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On Second Thought Maybe Jimmy Spencer was Right : NASCAR commentary,NASCAR video,NASCAR pictures, Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie on Done With Danicamania: At Least Dale Jr. Won Races
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Charlie Turner on Said Heads Rejoice Joe Gibbs Frets and Jimmie Johnson Jams it

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One and Done: AMP Energy 500

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.

October 29, 2009 12:35 pm CDT 2 Comments

For the first time in its history, Talladega Superspeedway hosts a race in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, as NASCAR’s premiere series heads to Alabama this weekend for the AMP Energy 500.

Of the ten tracks in this year’s Chase, Talladega is by far the most unpredictable. Only four drivers boast an average finish better than 10.0 at the track, and they have a combined four starts - all of which occurred in this spring’s race. That event featured a wacky finish in which Brad Keselowski found himself in victory lane, but Carl Edwards found himself airborne.

At a massive track like Talladega, where the cars reach some of their highest speeds and restrictor plates bunch up the field, the “big one,” a massive 20-something car pileup, is looming around every corner, on every straightaway, in every drag race to the finish line. For that reason, picking this race is a crapshoot. Take everything with a full shaker of salt, and go with any hunch you might have.

Seriously. Scott Speed finished 5th here in the spring. Think about that.

If there’s any weekend where staying within the confines of Chase drivers isn’t necessary, it would be this one, because of the likelihood that an incident will wipe out half the field. Whoever survives the wreck, if it happens, probably won’t have the best car in the field, just the best luck, and luck doesn’t discriminate based on the points standings. But week in and week out, the Chase drivers give fantasy players the best chance of scoring a lot of points, so we might as well stick with the established system, no?

The five Chase drivers with the best records at Talladega:

Kurt Busch (avg. fn. 12.1): The older Busch brother has quietly assembled a solid Talladega record, with 12 top-10s in 17 starts. He has also led at least one lap in 13 of his 17 Talladega starts. Only two of his last 10 Talladega starts have been worse than eighth. While he’s never won a Cup race at the track, the first thing you look to do at Talladega is survive, and he’s only crashed out twice.

Tony Stewart (avg. fn. 13.8): Smoke “won” this race in controversial fashion last year (and as far as I’m concerned, that still should have been Regan Smith’s win). He’s led laps in 10 of the past 11 Talladega races, with the lone exception being this spring’s race. Smoke’s crashed out in four of his 21 starts, a slightly worse percentage than Busch, but he’s also been able to do something that Busch can’t say: finish better than third (one win and six second place finishes).

Mark Martin (avg. fn. 16.1): Martin only has five crashes at Talladega in 43 starts, a slightly better percentage than Busch, and both of his wins came after his horrendous 1994 incident, proving that bad crashes don’t negatively affect everybody. But the last of those wins came in 1997, and Martin only has six laps at Talladega under race conditions in the new car: he skipped the track altogether in 2007 and 2008, and his spring race was cut short by an early incident.

Jeff Gordon (avg. fn. 16.4): The spring race didn’t go well for Gordon, as he finished 60 laps off the pace in 37th. But he swept the track in 2007, and generally finds himself up front: he’s led laps in 12 of the last 14 Talladega races (including six of the last eight). A statistic that should bring pause, however: In 11 starts since 2004, Gordon has won four, but has not finished better than 15th in the other seven.

Ryan Newman (avg. fn. 18.5): Well, Newman ran well and led laps in the wacky spring race… He also hasn’t wrecked out of a Talladega race since 2005, as he kept the car going during the Edwards wreck and scored his career best finish at the track (third). Here’s a question for you: If taking another stock car off the hood meant improving by another couple of spots, think he would take it?

Filed under: One and Done NASCAR Fantasy Racing, Talladega Superspeedway

Tagged with: Amp Energy 500, Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch, Mark Martin, One and Done NASCAR Fantasy Racing, Ryan Newman, Talladega Superspeedway, Tony Stewart

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ESPN Disrespects NASCAR Again

by Steve Wronkowicz

I am co-host of the syndicated radio show: ON PIT ROW. Charlie likes to call me an "idiot". I'm not an "idiot"; I just prefer not to let the facts get in the way of my opinions.

October 27, 2009 11:04 am CDT No Comments

Twice in the past week on-air personalities at ESPN have made light of NASCAR, its fans and in one case a driver.

ESPN paid dearly for the rights to broadcast NASCAR’s top two series and tell the stories of Dale Earnhardt, Jr, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and the rest. They have exclusive broadcast rights to the Nationwide Series and have the most coveted portion of the Sprint Cup Season. ESPN has the rights to broadcast all aspects of the second half of the Sprint Cup season–including the “Race to the Chase” and the “Chase to the Cup”.

ESPN also broadcasts college football. Its college football coverage takes precedence over its racing coverage. It always has and it most likely always will. Race fans have come to expect that when football and NASCAR bump into one another; its the NASCAR coverage that gets moved–either to another ESPN property or its start time delayed.

What NASCAR shouldn’t have to accept is the total disrespect it receives by its stick and ball oriented personalities. It has been well documented over the past week about Bob Greise’s comment toward Juan Pablo Montoya. During a NASCAR promo on a football telecast that Greise worked; one announcer asked where Montoya was, when discussing the top five drivers. Greise’s response was “Out eating a taco”.

Greise apologized–twice–on air during the telecast and has been suspended by ESPN for one game. Greise’s comments may have been more insensitive than mean spirited, but does show the lack of respect that NASCAR garners from its broadcast partner.

To add more insult to the NASCAR on ESPN week; Mondays morning Sport Center broadcasts included highlights of the Sprint Cup race won by Denny Hamlin. The highlight package ended with the comment by ESPN’s anchor saying; ” Now for those of you north of the Mason-Dixon line…”; this within days of Greise’s gaff.

It would seem it is an acceptable practice at ESPN to demean NASCAR, its drivers and their fans. If it is not deemed as acceptable, it would not continue to happen. It leaves fans wondering how NASCAR is perceived at ESPN’s offices. If on air personnel are not respecting NASCAR it may be because they are carrying down the disrespect they hear from their bosses around the office. Employees tend to take on the attitude of their superiors. If NASCAR coverage is looked down upon by ESPN’s hierarchy then it is no wonder that the trickle down lands on air.

This week’s BUZZ ON PIT ROW asks:

Does NASCAR and its coverage get the respect it deserves from its broadcast partner–ESPN?

Let us know what you think and we could use your comments on this weeks ON PIT ROW radio show. Listen live every Tuesday from 5-7pm ET. Call the show at 1-800-465-2946 and you could win a Kevin Harvick bobblehead as Shell’s Nitrogen Enriched Call of the Day.

photo credit: Icon Sports Media

Filed under: Denny Hamlin, ESPN, NASCAR, NASCAR & the Media, NASCAR Bidness

Tagged with: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Denny Hamlin, ESPN, Jeff Gordon, jimmie johnson, NASCAR

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About That Championship Chase…

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

October 20, 2009 1:13 pm CDT No Comments

So two weeks ago, after the Kansas race, I wrote an article about how this year’s Chase may not be settled as early as last year’s was. I wrote about how Tony Stewart, Juan Montoya, and especially Mark Martin would pose a challenge for three-time reigning champion Jimmie Johnson, and that it wasn’t going to be easy for the 48 team to 4-peat. And at the time, I fully believed it.

But after this weekend, I’m not so sure I buy into it anymore.

So Johnson couldn’t capitalize at Kansas. Big deal. He led huge chunks of the NASCAR Banking 500, both early and late. He had a driver rating of 139.1, nearly 14 points better than that of Kasey Kahne, who ran the second-best race according to NASCAR’s loop data. And after Martin finished a mediocre 17th, Johnson now has a 90-point lead in the standings.

Simply put, it’s gonna take a bad finish or two from Johnson to give anybody else a shot, and he simply doesn’t do that during the Chase.

The maximum point swing that can occur between any two drivers in the same race is 161 points. This requires one driver to finish first and lead the most laps, while the other finishes last and leads none. As the points stand right now, if Tony Stewart was able to pull that on Johnson next week, he’d still only be 11 points ahead of the 48 team in the standings.

Montoya is 190-plus points back in sixth after a dismal run at Lowe’s, effectively ending his championship hopes.

Even Hendrick Motorsports teammates Martin and Jeff Gordon, who run the same high-caliber equipment as Johnson, are going to need misfortune to befall the Lowe’s boys to make this thing interesting again, and that seems like it’s just not going to happen.

It’s been three full years since Johnson has finished worse than 15th in a Chase race. That race, the 2006 UAW-Ford 500 at Talladega, could have easily been won by Johnson, too, had then-teammate Brian Vickers not taken him out.

Oh, and about this weekend’s race at Martinsville: Johnson has won five of the last six races at the paper clip. He has 14 top-10s in 15 career starts at the track. The 48 car has spent time out front in nine of the past 11 Martinsville races, and he’s led at least 42 laps in each of those occurrences (winning six of them).

So, yeah, about that championship chase: Looks like I was wrong. Start buying the champagne, boys, you’ve all but won it.

Everybody else can wait ’til next year. Or the year after. Or the year after that…

Filed under: Chase for the Cup, Jeff Gordon, Juan Pablo Montoya, Mark Martin, NASCAR, Tony Stewart, jimmie johnson

Tagged with: Chase for the Cup, Jeff Gordon, jimmie johnson, Juan Montoya, Kansas Speedway, Mark Martin, Martinsville Speedway, NASCAR Banking 500, Tony Stewart

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Fast Laps: Chicagoland

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

July 8, 2009 6:26 pm CDT 5 Comments

This may be for Chicagoland, but I’m still hung up on the finish of the Coke Zero 400. If you’re reading this you know the deal. Kyle Busch comes out of turn 4, blocks Tony Stewart, Stewart moves to the outside, Busch tries to block, gets spun, get’s clobbered. Twice. The finishes of these plate races has officially jumped the shark. We now know that the leader at the end of the race will end up in the wall just before the start/finish line. It’s not anyone’s fault, per se. The drivers have voiced frustration at NASCAR for the situation they’re put in. I began thinking, is there anything that can change? I started looking at some plate races from the late 90s when the fad was diving below the line on the front and backstretch. Perhaps the most famous example was Jeff Gordon diving below race leader Rusty Wallace with 11 laps to go heading into turn 1 with a slowed Ricky Rudd on the apron. Gordon was just a few feet from Rudd when Wallace moved up, gave Gordon the room on the inside, and watched him win his 2nd Daytona 500. Today, Rusty says he wouldn’t have given Gordon the room. If the yellow-line rule is lifted, would we see a situation like that again? Who knows. I just know that something’s got to be done to change the finishes of these races, because I’ll take the money in my pockets and bet someone all the money in theirs that the finish at the fall race at Talladega will look very similar to those that saw Brad Keselowski and Tony Stewart end up in victory lane instead of Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch.

Now it’s your turn to do battle with Steve and Charlie, along with who else might show up. 100 words, 100% attitude. Let’s roll:

1. Will someone get killed during one these plate race finishes, as suggested by Carl Edwards?

2. Has the yellow-line rule outlived its usefulness?

3. What will Martin Truex Jr. do in his first year at MWR?

4. Does Chicagoland deserve a second race ahead of Kansas?

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media

Filed under: Brad Kesolowski, Carl Edwards, Chicagoland Speedway, Daytona 500, Daytona International Speedway, Jeff Gordon, NASCAR, Rusty Wallace, Sprint Cup Series, Talladega Superspeedway

Tagged with: Brad Keselowski, Chicagoland Speedway, Coke Zero 400, Daytona 500, Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr., Michael Waltrip Racing, NASCAR, Rusty Wallace, Sprint Cup Series, Tony Stewart

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A Much Different Race At New Hampshire This Time Around

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

June 28, 2009 7:59 pm CDT 2 Comments

It’s difficult to knock your home racetrack for usually putting on a boring show, but I frequently find myself complaining about the New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Sprint Cup’s answer to the Milwaukee Mile, the 1-mile flat track has put on plenty of snoozefests or rain-shortened tilts over the past few years. As a fan who attends both Sprint Cup races at the track every year, and having been a ticket holder at the track for more than ten years, I often find myself wondering on the drive home whether or not the race I just saw was worth the price of admission.

Today’s event, however, might have finally sold me on Loudon.

Remember that when I wrote about “fixing” NASCAR, I wanted a shorter schedule for the Sprint Cup boys, and that NHMS was one of the first tracks I wanted to go. Despite the fact that it almost always sells out (owing to its status as the only Cup track in New England), there’s always been a negative aura over the track ever since Adam Petty and Kenny Irwin Jr.’s accidents. Remember the 2001 race run on Thanksgiving weekend? Do you have any idea how frigid that was?

Today’s race, though - there was something different about it, compared to the past few years. It didn’t feel like a chore to sit through this race the way it has in some years past. For one, with the starting lineup set by owners’ points, it was fun to watch the guys who were fast in happy hour work their way through the field. In particular, Martin Truex Jr. was showing his stuff early on, working his way into the top 10.

Even the commercialism seemed to be toned down this weekend. The $ouvenir price$ were $till the $ame (if you were enough of a $ucker to $pend $25 on a t-$hirt), but there were far fewer trailers on track grounds selling new gear. Aside from the Aaron’s Lucky Dog and ServiceMaster Cautions, there weren’t too many ads on the three big screens placed around the track.

That made it a lot easier to focus on the racing at hand - and boy, were there some highlights. I’m a little peeved at Kyle Busch for taking out Truex, my One and Done pick this weekend, and causing one of the biggest wrecks at the track in recent memory. The double-file restarts (I refuse to call them that cheesy name that Brian France gave them) completely changed the race, and produced some pretty good battles between Jeff Gordon and Kurt Busch.

And how about Joey Logano winning his first career Sprint Cup race? In a way, this is Sliced Bread’s home track - although he relocated to Georgia to further his career around the turn of the decade, he’s originally from Connecticut. Same goes for crew chief Greg Zipadelli, a Berlin, CT native. It’s always a great feeling to get your first win, and it’s great, too, to win at your home track. Combining both must be a dream come true for the No. 20 team.

Sure, the win’s a little controversial due to the race ending early, but either way, it etches Logano into the record books as the youngest Sprint Cup winner ever. And even as driver development contracts are starting earlier and earlier in drivers’ lives and careers, it’s unlikely that anyone is going to win another Sprint Cup race at 19 years old anytime soon.

Today’s Lenox Industrial Tools 301, although rain-shortened (do you think they’ll ever go “the extra mile”?), was the best Sprint Cup race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in a long time. More than ever, I can say that I’m looking forward to the start of the Chase ten weeks from now. Hopefully that race will deliver as much entertainment as this one did.

Filed under: New Hampshire International Speedway

Tagged with: Greg Zipadelli, Jeff Gordon, Joey Logano, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Lenox 301, Martin Truex Jr., New Hampshire Motor Speedway

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Earnhardt Jr Scapegoats are Dropping Like Flies

by Steve Wronkowicz

I am co-host of the syndicated radio show: ON PIT ROW. Charlie likes to call me an "idiot". I'm not an "idiot"; I just prefer not to let the facts get in the way of my opinions.

May 28, 2009 4:30 pm CDT 2 Comments

Tony Eury, Jr. must be breathing a huge sigh of relief.

The latest obstacle in the way of Dale Earnhardt Jr’s road to success has been mercifully moved to the research and development side of the Hendricks Motor Sports garage. Tony Eury Jr was released from his duties as the crew chief for his cousin earlier today (Thursday). You just have to wonder if Eury, Jr. had to be muttering under his breath; “What took so long?”

Rick Hendrick was not going to fire Earnhardt; even though much of the disappointing season has to be put squarely on the shoulders of The Intimidator’s son. The well documented brain farts of Earnhardt Jr had to weigh heavy on Eury Jr. It was only a matter of time before Hendrick had to make a move.

“Our performance hasn’t been where it should be,” said Hendrick. “It’s impossible to pin that on any one factor, but a change is the right decision at this point. We have a plan in place, and we’re going to move forward with it.”

That plan revolves around veteran crew chief Lance McGrew. McGrew most recently has been guiding Brad Keselowski’s Cup effort. An effort that resulted in a seventh place finish at Darlington. McGrew has won a Nationwide championship with Brian Vickers in 2003. He has won races from on top of the pit box in all three national series with drivers Vickers, Jeff Gordon, Ricky Hendrick, Kyle Busch, Mark Martin and most recently Tony Stewart.

Team manager Brian Whitesell will lead the team this weekend at Dover. Whitesell and Rex Stump, Hendrick Motorsports’ lead chassis engineer, have been assigned to support McGrew on a full-time basis. Whitesell, who won two of seven races as Jeff Gordon’s interim crew chief in 1999, will join McGrew and team engineer Tom Stewart on the no. 88 pit box to assist with race strategy. Hendrick plotted his strategy:

“We’re going to put our full resources toward improving the situation and winning races. It’s going to be a collective effort that includes all of our drivers, all of our crew chiefs and all of our engineers. Everyone in our company will be involved on some level.”

McGrew, Whitesell, Stump and Stewart will give the team something it has not had since Tony Eury, Sr. was Junior’s crew chief; an authority figure to call the shots. The days of indecision and questioning race calls from inside the cockpit will be a thing of the past.

One more questionable piece of this under performing puzzle has been replaced. Now that the “evil step-mother” and the “bumbling crew-chief” are gone from the picture, the focus will now have to center on one person. Once and for all we will see where the problem has been.

Filed under: Brad Kesolowski, Brian Vickers, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Darlington Speedway, Hendrick Motorsports, How to fix NASCAR, Jeff Gordon, NASCAR, NASCAR & the Media, Nascar Legends, Nationwide Series, On Pit Row The Fastest Two Hours on Radio, Sprint Cup Series