Mike Mulhern

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Daytona 500 Debriefing…and Ryan Newman Coast-to-Coast

Ryan Newman will certainly be selling more souvenirs now
(Photo credit: Daytona International Speedway)

By Mike Mulhern

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.
So, after all that extensive January testing, after two weeks of Speedways runs, what did NASCAR men really learn in the Daytona 500?
—That Toyota has a sizeable horsepower edge over its rivals, which, with NASCAR not allowing any body changes with the new winged car, means this 500 was – just like drivers said the first day of testing – all about horsepower.
—That Kyle Busch is probably the best driver on the tour today, pulling off moves Sunday that perhaps only the late Dale Earnhardt could have pulled off successful…or even tried. Flat brilliant.
—That the Daytona 500 was once again determined by a flurry of numerous caution flags in the final 20 minutes…and not by the months of work that preceded the event or the hours of racing that led up to the finale.
—That Kyle Busch, if the race had gone caution-free, would have won in a rout. No one could touch him.
—That Richard Childress’ three drivers and crew chiefs – Jeff Burton and Scott Miller, Clint Bowyer and Gil Martin, and Kevin Harvick and Todd Berrier – did yeoman’s work to get into contention at the end but that they had no horsepower to work with and thus got blown away by the stronger cars. During Thursday’s chassis dyno tests Childress engines were some 30 horsepower off the Toyotas (though Mark Martin’s engine, from the same shop, was only eight horsepower off, curiously).
— That the car-of-tomorrow/today didn’t produce any better racing. The action was single-file for the first two hours and 20 minutes, until drivers started making mistakes. The car-of-tomorrow/today wasn’t a dog but it wasn’t much to write home about either. Junior Johnson says NASCAR needs to do something to keep these cars from bottoming out; Jeff Gordon, after breaking a suspension in the 500, probably agrees.
—That these are indeed some of the best drivers in the world, making the best of a bad situation, handling themselves admirably, making very few mistakes considering….The drivers and crews get A-pluses.
—That Goodyear and NASCAR officials did not work well together at all on the tires picked for this race. The two camps almost seemed at odds. Busch, after Saturday’s 300, called the tires “junk.” And drivers were very worried throughout the 500 about their tires chunking and blowing out, though most were too politically correct to say much in public.
—NASCAR execs get a B-plus for staying out of the headlines and making few noticeable mistakes. Goodyear – a C. No excuse for not bringing better tires to the 50th running. And, no, the issue was not camber or chassis – the tires simply weren’t up to the task….or rather were just barely up to the task. Not good enough.
—But Lesa France Kennedy, Brian’s sister, Jim’s niece, and the woman running the family’s track business, gets an A-plus, maybe even better. This Daytona 500, from start to finish, ran more smoothly, from every aspect, than any other. This is the way race tracks ought to run. The Friday night Truck race – make that ‘experience’ – was something to behold. Lesa put on a heckava show. She even provided the best Daytona weather in more than 30 years.
If you weren’t here for this Daytona 500, you really missed something.

All that said, it’s Newman’s week to shine, from New York City to Hollywood.
“It’s slowly sinking in,” Newman says. “It’s an honor to be representing NASCAR, and I’m trying to do my best with all the media, to tell everybody how much a family sport NASCAR is and how much it means to me to be part of it.”
The final miles Sunday night: “It was just a matter of racing and racing luck, having the opportunity.
“It was pretty flawless. There were a couple times I thought I was close to crashing, just because it was a handful.
“I knew I had a great, great shot when Tony Stewart started to pull down on the backstretch to get a push from his teammate Kyle Busch. Obviously Kurt helped me, and I have to be extremely grateful for his push—his ultimate teamwork and lack of selfishness that gave me the opportunity to get the win.
“But when I got into turn three after the great push down the back straightaway, I’m totally aware of what’s going on. It takes about a half of a lap, when you get pushed like that, for everybody else to catch up. It was really about the finish line when things started to get dicey again.”
The Letterman Show Monday night “it’s fun, it’s unique, it’s definitely the Letterman Show. I don’t think I got in a single question.
“But I did try to answer everything he asked.”
The Daytona 500, Newman now understands, is more than just another race: “I totally underestimated.
“I joked beforehand – when people asked me how great would it be to win the 50th, my standard answer seemed to be ‘It would be a little bit more special, than if you were to win the 49th.’ But it’s bigger than I ever thought.
“I’m 30 years old…and Roger Penske (his car owner) has been trying to win this race for 30 years. I can only imagine what it means to him. It’s my seventh or eighth attempt, and it’s super-special to me.
“I know, after seeing firsthand Dale Earnhardt’s experience, Darrell Waltrip’s experience, trying to get that first victory. It’s truly amazing. I don’t think you can really put into words how much it means to one person, or one team…
“But the different thing about our sport is we have to get back to it within five days. Other teams get to enjoy the entire off-season with the mental, emotional high.
“So I’m taking it for what it’s worth, and we’ll keep the ball rolling as best we can.”
The new winged car at Daytona will be judged and analyzed for a while now. “I would say the new car has evened the playing field in a lot of respects,” Newman says. “When the cars were in the dirtier air, a tighter pack, we felt with (old) Dodge that we didn’t have the entire package.
“We always worked on it, don’t get me wrong. But we struggled a little bit more in the dirty air, in the restart-mode than other organizations or manufacturers.
“So this new car has definitely leveled the playing field very much with the bodies.
“We put a lot of emphasis on what goes on underneath the hood now.
“I would say the new car itself is less of a performer than the old car. And I would say that it was defined, and purposely planned by NASCAR, to slow us down a little bit at certain tracks.”
For Newman, having a Daytona 500 trophy will mean even more as the years go on. “I think it’s huge…I really don’t know,” he says. “It hasn’t sunk in all the way, to know what it’s going to be like in 15 days or 15 years to come.
“It’s just a situation you have to experience.
“I’ve had a lot of congratulations from people like Kenny Schrader, Richard Petty and Roger Penske.
“But it’s huge, it’s a life-changing experience.
“So I’m trying to do my best to represent NASCAR and all the people that have made the difference in my life to get to this point.”

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Monday, February 18, 2008

Daytona 500 TV Ratings Up, Particularly in Chicago, Denver and Portland

Fox’ coverage of Sunday’s 50th Daytona 500 showed an increased average TV audience, total audience and household ratings compared to 2007, Fox officials said Monday in releasing the overnight Nielsens.
The race earned a 10.2 household rating (with a 20 share), which Fox says means it was watched by an averaged 17.8 million viewers. That’s one percent better than last year’s telecast, which pulled a 10.1, which Fox says means it was seen by an average of 17.5 million.
It was second most-watched 500 ever on FOX. Only the 2005 race pulled bigger numbers.
Fox also said its three NASCAR telecasts during Speedweeks showed improved ratings.
Fox offered these specifics:
--- 33.5 million Americans watched at least part of the race, up two percent over 2007’s 33.0 million.
—The Daytona 500 ratings this year are two percent better than the 10.0 (with a 16 share) that NBC averaged for Sunday Night Football, the first time the 500 has earned a higher rating than the prime-time NFL.
—The Daytona 500 also posted a higher rating than the most recent NCAA Final Four basketball tournament (CBS: 9.9), the final round of The Masters (CBS: 9.1), and the Kentucky Derby (NBC:8.8).
—The Daytona 500 pulled more than double the rating of last year’s Indianapolis 500 (4.3).
—As a prime-time event (it ran past 7 p.m.) it would rank ninth among all prime-time shows. It’s 6.5 rating among adults 18-49 would rank it seventh among all prime shows in that key demographic.
—In markets: Greenville, S.C., led all markets with a 24.1 rating, followed by Greensboro-Winston-Salem-High Point (22.5), Charlotte (21.1), Orlando (19.7) and Knoxville (19.6).
—Pittsburgh showed the most impressive growth, up 80 percent over 2007 (a 12.8 rating versus 7.1).
— Many of the markets with the biggest growth are outside NASCAR’s traditional Southeast home: Chicago and Detroit were up 25 percent (with a 7.1, and 10.9 respectively); Denver was up 51 percent (with a 10.1; Portland up 37 percent (with an 8.2), Cincinnati up 30 percent (with a 14.6); and Oklahoma City up 55 percent (with a 10.7).

All that Toyota-Chevy Pre-race Hype Turned into Daytona Frustration in the 500, and for Ford too

NASCAR’s controversial car-of-tomorrow looked pretty darned good in the Daytona 500
(Photo Credit: Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.
Rick Hendrick’s Chevy teams had a terrible 500, after so much pre-race hype. Ford teams were a major disappointment too, all through Speedweeks in fact.
Doug Yates’ men, David Gilliland and Travis Kvapil, were never in the hunt, and that’s a serious setback, because Yates Fords are renowned for their performance at Daytona.
Jack Roush’s men, aside from Matt Kenseth, fared little better, though they showed good patience and might have surprised. But Kenseth wound up getting taken out inadvertently by teammate David Ragan.
“I just bottomed out and shot up the track,” Ragan said, referring to a chassis problem prominent here with NASCAR’s new winged car and its stiff suspension. In fact Chevy’s Jeff Gordon went out early when his suspension broke; he finished a dismal 39th, though he had the only car that could run with the Toyotas during the daylight part of the race.
“I feel bad I had to take out my teammate Matt,” Ragan said. “I’m disappointed in myself. I should have known what we were doing out there.”

When it comes to frustration, there was more than enough to go around in the Chevy, Ford and Toyota camps.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. did make a good debut with Hendrick during Speedweeks, but Sunday he was hard-pressed just to hang on to the Toyotas.
Teammate Jimmie Johnson crashed out, just like he did here in 2007. “Sam Hornish Jr. got loose inside of me, or something went on there—he just barely got me and turned me around,” Johnson, 27th, said. “We stayed on the lead lap, did a good job there, but we had lost track position early, and we were fighting to get it back all day…and it was really difficult to pass anyone. It was impossible to work through traffic and get the track position.”
For everyone but Toyota’s Kyle Busch, who was dazzling and who probably would have won the 500 if teammate Tony Stewart had worked more closely with him in the final miles.
“I would have liked to finish better,” Earnhardt said. “We had a top-five car. It is frustrating.
“But at the end of that race, anything is going to happen, and guys get shuffled around. You just take what you can get without wrecking.”
“The best car didn’t win the race. Kyle had the strongest car all day. I tried to help him and Tony there at the end. I couldn’t do much. We were boxed and couldn’t make any more moves than we were making. And the ones I was making weren’t doing any good.
“It was touch-and-go at the end, and I am just glad we got our car home in one piece.”

Chevy’s Kevin Harvick, last year’s winner, had no punch this time: “We were just slow. Our car just wouldn’t go.”
Last week’s chassis dyno tests showed Harvick’s engine pulled some 30 horsepower less than the Toyotas.
With a little more oomph Jeff Burton, Harvick’s teammate, might have been able to make something happen. He had the lead in the clutch, but no power to keep it: “On that last restart we weren’t fast enough to run up front. We were in a bad spot. I knew we were going to get passed.
“But it’s always fun to lead at Daytona, and finishing 13th isn’t a bad start to the season.”
Burton sprinted from his car after the race to catch teammate Clint Bowyer, who was very angry with Juan Pablo Montoya for a late spin.
“We had a car that was capable of winning the race,” Bowyer complained. “It’s pretty hard to stomach being taken out when you’re leading the Daytona 500. A couple of guys got impatient, and we were the casualty.”
Montoya, however, had Kyle Busch right behind him pressing the issue.

Casey Mears was in the best spot of all the Hendrick men at the end, but when he moved up to block a surging Stewart he got turned into the wall. “We had a great day…except for those last five laps,” Mears said. “We had the tires, everything we needed to win there at the end.
“We just need to work on our communication a little bit. Eddie, my spotter, did a great job the whole time. And that was a very difficult spot (at the end of the frontstretch) when you are going away from the spotters. I just heard ‘Clear,’ looked in my mirror and didn’t see anybody, so I went turned up, because I knew they had a run. It was too late, I guess.”

Surprisingly, considering he’d been a non-factor in the run-up to the 500, Greg Biffle – whose style should be suited to these wild winged cars – found himself up front late in the 500, though he got shuffled back to 10th. Biffle was Ford’s best finisher.
“We were a little bit shy on speed,” Biffle said. “They (Tony Stewart, Newman and the Busch brothers) got such a run on us I couldn’t block them. They were just going to spin us out.”
That’s just what happened to Casey Mears.
Biffle, maybe giving a clue to the Ford game plan, said he came here “thinking about the championship, not a Daytona 500 win.
“We needed it to go green (down the stretch) to have a chance. With cautions like that, you get ganged up, and you don’t have a chance.
“But my car would stay with a lot of speed, while others were just slipping and sliding.
“I don’t know how I stayed out of trouble. I got hit on every corner and was sandwiched in the draft. They had my rear tires off the ground. It was just a handful. I don’t know how I survived it.”

Teammate Jamie McMurray is just glad to be leaving Daytona. “You can’t expect much when it’s your third car,” McMurray, 26th, said. “We wrecked our Shootout car, which was our 500 backup; then crashed our primary car. This one was all we had, and we just rode around. That’s all we did—is finish.”

David Gilliland, in his second season on the tour, was on the 500 pole a year ago, but he was never a factor this time around. “It was a difficult day,” he said. “We got behind early; it felt like a loose wheel or a tire coming apart, so we didn’t want to take a chance after the trouble we’d had all weekend.
“It just took us forever to get our lap back.”

Mistakes by Kyle Busch and Tony Stewart Open the Door for Ryan Newman

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.
Toyota, Toyota, Toyota.
Junior, Junior, Junior.
But the chanting late Sunday night, after his victory in the Daytona 500, was all for Ryan, Ryan, Ryan.
“The moons just aligned,” Ryan Newman said of the suddenly emotional climax.
And the night couldn’t have been a more bitter disappointment for Kyle Busch and teammate Tony Stewart, who seemed destined for a one-two Toyota finish until several late race cautions bunched up the lead pack and triggered several curious pit stop gambles. But it was mistakes by Busch and Stewart that cost them the win.
Busch led 86 of the 200 laps, at ease, teammate Denny Hamlin led 32 until he got banged up on the track, and Stewart led 16. So Joe Gibbs’ drivers led a whopping 134 of the 200.
Newman led only eight laps…but he was in the right position at the end to take advantage of the Toyota snafus.
Stewart could have let Kyle Busch lead the way through the closing laps, but on the last restart – he and Busch were running right behind then-leader Jeff Burton – Stewart went high around Burton while Busch went low. Stewart got a good push by Newman in clearing Burton, while Busch seemed oddly stymied on the low side, unable to keep up.
“When I pushed Tony through one and two, I was hoping he was going to hang on to it because I was pushing as hard as I could,” Newman said. “We broke free (from Kyle Busch), and then Kurt came up behind me off two and gave me the push from heaven.”
Newman, an engineer, is quite analytical, and pragmatic, and focused. Now he’ll have the opening to show his witty side too.
Until his cold streak, Newman was quick with the quip, eager to out-wit the competition with one-liners. But when he went cold on the track, he went cold with the quotes too.
Certainly this week, in his marathon New York City and Hollywood media blitz, Newman will have a chance to resharpen his wit.

It wasn’t that MoPar teams had ‘Mo Power’ in Sunday’s 500, not at all. But Newman’s win could mark the long-awaited comeback for long-suffering Dodge teams.
Bob Nardelli—the new Chrysler boss, and the man who as Home Depot boss was the one putting up with Tony Stewart’s antics for so many years—had predicted a Dodge victory, and even posted a $1 million bonus for the Dodge team that could pull it off.
But few if any others had Dodge in the equation, except for Reed Sorenson, strong in Jimmy Elledge’s car all Speedweeks.
“We’ve been telling everybody we’re working better together, and the proof is in the pudding—and we served up a heaping helping of Dodge Boys pudding out there,” Accavitti said proudly. “Listening to all the hype, you heard a lot about a lot of people besides the Dodge Boys. But we knew we had a super-strong team. We knew we were going to have a great season.”
Of course Dodge has to be wary of the possibility of leaving their game in Daytona. So this romp will be in better context after the upcoming events at California Speedway, Las Vegas and Atlanta. But then those are mid-sized tracks where Newman and teammate Kurt Busch can run well at.

“There was a lot of talk about Toyota, a lot of talk about Hendrick, the strengths they had,” Newman says. “But I thought we were extremely competitive Thursday. I thought Mark Martin was extremely strong in the 500, stout. Tony played patience—a little cat-and-rabbit there. He showed up when he needed to.
“Most importantly, we didn’t beat ourselves.”

Kurt Busch may have been the most surprised at the finish, because after his pre-Shootout run-in with Stewart 10 days ago, Speedweeks was a total bust….right until the final seconds.
“The Gibbs cars were very quick all week, the class of the field, and the Hendrick cars didn’t handle as well as what they thought they would,” Kurt Busch said. “But Ryan could hang on the bottom groove longer than anybody else. He had a very strong car. I don’t know if we’re the same caliber as the Gibbs and Hendrick cars, but it’s definitely great to finish 1-2 and be leading the points.”

Newman gave an appropriate nod to Kurt Busch: “He could have easily gone three-wide and split us through the center and made one heck of a mess there going into three. But he chose to be a teammate. I would have done the same thing for him.”
The final laps were, typically, confusing for the drivers. “I would say for sure the leader was a sitting duck on every restart,” Newman said. “I didn’t think Burton had the greatest car; we were fortunate when they split (Busch and Stewart) I got the chance to push Tony. That made a difference, because that lane moved. And it gave Kurt the opportunity to run the high line, which he wanted to.
“When I was out front early, I was just way loose. That’s why I dropped back: ‘Man, I can’t afford to crash it now. Let’s work on it.’
“It came back around once we got the cautions. But I was worried when those guys (Kyle Busch and Stewart) came down (for fresh tires); I was worried they were going to have better tires, and they did.
“But we had track position, and it paid off.”

Roy McCauley, now Newman’s crew chief, called this 500 “a race of durability when it comes to the tires and things like that.
“Ryan, when he had the car, could run in the first five. When he didn’t have the car, he’d find a slot somewhere between sixth and 10th and mind his time until we could get it right.
“That’s the mark of a smart driver.
“As far as pit strategy, once we could stop at lap 160 and make it on fuel, it was just a matter of, if another caution comes out, were you going to put tires on. I’m not going to kid you: we had some second-thoughts here and there. But I felt track position was better overall, trying to stay out of the accidents which normally come at the end of a plate race. They usually come in droves the last 20 laps.”

Ryan Newman Scores a Big One for the Dodge Boys at Daytona

Ryan Newman hits the Daytona jackpot
(Photo Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.
So after all the pre-race hype about Joe Gibbs’ Toyotas and Rick Hendrick’s Chevys, it was Ryan Newman and Mike Accavitti’s Dodge contingent pulling the big surprise in Sunday night’s Daytona 500, giving legendary car owner Roger Penske his first Daytona victory.
Newman, with a great last-lap push by teammate Kurt Busch down the backstretch, snapped a two-year losing streak with the biggest win of his career. And Accavitti, the Dodge racing boss, will surely get a pat on the back from Bob Nardelli, the new Chrysler CEO, and former Home Depot boss, here to watch Dodge teams sweep six of the top-eight.
Even Robby Gordon, the latest addition to the Dodge camp, via Gillett-Evernham, just two weeks ago, was up there. And that may be as telling as Newman’s win.
Newman insists he never lost confidence during his dry spell. Still, he was remarkably emotional after the win: “It’s probably one of the most awesome things that’s ever happened to me.
“To understand all the history of NASCAR—of racing in general—to be looking face-to-face with all the greats on stage (all the previous 500 winners)….and now to be one of those guys, part of that team, it’s just awesome.
“A.J. Foyt, Junior Johnson, even Pete Hamilton…guys I’d never seen before, just heard of. I’ve got their die-cast at home, I’ve got them all. To see those guys in person—to see Mario Andretti sitting with A.J. Foyt…picturing those guys, the way they used to run, the dirt….I felt that when Ken Schrader came up and gave me a hug in victory lane. Never said a word, just gave me a hug and walked off. I know how much he appreciates the history of the sport.
“I’ve always said Indianapolis was great, to walk in the garage and know you’re touching the same footprints as great drivers the last hundred years there. Now, just to be part of the 50th running of the Daytona 500….15 years ago I was sitting in the grandstands in the Seagrave Tower.
“It was just awesome to be able to look at the Seagraves section after the checkered flag and realize where you’ve been and where you are.
“There’s just so much honor that goes along with it…it will take a long time for it to set in.
“I know a lot of great things happen after you win the Daytona 500.
“It was tough last year, knowing we were that close so many times. Charlotte, when the track-bar mount broke.
“It’s like ‘Man, what do you got to do?’
“I told a few people ‘I just hope when I get back to victory lane it’s a big one.’”
This win was extra emotional since Newman’s father is his spotter: “I could hear the tears dripping going down the back straightaway over the radio. He was emotional, as he always is. Rightfully so. He’s put so much effort into making me a race car driver and the person that I am. My mother as well. Talked to my mom on the phone in victory lane. She was an absolute mess.”

For Roy McCauley, Newman’s new crew chief, it was emotional too….for different reasons.
McCauley had to take time off last year while his wife Amy was being treated for cancer, this win could be the breakthrough. He’s been at Penske’s for some time.
“I don’t think I have the words for what the last year has been,” McCauley says. “Exactly a year ago today actually, my wife was diagnosed with cancer. I thank Roger Penske for giving me the opportunity to take care of what comes first, which is family. Without Roger, I would not have been able to do that.
“To come from those extraordinary lows, and go through a lot of successful medical procedures in her case, to get her on the road to recovery….when we sat down and talked at the end of last fall, and they asked if I would be willing to take over this team, we had to have a serious talk—and say ‘Okay, we’re going to beat this, and we are beating this, and we’re not going to let cancer dictate the rest of our lives.’
“So we decided we needed to go for it.
“I give my wife a lot of credit. She’s my rock with wings.
“It’s just an emotional rollercoaster, and it’s nice to be on the top of it right now.”
“Roy’s situation was as tough as anybody could go through,” Newman said. “We think a lot alike, we act a lot alike. He’s a great guy.
“What his wife went through…my wife is very close with Amy. They did a lot of things together when we did our foundation efforts with the animals; she actually owned the marketing company.
“Happy to say that Amy is on the mend.”

The win was a rare milestone for Penske himself. So dominant at Indianapolis over the years, with 14 wins, Penske had been strangely shutout here.
“I’ve been here almost 30 years trying to get in victory lane,” Penske said. “To achieve this, with the competition, it’s just unbelievable.
“We’ve worked hard; we’ve come close. “We’ve tried for many years. We’ve had great drivers. We’ve been very close many years. But we never executed at the end.
“When you think of Rick’s team and Richard Childress and Gibbs, these are world-class teams that have won this race many times. To me, we’ve got a long way to go before we can sit at the table with those guys…but we’re coming close.
“You needed to win this race to get in that class, and we did that. Certainly our wins at Indy have been important to us. But there is no question when you run 35 or 36 races a year with the tight competition, the way this sport has been developed by the France family, it’s tough.
“Ryan drove a masterful race—as he has done many times, and come up short. But this was special for us.”

Jeff Gordon knows it’s tough to win the Daytona 500 sitting in the garage
(Photo Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)