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NASCAR Mixes Chase, Charity and Gout Awareness at Charlotte

By
SM Staff
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This weekend marks the midway point of NASCAR’s closest yet Chase for the championship, with just eight drivers within 20 points of the top of the leader board. Yet in the midst of the Chase, charity has also been a major theme at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the race weekend.

[media-credit name=”goutpitstop.com” align=”alignright” width=”223″][/media-credit]The major charitable focus, as expected in the month of October, has been for breast cancer awareness.  Almost all of the race cars have been adorned with some sort of pink accents, from the recognizable pink ribbon logos, to pink lanyards and gloves worn by the NASCAR officials.

“Breast cancer awareness month is one of those unique opportunities in which the NASCAR industry and NASCAR fans rally together for such a special and important cause,” Sandy Marshall, executive director of The NASCAR Foundation, said. “Each year the program gets bigger.”

Other charities featured in the Chase race weekend at Charlotte include the USO on Clint Bowyer’s No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevy, as well as the No. 16 machine of Greg Biffle sporting a paint scheme for the 3M/Give Kids a Smile effort.

The most unique charitable initiative, however, is one led by Kevin ‘Bono’ Manion, crew chief for the No. 1 Bass Pro Shop/Arctic Cat Chevrolet driven by Jamie McMurray. Manion has been leading the charge for a new gout awareness campaign in conjunction with the Men’s Health Network and Takeda.

Manion suffers from gout, a form of arthritis that affects over 8.3 million people in the United States. It is often misunderstood as a disease afflicting those who are rich who indulge in too much food and alcohol.

“It’s an educational campaign to bring awareness to anyone suffering from gout,” Manion said. “I’ve had it for about ten years and for awhile I didn’t know what it was.”

“I suffered a lot until the pain got so unbearable that you couldn’t sleep because the sheets couldn’t touch your foot,” Manion continued. “I’ve heard of gout before but always thought of somebody that drank a lot or that it was a rich man’s disease.”

“I’m basically trying to get the word out there and to let others know that they are not alone.”

Manion has partnered in the awareness campaign with Men’s Health Network and Takeda. His participation as a spokesperson has not only helped to educate himself about the disease but also to reach others who may be suffering.

One of the biggest issues related to gout is the shock of receiving the diagnosis, particularly due to the stigma and stereotyping of the illness.

“When I got my diagnosis, I was surprised for sure,” Manion said. “I’m not a heavy drinker and don’t do those things that they say trigger a flare up.”

“When I went to the doctor finally, I thought I had a broken foot or a broken toe,” Manion continued. “I went to get X-rayed and they told me that I had gout instead.”

“It was surprising but you wouldn’t believe the people that I’ve met who are suffering too.”

Manion has learned many lessons after being diagnosed with gout. Other than having some occasional pain climbing up the ladder to the top of the pit box or running around on race weekend, he has been able to manage his symptoms.

“What I’ve learned is that you have to take care of yourself,” Manion said. “Like your race car, you’ve got to take care of your body”.

“As we get older, things change and for me I hopefully have not done any damage by not taking care of myself,” Manion continued. “Everyone’s different.”

“There’s surely ways to manage through medication, exercise and watching your diet,” Manion said. “But it’s basically being cautious of what’s going on.”

This weekend, Manion has spent time in the Fan Zone sharing his experience and educating race fans on this illness.

“A lot of people I’ve met haven’t been to the doctor so encouraging people to see their health care provider to get checked out,” Manion said. “We have information at the ‘Gout Pit Stop’ booth and people can also visit the website www.goutpitstop.com for more information as well.”

While Manion and many of the other drivers and teams in the sport focus on charitable endeavors throughout the race weekend, they have just one other goal in common. All want to chase the win in the Bank of America 500.

“Our goal is to win the race,” Manion said simply. “We have a great record and Jamie loves this place. We have a win here so with a 500 mile race, we hope to have a good car for the long haul.”

CHEVY NSCS AT CHARLOTTE TWO – Team Chevy Fast Facts

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SM Archive
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Ford Racing Asks, ‘Is it Glenn or Glen Wood?’

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SM Archive
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Carl Edwards Scores Victory at the Dollar General 300 Miles of Courage at Charlotte

By
Angie Campbell
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Carl Edwards only led five laps in Friday’s race but they were the ones that mattered. On lap 195, with a little help from teammate Trevor Bayne, Edwards took the lead from Kyle Busch and never looked back, bringing his Roush Fenway Ford into Victory Lane.

“If Trevor hadn’t given me that push,” said Edwards, “we would have had a really hard time. So [it was] just a really, really good team effort.” This was his 37th victory in the Nationwide Series.

Kyle Busch finished second followed by Trevor Bayne in third, who scored his first top-five finish in three races at Charlotte Motor Speedway.  Elliot Sadler in fourth and Brian Scott rounded out the top five.

Elliot Sadler also claimed the Nationwide Insurance Dash4Cash $100,000 bonus and won $100,000 for NASCAR fan Joe Thornton of New Port riche, Fla.

“It’s a thrill just to come to the races, but to win the $100,000 I’m speechless,” Thornton said. “I don’t know what we’re going to do with it — my wife wants to pay the house off, we’ll see. It’s just unbelievable, you know.”

Sadler is now only 15 points behind points leader Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Paul Menard, winner of the Coors Light Pole Award, brought the field to green Friday evening at Charlotte Motor Speedway but only led the first 26 laps.

Brad Keselowski seemed to have the most dominant car of the night, leading 119 laps. But on lap 170 he suddenly slowed due to a tire going down.

In the end, it was a battle between Edwards and Kyle Busch with Trevor Bayne making a late charge in the final five laps. But Edwards was able to hold off Busch and the remainder of the field for the win.

Jack Roush, car owner of the No. 60 Fastenal Ford, was ecstatic and a little amazed after the race.

“I think I’m gonna lose my mind here,” he said. He continued, “Carl wrecked his car today and the car decided it wouldn’t give up. I’m going to talk to that car and I’m going to give that car a kiss tonight.”

Ricky Stenhouse Jr retains the points lead followed by Elliot Sadler, Aric Almirola, Justin Allgaier and Reed Sorenson in fifth.

Unofficial Race Results
Dollar General 300 Miles of Courage, Charlotte Motor Speedway
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Pos. No. Driver Make Points
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1 5 60 Carl Edwards Ford 0
2 6 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 0
3 11 16 Trevor Bayne Ford 41
4 12 2 Elliott Sadler Chevrolet 41
5 8 11 Brian Scott Toyota 39
6 3 22 Brad Keselowski Dodge 0
7 10 31 Justin Allgaier Chevrolet 37
8 1 33 Paul Menard Chevrolet 0
9 2 6 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford 36
10 9 32 Brian Vickers Chevrolet 0
11 17 30 Jason Leffler Chevrolet 33
12 7 12 Sam Hornish Jr. Dodge 32
13 19 66 Steve Wallace Toyota 31
14 13 7 Josh Wise Chevrolet 30
15 14 88 Aric Almirola Chevrolet 29
16 20 9 Kenny Wallace Toyota 28
17 22 62 Michael Annett Toyota 27
18 27 81 Blake Koch * Dodge 26
19 4 20 Joey Logano Toyota 0
20 23 19 Mike Bliss Chevrolet 24
21 32 15 Timmy Hill * Ford 24
22 36 1 Mike Wallace Chevrolet 22
23 31 150 T.J. Bell Chevrolet 0
24 41 28 Derrike Cope Chevrolet 20
25 39 89 Morgan Shepherd Chevrolet 19
26 33 39 Joey Gase Ford 18
27 37 52 Kevin Lepage Chevrolet 17
28 18 38 Kasey Kahne Chevrolet 0
29 24 51 Jeremy Clements Chevrolet 15
30 35 23 Robert Richardson Jr. Chevrolet 14
31 34 14 Eric McClure Chevrolet 13
32 15 182 Reed Sorenson Dodge 12
33 38 40 Charles Lewandoski * Chevrolet 11
34 16 99 Ryan Truex * Toyota 0
35 42 70 Angela Cope Chevrolet 9
36 40 87 Kevin Conway Toyota 8
37 28 97 Joe Nemechek Toyota 7
38 25 104 Tim Andrews Ford 6
39 26 103 Scott Riggs Chevrolet 5
40 30 141 Johnny Chapman Chevrolet 4
41 21 147 Scott Speed Chevrolet 3
42 29 142 Erik Darnell Chevrolet 0
43 43 44 Jeff Green Chevrolet 1

Drive to End Hunger Continues in Charlotte

By
Ed Coombs
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Speedway Media was present at the Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina in Charlotte Friday when Jeff Gordon presented the Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina with a check for $10,000.  The Food Bank of Metrolina received their $10,000 gift this past spring. This allowed the two food banks to help people in 32 North Carolina counties this year.

[media-credit name=”Brad Keppel ” align=”alignright” width=”225″][/media-credit]Gordon’s sponsorship by the ARRP’s Drive to End Hunger has been a huge success this season with over $12 million being raised and 3.4 million meals being paid for. The sponsorship has allowed NASCAR fans to help with something that many people were not aware of and that’s the fact that many elder Americans live in poverty and go hungry every day.

Gordon, who has his own, long established children’s foundation liked the program from its onset. He compared the sponsorship to his long established one with DuPont saying, “With DuPont I had to learn the company, learn the product. I had to learn the people and understand what they do. It took years to go through that process. I love them as a company, what they do.”   “With this,” he said. “it didn’t take five minutes. This is a no brainer, this is easy to get behind for me, for me to understand and say lets go to work. Let’s make this happen.” He mentioned other charities that sponsor race cars as well. “It’s a great cause. Plus, the thing I love is the level they want to reach out there. You see many do one race. Or an organization represented on several cars, but it’s a short time basis. For them to do it for the number of races, and basically be a primary sponsor is amazing.”

The one thing that Gordon acknowledged was that he doesn’t have as much time as he would like for his own foundation but with this program its different because it’s a sponsor. “It’s a direct message to the fans on Sunday, on television,” he said. “When we win a race it’s a lot more than winning a race. We’re aware that there’s a cause. It’s already been for me something that never stops being involved.”   “When it comes to the foundation work,” he said. “I’m so limited on my time. I’m going back (to Africa, a trip he took alone earlier this year) with Ingrid and Ella, Leo is too young to do that but, I have made time over the years, but I never have as much time as I would like. With this year I’m still able to do things for the children’s Foundation, but every week I’m able to represent the Drive to End Hunger.”   It was obvious that Gordon has many fans that are older. Before taking time out with the media Gordon spoke with a gentleman who offered him words of encouragement. Gordon was very appreciative of the comments and expressed so.

More information about AARP’s Drive to End Hunger can be found at www.drivetoendhunger.org If you’re going to any of this season’s remaining races there will be displays to allow you to support the program. Pitch in, help out if you can. It is a real problem that we all can easily help with.

Edwards Wins Dollar General 300 Miles of Courage

By
SM Staff
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courtesy of www.onpitroad.com

Carl Edwards has won the 30th Annual Dollar General 300 Miles of Courage here at Charlotte Motor Speedway. It was a rocky road to the backflip tonight, but in the end it was a restart from hell from Kyle Busch that allowed Edwards the win.
Bypassing the first 180 laps of tonight’s 200 lap event, it all boiled down to 3 drivers when the checkered flag flew over the hood of the No. 60 Fastenal Ford.
Paul Menard won the Coors Light Pole Award earlier today in NASCAR Nationwide Series Qualifying, but led only the first 26laps of tonight’s event when points leader, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. threw his hat in the mix as possible contenders for the win.
A late race caution was not the issue for then-leader Brad Keselowski, it was slowing down off of Turn number four here at Charlotte Motor Speedway that took Keselowski out of contention for the win tonight. The spin under caution put Kyle Busch to the lead with around 20 laps left, but the incident would not mark the end of the fireworks in the last 30 miles of tonight’s race.
Fast-forwarding again to the final restart, with just 4 laps left, Kyle Busch chose the outside line as his preferred line of restart. The restart dragged all the way within 30 feet of the pink Start/Finish Line before the throttles were hammered. Busch squandered heading into turn number one, and the fight was on for the win with Stenhouse Jr., Edwards, and Rowdy Busch all in the hunt for the point.
It was Edwards that flexed his muscles by the time the field may their way back to my vantage point off the end of Pit Road here at Charlotte, and it was a 6 car-length lead that Edwards would take with 3 miles left to run. Kyle Busch made his best efforts to reel in the battered No. 60 Fastenal Ford Ford Mustang (the car was seriously trashed, Jack Roush said he would actually kiss the car later tonight for staying together) but would only manage to sneak a peek under Edwards in the final turn.
Kyle Busch blamed the Toyota horsepower for the squandered attempt to take the win, but it was the Fastenal parts of Carl Edward’s No. 60 Ford Fusion that held up after he put a “Charlotte Stripe” on his torn racecar.
Edward’s victory is his 37th in 241 NASCAR Nationwide Series Starts, and his 8th this season. Trevor Bayne finished third as the highest finishing Nationwide Series points contender.
In the points, Elliott Sadler trimmed Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s lead to just 15 as the Nationwide Series takes a two week break from on-track action.

Kyle Busch Still Says Fords Have an Advantage, Not So say Edwards and Roush

By
SM Staff
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A monkey could win in that racecar. Those were the words of Clint Bowyer back in July of 2008 about Joe Gibbs Racing and how good they were and how the competition didn’t have a chance to win races.

[media-credit name=”Brad Keppel” align=”alignright” width=”291″][/media-credit]The domination of JGR in the Nationwide Series, led mostly by Kyle Busch, has been one of the biggest story lines the last few years. Busch has won a drivers championship and become the winningest driver in series history. To date, he’s won eight races in 2011.

And everyone knows that Busch doesn’t like losing, there’s nothing else left to say or write about it. Friday night in Charlotte Busch lost to Carl Edwards, who also won for the eighth time, and the JGR driver suddenly sounded a lot like Bowyer did a few years ago.

“Really good on long runs, slow on short runs,” said Busch. “Didn’t have enough under the hood to keep up. Got out motored on that last restart, finished second. Got out motored. I didn’t have enough under the hood. Unfortunately, the Toyota’s don’t have enough horsepower.”

End of statement, end of story as Busch didn’t offer anymore about his race. The statement made anti-Busch fans giggle. As it did to Edwards when he heard about it in his post race interview.

“I sit in these racecars every week, twice a week and been doing it for a long time and we do not have a horsepower advantage,” Edwards said. “Those are political statements that people make to try and get us back to where we were for years, at a disadvantage.”

While Edwards believes there is one manufacturer that is better than them on the NNS and NSCS side, the engines are has close as they’ve been he said.

Team owner Jack Roush took it a step forward and said that the Ford camp has just caught up and is running where they should be after getting their new FR9 engine. What it has done is give JGR and the rest of the field better competition through his team.

“We’ve all got the same parameters,” said Roush. “The Ford was disadvantage in those things for years until we got the FR9 going last year. So, he certainly doesn’t have the advantage or the Toyota’s don’t have the advantage that they had over the Fords before.”

Roush went on to say that it would be a ‘travesty’ with all the money they’re spending on the 2013 version of the car to have had built an engine they don’t need. Further saying that if Toyota got a new engine then every other manufacturer would have to get one, Chevy, Ford and Dodge.

According to Roush, there’s no need for a new engine because they all have the same parameters. The difference is how much carburetor jets and ignition timing a team puts to it.

The engine doesn’t appear to be the problem, who Busch loses to is. With each and every one of Busch’s wins, mention of being at an advantage or having been lucky to win with his equipment, doesn’t make an appearance. Yet, when Busch is staring at the rear bumper of Edwards’ No. 60, that becomes the big story and Busch makes it clear that he thinks the Fords are better.

A common theme it has become. Busch and Edwards have been the classic of rivals – see Bristol 2008 – and have had the classic of late race showdowns. See any race they’ve entered together. Losing to such rival isn’t easy to take, especially when battling for a championship.

Following Edwards win on Friday he closed the owner championship to three points with three races left in the season. The No. 18 for JGR currently leads.

Perhaps little solace to Busch is that Edwards in his Ford did not dominate the race. That would have been Brad Keselowski in his Dodge, who had it not been for a flat right rear tire, might have run away and won the race. It would have saved Busch the frustration of another Edwards win.

Instead Busch was left with his side of the story, Edwards and Rough theirs and even Keselowski’s. He wrote on his Twitter page Friday night, “As much as I hate to say it. The HP advantage Ford has wasn’t the reason why The 18 lost. Carl just executed on the last restart.”

43 to 1 Points System Would Be Perfect Without A Chase

By
SM Staff
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Brian France got something right for once this off season by implementing the 43 to 1 points system, but the system itself would be absolutely perfect if there were no dang Chase format. I have said it time and time again. NASCAR should not have a playoff system. Yes, NASCAR is a sport, but it’s a different type of athleticism. One person even asked me, “Why isn’t Major League Baseball using a Chase system?” Uhh…what? How would that work in baseball? The team with the most wins gets to skip a round in the playoffs? That sounds silly to me. And speaking of best teams…how far did the Phillies go in the playoffs? Yeah…they got knocked out of the first freaking round by the St. Louis Cardinals. Nope, no Chase system in baseball.

[media-credit name=”(c) CIA Stock Photo” align=”alignright” width=”246″][/media-credit]But think about it guys. Is it fair that we re-seed the points based off wins? The fans have been complaining time and time again that the Chase system only benefits Johnson. Well…you need to do some recalculating of the old system in order to figure out something is way different this year than in previous years. Jimmie Johnson had only won 1 race before the Chase begun. Heck, Johnson had won more races during his rookie season during this time and yet under the old system, Johnson is the points leader. The link that used to show the old points system got taken down, so I took it upon myself to figure it all out. I only calculated the top 30 cars since only 30 cars this season have participated in all of this seasons races thus far. Well, let’s take a look at how the season looks under the old system.

Following last week’s win, Jimmie Johnson has taken the lead in the points standings. Oh, crud….now the 48 haters want the Chase…just for this season though :P

NASCAR is becoming too politically correct. Who cares if the other drivers aren’t having a ‘fair’ chance at the championship. If they lose, they freaking lose! If they win, then they get the dang trophy at the end of the season. Do you remember those days when you played little league baseball or some other sport? For example, you got ice cream if you won the game, but if you lost you got absolutely nothing. Well in this case…we are trying to give everyone a fair share so they don’t look like losers in the points standings. Brian France said he wanted to create more, “Game 7 moments for NASCAR.” Uhm…excuse me Mr. France, but there is no such thing as a Game 7 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

Who cares if Johnson and Edwards are the only cars technically in the championship? They have been the two best cars this season, so that’s the way that it will be.

This is what the standings really look like as we head to Charlotte. Johnson going for his third title and Edwards going for his second.

1.Jimmie Johnson LEADER
2.Carl Edwards – 5
3.Kyle Busch -22
4.Kevin Harvick -26
5.Matt Kenseth -42
6.Jeff Gordon -64
7.Kurt Busch -70
8.Tony Stewart -111
9.Ryan Newman -115
10.Brad Keselowski -131
11.Dale Earnhardt Jr. – 142
12.Clint Bowyer – 193

TOYOTA NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) Post-Race Notes & Quotes Charlotte Motor Speedway

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Dodge Motorsports Notes & Quotes – Final Nationwide Race Quotes – Charlotte 2

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