Just two more weeks until NASCAR sets the field for the Chase to the Sprint Cup. Leading the news this week was Danica Patrick’s announcement that she would run a full-time Nationwide schedule beginning in 2012 with JR Motorsports. She also announced she would run eight to 10 Cup races for Stewart Haas Racing. In other news, speculation continues to run rampant about the future of Clint Bowyer. The driver’s been tied, in various reports, to Michael Waltrip Racing, Richard Petty Motorsports and Richard Childress Racing as well as sponsors 5-Hour Energy and UPS. This is the NASCAR week that was, August 21 to 27, 2011.
SPEED Center About To Play Bigger Role
Pressure mounts with three to go
Tony Stewart Seeks Driver to Split 2012 Schedule
Richard Petty Motorsports makes offer to Clint Bowyer
Vintage Insiders
Hendrick Only Winner In Kahne To Red Bull Deal
Team Press Releases: The Good, The Bad (Sorry There’s No Ugly)
**Remember if you have a NASCAR blog or website and would like a recent article you wrote featured in this section email me and you could be part of next week’s NASCAR Week That Was. Please only send stuff you have written.**
TheNASCARInsiders.com Follow the Insiders on Twitter or be a fan on Facebook!
Carl Edwards led the news this week as he ended months of speculation about his future in 2012 and beyond by re-signing with Roush Fenway Racing. Edwards, widely rumored to be considering a move to Joe Gibbs Racing, signed a multi-year deal that included incentives from team partner Ford. In other news, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Hendrick Motorsports are close to a contract extension. The two have been together since Earnhardt Jr. left Dale Earnhardt Inc. in 2008. And finally, rumors continue to swirl about Danica Patrick’s full-time move to NASCAR next season. The Associated Press reported this week that Patrick is in the final stages of a deal to drive full-time in the Nationwide Series with JR Motorsports and part-time in the Cup Series with Stewart-Haas Racing. This is the NASCAR week that was, July 31 to August 6, 2011.
NASCAR TV’s New Lightning Rod
Money, a meeting and the Modern Era of NASCAR
Injuries force Pastrana to delay his NASCAR debut
Carl Edwards’ decision delayed Silly Season, but didn’t stop it
Kligerman Quietly Making Progress
Canada On My Mind
As I heard Pastor Joe Nelms’ invocation on Saturday night, I, like everyone, chuckled at the absolute absurdity of the thing. I wasn’t sure if I was watching a prayer, or a scene from Talladega Nights. As the night wore on and one day has turned into two, the more I’ve thought about it, the more embarrassed I’ve become.
From local television sportscasters to national news outlets, this story has become much larger than it needed to be. Unfortunately, while I’m sure most people have their opinions of NASCAR and racing, this may very well have been the first exposure for some. Not a flattering portrait.
In his defense, Pastor Nelms told Sirius Radio’s Tradin’ Paint Monday that the purpose of the prayer was to do something out of the ordinary.
I want to get somebody’s attention, so that’s been our desire every time we’ve been up there, to try to make an impact on the fans and give them something they’ll remember and maybe they’ll go home on a Friday night or a Saturday night and say, “Maybe I ought to get up and go to church in the morning.’’
While I can understand the point, by trying to reach people Pastor Nelms fed into every negative, ignorant stereotype that has ever surrounded motorsports – and I don’t think he did any favors to his cause.
Former Motor Racing Outreach chaplain Dale Beaver took to his church’s blog to address the issue.
As a race-car driver considers his approach to every turn, we must surely consider our approach to God before we pray. God’s desire is that we come to him, but we must conclude that as we do so, even as coming to our father, we address him with great confidence and unique respect. In every culture (even the racing sub-culture) there is a line between relevance and farce which, in prayer, just does not fit.
No matter your personal religious convictions, whether you believe in God or not, I think what Pastor Beaver said makes a lot of sense. While challenging convention and being controversial is not necessarily a bad thing, this was probably not the way to do it.
The fact is, people weren’t talking about this and replaying the clip of it out of some great admiration or respect for what was said. They weren’t inspired by it and I doubt there was much consideration of church attendance. People were watching this because they wanted to make fun of it and that’s not good for anything.
Just past the halfway point of the season, with just seven races until the Chase begins, several teams have decided now is the prefect time to start making some serious changes on the ground.
Roush Fenway Racing announced last week Greg Erwin was being replaced by Matt Puccia as Greg Biffle’s crew chief. The #16 team hasn’t performed as well this season as past seasons and the strain was apparent between Biffle and Erwin. Prior to this past weekend the pair had just one top-five and five top-10s – they sat 14th in the points.
With the first week under their belts, Puccia led Biffle to a 16th place finish – not a rousing start, but we’ll give the pair a little more than a week to make any judgments.
While Greg Erwin was out of a job for a few days, he found a new home just down the block at Richard Petty Motorsports, working with AJ Allmendinger. Allmendinger was with crew chief Mike Shiplett for most of the last three seasons. Together the two have scored three top-fives, 14 top-10s and one pole. Their best full season points finish is 19th, last season. The two haven’t had a bad run together, but things could definitely be better. Erwin has the experience and success at the sport’s top level, but does he have the support at RPM? Time will tell.
Earnhardt Ganassi Racing announced this week Juan Pablo Montoya would get his fourth different crew chief in less than five seasons. The driver’s been with immediate past crew chief Brian Pattie since the midway point of 2008. This was after stints with Donnie Wingo and Jimmy Elledge. Together, Pattie and Montoya have scored one win, 16 top-fives and 39 top-10s. These are solid statistics for Pattie to be proud of.
This season though has been a struggle for both EGR teams. And after issues like last season’s Brickyard 400, Montoya’s and Pattie’s relationship has been less than great. If there is a lesson to learn, it’s that when Juan’s not happy, no one’s happy.
Is Jim Pohlman any more the answer to Montoya’s performance issues than Elledge and Pattie were? Again, only time will tell.
So how do you feel about the crew chief shifts? Do you expect swift performance improvements? Any of the moves better than others? Let us know!
Earlier this week we reported that International Trucks (Navistar) had signed on with Germain Racing for this weekend. The company has been with Randy Moss Motorsports since last year.
Later in the day, Dave Moody and his “sources” “confirmed” what we had already reported – something he has done five times since last August.
He has occasionally cited “internet rumors” or “published reports” (that’s us) but has never given credit for what led him down the path to these stories. It was a strange coincidence given that in most, or all of those five cases we were the only two reporting on them – TNI always being the first.
TC decided last night to call out the coincidence on Twitter. He tweeted:
Love how every time we break a story, @DGodFatherMoody and Sirius Speedway “confirm” it… #nascar
Moody responded on Twitter this morning with:
@nascarinsider Oh please. The day we need you for a source… Enuf already with the self-important, anonymous NASCAR wannabe “insiders.” If you’re so proud of your journalism skills, sign your name.
@nascarinsider Oh please. The day we need you for a source…
Enuf already with the self-important, anonymous NASCAR wannabe “insiders.” If you’re so proud of your journalism skills, sign your name.
Well, the fact is Moody’s claim that he hasn’t used us as a source is at best dubious. Case in point, last season we reported first Mike Skinner was being replaced by Travis Kvapil at Randy Moss Motorsports. Moody, working to “confirm” the story with Skinner, blogged: “Skinner is saying little about published reports.” As we were the first and only place reporting on it, I can surmise we were the published reports he refers to and I can only assume that’s how he heard about it. Sounds like a source to me.
I digress from this because the purpose of this post is not to attempt to fact check erroneous statements made by a sportscaster, or argue with his justification that it’s acceptable not to cite sources just because they write anonymously. What Moody said though got me thinking about the relevance of our identity.
We started this blog three years ago as a way to report on credible rumors we hear and our opinions when we have them. The anonymous nature of the blog came out of a realization that our day jobs wouldn’t really allow us to do this how we thought it needed to be done: honestly.
We understood from the very beginning that in order to be taken seriously we were going to have to be as transparent as possible in the areas we could still be transparent. When we make mistakes (and we do) we own up to them, we source as much of our information as possible and yearly we provide a score card of our actual “news” reporting. In instances where we broke news, so far, we have reported 38 stories correctly, 5 pushes and 5 wrong.
Personally, I think that says a lot more about us than a name, or our biographical information – at the very least we’re well connected within the sport. The truth is, we have never done this for personal glory, or as “The Godfather” Dave Moody suggested, to feel “important.” Common sense would tell us if that was the purpose our names would be all over this thing and we would be doing all of the interviews that we’re offered. Neither TC nor I get off feeling “important” behind a computer screen.
This blog is part-time entertainment that we take part in, that actually costs us money, intended solely for the purpose of giving fans a little insight into the sport. We hope we have, at least marginally, succeeded in doing that.
I’ve always been of the school of thought that what a journalist (or in our case, blogger) wrote or said was a lot more important than who the journalist (or blogger) was. After all, who are any of the people who make up the sport’s ever shrinking press corps? In being anonymous we’ve totally gotten rid of the issue of who we are and made what we reported and wrote the sole factor in determining our credibility. If we weren’t writing honest, factual pieces, or were just making up rumors, this site wouldn’t have made it very far – with or without our names.
In more than three years, 1,036 posts and an ever expanding audience all we’ve sought to do is fill what we saw as a void in the marketplace – creating a positive, constructive place for fans to learn and talk about the sport we all love.
Being anonymous has required us to work a lot harder to win your trust and loyalty, but it has allowed us to bring you things and tell you things we wouldn’t have been able to otherwise. Along the way we’ve had our critics and haven’t made a ton of fans in the NASCAR media, but none of that has mattered. We’re proud of what we’ve done here and we hope our track record says more about who we are than our real names ever could.
FoxSports first reported Monday that Greg Erwin had been replaced as crew chief for Greg Biffle’s #16 at Roush Fenway Racing. Matt Puccia, who was working on Roush’s R&D team, was announced as Erwin’s successor beginning this weekend.
Erwin and Biffle have struggled this season capturing just one top-five and five top-tens – they sit 14th in the points. Biffle finished an abysmal 21st on Sunday. Compare that to his teammates: an eighth place finish for David Ragan, a sixth place finish for Matt Kenseth and a fifth place finish for Carl Edwards. Those three also have at least one win each and combine for a total of four.
Still, the move came as a bit of a surprise. Together Erwin and Biffle have racked up four wins and three Chase appearances – including a third place points finish in 2008. For all intents and purposes, it’s been a good marriage.
That apparently has been in flux recently. Biffle is known to harangue his crew and crew chief on the radio when he doesn’t think things are going like they should. We heard that this weekend’s ranting from Biffle was enough for Erwin and he told Roush management he had enough.
It sounds as if he’s still with the organization, but was unwilling to continue in his role as crew chief of the #16. Erwin is no doubt a talented crew chief, but no one can blame him for finally deciding it was time to move on.
As we say here so often, success in this sport is all about chemistry. When you’re driver is constantly telling you you’re “ruining his career” or are incompetent it’s only a matter of time before things start to sour.
While I don’t necessarily think Matt Puccia is the answer to Biffle’s performance issues this season, perhaps a change at the top will be enough to improve that all important chemistry. Good luck to Matt Puccia in his new endeavor – I think he may need it.
We’ve seen a few stories emerge over the last few weeks in the NASCAR world that have made some wonder, including myself, how far is too far? It seems that some have set aside ethics and the principles of responsible reporting in exchange for page views. If you follow the sport closely, and are active on social media, you know which stories I’m referring to. I realize that many writers do so professionally and that page views pay the bills, but at some point a line needs to be drawn. There is a very clear difference between reporting actual news and pandering to voyeurs.
I know some of you may find this shocking, but as much as you love your favorite drivers, it’s important to remember they are not perfect humans. Everyone has made mistakes, and everybody has problems. But just because they are race drivers and somewhat public figures, it shouldn’t automatically mean that what goes on in their personal lives is news. They have their right to privacy just like you and I do. Some have shown they’ve forgotten this.
Being a part of the NASCAR press corp means spending a great deal of time at the race track and getting access to a lot of players. Along the way, these folks will be privy to information and stories that should never see the light of day. All the talk, gossip, and rumors they hear can be compelling, but they have absolutely no place in print anywhere. It’s been made clear that some cannot handle the responsibility of their access.
Coming from a communications and journalism background, my partner Journo knows these issues well. As part of our conversation about me writing this post, Journo shared with me the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics. If you do any writing, it’s a document you should become familiar with. Under the section entitled “Minimize Harm,” one particular statement stands out to me: “Show good taste. Avoid pandering to lurid curiosity.” In a few of these recent cases, this absolutely did not happen. The curiosity that some have was used to shamelessly drive traffic to websites and gain the writers notoriety. And that’s wrong.
In the position we are in, we’ve often been asked to provide information or comment on situations regarding drivers personal lives and things that happen away from the race track. In all cases, we’ve politely declined. Yes, we are connected and yes, we are anonymous. But what we do is more about giving you an inside look at the sport and providing news and commentary about the competition, than it is about becoming NASCAR’s version of TMZ. We just flat out won’t do it.
In the end, I’m really disappointed by what we’ve witnessed. This is one of those cases where the platform that technology affords some people turns ugly. I don’t know about you, but I’ve definitely lost a great deal of respect for those who chose to report on these items.
NASCAR rolled into Charlotte for the first week of fun and festivities leading up to the Coca-Cola 600. F1-champ Kimi Raikkonen’s NASCAR debut led the news this week as he prepared to run Friday’s Camping World Truck Series race with Kyle Busch Motorsports. Raikkonen finished 15th in the race. He plans to run the Nationwide race next weekend. In other news, Denny Hamlin’s #11 crew became the first repeat winners of the Sprint Pit Crew Challenge on Thursday. The team beat the #48 crew to take home the honors. This is the NASCAR week that was, May 15 to 21, 2011.
The road to relevance
Split-screen commercials coming to the Chase
France defines probation, defends boys have at it & discusses shorter races
Saving all year for days at the track
Marcos Ambrose proves he can hold his own on ovals
Dale Jr. Isn’t Just Another Pretty Face
Politics Is NASCAR’s Problem
It feels like the season just started and wouldn’t you know it, we’re already almost a week into all the great events taking place in Charlotte in the lead up to the Coca-Cola 600.
If you’re in town, or on your way, below is a list of things for you to do while you’re here. If you know of an event occurring in town not listed please feel free to add it in the comments.
We hope you enjoy your time in the Queen City!
Friday, May 20 – Support Hospice and Palliative Care of Iredell County with a charity BBQ featuring NASCAR legend Bobby Allison and live music. Tickets are $50. More info here.
Friday, May 20 & Saturday, May 21 – Want to see racing away from the big track? Check out all the happenings at the Concord Motorsports Park. More info here.
Monday, May 23 – NASCAR Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony – Tickets still remain to see the second class inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Tickets begin at $55. More info here.
Wednesday, May 25 – Michael Waltrip Racing Fifth Annual Fan Day – Join the Michael Waltrip Racing family of drivers for autographs, musical entertainment, food, pit stop practices and more. More info here.
Thursday, May 26 – Roush Fenway Racing Fan Day. Meet your favorite Roush Fenway drivers, enjoy live music and check out the Roush Museum. All for free! Tickets are distributed for autograph sessions. More info here.
Thursday, May 26 – Get autographs from your favorite Earnhardt Ganassi Racing drivers. Wristbands for the session will be available at the EGR giftshop beginning Monday. More info here.
Thursday, May 26 – Richard Petty Motorsports Fan Appreciation Day – See displays, get a shop tour and get autographs from Richard Petty, AJ Allmendinger and Marcos Ambrose. Tickets distributed to first 200 fans with a 24 pack of pencils for Classroom Central. More info here.
Thursday, May 26 – Saturday, May 28 – Food Lion Speed Street – Don’t miss this favorite event for fans and Charlotteans alike. See great musical acts like Josh Turner and Everclear, get autographs from your favorite drivers and pick up some swag. All events are free. The event takes place in Uptown Charlotte. For a complete list of events, click here.
Thursday, May 26 – Monday, May 30 – Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s JR Motorsports will host open house activities including an autograph session Friday. Tickets for the autograph session are free and available at the team’s gift shop Friday, May 28. More info here.
Friday, May 27 – Red Bull Racing Fan Day – In classic, cool Red Bull style, join Kasey Kahne, Brian Vickers and Cole Whitt at the Epicentre in Uptown Charlotte for autographs, drawings and pit stop demos. Autograph tickets will be handed out at the Epicentre beginning at 11am Friday. More info here.
Friday, May 27 – Charlotte Motor Speedway Track Walk – Get down on the racing surface before the cars do for the 600. Walk the track, enjoy a free cookout and spend time with some of your favorite drivers. Free to Coca-Cola 600 ticket holders. More info here.
Friday, May 27 – There’s no racing at the big track on Friday, so head over to the Dirt Track at Charlotte across the street and check out the Circle K NOS Energy Outlaw Showdown with all your favorite WOO stars. More info here.
Saturday, May 28 – Check out racing at Hickory Motor Speedway, the “birthplace of NASCAR stars.” More info here.
From Tony Stewart to Jennifer Jo Cobb, check out this great, and very complete, list of driver appearances during race weeks in Charlotte. More info here.
Race Shop Tours – Get a map and enjoy driving around the North Carolina Piedmont to see all of your favorite team shops. More info here.
Janet Biggs Exhibit at the Mint Museum Uptown – Want a little art and culture mixed with racing? Check out this exhibit from artist Janet Biggs combining video and the choreography of Joe Gibbs Racing’s pit crews. More info here.
Lancaster’s – Looking for good barbecue and a racing atmosphere? Lancaster’s has a ton of racing memorabilia – you can even eat in a converted school bus painted like Dale Earnhardt’s Wrangler ride. More info here.
NASCAR Hall of Fame – The year old NASCAR Hall of Fame in Center City Charlotte, is a 150,000-square-foot interactive, entertainment attraction honoring the history and heritage of NASCAR. More info here.
Occoneechee Speedway – Take a day trip up to Hillsborough, North Carolina to see the Occoneechee Speedway (formerly the Orange Speedway). It is the only remaining dirt track from the 1949 season. It is heavily overgrown, but the Historic Speedway Group has converted the track into a walking trail and reconstructed some of the out buildings. It is free and definitely worth the trip if you enjoy NASCAR history.
Memory Lane Museum - A neat museum with a ton of cool, old race cars and racing memorabilia. $10 entry fee. More info here.
North Carolina Auto Racing Hall of Fame – Located across the street from Roush Fenway’s old Mooresville shop, the NCARHOF has interesting cars and artifacts chronicling North Carolina’s motorsports history. They have a $6 entry fee. Don’t forget to check out the Walk of Fame in Downtown Mooresville too. More info here.
The Dale Trail – Check out some of the highlights of Dale Earnhardt’s life and career on the trail that takes you from Mooresville to Concord. More info here.
Driver Haunts – Want to eat at some favorites of NASCAR crew members and drivers? Check out Vinnie’s Raw Bar, Hickory Tavern, and Big Daddy’s in Mooresville, The Rusty Rudder in Cornelius, and Fox and Hound and Red Rocks in Huntersville.
CharlotteCultureGuide.com
Charlotte’s Got A Lot
Charlotte Observer Calendar
*If we get any updates we’ll be sure to update this information. Enjoy!
Just when I start to think the season has settled down, we go and have a weekend like that – a surprise winner, some interesting wreck damage and a feud that will undoubtedly overshadow everything else.
Let’s talk first about the guy who should be getting the bulk of the attention: Regan Smith. The 27-year-old driver has no doubt had a tumultuous career. He’s made stops at places like Ginn Racing and DEI. And he ALMOST had that win at Talladega in 2008. Without that, he was winless in his NASCAR career.
After getting dumped by DEI in 2008, Furniture Row Racing took a chance on him, and he them. Understandably, it was a little improbable that this small team away from the center of the NASCAR world would win a non-restrictor plate race. Thanks to solid equipment from RCR, and an obvious knack for recruiting talent out to Denver, the team earned a solid win Saturday night. For that the team and Regan Smith should be very proud.
Oh and guess what? We have now had eight different winners in ten races. That is crazy considering we’re almost a third of the way through the season and a picture of the level of competition that exists right now.
Now on to this weekend’s battle royale. In a weekend that started with Ryan Newman, perhaps, punching Juan Pablo Montoya, I guess it shouldn’t have been surprising that it ended with Kevin Harvick trying to punch Kyle Busch.
I’ll let you judge the initial incident for yourself. What followed was an angry Kevin Harvick going after an unusually timid Kyle Busch.
I think the long and short of this one is that there are limits to “boys, have at it” and Kyle Busch found them Saturday night. By pushing Harvick’s car out of the way he endangered the safety of not just Kevin Harvick, but dozens of crew guys, various team personnel, NASCAR officials and many others on pit road at the time. That is unacceptable.
Given what occurred, I would be shocked if NASCAR doesn’t dole out a penalty to Busch. They need to send a message that screwing around in a race car on pit road is not OK. And I’m guessing that was the message that was sent in the NASCAR hauler. Tick-tock to Tuesday.
This weekend continues what has been a very interesting season so far. The storylines have been fantastic and the competition great. Though I find the auxillary issues interesting, I hope Regan Smith’s win isn’t overshadowed this week by the noise.
With that, feel free to sound off on Darlington. What do you think about the Busch/Harvick incident? Should there be penalties? How about Regan Smith’s against-the-odds win? Talk amongst yourselves.