By Dan Kattan
Last season there was a lot of debate regarding the “Go or Go-Home” drivers qualifying at the same time. Many people believed that these teams should have an equal chance to make the race. By having them qualify together, it ensured the track conditions for each team, giving everyone …
Both were inside the top five when Hamlin tapped into Keselowski, who retaliated by hitting Hamlin twice. The second contact caused Hamlin to spin.
This was the view from Keselowski's car:
"On the last restart there, Denny got into the back of me and pushed me up the track," Keselowski said. "I was going to return the favor. When he did it to me, I saved it. When I did it to him, he didn't save it. We just got into a pushing match. I don't really don't hold any grudges. I don't know why he wanted to do that. But whatever, that's just how racing is, I guess."
And Hamlin's interpretation of the battle for top-five position?
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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Kurt Busch and Pat Tryson had every reason to coast through the season's final 10 races in a long farewell before the crew chief bolts to a new team next year.
Only they promised not to go through the motions, and Busch's win at Texas Motor Speedway showed they kept their word. The victory Sunday moved Busch to fourth in the standings and gave him a solid shot at celebrating a top-five finish when NASCAR's season-ending awards ceremony makes its debut in Busch's hometown of Las Vegas.
Not too shabby considering Tryson is only allowed inside Penske Racing once a week, for the Tuesday team meeting. He's been banned from the shop the rest of the time as Penske officials prepare for 2010 without him.
Tryson decided in late August to move to Michael Waltrip Racing next season to crew chief Martin Truex Jr., news that broke just a week before the start of the championship race. Busch wasn't pleased with the timing, or Tryson's decision, and everyone assumed the knee-jerk reaction would cost Busch any shot at the title.
Instead, they raced hard and overcame any limitations placed on Tryson's preparation and planning. They also proved everyone wrong who predicted that Tryson's lame duck status would keep Busch out of Victory Lane.
"Pat, great job for you," team owner Roger Penske told Tryson after Sunday's race.
"Appreciate the commitment you made in these last races. I want to say that publicly. I know you're a first-class guy. What a great win for you and for the team."
Tryson simply thanked Penske for the kind words and the subject was dropped.
It's the same way Tryson has deflected talk about his departure since it became public knowledge. He's chosen not to harp on it and instead make sure Busch had the very best race car possible each week of the Chase.
That was evident early when Busch opened the Chase with consecutive top-10 finishes. There was an 11th at Kansas that hurt him in the standings, but he came back for another pair of top-10s. His only real off day was at Martinsville, where he's struggled the last three years, and finished 17th.
His Chase has been good enough to make Busch look back at Talladega two weeks ago with immense regret: He had a top-10 finish locked up on the final lap, only to be wrecked by new teammate Brad Keselowski and finish 30th.
If Busch had brought his car home where he'd been running, he'd be a whole lot closer than 171 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson.
"I'm kicking myself for what happened," he said. "We find ourselves too far behind, but we're still within a reasonable distance."
But Busch and Tryson have plenty to be proud of, most notably the professionalism they've shown during their farewell run together. Neither talks much publicly about why Tryson is leaving, but the crew chief has been absolutely adamant that it has nothing at all to do with Busch or his reputation as an emotional driver who is very hard on team personnel.
It leaves Busch in a bind of having to replace a team leader who guided him to five wins and two Chase berths while probably resisting the urge to strangle him during one of his mid-race meltdowns. No matter how hard Busch might be on his team, though, the 2004 Chase winner is still the best option out there for a crew chief looking for a winner.
And that's why Victory Lane was a bit emotional Sunday night.
"Right now, with the way that we're situated, it's bittersweet because, hey, Pat is leaving," Busch said. "We wish that we could stick together. We want to get the best we can out of these last few races."
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
By Jenna Fryer - Associated Press
There are only a few things you can count on each year from NASCAR, and a great race at Talladega Superspeedway is pretty much guaranteed.
By great, I don’t mean the spectacular wrecks that have come to signify NASCAR’s fastest track. What makes Talladega so special is the bumping and the banging, the slicing and dicing for position, and the white-knuckle race to the finish line.
So if Sunday was your first exposure to Talladega, well, you sat through a tremendous letdown. That race fell far short of expectations, and nothing NASCAR says or does is going to convince anyone otherwise.
A pre-race ban on bump-drafting through the turns essentially neutered the race.
Warned by NASCAR president Mike Helton that bumping the car in front of you would only be permitted on the straightaways, the drivers were forced to back off each others bumpers and create “sunlight” between themselves. Since NASCAR was playing the judge, jury and executioner, nobody had any idea just what would be deemed illegal or how it would be punished.
It meant after an initial period that saw drivers going two- and three-wide in an attempt to gauge just what kind of car they had, they then pulled into one long single-file parade lap for a huge portion of the race.
Where were the daring lane changes? Or the dive bombs into holes that used to close in the blink of an eye?
Again, this isn’t about accidents, which for the record were reduced because of this strategy. This is about the lack of action at a track where excitement had previously been ensured for all 500 miles.
There were stretches of Sunday’s race where Tony Stewart complained he was having trouble staying awake, and Kevin Harvick’s crew joked they were going to find a place inside his car to install an iPod for his in-race enjoyment.
Others grumbled that the race should be cut in half, or even a 50-lap shootout, because the bulk of the event was being spent logging laps until it was time to actually go racing.
So things briefly did get interesting, somewhere around the 450-mile marker, when the action picked up and the race was plagued by two frightening crashes. A chain-reaction crash with five laps to go sent Ryan Newman straight up into the air, then back down on his roof, where he first landed on Harvick’s hood before sailing into the infield grass.
Newman was stuck there on his roof, which he said was akin to being in a tomb, for at least 10 minutes as the safety crew had to turn his car before needing another five minutes to cut away the crumpled sheet-metal roof. Newman was physically fine when he got out of the car, but the outspoken safety advocate was in a bit of a foul mood.
“I wish NASCAR would do something,” Newman said. “It was a boring race for the fans. That’s not something that anybody wants to see, at least I hope not. If they do, go home because you don’t belong here.
“Just a product of this racing – what NASCAR’s put us into with this box, with these restrictor plates, with these types cars, with the yellow line, with no bump-drafting, no passing. Drivers used to be able to respect each other and race around each other. Richard Petty, David Pearson, Bobby Allison – all those guys have always done that. I guess they don’t think much of us any more.”
The second accident came during the two-lap sprint to the finish, and this time Mark Martin’s car went airborne and rolled. Martin, with 1009 career NASCAR starts, said it was his first time upside down.
These two incidents are what Sunday’s race will be remembered for. They overshadowed Jamie McMurray’s surprise victory, and Jimmie Johnson’s dumb-luck sixth-place finish.
But shame on NASCAR if they don’t pay attention to the disgruntled drivers and fans who all thought Talladega was a major disappointment.
Here are five more things from Talladega: Click here to read the rest of the article
By Associated Press
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Richard Petty Motorsports is finalizing elements of its 2010 program, beginning this weekend when Elliott Sadler will race a Ford at Talladega Superspeedway.
Behind the scenes, the team is also shoring up its lineup.
Team officials familiar with RPM's personnel moves told The Associated Press on Wednesday that sponsor Best Buy will move from Sadler's car next season to Petty's famed No. 43 with AJ Allmendinger as the driver. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because the changes have yet to be announced.
Stanley will become the sole primary sponsor for Sadler. Both Best Buy and Stanley had shared Sadler's car this season.
Sponsorship concerns have been one of the larger issues facing RPM as it prepares for 2010. The team is trying to complete a deal to merge with Yates Racing, and plans to move full time from Dodge to Ford next season.
But its lineup has been a huge question as RPM fielded only two fully funded cars all season for Sadler and Kasey Kahne. The team has had to piece together funding for Allmendinger and Reed Sorenson, and both drivers have forfeited either salary or race winnings to help keep their teams afloat.
Majority team owner George Gillett Jr. said earlier this month that RPM would field a minimum of three cars next season, but he would not discuss the potential lineup or sponsorship issues. By moving Best Buy to the No. 43, the team now has the far less difficult task of selling some individual races for Allmendinger and Sadler, as opposed to the daunting task of trying to secure a primary sponsor willing to spend $15 million or more to back Allmendinger.
RPM could still be a four-car team, contingent on the merger with Yates and if driver Paul Menard and the sponsorship from his father's hardware store chain stay within the organization. The Menards could try to negotiate their way out of the contract and move the entire package to another team.
Either way, all signs indicate the RPM-Yates merger will go through.
"We do know that the negotiations are going very well with Yates Racing and RPM," said Brian Wolfe, director of Ford North America Motorsports.
"Both sides are very excited about the opportunities, but the final I's dotted and T's crossed has not been completed yet. All parties are working together, assuming that there are no real hard rocks in the road yet, so we're just really excited about the opportunities going forward."
The change to Ford will happen regardless of the merger, and Sadler will be the first RPM driver to race in the new model Sunday at Talladega. Allmendinger is expected to drive a Ford in the final three races of the season.
In getting its drivers seat time now, RPM officials will get a head start on their 2010 planning.
Giving Sadler the car for Talladega also gives the team a database to prepare for the season-opening Daytona 500, which is also a restrictor plate race. Sadler is the best plate racer at RPM, with two top-10 finishes in the three plate races so far this season.
He's also led at least one lap in his last 13 starts at Talladega, has three poles and three top-10 finishes.
Sadler also has a lengthy past relationship with both Ford (269 starts) and Yates (130 races). He won seven poles in Yates Fords, including one at Talladega in May 2006.
"Since this is the final restrictor plate race of the season, we made the decision to run a Ford to get some work done in advance," Sadler said. "This will be our first time to practice and work on a Fusion under real race conditions. It should help us get ready to make a strong showing at Daytona and put us in the best position to start next season. Since it's important to start a season off on the right foot, we thought we'd try to get a head start."
By Nate Ryan, USA TODAY
Brad Keselowski enters his final Sprint Cup start with Hendrick Motorsports in search of twin goals: a perfect race and a perturbed rival. The two aren't mutually exclusive for an upstart who seems to relish ruffling feathers in 200-mph games of chicken while running a part-time schedule in NASCAR's premier series this season.
"There's a sense of accomplishment that comes from that in a bizarre way," Keselowski, 25, says. "In this sport when others are angry at you, generally you've done something right. Because when you're in a competitive environment, the only time a competitor likes you...
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FONTANA, Calif. -- For the second consecutive day, illness forced Kyle Busch to make an early exit from his car.
Suffering from the aftereffects of strep throat, bronchitis and influenza, Busch lasted 62 laps in Sunday's Pepsi 500 at Auto Club Speedway before being replaced by David Gilliland in the No. 18 Toyota. He was helped from the car, and then slowly climbed on top of the team's war wagon to watch a couple of laps before going back to the garage area.
"I'm going to go lay down for a little bit and see if I can't get some fluids or something in me at the infield care center," Busch said. "The car was decent. I'm real proud of these guys. I appreciate them sticking behind me and I'm sorry I had to get out.
"I'm not feeling well. I was coughing real bad out there. Maybe now I'll go lay down and get some fluids or something and try to get better. We've been fighting it for several days."
Denny Hamlin filled in for Busch..... Click here to read the rest of the article
by Jeff Owens, NASCAR Scene
In fact, they radioed Keselowski's team, warning him about racing Montoya and other championship contenders too hard in the middle of the race.
In essence, NASCAR was telling Keselowski to back off, cut the Chase contenders some slack and race them differently than other competitors.
Fortunately, Keselowski laughed it off and paid little attention to the warning.
"I thought it was kind of funny," Keselowski said. "(Crew chief Tony Eury Jr.) just told me NASCAR wanted me to be mindful. I thought (Montoya) needed to be mindful of me. He's the one who hit me. I didn't really change the way I raced him."
Though it's always risky to......
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By SCnow.com
Top NASCAR executives will hold a public forum about motorsports marketing today at 2 p.m. at Wheelwright Auditorium on the Coastal Carolina University campus.
According to a news release, the panel of NASCAR officials will answer questions and consider suggestions about how to enhance the NASCAR experience.
Organizers say it’s an opportunity for NASCAR fans to get a behind the scenes look at NASCAR and the motorsports industry.
A pre-party will begin at 1 p.m. outside the venue with live music, food, racecars, prizes and giveaways. A raffle will take place for tickets and pit passes for Darlington Raceway¹s Sprint Cup Race, The Southern 500.
The public forum is free and open to the public, the release said.
Participating in the panel are:
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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — NASCAR is expected to announce a move toward more consistent start times in 2010.
NASCAR chairman Brian France has called a Wednesday afternoon conference call with the programming heads of Fox Sports, ESPN and Turner Broadcasting Distribution. All three networks have apparently agreed to work with NASCAR on starting races earlier and at a more consistent time.
Races are currently started at different times of the day, depending on the network. The later starts and inconsistency is thought to have contributed to NASCAR's sinking television ratings.
It's not clear what Fox Sports chairman David Hill plans to do with the season-opening Daytona 500. He prefers a race that starts in late afternoon and ends in prime-time.
This was sent to us so it was posted as whole. All rights and credits reserved to the AP
Suspended NASCAR driver Jeremy Mayfield is turning to high-profile attorney Mark Geragos to help fight his drug suspension.
Geragos confirmed to The Associated Press on Friday night that he's finalizing a deal to represent Mayfield himself out of his Washington, D.C.-based firm Luque Geragos and Marino.
"It's clear to me that there are real issues here, substantial issues, and I think he's getting a raw deal," Geragos said.
Geragos declined to discuss specific issues until he could review the case, citing a protective order that U.S. District Judge Graham Mullen has in place.
Mayfield has been suspended since failing a May 1 random drug test. NASCAR says he tested positive for methamphetamines, and the driver has denied using the illegal drug.
Mayfield sued to have his suspension lifted, and NASCAR countersued.
He won an injunction July 1 to lift his suspension, but did not attempt to make any of the three races before the U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the suspension on July 24. A hearing on the injunction appeal is tentatively scheduled for the first week of December.
The case has taken several bizarre twists...
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