Earnhardt Junior’s new duds coming to a store near you….
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
January 31, 2008 10:35 pm CST 4 CommentsIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

As long as you live in Daytona, that is. Adidas, one of Dale Earnhardt Jr’s new marketing partners is prepping for the launch of their new Three Stripes Dale Jr fan gear.
“Dale Jr. will debut his new three stripes on February 17 at Daytona 500. Working closely with the adidas Innovation Team, they have created a race suit featuring advanced ClimaCool technology. With extreme temperatures in the car, ClimaCool will lower Dale Jr.’s body temperature and combat fatigue, allowing him to be more alert and responsive in those final laps.”
Two days prior to the race, Adidas will roll out their Dale Jr fan gear at The Sports Authority in Daytona. I wonder how those stores will do that week? Here’s a link to more pics of Dale Jr’s new Adidas duds.
Blast off - the new OnPitRow.com is live!
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
January 30, 2008 3:58 pm CST 3 CommentsConsider this fair warning. If you have been kind enough to link to this blog, I’ll be pestering you soon to update your link to the new BenchRacing.OnPitRow.com. In fact, this is your first official pester.
The redesign of our websites, while probably never done, is far enough along to where the switch has been thrown. Out with the old and… well you know. We would not have gotten here without the talents and inspiration of Luke, commander of the Thunder Lounge. Luke doesn’t just run one of the best sites in the NASCAR web-world, he is an elite code-monster. We needed a pro and we got one. Check out Luke’s comments on the new OnPitRow.com here.
This has been a big week for ON PIT ROW in general. Tuesday’s show featured a live interview with Boris Said, who confirmed that he is indeed, very close to finalizing a ride for the Bathurst 1000 and perhaps more, races in the Australian V8Super Car Series. Thanks to Marc for the heads up on that.
Daren Fauth of OneBadWheel.com joinded us to talk fantasy NASCAR and his new game "Champs, Chumps and Sleepers". Steve and I are proud to be sponsors of Champs, Chumps and Sleepers and it will be the official fantasy NASCAR game of ON PIT ROW for the 2008 season. Check it out and sign up today.
Finally, starting next Tuesday, February 5, 2008, you’ll be able to listen to ON PIT ROW live, on the new website. To stream or not to stream has been a debate at the show for a couple years. We just, plain had too many requests for live streaming to ignore any longer.
I would appreciate your comments about the new OnPitRow.com. There are still some bugs to work out and not all of the pages are up as yet, so bear with us. I’ll be updating our blogroll over the next few days so if anything has changed for you, let me know. If you have a link to the Fast Lap blog - and why wouldn’t you? - please update that one as well. Thanks.
Boris should be given a shot at the big time
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.
January 29, 2008 11:32 pm CST 2 CommentsBoris Said can flat out drive–anything.
Got a Grand-Am Daytona Prototype you need raced? How about a GT car, or a bobsled? Are you a big time NASCAR owner with a couple of hot shoes who can’t run the road courses and need some tutoring? Who ya gonna call?
Why, Boris Said , of course. So why is it that when there are rides to be had on a full time basis, nobody is calling Boris? He’s no spring chicken, after all, but then again neither are most of the current rookie class.
Boris is everything a NASCAR team owner should be looking for; a racer’s racer, glib, unassuming and willing to have fun doing what he loves to do almost as much as race–talk. It’s no wonder there are so many “Said-heads” at the track when Boris is behind the wheel.
He paid a visit to ON PIT ROW on Tuesday night and gave his views on NASCAR and the top 35 rule. A rule he is not too crazy about, but accepts that it is here to stay and is willing to live with–even when it bites him in the butt as it did at Daytona last July.
Boris can’t seem to figure out why everyone is wearing the Said fro wig at the race track; after all he was born with that mess.
To hear the entire interview with Boris Said, tune in to the rebroadcast of ON PIT ROW at www.racetalkradio.com on Thursday , January 31 at 7pm ET.
Picture credit: BethAnne Heisler - ON PIT ROW
Sixty mile per hour NASCAR tests at Vegas
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
January 29, 2008 12:54 am CST No CommentsThe Sprint Cup Series headed for Las Vegas Motor Speedway for test session on the fast mile-and-a-half track. Most of the talk on the Speed TV coverage of the days events centered on the 60 mph speeds.

That doesn’t seem all that fast, though. Unless your talking wind speeds - which the Speed boys were. It was interesting that apparently the regular stock car Cup drivers found the heavy wind to be a relative non-factor while the former open-wheelers like Franchitti thought the wind greatly affected their cars. I’m thinking, just wait until you’re in the middle of that 25 car pack at Daytona in the qualifier, Dario.
Also of interest was the fact that the winter of thinking and tweaking by the best minds in racing has turned the chronically tight CoT suddenly LOOSE!
Denny Hamlin was fast in the morning and his teammates, Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch topped the charts in the afternoon. I’m not sure that it means anything, except maybe to put more pressure on the other Toyota teams to try and keep pace.
Picture credit: Rusty Jarrett - Getty Images
Pruett and Montoya kiss, makeup and win at the Rolex 24
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
January 27, 2008 11:08 pm CST 2 CommentsNASCAR sometimer Scott Pruett again teamed with Cup sophomore Juan Pablo Montoya to win the Rolex 24 hours at Daytona.

What is significant is that after doing that last year they went to Mexico City and put on one of the most entertaining Busch races of the year. Pruett was steamed at Montoya for running into him at the conclusion of the race and did everything but question JPM’s ancestry. But it did show us what we could expect from the former F1 star all season long. Montoya is a racer and he isn’t going to back down to anyone–not even arguably the best North American road racer there is.
Lets hope 2008 has as many or more of this type of fireworks.
This week the Fast Lap asks:
1) Chip Ganassi Racing’s three-peat at the 24 hours is unprecedented. Why isn’t he as successful in Cup as he is in sports cars or open wheel?
2) What is more impressive — sharing a forth of the driving duties of the Rolex 24 or doing 4 hours of restrictor plate racing solo?
3) There is quite a seasoned group of rookies along with some young hot shoes running in Cup in 2008. Who will win the ROTY?
4) DJ or Rusty in the booth?
Let us know how you feel about these questions, or anything else
that happened since last February in Daytona. 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 ET on Tuesdays.
photo: autosport.com
Ganassi guys are good at the Daytona Rolex 24
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
January 27, 2008 12:15 pm CST 2 CommentsSometimes it is better to be lucky than good. In auto racing - and especially endurance racing - it’s really better to be both.

With an hour to go in the 2008 version of the Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway, the #01 Lexus Riley driven by Juan Pablo Montoya, Dario Franchitti, Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas has about a four lap lead and is coasting towards Chip Ganassi with Felix Sabates Racing’s third straight Daytona Prototype victory at America’s premier sports car race.
Speed TV is doing a great job covering the event that - probably - only geeks like me have watched for hours on end. They just showed an image of Brian France - yes, the Prince of the France Republic - up on the pit box with Chip himself. Pretty cool, actually.
The Ganassi/Sabates cars have led more than half of all the laps contested in this race the last three years. That’s lucky and good.
Picture credit: Randy Stevens Photography







