Day Four – Sprint Media Tour – Toyota Day – Michael Waltrip Racing and Joe Gibbs Racing
The final day of the Sprint Media Tour was Toyota day. Michael Waltrip Racing and Joe Gibbs Racing were featured at the Charlotte Convention Center on Thursday.
Michael Waltrip Racing lived through tough times at the end of the 2013 season with the penalties assessed after Richmond and the loss of driver Brian Vickers due to recurring blood clots. It was nice to hear that Vickers will be back and Clint Bowyer is ready to roll in 2014.
Vickers looked the picture of health and was looking forward to the new season, as well as managing his health so that more hiatuses don’t happen.
“I’m cleared. I’m ready, off blood thinners. I’ve never been more ready in my entire life to get back in a race car,” he said.
Vickers’ latest three-month hiatus provided him the opportunity to take his wife on a honeymoon and relax a little, but also served as a reminder of how much he misses racing.
Moving forward, Vickers said, managing his health is just a matter of being aware of warning signs and making sure proper treatment is taken.
“That’s really all you can do,” Vickers said. “My last incident was a provoked incident. I had to wear a boot for a month. In those situations, we’ve got to be more mindful of it, but that’s really all you can do.”
Vickers is a fan of the new qualifying procedure that NASCAR recently announced and said, “I’m good with it. I don’t know that a lot is going to change. I think it’s going to create a little bit more excitement, for sure. It’s kind of that knockout style qualifying, but it’s not like we’re going to go out there and run six laps. You’re still going to go out there and you’re going to tape up and you’re going to go as hard and fast as you can for a lap. I think it’s going to be very similar for us, but I think it’s going to create more excitement for the fans. That’s a win-win in my book.”
Clint Bowyer also likes the new qualifying format.
“That (the old system) had become stale and it needed help,” Bowyer commented. “There’s no way getting around it. I think our Fridays were somewhat stale and I think it’s going to add a new element of excitement — who knows what’s going to happen. I really think that you’re going to see that. I think moving through those segments you’re going to see people make a quick adjustment and tune themselves right into the game or more importantly tune themselves right out of the game. There’s going to be a lot of moving parts and it’s going to be something that’s going to be interesting to follow on qualifying day. I don’t think you’ve ever really said that before. It’s going to be cool.”
Bowyer is ready to put 2013 behind him and go to Daytona with a fresh start.
“It always feels good to hit the reset button. I’ve got a great team — we have fast race cars, I have a great crew chief (Brian Pattie) and great engineers and smart people behind me,” Bowyer said. “It’s always been that way from day one at MWR (Michael Waltrip Racing). As far as the 15 team goes, we’re exactly the way we’ve been since 2012. That’s the key to success in this sport is people and when you can keep all those people together, that’s how you maintain the level of success that we’re capable of accomplishing. We’re as prepared as we’ve ever been.”
Joe Gibbs Racing paraded their drivers out (Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, and Denny Hamlin) and gave those present a rosy picture of the new season.
Kyle Busch was first asked how or if the new qualifying format will help his No. 18 M&M’s Toyota.
“I don’t know that it really does,” Busch commented. “I hate to be ‘Debbie Downer’ but I think there’s going to be a lot of down time. You might see a car or two out on the race track here or there, but it’s not going to be like 15 cars out on the race track making something exciting is what people are assuming. Restrictor plate races you’ll see that. When you’ve got 30 minutes let’s say at Martinsville — you go out and make a lap and then you’re going to sit there for 30 minutes because you’re not going to go out and make another lap on your tires. You’re not going to heat up your motor again. You’re going to hope that you’re in the top-25 or whatever the round is in order to move you forward.”
He’s not very enthusiastic about the new Chase format, either.
“Essentially your best way of going throughout the Chase is to win a race in every three races — that obviously gets you locked into the next round,” Busch said. “Being able to do that is key. Separating those three races out into each one — can you go test at those tracks? Are there tracks like it you can go test at without wasting a test at those tracks? Those are the things that everybody is going to be looking at and trying to figure out their best strategy and best way of getting to and achieving the ultimate goal of winning races in those races.”
After an up and down season, Denny Hamlin is back. After winning the Ford 400, the last race of 2013, Hamlin is confident about the coming season.
“My back is really good. It’s better than it’s been since I really can remember,” Hamlin beamed. “It’s taken a lot of hard work to get to this point, but I can assure you I’ve put in my hours. The season has been over roughly 60 days and I’ve put over 140-some hours in the gym. I’ve done everything I can to do my part to make sure we’re back in contention this year. There’s nothing lingering — everything is good. I’ve gotten scanned and everything looks great. It’s all in the past for me and obviously 2013 is going to be a year that will be forgotten as soon as we get to the race track at Daytona.”
Does Hamlin like the new qualifying rules?
“I think the knockout qualifying is going to be a good thing,” Hamlin said “Definitely if you didn’t have that, you would see track records break all over the series all over again. Just through the testing we’ve seen so far, the cars are at least a half-a-second faster than the cars were last year, and last year’s cars were record-breaking fast. I think whether you happen to use the same set of tires each one, there’s going to be strategy played. I think there could possibly be some gamesmanship on making sure a guy doesn’t have a good lap if there’s things like that going on. It’s going to be tough because you only have a certain amount of time to get one of those fast laps and everyone is going to be fighting to get on the race track as soon as they can because the race track is better cold. I think it’s going to be a game-changer, for sure, but it’s going to be exciting for the fans.”
Matt Kenseth came off his career best season, winning seven races and finishing second in the championship. It’s a new season and Kenseth says the cars feel fine and maybe even a little more together than last year. He just wants to take some things away from 2013 into the 2014 championship run.
“You always try to improve. You always try to make everything better,” Kenseth said. Certainly last year was a great year for us. You always hope to go and try to top that and try to do better the following year. I’m really looking forward to our second year together. I was really excited last year going into the season and there were a lot of unknowns. I was probably kind of nervous, not 100 percent comfortable, all that stuff. This year, I have a year to build on and kind of understand a little bit more what JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) is all about, how they operate and all those kind of things. I’m hoping that we’ll be better. I think that’s what everybody’s hope is, but we’re hoping we can improve on the things we did last year.”
Kenseth says the new qualifying procedure is “going to be different. I think it will be neat to watch. I think it’s going to make a great program session, whatever you want to call it. I think it’s going to be pretty cool to see how that works. Get rid of half the cars and I think there’s going to be a lot of varying strategies out there — how you do that, how you get that clean lap, but still try to keep your tires as fresh as possible and your engine as cold as possible. There’s going to be a lot going on — I think it’s going to be really interesting.”
Sprint Media Tour – Day Four – New NASCAR Chase Rules Mean Winning Is Everything
On the final day of the Sprint Media Tour, Brian France announced the new format for the Chase. This is a radical change from the way the Chase was originated. It emphasizes winning and almost throws consistency out the window.
Drivers who win only a race or two a season will have a chance at making the final run for the championship. The full text of the announcement gives the whole story, the particulars are listed below.
Under the new format, the 16 available qualifying positions for the Chase will be awarded to those drivers that have at least one victory through the first 26 races, as long as he or she is in the top-30 in points and has attempted to qualify for each of the season’s previous points races. On Thursday, NASCAR officials did raise the possibility that a medical exception could be given if a driver missed a race during the season for a valid medical reason, but still had won a race at some point during the season to qualify for the Chase.
If more than 16 drivers earn at least one win, only those highest in the standings (with at least one win) following the 26th race would advance. However, should the points leader after 26 races be winless, he or she would be awarded the 16th and final Chase position.
Only twice in the history of NASCAR have there been more than 15 winners in the first 26 Cup races (1961 and 2003).
If fewer than 16 drivers have at least one win, all remaining positions to fill the grid would be determined based on points standings.
The 16 drivers qualifying for the Chase will have their points reset to 2,000 points, and will be seeded based on bonus points (three per win) earned prior to the start of the Chase.
The nine races leading up to the season-ending event are divided into three individual rounds consisting of three races each.
Chase eligible drivers posting at least one win in each of the rounds will continue to advance. The remaining available positions will be determined and seeded based on points earned during each round.
Points for those in the Chase will be reset prior to the start of each round with all drivers starting the round with the same amount of points.
Drivers not in the Chase will continue to earn points under the current non-Chase points format.
The Challenger Round — Opens the Chase and consists of races at Chicagoland, New Hampshire and Dover. Twelve of the 16 drivers will advance from this round.
A win in any of the three races automatically advances the driver to the next round, with remaining positions to be determined based on points earned during the round.
The 12 Chase drivers advancing will be seeded based on points earned through the three previous races and will have his or her points total reset to 3,000 points prior to the start of the next round.
The Contender Round — Consists of races at Kansas, Charlotte and Talladega. Eight of the 12 drivers will advance from this round.
As in the previous round, a win in any of the three Contender Round races automatically advances the driver to the next round, with remaining positions to be determined based on points earned during the round.
Points totals will be reset at 4,000 points for those advancing.
The Eliminator Round — Consists of races at Martinsville, Texas and Phoenix. Four of the eight drivers will advance from this round to earn a berth in the season-ending Sprint Cup Championship (final) round.
Eliminator Round winners automatically advance, with the remaining position or positions determined by points earned in the three races.
The four drivers that advance into the final round will have their points total reset to 5,000 following the Phoenix race.
Sprint Cup Championship — The highest finishing driver at Homestead among the four eligible drivers will win the Sprint Cup championship.
While bonus points for laps led will be awarded through previous rounds, no bonus points for laps led will be awarded in the final race for the Chase contenders. Finishing position in the final race will determine the champion.
For those Chase drivers that fail to advance out of an individual round, their points total will be reset at 2,000 points at the conclusion of that particular segment. They will continue to earn points based on finishes in the remaining races, with no further adjustments. Thus, a driver that fails to advance out of the initial Challenger Round could earn enough points to finish as high as fifth in the final points standings. He or she would finish no worse than 16th based on the initial points reset.
In a nutshell, it means no more points racing. Winning will be the only thing and it should create some exciting racing in 2014.
Hot 20 – NASCAR’s paper champions vs the real deal
I guess it was written in stone, after all. NASCAR has gone ahead and, starting this season, will award the season crown to the best finisher amongst just four drivers at the year’s finale in Homestead. I doubt more than a handful would consider such a champion as legitimate, at least among true fans. As for the rest of us, we can either find some other sport to watch, or decide amongst ourselves who really was the best on the season.
In 1967, Richard Petty won 27 races and the title. No surprise there, but if this new way of doing things had been in place, Petty would not have won the title. Last year, Jimmie Johnson averaged a 5.1 finish over the course of the Chase, but he would not have won the title, either. In fact, had Dale Earnhardt Jr finished second, ahead of Matt Kenseth at Homestead, he would have won the crown under this format. He would have done so without winning a single race all season. Now, that would have been ironic.
I understand what NASCAR boss Brian France is attempting, but those “game seven” moments just happen. They are not contrived. The Yankees did not fold by design in 2004 to allow the Red Sox to storm back to enter sports history. Even the Super Bowl does not always provide a game seven moment. While the 2013 game was tight, who can forget the 49’ers 55-10 drubbing of the Broncos back in 1990? Even Denver fans can’t get that one out of their heads.
Once again, we turn to the Fiddler on the Roof and its lesson on tradition. You win titles by consistency, so you need a system that forces championship contenders to run well in order to keep their hopes bright. You need wins, the most cherished statistic, Top Fives and Top Tens in order to succeed.
If Brian France can put forward his idea, let me provide one of my own. Wins are important, so let us make them worth 17 points more than they currently are. That way, a maximum of 65 points might be realized. Add 11 points to those finishing second through fifth, or a minimum of 50 points for a Top Five. Finish outside the Top Ten, you are an also ran, so let us give those who finish 6th through 10th an additional 6 points, or worth between 40 and 44 points, not including bonus points for leading. Finish 11th, you still receive 33 points, and on down to one for finishing dead last. Maybe, just maybe, we can also dispense with the Chase while we are at it.
What about the game seven finale? Well, you do not always get that, so just maybe NASCAR should promote, feature, honor, and salute its best of the best. Coronations can be fun, too, if one has a clue about promotion. Maybe recognize those who came close, podium style, like the other racing series. Finishing second or third over the season, indeed at any individual race, is a fine accomplishment. Does NASCAR honor those drivers? Hell, no. Still, it is bewildering that Jimmie Johnson is not marketed as a living legend, or Jeff Gordon or Tony Stewart, for that matter. Instead of cherishing their best, they seem almost embarrassed by them. It is like the MLB trying to play down the Yankees while hoping to some how get the Miami Marlins or the Houston Astros a shot at the World Series.
Will fans buy into this nonsense? Some probably will, tossing tradition into the scrap heap. Some never will. No one will beat Petty and Earnhardt’s string of titles in their minds. Why? Because no other champion will be legitimate, unless they also happen to have been the best over the course of the entire season…Chase be damned.
Using my proposed system, here is a look at the Hot 20 drivers over the 2013 season, those who proved themselves to be among the best, no gimmicks needed.
Points awarded as they presently are, with the exception of Wins worth 63 points (for a maximum of 65), Top Fives are worth from 50 – 53 points, and Top Tens are worth from 40- 44 points.
|
Pos |
Driver |
Points |
W |
T5 |
T10 |
|
1 |
Jimmie Johnson |
1505 |
6 |
16 |
24 |
|
2 |
Matt Kenseth |
1424 |
7 |
12 |
20 |
|
3 |
Kevin Harvick |
1402 |
4 |
9 |
21 |
|
4 |
Kyle Busch |
1399 |
4 |
16 |
22 |
|
5 |
Dale Earnhardt, Jr. |
1326 |
0 |
10 |
22 |
|
6 |
Clint Bowyer |
1279 |
0 |
10 |
19 |
|
7 |
Carl Edwards |
1271 |
2 |
9 |
16 |
|
8 |
Joey Logano |
1246 |
1 |
11 |
19 |
|
9 |
Jeff Gordon |
1235 |
1 |
8 |
17 |
|
10 |
Kurt Busch |
1222 |
0 |
11 |
16 |
|
11 |
Brad Keselowski |
1212 |
0 |
9 |
16 |
|
12 |
Greg Biffle |
1181 |
1 |
4 |
13 |
|
13 |
Kasey Kahne |
1173 |
2 |
11 |
14 |
|
14 |
Ryan Newman |
1171 |
1 |
6 |
18 |
|
15 |
Martin Truex, Jr. |
1129 |
1 |
7 |
15 |
|
16 |
Jamie McMurray |
1088 |
1 |
4 |
9 |
|
17 |
Paul Menard |
1018 |
0 |
3 |
9 |
|
18 |
Juan Pablo Montoya |
962 |
0 |
4 |
8 |
|
19 |
Aric Almirola |
954 |
0 |
1 |
6 |
|
20 |
Jeff Burton |
952 |
0 |
2 |
6 |
Sprint Media Tour – Day Three Continued – Front Row Motorsports and Wood Brothers Racing
Day Three of the Sprint Media Tour concluded with visits by Front Row Motorsports, the Wood Brothers racing team and Team Penske. Team Penske will be addressed with a separate article. It was all a part of Ford Day at the four-day program. Front Row introduced their returning drivers – David Ragan, winner of their first race at Talladega, and David Gilliland, but there was a new face on the stage.
Eric McClure will pilot a Ford Mustang in the Nationwide Series for FRM during the 2014 season. He also will start the 2014 Daytona 500 in the No. 35 Ford Fusion.
“I’ve only recently been cleared to compete so a lot of dominoes are starting to fall into place,” McClure said. “The plan is the Daytona 500 for sure, Speedweeks too, and hopefully we will qualify.” McClure admitted that the Daytona 500 is on his bucket list and his ride will be sponsored by Hefty.
Front Row Motorsports drivers agreed that the new qualifying procedure could benefit small teams.
“I think that we’ve got to continue to evolve our sport based on the fans that we have in the world as it changes,” said Ragan, who drives the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford. “The fundamental parts are always going to be there. You’re going to have 43 cars you’ve got to go and race, and the best guy is going to win. But I’m excited about the upcoming season, the possible changes. I think that it definitely fits into our favor as a smaller team trying to grow in this world. It’s a big benefit if we can be in the Chase, for our sponsors, for our team, for everyone. I think it’s a good thing to help everybody grow.”
Gilliland went a step farther.
“I think they said with David (Ragan) winning at Talladega last year, if the points were the exact same this year, he possibly would have made (the Chase),” Gilliland said. “That’d be a huge shot for Front Row Motorsports, so that’s kind of what we’re focusing on, all the while keeping focus on getting our whole team elevated to run better each and every week.”
Appearing with the Front Row gang was the legendary Wood Brothers Racing team. The Woods’ will once again feature Trevor Bayne in its Ford Fusions for 2014. Only 12 races are scheduled this year, but Ford Racing boss Jamie Allison mentioned that the Woods only needed two wins to reach 100 all-time NASCAR wins and looked at Bayne for approval. “That would be a tall order if we’re only running 12 races.”
Bayne has had his ups and downs on and off the track with Wood Brothers Racing, but through it all, including a Daytona 500 win and being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, he’s kept an even keel.
“It is a diagnosis, but to me it has not changed my way of life or any daily activities or anything like that so for me that’s all it has to be right now is a diagnosis,” Bayne said of learning to live with MS. “It changes one thing about your mindset… you appreciate every day and you make the best of it.”
Team co-owner Eddie Wood says that with sponsorship, the team could run 15-16 races a year.
“We’d love to do it (more races), but the money just isn’t there,” Wood said. We bought four new cars this year—four intermediate cars and our Daytona car, and that’s about all we can do. We have all the good stuff that Roush has. Donnie Wingo, (crew chief) has all the stuff they’ve learned right on his computer every day. We’re ready to roll, but the sponsors just haven’t stepped up.”
