Daily NASCAR

TC played the ‘NASCAR homer’ in his post yesterday, so I figured I’d balance out the week and criticize NASCAR today.

The Truck Series is making their Pocono debut this weekend and you can count me among those not excited. In fact I’m a little irritated the sanctioning body added this event to the schedule (though I’m excited for Darlington).

For a long time around here I’ve been making the argument that the Truck Series needs a purpose – desperately. It lies somewhere in between the Friday night show and the senior tour. It’s fun to watch, but in the grander scheme of the sport it doesn’t really have much value.

Personally I’d like to see the sport take up something resembling the role it had when it debuted back in 1995: tough trucks with tough drivers and rough racing on short tracks in areas that don’t normally get big time NASCAR racing. I digress.

Pocono is just not the right place for the series. How many have you have watched an ARCA race at Pocono? It’s a miserable experience. You spend a good portion of the race under caution because half the field has wrecked; when they finally do race, it’s follow the leader.

Guess what you can expect from the Trucks on Saturday? The same thing. With Denny Hamlin, and Kasey Kahne in the field, I think it’s probably a good bet that it’s not going to be a great race for the series regulars. On top of that, it’s Pocono.

Sure they’re changing the qualifying procedure, but really do many of you watch Truck Series qualifying? Do you care?

I don’t mean to be down on this, really. The Poconos are beautiful and there really is a great fan base up there. It’s just that the track doesn’t generally provide for much excitement.

Perhaps this thing will be successful. I hope for the sake of the series it is. But given the less than spectacular history of Pocono, and a field that includes two Cup Series regulars (and Pocono vets),  I’m putting my money on it being a boring race, with a Cup driver winning.

Series Director Wayne Auton is very excited for this. I guess that’s a good thing – at least somebody is.

TheNASCARInsiders.com

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

Go to the original story

Even though the top three NASCAR series were off on Sunday, there was no shortage of racing going on.  At Iowa Speedway, the annual East/West showdown between the two K&N Pro Series took place, and the ARCA cars descended on Toledo Speedway for the first of two events this season.  At Iowa, Joe Gibbs Racing development driver Max Gresham won his second straight race, beating Richard Childress’ grandson Ty Dillon to the line by .039 seconds.  In Toledo, Roush Fenway Racing development driver Chris Buescher outlasted Joey Coulter, and veterans Frank Kimmel, Ken Schrader and Matt Crafton to win his first ever ARCA race.

By winning at Iowa, Gresham added his name to a pretty impressive list of past winners of the dual series event.  Kyle Busch, Brian Ickler, and Joey Logano are all past winners.  Gresham is a rookie running for the championship this season in the K&N Pro Series East and he is also scheduled to make select starts in the ARCA Series.

Gresham, a 17 year old from Griffin, GA, was running Legends cars at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Charlotte Motor Speedway only 4 years ago, and is already a decorated racer.  After graduating to latemodels in 2007 , he finished fifth in the Georgia Asphalt Series points in 2008, and won two races last year in the ASA Southeast Tour.  With two K&N wins already this season, the future looks very bright.

Buescher took no time this weekend showing his competition that he was at Toledo to win.  His #17 Ford was fastest in practice on Saturday, and he followed that up by sitting on the pole before he led 126 of 200 laps in route to his first ARCA win.  The 17 year old driver from Prosper, TX won in just his ninth ARCA start, and had help from Cup Series driver David Ragan.  After running the Sprint Showdown on Saturday night in Charlotte, Ragan boarded a plane and flew to Toledo to spot for Buescher.

Also a graduate of Legends cars, Buescher ran a part time ARCA schedule last season for the Roulo Bros. Racing team.  In seven starts, he had one pole, three top five, and six top ten finishes.  He is running another partial ARCA schedule this season.  And if his last name looks familiar, it should.  Buescher is the cousin of current Truck Series driver James Buescher.

From time to time here at TNI we like to point out a few young drivers to keep your eye on.  Driver development is certainly in inexact science, but Buescher and Gresham might be two names you will be hearing for many years to come.  They are both showing right now that they have the talent to compete with the best.

TheNASCARInsiders.com

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

Go to the original story

In retrospect, it all turned on the morning of the Daytona 500. Up until that point, everything had been perfect. Since then, everything has gone awry.

It doesn’t mean that bad luck isn’t involved. It doesn’t meant that conditions won’t improve. They will. Two races do not a season make.

But … a lot has gone wrong since the Daytona 500 began. The first two race weekends have actually been full of potholes.

Remember those heady early-February days. Danica Patrick was widely praised even though finishing sixth in an ARCA race wasn’t really all that impressive. The qualifying races both ended in side-by-side finishes. Timothy Peters pulled off an upset in the Camping World Truck Series. Tony Stewart glazed to his fifth victory in the last six Nationwide Series openers. The front row for the 500 was Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt Jr., for gosh sakes.

It wasn’t as good as it seemed then, and it’s not as bad as it seems now.

Even though:

• Danica Patrick flopped when she had to race at a track where she couldn’t go wide open all the way around. That’s not a surprise. This transition is hard. No one should have been so optimistic in the first place.
   
• The biggest race of the season was run on Barrel Stave Road, a track normally used for logging.
   
• The best stock car racers in the world tried to run two laps without wrecking three times, and failed all three times. Exciting? Yes. Impressive? No.
   
• The second Sprint Cup race drew roughly the same crowd as a Tuesday night game at Dodger Stadium (by all reasonable estimates, that is, which exclude those published by NASCAR).

The Auto Club 500 was interesting, though most of it wasn’t all that exciting. But NASCAR, having delivered enough stocking stuffers to charm the heart of any starry-eyed kid, ending up feeling as if all the little brats were ungrateful. So what if the sparklers were duds? It’s the thought that counts, you little punks.

The Lords of NASCAR are feeling a bit surly these days. They reportedly confiscated the car of Dave Blaney after the race, issuing all sorts of "no one is safe" remarks while, by claiming possession of a struggling team’s car, they were likely eliminating any chance of that team being able to race (or, allegedly, "start and park") in Vegas. Hmm. Can you say "Carl Long"?

NASCAR, after opening the season with all sorts of "back to the good old days" story lines, now seems to equate "good old days" with those of ruthless authoritarian rule.

One can almost envision Don Brian (admittedly, this image doesn’t work) saying, "Dave, my son, you disappoint me."

Oh, OK. Maybe Brian Keith. Or Mr. French.

Go to the original story

Speedweeks at Daytona no doubt left us with thrilling finishes and things to talk about for weeks to come. From Danica Patrick to Asphalt-Gate to Jamie McMurray and Timothy Peters this is sure to be a year we won’t soon forget. Despite the issues with the track on Sunday the races for the Cup and Nationwide Series were really very good. Even the ARCA race (despite the usual wrecks) was quite good. All in all I was pleased with the weeks…except that is for one race.

For those of you who read the site often, you know what a big fan I am of the Truck Series. I firmly believe week in and week out it provides the best racing with the best personalities of all the three major series. Unfortunately I’ve got to say I was genuinely disappointed with Saturday’s race.

Don’t get me wrong, the last few laps were great and what a finish! It was good to see Timothy Peters muscle his way through at the end and win the race. It was also good to see Dennis Setzer and Johnny Benson run well in under-funded trucks.

That said the wrecks and inability to bump-draft made it difficult to watch.

Less than a lap into the race Austin Dillion got loose while trying to run down the middle and took out nine trucks. There were guys involved in that incident, Dillion included, I was looking forward to see race. So much for that.

Then, while being bump-drafted in separate incidents, Mike Skinner and Ron Hornaday had their days ended. Apparently the bumpers and tailgates on the trucks don’t line up (I say facetiously). While I don’t recall it being quite this bad in the past, bump-drafting in the trucks has never been a good idea. It is a shame they aren’t able to do it (cough-NASCAR needs to look at this-cough).

Other incidents throughout the day cost even more guys their chance at the win.

Ultimately the race ended with just 14 trucks left on the lead lap. That’s pitiful. I understand there isn’t a lot you can do about the wrecks. There are a lot of young and inexperienced drivers out there and you just have a to deal that as it comes. The bump-drafting thing though is a separate issue. NASCAR seriously needs to think about addressing it.

As I said I was thrilled with the ending (who wasn’t?), but what came before it kind of stunk. Unfortunately the Truck Series race was far from the highlight of the weeks and weekend (for me at least).

Luckily Atlanta’s only two weeks away.

Go to the original story

by Holly Cain

Filed under: Daytona Int’l Speedway, Nationwide Series, Danica Patrick

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — After a top-10 taste of stock car racing over the weekend, Danica Patrick has decided to accelerate her learning curve and will enter Saturday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series season-opener at Daytona International Speedway.

Patrick announced her decision Monday, two days after finishing sixth at Daytona in an 80-lap race in the ARCA Series, which is an entry-level, training series for many drivers. The Nationwide Series is NASCAR’s version of Triple-A baseball and a significant step up.

“Racing in the Nationwide Series race was my goal during this entire two-month preparation process,” Patrick said, “but we wanted to make sure it was the right thing to do.

“The ARCA race was a blast and I’m not ready for my first Daytona Speedweeks to end just yet. I want more racing.”

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Go to the original story