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Win up to $1,000,000 with DIRECTV’s NASCAR Head 2 Head Knock Out!

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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

July 25, 2011 5:06 pm CDT No Comments

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Includes printable NASCAR Head2Head Knockout Game bracket pdf

That’s right, NASCAR and the DIRECTV folks are rolling out a new and unique NASCAR fantasy game. 32 of the top drivers will be selected and seeded in a tournament style head to head single elimination bracket (think March Madness) Fans will then be able to choose the winners of each match-up for a chance to win up to a million bucks or a new truck.

The winning driver in each head to head match-up will advance to race another day. The game kicks off with the Pocono race August 7th and runs for three weeks until the “Fastest Four” are left. Those four drivers will race for the Championship at Bristol Motor Speedway August 27th.

The fan with the most accurate picks will win a truck from the manufacturer of the car driven by the winning driver. If Chevy driver Tony Stewart wins it all, the fan with the best record will win a Chevy truck. A fan with a perfect bracket has a chance at $1,000,000.

The drivers will be competing on behalf of their favorite charities, with a total of $400,000 to be awarded to support great causes. The contest starts August 7, so make sure to get your entries in soon. Click here to get set up.

This is a cool deal, with serious prizes. It’s a simple game to play, but you don’t have to rely on luck to win. Take a look at a couple of the first round match ups.

I’m not sure how they went about seeding this thing. Looks like maybe they went by championship points with the driver with the highest point total matched to the guy with the lowest. This might make for easy pickings in the first round. Maybe.

Carl Edwards is matched with Casey Mears, and you would need a big pair of rocks to take Mears. But the Matt Kenseth vs Jamie McMurray match up is a different story.

Kenseth is 6th in Sprint Cup points and has a couple wins, while McMurray has had a dismal season compared to 2010. But comparing their respective stats for Pocono Raceway makes the choice tougher. Kenseth still has the edge, but not a huge one. And if you look at stats for Indianapolis Motor Speedway as well - a track that is very similar in character to Pocono - you see the same thing. This race could go either way.

We will have a special section in the On Pit Row newsletter during the Head 2 Head Knockout game. I’ll give you my picks and tell you my thinking. Who knows; if it helps you win a million bucks, maybe you’ll start returning my calls. Click here to download a printable Head 2 Head Knockout Game bracket.

Anyway, the DIRECTV NASCAR Head 2 Head Knock Out game sounds like fun. Tell us what you think, and share your strategy with us in the comment section.

This post is sponsored by DIRECTV.

Filed under: Bristol Motor Speedway, Carl Edwards, Casey Mears, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Jamie McMurray, Matt Kenseth, NASCAR, NASCAR & the Media, NASCAR 64 Greatest Driver Tourney, Pocono Raceway 

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NASCAR Pictures: Saturday Action at Kentucky Speedway

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

I am the field producer/photographer of the syndicated radio show/website ON PIT ROW. When Steve and Charlie ask me to 'jump', I say "Yeah right."

July 11, 2011 7:41 am CDT No Comments

Exclusive NASCAR Photos from the Quaker State 400

The inaugural Sprint Cup race at Kentucky Speedway was a little tough to get to for many fans, and a few drivers, but worth the effort. Cool track. I hope you like the photos.

Darrell Waltrip and Michael greeting audience Kentucky Speedway heisler 11
Darrell Waltrip and Michael high five Kentucky Speedway heisler 11
Skydivers pre-race Kentucky Speedway heisler 11

Darrell Waltrip in Horses and Hope Mustang Kentucky Speedway heisler 11
Darrell and Michael Waltrip discuss evening plans Kentucky Speedway heisler 11
Tony Stewart in Office Depot Foundation uni Kentucky Speedway heisler 11

Brad Keselowski Kentucky Speedway heisler 11
Carl Edwards Kentucky Speedway heisler 11
Marcos Ambrose Kentucky Speedway heisler 11

Kurt Busch Kentucky Speedway heisler 11
Jimmie and Chandra Johnson Kentucky Speedway heisler 11
Kyle and Samantha Busch Kentucky Speedway heisler 11

#14 Tony Stewart Office Depot Foundation car Kentucky Speedway heisler 11
#18 Kyle Busch Kentucky Speedway heisler 11
#9 Marcos Ambrose #78 Regan Smith #14 Tony Stewart Kentucky Speedway heisler 11

#16 Greg Biffle and #29 Kevin Harvick Kentucky Speedway heisler 11
#17 Matt Kenseth #16 Greg Biffle Kentucky Speedway heisler 11

#99 Carl Edwards #2 Brad Keselowski Kentucky Speedway heisler 11
#22 Kurt Busch pit stop Kentucky Speedway heisler 11

#42 Juan Pablo Montoya pit stop Kentucky Speedway heisler 11
#47 Bobby Labonte pit stop Kentucky Speedway heisler 11
#33 Clint Bowyer pit stop Kentucky Speedway heisler 11

#33 Clint Bowyer pit stop burn out Kentucky Speedway heisler 11

Photo credit: BethAnne Heisler - OnPitRow.com

Filed under: Kentucky Speedway, NASCAR, NASCAR photos, Sprint Cup Series 

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NASCAR Sell Out in Kentucky

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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

July 10, 2011 10:26 am CDT No Comments

They held a big, old fashioned traffic snarl-up in Northern Kentucky and the NASCAR media was in shock.

Fans, and even a driver or two, got caught up in a long, hot, frustrating jam on the roads accessing (sort-of) Kentucky Speedway for the first ever Sprint Cup race there.

In the track media center, there was more tweeting about traffic than anything competition related.

Denny Hamlin was caught up in it all. No chopper ride for Denny.

Atlanta Motor Speedway’s president was supposedly out there directing traffic.

Bruton Smith blamed it all on the Governor of Kentucky, saying sic “the Guv knows that I71 sucks”.

And @Kenny_Wallace, who always tells it like it is tweeted this:

My thoughts on the Traffic Jam: “This is the way it used to be” back when tracks were SOLD OUT.

And Kenny’s right. The Quaker State 400 was a sellout. 100,000 NASCAR fans paid to be there. It was tough to get to the track, and that needs to get better. You know that it will too. But I bet you that Michigan International Speedway longs for the days of the MIS mess. So do all of the venues.

Would have been a boring day in the media center if not for that traffic jam. Slow news day today.

Photo credit: BethAnne Heisler - OnPitRow.com

Filed under: Denny Hamlin, Kenny Wallace, Kentucky Speedway, NASCAR, Sprint Cup Series 

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Kurt Busch, Roger Penske and Pennzoil; a Winning NASCAR Combination

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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.

July 2, 2011 9:54 am CDT No Comments

Roger Penske and Pennzoil team up again in 2011 with Kurt Busch as the driver of the number 22 Dodge.

It had been twenty-three years since Penske first brought the sponsorship to his Indy car team.   Busch has shown great success through the first half of the season with one win, four top five’s and three poles in the first sixteen races of the season.  Busch’s win at Infineon Raceway was done in dominating fashion; leading fifty-two laps of the 110 lap event.

Pennzoil first joined forces with Roger Penske in 1983 along with premiere Indy car driver Rick Mears. The combination would go on to capture victory at the Indy 500 just one year later.  Over a five year period Pennzoil cars would win the 500 four out of five years.  In 1984, Mears in the Pennzoil Z-7 Special would post a record-winning speed of 163.612 mph.  Danny Sullivan would win in 1985-the famous spin to win race.  Also in 1985 Mears, in the Pennzoil car, sets Indy’s fastest lap ever-204.937mph and Al Unser wins the CART PPG Indy Car World Series Championship.

In 1996 Pennzoil would enter NASCAR’s Winston Cup Series for the first time with Bahari Racing and 1995 Busch Series champion Johnny Benson.  He would go on to become the Winston Cup Rookie of the Year and drive the car for two years.  Also in 1996, Pennzoil became the official oil of both the Brickyard 400 and the Indy 500.

The Pennzoil sponsorship moved to Dale Earnhardt Incorporated for their inaugural year in the Cup series in 1998 with Steve Park behind the wheel.  Park would pilot the Pennzoil Chevys for all or part of five years and pick up his only two Cup Series wins.  Park finished in the top ten 35 times and won four poles.  Kenny Wallace would be behind the wheel of the ride in 2002 while Park recovered from injuries.  Following the 2003 season Pennzoil would diminish their role in NASCAR; becoming a part time sponsor, utilizing several brand names for several teams.

Richard Childress Racing would bring Pennzoil and Shell back to the Sprint Cup Series in 2007.  In the season-opening Daytona 500, Kevin Harvick claimed his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory in a restrictor plate race with a dramatic final lap pass over Mark Martin by .020 seconds in a green-white-checkered finish. It was the closest margin at the 500 since electronic scoring started in 1993. The race was on the sixth anniversary of the death of his predecessor at Richard Childress Racing, Dale Earnhardt.

Four days after Harvick won the Daytona 500 in his inaugural race with Shell-Pennzoil as a primary sponsor, Team owner, Richard Childress, was asked by NASCAR to downsize the Shell logo on the car and on Harvick’s fire suit; making the Pennzoil logo more prominent to avoid conflict with official NASCAR fuel sponsor Sunoco.

Harvick would go on to win three more times with Pennzoil and Shell; while capturing thirty-two top-five finishes in four years.

Pennzoil got its start in racing in the early 1930’s at the Indianapolis 500 as a sponsor of the highly successful car of Russell Snowberger.  In the next five years, he finishes every Indy race he enters-always in the top 10.  Amazingly, 27 other race drivers voluntarily select, and run on Pennzoil as well.  Pennzoil had made an impressive beginning, and over the years became the lubrication of choice for drivers in all forms of racing.

With drag racing in its infancy in the 1950’s, Pennzoil representatives furnish oil to up and coming race drivers.  The familiar Pennzoil oval is seen on many early dragsters throughout America, most notably on the winning machines of teenage driving prodigy Eddie Hill.  In 1958 Pennzoil officially sponsors the fastest rising star on the NHRA circuit, Don “Big Daddy” Garlits.

The 1960’s saw NHRA drag racing grow as fast as quarter mile speeds, a growth to which Pennzoil was a principal contributor.  They were the first major oil company to develop a racing oil exclusively for cars running on exotic fuels.  Throughout the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s Pennzoil lubricated machines dominate top fuel, funny car and pro-stock categories.  Pennzoil has used by many top names in drag racing including Garlits, Connie Kalitta, Bill Jenkins, Jimmy Nix and Don Prudhomme.

Jim Hall and Al Unser blow the crowd away with the revolutionary “ground effects” Chaparral at the brickyard in 1979.  Painted bright Pennzoil yellow and with Pennzoil in its veins, it leads the race for 100 laps before retiring with a broken water pump.  The next season Johnny Rutherford is behind the wheel of the Pennzoil Chaparral and drives to an impressive win at Indy and goes on to win the national championship and is named “Driver of the Year.”

As the second half the Sprint Cup season gets under way  and the quest to make it into The Chase for a Sprint Cup Championship heats up Kurt Busch, Roger Penske and Pennzoil look for more wins and more championships to add to an, already impressive resume.

Photo Credit: Robert Laberge/Getty Images for NASCAR

Filed under: NASCAR Bidness, NASCAR History, NASCAR Trivia, NASCAR business 

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Fantasy Pick’Em: 2011 Coke Zero 400

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by Chris Leone, Special To NASCAR commentary and driver pictures, 2011 NASCAR schedule, 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.

July 1, 2011 8:57 pm CDT No Comments

#88 Dale Earnhardt Jr Michigan International Speedway spr heisler 11

#88 Dale Earnhardt Jr Michigan International Speedway spr heisler 11

Ah, Daytona. The crapshoot of the year in the Sprint Cup Series (apologies, Talladega; that’s just the way it is until your race becomes the equivalent of the Daytona 500 and a 20-year-old wins it). And, thus, a complete and utter Charlie Foxtrot (if you get what I’m saying) for fantasy NASCAR team owners.

Let me put it this way: there is nothing that I can do to help you this weekend.

Chances are, if I make three picks like I usually do, two will be good cars. One, if not both, of them will get caught up in an accident late in the race, possibly running in one of a likely three green-white-checkered finishes. The third will be slow as hell but wind up 20th due to the accidents, and you’ll come out of the weekend wishing you’d have listened to this advice instead of listening to any particular driver that I picked.

That’s precisely the reason why I delayed this column to the day before the race. Sure, you can look at the speed charts in the one practice session from yesterday, or who’s starting where in the field, but it may not do you much help. Mark Martin’s on the pole, with the aforementioned Trevor Bayne starting alongside him, if that helps any.

But let’s be honest. If the stars align, anyway, and a bunch of bad things don’t happen, there’s only one guy in the field that can win this race anyway.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., of course.

Think about it. The No. 88 team has been so close these past couple of months. There was the disappointment in the Coca-Cola 600 of running out of fuel on the very last lap when they absolutely could have won that race. There have been plenty of strong runs all season. They’re gelling as a team since Steve Letarte and the crew were shifted away from Jeff Gordon in the offseason, and now that they get to work with the dynamic duo (Jimmie Johnson/Chad Knaus) in the Hendrick shops.

Add that to Earnhardt Jr.’s history at Daytona, which need not be explained once again, and you can only come up with a two word statement: It’s time.

It’s time for Junior Nation to get excited. It’s time for them to celebrate a driver who is undergoing a career renaissance with one of the sport’s biggest teams. But most of all, it’s time for them to help their driver celebrate his first win in over three years on Saturday night.

Junior for the win. Calling it right now.

Filed under: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Daytona International Speedway, NASCAR Fantasy Gaming 

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