Top 20 Countdown: No. 11 Greg Biffle (Yahoo! Sports)
February 3, 2012
Editor’s note: Yahoo! Sports is counting down the top 20 drivers of the 2012 season, as predicted by the Yahoo! Sports NASCAR staff – Jay Hart, Jay Busbee, Nick Bromberg and Geoffrey Miller. The countdown will conclude Feb. 17 with the unveiling of the No. 1 driver..nascountdown font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10px;line-height:16px;border-bottom:1px solid #CCC;padding-bottom:3px;padding-top:3px;
(Getty Images) 2011 statistics Finish Poles Wins Top 5 Top 10 16 3 0 3 10 The countdownNo. 20: Marcos Ambrose | Career statsNo. 19: Kurt Busch | Career statsNo. 18: Martin Truex Jr. | Career statsNo. 17: Juan Pablo Montoya | Career statsNo. 16: Jeff Burton | Career statsNo. 15: Clint Bowyer | Career statsNo. 14: A J Allmendinger | Career statsNo. 13: Ryan Newman | Career statsNo. 12: Dale Earnhardt Jr. | Career statsNo. 11: Greg Biffle | Career statsNo. 10: Revealed Friday, Feb. 6
2011 finish: 16th
Our 2012 predictions:• Jay Hart: 12th• Jay Busbee: 15th• Nick Bromberg: 11th • Geoffrey Miller: 11th
Crew chief: Matt Puccia
Offseason action: Roush Fenway downsized from four to three teams. The company also experienced major layoffs during the offseason, reportedly upwards of 100 employees.
2012 outlook: Biffle is one of those drivers who’s as reliable as a pepperoni pizza: You know pretty much what you’re going to get year in and year out. And while that’s the kind of consistency that sponsors and fans enjoy, it’s not the kind of world-beating potential that wins championships.
Biffle came into 2011 with high hopes. He’d posted three straight top-seven season finishes, including a third place in 2008, and seemed a lock for a 2011 Chase berth. But he never really got it going, finishing with only three top fives and 10 top 10s despite winning more poles (three) than ever before in his career. Starting the season with three finishes of 20th or below, the No. 16 team never clicked, only getting as high as 11th in the standings – and that for only one week in May.
A personnel change in July saw former crew chief Greg Erwin out and Matt Puccia in, but Biffle’s fortunes didn’t change, only stayed roughly the same. This year’s team is a mix of vets and youth, including holdovers from the now-shuttered No. 6 team of David Ragan.
Outside the track, there’s stability. Biffle inked a new multi-year deal with both Roush and 3M back in April, so he’s not going anywhere anytime soon, and neither is his sponsor. However, with teammates Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth having high-level success in 2011, it’s time for Biffle to match their run. Everything is in place for him to do just that.
Point of interest: Here’s a statistical quirk: Biffle has won two races every even-numbered year since 2004. Sets up well for 2012, doesn’t it?
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Aumann: Tiny Calif. town produced rare glut of talent (NASCAR.com)
February 3, 2012
Panch and Meyer were friends and competitors. (Marvette Panch)
Even though California natives have won nine Sprint Cup championships since 1995, drivers from the Golden State have traditionally been a fairly rare commodity in NASCAR’s premier division.
But one small town located in the southern San Joaquin Valley—Porterville—has produced at least three drivers with NASCAR pedigrees: 1973 Talladega winner Dick Brooks, Marv Acton (who turned 68 Friday) and Dick Meyer.
Of the three, Meyer’s story is the most poignant. Nine days after finishing fourth in the 1953 Southern 500, the 27-year-old Meyer died in a street racing accident—in his race car—while driving back to California.
Meyer’s death hit 1961 Daytona 500 winner Marvin Panch especially hard, since they had been friends and rivals soon after Panch began racing after being discharged from the Army.
“When I started racing on the West Coast, Dick was the hot shoe,” Panch said in a phone interview from his Daytona Beach home. “The first race I ever won was in his car [at Hanford]. I had a ’50 Mercury—a street job basically converted into a race car—and he had a ’50 Mercury that he reworked pretty good for racing.
“After a few races, I cooked the engine pretty good in my car, and Dick got a ride in somebody’s Oldsmobile. So I called Dick and asked if I could borrow the engine out of his car. He says, ‘Better than that—you just show up and the car will be there, you drive it.’ “
Panch was a little nervous about being too aggressive with Meyer’s equipment—until Meyer gave him some unexpected advice in the middle of the race.
“During the race, he broke an axle and got upside down,” Panch said. “He was standing between Turns 1 and 2 [while his car was being towed]. He hollered at me, ‘Stand on that damn thing!’ So after the restart, the next corner I got in a little bit over my head and crossed it up. But I got on the throttle and man, it worked like a dream.”
Panch and Meyer began dominating stock car racing the West Coast in the early 1950s—and that caught the attention of the folks at Chrysler. At the time, Panch said Meyer was considered the equal of other Chrysler factory drivers like three-time champ Lee Petty.
“All we had was dealer sponsors at that time,” Panch said. “Between Dick and I, we won our share of the races, or pretty much all of them. Naturally, the Dodge people got interested in us, and when it came time to come back to Darlington, which was the biggie back then, they made arrangements for us to go to Hamtramck where the cars were built.”
Given the way today’s cars are specially manufactured and carefully placed in haulers so they arrive at the track in pristine condition, it’s almost impossible to imagine an era when drivers like Panch and Meyer could go to the factory and drive away with two cars fresh off the assembly line—without any additional safety features.
“We picked up two new Dodges, drove them to Darlington to get some miles on the motor, and we ran them at Darlington,” Panch said.
Panch retired with overheating issues and finished 28th, but Meyer ran solidly in the top five for most of the race, finishing fourth to Buck Baker. Braced with a $1,000 payday, Meyer decided to drive the Dodge back to Porterville—a decision that would have tragic consequences once he arrived in Henderson, Nev.
“Evidently he was out at the cocktail lounge or something,” Panch said. “There was a guy there—the police chief’s son—who had an Oldsmobile and said, ‘No Dodge will ever outrun my Oldsmobile.’
“Naturally the race was on. Dick was leading it and a lady pulled out in front of him. Dick took to the shoulder, dropped the car in a culvert, did an end-over-end and it wiped him out. That’s the story I heard.”
Meyer’s death devastated Panch.
“He was real active and believed in having a good time,” Panch said. “That’s what got him in trouble when the guy said, ‘No Dodge is gonna outrun my Oldsmobile.’ Dick jumped right at that—he was a scraper. He was a good guy, flat-out all the time.”
Meyer’s son, Dick Jr., became a well-respected NASCAR builder—and grandsons Adam (Richard Childress Racing) and Rick (Stewart-Haas) continue to carry on the family tradition.
Just like Meyer and Panch, Brooks and Acton raced against each other in California before making the leap to NASCAR.
“[Brooks] was a year ahead of me in school,” Acton said from his race shop in Denver, N.C. “We lived maybe a couple of miles apart. He drove a logging truck for his dad and then him and some buddies built a new modified and got Dick to drive it—at Fresno, Clovis and Atascadero. I built a car and we raced against each other at Bakersfield.”
Acton said Brooks was able to obtain a $50,000 sponsorship, bought a Ford from Mario Rossi and campaigned it for much of the 1969 and 1970 seasons—and then came back to Porterville with an intriguing offer.
“That Christmas—I was home visiting family, and he said, ‘Come back to Daytona and drive my car for me,’ ” Acton said.
After finishing 19th in the 1971 Daytona 500, Acton ran another nine races for Brooks—including all of the superspeedways.
“I ran 12th at Michigan and went straight from Michigan to Talladega,” Acton said. “We were running fifth at Talladega when I dropped a valve with 30 miles to go. That would have been my best finish.”
The two parted ways after Darlington because “we ran out of money,” Acton said. He made two final Cup starts in 1977 for Rod Osterlund’s start-up operation—two years before Dale Earnhardt took over the ride.
“I got into race car fabrication, mostly show cars and simulators,” Acton said. “You know the video games where you’re at the mall that have those TV screens? We would take the insides out of one of those boxes and put it in a car. The last one I did for a guy in Washington, we did two flat screens with a Daytona game.”
Brooks ran a total of 358 races in 17 seasons. In addition to a stint as a race reporter for MRN Radio, Brooks also owned a chain of car dealerships in North and South Carolina. He died in 2006, the result of complications from injuries he had suffered two years earlier when the plane he was piloting flipped upside down while taxiing.
The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.
Porterville, Calif. Acton, Brooks, Meyer Cup stats Years3173 Races143588Wins010Top-5s0574Top-10s01505Best Fin.11 (Greenville)1 (Talladega)2 (Gardena)
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Ferrari unveils its new F1 car on the Internet (PA SportsTicker)
February 3, 2012
MARANELLO, ITALY (AP) —Ferrari has unveiled its completely overhauled Formula One car in a low-key Internet presentation after the full launch was canceled due to a snowstorm.
The car is named the F2012, which marks a return to the team’s traditional jargon after last year’s car was called the F150 in honor of the 150th anniversary of Italy’s unification.
Having won only one race last year, Ferrari began working on the new car midway through last season, with a heavy emphasis on improved aerodynamics.
This year’s first test session is next week in Jerez, Spain, while the opening race is in Melbourne, Australia on March 18.
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Mother of NASCAR driver Matt Kenseth dies at 63
February 2, 2012
CAMBRIDGE, Wis. (AP)—The mother of NASCAR driver Matt Kenseth has died.
An obituary from a Cambridge, Wis., funeral home and Kenseth’s fan websitesay Nicola “Nicki” Sue Kenseth battled Alzheimer’s disease and died Tuesday atage 63 at Oak Park Place in Cottage Grove.
Matt Kenseth grew up in Cambridge and won the Daytona 500 in 2009.
A funeral service is scheduled Friday at Willerup Methodist Church inCambridge. She is survived by her husband, Roy, her children, Kelley and Matt,and five grandchildren.
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From the Notebook: Daytona 500 boasts record purse (NASCAR.com)
February 2, 2012
The 54th annual Daytona 500—NASCAR’s biggest and most prestigious race—will carry a record purse of more than $19 million as well as a new contingency award that will pay out $200,000 to the driver leading at the completion of Lap 100.
The posted awards for the Great American Race are $19,142,601 with the winner collecting a minimum of $1,431,325.
The Daytona 500 Mid-Race Leader Award will reward the driver leading the midway point of the historic 200-lap, 500-mile race with a $200,000 bonus. If the race is under caution at Lap 100, the leader of the race at the completion of the fifth consecutive green flag lap following the caution will receive the award.
“There is plenty of incentive for drivers to run up front the entire race but even more so at the halfway point and the last lap of the Daytona 500,” Daytona International Speedway President Joie Chitwood said. “This year’s Great American Race stands to be one of the most exciting and thrilling ever seen, and will serve as a great kick-off to the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.”
Cassill gets 500 shot
Wednesday evening, Landon Cassill, the Iowa youngster who formerly was a Hendrick Motorsports development driver and made a bunch more fans in 2011 through his near-full season of work in James Finch’s Phoenix Racing Chevrolet, had an opportunity for the Daytona 500 in a Front Row Motorsports Ford. But Thursday morning, he let Front Row general manager Jerry Freeze know he couldn’t do it.
“We gave [Cassill] an out if he got a full-time racing deal,” Freeze said. “And it sounds like he has one. No idea on who we’ll get for now.”
Cassill joined Finch in the 2011 season’s fifth race and kept the independent owner in the top 35 in the owners’ standings all season, resulting in a locked-in 2012 Daytona 500 start for Finch’s new driver, Kurt Busch. Freeze had no details on Cassill’s new deal.
Front Row’s No. 26 Fusion currently has sponsorship from Morristown Driver’s Service, an over-the-road trucking company based in Tennessee which is owned by Front Row principal Bob Jenkins. Jenkins’ third car last year wore No. 55, but Michael Waltrip Racing took that number in conjunction with its sponsor, Aaron’s 55th anniversary, for the 2012 season.
* Caraviello: Lean driver market makes it feel like ’80s again
Reutimann a lock, but not for 500?
The deal announced this week by Tommy Baldwin Racing and Stewart-Haas Racing to form a partnership that makes Danica Patrick’s No. 10 Chevrolet a guaranteed starter in her first Daytona 500 via the points accrued last year by Dave Blaney in TBR’s No. 36 Chevrolet had a spinoff beneficiary.
David Reutimann, who was looking at 26 2012 Sprint Cup races in a second TBR car as Blaney’s teammate, now will join Patrick to contest all 36 races in the No. 10. By competing in every race, that car has a good chance to remain in the top 35 in the owners’ standings and thus, remain a guaranteed starter each week no matter who’s piloting it.
The bad news is TBR won’t field a second car at Daytona for Reutimann, who will miss his first Daytona 500 since 2006. A TBR spokesperson also said there is no plan at this time to field a second TBR car at any of the other nine races Patrick is scheduled to do. As it is, Baldwin was quoted in media reports saying he was struggling to find enough sponsorship to field Blaney’s car in all 36 races.
Reutimann, who told Sirius XM NASCAR Radio that sponsorship was not yet secured for his 26 guaranteed starts, either, still will benefit from the guaranteed starter status. TBR’s spokesperson also confirmed the points earned by the 10 car this season would remain with TBR for the 2013 season. That means Patrick would again be in the market for a guaranteed starting position for the 2013 Daytona 500, which will be her first race in her first full Cup Series season for Stewart-Haas.
* Patrick locked into Daytona 500, thanks to TBR
Another Nemechek on the horizon
When a race car driver can get Kyle Busch’s attention—particularly in a positive way—he’s really done something. When it’s a 14-year-old getting high props, it elevates the respect quotient even higher.
That was the case for John Hunter Nemechek last weekend as the son of Sprint Cup and Nationwide series owner/driver Joe Nemechek—in only his second start in a super late model car—held off eventual Speedfest winner Busch for more than 60 laps at Watermelon Capital Speedway in Cordele, Ga.
Busch told young Nemechek “ur day isn’t too far away #staysmoothe” on his Twitter feed shortly after the race. Joe Nemechek, who works with his son on his car as much as his schedule allows, has been with John Hunter for his first two SLM events—the first of which came at New Smyrna Speedway in Samsula, Fla., about a half-hour south of Daytona International Speedway, earlier this year.
At January’s Daytona Sprint Cup test, the elder Nemechek smiled and said he enjoyed working with his son’s late model cars because teams were still able to twist, tweak and tune them, unlike current Sprint Cup cars, which NASCAR’s rules package keep in a pretty tight box “that you can’t do anything with,” the ever-creative Nemechek said.
The teenage Nemechek plans to race the 10-night SLM schedule during February’s World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing at New Smyrna and his father plans to be there as much as his busy DIS schedule—where he’ll compete in both Cup and Nationwide cars—allows.
2013 Cup cars on track
NASCAR recently said its next on-track test for all four 2013 Sprint Cup Series models—of which only Ford has revealed its Fusion to the public and none of the cars have officially been “aero-matched” by NASCAR—didn’t remain a secret for long, thanks to Twitter.
Kyle Busch said Tuesday that he was looking forward to testing the 2013 Toyota Camry on Wednesday. During the test , Busch tweeted a barb at Matt Kenseth, who by inference was testing Ford’s 2013 car. New Hendrick Motorsports driver Kasey Kahne went even farther on his Twitter feed. Kahne said he was testing the new 2013 Chevy at Homestead and he was “excited to see how it feels.”
Busch did admit that he was dying to show his fans what it looked like but he couldn’t, as the car is set to be previewed later this month.
* Ford unveils 2013 Cup Series Ford Fusion
A.J. looking grand for Indy?
After winning his first race in more than five years, last weekend’s 50th annual Rolex 24 at Daytona, A.J. Allmendinger was spinning off on all kinds of tangents. He talked about a trip to California for a commercial shoot for his Cup sponsor, a Grand-Am media opportunity, a Cup Series test at Disney World and, according to Grand-Am team owner Michael Shank, another Grand-Am race date on his calendar and maybe a little payback when Allmendinger gets his first Sprint Cup win.
On Tuesday, per a promise Shank made Allmendinger at a December test, the owner had Allmendinger’s initials shaved into his hairdo. On the teleconference, Shank told Allmendinger he’d get his, namely getting the “MSR” logo for “Michael Shank Racing” shaved into Allmendinger’s head.
“[Allmendinger] doesn’t know that he agreed to it, but he’ll have to cut his hair,” Shank said, laughing. “I told him for his first NASCAR win, and I told his boss that this morning. So it’s all clear there, A.J.”
As he had all weekend, Allmendinger was quick with a retort, though he was serious about the Rolex Series’ first date at Indianapolis, in conjunction with the annual Sprint Cup weekend in July that will include IMS’s Nationwide Series inaugural event.
“I keep telling Shank, if he puts me in the car more than Daytona, I’d love to do that—he hasn’t done that yet for seven years,” Allmendinger said. “So I would love to run Indy. For me I’ve always told Mike any time he needs me, I love driving the race car, so I’m there. Indy we’ve put on the schedule to try to make it happen, and hopefully the schedule and everything works out to that point. It’s going to be a special race there.”
Leave it to Shank, who altered his driving rotation to give Allmendinger the final, race-winning stint, to issue the final zinger.
“He’s got to get a little bit better before I fully trust him,” Shank said. “So once that happens, I’ll put him in a little bit more.”
* Allmendinger cherishes drought-ending Rolex win
Geoff Bodine still mining a ride
Former Daytona 500 winner Bodine last year opened a Honda motorcycle shop in Melbourne, on the mid-Florida “Space Coast” near Kennedy Space Center. But as Speedweeks approaches, he’s more concerned about placing his sponsorship support for the 2012 Sprint Cup season from Luke & Associates, which is based near Bodine, with a partner team.
Bodine this week said he’s still looking for a 2012 partner for 12 to 15 races after he made four 2011 starts for Baldwin’s team.
NASCAR getting ready to get ‘dirty’
Kenny Wallace this week started a road trip to Florida in which he’ll race his dirt modified cars at no less than three storied Sunshine State tracks while also plying his normal trades—as RAB Racing’s primary Nationwide Series driver and part of SPEED TV’s NASCAR broadcast crew.
Bobby Labonte and Clint Bowyer each own dirt late model teams that compete during the DIRTcar Nationals at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla.—a half-hour north of Daytona—while NASCAR veteran Ken Schrader and Austin and Ty Dillon all race dirt modified cars. Reutimann usually helps his dad, dirt legend Buzzie Reutimann.
Toyota’s ‘Super’ prediction
A random sampling of more than a dozen key members of Toyota’s Sprint Cup lineup of drivers and crew chiefs revealed a 10-4 edge for the New England Patriots defeating the New York Giants in Sunday’s NFL Super Bowl. But before you think pure on-field prowess weighed too heavily into this, think again.
“I really don’t have a favorite team,” Denny Hamlin’s new crew chief, Darian Grubb said. “I really don’t want New England to win it—more so I can pick on some of the guys on my race team.”’
The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.
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Daytona 500 purse a record $19 million
February 1, 2012
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP)—The Daytona 500 will boast a record purse of more than $19 million, and the winner of NASCAR’s biggest race is guaranteed a minimum $1.4 million.
Daytona International Speedway also announced Wednesday a $200,000 bonus for the driver leading at the halfway point of the race.
The “Daytona 500 Mid-Race Leader Award” will not be automatically awarded if the race is under caution at lap 100. The bonus will then be rolled over and paid to the driver leading the race at the completion of the fifth consecutive green flag lap following the caution.
Daytona president Joie Chitwood believes the bonus is incentive for drivers to race up front and not lay back in the Feb. 26 season-opening race.
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Caraviello: Lean driver market makes it feel like 1980s again (NASCAR.com)
February 1, 2012
Mark Martin started his Cup career with 25 DNFs (20 for mechanical failures) in his first 57 starts, driving for various owners, including the No. 02 of Bud Reeder. (Smyle Media)
Mark Martin’s first full-time season in the Cup Series was for an owner named Bud Reeder, who other than that 1982 campaign never fielded a car for more than six races in a single year. The next season Martin started 16 events for car owners ranging from Jim Stacy to Emanuel Zervakis to D.K. Ulrich, whose vehicles had one thing in common—they quite regularly broke down. Then it was five races, two failed engines, and one DNQ for Jerry Gunderman, followed by a single start in 1987 for Roger Hamby. The motor blew up in that one, too.
It wasn’t until 1988, after five years of driving garbage disguised as race cars, that Martin hooked up with Jack Roush and began piloting vehicles that could get to the front with regularity. Back then, he was the rule rather than the exception. Sterling Marlin drove for Hamby and the Sadler Brothers and Hoss Ellington long before his glory days with Morgan-McClure. Dale Jarrett drive for Eric Freedlander and a past-its-prime Cale Yarborough outfit before breaking through with the Wood Brothers and Robert Yates. Rusty Wallace drove for the likes of John Childs and Cliff Stewart before Raymond Beadle called.
For an entire generation of NASCAR drivers, that’s just the way it was—you started out in equipment that was far from ideal, proved you could take care of it and maybe squeeze out a few good finishes, and eventually someone noticed. Good cars were far too valuable to entrust to young drivers more prone to put them in the wall. So the men who would become the sport’s biggest stars of the 1990s and early 2000s began their careers in junk, a practice that delayed their breakthroughs until almost middle age. The few true phenoms of the era, drivers like Davey Allison and Jeff Gordon, were vastly outnumbered by those who waited their turn and bided their time.
It didn’t last, of course. Gordon’s early commercial and competitive successes sent teams and sponsors clamoring for others like him, ushering in a youth movement that altered the face of the sport. Suddenly, young drivers didn’t have to wait anymore; in fact, teams and sponsors couldn’t put them in vehicles fast enough. They found themselves in great cars very early in their Cup Series careers, opening the door for everyone from Matt Kenseth and Kurt Busch to Joey Logano and Kasey Kahne. The average age of the starting grid plummeted. No young driver who was any good had to climb the ladder in less-than-competitive equipment, a dynamic that held sway over NASCAR’s premier division—until now.
No sport feels the wake of economic turbulence more than NASCAR, with its absolute dependence on sponsorship. Recent tough times have taken their toll, manifesting themselves in sponsors scaling back or departing altogether, and some teams contracting or shutting down as a result. Aftershocks are felt every time a contract expires, leading to more hand-wringing even in an economy that shows some early signs of recovery. No one gets jostled more than those drivers who find themselves without rides, and take whatever they can to get by, making it feel a little like the early 1980s all over again.
Now, the clock isn’t being turned back permanently, to the point where drivers have to wait until they’re 30 to break through. When teams can put packages together, they’re often going to build them around the next up-and-comer, as Penske did with Brad Keselowski and Roush Fenway is trying to do with Trevor Bayne. But with seats at a premium, and in an environment where there are more drivers than there are sponsors, some are having to take a step back into something less competitive than they’re accustomed to, and hope another opportunity opens up. To drivers like Martin, it feels very much like the sport coming full circle.
“It reminds me of the ’80s when I was trying to get in,” he said. “You can be a great driver and have to wait 10 years for your turn. So if you’re 20 years old, if you’re Ryan Truex, and you’re 30 before you get to drive a super-duper hot rod—is that back? Instead of strapping into one when you’re 21? That’s how it has been recently. When you’re 21, you strap in. Back in the day, you had to wait 10 years before you got your turn, and you drove whatever you could when you could, and you won in it. That’s the way it used to be. It’s going to be a little bit more like that. That’s an exaggeration, but it’s going to be a little more like that than it was from 2000 to present. It’s just going to be tough. You’re going to have to wait your turn.”
That much certainly seems evident in some of the driver transactions the sport witnessed during a busy offseason. When Kurt Busch split from Penske Racing, he landed not in another top-tier, fully-funded ride, but a Phoenix Racing car that promises to be a threat at restrictor-plate tracks but nowhere else. Aric Almirola’s jump into the Sprint Cup tour comes in a Richard Petty Motorsports entry that has very limited sponsorship. David Ragan left Roush after his No. 6 was closed down and ended up at Front Row Motorsports, which is primarily bankrolled out of owner Bob Jenkins’ pocket.
“I think the world we live in, these corporations are very conservative when it comes to making long-term commitments and spending millions of dollars,” Ragan said. “So they’re taking longer to make decisions, an they’re spending less, and the owners have to work that into their decisions, because in order to go racing, you have to have financial backing. … It’s an unfair part of our sport, because there are a lot of great drivers out there that really don’t get the opportunity, or young kids who are 17, 18 years old who need to be in a Nationwide car or truck, but they’re not going to get the opportunity because their parents don’t have the money, their aunts and uncles don’t have the money. That’s the world we live in, and we’re all dealt the same cards, and we just have to do the best we can.”
Still, Ragan is more fortunate than others. Busch’s move to Phoenix’s No. 51 car displaced Landon Cassill, who has yet to announce any plans for 2012. Cassill has an advocate in Martin, who tells the younger driver just to hold on and take what he can get. It’s a situation not unlike another he recalls very well.
“I just keep telling him, man, you’ve got to wait your turn. You’ll get your chance,” said Martin, now racing a limited schedule for Michael Waltrip. “You used to have to wait forever and drive start-and-parks. Drive Roger Hamby’s car, or D.K. Ulrich’s car. Sterling, myself, how many people drove D.K.’s or Roger’s cars and stuff like that? They may not be start-and-parks, but they definitely didn’t race hard. They took the tires off of Junior Johnson’s car and rolled them down on the next stop and put them on his car. It’s just a leaner time,” he added.
“But Landon Cassill, I hate it for Landon. Right now he’s still searching for something. He’s very deserving and very capable. When you’re good, it will work out. But you have to wait. … Landon’s going to just have to hold on. He’s very good. I’m working on his behalf every way I can. But he doesn’t have sponsorship tied to his back, or he’d have a ride. Fortunately, that’s where we’re at right now in the sport. When something opens up, and it might open up this week, next week., next month, July—there will be an opening come up, and he’ll be in a position to take it, and he’ll do well with it.”
Ragan can relate. In his offseason job search, he heard a chorus of familiar questions—can you bring in any money? Any sponsorship? Do you have any friends who work in corporate marketing? Do you have a next-door neighbor who is cousin to a CEO? “It’s just a different world,” Ragan said. And yet, to some this landscape looks quite familiar to a world they lived in three decades ago.
The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.
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Top 20 Countdown: No. 13 Ryan Newman (Yahoo! Sports)
February 1, 2012
Editor’s note: Yahoo! Sports is counting down the top 20 drivers of the 2012 season, as predicted by the Yahoo! Sports NASCAR staff – Jay Hart, Jay Busbee, Nick Bromberg and Geoffrey Miller. The countdown will conclude Feb. 17 with the unveiling of the No. 1 driver..nascountdown font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10px;line-height:16px;border-bottom:1px solid #CCC;padding-bottom:3px;padding-top:3px;
(Getty Images) 2011 statistics Finish Poles Wins Top 5 Top 10 9 3 1 9 17 The countdownNo. 20: Marcos Ambrose | Career statsNo. 19: Kurt Busch | Career statsNo. 18: Martin Truex Jr. | Career statsNo. 17: Juan Pablo Montoya | Career statsNo. 16: Jeff Burton | Career statsNo. 15: Clint Bowyer | Career statsNo. 14: A J Allmendinger | Career statsNo. 13: Ryan Newman | Career statsNo. 12: Revealed Thursday, Feb. 2
2011 finish: 10th
Our 2012 predictions:• Jay Hart: 13th• Jay Busbee: 14th• Nick Bromberg: 12th • Geoffrey Miller: 12th
Crew chief: Tony Gibson
Offseason action: Stewart-Haas named Greg Zipadelli as the team’s new director of competition.
Outlook for 2012: Newman is one of the most reliable drivers on the circuit, always able to qualify well and usually able to follow that with a consistent finish. He’s reached the Chase two of the three years he’s driven for Tony Stewart, placing 10th last year.
The question for Newman is, as it has always been: When does he break through to that next level? Yes, he took home a win (and a lobster) last year with his victory at Loudon in July, and his season included nine top 5s and 17 top 10s. But two mid-20s finishes in the second and third Chase races killed any postseason hopes he might have had.
However, times are a-changing over at Stewart-Haas, and the influx of Danica-related money and the arrival of Greg Zipadelli as director of competition bodes well for the entire organization. Newman is likely to benefit from the rising tide … and he’d better, because in the NASCAR of 2012, pretty good isn’t anywhere near good enough.
Point of interest: New week, new sponsor for Newman, who will be running a car with a wide variety of sponsorships throughout the season. The U.S. Army, Quicken Loans, Tornados, Outback Steakhouse, WIX Filters, and Aspen Dental have all signed on for major sponsorship on the 39. Also, although nobody seems quite sure of it, 2012 is apparently a contract year for Newman. He seems happy, Stewart seems happy with him, and everything points to his continued employment at Stewart-Haas. But would a successful (or unsuccessful) year change that?
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Sutil says Hamilton a ‘coward’ for not testifying
February 1, 2012
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP)—Former Force India Formula One driver Adrian Sutilsays Lewis Hamilton is a “coward” for not testifying at the German’s trial.
Sutil was convicted of causing grievous bodily harm in a nightclubconfrontation in China and given an 18-month suspended sentence Tuesday.Hamilton declined to testify because of commitments with his McLaren team.
Sutil told the Bild Newspaper that “Lewis is a coward, I don’t want to befriends with someone like that.”
Hamilton witnessed the incident at a party following Hamilton’s victory atthe China Grand Prix in Shanghai last April, when Sutil cut Renault teamexecutive Eric Lux in the neck with a champagne glass.
Sutil said he intended to spill his drink on Lux, and that causing theinjury was completely “unintentional and accidental.”
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Sutil says Hamilton a ‘coward’ for not testifying (PA SportsTicker)
February 1, 2012
FRANKFURT, GERMANY (AP) —Former Force India Formula One driver Adrian Sutil says Lewis Hamilton is a “coward” for not testifying at the German’s trial.
Sutil was convicted of causing grievous bodily harm in a nightclub confrontation in China and given an 18-month suspended sentence Tuesday. Hamilton declined to testify because of commitments with his McLaren team.
Sutil told the Bild Newspaper that “Lewis is a coward, I don’t want to be friends with someone like that.”
Hamilton witnessed the incident at a party following Hamilton’s victory at the China Grand Prix in Shanghai last April, when Sutil cut Renault team executive Eric Lux in the neck with a champagne glass.
Sutil said he intended to spill his drink on Lux, and that causing the injury was completely “unintentional and accidental.”
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