Nascar Racing Online

Archive for July, 2009

For many NASCAR fans, the idea of being environmentally sensitive means actually using the Porta-Johns in the infield. But Pocono Raceway is taking steps to become a world leader in the use of solar energy. Yes, Pocono.

The New York Times — which is really a much better paper than you’ve been led to believe, trust me — is profiling Pocono’s move to solar energy. (The article rather cluelessly describes the track as "fuel-belching," but still.) Pocono will install 40,000 photovoltaic panels on what had been a parking lot across the street from the track. The panels will generate an estimated three megawatts of electricity and should come online next spring.

As always, while the end result is an environmentally beneficial one, the prime motivator was money. While the project will run an estimated $15 million to $17 million, it’ll pay for itself soon enough; deregulation of local utilities would have raised the track’s annual power bill to up to half a million dollars. The track will also sell off a fair portion of its power to the local grid.

This could be a harbinger for the future; several stadiums, including the homes of the San Francisco Giants and Cleveland Indians, already use solar energy. And according to the developers that worked with Pocono, numerous other pro and college teams are looking to jump on the solar trend.

And this is only the start! Coming up, all cars will be hybrids, and then later they’ll be battery-powered! NASCAR tracks will have weight sensors to make sure only the in-shape will be allowed in — to encourage fitness, you know — and no one will be allowed to consume more than three beers in a raceday afternoon! And it’ll all be owned by the Chinese — aw, relax, I’m kidding. But I’m sure there will be conspiracy theories that spring up around this, too.

So in the end, Pocono is doing a very good thing here. But don’t worry — it’s still okay to hate the racing.

A Fuel-Belching NASCAR Track Has Big Plans For Solar Power [New York Times]

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Hey everybody, time for another Midnight Marbles thread! Chat about whatever you’d like here, including the lovely sunset there at right from O’Reilly Raceway Park this past weekend. We need to have some racing with only headlights, not track lights. That’d be fun.

Such are the thoughts that come to you at the end of the day. We’ll be back soon with much more, including a preview of this weekend’s Pocono race. Hey, wake up! It’ll be fun, really! Please? Have a good time here, all!

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Carl Edwards, dreaming of a brighter day. Caption this one, friends, and let us in on the mysteries within his head.

After the jump, Matt Kenseth can’t believe what he sees on Greg Biffle.

swift:
"For the last time, Greg, not ordering your 2009 Nascar Pets calendar doesn’t give you the right to call me an animal hater."

razz:
The Biff endures a severe tongue lashing after stating that he could help out if there was ever a breast pump malfunction at Matt’s house.

ziggalajiggy, one of many who took the "drill sergeant" route:
Kenseth: How tall are you, private?
Biffle: Five foot nine, sir.
Kenset: Five foot nine, I didn’t know they stacked **** that high!

Shannon P:
In an effort to come across as more aggressive, Kenseth finally musters the courage to bully the kid with braces.

Doug C:
"Stop it! You will listen to me when I’m talking to you! I am sssooooo sick and tired of how you always hog the remote and then hide it when I’m not around. I’m tired of that fungus growing in the bathroom and how you’re always messing with that picture of my girlfriend. You eat all the cheeze-its and don’t throw the box away for crying out loud! I AM SO GONE!"

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Break out the scorecards, folks. We’re still weeks from the Chase, but the silly season has officially begun.

Jamie McMurray, long rumored as the odd man out in Roush Fenway Racing’s five-cars-for-four-slots team, has been in effect served his walking papers with the news that his primary sponsor, Crown Royal, will be switching its allegiance to Matt Kenseth and the No. 17 car. That’s Kenseth and McMurray above, of course, in happier days.

That means David Ragan, despite currently running a full 10 spots behind McMurray in 30th place, gets the coveted fourth Roush spot. (Kenseth, Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards weren’t going anywhere.) Roush had to shrink his five-car operation to four cars by 2010 to meet new NASCAR rules.

It’s an unfortunate, if not unexpected, end to McMurray’s Roush career. While he’s never finished higher than 16th during his three-plus years for Roush, he appeared headed for greatness at the end of 2008. Back then, nobody outside of Carl Edwards and Jimmie Johnson was running hotter than McMurray, and he was a consensus dark horse (is that possible?) pick to make the Chase in 2009 — which would have made Roush’s decision that much harder.

Alas, it wasn’t to be, and McMurray now finds himself a man with few options. Roush Fenway Racing president Geoff Smith hinted at one possible future: "We are still hoping to be able to transfer the No. 26 team, intact, to Yates Racing in order to keep everyone employed and racing within the Ford community." Beyond that, well … the 1 car is available at Earnhardt Ganassi. Beyond that … ?

Bottom line, the dominos have begun falling, the shoe has dropped, the Rubicon has been crossed, the die has been cast — whatever cliché you want to use, Roush Fenway now has its 2010 plans in order. Now, if they can just do something about Kenseth’s slow slide from the top of the 2009 standings …

Crown Royal becomes primary sponsor on No. 17 [NASCAR.com]

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I just can’t believe what I’m going to do right now, I’m going to cut-up my own blog.

Yep I said, cut it up.

Not me mind you, but my blog – sort of anyway.

After the Indy race Matt, the new guy that has been periodically writing here from time to time, slammed NASCAR and the Sprint Cup race calling it the worse race he had ever seen.  Ouch.

This site isn’t called NASCAR Ranting and Raving for nothing because Matt was on a rant about NASCAR for sure.

Well based on what I saw, I’d have to say I disagree with Matt about the race on Sunday.

More after the jump.

It was cool to see Johnson win again at The Brickyard, but it would have been cooler to see Montoya win instead, he would have been the only driver ever to win both the Indy 500 and the Brickyard 400 if he had won on Sunday.

You don’t think NASCAR would have wanted that?  It would have a media darling, especially after last year’s tire fiasco, which would have greatly benefited NASCAR greatly, more-so than Jimmie Johnson’s 3rd win at that track.

Do I think NASCAR plays favourites?  Loaded question.  I think at one time in the past they did what was best for the sport like letting Richard Petty keep his 200th win after they found his motor to be illegal after the race and I think they are still doing what is best for NASCAR and that is following the rules as they are laid out, like speeding on pit road.  I’ve criticized NASCAR for not being consistent with their rules and their enforcement of them, but I’ve got to say that since the introduction of the CoT NASCAR has been very consistent in their rules and the drivers and teams should know better than to try to intentionally break them let alone unintentionally.  And that is where Montyoa comes in, he broke the rules and was caught.  Period.  No more, no less.

Sorry Matt, not with you on this one.

And for those of you who think Mark Martin let Jimmie Johnson win either because he wanted to or was told to by Hendrick, you’ve got it all wrong.  Martin was going for the win, but he settled for second becuause he trying to stay in the Chase hunt with just a handful of races left.

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We continue onward with Marbles fantasy racing as we near the Chase. Got any Johnson/Stewart slots left? If so, you’re in the catbird seat. Let’s take a moment to throw some love to last week’s winners: Commie Killer; a tie between Go Fast, Stewart’s Posse, Your Mom is Aero Loose (awesome name), JAG Racing, and Bones Racin; and Bamora Motorsports. Current season winners include Whatever Whenever Wherever, Five O’Clock Somewhere, and Augusta Yankees.

It’s never too late to join the Marbles league; there are no limits on participation, and there’s always the chance for Internet glory, which is always the best kind. To get in the league, you can either click right here or go to the Auto Racing page on Yahoo! Fantasy Sports, create a team, and enter the following info:

League Name: The Marbles Fantasy League
League ID: 30
Password: marbles

And that’s it! We’ll have all kinds of swag to give away to winners of the spring, summer, fall and full seasons, and we’ll post weekly winners right here every week. Now get to it!

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They’re worldwide icons, they’re all over TV, they cash eight-figure checks … what, you think pro athletes are going to drive pre-owned vehicles?

Forbes has compiled its latest list of athletes’ automobiles, and as you’d imagine, there’s nary a sensible sedan in the bunch. Matter of fact, several drive rides so exclusive the rest of us couldn’t get them even if we had the cash.

A car speaks volumes about its owner, and athletes’ vehicles are no exception. Take, for instance, Tom Brady, quarterback of the New England Patriots and companion to many a supermodel. He rolls in Audis — the $51,400 Audi S5 and the far more exclusive $114,200 R8. LeBron James, on the other hand, has his very own customized Ferrari F430 Spider — perfect for those long, lonely drives wondering what went wrong in the Eastern Conference finals.

Other notables mentioned in the Forbes survey: soccer’s Christiano Ronaldo drives a Bentley Continental GT Speed, while golfer Greg Norman squires wife Chris Evert around in a Land Rover Range Rover Sport edition that’s so limited, they’re offered by invitation only. The Atlanta Braves‘ Kenshin Kawakami goes low-profile, switching between a Maserati Grand Turismo S and a Lamborghini Murcielago. And while Michelle Wie may still be looking for her first win on the LPGA tour, she can at least slam the trunks of some sweet cars — a black-on-black BMW X5 and a white Mercedes-Benz GL550 – at the end of a bad day on the links.

For athletes, the car is the most visceral element of the public image. Sure, they’ll push candy bars and underwear on you, but if they’ve got the option, there’s no way they’re driving what you’re driving. (Chipper Jones and his standard-issue Ford F-150 excepted.) And chances are, unless they’re washed-up ballplayers looking to get you down to the car lot Kenny Powers-style, they’re not going to be pushing their cars on you, either.

Envious? Don’t be. After all, they still have to sit in traffic just like the rest of us. That athletes-only superhighway hasn’t been built … yet.

Cars of the sports stars [Forbes.com via Yahoo! Sports]

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Back at it! Who’s ready for some racing? It’s been too long since we’ve been on the track. And we start back with … Indy. Oh boy. The spot where everything went so horribly wrong last year with tires, as the fans there can attest. Let’s hope this year is much better than last, when Jimmie Johnson tiptoed around the track to victory.

Hang here and chat, and visit the live chat over on the main page too. Enjoy the race!

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Congratulations NASCAR. You solved the tire problem! Cars went more than 10 laps in between pit stops and delivered lengthy green flag periods of racing. Instead of tire problems, we the fans, had to suffer through “tired” problems..

The 2009 Brickyard 400 was the worst race I have ever seen in my life — a life that has spanned last season’s Brickyard, the restrictor plate race at New Hampshire and the infamous fuel gate at Talladega. I’ve seen infinite amounts of suck potrude out of NASCAR but this takes the cake.

At one point during the race, I decided I was going to take a nap. After waking up, I came to the realization that I had been awake the entire time and was actually watching the bore of a race. In correcting the tire issues from last season, Goodyear created a compound that wore thin way too quickly giving drivers a four-lap window to pass. Is it any coincidence that the only real passes for the lead were Juan Pablo Montoya and Jimmie Johnson on restarts?

Speaking of Johnny Montoya. I have never seen a more blatant crime committed against one driver than I did today. Fearing the PR repercussions of the unpopular Montoya winning the most yawntastic race in NASCAR history, NASCAR penalized the latin-born driver for a 1/10th of a second penalty on pit-road. Yes one-tenth…

NASCAR tried to script a storybook ending by allowing Mark Martin to win at Indy, hoping to all but erase the memories of the worst event of recent history. Unfortunately for the suits upstairs, Jimmie Johnson passed Martin on the last restart to win his second consecutive Brickyard.

But let’s be honest for a moment. Winning these two Brickyards shouldn’t even count on Johnson’s already Hall of Fame career. In fact, if I were Johnson, I would try to give these wins back to NASCAR as I would not want my name attached to the utter garbage that comes attached to the trophies.

But regardless of the circumstances, Johnson is a three-time consecutive Indy 400 Champion. It’s just a shame that no one was awake to see it.

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First off, I admit that the title is misleading since Carl Edwards did not start dead last, but rather from the 42nd starting position. But I digress as Edwards did “flip-out” before the night was done; winning the Kroger 200 at O’Reily (don’t call me Indianapolis) Raceway Park.

Edwards was forced to start at the rear of the field after missing ORP qualifying to practice his Cup ride just north of the “little track”. His starting spot, along with a botched pit stop on lap 170, made no difference as Edwards fended off Kyle Busch in the closing laps to win his second Nationwide trophy of 2009.

“While I was searching for gears, Kyle Busch got ahead of us,” Edwards said. “The 18 car [Busch] had a good stop, and then the race was on. It was a pretty good battle. It was a lot of fun. That was hard, hard racing.

“It meant a lot to get the win here. This is a very special race for me.”

Despite only a second place finish, Busch edged closer to history on Saturday night, becoming just the second Nationwide driver to reach eight consecutive 1st-or-2nd place finishes. That mark is one less than series legend Jack Ingram’s 1983 record. Not to say that the younger Busch is happy finishing second:

“It was a tough, hard-fought battle,” Busch said of his race with Edwards. “We had what we had and we gave it all we could and we came up short. He was better than us all night, and he proved it driving by us on the run before and just getting to my inside all of the time. If my car was as good as his, I should’ve been able to stay ahead of him or drive away.”

Edwards won the battle Saturday night but Busch is winning the war. Edwards picked up just 20 points on circuit leader Busch who leads the standings by 192 points. Brad Keselowski, Jason Leffler and Joey Logano wrap up the top five.

Details on the Kroger 200 after the fold.

Kroger 200 Top-10:

1. Carl Edwards

2. Kyle Busch

3. Matt Kenseth

4. Brad Keselowski

5. Steve Wallace

6. Ron Hornaday

7. Trevor Bayne

8. Jason Leffler

9. Scott Wimmer

10. Kenny Wallace

Nationwide Point Standings:

1. Kyle Busch, 3,296

2. Carl Edwards, -192

3. Brad Keselowski, -392

4. Jason Leffler, -506

5. Joey Logano, – 901

6. Justin Allgaier, -926

7. Mike Bliss, -943

8. Steve Wallace, -995

9. Brendan Gaughan, -1019

10. Jason Keller, -1052

Next time on Nationwide Weekly  Z – Iowa…

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