March 25 – Today in Jayski’s NASCAR history

March 25, 2012

• • • Stewart wins at Auto Club: #14-Tony Stewart won the Auto Club 400 Sprint Cup Series race at Auto Club Speedway for his 2nd win of the year, his 2nd at ACS and 46th win of his career. The race was called early after 129 of 200 scheduled laps due to rain. #18-Busch led the most laps with 18.
      #18-Busch finished 2nd followed by #88-Earnhardt Jr., #29-Harvick, #99-Edwards, #16-Biffle, #39-Newman, #56-Truex Jr., #51-Busch and #48-Johnson. The pole sitter, #11-Hamlin, led 2 laps and finished 12th after pitting just before the rain came. #48-Johnson’s car was smoking from a hole in the oil cooler just before the rain fell and finished 10th.
      There were 1 cautions for 5 yellow flag laps. There were 9 lead changes among 5 drivers. The estimated attendence was 90,000, up from 88,000 in 2011.
      See race results, awards, money won, laps led, cautions and more on the Auto Club Race Results page (pdf).(3-25-2012)
  • • 2012 Sprint Cup Driver Championship Points Standings:
      [after Auto Club, race 5 of 36]
      1) #16-Greg Biffle [0 wins], 195
      2) #29-Kevin Harvick [0 wins], 188, -7
      3) #88-Dale Earnhardt Jr. [0 wins], 178, -17
      4) #14-Tony Stewart [2 wins], 177, -18
      5) #56-Martin Truex Jr. [0 wins], 175, -20
      6) #17-Matt Kenseth [1 win], 173, -22
      7) #11-Denny Hamlin [1 win], 171, -24
      8) #15-Clint Bowyer [0 wins], 157, -38
      9) #48-Jimmie Johnson [0 wins], 156, -39
      10) #39-Ryan Newman [0 wins], 155, -40
      Wildcards:
      11) #27-Paul Menard [0 wins], 148, -47 (11th in pts)
      12) #2-Brad Keselowski [1 win], 139, -56 (16th in pts, 1 win)
      (ties broken by 1sts, 2nds, 3rd, etc)
      See drivers championship points standings on the Drivers Points Standings page (pdf).
      and Owners Points on the Owners Points Standings page (pdf).(3-25-2012)
  • • Race Fast Facts – Auto Club Speedway:
      #14-Tony Stewart won the 16th Annual Auto Club 400, his 46th victory in 469 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races. He ties Buck Baker for 14th on the all-time Sprint Cup Series win list.
      This is his second victory and second top-10 finish in 2012.
      This is his second victory and 12th top-10 finish in 21 races at Auto Club Speedway. His previous win came on Oct. 10, 2010.
      #18-Kyle Busch (second) posted his 10th top-10 finish in 15 races at Auto Club Speedway. It is his second top-10 finish in 2012.
      #88-Dale Earnhardt Jr. (third) posted his fifth top-10 finish in 20 races at Auto Club Speedway.
      #26-Josh Wise (37th) was the highest finishing rookie.
      #16-Greg Biffle leads the point standings by 7 points over #29-Kevin Harvick.
      This is the first Sprint Cup race at Auto Club Speedway to be shortened by weather.
      The last NSCS race to be stopped short of its scheduled distance was in 2009 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (winner Joey Logano).(NASCAR Statistics)(3-25-2012)
  • • Top-35 in Owner Points and guaranteed a starting spot at Martinsville:
      #10 moved back into the top 35, falling out was the #83 team by 5 points over the #33 & #10 and has to race into Martinsville.
      After Auto Club Speedway, 2012 owners points will be used to set the top-35 in owners points each week.
      Rank) Car#-Driver/Team, owners pts, +/-
      29) #13-Mears/Germain, 81, +19
      30) #93-Kvapil/BK Racing, 80, +18,
      31) #32-Schrader/FAS Lane Racing, 80, +18
      32) #38-Gilliland/Front Row, 80, +18
      33) #34-Ragan/Front Row, 79, +17
      34) #10-Reutimann-Patrick/Baldwin, 67, +5
      35) #33-Guaghan/Childress, 67, +5 ahead of 36th
      these teams / drivers will need to qualify by speed:
      36) #83-Cassill/BK Racing, 62, -5 from the top 35
      37) #30-Stremme/Inception, 44, -23
      38) #21-Bayne/Wood Brothers, 44, -23
      39) #26-Wise/Front Row, 43, -24
      40) #49-Yeley/Robinson, 42, -25
      41) #98-McDowell/Parsons, 40, -27
      42) #87-Nemechek/NEMCO, 27, -40
      After the race at Auto Club Speedway, the 5th race of the season, teams are NOT locked in past the next race as the owners points change after each race.
      For the owner points standings, see the Owners Points Standings page (pdf).(3-25-2012)
  • • Race Coverage of the Auto Club 400 Sprint Cup Series race at Auto Club Speedway is scheduled for Sunday, March 25, 2012.
      Television (TV): FOX at 3:00 pm/et; Pre-Race show at 2:30 pm/et; green flag approx 3:16pm/et
      Radio: Motor Racing Network (MRN) and Sirius XM Satellite NASCAR Radio 90
      Scheduled Race Re-Airs: on SPEED, Wednesday, March 28 at 12:00pm/et
  • • RAIN could be an issue on Sunday, March 25, 2012, for the Auto Club 400 Sprint Cup Series race at Auto Club Speedway.
      As of 4:00pm/et, cloud cover has blanketed the area and looking at the radar, the rain is probably goning to hit within an hour.
      The Weather.com forcast: Through 6pm: Rain showers developing around 2pm. The rain will become steadier later. Mostly cloudy with temperatures slowly falling to near 56F. Winds SSW at 15 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
      The National Weather Service forecast: Patchy fog in the morning. Chance of rain in the morning…then rain in the afternoon. Highs 55 to 63. Areas of winds south 15 to 25 mph. Gusts to 35 mph in the afternoon.
      More weather links on my Auto Club Race Info page – Weather section.
  • • Gordon a finalist for Shav Glick Award: #24-Jeff Gordon is one of four finalists for the Justice Brothers-Shav Glick Award. The annual award, voted on by a panel of veteran motorsports writers, is presented to a person who has made significant contributions to motorsports from the state. Other finalists are drag racer “TV Tommy” Ivo; Indianapolis 500 roadster builder A.J. Watson and sports car racer Tony Adamowicz. The award, named in honor of the longtime Los Angeles Times motorsports writer and columnist Shav Glick, will be announced prior to today’s race.(Inland Valley Daily Bulletin)(3-25-2012)
  • • Penske may continue to build Dodge engines after 2012: Penske Racing will run Fords in NASCAR’s premier series next season, but the team owner said Saturday his Sprint Cup team still could be building Dodge engines. Penske hasn’t decided whether to use motors from Roush Yates, which currently supplies all of Ford’s teams in Cup. But Penske said his 70-person engine staff would be unaffected if he elects to align with the motors used by Roush Fenway Racing. “We have a lot of people calling us wanting to run Dodges,” Penske said as his Izod IndyCar Series teams prepared to qualify for the season opener on the streets of St. Pete. “We’re going to keep our engine shop open obviously. We have a big investment there. We’re certainly not going to shut the door. There’s a lot of speculation, but I can assure you that engine shop will continue to operate in some mode one way or the other. Because we’ve got chassis dynos and things that we wouldn’t have the success today without what those guys have done. If Dodge is interested, if we would go to a separate source (for engines), then our shop could be available to do Dodge work for sure.” Penske said he hasn’t met with Roush yet, but his team has scheduled several meetings with Ford officials.(see full article and more quotes at the USA Today)(3-25-2012)
  • • Tires — not reinventing speedway — might be Bristol’s answer: #88-Dale Earnhardt Jr. had some advice for Bruton Smith: talk to the drivers before firming up plans to reinvent Bristol Motor Speedway. It might be a good idea for Smith to talk to Goodyear, too, given that changing the tires at Bristol might be a far less expensive alternative to changing the racetrack. Track owner Smith, chairman of Speedway Motorsports Inc., said he was embarrassed by the turnout for last Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at the .533-mile track. Consensus was that the grandstands, which can seat 160,000 fans, were roughly half-full. Possible solutions could a include to a return to the one-groove racetrack that disappeared with a 2007 reconfiguration that added graduated banking and opened the outside lane. Side-by-side green-flag racing replaced the typical Bristol bump-and-run, which inevitably led to a rash of caution flags. Tires with more grip and faster degradation might change the complexion of racing at Bristol, if cars with new tires become significantly faster than those on old rubber. “I think if we show up at Bristol with a tire that lays rubber down and is really soft, and it wears out& we need to get it back to where tires mean something,” said Aric Almirola, driver of the #43 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford. “Nobody really ever comes in and takes four tires and blows the field anymore.” The bottom line is that, if tires degrade rapidly, you’ll have cars running radically different speeds on the racetrack, and the mixture of speed and strategy should improve the action.(NASCAR Wire Service)(3-25-2012)
  • • Could the Commodore be the new Chevy model in 2013? The blogosphere has gone into overdrive with speculation that Holden’s Commodore may race in the 2013 US-based NASCAR racing series [Holden is one of only seven fully-integrated global General Motors operations that designs, builds and sells vehicles for Australia and the world.]. Rumours are flying on social media sites and web forums following a news release from Chevrolet in the US that it would drop its Impala mid-size sedan in favour of a new car “based on a new nameplate to the brand’s lineup”. General Motors enthusiast blog GM Inside News says it has received new information suggesting the Commodore is returning to the US, both as a racer and as a production model. “The latest information we’ve gotten suggests Chevrolet will bring the Commodore back to North America as a high-performance Chevrolet sedan,” the site claims. “The car will be very low volume and likely V8 only.” Holden spokeswoman Kate Lonsdale was quick to pour water on the rumours, telling Drive that the reports are purely speculative. “It’s been speculated widely that the Commodore will return to the US,” she says. “It’s all based on a Chevrolet announcement, but we have nothing to confirm at this stage.”(Sydney Morning Herald)(3-25-2012)
    • Cope gets Bristol sponsor: Bebida Beverage Company a developer, manufacturer and marketer of relaxation and energy drinks announced that Koma Unwind, the world’s fastest growing relaxation drink brand will be an associate sponsor of Derrike Cope at the at Ford Ecoboost 300 at the Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, TN.(Cope PR)(3-25-2012)

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