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An item came across NASCAR.com and it made me shake my head. Mark Martin one of my 3 favorite drivers in NASCAR history, seems to have made another guarantee. In the story last week at Pocono, he said that he plans on winning at the Brickyard in July. I have no doubt Mark can win the race. I remember 10 years ago at Indy when he had a better car than Jeff Gordon throughout the day, yet couldn’t get around him at the end. I remember when Mark left the 6 for the 01 last year, he said he would have his best chance ever to win the Daytona 500 – and he did, but came up inches short. It saddens me to see someone that’s a traditional pessimist, like Mark, get exciting for something just to be heartbroken again. I felt the heartbreak of the 2002 season because he was so close. Two years later, in the inaugural Chase, Mark arguably had the best team but accidents and bad luck struck again. At that Daytona race 16 months ago, I watched him lead those last several laps as I had a kung-fu grip on a pillow in my room, thinking that maybe, just maybe, this could be the race of his life. It was the race of his life… he finished second again, and I fell to the floor with the air knocked out of my lungs. To be a Mark Martin fan, it’s similar to what being a Red Sox fan must have been like until the 2004 playoffs. In the back of your mind, you know something will happen. I don’t know how many fans understand how much Mark means to his fans, and the heartbreak his fans have gone through with him. Many times, it takes the man himself to keep us fans from going crazy.

Fast forward to this season’s race at Phoenix, which saw Mark lead a bunch of laps and appeared to be on his way to victory. What did Mark have to lose by staying out and gambling? He pitted from the lead, had the best car, so fuel mileage should have been on Tony Gibson’s mind. Yet, it didn’t happen, and surprise, Mark lost. The guarantee at Indianapolis is interesting. He qualified well at Pocono, yet seemed to fall back more and more during the race. DEI seems to be focusing on Truex and Menard at the moment, which is perfectly understandable. The prospect of Truex leaving would put one foot in the ground, I don’t see anyone tearing down the door to get into DEI the way guys would at Gibbs right now. In a certain sense, I think Mark may have to win at Indy to keep DEI relevant. Rumors swirl about the future of the Army sponsorship, given that the 01 has had limited sponsorship, and Bass Pro Shops could be leaving for Tony Stewart’s revamped Haas Racing.

I didn’t like the movie Groundhog Day. I hate recurring dreams. Most of all, I know deep down that Mark Martin won’t win the Brickyard this year. He’ll have a flat tire with 3 to go, he’ll get crashed out by a car 9 laps down, he’ll blow his engine on the white flag lap. The worst part? I’ll still be making him my pick to win. Some habits won’t go away.

Photo credit: BethAnne Heisler - ON PIT ROW 

The next time you are at the gas pump, wringing out your wallet for a few measly gallons of the cheap stuff ($3.79 a gallon today in our little town) remember the little people of NASCAR, who are struggling right along with you. Right.

I’m one of those people who buy their gas ten bucks at a time. That used to last me awhile - now, not so much. But I’m bored. Stopping every day at the Speedway helps me pass the time. And that brings me to my Rant for the day. Sorry Bob, I have to steal your handle for a post.

Today as my 2.64 gallons of low-test was rushing into the tank and the “dollars spent” countdown flew by - $10-$9-$8….$4-$3-$2-$1…..$.99……$.98…..$.97…….$.96…..$.95 - are YOU getting pissed yet? Just exactly how little - what, fraction of a quarter of a gallon of gas, is that pump spitting into my tank that takes over 1 second to meter out? Strictly as a PR move the Petroleum Retailers Association should re-set those pumps to slow down when they get to the last 2.5% of a gallon - or 10 seconds, from the end. I hate that.

Thank you, I’m better now. Thanks to a tweet from Team Ford Racing at Twitter is thispost by Earl Barban, crewman of the #28 Ford at Yates Racing. Travis Kvapil’s Fusion will be sponsored at Darlington by by Lafayette Ford and painted in 60’s retro Fred Lorenzen livery. How cool is that?

Joey Logano fans - or nervous followers of Tony Stewart - may be interested in the podcast of our interview with Joey from Tuesday’s ON PIT ROW. You can download it here.

Mike Maruska has a nice interview with John Newsome. Its pretty funny, but not as funny as this ditty at One Lugnut Short. There’s plenty to write about this week so I’m sure we’ll be back. There’s still a chance to win a 5o Years of the Great American Race DVD too.

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc.

Did you see the ARCA RE/MAX Series race from Kansas Speedway Saturday? Former Formula One driver Scott Speed won the thing but he had to come back from a black flag for a window net infraction. According to Speed’s crew chief, Patrick Donahue, there was no attempt to find a competitive advantage in tweaking the nets - even though Speed’s teammate nearly had the same fate. Nope, it was simple, human error, which I am intimately familiar with. I work with Steve.

Both Donahue and Speed were guests ON PIT ROW last night. Scott’s interview was short but memorable - “kick ass” according to Speed himself. Listen to it Thursday at 7pm edt at RaceTalkRadio.com.

So things got a little loose ON PIT ROW and now they will get Loose in Turn Three. TZ from Do You NASCAR?, Bruce of NASCAR Bits and Pieces and I will hash out some NASCAR opinion and you are REQUIRED to comment. Please.

Would NASCAR be better off if it had never instituted restrictor plates?

Charlie: In the era BCoT - Before the Car of Tomorrow - races at Daytona and Talladega were contested by plated cars and were pretty much universally complained about by owners, writers, bloggers and the drivers who drove the cars. Fans usually gasped in wonder at the close, three and four wide racing and the big wrecks that the plates promoted. I would say that more casual fans got their vision of what NASCAR is by seeing highlights of plate races than anything else.

Restrictor plates brought NASCAR more excitement and more fans per race than any other innovation the Frances tried. Plates also, almost certainly, saved lives at Talladega and Daytona, where unrestricted cars would have ended up in the stands at some point without action to slow the cars down. Plates are a good thing.

Bruce: I agree with Charlie. Without plates, it would have been a matter of time before a car ended up in the stands. I go back to pre-plate days, remembering a car pulling around another car on the backstretch of Talladega and doing it’s own backflip at 200+ mph. Thank God it wasn’t in the bootleg in front of the stands.

And for the record, I’ve always liked plate races. Even if the drivers don’t think it’s racing, it has to be some form of racing requiring the same degree of experience or the same names wouldn’t be up front in most of them.

TZ: Interesting question for me, because here’s the deal…restrictor plate races TYPICALLY bore me to tears - at least with the old car, anyway. And, really, I think my grudge against the plate races started back in 2003 when I made the trip out to Daytona to watch Greg Biffle win the race on fuel mileage, though I know that’s not really the norm. It’s just in the past there’s not a ton of passing, and the guys for the most part always seemed to play it overly safe through the first 7/8’s of the race but that doesn’t seem to be the case this year.

But really, even before this year, the plate races have been a great commodity for NASCAR to carry. Much like the road courses they bring a certain level of diversity to the schedule that really helps keep things interesting. I enjoy being able to watch a different type of race each week.

Once more, that’s what we think. What do you think? Let us know what your thoughts are on these two topics too.

TZ’s post at DoYouNascar.com : NASCAR recently took a win away from a driver in the Camping World Series on technical inspection grounds. Should this be the new practice?

Bruce’s Bits and Pieces post : Does Dale Earnhardt Day merit all the attention it gets on April 29th?

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc.

The Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie blog wants you to have your very own copy of the new A&E Home Video production of “Daytona 500: 50 Years of the Great American Race”. All you have to do is be one of the winners of our little caption contest right here.

That’s Bruton Smith with Las Vegas Motor Speedway president Chris Powell. I’m thinking…

“It’s a quarter to three, there’s no one in the place, except you and me…. so set ‘em up Joe….”

But that’s just me.

We have a few copies of the new DVD, so for every 15 answers, we’ll give away one copy of this great prize. The winners will be determined by The Pit Crew. The contest ends Monday April 21, 2008 at noon PDT. Post your captions in the comment section of this post. You can answer as often as you want but please, only one answer per comment. We reserve the right to end the contest early if we detect abuse. Have some fun. Win a great prize.

Update: The first comment made had three answers. I don’t care if you give ten answers - just make ten separate comments. Please.

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc.

Saturday’s Subway Fresh Fit 500 - which was actually the Phoenix 312 in non-metric stock-car lingo - was race number three for the racer formerly known around these parts as the “Ugly Little Freakin’ Toad” on dessert flat track.

If the occasional fuel mileage race doesn’t bother you - and it doesn’t me - then you probably liked the SSFF 500 (or 312) just like me. That would make you pretty darn astute, in my opinion. My buddy Steve hates economy runs of any kind, any time. If you are like him, well, Steve has a deserved reputation in ON PIT ROW land. You would be wrong, just like El Idioto.

Did you like the way I set up my segue to the Nationwide Series (maybe it should be the Continent-wide Series) trip to Mexico City for the rematch of Scott Pruett and Juan Pablo Montoya. What a great story that shapes up to be.

What? Whaddaya mean Juan’s not going to MayHeeCo? What PR Bozo blew this deal? Don’t they know how long Pruett’s been planning his revenge? It’s not fair!

I guess JPM will spend the week bonding with new Cup crew chief Jimmy Elledge. Thank you Chip Ganassi (with Felix Sabates).

OK, I’m going back to watching “Daytona 500: 50 Years of the Great American Race” that the folks at A&E Home Video sent me to review. Disc one is pretty darned awesome so far, which means I’m not gonna get a whole lot of sleep tonight. It features the broadcast of the 50th ever Daytona 500 in a multi-media format where you can switch from several vantage points to watch the action.  You get the Fox team’s coverage but you can switch to the in-car camera - and driver audio - of Dale Jr, Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Newman and more.  It is really cool stuff.

I’ll never get to disc two tonight, so I’ll pass along my thoughts on that later.  But the race coverage alone is worth the money.  Buy it.  Check it out here.

Big Bill France once said something on the order of “the fan needs to know who won the race when he leaves the track.” That philosophy has held since NASCAR’s early history and no win has been taken from the driver who took the checkered flag first.

But Carl Edwards came close. NASCAR announced the penalties for the #99 car’s infractions found during post-race inspection at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Edwards was docked 100 driver points and lost the 10 bonus points for the win - the points that are so crucial in separating race winners from the pack in the Chase. Jack Roush lost 100 owner’s points and crew chief Bob Osborne was fined $100 grand and suspended six races.

No doubt Roush-Fenway will appeal and given the way the National Stock Car Racing Commission has been softening and sometimes reversing NASCAR penalties this week, maybe Carl has a chance. The commission has been busy since the Daytona 500 and their rulings so far have run counter to the historical trend of upholding over 2/3’s of all NASCAR penalties.  Oil tank lid violations have been among the most frequently reversed, or at least reduced this week.

Supposedly there was a photo circulating the NASCAR community this morning that showed Carl Edwards doing his back flip with the uncovered oil tank clearly visible on the car. Do you see anything illegal in our pic?

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc.

Those two Hendrick Motorsports cars flying formation up front for most of the race could have been disheartening for the Hendricks Haters had the glimmer of a real Race for the Chase not shown itself. Jimmy Johnson and Jeff Gordon held the top two spots all night long and well into todays resumption of actual on-track action. NASCAR finally managed to complete the Auto Club 500 and Jack Roush’s Ford Fusions, led by Cousin Carl Edwards showed that this here Sprint Cup Series will include serious participation by the bearers of the Blue Oval standard.

Various Toyotas and Dodges ducked in and out of the top ten and when it was all over, every manufacturer was represented. Kyle Busch leads both the Cup and Truck Series and is breathing down the substantial neck of teammate Tony Stewart in the Nationwide Series.

Smoke will be going for three straight Nationwide wins at Las Vegas Motor Speedway after winning the postponed California event and Kyle will be trying to leave his Vegas hometown at the top of all three of NASCAR’s major leagues.

Ryan Newman followed his Daytona 500 win with a solid top ten and Kasey Kahne ran another encouraging race for Gillette-Evernham Motorsports. Yessir, looks like 2008 may be a barn-burner.

Photo Credit: Stephen Dunn-Getty Images for NASCAR

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.

The 2008 Sprint Cup season got off to a rousing start with Ryan Newman’s Daytona 500 win. The results of Speedweeks seemed to answer some of the off-season’s unknowns, but not all of them. Here’s a list of some of the questions that remain and may be answered at Auto Club Speedway this week.

• Dale Earnhardt Jr won the Budweiser Shootout and one of the Gatorade Duals. Finishing ninth in the 500 wasn’t bad either. It was a nice week but Junior’s had strong plate track performances throughout his career. He’s also performed comparatively poorly at the flatter tracks, like California. The other Hendricks drivers have been good at these tracks historically. How will Junior stack up?

• Dodges finished in 6 of the top 8 spots at Daytona. Was it real or restrictor plate madness?

• Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle have terrific records at California and its Michigan near-twin. Are the Fords going to be strong enough in 2008 for these guys to be good where they are good?

• The Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas led 140 plus laps in the big race and Denny Hamlin won the second Dual. It looked for all the world like one of them was destined to win the 500. Will they dominate at another fast track?

• The New Car earned exemplary grades for the Speedweeks races. But Daytona was the second restrictor plate track to host the former CoT. Will we all still love it after its first non-plate, superspeedway outing?

• Sam Hornish Jr. looked solid in the third Penske South Dodge at Daytona. Doubters want to know if it was for real?

Photo Credit: Todd Warshaw - Getty Images for NASCAR

Robby Gordon’s winter of discontent continues.

NASCAR came down on Robby Gordon Motorsports hard this week. Robby’s team installed and tried to practice with an unapproved nose on his new Dodge at Daytona. Officials found it to not be in compliance and once the penalties were handed down, Robby’s top ten finish at the 500 won’t carry top ten points.

The, now standard, 100 team and driver points deduction and $100,000 fines were enacted. NASCAR’s unwavering penalty for CoT violations seems a bit harsh considering some of the other violations from last year that received this same penalty. I have been a big supporter of NASCAR consistency and the concept of a standard for penalty calculations. But; somehow, NASCAR has to find a way to differentiate penalties in regards to intent and severity.

“This was an innocent mistake made by someone not even on my team. They accidentally supplied us the new Dodge noses that NASCAR hasn’t yet approved because of what amounted to a clerical error. It was discovered during technical inspection and corrected before the race. It was not even close to being an intent to create some competitive advantage, and the mistake was not even made by my team.”

Reading that quote from Robby, makes you feel sorry for the GEM employee squished by the bus that just rolled over them. Does this violation equal those from 2007 at Michael Waltrip Racing and their fuel violations? Not in my mind. but can fans or NASCAR be certain that what Robby says is the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

“To penalize my team the same amount when we didn’t even make the mistake”, Robby continued, “and the mistake was nothing more than inadvertent human error by someone else is just not fair. Other teams who have had similar issues to what happened with the nose on my car were only penalized 25 points.”

I have been a Robby supporter from the first time I met him. His determination and drive to succeed are unmatched. He carries the #7 proudly. He reminds race fans of the late Alan Kulwicki with his work ethic and single minded goals. I applaud that in him and felt bad for him when the Dakar Rally was canceled earlier this winter. That is a race he poured a lot of money, time and effort into with no results; a race he could win.

While the fines and penalties may not fit the crime in this instance, I will stand by NASCAR’s quest to standardize penalties. They may just need to add a couple of levels. Not every violation in the NFL results in “15 yard penalty”. Robby is appealing his fines and suspensions with NASCAR. It will allow him to continue with business as usual for a couple of weeks. But, just like Dakar, it’s a battle he can’t win–at least not this year.

photo: trucktrend.com

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