Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie

Jack Roush ain’t afraid of the rice burners

A big deal was made during the Daytona 500 weekend about the comparative horsepower results from NASCAR’s post Dual 150 dyno tests of Sprint Cup Series cars.

Most of the noise was - depending on which side you listened to -  either crowing or complaining about how the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas had up to a 30 hp advantage over the Chevy teams.  I never did see any definitive numbers for Dodge or Ford, but the quotes that I did see didn’t deny Toyota’s overall power advantage.

That impressive win at the Auto Club 500 by Roush-Fenway’s Carl Edwards seemed to be argument enough that Jack Roush’s Fusions are plenty strong though.

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.

Robby battles NASCAR over Nose-gate

Robby Gordon’s winter of discontent continues.

NASCAR came down on Robby Gordon Motorsports hard this week. Robby’s team installed and tried to practice with an unapproved nose on his new Dodge at Daytona. Officials found it to not be in compliance and once the penalties were handed down, Robby’s top ten finish at the 500 won’t carry top ten points.

The, now standard, 100 team and driver points deduction and $100,000 fines were enacted. NASCAR’s unwavering penalty for CoT violations seems a bit harsh considering some of the other violations from last year that received this same penalty. I have been a big supporter of NASCAR consistency and the concept of a standard for penalty calculations. But; somehow, NASCAR has to find a way to differentiate penalties in regards to intent and severity.

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.

Six NASCAR questions the California race could answer

The 2008 Sprint Cup season got off to a rousing start with Ryan Newman’sDaytona 500  win.  The results of Speedweeks seemed to answer some of the off-season’s unknowns, but not all of them.  Here’s a list of some of the questions that remain and may be answered at Auto Club Speedway this week.

• Dale Earnhardt Jr won the Budweiser Shootout and one of the Gatorade Duals. Finishing ninth in the 500 wasn’t bad either. It was a nice week but Junior’s had strong plate track performances throughout his career. He’s also performed comparatively poorly at the flatter tracks, like California. The other Hendricks drivers have been good at these tracks historically. How will Junior stack up?

• Dodges finished in 6 of the top 8 spots at Daytona.  Was it real or restrictor plate madness?

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.

Stewart and Busch get first call to the NASCAR trailer

That didn’t take long at all. The Home Depot Toyota of Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch’s Miller Lite Dodge got together while jousting for position in Budweiser Shootout practice. The dispute continued into pit lane as Kurt repeatedly banged doors with Smoke and Tony stopped his car blocking the garage entrance to Busch.

“Come on down boys we need to talk” said NASCAR.

Both drivers reportedly left the trailer without comment. NASCAR VP of Corporate Communications, Jim Hunter had this to say….

To continue reading this post, go to the new home of the Bench Racing blog here.

Fantasy NASCAR is alive at ON PIT ROW

Fantasy racing is huge and getting huger.  So are the sales of spell checkers and grammar lessons you say?  Well this is a racing site so let’s talk fantasy NASCAR, shall we?

ON PIT ROW - the fastest two hours on radio - sponsored a little NASCAR fantasy game in 2007 that we called the NASCAR Chain Game.  Not much of a name, I know, but a helluva fun game by all accounts.  With all of our changes to, and launch of, the new OnPitRow.com sites (thanks again Luke), we ran out of time to have a new version of that game ready for the start of 2008.

But OnPitRow.com will be very involved with a very cool  new NASCAR fantasy game called Champs Chumps and Sleepers.  This fantasy racing game was developed by Darren Fauth of One Bad Wheel -#3 on the Sports Media Challenge list of “Most influential NASCAR blogs”.  Here’s an explanation of the rules:

Go to the new home of the Bench Racing Blog for the rest of this post!