The Auto Racing Journal

Shootout facts

2012-02-14T19:17:00.006-05:00

The FACTS

The start to the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season is only days away with the 34th running of the Budweiser Shootout at Daytona on Saturday, February 18. Dating back to the first event in 1979, the Budweiser Shootout has featured some of the sport’s greatest drivers and provided a number of thrilling finishes.

Historical facts and information

· The first Budweiser Shootout at Daytona took place on Feb. 11, 1979, and was a 20-lap race with no scheduled breaks.

· Nine drivers participated in the inaugural race, and Buddy Baker scored the win, edging out Darrell Waltrip by one car length to take the checkered flag.

· Utilizing the format established in 2009, the Budweiser Shootout is currently a 75-lap race that features a 10-minute break after the first 25 laps.

· Kurt Busch is the defending Budweiser Shootout champion. Busch scored the win by making a last-lap pass on the dueling duo of Ryan Newman and Denny Hamlin. While Busch went to the outside to make his move, Hamlin dropped below Newman in an effort to go for the win. After a review of the final lap, NASCAR determined Hamlin went below the yellow line in trying to pass Newman, which was a violation of the rulebook. Busch was then scored as the race winner, becoming the 19^th different driver to score a victory in the Budweiser Shootout.

· The margin of victory in last year’s race was a mere 0.058 seconds, setting a new record for the closest finish in the history of the Budweiser Shootout.

By the NUMBERS

Dodge scored its first and only win in the Budweiser Shootout in 2011.

Five drivers have earned Budweiser Shootout victories after leading only the final lap of the race. Dale Earnhardt was the first to steal the win with a last-lap pass in 1980. Neil Bonnett managed the same feat two years in a row in 1983 and 1984. Rusty Wallace (1998), Dale Jarrett (2004) and most recently Kevin Harvick (2009) also earned Budweiser Shootout wins by leading only the checkered flag lap.

In 2009, a total of 14 different drivers led a lap in the Budweiser Shootout, setting an event record for most different leaders in a single race.

The manufacturer with the most Budweiser Shootout wins is Chevrolet with a whopping 19 trips to Victory Lane.

The record for number of lead changes during the race is 28, set in last year’s event.

En route to his 2008 Budweiser Shootout win, Dale Earnhardt Jr. led seven times for a total of 47 laps, setting the record for most laps led in a single race.

The No. 88 entry has gone to Victory Lane five times with three different drivers in the Budweiser Shootout. Bobby Allison first won in the No. 88 entry in 1982. Dale Jarrett picked up victories in 1996, 2000 and 2004, and most recently, Dale Earnhardt Jr. drove the No. 88 car to Victory Lane in the event in 2008. The only other car number that’s earned as many wins is the No. 3 entry Dale Earnhardt drove to Victory Lane five times in the Budweiser Shootout (1986, 1988, 1991, 1993 and 1995).

Speed Shifts: Waltrip to make 75th start

2012-02-14T13:30:00.001-05:00

CORNELIUS, N.C. — Hillman Racing and Aaron’s Inc. announced that two-time Daytona 500 champion Michael Waltrip will drive the No. 40 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota in the 2012 Daytona 500 on Feb. 26.

The race will mark Waltrip’s 75^th start at Daytona in one of NASCAR’s top three touring series (Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Camping World trucks) – the most of any driver.

CORNELIUS, N.C. —Mark Martin has a special seat reserved for Saturday night’s 34th annual Budweiser Shootout at Daytona that kicks off the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. The 1999 Shootout winner will sit atop Michael Waltrip’s pit box.

Waltrip will drive the No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine with plans to give Toyota its first victory in the 75-lap, non-points race.

Martin, who is sharing the No. 55 with Waltrip in 2012, has work of his own to do this weekend as his team prepares for single-car qualifying at 1 p.m. on Sunday (Fox) for the Feb. 26 Daytona 500.

Rockingham, N.C. — The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) Good Sam Club Roadside Assistance 200 presented by Cheerwine is the highlight of the April 13-15 race weekend at Rockingham Speedway, but if your wait until 1 p.m. on Sunday to come to the track, you are going to miss a lot of racing action.

The cars of the UARA-Stars Late Model Series are the first to hit the track on Friday, April 13 with a 10 a.m. practice session. They return to the track for a second practice at 1:40 p.m. The Camping World Trucks hit the track for two practice sessions on Friday: a noon session and a 3:30 p.m. session. Friday's on track activities culminate in practice and qualifying for the Frank Kimmel Street Stock Nationals (FKSSN) from 5:15 p.m. until 6:15 p.m.

Grandstand admission is free for Friday's activities.

Keeping watch over Bobby Isaac

2012-02-08T18:45:00.000-05:00

Legendary racer's career began and ended in Hickory

By: Tom Gillispie | Hickory Daily Record
Published: September 02, 2011
Updated: September 02, 2011 - 9:53 AM

HICKORY -- Bobby Isaac apparently was hearing things.

In 1973 at Talladega Superspeedway, Isaac suddenly radioed hall-of-fame car owner Bud Moore and said he was pitting. He got out of the car and pretty much retired from Winston Cup racing on the spot.

Later, he told a reporter that a voice had told him to get out of the car. Maybe he heard it because, earlier in the race, driver Larry Smith died in an accident.

“He was a very unusual person, and a lot people found him a bit odd,” said Humpy Wheeler, the promoter at Charlotte Motor Speedway from 1975 to 2008. “I thought he was a product of the time; he was brought up in a sawmill in the country, and he had not learned to read or write at the time. He went racing for a guy from Cherryville named Frank Hefner, and Frank didn't know Bobby couldn’t read. They’d stop to eat, and Bobby would order a hotdog. He never looked at the menu.”

Legendary racer Jack Ingram, a friend of Isaac’s, says one of Isaac’s wives taught him to read.

“I never figured out who did teach him to read,” Wheeler said. “He was a proud man, and he never talked to people except people he was close to. He and David Pearson were very much alike – where came from, same age, both from mill towns, and Pearson was one of the most upset people when Bobby died. They traveled together and bummed around together.”

Some people may have thought that Isaac was a coward for walking away at Talladega. Wheeler never thought that.

“Bobby was one brave human being in a race car,” Wheeler said. “I don't think there was anything that scared him. He was one of the first drivers who learned to race the big superspeedways. The cars were faster than they are now, and you had to watch out for the terrible right-front (tire) blowout. It meant you’d really hit the wall hard. But Bobby stayed cool in a race car; he didn't scare, didn't get upset.

“When it came down to a showdown, he was tough to beat.”

Beginning and end at Hickory

The beginning and end of Isaac’s great career were at Hickory.
Robert Vance “Bobby” Isaac (1932-1977), a native of Catawba, visited Hickory Motor Speedway in 1952, a year after the dirt track opened, and decided he wanted to race. He bought a 1937 Ford and put roll bars in it to run Hobby Stocks. His first race at Hickory wasn’t much of a success – he flipped the Ford on the second lap – but it didn’t cool his ardor for racing.

At the end, Isaac was running in a Late Model Sportsman race at HMS on Aug. 14, 1977. With 25 laps left he called for a relief driver and collapsed on pit road. He was revived briefly at the hospital, but a heart attack killed him in the early morning hours. He was 45.

The day that Elvis Presley died – Aug. 16, 1977 – Isaac was buried in the cemetery behind turns three and four at HMS.
In between, Isaac had a world-class career.

He posted 37 Cup victories and 50 poles, and he won 11 races in 1970, the year he won NASCAR’s Grand National (now Sprint Cup) championship. He claimed 20 Cup poles in 1969, and he had a whopping 17 wins one season.
In 1970, he set what was then a world closed-course speed record of 201.104 mph at Talladega.

A year later, he went to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah and set 28 world speed records, including some that still stand.

The Bobby Isaac Memorial races at Hickory – set for Sunday and Monday, Sept. 4 and 5 – isn’t the only memorial to Isaac. Each year, Charlotte Motor Speedway presents the Bobby Isaac Memorial Award to an individual or group in recognition of outstanding contribution to short-track racing. Two of the winners were also HMS stalwarts, Ingram and Harry Gant.

Isaac was inducted into the National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame in 1979 and the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1996.
In 1998 NASCAR honored Isaac as one of its NASCAR's 50 greatest drivers ever.

And Isaac’s name graces the Wall of Fame at HMS.

‘Isaac being Isaac’

Wheeler’s favorite Isaac story is one about a watch he got, ironically, from the Talladega track. After the Talladega incident, Isaac quit racing for a while, and he wound up racing at short tracks like Hickory.

“One of the results of Talladega,” Wheeler said, “was that he didn’t want anything in the house that said Talladega. Bill France (Sr.) gave him a gold Rolex watch, and on the back it said ‘Quitters never win, winners never quit, Talladega 500.’

“Bobby never wore that watch, never put it on. One day he came into my office (at Charlotte Motor Speedway). He never knocked on the door. He said he had the watch and said, ‘You want you to buy this watch, you need a Rolex.’ I said, ‘No, I don't.’ He said, ‘I know you do.’ ”

Isaac left the watch in Wheeler’s drawer and walked out. Later, Tom Pistone called and told Humpy that he owed so much for car parts. Wheeler would pay for the parts, and Humpy knew that was the cost of the watch.

“I started wearing it, and when he died, I offered to give the watch back to his wife,” Wheeler said. “I thought it ought to be part of his trophy collection, but she said, ‘No, he wanted you to have it.’ It meant more than the money, so I still had it.”

As for Isaac getting out of the car, “It shocked everybody else, but what he did at Talladega didn’t surprise me one iota,” Wheeler said.

To Wheeler, it was Isaac being Isaac.

The Angel in Black

2012-02-08T18:34:00.000-05:00

Race fans probably wonder where the book name "Angel in Black: Remembering Dale Earnhardt Sr." came from.

I wrote "I Remember Dale Earnhardt" in early 2001 for Cumberland House Publishing and decided to promote the book with a story I could send to small newspapers (which are often looking for free copy). So I used a portion of the book and told a story about Earnhardt's love for (and kindnesses toward) children.

In one story from the book, a little boy is dying, and his wish is to meet Earnhardt. Dale had just undergone surgery and couldn't travel, so an ambulance and medical team were assembled to bring the boy to the Kannapolis area.

Earnhardt was wearing a collar, and he was shy about people seeing it. But he allowed someone to take a photo of him with the boy, and he told the boy that no one else would see him with that collar. He spent time with the boy, who didn't have much time left, and he made the next few days more bearable for the boy's parents.

There are other stories like that in the book. Why Angel in Black? In that promotion story, I said that kids didn't see Earnhardt as the baddest man on the planet. To them, he was the angel in black.

Then we were updating the book in 2007. While working on the update, I sent a copy of that article to my editor at Cumberland House, John Mitchell, and he showed it to the publisher, Ron Pitkin. Ron fell in love with the term Angel in Black, and he asked me what we could call the book with Angel in Black as the main head. One of my suggestions was "Angel in Black: Remembering Dale Earnhardt Sr." And that's what was used.

QUICK SHIFTS: Johnson's technology grant

2012-02-06T20:13:00.000-05:00

Jimmie Johnson Foundation joins with Lowe’s and Samsung

to award inaugural Team Up For Technology grant

Charlotte, N.C. — Five-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion Jimmie Johnson announced that Robert Sanders Elementary School in San Jose, Calif., will receive the inaugural Team Up for Technology grant, a partnership between the Jimmie Johnson Foundation, Lowe’s and Samsung Hope for Children.

“As the Jimmie Johnson Foundation expands its work to support K-12 education, it is amazing to see the needs that continue to emerge around technology in particular,” said Johnson. “We wanted to give people across the country the chance to help move their school forward.”

Johnson announced the awarding of the grant through a video message to students and faculty gathered around a laptop computer provided by the foundation. The $48,000 Team Up For Technology grant will allow the school to purchase the technology it needs to be able to share such videos on a projection screen for the entire student body.

Rockingham, N.C. — Rockingham Speedway's Camping World Truck Series race will start at 1 p.m. on April 15, 2012.

The race will be called the Good Sam Club Roadside Assistance Carolina 200 presented by Cheerwine.

Statesville, N.C. – NASCAR driver Ryan Newman and wife Krissie began discussing plans for an animal rescue facility in Iredell County a few years ago, and the first step in the process took place a couple of miles from their home in Statesville, N.C.

The facility is called “Rescue Ranch” and will lay on 87 acres off N.C. Highway 21 and has been a dream of Krissie’s. The ranch will have similarities to the Helen Woodward Animal Center in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., where good friend Mike Arms is the president. The facility will have a number of phases; the first consisting of offices and classrooms. Future phases will consist of a boarding facility, veterinary clinic, horse stalls and pastures, riding trails, educational camps and a small animal and creepy/crawly building.

“Building a rescue facility has been something I’ve wanted to do for some time,” said Krissie, who is the vice president of the Ryan Newman Foundation and sits on the Board of Directors for the Humane Society of Iredell County.

“Ryan and I are big animal lovers and want to educate people, mainly children why it’s important to spay and neuter their pets, but also give them the tools on how to care for pets. Giving the opportunity to see different animals and critters allows children to have a better understanding about being a caregiver and also helps with self esteem and the way they might treat people as they get older.”

Bobby Allison, forgotten

2012-01-07T15:57:00.000-05:00

It was 1998, and I was in the Darlington Raceway infield when I ran into Bobby Allison. I'd talked to him many times, and he'd begun to remember me (despite his memory loss from a 1988 wreck at Pocono).

We wanted to talk, but it was way too hot outside, so we decided to go to the media center. I had a media pass, of course, but Bobby didn't. The young guard didn't recognize Bobby, of course, and the legendary driver sighed. I smiled. It took some talking, and I think Bobby finally showed him something that let him in. Otherwise, we might have had to talk in that little area between the front door and the media center itself.

When we sat down to talk, I mentioned that to Allison and said, "That guy doesn't know the history of the sport." He sighed again. I asked, "Does that bother you?"

"No, people forget," he said. As for a sense of racing history, "It doesn't mean as much to him as it does to you and me."

We had a nice interview that day, and I think Dick Trickle edged Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the Busch (now Nationwide) race. Bobby Allison and Dick Trickle ... now that's a pair.

Remembering Dale Earnhardt

2012-01-07T15:51:00.004-05:00

Here's an excerpt from Angel in Black: Remembering Dale Earnhardt, Sr.

From Humpy Wheeler, then the president of Lowe's Motor Speedway (now Charlotte Motor Speedway):

"Behind that macho facade was a real sensitive individual who did a lot of things for a lot of people and didn't want any publicity in return. He was part of a very loving family and was truly an extraordinary human being. To think he is not around anymore is incomprehensible."

More later.

Milk toast

2012-01-07T15:46:00.001-05:00

An excerpt from Angel in Black: Remembering Dale Earnhardt Sr.:

One of my favorite Earnhardt stories is Dale's supposed intimidation of Jeff Gordon and Gordon's reaction. Gordon won the first Brickyard 400, in 1994, and Earnhardt won the next year. Earnhardt got on TV and told a talk-show host that he was the first man to win the Brickyard 400. At one point, a rumor was circulating that Gordon was gay, and that apparently came out of the Earnhardt camp. Gordon, who was painfully young and youthful-looking then, took it well enough that the whole intimidation thing died out.

At a NASCAR banquet one year, Gordon drank a milk toast to Earnhardt, who responded with champagne. Gordon was certainly no milquetoast, and Earnhardt recognized that. The two actually became business partners, and in photos you can see Earnhardt's affection for Gordon.

Earnhardt had seventy-six Cup victories. Who would later pass him for sixth place on the all-time victory list? Gordon, of course. (NOTE: Gordon has since moved up to third all time with 85 victories.)

Coping with Earnhardt

2012-01-07T15:37:00.005-05:00

Derrike Cope, who won the 1990 Daytona 500 when Dale Earnhardt blew a tire on the last lap, says he's glad Dale finally won NASCAR's biggest race in 1998:

(From Angel in Black: Remembering Dale Earnhardt Sr., page 160) In some respects, I felt tied to Earnhardt. Until his win (in 1998), I was one of the main obstacles between the Daytona 500 and him. It's almost to the point to where you feel bad that you won it, to some degree, just because he had done everything else in racing that he could possibly do.

Thank God he did win it, because to do what he had done and to get killed in the fashion he did, it would really have been unfair. I'm just very appreciative that he won it.

An intimidating visit...

2012-01-07T15:32:00.000-05:00

Here's an excerpt from Angel In Black: Remembering Dale Earnhardt, Sr.

Jerry Gappens, the longtime publicist for Lowe's Motor Speedway, recalls track president Humpy Wheeler wanting to get Earnhardt for a couple of functions, but Earnhardt's schedule didn't permit it. Wheeler, who had a good relationship with Earnhardt, was a little upset, and that got back to Dale. That's when Gappens got an intimidating visit.

This is the most I've ever been intimidated by Earnhardt: I was trying to hook up with him for a press conference and an autograph session for one of our big Auto Fairs. Typical bad luck: every time I wanted him to do something, he had a conflict and couldn't do it. I was working through his publicist and Don Hawk, his business manager at the time. Humpy wanted to know about Earnhardt, and I said, "He was busy and couldn't do it, blah, blah, blah." That kinda made Humpy mad.

Well, Earnhardt always comes here to get his tickets. He had a condo here, and Humpy would give him his tickets. Earnhardt'd make a tour through the speedway offices, say hi to people, pick up his tickets, sign stuff for employees. After I told Humpy about not being able to get Earnhardt over this three-month stretch, it made him mad. Dale had a lot of respect for Humpy; he and Humpy were very close. Humpy said, "I'll talk to him the next time I see him. He's not too big to help out."

I'm on the phone one afternoon, and the door was open. All of a sudden, Earnhardt walks through my door, followed closely by Don Hawk. Eanhardt stops, shuts the door, and locks it. I think, Oh, my goodness, this is big here. He's towering over my desk, so I say, "How are you doing?" He said, "I'm doing fine. I just want to find out what our problem is. I just went to Humpy's office, and I'm sideways with Humpy." That's exactly how he said it, "sideways with Humpy. He said. "I don't need to be sideways with Humpy. He mentioned some press stuff that didn't get done. I want to try to straighten it out."

I gave him the three situations we were talking about. He says, "Here we go: If you need a press conference, call J.R. Rhodes, my publicist. If you need an autograph, call Don Hawk. Hawk, give him your numbers." Hawk gave me his business number, his home phone number, his cell-hyone number. I had about six numbers for Don Hawk.

He said, "Jerry, all I ask is that you give me enough advance notice so I can get it on my schedule, because my schedule is cramped." I said, "I understand," and he said, "I don't need to be sideways with Humpy. This is my home track, and I don't want to be sideways with anybody here. I want to help out, just like I always have. We have an understanding. And I understand my role it that." So he says, "Are we square?" and I say, "Yes sir." And he reached over and pinched my nose, twisted my nose a little bit. If he liked people, he always pestered them a bit.

I'd just been put in charge of public relations. Eddie Gossage had just gone to Texas to be the general manager there, and I though, Here I have one of Winston Cup's best drivers in my office, and he's going to whip my butt right here. It was a real businesslike conversation, and he that me that real crappy Earnhardt-like grin. After it was over, he even asked me about my pictures of my kids, what they did, what they liked. He looked around the office because of the racing mementos.

After that, he always helped us out, but I understood where he got the name "the Intimidator."

My best day as a sports writer

2012-01-04T11:12:00.001-05:00

I was working on my most recent Dale Earnhardt book -- Angel in Black: Remembering Dale Earnhardt, Sr. -- on a Wednesday in late 2007. I called a friend of mine, radio announcer Mark Garrow, who gave me a couple of stories about Earnhardt.

A few of them were about Bristol Motor Speedway -- including the infamous "rattlin' his cage" incident with Terry Labonte — so I called Wayne Estes, who works at BMS (and before that worked in PR for Ford). Wayne gave his versions of the same stories, and I was off and running for the day.

Around noon, I got a call from Larry McReynolds, who was Earnhardt's crew chief when Dale won the 1998 Daytona 500. Larry and I chatted for nearly an hour, and we shared some laughs. The book was getting better.

A few minutes after we hung up, Geoff Bodine called. He said he was on a business/pleasure trip to Hawaii, and you could hear glasses clinking in the background. I assume they were in the pleasure part of the trip. Geoff was Earnhardt's chief rival in the '90s, and he regaled me with stories, including the one about Dale borrowing a cop's handcuffs and cuffing Geoff to a railing at a short track.

The book was getting better still.

I had some more calls out ... Randy LaJoie, David Pearson, Hut Stricklin and many others ... but I had to go shopping. About an hour later, my cell rang. "Tom, it's David. David Pearson." "David, good to hear from you," I said. "Actually, I'm shopping at Walmart. Could I call you back later?"

David told me to call him back about 8:30. I think he was eating with friends before that.

So I called and ended the day with a great interview with someone I've known since 1986. (David was a part-time driver for Hoss Ellington. I'll tell that story some other time.) Most people don't know that David got his 105th victory at Darlington (Rebel 500, I think) while filling in for Earnhardt. David talked about that and more. It took 21 years, but Pearson finally became comfortable with me.

I've had better days ... my wedding day comes to mind ... but it's hard to have a better day as a racing writer. They all made the book a lot better. And we shared some good laughs and old times.

Good timing for Derrike Cope

2012-01-04T10:46:00.003-05:00

In 1990, Derrike Cope surprised the racing world by winning the Daytona 500. Dale Earnhardt had busted a tire while leading on the last lap, and veryone thought it was a fluke.

And that burned Derrike.

At Charlotte that spring, I talked to Cope, and he said that, one of these days, we're going to kick their butts and show them it wasn't a fluke. Not in those words, but that was the idea.

I didn't run the column on Derrike that week. I had plenty of stuff that weekend, so I saved it for next week — Dover.

I watched the Dover race with mounting excitement. Cope was leading late in the race, and I was rooting for him. Obviously, it would look good to have him win right after saying he was going to kick their butts.

He did kick their butts. When I returned to work that week, I ran into my boss on the street. He smiled and simply said, "Good timing."

I only did that one more time. In 1998, I was writing an advance for the Daytona 500. I interviewed a few people, then wrote that it was Dale Earnhardt's year to win the Great American Race. He did, of course. No one smiled and told me I had great timing.

But I knew that, in this case, I did.

Simply awesome

2012-01-03T09:54:00.002-05:00

THE 1989 SPRING RACE at Darlington was important to me. I was a sports copy editor at the Charleston (S.C.) News and Courier, and, frankly, I wanted to write again. I believe it did catapult me to being a NASCAR writer.

Sports editor Ken Burger sent me to Darlington, and I wrote a feature each day. On Friday, I saw an out-of-uniform Bill Elliott standing around the infield. I walked over to get his attention, but he wouldn't turn around. His PR lady came over and asked if they could help me. I told her I'd like to ask Bill if he thought he could still win despite a broken wrist (he did it a month or so earlier at Daytona).

She said that he'd been asked similar questions before, but she asked him to talk to me. He turned around and looked little like the friendly Awesome Bill I'd seen on TV. He started out "Let me put it to you this way...," and went into a tirade about perceptions, reality, racing at Darlington and various other subjects. I had a pretty good memory back then, nearly perfect, so I "taped" the first couple of minutes.

He lost steam and actually wound up shaking hands with me and wishing me well. I don't know if he ever answered the question.

It's funny in retrospect. A few years later, we were at Darlington again, and the race was being rain delayed. I needed to talk to Elliott's car owner, Junior Elliott, for a program story, so I went to the No. 11 hauler, diving from one overhang to the next to avoid the rain. I got to the truck; Elliott saw me, got up and walked away. I turned to a crewman there and asked, "Is Junior around?" The guy had just seen Elliott snub me, and he laughed. He knew I wasn't interested in talking to Elliott.

Frankly, Elliott was a tough man to talk to, unless you had a TV camera in your arms.

Anyway, Elliott had an up-and-down race, but he wound up a solid fifth. He wouldn't talk to me after the race — no big surprise — but I got a nice story. As I put it, he finished the race a little closer to being Awesome Bill again.

At least on the track.

Hometown boy

2011-12-30T15:18:00.002-05:00

EXCERPT FROM Angel in Black: Remembering Dale Earnhardt Sr.:

Drive through a major portion of Kannapolis, N.C., nowadays, and there's an Earnhardt theme. Dale Earnhardt Boulevard starts off Exit 60 from Interstate 85 and is one of the major thoroughfares of the town. Dale Earnhardt Boulevard is on NC 3, which was changed from NC 136 on Oct. 22, 2002.

And all along through there, you'll encounter the Dale Trail.

Judy Root, the communications director of the Cabarrus County Convention & Visitors Bureau, says that they came up with the Dale Trail because there was an almost constant flow into the visitors center of tourists wanting to find Car Town or Ralph Earnhardt's grave or Dale Earnhardt Inc. So the visitors bureau identified nearly 20 places and came up with the name the Dale Trail.

The bureau designed a brochure with a stylized map that includes information and stories about Earnhardt.

"It was more in response to tourists coming to the visitors bureau, and many of them were just hungry for a connection with Dale and his community," said Root, who never met Earnhardt. She moved to Kannapolis in November of 2001, about nine months after Earnhardt died. "(They were) looking for Ralph's grave, wanting to see the statue in downtown, wanting to know how to get to Dale Earnhardt Inc. Those were the things that were drawing them here, where fans were asking directions. Also wanting to know where he grew up, the house where his family lived. We don't give exact directions to that, because his mom still lives there. It's still in Car Town.

"But we thought, instead of giving fans individually the directions how to get to these places, we would sort of connect the dots with some stories that related to his growing-up years here in Kannapolis."

Dale Earnhardt Boulevard and NC 3 are prominent on the Dale Trail, as is Earnhardt Road, which was long-ago named for an Earnhardt not in Dale's immediate family. Number 7 on the map is Main Street/Midway, where Main Street and the Dale Trail intersect. When Dale was a teenager, there was a slot-car emporium -- D&D Model Raceway -- and Dale won trophies here. Idiot Circle is where teenagers would cruise one side of West Avenue from Vance Street to 1st Street and then back on the other side of the traffic circle created by pull-in parking down the center. According to the brochure, Martha Earnhardt said that her son may have logged more miles around Idiot Circle than he did around racetracks.

Some places on the Dale Trail -- like Lowe's Motor Speedway, Sam Bass Gallery and the Richard Childress Racing -- are not in Kannapolis. The speedway and the gallery are in Concord, maybe 15 miles away, and RCR is about 40 miles away in Welcome, N.C., up Interstate 85 and Highway 52.

Bass's art, by the way, is prominent in the Dale Earnhardt Tribute Center on the corner of West Avenue and West B Street. The Tribute Center is Number 11 on the map.

And the brochure talks about places that aren't there anymore. Eddleman's Garage, for instance, is where Ralph Earnhardt perfected his mechanical skills while working on moonshiners' cars, and, yes, Junior Johnson was one of Ralph's customers. You learn about the Flying Mile, another place that has no landmark; apparently this is where moonshiners "hit the ground running" to test out their souped-up cars.

There's Car Town, the area where the Earnhardts lived, and Martha Earnhardt, Dale's mother, still lives there. You can find Car Town because of the street names -- V8, Chrysler, Dodge, Plymouth, Ford, Chevrolet and Cadillac. There's Cannon Village/Cannon Mills, where Ralph Earnhardt first met Martha. The mill buildings are being torn down to make room for the North Carolina Research Campus, a biotechnology center. One of the most prominent features of the Dale Trail is Ralph Earnhardt's gravesite at the Center Grove Lutheran Cemetery.

Dale Earnhardt Plaza has a nine-foot, 900-pound statue of Earnhardt smiling and folding his arms, plus a granite monument that was contributed by fans from New York and Vermont.

Also on the tour are Curb Motorsports, since Mike Curb owned cars for Earnhardt, and Kannapolis Intimidators Stadium, as the Piedmont Bollweevils of the South Atlantic League were named for Earnhardt. And there's even the Punchy’s Diner, Number 12 on the map; the owner knew Dale well, and they sold Dale’s Favorite Sandwich – a tomato sandwich.

The brochure even explains that Martha said that she'd make Dale a tomato sandwich at home with sliced tomato, sometimes lettuce, and Miracle Whip on white bread.

Perfect for a growing boy in a mill town.

Links to my Hickory auto-racing stories

2011-12-27T15:31:00.001-05:00

Here are my stories on The Inside Line for the Hickory Daily Record. The newest stories are at the top. Just click on the story headline.

Morgan Shepherd's trip that keeps on giving

Morgan Shepherd remembers exactly when he became a Santa Claus of sorts.

The Morgan Shepherd Charitable Fund came from a conversation between Shepherd and his friend Ken Lanter in 1986 while they sat outside his race shop.

Cale Yarborough: Fast, furious and fun

HICKORY — When you come up with the list of great drivers who never won at Hickory Motor Speedway, Cale Yarborough might top the list.

For Barnes, TV show was frustrating, enlightening experience

Annabeth Barnes, a 16-year-old who raced Limited Late Models this year at Hickory Motor Speedway, is coming to terms with being a TV personality.

Wes Ward, a Hickory kind of racer

Wes Ward says he was almost raised at Hickory Motor Speedway.

For Pressley, good and rocky memories at Hickory

Robert Pressley says he has a bunch of good memories of Hickory Motor Speedway, including “25 or 30” victories.

Unfortunately, his first racing memory wasn’t among the good ones.

After season, HMS will still be busy

Kevin Piercy, the promoter for Hickory Motor Speedway, says this likely will be the track’s final weekend of the season. HMS will host the PASS South series and other series Saturday.

For Ward, racing is a gas

The last time Shawn Ward was at Hickory Motor Speedway, he was with his buddy Eric Wilson, who was racing a Dash car.

Legends live at Hickory Speedway

Hickory Motor Speedway may be the “Birthplace of the NASCAR Stars.” It’s also a source of memorable stories.

Canipe rallies to finish fourth at Martinsville

Dexter Canipe Jr. was thrilled with a fourth-place finish Saturday in the big Late Model race at Martinsville Speedway, the Virginia is for Racing Lovers 300.

Sam Ard: A racer to remember

In 15 Busch races at Hickory, Sam Ard had 14 top-five finishes.

Fellowship to highlight Huffman race

"Racing people have come together and supported us and been there for us at times when we really needed it," says Audrey Huffman.

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Hickory wasn't kind to Bobby Allison

The Florida boy who became famous in Alabama was smart, tough and talented, and he often made Richard Petty (and everyone else) suffer.

Isaac Memorial win caps big season for McDaniel

Austin McDaniel says he expected to do well in his first year of Late Model racing at Hickory Motor Speedway, but the 17-year-old surely exceeded his expectations.

Eric Wilson: Jacked up about racing

Wilson is the pit-crew chief for Kevin Harvick and Richard Childress Racing’s No. 29 Cup team.

Read more: http://www2.hickoryrecord.com/sports/2011/sep/22/eric-wilson-jacked-about-racing-ar-1420606/

Tiny Lund: Larger than life

DeWayne “Tiny” Lund, the last winner of a Cup race at Hickory Motor Speedway, was most definitely not a tiny man. At 6-6 and close to 300 pounds, Lund rarely did anything in a tiny way.

And he came up huge in the 1963 Daytona 500.

Read more: http://www2.hickoryrecord.com/sports/2011/sep/22/tiny-lund-larger-life-ar-1419922/

Barnwell shines as spotter for Cup stars

Keith Barnwell’s stories come out in a rush. First, he talks about going to Hickory Motor Speedway when it was still dirt.

Read more: http://www2.hickoryrecord.com/sports/2011/sep/16/barnwell-shines-spotter-cup-stars-ar-1400776/

Class is in session at Hickory

Hickory Motor Speedway has been turned into a .363-mile schoolyard this year, with teenagers and young adults everywhere.

Read more: http://www2.hickoryrecord.com/sports/2011/sep/15/class-session-hickory-ar-1395487/

Column: An inside look at racers

Drivers weren’t always what they appeared to be when I covered racing in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Read more: http://www2.hickoryrecord.com/online/2011/sep/03/column-inside-look-racers-ar-1355809/

Keeping watch over Bobby Isaac

Bobby Isaac apparently was hearing things.

The Iron Man proved his mettle at Hickory

Hall-of-fame driver Jack Ingram has plenty of good memories of Hickory Motor Speedway.

Stewart-Hass engineer has Hickory roots

Wesley Gantt almost grew up watching racing at Hickory Motor Speedway.

Piercy ignores doubters, keeps winning

Matt Piercy is under the microscope at Hickory Motor Speedway.

HMS Notebook: Youth movement leads the pack

The Limited Late Model division at Hickory Motor Speedway is turning into a Kiddie Corps.

For DJ, Hickory Speedway was a way of life

Dale Jarrett’s first memory of Hickory Motor Speedway comes from the 1960s. The Jarretts were living in South Carolina, and Dale’s dad, Ned, was running in a NASCAR Grand National race (now Sprint Cup) at Hickory, then a dirt track.

HMS Notebook: LeFevers enjoying breakout season

Jesse LeFevers had a highlight finish in last week’s 100-lap Late Model race at Hickory Motor Speedway. LeFevers held off points rivals Kyle Moon and

Austin McDaniel for his seventh win of the season.

Jerry Punch recalls Hickory roots

“Everything started at Hickory,” says Dr. Jerry Punch.

HMS Notebook: Loden hunts Pro Series win at Hickory

Andy Loden admits he wasn’t much of a talker, even when he was winning Hickory Motor Speedway’s Late Model championship in 2008.

Canipe carries on title tradition

Dexter Canipe Sr. recalls his 1997 NASCAR Weekly Racing Series championship almost wistfully.

HMS notebook: Fittipaldi gets first win

Pietro Fittipaldi, a 15-year-old grandson of racing legend Emerson Fittipaldi, took a huge step in his racing career last Saturday. He won the Limited Late Model race at Hickory Motor Speedway.

Petree: From winning driver to champ crew chief

Andy Petree says he lived maybe “four or five miles” from Hickory Motor Speedway when his uncle first took him to the track.

HMS Notebook: Piercy never tires of being the tire man

Kevin Piercy became the tire man at Hickory Motor Speedway because of money. Or lack of it.

Hickory was beloved training ground for Mike Beam

Hickory Motor Speedway was still dirt when Mike Beam, then 10 or 11, visited the track with his neighbors in the 1960s.

Read more: http://www2.hickoryrecord.com/sports/2011/jul/18/hickory-was-beloved-training-ground-mike-beam-ar-1211030/

Hickory Speedway's Piercy keeps one eye on the sky

Weather is always on the radar for Kevin Piercy.

Read more: http://www2.hickoryrecord.com/sports/2011/jul/16/hickory-speedways-piercy-keeps-one-eye-sky-ar-1210947/

Remembering friends and great drivers

We were in Ned Jarrett's car, with the heater running, because of an ice storm in the Rockingham area.

Read more: http://www2.hickoryrecord.com/sports/2011/jul/15/3/remembering-friends-and-great-drivers-ar-1211073/

The real Harry Hyde

2011-12-21T15:00:00.002-05:00

I had just watched the end of "Days of Thunder" on TV, and it took me back to the real Harry Hyde. Robert Duvall played Harry Hogge in 1990, but I met the real Harry Hyde the same year. He was the crew chief for Bobby Hillin, and the youthful Bobby was struggling while driving for the crusty Harry.

Bobby had told me that he probably was going to leave the team, and I needed to ask Harry about the situation (I was doing a story for Winston Cup Scene). Harry said he didn't have time to talk; he had to be at the drivers' meeting in a half hour. I kept after him and got a nice 15-minute interview.

And I made darn sure he made the meeting on time.

It's funny, but I think that Hyde admired my persistence.

Duvall did a nice job in the part, but he didn't match the crusty factor of the real Mr. Hyde.

Oh, if you're wondering, Randy Quaid was Rick Hendrick; Tom Cruise was a sort of Tim Richmond character, and the Rowdy Burns (Michael Rooker) character was a cross between Dale Earnhardt and Buddy Baker. I've never met the others, but I've talked to Earnhardt, Baker and Hendrick.

Cover that with a hat

2011-12-21T14:43:00.001-05:00

There are dangers in being an auto-racing writer, something I did for more than a decade.

I had just covered the 1999 Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and I was heading out to find a restaurant. I was sitting in race traffic, totally unawares, when it happened.

There was a car in front of me with a bunch of party-ready young women. Two young men in cowboy hats were out in someone's yard, dancing for them. The problem was that the cowboy hats were their main attire. The well-built men, apparently exotic dancers, wore what amounted to the male version of a G-string.

So I sat there an interminable 10 minutes that felt like three hours, watching these guys gyrate and the girls giggle. Traffic wasn't moving, and I was wondering if there were girls in the lead car, way down the road, looking back with binoculars and stopping traffic.

I sure didn't want to watch it, but I had no choice. Eventually, we moved on and I got to a Bob Evans Restaurant, where I was ignored for 45 minutes. But that's another story.

I've seen some strange things at races, though. One year, an older couple had an electrical fire in an Charlotte Motor Speedway parking lot. Sadly, their mobile home burned down. It provided tremendous fireworks, though.

Another year, I was at the Charlotte race track, and some guy in a big, jacked-up pickup truck decided to drive across a ditch. He didn't make it; his truck nose-dived into the ditch, with the tailgate sticking high in the air. He got a standing ovation from the campers on the other side of the ditch and a thumbs up from me. Anybody stupid enough to try to drive across that ditch deserves what he gets.

In 1990, I was leaving Atlanta Motor Speedway after Friday qualifying, and it was a magnificent day. By the time I reached Interstate 75, it looked like Noah should be piloting his ark. It got so bad that I couldn't see through the rain on the windshield, and, at one point, some guy passed me on the interstate, it got even worse.

Suddenly, lightning flashed, and I could see through the rain. But I wasn't happy to see a tornado traveling left to right, about five miles ahead of me. I couldn't get off the interstate -- I couldn't even tell what lane I was in -- so I kept going. Fortunately, the tornado kept tracking to the east, and I made it to the hotel near the airport.

My friend Jim McLaurin and I were in Atlanta for the Storm of the Century in 1993, and we wound up sitting in a motel room for two days because of the snow. We had to "skate" down a tilted sidewalk for dinner at least one day. Another time, we were sitting around the room with our door open, and a family from Florida was encountering their first snow.

Their daughter slipped on the ice, and we heard the "thunk" as her head hit the pavement. We sweated with everyone in the hotel as we waited for the ambulance to show up.

The ride home from Atlanta was an adventure. A few drivers braved the Atlanta interstates, and most tried to approximate the normal breakneck speed that's almost a requirement in Atlanta. When I reached the snowy exit to Interstate 20, I saw a car buried under snow at the bottom of the exit. I stayed high and drove at a moderate rate, and some idiot tried to pass me between my rental Buick and the buried car. The idiot wound up buried with him.

That's wasn't the only weather adventure for Jim and me. In 1991, there was an awful thunder storm at Talladega Superspeedway, with lightning striking in the infield and outside the track. Jimmy Mac and I were stuck in the metal pressbox, not the lightning-rod-like place we wanted to be.

So we rushed out into the monsoon and we slid down a muddy bank along with the rushing water. We got into Jimmy Mac's truck and sat until we could back out. As we drove through the parking lot, we saw a Camaro with water all the way to the top of the tire wells. That thing wouldn't crank anytime soon.

The next day, a Monday, we were in the Talladega infield media center -- we weren't going back to the pressbox, ever -- and it was a beautiful day. A crewman, wearing headphones with antennas, was regaling us with stories before the race. He said that, during the storm the day before, he was standing near the fuel pumps, and he wondered why everyone was running away from him.

Then he remembered he was wearing his mobile lightning rods. Even he had to grin ... and shudder.

A glimpse of the real Earnhardt

2011-12-21T14:27:00.002-05:00

THE REAL DALE EARNHARDT was hard to find, but I saw him occasionally during my stint as a NASCAR writer from the mid-1980s to around 2000.

Usually, Earnhardt was surly or standoffish with reporters he hadn't known for a long time, and often he was rough on those of us he knew. Dale valued his time, and the last thing he wanted to do was spend time with us.

Then, every once in a while, he'd show us the real man.

In 1991, we had a heck of a storm at Talladega, and the race was going to be run on Monday. One of the reporters had lured Earnhardt into the media center, and Dale was talking about his plane. I eased over, got my tape recorder and joined the impromptu press conference.

Up to that point, I'd never gotten a straight answer out of Dale. He'd always given me a smart-aleck reply, or he'd walked away. Earnhardt must have been in a good mood that day.

I was doing a feature for Winston Cup Scene on drivers' dreams, and I wanted to include Earnhardt, who was a four-time champion at that point. When there was a two-second break in the Q&A, I said something like, "Dale, we don't expect you to win 200 races, but do you have your sights set on Richard Petty's seven Winston Cup titles?"

Without looking at me, Earnhardt answered that, yes, he did want to win seven titles or even eight. Petty was his hero, he said, but seven titles was his goal.

That year, there had been a rumble about Dale's age; his mother said he was 40, and he said he was 39 (my age later that year). After Dale answered my question, he stood up and looked me in the eye and talked to me man-to-man for the first time. He said, "Last week at Martinsville, I didn't know it was my 50th victory until somebody told me, but I knowed it was my 40th birthday, but I wasn't going to tell nobody!"

Dale stayed with us for at least two hours. When a TV monitor didn't work, he climbed onto a table and fixed it. When we played Hangman on a PR man's computer, Dale joined us. He wasn't great with words, but he was competitive. Big surprise.
He regaled us with stories, and he showed me his Rolex, a gift from a friend. I'd never seen one before.

Earnhardt wasn't a factor that day. Kyle Petty suffered a broken leg in a huge wreck that Ernie Irvan started. Harry Gant won the race even though he was running out of gas on the last lap. Rick Mast bump-drafted Gant on the backstretch, giving him enough momentum to cross the line first.

Mostly I remember Earnhardt finally showing his humanity. It wasn't the only time, though. I don't remember what year it was, but Earnhardt had just won an IROC race at Daytona. It was just one of 34 races he won at Daytona, but every victory anywhere was precious to Dale.

I was sitting at the end of the table, closest to the door in the Benny Kahn media center in the Daytona infield. I was typing furiously when suddenly I felt strong hands on my shoulders. Without turning, I looked straight over my head and saw a black Chevrolet cap, a big mustache and an ear-to-ear grin. I went "Whoa!", and the smile got even wider.

Earnhardt squeezed my shoulders again, then went down the line, alternating his fists and tapping each reporter on the shoulders.

Another time, we were entering the Indigo Lakes facility at Daytona Beach for an IROC luncheon. I got to the double doors, then looked back to see a bunch of women following us. I opened one of the doors, then looked across and saw Dale holding the other door. He was hunched over and grinning, making us look like a couple of fortyish kids playing a prank.

We rarely saw the real Dale. Sometimes Earnhardt was cross or a bully. But sometimes he was happy and at ease, and he was willing to let the enemy ... reporters ... see the man and the humanity beneath the black myth.

zMAX Dragway schedule

2011-12-17T16:25:00.000-05:00

The 2012 schedule will feature twelve nights of grassroots Drag & Brag racing

in addition to open test and tunes and Mayhem at the MAX. (Photo: CMS PR)

CONCORD, N.C. (Dec. 15, 2011) – Officials at zMAX Dragway have released their most ambitious season schedule to date. With more than 25 events over the course of eight months during 2012, there's something for competitors and drag racing fans of all kinds.

The Palace of Speed opens the season on March 3 with a series of four Spring Meltdown open test and tunes on consecutive Saturdays. All cars are welcome as racers prepare their cars for a summer of speed.

The highlight of the spring schedule is the third annual NHRA Four-Wide Nationals, April 13-15. The greatest spectacle in drag racing features a 32,000 horsepower assault on the world's only four-lane drag strip as Top Fuel, Funny Car and Pro Stock categories race four wide all weekend long.

Following the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals, the popular run-what-you-brung Drag & Brag series moves to Friday nights, with a total of twelve events from April through August, culminating with a series finale that will showcase some of the best racers from the season.

New in 2012, zMAX Dragway officials are introducing Mayhem at the MAX, which consists of bracket racing for amateur racers, junior dragsters and street cars over a series of six Saturday events from April to August. Points will be tallied and champions in various categories will be crowned.

The Faith, Family and Freedom concert presented by New Life 91.9 FM returns June 23 and features contemporary concert acts and a fantastic family-friendly fireworks show. Last year's show sold out well before the event, so fans should plan to reserve their tickets in advance.

Another addition to the 2012 schedule is the American Drag Racing League (ADRL), which will visit zMAX Dragway for the first time Aug. 3-4. The ADRL is the premier eighth-mile drag racing sanctioning body and features categories including Extreme Pro Stock, Pro Extreme Motorcycle, Extreme 10.5, Pro Nitrous and Pro Extreme.

Nitro fans can round out the summer at zMAX Dragway with the fifth-annual O'Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Nationals, held Sept. 14-16. This second NHRA stop at the Palace of Speed features traditional two-wide racing and marks the kick-off for the NHRA's Countdown to the Championship for all four professional categories.

The final event of the year, held Oct. 5-7, is the return of the Charlotte Diesel Super Show, which showcases big rigs taking on the famous concrete quarter-mile as well as equipment demonstrations and everything the diesel enthusiast's heart could desire.

The complete 2012 zMAX Dragway schedule is as follows:

March 3		Spring Meltdown Open Test & Tune
March 10		Spring Meltdown Open Test & Tune
March 17		Spring Meltdown Open Test & Tune
March 24		Spring Meltdown Open Test & Tune
April 13-15		NHRA Four-Wide Nationals
April 27		Drag & Brag
April 28		Mayhem at the MAX Round 1
May 4		Drag & Brag
May 5		Mayhem at the MAX Round 2
June 8		Drag & Brag
June 9		Mayhem at the MAX Round 3
June 15		Drag & Brag
June 23		Faith, Family & Freedom Concert
June 29		Drag & Brag
June 30		Mayhem at the MAX Round 4
July 6		Drag & Brag
July 13		Drag & Brag
July 20		Drag & Brag
July 21		Mayhem at the MAX Round 5
July 27		Drag & Brag
August 3-4		ADRL Drag Racing
August 10		Drag & Brag
August 17		Drag & Brag
August 18		Mayhem at the MAX Round 6
August 24		Drag & Brag Finals
September 14-16		O'Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Nationals
October 5-7		Charlotte Diesel Super Show

Schedule subject to change.

Donations for children

2011-12-17T16:15:00.000-05:00

$2.5 million donated by Speedway Children's Charities

in 2011 to assist nearly one million children in need

CONCORD, N.C. (Dec. 14, 2011) – Nearly one million children benefited from the fundraising efforts of the eight chapters of Speedway Children's Charities (SCC) this year, with more than $2.5 million donated to 370 non-profit organizations nationwide for the purpose of helping children in need.

"It is truly a blessing that we were able to help so many children this year with the money raised," said O. Bruton Smith, founder and chairman of Speedway Children's Charities. "It is our goal to help as many children as possible live healthy, happy lives and I am proud of what everyone at Speedway Children's Charities has accomplished this year."

A chapter of SCC is located at each of the Speedway Motorsports Inc., (SMI) tracks including Atlanta Motor Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Kentucky Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Infineon Raceway and Texas Motor Speedway.

With the help of volunteers and the support of sponsors, SCC raised the money through various fundraising activities such as track walks, auctions, raffles, holiday light displays, annual galas and more. Individual and corporate donations were also made throughout the year. In 2011, SCC also partnered with Feed the Children to provide boxes of food to deserving families in communities surrounding the individual SCC chapters.

Since its inception in 1982, SCC has awarded in excess of $35.9 million to non-profit organizations across the country, helping more than 11.3 million children. The children who have been helped over the last 29 years would fill the stands of the eight SMI tracks more than nine times.

"We have been able to help an amazing number of children this year and over the past 29 years," said retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Thomas Sadler, executive director of Speedway Children's Charities. "It is wonderful to see how much Speedway Children's Charities has grown since its beginning and as we continue to provide assistance, in many ways, to children in need across the country, I can never thank those enough who have helped us throughout the years."

SCC was founded by Smith, chairman and CEO of Speedway Motorsports Inc. and Sonic Automotive, as a memoriam and legacy to his son, Bruton Cameron Smith, who passed away at a very young age. The first chapter was opened at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the same location where the national offices are today.

For more information on SCC or to see how to volunteer or make a donation, visit www.speedwaycharities.org.

Increase in cautions

2011-12-15T12:00:00.001-05:00

Slight increase In cautions during 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup season

KINGSPORT, Tenn. (Dec. 15, 2011) – The 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season had an increase in the number of cautions compared to 2010, but less than the 2009 total. There were 278 cautions during the 36-race Sprint Cup season just completed compared to 265 in 2010. The 2009 total was 305.

All 36 races reached the scheduled distance with seven extended by late-race cautions which set up a green-white-checkered finish.

Here’s a caution breakdown for the last three years provided by Darnell Communications for Dodge Motorsports.

SPRINT CUP SERIES
                      2011          2010             2009
Cautions                        278       265           305
Caution Laps                   1,358        1,325        1,447
Laps Run                10,550          10,778        10,492
Miles Run                       14,236.738    14,537.508   14,107.391
Miles Under Caution       1,813.507 1,839.510   1,972.568

Most Cautions in a Race
2011 – 18 (Martinsville2)
2010 – 15 (Martinsville2)
2009 – 17 (Darlington)

Fewest Cautions in a Race
2011 – 3 (New Hampshire2)
2010 – 3 (Richmond2)
2009 -- 3 (Michigan1, Indianapolis)

Most Caution Laps in a Race
2011 – 108 (Martinsville2)
2010 – 103 (Bristol2)
2009 – 73 (Martinsville1)

Most Miles Under Caution
2011 – 150.000 (Daytona1)
2010 – 100.000 (Daytona1)
2009 – 99.718 (Darlington)

Race Extended Due to Caution
2011 – 7
2010 – 7
2009 – 5

Races Shortened Due To Weather
2011 – 0
2010 – 0
2009 – 3

Caution Breakdown     2011    2010     2009
Cautions                       278        265    305
Accident                       139        140    146
Spin/Stalled                     47        46    53
Debris                    59        49    70
Oil/Fluids                       17         16    14
Rain                    9        5    12
Competition Yellow           6       6    9
Other                    1        3    1

Provided by Darnell Communications for Dodge Motorsports

Toys for Tots at Darlington

2011-12-14T17:09:00.002-05:00

DARLINGTON RACEWAY’STOYS FOR TOTS DRIVE BRINGS JOY TO AREA CHILDREN THIS HOLIDAY SEASON

Track's second event generates many toys, donations for area kids and their families

DARLINGTON, S.C. (Dec. 12, 2011) – Fans of Darlington Racewaywere in a giving mood this holiday season with several hundred participantsdonating a toy or $20 donation during the track’s Toys for Tots Drivelast Saturday.

The event, which gave fans theopportunity to take their personal vehicles for laps around the historicDarlington Raceway for a donation, generated over $5,000 worth of toy and cashdonations for the local U.S. Marines Toys for Tots program just in time for theholidays.

The collection, the largest for thearea’s U.S. Marines Toys for Tots program, will benefit five localcounties surrounding the track, including Darlington, Dillon, Florence, Marionand Williamsburg, respectively.

“We’re very pleased withthe turnout and want to thank our fans for their generosity this holidayseason,” Darlington Raceway president Chris Browning said. “We wereable to collect many toys and donations for the U.S. Marines Toys for Totsprogram and to be able to help families that need assistance right beforeChristmas.

“We’re more than happy toopen up our racing facility for a day and give our fans the chance to taketheir vehicles on the high banks of Darlington Raceway and in turn give back tothe local communities that have supported us for more than 60 years!” Browningcontinued.

Vehicles of all kinds participated inthe event, traveling hundreds of miles from all parts of South Carolina, NorthCarolina and beyond.

John Bachman, from nearby Hartsville,S.C., heard about the drive on the local radio and donated toys and cash forthe opportunity to take his truck on the track with his son.

“What a great opportunity totake a few laps around Darlington Raceway and also give back to thecommunity,” John Bachman said. “Giving back to people who are lessfortunate, especially kids, is so important and we were happy to participate inthe event. My son, Jonathon, lives in North Carolina so I thought this would bea fun thing for him to be able to say he took laps around this greattrack.”

The local U.S. Marines Toys for Totsprogram assisted over 10,000 children in 2010, including over 5,000 inDarlington and Florence counties alone. Events like the Darlington Racewaydrive make a tremendous impact in its efforts to make sure every child has atoy(s) to unwrap during the Christmas season.

“We truly appreciate the effortsby track president Chris Browning and his staff to open up Darlington Racewayand allow its fans to participate in this special event, which is our largestcollection event of the season,” Jim Williams, U.S. Marines Toys for TotsProgram Coordinator said. “Because of the generosity of great localcommunity members like Darlington Raceway, a child in need will be able to opena gift this Christmas season.”

Darlington Raceway, or the track TooTough To Tame as it is known to many, is where the purest of NASCARcompetition meets true southern hospitality. A NASCAR staple since 1950,Darlington Raceway has seen some of motorsports most talented drivers thunderto Gatorade Victory Lane. On Mother’s Day weekend, May 11-12, 2012,NASCAR’s biggest stars return to battle the track Too Tough To Tamein the Sprint Cup Series Southern 500 and Nationwide Series Darlington200.

Tickets for events at Darlington canbe purchased by calling the Darlington Raceway ticket office at 866-459-RACE oronline at http://www.darlingtonraceway.com/tickets/.

You can keep up with all of the latestnews from Darlington Raceway at DarlingtonRaceway.com, on Facebook at Facebook.com/DarlingtonRaceway Twitter.com/TooToughToTame. and on Twitter at Twitter.com/TooToughToTame.

Barnes wins Polar Bear 150

2011-11-26T18:55:00.001-05:00

Barnes takes Polar Bear 150 victory at Rockingham

Victory is third in four years for Louisville, Ky. driver

Rockingham, N.C. (Nov. 26, 2011) - Chuck Barnes Sr.overcame an early-race spin to edge Frank Kimmel II by a nose to take thevictory in the Frank Kimmel Street Stock Nationals (FKSSN) Polar Bear 150 atRockingham Speedway.

The win is Barnes' third Polar Bear victory in four years.

"I was prepared to take second," Barnes said in Victory Lane. "He was a little better than me onthose longer runs. He just got loose, and I just got underneath him in (turn)four on that last lap."

The .016 seconds margin-of-victory was the closest atRockingham Speedway since Matt Kenseth edged Kasey Kahne by .010 seconds in thelast NASCAR Cup race at the track in 2004.

"We really got lucky today," Barnes said about thelap-33 incident that sent his car around in turn one. "It's tough racingwith all these lap cars with some running 50 miles per hour slower than others.But it's fun passing all those cars on a track like this."

"It seemed like I was terrible off of (turn)three," said a dejected Kimmel. "But since it was so loose, the carcontinued to turn through four, which made it really fast down the frontstretch. I could pass him down the front, because we had a little more motor.My game plan was to be second at the white flag, and pass him on the last lapand keep him on my outside. It just didn't work out that way."

Kimmel had to overcome troubles of his own to be in positionto win.

His No. 72 Chevrolet cut a right rear tire during a cautionperiod on lap 104. When the race resumed Kimmel found himself in 12th place,the last car on the lead lap. But Kimmel only needed 27 laps to work his wayback to the front.

That the race came down to a last lap battle between Barnesand Kimmel was fitting as they were the only two to lead laps on the day. Theyofficially swapped the lead 17 times in the 150-lap event.

Cliff Gaumond, running only his third FKSSN race, finishedthird.

"I didn't know how much to push it right away because Ididn't want to ball it up in the beginning," Gaumond said. "Because Idon't have a lot of experience in these cars, I was riding at 90 percent formost of the race, and when I turned it on I just didn't have enough to getthem."

Clint Watkins and Tony Conway rounded out the top five.

The race was slowed 11 times for 57 laps. Of the 54 carsthat started the race, 10 were on the lead lap at the end.

Polar Bear 150

2011-11-23T15:50:00.001-05:00

Polar Bear 150 fast approaching

Green flag drops at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 26

Rockingham, N.C. (Nov. 23, 2011) - Thanksgiving is just a day away which means that the Polar Bear 150 is right around the corner at Rockingham Speedway.

The green flag drops on the Frank Kimmel Street Stock Nationals (FKSSN) annual running on Saturday, Nov. 26 at 1 p.m. Three days out and the entry list continues to grow toward the goal of 99 cars on track to take the green flag. Currently, there are around 50 cars entered in the race.

"That's above the pace that we have had over the last few years," said Rockingham Speedway President Andy Hillenburg. "We have had about 75 cars in years past, but I think we will best that this year.

"We always have a number of cars that register for the event on site."

This year's Polar Bear will be the race's fourth annual running. Louisville, Ky.'s Chuck Barnes Sr. won the first two races, and Will Kimmel out ran 2004 Sprint Cup champion Kurt Busch to take last year's victory. The FKSSN's other visit to Rockingham came in the Cherry Bomb 200 on July 4, 2009. Brett Hudson took the checkered flag in that race.

For more information on any event at Rockingham Speedway or to order tickets, please visit us online at www.rockinghamspeedway.com or contact our ticket office toll-free at 1-855-NC-ROCKS.

ARCA's full 2012 schedule

2011-11-23T15:42:00.001-05:00

Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2011

ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards

Releases Full Schedule for 60th Anniversary Season

(TOLEDO, Ohio) - The Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) has released the 2012 schedule for the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards. Twenty events - up from 19 in 2011 - will comprise the diverse combination of speedways, short tracks, dirt tracks, and a road course in the series' 60th Anniversary Season.

"Each of the venues on the 2012 schedule is very important to the identity and industry position of the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards," said ARCA president Ron Drager. "The geographic coverage represented by the markets we'll be racing in and the overall number of races are good fits for the series."

In the ARCA Racing Series' 49th consecutive February Speedweeks appearance, Daytona International Speedway will host the season-opening Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 on Saturday, February 18. The race will precede that evening's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Budweiser Shootout at the 2.5-mile superspeedway.

The 2012 ARCA Racing Series schedule will conclude with the series' championship event at Kansas Speedway on Friday, October 19. In between, the series will appear in 18 other races at a wide variety of venues, setting the most versatile schedule in motorsports.

ARCA's first visit to Mobile International Speedway in Alabama will be the season's second race on Saturday, March 10. Another new track - Minnesota's Elko Speedway - appears on the ARCA schedule for the first time, with a race on Saturday, June 2. The ARCA Racing Series has never raced in Minnesota, adding significance to the June visit to Elko and establishing the North Star State as the 29th visited by ARCA's premier national tour since 1953.

Toledo Speedway - ARCA's home track - will host the series on Sunday, May 20.

ARCA Racing Series teams will compete in July at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis over the Brickyard 400 weekend, following ARCA's 2011 return Luto the track for the first time in 26 years. The exact date of the race will be determined shortly.

Additional short tracks returning to the ARCA Racing Series schedule include Salem (Ind.) Speedway on two weekends, Winchester (Ind.) Speedway, Iowa Speedway, Berlin (Mich.) Raceway, and Madison (Wis.) International Speedway.

Talladega Superspeedway will host its 50th ARCA Racing Series race on Friday, May 4, and Pocono Raceway will host two race dates for the 25th consecutive year, in June and August. Additional speedway events scheduled to return in 2012 include races at Michigan International Speedway and Chicagoland Speedway.

Contributing to the long-recognized diversity of the ARCA schedule will be the traditional mile dirt races in August at the Illinois State Fairgrounds and in September at the DuQuoin (Ill.) State Fairgrounds. Road course racing is in the plan for the fifth consecutive year, as the 2.25-mile Thunderbolt Raceway at New Jersey Motorsports Park will host ARCA on the first day of July.

Companion events in 2012 include race weekends with the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Nationwide, and Camping World Truck Series, as well as the USAC Silver Crown Series, the ARCA CRA Super Series, and the ARCA Truck Series.

The full 2012 ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards schedule is as follows:

Saturday, Feb. 18 - Daytona International Speedway

Saturday, March 10 - Mobile International Speedway

Sunday, April 29 - Salem Speedway

Friday, May 4 - Talladega Superspeedway

Sunday, May 20 - Toledo Speedway

Saturday, June 2 - Elko Speedway

Saturday, June 9 - Pocono Raceway

Friday, June 15 - Michigan International Speedway

Sunday, June 24 - Winchester Speedway

Sunday, July 1 - New Jersey Motorsports Park

Friday, July 13 - Iowa Speedway

Saturday, July 21 - Chicagoland Speedway

TBD - Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis

Saturday, Aug. 4 - Pocono Raceway

Saturday, Aug. 11 - Berlin Raceway

Sunday, Aug. 19 - Illinois State Fairgrounds

Sunday, Aug. 26 - Madison International Speedway

Monday, Sept. 3 - DuQuoin State Fairgrounds

Saturday, Sept. 15 - Salem Speedway

Friday, Oct. 19 - Kansas Speedway

The ARCA Racing Series will wrap up the 2011 season with the Championship Awards Banquet at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center in Covington, Ky., near Cincinnati, on Saturday, Dec. 10.

Salem has two ARCA races in 2012

2011-11-23T13:38:00.001-05:00

Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2011

Salem Speedway hosting two ARCA Racing Series programs in 2012

(TOLEDO, Ohio) - ARCA's 60th Anniversary Season will appropriately include two races at the longest-tenured and most visited track on the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards schedule: Indiana's Salem Speedway.

Two events are scheduled at the demanding, high-banked 0.555-mile oval between Indianapolis and Louisville, Ky. The 91st Salem race in ARCA history will take place Sunday, April 29, with the 92nd following on Saturday, Sept. 15.

Salem Speedway first hosted ARCA in 1955, the third season of ARCA competition.

"ARCA's history at Salem Speedway stretches back to the MARC era and our earliest decade," said Ron Drager, president of ARCA. "The fans in southern Indiana and northern Kentucky turn out with great support year after year. We look forward to providing them with the traditional Sunday afternoon show in the spring and our classic Saturday night race in the fall."

Indiana native Frank Kimmel is the all-time leading winner at Salem, with nine victories. Jack Bowsher is second in history with seven wins. Brennan Poole won at Salem in his first career start in May, and Chris Buescher won in September as part of his charge to the 2011 ARCA Racing Series Rookie of the Year Award.

"We are once again honored to have Salem Speedway represented with two dates on the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards schedule," said Salem Speedway general manager Richard Deaton. "ARCA has played a very prominent role in the storied history of the famed high banks and we are excited to carry on that tradition in 2012."

More detailed schedule information for the season will be available shortly. The following race dates for the 2012 ARCA Racing Series schedule have been announced:

Feb. 18 - Daytona International Speedway

March 10 - Mobile International Speedway

April 29 - Salem Speedway

May 4 - Talladega Superspeedway

June 9 - Pocono Raceway

June 15 - Michigan International Speedway

June 24 - Winchester Speedway

July 1 - New Jersey Motorsports Park

July 13 - Iowa Speedway

July 21 - Chicagoland Speedway

Aug. 4 - Pocono Raceway

Aug. 11 - Berlin Raceway

Aug. 19 - Illinois State Fairgrounds

Aug. 26 - Madison International Speedway

Sept. 3 - DuQuoin State Fairgrounds

Sept. 15 - Salem Speedway

Oct. 19 - Kansas Speedway

The ARCA Racing Series will wrap up the 2011 season with the Championship Awards Banquet at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center in Covington, Ky., near Cincinnati, on Saturday, Dec. 10.

Champions to be crowned at Rockingham

2011-11-22T13:07:00.001-05:00

NASCAR K&N Pro Series East, Whelen Southern Modified Tour

to crown 2012 champions at Rockingham Speedway

Series to be joined by UARA-STARS for tripleheader

Rockingham, N.C. (Nov. 22, 2011) - Since opening in 1965, Rockingham Speedway has seen its share of champions crowned.

That tradition continues in 2012 as the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East, NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour and the UARA-STARS Late Model Series are set to host their season-ending races at the famed one-mile speedway on Nov. 3.

"These are awesome additions to the 2012 schedule at Rockingham," said speedway President Andy Hillenburg. "It's great to be back in the NASCAR fold and to continue the great relationship we've built with the UARA."

Rockingham Speedway will host the season-ending races for the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East, the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour and the UARA-STARS Late Model Series on Nov. 3, 2012.

The K&N Pro Series East, which has been in competition since 1987, is NASCAR's premier driver development series. In recent years, Trevor Bayne, Martin Truex Jr. and Joey Logano have used the series as a steppingstone to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Austin Dillon, the 2011 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Champion, was the K&N Pro Series East championship runner-up in 2008.

"I've never actually been to Rockingham Speedway, but I've heard so many great things about it," said Sergio Pena, winner of three K&N East races in 2011. "I've heard it's a driver's track. Most of the teams haven't been to Rockingham with these cars. It's always exciting to see who can learn the quickest with a lot of drivers making their first appearance at a track."

The Whelen Southern Modified Tour, founded in 2005, competes on short tracks in North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee, including famed Bowman Gray Stadium and Bristol Motor Speedway.

"I was really excited when I heard that Rockingham Speedway will host a NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour race," 2011 NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour champion George Brunnhoelzl III said. "This will be an historic event for our tour. I am sure everyone associated with the Whelen Southern Modifieds will mark this race on the schedule.

"Ending our season at a one-mile track will be interesting and I can't think of a more exciting place for the drivers and fans to have our champion crowned."

The November 3 event will be the first stand-alone race in K&N Pro Series East history on the high banks of Rockingham Speedway. The then-Busch East Series raced in conjunction with the NASCAR Nationwide Series at The Rock from 1987-1992.

The Whelen Southern Modified Tour appearance at Rockingham marks the first time the tour has contested a race on a one-mile speedway.

For the UARA, 2012 is the third consecutive year the series ends its season at Rockingham. In 2010, Coleman Pressley claimed the UARA title at the speedway and Brenna Poole hoisted the championship trophy at Rockingham in 2011.

"We couldn't be happier about going back to Rockingham twice in 2012," said Scott Turlington, who has run every UARA race at Rockingham Speedway. "Heading there with the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East and Whelen Southern Modified tour is going to ratchet that excitement up even more. Rockingham is a tough race track, but I feel like we have gotten better there each time we have run there."

The November 3 race will be the UARA's second Rockingham stop in 2012. They will be in action on April 14 in conjunction with the April 15 running of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Good Sam Club Roadside Assistance 200.

2012 ARCA finale

2011-11-17T20:02:00.001-05:00

Thursday, Nov. 17, 2011

ARCA announces Kansas as site of 2012 finale,

releases dates for Michigan and Chicagoland

(TOLEDO, Ohio) - The ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards will close its 60th Anniversary Season and crown the 2012 champion at Kansas Speedway, giving the ARCA finale to the 1.5-mile Kansas City oval for the first time in 12 races.

The 2012 season finale will take place on Friday, Oct. 19. Continuing its history of racing alongside NASCAR's three premier touring divisions, the ARCA finale will lead into a NASCAR Nationwide Series race and a Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup event at the track that weekend.

"To be able to host the 2012 ARCA Racing Series finale is a great honor and extremely exciting," said Kansas Speedway president Patrick Warren. "We have seen a lot of great ARCA races at Kansas Speedway, including this year's Kansas Lottery 98.9 under the lights, and I'm confident that next year's event will be just as good. ARCA selecting Kansas Speedway to host the season finale is also a testament to our fans and the support they have shown for both the series and Kansas Speedway."

Likewise, ARCA will race with NASCAR's national divisions at Michigan International Speedway in June and Chicagoland Speedway in July.

Michigan will host the RainEater Wiper Blades 200 on Friday, June 15, just before Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series events on the two-mile oval. Chicagoland will welcome ARCA on Saturday, July 21, the same day as a Camping World Truck Series race and one day before a Nationwide Series race.

The Michigan race will be ARCA's 31st since 1980, and the Chicagoland event will be the 12th for ARCA since 2001. After 11 prior races at the Joliet, Ill. track, the 2012 event will be ARCA's first in July.

"These are impressive facilities in important markets for our series and partners, and serve as a tie to the long relationship between ARCA and International Speedway Corporation, which dates back to ARCA's first race at Daytona in 1964," said ARCA president Ron Drager. "Our teams see these events as true showcase opportunities on high-visibility race weekends."

More detailed schedule information for the season will be available shortly. The following race dates for the 2012 ARCA Racing Series schedule have been announced:

Feb. 18 - Daytona International Speedway

March 10 - Mobile International Speedway

May 4 - Talladega Superspeedway

June 9 - Pocono Raceway

June 15 - Michigan International Speedway

July 1 - New Jersey Motorsports Park

July 21 - Chicagoland Speedway

Aug. 4 - Pocono Raceway

Aug. 19 - Illinois State Fairgrounds

Sept. 3 - DuQuoin State Fairgrounds

Oct. 19 - Kansas Speedway

The ARCA Racing Series will wrap up the 2011 season with the Championship Awards Banquet at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center in Covington, Ky., near Cincinnati, on Saturday, Dec. 10.

ARCA schedule

2011-11-16T13:52:00.001-05:00

Springfield, DuQuoin to host

ARCA races for 30th year

(TOLEDO, Ohio) - Late summer racing on the mile dirt, state fairground ovals of Illinois is as familiar to the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards as any driver or theme in ARCA history. As such, the series has announced its two dates for competition on the famed tracks at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield and the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds in DuQuoin.

The Illinois State Fairgrounds race will take place on Sunday, Aug. 19; the DuQuoin race retains its traditional Labor Day date, Monday, Sept. 3. The races are each scheduled under ARCA sanction for the 30th consecutive year, a key milestone that adds to the celebration of ARCA's 60th anniversary season.

"Racing in Springfield and DuQuoin for three decades has directly connected us to a whole community of race fans whose affinity is dirt track racing," said ARCA president Ron Drager. "It's important to reach out and connect with those racers and fans. Racing on the dirt is a vital, integral component of our schedule and a calculated part of our business plan. It differentiates our tour, and ties our series as it stands today to the very beginning of ARCA history, when racing on dirt built the foundation of our tradition."

Championship stock car racing at the Illinois State Fairgrounds predates even the ARCA Racing Series, having started in 1950. The ARCA Racing Series' sanction of the Allen Crowe Memorial 100 - which remembers the fallen Sprint car driver who died at New Bremen (Ohio) Speedway in 1963 - began in 1983. Dean Roper won the inaugural ARCA race at the track for the first of his three series victories in Springfield.

Nine-time ARCA champion Frank Kimmel won a series-high seven races at Springfield between 2000 and 2008, and 1989 series champion Bob Keselowski is second all-time with four wins on the mile dirt oval. In August, Chad McCumbee made a leap toward winning the Bill France Four Crown with his Springfield victory.

Like its counterpart 150 miles away, the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds has hosted ARCA-sanctioned races since 1983. Roper won the first Southern Illinois 100 on the oval, his first of four ARCA victories at the track.

Kimmel is the dean of DuQuoin, as well, with five victories between 2001 and 2008. Billy Thomas ranks just behind Kimmel and tied with Roper, with four wins. Chris Buescher won at DuQuoin on Labor Day this year to open a stretch of three wins in the final four races and a charge for the Rookie of the Year title.

More detailed schedule information for the season will be available shortly. The following race dates for the 2012 ARCA Racing Series schedule have been announced:

Feb. 18 - Daytona International Speedway

March 10 - Mobile International Speedway

May 4 - Talladega Superspeedway

June 9 - Pocono Raceway

July 1 - New Jersey Motorsports Park

Aug. 4 - Pocono Raceway

Aug. 19 - Illinois State Fairgrounds

Sept. 3 - DuQuoin State Fairgrounds

The ARCA Racing Series will wrap up the 2011 season with the Championship Awards Banquet at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center in Covington, Ky., near Cincinnati, on Saturday, Dec. 10.

Polar Bear 150 set for Nov. 26

2011-11-15T20:19:00.001-05:00

Polar Bear 150 up next at The Rock

Annual Street Stock race set for Nov. 26

Rockingham, N.C. (Nov. 15, 2011) - With the American 200 10 days in the rearview mirror, the Frank Kimmel Street Stock Nationals (FKSSN) are now only 10 days from their annual rumble on the high banks of Rockingham Speedway.

Up to 99 cars will take the green flag for the fourth annual Polar Bear 150 at Rockingham Speedway on Nov. 26. Already registered for this year's running are Chuck Barnes, Sr., winner of the first two Polar Bear 150s, Frank Kimmel II, and Bryan Silas, winner of the CARS Pro Cup portion of the American 200 earlier this month.

"It's shaping up to be a great field for the Polar Bear," said Rockingham Speedway President Andy Hillenburg. "We are getting closer to that field of 99 cars coming to the take the green flag to start this thing. It is always a lot of fun and we hope everyone comes out. There are still great seats available."

NASCAR returns to Rockingham on April 15, 2012 for the Camping World Truck Series Good Sam Club Roadside Assistance 200.

For more information, or to purchase tickets, contact Rockingham Speedway at 855-NC-ROCKS or visit us online at www.rockinghamspeedway.com.

The numbers for Homestead

2011-11-15T20:09:00.001-05:00

THE NUMBERS for the FORD 400Homestead-Miami Speedway (all 12 Sprint Cup races)

1 – fewest laps led by race winner (Bobby Labonte, 11/16/03)
1 – fewest caution (11/14/99)
2 – wins from the pole (Bill Elliott – 2001 and Kurt Busch – 2002)
3 – most wins (Greg Biffle)
4 of 12 – drivers in the Chase have won at HMS (Carl Edwards, Tony Stewart, Matt Kenseth and Kurt Busch)
5 – fewest caution laps (11/14/99)
6 – fewest leaders (11/17/02)
6 – fewest cars on lead lap at finish (11/12/00)
8 – number of jet dryers available for track drying this weekend
10 – number of cautions in last year’s race
12 – most leaders (twice, most recent 11/20/05)
12 – fewest lead changes (11/17/02)
25 – most lead changes (11/18/07)
29 – most on lead lap at finish (11/22/09)
31 – fewest running at finish (11/21/10)
42– most cars running at finish (11/11/01)
79– most caution laps (11/21/04)
90-135 minutes – amount of time it takes to dry the track after a significant rainfall (length depends on time of day and temperature).
214 – most laps led by race winner (Matt Kenseth, 11/18/07)

2011 Caution Update
3 – fewest cautions this season (New Hampshire, 9/25/11)
7 – number of races extended beyond scheduled distance in 2011
18 – most cautions this season (Martinsville, 10/30/11)
270 – number of cautions in the first 35 races of 2011; includes 136 for accidents, 59 for debris and 36 for spins
255 – number of cautions in the first 35 races in 2010; includes 135 for accidents, 47 for debris and 36 for spins
1,304 of 10,283 – number of laps under caution in 2011
1,732.507 of 13,836.238 – miles under caution in the first 35 races

Provided by Darnell Communications for Dodge Motorsports

ARCA returning to Pocono

2011-11-10T15:04:00.001-05:00

Thursday, Nov. 10, 2011

Continuing a Tradition: ARCA Visiting Pocono Twice in 2012

(TOLEDO, Ohio) - As has been the case since 1987, the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards will visit Pennsylvania's Pocono Raceway for two event dates in 2012.

Both races on the 2.5-mile triangular track will take place as companion events, one day before NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races. The first, an 80-lap, 200-mile event, is scheduled for Saturday, June 9. The second, at 50 laps or 125 miles, will take place Saturday, Aug. 4.

"Pocono Raceway is so unique in that it challenges drivers with three widely differing turns in terms of banking and radius, and it incorporates the speed typically associated with superspeedway racing," said Ron Drager, president of ARCA. "Driving at Pocono requires a driver to brake and accelerate, skills acquired in short track racing, so we have found it to be a great track for less experienced drivers to become acclimated to higher speeds."

ARCA's Pocono history dates back over 54 prior races to 1969, when Bobby Watson defeated Benny Parsons to win the track's first ARCA race on the now-defunct 0.75-mile oval at the facility. The June race, though, will be ARCA's first since the summer retirement of track owners Joseph and Rose Mattioli. Track president Brandon Igdalsky, a grandson of the Mattiolis, has risen to chief executive officer.

"Our tenure at Pocono dates back to 1969 and spans three generations of family members on both the ARCA and Pocono management teams," Drager said. "Dr. Joe and Rose Mattioli and John and Mildred Marcum started the tradition we carry on today with Brandon and Nick Igdalsky, who were named by 'Doc' to senior executive positions this past season."

2012 will be the 26th consecutive year that ARCA has contested two annual races at Pocono Raceway. Bob Schacht won both races at the track in 1987, the first year that ARCA scheduled two races on the "Tricky Triangle." This season's events will be the 54th and 55th for the ARCA Racing Series on Pocono's 2.5-mile oval. Tim George Jr. won a rain-shortened event this June, and eventual series champion Ty Dillon gave Richard Childress Racing a Pocono sweep for 2011 by winning in August.

Tim Steele is the all-time wins leader at Pocono with nine (including five consecutive from 1996-98), and he is closely followed by Schacht (six) and Bob Keselowski (five). Familiar names like Ryan Newman and Joey Logano dot the winner list.

More detailed schedule information for the season will be available shortly. The following race dates for the 2012 ARCA Racing Series schedule have been announced:

Feb. 18 - Daytona International Speedway

March 10 - Mobile International Speedway

May 4 - Talladega Superspeedway

June 9 - Pocono Raceway

July 1 - New Jersey Motorsports Park

Aug. 4 - Pocono Raceway

The ARCA Racing Series will wrap up the 2011 season with the Championship Awards Banquet at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center in Covington, Ky., near Cincinnati, on Saturday, Dec. 10.

The ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards featured 19 events at 16 tracks on its 2011 schedule.

The numbers for Phoenix

2011-11-09T13:13:00.002-05:00

THE NUMBERS for the KOBALT TOOLS 500Phoenix International Raceway (all 30 Sprint Cup races included)
1 – fewest lead changes (11/4/90)
2 – fewest leaders (11/4/90)
2 – fewest caution (11/7/99)
3 – fewest cars on lead lap at finish (10/30/94)
4 – number of wins from the pole (most recent, Carl Edwards 11/14/11)
4 – fewest laps led by race winner (Ryan Newman, 4/10/10)
4 – most wins (Jimmie Johnson)
5 – number of jet dryers available for track drying this weekend at PIR
9 – number of cautions during spring race at PIR
10 – fewest caution laps (11/7/99)
10 of 12 – drivers in the Chase have won at PIR (Brad Keselowski and Denny Hamlin have yet to win at the one-mile track)
13 – most leaders (four times, most recent 4/10/10)
41 – most cars running at finish (three times, most recent 4/21/07)
66 – most caution laps (11/2/03)
90 minutes – amount of time it takes to dry the track after a significant rainfall.
262 – most laps led by race winner (Dale Earnhardt, 11/4/90)

2011 Caution Update
3 – fewest cautions this season (New Hampshire, 9/25/11)
7 – number of races extended beyond scheduled distance in 2011
18 – most cautions this season (Martinsville, 10/30/11)
262 – number of cautions in the first 34 races of 2011; includes 132 for accidents, 59 for debris and 33 for spins
250 – number of cautions in the first 34 races in 2010; includes 133 for accidents, 46 for debris and 34 for spins
1,274 of 9,971– number of laps under caution in 2011
1,702.507 of 13,524.238 – miles under caution in the first 34 races

Provided by Darnell Communications for Dodge Motorsports

The numbers for Texas

2011-11-04T11:02:00.002-04:00

THE NUMBERS for the AAA TEXAS 500Texas Motor Speedway (all 21 Sprint Cup races included)
1 – number of wins from the pole (Kasey Kahne, 4/9/06)
1 – fewest laps led by race winner (Jeff Burton, 4/15/07)
4 – fewest leaders (11/8/09)
5 – fewest caution (three times, most recent 4/9/11)
6 – number of jet dryers available for track drying this weekend at TMS
6 – fewest cars on lead lap at finish (11/8/09)
5 – number of cautions during spring race
17 – most leaders (4/2/00)
24 – fewest caution laps (4/9/11)
73 – most caution laps (4/6/97)
40 – most cars running at finish (twice, most recent 11/2/08)
120 minutes – amount of time it takes to dry the 1.5-mile track after a significant rainfall.
278 – most laps led by race winner (Tony Stewart, 11/5/06)
2,650 – number of tires Goodyear will mount for Sprint Cup teams during the weekend; teams may receive as many as five sets of tires for practice and 11 sets for the race.

Key TMS Dates1995 – construction began
1997 – first Sprint Cup race
2005 – first year track hosted two Sprint Cup events

2011 Caution Update 7 – number of races extended beyond scheduled distance in 2011
3 – fewest cautions this season (New Hampshire, 9/25/11)
18 – most cautions this season (Martinsville, 10/30/11)
257 – number of cautions in the first 33 races of 2011; includes 131 for accidents, 57 for debris and 32 for spins
1,253 of 9,637– number of laps under caution in 2011
1,671.007 of 13,023.238 – miles under caution in the first 33 races

BONUS: Three Texas tracks have hosted 30 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races, with Texas Motor Speedway the site of 21 races since 1997. Meyer Speedway in Houston hosted one race in 1971, and Texas World Speedway in College Station hosted eight from 1969 to 1981.

Provided by Darnell Communications for Dodge Motorsports

Dodge quotes at Martinsville

2011-10-30T19:22:00.002-04:00

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Martinsville Speedway

Tums Fast Relief 500

October 30, 2011

KURT BUSCH (No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger R/T) Finished 14th
We had a little bit of everything today with our Shell/Pennzoil Dodge. We struggled a little bit during the middle part of the race and lost a lap, but we took the wave around, caught a caution and made it up. I really hate I got into Jeff Burton, but the 39 got into me and I got into Jeff. Paul Menard got into us and I spun out. The car was fine, but nobody would let you get to the inside. We decided to go for it on that last caution and got tires. We came in 14th and finished 14th, so it was a wash. We’ll try to make up some points next week at Texas.”

BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T) Finished 17th
“That’s racing on these short tracks. It will come back around for the Miller Lite Dodge team. We got some good racing in the middle section of the race, got the good lanes that we needed, but at the end we just didn’t catch a break. We ended up on the outside for the last few restarts and that wasn’t the place to be. That’s just this style of racing. You can’t control your own fate. The car came to us, the track came to us. The guys had a good plan. Our Miller Lite Dodge was a top-10 car. We came up a few laps short.”

PAUL WOLFE (Crew Chief, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T)
“A long day for us. We started off not really where we needed to be. We were really struggling. Brad stayed calm and we kept working on our car and felt like halfway through the race we had ourselves a top-10, top-five car at worst. We were doing what we needed to do in this championship battle to gain points on the 99 (Carl Edwards). That last restart at the end, it looked like the 88 (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) got into the 11 and just a chain reaction that spins us out.”

WHAT HAPPENED ON THAT LAST RESTART? “I guess the 88 got into the 11 and kind of a chain reaction got into us. It was definitely a tough day. We weren’t where we needed to be at the beginning. Everybody worked really hard. I was proud of the effort. We kept adjusting on the car. Brad stayed out of trouble and we put ourselves in position to do what we need to do today and that’s gain points in the 99. Frustrating day for us for sure as hard as we worked to get our car to be able to run up front. At the end of the day, the guys on this Miller Lite team will keep working hard and we’ll just do what we can do.”

WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE PICTURE FOR THE NEXT THREE WEEKS, WHAT DO YOU THINK? “Well, obviously, it’s tough now. Carl has got such a lead on everybody, but you know, we might have to just roll the dice a little more. He’s kind of had everything go his way and it might just be that year, you know, everybody has those years when things seem to go their way. It’s definitely going his way right now, but the best thing we can do is try to find speed in our cars and get good finishes.”

ARE YOU SURPRISED AT HOW PHYSICAL THE RACE WAS TODAY? THERE IS A LOT OF BENT UP CARS HERE IN THE GARAGE AREA. “It seems like there was quite a bit today, maybe more than most, but I don’t know that I’m necessarily surprised about it. It’s just Martinsville.”

ARE YOU GLAD TO GET MARTINSVILLE BEHIND YOU? “It was a tough day for us. We made gains on our car. We brought a new race car here and we felt like we had a car that could run top-five which is our goal here. Just things didn’t go our way. That’s a part of it. We’ll go on to Texas.”

TRAVIS GEISLER (Competition Director, Penske Racing)
“The finish is disappointing, but you have to look at the good parts. They (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge team) had a great race car today and really fought hard to race their way to where they got to. Obviously, the 99 has all the luck in the world on his side right now. He got a lap down twice today and got the lucky dog and ended up with a good finish. I feel like we raced our way to a fifth-place finish, fifth to eighth easily. As long as you can do that week in and week out, it will come to you. That’s the thing this team has to hold its head high about, getting that Miller Lite Dodge to the front every week. If they do that, it will come together for them.”

Tony Stewart wins at Martinsville

2011-10-30T19:06:00.002-04:00

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

TUMS FAST RELIEF 500

MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY

TEAM CHEVY DRIVER RACE NOTES AND QUOTES

OCTOBER 30, 2011

TONY STEWART, NO. 14 OFFICE DEPOT/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET – RACE WINNER: YOU HAD A WHALE OF A RUN TODAY:“I tell you, we got to second there and hit the curb off of Turn 4 and let Jeff get underneath us and we had to run the top in (Turns) 1 and 2 and then we pulled him two car lengths off of (Turn) 2. I had a little confidence; at least the track had grip, I just didn’t know if I did a good enough job of keeping the tires cleaned off. It wasn’t 150 laps from the end we were fighting just to stay on the lead lap.”

TALK ABOUT HAVING TO COME DOWN PIT ROAD WHEN YOU WERE LEADING; WHAT WAS THE DEAL THERE?“I swore I had a left rear flat. We had changed so much stuff during the race that I didn’t think it was flat but I thought it was going down. You know, we had contact with (Kevin) Harvick and I felt a ‘clunk’ and I didn’t know if it broke something or if we had a flat, but at that part of the race you couldn’t take a chance. But (crew chief) Darian Grubb saved us and got us the great pit strategy there at the end that got us the track position back.”

YOUR CAR WAS TIGHT IN THE CENTER. WHAT DID YOU GUYS FINALLY DO TO GET IT HOOKED UP?“Yeah, like I’m going to tell anybody that. I’ll take that to my grave (laughs).”

YOUR ARE 8 POINTS BACK IN SECOND POSITION WITH THREE RACES LEFT. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS?“Carl Edwards had better be real worried. That’s all I’ve got to say. He’s not going to sleep for the next three weeks.”

TALK ABOUT THAT LAST LAP PASS ON JIMMIE JOHNSON, HOW DID YOU PULL THAT OFF?

“I don’t know because I don’t think anybody has ever passed Jimmie Johnson on the outside so, just determination, I don’t think we had the best racecar today by any means, but we had the most determined pit crew to get it as good as they can get it, I was pretty mad all day, but I was the only guy who didn’t get in a wreck with somebody, so I was kind of proud of that. Just this Office Depot/ Mobil 1 Chevy, Hendrick engines and chassis and Darin Grubb and all these guys at Stewart-Haas racing, just an awesome group of people.”

WHAT IS GOING THROUGH YOUR MIND ON THAT FINAL RE-START? “Yea, to be honest I was not excited starting second, I would have rather re-started third, but Jeff (Gordon) got to us and I hit the curb off of four before the restart, Jeff got underneath us going into one, I ran that second lane and pulled two car lengths on ya, and said wow this lane has a little bit more grip than I thought it had up there. The key was just getting into one beside him, and not letting him run up the race track like he did Jeff Burton and holding him tight and letting myself have the opportunity to at least get through there.”

I KNOW YOU WANT TO CELEBRATE BUT I WANT TO TELL YOU, YOU ARE EIGHT POINTS BACK OF CARL EDWARDS WITH THREE TO GO WE HAVE A CHAMPIONSHIP BATTLE IN THE MAKING: “He better be worried, that is all I got to say. He is not going to have an easy three weeks.”

DARIAN GRUBB, CREW CHIEF NO. 14 OFFICE DEPOT/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET ON THEIR WIN:

“It is an awesome team that just won’t give up. We have a great bunch of guys that did an awesome job.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 MYLOWE’S CHEVROLET – FINISHED 2^ND: YOU BARELY MISSED SCORING THE WIN; TELL US ABOUT THOSE LAST FEW LAPS OF THE RACE:“We had a great race car all day long. Chad (Knaus, crew chief) made a great call. I thought it was going to bite us, staying out like we did; and with all the cautions that gave us an opportunity to win the race. And Tony (Stewart, race winner) hung-on tough on the outside there and I just couldn’t bring myself to leaning on him and moving him out of the way with where he is in the points. I just kind of raced him clean and then he got around on the outside and got in front of us.”

DID YOU HAVE A SENSE OF HOW WILD THINGS WERE TODAY AT MARTINSVILLE?“Oh, yeah; from lap one or two I could just tell it was going to be one of those days and I could see the crashes on the big screen there at the end. I just wish we didn’t have that last caution. The last three or four (cautions) seemed to be the same cars over and over and I just wish that wasn’t the case. We would have been just fine.”

TAKE ME THROUGH THAT FINAL RESTART: “Yea, I just could not get away from him on the restart. He hung on strong on the outside, and I was more worried about clipping a curb when he was running me tight and not take him out of a championship situation, minding my P’s and Q’s. I just wanted to do the right thing and unfortunately got beat in the process. Thought about going in there and leaning on him, move him up but that is just not the right thing to do. I just wished that prior to that the No. 83 was a part of every caution. I wish he could have just driven around the race track and we could have won this thing, but whatever, we will move on.”

A KEY MOMENT WAS THE LAST PIT STOP AND YOU DID NOT COME DOWN PIT ROAD, HOW CRITICAL WAS THAT? “It certainly gave us the track position we needed and the No. 24 got to third I guess, so really ended up being the right call. Chad ( Knaus, crew chief) was really nervous the way things unfolded, felt like it might cost us a shot at the win, but it put us right in the cat bird seat to win the race and that last restart Tony ( Stewart) did a great job and I didn’t get it done.”

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET – FINISHED 3^RD: WHAT A COMEBACK FOR YOU TODAY SINCE EARLY ON, YOU WERE MIRED DEEP IN THE FIELD“Yeah, I got caught up in that incident early on. It looked like Dale (Earnhardt) Jr. got into the curb a little bit getting into (Turn) 1 and we just had nowhere to go. I probably should have went low, but I chose to get out of the way of the guys behind me and I center-punched him. We’re pretty lucky. That right-front brake duct was tore up pretty good and at this place, cooling those brakes is pretty important. And I beat it up. I ran it as hard as I possibly could to get our Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet back to the front. It was pretty fun coming up through there and getting up to the front and leading. It just seemed like the last couple of runs just didn’t quite go our way. So we came home third. It was a nice top five for us.”

HOW WOULD YOU ASSESS TODAY AND THE RACING? “It was crazy, absolutely crazy, I hate we got caught up in that incident early with my teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. looked like he got the curb, and I choose to go high and I should have gone low, but great effort by this Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet team, they fixed the nose, I was more worried about our break-duct, over heating the right front and I beat it up, I ran it hard to get back up there and it held up so I am pretty happy with that. You know the last two runs, I don’t know if it was just the adjustments we made or what, we just kind of lost the edge that we had at one time especially on the short runs, I really did not have much for those guys there at the end and we needed more green flag runs than we did, so hey third great, gosh we came so close to getting win 200 for Rick Hendrick, I thought Jimmie ( Johnson) had it there for a second, but great effort by Tony Stewart, when things get tough you have to watch out for that guy, and he really put one on them. I didn’t think he could pass Jimmie (Johnson) on the outside.”

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET, FINISHED 4^TH: ON HIS RACE TODAY: “It was definitely a battle. Everybody was driving hard. That is what you are supposed to do here at Martinsville. I know the guys did a good job making the cars better and we got good track position. The No. 31 (Jeff Burton) helped us on that last restart there to get down, I really appreciate that. Just the top was tough for me to get going on the restarts. The No. 14 (Tony Stewart, race winner) was really the only one that could make any ground on the restarts and that is what won him the race. All-in-all, everybody on our Budweiser Chevy did a good job.”

JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CHEVROLET, FINISHED 6^TH: ON TODAY’S RACE: ” I can't be too unhappy with finishing sixth because the Cat team worked their tails off to get us in position at the end to win this thing. Pit stops were good all especially when there was some damage to fix and Luke made good calls to help get us up front. That last caution probably didn't help us but it was another solid finish.

DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 DIET MOUNTAIN DEW PAIN THE 88/NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET, FINISHED 7^TH: THAT LOOKED LIKE ONE OF THE WILDEST RACES I HAVE SEEN YOU RUN OUT THERE TODAY: “Really? Well, its time man. That right there was basically, hey, the season is running down and we are not going to be racing much longer and I am going to miss it so I came to the buffet and got everything I could eat.”

DID YOU PLAN TO DO THAT FROM THE START TODAY OR DID IT JUST HAPPEN? “I was doing okay and I was just kind of hanging out and then I drank a couple of AMPs before the race started and probably was a little bit too excited. That was the first 100 laps and I calmed down after a while but that first 100 laps it was just……………it was fun. I was having fun.”

DID YOU WORRY ABOUT MAKING ANYONE MAD FOR THE WAY YOU WERE DRIVING OR ANYTHING?“I mean, come on man. I mean everybody that I think I ran over even got me back accidentally in one shape or form today. I don’t know if they think we are all even but I ain’t really worried about it. If they want to come at me, come at me. But I had fun today and this is short track racing and we don’t do as much short track racing anymore so when you see this kind of thing, you are like ‘whoa, what’s going on’, because we run on these mile-and-a-halfs and you don’t see that kind of crap. And if we ran on these things more often this would kind of be more acceptable I guess in the minds.”

DO YOU THINK THIS WAS THE WILDEST MARTINSVILLE RACE YOU HAVE EVER BEEN IN?“No. It was about like all the rest I just…………it was a little wild and we started off a little wilder than we normally do. Those first 100 laps are usually kind of calm but everyone was kicking it into high gear once they dropped the rag. I had a really, really good time and I know I got into Joey (Logano) accidentally, my fault, hopping the rear brakes in three and I hated that. Me and the 6 got to beating on each other real hard and he gave it as good as he took it. And I think we ended on even terms anyway. Anyone else? I don’t know……it was fun and I had a good time.”

ON A SCALE OF 1 TO 10 HOW DOES THIS RACE RATE WITH THE REST OF THE SEASON, ONE OF THE BEST?“This was one of the good ones and I really like coming here. I love everything about the weekend, practicing is fun, qualifying is even kind of fun. Which I am not really fond of qualifying in most places. You just know what you are going to get when you show up here. You know what is going to happen and there is no real surprises and for a long, long time I have been coming here and able to drive really good cars. I haven’t come here and run like crap all weekend and struggled in the race……I have been really lucky to drive some really good cars the last ten years and that makes it a lot of fun too.”

THE POINTS ARE VERY CLOSE AND WHAT DO YOU THINK THAT DOES FOR THE SPORT AND THE FANBASE?“I think this was a great day for NASCAR and I think this kind of racing is exciting and people really yearn to see that style of racing, not all the time obviously, but a little more often that what we have. Please, build some more short tracks, we need some more short tracks. All these 1.5 mile tracks……..I know you can get more seats or whatever but they just don’t really turn everybody on, you know? So I think this was a good day for NASCAR. Exciting race. Good race, good win, and good battle at the end for the win……..and yes, a tight points battle. The new system is working really well I think, so, all signs are pointing up.”

TONY GIBSON, CREW CHIEF NO. 39 HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET, FINISHED 10^TH: ON TODAY’S RACE: “We got spun there. We had fresh tires and got spun out there and had to go to the back and drove back up to the top-10. I don’t know what else you can do, you know. We led laps. Disappointing, that’s all.

IT LOOKED LIKE A CRAZY RACE OUT THERE:“It is. You don’t know when the caution is going to fall. When it’s not. If you are going to get spun out, or you’re not. It’s just crazy. It is just frustrating. I am proud we came back and finished 10^th but it isn’t what we wanted. We’ll just take it and go on.”

JAMIE MCMURRAY NO. 1 MCDONALD’S CHEVROLET, INVOLVED IN AN ACCIDENT ON LAP 87: WHAT HAPPENED WITH YOU AND THE NO. 83 CAR?“When you don’t feel like you have the corner good, you block. I pulled down and blocked and I saw he (Brian Vickers) was going to get in there, so I moved back up the track and I just feel like he let off the brake and went ahead and sent me for a ride. I don’t know, it is frustrating, because we had a really good car yesterday, and it did not start off very good today and I thought we got our car quite a bit better there and I am just really upset. I felt like I blocked him, then I let him in, it was all going to be good and I just felt like he kind of took a cheap shot on me. I just didn’t appreciate it.

“Just racing really hard. I saw the No. 83 got inside of me and I tried to block and I couldn’t get down far enough. When we got down in there, it seemed like he let off the brake a little early and sent for a ride. It is just one of those really frustrating tracks and it brings out the bad in people. I think he had been in four or five incidents earlier, his car looked pretty beat up so maybe he was a little more frustrated. Not with me, but maybe I got the bad end of it.

“That was the first time (between those two cars). It seems like it has been a little bit of a wild day. Normally the first part of the race goes pretty smoothly and the end bad. But, it’s been pretty wild.”

Martinsville keys for success

2011-10-29T15:03:00.000-04:00

Martinsville Speedway
TUMS Fast Relief 500
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series

http://twitter.com/teamdodge

www.media.chrysler.com

Keys for Success: TUMS Fast Relief 500

MARTINSVILLE, Va. (Oct. 29, 2011) – Each race weekend, selected Dodge Motorsports engineers, Penske Racing crew chiefs, engineers, drivers or engine specialists give their insight on the ‘Keys for Success’ for the upcoming race. This week, the green flag drops at Martinsville Speedway and the TUMS Fast Relief 500.

Track: Martinsville Speedway (Race 33 of 36 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series)

Race: TUMS Fast Relief 500 Track Length: .526-mile (500 laps/263 miles)

Trivia Question: (Answer below) In addition to Martinsville Speedway and Richmond Raceway, how many other Virginia tracks have hosted a NASCAR Sprint Cup event?

HOWARD COMSTOCK (Dodge Motorsports Engineering)

A New Tire: “We have a new tire for the race. In the past, I think we’ve seen some instances of people pitting more frequently than necessary. The tire was good enough and could have been run longer, but some teams had a different opinion. They made more pit stops than they probably needed to, giving up track position. I think it’s been proven over the years that track position wins more races here than tires.

“Now, the game has changed. We have a softer tire this year. Without a lot of practice, teams have to be careful to realize the lesson’s that they learned last year may not apply at this race. It’s a new game.”

Where They Start: “We’re this far into the Chase; it’s OK that we start this way (on points). It’s an important race for everybody; it’s really important for the top eight. I think it’s OK they start on points tomorrow. It’s a level playing field when we start. Let the best team win. At least somebody didn’t get a bad break, a bad lap, a bad start that is going to cause the Chase to be changed significantly because of one bad qualifying lap. Let the guys that have proved themselves during the year start up front and let’s just race 500 laps.”

Brakes – An Issue: “I don’t think brakes will be an issue. The brake technology has become good enough that teams understand it and know how to manage it. The top-line drivers clearly understand you can’t go flat out for 500 laps here or you will run out of brakes. It’s brake management. The teams understand the technology, the drivers understand the limitations. I don’t think we will see brakes an issue.”

Mother Nature: “With temperatures in the 50s and the soft tire, it should be some fast laps. It will be a competitive race. There are a lot of people that are close enough (in the Chase) still that coasting is not going to cut it; you’re going to have to do some racing. There are enough people close, enough people right on the fringe that could get back in this thing. We’ve seen several drivers that we’ve considered completely out of it come back into the mix. I think there are some of those guys on the fringe that will be pressing pretty hard tomorrow based on the fact we’ve seen comebacks this year.”

Answer to trivia question: (Seven). Nine Virginia tracks have hosted 273 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races (does not include convertible events or Sunday’s race). Two tracks remain on the schedule – Martinsville (125) and Richmond (111). Of the seven tracks that are no longer on the Sprint Cup calendar, Boston Speedway hosted 10 events, Langley Field Speedway nine and Old Dominion Speedway seven. The other four tracks had a total of 11 races.

Chevy drivers at Talladega

2011-10-20T23:14:00.001-04:00

TEAM CHEVY FROM THE DRIVER’S SEAT AT TALLADEGA SUPERSPEEDWAY:

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 JIMMY JOHNS CHEVROLET – 2^ND IN STANDINGS:“Restrictor plate stuff has been great for us, you never know how it is going to go at Talladega, but we have been pretty good there in the past. I don’t anticipate the restrictor plate change doing anything. I think the speeds will be a little bit higher. I think the pop-off valve will probably be a bigger change than the restrictor plate for sure. I don’t think it’s going to change the two-car tandem other than you’re going to have to switch spots a lot more to keep the engine cool. For whatever reason, we’ve just always had a good plate program at RCR and when you have good cars, it makes it a lot easier to have success. We’ll stick with our teammates and see where we fall at the end. Everyone is just battling to keep the cars up front and doing the things they have to do (in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup). We haven’t had the fastest cars in the first few races, but we just have never given up on it and wound up with decent finishes. Hopefully we can keep at that and get a little more speed out of them.”

TONY STEWART, NO. 14 EL MONTEREY/OFFICE DEPOT CHEVROLET – 5^TH IN STANDINGS:“We’re looking at it (the Talladega race) as an opportunity to gain some points and positions. Every time you’re at Talladega you try to take care of yourself and your equipment by not getting yourself in compromising positions that are going to take you out of an opportunity to get you to the end of the race. For me, it’s no different whether the race is in April during the regular season or in October when I’m in the Chase.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 MYLOWE’S CHEVROLET – 8^TH IN STANDINGS:"I think with the new rules it's a step to make us pass more. I don't think we are going to be able to stay connected as long. Any time you put a bigger plate on the cars it allows for a larger closing rate with more opportunities to pass with more power. With that said, I don't think the changes are large enough to have us not push. That threshold for pushing, the grip level is still so high at the race track that I don't think it's going to separate us yet but it should make for more passing. We see that more with a larger plate and then the fact that we can't stay together we're going to be changing, I don't think we'll be staying together as long we'll be changing out more often which could lead to us being in a big pack like some of the fans want to see. We'll get down there and see what happens. I don't care what the rules are. I learned a long time ago to stop worrying about that stuff. I just go."

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 DIET MOUNTAIN DEW PAINT THE 88/NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET – 9^TH IN STANDINGS: ““It was frustrating (two-car drafting) because you had to learn a whole new way to adapt and draft. You had to buy into that way or you weren’t going to be good at Talladega. And you had to buy into it all the way in Daytona. We did well at Talladega, and we were okay at Daytona but I got separated from my teammate. I think this change will shake things up and hopefully for the better.”

RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 U.S. ARMY CHEVROLET – 10^TH IN STANDINGS:"We need to have some special runs in the next five races. We definitely have the potential to do well at each of the next five tracks. We just need to avoid the bad breaks that plagued us during the first five Chase races. No matter which way you dissect the numbers, we haven't produced the results in the past couple of years at the restrictor-plate races in Daytona and Talladega. However, our recent sub-par finishes at the restrictor-plate races were not from a lack of performance, but mostly of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. We'll have to wait and see what effect the new rule changes will have on restrictor-plate racing. We all have our theories but won't know for sure until we actually get on the track this weekend. Personally, I think there will be less tandem drafting than in the past because of the rule changes. But weather will also dictate how long we can push each other before swapping. Cooler temperatures the better."

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET – 11^TH IN STANDINGS:“My strategy is to race whatever way gives us the best chance to win. I think the bonus ($100k to the driver who leads the most laps, provided there are 100 or more lead changes during the race) is a cool thing that the track is doing, and 100 might be reachable. Our plan is to be there at the end battling for the win. That could mean battling lap-after-lap for the lead, or it could mean staying a safe distance back and watching the race unfold. It could also be a mixture of the two. We’ll just have to wait and see once the green flag is waved. I don’t expect a whole lot different (regarding how rule changes will affect the racing), but we won’t really know until we get into Friday’s practice and start drafting. I think you’re still going to see two-by-two, but the cars might have to swap more frequently. But we are going to try to do everything we can to not have to swap. When I first started racing here, we were racing single file and you had to work lap-after-lap-after-lap for just one position. If you didn’t complete the pass, you could be shuffled out and lose 20 or 30 spots. Then we began racing in huge packs where you could race from 20th to first back to 20th in the span of a few laps. Now, it’s evolved into this two-car drafting, and it’s not as easy as maybe it looks on TV. It takes some skill but, most importantly, it takes getting two cars and two drivers and two spotters and two crew chiefs to work together. You have to watch your gauges a lot, you have to be really aware of what happens around you, and then you still have to put yourself in position as a two car tandem to win the race. It’s not an easy thing”.

CLINT BOWYER, NO. 33 CHEVROLET 100 CHEVROLET – 13^TH IN STANDINGS: “I am looking forward to seeing what the rule changes are going to do. It’s a step in the right direction. Do I think it will fix the two-car tandem? I really don’t know. I am reluctant to answer right now. Only time will tell. It’s not really up to me, you or anyone, but the fans. If the fans don’t like it (tandem racing) then I don’t like it and no one likes it. If they love it, then everyone loves it. We are in show business and here to put on a show. It’s as simple as that. Unfortunately, you can’t (give a Chase contender a break to avoid ‘the big one’). As soon as you try to be consciously aware of a specific individual and try to give them something to help them or whatever, you’re probably putting them in more danger by not going with the flow of things and making sure everything is right. That’s kind of a tough to juggle at a track like Talladega Superspeedway.”

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 42 ENERGIZER CHEVROLET – 19^TH IN STANDINGS:“Talladega is a fun race and it comes right down to the very end so it’s anyone’s to win. With the changes it’ll be interesting to see how fast we run at Talladega this time around. If we were running 200 mph in the spring and they give us a little more power, we will be doing like 210 mph in tandems. If you are by yourself you will be doing 195 mph. You are going to want to be in tandem no matter what come race time. We will see if we have to swap, but typically we (EGR) always do swap. It should be fun.”

MARK MARTIN, NO. 5 GODADDY.COM CHEVROLET – 20^TH IN STANDINGS:“I know NASCAR made some rule changes for this race, and I’m anxious to see how it affects the way we’ve been racing on these restrictor-plate tracks this year. I’m a big fan of the two-by-two racing. I like it a lot better than those huge packs that we used to race in. There’s a whole new element to this style -- working specifically with another driver and having a plan in place -- than what we did in the big packs It’s intense. That may go away a little with this new package, but we’ll have to see after we get on the track and get some practice laps in.”

PAUL MENARD, NO. 27 SERTA/MENARDS CHEVROLET – 21^ST IN STANDINGS:“Our number one goal (this weekend at Talladega) is to win the race. If we can’t do that, we want to finish second; and if we can’t do that, we want to finish third. If we can help our teammates along the way without hurting our position, we’ll try to do that also. You’re still going to see the same two-car breakaway drafting that we’ve seen all year. I’m not sure that the rule changes will change that a whole lot. We’ll probably go a little bit faster when we do it, but it should be about the same two-car drafting. If you look at the number of lead changes and leaders and stuff, we’re at record numbers. I think that’s what race fans like is to see passes for the lead. We don’t have the big pack racing, but you still get the ‘big ones’ that people want to see also. So I don’t think you need to do anything to it.”

JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CHEVROLET – 24^TH IN STANDINGS:“With the two-car tandem, we saw a lot of lead changes and pushing and a lot of things going on because the risk for danger wasn’t as big as it is when you’re in a big pack. So, I know a lot of fans didn’t like the two-car tandem pack, but there were some positives from that too; it wasn’t all negative. You never know the consequence when you make a rule change and this rule change has been made and it might force drivers to be real conservative. One guy will stand there and say yeah, it wasn’t good to watch and I didn’t like two-car tandems, and the next guy will say it was fine. Was it needed for other reasons? No. From a technical standpoint it worked fine. We had wrecks because of the two-car tandem and we had wrecks without a two-car tandem. It’s Talladega and Daytona. So, I don’t know if it was needed or not. But I understand there was a percentage of fans who didn’t like the two-car tandems and I don’t know. We’ll see what happens. With the two-car tandem situation, we would no question dedicate somebody to be with him (Kevin Harvick) all day. But without being able to bump-draft, in that tandem, that’s going to take some of that out because once you overheat and once you blow that valve off, you’ve got trouble. And you cannot start pushing water. So it’s going to take away the opportunity to help a teammate that’s in the Chase.”

REGAN SMITH, NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW RACING CHEVROLET – 26^TH IN STANDINGS:"I enjoy the restrictor-plate races and feel that our Furniture Row Chevrolet has a good shot at winning this weekend. It's going to be interesting to see how the new rules package will come into play. As a team, we've had discussions about the new rules but really won't know until we begin practicing on Friday. I keep on getting asked about the Talladega race three years ago when it appeared I won, but was penalized for passing below the yellow line on the final lap. I don't feel the Talladega track owes me anything. Winning at Darlington earlier this year has softened the disappointment because I would wonder if I would ever again be in position to win."

JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 BASS PRO SHOPS/TRACKER BOATS CHEVROLET – 27^TH IN STANDINGS:“We typically have a good restrictor plate program and our guys have done a lot of work on our speedway cars so I am excited for Talladega. We will sit down as a team during the weekend and discuss our strategy with regard to how we want to approach the race with our teammates on the No. 42 car. The last few superspeedway races have been the two car tandems and everyone has a different opinion about that style of racing. I think that it is interesting that Talladega has put up an award of $100,0000 to the driver that leads the most laps if there are more than 100 lead changes during the race. It would be cool to see that many lead changes there, as it is a testament to how competitive this series is on restrictor plate tracks.”

DAVE BLANEY, NO. 36 GOLDEN CORRAL CHEVROLET:"I'm really looking forward to Talladega. We had a great run there in April, and it was by far the most fun I've had on the racetrack all year. Tommy has always had good cars at Talladega, and we will have the same car that we ran at the superspeedways this year. Daytona in July was an unfortunate day because we had an engine problem from the beginning. Other than Daytona in July, we have been really strong at superspeedways this year. Hopefully, we can get Golden Corral a top-10 finish so kids can eat free on Monday."

Polar Bear practice at The Rock

2011-10-20T21:22:00.000-04:00

Polar Bear 150 practice this Saturday at Rockingham Speedway

Grandstands to be open to public, no admission

ROCKINGHAM, N.C. (October 19, 2011) - The cars of the Frank Kimmel Street Stock Nationals (FKSSN) roar into Rockingham Speedway Saturday, Oct. 22, 2011 for an open practice for the November 26 running of the Polar Bear 150.

Fans are encouraged to come out as the grandstands will be open for spectators. No admission will be charged for the practice session.

"If you have never seen the street stocks, I highly recommend that you come out and watch this practice on Saturday," said Rockingham Speedway President Andy Hillenburg. "It is such a fun series and they always put on a great show."

Gates open Saturday at 10 a.m. for fans.

After Saturday's test, racing returns to Rockingham Speedway with the American 200 on Nov. 4-5. The race weekend kicks off on Friday, Nov. 4, with pole day for the CARS Pro Cup Series and the UARA-Stars Late Model Series. Both series will crown their 2011 champion at Rockingham Speedway on Satuday, Nov. 5.

For more information on any event at Rockingham Speedway or to order tickets, please visit us online at www.rockinghamspeedway.com or contact our ticket office toll-free at 1-855-NC-ROCKS.

The numbers for Talladega

2011-10-19T16:02:00.003-04:00

THE NUMBERS for the GOOD SAM CLUB 500
Talladega Superspeedway (all 84 Sprint Cup races)
0 – fewest cautions for a Sprint Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway (three times, most recent 10/6/02)
1 – fewest laps led by race winner (twice, most recent 4/26/09 – Brad Keselowski)
1 – fewest cars on the lead lap at finish (twice, most recent 5/6/79)
8 – cautions in last year’s spring race
10 – most wins (Dale Earnhardt Sr.)
11 – number of jet dryers available for track drying this weekend
11 – most cautions (4/25/04)
13 – wins from the pole; 33 from the front row
14 – fewest running at finish (7/27/86)
23 – races won from a starting spot outside the top 10
29 – most leaders (5/25/11)
35 – different pole winners
40 – most cars running at finish (4/22/01)
41 – drivers have posted wins in the 84 races
62 – most caution laps (5/7/72)
88 – most lead changes (twice, most recent 4/17/11)
153 – most laps led by race winner (Pete Hamilton, 8/23/70)
120 minutes – approximate amount of time it takes to dry the 2.66-mile track after a significant rainfall

2011 Caution Update
7 – number of races extended beyond scheduled distance in 2011
3 – fewest cautions this season (New Hampshire, 9/25/11)
16 – most cautions this season (Daytona 500)
230 – number of cautions in the first 31 races of 2011; includes 110 for accidents, 54 for debris and 29 for spins
1,107 of 8,949 – number of laps under caution in 2011
1,513.119 of 12,260.158 – miles under caution in the first 31 races

BONUS: In addition to Talladega Superspeedway (84 races), six other Alabama tracks hosted 19 Sprint Cup events from 1951 to 1969.

Provided by Darnell Communications for Dodge Motorsports

101-year-old will be honorary race director

2011-10-11T16:33:00.001-04:00

Charlotte Motor Speedway officials will name 101-year-old Nanny Sue Neal, of Waxhaw, N.C., the Honorary Race Director of the Oct. 14 Dollar General 300 Miles of Courage to celebrate survival in the fight against breast cancer. Speedway officials will present Mrs. Neal with a plaque recognizing her as a race official and give her a ride around the 1.5-mile superspeedway in the official Toyota Camry pace car.

Chevy clinches Cup crown

2011-10-09T19:37:00.001-04:00

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

HOLLYWOOD CASINO 400

KANSAS SPEEDWAY

TEAM CHEVY DRIVER RACE NOTES & QUOTES

OCTOBER 9, 2011

JIMMIE JOHNSON NO.48 LOWES’ CHEVROLET - RACE WINNER

ON HIS RACE

“This sport is so tough, look at all the second places we have this year, we have been close but just have not got the job done. We were glad to get the win done today. Big win for Mr. Hendrick, 199 and also Chevrolet winning the Manufacturing Championship, couldn’t do without all them and all the great people at Lowes’, they have been behind us since day one. We did our job today and hopefully we can do it six or seven more times.”

CHAD KNAUS, CREW CHIEF NO. 48 LOWES’ CHEVROLET

ON THEIR HUGE CHASE WIN:

“Like I said before, I am really happy with the way the team is clicking right now, Jimmie is doing a really good job, the guys did a great job on pit road, with the support that we have from Ron and Greg Ides, it is really nice, hopefully we can go and battle for this championship and we are going to do the best we can week in and week out.”

YOU SAID THIS MORNING WE JUST NEED TO WIN MORE, IT HAS BEEN SIX MONTHS ARE YOU EXCITED ABOUT THIS WIN?

“Absolutely, can’t you tell? I am really excited, I really am, It is just an honor to be able to work with Jimmie and Hendrick Motorsports and everybody we have and all the support from Lowes’, not to sound like a commercial but we have a pretty special thing going on right now and it is great to be apart of.”

CLINT BOWYER, NO. 33 CHEERIOS/HAMBURGER HELPER CHEVROLET – FINISHED 7^TH

ON HIS RUN

“It was just frustrating. After practice I thought maybe we’d have a shot at it but it just wasn’t meant to be. We’ll keep digging. All in all, it was a good run for us. It just wasn’t what I was hoping for.

HARD NOT TO WIN AT YOUR OWN HOME TRACK, ISN’T IT?

“Yeah, it always is. Every time you get here another year goes by as it is. But we’ll be here again.”

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET – FINISHED 6^TH:

NOT A BAD DAY GIVEN THE HANDLING OF THE RACE CAR EARLY IN THE AFTERNOON

“It was a long day to say the least. But everyone on the Budweiser Chevy just kept adjusting and nothing seemed to work right today as far as our adjustments were going, so we kept swinging at it and that next to the last pit stop, we put four tires on and that helped us get through the traffic. I knew we were going to be close to the cutoff line there of when the guys would pit but the No. 22 (Kurt Busch) and I stayed out and everybody behind us pitted. So Carl Edwards) came with two tires there in the end; but all in all, it was a great save for everybody on the Budweiser Chevy.

“Well everybody on our Budweiser Chevrolet did a good job. I am ready to get out of Kansas, I am tired of eventful days. We had an eventful one yesterday and an eventful one today. These guys didn’t give up. We put four tires on the next to last stop and I knew that we were going to be close to the cut-off point there coming to that last caution, and I saw the No. 22 hint to stay out, so I stayed out and everybody else pitted. We should have pitted there, that is my fault, but good job for our Budweiser guys and get on out of here!”

BETWEEN YOU AND YOUR CREW CHIEF AND THE ENGINEERS, WHO HAS THE FINAL SAY SO ON WHETHER YOU STAY OUT AND TRY TO ROLL THE DICE OR NOT?

“Today it was kind of my call to see what they did; but we knew the lead car, you only have so much time to come down pit road. So it’s a tough call and everybody’s patience got tested today and we’ll go back and see if we can’t do better at HollyCharlotte.”

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET – FINISHED 34^TH (ENGINE FAILURE)

DO YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED?

“No, I’m not sure. I started seeing smoke inside the car. We had a really bad restart there and got shuffled back. Our day was pretty much over anyway and we were going to finish maybe 15^th or something. Right there I started what smelled like burning oil and I saw the oil temp start to come up and I felt like it was just a matter of time before it blew up. I’ve got to thank Quaker State because the thing lasted a lot longer than I thought it would.”

“It was a sequence of crazy events for us, day was going really well very proud of this team, gotta thank DuPont, Drive to End Hunger, everybody that was on board today, Pepsi, Quaker State, it was a heck of a performance for Quaker State motor oil today, cause I didn’t think it would last as long as it did. I don’t know what happen but my oil temp was just pegged for shoot, 30 laps and I knew it was just a matter of time, but to last that long was pretty amazing. That restart Tony Stewart took me three wide, all the way down to the apron, and we were on old tires and that just ruined our day right there. He did what he had to do, it messed us up but right after that we start getting smoke, we thought it was tire smoke, but it wasn’t it was under the hood, obviously it ended out day.”

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD/AMP ENERGY CHEVROLET – FINISHED 14TH

ON HIS DAY

“Well, it was all right. We had a pretty tight car when the race started. And then there was a run in the middle of the race where I couldn’t have asked for the car to be any better. It was really fast. And near the end there we just had a lot of cautions and a lot of traffic and my car was real tight. In that dirty air, we just couldn’t get anything done. But I was better than we were last time here. We’ve just got to gain a little bit more on it. We’re getting there.”

YOU MENTIONED THE TIRES. COULD YOU EXPLAIN?

“We weren’t making big changes on the car. We had this one run where we went like 15^th to 7^th immediately. The car was flawless. And then we did nothing at all but change tires and it was so tight that I was just holding people up and was trying to do the best I could to hold my position. And I don’t understand what that’s all about. I think the tire management business is probably the hardest job to have because the driver ain’t never satisfied. I don’t know how to fix that you know? We have one tire manufacturer and they just build the tires and most times they’re really good and I thought this tire was pretty good today. But my car was really inconsistent on them all race long and we’ve got to figure out if Goodyear wants to come tell us what we’re doing wrong, then come tell us what we’re doing wrong. I’d like to know.”

SO IT’S NOT SOMETHING YOU FEEL LIKE YOU ARE DOING WITH AIR PRESSURES AND THINGS LIKE THAT?

“No, we’re not changing anything. You get one set of tires. This is what happens: We get all these tires for the race. You’ll see they have different serial numbers and codes and stuff on them. And you’ll do the research on those codes and serial numbers and you’ll find out that some batches are newer than others or some batches are older. Typically the newer batches are way faster. And so we’ll put those on and the car will come to life and drive great and run up toward the front. So we’ll save all those for the last few sets if we get the opportunity to do that. I don’t know what the deal was today. We had one set man and it was the greatest set ever.

“But everything else we put on the car was real tight. It just wouldn’t turn. We weren’t really changing that much on the car at all. But that doesn’t define our day. We didn’t run good. We finished good here last time but we didn’t run good and I thought we competed better today. Hadn’t we had all them cautions that gives everybody their laps back that we worked so hard to lap during the race, we’d have run in the top 12 easy and maybe in the top 10.”

During the green-white-checkered, I was on the bottom and they were four-wide in front of me going down the back straightaway. I can’t go and run over somebody and them guys behind me I think somebody got by me there at the flag stand and it’s just a crap shoot pretty much unless you’re in the lead.”

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON JIMMIE JOHNSON’S PERFORMANCE TODAY SINCE A LOT OF PEOPLE HAVE COUNTED HIM OUT IN THE PAST COUPLE OF WEEKS

“I told you (media) not to. I don’t think anybody counted him out. I think the media made a big deal out of the runs he was having and they were a long ways out of the lead in the points but it’s still wide open and who knows what anybody can accomplish with just a few races left. But that’s a great race team. You don’t win five in a row on luck, you know? You don’t just trip over the championship trophy; you do it because you’re great. And they’ll win the championship this year if anybody doesn’t get going.”

ON YOUR PLACE IN THE CHASE

“I just want to win a race. It’s a goal of mine right now to just go out there and win. Man, if we could do that, that would really, no matter what happened in the Chase, I think we’d be real happy with our season. We’ve made some gains. I think we’ve learned as a team that we need to be better and we need to work hard on the off-season to try present a better account of ourselves next season; but we’ve still got some racing left and I’m working hard to try to give us a good opportunity and the team is working hard too.”

DO YOU HAVE ONE TRACK IN PARTICULAR YOU THINK YOU COULD ACCOMPLISH THAT?

“No, not really. I’d love to win at Homestead, the last race of the season. That’s a good way to go out. But I don’t really know. You can’t say Talladega anymore because you don’t even race at Talladega anymore; you just kind of run around together and it’s just really silly. So I don’t know. I don’t go to Talladega with any kind of idea of what the hell is going to happen. I’ve got as good a chance of anybody of finishing last as I do first in that race. But Charlotte may be a good one for us. We’re going to try; obviously it’s a special place and I haven’t won there in a points race and I’d love to do that. So that would be a good one.”

The numbers for Kansas

2011-10-06T12:47:00.000-04:00

THE NUMBERS for the HOLLYWOOD CASINO 400
Kansas Speedway (all Sprint Cup races)
1 – number of drivers winning both the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series race at Kansas Speedway in the same weekend (Joe Nemechek, 2004)
2 – wins from the pole (Joe Nemechek - 2004, Jimmie Johnson - 2008)
2 – most wins by driver (Jeff Gordon, Greg Biffle & Tony Stewart)
3 – most poles (Jimmie Johnson)
5 – fewest cautions for a Sprint Cup race at Kansas Speedway (twice, 2010 and 2011-first race)
5 – fewest laps led by race winner (Tony Stewart, 10/1/06)
6 – number of jet dryers available for track drying this weekend at Kansas Speedway
8 – different race winners
8 – different pole winners
8 – most top-five finishes in 11 previous races at Kansas Speedway (Jeff Gordon)
9 – fewest cars on lead lap at finish (9/29/02)
9 – fewest leaders (6/5/11)
13 – fewest lead changes (9/29/02)
13 – most cautions (9/30/01)
14 – most leaders (10/4/09)
23 – fewest caution laps (10/4/09)
26 – most lead changes (10/4/09)
27 – most cars on lead lap at finish (9/30/07)
27 – fewest cars running at finish (9/29/02)
42 – most running at finish (9/28/08)
70 – most caution laps (9/30/01)
120 minutes – approximate amount of time it takes to dry the 1.5-mile track
139 – most laps led by race winner (Mark Martin, 10/9/05)

2011 Caution Update
6 – number of races extended beyond scheduled distance in 2011
3 – fewest cautions this season (New Hampshire, 9/25/11)
16 – most cautions this season (Daytona)
216 – number of cautions in the first 29 races of 2011; includes 106 for accidents, 48 for debris and 28 for spins
1,048 of 8,343 – number of laps under caution in 2011
1,424.619 of 11,351.158 – miles under caution in the first 29 races

Provided by Darnell Communications for Dodge Motorsports

The numbers for Dover

2011-09-28T10:37:00.002-04:00

THE NUMBERS for the AAA 400
Dover International Speedway (all Sprint Cup races)
0 – fewest cautions (6/6/71)
1 – fewest cars on lead lap at finish (11 times, most recent 9/15/91)
3 – fewest leaders (five times, most recent 5/16/82)
3 – fewest lead changes (10/17/71)
4 – number of jet dryers available for track drying this weekend
6 – fewest laps led by race winner (Jeff Burton, 9/24/06)
6 – most poles (David Pearson)
7 – most wins (Bobby Allison and David Pearson)
13 – fewest cars running at finish (5/17/81)
13 – most leaders (twice, most recent 9/24/00)
13 – wins from each of the first three starting positions in 83 races
16 – most cautions (9/19/93)
21 – most cars on lead lap at finish (6/4/06)
29 – most lead changes (twice, most recent 5/18/86)
31 – fewest cars to start a Sprint Cup race (5/20/79, 500-mile race)
32 – different race winners
35 – different pole winners
40 – most running at finish (9/21/08)
90 minutes – approximate amount of time it takes to dry the one-mile, all-concrete track after a significant rainfall
103 – most caution laps (9/19/93)
491 – most laps led by race winner (Richard Petty, Dodge, 9/15/74)

2011 Caution Update
3 – fewest cautions this season (New Hampshire 2)
16 – most cautions this season (Daytona1)
206 – number of cautions in the first 28 races of 2011; includes 100 for accidents, 47 for debris and 28 for spins
1,004 of 7,943 – number of laps under caution in 2011
1,380.619 of 10,951.158 – miles under caution in the first 28 races

Provided by Darnell Communications for Dodge Motorsports

Truex's Earnhardt moment

2011-09-20T20:36:00.000-04:00

CORNELIUS, N.C. —Martin Truex Jr. recalls an afternoon at New Hampshire Motor Speedway more than 15 years ago when his father’s race car and the late Dale Earnhardt’s car were parked nose-to-nose in the Busch garage. The youngster watched as his favorite NASCAR star worked so close to his father preparing for the race on the “Magic Mile.” It’s just one of the memories Truex has from the Loudon, N.H. track that has played such an important role in his family’s racing career.

Nearly two decades later, Truex Jr. visits NHMS this weekend hoping to continue his second-half surge in 2011. The No. 56 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota driver led 14 laps and nearly won Monday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Chicagoland Speedway before fuel mileage forced an extra pit stop that spoiled his victory bid. Despite the 18th-place finish, Truex has scored the 11th most points of any driver in the last 10 races.

Favorite Memory at NHMS:“They used to run a combination race with the Busch North and regular Busch Series teams. My dad’s Busch North car was parked across from Dale Earnhardt’s car. I would watch him get out of his car. I even remember him getting up under his car to work on the carburetor. I was such a big fan of his. To be able to see him up that close and have my dad’s car right next to his — I thought I was something. I was only 15 years old. That was a cool deal and I will never forget it.”

The numbers for New Hampshire

2011-09-20T20:28:00.001-04:00

THE NUMBERS for the SYLVANIA 300
New Hampshire Motor Speedway (All Sprint Cup races)
1 – fewest lead changes (9/17/00)
1 – fewest leaders (Jeff Burton, 9/17/00)
2 – fewest cautions (7/13/97)
2 – fewest laps led by race winner (Jeff Burton, 7/11/99)
3 – wins by Dodge at NHMS since car brand’s return to NASCAR in 2001
4 – most wins (Jeff Burton)
5 – wins from the pole; seven from the front row
5 – most poles (Ryan Newman)
6 – number of jet dryers available for track drying this weekend at NHMS
7 – fewest cars on lead lap at finish (7/11/93)
7 – drivers with more than one win
8 – races won from outside a top-20 starting position
10 – fewest caution laps (7/13/97)
17 – most cautions (7/10/94)
17 – different pole winners
20 – different race winners
23 – most lead changes (twice, most recent 7/21/02)
30 – most cars on lead lap at finish (7/21/02)
30 – fewest cars running at finish (twice, most recent 9/17/00)
43 – most cars running at finish (9/16/07)
79 – most caution laps (7/10/94)
120 minutes – roughly the amount of time it takes to dry the 1.058-mile track
300 – most laps led by race winner (Jeff Burton, 9/17/00)

2011 Caution Update
6 – number of races extended beyond scheduled distance in 2011 (Daytona1, Darlington, Charlotte, Daytona2, Watkins Glen, Bristol2)
4 – fewest cautions this season (Fontana and Pocono1)
16 – most cautions this season (Daytona1)
203 – number of cautions in the first 27 races of 2011; total includes 98 for accidents, 46 for debris and 28 for spins
990 of 7,643 – number of laps under caution in 2011
1,365.807 of 10,633.758 – miles under caution in the first 27 races

Provided by Darnell Communications for Dodge Motorsports

Victory Junction charity event

2011-09-20T20:10:00.002-04:00

RANDLEMAN, NC (Sept. 19, 2011) On Saturday, Sept. 10, Victory Junction held its inaugural Team Camp Challenge Ride sponsored by Aetna, and participants spent the day cycling through the scenic hills of North Carolina.

The bicycle ride raised $80,000 for children with chronic medical conditions through participant fundraising and event sponsors including Aetna, the Dale Jr. Foundation, Walmart, and Krispy Kreme. Victory Junction will use the money to provide life-changing camping experiences to more than 30 children.

Approximately 75 cyclists from North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia participated in the first-time event, which provided several long-time supporters of camp their first opportunity to personally experience Victory Junction.

ST. LOUIS (Sept. 20, 2011) – This Friday Budweiser employees around the United States will celebrate Global Be(er) Responsible Day, a day of outreach to encourage alcohol responsibility and the use of designated drivers. Budweiser and NASCAR driver Kevin Harvick are helping spread the message and will debut a special “Designate a Driver” paint scheme for this Sunday’s race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Visit Budweiser’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/Budweiser) to watch a Harvick video about Global Be(er) Responsible Day, when more than 1,500 Anheuser-Busch employees across the United States will join local wholesalers to encourage the use of designated drivers. Adults can also take the pledge on Budweiser’s Facebook page to be, or use, a designated driver. Thousands of consumers who take the pledge will be eligible, where legal, to win a Budweiser hat with a designated driver message.

STATESVILLE, NC (Sept. 20, 2011) – Sprint Cup Series driver Ryan Newman has been counting down the days until this weekend’s New Hampshire 100 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. On Saturday, Newman and his team are going to give it all they have to stake claim on the Whelen Modified Series trophy, which was taken from them back in July.

Newman’s previous visit to the 1.058-mile oval led to a two-for-two weekend, winning both Modified and Sprint Cup pole positions and the races. Unfortunately, the Modified win was taken away and awarded to Todd Szegedy and the No. 2 team. Additionally, Ryan’s car owner Kevin (Bono) Manion was sidelined for the remainder of the season.