Dave Rogers Named The WYPALL* Wipers Crew Chief of the Race in Richmond
Roswell, GA (May 4, 2011) – Dave Rogers, crew chief for the No. 18 M&M’s Pretzel Toyota Camry driven by Kyle Busch has been named the WYPALL* Wipers Crew Chief of the Race following Saturday night’s Crown Royal 400 at Richmond International Raceway (RIR).
With the team’s final pit stop on lap 293 of the 400-lap race, knew Busch would have to conserve fuel to make it to race’s conclusion. In the final laps Rogers reminded his driver to save on fuel, while also keeping Denny Hamlin in his rear view mirror and away from the lead. Running on fumes, Busch took the checkered flag, conducted his routine burnout and then proceeded to run out of gas.
After starting 20th, Busch maneuvered his way up to the front and dominated the race, thanks to a flawless car and incredible pit stops. He led a race-high 235 laps.
“It was important to save fuel there under the last caution since it was so long,” said Busch, who joins Richard Petty as the only driver to win three straight spring Cup races at RIR. “That probably saved us. Thankfully, it played out that way and I saved just enough.”
“Dave Rogers Led the M&M’s Pretzel team in getting the car prepared correctly, nailing the set up with the challenges of the new tire that Goodyear brought,” said WYPALL Wipers crew chief representative and Sirius NASCAR Radio host Claire B. Lang. “He led the team to fast, consistent pit stops and his fuel strategy down the stretch and encouragement to his driver to save gas, capped off a dominating performance by his driver and team which resulted in the win.”
WYPALL Wipers Crew Chief Results
Steve Addington, Kurt Busch and the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil team finished 22nd after fighting an ill-handling car all night. The Addington-led crew made multiple adjustments to the car, but to no avail.
“We probably had the strongest car running laps down at the end, but when you get more than one lap down, your day is pretty much done,” said Busch. “That was certainly the case for us here tonight. We just weren’t very good tonight.”
Paul Wolfe and the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge of Brad Keselowski started seventh, their best qualifying position all season. But a tight-handling condition and a late race incident caused them to finish a disappointing 36th.
“We had an awesome Miller Lite Dodge on short runs all night, but not on the long runs and that’s what we faced the first half of the race,” said Keselowski. “You’ve got to have a car that does both and we just didn’t have it tonight. Coming into the race, we felt we could run strong and we did. We qualified well and did well on short runs, but we were way off on the long-run stuff.”
WYPALL Wipers Crew Chief Voting Team
Addington and Wolfe, along with Hammond and Sirius NASCAR Radio’s Claire B. Lang, serve as the panel for the WYPALL Wipers Crew Chief Challenge and vote for the weekly crew chief winners.
Each weekly WYPALL Crew Chief Challenge winner will be a guest on Lang’s “Dialed In” program on Sirius NASCAR Radio Channel 128 at 8 p.m. EST on Wednesdays throughout the season.
The crew chief with the most weekly top wins will be honored as the WYPALL Wipers Crew Chief of the Year and will be presented a $10,000 check during the weekend of the WYPALL 200 Presented by Kimberly-Clark Professional Nationwide Series race at Phoenix International Raceway on Saturday, November 12, 2011.
About WYPALL Wipers:
Since 2004, Kimberly-Clark Professional’s WYPALL Wipers brand has been affiliated with some of racing’s top teams. Offering heavy-duty to versatile light-duty towels, WYPALL Wipers provides race teams with a number of products providing strength and durability. Defeating the toughest of challenges, from absorbing tough grease and oil to wiping down windshields without leaving residue behind, WYPALL Wipers continue to offer performance and versatility.
The WYPALL Wipers Crew Chief Challenge will continue throughout the remainder of the 2011 season and spotlight the men behind the machines. For more information, log onto www.wypall.com.
About Penske Racing
Penske Racing is one of the most successful teams in the history of professional sports. Competing in a variety of disciplines, cars owned and prepared by Penske Racing have produced 332 major race wins, 396 pole positions and 23 National Championships. The team has also earned 15 Indianapolis 500 victories. For more information about Penske Racing, please visit www.penskeracing.com.
Jeff Gordon’s Mother Approaches Darlington Race With Pride
This weekend, prior to the Showtime Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, the time-honored tradition of giving the command to start engines will once again be afforded to the NASCAR moms in honor of Mother’s Day.
[media-credit name=”sp.ask.com” align=”alignright” width=”106″]
[/media-credit]Amongst the group again this year will be Carol Bickford, four-time NASCAR champion Jeff Gordon’s mother. And there is just one word that she has to sum up her feelings about her son this Mother’s Day, proud.
“We always go to Darlington and we do the little Mother’s Day ‘Sons start your engines’ thing,” Bickford said. “Then we get introduced with our sons.”
“And I get to see some of the other mothers that I’ve met over the years,” Bickford continued. “That’s always nice to catch up. We do it once a year and it’s really fun, as well as a proud moment.”
For Carol Bickford, being the mother of one of NASCAR’s brightest stars has most certainly had it joys, as well as challenges. But it has been a journey that Bickford will always treasure.
“It’s been fun,” Bickford said. “It’s been interesting. It’s been filled with a lot of pride and some great moments. Some not so great moments sometimes, but that’s all part of life.”
“I think that every parent is faced with some big challenges in raising children, period,” Bickford continued philosophically. “It’s one of the greatest challenges that I think a parent can have is raising their children. Your biggest joy is to know that they turn out happy, successful in any direction that they go, and that they turn out to be good people.”
Bickford and her husband John, who will celebrate their 38th wedding anniversary after Mother’s Day, knew early on that their son Jeff Gordon would have a career in racing.
“Very early on, we knew that Jeff would be interested in racing,” Bickford said. “John, his step-father, has been a very big part of our lives for a good many years. He saw something in Jeff, the hand eye coordination type thing.”
“Jeff would play Atari video games and he was riding a two-wheel bike without training wheels at three years old,” Bickford continued. “That takes a lot of coordination.”
“Then he was racing BMX bikes when he was four years old and then we got into the quarter midget racing when he was four and a half,” Bickford said. “Jeff started going to the driving school at that time too. So, we knew pretty early on.”
While Bickford and her family did not have a racing connection when she was growing up, Bickford caught the racing bug herself in an unusual way.
“When I was growing up, my family wasn’t involved in racing but my father used to work for Continental Baking Company and he used to deliver hot dog and hamburger buns to Vallejo Speedway,” Bickford said. “Every Saturday night if they ran out of hot dog and hamburger buns, they always called him and I always wanted to go out there with him. I don’t know what the fascination was but I was probably ten or twelve years old at the time.”
While Bickford has always loved racing, she never quite felt the urge to get behind the wheel herself.
“The only thing I’ve ever done is drive a quarter midget with Jeff when we were teaching him how to set up and pass,” Bickford said. “I have no desire to drive but it’s fascinating to watch.”
Bickford still gets to the track as often as she can and, if she is not there in person, she is glued to her television set watching her son compete.
“These days, I don’t get to the track nearly as much as I used to a few years ago,” Bickford said. “There are still two race tracks that I’ve never been to, Fontana and Chicago.”
“But I’ve been to every other race track on the circuit many, many times,” Bickford continued. “I’m able to pick and choose the races and Jeff is understanding about that fact.”
Gordon’s mom did not miss watching the Crown Royal presents the Matthew and Daniel Hansen 400 this past weekend at Richmond either. Unfortunately, she had to see her son’s good run ruined by a wickedly hard crash into a non-safer barrier wall.
“He was having a very good night when unfortunately that happened,” Bickford said. “He got out of the car right away and I knew he was OK.”
“It just comes along with any sport,” Bickford continued. “If you focus on everything that can go wrong, you’ll drive yourself crazy.”
While she did not get to experience it this weekend, one of her biggest thrills as a mother is being in Victory Lane with her son.
“It’s wonderful!” Bickford said. “It’s the best feeling there is.”
“They are very proud moments and very happy moments when you’re fortunate enough to be standing in that position,” Bickford continued. “It’s a great feeling.”
But there is no better feeling, according to Bickford, than getting that phone call on Mother’s Day from her children.
“I won’t go into anything else they give me, but the phone call from all my children is the thing that makes me happiest,” Bickford said.
How will Carol Bickford feel this Mother’s Day when she not only gets those phone calls from her children but also gives the command for her son to start the engine on the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet? She sums it up in one word.
“Proud,” Bickford said simply. “I’m proud not just for what Jeff’s done on the race track or with his career but for what he’s done with his life.”
“Watching Jeff with his wife and his family and how he’s grown and matured,” Bickford continued. “There is just a very big sense of pride.”
Can Strong Richmond Showing Help Nationwide Regulars Finally Gain on Cup Drivers?
Maybe it was because there were only four Sprint Cup Series drivers in the field or was it because Kyle Busch was nowhere to be seen? Perhaps as many are hoping, the tides have finally started to turn.
[media-credit name=”Barry Albert” align=”alignright” width=”251″]
[/media-credit]Whatever it may be the Nationwide Series race at Richmond International Raceway on Friday night finally lived up to some of its potential. A recurring headline and/or nightmare over the last few years have been the dominance of NSCS drivers in the minor leagues of the NNS and Camping World Trucks.
Even more so after NASCAR announced the new point format with many stating before the season the new NNS champion would be winless.
Thus far in 2011 of the eight NNS races run heading into RIR a Cup drivers has won all of them. The previously mentioned Busch has won four of those eight. Leaving the Nationwide regulars trying to prove their worth and give the fans a reason to watch.
Friday night was a small step in the right direction when early on they looked like they were going to gang up on the Cup drivers.
Sure, Denny Hamlin dominated the event leading 199 of 251 laps on his way to the win, making it nine-for-nine for Cup driver. Sure, there was also the fact that with less than 20 laps to go only four cars were on the lead lap. But as a whole the racing was marginally better than what had been seen with Cup drivers not only dominating the racing but the finishing order.
The crowd was electrified early when Kenny Wallace made an exciting charge to the second position. Wallace has always been a fan favorite but since his last win in 2001 he’s become more of the lovable loser. In 2011 competing with RAB Racing and pairing with Scott Zipadelli has Wallace knocking on the door to victory lane.
Wallace, though, was sick after the race.
“I’m just completely devastated,” said Wallace, “To run second to fourth all night long and to finish 13th. I’m just really disappointed, you know. We made a mistake — we pitted too early and had to go to the tail end of the longest line. Made a mistake, so I guess we went from third to 13th. It doesn’t feel good. It’s devastating. I’m demoralized.”
Wallace wasn’t the only NNS driver who made a charge early. The turnaround for Ricky Stenhouse Jr. continued on Friday as he took got as high as second but couldn’t catch Hamlin. Aric Almirola on the other hand was able to drive to the lead in his No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet. It’s not often a NNS regular is able to drive up and take the lead from a Cup driver but Almirola did on Friday.
If confidence is really all drivers crack it up to be, Friday should have been a big kick in the pants for drivers like Wallace, Stenhouse Jr. and Almirola. The will to win should have become stronger and not earning finishes they deserved because of late race hi-jinx and fuel mileage will hopefully push them forward.
The ending may have been the same but the atmosphere was different. What a difference when there’s no “Kyle Busch Show” as its become known. In all fairness it can’t completely be blamed on Busch, Richmond just happened to be a NNS event not on his calendar.
It will be interesting to see if the same type of competiveness in Richmond carries over into Darlington with Busch back behind the wheel. There are currently seven Cup drivers entered in Friday night’s Royal Purple 200 at Darlington. It will be a great test to see if the racing really is changing and if the NNS regulars are becoming frustrated with Cup dominance.
A few weeks ago Justin Allgaier said that he believed NNS drivers were ‘taking it easy’ early on in the season. The reason was that they are still trying to get used and see how the new point system was going to work itself it out.
Are they done playing it safe and ready to push the limits? Friday night certainly looked so. According to Stenhouse Jr., racing Cup drivers makes everyone in the field up their game and race harder. Yet, it didn’t really seem to show until Friday night in Richmond, the season’s ninth race.
Or maybe it’s just wishful thinking. A figment of one’s imagination in hopes that potentially different racing will lead to different winners.
