Back towards the end of October, I wrote of how I was shifting focus of the site because I was unhappy with the direction of NASCAR.  Well, who could have ever imagined what would happen over the past couple of months that have followed?  One of my biggest gripes is the multitude of big teams that were drowning out the smaller teams.  This was, of course, fueled by sponsorship dollars endlessly given by big business including the “Big Three” auto makers.

Well, that was yesterday’s NASCAR.  With the significant fall of the Stock Market and, the pending demise of the “Big Three”, sponsorship money has all but dried up.  Teams are starting to collapse and in the interest of surviving, are looking to merge with each other.  The saddest part of all of this is the massive lay-offs that have hit the racing industry.  Especially at this time of year.

Teams started by two of the biggest names in NASCAR/Winston Cup Racing are struggling for existence.  Dale Earnhardt, Inc. has already joined up with Chip Ganassi Racing to field a four car team.  Petty Enterprises is rumored to be looking to join up with Gillett-Evernham Racing in some type of a merger deal.  NASCAR, in an effort to save money, has even eliminated testing for 2009.

For these reasons, I will be remaining active in my NASCAR, Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Truck Series racing.  Not because of wanting to watch a train wreck but instead because this could be the be the beginning of a return to the roots by NASCAR and the teams competing in it.  Sure, it’s easy to be the best with unlimited money but what happens when you suddenly have a budget to contend with.  Whereas this is new for a lot of teams, there are some smaller teams that are no strangers to struggling to survive.  It’s in this environment where you may see some of these teams excel. 

I can’t help thinking of the Wood Brothers or even Petty Enterprises and how they are prepared to do better in this environment of having less.  This is indeed a new era in NASCAR racing.  Shoot, we may even start seeing hometown garages on the hoods of cars before it’s over.  Yes boys and girls, this may be what returns NASCAR back to the hands of the people who started it.  Without rockstar salaries, who’s going to want to be a driver except those who truly love the sport?

With that said, I am actually very excited to see what NASCAR looks like during Speedweeks and the months to follow.  I am looking forward to writing about this transformation as well here.

The RacingFaces podcast will be happening.  We are actually planning to produce an introductory episode this weekend with the first regular episode starting with the first week of 2009.  The podcast will be an extension of the blog with an opportunity for more news and interviews.  We’re going to do some prizes so be sure to listen as we’ve already got some really nice prizes lined up courtesy of Sprint and Toyota!

NASCAR just started posting driver profiles for the Nationwide drivers. This is the first for Cale Gale. New ones will be added weekly.

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If you look at the post right before this one, it is the NASCAR press release about the penalties handed down by NASCAR for the JGR cheating scandal.  That is, if you consider it cheating.

This all started out, sadly, because NASCAR decided to penalize Toyota for stomping the crap out of the competition.  No one could argue that NASCAR has been dominated by Toyota this season.  The accepted solution, don’t encourage Detroit auto makers to make a better motor, but instead, hold Toyota back because they figured it out.  NASCAR mandated what was the equivalent of a restrictor plate for the Toyota engines in an attempt to manage horsepower in those motors.

When Toyota first entered the scene in the Truck series, they dominated there.  I have to admit, my inner redneck came out and I hated Toyota.  I felt the same when they entered at the time, Nextel Cup racing and Busch.  After I thought about it, I realized that this was a positive injection of cash and R&D for the sport.

Now, fast forward a couple of years.  Toyota is doing great in NASCAR.  Our reward for them, restrictions…  Now, NASCAR did mandate the changes which JGR complied with.  Where JGR screwed up is by hiding the true power of the current engine package.  After being slapped down for doing a good job before, I can understand their reluctance to brag about the powerplant.

I say JGR did not cheat but instead, NASCAR tried to cheat them.  And, to that, NASCAR has succeeded.  JGR will be further throttled eliminating the edge that they earned fair and square.  The penalty is ridiculous by any measure and will on serve to stifle further progress on the engine package for all manufacturers.

I remind everyone, NASCAR does this because the fans allow it.  If ratings went down when stuff like this happened, I bet it would stop pretty fast.

For Immediate Release

NO. 18 AND NO. 20 NASCAR NATIONWIDE SERIES TEAMS PENALIZED FOR RULE VIOLATIONS AT MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Aug. 20, 2008) – NASCAR announced today that the No. 18 and No. 20 teams in the NASCAR Nationwide Series have been penalized due to rule violations discovered by NASCAR inspectors prior to post-race testing on the chassis dynamometer Aug. 16 at Michigan International Speedway.

Both the No. 18 and No. 20 cars were found to be in violation of Sections 12-4-A (actions detrimental to stock car racing); 8-9 (competitive analysis – from time to time, NASCAR may determine, in the interest of competition, that it is necessary or appropriate to undertake an analysis of the performance capabilities of a car, car part, component or equipment. The Competitor shall take whatever steps are requested by NASCAR Officials for this purpose. NASCAR also has the right to seal or impound cars, car parts, components and/or equipment for this purpose); 12-4-Q (1): (car, car parts, components and/or equipment used that do not conform to NASCAR rules, detailed in Section 20A of the 2008 NASCAR Rule Book, or has not been approved by NASCAR prior to the event, or is not required for the normal functional operation of the race car, or has been altered to detract from or compromise its integrity or effectiveness, whether operational or not); 12-4-K: (when NASCAR Officials mandate inspection during the Event, if any car, car parts, components, and/or equipment which have been used in the Event are taken from the racing premises without permission of a NASCAR Official, or are tampered with by any member of the team or anyone associated with the team: Magnetic spacer attached under the gas pedal with the intent of compromising the chassis dynamometer test).

Both of the drivers – Joey Logano of the No. 18 and Tony Stewart of the No. 20 – have been penalized with the loss of 150 championship driver points and placed on NASCAR probation until Dec. 31, 2008. Joe Gibbs, owner of both of the cars, has likewise been penalized 150 championship owner points for each of those entries.

Both crew chiefs – Jason Ratcliff of the No. 18 and Dave Rogers of the No. 20 – have been fined $50,000 and indefinitely suspended from NASCAR.

From the No. 18 team, car chief Dorian Thorsen; engine tuner Michael Johnson; and crew member Toby Bigelow have been placed on indefinite suspension from NASCAR. From the No. 20 team, car chief Richard Bray and engine tuner Dan Bajek have been indefinitely suspended from NASCAR.

In addition, the entire No. 18 and No. 20 NASCAR Nationwide Series teams have been placed on NASCAR probation until Dec. 31, 2008.

For more information, contact:

Kerry Tharp, NASCAR Public Relations

According to a press release from Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, Dario Franchitti will be sitting out the NASCAR Sprint Cup Aaron’s 499 Sunday.  Dario suffered a fractured left ankle during a lap 11 crash in the Nationwide Series, Aaron’s 312 on Saturday after his car blew a right-rear tire.  The search is on to find a substitute driver to sit in for Dario’s 43′d starting spot Tums Dodge for the Sunday Talladega race.

Dario was transported to the infield care center where he was sent on to Physicians Medical Center Carraway in Birmingham, where the slight fracture was further evaluated, treated and released.

In his twenty-third NASCAR Talladega start, Tony Stewart finally takes home a trophy from Talladega with his win of the Nationwide Series Aaron’s 312 Saturday.  Tony led 81 of the 117 laps and held off Dale Jr. for the win after an attempted a last-lap pass on the backstretch.

“I don’t care if it’s a bicycle race, I finally won a race at Talladega,” a beaming Stewart said. “I’m not going to be able to sleep tonight, I’m so excited. This is not like winning just any Nationwide race. To me, this is the biggest one I’ve had, to finally win at Talladega.”
 
“This place means a lot to me. Everybody knows how close I am to Red Farmer and Donnie Allison. It was important for me to win here in this state in front of people who I consider family, and we’re close like family. Now I can go to Red Farmer and Donnie Allison and say, ‘I finally won one here.’ ”

Here’s the rest of the finishing order.

Unofficial Race Results for the Aaron’s “312″ – Saturday, April 26, 2008

(Photo Credit: Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Tony Stewart, the subject of this week’s biggest rumors and stories, took his winning Nationwide Daytona car on to claim the pole for today’s NASCAR Nationwide Aaron’s 312.  Tony turned a lap time of 51.676 seconds at 185.308 mph to claim his sixth Nationwide career pole.  Earlier in the year, Tony sat on the pole at the Nationwide Series opener in Daytona which, as you know, he went on to win.

Tony has yet to take the checkered at Talladega in Nationwide or Sprint Cup so this could be his weekend.  After a week when some doubted Tony’s future with Gibbs, he shared his confidence in JGR, “If you look at the effort of Joe Gibbs Racing every week in the Nationwide Series, they’ve been the car to beat whether it’s the 18 car or the 20 car,” Stewart said. “As an organization, I’m really proud of those guys.”  “Every race this year, the Joe Gibbs Racing cars have been fast. It’s a good feeling when you know you have a fast car as soon as you get to the track.”

I wonder, if it gets down to the last lap, Tony is in the lead and his teammate Kyle Busch is in second, would Tony let Kyle have it to make his Four-fer complete?  Na, of course not!!!

Driver introductions start at 1:30PM and the race is scheduled to start at 2:00PM.

Here’s the full starting grid:

I work with a guy who doesn’t follow racing but has been hearing a lot  of the buzz around the recent Michael McDowell crash.  Well, yesterday, he asked me "What exactly is this Car of Tomorrow that they keep talking about?"  I took a few minutes and attempted to explain to him what it was and realized that he probably wasn’t alone.  I bet a lot of the non-NASCAR people are wondering that very same thing.

Simply put, the Car of Tomorrow, or CoT for short, is NASCAR’s latest generation of competition stock car for the Sprint Cup Series.  If you don’t follow NASCAR, you might not know that the Sprint Cup is the premiere NASCAR series.  It was formerly known as the Nextel Cup, the Winston Cup and the Grand National series.  The new car, announced in early 2006, first hit the track in competition on March 25th 2007 at the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.  Kyle Busch won the race, earning the him the distinction of getting first win in the new design.  Taking a phased approach, NASCAR only ran the car at sixteen of the thirty-six events in 2007 and had planned on running a limited schedule for the CoT in 2008 also but owner feedback and overall performance led NASCAR to adopt the car full-time for the 2008 season.

The CoT is touted as being less expensive overall but it’s main benefit are the safety improvements.  Gone are the days of manufacturer specific templates as the CoT has only one template since it is a universal body.  The car is a larger car than the previous model at six inches longer and wider and two inches taller.  In order to better protect the driver, the driver seat has been moved away from the door by four inches, changes were made to the roll cage and flame resistant, energy absorbing foam was added to the void in the drivers door area.  It boasts a smaller but stronger fuel cell.  A front splitter and rear detached spoiler have, according to NASCAR, made the car less aerodynamic dependent.  I have to admit, I have seen some saves this year that would probably not have been possible in the old car.

The introduction of the CoT has had an additional benefit to other series.  The Sprint Cup Series is the only one that has gone over to the new design.  This means that other series such as the NASCAR Nationwide Series and ARCA Re/Max Series have a sudden influx of high quality competitive equipment that, from what I am hearing, is being had at a nice price.  This ultimately benefits the Sprint Cup because, just maybe, someone will be able to get a ride that might not have been able to otherwise.  Shoot, we may just find our next Dale Earnhardt or Richard Petty as a result.

(Photo Credit: Jonathan Ferrey / Getty Images)