Ryan Newman Schools Students in the Name of Science and Technology
Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 Haas Automation Chevrolet for Stewart Haas Racing and a Purdue engineering grad, took some time away from the big track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend to school some science, technology, engineering and math high school students in the art of remote control car racing.
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[/media-credit]Newman spanked the field of students with his remote control race car on a small track set up in the Neon Garage at the Speedway, all for the sake of furthering their education. The students were part of a new NASCAR partnership called Ten80 Education’s Student Racing Challenge.
“I just really like the fact that it’s hands on,” Newman said of the Ten80 program. “There is a time to study, a time to read, and a time to apply all of those things to a piece of paper.”
“But when you take the opportunity to do it hands on, as a group, you become a better team,” Newman continued. “Doing what they are doing with the ten scale cars is something that I did when I was their age.”
“I had remote control cars,” Newman said. “I rebuilt them and tried to make them go faster too. I”m proud to represent the engineering group of the whole program, understanding the math and the physics and the science of it.”
“It’s extremely important not just if they want to be involved in NASCAR but whatever else they want to do in their lives,” Newman said. “Racing a ten scale, remote control car will have an impact on the rest of their career, the rest of their lives and the rest of their professions.”
Bobby Hutchins, Director of Competition at Stewart-Haas Racing, could not agree more with Newman.
“Just seeing the enthusiasm on the students’ faces as we were out there talking with them was great,” Hutchins said. “We talked to them about there being jobs in our sport for engineering and technology people.”
“I gave them a goal, to get through school, go to college and hopefully they can build their resumes and we can hire some of these kids into our race teams,” Hutchins said. “That’s a dream and a goal that Ryan and I had when we were kids a long time ago and we weren’t fortunate enough to have a program like Ten80.”
“I hope these kids can come into our world.”
The Racing Challenge uses a NASCAR-themed curriculum for students from grades six to twelve, simulating how big league race teams prepare for competition. In order to compete in the Ten80 Challenge, students had to build their own remote control race cars, similar to what their NASCAR counterpoints have to do every weekend with their stock cars.
“We’re very exited about the partnership that we’ve just engaged in with Ten80 Education,” Jjim Obermeyer, NASCAR Managing Director of Brand and Consumer Marketing, said. “This is a partnership that helps NASCAR and Ten80 have success in getting into the schools to teach science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).”
“The program itself uses remote control cars at one tenth ratio to the cars that we have on track that allow for a lot of the setups with down force and camber set up the same way our teams participate,” Obermeyer continued. “We felt this was a great way to introduce ourselves into the schools in a way that separates us from all the other leagues in sports. This helps teach a much-needed territory for our youth today.”
Teri Stripling, President of Ten 80 Education, shared that the most important part of the program is the creation of heroes.
“The math and science concepts that students are learning all over the country, everyone single one of them is illustrated in NASCAR every week,” Stripling said.”When the cars are out on the track, the students can look out and see engineers on war wagons, looking at data and making decisions. From an engineering perspective that is very exciting and creates a bunch of heroes for engineers.”
Stripling also likened her progrm to the little league, creating a career ladder to the big league of NASCAR.
“So if NASCAR is the big leagues, Ten80 is the little leagues, Stripling said. “NASCAR makes sense to get students interested in science, technology, engineering and technology.”
The most eloquent spokesperson for the Ten80 program, however, was Kiera Fischer, a junior from Legacy High School right in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“NASCAR is something that I enjoy dearly and I’ve been a huge fan,” Fischer said. “When I found out my school was going to participate in Ten80, I was so excited that we would get to be involved with NASCAR.”
“We got to build our own cars and we act like our own little pit crew,” Fischer continued. “We design our cars to run on different tracks and see what is the best. It allows us to work on our cars in a way that is much more fun than a textbook.”
Fischer’s teacher got her into the Ten80 program and she was most excited to be able to build her car with her team and race against one of her racing idols Ryan Newman.
“Unfortunately we lost,” Fischer said. “But we’re hoping to get this thing going and next year, win.”
“NASCAR is definitely where I want to be,” Fischer said. “My dream is to own my own race team.”
And thanks to Ryan Newman, Fischer along with many of her other Ten80 compatriots, will no doubt have the opportunity to learn, grown and ultimately realize their own NASCAR dreams.
The Fastest Car Doesn’t Always Win, Tony
After seeing Tony Stewart’s disgust at not winning the Kobalt 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, I had to wonder if this was the same two-time champion that has 426 starts in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Surely he knows that the fastest car doesn’t always win. I can give him four arguments for this in the year 2011.
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[/media-credit]The fastest car in the 2011 Daytona 500 was probably not Trevor Bayne. Daytona is such an aberration of a race that anyone could win, but judging by time trials, you could argue that Dale Earnhardt, Jr. or even Jeff Gordon had the fastest cars. They didn’t win. Trevor Bayne did.
The fastest car at Phoenix last week was probably Carl Edwards. Edwards had problems early. Edwards didn’t win. Jeff Gordon won. He wasn’t the fastest car. And let us not forget the Nationwide Series race at LVMS on Saturday. Mark Martin was not the fastest car, but he won and even said it didn’t make any difference anyway. He had the trophy.
I appreciate Tony’s will to win, and I can almost understand when, in post-race comments, he said second place “sucked”. That’s a trait of winners. I remember one old racer telling anyone who would listen to him that second place was just the first loser. That may be true, but it sure beats where one of the fastest cars in the field, the No. 16 of Greg Biffle finished. Some days the fastest don’t win.
I also heard Tony say he gave the race away. Hardly. Pit strategy has always been a part of our sport. It was simply a case of Bob Osborne making a better move than Darian Grubb. It happens. the fastest car doesn’t always win. And who could tell who the fastest car was anyway? ONce a car got into clean air, it took off, so let’s just say the fastest car did win. At the time.
Maybe it’s this new point system that has given these drivers the push to win at any cost. Maybe it’s the fragile business environment that teams face these days. Keeping a sponsor is paramount now. Whatever it is, I do hope it continues. I want to see a win as the ultimate thing to do on Sprint Cup race day. No more riding around for points. For too long, we’ve forgotten that fans come out to the track to see who wins, not how many points they accumulated on that day. Let’s continue that trend.
CARL’S ROLL
There is no doubt that Carl Edwards in on a roll these days. He’s won three of the last five Sprint Cup races (going back to the last two races of 2010), finished second at Daytona, and has run up front in all his Nationwide Series races. Now, he heads to Bristol Motor Speedway in two weeks, a track where he has been known to run very well. In fact, all the Fords are running up front (when they don’t break or have a problem), so the competition for the championship this year should be more lively. As it stands now, five-time champ Jimmie Johnson is12th, 26 points behind, Jeff Gordon is 19th, 39 points down, and Kevin Harvick is 20th, 42 points down. Before you talk about how close that is, remember the point deficit is the number of positions on the track the driver has to make up in a given race to tie the points leader. Or you might just multiply the deficit by 4 or 5 points to give you a better idea compared to the former point system. Of course, it’s too early to start counting points, but through three races, it does seem that a change in who is going to lead the points in the regular season is here. We’ll see.
KUDOS TO MARCOS AMBROSE AND JUNIOR
With all the troubles a lot of top drivers had this weekend, kudos must go out to Marcos Ambrose, driver of the No. 9 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Ambrose was fast all weekend and Earnhardt came in slow and was very quick at the end of the race. Ambrose finished fourth and Earnhardt eighth. It proves that Richard Petty Motorsports is on its way to being really competitive again with Ambrose at the controls, but it also shows that Earnhardt is making progress toward turning around a career. I congratulate both and hope it continues.
Viva Las Vegas!
Viva Las Vegas! Sunday was a strong showing by the Sprint Cup boys. It wasn’t spectacular. It wasn’t boring. It was steady and strong racing. There were surprises. There were finishes that were expected. But the biggest surprise was probably the strong and dominating performance by two time series champion, Tony Stewart.
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[/media-credit]Going into the day, the odds on favorite was Matt Kenseth whose record setting qualifying lap was followed up by blistering fast practice speeds. Virtually all of the odds makers chose drivers of blue ovals to dominate and win the race.
When the green flag dropped nothing could have been further from the truth. A Chevy bowtie lead the way for 163 laps with Tony Stewart showing the prowess he is known for in the cockpit of about anything with wheels. But a pit stop mistake, when an air hose curled, causing him to remove equipment from the pit box and then a late race 4 tire change would relegate the champ to a 2nd place finish.
Carl Edwards was lurking. All day long he was lurking. He showed strength and speed at times but never quite showed his hand. He stayed just close enough to stay in touch with the leader. He could see him. He could watch him. He was at times faster than him. But he was bidding his time. When the final stop came, it was a two tire change and one can of fuel that would put Carl out in the lead by almost 2 seconds over the then 3rd place Stewart.
Stewart would close but ultimately finish 1.24 seconds behind Edwards and his Scotts Ford Fusion. “The key to winning today was my team,” Edwards said. “These guys are unbelievable. It means a lot coming off Phoenix. I went home last week and didn’t know how things were going to go. You don’t get a good race car like that often. We had another one today.”
A very disappointed Tony Stewart said, “We just gave it away,” he said. “We shot ourselves in the foot two weeks in a row.”
Other surprises included a fiery explosion of an engine by Kyle Busch taking him out of contention on lap 108. A blown right front tire that ended last weeks winner Jeff Gordon’s day at lap 193. Neither driver was injured.
Notable performances belonged to Marcos Ambrose who finished 4th in his Richard Petty Motorsports Stanley Tools Ford; a strong finish and the first top 5 for the Australian born driver on an oval race track.
In 10th was possibly the feel good story of the day, Brian Vickers. After having to lay off most of last year with blood clots and heart surgery, Vickers finished a strong 10th.
Once again, the National Guard Chevrolet of Dale Earnhardt Jr. turned in a very strong and promising performance. After starting the race in the 30th position, Earnhardt Jr. rallied to an 8th place finish and showed signs of breaking out of the slump that has claimed him since June of 2008. Earnhardt Jr., who hadn’t posted back to back top 10 finishes since July of 2010, stated his run was the first time in a long time in which he felt he could “beat the guys I was around.” It boosted his confidence – an often discussed subject for Earnhardt Jr. – and he admitted thinking that his relationship with Letarte was somewhat of a last chance.
“Failure at this point is completely unacceptable,” he said. “I’ve got to put it all out on the line to make this work, because if it don’t work with him, I’ve got nowhere else to go. I’ve got no other options, really – other than to race myself into oblivion with my own team and Tony Jr and them guys.”
“I want this to work. I want to race Cup. I want to be in the COT the rest of my career, and I want to be successful.”
The glitz and glamor of Vegas gives way to a week off for the Sprint Cup teams. And maybe it’s a good thing for some to get their tempers under control before they enter the grand coliseum of racing at Bristol. I am of course referring to the altercation between Robby Gordon and Kevin Conway. The altercation it is believed came about as a result of tensions caused by financial lawsuits on both coasts involving Gordon, Conway and Conway’s sponsor Extenze. Witness’ say the tension came to ahead Friday afternoon in the garage when Robby and Kevin came to blows physically. Although the stories vary in what actually occurred, the one thing for certain is that Conway filed a criminal complaint following the altercation and went to NASCAR. NASCAR immediately took action putting Robby Gordon on probation. It has still to be announced how long that probation will be for.
This week was not the most exciting racing we have seen. It was however steady old school racing. There were adjustments and strategies playing out all over the track. The fastest and best car didn’t win the race. But the car that did win the race wasn’t a fluke win. He was there all day. He earned it. He raced for it. And for those that worship in the tabernacle of the blue oval, it was too long coming.
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Congratulations to Carl Edwards and the Scotts Fusion team of Roush Fenway Racing. Congratulations also to Mark Martin and his Turner Racing team on their NNS victory on Saturday. Also Congratulations to Danica Patrick, and her Go Daddy Chevrolet JR. Motorsports team for making history as the highest placing woman ever in a NASCAR race.
That said, to all the competitors in all the series thanks for giving us everything you have to give, you are our heroes. Most importantly, thanks to all the families who shared their loved ones with us so we could cheer our favorite driver and favorite teams. You are the true heroes of the sport and we are forever in your debt.
Danica Patrick’s Best Career Finish of Fourth Shows Improvement in Learning Curve
When Danica Patrick crossed the line fourth at the end of the Sam’s Town 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday, it marked here best career finish in NASCAR Nationwide Series competition.
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[/media-credit]“We just worked so hard on the car this weekend,” Patrick said after the race. “Went from loose to tight to loose to tight with the same set-up at times. We had a lot of practice time, which was good, but kind of confused us along the way. Missed those lucky dogs and finally got one. I asked Tony (Eury ) Jr to take a big swing at it to make it tight, not a small one but a swing at it, and it wasn’t good at the beginning, but it was good at the end.”
A lot of people say she lucked into it, which is partly true. The fuel strategy that played out at the end of the race allowed her to take a top 10 car to the top five. She didn’t luck into being into position though, as she had to fight for the lucky dog and was running inside the top 10 before the strategy broke out.
“Qualifying wasn’t perfect, practice was up and down,” she said. “I was like, okay, we got a new car. Hopefully we can learn something so that way me and Aric (Almirola) can run up front at the next mile and a half.”
Crew Chief Tony Eury Jr. had predicted before the race that she would finish in the top 10, considering how they’ve ran lately.
“I mean, we’ve been really consistent – the finishes haven’t shown it,” Eury Jr. said. “It’s really easy for her to run in the top 15. If we can get everything right, we can run in the top 10 with this girl. Luckily we got luck with fuel mileage and got a top five out of this.”
Last year at Las Vegas, she finished 36th following a crash, so this year was a marked improvement.
The previous weekend at Phoenix, she finished 17th, which was to Eury’s expectations. He felt it was a good finish for her first start on the short track.
“I mean, we were struggling in practice – I’m not going to beat around that bush,” Patrick said. “I qualified 20th and Tony Jr really just looked at the setup and made some good adjustments for today. We made a change there at the beginning the wrong way, but then the next stop Tony Jr made a change the right way and we kept adding a little bit of that. We got the Go Daddy car running good at the end. I think Tony was saying those were 11th and 12th place cars. I know a top 15 would be better, but realistically, a 17th place finish is a good for me considering how I was last year on these short tracks last year.”
Even the week before that she showed growth as she finished 14th and led a lap after qualifying third; this is improvement from her 35th place finish last year.
“I mean, I led a lap,” she said. “It was really cool that Clint pushed me. I would have loved to try and work with him, I just didn’t really know what to do, you know? I really ran up front most of the day. … I’m probably not to the point where if I pull out, people are going, ‘OK, she’s going, I’m going.’ That takes awhile to earn the trust and respect of the other drivers. I’m not mad at that, it’s just going to take time. It was a good experience. There was a lot to learn, and I did learn a lot. It was cool to finish all the laps.”
“She did a good job today,” Bowyer said of how she ran. “She was fast enough to be up there. When you’re racing in that atmosphere, you’ve got to find a fast car.”
Some say that things would have gone better had her spotter worked better with other drivers, which had Bowyer frustrated and unwilling to work with her again.
When Patrick came into this deal, her number one goal was to learn about driving stock cars and everything she needed to know about it.
Statistics prove that she has gone about doing that correctly as last year she had an average finish of 28th, while this year her average finish is 11.7.
Near the end of last year, you could see improvement happening as she was working on learning the cars as she wanted to do. Clear evidence was shown in the season finale at Homestead-Miami when she took key lessons from her spotter TJ Majors, teammate Aric Almirola and crew chief Eury Jr.
During that race, Almirola gave her tips on where to run which she took in carefully, though she also found herself questioning under a caution where to run to pick up the most speed. An example of her learning is shown through the following conversation with Almirola.
Aric Almirola: Danica, you got to enter higher into three as there’s more grip there. At about where the caution lights are, you should try to enter the middle from there on.
Danica Patrick: 10-4. Thanks a lot for the help
Almirola: You can run wherever you want in one or two, you can run wherever you want on older tires. Just move up in three and four….(next caution)……You come in on the gray, which is fine. You then turn down away from it. You should try to stay along this black seam, unless you’re tight off.
Patrick: I’ve been tight in the center. If I try to stay up there, it just pushes further up.
Almirola: 10-4 See right here on this spot, I ease off the brakes and then here I drive off.
Patrick: Thanks for showing me, Aric. I really appreciate it. I’m just trying to learn out here.
At the end of the day through all of her learning, she finished 19th.
Another thing that has helped Patrick is having Johnny Benson as her driver coach this year.
This reflects back to last October where she said that she would like to have someone there to give her tips.
“It would be nice if somebody could help me, whoever it is — I would take any help,” Patrick said on ESPN.com. “Like he [Mark Martin] said, you need somebody to get in the car and say this is the setup, go drive it after they’ve driven it. It’s one thing to say drive this line, do this or that, but when you don’t have maybe the car that can do that, it’s just words, so it would be nice for someone to throw me in a car after they’ve driven it so I get a real feel for it.”
Patrick had spoken to Martin on two separate occasions as they spoke for about an hour when they first met at Phoenix Raceway in 2006 and then again following her wreck at Dover International Speedway. Now with Benson taking a full-time role there, it has certainly helped her.
This year marks a big year for Danica Patrick as both her Nationwide Series and IZOD IndyCar Series contracts are up, which leaves her the choice to continue down this path of doing part-time Nationwide/full-time IndyCar, or go full-time Nationwide.
