5 Questions For The Auto Club 500

It is a good time to reflect on a couple of the still-stirring storylines from last weekend’s Daytona 500 and from last year’s Auto Club 500. I have compiled what I think will be the most intriguing questions coming into the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series’ second race of 2009. It should be very interesting to see how these questions (and more) play out this weekend.

1. After the Earnhardt Jr./Vickers debacle at Daytona, will the two drivers mend the fence, or will the situation escalade?

I truly believe that what happened between Earnhardt, Jr. and Vickers last week will be an isolated incident. I’m sure the drivers will enter the California garage with the attitude of, “what happened last week, was last week”. I can not see Junior nor Vickers taking any more chances of damaging their seasons because of what happened at one race. Will they go fishing together this Spring? Perhaps not, but they will be cordial on the race track.

2. Will Goodyear still experience the tire troubles that have plagued them since the introduction of the COT?

Possibly. Goodyear has not been able to really get a handle on the tire issues with the COT. The COT is wider and heavier on the right side, which promotes more tire wear on the right side tires.

 Stu Grant, general manager of Global Race Tires of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., hopes to find a resolution to the COT tire issues.

I don’t think we’ll see the melee that we saw at Indianapolis last year, by far. There will still be a fair amount of tire wear issues at Auto Club Speedway this week. One thing that will help the Goodyear tires this weekend, is that all three series will be running the exact same tire. Running the same tire will help to build rubber on the track which will improve tire wear.

3. Will a driver from a team other than Roush Fenway or Hendrick be sitting in Victory Lane at the end of the day?

Roush Fenway Racing and Hendrick Motorsports have dominated this event. They have combined to win the last seven races here, with Roush Fenway winning the last four. It would be a darn good bet to see a car from one of those two teams in Victory Lane come Sunday. I know who I’m picking on my fantasy team.

4. How empty will the grandstands be for the Auto Club 500?

Unfortunately, Auto Club Speedway has received a poor reputation in recent years for empty seats during the races. Last year, Auto Club Speedway’s estimated attendance was 105,000 for both the Nationwide and Sprint Cup races. That is not very good for a track that seats 92,000 and is in one of the largest markets in America. California has been one of the hardest hit states during the souring economy, stating a 9.2% unemployment rate. Don’t be surprised to see a few more empty seats this weekend.

5. Will The Simpsons decide the length of the race if it should rain?

There has been quite a bit of hoopla this week over NASCAR’s decision to call the Daytona 500 after the rain came. Some have even speculated that Fox wanted the race called so that a re-start would not interfere with The Simpsons, and other shows that were coming on during prime time. My belief is that if it begins to rain in California during the race, NASCAR will decide what ever is best for NASCAR, Fox, the teams and fans (notice I put fans last).

As I previously stated, it will be interesting how these topics play out this weekend and possibly the remainder of the season.

Surprises And Disappointments From The Daytona 500

I know I said that I wasn’t going to blog on the Daytona 500 again. Well…. um… I lied. I just wanted to go through some of the surprises and disappointments of last Sunday's race.

 

Surprise

Richard Petty Motorsports had a fantastic race! I’m sure the rain stoppage helped them, but still it was a darn good showing. A.J. Allmendinger finished third, Elliott Sadler fifth, and Reed Sorenson ninth. At lap 143, all three drivers were in the top 5. Elliott Sadler had a shot to win before the precipitation. 

Disappointment

Kasey Kahne being the one RPM car that had a bad finish. I mean who would have thunk it? Kasey Kahne is generally thought of as the strongest driver of the four, but having a tangle with Aric Almirola at lap 146 hurt Kasey’s chances.

Surprise

Matt Kenseth passing Elliott Sadler just in the nick of time before the last yellow flag. You talk about close - Kenseth made it by seconds.

Disappointment

The rain starting to get very heavy after the above mentioned caution flag. I am positive that Kenseth and Roush Fenway Racing is very pleased with the rain, but for the fans, it stunk.

Surprise

Seeing Brian Vickers throw a block like he did against Dale, Jr. I don’t know about you, but that really shocked me.

Disappointment

Yes, here it comes…..again. Junior’s lack of judgment during the episode. I know he was frustrated, but he still needs to mature. Not to mention his overly-talked-about pit errors that should not happen to a driver in his 10th Daytona 500. To be honest, I was more disappointed in his post-race ranting, raving and blame-gaming than I was the accident.

Surprise

After Tony Stewart won the Nationwide race on Saturday, I didn’t hear any more complaints about Goodyear. Hmmmm.

Disappointment

In Tony Stewart’s defense, I am very disappointed that Goodyear is still having tire issues. Albeit, not like the Brickyard last year, we still had a very good amount of tire problems through Speed Weeks. The only driver that I can recall that suffered a blown tire was Travis Kvapil at lap 55. The tires were still blistering very badly on most of the cars. I’m sure the testing ban did not help Goodyear prepare, but tire issues are as commonplace now as the COT.

Perhaps this is my last Daytona 500 post for 2009. Well..probably not…but it sounded good.

Garage Insider

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.

 

NASCAR's Trouble At The Track

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.