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ARCA Week in On Pit Row Land

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 18, 2010 12:33 pm UTC No Comments

The ARCA Racing Series presented by Re/Max and Menards rolls into Toledo Speedway this week for the Menards 200 Presented by Federated Car Care.

We love our ARCA racing On Pit Row. Today’s show will feature visits from Kenny Shrader and Matt Crafton. Both NASCAR stars will compete in the ARCA race here on Sunday. It will be a blast.

Steve is doing TV broadcast duty for the race. I will just lurk. And enjoy the day off and ARCA action. If you have a chance, come on over and watch for yourself.

Filed under: ARCA Remax Series, Kenny Shrader, Toledo Speedway

Tagged with: ARCA Racing Series presented by RE/Max and Menards, matt crafton, Menards 200 Presented by Federated Car Care

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ARCA at Toledo: Hot ‘Lanta ain’t the Only Night Race

by Charlie Turner

September 4, 2009 9:46 am UTC 1 Comment

The ARCA Re/Max 200 sponsored by Federated Auto Parts and Belle Tire will jump start the Labor Day weekend stock car racing holiday with a race under the lights at Toledo Speedway tonight.

The On Pit Row Pit Crew will be there. Wouldn’t miss it. Don’t be surprised if Ken Shrader and Frank kimmel are bangin’ fenders at some point tonight. Both are big ARCA crowd favorites and, as in the spring race at Toledo, they are usually up front somewhere.

Mike Brudenell, motorsports writer for the Detroit Free Press has a preview of the ARCA RE/Max 200 in his regular Spin Doctor column. Check it out. Mike will co-host On Pit Row next Tuesday with Steve Wronkowicz while I take a week off. And if Steve thought I make him look like an idiot….

Watch young Joey Coulter tonight. He’s in the no. 16 and he’s due.

Photo credit: Tracy Stack

Filed under: ARCA Remax Series, Frank Kimmel, Kenny Shrader, Toledo Speedway

Tagged with: ARCA Re/Max 200, Detroit Free Press, Joey Coulter, Mike Brudenell

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Kyle Busch Late Model Racing at Toledo Speedway Photos

by BethAnne, Special To NASCAR commentary and driver pictures, 2012 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."

August 15, 2009 1:58 pm UTC No Comments

Kyle Busch came back to Toledo Speedway Friday night for a little short track racing. Here are a few pics of the night. Click on the thumbnails for a full-size image.

All photos by BethAnne Heisler – OnPitRow.com

Filed under: Kyle Petty, Toledo Speedway

Tagged with: CRA Late Models

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New Kyle Busch Fan Site: On Pit Row

by Charlie Turner

August 15, 2009 10:49 am UTC No Comments

All Kyle Busch – all the time.

That’s the new On Pit Row theme. It seems.

Or maybe I’ll go search for some new domain name and start a fan site for Kyle the Younger. Some thoughts..

theshrubhub.com

bratbows&smashingguitars.com

stuffitRick.net

Rowdy.com - oops, that one’s taken I think.

On Friday, Kyle Busch had a full NASCAR schedule at Michigan International Speedway; Sprint Cup practice, interviews, Nationwide Series practice, More Cup practice, Cup qualifying and another Nationwide practice.

Then Busch was scheduled to drive to Toledo from MIS – and that can be tough on race weekend – for an autograph session and 100 lap CRA Late Model race at Toledo Speedway Friday night.

Then someone told Kyle that the drive would take an hour and ten minutes – best case scenario by a sane driver. There would have been no way for Kyle to pull it off without either missing the CRA qualifying session or delaying the whole Toledo show – an inconvenience to the fans that Busch thought was unacceptable.

So he chartered a chopper – on his own dime - and made it to Toledo in time to make a whole bunch of race fans in an economically hammered city, very happy.

Rowdy qualified second but crashed on lap 15 while contending for the lead.

So, I’m a newly hatched, Kyle Busch fan. Give that man a guitar.

I do like that stuffitRick.net name. I may have to buy that one.

Photo credit: An out of breath from sprinting across a field to get the shot – BethAnne Heisler for OnPitRow.com

Filed under: Kyle Busch, NASCAR, Nationwide Series, Toledo Speedway

Tagged with: CRA Late Models, Toledo 100

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It’s Tough to Merge When You’re Tight in Turn Two

by Charlie Turner

October 24, 2008 9:39 am UTC No Comments

Early in the 2007 NASCAR season, someone asked Tony Stewart what he thought about the possibility of Dale Earnhardt Jrleaving the team Junior’s daddy had founded, DEI. Tony famously said…

DEI without Dale Earnhardt Jr. is a museum.”

Well Junior did leave for Hendrick Motorsports and DEI has soldiered on. More than a museum, but less successful than before, Teresa Earnhardt’s organization faces an uncertain racing future, with lack of sponsorship and no real headliner of a driver being the chief problems, it seems.

For a week or better, NASCAR’s rumor mill has featured DEI with Petty Enterprises as a potential dance partner. So the Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie blog wants your thoughts on this question.

Is there any good reason that you see for a Petty Enterprises and DEI merger?

Charlie: I don’t see it if it’s there. Normally, mergers take place between a strong and a relatively weaker partner or between two entities with complimentary assets. Maybe one has a surplus of cash and the other a talent or technical advantage, for example. I can’t see that here. Both teams have the same, critical challenge in finding major sponsors. Steve claimed ON PIT ROW Tuesday that Petty Enterprises has this in the Wells-Fargo deal. I don’t see it. As I understand the Wells-Fargo sponsorship, it is, 1) for maybe 20 races and 2) it’s tied to Kyle Petty, who seems to be on the way out. A half season sponsor package for one car doesn’t seem a compelling reason to partner-up with Petty.

DEI has strong personnel in their shops. But are those people committed to staying? This one just doesn’t make sense to me.

Bruce: It seems like a desperate measure between two teams that don’t have
a solid foothold in the competitive or sponsor race.

Back in September Patty Petty let slip in an interview that between Chad Mcumbee and Terry Labonte, that Kyle’s last ride is probably going to be at Phoenixand that McCumbee is plan A for Petty Entperprises next year. With the lack luster performance of Petty Entperprises, and DEI’s slowly going down the drain when Dale Earnhardt Jr. / Budweiser left, and now Mark Martin, the only reason a merger would be considered would be to join the two classic names of NASCAR and maybe capture some new sponsors with that spin. That’s the only thing I can come up with. At the very least, if this merged entity does run down the drain, the swirling, sucking drain sound will be twice as loud and unmistakable!

That’s what we think. What do you think?

Over at Bruce’s NASCAR Bits blog, Bruce has a question that’s close to my heart. It’s about racing bars. Not track bars or sway bars this time but good, old carousing bars, where the beer and the Bench Racing flow in commensurate quantities. Since we broadcast ON PIT ROW and INSIDE ARCA live from just such a place – the Toledo Speedway Bar and Grill – every week, I have some opinions. Check it out and give us yours…

SPEED Channel is opening a new cantina next to Phoenix International Raceway and should be ready for business by the time NASCAR hits the track next month. Charlie, you got anything on NASCAR bars… I mean “joints”. Damn… I bars… I meant “cantina”?

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc

Filed under: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Dale Earnhardt, Inc., Inside ARCA, NASCAR Rumors, On Pit Row The Fastest Two Hours on Radio, The Pettys, Toledo Speedway

Tagged with: Dale Earnhardt Jr., DEI, NASCAR Rumors, Petty Enterprises, Teresa Earnhardt, Tony Stewart

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Too Much Testosterone and Not Enough Brains

by Charlie Turner

October 17, 2008 3:22 pm UTC 4 Comments

That’s Mindy Monday’s diagnosis for what happened in the ARCA RE/MAX Series finale at Toledo Speedway. She has opinions on Felix Sabates’ theories and Ray Everham’s dreams too.