Kathy's Pit Stop

NASCAR running into troubles with Busch sponsorship replacement

It seems that what they thought would be an easy deal, isn't so easy.  Talks seemed to have stalled with Subway, the front runner in the search for a new title sponsor of the now, Busch Series. 

In the beginning, NASCAR was talking a $30 million a year deal, but now, the price has dropped.  According to articles, they don't mention a specific amount, but say it's now nearly half of that asking price and that NASCAR is talking to brands that were considered not in the running anymore.  The other sticking point seems to be exclusivity.  Obviously, the lawsuit with AT&T over the sponsorship of the #31 of Jeff Burton in the Cup Series has had an impact and I think that's one of the reasons for the price drop.

Subway was in serious talks with NASCAR about series sponsorship, but exclusivity seems to be an issue here, they want exclusivity for spending all that money, but their brand and industry already has quite a few competitors as sponsors in the series now, Arby's, McDonald's, Jimmy John's and Domino's are already in the series.  If Subway was to make this deal, they would either have to grandfather (like they did in the Cup Series) or just say these teams need to find new sponsors.  No word on what actually happened in the breakdown of talks, but exclusivity was a major part of it and also the way money was spent, one-third of that money was suppose to be spent on ESPN and it's platforms.

Now NASCAR is talking to others that they had talked to earlier, but time is ticking.  The price has dropped, the required amount to spend on ESPN has changed.  NASCAR has currently been revisiting KFC, Dunkin' Donuts and Allstate for possible sponsorship deals and I'm sure has been in contact with others, but according to everything I've read, exclusivity is going to be a sticking point, how much depends on who they go with.

What NASCAR thought would be a fairly simple process has not been as easy as they thought and time is running out.  They still hope to be able to announce a sponsorship deal by the end of the Busch Series season in mid-November, which is not that far off, so these stalled talks did not help.

Your thoughts?   

Edwards wins Bristol and clinches Chase spot

Carl Edwards was charging on Kasey Kahne hard, lap  traffic got in the way allowing Edwards to get past Kahne and other than green flag pit stops, Edwards held the lead for the rest of the race.  Edwards clearly had the dominate car out there, although Kahne's was strong, it wasn't strong enough to challenge Edwards.  Still a second place finish for Kahne was great with the dismal season he has had.

The newly configured and repaved track allowed side by side and even three-wide racing, something we're not used to seeing at Bristol without it causing a wreck.  It also provided for some long green flag runs, something usually unfamiliar to Bristol.

Depending on who you ask, the changes at the track are great or not so great.  I have to admit I did enjoy the side by side racing, but was hoping for a closer finish, something like the finish of the Busch race on Friday night.

Lap traffic still proved to be a headache, even though they were able to run side by side, mostly because the lap cars wouldn't give way to the leaders even though some of them were multiple laps down.  One lap car, Michael Waltrip, held up Kahne for quite a few laps, first trying to get side by side with him and then getting by him, Waltrip just wouldn't give up even though he wasn't fighting for position and was two laps down and about to go down a third lap.  Once Edwards got by Kahne, Waltrip held him up, but he wasn't going to have any of that and he gave Waltrip a bump, which allowed him to get by and then Kahne and third place at the time, Jeff Gordon were able to get by too.  Maybe his spotter finally said something to him, I don't know, but he shouldn't have been fighting the leaders so hard, so I really don't blame Edwards for giving him a bump.

David Ragan had his troubles, bringing out the caution three times by himself for spinning, caused by something to do with his shifter.

Stewart gained two spots in the standings with Hamlin and Kenseth having troubles.  I didn't really think he would gain, even with their troubles, but Stewart, who was virtually unheard of until the final laps of the race, snuck into the top ten to finish fourth.

The bottom of the Chase is heating up.  Although a good fifth place finish for Earnhardt Jr. only gained him a total of five points on twelfth place.  Kevin Harvick, although holding on to tenth in points, lost some ground and is only one point ahead of Martin Truex in eleventh and only nine points ahead of Kurt Busch in twelfth.  Earnhardt Jr. is one hundred and fifty eight points out of twelfth and seventeen points ahead of fourteenth.

Now there are five drivers that have clinched Chase spots, so they can actually take more risks in these final two races before the Chase - Gordon, Stewart, Hamlin, Kenseth and Edwards.  These drivers can go all out and take risks for wins where other Chasers still have to be careful.  It could make things quite interesting.

Your thoughts on the race?

And, in your opinion, was Bristol better, the same or worse than before?

NASCAR notes and Bristol

As the teams get ready to race at Bristol, Busch Series tonight and Cup tomorrow night, there was a lot of speculation on the #8 ride for next year.  According to a few sources, but no official word, Mark Martin and Aric Almirola will supposedly share the #8 next year with Army as the sponsor.  An official announcement is not expected for a couple of weeks, but this is what is being reported all over the place.  No word on who would be the driver for the #01 or it's sponsor if this did happen.

As far as Dale Earnhardt Jr. goes, the #8 is out and it is speculated that his number will be the #81, as for sponsor, there has been word saying it's a soft drink, probably some Pepsi product, but no definite word on it. 

Kasey Kahne gave a surprising run and got the pole for the Saturday night race, but don't expect him to stay up there.  While I like Kahne, his season has just been horrible this year, a far cry from last year.  Montoya starts on the outside front row in second, so I wouldn't be surprised if there was a big wreck on lap one in the front of the pack.

The other big news is that NASCAR won their appeal against AT&T, so all the AT&T logos are off of the #31 RCR car, driven by Jeff Burton.  AT&T did file another motion today, but no word on if that may have an impact or let them run the AT&T scheme.  As of now, the car only has the associate sponsors on the car and is pretty bare other than that.  According to Jayski's, even the hauler was plain with just the #31 on it and the crew unloaded the car wearing gray t-shirts instead of their firesuits.  As of now, no one really knows what the car will look like on Saturday night, if they'll run with no sponsor, AT&T or get one of their other sponsors to step up to the plate. 

NASCAR says that "official" and "exclusive" sponsors help everyone, not just them.  I don't see how this is helping anyone, seems like it's just causing a big hardship for RCR and their team.  Funny how NEXTEL is the title sponsor of a competitive sport and they are keeping their competition out.  Maybe they're afraid of competition, I don't know.  How much would it really hurt them (NEXTEL) to have a car with competitor out on the track?  I think this exclusive thing is just going to far, sponsors are hard enough to come by.

Your thoughts? 

Busch wins rain delayed Michigan race

In a green-white-checker finish, Kurt Busch held off Martin Truex Jr. to win and continue his charge to stay in the Chase.  While most stayed in the same Chase positions they were in, quite a few closed up, which could make it interesting.

It took a long time to get this race underway, two days of rain delays and then fog this morning, but they finally did it.  Most of the cautions that were not brought out by debris were from cars getting loose under another car and spinning, Montoya was the first one and Biffle was the last one, which brought about the green-white-checker finish.

Points have closed up a little bit, not necessarily by position, but by how far behind they are from the next spot.  Gordon, of course, held on to the points lead over Denny Hamlin, his lead is now 276 points. 

It really starts getting a lot closer from 5th on back.  Edwards is in 5th, but he's only 11 points ahead of Johnson, who moved up to 6th in points with his 3rd place finish. 

Neither Bowyer or Harvick had a great race this weekend, but Harvick is only 6 points behind Bowyer and Truex is only 16 points behind Harvick.

Kurt Busch, with his win, was able to keep 12th in the standings and leads 13th place Dale Earnhardt Jr. by 163 points and is only 33 points behind Truex.

Toyota had two cars finish in the top ten, Blaney and Vickers.  Blaney has been fairly consistent, but it was good to see Vickers get a good run, he had a strong car for the first third of the race and then fell back a little bit, but still a strong run for the team, which was badly needed, not necessarily for just the points, but for morale.

With Bristol coming up this weekend, we could see a big shakeup in the points and if Dale Earnhardt Jr. wants to make the Chase, he's going to have to stay out of trouble and hope Busch runs into trouble at Bristol.

Your thoughts?

Will Michigan be Harvick/Montoya Round 2?

It seems like it's definitely not over with Harvick and Montoya, going by comments made today at MIS.  Will this be Harvick and Montoya round 2?  It's quite possible go by the comments made by Harvick today and the fact that they start nose to tail in Sunday's race.  That doesn't mean something will happen, but it could.

Harvick was asked if he thought Montoya was aggressive or reckless.  Come on, after last week and previous incidents they've had, I'm sure this reporter already knew the answer to that.

"He drives like he doesn't know what he's doing, to be honest with you," Harvick said. "He goes out, he can run fast but he's all over the place and every week it seems like he runs into a different person.

"In four weeks, it's cost us a couple of hundred points and he shrugs it off like he doesn't really care about anybody or anything, that he's just here to race. You make him mad and it's 'Well, I've got a five-year contract and I'll just wreck you every week.' It's hard to talk to him and he doesn't really respect anyone around him."

Did this reporter really expect a different answer?  I highly doubt it.  It's clear how Harvick feels and anyone that follows NASCAR knows that Harvick isn't the kind of guy you want to piss off, well, everyone except Montoya.

Then they actually asked Montoya if he thought the "relationship" could be repaired.  Relationship?  I wouldn't have used that word, but if that's what he wants to use, more power to him.

"You know, I think he's a great guy, he's a great racer and it's a shame the position he's in," Montoya said. "I've been racing all my life and I learned to get over things like this because we're going to meet again and again on the racetrack and it's a lot nicer and better when you have a good relationship."

So does it bother you when people say you're not real popular?

"No, I think I'm a lot more popular here than I was in Formula 1, so I'm OK," Montoya said, which elicited laugher from those in attendance.

He learned to get over things like this?  In order to get over something, you have to care first and from what I've seen, he's never been apologetic for anything he's done.  I guess he means that he gets over the fact that he keeps getting his fellow racers mad.  And as far as being popular, only because NASCAR keeps pushing him down our throats every chance they get.  Yes, they do this with other drivers too, but with Montoya, they are patting themselves on the back for their diversity program.

I'm not saying the guy doesn't have talent, he does, but he needs to learn to respect others.

Your thoughts?

Some Silly Season answers - but still lots more to go

It was announced yesterday that Kyle Busch will drive the #18 Interstate Batteries for JGR.  All parties involved seem to be very happy and Interstate Batteries hopes to have the car back in the Victory Lane next season with Kyle Busch.  The only thing not cleared up was the rumor about them going to Toyota next year.  Still a rumor and not likely to be cleared up until after the season is over.

Bobby Labonte got a new crew chief, they brought in Doug Randolph who will take over this weekend at Michigan.

Kenny Wallace steps down as driver of the #78 effective immediately.  He will continue on as a consultant and a fill in driver if needed, but the team said he is free to find another ride also.  It seems like it's an amicable split.  Scott Wimmer will drive the car this weekend in Michigan and Sterling Marlin will be in the car for Bristol, no other announcements on who will drive after that.

It was also announced earlier, that Jeremy Mayfield will not be the driver of the #36 for next season, plans are for him to finish out this season in the car.  Who will replace him is anyone's guess, so far no real rumors on this one.

Still no news on who will drive the fourth RCR car next season.  Seems like every time a name comes up with a possible driver, it is denied.  So far we've heard Newman (doubtful he will leave Penske until after his contract is up), Labonte (doubtful also, I predict he will stay at PE until he retires), and Scott Wimmer (driver of RCR's Busch car).  I guess we'll just have to wait and see on this one, they're doing a good job of keeping it all quiet if they've already decided on someone.

There is also still no news on who will be the new DEI driver yet either, lots of rumors, but nothing solid.  They obviously wanted Busch, but he signed with JGR, admitting that it was down to them and DEI as to who he would sign with.  Yeley and Reutimann are the latest names to pop up in the rumor mill for DEI, but there has been no indication by DEI who they may be leaning towards to be their new driver.

Your thoughts?

Stewart wins at The Glen

Tony Stewart recovered from an early spin on lap 45 restart to come back and win at The Glen.  Stewart was charging and trying to catch Jeff Gordon in the final laps and Gordon made the same mistake Stewart did and spun his car on lap 88, basically the same way Stewart did earlier in the race.  That spin gave Stewart the lead and the win, his third win this season.

Montoya took out a lot of cars on lap 74/75 and there was a confrontation between Montoya and Harvick on the track.  Montoya was saying it wasn't his fault (hmm we've heard this before) and Harvick was apparently not believing it.  Officials had to try and break the discussion up, but it was teammate Jeff  Burton who seemed to calm Harvick down enough and get him away from Montoya.

Whether you're a fan of Harvick or not, if you saw the confrontation, Montoya put his hands on Harvick first and even shoved him, so if any penalties are handed out for this, it better to be for both, not just Harvick. 

During an interview, they asked Harvick what he was saying and he said something to the effect that he was talking about kicking his a**.  He also said that Montoya is always running over someone every week.  That got me thinking, maybe Montoya's new theme song should be "Oops, I did it again."

Dale Earnhardt Jr. had engine troubles and dropped to 14th in the points, he's going to have his work cut out for him and a lot of bad luck for others to get back in the Chase.

Your thoughts?

Robby Gordon penalty, plus Robby shows class in mending fences

NASCAR handed down further penalties for Robby Gordon for the incident in Canada.  Robby was fined $35,000 and placed on probation until December 31st.  It also carries an additional stipulation  - if, during the remaining NASCAR events in 2007, there is another action by Gordon that is deemed by NASCAR officials as detrimental to stock car racing or to NASCAR, or is disruptive to the orderly conduct of an event, he will be suspended indefinitely from NASCAR.

I think they made their point that they weren't happy.  Robby still doesn't agree with NASCAR's ruling on the whole thing, but does abide by it and just wants to move on.

In a show that he does want to move on and class, Robby Gordon is fielding a second car for the Cup race at Watkins Glen, in that car will be none other than Marcos Ambrose.  Yes, the same guy he had issues with in the Canada Busch race.  Robby is fielding the #77 for Ambrose, it will also be Ambrose's Cup debut.

I know many people don't like Robby because he's not afraid to say how he feels about things and can sometimes come across as a complainer, or whiner as some people like to say, but I think this move shows class. 

Your thoughts?

Busch wins Pocono

Kurt Busch had a fast car the whole race, quickly taking the lead at the beginning of the race and led all but 25 laps of the race and most of the ones he didn't lead were because of pit stops.  It was clear, almost from the start, that unless something went wrong with his car, he was going to win the race.

The race was marred by some cautions, but it was still mostly a follow the leader race and it played out in typical fashion that we're used to at Pocono.

With his win, Kurt Busch moved up to 12th in points, but only 7 points ahead of Dale Earnhardt Jr., who got very lucky after having a bad handling, spinning and then changing a shock.  After that, Jr.'s car improved immensely over how it was before, but it was no match for Busch, no one was.

Your thoughts?

Not a fan of road courses, but what a wild finish!

Things definitely got tense at the end of the Busch race, some came away happy and others came away fuming.

Robby Gordon seemed to have the lead, the caution came out and Marcos Ambrose plowed into the back of him spinning Gordon.  After reviewing the tapes, NASCAR said that Ambrose had the lead when the yellow apparently came out, not only that but they wanted Gordon back in 12th.  Gordon wasn't having any of that and he restarted right behind Ambrose and spun him on the restart and then kept going.  If you ask Robby Gordon, he won the race and he will appeal.  NASCAR apparently stopped scoring Gordon and he was listed in 18th in the finishing order, two laps down.

The "official" winner of the race, since Gordon wasn't being scored was Kevin Harvick, who started in the back of the field because of not being there to qualify. 

I understand Gordon being mad, but I highly doubt he'll win his appeal (has anyone ever won one against NASCAR?) and who knows what else NASCAR might do to him.

Your thoughts?

Rain tires ready for Busch race, just in case

Goodyear brought rain tires to Montreal, cars will also have windshield wipers, defrosters and rear lights, just in case it rains.  NASCAR seems determined not to get the race put off or delayed this time.  Same setup is also said to be the same for the Busch race at Watkins Glen.

We've heard this happen before in the past, but it never rained, so it hasn't been tested out in race conditions and from the weather reports, it doesn't appear they will need them this weekend either, but they are on hand if needed. 

Other series race in the rain, but with the ovals NASCAR drives on it hasn't been deemed safe to attempt rain tires, rain tires are only designated for road courses.  While it may be considered safe for them to race in the rain, as long as it's not a downpour, is it really safe for the over the wall crews?  If it's raining, pit road will be wet, the wall will be wet and there is always the chance of someone slipping and falling.  Then you have the factor of cars coming in on a wet pit road, I would think it ups the danger factor for the over the wall guys and for pit road accidents between cars.

Don't get me wrong, I hate rain delays and hate it when a race gets put off for another day because of the rain, but for the safety of all involved, maybe NASCAR is right in not using rain tires all these years.

Your thoughts?  Are rain tires a good idea, even if it is just for the road courses?