1. #48 Jimmie Johnson, 5156
2. #24-Jeff Gordon, 5090, -66
3. #14-Tony Stewart, 5085, -71
4. #11-Denny Hamlin, 4806, -350
5. #5-Mark Martin, 4762, -394
6. #2-Kurt Busch, 4758, -398
7. #16-Greg Biffle, 4541, -615
8. #42-Juan Pablo Montoya, 4503, -653
9. #18-Kyle Busch, 4457, -699
10. #39-Ryan Newman, 4447, -709
11. #99-Carl Edwards, 4398, -758
12. #17-Matt Kenseth, 4389, -767
13. #9-Kasey Kahne, 4388, -768
14. #33-Clint Bowyer, 4359, -797
15. #00-David Reutimann, 4221, -935
16. #83-Brian Vickers, 4122, -1034

No surprises here. As with the Chase points, Jimmie led into the finale at Homestead and only strengthened his lead. His nearest competitor going into Homestead under the old points system was Tony Stewart and do to his and Montoya’s on track antics, he didn’t finish very well.

As with last week, Mark Martin (finished 2nd) and Brian Vickers (finished 12th) were helped the most by the chase; Tony Stewart (finished 6th) and Kyle Busch (finished 13th) were hurt the most.

Again though all in all the Chase didn’t change who won and didn’t have too much effect on where everyone finished (if everything had turned out the same); the cream always rises to the top.

While I understand this post is completely hypothetical, I think it’s interesting to look at how things would shake out. Ultimately what we find year in and year out is things don’t really change that much.

It creates some excitement toward the end of the season and lets us play the what-if game, but in the end what happens here probably would have happened there.

Our Off-Season Plans

Well, a couple hundred posts and a ton of different stories, we find ourselves at the end of another season. After some discussion TC and I decided we are going to cut back posting in the off-season to three days per week plus a Saturday links post. Never fear though we’re still going to be doing Ask The Insiders Wednesday, so keep sending questions!

Of course if anything comes up on one of our off days, any news or rumors, we’ll jump on and bring it to you.

As for the rest of this week, we’ll be closed for business (well maybe not closed, we just won’t be posting).

I hope all of you have a great Thanksgiving and we’ll see you back here with a new post Monday, November 30.

Oh and before I go, TC and I both want to thank everyone for coming to the site and engaging us and each other. It’s because of you that we enjoy doing this everyday.

HOMESTEAD, Fla.— Done deal.

“How ’bout some history?!” Jimmie Johnson shouted as the crossed the finish line at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

No, Johnson didn’t win Sunday’s Ford 400. Denny Hamlin did. But Johnson accomplished something far more significant than a victory in a single event. His fifth-place finish was more than good enough to clinch his fourth straight NASCAR Sprint Cup Series title, breaking a tie with Cale Yarborough for most consecutive championships.

“History, boys,” Johnson continued. “No one ever—ever! I don’t know how to thank you guys. Thank you so much.”

Johnson’s title run also completed Hendrick Motorsports’ sweep of the top three positions in the final standings, the first time an organization has achieved that distinction. In winning his fourth Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Johnson finished 141 points ahead of Mark Martin, who entered Sunday’s race 108 points behind his teammate and finished 12th.

Jeff Gordon secured a third-place finish in the points with a sixth-place run.

All but lost in the hoopla surrounding Johnson’s record run was Hamlin’s fourth victory of the season and his second in the Chase. Surging into the lead after a restart on Lap 222 of 267, Hamlin crossed the stripe 2.632 seconds ahead of Jeff Burton, who posted his second straight runner-up finish and his fourth straight top 10.

Burton’s Richard Childress Racing teammate Kevin Harvick ran third, and Kurt Busch locked up fourth in the Chase standings with a fourth-place finish.

Gordon, Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr. and AJ Allmendinger completed the top 10.

After Hamlin did a celebratory burnout on the frontstretch, and the championship stage was rolled into position, Johnson did an elaborate burnout of his own that started near the entrance to pit road and continued down the front straightaway.

After the smoke settled, Johnson embraced the enormity of what he had just accomplished.

“The truth of it is, to do something that’s never been done in this sport—to love the sport like I do and respect it like I do—and the greats, Petty, Earnhardt, Gordon … to do something they’ve never done is so awesome. To win four championships in eight years, what this team has done … I don’t know where to start. It’s unbelievable.”

With his niece Alesha Gainey facing an emergency liver transplant in North Carolina, team owner Rick Hendrick wasn’t at Homestead to celebrate Johnson’s record and several others that accrued to the organization. Hendrick Motorsports won its ninth owners’ championship, tying Petty Enterprises for most all-time.

In addition, Hendrick won its aggregate 12th owners’ championship in NASCAR’s top three national series, a NASCAR best. Crew chief Chad Knaus extended his record number of consecutive Cup titles to four.

“Mr. H, buddy, we really wish you were here today,” Knaus radioed after the race.

Hamlin, who collected his eighth career victory, won from the 38th starting position in a No. 11 Toyota that improved as daylight turned to night, thanks to crew chief Mike Ford’s astute adjustments to the car.

Between the fireworks in the prerace ceremony and the champion’s burnout after the race, there were other pyrotechnics on the racetrack. Tony Stewart turned his No. 14 Chevrolet into Juan Pablo Montoya’s No. 42 Chevy, after the two cars made contact shortly after a restart on Lap 113.

Montoya pounded the Turn 3 wall and lost 27 laps while his crew repaired the car in the garage. After returning to the track, Montoya spun Stewart off Turn 4, sending him into the inside retaining wall. Stewart recovered to finish 22nd, and Montoya came home 38th.

Notes: After the race, Joey Logano was named Raybestos Rookie of the Year in the Cup series. … Truex made his last start for Earnhardt Ganassi Racing before moving to Michael Waltrip Racing next season. … Jamie McMurray finished 18th in his last run for Roush Fenway Racing. He’ll drive for Earnhardt Ganassi next year.

Brad Keselowski, on the other hand, might have had reason to do a slow burn after Denny Hamlin escalated their ongoing rivalry by spinning Keselowski’s No. 88 Chevrolet early in the race.

“It was a tough race, for sure,” Busch said. “We weren’t the best car here for a long time. All these guys made some great race calls — (crew chief) Jason (Ratcliff) and everybody else. That’s why we’re a championship team. That’s why we made it here tonight, because these guys can fight through stuff.”

Two laps after a restart on Lap 163, after pitting for new tires, Busch passed Edwards for the lead and held it the rest of the way, despite a caution for Jason Leffler’s contact with the wall on Lap 184.

“We made some adjustments to the car that really brought it to life, and I was able to pass those guys on that restart and get up towards the front and lead those laps, and when that last caution came out, Carl did the exact same thing I just did.”

Edwards came to the pits for tires under caution on Lap 186 and restarted eighth on Lap 190. Despite a strong run into the third turn on the final lap, his bid for the win fell just short.

“I thought we were going to win the race on that last restart, but the 18 (Busch) was just too fast on those (old) tires,” Edwards said.

Jeff Burton finished third Saturday, followed by Joey Logano and Hamlin. David Reutimann, Ryan Newman, Steve Wallace, Scott Speed and Matt Kenseth completed the top 10. Keselowski finished 12th.

Edwards was runner-up to Busch in the final points standings followed by Keselowski, Leffler and Mike Bliss. Justin Allgaier, sixth, won the Raybestos Rookie of the Year Award. He was followed by Steve Wallace, Jason Keller, Brendan Gaughan and Michael Annett in seventh through 10th, respectively.

Saturday’s race wrote a new chapter in the rivalry between Keselowski and Hamlin, who had dominated the headlines with their on-track and off-track shots last weekend at Phoenix. In the NASCAR Nationwide race there, Keselowski repaid a tap from Hamlin by spinning his adversary.

Hamlin promised retaliation at Homestead, and made good on his threat on Lap 34, sending Keselowski spinning down the frontstretch. NASCAR held Hamlin in the pits for one lap for rough driving, but Hamlin subsequently regained the lost circuit when NASCAR called a debris caution on Lap 91.

Keselowski declined to exacerbate the friction between the drivers after the race.

“I don’t hold any grudges, and I’m ready to move on,” he said.

Hamlin, on the other hand, doesn’t think the drivers are even yet.

“I feel great right now — it was well worth it,” Hamlin said of the penalty. “…The scales are tipped a little bit more in my favor, but they’re not tipped that much.”

Guest Column:
By Cathy Elliott

It hardly seems possible that the 2009 NASCAR season is so close to being neatly wrapped, beribboned and placed carefully into racing’s record books. And while late November may not be the traditionally-accepted time for reflection –- December 31 lays claim to that honor –- sometimes we are controlled by our circumstances, rather than the other way around.

When something significant reaches its end, you just can’t help but think about its beginning. Some people are so anxious to reach their destination that they fail to appreciate the trip.

This isn’t true only of actual travelers. We do it all the time, in so many ways. An adolescent wants to be 16 and get that first driver’s license. When the work day begins, we dream of its end, watching the clock until we can finally go home.

And on the eve of any new season in sports, looking at all those hopeful faces and attending all those optimistic press conferences, we wonder who will remain standing at the end.

I guess I’m one of those people who just doesn’t like to see the ends of things. Seriously, when you shed a tear upon turning the last page of “An Anthology of Naughty Limericks,” you know you’ve got a bad case of the little-known disease finalitis.

There will be 100 or more columns or stories about the “season that was” following the race weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway. As I write this week’s column, it is Thursday afternoon and the events of the weekend have yet to unfold. Some things I know; some things I can only guess – in an educated way, I hope.

But next up will be a look-ahead at the season-ending Champion’s Week festivities in Las Vegas, so if I’m going to wax nostalgic, this is my only shot to take an official look at NASCAR ‘09.

It has been one for the record books, in the most literal way imaginable.

Let’s start with the trucks. If there was some way to put America in a headlock and make the entire country watch a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race from start to finish – just one – we might just have a new sports phenomenon on our hands. If the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series is like boxing – the sport of kings – then the Truck Series is like UFC, bare-knuckled and no-holds-barred.

With a Chevrolet for a glass slipper, Cinderella Man emerged once again as the belle of the ball this year, as 51-year-old Ron Hornaday claimed his fourth Truck Series title, the only driver in history to do so.

Here’s a popular riddle from 2009.

Question: “Do you think Kyle Busch will win on Saturday?”

Answer: “Is he in the race?”

Always-controversial Kyle only has to grid his car in Homestead, from any position, to win the NASCAR Nationwide Series title. Then he can park his No. 18 Toyota and take the rest of the day off.

Fat chance. With eight wins so far this season, the driver who considers second place a really disappointing day – and he’s been disappointed 11 times this season, to date – will give what he always gives on the track; his best effort.

This relentless will to win is what makes bad boy Kyle so good for NASCAR.

On the game board of the Cup Series, it’s difficult to even choose a starting point. Of all the available categories, let’s go with “Things That Really Made an Impact on Racing” for all the money.

1. Jimmie Johnson.
2. A glimpse of our future, as both Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski posted their first career Cup wins.
3. A glimpse of our past, as Bill France Sr., Bill France Jr., Richard Petty, Junior Johnson and Dale Earnhardt were announced as the inaugural class of NASCAR’s Hall of Fame.
4. Another glimpse of our future, as Keselowski and Denny Hamlin … well, let’s just say they don’t seem to get along. A feud; a budding rivalry. Cool.
5. Did we mention Jimmie Johnson? (Sorry, but he was not only good in 2009, I’m pretty sure when Sunday evening rolls around, he will be quadruply good. That’s not even a word, but oh well.)

There are so many more. NASCAR’s Drive For Diversity did more than soar in 2009; thanks to Juan Pablo Montoya, it went all Hitchcock on us and beat detractors in the face with its strong wings. What new team owner Tony Stewart has accomplished this year has been nothing less than jaw dropping. And Jeff Gordon doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon, thank goodness.

From Matt Kenseth’s Daytona 500 win to Mark Martin’s amazing season-long battle for the championship, NASCAR has given us a very good year.

Yes, there have been some issues, but dealing with a few debits along the way only serves to make the credits seem that much more valuable.

If you count all your assets, and you’re honest about it, you always show a profit. By that measure, regardless of the final outcome, the 2009 NASCAR season has been a most successful year.

2009 certainly wasn’t short of any interesting, and compelling story lines. Toward the end of 2008 and through the entire 2009 season the economy was on everyone’s mind. The troubled state of GM and Chrysler forced the manufacturers to make cuts in their NASCAR spending; several sponsors announced their intention to leave the sport; and perhaps most noticeably the stands at many tracks were far from capacity.

Despite the bad economy, 2009 saw the start-up of several teams. After being laid-off by Bill Davis Racing in the off season, Tommy Baldwin started his own team. Jeremy Mayfield, who had been out of a full time ride since 2005 also started a team. TRG Motorsports also began running a car full-time in the Cup Series.

From Carl Long to Jeremy Mayfield, NASCAR also had its fair share of controversy in 2009. Long was suspended and fined following the All-Star race after an inspection of his expired engine revealed it was too large. Jeremy Mayfield was indefinitely suspended May 9 after NASCAR said he failed a drug test. Mayfield contends the failed test was caused by a combination of Adderall and Claritin D. He sued NASCAR.

It wasn’t all bad though. Juan Pablo Montoya had a breakthrough season scoring seven top-fives, 18 top-10s, two poles and his first Chase berth. After running two part-time seasons in 2007 and 2008 Mark Martin joined Hendrick Motorsports full time and came back with a vengeance this season, winning five races and finishing second in the points.

We even had some promising prospects show what they were made of. In just his second full season, David Reutimann won his first race and came just short of making the chase. Marcos Ambrose also started to show his potential in just his first full time season. He scored four top-fives and seven top-tens finishing 18th in the points. No doubt they’ll both be teams to watch in 2010.

We also had a slew of first time winners with David Reutimann, Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski all taking the checkered flag.

And how about Hendrick Motorsports? They had thirteen wins on the season and Jimmie Johnson did the unheard of, winning his fourth straight championship after seven wins, 16 top-fives, 24 top-tens and four poles. As a team they went 1-2-3 in the standings, the first time that has happened.

So now it’s your turn. What was your best and worst of 2009? Please remember to keep it clean (I know where you’re going to go with this) and treat others the way you want to be treated (if I see anything over the line it will be deleted).

Top NASCAR teams sweeten deals

Study: Avid fans more focused late in the season

For Allison, only title was a long time in the making

Volkswagen program head in Homestead

2010 Silly Season Already in Full Swing

France talks, Gordon’s future, Montoya’s dilemma

Vintage Insiders

Attracting ‘Foreign’ Automakers Is A Good Idea

I Got Swag

**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.**

In his first full time Cup Series season Ambrose and crew chief Frank Kerr have four top-fives and seven top-10s. While he was strong at both road course races this season (third at Sonoma and second at Watkins Glen), Ambrose and Kerr have shown versatility across the schedule. He finished 10th and third at Bristol, fourth at Talladega, sixth at both Richmond and Daytona and 11th at Atlanta and Texas.

While his rookie season has certainly not been without its challenges, Ambrose only has two DNFs (to his credit those were thanks to engine failures) and sits 18th in points.

Prior to this season Ambrose has two full seasons in the Nationwide Series, where he claimed his first NASCAR win (Watkins Glen ‘08), and one partial season in the Camping World Truck Series. While the past three seasons have been average for a driver moving through the NASCAR ranks, his career prior is anything but.

Tasmanian-born Ambrose began his career running go-karts in Tasmania and Australia. At age 20 Ambrose left for England to compete in Formula Ford in preparation for a career in Formula One. After winning the European Formula Ford Championship in 1999, he did a stint in Formula Three. Unfortunately for Ambrose the money ran out and he returned to Australia in 2000.

He was signed in 2001 to run the popular Australian V8 Supercar Series. After winning the Rookie of the Year title in ‘01 Ambrose went on to score back-to-back Championships in 2003 and 2004. Following the 2005 season, Ambrose announced he was making the move to NASCAR.

After just four seasons in NASCAR, Ambrose is proving every week why he deserves to be where he’s at. He’s consistently solid at any number of tracks and genuinely a good guy (though Kyle Busch might have something to say about Ambrose on track).

While there is still work to be done for Ambrose to consistently compete up front, I think this team is right on the cusp. Ambrose and Frankie Kerr work well together and Ambrose is in good equipment from Michael Waltrip Racing. With Reutimann, Waltrip and soon to be quasi-teammate Martin Truex, the team also has a lot of great support.

While Ambrose may not get the press of some his counterparts, I think this is a team to watch. I don’t know about you but I’m excited to see what they can do in 2010.

By: Toby Christie

Tony Stewart made a huge mistake. He decided to leave a team that has helped him reach two Nascar Sprint Cup Championships. What is he thinking? Is he preparing to retire?

That’s what everyone was saying last year around this time following Tony Stewart’s announcement that he was leaving Joe Gibbs Racing, to drive for Haas CNC racing which he was given part ownership in. Heck I’ll admit it I had my doubts in the move… I mean sure he was basically just handed ownership of a Sprint Cup team, but lets be honest Haas CNC racing was far less than stellar until 2009.

Tony Stewart turned around the shaky team by bringing in all new people such as Bobby Hutchins (formerly of Richard Childress Racing) and his crew chief Darian Grubb (from Hendrick Motorsports). Also with Stewart came strong sponsorship backing which the team was lacking in the past, and a talented teammate in Ryan Newman. The team was an over night transformation from Haas CNC to Stewart-Haas Racing.

The team came out strong and fast and performed excellent all season, Stewart captured the checkered flag in four points paying races this season, as well as taking the top spot in the Sprint All-Star Challenge, Stewart was also the points leader before the Chase For the Cup reset took place.

Not only was Tony Stewart’s performance amazing this season, but so was Ryan Newman’s. Newman had been written off and forgotten by many, but he came out this season and proved he still has the talent to make it into the chase.

Nobody would have been able to predict that Tony Stewart would have been this competitive this fast in his own equipment, except Smoke himself of course. Now it appears Stewart is poised to eventually become the first owner/driver to win a championship since Alan Kulwicki did so in 1992.

His run for the title in 2009 may be over, but considering he was in the chase he is far ahead of where everyone was expecting him to be going into year two of being an owner. Trust me I won’t be under-estimating what this team can do next season and neither should anyone else.

By: Toby Christie

As we sit on the verge of what appears to be a fourth straight Sprint Cup Series Championship for Jimmie Johnson, it is starting to look certain that Johnson will be an inductee into the Nascar hall of fame someday. However I also got to thinking about another Nascar driver who may also deserve a spot in the hall to be reserved for him.

The driver that came to mind was Ron Hornaday. Hornaday now has four camping world truck series championships (most in series history) and also has the 45 career truck series wins (most wins in the history of the series). Lets not forget that the Nascar Camping World Truck Series is widely considered the closest and most competitive form of Nascar racing which makes these stats all the more impressive. Hornaday is also the only driver in nascar history to win a championship after the age of 50, and he even has four victories in the Nationwide Series.

Those credentials alone should be enough to get anyone into the hall of fame, but on top all of his accomplishments Hornaday has revolutionized the art form of the restart, He is even credited for helping Kevin Harvick among other drivers of making it in this sport. Oh yea Hornaday was even I believe the first Nascar driver to celebrate winning by doing donuts (a practiced used on just about every weekend now).

So the question is: Should Ron Hornaday be in the Nascar Hall of Fame someday? The answer is simple… Uh yea.

This is something I did last year (here and here) and honestly we weren’t too surprised by the results. Jimmie ended the season just behind Carl Edwards (16 points behind). I know what you’re saying, Jimmie’s a false champion, but remember the #48 team sandbagged at Homestead (I would have stayed out of the fight too). Anyway, thankfully this season I don’t have to figure out the points (I know I’m lazy), because NASCAR has already done it for me. Here they are…

1. #48 Jimmie Johnson, 4996
2. #14 Tony Stewart, 4983, -13
3. #24 Jeff Gordon, 4940, -56
4. #5 Mark Martin, 4635, -361
5. #11 Denny Hamlin, 4611, -385
6. #2 Kurt Busch, 4593, -403
7. #42 Juan Pablo Montoya, 4454, -542
8. #16 Greg Biffle, 4420, -576
9. #39 Ryan Newman, 4353, -643
10. #18 Kyle Busch, 4310, -686
11. #9 Kasey Kahne, 4276, -720
12. #17 Matt Kenseth, 4265, -731
13. #99 Carl Edwards, 4252, -744
14. #33 Clint Bowyer, 4224, -772
15. #00 David Reutimann, 4103, -893
16. #83 Brian Vickers, 4024, -972

I can’t personally say I’m surprised Jimmie is leading, however small that lead is. I suppose what surprises me the most is how close the champion race would have been between Johnson, Stewart and Gordon. This would have made for quite a showdown at Homestead. And so much for Mark Martin, he’s not even a factor without the Chase.

Obviously Stewart (currently 5th) and Gordon (currently 3rd) are hurt by the Chase. Interestingly though, so is Denny Hamlin (he’s currently 8th) and Kyle Busch, who missed the cut-off for the Chase and is sitting in 13th.

Being helped most by the Chase are Brian Vickers (currently 12th), Kurt Busch (currently in 4th) and Mark Martin (currently 2nd).

Outside of those guys just about everyone else is within a position or two of where they stand with the Chase. After looking at the points over the last several years, that really isn’t too surprising.

Going into Homestead, Jimmie Johnson is looking like a pretty good bet. It’s possible if they have another Texas-sized problem he could lose the Championship (that’s assuming Mark can put together a solid finish), but let’s face it the #48 is consistently consistent (and good).

My point with this, as it was last year, is to show that even though the Chase has changed the system, the end result really isn’t that much different. The Chase has brought some interest and intrigue to the late season, but at the end of the day the cream will rise to the top. Call Jimmie Johnson a false champion if you like, but you and I both know that’s not true.

Oh and I’ll update you on the final results for Monday’s post.

Episode 30 of “Over The Wall” is now available. This week, myself, Chris Smith, Cameron Watson from Fluid Media and Dave Thompson from RubbingsRacing.com to talk about how Jimmie Johnson’s run at a historical four in a row is good and bad for the sport. We also look at the COT and what is best for the sport and we finish with our predictions for Homestead.

So please enjoy and comment either here, Twitter or Facebook. We need your thoughts on these topics. Your comments will help drive future shows.

So sit back and enjoy the show.

Topics covered during the podcast were the following:

• Recap Phoenix
• Jimmie Johnson’s run at history with four in a row
• Is four in a row good for the sport
• What is the deal with the COT and the differences between the Nationwide Series and the Cup Series
• Preview Homestead and Johnson/Martin run
• Picks for Homestead
• Song: “Woman from Tokyo- Live” by Deep Purple Located on the Podsafe Music Network
• Intro and Exit Bumpers courtesy of PhilX of Powder PowderMusic.com Link
• Be sure to check us follow us on Twitter Link
• Be sure to join our Facebook group and leave comments on our wall Facebook Link

Enjoy the podcast. We’ll put a new one up next week. Please let us know how you like it and what changes you would recommend. Again, your comments will drive the content.

Get Involved. Be Heard.

Join in the Conversation

Another alarming business trend, is that now, most sponsors want single-year deals. These days, a six-race package for $3 million qualifies as a “big deal” in Sprint Cup circles. The marquee free agent among sponsors is Ask.com, which spent about $4 million on its team deal with Hall of Fame Racing for the 2009 season and likely won’t spend more than that on the next deal, if indeed, the search engine decides to stay in the sport. Big name sponsors Allstate, DeWalt, Jack Daniel’s and Jim Beam will leave after this year, choosing to save that money or spend it elsewhere.

And of course, we are all aware of the market forces pushing the automakers to reduce their financial exposure to NASCAR – so I will ask the same simple question I have been asking for two years.

Why isn’t NASCAR doing anything to help the teams to ensure the long term viability of the sport?

I think the answer is pretty simple – they don’t feel they need too. And instead, want to continue pocketing the vast majority of the sports’ lucrative television contracts. And why, you may ask, has NASCAR (France Family) been able to dominate teams? I believe it is because NASCAR teams haven’t united into an association or partnership demanding the right changes to the sport. Just look across the pond to Formula 1 – while they face their own unique challenges, they do have a much more fair and logical business model. The teams are part of an association (Formula One Teams Association – FOTA), that collectively negotiates on financial matters and the adoption of rules affecting competition in their sport.

Whereas, when you look at NASCAR, you have a dictatorship run by Brian France, who I believe most will agree has single handedly undone many of the incredible accomplishments of his late father and grandfather. But as a former NASCAR team owner, I know the teams feel powerless. But it the truth be known, NASCAR is nothing without the teams. Now is the time for the teams to stand up and make a stand – the team owners are the only hope to save NASCAR. Teams must unite on common principles:

• Increased competiveness: major changes are required to the Car of Tomorrow to ignite fan interest
• Reduced operating expenses: less personnel at the track and NASCAR needs to follow the lead of Formula 1 and require race engines to be used at more than one event
• Modern technology: embrace fuel injection and alternative fuels/energy sources to make NASCAR an R&D platform for the automakers.
• Greater Revenue Sharing: Demand an equal share of the television revenues split between NASCAR, Race Tracks and Teams.

These 4 basic principles could reduce annual corporate sponsorship prices from $20 million down to $10 million – a marketing budget that could be justified to corporate executives. Plus, these changes would reignite the automakers interest in investing in the sport and most importantly, bring back the on-track excitement that race fans expect.

If teams do not take a united stand, but rather chose instead to continue to run around in circles spinning their wheels – they are facing certain annihilation.

Post from: Alex Meshkin

NASCAR Teams – Take a Stand!

Guest Column

By Cathy Elliott

Reprinted with permission

Jimmie Johnson fans groaned and fans of pretty much everyone else sent up a cheer when Johnson’s lead in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup was cut to 73 points over Mark Martin at Texas Motor Speedway on November 8.

Uncharacteristically, Johnson sounded a little defensive in his post-race interview, conceding that yes, his lead had been cut … before pointing out that with two races to go, 73 points was still a pretty substantial margin.

Still, that number seems to push the envelope of comfort for fans, who from experience know that in NASCAR, things can change in a hurry.

If you can imagine how we might be reacting if Johnson’s lead was only two points instead of more than 70, then you know a little bit about how it feels to be a Philip Morris fan.

Apparently someone told Morris this was supposed to be a record-breaking year in NASCAR. After winning his first two NASCAR Whelen All-American Series championships by just two points, in 2006 and 2008,

Morris stepped things up this year, becoming the only driver in series history to claim the title three times.

Over in the parallel universe of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series competition, we’re all watching as Johnson also attempts to move into a seat that has forever been empty – to become the only driver in history to win four titles in a row.

The Cup Series is ultra-competitive. It is difficult to win a single race these days, much less go all the way to the championship stage. Records in racing rarely fall, and when they do, it is a very big deal.

For most of the drivers we know so well and support so ardently, short track racing is where the road to superstardom began. The Cup Series gets the lion’s share of attention, but all across the country, other drivers care just as much, and fight just as hard to win races, as those in NASCAR’s premier series.

You know these guys. You work with them. They’re your neighbors, your friends. They are the guys who leave work, go home and grab some dinner, then head straight out to the shop in the backyard to work on their race cars.

When the weekend rolls around, they drive those cars to the race track themselves, often loaded onto an open trailer, basically a larger version of what landscapers use to haul their lawn mowers and weed whackers.

Their crews are comprised of their brothers, their daughters, and their friends. They personify teamwork — which is really just another word for togetherness — in the best possible way.

Philip Morris is a stellar example of this. NASCAR Vice President of Corporate Communications Jim Hunter describes the Morris family this way: “They are uniquely all-American. They love God, country, family, home cooking, and simple living; they have deep faith, great kids, and a true love story.”

If you’re not sure who Philip Morris is and think you have no awareness of the Whelen All-American Series, you may be wrong. Those tracks you see in the background of a current series of TV commercials featuring NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers like Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards and Elliott Sadler may well be venues where Morris actually competes.

They are regional short tracks, and if you haven’t headed out to one on a Saturday night with a bucket of chicken, a cooler, and the family in tow, you’re missing a real slice of genuine Americana. Plus, it’s fun.

There’s not a lot of glory there, and there’s even less money, but like Kevin Costner’s fictional pitcher Billy Chapel in the movie of the same name, these guys do it for love of the game.

They may not have last names like Kahne, Earnhardt or Hamlin, but once upon a time they did. It wasn’t so very long ago that today’s Sunday afternoon superspeedway sensations were battling it out on their hometown Saturday night short tracks.

In fact, I remember back in the 1990s, my dad once saw Dale Earnhardt Jr. race at South Carolina’s Florence Motor Speedway. After the race, Dad expressed some concern over Junior’s future prospects.

(For the record, my father is not known for his prognostication skills. Junior seems to be doing fairly well for himself.)

As everyone looks ahead to Las Vegas, it seems important to note that NASCAR hosts another Champions Week, honoring the various support series that prop up their better-known counterparts.

Their champions are Jason Bowles (Camping World Series West); George Brunnhoelzl III (Whelen Southern Modified Tour); Donny Lia (Whelen Modified Tour); Andrew Ranger (Canadian Tire Series presented by Mobil

1); Ryan Truex (Camping World Series East, and yes, he’s Martin’s brother); and Philip Morris (Whelen All-American Series).

Mark Twain once said that if everyone were satisfied with himself, there would be no heroes.

These dedicated drivers, who do their best and give their all every week with little hope of great fortune or international fame, are the heroes of their own hometowns … and one has to believe they are well satisfied with that.

1. From Nick:

The last time I was @ Hendrik Motorsports, Jeff Gordon’s “T-Rex” car wasn’t there. Do you know where they moved it?

I have absolutely no idea. Was it in the museum? I’m sure they try to rotate the cars in the museum to keep things fresh. Too, the museum was redone earlier this year, so they might have changed some things out. – Journo

2. From Big Mike:

I don’t understand how an experienced winner in all three series of ARCA, Trucks, and Nationwide, Rookie of the Year, 3 Cup Poles, can be overlooked for any job in any series. I’m speaking of Scott Riggs. Scott’s a great driver who doesn’t go around with a swelled head. He’s a clean driver 99% of the time and would do a great job for any team. Do you think the fact that he was man enough to stand up and admit on the air that Tommy Baldwin asked him to start and park has hurt his chances to secure another ride? Let’s face it the last 5-6 cars every week who squeeze in and have no chance of winning are there to rip off the gate. So what is your take on Scott’s future?

I haven’t heard a thing about Scott Riggs and as far as I know he isn’t really very visible around the garage. The problem is there are a glut of drivers and not enough rides. Unless you’re bringing with you money or proven talent (and money) it’s going to be hard to find a ride. I don’t think there were any hard feelings over the TBR deal. Tommy just realized he couldn’t afford to keep running the full races and starting and parking wasn’t something Scott wanted to do. As far as Scott goes though I haven’t heard anything about him for 2010. He may be working on something, he may not. – Journo

3. From Savannah:

Here is a what if question. Since Dale Jr has struggled this year, do you think that Rick Hendrick considered moving a successful crew chief, ala Chad Knaus, to the 88 team for next year? Even with the recent crew chief change, Dale Earnhardt has not improved as quickly as some fans hoped. Just curious if you think that this option was considered.

If it was considered I would think it was for only a fleeting moment. Rick Hendrick is not the type to kill a successful pairing like Chad Knaus and Jimmie Johnson. Was it thought about? I’m sure every scenario was considered, but I doubt this was a likely solution. – Journo

4. From Dave:

When NASCAR takes a team’s car to Concord for further inspection, how does it get there? Does NASCAR take it on one of their haulers or does the team? Once there how does the team get it back if NASCAR releases it? Y’all have done a great job all year and I hope this continues after the season ends.

NASCAR has transporters they use to take the cars from the track to Concord. After they’ve finished inspecting the car you get to come get it yourself (doesn’t seem fair right?). And thank you! – Journo

5. From Ric:

On the #48 team, what is the garage feelings about them. Do they mirror the fans? Is their dominance hurting NASCAR?

I’m not sure I can speak for everyone in the garage, but I don’t personally feel the way some of the fans do about Jimmie. Yeah, I wish the competition was closer, but I respect what amazing things they have been able to accomplish. I certainly don’t dislike Jimmie or the #48 guys because of their run. I wish that on some level, people could step back from their allegiances and see just how great this team has been. – T.C.

6. From Ric:

About how long does it take the winning driver / team to make it thru all the pictures and interviews after a race? What is the longest you have heard of?

The drivers take a lot longer then the rest of the team. After the main celebration and hat dance is over, the crew can take off to start loading the hauler and tearing down pit road. The driver has to stay longer for more pictures. Usually the bigger the race, the longer it takes. The Daytona 500 victory lane activities can go on for a while. I’m not sure I could tell you an exact time though, as I don’t normally hang around for the driver part. – T.C.

7. From Ric:

Who supplies (pays for) the champagne in the winners circle? What is on the bottles, looks like the Sprint Cup Logo? About how many bottles do they go thru after a race?

I’m not 100% sure who pays for it, but I would assume it’s supplied by the marketing company that handles Sprint’s NASCAR efforts (which I believe is Octagon). As far as how many bottles they go through, upwards of half a dozen maybe. – Journo

8. From Roger from Colorado:

Last week I was on a hunting trip traveling on I-20 towards Dallas from Colorado. It was Monday and I noticed quite a number of Cup and Nationwide haulers going west towards Phoenix for the weekend race there. I saw the 48 hauler and wondered what they had inside after the big wreck. I got to thinking about what all of them had on the trip to Phoenix. I assume that a different car is used at Phoenix (a smaller flat track vs the big, banked Texas track). Does another hauler meet them at Dallas and switch equipment and cars for the different style track? There were a bunch of busted up cars after the Texas race that were junk. Sure too far to return to NC and then come back out to Phoenix with more equipment.

Actually most teams have somebody meet them in Texas with the equipment they need for Phoenix. They’ll trade out everything that needs to be traded out and then head their separate ways. At Texas these guys were actually waiting in a lot outside the track ready to make the switch. – Journo

9. From Scott:

Hey Guys, after Johnson’s win this past weekend its going to be tough for Mark Martin to win the championship, but as we know anything can happen. I think we all know the fans are divided between frustration, hatred and awe of what the number 48 has done (again) this year. My question is how do your peers feel about in the garage? Do they feel the same as the fans? What about the drivers? And just to add some fuel to the black helicopters out there, is there any driver out there that could hold Johnson up or make his day difficult enough to give Mark Martin a run at this thing? Ok, I’m caught! I’m a big Martin fan and it saddens me to see him be a bridesmaid again. Not to take away what he’s accomplished this but jeez! Thanks again guys.

Like I said above, I can’t speak for everyone, but I do wish the competition was closer. You never want to see one driver or team dominate a sport. But there really isn’t the hate and discontent in the garage area for Jimmie that you will find among some fans. Unless it’s a freak deal, I think you will see most drivers steer clear of Jimmie during the race. Nobody wants to be that guy. – T.C.

10. From Ric:

Let’s say you have a car that just won a race, it stayed out of all the wrecks, the driver wants to race it later in the year. What needs to be done to the car to get it ready for that next race? What is (or not) changed / replaced / redone?

After a race, cars are completely torn down. Everything from the engine to the suspension is taken out and off. The cars are checked over and then placed back into rotation to be set up again for the next race in which it will be used. – T.C.

11. From Tommy:

I know NASCAR takes the top two cars and others for post race inspections. What do they look for in the engine? Is it just they meet certain specs like cylinder size? Do they put it on a dyno and determine how much horsepower it has? Rick Hendrick admitted his engines may vary from 5 – 15 horsepower. I wonder if Jimmie has more horsepower than the other 42 drivers?

I don’t believe that NASCAR puts engines on the dyno in the course of their normal post race inspections. What they usually check the engines for is that they meet all the specs in the rule book; compression, displacement, etc. And while Hendrick’s engines are certainly a part of their success, a few horsepower over other competitors isn’t why Jimmie has won three straight championships. – T.C.

12. From Tom Gulf Coast

If NASCAR chooses to go with a larger tire, what else would have to be changed with the car? Do you know if its a larger wheel or just a taller tire? I think the 15 inch wheel is about the only thing that has always been the same over the past 50+ years.

From what I understand, the tire is wider and would require a change to 17 inch wheels. A larger wheel and wider tire would require teams to make some big changes to the current cars. Bodies would need to be different, as the wheel openings would need to be larger. Also, I would imagine that both front and rear suspension geometry would change because of the larger combo. Also, fender wells and crush panels would need to be different. – T.C.

And that brings yet another “Ask The Insiders Wednesday” to a close. Thanks to everyone who sent in questions. And remember, if you’d like to be a part of next week, click on the ”Ask the Insiders” tab at the top of the page and send your question in!

To the untrained eye, it may appear to be business as usual for your favorite driver on pit road. The car comes in, four tires go on, the car leaves. But many teams take the opportunity to use these last couple of races to plug some new crew guys into their teams and see how they fare. Do they gel with the existing crew guys? Are they rattled by the pressure? Could they make it next year? These are all questions teams are trying to answer.

You won’t usually see this from the Chasers, but many teams outside the Chase will tinker. It is inevitable that some guys will stay with their current teams, while others are looking to move on. And some will be looking for a new spot involuntarily. Either way, the teams need to find new guys to fill those holes. These races can give them that chance to see what a guy, or guys, has.

Besides lateral movement within a series, these races also give teams a chance to see some younger guys in action. Maybe a guy is brought up from the Truck Series to the Nationwide Series, or from the Nationwide Series to the Cup Series. Crew chiefs and pit crew coaches can see first hand if a younger, inexperienced guy might be ready to move up the ranks. Some will thrive, while others will need more time to mature.

When you watch any of the races this weekend, the Cup race in particular, be on the lookout for helmets on pit crew guys that don’t match the rest of the crew. Often times, a gray helmet on a team means a new guy is involved. And if you really know your favorite driver’s team well, take a look at each crew member. Do you recognize every face? In many cases, I’ll bet you will be able to spot some fresh faces. It’s just another example of how teams are always working to be better for the future.

By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

AVONDALE, Ariz.—From his fiasco in Forth Worth, Jimmie Johnson rose like a phoenix in—where else?—Phoenix.

A week after teasing his Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup competitors with a 38th-place finish at Texas Motor Speedway—his worst of the season—Johnson regained control of his championship run by winning Sunday’s Checker O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix International Raceway.

In a dominating performance in which he led 238 of 312 laps, Johnson increased his advantage over fourth-place finisher Mark Martin (second in the standings) to 108 points. With a finish of 25th or better in the season finale next Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Johnson will lock up his record fourth straight championship.

Johnson, who won for the seventh time this season and scored the maximum 195 points (winning and leading the most laps) for the fourth time in the Chase, will eliminate the other 10 Chase competitors as soon as he takes the green flag at Homestead.

The victory was the 47th of Johnson’s career, breaking a tie with Buck Baker for 13th on the career win list.

“First of all, I have to thank this race team for having the strength and mental attitude and everything that they do to bounce back from last week and show up and just put a butt-kicking on everybody today,” Johnson said.

“At the start of the race, we were a little loose but still running second or third. As soon as we put new tires on, the car came to life. We made a couple of small adjustments that really, really helped it, and I could get out to a nice comfortable lead, ride, protect what I had, work my way through traffic—not with ease, but better than other guys.”

The race ran caution-free for the final 134 laps. Johnson lost the lead briefly when he pitted for four tires and fuel on Lap 243 at the 1-mile track, but he regained it on Lap 248 when Matt Kenseth came to pit road.

Johnson kept his No. 48 Chevrolet out front the rest of the way, as third-place finisher Denny Hamlin and runner-up Jeff Burton, who passed Hamlin for second on Lap 284, took turns in pursuit. Johnson’s only anxious moments came when Hamlin teammate rookie Joey Logano made Johnson work especially hard to complete a pass.

“I was trying to be smart through traffic,” Johnson said, “and the 20 car (Logano)—I’m not sure if he was just trying to stay two laps down and didn’t want to go three laps down, or if he was really trying to help his teammate out—but, either way, the 11 car (Hamlin) caught me. Once I cleared him (Logano), I got back going, and everything was fine. But the 20 car wasn’t being all that friendly.”

Johnson, who started third Sunday, plans to take an aggressive approach to qualifying at Homestead to try to avoid a repeat of the early crash that took him out at Texas.

“I think qualifying 12th (at Texas)—even though that’s a good qualifying spot—put us in harm’s way, and I was a little cautious, maybe, in qualifying,” Johnson said. “We need to show up down there and treat it like any other race.

“The farther forward we start, the better off we’re going to be, track-position-wise, the better pit stall selection we’re going to have. Until we get in the race and see what we really have, we’re going to treat it like any other race and just go as fast as we can.”

Notes: Johnson’s margin of victory over Burton was 1.033 seconds. … Polesitter Martin Truex Jr. finished fifth, his first top five of the year in his next-to-last race for Earnhardt Ganassi Racing. Truex will drive Michael Waltrip Racing’s No. 56 Toyota next year. … Kurt Busch, Clint Bowyer, Juan Pablo Montoya, Jeff Gordon and David Reutimann finished sixth through 10th, respectively.

By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Carl Edwards won Saturday’s Able Body Labor 200 to postpone Kyle Busch’s formal NASCAR Nationwide Series championship clinching party for one week.

But Busch still had cause for celebration. With a 190-point lead entering next Saturday’s season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Busch needs merely to start the Ford 300 to claim his first title in one of NASCAR’s top three national touring series.

Saturday’s race also fanned the smoldering rivalry between polesitter Denny Hamlin and fifth-place finisher Brad Keselowski into full flame. The drivers traded shots with their cars after a restart on Lap 157, with Keselowski spinning Hamlin’s Toyota in Turn 1 to bring out the sixth and final caution of the race.

“That’s 25 — 25 (career Nationwide) wins,” said Edwards, who beat runner-up Kevin Harvick to the finish line by 2.415 seconds. “I know Kyle’s almost clinched the championship, but that’s what we came here to do, to win this race.”

Reed Sorenson ran third in Todd Braun’s No. 32 Toyota, followed by Clint Bowyer and Keselowski.

Busch’s clinching prospects were in jeopardy early in the race, after he spun the No. 18 Toyota off Turn 2 in front of Clint Bowyer’s No. 29 Chevrolet on Lap 7. Busch tagged the outside wall with the right rear of his car and the inside wall with the left front.

Busch’s team worked on the car on pit road and got Busch back on the track before he lost a lap. After restarting 35th, Busch worked his way to 12th in the running order by Lap 30 of 200. Busch ran as high as fourth before the final caution but faded to ninth at the finish.

With Edwards winning and leading the most laps, Busch needed to finish seventh or better to lock up the title.

Asked about the early-race spin, Busch gave a terse explanation.

“I was driving a bucket of (expletive),” he said.

Keselowski and Hamlin had a lot more to say after the race, thanks to the Lap 157 incident that started with Hamlin bumping Keselowski and ducking beneath him. Keselowski retaliated in the corner and turned Hamlin’s No. 20 Toyota.

Hamlin kept the car off the wall but had to pit and restarted at the back of the field on Lap 164. He finished 12th.

“On the last restart there, Denny got into the back of me and pushed me up the track,” Keselowski said. “I was going to return the favor. When he did it to me, I saved it. When I did it to him, he didn’t save it. We just got into a pushing match. I don’t really hold any grudges. I don’t know why he wanted to do that. But whatever, that’s just how racing, is I guess.

“To me, I was over it. I’m focused on running the No. 88 Junior Motorsports car and trying to run up front, chase down Carl (for second in the standings) and finish second in points. I haven’t put a lot of thought into (the rivalry), but apparently he has.”

Hamlin implied he’d have a shot at revenge in next Saturday’s race.

“I can sit here and bash him for the next 20 seconds or so and give you all a bunch of sound bites,” Hamlin said, “but I’m just happy that I signed up for next week’s Nationwide race, and you know in turn, there’s a lot of guys that owe him. There’s a lot of guys that have a lot of chips that they’re going to cash in, I’m just going to be the first to the pay window.”

Later on, after Hamlin spoke to NASCAR president Mike Helton, the two drivers had what USA Today reporter Nate Ryan described as an animated but civil discussion.

By Toby Christie

Kyle Busch finished ninth in the next to last Nationwide Series event of the season, as a result he has all but clinched the championship. As long as Busch is able to start his car next weekend he will take home the 2009 NASCAR Nationwide Series Championship… So why did Kyle blow off the media in his latest hissy fit by leaving the track immediately following the race?

It is honestly unknown… I understand he was sitting higher in the field late until his car faded which relegated him to a ninth place finish, but the fact of the matter is all of the hard work he and his team put in the season has payed off and he will (Barring any unforeseen Incident) take home the championship. This should have been a huge moment in the career for the 24 year old driver from Las Vegas (who has never won a championship in any NASCAR Series), but Kyle missed a huge opportunity to cash in some respect with fans, and most importantly he failed to get his sponsors names in after a solid ninth place finish.

Carl Edwards was gracious in victory lane, all but conceding that the championship is Kyle’s saying “If the 18 team wins this championship, and it looks like they will, they deserve it”.

Sometimes you have to learn to bite the bullet and grin and bare it… but Kyle just can’t seem to learn this, and if he doesn’t soon Joe Gibbs may make a bigger change than just a crew chief next season in the cup series.

Anybody else looking forward to this situation heading to Homestead?

In his ascension to the Cup Series this year, Keselowski has often used his bumper and some aggressive driving to get the job done. And it seems as though he’s done it more often lately. He has been called out by a few drivers including Hamlin and the brothers Busch. But strong words and threats from competitors haven’t slowed him down. Maybe a little retaliation will.

Hamlin and Keselowski have had on track incidents before, but fuel was added to the fire on Saturday. Following a restart, Hamlin’s Toyota got into Keselowski’s Chevy into turn one, sending the #88 car up the track. On the same lap, Keselowski attempted payback into turn three, but missed. Then in the center of three and four, Brad K. caught Hamlin and laid the bumper to him, sending Hamlin’s GameStop Camry around in front of the field.

After the warning from Hamlin during a post race interview, and the comments from other drivers, Keselowski was called into a meeting this morning with Cup Series directory John Darby and NASCAR’s CEO, Brian France. Keselowski told reporters the meeting “went real well.” 

I certainly can’t fault Brad for being aggressive, as he is out there to win. And a little bumping and banging, along with some flared tempers always makes for some good racing action. But Keselowski needs to be a little more careful about who he roughs up. If he continues to cause problems with some of the sport’s top drivers, they can make life very difficult for him. He will be entering his first full season of Cup competition in 2010, and in order to be successful, he’s going to need at least a few friends. A driver that doesn’t respect him won’t give him room on the race track and they won’t help him out when he needs it.

Hopefully though, he is able to find a balance between being aggressive and also respectful. Mending a few fences along the way probably wouldn’t hurt either.

But no matter what happens, it sounds like things could get interesting this weekend at Homestead.

Driver development is a must, difficult to achieve

Miss Sprint Cup is much more than just a pretty face

Racing returns to historic North Wilkesboro

What went wrong at the Roush House?

NASCAR Sanctioning Agreement

Hamlin on Keselowski: “He is just a complete moron”

Vintage Insiders

Young Drivers Trying To Weather Economic Storm

How To Scare Away Sponsors

**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.**

Claire B. Lang, Phoenix International Raceway, November 13, 1:00 p.m. EST

I’m sick and tired, honestly of NASCAR fans being typecast. I live my life at NASCAR tracks and I look into the stands and walk with the crowds at the races and talk to fans on the air during my “Dialed In” show and they come from all walks of life, all incomes and yes, they do drink Starbucks.

Starbucks dips their corporate toe into NASCAR this weekend – with Starbucks and Starbucks VIA™ Ready Brew logos on the TV Panel of the No. 1 Chevrolet driven by Martin Truex Jr., an associate sponsorship. In addition, a fleet of Starbucks branded golf carts will be combing the PIR property passing samples of Starbucks VIA™ Ready Brew.

This associate sponsorship led Caleb Hannan who writes for Seattle Weekly to blog a story with the headline, “Attention Starbucks: NASCAR Fans Might Not Be In Your Target Market.” The story featured the back of a fat, hairy race fan with the #3 carved in the hair in his back and a caption that reads, “Dale Earnhardt’s biggest fan can’t start his day without a carmel Macchiato.” Of course the caption was tongue in cheek. Caleb who admits he has never been to a race, says that the few NASCAR fans he has befriended all looked alike, “White dudes with ball caps and empty Mountain Dew bottles half-filled with their Skoal backwash,” he writes. He says Starbucks might not be able to interest most NASCAR fans in the product they sell, and refers to the fact that $4 does not describe what NASCAR’s average fan might spend on a cup of coffee, but says since they love themselves some chew maybe they can use the Starbucks cups as spit receptacles.

I read Hannan’s blog and frankly – it really set me off. So I discussed it on air and asked for fan reaction. Whew, still getting emails today, and all from well-educated, smart , non-dipping NASCAR fans who want a piece of Hannan so they can tell him how uninformed he is on the NASCAR fan base.

Three hours of calls later, one of the final calls on my “Dialed In” show was from a trucker whose daughter runs a Starbucks. He said on Sundays they drag a big screen TV over to the local Starbucks and all gather there to watch the race.

I’m sick of references to NASCAR fans as if they are stupid -because they are not. They follow one of the most complicated sports in America with mechanical issues and rules that have been created to beat out the most brilliant of engineers. I have discussed this with engineers who came over from F1 who say that the engineers in NASCAR would rival the engineers in any auto sport in the world.

According to Marketing Research the average NASCAR fans has completed a higher level of education than the average American. Now I’m not saying some fans don’t fit the perception that some of America has of this sport’s fan base…but the NASCAR fan base is a cross section.

And that cross section called in to my radio show for three hours straight last night.

Below are some of the emails that I have received. I think they speak to folks like Caleb Hannan whose father is a race fan, but who has not backed up his story with any stats, interviews, background or information. He’s simply trying to pass is one sided bias from Seattle.

EMAILS :

I think its great that starbucks is going to be on a nascar car! Like a whole lot of your listeners I am a truck driver. I drink a lot of starbucks coffee but I’m not overweight or scruffy faced although I do have long hair. Anyway I think we should take this guy 1 of those 10 cent instant coffee machines like they have at a lot of shippers! Hell the way you described that pic he probably thinks earnhardt sr is still racing!

————-

Mmm. Starbucks. Good stuff.
V-ger

————-

It would be cool if you got the president of Starbucks on
I bet they know exactly what they are doing
I think it a smart move
Two big brands makes sense to me
Eugene needs to write for mad magazine

————

If NASCAR fans stopped drinking starbucks they would have to close more stores.

Rush
Va
———–
Claire B:

I am looking forward to getting the email address for the Seattle goober. I am really going to give him a piece of my mind. After spending 5 days in the campgrounds at Talladega, a small piece is all I can afford to. In a way he’s right. I don’t drink Starbucks, but I have been known to by a double espresso or a good friend of mine, who came rushing in off the road and had to go right on the air.

Heck Claire, I don’t drink coffee at all anymore. I gave up tobacco products going on 10 years ago. Some people just feel the need to bash the NASCAR nation. I think it’s a good idea to get this clown on your show and let him find out first hand how wrong he really is.

Your friend in speed
Dennis from Missouri
—————

………………….My wife and I live in North Central Nevada though my wife is originally from the Seattle area. Being as she still has family in the area we spend plenty of time in Seattle drinking ……. yes “Starbucks Coffee“. Oh by the way our entire family are all NASCAR fans.

I find it all rather ironic. The way I see it some 80 to 90 % of the NASCAR fan base makes more annually than this guy, as well they have been exposed to more culture than this guy will ever know. I do understand where he might get this impression though as many of us toothless, barefoot, moonshine run-n heathens travel thousands of miles to camp in a parking-lot in our quarter million dollar Coaches and RV’s just to watch a bunch of cars go around in a circle.

These days ignorance is no excuse for this kind blasphemy. The NASCAR Culture is like no other and is as broad as the world is wide. For this small minded simpleton to express himself and his Starbucks Coffee as somehow better than those of us who are the fans of NASCAR is a travesty. Ultimately I feel sorry for him and his small view of the world we live in.

Thank you,
Scott
……………………….

Claire my family are huge Nascar fans from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.For the past 8 years we’ve made the 2400 mile round trip to the August Michigan race.( Driving)
I was even chosen one of their “Fan of The month” contest winners for October 2006.
Over that time we have met some incredible people. One such couple we like to call the “4 rows over & 3 cars up” people. It seems every year we park in lot 11 our friends usually show up at our car within 1/2 hour. It”s like magic. There’s a huge parking lot but somehow we always manage to find each other.
In 2007 our Nascar friends invited my wife, son & myself to come visit them in Iowa the week before the race of which we accepted. No one knew what the other did for a living & the only common thread was theirs & our love for Nascar. I was shocked to find out my friend was an Attorney at Law. The way he was dressed there was no telling what he did. Turns out he is what I like to call a “weekend Redneck”. Beer & a tee shirt on the weekend & a business suit for the rest of the week. My wife is the same way. Business suit all week & race nut on the weekend. See even Canadians can be “Weekend Rednecks” & know what Clair we love it & wouldn’t have it any other way.

……………

Hey Claire,

Now that my blood pressure has returned to normal, I would like to elaborate on a couple of items regarding this “article?” in the Seattle paper.

Firstly, I certainly sure that a corporate giant like Starbucks would not invest time or money in a venture that would not be beneficial to their bottom line. To that end, many of your callers (self included) are big coffee drinkers, regardless of profession. Therefore, Starbucks’ step into NASCAR appears to be a nature fit. Here in Canada, many of my coffee buddies are dyed in wool “Tim Horton’s” drinkers, but their passion for the sport is none the less there. These fans included fellow provincial government employees, military personnel, truck drivers (both local & long haul), CPA’s and the list could go on forever. My point is that NASCAR appeals a very WIDE portion of the population.

Secondly, if this gentleman (and I’m trying to be polite!) was to actually step-up and face the fans, he would find his face covered with egg. Tom from Texas (or was it Mike from Cali) said he would be run out of town on a rail. Frankly, I really doubt that Mark (your producer) will convince him to get on air with you and the fans.

Thirdly, for him to say that NASCAR fans would not pay Starbucks’ prices is foolhardy. You know very well how far some of us travel to attend races. Las Vegas for my granddaughter and I is approximately a 3 DAY DRIVE (that’s one way because I’m the only driver, Alyssa is only 7)! Just getting off the island (Vancouver Island) the ferry costs are about $50 + each way. Add in accommodations, meals and GAS, and this calculates to about $1000 just to get there and then home again. Then there’s hotels, meals and tickets (not forgetting souvenirs) once we get there. $4.00 for a coffee seems pretty reasonable, don’t you think!!!!!!!!!!! (Needless to say, this is a once a year trip.)

Anyways, I will get off my “soap box” and will close for now. I would, however, like to say how much I enjoy the 128 Sirius NASCAR station. On my way to work and the drive home is made far more enjoyable because of Sirius. My best wishes to all and keep up the good work.

………………

Hi Claire,

I am going to search for that journalist’s contact info to let him know how ridiculous and ignorant is his narrow minded, uninformed and insulting view of NASCAR followers. I only caught a part of your show tonight but was totally outraged. I am one more example of everything that contradicts the NASCAR stereotype: I am an Assistant Principal with four college degrees (one at the graduate level and one post-graduate), working in a community that pays $33,000+ in school levy taxes alone. My salary is obviously not very chintzy, in the 6-figure range; and I am a NASCAR nut. My car has Tony Stewart personalized plates (2 DEGA), there is a big #14 on my rear window as well as a bumper sticker proclaiming myself a “Long Island Redneck.” I own and drive a high end RV and love nothing more than living on the road and tailgating on the infield. I can mingle at any black tie affair with a martini on one night and then hang around a campfire sucking down a longneck on the next. How dare this guy suggest that NASCAR fans are uneducated and Starbucks is above us. His article does nothing more but perpetuate the stereotype of how ignorant is the non-NASCAR fan as they have not clue to how intellectually stimulating is our sport.

Thank you for this opportunity to vent. Thank you, too, for another great show!

Sincerely,
Michele
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I drink starbucks am a 35 year NASCAR fan

Daland

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On behalf of all humans who love Nascar I would like to invite the seattle weekly human to the woodshed for a cup of Starbucks with a lot of Happy Jack in it. Ie. Jack Daniels. Lol
Respectfully
Jeff
Grand Rapids MN
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Hey claire i’am clean a trucker and a NASCAR fan i refuse to pay for coffee at truck stop but I will spend money on a STARBUCKS.Tony TX
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Kaleb. Put down the Seattle Best coffee. Borrow some money and buy a cup of Starbucks. Take a drink and wake up and smell the coffee. If you had been drinking Starbucks you’d be awake during the races to be able to actually write something of truth about our sport. Any new sponsor in Nascar is awsome. It even helps expand our fan base. It is the perfect TARGET MARKET for Starbucks. What we save on ticket prices compared to NFL or MLB or NBA we can buy STARBUCKS. And lots of it. Many fans already do. Don't write about things you don't understand. We have all colors and nationalities of fans. Not just white rednecks. Wake up Idiot. Why don't you go write about something more up your alley like SLUG RACING ON SALT FLATS. I really hope your computer gets a virus and melts. Sincerly a very pissed off TRUE FAN of Nascar. Chris in Montana. Thanks for letting me vent Claire B.

……………

And the emails keep coming in. I’ll post more.

What’s your take?

Claire B

What you will notice from the video, is that the teams’ planes don’t look a whole lot different on the inside then your typical commercial jet does. The seats aren’t really any nicer or roomier and we have the standard amenities like a closet sized bathroom and your friendly neighborhood flight attendants. But where the planes lack in the luxury department, they make for with the convenience they offer. Depending on the race, we can often be back home in Charlotte within a matter of hours of the fall of the checkered flag.

Besides being home quickly from races, we also don’t have to deal with the usual hassles of commercial air travel. There is no standing in long lines waiting to go through the security screening and no long waits to collect bags once the flight is over. And since most teams fly in and out of two smaller airports in the Charlotte area, there is no airport traffic to deal with; save for the mad dash out of the parking lots. We simply grab our bags, walk down the stairs, and head straight for our cars.

So now that you’ve gotten a glimpse into what it’s like to travel the circuit on private aircraft, know that it’s not exactly “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.” But, it isn’t all bad either.

Dallas/Fort Worth 11/08/09 – Claire B Lang 5:48 p.m. EST Sunday

As the Lowe’s team lifted the cover on the #48 team’s crash cart to begin work on Johnson’s destroyed race car – I noticed the Lowe’s logo and the slogan printed adjacent to it in large white letters, “Let’s Build Something Together.” That is exactly what the Chad Knaus (crew chief) and Ron Malec (car chief) led race team did – they rebuilt the 48 car after a second lap crash not of their driver’s making.

As I watched the Lowe’s team work on their race car, I was expecting Johnson to jump out and grab a wrench and Chad for to ask him ( as he does in the Kobalt tools commercial), “What are you doing Jimmie?” And Johnson would reply, “I’m helping fix the car Chad.” But Johnson stayed right were Knaus wanted him -inside the car ready to pilot it back out when the time was right, because Knaus had supreme confidence that this car was returning to the race track.

The team replaced the rear end housing, drive shaft, rear deck lid, mounts, front end, welded the chassis and the list goes on and on. It’s easier to list what this team did not do to their race car. Watching this team work exemplifies what makes the 48 guys so good.

It’s as if they had rehearsed this scenereo to perfection. There were some 15 Lowes guys working in sync, without speaking, on the points-leading race car while three NASCAR officials looked on. Knaus, as always, carried himself like the team owner, keeping calm and overseeing a major reconstruction project.

Twenty five media folks, local, national, print, broadcast, all standing around watching the one hour plus repairs on Johnson’s ride in the garage here at Texas Motor Speedway. Their comments initially ranged from, “He needs to man up and get out of the car and talk,” to “This is so smooth it’s like watching doctors work in the ER,” to “They’ll never get this car back out there,” to “that’s incredible.” Most of the comments were about how this team went to work, didn’t show even so much as a frown or a facial expression of any kind, any of them, and, like machines, went to work to get the car back on the race track.

There was Chad Knaus pounding sheet metal to bend it using the side of the garage stall’s concrete wall to bend the piece. They were welding, pounding, fitting, inspecting, and screwing metal, hoses, tape and wiring. They carefully used a broom under the car several times to clear the way for the tires as they prepared to pull out of the garage and at one point welded near the gas tank and a fire extinguisher and safety tarp were brought over.

Three times, they’d get close to being ready to take the car out and Chad or one of the officials would see something that needed attention. So, once again without expression, the appropriate member of the team, or Chad or Ron would move in and finesse the area one more time.

Chad would feel around the spoiler, or a rim or area he was concerned about and the team would watch him like a hawk, instinct telling them what they needed to do next. Watching this team work on their car –one just knows that most of these guys know this race car better than they know their girlfriends, wives and family members.

As the car pulled out to return to the track, I watched the members of the 48 machine run out like a football team chasing on to the field to return to the pits. Leading those running out of the garage towards the gate that leads onto pit road was car chief Ron Malec and, as he ran, he turned around quickly once and look back over his shoulder at the team guys running behind him. His face lined with grease and sweat, he gave them a thankful and confident warm smile, in a trademark 48 calm and focused way – he did so faintly but I’m sure they picked up on it because I did.

And on the 48 went to take, once again, the field of battle in a car many thought would never make it back on this race track today.

Over the years I’ve covered this sport I’ve seen many teams make incredible repairs to race cars that we thought would never make it back out onto the race track- so this is not a first.

It was something to watch though.

They made it seem easy.

It’s Claire B Lang and Mike Bagley in costume at “Hallo Dega”

Claire B

Hey! Today I’m busy answering emails and believe me my mail box at ClaireBMail [at] ClaireBLang.com is full of emails on all sides of the Talladega race issues. I thought you might like to see some of my emails and so I’ve posted a bunch of them along with my answers.

Let me tell you something the wrecks at Talladega sure get attention. I was at the grocery store today and at Starbucks and folks who never even watch racing knew of the wrecks. It’s kind of sad that cars flipping end over end get so much attention from folks who don’t know about our sport. But it does get the headline, the photo, the Sportscenter video replay and the conversation jazzed up.

Here’s a list of emails from my box today.

Claire B

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CBL: The the morons in the media (d cross for one) try to tell us to love Johnson…. we’ll hate him –all there is to it…We hate the points system and Johnson is a part of it…He’s only a 2 time champ in my mind.. so they don’t need push this whole making history of 4 time champ …In my world he’s going for number 3 right now and is about 80 points out of the lead..France and Johnson can kiss my…I hate what they’ve done to this sport…

Hey – I have an issue with the Minn. Vikings too cause I’m a Packer Fan – but even if you hate Johnson isn’t he just doing his job? If your favorite driver was doing same would you feel better/happy? Just asking.

CBL

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Claire,

NASCAR has put cowl flaps on the cars to keep the front end on the ground. They have put flaps on the roof so when they get sideways they will stay on the ground. So when are they going to engineer flaps on the trunk so when they get backwards they stay on the ground??

Can you ask NASCAR this question for me and let me know what they say?

I’m tired of being worried when a driver flips like Newman did thinking that a trunk flap may help a driver when they get turned backwards.

Rush Cregger
Virginia

Hey Rush: I’ll have Series Director John Darby on with me on “Dialed In” on Competition Wed on Wed. on my Sirius NASCAR Radio Show in the 7:00 EST time hour. I will ask him.Thanks Rush.
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Dear Claire;
Well I thought the race was really good, ok until 5 laps to go, there was a fair amount of side by side racing and yes strategy in the middle of the race. All and all pretty good racing until the 2 terrible accidents at the very end of the day. Thank goodness no one was hurt, Ryan Newman’s wreck was just frightening, and he had several valid points about this car going airborne too often at the superspeedways. After the race I heard a few comments that maybe the wing may be part of the problem with these flipping accidents and I have to wonder if it isn’t the reason too. In Ryan’s accident it almost seemed like an invisible hand pulled the car up by the wing, also the fact that the car has higher center of gravity forces more air under the car and that higher green house makes the car less stable at the wheels. And I don’t know what can be done to change this short of a complete change to either the car or the track, and neither will happen.
For all the complaints of drivers that they didn’t like NASCAR telling them how to drive, my question is what was NASCAR supposed to do. They were facing the fall out from the final lap accident in the spring they needed to react, certainly the car kept the drivers safe but what about the fans and track workers the bottom line is that they have to keep those cars earthbound. I think we confuse drafting and bump drafting with what goes on at the superspeedways and that is slam drafting. Too many drivers are slamming into the cars ahead of them and because of the center of gravity of these cars being so much higher the cars aren’t as stable and they can be turned into traffic in a split second. NASCAR is between a rock and a hard place here; they can’t and frankly won’t make infrastructure changes to try to prevent these accidents so they have to control how the drivers run the race to attempt to circumvent the big one.
As for the drivers what a fine day for Jamie McMurray, he was good all day and won the day on fumes, and nice finish for Dale Jr.. And if anyone needed that finish it was Dale, hopefully some much needed stability on the 88 team will translate to good finished. And we now know that Jimmie Johnson will be the champion, because frankly unless he is kidnapped by Bedouin’s the 48 team will not make the mistakes necessary for another team to win the title this year. And if a team had luck it was the 48 team yesterday, the car seemed off and at times he looked like he might loose the draft but Chad made maybe the best call maybe in the chase ever. Come in for gas before they red flagged the race, it kept Jimmie out of harms way for the final restart and gave him a great finish. Conversely for my driver Jeff Gordon the decision to stay out will be the one that cost them a chance at the title. To be fair Stevie was right every time on fuel mileage races and it did make sense not to give up the track position especially since they had a serious chance to win the race. With all that I have to think Stevie may second guess himself on that decision, certainly it was clear that they would need to red flag the race to aid Ryan and you take a chance with fuel pressure after the car is shut off. Still there is a lot to race for the 24 team, get as many wins as possible and finish in 2nd place, both are very reachable goals. And for Hendrick as an organization it would be to try to get Ryan Newman up to the top 5 and have all HMS cars and Stewart-Haas Cars in the top 5.
And a couple of final notes; what an excellent finish for Chrissie Wallace 13th in her first race at Talladega, after the race her dad just beamed. After watching Chrissie’s great day I still have to wonder why we don’t see more companies using racing to attract female fans. Why aren’t Revlon or L’Oreal or Victoria’s Secret sponsoring drivers aren’t like Chrissie Wallace or Sarah Fisher in IRL or Ashley Force-Hood, heck Ashley is racing for the Funny Car Championship. What these and many other companies forget is that half of racing fans are women the person in most homes who makes the purchases for the most part. They have the chance to attract customers and do a good thing by helping more young talented women race. Because without the dollars these young drivers will never get the chance to race, just look at Chrissie’s career. I have seen her in a few races and she is very good but it will be difficult to improve when she can’t race more than a couple times of year. And I know that you don’t cover F1 much but I did watch the end of the race and the new Abu Dhabi track is spectacular especially under the lights and there was some close racing at the end. I was shocked by the new driving champion Jensen Button doing everything but spinning out cars to try to finish in second.

Thank You, Sue from Shorewood, IL
Sue: Not much was said in the media about NASCAR doing this to try to ensure the safety of some of the very fans that it upset. I don’t think anyone wanted to see anyone hurt, drivers and especially fans. If it’s not the right solution or was made to last minute, well then something else will be thought of. Elliott Saddler suggested they lock the drivers in the room and have another meeting. Seems Talladega will always be insane. It seems there is no perfect solution to cars going that fast – Thanks for the email. I’ll continue to ask NASCAR their thoughts on aftermath. CBL

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Claire, firstly I want thank you for being the hardest working person in NASCAR radio. I truly feel you put the listeners first and appreciate your hard work. About the race…Jimmie Johnson commented this morning that Talladega is designed for speed and alluded to the potential risk as being more related to track design. I want to throw out the idea that what if the danger IS the track and, if so, all that NASCAR is doing such as the bump drafting enforcement and restrictor plates are just band-aids. Perhaps they need to drop the angles of the turns to force drivers to reduce their speeds. I know it is expensive, but what is a life worth?
On a second note, I have a big issue with NASCAR’s failed attempt at being big brother on the corner bump drafting, as evidenced by their not black flagging any driver. In football for example, a penalty is called as many times as the infraction occurs. In the race that might have been a few times per lap. If they had black flagged anyone bump drafting in a corner the whole race would have been blown. In my opinion it is an all or nothing thing. They call every single infraction or have no ethical leg to stand on if they attempt to penalize a driver.

Won’t take up too much of your time. Thank you for being so special.
John Robinson
East Hampton, CT

John you make a point – everyone has said that this is a very difficult rule to enforce and other series have not been very successful at trying to enforce it. It’s not an easy solution.CBL
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Hi Claire, I sat on the couch for what felt like an hour waiting for them to get Ryan out, holding my breath I want to know why the roll bar collapsed .Rantin-Ray

Me too Ray, Me too. CBL

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Hi Claire,

If Newmans car had been on fire we would all be having different
discussions today. To me there was not enough urgency in getting to
him and getting him out.

Rob C
St.Petersburg, Fl

Rob: It always seems like that….I mean minutes seem like hours during these situations when they are trying to get a driver out safely, but when you are on the couch it’s easy to be an arm-chair safety worker. I’m just glad that he’s ok.

Claire B

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Hi Claire,
Just wanted to say that I thought the race today was a total bore. I really think that the time for tracks like Talladega and Daytona have passed. NASCAR doesn’t seem to want the drivers to race at these tracks anymore so they might as well just scrap them. Also I think that Brad Keselowski is a menace on the track. He has raced in 2 plate races this year and caused big wrecks in both of them. In the spring he sends Edwards into the fence to win and today causes Kurt Busch to wreck taking out many others. Someone needs to take that boy out to the woodshed. It really sickens me and shows what a sad state NASCAR is in when someone like Brad had a solid cup ride for next year and someone like Mears might not and Stremme doesn’t.

David Romanowski
Endicott, NY

Hey David: Well Brad is a young Buck with a lot of “want to” and up on the wheel. When he mixes up with Cup drivers the end of this year and next…I am sure that he’ll learn a lot. As I’ve always said the Cup guys are a little “self policing” on aggressive young guys who come in.. He’ll learn his perfect balance and place. It will be fun to watch. Having him in the Cup Series early now this year will be fun to watch through Homestead. See – there is something to watch besides the Chase. LOL

Claire B

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Hi Claire B.
That was Freekin Awesome Go McMURRY AWESOME!!!!AWESOME!!!!AWESOME

Yea! I was really happy for Jamie too! And his whole team. CBL
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GO VIKINGS LoL You need a purple Farve jersey.

Shut up!!!!! (LOL). Darn I picked that one wrong. I went with my heart on Sirius Pigskin Pickems….I went with Green Bay. All my family at home – in mourning. Go Green Bay. CBL

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I usually like any wrangling. In this case Jimmy Johnson I do believe feels trouble in his central nervous system as well as sees the air with his central nervous system like MR. Dale Earnhardt. Folks get ready for MR. Jimmy Johnson and you soon love him like Big E. Hes not a errogant man at all. Hes smooth in public. Most of us racing degenerates are not. LoL.
Respectfully
Jeff from MN

Thanks Jeff….you can go to the K-Mart parking lot like they used to and scrap it out with the fans of other drivers in the field. Kidding. Actually – Jimmie up close is a really nice guy..but everyone has their own take based on who their driver is. I can tell you one thing..there isn’t anyone in the field who isn’t already working on beating him each race in 09 and fixing it so they can charge at him in 10. CBL
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You’re mad that the Vikings come and brought Brett Farve by to Green Bay and they ran over your Packers. Ole’ well, remember that basically the Packers didn’t want Farve anymore. He’s still got the talent and ability and the drive to play, so get mad at your Packers for getting rid of him.
Chris in TX

Chris: Yea good point. But you didn’t convince me to drain the Green and Gold from my veins. I still was hoping GB would put him back in the box when he came into our house. I like the guy – but I still have a hard time trying to beat the Pack (and doing it LOL). Oh that was so hard. I’m mad at everyone about that game. Claire B
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What is all the complaining about(bitchn) !!!!!!!!! If it is no wrecks at Bristol because of the new configuration, its the cot. Can’t race with it, It’s boring !! Can you give us all a break PLEASE. I cannot believe we cannot go though 1 race without complaining. Three wide, four wide racin and you got the big one with Ryan on his head!! Excuse me !! Its Nascar IT’S racing 200 mph if you don’t like it, watch the Boston Marathon !!! Mike from St. Louis

Louis:

Louis: You make a good point. I was looking back over history to what other drivers said at the care center over the past races after crashing out at Dega to see what they said. I can recall divers slamming things after their cars got tore up in the All Star Race..but now with the economy bad and everyone so sensitive about things it really does stick out like a sore thumb. It’s tough times for everyone…making the fans happy is a priority but is there any way to make everyone happy – and keep them safe? Not sure. I am glad I am not in charge. CBL
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Claire B – Ok, that was officially scary. I was really concerned that we’d lost another driver for a while there.
And sure it was a great race – if you think WWE is a great sporting event. What a fiasco.
The late David Poole argued very strongly that they ought to bulldoze those banks down and I think I may agree with him.
My .02
Brad T
MA

Hey Brad, I too was worried about Ryan. Well there have been folks on several sides of the “bulldozing” concept. It’s been talked about on SNR for hour some disagree – some agree. It was scary…you are right. CBL
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If it weren’t for Newman’s wreck, and the one on the last lap, this would’ve been a super boring race. This race was almost as boring as most of the California races. Not that wrecks make racing exciting. However, side by side racing is exciting and Talladega and Daytona are about the only tracks you can see side by side racing at anymore. I thought that, in addition to safety, that’s what the COT was supposed to bring to the sport. The car is safe but the racing, I don’t think, is as good. If there is a lot of side by side racing they’re not showing it on TV. In which case, means the coverage is lacking.
Michael

Michael – Thanks for the email. Does that mean that you watch for the crashes? Not that that is bad just wondering. Claire B
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Another week ESPN failed to interview the top finishers. Instead they rush to give the Hendrick boy’s interviews. Maybe next week they won’t even interview the winner, if they’re not a Hendrick team.

Well – I hate that….I think there are so many stories to tell the next few races — including stories that lead into next season….and preparation and watching drivers like Joey Logano, and Brad Kezelowski, and what Dale Junior’s team does, and a whole list of other drivers. I think there are many stories beyond the chase.
Claire B
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Just saw Newman’s wreck at Talladega. It looks like the wing on the cup cars creates lift when the car points backwards. Safety issue Nascar needs to look at????
Michael

Rockingham
Hey Michael – Jack Roush made some great roof flap comments — after the race. I will definitely ask John Darby about roof flaps on Wed during “Dialed In” and “Competition Wed” tomorrow. Roof flaps can’t possibly stop everything especially when another car is involved and helps launch the flip. Check into “Dialed In” if you can with Series Director John Darby on Wed on Sirius NASCAR Radio.CBL

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All: Thanks for all the emails and while I’ve answered them quickly – I’ll talk about them in more detail on air on Wed. on “Dialed In” and further discuss. I have found the fans of this sport to be so smart and to be very critical and hold the sport up to a lot – because they have found the sport to be so special and many grew up with it. That’s ok. The more loyal that you are to a sport the more you expect from it and so it makes sense that fans would be critical and hold the sport to a lot of what they expect.

I appreciate your emails and have a whole bunch more…so back to answering them and I’ll catch you on “Dialed In”. I’m headed to Texas on Thursday morning.

Can’t wait. Love Texas, Dallas Fort Worth and Texas Motor Speedway. It’s great fun and there will be a bunch to talk about.

As always, thanks for listening and for emailing.

Claire B

We learned (or were reminded of) a couple important things at Talladega.

1. Most people do not understand the fundamental difference between the physics of drafting and the physics of bump drafting. There is a big difference between prohibiting bump drafting in the corners and prohibiting drafting in the corners
2. It appears to be much easier for the new car to become airborne than the old car
3. When cars are traveling in a pack, any accident is highly likely to involve more than one car

Drafting vs. Bump Drafting

Air rushing around the back of the race car creates a high pressure region at the front of the car and a low-pressure wake at the rear of the car. The high pressure in the front of the car (the car ‘punching a hole in the air’) creates a force opposite the direction the car is moving. The pressure behind the car is lower, which also acts in the direction opposite the car’s motion. So the car is fighting against a force pushing it backward in the front and a force pulling it backward in the back. If there are two cars running some distance from each other, each is experiencing two forces slowing it down: one in the front and one in the back (as indicated by the large red arrows in the top figure). Between the two cars, there are four big red arrows.

When a second car gets very close behind the first car, the air rushes over the two cars as if they were one, which removes the force at the rear of the first car and at the front of the second car. In the lower picture, there are only two big red arrows, so there is less total force working against the cars and – voila – they go 3- 5 mph faster. This is the important part: the two cars don’t need to touch to make this happen. This is plain ole drafting. You can get some more information on drafting and bump drafting in the Science of Speed segment "Drag and Drafting".

Bump drafting is totally different physics. The leading car is running at full throttle. The trailing car is being pulled along, which means that at full throttle, it can actually go faster than the leading car. The trailing car bumps into the leading car, transferring some momentum from the trailing car to the leading car. The leading car goes faster and pulls the trailing car along with it. ‘Bump’ is probably a misnomer. Brian Vickers says in the Drag and Drafting video that he’s come away from plate tracks with headaches because he got bumped so hard - but adds that he was happy to be hit that hard because that’s the way you go fast at a plate track.

In drafting, you’re essentially removing a force by driving within inches of each other. In bump drafting, you are applying a concentrated force from one car to another. Bump drafting takes significantly more skill. The black dot in the diagram below indicates the center of gravity of the leading car. Newton’s laws: If you apply a force, the car goes in the direction of the force. The two cars bump squarely in the top diagram. The force from the trailing car pushes the first car straight ahead.

The middle picture shows two cars in a turn. There’s no way to bump squarely because one car is rotated relative to the other. If you hit the car ahead of you, you create a torque, which is a force that makes things turn. Think of the leading car as a spinner, pinned by the dot in its center. If you hit it in a direction so that the force goes directly through the center, it won’t spin. If you hit it at an angle, the car will spin. This is why you don’t bump draft in the corners. It is very easy to hit someone on the side of the bumper, sending them into a spin and wiping out half the field.

You can cause a car to spin by bump drafting in a straightaway if the two cars are not fully aligned. The bottom diagram shows that hitting a car off-center – even when both cars are going straight – is pretty much equivalent to hitting a car in the corner.

The two techniques have one thing in common: the person in the trailing car is in control and the leading driver is really just along for the ride. The trailing driver decides when to push, where to push and how hard to push. A number of drivers’ have expressed discomfort with ‘being pushed’ (drafting) too hard in the corners because an overaggressive – or an inexperienced – driver can make your car unstable fairly easily. But there is a pretty significant difference between bumping and pushing. Requiring drivers to leave space going into the turns just caused an accordion effect with cars having to back up down the line.

Aerodynamics

One of the big reasons for the aerodynamic changes in the new car was to decrease the amount of wake behind the car. The large wake with the old car made it very difficult for one car to get up close behind another one because the swirling air from the wake didn’t provide enough downforce on the front wheels and the car got tight. The big difference between the old car and the new car in the rear is the spoiler on the old car vs. the inverted wing on the new. All of the air must go up and over a spoiler, creating a huge amount of turbulence behind the car. The wing allows air to flow on top of and below the wing, so there is less turbulence behind the car.

Let’s briefly review the aerodynamics of wings. As shown in the diagram below, air moving over the top of the wing moves faster than the air moving over the bottom. Faster-moving air exerts less pressure than slower-moving air, so a wing experiences more pressure and more force below than it does above. That’s what gives an airplane lift. The wing on the rear of the car is upside down, so there’s more force on the top than the bottom and the inverted wing on a NASCAR car provides downforce.

The key for the computational fluid dynamics simulations of the old vs. new cars (shown below, from a GM publication) is that red are areas of high pressure, meaning lots of downforce. Orange, yellow, green and blue show decreasing levels of pressure, so those colors mean less downforce. Note in the old car (on the left), there was a significant amount of downforce generated by the rear decklid, while in the new car (right), the vast majority of the downforce comes from the wing.

NASCAR cars have an aerodynamic instability problem when they get going too fast. They are fine as long as they are pointed forward, but when the car spins, the aerodynamics change significantly. The air moves very quickly along the rear window and the roof, and remember that fast-moving air doesn’t generate much pressure. The ’shark fin’ on the side of the rear window and the roof flaps were designed to slow down the airflow because slower-moving air creates more pressure. The roof flaps and the sharksfin were designed (the story is in my book, The Physics of NASCAR) for the old car and I don’t know how much work was done to compare the effectiveness of the roof flaps on the new car versus on the old car.

A couple things I noted this morning watching the video of Newman’s crash in slow motion.

1. Both roof flaps deployed at the same time. In theory, one is supposed to deploy first and then the other if it is needed. But things were happening very quickly.
2. The roof flaps deployed when the car was at about 135-150 degrees from heading in the correct direction. (180 degrees would be facing backward.)
3. The right rear wheel was already off the ground as the roof flaps were opening
4. One the car got fully backward, it flipped over without any twisting. You would expect a car that was spinning and then got airborne to continue the rotational motion, but the 39 did a really clean black flip.
5. Once the car made about a 60 degree angle with the track, the roof flaps went down again. I wouldn’t think that gravity would pull them down, so that suggests that the pressure had increased to a point where the roof flaps didn’t think they needed to be deployed.

A backward spoiler is still pretty much a spoiler. If you think about the inverted wing running backward, I wouldn’t be surprised if it were generating a lot of lift. Put yourself in the place of the people designing the car. Would you have thought to simulate the car going straight backward to see what happens? We may not even know enough about the aerodynamics of the cars to do an appropriate simulation. But between this incident and Carl Edwards’ takeoff, NASCAR needs put some serious resources into re-evaluating the aerodynamic behavior of the car at different speeds. Decreasing the restrictor plate holes, especially by fifteen thousandths of an inch (about four times the diameter of a human hair) is not going to affect safety much. The reduction took ten to fifteen mph off the cars, but it didn’t address the primary problem of plate racing, which is that the drivers are on the throttle wide open most of the time, which makes them run in a pack.

A number of drivers are suggesting that NASCAR needs to sit down with them and talk about how to make racing safer. It’s not the drivers NASCAR needs around the table. With all due respect to Ryan Newman’s engineering degree, it’s the top aerodynamics people at the race teams (some of whom actually have Ph.D.s), and people like Gary Nelson and Gary Eaker, who were largely responsible for designing the original roof flaps. NASCAR has many more times the number of people working marketing and licensing than they do on safety. The teams have some incredibly smart people in their aerodynamics departments who have spent the last three to four years trying to understand everything they can about the aerodynamics of this car. NASCAR needs to make use of those folks’ skill and talent because they simply don’t have the in-house resources necessary to do the job quickly and effectively.

NASCAR has a history of being a reactive organization - as Carl Edwards noted last spring, when he said "I guess we’ll do this until someone gets killed, and then we’ll change it". For a few scary moments Sunday, I was afraid we’d reached that situation. Take the initiative and solve this problem before someone gets killed. Don’t tells us that your rules weren’t the cause of the problems. Slowing the cars down is not enough: It is time for a major change, whether that be repaving Talladega to decrease the banking (as the late David Poole suggested), a major re-design of the aerodynamic safety equipment on the car, and/or introducing a significantly less powerful engine that could be run without plates.

Claire B.’s Broadcast Schedule – From the Heart of Racing

Tonight – a special broadcast on “Dialed In” on Sirius NASCAR Radio that is near and dear to the hearts of the members of the racing community. The second annual Jail and Bail” at the Brickhouse Tavern in Davidson, NC. will be the site of tonight’s broadcast of “Dialed In”. (7-10 EST). I’ll be broadcasting LIVE from the event to take you inside some of the fun and sincere caring that makes up the folks who work in the NASCAR garages and on the road.

The event, supported by Best Buy and the NASCAR officials right up to the highest level began when the officials who worked with 28- year-old NASCAR official Brienne Davis wanted to do something to honor her after she was killed in an auto accident in the spring of 2008. Tonight’s event will feature NASCAR celebrities being “locked up” in an effort to raise money for the Brienne Davis Scholarship Fund at the NASCAR Foundation. Country music star Rodney Atkins will be there tonight and a list of drivers celebrities and officials.

Brienne was a Universal Technical Institute graduate and proceeds from the event tonight will benefit the Brienne Davis Scholarship Fund which was created to encourage women to seek a career in the automotive industry and is intended to provide an opportunity for a qualified female student who wishes to attend one of the 12 UTI campuses across the US.

It’s also intended to honor Davis – who was smart, and spunky, respected as an official and was well liked within the garage when she was taken away too early in a tragic auto accident.

Brienne was special and she always smiled. Tonight, we’ll share some of the laughs and fun and raise money in her name. I hope you can join us in person at the Brickhouse Tavern ($10 per person) – or check out how you can pitch in on nascar.com/foundation. I hope that you can listen to ‘Dialed In” LIVE from the event 7-10 EST tonight.

NOTE: At the time of Brienne’s death this web site did a tribute to Brienne and had quotes from NASCAR officials about her and postings from you. Click here to remember Brienne and reading what was posted at the time.

Rest of the weekend CBL schedule:

Saturday night racing and a short weekend has shortened the broadcast schedule this weekend.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009
“Dialed In” LIVE From the Brickhouse Tavern in Davidson NC 7-10 EST

Thursday, October 15th, 2009
“Dialed In” LIVE from LMS AFTER Qualifying is over (Qualifying begins at 7:00 P.M. EST on PRN) until 10:00 p.m. EST

Friday, October 16, 2009
An extremely short “Dialed In” LIVE from LMS from 7:00 p.m. until the start of the Dollar General 300 Nationwide series race on PRN at 7:15 p.m. EST

Saturday, October 17, 2009
CBL will be on the SIRIUS NASCAR Radio Post Race show LIVE from Victory Lane after the Sprint Cup Series NASCAR Banking 500 on PRN

Sunday, October 18th, 2009
Special LIVE “Dialed In” from 11-2 p.m. featuring the drivers who will be competing in the NASCAR Diversity Combine next week. LIVE appearances but tons of young drivers competing in the combine.

The “Dialed In” With Claire B. Lang Broadcast Schedule in California Speedway this weekend is as follows:

Thursday, October 8th
“Dialed In” LIVE from California Speedway
7-10 EST

Friday, October 9th
“Dialed In” POST Sprint Cup Series Qualifying until 10:00 p.m. LIVE from California Speedway

Saturday, October 10
“Dialed In” 2 p.m. – 4 p.m.EST leading into the start of the Copart 300 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. LIVE from California Speedway

“Dialed In” after the Copart 300 until 9:00 p.m. EST

Sunday, October 10th

CBL on Sirius NASCAR Radio Pre Race show at 11:30 -1:30 EST LIVE from California Speedway

CBL in Victory Lane post race and in the field for two full hours on the SIRIUS NASCAR Radio Post Race Show

“Dialed In” after the Post Race Show until 11:00 EST

Be very, very careful what you put into that head, because you will never, ever get it out.  Thomas Cardinal Wolsey (1471-1530)

Tolerance. In the immortal words of Matha Stewart, "It’s a good thing". In this case, we’re actually talking about engineering tolerance, although tolerance of other things – like people who don’t know what they’re talking about and persist in talking about it anyway – remains a virtue to strive for.

Engineering tolerance is "the permissible limit of variation in a physical dimension or other property". In English, that means how far you are allowed to miss the target number. The idea of an engineering tolerance is that you are trying to achieve the exact number, but you recognize that getting it that precise is unlikely because of random factors beyond your control. There is a difference between precision - how close you are to the target - and accuracy, which has more to do with how consistent you are.

Let’s use the analogy of building a car with hitting a bullseye with an arrow. The goal is to hit the bullseye and let’s say you are given five shots (i.e. five distinct cars). The top left picture below shows the ideal. All five arrows are in the bullseye. Now, in reality, you’re more likely to have something like figure B, where the average of the shots is in the bullseye, but the individual shots are scattered a little bit. NASCAR cars are made primarily by hand and you have to expect a little variation. NASCAR would write a rule saying that a shot would be legal if it fell anywhere within the third circle. The goal is the bullseye, but we’ll give you a little breathing room. That’s tolerance. (Actually, NASCAR would probably write a rule that they owned the target and the bullseye had to be a particular shade of red and you had to pay them royalties if you wanted to reproduce it.) Hold Figure C for a moment while I explain why this archery analogy is at all relevant to NASCAR.

As numerous people reported, the 48 and the 5 cars were taken to the NASCAR R & D Center after the Dover race for closer inspection. The 48 was chosen because it won the race and the 5 was the ‘random’ car. This week, the 14 and the 2 (winner and random) were taken back to the R&amp Center. And the 48 and the 5 were taken back just because NASCAR can. Hmmm… NASCAR must either be picking on Hendrick or showing Hendrick favoritism. I can point you to websites proving both.

After the Dover inspection, crew chiefs Chad Knauss and Alan Gustafson were told "not to bring the cars back". In NASCAR history, those words have a very particular meaning becuase they usually are the words that are used when a team figures out how to do something that violates the spirit, but not the letter, of the law. NASCAR can’t actually nail them for it, but they want to make sure they know that they won’t stand for it. In other words, OK, you got away with it once, but don’t try it again.

That isn’t what’s happening here. First, there was nothing illegal about either car either week. John Darby, Sprint Cup Series Director made that verey clear. This was a friendly reminder to the HMS teams that they were closer to the tolerance limits than NASCAR would like them to be.

How close is close? If I remember right (and I’m on the road away from my records), the tolerance on the body is one-eighth of an inch. If something is supposed to be one-inch long with a 1/8" tolerance, it could range from 7/8" to 1-1/8" long. An eighth of an inch is 0.125" or 125 thousands of an inch. The 5 car from Dover apparently was seven thousandths of an inch (0.007″) away from the target plus the tolerance. A ream of 20 lb paper is just about 2 inches thick. There are 500 sheets in the ream, so the thickness of one sheet is 2"/500 = 0.004", or four thousandths of an inch thick. The 5 car was about two sheets of paper away from being illegal - and note that the emphasis is on ‘away from being legal’. No rules were broken here. So why is NASCAR making such a big point about it?

Well, now go back to the drawing above and look at Figure C. In figure C, all of the shots are within the three-ring limit; howevver, they are all in exactly the same place. The point of tolerances is that you are supposed to be trying to achive the actual number, not getting as close as possible to the absolute limit.

Now, that’s really sort of a silly thing to expect teams to abide by. There is a 5 mph tolerance on the Pit Road speed limit. No one is trying to go the Pit Road speed limit. If the Pit Road speed limit is 45 mph, everyone is trying for 49 mph or 49.5 mph or 49.99 mph. When Juablo got nailed for speeding, he was 0.06 mph over the limit. Or was he 5.06 mph over the limit? Trust me, every single team in the garage is playing the same game. It’s how you win. There’s nothing illegal about doing it, but NASCAR wanted them to know that they were playing with fire.

We’re talking about thousands of inches here. Measuring things is not as straightforward as it seems it should be. If I give you the same piece and asks you to measure it fifty times, you will come up with a range of measurements. That’s the nature of measuring things. So it is entirely possible that a car leaves the shop being perfectly within the rules according to the measurements there, but when it’s measured at the R&amp Center, it’s illegal. Don’t forget that the car runs a race and (more often than not) the car hits things and that will affect the positions of parts as well.

So how do you get that detailed in your measurements?

At the track, NASCAR uses a template structure - similar to the one shown here (from the Super Chevy website) to check that each car conforms to the rulebook. The template grid is much more sensitive to variations than the old, two-dimensional templates that were used with the old car. But even the grid is not the most sensitive measuring device. I have seen someone tap the template to "make" it fit more than once. The template makes it easy to see gross violations, but racing these days comes down to thousandths of an inch and that is why the cars have to be brought back to the R&amp center for measurement..

Teams use templates at the shop; however, they rely much more on coordinate-measuring machines (CMM). CMMs consist of a probe (which may be mechanical, optical or other) and a reading device. Modern versions are attached to computers to collect the readings. Mechanical devices include the Romer and Faro arms, which are brand names of popular CMMs. These device looks like arms, with joints that mimic the elbow, wrist and fingers. Those joints allow motion along all three axes (up/down, left/right and back/forth), plus the ability to rotate about each of these axes. (Check out this interview with the inventor, Homer Eaton.) The arm is touched to the car in specific spots. The probe transmits its three-dimensional coordinates to the computer, thus forming a precise 3D map of the car inside the computer. The picture below shows a Faro arm (top) and a Romer arm in use at the NASCAR R&amp Center (bottom). The Romer arm is used to certify the chassis (with over 100 distinct points tested) as well as measure the body position and sheet metal thicknesses.

One of the challenges using mechanical CMMs is measuring over a very large volume. The NASCAR system measures over a 13′ x 20′ area defined by a set-up plate. To improve the measuring accuracy, 5/8" diameter seats are mounted in the plate every three feet. The placement of the seats is verified during installation using laser triangulation. Before measuring the car, the probe is touched to any three of the seats, which ensures that the probe uses the same origin every time. Triangulation is also the basis for the CMM. Remember all that geometry you learned in eighth grade? If you have an unknown length - the distance from the origin to the pointer - you make the unknown length one leg in a triangle. If you know the length of one side and two angles of your triangle, you automatically know the lengths of all sides and all angles.

On "This Week in NASCAR", Chad Knaus noted that HMS only had one Faro arm available and would usually measure the cars right after construction and not much after that. He also reported that they bought a second machine ($60,000) so that both the 24/48 and the 5/88 shops would have one. I"ve also heard that there were some differences in how HMS was measuring the cars and how the NASCAR R&amp center was measuring the cars. Differences in exactly how the measurement is done might make a measurement look fine at the shop, but be over tolerance at the R&amp Center. That wouldn’t be a big deal if you were aiming for one inch and your limit was 1-1/8′, but if you’re getting as close as possible to the 1-1/8" number, a couple of sheets of paper make a big difference.

The mechanical arms are really nifty pieces of technology, but laser scanning takes accuracy one step further because the only thing touching the car is light. A laser stripe is focused on the car, and a sensor analyzes the line on the surface of the car. A computer program uses triangulation to back-calculate what surface shape would cause the observed line to appear as it does. I’ve seen a couple of these systems in action at the major team shops. They are fast and accurate. They are also very expensive, but I know a couple of teams that laser scan every car before and after they hit the track, looking for subtle differences that might mean a few hundredths of a second per lap.

I’ve had a difficult time getting this confirmed, but what I’ve heard is that the area of the car being questioned by NASCAR is the rear end and its offset from the centerline. The old car was remarkably asymmetric, as shown below. See how it’s almost jelly bean shaped, curving to the left in the front and the rear? That assymetry is one reason the old car turned better than the new car. The new car (rear view below) is still a little asymmetric. Note the position of the wing with respect to the decklid to see the asymmetry; however, the asymmetry is much smaller in the new car. Apparently, a number of teams (HMS isn’t the first one to be warned) have been pushing the rear end as far as they can within the tolerances to help the car turn.

All NASCAR was doing was reminding the teams that that one reason for a tolerance is that there are bound to be discrepancies in measuring or fabricating and the tolerance is there to give you a safety cushion. The point is that you design for the specification and hope it is within tolerance. The teams, on the other hand, look at the tolerance as being "the grey area" and therefore legitimate for them to work with. Given everything that NASCAR prohibits, you can’t blame the teams for zeroing in on those things they can still innovate with.

So let’s just put the black helicopters away for the moment, remove the aluminum foil helmets and back slowly away from the digitizing arms. Remember that, in NASCAR, the best innovations are the ones that they we never hear about.

Welcome to Dover. The forecast is part of the conversation this weekend – as is Mark Martin’s age, the chase format, the high banks of Dover, concrete versus asphalt, pit road incidents and what to do to prevent them, and partial schedules for drivers (i.e. Jeff Gordon and would he ever go part time)

Let’s start with the weather: This is one of those weekends that might be affected by rain – but hopefully we’ll be able to make it through without significant delays to the schedule and/or impact on the racing. So let’s start there:

Here’s the latest weather forecast for Dover:

DOVER FORECAST:
Sep 25 Friday
Mainly cloudy. A few peeks of sunshine possible. High near 70F. Winds NE at 10 to 20 mph.
Sep 25 Friday Night
Some passing clouds. Low near 55F. Winds ENE at 10 to 20 mph.
Sep 26 Saturday
Cloudy early with showers for the afternoon hours. High 66F. Winds E at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
Sep 26 Saturday Night
Cloudy with periods of rain. Low 59F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Significant rainfall amounts possible.
Sep 27 Sunday
Cloudy with rain in the morning. Highs in the upper 70s and lows in the low 60s.

Claire B.’s SIRIUS NASCAR Radio Broadcast Schedule:

Here’s the broadcast schedule for “Dialed In” on Sirius NASCAR Radio and for met this weekend.

Friday, Sept. 25th

“Dialed In” with Claire B. Lang 7-10 EST

Saturday, September 26th
“Dialed In” 2PM-3PM leading into the Dover 200 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Race
Also “Dialed In” after the race until 9PM ET

Sunday, September 27th

SIRIUS NASCAR Radio Pre-Race Show
10:15AM-12:15PM ET (Claire B.in Studio)

SIRIUS NASCAR Radio Post Race Show (two full hours after the Sprint Cup Race) – (Claire B. in Victory Lane)

After post race: “Dialed In” with Claire B. Lang until 10:00 p.m. EST

Now what’s going on here in the Media Center at Dover:

BREAKING NEWS: Here in the Media Center today at DIS:

Mark Martin’s Age Continues to be a Topic:

To Brian Vickers: How amazed are you with Mark Martin’s accomplishments this year?“It’s crazy to think about that. It really is. …….. Why is he still doing so good at that age? I think it has less to do with his age and more to do with the fact that he’s still really hungry. If he had won four championships, would he still be able to do it at 50? I think desire has more to do with it than age. He is still real hungry. And what he has, and is a huge advantage over any of us, is he has just as much desire, but he has a lot more experience. I think experience in these cars goes a long way. We don’t have the telemetry. We don’t have the computers telling the crew chief what to do to the car like Formula One does. I think that’s where the experience comes in. Knowing these tracks and understanding these tracks, 500 mile races. It’s easy to say it, even for a young athlete, that you gotta be there at the end of the race to win it, but it’s much harder to do it. Mark is always there at the end of the race. He’s had some problems at the beginning of the season, but most of those, were those his fault? I’m proud of him. I’m impressed. I admire him for what he’s accomplished throughout his entire career, and especially what he’s done this season. I think he’s a huge threat to win the championship. I don’t think his age hurts him whatsoever. I don’t see that as being old, me personally. But I’m not 50 yet. I might change my mind when I get that age. I think most of the time, when a very talented athlete — even a race car driver — gets to be that age, if they’re still in the sport, then they’ve probably had a certain level of success. And with that, they get, ‘Okay, well I’ve already done it. Do I really want to push myself to do it again? I’ve won four championships, or five, or six or seven or whatever.’ They probably lose a little bit of desire. Mark is hungry. You can see it. You can see it even when you talk to him. You can see it on the race track. He’s never won a championship before and he wants it bad. He’s got more experience than anybody and he’s probably in better shape than most of the guys in this garage.

To Mark Martin: ON YOUR DECISION TO SIGN A CONTRACT EXTENSION – COULD YOU JUST TALK A BIT ABOUT WHETHER THERE WAS MUCH SOUL SEARCHING INVOLVED? Mark Martin: “Really things are going really, really well. I’m having the time of my life. It’s a little long-range for my liking but for Hendrick Motorsports planning purposes, sponsorship deals and all those things it made sense to go ahead and make the commitment so they could plan longer term than just a year. I’m definitely having a blast. I’m having the time of my life and I think that’s obvious. So I was comfortable with it.”
Other topics:

PIT ROAD INCIDENTS INCREASING -SOWHAT IS THE FIX?

To Brian Vickers: Would it be safer if NASCAR penalized drivers for hitting crew members or other cars on pit road?
“Well, are they going to make the crew guy run a lap if he jumps out in front of a car? They do it. I think that in the heat of the battle — it’s tough. The last thing I want to do as a driver is hit a crew member — I can assure you. I don’t think there’s a guy out here who wants to hit a crew guy. But, when you pull in your pit box and the crew guys they get up on the wall and they’re anxious and they’re ready to go and their car is a few behind you and they jump out a little bit early and they’re watching this and they’re not paying attention to here — oh, trust me, I’ve had plenty of guys jump out in front of me. And, I’ve had guys that they have a tendency to swing way out of the box. They run around the car about four or five feet out in pit road — they’re not even in their box.”

GORDON SAYS IT DOESN’T MAKE BIZ SENSE FOR HIM TO GO PART TIME
Jeff Gordon says since he has equity in Hendrick Motorsports he doubts he’d do a partial schedule in the future because he doesn’t see where it would make good business sense for HMS. He says if he’d go to Rick Hendrick and tell him he’d like to go to partial schedule that Rick probably would allow it – but it would never be with the intention of coming back one day to a full schedule. It doesn’t look as if this is something he’s considering.

Stewart has not talked with Danica:

Tony Stewart says he has not talked with Danica Patrick since the announcement was made that she was staying in Indy Car and had signed a new contract with Andretti Green Racing – that out of a report in the Indianapolis star.

That’s it for now. More later. I’ve got to get back out in the garage.

Enjoy the day.
Claire B

Excruciating Wait Until Saturday for Sprint Cup Drivers

It seems so unusual for there to be no track action on Friday. I get a kick out of how “on go” the drivers usually are. They can’t wait to get back to the race track and climb into their race cars. For those who have to hold their own or make up valuable and hard earned points to make it into the chase at Atlanta Motor Speedway it’s got be excruciating to wait until Saturday to get back in the race car.

Sure there are appearances and golf tournaments and sponsor events (see some of the driver appearances below) but the time will tick by on Friday – and this weekend for a stack of drivers there’s so much on the line.

Broadcast Schedule:

Sept. 3 (Thursday) “Dialed In” 7-10 PM EST
I’ll be on the air 7-10 p.m. tonight with “Dialed In”

Sept. 4 (Friday) “Dialed In” 7-10 p.m. EST LIVE from AMS
“Dialed In” will be LIVE from Atlanta Motor Speedway 7-10 p.m. EST. There will be no track activity but I’ll have a party for the listeners on air –and will be in the media center broadcasting

Sept. 5 (Saturday) “Dialed In” 2-4 p.m. EST LIVE from AMS
“Dialed In” will be on air from 2:00 – 4:30 p.m. EST leading into the start of Pep Boys Auto Club Qualifying (MRN coverage) Be sure to set your watch for qualifying as it’s on Saturday of this week.

Sept 6 (Sunday) “Dialed In” 2-3:30 p.m. EST LIVE from AMS
“Dialed In” will be on the air leading up to the SIRIUS NASCAR Radio Pre Race Show LIVE from AMS

“Sirius NASCAR Radio Pre Race Show” – 3:30 – 5:30 (I’ll be in the booth)

(MRN’s Inside track follows –the MRN coverage of the Pep Boys Auto Club 500 starts at 6:30 p.m. EST on Sirius NASCAR Radio

Driver Appearances
A number of NASCAR drivers will be making local appearances around the Atlanta area prior to the Pep Boys Auto 500 race weekend. Below are a few driver appearances preceding Atlanta Motor Speedway’s first Sprint Cup night race:

Clint Bowyer: On behalf of Prilosec OTC, Clint Bowyer will sign autographs at the Walmart located at 11465 Tara Boulevard in Lovejoy on Thursday, Sept. 3 from 7:00 through 8:00 p.m. Two hundred tickets will be distributed at 5 p.m. on a first-come, first-serve basis.

David Reutimann: David Reutimann will be making an appearance at Dick’s Sporting Goods at 1855 Jonesboro Road in McDonough on Friday, Sept. 4 from 5:00 to 7:00 PM.

Casey Mears: Casey Mears will kick off a month-long celebration of Jack Daniel’s birthday by signing autographs Friday night at Southside Steve’s from 7 to 9 p.m. at 715 Industrial Blvd. in McDonough, Ga. On race day, Mears will sign autographs and meet fans at the Jack Daniel’s merchandise trailer from 4:30 to 5:00 p.m. in the Display Lot. A limited number of tickets are available prior to his appearance and issued on a first-come, first-serve basis.

The Chase to the Chase – Get ready – Atlanta is going to be a doozy!
“All of them are important. No matter where you are in the points and in terms of the Chase, a good run always helps. We feel like we’re in a pretty good spot but we definitely will not take anything for granted. We want to go to Atlanta and win, just like the other guys.” Denny Hamlin

Story Line: The story of the weekend is the points position of the drivers on the bubble for the chase, or around the bubble. You can write it any which way you want..but it all comes down to this:
(Pos) (Driver) (Points +13)
8 Greg Biffle +75
9 Juan Montoya +64
10 Mark Martin +60
11 Kasey Kahne +52
12 Matt Kennseth +34
(Pos) (Driver) (Points -12)
13 Kyle Busch -34
14 Brian Vickers -39
15 Clint Bowyer -112

More when I get to the track. Beautiful day here in Charlotte NC. Enjoy the day!
Claire B

The new car comes with a Sirius/XM Radio, which is perfect timing since my long-standing insomnia finally seems to be succumbing to the wonders of modern medicine (which means I can’t drive in NASCAR). But I also haven’t been lying awake in bed listening to the replays of NASCAR shows on channel 128. Since I was tooling around the city today catching up on errands like getting plates for the new hot rod, I got to listen in real time.

That actually got me in a bit of trouble when I mentioned to my husband how odd it was to hear Dave’s voice and not be in bed. I think we have that cleared up now, but if you’re in Dallas in November, Dave, I’ve hidden all the ammo just in case. Speaking of Dave, he challenged me some time ago to write a science blog in verse. I haven’t quite gotten to the level of a whole post yet, but I did write a limerick about Brian Vickers at the Nationwide race at New Hampshire. (Yes, I know I’m behind.)

The story of Loudon is writ
Speed and Vickers collided a bit
Scott said Brian slowed down
As the corner he tried to round
And Brian said, ‘Yeah, no (expletive)‘

Brian was simply expressing his understanding of Newton’s First Law, albeit in words Isaac Newton probably wouldn’t have chosen. (This, after all, is a man reputed to have died a virgin.) But it is what my colleagues in education call a “teachable moment".

Newton’s first law says (among other things) that when a car is going straight, it’s going to keep going straight unless something makes it change its direction. Sort of like if you’re lying down watching TV, you’re going to keep lying down watching TV until your spouse tells you to get your butt off the couch and take out the trash. If Newton had married, he would have come up with that one as well.

The force needed to make something turn is the centripetal force, which is proportional to the mass of the car (m) times the speed of the car squared (v²) divided by the radius r of the turn.

It takes more force to turn faster. A lot more. If you double your speed, it takes four times as much force to make the same turn. Similarly, it takes more force to make a tight turn. That’s one reason cars slow down going into the corner.

Depending on the turn and the speed of the car, it can take as much as 6 or 7 tons of force to make a stockcar turn. All that force comes from the friction between the tires and the track. How much friction you get is a combination of the stickiness of the tire, the track surface and banking, the mechanical downforce (the weight of the car pushing on the tires) and the aerodynamic downforce (the force of the air pushing down on the car, which pushes down on the tires). All those forces added up have to provide a force equal to mv²/r. If they don’t provide enough force, you don’t turn. You crash.

Track banking helps the car turn because the banked track actually pushes the car in the direction it should be turning. The more banking, the more centripetal force the track provides and the less force has to be provided by mechanical and aerodynamic downforce. The angle of the banking actually changes as you take the turn, so you get different amounts of help turning in different parts of the corner.

The other two factors - aerodynamics and mechanical force - push the car’s wheels into the track, which creates more friction. The problem is that they don’t push each tire with the same force, and the force changes throughout the corner. I’ve talked in previous blogs about the fact that weight ’shifts’ when you change direction or speed. To review:

• When you brake, the rear wheels lose grip and the front wheels gain grip.
• When you accelerate, the rear wheels gain grip and the front wheels lose grip.
• When you turn left, the right side wheels gain grip and the left side wheels lose grip

The important thing to remember is that you can only turn as fast as your least grippy tire. So if you have a lot of force on your right rear and very little force on your left front, you are limited by the left front.

When a driver talks about ‘rolling through the corner’, he’s talking about the part of the turn in which he’s traveling at roughly constant speed. The car’s already shifted load to the front wheels and he’s off the brake. The load’s shifted from left to right and he’s just waiting for the right moment to get on the gas.

Two cars going into the corner one behind the other are experiencing the same force from the track. The cars have the same mass, so the things that distinguish how one car turns from how the other car turns are the aerodynamic downforce and the rate at which the load shifts. That’s why springs, shocks and swaybars are so important. These components can’t change how much load shifts in a turn, but they can change the rate at which it shifts.

The next couple posts will address the coyote hood ornament they were discussing on Tradin’ Paint and Suzy Q’s tummy gurgles. And why the switch to Fuel Injection is just for show…

Hey and Greetings from Bristol:

It’s a short weekend here at Bristol. I’m not on the air today on SIRIUS NASCAR Radio with “Dialed In” because Sprint Cup Qualifying will go right up to the start of the Nationwide Series Race the Food City 250 and PRN radio’s coverage of the race.

I will be standing by just in case there is any time between qualifying and the start of the Nationwide race but I’m expecting the coverage will stay seamless on PRN between the two events and that they will not throw it back to me.

However, it does look like rain here and I’ll be doing rain delay coverage (seems like a weekly event) so will be close to the microphone

So how’s your day?

Here’s a run down of my broadcast schedule for the short Bristol weekend:

Saturday, August 21

“Dialed In” With Claire B.
2PM-3:30 p.m. EST

SIRIUS NASCAR Radio Pre-Race Show
3:30PM-5:30PM ET – I’ll be in the booth – Steve Post in the garage
Sirius NASCAR Radio Post Race Show:
I’ll be in Victory Lane LIVE when the race is over for two full hours after the race.
FROM THE GARAGE/MEDIA CENTER:

Brian Vickers signs a new deal with Red Bull Racing and Stands up to Kyle Busch
“He’s out of Rope”

The media session here at Bristol Motor Speeway is always loud. Brian Vickers and Jay Frye (GM Red Bull) came in to talk about Vickers new contract with Red Bull. But as loud as the cars were outside on the track —the sound in the room of Vickers saying he’s not taking any guff from Kyle Busch was so loud that everyone in the room took note. After being asked questions about Busch – and answering them no uncertain terms – Vickers left the room after delivering his own closing statement that pretty much clarified any questions about how Vickers feels about racing Busch.
I included below the full transcript on the issue- as well as the closing statement that was not included on the initial transcript. Enjoy.

Are you still upset about what happened with Kyle Busch following the Nationwide race at Michigan?
“I’m not still mad about it. Like I said after the race, definitely I put it in the memory bank for the next go around. I don’t know if you want to call it ‘strike-one’ or ‘strike-two,’ but either way he’s (Kyle Busch) out of strikes. It’s definitely in the memory banks – it’s not something I’m mad about. I wasn’t mad about it at the time, to be honest with you. Like I said last week, in a lot of ways I feel sorry for him. I hate that he lives in such an angry place. To be so mad about something so small – it must be miserable to live like that. That’s just not the way I live my life. I’m very blessed to have great parents that raised me to be a very different person. I’m in a great position there and I’m very lucky that way that I was raised differently. I’m fine with it – whatever happens moving forward – the ball’s in his court. I’m willing to race him hard and clean and move on down the road and if he’s not willing to do that then I’m willing to take whatever path he chooses. I’m going to race him the way he races me – he knows that and he’s been aware of that for a very long time and that’s not going to change.”

What is your outlook on what winning should mean to a driver?
“I think it should mean a lot. I think pitching a fit and a tantrum after a race — I wanted to win that race as bad or more than he (Kyle Busch) did, but I handled it very differently. He was mad because I raced him. He was mad because he said that I should’ve let him go so that the 88 (Brad Keselowski), who didn’t deserve to win, shouldn’t have won. That’s what he told me. That the 88 (Keselowski) didn’t deserve to win and if I would’ve let him go and let him win, then the 88 wouldn’t have. And frankly, I don’t really care if Kyle Busch wins and I’m proud of the 88 (Keselowski). Good for him. He snuck by both of us. It’s my job to race for the win and that’s what I want, is to win the race. If I can’t win, I don’t really care who does to be honest with you. My concern is not him. I think it’s good to have for the sport, to have emotion — maybe someone getting out of the car and pitching a fit and crying is a good thing. It definitely made a lot of headline news. But, when I talk about being upset about a small thing, he probably caused — I don’t know. The damage he caused between his car and my car post-race, running into my car, was a lot. The way he got out of the car and how angry he was, I just feel bad for him. I’m mad that I didn’t win the race, too. To live with so much anger, I don’t know. It just must be miserable, to be honest with you. I don’t know what you expect out of someone who wants to win the race. I love what I do and I’m very upset if I don’t win, but if that’s what it takes to win, then maybe I don’t want to, because I don’t want to live my life that miserable. I just don’t. It’s just not who I am. I just don’t want to be that upset because I didn’t win.”

What do you mean when you say Kyle Busch is out of ‘strikes?’
“What do you think it means? I’m going to race him the way he races me, but he’s out of rope.”

Do you have a rivalry with Kyle Busch?
“It depends on how you define rivalry. Do I concern myself with where he’s at? No.”

ALSO NOTE: VICKERS ADDED A STATEMENT AT THE END WAY WORTH READING – I TRANSCRIBED IT

In closing I will say this. You know most importantly – focusing on last week , you know I was really proud of the effort by everybody on both teams Dollar General and Red Bull. We sat on two poles had a second and a win. You know obviously I wanted to win the race really bad but I know you guys want to make something a lot more out of it for a story. You want to create a rivalry. I understand that. But it is what it is. My point is and I am going to race him the way he races me. In my book he’s out of rope. I’m just done. I’m just to my limit. To answer your question again…if you think he acted appropriately would you have acted that way? Ok. So Yea I understand. That’s all you got to think about. I mean I think I made it very clear. Obviously I want to win races really, really bad. But a lot of life is how you handle yourself too. That’s the bottom line.

————

Woah how about those comments from Vickers? I can’t wait to see what happens if the two tangle here at Bristol. Hard to avoid each other – everyone tangles at Bristol Baby!

Enjoy the day.

Claire B

Finally arrived after massive delayed flights and a closed runway at Charlotte’s airport back at home at 11:00 p.m. on Tuesday night. That was ok because it was after a great race with tons to talk about with you all. I received much email and am going to post some of the notes I got from you below as well as some conversation about the race at the Glen.

Tomorrow, it’s off to Michigan and I am hearing that there is no chance of rain in the forecast there. If that changes or if anyone hears differently – please don’t tell me. We’re due some sun at MIS and for the race fans. God bless the race fans who braved lightening and weather and banded together under the grandstands and then resurfaced on Monday for the Sprint Cup Series race at the Glen.

I also wondered this – what about the fans at home who watch on TV. For fans who traveled to the race, and the teams and drivers and the traveling group that is NASCAR the week was thrown off a bit by a second rain delayed race. How does it affect those of you who are at home watching on TV and scheduling your TV time and weekend around watching racing? Did any of you take off another day to watch the race? Email me: insidercbl@aol.com

Here’s my schedule for the week/weekend on air: Check claireblang.com for updates and also check out my column in Challenge Magazine at most all Pilot truck stops across the country. America’s truck drivers are the kindest and most compassionate folks ever – I’ve gotten to know them over the years on satellite radio and this column is a chance to give them something special.

Claire B.’s SIRIUS NASCAR Radio “Dialed In” SIRIUS NASCAR Radio – Channel 128 (Best of SIrius on XM Channel 128) schedule this week:

Wednesday, (tonight) August 12
“Dialed In” wth CBL- 7-10 p.m. EST

Thursday, August 13
“Dialed In” with CBL 7-10 p.m. EST LIVE from Michigan International Speedway

Friday, August 14
“Dialed In” with CBL 7-10 p.m. EST LIVE from Michigan International Speedway

Saturday, August 15
“Dialed In” with CBL -2:00 – 3:00 p.m. EST LIVE from MIS leading up to the start of the Nationwide race – the Carfax 250 at MIS

Post Race: “Dialed In” with CBL after race until 8:00 p.m. EST

Sunday, August 16

CBL in the booth for the SIRIUS NASCAR Radio Pre Race Show LIVE from MIS 10:15 a.m. -12:15 p.m. EST

CBL in Victory Lane LIVE and on the SIRIUS NASCAR Radio Post Race show for two full hours after the race

Followed by:

“Dialed In” wit CBL until 10 p.m. EST Sunday night breaking down the race post the post race.

That’s my schedule for the week. Here (BELOW) are some of the emails that you have been sending me this week. You all are very good…raising some great points and bringing up good issues. Keep sending them on at ClaireBMail [at] ClaireBLang.com

Thanks.

“Dialed In” MAIL BOX….. The glenn
Posts to ClaireBMail [at] ClaireBLang.com (Claire B)

Hey Claire,

Can u check on something for me? I am trying to figure out why
Stremme was not penalized for running over his front air hose on the
last pit stop. There was even an official standing right there, and I
do not think the rule has changed, has it?

Thanks.
Hey: Thanks for the note. I checked with Kerry Tharp with NASCAR who contacted David Hoots – race director. Here’s your answer:
Referenced 9-15 P in the 2009 rule book: (…when a car completely runs over or under its air hose or over any other equipment within its assigned pit box, the driver may be instructed to return to the car’s assigned pit box for inspection at the direction of NASCAR officials …)The two key words of the rule are “completely” and “may” be penalized. Not in Rule book, the official has the discretion to not make the call if only a part of the hose is clipped or left remaining

The above interpretation of the rule was applied in this particular case involving the No. 12 car

Claire

the people that keep saying Kyle bush need to change are crazy….i have raced from my 5th birthday and i am 58…2nd place is first looser….this crap about being happy with 2nd or 3rd is dumb….1st is the only winner …i think he is great he cant say what you want to say so dont say anything…..m&m mars candy is the only one that counts and Joe Gibbs
say he see a different Kyle….these dumb people they complain should just shut up…..Kevin harvick is saying what it takes to get his team to let him out of his contract….he just a cry baby i can remember when he was the one running all over everyone……again everyone leave Kyle alone …..he is the best driver all around in nascar now

David Watkins

Response: Hey David. Thanks for the email. David I agree —he won’t live with second. But I think winning championships requires that you cannot let that throw you or your team off when you finish less than first. It takes being solid no matter what the issues or the day —-I don’t criticize him for his spirit I LOVE that. But I do think to win a championship he has to find the right balance between the total and complete all consuming desire to win and being up on it and not letting it get to him. It think he knows that and is working on getting there. It’s a tough edge of the razor to find. Thanks again.

Claire B

Hi I missed your show all this week————-sorry———–. What was your opinion of the #11 not getting the same penalties as the #7 and #12? Also about the # of free passes a driver can get. I don’t think that any driver more than 1 lap down should get a free pass. Everyone is bragging on the #48 for making up 3 laps. They didn’t make up anything it was given to them. Once again the no reason for cautions that you know I hate played a major role in the race. I don’t mean it changed who won, but it did allow several teams to get far better finishes than they should have had. A good example was the #12 hitting the wall ,but kept going and they immediately threw the yellow flag. I looked hard ,but could not see anything on the track,nor did TV say anything about anything on the track.Have you ever thought about the advantage a team like the #48 last week has getting 3 lucky dog passes in a row. They get a lap back which everyone knows ,but think of all the extra time they have to make changes to the car that other teams that are good enough to stay on the lead lap don’t have. Just another way that NASCAR in it’s infinite wisdon effects the outcome of a race. thanks jim in fl.

Thanks Jim. I grilled series director John Darby on this topic on air on “Competition Wed.” on “Dialed In” after Pocono. I’m sorry you missed it. I am going to try to get the tape and transcribe it so that you can catch up on what he said. I’ll try to do that as soon as we have a race weekend that is the normal length. I am slammed to get to Michigan tomorrow. Maybe should have gone directly to Michigan from Ithica huh?Hey, maybe can transcribe it on the flight. Will work on that and will post it here as well. NASCAR basically said that the #11 wasn’t malicious although hard racing and they felt that the 7 and 12 were in their eyes after seeing tape. Debris cautions we can and do debate every single time they come out. Like you I want to see what they are. Three lucky dog passes – sometimes those work in your favor sometimes they don’t. I will try to get that tape done so you can read discussion with Darby on all this. Thanks for the email. My opinion – we have a complicated sport with strike and ball calls….we’ll be debating them until the cows come home. Some I agree with some maybe not so much. I do think that NASCAR tries to be fair with the calls – and depending on which driver folks like opinions are varied. It’s part of the sport – that will never change.

Hey thanks for the email.

Claire B

Hi Claire,

I thought you might get a kick out this. It was in the Press and Sun Bulletin (Binghamton, NY paper). It’s not the headline of the story for the nationwide race, but it was the first sentence of the story. “Marcos Ambrose out Kyle-Busched Kyle Busch.” I thought it was clever.

David Romanowski

David: Thanks Loved it. To the rest of you keep sending headlines from your area. Good stuff.
Appreciate it David.

Claire

Claire,

I don’t dislike Kevin Harvick. He is a great guy and a hard racer and I like him. I’m not extremely upset about him saying he didn’t want to bother going back out (at Glenn)….but I am extremely disappointed.

You asked what we would think if the roles were reversed and it were Jr. Well, I think Jr has shown time and time again that he is not like that. He is known for staying in it to get everything he can get…every position…every point…even if he does not actually gain anything in the end…he always tries. Jr is having just as bad of a year as Harvick is…if not worse. I know he is under much more intense pressure….yet he still handles everything with class and never gives up. He gives his team everything he can give them. He has awful luck and I know he’s frustrated but he does not use that as an excuse to give up.

Just like today. His brakes went out and he wrecks…just bad luck every week. Yet, he still tried to go back out there. From what I gathered through e-mail updates(I was working) today, he did not gain any positions but at least Jr still tried. Everybody gets frustrated and has a bad day and you want to throw in the towel. But you can’t give up…and i’m damn proud to say my driver Dale Jr never gave up!!!!….that means a lot to me as a fan!!!!!

Jennifer in SC

Jennifer – I guess I try really hard when someone says something about a driver to change names with another driver (any driver from Gordon to Earnhardt to Bowyer to anyone else on the line up) and see if fans would say same thing. I guess sort of like a fairness meter. I do it all the time….I am sure not implying that another driver would have said that. The drivers who came out of the care center all banged around were kind to stop and talk after that. I appreciate whatever a driver says at that point and if he’s frustrated I guess that would be the ultimate of frustration. Some fans said they thought Kevin was saying he didn’t want to go out there to be crashed by someone not as experienced at road courses again…..perhaps so. It seems like he was just so frustrated. Not sure that works in anyone’s favor. Read rest of emails below. I got a lot of them. Fans are passionate about Harvick.

Claire B

I am not worried about Kevin Harvick at all Claire. I believe he was just fed up with this car, this race, this entire season.. It has been devastating for him, his team and the whole organization. That interview culminates the feelings of all the guys and girls on that 29 team, and probably the 31 and 33 teams also. But they don’t give up and they didn’t either. The team worked on the car, and Harvick got in the car and drove it as hard as he could until he couldn’t anymore. So there are no worries for this huge 29 fan and there shouldn’t be any worries with the rest of us.. Don’t worry guys, he’ll be alright, maybe he’ll end up at Stewart-Haas Racing! Either way, I will support him and the RCR organization.

Thanks Claire

Lee
MS

I guess he was never a rookie.TONY TX

I was going to ask you to send the 14 around but i dont think he needs your help. he did it fine on his own. GO TONY!!

jay in nh

I think Kevin did not want to go out there and be with racers
who were over their skill level – who could wreck him again.

Joanna

Harvick is a big crybaby jerry in

When something happens like Kasey Kahne and Sam Hornish getting together and a big nasty wreck ensuing, how does the driver (in this case Kasey) block that out of his mind to continue the race and not dwell on what happened? It also seems like some drivers may be able to block it out better than others. Is this also the case?

Heidi
Lewisberry, PA

Heidi: Yea they have to. If they don’t they would make more mistakes and have “road rage” incidents that would really be counter productive. It is hard to think of how these racers don’t have more “road rage” since they are so ultra up on it to do what they do -so much more competitive than most of us to get themselves to the edge of speed like that. It’s pretty amazing. But most of them that attain championship status have the ability in the car to keep that in check and find a focus spot that keeps them that way. Good point…yes. you are right. Thanks for the email good point.

Claire B

Hi Claire B.
Have they made any changes to the run off area in turn 9 i don’t remember the crashs being that violant there…Now they hit hard and get spun right out into the race traffic…I see its still grass if they haven’t changed anything they need to…
Randy Henry
Old School with an Attitude
Go Martin Truex Jr….KICK ASS AND TAKE CAR NUMBERS
glad everyone is ok in the kandy kahne I can destroy half the field wreck.. Hornish and Gordon in particular took huge shots—-nascar busted jr for speeding….im in shock

Claire:

Jeff was just on ESPN and they asked him why JJ was so much faster
than the other three. Jeff said he just wasn’t aggressive enough in
qualifying. But he also said that Jimmie and Chad had been working
hard on their road course program. He said they’ve found some things
on the car and after tinkering with the car, they seem to have found
something that works in the COT. Yeah, and tinkering is probably the
right word. Jeff said they had hit on something like he and Ray had
back in the ’90s. Hmmmmm.Technique? Are you kidding me? Nah- it just goes back to that same old twosome for JJ: he’s the luckiest person on the planet and he has
Knaus for a crew chief. How good would his “technique” be without
Chad’s black magic? I’m sorry; Duchart is copping out.

Ann from Indiana

Ann- you are really such a Jeff Gordon fan and I’m sure that he’s thrilled to have folks like you who would go to war for him. I told you that that 48 team had been consumed with energy about doing well at this road course. I think there is some merit in What Doug said….and remember he’s unbiased across all the teams. While the drivers were looking for speed the organization said it’s also about technique. I can tell you that that is exactly what Marcus Ambrose told me when he was on the air with me. He said the technique on these road courses can make such a time difference on every turn –it’s hard to put it into words how important that is and how different it is between drivers at these road courses. Remember the COT is a factor here too along with the driver. I agree with all – it’s a mix.

Better luck for your team this weekend Ann.

Appreciate the emails always.

Claire B

hey CBL it sounds like you guys are having a blast in the stuido 1 question for ms sprint cup what is the weridest victory lane you have been in and one tip if your gonna enjoy beer enjoy it responsbly thank you guys

Collin
From Michigan

Collin THANKS. We did. I ran down during the break before they threw it to us for rain delayed coverage and got as many folks as I could. I ran into the band going up the starts to the green room and snagged them, as I did my buddy Jim Utter in the deadline room and Miss Sprint Cup etc etc. I want the rain delayed coverage to be as full of what is going on at the track along with calls as I can because I want you to feel as if you are there. Your note made me want to work harder and gave me energy to do that thanks.

The wildest one so far –well NH with the lobster is right up there. Rain moved victory lanes tend to be insane. I’ll have to think back. Will do so on flight to Detroit.

Thanks you are so kind. It’s great to cover NASCAR for folks who appreciate it. like you. Appreciate your taking the time to write.

Claire B

Hi Claire,

Great Race for Marcos Ambrose nice to see him get another win. These races have been great with the double file restart, I hope Nascar keeps it going. Going to be a great race for the chase and chase.

Of Course Kyle Bush still cries, thought he was going to step on his bottom lip (post race interview) and have to go to the care center. IF Kyle had made the move Marcos did, he would say “that is racing, he just can’t handle it” if it is a great move on him….it is time to pout and cry.

Don’t you want to be at the Bush Thanksgiving table if Kurt makes the chase and Kyle don’t? Wouldn’t you really want to be there if Kurt won the Championship and Kyle don’t make the chase. Wait would Kyle even be there or would he still be off pouting. HE would probably have to go to Jeff Dickersons house so he can tell him how great he is and rock him to sleep….lol…

Have a great day, hope they get the race off today, hope Kyle has something to pout about tonight. I think guys are finally standing up to him, and doing to him what he does to them. He doesn’t like payback or people to race like he was.

Gene Burkhart
North Port, fl

Hey Gene: Thanks for the email….Yea thanksgiving at the Busch house would be fun any time! I do think the boys support each other more than it shows in the media or on live TV. I think they wanted to establish their own identities at one point so they are not always hanging on each other in public view but I think they wish the best for each other and are closer than it looks. If I get to their house for Thanksgiving ever you’ll get the first report LOL

Thanks for the email. Great to hear from you.

Claire B

idiots! this has nothing to do with the West coast!! l had to miss race at Calif spdwy because of rain,should l blame it on the East coast?

Boy if that isn’t a good point. Can’t we all just get along? Or like the clip I have from Ryan Newman, “World Peace!” On to Michigan……I do wish the races were earlier. I was driving from WG to my hotel Monday and it was still light out….better for the fans better for everyone.

Better get my suitcase out of the truck and turn it around for leaving tomorrow so gotta run.

Thanks for the email. Loved it. Sign your name next time ok? Or do you think the East Coast will get you?

Can’t we find some middle ground people?

Claire B

That’s it for now folks – I really do have to go. Thanks for the emails to insidercbl@aol.com. Can’t wait to see what unfolds at Michigan. I’ll be live there tomorrow.

Enjoy the day

Claire B. Lang

On This Week in NASCAR, Micheal Waltrip opined that if NASCAR caught you speeding, you were speeding. Juablo maintains that he wasn’t. It’s possible for both statements to be true.

I’ve already covered in detail how teams determine the tachometer reading that puts them at pit road speed plus five mph minus just a little. In brief, the engine rotates around 9500 times each minute and the wheels somewhere around 2000 times per minute. Between the engine and the wheels are two sets of gears: the one closest to the engine is the transmission and the one closest to the rear wheels is called the rear end gear. The diagram shows the gear ratios for a Borg Warner MM6 manual transmission and a GU6 3.42 rear-end gear, as might be found in a Corvette. When you turn a larger gear with a smaller one, you decrease the rotation rate. If the gear ratio is 2:1, the smaller gear turns twice every time the larger gear turns once. Get a set of K’Nex and you can prove this to yourself. The gear ratio is the ratio of the number of teeth on one gear to the number of teeth on the other. (I have a two-speed K’Nex transmission on my desk. I have had to literally take the transmission out of the hands of more than one Ph.D. who was just amazed that simple machines actually work.)

Anyway, the teams know the gear ratios in the transmission and the rear end gear - you can see the calculations in the previous blog. Even before getting to the track, they know what the tachometer should read when the car is at pit road speed during the warm-up laps. NASCAR allows the cars 5 mph over the pit road speed, so 60 mph was the maximum speed you could go on Pit Road at Indy without getting a penalty. The engineer and driver will agree on a speed during the parade laps. If you’re listening in, you can hear the process.

This is what a tachometer looks like. The new ones are a little fancier - they have lights that can be set by the driver so that a yellow light comes on when they are getting close to the target rpm and a red light comes on when they darn well better get off the gas if they don’t want a penalty. Everyone always asks why they don’t just put a speedometer in the car. You can actually control your speed very precisely with a tach.

The divisions on the gauge are 100 rpm. If the driver can read the gauge to 100 rpm, for a typical gear ratio (i.e. let’s say a 1.45:1 second gear and a 4.22 rear end gear), each 100 rpm step on the tach corresponds (for 82.1 inch circumference tires) to 1.37 mph. If you assume that the driver can read the tach to 50 rpm, that’s 0.64 mph. So for a driver, there’s really no point in having a speedometer and a tachometer. They need the tach to help with shifting, and knowing how hard they are pushing the engine. If driver’s had speedometers, I assure you there would still be speeding penalties.

Ever looked at the speedometer from the passenger seat? What you see is different from what the driver sees due to something called parallax error. Look at something with just your left eye (closing your right eye), then with just your right eye. The object looks like it’s in different places because your two eyes are not located in the same place - they see things from different angles. When both eyes are open, your brain automatically interpolates between the two. (This is one reason that people who have lost the sight in one eye have problems with depth perception.)

The tach in a racecar is usually about 5 inches in diameter. Put yourself in Juablo’s place, coming out of your pit box, trying not to hit any other cars, trying to maintain your lead, and watching the tach. All you have to do is be off by 50 rpm.

I was looking back on a previous blog I started and didn’t ever publish and found something from Red Bull Racing engineer (and former crew chief) Josh Browne. Teams sometimes see discrepancies between their calculations and what they read on the track during the parade laps. If the pace car speedometer is off, that raises a bit of confusion, as you have to decide if the discrepancy is due to a problem on your end or on NASCAR’s. The other problem, he mentioned, is that tachometers are analog devices (in contrast to digital). And they aren’t always exactly accurate. Each team’s engineer gets a report each week that tells them what the offset is on the particular tach in the car. If the team is part of a multi-car company, they know the parameters for the other cars and can get the rpm reports from the other drivers and compare. Pit road is divided into segments and the car has to have an average speed less than pit road speed (+ the 5 mph buffer) in each segment. After the first pit stop, teams can ask NASCAR for their speeds on pit road and double check their calculations. They can get their numbers for each segment from NASCAR.

I know of at least one case in which people incorrectly set up the spreadsheet most teams use to find the pit road tach reading.

NASCAR measures the speed of each car in a series of segments, which are defined by wires embedded in the track. The car has to be below pit road speed + 5 mph in each segment. If you’re over in anysegment, you get penalized. Juablo was going 60.06 mph in Zone 2 and 60.11 mph in Zone 4. Do the math: 0.11 mph corresponds to 8 rpm and 0.06 mph corresponds to 4.4 rpm. Look at the tach and tell me you can tell the difference between 3850 and 3858 rpm.

Races shouldn’t be won or lost on being 0.11 mph over. After all, the whole point of the Pit Road speed limit is for safety and you aren’t going to hurt someone any less if you hit them going 60 mph or 60.11 mph; however, you have to draw a line. If you give them 6 mph, everyone will be going 61 mph and then people will complain about 61.06 mph being penalized. As Juablo said, “It is what it is". Them’s the rules and each team chooses how close they want to get to the line. If you’re leading the race or have a chance to win, you have to balance loosing positions on Pit Road because you’re slower than other cars with being sent to the tail end of the longest line for speeding.

Mayfield leaving the U.S. District Court: Source AP

For those who are unfamiliar with the complexities of the judicial system, the legal threshold for receiving equitable relief is “irreparable harm” and without a question, IF Jeremy Mayfield is innocent, his continued inability to race, meets and exceeds this threshold for the U.S. District Court to intervene and provide relief to Mayfield. Or in the words of U.S. District Court Judge Mullen:

“Harm to Mayfield significantly outweighs harm to NASCAR”

While many in the NASCAR community may see this court proceeding as an isolated issue between Jeremy Mayfield and NASCAR – I believe this case could have significant rippling effects on the entire sport. Ultimately, it will challenge the “dictatorship” of the France Family and most likely require far greater transparency in NASCAR’s future actions. NASCAR’s arrogance may have finally caught up with them. Unlike any other major sport, NASCAR refuses to publish a list of banned substances – and Jeremy Mayfield claims (through his attorney) that NASCAR’s drug testing program does not meet federal workplace guidelines or follow proper procedure of SAMHSA [substance abuse and mental health services association].

But the greater dilemma that NASCAR faces is how to proceed with the ongoing Jeremy Mayfield legal battle. After NASCAR spokesman, Ramsey Poston, made accusations that Mayfield tested positive for methamphetamines, NASCAR would face a significant credibility challenge if they decided to settle the continued legal actions of Mayfield to circumvent continued discovery and future hearings/trials. However, on the flipside, the continued legal battle (Permanent Injection Hearing and Possible Civil Trial for Financial Damages) could expose very damning evidence for NASCAR and other competitors. It’s no secret that NASCAR “plays favorites” with their application of the rule book and other policies, so IF other competitors have tested positive for banned substances, and NASCAR failed to enforce their “policy”, it could cause severe and lasting damage to NASCAR. So everyone, watch out in the days and months ahead – lots of debris could be flying through the air.

Post from: Alex Meshkin

NASCAR in Peril: Victory for Jeremy Mayfield in Drug Testing Legal Battle

With Daytona coming up, I’ll put in a plug for the “Drag and Drafting” episode of the Science of Speed video series, which talks about why drafting – and bump drafting – are so important at a place like Daytona.

On the flipside to NASCAR’s continued problems with retaining the support of the automakers, IndyCar Racing is poised for a significant rebound in sponsorship demand and automotive support in the coming years. There is widespread speculation that Volkswagen/Audi, and possibly Toyota, BMW and Mercedes-Benz may join the IndyCar series in 2012. This is the result of IndyCar’s long-term vision and planning to strategically position itself as a “green” marketing platform for the automakers. A few of years ago, a move to NASCAR may have been considered a “step up” – but one most wonder if that still holds true today. Two of the most prolific IndyCar racers in this past decade struggled (and I am being kind) in their attempt to cross over to NASCAR. Dario Franchitti, the 2007 Indy 500 and IndyCar Champion failed miserably in his 2008 NASCAR foray and Sam Hornish continues to struggle. I don’t mean to be disrespectful to Danica – but she couldn’t remotely keep pace with Sam Hornish or Dario Franchitti in IndyCar, so I don’t expect her to be any more successful than Dario or Sam in NASCAR (Note: Dario and Danica were teammates 2006-2007). The odds are clearly against her if she makes the move.

My sources indicate that NASCAR, led by Brian France is offering significant guarantees to lure Danica to NASCAR. So if her primary motivation is money – we should expect her to make a debut later this year in preparation for the 2010 NASCAR season. A more intriguing question remains – why is NASCAR focused on attracting one driver, when the entire sport, (namely race teams), are facing financial annihilation? This not only is short sighted, but outrageously blind to the real problems facing the sport.

Many believe Danica is NASCAR’s bandage to stop hemorrhaging sponsors, fans and other commercial interest. I remain skeptical. While I agree she would drive a short term bump in ratings- the fundamentals of NASCAR racing is spiraling out of control – and no amount of estrogen is going to stop the bleeding. NASCAR needs to focus on fixing the business model challenges for teams and improving the COT – so the on-track racing can return to what fans deserve and expect.

Treating NASCAR like an amusement park and adding a new “attraction” may seem like a good idea – but in the end, it will only disguise the fundamental challenges that may devastate the sport that many still love. And Danica, well, she may be just another bump in the road for NASCAR – and at the end of the day, regret her move in the wrong lane.

Post from: Alex Meshkin

Danica Patrick to NASCAR…Hendrick Motorsports?

Amphetamine (C₉H₁₃N) is a psychostimulant. Methamphetamine (C₁₀H₁₅N) is an even more powerful psychostimulant. Standard tests usually test for the general class of amphetamines (which includes meth). For example, the Federal government guidelines require that companies requiring commercial class drivers licenses clear their employees for the “SAMHSA-5″ the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. So most drug testing companies’ basic test covers:

1. Cannabinoids (marijuana, hash)
2. Cocaine (cocaine, crack, benzoylecognine)
3. Amphetamines (amphetamines, methamphetamines, speed)
4. Opiates (heroin, opium, codeine, morphine)
5. Phencyclidine (PCP)

A lot of the amphetamine molecules look very similar to neurotransmitter molecules that occur naturally in your body, like epinephrine, norepinephrine, and dopamine. Methamphetamine and amphetamine have an interesting property: They have enantiomers. Long word, but don’t panic. Put your right and left hands in front of you backs of your hands toward your face. They are mirror images of each other. There’s no way that you can rotate your hands so that they line up exactly on top of each other (meaning that both backs still face you). Meth is the same way. There are two versions of it.

l-methamphetamine (an abbreviation for levomethamphetamine) is on the right in the picture above. l-meth is the active ingredient in inhalers like Vicks. (This is why Mayfield was asked specifically if he had used Vicks. The other form dextromethamphetamine or d-methamphetamine is what we know as meth.

When methamphetamine gets to the brain,it triggers the release of of dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine, the feel-good neurotransmitters, which is why it induces such a powerful feeling of euphoria – and why it is so highly addictive. Meth is often smoked because you get more of the feel-good molecules into your body that way (90.3% bioactive via smoking vs. 60.2% orally).

Here’s why the presence of two versions of the same molecule is important: If you take meth, it’s entirely d-methamphetamine. A number of other drugs contain molecules like pseudoephedrine, which are metabolized by the body and can produce amphetamine.

For example, famprofazone, an over-the-counter med that’s found in some pain medications, produces equal amounts of the d- and l- forms of meth and amphetamine when it is metabolized in the body. So if the meth that is detected is due to use of this drug, then there should be comparable amounts of each version of the molecule.

The use of something like Adderall or Claritin-D that could produce amphetamines in the urine as a byproduct would produce both types of molecules, which leads me to wonder whether the reason Dr. Black said that there was “no way” the combination of the two over-the-counter medicines could have produced the result they saw is because they detected only the d- version of amphetamine molecules and the over-the-counter medications would have produced both l- and d- versions. (And if you used Vick’s, you’d find only the l-version.

Needless to say, tests beyond the basic five are required to detect the enantiomers. The two molecules have the same mass - they’re just shaped differently. The shape means that they attach to other molecules differently, so you can distinguish between them by seeing how they react to other molecules. Current tests are very sensitive, allowing testers to rule out prescription drugs as the source of the positive results.

More as it develops, but I really am making a plea to Chad to come up with something really creative so that the next entry is about racecars and not this.

A year of declines has concluded with FOX drawing its lowest average rating for NASCAR since the net began airing races in ‘01.

Excluding the rain delayed Coca Cola 600, 12 NASCAR races averaged a 5.1/11 rating and 8.5 million viewers on FOX during the 2009 season, down 11% in ratings and 9% in viewers from a 5.7/12 and 9.3 million last year, and the lowest rated season ever for NASCAR on FOX.

Last Sunday’s Autism Speaks 400 drew a 4.0/10 final rating on FOX, down 11% from a 4.5/11 for the same race last year.

Every single, solitary NASCAR Sprint Cup telecast on FOX — all twelve races, the Budweiser Shootout and Daytona 500 Qualifying — saw declining ratings this season. 10 of the 12 races saw double-digit declines, including the last nine.

Despite the declines, NASCAR on FOX easily topped its competition. The 5.1 rating for NASCAR races on FOX is 65% higher than the 3.1 average for the ‘09 NBA Playoffs (not including the ongoing NBA Finals) and 16% higher than the 4.4 for last year’s MLB Playoffs (including the World Series).

Additionally, the 8.5 million viewers is 42% higher than the 6.0 million for last year’s college football bowl games (including the BCS), and is only slightly off from the 8.9 million viewers for last year’s NCAA Tournament (including the Final Four).

Ratings for NASCAR on FOX in 2009.
Asterisk (*) indicates race was moved to another day because of rain.

Post from: Alex Meshkin

The Death Spiral Continues….NASCAR on Fox

What is Being Tested For?

NASCAR crews (not drivers) were given a list that includes:

• Seven different amphetamines, including methamphetamine and PMA, a synthetic psychostimulant and hallucinogen.
• Three drugs classified under ephedrine.
• 13 different narcotics, including codeine and morphine.
• Ten different benzodiazepines and barbituates.
• Marijuana, cocaine, zolpidem, nitrites, chromates and drugs that can increase specific gravity.

Amphetamines are ‘uppers’, which decrease fatigue by increasing levels of the stress hormones norepinephrine (attention and responding/fight-or-flight reactions), and the neurotransmitters serotonin (modulates anger, aggression, mood, metabolism, etc.), and dopamine (increases heart rate and blood pressure).

Ephedrines are stimulants, appetite suppressants, decongestants. The molecule Ephedrine looks very similar to amphetamine. Psuedoephedrine is like the left-handed version of ephedrine and that’s what’s in over-the-counter decongestants like Sudafed.

Narcotics is an imprecise term that usually refers to anything that deadens the senses. Codeine, morphine, heroin, etc. fall in this category.

Benzodiazepines and barbituates are downers, which do the opposite of amphetamines and decrease the action of the central nervous system.

Prohibiting marijuana, cocaine and zolpidem (a sleep aid that is in things like Ambien) is obvious, but the last part doesn’t make sense at first reading. I believe the idea is that nitrites and chromates can be used to adulterate a urine sample to try to hide drug use. “Drugs that can increase specific gravity” means the specific gravity of urine (as was pointed out by a poster on rowdy.com). One way of checking for adulterated samples is measuring the pH, temperature and specific gravity (the density of the sample relative to water). If the values are outside of a specified expected range, then the sample is suspect. So the latter part of that rule isn’t about illegal substances, it’s about things that you might take in order to hide the use of illegal substances. For example, if you drink large quantities of water (1-2 liters), most of it comes out in the urine and that dilutes anything elkse in there.

Needless to say, you don’t want anyone in a position of responsibility on one of these substances. Note that this list is for the crews. The drivers don’t have a list, but you could safely assume that all of the substances mentioned are off-limits, plus some. NASCAR reserves the right to test for anything they think could potentially impair a driver on the track.

How Do You Tell If Someone’s Used These?

A sample (usually urine) is collected and split into two parts called the ‘A’ sample and the ‘B’ sample. The A sample is tested with a chemical test called an immunoassay. Immunoassay (IA) tests, as I’ll describe in a moment, are more general tests. The B sample is stored and there are specific protocols for how the sample must be stored. If the IA test shows one or more positives, then the B sample is brought out and tested using a more sophisticated test called Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectroscopy. If the B sample tests negative, then the test is generally regarded as negative. If the B sample tests positive for one of the banned substances, then the driver is notified and disciplinary action is taken.

Immunoassays work sort of like a jigsaw puzzle. There are antibodies (detectors) and antigens (targets). The two types of molecules bind to each other.

The molecule in the upper left of the picture above is our detector molecule. The circle represents something that can be detected - a fluorescent molecule, a magnetic bead or something similar. The molecules on the right-hand side are the molecules in the sample to be analyzed. Our detector molecule has a binding site - the fork pointing to the right, and that binding site will allow it to only link to specific shapes of molecules. (In reality, the binding is chemical, not by shapes, but I find the analogy to shapes easier to understand.) Our detector will only bind to triangle shapes, but there’s a problem here in that there are blue triangles and green triangles. Immunoassays are very sensitive - they’re good at detecting things, but they are not always as specific as we might like. The green triangles might represent a banned drug, while the blue ones are harmless – but both bind to our detector molecule.

That’s OK because we have the B sample and if the A sample shows that there might be something there, we then analyze the B sample using a more specific technique. Gas chromatography is used to separate molecules by weight. The sample is run through a column so that all the molecules with the same weight as the target substance are collected. We do this in elementary school with kids and pens. The analogy we use is to make two rows of kids the same length. Two kids are chosen to be ’sample molecules’. The first kids is allowed to just walk down the row. The second kid must shake hands with everyone in the row as he walks. We start both kids at the same time and, not suprisingly, the student who has to shake hands takes a lot longer to travel the same lengths as the student who doesn’t. In GS, the sorting is done by weight, so all the molecules with the same weight as the suspicious molecule are separated.

The molecules are then heated. All molecules break into fragments in rather predictable manner when heated, so the mass spectrometer detects fragments and you can infer what the molecule was before it was broken up, and how much of it there was.

The Caveats

False Positives

A false positive is when you find that the molecule you’re testing for is there, but it isn’t really. There are A LOT of things that cause false positives. For example, buproprion (an anti-depressant) can cause a false positive for amphetamine. So can an awful lot of other things. Apparently, if a driver has a prescription for one of the conflicting substances, they just have to have their doctor contact the drug testing doctor and things are OK.

To make it more complicated, some drugs are quickly metabolized (broken up) by the body. Amphetamine passes through the body into the renal system (the urine) mostly unadulterated by the body; however, other drugs are transformed by the body and what you test for are the products of metabolizing the drug. Some drug tests are therefore very indirect.

Chain of Custody

The lab handling the analysis must follow proper procedures and be very careful to make sure that they don’t mix up samples or cross-contaminate one sample with another. While you hope that all labs are careful, there are plenty of incidences in which labs have been found to have shoddy procedures.

A problem, of course, is the time scale of the tests: urine tests can detect drug use from timescales of hours to days. NASCAR didn’t relate that there was a problem with the test for a few days, so taking another urine test after notification wasn’t a possibility. It is, however, possible to test for drug use in hair, which can reflect drug use over a period of weeks to months. NASCAR allows no appeal, which seems to me very misguided. NOTE ADDED: ESPN is reporting that Mayfield is having hair samples tested.

Conflict of Interest

The doctor that NASCAR has contracted with to conduct the drug testing also owns the lab at which the tests are done. This seems to me to be a clear conflict of interest. At the very least, NASCAR should have an independent person versed in drug testing overseeing the test. If I were NASCAR, I would have the samples tested at two different labs, preferably one lab chosen by the person being tested. This is too important an issue to leave to the possibility of a lab screw up - and the papers are full of people being let out of jail because of mess ups in testing laboratories. There are a lot of places for things to go wrong. It doesn’t sound like that’s what happened here because of Mayfield’s defense that an interaction between a prescription drug and an over-the-counter drug is responsible for the positive; however, sometimes the perception of unfairness - totally independent of the reality - is damning.

The other conflict of interest issue is whether NASCAR should make the drug for which the positive test was found public or not. One the one hand is Mayfield’s right to privacy. He may be taking antidepressants and not wish to have that revealed; however, if Mayfield waives that right, this isn’t an issue. The latest statement Mayfield issued (from an infield hospitality trailer during the All-Star Race) says that NASCAR hasn’t told him what drug he tested positive for, while NASCAR claims that he’s been told verbally on three occasions the identity of the drug. This is extremely troublesome for two reasons. First, if he’s found guilty, he ought to at least know the evidence against him. Second, how can he claim a reason for why he tested positive if he doesn’t know what he tested positive for?

Can We Make a Judgement?

No, we can’t because there simply hasn’t been enough data released to make a determination. The people who are assuming guilt or innocence are doing so based on their opinions, not on evidence. More balanced are the writers calling for greater transparency. If Mayfield follows up on his threat of legal action, the truth may come out. Until then, we are pretty much stuck in the dark, trying to make decisions based on who we deem to be most trustworthy - a pretty poor way to do science, especially when a man’s reputation is at stake here. Let’s hope that the facts are brought to light and we can all make a conclusion based on real evidence

NOTES Added: Jeremy claims he doesn’t know what substance he tested for. Dr. Black claims he’s told Jeremy personally. Jeremy says he hasn’t gotten it in writing. Dr. Black says that NASCAR issues written reports, not him. NASCAR says that they aren’t aware Jeremy wanted a written report. Come on folks. Argh!

Also see: Marc at Full Throttle has a great post on the issue - well worth reading.

Many, at first glance, didn’t feel that the Chrysler bankruptcy filing on Thursday would have any effect on the Sprint Cup teams backed by Dodge. And Chrysler was quick to issue a statement on Thursday reaffirming their commitment to NASCAR. It really should not come as a surprise that the new management from Fiat realizes the current iteration of the COT and the marketing platform offered by NASCAR is too expensive and doesn’t align with their new focus. Fiat/Chrysler’s new focus is on small fuel efficient cars and not on outdated large cars that inspired the NASCAR “Car of Tomorrow”.

Many sources strongly believed that Chrysler (Dodge) may pull its NASCAR funding in 2010. As many know, Dodge already slashed its motorsports budget by 30 percent this year. Then the question becomes this: What would happen to the teams that Dodge financially supports, if indeed they pull their support? That is the great unknown.

As I have professed for over two years, NASCAR is facing a crossroad; but yet, it continues down an ill-fated pathway of an outdated “Car of Tomorrow” instead of adopting a fresh approach that would leverage “green technologies” such as, biofuels and renewable energy, and a branding platform that is attractive to companies like Fiat. As I stated in July 2008,

You must wonder – why is NASCAR asleep at the wheel? Over the past decade, NASCAR has developed a phenomenal market platform for all types of companies – but without the financial and marketing support of the carmakers – NASCAR teams can’t afford to operate.
The time is now for NASCAR to embrace tomorrow’s future – alternative energy and fuel efficiency branding is required for the long-term viability of the sport as a marketing platform for the automotive manufacturers. (See: http://tinyurl.com/cwcjpj)

I am a strong believer that negative events create opportunities. NASCAR and the Big 3 (GM, Ford and Chrysler) at one time were going down a parallel road, but unfortunately as NASCAR started to become a rapidly growing mainstream sport in the early part of the decade and corporate sponsors rushed into the sport with their large marketing budgets looking to tap into this brand-loyal demographic, NASCAR lost sight of the value proposition and ROI required to keep the Big 3 involved in NASCAR. In the next couple of years, many will ask, why didn’t NASCAR do more to keep the Big 3 involved? The answer is quite simple, NASCAR and their Teams have a huge disconnect, and what’s good for NASCAR isn’t always what’s best for their Teams. Unlike all other major sports, like the NHL, NBA, MLB, and NFL; NASCAR team owners don’t have any say in the direction and decisions of the sport, nor do they participate in the financial upside during the good times. But what I do know is that they do bare the majority of the consequences during the difficult times. When Chrysler/Dodge leaves NASCAR, many teams will suffer and likely shutdown, but NASCAR Corporate will face very little short-term repercussions.

With the economic recession, dreadful environment for automakers and falling ratings of NASCAR racing, NASCAR has the opportunity to implement needed changes to put the sport in a position for growth and long term sustainability.

The solutions and answers for NASCAR are quite simple: race a car that is aligned with the automakers objectives, provide a fair distribution of revenues to competitors (teams), implement rigid cost controls; and, equally as important, please allow the drivers the freedom to race without the fear of penalties for relatively harmless actions. NASCAR, after all is said is done, should be entertainment.

Post from: Alex Meshkin

Chrysler Bankruptcy: The Future of NASCAR Teams Hang in the Balance

“You have to understand that, like, for years, we have had wrecks like this every time we come to Talladega ever since the (restrictor) plate got here, and for years, it was celebrated. The media celebrated it, the network celebrated it, calling it the Big One, just trying to attract attention.” –Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

My least favorite part of every Talladega pre-race show used to be watching Elliott Sadler tumbling through the infield. And you know, regardless of which network is carrying the race, they’re going to show a montage of crashes. Most will also show Bobby Allison’s 1987 crash - the one that instigated restrictor plates. Did anyone else have a really sick sense of deja vu watching the 99 car of Carl Edwards go airborne and tumble along the fence?

In both crashes, the cars because airborne and, instead of hitting the wall, the cars ended up in the catchfence. In 1987, Bobby Allison’s car pulled about 100 ft of chain-link fence down and sprayed debris into the crowd. A number of fans were injured, including a woman who lost an eye.

Most of the publicity about track safety has focused on SAFER barriers; however, there are researchers improving catchfences as well and the results were evident Sunday. The 99 rolled along the fence, but if you compare the two incidents, today’s fence did a much better job. Fences have difficult tasks: They have to allow spectators to see while being strong enough to contain a flying racecar. A stock car going 190 mph into a rigid barrier would produce a peak force of about 9700 lbs. The force the catchfence experienced would be less because fences have some give, but that’s still pretty impressive for steel and wire, especially if you look at how the 1987 fence did.

Fans and pundits are calling for NASCAR to ‘fix the car’ so that it stays on the ground. If you watch closely, you’ll notice that the primary safety device that guards against cars going airborne did work. Edwards’ roof flaps deployed and, in fact, you can see the car start to lower when the flaps come all the way up. That’s when the 39 got into him and was just far enough under to send the 99 into the air.

Matt Kenseth took a nasty roll during the Nationwide series race at Talladega on Saturday. In the numerous replays of the accident, I kept looking for the roof flaps rising as the car spun sideways. As far as I can tell, the roof flaps didn’t deploy on his Nationwide car. (NOTE: As Nick points out in the comments, this wasn’t an aerodynamic issue - it was more of a mechanical issue, like a SUV rollover. Thanks to Nick for pointing this out.)

Roof flaps are the two inserts on the top of the car. One runs along a line from left to right and one is angled at 45 degrees to the first, as shown in the figure below (which comes from the original patent #5374098).

Roof flaps (the invention of which I detail in my book The Physics of NASCAR) are designed to keep cars on the ground. Faster-moving air exerts less pressure and slower-moving air exerts more pressure. A wing develops lift because the air flowing under the wing moves slower than the air going over the wing. That creates more pressure underneath the wing than over the wing, which generates a net force upward. You want that for an airplane, but you don’t want it for a race car.

A NASCAR race car is pretty stable when airflow comes from the nose to the tail. The problems start when the car turns sideways because a sideways racecar looks a little too much like a wing. Air flows over the roof of a sideways racecar very quickly. It stays attached to the car’s surface for a long time, and that creates a low pressure region on the top of the car. A little air (or another car) gets under the car and all of a sudden, the car is an airplane. This only happens when the car rotates enough, so you need a solution that only becomes active when the car is really yawed.

You want the air to detach from the car’s roof, which increases the pressure on the top of the car and decreases the lift. That’s where the roof flaps come in. As shown below, the roof flaps are flaps of metal that are normally flush with the roof. If the pressure on the roof gets low enough, the pressure differential between the underside of the flap and the top of the lap causes the roof flap to pop up. A tether keeps the flaps perpendicular to the roof surface until the car gets going the right direction.

There’s an additional bit of help as well from the cowl area - the part of the car where the windshield meets the hood which also has flaps, as shown below.

The central flap is the air intake for the engine and the two piece called out on either side are the cowl flaps. Cowl flaps work the same way as the roof flaps, opening when the pressure on top becomes much lower that the pressure underneath. The opening of the cowl flaps allows air to escape from under the car and that also decreases lift. (The patent number on that one is #5544931.)

“(Drivers) have been saying this for years: racing like this is not a whole lot of fun.” –Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

In my opinion, calls for NASCAR to improve the roof flaps or other aerodynamic components so that they can keep the cars on the ground at Dega and Daytona regardless of circumstances are wrong-headed. NASCAR needs to decrease engine horsepower at the big tracks so that restrictor plates aren’t necessary. Slowing down the cars by making the restrictor plate hole smaller isn’t going to help. Most engine programs already have a totally separate plate engine program, so they’re putting a ton of effort into motors for just those four races already. Decrease the banking a bit, or make the banking different in different corners to introduce a ‘handling aspect’ that is present at Daytona and missing at Talladega. You can’t make the drivers ‘take it easy’, or suggest that changing the yellow line rule is going to solve the problem, because all it takes is a single freak coincidence. If Newman’s car hadn’t been right there, I suspect Carl’s car would have come down and hit more of the SAFER barrier instead of the catchfence. It looks from the most recent reports that the worst injury in the crowd is a broken jaw, but it could have been much, much worse.

What makes good racing? It’s the relative speed, not the absolute speed. If two cars are going nose-to-nose for the win, it’s just as exciting at 170 mph as it is at 190 mph. Does it really matter that much to you? It does to the drivers.

“I don’t know how I’d change this racing. I know it’s a spectacle for everybody and that’s great and all – but it’s not right to ask all these guys to come out and do this. What if the car goes up in the grandstands and kills 25 people? … I don’t know if I could live with myself if I ended up in the grandstands.” –Carl Edwards

NASCAR has a long, long history of being reactive. Here’s an instance in which NASCAR must be proactive and make changes before something really serious happens.

Here’s why I’m optimistic that might actually happen. I realized only recently that NASCAR hired Tom Gideon to be Director of Safety Initiatives for the R and D Center. Tom - someone whose integrity is respected throughout motorsports - was a prime moving force in motorsports safety at GM prior to his retirement. Tom will continue the tradition Steve Peterson started and, I’m sure, bring a number of his own initiatives to the job.

NOTE ADDED 4/28/09: A couple comments on some other reports: First, Reid Spencer reports that the roof flaps popped up in the wrong order; however, that should have very minimal - if any - impact on their function. Roof flaps are designed to disturb the flow of air over the roof of the car, as described above. The faster they deploy, the faster they can do their job. Even if one of the flaps ’stuck’, it’s hard to believe that anything would have prevented the combination of the 09’s wake and the 39’s rapid approach from launching the 99.

“I would assume they just adapted their principles and the locations of the old style car to this new style car when it comes to the roof flaps and the cowl flaps and the things like that,” said Newman, who emphasized the importance of keeping the cars on the pavement.

Second, Ryan Newman has a Bachelor’s degree in vehicle dynamics. That doesn’t make him the authority on everything scientific. To Reid Spencer’s credit, he doesn’t let Newman have the last word. He cites Robin Pemberton, who notes that the roof flaps on the new car are larger to take into account the differing aerodynamics, and Bernie Marcus, Ford’s aerodynamicist, who points out that they did “at least three wind-tunnel tests” looking at differences in roof flap function on the new car. Unless Newman has some prior knowledge, it is arrogant and ignorant to suggest that NASCAR just transferred the roof flap design from the old car to the new car without testing it.

Patrick Canupp, Director of Aerodynamics at Joe Gibbs Racing, notes that he hasn’t seen the test data, but that NASCAR usually tests new car designs “at Lockheed where the yaw table can put the car at nearly any yaw angle.", which means that they were in a position to look at roof flap function over a range of orientations of the car with respect to the airflow. Patrick also points out the most important element here - something that most media coverage glosses over. Engineering is not simple. You’re looking at complex machines and interactions between multiple complex machines. You can’t predict all the possible solutions and, even if you could, “that is still just a simulation of the actual event, whose detailed surface pressure history can be quite different,” Patrick notes.