty Preview of things to Come?

As NASCAR drama goes, you couldn’t make up half of what’s happened to Richard Petty Motorsports in just the last 90 days or so. After all that, it somehow seemed fitting that in Sunday’s Daytona 500, its very first race as a team, RPM nearly won it, with Allmendinger scoring a career-best third-place finish, Sadler coming home fifth and Sorenson ninth. And it was almost even better than that, as Sadler, Sorenson and Allmendinger at one point were running first, second and fourth, shortly before Matt Kenseth passed Sadler and drove on to victory in a race shortened by rain to 152 laps. “It's a great result,” said Allmendinger. “I kind of wish we could have been able to finish. I think the car was fast. Would have loved to have had a chance to win the race. To be top three with everything we went through in the off season, hopefully get some more sponsors on the racecar, keep this thing going after race eight.”For Sadler, the finish was a little more emotionally conflicted. Sadler led from Lap 122 to Lap 145. As things turned out, the last lap he led also was the penultimate lap under green-flag conditions. After two mediocre seasons, Sadler was glad to have a great start to the season, but he was devastated that he let Kenseth get around him for the victory in NASCAR’s biggest race.“If you'd have told me at the beginning of the day if I would take a fifth place finish and lead some laps for the Daytona 500, I probably would have took it,” said Sadler, who last won a NASCAR Sprint Cup race in 2004, when he drove for Robert Yates. “It's a great way to get a good start to the season. But to be a half a lap short from being the champion of the Daytona 500 is very emotional to me. Had a chance to win it. Just made one mistake off of Turn 4. I didn't drag the brake enough.”Clearly, this one will sting for a long time for Sadler, who is still getting over the fact that the team wanted to replace him.“You know, I can play that pass back in my head a million times between now and when I leave to go to California (for next week’s race), but it's not really going to change the outcome,” said Sadler. “I needed to do a better job leading the race and put my car in a position to make it wider for them to pass. I can sit here and try to be a Monday morning quarterback, but it's not going to work. We'll take it as a loss and need to do a better job next time, worry about when we come back here in July.”Still, on balance, it was a whale of an impressive debut for the organization. “It was a good solid team performance by everyone at Richard Petty Motorsports,” said Mark McArdle, the team’s vice president of competition. “I’m very proud of everyone that contributed to a great day. We put ourselves in a position to win the race and it just didn’t work out. It was a great job by the 44 (Allmendinger) and 43 (Sorenson) to push Elliott and protect him for the lead as long as they did. It was a great day for us.” The question remains, will RPM be this strong all year long or was this just luck at the end of a shortent race? Only time will tell but for now Petty is on top of team comebacks.

Daytona Controversy

It wouldn't be NASCAR if the season didn't start out with a little controversy. It's no secret that Dale Earnhardt Jr. is NASCAR's favorite son. He's the face of the sport, has been its most popular driver the last six years running and, of course, is the offspring of one of the sport's greatest drivers. Because of all that Junior means to the sport, some wonder whether NASCAR sometimes turns a blind eye when he does something wrong. That will be a question asked around countless water coolers and lunchrooms on Monday as folks replay Sunday's 51st running of the Daytona 500. Did NASCAR look the other way and fail to penalize Junior for what seemed like intentionally spinning Brian Vickers, triggering a 10-car wreck? Or was Junior's action simply a judgment call that could have gone either way -- but probably went his way because of who he is? Let's set the scene: Vickers and Earnhardt are both racing hard to get back on the lead lap. Vickers intentionally blocks Earnhardt from getting a run on him -- a perfectly legal move by NASCAR rules -- forcing Junior below the double yellow no-passing lines. Not wanting to be penalized for advancing his position while under the yellow lines, Earnhardt hurriedly works his way back up the track. In the process, he catches the rear of Vickers' Toyota, sending Vickers spinning and triggering a 10-car pileup that knocked Vickers and teammate Scott Speed, among others, out of the race. Afterward, while Vickers tried to be diplomatic about the event that ended his day prematurely -- even before rain ended the race itself prematurely, as well -- Earnhardt was not so tactful. Even though it was Earnhardt who hit Vickers' car from behind, starting the "big one" of the day, he refused to accept blame.And much to the chagrin of many Vickers fans, Earnhardt got away scot-free without even being penalized -- although NASCAR probably should have whistled him for rough driving. Who was at fault? We'll let you decide, giving Earnhardt the opportunity to plead his case first: "I got a run on Vickers and the guy he was beside," Earnhardt said. "I went to the bottom (and) Vickers drove me below the line. He ran into me and sent me below the line. I was just trying not to run into him (and) drive into the grass. (I wanted to) get my car under control and try to get above the line so I (wouldn't) get penalized for being down there, (but then) I ran into his quarter panel and spun him out."He shouldn't have started that (blocking -- it wouldn't have happened. If he had held his ground, who knows? He would have probably got the (lap) back or got the position back eventually, but at that point in the race, that was pretty reckless."Still, that's only Earnhardt's opinion. That gray area -- who was more culpable in the incident -- likely caused NASCAR to err on the side of caution.Or in this case, err on the side of Earnhardt and choose not to penalize him."Penalize me? For what?" Earnhardt said. "I got ran into and sent below the line. What the hell? I don't want to go down there. I didn't aim to go down there. I got sent down there. What the hell am I supposed to do? Then what am I supposed to do? Stay down there? No. I got to get back up on the race track."It was unfortunate, man. If (Vickers) wasn't so damn reckless, we would have never had that problem; that would never happen. As far as I'm concerned, it is all his responsibility."For his part, Vickers felt he did nothing wrong. He was fighting Earnhardt for the lucky dog, went down low to block Earnhardt (forcing him below the double yellow line) and then moved back up the track -- only to be spun out. Ironically, Earnhardt suffered minimal damage and escaped most of the spinning cars that were caught up in the wreck, including the guy who had dominated most of the race up to that point, Kyle Busch."It's unfortunate that a guy that's messed up his whole day on pit road (Earnhardt) and screwed up ... that he has to make our day worse," Busch said. "It wasn't our problem that he was a lap down and fighting with another lapped car."I don't know what they were fighting for because the outside line was coming. Those cars just should have sat there and waited and got back in line when they could."Did NASCAR turn a blind eye? Vickers sure thought so."We're all racing for the lucky dog there and my goal was to keep (Junior) behind me and I went to block him," Vickers said. "I beat him to the yellow line and then he just turned us."He hit me the first time on the way down (toward the yellow lines), which is fine. We all do that. Then when he came back up, he just hooked me in the left rear and, typically, NASCAR penalizes."But NASCAR didn't penalize in this case."I think (Jason Leffler) was penalized five laps (in Saturday's Nationwide Series race) for doing the same thing," Vickers said. "I guess they're not going to penalize him (Earnhardt) for it. It's kind of sad. To wreck somebody intentionally like that in front of the entire field is really kind of dangerous."That's my biggest problem with it, but apparently he wanted a caution pretty bad."The tangle with Vickers wasn't Earnhardt's only issue Sunday. He was held for a lap earlier in the race for pitting, as he put it, "one inch out of the pit box" -- although he protested that his right front tire was on the pit box line, which he felt was within the rules.Who knows? Maybe NASCAR felt that because Junior had already been penalized once in the race, it wouldn't add insult to injury by nailing him again after the run-in with Vickers.I can see both sides of the argument. But I have to wonder if it was someone other than Earnhardt that wrecked Vickers, maybe the outcome would have been much different. It sure makes one wonder, doesn't it?

Pure Racer

A racecar drivers life, your day is 16 hours long. He's been up for 24 straight working to go racing.

You take a warm shower to help you wake up. He wakes up to a one gallon shower (usually cold)The thrill of hearing that engine roar keeps him up.

You complain of a "headache", and call in sick. He's chilled to the bone, hasn't eaten all day, has the flu, and then races his heart out. Everyone knows a hangover or illness just makes you focus.

You drink your Starbucks coffee on your way to work. He drives 15 hours to the next track drinking a coke to stay awake. And when he arrives is forced to park outside the track until 7:00am when the track workers will give him 30 secs to get his rig moving or he gets bumped out of line.

You walk down the beach, staring at all the pretty girls. He walks back to the trailor after tearing up his car.

You complain about how hot it is. He wears 30 pounds of gear in the middle of July and climbs in a 140 degree racecar.

You go to the mall and get your hair cut and styled. He walks around with helmet hair, the last product in his hair probable was 10/40 w oil.

You're angry because your shift had to work late. He has to travel 500 miles in the middle of the night with a torn up racecar just for 2 thousand dollars...if he wins.

You criticize your local drivers and say they're nothing but dumbass rednecks. He puts his life on the line to entertain a crowd of 2,500 people and does it because he loves it.

You hear the stories about fallen drivers and say they should have known better. He knows that the .001 of a sec it takes to beat to the next car, could be pushing it but is willing to risk it.

You see the bright lights and lots of trailers when you go by. He sees the heartbreak, blood, sweat, and tears put into his sport, but still believes this race, it will be his day.

You rush home to catch the next game on TV. He stops in some small town to wash the race car and trailer because he is proud of what he has accomplished and he wants everyone to see his car with the love he does.

You sit there and judge him, saying the that its a waste of money to go do such a silly thing and call it a sport. But its not the money. It's the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat. It's seeing the smile on his son's face even after having a horrible night, because no matter what his son still thinks he's the best. It's the fans that cheer for him durring driver introductions. It's a drivers life.

Steping Down, But Not Away

After 30 years of running at full speed nearly every waking hour of every day, Ray Evernham is ready to take a rest. Everything is relative, of course. That doesn't mean he won't stay busy. The former Cup Series champion crew chief and car owner will serve as a network television analyst. He also recently purchased East Lincoln Speedway -- a three-eighths-mile dirt track located in Lincoln County, N.C.; and is helping promote a class of four-cylinder speedsters that he hopes to make affordable and safer for young drivers looking to start out on dirt or pavement.
Oh, and there is the little project he has going with professional drag-race driver Doug Herbert. Evernham and Herbert are building a behemoth that they hope to take to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah this August, where Herbert plans to make a run at the land speed record of 500 miles per hour for a piston-driven car. But what really keeps Evernham cooking these days is the museum/shop he's putting together in Mooresville. It's located in between the city of Charlotte and the Statesville, N.C., shop where he so recently used to put in long hours as the head of Evernham Motorsports and later, to a lesser degree, at what became Gillett Evernham Motorsports. He made it very clear that he's taking a break from the competitive side of the Cup wars. "I know that at some point, I'm going to have to step back into something that's highly competitive," Evernham said. "But I want to make sure I'm rested and refreshed when I do that -- because I don't feel like I was using my brain as much as I should have been for the last couple of years." Evernham sold controlling interest in his Cup operation to the family of George Gillett two summers ago. It wasn't long thereafter that he began staying away from Cup races more frequently -- and as time went on, he became less and less involved with the race teams he helped found when Dodge made its return to racing with him in 2000.

Nonetheless, Evernham said he is not done being involved with racing at the Cup level. He said he knows he has "a couple of big projects left inside me." Yet he scoffed at the idea that a return to the top of the pit box as someone's crew chief might ultimately beckon him.
"Great quarterbacks, great coaches ... people always say they can go back and do it again. I think I had my time, and I really appreciate that. But everybody is in a cycle," he said.
"That's not to say I wouldn't enjoy helping a crew chief. But to be a crew chief nowadays is much different than when I was a crew chief years ago. And it'll be 10 years this year since I was a crew chief. I think that job has changed.
"I do think I can still add to a team in some ways, but as much as you would think I would be tempted to go back and get on the box and make the call that saves the day, those days are probably past me now." He indicated that he would be more likely to help NASCAR if they ask for his assistance in some way with safety or some other initiatives. He also said he would never turn down inquiring phone calls from team owner Rick Hendrick or driver Jeff Gordon, with whom he won three Cup championships as crew chief. "If Mike Helton came to me and said, 'Look, we need you to come up here and help us with NASCAR because it will better the sport,' I would do it. If Jeff Gordon said, 'Look, I'm thinking about retiring in a year or two years and I really want to work together, will you come help Stevie?' I would consider that. I can tell you Jeff believes in Stevie 100 percent and he should, because I believe in Stevie, too," Evernham said.
"But if somebody said we want you to take Joey Logano and go bring him the championship, I would say I'm not interested. That's nothing against Joey Logano. [But I've] been there, done that. I couldn't get fired up about it, even though it would probably be a smart thing to do because Logano is probably going to go on and be a great champion.
"But it's not what I'm about now. There are so many contractual things that just can't happen -- plus my priorities are just a little bit different." Evernham added that he looks back on his efforts to rebuild the Dodge racing program with great pride. His race teams at Evernham and Gillett Evernham won a total of 15 Cup races and 28 poles while running eight full-time seasons.
"I felt like overall we did a pretty good job for what we started with. I think certainly we did a proud job for Dodge, and, you know, the truth is I worked myself to death doing it. I couldn't give any more effort than I gave. I gave the best of everything I had at that time to make that successful," Evernham said. "We built the business. We promised we were going to win races and we won some races. And we had a good enough business plan together to be able to do something that a lot of people in this sport haven't been able to get done. We sold a race team for franchise-type numbers to another professional sports organization. So I think when people look back at it, people will have to say that even though I didn't win a championship ... most people will tell you we did a pretty good job and then made a pretty good business decision."

Preseason drug tests

NASCAR does not anticipate suspending any drivers who took their preseason drug tests last week in North Carolina, sanctioning body spokesman Ramsey Poston said. “We are proud of how the process worked so far,” Poston said in a statement. “All drivers, crew members and officials will have passed the substance-abuse test going into the season.” Drivers in NASCAR’s three national series must pass a drug test during the preseason, and most drivers took their test last week at the NASCAR Research and Development Center. This is the first season that NASCAR is requiring its drivers to pass a preseason drug test. Its previous policy allowed NASCAR to test at any time for reasonable suspicion – which is still the policy today – but did not require the passing of a preseason test. Teams had to submit crew rosters and list those who had passed a drug test in order to have them licensed to work on the cars. “We will continue to randomly test throughout the season,” Poston said, “and our reasonable suspicion remains in place, making NASCAR’s substance abuse policy one of the most comprehensive in sports.”