Massa’s injury reverberates among racing peers (PA SportsTicker)
July 31, 2009
By RUSTY MILLER AP Sports Writer
Dario Franchitti was thousands of miles away when a freak accident nearly killed Felipe Massa.
That didn’t lessen the impact on Franchitti and every other race driver.
Massa, a 28-year-old Brazilian driving a Ferrari, was qualifying last week for the Hungarian Grand Prix when a spring came off another car and ricocheted into the left side of his helmet. The blow caused him to loose control and hit a tire barrier at 120 mph.
The photo of a stunned Massa – sitting in his car, the side of his helmet destroyed, blood running around his closed left eye and his right eye wide open in disbelief – haunts Franchitti.
“It was a pretty horrible accident,” the IndyCar Series driver said softly.
Broken bodies and broken lives are a constant specter in racing, yet jarring images of twisted metal, flames and frenzied emergency workers always bring the danger back to the forefront.
Massa underwent emergency surgery for multiple skull fractures and was planning to return home to Brazil on Monday.
His was the second accident in six days in which track debris struck a driver in the helmet and caused an accident. F2 driver Henry Surtees, the son of former F1 champion John Surtees, was killed at Brands Hatch on July 19 after he was struck by a tire from another car, lost consciousness and drove into a barrier.
“We are aware of the danger, but if you’re going to race you have to be willing to accept the potential consequences,” said legendary driver Mario Andretti. “All you can do is hope that it’s not going to happen to you, or at least feel that you can control it.”
Franchitti, preparing for this weekend’s Meijer Indy 300 at Kentucky Speedway, said Massa’s injuries reminded him that not only is his sport dangerous, but that such tragedies cannot be predicted.
“It just shows you that these things are possible,” Franchitti said. “If you look at Massa’s accident, what are the chances of that spring bouncing exactly like that and following that exact line? It’s so random sometimes, these things. They just remind you of the dangers of the sport.”
Massa’s accident sparked a call for racing officials to re-examine safety issues. Drivers said such efforts cannot account for chance.
“Every sanctioning body in the world, they’re constantly trying to make their cars and track safer,” said Franchitti, second in the IRL driver point standings behind Target Chip Ganassi teammate Scott Dixon. “(There is) so much safety equipment. The drivers are safer, but there are certain things you just cannot prepare for.”
Formula One’s Mark Webber, who finished third in the Hungarian GP, called Massa’s accident “incredibly freakish.”
“This is the job we do, but also we’re very relieved, of course, that he’s OK,” Webber said.
Andretti, the 1969 Indy 500 winner and 1978 Formula One driving champ, said when getting behind the wheel a driver must accept that there are things that cannot be controlled.
“We look at it as a calculated risk,” he said. “We know that many factors of a race can change things dramatically, such as being caught up in other people’s mistakes, or equipment failure. Look at the situation with Felipe Massa; certainly it was not his fault. Someone else’s mechanical failure – and he almost paid for it with his life.”
Drivers tend to minimize the risks. Then along comes tragedy to remind them.
“Sometimes you can become complacent because these things haven’t happened in a while,” said Franchitti, a 36-year-old veteran driver. “Then you get something like what happened with Henry Surtees, unfortunately being killed the week before, and then Massa’s accident. …”
There is no room for doubt and fear in racing. Drivers will again strap themselves in and go as fast as possible, though Massa’s accident did give them pause. Still, they have faith that those who set up the cars and tracks are doing their best to make the sport safe.
“The sport has come a long way in really addressing the safety aspects of it and making the tracks and cars so much safer than ever,” said Andretti, a 69-year-old survivor of decades on tracks of all kinds. “But no matter how hard you try, no matter how much of a safety net you have around you, there’s still the possibility of a fluke situation that can do you in.”
As in life, there are no guarantees.
“You can be walking across the street and you can get hit by a car when someone looks down to pick up a phone that dropped,” Franchitti said. “There’s so much … things happen.”
After the Hungarian GP, Webber offered a glimpse into the mind of a world-class driver.
“We missed (Massa) on the grid today,” he said, “but the show goes on.”
It’s a show Massa intends to rejoin as soon as he recovers.
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Lowe's won't return as title sponsor of Charlotte track (NASCAR.com)
July 31, 2009
Lowe's has decided not to renew its naming-rights deal at Lowe's Motor Speedway after this year, ending an 11-year relationship that began as the first race track naming-rights sponsorship.
After more than a year of renewal talks, the home improvement retailer informed Speedway Motorsports Inc., the track's parent company, of its decision within the last two weeks, industry sources said.
The initial 10-year, $35 million deal ran through 2008 and last year the two sides agreed on a one-year extension through 2009 when they could not finalize a long-term deal. Talks continued this year, but the two sides have not been able to reach an agreement.
Sources said it's not inconceivable for Lowe's to change its mind, given that five months remain on the current deal and the unpredictable nature of the economy, but such a change of heart is considered unlikely.
Marcus Smith, president and general manager of Lowe's Motor Speedway, said, "Both companies have benefited as strategic partners for 11 years and we are finishing a one-year extension. Currently, we're still working on and discussing the components of another extension to continue our relationship. Those components have not been finalized, but the process is moving along and we are confident to have this completed in the near future."
Barring a late agreement with Lowe's or the signing of a new corporate partner, the track is expected to go back to its former name, Charlotte Motor Speedway, in 2010.
The Lowe's sponsorship, signed in February 1999, never started the trend of track title sponsorships that many predicted a decade ago. SMI sold one other title deal to Infineon Technologies at its Sonoma, Calif., track in 2002 for $34.6 million over 10 years, and rival International Speedway Corp. sold a 10-year, $40 million title sponsorship to the Automobile Club of Southern California for its Fontana, Calif., track last year, but the slew of title-sponsored tracks that many expected never materialized.
When the deal was initially struck in 1999, it marked a first for a speedway. Charlotte Motor Speedway under the guidance of former president Humpy Wheeler had become known as a trendsetter in the business, hosting the first night race in 1992 and building the first on-site condominiums that stayed open year-round.
It remains one of the nation's busiest facilities with a pair of NASCAR Sprint Cup dates, as well as the Sprint All-Star Race. But sources say that the entitlement became too pricey for Lowe's, which wasn't willing to significantly increase its current investment of $3.5 million a year.
Industry sources say that SMI initially came to the table asking for close to $9 million annually, and while that number dropped over the course of their discussions, the two sides could not come together.
There were other factors. Lowe's must also consider its future with driver Jimmie Johnson, who has won three consecutive Cup championships and stands as the sport's most dominant figure.
The Lowe's deal with Johnson and Hendrick Motorsports expires at the end of 2010 and those renewal talks are expected to begin later this year. Industry sources say that Lowe's will be expected to pay a hefty increase to maintain its position as the only primary sponsor on Johnson's No. 48 car, which is uncommon in this time of co-primary and "tri-mary" sponsorships on a car. The most expensive sponsorships go for the mid-$20 million range annually.
Lowe's also is navigating the recession, which has struck the home improvement and building sector especially hard. Lowe's earnings fell 22 percent in 2008 and 60 percent in the final quarter of the year.
Lowe's first-quarter earnings for 2009 were down 21.6 percent year over year and overall sales were down 1.5 percent, but the company offered improved guidance for the rest of the year, suggesting the category might have reached bottom.
Still, Lowe's stock price has dropped in the last year, falling from a 52-week high of $28.49 to $13 in March before a spring recovery lifted it over $21 a share.
How much those business difficulties played into the decision is uncertain, but it didn't help SMI's efforts to renew the deal.
Smith, the son of SMI chairman Bruton Smith, led the talks on the SMI side, while Bob Gfeller, senior vice president of marketing, led the team on the Lowe's side, although sources say the ultimate decision came from the top, CEO Robert Niblock.
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Driving school uses Pocono to reach biggest crowd (NASCAR.com)
July 31, 2009
Driving at Pocono Raceway can't really be all that hard, can it? Three turns, a couple of very long straightaways and a short chute, and you're done. Piece of cake.
Until you've strapped into a race car at the 2.5-mile, triangular-shaped race track, there's really no way to adequately describe what it takes to get around the place. And that's precisely where Stock Car Racing Experience comes in. Pocono is the only track at which the 11-year-old company offers its driving experience, so its instructors know the place pretty well.
And it's a beast, make no mistake about it.
"It's a cross between road course and oval," says Steve Fox, the general manager and chief instructor. "With three different straightaways being different lengths and three corners, you can never quite get the car set up quite right in all three corners."
The school was founded in 1998 by Jesse Roverana and Ove Falck. Since then, Stock Car Racing Experience cars have logged a stunning 1.6 million miles at Pocono. Currently, the operation features 17 cars built specifically for the experience; they're not hand-me-downs like you might find at other driving schools.
On track about 50 days a year, Stock Car Racing Experience has any number of offerings available. To drive, it's anywhere from about $500 for eight laps on up to the grand-daddy package, 32 laps for about $2,000 (prices are a bit higher for Friday-Sunday dates and holidays). To ride, it's $135 for three laps and $269 for six.
Fans respond in big ways.
"It was a 50th birthday present from my family and friends," Joseph Sudano writes on the company's Web site, 877stockcar.com. "I have been a fan of NASCAR racing since I was a kid. It is impossible to explain the absolute joy I had at the track.
"The program far exceeded any expectations I might have had going in. I also would like to let you know that I think the entire staff went over and above their duty to make the day truly memorable."
Located within easy driving distance of major metropolitan areas like New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Baltimore, the company has never really ventured to facilities other than Pocono. It ran at the now-defunct Nazareth just once, in 2000.
"Pocono Raceway has the highest population density around it of any NASCAR track," says Fox, an active SCCA racer who also ran the June ARCA event at Pocono. "Within a 200-mile radius of Pocono Raceway, there's 65 million people. You could do a 200-mile trip in four hours, and that's the distance that most people will drive and not get a motel room. So you can get here early in the morning, spend a great day at the track and then go home."
In the end, it's all about the experience.
"We try to have this be as authentic and as safe as possible, and give people the best value we can," Fox says. "In this challenging economy, everybody's got to work hard. But the guys who work hard, they want to play hard, too. We have a lot of real cool things that you can do."
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Schumacher tests old car ahead of comeback (PA SportsTicker)
July 31, 2009
ROME(AP) —Michael Schumacher drove an old Ferrari in a practice test for his Formula One comeback as a replacement for the injured Felipe Massa.
The team says Friday that the 40-year-old took the wheel of a privately owned Ferrari used in the 2007 season and raced it around the Mugello circuit in Tuscany.
Ferrari spokesman Luca Colajanni says Schumacher had organized the test to check his physical condition. He could not drive the current Ferrari car because of F1’s ban on in-season testing.
Schumacher, who retired in 2006, was back in the driver’s seat just two days after Ferrari announced the seven-time F1 champion would replace Massa, who was injured in a crash.
Schumacher will compete in the European GP on Aug. 21-23 in Valencia, Spain.
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Darlington cutting prices on more than 35,000 seats (NASCAR.com)
July 31, 2009
Darlington Raceway has trimmed ticket prices on more than half of its seats for its 2010 NASCAR race in light of continuing tough economic times.
Darlington president Chris Browning told The Associated Press on Thursday that the track "Too Tough To Tame" would offer reduced prices on about 35,000 seats for next year's Southern 500. Add that to the 9,000 or so seats reduced by $10 for last May's event, and 44,000 of the track's 62,000 would cost less than they did in 2008.
Darlington came within 3,000 tickets of a fifth consecutive sellout this spring, a strong showing in a region afflicted with 12 percent unemployment. But Browning said officials didn't want to just hold the line and pray more prosperous times were ahead by May.
"We kicked around a whole lot of different scenarios," he said by phone, "and at the end of the day, we felt like this was the right thing to do."
Browning said renewal forms will go out to all ticket buyers next week. Should they respond by the deadline of Sept. 18, purchasers could receive an additional $5 discount.
The biggest reduction comes in the Wallace Grandstand along the start-finish line and affecting about 2,500 seats that had been $85 this May and will go for $59 next spring. A timely renewal would mean a savings of $31 a seat.
A section in the Colvin Grandstand along Darlington's backstretch where seats cost $70 last year would also drop to $59. People in sitting in the track's two most recently built grandstands, the Brasington Tower in turn one and the Pearson Tower in turn four would see prices dropped from $95 to $90, along with the additional $5 discount for renewing before Sept. 18.
Browning said post-race questionnaires and studies Darlington conducted among ticket buyers found that price was a big drawback to attending. "We want to do everything to make it as affordable as possible," he said.
It wasn't too long ago that Darlington had trouble attracting people to its races. The 1.366-mile egg-shaped layout was built in 1950 but had languished through the decades while other, more modern tracks sprang up as NASCAR became a fan favorite from coast-to-coast.
Darlington lost one of its two Sprint Cup weekends after 2004 and saw its lone race date shifted to Mother's Day weekend. However, the track has added lights for Saturday night racing and recently used $10 million for capital improvements to repave the surface and construct a wide infield access tunnel.
Browning said the track recently received a copy of its sanctioning agreement for 2010 and wanted to make sure its fans could afford to show up.
Tom Regan, a University of South Carolina researcher who has conducted economic impact and fan studies for Darlington in the past, said the cost reduction is Darlington understanding its fan base.
"It's not desperation," he said. "I think it's a marketing move. Let's listen to the fans and see what they're saying."
Browning believes NASCAR will bounce back strong when the economy improves. He's glad that Darlington can make things a little easier for fans in the near future instead of down the road.
"We've faced hardships before," Browning said. "We always seem to be able to adjust. Hopefully, the whole country will adjust and move on."
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Signing for the times (Yahoo! Sports)
July 31, 2009
This year, we’ve rediscovered that attending a NASCAR race is a discretionary purchase, not a requirement. Sellouts hardly exist, as these tough economic times have forced people to cut back and make tough decisions about their entertainment and vacations.
I received an email this week from a fellow named Tim from Indianapolis that reflects this to some degree, but it also exposes a much greater risk in my opinion. Here’s part of the letter:
Jeff Gordon has been one of NASCAR’s best ambassadors over the last 15 years. (Getty)
Mr. Craven: The main reason for empty seats and lower ratings is not the economy. It is because the sport has become so less fan friendly.
My wife and I have been going to Indy for years, and after this weekend we are finished and NASCAR is not going to get another dime from us. We are regular working people that took time off from work and spent hard-earned money to attend the track Friday through Sunday. We used to enjoy taking photos of the drivers and even getting autographs. This weekend, the drivers would look away when they saw fans trying to take photos.
We got up at 4 a.m. to get to the track early Friday and when we actually found ourselves standing a few feet away from Driver X, my wife asked him for a autograph and he quickly looked away like we were nothing.
We did not get any autographs this year and not one good photo.
After years of buying NASCAR items we are finished. They and the drivers don’t want people like us as fans any longer, and I am sure Driver X and NASCAR could care less that we are finished with the sport but they are finding out that works both ways. Thank you for letting me write.
First, I must explain “Driver X.” The point of this story is to focus on the larger issue of drivers being fan friendly, not on one incident involving one driver. This is why I replaced his name with “Driver X.”
Now back to the letter: Is what this fan wrote the exception rather than rule?
First off, I have to defend the drivers, because I’ve lived that life, and I can explain how this might happen.
Drivers are no different than any other person holding a job. Their ability to maintain that job is directly linked to performance. Sometimes that gets lost.
We look at the drivers from an entertainment perspective and sometimes lose sight of the fact that they are working while others attending a race are not. For example, on a typical weekend drivers and crews are trying to gather 10 hours’ worth of information in a two-hour practice. With only a few minutes left in practice, a crew chief may call a driver from his transporter back to the car, saying, “We need one more run. We need five more good laps.” So the driver has just enough time to get from his transporter to his car, get strapped in and give his crew chief those five laps before practice ends, perhaps making the difference in where they qualify or where they finish.
In a case like this, stopping to sign one autograph often leads to 10. So to be fair, we’ve all been Driver X at some point.
But you can’t be Driver X the majority of the time.
Today’s drivers could learn from the example set by Richard Petty, who has always had time for fans. (Getty)
To some degree, I have no interest in being critical of drivers. But I think it’s healthy for every one of the drivers to acknowledge letters like Tim’s, because nobody in the sport can afford to lose this kind of support, this type of fan. It simply cannot happen.
Maybe there needs to be better awareness for all drivers about what the expectations are. From my experience, Tim represents the majority of people who buy tickets to NASCAR races. They are hard-working people who work to save money in order to make one or two of these trips a year, and like any of us who makes that kind of effort, the expectations are sky high.
So drivers do owe it to these people to give a little extra. And as difficult as that may be because of all the demands on drivers’ time these days – sponsor appearances, a 36-race schedule, interview requests, hardly any offseason – they have to remember the foundation of the sport was built on fan interaction. It was built by people with the last names Petty, Earnhardt, Allison, Waltrip and Yarborough – drivers who interacted with the fans better and did it for a whole lot less money.
These are the people I connected with as a kid, and they didn’t disappoint.
Richard Petty continues to do it today. Although no one should be expected to duplicate what he’s contributed, they should be expected to try. It’s that important! NASCAR depends on that foundation to remain strong. Fan interaction is the sweet spot that got this train moving and will be what keeps it steaming along.
In my 10 years in NASCAR, I absolutely was Driver X at least a few times in my career. And everyone who ever wore a helmet for an extended period has been Driver X at some point.
To be fair, there also is a side to drivers that the public doesn’t always get to see, the side where drivers visit hospitals, call fans on their birthdays, go to autograph sessions around the country. They don’t do these things for publicity. They do it because they feel good about it and because they owe it to the people who supported them.
Also keep in mind that every one of these drivers has obligations during the evenings of the race weekends, connecting with people employed by their sponsor, attending organized autograph sessions or helping to raise money or awareness for a particular cause.
With all this said, if a fan works overtime or weekends to afford a trip to a race and comes home as unhappy as Tim and his wife, and if that happens often, then we are all in trouble.
To that end, if any of these athletes are Driver X the majority of the time – if it’s the rule rather than the exception – then they should consider another career. Because while I am absolutely convinced that many of the empty seats today are a reflection of the economy, when the economy turns, there needs to be demand for the product, and part of the demand for NASCAR has always existed because of the relationship drivers have with their fans.
Ricky Craven is Yahoo! Sports NASCAR analyst. Send Ricky a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.
2010 Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix off, 2011 maybe (PA SportsTicker)
July 31, 2009
DETROIT(AP) —There’s no Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix this year, and organizers say the troubled economy means the race is off again in 2010. They say the event could resume in 2011 if conditions improve.
Race chairman Bud Denker says “this continues to be a challenging time to secure sponsorship to produce a world-class sporting event.”
The 2009 race had been set for Sept. 4-6. It included an IRL race, as well as American Le Mans Series and SCCA Speed World Challenge races.
The Detroit race series on Belle Isle started in 2007 after a six-year gap. Earlier auto races took place on streets around the Renaissance Center before shifting to the island park in the Detroit River, about two miles east of downtown.
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Time for Kyle Busch to grow up (Yahoo! Sports)
July 31, 2009
It’s make-or-break time for Kyle Busch, who has just six races left to save a season that started with such promise but now teeters on the edge of disaster.
He won two of the year’s first five races – maybe would have won the Daytona 500 if not for a crash he didn’t start – and led almost a third of the laps right out of the gate. It looked as if Busch was headed to a repeat of his 2008 breakout season, when he won 21 races across NASCAR’s top three series only to falter when the biggest trophy of them all, the Sprint Cup championship, was on the line.
Now, he’s in salvage mode.
A rough stretch knocked the wind out of Busch’s sails, and 15 races after appearing unstoppable, he’ll now be lucky to race for the title this season. He heads into Pocono Raceway ranked 14th in the standings, 82 points outside of the 12th and final qualifying spot for the Chase for the championship.
If he fails to make the Chase, he’ll have no one to blame but himself.
A fragile psyche, bad attitude, poor sportsmanship and sometimes a lack of professionalism formed a toxic mix that has regressed Busch back two years. All the progress he’d made since Rick Hendrick kicked him to the curb has been unraveled, and only Busch can put it back together again.
But first, how did it get to this?
Busch had such a remarkable swagger about him last season, when his air was invincible and he settled comfortably into his role as NASCAR villain. Of course, it’s easy to be hated when you’re winning all the time.
When the wins dry up, life isn’t so pleasant, and Busch has proved incapable of weathering the storms. That was obvious at the start of last year’s Chase, when a mechanical failure stalled him at the starting gate and he never recovered.
It wasn’t that Joe Gibbs Racing couldn’t get Busch back into title contention after his 34th-place finish at New Hampshire, but because Busch already believed he’d been defeated. An engine failure and last-place finish the next week at Dover only cemented his position in his mind.
There would be no frantic rally because, mentally, Busch didn’t have one in him.
It was the first glimpse of the self-improvement work Busch still needed – a disturbing revelation in the wake of the Hendrick firing that, as it turned out, wasn’t enough of a kick in the pants for Busch to recognize his faults and fix them.
Though he may have learned some lessons from the firing, he hadn’t learned enough. That became clear as early as March, when he furiously called out his JGR Nationwide Series team for a botched final pit stop that cost him a victory at Bristol. He angrily left his car on the race track for them to retrieve and stormed off without further comment.
Because he won the Cup race the next day, all seemed to be forgiven, even if not forgotten.
But this type of antic has followed Busch all season. He has berated his team, refused to act professionally when dealing with the media in defeat and failed to handle defeat in any sort of appropriate fashion.
It all came to a head two weeks ago at Chicagoland when an ill-handling race car pushed him to the brink. Busch found himself incapable of offering the feedback crew chief Steve Addington needed to fix the No. 18 Toyota. His 33rd-place finish left him teetering on the edge of Chase eligibility.
In essence, Busch hit rock bottom, which may have been the best thing for him and his team.
When he reported to Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Busch carried with him a bit of an attitude adjustment. Recognizing that his behavior had been unacceptable and likely only hurting himself, he displayed a professionalism that was most evident when a blown tire sent him to the garage, where he patiently answered media questions and sat with his crew as they repaired the damage.
The on-track damage was already done – Busch finished 38th to fall to 14th in the standings – but there was still something to be saved. The message he sent last Sunday was that he’s made some mistakes, and now he’s going to work like a dog to fix them.
Fans everywhere are likely rolling their eyes, unconvinced the petulant Shrub is capable of growing up. Or, they may be thrilled to see their most hated driver suffering through a bit of “comeuppance.”
But NASCAR needs Busch running well, and needs him in the Chase. As the most polarizing driver in the industry, he draws attention. And wasn’t it the late Dale Earnhardt who once said he didn’t care about the boos, just so long as they were making noise?
The Chase needs some noise, and Busch is the only one capable of turning up the volume. Good, bad or somewhere in the middle, his performances make people talk and tune in. Plus, he’s one of the few guys capable of putting together a blistering hot streak that could threaten Jimmie Johnson’s reign as champion and really make this a Chase to remember.
Aside from that, he’s got three wins this season. That’s second only to Mark Martin, and tied with Johnson in the Cup Series. As interesting as it would be to see Juan Pablo Montoya make his debut appearance in NASCAR’s playoff, or Ryan Newman make it back in, or Carl Edwards try to give Johnson another run for his money, those guys don’t have any wins this year.
Yes, consistency is important and ultimately that’s what puts you in contention for a championship. But winning has to count for something, and right now the most it does is give a paltry 10-point bonus to the Chase drivers at the start of their 10-race title hunt.
Again and again and again I will argue that NASCAR needs to create a larger incentive for winning. No, not “win a race and make the Chase,” because we all know drivers stumble into occasional victories, and someone 23rd in the standings shouldn’t be eligible to win a title. But there should be enough of a value on a victory that multiple wins gives a driver some sort of tangible advantage over the competition.
Aside from my strong belief that significant reward for winning would liven up races and prevent the current strategy of riding around until it’s time to go, it would ensure that teams with multiple wins wouldn’t be scrambling right now.
Believers in the old points system will light me up on this and argue teams with bad finishes and multiple mechanical problems don’t deserve a spot in the Chase. I’m not going to argue with that, because too much inconsistency is your own fault, and some of Busch’s issues are his own fault.
But some of those bad finishes were bad luck and bad breaks. If not for the last-lap tangle with Tony Stewart at Daytona, he could have four wins. If not for getting caught up in the Dale Earnhardt Jr.-Brian Vickers feud in the Daytona 500, he could have five.
Regardless, Busch is better than his record shows. Now it’s on him to fix it from here, because whether you like him or not, NASCAR needs him to be racing for the title.
Jenna Fryer covers NASCAR for The Associated Press and is a regular contributor to Yahoo! Sports. Send Jenna a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.
Tony Stewart takes pole at Pocono
July 31, 2009
LONG POND, Pa. (AP)—Rain has washed out Sprint Cup qualifying, putting Tony Stewart on the pole at Pocono Raceway.
NASCAR set the field on points Friday, allowing last week’s winner Jimmie Johnson to start second. Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch and Carl Edwards round out the top five.
Only 43 teams are at the track, so every car qualifies for Sunday’s race.
Stewart, who holds a 192-point lead in the standings over Johnson, won the June race at Pocono.
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Malsam's early success proves he made right call (NASCAR.com)
July 31, 2009
By the age of 16, Tayler Malsam had played football and baseball and found neither appealing. He was ordered off the couch by his father, who figured Malsam should have some kind of activity to fill up his spare time.
"I kind of sat around and did nothing," Malsam, now 20, said. "My dad told me to find something to do."
Malsam chose racing and found out he enjoyed it, instantly. Maybe that was because he was good at it, too. Four years after sitting in a shifter kart for the first time, Malsam ranks seventh in the points and leads the rookie of the year standings in the Camping World Truck Series heading into Saturday's Toyota Tundra 200 at Nashville Superspeedway.
"My grandpa and uncle had a World of Outlaws team and my uncle still has a sprint car team," Malsam said. "I thought it [racing] might be something I would like. It came easy to me. I have a lot of fun. It's a rush of adrenaline."
Malsam, of Seattle, began driving for uncle Kevin Rudeen's team in 2007. It's a successful and well-established team in the Pacific Northwest whose drivers have included current Sprint Cup driver Kasey Kahne. It competes in a mix of World of Outlaws, West Coast and local events, and Malsam commutes across the country from North Carolina to run with it. He's scheduled for 23 events this season.
Malsam made the move into stock cars last season, finishing ninth in the ARCA RE/MAX Series. He also raced in two NASCAR Truck events and signed a deal for the entire 2009 season with Bill Davis Racing. When Davis sold his multi-faceted operation and the new owners didn't continue the race team, Malsam needed to find a new home in a hurry. He signed with Randy Moss Motorsports in February, only a couple of weeks prior to the opening race of the season at Daytona.
"I was ready to quit and go back to sprint cars," Malsam said. "I was frustrated. It was a spur of the moment deal."
Mike Skinner had been with Davis and he decided to join Moss, too. The team switched to Toyota, which Skinner had driven for since 2004. The veteran, with 26 wins in the series, has become a mentor to Malsam.
"He's been a lot of help off the track and on the track," Malsam said.
Malsam's seventh-place finish last week at O'Reilly Raceway Park was his fifth top-10 in the last eight races and sixth of the season, and it came despite an unscheduled pit stop for a flat tire at midrace. Malsam's Toyota was a contender to win a week earlier at Kentucky before contact with Timothy Peters near the end cut a tire and he finished 13th.
"We can run better, but we're happy where we're at," Malsam said. "[Crew chief] Doug Wolcott and the team does a good job of putting good trucks underneath me. We want to finish in the top-five [in points] and we're only 65 out of it."
Malsam's career has moved quickly up the ladder, but he's not in a hurry to make another jump.
"I'll run trucks again next season," Malsam said. "I definitely want to be ready for Nationwide and Sprint Cup."
Ron Hornaday will be attempting to win his fifth consecutive race of the season at Nashville. The Kevin Harvick Inc. Chevrolet driver has a 174-point lead over Skinner.
Camping World Truck Series Standings Pos.+/-DriverPointsBehind 1.—Ron Hornaday2098Leader2.+1Mike Skinner1924-1743.-1Matt Crafton1922-1764.—Todd Bodine1803-2955.+1David Starr1758-3406.-1Brian Scott1750-3487.—Tayler Malsam1693-4058.+1Dennis Setzer1673-4259.-1Terry Cook1657-44110.+2Colin Braun1639-459
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