Checkered Past

So how does this 4-wide thing work?

NEWS RELEASE

 The NHRA is going four-wide.

    NHRA President Tom Compton, Speedway Motorsports Inc. chairman and CEO Bruton Smith and 16-time Funny Car champion John Force were on hand Thursday to announce the inaugural NHRA Four-Wide Nationals to be held March 25-28. All four lanes of zMAX Dragway's concrete will be used for the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series event.

    The announcement comes four months after the NHRA conducted a four-lane exhibition at zMAX Dragway during the NHRA Carolinas Nationals in September.

    "I hope all the fans are excited about this as I am," Smith said.
"We are expecting it to be standing-room only here in March."

    Fans may love the idea, but Force conceded that some in the sport may not like such a dramatic change.

    "We've gotta grow," Force said. "Like Obama says, we've got to have change.

    "I don't know how the other racers feel. But at the end of the day, it's going to be exciting. You're talking over 30,000 horsepower at one time. You're talking over 1,200 mph out there on that race track. We did it.
My driver, Mike Neff, won it. I was a runner-up. It was exciting.

    "Let me tell you, I embarrassed myself at the press conference. We came right back in to talk about what had taken place.When I drove this four-lane race, I ran in here and I was like Tom Cruise on Oprah, jumping up and down, screaming. Everyone said, 'He went nuts,' because it was that exciting and thrilling."

    Compton said the idea of a four-lane national event started when Smith's Speedway Motorsports Inc. built The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

    "Bruton doesn't like to mess around," Compton said. "I was driving up for our first event there, and I was mobbed by reporters when I got out of my car. I said, 'What's this?' They go, 'Bruton just announced you're going to have a second event.' I said, 'We haven't even had our first event.'

    "That's how he works. At the time, we weren't sure how to do (four-wide), to be quite honest. There's a lot more to it than meets the eye."

    How will the event work?

    . Qualifying will be conducted in all four lanes

    . Each category winner will be determined in three rounds of
eliminations

    . The first two drivers across the finish line in each of the first rounds of eliminations will advance to the second round

    . The first two drivers to cross the finish line in each of the second rounds will advance to the final

    . Each final round will include four drivers, with one driver as the winner and one as second, third and fourth

    The NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series' passes will be conducted in the traditional two-lane format, running some classes in the left two lanes and others in the right.

NHRA sets four-wide national event at Charlotte | www.thatsracin.com

Funny Car drivers (left to right) John Force, Mike Neff, Tim Wilkerson, and Del Worsham set up for a four-wide exhibition run on the final day of the NHRA event at ZMax Dragway at Concord, N.C., on Sept. 20, 2009. – ROBERT LAHSER - rlahser@charlotteobserver.com

via www.thatsracin.com

No surprise here, but this might be good.

Side-by-side racing just got multiplied

NEWS RELEASE

CONCORD, N.C. (Jan. 21, 2010) - For the first time in NHRA national event history, qualifying and eliminations for Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle at an NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series event will be conducted four-wide instead of two, NHRA officials announced today.

        The inaugural NHRA Four-Wide Nationals is scheduled for March 25-28 at zMAX Dragway near Charlotte, N.C. NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series competition will be conducted in the traditional two-lane format, running some classes in the left two lanes and others in the right two lanes to assist with lane preparation and consistency.

        The announcement comes just four months after NHRA conducted its first-ever, four-lane exhibition at a national event, where nearly 30,000 horsepower blasted off at zMAX Dragway during the September running of the NHRA Carolinas Nationals. In separate runs, four Top Fuel dragsters and four Funny Cars competed in the four-wide event with everyone standing on their feet to witness the most spectacular five-seconds in motorsports.

        "We had so much positive feedback from our fans and drivers after the four-lane exhibition last September that we were comfortable adding this unique twist to an official NHRA national event," said Tom Compton, president, NHRA. "Once again, NHRA will be making history at zMAX Dragway.

With all four of our Full Throttle Series categories competing in four-wide racing it will certainly be a spectacular event to see."

        "Watching these nitro cars thunder four-wide down the world's only four-lane concrete strip is exactly what we had in mind when we built zMAX Dragway," said Bruton Smith, chairman and chief executive officer of Speedway Motorsports and creator of zMAX Dragway. "We're making history with horsepower at the Bellagio of drag strips and race fans will be treated to a competition unlike any thing that's ever been seen before. This will blow them away."

        The rules for the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway will be as follows:

. Qualifying will be conducted using four lanes . Each category winner will be determined in three rounds of eliminations . The two drivers to cross the finish line first in each of the four first rounds of eliminations will advance to the second round . The two drivers to cross the finish line first in each of the two second rounds of eliminations will advance to the final round . Each final round will feature four drivers in each category, and the single driver to cross the finish line first in the final will be declared the winner of the race, the second runner-up and so on.

        The third annual NHRA Carolinas Nationals, Sept. 16-19, the second of six races in NHRA's Countdown to 1 playoffs, will continue to be conducted using only two lanes at zMAX Dragway.

        Tickets for the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals are available by calling

(800) 455-3267 or by visiting www.charlottemotorspeedway.com. The inaugural NHRA Four-Wide Nationals is the fourth of 17 races in the NHRA Countdown to 10, NHRA's regular season. ESPN2 and ESPN2 HD will televise the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series event.

Media touring

That's not really a scrum (above), it just plays one on TV, online and in print. It's a bunch of people asking questions of driver Denny Hamlin at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Monday during a NASCAR Sprint Media Tour event.

____________________________________

Best question, answer

No. 1. I was absolutely stunned - shattered, even - by how long it took for someone to ask a question about Danica Patrick.

Do these people just not get it?

No. 2. The right people were at Monday's event at Charlotte Motor Speedway - fans.

The track and Joe Gibbs Racing invited customers to take part. You could tell the fans from the media types pretty easily: they were the ones applauding Joe Gibbs' every word and "Whoooo-ing" back at Kyle Busch.
Speedway boss Marcus Smith likes to use terms like "fan friendly" and "fan-first initiative." And, to be sure, gestures toward the fans are looking a lot like the domInant theme in this week's tour.

Too bad the fan memo is just now being circulated.

Richard Petty was hip to fans way back when other people roputinely said things like "hip" and called other drivers "cats."
Heck, The King had that fan thing figured out well before he was even knighted.

No. 3. The best question - non-Danica category - I've heard a driver asked so far this week.
"What have you guys got to do right off the bat to improve this season?"

No. 4. To which Clint Bowyer deadpanned: "Well, we've got to go fast. And, of course, we've got to win."

Bob Henry
Editor, ThatsRacin.com

Speed's questions keep Helton on message | www.thatsracin.com

Speed's questions keep Helton on message

via www.thatsracin.com

A corporate transparency primer:

Short interview? Check.

Easy questions, each straight from your company's or party's talking points and lobbed right into your wheel house? Check.

Answers that wander all over the back 40 and barely approach but surely don't really address the question? Check.

Time's up? Check please.

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Bob Henry
Editor, ThatsRacin.com

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Bob Henry
Editor, ThatsRacin.com

Monitoring the growth

Monitoring the growth

Tony Stewart credits Darian Grubb for helping his personal growth over recent seasons, but Ryan Newman has a different "system."
"My wife gives me quarterly reviews," the driver told reporters Monday.
After Newman fielded a question about spoilers with a short engineering presentation, Stewart kept the Krissie Newman theme going.
"He's got an engineering background, so I'm not touching that," Stewart said.
"And Ryan's wife said it was OK to say that in my last quarterly review."

Bob Henry
Editor, ThatsRacin.com

Media tourists

Media tourists

The Sprint NASCAR Media Tour hosted by Charlotte Motor Speedway is formally under way.

How can you tell? The buffet lines are jammed.

Lunch will is being hosted by Stewart Haas Racing, so we'll hear from those principals.

And we'll pass along the particulars soon.

But, first, gotta hustle to stay on the lead lap in that buffet line.

Bob Henry
Editor, ThatsRacin.com