Home Blog Page 5117

Ryan Hunter-Reay looking for more success in 2014

By
SM Staff
-
Photo Credit: Ashley McCubbin

Following a great championship season in 2012, Ryan Hunter-Reay came into 2013 as one of the guys to beat. However, a mix of mechanical issues and incidents on track took the American out of the championship picture, resulting in a seventh place finish in points with a win at Barber Motorsports Park.

Fresh off celebrating his birthday, Hunter-Reay will be one of the drivers in attendance at the test at Sebring Raceway on December 18th. Hunter-Reay is looking for a stronger 2014 season as the team switches from Chevrolet power to Honda power.

“It’s great to continue with the same group of guys and working again with my engineer Ray (Gosselin) and my teammates James (Hinchcliffe) and Marco (Andretti).  We just need to keep pushing forward and keep evolving,” he said. “We barely let the Indy 500 get away from us and I think we had a pretty good season. We had three poles, two wins and we should have had another win or two in there. I think we can hopefully go out and do that again. We’re starting anew with Honda and we’ve got a chance to really take our game to a new level.”

Though like any other driver, Hunter-Reay has taken advantage of the off-season to spend time with family and take part in other events. The 2012 Series Champion took part in the Dolphins Cycling Challenge to raise money for cancer research.

“There are more than 2,000 riders and it raised almost $2 million (primarily for the University of Miami Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center),” he said. “Racing for Cancer is a small beneficiary of the Dolphins Cycling Challenge and my personal sponsor AutoNation is heavily involved. I rode with Team AutoNation.

We started in Boca Raton and rode to the Dolphins Stadium in Miami, which is about 45 miles. It was a lot of fun. It’s great to be out with everybody doing that. You really feel the energy behind it. Hopefully, that will be a regular on the off-season schedule.”

Hunter-Reay will spending Christmas with his family, including his wife Beccy and son Ryden. Ryden will be turning one on December 28th so Hunter-Reay says the holiday should be a lot of fun.

“He’s laughing a lot right now. The highlight of my day is waking up and seeing his face. It’s a lot of fun,” he added. “For his first birthday, he loves Mickey Mouse. That’s one thing that captures his attention. It’s amazing how that works. An (85-year old) cartoon mouse, that’s his hero. I think I come a close second when I’m in my race suit, but Mickey Mouse takes the cake. We’ll probably have some sort of Mickey Mouse-themed party for him.”

Joey Coulter reportedly to drive for Maurice Gallagher in 2014

By
SM Staff
-
Photo Credit: Goeff Burke/NASCAR via Getty Images

Last year, Joey Coulter made the move from Richard Childress Racing to Kyle Busch Motorsports, in hopes to win races and possibly a championship.

However, the year didn’t go as planned as the season was plagued by bad luck, resulting in Coulter finishing 15th in points with three top fives and five top 10 finishes.

“We’ve had a lot of speed,” he said earlier this year in September. “We’ve been pretty happy with how our Tundra has been running, just haven’t had the luck to go along with it. A lot of blown tires, just things that you get into those situations where you feel you can’t do anything right. The bright side is we have fast trucks when we don’t have bad luck.”

As a result of a lack of funding at KBM and Kyle Busch shrinking the team, Joey Coulter was let go at season’s end.

All is not lost for the Miami Springs, Florida native as he has landed a ride for 2014 and will drive for Maurice Gallagher in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.

“It’s not a deal until its signed sealed and delivered,” Coulter told Dave Moody earlier this month, “but we’re getting close.”

Gallagher, who owns Allegiant Air, a low-cost airline just outside Las Vegas, fielded cars last year for son Spencer Gallagher in the ARCA Racing Series, is looking to step his game up for next season. He entered Gallagher into five Camping World Truck Series races last year, with Gallagher failing to qualifying for two and scoring a 20th finish at Texas for his highest finish of the season.

Per Moody’s “The Godfather’s Blog”, Gallagher will field the trucks out of the Coulter Motorsports shops in North Carolina. Coulter Motorsports has been fielding cars in the ARCA Serier. Coulter will run the full 2014 Truck Series schedule with Allegiant Air on the quarter panels of the truck while Maurice’s son Spencer will run the full ARCA schedule, as well as select truck races. Jeff Stankiewicz will reportedly serve as crew chief for Coulter.

It was also announced during Richard Childress Racing’s press conference about Austin Dillon’s 2014 plans that RCR has sold their truck series equipment to Gallagher Motorsports as they will not be running trucks in 2014. When Coulter was at Richard Childress Racing in their equipment with Harold Holly on the pit box, he scored a win at Pocono, 13 top fives and 28 top 10s in those 47 starts.

Team BCR Racing: Enfinger and Allison Gear up for Daytona Testing

By
SM Archive
-

Venturini Motorsports Celebrates 2013 Season; Daytona Testing Next Up on the Schedule

By
SM Archive
-

INDYCAR NEWS AND NOTES – Dec. 17, 2013

By
SM Archive
-

2013 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Top Performances

By
SM Archive
-

NASCAR Delivers 2014 Competition Package to Teams

By
SM Archive
-

Bobby Labonte Returns to Phoenix Racing for Daytona 500

By
SM Archive
-

Austin Dillion brings No. 3 back to Cup midst controversy

By
SM Staff
-

Last week, it was announced that Austin Dillon would be bringing the No. 3 back to the Sprint Cup Series.

The No. 3 has not been ran in the Sprint Cup Series since the death of Dale Earnhardt in 2001 at the Daytona 500. For that reason, many fans believe that the number should be brought back to the track by Dillon in 2014.

Dillon has used the number throughout his entire career to date, all the way up the ranks. He used it on the way to winning the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Championship, as well as on his way to winning the NASCAR Nationwide Series Championship. It seems fitting the young man gets to continue to use the number he’s used all the way to the top.

Some argue that shouldn’t be true as it is ‘Earnhardt’s’ number in their minds and should not be used by others. However, fans forget that other drivers have used that number before Earnhardt. One of those drivers was Richard Childress. Childress ran the number himself before he stepped out of the driver’s seat. The number was then used by Earnhardt when he began to drive for Childress.

While a lot of fans may want to continue this debate, Dillon has received approval from those closest to Earnhardt – his children. Before deciding to run the number, Dillon asked them both if they were okay with it.

Earnhardt Jr. knew the number would come back to the Sprint Cup Series one day, as he tells Lee Spencer at FoxSports.com.

“I always knew that it would come back,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “I always felt like one day there would be some kid — and maybe it was Austin, I’m sure it was Austin — that started off playing T-ball or baseball or football and Pop Warner, that wore the number 3.

“Whether he wore it because of their dad or their grandfather, Richard Childress, or some anonymous kid that just liked the number and he used it in everything he did. Eventually, this kid becomes a racecar driver and he wants to be the No. 3. I think that’s fair. He shouldn’t be denied that.”

Earnhardt added that he believes Dillon has carried that number as his own from day one.

“He’s made his own impact and legacy with the number,” he continued. “He’s won championships and races and used it all his life — ever since he was in sports. It means a lot to him.”

Earnhardt finished off by saying that he thinks Dillon will do well with the number as he respects and understands the history of the number and the legacy that it has left in the sport.

Childress also believes that he has Earnhardt’s blessing in what he is doing.

“At the time (we talked), we never dreamed it would be our own kids, his or mine,” Childress said on the day of the announcement. “But that was one thing we would have loved to see. … He wanted to see the 3 car racing for wins in the Cup Series, he wanted to see the 3 car racing for championships.

“So I know today that Dale is smiling down and is proud of this announcement.”

Despite these factors, some fans have repeatedly stated that htey’re not happy with the decision. Some have even said that the number should be retired. Well, if you’re going to retire Earnhardt’s No. 3, you might as well retire Richard Petty’s No. 43, David Pearson’s No. 11, Darrell Waltrip’s No. 17 and so forth. NASCAR has never retired numbers and there’s a reason they have not done it. Drivers carry numbers throughout their careers and when they reach the top, they want to continue to use that number. Why should tradition of such be broken now?

Regardless of how you feel about Dillon carrying the number, there is one thing for certain – Dillon better have success early in his rookie season. If he doesn’t, the backlash will only continue to grow as fans want to see that number up front as that’s what they’ve become accustom to. Now, can Dillon deliver? He’s delivered in the trucks. He delivered last year in Nationwide. We’ll see if he can keep it going.

“This is going to be positive for the sport. … We’re not going to make everybody happy. But we’re going to try to win those over,” Childress said.

ISMA Super Modifieds to return to Sunset Speedway in 2014

By
SM Staff
-
Photo Credit: Ashley McCubbin

After a successful event this past season, the ISMA Super Modifieds will be returning to Sunset Speedway in 2014.

ISMA officials released their 2014 full schedule earlier this month, announcing their dates for the upcoming year. The Canadian swing on the schedule will stay and marks the same deal as last year. The Super Modifieds will be at Delaware Speedway on Friday August 15th, followed by a date at Sunset Speedway on Saturday August 16th.

The ISMA Super Modifieds are the fastest cars that hit the pavement last year at Sunset Speedway and basically are an overgrown modified. They weigh approximately 1850 pounds with big-block methanol fuel-injected Chevrolets that pump out over 800 horsepower. They can do speeds over 140 mph at tracks that less than a mile – let that sink in. The secret? 20” Hoosier right-rear tires with loads of downforce courtesy of the air-strut adjustable wing on top.

So what does that equal? Pure speed and loud horsepower. Lou Cicconi set the quickest time of the day for the ISMA Super Modifieds at lap of 12.099 seconds on the 3/8 mile oval.

In this past season’s event, Jeff Locke started on pole and led all 75 laps at Sunset Speedway to take the victory in the feature.

“First of all, great facility; great place,” Locke said afterwards. “I really appreciate Sunset Speedway for having us. I hope we put on a good show for the fans. A good turn-out.”

There were concerns last year from fans when the date was put on the schedule due to last year’s ticket price – $40.00. However, the appeal of these super fast cars paid off as the stands were packed from one end to the other.

Can we expect the same thing this year? Hopefully.

Last year’s race didn’t see much passing simply due to the fact that these cars are also wide. It also marked their first time on the oval so given time to improve set-ups, there are chances of a better race in 2014.

The rest of the 2014 Sunset Speedway schedule will be released in the spring.

 

Photos from last year’s event can be viewed by clicking here.

1...5,1165,1175,118...6,754Page 5,117 of 6,754