Mike Mulhern

Saturday, August 09, 2008

So Jeff Gordon says Jimmie Johnson and Carl Edwards have a championship ‘edge’ over Kyle Busch?!

Marcos Ambrose, who will drive in Sunday’s Cup at the Glen for the Wood brothers, celebrates winning Saturday’s NASCAR Nationwide 200 (Photo by Geoff Burke/Getty Images for NASCAR)

By Mike Mulhern

Hey, remember the Woods?
The legendary stock car team, that ran for years out of a shop just north of Winston-Salem, up in Stuart, Va., suddenly has an ace in the hole at the wheel of their Ford: Aussie Marcos Ambrose.
And if this thing pans out in Sunday’s race at Watkins Glen – admittedly a very big if – the Woods, Len and Eddie, and patriarch Glen and Leonard, could be back in the NASCAR win column for the first time in a long, long, long time.
Get it now, Ambrose is hot.
The little-known racer trying to make in NASCAR, a rookie on the Sprint Cup tour, and a journeyman, trying to land a steady ride, had a shot to win at Sonoma in June with the Woods. He ran as high as second at Bruton Smith’s northern California track, but a gearbox failure 26 laps from the finish – after he got rear-ended by Elliott Sadler—doomed him and the Woods.
And Ambrose had a great shot to win last weekend’s NASCAR Nationwide event at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, battling for the lead all afternoon only to get foiled late by the rain. Ambrose had the quickest car at Montreal, but NASCAR red-flagged the race—while he was running third and awaiting a final pit stop to regain the lead—and called it a day when rain got too heavy.
But Saturday at the Glen Ambrose finally broke through, winning the Nationwide 200, and setting himself up for Sunday’s Cup event with the Woods.

Wow! Is that Richard Petty winning again? Nope, it’s Marcos Ambrose. A star is born? Maybe so. (Photo by John Harrelson/Getty Images for NASCAR)

And Ambrose had the Woods smiling when he posted some of the quickest practice laps Saturday in their Ford: “It’s not every day you can say you topped the charts at the Cup level. We’re really pleased with that.
“It’s a real privilege to drive for the Wood brothers, and I just hope I can play my part in getting them back on track.”
The Woods have struggled mightily lately, and they really don’t have a full-time regular at the wheel. If Ambrose can show something Sunday at the Glen, it could be a sorely needed shot in the arm for the Woods.
However Ambrose will have to start dead-last…which means he’ll have his hands full. “I said to the guys ‘Make it comfortable, because I’m going to have to be aggressive to drive past some cars.
“We might not have the fastest piece, because we’re going to set it up to be comfortable so I can race it well.
“We’re going to have to be smart out there. I want to finish the race and get them some momentum.”
Ambrose is behind the eight-ball, because he not only has very little NASCAR experience but he also has virtually no experience on the fast Watkins Glen course. Of course that was no problem Saturday.
“It’s an old-school track—rough,” Ambrose says.
Well, that may well suit Ambrose, who is a rough driver himself, as he showed in Mexico City earlier this year.
Patience? He just laughs: “I’m not very patient…so we’re in trouble.”

Now that’s a smile! Marcos Ambrose surprised at Sonoma in June, surprised again last weekend at Montreal, and finally won Saturday at the Glen. Now what can he do in the Woods’ Ford in Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at Watkins Glen? (Photo by Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Ambrose isn’t the only guy who may make this Glen race one for the books.
Robby Gordon wants to make a game of it too Sunday. But with rain washing out Friday qualifying, he’ll have to start 31st, and track position is so important on road courses, where passing is tricky. So Gordon may be worth the price of admission, since he’s one of NASCAR’s finest – and most daring – road racers.
“I think we can have a good day,” Gordon says, realizing his sponsorship plans for 2009 – and that’s a $20-million-plus nut to crack – may hinge on how well he does at the upper New York state track.
If nothing, Gordon should make the afternoon exciting: “It a fun track to race.  You can carry a lot of speed around, and there never is a dull moment in the car.”
So deep in the field for the start, Gordon realizes “You have to have some luck.  Running in the back is tough.
“I’m going to have to pick my spots where to pass, and not put my car in a position where I can wreck it or run it off the road.
“The key for us will be to put ourselves up near the front to be in position to make a run that last 20-lap dash.”

Robby Gordon starts Sunday NASCAR race at Watkins Glen in a deep hole, after rain washed out qualifying (Photo by Geoff Burke/Getty Images for NASCAR)

And David Gilliland is also on the hot seat at the Glen, needing a good run – like his spectacular performance at Sonoma in June, where he came within a hair of an amazing upset win – to land sponsorship for struggling car owner Doug Yates.
“Confidence and momentum go a long ways, and we’ve been building some momentum,” Gilliland says. “We’ve had some strong runs, just haven’t had the finishes to show for them.
“But we’ve had some great race cars, and a lot of that stems back to Sonoma—I think that was a turning point for our organization.
“It showed these guys that ‘Hey, we can run up front. We can finish up front.’”
Gilliland concedes his lack of experience at the Glen could hamper him. “But I definitely have a lot of confidence in the car and feel like I can do it.”
Gilliland’s Sonoma run probably shouldn’t have been so surprising, since he’s got plenty of lap time there. But it was an emotional afternoon – “There were a lot of emotions,” he says of that day. “We’ve had our share of difficulties in this series. And that was a day I’ll never forget, for sure.”

David Gilliland had the car to beat at Sonoma....what can he do in Sunday’s race at Watkins Glen? (Photo by Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR)

This Glen weekend has already shaped up as a strange one in several respects, and now Boris Said in a Richard Petty Dodge? Well, when rain knocked Said out of the Sunday field Robbie Loomis, Petty’s general manager, made a quick call, and Said said yes to running in the car that Kyle Petty had planned to drive.
“Before I could say yes, I had to check with Ford, because they have been so good to me this year,” Said said. “They gave me their blessing, and now I get to race.”
Said is one of the world’s best road racers, and he’s still trying to find a bigger niche in NASCAR. Sunday’s run, however, may not be a break – “I’m kind of on a different page,” Said concedes. “If I were racing my car, I’d go all out and take all kinds of chances to win.  But when the Pettys asked me to do this, the most important thing is to get their car in the top-35 in owner points.  So if I can finish in the top-10, that will be a successful day for the 45 team. 
“To take a lot of chances, I just won’t, because I don’t want to go off-track and get a 40th.”
Then again it’s a suddenly new deal all the way around for Said and the Pettys. “It’s really getting to know the team,” Said says. “I’ve never worked with anybody over in the Petty camp, I’ve never driven the car or sat in it before.  That’s the tough part. 
“And the level of communication won’t be there either.
“But last year I got to drive for the Wood brothers, and now the King. I told Richard I want a bonus if I finish in the top-10— I want a signed Richard Petty hat that I can put on my wall.  I think that would be the coolest thing.”

Boris Said got rained out of qualifying for Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at Watkins Glen, but Richard Petty came to his rescue (Photo by Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images for NASCAR)

The Glen surprise could be Dale Earnhardt Jr., on the front row for the start after NASCAR set the starting grid by point standings following Friday’s rain. But then Earnhardt undoubtedly picked up a few tricks from road racing veteran Ron Fellows, who won at Montreal last weekend in Earnhardt’s own Nationwide car.
“He is a good guy, and I have known him for a long time,” Earnhardt says of the well-respected international racer. “But he is a hard act to follow…so I have my work cut out.
“We became friends back in ‘99 (Earnhardt’s break-in season in NASCAR), and I had a lot of respect for him. We got to work together again with Corvette in 2001; he was a teammate when I drove with my father. He has always been glad to help.
“There are people that will help you….but there is a difference in the guy that will help you and the guy that is glad to help you. He is one of those guys happy to lend a hand however he can. He just likes to help people and see them do good.
“He is still a far superior road racer than a lot of the Cup guys in this sport that are regulars. So it’s good to be able to hang out with him.”

Crew chief Tony Eury Jr. (L) talks with Dale Earnhardt Jr. during practice for Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Watkins Glen (Photo by Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Earnhardt’s former teammate at DEI, Martin Truex Jr., has decided not to fight DEI over his contract and just stick it out one more year, even though Truex was vigorously trying to get his release so he could move to another team.
Earnhardt, who knows what it’s like to deal with DEI, says Truex probably made the best move: “It gives Martin another year, and he can see what the landscape is like (for 2010).
“What he did was take the best opportunity, and that was staying where he was. And maybe next year he will have a better opportunity somewhere else…or maybe it will still be where he is.
“I didn’t get in the middle of it. I didn’t talk to Martin. I didn’t talk to Max Siegel (the contract negotiator at DEI). But I am glad they have chosen to do what they did. I think it is good for both of them.
“Martin has a pretty good relationship with his team. He is the premier driver for that whole company.
“So I think Martin made a wise decision to wait it out another year.”

Martin Truex Jr, who just agreed to drive one more year for DEI, doesn’t look too happy (Photo by Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR)

But then Earnhardt has his own business issues – he’s still looking for a sponsor for his Nationwide team for 2009….so maybe Fellows’ win may help.
“I would hope I wouldn’t have a difficult time finding a sponsor,” Earnhardt says. “We have a great team, that runs well and gets a lot of valuable recognition and television time.
“We are talking to a group of people, and hopefully one of those will be a great fit for us.
“But it is a challenge. And I wasn’t anticipating facing this challenge this season.
“Still, it’s part of the business.”

Ron Fellows, holding up his Montreal trophy, draws praise from Dale Earnhardt Jr. for helping him on NASCAR’s road courses. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images for NASCAR)

And Earnhardt isn’t the only Nationwide car owner struggling for dollars. That’s one reason NASCAR has backed off introducing the car-of-tomorrow in that series.
“It really throws a lot of options up in the air when you are talking about bringing the car-of-tomorrow into the Nationwide series,” Earnhardt says. “Depending on where your company is in its growth, you can look at opportunities in Cup (instead of Nationwide) if the sponsorships are there….and I might have a better opportunity finding a sponsor in the Cup series than I would in the Nationwide Series.
“And if I have to build all-new race equipment, and if I can make more money finishing in the back one-third of the Cup series as I can in the front one-third of the Nationwide series…..”

Jeff Gordon, who sorely needs a win this season and could get it Sunday at Watkins Glen International, says he thinks teammate Jimmie Johnson and Ford’s Carl Edwards have a championship ‘edge’ over tour points leader Kyle Busch (Photo by Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Of course the man to beat Sunday has to be Jeff Gordon….or maybe Tony Stewart. They’re the two best on the tour at this type of track. But, surprisingly, they’re both still winless this season.
Stewart’s teammate Kyle Busch has been the tour’s hottest driver, and as the top man in the standings he’s got the best starting spot Sunday.
However Jeff Gordon says he and teammate Jimmie Johnson “are turning the heat up….”
If Johnson were as good on road courses as Gordon, then Johnson would be the man to beat at the Glen. But road racing still doesn’t come quite that naturally to Johnson.
Gordon says it’s that point in the season where momentum starts to play a bigger and bigger role, with the start of the championship chase looming: “Right now most of us think more about momentum than we do anything else….

So who’s your money on in this year’s NASCAR championship: Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch (here), or Carl Edwards?  (Photo: Toyota Motorsports)

“I have always said how much talent Kyle has and the respect I have for him….But where people in the past (with as much of a lead as Busch currently does) have coasted, that is not Kyle Busch. That is not how he does things. He doesn’t know how to coast.
“Last week I saw the right-side flat on his car. The guy doesn’t know how to coast.
“They are pushing hard, they are trying hard…and they might win this weekend, who knows. That is the kind of year they have had, where they’ve been able to surprise you when you least expected it.
“I still think they are definitely one of the teams to beat in the chase.
“But they have shown some vulnerability. Me right now, if I had to put my chips on the table, I would say you have Jimmie and Carl Edwards that to me seem like the guys to beat. Then I would put Kyle next.”
Hmmmmm….sounds like something Busch and crew chief Steve Addington might want to tape to their toolbox….

Agree? Disagree? Don’t just brood. Express yourself here, and make your voice heard clearly in NASCAR headquarters in Daytona and Charlotte and in NASCAR race shops throughout North Carolina and the rest of the country.
We want your reaction, so please comment on this story and offer your own opinions and insight, on this topic, on our NASCAR videos, and anything about NASCAR. Any questions, just ask Mike at . And bookmark this page for continually updated NASCAR reports: http://independenttribune.net/index.php/sports/mulhern/

Now that’s a sight not seen in quite a while—an STP-sponsored car winning a NASCAR race. Give it to Aussie Marcos Ambrose, outrunning Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (5) at Watkins Glen (Photo by Geoff Burke/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Thursday, August 07, 2008

Robby Gordon needs to get something going at Watkins Glen….so he can sign 2009 NASCAR sponsorships

Robby Gordon may be NASCAR’s top rain-racer....will that help him at Watkins Glen? (Photo by Drew Hallowell/Getty Images for NASCAR)

By Mike Mulhern

If Tony Stewart thinks becoming a NASCAR owner-driver will be any panacea next season – even with hefty support from General Motors and Chevy team owner Rick Hendrick – maybe he should drop by Robby Gordon’s hauler or motorcoach and listen for a while.

Gordon gave up a solid job as winning driver for top-notch GM owner Richard Childress four years ago in order to set up a NASCAR team of his own and be his own boss. But he’s still winless on the Cup tour since, and prospects for winning, well, this weekend’s stop at Watkins Glen may be the best shot Gordon has this season to snap that long losing streak.

And there are signs that Gordon, typically upbeat and optimistic about his life on the stock car tour and in those wild off-road events, is getting beaten down by the winds of fate that have been battering him pretty hard lately.

First, there was the Dakar disaster. That January off-road race has been a showcase for Gordon off-season the last few years, and with major GM support he was banking on kicking off this season with something splashy over there. Then the organizers of that event decided terrorists threats were too serious and they cancelled the event. That left Gordon holding the bag. And that substitute event through Romania and Hungary was no make-up.

Then he went through a bad run of luck in the opening weeks of the NASCAR Sprint Cup season. That eighth in the Daytona 500 may have seemed promising, particularly after that NASCAR penalty shocker, but Gordon didn’t score a top-10 again until Daytona’s 400 just a few weeks ago. Heck, Gordon only managed one top-20 during that dismal stretch.

Is Robby Gordon really finding it harder to smile this season? (Photo by Drew Hallowell/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Sponsors are hard to come by this season, and Gordon has lost out big-time, forced to run an unsponsored black paint scheme more times than he expected. Now he’s under the gun to get Jim Beam back as sponsor for 2009….and how well Gordon performs this weekend at Watkins Glen may be key.

Gordon swept Sonoma and the Glen in 2003 while driving for Childress, and the case can be easily made that he made a major mistake leaving the Winston-Salem car owner to pursue a career as owner-driver.

And Gordon may well have made a big mistake in leaving the Chevrolet camp. Last year he was with Ford, but the big story there was car owner Jack Roush taking Gordon’s crew chief, Greg Erwin. This year he jumped to Dodge just days before SpeedWeeks opened….and NASCAR ripped him for $100,000 for having the wrong bumper the first day. He did win an appeal of a points-deduction too, but he’s still just barely hanging in the top-35 – that’s the cutoff for having a guaranteed starting spot in each Sunday’s field.

Gordon has yet to really squelch all those complaints. And he’ll be 40 for next season’s Daytona 500 – not a doomsday milestone by any means, but Gordon needs to start making things happen.

And if Gordon can’t make something big happen at the Glen this weekend….

For those who want to follow Gordon’s uphill quest, he’ll have an in-car ESPN camera Sunday, and he’ll be one of NASCAR’s DirecTV HotPass picks (channels 793 and 798).

Hopefully none of that TV equipment will blow up – like it did at the Glen a few years back, in a bizarre incident that forced him to bail out of his smoke-filled car while on the run toward victory.

Now that’s more like it, Robby. Hey, this is supposed to be fun...even if you do have to rustle up from $22 million to $30 million to play the NASCAR game (Photo by Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR)

“I obviously look forward to the road courses all season and view them as our best opportunities to shine,” Gordon says. “We tested Road Atlanta last week and have spent the last few weeks perfecting our cars for this weekend’s races. I feel really good about this weekend and think we have a legitimate shot of being in victory lane Saturday and Sunday.

“Watkins Glen could be the race we’ve been looking forward to…and the start of something big for our team.

“We have probably a one-in-five or 1-in-10 shot of winning. We put a lot of effort into our road racing effort. This is something I’ve done for 15 years now and I have a lot of experience road racing.”

But the bottom line is Gordon needs to line up big sponsorship for next season. The benchmark is about $30 million; that’s the budget half a dozen top NASCAR Cup teams have to work with. And the bare minimum, according to car owner Felix Sabates, is $22 million.

That’s a lot of money for anyone to try to persuade a company to spend in this sport, particularly on a team that is still winless.

So it may be over-the-top for anyone to suggest Gordon needs to be making plans to expand to a second team. Single-car teams, to be frank, don’t have a chance in NASCAR these days. Even multi-car teams struggle, like Chip Ganassi can attest.

But maybe Gordon can get lucky and put together something for a second team, because it takes at least a two-car operation even to have a prayer in this sport.

Robby Gordon (7) needs some monster sponsorship for 2009. Here in Sonoma he leads the field as Tony Stewart (20) drives off the track. (Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images for NASCAR)

“We still haven’t won with one car…but this weekend’s race hasn’t happened yet either,” Gordon says.

“It’s important to make one car run good first. And we’ve been able to stay inside the top-35.

“But we’d like to position ourselves to win races. A second car is going to help in that. The thing is ‘Who’s going to pay for it, how are you going to do it, and what sponsors are going to be involved in it?

“Obviously sponsors want to be involved with a team that can win races…and I look at this weekend as an opportunity of putting our team in victory lane,” Gordon said, with a trace of panic perhaps. “There have only been three teams this year in victory lane. So if we could pull it off, that would be big.

“I don’t do this out of my own pocket. If I had to pay a driver, I’d probably be in trouble. But because I am the driver and the owner, we can do a little bit of give-and-take and get through, like we’re doing now.”

Robby Gordon can wish.....(Photo by Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)

The rain at Montreal last weekend? Gordon clearly has to be politically correct at the moment, because of his tenuous fight for sponsorship. And that may be chaffing for a guy who is one of the sport’s most outspoken and most volatile.

Gordon wouldn’t bite when pressed about complaints that NASCAR shouldn’t have gone with rain tires at Montreal, for safety reasons as much as anything.

“It looked to me like everybody enjoyed it,” Gordon said diplomatically. “The biggest problem they had was the window fogging up.

“The fans, they put up their umbrellas and they went for it. There are definitely some true fans there in Canada. They were very supportive of the event.”

Uh, yeah. Gordon can make that pitch….but isn’t this the same guy who pitched such a temper tantrum at Montreal last summer?

Oh, well.

Ah, a Gordon-versus-Gordon dogfight at Watkins Glen, now that would make for some fun (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

Besides, Gordon has more on his mind at the moment: like finishing better than that 36th at Sonoma.

“Hopefully we don’t run ourselves out of fuel at Watkins, and we put ourselves in a position to time the pit stops right,” Gordon says ruefully.

“And if we do, I think we’ve got a legitimate shot at winning.

“Pit strategy has a lot to do with winning. Fuel mileage has a lot to do with it. And timing a caution right.

“Our cars have been fast at Sonoma. We ran in the top-three the first half of the (June) race…till we pushed it on fuel mileage. We hung ourselves out. We’ve either not gotten the fuel mileage to have the pit strategy, or we made some bad calls, or had a bad pit stop.

“And there are a lot of good road racers in NASCAR. Mark Martin (who has been very hot lately in that DEI Chevy) has been a phenomenal road racer for as long as I can remember; I teamed up with him in the late ‘80s and we won the 24 Hours of Daytona together.

Robby Gordon may be the only driver in NASCAR who doesn’t fear racing in the rain. Here Ron Fellows at rainy Montreal last weekend (Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images for NASCAR)

“Now Ron Fellows—winning in the rain at Montreal – is a normal, traditional road race driver who has some experience – and advantage—in rain situations.

“But the last eight years in Cup races it’s been a NASCAR regular who’s won.”

And maybe this weekend that will – finally – be Robby Gordon.

Marcus Smith, here with actress Minka Kelly, insists Kentucky Speedway would be a great addition to NASCAR’s Cup tour (Photo by Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)

THE NASCAR NOTEBOOK

Will Bruton Smith and his Speedway Motorsports (SMI) track holding company go ahead and buy Kentucky Speedway, as Smith promised back in May?
Maybe so, maybe not.
That’s the iffy judgment offered Wednesday by Bill Brooks, the chief financial officer for SMI, during the company’s second-quarter Wall Street conference call: “The Kentucky due diligence is ongoing and is not complete. Once it is, we will make a final decision, and file one way or the other by the end of this month.
“I cannot answer definitively if we will go forward…..”
Smith, in May, jumped into the middle of the long-running battle between the Kentucky track and NASCAR – the track is suing NASCAR over not getting a Sprint Cup tour date. And Smith said then he was convinced he could get Kentucky a Cup date on NASCAR’s 2009 tour.
NASCAR executives replied that they had no plans to add Kentucky. And until Kentucky’s Jerry Carroll does abandon his legal fight with NASCAR, the Daytona sanctioning body is unlikely to give any ground.
The track cost about $150 million to build. It’s hosted sold-out NASCAR Busch/Nationwide races and Indy-car events. But no Cup race.
Smith, who said he plans to expand the track to 120,000 seats, agreed to buy Kentucky by assuming considerable track debt, about $63.3 million, and paying $15 million in cash. However the deal included a clause that gives Smith 90 days to back out, and that deadline is looming.
Since its low of $17.72 a share a month ago, the company’s stock has moved up to a close of $20.10 Thursday. However that’s still well off its 52-week high of $40.63. 
Marcus Smith, Bruton’s son and now head of SMI, says he understands all the questions about Kentucky Speedway. But he could offer few answers.
“It is a tremendous facility, and the market is fantastic for sports. You talk about sports fans, that area is in a fever over sports,” Marcus Smith says.
“If we are able to get a Cup date at that facility, and acquire it at a good price, that would give us a very strong facility and a great anchor in what is a Midwest area where we don’t have a race…and a unique area of the country for NASCAR, that really hasn’t been served.
“Some people say ‘It’s close to Bristol.’
“But Bristol is ‘close’ to Charlotte. And Charlotte is close to other facilities, and Atlanta is close to Talladega, and Phoenix is close to Las Vegas.
“This sport has grown up around itself.
“And there are millions of people around that facility who could support it if we have a Cup date there. Our hope is to realign a Cup date to that facility if we close on the transaction. And we’ll have a board discussion on that soon.”
And Marcus Smith said it was possible that SMI would move one of its current Cup tour dates to Kentucky. “That is one of the potential options we would have,” Smith said.

Agree? Disagree? Don’t just brood. Express yourself here, and make your voice heard clearly in NASCAR headquarters in Daytona and Charlotte and in NASCAR race shops throughout North Carolina and the rest of the country.
We want your reaction, so please comment on this story and offer your own opinions and insight, on this topic, on our NASCAR videos, and anything about NASCAR. Any questions, just ask Mike at . And bookmark this page for continually updated NASCAR reports: http://independenttribune.net/index.php/sports/mulhern/

Robby Gordon needs to keep better track of gas mileage at the Glen...running out of gas is a no-no (Photo by Todd Warshaw/Getty Images)

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Contract-crunch time coming for drivers, like Patrick Carpentier: Will he stay or will he go?

Patrick Carpentier and his daughter wave to the crowd at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, where his turnaround began (Photo by Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR)

By Mike Mulhern

For Patrick Carpentier this may be judgment week: is he doing the job?
The Montreal native, who is making a racing comeback this season, in NASCAR no less, after most of his career in open-wheel, may sport the biggest smile in the sport. 
And he’s incurably upbeat, despite setbacks that might get a lesser man down.
But then this is a performance business, and will Carpentier’s numbers be enough to keep him in the seat of George Gillett’s and Ray Evernham’s Dodges?
Carpentier by the numbers:
He ran second in NASCAR’s rain-marred Nationwide event at Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve last weekend, and he’ll be on a road course again this weekend at Watkins Glen. He’s averaging a 25th place start and a 30th place finish on the Cup tour, and he’s made 17 of the 21 events, sitting 37th in the standings. He’s has his two best runs of the season in the past few weeks, a 14th at Daytona and an 18th at Indianapolis. Last weekend at Pocono Terry Labonte took the ride while Carpentier was in Montreal, and Labonte ‘benchmarked’ the car with a 32nd place finish, and a 25th place start.
For comparison, last year Scott Riggs, now in his fifth season on the tour, was in this ride, and at this point of the season he was 36th in the standings, after making 17 of the 21 events.

Tony Stewart and rookie Patrick Carpentier at Indianapolis (Photo by Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR)

So what happens next? “We’re going to find that out around August 15th ,” Carpentier says. “I really hope it comes out positive. 
“I think Gillett Evernham is pretty happy.  Most of the sponsors that were at our sponsor summit in Montreal last weekend were happy. Valvoline, LifeLock, Auto Value, all our sponsors seem to be happy. 
“I hope they are happy enough to keep me for next year…and I hope Gillett Evernham is happy as well, because I like being here, and I like driving this car.
“We’ve improved so much since the beginning of the year….
“There are so many things—but patience is so important.  I’ve learned you have to be so smooth. In qualifying you can be tough on the car and drive it pretty hard, but once you go racing you can drive it hard but you have to be really, really smooth and let the car do the work.
“You have to let the car do what it wants.”

Time to sweat for rookie Patrick Carpentier, here running at Sonoma (Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images for NASCAR)

For Carpentier this run could make or break his comeback.
“Last year Watkins Glen was the first race we had led some laps,” he says. “We had a good race. I went off-track a couple of times. But the car was fast.
“The last five or six races Dodge has given me a really good engine.  We’ve had some good power coming out of the corners, and I’ve really been happy with the engine’s performance.”
Carpentier also plans to run Saturday’s Nationwide race at the Glen…and Carpentier needs all the laps he can get: “There are so many tricks you have to learn in these Cup cars.  At Loudon I gained four-tenths per lap by just driving differently and using different race lines (in the Nationwide race), and it actually worked during the Sprint Cup race.  In the Cup race at Loudon we actually stayed with the leaders until we had a brake problem.”

Patrick Carpentier waves to fans prior to the NASCAR Nationwide 200 in Montreal Saturday at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Would you run 150 mph in the rain like this—on eight-year-old tires? Jacques Villeneuve, the former World Champion, did in NASCAR’s Nationwide race in Montreal...here just moments before he crashed.(Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Road courses, Carpentier says, are fun, even Montreal in the rain. “I just wish the conditions would have been a little bit better, because I know that Ron Fellows (the winner, when the race was stopped 60 miles short of the scheduled finish) didn’t have enough fuel to go all the way to the end of the race,” Carpentier said.
“We had already made our pit stop, and our car was great after we made the stop, even a few seconds faster a lap than he was.
“But anytime you can finish in the top-three in that series, you’ve had a pretty good day.  I was really happy that we actually had a race. The fans stayed despite the rain.  The drivers did a good job, and we didn’t have too many yellow flags.”
The Nationwide cars are different than the Cup cars, so Carpentier has tested for the Glen at Road Atlanta, “and hopefully we’ll get a better result than we did in Sonoma.”
Pressure? The guy seems to thrive on it. And, hey, he’s proven to be a darned good qualifier, which is not easy. “Ever since I’ve been in NASCAR, I’ve only had one shot at it—I have to qualify the car every week to make the race. I’ll give it my best, and there’s nothing more you can do.
“In Montreal I went back expecting results, and they don’t necessarily come. But we never panicked, and ended up in second place. And if the race would have kept going, we may have won it.”

Whatever happens next, Carpentier has certainly made an adventure of this NASCAR life: “We live in the motor coach and just travel. I sit beside my driver and just watch the road and relax.
“I like being on the road, so it’s not too bad. But NASCAR has been tougher than I thought it would be. With these cars and the schedule and the traveling, it’s tough. But I’m getting used to it.
“Stock cars have tires half of the size of Indy cars, with much more horsepower.  You have to be so careful not to burn up the rear tires and really be smooth with the car. You need a little bit more finesse with a stock car.
“And a stock car is mentally tougher to drive on an oval because you are so close to each other, with 43 cars on the track.  Plus the car moves around so much with all the air disturbance. 
“And there are so many tricks you can pull on each other with the aero, just by being beside someone. 
“The last five races I’m starting to get really comfortable in the car.
“NASCAR is the most fun I’ve ever had racing. I just appreciate the moment. We race in front of crowds that are unbelievable. I feel like a pretty fortunate guy.”

Ron Fellows driving in the rain during the Montreal 200 last weekend at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve (Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images for NASCAR)

THE NASCAR NOTEBOOK

Rain tires were ordered by NASCAR at Montreal last weekend, in a very rare, almost unprecedented move….and a move not likely to be repeated.
NASCAR stockers don’t race in the rain, and don’t test for racing in the rain. NASCAR is supposed to require that all cars are setup with windshield wipers and rain-racing devices, but some of the details tend to get lost or overlooked.
Patrick Carpentier, who finished second to winner Ron Fellows in a one-two Canadian finish, has raced in the rain before but still had trouble: “The windshield wipers worked for a while, but where the windshield was, I couldn’t see out the right side of the car. The windshield would fog up more where the windshield wiper was, so sometimes I would shut it off…because the wind was too strong for the wiper to come back down,” Carpentier said.
“The thing that made me laugh is when I saw Carl Edwards squeegeeing out of the window. That was the highlight of the race.  I was like ‘Where the heck did he get that squeegee?’ Maybe he stopped at a gas station on the way to the track.”

NASCAR rain tires have grooves to channel water away from under the contact patch (Photo: Toyota Motorsports)

NASCAR asked Goodyear to develop rain tires about 12 years ago when it was planning a series of exhibition races in Japan. The thinking then was to be able to get the event in, regardless of the weather. And teams did qualify once over there in the rain.
However when NASCAR tried to get drivers to actually run a few laps on rain tires at Watkins Glen, they all but mutinied, most drivers simply refusing NASCAR orders to get out on the track and run some laps. Terry Labonte did a few runs, but when he hydroplaned and nearly crashed on the frontstretch, NASCAR quickly called a halt to that experiment.
What was learned: for these 3400-pound cars to run in the rain, the track itself must be immaculate, with great drainage, no bumps, and no puddles. Even at that, racing in the rain for NASCAR is really almost a joke – visibility is the really the biggest issue, with windshields not only wet but foggy, and with roostertails leaving drivers running blind. Now with enough practice, and foresight, and equipment, certainly it could be done. Every other major racing series runs in the rain. But NASCAR has never made much of a push for such advance work, in part because of such resistance from drivers.
Racing in the rain, in short, is not impossible….but it’s not going to be NASCAR-type racing, side-by-side, bumping-and-grinding.

Carpentier has raced in the rain in other series. What did he think about Montreal and the rain?
“I was impressed with the rain tires Goodyear brought,” he said. “The tires were around eight years old and pretty dried out, but still really good on the braking, and would actually stop the car more than I thought they would. 
“I could still use the brakes really hard, and I made a couple of passes, which was good, and got passed a couple of times. 
“But once the track got all the water on it, it gets a little dangerous and they had to call the race.
“Every time we had to stop for a yellow, the rear window would fog up. All the teams put Rain-X on the front windshield, but forgot to put it on the back window.  So every time that we stopped, it would fog up for a lap or two.  That was the hardest part. 
“But other than that, it was like any other race I’ve done in the past—you have to be more careful and try to be smooth, not push too hard.  I enjoyed it.”
Eight-year-old tires? Dried out?
Safety first?
Well, this week at the Glen, there won’t be any rain tires used, apparently. And drivers certainly won’t miss them.

Billionaire Bruton Smith keeps getting richer. Must be smart. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Bruton Smith’s Speedway Motorsports (NYSE:TRK) reports second-quarter revenues of $212.8 million, net income of $47.0 million, and diluted earnings per share of $1.08. So for the first six month of 2008, the track holding company has record total revenues of $368.0 million, record net income of $77.9 million, and record diluted earnings per share of $1.79.
Smith’s company says the addition of New Hampshire Motor Speedway and the Bristol NHRA event were big factors in the increase, which comes despite “the ongoing effects on admission revenues of escalating gas prices and other difficult economic conditions.”
The company says it expects to earn $2.40 to $2.50 this year, in line with previous estimates.
Speedway Motorsports also says it’s seen “significantly improved operating results” from its souvenir business.
The company also said: “Texas Motor Speedway attracted strong attendance at its NASCAR Samsung 500 Sprint Cup and O’Reilly 300 Nationwide Series racing events, and Lowe’s Motor Speedway attracted significantly higher attendance at its NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race, and strong attendance at its Coca-Cola 600 Sprint Cup Series and CARQUEST Auto Parts 300 Nationwide Series, racing events. New Hampshire Motor Speedway hosted large crowds at its NASCAR LENOX Industrial Tools 301 Sprint Cup Series, and near record attendance at its Camping World RV Sales 200 presented by RVs.com Nationwide Series, racing events.
“Other highlights include Infineon Raceway (Sonoma, Calif.) hosting a successful Toyota/Save Mart 350 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series racing weekend, and Texas Motor Speedway’s Bombardier Learjet 550 IndyCar and Sam’s Town 400 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series racing events attracting large crowds.”
Despite all that, the company said “admissions, concessions, souvenir merchandising and other event-related second quarter and year-to-date 2008 revenues were negatively impacted by declines in consumer spending from higher fuel prices and difficult consumer credit and housing markets. SMI also believes year-to-date 2008 revenues were negatively impacted by poor weather surrounding certain NASCAR racing events held at AMS and BMS in the first quarter 2008.”

J. J. Yeley is now looking for a new ride (Photo: Toyota Motorsports)

J. J. Yeley was dropped Wednesday by team owner Tom Garfinkel, and 20-year-old Brad Coleman will get the ride and make his Cup debut next week at Michigan International Speedway.
P. J. Jones has already been lined up to run the team’s Toyota this week at Watkins Glen.
Garfinkel called Yeley “a talented race car driver and a great person, and this was a difficult decision.
“We all share responsibility that our performance hasn’t been what it needs to be, but we concluded it was time to make a change.  This is a performance-based industry and we need to perform better.  We’re confident J.J. will be successful in this sport in whatever his next challenge is.”
Coleman has run 42 NASCAR Nationwide races, highlighted by a pole at Talladega in April and a second-place finish at Kentucky in June.

Agree? Disagree? Don’t just brood. Express yourself here, and make your voice heard clearly in NASCAR headquarters in Daytona and Charlotte and in NASCAR race shops throughout North Carolina and the rest of the country.
We want your reaction, so please comment on this story and offer your own opinions and insight, on this topic, on our NASCAR videos, and anything about NASCAR. Any questions, just ask Mike at . And bookmark this page for continually updated NASCAR reports: http://independenttribune.net/index.php/sports/mulhern/

Patrick Carpentier, at Indianapolis, has finally started coming on strong the past five weeks (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Jimmie Johnson says no to rain tires at Watkins Glen…so why at Montreal? Safety issues here?

Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Carl Edwards and Denny Hamlin last summer at the Glen. Gordon and Stewart have won 15 of the last 22 NASCAR Cup tour road races, and Stewart goes for two in a row at Watkins Glen International Sunday (Photo Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)

By Mike Mulhern

Rain tires at the Glen this week?

NASCAR just did it with the Nationwide series at Montreal. And NASCAR first tested rain tires at Watkins Glen a few years back.

But Jimmie Johnson says ‘no way’ for rain tires in a Cup race.

“NASCAR made a statement last week that there is no way that the Cup cars would run on rain tires under any set of circumstances,” Johnson said.

“I enjoyed watching it, a lot like everyone did.

“But you want to put on a quality show….and I’m not sure our (Nationwide) cars were at speed (at Montreal) and easy enough to drive to really put on a quality show.

“I spoke to Clint Bowyer and Carl Edwards and those guys, and they said they had an absolute blast. But I don’t think they put on a show for the fans.

“If you’re spending money to come sit in the grandstands and watch a race, you want to see a competitive race…and not a rain race where you have guys just tiptoeing around.”

So what was NASCAR really doing at Montreal?

ESPN’s broadcast from Pocono, despite a 40-minute rain delay, was essentially even with last year’s show, with a 4.5 rating. And ESPN2’s coverage of the Montreal race was up slightly from 2007, a 1.5 rating, from last year’s 1.4. For the season ESPN2’s coverage of the Nationwide series is averaging a 1.7, up 15 percent.

Road racing in this area began in Watkins Glen in upstate New York in 1948, when sports cars ran on the village streets around Lake Seneca. The Glen consists of 11 turns, and is a 2.454-mile layout. (Photo Credit: Racing One/Getty Images)

Well, that was last week, and this is this week, and Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon – both still winless this season – should be the men to beat at the New York road course.

Should be.

But then maybe not.

But Johnson knows he’s probably not the pick either.

Still Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus do appear to have finally turned things around.

They came close to making it two-in-a-row Sunday at Pocono.

However this weekend they’ll be at Watkins Glen, and road courses really haven’t been their forte.

Hey, Denny: That’s cute, but doesn’t it go faster with all four wheels on the pavement? (Photo Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Maybe running Saturday’s Nationwide race will give Johnson a brush-up for Sunday’s feature.

Johnson is also adding the Truck race at Bristol later this month; that too is a track where Johnson has yet to really shine.

“The primary reason would be to get more seat time and be more competitive Sunday in the Cup car,” Johnson says.

If Johnson and Knaus are finally back on track, it’s perfect timing, with the championship chase starting in just a few weeks.

“It’s just been hard work – We’ve been working extremely hard since January-February, when we realized we were off on the 1-1/2-miles,” Johnson says.

“We feel we’re doing the right things. But the tracks we’ve been at recently (like Indianapolis and Pocono) are pretty unique, tracks we won’t see in the chase.

Now that’s the game face Jeff Gordon will need this weekend at the Glen (Photo by Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR)

“So while I’m very proud about where we’re at, I’d still like to be a little nervous and concerned—and thinking our team does a better job hungry and not sitting back and feeling like we’re there.

“We’ve still got a lot of testing planned. The thing I look at the most would be our performance in Chicago (where he would have won, if not for a mistake on the final restart)….and think that will carry over.

“Then you get into some of the odd tracks in the chase, like Martinsville and Loudon and Phoenix. Those tracks we’ve run well at this year already.

“So I think we’re going in the right direction.

“But you just never know…There are some guys showing a lot of strength—Kyle Busch. When we get back on some of these big-banked tracks, I’m sure he’ll have his form back.

“And you look at Carl Edwards—Carl is pretty good on all types of tracks.”

At the moment the title chase is shaping up as Kyle Busch versus Carl Edwards versus Jimmie Johnson. “Right now it feels that way,” Johnson says. “But once you re-rack the points (essentially to zero for the final 10 races), everybody is on top of one another…and you’ve got guys like Jeff Burton and Matt Kenseth is in it, or close to it.

“I see Matt as a championship contender each year. I see Jeff Gordon as a championship contender each year.”

Jimmie Johnson: but does he really need to run well at the Glen to be a title contender? (Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images)

Ah, but Gordon still hasn’t won this season, Stewart hasn’t won, Greg Biffle hasn’t won, Kevin Harvick hasn’t won, Kenseth hasn’t won, Mark Martin hasn’t won….

That’s a lot of catching up to do.

“I’m sure it’s frustrating,” Johnson says. “At the beginning of this year we went 20-some races without a win…and I found it odd I was being criticized for not winning.

“I look at some of the good performances Jeff has had. I look at Tony and imagine how frustrating it must be for him. You look at Charlotte, coming down to the final laps.

“As I continue on in my career I’m sure there’s going to be a point where I go through that. Nobody is immune to it. It happens to different people at different times.

“Quite honestly I’ve been fortunate to win all the races I have.

“You just never know when you’re going to stop winning.”

But Johnson says if he were betting on the championship this season, he’d probably bet on someone who’s been there before.

Hey, isn’t it time again for Juan Pablo Montoya to show us why he’s a world-class road racer? (Photo by Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)

“Experience is great—You can just take it to the next level if you’ve been there before and you know what the pressures are going to be…even down to the race tracks and how they are going to evolve through a race if they take rubber,” Johnson says.

“Experience in anything is so crucial.

“It doesn’t mean it can’t be done as a rookie. It doesn’t mean somebody in the chase for the first time can’t win it, or somebody with less experience can’t win it.

“But from my own experience—even starting back to the championships I lost in the Off-Road ranks, like one by two points back in ’97, crushing—that experience taught me and helped me to be stronger today and deal with the pressures and championship battles.

“Carl is going to be one of the favorites for the championship. He’s shown strength on all forms of tracks. And he’s also shown a lot of maturity behind the wheel. That comes with experience.”

Knowing who to race and when to race could be key to not making those critical mistakes. And Johnson says there’s pressure all through the field: “Everybody is fighting for something right now.

“At the start of the year everyone is pretty easy going. When you get to this part of the season, silly season is starting, contracts are up, people need points to get into the chase, people need points to be in the top-35. There are just a lot of things going on.

“The intensity really ratchets up.”

And some of that intensity this fall may be between NASCAR and its perennial fall rival, the NFL. That could be a wild card in the next few weeks as this sport gears up for that challenge.

Agree? Disagree? Don’t just brood. Express yourself here, and make your voice heard clearly in NASCAR headquarters in Daytona and Charlotte and in NASCAR race shops throughout North Carolina and the rest of the country.
We want your reaction, so please comment on this story and offer your own opinions and insight, on this topic, on our NASCAR videos, and anything about NASCAR. Any questions, just ask Mike at . And bookmark this page for continually updated NASCAR reports: http://independenttribune.net/index.php/sports/mulhern/

Watkins Glen in 1957: Buck Baker winning in NASCAR’s first-ever stop at the now legendary road course. Can you pick the car brand? And, uh, Buck, aren’t you going the wrong way? (Photo Credit: Racing One/Getty Images)