Daily NASCAR

by Holly CainJohn Force has no trouble pinpointing his life-changing experience, even if he can’t remember it.

“God woke me up at 1,000-feet in Dallas, Texas, and he crushed me with a hammer,” the drag racing legend explains of a horrific 2007 accident at the Texas Motorplex.

“Nearly getting killed was the best thing that ever happened to me.”

As with most things in Force’s technicolor life, the accident was spectacularly frightening and especially cruel coming in a season where his young protege and teammate Eric Medlen had already been killed and his daughter, Ashley Force-Food survived a terrifying accident.

Force was airlifted from Dallas that October afternoon with serious injuries and here he is less than three years later — at age 60 — leading the National Hot Rod Association’s Funny Car championship — its most competitive division — as the NHRA holds its version of the “Daytona 500″ this weekend, the U.S. Nationals.

It is the first of six races in the NHRA’s “Countdown to 1″ playoffs to crown the season champ. It would be an unprecedented 15th series title for Force completing one of the most remarkable comeback stories in auto racing and providing the exclamation point on a racing resume that will never be equaled.

But as feel-great as this feel-good story is, it’s not history Force seeks. It’s redemption.

“What hurt the most after that accident, was having people you raced, look at you and feel sorry for you,” Force said.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Go to the original story

The idea of multi-car qualifying is nothing new to motorsports.  Our readers who follow Formula 1 racing (or other open wheel series) know what I’m talking about.  It is however, a fairly new system for NASCAR.  We’ve seen the Nationwide Series use the process for road course races over the last few years, and this season the Truck Series has used it at Pocono and will again use it at Kentucky this weekend.  CBS Sports reported on Thursday that NASCAR may be considering implementing multi-car qualifying for both the NNS and Cup Series on a regular basis.  Is anyone else wondering why?

It appears that the main reason this system would be adopted by all the NASCAR series is to speed up the qualifying process.  That’s fine, but I didn’t realize there was a problem with how quickly qualifying happened.  This appears to me as something that isn’t necessarily broken, but NASCAR wants to fix it anyway.

Personally, my biggest objection with the multi-car qualifying idea is how fair this would be for everyone involved.  We’ve seen plenty of times in other forms of racing where one driver’s bonzai qualifying lap was ruined by another driver in the name of strategy.  With so much at stake, and the measures that teams go to in terms of finding an advantage, it isn’t crazy to think that this could happen in NASCAR.  Single car qualifying runs eliminate any possibility of tampering by another team.

On top of that, what if a driver blows an engine while qualifying, and the other driver on track drives into the oil left behind and wrecks their primary car?  A team could potentially have their weekend ruined before the race even starts.  How is that fair?  Under the system we have now, this would never happen, because NASCAR has the ability to clean the track in between qualifying runs.

With the current state of the sport I realize that NASCAR is trying to find ways to improve the racing and get more people to not only attend races, but also to watch on TV.  To me though, implementing multi-car qualifying will cause more problems then it actually fixes.

TheNASCARInsiders.com

Follow the Insiders on Twitter or be a fan on Facebook!

Go to the original story

by Holly Cain

Filed under: Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Formula One

When the announcement came this summer that Austin, Texas, was going to host a Formula One race in 2012 there was a collective “whaaaaaat?” from the racing world. No one was more shocked than the promoter of the last U.S. Grand Prix, Joie Chitwood.

“I was as surprised as anyone,” Chitwood (pictured right) told FanHouse.com. “Everything I had heard was that it would be somewhere on the East Coast or the West Coast in some waterfront location.

“Austin is about the same size and scope as Indianapolis and there’s not even a facility built. It’s still hard to believe, and to be honest, I’m not even sure it’s really going to happen.”

Chitwood, now president of Daytona International Speedway, oversaw the USGP from 2000-2007 as Indianapolis Motor Speedway President. And he isn’t alone in his doubts about the project, even as the state of Texas has already agreed to a controversial, $25 million-a-year, kick-in for the race’s 10-year contract to help fund and sustain the event.

If a Formula One grand prix didn’t work in America’s greatest racing town Indianapolis — or in a dozen other previous locales — how’s it going to play out in a city there’s never even hosted a major auto race?

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Go to the original story

NASCAR has perception problems – with fans, with the media (especially its own), and with the mainstream. It’s something I’ve written about twice (here and here). After spending what I’m sure was a lot of money on consultants, I think NASCAR finally believes it too – and they’re doing something about it.

This week they announced the reorganization of their communications department. According to Sports Business Journal:

Members of the communications team will be embedded in other departments, such as consumer, brand and corporate marketing, in an effort to broaden and help NASCAR’s communications efforts evolve both inside the sanctioning body and with the sport’s teams, tracks and sponsors.

What this means is NASCAR is going to be adding more PR people, what SBJ said could be 20 to the existing department of about 25, and hiring a chief communications officer. Among other things, this will, in theory, allow them to do a better job of shifting and crafting a more positive narrative for the sport. And lets be honest, the narrative has gotten away from them.

Right or wrong, we’re entrenched in a media environment that focuses heavily on the negative. I personally believe this has been the main contributing factor to the malaise among NASCAR fans – as Ed Hinton put it, NASCARmyalgia.

With the amount of negative coverage (and seemingly no coherent communications strategy from NASCAR), fans are just feeling down on the sport. There really isn’t one explanation either.  I refer you back to the Ed Hinton article. Pretty much all of the comments on the NASCAR PR story on SceneDaily.com went a little like this: “The product stinks. We don’t need NASCAR to spin things for us.”  It sounds good to say, but I’m not sure what there is to improve about the product (no one really articulated that). Maybe make the car look better? Shorten races?

I’m really at a loss for what’s so bad right now. I think a lot of people are. I certainly see issues, but I understand there have and always will be things wrong with NASCAR (just like every other sport). Nothing’s perfect. What I think we can improve on is how we talk about the sport.

For all NASCAR hopes to accomplish with this reorganization I think changing that conversation has got to be one of the top priorities. NASCAR is presenting a good product week in and week out, but if people aren’t seeing it, or interested in it, it really doesn’t matter.

We’ll see in the coming seasons whether this actually makes a difference, but it’s interesting to see how NASCAR is trying to improve things.

Oh, and if you need a job it sounds like NASCAR will soon be hiring…

TheNASCARInsiders.com

Follow the Insiders on Twitter or be a fan on Facebook!

Go to the original story

Is this week dragging by?  Don’t worry, a holiday weekend is approaching, and with it comes Truck Series action at Kentucky, and NNS and Cup racing at Atlanta!  While we wait for it to get here, we’ve got the 90th edition of ATIW for you.  If you don’t know what this post is, we answer any and all reader questions every Wednesday, right here.  So if you’ve got one, click on the ”Ask the Insiders” tab at the top of the page and send one to us.  On to the questions…

1. From Anonymous:

Training for pit crews, how is it done? Is UTI the only show in town? By the way great articles, very well written, has given me a much better understanding of NASCAR, and I haven’t watched my first race.

The UTI campus in Mooresville, also known as NTI, doesn’t actually specialize in pit crew training.  They are more about teaching guys to be mechanics.  They do offer a pit crew class as a part of their program, but it is very basic.  Performance Instruction & Training (PIT) in Mooresville does offer a much more comprehensive program for teaching people to go over the wall, as do a few other smaller programs.  Tire changer and TV analyst DJ Copp actually runs his own small program for teaching guys and providing pit crews for example.  Outside of that, some teams will have developmental pit crews they work with, or they will hand pick guys to bring in and train.  The opportunity also exists for some shop employees to come out and learn.  There are really several avenues for learning the skills. – T.C.

2. From Brandon:

Love the site! With the start and park drivers would NASCAR ever consider paying the purse based on laps completed? It seems if a team was only going to get 10% of the purse for running 10% of the laps it may eliminate some of the start and parking going on…

It’s certainly a novel idea. I think the big thing for NASCAR is not penalizing a team who competes every week and has bad luck but discouraging the practice of starting and parking. While this would certainly discourage the practice, as these teams wouldn’t be making much money off of this, it could also hurt a team trying to make a go of things. It’s definitely tough to find a perfect solution for this.- Journo

3. From Peter:

Sorry if this is a repeat question. Why do the gas can carriers always shake the empty can while timing down the balance of the second can?

What you are seeing when the catch can man is shaking the can is him signaling to the jackman that the car is full of fuel.  When the tank is full, fuel will run out of the vent tube on the back of the car and into the catch can.  Once the jackman sees the signal from the catch can man, and knows that his tire changers are finished, he will drop the jack and send his driver back to the race. – T.C.

4. From Craig:

With the NFL determined to go to an 18 game schedule, possibly pushing the Super Bowl deeper into February, do you think it will force NASCAR to change to the Daytona Speed Weeks schedule? Possibly going back to the old days when they started the season at another track before speed weeks to avoid a conflict with football?

It’s certainly possible that NASCAR would consider pushing the race back, or trying to accommodate the NFL if they pushed the post-season further into February. From the way I understand it though the NFL is just talking about taking away two pre-season games and starting the season earlier. If that happens it shouldn’t affect NASCAR’s schedule. – Journo

5. From Joe:

Have you heard anything about all of the engines NASCAR took to check for differences in horse power?

I know there weren’t any penalties associated with the check.  And since we haven’t seen any more about it, we can assume NASCAR decided everything was fine.  If they had found one manufacturer had a significant advantage over another, they would have made a rule change to level the playing field. – T.C.

6. From Brian:

With Petty saying this week that there will only be two cars, what was all the “exciting news” Petty, AJ, and Marcos talked about coming at each of there press conferences? What else is in store at RPM? Or is there nothing left to announce?

I’m sure what they were talking about were sponsor announcements. As far as I know they’re just going to be a two car team next season. – Journo

7. From Allen:

I’ve noticed when I attend Cup races if there was a Nationwide or Truck race the day/night before the “official” haulers are still in the infield. You know the ones with the giant Series logo’s on them, is there a reason they don’t leave with the team haulers?

As far as I know the Series haulers don’t generally return to North Carolina after races, so they aren’t in a hurry to leave the track like the teams are. They have to be at the next track early in the week, so they go straight from wherever they’re at to wherever they’re going. – Journo

8. From Michael:

“There was passion (and one middle finger), and boy was there carnage.” Who flipped the bird?

Steven Wallace to Ron Fellows. Here is the video – fast forward to 7:30. - Journo

9. From Michael in SoCal:

During Villeneuve’s last pit stop on Sunday, why was the catchcan kept in the car after the fueling was complete as they finished the four tire change?

Once the car is completely full, sometimes excess fuel will spill out of the vent tube.  Keeping the catch can in until the last minute means less of that fuel ends up on the ground.  Remember that it only takes one spark from a lugnut to set fuel on fire, and the less there is on pit road, the better it is for everyone involved.  Also, spilled fuel is very slippery, so by not allowing spillage, it also aids in keeping the crew members on their feet during the stop. - T.C.

10. From Marcus:

Do you guys know what the state of the new Cup car is? They were really talking about it alot and lately they haven’t said a thing about it. With only 12 races left this season you would think that if they really wanted to implement it they would be designing it and getting ready to test it but all I have heard is that they would like to make changes to the current car to make it look more like the new Nationwide car. Just wondering if you guys have any more info or if you have heard anything in the garage area lately. Thanks.

Changes to the COT have certainly been discussed, but we’ve heard probably not until the 2012 season.  NASCAR and the teams need enough time to properly test any proposed changes, and the teams would need time to implement these changes to their fleets. – T.C.

11. From Red Neck:

What type of coolant is used in NASCAR? Is it plain old water, anti-freeze or a mix?

Teams just use water to cool the engines.  Anti-freeze is not needed because the cars are never driven in conditions that would require it. – T.C.

12. From Mike:

At the near end of the Nationwide race in Montreal, Robby Gordon ran out of fuel. Nascar told him to pull over and park (I believe the grass area in turn 2). Was that a safe move? What if his car would have been hit? Or Robby!

Absolutely. Robby got out of the car. This is actually not at all uncommon in most road course racing series. This is why they have local cautions to alert drivers of an issue in a certain part of the course – this avoids unecessary full course cautions. While NASCAR doesn’t utilize the local caution, this was not a surprising move given there were only a couple of laps left. So to answer your question, Robby was safe and the drivers were all well aware of his car’s position on the track. – Journo

And that brings yet another “Ask The Insiders Wednesday” to a close.  Thanks to everyone who sent in questions.  And remember, if you’d like to be a part of next week, click on the ”Ask the Insiders” tab at the top of the page and send your question in!

TheNASCARInsiders.com

Follow the Insiders on Twitter or be a fan on Facebook!

Go to the original story