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Flash! Spy info from NASCAR R & D!

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.

June 28, 2008 10:54 am CDT No Comments

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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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Say Good-bye to the Single-Track Teams

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.

May 23, 2008 6:33 am CDT 5 Comments

Reports out of Charlotte have Speedway Motorsports Inc. buying Kentucky Speedway.

Amy Henderson at The Frontstretch reports that Bruton Smith, has said he will have a Cup date at the track in northern Kentucky in the 2009 season. Next year? A Cup race? Where will that Cup race come from? Smith’s company has recently purchased New Hampshire Speedway from the Bahre family and taking a race from there is a possibility.

There is still the nagging lawsuit that is hanging over NASCAR and Kentucky Speedway. Could that lawsuit result in SMI wrestling a date away from NASCAR owned International Speedway Corp.? The ISC track that should lose a date would be California, but don’t look for NASCAR to pull out of that TV market no matter how pathetic the attendance is. NASCAR wants big TV markets and their aren’t many bigger than the LA area.

Its time for NASCAR to take a hard look at their schedule and determine where the best 36 places are to hold their premier events. Take races from venues that cannot support them and move them to locales that have and will drive butts into seats and in front of TV sets. Henderson speculates that the purchase of Pocono by SMI could pave the way for a date to be moved from that track to Kentucky. Pocono has more of a problem holding exciting races than filling the grandstands. Drivers and teams could get behind going to Pocono only once during the year.

As much of a burr under NASCAR’s saddle as the previous ownership at Kentucky has been can you imagine what adding the SMI /ISC dynamic will bring to the table? Look for a quick solution to the problem though. NASCAR doesn’t like doing battle with Smith because they know it is a lose-lose situation. Smith has a way of getting what he wants at NASCAR’s expense. For the fans of northern Kentucky this could be the best thing ever to bring them a long sought after Cup event.

At the same time it would eliminate the racetrack from much of the testing that Cup teams do at the track. Without having a Cup date currently, it is open for testing whenever teams want to use it. So would one Cup race a year bring a larger financial impact than many open testing sessions? By most accounts one date on the schedule could make the year financially. While hosting Nationwide Series and Craftsman Truck Series races are currently the highlight of Kentucky’s season, they pale in comparison to what a Cup event could bring.

Let the wrangling begin. This should be fun to watch.

photo credit: Icon Sports Media

Filed under: Brian France, Bruton Smith, Craftsman Truck Series, Lowes Motor Speedway, NASCAR Bidness, NASCAR Rumors, NASCAR officials, Nationwide Series

Tagged with: ISC, Kentucky Speedway, New Hampshire Speedway, Pocono, SMI

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Daytona is the site of “Brew wars 2008″

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.

February 7, 2008 10:28 pm CST 2 Comments

The wrong beer company is on the pole for the Bud Shootout.
On Thursday the Bud Shootout drivers stepped up to the podium and drew for starting positions in the pre-season non-points race. The big winner was Kurt Busch, who grabbed the Budweiser bottle with the number one attached to gain the pole in his Miller Lite Dodge.

The car sponsored by the race sponsor drew the number 8 starting position, as new Bud driver Kasey Kahne will start outside of row four. Other libations in the field show the #07 Jack Daniels Chevy driven by Clint Bowyer starting 21st. Crown Royal will have their #26 Ford of Jamie McMurray starting fourth.

For the entire lineup click here.

The Bud Shootout is the first time every year that the teams, crews and drivers hit the track for real. All the testing is circumspect at best. Testing is more about questions than answers. But once the cars hit the track for the shootout, everyone will be able to see who is strong and who were pretenders during practice.

To paraphrase DW; “Lets go racing boys”.

photo: NASCAR PR

Filed under: Brian France, Clint Boyer, Kasey Kahne, NASCAR, The Busch Bros

Tagged with: blog, Bud Shootout, Budweiser Shootout, Clint Bowyer, Darrell Waltrip, Jamie McMurrey, Kasey Kahne, Kurt Busch, motorsports, NASCAR

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Ganassi guys are good at the Daytona Rolex 24

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.

January 27, 2008 12:15 pm CST 2 Comments

Sometimes 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

Filed under: Brian France, Chip Ganassi Racing, Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, Juan Pablo Montoya

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Brian’s new NASCAR vs Humpy’s old NASCAR

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.

January 25, 2008 12:08 pm CST 3 Comments

Who would you rather have in charge of promoting your race track - Brian France or Humpy Wheeler?

Prince Brian is known for statements like the following - which was in answer to the question….

"Would you agree that NASCAR has been a little too heavy-handed in administering punishments? Going forward, will you be perhaps less inclined to fine for points and money for transgressions like shoving or swearing?"

Brian France " Well, I would certainly agree that we’re relooking and making sure that our policies of enforcement don’t make it where our drivers can’t express themselves. There are lots of characters in our sport. There’s lots of emotion flying fast and heavy at the events.

If you were in our position, what you’re always worried about really isn’t necessarily the specific incident, it’s really escalation. That’s what commissioners and officials in any sport are mostly concerned with."

OK, thank you Brian. Now for Humpy - aka The PT Barnum of auto racing…

We need to make this car of tomorrow work … [Do] whatever NASCAR’s got to do to make it work, and get us back to racing, [to] where we were putting black donuts on the side of the cars and not making felony offenses out of ‘em. And when we do that, it’s all going to change and turn around and we can do all of the other stuff … ."

I don’t want to get into dissecting the whole State of NASCAR address from early this week. Darren Fauth and others have done a fine job that. Besides, Steve and I argued about the whole thing for too long ON PIT ROW.

It’s pretty obvious - despite the France Republic’s spinning of things - that NASCAR sees problems within the kingdom. I live in a city that seems to always be paying some consultant big dough to identify problems or quantify opportunities - or benchmark this or evaluate that. Guess what? They keep finding that the city has problems - just as NASCAR has issues.

Enough talk about it already. What NASCAR needs is a good ol’, car-smashing slobberknocker. Big Bill France and Bill France Jr. were brilliant, visionary businessmen. Maybe Brian will prove to be one as well. But the elder Frances were elite promoters - and Prince France has yet to make his mark in that category.

Auto racing is a promoters business. I think I’d be listening to Humpy.

Picture credit: Newsrecord.com

Filed under: Brian France, Car of Tomorrow, It's Only Cheating if You Get Caught, NASCAR & the Media, NASCAR Bidness, Nascar Legends, Sprint Cup Series

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