Hoorahs and Wazzups: The Long And Winding Road
Over the previous weekend NASCAR temporarily changed its racing format and sent its Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series teams to road course venues. It was a long and winding road in each case. There were times when the road was bumpy, there were times when the cars spent more time moving dirt and gravel than actually driving on the road, and, oh yes, there was road rage. With those thoughts in mind, let’s begin this week with:
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[/media-credit]Hoorah to Reed Sorenson for winning the Bycyrus 200 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at the mammoth Road America in Elkhart Lake-Wisconsin. The Turner Motorsports/Dollar General Chevrolet driver only led the final lap of the race, in a very wild finish, to claim his fourth series win, his first of 2011 and his first NASCAR win since 2007. He also left Wisconsin as the series’ new points leader.
Wazzup with the bizarre, not to mention confusing, circumstances that placed Sorenson in the Road America victory lane?
The confusion began on lap 50, the scheduled final lap of the race, following a yellow flag restart from a single car spin on lap 46. Wazzup with road course ringer Jacques Villeneuve pulling a questionable, bonzai, move from his fourth starting position? The result was contact with Brian Scott who went sailing into a gravel pit. Max Papis, another road course ringer, wasn’t so fortunate. He went slamming nose first into a retaining wall. Scott and Papis, two potential major players to win this race, wound up finishing 16th and 23d respectively. After the race Scott displayed his displeasure with a rear bumper tap on Villeneuve’s car as it came down pit road. Papis pulled up alongside the Villeneuve car to state what had to be a rather unpleasant oppinion.
On the topic of opinions, Hoorah to Papis for a calm, but stern, radio comment after he was sent flying into the wall when he said: “sorry guys, I just knew the 22, (Villeneuve), was going to do something stupid.”
Wazzup with Michael McDowell literally giving away this race following the first green-white-checker restart? Driving the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, normally occupied by Kyle Busch, McDowell ripped off a beauty of a restart and appeared to be on the way to the win.only to spin out. Due to a very quick recovery, there was no caution flag following this spin.
But there was a caution flag that stemmed from a bottle neck accident that followed the McDowell spin involving four cars. Following this incident it was announced that driver Steve Wallace and his crew chief were going to be summoned to the NASCAR trailer after the race.
Wazzup with the lack of overall information, from the ESPN Network, following this incident? First off, the video replay was shot from a long distance away and it was virtually inconclusive regarding exactly what happened. The ESPN broadcast team did announce that Wallace and crew chief, Doug Randolph, had a post race appointment with NASCAR officials but never said exactly why. We later learned the meeting concerned aggressive driving by Wallace but by the time that was revealed, a full 24 hours had gone by.
ESPN has an outstanding reputation for accurate and timely reporting in any form of sports you could name. Why wasn’t one of their highly professional pit reporters dispatched to gather information regarding the Wallace incident? Let’s see, could it possibly have anything to do with the fact that the driver’s father-team owner was also an ESPN broadcast analyst who was sitting in the live booth at the time? Is it possible that his broadcast colleagues didn’t want to step on the toes of Rusty Wallace during a live broadcast?
By the way I swear that I heard a slight hissing sound in the audio background from the ESPN broadcast booth. I wondered if it was steam pouring out of Rusty Wallace’s ears. Well known for never holding back a candid comment and,in all fairness, it had to be difficult for a father-team owner-network analyst to have to sit there choosing his words very carefully.
Wazzup with the fact that we haven’t quite made it to the bizarre and confusing part of this race yet?
The green flag fell on lap 55 for the third, and final, green-white-checker attempt to finish this race. Justin Allgaier ripped off a perfect restart to take the lead. His team mate, Sorenson, passed road race ringer Ron Fellows for second and it appeared that Turner Motorsports was lining up a one-two finish.
Unfortunately, lap 55 never got completed before Aric Almirola and Michael McDowell spun in turn five followed by another spin from Brian Scott. Almirola’s car went into the turn five gravel pit. Wazzup with race officials not immediately throwing a yellow flag when they realized Almirola was stuck in that pit? The car was up to its axles in gravel and wasn’t going anywhere without the assistance of a wrecker. Yet, a full green flag lap, on a four mile road course, went by before the caution finally came out.
Under caution, Allgaier ran out of gas. The great debate from the NASCAR Nation was now on and it was centered around that extra lap of high speed, green flag, racing before a needed yellow flag appeared. If they caution flag would have come out, right after the lap 55 spin outs, would Allgaier have had enough fuel in the tank to slowly complete that final green-white-checker finish and win this race? Considering that many of the top ten contenders had to come to pit road for fuel under caution, the answer to that question is: “probably not.”
However, Allgaier deserves a Hoorah for a very gracious and articulate post race television interview despite the bitter disappointment he felt. Keep a sharp eye on this young driver race fans. In the years to come he’s going to be showing us a lot both on and off the track.
Meanwhile back on the long and winding road, Fellows, realizing that Allgaier was out of gas, roared around Sorenson’s car to seemingly take the lead. Wazzup with Fellows continuing to move at full speed despite the presence of a caution flag? He never slowed until the pace car picked him up to take command of the field.
At the time NASCAR officials stated that Fellows was the race leader due to Sorenson’s failure to maintain the minimum speed under the caution flag. By now the entire NASCAR Nation was sitting in front of their televisions sets screaming “Wazzup.”
Hoorah to NASCAR for deciding to err on the side of caution by double checking the elaborate video replay system located in their Race Control Center. That replay clearly showed a Road America official waving a yellow flag when Fellows passed Sorenson for the lead.
Sorenson was sent to victory lane and Fellows was credited for finishing second. It was a good move, and a good call, by NASCAR.
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Now let’s move on to the long and winding road part two: that would be the Toyota/Save Mart 350 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at the Infineon Raceway in California’s wine country.
Hoorah to Kurt Busch for an outstanding winning performance that led to his first win of the 2011 season and his first ever win on a road course. Busch’s Roger Penske/Shell-Pennzoil Dodge was dominant all day long and easily led a race high 76 laps.
It wasn’t that long ago that this winning driver was on a major tirade. He was frustrated by overall team performance and pulled no punches in delivering his thoughts on the matter that were often very loud, very angry and, in the case of in car radio transmissions, very foul mouthed.
Despite the often irritating, and embarrassing, impact of these tirades, team owner Roger Penske was listening carefully and made some personnel changes and job position changes. The result has been a complete turn around in performance that has generated some very impressive on track numbers in many major categories. These changes has also benefited their second team driven by Brad Keselowski. Hoorah for Roger Penske for looking past the tirades and realizing what needed to be done. Another Hoorah goes to Busch for admitting that it’s time for him to “shut up and drive.”
Wazzup with the road rage between Tony Stewart and Brian Vickers? It turned out to be a double dose of road rage that may not be resolved just yet. It started on lap 38 when Vickers locked up his brakes while making contact with cars in a tight pack. Meanwhile Kyle Busch slid off of turn 11, trying to pass Juan Pablo Montoya, and his efforts to get back on the asphalt kicked up a lot of dirt that obscured Vicker’s vision. Vickers checked up to avoid Busch and Stewart, believing that he was intentionally being blocked, got angry and dumped him.
Wazzup with “Road Rage 2: The Sequel” that occurred between these two drivers on lap 88? At virtually the same turn 11 location, Vickers found Stewart and dumped him. Stewart’s self owned Chevrolet spun backwards with the rear of the car landing on on a tire barrier located adjacent to the crash wall. That prompted a radio comment that said “I don’t think I can drive away from this one.”
Wazzup with the collateral damage that came from this double dose of road rage? Both of these drivers were looking at the strong possibility of top five finishes at a point in their season where a good finish was absolutely needed.
Wazzup with the innocent victims who found themselves becoming unwilling participants in this collateral damage? This is especially true of Dale Earnhardt Jr who found himself getting collected during the first Stewart-Vickers incident. A damaged radiator from that incident led to a major engine failure, which led to a 41st place finish and that led to a fall from third to seventh in the championship points standings.
Wazzup goes to the other acts of road rage during the Infineon race that may or may not resurface at a later date? This list includes Joey Logano vs Robby Gordon and Logano vs Matt Kenseth. Also making this list are Juan Pablo Montoya vs Kasey Kahne and Montoya vs Brad Keselowski. Each of these incidents were performed in the midst of race traffic which could have easily increased the collateral damage factor.
The final Wazzup goes to Roush Fenway Racing driver David Ragan for being penalized for having too many men over the wall during a pit stop. How does that happen during this modern day and age?
The final Hoorahs goes to Jeff Gordon and Carl Edwards for the where did they come from finishes. A heavy pre race favorite, because of his impressive Infineon stats, Gordon was a non factor in this race much of the day until the closing moments. Good pit adjustments allowed him to charge his way to a second place finish. It also moved him to ninth in the points standings.
Edwards was also a non factor much of the day. His team also found the right adjustments and he finished third while increasing his championship points lead to 25 over Kevin Harvick.
Edwards deserves another Hoorah for a Friday night decision not to perform double driving duty as originally planned. He was scheduled to compete in the Nationwide Series race in Wisconsin and then fly to California for the Sprint Cup event. But there were performance issues with the Cup car and Edwards felt the priority should be focused on California so he could take advantage of the two scheduled practice sessions on Saturday.
The decision turned to be a very smart move for two reasons: first, he had a strong finish and a good points day in California. Secondly, the Nationwide Series car departed the race early with oil pressure problems.
Surprising and Not Surprising: Infineon Toyota Save Mart 350
In a weekend filled with Merlot, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir in the California wine country, here is what was surprising and not surprising from the 23rd annual Toyota/Save Mart 350 Sprint Cup Series race at Infineon Raceway.
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[/media-credit]Surprising: Not known for his road racing prowess, the driver of the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge finally notched a road course victory. Kurt Busch did so in dominating fashion, taking the checkered flag and quickly resorting to his backwards victory lap around Infineon Raceway.
This was Busch’s 23rd Cup win, tying Ricky Rudd for 23rd on the all-time victory list. This was also Busch’s first win since his Coca Cola 600 victory in 2010, breaking a 38 race winless streak.
“It was an unbelievable set up,” Busch said. “Once we got into the groove with this car, it seemed to get better and better. My cars have never done that before.”
“That was an awesome handling Dodge,” Busch continued. “After what we’ve been through, we’ve been on a high these last few weeks.”
Not Surprising: Road courses often lead to road rages and Sonoma did not fail to deliver. Most drivers were mad at somebody, from Denny Hamlin being ticked at AJ Allmendinger , Joey Logano plowing through Robby Gordon, and Juan Pablo Montoya punting Kasey Kahne, as well as getting into it with Brad Keselowski.
But the ‘most mad in wine country’ award goes to Brian Vickers, driving the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota, and Tony Stewart, behind the wheel of the No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet. The trouble between the two started early in the race when Smoke leaned on Vickers so hard that he got turned, setting off a major melee.
Vickers, however, bided his time until late in the race and paid back Stewart in a major way. In fact, Vickers paid Stewart back so dramatically that the latter came to rest with his rear end elevated on one of the tire barriers, causing Stewart’s first ever DNF on a road course.
“I probably had it coming because I dumped him earlier,” Stewart said of his altercation with Vickers. “It was payback but I dumped him first because he was blocking.”
“I like Brian but I was complaining about how he’s been racing all year,” Smoke continued. “I don’t care if he was Ryan Newman, I would have dumped him too.”
“I’m not going to tolerate it,” Stewart said. “They block, they get dumped.”
“I don’t know why he did it,” Vickers said, explaining his side of the altercation. “I was trying to avoid the 18 (Kyle Busch) and Tony was the least of my concern.”
“He sowed his oats and he reaped them,” Vickers continued. “Stuff happens.”
Surprising: Instead of flitting hither and yon, Carl Edwards surprisingly proved his total focus on the championship by not only forgoing running in the Nationwide race this weekend but by also slugging his way to a third place finish.
“We were lucky,” Edwards said. “Everything went our way today.”
“I stayed here for practice,” Edwards continued. “And it all came together for a third place finish, which is great for our points.”
Edwards, this week piloting the No. 99 Scotts Ortho Ford, posted his third top-10 finish in seven races at Infineon. He also maintained his lead in the Chase standings, now 25 points over second place Kevin Harvick.
Not Surprising: In a weekend marked by coming home, celebrating his daughter’s birthday and premiering his appearance as ‘Jeff Gorvette’ in the Cars 2 movie, it was not surprising to see four-time champion Jeff Gordon finish in the runner up position at one of his most loved race tracks.
The driver of the No. 24 Dupont Chevrolet notched his 15th top-10 finish in 19 races at Infineon. It is also Gordon’s sixth top-10 finish in 2011, putting him solidly in Chase contention in the ninth spot in points.
“It was a struggle,” Gordon admitted. “We really missed the set up at the beginning of this race.”
“Our car was fast at the end and that felt awesome,” Gordon continued. “To work our way up to second, man, that was amazing.”
Surprising: For one driver who absolutely abhors road course races, deeming Sonoma “one of my worst tracks,” the race actually did not turn out so badly. Matt Kenseth, behind the wheel of the No. 17 Crown Royal Ford, finished in the top-15.
Kenseth and his crew chief Jimmy Fennig brought a brand new car to Sonoma, having shaken it down last month at Road America. Kenseth definitely bettered his average finishing position of 22.2 at Sonoma in the past.
Not Surprising: Unfortunately for Junior nation, their favorite but self-admitted road course hater, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., had reason to continue his bad attitude. The driver of the No. 88 scored his second DNF since October 2009, officially finishing 41st.
“We was just out there running around and we got part of it,” Junior said, referencing the altercation between Tony Stewart and Brian Vickers on Lap 38. “It banged up the nose and knocked a hole in the radiator.”
Junior’s engine did indeed expire from the hole in the radiator, which drained the water and caused the engine to blow. Junior also fell from third to seventh in points as a result of his Sonoma woes.
“I’m not a big fan of the place,” Junior said. “Maybe one of these days.”
Surprising: One of the Cup drivers not often mentioned in the front of the pack was surprisingly a factor in the latter stages of the Toyota/Save Mart 350. David Gilliland, driver of the No. 34 Taco Bell Ford finished 12th.
“I am really proud of our team today,” Gilliland said. “We had an issue with second gear toward the end of the race there, so we lost a few spots, but I had a lot of fun running up front all day.”
“I asked the guys on the radio during the race if there was an award for passing the most cars ‘cause, man, it sure seemed like I was passing cars all day,” Gilliland continued. “It was a great day for our team.”
Not Surprising: After the gaffe heard round the racing world last year at Infineon when Marcos Ambrose shut off his engine and lost the lead, the driver of the No. 9 Stanley Ford Fusion redeemed himself, finishing fifth.
“I am so proud of my Stanley car and my Stanley team to get a top five out of what could have been a very tough day for me,” Ambrose said. “I want to thank Stanley for putting me in the car and believing in me.”
The Final Word – Kurt Busch and other boys who have spent time in the dog house
We fans are funny folks. We like who we like, we don’t who we don’t, and once we don’t, it could take years, if ever, for us to change our minds. In a sport where popularity and merchandise sales mean almost as much as the racing, it is a big deal.
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[/media-credit]Take Kurt Busch, for example. He dominated things at Sonoma this past Sunday from start to finish to claim his first road course victory. Busch has won 23 Cup races, at least one in each of the past ten seasons, and claimed the season crown in 2004. Still, he is on no one’s list as being among the top ten most popular or highest paid drivers. Why? Well, you would have to go back to August, 2003 for the answer to that.
The then 25 year old was mouthy and cocky back in the day, but that doesn’t really hurt one in the popularity game. Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick, and the late Dale Earnhardt all came out of the same mold, and have been embraced by those who shell out the dollars on trinkets. No, what Busch did was push Jimmy Spencer’s buttons, got punched in the head for his trouble, then became what some might refer to as a “whiney tit”, claiming his innocence while keeping a few of the facts under wraps. Spencer got suspended for the next race at Bristol, a race Busch won, and immediately he got the reaction he has been trying to live down ever since. The rule is, if you are a jerk, you also better be a man.
Kurt has been doing his best to change his image ever since. Sadly, being a jerk was good, as being a nice guy has cost him tons of charisma. All he needed to do was quit being a weasel, which it appears he has also done. Now, if only his brother Kyle can learn that same lesson, and quick.
Kyle is good, damn good. He wins, he struts, he pushes the envelop out on the track. However, when it came time to start paying the piper, like when Kevin Harvick laid down the gauntlet or when 65-year old Richard Childress decided to play the role of Kyle’s Jimmy Spencer, the younger Busch seemed at a loss as to why, oh why, people would treat him so unfairly. Maybe Childress did, and I don’t think his reaction to these incidents has hurt him much yet, but it could. The lads needs to begin reacting to these challenges with a lot more panache than he has to date.
Danny Hamlin is one of NASCAR’s most popular drivers. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why. The boy is moody, a bit of a whiner, and makes the mistake of complaining about fellow drivers more popular than he is. Then again, maybe it is just me. Others seem to like him, and with 17 wins in less than 5-1/2 seasons, well, winning helps. Just ask Kyle.
Then there is Brian Vickers. I liked Vickers as a Nationwide driver, but his fall from grace probably stems from the fall race at Talladega in 2006. He made a pass, clipped Jimmie Johnson who in turn took out Dale Earnhardt Jr. Then the boy celebrated in Victory Lane as though he truly had accomplished something. Not good. Then last Sunday, he gets taken out by Tony Stewart, who he in turn purposely punts into oblivion in the late stages of that race in revenge. They put a microphone in front of his face and…well, he gave a mature, reasoned response. No whining, no protests of innocence, but rather a reasoned explanation of what took place, from his point of view. He came across as, dare I say it, manly.
So, after nearly five years, is Vickers back in my good books? I will have a better idea this weekend when the action resumes in Daytona to see how I feel. I probably won’t be buying any Red Bull merchandise at the moment, then again, from what I hear that stuff could be bound for the closet soon anyway. Enjoy the week.
Marco Andretti Puts Andretti Autosport Back on Track with Win at Iowa
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Last Saturday, Marco Andretti won the Corn Indy 250 presented by Pioneer at Iowa Speedway on June 25th, 0.7932 seconds over Tony Kanaan.
“It was a big win for us for sure,” team owner Michael Andretti said. “I think a lot of people were really pounding on us and thought we were down and out, but I can tell you this team has got tons of fight in it and we are never out.”
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This year has been a different story as they won earlier this season with Mike Conway and now with Andretti.
“I’m happy for all the Venom guys; they did a great job,” Michael Andretti continued. “The last pit stop they brought him out P1. They did it when we needed it. It was just really truly a team effort, and Marco drove a hell of a race there in the end. He was beating the best. He had Tony out there, he had Dario, (Scott) Dixon and he drove very well there in the end.
“I’m just so happy and relieved for (Marco). There’s been a huge monkey on his back, and it was on mine, as well. There was just a lot of pressure on us, him as a driver, me as an owner, because of some of the past things that happened at Indy and stuff. So to come back and win like this, it was just a great, great day.”
Nine races into the year, Andretti Autosports’ four drivers Danica Patrick, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Conway and Andretti have scored four top-fives and 12 top-10 finishes. While Andretti won the Iowa race, Patrick posted her third consecutive top 10 after starting on the front row while Hunter-Reay finished eighth.
Meanwhile, for Andretti, the win marked Andretti’s first win since Infineon Raceway in 2006 (stretching 78-races).
“We’ve been in a position to win a lot of races and we’ve come up short,” Andretti said. “I never doubted the team, never doubted myself. I always said as soon as the stars were aligned and a little bit of luck goes my way that we’d be sitting here.
“I think it’s just the drought, so to speak, just made me appreciate what we have here in IndyCar racing. From the drivers to the teams, it just makes us appreciate being here that much more because we know we beat those guys. The competition is unbelievable.”
TNT’s Embarrassment To The Sport Coverage Needs To Go
As I sat down ready to watch some of the road course action at Sonoma this past weekend, I was looking forward to a solid race where I could see the action. No doubt the action was heated on track with the feuds, though the coverage took away from that greatly.
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[/media-credit]For starters, how much coverage was actually shown? Every seven minutes or so, it looked as though they were going to commercial. The statistics show that that there were 143 minutes of the race shown with 52 minutes of commercial. That works out to 26% of the race being commercials, instead of racing action. For the race at Michigan, it was 22% while Pocono was 27% commercials.
Of course, if you look back to FOX’s final race at Kansas where there were 52 minutes of commercials equaling 27% of the broadcast, I guess you could say that they’re on par.
Though even if they’re on par, they’re not doing a good job. FOX was good at showing different angles, keeping fans informed with what’s going on with a bunch of drivers and giving you the full recap of a wreck.
For the big wreck down in turn 11, TNT showed multiple angles of the wreck to show how Brian Vickers got shoved in there by Tony Stewart. However, the only damage they showed was the damage to Vickers. What about Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kevin Harvick who were in that mess? We heard them say at the end how Harvick came back from the incident to finish well. How much do we know of that comeback when you don’t show each car involved with their damage? Then, when Earnhardt Jr.’s motor blows up later in the race, how are we to know that’s caused by the front end damage when we didn’t see how serious it looked?
TNT missed opportunities to report nuggets during the race that should’ve been discussed, including issues for points leader Carl Edwards. While watching the race, it was twitter first where I heard of Edwards having a crushed quarter panel and it causing him issues. Meanwhile, TNT was more focused on Kurt Busch and his lead and whether or not he could be caught.
Speaking of the lead, how many times did they come back just after a pass for the lead had been made? Or how many pit stops did they miss? There’s some key story lines right there as they help in telling the story of how the race is going to play out.
NASCAR keeps wondering why fans complain about the race coverage on TV and are turning away from watching it. They can’t be losing fans because of the racing action as any fan will tell you that Sunday is exciting. So until either TNT fixes their errors or NASCAR drops them off the wagon, the trend of losing fans is going to keep happening.
If you want an example of what coverage should look like, watch an IZOD IndyCar race as their coverage was beautifully put together and might I add, I got to see lots of action while knowing all the top story lines.
ARCA Winchester News and Notes: Venturini Motorsports, Tom Hessert and More
While the race was won by Dakoda Armstrong, a bunch of other drivers came home with solid finishes to be proud of.
This year, Venturini Motorsports has made it a habit of finishing in the top 10 with a variety of drivers. The latest driver to add his name to the list is Ryan Blaney.
Blaney drove the team’s No.25 Lauren Briant/Venturini Motorsports Chevrolet to a sixth place finish after suffering a flat right front tire on lap 162 in his ARCA debut.
“We were trying to take it easy in the race, just trying to save our stuff,” Blaney said, after leading 154 of the first 161 laps. “I think if we could have had 10 more laps after we blew a tire, we could have passed Ty for the lead and then we would have been one lap down and got that caution and been in business. It just wasn’t meant to be.
“I ran the same line I did 50 laps in a row. I was just taking it so easy, especially to help that right front and to keep it from doing what it did. I don’t know if our camber was off or what. But it was a great night. I’ve got to thank Venturini for letting me run this car and making it as good as it was. We’ll get ‘em next time.”
The son of NASCAR veteran Dave Blaney is hoping that he can make some more starts this season.
“It’s great to race in the ARCA (Racing) Series,” Blaney said. “There are really good guys racing, especially here, a place like Winchester.”
Venturini Motorsports also debuted John Blankenship, who finished 10th in the No. 55 Chevrolet, meaning that so far this year Venturini has 11 top 10s with nine different drivers.
Meanwhile, finishing fifth in front of Blaney was Tom Hessert, who was proud to impress numerous guests from Federated Auto Parts, who were on hand as the race’s sponsor.
“The guys in the pits did a really good job of getting us back out,” he said. “We didn’t have the best car; we had a couple issues that were keeping us from being better, but it was a good top-five for the Federated car at a Federated race. It’s good to have a good showing for them. It’s too bad we couldn’t get a win, but in a couple weeks we’ll go to Berlin and we always run really well there.”
For points leader Ty Dillon, it was also a solid day for him as he still finished fouth to pad his points lead despite bottoming out lap in the race.
“It’s unfortunate,” Dillon said. “It doesn’t happen to us often, but it’s still a good points day. We qualified well and led a couple of laps. I’m happy. I just like winning, so it’s a little disappointing to lead laps there at the end of the race and fall off so bad. We saved our stuff all day and rode and were hoping for what happened to happen, for guys to wear their stuff out and us be patient as usual to let the race come to us, but something happened there and we just got too loose.”
The next race for ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards is July 9th at Berlin Raceway.
