April 27, 2004
- Changes in the Nextel All-Star Challenge: Some significant changes were announced today for the 20th annual NASCAR NEXTEL All-Star Challenge, set for Saturday evening, May 22, at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. NASCAR’s always-anticipated all-star event – formerly known as The Winston – is primarily for race winners from the previous and current NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series seasons. It also includes the winner of the NASCAR NEXTEL All-Star Challenge Open, a preliminary event for teams that have not qualified for the showcase event. One of the changes instituted this year involves eligibility of past all-star champions. This year, two other past champions – who are also still active drivers – are eligible; previously, there was a five-year retroactive cut-off for past champions. This change makes 1998 event champion Mark Martin (#6 Viagra Ford) and 1994 champion Geoffrey Bodine eligible.
Another change involves the actual race format. While the 90-lap/135-mile overall distance is again divided into 40-, 30- and 20-lap segments, no longer will each segment result in some drivers being eliminated. This will ensure a full field of cars racing for the winner’s purse of approximately $1 million. “It’s an all-star event and all the stars should participate,” said Lowe’s Motor Speedway President H.A. “Humpy” Wheeler. “That’s what the fans come to see – their favorite drivers.”
Also, after the first segment, there will be a random drawing to determine an inversion of the starting order for the second segment; between six and 12 cars will be inverted. The previous format called for an inversion prior to the final segment. Changing the inversion to the second segment will “encourage great racing and no sandbagging in the first 40-lap segment,” Wheeler said. “Drivers in the back will want to race themselves into that 12-car inversion while the front guys still have to race hard not knowing how many will be inverted.”
Going into the Auto Club 500 at California Speedway, a total of 23 drivers and car owners [see my 2004 NASCAR NEXTEL All-Star Challenge page] have qualified for the NASCAR NEXTEL All-Star Challenge. In instances where a driver has qualified by winning a race but has since changed teams, both the driver and the driver’s former team qualify for an entry. For NASCAR NEXTEL All-Star Challenge ticket information, contact the Lowe’s Motor Speedway ticket office at 1-800-455-FANS.(LMS PR)(4-27-2004) - Get rid of your Gray, help out: Just for Men Haircolor, one of Michael Waltrip’s sponsors, will be conducting a charitable fund-raiser at California Speedway. For every man who has his gray hair colored (for free) at the Just for Men location on the speedway midway (behind the main grandstand), the company will donate $20 to Give Kids The World, a non-profit program for children with life-threatening illnesses. The hours are 9:00am – 3:00pm on Friday, 8:00am – 1:00pm on Saturday and 8:00am – 12:00noon on Sunday.(4-27-2004)
- Fox Sports / NASCAR This Morning / First Response K9 Recovery Auction: Fox Sports / NASCAR This Morning / First Response K9 Recovery has teamed up to offer a fan and a guest a morning visit at the “NASCAR This Morning” studios and a meet and greet with John Roberts, Bill Ingle, Kenny Wallace and Chad Little, the hosts of the show. After the show begins its broadcast the two visitors make their way as guests to the control room were they get to watch the inner workings of the live broadcast while being escorted by Scott Davis of First Response K9 Recovery. In addition to the morning at the studio, the two participants receive a one nights stay at the Hampton Inns and Suites, and chauffeured ground transportation to and from the airport if applicable. More info and to check out the auction, see my Racing Charities page.(4-27-2004)
- Sad News: Bob Eugene Pressley, 71, of 763 Brevard Road, Asheville, died Tuesday morning, April 27, 2004, at St. Joseph Hospital. Mr. Pressley is survived by his wife, Doris P. Pressley and children, Robert, Charles, Mike, Kenneth and Patricia. Funeral services will be at 11:00am/et Friday at Bent Creek Baptist Church with burial to follow in the church cemetery. His family will receive friends Thursday evening at the church.( Groce Funeral Home Site), Pressley’s son, Roberty, currently drives the #47 Ford in the Busch Series and Charlie is a past crew chief for NASCAR teams. And see a nice article at the Asheville Citizen-Times(4-27-2004)
- Cope sponsor for California: #50-Derrike Cope will have decals for Bennett Lane Winery on the Arnold Motorsports Dodge at California Speedway, see my #50 Paint Scheme page for four images.(4-27-2004)
- How the field is ‘frozen’ and why no red flag at Talladega: The final four laps of the 188-lap race at Talladega Superspeedway ran under a yellow flag. The final caution, brought out by Vickers’ spin, came too late for NASCAR to throw a red flag and stop the race, and also too late to get a restart. Had Vickers’ incident come on lap 182 instead of 184, the race would have been stopped. “We would have had time to clean up, open the pits and still have at least three laps to get up to speed and race,” NASCAR Vice President Jim Hunter said on Monday. “We missed by two laps.” NASCAR informs the teams at its drivers meeting each raceday morning of the last lap when a red flag will be waved with the aim of insuring a green-flag finish. At Talladega, there would be no red flag from lap 183 on. So when the late caution came out, the field was frozen, under another NASCAR edict that forbids racing back to the yellow flag. At precisely that point, #24-Jeff Gordon was ahead of #8-Dale Earnhardt Jr. The freeze-frame moment was recorded by what NASCAR calls “scoring loops,” a series of marking spots around the track where electronic lines under the surface register the running order from signals transmitted by transponders in the race cars. At Talladega, there are eight markers imbedded under the 2.66-mile track. “We go back to the nearest scoring loop to the accident and then to whatever video is available,” Hunter said. In this case, the video showed the caution came while Vickers’ wreck was in progress and Gordon was nearly a full car length ahead of Earnhardt Jr. “Gordon was first when the caution came out and also first to cross the loop line,” Hunter said. As for managing a restart with just four laps to go, the problem was not so much cleaning up the debris from Vickers’ incident but sorting the running order through the full field where cars were racing three wide when the caution fell. With the red-flag option gone, the result would have been, at best, a one-lap shootout. Memories of massive pileups at Talladega and Daytona on two-lap restarts made that call a no-go. “We wouldn’t start it with two to go at Daytona or Talladega,” Hunter said.(Alabama Live)(4-27-2004)
- 2nd PPI Team? UPDATE: PPI Motorsports may have a couple cars and a couple crew chiefs in the mix this week when it tests at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, KY. PPI owner Cal Wells III has long craved a second team to run alongside Ricky Craven’s #32 Tide Chevrolet. He said the search is picking up steam. “It’s a little premature to be talking about a second team,” Wells said. “We’ve been working on some sponsorship opportunities and they’re cooking pretty good. We’re not quite zeroed in yet on what we’re going to do, we’re just talking away on it. We’re going to take Rick to Kentucky this week (to test),” Wells said. “We’re looking at maybe running two cars, the number 32 and 96, to sort through a couple of issues we’ve got.” Former Cup crew chief Joe Garone, who most recently has been a high-ranking official at NASCAR’s research and development center in Concord, N.C., will accompany PPI, Garone said at Martinsville. Garone has left NASCAR and is looking to get back into the Nextel Cup garage as a crew chief. Wells said his sponsorship talks might result in a limited program of races later this season. “Our talks have got us close to, not a full deal, but maybe a few races later in the season, in the second half of the year,” Wells said. “We’re probably looking at something in the last third of the season.”(NASCAR.com)(4-22-2004)
UPDATE: Johnny Benson could become a second driver for Cal Wells, as teammate with Ricky Craven, depending on how sponsorship works out. Wells and Craven haven’t had great luck this season and Sunday, Craven’s engine broke just seven laps into the race.(Winston Salem Journal)(4-27-2004) - Jarrett testing at Kentucky: #88-Dale Jarrett is scheduled to test the #88 UPS Ford at Kentucky Speedway Tues, April 27th and Wednesday, April 28th. Fans can watch from the front of the Turn 3 Fan Center.(Kentucky Speedway Site)(4-27-2004)
- Larry Foyt to run the Indy 500: If all goes according to plan, there will be two Foyts competing in the Indianapolis 500-Mile race this year. Larry Foyt, son of A.J. Foyt, will attempt to compete in his first Indianapolis 500 driving for his father. It will be the first Indy car race for the 27-year-old college graduate who is currently driving for his father on the NASCAR Nextel Cup circuit. A.J. Foyt IV, grandson of Indy’s first four-time winner, finished 18th in his Indy 500 debut last year and is currently driving the #14 Conseco Dallara/Toyota in the IRL IndyCar Series. Larry Foyt tested at the historic 2.5-mile track today during the IRL’s Rookie Orientation Program. He ran a total of 59 laps and reached speeds over 210mph. “It’s the coolest day of my life,” Foyt said after stepping out of the team’s back-up car, the #14T Conseco Dallara/Toyota. “It was everything I thought it would be. This is such a special place. I’ve been coming here since I was born and when I was growing up I used to wonder, Can I do it? And today I got to do it. We ran 210 and I know I can go faster. We had a lot of downforce on the car because my dad just wanted me to get comfortable. “I had to get the ‘stock car line’ out of me,” Foyt said. “You run quite a different line in the stock car than you do these cars. The stock car is much heavier and the engine is in the front so you drive it so much different. The Indy car feels really good out there. There were a lot of things that were new to me. I had never run a sequential shift or the pit lane speed limiter. There’s a lot of electronics that we don’t have in the stock car. Today was ideal because there was no pressure so I could take my time adapting. I know that it’ll get harder once we start trimming it out but we’re pretty happy with the way things went. I had a blast!”
He will join Foyt IV for the IRL IndyCar Series’ Open Test at the Speedway this week. Originally set for Tuesday and Wednesday, the test has been rescheduled for Wednesday and Thursday to avoid the cold temperatures and strong winds predicted for tomorrow. A.J. Foyt was pleased with his son’s performance. “I was happy. He could have gone faster but I didn’t want him to push it. The idea of today was to just get acclimated because it is so different from what he’s been used to driving. He had tested an Indy car at Colorado and Texas about five years ago and passed his rookie test but then I put him in the stock cars. He never gave up his hope of driving in the Indy 500 though. I never wanted any of my kids to race because it is such a tough sport, but when that’s all they want to do, what can you say? Now I have two of them racing, but the way I feel about that is it’s their life to live. I’m just glad I can help them out.”(Foyt Racing PR)(4-27-2004) - Slowest Cup race ever at Talladega: A track record 11 caution periods over 55 laps caused the average speed to be 129.396mph, the slowest in a NASCAR Winston/Nextel Cup race at Talladega. The record (130.892) was set in 1975 in a race won by Buddy Baker.(St Petersburg Times)(4-27-2004)
- Nice Gesture: Stater Bros. Markets is proudly donating a total of 1000 tickets to military personnel for the upcoming NASCAR races at the California Speedway in Fontana, California. This donation includes tickets for the “Stater Bros. 300” NASCAR Race on Saturday, May 1, 2004 as well as the “Auto Club 500” NASCAR Race on Sunday May 2, 2004. Stater Bros. is the “Official Grocery Store” of the California Speedway for 2004. Stater Bros. is also the title sponsor of the NASCAR Busch Series event “The Stater Bros. 300” at the California Speedway on Saturday, May 1, 2004.(PRNewswire)(4-27-2004)
- Last 45 races, 7 finished under yellow [15%]: In the last 45 Nextel Cup races [beginning 2003 season] seven races have ended under the yellow flag/or due to rain:
Daytona, Feb 2003, #15-Michael Waltrip wins, called due to rain
Martinsville, March 2003, #24-Jeff Gordon, wreck/yellow
Richmond, May 2003, #25-Joe Nemechek, rain
Lowe’s Motor Speedway, May 2003, #48-Jimmie Johnson, rain
Pocono, June 2003, #20-Tony Stewart, wreck
Atlanta, October 2003, #24-Jeff Gordon, wreck
Talladega, April 2004, #24- Jeff Gordon, wreck.(4-27-2004) - Stewart to Meet with Darby at Calif. UPDATE penalty?: Tony Stewart will be required to meet with series director John Darby this weekend at California Speedway regarding his recent actions during and after races, NASCAR spokesman Mike Zizzo confirmed Monday. Stewart is not likely to face any official sanctions from his actions in and after Sunday’s race at Talladega, Ala., Zizzo said, but Darby wants to discuss some of Stewart’s recent actions with him. In Sunday’s race, Stewart’s crew chief, Greg Zipadelli, was warned on the radio at least twice by NASCAR to calm his driver down. Following the race, Stewart elected not to run the “cool down” lap and turned into the exit of pit road. However, he failed to notice driver Terry Labonte and turned in front of him and the two collided. Stewart then drove up the length of pit road the wrong way at a high rate of speed past a gathering of media, NASCAR and track officials, then stopped to talk with Dale Earnhardt Jr. at the entrance to the garage area. Several NASCAR officials, as well as Labonte’s crew chief, Jim Long, complained about Stewart’s actions. Labonte’s team did not receive an apology or any explantion of his actions from Stewart. Monday, a spokesman for Stewart’s Joe Gibbs Racing team said Stewart phoned and spoke with Busch about Sunday’s incident and had attempted to reach Labonte, but was so far unsuccessful. Stewart’s explanation for his quick turn to pit road was an attempt to avoid the debris being tossed on the track by race fans, the spokesman said.(more at ThatsRacin.com)(4-26-2004)
AND Tony Stewart’s actions following Sunday’s race at Talladega were being reviewed Monday afternoon by NASCAR officials to determine if further action by the sanctioning body was necessary. “We’re reviewing (Stewart’s actions),” NASCAR spokesman Mike Zizzo said. “And gathering facts on what occurred to determine what we might do.” Stewart caused one accident during the race when he hit Kurt Busch and was on the receiving end of some similar contact later in the race from Jimmie Johnson that sent Stewart spinning. He was being reviewed because, after taking the checkered flag at about 70 mph behind the pace car, he abruptly turned 90 degrees to the left, onto the track’s asphalt apron heading into Turn 1. When he did, Stewart’s car made contact with the front of Terry Labonte’s car, causing it heavy damage, according to a team spokesman. Stewart drove up pit road in the opposite direction from the rest of the field, causing at least one television correspondent to report Sunday evening he and his co-workers had “feared for their safety” upon Stewart’s actions. Stewart stopped at NASCAR’s checkpoint to get the proper angle of his car’s rear spoiler verified, and then drove into the garage area.(more at NASCAR.com)(4-27-2004) - What happened between #5-Terry Labonte and #20-Tony Stewart? Fox showed #20-Stewart making an abrupt left after the checkered flag and right into the the right front of #5-Labonte, but no further explanation was given and I have found none yet in articles or PR’s. But have been told Stewart was avoiding some of the fan thrown debris and didn’t realize Labonte was there and darted to avoid it, but have seen nothing ‘official’ about it.
AND As NASCAR ruled that Jeff Gordon had edged-out fan favorite Earnhardt for the win because he was ahead of Earnhardt when the caution flag waved, fans littered the track with beer cans and other debris. When Stewart crossed the finish line, he made a hard left onto pit road to avoid the raining garbage. That caught Terry Labonte by surprise, who was just to the inside of Stewart. As Stewart turned, he clipped the nose of Labonte’s #5 Chevrolet.(Truespeed PR/Joe Gibbs Racing)(4-26/27-2004) - Sad News: Bob Eugene Pressley, 71, of 763 Brevard Road, Asheville, died Tuesday morning, April 27, 2004, at St. Joseph Hospital. Mr. Pressley is survived by his wife, Doris P. Pressley and children, Robert, Charles, Mike, Kenneth and Patricia. Funeral services will be at 11:00am/et Friday at Bent Creek Baptist Church with burial to follow in the church cemetery. His family will receive friends Thursday evening at the church.( Groce Funeral Home Site), Pressley’s son, Roberty, currently drives the #47 Ford in the Busch Series and Charlie is a past crew chief for NASCAR teams. And see a nice article at the Asheville Citizen-Times(4-27-2004)
- Best Western to sponsor Waltrip at Phoenix: Best Western International, Inc., the first-ever Official Hotel of NASCAR, announced today that it has entered into an agreement with Michael Waltrip Racing, Inc. to serve as primary sponsor of the #99 NASCAR Busch Series car for the Basha’s Supermarkets 200. That event is scheduled for Nov. 6, 2004, at Phoenix International Raceway. The World’s Largest Hotel Chain*, Best Western will leverage the partnership in advertising, promotions, merchandise, a show car tour, at-track activities, and additional programs. “This is another step for Best Western in what has already been an exciting association with NASCAR,” said Tom Higgins, president and CEO. “We look forward to working with Michael Waltrip and his organization on this partnership, and cheering for the #99 Best Western Chevrolet to take the checkered flag in our home base of Phoenix.” Best Western is in the first year of a three-year agreement as NASCAR’s Official Hotel, and is also serving as an associate sponsor of Waltrip and the Dale Earnhardt Inc.-owned #15 NAPA Chevrolet on the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series. “I am proud to carry the Best Western colors on my NASCAR Busch Series car at the Phoenix race in November,” said Waltrip. “I always look forward to this event and I am ready for the challenge of placing the #99 Best Western car in victory lane. Best Western has shown that NASCAR racing is an extremely important part of their marketing strategy. Now, with their association with Michael Waltrip Racing, I am proud to help expand Best Western’s role in our great sport.” More information on all Best Western / NASCAR activities, including Speed Rewards, a customized frequent guest program designed specifically for race fans, is available at www.bestwestern.com/racing.(Alan Taylor Communications PR), see images of the car on the 2004 Busch Series Paint Scheme Gallery.(4-27-2004)
- Team Rensi names driver for part-time #35 at Calif: Team Rensi Motorsports co-owner Sam Rensi announced today that NASCAR Grand National Division, West Series driver, Johnny Borneman will drive the #35 Team Rensi Motorsports Ford in the NASCAR Busch Series 1-800-PIT-SHOP.com 300 at California Speedway. Borneman will be making his first career Busch Series start. Rensi also announced that Pioneer Services, a marketing partner with Team Rensi Motorsports, will serve as primary sponsor for Borneman at California.(BGNRacing.com)(4-27-2004)
- Green/White/Checker in Cup?….Rules in NASCAR’s truck series do allow for a green-white-checkered flag finish, meaning a two-lap dash where a race can be extended so it will not end under caution. “At the Nextel Cup level, that rule would be a recipe for disaster,” NASCAR Vice President Jim Hunter said. “That would be like dangling a piece of raw meat in front of a hungry lion.” In fact, Hunter said that rule may now be re-evaluated for the truck series. “We’ll probably wind up looking at doing away with that rule for the trucks,” he said.(Alabama Live)(4-27-2004)
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