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Monday Morning Crew Chief: Ham Solo, Yoda and Darth Johnson

by Mindy Monday, Special To NASCAR commentary,NASCAR video,NASCAR pictures, Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie

October 30, 2009 9:19 am CDT No Comments

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The 2009 NASCAR Star Wars - or the Chase, as Brian France like to call them - are winding to an inevitable conclusion. Mindy Monday says wait until next year for the return of the Jedi - or anyone-but-Johnson.

The latest edition of the Monday Morning Crew Chief looks into strange sponsor relationships and another crew chief to throw at the 88’s wall.

Watch it right here.

Filed under: Chase for the Cup, Jamie McMurray, Kyle Busch, Monday Morning Crew Chief, NASCAR, NASCAR video

Tagged with: Dave Rogers, Mindy Monday, Star Wars, Steve Addington

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One and Done: AMP Energy 500

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

If OnPitRow.com was a NASCAR team, I’d be the development driver of the bunch. In the same way that young hotshots like Joey Logano have been driving since they were in grade school, I’ve been following and writing about all forms of motorsports since I was barely old enough to talk.

October 29, 2009 12:35 pm CDT 2 Comments

For the first time in its history, Talladega Superspeedway hosts a race in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, as NASCAR’s premiere series heads to Alabama this weekend for the AMP Energy 500.

Of the ten tracks in this year’s Chase, Talladega is by far the most unpredictable. Only four drivers boast an average finish better than 10.0 at the track, and they have a combined four starts - all of which occurred in this spring’s race. That event featured a wacky finish in which Brad Keselowski found himself in victory lane, but Carl Edwards found himself airborne.

At a massive track like Talladega, where the cars reach some of their highest speeds and restrictor plates bunch up the field, the “big one,” a massive 20-something car pileup, is looming around every corner, on every straightaway, in every drag race to the finish line. For that reason, picking this race is a crapshoot. Take everything with a full shaker of salt, and go with any hunch you might have.

Seriously. Scott Speed finished 5th here in the spring. Think about that.

If there’s any weekend where staying within the confines of Chase drivers isn’t necessary, it would be this one, because of the likelihood that an incident will wipe out half the field. Whoever survives the wreck, if it happens, probably won’t have the best car in the field, just the best luck, and luck doesn’t discriminate based on the points standings. But week in and week out, the Chase drivers give fantasy players the best chance of scoring a lot of points, so we might as well stick with the established system, no?

The five Chase drivers with the best records at Talladega:

Kurt Busch (avg. fn. 12.1): The older Busch brother has quietly assembled a solid Talladega record, with 12 top-10s in 17 starts. He has also led at least one lap in 13 of his 17 Talladega starts. Only two of his last 10 Talladega starts have been worse than eighth. While he’s never won a Cup race at the track, the first thing you look to do at Talladega is survive, and he’s only crashed out twice.

Tony Stewart (avg. fn. 13.8): Smoke “won” this race in controversial fashion last year (and as far as I’m concerned, that still should have been Regan Smith’s win). He’s led laps in 10 of the past 11 Talladega races, with the lone exception being this spring’s race. Smoke’s crashed out in four of his 21 starts, a slightly worse percentage than Busch, but he’s also been able to do something that Busch can’t say: finish better than third (one win and six second place finishes).

Mark Martin (avg. fn. 16.1): Martin only has five crashes at Talladega in 43 starts, a slightly better percentage than Busch, and both of his wins came after his horrendous 1994 incident, proving that bad crashes don’t negatively affect everybody. But the last of those wins came in 1997, and Martin only has six laps at Talladega under race conditions in the new car: he skipped the track altogether in 2007 and 2008, and his spring race was cut short by an early incident.

Jeff Gordon (avg. fn. 16.4): The spring race didn’t go well for Gordon, as he finished 60 laps off the pace in 37th. But he swept the track in 2007, and generally finds himself up front: he’s led laps in 12 of the last 14 Talladega races (including six of the last eight). A statistic that should bring pause, however: In 11 starts since 2004, Gordon has won four, but has not finished better than 15th in the other seven.

Ryan Newman (avg. fn. 18.5): Well, Newman ran well and led laps in the wacky spring race… He also hasn’t wrecked out of a Talladega race since 2005, as he kept the car going during the Edwards wreck and scored his career best finish at the track (third). Here’s a question for you: If taking another stock car off the hood meant improving by another couple of spots, think he would take it?

Filed under: One and Done NASCAR Fantasy Racing, Talladega Superspeedway

Tagged with: Amp Energy 500, Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch, Mark Martin, One and Done NASCAR Fantasy Racing, Ryan Newman, Talladega Superspeedway, Tony Stewart

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Richard Petty Motorsports Further Solidifies 2010 Plans

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

October 28, 2009 7:50 pm CDT No Comments

An Associated Press report published today suggests that Best Buy, Elliott Sadler’s sponsor on the No. 19 Richard Petty Motorsports car for the past couple of years, will move to its teammate, the No. 43 car, which A.J. Allmendinger will drive for the 2010 season.

Best Buy began its relationship with Allmendinger this season at Darlington, when they sponsored his No. 44 car as he finished 17th. Allmendinger also finished 7th at Sonoma and 23rd two weeks ago at Charlotte with Best Buy on the hood.

Best Buy sponsored Sadler in 19 races this season, including the Sprint All-Star Challenge, the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, and the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard. Sadler’s best finish this season was a 5th place in the Daytona 500.

The move is one of marginal elevation for the Richfield, MN-based company: Allmendinger sits one spot ahead of Sadler in points, although their records this season are virtually identical: 32 starts, no wins, a top-5 and four top-10s apiece.

The move leaves the No. 19 with one primary sponsor, Stanley Tools, which has covered 22 races over the course of this season (19 with Sadler and 3 with Allmendinger).

However, the move also strengthens Richard Petty Motorsports as a whole; instead of putting together a multi-million dollar sponsorship package for Allmendinger, they only need to patch holes for both Sadler and Allmendinger, a much easier task. RPM also has experience with this method, having utilized it all year with Allmendinger’s car and the No. 43 of Reed Sorenson.

Thus far, the biggest supporters of those two teams have been McDonald’s and Valvoline, with 10 races apiece. Hunt Brothers Pizza sponsored eight races for Allmendinger this season, with the last one this weekend at Talladega. Charter Communications covered seven races, but none since Phoenix in April. Super 8 Motels, the Air Force, and PVA.org have also sponsored RPM cars this year.

Ideally, RPM will fill its sponsorship gaps with the companies that have already appeared on its cars this year, giving them three fully sponsored and factory supported teams for next year. Pending the potential addition of Paul Menard and his family sponsorship, RPM could finally have a financially stable four-car team for the 2010 season.

Filed under: A J Allmendinger, Elliott Sadler, Richard Petty Motorsports

Tagged with: A.J. Allmendinger, Elliott Sadler, Richard Petty Motorsports

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Live Fantasy Racing Chat for the Amp Energy 500

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

October 28, 2009 4:24 pm CDT No Comments

Thursday at 7 PM ET the On Pit Row fantasy racing experts will help break down this weekend’s seventh round on the Chase to the Sprint Cup championship.

Join Ryan Rantz, author of the On Pit Row NASCAR Racing Power Rankings for an hour of in depth talk about just who you should pick this week for you fantasy racing teams.

You can sign up to get an email reminder in the box below. The actual live blog/chat is held on the Bench Racers Live! page here

Filed under: Live blogs, NASCAR, NASCAR Fantasy Gaming, Talladega Superspeedway

Tagged with: Amp Energy 500, fantasy racing live chat

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Will a New Crew Chief Bring Kyle Busch to the Promised Land?

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

October 27, 2009 6:44 pm CDT No Comments

Joe Gibbs Racing announced today that Dave Rogers, a championship-winning crew chief in the Nationwide Series, will be paired with Kyle Busch for the final four races of this year’s Sprint Cup Series schedule.

The move, which has been rumored for a couple of days now, is designed to make the No. 18 team stronger for the rest of this season and beyond.

Rogers replaces Steve Addington, who has been the crew chief of the 18 car since 2005. In 67 races together, Busch and Addington have 12 wins and 32 top-10s, but have failed to impress down the stretch both this year and in 2008, faltering in the Chase last year and failing to make it altogether this year.

Rogers, on the other hand, crew chiefed the No. 20 in the Nationwide Series to an owners’ points championship last year, as Busch, Denny Hamlin, Tony Stewart, and Joey Logano combined for nine wins in 2008. The team has five wins this season as well, with Logano, Hamlin, and Brad Coleman, among others, behind the wheel.

It’s unclear whether this move is more about Rogers or Addington. Sure, the Nationwide equipment at Gibbs is probably the best in the series, and to that end, by winning all of those races, Rogers is just doing his job. But to have such an assortment of drivers sharing the car, talented as they all are, is difficult for a crew chief. No two drivers are ever going to be exactly alike, and the fact that his team can run so well with every single one of them is a testament to Rogers’ skill atop the pit box as well.

Addington, on the other hand, never did anything to elevate Busch; neither, for that matter, did he help any of the other drivers to run the 18 car while he was leading it. He took over the car in 2005; that year, Bobby Labonte had his worst-ever season (up to that point) in the Cup series, and left the team for Petty Enterprises at the end of the year. J.J. Yeley did nothing to impress in 2006 or 2007, save a second-place finish in the 2007 Coca-Cola 600.

Busch joined JGR in 2008 with a chip on his shoulder, having been ousted from Hendrick Motorsports in favor of Dale Earnhardt Jr., and the team was entering its first year as the de facto lead Toyota team. The fact that they performed so well in the first 26 races of last year was more of a testament to the right combination of driver and horsepower at the right time than anything else; the car was leading laps and contending for wins week in and week out.

But to sustain that success through the Chase, especially with a driver as terse as Busch, the crew chief has to keep his driver calm when the team encounters problems. Whatever it was that Addington was doing during last year’s playoff collapse and this year’s free-fall out of the playoffs, it wasn’t working. It seems apparent at this point that Steve Addington needed Kyle Busch more than Kyle Busch needed Steve Addington; the fact that all 12 of Addington’s Sprint Cup wins came with Busch behind the wheel is a telling statistic.

Rogers’ strong Nationwide record and past experience working with Busch bode well for improvement in 2010. He’s certainly earned his promotion. But keeping the 18 team from falling victim to the same challenges that it succumbed to under the leadership of Addington will be his strongest challenge yet.

Filed under: Joe Gibbs Racing, Kyle Busch, NASCAR

Tagged with: crew chief changes, Dave Rogers, Joe Gibbs Racing, Kyle Busch, Steve Addington

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ESPN Disrespects NASCAR Again

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.

October 27, 2009 11:04 am CDT No Comments

Twice in the past week on-air personalities at ESPN have made light of NASCAR, its fans and in one case a driver.

ESPN paid dearly for the rights to broadcast NASCAR’s top two series and tell the stories of Dale Earnhardt, Jr, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and the rest. They have exclusive broadcast rights to the Nationwide Series and have the most coveted portion of the Sprint Cup Season. ESPN has the rights to broadcast all aspects of the second half of the Sprint Cup season–including the “Race to the Chase” and the “Chase to the Cup”.

ESPN also broadcasts college football. Its college football coverage takes precedence over its racing coverage. It always has and it most likely always will. Race fans have come to expect that when football and NASCAR bump into one another; its the NASCAR coverage that gets moved–either to another ESPN property or its start time delayed.

What NASCAR shouldn’t have to accept is the total disrespect it receives by its stick and ball oriented personalities. It has been well documented over the past week about Bob Greise’s comment toward Juan Pablo Montoya. During a NASCAR promo on a football telecast that Greise worked; one announcer asked where Montoya was, when discussing the top five drivers. Greise’s response was “Out eating a taco”.

Greise apologized–twice–on air during the telecast and has been suspended by ESPN for one game. Greise’s comments may have been more insensitive than mean spirited, but does show the lack of respect that NASCAR garners from its broadcast partner.

To add more insult to the NASCAR on ESPN week; Mondays morning Sport Center broadcasts included highlights of the Sprint Cup race won by Denny Hamlin. The highlight package ended with the comment by ESPN’s anchor saying; ” Now for those of you north of the Mason-Dixon line…”; this within days of Greise’s gaff.

It would seem it is an acceptable practice at ESPN to demean NASCAR, its drivers and their fans. If it is not deemed as acceptable, it would not continue to happen. It leaves fans wondering how NASCAR is perceived at ESPN’s offices. If on air personnel are not respecting NASCAR it may be because they are carrying down the disrespect they hear from their bosses around the office. Employees tend to take on the attitude of their superiors. If NASCAR coverage is looked down upon by ESPN’s hierarchy then it is no wonder that the trickle down lands on air.

This week’s BUZZ ON PIT ROW asks:

Does NASCAR and its coverage get the respect it deserves from its broadcast partner–ESPN?

Let us know what you think and we could use your comments on this weeks ON PIT ROW radio show. Listen live every Tuesday from 5-7pm ET. Call the show at 1-800-465-2946 and you could win a Kevin Harvick bobblehead as Shell’s Nitrogen Enriched Call of the Day.

photo credit: Icon Sports Media

Filed under: Denny Hamlin, ESPN, NASCAR, NASCAR & the Media, NASCAR Bidness

Tagged with: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Denny Hamlin, ESPN, Jeff Gordon, jimmie johnson, NASCAR

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