Posts Tagged ‘NASCAR’

Now that the Daytona 500 dust has settled for most of the cup teams, it’s time to head to California.

All the time, effort and changes the teams have put into their race teams is about to show. Not day Daytona wasn’t important but stats show that the past couple of winners, Ryan Newman in 2008 and Matt Kenseth in 2009  didn’t make the Chase for the Cup championship. Kenseth even made it two wins in a row at California and struggled the rest of the season to finish 14th in the points.

Kevin Harvick won the big race in 2007, finished 10th in the standings and hasn’t won a Cup race since.

On the other hand, a bad day in the 500 isn’t a disaster, either.

That’s the reason that four-time defending Cup champion Jimmie Johnson isn’t all that worried his fourth
consecutive bad start at Daytona. This time, it was a flat tire late in the race that relegated Double J to a 35th-place finish.

No worries. He’s got 25 more races to make up for that bad day and put himself among the 12 drivers who qualify for the 10-race Chase. And Johnson goes into this season as the only driver to have made it into the Chase every year since it began in 2004.

Denny Hamlin, who hopes to be the driver to unseat Johnson as champion, got off to a so-so start at Daytona, finishing 17th. But he’s looking forward to starting to find the groove in California.

“Why is this race at California important? “ Hamlin said. “All of our hard work over the off-season is going to show up right here in California. This is the first real race track that we go to where the setups are going to matter, the driving and all that is a lot different.

“This is our first real race of 2010 that’s not a superspeedway. It’s a big one for us because it kind of gives everyone a gauge of if we were heading in the right direction during the off season or not.’’

McMurray, who won Daytona in his first race for Earnhardt Ganassi Racing, is anxious to see how the team stacks up on the intermediate tracks that make up the bulk of the Cup schedule. Teammate Juan Pablo Montoya was solid on the 1 ½ and 2 mile ovals a year ago, racing well enough to make the Chase.

“Certainly going and running well at Fontana is the goal from here on out,’’ McMurray said. “As far as putting any thought into what the previous three (Daytona winners) have done, I’m not really paying any attention to that kind of stuff.’’

Now teams need to considerate on the rest of the season and let the past be the past.

Dale Earnhardt JR. had a great finish in the 500 and hopes to keep the momentum going into to this week at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. Hopefully he can show to his fans and doubter that he can drive a race car.

“That’s great, but we have to see what happens at California, Las Vegas and Atlanta,’’ Junior noted. “If we run good at a couple of those races, then we’All know all that work that was done, all the changes that were made over the winter, are paying off.’’

But the Daytona 500 is a season of it’s own. And it’s over.

Speed TV contributed to this report.

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Todd Parrott has been named crew chief of Roush Fenway Racing’s No. 17 Ford, effective immediately.

Drew Blickensderfer, who has served as crew chief on the No. 17, driven by Matt Kenseth, since the start of the 2009 season, will assume a role in Roush Fenway’s research and development department.

Blickensderfer replaced as crew chief of No. 17 Ford

T. Parrott takes over after team finished eighth at Daytona

Kenseth finished eighth in the season-opening race at Daytona on Sunday.

Parrott, who won the Cup Series championship with Dale Jarrett in 1999, has the third-most wins — 29 — among active crew chiefs in the Cup Series.

Blickensderfer and Kenseth came out of the box hot in 2009, winning the first two races of the year, at Daytona and Fontana. However, that success was short-lived.

Kenseth, the 2003 Cup Series champion, struggled throughout the remainder of the season — only 10 top-10 finishes in the final 34 races — and posted a 15.4 average finish and also missed the Chase for the first time since the system was implemented in 2004. He finished 14th in points.

Parrott was given his first opportunity as crew chief in fall 1995, when he accepted a position at Robert Yates Racing to lead Ernie Irvan’s team. Parrott teamed up with Jarrett for the 1996 season.

Parrott also served as general manager for Robert Yates Racing briefly in 2003, then resumed crew chief duties for Elliott Sadler, David Gilliland and Travis Kvapil while with Yates.

Last year, Parrott was the crew chief for Bobby Labonte and the No. 96 team. The duo also worked together at Petty Enterprises.

NASCAR.com contributed to this report.

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At the Texas Motor Speedway Cup drivers Tony Stewart, Kurt Busch, Greg Biffle and Brian Vickers became the first to conduct an on-track test with a new aluminum spoiler package that could be implemented for the 2010 season during the Goodyear Tire test at Texas Motor Speedway on Tuesday.

Stewart was the first of the group to test the spoiler in the morning session, which was delayed nearly two hours from its 9 a.m. CT start time due to moisture on the 1.5-mile, high-banked oval from heavy morning dew.

The session kicked off at approximately 10:53 a.m. with temperatures in the 60s as Stewart rolled out with the wing and less than 40 minutes later was utilizing the spoiler. Vickers also got an opportunity to run the spoiler in the abbreviated morning session.

By the reaction of the drivers it seems like NASCAR is going in the right direction with the spoiler change.

NASCAR has not determined the specific dimensions as yet for the spoiler, but the one that was being used as a baseline at Tuesday’s
session was 64.5 inches wide and four inches in height with no contour in the design. Also, the rear quarter panels were extended four inches toward the ground.

NASCAR phased out the traditional spoiler on the rear deck lid of the Cup cars and went to a rear wing when the [new car] was unveiled in 2007. The return to the traditional look provides fans with the ability to differentiate between the four manufacturers more easily and hopefully enhance the passing ability of the cars and overall race action. Tuesday’s tire test was the first opportunity for drivers to test the package and provide feedback on its effects on the car.

Biffle and Busch had to wait until the afternoon session to test out the spoiler, with Busch not getting an opportunity until nearly the culmination of the session.

“With the spoiler on, the car had a looser feel to it,” Busch said. “The car was turning better and it felt like the car was sliding a bit more. ”

Stewart, Busch, Biffle and Vickers will conclude the Goodyear test Wednesday, where they are scheduled to test the spoiler package once
again. NASCAR will conduct another test with the spoiler March 23-24 at Charlotte Motor Speedway another 1.5-mile oval and sister track to TMS that will be open to all Cup teams.

“I think we’re stirring up the pot with the change, but it’s in a positive direction,” Busch said. “A lot of times NASCAR throws changes our way and the drivers and owners grumble about it.   With the spoiler, it seems like a positive reaction has been made already and just driving in it Tuesday, I don’t see any problem with it at all.”

If NASCAR is pleased with the progress and performance of the spoiler, the new package could be implemented for the Samsung Mobile 500 scheduled for April 15-18 at Texas Motor Speedway.

Earlier this year in Concord, N.C, a select number of drivers and NASCAR met at the R&D Center to discuss what would be the best way to move forward in the 2010 season.

At the top of the list from the technical side appears to be searching for a solution to keep Sprint Cup cars from lifting off the track during a spin. Consequently, NASCAR could introduce a spoiler for the new car as early as the Bristol or Martinsville race.

The spoiler change is for two reasons  to keep cars from launching and in response to fans’ dislike of the wing, according to NASCAR.

Ryan Newman, who was involved in a horrific crash at Talladega on Nov.1, said  he would welcome the change.

NASCAR.com

Fox Sports

contributed to this report.

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Everyone could see the pothole between turns 1 and 2 at Daytona International Speedway during the Daytona 500. What wasn’t so clear was whether or not the damage to the track was preventable.
There were two red flag periods during the Daytona 500 totaling over two and one half hours. (Photo: Getty Images For NASCAR) » More Photos

NASCAR and DIS workers eventually patched the hole, which grew to about 18-inches by 30-inches, after two race stoppages that lasted more than two hours, 25 minutes.

The track was last repaved in 1978, but DIS President Robin Braig said the age of the asphalt wasn’t the problem.

“It’s not unusually long [to not repave] at all because we’re in Florida,” Braig said. “We have the best temperature here. We keep such great care of our track. We walk it. We walked it [Sunday] morning. We walk it before every event.

“We know every inch. We saw no indications. We had two races [Saturday] on that track and we walked it again. This is something we couldn’t see.”

NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said that the sanctioning body did not have any indication that the heavy rains nor the cool temperatures had compromised the track during any of the other Speedweek races.

“There was no indication in any of the racing prior to the Daytona 500 that there were any issues with the track,” Poston said. “It was very unfortunate. There were no warning signs for this.”

NASCAR’s sanctioning agreement states that it can require a track to make any fixes necessary.

“Obviously their engineers are here, they’re going to make an assessment and we’ll be there with them and try to gain as much knowledge about the track as we can to see if it is a spot problem or a larger problem,” Poston said.

In all likelihood, the track will not be repaved before the NASCAR events on Independence Day weekend. Sister track Talladega
Superspeedway required five months to be repaved, and Daytona still has motorcycle racing scheduled through the first week of March before it could even start the process. There also needs to be ample time for tire testing because repaving would likely require a different tire specification from Goodyear.

Drivers are split on whether or not to repave the track, which would create higher speeds and also put handling at less of a premium.

“If you ask driver opinion, there’s clearly no consensus on repaving,” Poston said. “In fact, there’s probably closer to a consensus not to repave. But NASCAR’s role and the track’s role is to take in the safety and the maintenance of the track and those factors. They’re going to spend this week looking at it.

“The more laps you put down on the track, the more seasons it gets, the better the racing is. Some drivers, crew chiefs and spotters said yesterday may have been the best all-around racing we have ever had at that track. So the assessment needs to be whether there are patches in the track that need to be addressed or they need to repave the whole thing.”

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What another great race from Daytona International Speedway. Close racing just about all night with tons of lead changes. But Jammie McMurry driver of the #1 Tracker Boats Chevy Impala prevailed and took the checkered flag winning the 52nd running of the Daytona 500.

The adrenaline rush of the final two laps, the second attempt at a green-white-checkered-flag finish under rules implemented by NASCAR before Thursday’s Gatorade Duels, all but erased the frustration of almost 2½ hours of stoppages as track workers at Daytona International Speedway repaired potholes in the asphalt between Turns 1 and 2.

You couldn’t have asked for a more story book finish. When other teams wrote him off and even Jammie wasn’t sure where he would be for the 2010 season, owner Chip Ganassi  gave McMurry the chance to come back and drive for Earnhardt Ganassi racing.

“Oh, my God!” McMurray screamed after taking the checkered flag. “I can’t freaking believe it right now. Thank you so much. I can’t believe we just won the Daytona 500.”

Later,  in Victory Lane, McMurray fought back tears. Though he won one race last season at Roush Fenway Racing, he struggled in his final year there and was the odd man out from his team’s NASCAR-mandated reduction from five teams to four.

“It’s a dream — it really is,” he said. “To be where I was last year, and for Johnny Morris owner of sponsor Bass Pro Shops, Chip and co-owner Felix Sabates to take a chance on me and let me come back what a way to pay them back.”

With the new areo package and restrictor plate size, cars were not able to come up through the field like years past. There wasn’t a lot of drivers  sitting out back waiting to avoid the big wreck.

The Roush Fenway Ford Fusions look to be strong all night. Greg Biffle in the #16 3M car finished third, Matt Kenseth in the #17 Crown Royal car finished 8th and soon to be father Carl Edwards finished a respectable 9th place.

Clint Bowyer, who led 37 laps, finished fourth, followed by David Reutimann. Martin Truex Jr. and Kevin Harvick the 2009 Daytona 500 winner.

Under the new NASCAR rules the race leader must take the white flag and start the final lap under green before the race can end, unless three attempts at a green-white-checkered-flag finish are exhausted.

The field failed to make it to the white flag under green on a restart on Lap 203, because NASCAR called a caution for a wreck off Turn 2 involving Kasey Kahne, Tony Stewart, Robert Richardson and Jeff Gordon. By then, McMurray had rocketed to second position behind Harvick and restarted next to Harvick on Lap 207.

The push from Biffle gave McMurry the lead he need to win the race.

Coming into turn three on the last lap  McMurry look in his mirror only to see the #88 Chevy National Guard car driven by Dale Earnhardt Jr, McMurray said, “No!” but there wasn’t enough time for Jr to make a move for the win.

Nascar .com contributed to this report.

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