Friday, September 05, 2008
Tropical Storm Hanna forces NASCAR to postpone Chevy Rock and Roll 400 until Sunday
Joey Logano (R), here with Toyota’s Jim Aust, former Toyota Racing Development boss, will have to wait a week for his NASCAR Sprint Cup tour debut (Photo by Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR)
By Mike Mulhern
RICHMOND, Va.
Joey Logano’s luck ran out Friday, when rain washed him out of this weekend’s Chevy Rock and Roll 400.
And Tropical Storm Hanna also changed the shape of Saturday night’s scheduled 400, which NASCAR quickly postponed until Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m., a surprisingly early call by officials, who decided potential traffic problems from heavy rain and muddy parking fields might be too much to deal with Saturday, even if there were much chance for a window of clear weather.
“I can’t change the weather, so I just go with it,” Logano, fourth quickest in Cup practice, said of his planned NASCAR Sprint Cup debut with the Joe Gibbs Toyota team. That debut will now come next week at Loudon, N.H.
The rain puts Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards, the top two in the standings, on the front row for Sunday’s race, which will be followed Sunday night by Friday night’s schedule Nationwide 250.
Clint Bowyer holds an umbrella to cover up from rain from tropical storm Hanna after practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Chevy Rock & Roll 400 at Richmond International Raceway on September 5, 2008 in Richmond, Virginia. (Photo by Marc Serota/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Jim Hunter, NASCAR vice president, said “We have postponed everything until Sunday, based on the weather and the forecast and what state and local officials are telling us about pending wind and rain.
“I can’t recall another situation where we’ve gone out this far. But with the high winds forecast and the rain, we felt there are mitigating circumstances.”
The postponement will be costly for NASCAR in one respect, with ABC now not broadcasting the race but rather ESPN.
While NASCAR used rain tires in the Nationwide race a few weeks ago at Montreal, there are no plans to use rain tires here, in either the Cup event or Nationwide event.
Now that the field for NASCAR’s championship chase is almost set, it’s time for nine of the 12-men in the hunt to assess their chances to beat Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards and Jimmie Johnson for the title over the final 10 weeks of the season.
And 25 races into the season it would appear that if Busch, Edwards or Johnson doesn’t win the Cup championship, it will be a fluke.
None of the other men in the sport has shown much for those three over the year, and even Johnson, though he’s a two-time champ looking for a third straight, may be iffy in the chase.
“It’s the same thing people said about the New England Patriots,” Jeff Burton insists. “The Patriots were undefeated, nobody could beat them. The Giants couldn’t play, Eli Manning stunk, the coach was terrible. And they kicked their butt when it counted.
“Ten races is an eternity. You know what can happen in 10 races.
“Kyle Busch and those guys stood above the crowd, no question. But if there’s one race (in the chase) they don’t do that, then it’s on.
“It’s all about being hot now. It’s all about getting it done now.
“It ain’t over till it’s over. These people are not invincible. Kyle Busch he isn’t never going to make a mistake. Carl Edwards is not never going to make a mistake.
“You have to execute on those mistakes. But the first thing to do is just put pressure on them. You’ve got to show them you can beat them.
“Once you show them you can deal with them, that changes their mindset…and it’s game-on.
“I wouldn’t consider it a fluke it someone else won.”
Jeff Burton, one of the 12 championship chase racers, says Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards are not invincible (Photo by Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Meanwhile, reaction to the latest running of NASCAR’s new winged car was hot and furious Friday, following Jimmie Johnson’s runaway win in Los Angeles last Sunday. But getting crewmen or drivers on the record with their complaints is difficult, given NASCAR’s June edict to them essentially to ‘shut up and drive,’ and stop publically complaining.
“It’s going to take Dale Earnhardt Jr. standing up and telling the crowd that this new car stinks,” one top crewman says. “Then they will have to get to changing it.”
When pressed on the issue Friday, Jeff Gordon, also one of the sport’s top spokesmen, again declined to say anything on the issue: “I’m just the dumb driver, or so they tell me…” Gordon said cryptically.
Several top, winning crew chiefs complain “It used to be fun to come to the track, but now it’s no fun to come to the track any more. Not for the drivers, not for the crews, not for the crew chiefs. This sport is just no fun anymore.”
Jimmie Johnson’s romp at California—he led 228 of the 250 laps—showed more of the problems with NASCAR’s new car-of-tomorrow, rivals insist. And even winning car owner Rick Hendrick is critical of the new winged car (Photo by Jonathan Moore/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Two easy changes could improve the car-of-tomorrow, according to several team engineers and crew chiefs: the lower edge of the odd-shaped front-bumper should be raised two inches, to give the car more shock-travel in the corners, and thus better downforce; and the chassis frame rails should be lowered three inches, to lower the center-of-gravity significantly and make the car handle much better in the center of the corners. Teams have been pushing for those changes for some time, but NASCAR officials continue to say no.
However, some crews say they hope the eight-car NASCAR-sponsored testing here Monday and Tuesday of an early-generation car-of-tomorrow for the Nationwide series will prompt NASCAR to rethink things. “Once these drivers get some laps in this new Nationwide car, they’ll really have some reaction, because that thing will drive a lot better than the Cup car,” one key crewman says.
Veteran general manager Jay Frye has turned Team Red Bull around this season....now Tony Stewart and Rick Hendrick are making a bid to sign him away from the Toyota camp (Photo by Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)
The day’s top news:
—Tony Stewart, as expected, announced Darian Grubb as his crew chief for 2009. Grubb, a long-time Rick Hendrick man, working with Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus, ran Johnson’s team for a few weeks last year when Knaus was on suspension.
—Jay Frye, who has engineered a solid turnaround at Team Red Bull is just back from a post-California trip to the company’s Austrian headquarters, and he is now reported to be seriously considering moving to the Stewart-Ryan Newman Chevy team next season. According to those close to the situation, Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz wants Frye to put former Formula One driver Scott Speed in a full Cup ride next season, though there is still only sponsorship support for two drivers. Brian Vickers and AJ Allmendinger are the team’s current Cup drivers, and Frye wants to keep both. If Frye stays, that would likely mean a three-car team.
—Len and Eddie Wood may be looking at signing Canadian Patrick Carpentier as their Cup driver next year. Carpentier is apparently out at Ray Evernham’s, and he’s looking for a new ride. “I haven’t talked to anyone and I don’t plan on talking to anyone until I get my cars working better,” Eddie Wood insisted. “But I do like Patrick.”
Patrick Carpentier may be the Woods’ new driver (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
—Speculation is intensifying about the NASCAR future of Chip Ganassi’s operation, some possible merger with the Evernham-Gillett operation, according to some close to the situation. Ganassi has been considering opting for an engine-leasing program with Evernham-Gillett. Whether more might be in the offing is unclear.
—The reason for Dodge teams not using the new NASCAR engine is up for debate, with some in the garage point to major reliability issues: “Every time they put it on the dyno, it blows up,” one engine man says. Dodge racing boss Mike Accavitti is again unavailable for comment on the Dodge situation. The company is in last place in manufacturers’ standings in all three national touring series. Dodge officials point to ‘plumbing issues’ with the new engine as a holdup – once one of the new engines is ‘plumbed’ into a car, it is all but impossible to pull it out and change back to an old engine. That would appear to be a major design flaw.
—On a more minor point, but a contentious economic issue, the price of ice here is the highest seen this season, according to some crews, $18 for a 35-pound bag.
—NASCAR executives are stepping up their commitment to road racing, with the ‘acquisition’ this week of the Grand American Road Racing Association. Jim France, the NASCAR boss, has been the patron of the Grand-Am operation, and the merger has been expected. However it’s still not clear just what the merger might mean. But it obviously makes road racing itself even more important to NASCAR. Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, Kyle Petty, Bobby Labonte, Juan Pablo Montoya, Kurt Busch and Jeff Gordon have run Grand-Am races.
“This combination of resources will benefit Grand-Am and NASCAR, their competitors and fans, as the two companies work together to enhance the two sports,” France says.
How Mexico City might fit into the new equation could be interesting. NASCAR just dropped that venue from its Nationwide tour, but the Grand-Am series also runs there.
Logano, just 18 but one of the most hotly touted newcomers to this sport in some time, has been dogged by cameras and media ever since he arrived at Richmond International Raceway. He doesn’t have the luxury that Jeff Gordon had for his Cup debut in 1992 – which came at Atlanta on the weekend that Richard Petty ran the last race of his legendary career.
“If everyone is watching me or not, it’s cool either way,” Logano said. “We’re here to race.
“I think the Cup car seems to suit my driving style better than the Nationwide car. I seem to like the Cup car more, probably because it has more horsepower. The Nationwide car seems like there is no horsepower, and it’s all momentum, and you have to hustle those cars a lot.
“I’ve gotten a few ‘Godfather’ speeches, that’s for sure: ‘Go out there and do the best you can, and be smart, gain as much respect as you can.’”
Darian Grubb (L) will be leaving Jimmie Johnson and Rick Hendrick and joining Tony Stewart (R)as crew chief in 2009 (Photo by Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Clint Bowyer is the man on the hot seat in the 400, as the 12th man in the Sprint Cup standings, on the bubble, with David Ragan and Kasey Kahne trying to knock him out of the chase.
Complicating Bowyer’s situation are unsettled and discomforting issues surrounding his 2009 position with car owner Richard Childress, who is shuffling Bowyer to a new sponsor next season, and possibly a new crew. “I don’t think there’s anybody probably happy about the situation, but we’ve got to make the best of it,” Bowyer says. He has struggled over the summer. “We have a lot going on—My contract is up, announcement of bringing a fourth team in, and moving over to a whole different deal myself,” Bowyer says. “It’s been a frustrating year on everybody’s part.
“But if we can get in this chase, and get going, and start it off on the right foot, I think the sky is the limit for this team, just the way it was last year.”
Ragan, however, may have momentum: “We’re outside trying to fight our way in. If I had to pick any track to go to, Richmond would be top two or three.
“So it’s a perfect situation for us.”
On the other hand Kahne has to carry Dodge’s fortunes on his shoulders. If he doesn’t make the chase, Dodge will be on the sidelines of the real action the final three months of the season.
Clint Bowyer may have more on his mind than just making the title chase (Photo by Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Agree? Disagree? Don’t just brood. Express yourself here, and make your voice heard clearly in NASCAR headquarters in Daytona and Charlotte and in NASCAR race shops throughout North Carolina and the rest of the country.
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