Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie

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.

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.

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.

New NASCAR Sports Blog Index likes Bench Racing

The Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie blog has been recognized as the fourth most influential NASCAR blog by the folks at Sports Media Challenge in their all new NASCAR Sports Blog Index™ (SBI).   The full press release is here. Pretty cool stuff.

The only trouble is, they got the link wrong in the announcement. I have emailed them and hopefully they will get it corrected.

Remember, we have moved this blog to our new OnPitRow.com family of sites.  Please change your links.

Thanks

Steve and Charlie

NASCAR scribes - to your corners...

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.

Racing season is heating up--behind the mike.

There are already some "he said--she said" confrontations heading up the NASCAR 2008 season.  But surprisingly enough the combatants have centered around the radio broadcasting scene.

Former ESPN RPM 2Night host John Kernan and Charlotte Observer, Sirius Radio and ON PIT ROW raconteur, David Poole, have been sniping at one another for a couple of weeks as was chronicled on The Daly Planet blog.  Kernan's gig for Sirius Radio has gone up in smoke. And he seems to think it has to do with the current crop of radio personalities who do nothing but "tow the NASCAR line"  He was/is unwilling to be a "shill" for NASCAR and intimates that others, including Poole, have lost their journalistic edge.

This week the Fast Lap asks:

1) Should NASCAR raise the minimum age for drivers in any of their top three series to 21 years of age?

2) Is NASCAR relying on Dale Jr. to single handedly rejuvenate the sport?

3) Was all the 2007 worry about Toyota taking over the sport; just one year too early?

4) Kenny Wallace or Jimmy Spencer?

Let us know how you feel about these questions, or anything else that happened since last February in Daytona.  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 ET on Tuesdays.

Back in the Fast Lap saddle again

It's once again time to take a look at the 4 most pressing questions of the week.

Thanks to Christmas and New Years Day falling on our usual broadcast day, ON PIT ROW took an unprecedented two weeks off.  We hope you were able to take some time from your holiday festivities and catch the re-air of some of our favorite hours.

This week the Fast Lap asks:

1) ESPN Classic will be airing some of the best Daytona 500s of the past.  What was your favorite?

2) Who has the most to prove during early season testing?

3) Have we seen the last of Kenny Shrader in a Cup car?

4) Would franchising solve some of NASCAR's problems?

Let us know how you feel about these questions, or anything else that happened since last February in Daytona.  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 ET on Tuesdays.

photo: biglittlebooks.com

The Outlaw Kasey Kahne

Kasey Kahne is going down.  Well, probably not, but having fun with those who have screwed up is good tonic for me - having made more than a life's fair share of boners myself.

A friend of mine spent the best part of last weekend in jail.  Nobody got hurt and the fact that it happened was not a big shock to anyone with knowledge of the parties involved.

I found a listing for a movie that was showing on local cable Saturday night.   I took the listing to the copier and enlarged it, made a note, and pinned it to my buddy's office wall.  The note read:  " The John Doe(real name withheld because even I have a heart) Story.  The movie was "Holiday in Handcuffs".  No really it was.

Kahne has been charged with battery for his altercation with a security guard at Homestead in November.  Answer this has more to say about the whole deal. 

I don't know what happened down there.  But if I worked with that security guard,  his having been knocked on his ass by Kasey Kahne might not be the most humiliating thing to come out of this thing.

What next for Dale Junior and His Siblings, Inc?

Dale Earnhardt Jr is looking forward to washing away the bad taste that Nextel Cup 2007 has left him.

Before leaving for Australia and a couple weeks in the relative outback and after winning another of NASCAR's Most Popular Driver awards he told listeners that he wished he could start 2008 right now.

"I'd trade it in if I could start the Daytona 500 tonight or tomorrow,"

Say what you will about Junior's 2007 season in Nextel Cup - off the track, life has been pretty good to THE REAL DALE EARNHARDT INC.

Let's see, there's the new contract with Hendrick Motorsports - that just has to be the biggest in the sport, doesn't it?  Couple that with whatever he has worked out with new sponsors, Amp, the National Guard and Adidas.

His JR Motorsports is thriving, with a new-found star in-the-making in Brad Keselowski driving the #88 Navy sponsored Nationwide Series entry. 

Infield Parking is goin nuts with growth.  Alabama Motorsports Park is being named Dale Earnhardt Jr Speedway, with a 7/10 mile D-shaped oval, a three mile road course and cart track.

Now Junior is down in the land of Kangaroo Meat telling worshippers that in a perfect world, someday he would come back there and race Holdens in the V8 Supercar Series full time.

We had David Poole ON PIT ROW Tuesday and he said that he had seen the quote and thought that Junior was just being nice.

I'll be surprised if the Earnhardt bunch doesn't buy the whole series.  Afterall, they don't have one of those yet.

Picture credit: Autoracingdaily.com

Rusty visits "ON PIT ROW"

Rusty Wallace spent some time ON PIT ROW on Tuesday night.

Rusty talked about his ownership and design of Iowa Speedway and the new Riverside Motorsports Park to be located outside of Fresno California.  The 7/8ths mile oval will have a replica of the old Riverside road course inside the oval; much like Iowa Speedway has its 2.5 mile road course inside.

The ESPN/ABC broadcaster told of his relationship with his broadcast partners, Jerry Punch and Andy Petree and how they have progressed through the NASCAR season.  Rusty believes the team will be even stronger in 2008.  He said is now a broadcaster first and his many other responsibilities are able to be juggled around that.

Rusty Wallace Inc. Racing will be expanding to two teams to compete on the Nationwide Series in 2008 with David Stremme and 18 year old, Chase Austin sharing the new #64 Atreus Homes/Jimmy Johns Chevrolet.  Wallace's son, Steven, will continue as the full time driver of the #66 with similar sponsorship.  The move from Dodges in 2007 to Chevrolet in 2008 will mean Richard Childress Racing will supply engines for the team.

The CoT was on Rusty's mind as he agreed with Fox Sports and Speed's Larry McReynolds:

"The cure for the CoT is stickier tires.  That's all it will take.  Call them stickier or softer or whatever; when you have equal cars with  hard tires there is no chance for good racing.   Let the tires wear faster  like they do at  places like Darlington and  you'll get some great racing--in multiple grooves."

Rusty gave is views on The Chase and how it has affected Jeff Gordon and NASCAR.

To hear the entire interview with Rusty and the rest of ON PIT ROW; tune in to www.racetalkradio.com on Thursday night 11-29-2007 at 7pm ET.

photo: BethAnne Heisler/ ON PIT ROW-Bench Racing Productions, LLC