Over The Wall

Indy or Daytona?

By: Dennis Terry

I'm home from vacation which means back to the real world for me.  No more 2:00 p.m. naps, Pina Coladas for breakfast or Corona's in the pool for lunch.  And no more worrying about getting my farmer's tan sun burned!

Back to the real world means a long hot week of working and pit practicing for NASCAR's biggest race of the year this weekend in Indy.  At least it's the biggest race of the year for me and a lot of other racers too.

The Daytona 500 has long been considered NASCAR's "Super Bowl" and the Indianapolis 500 has always signified the pinnacle of motorsports in the US, but each year NASCAR races at the Brickyard, it becomes an even bigger and more coveted race to win.

Maybe it's because of all of the rich racing history in Indy, or maybe because we race Daytona twice a year and race only once at Indy. 

The Daytona races should come with an asterisk anyway because of the restrictor plate limitations.

Whatever the case, Indy has grown in prestige over Daytona just because racing in Indianapolis has given NASCAR a legitimacy across the country that they didn't have when we were racing primarily in the Southeast.

Indy is our "Super Bowl" and it's a very big weekend for all teams.  The Daytona 500 has gone the way of the Southern 500 and the World 600.   

DT

Danica Patrick, are you serious

  Since this is our off weekend and we talk Nascar every week, I thought i would throw something else out here that really erks me.  Did anyone else see the IRL race and watch the Danica interview at the end.  It was an embarrassment to any style of racing watching her rant on like she was top dog.  She wines and complains all the time and she has done nothing to even prove being worthy of even being in the series she runs.  If you cant win in the IRL series with only 17 cars staring each race then you shouldn't have a ride.  The only reason she has a ride is cause she's a woman and the series needs her.  Yeah she looks good in a bikini, but seriously, she hasn't done anything in the series but pout.  Grow up and win a race and then maybe some of the racing fans around the world won't think your a complete ticket seller.  Now I know there are a lot of female readers who follow the blog so please don't think I'm hating on ol' Danica cause she's a women.  If it was anyone else, I wouldn't be hating on them cause they would have been fired by now.  Holla back and everyone enjoy the week off.

Bahama Bound

By: Dennis Terry

Chicago was another great win for Joe Gibbs Racing. 

The 20 team's win today marks two trips to victory lane in the last three races for us.  Hopefully this success is a sign of things to come and an indication that our struggles in the first half of the season are OVER!

Although the 11 team struggled on the track we had our strongest race in several weeks on pit road.  Our pit crew also sees the Chicago performance as an indication of better days ahead.

Our last weekend off for the 2007 season is next weekend, so Chicago marks the beginning of vacation for most of the Nextel Cup circuit. 

I'm heading to Atlantis in the Bahamas for some much needed R&R (Rum & Rocky Road)!!!   No 90 degree pit practices, cardio performance goals or strength training stuff this week. 

I'm planning on splitting my time between blackjack tables and that cool waterslide that goes through the dolphin tank while my wife enjoys the week swimming with the sharks.

I hope you and your family are doing something fun this weekend too!

DT

The chase

  With 8 races to go its going to be a 4 or 5 car battle for the 12th spot.  With the 8 car falling out early at Daytona and the 2 car posting a good finish, its opened the door for a lot of teams to have a very feasible chance at the chase.  At the moment the 8,26,12,2 are all with in one or two races of each other.  Its only going to take one mistake from one of the teams and there will be three others waiting to take the spot.  I give props to the 26 team for sneaking back into it.  When they fell a lap down at Daytona I was figuring to gain some more points on them and make it a two team battle.  When the race was over it looks as if the 2 and 26 are going to make it a 3 team battle with the 8 car on the bubble.  As much as I hate the chase being this close, the season would be no fun without it.  Its not only the last couple of teams fighting for the last spot but some of the teams in 9th, 10th, and 11th, aren't safe either.  I look forward to Chicago and hope we can keep tracking down that 12th spot. 

Tanglin' Teammates

By: Dennis Terry

No matter who was at fault for the lap 14 crash at Daytona, both the Fed Ex and Home Depot teams at Joe Gibbs Racing came home empty handed from one of the biggest races of the year. 

A race where both teams had a legitimate shot at winning.

Whenever two teammates crash each other, it makes for a long flight home on the team plane.

I'm not even sure what happened on the track.  I haven't seen any replays and since we haven't had a Sunday off in months I wasn't anywhere close to a TV on Sunday.  Besides, I count on you guys to keep me up to date on that stuff!

Nothing is much worse than finishing in last place, except finishing in last place as a result of a crash that happened while you were leading the race.

There is a common saying in racing... "From the penthouse to the outhouse".  That's exactly what our Fed Ex team experienced in Daytona.  After winning in New Hampshire we were drinking Champagne in victory lane then just one week later we were DEAD LAST at Daytona.

Hopefully that same equation will apply this weekend as we head to Chicago and we'll be able to start our Summer break with another trip to victory lane!

DT

Sprint-Nextel-Winston Cup???

By: Dennis Terry

NASCAR's premiere series is changing its name once again. 

The 2006 Nextel/Sprint merger is going to result in the cell phone company dropping the Nextel name and marketing their cellular service under the Sprint logo. 

Therefore, the "Nextel Cup" is now becoming the "Sprint Cup".

At least "Sprint" sounds kind of fast and relates to racing somewhat... I guess???

Anheuser Busch has also announced that this will be their last season as title sponsor of the Busch Series.  Rumors have every company from Coke to Wal-Mart to Visa and Subway lining up for that honor.

I imagine this name changing is confusing to a lot of people especially those who aren't NASCAR fans and don't directly follow the sport. 

Winston Cup, Nextel Cup, Sprint Cup, Busch, Craftsman, IROC, ARCA what's the difference in stock car racing for those sports fans who only catch occasional Sports Center highlights??? 

It's kind of like me trying to figure out the differences between WWF, ECW, WWW, WWE, Nitro, RAW... so many names so little distinction.  Just a bunch of half naked steroid pumping dudes jumping around on each from my point of view.

I'm sure there are plenty of guys out there with the same opinion about a bunch of race cars turning left in a circle.

I would think that the NASCAR marketing executives would want the sport's branding to be something very clear and recognizable. 

Not just for their fans, but for their FUTURE fans and more importantly, the fans of other sports who are confused with all of the different sponsor names, series names and sponsor names. 

Where's the distinction???  Or is the title sponsor really that big of a deal???

DT

No More Apologies

  This weekend at Loudon we finished about 7 spots worse than we could have.  We had run up front all day until we came in for our 4th stop of the day.  Our pit strategy called for two tires.  When the stop was over our front tire changer went to clear the front like he always does and the jackman dropped the jack.  Everything was normal until the car took off.  On this particular stop we had no one in front of us in the box ahead.  So Newman didn't have to take a hard right to clear anyone.  As he took off straighter than normal, he ran over the front tire changers hose and sucked it up under the front of the car.  Here is where the problem comes in.  Over the last few weeks we have had to replace our normal hose puller on the front.  The new guy was not aware that he had to pull the hose on two tire stops as well.  So when our tire changer ran across the front he was expecting some one to pull the hose to clear it from the car.  Since no one pulled the hose, there was just enough hose for the hot left side tires to grip the hose and pull it under the car.  This is where it got scary.  When the car took off and had the hose under it, our front changer got caught up in the hose and had to wiggle his way out before the car drug him down pit road.  It sounds a lot worse than it was but it happened so fast it could have been ugly.  Luckily the hose ended up busting in the middle and no one got hurt.  The gun ended up down pit road and the 07 car ran over it braking there oil line and causing them a bad finish.  This is the part that got me kind of mad.  I felt bad about putting the 07 out on our crews mistake.  So I went down to the 07 pit coach and just let her know that we were sorry and it was a fluke thing.  They wanted nothing to do with us.  Honestly, I cant blame them at all, but this type of thing has happened to us plenty of times and no one has even bothered to come tell us anything.  So I will never apologize for an accident again nor do I expect anyone to apologize to us.  It s a racing thing so get over it.  It was my fault for even going down there but I figured I would at least say sorry.  Never again.  And as far as the announcers saying the tire carrier took out to much hose and that was the reason for Newman running it over, there idiots.  It has nothing to do with the tire carrier.  Every team has a hose puller who clears the hose, its not a new thing.  So I thought I would just clear that part up.  OK, thats it.

Victory Lane in New Hampshire

By: Dennis Terry

Perfect pit strategy was the key to our Fed Ex team's New Hampshire victory. 

Early in the race, crew chief Mike Ford, made the call for two tires so that the team could analyze the car's performance on only two new tires and compare those results to the car's performance on four new tires. 

That calculated move returned some very positive results, so Ford altered his race strategy so that the team would be in position to take two tires on the last stop of the race. 

That was the race winning decision.

Ironically, my first win with the Fed Ex team came at the same track as my last win with Newman and the Alltel team in the Fall of 2005.  That's a lot of Cup races without Champagne!

Hats off to the Bass Pro Shops guys who scored another top five with their solid third place finish.  Not only is that team a class act when it comes to pit stops, they're also a great example of sportsmanship as most every over the wall guy came out to congratulate us for the win. 

Recognition and congratulations from your fellow competitors is probably the best part of any victory lane celebration for me.

DT