Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Labor Day Returns to the South

By Joe Dunn

Five years ago Nascar moved one of the oldest and most popular races, the Southern 500, a Labor Day tradition at Darlington Raceway. This move infuriated a lot of long time NASCAR fans from the south, and to make matters worse, they moved the race to the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA.

The move was all about NASCAR, and Brian France’s master plan to make NASCAR a major player on the west coast. Since the time that Roger Penske first opened the California Speedway in 1997, the track has struggled to fill seats. The lone race at California had it’s date changed from the original late June to late April / early May in an attempt to fill the stands, none of these dates did the job. So in 2004, the bright idea was to give California a second date. With the closing of Rockingham on the table, the first move was to switch the late November date to Darlington and give California the long popular Labor Day weekend.

After five years, the Labor Day ‘experiment’ has proved to be a dismal failure and the abundant vacant seats remain. So, in 2008, a new plan was evolved, since the west coast failed to support a traditional and popular race weekend, the idea for 2009 was to move Labor Day to Atlanta and move a ‘Chase’ date from Atlanta Motor Speedway to The Auto Club Speedway. Atlanta was a safe choice for Labor Day, as they too have suffered dismal attendance ratings for the past several years.

Giving Atlanta Motor Speedway the Labor Day date is a step in the right direction, and making it a night race gives it an even better chance to recapture the fans. Will the change really help AMS? Who knows for sure, but if the numbers at AMS don’t improve, look for one of those dates to migrate north to Kentucky Speedway in 2011. Of course, I am still among the thousands of folks who felt that taking the date from Darlington was a bad decision all along.

So now we have California and The Auto Club Speedway getting one of the ‘coveted’ Chase for the Championship dates. Will this suddenly attract throngs of new west coast NASCAR fans, filling the speedway to capacity? I would hope for the sake of the sport that it will do just that, but realistically, I don’t see that ever happening. Too many folks across the country and especially on the west coast, still see the sport as a regional sport from the old south. In their hunt for the big TV numbers, and what appears to be Briand France’s quest to be a Hollywood mogul, NASCAR has been continually alienating tons of the sports oldest and most loyal fan base.

NASCAR has been a “good ol’ boy”, redneck, beer drinking, and smoking crowd sport for 60 years. And as the Daytona honchos work harder to change the image, they further diminish the fan base. Bill France Sr. was one heck of a promoter and under his guidance the family business grew and prospered for years. Bill Jr, took over and he followed pretty much the same pattern of his dad. He ruled with an iron fist, but he knew tradition and happy fans were a major force in the growth and life of the sport.
When Brian took over the reigns, that atmosphere seemed to change. He rules with what appears to be a distance from the history of the sport and it’s individuals. When Bill Sr and Bill Jr were running the show, everybody knew it. They were very visible in the garage area at nearly every race. Seeing Brian in the garage area is sight that very few have witnessed.

So, as we all trudge through this coming weekend without a Cup race, I’ll be looking forward to Labor Day with hopes that it brings the fans back to AMS and revives some old fans of southern racing. I have had the pleasure of covering races at Kentucky Speedway and look forward to covering Cup races there. It is one of the nicest tracks around and with SMI as the new owner, the future looks bright. But I do not want to see that date come at the cost of an Atlanta date.

Monday, August 24, 2009

Alabama Motorsports Park - is it sinking?

By Joe Dunn

In late 2006, a group of investors announced plans for a huge racing and entertainment complex near Mobile, Al. Alabama Motorsports Park “ A Dale Earnhardt Jr Speedway” was touted as a multi - racing facility that would include a 1 mile paved oval, a 3/8 mile dirt track, a motocross track, a dragstrip a karting track and a 3mile road course with a projected open date in 2009. Also included would be an RV park, multiple music theaters, an arena, commercial, residential and light industrial activities.

Among the main investors named were Dale Earnhardt Jr, whose name would adorn the facility, his sister Kelley Earnhardt Elledge and brother Kerry Earnhardt. Our family business is racing and it's been our business for three generations," said Dale Earnhardt Jr. "Kelley, Kerry and I want to continue the family business with hopes that the next generation of Earnhardts will want to be involved in the sport. This new venture with the Alabama Motorsports Park provides yet another avenue in which the Earnhardt family can participate.

In 2007 the plans were cut back to eliminate, the dragstrip, the dirt track and the motocross track. Instead, the new plans called for the 7/10th oval, the 3 mile road course and a kart track. At that time it was estimated that construction would begin in early 2008 with an anticipated opening in the first quarter of 2010. However 2008 went by without a shovel in the ground.

In January 2009, Gulf Coast Entertainment, the corporate name, signed a purchase agreement with Dover Motorsports for the purchase of Memphis Motorsports Park. The Memphis track is host to both Nascar Nationwide Series and Camping World Truck Series races, as well as the NHRA, O’Reilly Mid-South Nationals and AMA Dragbike Spring Nationals on it’s dragstrip. The contract called for Dover to remain to manage the facilities until such time as the Alabama facility would be ready to move the events there. This seemed to be a well organized plan with a lot of contingencies to get things done smoothly.

But somewhere along the way, things started changing, and it appears that the group described as ‘30 Investors’ is suddenly having trouble raising capital. In July of this this year, Dover Motorsports agreed to an extension on the sale of Memphis Motorsports Park. The AMP website states that the delay in the purchase is due to not having obtained enough funding for the purchase. A few weeks later, it was announced in Charlotte that Dale Earnhardt Jr was withdrawing from the group and removing his name from the track. Joining Dale in the exit was his sister Kelley and brother Kerry, leaving no Earnhardts involved.

Just days before Earnhardt’s announcement, GCE met with the Prichard, Al city council and made a deal for a 5% sales tax for all purchases on the property to be given to GCE. Some of the City council members expressed their dismay a few days later that the Mayor, Ron Davis, having been informed before the meeting about Dale Jr’s departure failed to disclose that information to the council before they voted on the tax issue.

So, what started out, more than 3 years ago as a grand racing facility with the family name of one of Racings greatest legends attached has whittled down to less than half of it’s original plans, the loss of the ‘Big Name’ and now heading into at least a 2-3 year delayed opening. Is this all because of the Economic slump the country has been in for over a year, or was this a grand scheme that never had the financial backing that the principles claimed? I don’t know the answers, but 2009 is not looking good for this venture. For the folks of west Tennessee maybe there is a reprieve coming and the anticipated loss of MMP may be only a fading thought. I hate to see a new venture fail before it starts, but I’m hoping that Memphis Motorsports Park stays where it is for many years to come.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Rice takes over Crew Chief duties at ML Motorsports

By Joe Dunn

Ed Mullins, President of ML Motorsports announced Tuesday that Crew Chief Brian Ross will be stepping down, making way for Chris Rice to take over the duties for the Warsaw, In part time NASCAR Nationwide Series team. Ross will remain with ML Motorsports in the shop, which will allow him to return to driving in local short track action.
Ross, who was the original driver for ML Motorsports when they began in 1999 in the ARCA series, has remained with the team ever since. For most of that time, he remained in the shop which allowed him to further his local driving career. He was moved up to crew chief in 2008, working with Mark Green and then this year with Shelby Howard.
Howard joined the team for the Texas race this past spring and has impressed team owner Mary Louise Miller. Shelby had known Ross from local racing in Indiana, but when Ross expressed a desire to step down, Chris Rice was a name all too familiar to Shelby. The two had spent time as driver/crew Chief in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series during the 2007 season with Bill Davis racing and again in 2008 with Thorsport racing. Prior to that, the two were teamed up in the Hooters Pro Cup series for 2006 and 2007.
Rice brings a long list of credentials as a NASCAR crew chief in both the Truck Series and the Nationwide Series. In 2002 Chris joined Bill Davis racing as a shock specialist on the 23 Sprint Cup team, and was later that year promoted to crew chief for the 23 Nationwide car with driver Scott Wimmer. He spent part of 2006 with the KHI 33 truck with Ron Hornaday Jr,
Chris took over the Crew Chief duties earlier this year at the Jay Robinson 28 team with driver Kenny Wallace. Rice will be joined in the pits this week with Ross to transition the change. But Chris was not about to wait until race day to become involved. The ML team bought a couple of new cars this year and they have struggled for the last several races with the setup. Howard has struggled and fought with an ill handling car since the June Nashville race. Chris was off to another shop with the car this week to do a full read on the setup and look for the cure.
Although Rice has now left the Jay Robinson team, he has agreed to travel to Montreal with that team for the road course event there. The logistics of getting a new crew chief cleared for all the border crossing requirements would have put the team at a disadvantage. The ML Motorsports #70 Foretravel Motorcoach team, as a part time team, does not participate in the two road course events , so allowing Rice to travel with the Kenny Wallace team to Canada was not a problem.
Since joining the 70 team earlier this year, Howard has shown a lot of promise, but the team’s struggle with the car’s setup has been more than obvious. The remote location of the team, in central Indiana has cost the team in a lack of access to the various equipment, shops and test facilities in the Charlotte area.
I won’t look for instant success for the team at Bristol Friday night, it is after all Bristol where anything can happen. But hopefully a new set of hands can find the elusive set up problem that has plagued the team for the past 2 months.
Earlier in the year, rumors out of the Warsaw, In shop indicated that the team was considering running the full schedule for 2010. The owners were definitely impressed with the improvements after Howard took over the driving duties, but the problems over the past two months have proven to be a distraction. Add to that, the announcement by NASCAR that they would indeed introduce the new COT in the 2010 schedule, and the idea of a full time run looks dim at this point.
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Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Driver Blog:An eventful week…

By Trevor Bayne

I had the weekend off; although I would have liked to have gone to Watkins Glen and get a little experience on a road course and maybe learn a little bit from watching Scott Speed and Marcos Ambrose. I really could have learned something from Marcos about running on a road course, after all he has won two in a row at the Glen.
However; I felt like my time was better spent in my hometown of Knoxville, where I hung out with family and made a few appearances at some of the local Toyota dealerships to promote me and the No. 99 Aaron’s Dream Machine next weekend at Bristol.
I drove back to North Carolina on Monday, hung out with some friends and played a little NASCAR EA Sports and of course got in a little wakeboarding.
Wednesday I participated in some media training with Toyota folks. I found it useful and it gave me a lot of pointers for when I am being interviewed on camera. It also taught me how to handle the media after an on track incident, how to approach them and how to maintain my composure and keep my cool.
Thursday I’m heading to Michigan and am excited to turn my first laps at Michigan International Speedway on Friday. From what I hear, MIS is the type of track that has multiple grooves; you can run it from the white up to the wall. To compete for a win there, you have to have a car that has the complete package, horsepower and the ability to run both high and low on the track. I am pretty positive that my crew chief Jerry Baxter will bring a car that has the complete package; it will just be up to me to get the job done.
So far this year I have been able to qualify really well, sat on the pole in Indy, had another pole taken away from me by Superman, Kyle Bush in my first outing in Nashville, I just haven’t had the finishes to go along with them. This weekend I’d like to snag another great starting position, keep my nose clean and stay out of trouble throughout the race and hopefully bring the Dream machine home top-10 or better.
I just found out that next week I will be the first guest on Trackside, and I’m pretty excited about it. Hope you all can check it out, it airs on Speed Channel at 7:00pm on August 21st. For all my fans, you can follow my daily activity on my Facebook page, thanks everyone for your support.

Back seat driver. Please surprise me

ESPN is tossing Marty Reid out of the booth this week for the CarFax 250 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Michigan International Speedway this Saturday. Instead, the race call will be done by a team of past champions. Rusty Wallace, Dale Jarrett, Ray Evernham and Andy Petree will be alone in the TV booth for the race.

The concept for this call is that the former driver’s and crew chiefs will relay the on track action with events in their past, or to offer their ideas about what the driver’s on the track or the teams should be doing. So as I understood from a press conference Tuesday with Rusty and Ray there will be no actual play by play. This is a new one time deal for ESPN with no further similar broadcast planned. The network big wigs are looking to shake things up and see how the fans / viewers like it. If this idea goes over good, you can be sure that it will be done on several occasions next year and possibly flow over to the Cup races.

After thinking about this idea and giving it consideration, my best comment is, Surprise me, Please Surprise me. I can recall when Rusty first went to the TV booth, just as I remember when DW first hit the booth. So I have to say that I hope that Rusty has gotten his “look at Stephen doing this, I think Stephen should do that” and more out of his system, it took DW years to stop . Dale Jarrett hit the TV booth 2 years ago and to my delight, he stepped into his dad’s shoes. Dale showed an ease about himself and completely comfortable calling a race. He instantly gained a lot of respect from fans and deserves to be more visible on the Cup broadcast. So, the surprise I am hoping for is that DJ takes the lead on this telecast and can keep the others focused on the race and the viewers.

Ray Evernham and Andy Petree both bring a lot of knowledge and experience to the broadcast team with tons of technical expertise. Ray is a natural speaker and his time on TV has shown him to be very at ease, Andy has come a long way in his time with ESPN , so both can make this a very positive program. But listening to Rusty and Ray speak about this upcoming broadcast, I have to wonder if anybody will do any kind of play by play, or if the viewers will have to try to decipher what is actually happening on the track.

When saving point about this broadcast, and Ray was quick to point it out, is the fact that Alan Bestwick will be in the Pit studio and will be able to steer the broadcast in that direction. Alan has one of the coolest heads in NASCAR broadcasting and should be able to help guide this whole experiment, by directing the flow between the broadcast booth and the pit reporters. In my opinion, one that is shared by many in the sport, Alan should be leading the play by play booth on a weekly basis.

Nobody knows if this will work out as an acceptable alternative, but I have to give credit to Rich Feinberg, Vice president of motorsports for ESPN . This whole idea is his baby, so if it flies he gets the credit and if it sinks he gets the blame. The economy has hit NASCAR particularly hard this year. Sponsor and advertising dollars are down as are viewer and attendance ratings. Give this idea a chance, check it out and if you like it, let ESPN know, if you don’t like it, also let them know. ‘Backseat drivers’ will be on ESPN-2 Saturday at 3:00 ET.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Camping World Truck Series future looking dim

By Racing’ Roger

Despite the assurances of Nascar earlier in the season, the show of trucks at Nashville Saturday reinforces the doubt about the series future. For the teams that entered the race, qualifying was not a concern. The series which starts a maximum of 36 trucks had only 34 entries.
A look back at the 2009 season so far shows that of the 14 races to date, this was the fifth race that started short of a full field of trucks. Only 24 teams have made all 14 races so far, the other 43 teams this year have averaged less than 4 starts each. Only 17 drivers have run all 14 races so far, as teams have been relegated to renting out the teams for one off drivers. Last years champion had an early end to the season as Red Horse Racing was unable to secure enough sponsorship to keep Johnny Benson running the full season.
We all know that Ford and Dodge had pulled their factory support to the series before this season, and Chevrolet followed suit. A few weeks ago Toyota reduced their factory support also. The economy has hurt all of the NASCAR divisions regarding sponsor money, and as the funds disappear even NASCAR takes a hand in steering sponsors to the premier series. As sponsor dollars leave the Nationwide Series for the Sprint Cup Series, the Nationwide teams are drawing dollars from the Truck Series.
It looks like NASCAR is treating this series like the red headed step child, as they have forgotten about the Double File restarts for the trucks. The new pit rules for this year prove to guarantee more caution laps as teams are forced to do two pit stops in order to change tires and then return for fuel. This may have sounded like a good idea, but it equals boring.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Five in a row for Hornaday


By Joe Dunn


He did what many thought was impossible, Saturday night Ron Hornaday captured the checkered flag in the Toyota Tundra 200 at Nashville Superspeedway he set a new record in the series. This was the first time that any driver has won in NASCAR’s top three series since 1971 when Richard Petty and Bobby Allison both did it that year.

With rain in the forecast qualifying at Nashville Superspeedway went off without much difficulty. That of course was after Jason Young the first driver out brushed the wall, resulting in no time recorded. Todd Bodine was the early pole sitter, but after a progression of changes, Timothy Peters in the # 17 Strutmasters/Red Horse Racing Toyota turned in the fastest lap of 30.122, 159.312 mph and earned his first ever pole in the series.

Peters held the lead for the first 34 laps when Ron Hornaday got by him to lead the way to the lap 35 competition caution. Hornaday held the lead until the 4th caution, for debris on lap 85. A round of yellow flag pits stops allowed Jason White to take the lead on lap 86, but it was short lived as Hornaday powered past him to take the lead back on lap 92. Once he was displaced by the #33 of Hornaday White quickly fell back in the field.

Rain brought the caution again on lap 102, but only three laps later, the field went back to green as the heat on the track kept the racing surface clear. With rain threatening all night it looked like a smooth finish coming when with 2 laps to go, on lap 148, Terry Cook had a tire let go and spun bringing out the caution. Todd Bodine, who had been in the top 10 also pitted for two rear tires, causing him to restart 19. That set up a green, white, checker finish, extending the race to 154 laps. Hornaday got a good start and established a comfortable lead to take home the win.

Brian Scott finished second, making this his eight top 10 finish this year. Colin Braun finished third, his second top 10 finish at Nashville. Johnny Sauter was the highest finishing rookie in sixth place. Bodine managed a 13th place finish, bettering his position by 6 places in the final three laps.