NASCAR BLOG

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.

David Ragan the racing driver of Roush Fenway has reached the Cup Level in his second year of racing. He is using the No. 6 Ford used by the famous Roush racing driver Mark Martin. It is not an easy task to take up the position owned by Martin said Ragan. Mark Martin has made 82 victories with his No. 6 ford and Ragan has grown up watching Martin as a fan of NASCAR races. Ragan was a rookie last year and reached 23rd in point list and made a couple of top- five finishes. In the last season Ragan had Five DNF officially announced to his name.

In this season’s Daytona 500 he crashed on the 161 lap of the race and was placed 42nd. The Crew chief of Roush, Jimmy Fenning, is expecting much better performance from Ragan in the coming races. In the California NASCAR series, he finished 14th and at Las Vegas he was able to finish at Seventh position. He has given 19th point standing at present. This season Ragan has decided to approach his races with more patience. In the first practice of the Atlanta race, he finished at a speed of 176.755 and in final practice he has made the fastest lap of 179.775 mph.

The paving work going on the surface of the Darlington raceway has been completed. Work has been going on to prepare the race track for the forth coming Dodge Challenger 500 weekend race happening on the 8th to 10th of May 2008. The track president, Chris Browning made the announcement on Wednesday. He further said that with the paving done and completed the focus would shift to the actual preparations for the Dodge challenger 500 coming up. The paving work began in the middle of January on the Darlington race track. It gulped almost 15,000 tons of asphalt. The original race surface was laid in 1994. About 4 million reference points had to be utilized by the construction team to ensure that the new track is exactly as the original design and pattern.

The total reconstruction project was valued at $10 million and included a new infield tunnel. The tunnel was to be large enough to take car haulers, emergency vehicles and motor homes. Safety barriers were also upgraded to make them safer. Interior concrete walls on the back and front stretch were also constructed. “Too Tough To Tame” is a test race. It is a Goodman tire test race, the first race on the new tracks and it would come up on the 10th and 11th of March. Among the expected drivers would be Jeff Gordon who has won the Darlington event seven times. Greg Biffle has won it twice and he would also feature as a driver along with Ryan Newman who won the 2008 event of Daytona 500.

Ashley Cooper, a 27 year old driver from Ulladulla in the state of New South Wales lost his life due to injuries caused by a crash in the Clipsal 500 race. Ashley’s V8 supercar hit the concrete barrier at the exit of a corner, while moving at a speed of 120 mph. The accident caused severe head injuries and brain swelling. On the spot he was attended to by a senior medical officer of the Clipsal 500 and was taken to the Royal Adelaide Hospital by an ambulance. Ashley was in coma condition and was kept on the life supporting system till his death.
The crash occurred on the 11th lap of the final series of the race and Cooper had the collision at the 8th turn. The first hit was at the driver’s side and the car went across the track to hit the opposite wall with its rear end. This is the second fatal accident that stuck, Australia’s premier auto racing competition within two years time. New Zealand driver Mark Porter died following an accident in October 2006 in the Bathurst 1000 race. Wayne Cattach, chief executive of V8 supercars said that, the preliminary look of the footage points to the fact that Cooper’s car, while entering the corner has clipped the guard rail.

NASCAR issues penalty for 10 teams including that of Robby Gordon who finished in the 8th position at the Daytona International Speedway, after they were found guilty of doing discrepancy in the vehicles which are against the rules of NASCAR. The decision has most affected Gordon, as he lost 100 points and the chief of his crew is fined $100,000 and suspended from the coming six races. The loss of hundred points made him to come down to the 40th position now. Gordon had a front bumper cover for his Dodge, which is an unapproved addition according to the latest NASCAR rules. The violation was noticed at the first day inspection of Daytona500.

The other drives who were penalized include Dale Earnhardt Jr, Cale Gale, Kertus Davis, David Gilliland, Johnny Sauter, David Stremme and Todd Bodine the winner of the truck series. Earnhardt was docked 50 points as his car was caught with an illegal spoiler during the checking. His crew chief was fined $25,000 and got suspension for the next 6 races. The inspectors of NASCAR has found that the car Nos 0,1,14,64 and 77 was using an aerodynamically modified oil tank which is un authorized and fined the crew chiefs for $15,000 and suspended them from nationwide series for the next 6 events.

Earnhardt hopes to dominate the Budweiser Shootout in Daytona by using a new Chevrolet to get the job done. The car, built by Hendrick Motorsports, is the guinea pig for the new series of cars. He was looking for a really good car and a really good team. He thinks he has found both at Hendrick, which he joined after leaving his father’s company last year.To get back on top, he will need a good car and to start winning again. At present, he hasn’t won in the last sixty two races. He is in the shootout because of winning a 2003 race. There was a drop off in the way the cars and teams performed at DEI and that was part of the reason he decided to leave. He is in a much better place now he says.

He placed 18th out of 23 in the first practice. The Toyotas really took over the top spots. Then a fight broke out between Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch and they wound up ramming each others cars. It was actually the second accident of the season. The first occurred when Clint Bowyer tried to push Ryan Newman out of the way to pass him. Newman went spinning and all the other drivers, a total of eight, had their cars smashed in the process. Eleven out of the twenty three were damaged and had to be rushed back to the garage. After all that, Earnhardt said he wasn’t going out anymore and get his car messed up before the race.

The 17 year long wait for Todd Bodine is over and he tasted victory at last in the truck race in Daytona. Bodine has made almost 34 tries at the famous Daytona international speedway to reach the victory lane. He won the Chevy Silverado 250 craftsman truck series by holding of Johnny Benson and Kyle Busch. Todd Bodine used a Toyota and his average speed was 127.551 mph. The race lasted for 1 hour, 57 minutes and 36 seconds and Todd’s victory margin is .077 seconds. For the first time in the history of Daytona Craftsman Series the trucks were using 17.75 gallon fuel cells instead of the usual 22 gallon cells.

The race was stopped for 17 minutes, 23 seconds due to an accident that caused the elimination of Skinner from the race and damage to many vehicles. Ron Hornaday, The defending truck series champion had to take his No. 33 Chevrolet for repair because of mechanical problems. Busch bagged the second position followed by Benson and David Starr. It was a moment of great pride for Toyota as their drivers reached the top four positions in the Chevy Silverado 250.

  Count down has officially started for the 50th running of the Daytona 500 and DC Brands International’s Corvette Giveaway. There are 100 contest winners and VIPs of region’s top retailers for the land marking of the race which will hold on 17^th February 2008 in Daytona Beach, Florida. Daytona International Speedway is a super speed way which is 2.5 mile long and is in tri-oval race track. It has seating capacity for almost 169,000 spectators. Nascar’s founder William France Sr. And another small group promoted this race at Daytona Beach, Florida. This year Daytona 500 race will be held among 43 drivers, who will be racing for more than 18 million dollars while more than 1.5 million dollars for themselves. This is term as the “Great American Race” and drivers give this race a top priority. This race track is the platform for the newcomers as well and experts are also promoted more than any other track race. The famous winners of this race are Richard Petty (seven times winner), Fireball Roberts, Fred Lorenzen Marvin Panch, Tiny Lund and Junior Johnson winning in the early 1960s. There will be a party at the Cruisin’ Café, with fully-outfitted staff in Turn Left gear and one lucky person will win the 2007 Turn Left Corvette.