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Jimmie Johnson’s Two Pair beats Smoke’s One

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.

June 2, 2009 6:49 am UTC 2 Comments

Jimmie Johnson’s crew chief, Chad Knaus, called for a four tire change on the last round of pit stops while Darian Grubb opted to put only two on the Smoke-mobile.

Putting the two tires on Tony Stewart’s ride enabled the new Sprint Cup points leader to battle Greg Biffle for the lead. But that lead didn’t last long as Johnson was able to use his four new tires to run down Stewart and pass him for the lead with two laps to go.

Johnson dominated the race, especially through its middle sections as he led the most laps. As dominate as the #48 was, the biggest story of the weekend was the replacement of Tony Eury, Jr. as crew chief for Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Lance McGrew was slated to take over the helm at Pocono, but when Brad Keselowski fail to qualify at Dover, McGrew started his new assignment a week early.

The combination of McGrew and Earnhardt got off to a decent start as the #88 was able to find its way to a top twenty finish after running as high as fifth early in the race. What remains to be seen is if the combination can stick for the long term. Earnhardt admitted that the dialogue between himself and his cousin was at times sparse and so far that dialogue with McGrew has been much more prevalent.

This week’s BUZZ ON PIT ROW asks:

How will Lance McGrew be able to turn the Dale Earnhardt, Jr. team around?

Let us know what you think and we may use your comments on this week’s ON PIT ROW radio show. Or call the show between 5-7pm ET at 800-645-2946 and your call could win a Kevin Harvick bobblehead if you are the Shell Nitrogen Enriched Call of the Day.

photo credit: Icon Sports Media

Filed under: Brad Kesolowski, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Greg Biffle, How to fix NASCAR, NASCAR, NASCAR & the Media, On Pit Row The Fastest Two Hours on Radio, Pocono Raceway, Sprint Cup Series, Tony Stewart

Tagged with: Brad Keselowski, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Darian Grubb, Greg Biffle, Lance McGrew, Tony Eury Jr, Tony Stewart

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Leavin’ Faster than Pilgrims at a Porn Theatre

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

November 28, 2008 3:42 pm UTC No Comments

It’s Black Friday and I’m already sick of the traffic I’ve had to fight just getting to work. If only I had my own helicopter like Greg Biffle….oh wait. The Biff sold his in a fit of budget slashing the likes of which hasn’t been seen since, well, last week.

No matter. Mindy has some stuff on the musical crew chief situation, Joe Nemechek’s financial planning and touching goodbyes, Home Depot style.

It’s all there in the latest Monday Morning Crew Chief and you can watch it here.

Filed under: Bench Racing TV, Elliott Sadler, Gillett Evernham Motorsports, Greg Biffle, Joe Nemechek, Michael Waltrip Racing, Monday Morning Crew Chief, NASCAR Bidness, NASCAR Rumors, Red Bull Racing, Tony Stewart

Tagged with: Greg Biffle, Joe Nemecheck, Mindy Monday, Monday Morning Crew Chief, NASCAR video

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Good Effort by Carl Edwards isn’t Good Enough

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.

October 27, 2008 8:34 pm UTC No Comments

Carl Edwards did all he can do at Atlanta Motor Speedway and it wasn’t close to being enough.

Edward’s Roush-Fenway owned Office Depot Ford Fusion won at NASCAR’s fastest track; but unfortunately for him, Chad Knaus and Jimmy Johnson were pulling off a miracle finish. The smartest crew chief in NASCAR never let his driver panic and used a late pit stop for fresh tires to pull off a second place finish. Johnson restarted in eleventh place with the new Goodyears and quickly passed all in front except for Edwards.

Johnson had gone a lap down to the leaders early on when he was caught for speeding on pit road. He and Knaus systematically moved back to a position to where they could make the late run. Edwards was surprised to find out that Johnson had come all the way back to second:

Yeah, I looked up there on the scoreboard, saw he was running seventh, eighth, ninth, somewhere in there most of the second half of the race. When Dave said, What do you think about Jimmie finishing second, I thought he was joking. I truly didn’t know until I looked at the scoreboard that Jimmie had made that back up. I got to see some video. They put on some tires and went for it. That’s pretty amazing.

Johnson’s second place finish increased his lead over Greg Biffle, Jeff Burton and Edwards. The party is truly over. There is no way that any of the three can overcome their defecit to knock off Johnson. And that leads us to this weeks BUZZ ON PIT ROW:

Now that Johnson has all but wrapped up the title with three races to go; should NASCAR look at changing the Chase format to keep more drivers involved longer?

Let us know what you think and we could use your comment on this week’s ON PIT ROW. Listen live from 5-7pm ET at www.onpitrow.com or at www.arcaracing.com. give us a call at 877-502-8255 and we could select your call as the Shell Gunk Free Call of the Day and you could win a Kevin Harvick bobblehead.

photo credit: Rusty Burroughs/Getty Images/NASCAR

Filed under: Atlanta Motor Speedway, Brian France, Car of Tomorrow, Carl Edwards, Chase for the Cup

Tagged with: Add new tag, Carl Edwards, Chad Knaus, Greg Biffle, Jeff Burton

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Talladega Lives Up to Its Wild Card Status

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.

October 7, 2008 6:30 am UTC 1 Comment

A wild finish that ended with NASCAR and drivers playing a classic version of “he said–she said”.

The Chase took its annual stop at the series’ longest and most unpredictable race track and race fans got their monies worth. A record number of race leaders and four wide racing had fans on their feet for much of the five-hundred mile race.

Unfortunately there the race was marred by two “big ones” that saw many of the Chase contenders either see early exits or be relegated to also ran status. Carl Edwards, who was bump drafting with his teammate, Greg Biffle, caused one of the big wrecks that ruined the day for both drivers and third teammate Matt Kenseth.

The real fireworks came at the end of the race when DEI driver Ragan Smith drove past race leader Tony Stewart for what he thought was the win on the final lap. But NASCAR ruled that Smith passed Stewart below the out of bounds line and therefore was relegated to eighteenth place. Smith and other drivers thought that NASCAR had exempted the last lap of the race from the out of bounds rule. NASCAR, at least in this instance, disagreed.

NASCAR’s Jim Hunter had this to say:

You cannot improve your position anytime you go below the yellow line. In our judgment, he (Regan Smith) improved his position and the penalty for that is a pass thru, so he was moved back to the tail end of the longest line…

Which leads us to this week’s BUZZ ON PIT ROW:

Who should have been the winner at Talladega?

Give us your opinion and we may use your comments on this week’s ON PIT ROW. Listen live from 5-7pm ET at onpitrow.com then listen to INSIDE ARCA from 7-8:30pm ET at arcaracing.com

photo credit: Icon sports Media

Filed under: Carl Edwards, Chase for the Cup, Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth, NASCAR, NASCAR officials, On Pit Row The Fastest Two Hours on Radio, Talladega Superspeedway

Tagged with: Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth, NASCAR, Talladega Superspeedway

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Johnson Wins at Kansas–Takes Over Points Lead

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.

September 29, 2008 10:39 pm UTC 1 Comment

Kansas continues string of good racing in the Chase.

Greg Biffle wasn’t able to pull off the triple and win the first three races of the Chase. But he was able to offer fans some great racing at the finish of the Campers World RV 400 by passing an ailing Jeff Gordon at the finish line. Biffle secured a third place finish in the race and moved to third in points only thirty points behind new points leader Jimmy Johnson and had this to say:

At the end there it felt like Dover all over again, me and Jeff Gordon fighting for third place, third and fourth. It was a pretty hard fought battle. We ended up getting by him on the last lap coming to the stripe. We’re pretty excited to finish up third.

The most spectacular battle though was the battle for the win that saw Carl Edwards reel in Johnson over the last three laps and finally make an all out hell-bent-for-leather pass for the lead. Edwards however, went in too hard on the pass underneath JJ and ended up into the outside retaining wall. Edwards kept his foot in the pedal, peeled his Ford Fusion off the wall and tried to cut the race track and get past the new points leader.

Edwards gave this account of the crazy pass attempt:

He saw what I was doing, so he went up there to block. That last lap, I just figured, hell with it, I don’t want to finish second here, I want to win this race more than anything in the world, so I kind of bonsaied it in there. I wanted to make sure I cleared Jimmie. I went probably just a little too far and hit the wall harder than I planned on hitting it, he got back by me. It was fun. Always wanted to kind of try to do that. Now I know it doesn’t work quite the same as video games. But it was fun.

And that leads us to this week’s BUZZ ON PIT ROW:

Will Carl Edwards last lap pass attempt go down in history as career defining or just plain reckless?

Let us know what you think and we could use your comments on this weeks ON PIT ROW from 5-7pm ET. Call the show at 877-502-8255 and you could win a Kevin Harvick bobblehead by being “The Shell Gunk Free Caller of the Day” After ON PIT ROW tune into Inside ARCA at arcaracing.com from 7-8:30pm.

photo credit:Icon Sports Media

Filed under: Carl Edwards, Chase for the Cup, Greg Biffle, Hendrick Motorsports, Jeff Gordon, Jimmy Johnson, NASCAR, On Pit Row The Fastest Two Hours on Radio, Sprint Cup Series

Tagged with: Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle, Jimmy Johnson

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