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NASCAR Michigan start time, lineup, TV/radio schedule

June 16, 2013 By Admin

Story Highlights

NASCAR will hold a moment of silence for veteran driver Jason Leffler before the green flag
Race is scheduled to start at 1:16 p.m.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. won this race in 2008 and 2012

(PhatzRadio / AP) — BROOKLYN, Mich. — It’s NASCAR race day at Michigan International Speedway, and we’ve got some essential information you need to get ready for today’s Quicken Loans 400.

START TIME: The command to start engines will be given at 1:07 ET, followed by the green flag at 1:16 p.m.

MOMENT OF SILENCE: At 1 p.m. for NASCAR veteran Jason Leffler, who was killed in a sprint-car crash Wednesday night at Bridgeport Speedway in New Jersey.

RACE DISTANCE: The Quicken Loans 400 (a company based in Detroit that has done much to try to revitalize its downtown corridor) is 400 miles, or 200 laps around the 2-mile oval.

NATIONAL ANTHEM: Performed at 1:01 p.m. by Larry Callahan and the Selected of God Choir. The Canadian national anthem will be sung by Michigan International Speedway staffer Lisa Bascom.

TV/RADIO SCHEDULE: TNT will broadcast today’s race and has a prerace show beginning at noon ET. This is the second of six consecutive races for the network in its “Summer Series.” The Motor Racing Network (MRN) will have the radio call.

WEATHER: According to Wunderground.com, a high temperature of 79 degrees is expected in Brooklyn today. There’s a 70% chance of thunderstorms in the morning that will decrease in the afternoon.

LAST TIME: Dale Earnhardt Jr. ended a 143-race winless streak with his first victory in more than four years, leading a race-high 95 of 200 laps and cruising to a 5.393-second triumph over Tony Stewart

STARTING LINEUP: With a 202.452-mph lap, Carl Edwards captured his first pole position since the 2012 Daytona 500.

With the Wednesday night death in a dirt-car crash of versatile veteran journeyman Jason Leffler still weighing heavily in the Sprint Cup Series, Michigan looms as a track whose breakneck reputation carries tangible danger.

“A lap here, especially in qualifying, drivers aren’t supposed to be terrified,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. said. “But ‘terrifying’ is a word that comes kind of close to what qualifying is like here, especially with this new surface and this tire.

MORE DALE JR.: Hopes to snap a 33-race winless streak

POLE: Edwards wins first pole since 2012

Earnhardt Jr.: Michigan can be ‘terrifying’

“I remember (Greg) Biffle got the pole last year. He was quite shaken by the process of running that lap. It’s amazing how much when you are in the race, everything sort of slows down, and the laps aren’t a challenge anymore just trying to run on the edge of the grip.”

But though drivers get more comfortable, the conditions are just as treacherous on the flat 2-mile oval, which has a history of vicious wrecks even though it isn’t known for the massive pileups of Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway.

Those tracks required restrictor plates to keep speeds under 200 mph, but speeds at Michigan are the fastest on the circuit. Marcos Ambrose set the qualifying record at 203.241 mph last year, and Carl Edwards’ No. 99 Ford posted a 202.452-mph lap Friday to win the pole position for Sunday’s Quicken Loans 400.

“This is the fastest track we have, and it might be in speed, but it definitely is in feel,” defending series champion Brad Keselowski, who is seeking his first win at the track nearest his Rochester Hills, Mich., hometown. “At any given second, you feel like you’re going to bust your butt. Sometimes even down the straightaway when you go to make a pass and try to pull down and make an aggressive move, you can feel the car slide around a lot and go, ‘Whoa’. So that makes this type of racetrack feel faster than it even is, and it’s still the fastest track we have.”

Speeds will be above 215 mph at the end of the straightaways of a track where Clifford Allison died in 1992. Two years later, Ernie Irvan nearly died and was sidelined for more than a year after sustaining brain and lung injuries in a Turn 2 crash. Five years to the day of that crash, Irvan was airlifted out of Michigan after another wreck and retired a month later.

Here’s the starting lineup for today’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Michigan:

1. Carl Edwards
2. Kurt Busch
3. Kasey Kahne
4. Paul Menard
5. Aric Almirola
6. Joey Logano
7. Austin Dillon
8. Matt Kenseth
9. Kyle Busch
10. Juan Pablo Montoya
11. Denny Hamlin
12. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
13. Martin Truex Jr.
14. Tony Stewart
15. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
16. Brad Keselowski
17. Jimmie Johnson
18. Jeff Burton
19. Greg Biffle
20. Bobby Labonte
21. Kevin Harvick
22. Mark Martin
23. Marcos Ambrose
24. Casey Mears
25. Trevor Bayne
26. David Gilliland
27. Clint Bowyer
28. Jamie McMurray
29. Jeff Gordon
30. Michael McDowell
31. David Ragan
32. AJ Allmendinger
33. David Reutimann
34. David Stremme
35. Ryan Newman
36. Dave Blaney
37. Danica Patrick
38. Josh Wise
39. Ken Schrader
40. J.J. Yeley
41. Travis Kvapil
42. Joe Nemechek
43. Mike Bliss

Failed to qualify
44. Scott Riggs

NASCAR Michigan start time, lineup, TV/radio schedule is a post from: PhatzRadio.com

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NASCAR: Matt Kenseth’s best is yet to come; plus a new No. 1

April 9, 2013 By Admin

f3370bbe13e10969948ee2e03e84dc28 NASCAR: Matt Kenseth’s best is yet to come; plus a new No. 1
(Matt Kenseth and his Joe Gibbs Racing team have impressed the injured Denny Hamlin (right). Tom Pennington/Getty Images)

(PhatzRadio / SI) — MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Matt Kenseth walked through pit road unnoticed, slipping by fans who were focused on Jimmie Johnson’s victory celebration at Martinsville Speedway.

It can be easy to overlook Kenseth, but don’t be fooled. Although he finished 14th after a late pit call backfired, he was hard to ignore for much of the STP Gas Booster 500, leading more laps on Sunday than he had in 26 previous races there combined.

That’s been his season. The former champion has had one of the best cars in most of the races so far, but he hasn’t always had the finishes to show for it. Kenseth easily could have more than just his victory at Las Vegas and be higher than 10th in the points.

With the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heading to Texas and Kansas during the next two weeks, expect Kenseth to be at the front. He’s scored five consecutive top-five finishes, including a win, at Texas and has three consecutive top-fives at Kansas, including a win last fall.

While Kenseth’s offseason move to Joe Gibbs Racing created high expectations, the way he’s performed, it’s as if he’s worked with crew chief Jason Ratcliff for years instead of six races.

Kenseth, though, isn’t surprised by his promising start.

“I just had a great feeling about this team as soon as I did this,” he said. “Actually, I thought we would have more better results by now, I really did. It’s fun to drive cars that are really fast.”

He led the most laps in the Daytona 500 before he was collected in a crash. He was running second at Bristol when leader Jeff Gordon blew a tire in front of him and sailed into his lane, causing Kenseth to ram him, ending his race. Then came Sunday when he led 96 laps — he’d led only 73 there combined — but a decision to pit late didn’t lure more cars to follow, so he started deep in the field and couldn’t recover in the few remaining laps.

Even with that disappointing finish, it’s easy for Kenseth and his team to feel good about what they can do.

“It’s really encouraging to have cars that fast,” he said. “I always feel like I’m just an awful driver here and (Sunday) I could actually pass the leader a couple of times and that was fun.”

So fun he joked about it on his radio. When he scooted by Johnson once, Kenseth radioed his spotter: “Tell (Johnson’s spotter) sorry about that. I’ve never taken the lead under green at Martinsville before.”

Actually, he had, but Kenseth’s point was clear and he was having fun.

He wasn’t the only one who enjoyed the show. Teammate Denny Hamlin, sidelined by an L1 compression fracture of the spine that he suffered two weeks ago in a crash at Auto Club Speedway, is impressed by what he’s seen this year from Kenseth’s team.

“They’ve had a top-five car every single week.” Hamlin said. “I think it’s showing, really, what that 20 team is all about. I knew (while) working with Jason in the Nationwide series that he was a really good crew chief. They haven’t gotten the results these last couple of years that they really deserved. Now that Matt is in that car, he’s showing how good he really is.”

Or how good the team is?

Kenseth became the focus of banter through the media between Hamlin and Johnson’s crew chief, Chad Knaus.

After the race, Hamlin said with a sly smile that Johnson had gotten a “layup” in winning at Martinsville because Hamlin, who also excels at the track, couldn’t compete.

Told of Hamlin’s line, Knaus responded by bringing Kenseth into the conversation, saying: “I think it’s pretty obvious that it’s not Denny, it’s the Gibbs cars. If you look at Matt Kenseth, he couldn’t get out of his own way when he was in a Roush car here, and he went out there (Sunday) and was making it happen. I think it’s probably more car than driver here for that team.”

Either way, Kenseth has been a factor this season. Ratcliff says the team’s worst race this season was last month at Auto Club Speedway when Kenseth finished seventh.

“We wished we could have finished Daytona and finished Bristol and seen how it would have shaken out,” Ratcliff said. “It would be stupid of us to say, “Well, yeah, we would have won those races,’ because the competition is so stiff, but it would have been fun to finish it out and see where we stacked out.

“We’ve been to every style race track on the circuit other than a road course up to this point, and been competitive and that’s something that we can build on. We’ve just got to keep it going.”

For as good as they’ve run, Kenseth and Ratcliff are still learning about each other and should continue to get better.

So, while the focus is on Johnson after his second victory of the season, or Brad Keselowski for his fifth finish of sixth or better this year, or Dale Earnhardt Jr., despite his stumble at Martinsville, or even teammate Kyle Busch, who has scored four consecutive top-five finishes, don’t forget about Kenseth.

Power Rankings

1. Kyle Busch (2nd previously) — His fifth-place finish at Martinsville marked his fourth consecutive top-five. Previously, he was fourth at Las Vegas, second at Bristol, and he won at Auto Club Speedway.

2. Brad Keselowski (3rd) — He keeps scoring strong finishes. Although he struggled at times at Martinsville and was penalized for a pit-road infraction, he scored a sixth-place finish. He’s finished sixth or better in five of the first six races of the season.

3. Jimmie Johnson (6th) — It’s no surprise that he won at Martinsville. It was his eighth victory there. He led 346 of the 500 laps — more than he’s led in any other race at this track. Also it marked the third time that he’s won from the pole there.

4. Kasey Kahne (4th) — Another strong run for this team. The move to Hendrick has really helped him at Martinsville, where his fourth-place finish was his second consecutive top-five there. Before them, he’d gone 11 races without a top-10 at Martinsville.

5. Matt Kenseth (5th) — His 14th at Martinsville masked one of his best runs at a track where he’s often struggled. This team has been fast just about everywhere.

6. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (1st) — His handling faltered late and he finished two laps down at one of his best tracks. Disappointing day for this team — the first time it has finished outside the top 10 this season.

7. Clint Bowyer (unranked) — His up-and-down season continues. He finished second at Martinsville for his third top-10 of the year, but he’s also placed outside the top 25 twice.

8. Greg Biffle (9th) — Martinsville has often been a weak spot for him, but he finished ninth on Sunday, his second-best finish at the track. His career-best there is a seventh in Octpber 2007.

9. Jeff Gordon (unranked) — Third-place finish is his second top-10 of the season. The key for this team will be the coming races at Texas and Kansas. Gordon and company have been off a bit on bigger tracks.

10. Carl Edwards (8th) — Placed 15th on Sunday. His career average at Martinsville entering the race was 16.1, and he remains in my top 10 on the strength of his win and three top-fives in the first six races of the season.

NASCAR: Matt Kenseth’s best is yet to come; plus a new No. 1 is a post from: PhatzRadio.com

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NASCAR: Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano have ‘unproductive’ text exchange

March 28, 2013 By Admin

(Rescue workers tend to the wreckage of Denny Hamlin’s car after he collided with Joey Logano on the final lap of the NASCAR Sprint Cup series auto race in Fontana, Ca. .Reed Saxon/AP)

HUMBLE, Texas (AP) Roger Penske said Wednesday that Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin have exchanged text messages since their final-lap crash at Fontana last weekend that left Hamlin hospitalized with a fractured vertebra.

Penske said he’s also sent text messages to Hamlin, who is expected to miss at least six weeks. Penske and Logano, one of his drivers, were playing in the pro-am leading up to the PGA Tour’s Houston Open. Logano twice turned down interview requests.

Hamlin acknowledged he exchanged text messages with Logano.

“It didn’t go well,” Hamlin told The Associated Press. “The conversation was both short and unproductive.”

Hamlin was examined Tuesday by Dr. Jerry Petty of Carolina Neurosurgery and Spine Associates, who determined he won’t need back surgery.

“I’ve texted back and forth with him and said that we’re thinking about him,” Penske said. “Obviously, we’re hoping for a speedy recovery. It’s never good to have a driver out for a period of time.”

He didn’t know what Logano and Hamlin said to one another in their text messages. The former Gibbs Racing teammates had a prickly relationship long before Sunday’s wreck. Logano replaced Tony Stewart at JGR in 2009, and signs of a rift between he and Hamlin surfaced after the Daytona 500, when the two exchanged barbs on Twitter.

Before Fontana, the two nearly came to blows at Bristol after Hamlin spun Logano while Logano chased Jeff Gordon for a late lead. Logano yelled into Hamlin’s car after the race, sparking a brief confrontation between their teams.

Then came the wreck in California, and the presumption that Logano had contact with Hamlin as payback. Penske doesn’t buy it.

“These guys are racing hard, and it’s the last lap and it’s just the way the cars got together,” Penske said. “The way Denny hit the wall was very unfortunate. … It’s never good to have a driver out for a period of time.”

NASCAR returns to action April 7 at Martinsville Speedway, and Penske said it’s time for everyone to “settle down.”

Penske said he’s never seen NASCAR more competitive, and the increased media scrutiny is making every incident and altercation between drivers more serious than it usually is.

“There’s a lot of noise about a lot of things that are said at these races,” Penske said. “People are at a high pitch and I think other people need to settle down and realize that’s the sport. We’re just going to have to keep our heads on.”

Penske said he didn’t know much about the personal history between Logano and Hamlin. He’s confident that the latest dustup and the public backlash won’t throw off Logano, who’s currently ninth in the Sprint Cup standings – one spot ahead of Hamlin.

“The fuel in the fire after Bristol created a lot of public noise,” Penske said. “But as I said, that’s the environment we’re in right now. He’s still the same guy we hired six months ago, and I’m 100 percent confident that he’s going to be able to execute when he needs to be at the highest level.

“At the end of the season, we’ll see where everybody is. But I have high hopes for his success. Obviously, what we can do is provide him with a car and a team that can execute it.”

NASCAR: Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano have ‘unproductive’ text exchange is a post from: PhatzRadio.com

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NASCAR: Tony Stewart confident his team will improve

March 22, 2013 By Admin Leave a Comment

f486b2f260c23a82e15267b117adaa06 NASCAR: Tony Stewart confident his team will improve
Tony Stewart drives the wrecked #14 Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevrolet after cutting a tire early during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway on March 17, 2013 in Bristol, Tennessee.
(March 16, 2013 – Source: Jared Wickerham/Getty Images North America)

Story Highlights

All three Stewart-Haas Racing drivers are ranked outside of the top 20 in the standings
Tony Stewart has crashed in two of the four races so far this year
“We’ve got a lot of races to make up these points we’re behind,” Stewart says

(PhatzRadio / USA Today) — All three Stewart-Haas Racing drivers — Tony Stewart, Danica Patrick and Ryan Newman — are outside of the top 20 in the points standings heading into the fifth race of the NASCAR Sprint Cup season Sunday in Southern California.

So is team owner Stewart concerned about his team’s slow start? Panicked, perhaps?

“Are you concerned when you go home and your wife is mad at you?” Stewart asked.

The reporter nodded affirmatively.

“Do you panic?” Stewart said.

The reporter shook his head no.

“All right, same thing,” Stewart said. “There’s a difference between panic and concern. If you’re not concerned, you’re not doing your job. But if you panic, you’ve got as much opportunity to go backward as forward.”

At least publicly, that is the approach Stewart-Haas is taking to Fontana’s Auto Club Speedway this weekend. Stewart acknowledged his team is behind. He blames a combination of bad luck and not being as strong as others with NASCAR’s new Generation 6 car.

“We knew there would be teams that would probably figure this package out right away,” he said. “There are teams that have been struggling, and each week will close that gap up.”

It’s been a disappointing season for Stewart. He crashed early in the Daytona 500, then followed up with finishes of eighth at Phoenix International Raceway and 11th at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. But at Vegas, where he had won a year earlier, Stewart was lapped at one point and ran in the 20s for most of the day before salvaging a decent result.

That was cause for concern — but not panic, apparently — since Vegas’ 1.5-mile layout is similar to Fontana’s 2-mile oval and other intermediate tracks that frequently pop up on the schedule.

“We’re not panicking and saying, ‘We’re behind and can’t get caught up,’” Stewart said. “We know we can get caught up. It’s just a matter of going through the process and learning the car.”

But in Sunday’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway, Stewart blew a tire and hit a wall, resulting in a 31st-place finish. That’s the kind of misfortune he can’t afford if he’s going to rally from 24th place to make NASCAR’s 12-driver Chase for the Sprint Cup.

Newman (23rd in points) and Patrick (28th) haven’t fared much better. Newman sandwiched a crash and blown engine between top-10 finishes at Daytona and Bristol; Patrick finished eighth at Daytona but has results of 39th, 33rd and 28th since.

“I’ve never been there in a Cup car at Fontana,” Patrick said after her 28th-place finish at Bristol. “There are a lot of things that I have to work on at this point. So for us, the most important thing is to find a decent balance to start off the race so that we don’t drop back.”

For now, though, Stewart is playing it cool while his team attempts to regroup. The concern wouldn’t change to panic, he said, until a couple of races before the Chase cutoff. “We’ve got a lot of races to make up these points we’re behind,” he said.

In the meantime, he said the organization would start relying more on its close relationship with Hendrick Motorsports. Hendrick, NASCAR’s top team, supplies engines and cars to Stewart-Haas, but it’s up to Stewart’s team to set the cars up for the drivers’ best chance of success.

“We’re going to start leaning on them more heavily. We’re foolish not to. We’ve got a great working relationship with those guys, and this is a time when it can come into play.”

Follow Jeff Gluck on Twitter @jeff_gluck

NASCAR: Tony Stewart confident his team will improve is a post from: PhatzRadio.com

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NASCAR should try to keep its star drivers happy

March 15, 2013 By Admin

Denny Hamlin, driver of the #11 FedEx Express Toyota, stands on the grid prior to the start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on March 10, 2013 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
(March 9, 2013 – Source: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images North America)

Story Highlights

Denny Hamlin’s brief war with NASCAR seems to have ended Thursday
There are ominous signs of cognitive dissonance between the NASCAR leadership and its superstars
This hasn’t been a stellar start for NASCAR’s crisis management department

(PhatzRadio / USA Today) — BRISTOL, Tenn. — Denny Hamlin never got his day in court. But the manner in which his brief war with NASCAR ended might as well have unfolded in a high-profile trial of banging gavels and arguing attorneys that was made for Hollywood.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver essentially pleaded guilty while staunchly professing his innocence in a statement on Twitter. He announced he wouldn’t appeal a $25,000 fine (as he initially said he would) for allegedly disparaging stock car racing’s great horsepower hype but also wouldn’t pay it (the pound of flesh will be extracted via garnishment of race winnings).

In the legal system, this is known as the Alford plea. In NASCAR, it’s known as Thursday.

A series linked for years with mixed messages (“Yes, this Nicorette-branded car is competing on a series that last year was sponsored by R.J. Reynolds. Why do you ask?”) has been breeding them with regularity this season.

Have you seen our officially endorsed Daytona 500 car supporting the victims of the Newtown, Conn., shooting tragedy? Great, then you’ll be inspired to see our cars race in the NRA 500.

We don’t let our drivers say anything that could be construed as impugning the integrity of our sport! But if you want to call the racing at Talladega Superspeedway “bloodthirsty” or use a deadpan comedy routine to intimate fans should stay home if they want to see crashes, we’re good with that.

Which brings us to Hamlin, whose penchant for truth-telling has turned him into a persistent whipping boy for the sanctioning body since its secret fine era of 2010-11. After Phoenix, he dared to float the idea that the new car — gasp! — was more difficult to pass with, a statement borne out by NASCAR’s loop data.

It barely caused a stir and wouldn’t have been a story if NASCAR hadn’t made it one. The reverberations were much stronger when Hamlin’s current teammate, Kyle Busch, proclaimed the debut of the last iteration of Cup car “sucks” after winning its Bristol debut six years ago.

Busch, by the way, wasn’t penalized. We mentioned that mixed messages thing, right?

There are no winners in this mess. There is a big lesson.

After spending much of the past year trumpeting the concept that the industry has engaged in its most collaborative effort in years — the sleek and ballyhooed Gen 6 was birthed by tireless cooperation among drivers, manufacturers and race officials — there are ominous signs of cognitive dissonance between the sport’s leadership and the superstars who carry its banner to a country that has seemed less interested the past few years.

Why didn’t NASCAR brass already have a closer relationship with Brad Keselowski before the defending series champion was called to the principal’s office following his candid comments about the challenges facing the sport in a USA TODAY Sports interview before Daytona?

Why didn’t the sanctioning body discuss the penalty with Hamlin before taking the punitive action last week at Las Vegas Motor Speedway?

This is the mixed message that could hurt NASCAR most of all — encouraging its drivers to speak their minds while also scolding them behind closed doors. Or even worse, making little attempt to understand them.

Much of the Industry Action Plan — NASCAR code for the five-year blueprint to rebuild its fan base by appealing to younger and more diverse demographics — is predicated on a “driver starpower” initiative, i.e. using its well-coiffed and affable spokesmen to promote its product.

Though this hasn’t been a stellar start for NASCAR’s crisis management department, the firestorms probably haven’t hurt that much. Quite the contrary, they’ve kept NASCAR in the headlines every week.

That’s partially a testament to its drivers, whose eloquence, flair and grace go beyond Hamlin and Keselowski. Witness Tony Stewart’s command performance after a Nationwide victory at Daytona, tactfully putting it into perspective after Kyle Larson’s car sailed into the catchfence and left at least 28 fans injured. Dale Earnhardt Jr. played big-picture after a runner-up finish at Daytona, choosing to focus on the historic day of Danica Patrick and the positives of eventful Speedweeks.

It seems absurdly obvious to note this, but NASCAR would do well not to penalize drivers such as Hamlin for speaking their minds — particularly when it’s a transgression that is debatably minor.

Keep the stars happy, and the sport could sail back toward prosperity.

Remain on the road of turning its PR department into Pravda, and NASCAR will find its popularity on trial.

That’s a case it might not win.

Follow Nate Ryan on Twitter @nateryan

NASCAR should try to keep its star drivers happy is a post from: PhatzRadio.com

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NASCAR: Texas could alter famous victory lane gun celebration

March 5, 2013 By Admin

aefa5ecaa7b280e26ec1c92f9d0ad1de NASCAR: Texas could alter famous victory lane gun celebration
Tony Stewart (14) celebrates in victory lane with a pair of six shooters after winning the AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway on Nov 6, 2011.(Photo: Jerome Miron, USA TODAY Sports)

Story Highlights

Texas winners have celebrated by donning a cowboy hat and firing two six-shooters
It could be left to NASCAR owners to decide whether the winner will celebrate with guns
The track plans to keep the tradition in place for the fall Cup race and an IndyCar race

(PhatzRadio / USA Today) — Eddie Gossage isn’t expecting any significant fallout from his track’s sponsorship with the NRA, but the Texas Motor Speedway president is considering tweaks after aligning with the organization.

Gossage told USA TODAY Sports in a phone interview Monday that he will solicit team owners’ opinions about altering his victory lane procedure for the NRA 500 on April 13. For several years, Texas winners have celebrated by donning a cowboy hat and firing two six-shooters (with blanks) for victory lane photos.

“I don’t want to affect some sponsor on a uniform somewhere that says, ‘I didn’t want that picture. I didn’t want my driver with a gun in his hand,’” Gossage said. “Even though it’s a cap gun. I don’t want to hurt anyone’s sponsorship.”

Two weeks ago in the Daytona 500, NASCAR backed a car promoting the Sandy Hook School Support Fund. The car, driven by Michael Waltrip, was No. 26 — the number of victims killed during the December shootings in Newtown, Conn.

Before the 500, Waltrip and NASCAR Chairman Brian France made a private visit to Newtown and informed community members about unveiling the No. 26 with a paint scheme supporting the fund. And France and the NASCAR Foundation each donated $50,000.

“I think, like everybody thinks, that was a heartbreaking occurrence,” Gossage said. “But we don’t see any correlation between that horrible act of violence and this organization.”

Gossage said he’ll be consulting NASCAR team owners such as Rick Hendrick and Jack Roush this weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, which will play host Sunday to the Kobalt Tools 500. It likely will be the owner’s discretion on whether they choose to have the winner celebrate with the guns.

“It might not necessarily be a primary sponsor” that voices an objection, Gossage said, but an associate sponsor with a much smaller stake.

“We have to be sensitive to that, so we’ll let the team owner make the call,” he said. “They’re all friends of mine. I’ll be in Vegas and I’ll ask them, ‘What do you think?’ and do whatever the team owner wants to do.”

The postrace celebration, which Gossage compares with an old Western movie, has become a victory hallmark for the track, and Texas plans to keep its time-honored tradition in place for its Izod IndyCar Series race June 8 and the Sprint Cup circuit’s return Nov. 3.

“You see that photo and don’t think, ‘Was that at Pocono or Michigan?’ but I also want to be sensitive to a driver or their sponsors,” Gossage said.

Contributing: Jeff Gluck

Follow Nate Ryan on Twitter @nateryan and Jeff Gluck @jeff_gluck

NASCAR: Texas could alter famous victory lane gun celebration is a post from: PhatzRadio.com

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NASCAR: Texas could alter famous victory lane gun celebration

March 5, 2013 By Admin

Story Highlights

“I think, like everybody thinks, that was a heartbreaking occurrence,” Gossage said. “But we don’t see any correlation between that horrible act of violence and this organization.”

“It might not necessarily be a primary sponsor” that voices an objection, Gossage said, but an associate sponsor with a much smaller stake.

“You see that photo and don’t think, ‘Was that at Pocono or Michigan?’ but I also want to be sensitive to a driver or their sponsors,” Gossage said.

Contributing: Jeff Gluck

Follow Nate Ryan on Twitter @nateryan and Jeff Gluck @jeff_gluck

NASCAR: Texas could alter famous victory lane gun celebration is a post from: PhatzRadio.com

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NASCAR: Martin to start up front at Phoenix

March 2, 2013 By Admin

c15ddda4c5a3a77132822d8e909dffc7 NASCAR: Martin to start up front at Phoenix
Mark Martin, driver of the #55 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota, looks on from in the garage during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Subway Fresh Fit 500 at Phoenix International Raceway on March 1, 2013 in Avondale, Arizona.
(February 28, 2013 – Source: Jerry Markland/Getty Images North America)

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Mark Martin may be getting better with age.

Coming off a third-place finish at the Daytona 500, Martin became the second-oldest driver to win a Sprint Cup pole on Friday by earning the top spot at Phoenix International Raceway for the second straight year.

“A lot of people describe Mark by saying ‘Mark’s on it,’” Martin’s crew chief Rodney Childers said. “Well, for 2013, Mark’s on it squared.”

Martin went around PIR’s mile oval with a speed of 138.074 mph for his 56th career pole, passing Bill Elliott for seventh all-time.

Martin turned 54 in January, leaving him just a few months behind Harry Gant, who was 54 years and 7 months when he won his last pole at Bristol in 1994.

Martin will be joined on the front row by Kasey Kahne for Sunday’s 312-mile race, with Daytona 500 winner Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch in the second row.

“I said it last week and had some people make some snide remarks about it, but at this stage of the game it’s pretty amazing I get to drive something like this,” Martin said.

Martin started on the pole at PIR last year before finishing ninth and won from the pole in 2009. He had a solid opening to the 2013 season, starting 14th at Daytona last Sunday and working his way to the front to make a big move on the final lap to finish behind Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Martin followed it up with his third pole at Phoenix to put himself in position to win for the first time since Loudon in 2009.

Not bad for a driver who’s got a part-time gig with Michael Waltrip Racing this season.

“I deeply admire him and his passion for the sport,” said Johnson, a five-time Sprint Cup series champion and Martin’s former teammate. “He’s tried to walk away a few times — I think we had a farewell tour for him once — and he came back. He couldn’t do it. He just loves driving his car and is an inspiration for any team he works for.”

Johnson had a whirlwind tour after winning his second Daytona 500 last Sunday, hitting eight states and David Letterman’s guest chair — along with announcing a new deal with primary sponsor Lowe’s — in the four days before arriving at PIR.

“Five-Time” didn’t have a chance to debrief with his team and arrived in the desert exhausted. He won’t get much of a break here, either, with Sprint Cup practice and qualifying on Friday, his second career Nationwide Series race on Saturday and Sunday’s race.

Johnson cut it close on qualifying, too, walking back from pit road to the garage to his car, which had to go through part of the pre-qualifying inspection before being allowed out. It arrived on pit road three cars before Johnson’s turn and had a strong second lap to earn a spot on the second row.

“I was fortunate to get in the car early and buckled in, kind of catch my breath, but my crew guys were winded by the time we got down there,” said Johnson, whose chance for a sixth Sprint Cup title derailed with a blown tire during the fall Chase race in Phoenix last year. “But a great lap. I’m very excited about how things have started off this season.”

Kahne had a disappointing Daytona 500, collected in the race’s first wreck on his way to finishing 36th after starting sixth. He’s had some success at Phoenix, though, winning the fall race in 2011 and put together a good qualifying run early in the session.

“It was a pretty good lap for right now and hopefully it will stay somewhere in the top 10,” Kahn said. “I would imagine we’ll get quicker as we go, but you never know.”

Danica Patrick struggled with her car in practice and didn’t get it fixed for qualifying, bobbling around turns 3 and 4. She will start 40th after becoming the first woman win the pole and lead green-flag laps in a Sprint Cup race last week at the Daytona 500.

“It’s just not a good qualifying effort. It’s not what I was looking for,” she said. “I know how important it is on these short tracks to qualify well.”

NASCAR: Martin to start up front at Phoenix is a post from: PhatzRadio.com

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NASCAR: Phoenix could re-start season for some Cup drivers

March 1, 2013 By Admin

6e9acee921195dcd9009adc2f8276d10 NASCAR: Phoenix could re start season for some Cup drivers
Kasey Kahne, driver of the #5 Farmers Insurance Chevrolet, skids out after an incident during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 24, 2013 in Daytona Beach, Florida.
(February 23, 2013 – Source: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images North America)

Story Highlights

Kasey Kahne, Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick and Matt Kenseth all had issues in the Daytona 500
Kahne finished 29th or worse in four of the first six races, but ended the year ranked fourth
Danica Patrick is not ready to set the top 10 as a weekly goal but Phoenix could be strong track

(PhatzRadio / USA Today) — Coming off the best finish of her Sprint Cup career, Danica Patrick is downplaying expectations entering this weekend at Phoenix International Raceway.

Coming off his second-worst start to a Sprint Cup season, Kasey Kahne is doing the exact opposite — and with good reason.

The Hendrick Motorsports driver started last year in a deep points chasm, too, but he believes he will be climbing into contention much quicker in 2013.

“I can just tell by the things we’ve done with testing and how we raced at Daytona, how prepared (crew chief) Kenny (Francis) and our team are,” said Kahne, who finished 36th in the Daytona 500. “It’s exciting to look at Phoenix, Vegas, Bristol and be ready to go.”

It still took a while for Kahne to get past Daytona, where he believed his No. 5 Chevrolet was “as good as any car there.” A crash on Lap 33 of 200 ended any hope of winning the Great American Race, as it also did for Tony Stewart and Kevin Harvick, both of whom Kahne considered threats to win.

That trio, along with Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards and Juan Pablo Montoya, will enter Phoenix after finishing outside the top 30 at Daytona. However, slow starts in the season opener haven’t been a death knell for past championship bids, in part because Daytona’s restrictor-plate rules are unlike all but three other races on the schedule.

Last year, Jimmie Johnson finished 42nd at Daytona (and faced a 25-point penalty that later was overturned) but moved into Chase for the Sprint Cup position by the fifth race and stayed there on the way to a third-place points finish. In 2002, Stewart suffered an engine failure on the second lap and still won the title.

Kahne said he was “upset, kind of pissed off about it” about the disappointing and discouraging result at Daytona until a Tuesday debrief with his Hendrick teammates got him looking ahead.

“If you go to Phoenix and Vegas and hit things again, that makes you start wondering,” he said. “But to this point, Daytona, that wreck is uncontrollable. I realize that we’re not far behind. One race isn’t a very big deal at this point.”

Kahne proved that the hard way last year, finishing 29th or worse in four of the first six races. But he didn’t press because he was in a stable situation with a NASCAR powerhouse, and his car had speed.

“I was never really down on what was going on, because every single race except Daytona, we were fast,” he said.

“… I was at ease. We’re not going to crash every race. At some point, it’s going to take off, and finally it did after Martinsville.”

The outlook entering Subway’s Fresh Fit 500 is upbeat for other drivers who struggled at Daytona. Harvick won on the 1-mile oval last November when Busch (who has the third-best driver rating at Phoenix) set a pole qualifying record and finished third. Stewart has won before at Phoenix and tested the 2013 car there last fall, and Kenseth and Edwards both have wins in the desert.

Much of the focus, though, will be on Patrick, who returns to race near her former home of Scottsdale, Ariz., after becoming the first woman to start from the pole in Cup and to lead the Daytona 500.

In her Phoenix debut last November, Patrick was running on the lead lap and headed for a top-15 finish before getting caught in a crash in a green-white-checkered finish.

The Stewart-Haas Racing driver said after Daytona that it would be “unwise” to set the top 10 as a weekly goal, but last year’s Phoenix performance offers some optimism.

“I feel like it will give us a good baseline idea of how we need to set the car up,” she said. “But it also is a new car, so we’ll have to adapt to that. (Crew chief) Tony (Gibson) and I are still figuring out how we get the most out of me with new tires in a qualifying situation, things like that. We still have a lot of stuff to work on.”

4d0c9758d2fe292b633d463194be0eed NASCAR: Phoenix could re start season for some Cup drivers

NASCAR: Phoenix could re-start season for some Cup drivers is a post from: PhatzRadio.com

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NASCAR: Sprint All-Star Race will discourage sandbagging with $1 million bonus

February 27, 2013 By Admin

b56c33bb7177bdedb4374fcc8dc923ae NASCAR: Sprint All Star Race will discourage sandbagging with $1 million bonus
Jimmie Johnson celebrates after winning the 2012 Nascar Sprint Cup Series All-Star race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.(Photo: Jeremy Brevard, USA TODAY Sports)

Story Highlights

Sprint All-Star Race will discourage sandbagging with a $1 million bonus and format tweaks
The order on a pit stop to start the final segment will be determined by the average finish in the first four 20-lap segments
Charlotte also is posting a $1 million bonus if a driver leads all five segments

CONCORD, N.C. – While last year featured Jimmie Johnson winning after coasting through the middle three segments, this season’s Sprint All-Star Race will discourage sandbagging with a $1 million bonus and a few format tweaks.

In a Tuesday news conference at Charlotte Motor Speedway, NASCAR announced the 2013 edition of the race would remain five segments, but the order on a pit stop to start the final segment will be determined by the average finish in the first four 20-lap segments.

Charlotte also is posting a $1 million bonus – on top of the $1 million awarded the race winner by Sprint – if a driver leads every segment.

“I don’t have a strategy but to win and lead every lap and win every segment,” defending Sprint Cup series champion Brad Keselowski said. “Now I’ve got good reason to do so. It inspires me to race hard.”

Johnson won his third All-Star Race by winning the first segment and then conserved his tires during the next three segments. He led the final 10 laps after leading the field out of the pits from a stop-and-go pit stop (this year, a four-tire stop will be required).

“We’re going to put a little emphasis on all the laps,” vice president of competition Robin Pemberton said. “You’re going to have to run all the laps. Run up front and run hard.”

Chad Knaus, Johnson’s crew chief, said he “kind of liked” the previous format for obvious reasons. “Obviously, nobody enjoyed what we did last year,” said Knaus, who guided Johnson to Sunday’s victory in the Daytona 500. “But we all play with the rules we’re given.”

Pemberton said it was undetermined if pit selection still would be determined by the Sprint Pit Crew Challenge, whose future is cloudy.

NASCAR: Sprint All-Star Race will discourage sandbagging with $1 million bonus is a post from: PhatzRadio.com

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