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J.C. McKinney on Dave Marcis vs Terry Labonte: NASCAR’s 64 Greatest Drivers Match Up
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NASCAR Fantasy Racing Chat: Southern 500 from Darlington

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 5, 2010 10:22 pm UTC No Comments

OnPitRow.com will host Ryan Rantz and Eric McClung as they take you fantasy racing questions about this weeks Showtime Southern 500 from Darlington Raceway. Join us. We’ll send you a reminder if you fill in the box below.

Filed under: Darlington Speedway, Live blogs, NASCAR, NASCAR Fantasy Gaming

Tagged with: fantasy racing live chat, Southern 500

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Monday Morning Crew Chief: The New Pep Boys?

by Charlie Turner

May 16, 2009 5:49 am UTC No Comments

Mindy Monday kind of wraps up the Darlington Southern 500 experience as only she can. Be strong baby boomers. And it’s getting ugly in Junior-ville. It’s the latest Monday Morning Crew Chief from Bench Racing TV.

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If you’re into re-runs, you can watch more Mindy here.

Filed under: Bench Racing TV, Darlington Speedway, Mark Martin, Monday Morning Crew Chief, NASCAR, Nascar Legends, NASCAR video

Tagged with: Mindy Monday, Southern 500

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Ask.com Celebrates Bobby Labonte’s Birthday and Everyone’s Mothers Day

by Charlie Turner

May 8, 2009 10:01 pm UTC No Comments

I watched qualifying for Saturday’s Southern 500 and most of the Diamond Hill Plywood 300 Nationwide Series race tonight. Maybe Kyle Busch should have won the latter, but he didn’t. Matt Kenseth did. And Matty won the pole for tomorrow’s race too. Watch the Roushies this weekend. And maybe Sam Hornish. Yeah, Sam Hornish Jr.

NASCAR gets the racing out of the way early this weekend so that teams and fans can concentrate on Mothers day. It’s a NASCAR tradition that I appreciate. Quaint, but nice.

Ask.com is Bobby Labonte’s sponsor on the Hall of Fame Racing no. 96. Labonte’s birthday is this weekend and this week, the official search engine of NASCAR ran a promotion to celebrate.

Hundreds of fans submitted their ideas to Ask.com to be considered as the gift the Official Search Engine of NASCAR presented to Labonte on his 45th birthday. The suggestion from Hilary Mathis of Danville, Ill., inspired the gift – a commemorative racing helmet that includes the names of each fan that sent their supportive wishes and gift ideas over the past week.

Mathis has been a Labonte fan since 1997 and lists him and Brian Vickers as her top-two favorite NASCAR drivers. Ask.com has pulled together Mother’s Day content for fans. A special page on Ask.com includes interviews with the mothers of Jeff Gordon, Casey Mears, Ryan Newman, Reed Sorenson and Mathis’ fave, Brian Vickers. Here’s the Vickers story – from his mom….

When he was about 10 years old, he and his father were in the basement working on his go-kart getting ready for the next race. He was actually sitting in the go-kart while being weighed and just couldn’t sit still. He started sticking his fingers in the holes on the steering wheel and one of his fingers got stuck. We worked for hours trying to get his finger out, but that only made his finger swell. He wouldn’t let us cut the steering wheel off because it was his favorite one, so we had to take the wheel off the go-kart and he slept with it. He thought his finger would slide out just like it slid in – but that didn’t work. We went to the emergency room the next morning to see if they could get his finger unstuck, but they couldn’t either. And after all that they finally took him down to the maintenance department and had to cut the steering wheel off anyway.

To read more stories straight from the mouth of Brian Vickers’ mom, as well as childhood tales from the moms of NASCAR stars including Jeff Gordon, Reed Sorensen, Ryan Newman and Casey Mears search NASCAR Mother’s Day at Ask.com for some great Mother’s Day material.

Photo credit: Getty Images

Filed under: Ask.com Racing, Bobby Labonte, Brian Vickers, Darlington Speedway, NASCAR, Nationwide Series

Tagged with: Ask.com, Diamond Hill Plywood 300, Hall of Fame Racing, Southern 500

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One and Done: Southern 500

by Chris Leone, Special To NASCAR commentary and driver pictures, 2012 NASCAR schedule, video, Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie

I do weekly Fantasy Pick'Em columns here at OPR, as well as the occasional opinion and analysis piece. I also provide the IZOD IndyCar Series coverage. For more on that, head to my site, OpenWheelAmerica.com. My Twitter handle is @christopherlion.

May 7, 2009 9:10 pm UTC 4 Comments

Ah, Darlington. This weekend, with the race falling on Mother’s Day weekend, symbolizes everything that’s right about stock car racing – an ageless wonder of a track that both defines and defies history, top-notch driving on a track that only a sacred few have ever conquered, and the closeness of family that makes a NASCAR race so homely. It’s Southern comfort at its finest, and it almost makes up for the fact that the Labor Day race isn’t held here anymore.

Kyle Busch swept the races last weekend at Richmond, so momentum alone makes him one of this week’s picks. Most of the other picks for this weekend have Darlington wins, as Busch does, but this week’s sleeper pick is still looking for his first. He’s also on the edge of no longer being a sleeper in anything.

David Ragan: He finished fifth here last year, he knows how to win in the major leagues now that he got that first Nationwide win at Talladega, and he needs to turn his season around after a series of finishes in the 10s and 20s have left him 26th in points. A win, coupled with bad finishes by the drivers directly in front of him, could close him in on the top 20.

Jeff Burton: A quiet 7th in points, Burton has the fourth best average finish of active drivers at Darlington with a solid 11.5. He swept the track’s events in 1999, has never crashed out of the event, and only has one finish of worse than 21st here since 1997. (That was an engine failure in 2003, and he finished 42nd.)

Jimmie Johnson: Do I even need to explain picking Johnson? Last year when I handicapped the Chase drivers, I sort of stopped bothering a few races in. There’s really never much to justify when you pick this guy…

Kyle Busch: …and there’s not much to justify about picking this guy either. 200 wins. ‘Nuff said.

Denny Hamlin: Hamlin is dying for a win. He’s only run at Darlington three times, but his worst finish is 10th. Last year he was 7th, and in 2007 he finished 2nd after leading 179 laps. He’s run well all season, only failing to complete two laps, and has led chunks of the race in three of the past five weekends. It’s time he seals the deal, and Darlington could be the place to do it.

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc.

Filed under: Darlington Speedway, David Ragan, Denny Hamlin, Jimmy Johnson, Kyle Busch, NASCAR, One and Done NASCAR Fantasy Racing, Sprint Cup Series

Tagged with: Darlington Raceway, One and Done, One and Done NASCAR Fantasy Racing, Southern 500

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Dale Earnhardt vs Ned Jarrett: NASCAR’s 64 Greatest Drivers Sweet 16

by Charlie Turner

April 19, 2009 2:15 pm UTC 21 Comments

Our final Sweet 16 match up in the NASCAR 64 Greatest Drivers Tournament at Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie has the fathers of two of NASCAR’s most popular stars squaring off for the final Elite Eight spot in the Bench Racing region. Ironhead against Gentleman Ned.

Dale Earnhardt won 76 times in 676 Cup Series starts and was one of only two seven time series champions. His win total is seventh best all-time. He won consecutive titles three different times and was a series runner-up three times. Earnhardt only won the Daytona 500 once – in ’98 – but is the all-time leader in wins at Daytona International Speedway with 34.

Ned Jarrett is better known to most fans today as the father of Dale Jarrett and one of NASCAR’s best announcers. But ”Gentleman Ned” won two Sprint Cup Championships in the sixties and had 50 wins – tied for tenth all-time – in 352 career starts. Jarrett won an amazing 28 races during the ’64 and ’65 seasons. He actually won the Southern 500 by 14 laps, the largest victory margin in NASCAR history.

Ned defeated the Busch Series demon Jack Ingram in round two and the legendary Cotton Owens in the round of 64. Earnhardt squeaked by Bobby Isaac in a near upset in the opener and bested Rex White in the second. Earnhardt has had some scares and this is his toughest opponent yet. Tell us who you like in the comment section.

Filed under: Dale Earnhardt, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Dale Earnhardt, Inc., Dale Jarrett, Darlington Speedway, Daytona 500, Daytona International Speedway, NASCAR, NASCAR & the Media, NASCAR 64 Greatest Driver Tourney, Nascar Legends, Sprint Cup Series

Tagged with: #3, Bobby Isaac, Cotton Owens, Gentleman Ned, Jack Ingram, NASCAR 64 Greatest Driver Tourney, NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers, Ned Jarrett, Rex White, Southern 500, Winston Cup

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Herb Thomas vs David Pearson: NASCAR’s 64 Greatest Drivers Sweet 16

by Charlie Turner

April 18, 2009 3:00 pm UTC 9 Comments

Hudson Hornet drivers have enjoyed good success leading up to the Sweet 16 in our NASCAR 64 Greatest Drivers Tournament at Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie. This third round faceoff in the On Pit Radio region pits two drivers who account for 153 NASCAR Cup series wins.

Herb Thomas was NASCAR’s first two-time Series champ. He won 48 times – 12th all-time – in 228 starts and captured 39 poles. Herb won the Southern 500 three times and was a series runner-up twice. He won both championships while driving a Hudson Hornet.

David Pearson is second on the all-time Cup Series victory list with 105 and is a three time Winston Cup champ. He won the ’76 Daytona 500, set a record for super speedway qualifying by winning 11 straight poles at Charlotte Motor Speedway. In ’73, Pearson won 11 of the 18 Cup races that he entered. He did all this while rarely entering as many races as his contemporaries.

Herb Thomas has gotten by Tiny Lund in round one and the great Marvin Panch in his last match. The Silver Fox dispatched modified king Richie Evans in the opener and four-time Indy 500 winner A J Foyt in round two. On Tuesday’s ON PIT ROW broadcast, NASCAR veteran James Hylton surprised us by taking Herb Thomas over Pearson when asked for his choice. Tell us who you like in the comments section.