Daily NASCAR

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

As the Danica Patrick bandwagon steams toward the Daytona Nationwide Series race next weekend, don’t worry about saving me a seat just yet.  Finishing sixth in her first ever stock car event is commendable, but I think it’s a bit early to crown her the next big thing.

In case you missed it, Patrick recovered from a late race spin through the tri-oval grass at Daytona to finish sixth in her debut race in the ARCA Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200.  She kept her nose clean, didn’t give up, and brought home a car with all the fenders still on it.  Which in itself is quite an achievement in the ARCA Series.  But lets try and remember what she was up against.

Stop by Jayski’s story links page for February 7th and you will find no less then 15 articles about Danica’s debut.  Most of which contain quite a bit of praise for the 27 year old driver, some of which she deserves, and some she doesn’t.

Danica took on the ARCA Series at Daytona in an ARCA car powered by Hendrick and put together by JR Motorsports.  She had a veteran crew chief on the box (Tony Eury Jr.) and had a combination of JR Motorsports Nationwide Series guys and Hendrick Motorsports Cup guys working on and pitting her race car.  Not a bad way to start off a stock car career.

And not to knock the ARCA Series, as it’s a great place to gain valuable experience on bigger tracks, but this is the same series that David Stremme once won a race at Michigan by lapping the entire field once, and up to ninth place twice.

So before we crown her and heap a ton of ridiculous expectations on her, let’s allow her to run a few races and gain some experience against some tougher competition.   I think it’s only fair.

And just as a side note, I know there is a certain motorsports writer (ahem Jeff Gluck) who, before the season started, posed an interesting question and bet to his readers and Twitter followers.  He wanted to know who would outperform the other this season, John Wes Townley or Danica Patrick.  Give round one to Townley, who followed up a fourth place run in last year’s ARCA opener with a third place run this year.

Go to the original story

by Holly Cain

Filed under: Daytona Int’l Speedway, Danica Patrick

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — When Danica Patrick climbed out of the cockpit after ripping off her first two “real” laps of stock car competition, she was the pole-sitter for Saturday’s ARCA Series season-opener.

However, as the day went on, 11 other cars ended up bettering Patrick’s speed of 179.788 mph, so she will make her stock car debut from 12th position — the outside of the sixth row — in Saturday’s 80-lap race at Daytona International Speedway.

Defending race winner James Buescher will be the pole sitter after a lap of 181.543 mph.

It was a brief tease for Patrick’s fans and a strong statement to those that may underestimate her much-hyped foray into stock cars.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Go to the original story

The 2010 racing season is officially upon us!  The Rolex 24 at Daytona kicked it off Saturday, and haulers carrying stock cars will roll into DIS this week.  Daytona 500 qualifying and the Budweiser Shootout headline a busy upcoming weekend.  Along with the NASCAR events, the ARCA Series will open it’s season with the Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 on Saturday afternoon.  And with the names that are on the entry list for the ARCA race, SPEED may be in for record breaking ratings.

The most notable of those names on the entry list for the ARCA opener is of course, Danica Patrick.  She will be making her much anticipated stock car debut under the watchful eye of Tony Eury Jr. and her new JR Motorsports team.  A lot will be riding on her performance in the race, as a successful outing could lead to her being approved for the Nationwide Series race at Daytona in two weeks.  NASCAR won’t be the only one watching her on Saturday though, as I’d imagine many race fans will tune in to see if the hype is really justified.

Besides Patrick, this may be one of the more interesting entry lists we’ve ever seen for a Daytona ARCA race.  There are no less then six women drivers attempting the race including Patrick, Milka Duno, Alli Owens, Leilani Munter, Amber Cope, and Jennifer Jo Cobb.  There is also a former Formula One driver attempting his first stock car race in the person of Nelson Piquet Jr.

The race will also feature the usual bevy of young, up and coming development drivers like Dakoda Armstrong and James Buescher, along with a mix of series veterans including Frank Kimmel and Bill Baird.

In the past, the ARCA race at Daytona has proven to be wildly unpredictable because of the inexperience of many of those competing.  There are very few opportunities to run at tracks like Daytona, and many drivers log their first ever restrictor plate track time during this event. 

Besides the problems with inexperience, drivers in this race sometimes have a tendency to drive over their heads in the hopes they can run well and impress the NASCAR team brass that will be in attendance.  A solid performance here could lead to an opportunity to move up, or attract new sponsorship.

This combination of inexperience and over-driving has often led to dramatic wrecks, crazy finishes, and angry drivers.  Something tells me this edition will be no different.

The Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 at Daytona gets underway on Saturday afternoon at 4:30PM EST on SPEED.  My only question for you is, will you be watching?

Go to the original story

…nothing other than they’re all in my weekend notes (lame I know).

Saturday was a good day to be 19. Well a good day to be 19 if you happened to drive in the Nationwide Series.

In his first career NASCAR appearance on Saturday, 19-year-old Parker Kligerman scored his first career pole. Then 19-year-old Joey Logano went on to win the race, battling his teammate Kyle Busch down to the wire.

Back to Kligerman though. The kid looked impressive. Starting next to veteran Kyle Busch, Kligerman was able to keep the lead for seven laps and even bested Busch on the start. The team battled some handling issues throughout the race, but Kligerman was able to finish a respectable 16th.

While I know Kligerman wasn’t happy with the finish, a pole and 16th place finish in his first ever major NASCAR event is not anything to sneeze at. Look for Kligerman back in the car at Homestead.

Oh and don’t forget Kligerman’s locked in a championship battle in the ARCA series with Justin Lofton. That wraps up this weekend at Rockingham.

Tony Stewart Back In Victory Lane

There were some that thought Jimmie Johnson would take his momentum from last week and begin his championship charge at Kansas. I thought there was a good chance.

In the interest of a compelling championship race though it was good to see Tony Stewart pull out the win.

There is now just more than 100 points separating first from seventh.

The Hendrick cars definitely look good as they have in years past but don’t count out the Penske, EGR or Gibbs cars. They’ve all been running very consistently and one win from any of them could change the tide.

I know a lot of you are critics of the Chase, but it makes the racing more exciting and the mistakes more devastating.

I’m looking very much forward to the coming weeks.

Nelson Piquet Jr.? In the Truck Series?

He wouldn’t be our first F1 convert; but he would be the first with a cloud over his head.

Soon after being released from his Renault team earlier this year, it came to light Piquet wrecked a fellow driver at last year’s Singapore Grand Prix so his teammate Fernando Alonso could win.

The scandal, better known as ‘crash-gate,’ has brought a ban and a suspension for two Renault F1 officials. Piquet won’t face any sanctions, but likely won’t be able to live down the stigma associated with the scandal.

I suppose he figures NASCAR fans haven’t caught wind of the firestorm. He may or may not be right.

Whatever the case SPEED is reporting Piquet will test in a Red Horse Racing truck on October 12th with “an eye towards a future in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series with in two years.”

It’ll be interesting to see how he performs.

Hendrick’s (Almost) Failed Inspection

Talk about a bad deal. Hendrick got busted for not breaking the rules?

While they passed post race inspection, the bodies on both the #5 and #48 were so close to being outside the tolerance they were warned by the sanctioning body not to cut it so close.

With the black helicopters circling above and the scent of the Carl Long affair still hanging in the air (remember this was a body not the motor), many loyal conspiracy theorists are coming out of the woodwork. Hendrick paid off NASCAR (I’m sure, I said sarcastically).

The fact is they didn’t break the rules, NASCAR sent it’s message and the crew chiefs were doing what they were supposed to. Working in those gray areas is what those guys get paid to do and if you’re not pushing it, you’re not doing your job.

Go to the original story