Welcome to another edition of Garage Insider for Wednesday, February 11,2009. Once again I will touch on this week’s hottest news.
Waltrip To Retire After 2009 If Not Competitive
Michael Waltrip once worked at Wendy's, but quit the fast-food chain after cutting his finger in a tomato slicer.
He later had a job helping his father deliver Pepsi-Cola, but as a loyal Coca-Cola customer, he walked away because he felt as if he were deceiving the customers.
Now Waltrip is at another career crossroad, unsure if its time to climb out of his race car.
The two-time Daytona 500 winner said Thursday he will end his driving career at the end of 2009 if his results don't improve this season.
"I want to race for many more years," he said at media day for the Daytona 500. "I want to race the NAPA car in '10 and beyond, because I'm the best guy for it. But if I notice (teammate) David Reutimann out in front of me and I'm not able to catch him, and if I don't see the results that I think can get the 55 car the results it deserves, then as an owner, I want to get somebody in there that can post those results."
Will There Be A Gordon/Evernham Reunion?
Jeff Gordon was asked about former crew chief Ray Evernham, who no longer is a part owner of what is now called Richard Petty Motorsports and if they would ever work together. Here's what Gordon said:
"We've always stayed great friends and I admire him and he's a sharp guy and he's done a lot, obviously, in this sport,'' Gordon said. "We're always looking to find ways to make ourselves better. If (an Evernham reunion) was ever the case, it wouldn't be in a crew chief role. If it's an engineer, if it's a team manager, whatever options are out there for anybody we always take them serious. With my experience with Ray being so positive in the past, I certainly wouldn't throw it out. It's not something that is happening, but it's not something that I would ever say never would.''
Don't be surprised that if Gordon struggles early in the season that Evernham might come on board in some fashion. That said, if Gordon starts out the season well, there might not be as big of a push for such a reunion.
All Drivers Pass First Drug Screen
All drivers in the Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Nationwide Truck Series passed the first round of drug testing under NASCAR's new policy, officials said on Thursday, but that wasn't the case for crew members.
Kevin Harvick said two pit crew members for his Truck Series team were released after failed tests and he expects there are others throughout all three series.
"There's definitely more out there,'' Harvick said during media day at Daytona International Speedway. "There's a lot of people that are looking for jobs right now that are straight-up people. It couldn't have come at a better time.''
NASCAR implemented a policy that calls for mandatory preseason testing for all drivers and crew members and random testing throughout the season by an independent laboratory after former Truck Series driver Aaron Fike admitted last season he competed under the influence of heroin.
Goodyear Could Debut New Tire By 2010
Goodyear is developing a wider, taller tire that could improve racing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series, but the tire won't be ready for competition until sometime next year at the earliest, a company official says.
Goodyear officials hope to test the tire at a track in the second half of the season, says Greg Stucker, Goodyear's director of race tire sales. The tire could make its debut at the short track events in 2010 if things go well. That would follow how NASCAR phased in the car of tomorrow.
The main advantage of the new tire is giving drivers more grip. That would help the car's handling and could give teams improved tire wear.
"We're operating right on the edge of the envelope for our current package,'' Stucker said. "The new car definitely seems to stress tires differently with the additional right-side weight, it's harder on those right sides."
Goodyear's current Cup tire is 28.5 inches tall and 11-12 inches wide, depending on the track configuration. Stucker said that Goodyear officials are looking at making the tire 1.5 to 2 inches taller and the same amount wider.
That creates issues, though. A taller, wider tire will force teams to alter their cars and that could cause headaches.
It was NASCAR's "Heidi Bowl" moment, and no one cared. On Nov. 9, with 34 laps to go in a late-season race at Phoenix International Raceway, ABC pre-empted its live national coverage of the event for the umpteenth airing of its cheesy reality show America's Funniest Home Videos.
Forty years earlier, NBC tried the same stunt when it cut to a made-for-TV version of Heidi from an incredible last-minute comeback by the Oakland Raiders over the New York Jets. Irate East Coast viewers fried the network's switchboard in protest. But when NASCAR was snubbed by ABC, only a few bloggers and columnists seemed to care.
The collective shrug is just the latest sign that NASCAR has hit a wall. Though still America's second-most-watched sport after football--this season's 51st running of the Daytona 500 is expected to pull in 17 million viewers--NASCAR is no longer the unstoppable marketing phenomenon it used to be.
The sport is suffering declines in sponsorship, attendance and financial stability, and the roots of the problem go a lot deeper than the lousy economy. Ratings are falling more rapidly than those of other sports. Racing fans, many of whom can barely afford the steep ticket prices at the track, are bored by the lack of drama when they get there. Several of the biggest drivers are look-alike, clean-shaven white guys in tracksuits, and their cars, which now hew to the same technical specifications, are equally cookie-cutter.
Races last season witnessed only two lead changes per caution (the boring slow laps led by the pace car), compared with three in the 1990s and four in the dirt-track 1970s. Last year one out of four races was won by the driver starting the race in the pole position, up from one out of 10 earlier this decade.
Junior Speaks Bluntly About Track Promotions
As NASCAR's biggest star, Dale Earnhardt Jr. can say what he wants.
During Thursday afternoon's session at NASCAR media day, he did.
Junior once again took track promoters to task for demanding more of the drivers' time to promote races.
And this time, he didn't hold back.
"Somebody said that the track owners were complaining that the drivers are negative toward them," Earnhardt said at Daytona International Speedway. "That's not true. ... We're constantly going, constantly doing things every week for this guy and that guy to help racetracks.
"[Expletive], we were in Daytona for the fan-fest thing. I read off 20 [expletive] scripts about selling tickets. ... They gotta take a little responsibility for themselves."
When told of Earnhardt's comments, NASCAR CEO Brian France acknowledged that drivers and promoters have to do more — and said that it's necessary.
"My opinion is, everybody's gotta do more," France said. "... A number of drivers have said, 'I'm going to try to do more with my fan base, try to get my Web site more interactive.' Little things and big things.
"I just hear a general sensitivity that our sport does have to the economy."
Earnhardt's annoyance with track promoters started long before media day.
Early in the offseason, the promoters at Memphis Motorsports Park offered Earnhardt free ribs for life from the track-sponsored barbecue restaurant if he raced in its Nationwide race.
Earnhardt wasn't pleased that the track didn't ask him if it could use his name.
He also was annoyed it gave its track-sponsored barbecue restaurant a plug when his real favorite Memphis barbecue is a different restaurant called Rendezvous.
Other tracks like Texas and Las Vegas have pulled similar stunts without consulting Earnhardt.
Then track promoters from Speedway Motorsports Inc. held a roundtable meeting recently, during which they said they'd like to see drivers do more to help sell tickets.
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