Over The Wall

Emotions are heating up I’ve

Emotions are heating up
    I’ve been reading a lot lately about the rivalries that are starting to show up in the Cup side. I have a couple of theories on this so I’m gonna share them. First off, I don’t think it’s a bad thing at all. In every sport from the time you’re in high school all the way to the time you’re a fan of a pro sport, there are always going to be rivals. Every year in high school we played our biggest rival for homecoming. Grant it we usually lost but it was still the biggest game of the year. Racing has its own rivalries going but in a little different way. I don’t think drivers go out each week wanting to beat just one guy or have payback for one guy. There are 43 cars on the track, they have to beat all of them. I think the rivalry thing starts when you have a late caution and there are 6 cars racing for a win and obviously they all can’t win. Someone is going to be moved out of the way or wrecked and then the talk begins. I think if your part of the talk for having a rivalry then obviously you’ve been up front enough for people to care. You never hear of the rivalry going on between the 38th and 39th place guys in points. I think it s good to see guys getting intense at the end of the race. It adds the excitement that we need. Well, that’s my take on it. That’s all for now
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What a good weekend Bristol

What a good weekend
                Bristol has always been a good track for Penske Racing. This weekend was no exception. We had a great run on Saturday with Justin and Brad and then finished it up with a great run on Sunday. Justin ran a great race and took the lead late in the race to hold off Brad for the win. I have to admit it was a weird feeling watching your car get passed for the lead but still cheering for the guy that passed him. As a coach it’s a dream situation to watch both your teams running 1 and 2 but I still had that weird feeling when we finished second. I think there should always be a competitive side with drivers that are run out of the same building. I think Brad and Justin are going to push each other and that’s only going to get better finishes for both of us.
                Kurt had a great run going all day and got the short end of the stick. He ran great and definitely deserved to win but that s why it’s called racing. Kurt did nothing wrong just had the bad luck of starting on the inside. It was nice to see Kurt’s emotions after the race and know that he s hungry to win and continues to give it all he s got. As long as you put yourself in position to win at the end you’re going to be successful. 
                I guess that last thing we ll talk about is the non sell out for the first time since 82’. On the way back I was listening to Clair B Lang on the radio and she was talking about the attendance at the race track and she made a very good point. She said she was impressed at how many fans were at the race track considering the economic situation. One of her callers said it was a bad sign that it wasn’t a sell out and Clair brought up the point that even though they might have been down 30,000 fans there was still 130,000 in the stands. I think we have to look at how passionate our fans are and be thankful they still like to watch what we do. We still manage to fill stands and I think our fans are the best in all of sports. Very loyal and always supporting their drivers, you can’t ask for more than that. Well that’s all I got for now and it’s off to Martinsville
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Bristol

Never seen this before
                Heading into Bristol you never know what is going to happen. Every year this race produces a story and sometimes it works out for you and sometimes it doesn’t. I think the best story I have from Bristol is from 4 or 5 years ago. I’m sure most of the fans remember this but I know I’ll never forget it. It was the second Bristol race so it was at night. The night race always brings out a little something more in the drivers. Well, the particular night was very important for the 12 car because we were fighting to get into the chase and we needed a good finish. We were running fairly well and the race was not yet to half way, I don’t think. Newman was coming into turn one and was trying to get by Dale Jarrett in the 88 car. Needless to say Newman got into him and tore his car up pretty good. I don’t think we did anything wrong as far as racing goes, but the 88 didn’t see it that way. The 88 went behind the wall for repairs and the race went on. Many laps later we here our spotter say,” the 88 is out on the track so watch out”. As soon as he said that we head down the back stretch and the 88 waited for us to catch up and then dumped us. It was something I’ve never seen and I’m sure if you were on their team the story is a little bit different. It ended our night and put a hurting on our points night. That was probably the strangest thing I’ve been a part of at Bristol. Dale Jarrett has always been a popular driver so you can imagine the roar of crowd when we got dumped. Oh well, just thought I would share a story from the Bristol past.
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Atlanta: There's already enough

There's already enough chatter going on about what happened Sunday, so I don’t think I need to add to it.

What I would like to talk about is what got overshadowed in the whole aftermath of the wreck. Before some unfortunate motor problems and the wreck with the 99, all three Penske cars were running in the top 10.

Sam had a good car and was running top times as well as Kurt and Brad. Kurt won the race and has shown twice now that he has Atlanta figured out pretty well. Now we head to Bristol, which has always been a strong Penske track.

Along with Kurt winning, there were many drivers who have decided that this could be there year. If you look at the top 12 in points right now there are many drivers that you would not have picked to be there at the beginning of the season.

Good for those guys. I think we’re really going to see a good race for the chase this year and I would say there will be a couple of drivers that have been overlooked that could definitely make it.

As far as Bristol goes, I think we should be pretty good there. This is a track that we need to have a good points day at and start to put a few good runs together.

I would like to give a compliment out to the 2 car pit crew. No one realizes that they had three opportunities to pit the car with the race on the line, and every time they came through. They are one of the best crews out there and they proved it on Sunday.

It’s off to the mountains and then to Bristol in two weeks. That’s all for now.

I'm back and the season looks promising

Now that the season has started and we’re in full swing, I figured it was time to get rolling on the blog.

The off-season was a good one, and me and the family had some good times in the mountains of NC. I am really looking forward to a great season for Penske Racing and for NASCAR.

           As far as the season goes, it looks like JJ is still the man to beat. Whether or not you like the guy or team, it’s hard to deny what he is doing on the track. Like Rick Flair used to say, “In order to be the man you have to beat the man,” and right now he is the man. I think there are few teams out there that can make a run at him, but there is no room for error.

            Starting out the season with a new driver is always interesting. This year at Penske we are coming into the season with a lot of expectations on ourselves and, hopefully, we can continue to improve.

Brad K has joined the team and is competing in both Nationwide and Cup. I am fortunate enough to be pitting both of his cars and I’m having a great time doing it.

As a person he s fun to work with and I feel like every track we go to we have a chance to win.

The Nationwide program has started out well for both teams and our Cup teams are coming off a long week at Vegas. All in all, I feel our teams are going to be competing in both series for wins and possibly a championship.

That’s all for now and I look forward to hearing from everyone.