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Chris Lacey on Richie Evans vs David Pearson: NASCAR’s 64 Greatest Drivers Match Up
John Douglas Jr. on Richie Evans vs David Pearson: NASCAR’s 64 Greatest Drivers Match Up
Ryan Rantz on Fast Laps: Daytona
Marc on Fast Laps: Daytona
Charlie Turner on Fast Laps: Daytona

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Crossed Flags for NASCAR on the Fourth of July

by Charlie Turner

I'm Charlie Turner co-host of the syndicated, mostly NASCAR radio show On Pit Row. Thanks for stopping by OnPitRow.com and the Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie blog. Oh yeah, Steve is an idiot. Follow me on Twitter @onpitrow

July 3, 2009 11:30 am CDT No Comments

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Crossed flags are displayed. Sometime Saturday night - barring rain - the Sprint Cup Series will have reached the halfway point in the 2009 season.

So far…

Rookies (One is a rookie owner) have won three races.

Mark Martin and the Shrub have three wins each.

Martin and Rowdy are a combined 888 points behind rookie Tony Stewart.

17 points separate the five drivers from 14th place to 10th. Kasey Kahne is one point out of the Chase. Juan Pablo Montoya is “in” by one.

Owner Richard Petty has a win. Owner Richard Childress doesn’t.

Tony Eury Jr is still “out”. Dale Earnhardt Jr is still “in”.

Danica Patrick is still in open wheel racing. Tony George isn’t.

18 races to go.

Photo credit; Round girl Jen by Bethanne Heisler for Onpitrow.com

Filed under: Chase for the Cup, NASCAR, Sprint Cup Series, Tony Stewart

Tagged with: Round girl Jen, Tony George

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Daytona Fantasy Racing Live Chat: Thursday at 7 PM ET

by Charlie Turner

July 2, 2009 11:07 am CDT No Comments

Join us tonight on the Bench Racers Live page for an hour or more of live NASCAR fantasy racing advice and discussion.

You can sign up to be reminded in the box below. Hope you can stop by as Ryan Rantz shares his expertise for the Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca Cola at Daytona International Speedway.

Filed under: Daytona International Speedway, Live blogs, NASCAR, NASCAR Fantasy Gaming, Sprint Cup Series

Tagged with: Coke Zero 400, Fantasy live chat

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One and Done: Coke Zero 400

by Chris Leone, Special To Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie

If OnPitRow.com was a NASCAR team, I’d be the development driver of the bunch. In the same way that young hotshots like Joey Logano have been driving since they were in grade school, I’ve been following and writing about all forms of motorsports since I was barely old enough to talk.

July 2, 2009 12:39 am CDT No Comments

The Coke Zero 400 signals the halfway mark of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. When the winner crosses the finish line on Saturday night, we’ll be 18 races into the 36-race season, and only eight events away from the Chase for the Sprint Cup. The venue is historic Daytona International Speedway, site of the season-opening Daytona 500 and the birthplace of the sport.

Daytona, like its restrictor-plate superspeedway cousin Talladega, is often wildly unpredictable, with top cars often getting taken out of the race due to the “big one.” Surviving a restrictor-plate race is all about luck. It’s about not getting shuffled to the back of the pack at the wrong time, and not running into the back of another car during the wrecks.

But, assuming we have one of those rare restrictor-plate races where no crash occurs and everybody survives, here are some picks:

Marcos Ambrose: It’s Daytona. Crashes happen. Crazy things happen. Anybody can, provided they avoid the big one, win this race. Ambrose avoided trouble in his first Daytona start, has run solidly all season, and could, just as easily as anybody, avoid the wrecks this time around and win. Then again, so could anybody. It’s always a crapshoot.

Matt Kenseth: Well, he did win the Daytona 500… At the same time, he’s also got an incredible record in summer Daytona races, finishing in the top 10 in five of the past six races.

Kyle Busch: You know how it is with Shrub. He’s a factor to win every week, and the defending champion of this race. And if we know anything about Shrub, just because he triggered a melee last weekend, doesn’t mean he won’t be afraid to set off an even bigger one on the superspeedway. He’s going to make every move available to win the race.

Jeff Gordon: You know, neither Gordon or teammate Jimmie Johnson has been too stellar over the past few years at Daytona, aside from a fifth by Gordon in this race two years ago. But Gordon’s led laps in his past four Daytona races, and 12 of his past 15 starts at the track. It’s a solid bet that you can’t keep him down for long.

Tony Stewart: At this stage of the game, Stewart-Haas is one of the top teams on the circuit, and Smoke’s the undisputed leader. He’s won at Daytona before, and this is traditionally the time of year he starts to heat up. Imagine Smoke getting even better? That’s a scary thought for the opposition.

Filed under: One and Done NASCAR Fantasy Racing

Tagged with: Coke Zero 400, Daytona International Speedway, One and Done NASCAR Fantasy Racing

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Fast Laps: Daytona

by Matt Mercer, Special To Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie

I'm the writer of The Catfish Show NASCAR Blog, which you can access through the links on the right. Follow me on Twitter: @mattmercer

June 29, 2009 3:29 pm CDT 4 Comments

We’ve recently witnessed Formula One save itself from an IRL/CART division, and in the process Max Mosley will step aside from leadership. The teams’ complaint was over a salary cap, as teams wish to spend as much as their heart desires each year. Ferrari’s annual budget reportedly runs close to half a billion(!) dollars. I bring this up to talk about NASCAR and cost-cutting measures being talked about and in some cases already implemented. No more testing. The new car and strenuous limits on what can be done to the car. It’s been my opinion for a long time that NASCAR needs to open up and make the Sprint Cup Series more like Formula One, at least from the standpoint that teams should be free to do what works and let them be creative. The sport grew because of those advancements along with teams and manufacturers wanting to best one another. Today, however, manufacturers are in trouble. Still, that’s not a reason to homogenize the top series any more than it has already become. My view is let Sprint Cup be the big boys and let them have the advancement. Drop down to Nationwide, and let’s go with some cost-cutting. Limit cars. Do whatever they planned to do. In the Camping World Truck Series, go even further. Let’s have the best of both worlds. Sprint Cup doesn’t need to be like IROC with common cars and common everything. If you’re going to call it your top series, then actually treat it as the pinnacle of the sport.

Let’s get to the comments and see some good answers. Tell your friends to reply too. Remember the new rule, 100 words total.

1. Going back to my complaint/rant in the opening, are “spec” or common engines inevitable or will we continue to see brand-specific engines in Sprint Cup?

2. Should NASCAR push through the Nationwide COT in superspeedway and road course races in 2010, as has been mentioned?

3. Does this restrictor plate package need to be changed?

4. How long do you remember rain-shortened wins? Stats don’t care about it, but do fans?

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media

Filed under: Daytona International Speedway, NASCAR

Tagged with: Camping World Truck Series, Ferrari, Formula One, IRL, IROC, Max Mosley, Nationwide, Sprint Cup

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Joey Logano Uses Zippadelli’s Leadership to Beat the Rain at Loudon

by Steve Wronkowicz

I am co-host of the syndicated radio show: ON PIT ROW. Charlie likes to call me an "idiot". I'm not an "idiot"; I just prefer not to let the facts get in the way of my opinions.

June 28, 2009 8:45 pm CDT No Comments

Joey Lagono did something that most nineteen year olds have a hard time with; listening to their elders.

Logano listened to crew chief Greg Zippadelli, when he told the first year Cup driver to save enough fuel to make it to the red flag. Rain came on lap 273 of the scheduled 301 laps and “Sliced Bread” was in a position to win. What early on looked to be bad luck turned out to be good for the #20 team. A couple of flat tires and a torn up left rear quarter panel forced him to pit for new tires and allowed the rookie to top off with fuel during the several stops necessary to get the car back into contention. Logano wasn’t thinking silver lining at the time:

We had a left rear cut down right before we made that last long green flag run and just trying to overcome that. When that happened, I thought we were done. I was like, the day just went bad, just try to finish it off and get as best finish we can and we made the right move at the end. He (Zippadelli) went for it and I was just lucky enough to be in the seat.

The win puts Joe Gibbs Racing back in the win column for the first time in a ride other than the #18 of Kyle Busch. Logano’s Cup season got off to a rough start. Just maybe he was in a bit over his head which led me to believe that he might fold under the pressures and not make it past the middle of the season. Look here to see how wrong I could be.

Double file restarts have greatly increased the viewer excitement of the races since their inception. They have also been the cause of some mishaps. Perhaps the two go hand in hand. Loudon had a “big one” the likes of which reminds fans of the side by side racing usually reserved for the plate tracks. The racing has been more fun to watch and NASCAR must be given credit for the move.

This all leads us to this week’s BUZZ ON PIT ROW:

If the new double file restarts can make for exciting races at New Hampshire and Sonoma; can it do the same for the ‘cookie cutters” at Chicago, Kansas, Atlanta et al?

Let us know what you think and we could use your comments on this week’s ON PIT ROW radio show. Listen live every Tuesday from 5-7pm ET at www.onpitrow.com. Or give us a call at 1-800-645-2946 and if your call is The Shell Nitrogen Enriched Call of the Day you will win a Kevin Harvick bobblehead.

photo credit: Dew Hallowell/Getty Images for NASCAR

Filed under: Atlanta Motor Speedway, Joe Gibbs Racing, Joey Logano, NASCAR, On Pit Row The Fastest Two Hours on Radio

Tagged with: Joe Gibbs Racing, Joey Logano, Kyle Busch

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A Much Different Race At New Hampshire This Time Around

by Chris Leone, Special To Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie

June 28, 2009 7:59 pm CDT 2 Comments

It’s difficult to knock your home racetrack for usually putting on a boring show, but I frequently find myself complaining about the New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Sprint Cup’s answer to the Milwaukee Mile, the 1-mile flat track has put on plenty of snoozefests or rain-shortened tilts over the past few years. As a fan who attends both Sprint Cup races at the track every year, and having been a ticket holder at the track for more than ten years, I often find myself wondering on the drive home whether or not the race I just saw was worth the price of admission.

Today’s event, however, might have finally sold me on Loudon.

Remember that when I wrote about “fixing” NASCAR, I wanted a shorter schedule for the Sprint Cup boys, and that NHMS was one of the first tracks I wanted to go. Despite the fact that it almost always sells out (owing to its status as the only Cup track in New England), there’s always been a negative aura over the track ever since Adam Petty and Kenny Irwin Jr.’s accidents. Remember the 2001 race run on Thanksgiving weekend? Do you have any idea how frigid that was?

Today’s race, though - there was something different about it, compared to the past few years. It didn’t feel like a chore to sit through this race the way it has in some years past. For one, with the starting lineup set by owners’ points, it was fun to watch the guys who were fast in happy hour work their way through the field. In particular, Martin Truex Jr. was showing his stuff early on, working his way into the top 10.

Even the commercialism seemed to be toned down this weekend. The $ouvenir price$ were $till the $ame (if you were enough of a $ucker to $pend $25 on a t-$hirt), but there were far fewer trailers on track grounds selling new gear. Aside from the Aaron’s Lucky Dog and ServiceMaster Cautions, there weren’t too many ads on the three big screens placed around the track.

That made it a lot easier to focus on the racing at hand - and boy, were there some highlights. I’m a little peeved at Kyle Busch for taking out Truex, my One and Done pick this weekend, and causing one of the biggest wrecks at the track in recent memory. The double-file restarts (I refuse to call them that cheesy name that Brian France gave them) completely changed the race, and produced some pretty good battles between Jeff Gordon and Kurt Busch.

And how about Joey Logano winning his first career Sprint Cup race? In a way, this is Sliced Bread’s home track - although he relocated to Georgia to further his career around the turn of the decade, he’s originally from Connecticut. Same goes for crew chief Greg Zipadelli, a Berlin, CT native. It’s always a great feeling to get your first win, and it’s great, too, to win at your home track. Combining both must be a dream come true for the No. 20 team.

Sure, the win’s a little controversial due to the race ending early, but either way, it etches Logano into the record books as the youngest Sprint Cup winner ever. And even as driver development contracts are starting earlier and earlier in drivers’ lives and careers, it’s unlikely that anyone is going to win another Sprint Cup race at 19 years old anytime soon.

Today’s Lenox Industrial Tools 301, although rain-shortened (do you think they’ll ever go “the extra mile”?), was the best Sprint Cup race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in a long time. More than ever, I can say that I’m looking forward to the start of the Chase ten weeks from now. Hopefully that race will deliver as much entertainment as this one did.

Filed under: New Hampshire International Speedway

Tagged with: Greg Zipadelli, Jeff Gordon, Joey Logano, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Lenox 301, Martin Truex Jr., New Hampshire Motor Speedway

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