April 3, 2006
- COT to test at Martinsville UPDATE 2: NASCAR, which tested its “Car of Tomorrow” on Monday at Bristol, will test it again next Monday at Martinsville. The car will debut next spring at Bristol and be phased in over three years.(Speed Channel), no word who will be testing a COT, but last week Rusty Wallace said he would test there for NASCAR.(4-1-2006)
UPDATE: NASCAR’s testing of its car of the future continues today at Martinsville Speedway. The car, which will debut next year at the Bristol spring race, also will run at Martinsville as the car is phased in over a three-year period. Richard Childress Racing and NASCAR are each scheduled to test the car today. Kevin Harvick is expected to drive for Childress with Brett Bodine driving the NASCAR vehicle. The test will be open to the public.(Roanoke Times)(4-3-2006)
UPDATE 2: For the second straight week, NASCAR’s Car of Tomorrow tested on a short track as preparations continue for next season’s debut of a safer, more competitive and cost-efficient stock car. On Monday at Martinsville Speedway, #29-Kevin Harvick of the Richard Childress Racing team, along with NASCAR’s Brett Bodine, tested the new car. While early morning rain delayed the start of the test, the results were extremely positive. “We went through our normal aero changes here today, just to back up what the wind tunnel has been telling us, and were able to get some quality laps on the track,” said Robin Pemberton, NASCAR vice president for competition. “The wing continues to give us positive results. It is going to provide the teams with a lot of advantages when it comes to competition. We’ll even get more evidence of that when we test the Car of Tomorrow next month at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.”
For Harvick, it was his first time driving the Car of Tomorrow and he was encouraged with his initial test run. “When you get in the driver’s seat, it feels like just another race car,” said Harvick. “We got a lot out of today’s test, because it helps us determine what kind of package we will need when we run the car next season. From everything I’ve heard about the wing, it should be a big help in helping the car behind you get some air on its nose. That seems to be what we’re fighting all the time; the aero push on the bigger race tracks.” Monday marked the second straight week for RCR to test its Car of Tomorrow, as #31-Jeff Burton participated in the session a week ago at Bristol. Harvick says that the RCR team has made a commitment to develop its Car of Tomorrow program. “We didn’t go to the Car of Tomorrow test at Daytona (held in January), so we came out of there saying that since we had a clean sheet of paper, we needed to work to get ahead of the game and come out of the gate strong with this car next season,” said Harvick. “Richard (Childress) has made a commitment to do that and we’ve assembled a team to take this car around and we should have a couple of more cars done by Charlotte.” The next NASCAR Car of Tomorrow test is scheduled for May 30-31 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord.(NASCAR PR), no mention of Rusty Wallace testing.(4-3-2006)
- Overnight Martinsville TV ratings up: Fox’s broadcast of Sunday’s DirectTV 500 Nextel Cup race at Martinsville Speedway earned a 5.1 overnight Nielsen Media Research rating and a 12 market share, Street & Smith’s Sports Business Daily reports. The daily says two markets – Indianapolis and St. Louis – were not included because of weather problems, but the rating was still 10.9% higher than the 4.6/11 last year’s Martinsville race earned. The 2005 race, however, was a week later and aired opposite one of golf’s major events, the Masters.(SceneDaily.com)(4-3-2006)
- Who’s Hot – Texas Motor Speedway:
• Jimmie Johnson is the only driver to score four top-five and five top-10 finishes in the first six races in 2006.
• Mark Martin is the only driver to score top-15 finishes in each of the six races in 2006.
• Mark Martin has scored 10 straight top-15 finishes; extending a streak that began at Atlanta last October.
• Tony Stewart is the only driver to lead at least one lap in all six races this season.
• Carl Edwards has moved from 43rd to 19th in the point standings since Daytona.(NASCAR Statistical Services)(4-3-2006)
- Ricky Remembered: Sunday would have been the late Ricky Hendrick’s birthday. Hendrick and ninth others perished in the crash of a team plane near Martinsville in October 2004 and the accident is always on the minds of racers whenever the circuit returns here. “This is Ricky Hendrick’s birthday today and I know I’m not part of the Hendrick organization, but every time we come to Martinsville, we think of the Hendrick family and the tragedy and (pilot) Scott Lathram and his family,” race-winner #20-Tony Stewart said. “I just want everyone to know we’re thinking about them.”(Speed Channel)(4-3-2006)
- Penske Truck Leasing to Sponsor Kurt Busch: UPDATE: Penske is now the primary sponsor of car #39 driven by former Kurt Busch. The car will appear in six NASCAR Busch Series events in 2006. [The races are reportedly spring Texas, spring Phoenix, spring Lowe’s, Daytona, Chicago, and Michigan.](Penske Truck Leasing PR)(2-24-2006)
UPDATE: [Kurt] Busch will officially become a “Buschwhacker” for the first time in his career as he makes his career debut in the NASCAR Busch Series with a start in Saturday’s O’Reilly 300 at Texas. Busch will drive the #39 Penske Truck Rental Dodge in the O’Reilly 300, the first of six NASCAR Busch races he will run this season.(Texas Motor Speedway PR)(4-3-2006)
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