Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie

Bench Racing Contest - Win the 50th Daytona 500, sort of

The Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie blog wants you to have your very own copy of the new A&E Home Video production of “Daytona 500: 50 Years of the Great American Race”.  All you have to do is be one of the winners of our little caption contest right here.

That’s Bruton Smith with Las Vegas Motor Speedway president Chris Powell.  I’m thinking…

“It’s a quarter to three, there’s no one in the place, except you and me…. so set ‘em up Joe….”

But that’s just me.

We have a few copies of the new DVD, so for every 15 answers, we’ll give away one copy of this great prize. The winners will be  determined by The Pit Crew. The contest ends Monday April 21, 2008 at noon PDT. Post your captions in the comment section of this post. You can answer as often as you want but please, only one answer per comment. We reserve the right to end the contest early if we detect abuse. Have some fun. Win a great prize.

Update:  The first comment made had three answers.  I don’t care if you give ten answers - just make ten separate comments.  Please.

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc.

Comments should be made here.

Is Tony Stewart headed for Cup team ownership?

How much more interesting would the Sprint Cup Series be if Tony Stewart were to become a team owner?

According to Fox Sports’ Lee Spencer that possibility was the hot rumor around the Phoenix International Raceway garage on Friday.  It seems that Tony may be talking with Haas CNC Racing and Chevrolet about a partnership that would return Stewart to the Bow-tie fold as a driver-owner.  And where there is Smoke - there is news.

Lately a few of us had speculated that that Stewart might be a candidate for the #33 seat and General Mills sponsorship at Richard Childress Racing.  Others, like my buddy Steve, think that Stewart’s relationships with Joe Gibbs Racing and various pals will stop any potential defection.  I wonder if Chevrolet felt that way about their JGR connections before the Coach and the kid said sayonara?

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.

NASCAR Non-News Now

I feel so used.  Sucked in by the implied respectability of network television coverage of our beloved sport and the desperation of one of the biggest players in NASCAR media to invent stories when they are tough to find.  Nice job ESPN.

I admit it.  I bit.  Shortly before leaving to get to our ON PIT ROW broadcast location Tuesday, I saw a blurb about MRN stalwart and Sirius Satellite radio host  Dave Moody checking on a report that ESPN the Magazine was breaking a story about some Toyota team being caught red-handed with a top-secret Jack Roush Racing part. 

Now we broadcast the show from our winter home,  a sports bar called Frickers, just outside the right field wall at Fifith Third Field - the home of the Toledo Mud Hen’s and like all respectable sports bars, it’s full of TV’s - and one radio show that’s full of….itself.  Just before our scheduled air time,  ESPN’s NASCAR Now was on the tube, with a “special breaking news” report from Terry Blount.  My suspicion level  began to tick upward.

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.

Will Junior get the first 2008 Hendrick win at Atlanta?

Only the most blindly rabid Dale Earnhardt Jr fan would have predicted that Junior would be the Hendrick Motorsports driver with the most series points after three races. Finishing strongly in two of the three 2008 events has been a mark of consistency that Earnhardt’s teammates at the House of Hendrick have not been able to match. 

Two time defending Sprint Cup Champ Jimmy Johnson bracketed his second place finish at

California

with a wreck in the Daytona 500 and a very so-so run to 29^th place at

Las Vegas

. 

Jeff Gordon has two DNF’s to go with a third place run and Casey Mears sits 34^th in points, only 19 points ahead of missing the top 35 cutoff - with only two races left for him to live on his 2007 owner’s points.

Earnhardt Jr won the Budweiser Shootout and one of the Gatorade 150’s at Daytona in February but it’s been awhile since he’s won a regular Cup race. Atlanta Motor Speedway is a place where his winless streak could end. He has one career win and seven top five finishes at AMS and Loop Data Driver Rating of 100.2 which is fifth best. He also has 410 Green Flag Passes, second most and a series-high 210 Quality Passes, which are passes of cars in the top fifteen, under green flag conditions.

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.

Bench Racing caption contest - win a Boris Said hoodie

Come up with the best caption for this picture taken of Mark Martin at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Saturday, prior to winning the Sam’s Town 300 and I have a great prize for ya.

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.

Au revoir Jacques, that was fast

Jacques Villeneuve has apparently decided that NASCAR Sprint Cup racing ain’t his glass of wine.

Villeneuve will take his prodigious talent to the sports car ranks, leaving Bill Davis not only without a once rumored partner-buyer but short a full-time driver for the second BDR Toyota Camry. Mike Skinner and Johnny Benson will share the driving duties for now in the #27 car.

I never felt confident in Villeneuve’s commitment to Sprint Cup racing. Almost as soon as he started testing for Davis in 2007, rumors started floating that Jacques and his business partner Craig Pollack were interetsed in partnering with, or outright purchasing a Cup team. Davis was the most rumored target..... 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 the Daytona 500 with Steve and Charlie

Stop by OnPitRow.com Sunday during the 50th Daytona 500 and join us for some live blogging action. We did a live blog during the 2007 NASCAR Awards Show and had a blast.

After watching New Car action with only half-sized fields for the three races so far, I can’t wait to see the forty three survivors go at it in anger. The Coveritlive software allows us to bring in tons of content but we need your input.

Last time we likened the spirit of the live blog to the old Mystery Science Theatre 3000 except it will be the Pit Crew - Steve, BethAnne and Charlie instead of Joel, Crow and Tom Servo. I hope you can join us for awhile. The blog will start at about 3:15 pm ET Sunday.

There is a reminder box at the top of the Bench Racing blog page where you can leave your email address and set up an automatic reminder for the event.

Photo Credit: Jamie Squire/Getty Images

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.

Four will go and the rest go home

Boris Said is an ON PIT ROW favorite. He said yesterday that he’s either going to get his 7 Eleven - Spurpie - No Fear Racing Fusion into the Daytona 500 or it’s going home in a basket. Boris will be racing with six other go-or-go homers for two spots in NASCAR’s Super Bowl.

Warren Wallace’s other second cousin, Kenny Wallace, Red Bull twins  Brian Vickers andA J Allmendinger, Awesome Bill Elliott, Daytona winner Sterling Marlin and Carl Long are the competition for Boris in race number one of the Gatorade Dual 150′s.

The wild card in that race is Kurt Busch.  Busch’s owner’s points were transferred to teammate Sam Hornish ......

For the rest of this post go to the new home of the Bench Racing blog here.  Thanks. Oh, please change your bookmarks or maybe subscribe to our feed.

NASCAR is already full of surprises

We are barely started in the 2008 season and who can believe what has happened?

One year after “fuelgate” Michael Waltrip has put his NAPA Camry on the front row for next week’s Daytona 500.  Oh yeah and the not so surprising part; joining him on the front row–Jimmy Johnson. Johnson hasn’t missed a beat from 2007, by putting his Lowes Chevrolet on the pole.

Here are this week’s Fast lap questions:

For the rest of this post go to the new home of the Bench Racing blog here.  Thanks. Oh, please change your bookmarks or maybe subscribe to our feed.

This Budweiser Shootout was pert’ near perfect

“I want a billion dollars and a monkey.”  I got what we all hope is just a bite-sized sample of the kind of race the 50th Daytona 500 will be a week from now.

That was one hell of a race, that there Bud Shootout.  And it was won by one hell of a driver too - the best restrictor plate racer there ever was, according to second place Tony Stewart.

Smoke said that Dale Jr is probably better at this plate racin’ stuff than his daddy, Dale Earnhardt the Legend.  All Senior did was win more times in Florida than the Marlins.

I don’t know about all of that. I do know that I had a big smile on my face at the end of that race. I mean even Tony Stewart seemed happy.

And NASCAR has a real race car in this Car of Today. To a man - announcers, ex-drivers, former crew chiefs - all praised the Car formerly known as the Ugly Little Freakin’ Toad.

Dale Earnhardt Jr, in mid-whoop as he ran his first victory lap in a couple years yelled “We got us a race car boys. Maybe a 500 winner!”.....

For the rest of this post go to the new home of the Bench Racing blog here.  Thanks. Oh, please change your bookmarks or maybe subscribe to our feed.