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NASCAR’s Best Race Didn’t Measure Up

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. Follow me on Twitter @onpitrow

February 13, 2010 11:12 pm CST No Comments

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I camped out for the first Camping World Truck Series race of 2010 at Daytona International Speedway. The truck race, postponed due to rain Friday night and the best RACE on most NASCAR weekends…sucked.

I called out the ARCA Racing Series presented by Re/Max and Menards last week for a bad show in their 2010 debut. But maybe Daytona International Speedway is more to blame for that ARCA wreck-fest than I first gave Frank Kimmel and company credit for.

NASCAR’s truckers didn’t do any better. And the NASCAR Nationwide Series race Saturday afternoon broke a bunch of cars too, including those of Danica Patrick and Dale Earnhardt Jr. The presence of those two “personalities” certainly brought viewers who didn’t know the difference between a Busch race and the real big time. Maybe that type of fan likes big wrecks. I don’t.

So I apologize to my friends at ARCA for what probably seemed an attack. It wasn’t. Observation is what it is. And so far, Daytona 2010, with the exception of the Gatorade Duels, hasn’t been very good from this watcher’s point of view.

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc

Filed under: ARCA Remax Series, Craftsman Truck Series, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Danica Patrick, Daytona International Speedway, NASCAR, Nationwide Series

Tagged with: Camping World Truck Series

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Auto Club Speedway: Busch Fire Alert!

by Charlie Turner

February 22, 2009 12:10 pm CST 3 Comments

Familiar viewpoint of Kyle Busch's competitors

I wonder if NASCAR has ever tried a “competition caution for fire fighting” as an excuse to tighten up a yawner of a race? If not, they might want to put that club in the bag for today’s Auto Club 500 Sprint Cup Series race at Auto Club Speedway. Otherwise, Kyle “The Shrubs’s On Fire!” Busch may make this the longest 500 mile race in the history of boring television.

I know. Last year’s edition of today’s race lasted part of two whole days. But a 500 mile Cup race that is anything like the combined 500 miles of the San Bernadino County 200 Camping World Truck Series romp - I mean race - and the Stater Brother 300 Nationwide Series parade, might seem even longer. OK, the NWS race wasn’t that bad. But it was only 300 miles.

If the real NASCAR season starts in California, Kyle Busch is as hot as any driver I’ve ever seen.

Get ready for NASCAR to try and put out the fire.

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc.

Filed under: Auto Club Speedway, Craftsman Truck Series, Kyle Busch, NASCAR, Nationwide Series, Sprint Cup Series

Tagged with: San Bernadino County 200, Stater Brothers 300

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THA TOAD TALKS TURNS!

by Art Almond, Special To NASCAR commentary,NASCAR video,NASCAR pictures, Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie

Awright y'all... I'm tha crazy dude that is known as... "Drawer-Dude" I draw funny pictures of this racin' cartoon character that I created... known as "PIT-ROAD-TOAD! You can see more Toad-Toons at my blog site... RACIN' RUCKUS

February 10, 2009 4:30 pm CST 2 Comments

Hey everyone… the TOAD just wanted to talk a little bit about banked turns. Since we are on the subject, let’s talk about the “mac-daddy” of high-bank turns… Daytona International Speedway! This is where we’ll see the Daytona 500 this Sunday… February 15, 2009!

Each year the “World Center of Racing” is host to a two-week event that is dubbed as Speedweeks. In February of each year Speedweeks is concluded with the running of the Daytona 500.

Here are some interesting facts about Daytona.

It was built in 1959.

The banking in the turns is 31 degrees.

The seating capacity is 168,000.

The track length is a 2.5-mile tri-oval.

The front stretch is 1,900 ft (Measured from center of tri-oval)

Dale Earnhardt Senior won his first, and only Daytona 500 victory in February of 1998. Dale is still considered to be the best driver ever on this track.

Filed under: Comics, Craftsman Truck Series, Dale Earnhardt, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Dale Earnhardt, Inc., Daytona 500, Hall of Fame Racing, Lowes Motor Speedway, NASCAR, NASCAR video, Nascaholics, Nextel Cup Series, On Pit Row The Fastest Two Hours on Radio, Pit Road Toad, Sprint Cup Series

Tagged with: Art Almond, Daytona Speedway, Drawer-Dude, Pit Road Toad

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Pink-slips Flyin’ Like Hot Dog Wrappers at Martinsville

by Charlie Turner

November 22, 2008 12:13 pm CST 2 Comments

The U.S. economy hit NASCAR teams in a big way at Homestead-Miami Speedway this past weekend. Dozens - maybe hundreds - of crew members were called to the trailers pre-race and told to be ready to pack, post-race. Adios amigos. Happy holidays.

ON PIT ROW isn’t going anywhere though and neither is our intrepid reporter, Mindy Monday.

Mindy didn’t like that too much. And she has more to say on several fronts as NASCAR heads to a short and shaky few weeks off.

Watch the Monday Morning Crew Chief right here.

Filed under: Bench Racing TV, Bill Davis Racing, Chase for the Cup, Craftsman Truck Series, Johnny Benson, Monday Morning Crew Chief, NASCAR Bidness, NASCAR Rumors, NASCAR video, Sprint Cup Series, Testing news

Tagged with: Bill Davis, Chaase for the Cup, Jeff Hammond, Johnny Benson, Mindy Monday, Monday Morning Crew Chief

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Quick Hits: End of Season Recap

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

If OnPitRow.com was a NASCAR team, I’d be the development driver of the bunch. In the same way that young hotshots like Joey Logano have been driving since they were in grade school, I’ve been following and writing about all forms of motorsports since I was barely old enough to talk.

November 19, 2008 9:43 pm CST 3 Comments

Well, everybody, the 2008 NASCAR season is finally over. After ten grueling months of hard-fought racing, drivers and teams have earned the right to two months’ rest and relaxation in preparation for 2009.

Except, of course, it’s not going to be all relaxation for anyone by any means, as personnel cuts in the Sprint Cup garages have reached the triple digits, dozens of drivers are looking for work, team owners can’t find sponsorship to save their life, the Nationwide Series only has about 20 full-time cars right now, the Camping World Truck Series doesn’t have manufacturer support in some cases anymore…

…like I said, two months’ worth of well-deserved R&R. We saw Jimmie Johnson win an incredible third consecutive Sprint Cup, becoming only the second driver to ever do so. Clint Bowyer won his first Nationwide championship after battling Carl Edwards to the final race at Homestead. And of course, Johnny Benson won his first Truck Series championship after coming into the season finale with a single-digit point lead over Ron Hornaday. This was one of the most exciting years in NASCAR championship history, to say the least.

Then again, Johnson took all the fun out of this championship by making a mockery of the Chase format. Bowyer, Edwards, and the lot proved yet again that the Nationwide Series is Cup Lite, as six out of every seven races were won by Cup drivers. Even the Truck Series finale featured Benson’s teammate Scott Speed mixing it up with Hornaday in the final laps, all but handing the championship to Benson…

…like I said, one of NASCAR’s most exciting years ever. We also saw over 43 full-time cars in the Sprint Cup Series for much of the season, with teams like Richard Childress Racing and Germain Racing (with newcomer Max Papis) adding still more to the car count for 2009.

Oh, but did I mention the fact that many Truck races didn’t have enough trucks to fill the field? That MSRP Motorsports start-and-parked a grand total of 61 times in 70 attempts this season in Nationwide? That only about 30 Sprint Cup, 20 Nationwide, and a handful of Truck Series programs have set their driver and sponsorship programs for 2009?

Oh, and did I mention that Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Chip Ganassi Racing were forced into a shotgun marriage by virtue of lack of sponsorship and performance, which helped lead to the elimination of nearly 200 jobs?

I’ll take my two months’ rest and relaxation, thanks.

For the time being, I’m working on a modest proposal on how to fix NASCAR. Yes, single-handedly. You’ll see that on here in… I don’t know, I’d like it to be a quality project, so bi-weekly installments? I have a life, you know, applying to colleges and whatnot.

In the mean time, thanks for reading and putting up with my Jekyll-and-Hyde optimistic pessimism, and see you in February.

Filed under: Carl Edwards, Chip Ganassi Racing, Craftsman Truck Series, Dale Earnhardt, Inc., Earnhardt Ganassi Racing, Germain Racing, Jimmy Johnson, Max Papis, NASCAR, Nationwide Series, Richard Childress Racing, Sprint Cup Series

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Truck Series Gang Mentality

by Matt Mercer, Special To NASCAR commentary,NASCAR video,NASCAR pictures, Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie

I'm the writer of The Catfish Show NASCAR Blog, which you can access through the links on the right. Follow me on Twitter: @mattmercer

November 13, 2008 2:10 am CST 3 Comments

Sometimes, I can’t tell if the Ford 200 is a race or a fight. An active tradition for the last several years in the Trucks has been for championship teams to double their efforts. The trend has had some high points and very low points, and it looks to continue Friday night as the razor-thin margin between Ron Hornaday and Johnny Benson will make for some intense racing.

Three years really set the trend for this action: 2002, 2003, and 2007.

In 2002, Mike Bliss ended up winning the championship over Rick Crawford and Ted Musgrave by 46 and 51 points respectively. In that race, it was Ron Hornaday driving a second IWX truck and taking the win, thus taking possible points away from Crawford and Musgrave. Bliss finished a comfortable 5th and won the title.

2003 set the bar from gang mentality, as each championship team (with the exception of Dennis Setzer and Morgan-Dollar) entered at least 1 extra truck in the race, with Jim Smith and Ultra Motorsports throwing 5 – count ‘em, 5 – trucks in the race, and sure enough one of them played a huge part in the outcome of the championship battle. Smith had entered his 2 full-time trucks with Ted Musgrave and Andy Houston behind the wheel, along with hired guns Marty Houston (Andy’s brother), Tracy Hines, and P.J. Jones. Marty took out championship leader Brendan Gaughan in the race, creating championship chaos that allowed Travis Kvapil to win the 2003 title over Setzer and Musgrave.

Last year, Bill Davis and Kevin Harvick participated in the fight, and what Harvick lacked in trucks he made up for by piloting the second truck himself. Davis entered his championship contender Skinner, Johnny Benson, Jacques Villeneuve, and Cup driver Dave Blaney in the field. Skinner of course finished 35th and allowed Hornaday to secure the title.

Adding the trucks in the finale could prove to be a smart decision, like it was in 2002. It could take out a championship contender by hiring a crappy driver, like 2003. Or, it could be a non-factor, like it was last season. Harvick is driving the #2 truck again this weekend and Davis has entered ’09 driver Taylor Malsam in an extra truck to go along Skinner, Brian Scott, and Scott Speed to flank Benson. Will it be a factor? We’ll find out Friday. Let’s just say I wouldn’t be surprised if the Phoenix race turned out to be the PG version of the battle.

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media

Filed under: Craftsman Truck Series, Dave Blaney, Jacques Villeneuve, Kevin Harvick, NASCAR, Scott Speed

Tagged with: andy houston, Bill Davis Racing, brendan gaughan, brian scott, Craftsman Truck Series, dennis setzer, Ford 200, Homestead, Homestead-Miami Speedway, jim smith, Johnny Benson, marty houston, Mike Bliss, p.j. jones, Phoenix International Raceway, rick crawford, ron hornaday, Scott Speed, taylor malsam, ted musgrave, tracy hines, trucks, ultra motorsports