Kathy's Pit Stop

Sorenson scores his second Busch win

While I would have preferred to see a Wallace win the Wallace Family Tribute 250, especially Rusty, I'm happy that one of my favorites did win. Not only did he win, he gained 100 points on Truex, mainly because Truex had some trouble with a loose wheel.  Once again the points race has tightened up again with Bowyer being 70 points behind Truex and Sorenson 84 points behind. 

The cautions that came out were mainly from the car on the inside getting loose or old tires vs. new tires.  That's one thing that bothered me about Rusty's wreck, most articles just say he crashed.  Well, yeah, he crashed, but with some help from Jon Wood, he didn't do it by himself.  I guess the whole problem is that the guys with fresh tires seem to think that they can go through the ones on old tires.  I realize they are faster, so I guess I just don't understand why they don't go around the ones on old tires since they are faster instead of bumping and/or wrecking them out of the way.

Picture credit:  NASCAR.com

Roush competition - showing how it's done or cashing in?

Is Jack Roush's competition really just showing it how it is when choosing the next driver for their stable or are they just trying to cash in on the popularity of the sport?

While I think it's great that all these drivers are given a shot (1700 applications were received), it makes me wonder that by making into a 13 part series for the Discovery Channel, that he may be just trying to make some extra money off of the popularity of the sport.  It also makes me wonder how much of their selection process was changed or altered to be able to make it into this 13 part series.

The premise of the show/series is to take 25 drivers (chosen yesterday) to Martinsville on August 2 - 4, then down to 12 for Darlington on August 15 - 17.  The drivers will compete on and off the track, driving skills, marketability and fan appeal is what they will be judged on.  The winner of the competition will get a fully sponsored ride in the Craftsman Truck Series for 2006.  The show will be aired on the Discovery Channel some time this fall.

While I think it's great that these drivers (age 19 to 26) are being given a shot at a Craftsman Truck Series ride, it makes me wonder if Roush really just wants to show the things they go through to pick a driver for the team or if he's just trying to cash in on the rising popularity of the sport like "NASCAR Drivers 360" did, or maybe it's a little of both?

Either way, I'm sure they'll get a lot of people tuning in to see the competition and I'll probably be one of them.

Sentimental, but still a points race

The Cup and Truck series have off this weekend, but the Busch series moves to Gateway for the Wallace Family Tribute 250.  For most it's race #22 on the Busch series schedule in the race for the championship and for others, it's sentimental.

For the first time, all the Wallace brothers, Rusty, Mike and Kenny, will race against each other in a NASCAR event at their hometown track.  Rusty will be driving his #64 Dodge, Mike will be driving the #6 Dodge entry fielded by Ray Evernham and Kenny will be in his #22 Ford with a new sponsor on board for the race.

Their parents, Russ and Judy Wallace, will serve as co-Grand Marshall's, the grandstands in turn one and two will be dedicated in the honor of the Wallace family and for the first time ever, Gateway says that all the infield RV parking spots and on-site parking lots are sold out.

Looks like it should be a great turnout for the race.  I'm really looking forward to the race.  With Rusty being my favorite driver, he's a sentimental favorite for me to win the race.  They are supposedly bringing the same car Bill Elliott ran last week, which was pretty good, so hopefully it'll have a good run, hopefully a win.  I think the only thing that could make it even better, was if Steven could run in the race too, but he's only 17 and not eligible to run in NASCAR yet, not until after he turns 18 in August.

Everyone else will be running for points, especially Truex, Bowyer and Sorenson, well Kenny will be too, but I'll be pulling for the Wallace brothers to do well and hopefully Rusty can pull off a win. 

Craftsman Truck Series Talladega bound in 2006

It was announced today that the Craftsman Truck Series will start racing at Talladega on October 7, 2006.  It will part of the same weekend the ARCA series and Cup series race.  The ARCA race, usually runs on Saturday, but to make room for the Truck series, ARCA will race on Friday that weekend.

What wasn't said, was whether or not they will run restrictor plates or not.  They don't use them at Daytona, even though the Busch and Cup cars do, so I'm guessing they won't use them at Talladega.

I think it'll be exciting to watch the trucks race at Talladega, Talladega usually equals excitement and so does the Truck series, so the two together should be exciting to watch.  Let's just hope there isn't a bad wreck to mar the race like it was at Daytona in 2000 when the trucks first raced there.

Pocono wrapup

Before the race, both Rusty Wallace and Mark Martin were honored by track founder Dr. Joseph Mattoli.  For both driver's it was to be their final start at Pocono in the Cup series, but the way things are going to Mark over at Roush, it looks like it won't be.

Both were running in the top ten most of the day, but at one point it looked like a top ten finish wasn't going to happen with either of them.  Rusty had a chain break on the left side, making four tire stops take forever and Mark had brake problems.  Somehow, they both pulled it off.  Rusty made mostly two tire stops when they made pit stops so it wouldn't take so long and Martin's brakes held on and never went out completely.  They ended up finishing 2nd (Rusty) and 3rd (Mark) behind race winner Kurt Busch, finishes that help them continue to stay in the Chase.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon weren't as luck though, both looking for good finishes that never came.  Both got caught a lap down (technically) when a caution came out when they were in the pits for green flag stops.  Earnhardt Jr. had his problems compounded when he went in again under the caution to change a spring, which took a bit longer than they hope.  He sped off pit road to beat the pace car, so he wouldn't get caught another lap down and NASCAR penalized him one lap for that.  They supposedly called him to the trailer to discuss it after the race, letting him know they understand that he didn't want to go a lap down, but it wouldn't be tolerated.  Pit road speed is 55 mph and his exit speed was quite a bit higher than that at 143 mph.

Earnhardt Jr. is now in 14th in points, 110 points behind 10th place and Gordon is in 15th, 114 points behind 10th.  If they want to make the Chase, yes it is still possible, they need to step it up and pull out some good finishes. 

If you want a good chuckle, read this article.  Good write up about the race with a little chuckle added in.

Picture credit: Autostock and NASCAR.com

McMurray nabs Pocono pole

Jamie McMurray will lead the field to the green flag on Sunday.  Alongside him on the front row will be Kurt Busch, followed by Mark Martin, Ryan Newman and Ricky Rudd rounds out the top five.

Points leader Jimmie Johnson qualified 9th, and the rest of the top ten - Biffle 7th, Stewart 6th, Wallace 13th, Mayfield 16th, Sadler 39th and Jarrett 20th.  Jeff Gordon didn't get that good of a run and will start 21st, while Dale Earnhardt Jr. had a bad run in a loose car and will start 38th.

Tires didn't seem to be an issue, but the bumps in the track did seem to upset some of the cars on their runs.  With this being an impound race, it'll be interesting to see how many teams have the right setup for the race and how many teams will have to work hard to get their cars better.

Let's hope for a safe race with no tire problems.

Pocono, tires and more

As the Cup series heads into Pocono this weekend, the tires are the same as the last Pocono race.  Goodyear officials decided that there were a lot of factors that went into the tire problems during the last race and none of them were the tires fault.  So, the exact same tire is going to be run this weekend, with the recommendation of higher air pressure for the left-side tires.

A quote from Goodyear - Mark Keto, Lead Engineer, Stock Car Racing: "We had a handful of teams that developed problems with their left-front tire at Pocono last month, so while we came back with the same tire set-up, we have increased the minimum recommended inflation for the left-sides. We've worked with NASCAR and the track to look at all factors that may have affected tire performance. The track made some improvements in that time, specifically to the tunnel turn, and that should help the overall situation. We'll be watching the situation very closely during practice and working with the teams to make sure everything goes well."

The track improvements that he's eluding too are the repaving of the tunnel turn, getting rid of the dips and changing the rumble strips from asphalt to concrete.  I guess we'll have to wait and see if any of this fixes the problems that plagued teams during the last race.  Let's just hope that if problems do start to occur in practice, that they do more than tell the teams to adjust air pressure.

On other news fronts, Felix Sabates said they do plan on exercising the option on McMurray's contract and they will expect him to honor it.  I'm sure he'll honor it, maybe not happily though.  No news or concrete plans on the other driver's of Ganassi racing, it's still a wait and see game.

On the Busch series side, Kenny Wallace, who lost his primary sponsor Stacker2, has a sponsor for the Pikes Peak race.  Freedom Roads is jumping onboard for a one race deal.  It's pretty bad when you're fifth in points and are struggling to find a sponsor, it just goes to show you how expensive it's gotten.  It's good to see someone try to help them out, hopefully he'll be getting a new full-time sponsor soon.

Owners need to make up their minds

With all the talk of Silly Season this year, the biggest stories and mysteries, revolve around McMurray, Ganassi, Mears, Roush and Martin.

Roush signed McMurray to start driving for him in the #6 in 2007, the surprising part about that was that he signed him so early and they announced it during the 2005 season.  With Mark Martin supposed to be retiring at the end of 2005, that would leave the #6 ride open for 2006 because Ganassi still has a one year option open on McMurray's contract. 

Roush is supposedly trying to work things out where McMurray can take the ride over in 2006 instead of 2007, but at the same time asked Martin if he would stay one more year if it couldn't be worked out.  Martin, being the gentleman he is, has agreed to stay if needed, so he can hand the reigns of the #6 over to McMurray when the time comes. 

Roush knew Martin would stay if he was pressured for the good of the team and I think Roush was wrong in the way he did it.  He knew, everybody knew, that Ganassi had the one year option on McMurray's contract and that he was going to use it, so why didn't he just ask Martin to stay one more year before any of this came out?  Why didn't he look at other driver's to fill in for that year in the #6 until McMurray was free?  Easy, he wanted Martin to stay.

Now, let's look over on Ganassi's side.  Why would he want to keep a driver on the team that doesn't want to be there?  He should just let McMurray go over to the #6 for 2006, that way he doesn't have a driver that doesn't want to be there and Martin can retire from the Cup series as planned.

Ganassi also seems to have a hard time communicating with his drivers.  I recently read an article that mentioned that Ganassi didn't return Marlin's calls before Ganassi made the decision to drop him, when he was just thinking about it.  Now we have the McMurray thing, which he hasn't official said that he is exercising his option and has said he won't say anything on it until September, the deadline he has to make a decision.  Then you have Casey Mears.  Ganassi has supposedly told him he has plans for him, but hasn't told him what those plans entail.  You see, Ganassi has that one year option with Mears too and Mears is just sitting in limbo until Ganassi makes a decision.  Rumors are going around that he will probably move Reed Sorenson up to the #41, which would leave Mears nowhere.

The owners need to make up their minds and be honest with the drivers as far as what they want and what they plan to do.  It isn't fair to the drivers to sit in limbo wondering what is going to happen to their career.  The drivers need time to look for other opportunities if they are getting the boot and if the owners keep dragging their feet, the drivers won't have much time to secure a ride for next season.

What will it take to get back on track?

Jeff Gordon's problems just keep on coming and even though I'm not a fan of his, I'm starting to feel sorry for him with all the back luck he's been getting.  At New Hampshire, it looked like he was on his way to a top five finish and possibly a turn around in his season, when his brakes failed with less than twenty laps to go and he ended up finishing twenty-fifth instead. 

What is it going to take to get back on track and where do the problems lie?  Is it the equipment, the crew, crew chief, driver, the communication or all of the above?  It's always easier to blame it on the driver, they're usually the first ones to get blamed, but the problems usually go deeper than that when a top team is struggling. 

I don't really think it's the equipment, he's always gotten top-notch stuff being the top driver at Hendrick and I really can't see Hendrick giving him inferior equipment just to make Vicker's and Busch look good. 

With Johnson doing well and Busch and Vicker's having decent runs, it makes you wonder if the communication between teams is lacking.  It could be a factor, but you also have to remember that what works well for one driver, won't necessarily work for another.  Communication is important, but I haven't heard about any problems about it within Hendrick Motorsports.

A lot of speculation going around that Loomis may be to blame.  Some are saying maybe it's time for Loomis to go, Gordon says no, he's there to stay as long as he wants.  Obviously, they communicate well together and Gordon isn't blaming him, so I think he's staying.

It's really hard to say where the problem lies and you also have to factor in that could all just be bad luck.  Whatever it is, it's going to make it hard for him to make the Chase unless things turn around.

What do you think?  Is there a problem hidden within the team or is it just bad luck?

Stewart celebrates with the fans

Tony Stewart celebrates from the flag stand with the fans before going to victory lane.  While his car may not have been the fastest on restarts, his car got better the longer they ran.  Teammate Bobby Labonte had a good run too, finishing third, it's about time Bobby had some good luck for a change. 

The Busch brothers had a good race too.  Kurt Busch had some problems, but bounced back and finished second, while little brother finished fourth.  Biffle rounded out the top five.  Kasey Kahne had a good run finishing sixth, Newman seventh, Rusty Wallace eighth, Earnhardt Jr. ninth and  Kenseth tenth.  Another top ten by Jr. and getting him just a little bit closer to possibly making the Chase.

Jeff Gordon looked like he had a top five run going when he lost his brakes with less than twenty laps to go.  Instead of finishing near the front, he finished twenty-fifth, not the finish the team was looking for. If he can't shake his bad luck, he won't make the Chase.

Jamie McMurray, who got wrecked out by contact with Kenseth on lap twenty seven was very upset, saying Kenseth did it deliberately.  According to McMurray, you just don't do that that early in a race.  McMurray was sore, but uninjured during the wreck and he dropped from eighth to eleventh in the standings.  Turns out that McMurray was right, Kenseth admitted it was his fault, he was mad and too close, knew he was too close, but because he was mad, the wreck happened.  I'm sure the two will talk and it should be water under the bridge by next week.

On to Pocono next week where hopefully, tires won't be an issue.