Nascar: March 2009

Monday, March 30, 2009

In The Pits: Stewart off to strong start as owner

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- In 284 races spanning seven years and 12 different drivers, Haas CNC Racing never sniffed success.

Its equipment was below par, its sponsorship was inadequate and its drivers started each race knowing they had no chance to win. Johnny Sauter came closest, fifth at Richmond in 2007. So a top-10 finish once in a while was a more realistic goal for the fledgling race team.

Then along came Tony Stewart.

Although few had high expectations for Stewart in his first season as majority owner at renamed Stewart-Haas Racing, Smoke is proving them wrong one week at a time. His third-place finish Sunday at Martinsville Speedway, coupled with teammate Ryan Newman's sixth-place run, showed that Stewart wasted no time revamping his team.

"You know, it's coming. It just takes time," Stewart said after his fourth top-10 finish in six races.

It became evident early that Stewart wasn't taking his latest venture lightly. He was lured from the comfort of Joe Gibbs Racing, where he won two championships in 10 successful seasons, for the challenge of tearing down Gene Haas' race team and rebuilding it from scratch.

He aggressively pursued the top talent in NASCAR. He used his wit and charm to draw sponsors that previously ignored the team. He scored Office Depot and Old Spice for himself, and the U.S. Army for Newman.

Stewart then persuaded Darian Grubb to leave Hendrick Motorsports and pulled Tony Gibson from Dale Earnhardt Inc., putting two NASCAR veterans atop his two pit boxes. Next came Bobby Hutchens, who left Richard Childress Racing to run Stewart's competition department.

With all the personnel in place, the team wasted no time proving itself.

Stewart was strong every time he hit the track at Daytona, and if a failed tire had not triggered an accident between Stewart and Newman in the final practice, Stewart might have contended for the season-opening Daytona 500. Although he finished eighth, it was proof that venturing out on his own had not cost Stewart a bit.

Newman was not as fortunate, slogging through a rough first month. He was 36th at Daytona and 28th the next week in California. Las Vegas and Atlanta were not much better, and Newman headed into the first off weekend of the season ranked 32nd in the standings.

It was maddening to Stewart, the car owner. He knew Newman's team had the same tools as he did but couldn't put together the one solid run to get things going.

Stewart-Haas Racing needed just one week off to regroup, though. Newman unloaded fast at Bristol two weeks ago and outpaced Stewart the entire weekend en route to a seventh-place finish. It was the confidence booster the team needed. The result carried into Martinsville, where Newman passed Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Mark Martin for a season-best sixth-place finish.

In just two races, Newman has jumped all the way to 18th in the standings. Stewart, meanwhile, is seventh and in contention for a spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.

"I think Tony has put a lot of sweat equity into it," rival team owner Rick Hendrick said. "I think he's surprised a lot of people. I haven't been surprised because I know the dedication and what they've tried to do."

Hendrick is somewhat vested in Stewart's effort: He leases motors to SHR and is available for Stewart to use as a sounding board for ideas for his race team. He was unwavering in his preseason belief that Stewart would be a contender this year -- and win races -- despite all the naysayers who were certain he'd be humbled by the difficulties of running a team.

But he took everything he learned in 10 years working under Joe Gibbs and applied it. His stamp is all over the success, but Stewart credits the team he's assembled for the fast start.

"The great thing is that everybody does their job," he said. "I don't feel like I have to watch the guy that's paying the bills, and I don't have to watch the bills coming in and out because we've got good people who to take care of that area.

"Hiring those right people in those right spots, it's taken a lot of pressure off of me having to oversee everybody. I feel like I could literally not go to the shop for the whole year almost, and other than signing paperwork, it would run just fine with or without me in the shop."

That could mean trouble for the competition. Few expected Stewart to lock down a spot in the Chase this season driving for what essentially became a startup team after he dismantled Haas CNC Racing. But if they're still in good shape after the first half of the season, Stewart and Newman could be legitimate contenders by late summer.

"It's like we say every Monday in our competition meeting: We've just got to build a database first," Stewart said. "Once we get that established, then I think the second time we come around we're going to be a little better yet."

Harvick's pass gets him trucks win at Martinsville

MARTINSVILLE, Va. (AP) -- After staring at Kyle Busch's rear bumper for 67 laps, Kevin Harvick knew it was time to make a move.

Harvick dropped to the inside of Busch, passed him with just over nine laps to go and held on through an abbreviated final restart to win the rain-delayed and caution-filled trucks race Monday before a very sparse crowd at Martinsville Speedway.

"Every lap the pressure just needed to go up a little bit more and a little bit more," Harvick said of Busch, who had led for 139 laps. "I was able to get to his bumper there and get him up about a half a groove, and I got up under him. ... I didn't want to wreck him, but I knew it was time to start applying the pressure pretty heavily."

Harvick's pass came after one failed attempt to take the lead and several laps running his Chevrolet right on the bumper of Busch's Toyota at the Kroger 250 in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Once he got to the inside, the two dueled side-by-side to the flag stand.

After a crash brought out the 13th of 14 cautions, Harvick outran Ron Hornaday Jr. on the restart on lap 249 until another crash allowed him to coast to the victory under a caution.

In all, 14 yellow flags slowed the pace for 80 laps.

Even before the last caution, Harvick said, he felt comfortable as Hornaday's boss that the driver with a reputation for being aggressive when fighting for a lead would behave.

"I knew in that situation he knew he wasn't losing anything," Harvick said of the truck series regular. "Obviously, he wants to win, but he wasn't losing anything by having me in front of him. He had all the competitors points-wise that he needed behind him."

The victory was the fourth for Harvick in 97 truck series starts, and Hornaday joked that Harvick is wrong to think the employer-employee relationship carries onto the track.

"I didn't care who it was" up front, Hornaday said. "I was too busy watching (Mike) Skinner lay back on me so I looked in the mirror to see how far back he was and Kevin took off."

Skinner finished third, followed by Johnny Benson and Rick Crawford.

"I was waiting for (Harvick and Busch) to wreck each other, and then you and I were going to have some old times," Skinner told Hornaday after the race. "We were going to have some fun."

Busch, the series points leader entering the race, was forced to pit after losing the lead when he drove over the line that obligates a driver to visit pit road. He finished 17th.

Clearly unhappy with NASCAR's ruling, made after Busch crossed the line while trying to use the inside wall to stop a fender from rubbing his left front tire, Busch climbed from his truck, ran down pit road and climbed over the outside wall and out of the track.

Busch, who won two of the first three races, remained the points leader by 38 over Todd Bodine, who ran in the top 10 for most of the day but crashed twice late and finished 18th.

The event, rained out Saturday, attracted only a few thousand fans.

"The biggest fun was when you walk down the hill from the motor home and see all the big haulers leave with all the souvenirs and still see these fans sitting in the stands to watch us race," Hornaday said. "If it wasn't for the fans, we wouldn't be able to do this."

Jimmie Johnson testifies in Castroneves tax trial

usas/jjordan usas/ngillespie usas/jnkay

MIAMI (AP) -- NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson was the leadoff defense witness Monday in the Helio Castroneves tax evasion trial, testifying that a lawyer who is also charged in the case has a sterling reputation in the motorsports world.

Johnson, a three-time Sprint Cup winner, said Michigan lawyer Alan Miller has many clients in NASCAR and the Indy Racing League, a circuit where the Brazilian-born Castroneves is a top driver. Both Castroneves and Johnson have received financial guidance from Miller.

"Alan's reputation is about honesty. His character is second to none," Johnson testified in a 10-minute appearance. "He's given me great advice."

Miller, 71, is charged with conspiracy and tax evasion for allegedly helping Castroneves, 33, and the driver's business manager-sister, 35-year-old Katiucia, avoid U.S. taxes on some $5.5 million from 1999 to 2004. All three face more than six years in prison if convicted.

Prosecutors rested their case Monday after four weeks of testimony, much of it focused on Miller's role in handling financial arrangements when Castroneves was hired by Penske Racing in late 1999. Prosecutors say the deal illegally avoided U.S. taxes on $5 million of the Penske money, which first was earmarked for a Panamanian shell corporation and then wound up in a Dutch deferred compensation account.

Johnson, 33, said Miller -- a former professional football player and former NFL Players Association lawyer -- has represented him for about 12 years and came widely recommended by racing industry leaders.

"I needed help to grow in my career. Alan was that guy for me," said Johnson, who won his 41st career NASCAR race Sunday at Martinsville, Va.

The defense case for Castroneves, a two-time Indianapolis 500 winner, and his co-defendants is expected to take about a week. Howard Srebnick, attorney for Katiucia Castroneves, told jurors that evidence will show what the Internal Revenue Service claims were improper tax deductions were actually payments to their father for his years in Brazil working to promote Helio Castroneves.

"There was an understanding, and a moral obligation on the part of Helio, to pay his father," Srebnick said.

Castroneves also does not owe U.S. taxes on the $5 million sitting in the Dutch account because he has not yet received it, Srebnick said. Prosecutors claim the taxes were owed because Penske was ready and able to pay Castroneves, who cannot avoid tax just because he didn't accept the money.

Either way, Srebnick said Castroneves relied on advice from experts like Miller and others for his financial dealings.

"If the best-known lawyer in the racing community gives you that advice, you follow that advice. That's what Helio did," Srebnick said.

Aside from his racing career, Castroneves is perhaps best known for his 2007 victory on TV's "Dancing With The Stars" competition. The tax case does not involve his appearance on that show.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Mr. Martinsville: Johnson wins again at paper clip

MARTINSVILLE, Va. (AP) -- Jimmie Johnson didn't have the car to beat until late in the Goody's 500 on Sunday, but that he emerged at the right time should have been no surprise.

After all, he is Mr. Martinsville.

Johnson nudged Denny Hamlin aside in the third and fourth turns with 15 laps to go at Martinsville Speedway, and gave team owner Rick Hendrick a perfect place to celebrate the 25th anniversary of his first victory in NASCAR's premier series: Victory Lane.

Johnson and Hamlin had differing views of the pass that gave Johnson his fifth victory in the last six races on NASCAR's smallest, trickiest track. Hamlin said it was a bump and standard short-track fare, while Johnson thought the video would change Hamlin's opinion.

On the pass, Johnson caught Hamlin and got inside him on the backstretch on the 485th lap. From the outside, Hamlin tried to cut down in front of Johnson, bringing the contact.

Johnson gathered control and grabbed the lead, while Hamlin kept his car from hitting the wall and tried to give chase, but Johnson pulled away easily and coasted to the victory.

"If he wants to think that I tried moving him out of the way, he can believe that, but he should watch the video and see that I was inside of him," Johnson said. "I did everything I could to miss him -- climbed up on the curb -- and he was still coming down.

"The only reason we touched and the only reason he ended up in the rubber where he couldn't come back and get me was the fact that he chopped me," he added. "I patiently worked to get that spot, to get the position inside of him, and he crowded me on the bottom."

Hamlin said he bore no ill will, but will look forward to a chance to reciprocate.

"I would have done the same to him and if it comes back around, I will do the same thing." he said. "It's just the way it is. At Martinsville, you've got to battle for every inch."

No one, clearly, does that better than Johnson.

Dubbed "Mr. Martinsville" by Jeff Gordon, Johnson won for the fifth time in the last six races here and for the sixth time overall, second among active drivers to Gordon's seven.

And he did it by biding his time, falling back in the pack early in the race to get his car right, and then using the improved car and some slick work in the pits to make it pay.

The victory was the 18th for Hendrick Motorsports at Martinsville, where a victory by Geoff Bodine 25 years ago gave the fledgling company a needed boost, and the 10th in the last 13 races. Johnson has won six of those, and Gordon has won the other four.

Hendrick, who missed that first win, gave Johnson a bear hug in Victory Lane.

Johnson's 41st career victory came after Gordon, who led 147 laps, and then Hamlin, who led 296, dominated for most of the race, and after it looked like Hamlin had outfoxed him.

After Johnson took the lead coming out of the pits with 72 laps to go, Hamlin ducked inside him on a restart with 45 laps to go. The move gave the Virginia native the position he needed to take the lead, and he held onto it through three restarts until 15 laps remained.

Hamlin, the defending race champion, never challenged Johnson after he slid high into the banking after the winning pass, and his winless streak extended to 32 races.

Hamlin recovered to finish second in his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, followed by Tony Stewart, Gordon and Clint Bowyer. Ryan Newman was sixth with Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt Jr. next, giving Hendrick four of the top eight spots and Stewart-Haas Racing two.

Stewart, who had the best view of the duel for the lead, was disappointed the leaders' battle and contact didn't give him a chance to take advantage, but thrilled nonetheless.

"We're inching up closer," said Stewart, a first-year owner who also owns Newman's car.

Gordon, who started on the pole for the eighth time at the track when qualifying was rained out and the starting lineup was set by the point standings, ran in the top five for most of the day, but still saw his winless streak extend to a career-high 47 races.

Gordon remained the points leader by 89 over Bowyer.

"I'm not really concerned with this streak of how many wins we haven't had in a row," Gordon said. "I am more concerned with what we have to do this year to win races and win this championship. You certainly don't want to give that No. 48 (Johnson) momentum."

Rain pushes truck race at Martinsville to Monday

MARTINSVILLE, Va. (AP) -- The truck race scheduled for Saturday at Martinsville Speedway was postponed because of steady rain and has been rescheduled for noon Monday.

Rick Crawford won the pole during morning qualifying in a light drizzle, but the rain increased in intensity as the 2 p.m. starting time approached. It was called an hour later.

Crawford won the pole with a lap at 94.737 mph in his Ford. He'll start on the inside of the front row with Shane Sieg to his outside. Sieg's lap was at 94.326 mph in his Toyota.

The top five also includes Johnny Benson, Ron Hornaday Jr. and Colin Braun.

The pole is the sixth for Crawford in 301 career truck series starts, and he was not concerned with the prospect of seeing it postponed as the rain fell throughout the day.

"I don't mind not racing if nobody else gets to," he said.

The 0.526-mile oval does not have lights and can't support night racing. The Goody's 500 Sprint Cup race is scheduled for Sunday at the track.

Kenseth's decline continues at tricky Martinsville

MARTINSVILLE, Va. (AP) -- Matt Kenseth won the first two races of the season, but it's been downhill ever since for the former champion, and Sunday's race only added to his decline.

Kenseth started 10th but dropped to 21st before the Goody's 500 was 10 laps old.

During pit stops after 42 laps, Kenseth's team was cited by NASCAR officials on pit road for losing control of one of the tires that had just been removed from his Ford.

NASCAR said it informed Kenseth's team that it was being penalized and sent to the tail end of the longest line on the restart, but Kenseth's team said it never got the message.

The miscommunication proved costly.

When Kenseth got back on the track and failed to heed the call to drop to the back, NASCAR black flagged him, forcing him to drive down pit road at the pit road speed of 30 miles per hour while the field zoomed by under a green flag, putting him a lap down when he returned.

He never recovered, finishing 23rd.

"The unfortunate thing is I wasn't clear the head official said we had to come in," Kenseth's crew chief, Drew Blickensderfer said. "I thought he was telling us, 'It was close. Make sure it doesn't happen again.' That type of thing, and it wasn't. It was, 'You messed up the rule,' so we've got to make sure we get our tires back. We can't have mistakes like that."

Kenseth has finished 43rd, 12th, 33rd and 23rd in the past four races, and he's fallen from leading the points to 12th, just seven ahead of No. 13 Jeff Burton.

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SPEED DEMON: Scott Speed thinks Kyle Busch owes him. Speed started 36th and led 12 laps early after the leaders pitted under caution, but was spun out by Busch and sustained damage.

He headed for the garage, crashed again later and finished 39th, 76 laps down.

"I'm sure Kyle is going to offer to buy me dinner since that's the second time this year that he's wrecked me," Speed said, laughing. "So, I'm looking forward to that."

The rookie hasn't finished better than 21st in six races and fell to 38th in points, but said he's encouraged by what his team has given him to drive, and less so by his bad luck.

"We had a great car before we got wrecked and we even had a great car after we got wrecked," he said. "We had a great car but were in the wrong place at the wrong time."

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LEADING THE CHARGE: Jeff Gordon led 147 laps at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday and moved into some rarified air in the process. He passed Fred Lorenzen for fifth on the list of laps led during his career on the 0.526-mile oval, now having paced 2,800.

The four guys ahead of him are Cale Yarborough with 3,851; Rusty Wallace with 3,632; Darrell Waltrip with 3,615; and Richard Petty with 2,964.

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EDWARDS' CHALLENGE: Despite a third-place finish here last fall, Martinsville has always been one of Carl Edwards' most challenging tracks, and he said this weekend that winning on the paper clip-shaped oval is one of his major goals for the 2009 season.

He'll have to try again in the fall.

Edwards was running third at the midpoint of the race, but when all the leaders headed to pit road under caution on lap 254, he lost eight spots, emerging in 11th. About 25 laps later, he blew a left rear tire, went two laps down and struggled the rest of the day.

He finished 26th, two laps down.

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LUG NUTS: Kasey Kahne and Matt Kenseth had rough starts. Kahne was sixth on the starting grid, but had faded to 19th after just 10 laps, while Kenseth dropped from 10th to 21st in the same period. ... Michael Waltrip hit the wall on lap 21, bringing out the first caution. ... Todd Bodine, Joe Nemechek and Dave Blaney started 39th or lower, and all three were in the garage before 100 laps had been run. ... Aric Almirola blew four tires during the race and then spun out on lap 446. He finished 37th.

Stewart earns parking spot with the stars

MARTINSVILLE, Va. (AP) -- NASCAR is no different than the corporate world. Prime parking is a sure sign of success.

Tony Stewart has won two races on NASCAR's shortest, trickiest oval, but when the first-year team owner pulled into Martinsville Speedway on Friday, the place where he saw his team's hauler parked meant more to him than it probably ever had.

It was, he said, "a proud moment," and one earned on the track by his seventh-place position in the points standings with a new team that needed to start with some success.

"We haven't got that first win and we haven't got that first top-five, but we've had consistent runs and we're in the top-10 in points, so I think that in itself is an accomplishment," the two-time series champion said Friday at the rainy, 0.526-mile oval.

And the infield parking grid, in a way, herald's that success.

In the Sprint Cup Series, team haulers serve as rolling billboards for teams while in transit, and as the inner sanctum at the racetrack. They hold spare parts and important electronic and analytical systems, and a plush meeting room for strategy sessions.

In stock car racing's premier series, haulers are positioned inside the track according to the point standings, and Stewart's was parked near the front in the Martinsville infield.

For many fledgling teams, getting into that top 35 is a season-long struggle, but Stewart got a great start with eighth-place runs in the season-opening Daytona 500 and the second race at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., and it's been smooth sailing ever since.

"I'm not sure I've had a big sense of anxiety yet," he said after practice at the track, where a steady drizzle washed out qualifying for Sunday's race. He'll start seventh.

"We've always had the attitude that we were going to take it a week at a time and we knew that there were going to be good weeks and we knew there were going to be bad weeks, but so far during the weekends, it has been really smooth where we haven't had that anxiety.

"It's just run the way it's supposed to run. That makes it a lot more calming."

Stewart went into his new dual role adamant that he would focus solely on his duties as a driver on weekends, but unsure how he would be able to manage sticking to that approach.

"If anything, it's played the opposite of what I thought it was going to be," he said. "I thought I'd be a lot more nervous as a car owner and I've been really relaxed instead."

The 10 years he spent working for Joe Gibbs have helped, Stewart said, because he learned from the Hall of Fame coach to surround himself with good people and let them do their jobs.

"I feel like I could literally not go to the shop for the whole year almost, and other than signing paperwork, it would run just fine with or without me in the shop," he said.

One of Stewart-Haas Racing's aces has been Darian Grubb, the crew chief for Stewart's Chevrolet. Luck has largely been on the team's side, Grubb said, except for at Las Vegas.

There, he said, a loose wheel relegated a potential winning car to 26th place.

"That was pretty disappointing," Grubb said. "But all of the small problems we've had, we were expecting. We're not putting ourselves out of races, we're not crashing, we're not having major issues in the pits or anything like that, so that's definitely helped."

The anticipation within the team, which also includes driver Ryan Newman, is growing.

"The most rewarding part is just seeing it develop and watching everybody's smiles turn into grins and their grins turn into laughter and laughter turning into victory lane," he said of the two-car effort. "We're not there yet, but that's the ultimate goal."

Newman is 27th in the points race, also comfortably inside the top 35.

Earnhardt: Hendrick meeting was 'constructive'

MARTINSVILLE, Va. (AP) -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. has been soundly outshone by Kyle Busch, the driver he replaced at Hendrick Motorsports, but he hopes to turn the corner soon.

To that end, Earnhardt and much of the brainpower at Hendrick Motorsports held a meeting recently to air their views and try to stumble on something that would bring improvement.

Earnhardt is 19th in points after five races.

"We talked about a lot of little stuff we could do differently or try," Earnhardt said Friday at Martinsville. "We looked at some of the methods and some of the ways that they have had success in the past and we just talked about some ways we could communicate better."

The 'we' included Hendrick competition directors Ken Howes and Doug Duchardt and engineer Brian Whitesell, some of the key players in Hendrick's always successful organization.

"It was a good and constructive meeting," Earnhardt said.

"Just trying to give those guys an opportunity to voice their opinions on the situation and take what they say and try to understand it and try to make out team better," he said.

Busch, who is fourth in points, has said that he's pleased to be doing better than the driver that replaced him with Hendrick last year, and Earnhardt said Busch has a right to boast. The younger Busch won 21 races in the top three series last year; Earnhardt won one.

"I wouldn't trade positions with him, though," Earnhardt said. "I like where I'm at and I like my owner and I like my position and I like my opportunity. But right now, he has every right to say what he wants and he's been able to back it up on the track."

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GOAL-ORIENTED: Carl Edwards has three goals this season, and can get one Sunday.

"This season would be the perfect season if we won two races and a championship and those two races would be a Martinsville race and a road course," he said Friday. "For me as a driver, those have been the two most difficult things to master. I'm far from being a master here at Martinsville and I feel like I'm getting better at the road courses.

"The wins at those two places would mean the world to me."

Edwards finished third here last October, his best showing in nine career starts.

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BREATHING LESSONS: David Starr's wife, Kim, had a baby boy a few weeks back, and the driver in the Camping World Truck Series still seems to relive the moment when he recalls it.

"It was freakin' awesome," Starr said. "For all those that have kids, you know what I'm talking about. ... I'm still blown away by the experience and it's unbelievable. Just a wow!"

Starr was trying to help his wife during delivery, but almost needed help himself.

"They were telling me to breathe," he said.

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STAT OF THE DAY: Only four active drivers have won more than once at Martinsville Speedway: Mark Martin (2, the last in 2000); Tony Stewart (2, last in 2006); Himmie Johnson (5, including four of the last five); and Jeff Gordon (7, last in 2005).

Hendrick looks back at first win 25 years ago

MARTINSVILLE, Va. (AP) -- Rick Hendrick was a car owner with a fading dream when he went to church with his wife 25 years ago as his team prepared to race at Martinsville Speedway.

When he emerged, life as he knew it would never be the same.

Geoff Bodine, the driver who ached for an opportunity to race, and Harry Hyde, the mechanical whiz who convinced Hendrick he could build a winning race car, had proven it at the track in southwest Virginia, giving the car dealer his first NASCAR victory as an owner.

There have been 174 more victories since, as well as eight Sprint Cup Series championships, making Hendrick one of the dominant figures in a sport he almost abandoned.

"Had we not won that race 25 years ago, Hendrick Motorsports would not be here today," Hendrick said this week.

"A couple of weeks before, we were going to have to shut the team down because we had no sponsor," Hendrick said. "I told Harry we absolutely were going to quit two races before that. And we went on and won Martinsville and picked up enough help to make it through the year."

It helped that Bodine won twice more before the season was finished, and Hendrick was on his way.

"In some ways, it feels like it was yesterday," he said, "and then you look back at all the drivers and the people that have been involved, and it feels like it was a long time ago."

Those early years included some of the biggest names in racing: Benny Parsons, Darrell Waltrip, Tim Richmond and Ricky Rudd.

Now, he boasts four of the biggest names in the racing -- Jeff Gordon, a four-time series champion; Jimmie Johnson, the winner of the last three championships; Dale Earnhardt Jr., the most popular driver in the series; and Mark Martin, who came on board for this season.

"I think that everyone that works for him wants to succeed for him," Martin said.

He drives the No. 5 Chevrolet for Hendrick, the same number car that Bodine drove into Victory Lane back in 1984, and would like to take the checkered flag Sunday for Hendrick.

But he'll have to get past his teammates who have dominated the 0.526-mile oval. Gordon has seven wins here and Johnson has five, including four of the last five races.

For all the good memories at Martinsville, the track is also a reminder of perhaps Hendrick's darkest day. In October 2004, son Ricky, brother John and eight others were killed when a Hendrick plane crashed on fog-shrouded Bull Mountain nearby.

Hendrick, a native of Palmer Springs who grew up coming to races at the track, said he can't fly over Bull Mountain on a clear day without looking for the 14-foot crossed placed at the crash site. And he always asks himself if he wants to be at the track on race day.

"And then," he said, "when I start thinking about it, it's tougher being at home than it is being there, too, because it's just then that you know you should be there with them."

Saturday, March 28, 2009

TRG Motorsports taking small steps in NASCAR

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- With very little sponsorship and a skeleton crew, David Gilliland and TRG Motorsports aren't going to contend for a championship in NASCAR's elite Sprint Cup Series anytime soon.

But they head to Martinsville Speedway this weekend locked inside the top 35 in points, a huge victory for a small team fighting against the economic slowdown in NASCAR.

"It's been nerve-racking," said Gilliland. "We've just had to take it week by week and fight hard to get to this point. From here, we only hope it gets a little easier."

That's not likely for TRG, an acronym for The Racers Group. Founded by Kevin Buckler, a former sports car driver with an extensive and successful background in that series, the team is fighting an uphill battle in NASCAR's elite division. They're racing against multi-car teams with millions of dollars in sponsorship and fully staffed engineering departments.

But fresh off a 1-2 finish in its class at the Rolex 24 sports car race (ninth and 10th overall), TRG put together a Sprint Cup Series team in under two weeks and went to NASCAR's season-opening Daytona 500 intent on proving to the industry that the underdog can succeed.

Kevin Harvick, familiar with Buckler from West Coast racing, was one of the few to predict the team could do it. A team owner himself, Harvick had seen how hard TRG had worked the year before in the Truck Series, even winning a race with Donny Lia in Mansfield, Ohio.

"They have a legitimate opportunity to become a full-time Cup team, if the cards fall right for them in the beginning," Harvick said. "If they wind up making the 500, then it leaps over into the California race. And all of sudden it snowballs, and you have the snowball effect that runs you through the whole season and you have a team established."

It didn't happen. TRG failed to make the race when Mike Wallace narrowly fell short of racing the car into the 500.

Instead, all the hype and hoopla went to Jeremy Mayfield and Scott Riggs, who both put their underdog teams into the biggest and highest-paying race of the season.

The TRG team refused to crumble. Gilliland, who had just been released from Yates Racing because they had no sponsorship for him, signed on and agreed to go with the team to California. Veteran crew chief Slugger Labbe also came aboard, pushing the crew to about 10 employees.

With a used car bought from Richard Childress Racing, the team qualified at California and Gilliland finished 33rd. But the next two weeks were better: He was 14th at Las Vegas, 24th at Atlanta and went to Bristol Motor Speedway last weekend needing a trouble-free race to lock the car inside the all-important top 35.

Despite two flat tires, Gilliland did it with a 36th-place finish.

TRG now goes to Martinsville this weekend locked into the race. Scott Speed and Paul Menard, two drivers racing for fully funded teams, can't say the same thing.

For the TRG team, it means they don't have to spend all day Friday focused on putting together one fast lap to make the field. Instead, they'll be able to work ahead to race day in an effort to move off the top-35 bubble.

The No. 71 Chevrolet is just 21 points ahead of 36th-place Speed, and a bad run Sunday could put TRG on the outside looking in again.

"Being 35th in owner points is like having the last seat in the last life boats on the Titanic," Buckler said. "You breathe a sigh of relief, but you are still out in the freezing ocean waiting for a lifeline. We will be able to focus a little more on the race setup of the car instead of constantly running qualifying laps in practice.

"This should help us to have a better race car on Sunday and provide the opportunity to finish higher and score maximum points."

Sponsorship is still a major issue, and Buckler is hoping NASCAR's "industry marketing" arm can help bring in funding that will help TRG run the full season. The four-person branch of NASCAR is supposed to work with teams to pair them with potential sponsors.

"This is a real opportunity for NASCAR, in this economic environment, to help a little guy and promote the Cinderellas of the sport," Buckler said.

Three-time defending series champion Jimmie Johnson is hopeful TRG can stay afloat.

"Those guys really are racers and that acronym really means something," Johnson said. "They have always been competitive and dominant in whatever division they race in. I think today's world has hurt some teams and has forced some mergers, but at the same time, it has allowed other teams an opportunity to come into our sport.

"It is nice to see some good things come out of the tough economy and the tough market we have right now."

Bernstein needs sponsor for first time in decades

The world looks a little different to Kenny Bernstein these days.

After 30 years banking on Budweiser as the sponsor of his National Hot Rod Association team, the longtime drag racing star and team owner is sponsor hunting.

And he couldn't have found a harder time to do it.

"We'll go hard at trying to find a major sponsor," Bernstein said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "Everybody knows what the business climate is right now, but the thing will keep going."

Bernstein, a six-time champion, remains the only driver to have won multiple titles in both Funny Cars and Top Fuel dragsters, and he was the first driver to exceed 300 mph in competition. But this is a very different challenge than he's faced before.

Bernstein, who also owned teams in NASCAR and Champ Car in the late 1980s and early 1990s, said the decision announced last week by the St. Louis division of Anheiser-Busch InBev, which makes Budweiser beer, to end its NHRA sponsorship was not the shock that some people thought.

"Look at the economy," Bernstein said. "And a new company (Belgian brewer InBev) bought Anheiser-Busch. So it didn't surprise me.

"We've actually known for a while, but we were real careful about it for everybody's sake," he added. "But it did give us a chance to start talking to some people."

Bernstein said he has been negotiating with two unnamed companies "that have said they would like to pursue this with us. But nothing's close."

The 64-year-old Bernstein expected to retire eventually, saying, "It's only going to probably be a couple, three more years of this for me."

But the complication is that son Brandon, who began his NHRA career in 2002, is now the driver of what will remain the Budweiser King until the end of this season.

Through the first three events of 2009, the younger Bernstein is second in the Top Fuel category, trailing leader Antron Brown by 20 points.

Between the father and son, they have amassed 85 event victories for Budweiser in the longest team-sponsor relationship in major league racing -- surpassing Richard Petty's 28 years with STP.

"Sure, it's going to be different, but this is what I do and what we do," the elder Bernstein said. "This is how I make my living.

"It would be different if it was just me. If we can't put something together, Brandon is a good driver, capable of winning races and championships, and I'm sure he would wind up racing for another team -- a good team. But I would prefer to keep this team together and leave something good here for Brandon."

Rain puts Gordon on Cup pole at Martinsville

MARTINSVILLE, Va. (AP) -- Jeff Gordon will start from the pole position in Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Martinsville Speedway after steady rain washed out qualifying Friday.

Being the points leader also earned Gordon the prime stall on the cramped pit road of NASCAR's tricky, 0.526-mile oval. He will be seeking his eighth victory at Martinsville, tops among active drivers, and his first in 47 races.

The qualifying rainout, he figures, only helps his chances.

"I think because of the pit road situation here, this is probably the most important place to start on the pole because you get that No. 1 pit stall," said Gordon, who has started at the top spot seven other times in his career at the track. "Either way, I feel like rain or shine we had a shot at getting it. Certainly great timing for us to be leading the points."

Martinsville's pit road surrounds much of the small track, and the stall Gordon will take is closest to the exit to pit road with nothing obstructing his car's path onto the track.

Other stalls are difficult to maneuver in and out of because they are all narrow.

"There's no doubt that anyone that gets the No. 1 pit stall, it gives them the upper hand," the four-time series champ said. "The stalls are so tight; there's only one good one."

Kurt Busch will start second, followed by Clint Bowyer, Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards.

The rain came after the Cup drivers got in a practice, and that left Gordon and several others delighted to have at least had a chance to adjust their car setups to the track.

"I'm excited," Bowyer said. "I think I've got as good a car as I've ever had here."

Friday, March 27, 2009

NASCAR's Jeff Burton keeps up with rivals, news

AP Graphic GOODY'S FAST RELIEF 500

PELL CITY, Ala. (AP) -- NASCAR driver Jeff Burton doesn't go through life with the narrow world view as seen through a windshield at 200 mph.

The 16-year Sprint Cup veteran is fluent in current events, a fan of C-SPAN and is as concerned about the state of the economy as the typical working Joe that makes up a big chunk of NASCAR's fan base.

He hardly fits the stereotype of the wealthy star athlete who is living inside a bubble, isolated from the real world inside his sport.

"I'm very interested in what's going on in the world," Burton said during a visit promoting next month's race at nearby Talladega Superspeedway. "I'm very interested in what's going on in the country, because it affects my family, it affects my friends, it affects my business associates.

"And by the way, it's very interesting. My personality is I'm not just here to be here. I'm here to be part of it. I like being part of stuff. I like being involved in it. It's a very interesting time, no question about it."

No wonder speculation exists that the affable Burton could eventually be clutching constituents' hands instead of the steering wheel in a run for senator in Virginia. Burton, who has said he's interested in running for office when his NASCAR career is over, had the diplomatic answer down pat when he was recently asked about a possible switch to politics someday.

"When I decide to retire, whenever that is, I'll look at my options then and I'll decide what to do," Burton said. "I don't need to know what it is. I'll figure that out when I get there."

The 42-year-old hardly seems ready to park it just yet. A 21-time Sprint Cup Series winner, he is currently 13th in the point standings and coming off an eighth-place finish at Bristol.

Burton also found time to demonstrate his real-world awareness in Bristol, lashing out at Congress over millions in employee bonuses paid out by troubled insurance giant AIG, which has received $182.5 billion in bailout money from the U.S. government.

"Congress is ripping all the lenders for screwing the country up -- guess what they are?" Burton said last week. "(Congress is) a lender that screwed that up. So how are they any different?"

Diplomatic? Sometimes. Opinionated? Certainly. Informed? Tries to be.

How many pro athletes say things like this: "I'll tell you what I really like, I like C-SPAN." Or feel strongly about where they find the most objective news reporting? (That would be POTUS on satellite radio). He doesn't want news that only turns to the left -- or the right.

Burton and his fellow drivers can't help but have noticed dwindling crowds at races as fans cut back, and the 16-year Cup veteran certainly understands. He doesn't have to live paycheck to paycheck or fret about finding work, but knows plenty do.

"I want race fans here, but it's more important for their kids to have food," he said. "This is fun, this is entertainment.

"I'm nervous about it because our sport is so reliant on the fans. But I want the fans to make the right decision to them. Life's more important than going to a race."

NASCAR chairman Brian France ordered a companywide hiring freeze in January and suspended executive bonuses at the sanctioning body. NASCAR also suspended all testing at its sanctioned tracks in a measure designed to save the teams money.

It doesn't take hours of watching C-Span and CNN to sense the pain. Doesn't hurt, though.

"Anybody that's in NASCAR that doesn't have a real clear picture of the economic status right now is an idiot," Burton said. "Our sport works because of fans being able to go to racetracks. Our sport works because of corporate America being able to sponsor these cars, sponsor races, buy TV time, all those things. If anybody is looking around thinking we're immune to this, they're pretty stupid."

Hendrick committed to Earnhardt Jr., Eury Jr.

CONCORD, N.C. (AP) -- Team owner Rick Hendrick won't split Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his embattled crew chief despite their slow start to the season.

Tony Eury Jr. has always been under intense scrutiny as crew chief for NASCAR's most popular driver, but it has hit a new level this year as the No. 88 team has just one top-10 finish through five races. Earnhardt heads to Martinsville Speedway this weekend ranked 19th in the standings.

"Both Junior and Tony have told me that if they thought they needed to be split, that they understood," Hendrick said Wednesday in a national teleconference. "That's my call, and I'm not ready to make that call. Not even close. I am convinced that they're better together.

"We've got the right combination, and I think we're going to be able to prove that to you guys soon."

Hendrick said Earnhardt, a notorious late riser, was at the shop early Wednesday morning and participated in a three-hour team meeting aimed at turning the season around.

"He's all over it," Hendrick said. "Dale is as focused, maybe even more focused then I've seen since he's been here. Dale's taken all the suggestions that anyone has to heart, and we've got to give him the best stuff out there."

Earnhardt and Eury, who are cousins, have worked together in some form for all but a portion of the 2005 season.

Because the two bickered so much at the end of 2004, they were split the next season by Earnhardt's stepmother, Teresa. The results were disastrous for Earnhardt, who had the worst season of his nine-year career, and they were reunited with 10 races left in the year.

Earnhardt decided in 2007 to leave Dale Earnhardt Inc. for Hendrick Motorsports, and Eury negotiated a release from his contract to leave with him. But results have been mixed: they've combined for just one victory, and despite running strong all of last season, they faded during the Chase for the championship and finished last in the 12-driver field.

The disappointing close to their first year with Hendrick reignited the simmering Eury debate among Earnhardt's enormous fan base, and it has escalated through the first month of this season.

Earnhardt last week asked for relief from the constant criticism Eury has faced from fans and media.

"The guy that I feel bad for is Tony Jr. He gets criticized so badly," Earnhardt said at Bristol Motor Speedway. "Everybody in this room, and some of you have criticized him, know how smart a guy he is and that he's a good mechanic and a solid crew chief. He just wants to do this for a living, just like I do. I'll take the fall. I'd rather be crucified than him.

"Every time I read in the paper that people are on his case I feel like I'm sending my brother to jail for a crime I committed."

Earnhardt also acknowledged that his team is not meeting expectations.

They failed to silence the critics Sunday, when Earnhardt fell a lap down at Bristol before needing NASCAR's "free pass" to return to the lead lap and finish a distant 14th to winner Kyle Busch.

Mark Martin on Wednesday defended his Hendrick teammate and said Earnhardt is under tremendous pressure because he's the son of NASCAR icon Dale Earnhardt, a seven-time champion who was killed on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500.

"The biggest thing that Junior needs is support, a pat on the back," Martin said. "The guy is doing an incredible job. He's carrying a heavier load than any human being could be expected to, and you know what? He's fast. He was fast at Bristol. You can't just look at the black and white of the finish at Bristol and comprehend how he ran there.

"Right now he just has to keep focused and not listen to all the mania that's going on around him. That team is going to be strong, they were strong at Bristol and didn't get an opportunity to show it. Over time, they will."

Hendrick cautioned that it may take several races for Earnhardt to reach Victory Lane. He's currently riding a 26-race winless streak dating to Michigan in June.

"You just don't go from running 10th to winning every race," Hendrick said. "So the idea is just to keep inching it up, getting it better, working on areas. Our goal is to make the Chase and win races. To lead, to be competitive. That's always been my goal."

NASCAR All-Star race to end with 10-lap finish

CONCORD, N.C. (AP) -- NASCAR's annual All-Star race will end with a 10-lap final shootout to create a dramatic finish that previously defined the $1 million event.

The race at Lowe's Motor Speedway will still be 100 laps, but it will be split into four segments and culminate with the final sprint to the finish. NASCAR, track and sponsor officials announced the new format Wednesday.

Some of the most memorable moments in event history came during a 10-lap final segment, including Rusty Wallace's race-winning spin of Darrell Waltrip in 1989 and the side-by-side race to the checkered flag between Kyle Petty and Davey Allison in 1992.

"What better way to celebrate the 25th running of this great event than incorporate that element back into the format?" said NASCAR vice president of competition Robin Pemberton, who was Petty's crew chief for the 1992 losing battle with Allison.

"That has to go down as one of the most exciting all-star race finishes ever. The 10-lap shootout there at the end was something else from a competition standpoint. That was quite a night, one I'll never forget."

NASCAR and event sponsor Sprint have been trying to recreate that excitement the past several years through several different format changes. Pemberton defended the ever-evolving race, which has been held at Lowe's Motor Speedway every year but once.

"We want to do what's best for the fans," he said. "The different formats that were there -- they served their purpose at the time. It's basically still 100 laps."

The race this year will open with 50-lap segment with a mandatory pit stop. Following two 20-lap segments, there will be a caution after the second segment for an optional pit stop and a 10-minute break after the third segment.

For the final 10-lap segment, only green-flag laps will count.

There still will be a 40-lap preliminary race for all drivers not eligible for the Sprint Showdown, and the top two finishers from that race will advance into the All-Star race. A third driver voted by the fans also will be promoted into the main event.

Fans voted for Kasey Kahne last year, and he won the event and $1 million.

Ryan Newman won the preliminary event in 2002 to transfer into the All-Star race, where he pulled off an upset he calls the second biggest victory of his career.

"There's a sense of accomplishment. We beat everybody in our backyard, in their backyard, everybody had homefield advantage," he said. "To me, take that Daytona 500 out of it, and it is right there as second place to all my other (13 wins). Take away the points, take away the money, even, and we beat everybody at home, at Charlotte, at night."

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Study: Darlington brings in $54 million to area

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- A new study says that the South Carolina track that's "Too Tough To Tame" has an economic impact that's hard to ignore.

Darlington Raceway brings in $54 million to the state each year and is responsible for creating 874 jobs in the region, according to the report commissioned by the track and released Wednesday by The Washington Economics Group.

The last time the raceway, now in it's 60th season, took a comprehensive look at its economic footprint was in 2000, track president Chris said. That survey found that Darlington had about a $60 million impact on the state and region. However, that was with two Sprint Cup weekends, including a lucrative Labor Day race.

Darlington has since been cut back to one race and given what was thought to be a horrible weekend for racing, the Saturday before Mother's Day. Even so, Darlington has sold out the past four years and has seemingly shored up its once shaky future.

Browning was pleased with the study's results.

"If I told you I had a business that would bring $54 million into the area, there are a lot of people who'd be interested," Browning said.

The report, done at a cost of $12,000, took several months and quantified direct economic benefits and those that are indirectly linked to the spending that goes on during a race, the track said.

Other findings include:

--NASCAR events and other activities at Darlington lead to $19 million in labor income to workers in South Carolina.

--Federal, state and local governments collect more than $7.9 million from Darlington events.

--Track activities contribute $30 million a year to South Carolina's gross state product.

"Darlington brings in huge, huge numbers of people into the state, and the expenditures show that," said Charles Yaros, an associate consultant for The Washington Economics Group.

The South Carolina House and Senate on Wednesday passed a resolution declaring race week in May as "Darlington Raceway Week" in the state.

The Statehouse looked a bit more like a NASCAR track with race cars parked at its front and back. Lawmakers wandering around the grounds stopped to take in Darlington's 2009 show car or Johnny Mantz's 1950 Plymouth, winner of the first Southern 500.

Gov. Mark Sanford called Darlington "legendary" in the racing world. "It continues to play an important role in its contributions to the Pee Dee region and the state as a whole," the governor said.

The Washington Economics Group, from Coral Gables, Fla., has conducted similar studies for corporations like IBM and MasterCard International, according to its Web site.

The Southern 500 will take place at Darlington on Saturday night, May 9. Browning says ticket sales are slightly behind what they have been at this time in other years. He remains hopeful of a fifth straight sellout.