“I think after we left homestead, I think Jimmie, Jeff and I had this conversation – we wished we had a race the next week," Rick Hendrick said. "We had a lot of momentum there."
Today, our 2013 Sprint Cup team previews move on to Hendrick Motorsports, one of the powerhouses of the sport that is always a threat to win races and compete for championships. The 2013 lineup for Hendrick Motorsports will be the same as 2012, with Dale Earnhardt Jr, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, and Kasey Kahne returning.
When he was a youngster, it seems that Brad Keselowski had a personal occupation list of two jobs that he thought would be very cool. The first fantasy job was driving a race car for a living. Obviously, he can check that one off of his list of things to do. He more than earned that right in 2012 when he won the NASCAR Sprint Cup championship for Roger Penske Racing.
Day three of the NASCAR Media Tour came early in the morning at a hangar at Concord Regional Airport. It might seem strange to have a NASCAR function at an airport hangar, but it was soon to be very clear as the principals of Earnhardt Ganassi Racing and Chip Ganassi Racing took the stage.
As the opening event of the 2013 NASCAR Sprint cup season slowly and agonizingly drags itself into view (not unlike how a legless zombie might slowly tug itself on the ground as it pursues its latest dinner dish), so also begins the quiet exit-stage-left of the premier stock car racing organization’s greatest social experiment, otherwise infamously known as the Car Of Some Hideous Alternate Tomorrow.
Day two of the Sprint Media Tour ended with a trip to Charlotte Motor Speedway and the Chevrolet dinner at the guest hotel. CMS hosted what was called “A Taste of SMI.” With SMI Chairman Bruton Smith holding court, the media was told of changes being made at each of the corporation’s tracks and how all the changes were to make tracks more fan friendly.
If life is a game of inches, as Al Pacino’s character once said in the 1999 movie Any Given Sunday, then Brian Vickers has yet to run out of inches. For his margin of error, his movements fast and slow and decisions right or wrong, have yet to permanently derail him.
On Day Two of the Sprint Media Tour, Michael Waltrip Racing was featured. Waltrip’s team was considered the most improved in 2012, having two of his three teams make the Chase and the third very close. This year, there are few changes at MWR.
Day Two of the Sprint Media Tour began with a breakfast presentation by Furniture Row Motorsports and the driver of the No. 78 Chevrolet, Kurt Busch. Busch commented that he was very happy with the testing of the new Chevrolet SS car.
The Childress drivers were there with their 2013 rides including lame duck driver Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton, Austin and Ty Dillon, and Brendan Gaughan. Burton was candid in telling the assembled media that 2012 was not what the team wanted, but he looks for improvement in 2013, saying the trials of competition gets my trying as you age.
Joe Gibbs Racing’s Brandon Jones (second) and Christopher Bell (third) delivered podium finishes to lead Toyota in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Darlington Raceway on Saturday evening.
23XI Racing driver Tyler Reddick was made available to the media on Saturday after winning the pole for the NASCAR Cup Series race from Darlington Raceway.
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 6 Solomon Plumbing Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “I thought it was really smooth. It looks like Chris is qualified right next to me. I felt like I got all it had. We know the cars are gonna be very difficult to drive and that did not disappoint.”
