Ed Carpenter takes step back as a driver to help improve team
Last year, Ed Carpenter did it all as he drove all the races while running the race team. This year, however, Carpenter is taking a slightly different approach as he will be running the race team – while only racing the ovals this year.
“We started the team two years ago. I want to be able to race as long as I can and do it well,” he said on media day. “At the same time the race team is something that I see as my future beyond driving, whenever that day comes. It’s certainly a business that I want to be successful for long after I’m driving.
“That’s kind of where the decision came from, just to make sure that we’re doing everything we possibly could to position the team well and in a strong place to deliver for all our current partners, Fuzzy’s, Chevrolet, and hopefully to grow the team in the near future.”
Carpenter has hired Mike Conway to drive the car on the road and street courses, with the success that he had last year. Conway got the chance to test out the car at Sonoma, while Carpenter participated in the Team Chevy test at Fontana. Carpenter said it made for a busy month, but it was good to get back on track.
“It’s always fun to work with Chevrolet, developing some new things, it’s fun to be part of that process. To go back to Fontana, run there, continue working on that track is fun,” Carpenter said. “A lot of what we’ve been doing is really getting Mike comfortable with our team and at the same time us getting comfortable with Mike. It’s gone well. He’s been in the car four days now since he joined us, which other than Juan is I think as much as anyone has tested.
“I feel like he’s made a lot of progress. He came to Fontana with us when I was in the car. I think that was a good exercise for him as well, just to see me not as a half driver/half owner standing on the timing stand, but to see me interact with the guys. I think it made him feel more comfortable seeing me in that element rather than seeing me as kind of an owner and a driver. I think it’s been different for both of us figuring out that role, but it’s been a fun process.”
With the new arrangement, Carpenter is looking for success this year. He feels that Conway can deliver on the road courses while he delivers on the ovals, possibly bringing home the entrant’s championship.
“I feel really strongly about the capabilities of our team. I feel like we should be in the mix everywhere we go,” Carpenter said. “With that being said, the strength of the series, teams and drivers right now, is at a really high level. It’s no easy feat, but we’re definitely going to give it our best shot.”
Last year, he finished second in the season finale at Fontana while sitting on the pole for the Indianapolis 500. Carpenter says he enjoys the longer oval races because of the simple factor – there’s more that goes into winning.
“You have more opportunities to figure out how to win the race and you also have more opportunities to mess it up,” he commented. “It definitely has a higher degree of difficulty. Really happy to see Pocono being a 500-miler. I needed an extra 100 miles there last year. Looking forward to having the extra mileage. Hopefully we can reclaim that one for Chevy after Honda kind of put it to us with Ganassi last year.”
Panther Racing sues IndyCar and Rahal Letterman over sponsorship deal
While teams prepare for the new year ahead, Panther Racing has a dispute to settle over a sponsorship deal. Panther Racing has filed a lawsuit against Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, IndyCar and other parties with regards to the National Guard sponsorship. Panther has stated that they lost the $17.2 million sponsorship with the Army National Guard because of bid-rigging and other improprieties.
The lawsuit was filed on February 19th in Marion County Court in Indianapolis following a ruling by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Panther made an appeal to the GAO about the National Guard sponsorship, however it was denied.
Panther Racing has since released a statement since news of the lawsuit has broke.
“Panther Racing is a proud member of the IndyCar series and looks forward to a successful 2014 season,” Panther Racing released in a statement. “As a company policy, we do not comment on pending litigation. However, as we have for more than 15 years, Panther Racing is committed to always acting with integrity and conducting business in an ethical and legal manner. Our singular focus remains on fielding a strong IndyCar race team on the track and being a responsible corporate citizen off of it. We remain active members of the Indianapolis community and will continue to support U.S. servicemen and women through our work with the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, the White House’s Joining Forces initiative, Fisher House and the USO, among others.”
The National Guard has been with Panther Racing since 2008, seeing drivers like J.R. Hildebrand and Ryan Briscoe behind the wheel. For 2014, the plan is to go the full schedule with Graham Rahal and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.
The lawsuit, which seeks for an amount pertaining to economic and punitive damages, accuses IndyCar of breach of contract with regards to which team had exclusive rights to provide Fan Village access rights and benefits to the Army National Guard. Panther Racing was supposed to have this right, however IndyCar CEO Mark Miles wrote a letter last November saying Rahal had the right to provide that access. Panther Racing states that IndyCar is liable for all economic damages to Panther as a result of the breach. The lawsuit also states that RLL was aware of the contract and falsely claimed ownership of the contractual right.
Document Packaging Brokers, known as Docupak, is named in the lawsuit as well. Panther Racing says they performed services to administer the National Guard sponsorship agreements, and someone in the National Guard contracting office of conspiring with Rahal racing to influence the bid process.
RLL has released a statement since the release of this information, stating that Panther Racing is only suing due to being unhappy with losing the sponsorship. RLL also stated that the new agreement will save the government and tax payers almost $5 million dollars per year with the smaller budget.
“The facts and issues Panther raises in the lawsuit are many of the same it raised before the GAO, which issued a 9-page decision noting that RLL was rated higher than Panther in three out of four categories,” RLL states. “The GAO also noted that there was no evidence supporting many of Panther’s allegations, and that the National Guard’s decision probably was driven by the basic fact that Panther’s base per year price was approximately $5 million more than RLL’s base price.
“RLL believes it is unfortunate and disappointing that Panther has filed a lawsuit making serious allegations against the National Guard’s decision process. RLL also believes that Panther’s lawsuit has no merit as a matter of fact and law. RLL’s lawyers will vigorously defend RLL so it can focus on what matters most — representing the courageous men and woman of the National Guard and winning races.”
Jimmy Weller seeking more success after stellar Daytona performance
The draft can be the great equalizer and sometimes leads to producing some special results for some drivers that fans do not normally hear about finishing up front. That happened last month with the NextEra Energy Resources 250 as Jimmy Weller brought his No. 08 Geneva Liberty Steel/Engine Parts Plus Chevrolet home in the ninth position.
“It turned out a lot better than I thought it would,” Weller commented. “I trusted my guys with it being my first trip there.”
Weller added that working with veteran spotter Rocky Ryan, who also spots for Marcos Ambrose, helped the learning curve. Weller was also surrounded by veterans on track, including Sprint Cup Series regular Kyle Busch.
On the topic of Cup regulars running the lower tier divisions, Weller is fully open to the idea.
“I think it’s cool when they come down,” he said. “It teaches you as you see what Kyle did at Daytona and pick up on that. It also gets more people watching the race because of them, and brings more notoriety to the series.”
Before his performance at Daytona, a lot of people didn’t know Weller, however he has been around the NASCAR ranks for awhile, with experience in the NASCAR K&N Series. The Youngstown, Ohio native has made 20 starts there over the past three years, scoring three top 10s along the way.
Weller got his start in racing on dirt racing in the big dirt modifieds, following in his dad’s footsteps.
“Dave Blaney, his dad Lou – he was the greatest around here,” Weller said. “My dad got his start from him. I started off in modifieds and then ran sprint cars for a year.”
Weller had success on dirt, scoring a BBRP Tour win at Wayne County Speedway at the age of 18, while scoring a championship at Sharon in Sprint Cars a year later. As a result, he was named one of the Top 25 Under 25 in Sprint & Midget Car News’ list at year end. Missing the following season due to injury, Weller returned to Big Blocks for the first half of 2006 – before switching to asphalt Late Models in 2006.
“Dave Blaney lived only 15 minutes from my house so he’s the one that moved me down to Charlotte and I worked out of his shop,” Weller said. “He’s been the one that has really helped me with this.”
Weller said going from dirt to asphalt was a challenge – but it was a fun challenge to tackle.
“First time we got out on the track with the late model and it got loose, I thought I did a good job saving it – ended up in the wall,” he said. “It’s just completely different. It was a lot of fun – it was a big challenge. I think that was the fun part in having to learn something all over again.”
Weller had had success in the late model ranks, recording a pair of wins at New Smyrna Speedway during their World Speedweeks while finishing seventh in the PASS Late Model Series in 2011.
Weller is scheduled to run at least 12 races this year with SS Green Light Racing and the goal is simple – to keep getting better.
“We’re going to a lot of these places for the first time,” he commented. “Just want to keep learning and getting better.”
Weller isn’t scheduled to run Martinsville Speedway, which is the next stop for the truck series.
“It may change now that we’re up in points after Daytona so we might do it,” he commented. “But we’re probably going to stick to our schedule. (Crew Chief) Jason Miller is excited for that race as he’s won some races there before. He’s really looking forward to going back and hopefully he can keep the momentum going.”
Looking ahead five years, Weller says that he wants to keep moving up the ranks, but added that right now he’s focused on his truck deal.
“I’ve always wanted to race so anything that I get to do racing wise would be good enough for me,” he continued.
The Final Word – Harvick wins at Phoenix, Junior remains hot, but as for Danica…
Daytona was great. Phoenix was not bad, once you got used to the differences. One week we had a 2.5-mile superspeedway, the next we got was a single mile circuit. It rained in Florida, yet despite the forecast the only rain came to prematurely end the Nationwide race on Saturday. They ran in big packs in the southeast, not so much in the southwest. Rather than the huge grandstands, the feature of the PIR was Lonely Mountain and its band of hobbits just beyond the track. There was one similarity of note, however.
Dale Earnhardt Jr did run out front all day, just like at Daytona. He was almost the most dominant car on the day. Almost. The only difference was that Kevin Harvick remained ahead of him. All day. In the end, he had the horses to record his first victory as part of the Stewart-Haas team and an all but certain berth in the Chase, barring injury or alien abduction. Happy’s fender stated that it was Freaky Fast, and that was no lie.
If this was a wedding party, we had the happy couple at the alter, and the best men just behind them. Team mates Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano started on the front row and never seemed to fade beyond the top four. You need ushers, and Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon were visible for the first half of the race, disappearing for much of the second half before returning at the end to round out the top half dozen. No one else really mattered from start to finish on Sunday in what was a great day for Hendrick, Penske, and Stewart-Haas.
The Hendrick weak sister was not all that delicate, with Kasey Kahne 11th. Not everyone at SHR was as stout. Tony Stewart was 16th, Danica Patrick 36th, and Kurt Busch 39th. Busch ran out the string with an ailing auto until it finally blew up with 20 laps left.
As for Patrick, she has still yet to show she can race, as the new qualifying rules left her starting closer to the rear. While a Top 20 might be a victory for her, she never got a chance to even get that far. Already a lap down, in 25th, she tangled with Justin Allgaier, which left her rear left quarter-panel buckled in. While the broadcast crew saw the tire rub, her crew did not, so they were probably the only folks surprised when the tire finally blew.
With wins pretty much equaling a Chase challenge, the only folks of note in trouble early are Patrick and Martin Truex Jr, both outside the top thirty in the standings. Truex was 22nd last Sunday after finishing dead last at Daytona, with Patrick still unable to crack the top 35 on race day. Still, it is early and you would think any fully funded driver surely would have to be able to crack the Top 30. Right?
So, off we go via FOX to Las Vegas this Sunday for a 400 miler on a 1.5-mile layout. Johnson has four wins there, while Gordon was best once back during his last championship season. Matt Kenseth has three, including the one last year. Carl Edwards has a pair, with Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch each with one.
Talking about Busch, does anyone give a damn that he won his all-time series best 64th Nationwide race in Phoenix on Saturday? NASCAR sees what we see, they are concerned that the big leaguers stomp all over the up and comers, but are not sure exactly what to do about it just yet. The tracks want the stars to bring out the fans, the team owners want them as they bring in sponsorship dollars, but they are for sure killing this series.
Regan Smith won at Daytona, but series regulars have just three of ten Top Five finishes, and 11 of a possible twenty Top Tens. What I wonder about is why bother wasting my time gushing over Kyle kicking minor league ass, when the most relevant finishers at Phoenix were Elliott Sadler (6th), Trevor Bayne (7th), and Smith (8th)? You know, the top three in the Nationwide standings, the boys who are truly relevant. I think the problem is not that the Cup drivers are allowed to race, but that the media focuses in on those who do not matter at the expense of those who do.
Winning is good, but at least one needs to strive to be relevant. Win a Cup race, stay in the Top 30, and one becomes relevant. Go winless, and one better be in the Top 16 in points to stay relevant. With a career average finish of 27.0, I think I can already identify one who is not. I believe Richard Petty might even agree with me.
Here are the sweet 16 as we head to Las Vegas.
| Pos. | Drivers | Wins | Points |
| 1 | Dale Earnhardt, Jr. | 1 | 90 |
| 2 | Kevin Harvick | 1 | 79 |
| 3 | Brad Keselowski | 0 | 84 |
| 4 | Jeff Gordon | 0 | 80 |
| 5 | Jimmie Johnson | 0 | 78 |
| 6 | Joey Logano | 0 | 75 |
| 7 | Matt Kenseth | 0 | 70 |
| 8 | Denny Hamlin | 0 | 68 |
| 9 | Carl Edwards | 0 | 65 |
| 10 | Jamie McMurray | 0 | 64 |
| 11 | Greg Biffle | 0 | 64 |
| 12 | Casey Mears | 0 | 64 |
| 13 | Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. | 0 | 63 |
| 14 | Kyle Busch | 0 | 61 |
| 15 | Ryan Newman | 0 | 60 |
| 16 | Austin Dillon | 0 | 56 |
