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Fins to the Left Fins to the Right Daytona Pack Racing is All Right

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

February 28, 2012 11:48 am UTC No Comments

The 2012 Daytona 500 was memorable for many things including the debut of Monday Night NASCAR.

I don’t write race recaps. I don’t enjoy doing them and there are really good, professional journalists who do that better than I ever could anyway. So go read Bob Pockrass or Dustin Long or Ryan McGee’s stories this week if you want to know what happened in the Daytona 500 and why it did.

Congrats to Matt Kenseth on winning the race and to Jack Roush for owning the front row of the grid in addition to the car that won the race. Nice start for the Roushies in 2012.

Dale Earnhardt Jr finished second, and looked to have a shot at the win late in the race. But it was not to be.

The Pack is Back. Pack racing at restrictor plate tracks is once again the rule. The proof came when, with a couple laps left, and Kenseth all alone out front with no one to draft with, the combo of Junior and Greg Biffle couldn’t catch him.

In the days of tandem plate racing, Matt would have been as toasted as Reilly Mansfield at a Saturday night gig. But he held on.

The pack racing led to some crazy wrecks. And Juan Pablo Montoya’s, yellow flag spin into a jet dryer was just bizarre . So was 15 hours, spread over two days, of pre-race fill by DW, MW and MJ.

I hope to hell there’s no weather in the forecast for Phoenix.

Photo credit: Round girl Cindi by BethAnne Heisler – OnPitRow.com

Filed under: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Darrell Waltrip, Daytona 500, Daytona International Speedway, Greg Biffle, Juan Pablo Montoya, Michael Waltrip, NASCAR, NASCAR & the Media, Sprint Cup Series

Tagged with: bob pockrass, Dustin Long, restrictor plates, Ryan McGee

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NASCAR! Danica Patrick and Tissot Watches are Giving it Away

by Charlie Turner

February 27, 2012 1:28 pm UTC 1 Comment

Hey NASCAR Nation what would happen if Danica Patrick won the 2012 Daytona 500?

I can think of a number of things. But one, for sure result would be that the value of Danica Patrick memorabilia would go through the roof.

You need some Danica gear before the price goes up, as a collector inflation hedge. We can help.

On Pit Row is offering a Danica Patrick Prize Pack, thanks to the folks at Tissot.

Swiss luxury wristwatch brand, Tissot has a long history of sponsorship in motorsports. Danica is one of the most marketed drivers in racing and Patrick’s latest timepiece for the brand, the Limited Edition Ladies White Quartz Classic Watch ($895), can be found here.

One lucky On Pit Row reader will win an autographed Danica Patrick Photo, a JR Motorsports Crew Shirt and a miniature diecast race car.

Here’s how to enter:

Send an email with your name and mailing address to TissotOnPitRow@gmail.com
For additional entries, follow OnPitRow – @OnPitRow on twitter or Like On Pit Row on Facebook.
A winner will be chosen at random on Tuesday March 13, live On Pit Row
*By entering this contest you will opt in to Tissot’s weekly newsletter

Filed under: Danica Patrick, Daytona 500, JR Motorsports, On Pit Row The Fastest Two Hours on Radio

Tagged with: NASCAR contests

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Tony Raines and the Daytona NASCAR Dads Car

by Charlie Turner

February 26, 2012 9:28 am UTC No Comments

When we had Front Row Motorsports‘ driver Tony Raines live On Pit Row Tuesday, the team knew they were in the race but still lacked sponsorship for the Daytona 500.

Tony told us that he thought he’d heard of some interest, but didn’t know – or didn’t divulge – who had the dough.

Turns out Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum’s campaign is going to sponsor the #26 Ford Fusion in the Great American Race.

Makes sense. NASCAR fan demographics shade well to the right politically. George DubbYa knew that. So did Ronald Reagan. Remember Reagan in the booth when King Richard Petty won his last 500? NASCAR Dads?

Front Row and Raines are underdogs today in the 500. But so was Santorum 6 weeks ago and now he’s at the top of the polls. Karma is on the side of the #26 today.

Photo credit: AP Photo/Rainier Ehrhardt

Filed under: Daytona 500, Daytona International Speedway, NASCAR, NASCAR & the Media

Tagged with: Front Row Motorsports, Tony Raines

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Duel Yin or Yang: Which Daytona 500 Will We Get

by Charlie Turner

February 23, 2012 6:26 pm UTC No Comments

Real NASCAR Sprint Cup racing was back today in the Gatorade Duels at Daytona International Speedway. Awesomeness has returned.

Race one was won by defending Sprint Cup champ Tony Stewart. Matt Kenseth was the winner of the second Duel race.

Which race did you like better? The character of the two races was as different as, I don’t know… the music of AC/DC and James Taylor.

We expected pack racing after NASCAR’s efforts to end the Pairs Plate Racing of 2011. Saturday’s Bud Shootout seemed to validate those thoughts.

Duel number one fit the expectation today. It was a sixty lap, three-wide nail-biter with a couple big wrecks (welcome to NASCAR, Danica Patrick) and a shuffle filled, final few laps.

But race two was different. Mostly it looked like a parade, with pole starter Greg Biffle playing Grand Marshall. Looked a bit like Talladega, 2010, I thought.

Until the last two and a half laps, anyway.

Those laps were as exciting as any I’ve watched since…oh… Saturday, I guess. But Kyle Busch didn’t win this one.

Matt Kenseth did.

The fact that I thought Elliott Sadler was driving the Best Buy Ford Fusion just confirms that it’s early in NASCAR 2012. Those new paint schemes always take me awhile.

Early looks pretty good though.

Photo credit: HEATHER WILLIAMS | Eyewitness Sports

Filed under: Daytona 500, Daytona International Speedway

Tagged with: Danica Patrick, Elliott Sadler, Gatorade Duels, Matt Kenseth, Tony Stewart

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Big John? How ‘Bout Morganna?

by Charlie Turner

February 8, 2012 12:02 pm UTC No Comments

John Cena is no Morganna. Do you remember Morganna? Whether you do or don’t, she was a better fit for NASCAR than Big John. Big Morganna at least had something(s) that a guy like Tim Richmond might have related too. Cena is not a fit. I hope.

I tried but I cannot find a Winston Cup race where Morganna was the Grand Marshal. But I am sure that my, formerly adolescent memory, is not failing me. I can picture them -’eh her – up on the podium, wrapping Richard or Cale or Bobby, somebody in her loving… embrace….

There was a bit of complaining about Cena being the pick for Daytona 500 Grand Marshall. On Twitter, there was a virtual bitchin’ storm.

Good.

Get y’all’s Red-Neck on.

NASCAR needs just about anything that stirs the fan pot and gets The Kingdom of France aroused.

Real racing is a week or so away and it can’t come soon enough. Who cares who stands on the big stage three weeks from now - at the beginning of the race – if he doesn’t drive a race car?

Or have really big …. assets.

Credit: World Wrestling Entertainment

Filed under: Carl Edwards, Daytona 500, NASCAR

Tagged with: John Cena, Tim Richmond, Winston Cup, WWE

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Let Youth Be Served

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.

February 24, 2011 8:18 am UTC 1 Comment

Trevor Bayne’s unexpected win in the Daytona 500 shows once again racing is a young mans sport.

As a fan of NASCAR racing the first driver I ever rooted for was LeeRoy Yarbrough in the late 60′s and early 70′s. Through most of the 70′s after LeeRoy dropped out of the NASCAR world with mysterious ailments; I didn’t have an allegiance to any one driver until Bill Elliott came on the scene toward the end of that decade.

Elliott captured my attention because of his family run team out of Georgia when most NASCAR teams had already migrated to the area around Charlotte. At the time there weren’t a lot of teams running Fords and I have always held an affinity for the brand. So Bill, Dan and Ernie were MY guys.

I have remained an Elliott fan throughout his career even when he closed his team and went to drive for Ray Evernham and the resurrected Dodge factory effort.

When it was announce that Bill would drive for the Wood Brothers in a part time effort I believed in my heart, if not totally in my mind, that the combination could bring back the glory of a time gone by when David Pearson took the part time program and won races. Pearson won races; he wasn’t interested in winning championships. Championships were for guys like Richard Petty.

My hope for catching lightening in a bottle with the Wood Brothers-Bill Elliott combination kept lessening with every missed opportunity. The Woods would enter Elliott in places that he had run well in the past; places like Atlanta. The combination never seemed to work. Maybe the team wasn’t ready to win yet.

I was still surprised when the Woods elected to take Bill out of the car in late 2010 to give the displaced Bayne a one-off. Bayne had been released earlier by Michael Walltrip Racing from his Nationwide Series ride. Needless to say he ran well enough at Texas, finishing a respectable seventeenth, to make the Woods have to make a decision for 2011.

The decision to part ways with Elliott and give Bayne the ride for 2011 obviously was a winner for both Bayne and the race team that hasn’t seen a win at Daytona since 1976. One win does not a career make; but to take the iconic #21 to victory lane in only his second Sprint Cup race and just a day after his twenteth birthday could make the Wood Brothers seem like geniuses.

It may be way too early to proclaim a changing of the guard, but for this NASCAR fan it’s time to move on to a new phase in the sport we love.

Photo credit: BethAnne Heisler/ON PIT ROW

Filed under: Bill Elliott, Daytona 500, How to fix NASCAR, NASCAR, NASCAR & the Media, NASCAR History, Nascar Legends, NASCAR Predictions, Trevor Bayne

Tagged with: David Pearson, LeeRoy Yarbrough, Ray Evernham, Richard Petty, The Wood Brothers, Trevor Bayne

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