Davey Terry looks to turn season around heading to Delaware
After a successful rookie season finishing third in points and winning Rookie of the Year, hopes were high for success for Davey Terry coming into this season. However, it hasn’t gone as well as the Erin, Ontario native would have hoped for.
“It’s been a really up and down season,” Terry said on Sunday at Kawartha Speedway. “We’ve fought handling issues and motor issues and a couple wrecks here and there.”
From dirt getting in the carburetor at Sunset to a hard wreck on Sunset’s front stretch to motor issues taking him out of the running at Peterborough Speedway, just to name a few of the nights, Terry has experienced everything this year. This past weekend at Kawartha, Terry had a solid run, finishing sixth in the feature.
One of the lessons that Terry learned in his rookie year was to “make sure you take care of your equipment and everything else falls into place” as per stated earlier this year at the Canadian Motorsports Expo as part of the Younggun Panel. Terry has done that, able to finish most of the races despite the problems, putting himself third in points, behind Gary and Brent McLean.
Going into the second half of the season, there is one goal that is still on the mind of the driver of the No. 14 Wasteco Modified and that’s to score his career Modified feature victory.
“That’s proving to be a little tougher than what I expected it to be,” he said. “This year there’s been a lot of really fast cars but we have a lot of new tires saved up. We’re going to come out with them at the end of the year and put them to use.”
The competition in the OSCAAR Modified Series has been close this year with multiple drivers getting to victory lane, including some first time winners. However, even with gaining cars, there is always room for improvement.
“The rules, they need a little bit of an adjustment just to allow a little more diverse field and equally easy for others to bring cars out,” Terry said. “We could do with a lighter season with less races and more crate motors, with more emphasis on the crate motors to keep costs down to bring cars out as well.”
Like other young drivers, Terry got his start in the Waterloo Regional Karting Club, starting at the age of 13. He then moved up to the Mini Stock division for four years before joining the Modifieds last year.
Crunching The Numbers: Michigan
After a wild weekend of turning left and right at the fast road course at Watkins Glen, the three national NASCAR series head their separate ways this weekend with the Sprint Cup Series and Camping World Truck Series heading to Michigan to take on the 2 mile Michigan International Speedway and the Nationwide Series heading to their second road course race in a row for their inaugural race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series – Pure Michigan 400 at Michigan International Speedway
With only four races left until the cutoff for the Chase for the Sprint Cup begins at Chicago, the battle between those fighting for a spot in the 12 driver playoff keeps ratcheting up with only 31 points separating the drivers between 10th and 17th in the standings. From this point on every race, every position, and every point matters that much more. Drivers at Michigan will have a balancing act between playing it safe for points or gambling for a win and putting themselves in position for a Wild Card Chase berth.
| Driver | Races | Win | Top 5 | Top 10 | Pole | Laps Led | Avg. Start | Avg. Finish |
| Carl Edwards | 18 | 2 | 9 | 14 | 1 | 291 | 19.9 | 8.2 |
| Matt Kenseth | 28 | 2 | 12 | 18 | 0 | 284 | 17.9 | 9.4 |
| Greg Biffle | 21 | 4 | 10 | 13 | 1 | 565 | 13.5 | 11.3 |
| Jeff Gordon | 41 | 2 | 18 | 25 | 5 | 954 | 11.5 | 12.4 |
| Danica Patrick | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 37.0 | 13.0 |
| Mark Martin | 55 | 5 | 18 | 31 | 1 | 965 | 11.9 | 14.2 |
| Kevin Harvick | 25 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 0 | 149 | 18.2 | 14.3 |
| Denny Hamlin | 15 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 0 | 149 | 14.3 | 14.7 |
| Dale Earnhardt, Jr. | 28 | 2 | 6 | 10 | 2 | 327 | 14.9 | 15.6 |
| Kyle Busch | 17 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 169 | 14.6 | 15.6 |
Who To Watch: Coming off of an eighth place finish in the first race at Michigan in June, Carl Edwards boasts the best statistics in the Sprint Cup Series at the track with two wins, nine top fives, 14 top tens, one pole, 291 laps led, and an average finish of 8.2 in 18 races.
Matt Kenseth comes up next with two wins, 12 top fives, 18 top tens, 284 laps led, and an average finish of 9.4 in 28 starts. Kenseth finished in sixth in June in his first race at Michigan for new car owner Joe Gibbs.
Others who run well at the track include: Greg Biffle, who won in June and has a total of four wins at the track, along with 10 top fives, 13 top tens, one pole, 565 laps led, and an average finish of 11.3 in 21 starts; Jeff Gordon, with two wins, 18 top fives, 25 top tens, five poles, 954 laps led, and an average finish of 12.4 in 41 starts; and Danica Patrick, who finished in 13th in her first start at the track in June.
The remainder of the top ten statistically (Mark Martin, Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., and Kyle Busch) also run well at Michigan and have a total of 11 wins between them.
NASCAR Nationwide Series – Inaugural Nationwide Children’s Hospital 200 at Mid-Ohio
Since there have been no Nationwide Series races at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, there are obviously no statistics to pull from to see who will run well at the track. So, the best bet for Saturday’s race will be to go with drivers who run well on road courses. Drivers such as Ron Fellows in the JR Motorsports No. 5, Marcos Ambrose in the No. 9 for Richard Petty Motorsports, A.J. Allmendinger in the No. 22 for Penske Racing, and Max Papis in the No. 33 for Richard Childress Racing should find themselves up front along with Nationwide regulars Sam Hornish Jr. and Justin Allgaier.
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series – Michigan National Guard 200 at Michigan
After a few weeks off since last racing at Pocono, the Camping World Truck Series makes their return at Michigan with points leader Matt Crafton holding onto a commanding 52 point lead over rookie Jeb Burton in the standings. The race also marks the return of the Truck Series for consecutive weekends and the debut of Fox Sports 1 for the broadcast of the Truck Series race on Saturday.
| Driver | Races | Win | Top 5 | Top 10 | Pole | Laps Led | Avg. Start | Avg. Finish |
| Ty Dillon | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 5.0 | 6.0 |
| Miguel Paludo | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 6.0 | 6.5 |
| Kyle Busch | 6 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 149 | 5.8 | 6.8 |
| Brendan Gaughan | 7 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 48 | 18.4 | 8.9 |
| Joey Coulter | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 10.5 | 12.5 |
| Ron Hornaday, Jr. | 9 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 15 | 10.3 | 12.7 |
| Dakoda Armstrong | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 20.5 | 13.5 |
| Johnny Sauter | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 8.0 | 13.5 |
| James Buescher | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 7.8 | 14.5 |
| Timothy Peters | 6 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 16.7 | 14.8 |
Who To Watch: Championship contender Ty Dillon leads all active drivers at Michigan with three laps led and a sixth place finish in his lone start at the track last season.
A driver who has been running strong as of late is Miguel Paludo and he falls in second statistically at Michigan. Paludo has two starts at the track and in the two starts has one top five, two top tens, 3 laps led and an average finish of 6.5.
Others who could find their way to Victory Lane include: Kyle Busch, who has six starts at the track, and in those six starts has four top fives, five top tens, one pole, 149 laps led and an average finish of 6.8; Brendan Gaughan, who has one win, three top fives, four top tens, 48 laps led and an average finish of 8.9 in seven starts; and Joey Coulter, who has one top ten, one pole, seven laps led and an average finish of 12.5 in two starts.
Last, but certainly not least would be the promising crop of rookies in the series this year (Jeb Burton, Ryan Blaney, Darrell Wallace, Jr.), who are giving the veterans a run for their money. It certainly would not be a surprise to see one of those drivers win either.
Hot 20 over the past 10 – Past decade could have been kinder to Juan Pablo Montoya
Juan Pablo Montoya, winner of the 2000 Indianapolis 500 among eight CART victories, winner of the 2003 Monaco Grand Prix among seven Formula One triumphs, but a winner of a single Cup race at Sonoma and another at the Glen in 239 starts. That, in a nutshell, is why Montoya was hired and why he will soon be fired as the driver of the #42 Target team of Chip Ganassi.
Montoya already had a heady resume to his credit when he arrived in NASCAR’s top division at the end of 2006 as a 31-year old. I mean, his Monaco win marked the start of eight straight podium finishes and twice he finished third in the season F-1 points standings. Like Tony Stewart before him, he has a CART season title to his credit, but unlike Stewart it is Montoya who owns the biggest Indianapolis victory.
You might get the idea that Juan Pablo Montoya is a damn good driver. He finished fifth last weekend at the Glen. Sadly, his average career finish is 20th and it seems evident that without a few rights on the track, he is left struggling even in this, his seventh full campaign.
So, is it Montoya or is it Earnhardt Ganassi Racing that has the bigger problem? Well, since 2001 Chip Ganassi has been able to celebrate a dozen times in Victory Lane. Sterling Marlin gave him two in 2001 and two more in 2002. Jamie McMurray had his first the same year, while he and Montoya each had one in 2007. Jamie added one more in 2009, then three more in 2010, including the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400, while Juan Pablo took Watkins Glen the same season.
There are teams who would be happy with that record, but not if they are owned by folks named Hendrick, Roush, Childress, Gibbs or Penske. I don’t think Stewart or Waltrip would be terribly satisfied, either. So, I guess a winner of four Indianapolis 500 races, 89 CART/IndyCar events, and nine CART/IndyCar season crowns might seek to be better, You might also get the idea that Chip Ganassi is a damn good owner of racing teams.
I expected more from Montoya. I expect more from McMurray. I expect more from Chip Ganassi. I do not know what to expect from any of them in 2014.
Michigan is next on the dance card for this Sunday. It was the track that essentially ended Ganassi’s own driving career in a 1984 wreck. As an owner, he has won there three times, with the last coming in the 2000 Michigan 500 CART race. His driver? Juan Pablo Montoya.
With his win at the Glen, Kyle Busch moves into a close second to Jimmie Johnson among those who have been hot as of late. Brad Keselowski’s runner-up run jumps him six spots on this chart, while Tony Stewart begins his fade to black. Four drivers seeking a Chase place, Kurt Busch, Joey Logano, Ryan Newman, and Jeff Gordon, are all heating up at the right time. Greg Biffle has won the past two races at the venue and he will seek the fifth of his career on the weekend.
| Name | Points | Pos. | LW | Rank | W | T5 | T10 |
| Jimmie Johnson | 363 | 1 | 2 | (1) | 2 | 3 | 7 |
| Kyle Busch | 361 | 2 | 6 | (5) | 1 | 5 | 8 |
| Clint Bowyer | 348 | 3 | 3 | (2) | 0 | 3 | 6 |
| Kevin Harvick | 345 | 4 | 1 | (4) | 0 | 2 | 7 |
| Kurt Busch | 319 | 5 | 5 | (11) | 0 | 2 | 6 |
| Carl Edwards | 315 | 6 | 7 | (3) | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| Dale Earnhardt, Jr. | 306 | 7 | 10 | (6) | 0 | 2 | 5 |
| Tony Stewart | 303 | 8 | 4 | (17) | 1 | 5 | 6 |
| Greg Biffle | 303 | 9 | 12 | (9) | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Joey Logano | 300 | 10 | 8 | (16) | 0 | 1 | 7 |
| Brad Keselowski | 299 | 11 | 17 | (8) | 0 | 3 | 4 |
| Ryan Newman | 290 | 12 | 9 | (14) | 1 | 3 | 5 |
| Jeff Gordon | 290 | 13 | 11 | (13) | 0 | 3 | 6 |
| Martin Truex, Jr. | 289 | 14 | 14 | (10) | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| Jamie McMurray | 279 | 15 | 16 | (15) | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Matt Kenseth | 265 | 16 | 15 | (7) | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Kasey Kahne | 252 | 17 | 13 | (12) | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Juan Pablo Montoya | 252 | 18 | 20 | (22) | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Marcos Ambrose | 246 | 19 | 18 | (23) | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Casey Mears | 241 | 20 | 22 | (24) | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Jeff Burton | 235 | 21 | 19 | (21) | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Aric Almirola | 233 | 22 | 21 | (18) | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. | 219 | 23 | 23 | (20) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Paul Menard | 212 | 24 | 24 | (19) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
How To Improve The Nationwide Series
How can NASCAR turn the yawn fest that has become Nationwide Series Racing into something the fans will enjoy again? My twitter and Facebook time lines both blow up when Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski, Kasey Kahne, or even Matt Kenseth take the lead at any point in the race. It quickly becomes a stream of “Anybody but……(fill in Cup Regulars name here).
For the longest time I defended allowing the cup regulars racing in the lower series, mainly because my favorite driver was still doing it from time to time and ran well in that series at points. I even defended it more when NASCAR made the rule that drivers had to declare which series they were going to race for a championship in before the season really began.
The excuse that I often used was, “Well it helps the track promoters out by getting butts in the seats to see their favorite drivers one more time during the race weekend.” Granted this was back before the Cup regulars truly dominated the lower series. Would they win often? Yes, but they would not go on an eight race winning streak, or in the case of this year’s races, winning sixteen of twenty-one races, or a winning percentage of 1.3125 percent of the time. Now, honestly it is keeping people OUT of the seats more than it is putting butts in seats.
I have also heard and understand the argument that having the Cup drivers in the lower series gives the lower series guys a chance to see what they will be up against when they get into the Cup series. For the longest time, I really didn’t have a comeback for this statement, now I do. While the younger driver may learn something about driver etiquette on the track, they are not learning anything else for the most part. The Cup cars are not the same cars the Nationwide series cars are, and therefore the driver in the NNS isn’t learning very much that will help them once they graduate into the Cup series. About the only thing it shows them is that if they want to be successful in the Cup series they will need to land at a top tier team or their hopes of challenging for a win each week is out the window.
The cars in the Nationwide series are great, they look incredible on T.V. and on the track. They afford for some nice side by side racing. Only when the cars that are being raced aren’t from an over funded team with an over talented driver, holding off someone who is simply trying to get a handle on the series. I could actually understand a lower talented Cup driver trying to get extra seat time to try and improve their performance for their main sponsor on Sunday. Take Bliss, Blaney, Stremme, or any other driver, hell even take Danica and put her in the Nationwide series and allow them more seat time to improve the racing on Sunday, and I would get it much better than I do these days.
These days unless the series is split like it is this weekend with the Cup cars in Michigan and the Nationwide cars in Ohio; it basically takes a catastrophic incident or failure by the Cup regulars team or car for the Nationwide series drivers to even stand a chance to win the race. Which is what leads to my timeline being blown up with people changing the channel, going to the pool, or horror of all horrors heading to the store or mall to get some last minute shopping done.
My solution is a relatively simple and painless one to implement and simply builds upon the declaring which series a driver is running for a championship. Limit the number of starts that a Cup regular can have in the lower series, to five. Which would mean that the track promoters would still be able to promote the fact that Dale Earnhardt Jr will be running both Daytona and Talladega races, without stacking the deck at the races against the Nationwide drivers. It would allow the drivers like Kyle Busch, and Brad Keselowski to race the Nationwide and Camping World Series trucks, but on a limited basis. Let’s just call it the Mark Martin schedule for simplification purposes.
Let’s face facts, drivers in the Cup series retire, where will that leave fans that still love the sport but don’t have a driver to root for? In my case I know that in the next year to two my driver Jeff Burton will be retiring. I have followed Jeff’s career since I attended my first Cup race and Jeff won for the first time in Texas. I know that I will have to find someone else to root for week in and week out. Are there drivers suitable enough for me to start cheering for already in the Cup series? Of course there are, but I do not want to have to repeat this cycle in another five to ten years. I would much rather have a driver that I can cheer for week in and week out in the Trucks or Nationwide series, see him or her grow into the next series and root for them when they finally reach the Cup series.
Can I realistically do that now? Yes, but I honestly do not get to “KNOW” the driver these days in the lower series. The main focus by main stream media is either how well the cup drivers or doing, or when things are going wrong for them, how badly things are going. I will gladly put a large portion of the blame for the Cup regulars doing double duty on the shoulders of main stream media since it is these same media members that focus so greatly on the Cup drivers. Aside from Kyle Busch I honestly do not think that the other regular drivers would run as many races, of course this isn’t taking into account sponsorship obligations, as they do now if they weren’t almost guaranteed almost unfettered T.V. time each week. Kyle is the lone amalgam in this situation; he in a lot of ways is the same as Tony Stewart.
Tony is a racers racer, and so is Kyle. They both see seating behind the wheel of a vehicle and trying to get something out of it that no one else can as therapeutic. It is their weekend golf game, or shooting hoops with the guys. The difference is this, while Tony does it in a series that doesn’t directly impact the potential for up and coming drivers; Kyle almost relishes in the fact that he is potentially holding back a future driver in the Cup series.
With the limited number of races it would be an excuse for people like Matt Kenseth, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Mark Martin and Kyle Busch to actually MENTOR potential drivers on a weekly basis. Especially when you take into account that two of the five drivers I named own a lower series team. To mentor someone, means teaching not showing someone how to do something, allowing them to fail in their own unique way, and being there to pat them on the back when they succeed. It does not mean, “Step out of my way, let me show you how this is done, and oh by the way don’t even THINK about passing me late to steal a victory away from me,”
We worry about the future of the NASCAR sport, and trying to fix so many things that are wrong with it, how about we start looking at what truly IS the future of the sport in the lower series and attempt to give them something to hope for on their own?
Humpy Must Have Been Reading My Mind
It’s only mid-week and already a few big stories have hit. First there was the surprise YouTube video of Humpy Wheeler, the legendary promoter who put Charlotte Motor Speedway on the map, giving a critical analysis of what is wrong with NASCAR followed closely by Brian Vickers getting the full time ride in the No.55 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota and the dismissal of Juan Pablo Montoya from the No. 42 Earnhardt-Ganassi Chevrolet. Interesting moves, no doubt, so let’s start with Wheeler’s comments.
Wheeler was regarded as the number one promoter in racing until his abrupt firing by Speedway Motorsports in 2008. He now owns a consulting company, but his comments on the sport ring true most of the time. I first heard his ideas on the health of the sport on SiriusXM satellite radio last week, but seeing them in print was a real eye opener.
When considering the lack of attendance and the diminishing TV ratings, Wheeler has many ideas on why this has happened, firstly the corpatizement, as he calls it, of the sport. This rings true. Wheeler contends that the huge sums of money collected by the sport’s teams was good, it also upped the cost of what teams could spend on their teams, leaving a gap of the haves and have-nots in the sport, as well as multi-car super teams, reducing competition. His story about Firestone asking him to help in getting Richard Petty to take diction instruction to do commercials rings true. Today’s drivers tend to be corporate darlings, easily mentioning each sponsor in rote fashion and even taking gulps of their sport’s beverage on cue. Wheeler, to his credit, refused Firestone saying a better speaking King would not be the King. It was what enamored him to his fans.
Wheeler’s ideas are legendary. Lights at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the big military shows before the Coke 600, and turning the speedway built in 1960 into the crown jewel of the sport are just a few of his accomplishments, but his other ideas may be considered radical..
Wheeler’s main points are that the sport got too fancy, didn’t emphasize winning and passing enough, and didn’t give a reason for fans to come back after a race. How would Wheeler solve this? Give points for re-passing on the track. Give extra bonuses for winning and passing in a race, and do away with some of the new rules. He didn’t mention them specifically, but one can only surmise he meant the “Luck Dog,” the wave around and the double file restart. That’s what I thought he meant anyway. Maybe Wheeler will expound on this later. One thing is certain; he feels he knows what happened to the popularity of the sport.
Since about 1990, NASCAR was in power curve that played out about 2001. It was coincidentally the same year Dale Earnhardt lost his life in the Daytona 500. Wheeler calls him the working man’s driver. From that point on, NASCAR started waning in popularity. He says that guys like Richard Petty, Earnhardt, Cale Yarborough, and David Pearson were drivers that the working man could identify with. That is missing today, and I agree. Fans still flock to the tracks with No. 3 flags and stickers on their campers and cars. When asked who their favorite driver is, they are stumped for an answer. As Wheeler articulated so well, we do not have that driver anymore. Wheeler mentioned Clint Bowyer and then said he had been corpatized. We seem to have turned our drivers into walking and driving extensions of their sponsors, refusing to be themselves except in a moment of rage or weakness when they apologize to the sponsor and the fans for being themselves. Makes no sense. The motto is “ye must be a corporate spokesman.” Racing is secondary, and that’s the problem in Humpy’s mind. In my mind, we’ve gotten too fancy. Humpy would be proud. What will bring NASCAR back to the growth they saw in the 10-12 year growth spurt? Excitement and competition across the board and drivers people can relate to in today’s world. Let’s see if anyone is listening.
Brian Vickers is getting the full time gig in the Aaron’s Toyota in 2014, leaving Mark Martin, who only wants a part-time ride without a car to drive. Where will he go? Some say back to Roush-Fenway for a few races in the legendary No. 6, and others say the same thing in the Wood Brothers No.21. To be honest, where else could he go for a part-time ride? With drivers like Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch, and now Juan Montoya looking, pickings will be slim. If Martin could bring some sponsorship along, all bets are off, of course.
The dismissal of Montoya was a total surprise. I don’t think Montoya will accept an uncompetitive ride, so only the RCR No.29, the Phoenix Racing No. 51, and the possible 4th car at RCR seem to be in play. Then, you have to consider Newman, who will be in big demand, and what Richard Childress will do with his grandsons. It’s not much of a market out there for displaced drivers. My guess is that Montoya will go back to what he did before coming to NASCAR. I could be wrong, but I don’t see a place for him in 2014. Silly Season should be lots of fun this fall.
