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Countdown to J-Day at Dover

by Matt Mercer, Special To Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie

I'm the new guy at Bench Racing and I'm supposed to be the younger perspective. I'm the guy behind The Catfish Show, which you can access through the links on the right.

May 29, 2008 1:14 pm CDT 3 Comments

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The countdown to Joey Logano’s debut at Dover can be counted in hours now. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver has won all he can in lower levels, including Hooters ProCup at the age of 15, outdueling Kevin Harvick in an East-West Touring Series showdown in Iowa at the age of 16, winning the Busch East championship (and 6 races in the process) at the age of 17, and a dominant performance in his ARCA debut earlier this month at Rockingham, all the while testing Gibbs cars across the country. The hype machine has been in overdrive for Logano for a while now, and his debut will come at a challenging track, Dover’s 1-mile concrete oval.

For a lot of fans that pay attention to the lower series and have their eye on the next big driver, Logano has been on the radar for a few years now. When Mark Martin made his first of many retirement announcements, he proclaimed the driver he wanted to see take over his car – in 2005, mind you – was then-15 year-old Joey Logano. That was heady praise for someone few had heard of, and set off a bidding war for his services. (A bit of an aside: Logano had signed a deal with Roush in 2005 to become a development driver, and used an old Martin car to test. Then, Joe Gibbs Racing stepped in and signed a contract with his father, and in effect “stole” Logano from the Roush camp.) In every series and every car he has strapped himself into, this kid has only gotten better. The true test will come, and it will come soon. It seems that every few years the storyline shifts to a new “phenom” making their debut in the #2 series as soon as they turn 18. The first of these was Kyle Busch’s 2003 debut at Charlotte in May, a race in which he ran impressively and led a good portion of the race before recording a strong finish. Fast forward a year or two later, and that phenom was Reed Sorenson making his debut in the #41 at Atlanta, and running in the top 5 most of the day. In those cases, the youngsters ran extremely well.

From everything that I’ve seen about his schedule, he is slated for 18 races from now until the end of the season. In my estimation, he’ll be making a Sprint Cup start before the Chase begins. But it all begins this weekend.

Filed under: ARCA Remax Series, Busch Series, Chase for the Cup, Iowa Speedway, Joe Gibbs Racing, Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Lowes Motor Speedway, Mark Martin, NASCAR, Nationwide Series, Roush Racing, Sprint Cup Series

Tagged with: Busch East, Dover, Joe Gibbs Racing, Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Mark Martin, NASCAR, Nationwide Series, Reed Sorenson

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The Nationwide Series is on the edge of a precipice

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.

February 24, 2008 9:01 am CST 4 Comments

The three hours of ESPN 2 coverage of the Auto Club Speedway Nationwide Series rain delay made for decent background noise around the Turner house Saturday night. The absence of actual racing was disappointing but the promise of a Sunday double-header was good compensation.

I tried to listen to most of it. It was tough. But the subject of the penalties that NASCAR handed down after Daytona got me thinking.

Quick review; seven Nationwide Series drivers and their car owners were docked points and cash. Six crew chiefs were fined, suspended for six races and put on NASCAR probation. OK, another example of “cheaters never prosper” I guess.

Rusty Wallace is one of the penalized owners and he was asked by Alan Bestwick about the effect of the penalties and the appeal process.

Wallace talked briefly about the process but he expounded on how the penalties will affect teams in NASCAR’s #2 series. The biggest impact is on sponsor relationships, according to Rusty. Companies don’t want to be associated with organizations that are perceived to be cheaters.

We heard the same story earlier this week in the aftermath of the more publicized sanctions of Robby Gordon and his Cup team. Gordon suggested that the penalties and negative publicity fallout from them, could be life-threatening to Robby Gordon Motorsports.

NASCAR seems to me to be walking a tightrope with the Nationwide Series. How do you attract sponsorship and still police the series? NASCAR needs more Nationwide Series teams - only 42 are entered for the California race. Some of the full-time Nationwide teams don’t know how they will be able to continue if NASCAR forces the use of the Nationwide CoT. The funds aren’t there.

And for the first time in awhile, competition for teams, talent and dollars is on the horizon. There is an argument that the growth of NASCAR’s Busch Series was helped by the failure of North American open wheel racing over the last decade or so. The recent unification of the pointy cars could provide sponsors with another viable alternative to NASCAR.

Rusty Wallace said last night, that Roger Penske once told him that the Penske companies employed 40,000 people and if any one of them was found to be cheating, that person would be fired. Wallace claims that he runs his operations with the same philosophy.

Robby Gordon claims that the violation his team was guilty of, was not the fault of Robby Gordon Motorsports or its sponsors. His main sponsor Jim Beam, rose to his defense with a letter that should chill someone in the NASCAR offices.

I don’t know how NASCAR can take these things into consideration when it acts as both the referee and the promoter of its sport/business. I’m not sure that it should, as a sport. But as the promoter, I think it has no choice, if the survival of Nationwide-only teams is the concern that it should be.

Filed under: Busch Series, Car of Tomorrow, Daytona 500, Gillette Evernham Motorsports, It's Only Cheating if You Get Caught, NASCAR & the Media, NASCAR officials, Nationwide Series, Robby Gordon, Rusty Wallace, Sprint Cup Series

Tagged with: Alan Bestwick, Auto Club Speedway, blog, Daytona, motorsports, NASCAR, NASCAR penalties, Robby Gordon, Rusty Wallace

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A look at 2007–ON PIT ROW style

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 1, 2008 12:26 pm CST 1 Comment

Life isn’t always kind.

As I take a look toward 2008 and all the possibilities that exist for ON PIT ROW, I have to take some time and think about the year that was 2007. The year got off to a very rocky start. My father always calls me on New Years Day. The tradition is for him to tell me that the previous year sucked and the new year is going to be MUCH better.

He was way off base when it came to 2007. January 2, 2007 was the day that I got fired from my "day" job. After 7 years of building a business for an absentee owner, he walked in and told me he didn’t want me any longer and to leave–NOW. This was a devastating blow as I had left a job that I had been at for 19 years to build this business and I’m not big on change. First of all, I’d never been fired from a job in my entire working life. Not even from a Mickey D’s or BK for slacking as a teenager.

It has taken a toll on me not only financially but emotionally. But the change in life style has allowed for a more concentrated effort to bring ON PIT ROW to where we want it to be. It still isn’t all it can be, but we are working harder at it than ever.

Charlie has done a huge job in making our website better and getting our name and site before everyone’s eyes. There is no way I could have done what Charlie has done with the web portion of our show. Thank you partner.

2007 was the best year ever for guests to appear ON PIT ROW. We have a great list of "regulars" whom we call on, sometimes on very short notice, to be on the show. Jeff Hammond, Lee Spencer, David Poole, Dave Despain and Matt Crossman have all been great friends to ON PIT ROW and we hope to expand these relationships in 2008. The list other guests to be on the show has read like a who’s who of NASCAR. Rusty Wallace, Joe Nemechek, Kasey Kahne, Junior, Clint Bowyer and on and on.

What will 2008 bring? I don’t have a clue except to hope for continued growth of our show. Live streaming is coming soon, so everyone in the world with Internet access can hear the show live and participate. We also are looking to expand the show package, to include more work with ARCA. Lets just believe that 2008 will far surpass 2007 for positives. I’m waiting for the phone to ring. Dad make the call.

Image: turcopolier.typepad.com

Filed under: ARCA Remax Series, Busch Series, Nextel Cup Series, On Pit Row The Fastest Two Hours on Radio

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Nationwide Series gets some Curb appeal

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.

December 14, 2007 9:47 pm CST 4 Comments

Longtime NASCAR participant Mike Curb is back in the game having partnered up with Gary Baker to form Baker Curb Racing.

Recording industry vet Curb has long been tied to racing and is known as the onetime owner of Richard Petty’s #43 STP Plymouth when the King captured his 200th and last Cup Series win. Curb was also a sponsor of Dale Earnhardt’s 1980 Championship winning #2.

Baker Curb Racing took over ownership of the former Brewco Motorsports and will field former Joe Gibbs Racing property, Brad Coleman, full time in the 2008 Nationwide Series. Coleman’s opportunities at JGR were sure to dwindle with hot-shoe, Joey Logano on the 2008 horizon. With an all new, Nashville based facility, it sounds like Baker Curb Racing is ready for a run at the non-Busch-Wacker (still haven’t heard a good alternative name) title.

Filed under: Busch Series, Nascar Legends, The King

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The votes are in–OPeRs have been awarded

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.

December 12, 2007 9:05 am CST 1 Comment

ON PIT ROW’s OPeR awards were held on Tuesday, December 11, 2007.

Some surprise winners received their first OPeR while others, including SPEED-TV, continued on a win streak. Jeff Gordon was shut out of an OPeR for the first time in memory. Here are the results as voted on by the ON PIT ROW staff:

Best and worst driver:

Best driver award goes to Jimmy Johnson for his late season drive to the championship.
Worst driver award goes to the transport driver that got caught trying to sneak his girlfriend into the race track and being snagged by NASCAR and his bride.

Best and worst crew chief:

Best crew chief is awarded to Chad Knaus for making all the right decisions when it counted most.
Worst crew chief is David Hyder for his ill fated attempt to add rocket power to the Michael Waltrip stable.

Best and worst owner:

Best owner OPeR goes to Rick Hendrick for not only providing the best equipment to the best teams but also bringing in the biggest name in the sport for 2008.
Worst owner goes to, hands down, Bobby Ginn for promises not kept and his ability to "big time" a major sport.

Best and worst team:

Best team is a given. I said the #24 and #48 garage as a combo. Charlie lobbied for just the #48 team for obvious reasons. I finally succumbed.
Worst team was the #10 team with Scott Riggs at the helm most of the year. This was a team with high hopes on a team that was on a roll in 2006. Expectations were not met.

Best and worst post race interview:

Best interview goes to Matt Kenseth as he was able to talk to reporters while teammate Carl Edwards was trying to clean his clock.
Worst post race interview was actually no interview at all. Kyle Busch wins for his "walk away" as Junior was getting into Kyle’s wrecked car. Foreshadowing at its finest.

Worst attempt at "adjusting the the rules":

NASCAR’s insistence on not doing anything about the ridiculous Top 35 rule gets the OPeR for sheer stupidity.

Best Jr. High School-like Drama:

The entire Dale Earnhardt Jr. saga played out like the best he said-she said drama of all time. The parties that be, played the public for all they were worth with the multiple press conferences and the never ending speculation in regards to numbers and sponsors. The whole thing played out like an episode of Hanna Montana.

Best and worst Radio/TV personality:

The best TV personality for 2007 was the newcomer–Kyle Petty. Kyle was glib, refreshing and willing to give true insight into what drivers are thinking. We can’t wait to hear more from Kyle in 2008.
Bill Weber wins the worst Media Personality award for his lack of personality.

Best and worst Nascar Network:

SPEED-TV wins again. They consistently put on a great show. Their pre and post race shows are the best. Combine those shows with the qualifying and race coverage of the Craftsman Truck Series and ARCA and you have a winner.
ABC/ESPN was the big loser. Again great expectations from fans and NASCAR were not met on any level. They need to step up and get it done in 2008.

Best guest to appear ON PIT ROW:

This was the hardest award to give because of all the great people who have made ON PIT ROW so much fun to do. Charlie took Lloyd Moore; the oldest living NASCAR and ARCA winner. I took Jeff Hammond from the sheer number of times that Jeff made time for us. Not only is he always entertaining, but there were several times that Jeff went above and beyond to get to a phone to be on the show. Special honorable mentions go to Lee Spencer from Fox Sports and to David Poole from Sirius and the Charlotte Observer.

Photo Credit: Jonathan Fickies / Getty Images for NASCAR)

Filed under: ARCA Remax Series, Busch Series, Carl Edwards, Craftsman Truck Series, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Dale Earnhardt, Inc., Evernham Motorsports, Jeff Hammond, Live blogs, NASCAR & the Media, Nascar Legends, Nextel Cup Series, The Fast Lap

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Rusty visits “ON PIT ROW”

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.

November 28, 2007 8:48 am CST 1 Comment

Rusty Wallace spent some time ON PIT ROW on Tuesday night.

Rusty talked about his ownership and design of Iowa Speedway and the new Riverside Motorsports Park to be located outside of Fresno California. The 7/8ths mile oval will have a replica of the old Riverside road course inside the oval; much like Iowa Speedway has its 2.5 mile road course inside.

The ESPN/ABC broadcaster told of his relationship with his broadcast partners, Jerry Punch and Andy Petree and how they have progressed through the NASCAR season. Rusty believes the team will be even stronger in 2008. He said is now a broadcaster first and his many other responsibilities are able to be juggled around that.

Rusty Wallace Inc. Racing will be expanding to two teams to compete on the Nationwide Series in 2008 with David Stremme and 18 year old, Chase Austin sharing the new #64 Atreus Homes/Jimmy Johns Chevrolet. Wallace’s son, Steven, will continue as the full time driver of the #66 with similar sponsorship. The move from Dodges in 2007 to Chevrolet in 2008 will mean Richard Childress Racing will supply engines for the team.

The CoT was on Rusty’s mind as he agreed with Fox Sports and Speed’s Larry McReynolds:

"The cure for the CoT is stickier tires. That’s all it will take. Call them stickier or softer or whatever; when you have equal cars with hard tires there is no chance for good racing. Let the tires wear faster like they do at places like Darlington and you’ll get some great racing–in multiple grooves."

Rusty gave is views on The Chase and how it has affected Jeff Gordon and NASCAR.

To hear the entire interview with Rusty and the rest of ON PIT ROW; tune in to www.racetalkradio.com on Thursday night 11-29-2007 at 7pm ET.

photo: BethAnne Heisler/ ON PIT ROW-Bench Racing Productions, LLC

Filed under: Busch Series, Car of Tomorrow, Chase for the Cup, Jeff Gordon, NASCAR & the Media, NASCAR Rumors, Nascar Legends, Nextel Cup Series, On Pit Row The Fastest Two Hours on Radio, Rusty Wallace

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Six fast fixes for the 2008 Nationwide Series - part two

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.

November 8, 2007 8:55 pm CST 9 Comments

I believe that to fix the problem of the Busch/Nationwide Series dilemma will require the changing of more than one or two aspects of the current series format. I haven’t seen anybody else propose changes as sweeping as I do here. I humor myself by thinking that I am operating outside the box. You might think me nuts. Here goes.

Change the Game

In an earlier post I proposed changing at least some of the Busch Series races from 200-300 mile mini-Cup races to a sprint race format. Every Nationwide Series race, that shares a venue with a Sprint Cup event, would become a twin 125 mile sprint race format. Similar to the way that the European Touring Car Series run their events, I would run both sprint races the same day - with a suitable break between - and award equal points for each race.

This format would help to differentiate the Nationwide Series further from the Cup series and provide new promotional opportunities for NASCAR - with separate naming rights for the twin sprint race feature.

Change the Schedule

Wherever possible NASCAR should make the Nationwide Series race the star of it’s own weekend. Reschedule, as much as possible, so that Nationwide Series races are not support races for Sprint Cup events at the same venue.

The farther apart that Cup and Nationwide races are geographically, the tougher it will be for full-time Cup drivers to compete with the Nationwide-only teams. This becomes critical with the next proposed change.

Appearance is Everything

I call this the Busch-Wacker Rule. I would have NASCAR set a schedule of appearance requirements for each Nationwide Series race entrant. The rule would not add any extra requirements beyond what drivers already have - but the timing of the he schedule would be set so that any team with a full weekend presence at the Nationwide Series event would easily be able to fulfill the commitments. Drivers with other obligations, such as qualifying or other Sprint Cup duties - especially when those duties are hundreds of miles away - would find the appearance requirements impossible to meet.

The penalty for non fulfillment of the Nationwide Series appearance duties would be forfeiture of all Championship points for that race.

Here endeth the Busch-Wacker phenomenon.

Raise the Dough

Darrell Waltrip says that the amount of prize money in the Busch-Nationwide Series is too low. I believe him. Raising the money for the competitors would help teams with modest budgets stay in the game.

Bigger purses will help keep the stars of NASCAR’s biggest show interested even if the rules prevent them from a run for the championship. These guys race for two reasons. They love to race and they love the cash.

Change the Car

Rumors have been floating of a Car of Tomorrow type replacement for the current car fielded in the Busch Series. That would be safer. It would also be very expensive.

Waltrip, in the post linked to above, makes the case for using all of the Current Cars that will be mothballed by Cup teams in a couple weeks. In the short run, those extinct Cup-mobiles would presumably be cheap. But the supply is limited and that car is a notorious money pit - with all the massaging that can be done by any shop with a big budget and access to a wind tunnel.

The other popular proposal is to make the Busch-Nationwide bash a Pony Car Series - you know Mustangs, Camaros and Challengers. As a card-carrying fan of the Trans Am Series of the 60’s and 70’s, I like the thought of that. The problem I see is that the automakers really can’t decide for sure that they want to be in that Pony Car business. As of today, only the Mustang is actually being produced and sold. Camaro and Challenger are on the way but nobody is certain how well they will sell after the initial rush. Toyota doesn’t have a Pony Car. They won’t have a sport coupe at all next year.

NASCAR should make the Nationwide car a composite bodied, silhouette car. If the manufacturers are supportive of a Pony Car series, fine. Maybe the big four would prefer racing cars that actually look like their street machines. Either way, composite bodies can be cheap, easy to change - if the series wants to change, and could be bolted to a chassis based upon the principles of the Car of Tomorrow.

Changing the body profile would be a very popular move by NASCAR and wouldn’t hurt the popularity of the Nationwide Series one bit.

Chase It

The Nextel Cup Series became an all summer long "must watch" sports event when NASCAR instituted the Race to the Chase and the Chase to the Nextel Cup. It is a no-brainer to do the same thing for the Nationwide Series. Re-setting the points before the final ten races may seem unfair to runaway early season points leaders - like Jeff Gordon in Cup this year - but it ensures some late season uncertainty. there was none of that in the Busch Series last year with Harvick’s stomping of the field or this year with Cousin Carl.

A Chase format with the top ten being re-set would be another way of heading off a mega-funded Cup team from running away with the Nationwide Series Championship.

Whew. That’s all I got. Let me know what you think. I’m going to bed.

Picture credit: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images

Filed under: Busch Series, Carl Edwards, Chase for the Cup, NASCAR Bidness

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Six fast fixes for the 2008 Nationwide Series - part 1

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.

November 7, 2007 3:41 pm CST 2 Comments

How would you go about fixing the Busch-Wacker problem in the queen of NASCAR’s racing royalty?

The Nextel - soon to be Sprint - Cup Series is the King of American motorsports. You can spout all the stats on declining TV ratings and track attendance figures that you want. Those things matter when measuring competing media properties or when comparing the performance of NASCAR against the NFL. It doesn’t mean a thing when you compare racing series. That game is over. See ya’ Bernie, have fun in Bahrain. Tony George’s league will be running support races for Moto GP soon. The France family won by TKO.

The massive popularity of NASCAR’s Cup Series has helped to turn the Busch/Nationwide Series into the number two racing show in this hemisphere. That is kind of stunning for a championship that is usually thought of as a developmental series and somewhat minor-league compared to the Cup Chase.

Still people want to fix it - it being the number two racing series in ……blah blah blah. I can just hear the owners of the Champ Car World Series - or whatever it’s called this year - wishing that their venture were broken like that too.

Broken or not, I posted some ideas that I’ve had for changing the Busch/Nationwide Series. My suggestions did not address the one factor that seems to bother fans of stock car racing the most.

The Busch-Wacker phenomenom

When people talk or write about fixing the Busch Series they seem to pine for the old days. The big complaint being that the series is dominated today by Cup Series drivers - the Busch-Wackers - and the poor, over-matched Busch-only - or Busch-mainly - teams have no chance. It wasn’t like that back in the day, supposedly.

Carl Edwards finished off a dominating 2007 Busch Series season at Texas Motor Speedway in an anti-climactic end to the series championship. Carl has had this one in the vault for months. Carl Edwards is a Busch-Wacker. Therein lies the Busch-Wacker problem, as fans see it. The argument can get pretty heated, as it did on last night’s ON PIT ROW. We got plenty of comments on our Fast Lap questions this week. 4ever3 had some good ideas, as he always does - below is bit of his commentary regarding Fast Lap question #4.

4) Limit the number of races that Full-time Cupsters are allowed to run. For example, each full-time Cup driver is limited to say no more than 10 Busch races per year. more…

Bob’s solution would probably work. If all that you want to do is eliminate Cup Series drivers from winning the Nationwide Series Championship in future years, it’s a done deal. Here is where the Busch-Wacker problem (what are we gonna call these guys next year if we don’t fix this? Nationwide-Nippers…Nappers? We have to fix it now!) becomes a dilemma for NASCAR and NASCAR’s wealthy promoters.

The Busch-Wacker dilemma

Assume that we agree that the presence of the Cup Series drivers is the main reason that Busch-only competitors can’t win their own championship. I say that you must also assume that the same star presence is responsible for the growth of the Busch Series to second in popularity of all North American motorsports. There is the dilemma. Any action that you take that limits the appearances of the Cup Series stars has the potential to degrade what NASCAR has built in their, one-time, developmental series.

Is it smart for NASCAR to stop Dale Earnhardt Jr from appearing in a Busch race at, say, California Speedway, if he chose to run there? How many more cans in the stands would he be worth?

Would Kevin Harvick be subject to the Cup racer limit, even though Kevin Harvick Racing, the team that fields most of his Busch rides is not involved in the Cup Series? How would sponsors like Reeces and the Dish Network feel about their investments in Busch teams if the star couldn’t drive the car?

This post is already too long. If you stuck it out to the end, thank you. In part two, I will give you my six ideas for changing the Nationwide Series. As always, blast away in the comment section.

Picture credit: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR

Filed under: Busch Series, Carl Edwards, Chase for the Cup, NASCAR Bidness, On Pit Row The Fastest Two Hours on Radio, The Fast Lap

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ON PIT ROW–your live, local look at 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.

November 2, 2007 8:39 am CDT 6 Comments

More changes are in the works for ON PIT ROW–the radio show, which may necessitate changing that local only angle.

It was just announced this week that our long time home radio station, and flagship, WCWA-1230 in Toledo, OH will become the flagship station for the Toledo Mud Hens AAA baseball team. With most of their games starting at 6:30 or 7:00 pm; when you figure in their pre-game show, it pretty much ruins our 5-7 pm live broadcast time. We’ll see what WCWA has to say during a meeting with us on Monday, November 5. The other sports station in town is committed to the Detroit Tigers and a third quasi-sports/news station is set to air Cleveland Indians games.

ON PIT ROW may be looking to break out of the live on-air constraints of local radio. We will be looking at a bunch of alternatives before the baseball season starts in April. Including a new non-sports flagship; possibly a local country station that is part of the MRN and PRN networks. Anyone from WCKY-FM looking at this? There is also the live netcast streaming alternative, which we will look into and give over the air stations a chance to play the show whenever they want.

There have been plenty of changes in our show over the past few months and there are many more to come as we look to expand and grow Bench Racing Productions, which itself is a new venture for us. A couple of months ago we changed from a three person show to just Charlie and me. So far reviews have been favorable.

Everyone always says the thing about a door closing and another opening. We’ll see if they are correct. One thing is for sure Charlie and I have put too much time and energy into this deal for us not to keep going–no matter what.

Stay tuned for updated news and hopefully an exciting announcement about a new, additional racing show from us coming soon.

PRN, MRN, Sirius–we’d be glad to sit down and talk about adding ON PIT ROW to your lineups.

Picture credit: BethAnne Heisler - ON PIT ROW

Filed under: ARCA Remax Series, Busch Series, Craftsman Truck Series, Diversity and NASCAR, Formula One, It's Only Cheating if You Get Caught, NASCAR & the Media, NASCAR Rumors, Nextel Cup Series, On Pit Row The Fastest Two Hours on Radio, The Daily Bugle, The Fast Lap, Toledo Speedway, Warren Wallace

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ON PIT ROW gets a scoop

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.

October 30, 2007 10:34 pm CDT 3 Comments

Young and talented Michael McDowell joined us ON PIT ROW tonight. Steve had been working on getting the young gun ever since the ARCA ReMax wind-up at Toledo Speedway a couple weeks ago.

At first he was busy testing with Michael Waltrip Racing. Last week, he was busy in meetings with MWR.

We got him tonight and he taped a liner for us before his appearance. In the liner he described himself as such:

"Michael McDowell, driver of the #00 NAPA Toyota Camry for Michael Waltrip Racing."

He went on to tell us that he will indeed drive that car this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway and for the rest of the Busch Series this year for MWR in the NAPA Auto Parts sponsored Camry. In 2008, he will drive Nationwide Series races in the same car until David Reutiman moves to the #44 UPS Camry. At that time McDowell will move into the - as yet sponsor un-named - #00 MWR Nextel Cup Camry.

Michael McDowell might be a bit of an unknown to NASCAR fans. Don’t be surprised if he enters the Cup Series with a Nationwide win in his pocket. He has already won on every kind of track imaginable , including Mexico City , where the Nationwide Series travels early in 2008.

Filed under: ARCA Remax Series, Busch Series, NASCAR Rumors, Nextel Cup Series, On Pit Row The Fastest Two Hours on Radio, The Waltrips

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