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AP NASCAR

NASCAR Features

A look at this year's schedule
A look at this year's drivers
Differences between stock car and open-wheel racing
NASCAR Research & Development
Petty Enterprises splitter testing
Aerodynamic testing in Concord's wind tunnel
Top 10 moments in Daytona history

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Most Recent Entry: 05/16/2008 10:19 pm

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Petty loses off the track

Mooresville-based Petty Enterprises in poised to lose a longstanding member of its NASCAR Sprint Cup Series organization’s family.

Edwards gets back in the groove

A familiar face – at least this season – has put Mooresville’s back in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series’ winning groove.

Cagnazzi Racing starts fast

Mooresville-based Cagnazzi Racing’s Jed Coughlin put himself in near a No. 1 position this past weekend.

The reigning National Hot Rod Association’s POWERade Pro Stock champion drew within a mere four points of the No. 1 ranking in the world following his solid semifinal showing during the course of the 24th annual CSK Nationals held in Phoenix, Ariz.

Higgins headed to the movies

Mooresville’s Tom Higgins is headed for the big screen. Kind of.

Softer penalties show NASCAR loosening up

In placing Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch on probation for six races Tuesday, NASCAR officials cited favorite rule 12-4-A, which covers “actions detrimental to stock car racing.”

Anybody who has been paying attention to this story knows the altercation between Stewart and Busch on Friday night actually did stock car racing a world of good. 

In a flash, Ard a winner

In a flash, and with plenty of speed left to burn, former professional race car driver Sam Ard was one of the hones helping steer the presence of the sport of stock car racing into the national spotlight.

Now comes time for the sport and its many supporters to help pay him back.

Racing personalities on hand for charity

With the holiday season in full gear, motorsports personalities and their fans will meet Tuesday in downtown Mooresville for the 19th annual Stocks for Tots. Its goal: bringing awareness to the child abuse problem facing North Carolina. 

Retirement quiets Miller

Soft-speaking Don Miller has said his final words as the president of Mooresville-based Penske Racing.

Miller, who has been President of Penske Racing South, Inc., since the organization was established nearly 20 years ago, is retiring from his position after spending those past two decades at the highest level of professional stock car racing. The announcement of Miller’s departure came as Penske Racing made official release of personnel changes in continued preparation for the 2008 NASCAR season earlier this month.

Earnhardt wins most popular award

Dale Earnhardt Jr. didn’t make the Chase or win a race in 2007, and yet he still managed to draw the most attention at a Champions Week media availability with top 10 drivers and a few others Thursday.

Earnhardt was included because he had just been presented with the Most Popular Driver award at the National Motorsports Press Association’s Myers Brothers Awards Luncheon, a postseason staple during which numerous awards are given. 

Some details of Bruton Smith deal revealed

Using $80 million from local and state governments and $200 million of his own money, Lowe’s Motor Speedway owner Bruton Smith said he will make the Concord track the world’s premiere racing facility.

However, only a handful of the projects included in the major improvements were discussed at a news conference Monday to celebrate Smith’s agreement with Concord and Cabarrus County to keep the speedway in Concord. 

Johnson finishes on top

Mooresville’s Jimmie Johnson finished what he started on the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series circuit this past weekend.

The reigning series point champion entering the season, Johnson motored his way to the front of this season’s Chase for the Championship field on the strength of four straight wins over the season’s final five races and locked into a successful repeat of the points championship following a seventh-place finish in the season finale, Ford 400, at Homestead-Miami Speedway last weekend.

Christmas comes early for race fans

For area race fans, the Friday after Thanksgiving is like Christmas coming early.

NASCAR enthusiasts and early Christmas shoppers will have the opportunity to fulfill the dream of driving around Lowe’s Motor Speedway during the annual Souvenirs and Race Ticket Blow-Out Sale set for Nov. 23.

Johnson headed to big finish

Jimmie Johnson was positively beaming Sunday night, but trying hard to keep it under control, because he still has another 400 miles to race and another seven days to endure before the Nextel Cup season ends.

But his victory Sunday in the Checker Auto Parts 500, in a sprint-away from Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle down the stretch, was probably the decisive race of NASCAR’s championship chase, and it played out in front of a sellout crowd of about 130,000 at Phoenix International Raceway. 

Johnson bags two for one

Mooresville’s Jimmie Johnson picked up a pair of first-place finishes for the price of one on the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series circuit last weekend.

Johnson, a member of the talented Hendrick Motorsports organization, continued his late-season surge by cooking up his third straight win and circuit-best ninth triumph of the season overall with his topping of the field in Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

Pettys headed to Mooresville

Petty Enterprises will leave its longtime home in Level Cross and move its NASCAR shop 70 miles down the road to Mooresville next month to be closer to the center of racing in the Charlotte area.

Kenseth, Johnson a breathtaking finish

Matt Kenseth and Jimmie Johnson have a higher appreciation for each other’s skills and grit today, after Sunday night’s breathtaking finish in the Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

And that’s saying something — Kenseth was the 2004 NASCAR tour champion, and Johnson won last year.

In fact they amazed each other, they said Sunday night, separately, after Johnson’s tense victory under the lights. 

Johnson goes from chaser to chasee

Though still officially listed as a Chase for the Championship chaser, Mooresville’s Jimmie Johnson strengthened his status as the chasee for this year’s most coveted prize on the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series circuit last weekend.

Johnson motored his way to a second straight win and series-high eighth this season overall by beating back the odds and overtaking the field late to finish first in the Pep Boys Auto 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Riley Technologies finds third time a charm

No matter the sport, a single championship can be hard enough to come by. Back-to-back championships are an even greater challenge, and three-in-a rows are nearly unheard of.

But this year, Mooresville-area based Riley Technologies reached the rare air of some of motorsports’ greatest legacies with the now-legendary MK XI Daytona Prototype taking a fourth consecutive Grand-Am Constructor Championship in the highly competitive Rolex Sports Car Series. 

KB Racing’s Anderson in the running

An adage attributed to baseball’s Yogi Berra says: “If you don’t know where you’re going, you might wind up somewhere else.”

Well, local-based Greg Anderson, driver of the KB Racing LLC-owned, Summit Racing Equipment-backed Pontiac GTO, knows where he wants to go – the Pro Stock Championship. He’s been there three-times before, so he knows how to get there. But two races – this weekend’s Seventh annual ACDelco Las Vegas Nationals and the following weekend the 43rd annual NHRA Auto Club Finals in Pomona, Calif. – and three drivers – Dave Connolly, Jeg Coughlin, and Allen Johnson – stand in his way.

‘Hot Rod Hero’ features Baker

Newly inducted into the Mooresville-based North Carolina Auto Racing Hall of Fame, NASCAR legend Buddy Baker will be the featured “Hot Rod Hero” during the 14th annual Goodguys Southeastern Nationals this upcoming weekend at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

Baker will sign autographs and participate in a special fan event at 11 a.m. Saturday. Hosted by Lowe’s Motor Speedway President H.A. “Humpy” Wheeler, the ceremony will include the opportunity for fans to quiz Baker about his amazing career.

Kyle Busch has matured on track

While the focus is on his Hendrick teammates’ battle for the NASCAR championship, Kyle Busch is still one of this year’s big success stories, and not so much for what he has done on the track as for his growing maturity. 

Short line to make point

Mooresville’s Jimmie Johnson once again followed the shortest path to get yet another key point across on the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series circuit last weekend.

Continuing to make himself right at home on the premier stock car racing circuit’s shortest of all tracks at the .526-mile oval Martinsville Speedway, Johnson claimed his third consecutive win at the site dating back to late last year and padded his season-high number of victories to seven with a first-place finish in the Subway 500.

Hendrick wins appeal

Rick Hendrick must have the magic touch, because yesterday he won another NASCAR appeal ... something rival car owners just can’t seem to figure out how to do.

The issue: Kyle Busch’s engine-intake manifold for the Busch race at Kansas City three weeks ago. NASCAR didn’t like the way it looked, insisted that the team had “unapproved intake-manifold modifications to the plenum area,” and fined crew chief Michael Bumgarner $10,000. 

Bruton Smith’s ideas worth listening to

Raze venerable Lowe’s Motor Speedway?

Take down the banking, plow up the asphalt?

Ridiculous, you say?

Crazy?

Maybe. But then maybe not.

No hate between Gordon, Johnson

The Nextel Cup championship may well come down to two accomplished drivers who are teammates and friends and so much alike in demeanor that when one looks in the mirror, he’s practically staring at the other.

Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson: an ugly rivalry it isn’t. 

Hyde receives Golden Wrench

The last time Harry Lee Hyde tried to accept such a distinction on behalf of his late father Harry Hyde, the words never started. This time around, they never stopped.

Accounting for perhaps the most memorable of all previous such presentations and setting the stage for a tough act to follow for all future ones, Harry Lee Hyde stammered, stuttered and sprayed appreciation to all within listening range upon accepting the North Carolina Auto Racing’s Hall of Fame annual Snap-On Golden Wrench Award on the part of his late father.

Carpentier inks deal with Gillett Evernham

Patrick Carpentier, a veteran open-wheel driver, signed a deal to drive for Gillett Evernham Motorsports next season. Carpentier will replace Scott Riggs in the No. 10 Dodge. Riggs, who slipped to 30th in Nextel Cup points, signed last week to race the 2008 campaign for Haas/CNC Racing. 

Johnson, Gordon are drivers to beat

Well, Bruton Smith hasn’t shut down Lowe’s Motor Speedway yet, so there’s still time to see the last race here.

But the kicker might be that even though the track, built by Smith in 1960, is right in the heart of stock-car country, ticket sales recently haven’t been up to snuff. Whether that changes in time for Saturday night’s Bank of America 500 remains to be seen. 

Concord revisits drag strip project

Just a week after agreeing to a zoning change to block a proposed drag strip at the Lowe’s Motor Speedway complex, Concord City Council has asked the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission to rezone the site once again to include drag strips.

City Council’s vote last week was followed with claims from Speedway Motorsports CEO Bruton Smith that he would move Lowe’s Motor Speedway out of Concord. 

Cherry, Martin try for diversity class

Few dreams would be realized if they all died with the first rejection.

In essence, that thought will be in the minds of Valrico’s Michael Cherry and Sarasota’s Danny “The Hammer” Martin on Monday and Tuesday when each will try for a second time to earn a NASCAR “scholarship” at South Boston Speedway in Virginia. 

Alliteration for NCARHOF

Consider this evening “Alliteration Night” for the Mooresville-based North Carolina Auto Racing Hall of Fame.

The two newest selections worthy of being recognized by the local-based facility fit the special night’s billing to a tee when two of stock car racing’s true originals in former driver Buddy Baker and legendary mechanic Harry Hyde earn the right to be recognized for their respective accomplishments during the N.C. Auto Racing Hall of Fame’s 11th annual induction ceremony.

Waltrip getting it together

After a truly dismal “regular’‘ season, Michael Waltrip finally appears to be getting things under some control during NASCAR’s Chase for the Championship.

Over the past six weeks, he and teammates Dale Jarrett and David Reutimann have been making the race lineups, which has been a major accomplishment in itself for the first-year operation. 

Gordon, Johnson smarter than rivals

Jeff Gordon and teammate Jimmie Johnson once again outsmarted their rivals, this time with some excellent late-race tactics, to roll one-two across the finish line in Sunday’s UAW-Ford 500 and add to their advantage in NASCAR’s Nextel Cup Chase.

Barring a collapse, Gordon and Johnson continue on target in their title chase, with only Clint Bowyer hanging within sight of the tour leaders. This has been a Gordon-Johnson season right from the start, and unless some of their struggling challengers catch fire, the drama of this Chase is about gone. 

More money on the line in race

Mooresville-area drivers competing in the current Bank of America 500 Week schedule of events at Lowe’s Motor Speedway will be among those in the battle for the lion’s share of a record $6.5 million purse.

The $6,526,587 in posted prize money and awards is $128,806 more than was up for grabs in the same events last year and represents a 166-percent increase over the $2.4 million drivers raced for just 10 years ago.

Engine woes plague DEI-Childress

Sunday’s UAW-Ford 500 was a disastrous race for the newly combined Dale Earnhardt Inc.-Richard Childress Racing engine shop.

Five of the seven engine DEI-Childress engines in the race either expired or had problems, including those of Chase drivers Jeff Burton,Martin Truex Jr. and Kevin Harvick. 

Lowes Motor Speedway prepares for weekend

There are few lawns in Concord that compare to Danny Furr’s, but few residents share the same passion for theirs.

Furr, groundskeeper at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, treats the grass on the tracks front stretch like his child, and he talks about it just the same.

Gordon wins Talledega

Chevy teammates Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson played rope-a-dope all afternoon, laying far back in the pack, during what looked like a day for Dodge and Toyota teams to shine.

Then in the final 30 minutes Gordon and Johnson charged into contention for a dramatic eight-lap sprint to the finish, and Gordon made a dramatic move in the final seconds to foil both Johnson and Tony Stewart and win the UAW-Ford 500 by a nose at Talladega Speedway. 

Biffle baffles with win

Mooresville’s Greg Biffle may not be in this season’s Chase for the Championship on the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series circuit, but he finally prevailed in yet another ongoing major race last weekend.

Surviving a pair of rain delays extending into pending darkness that shortened matters considerably, Biffle finally joined his Roush Fenway Racing garage’s list of winners by placing first in the running of the Lifelock 400 at Kansas Speedway

Is compromise possible?

Concord officials say City Council’s decision to block a world-class drag strip planned for Lowe’s Motor Speedway was not an absolute rejection of the $60 million project.

Rather, it was a move to give the city some leverage as to what kind of drag strip is built. 

Strange race in Kansas

The Wizard of Oz was set in Kansas for a reason, as Sunday’s weather-wracked LifeLock 400 might explain.

Kansas Speedway, a relatively benign stop for NASCAR its first six years on the Cup tour, may have just come of age, with a six-hour marathon of plot twists and turns that finally ended well after sundown with Greg Biffle and new crew chief Greg Erwin celebrating their first win of the season and their first together at Jack Roush’s. 

Developer eyes Wilkesboro track

A developer based in Winston-Salem with family ties to a regional savings-and-loan company says he wants to buy North Wilkesboro Speedway.

Worth Mitchell, whose father, Nick, is the president of the Piedmont Federal Savings & Loan Association, said he has more than enough investors to purchase the track, which was listed for sale last year for an asking price of $12 million. 

Car of tomorrow still has doubters

The car of tomorrow hasn’t been a driver favorite, because its high center of gravity makes it awkward in the corners.

And it hasn’t been a crew chief’s favorite either, because NASCAR has been picky about the body-template tolerances and unwilling to let teams do much to make the cars easier to drive.
The result has been some very boring races, with one or two drivers dominating. 

Mooresville drivers at top of SCCA

It’s beginning to look more and more like a one-two finish for the season for Mooresville drivers in the Southeast Division of the Sports Car Club of America.

Based on what took place earlier this month, area drivers Barry Durham and teammate Garry Hill took major steps closer to owning the top two spots in the SCCA division with just one more event left in the regular season.

Edwards ends ahead

Jack Roush finally got his men - Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards - back in the championship game Sunday, and it was the perfect day for that, an afternoon when title challengers Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch, Martin Truex Jr., Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon all had some major trouble. 

NASCAR notes:

Car owner Chip Ganassi said he wants to get Indy-car star Dario Franchitti into the ARCA race at Talladega in two weeks, as prelude to putting Franchitti into a Nextel Cup ride next season. If all that works out, next spring’s Daytona 500 could well boast more Indy 500 winners - Juan Pablo Montoya, Jacques Villeneuve, Sam Hornish Jr. and Franchitti - than the Indy Racing League’s own 2008 season opener at Homestead. 

Merger mania: Teams playing follow the leaders

hat is there to make of the merger mania in NASCAR? The wave of mergers and acquisitions washing over the sport has provoked considerable interest, and a little worry, in the stock-car racing garage. What’s going on here? And is it good or bad for the sport?

The business of NASCAR, always murky, and more than a bit Machiavellian, is suddenly increasingly complicated and confusing, as well as increasingly expensive. 

Johnson, Busch at opposite ends

Mooresville’s Jimmie Johnson finds himself a whole lot better off following this year’s opening 10-race NASCAR Chase for the Nextel Cup Championship than he did following the same race last year.

Mooresville’s Kurt Busch can relate.

Earnhardt unveils new look, number

When Dale Earnhardt Jr. decided to drive for Rick Hendrick, the car owner didn’t have to worry about funding the car.

Sponsors immediately lined up for an opportunity to align their brands with NASCAR’s most popular driver, and Hendrick could have started a bidding war. But he instead stayed within his own organization, showing loyalty to his existing relationships with PepsiCo. and The National Guard.

Both companies will sponsor Earnhardt’s No. 88 Chevrolet next season.

Kahne gets coveted sponsorship

After so many years with hard-rocking Dale Earnhardt Jr., Budweiser’s pick of the more polished, and much more subdued, Kasey Kahne as its new NASCAR face seems like an odd coupling.
At least the new number won’t be much different than the old: Earnhardt’s 8 will become Kahne’s 9. 

Dover could be a surprise

When they get done with all this week’s extracurricular activities, the drivers and crews will trek to Dover International Speedway for the second race of this season’s Nextel Cup Chase for the Championship.

Martin Truex Jr. was the surprise winner at Dover in the spring, and he wound up making the Chase. But what happens this time around on the concrete one-mile track could be just as surprising. 

Playing the numbers game

Fans root for sports teams through their nicknames. They root for NASCAR drivers through their car numbers.

The attachment is evident on bumper stickers, hats, shirts, tattoos and even numbers sculpted into haircuts.

So it’s a little unsettling when a driver changes his number. But fans had better get used to it. 

Chase may have some surprises

Considered long-shots to win the Chase for the Championship just a few days ago, Clint Bowyer and crew chief Gil Martin certainly have their rivals scratching their heads today.

Or maybe Bowyer’s win here Sunday is simply an omen, an indication that this Chase may be filled with the unexpected. 

500th race for Gordon

The guy Dale Earnhardt once called Wonder Boy, way back when, just logged his 500th NASCAR race yesterday, and Jeff Gordon - now 36 and a new father - showed once again why he’s one of the heavy favorites in the 10-race playoffs for the NASCAR championship.

Gordon, a four-time tour champ gunning for five, may have been a distant six seconds behind runaway winner Clint Bowyer, out of the Richard Childress camp, but Gordon is still the tour’s most consistently powerful driver. 

All eyes on Earnhardt, regardless of Chase

How well will this year’s Chase for the Championship play on television?

That may well depend, ironically, on how well Dale Earnhardt Jr. does, even though he’s not in the official Chase. 

Pit Stops: NASCAR’s fake fans?

Empty seats look terrible on television no matter the sport, and some NASCAR track operators are taking steps to disguise them.

Daytona International Speedway painted about 38,000 grandstand seats varying colors last year, and a new 18-story high grandstand at Richmond International Raceway has chairs molded in red, blue, orange and white. Because color pattern appears random, the seats look occupied in a quick pan by TV cameras. 

Odd man out? Not Bowyer

Remember that old Sesame Street bit — the one that begins, “One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn’t belong ...”?

That’s Clint Bowyer in a nutshell.

Well, one-half of a nutshell. 

Talledega always unpredictable

Talladega Superspeedway, always an unpredictable stop on the NASCAR tour, will be even more so on Oct. 7, because that day’s race is the car-of-tomorrow warm-up for next season’s Daytona 500.
And Monday, NASCAR teams took their first hard look at the new car at Talladega, the Nextel Cup tour’s biggest track. 

And now there are 12

If it’s time to place bets on this year’s NASCAR championship, and if you’re banking on momentum, the men to beat certainly seem clear enough: Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart, all three in Chevrolets.

No one else starting the 12-man chase is even close.

And without Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the Nextel Cup playoffs, something certainly will be missing. The chase field was expanded from 10 to 12 for this season, to try to ensure all the sport’s big names made it. 

Can writer help NASCAR crack into NY market?

Progress slow for Evernham

Gibbs move causing buzz in garage

When the Joe Gibbs gang arrives in Richmond for Saturday’s NASCAR race, there may a few frosty stares from General Motors’ teams.

Gibbs’ three teams— with drivers Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch— made it official yesterday that they will be jumping from General Motors after 16 seasons to Toyota.

Gibbs’ son J.D., the operation’s manager, conceded that the weeks since the news first broke in June that their Chevy operation might move to Toyota have been tough: 

Expanding Chase field backfires on NASCAR

Figuring more qualifiers would mean more excitement and assure all the stars got in, NASCAR added two berths. The move has backfired. There’s virtually no drama heading into Saturday night’s final “regular-season” race at Richmond, and one of the biggest stars — Dale Earnhardt Jr. — probably still won’t get in. 

Earnhardt downcast with Chase hopes dwindling

For Dale Earnhardt Jr. and crew chief Tony Eury Jr. it looks like it’s all over, no shot at this year’s title. 

Hamlin’s hot streak interrupted at Bristol

Hamlin had to start at the rear of the Sharpie 500 field after a pre-race engine change, then his engine blew up just 200 laps in, leaving him dead last.

But Hamlin has been so hot this season that it’s hard to remember that this is only his second full year on the Nextel Cup tour. 

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