The new pavement at Daytona was completed earlier than expected and NASCAR and Daytona International President Joie Chitwood III wasted no time in checking out the success of the project. Chitwood said, ” We spared no expense in the repaving project. When you think about the elements you need to put on a race for your fans, and the teams, asphalt is definitely high on the list.  For us we think it’s important that our fans know the asphalt we put down is going to provide a great racing surface.”  

[media-credit name=”Motorsports Images and Archives” align=”alignleft” width=”300″][/media-credit]Lane Construction, which repaved other ISC race tracks including Talladega Superspeedway, Homestead-Miami Speedway, Richmond International Raceway and Darlington Raceway, used an estimated 50,000 tons of  specially formulated asphalt to repave more than 1.4 million square feet of Daytona International Speedway.

It’s dark black color against the stark white walls in this weeks Goodyear tire test seemed to increase the excitement of fans and drivers a like. The first car to test the new pavement was fan favorite, Dale Earnhardt Jr. He was followed into the frey shortly by 17 other drivers. All of the drivers gave the new surface a thumbs up. Kurt Busch, driver of the number 12, Shell Pennzoil Dodge for Penske Racing commented that the surface was impressive and gave the track a new attitude. “It’s an impressive surface. There’s been a lot of hard work done. Everybody should be proud of what they’ve accomplished to resurface it, give it a new look. It’s just a new attitude. This is what 2011 will bring to start off our Sprint Cup season. Big, exciting time.” Jeff Burton added, “Daytona is still Daytona. they didn’t change the character of the track. It’s a smoother surface with more grip but it’s still Daytona.”

All drivers agreed that the new surface would have the cars running in tighter packs throughout the course of the race. “The Shootout is going to be crazy. It’s going to be nuts. It’s going to be wide open every lap, every time. When you decide to go, what hole you decide to go into. Yeah, I’m not going to say you’ll have more wrecks because you never know, but the possibility to have more big wrecks is certainly looming.” All drivers agreed that the chances for the “Big One” were increased by the new surface and it’s packing of cars in draft lines. Former Champion Bobby Labonte, said, “The spotters are going to be even more important with the new surface.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr, stated there was no fall off within the fuel run which would keep cars running in tight packs. Burton took it further saying there will be almost no way to lose the draft unless you have something happen in the pits or that causes you to have lift completely out of the gas.

Robin Pemberton, NASCAR’s Vice President of Competition was asked about the need to change the restrictor plate for the Daytona 500. He stated that at this time he didn’t see a need but there were a lot of considerations that would have to be taken in to account. He stated the top speed that they had seen so far during the test was 197 mph. He didn’t attribute that to any one team. If there were a need he stated he would only anticipate the change being small and in the range of 1/64th of an inch. The teams tested with the same plate that was used in Talladega.

Mark Martin was very impressed with the new tires that were used for the test. The tire Goodyear head of competition, Greg Stucker, said was the left side tire from Talladega and the right side tire was a hybrid mix of a compound used for intermediate tracks combined with the Talladega compound. Martin, stated he never thought that he would see the day that one set of tires could be used for 500 miles but this tire was close. But  Strucker said that,” I think there’s a little bit of over exaggeration. That was early on. Once people get dialed in, they’re going to start stressing tires a little bit more. ”

Pemberton, stated that not all the teams were using the new E15 fuel engines but some were. ” Being that it’s 2010 still, we weren’t officially starting that fuel till 2011. So it was an option. Some teams had last year’s engines that they didn’t want to make sure to take them apart, do any up-fit for them in case they needed to for the new E15. Other teams have taken this opportunity to bring their latest and greatest and get some miles on it and see how it looks when they get it home and take it apart.”

The E15 fueling system, according to Jeff Burton is slower than the normal high test system. The reason for that is that the alcohol fuel burns cooler and thus slower. Although the engine produces more horsepower with the E15 because of higher compression ratings, it is harder on the internal engine parts. This should not according to Engine builders at Childress Earnhardt Racing Engines pose an issue with the engines in terms of longevity during races.

What’s wrong with NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series? Some would say nothing. In fact, like the country we live in, many are willing to leave things as they are with no changes. Others, and I believe it’s the majority from what I have witnessed, think there should be changes. It’s a split decision between those who want to go back to the past and others who want to make changes for the future.

[media-credit name=”CIA Stock Photo” align=”alignleft” width=”300″][/media-credit]That’s where I come in. I think NASCAR’s top series can be fixed with a little common sense. For those who think that things are all perfect, might I remind you that attendance at the races has tumbled and television viewership keeps declining. If nothing is wrong, the sport will become the equivalent of Roller Derby in a few years.

Here are my humble suggestions:

1. Quit concentrating on the Chase Championship. We’re stuck with the Chase. The powers that be and many fans love it because it creates a playoff like baseball, football, and basketball. Funny that these stick and ball sports can relate to a series where winning the race used to be the ultimate. So we start counting points from Daytona to Richmond and the winner is an afterthought.

2. Do away with the Lucky Dog and the Wave-Around. I understand the logic in this. Racing back to the line to gain a lap was a dangerous situation in many cases, and having cars at the front of the field that are nearly a lap down is confusing, but it’s part of the tradition of the sport. It’s the same for racing to gain a lap. A great injustice has been done in going away from those traditions in the name of making things more exciting. Going back to the stick and ball sports, have the fathers of those sports gone away from the fundamentals to make things more exciting? No.

3. Change the All-Star race. Once upon a time, the race once known as …well many names was for those who won a race in the prior season. When multi-car teams became the rule, there weren’t enough winners to make out a field, I imagine, so they went to making the field larger by adding all kinds of rules so that more cars could compete. Then they added a “wild card,” just like the MLB and NFL to make more things interesting. The result has been a ho-hum event that just adds an extra weekend to Charlotte Motor Speedway. One year, Michael Waltrip won. He hadn’t won a race. How can a non-all –star participant win an all-star race? You tell me. The Bud Shootout at Daytona used to be the Busch Clash, made up of poll winners of the previous season. Someone figured out that there had to be more cars, so all kinds of rules had to be made up to make the field better. Change that, too. Let’s go back to the purity that made the sport special.

4. If we have to have a Chase, let’s forget about giving bonus points for wins because the usual suspects always get an advantage in this situation. It was a noble idea to reward drivers and teams for wins, but a system that allows a driver to jump several places for the final ten races based on wins, in a system based on consistency points is flawed. Of course, the crux of this opinion is my disdain for the Chase or playoff system. Change the points system to reflect winning as important is one thing, but manufacture an advantage within a consistency-based system is simply wrong.

5. Wake up and smell the coffee. The economy has been blamed for the attendance problems at tracks the last two years, but does that explain the drop in television viewership? No. And yet we get the same song and dance about the economy. It has a lot more to do with the genetic Car of Tomorrow and other issues mentioned here than the economy. Yes, the economy has had a part in the sport’s decline, but some of the things I’ve mentioned play a bigger part.

NASCAR rolled along with a good formula. Fans came, attended races, watched in record numbers on television for nearly 30 years. All of a sudden, someone somewhere decided that things needed to change. A car was designed for safety, mainly because of the death of Dale Earnhardt (which was Nobile and needed), and a championship system was based on a champion that only won one race during a season (Matt Kenseth). It was kind of a knee jerk reaction. Though the decline of the sport cannot be blamed on a couple of events, it all started there. As the solutions have been early and often, none of them have worked. So what do we do? I’ve laid out a plan that might or might not work. I don’t think it’s perfect, but it is an attempt to really address the problems, something I do not feel the sanctioning body has done, only trying to tweak a system that is not working, or least not bringing more fans to the sport. Discuss. And whatever happens, for the good of all, I hope someone figures out what should be done to stop the decline.

 As of today, eliminations in the Chase and more bonuses for wins are not the answer. Holding on to flawed plans with tweaks is a recipe for more failures.

Over the past few days we learned of two drivers and one team owner who received awards they absolutely deserved. Then there was the matter of another driver who spent much of this month dealing with legal and business issues he absolutely does not deserve. With those thoughts in mind, let’s begin this week with:

[media-credit name=”FMCM” align=”alignleft” width=”300″][/media-credit]HOORAH to our reigning, and five time, NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson who continues to collect post season accolades. A special panel of North American broadcasters and journalists recently voted Johnson as the 2010 Driver of the Year. The panel was assembled, via a tele conference, by the Driver of the Year Foundation, located in Sarasota-Florida, led by foundation President Barry Schmoyer who noted that the foundation has been bestowing this prestigious award for 44 years now making it the longest running driver’s award of its kind.

Johnson received ten votes from the 18 member panel which led to him winning the award for the fourth time in his career. The only driver to ever win this title four times is Johnson’s Hendrick Motorsports team mate: four time Sprint Cup champion Jeff Gordon.

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HOORAH to Tony Stewart for recently being named as the National Motorsports Press Association’s Home Depot Humanitarian of the Year. In additional to presenting Stewart with the beautiful custom crystal trophy, Home Depot will also be making a $100,000 contribution to the Tony Stewart Foundation. For several years now Stewart’s foundation has championed the cause of providing care for critically ill children as well as assisting in the needs of injured drivers. The foundation has also helped other organizations in their efforts to protect various animal species.

Stewart deserves a second HOORAH for recently donating the use of his personal ranch for both children and wildlife preservation. The Hidden Hollow Ranch, a 414 acre spread owned by Stewart located in his native Indiana, will now be made available to the Catch A Dream Foundation, an organization that arranges for the joy of hunting and fishing experiences for children with life threatening illnesses. Stewart’s ranch will also become a living laboratory and will be used by wildlife biologists from Mississippi State University who will study habitat and over population as well as other deer related issues.

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HOORAH to team owner Chip Ganassi who was recently named as the winner of the Chris Economaki Champion of Champions Award. This prestigious award is presented annually by “The National Speed Sport News” which was founded by publisher Economaki. This is the first time, in the eight year history of the award, that a non driver was given this honor. During the course of the 2010 racing season, a Ganassi team won NASCAR’s Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400. Ganassi drivers also won the 2010 Indianapolis 500 and the IZOD Indy Racing League champion as well as the championship for the Grand American Rolex Series.

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WAZZUP with NASCAR driver/team owner Robby Gordon and the legal issues he’s had to deal with over the past two weeks? According to reports from “TMZ Dot Com,” a Los Angeles based entertainment news agency, Gordon recently discovered that he was getting the shaft from Extenze, the well known male enhancement program, and the dispute has now necessitated a lawsuit that was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court back on December 3d.

Following a major dispute last summer, Sprint Cup driver Kevin Conway, and his sponsor biotab nutraceuticals who manufactures Extenze, was released by Front Row Motorsports following a monetary dispute that now is the subject of an entirely different lawsuit. On August 31st came an announcement that said Conway and Extenze were moving to Robby Gordon Motorsports. At the time Conway was hoping sew up the Series’ Rookie of the Year title which he eventually won. Conway began the new arrangement by taking over Gordon’s familiar #7 Toyota while Gordon drove the #07 team car.

However, by mid October, Conway was within 25 points of falling outside of NASCAR’s top 35 in owner’s points meaning he would not be guaranteed a start in future races. It was decided to switch rides so the more experienced Gordon could elevate the #7 team’s status in the owner rankings. Gordon later said that this move was cleared with Extenze. The plan worked very well. Gordon managed to place the #7 team 32nd in the final owner’s standings which means the team is guaranteed a start in the first five events of the 2011 season. That includes the ultra prestigious, and extremely lucrative, Daytona 500 in February.

Despite all of this Extenze reportedly refused to pay the sponsorship money owed to Gordon and cited a breach of contract because of the driver switch. The December 3d litigation, filed by Gordon is asking for the sum of $690,000 owed to him.

But the administration problems for Robby Gordon Motorsports didn’t end with Extenze. In late October Gordon announced the creation of Speed Energy Drink in hopes that it will generate enough retail sales to fully support his motorsports operation. But approximately a week later Gordon received a cease and desist letter from Specialized Bycycle Components who complained that Gordon’s company logo, an elongated letter “S”, was too similar to their copyrighted logo.

On November 19th came word that a U.S. District Court Judge, in Santa Ana-California, issued an injunction against Gordon that said he could not use the current “S” logo on his cans of energy drink. This was a huge blow for Gordon in light of the fact that the company had already mass produced approximately 2.4 million cans of Speed Energy Drink. With the bicycle company threatening litigation, the two companies went into mediation where Gordon agreed to make an alteration to his company logo to eliminate any similarities.

Last Monday Gordon issued a statement that said a compromise has now been reached with Specialized Bycycle Components. Newly packaged cans of Speed Energy Drink will be available for purchase on line sometime between December 18th through the 20th with shipping available for the holidays. He also estimated that the cans with the new logo will be available in retail stores by early January 2011. You can track the progress of the energy drink, with its newly designed logo, via Gordon’s fan site: www.planetrobby.com.

Bear in mind all of this has been going on in the midst of the busy process of preparing for the upcoming 2011 racing season. Here’s hoping Robby Gordon has a merry Christmas. He certainly did not deserve the nonsense he’s endured during the first half of December.

It would seem obvious any driver in NASCAR’s highly competitive top-tier series who could storm the season with eight wins, would clinch the series title.

Denny Hamlin thought his first championship was within his grasp and he was ready to write his speech for the awards banquet, accept the ring and seven million dollar plus check along with the clout that goes with the title.

[media-credit name=”Barry Albert” align=”alignright” width=”300″][/media-credit]At the final race in Homestead in 2009, Hamlin made a promise to secure the championship in the next year or two.  Going into the 2010 season he looked to be the favorite to unseat Jimmie Johnson as the NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion.

In January, prior to Speedweeks in Daytona, Hamlin tore his anterior cruciate ligament while playing basketball.  He hoped to postpone surgery until the end of the year, but announced March 27^th that he would have surgery after the March 29^th race at Martinsville which he won handily.

Three weeks after surgery, Hamlin won the Texas race which was his second win in three races.  It appeared a magic chip had been implanted during his knee surgery, as his winning ways continued.

Hamlin’s cup of confidence was spilling over.  His statement of, “All we do is win,” seemed to hold a bit of truth despite the runs where he faltered.

Hamlin’s crew chief, Mike Ford, attempted to play mind games with Jimmie Johnson and his crew chief, Chad Knaus, by bragging that the No. 11 team was better than the No. 48 team.  The Joe Gibbs Racing team felt so sure this was the year they would capture the series title.

Hamlin and Ford hit a pothole on their way down confidence road, when gas mileage caused the Fed Ex driver to have a bad day at Phoenix, the next to the last race.

After the race, the driver of the No. 11 said, “For me I guess I have to leave Phoenix in Phoenix.  That’s the thing is you can’t let–I couldn’t control it.  I did everything I was supposed to do today.  Things didn’t work out for me.”

As all the teams prepared for the final race at Homestead, the two other contenders for the title besides Hamlin, Kevin Harvick and Jimmie Johnson tried to break his confidence with comments intended to rattle him.

Hamlin led four-time champion, Jimmie Johnson, by eight points as they headed to Homestead.  He blew off the pressure of winning and claimed he was used to it and even thrived on it.  Hamlin had battled his way up through lower series and fought to become established as a relevant driver in NASCAR.

It appeared Hamlin might be in trouble when he qualified 37^th for that all important final race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.  Coming through the field should have been a problem, but Hamlin remained confident.  He had done it before.

The Ford 400 at Homestead didn’t play out as Hamlin planned.  Carl Edwards won the race, Jimmie Johnson won his fifth consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup championship and Hamlin finished 14^th, leaving him second in the point standings.

For Hamlin finishing second was worse than finishing fifth.  It was a tough blow to him with his confidence bashed, he had to wing his way to Las Vegas and watch Jimmie Johnson’s ongoing celebratory festivities which included that ring and seven million dollar plus check.

Champions Week would be an agonizing series of reminders of “what ifs.”  Hamlin said, “Just every award (Johnson) accepts, you think, I should have been in that position.”

Even Rick Hendrick saw his pain and tried to comfort Hamlin by saying, “ You will win your share, so you shouldn’t be beating yourself up so bad.”

Hendrick added, “ We’re proud of you, you did a heck of a job.  It’s a shame anybody had to lose.”

Hamlin realizes that he has areas that need improvement with qualifying being one of them.  He handled the pressure factor, but fumbled on pit road and with green flag stops.

The fact he lost to Johnson, who many consider a NASCAR great, is slightly comforting to Hamlin, but it doesn’t really lessen the pain of losing that title.

Mark Martin thought they had the momentum to possibly nail a championship in 2010, after finishing second to Johnson in 2009 when he captured his fourth consecutive title.  As the 2010 season played out, he found his Hendrick Motorsports team just could not get up to speed.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. used the “lack of confidence” theory this year to justify his continuing less than stellar performance.

It has happened with other drivers who come off a season with a potential chance at the championship only to flounder the following year.  Whether or not Hamlin can find his way past his confidence breaking loss is a question that will linger until the upcoming NASCAR Sprint Cup season unfolds.

Hamlin intended to return to his home base in North Carolina after Champions Week and meet with Mike Ford to begin regrouping for 2011.

For the sake of Hamlin, we can hope the contagion of crisis with confidence does not spread from the newly reorganized No. 88 team at Hendrick Motorsports to Hamlin’s No. 11 Fed Ex team at Joe Gibbs Racing.

Mark Martin planned a winning season in 2010, just as Hamlin plans his 2011 comeback to a championship.  Competition will be tough once again and we shall see if Hamlin and his team handle the haunting “what ifs” and miscues that may not be as easily forgotten as Hamlin thinks.

As drivers make the journey to Daytona Beach on Wednesday and Thursday for a Goodyear tire test on the newly repaved Daytona International Speedway, it brings back memories of how the NSCS got to this point.

The biggest race of the NASCAR season is supposed to be remembered as the greatest day in a driver’s life. The 2010 Daytona 500 however, was remembered for one of the worst days in NASCAR’s.

Thanks to something that some thought they would never see in a middle of a race: a pothole.

Just past halfway of the February 14, 2010 running of the Great American Race, things started to get a little bumpy in turns one and two. The race was red flagged for an hour and half as NASCAR officials went to work to repair the four-inch, two-foot deep hole.

The race was restarted only to be red flagged for another hour when the hole opened again. When the race restarted for the final time it would go past its scheduled distance thanks in part to NASCAR’s new green-white-checkered rule before Jamie McMurray and Dale Earnhardt Jr. raced to the finish line.

Many were understandably upset with the day and that a race which started shortly after 1:00 p.m. ET didn’t end until nearly seven hours later. Some fans left during the red flags, be it from frustration, travel plans or the weather cooling down, the stands did empty.

Others sat and watched McMurray capture his first Daytona 500 as Earnhardt Jr. went from 22nd to second in two laps. It certainly wasn’t a day that anyone was expecting but it could have been much worse and for that NASCAR should be applauded.

Said former Daytona International Speedway president Robin Braig back in February, “We’re the World Center of Racing. This is the Daytona 500. This is not supposed to happen and I take full responsibility … I apologize for it. This is hallowed ground. We understand that. We accept the responsibility.”

Braig may have sounded hard on himself but it’s not a lie in saying he did everything he could. The decision was made to red flag the race to fix the pothole, not once but twice.

No one, fans or drivers, wanted to sit around and wait but it was better than calling the race early and robbing everyone of the biggest race of the season. It also wouldn’t have been the best way to kick of the season with a bad tone in the first race.

Kevin Harvick, who was leading during the second red flag, told TV viewers he hoped NASCAR would restart the race instead of declaring it official. If they had he would have been called the winner but the racecar driver in him wanted to go out and beat the 42 other competitors.

It’s been said time and time again that NASCAR may never win with the fans, there’s just too much to complain about. Back in February, NASCAR worked and worked to ensure the fans could not complain.

They worked and worked to give them what they wanted: not only a complete race, but a complete Daytona 500.

It won’t go down as NASCAR’s most defining moment, but it should go down as one worth noting. NASCAR officials were bound and determined to do right by those in the sport and for the sport.

Looking back, 2010 was all about the fans as many changes NASCAR made ones they were kicking and screaming for. Heading into the season it was announced a new green-white-checkered rule, three attempts, would be put into effect to help ensure fans would see the race end with a run to the finish and not under caution.

Boys, have at it. ‘Nuff said.

The wing became history after Bristol in March, nearly three years to the day after it made its debut at the same track. Double-file restarts helped create the great racing that seen every week as it made its season-long debut.

Positive, they’re out there if you look.

Ramsey Poston, NASCAR’s director of corporate communications wanted the positives of the Daytona 500 to overshadow the pothole debacle.

“Obviously the red flags are unfortunate, no one wants to see that,” he said that day.

“But hopefully what fans will really remember about this race tomorrow and years to come is that dramatic finish, the 88 [Earnhardt Jr.] cutting through the entire field, really having a great finish for the win, and a great win for Earnhardt-Ganassi with Jamie McMurray.”

Here the sport is, in December of the same year when all of this took place, with the new pavement at Daytona finished. The day was coming when it would have had to be done, it was marked for possibly 2012, but it’s here and now.

Drivers such as McMurray and Earnhardt Jr. will be among the likes of Kurt Busch, Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon, Jeff Burton and about 12 others as tentative participates in the test. New pavement brings new excitement as an opportunity to see the new surface before Speedweeks has drivers anxious to get there.

“Everybody used to dread Daytona testing,” said 2009 Daytona 500 winner Matt Kenseth.

“I’m really looking forward to getting on the track and seeing how they did on the paving job and how smooth it is. I bet it will really change the track. I bet you it will feel like you are on a different track. That surface was so incredibly worn out before, and now it’s going to be more like a Talladega race. It’s going to be wide open. Handling is going to matter more than [at] Talladega but probably not very much. Everybody is going to be wide open. It is going to be a big draft the whole time.”

Talladega Super Speedway, who was paved following the 2005 season, has the expectations for the 2011 Daytona 500 through the roof. Talladega is coming off a historic season where they set the record for the most lead changes, 88, in a NSCS race. The fall race fell short by of tying or passing that record with 87 lead changes.

What can Daytona do with a new surface? History might be in the making and it starts with Wednesday and Thursday’s tire test.

With the holidays around the corner, it’s a time to celebrate and be thankful. Some fans, believe it or not, are thankful for NASCAR. They’re also thankful for the pothole.

Thankful because even though it may not seem like they’re listening, NASCAR has the fans in mind. They certainly did back in February with the decisions made in the Daytona 500.

The fact that NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Scott Speed will not be returning to the Red Bull Racing, (RBR), #82 Toyota next year is no real surprise. Frankly, we’ve been expecting that announcement since last summer. But the driver’s Wednesday morning announcement that said he was suing RBR did come as a surprise. What’s even more surprising is the fact that the announcement of the potential suit came via “Twitter” so the driver could keep his followers up to speed.

[media-credit name=”Simon Scoggins” align=”alignleft” width=”300″][/media-credit]In a “Tweet” sent on Wednesday, Speed wrote: “today should be the day my lawyer files this lawsuit against Red Bull. Had to tell my loyal “Twitter” followers before they saw it online.” In a second “Tweet” from the same day he wrote: “sure not easy to find something, (a ride for next year), when u start looking in December, but we workin’ on it. I’ll keep ya posted, sure we will find something.” He also indicated that he would entertain a serious offer from a NASCAR Nationwide or Camping World Truck Series team.

Also on the same day Speed made plenty of comments to the racing media and claimed that he was notified, via a November 24th fax that he would not be in the Red Bull Racing ride in 2011. This was despite the fact that he has a contract with RBR that runs through the end of the 2011 season along with company options for the 2012 and 2013 seasons.

During the course of interview comments, Speed expressed disappointment over the fact his official dismissal was handled via a fax machine without so much as one telephone call from Austria, the official home of Red Bull Energy Drink. He also noted that Red Bull officials were on hand for the November 22nd NASCAR season finale at the Homestead-Miami Speedway but no one actually spoke to him.

He was later quoted as saying “I can’t describe how upset I am just by the morality of it. I don’t understand how you can treat people like this.” Speed went on to say that he felt like he had been kicked to the curb without an offer to pay him anything at all adding “they were, okay, we’re done with you. Thank you for seven and one half years.”

Speed declined to elaborate on the terms of his contract with RBR or the details of the pending litigation. However, last Friday, the details did go public on the Internet via public records from the North Carolina Superior Court, located in Statesville, where the suit was filed on Speed’s behalf. According to those records the driver is seeking $6.5 million in damages. The suit listed the following grievances:

RBR failed to provide his #82 Toyota team with the proper funding needed to compete at the NASCAR Sprint Cup level.

Speed’s original agreement with RBR was for three years and was signed in September of 2007. His salary tier levels were set at $300,000 for the 2008 season, $500,000 for 2009 and $1 million during the 2010 season. Speed’s contract also had a clause that guaranteed him bonus payments from the team that included 50% of the prize money from a race for every top ten finish, 45% for finishes between positions 11 through 20 and 40% for any finish 21st or worse.

The lawsuit also states that, in June of 2008, Speed’s contract was amended to include the 2011 season at a seasonal salary of $1.5 million. That same amendment also granted RBR the right to pick up contract options on the driver for the 2012 and 2013 seasons with salary raises of $500,000 per year.

The lawsuit also states that in January of this year RBR revised Speed’s contract cutting his 2010 salary from $1 million to $500,000

Despite that cost cutting move, RBR picked up the driver options through the 2013 season, in May of this year, only to officially release him last November 23d.

The lawsuit further stipulates that the $6.5 million represents money Speed would have earned from the 2011 through the 2013 plus the $500,000 in salary lost form this year.

Speed also said that the potential award from the lawsuit was also compensation for the likelihood that he will be idle during the upcoming 2011 season also noting that the possibility of signing with another NASCAR team this late in the year is unlikely.

Understandably, RBR has issued no formal comment on the pending lawsuit.

But the timeline associated with this driver’s dismissal, based on previously published reports and statements from RBR officials, clearly indicates that Speed must have had some idea that his tenure with the team was going to end.

In July of this year RBR General Manager Jay Frye said that Speed’s future with the organization would be decided within the next month adding “we need to perform, we need to be better.”

That naturally raises the question: why did RBR wait so long to officially let the driver know he would not be returning to the team next season?

The answer to that question involves two other Sprint Cup drivers, Brian Vickers and Kasey Kahne, along with the unusual circumstances that were associated with them.

In early spring Brian Vickers left the RBR #83 Toyota team due to a reported serious illness. The medical malady was later reported to be blood clots which eventually led to open heart surgery this past August. Thankfully Vicker’s medical condition, during the second half of this year, showed a marked improvement to the point where he no longer was required to take blood thinners. He’s not primed and ready to resume racing next year for RBR

Meanwhile Kasey Kahne announced his plans to leave Richard Petty Motorsports to sign with Hendrick Motorsports to drive their #5 Chevrolet. But that ride, contractually occupied by Mark Martin, wasn’t going to be available until the start of the 2012 season. Team owner Rick Hendrick eventually made a deal with RBR to place Kahne in one of their cars next year.

In late October, General Manager Jay Frye said that RBR’s 2011 plans included fielding two cars for Vickers and Kahne. With Vickers returning to good health, RBR announced that Scott Speed would not be returning and was free to negotiate with other teams.

When asked about the fact that Speed had a contract through the 2011 season, plus options, Frye pointed out that his contract also had a performance clause that relieved RBR from financial responsibility past the 2010 season if he doesn’t finish in the top 16 of the Sprint Cup driver’s standings. He in fact, finished 30th this year.

Scott Speed’s numbers, as a RBR development driver, started strong in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series in 2008. He made 16 starts in the series while compiling one win, four top five finishes, nine top tens along with an average finish ratio of 13. During the 2009 season he moonlighted in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, in addition to his Sprint Cup schedule, where he scored eight top ten finishes with an average finish of 14.3.

But somehow his Sprint Cup numbers never materialized to the level RBR was hoping for. Many observers felt Speed should have spent an additional year in NASCAR’s truck and Nationwide series before moving to the top level. From 2008 to 2010 Speed had 76 official Sprint Cup starts. He only netted one top five finish, three top tens and had an average finish ratio of 27.2. In these modern times those type of numbers often forces team management to consider making a change.

Following the progress of this lawsuit is going to be rather interesting. It’s certainly true that the timing of his dismissal has made it virtually impossible for Speed to find a quality ride in any one of NASCAR’s series for next year. His belief that RBR did not properly provide the funding for his team to be competitive is also rather eye opening. But the real point of contention here could turn out to be his contract for 2011, plus the subsequent two year option, versus RBR’s claim that the contract has a performance clause.