Kathy's Pit Stop

Darnell wins in a photo finish - Busch wrecks Hornaday

Erik Darnell edged out Johnny Benson in a photo finish, literally.  NASCAR actually had to look at photos of the finish to call the winner, it was that close.  Congrats to Darnell.

The other big story of the race had to do with the finish also, but a different kind of finish and involved, surprise, surprise, Kyle Busch.  On the last lap, Busch was trying to get by Hornaday, who was in 7th and spun him, leaving Hornaday finishing 23rd, instead of 7th and dropping him from 1st to 3rd in the point standings.  Obviously, Hornaday wasn't thrilled and both him and Harvick went to have words with Busch after the race.

After everything calmed down, they were able to interview Hornaday and he had some pretty strong words to say about Busch...

He just drove into me because he got mad because I took us four wide and passed him cleanly. Halfway through the race, he showed me he was upset because he lifted the back of the truck up. If he is going to race that way, that is pretty chicken. He doesn't deserve to be a racer.

He has a lot of talent, but that is just flat stupid. I don't knock any other driver, but I will tell you what, that kid has just about done wore me out. I don't know if I have to give up this championship to teach him a lesson. I hope I don't hurt him because, if Joe Gibbs lets him do this, I am ashamed for them.

He was definitely upset about the incident and you really can't blame him since it not only dropped where he finished, but made him lose the points lead.  They weren't able to interview Busch after the race because he left right away to get to Kentucky for the Nationwide race, but they were able to talk to him before he got in the car and he just had a short statement and nothing more...

I just got into him. Sorry about that. But remarks from Harvick and Hornaday are what they're going to be, they're big mouths anyway and so we'll take it and get on with it and hopefully beat them out for this championship.

I'm not exactly sure which championship he was talking about, but I highly doubt it was the Truck series one.  But he's one to talk about "big mouths", if I remember right, that's one of the reasons Hendrick got rid of him to get Jr.  Now, I have no problem about a driver speaking his mind and everything, which I admit Harvick does and I think more drivers should do it, but you don't go around calling someone a "big mouth" for something you yourself do too.  I'm sure Busch would have had a completely different view of the situation if the tables were turned.

Your thoughts?

Qualifying changes for 2008

Michael Waltrip complained last season about qualifying, saying that the guys who have to race their way in should qualify at the same time, not sprinkled throughout the whole field.  Well, it seems that NASCAR listened, starting this season, drivers who have to make it in on speed will qualify at the end of the qualifying session, meaning that the top 35 got first and then the other guys that have to make it on time.  This new rule change applies to all three series, not just the Cup series.

I'm not sure how much this will help, but I guess it can't hurt, although I think they need to do away with the top 35 guarantee and make everyone qualify on time, the way qualifying use to be.

Another change going into effect this season is that the fines collected from the drivers will go to the NASCAR Foundation instead of the points fund.  This is something that was complained about a lot in the past because a driver could basically get his money back at the end of the season unless he had a horrible season and/or was fined heavily.  This way the fines should mean more since they won't get it back.  Hopefully NASCAR puts the money to good use and I hope Victory Junction Gang gets a good chunk of it.

Your thoughts?

Craftsman leaving after 2008

Well, another one seems to bite the dust.  Craftsman announced today that they were leaving after the 2008 season, so we'll have yet another name change in NASCAR.  Craftsman has been the sponsor of the Truck Series since it started back in 1995, Sears will remain involved in the sport according to officials. 

Even though they are leaving, NASCAR doesn't seem too worried about finding a new sponsor for the series, in fact they are already in the process of setting up negotiations with interested sponsors, no word on who those sponsors are though.

Next season we will have two new names for the series, Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series and then in 2009 we will have a new name for the Truck Series.  I keep hearing change is good, but with all the sponsor troubles in the Cup Series and now the Nationwide Series with the exclusivity, it makes me worry a bit about what will happen with the Truck Series once a new sponsor comes on board.

I think no matter who sponsors the series, I'll probably still just call it the Truck Series.

Your thoughts?

Hornaday wins Truck Championship - Skinner has bad luck

Ron Hornaday won his third Truck Championship at Homestead in a rather uncharacteristically boring truck race.  Normally, the truck series has the best battles on the track, but long green flag runs and the field being spread out gave the fans a rather boring truck race until the end with the green-white-checkered finish.

Johnny Benson won the race, passing Kyle Busch on the last lap.  Busch tried to give it one last shot by going up high to get some momentum to possibly pass Benson, but it looked like he went too high, got in the loose stuff and brushed the wall.  At least we had a good race to the finish with as boring as the rest of the race was, as I said, very uncharacteristic of the Truck Series.

Mike Skinner went into this race 29 points ahead of Hornaday.  Early in the race he thought he had a tire going down and they changed right side tires under green.  That put him a lap down.  Then green flag pit stops happened and since a few trucks were off sequence, both Skinner and Hornaday found themselves a lap down.  Then the unthinkable happened for Skinner, something didn't feel right and he had a vibration.  While heading down the access road to go to the pits, the left rear hub broke and the tire came off the truck, they had to go behind the wall to fix it and they spent 10 laps behind the wall, which basically put the nail in the coffin for Skinner.

Congrats to Hornaday for winning his third championship.

Your thoughts?

Skinner or Hornaday - who will win it?

It all comes down to tonight, the final race of the season with Mike Skinner 29 points ahead of Ron Hornaday.  Both have be very successful this season and I'm sure it'll go down to the final laps unless one of them runs into some bad luck and gets caught up in a wreck.

Skinner does have a slight advantage, he's 29 points ahead and he has the tendency to get the pole, so that could add up to more bonus points for him right away, but as we know, this is the truck series and anything can happen.

It'll also be interesting to see if teammates play any role in the title, Skinner has teammate Johnny Benson and Hornaday has teammate and owner, Kevin Harvick.  Skinner actually complained about both last week, Harvick because he drove through his pit stall and "threw off" his (Skinner's) pit crew's momentum and Benson, for not "giving" him a position at the end of the race.  We all know Harvick will play interference if given the opportunity, but would Benson do the same for Skinner?  I guess tonight will tell.

It should be an interesting race to say the least.  Who will win the Championship?  That's up for grabs, I think Skinner has a slight edge with the points lead, but I'll be hoping Hornaday can pull off the upset.

Your thoughts? 

Skinner makes it three in a row

Mike Skinner did it again, it seems like the truck series is becoming the Mike Skinner Show.  Not only has he won three in a row, he's won three in a row from the pole.  Jack Sprague is the only other winner in the truck series this season so far, but Skinner is on a role.

There were lots of spins in the race and surprisingly, some of them didn't bring out cautions.  I always have a hard time understanding exactly when NASCAR deems it a caution when a truck goes spinning, sometimes a caution will come out and other times it won't.

I haven't heard anything about the pit crew member that got knocked down by his teams truck yet either.  It was Cook's truck and a NASCAR official basically pulled the guy from being run over when Cook backed up, at least that's what it looked like on TV.  I haven't seen a single thing mentioned about that, but it's always difficult to find updates and detailed news about the truck series.

If the truck race is any indication of what's to come for the Cup series, I see a lot of tires being cut by the splitters, especially in the corners.

Your thoughts?

NASCAR's not doing enough

This weekend at California shows just how much NASCAR isn't doing enough for it's lower series, Busch and Truck.  Neither series had a full field for the California race and that's with about half of the Busch race being Cup drivers.

NASCAR keeps saying that Cup drivers racing in the Busch Series helps it, if so, why was there not a full field?  Why were half of the drivers Cup drivers and it still not be a full field? 

I read an article that pointed to one of the reasons, money.  If you don't finish in the top, you can't even cover the costs of going there to race.  I thought NASCAR had made all these rule changes to help cut costs, but it doesn't appear to be working.  The purses are a lot lower in the Busch and Truck series races, but yet the cost of running in those series keeps going up, it's not fair to the teams.

NASCAR needs a way to cut costs to the teams and not need the Cup drivers to fill the field for these races, plain and simple, it seems everything they do it doesn't help the teams unless the teams are associated to Cup teams.

Another thing NASCAR needs to do, and I've said this before, have REAL qualifying for all three series.  No guaranteed spots because of your position in points, the fastest 43 make the race, plain and simple and if a big name goes home, so be it.

NASCAR seems to be ignoring or pushing aside it's lower series and if they don't do something about it, both will become a distant memory.

Your thoughts?  What should NASCAR do to change the apparent downward spiral?

Sprague wins Daytona in a three-wide finish

Jack Sprague won the Dayton truck race from the pole, giving him his first win at Daytona and giving Toyota it's first win at the track.

The race was slowed by 7 cautions, but the dramatic finish is what fans will remember.  Travis Kvapil led for a lot of the race and it looked like he was going to pull out the win when Benson gave Sprague a big push to the front on the final lap and then made it three-wide for the finish.  Benson ended up finishing ahead of Kvapil in the finish.

The biggest question was that Benson actually went below the yellow line to pass Kvapil on the botton, a move NASCAR supposedly reviewed and deemed legal?  I always thought that if you went below the line and advanced your position, you were penalized, so why was Benson's below the yellow line pass deemed legal?

I'm not a fan of either of the three in the finish, I just don't understand why Benson was allowed to pass below the yellow line and it be allowed to stand when others in the past have been nailed by it.

Your thoughts?

Photo credit NASCAR.com

A Sponsors point of view

I received an email from a sponsor in the Busch Series and he gave me permission to post his email to get his insiders view heard.  For various reasons he wanted to keep his name out of it, but I did verify who he was.

since you have a platform to advise others on this exciting
sport of NASCAR, Cup, Busch and Truck. I thought maybe, you would like
to hear, from an insider's point of view, of an alarming issue that may
severally damage this great sport if something is not done.

NASCAR's foundation would crumble without "Sponsors" and if you have
been around NASCAR for any length of time you have noticed that sponsors
come and go at a threatening rate.  The Busch Series even made a
commercial this past year showing how they have changed along with all
their sponsors who are no longer affiliated  with the sport?

Have you ever seen a car sponsor leave the sport but come back?  I have
not and now that I have been affiliated as a sponsor I know why.  In the
most basic terms, NASCAR is like going to the Kentucky Derby and betting
all your money on one horse and if that horse does not win you lose all
your money and never bet on horses again but if you win, then you can
let it ride but eventually the odds will catch up and your horse will
get old have a bad year or two and you can no longer afford to bet that
much money so you quit betting on horses and spend your money
elsewhere.

Could the departure of Anheuser Busch be the beginning of the end for
the Busch Series?  I feel NASCAR is putting all their chips in one hat,
allowing teams to manage their own sponsors without a central oversight
group from NASCAR.  What will NASCAR do if eventually there are not
enough sponsors to support a full field of cars to enter their races?
The Busch Series seems to be getting more vulnerable every year, the
2006 Rookie of the Year for the Busch Series can not find a full time
primary sponsor, now who's fault is that?   What is happening is the
smart companies are asking "why the big turnover??"  If GM Goodwrench,
Coast Guard, USMC etc. can't get their monies worth out of NASCAR how
can I?  The sport is starting to bottle neck themselves right out of
business because the Big Boys with the Big Money for the Big Toys are
not stupid and they won't just spend their millions on the middle of the
pack, non-chase teams for long.

If you look real close you will see teams already having problems
fielding enough sponsors for their cars at the Busch level.  NASCAR
needs a "Sponsor Liaison" to cultivate, embrace, network, protect,
create long term relationships and retain these companies for the
betterment and welfare of the sports future.  NASCAR has consistency,
focus and rules for the race to make sure all teams are on a level
playing field but when it comes to the most important proprietor of the
sport sponsors have no guarantees NASCAR will enhance their brand for
the money?  Sure, if your lucky and get in early on a Carl Edwards or
Denny Hamlin you get your monies worth and that is only for one year.
The following year its back out to the highest bidder.  Another reason
for NASCAR to be involved would be to help moderate the TV time DURING
the race.  I keep hearing about TV commercials taking up time from
racing and that tells you where NASCAR's focus is instead of inside
where the cancer is and making sure their team sponsors are getting the
exposure needed for the long term relationship.  After all, they are
really the ones keeping the sport on TV right?

Just voicing an opinion from a small sponsor that doesn't want this
sport to go backwards when it only takes some management of the overall
sponsors to make sure they are being treated fairly and stay excited
about the sport.  If you need any further information or someone to run
this for you let me know.  Thank you

He also had this to add during his reply when he gave me permission to post his email

I just read that IROC is going to have to delay their season because
they are having problems finding a sponsor.  This is just the start of
what I think will eventually drag this sport down and it really isn't
the cost, I believe it is the inconsistency and lack of exposure a team
can provide a sponsor for that cost.  If NASCAR would get with FOX
and/or ESPN and figure out a way to provide the exposure for all teams
vs top 5 it would help all the teams in the long run and create some
long term sponsor relations.

Your thoughts?

Bodine wins title and Martin wins the race

Mark Martin won the Ford 400 in his last race in the truck series for Jack Roush, while Todd Bodine won his first NASCAR championship.  It wasn't just Todd Bodine's first championship, but it was also his family's first.

There weren't a lot of cautions to slow down the race, but it looked like Todd may have been in some trouble when he had some bad vibration early in the race.  The vibration was caused by the wheel weights coming off and they thought they had it fixed, but later in the race he was fighting more vibrations, slowing his speed so he wouldn't wreck, hoping for a caution.

The caution never seemed to come when he needed it, but Johnny Benson had his own troubles in the race, so Todd never lost the points lead.  Benson's first trouble came when Chase Miller spun and went back up the track hitting Benson.  Benson managed to stay on the lead lap, getting the damaged fixed, or so they thought.

Benson was charging back up through the field after that, but ended up cutting a tire, obviously from the damage they thought was fixed and ended up losing three laps, two because of having to pit under green and another when he got caught speeding on pit road.

Congrats to Todd Bodine on his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship!

Photo Credit:  AP and NASCAR.com

Atlanta, Montoya and IROC

It's a busy racing weekend.  Between the action at Atlanta and Montoya's Busch debut, every fan should find something to like.  On Saturday you have the Busch Series at Memphis, Truck Series at Atlanta and the final IROC race at Atlanta and then on Sunday you have the Cup race at Atlanta.

My question about the Busch race is - Will Montoya get the introduction to the series like David Ragan did in Cup last week or will he do good and live up to all the hype that's been given him?

IROC - Will Stewart win the title?  I think I read somewhere if he finishes third or better it doesn't matter what anyone else does.

Truck - Will Bodine keep the points lead?

Cup - Who do you think will win the race and who's in the points lead at the end of the race?

Mark Martin wins truck race!

Mark Martin won the truck race under caution.  While it would have been nice to see it end under green, I still think Mark would have held on and won the race, although Bodine and Musgrave probably would have given him a good race to the finish.

As usual, the truck race had lots of excitement and it's fair share of wrecks, luckily no one was hurt.  It was also Mark's first NASCAR points race win at Daytona and his 2nd win in the truck series in four starts.

Hopefully the Busch race this afternoon will be just as exciting.  I was a little disappointed with how ho-hum the Duels were, they just weren't that exciting this year.

Musgrave gets a ride

Well, that was fast, a lot faster than I thought it would be.  Ted Musgrave is joining Germain Racing in the Truck Series.  This will team him up with Todd Bodine who was very successful last season. 

With truck testing starting this weekend, the timing couldn't have been any better, Germain Racing gains a successful driver and Musgrave doesn't lose any seat time.

"You could not pick a better driver to be my teammate", said Todd Bodine.  "Ted is a winner and a fierce competitor who wants to win as much as I do. He will fit right in with our race team."

I was hoping someone would pick him up, but I didn't expect it to come so soon after the announcement.  Germain Racing made a good choice, with Musgrave and Bodine this Toyota team will be a force to reckon with if last year was any indication.

Truck Champion Musgrave looking for a ride

The 2005 Craftsman Truck Champion is frantically looking for a ride for 2006.  Musgrave got the news that the team was folding because of not enough manufacturer support.  Dodge decided to concentrate on the Cup Series, so Ultra Motorsports was moving to Fords and they just recently learned that Ford isn't going to give enough support and it would cost the owner, Jim Smith, millions out of his own pocket, leading Smith to fold the team.

ASE, who was going to be primary sponsor isn't too happy and it's not with Smith, it's with Ford.  They already had two trucks completely built and three more partially built.  They are hoping that either Toyota or Chevy can come in and save the season, but they aren't counting on it.

From the reports I read,  Ford really screwed them.  Ford supposedly made an offer, Smith countered the offer, Ford countered and they agreed.  When the paperwork came to Ultra Motorsports to be signed, it wasn't what they had agreed upon and they just couldn't sign the contract.  At the time of the article I read and my posting, Ford officials had not responded to calls for a comment.

I really feel bad for Musgrave, he finally got his championship and now he doesn't have a ride for the new season, at least as of this posting.  How many times has that happened?  The previous seasons champion not returning? 

I'm hoping Musgrave can get a ride, I don't think he's quite done yet with racing.

Ted Musgrave wins the Truck Championship!!

Woohoo!  Ted finally got his Craftsman Truck Series Championship!!!!!!!  Way to go Ted!

After a rain delay Friday night, they finally got the truck race going Saturday morning early and Musgrave won his first championship.  It is also the first championship won by the #1 in any NASCAR series.

Todd Bodine won the race, his third truck race in a row and shows to be a definite contender for the championship next year.  Not even being in the truck for a full year, Bodine took the team from 15th in points when he took over to finishing 3rd.

Once again, way to go Ted!

Final Truck Race of the Season

This weekend is the final races of the season.  This Friday night is the final Craftsman Truck Series race, it should be exciting.

Ted Musgrave holds a 58 point lead over Dennis Setzer, neither has won a championship in the Truck Series before.

While Setzer has performed well, I'm hoping Musgrave keeps the lead and wins the title.  Barring any troubles and at least a 10th place finish or better, the championship title will be Musgraves.  Unfortunately, we all know this is the truck series and it's known for its exciting finishes and sometimes wild races and we can't forget the bad calls either.

I'm hoping Ted will just stay away from trouble on the track and just points race.  Setzer, on the other hand, will be going all out and hoping for some trouble for Ted.  Neither have won the championship before, both have been close, but never won.

I'm not counting on anything, except an exciting race.  Although 58 points can seem like a lot to overcome, Ted has been taken down will bad luck and bad calls before, so anything can happen and probably will.

Who's your favorite to win the title in the Craftsman Truck Series, Musgrave or Setzer?

Photo credit - Robert Laberge/Getty Images and speedtv.com

Skinner gets his seventh pole

The Cup series may have Newman, but the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series has Mike Skinner.  Skinner captured his seventh pole on Thursday and will lead the field at Texas Motor Speedway on Friday night.

I have to admit that I didn't like Skinner when he was in the Cup series, in fact I had my own nickname for him "Spinner Skinner."  His driving style seems to fit better with the Truck series, where it's expected to beat and bang without causing too much damage to hurt your chances at winning.

I've also noticed that he has seemed to mellow a bit, especially since moving over to the Truck series.  He still has that go get 'em attitude towards racing, but he doesn't seem to be wrecking people left and right like he did in the Cup series. Maybe it's age and maybe it's being move to the Truck series that did it, but I kind of like the Skinner of today compared to his Cup years.

Congrats to Skinner for getting the pole, but I'm hoping for a win by Musgrave to try and widen his points lead. 

Craven wins and so does Musgrave

Ricky Craven won his first Craftsman Series Truck race on Saturday afternoon, opting for track position and won on tires that had 147 laps on them.

Dennis Setzer came into the race 5 points ahead of second place Ted Musgrave, but Setzer had problems and finished 19th.  With Musgrave finishing 4th and Setzer's continuing problems, Musgrave is now the points leader by 54 points.

Four races are left to go and it'll be down to just these two to see who gets the championship.  With Musgrave in the lead, it'll take him having problems for Setzer to be able to close up the points.  Maybe this will finally be Musgrave's year to win the championship.

Musgrave hopes to continue his charge

Ted Musgrave was at the top of the charts in Friday's final practice for the truck series and he hopes to move closer to Dennis Setzer on Saturday. 

Three races ago, Setzer had a 227 point lead over Musgrave, that lead is now only 49 points going into New Hampshire. Both drivers have done well at New Hampshire, Setzer has a win there and Musgrave has finished 3rd in last three races there.   

A few races ago, it seemed like Setzer had the championship just about locked up, now it seems there may be a race to see who becomes the champion.  Neither driver has won a championship in the Craftsman Truck Series and although I have nothing against Setzer, I'm hoping this is the year Musgrave gets it, he's come so close and should have won it before if it hadn't been for NASCAR's stupid call in the final race.  If you don't remember, Musgrave got penalized for an illegal pass when all he was doing was avoiding hitting Travis Kvapil.

I'm hopeful that Musgrave can possibly carry his momentum of practice over to the race and win it and some bad luck on Setzer's part wouldn't hurt either.

*Picture credit - Autostock

Skinner's on a roll

Mike Skinner won his second race in a row in the Craftsman Truck Series race Thursday night in Richmond.  I'm not sure what they've done to the trucks these last few weeks, but he's gone from - still trying to get a win to two wins in a row, hats off to the team.

The race had a record setting 12 cautions in it's finally run.  Richmond won't be on the schedule next year to make room for the Talladega race, if you ask me they could have just added one race, I'm going to miss the Richmond races.

With his two wins and Setzer's problems, Skinner has gained 199 points on points leaded Dennis Setzer in the last two weeks, he is now within 205 points.  While it may seem like a lot of points, it's not impossible to overcome, just look at the last two weeks.

Ted Musgrave finished 4th and gained a bunch of points thanks to Setzer's tire trouble.  Setzer had damage to his truck when he had a tire go down and it damaged the sway bar, he finished 34th.  Musgrave went into the race 143 points behind Setzer, now is only 49 points behind.  In an interview after the race, Musgrave didn't seem to be too happy with his points gain, he was rather matter-of-fact about it, as he said, they'll just keep trying to cut away at the points deficit.  Nothing cocky or over-confident in that statement, in fact I would have thought he would have been happier than he seemed.

Setzer's running away

Dennis Setzer not only ran away with the race last night at IRP, but he's also running away in the standings.

Setzer won in dominating fashion Friday night, only six trucks were on the lead lap at the finish.  The race ran mostly under green flag conditions, with only four cautions and three were in the early laps.  That led to green flag pit stops and Setzer had such a lead that no one could catch him, all the racing was for second on back.

With the win and so-so finishes by second and third in the standings, Setzer now has a big lead in the point standings.  He was 158 points ahead of Ted Musgrave going into the race and now he's 227 points ahead, Hamilton sits third in the standings two points behind Musgrave.  If anyone is going to catch Setzer, they better do it now before it's too late.  With the way it is now, it's going to take a bad break for Setzer for the others to catch up.

Let's hope that the Busch race tonight, also at IRP, has some more racing action up front.

Nascar

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.

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.

MacDonald Motorsports makes another try/Sponsorship

Wade Day qualified the #72 MacDonald Motorsports entry in 40th place for the Busch race with Orbitz.com aboard for a one race deal as primary sponsor, helping the team.  Unfortunately, it wasn't good enough and they didn't make it.  It would have been Day's third Busch Series start for MacDonald Motorsports.

With all NASCAR has supposedly (rules) done to help keep costs down for teams, why is it still so difficult for the small teams like MacDonald Motorsports to get sponsorship to be able to compete with the power teams?  Yes, larger teams have had troubles too, but it's mainly the small teams, if NASCAR is doing so much to keep costs down, why is it still so expensive?

The media can help in this aspect and I think the fact that NBC is covering the race and the fact that they do their "through the field," it could help give some coverage to the smaller teams.  I mean think about it.  Why would a sponsor want to pay the big bucks to sponsor a team if they get no coverage at all?  That's what continuously happened over on FOX, at least with NBC, they have a chance to actually be seen, even if they're not running in the top ten.

It's obviously gotten too expensive, even Kenny Wallace is losing sponsorship and he's been very competitive this year, and now his sponsor is pulling out.

If the teams don't have the sponsorship, they don't have enough money to make the cars competitive enough to compete with the likes of the Childress, Roush and DEI cars, they all have all the money and resources they need.

There has to be something that NASCAR can do other than limiting the number of tires and such, obviously a lot of little things add up, but nothing has been said about how much each of the teams pay to enter a race.  Have they ever thought of lowering that fee?  I seriously doubt it, in fact I bet that as the years moved on, they've probably raised the fee. 

I really don't know the answer, but I do know costs obviously need to come down so the smaller teams can compete or pretty soon the Busch Series will be known just as track practice for the Cup teams.

Please let the Cup race be better

The Craftsman Truck Series didn't live up to it's normal excitement this weekend, one truck (Dennis Setzer) ran away with the race.  Races like that are so boring and unfortunately, the Busch Series race on Saturday night was a repeat of the same, just a different driver (Johnny Sauter) and it was rain shortened by 50 laps.

Martin Truex Jr. finished 2nd and took the points lead from Reed Sorenson by a mere 7 points, hopefully Sorenson can get it back next week.

Let's hope the Cup race, even thought it's at a road course, is more exciting than the Truck and Busch races were.

Chase Montgomery update - concussion

Chase Montgomery was treated for a concussion and released from Harris Methodist Fort Worth hospital Friday night. 

The injury happened during a wreck at Texas Motor Speedway when he hit the inside wall, went back up the track and hit the outside wall (drivers side) and then finally ended up coming to a rest in the middle of the track.

Not much had been said about the wreck and his condition since Friday night, I looked Saturday, Sunday and this morning to no avail.  I finally emailed the PR agent for Montgomery and got a response, shortly after the response I found the update on TruckSeries.com about Montgomery.

In the recap, Montgomery said it was the hardest hit of his life.  He said he had heard from others that it will hurt if you hit the wall at Texas and he found out firsthand that they were right. 

His PR person said he goes back to the doctor on Tuesday, no elaboration other than that, but I'm sure it's probably for clearance to race since it was a concussion.

Hopefully he'll have better luck at Michigan.

Tire Troubles and points

Two big headlines came out of the Pocono race, Edwards second win of the season and tire troubles.  Edwards happened to be one of the teams that didn't suffer from tire problems, plus he had a dominant car.

Tire troubles plagued at least six teams, just about every time a caution came out or someone slowed down to go into the pits, it was the left-front tire.  Some teams suffered more than one and some cars got ripped up from the cars coming apart.  While they weren't the only ones, the three that got hurt the most by the tire troubles were Ryan Newman (second right-front tire going down put him in the wall which brought out the last caution - relegating him to a 34th place finish), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (I think they said he had about 5 left-fronts go down - relegating him to a 33rd place finish) and Tony Stewart (he did finish the race, albeit laps down in 29th place.)  Ricky Rudd also suffered about 5 left-front tire problems and he ended up finishing in 28th.

In a surprising move, NASCAR called some Goodyear officials to the trailer after the race to discuss the problems.  Goodyear is saying it is because of aggressive setups, the rumble strips and the softer tire combination.  I guess they are trying to decide (NASCAR and Goodyear) on whether or not to stick to the new tire for the next Pocono race or to go back to the old tire for the race, we'll have to wait and see.

Over on the Busch Series side, which was delayed by rain, Clint Bowyer won his first race, a lot of first time winners seem to come at Nashville.  With Edwards not being able to run the race, he didn't get any points for it and the rest of the field was able to catch up.  Kenny Wallace got another 2nd place finish, Sorenson got 3rd and Truex finished 5th.  Reed Sorenson became the new points leader, while Edwards dropped three positions, down to 4th.  Sorenson is now 51 points ahead of Truex and Bowyer who are tied for 2nd, Edwards is 96 points back in 4th.

Over in the Truck Series, it seemed like Mike Skinner had the dominant truck and was going to win the race.  Unfortunately for Skinner, that wasn't the way it worked out.  The last green flag pit stops, which Skinner went in a little early for, hurt him and he ended up finishing 4th.  Jack Sprague came out the winner when he found himself in the lead once all the pit stops were over with and kept it until the end.  Although Ted Musgrave finished a disappointing 14th, he kept the points lead and only lost 3 points to second in points, Ricky Craven.

The biggest disappointment to me was after Chase Montgomery wrecked hard into the outside wall (drivers side).  It was reported that he complained of side and shoulder pain and was transported to a local hospital for further observation.  Update?  None.  This happened on Friday night and I looked all over the web on Saturday, Sunday and this morning and there's nothing being reported on it.  I know that the Craftsman Truck Series is the low tier on the totem pole for NASCAR, but people do care about conditions of the drivers after wrecks.  If it had been in the Busch Series or Cup Series, there would have been more news on it.  More updates and more coverage of news of the series would be nice and it could happen if NASCAR promoted it more.

Vagueness in rules leads to questionable calls

We've all disagreed at one time or another with a call that NASCAR makes and the punishment that goes along with it.  NASCAR's vagueness makes it easy for them to make these calls because nothing seems to be clear cut.  Most of these have to do with something that is "detrimental to the sport of stock car racing", but what about the other calls?  One of them happened just yesterday in the Craftsman Truck Series race.

Ron Hornaday, known for his great restarts, was leading and had a strong truck that he kept up front all day, but NASCAR decided that he jumped the restart.  His crew was clearly arguing their case, but Hornaday had to answer the black flag. 

During the broadcast it was mentioned a few times that the drivers were told that they needed to restart "in the vicinity of the double red lines" on the outside wall, Hornaday and his crew thought he did, NASCAR saw it differently.  Yes, he did hit the gas before the red lines, but he didn't appear to be too far from then when he restarted. 

I think it was a bad call by NASCAR, but they make the rules, I just wish they would be more clear with them.  If they don't want them to start until the red lines, they need to say so, not say "in the vicinity of."  If you saw the race, what did you think of the call?

As we've seen over the years, vagueness doesn't work, all it does it get everyone confused, drivers, teams and fans. If they don't want them doing something or want them to do it a certain way, say so, don't say things like - "we would like" or "we wish you wouldn't" or "in the vicinity of."  Why do you think so many drives and fans get upset at calls?  Most don't understand why they got the penalty in the first place.

The vagueness needs to stop, make the rules clear cut.

Despite surgery, Hornaday ready to race

Ron Hornaday suffered a ruptured appendix on Tuesday, had it removed and was home later that night.  I would have thought they would keep him an extra day, especially because it ruptured, but he was released that evening.

NASCAR has cleared him to race and Hornaday says he feels fine, although they do have Tony Raines standing by, just in case.

With everything they have to go through sitting in those trucks, let alone the possibility of wrecking, I'm not sure I would be OK with racing only four days after surgery.  Hopefully NASCAR and Hornaday made the right decision.

Way to go Bobby!

Bobby Labonte became the 12th driver to win a race in all of NASCAR's top three series of racing, not only did he do that, but he also is the first driver to win in all three series at Martinsville. 

The race came down to a race to the finish with a restart with five laps to go.  Bobby had to hold off Ricky Craven and Ron Hornaday.  Knowing how good Hornaday is on restarts, I was worried that he would easily get around Craven and challenge Bobby, but luckily Hornaday and Craven got to fighting for position, beatin' and bangin' and allowed Bobby to pull away a little bit.  Craven finally got the position from Hornaday and made a charge at Bobby, but there wasn't enough time for him to get it done.

Bobby Hamilton got spun late in the race and ended up finishing in 20th position, while this was bad for Hamilton, it was good for Ted Musgrave who finished 7th.  Musgrave may have dropped a position in points because Craven did so well, but he came into the race 65 points behind Hamilton and now he's only 27 points behind in 3rd, so it was a good points day for Ted. 

As of now, the points are close, but I think by the end of the season you'll see Hamilton and Musgrave fighting it out for the title.

Picture credit: http://www.nascar.com/2005/news/headlines/truck/04/09/bc.car.nascar.trucks.ap/index.html

Rocketman does it again and a great finish in the Craftsman Truck Series

Woohoo!  Ryan Newman did it again.  I admit it, I had my doubts that he wasn't going to get the pole since he went out third out of fifty drivers, but he put down a hot lap and got his fifth consecutive Atlanta pole and the twenty-ninth pole of his career.  Way to go Ryan!  Hopefully he'll be able to turn that into a win or at least a top-five on Sunday.

On to the truck race.  I have to say that the Speed Channel does so much better in covering racing throughout the pack than any of the major networks do with the Cup races.  They showed racing for fifth and sixth positions and even showed racing for positions like fourteenth and fifteenth, wish FOX and NBC would have coverage like that.  And that finish!  Down to the wire finish, side by side racing for the win with Ron Hornaday Jr. and Bobby Labonte, now that's racing!

Hopefully the Busch and Cup races can at least come close to being as exciting.

This 'n' that

After Mark Martin's win at California yesterday, it was brought up in the comment section about how much the Cup drivers are taking away from the regular Busch Series guys, as far as winnings and points.  It's true, they did take quite a bit in yesterday's race. 

So, I'll bring up something that I brought up in my old blog a while ago.  Should the Cup drivers be allowed to race in the Busch Series and if so, under what conditions? 

One of my suggestions was that they had to run the full season or a certain amount of races in the Busch Series, but then you run into the problem of how many races is the right number.  What about the ones that are driving full-time in both series, should they not be allowed just because they drive full-time in the Cup series too? 

Some say it's not fair to the regular Busch Series guys and some say it's good for them.  One side has it where they're saying that they have no chance against the big bucks teams driven by the the Cup guys and then you have the others saying how great it would be for a driver to say he beat Mark Martin or Kevin Harvick in a race.  Then what about the truck series?  It doesn't happen nearly as much as in the Busch Series, but Cup drivers have driven in the truck races too.

So, what do you think?  Should they keep it the way it is now or change it?

Park wins

Steve Park won the truck race at California, making him the tenth driver to win in all three of NASCAR's top three series (Cup, Busch & Truck).  The race itself, wasn't that exciting, at least not as exciting as the truck races go.  It almost seemed like if the commentators talked about you, that you'd better watch out.  They were talking about how well David Starr was doing and how he had the dominant truck and then he wrecked.  Under the last caution of the race, everyone was wondering why Mike Bliss didn't pit, according to reports, they were only two laps short and a few more caution laps would help them make it to the finish, so they didn't want to give up first.  Mike Bliss was filling in for Sprague who got hurt on Wednesday in an incident at home.  Well, their calculations were a bit off, with six to go, Bliss ran out of fuel and that put Park in the lead with Hamilton trying to close in.  Hamilton was never able to catch him and Park because the tenth driver to win in all three of NASCAR's top series.  Ricky Craven finished third, Todd Kluever fourth and Musgrave finished fifth.

Wild Truck Race

The opening race of the truck series was a wild one with lots of slicing and dicing, wrecks, flips and a green, white, checkered finish.

After the beginning of the race, the trucks basically split up into two packs, the front pack racing hard, two and three wide and the back pack basically nose to tail, they were trying to stay out of trouble.  With the front pack racing so hard, there was a lot of beating and banging, leading to some wrecks.

Both Rick Crawford and Chad Chaffin went for wild rides that took them out of the race, but could have been much worse than they were, both went airborne in two separate accidents, hurting their trucks, but they were ok.  The interesting thing about it, was that we were watching from an on-board camera from the truck next to them when both wrecks/flips happened, to see the tail end of a truck lift up like that from that angle was interesting.

I think there is something NASCAR needs to look into though, with Chad Chaffin's flip, while watching it happen, I noticed that the roof flap never deployed on his truck.  Crawford's did deploy, but it didn't stop him from going airborne.

Ted Musgrave got lucky, he went a lap down because of a tire problem and when the caution came out with 10 to go, he got his lap back and was able to battle back from 19th to finish 5th.

With the green, white, checkered finish, we all had to wait and see the results, caution came out and they had to see who was in the lead when the caution came out, Hamilton or Spencer.  Both thought they won the race, but Hamilton eventually got the nod from the NASCAR officials that he won after reviewing the video tapes of the race.  After reviewing the tapes, I agree with their call, but I do have a problem with the fact that the officials pointed Spencer to Victory Lane before they had a clear cut winner and knew they were reviewing it.  They should have had him park it on pit road until they made their decision, instead, he sat in Victory Lane waiting for the call and had to leave.  They never should have pointed him to Victory Lane, which the NASCAR officials did if they were still reviewing or going to review the tapes.

On another note.  Mark Martin won the IROC race at Daytona.  With that win, Mark Martin is now the winningest driver in IROC history.

Spencer in the Craftsman Truck Series

I guess it makes sense, his driving style is more geared to the truck series.  In the trucks, you can beat and bang and not necessarily cause a wreck, I'm not exactly sure why, but those trucks sure do beat and bang a lot. 

Because of his driving style, Spencer doesn't seem to be well-liked among fans, although everyone did seem to cheer when he punched Busch.  With his driving style, he will fit better in the truck series, he can beat and bang and not necessarily cause a huge wreck, just don't do it at Daytona.

While he fits more in the truck series, I do have one problem with it.  He's going to Ultra Motorsports and going to be Musgraves "teammate."  Musgrave is my favorite and the reason I don't like it is I don't think Spencer is really "teammate" material, he's more suited for a one car team.  I mean, do you really think he'll work with Ted during the races?  I highly doubt it, I don't remember ever seeing him help someone out on the track during a race, I could be wrong, that's just my recollection.

One things for sure though, if he messes with Ted, he'll get it right back and Ted won't care what NASCAR does, he already feels as if NASCAR has it in for him anyways.