Daily NASCAR

by Holly Cain

Filed under: Kevin Harvick, NASCAR Sponsors, Richard Childress Racing, NASCAR

Richard Childress Racing made it official Tuesday: Longtime NASCAR sponsor Budweiser will join RCR as primary sponsor on current Sprint Cup Series championship leader Kevin Harvick’s No. 29 Chevrolet for 20 of the 36 points races in 2011.

Harvick is the latest in a long line of high-profile sponsorships for the company during the last three decades, including three-time Cup champ Darrell Waltrip, a lengthy and popular pairing with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and currently Kasey Kahne.

Childress announced earlier this year that Harvick’s current sponsor Shell-Pennzoil would not be returning next season and Kahne revealed last week that he will be joining the Red Bull Racing team for 2011.

A release from the team said in addition to its 20-race primary sponsorship deal, Budweiser would appear on Harvick’s Chevy for Daytona Speedweeks’ two non-points races and would be co-primary sponsor on the car for the exhibition Sprint All-Star Race. It will be an associate sponsor on the remaining events.

“We’re excited to have as successful a driver as Kevin Harvick to usher in a new era for Budweiser,” said Mark Wright, Anheuser-Busch Vice President of Media, Sports and Entertainment.

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by Holly Cain

Filed under: Hendrick Motorsports, NASCAR

After starting his career sweeping floors at Hendrick Motorsports during a college internship 14 years ago, Marshall Carlson moved up the ranks to become president and chief operating officer (COO) of the 13-time NASCAR championship Hendrick organization, which fields cars for Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Carlson, 37, was promoted Tuesday during the organization’s quarterly employee meeting. The position has remained open for the past six years. It was previously held by the late John Hendrick, brother of team owner Rick Hendrick (pictured at right). John Hendrick was killed along with nine other people — including John’s twin daughters, Rick Hendrick’s son Ricky, and other Hendrick Motorsports executives — in an airplane crash near Martinsville, Va., on October 24, 2004.

“Hendrick Motorsports is a family and it’s been one of the great privileges of my life to work with these amazing people,” said Carlson, who has helped guide the company to four NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championships since he assumed the role of executive vice president and general manager in January, 2005.

After his college internship in the chassis department, Carlson worked as an engineer on the team’s Camping World Truck Series team that won a title in 1997. He’s worked in the company’s marketing and sponsorship department and oversaw more than $200 million in real estate projects working with Hendrick Automotive Group, one of the largest auto dealership conglomerates in the country before taking his most recent position.

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by Holly Cain

Filed under: NASCAR

OK, let’s get this straight.

A driver intentionally wrecking someone at 180 mph under NASCAR’s “Boys Have It” doctrine is acceptable? But a driver criticizing the sport won’t be tolerated?

That’s what we’re to believe following a report this week revealing that NASCAR has “secretly” fined at least two of the sport’s star drivers for comments NASCAR believed compromised the integrity of the sport.

At last, NASCAR is drawing the line. …. in invisible ink.

What’s more disconcerting than NASCAR behaving like the KGB is the inherent distrust this situation creates. After decades of don’t-ask-and-do-what-we-tell-you governance, NASCAR had finally turned the tide into full sporting credibility.

News that drivers risk discipline for speaking out unfortunately just gives more ammunition to the vocal group of conspiracy theorists — those quick to insist that a “fix” was in when Richard Petty won his 200th victory on July 4, 1984, in front of President Reagan, when Dale Earnhardt Jr. won at Daytona this month driving a No. 3 car or even Chip Ganassi’s historic sweep this past weekend in Indianapolis.

It only encourages and invigorates those skeptics who wonder about all the mysterious “debris” cautions late in the race or how one team can be so dominant.

And that’s too bad.

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by Holly Cain

Filed under: Carl Edwards, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, NASCAR Fights, NASCAR

SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Grinning from ear to ear and sporting a new crew cut, Carl Edwards cheerily sat down to face a crowd of reporters even larger than the group waiting across the room to interview NASCAR’s most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr.

After making himself comfortable, Edwards leaned in to the microphone and with a huge smile, dead-panned, “You guys see that race last week?”

Everyone laughed.

Good ol’ Carl — NASCAR’s Eddie Haskell.

Like Haskell, the too-good-to-be true kid next door from the 1950s and 1960s TV show ‘Leave It To Beaver,’ who was mischievous when the grown-ups left the room, Edwards is proving more complicated than he lets on, too.

Edwards has endeared himself to fans with his trademark victory back flips, smooth style and up-for-anything disposition. He’s articulate and charming — a sponsor’s dream with made-for-TV good looks and personality. And he knows how to get around a race track, winning the 2007 Nationwide Series championship and collecting 16 wins in the Sprint Cup Series.

Lately though, Edwards is making headlines as NASCAR’s new “bully” who wrecks his rivals in the name of a win, prompting fans to wonder if he is really the gentlemanly sports hero atop the white horse, or NASCAR’s new villain.

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by Holly Cain

Filed under: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Danica Patrick, NASCAR

Consider this an interruption to the quick judgments, harsh opinions and commentary overload about Danica Patrick’s NASCAR debut.

As IndyCar’s most famous face prepares to make her fifth NASCAR start this weekend at Chicagoland Speedway — near her hometown of Roscoe, Ill. — it’s time to step back from all the emotion and hype.

Forget her $1,000 gold-stilettos, police escorts and the unapologetic adulation of NASCAR executives and track promoters. Let’s look at her statistics driving a NASCAR race car.

Patrick’s four-race average of a 33rd place finish in the Nationwide Series may be an easy target for those told-you-so doubters, but it’s absolutely respectable compared to other recent open-wheel NASCAR converts. And even some NASCAR champions.

Her NASCAR Nationwide Series team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr., for example, either crashed or had mechanical problems in three of his first four Nationwide races during the 1996-97 seasons, including a string of 39th, 39th and 38th place showings after his 14th place debut. That’s an average finish of 32.5, or less than one position better than Patrick.

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