Mike Mulhern

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

NASCAR women: Patty Moise and Robin Dallenbach—Were they just ahead of the curve?

Like father, like daughter: And this year Ashley Force may be holding the championship trophy papa John has here
(Photo credit: Ron Lewis for NHRA)

By Mike Mulhern

RICHMOND, Va.
Women and Hispanics.  They’re hot.
But ‘women and Hispanics,’ that sounds rather dry.
Let’s try ‘Danica,’ ‘Juan Pablo,’ and ‘Ashley,’ and put some faces on the idea.
Like Danica Patrick, who just became the first woman to win a major Indy-car event.
Like Juan Pablo Montoya, the former Formula One driver, from Colombia, who just ran a close second at Talladega, racing for what would have been his second NASCAR Cup tour victory.
Like Ashley Force, who just became the first woman to win an NHRA Funny Car National event, beating her own legendary father in the finals…at 320 mph.
They’re young: Patrick, just turned 26; Force, 25; Montoya, 32.
And they’re good.
Of course Montoya has already won on the world stage, a number of F1 events, before tiring of that series’ cliquish secrecy and moving to NASCAR two years ago. And he won his first NASCAR Cup event last summer at Sonoma.

Dancing with the Stars? Juan Pablo Montoya and wife Connie are dressed the part
(Photo by Doug Benc/Getty Images)

However the milestone wins by Patrick and Force are different, because NASCAR has never had a woman win at the Cup level. Or Nationwide (Busch) level. Or even the Truck level. Those are its three national touring series.
And while NASCAR executives have pushed team owners and Detroit car makers to give opportunities to minorities, as part of its
Drive-for-diversity,’ there is the distinct sense that, except for Erin Crocker, there hasn’t been much ummph behind it. Not enough heart in it.
Perhaps it’s time for NASCAR to put the squeeze on some of its big sponsors. Of course Crocker did have General Mills and let it get away….
NASCAR today seems as far away as ever from seeing a woman win one of its major national events. In fact NASCAR doesn’t even have a woman regularly competing on any of its three national series. And Chrissy Wallace, of the Wallace clan, has just run only her first Truck race, with only six more set this season. Lack of sponsorship, she says, has been a frustration.
Patty Moise was once a Busch tour regular, for nearly 10 years, with a half dozen Cup races along the way. Popular and personable (enough to get a few TV jobs), she never quite made it over the hump, but she was quite competent, rugged and dogged about it all….running her own team for a while, in fact.
Robin Dallenbach too was competent enough, rugged enough, and dogged enough to play the racing game, back in the 1980s. And she once competed against husband Wally Dallenbach, the former NASCAR Cup racer and now TV commentator, in events like the 24 Hours of Daytona. “I wouldn’t take anything back,” Robin, now a housewife/ranchhand in Fort Worth, says of those days. “I think I was just before the time. Today it would be a whole different story.
“I think I was the youngest ever to qualify for a Cup race, at 18 (in 1982).
“No, I wouldn’t take any of it back. I just take life where the path takes you.
“Like I just raced a (Baja) buggy last year for the first time, and it was wild! Wally runs the Baja a lot, and he loves it.”
Moise says “Danica’s win was great, totally cool,” Moise said. “She’s been knocking on the door. It shows there’s no reason a woman can’t do this if she’s got the skills and the right background and the right opportunity.
“Either I did not have enough skills, or I couldn’t put myself in the right position. Danica has been with one of the very top teams. And there hasn’t been an opportunity like that in NASCAR.”

Wonder if Danica knows that’s Carolina Blue?
(Photo credit: Indy Racing League)

Should NASCAR and its teams and sponsors be pushing harder to get women in good rides?
“I found it very promising that Tony Stewart would go down to Mike Wallace’s daughter Chrissy and kind of endorse what she’s doing,” Moise says. “And I thought Chrissy did a good job at Martinsville. She finished on the lead lap, and for a first-time effort, that’s pretty good, even for a guy.
“We forget that NASCAR is the most competitive series in the world. I think Juan Pablo Montoya has done a great job. But look at some of these other top guys, even guys who have won championships, and it’s been no piece of cake.
“So you’ve got to give a break to NASCAR. And in its defense, they don’t have a big group (of women racers) to pick from.
“I’m sure a lot of team owners would like to talk to Danica right now…but why would she want to come down here?”
Especially after watching the struggles Dario Franchitti and Sam Hornish Jr. are having.
“From all the places NASCAR and its Cup owners are looking, if there were some women kicking hard, then it would be a logical step to give them a shot here,” Moise says. “That is probably as much of an issue as anything.
“For women who have had the opportunity to race, they’re not going to be backing off any more than the guys would. They’re going to race like everybody else; give everyone as much respect as anyone else. We don’t think any different than the guys.

Just one of the guys: uh, that’s Ashley Force on the far right
(Photo credit: NHRA)

“It might be a nice marketing opportunity (having a female driver), but in the end they also want their cars to run up front. And there are only a handful of drivers running up front on any given day.”
And after all, even some of the toughest guys in the business, like Mike Skinner and Ron Hornaday, who have had rides with top owners like Richard Childress, have yet to win a Cup race. Skinner, a Truck champion and a regular, has been running Cup on and off for 19 years, more than 250 races, without a win. Hornaday, also a Truck regular, with 34 Truck wins and four championships, has likewise never won a Cup event.
So maybe we’re asking too much for a woman to win in NASCAR?
Moise demurs: “Remember Robin Dallenbach – she and Wally have three kids, two boys and a girl, and all three are racing.
“And Katie is kicking butt in quarter-midgets.
“But the thing is, Katie sticks to it.
“The girls have to come up just like the guys do – pay their dues, and then keep moving on.
“Me, I came in from road racing, never having done an oval track race in my life. And my first oval was against guys like Dale Earnhardt and Darrell Waltrip.
“And I was doing it with my own little team, and my own little pitiful amount of money….and that’s not really the way to try to do it.”

Alli Owens, just 19: If you’re looking for a stock car racin’ woman this weekend, you need to be at Rockingham Speedway, where she’s running in ARCA’s Carolina 500.
(Photo credit: Alli Owens)

On the other hand, remember Robin McCall?
Well, today she’s Mrs. Robin Dallenbach, mother of three, and celebrating 23 years with Wally Dallenbach.
But in 1982 she was Robin McCall, a teenage racing sensation who caught the eye of wealthy coal miner J. D. Stacy, who at the time was buying up a fleet of NASCAR teams, including the Dale Earnhardt-Rod Osterlund championship outfit.
“I was racing at New Smyrna (just south of Daytona), and he offered me a test in a Cup car, and we tested at Daytona and he signed me to a five-year contract, and I was going to go for rookie-of-the-year,” Dallenbach recalled. “So I ran two races at Michigan (blew an engine in the first, crashed in the second). I was going to run at Charlotte too, but they sent me out to qualify in the rain and I didn’t know you could waive it off, so I didn’t make the field.”
Stacy ran into financial problems and dropped off the scene.

And Juan Pablo Montoya even helps wife Connie do the dishes....
(Davis Turner/Getty Images for Nextel)

Dallenbach went on to do some short-track racing, some dirt, and at Kingsport, Tn., and then she went into road racing, the Kelly-American challenge series, and Corvettes, IMSA GTO – “I ran against Wally in the 24 Hours of Daytona, and that was fun,” she said with a laugh. “Wally was driving for Jack Roush, and he won.”
So, in light of Danica’s success, and Ashley’s, what’s her impression of women in racing today, the opportunities, the talent?
“I think you have to win in racing. You have to win in whatever you’re in. And maybe in these support series these women just aren’t running that hot.
“But I don’t keep up with all the women drivers. Lyn St. James has been a real strong support. But it’s about winning.
“Racing is a lot mental. It’s not that men have faster reflexes. Racing is very mental, and it’s very physical.
“I think women are equal in racing. You can always work out…and the cars do have power steering.”

Danica Patrick: What will she reveal to Dale Earnhardt Jr. on Junior’s XM radio show?
(Photo credit: Indy Racing League)

Is there perhaps an element of meanness that women generally lack?
“It’s not a nice sport in that sense,” Dallenbach says with a laugh. “One thing I’m working with with my daughter Kate is just that.
“Kate has been racing quarter-midgets since she was eight, and now she’s 11 and she’s moved up to Bandoleros. Last year she won every championship she could win, driver of the year, six track records….and she is not nice on the track.
“She’s great off the track, but you put her in that race car….
“She’s had a lot of coaching from Wally and me, and she does not give an inch.
“We’ll keep her in the Fort Worth area, racing Bandoleros for a year, and then let her run in the Summer Shootout (at Charlotte’s Lowe’s Motor Speedway). She’s racing at ‘Little Texas,’ the short-track right behind Texas Motor Speedway.
“Working with Kate has been a lot of fun, bringing her along…so I’m anxious to see where this leads, as long as she wants to do it.  The key is to get into one of these NASCAR diversity programs.

But can she go round in circles?
(Photo credit: NHRA)

“But you’ve got to win, that’s the bottom line.
“I want to put her in a Legends car next, because they’re really, really good at teaching car control, because they’re so torque and so loose.
“Then I want to get her in some road racing, and in some dirt. Any type of racing is good at teaching diversity.
“Maybe even this Volkswagen Jetta series, which is (a factory-backed tour for) front-wheel-drive diesels (for ages 16 to 26). The first race was at VIR (Virginia International Raceway, just north of Winston-Salem) last weekend…
“And it’s like the ‘American Idol’ of racing. I was a nervous wreck (for tryouts by her sons Wyatt, 16, and Jake, 18). You had to go to Phoenix for tryouts. You had to do media training. You had to do physical training. They timed everyone. And they picked the top 30.”
But why would Robin and Wally want their daughter to get into racing anyway? It’s a difficult career at best, even if you make it, as both Dallenbachs well realize.
“Kate wants to be a vet. She’s really into animals, and we have a ranch in Texas, and we have animals,” Robin says.
And, yes, Kate, like Wally, is a hunter too. “She shot a turkey last week, so we had turkey dinner courtesy of Kate,” Robin says with a laugh.
“My dad is actually the one who got all three into racing, in quarter-midgets. Jake is moving to Charlotte in June, and will race while he’s working at Roush’s.
“So I said we’ll get Kate as much diversity as we can. And if she wants to continue, we’ll do our best. Of course, there’s no guarantee she wants to continue, but she does right now.”
Of course Kate is still only 11, and, well, what was Hannah Montana doing at 11?

And Danica isn’t the only woman running Indy-cars. So is Milka Duno
(Photo credit: Indy Racing League)

And Milka certainly has a sense of humor.....she’s even got a ‘mascot.’ Think any NASCAR dude has this much of a sense of humor?
(Photo credit: Indy Racing League)

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

With Ashley Force Winning Too, Pressure Mounts on NASCAR to Get With the Program

NHRA’s Ashley Force makes history, joining Indy-car’s Danica Patrick....and where’s NASCAR?
(Photo credit: NHRA)

By Mike Mulhern

TALLADEGA, Ala.
Hey, maybe Kyle Busch or Carl Edwards has a sister:
So not only has Danica Patrick crashed into the Indy-car world’s victory lane, an historic first, but now Ashley Force, the 25-year-old daughter of NHRA legend John Force, has become the first woman in NHRA history to win a national event in the Funny Car division – ironically beating her own father in Sunday’s finals at Commerce, Ga.
How fast is fast?
You think Danica’s laps at 220 mph are something, Ashley Force clipped the lights at 320.36 mph.
Patrick drives Hondas; Force drives Ford Mustangs.
And where’s NASCAR in all this?
Sitting on the sidelines…with not even a woman active full-time in any of NASCAR’s three national touring divisions.

Ashley Force, John Force’s now legendary daughter, at just 25, spent a day at Las Vegas Motor Speedway last month, here chatting with NASCAR’s John Darby
(Photo by Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Soooo it will be interesting to see how Patrick handles herself on Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Thursday night XM radio show. And how Earnhardt handles things from the NASCAR perspective.
Not only does Ashley Force’s win put her in the drag racing history books, but it also gives her a 59-point lead in the NHRA’s Funny Car division.
“I’m just happy to win an event,” Ms. Force says. “Being a female, that’s exciting for the record books and everything. But my team—we just wanted to get our first win.”
Of course Ashley Force is following in the footsteps of legendary female drag racer Shirley Muldowney, who won numerous Top Fuel Nationals as well as that tour’s championships in 1977, 1980 and 1982.
It was Force’s third time in the finals, an achievement itself. “I guess the third time’s a charm,” she said. “We knew that if we kept getting to the finals, we’d eventually get one. I kind of hated it had to be against Dad…but I’m just happy to win.
“I never saw him,” she said of the final run. “And I never saw my win light. But they told me on the radio.”
The elder Force, who suffered one of the worst crashes of his career last season, turns 59 next week.

Danica Patrick: and what will Dale Earnhardt Jr.—as XM Radio journalist—ask her this week?
(Photo by Marc Serota/Getty Images)

So when it comes to marketing women racers – Texas Motor Speedway’s Eddie Gossage will have Patrick for his IRL event in June, and Bruton Smith will have the Forces at his new $60 million drag strip next to Lowe’s Motor Speedway for his Carolina nationals in September.
But in a NASCAR race on a NASCAR track….well, that remains to be seen.
“It’s an exciting time, with Danica winning,” Ashley Force said. “There are a lot of women in a lot of different motorsports, and we’re getting our practice, we’re getting our experience, and we’re making our way toward those wins.”
Well, everywhere it seems but in NASCAR.
“It’s a good week for women,” Ashley Force said, referring to Patrick’s win a week ago in Motegi. “It’s exciting for the fans to finally have a woman winner in Funny Car.”
And how long might that take in NASCAR? 

Okay, Junior: Show us what you’ve got as a journalist—break a Danica story for us
(Photo by Jeff Gross/Getty Images)

Richmond, this weekend’s Sprint Cup tour stop, will be homecoming of course for Denny Hamlin, one of the hot drivers this season, and now a man who appears to have put all that bad luck behind him.
Hamlin, third in Sunday’s Talladega 500, says he’s glad his luck is turning: “At Daytona we had a race-winning car, ran up front, but had an incident on pit road. In California we hit the water and were the first ones out.
“After that we’ve really run well. At Atlanta we had a shot to win; Kyle won, but we lost power steering.
“And after that, we haven’t finished outside of the top-six. We’ve been performing really well; we just haven’t had that luck until these last four to five weeks.
“Now we’re really showing how strong a team we are….and that all three teams are equal.”
Indeed the Joe Gibbs operation, all three teams, is clicking. And there will be plenty of focus on the Gibbs guys regardless of what goes on on the track, now that Tony Stewart has raised the possibility he may be leaving at the end of the season.

Denny Hamlin, third at Talladega, heads to hometown Richmond this weekend as a favorite, with crew chief Mike Ford
(Photo by Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Hamlin himself has been so aggressive at times, particularly at Talladega and Daytona, his teammates have raised the issue that maybe he’s working them over a little too hard at times.
But Hamlin – despite a brief tiff at Talladega with Busch – insists “me and Kyle have a good relationship.
“He’s the first guy to come up to my window and ask how my car is doing and react to what his car’s doing.
“Me and Kyle have a good relationship off the racetrack last year even before we were teammates. So I think it’s definitely – he’s the first guy that will come up to my window and ask how my car is doing and kind of react to what his car’s doing.
“That’s something Tony doesn’t do a lot of. If you go to him, he’s going to give you all the advice you can take in. But Kyle’s a guy that initiates it, which is really good, because I don’t always initiate things either.
“I think that’s why at times the relationship between me and Tony got stale last year—because we didn’t talk that much.
“Kyle’s been a guy that kept us going this year. 
“And Kyle, we definitely know he’s going out there feeling like he has something to prove after leaving Hendrick’s. He’s definitely pushing hard.
“We’re definitely doing our best to try to keep up with the Hendrick’s guys from last year (when Hendrick teams won fully half the tour events and finished first and second in the title race). We’ve definitely taken a couple of leaps, as far as that gap is concerned.”

Will he stay or will he go? Tony Stewart celebrates his Saturday Talladega win with Britney Brewster
(Photo by Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)

And Hamlin’s take on Stewart? “We definitely haven’t heard much. J.D. (Gibbs) told us the same thing he’s told everyone.
“They would like to have him retire here, and if he chooses to, that’s great.
“And I think Tony’s happy here.
“But he’s definitely going to listen to anything people want to say to him, as far as their options, because if someone gives them a real crazy, extravagant option, maybe you want to think about it.
“But it would take something really big for him to leave.”

Does NASCAR have anything for Danica?
(Photo by Marc Serota/Getty Images)

THE NASCAR NOTEBOOK

No word yet on the Fox-Sunday side of things, but the ESPN-ABC telecast of Saturday’s Nationwide race at Talladega scored big increases in ratings and households over 2007’s event. The Saturday race earned a 2.6 rating, with 2.96 million “household impressions,” up nearly 30 percent from last season’s 2.1.
This Talladega Saturday broadcast was the highest rated since ESPN returned to NASCAR last season. The previous high was last spring’s 2.4 rating at Las Vegas (on ABC).
ESPN officials also pointed to key demographic increases in males 18-34 (up 67 percent), males 55-and-up (up 50 percent), and all persons 55-and-over (up 44 percent).
The average rating for the five Nationwide events on ESPN2 is 1.9, up 10 percent over the same span last year (not including the rain-delayed California Speedway event).
ESPN-ABC is focused on more than just TV ratings – it points to increases in its Internet NASCAR programming too, up 32 percent this season.
What could be key next: Friday night’s prime-time Nationwide race at Richmond.

ESPN’s TV ratings are up. Alan Bestwick interviews Scott Pruett in Mexico City
(Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Crew chief Bob Osborne will finally be back at the track with Carl Edwards, at Richmond, for Saturday night’s 400. He’s been on suspension since the Las Vegas stop in March, when NASCAR hit him and Edwards with heavy penalties for that loose oil-tank lid controversy.
Edwards won California and Vegas with Osborne on the pit box; Edwards dominated Atlanta (until his engine broke in the final miles) with chief engineer Chris Andrews running the show, and then Edwards did win again with Andrews at Texas.
“It will be nice to get back to the track,” the low-keyed Osborne says. “This team has been strong through the early part of 2008, and I feel we can carry that momentum through the season.
“Most times when a crew chief is suspended, it disrupts the chemistry of the team. But our core group is a strong bunch of guys who were able to continue on with minimal disruption.”

Crew chief Bob Osborne returns to Carl Edwards’ pit box at Richmond
(Photo by Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Monday, April 28, 2008

Juan Pablo Montoya back in gear—give some credit to new crew chief Jimmy Elledge

Juan Pablo Montoya comes alive at Talladega....now what can he do at Richmond?
(Photo by Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR)

By Mike Mulhern

TALLADEGA, Ala.
Juan Pablo Montoya was back on his A-game Sunday, and give some credit to new crew chief Jimmy Elledge.
Adding Elledge to the mix certainly seems to have perked up Montoya, who broke out of the doldrums here and came within a few lengths of winning his first race since last summer.
But Montoya takes it in stride. He says the season has been going better overall anyway.
“The average finish is a lot better this year,” he says. “ Last year we would normally finish 22nd to 24th everywhere, and then two or three times a second place here, a fifth place there…and the rest were 20ths.
“Now we are running 15th average every week.
“But we never really had a result like this.
“I think it really motivates everybody back in Charlotte…and hopefully it’s time we are headed in the right direction.

Jimmy Elledge, Montoya’s new crew chief, is a sharp, veteran NASCAR crew chief....and now he’s finally back working with a veteran driver
(Photo by Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR)

“I’ve loved restrictor plate racing since the first time I came to Talladega (two years ago). I love it—The bumping, it’s tough, because you can finish 20th in a heartbeat, or 30th. 
“It’s pretty exciting because it takes a lot of strategy, and you have to learn to pick the right lane. And when you pick the lane, you make sure you get enough to make sure the line moves.
“The problem is there are people that, when you bump them hard (bump-draft), they brake.
“It was pretty hard here, with so many drivers over-checking (braking) down the straight, and pretty hard.

A 200-mph pack four-wide on the backstretch at Talladega is quite breathtaking
(Photo credit: Toyota Motorsports)

“I really helped Kyle; I managed to get on his bumper, and when you can get on somebody’s bumper you can actually push them all the way around the corner the whole lap.
“And I made up a bunch of ground. I got up to second, then dropped to fifth, then got up to second again.
“It was pretty cool, pretty interesting race.
“What’s different here (over Daytona) are the bumps. And you do get a little different handling. You can even run three-wide.
“During the race I was getting hit and hit, and it felt like a car crashing over and over again: Boom! Boom! Boom!
“It’s pretty cool.”

Sebastian Montoya, Juan Pablo Montoya’s son, on the window ledge of his father’s NASCAR stocker
(Photo by Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR)

The end-game? Montoya says “I don’t think you plan anything.
“You depend so much on what people behind you do. If they are going to drop you (hang you out to dry), it’s just pretty tough.
“You’ve just got to learn.
“I screwed up a couple of times; I just couldn’t do it because the car was just too tight.
“At the same time in the last few laps you have to find ways to slow them down.”

Maybe Juan Pablo Montoya’s Talladega charge will help California Speedway boss Gillian Zucker (left) with her Hispanic initiatives in the LA market
(Photo Credit: California Speedway)

In one of the day’s incidents Montoya and Paul Menard tangled late.  “Ryan Newman got pushed, and David Stremme pushed me, and I actually got in sideways,” Montoya said. “So I went in below the (yellow out-of-bounds) line not to wreck him (Menard), and he just didn’t give me any room.
“I had nowhere to go. I felt so sorry.
“As soon as he spun, I called to see if he was okay.”

David Stremme did a brilliant job subbing for injured Dario Franchitti at Talladega...until that late crash robbed him
(Photo Credit: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR)

For Denny Hamlin the day was a blast. But then Hamlin may be the tour’s most aggressive driver at Daytona and Talladega (remember the crash at Daytona with teammate Stewart?) And Kyle Busch has taken exception a few times to Hamlin’s aggressive driving.
Hamlin himself, third, never really had a shot at Busch and Montoya for the win, when Michael Waltrip’s engine blew the last lap, with Jimmie Johnson right on his tail, triggering a huge race-ending crash.
“But it was really fun,” Hamlin said. “I had a car that could do whatever I wanted to do. Whenever I wanted to pull up to somebody’s bumper, I would. And I would push him as long as my water gauge would let me…or as long as they could hang on to it.
“That’s all you can ask for, to have a car as good as ours. The best car don’t always win.
“You’ve got to put yourself in position, and we were with 20 to go, and just made a bad move, got shuffled out back to 20th. With all the cautions we had time to get back to was third. But that shows how strong our car was.

When Denny Hamlin (11) is on your tail and bump-drafting, better hang on tight
(Photo by John Harrelson/Getty Images for NASCAR)

“If Kyle weren’t a teammate,” Hamlin said of his own end-game thinking, “I probably would have pushed Juan out to the outside. And followed him, if the guy (the leader) stayed on the inside, simply because we worked really well to stay together, Juan and me.
“Then I was going to go for the win myself if the door opened that last 200 yards.”

Carl Edwards (right) and chief engineer Chris Andrews: too many tire problems at Talladega
(Photo credit: Autostock)

Monday April 28th 2008