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Carroll Shelby and the Avengers

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

May 16, 2012 10:08 am UTC No Comments

One of my heroes passed this past weekend. Carroll Shelby died at age 89.

I don’t want to recap Shelby’s life in this post. Others have written that story over the past several days. The truth is, I’m a little late to be writing an epitaph on the man. From the moment that I heard the news of his passing though, I’ve known I had to write about my feelings.

I was a kid in the late fifties and sixties. I loved all sports but auto racing was a magnet for my attention. I’ve written before about how tough it was to get timely racing info back then. Especially so for the things that happened mostly in Europe, like Formula One and Sports Car racing. Lucky for me, that my dad subscribed to Sports Car Graphic and Road & Track. There I found coverage of men who became, and remain, my heroes.

F1 and endurance racing was then, as it is again today, dominated by European manufacturers. Ferrari and Porsche in sports cars, Lotus, Cooper, BRM and Brabham in F1. But a handful of Americans – and man, did they ever look the part of All-Americans – went over there and competed. When they had the right ride, guys like Dan Gurney, Roger Penske, Richie Ginther and Carroll Shelby won, against the best in the world.

For a few of them, winning in someone else’s, some other country’s, car wasn’t enough. They must have heard the comments like; “yanks can only build cars that go in circles”. I think they got pissed.

Shelby, Penske, Gurney and Jim Hall are my Avengers.

They built cars here, in the states, and went to Europe and beat the best in the world. I can remember to this day, how proud I was when Shelby’s Cobras won and Hall’s Chaparrals and Dan Gurney’s Eagle Westlake F1 car won at Spa. That Eagle was the first, and only American F1 winner until The Captain, Roger Penske went back to Europe with his own car.

The greatest achievement, most significant anyway, may have been when Shelby lead a team of Ford MK IVs to victory in the 24 hours of Lemans, beating the best of Enzo Ferrari’s 330 P4s. Glorious.

In the Avengers comics, Tony Stark is Ironman. He designed his famous suit of armor to protect a damaged heart. He did more with it than that.

Carroll Shelby was one of the longest lived recipients of a heart transplant. He accomplished much after, and lived an amazing life.

When I heard of Shelby’s death, I texted Steve and asked that he try to get Dave Despain On Pit Row this week to talk about ‘Ol Shell. Here is the highlight of Daves interview. I hope you enjoy it.

Photo credit: Sports Illustrated

Filed under: Formula One, NASCAR & the Media, SPEED TV

Tagged with: Carroll Shelby, Dan Gurney, endurance racing, Jim Hall, Lemans, Roger Penske, Sebring, sports car racing

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An Open Letter To President Johnson

by Chris Leone, Special To NASCAR commentary and driver pictures, 2012 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.

November 27, 2009 12:25 am UTC No Comments

Dear “President” Jimmie Johnson,

First of all, is it all right to call you “Mr. President”? I mean, you have been the defending Sprint Cup champion of four years now – the length of one United States presidential term, something that nobody else has ever done, including your teammate Jeff Gordon, Richard Petty, and Dale Earnhardt.

You and your “cabinet” – Secretary of State Rick Hendrick, Secretary of Defense Earl Barban, and most importantly, your right-hand man, Vice President Chad Knaus – are one of the most successful administrations in NASCAR history. Over the past four years, you have won 29 races, almost a full season, and have not scored fewer than 22 top-10 finishes in any given year. That’s a remarkable performance.

But, Mr. President, the State of the Union is not as strong as it once was. Attendance at the events has gone down, as is to be expected in a recession, but television ratings have gone down too. That signifies a lack of interest. It’s not like people can’t watch – at least 99 percent of American homes have televisions, and 56-plus pay for cable TV. 24 of the 36 points-paying races are on broadcast – the first third of the season with FOX, and the final 11 with ABC.

And, Mr. President, one of the reasons why they’re not watching is you.

Now, don’t get me wrong, people love an administration that can turn down all challengers. Adversity sticks to you like teflon; challengers come and go, but when all is said and done, we all know that you’re going to come through and remain on top.

You got there by being just a little better than Matt Kenseth in 2006. In 2007, you took down Jeff Gordon, whose season was statistically better, by virtue of a couple more wins and a stronger performance at the end of the season. Last year, the Chase format gave you the win when Carl Edwards was marginally better. This year, you took advantage of the fact that Mark Martin flip-flopped too often between good and bad finishes, and even an incident at Texas couldn’t drag you down too far.

Under the Chase format, Mr. President, you can’t be beat. But take away this safety net, and you’re more vulnerable. History wouldn’t have been made this Sunday, because you wouldn’t have won in 2007, or 2008; even your 2006 championship would have been far less certain. I mean, come on, the margin of victory under the old format would have been four points.

Perhaps, Mr. President, you’re human after all.

Perhaps your administration is just the most adept at adapting to a new style of racing, under a format that, despite all of NASCAR’s claims, actually robs the fans of better (or at least fairer) championship battles. Look it up.

But there’s a way for you to prove your invincibility once and for all. Let me explain.

But first, I must say that I was slightly disappointed in hearing about your recent contract extension through 2015. Six more years is a long time. At this rate, you’ll be approaching Franklin Delano Roosevelt status before you even hit 40. I think it’s time for another challenge, don’t you? And I have perhaps the greatest conceivable challenge in all of motorsports for you.

Mr. President, Americans – or American-trained drivers – are suffering in international motorsport affairs. Our last Formula One driver, Scott Speed, was a failure. (Perhaps you recognize him; you lap him every week in the stock cars now.) Champ Car‘s four-time champion, Sebastien Bourdais, made for a terrible F1 driver as well. Our best IndyCar driver, Danica Patrick, is by far the most overrated race car driver of this decade in any discipline, and the other American drivers in that series – Marco Andretti, Graham Rahal, et. al. – seem more concerned with the fanfare and their own stardom than actually winning races.

So, Mr. President, the only person I could think of to approach in hope of solving the problem is you.

Starting next year, there will be an Formula 1 team headquartered in Charlotte, run by former Speed Channel reporter Peter Windsor and backed by Youtube founder Chad Hurley. They already have one driver signed, a Spanish mid-pack GP2 racer who brings some sponsorship on board.

That’s not what you want the United States’ only F1 team to be, is it? A pay-driver team? They need a champion, a driver who can win races, has dominated those in his home country, a consummate professional such as yourself who isn’t going to alienate the media.

My point is, we need you in F1, Mr. President.

We need you to prove to the rest of the world that America is still a relevant motorsports country. We need you to prove that these drivers in NASCAR and IndyCar are just as talented as the F1 boys, that we, too, can turn right and left, that even though F1′s rejects have populated the open-wheel ranks for years and the bulky stock cars generally turn left, our drivers can hold their own in the pinnacle of motorsport.

Think of it. How many drivers can say that they’ve won races at Daytona, Indianapolis, and Monaco? Plenty of drivers can lay claim to two of the three; Mario Andretti, Juan Pablo Montoya, Michael Schumacher, and Graham Hill (who also won Le Mans) are among them. You could be the first to win all three. That’s a class all your own in the history of motorsport, Mr. President.

Sometimes, you need to know when to move on to the next challenge. I would say that “when” is now. There is very little left for you to accomplish in American stock car racing, except for maybe Nationwide and Camping World titles, and what fun is stepping backwards?

I hope you’ll consider what I’ve suggested to you, Mr. President. Take a long, hard look at F1. Then talk to Secretary of State Hendrick and Mr. Windsor, and let’s make it happen.

Some other drivers would like to win championships before they retire too, anyway.

Filed under: Formula One, Hendrick Motorsports, jimmie johnson, NASCAR

Tagged with: Formula One, Hendrick Motorsports, jimmie johnson

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Do We Really Need More Open-Wheelers In NASCAR?

by Chris Leone, Special To NASCAR commentary and driver pictures, 2012 NASCAR schedule, video, Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie

October 7, 2009 11:45 am UTC No Comments

Will somebody please explain to me this new trend of Formula One drivers coming over to try and race stock cars?

Over the course of this past week, Nelson Piquet Jr., Mika Salo, and Jarno Trulli have all been announced to test with NASCAR teams in hopes of potentially securing rides for 2010 and beyond.

Piquet Jr. is fresh off of the Crashgate scandal that rocked Renault F1. For those not in the know, Piquet Jr. was recently fired as Renault’s second driver, behind Fernando Alonso. He then came out with information about a race in 2008 in which he deliberately crashed his car to help Alonso win. Former team boss Flavio Briatore was banned indefinitely from all FIA-sanctioned motorsports as a result, and if Renault does anything to compromise the integrity of Formula 1 in the next two years, the team will be banned from F1 permanently.

His snitching leaving him damaged goods in F1, which has historically been dominated by team orders, Piquet hopes to secure a Truck Series ride in 2010. He’ll be testing with Red Horse Racing alongside Vitor Meira, an IndyCar Series driver who injured his back in this year’s Indianapolis 500 and hasn’t raced since.

Meira, for the record, isn’t contemplating a NASCAR career. He’s just trying to get back in the saddle and run some laps. His IndyCar team, A.J. Foyt Enterprises, doesn’t have the resources to run him at their season finale at Homestead this weekend.

Salo and Trulli both have links to Toyota’s F1 team; Salo was one of the team’s drivers in its inaugural season in 2002, and Trulli has been with the team since the last two races of 2004. Unsurprisingly, they’re both testing with Toyota’s original flagship team, Michael Waltrip Racing. They’ll be running at USA International Speedway in Lakeland, Florida, the week before NASCAR’s season finale at Homestead next month.

Rumors persist that Toyota will back out of F1 soon, leaving Trulli without a ride. With many of the new teams on the grid next year expected to be backmarkers, Trulli likely considers NASCAR a better option. Salo has been looking to run a Nationwide Series schedule for a couple of years now.

The question is, why?

Sure, sports car racing may not be as well-funded or popular as NASCAR or F1, but it’d be a much better fit. The types of companies that sponsor sports car teams are the ones more concerned with the racing itself than the marketing, and thus are more concerned with the best drivers. If these drivers are concerned with winning championships, that’s their best bet. The glory of Le Mans is also an enticing factor in deciding to run sports cars.

Of all the open-wheel drivers to make the switch in disciplines, only one has seen any measure of success, and that’s Juan Montoya. But Jarno Trulli is no Juan Montoya. Hell, Nelson Piquet Jr. is no Jarno Trulli, either – at least Trulli won a race in F1.

That’s right, one race. And that’s the grand total of victories that those three drivers have accrued in F1. What makes them think NASCAR is going to be any easier?

It seems obvious to me that this latest open-wheel experiment is not going to work. The only way Piquet will ever be successful in a race car again is if he rejoins his father’s team in GP2, and Salo and Trulli would make much better sports car drivers. And quite frankly, they deserve better than failed attempts at driving stock cars. I don’t think anybody wants to add their names to the list of disastrous experiments: Dario Franchitti, Jacques Villeneuve, Patrick Carpentier, the early stages of A.J. Allmendinger and Sam Hornish Jr.‘s NASCAR careers… need I say more?

Filed under: Formula One, Testing news

Tagged with: Formula 1, Jarno Trulli, Mika Salo, Nelson Piquet Jr., open-wheelers

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Wanna be a NASCAR Champ? Just Win Baby

by Charlie Turner

January 7, 2009 11:49 am UTC 5 Comments

I was reading an article in MotorSport, one of my favorite mags. The piece was about the 1958 Formula One World Championship…….That gap is to let all of you get in your “old guy” jokes.

The author, Nigel Roebuck, starts off the story with a quote from F1 csar, Bernie Eccelstone…

For him” the World Champion each year should be the driver who had won the most races, and only in the event of a tie on victories, should places (points) come into reckoning”

Now that would be radical, huh? Even for you Chase haters. But I think that I could live with it.

The most talked about on-track event of the 2008 Sprint Cup season was Carl Edwards’ banzai, video game inspired, off-the-wall pass attempt on Jimmie Johnson at Kansas. If wins were all the championship was about, how many more such moves would we see by drivers trying to win it all?

One of our favorite guests, NASCAR beat writer Dustin Long joined us ON PIT ROW last night. Dustin has an interesting project that he’s working on and he wants your help. He is compiling a NASCAR Fans Bill of Rights, that will be published some time in February – around Speedweeks. Go to Dustin’s blog here, read the post, and then submit your suggestions for the Bill.

Filed under: Carl Edwards, Chase for the Cup, Formula One, NASCAR, On Pit Row The Fastest Two Hours on Radio, Sprint Cup Series

Tagged with: Bernie Eccelstone, Carl Edwards, Dustin Long, F1, Formula One, NASCA Fans Bill of Rights, World Champion

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Carl Edwards Takes Britian By Storm

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.

December 16, 2008 7:12 am UTC No Comments

Sprint Cup runner-up Carl Edwards represented NASCAR well at the Race of Champions in England.

Five-time world rally champ Sebastien Loeb prevailed in the Race of Champions on Sunday, but Carl Edwards provided the night’s biggest upset, downing Michael Schumacher in a second-round meeting.

Edwards, who represented the USA with drifting standout Tanner Foust, had the crowd at Britian’s Wembley Stadium going crazy by narrowly edging the seven-time Formula One champ by 1.7 seconds.

Edwards, the lone NASCAR representative in the 16-driver field, lost in the semifinals to former F1 driver David Coulthard, who fell to Loeb in a closely contested three-heat final.

In addition to reaching the semifinals in his first Race Of Champions appearance, Edwards — a nine-time race winner in the Cup Series — won the inaugural TAG Heuer Racing Award. A panel of eight judges reviewed the performances of more than 150 drivers worldwide from Formula One, GP 2, NASCAR, and World Rally before naming Edwards the winner.

Edwards defeated English Formula 3 champ Jaime Alguersuari in the first round. Foust also provided a big-name knockout, edging Jenson Button in a first-round matchup.

In the Nations Cup team competition, Edwards and Foust were eliminated in the first round by Button and Andy Priaulx of Team Great Britain.

This leads us to this weeks BUZZ ON PIT ROW:

Do NASCAR Drivers get their proper respect on the world-wide racing scene?

Let us know what you think about this weeks BUZZ and we may use your comments on this weeks radio show. Tune in to ON PIT ROW from 5-7pm ET every Tuesday. Give us a call toll free at 1-877-502-8255 and let us know what you think.

photo credit: Icon Sports Media

Filed under: Carl Edwards, Diversity and NASCAR, ESPN, Formula One, Nascaholics, NASCAR, NASCAR & the Media, Nascar Legends

Tagged with: Carl Edwards, David Coulthard, Michael Schumacher, Sebastien Loeb, Tanner Foust

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Quick Hits: Dover International Speedway

by Chris Leone, Special To NASCAR commentary and driver pictures, 2012 NASCAR schedule, video, Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie

September 17, 2008 9:02 pm UTC 2 Comments

This weekend, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to Dover, Delaware, for the second race of ten in the 2008 Chase for the Sprint Cup. The series comes off of a weekend at New Hampshire that saw Kyle Busch falter, Greg Biffle assert himself as a championship contender, and Joey Logano make his Sprint Cup debut, finishing 32nd in a Hall of Fame Racing Toyota.

Logano, at 18 years, 3 months, and 20 days old, was the youngest driver to make his Sprint Cup debut since 1982, when a 17-year-old by the name of Bobby Hillin Jr. drove a No. 8 Buick to a 21st place finish at the old North Wilkesboro Speedway. In other words, Hillin was a “young gun” before it became cool to develop teenage drivers.

Unlike some of the other “young guns” that NASCAR has seen recently (try Casey Atwood, Shane Hmiel, Joel Kauffman, Jason Schuler, and Chase Montgomery on for size), Hillin was arguably a decent driver, with the potential to compete for wins and decent points finishes. When he had a consistent ride, especially in the late 1980s, he was capable of finishing in the top 20 in points; in 1986, he cracked the top 10 in points for the only time of his career, finishing 9th after winning a race at Talladega and scoring 14 top 10 finishes in 29 races for the Stavola Brothers.

Hillin was, at times, a poor qualifier, missing more and more races per season as he moved to what is now the Nationwide Series in 1998. He never won a pole, had a pedestrian average start of 24.2 in the Cup series, and averaged 5.6 DNQs per season from 1996 to 2000, when his career ultimately ended. That didn’t take away from the fact, however, that at his best, Hillin could keep the car on the track for the duration of the race; he finished 27 out of 29 races in 1988, tied for second best in the series, and completed the third-most laps of any driver that year.

Compare this to many current “young guns,” drivers who are often fast in qualifying but cannot keep the car on the track. Consider the aforementioned Hmiel, who won four poles in his abbreviated Nationwide Series career, but failed to finish in 30 out of 119 career starts in NASCAR’s top three series. Hillin, in the prime years of his career (1985-1990, discounting a bad 1987 in which car parts failed ten times), started 143 races, and only failed to finish 27 of them. Compare rebuilding a car once every 5.3 races to once every four. Even the late Dale Earnhardt broke something on a car, on average, once every six races.

Yet, while “young guns” nowadays receive all kinds of aid from all around the garage area, Hillin was often looked down upon by his contemporaries in the garage area. “Nobody wanted to help me,” Hillin said in a 2007 interview with NASCAR.com. “I still needed a whole lot of help (even after winning at Talladega).” Such help likely would not have been wasted on the young driver, as it has been on plenty of recent young guns.

Truth be told, Logano is nothing like most recent development drivers; he’s already got a Nationwide Series win in only a handful of career starts, and he’s going to inherit Tony Stewart’s car next season, one of the top cars in the garage year in and year out. Logano’s got all kinds of help around him, and for that reason, his situation and Hillin’s are nothing alike. At the same time, had drivers like Hillin not blazed a trail in the 1980s, the youth movement currently present in NASCAR might never have happened, and one of the best raw talents in NASCAR would still be waiting for a shot in the big league.

Before the Chase resumes at the Monster Mile, here are this week’s five Quick Hits:

5. A.J. Allmendinger will know his future at Team Red Bull very soon, as the organization decides whether to promote Scott Speed full-time next season in the No. 84 or add a third car, the No. 82. Recently re-signed general manager Jay Frye (who turned down the same position at Stewart-Haas Racing) should have the final decision from the energy drink’s headquarters in Austria by the end of this week.

4. Bobby Hamilton Jr. has stated that he’s about “40 percent” talking to a Sprint Cup team about next season. Currently a Ford driver, there is the possibility that either the Wood Brothers or Yates Racing are the team in question.

3. Italian road course specialist Max Papis will run 18 races next season in a Germain Racing Toyota sponsored by Geico. Papis has run assorted road course races this season and attempted to qualify for this year’s Indianapolis 500.

2. Gillett Evernham Motorsports‘ right of first refusal on Patrick Carpentier expired Tuesday, when the team was unable to find sponsorship to run the Canadian in a fourth car for 2009. Teams that have publicly shown interest in Carpentier include the Wood Brothers.

1. Steve Hallam, McLaren F1‘s head of race operations, will bring his wealth of technical knowledge to the Sprint Cup Series next season. Hallam has previously worked with such world-famous race drivers as Nigel Mansell, Mika Hakkinen, and the late Ayrton Senna.

Finally, congratulations to last week’s winners at New Hampshire: Ron Hornaday in the Truck series, and Biffle in Sprint Cup.

Filed under: A J Allmendinger, Dover International Speedway, Formula One, Gillett Evernham Motorsports, Joey Logano, NASCAR, New Hampshire International Speedway, Red Bull Racing, road course ringers, Scott Speed, Sprint Cup Series, Stewart Haas Racing, The Wood Brothers