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Will the Big Domino Fall this Week?

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

June 28, 2008 12:56 pm CDT 4 Comments

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How good would a team of Smoke and the Rocket be? Will Tony Stewartfans have to endure the trauma of - Oh no, not again - changing numbers, as Junior fans did this year? Tony Stewart driving the #66 Office Depot Chevrolet? According to those closest to the silly season contenders, those are some of the questions we may just get to answers to in the coming days. Semi-regular, ON PIT ROW contributor Lee Spencer of Fox Sports has a few of sponsor names to mix in with the driver speculation….

Stewart is currently 11th in the point standings — 500 points behind teammate and leader Kyle Busch and closer to the bubble than he and crew chief Greg Zipadelli care to be. J.D. Gibbs insisted last Sunday that nothing has changed with Stewart’s status at Joe Gibbs Racing although there are reports that Office Depot and Old Spice will join the driver in his next venture — and rumors that Burger King and Jack Daniels could also be coming aboard.

Tom Jensen at Speed has this ….

One way or another, it is likely Stewart will be out at JGR, either next year or in 2010, and almost certainly with a Chevy team. If he goes to Haas-CNC, he’ll likely take another front-line driver with him, either Martin Truex Jr. or Ryan Newman.

I have a feeling that Tony’s next big press conference will be a good one.Photo credit: BethAnne Heisler - ON PIT ROW

Filed under: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Haas CNC Racing, Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, Martin Truex Jr., NASCAR & the Media, NASCAR Rumors, Ryan Newman, Sprint Cup Series, Tony Stewart

Tagged with: blog, Chevrolet, Haas C & C, Martin Truex Jr., motorsports, NASCAR, NASCAR Rumors, Ryan Newman, Tony Stewart

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Flash! Spy info from NASCAR R & D!

by Charlie Turner

June 28, 2008 10:54 am CDT No Comments

From the hills of California wine country to the highlands of New Hampshire is a bit over 3000 Mapquest miles. NASCAR must own a travel agency or something. How much sense does that make with diesel selling for $5 a gallon?

I wonder if there is any truth to the rumor that Brian France will announce a brand new program designed to save all of his minion’s teams even more money than the Car of Tomorrow - or CoT (or Cash outlay’s Till-we-get-it-right) has saved them?

The next rumored innovation is the - are you ready? - Hauler of Tomorrow! That’s right - the HoT!

No details were available at posting time, but we can surmise some things from past experience.

Spoilers and splitters will be involved
Most everybody will think the HoT’s are ugly
Cash savings will be disguised as additional investment in R&D
They won’t handle worth spit
Only the big teams with the big sponsors will be able to afford them, but that won’t matter to NASCAR. Everybody saves!
Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards will be fast in them
Next year’s All Star week will feature a “jack-knifing” contest
NASCAR will buy Mapquest and doctor the figures

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc.

Filed under: Brian France, Car of Tomorrow, Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch, NASCAR Rumors, Sprint Cup Series

Tagged with: blog, Brian France, Car of Tomorrow, Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch, motorsports, NASCAR, NASCAR Rumors, Sprint Cup Series

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Gettin’ Loose in Loudon’s Turn Three Could Hurt

by Charlie Turner

June 27, 2008 11:07 am CDT 2 Comments

New Hampshire International Speedway always makes me nervous. This year, maybe more so than ever. The track has seen more than its share of carnage through its history. Loudon may have been the track that most needed the soft-wall technology of the Safer barriers. With long straights and sharp, relatively flat corners, the New Hampshire miler will be especially tough on drivers for teams that don’t have the New Car’s special handling requirements figured out. Missing the set-up could hurt.

The Loose in Turn Three experiment continues this week with Do You NASCAR, Bruce’s NASCAR Bits and Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie each fielding a topic to chew on. Here’s the Bench Racing hor dourve of the week….

After what we saw at Infineon Raceway, is there still a place for “road-course ringers” in the Cup Series?

Charlie: If you run a top tier Cup team, your drivers better be able to at least hold their own on the road courses. Your best teams need drivers that can do it all. The ability of most of the regular Sprint Cup drivers to handle the road courses has improved so much that it would take the perfect storm of circumstances to have a non-regular win ANY Cup race. Only if you have a team that is on the edge of top thirty five contention - or is out of the top thirty five all together - would trying to catch a specialist’s lightning in a bottle be worth disrupting your group’s chemistry.

Bruce: No. Only if you’re a 30th and worse team with driver proven to be inefficient on road courses would you even think about it. Any time a team brings a ringer in, it’s a slap in the face to the regular driver, even if he appears on board, you’re killing his opportunity to accrue valuable driver points. Everyone either has the talent, or can be taught the skills, if the team really wants to invest in their driver.

TZ: Of course any team that’s on the bubble for the top-35 in owner points should consider using specialists at courses like Infineon or Watkins Glen. But, to throw a wrench in your guys’ theory that it’s reserved ONLY for those teams, what about teams like the no. 8 DEI car? You’re already limiting his Cup experience to a measley 8 races this year, so there’s no real logic in making sure that he gets in there at the road courses. Then, there’s also occassions when that teams are well within the top-35, yet have no real loyalty in a multi-year sense to their driver … guys like a Dave Blaney. In this instance, lingering After what we saw at Infineon Raceway, is there still a place for “road
course ringers” in the Cup Series?

That’s what we think. How ’bout you? Leave your feedback in the comments section. After doing that, head over to DoYouNASCAR.com for TZ’s topic for the week…..

After a lackluster 2007 season, can the no. 16 team keep it together long enough through the next 10 races to keep Greg Biffle in Chase contention?

Then check out Bruce’s Bits for this one…

Should NASCAR and Sunoco make a concerted effort to convert the sport over to a less fossil fuel centric sport?

Photo credit: BethAnne Heisler - ON PIT ROW

Filed under: Casey Mears, Chase for the Cup, David Ragan, Greg Biffle, Kyle Busch, Marcos Ambrose, Matt Kenseth, NASCAR Rumors, Sprint Cup Series, Turn 2 posts

Tagged with: blog, David Ragan, Greg Biffle, Infineon Raceway, Kyle Busch, Marco Ambrose, Matt Kenseth, motorsports, NASCAR, road course ringers, Sprint Cup Series

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Silly Season is in High Gear Earlier than Ever

by Steve Wronkowicz

I am co-host of the syndicated radio show: ON PIT ROW. Over ten years on the air and three on the net; see what can happen when I don't let the facts get in the way of my opinions.

June 24, 2008 12:11 am CDT 6 Comments

California’s wine country applauds Kyle Busch after winning at Infineon Raceway.

Ever since the incident with Dale Earnhardt Jr., Shrub has been head of the most wanted list of many NASCAR fans. But in a weird twist, after his win at Infineon, hardly a boo was heard. Could the tide be turning in Rowdy’s popularity so soon? He didn’t even give his signature “brat bow” to the fans.

Overshadowing Shrub’s win could be the breaking news that Mark Martin could be leaving DEI to run for his “last” championship at Hendrick Motorsports. Or will he do a shared ride deal with Brad Keselowski? There are lots of rumors revolving around Martin’s future plans.

This weeks BUZZ ON PIT ROW asks:

What is the probability that Mark Martin will win a championship if indeed he moves full time to Hendrick Motorsports?

NASCAR journalist Dustin Long with the Roanoke Times will join The Pit Crew at 6pm to discuss all these topics.

Give us your opinions and we may use them on this weeks ON PIT ROW. OPR can be heard via live stream from 5-7pm ET, followed by Inside ARCA from 7-8:30 at www.onpitrow.com

photo credit: Icon Sports Media

Filed under: Brad Kesolowski, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Dale Earnhardt, Inc.

Tagged with: Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Kyle Busch

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Kyle Busch is a Five Tool Driver

by Charlie Turner

June 23, 2008 11:04 pm CDT 5 Comments

Kyle Busch won the Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway and with his first Cup Series road course win has answered perhaps every question but one.

Rowdy….I really hate that nickname. Rowdy was Clint Eastwood’s character on the old Rawhide TV show. Kyle Busch is no Clint Eastwood. But, as my friend the Dude would say, I digress. Rowdy is now, in my opinion, a five tool racer.

The “five tool player” moniker is a baseball term. Five tool ballplayers are said to have it all. Wikipedia says this about them…

In baseball, a five-tool player is one who excels at hitting for average, hitting for power, baserunning skills and speed, throwing ability, and fielding abilities.

The road course win was the missing “tool” for the Shrub. In my version the five tools are really five track types that make up the Sprint Cup schedule. Kyle had already won on NASCAR’s prolific intermediate tracks. He has a short track victory at Bristol. This year brought a plate race triumph at Talladega. On one mile tracks, of every sort - flat Phoenix, concrete Dover and tough Loudon - he’s Jack the Bear.

Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Kevin Harvick are five toolers. So is Mark Martin. Earnhardt Sr was one, but Junior isn’t. The list is short.

You can win a championship in the Cup Series and not be a five tool driver. Jimmy Johnson has won two straight Cups and he’s a good enough road racer that a win at the Glen or Infineon will probably come, but hasn’t yet. The un-answered question for Kyle Busch is - can he close the whole deal and win a Cup championship?

The evidence for Busch - 9 Cup wins, 15 Nationwide and 8 Truck Series victories - points to a yes answer to the question. Mark Martin fans would tell you not to count your chickens too soon.

Photo credit: BethAnne Heisler - OnPitRow.com

Filed under: Carl Edwards, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Hendrick Motorsports, Jeff Gordon, Jimmy Johnson, Kasey Kahne, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Mark Martin, Matt Kenseth, NASCAR Rumors, Sprint Cup Series, Tony Stewart

Tagged with: blog, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Infineon Raceway, Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Mark Martin, motorsports, NASCAR, Sprint Cup Series, Tony Stewart

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Mark Martin Setting Himself Up For More Heartbreak

by Matt Mercer, Special To NASCAR commentary and driver pictures, 2011 NASCAR schedule, video, Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie

I'm the former blogger of The Catfish Show NASCAR Blog and a contributor to On Pit Row. Follow me on Twitter: @mattmercer

June 21, 2008 8:12 am CDT 8 Comments

An item came across NASCAR.com and it made me shake my head. Mark Martin one of my 3 favorite drivers in NASCAR history, seems to have made another guarantee. In the story last week at Pocono, he said that he plans on winning at the Brickyard in July. I have no doubt Mark can win the race. I remember 10 years ago at Indy when he had a better car than Jeff Gordon throughout the day, yet couldn’t get around him at the end. I remember when Mark left the 6 for the 01 last year, he said he would have his best chance ever to win the Daytona 500 – and he did, but came up inches short. It saddens me to see someone that’s a traditional pessimist, like Mark, get exciting for something just to be heartbroken again. I felt the heartbreak of the 2002 season because he was so close. Two years later, in the inaugural Chase, Mark arguably had the best team but accidents and bad luck struck again. At that Daytona race 16 months ago, I watched him lead those last several laps as I had a kung-fu grip on a pillow in my room, thinking that maybe, just maybe, this could be the race of his life. It was the race of his life… he finished second again, and I fell to the floor with the air knocked out of my lungs. To be a Mark Martin fan, it’s similar to what being a Red Sox fan must have been like until the 2004 playoffs. In the back of your mind, you know something will happen. I don’t know how many fans understand how much Mark means to his fans, and the heartbreak his fans have gone through with him. Many times, it takes the man himself to keep us fans from going crazy.

Fast forward to this season’s race at Phoenix, which saw Mark lead a bunch of laps and appeared to be on his way to victory. What did Mark have to lose by staying out and gambling? He pitted from the lead, had the best car, so fuel mileage should have been on Tony Gibson’s mind. Yet, it didn’t happen, and surprise, Mark lost. The guarantee at Indianapolis is interesting. He qualified well at Pocono, yet seemed to fall back more and more during the race. DEI seems to be focusing on Truex and Menard at the moment, which is perfectly understandable. The prospect of Truex leaving would put one foot in the ground, I don’t see anyone tearing down the door to get into DEI the way guys would at Gibbs right now. In a certain sense, I think Mark may have to win at Indy to keep DEI relevant. Rumors swirl about the future of the Army sponsorship, given that the 01 has had limited sponsorship, and Bass Pro Shops could be leaving for Tony Stewart’s revamped Haas Racing.

I didn’t like the movie Groundhog Day. I hate recurring dreams. Most of all, I know deep down that Mark Martin won’t win the Brickyard this year. He’ll have a flat tire with 3 to go, he’ll get crashed out by a car 9 laps down, he’ll blow his engine on the white flag lap. The worst part? I’ll still be making him my pick to win. Some habits won’t go away.

Photo credit: BethAnne Heisler - ON PIT ROW

Filed under: Chase for the Cup, Dale Earnhardt, Inc., Daytona 500, Haas CNC Racing, Mark Martin, Martin Truex Jr., NASCAR, Sprint Cup Series

Tagged with: Brickyard 400, Daytona 500, DEI, Haas CNC Racing, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin, Martin Truex Jr., NASCAR, Pocono, Sprint Cup, Tony Gibson, Tony Stewart