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NASCAR media coverage just got better

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

May 31, 2007 5:22 pm CDT 6 Comments

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Welcome back Allen Bestwick. There, that wasn’t so hard.

Maybe absense does make the heart grow fonder. Bestwick made his first appearance on ESPN the duce’s NASCAR Now show Wednesday and actually made the show watchable.

The combination of Erik Kuselias, Doug Banks and Brad Daugherty has been brutal on a showcase show for ABC’s nightly NASCAR coverage. There is a pretty good argument that fans don’t need this show anyway, what with Speed’s generally good quality programming. ESPN is comitted to a nightly NASCAR recap however and the network that brought you the late, great, RPM Tonight in the 80’s has made a start at fixing the show.

Long time listeners and co-hosts of ON PIT ROW are likely laughing out loud to see me cheering Bestwick. I have never been a fan. I haven’t seen much of him in recent years and maybe he was victim of over exposure at the time, but I was not unhappy to see him replaced on the NBC Cup broadcasts.

Wednesday was another story. Allen Bestwick knows NASCAR. Now, NASCAR Now does too.

Filed under: NASCAR & the Media

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Car of Tomorrow

by Charlie Turner

May 31, 2007 12:43 am CDT No Comments

The Car of Tomorrow, CoT, Car of Right Now, CoRN, the New Car, The Ugly little freakin’ toad. No matter what you want to call it, NASCAR’s new car is a huge comittmant for the sport and it’s here to stay. NASCAR did a great job of graphically showing the features and benefits of their new baby. Memorize this page and you will be the star of your next NASCAR cocktail party.

Filed under: NASCAR

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Super teams - the new factory teams of NASCAR

by Charlie Turner

May 31, 2007 12:19 am CDT No Comments

There is a new NASCAR evolving and the traditional factory involvement will be a casualty.

When Carl Kiekhaefer decided to blitz Big Bill France’s series in the 1950s he threatened to change the way anyone who wanted to win in NASCAR had to operate. With Buck Baker, Speedy Thompson and others plus a fleet of big bad Chryslers, Kiekhaefer’s team steamrolled the series until France’ rules manipulations ran him out of the sport.

Junior Johnson gets most of the credit for starting the multi-car team trend in the modern era when he paired Darrell Waltrip with Cale Yarborough.

The last time single car team won a Cup race was in 2003 when Ricky Craven got a win for Cal Wells’ PPI Motorsports at Darlington.

The big teams kept getting bigger and when Roush Racing looked to be adding a sixth car, NASCAR did what NASCAR does and changed the rules. The France’s enacted the four car maximum car count per team.

That rule caused two things to happen. The first was the realization that any organization that was serious about winning races and championships in the new NASCAR, would have to have four teams. The wannabes have been maneuvering to get to the magic number.

The second reality is that any organization that simply wants to play in the France’s sand box, needs an ally. Enter the era of the super teams.

I don’t remember when, exactly, I first heard the term satellite team. It wasn’t that long ago, though.

Hendrick Motorsports, certainly one of the super teams, made news last week when Rick Hendrick said that he didn’t have room on his team for super free agent Dale Earnhardt Jr., but could help him with engines and cars if Junior wanted to go on his own. Hendrick offered Earnhardt satellite status.

Four teams alone does not a super team make. Hendrick Motorsports has all of the ingredients in place.

Four strong well and fully sponsored teams with top drivers.
Control of the technology - engines, chassis, wind tunnel and R & D - that their own teams need and that can be exported to satellite teams.
The assets and the willingness to employ them to take maximum advantage of the rule book. Just look at today’s stories on the way the big teams skirt the testing rules. Marc has it.

In the end, I think you could end up with as few as six or seven such organizations. Right now, Roush Racing, Everinham Motorsports and Hendrick qualify. I also put Toyota Racing Development in the super team class. It turns out that Jack Roush is probably right about Toyota and it’s racing style and commitment. They will be the source of the success of their teams. In reality, all Toyota teams may be satellites.

Who are the other possible super teams?

The Dale Earnhardt Inc./Richard Childress Racing joint engine program could help grow that group.
Chip Ganassi and Penske Racing are the Dodge strongmen and could certainly pull it off if they have the want to. I believe Joe Gibbs Racing is headed toward super team status.

That’s it. All of the other players will be satellites of one of the monsters. They’ll win an occasional race, but no championships.

Not until NASCAR changes the rules again, that is.

Filed under: Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, Nextel Cup Series, Roush Racing, The Waltrips

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Great finish for Kyle the good

by Charlie Turner

May 28, 2007 11:36 pm CDT 4 Comments

On Friday morning, Kyle Petty surprised fans in the infield at Lowes Motor Speedway, showing up with invitations to join him for a few fast laps of the track, compliments of Coca Cola and the Pettys.

Richard Petty is the once and always king. Kyle Petty is the prince. Kyle the good.

Now don’t jump down my keyboard. I don’t mean to dis Kyle’s talent. Kyle is and always has been a respectful representative of his family, team and sport. He has also won eight Cup series races, although it has been a while. Kyle Petty is a good guy. Kyle the good.

Saturday night, the fortunes of auto racing smiled on Petty and a steady, competitive drive all night topped off with a risky call at the end produced a third place finish in the Coke 600. It was the best finish for Kyle in ten years.

Petty has plans to leave the driving to others for five races starting with the June Pocono race. John Andretti and Chad McCumbee will drive.

Kyle will try his hand at broadcasting. With his personality and experience, I think he’ll be great. He looks to be setting up to retire from driving, for an organization that is benefiting from the satellite team trend. Scene Daily had this quote.

"I would like to think we’re as strong as we have been," he said of the
Petty organization. "When you look at what Bobby has done and the
amount of laps he’s led and the finishes and the amount of times he’s
got a lap down and made it back up on the race track, that’s big. I’d
like to think we’re getting stronger. I’d like to think six months ago
we were stronger than we were six months before that, so yeah, there’s
not a good time to step out [of the car]."

Maybe the future will give me that Bobby Labonte #43 win that I’ve pulling for. For this week, the third place for Kyle the good made my weekend.

Picture credit:Coca Cola Company

Filed under: NASCAR & the Media, Nextel Cup Series, The Pettys

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Fuel Mileage and the Coke 600

by Charlie Turner

May 28, 2007 4:28 pm CDT 2 Comments

Its been a while since we’ve had a fuel mileage race and I can’t say it was all that bad to watch. It seemed like for a while every other race was coming down to who had some fuel left and how long could they stretch it. I never was one to really care for that type of finish, but last nights finish to the Coca-Cola 600 was a lot of fun to watch. Who needed to pit? Who would run out of gas? Who whould roll the dice and come up a winner? Casey Mears and his crew chief Darian Grubb took the gamble and came up with a win–Casey’s first win. Congrats Casey and how fitting to have one of the armed services sponsoered cars pull off the win in the longest race of the season.

Give us your thoughts on these while we contemplate the CoTs return at Dover’s Monster Mile.

The Buzz ON PIT ROW is:

Would you rather FOX-TV show the lead lap cars crossing the finish line or see the winner’s celebrations?

The Fast Lap this week asks:

1) Have you ever seen such an unlikely top five as this?

2) Should the 600 be moved to Saturday?

3) Humpy Wheeler suggested changing the qualifyoing format to 4 segments with a quarter of the cars on the track for each segment. Yea or nay?

4) Which was better the Coca-Cola 600 or the Indianapolis 500?

Let us know how you feel about these questions or anything else that happened at Lowe’s last weekend. If we like your comments we could use them on the air during Tuesday’s show. Leave us a comment on the blog or call the show–toll free at 1-877-502-8255 between 5-7pm edt on Tuesdays.

Photo: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images

Filed under: Nextel Cup Series, The Fast Lap

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Earnhardt Jr. on the verge of catastrophe

by Charlie Turner

May 27, 2007 6:19 pm CDT 2 Comments

I have had the pre-race coverage of the Coca Cola 600 on the tube as I do some computer housekeeping. Darrell Waltrip was just asked his opinion on where Dale Jr. would decide to take his talent. D W surprised me.

Waltrip now seems to think that Earnhardt may end up in a satellite deal of either the Hendrick or Gibbs organizations. The thinking being that the mother ship would provide technology and hardware (read engines and cars) while J R Motorsports would supply the sponsorship. And Junior.

This possibility isn’t what surprised me. Variations on this theme have been floating around the air waves and blogosphere since before Black Thursday. The shock was that D W didn’t voice any warning that Earnhardt take almost any offer rather than try to win a Nextel Cup championship as the lead driver of his own team.

Darrell Waltrip knows. He was a superstar with terrific sponsorship and all the confidence in the world when he formed his own team. He failed.

Contemporaries Ricky Rudd and Bill Elliot tried. The auctions to liquidate their team assets were brutal. Rudd says he was lucky to net ten cents on the dollar. The temptation to go your own way is compelling. I know. But history is a teacher or should be.

It would be an understatement to say that Michael Waltrip Racing is struggling. One of the most common suggestions for that team is for Mikey to step out of the car and concentrate on running the team.

I don’t know if this is the right choice for MWR, but it would never be an option for a team with Dale Earnhardt Jr. as a driver.

Maybe the new economics of NASCAR and the current rules that allow major teams to circumvent the 4 car maximum for a team by establishing satellite arrangements will improve the success rate of smaller teams.

The risk is too great for a driver at the beginning of his prime and peak of his popularity, to go this route.

Filed under: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Nextel Cup Series, The Waltrips

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