April 3, 2010
- Shane Hmiel back racing; Rose back in NASCAR Former NASCAR driver Shane Hmiel won a USAC Midget race last week at Hickory Motor Speedway. He returned to race again the next night, turning the fastest speed in qualifying and hoping for another $3,000 winner’s payday, only to see rain wash away those hopes.
A handful of people milled around the pits and maybe a few hundred people sat in the grandstands as Hmiel and his one crewman worked on his car. It was a long way from pit road at Bristol Motor Speedway, the site of his last Sprint Cup race five years ago. It was a long way from victory lane at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where he won a NASCAR Truck Series race in 2004. If all had gone right in Shane Hmiel’s world, he’d be making more than $3,000 a race just for waking up in the morning. But things didn’t go right for Hmiel, who is bipolar and has a drug habit. “I was 25 years old,” Hmiel said about where he was five years ago as a NASCAR Busch Series regular driving for Braun Racing. “I could have been one of the next guys, know what I mean? I pissed it all away twice, and nobody needs to do that. Nobody needs to put their family through it. It doesn’t bother me because I understand it. I feel like I’m just here. I’m living, going day to day. I’m just excited to race like I get to now.”
Hmiel has been back racing for three years, but not in NASCAR, where he’s been banned from competing and banished from the garage for repeatedly violating NASCAR’s substance abuse policy. His first indefinite suspension lasted for eight races after he tested positive for marijuana in 2003. After being reinstated, he was indefinitely suspended again for testing positive for cocaine and marijuana in May 2005. He failed another test in early 2006 while on suspension and has been banned for life. Hmiel, son of longtime NASCAR mechanic and current Earnhardt Ganassi Racing competition director Steve Hmiel, isn’t trying to get back into NASCAR. He’s trying to become an accomplished racer again, a champion. It’s better than being on drugs, or possibly having his life end while on drugs. Hmiel said that when he first returned to the track, he noticed people staring at him. They thought he had just been hiding out for a few years and wasn’t truly drug free, he said. Today, he says he has a stack of drug test results that prove he is clean and believes that about 90 percent of his competitors believe him. He talks to people, he says, who want to talk about their own battles with addiction.
Hmiel says he doesn’t have the urge to use drugs anymore but says he won’t conquer his addiction unless he never uses again. Hmiel also says he’s a much better race-car driver now. He’s wrecked fewer cars in three years, he says, than he did in three months of stock-car racing.(full story and quotes at SceneDaily and also at SceneDaily: Shane Hmiel says NASCAR’s new substance abuse policy would have helped him get treatment sooner.
AND Brian Rose, a once-promising young race car driver, will be behind the wheel of a NASCAR racing machine [failed to qualify for the Nashville Truck Series race] for the first time since he was indefinitely suspended for violating the league’s substance abuse policy in the spring of 2003. He’s back with Rick Ware Racing, the same team he was driving for when he was banned by the league. But he is not the same person we knew then. When we last saw him, Rose was a broken, drug-addicted 23-year-old. Sponsorship woes had limited his opportunities to race. In 2001-02, he competed in 36 NASCAR Truck races, including stints with top-shelf team owners Bobby Hamilton and Billy Ballew, earning five top-10 finishes. In 2003 he rejoined Ware, with whom he’d started his career, and raced in two of the season’s first four events, finishing 14th at Darlington and 24th at Martinsville. The other two weekends he was stuck at home, forced to watch others race on TV. See full article at ESPN.com.
AND NASCAR has lifted the indefinite suspension of Brian Rose, who was suspended in April 2003 for failing to take a drug test.(SceneDaily)(4-3-2010)(4-3-2010) - Jay Dickens Racing Engines Joins with Roush Yates Engines: Jay Dickens Racing Engines announced a recent joining with Roush Yates Performance Group in Mooresville, NC. Dickens has over 25 years of experience in the racing industry and will serve as the Short Track Engine Program Manager for Roush Yates Performance Group. Also making the move to North Carolina are Jay Dickens Racing Engines employees Brad Loden, Bill Lovelady and Seth Stacy.
Jay Dickens has grown from a small, local engine builder into a national powerhouse in just twelve years. He formed Jay Dickens Racing Engines out of Aberdeen Mississippi in 1994, accumulating multiple track championships, series championships, and countless wins throughout his career. Roush Yates Machining is a full service facility that is purpose-designed for machining custom race parts. “The extensive manufacturing capabilities at Roush Yates Machining will allow us to design, test, and build many parts in house” said Dickens. Roush Yates Performance Parts, a subset of Roush Yates that sells new and used parts to consumers and Saturday night racers alike, will continue to offer the same racing and performance parts currently offered by Jay Dickens Racing Engines. Jay Dickens Racing Engines is eager to pursue this tremendous opportunity with the Roush Yates Performance Group. Announcements on the closing of the current shop will be coming soon.(Jay Dickens Racing Engines)(4-3-2010) - Latest on Kentucky Speedway lawsuit: A U.S. District Court judge has set a May 7 trial date to determine who has the authority to authorize whether the Kentucky Speedway founders can appeal their antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR to the U.S. Supreme Court. Richard Duchossois, one of the members of the Kentucky Speedway founding group, is suing the group’s managing member, Jerry Carroll, over the right to continue the antitrust litigation against NASCAR. Carroll doesn’t want to continue pursuing the case, while Duchossois wants to consider requesting the Supreme Court to hear an appeal. The deadline to file a request for an appeal to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court is May 19, and if the request is filed, the court likely will not decide whether to hear an appeal until October at the earliest. With NASCAR’s long-standing policy that it won’t consider moving a Cup date to Kentucky until the litigation is completely resolved, the filing of a request to the U.S. Supreme Court likely would keep Kentucky off the 2011 Cup schedule. Duchossois, who controls several trusts that are part of the track’s founding group, Kentucky Speedway LLC, alleges that more than 25 percent of the members of the founding group want to consider pursuing further appeals in the case and that Carroll therefore cannot instruct the group’s attorneys to abandon the lawsuit. The operating agreement requires Carroll to have 75 percent approval for matters concerning the sale or disposition of the property of the company. Duchossois argues that the lawsuit is virtually all that remains of the company and should be considered property and therefore Carroll cannot put an end to the lawsuit. The May 7 trial will be a bench trial (no jury) in front of Judge William Bertelsman, who was the judge for the original case.(SceneDaily)(4-3-2010)
- All-You can eat at Watkins Glen: Race fans looking for a great seat and more bang for their buck during the Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at The Glen weekend, August 5-8, need to look no further than the newest offer from Watkins Glen International. For only $75, fans can purchase the NEW All-You-Can-Eat package that includes 4-day general admission access, a Sunday reserved seat in the Turn 11 Grandstand, and access to the exclusive all-you-can-eat concession tent. Those interested in purchasing this money-saving package or upgrading their Turn 11 Grandstand seats to include the “All-You-Can-Eat” option simply need to call 866-461-RACE.
The cost to upgrade from a standard Turn 11 Grandstand seat to the All-You-Can-Eat package is ONLY $6 making it a great way for fans to catch all the action of NASCAR’s 25th visit to The Glen and feed themselves and their families for an affordable price! The all-you-can-eat concession tent will be open 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM on the morning of Sunday, August 8th to allow fans plenty of time to fill their stomachs and then head to their seats for the new 1:00 PM start time. The tent will be conveniently located just behind the Turn 11 Grandstand. This offer is just the latest in a line of changes The Glen has made to help fans save money that already included reduced prices on NASCAR general admission tickets, the special family-friendly prices in the McDonald’s Family Grandstand, and expanded kids pricing to include fans 15 and under.
Tickets for the entire 2010 season including the Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at The Glen, August 5-8, and Camping World Grand Prix at The Glen, July 2-4, weekends are on sale now! Fans can take advantage of advanced sale prices and new options by calling the Watkins Glen International ticket office at 866-461-RACE (7223) or logging on to the official website, www.TheGlen.com. Tickets, gift certificates and track merchandise can all be purchased at The Shop located at 2 North Franklin Street in downtown Watkins Glen. The Shop is open Monday-Friday 9-5, Saturday 9-4, and is closed Sunday. (WGI)(4-3-2010) - Paint that bus! MIS provides another bus makeover: Another race season is quickly approaching. So it’s time for another bus makeover by Michigan International Speedway. Following a successful painting and unveil of Maurice “Moe” Clark’s infield bus in August 2009, MIS decided to give two other lucky race fans an Extreme Bus Makeover in time for the June 11-13 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips 400 race weekend. Co-owners Tom “Woolfy” Wolfram of Coloma, Mich., and Mike Smith of Hartford, Mich., will receive a bus makeover courtesy of MIS. The two infield campers, who have been attending races at MIS with their current bus since 1999, dropped off their longtime infield sleeping quarters to the speedway. Fellow infield campers Katie Smith and Scott Downey also came along to drop off the bus. “This is very exciting for us,” Wolfram said. “We bought this bus from our local school district back in 1999 for $800 and it’s been with us at MIS every June and August ever since. Thanks to MIS for painting our bus for us. It runs good, but doesn’t look all that great from the outside. We can’t wait to see it when it’s finished.” Over the next four to six weeks, MIS staff members Jesus Salvador, Dustin Gilbert and Jamie Nichols will give the bus a makeover, which includes a new paint job and decals. MIS will incorporate the track’s brand of NASCAR in a national park into its new design. The bus will be unveiled during camper lineup on Thursday, June 10, just prior to infielders being parked in the infield camping area. The bus makeover is just one item in a line events that make up the speedway’s Fan Appreciation presented LifeLock program. The speedway will also give away ticket upgrades, experiential items such as pace car rides, garage passes and special access at MIS events throughout the year. Fans are celebrated year-round with the Fan Appreciation presented by LifeLock program — not just on race weekend. MIS’ Value Pricing is now available to the public until April 4. NASCAR Sprint Cup Series tickets for the Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips 400 on June 13 and CARFAX 400 on August 15 are as low as $25. Visit MISpeedway.com or call the MIS ticket hotline at 800-354-1010 today to take advantage of great pricing for 2010 events at MIS.(MIS)(4-3-2010)
- Plane taking crew members to Nashville struck by lightning: A jet carrying several NASCAR Nationwide Series team members was struck by lightning before landing at the Smyrna/Rutherford County Airport on Saturday, according to a JR Motorsports spokesman. All passengers and crew were unhurt in the incident. The ExpressJet charter plane was carrying crew members from JRM, Rusty Wallace Racing and Braun Racing. About 15 minutes before the scheduled landing, it was hit by lightning as storms engulfed the area. The plane landed without incident.(NNS Racing)(4-3-2010)
- Lofton to attempt Texas race: UPDATE: Justin Lofton, the 2009 ARCA Racing Series champion, will attempt to make his second NASCAR Nationwide Series start at Texas Motor Speedway on April 17. Lofton will be running the #71 in a former CJM Racing Toyota that his team, Lofton Racing, has acquired. Last year, Lofton made his series debut at Michigan International Speedway where he started 19th and finished 16th. (Motor Racing Network)(3-20-2010)
UPDATE: Camping World Truck Series driver Justin Lofton has bought two NASCAR Nationwide Series cars and will compete in three or four Nationwide races with his truck team, Red Horse Racing. Lofton’s first race he’ll attempt to make is at Texas on April 17. Lofton bought the Toyotas from CJM Racing, one he drove at Michigan last year and another CJM didn’t quite finish. Lofton said he’ll also race at Charlotte in May and at Kansas in October. If the two cars survive, he said he’ll likely race them at California in October. Red Horse will be listed as the official owner and will supply crew members and its hauler, Lofton said.(NNS Racing)(4-3-2010)
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