March 21, 2009
- Marlin wins Saturday Night Special: Sterling Marlin, who will run the Sprint Cup race Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway, won the Scotts Saturday Night Special, Rusty Wallace finished 2nd followed by 70-year-old L.D. Ottinger, Terry Labonte and Jimmy Spencer. The race will be re-aired Sunday morning [March 22nd] 10:00am/et on ESPN Classic. Philadelphia [Jayski fave team] Eagles Kicker David Akers and ESPN’s Andy Petree won the celebrity races which set up the starting lineup for the Legends race.(ESPN.com)(3-21-2009)
- Saturday first practice for the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway is over, the top five:
#88-Earnhardt Jr. 123.372
#00-Reutimann 123.229
#6-Ragan 123.047
#48-Johnson 122.835
#18-Busch 122.835
slowest: #99-Edwards 119.753 and #87-Nemechek 119.828
incidents: #96-Labonte hit the wall, but supposedly not much damage.
For the best speeds, ave speeds, laps run and more, see the Bristol Practice Speeds/News page.(3-21-2009) - Pit Stall Selections – Bristol: The selections for pit stalls of the Food City at Bristol Motor Speedway have been made. Pole sitter #5-Martin chose pit stall 1, while outside pole sitter #39-Ryan Newman took pit stall 23, the first on the back stretch pits. 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 Sprint Cup that utilizes two pit roads. 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. How are pit stall’s chosen? by qualifying speeds, the fastest choose their stall and so on. See the pit selction chart on the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway Pit Stall Selection page.(3-21-2009)
- RPM adds races to Allmendinger’s sched: #44-AJ Allmendinger is confident that he not only will be rewarded next week with not having to worry about qualifying, he also will be awarded in future weeks with additional races to his original nine-race schedule for Richard Petty Motorsports. Originally Allmendinger was going to run the first eight events through Phoenix next month, but the team has added the four following points races – Talladega, Richmond, Darlington and Lowe’s Motor Speedway – in addition to NASCAR’s Sprint All-Star Race. The other race, which already was on his schedule, is the July race at Daytona. Having pieced together sponsorship this year from Air Force, Valvoline, Charter, Harrah’s and LifeLock, the team has enough funds to keep Allmendinger in the seat at least through late May. Allmendinger has qualified for 10 consecutive events dating back to last season. At 20th in owner points, Allmendinger is all but assured he will remain in the top 35 heading into Martinsville next week, as he qualified at Bristol for his fifth consecutive race on speed – the only driver to do so in the first five races except for Tony Stewart, who had a past champion’s provisional if he needed it.(SceneDaily)(3-21-2009)
- Kurt Busch victory lap gets name: #2-Kurt Busch had a contest to name the victory lap he ran at Atlanta in reverse. Winning entry, The Unwind Lap.(Virginian-Pilot)(3-21-2009)
- Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Defends Embattled Crew Chief: #88-Dale Earnhardt, Jr. has become accustomed to the topic. It’s been one of the primary debates in NASCAR for several years, but the heat has increased this season. Is the often-volatile working relationship between Earnhardt, Jr. and his cousin, Tony Eury, Jr. conducive to winning races? Eury serves as the crew chief on Earnhardt’s #88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy. The two often engage in animated discussions – even arguments – over the scanner during races. Entering Sunday’s Food City 500, Earnhardt ranks 24th in Sprint Cup points with just one top-10 finish. Many of Earnhardt’s loyal fans blame Eury. Earnhardt addressed his struggles as well as his relationship with his cousin during a wide-ranging press conference Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway. “I have said it a hundred times – and it just doesn’t seem to make a dent – but the guy that I feel bad for is Tony, Jr. because he gets criticized so badly,” Earnhardt said. “Everybody in this room – and some of you have criticized him yourselves – know how smart a guy he is. He is a good mechanic and a solid crew chief.” Clearly, Earnhardt has become frustrated with the attacks on his cousin by fans and media types. “[Eury, Jr.] just wanted to do this for a living, just like I do, but I’ll take the fall,” Earnhardt said. “I would rather be crucified than him. Every time I read in the paper that people are on his case, I feel like I am sending my brother to jail for a crime I committed, you know what I mean. I feel bad for him because he just wants to work and have fun.” As for the free-flowing chats with his crew chief, Earnhardt said it comes with the territory in a hyper-competitive and emotional sport. “There are riffs between every driver and every crew chief, and they work it out or they don’t,” Earnhardt said. “I think me and Tony, Jr. do a pretty good job of working it out. Obviously, through everything we have been through, we still love each other to death and would do anything for each other.”(Bristol Herald Courier)(3-21-2009)
- Bristol could be last race for #28: Sources at Yates Racing confirmed that Sunday’s Food City 500 will be the last race in the foreseeable future for the #28 Ford driven by Travis Kvapil. Last year, the team was able to piecemeal enough sponsorship together to last the entire season for the #28, but despite some support from Golden Corral for the first five races of 2009, it wasn’t enough to keep the car going beyond this week.(SPEEDtv)(3-21-2009)
- Why The King is not Racing at Bristol: Asked why seven-time champion Richard “The King” Petty isn’t participating in Saturday’s legends race at Bristol Motor Speedway, long-time crew chief Dale Inman said, “He knew better than to ask his wife.” Inman wasn’t the only person in the Sprint Cup garage at Bristol Motor Speedway who said Lynda Petty was the reason NASCAR?s all-time race winner isn’t competing against the likes of Cale Yarborough, Harry Hyde and Junior Johnson. “He knew Lynda wouldn’t let him,” one source close to the situation said with a laugh. “But if you ask Richard he’ll deny it.” Petty isn’t the only old-timer who declined to participate. David Pearson is out with a bad back and many, according to rumors, couldn’t get the insurance necessary to compete in the 6 p.m. event.(ESPN Insider)(3-21-2009)
- NASCAR’s missing video history: Dale Earnhardt’s 1979 Bristol victory: It’s the 30th anniversary of that first NASCAR tour breakthrough victory by the late Dale Earnhardt, and Dale Earnhardt Jr., just four years old at the time, has never seen that video footage….if it even exists. That 1979 Winston Cup tour win was the first of Earnhardt’s 76 victories, but it came two years before NASCAR’s full Cup tour events were routinely telecast in their entirety. But the third generation Earnhardt did watch his father here, while growing up. The elder Earnhardt made a lot of Bristol history. “The ‘Earnhardt Moment’ for me here was when he ran like 450 laps and won the race and had no power steering,” Earnhardt Jr. says. “I think that was in ’87 or ’86, or something like that. I have run like 20 laps at California with no power steering, and it was difficult — it was hard to drive the car where you wanted it to go. The whole handle of the car, the whole feel of the car changed. I just can’t imagine running like that here. I was having a hard time running (at California) any kind of competitive time on new tires; on old tires I was okay without the power steering, but on new tires it was just really hard to run as fast as everybody else was running. For him to have been able to do that here — a place like this, on the blacktop — for basically the entire race and win, that was pretty cool. I was here for that and I was pretty proud of him for that kind of effort.”(mikemulhern.net)(3-21-2009)
- Martin wants to run full time in 2010 UPDATE: Although he hasn’t discussed it with team owner Rick Hendrick, Mark Martin would like to drive at least one more full season in the #5 after this year. When the 50-year-old driver signed a two-year deal with HMS midway through last season, the plan was to run a full schedule in 2009 and perhaps split the 2010 season with Brad Keselowski or another driver. “A lot of things have changed since May and June of ’08,” Martin said on Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway. “When it all comes down to it, it’s not about contracts. It’s all about what we all want.” What Martin wants, despite a tough start that has him 35th in owner points, is to continue at his current pace.(ESPN.com)(3-20-2009)
UPDATE: Mark Martin says he loves being a full-time driver but he’s not ready to decide if he wants to convince team owner Rick Hendrick that he wants to drive the #5 car full time in 2010. After completing the pole-winning lap Friday for the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, Martin said he has a part-time contract with Hendrick Motorsports for 2010 and he’s not ready to talk about trying to change that. “I love what I’m doing and I don’t want to quit racing, but I have not had a conversation with my wife, with Hendrick Motorsports, with anybody about that,” Martin said. “It’s way too premature to talk about that. I have a [part-time] contract for next year. … I don’t want to talk about next year.” Last summer when Martin announced his signing with Hendrick Motorsports, he and Hendrick announced that Martin would drive a full season in 2009 with a part-time role in 2010. The other driver was not announced, although Brad Keselowski and Landon Cassill were considered the top candidates to share the ride with Martin.(SceneDaily)(3-21-2009) - Gordon Qualifying Time Disallowed: UPDATE 3: Penalties #72-Benny Gordon’s qualifying time was disallowed after a post-qualifying fuel sample did not meet specifications. #96-Dennis Setzer is now in the field.(NASCAR PR)(3-21-2009)
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