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Fins to the Left Fins to the Right Daytona Pack Racing is All Right

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

February 28, 2012 11:48 am UTC No Comments

The 2012 Daytona 500 was memorable for many things including the debut of Monday Night NASCAR.

I don’t write race recaps. I don’t enjoy doing them and there are really good, professional journalists who do that better than I ever could anyway. So go read Bob Pockrass or Dustin Long or Ryan McGee’s stories this week if you want to know what happened in the Daytona 500 and why it did.

Congrats to Matt Kenseth on winning the race and to Jack Roush for owning the front row of the grid in addition to the car that won the race. Nice start for the Roushies in 2012.

Dale Earnhardt Jr finished second, and looked to have a shot at the win late in the race. But it was not to be.

The Pack is Back. Pack racing at restrictor plate tracks is once again the rule. The proof came when, with a couple laps left, and Kenseth all alone out front with no one to draft with, the combo of Junior and Greg Biffle couldn’t catch him.

In the days of tandem plate racing, Matt would have been as toasted as Reilly Mansfield at a Saturday night gig. But he held on.

The pack racing led to some crazy wrecks. And Juan Pablo Montoya’s, yellow flag spin into a jet dryer was just bizarre . So was 15 hours, spread over two days, of pre-race fill by DW, MW and MJ.

I hope to hell there’s no weather in the forecast for Phoenix.

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

Filed under: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Darrell Waltrip, Daytona 500, Daytona International Speedway, Greg Biffle, Juan Pablo Montoya, Michael Waltrip, NASCAR, NASCAR & the Media, Sprint Cup Series

Tagged with: bob pockrass, Dustin Long, restrictor plates, Ryan McGee

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Earnhardt Jr Sighting at Michigan: Rick Hendrick Too

by Charlie Turner

August 18, 2009 12:49 pm UTC No Comments

It was good to see Dale Earnhardt Jr and the no. 88 Hendrick Motorsports team finish a strong third in the Carfax 400 at Michigan.

The way Junior was coming on, the last ten laps or so, had to have Junior Nation wishing for an extra lap or two. Either that car was real fast, or they just said to hell with gas mileage. Or maybe the big guy helped with the strategy stuff.

The “big guy” in this case was Mr Hendrick himself. Team owner Rick Hendrick spent the race on the pit box with Earnhardt’s team. Maybe the success wasn’t a coincidence.

Despite a disappointing 2009 so far, Junior hasn’t been quiet. Lately, he’s gotten vocal about the new car. Again.

I’ll ask you: Do you agree with Dale Earnhardt Jr when he says ” before the advent of double-file restarts, 95 percent of Sprint Cup races weren’t worth the price of a ticket.”

Read the whole article by Dustin Long. Junior has a lot more to say. But, do fans hate the racing as much as some of the drivers? I wonder.

Photo credit: BethAnne Heisler – OnPitRow.com

Filed under: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Hendrick Motorsports, Michigan International Speedway, NASCAR

Tagged with: Carfax 400, Dustin Long, Rick Hendrick

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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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NASCAR Tight in Turn Two? It’s the Economy Stupid

by Charlie Turner

October 17, 2008 10:42 am UTC 3 Comments

There’s plenty of doom and gloom in the mainstream media about the current state of the U.S. economy. You don’t need more from a NASCAR blog and I’m not going to give you any. But NASCAR teams had money issues before the recent house-of-cards crashed on all of our heads. Race teams always have cash concerns, no matter the league.

But this time, will NASCAR go in an all new direction? Will NASCAR finally embrace the “F-word”? Full Throttle’s Marc has a great post with question suggestions for Dustin Long to ask of Mike Helton. Here’s one…

Set the record straight on any potential franchising of NASCAR teams. Is franchising in NASCAR’s future? And if so will the number of teams allowed into Cup be restricted further in the number of cars allowed? (i.e. From 4 to 3 per owner)

I’m betting that Dustin will get danced on when Mr Helton answers that one. But nobody dances the answers here. Check out my Tight in Turn Two topic this week. Then go to NASCAR Bits and register your votes on question of the week.

According to various reports, Felix Sabates and or Chip Ganassi are predicting that NASCAR will reduce the size of starting fields in the three top series to as few as 36 cars. Do you agree?

Charlie: No, not for the Sprint Cup Series I don’t. But I don’t know what these guys know either. I believe that the Nationwide and Craftsman Truck Series fields will shrink. They already have, unofficially. We posed this same question to Larry McReynolds on Tuesday’s ON PIT ROW. He agreed on the Nationwide and Truck but surprised me by saying he saw scenarios where Cup could shrink as well. I don’t see it. If anything, the attitude of Earnhardt Jr may force the Cup Series to increase its field size. Remember Junior saying that, with the cost of fielding Nationwide teams being what it is, he may as well move JR Motorsports up to the Cup level. A similar thing seems to been behind JTG Racing moving to Cup.

One of the problems early this season was teams with good sponsors having to go home after failing to qualify. Many of those sponsors have moved to teams with a better chance of making races. How will fewer teams help that?

Bruce: I think that some of the guys on the Cup side are guessing at the situation from some stats that are floating around out there right now.

If they had to, NASCAR will probably back up their Cup side of things and it would be an interesting consolidation to see more Nationwide teams merge over to Cup, whether they are ready or not for it. If that’s a possibility. It don’t think the field will be limited, but it may be short in a race or two in 2009.

That’s what we think. What do you think? And what do you think about Bruce’s topic?

I have to wonder just how well NASCAR can fare the financial storm that not only just plowed through everyone’s wallets, but next year while we still deal with the after affects?

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc.

Filed under: Craftsman Truck Series, Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, JR Motorsports, Mike Helton, NASCAR Bidness, NASCAR Rumors, Nationwide Series, Sprint Cup Series, Stewart Haas Racing, Top 35 Rule, Turn 2 posts