Kurt Busch Out at Penske, Who Will Replace Him?
Kurt Busch is no longer the driver of the No. 22 Dodge. The dismissal was immediately and leaves the Penske organization without a driver for their highly sponsored stock car. Busch had been in hot water since the last race of the season when an independent photographer recorded the profanity-laced tirade directed at ESPN pit reporter Dr. Jerry Punch at Miami-Homestead Speedway.
[media-credit name=”CIA Stock Photo” align=”alignright” width=”249″]
[/media-credit]Busch had fallen out of the season’s final race with transmission problems and the incident took place in the garage area of the racetrack. Earlier, Busch had directed an obscene gesture at a NASCAR official. NASCAR fined Busch $50,000 last week for the incident, but Penske officials commented that they were still evaluating what action would be taken against Busch. A Penske official reiterated that stance today when asked if Busch would be the driver of the Shell Dodge in 2012.
One of the factors involved might have been the exit of crew chief Steve Addington after the season. Addington abruptly left Penske for greener pastures at Stewart-Haas Racing. There had been rumors that Addington was unhappy with Busch’s attitude. It also left Penske without one of the top crew chiefs in the sport.
It’s not the first time Busch has been in trouble and been fired. After winning the 2004 Sprint Cup championship for Roush-Fenway Racing, a traffic incident in Avondale, Arizona which involved alcohol consumption was the last straw for Jack Roush. Busch had already told Roush that he was leaving his ride for a similar ride at Penske Racing earlier. His dismissal meant he missed the last two races of the season. Roush had already lined up Jamie McMurray to replace Busch, but not until the beginning of the 2006 season. It’s going to be a lot tougher for Roger Penske.
Looking at the pool of top drivers available, only David Ragan, Brian Vickers, and David Reutimann remain, and all have their negatives. Ragan and Vickers have only one victory apiece and Reutimann only shows two wins in his career. It gets tougher for Busch. With his reputation tainted, there doesn’t appear to be any rides comparable available for him in Sprint Cup. It is very possible that he might be without a ride for 2012.
Then again, it may be the start of another silly season as Penske looks for a driver to replace Busch. The No. 22 ride is considered one of the best in Sprint Cup and those wanting to compete in the car should be many. One thing is certain. Kurt Busch just might have burned his last bridge in the sport where he reigned as champion only six years ago.
Countdown to Daytona: 84
[media-credit name=”Jim Mullis Collection” align=”aligncenter” width=”500″]
[/media-credit]
84 days remain until the green flag drops on the Daytona 500 and that’s the number that’s the focus of today’s article. The number has seen relatively little use in NASCAR’s 62 year history; totaling only 220 starts.
The first driver in car 84 was Robert Caswell in 1951. Caswell finished runner-up to Marvin Burke who made his only career start in a race at Oakland Stadium in Oakland, California. Caswell would make a total of seven starts; six of them in California, all using the number 84. Caswell also participated in the only Sprint Cup race in South Dakota in 1953, but car numbers were not available outside the top five finishers.
Between 1955 and 1982, the car only made 90 starts. Notable drivers making starts in this time period included Bob “Bluebird” Senneker, making his first career start; the late Elmo Langley, known for driving the pace car in the 1980s and 1990s, David Pearson, Johnny Benson Sr., and current Nationwide competitor Morgan Shepherd.
Jody Ridley began using the number 84 in 1983 after leaving Junie Donlavey. In a part-time effort backed by Cumberland Mills and car owner Robert McEntyre, Ridley netted three top-ten finishes in just 10 races. Ridley raced 14 times the next season, again, earning three-top tens. While Ridley and McEntyre ran only races at the larger tracks, it is worth nothing that Ridley participated in the final Sprint Cup race at Nashville International raceway, finishing 28th after engine failure sidelined him.
In 1985, a new team owned by the Sims Brothers began using the number. Mike Alexander was the 1978 track champion at Nashville and had won the NASCAR All-American Challenge Series title the previous two years. The team only lasted midway through the 1985 season.
Following Bobby Allison’s tragic crash at Pocono in 1988, Alexander was tabbed to replace him for the remainder of the 1988 season. Alexander was set to drive the car in 1989 (now numbered 84), but only ran the Daytona 500. Alexander had sustained a severe concussion the previous year in the Snowball Derby in Pensacola, Florida. Alexander gave way to Dick Trickle.
Trickle was the 1984 and 1985 ASA champion and later earned the title of “America’s Winningest Driver”, due to the fact Trickle is thought to have won over 1200 races throughout the United States and Canada.
Trickle had dabbled in NASCAR since 1970, but never ran a full season until 1989. Trickle earned six top-five finishes along with three others in the top-ten to become the oldest Rookie of the Year in NASCAR at age 48.
[media-credit name=”Mike Traverse” align=”alignright” width=”290″]
[/media-credit]When Miller Brewing left the Stavola Bros. after the 1989 season in favor of Rusty Wallace, Trickle moved to Cale Yarborough’s team and the number fell out of use for the next 12 years.
Shawna Robinson used the number in her debut at Michigan in 2001, driving a car sponsored by Aaron’s and owned by Michael Kranefuss. Robinson finished 34th after a late spin.
In preparation for his 2005 rookie campaign, Hendrick Motorsports entered Kyle Busch in a car sponsored by Carquest and numbered 84 in six select races in 2004. Busch would finish no better than 24th in this car. Busch moved to the no. 5 car vacated by Terry Labonte. Labonte, in turn, ran a part-time schedule, but used the number 44.
In 2007, Red Bull used the number for their second car driven by rookie A.J. Allmendinger.
[media-credit name=”Chris Graythen / Getty Images for NASCAR” align=”alignleft” width=”225″]
[/media-credit]2007 was a struggle for the entire Red Bull team and Allmendinger failed to qualify a staggering 19 times, mainly due to NASCAR’s Top 35 rule. Mike Skinner replaced Allmendinger early in the 2008 season before Allmendinger returned. Following the 2008 season, Allmendinger was released in favor of Scott Speed. The team changed to car no. 82.
The no. 84 saw a brief reprieve in 2011, when Red Bull Developmental Driver Cole Whitt ran the fall race at Phoenix and the season-ending race at Homestead.
Car no. 84 has yet to win a race or pole and only has 35 top-ten finishes.
Countdown to Daytona: 85
With just 85 more days to Daytona, the focus can be on none other than Jeff Gordon’s 85th historic win this season. With his 85th victory, Gordon moved from being tied with Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip to sole position in third on the all-time career win list.
[media-credit name=”Photo Credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images” align=”alignright” width=”224″]
[/media-credit]Gordon also joined even more elite company, now behind Richard Petty, with 200 career victories, and David Pearson, with 105 career wins. The Hendrick Motorsports driver earned his 85th win at the track where he made his Cup debut in 1992.
The historic 85th win also came with some drama as weather wreaked havoc with the AdvocCare 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway that weekend this season. Gordon scored the historic 85th after a two-day rain delay and by surviving a race delayed by several showers, as well as several late-race wrecks.
In fact, Gordon’s historic win came in an historic race, as the AdvoCare 500 was only the second Cup race since 1978 to run on a Tuesday. The race was originally scheduled for Sunday evening, but Tropical Storm Lee forced the two-day rain delay.
While Gordon led 146 of the 325 laps during the Tuesday race and was out front for the final 38 laps, the finish was more than challenging. And it was none other than his teammate, nemesis and five-time champ Jimmie Johnson battling him for the race win at the end.
Gordon was so intent on holding off Johnson to win the race, that he totally lost track of his historic 85th.
“I totally forgot about that,” Gordon said in Victory Lane on receiving a special plaque from NASCAR saluting his 85th win. “Eighty-five, wow. That is unbelievable.”
“We really used the car up at the end,” Gordon continued. “I was slipping and sliding. It was a lot of fun racing with Jimmie (Johnson).”
While securing his 85th, Gordon was also at that time primarily focused on making the Chase for the Championship and a run at his own fifth title. With his 85th victory and third win of the 2011 season, he also scored sole possession for the fifth spot in the point standings.
“I’m just blown away by the kind of day we had; the kind of year we’re having,” Gordon said. “I just feel rejuvenated in such a big way.”
Gordon’s crew chief Alan Gustafson shared his driver’s sentiments, but also admitted that he had been worried going into the 1.5 mile Atlanta race track.
“This was one of the race tracks that we felt like, to be an elite team and contend for the championship, we’ll have to do well on these styles of tracks,” Gustafson said. “There were times when I felt like we were going to win the race and times that we were 10th and it look like it was going to rain out.”
“That’s all Jeff Gordon right there,” Gustafson said of his driver and his historic 85th win.
There was other drama on the race track that might have impacted Gordon’s historic 85th win, however, the driver of the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger managed to stay out of the fray. Involved in ‘Boys have at it, Atlanta style’ were Juan Pablo Montoya and Clint Bowyer, the former sending the latter into the wall, damaging his Chase hopes.
After that encounter, Bowyer had a few choice names for JPM, as well as saying it was impossible to race around him.
“We’re out here racing for a spot in the Chase,” Bowyer said. “He’s racing for nothing.”
In addition to dodging the wrecks at race end, Gordon also had to survive a very close finish to score his 85th career victory. He won by just about half a second, 0.598 seconds to be exact, over his teammate Jimmie Johnson, who at the end of this race took over the top spot in the Chase standings.
Johnson was running so fast at the end trying to catch Gordon that he literally was sideways coming to the checkered flag.
“I’m so glad I grew up racing on dirt,” Johnson said. “I could have spun out four or five times at the end. To race that hard, that sideways at 180 mph, lap after lap, is a good time.”
“That was fun,” Gordon said of his Atlanta win and his 85th career victory. “We’ve been able to send a message of how strong this team is and just how good our race cars are.”
‘Fearless Freddy’ Belongs in NASCAR’s Hall
It came as an email from Ford’s PR guy, Dan Zacharias, Friday evening. Former NASCAR driver Fred Lorenzen is going to be honored by the Illinois General Assembly at Chicagoland Speedway on December 7, 2011. It is the start of a push by many to get Lorenzen into the NASCAR Hall of Fame. It brought back lots of memories. It made me smile.
[media-credit name=”NASCAR” align=”alignright” width=”235″]
[/media-credit]The first race I ever attended, way back in 1964, was won by Lorenzen at Martinsville Speedway. For the major part of his career, he drove the No. 28 Ford out of the Holman-Moody shops to tremendous success. He won 26 races in his career, always running a limited schedule. The record shows that the 26 wins came in only 158 races, less than five seasons in today’s world. He was the first driver to win at NASCAR’s original super speedways (Daytona, Darlington, Atlanta, Charlotte, and Rockingham. From 1961-1967, he won a quarter of the races he ran, which brings me to the point of this article.
As I watched the festivities at Las Vegas tonight, and I’ve mentioned this in articles before, all the emphasis these days is on the season championship. It’s been bastardized by the Chase which allows a driver to have a horrible year and still win a championship by concentrating on the last ten races, but I’ve worn that opinion out over the years, but “Fearless Freddy” never ran the whole schedule. Much like David Pearson and Cale Yarborough in his later years, he ran selected races and was pretty successful in the races he ran. And they were stars. Not anymore. The television guys give us a running update on who is leading the points from Daytona on while always reminding us who is in the lead. Never mind who won the race, it’s the championship that counts.
Lorenzen has been on the ballot twice before without much interest from voters. That’s a shame. Probably part of it is because Lorenzen retired in 1967 at the tender age of 33. He came back in the early 70’s to run for Paul Goldsmith and the Wood Brothers, but left the sport in 1972 for good. Most of today’s enthusiasts probably don’t remember him, but I do. This event’s main purpose is to once again introduce one of NASCAR’s greatest drivers to voters. Unfortunately, the decision by the hall to allow only a limited number of inductees each year might spell doom for drivers like Lorenzen. The practice of only allowing a limited number of not only drivers, but car owners, crew chiefs, broadcasters, and officials, there is a good chance that guys like Fred will forever be overlooked. How can Lorenzen be chosen over today’s feel good guys like Rick Hendrick? It’s a flawed system that needs to be changed, but I’m afraid I am in the minority in this attitude.
Today, Fred Lorenzen is in a nursing home suffering from dementia. It would be wonderful to see him get in the hall before he dies. The same could be said for Chris Economaki and many others. The trouble is that the current policies will make it impossible for many of the heroes of the sport to ever get in the hall. Those without a championship need not apply. I find that horrible.
Countdown to Daytona: 86 (and 97)
[media-credit name=”Getty Images for NASCAR” align=”aligncenter” width=”405″]
[/media-credit]As we continue the countdown to Daytona, we’ll look at the brief history of number 86, and then take a look at a second number—97—that didn’t get covered due to it being a higher number.
The number 86 has seen little use in comparison to some others—making just 320 appearances since 1949. The number 86 was first used in the 1949 race at Langhorne Speedway. Featuring 45 cars on a 1 mile dirt track, Harvey Hillgas, in his only Sprint Cup start raced his ’49 Ford to a 25th place finish.
As the theme has been the last few days, Buck Baker was the first to win (and only) driver to win using the number 86. That win came in 1961 at Hartsville Speedway, a .333 mile dirt track in Hartsville, South Carolina.
Other drivers using the number 86 included son Buddy, Neil “Soapy” Castles, Tiny Lund, John Sears, and road racer Elliott-Forbes Robinson. The last time the number 86 saw use was 1993 by West coast driver Rich Woodland Jr., who entered the 1993 Slick 50 500 at Phoenix. The number has sat dormant since then. In total the number 86 has one win, 6 poles, 31 top-five and 78 top-ten finishes.
In comparison, the number 97 has had more than double the starts at 684. Drivers have sat on the pole eight times with this car number and accounted for 17 victories, 74 top-five finishes and 182 in the top ten.
The most successful driver of no. 97 is undoubtedly Kurt Busch. In the midst of a strong 2000 campaign in the Camping World Truck Series, Busch replaced a struggling Chad Little for the final seven races of the 2000 season in preparation for a run at Rookie of the Year honors in 2001. Busch would finish runner-up to Kevin Harvick in that category, in a somewhat disappointing season that resulted in just six top-ten finishes.
However, Busch returned with thunder in 2002, winning four races and placing third in the season-end tally; a 24 position improvement from the previous year. Busch won a total of 14 races and the 2004 championship for owner Jack Roush.
Bill Amick, a driver from Oregon was the first driver to win in car no. 97, beating 30 other drivers to win a 199-lap affair at Sacramento’s Capital Speedway in 1957. That win would be Amick’s only victory in NASCAR’s top series. Amick found his greatest success winning the 1965 championship in what was then the Pacific Coast Grand National Series; a series that evolved into the K&N Pro Series West division.
The only other driver to win in car no. 97 is a name many don’t immediately associate with NASCAR—Parnelli Jones. Jones won a total of four races in just 34 starts at NASCAR’s highest level, including two driving car 97. One of the victories was a brutal 500-lap (shortened to 487 due to rain) affair at the legendary Ascot Park in 1958; the other at the California State Fairgrounds a year prior. Jones would go on to win the 1963 Indianapolis 500 as a driver, as well as the 1970 and 1971 races with Al Unser as the driver. Amick and Jones were both initial inductees into the West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame in 2002.
Other notable drivers of no. 97 include Chad Little, the current competition director of NASCAR’s Whelen Modified Series, long-term independent Henley Gray, Red Farmer, Geoffrey Bodine, and 1990 Nationwide champion Chuck Bown.
Bodine’s (and substitute driver Tommy Ellis) stint in number 97 came about when his Junior Johnson car was found to have an oversized engine in the 1991 All-Star race. NASCAR slapped the team with a four-race suspension, including crew chief Tim Brewer. To keep his drivers eligible, Johnson changed the car number to 97 and listed his wife Flossie as the car owner.
The most recent driver is Kevin Conway, who made three starts (and four laps) for owner Joe Nemechek at the plate tracks this season.
