March 17, 2012
- Race Coverage of the Food City 500 Sprint Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway is scheduled for Sunday, March 18, 2012.
Television (TV): FOX at 1:00 pm/et; Pre-Race show at 12:30 pm/et; green flag approx 1:13pm/et
Radio: Performance Racing Network (PRN) and Sirius XM Satellite NASCAR Radio 90
Scheduled Race Re-Airs: on SPEED, Wednesday, March 21 at 12:00pm/et - Bristol Pit Rules: Bristol Motor Speedway operates under a plan where one-pit road will be used during pit stops under caution. Currently, Bristol remains the only track in the Sprint Cup Series that utilizes two pit roads with 22 pit stalls on the frontstrect and 21 on the backstretch. Teams that pit on the backstretch used to be at a competitive disadvantage. Since the spring 2002 race at Bristol, teams will enter pit road in Turn 2 (the current backstretch pit entrance) drive around down the backstretch and around Turns 3 and 4 and exit in Turn 1. Under green-flag conditions teams will enter and exit pit road under the current two-pit-road scheme.
- Pit Stall Selections: The selections of pit stalls for the Food City 500 Sprint Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway have been made.
Pole sitter #16-Biffle chose pit stall 1 [as do most pole sitters].
Outside pole sitter #22-Allmendinger took pit stall 23, the first pitstall on the backstretch pit road.
#39-Newman, who starts 3rd took the 22nd pit stall, the last stall on frontstretch pit road.
The 43rd and final pit stall was taken by #24-Gordon, who starts 4th.
To see where the drivers/teams pit stall is, see the pit selection chart on the Pit Stall Selection chart.(3-17-2012) - Happy Hour practice for the Food City 500 Sprint Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway is over, after 60 scheduled minutes, the top five, slowest and notes:
#39-Newman 121.883
#18-Busch 121.836
#2-Keselowski 121.682
#10-Reutimann 121.682
#5-Kahne 121.628
slowest: #74-Sorenson 117.021 & #23-Riggs 118.657
notes: #93-Kvapil scapred the wall late in practice, no major damage.
See fastest speeds. laps run, 10-lap average speeds on the Bristol Happy Hour Practice Speeds (pdf)page.(3-17-2012) - Saturday first practice for the Food City 500 Sprint Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway is being run, after 41 of 55 scheduled minutes, the top five, slowest and notes:
#22-Allmendinger 122.638
#18-Busch 122.576
#39-Newman 122.443
#16-Biffle 122.380
#56-Truex Jr. 122.341
slowest: #49-Yeley 119.447 & #23-Riggs 119.648
no speed; #74-Sorenson
notes: #48-Johsnon spun and #27-Menard got into the left rear of the #48, casuing slight damage to the #48.
See fastest speeds. laps run, 10-lap average speeds on the Bristol Practice 2 Speeds (pdf) page.(3-17-2012) - added some schemes from Bristol #9 Mac Tools, #10 Tradebank, #11 FedEx Ground, #13 Geico, #18 DoubleMint, #23 North Texas Pipe, #24 Drive to End Hunger / Chase Services, #31 BB&T;, #33 South Point Hotel / Casino, #34 Front Row Motorsports, #37 Poynt, #38 Taco Bell, #39 Quicken Loans, #43 Charter Commincations, #36 SealWrap / Widow Wax, #49 JPO Absorbents, #55 Aaron’s, #74 Turn One Racing, #78 Furniture Row, #87 AM & FM Energy, #98 Let It Start with Me and #99 Cheez-It
- What happened to Robby Gordon Friday at Bristol: #7-Robby Gordon failed to make the 500 field after his engine failed to fire for practice. That would normally not be a major story here; however the situation surrounding Gordon’s problems made it one. “Robby was out there on the line ready for practice, and then the car just wouldn’t fire,” crewman Randy Rodriguez said. “Four McLaren engineers came running over there to help, and they spent 1-1/2 hours with it, but couldn’t figure it out. So we have to go home. No practice, you can’t qualify.” NASCAR officials, asked about the situation, referred reporters to McLaren engineers, who could not be found. Dodge execs, likewise, could not be found for comment. Gordon, one of only three NASCAR drivers this year running Dodges (along with Penske men #22-AJ Allmendinger and #2-Brad Keselowski), says he has called Dodge boss Ralph Gilles since Penske announced two weeks ago that he would be moving to Ford. But Gordon says Gilles has not yet returned his inquiries. Gordon had engine problems at Daytona and tried to get an engine from Penske, the only other team owner building Dodge engines. But Gordon said Penske’s price (which he wouldn’t specify) was too high. Dodge itself apparently doesn’t build NASCAR engines or have any other engine building source.(MikeMulhern.net)(3-17-2012)
- #48 team next appeal on Tuesday: #48 Hendrick Motorsports crew chief Chad Knaus and car chief Ron Malec go before NASCAR’s chief appellate officer Tuesday, trying to reverse their six-race suspensions. Knaus was also fined $100,000 and Johnson was docked 25 points because NASCAR found illegal modifications on the #48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy in the opening inspection for the Daytona 500. A three-member appeals panel upheld the penalties this week. The hearing before John Middlebrook next week is the final step in the appeals process. Middlebrook has heard three appeals since being named NASCAR’s final arbitrator in 2010, and although he did not overturn any of the rulings, he reduced a portion of the penalties in all three cases.(Associated Press)(3-17-2012)
- NASCAR still a few weeks away from releasing EFI data: Sprint Cup Series director John Darby said on Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway that officials remain a few weeks from releasing EFI data and determining exactly what data will be released. But Darby was skeptical that the information, regardless of what is released, will help one driver improve on restarts. “It’s not about what a guy is doing with his throttle on a restart,” Darby said. “It’s more about how the fuel maps and the original run tables that were set up for the race. The purpose of it is to help educate the entire garage on what’s good for fuel strategies and what’s not. It’s not about pinpointing every time someone stepped on the brake. Or when somebody had their foot to the floor. They can get that off the TV telemetry now.” Darby said the data collection should be completed in a few weeks, giving teams a sample of a restrictor plate race, two short tracks and a couple of mile-and-a-half tracks. “Once we get the tables like we want them, we’d be able to send every race,” Darby said. “Typically, we download everything sitting on pit road after the race.”
Darby acknowledged there have been minor issues with EFI through the first three races, but nothing to set off alarms. He said Brad Keselowski’s issue at Las Vegas was a failed fuel pump. “We’ve got out of the habit of blanketing fuel injection, because it’s almost as bad as saying did he have a problem with his race car,” Darby said. “He had a fuel pump fail. Well, we had fuel pumps today and fuel pumps with carburetors. I’m a little defensive probably because everything wants to fall in the lap of fuel injection, where 99 percent of the problems that we’ve had up to this point in the year have nothing to do with fuel injection.”(ESPN)(3-17-2012) - Danica to run in Stewart’s Prelude: Danica Patrick has committed to drive in team owner Tony Stewart’s Prelude to the Dream Late Model charity race at Eldora Speedway. Patrick said the June 6 event will be only her second time driving on dirt. The other was in a go-kart on a track outside of Charlotte Motor Speedway when she was about 14 years old. “I’m going into it with more of an attitude of having fun, enjoying myself and raising some money for kids and just kind of take it all in,” Patrick said on Friday between Nationwide Series practices at Bristol Motor Speedway. “I realize I have zero experience and I have a lot of other things I need to put my focus in.” Stewart hosts the annual event with superstars from NASCAR, NHRA and other forms of motorsports to raise money to help needy children.(ESPN), see more about the event, driver lineup, links and history on my Prelude to the Dream Charities page.(3-17-2012)
- Hamilton Means pushes back debut to Martinsville UPDATE: Hamilton Means Racing plans to make its first appearance of the year on April 1st in the Goody’s Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway. HMR has hired veteran Johnny Sauter to pilot the #52 Crusaders Staffing Toyota. From a team spokesman: “Johnny has had success in all three levels of NASCAR with over 350 combined starts which include multiple wins in the Truck and Nationwide series along with top fives in Sprint Cup. Now that we have overcome the normal obstacles that present themselves to a small team during start up along with the development of the EFI program, we are ready to make our start in the series. With Johnny’s natural talent and driving experience at the upcoming tracks we hope that everything has come together to result in success at these early races which will attract new sponsorship to help fund the future of Hamilton Means Racing. The effort by the team to overcome the challenges has made it that much more exciting to see our plans come to fruition.” Hamilton Means Racing will run Toyotas purchased from Michael Waltrip Racing and plans to lease engines from Pro Motor Engineering. Crusaders Staffing, founded by HMR co-owner Dell Hamilton, will be the primary sponsor for the #52 team while the team reaches out to new partnerships.(HMR)(3-16-2012)
UPDATE: been told that Johnny Sauter has NOT agreed to the deal for Martinsville’s Spriint Cup race with the #52 HMR team and that he will not be running any other series that weekend besides the Truck Series race.(3-17-2012)
2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 | 1997