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Fast Laps: Daytona

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by Matt Mercer, Special To NASCAR commentary and pictures,2010 NASCAR schedule,NASCAR video, Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie

I'm the writer of The Catfish Show NASCAR Blog, which you can access through the links on the right. Follow me on Twitter: @mattmercer

June 29, 2009 3:29 pm CDT 4 Comments

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We’ve recently witnessed Formula One save itself from an IRL/CART division, and in the process Max Mosley will step aside from leadership. The teams’ complaint was over a salary cap, as teams wish to spend as much as their heart desires each year. Ferrari’s annual budget reportedly runs close to half a billion(!) dollars. I bring this up to talk about NASCAR and cost-cutting measures being talked about and in some cases already implemented. No more testing. The new car and strenuous limits on what can be done to the car. It’s been my opinion for a long time that NASCAR needs to open up and make the Sprint Cup Series more like Formula One, at least from the standpoint that teams should be free to do what works and let them be creative. The sport grew because of those advancements along with teams and manufacturers wanting to best one another. Today, however, manufacturers are in trouble. Still, that’s not a reason to homogenize the top series any more than it has already become. My view is let Sprint Cup be the big boys and let them have the advancement. Drop down to Nationwide, and let’s go with some cost-cutting. Limit cars. Do whatever they planned to do. In the Camping World Truck Series, go even further. Let’s have the best of both worlds. Sprint Cup doesn’t need to be like IROC with common cars and common everything. If you’re going to call it your top series, then actually treat it as the pinnacle of the sport.

Let’s get to the comments and see some good answers. Tell your friends to reply too. Remember the new rule, 100 words total.

1. Going back to my complaint/rant in the opening, are “spec” or common engines inevitable or will we continue to see brand-specific engines in Sprint Cup?

2. Should NASCAR push through the Nationwide COT in superspeedway and road course races in 2010, as has been mentioned?

3. Does this restrictor plate package need to be changed?

4. How long do you remember rain-shortened wins? Stats don’t care about it, but do fans?

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media

Filed under: Daytona International Speedway, NASCAR 

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Joey Logano Uses Zippadelli’s Leadership to Beat the Rain at Loudon

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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.

June 28, 2009 8:45 pm CDT No Comments

Joey Lagono did something that most nineteen year olds have a hard time with; listening to their elders.

Logano listened to crew chief Greg Zippadelli, when he told the first year Cup driver to save enough fuel to make it to the red flag.  Rain came on lap 273 of the scheduled 301 laps and “Sliced Bread” was in a position to win.  What early on looked to be bad luck turned out to be good for the #20 team.  A couple of flat tires and a torn up left rear quarter panel forced him to pit for new tires and allowed the rookie to top off with fuel during the several stops necessary to get the car back into contention.  Logano wasn’t thinking silver lining at the time:

We had a left rear cut down right before we made that last long green flag run and just trying to overcome that.  When that happened, I thought we were done.  I was like, the day just went bad, just try to finish it off and get as best finish we can and we made the right move at the end.  He (Zippadelli) went for it and I was just lucky enough to be in the seat.

The win puts Joe Gibbs Racing back in the win column for the first time in a ride other than the #18 of Kyle Busch.  Logano’s Cup season got off to a rough start.  Just maybe he was in a bit over his head which led me to believe that he might fold under the pressures and not make it past the middle of the season.  Look here to see how wrong I could be.

Double file restarts have greatly increased the viewer excitement of the races since their inception.  They have also been the cause of some mishaps.  Perhaps the two go hand in hand.  Loudon had a “big one” the likes of which reminds fans of the side by side racing usually reserved for the plate tracks.  The racing has been more fun to watch and NASCAR must be given credit for the move.

This all leads us to this week’s BUZZ ON PIT ROW:

If the new double file restarts can make for exciting races at New Hampshire and Sonoma; can it do the same for the ‘cookie cutters” at Chicago, Kansas, Atlanta et al?

Let us know what you think and we could use your comments on this week’s ON PIT ROW radio show.  Listen live every Tuesday from 5-7pm ET at www.onpitrow.com. Or give us a call at 1-800-645-2946 and if your call is The Shell Nitrogen Enriched Call of the Day you will win a Kevin Harvick bobblehead.

photo credit: Dew Hallowell/Getty Images for NASCAR

Filed under: Atlanta Motor Speedway, Joe Gibbs Racing, Joey Logano, NASCAR, On Pit Row The Fastest Two Hours on Radio 

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A Much Different Race At New Hampshire This Time Around

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by Chris Leone, Special To NASCAR commentary and pictures,2010 NASCAR schedule,NASCAR video, Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie

I do weekly Fantasy Pick'Em columns here at OPR, as well as the occasional opinion and analysis piece. I also provide the IZOD IndyCar Series coverage. For more on that, head to my site, OpenWheelAmerica.com. My Twitter handle is @christopherlion.

June 28, 2009 7:59 pm CDT 2 Comments

It’s difficult to knock your home racetrack for usually putting on a boring show, but I frequently find myself complaining about the New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Sprint Cup’s answer to the Milwaukee Mile, the 1-mile flat track has put on plenty of snoozefests or rain-shortened tilts over the past few years. As a fan who attends both Sprint Cup races at the track every year, and having been a ticket holder at the track for more than ten years, I often find myself wondering on the drive home whether or not the race I just saw was worth the price of admission.

Today’s event, however, might have finally sold me on Loudon.

Remember that when I wrote about “fixing” NASCAR, I wanted a shorter schedule for the Sprint Cup boys, and that NHMS was one of the first tracks I wanted to go. Despite the fact that it almost always sells out (owing to its status as the only Cup track in New England), there’s always been a negative aura over the track ever since Adam Petty and Kenny Irwin Jr.’s accidents. Remember the 2001 race run on Thanksgiving weekend? Do you have any idea how frigid that was?

Today’s race, though - there was something different about it, compared to the past few years. It didn’t feel like a chore to sit through this race the way it has in some years past. For one, with the starting lineup set by owners’ points, it was fun to watch the guys who were fast in happy hour work their way through the field. In particular, Martin Truex Jr. was showing his stuff early on, working his way into the top 10.

Even the commercialism seemed to be toned down this weekend. The $ouvenir price$ were $till the $ame (if you were enough of a $ucker to $pend $25 on a t-$hirt), but there were far fewer trailers on track grounds selling new gear. Aside from the Aaron’s Lucky Dog and ServiceMaster Cautions, there weren’t too many ads on the three big screens placed around the track.

That made it a lot easier to focus on the racing at hand - and boy, were there some highlights. I’m a little peeved at Kyle Busch for taking out Truex, my One and Done pick this weekend, and causing one of the biggest wrecks at the track in recent memory. The double-file restarts (I refuse to call them that cheesy name that Brian France gave them) completely changed the race, and produced some pretty good battles between Jeff Gordon and Kurt Busch.

And how about Joey Logano winning his first career Sprint Cup race? In a way, this is Sliced Bread’s home track - although he relocated to Georgia to further his career around the turn of the decade, he’s originally from Connecticut. Same goes for crew chief Greg Zipadelli, a Berlin, CT native. It’s always a great feeling to get your first win, and it’s great, too, to win at your home track. Combining both must be a dream come true for the No. 20 team.

Sure, the win’s a little controversial due to the race ending early, but either way, it etches Logano into the record books as the youngest Sprint Cup winner ever. And even as driver development contracts are starting earlier and earlier in drivers’ lives and careers, it’s unlikely that anyone is going to win another Sprint Cup race at 19 years old anytime soon.

Today’s Lenox Industrial Tools 301, although rain-shortened (do you think they’ll ever go “the extra mile”?), was the best Sprint Cup race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in a long time. More than ever, I can say that I’m looking forward to the start of the Chase ten weeks from now. Hopefully that race will deliver as much entertainment as this one did.

Filed under: New Hampshire International Speedway 

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A Stewart-Haas One-Two at Loudon?

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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, 2009 10:05 am CDT 3 Comments

What else does Tony Stewart have to do?

He’s already taken a third tier Cup team from struggling to qualify for races to leading the Sprint Cup Series points after 16 meets. Smoke has won an all-star race and the cupper at Pocono. In fact, both of Tony’s cars - his no. 14 Office Depot/Old Spice Racing Chevy and Ryan Newman’s no. 39 U S Army/Haas Automation Impala are solidly in the top 12 in points.

The problem is, I am not yet a believer. Which may mean the mantle of resident idiot at the Bench Racing blog is up for grabs. Again. But, whatever. I need more convincing and it might just come today at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

You can make the argument that Loudon is Stewart’s best track. 20 races, 2 wins, 10 top fives, 12 top tens. Newman also has two wins and nine top tens.  

A one-two finish on the real, big paperclip would probably end my doubts.

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

Filed under: Haas CNC Racing, NASCAR, New Hampshire International Speedway, Ryan Newman, Sprint Cup Series, Stewart Haas Racing, Tony Stewart 

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Loudon NASCAR Fantasy Racing Live Chat: Tuesday at 7 PM ET

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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 25, 2009 12:31 pm CDT 1 Comment

Join us tonight on the Bench Racers Live page for an hour  or more of live NASCAR fantasy racing advice and discussion.

You can sign up to be reminded in the box below. Hope you can join us as Eric McClung shares his expertise for the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Filed under: Live blogs, NASCAR, NASCAR Fantasy Gaming, New Hampshire International Speedway, One and Done NASCAR Fantasy Racing 

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One and Done: Lenox Industrial Tools 301

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by Chris Leone, Special To NASCAR commentary and pictures,2010 NASCAR schedule,NASCAR video, Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie

I do weekly Fantasy Pick'Em columns here at OPR, as well as the occasional opinion and analysis piece. I also provide the IZOD IndyCar Series coverage. For more on that, head to my site, OpenWheelAmerica.com. My Twitter handle is @christopherlion.

June 25, 2009 1:43 am CDT 2 Comments

The Sprint Cup Series traverses the entire country this weekend, making the long trek to New Hampshire Motor Speedway after racing in California last weekend. The 1-mile oval is often maligned for boring racing and the two deaths that occurred in turns 3 and 4 in 2000 – Adam Petty in the spring, and Kenny Irwin Jr. in the summer. However, the track is one of the best-attended in the sport, the fans come in droves from all around New England, and Bruton Smith’s makeover of the facility has turned it into a first-rate spectator experience.

Last year’s June race featured one of the oddest top threes in recent memory, as Kurt Busch (in a Penske car that was, at the time, underperforming), Michael Waltrip, and J.J. Yeley topped the field in a rain-shortened event. Although we up in New England have been getting a lot of rain lately, don’t expect two consecutive rain-shortened events that are won by staying out of the pits. Instead, look to these guys to run near the front:

Martin Truex Jr.: The TomTom paint scheme he’s running this weekend is pretty ugly, but one can’t say the same for Truex’s record on the Magic Mile. He used to run on this track a few times a year as a part of the old Busch North Series, so he knows his way around. His last four finishes are 3rd, 5th, 4th, and 7th, consecutively, and he led as many laps – 46 as eventual winner Denny Hamlin in the June 2007 race.

Jeff Burton: Yes, it’s been a while since he led all 300 laps and won at NHMS. No, he hasn’t won since 2000. But you’d have to go all the way back to 2003 to find a race in which Burton finished worse than 18th, and that was due to engine failure. He’s been a great driver at New Hampshire ever since he joined Roush Racing in 1996, and has performed just as solidly with RCR.

Mark Martin: This is one of six tracks at which Martin has never won, but it sure isn’t for lack of trying. He has an average finish of 11.0 with 13 top-10s in 24 starts. The only issue with picking Martin is that Loudon is one of the tracks he always skipped during his limited schedule runs in 2007 and 2008, so he hasn’t hit the track since the fall of 2006. The cars and track have both changed, and it’ll be interesting to see how he adapts.

Denny Hamlin: Hamlin tops all drivers with an average finish of 7.2. His worst finish is 15th in six starts. He’s won at New Hampshire before, leading 46 laps in this race in 2007. The one drawback to Hamlin is that he hasn’t led any laps at the track since winning in 2007.

Kurt Busch: He won this race last year, but again, it was due to a smart call on the part of Pat Tryson. This time around, the Blue Deuce is competitive on a weekly basis, and could’ve won last weekend at Sonoma if not for Jimmie Johnson. Be warned, though: At NHMS, Busch is often feast or famine. His 16-3-5-7 record doesn’t tell the whole story: six finishes outside of the top 20 complete the picture.

Filed under: One and Done NASCAR Fantasy Racing 

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