Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie

All in all it was a classy day in Thunder Valley

 

Dale Jarrett’s last Sprint Cup Series race didn’t go as well as he and his fans hoped.  His 37th place finish in the Food City 500 was disappointing.

But he did hand over his #44 UPS Camry with 34th place owner’s points - a critical accomplishment for his employer, Michael Waltrip Racing.  DJ was the epitome of class to the end. Scene Daily had this quote…

“Well, it wasn’t the finish I would have liked,” Jarrett said. “I’m able to go out with the best sponsor in the business in UPS, and I would have liked to have had a better day for them, but I really can’t be too upset when you take into consideration the kind of career I have been fortunate to have.”

The win went to another of the classiest members of the NASCAR circus, Jeff Burton.  Burton has been running around up front all year and the win at Bristol was no stunner.  Maybe the fact that Jeff Burton was the driver to capture Chevrolet’s first 2008 victory was a surprise.  Richard Childress Racing Impalas finished top three in a race led mostly by two Joe Gibbs’ Camrys.

to read the rest of this post go to the new home of the Bench Racing blog.

We've moved the home of Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie to the new OnPitRow.com site.  We'll continue to post over here for awhile, but please check out the new site and change your bookmarks. Thanks.

Live Blog - NASCAR Awards Show

Watching NASCAR's year end awards banquet and show from the Waldorf in New York City is, to me, a painful experience.  But doing what I do, I feel compelled to watch it. That's kind of funny actually because I don't always feel compelled to watch the races.  Anyway, since I have to do this, I was hoping that some of you would join me in my pain. 

Steve and our producer/photographer Beth Anne have promised - under threat of me making their email addresses public on MySpace - to show up at some point and I have dropped pleading hints around the NASCAR blogosphere as well. 

So with the help of this great Cover it Live software we'll try our best to resurrect Joel, Tom Servo, Betsy and Crow of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 fame and totally de-construct NASCAR's most ludicrous night.

Jimmy Johnson owns Martinsville

It was a song that was probably going to be sung, but the usual Jimmy Johnson - Jeff Gordon duet is getting old at Martinsville.

Their mastery of the Virginia paper clip is well documented, but it looked for a while like there may actually some new blood would surface at NASCAR's shortest Cup track.   Early race runs by Juan Pablo Montoya, Jeff Burton and even Jeff Green offered hope for a bit of change.

The race was slowed by a record 21 caution flags that saw almost a third of the race run at pace car speed.

But at the end, it was again Jimmy Johnson and Jeff Gordon who were the big winners.  Other than Ryan Newman's second place finish--the day eventually belonged to the remaining Chase Fighters.

The Buzz ON PIT ROW is:

Does a four race battle by Jimmy Johnson and Jeff Gordon keep your interest if you're not a fan of either?

The Fast Lap this week asks:

1)  With all the cautions for single-car spins early on;why was NASCAR so slow in throwing one when David Ragan's car was ready to be T-boned at the end?

2) Was the Carl Edward-Matt Kenseth "Fist-Conference" for real or a joke?

3) How could, or should, The Chase be fixed?

4) What would you like to see done with the CoT?

Let us know how you feel about these questions, or anything else that happened while clipping the paper in Virginia.  If we like your comments, whether we agree or not, we may use them on the air during Tuesday's ON PIT ROW.  Leave us a comment on the blog or call the show--toll free at 1-877-502-8255 between 5-7pm edt on Tuesdays.

Photo:  Jeff Smith/Getty Images/NASCAR

Strange race in the Land of Oz

Well that was pretty weird. Greg Biffle held on to win the third race in the Chase to the Nextel Cup at Kansas Speedway.  But it was a long, yellow-brick-road style trip, to get there.

Jimmy Johnson, Clint Bowyer and Jeff Gordon want to believe that Biffle's win will be taken from him.  They claim that as the race ended under caution, the #16 ran out of gas and could not maintain adequate speed to the finish.  Bowyer and Johnson actually passed Greg before the checkered flag.  The following quote of NASCAR's Ramsey Poston by Lee Spencer should put the controversy to bed.  But it won't.

"In the opinion of the tower, the 16 maintained reasonable speed and won the race,"

Mix Biffle's arguable win with the stories of the terrible finishes of seven of the twelve Chasers - and the various causes of those bad results - and we are back to blogger's heaven for a few pre-Talladega days and nights.

The land of Kansas City Barbecue finds two driver's championship hopes cooked fully well done. Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth are 248 and 219 points behind leader Johnson.  Baste 'em with a nice hot sauce.  They're cooked.

If you like your ribs on the rare side, Kurt Busch and Jeff Burton are close at 177 and 186 back.

How they got there will be the fodder for the early week.  Then we'll all turn our eyes on 'Dega - and likely more weirdness.

Tight or loose - playin' poker NASCAR style

All you savvy observers of the NASCAR Nextel Cup scene know all about loose and tight.  No I don't mean the denizens of the Thunder Lounge.   Although if you've ever actually attended a race, in person, and ventured into the deepest darkest infield, you know about that too.

Loose and tight handling race cars are sure to be a topic of much discussion tonight as the talking heads of the broadcast teams attempt to fill four hours or so of mostly boring laps at the Coca Cola Lowes 600.  Loose and tight, in racing terms does require some explanation to the uninitiated race watcher and if you stumbled here from a blog for normal people, like ,Regeneration, here's a good tutorial.

Poker players are sometimes categorized as loose or tight as well. The terms refer, respectively, to aggressive and  conservative playing styles.

The Chevy teams are playing some serious engine poker this weekend at Charlotte.

Lee Spencer has a great read on the whole engine story.  But there are two distinctly different strategies being employed.

There's still the question of reliability. Chevrolet selectively rolled out the new R07 engine at Texas and 11 Chevy teams have made the transition to running it full-time, including all of the Hendrick Motorsports partners — the four Hendrick cars, Ginn Racing and Haas-CNC — and Joe Gibbs Racing and its partner, Hall of Fame Racing.

That's pretty loose.  Maybe not as loose as Paris Hilton at Texas Speedway, but pretty loose. That leaves the soon to be joined at the hip RCR and DEI cars running the old engine.

The R07 is the same power plant that carried Kevin Harvick to Victory Lane in the Nextel All-Star race, but neither Richard Childress Racing nor Dale Earnhardt Inc. was comfortable running the R07 for 600 miles on Sunday. RCR will wait until Dover to debut the R07 in a point race.

The 600 is the longest and toughest test of engine reliability on the circuit. Richard Childress and the Earnhardt teams are playin' tight even if the Chevy teams have some margin for error because of their dominance of the 2007 series up to now.

Toyota is the other manufacturer with a new power plant for the Coke.  With every team committed to the new motor,  Toyota has pushed it's teams all in.

 

Car number eight...where are you?

"Over?  Who says it's over?  Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?"

I guess the only thing over in the DEI v Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his siblings divorce is press conference number one.  There are sure to be many more before all the parties involved settle into some level of, probable, mediocrity.  Competitively speaking.

I'm sorry but I don't see this, in the short or even intermediate term, turning out well for either Junior or what's left of Dale Earnhardt, Inc.

Many smart, dedicated followers of NASCAR's greatest soap opera have covered the likely possibilities for Dale Jr.  Steve, 4ever3 and The Catfish Show have their thoughts.

I wonder what might happen at the shop number eight built. 

Try this scenario.

It is dangerous to assume anything in this mess.  For the sake of this post though, assume Theresa does not succumb to the lure of Budweiser bucks--and so, hangs on to the number eight.  I have not seen anything to indicate that talks between DEI and Robert Yates Racing have broken off.

With Dale Jr. out, one impediment to a merger of these two second tier teams is gone.  Earnhardt was not going to drive a Ford.  Why  not merge and form the number two Blue Oval team now?  Maybe you can hang on to Martin Truex Jr.  Team him up with David Gilliland and you a good young nucleus of driver talent.  You also, maybe, have three car numbers that are pre-qualified for the early races in 2008.  The Yates engine program is a huge asset.

Probably won't happen.  I'm sure there is something that I am missing.  To me it makes some sense though.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. didn't screw DEI--Teresa did

Dale Earnhardt Jr. announced he will be leaving the race team that his father and step-mother built specifically to give him a place to race.  Junior has declared himself a "free agent" for the 2008 season; saying he and DEI were never close to having a deal done.  Dale said he knows that DEI and he both want to end up in the same place, "winning races and championships", but they were diametrically opposed on how to get to that point.

Junior said, "My father's vision was for me to have a huge role in DEI and that was not in the cards.  This decision was based on doing what is best for my driving career and not any personal interest in DEI.  Decisions have to be made as to where Jr. will run in 2008.  The most likely scenarios include front tier Chevy teams because of his "good relationship with Chevrolet and comfort level driving their cars."

Will the #8 follow him?  Probably not, or not without a price.  He also "believes the timing may not be right" for him to drive his father's famous #3 for Richard Childress Racing.  Jr. said the decision on where he ends up next year will be dependant on the long term commitment and relationship with any new team and how that relationship might be integrated with his own JR Motorsports teams.

His "least desirable scenario" would be starting their own JR Motorsports CUP team.  Kelly Earnhardt-Elledge said there would be enough time to put that sort of deal together if necessary.  While acknowledging that there will be big dollar offers for his services, money will not be the determining factor in where he will drive from 2008 onward.  "The money would be about the same from anyone." he said.  That makes you wonder if he has already started the process of "listening to all offers", doesn't it?

So where does he go?  Chevy teams include: Hendrick with 4 cars, RCR with 3 cars, Joe Gibbs Racing with 3 cars, Ginn Racing with 3 cars or Haas CNC Racing with 2 cars.  NASCAR mandates that no owner can have more than 4 teams.  That puts all of the Chevy teams in a position to add Junior, because the #25 Casey Mears team will have an opening soon.  Sorry Casey, you're on the way out regardless. But, Junior talked about teammates and fitting in and staying forever.  I don't see those requirements being met.  Ego is also part of it, and Junior would be at best the third guy in that pecking order.

RCR would seem to be the most likely with the #3 car hanging out there.  The driving for his father's car owner and all that.  Lets not forget the lineup of Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer might be a group that Junior could live with.

Ginn Racing would seem to give him a great shot at bringing a 2nd level tea to the forefront.  After all, how much longer can Sterling Marlin, Joe Nemechek and Mark Martin drive?  Ginn seems to have the money and the ego to take a shot at Junior.

Haas CNC --forget it--not far enough removed from DEI's problems.

Soooooo... that leaves JGR and an open slot to get to the 4 car limit or a sayonara to JJ Yelley for under preforming in the #18 car. How would that sound to potential sponsors, Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Denny Hamlin and whomever.  That is a line up that would have potential sponsors lining up to throw cash at Joe Gibbs Racing.  Championships--yup, they know about them; winning races--yup, they know how to do that; good teammates--yup, the best; stability--yup, The Coach and his kid JD know how to get it done.

So start thinking about buying your #08 or #03 or #82 or #32 Bud stuff.

photo:  speedtv.com

Jeff Burton's Chevy finishes last and deserves it.

We finally got the Richmond Nextel Cup race some dry pavement today.  I had Jeff Burton in our little ON PIT ROW fantasy game.  I was a confident fellow.  Then something happened.

Wait, say that again.  They dropped something in the engine. Whatever it was went un-found.  And they ran the car as-is anyway?

Darrell Waltrip and Larry McReynolds both commented on an apparent mishap in the Jeff Burton Garage before the race.  Somebody dropped something into the engine. Not sure what.  According to Larry Mac, the crew went to the extent of pulling the oil pan, and who knows what else, but came up empty.

D W quoted an old garage saying, " when in doubt, pull it out" and McReynolds concurred. 

The Cingular--soon to be ATT, maybe--Impala, Richard Childress Racing's number 31, formerly in third place in the Nextel Cup Standings, left it in. The engine, that is.  What were they thinking?

Come on.  It's not like they qualified on the front row.  They started 39th!

They finished 43rd.  With a broke motor. 

Somebody put two turns of stupid in this one.

Picture credit:Gary Green Orlando Sentinal

Tony Stewart, Jeff Burton and the ethics of NASCAR

Would you call Tony Stewart a cheater?  Or Juan Pablo Montoya?

In veiled verbiage they each, in turn accused the other of just such a thing Sunday. In the media retelling, post incident, sides were taken - and it seems to me at least equally so.

So who is the cheater. Anyone...anyone.

Rewind ten or so years to when Mike skinner drove an RCR Lowes Chevrolet and proudly, vehemently crowed, " I'd wreck my own mother to win a race!." frustratedly, after not quite being able to catch his mother.

Had he caught mom - and wrecked the poor dear - to win his first and only, then Winston Cup, race would you forever think him a scoundrel?

If your 10 year old little leaguer hits a ball that goes through the legs of the second baseman and as your future big leaguer rounds first base and heads for second, she misses the base altogether. You saw it. Your little bambino knows it - but the ump misses it.  The fans cheer. Your kid is all smiles. What do you do?  If you don't voluntarily call your own kid out, are you a cheat?

My answer to all of the above is, no.  I believe that in sports, you compete to win your competitions, whether large or small, and if during the heat of those competitions, you push or exceed the rule book it's up to the referees to referee.

Jeff Burton has had three, at least, occasions this year to race for a win at the end of major races. He has, in every instance, and for all to see, seemingly avoided contact with his competitor and raced them clean.

He has won two of the three races that I am referring to. He is, certainly, a gentleman racer.

I just wonder if Richard Childress wouldn't prefer someone with Mike Skinner's attitude. Or The Intimidator's.

Photo credit: Beth Anne Heisler - On Pit Row