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Filed under: Jamie McMurray, Juan Pablo Montoya, Ryan Newman, Tony Stewart, NASCAR Testing, Sprint Cup, Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing, Stewart-Haas Racing, NASCAR, Charlotte Motor Speedway

KANNAPOLIS, N.C. -- Painted high on the walls of the sprawling setup room at the Stewart-Haas Racing team shop here are inspirational quotes from Winston Churchill, Thomas Paine, Lyndon B. Johnson and Vince Lombardi, among others, as well as Satchel Paige, the legendary African-American baseball player who made his name as a pitcher rather than a great politician or statesman.

Yet it is Paige's quote -- "Don't look back, something might be gaining on you" -- that seems to best typify the dead-of-winter mood in the race shops scattered around the greater Charlotte area.

Nearly all the teams and drivers are once again filled with hope and enthusiasm, but everyone has to be wondering nonetheless how their season will play out. Will they be competitive right out of the box? Have other teams gained some kind of a little advantage?

"It's just who made the bigger gains" during the off-season and preparing for 2011, said Tony Stewart as the annual Charlotte Motor Speedway media tour, with some 200 media members in attendance, made a stop at his Kannapolis shop Monday afternoon for a visit with him and teammate Ryan Newman.

Chip Ganassi, co-owner of Earnhardt Ganassi Racing, echoed the thought earlier Monday during a luncheon with the team. Although both of his drivers, Jamie McMurray and Juan Pablo Montoya, won races in 2010, "there are lots of places we can improve," he said. "You're looking at that all the time. It's a constant process of looking at yourself and looking at the team."

 

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Filed under: Kyle Busch, Mark Martin, Chevrolet, Nationwide Series, Sprint Cup, Hendrick Motorsports, Camping World Truck Series, NASCAR

Just when we thought Mark Martin might be winding up his long and storied career as a NASCAR driver, he's decided to jump back in with both feet in 2011 by running races in all three of NASCAR's national touring series.

In his final, lame-duck year with Hendrick Motorsports in the Sprint Cup series, Martin has decided to also run selected Nationwide series and Camping World Truck series events for Turner Motorsports.

Martin will drive the No. 32 Dollar General Chevrolet in Nationwide races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Ca., Michigan International Speedway and Kentucky Speedway, with Trent Owens serving as his crew chief, the team announced Wednesday.

Martin will also drive the No. 32 Chevy Silverado truck in NASCAR Truck series races at Michigan as well as Pocono Raceway.

"I'm excited to be running back in the Nationwide and Truck Series again," said Martin. "Everyone at Dollar General and Turner Motorsports has been great and I'm looking forward to hitting the track with them next year. Working with Turner, I get to extend my relationship with Chevrolet and continue to have Hendrick horsepower under the hood, which is really, really good."

 

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Filed under: Bobby Labonte, Jamie McMurray, Jeff Burton, Kurt Busch, Mark Martin, Daytona Int'l Speedway, NASCAR Testing, Sprint Cup, NASCAR

As defending Daytona 500 champion Jamie McMurray made his first laps on the repaved Daytona International Speedway Wednesday, the newness of it all was mildly overwhelming at first.

"Honestly, from my first 15-lap run in the draft, it took awhile to take it all in and kinda understand what was happening," McMurray said of the first of two days of Goodyear tire tests on the 2.5-mile speedway's new pavement. "When we unloaded, the cars seemed really wide and the track seemed narrow. But, really, after running 20 or 30 laps, it was not scary and was not that big of a deal.

"Today (Thursday), when I got out there, it felt way more comfortable and you kinda learn little tricks and stuff."

What they also learned, McMurray and other drivers said Thursday at a press conference at the speedway, is that because the new surface is so smooth and fast and so much easier to drive, big packs of cars will stay together longer, and that means the chances of big crashes are greater.

"It's gonna be different racing than what we've had in the past," McMurray said. "The cars are going to stay bunched up more. When you're really close together, it increases those chances" of a big crash, McMurray said. "You just gotta hope that you can make it to the end, because the odds [of a crash] are going to be really good, I'd say."

Barring a huge mistake or problem, "you're not going to the lose the draft," said Jeff Burton. "It's going to be big packs all the time. Three-wide is work. Four-wide is a wreck. Because of the mentality of superspeedway racing. there's going to be efforts to go four-wide to pick up positions, and when that starts happening, it's going to be get hairy."

 

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Filed under: Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin, Jamie McMurray, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Chase for the Sprint Cup, Sprint Cup, NASCAR

Twenty years ago, when I started covering NASCAR stock car racing, the sanctioning body's public relations staff consisted almost exclusively of one man who ran 'his' media centers in the same dictatorial manner that his boss, the late Bill France Jr., ran NASCAR.

That PR guy is now doing hard time in prison, but that's another story. Today, the many-tentacled NASCAR public relations operation is a media bureaucracy -- an endlessly churning mill of facts, figures, videos, press conferences, photos and other information and content.

In their efficiency and zeal, bless their hearts, the PR folks at NASCAR have informed us exactly which five of the season's 36 Sprint Cup races were the best of the year. Although I don't agree with all the choices -- I think the race in Texas last month was one of the best races I've seen in years -- NASCAR says these five were selected "from discussions with the national series director, competition department and NASCAR PR managers."

 

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Filed under: Crew Chiefs, Sprint Cup, NASCAR

No driver competing in NASCAR's two top series showed greater disparity in results in 2010 than Brad Keselowski, who won the Nationwide series championship with six victories while eking out a couple of top-10 finishes in a forgettable Sprint Cup campaign.

Both cars came from Penske Racing, and when Roger Penske is involved, nonperformance won't stand.

Thus, the organization announced Tuesday that Paul Wolfe, Keselowski's championship-winning crew chief in Nationwide, has been promoted to become his Sprint Cup crew chief, replacing Jay Guy.

In addition to the six victories and the championship, Keselowski and Wolfe scored 29 top-10 finishes in 35 races. Twenty six of those were top fives -- a series single-season record. He also won five poles, led 1,147 laps and had an average finish of 5.2.

By contrast, in his Sprint Cup car, Keselowski had no victories, one pole position, no top fives and just two top 10s -- 10th-place finishes at Martinsville and Talladega late in the season. He led 41 laps and had an average finish of 22.4.

 

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Filed under: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Denny Hamlin, Elliott Sadler, Jimmie Johnson, Juan Pablo Montoya, Kasey Kahne, Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr., NASCAR Crashes, Sprint Cup, Joey Logano, FanHouse Exclusive, NASCAR

Marcos Ambrose, NASCAR's Aussie driver, did not let a mid-season surge in futility by Elliott Sadler deter him from capturing the season 'championship' in yellow-flag crashes and spins.

Coming on strong during the final eight races with seven spins or crashes, including a final spin (at right) during the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Ambrose easily outdistanced the competition in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series to post a season-leading 19 incidents and win the title by two.

Sadler, meanwhile, found uncommon consistency in the final stretch, chalking up only a single yellow flag in an incident at Martinsville Speedway during the last eight races. That brought his season total to 15, a number easily surpassed not only by Ambrose, but by hard-luck Sam Hornish Jr., who reached the second-highest total of 17 after the misfortune of four more incidents in the final eight races, including two in the Martinsville race.

Kyle Busch and Joey Logano were tied for fourth in our exclusive FanHouse crash and spin roundup, with 14 incidents apiece.

Drivers involved in 13 spins or crashes in the 36-race schedule, or one every three races, were Kurt Busch, Kasey Kahne, Brad Keselowski and Juan Pablo Montoya.

In our tally, we count an incident on a driver's tally if his car is listed as being involved in a spin or a crash that brings out a yellow flag. Caution periods caused by stalled cars, engine failures or debris do not count, unless a spin or crash was involved and a car number listed.

 

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Filed under: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Mark Martin, Crew Chiefs, Pit Crews, Sprint Cup, Hendrick Motorsports, NASCAR

Although Dale Earnhardt Jr., winner of 18 career Sprint Cup races, has now stretched his winless streak at Hendrick Motorsports to 101 races, that's only part of the reason for the massive shakeup announced Tuesday, team owner Rick Hendrick said Wednesday.

"This was not a Dale Earnhardt ... this was not a move that we made -- this major a move -- because of Dale or his situation," Hendrick said Wednesday in a teleconference. "I'm excited about making all four teams better. We need to be better across the board. It was a move to make all four better."

It's hard to think that a racing juggernaut like Hendrick Motorsports, with five straight Sprint Cup championships in the history books and gunning for six in a row next year, might be going downhill.

But Hendrick said as much Wednesday in describing why he shuffled the drivers and crew chiefs among three of his teams and switched driver partners in the twin pairing arrangement he has for the four teams at the organization's sprawling Concord, N.C. complex.

"I think we just kind of got complacent and other teams were getting stronger and stronger, and we were just not where we needed to be," Hendrick said. "We just were off this year. The 48 was off. And we needed to make a lot of things better.

 

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Filed under: Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Chase for the Sprint Cup, Sprint Cup, NASCAR

The Jimmie Johnson dynasty in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series stretched to half a decade at Homestead-Miami Speedway Sunday as the most dominant driver the sport has ever seen won his fifth straight championship with a second-place finish in the Ford 400 season finale.

As Carl Edwards motored to his second straight victory in as many weeks, leading 190 laps, Johnson fought back from early pit problems, settled into his regular routine and came on at the end to seal the title.

For Edwards, the two consecutive victories came after a 70-race winless streak.

"This is unreal," Edwards said in victory lane. "It's a great way to finish the season. I think the way we're going, if we can start like that, our Aflac team will have a shot at them next year.

"To finish like this is unreal. It's just these guys not giving up. We don't give up. We've had just an unbelievable run toward the end of this season. It's just a great way to end the season."

The championship battle was a nail-biting contest whose complexion changed time and time again throughout the 267-lap event.

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Filed under: Nationwide Series, NASCAR

As Kyle Busch motored to a comfortable victory in the Nationwide season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway Saturday, Danica Patrick led her first lap in NASCAR racing before settling for a 19th-place finish, nonetheless her best ever in the series.

Busch dominated the event before winning by about a second over Kevin Harvick. Series champion Brad Keselowski was third, followed by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Trevor Bayne.

It was Busch's record-settiing 13th victory in the Nationwide series this year, and it clinched the owner's championship for Joe Gibbs Racing, even though Keselowski won the driver's title. Busch did not run in every race this year and thus did not compete for the driver's title.

"That says it all right there, boys!" Busch shouted on his radio as he took the checkered flag. "You guys are the stuff. I can't do it without you guys. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

"This is fun," he added while still circling the track. "This is what it is all about. I wish I had something for tomorrow, but we'll play with teammates tomorrow and try to get them one."

 

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Filed under: Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Chase for the Sprint Cup, Crew Chiefs, Sprint Cup, NASCAR

Denny Hamlin is said to be over his minor meltdown after the Phoenix race, and his crew chief, Mike Ford, is feeling good because they've had the best car and done the most winning down the stretch in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

Kevin Harvick is bringing a new car to the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway this weekend and as the third-place driver, will race flat out, crew chief Gil Martin said. But before Harvick goes for broke, the team is hanging out the "Gone Fishing" sign and headed to the Keys.

And Jimmie Johnson? Well, he's just a better driver than the other two, or so says crew chief Chad Knaus.

It may be that some of the things said Tuesday in a triple-header media conference featuring the three contending crew chiefs will - for motivational purposes - end up taped to one or another team's tool box in the garage at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Or it may be that it's just a lot of hot air that disappears into the air like so much exhaust smoke out of their engines.

 

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