Racing

Nascar!

BigDee — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 21:14:25 GMT

Who will win the cup?

Plans have Danica in Daytona to start

BigDee — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:53:54 GMT

Sources: Plans have Danica in Daytona to start

by Lee Spencer

Lee Spencer is senior NASCAR writer for FOXSports.com. She also is a correspondent for "Around the Track" on FOX Sports Net.

Updated: September 8, 2009, 1:48 AM EDT

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HAMPTON, Ga. - A potential 2010 hybrid stock car/open-wheel schedule for Danica Patrick is becoming clearer.

Although sources insist Patrick's primary concentration will remain on driving the No. 7 Honda for Michael Andretti's IndyCar Series team, she could be preparing for an ARCA/Nationwide Series debut during Daytona Speedweeks 2010, which would serve as a springboard to a likely switch to NASCAR in the future.

On Saturday, two-time Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart said Patrick was "serious" about making the switch from open-wheel to stock car competition.

"I know that that's what she wants to do," Stewart said. "She looked me straight in the eye and said, 'Hey, this is what I want to do. It looks like fun — it looks like a lot of work, but it looks like fun.'

"I don't think she has some misguided idea that it's going to be easy doing it. She wants to do it the right way. She has the intentions to do everything right."

On top of a full IndyCar Series season and the two proposed events at Daytona, Patrick's schedule would also include one or two midseason stock car races and a full-immersion program of Nationwide and possibly Camping World Truck Series races following the October 2 IndyCar Series season finale.

The IndyCar season begins March 14 in Brazil.

Seven-time NASCAR champs head 1st Hall class

BigDee — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:45:59 GMT

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. has been selected as the first inductee of the sport's Hall of Fame.

France formed the National Association for Stock Car Racing in 1947 and headlines the inaugural class of five for the Hall.

Also joining the Hall in next year's induction ceremony is Bill France Jr., who took over for his father as head of NASCAR in 1972. He spent nearly 30 years running the family business.

Also selected were Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt, NASCAR's two seven-time Cup champions, and Junior Johnson.

The class was determined by the 51 votes cast by the panel and the nationwide fan vote conducted through NASCAR.COM. The accounting firm of Ernst & Young presided over the tabulation of the votes.

The Class of 2010 will be officially inducted in a ceremony on May 23, 2010, at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte.

The nominees included many of the sport's legendary names: Bobby Allison, Buck Baker, Red Byron, Richard Childress, Dale Earnhardt, Richie Evans, Tim Flock, Bill France Jr., Bill France Sr., Rick Hendrick, Ned Jarrett, Junior Johnson, Bud Moore, Raymond Parks, Benny Parsons, David Pearson, Lee Petty, Richard Petty, Fireball Roberts, Herb Thomas, Curtis Turner, Darrell Waltrip, Joe Weatherly, Glen Wood and Cale Yarborough.

The NASCAR Hall of Fame broke ground in Charlotte on Jan. 25, 2007, and will open May 11, 2010.

NASCAR 2

jackpinelouie — Mon, 25 May 2009 11:22:19 GMT

the 600 is on at 11am ourtime today , good for me , bad for the fans that went to the race, love the day races, late night races , I never get to finish LOL.

Denny Hamlin

princeofpower — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 20:21:40 GMT

Just won todays race. His grandma past away and he won this race. Props to him. Seeing him in victory lane crying durring the interview was really a touching moment.

Good for you Denny

Dale Earnhart tribute race?

WIsports812 — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 18:36:33 GMT

MLB has jackie robinson day who revolutioized the sport of baseball. D.E revolutionized nascar or at least got it started to becoming popular. why not have a race where every race car has the number 3 on is just like baseball where everyone where's the number 42 for jackie

tell me what you think

Racing needs the rough-and-tumble Danica

BigDee — Wed, 20 May 2009 21:19:55 GMT

Racing needs the rough-and-tumble Danica

Alan Tays says the IRL needs her to continue being the bad girl."-->

by Alan Tays, FOXSports.com

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Updated: May 20, 2009, 12:49 PM EST

37 comments

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Danica Patrick wants to soften her image.

Danica on the brain

Move over: Danica isn't intimidated by boys — and she's not the only woman to make it in male-dominated sports.

Take a peek: As Patrick readies for the 500, check out a revealing look at the popular driver ... and her new ride.

Wide open: Will Danica win the biggest race of the year? Chris Estrada breaks down the Indianapolis 500 field.

Good grief, whatever for?

Last month, in the Indy Racing League's season opener in St. Petersburg, Fla., Patrick's and Raphael Matos' cars made contact and wrecked. After they got out of the cars, Patrick patted Matos on the helmet while they discussed the matter.

One assumes she was not giving him an "attaboy," but for us longtime Danica-watchers who have come to expect fireworks on these sorts of occasions, it was mildly disappointing. The thought of Patrick mellowing and becoming just another corporate shill in a firesuit is disappointing to me as an IRL fan.

To the IRL itself, a sports organization with exactly one marketable star (sorry, Helio, your 15 minutes are up), it should be horrifying.

Yet here was Patrick, earlier this month, talking about how "it's a lot easier and a lot more fun to be relaxed. It's all bunnies and rainbows around here."

Bunnies?

Rainbows?

Patrick said she used to feel like she had to prove to people that she was a serious competitor, that she felt finishing anywhere other than first was unacceptable. The way she tried to prove it was by getting mad. But she found there were drawbacks.

"It just doesn't really pay off," she said, "and it turns people off."

Not everybody, it doesn't. Hang around Patrick in any situation where she interacts with the public and you'll hear plenty of fans encourage her to kick some male-driver butt. To take no grief. To stand up for herself.

It's not just women who do this, either. I remember watching this phenomenon in the garage area before Patrick's first IRL race, at Homestead-Miami Speedway in March 2005. All we knew about her then was that she had raced in the open-wheel minor leagues, that in vehicles other than go-karts she had just one win — the pro division of the pro-celebrity race that accompanies the Grand Prix of Long Beach, and that she had done some racy magazine photo spreads.

Was she legit or was she just a hyped-up creation of team owner Bobby Rahal? No one knew. Her 15th-place finish in a 22-car field that day (she crashed after 158 laps in an incident that also took out six other drivers, including 2003 series champion Scott Dixon) didn't provide many answers.

Less than three months later, Patrick became "Danica" (no last name needed) once and for all by stepping up in the IRL's only mass-appeal race, the Indy 500. She started and finished fourth — better than any other woman had ever finished at Indy — and she led laps, 19 of them, something else no one of her gender had ever done in the 500.

Yeah, it seemed she could drive a little, so fans settled in and waited for the next logical step — winning a race. That finally happened last year, and the circumstances were both good and bad for the IRL. Good, because the race she won was the one right before the Indy 500 on the schedule. Bad, because it took place in Japan and thus received minimal U.S. media exposure.

Even before she won, though, Patrick kept herself in the spotlight with periodic — for lack of a better word — snits. In St. Petersburg, Matos merely took his place in an "I went at it with Danica" line that already included Dan Wheldon, Jacques Lazier and Milka Duno. She took some criticism for her actions (including here), but the fact is, she got people to pay attention to the IRL, which otherwise might as well put itself on the side of milk cartons during every month except May.

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Which is why the IRL should be very concerned about this "kinder, gentler" Danica stuff. In their video promo for this season, they show Patrick defiantly declaring that "this isn't miniature golf" while the camera captures some of her most heated moments.

The Indy 500 doesn't generate anywhere near the buzz that it used to. Part of that is open-wheel racing being passed by NASCAR in popularity, part of it is that the sporting landscape offers so many more choices for fans than it used to. Indy isn't A.J. Foyt, the Unsers and Andy Granatelli anymore (more's the pity).

But that doesn't mean it still can't grab our attention. Imagine the scene if a) Danica wins, or b) Danica gets wrecked on the last lap and storms down pit lane looking for whoever took her out.

Now THAT'S entertainment.

And nary a bunny nor a rainbow in sight.

NASCAR hands Long, crew chief record penalties

BigDee — Thu, 21 May 2009 16:02:19 GMT

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (AP) - NASCAR has suspended driver Carl Long for the next 12 Sprint Cup races and fined crew chief Charles Swing $200,000, the largest penalty in the sport's history.

You're in big trouble

Photos: Carl Long isn't the only one who has been penalized by NASCAR. Here are other drivers who have taken hits for rule violations.

Swing also was suspended until Aug. 18 for using an engine that was too big for NASCAR's specifications last weekend at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

Long was docked a NASCAR-record 200 points. Additionally, Swing and Long were placed on probation until Dec. 31.

Car owner Danielle Long, Carl's wife, also was suspended 12 races, docked 200 owner points and placed on probation until Dec. 31.

The record fine exceeds the $150,000 Robby Gordon's crew chief, Frank Kerr, received in March 2008. Several drivers and owners have been docked 100 points in recent years.

Long has made just 23 career Cup starts, and has not appeared in a points-paying Cup race since 2006.

He finished last in the 35-car field in a qualifying event for Saturday night's All-Star race, dropping out after three laps because of an engine problem.

Long, who also failed to qualify for the season-opening Daytona 500, first had engine trouble during practice last Friday. The team switched engines, and under NASCAR rules, the sanctioning body examined the bad engine.

NASCAR discovered an issue and sent the engine to the Research & Development Center for more tests, which determined the engine exceeded maximum cubic inch displacement specifications.

SNOCROSS!

BigDee — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 21:16:06 GMT

Anyone into snocross racing? Or snowmobiling?

makes sense to me

jackpinelouie — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 18:53:04 GMT

There’s this from Frank Pinn of Lake Villa, Ill., who is a fan of the Chase:

I’ve seen “longtime” fans of NASCAR bash the Chase format and all I have to say is I think it has added much more excitement to the final races of the season.

Maybe these fans have forgot the many years, including Kenseth’s championship, that someone has run away with the crown and the results didn’t matter in the last few races.

To me the Chase more than fixed that and now you have 12 drivers with basically an equal chance at the end.

There are two things I think that do need to be addressed. First, once the NFL starts its regular season the Cup races should move to Saturday afternoons or nights so there isn’t a conflict. No way you can win that battle at this time. I believe viewership will increase as will the sponsorship dollars.

Second, I wish the cars would go back to resembling the street cars again. I don’t mind the COT but I sure liked the differences years ago.

but they are not going to give up sunday racing for us NFL fans, just have to have 2 tv's

The New NASCAR

jackpinelouie — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 13:30:54 GMT

this about says it all

Let’s see, 15 years ago, NASCAR wanted Santa to deliver driver diversity, a national fan base and associated tracks, GQ glamour boy corporate drivers (the younger the better), glitz and fame.

Yep, the cookies and milk are gone, so Santa and Rudolph dropped in! Driver meetings look like a UN gathering, cookie-cutter tracks that demand little if any master driver skills to compete, GQ model worthy drivers who shave their eyebrows (legs?), COT cars that withstand massive abuse without upsetting damage (did I mention young GQ unskilled drivers?) and a NASCAR T- shirt or car tag on every body or car.

However, in the new business model, they deserted their loyalty to the fans that gave them existence, abandoned tracks that made them famous, snubbed their grass roots fan base heritage for money.

In a morbidly amusing way, they got billions from their greed, have a fleet of jets, but too cheap to do maintenance.

Maybe there won’t be a NASCAR in five years or maybe they’ll have to merge with Indy Cars and move to Mexico and become NAFTA-CAR Espanola.

3 in a row

jackpinelouie — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 16:12:34 GMT

on to vegas, how great would that be if # 17 won the first 3 in a row. I wonder if thats ever been done.

Anyone else going to the IndyCar race at The Mile?!

HLJT593 — Thu, 22 May 2008 15:26:20 GMT

I am really excited to see Danica!! I’ve been going to this race for a few years and it should be cool to see 27 IndyCars on the track! And I just heard they are still going to have the free all-driver autograph session Sunday morning. You know where I will be…first in Danica’s line!

For those of you who haven’t got tickets yet, I got an email today from the bubbler about an offer going on for tickets to the race. They have a deal for half off tickets for the 200 level or terrace. All you have to do is enter the word partner in the coupon box when you buy the tickets online.

This is a great deal! I usually sit in the 200 level, you get a great view for a pretty fair price. Should be fun!

Danica

schnozwon — Sat, 31 May 2008 04:12:33 GMT

I can't wait to see this flop in person. No talent cry baby.

Question about the beer sponsorship....

Jim Ganzer — Sat, 31 May 2008 15:02:44 GMT

Reading Don Walker's article in the Journal about the Milwaukee Mile cutting a deal with Budweiser to replace Miller at the track. Is this a slap in the face to the local brewery and their employees or a move that was necassary for the Mile to stay afloat?

Dale Jr starts the season with a bang

Jim Ganzer — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 21:30:28 GMT

What do you think of Dale Jr.'s start to the season?

Welcome to the Sports Bubbler's Racing message board

Sports Bubbler — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 04:51:56 GMT

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