Daily NASCAR

It’s official… NASCAR has released the schedules for the 2011 season, and seasons of speculation are finally over – both Kentucky and Kansas got their long-anticipated Cup dates.

I’ve never been the biggest advocated for giving Kentucky a Cup date and Kansas a second Cup date. They’re really just more of the same. That said, I’m glad NASCAR, ISC and SMI are bringing racing to fans who appreciate it.

Though I haven’t been the biggest proponent of adding dates to those two tracks, I (and TC) have been a proponent of taking a date away from California. The racing is never very good and for whatever reason the crowds just couldn’t be maintained. Some markets just cant support two dates.

I believe that’s the story in Atlanta. Though I like the track and the racing it produces, it too was having issues with attendance. From a business prospective it made more sense giving its second date to Kentucky – a place I think will be able to support the event.

Other welcome news was that SMI didn’t pull a date from New Hampshire – I thought for sure Bruton would use the police issue in Loudon to give Las Vegas a second date. The man in the gawdy sunglasses surprises.

Overall, while the 2011 schedule does bring us changes, there aren’t really a ton of surprises. As always, the internal politics of NASCAR, ISC and SMI keep the possibility of changes to a minimum. I’d certainly like to see a Chase that was more representative of the whole schedule, but I’m good with what is hopefully just the beginning of a truly improved schedule in NASCAR.

Some Thoughts on the Truck Series Schedule

With 24 scheduled events for the 2011 season, and another one TBA, the Truck Series  schedule is much improved over this year’s. Gone is the three week break between Daytona and Atlanta, and the two week break between Atlanta and Martinsville. Those successive breaks were a little excessive – not to mention they killed the momentum of the season.

There are a couple of two week breaks early on in 2011, and a month long break in the middle of the summer, but all in all they’ve done a much better job keeping the series flowing.

As far as filling that TBA date, why not have a triple-header at Richmond in September? There might be some logistical issues with the haulers, but who wouldn’t love to see the trucks make their RIR return?

I’m not sure what NASCAR is working on for that date, but my plea is that they keep them at a short track.

And finally a couple of disappointing spots. Pocono is back on the schedule. I think we all know my thoughts on that. And I don’t really understand the reasoning for moving the Phoenix date. It’s going to be weird for them to have an off-weekend before the season-finale at Homestead – and we’ve had such great end of season showdowns there.

What are your thoughts on Kentucky and Kansas and all three schedules for the 2011 season?

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With the Cup cars being off this weekend, the Truck and Nationwide Series take center stage at Gateway.  They will race under the lights on Friday and Saturday night.  Before they do, we’ve got the 83rd edition of Ask The Insiders Wednesday.  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 yankeegranny:

With all the ideas being floated regarding the chase changes, if you could pick the racetracks that you would put in the chase, what would they be and in what order? Please use just the tracks that are on the schedule right now, even though you probably would like to add Rockingham or a dirt track.

In no particular order: Talladega, Darlington, Infineon (or Watkins Glen), Martinsville, Bristol, Las Vegas, Homestead, Phoenix, Pocono and Charlotte. In those last ten races I want as much variation as possible. If we’re going to have a 10 race playoff we need to be putting driver skills to the test every weekend. You could honestly float in and out another mile and a half for Las Vegas and Charlotte – but I think those are great venues. I’m not holding my breath on Darlington, but I think adding a road course could be in the cards. – Journo

2. From Allen:

Why do the drivers run passenger side windows on some tracks and not on others?

The only tracks where cars aren’t required to run side windows are the short tracks and road courses.  Everywhere else they are required because if a car turns sideways, a side window will help keep them from going airborne. – T.C.

3. From Bob:

I know I’m not the first to notice, but why is it that the RPM cars seem to be faster than Roush-Fenway? You would think it would be the other way around, as RPM is considered the little brother team of the two, i.e. less funding and greater turmoil. Any thoughts?

While RPM has certainly become a satellite organization for Roush Fenway, I’m not sure it’s fair to call them the “little brother.”  RPM has some seriously talented people working for them and it’s not fair to say they have less funding.  With them getting support from Ford and Roush, they are most likely able to use their resources better than when they were a Dodge team.  The word from Chicago was that the RFR cars were actually running RPM’s setups, and it seemed to work very well.  They had three cars finish in the top 13, and Edwards was closing on Reutimann at the end for the win. – T.C.

4. From Garry:

We are watching The Chicago race, and Jimmy Johnson on lap 136 DID NOT wreck his car. I am not sure how or why, but I have watched a lot of NASCAR, and JJ was wrecked, done for the night, sideways at 190 mph… and he saved it. That is unreal. I am still not a fan of his, but that was amazing. How did he save it?

Traction control…just kidding. He’s good a racecar driver. I don’t really know what else to say. There’s a reason those guys are out on track in NASCAR’s top series, and you and I aren’t. – Journo

5. From Dee Dee:

You guys rock! I have a question about what exactly happened at the end of the Nationwide race Friday night. When Keselowski ran out of gas coming to the green flag on the G-W-C restart, why was Kyle Busch allowed to move up into second from fourth? Isn’t there a rule that you can’t pass before the start/finish line? In this case, he passed David Reutimann, who was in third. It seems to me that David got the bad end of that deal. Also I’d like to congratulate Beak on his win Saturday night in the Cup race. Good guys really can finish first!

NASCAR’s own policy is that if a car has to duck out of line or go to the back for any reason, the line just moves up.  It’s much easier to do that, because choosing the alternative would mean that all the cars would have to flip flop their inside and outside positions from, in this case, second all the way back to the tail end of the field.  That would have required NASCAR to put the caution back out and allow the cars to run at least another lap so they could get sorted out.  It’s just easier for everyone involved to do it the way they do. – T.C.

6. From Anonymous:

With teams signing drivers that they don’t have rides for (Kasey) where does this leave Elliott Sadler?

In a tough spot. If RPM doesn’t re-sign him, which is looking increasingly likely, I’m not really sure what would be available to him. Elliott’s performance through the years has waned, with his last win coming in the 2004 season. Now no matter your thoughts on the quality of his equipment, it’s undeniable there hasn’t been much in quite a while to prove to one of the big teams that he’s worth taking a chance on. We’ll see what happens (as of right now he’s very frustrated with where he’s at), but I think he’s in a tough spot. – 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!

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Every track we go to has unique challenges on pit road.  At short tracks like Martinsville, the stalls are very small; Phoenix and Darlington have curved pit roads; Kentucky has the world’s thinnest pit wall; and at Watkins Glen we pit backwards.  Until only a few short years ago however, nobody had a pit road situation like Infineon Raceway.

Before 2002, Infineon Raceway (then Sears Point Raceway) actually had two pit roads.  As it is today, the entrance for the main pit road was entered on driver’s left as they came down the straight before turn 11.  This pit road however, only had 34 pit stalls.  The remaining drivers who qualified in positions 35-43 had to pit on what was referred to as “Gilligan’s Island.”  This smaller pit road was on driver’s right as they exited turn 11. 

I found a video on YouTube from the 1998 Savemart 350 at Sears Point that shows a great view of the Island.  Scroll ahead to the 6:53 mark, and you will see Robert Pressley make an unscheduled stop for a flat tire.  As you can see, on “Gilligan’s Island,” teams had to do pit stops backwards.  On top of that, since the stretch was so much shorter, NASCAR would actually hold teams in their stalls for as many as 15 seconds after their stop was completed, before they would allow them to leave.  This, in NASCAR’s view, equalized any advantage a team would gain by using the much shorter pit road.

Besides creating unique pit stop situations, the Island offered up other problems.  First, being out there meant teams were really on an island.  Once the race started, there was no way to get back across the track.  This required teams to have any spare pieces in their stalls that they may need in case of a crash or other problem.  There would be no running back to the hauler for that spare battery.

Also, if a team did happen to crash out or blow an engine, they had to stay on “Gilligan’s Island” until the race was complete.  There would have been no early exit for you start-and-parkers either!

Thankfully, along with many other improvements, the track was reconfigured in 2002 to allow for all 43 cars to have space on pit road.  The Island was thus gone forever, and that area inside the hairpin at turn 11 was turned into runoff.

Who’s ready for some road course racing?!

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As we watched Marcos Ambrose blow a second tire and hit the wall on Sunday at Dover, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the guy.  After a very strong rookie campaign in 2009 that saw him finish 19th in the points standings on the strength of four top five and seven top ten finishes, 2010 has been difficult at best.  Ambrose and his #47 JTG Daugherty team only had two DNFs all last season, and they already have four through twelve races.  A difficult first third of his sophomore season isn’t exactly what the Australian had in mind.

Much of the trouble for Ambrose this season has been just plain bad luck.  At Daytona, he blew an engine 21 laps before halfway.  He then had to retire a week later at California after only 170 of 250 laps because of an overheating problem.  Wrong place, wrong time wrecks at Bristol and Talladega continued the stretch of bad luck.  And handling and engine issues at Darlington, followed by two blown tires at Dover on Sunday only added to the struggles.

It hasn’t been all bad though.  Besides their good runs in 2009, four top eleven finishes this season at Atlanta, Martinsville, Phoenix, and Richmond have shown this team can compete.  Ambrose certainly has the talent and with support from Michael Waltrip Racing, JTG Daugherty has the necessary equipment and resources.  Now the Frank Kerr led team just needs to find a little luck.

Their may be relief on the horizon though.  The upcoming schedule has stops that favor Ambrose.  Races at Pocono and Sonoma, where he ran well last season should help, and the small successes he’s had this season should bode well for Charlotte and Loudon.  A little luck at Michigan and Daytona would also go a long way in helping this team dig out of 28th place in the standings.

The sophomore slump, whether real or imagined, seems to affect many young drivers.  It’s difficult to point to a reason why it happens, but it might be as simple as raised expectations cause the driver to push too hard at times.  What’s good for Ambrose though, is while he may be in only his second full Cup season, he is not an inexperienced racer.  A solid career in Australian V8 Supercars, followed by plenty of seat time in the Truck and Nationwide Series should aide him in dealing with the adversity.

It’s anybody’s guess when Ambrose’s bad luck will finally end, but make no mistake, Ambrose is a contender.  There is no reason why he couldn’t be a first time Sprint Cup winner in 2010.

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The last two seasons have been rough for this sport. Sponsors have left, fields have shrank and teams have folded. Mergers became the new name of the game for many fledgling organizations and layoffs plagued the industry. What NASCAR was faced with was a forced correction thanks to a bad economy. As a result the strong just got stronger and the weak generally got a lot weaker.

On top of a weakened economy NASCAR alienated a lot of fans with the introduction of the COT in 2007. The car, with it’s boxy appearance and rear wing, didn’t sit well with a lot of people. Some have argued that it’s hurt the competition. Whether that’s the case or not is open to argument – I know NASCAR would disagree.

To be sure, the last 10 years can be summed up in one word – change. Over the last two seasons though we have seen a sanctioning body more willing to listen and embrace changes everyone can get behind. We saw NASCAR institute double-file restarts, more attempts at G-W-C finishes and the return to the spoiler.

Their recognition that the sport isn’t perfect has benefited everyone. What I’ve seen over the first few weeks of this season is a sport that is more tough, more rough and more exciting.

While we’re far from where we once were, things are starting to look up. The ratings for this season’s races haven’t been all bad – they were up at Phoenix and Atlanta and they performed pretty well against the backdrop of a compelling USA v. Canada hockey game. The rain delay didn’t help at Martinsville, but overall Fox is down around 4%. While down is certainly not good, 4% is better than the 11.5% they were down this time last year. More than growth, NASCAR needs these numbers to stabilize. Hopefully they’re starting to do that.

On the competition side we’ve seen a competitive Earnhardt Ganassi team and an almost renewed Penske Racing team. In seven races we’ve had five different winners from five different teams. Sure Jimmie Johnson has won three races, but maybe he’s peaking early? All I know is, is I’ve seen some great finishes this season.

Like a recession in the economy, it’s going to take time for recovery to take hold and for the effects to be seen. I’m hopeful after a couple of tough seasons we’re starting to see the signs of recovery in NASCAR.

What do you think of the season so far? Have you been enjoying the season? Do you like the changes NASCAR has made? Has the competition been better?

A Happy Belated Birthday!

I’m disappointed TNI readers. It was our birthday on April 7th and no one remembered – me and TC included. Oops.

As we enter our third year on this project I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who comes to the site, reads the posts, and contributes to the conversation. TC and I have enjoyed our time working on this and look forward to the year ahead.

As always if you have any questions, comments and/or concerns please don’t hesitate to get into contact with us. We’re pretty good about emailing people back.

Thanks again to everybody who comes by. We know your time is valuable and we appreciate you make us a part of your day!

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