March 23, 2011
- TRG switching manufacturers? UPDATE: Hearing that the #71 TRG Motorsports team will be switching manufacturers from Chevy to Ford. The team will make the switch starting at Texas after running Chevy at Auto Club Speedway with Andy Lally, then with Hermie Sadler at Martinsville.(3-22-2011)
UPDATE: Team owner Kevin Buckler confirmed that a deal has been in the works for more than a month to acquire new cars from Roush-Fenway Racing and engines from Roush Yates Racing Engines, beginning at Texas Motor Speedway April 9.
“When we first came to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, we were faced with the daunting task of competing at the highest level of NASCAR, and doing it on a budget,” explained Buckler in an exclusive Sirius Speedway interview. “At first, our goal was to survive and qualify for races. In time, we were able to raise our sights and shoot for a spot in the Top 35. But ultimately, we are here because we want to win. We don’t want to spend our time racing against the bottom 15 teams every week,” he said. “We’ve been winners in every form of racing we have ever tackled, and we want to be a winner in NASCAR. To do that, we need new, state-of-the-art cars and engines; equipment as good as anyone else out there has.”
Buckler said TRG will campaign new cars as part of a “light technological support program” with Roush Fenway Racing and new Ford FR9 powerplants from Roush Yates Engines. “My partners and I are going to have to shoulder a heavier financial load to do this, and we could not have done this without the support of our sponsor, Super Eco Fuel Saver. But it’s time for us to take a big step up and see if we can compete at this level.(Sirius Speedway)(3-23-2011) - National Speed Sport News to cease publication: All good things come to an end. And so is the case for America’s Motorsports Authority, National Speed Sport News. After more than
76 years, the publication, which was first published as National Auto Racing News on Aug. 16, 1934, has printed its last issue, dated – March 23, 2011. While hundreds of other newspapers came and went during the past three-quarters of a century, NSSN continued to ride the support of its readers and advertisers in producing the most thorough weekly racing publication on the market. But economic times have been tight and the newspaper business has suffered at the hands of high production costs and modern technology, which provides information to readers instantly.
“This is one of the saddest days of my life,” said National Speed Sport News Publisher Corinne Economaki. “The sluggish economy has made it too difficult to continue publication and no matter how I try to make the numbers work – and believe me I have tried – it is just not feasible to keep the business going. For 76 years, since August 1934 when my father Chris sold copies of the first issue at Ho-Ho-Kus Speedway in northern New Jersey, to today, as I oversee the very last copy printed, this paper has been an integral part of my family,” Corinne Economaki said.
Through the years National Speed Sport News was the industry leader in covering motorsports, much of it thanks to [hero of Jayski] Chris Economaki, 90, who sold the first issue of NSSN at Ho-Ho-Kus Speedway in New Jersey, and began writing for the publication soon after that and became editor in 1950. Economaki saw the publication through its glory days, launching a career on television and taking his newspaper into thousands of homes across America. In a time when there was no Internet and very little racing was on television or radio, National Speed Sport News thrived.
When National Speed Sport News began its run, there were no seat belts, drivers wore leather helmets and the flathead Ford V8 was one of the most common racing engines. Today, safety is the utmost concern and HANS and other safety devices are all the rage. Fuel-injected engines are everywhere. Not only has technology changed what fans see at the race track, it changed how NSSN gathered the news. In the early years most news arrived at the NSSN office by mail or telephone. Later the telecopier and the fax machine played key roles. Both were replaced by the computer modem and later by e-mail. NSSN was printed by linotype, but later changed to phototypesetting and finally went completely digital in 2002. But after enduring all these changes, a familiar friend will no longer appear at the mailboxes of its loyal readers. NationalSpeedSportNews.com, the online version of the newspaper, will continue to be updated with daily news, giving Internet savvy readers the opportunity to keep up with some of the same news they enjoyed every week. But as far as the newspaper goes, it’s the end of an era.(National Speed Sport News)(3-23-2011) - Chapprood to serve as interim crew chief at TRG: Paul Chapprood will serve as the interim crew chief at Auto Club Speedway, where rookie contender Andy Lally will drive the #71 car. Chapprood replaces Jay Guy, who has joined Travis Kvapil’s Front Row Motorsports team beginning this weekend.(Fox Sports)(3-23-2011)
- Auto Club on the #22 this weekend: The “Double-Deuce” Dodge team will be running their Auto Club colors for the first time this season in this weekend’s action at Auto Club Speedway and driver Kurt Busch is certainly excited. “Right now, the most important race we’re facing is this weekend’s Auto Club 400 at Fontana,” Busch said. “It’s especially big on our radar screen because we’re bringing out the blue, red and white Auto Club colors for our Penske Racing Dodge Charger for the first time this season. With the track and the race carrying their name, the expectations for the Auto Club Dodge will certainly be high. We hope to have a super-competitive Auto Club Dodge Charger at Fontana this weekend and keep our momentum building with another solid performance. It’d be really cool to see our Auto Club Dodge in Victory Lane after winning the Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway. It couldn’t get any better than that.”(Tom Roberts PR)(3-23-2011)
- Part owner of Roush Fenway changes name: The parent company that owned the Boston Red Sox, Liverpool FC and half of Roush Fenway Racing has changed its name to Fenway Sports Group. The umbrella group owned primarily by John W. Henry and Tom Werner was formerly known as New England Sports Ventures. Company officials said it was assuming a new corporate name to better reflect its reach into NASCAR and English Premier League soccer. Fenway Sports Group had been the name of NESV’s marketing arm. It will now go by Fenway Sports Management.(Associated Press)(3-23-2011)
- New Gasman staying with Biffle’s team: Brian Carr who served as the gasman for the #16 3M team in Bristol will also be fueling the car this weekend in California. Carr is also the gasman for the #6 Nationwide team at Roush Fenway Racing.(RFR)(3-23-2011)
- Pit Crew Challenge tickets on sale Wednesday: Tickets for the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Pit Crew Challenge presented by Craftsman, featuring a family-friendly, pit-crew competition between the top-24 Sprint Cup Series pit crews, go on sale Wednesday. Tickets may be purchased online at www.pitcrewchallenge.com or by calling the Time Warner Cable Arena box office at (800) 745-3000 with prices starting at $15. Tickets for children two to 12 cost $7.50 each. The NASCAR Sprint Pit Crew Challenge will take place Thursday, May 19 at 7 p.m. ET at Time Warner Cable Arena and will air on SPEED at 8 p.m. ET that evening. To qualify for the NASCAR Sprint Pit Crew Challenge, teams must be eligible for the All-Star Race or be the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Pit Crew Challenge champion. All-Star Race eligibility includes all Cup race winners from 2010 and 2011, All-Star Race winners from the past 10 years and Cup Series champions from the past 10 years who are active drivers and have competed in at least one series event during the 2010 or 2011 season. Remaining unfilled positions will become available to the car owners ranked highest in the 2011 Cup Series owner point standings as of May 17. The following teams are currently eligible: #00 Toyota, # 1 Chevy, # 4 Toyota, #5 Chevy, #11 Toyota, # 14 Chevy, # 16 Ford, # 17 Ford, # 18 Toyota, # 21 Ford, No. 22 Dodge, #24 Chevy, #29 Chevy, # 33 Chevy, # 39 Chevy, # 42 Chevy, # 48 Chevy, and #99 Ford.(ASPIRE Communications)(3-23-2011)
- Richard Marx to sing National Anthem for Auto Club 400: Singer-songwriter Richard Marx, who has sold over 30 million albums and written thirteen #1 hits, will perform the National Anthem prior to the start of the Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway on Sunday. For more than two decades, Richard Marx has made an indelible mark on the music community and remained a fixture on pop and adult contemporary radio for years as an artist and producer working with some of the biggest names in the music business. Since his career began in 1987, Marx has made a commitment to giving back. He has performed benefit concerts for many organizations, including the TJ Martell Foundation, Toys For Tots, Make A Wish Foundation, the American Cancer Society, Best Buddies, and the Special Olympics.
For more information or to purchase tickets call 800-944-RACE (7223), log on to www.autoclubspeedway.com or visit the Auto Club Speedway ticket office.(ACS)(3-23-2011) - Sugar Ray Leonard name Honorary Starter at Auto Club Speedway: Boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard will serve as Honorary Starter for the Auto Club 400 Sprint Cup Series race at Auto Club Speedway on Sunday, March 27. As Honorary Starter, Leonard will wave the green flag to get the Auto Club 400 underway. Sugar Ray Leonard is one of the legendary sports icons of the 20th century whose very name epitomizes boxing and conjures the image of a champion. In 1976 Leonard took the boxing gold medal home in the Olympic Games and won his inaugural fight as a professional the following year. In addition to the middleweight title, Leonard went on to win welterweight, junior middleweight, super middleweight, and light heavyweight titles.(ACS)(3-23-2011)
- Lewandoski in the #39 in California: Charles Lewandoski will be the driver of the #39 Nationwide car of Go Green Racing Saturday at Auto Club Speedway. Sunrise Ford of Fontana, California will be the sponsor.(Go Green Racing)(3-23-2011)
- G&K Return as primary sponsor for Mike Wallace in California: G&K Services return to the primary sponsorship positions on the JD Motorsports #01 Chevy this weekend at Auto Club Speedway. The car will sport the familiar orange paint scheme that fans will recognize from previous events. G&K Services, a uniform and facility services company, was founded in 1902 in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. G&K Services today has nearly 8,000 employees throughout North America and processes more than five million garments each week from over 160 locations. (JD Motorsports)(3-23-2011)
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