Speedway Digest - Home for NASCAR News

19 May 2012

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Roush Fenway Ready to Once Again ‘Test Limits’ in ...

Points will not be on the line for Roush Fenway and Sprint Cup Series in this week’s Sprint All-Star Challenge, so RFR will not have to worry about holding on to NASCAR’s top-two position. However, that is not to imply that the on track competition will be any less intense as the team’s take to the 1.5-mile oval of Charlotte Motor Speedway. Once knows as “The Beast of the Southeast” Charlotte can be tough on even the best race teams and inside the confines of a no-holds bard, no points race to the finish the level of intensity can quickly rise to a fever pitch.

“I’m anxious for the guys to go test their limits,” said team founder and co-owner Jack Roush. “To race this 36 times a year for points, you can’t take a chance on stepping outside the box very often. If you are racing as smart as my guys do each week, you have to stay inside an envelop that is conservative. For the All-Star race you can push it to the edges of that envelop, and if it works out bad, it’s no harm, no foul.”

All three of Roush Fenway’s Ford Fusions are qualified for this year’s elite all-star event, making RFR the only multi-car NASCAR team with each of its entries entered into the event.

“The qualification of the Sprint All-Star race reflects how the team has been running and to have all three teams in is a big deal,” added Roush. “It’s what we expect and not a surprise and it would be a huge disappointment if we did not place all our teams inside the Chase for the Championship.”

Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards have each tasted victory in the event, Kenseth in 2004 and Edwards just last season. All-in-all RFR has won the race four times, with Mark Martin doing the honor for the first time in 1999 and again in 2005.

Last season Roush Fenway swept the event, with David Ragan winning the All-Star Showdown and racing his way into the field and Edwards closing out the night with his inspiring performance in the main event.

RFR PR

Ford Pintos Turn Back Time, Stampede Back Into Mar...

There was a time when Ford Pintos dominated on Martinsville Speedway’s half-mile, but until Thursday it had been quite a few years since one challenged the tight turns.

And Thursday the dozen or so vintage Pintos weren’t exactly “challenging” the historic oval. They were cruising at low speed, but the drivers and passengers were ecstatic just the same.

The Pintos, all driven to the track from as far away as a thousand miles, were part of the Pinto Stampede, and the Martinsville stop was to honor the late Richie Evans, who won nine NASCAR Modified championships and 10 Modified races at Martinsville. And most of those wins came in a Pinto.

“We wanted to honor Richie because he’s going into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in a few days and he raced a Pinto,” said Norm Bagi, who founded the Pinto Stampede last year to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the release of the Pinto in 1971. The 2011 event was supposed to be a one-time affair, but Bagi said everyone enjoyed it so much, it is now an annual tour that also serves as a fundraiser for The Wounded Warrior Foundation.

The drivers took 10 laps around Martinsville Speedway in their Pintos, one lap for each Martinsville race Evans won. All of the participants were wearing commemorative Richie Evans t-shirts donated by Evans’ widow.

While the Ford Pinto was a dominant car in the NASCAR Modified ranks in the 1970s and early 1980s, it certainly never was considered a muscle car like Mustangs, Camaros or Chargers. But it was one of the most popular, economical and functional cars of the era. And that, Bagi said, is the enduring charm of the compact car, and the reason fans drove them from as far away as Kansas City and Milwaukee for the Stampede.

“Everybody that grew up in the seventies has a Pinto story,” said Bagi, who is a building superintendent in New York City. “It’s a neat little car. I grew up in the back seat of one. My parents had Mustangs, got a divorce and then we had Pintos.

“I hadn’t looked at one in 30 years and saw a (Pinto) station wagon with orange plaid seats and orange shag carpet on EBay. I told my wife I had to have it.”

Bagi said everywhere the Stampede stops, people take pictures of the cars and share stories. “It’s not the car guys that talk with us; it’s the regular guys that have Pinto stories.”

The Stampede will cover over 600 miles in two days winding up at Summit Point Motorsports Park in West Virginia. But for most, the 600 miles is a small portion of the trip. One couple drove 990 miles from Kansas City to get to Martinsville; another had traveled from Milwaukee. Now they have another Pinto story to share.

Martinsville Speedway PR

Gordon, Keselowski, Kahne Q A Tickets at Bristol

Five-time Bristol winner Jeff Gordon heads the list of drivers taking part in special ticket offers for the IRWIN Tools Night Race Aug. 25.

Promotions include a question-and-answer session, as well as a driver’s cap. Packages involving Brad Keselowski, winner of the last two NASCAR Sprint Cup events at Bristol Motor Speedway, and Kasey Kahne also are available.

While Gordon, Keselowski and Kahne are the first to confirm participation in the program, more drivers taking part in the Saturday afternoon Q&A sessions soon will be announced.

With every Gordon ticket package sold, a $24 donation is made to the AARP Foundation to support Drive to End Hunger, a national effort by AARP and the AARP Foundation to help the nearly nine million older Americans who face the threat of hunger.

A $20 donation from each Keselowski ticket is made to the driver’s Checkered Flag Foundation, which supports individuals who have sacrificed greatly for America, including military members, veterans, first-responders and their families, among others.

All three ticket promotions start at $100 and fans who have purchased tickets to the IRWIN Tools Night Race may upgrade to the Q&A package for an additional $25. For purchases or upgrades call BMS ticket office at 423-BRISTOL or 1-866-415-4158.

Additional information about the packages can be found at www.bristolmotorspeedway.com/driverpackages.

BMS

Always In For the All-Star Race

The name of the race has changed a handful of times, and its format seems to get adjusted each and every year, but the ultimate goal remains the same. Win.

That is the only mainstay of the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race, the non-points event for recent winners in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (2011-2012), as well as past All-Star Race victors and former series champions held annually at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway.

This year’s edition totals 90 laps around the 1.5-mile oval, and it’s broken into four, 20 lap segments and then a final 10-lap shootout that’s kicked-off by a pit stop where teams will need to decide if they want to take fuel only or grab two or four fresh tires.

Ask Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/National Wild Turkey Federation Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), if he’s familiar with any of the various tweaks to the 28-year-old event, such as the winners of the first four segments being guaranteed to enter the pits in the top-four starting spots prior to the 10-lap dash to the finish (provided their cars are on the lead lap), and he’ll simply shrug his shoulders and say, “Suuurrrrrrrrrrre.” The format is of little matter to Stewart, for as long as there’s a checkered flag at the end, he knows what to do, as evidenced by his win in the 2009 All-Star Race.

Stewart led only once for two laps in that event, but they were the most important ones. He paced the final two circuits after getting by Matt Kenseth for the lead on lap 98 of the 100-lap contest. Stewart’s margin of victory over the 2003 Sprint Cup champion was .971 of a second.

It was Stewart’s first victory as a driver/owner with SHR, the team he co-owns with Gene Haas, founder of Haas Automation, the largest CNC machine tool builder in the western world. The win made Stewart the first driver/owner to win a Sprint Cup-sanctioned event since Ricky Rudd won a point-paying race in October 1998 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. It was also the first All-Star Race win for Stewart, who had six top-10 finishes in 10 previous starts in the event. Stewart became the second driver/owner to win the All-Star Race, joining Geoff Bodine, who accomplished the feat in 1994.

The victory was Stewart’s first in 11 tries, and the soon-to-be-41-year-old – his birthday is May 20 – has been a part of the All-Star Race since his rookie year in 1999. Way back in what used to be known as the NASCAR Winston Cup Series, Stewart advanced into The Winston – the event we currently call the All-Star Race – by winning The Winston Open (now known as the Sprint Showdown). Stewart used the promotion for all it was worth, as he came from his last-place starting spot to finish second to winner Terry Labonte. Since Stewart has won at least one race in every season he’s competed in the Sprint Cup Series, he’s always been a member of the elite All-Star Race. Back in the All-Star Race for a 14th straight season, Stewart is looking to grab another All-Star win and pick up his fourth NASCAR-sanctioned checkered flag to add to the ones he earned in the Gatorade Duel at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, the Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and the Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif.

For obvious reasons, a win would be ideal. But if victory isn’t in the cards, 90 laps of track time at night is a precious commodity.

NASCAR has a testing ban at all tracks that host its top-three national touring series – Sprint Cup, Nationwide, and Camping World Truck. As such, time on the track in actual race conditions is impossible to come by, with the lone exception being Saturday night’s All-Star Race.

While winning is at the forefront of each driver’s mind, gaining valuable information for how their car will react in the following weekend’s Coca-Cola 600 is just as important. With 400 laps being run on the same track, what’s learned in the All-Star Race’s 90 laps is applicable to what drivers will face in the longest race on the Sprint Cup schedule.

The All-Star Race literally provides a win-win scenario for drivers and their teams. The drivers get to vie for a $1 million victory with no points on the line, and the teams they’re racing for get a sneak peek at what they’ll experience in one of the biggest races of the Memorial Day weekend.

For Stewart and his No. 14 team, they’re going all in to this year’s All-Star Race, all over again.

TSC

Roush Fenway Ready to Once Again ‘Test Limits’ in ...

Points will not be on the line...

Ford Pintos Turn Back Time, Stampede Back Into Mar...

There was a time when Ford Pin...

Gordon, Keselowski, Kahne Q A Tickets at Bristol

Five-time Bristol winner Jeff ...

Always In For the All-Star Race

The name of the race has chang...

Roush Fenway Ready to Once Again ‘Test Limits’ in Sprint All-Star Challenge

Points will not be on the line for Roush Fenway and Sprint Cup Series in this week’s Sprint All-Star Challenge, so RFR will not have to worry about holding on...

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