March 26, 2004
- Racing Electronics offers new product: Racing Electronics has announced today, a major change in racing communications for the grassroots racer. Forming an exclusive agreement for North American distribution of the Reliant Electronics 2-Way Radio, Racing Electronics is now able to provide a quality, complete 2-Way Radio System for the driver and crew chief at a low starting price of just $799.00. “This is not an amateur system, but a professional-quality system,” said Bruce Silver, President/CEO of Racing Electronics. “It puts us at a price point with which no other radio company can compete for the high quality and features available on the new Reliant TR416 Radio.” The basic radio is available with high power (4 watts) and 16 channel priority scan. Additionally, the radio comes complete with Ni-Cad battery, desk charger, belt clip and antenna. Other models of this radio include a VHF (150-170 MHz) model TR116 that will prove to be very popular for the operation of many of the race tracks across the country and Receive-Only models in both UHF & VHF. The Receive-Only models, (RO116 & RO416) are used by race tracks and sanctioning bodies to provide One-Way Communications to its racers. Racing Electronics and USAC have just signed an exclusive agreement for use of the Reliant Radio for some of its series. Additional information on Reliant Radios and Systems can be found on the website at: www.racingelectronics.com/reliant.html. RE is an advertisor on the Jayski site and sponsors the Scanner Freqs page.(3-26-2004)
- #42 and #14 Car Seized by NASCAR; #14 Team Goes Home RESPONSE: NASCAR on Friday morning confiscated the #42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge driven by Jamie McMurray, when it failed to meet the X-measurement of the rear window. The violation is similar to those made by the teams of Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch last season, which resulted in NASCAR confiscating both cars. NASCAR spokesman Mize Zizzo said NASCAR will tow the No. 42 and No. 14 back to its research and development center in Concord, NC, for evaluation. And additional penalties will be forthcoming after the race weekend, Zizzo said. Following the inspection process, the car was placed alongside the NASCAR hauler and the team brought out a backup car. The backup car has never been run. “You definitely don’t bring your best aero car to Bristol, but the first time NASCAR checked the X-measurement – the same measurement they got Tony Stewart for and Kyle Busch – it showed to be too much,” said team manager Andy Graves. “Right now we’re trying to figure out what happened, if it was a mistake on our part or if a mistake made in measuring the first time. We’re going to have them measure it again.” Graves said the #41 and #40 Dodges, driven by Chip Ganassi Racing teammates Casey Mears and Sterling Marlin, respectively, both measured correctly. The X-measurement is taken diagonally from each the top corner of the rear window to the bottom corner of the opposite side. “It shows three-quarters (of an inch) more than any car we’ve ever had, so we’re kind of baffled by it,” Graves said.
#14 Seized too: Larry Foyt’s #14 Dodge car failed to pass inspection a first time and his crew worked on the problem areas before returning to the inspection line. When the Dodge failed the final time, the car was seized by officials. The Foyt team had only a speedway car on hand as a backup, so they decided not to make a qualifying attempt for Sunday’s Food City 500.(ThatsRacin.com)
AND The #42 Havoline Dodge was confiscated during the first inspection at Bristol Motor Speedway on Friday for being five-eighths of an inch off of the X-measurement. NASCAR uses the X-measurement — that gauges the length of the rear window from corner to corner to determine the off-set of the decklid to the roof. “The car was in line this morning and they just pulled it to the side,” says Ganassi team manager Andy Graves. “I don’t understand. We had to make updates, but the roofline and the decklid is the same as last year.” When driver Jamie McMurray arrived at the track Friday morning, he described the situation as “puzzling”. He added that it did not make sense to bring an illegal car to the track, especially at Bristol where little if any aerodynamic advantage can be gleaned. “We raced this car like seven times last year,” McMurray says. “So it’s a bit confusing.” Crew chief Donnie Wingo agreed that the situation was “confusing” since this was the primary short track car the team used last year. “I’m just frustrated,” Wingo says. “At least we have another good car in the trailer and we’ll have one sent from the shop this afternoon.”(FoxSports/Sporting News)(3-26-2004)
#42 Team Response: Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates has issued the following statement regarding NASCAR’s seizure of Jamie McMurray’s No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge during inspection Friday morning at Bristol Motor Speedway.
“This is an unfortunate situation that happened today at Bristol with the 42 car,” Chip Ganassi said. “This is a short track car from last season that we put a new body on during the off season. If there was an error made in the body shop on our part, we will get it rectified. We look forward to working closely with NASCAR to make sure this issue is resolved in a timely manner.” As a result, McMurray and the Texaco/Havoline were forced to unload the backup car, chassis #214. McMurray finished 11th last year at Bristol in the spring race and finished third last August.(Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates PR)(3-26-2004)
- Back to the Future: A special paint scheme will launch a nationwide campaign to “Keep It Genuine”, accentuating the importance of using genuine Ford and Lincoln Mercury Parts and Service to keep a vehicle performing at its best. The #21 Motorcraft Racing Ford Taurus will run the colors made famous by David Pearson during the 1970’s at Texas Motor Speedway for the Samsung/Radio Shack 500 weekend. According to Eddie Wood and his Uncle Leonard, the Wood Brothers “genuine” look was developed in the mid-1960’s to distinguish one team entry from another. On several occasions the Wood Brothers entered two or three cars in an event and used a combination of red and white paint schemes on the team cars. The crew chose the red top, white bottom and gold numbers as its primary paint scheme. Leonard Wood remembers that Cale Yarborough was the first Wood Brothers Racing driver to compete in those colors full-time, starting in 1967. The red, white and gold paint scheme went to victory lane 72 times with Yarborough, Parnelli Jones, Dan Gurney, Donnie Allison, A.J. Foyt, Pearson, and Neil Bonnett behind the wheel between 1967 and 1982. “Ford, Lincoln and Mercury dealerships are known for the genuine Motorcraft parts and quality service Ford customers have come to depend on,” says Judi Moritz, the Ford Customer Service Division (FCSD) Motorsports & Events Marketing Manager. “And what better way to launch the new FCSD “Keep It Genuine” campaign than to introduce it with a genuine Wood Brothers Racing paint scheme.”
The race at Texas precedes the national dealership introduction of the “Keep It Genuine” program on Monday, April 5. The “Keep It Genuine” initiative reinforces the importance of using genuine Ford and Lincoln Mercury Parts and Service to keep the vehicle performing at its best. Only Ford and Lincoln Mercury dealerships can provide factory-trained technicians and parts engineered specifically for the vehicle. By depending on the dealership to keep the vehicle genuine, owners can drive away with genuine peace of mind.(Motorcraft Racing PR)(3-26-2004)
- Geoffrey in the #98: first Larry Gunselman was listed in the #98, then Todd Bodine, then back to Gunselman…and now from the geoffbodinefanclub.com site: Geoffrey has announced that he will be subbing for younger brother Todd Bodine in the #98 Lucas Oil Products Ford this weekend at the Bristol Motor Speedway. Todd [see story below] has a prior commitment and is unable to attend the race.(3-26-2004)
- 2nd Texas Race for All-Star Race Trade? Bruton Smith is reported to be on the verge of getting NASCAR to agree to grant him a long-awaited second Nextel Cup date at Texas Motor Speedway, through the purchase of North Carolina Speedway, according to sources. But then it gets complicated, according to those sources. In turn NASCAR wants Smith to let Richmond International Raceway take the May all-star race from Smith’s Lowe’s Motor Speedway. For that, Smith wants a second Cup date for his Las Vegas track. If all that happens, Darlington Raceway could lose one of its two Cup races. Smith has considerable support at the moment, from teams and sponsors and TV networks, for his Las Vegas pitch.(Winston Salem Journal)(3-26-2004)
- Mr. Gordon goes to Washington: #24-Jeff Gordon was on Capitol Hill today to urge Senate passage of a bill to reauthorize a five-year funding cycle for the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP), which maintains the National Bone Marrow Donor Registry and facilitates transplants from unrelated donors for patients with leukemia and other diseases. Gordon, a longtime advocate for NMDP and board member of its partner, The Marrow Foundation, visited key lawmakers to urge passage of the legislation, which was passed unanimously in the House last year but has not been voted on in the Senate. Current authorization for the National Bone Marrow Donor Registry expired in September 2003. “The NMDP offers hope to the more than 30,000 people diagnosed each year with fatal blood diseases like leukemia,” said Gordon. “It’s critical for the Senate to continue its longstanding support of NMDP, which is on track to facilitate its 20,000th transplant later this year.” Gordon’s visit also highlighted NMDP’s special Capitol Hill donor drive held in the Hart Senate Office building, which offered the opportunity for Members of Congress and their staff to sign up and become part of the national Registry. For more information about the NMDP, call 1-800-MARROW-2 or visit online at www.marrow.org.(U.S. Newswire)(3-26-2004)
- Andrews is looking UPDATE 3 to BANG?: Paul Andrews, a successful crew chief for many years [championship with Kulwicki, wins at Penske and DEI], lost his job earlier this week with Bob Osborne, an engineer now taking over with Jeff Burton at Roush Racing. Andrews is still on the Roush payroll but reportedly looking elsewhere for a job.(Gaston Gazette)(3-21-2004)
UPDATE: Crew chief Paul Andrews is looking for a job, since being released by Jeff Burton and Jack Roush, and says “We’re talking to different people now about what we might do next. We’ve got a lot of people talking and that’s good. “I was brought in to win races and we hadn’t won races, so we felt like we needed to make a change and that’s what we did. I think Jeff is a good driver and there are a lot of good things going on over at Roush’s. But that’s just what happened. We couldn’t win races together.”(Winston Salem Journal)(3-22-2004)
UPDATE 2: hearing that Larry McReynolds and Bang Racing are talking to Andrews about potentially heading up their Nextel Cup effort later this year.(3-22-2004)
UPDATE 3: Paul Andrews, who was replaced as Jeff Burton’s crew chief before Darlington, said yesterday he still is weighing his options but is optimistic about rejoining a Cup team by midseason. “It’s a little early in the season for most teams to make changes, but there’s still quite a bit of activity,” said Andrews, who is working on putting a limited Busch North Series schedule together for his son Tim. Andrews didn’t win in 50 starts with Jeff Burton but has 12 career victories and a championship. “I’m disappointed I couldn’t make it work at Roush,” said Andrews, who has worked for Team Penske, Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Roush since 1999. “It just didn’t click right. I want to make sure we go somewhere and stay for a while. I don’t like moving around at all, and I’ve been moving around a little too much.”(Richmond Times Dispatch)(3-26-2004)
- Show Me The Money: TMS again increased its purse for the NASCAR races next weekend. The Samsung/RadioShack 500 goes up to more than $6.7 million, an increase of $720,000 over last year. It’s the third-highest payout in Nextel Cup. Only the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400 at $8 million rank ahead of TMS. Here’s a list of the top 10 purses in the series:
1. Daytona 500: $16 million.[ISC Track]
2. Brickyard 400 in Indianapolis: $8.2 million*.
3. Samsung/RadioShack 500 at TMS: $6.7 million.[SMI Track]
4. UAW-Daimler/Chrysler 400 at Las Vegas: $6 million.[SMI]
5. Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte: $5.7 million*.[SMI]
6. Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 in Atlanta: $5.4 million*.[SMI]
7. Food City 500 at Bristol: $5.292 million.[SMI]
8. Sharpie 500 at Bristol: $5.289 million*.[SMI]
9. Banquet 400 at Kansas City: $5.287 million*.[ISC]
10. Auto Club 500 at California: $5.230 million*.[ISC]
*2003 payout (From the Dallas Morning News)(3-26-2004)
- Norris close to a job UPDATE 3: Ty Norris, who resigned in January as vice president for motorsports at Dale Earnhardt Inc. in January, expects to start a new job this week. “I think they’ll announce it Tuesday or Wednesday,” he said Saturday. The position is in racing, but Norris said it’s different than anything he’s done before. He also won’t have to travel as much, which was a requirement he made for himself when he was contemplating what he was going to do. “My family has sacrificed enough over the past 15 years,” he said. In eight years with DEI, Norris took the team into the Nextel Cup Series, where it now has drivers Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Michael Waltrip. Junior won the Daytona 500 for the first time earlier this season, with Norris watching from home. “I was just so proud for Dale Jr. and the team,” Norris said. “It was great feeling like I had a little part in that.”(ThatsRacin.com/AP)(3-13-2004)
UPDATE: hearing the job will be with SMI [Speedway Motorsports Inc./Bruton Smith] in some capacity.(3-15-2004)
UPDATE 2:Ty Norris, who helped run Dale Earnhardt Inc., for eight years until leaving suddenly in January, is expected to announce a new job next week with Speedway Motorsports.(Winston Salem Journal)(3-19-2004)
UPDATE 3: Ty Norris, former Dale Earnhardt Inc. executive, has been selected vice president for Speedway Motorsports Inc.(Greenville News)(3-26-2004)
- PRN to Carry Texas IROC Race: Performance Racing Network (PRN) will broadcast the inaugural Crown Royal International Race of Champions (IROC) event at Texas Motor Speedway on Friday night, April 2. The flagship station for the broadcast will be 97.1 KEGL-FM in Dallas-Fort Worth. The broadcast begins at 7:45 p.m. (CST) with green flag just after 8 p.m. (CST). The Performance Racing Network will also broadcast their regular schedule of events during the Samsung/RadioShack 500 race week including O’Reilly Auto Parts Qualifying for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series on Friday, the O’Reilly 300 NASCAR Busch Series event on Saturday, April 3, and the Samsung/RadioShack 500 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series race on Sunday, April 4. The PRN broadcast team for the weekend will be Doug Rice and Mark Garrow calling the race from the booth, Pat Patterson and Brett McMillan in the pits, and Chuck Carland and Rob Albright in the turns.(TMS PR)(3-26-2004)
- RB1 Motorsports changes plans and regroups: Due to unexpected adversity, NASCAR Busch Series driver Ron Young and his RB1 Motorsports team have seen their 2004 plans change. Young and RB1 Motorsports, who has been called “the best underfunded team in NASCAR,” had planned to make its season-debut in the second race of the year at Rockingham. However less than three weeks before Rockingham, the freightliner rig that hauls the trailer carrying RB1’s racecars and equipment to and from the track was stolen from the shop. Due to the setback, the process of preparing racecars for te upcoming season has been slowed. Young plans to run approximately 15 races later in the year which will be announced at a later date. Young is still seeking sponsorship for the 2004 season. Interested parties can call RB1 Motorsports at (770) 922-1275 or email [email protected]. (RB1 PR via BGNRacing.com)(3-26-2004)
- Biffle on the pole at Bristol: #60-Greg Biffle’s day with his NASCAR Busch Series team started with a wreck and ended with a pole. During Friday morning’s practice session at Bristol Motor Speedway, Biffle got into a wreck with Jay Sauter, which damaged both cars. By the afternoon, Biffle’s Roush Racing team had repaired the nose of his #60 Ford and his qualifying lap at 127.132 mph was good enough to take the pole for Saturday’s Sharpie Professional 250 (1:00pm/et, Fox). The pole is the 10th of Biffle’s career and first at Bristol. It comes on the heels of Biffle’s win last weekend at Darlington. Biffle said he felt bad for Sauter and for his team, which spent most of the rest of the practice session working on his car. “It was one of those deals where Jay Sauter was coming up off the corner and he just let off the throttle,” he said. “At Bristol when your mirror is full of a car, you can’t let up off the gas.” Biffle and second-fastest qualifier #8-Martin Truex Jr. (126.679 mph) eclipsed the previous track qualifying record (126.495 mph), set by David Green in March 2003. “It was a great run for us,” Truex Jr. said. “I think we’ve been close (to a win) already, but it seems like at the end of races circumstances don’t ever seem to go our way. But all we can do is run as best we can every week.” #37-David Green was third fastest, #25-Bobby Hamilton Jr. fourth and series points leader #21-Kevin Harvick completed the top five.(ThatsRacin.com), missing the race were #16-Justin Ashburn, #53-Butch Jarvis and #0-Mike Potter.
For race lineups see ThatsRacin.com, BGNRacing.com or NASCAR.com.(3-26-2004)
- Bear Creek Soups Primary Sponsor for Jason Keller: ppc Racing and Bear Creek Soups have agreed to a one-race sponsorship with driver Jason Keller in the #22 Ford Taurus for this weekend’s event at Bristol Motor Speedway. The slogan “Eat My Soup,” will be visibly seen on the hood, bumper and TV panel as the Heber City, Utah-based organization makes its 2004 debut appearance as primary sponsor with ppc Racing. “Bear Creek Soups recognized ppc Racing’s sponsorship opportunity for Bristol was available,” said Steve Zupan, Director of Motorsports for Bear Creek Foods. “We’ve stepped up to the plate before and have seen positive results in sales and brand recognition. Placing Bear Creek Soups on the car as a primary sponsor completes our visit to Bristol, Tennessee with our Traveling Soup Kitchen. Race fans will be able to sample our soup and see the No. 22 Bear Creek Soups Ford race around the track.” The Traveling Soup Kitchen, a state-of-the-art kitchen with a surround sound system on wheels, has been a hit with the race fans in the past. The Traveling Soup Kitchen enables race fans to sample a variety of Bear Creek Soup Mixes all the while listening to their favorite music on four, 400-watt speakers. Bear Creek Soups has introduced four soup mixes during its past two seasons with ppc Racing. “We’re ecstatic that Bear Creek Soups has decided to be our primary sponsor for this weekend at Bristol,” said Keith Barnwell, Co-Owner and General Manager of ppc Racing. “We’ve had a great relationship with those guys in the past and enter our third season. They were a very small associate sponsor the first year and now have stepped up to their first primary sponsorship this year. Hopefully it won’t be their last. We’ve still got 12 more races that we need to have sponsorship for the No. 22 Ford Taurus. We’re hoping we can work out something with Bear Creek Soups. The TV panel on this race car is going to be awesome. It’ll send a message to the other 42 guys on the track; ‘Eat My Soup.’”(ppc Racing PR)(3-26-2004)
- Orleans Racing hires new GM: Orleans’ Racing has announced that Fritz Kroyer, father of engine builder Kevin Kroyer, has joined the team as General Manager. Kroyer will the lead the day-to-day operations for the Las Vegas based race team, which includes the Craftsman Truck Series’ #62 Dodge driven by Steve Park and the NASCAR Grand National Division West Series’ #08 Yerf-Dog Dodge driven by 2003 series champion, Scott Lynch. Kroyer has over 36 years of experience in auto racing, both behind the wheel and behind the scenes. He has recorded numerous off-road racing wins as a driver and worked as a fabricator and mechanic with Walker Evans Racing before heading to Rick Mears Racing.(Frontstretch)(3-26-2004)
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