Mark Martin and Brian Vickers to sub for the injured Denny Hamlin
Contrary to reports on Thursday, Mark Martin will only be driving the No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry next weekend at Martinsville, before returning to his normal ride, the No. 55 Aaron’s Toyota for Michael Waltrip Racing, for Texas.
On Thursday, JGR released a statement stating that Martin would replace Hamlin in all five races in which Hamlin is currently scheduled to miss at this time. However, they retracted that announcement today.
“Obviously having to find someone to fill in for Denny is not an ideal situation to have to be in and when you start a process like this you obviously begin to look at the drivers that are not only available but also able to drive for your race team and manufacturer. We were a bit premature in determining Mark’s status past Martinsville however,” J.D. Gibbs, president of Joe Gibbs Racing, said in the team release. “We’re real happy to have the opportunity to get Brian in our Cup cars and with him driving Nationwide for us we think we have some continuity there that is beneficial.
“We really appreciate everyone at Michael Waltrip Racing and Toyota for working with us through this process. The good thing for us is that we have drivers the caliber of Mark and Brian to help fill in until Denny comes back.”
“I think it is great that a driver of Mark’s caliber is available to support our fellow Toyota team during this difficult time for them. We wish Denny a speedy recovery,” MWR founder and co-owner Michael Waltrip said in his team’s press release. “Mark is a big part of our organization and is committed to our sponsors, especially Aaron’s and Toyota. We have a lot of goals yet to reach this year and we are very focused on accomplishing them.”
Denny Hamlin will miss six weeks due to a L1 Compression Fracture to his back following his crash on the last lap at Auto Club Speedway. The compression fracture is located in his lower back and occurs when a vertebrae in the spine collapses. It is an injury that can occur in people who are healthy when they suffer a vertical shock to the area.
“I just hate not being able to be in the car right now, but I really appreciate Mark being able to fill in for me,” Hamlin said in a statement. “Like everyone in NASCAR, I have a tremendous amount of respect for Mark and I know he will keep that FedEx Camry up front until I get back behind the wheel.”
Currently, Brian Vickers is driving for Joe Gibbs in the Nationwide Series and has two top fives in five starts thus far this season. Vickers has previous Cup experience, scoring two wins, 24 top fives and 63 top 10s in 264 Cup starts. Vickers’ has had a rocky cup career though, after being sidelined for most of the 2010 season with health problems and then Red Bull Racing closing in 2011.
Last season, Vickers ran a part-time schedule for Michael Waltrip Racing, scoring five top 10s in eight starts. He has made one start this year, which was a finish of eighth at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Martin had stated in the beginning of the year that the No. 55 would be a one-driver car next year with him not as the driver. A lot of people are pointing to Vickers to take over the car.
Hamlin’s injury occured during the final laps while racing rival Joey Logano for the lead. Kyle Busch would sneak past them and take the win. However behind Busch, the pair continued to battle and made contact off of turn four. The resulting contact caused Logano to bounce off the wall and Hamlin to go flying into the inside wall. The wall that Hamlin hit had no safer barrier and caused the car to come up off the ground. Hamlin was credited with a 25th with Logano got third.
Kevin Cornelius to join the OSCAAR ranks in 2013
After experiencing success at the Limited Late Model level, Kevin Cornelius is making the move up to the OSCAAR Super Late Model division. Cornelius unveiled the car last weekend at the Mega Speed Custom Car and Truck Show.
“I can’t remember the last time I was this pumped up for the start of a season,” he said. “The car looks amazing.
“We have added some new guys to the team and we are probably a couple of weeks away from doing some single car testing.”
Cornelius will be running a McColl Racing Enterprises chassis, which marks the first OSCAAR chassis for Mike McColl and his staff.
“I really wanna get out in this MRE chassis and start to get a feel for this car,” the Orangeville, Ontario driver said. “I have done a lot of talking with some SLM drivers and just wanna get out and see for myself how these things handle.”
Going into the season, Cornelius admits that he doesn’t really have any expectations with how they will run.
“I just want to be competitive and run up front every race,” he said. “If we do that and the points take care of themselves, I have all the confidence in the world that we have the right guys on this team, and combine that with the MRE staff, its a good feeling when you are preparing for a race season.”
While he may be running an OSCAAR for the first time, the same group of guys will be back for the new season, with only a small change as Ed Almand has stepped in as crew chief.
“I’m really looking forward to working with our new crew chief this year Ed Almand,” Cornelius said. “I have known Eddie for along time and he and I are usually on the same page when it comes to racing.”
Cornelius actually got interested in racing while doing his internship at Almand’s shop.
“I started my apprenticeship at a small shop for mechanicing in Alton, Ontario, working with Ed Almand and he raced at the time at Sauble Speedway so naturally I went up with him to help out with his car,” Cornelius recalled last season. “There happened to be what they’d call Enduro Cars or Street Stock for sale for $400 and that was big money for us back then. So we were going to buy it, but something came up so we couldn’t buy it. So actually Ed and his wife Susan actually ended up buying me the car.”
In the first race that he ran at Sauble Speedway, he won, but was DQ’ed. “Apparently the rear end was locked and we weren’t allowed that.”The following weekend also brought some excitement when Cornelius brought his parents to the track, not telling them that he was racing.
“They thought they were just coming to watch Ed race, and we pulled out in the car and it ended up in one of the heat races, we put it on its roof,” he said.
As previously mentioned, Cornelius enters the season with limited late model experience under his belt, including two competitive back-t0-back sesaons at Sunset Speedway.
Last season didn’t go as Cornelius would have hoped as he finished third in points after a pair of disappointing runs mid-summer. There were some highlights, though, as he was able to pick up four feature victories.
“Looking back on last year, that seems like along time ago now,” he commented. “This winter has dragged on way to long if you’re a race fan or racer; I really don’t have much to say about it.
“I have kinda forgotten about it now. It was a frustrating year for sure but we still came away four features, a bunch of heat wins, and third overall, so I guess we should be happy with that.”
However, the 2011 season went much better as Cornelius won the track championship while picking up four feature victories and 16 heat wins, and in addition, two invitational features. In the interview, he admitted to remembering that season more so than last year.”We were so dominate that year and had such a good season,” he said. “It was unbelievable (and still is) walking outta Sunset that year knowing we had won the championship and knowing that no matter what we do now, we will always have that.
“Those two seasons I was so impressed with the guys and the effort they put in. They had no quit in them at all and they were the reason why we had so much success.”
For their support in past seasons and the season ahead, Cornelius and KDR Motorsports team would like to thank their sponsors: Halton Crushed Stone Lee Sand and Gravel, Hanson Concrete Products, Sandbox Tech Child Care, Alliston Transmission, Ed’s Automotive, Triple Concrete and MacMaster Buick GMC.
For more information on Kevin Cornelius, check out .
