NASCAR heads West for road Course

From The Crossville Chronicle, Crossville, TN. Friday June 22, 2007

By Joe Dunn / joe@onpitroad.com

The Nascar Nextel Cup teams head to Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, CA. for the Toyota/Save Mart 350 Sunday.
As usual some road course ‘ringers’ will be replacing some of the regular drivers. Michael Waltrip is taking no chances this week putting Terry Labonte in the 55 NAPA car, not only is Terry and experienced and successful road course driver, he also brings that guaranteed ‘Past Champion’ provisional with him. MWR will also replace David Reutimann in the 00 Burger King car with Open Wheel expert PJ Jones. Ron Fellows will sub for Tony Raines in the 96 DLP car, while German road racer Klaus Graf will take over the 49 Bam racing car of Mike Bliss.
All eyes of course will be on Juan Pablo Montoya as he gets his first chance to show his ‘stuff’ in his environment. Fans will get a chance to see if his win of the Busch race at Mexico was a real example of where he ranks with the Nascar crowd or if it was just a run over of the second tier drivers.
NASCAR announced last Sunday that they have filed a $100Million countersuit against AT&T, this time charging a violation of Nascar rules when AT&T followed a court ruling and put their logo on the 31 car. AT&T of course followed this up by signing a 3 year contract extension with RCR on the 31 car, and Jeff Burton and RCR have come to an agreement on a contract extension for the driver.
The Nascar Busch Series and the Nascar Craftsman Truck Series both head to Milwaukee this weekend.
Local Racing Results and News;
There was some great racing action over the weekend Wartburg Speedway and Cookeville Speedway on Friday night and at Crossville Raceway on Saturday night. Without a doubt the best race of the weekend was the Super Late Model race at Crossville where Lancing’s Curt Williams battled the whole race wheel to wheel with Junior Brown while a similar battle behind them for third between Johnny Stout and Duke Lowe’
Friday June 15; Wartburg Speedway top 5’s
Super Late Models- 1. Anthony White, 2. Steve Smith, 3. Curt Williams, 4. Jeff Smith, 5. Perry Delaney
Sportsman- 1.Jeff Hamby Jr, 2. Derrick York, 3. Josh Collins, 4. Jeff Adkisson, 5. Johnny Lane
Street Stock- 1. Jason Capps, 2. Troy Brown, 3. Eric Hall, 4. Reagan Williams, 5. Doug York
Mini Stock- 1. Jason Manley, 2. David Christmas, 3. Jim Frost, 4. Nick Nelson, 5. Rocky McNabb
FWD- 1. Chris Morrison, 2. David Hall Sr, 3. Mike Ellis, 4. Billy Freytag, 5. Blake Hall

Saturday June 16; Crossville Raceway updates: Street Stock winner after review is Chris Croinex. Brandon Williams declared ‘official’ winner of the Limited Late Model race, after inspection of equipment showed it to be legal.


After a short 4 week season, and following what fans and drivers called the best race yet last Friday, the owners of Cookeville Speedway (formerly Tennessee Motor Speedway in Baxter) announced that they are closing. That leaves the area with only one Friday night race at Wartburg Speedway, which is under new management this season. The folks there have been putting on a good show weekly and slowly gaining more support. To show their determination, the owners of Wartburg Speedway have enlarged the pit area, added more tier parking and new building are under construction to replace the old concession stand and tower.
Mark your calendar for these events - Saturday June 30th, the Advance Auto Parts Tennessee Thunder Series returns to Crossville Raceway for a $5K to win Super Late Model race with all supporting classes. Wednesday July 4th, Wartburg Speedway will host the Independence 70, a $10K Super Late Model event along with a $2K Sportsman race and Fireworks. Saturday July 7th, is Armed Forces night at Crossville Raceway with discount admission for all active and retired military with ID.
This weekend, Friday night Wartburg has a $2K Bounty for anyone that can beat Anthony White in the SLM, plus a full race card, Sportsman, Stock, Mini and FWD starting at 7:30 pm (ET). Saturday night the action at Crossville Raceway with Limited Late Models, Open Wheel Modifieds, Street Stock, Mini Stock, Front Wheel Drive and Cruiser Cars starts at 7:00 pm (CT)
Get off that couch and come on out to a local Dirt Track and support the local racers, you may just see the next Jeff Gordon or Tony Stewart on his way up.