NASCAR BLOG

NASCAR officials have revealed that they are going for an added test session for all the Sprint Cup racing teams during the 5^th and 6^th May at the Lowe Motor Speedway. The NASCAR Vice President for competition Robin Pemberton said that the new test session has been added keeping in mind the interests of several racing teams and with the intention of bringing in more interest among the spectators and fans. The extra test session will help the teams to know more about the new cars and their performances.

The Sprint Cup teams are slated to race twice at the Lowe Motor Speedway circuit, the All Star Sprint Race on May 17 and Coco-Cola 600 race that is slated for May 25. Many of the drivers believe that an additional test session is always important as it will help them when they race their new cars at these intermediate tracks.

Jimmie Johnson acquired his first NASCAR race of the season when he opted not to make a pit stop to fuel his car prior to the closing laps at the Phoenix International Raceway recently.

Johnson managed to gain pole positions three races so far into the current season but has not been able to grasp the champion’s cup until last Saturday. He finally crossed the finishing line in first place after over taking Clint Bowyer who also made the gamble and skipped the fuel.

Johnson’s exact words after clinching the title were “I just tried to be smart with the fuel”. He added that he was lucky the car finally ran out of fuel on the back stretch minutes after the race ended. Crew Chief Chad Knaus was also quick to add that they enjoyed good mileage the entire race making the win possible.

After Clint Bowyer, Denny Hamlin came in third place followed by Carl Edwards and Mark Martin.

NASCAR drivers Tony Stewart and Kevin Harvick said that NASCAR needs to reinforce random drug tests on its legion of drivers. This call came after a suspended driver in the third-tier Craftsman Truck Series allegedly claimed that he participated in the race shortly after using heroin.

Stewart and Harvick, NASCAR veterans who have been in the top Sprint Cup Series for over five years revealed that there has never been any random drug tests for the entire period that they were involved in NASCAR sports.

Truck Series driver Aaron Fike was arrested in Ohio recently in the year 2007 after being found guilty for possessing heroin and drug paraphernalia in an Ohio amusement car park. He was suspended by NASCAR after pleading guilty to misdemeanour charges late 2007.

NASCAR however, was quick to rise to their own defense saying that they have zero-tolerance policies towards drugs usage among their drivers. They added that they will only test certain suspects and reiterates that once tested positive, they will implement strict suspension rules.

The right call in the pits has made the No. 11 Toyota of Joe Gibbs Racing driven by Deny Hamlin beat Jeff Gordon despite him starting from the pole position in the Goody’s Cool Orange 500 race at Martinsville Speedway. As both the NASCAR racers went into their final pit stop on Lap 388 Hamlin only loaded his car with fuel whereas Gordon had his four tires and fuel refilled and this made Hamlin to restart the race first on Lap 394 after Ken’s Toyota had oil leaking from his car to register the final caution of the race.

Both the racers had to wade off the traffic in front of them in the closing laps and Hamlin at the end came up trumps at his home state with a 0.398 second lead. Hamlin said that he thoroughly enjoyed his first Virginia race win and made up for the shortfalls of the earlier weeks.

The NASCAR Sprint car drivers Ryan Newman and Tony Stewart will display their personal cars in the auto fair that is coming up at the Lowe’s Motor Speedway from April 3rd to 6th. The two time Sprint car driver Tony Stewart is of the opinion that he is a novice car collector and will display three of the cars, a 1957 model black Chevy; a 1950 Sled coupe and a 1967 model Pointac GTO hardtop which is also black in color, that he had bought at the Barrett-Jackson annual auction last January.

Newman, the other exhibitor, has been in the old car collection business for many years and has a 1936 model Ford three window coupe, 1974 model TR6 roadster, a Dodge D 500 among the many vintage cars that he possesses. The WWE superstar, Cena, is a General Motors fan and has also many collections that will be displayed at the Auto fair. The Food Lion Auto Fair attracts more than 15,000 visitors annually and normally has more than 1,500 cars on display along the 1.5 mile.

David Reutimann has revealed that he is feeling the pressure ahead of the Goody’s Cool Orange 500 race that is coming his way on March 30th at the Martinsville Speedway and is the day when he officially takes over the charge for Dale Jarrett. Reuitmann says that there will always be pressure on any driver who has to drive the 44 number car. Reuitmann said that he is ready to face this daunting task even though it is a lot of pressure on him.

Reuitmann said that sitting behind the wheel of car number 44 that was driven by veteran driver Jarrett is an impossible task for any driver and was delighted that he was chosen by UPS to drive the famed car. Reuitmann admits that Martinsville Racing track is a track in which he has not been able to perform very well so far and he hopes to get a chance to change things in his side when he races on the track on March 30th.

Clint Bowyer won the Nationwide series held in Bristol Speed way. It was his first victory in any series in Bristol. His earlier highest finish was the third position in a Cup car race in 2007 fall. He has recorded his best nationwide finish in the year 2005 with a fourth place. The race was delayed two hours due to rain and the race was stopped just past the half way. According to the NASCAR rules, a race becomes official, only when it crosses the half way point and the driver who reached half point first will be out first, when the race resumes.

So, Bowyer didn’t take a pit till he completed the half point. The 300 lap race was stopped at 171 laps due to rain. Kasey Kahne made tough competition for Bowyer and feels that he had let Bowyer to have the win. Bowyer said that Kahne had the advantage of having the best car and even then he couldn’t win. Bowyer somehow wanted to win at Bristol and was helped by his strategies and rain in getting the elusive victory at Bristol. The race witnessed several accidents at the beginning and Kyle Busch had to end his race after 14 laps due to an accident.

It was such an emotional day for Dale Jarrett at Bristol Motor Speedway that began with his fellow driving competitors giving him a standing ovation for his contribution and achievements in this sport. His fans displayed placards and sign boards that had good bye messages and above all his father waved the green flag signaling the end of the racing career for his son. The last career race ended in disappointment for Jarrett as he finished at the 37th place in the Sprint Cup. Jarrett later told that it was not the exact way in which he had thought of finishing his last race and would have liked to have had a better race for his sponsors. He also said that there is no point in getting disappointment when one looks back at his remarkable career that had a total of 32 Cup wins.

Dale Jarrett was at his racing best between the years 1996 to 2001 when he had won 24 times for his team, Robert Yates racing. The Bristol Racing Speedway also acknowledged Jarrett with gifts that included a replica of a Revolutionary War Rifle, a Bristol Club diamond ring, 668 golf balls which each one representing his career start and a putter as well. Jarrett will now be embarking on a new career, as an analyst for ESPN, the sporting channel.

The best sporting events in the United States like the Major League Baseball, National Football League, and National Hockey League etc all have unions, but NASCAR drivers feel that starting a union among NASCAR drivers will not help in settling issues they face. Jeff Gordon, the four time NASCAR Sprint Cup winner, says that there may be positives that happen with unions in sport, but there are even more negatives like strikers that happen with unions as well. Gordon says that it would good if NASCAR can conduct a quarterly meeting with the drivers to discuss hot issues that crop up during the quarter.

Kerry Tharp, the NASCAR spokesperson is of the opinion that the current system of an open door policy will ever prevail and the drivers, crew, owners, etc can be in regular communication with the NASCAR officials on any issues. It is the system that has been going for sometime now and he feels that it will still work. Dale Ernhardt Jr, another NASCAR driver, is of the opinion that a driver spokesperson should be appointed, who can take up complicated issues with the officials and arrive at an amicable solution. He called on all the drivers to be united in an attempt to make racing still better and interesting.

The 20 year old blonde driving sensation Chrissy Wallace will be the latest addition from the Wallace household to make her debut in the NASCAR race and this avid racer has gone a bit further as she is going to make her debut in NASCAR at the Craftsman truck Series named Kroger 250 at the Martinsville Speedway on March 29th. Wallace will be competing in the NASCAR races for Germain racing and will take part in five ARCA races as well as five Truck races. She was the first female driver in the 57 year old history of Carolina race track to be victorious in a Late Model stock car race.

Wallace says that she is pretty aware that she is competing in the truck race that has been predominantly dominated by males and is happy that the Germain racing team had confidence in her to sign her to race for their team. The Germain racing is the only company to be hiring a father-daughter duo to race for their team. Wallace says that her dad, Mike Wallace, is her coach and her well-wisher and is glad that her father will be there at Martinsville to watch her race. She says that she is pretty close to her dad as both of them are racing and the bond between them is very strong.