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Who Killed Talladega? : Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie on NASCAR has kissed the frog
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Robert Wilson on Richie Evans vs David Pearson: NASCAR’s 64 Greatest Drivers Match Up

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Live NASCAR Fantasy Racing Chat at 7 PM ET Today

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

November 5, 2009 11:56 am CST No Comments

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Join us for our weekly NASCAR fantasy racing live blog/chat session today at 7 PM ET.

Eric McClung will lead today’s event. Eric authors our NASCAR fantasy racing preview every week and has an excellent record as a fantasy racing expert.

Leave your email in the box below and we will remind you right before the chat starts.

Filed under: Live blogs, NASCAR, NASCAR Fantasy Gaming, Texas Motor Speedway

Tagged with: Dickies 500, fantasy racing live chat

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One and Done: Dickies 500

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.

November 5, 2009 11:35 am CST No Comments

Three races remain on the Sprint Cup Series schedule as the teams head to Fort Worth for the Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. This is the third and final “cookie cutter” (1.5-mile tri-oval) race of the Chase, and its defending champion is Carl Edwards.

Going into Texas, the championship is all but settled, as Jimmie Johnson only needs to finish 10th or better in the next three races, even if second-place Mark Martin wins all of the next three races and leads the most laps, to clinch the title. It’s a magnificent achievement if Johnson can pull it off, as it will be his fourth consecutive title (a Sprint Cup record). A 10th-place finish should be easy for Johnson at Texas, who has only failed to finish in the top 10 three times in 12 starts at Texas.

And, oh yeah, there are other drivers competing too. Sorry, forgot about that. Since this column is about One and Done, and I have a format that I prefer to follow, I’ll get into some other picks too. But first and foremost of those picks:

Jimmie Johnson (avg. fn. 8.5): With one win and three second place finishes in his last six Texas starts, he’s just too good. Does anybody else think it’s time to Jimmie-proof the Chase? Texas wants to move this race date anyway - it’s the opening week of deer hunting season in the state.

Tony Stewart (avg. fn. 12.6): He won this race in 2006, led laps here in the spring and has an average finish of 8.5 in the four times Texas has had a November date. It’s not on par with Johnson, but it’s the best you’re going to get.

Carl Edwards (avg. fn. 13.4): Look, I know Cousin Carl hasn’t been himself this year. The broken foot doesn’t help. And to be honest, his Texas record isn’t all that impressive other than the three wins - his only other top 10 was a 10th this spring. But hey, he does have two more wins than Johnson here, and in three less starts - meaning he wins at a 33.3% clip. I think that even despite his off year in 2009, that winning percentage merits a long, hard look.

Mark Martin (avg. fn. 13.8): Martin has no choice but to do well at Texas. After his wild ride at Talladega, he’s mired in quite a hole in points, 184 back of Johnson. Simply put, he has to win, and not only win, but dominate. They’ve been hot and cold all season; this weekend we’ll see how good the 5 team really is.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. (avg. fn. 13.9): I know, I’m breaking my own rule - no picking drivers outside the Chase - but this one just felt right. Junior had six top 10 finishes in his first seven Texas starts, winning the first, and has led at least one lap in all of the past six Texas races. He also had the best driver rating last week at Talladega, and you never know what even the weakest link in the Hendrick Motorsports chain can do with a little bit of momentum.

Filed under: Carl Edwards, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Mark Martin, One and Done NASCAR Fantasy Racing, Tony Stewart, jimmie johnson

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A Tale of Two Race Teams: Bass Pro Shops’ Dilemma

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

November 3, 2009 6:16 pm CST No Comments

The sponsors of NASCAR teams are obligated to pay the bills in order to plaster their logos on the cars. They’re obligated to stick with a team through the length of their contract, for better or worse, and make the best of what the race team can provide them. But that doesn’t mean that when the situation is less than stellar and the contract is approaching its final year, the sponsor isn’t going to look for a quick out; they’ve also got an obligation to look for the greatest return on their investment.

Bass Pro Shops has been a major primary sponsor of a car in one of NASCAR’s top two series since 2003, when they debuted on the hood of Hank Parker Jr.’s Chance 2 Motorsports Chevrolet at a then-Busch Series race in Atlanta. They stuck with that team for the next two seasons, when they won championships with driver Martin Truex Jr. and crew chief Bono Manion.

In 2006, the whole team moved up to the Cup series, and they made the Chase in 2007, with Truex taking his maiden Cup win at Dover. But in 2008 and 2009, the wheels started to fall off: the team failed to make the Chase again in 2008, it was forced to merge with Chip Ganassi’s team in the offseason, and right now is mired at 24th in the standings, while teammate Juan Montoya challenges for victories week in and week out. In response, Bass Pro Shops has scaled back its sponsorship of the car, with a presumptive 26 races this season and only 20 next year.

Right now, that car is vacant for the 2010 season, with Truex heading to Michael Waltrip Racing to replace its namesake in their flagship car. New owner Ganassi wants to put Jamie McMurray in the car, out of a combination of history (McMurray never finished worse than 13th in points in three years spent with Ganassi) and “best available”; the sponsor isn’t so sure that McMurray fits their image.

In a FoxSports.com article, Lee Spencer mounts a weak defense for McMurray, saying that last week’s winner “will go above and beyond for his sponsors whether it’s Bass Pro or anyone else.” Duh. Name me one successful driver this side of Stroker Ace who hasn’t.

Former champion Bobby Labonte is available to Ganassi, and he fits the sponsor’s image much better, but two things stand in the way of that marriage: TRG Motorsports is working to keep him on board with their team, and Labonte is having the worst season of his illustrious career, lingering at 30th in points.

The other available drivers, Reed Sorenson and Casey Mears, are other Ganassi castoffs who never did anywhere near as much with that team in the past (or with other teams as of late) as McMurray did.

The other, more desirable option that Bass Pro Shops has is to find a way out of their contract with Ganassi and head to Stewart-Haas Racing, where they would fill out the gaps in the schedule on Ryan Newman’s car left by the U.S. Army. It’s been an open secret for a while that the match makes a lot of sense; the sponsor occupies a B-pillar spot on owner Tony Stewart’s car, they’ve had an association with him for years, and Stewart-Haas is a step up from Ganassi in almost every way.

Back in April, Hermie Sadler reported on SPEED that there is no “out” in Bass Pro Shops’ contract for the 2010 season, just a day after Fox Sports posted rumors of the sponsor switching teams due to a performance clause. But sometimes, ripping up a contract makes more sense for both sides.

Ganassi, through Target as well as his team’s other partners, could probably find enough sponsorship to field McMurray for the full season if Bass Pro Shops were to be let out of its contract. Before the merger with Dale Earnhardt Inc., Ganassi had a commitment from Target that would have allowed him to run two full-time cars in 2009. This year, Target and its partners combined to sponsor 18 races for Truex and Aric Almirola, besides the full schedule for Montoya (who had other Target partners on his car for four races).

Running a two-car Target program in Sprint Cup could work similarly to Ganassi’s IndyCar Series program with Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti. This year, Dixon drove a Target car all season, while Franchitti’s car carried a multiplicity of sponsors who marketed through Target for the majority of the year.

It’s hard to convince an existing sponsor to expand its support in this economy, but given Target’s 20 years with Ganassi, McMurray’s solid history with the team, and the fact that his personality fits Target’s marketing programs much better than those of a hunting outlet, it seems only plausible. That would then free up Bass Pro Shops to fill out Newman’s schedule, strengthening Stewart’s new team even further.

Of course, this only works out as well as it does when you keep the monetary figures away - I don’t know that a buyout would be worth it for either Ganassi or Bass Pro Shops, or that Target would really be willing to expand its Sprint Cup participation. But for the sponsors, being involved in racing requires a return on the money they’ve invested. The way that things stand right now, everybody stands to be more successful if things get switched around.

Filed under: Chip Ganassi Racing, Earnhardt Ganassi Racing, Jamie McMurray, Martin Truex Jr., NASCAR, NASCAR Rumors, Ryan Newman, Stewart Haas Racing, silly season

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Who Killed Talladega?

by Charlie Turner

November 3, 2009 10:10 am CST 1 Comment

So, there I was Sunday with the house all to myself; TV tuned to the NASCAR pre-race ordeal (sound muted), laptop in my…lap, tweeting away, enjoying the repartee, waiting for my afternoon of seat-edged rapture.

And some sumbitch killed my race.

There was more four-wide action at the Bono trailer park than there was at Talladega Super Speedway. Had to be.

I could have set up my chair on an I-75 overpass and watched double-file cruisers for three and a half hours. Some of the cars would have looked better too. That’s right. This race sucked so bad it made me re-start my campaign against the Ugly Little Toad of a car we race now.

There was a bunch of chat before the race about NASCAR’s announced ban on bump-drafting in the corners. Not popular it seems with drivers or fans. But, could that be blamed for the lousy race? This looked like the very first COT race at Talladega. Bad.

With eight laps to go, Ryan Newman’s scary wreck woke everyone up. That’s two ‘Dega races in a row where the roof flaps on the cars (Carl Edwards was the other) acted more like aelerons than anchors. There’s something bad going on with this car.

For years, the Talladega races have been a showcase for what NASCAR should want casual fans to see when they tune in. Exciting, colorful side-by-side-by-side-by-side racing, with tons of passing with a who-knows-who will win, suspense to it.

And some sumbitch killed it.

Photo credit: Round girl Jen by BethAnne Heisler for OnPitRow.com

Filed under: Car of Tomorrow, Carl Edwards, NASCAR, NASCAR Trivia, Ryan Newman, Talladega Superspeedway

Tagged with: Amp Energy 500, Round girl Jen

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More Wrecks At Talladega: Hate To Say I Saw It Coming, But…

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

November 2, 2009 1:16 pm CST No Comments

Another Talladega race, another wild and dangerous finish.

So it goes every time the Sprint Cup Series visits the Alabama track, where upside down stock cars and a boring first 180 laps or so are about as inevitable as death and taxes.

Yesterday, both Ryan Newman and Mark Martin found themselves a little closer to the pavement than they would have liked over the course of the last few laps. Newman’s flipping Chevrolet actually landed on the hood of Kevin Harvick’s car, nearly putting his rear wing through Harvick’s windshield. Martin’s car was overturned by a spinning Martin Truex Jr. after the third controversial tri-oval finish in as many races.

At least there was some excitement at the end, though. For the majority of the race, cars ran in single file; before the race, Mike Helton warned drivers against bump drafting in the turns, threatening penalties against those who were too aggressive. Since nobody wanted to cross the line and find out how harsh NASCAR’s penalty would be, the cars ran as if in a parade for much of the race.

Everybody remembers Carl Edwards‘ car taking off into the catchfence earlier this year, when Brad Keselowski turned him to win Talladega’s spring race. That incident caused NASCAR to crack down even further on the drivers, adding to the old “out of bounds” restriction - no passing below the yellow line. Ironically, bump drafting in the tri-oval, where most of the problems at Talladega take place, is still fair game.

The restrictions have turned off drivers like Newman, who feels that the drivers should be able to police themselves on the track.

“The more rules, the more NASCAR is telling us how to drive the race cars, the less we can race and the less we can put on a show for the fans. They have created a lot of boredom because we couldn’t race. It is survival,” he complained after the race.

“Richard Petty, Bobby Allison, Dale Earnhardt, Darrell Waltrip, all those guys, they respected each other.”

The real cause of the problems that NASCAR currently has at Talladega dates back to the finish in October of last year. In that race, Regan Smith made an out-of-bounds pass of Tony Stewart in the tri-oval for what he and his team felt was the victory.

Smith cited NASCAR’s previous comments that any driver who was forced below the yellow line made an out-of-bounds pass, the pass would stand. Smith felt that Stewart forced him below the yellow line, and instead of deliberately wrecking the two-time champion, he made a clean pass.

NASCAR’s response was to dump him to 18th in the finishing order.

So when Keselowski found himself in Smith’s position this spring, he learned from the precedent that NASCAR had set, and dumped Edwards. The result, one of the scariest wrecks that the new car has ever seen, injured eight fans. NASCAR’s response was to further exacerbate the problem by giving the drivers even less control of the race, forcing them to be patient until the very end, at which point accidents happen.

The least that NASCAR can do to remedy the problem, if not removing all of their restrictions altogether and letting the drivers monitor themselves, is to change their rules about the tri-oval. The accidents are always caused by bumping and running out of room in the tri-oval in the final laps. NASCAR should be cracking down on bump drafting on the tri-oval at the end of the race, while allowing passes on the apron.

This forces separation between cars in the problem area of the track, while also freeing up another lane for those drivers who get forced down. It makes a whole lot more sense than risking more major tri-oval accidents at the end of the race, and putting more drivers in danger.

Then again, NASCAR hasn’t made a lot of sense with most of their decisions at Talladega in the past year or so, have they? I hate to say that I saw this coming when Smith’s win was disallowed last year, but the sanctioning body has made it clear that under the current rules, drivers will not be penalized for wrecking others to win.

As long as that mindset is around, there will be major wrecks at Talladega. And I don’t care how safe the car is, or that none of the drivers have gotten hurt (yet) - they shouldn’t be happening in the first place.

Filed under: Brad Kesolowski, NASCAR, NASCAR officials, Regan Smith, Ryan Newman, Talladega Superspeedway

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Monday Morning Crew Chief: Ham Solo, Yoda and Darth Johnson

by Mindy Monday, Special To Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie

October 30, 2009 9:19 am CDT No Comments

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

The 2009 NASCAR Star Wars - or the Chase, as Brian France like to call them - are winding to an inevitable conclusion. Mindy Monday says wait until next year for the return of the Jedi - or anyone-but-Johnson.

The latest edition of the Monday Morning Crew Chief looks into strange sponsor relationships and another crew chief to throw at the 88’s wall.

Watch it right here.

Filed under: Chase for the Cup, Jamie McMurray, Kyle Busch, Monday Morning Crew Chief, NASCAR, NASCAR video

Tagged with: Dave Rogers, Mindy Monday, Star Wars, Steve Addington

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