Daily NASCAR

Ricky Carmichael, driver of the No. 4. Monster Energy Chevrolet, is a former Supercross champ who’s making the crossover to trucks competition. (Photo: Gett Images)

HAMPTON, Ga. — Having established himself already as one of the best ever to race on two wheels, Ricky Carmichael is well into his second motorsports career.

Though still looking for his first victory in the Camping World Truck Series, Carmichael, 30, was last year’s Most Popular Driver in trucks. Some of his former Supercross fans invariably follow him to venues like Atlanta Motor Speedway, where the Atlanta 200 is scheduled for Saturday afternoon.

Carmichael, a native of Clearwater, Fla., said he hopes to succeed in NASCAR by taking advantage of the same work ethic that propelled him to the top of motorcycle racing.

"It’s definitely not going to be a ‘gimme.’ I’m not scared to work hard at it," he said. "Whatever I need to do, I’m going to do. That’s the hardest thing: Everyone wants to give up when it gets hard, and I’m definitely not going to do that. That’s where my work ethic’s going to kick in."

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HERE’S A SURPRISE–Jimmie Johnson leads the driver ratings based on his past experience at Atlanta. Johnson’s rating - it is derived from a complicated mathematical formula - is 110.1 at the 1.54-mile track, followed by Carl Edwards at 105.0 and Jeff Gordon at 102.2. Significantly, Dale Earnhardt Jr. ranks fourth in driver rating with a 99.8.

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STILL EARLY–The Truck Series’ Atlanta race will only be its second - it’s Sprint Cup’s fourth - meaning that the Daytona surprise winner, Providence native Timothy Peters, arrives here as the point leader.

"I’m hoping, the way the season started, this could be one of those ‘Cinderella seasons’ for us," he said.

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NEW TWIST–Kyle Busch has competed in trucks five times at AMS, winning four races. Now he owns his own Toyota team. His former Truck Series owner, Billy Ballew, is fielding Toyotas here for Aric Almirola and Steve Wallace.

"This year will be a little different with my own stuff," said Busch, "but I’m looking forward to it."

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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.

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Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson talks with teammate Mark Martin Hendrick Motorsports cars have fared well and taken a beating so far at Speedweeks, with Martin winning the pole for Sunday’s Daytona 500 and Johnson winning the first Gatorade Duel on Thursday (and thus learning a No. 3 starting position in the same race). But cars of Martin, Johnson and teammate Jeff Gordon have all sustained damage in practice, resulting in the cars being shipped back to Charlotte for repairs. (Photo: Getty Images)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Rain, cold and howling winds descended on Daytona International Speedway, washing out all but the most mundane of Friday’s activities.

Nationwide Series qualifying was washed out, but officials still held out hope that the NextEra Energy Resources 250, the Camping World Truck Series race, would could be run late on Friday night.

The DRIVE4COPD 300’s lineup was set by 2009 owner points, meaning that the top four positions are occupied, in order, by Kyle Busch in a Toyota, Carl Edwards in a Ford, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kevin Harvick, both in Chevrolets.

Tony Stewart, who won the Nationwide Series race here a year ago, starts the race in 31st place.

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TO BUMP OR NOT– Jeff Gordon is only a cautious proponent of bump drafting, which he thinks is unwise in the turns.

Without any regulation by NASCAR officials, Gordon doesn’t think everyone will share his view.

"What would you do to win the Daytona 500? I think there are some guys out there who they know exactly what happens when they run into the back of somebody in the corners, but they’re willing to take the risk to try to win the Daytona 500," he said. "You certainly don’t mind moving a guy, and sometimes you have to do that, especially if it’s for the win.

"If it’s for 15th place, it doesn’t make any sense."

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MIXED BLESSING- Thursday wasn’t an altogether successful day for Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, who won a Gatorade Duel but wrecked a car during practice. Hendrick teammate Jeff Gordon also sustained damage in practice.

"We’ve made some trips back and forth to Charlotte, haven’t we?" quipped Johnson’s crew chief, Chad Knaus. "Between the ‘5 car’ (Mark Martin) wrecking a couple times, us and the ‘24′ (Gordon) …

"I know there’s another car in the transporter that we took back to Charlotte that will be coming back this evening, another ‘24′ car."

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THE LONG RUN–Kasey Kahne, also a Duel winner, stressed the importance of handling as he looked ahead to the Daytona 500.

"Sunday is 500 miles," he said. "Handling is going to be a big part of Sunday. Everybody is pretty quick the first five laps, 10 laps, but that last 20-25 laps of a race run, handling will be big and it will get somewhat spread out, then a couple of cars will pull out, and that will get it stacked back up, and then it will get spread out again.

"I don’t think you’ll see, until probably the last 200 miles, that it will really get exciting again like maybe the Bud Shootout was."
 

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Both Todd Bodine and Ron Hornaday Jr. will be in Mike Skinner’s crosshairs in the NextEra Energy Resources 250 on Friday night. (Photo: John Clark/NASCAR This Week)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Who prevents Todd Bodine from winning Daytona International Speedway’s Camping World Truck Series race?

Mike Skinner, perhaps?

The 52-year-old Skinner was the series’ first champion in 1995 and finished second in the point standings as recently as 2007. Ron Hornaday Jr. has won the championship two of the past three years and a record four times overall.

Both Bodine and Hornaday are in Skinner’s crosshairs. The NextEra Energy Resources 250 is Friday night.

"I want to win another championship," said Skinner. "I want to win a championship for Toyota because we went in there on the ground floor with them.

"I was going to retire a couple of years ago (actually 2007), and we won five races that year. We led the most laps. We had the championship won, and a loose left-rear tire cost us the championship. I think that might’ve been the best thing that ever happened to me. Yeah, I would’ve liked to have had that championship, but by the same token, it fueled me to go on."

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A NEW YEAR–Kyle Busch, even though he failed to make the Chase last year in Sprint Cup, is often mentioned as being capable of denying Jimmie Johnson a fifth straight championship.

"We have to have cars that are capable of winning all 36 races," said Busch. "We’ve been fast at places here or there but have struggled at other places, so we have to make sure that we can get out there and run well every single week and be able to contend every single week for a top-five finish.

"If you’re running top-five towards the end of the race in every single race, you know you have a shot to run well or try to win that race. Jimmie (Johnson) can do that and, right now, we can’t, and we have some work to do to try to get to that point."

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PREDICTABLLY–Danica Patrick’s presence in the field made quite a difference in Speed’s coverage of the Automobile Racing Club of America race here on Feb. 6. The race, in which Patrick finished sixth, experienced a 59 percent increase over the previous year and had a "peak viewership" (1,997,000 homes) that was up 72 percent.

The total viewership - those who tuned in at various times - was up 87 percent. The estimated number of viewers went up from 1.3 to 2.4 million.

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CHASING CALE–If Jeff Gordon could win his fourth Daytona 500 on Sunday, he would equal Cale Yarborough with 83 career victories, fifth best in NASCAR history.

"While the game has changed over the years as it relates to the draft, aerodynamics and horsepower changes, it’s still an event that I enjoy at a track that stands out," said Gordon. "This event truly is our Super Bowl. The history behind the race, what it takes to win here and what it means to win here makes a victory so special."

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Kevin Harvick’s crew work on his car during a pit stop during the Budweiser Shootout on Feb. 6 at Daytona International Speedway. Harvick went on to win the race — his second Shootout in a row. The Shootout itself was a joyride of a spectacle which suggested that NASCAR’s decision to allow more horsepower and relaxed rules on bump-drafting was a sound one. (Photo: John Clark/NASCAR This Week)

- The first weekend of Speedweeks - and the season - was great, but one weekend does not a season make.

- A year ago Kevin Harvick won the Budweiser Shootout. Martin Truex Jr. won the Daytona 500 pole. Matt Kenseth won the 500. Neither of the three subsequently made the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

- In other words, what happens at Daytona International Speedway may or may not have much to do with the rest of the season.

- Danica Patrick passed her first stock-car test, the ARCA Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200, with flying colors, but it will be much harder for her in this week’s strangely titled Nationwide Series race, the DRIVE4COPD 300. Until last week, it was the Camping World 300.

- The Budweiser Shootout was a stirring spectacle, suggesting that the decision to allow more horsepower and stop policing bump drafting was a sound one. On the other hand, the races this week will have nearly twice as many cars on the track.

- Judging from emails and the like, it’s been a long time since stock car racing’s opening weekend received such positive reviews from fans.

- Country star Jack Ingram performed the night before the Budweiser Shootout and compared notes with NASCAR’s Kasey Kahne. The conclusion: They’re both on the road just about the same amount, but Ingram (no relation to the onetime stock car racer) doesn’t hit as many walls, at least not literally.

- Most amusing scene from the Budweiser Shootout? A Tony Stewart crewman climbing and bounding over a chain-link fence to expeditiously fetch a needed part.

- Scheduled racing went off without a hitch in Daytona, but a space-shuttle launch - Cape Canaveral is about a 90-minute drive to the south - was put off for nearly 24 hours. The Endeavour launched shortly after 4 a.m. on Feb. 8. It was a stirring sight.

- Quite the weekend for the Sunshine State. Racing, a space shot and a Super Bowl. Now they can put your tourism dollars to work.

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