Carl Rains on Busch's Perfect Weekend

By Shaun Burke

It appeared Nashville Superspeedway belonged to Kyle Busch for much of this weekend; however, Carl Edwards had something to say about that! Carl Edwards cruised to his second win of 2011 in the Nashville 300 Saturday. The win, Edwards’ fifth at Nashville Superspeedway, reasserted Carl’s nickname “Concrete Carl”. This was Edwards’ 40th career nationwide win tying him fourth on the all time Nationwide win list with Jack Ingram. “Early in the race our car was far superior.” Said Edwards, “I could kind of stretch out a lead whenever I wanted to. At the end of the race I was peddling for all I had. The guys on the 18 did a good job of adjusting their car. That was white knuckle driving as hard as I could drive. It was really nerve wracking”

The Nashville 300 was clearly a race of two halves. For much of the first half of the race, Edwards dominated and put the majority of the field a lap down. Everything changed when Steve Wallace spun on lap 135 bringing out the second caution of the event. Following the restart, two more quick debris cautions were displayed on lap 141 and 147. Each restart, the car of Kyle Busch was able to hang with Edwards more and more. Carl appeared to have a slightly better car over the long run and pulled away at the end. “It was a good race for us today” Busch said, “We were fast, just not quite fast enough. We last a little bit in every area and could only muster a second place today.”

The Nashville 300 was the Carl & Kyle show from start to finish. Brad Keselowski hung with the leaders while they were racing for the lead late in the race however came in a distant third. Keselowski who struggled early in the season has now finished in the top ten in six consecutive races. “We didn’t quite have enough speed but we did a good job on pit road.” Said Keselowski, “We didn’t make any mistakes on or off the race track we just need more speed in pretty much all areas. We’re better than we were at the start of the year; we’re not blowing out tires and that’s progress.”

Joey Logano finished fourth with Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. taking the honor of being the highest Nationwide Championship contender by finishing fifth. The fifth place finish leaves Stenhouse, Jr. tied with Justin Allgaier for the series points lead. “This team has to face diversity to win a championship” said Stenhouse when asked about rebounding from a bad finish at Talladega. “To come away with a fifth place finish was good for us but we still need a little more speed to run with Kyle and Carl; I don’t think I’ve ever finished here (Nashville).”

On a Roll, Kyle Busch racks up win Number 3 for 2011 truck series

By Shaun Burke

Kyle Busch capped off a dominating day by winning the Bully Hill Vineyards 200 Friday. Starting from the pole, Busch led 140 of 150 laps in route to his second Camping World Truck Series victory of the season. “Our truck was really good.” Says Busch, “Eric (Phillips) did a really good job of adjusting on it.”

After the victory, Busch was greeted to a sight he has seldom ever seen: fans cheered as Busch crossed the finish line. “It was a good show.” Said Busch after the victory “Ron (Hornaday) came up there and made things interesting. He’s a hell of a wheelman. I pulled the same move on him that he pulled on me”

After leading Busch on the final restart with three laps to go, Ron Hornaday faded to finish fourth. “I drove it too hard and wore the tires off,” Hornaday said.

The feel good story of the night was second place finisher Nelson Pique. Pique was the highest finishing rookie coming in second; his first top five finish in NASCAR. “I honestly have no words. I feel like I won” Said Piquet. "At the beginning of the year, we had a lot of adversity that we faced. I think every week, even every lap on the track, I continue to learn. That is what it is all about: learning and getting better.”

Timothy Peters took two tires on final stop and was able to hang on for a third place finish. “We had a hiccup there on pit road” said Peters, “We didn’t get our Tundra full of fuel and we had to come back down with one to go. The tire is so good; it makes everyone so equal that it’s hard to pass here. It was a great call he made taking two tires there towards the end. It goes us up towards the front.” The finish was Peters’ Third straight top ten and positions him second in points, just three points out of the Camping World Truck Series points lead.

The race was a milestone race for Kyle Busch. Not only was it his third career win at Nashville Superspeedway but Busch also led his 20,000th career lap in NASCAR competition making him just the tenth driver in NASCAR history to accomplish such a feat. It also marked the one year anniversary of the first win for Kyle Busch Motorsports. “We’ve come a long ways.” Says crew chief Eric Phillips, “We did a lot of moving during the middle of the summer. I was impressed with the guys to be able to keep their focus. I was nervous about this weekend. We had some of our focus off the truck, doing other things. They brought a great piece and they do a great job every week.”

The truck series will be in action again May 13 at Dover where Kyle Busch Motorsports will attempt to win its fourth race of the 2011 season.

Nashville Fans get Up Close and Personal with NASCAR Stars

 

By Shaun Burke

Most fans consider a drivers autograph to be a treasure; a Holy Grail if you will. They stand in the heat or rain for hours for an opportunity to catch a glimpse of their favorite driver and just hope they get a chance to say “Hi” to that driver. Well, for autograph lovers, attending a standalone nationwide race is a great opportunity to get such an autograph with little effort.

Nashville Superspeedway hosted an autograph session for an hour between final Truck Series practice and the first Nationwide practice. The drivers in attendance were a virtual who’s who of NASCAR stars. Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, Ron Hornaday, Todd Bodine, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Carl Edwards and Kenny Wallace are just a few of the drivers who attended. 250 wrist bands were handed out starting at 11 am at Nashville Superspeedway. The fans then came back to get in line. Not only did each driver provide a “hero card” but fans were able to bring in their  personal merchandise for drivers to sign. In addition, the fans also had an opportunity to have a casual conversion with their favorite driver.

Most people think of an autograph session as a time for fans to meet their favorite driver; however, for many drivers it is so much more. After the autograph session, I had the opportunity to talk with Justin Lofton, one of the drivers who participated in the autograph session about the importance of a driver like himself attending an autograph session. “The cool thing is since it’s an off weekend, you get all the big Cup drivers” says Lofton, “It helps the rest of us because they come out to see the drivers they know from TV. Who knows, you may be able to make one of them your fan.”

An autograph session is also a time for fans to be introduced to a product a driver is endorsing. Many fans associate a product with a certain car. Having the opportunity to meet the driver who is endorsing the product helps put a personal touch for many sponsors. It also gives the fan a chance to ask the driver about their sponsor.

The drivers participating in today’s session were:

Blake Koch                          Joey Logano

Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.             Kevin Conway

Johnny Sauter                      Matt Crafton

Johanna Long                      Jeremy Clements

Todd Bodine                       Max Papis

Justin Lofton                       Ricky Carmichael

Dusty Davis                       Justin Johnson

Cole Whitt                         Justin Marks

Timothy Peters                  Miguel Paludo

Travis Kvapil                     Jason White

Kenny Wallace                 Kyle Busch

Joey Coulter                     Austin Dillon

Carl Edwards                   Nelson Piquet, Jr.

Cale Gale Ron                  Hornaday, Jr.

Ryan Truex                      Justin Allgaier

Reed Sorenson                Brad Sweet

Mikey Kile                      Brian Scott

Trevor Bayne                  Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.

And famous NASCAR Artist Sam Bass .

The next time you are at a race, be sure to check and see if there are any autograph sessions. You may look back on it as the highlight of your race experience!

Mike Mittler: Discovering NASCAR Talent Since 1995

By Brody Jones

When one hears the names Carl Edwards, Jamie McMurray, Justin Allgaier, the late Tony Roper, and the late Kenny Irwin Jr., it’s a varitable who’s who among NASCAR. Now what do these drivers have in common? Mike Mittler. Now, some fans are likely scratching their heads as to who in the world is Mike Mittler? The truth is he launched all of these driver’s NASCAR careers and sadly, he gets little to no credit for it. “I don’t know if I can remember how I originally got into racing, but as long as I can remember I have always liked racing.” said Mittler. “I fooled around with go-carts when I was younger and one thing led to another.” Another little known fact about Mittler’s team is that they have been the only team in the series that has always been a part of the series since 1995. Mittler reflected on how the series has changed from then to now. “Over the years, I’ve seen the series get a lot more professional and the competition get tougher. Originally it was a West Coast-based series with a lot of regional owners such as myself. Now you see a much higher Cup presence and things are much more professional now.”

Mittler’s team has become something of a development-haven for young, rising talent. Names such as Carl Edwards, Justin Allgaier, Jamie McMurray, Kenny Irwin Jr., and Tony Roper have all cut their teeth driving for Mittler. “Success breeds success.” stated Mittler. “After that first initial squall of success, it gets people to notice you and say ‘Well, boy, there must be something to that!’ So really what happens is that a lot of times, guys will seek us out and say ‘Hey, I’m the next Jamie, the next Carl’ or whoever. Sometimes we feel there’s a connection and sometimes we don’t. We’ve connected with a few people where it doesn’t work, but we’ve been fortunate to have several people come through who have connected with us.”

Unfortunately for the Mittlers, not all of their time in NASCAR has been glorious. Back in 2000 at Texas, their driver Tony Roper, while running in the top 10, was killed in a tragic head-on crash at 180 mph. “No words can describe (losing Tony).” recounted Mittler. “It was an absolutely tragic blow. We really seriously considered quitting racing after that, and Dean Roper, Tony’s father, said ‘If you want to continue racing, then that’s what we want you to do. That’s where your fans are. That’s what made us friends.’ and only with his blessing did I start back up.”

Shortly after the Mittler Brothers got back into racing, Jamie McMurray was behind the wheel of their trucks. “Jamie was a really young guy, high-energy.” recalled Mittler. “He was a super-good kid and a lot of fun. A lot of fun to be around and he always wanted things to be really well-done. He was a perfectionist in everything that he did and it was a lot of fun to see him mature as a driver and to see what he did afterwards to see how much more professional he became.” Not long after that, Carl Edwards joined the team, but his story on how he joined the team was a little bit unorthodox. “The original story is I met Carl at I.R.P. He stuck his hand out, like he was to hundreds of people, and said to me ‘Hi, I’m Carl Edwards’ I kind of looked at him and said ‘Yeah?’ and he said ‘I want to drive your truck!’ and one thing led to another.” reflected Mittler. “He was actually supposed to ride home with us from Indy. Well, one week later, he shows up at the front door of our shop and he said ‘Remember me? I’m Carl Edwards.’ and I said ‘Yeah.’ He then said ‘I’m here to drive your truck.’ and after many phone calls and visits later, he started driving our truck, and the rest is history.”

A few years back, the latest feather in the cap of the Mittler Brothers was acquiring a young Justin Allgaier. “We had a few learning curves with Justin.” said Mittler. “We had a few good runs with him and a few that weren’t so good also. We kind of helped shape Justin early on and got him out of the mind-set of the race being won in the first five laps. He was used to running those midget dirt races and it took him time to understand that these are long races, and to finish first, first you must finish. I think once he understood that, it went pretty well.” Upon reflection, it’s still mind-blowing for the Mittlers to think about all the careers they jump-started. “Probably never in a million years did I ever believe I would be a part of that.” said Mittler. “Now I always thought they were good drivers, or I never would have been associated with them. But never in a million years would I sit here and think that my team played a part in launching all those guys.”

Over recent years, the Mittlers have scaled back to a part-time schedule. “We would love to run the full schedule, but right now, it’s all about the funding.” stated Mittler. “A lot of times in business, the more volume you have, the lower the business costs. In racing, that’s the opposite. It’s the more volume, the higher the costs. You need more inventory, more parts, more equipment and that’s what drives the budget higher. I said to myself, when I first got into racing ‘I will not bankrupt myself or my business to do it’. And I’ve come damned close a few times, but I refuse to (bankrupt myself). I’ve seen a lot of owners come and go, I’m not saying they bankrupted themselves, but they exercised prudence and said ‘Hey, I’m not going to keep doing this’ We do what makes sense for our business and our personal lives and if we can ramp our team up, we’d love to race full-time.”

Mittler also talked about the secret to his team’s success. “Persistence. Lots and lots of persistence.” Mittler said. “The secret to longevity is enjoyment, my enjoyment, and everyone else’s enjoyment. Just when you think it might be over, a little more money comes in to provide a boost to our team. Nick (Hoffman) is a bright young guy, we’re pumped up and excited about him. He’s got a lot of talent and if we could just track some sponsorship with him, it would go a long way with Nick. I’ve also had great personnel over the years, especially guys like Bill Politsch and so many others helping us out.”

Over the years, Mittler has been one of the few truck owners to stay loyal to Ford, but the going’s been tough. “It’s tough, it’s tough.” acknowledged Mittler “The only reason we’re still with Ford is we still have a lot of their inventory, so we’re still using that. But fortunately, we’re well-connected to a lot of other teams thanks to our longevity in the sport, and we share resources with a lot of teams even though they’re different brands, it helps us get things done.” Whenever the day comes when the Mittlers have to give up racing, they feel like they’ve already carved their legacy. “I’ve established myself as a guy who loves to race with humility, and we always try to put our best foot forward for the sport, and drivers and left it in a better position than we found it.”

Nick Hoffman Poised To Be Mittler Brothers Next Big Thing

By Brody Jones

The name Nick Hoffman might not ring any bells for casual fans, but this young 18-year old is the latest driver to drive a truck for the Mittler Brothers and is poised to make his 2nd career start at Nashville SuperSpeedway this week-end. “Basically I started off running dirt modifieds.” said Hoffman. “Then I started running asphalt late models and quarter midgets when I started along with Lazy Cars, Bandoleros, the typical kid’s path to NASCAR.” Hoffman was running dirt modifieds when one day, he got the opportunity of a lifetime, to drive for the Mittler Brothers in the Camping World Truck Series. “When I was a kid, I would joke with Mike (Mittler) and Carl (Edwards) to one day let me drive their truck.” joked Hoffman ”I’m really appreciative of this opportunity, it’s really big for us. My dad worked for Mike when Carl was in the Trucks and I’ve always wanted to drive for the Mittler Brothers.”

In July, Hoffman had his first opportunity to race for the Mittler Brothers at the then-O’Reilly Raceway Park in the Camping World Truck Series. “I was really pumped up because it was a really big opportunity for us.” Nick reflected “We had a solid day and the biggest thing I had to remember was not to get on the gas too hard, coming from a dirt mind-set. Guys like Steve Arpin and Justin Allgaier helped teach me what I needed to change. It was fun and it was a really thrilling experience, but our biggest goal was to just get laps, but I think tomorrow we should have a good truck.”

Hoffman is driving for the same team that several big names in NASCAR such as the late Kenny Irwin Jr., the late Tony Roper, Jamie McMurray, Carl Edwards, and Justin Allgaier all cut their teeth in the Truck Series, but Hoffman is the latest driver to step in the truck. “It’s really big for my confidence and I’m hoping to do the same things they did and accomplish as much as they have.” said Hoffman. One of Nick’s biggest supporters has been Carl Edwards, who has helped out with his dirt modified efforts in the Southeast. “He’s a big supporter for us and has helped us out when he can.” said Nick. “I knew Carl when my dad was working for Mike and Carl had moved to North Carolina and he said he knew he had to live down there if he was going to make it in the racing business. So we hung out and stuff all the time and now he kind of helps us.”

Hoffman has set realistic goals for himself this weekend at Nashville SuperSpeedway. “I don’t know about the rest of the team, but my goal is to finish on the lead lap in the top 20 and to log some laps.” Future races for the young hot-shoe depend on how he does this week-end. “It all depends on how this race goes tomorrow.” said Hoffman. “If I can keep the thing in one piece, we’ll see what I get approved for after this.” Here’s to hoping the best for the latest Missouri to North Carolina transplant and hopefully one day he can follow in the foot-steps of his mentor, Carl Edwards. Perhaps this week-end at Nashville will be the start of something special for Hoffman.

Johnson Snatches Victory at the Line

By Shaun Burke

Jimmie Johnson made a daring three wide last lap pass in the Aaron’s 499 to score his 54th career victory.

Johnson received a great push from team mate Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and afterwards gave Junior the flag as a “thank you” for pushing him to the win. “Well I got it and gave it to him.” Johnson said, “He’s got the checkered flag over there and I can’t wait to tilt a cold one back with him and thank him for a good job done today.”

Johnson had high praise for the new two car tandem and believes it put on one of the best plate races in recent memory. “We have a ton of passes for the lead and statistically you look at the race and it looks pretty awesome.” Said Johnson, “You can make stuff happen and there is a technique required to stay together. It puts it back in the driver's hands. I don't remember people excited about the way it was before. I thought there was a lot of racing that took place. I thought it was a great race.”

The winning pass came when the duo of Jeff Gordon/Mark Martin and Clint Bowyer/Kevin Harvick were racing side-by-side allowing Johnson/Junior to suck up in the last stretch. “I had a good run into three but nowhere to go.” Says Johnson, “By the time we got back to the tri-oval, we had another big run going and those guys were worked about side-drafting each other. The bottom was wide open for us and we rallied our way through there.”

Bowyer was clearly disappointed in finishing second. “You know, that win could have put me in the Chase.” Said Bowyer, “It’s never very good to know you made NASCAR history by losing. Sooner or later I need to start making history by winning.”

When asked about the tandem racing, Bowyer shared Johnson’s general positive opinion. “It doesn’t matter what happened throughout the race.” Says Bowyer, “If you didn’t like that finish and it didn’t make you forget about the race, you’re crazy.”

Jeff Gordon, today’s third place finisher, said Talladega races are always shootouts. “Talladega has always been about a 15-25 lap race.” Gordon said, “The rest is just trying to get to the end.

Gordon spent much of the race at the back of the pack before making a surge late in the race. “If you want to survive and you want to make it to the finish, you have to either choose to try to push to stay up front or ride in the back. Being in the middle is not worth it.”

Today’s Aaron’s 499 was a record tying race. The margin of victory, .002, tied for the closest in NASCAR history and the lead changes, 88, tied for most every in a Sprint Cup Series race.

The race never featured the infamous “big one” as drivers gave each other room all day. There were, however, many drivers that suffered the wrath of Kurt Busch’s front bumper. The first occurred on lap 28. Busch was pushing rookie Landon Cassill when Cassill spun into the car of Brian Vickers. Cassill continued on several laps down while Vickers went behind the wall to repair the damage.

The second incident with Busch was on lap 90. It appeared the car of David Ragan lost and engine and Busch turned team mate Brad Keselowski. The incident collected six cars and was relatively small by Talladega standards.

The third strike by Busch occurred on lap 185 when Kurt gave potential winner Dave Blaney a hard hit and sent Blaney through the infield grass.

Carl Edwards brings a five point lead over Jimmie Johnson into Richmond in two week. Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch round out the top ten.

Mike Wallace flips for Aaron's 312 while Bush collects the checkers

By Shaun Burke

Sometimes a driver is good; sometimes he is lucky. In 2011, Kyle Busch has been both.

Kyle Busch cruised to victory after two attempts at green-white-checkered. The race titled the Aaron’s 312 was extended to 330 miles. Joey Logano pushed Busch to the victory and has now finished on the podium in all three career Nationwide races at Talladega.

On lap 88, it appeared Busch’s race was over when he was in the middle of “the big one”. What started as contact between Clint Bowyer and Busch resulted in Busch slamming into the side of Michael Waltrip. Waltrip spun across the track and collected 21 cars in total. Waltrip was clear in what he thought caused the crash. “The No. 2 decided that he would manipulate the restart so that the No. 1 could get behind him” said Waltrip, "It's the way you race, but the No. 1 and the No. 2 messing around got me crashed."

The resulting crash cause significant damage to the car of Busch and he questioned whether his car could be competitive. “I got hit three times on the left side and I thought it was killed” said Busch, “these guys did a great job of putting it back together.”

On the last lap, it appeared Joe Nemechek had the run needed to blow past the damaged car of Kyle Busch when the caution came out after a crash on the back straight.

Joe Nemechek finished third, his best Nationwide finish since he won at Kansas in 2004. Rounding out the top 10 were Brad Keselowski and Elliott Sadler.

The field avoided what could have been a huge wreck on lap 70 when point leader Ricky Stenhouse slammed the wall on the backstretch. It appeared the duo of Trevor Bayne and Carl Edwards were moving on the outside line when Stenhouse drifted up. Bayne made contact with teammate Stenhouse and sent Stenhouse head-on into the backstretch wall. Stenhouse didn’t return to the track and finished in 38th position. He dropped to fourth in points, eight points out of the lead.

Stenhouse wasn’t the only championship contender to have trouble in the Aaron’s 312. On the last lap, Jason Leffler made contact with the flipping car of Mike Wallace. The contact resulted in Leffler finishing fifteenth and taking the points lead by two over Justin Allgaier.

After getting off to a very quick start, the Aaron’s 312 began to feel like the race that would never end. Twice, the red flag flew. First after Stenhouse dropped almost all the fluid his car could hold on the track and second after the 21 car crash on lap 88. The race also had two green-white-checkered finishes and ended under caution after Mike Wallace got airborne on the last lap.

The race resulted in a record number of lead changes with 56 smashing the old record of 36 in the 2007 Aaron’s 312.

The win is Busch’s 47th putting him just two shy of Mark Martin’s record of 49.

A New Low In NASCAR…

By Brody Jones

Over the years, NASCAR teams have done some pretty despicable antics just to keep their teams in the starting field. It was bad enough when teams were start and parking and not bothering to bring pit crews, as Phoenix Racing did at Rockingham back in 2004. It’s been painful to watch Darrell Waltrip, Bill Elliott, and Terry Labonte pimp out their past champion’s provisionals just to race, but this week-end at Talladega, NASCAR has hit an all-new low. Whitney Motorsports plans to have Bill Elliott qualify the car and J.J. Yeley will get in the car at some point during the race, more than likely, for the sole purpose of parking the car. Whitney Motorsports has, in fact, not finished a single race that they have attempted this year, so it is more likely than not going to be a start and park effort.

For NASCAR to even allow such shenanigans to take place is a tremendous black eye and a middle-finger toward the sanctioning body. But the real issue is who suffers the most from this at the end of the day? Is it Dusty Whitney, who will now live in infamy for even concocting this hare-brained scheme? Surely Whitney will lose whatever respect that he ever had in the NASCAR garage area for pulling a stunt like this. Of course, never mind that start and parking is as much of a stain on NASCAR’s legacy as steroids is to major league baseball. But that doesn’t seem to matter to Mr. Whitney, who just forfeited any right to call himself a respectable NASCAR team owner after this. Such bush-league tactics makes teams like MSP/Prism/HP Racing look like Richard Childress Racing by comparison.

Or is Bill Elliott’s reputation finally damaged beyond all repair with this stunt? Less than ten years ago, Bill Elliott was a widely respected, popular driver. He’s had a glowing resume over the years, winning the Winston Million in 1985, being the Winston Cup champion in 1988, a 17-time Most Popular Driver. But for him to even agree to something as deplorable as this? He deserves to be booed at every race he enters now for tarnishing the sport. His fans will defend him, but in good conscience, how can an objective NASCAR fan defend something as heinous as shilling your championship provisional to lock a team in the field so they can start and park? One can understand Bill trying to keep the Elliott name on the race track until Chase is of age to race in NASCAR’s top levels, but if Bill’s going to pull stunts like this, he needs to just go away and avoid killing his legacy.

Probably the most innocent victim in all this is J.J. Yeley, who just seems to be a pawn in this scheme. If Yeley had the car the whole time, yes, he likely was going to start and park, but at least he wouldn’t have been resorting to any unscrupulous tactics just to even race. However, one cannot blame Yeley at all for this. Dusty Whitney, for putting Yeley through the wringer like this, deserves to be black-balled from the sport. What’s absolutely frightening to even think about is this is just going to open a Pandora’s box of unethical schemes just to keep teams locked into a starting field. Such actions like this are why NASCAR needs to, not just do away with the Past Champion’s Provisional, but do away with the irritating top 35 rule as well and just have the fastest 43 cars make the field. It works for the NHRA and has even created (GASP!) actual drama in their championship point standings. But that would make sense, so it’ll never happen. But hey, one can hope, can’t they?

Gordon has sights set on another Championship

By Shaun Burke

For the first time since 2001, Hendrick Motorsports only had one of its drivers win a race in the Sprint Cup series. At the beginning of 2011, Hendrick Motorsports made a change to the teams of Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Mark Martin in order to remedy to problem.

The results were immediate as all the Hedrick cars were competitive at Daytona. The next week, Jeff Gordon got back to Victory Lane for the first time since early in 2009. Meanwhile, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. appears to be as close to Victory Lane as he has been in many years.

One glaring problem, however, is the struggles Jeff Gordon has had at the 1.5 mile tracks. “Grading the team and grading our performance is two different things.” Says Gordon, “I think our team gets an A. We showed that at Phoenix…but our 1.5-mile program is definitely not where it needs to be.”

Gordon isn’t kidding. After seven races this season, Gordon has two top 5 finishes and four finishes of worse than fifteenth. In fact, at the down force type tracks, Gordon’s best finish is eighteenth at Fontana.

Gordon says, however “We’re really far off and that’s the beauty of the Chase. Because of the chase format, you can be off at this point as long as you find it by the summer. We have until the summer to find what our issues are. I wish we had another 1.5-mile next week. We have to get it figured out and the only way you can get it figured out is if you go and try things.”

Gordon has no doubts that his team will find what it is looking for and will contend by the time the summer is over. “Alan is awesome.” Says Gordon, “His group of engineers is amazing and that’s what gives me confidence that we’re going to work through it.”

Gordon has confidence in his team and his crew. He is confident that his team will figured out what it needs to keep him running up front.

Regan Smith Is Getting Up To Speed In NASCAR

By Brody Jones

The 2011 NASCAR season has been chock full of storylines, ranging from Trevor Bayne’s miraculous Daytona 500 triumph to Jeff Gordon breaking a long winless drought and so many other storylines. One storyline that has, amazingly, been given little to no media attention whatsoever has been the early-season qualifying prowess of Cato, New York’s Regan Smith. In a category where one would expect names like Carl Edwards or Jimmie Johnson to dominate, it has been the unheralded Regan Smith that, going into Texas, was averaging a 5.8 qualifying average, and after a 5th place start at Texas, that number is only going to go up further. But it’s not as if Regan’s qualifying expertise happened overnight. No, race fans, back in his rookie season in the USAR Pro Cup Series, he accumulated four pole positions that year.

Regan Smith started his NASCAR career back in 2002 as another discovery by the Mittler Brothers Truck Series team at South Boston Speedway. In 2003, he started racing in the NASCAR Busch Series for the ill-fated Bost Motorsports operation. He would earn three-top 20 finishes in the first half of that season, but was eventually out of a ride when Bost was forced to turn to other ride-buyers. His hard luck continued in 2004 when after joining Michael Holigan Racing, after only a handful of races, the team was forced to suspend operations. In 2005, if Regan hadn’t had bad luck, he would have had no luck at all as he lost his Xpress Motorsports ride due to a lack of funding and he was released from Glynn Motorsports that year as well.

In 2006, he parlayed a top-20 points finish with Team Rensi Motorsports in the Busch Series into a gig with Ginn Racing in 2007 where, again, mitigating factors beyond his control almost derailed his career again when Ginn merged with Dale Earnhardt Inc. just as Regan was slated to take over the #14 Waste Management Chevrolet, leaving Regan again up the creek without a paddle. In 2008, he ran full-time with D.E.I. on limited sponsorship for the full season and at the 2008 Amp Energy Drink 500, he seemed to have scored a miraculous first career victory, but, on par for the hard luck Regan has had in his career, NASCAR dictated that Regan was below the yellow line, stripping him of his win and awarding it to Tony Stewart despite Smith’s protests he was forced below the yellow line.

More misfortune followed at the close of the season when D.E.I. shut down the #01 team due to a lack of funding, even though Regan was the 2008 NASCAR Rookie Of The Year. He managed to land on his feet with Furniture Row Racing in 2009 for a limited schedule and performed very well for the underfunded team, making all but two races he was slated to race in that year, which paved the way for a 2010 season that saw him finish 12th twice and earn a 28th place position in the final point standings, a career best for him. And 2011 started on a tremendously high note as Regan had one of the best cars on the track all of Speedweeks at Daytona and turned several heads during the 500 en route to an impressive 7th place finish. While it was a nice run, many dismissed his great qualifying effort as a one-hit wonder. Over the first seven races, he has started in the top 10 in six out of the seven races on the schedule so far and has started no worse than 12th proving his strong qualifying effort at Daytona was no fluke.

Granted, his on track performance since Daytona has been less than ideal, finishing no better than 22nd but this year has proven that Regan Smith has the speed to qualify with the best in the business. Maybe, just maybe, after all of the forks in the road that Regan has had to endure, he just might have finally proven his worth in the highly-competitive world of NASCAR. One thing is for certain, though. Regan didn’t have anything handed to him and despite all the adversity when lesser drivers would have phoned it in and called it a career, Regan has persevered. Will he be a Sprint Cup Champion one day? Highly unlikely, but one cannot ever question whether Regan Smith has the resolve to make it in the world of NASCAR.

Harvick slams the door on Junior's chance at a win

By Shaun Burke

After finishing 42nd in the Daytona 500, Kevin Harvick has asserted himself as the man to beat in the 2011 Spring Cup Series.

Harvick led just six laps in route to his second win in a row in the Goody’s Fast Relief 500.

Harvick struggled much of the day falling to the last car on the lead lap at one point in the race. His team spent the majority of the day working on the ill-handling Budweiser Chevrolet. “It was just a crazy day for us.” Says Harvick, “We started the race and our car was really, really loose. We came in and made a lot of adjustments, made it a little bit better and we kept working on it and then we wrecked it. And after we wrecked it, it actually got going pretty good.”

For a while, it looked like Dale Earnhardt Jr. was finally going to end his 98 race winless streak. Junior bumped Kyle Busch out of the lead with twenty to go and took off. Harvick quickly passed Kyle Busch as well and began chasing Junior down. “I knew the 29 was fast the run before that” says Junior, “He was really quick. We all watched him come up through the pack there. I knew he had speed. But he did have a car in front of him and I was trying to make it difficult for him to get by. “

Kyle Busch hung on to finish third after leading a race high 151 laps but will have to wait until October to attempt to win his first NASCAR race at Martinsville. “We had one of the best runs here we have ever had. And I probably had the best car here today.” Said Busch, “Unfortunately just didn't win with it…We just didn't quite have the car to do it on a short run. Every time we had the lead off pit road, we lost it and took about 28 laps to get going again.”

Rounding out the top five were Juan Pablo Montoya and Jeff Gordon.

Coming into the race, major story was tires and whether the track would rubber in. After a few tire issues early in the race, the track appeared to rubber in. At one point, the entire field actually did green flag pit stops.

There was a scary crash on lap 280 as it appeared Martin Truex, Jr.’s throttle hung wide open. He slammed into the side of Kasey Kahne’s Red Bull Toyota and erupted into flames. He quickly jumped out of his car and ran to check on Kahne. Afterwards, Truex said he had no indication the throttle was going to hang up and he was just along for the ride.

Kyle Busch leads Carl Edwards by five points as NASCAR heads to the Lone Star state next week for the first night race of the season.

NASCAR announced today that it will start fielding multi-class races beginning immediately

By Shaun Burke

In the release by NASCAR’s CEO Brian France, anytime the series is schedule to have a “double header” and there is “a substantial amount of empty seats” for the cup race, the Nationwide and Cup Series will be combined. “This will allow tracks who are having trouble selling seats have a better shot at a sellout” said France “It’s not a mystery that NASCAR has two major issues: Cup drivers racing in the Nationwide series and empty seats in the grandstands. Mult-class racing is the final solution to combat both these issues.”

Plans are for tracks to release official ticket sales to NASCAR a week prior to the race weekend. If NASCAR feels the race will have a substantial amount of empty seats, they will announce a combined race. Any driver who is currently running both series will elect which series they want to race. The owner will then have the option of filling the other car with a replacement driver. The field will still consist of a maximum of 43 cars. “Currently the NASCAR Sprint Cup series has about 25 competitive cars and the Nationwide about 20.” Says NASCAR Competition director, John Darby “In the end, we will have a more competitive race while not increase nor decreasing the field size.”

Each race will have two winners and two victory lane celebration. If the overall race winner is a Nationwide series driver, that driver will be credited with a Nationwide and a Cup win in the records book. Kyle Busch plans to compete in the “combined races” in his #18 Nationwide series ride. “I think everyone knows that I’m trying to win 200 NASCAR races.” Says Busch, “I feel like my Nationwide cars are as fast or faster than my Cup car many weekends. By running the Nationwide car on combined race weekends, I’ll be able to double my win totals and break Richard Petty’s 200 win number at a quicker rate”

Not all drivers felt the same as Kyle Busch. “I raced in the nationwide series for a few years but I don’t feel safe competing against some of those drivers” says Jimmie Johnson, “I compete in the Cup Series against Cup drivers because I know these guys and what they are capable of. If I am racing against Jeff Gordon or Dale Earnhardt Jr., I know what to expect and how they will race me. I can’t say that about a guy like Steve Wallace or Jason Leffler.”

As for the 40-45 drivers that show up at these races and miss the show, there will be a race run on Saturday that will feature all these drivers. Championship points will be awarded at a rate of half what they would usually get and wins will not count in the NASCAR record book. “These guys drove all the way from their shop and should get a chance to compete,” says France, “It’s not fair to send them home empty handed. In NASCAR, we believe everyone should have a chance at racing.”

One final note: Please remember that about half what you read on the internet is false except for one day a year. On that day, nothing is false. Released on April 1 of every year certainly carry the most weight.

Happy April Fool’s day!