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ON PIT ROW gets a scoop

by Charlie Turner

Thanks for stopping by OnPitRow.com and the Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie blog. The best NASCAR and IndyCar news and opinion, exclusive pictures and video. I'm Charlie Turner. Follow me on Twitter @onpitrow

October 30, 2007 10:34 pm CDT 3 Comments

Young and talented Michael McDowell joined us ON PIT ROW tonight. Steve had been working on getting the young gun ever since the ARCA ReMax wind-up at Toledo Speedway a couple weeks ago.

At first he was busy testing with Michael Waltrip Racing. Last week, he was busy in meetings with MWR.

We got him tonight and he taped a liner for us before his appearance. In the liner he described himself as such:

"Michael McDowell, driver of the #00 NAPA Toyota Camry for Michael Waltrip Racing."

He went on to tell us that he will indeed drive that car this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway and for the rest of the Busch Series this year for MWR in the NAPA Auto Parts sponsored Camry. In 2008, he will drive Nationwide Series races in the same car until David Reutiman moves to the #44 UPS Camry. At that time McDowell will move into the - as yet sponsor un-named - #00 MWR Nextel Cup Camry.

Michael McDowell might be a bit of an unknown to NASCAR fans. Don’t be surprised if he enters the Cup Series with a Nationwide win in his pocket. He has already won on every kind of track imaginable , including Mexico City , where the Nationwide Series travels early in 2008.

Filed under: ARCA Remax Series, Busch Series, NASCAR Rumors, Nextel Cup Series, On Pit Row The Fastest Two Hours on Radio, The Waltrips

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Earnhardt Jr gets a break and a test session with the A-team

by Charlie Turner

October 30, 2007 10:35 am CDT 3 Comments

Man, I would have loved to be at Atlanta Motor Speedway for the CoT tests on Monday. Of all the places that I could have been this year, that’s the one I pick. Dale Earnhardt Jr’s first real day with the Hendrick Motorsports team.

Driver’s number one and one "A" weren’t there. Jeff Gordon and Jimmy Johnson were elsewhere for the test. The actual testing for HMS was being handled by team CoT test pilot David Green, Cup driver Casey Mears and the new guy. The new guy being - excuse my assumption - driver one "Aa", Dale Earnhardt Jr.

I have seen the following quote a couple places. This is lifted from Lee Spencer’s column.

"It’s been wild how all this has worked out, how much attention this
got, how hard some of it was and how much fun some of it was,"
Earnhardt said. "As excited as it was, I don’t ever want to do it
again. Hopefully, we’ll have a great time at Rick’s and he’ll keep me
as long as I want to drive."

I’m betting that the great time started in earnest yesterday at AMS. Still sore from the latest weirdness in the (I’ll bet he won’t miss it much) #8 car, Sunday - Earnhardt’s recent memories of life at DEI might have faded for a few hours.

Only three more to go Junior. They’ll keep the seat warm for you.

Picture credit: Rusty Jarrett - Getty Images

Filed under: Car of Tomorrow, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Dale Earnhardt, Inc., Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, Nextel Cup Series

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NASCAR’s Watergate

by Charlie Turner

October 29, 2007 11:42 am CDT 8 Comments

Conspiracy theorists are everywhere in the world of NASCAR. Dale Earnhardt Jr is the most conspired against person who never appeared in an X-files episode.

It’s always something isn’t it? In the past, his step mom was scheming to keep his much loved number - Eight-gate. Lately with eight (there’s that number again) DEI engine failures in his Bud Chevy , rumblings of Engine-gate have been common. When a wheel came off of his car Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the blanket, Theresa-gate is what most of Junior Nation probably thought.

But it looks like Earnhardt and the DEI folks are out of the latest weirdness in the kingdom of France. Water-gate. Denny Hamlin apparently ran out of fuel as he led the field to the final re-start. He claims it was due to water in his fuel.

"All day we’d been getting water in our fuel," Hamlin said. "The water displaces fuel and so we weren’t getting the full potential of fuel. We just took it apart again and pulled some gas out of the fuel cell and once again, we got water.

How about this quote from the Dave Blaney’s camp - thanks to Lee Spenser:

"We didn’t know what was going on (with the engine)," said Blaney’s crew chief, Tommy Baldwin. "We drained (the fuel cell) and it was half water, half fuel. I’m guessing maybe it was because we were one of the first ones, us and (Hamlin), to get fuel this morning."

Even NASCAR’s John Darby is getting Gate-shy, I guess.

"There’s no reason to think about conspiracy, going back to the fact you have a Chevrolet team and a Toyota team. There’s no connection there that would make anybody think of some evil spirit trying to sabotage somebody’s race car."

Oh really? So, where were Ray Everham and Jack Roush on the night of October 27, 2007, huh?

Filed under: Chase for the Cup, Denny Hamlin, NASCAR Rumors, Nextel Cup Series, Toyota

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Hamlin finds water at drought plagued Atlanta

by Charlie Turner

October 29, 2007 9:02 am CDT 3 Comments

Jimmy Johnson wins again at Atlanta to sweep the season series in Georgia.

A late race wreck fest led to opportunities lost for Kurt and Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. Johnson only led eight laps but they were the last eight to gain the victory and close the points deficit on team mate and the co-owner of Johnson’s car, Jeff Gordon.

The last caution and the one that led to an attempted Green-White-Checker finish was caused as Denny Hamlin, who was leading at the time, couldn’t get up to speed. Original thoughts had Hamlin running out of fuel on the restart but it was later determined that Hamlin and at least one other car - that of Dave Blaney - had water in their fuel cells.

After receiving the contaminated fuel samples from the two teams, John Darby, Nextel Cup competition director conferred with Sunoco officials:

"What you don’t know is when the water got introduced," Darby said. "What doesn’t make sense about it, if you look at the 22 and 11, you’re dealing with a Chevrolet team and a Toyota team. It’s not like three teams out of one organization have the problem.

"We’re trying to backtrack to see where this came from. There’s no reason to think about conspiracy, going back to the fact you have a Chevrolet team and a Toyota team. There’s no connection there that would make anybody think of some evil spirit trying to sabotage somebody’s race car. Our focus is on trying to understand where the water came from, especially in one of the largest drought states."

The Buzz ON PIT ROW is:

Is NASCAR becoming like the NBA-you only need to watch the ending?

The Fast Lap this week asks:

1) Is Chad Knaus the best crew chief ever?

2) Is there anything to the Dale Jr. cospiracy theories?

3) Who is to blame for the tire problems, then wrecks, at Atlanta; Goodyear, NASCAR or the crew chiefs?

4) Does the GREEN -WHITE-CHECKER finish need adjusting?

Let us know how you feel about these questions, or anything else that happened in front of half empty stands at Atlanta. If we like your comments, whether we agree or not, we may use them on the air during Tuesday’s ON PIT ROW. Leave us a comment on the blog or call the show–toll free at 1-877-502-8255 between 5-7pm edt on Tuesdays.

Filed under: Chase for the Cup, Denny Hamlin, Hendrick Motorsports, Jeff Gordon, Jimmy Johnson, NASCAR Rumors, Nextel Cup Series, On Pit Row The Fastest Two Hours on Radio, The Fast Lap, Toyota

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Goodbye Snickers

by Charlie Turner

October 28, 2007 10:12 pm CDT 2 Comments

Ricky Rudd finished 18th today, in the Pep Boys 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. I confess that I saw none of the race. But I know that Rudd drove the #88 Snickers Ford Fusion to a lead lap finish. I had to look it up. The stats showed that he didn’t lead any laps or even run any in the top ten. The #88 started 38th and finished 20 spots better. I don’t know any details beyond that.

At about the time that the green flag dropped, we had an incident at our home. Our dog had some kind of seizure. We ended up having to…. you know. She was about fourteen years old and we have known for some time that this was coming pretty quickly. Her name was Snickers. She had Snickers decals on her food dishes and her bed.

I’m glad Ricky Rudd had a good day in Snicker’s car.

Picture credit: Ricky Rudd.com

Filed under: Nascar Legends

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NASCAR looks Back to the Future

by Charlie Turner

October 25, 2007 12:24 am CDT 4 Comments

I am always impressed with the info that Jeff Hammond imparts ON PIT ROW, but one thing really piqued my interest when talking with him on Tuesday.

The talk of big name drivers working part-time schedules turned to Jeff mentioning such NASCAR icons as Curtis Turner, Fireball Roberts and David Pearson, who would only run in the big races and not for points.

I asked Jeff if this could be the beginning for more of an emphasis on an owners championship instead of a drivers championship. Jeff agreed that it was quite possible that the team concept of NASCAR could become more apparent as teams could have two drivers for a variety of reasons including injury.

I can see how this could be a part of the whole franchising thing that has been bounced around by the NASCAR wags recently.

It is hard believe that NASCAR drivers weren’t always totally focused on winning the championship and cared more about specific race wins. Maybe that had more to do with these drivers concentrating on making a living for their families, which racing may not have offered in the 50’s and 60’s. Hopping in a race car to win a big purse at Daytona or Darlington was attractive for the big names, but schlepping around the Southeast to run 100 short track races that paid little wasn’t able to put food on the table on a consistent basis.

Two weeks ago we had NASCAR old timer Lloyd Moore on the show and he said he needed to make a living and racing wasn’t the way to provide for his family.

While todays drivers obviously don’t have that problem; their dissatisfaction can be traced more to the "outside" demands placed on them by more and more sponsors. This problem will only get worse as drivers have to appease not just one major sponsor, but multiple major sponsors.

The days of one car- one driver-one sponsor are disappearing. Carl Edwards’ #99 Office Depot Ford will have AFLAC as its primary sponsor for at least 8 races in 2008. Edwards will have to do appearances for Office Depot and AFLAC, thus cutting what little personal time he has.

Using multiple drivers in a car and having the car win the championship, instead of the driver, could lighten the load for these teams front man. The other added benefit from the teams owners perspective is having driver specialists on the payroll. Got a driver that sucks on a road course? Have a road course driver on the payroll. Your guy isn’t much at the restrictor plate tracks–throw your plate specialist in the ride four times a year.

As the song says: "Everything that is old, is new again."

You can listen to the entire interview with Jeff Hammond at Race Talk Radio on Thursday at 7pm. and archived there, thereafter.

Filed under: Car of Tomorrow, Carl Edwards, Chase for the Cup, Jeff Hammond, NASCAR Bidness, NASCAR Rumors, Nascar Legends, Nextel Cup Series

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