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Allgaier Out-coasts Edwards by a Spoonful of Fuel

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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

June 5, 2011 8:46 am UTC No Comments

Feel-good race result alert.

A long day in Chicagoland was just a bit too short for a dominant Carl Edwards but just the right length for good guy Justin Allgaier. Allgaier’s Turner Motorsports Chevy had about one gulp of fuel more than Carl’s Roush Mustang so Justin started his  gasless coast a little closer to the finish line, and beat Edwards there in the NASCAR Nationwide Series’ STP 300.

Afterwards, there couldn’t have been a much better vibe in the garage and in victory lane than there was for good guy Justin. Even Edwards said, “if I had to get beat….”.

Early in the day, I got a chance to take a a few pace car laps around Chicagoland Speedway and Allgaier was the driver. It was a blast, and Justin very patiently explained the different lines through the corners and some of the idiosyncrasies of this particular mile-and-a-half track.

He had been quoted Friday that he considered Chicagoland his home track. He told me that it was probably his favorite too. After the race, it definitely was, for sure.

Photo credit: BethAnne Heisler – OnPitRow.com

Filed under: Carl Edwards, Chicagoland Speedway, Justin Allgaier, Nationwide Series 

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NASCAR Pictures: Dover Nationwide Series Saturday Mayhem

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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 15, 2011 9:13 pm UTC No Comments

Photos from Dover’s Monster Mile

The NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Dover Downs featured a vicious last lap crash that took out drivers Joey Logano, Clint Bowyer and others. OnPitRow.com photographer Glenn Bure got some great shots.

Filed under: Clint Boyer, Denny Hamlin, Dover International Speedway, Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, NASCAR photos, Nationwide Series 

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NASCAR Green Initiative?

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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 6, 2011 10:17 pm UTC No Comments

A friend of mine just sent a text to me. He asked why NASCAR was wasting all this gasoline. Just give the Nationwide Series race trophy to Kyle Busch every week and save the fuel.

The Shrub got his first NNWS victory ever at The Track Too Tough to Tame tonight. He led the most laps and is now just one race behind Mark Martin for the the all-time most wins in the old Grand National Series. Kyle avoided a big wreck and used a bunch of gas.

Not very green of him.

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

Filed under: Darlington Speedway, Kyle Busch, Mark Martin, Nationwide Series 

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Talkin’ Talladega with the Best

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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

April 16, 2011 6:31 am UTC No Comments

Ricky Stenhouse Jr leads the NASCAR Nationwide Series championship points. Veteran Kenny Wallace is ninth. We wouldn’t be saying that, and in my opinion that championship chase would not be as interesting if not for a new points system and philosophy in NASCAR.

I have been skeptical of the new points’ significance. But now I’m not. We talked to both Stenhouse and Wallace On Pit Row this week. We have before. They are interesting and entertaining guys. Ricky is serious and rigidly polite. Kenny is a blast. But the tone of the talk changes a little when drivers are contending.

Next week, we have The King, Richard Petty on the show. Don’t miss it. It’s a good show. You can watch this week’s show with Kenny, Ricky, Ryan McGee and Eric McClung right here.

Photo credit: BethAnne Heisler – OnPitRow.com

Filed under: NASCAR, Nationwide Series, On Pit Row The Fastest Two Hours on Radio 

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Unfortunately This Is Your Grandmother’s NASCAR

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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.

March 24, 2011 6:34 am UTC 1 Comment

NASCAR’s Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series teams head back to the west coast for their now once a year trip to Auto Club Speedway in Fontana California.

This race track like no other has mirrored what has become of the sport we love so much.  Like the trip to the grandmothers house that is too clean, too organized and too filled with treasures; the trip to many of NASCAR’s venues just isn’t very comfortable.

Places like Fontana, Kansas City, Iowa and Chicago have all the amenities that a fan would seem to want.  Everyone expects to have plenty of clean restrooms and lots of concession stands.  Those are givens.  Race tracks that don’t cater to those two basic needs will eventually fail.  But some tracks do a better job of making race fans feel welcome and a part of the action.

Unlike the grandmother’s house that is too clean and organized; race tracks that give the feeling of gramma’s house where the kids are on the floor, the toys are everywhere and the aunts and uncles are hanging around in the back yard, makes you want to stay and come back.

NASCAR has done a good job over the last couple of decades of making their racing seem more like a trip to grandmother’s house than a trip to gramma’s.  Going to grandmothers just isn’t as comfortable and fun as the trip to grammas.

Growing pains are always uncomfortable and NASCAR has had their share.  Some say they lost sight of their roots and abandoned their core fans for the glitz and glamor of big numbers and questionable venues. What NASCAR lost as it’s fan base exploded was the comfort and intimacy that its long time fans had grown up with; a comfort and intimacy that gramma knew how to cultivate.

NASCAR has so wanted their product to be eaten on the good china with the good silver; but all the fans want is a damn good dog on a fresh bun served on a paper plate with a cold one to wash it down.  NASCAR was ment to have some mustard dripped on the deck and hosed off; not worried about gravy on the table cloth.

Many reasons have been given for NASCAR’s decline in attendance and TV viewership over the past half-dozen years; but the most alarming sight was the lack of campers and the empty seats at Bristol this past week and the reason for it is quite simple.  NASCAR fans want to feel a part of the racing event.  They want to feel a connection to the sport and its participants; but that can’t happen as long as NASCAR continues to serve its product in a sanitized form.

The “good old days” have a short memory.  Nobody really wants to go back to the days of two or three lap lead finishes or 2×10 pine plank seats; just like no one would want gramma’s to have an outhouse.  What fans want is a connection with their sport and their heros that they feel they lost when NASCAR got rid of the back deck and built the dining room.

Lost somewhere in the growth of our sport was the realization that while the fans like to watch cars race and experience the on track show; what they really love more than anything else is their connection with their driver.  Today’s driver has been so marketed by their sponsors and PR companies that they have lost the ability to get down on the floor and play with the kids.

Making sure the sponsors are mentioned in every interview has become more important than sitting on the pit wall signing autographs and having your pictures taken with fans.  How did fans know in the seventies and eighties that Richard Petty was sponsored by STP?  There are thousands–maybe millions of pictures in fans homes of him in his STP firesuit signing autographs for everyone.

Those pictures, whether they be on paper and displayed, or just in a fans memory was what was right with NASCAR and was what made new fans fall in love with the sport.  Those memories of being down on the floor playing with the kids supercede polite conversation, using the proper fork and thanking a dizzying array of sponsors.

Sorry Grandmother–we’d rather hang out at Gramma’s this week.

Filed under: Auto Club Speedway, Chicagoland Speedway, How to fix NASCAR, Iowa Speedway, NASCAR, Nascar Legends, Nationwide Series, Richard Petty Motorsports, The King 

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NASCAR Sharkfin Soup from Thunder Valley

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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

March 22, 2011 9:29 pm UTC No Comments

The consensus of NASCAR opinion about Bristol Motor Speedway was that things – meaning the racing – could go one of two ways; Assorted coin flips included:

  • Old School Bristol or crap
  • Good Bristol – which is the same as Old School Bristol – or crap.
  • Exciting, wreck-filled, 21 caution Bristol, or crap.

What we got was one hell of a good Sprint Cup race and terrific, sometimes three-wide racing. Kyle Busch won everything in sight, and has owned Thunder Valley since this time last year at Bristol, so I’m thinking The Shrub likes The New Bristol just fine.

The haters are losing the argument.

Fins Stoutly Standing

Kyle Busch has won the last five NASCAR touring series races held at Bristol. The Jeff Byrd 500 was had some epic moments with Kyle, Carl Edwards and Jimmie Johnson.

Carl Edwards had the second best weekend, and not by much.

Paul Menard is in the top ten in NASCAR Sprint Cup points – 5th in the race and 5th in the standings, best of the RCR cars – and it does not look like a fluke.

Kurt Busch leads the Cup standings with another consistent, competitive finish.

Bristol Motor Speedway; the track races great. Get over it.

Fins Down

Jeff Burton. Ugly start

Clint Bowyer finished 35th at BMS. But he was better than Burton

Denny Hamlin. This was not the faster start that he predicted after coming up short in 2010.

Danica Patrick. Come on. You don’t have any business doing a Kurt Busch on the track. Getting laughed at won’t help your credibility.

Bristol attendance.

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

Filed under: Bristol Motor Speedway, Carl Edwards, Clint Boyer, Danica Patrick, Denny Hamlin, jimmie johnson, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, NASCAR, Nascar Legends, Nationwide Series 

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