April 9, 2005
- Ward wants Cup..not Busch/Truck ride: Ward Burton has been spending extra time this spring with his Wildlife Foundation, but he’d still rather be back racing. Burton has been idle this season, waiting for a car owner to make the call. And he’s not willing to run Busch or Trucks. “Right now I still consider myself a Cup racer,” Burton said. “Whether I get the opportunity to go back in the fashion I was before, we’ll have to wait and see. I won’t go back just to ride around. I’ll go back with something exciting, with a name team, with the kind of support you need now more than ever. I miss a lot of it. But there’s some of it I don’t miss. The schedule going from this weekend until Thanksgiving with only one weekend off doesn’t appeal to me.”(Winston Salem Journal)(4-9-2005)
- Bobby Labonte wins at Martinsville: #47-Bobby Labonte won the Kroger 250 at Martinsville Speedway, becoming the 12th driver to win at least one race in the three National Series [Cup, Busch, Trucks]. Not only has Labonte won a race in all three series but he did it at the same track: Labonte has won a Cup, Busch and Truck Series at Martinsville [which has to be rare since the Busch Series hasn’t raced at Martinsville since 1994].(4-9-2005)
AND – Labonte Truck Stuff: Labonte became the 50th different driver to win the truck series and, he and brother, Terry, became the first set of brothers to win in the series. Terry Labonte won at Richmond in Sept. 1995. The Labonte brothers have a combined eight starts in the Craftsman Truck Series (Bobby with five and Terry with three, all in 1995) and have two victories and six top-three victories.(JGR PR)(4-9-2005) - DW May Race Again….. Darrell Waltrip won’t be closing out his competitive racing career today at Martinsville Speedway. The three-time Cup champion and current TV analyst failed to qualify for today’s Kroger 250, missing by less than a hundredth of a second and leaving the door open for one more race in his Toyota Tundra. “It can’t be your last race if you didn’t race,” he said. “That’s the way I look at it.”(Richmond Times Dispatch)(4-9-2005)
- Coast Guard to sponsor Bliss at Texas: Haas CNC Racing announced the Coast Guard will serve as primary sponsor of the #0 Chevrolet driven by Mike Bliss for the running of the Samsung/Radio Shack 500 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway next weekend. “Since the Coast Guard sponsors our Busch Series entry driven by Justin Labonte, this was a great chance for them step into Cup competition for a weekend at the track where they rolled out their racing program just a year ago,” stated Joe Custer, General Manager of Haas CNC Racing. “Texas is home to the Labonte family and Justin’s father Terry, who is a part-owner of our Busch team, is scheduled to compete in a Hendrick Motorsports car at this event. Terry is also being inducted into the Texas Motor Sports Hall of Fame next week and we thought it would be nice to commemorate that occasion also. The fans in Texas have always been very supportive of the Labonte’s and Haas CNC Racing, NetZero and Best Buy are also all very supportive of this opportunity.” NetZero Best Buy Racing will return as the primary sponsor for the #0 Chevrolet for the upcoming event at Phoenix International Raceway.(NetZero Best Buy Racing)(4-9-2005)
- Martinsville Qualifying Notes:
* Scott Riggs won the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series Bud Pole for the Advance Auto Parts 500, lapping Martinsville Speedway in 19.588 seconds at 96.671 mph. Ryan Newman holds the track-qualifying record of 19.513 seconds, 97.043 mph, set Oct. 22, 2004.
* This is Riggs’s first career Bud Pole in 41 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series races. It is his second top-10 start in three races at Martinsville Speedway. It is his second top-10 start in 2005.
* Riggs became the 12th driver to post poles in all three of NASCAR’s major series. He has five poles on the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and two in the NASCAR Busch Series.
* Ryan Newman posted the second-quickest qualifying lap of 19.591 seconds, 96.657 mph and will join Riggs on the front row for the Advance Auto Parts 500. Newman has started from a top-10 starting position in all seven of his races at Martinsville. This is his fifth start of third or better here.
* This is the second Bud Pole for Chevrolet in 2005. All three manufacturers have two Bud Poles this season.
* Jeremy Mayfield (third) posted his third top-10 start in 20 races at Martinsville. His previous best start here was sixth in April 2001. It is his third top-10 start in 2005.
* Rusty Wallace (fourth) scored his 33rd top-10 start in 43 races at Martinsville. It is his second start better than 21st in 2005, both in the past two races.
* Kevin Harvick (fifth) posted his third top-10 start in eight races at Martinsville. All three of his top-10 starts have been from fifth. It is his first top-10 start this season.
* Ken Schrader (11th) posted his best start since he started seventh at Talladega in September 2003.
* There have been just two Bud Pole winners in the last six races at Martinsville. Jeff Gordon won four Bud Poles and Ryan Newman won two. Newman has started from a top-10 starting position in all six of his races at the Virginia short track. Gordon has posted 17 top-10 starts in 24 races at Martinsville, including top-five starts in eight of his last nine races here.
* The race has been won from the Bud Pole 17 times at Martinsville, the most productive starting position. The second starting position has provided 14 winners, third 13 and fourth 11, for a total of 55 victories from the top-four starting positions.
* Kurt Busch won the 2002 Old Dominion 500 from the 36th starting position – the farthest back a race winner has started at Martinsville.(NASCAR Statistical Services)(4-9-2005) - StockCarFans – Ramblings – Martinsville: We had two stoppages for rain today but they managed to get in qualifying for Sunday’s Advance Auto Parts 500 at Martinsville Speedway. And, we had a bit of a surprise as Scott Riggs nipped Ryan Newman for his first ever Bud Pole in Nextel Cup competition.
Riggs was 3/1000th’s of a second quicker than Newman and becomes the 5th qualifier for next February’s Budweiser Shootout….at this rate we’ll have 35 drivers in that event!
Rigg’s previous best starting spot was 4th, which he’s accomplished four times, the most recent of which was at Las Vegas last month.
Last week a short track….five sets of ties in qualifying. This week another short track…..and no ties in qualifying. Go figure!
Kevin Harvick (5th) has his best starting spot since he qualified 5th at Phoenix last November.
Bobby Labonte (6th) has his best starting spot since he lined up 6th at Homestead last November.
Ken Schrader (11th) has his best starting spot since he timed in 7th at Talladega in September of 2003! But it will only give him a better pit selection cause he crased in turn one of his second lap and will go to a backup for the race.
Kyle Petty (19th) has his best starting spot since he qualified 18th at Atlanta last October.
Mike Garvey (34th) has his career-best starting spot. He started 43rd in his only other start at Atlanta last month.
Johnny Sauter (40th) makes his first start of the season.
STREAKIN….Ryan Newman has 13 Top-10 starts in a row. Greg Biffle has 5 Top-10 starts in a row.
(Stock Car Fans)(4-9-2005) - NASCAR beats the NBA: Fox’s broadcast of last Sunday’s Food City 500 Nextel Cup race at Bristol Motor Speedway not only posted the track’s highest rating ever (6.3), but it also earned higher ratings than ABC’s NBA games in the four home markets that had their teams playing during race coverage. The Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel reports that more people watched NASCAR than the NBA in Boston, Dallas, Minneapolis and Philadelphia.(NASCAR Scene Daily Newsletter)(4-9-2005)
- Hmiel to appeal fine/penalty Statement: NASCAR driver Shane Hmiel, who runs all three of NASCAR’s top series, will appeal the $10,000 fine and the 25 points the sanctioning body took away for his nationally televised one-finger salute of Dale Jarrett during Monday’s Busch Series race at Bristol. Now that the situation has had time to cool off Hmiel explains “I don’t race to make friends but I don’t race to make enemies either. I really hate that it happened and I hate Dale Jarrett’s car got torn up and I hate that we got fined 25 points and stuff like that so we’re going to appeal it and see what happens and it’s already over with…I’m ready to go to Martinsville and run the truck. I respect Dale Jarrett for all he’s done as a racer. I’m sorry that the fans had to see that on television and their kids and everybody who enjoys NASCAR as much as I do but there’s two sides to every story and I’m not gonna be threatened by anybody or back down from anybody. I’ve got a great sponsor and a great owner that’s been behind me and Dale Jarrett knows that wasn’t anything personal…it’s five laps to go and it ended up being a wreck and it tore his car up and I’m sorry for that…it’s nothing I did on purpose. We’re just gonna go to Martinsville and let this pass and I’m sure they’ll be somebody’s as big a jerk as I am this week next week.”(PRN’s Garage Pass Radio show)(4-7-2005)
STATEMENT: FROM SHANE HMIEL REGARDING BRISTOL NASCAR BUSCH RACE
QUESTION: UPON REFLECTION, IF YOU HAD IT TO DO OVER AGAIN, WOULD YOU DO ANYTHING DIFFERENT AFTER MONDAY’S BUSCH RACE IN BRISTOL? HMIEL ANSWER: Of course I would. I want to apologize to the fans watching on television, especially the children, that they witnessed the post race on live TV. Every driver builds so much adrenaline at Bristol that it isn’t easy to shut it down immediately when your car rolls to a stop but it doesn’t make up for the fact that everyone watching live TV witnessed the incident.
QUESTION: HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT DALE JARRETT? HMIEL ANSWER: I have a tremendous amount of respect for Dale. He has proved he is a great race driver. He has won a championship, three Daytona 500s and numerous other races. There is no way I meant to hit him; it was simply five laps to go at Bristol. Things happen so fast and with everyone wrecking in front of us, it played out that Dale ended up with a torn up race car. I hate that happened. I am very passionate about my racing and I am a hard racer. I love racing and there is nothing more I want to do. But part of what makes our sport is as strong as it is are drivers like Dale who have built the fan base and earned the respect on and off the track of their fellow drivers.
QUESTION: WHERE DO YOU GO FROM HERE? HMIEL ANSWER: First, I would like to personally assure the fans that I have the utmost respect for all of the drivers who have built this sport to the level it is today, especially Dale Jarrett. I intend to speak with Dale and apologize to him for the comment I made after the race in the heat of the moment. I am sure Dale and I are going to race against one another several times this season and I want us to both be confident that this was an isolated incident and we are starting with a clean slate. I would like to put this all behind us so we can all go forward in a positive manner. We have filed an appeal with NASCAR regarding the penalties that were assessed and will make the best presentation we can. Whatever the decision is, we will respect and move on to the next race.(GM PR)(4-9-2005) - Testing at Richmond: Several NASCAR Busch Series drivers turned the first laps of the 2005 season at Richmond International Tuesday, April 5 and Wednesday, April 6, including #22-Kenny Wallace, #32-Shane Hmiel,#44- Justin Labonte, and #10-Michel Jourdain. Kenny Wallace, who currently sits in seventh place in the NASCAR Busch Series standings, continues to be impressed with the surface at Richmond International Raceway. “I don’t know what it is about this race track,” said Wallace, a three-time winner at Richmond. “I don’t know if I’m real good at following that yellow line or what, but whenever someone asks, ‘What is your favorite racetrack,’ I say, ‘Richmond,’ because if the car doesn’t work on the bottom you can move it to the top. It’s just always been a fun track to race on.” Rookie NASCAR Busch Series driver Michel Jourdain visited Richmond International Raceway for the first time, and seems optimistic for the FUNAI 250 “under the lights” on Friday, May 13. “I like (Richmond) a lot,” the former Champ Car driver said. “It’s pretty fast track with good grip. It’s my first year in the stock cars, and at most tracks I don’t have enough confidence to be more aggressive. But here I feel I can brake a lot harder and I’m liking it a lot.” Wallace turned in an unofficial time of 21.80 seconds in race trim on Wednesday, while Jourdain’s unofficial best time was 21.99 in race trim. Testing resumes April 26 when NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series driver Bobby Hamilton, Jr. visits Richmond International Raceway. Carl Edwards will test May 2 in preparation for double duty May 13-14 for the FUNAI 250 and Chevy American Revolution 400. A host of NASCAR stars will be on hand May 3, including Rusty Wallace, Kasey Kahne, Sterling Marlin, Jamie McMurray, Ricky Rudd, Reed Sorenson, Scott Riggs, Jeff Green, and Carl Edwards. Fans are invited to watch from the Grandstands at no charge on any of these days from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.(Richmond International Raceway)(4-9-2005)
- Bobby Labonte wins at Martinsville: #47-Bobby Labonte won the Kroger 250 at Martinsville Speedway, becoming the 12th driver to win at least one race in the three National Series [Cup, Busch, Trucks]. Not only has Labonte won a race in all three series but he did it at the same track: Labonte has won a Cup, Busch and Truck Series at Martinsville [which has to be rare since the Busch Series hasn’t raced at Martinsville since 1994]. The rest of the top 10 were: #99-CRaven, #6-Hornaday, #66-Bodine, #30-Chaffin, #1-Musgrave, #15-Hmiel, #2-Spencer, #5-Skinner and #10-Cook. Pole sitter and Point Leader, #04-Bobby Hamilton wrecked towards the end of the race and ended up 20th, but still leads the points.
For race results, see:
ESPN.com
MotorsportsOne
Truckseries.com
NASCAR.com.(4-9-2005) - More on Labonte: Labonte became the 50th different driver to win the truck series and, he and brother, Terry, became the first set of brothers to win in the series. Terry Labonte won at Richmond in Sept. 1995. The Labonte brothers have a combined eight starts in the Craftsman Truck Series (Bobby with five and Terry with three, all in 1995) and have two victories and six top-three victories.(JGR PR)(4-9-2005)
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