NASCAR

By now, even the most casual sports fan has heard about the ugly drama that unfolded Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Drivers were universal in their disgust after the high-stakes blowout at the Brickyard.

By now, even the most casual sports fan has heard about the ugly drama that unfolded Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Drivers were universal in their disgust after the high-stakes blowout at the Brickyard.

Consider that 52 of the 160 laps ran under caution and the longest green flag period was 13 laps. Sound like $100 worth of fun?

If anything good comes out of this mess, it’s that drivers, fans and media types were so open in their criticism of NASCAR and Goodyear.

Earlier this season, NASCAR officials actually called a closed-door meeting to chastise drivers for being so open in their complaints about the generic Car of Tomorrow. Dictatorship?

With inconsistent rulings and lackluster racing with the COT, ripping NASCAR is about as easy as shooting a cow.

There’s a huge difference between throwing out insults and actually offering constructive suggestions, however.
Yes, this sport has problems but it’s still a compelling and popular spectacle on most weekends.

For some reason, many fans blindly and passionately defend anything related to the top levels of NASCAR. They will accept and defend cornball commentators, bratty drivers, crude fan behavior and boring events.

To these true believers, it’s fine to offer blanket attacks on stick-and-ball sports without facts. However, don’t you dare say anything about their sport, team or man. It’s all about being part of a community or family.

And yes, that colorful family of followers includes some members of the media who do nothing praise the sport and its stars. Objectivity anyone?

The fans who have built this once-regional game deserve so much better. It was refreshing on Tuesday to hear a NASCAR official issue an apology for Sunday’s debacle at the most hallowed ground in motorsports.

Goodyear and NASCAR should clearly share the blame for failing to predict how the current car would react to the unique conditions at Indy.
Instead of moaning and hand wringing, how about we do something to reward the earnest folks who actually fuel this billion-dollar sport.

While crowds have been down at some tracks this season, fans are still making expensive sacrifices to worship at the stock car altar.

Here’s a suggestion. Let’s honor those disciples with reduced ticket prices, reasonable concessions and free souvenirs.

Whatever the gesture, NASCAR officials and track operators need to reach out to fans who endure bore-a-thons like Sunday’s Allstate 400 yet keep coming back for more.
With gas and grocery prices slicing the family budget, the time for accountability is now.

Posted by Allen Gregory
NASCAR
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“I believe that you have to crawl before you can walk and I just felt it was the smartest place for me to start in this sport.”

Full transcript of an e-mail interview between the Bristol Herald Courier and Randy Moss, New England Patriots wide receiver and half-owner of Morgan-Dollar Racing’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series team. Moss’ No. 81 Kobalt Tools Chevrolet truck will be driven by NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson in tonight’s O’Reilly 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

1.) Why did you decide to pick Bristol for Jimmie Johnson to race your truck?

It really just all happened this way as all of the pieces fell into place.  Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet came to us awhile back expressing their interest in putting Jimmie in the truck at Bristol as it was something they were looking to do to help him get some more seat time. It is an honor to have a champion like Jimmie driving the No. 81 truck and hopefully we will be able to have a lot of success together this week.

2.) Why get into trucks and not NASCAR Sprint Cup or Nationwide?

I believe that you have to crawl before you can walk and I just felt it was the smartest place for me to start in this sport.  I have seen many others come into NASCAR and want to go to Cup right away and their success has not necessarily been the best.  I wanted to give myself the best avenue for success and I think this is it.

3.) How long have you wanted to participate in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series?

This is something that I have wanted to do for quite a while.  I have been a big fan of the sport for a long time and have been involved in a few other racing opportunities. I’ve sponsored a local dirt track in West Virginia and am also a Goodwill Ambassador for the Urban Youth Racing School. Supporting and being involved in the youth programs is always something that I enjoy doing and it is a major component of Randy Moss Motorsports.

4.) What do you think so far about how everything has gone in terms of being involved in Truck Series racing?

So far, racing in the Truck Series has been great. The racing that happens every week is always action-filled and it has been cool to see that 81 truck going around the track. We have had a couple of good solid runs, but we are hoping to improve our finishes and break into the top-five here soon.

5.) A lot of people don’t know that you’re from the South. Do you take pride in coming from the South and staying involved in the world of Southern sports, such as auto racing?

I take a huge amount of pride coming from West Virginia. I’m just a good Southern boy from West Virginia, who enjoys some good cooking and is proud of where he came from. Growing up, I would be outside playing football and one of our neighbors had a racecar. He would rev his engine and we would always listen to it. This was my first interaction with racing.

6.) Will trucks be enough for you or do you want to get involved in bigger things in terms of racing?

I would like to make it up to the Sprint Cup Series at some point but we will just play this thing out and see where we end up. I definitely want to work my way up the ladder and be successful, competing for wins at every level. I think this week with Jimmie is going to give us a great opportunity to get the No. 81 truck in Victory Lane.

7.) Have you been to Bristol Motor Speedway before? If so, what’s your opinion of it. If not, do you think you’ll attend the August races?

I have never been to Bristol and unfortunately I am busy in preseason training and games with the New England Patriots and I will not be attending this race.  Maybe I can get to the track at some point in the future.

8.) Is it hard to balance your NFL life with racing, or does it work well because of the NFL’s offseason?

Well, first and foremost playing in the NFL is my job. I love playing football and it has given me the opportunity to do things like own a race team in the Truck Series.  During the NFL season, football is my main priority, but that doesn’t mean that I won’t be paying attention to the action on the track. I will be watching every race and be in communication with the team. You probably won’t see me around the track during football season and hopefully I am playing football until February, but when the season is over, you will definitely see me around more.

Posted by Brian T. Smith
NASCAR
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John Force is a modern-day cowboy.

Fifty-nine years young. Wind- and weather-lined face. Survivor of death. Preacher of life.

Force walks it and talks it and sings it. He is old-school racing cool, incarnate. And Force brings the good word to anyone who will listen.

Funny Car-driver, quote-making machine, walker of the Earth when the doctors said he’d never again, Force is “The King” of the National Hot Rod Association.

Like Richard Petty, no line is too long for Force. No hand too open. No smile too big. If you’re a fan and you care, Force is ready, waiting and willing.

And while NASCAR continues to primp in the mirror, chat on a cell, worry about it who it’s dating and wonder how it looks on TV – all while trying to drive a car – Force and NHRA are rising up. And they’re beginning to show up in NASCAR’s rear view.

“We don’t try to kid anybody, NASCAR’s our big brother,” Force said.

It’s high time that big brother started paying attention to its younger sibling.

Force has become the proud, legend-like face of NHRA. And he’s everything that NASCAR needs right now.

Force didn’t come off an assembly line. He wasn’t cut on a cookie sheet and wrapped in plastic at an early age. And he’s as far removed from Madison Ave. and Wall Street as are Bristol and Thunder Valley.

But, man, could NASCAR use Force right now.

What NASCAR lacks, Force packs the stands with.

Originality, a loose tongue, a genuine smile and an unabashed enthusiasm for everything that is oil, fuel, combustion and horsepower: It’s the Force way.

But Force would never have made it out of the factory in modern NASCAR-land.

He’d have been thrown in the trash heap.

He’s too old. Too honest. Too real. Too uncontrollable.

NASCAR’s all, like, current. It wants cute and young. It wants Kasey Kahne.

Are you cute? Are you young? Can you drive a car? Well, NASCAR just might have a place for you.

But, wait. You mean you can really drive a car and you fall outside the target-audience demographic.

Well, yeah, sorry. NASCAR can’t use you right now. It’s got ad spots to sell and pre-race slots to fill. Maybe in the next life, old man.

NASCAR’s loss is NHRA’s gain.

Force believes in racing. He’s walked through fire just to get back in a car, strap in again and burn. And Force believes in NHRA.

“We fight it from the streets and [we’re] fighting to make it better,” Force said. “And the key is working as a family.”

Force believes in family.

His daughter, Ashley, is the brightest star to hover over a race track in years and has already made the bandwagon racing crowd begin to forget about sullen, stale Danica Patrick.

Meanwhile, three other Force-family relations currently hit the strip, all while Force celebrates his 59th year on Earth by continuing to defy the rules of life and laugh in the face of conformity.

Racing, tradition and family: The foundation of the house Force has built.

Racing, tradition and family: Everything that NASCAR has left behind.

Well, watch out big brother, because NHRA is crashing the party. And Force is tearing up the floor at the old folks’ dance.

| (276) 645-2569

Posted by Brian T. Smith
NASCAR

http://www.tricitiesblogs.com/video/watch/food_city_500_race/

Posted by Nicki Mayo
NASCAR

Tony Stewart drove the Car of Tomorrow around Bristol Motor Speedway on Goodyear tires.

Stewart survived.

But the controversy that followed Stewart into BMS eventually found him on the track.

This time, though, the drama had nothing to do with Goodyear or its tires.

It had to do with racing.

Good, old-fashioned, hard-nosed racing.

Stewart led 267 of the 506 laps run Sunday afternoon in the Food City 500, but his hard charge ended when Kevin Harvick ran low on Turn 2 of lap 498.

As Stewart stayed high, Harvick’s No. 29 Chevrolet knocked into the left side of Stewart’s No. 20 Toyota.

Harvick kept driving, Stewart spun out, and the man who came into Bristol talking up a storm had little to say when he hopped out of his car following the race.

“I thought I left [Harvick] plenty of room, but I don’t know,” said Stewart, who finished 14th, and now sits in seventh place in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. “I was far enough ahead of him that I didn’t see where he hit me or when he hit me. I’m sure somehow it was my fault. I’m just sorry I got in his way.”

As soon as Stewart went into a spin, his day was effectively over.

Still, Stewart dominated Bristol Motor Speedway more than any other driver Sunday.

His first lead came on lap 96.

And Stewart owned BMS between laps 102-189, running slim lines and burning his way through lapped traffic, as he used the high and low sections of Turns 2 and 3 to his advantage.

Denny Hamlin grabbed a momentary lead on lap 190.

But by lap 193, Stewart again held first position.

Stewart possessed six separate leads Sunday, his last an 82-lap hold on first place from 415-496.

And where other top drivers like Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Ryan Newman fell prey to the out-of-nowhere oddities that make BMS a perennial fan-favorite, Stewart managed to keep his No. 20 Toyota in the clear.

Until lap 498.

Stewart’s frustrating ending mirrored his performance in last year’s Sharpie 500 – he led 257 laps before finishing 35th.

But a different outcome appeared to await Stewart Sunday.

After starting in sixth, Stewart’s bright-orange No. 20 began shining bright by lap 36, when he pulled into fourth place.

Stewart then flew past Jeff Gordon on lap 42, going low at Turn 2 to take over third position.

And Stewart began to close on then-leader Bowyer at lap 47.

As Bowyer fought traffic and tried to get around Ryan Newman’s No. 12 Dodge, Stewart gained ground.

Only a pre-race determined competition yellow at lap 50 prevented Stewart from overtaking Bowyer.

But Stewart began his charge again. And by lap 94, the track belonged to Big Orange.

But Turn 2 at lap 498 was waiting.

Posted by Brian T. Smith
NASCAR