Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie

NASCAR--There's plenty more to come

It's the longest season of any professional sport.

Yet when the last tire is changed and the last fuel stop is made at Homestead, fans can't seem to get enough.  We actually continue to tune in to the awards banquet, even if it is painful to watch.  So why do most media outlets cease coverage in the off season?  And more importantly; where can the NASCAR fan go, year round for a NASCAR fix in the dead of winter?

ON PIT ROW--of course.

Many readers of "Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie" know that this blog is an extension of our radio show that is syndicated in the Midwest and heard on www.racetalkradio.com on Thursday evenings.  We made a commitment in the off season of 2006-2007 to keep the show on throughout the off season.  We felt the race fan was hungrier for racing talk in the off season than they are during the heart of the season. 

We have never been lost for topics to discuss during NASCAR's dormant period.  Just take a look at the legal wrangling that North and South Carolina is engaged in with Bruton Smith and his threat to move Lowes Motor Speedway.  Charlotte area politicians are tripping over themselves to offer Smith tax incentives in return for a promise to keep the speedway open and to add improvements.  Also included are infrastructure improvements around the racetrack to be funded by an increase in the local sales tax.

For three weekends a year race fan imports will help pay for these improvements as they spend money in and around Charlotte.  But that leaves forty-nine more weeks where the residents of Cabarrus County in North Carolina will be paying for these improvements and guarantees.

In an article in the Charlotte Observer, Jefferson George and Sharif Durhams wrote:

Smith agreed Wednesday to invest $100 million to $200 million in renovations and upgrades at the 47-year-old speedway. In return for the billionaire not building another speedway elsewhere in the Charlotte region, officials with Concord, Cabarrus County and the state of North Carolina agreed to provide about $80 million in incentives.

Most of that would come through road improvements, with a half-cent increase in the county sales tax as one possible source of money for the projects.

There is plenty more to come.  As many in the NASCAR race shops know--there is no such thing as an off season.  At least not for the ON PIT ROW crew.

photo:  speedtv.com

 

ON PIT ROW--your live, local look at NASCAR

More changes are in the works for ON PIT ROW--the radio show, which may necessitate changing that local only angle.

It was just announced this week that our long time home radio station, and flagship, WCWA-1230 in Toledo, OH will become the flagship station for the Toledo Mud Hens AAA baseball team.  With most of their games starting at 6:30 or 7:00 pm; when you figure in their pre-game show, it pretty much ruins our 5-7 pm live broadcast time.  We'll see what WCWA has to say during a meeting with us on Monday, November 5.  The other sports station in town is committed to the Detroit Tigers and a third quasi-sports/news station is set to air Cleveland Indians games.

ON PIT ROW may be looking to break out of the live on-air constraints of local radio.  We will be looking at a bunch of alternatives before the baseball season starts in April.  Including a new non-sports flagship; possibly a local country station that is part of the MRN and PRN networks.  Anyone from WCKY-FM looking at this?  There is also the live netcast streaming alternative, which we will look into and give over the air stations a chance to play the show whenever they want.

There have been plenty of changes in our show over the past few months and there are many more to come as we look to expand and grow Bench Racing Productions, which itself is a new venture for us. A couple of months ago we changed from a three person show to just Charlie and me.  So far reviews have been favorable.

Everyone always says the thing about a door closing and another opening.  We'll see if they are correct.  One thing is for sure Charlie and I have put too much time and energy into this deal for us not to keep going--no matter what. 

Stay tuned for updated news and hopefully an exciting announcement about a new, additional racing show from us coming soon.

PRN, MRN, Sirius--we'd be glad to sit down and talk about adding ON PIT ROW to your lineups. 

Picture credit: BethAnne Heisler - ON PIT ROW

ON PIT ROW gets a scoop

Young and talented Michael McDowell joined us ON PIT ROW tonight.  Steve had been working on getting the young gun ever since the ARCA ReMax wind-up at Toledo Speedway a couple weeks ago.

At first he was busy testing with Michael Waltrip Racing.  Last week, he was busy in meetings with MWR.

We got him tonight and he taped a liner for us before his appearance.  In the liner he described himself as such:

"Michael McDowell, driver of the #00 NAPA Toyota Camry for Michael Waltrip Racing."

He went on to tell us that he will  indeed drive that car this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway and for the rest of the Busch Series this year for MWR in the NAPA Auto Parts sponsored Camry.  In 2008, he will drive Nationwide Series races in the same car until David Reutiman moves to the #44 UPS Camry.  At that time McDowell will move into the - as yet sponsor un-named - #00 MWR Nextel Cup Camry.

Michael McDowell might be a bit of an unknown to NASCAR fans.  Don't be surprised if he enters the Cup Series with a Nationwide win in his pocket.  He has already won on every kind of track imaginable , including Mexico City , where the Nationwide Series travels early in 2008.

NASCAR's Watergate

Conspiracy theorists are everywhere in the world of NASCAR.  Dale Earnhardt Jr is the most conspired against person who never appeared in an X-files episode. 

It's always something isn't it?  In the past, his step mom was scheming to keep his much loved number - Eight-gate.  Lately with eight (there's that number again) DEI engine failures in his Bud  Chevy , rumblings of  Engine-gate have been  common.   When a wheel came off of his car Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the blanket, Theresa-gate is what most of Junior Nation probably thought.

But it looks like Earnhardt and the DEI folks are out of the latest weirdness in the kingdom of France. Water-gate.  Denny Hamlin apparently ran out of fuel as he led the field to the final re-start.  He claims it was due to water in his fuel.

"All day we'd been getting water in our fuel," Hamlin said. "The water displaces fuel and so we weren't getting the full potential of fuel. We just took it apart again and pulled some gas out of the fuel cell and once again, we got water.

How about this quote from the Dave Blaney's camp - thanks to Lee Spenser:

"We didn't know what was going on (with the engine)," said Blaney's crew chief, Tommy Baldwin. "We drained (the fuel cell) and it was half water, half fuel. I'm guessing maybe it was because we were one of the first ones, us and (Hamlin), to get fuel this morning."

Even NASCAR's John Darby is getting Gate-shy, I guess.

"There's no reason to think about conspiracy, going back to the fact you have a Chevrolet team and a Toyota team. There's no connection there that would make anybody think of some evil spirit trying to sabotage somebody's race car."

Oh really?  So, where were Ray Everham and  Jack Roush on the night of October 27, 2007, huh?

Hamlin finds water at drought plagued Atlanta

Jimmy Johnson wins again at Atlanta to sweep the season series in Georgia.

A late race wreck fest led to opportunities lost for Kurt and Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr.  Johnson only led eight laps but they were the last eight to gain the victory and close the points deficit on team mate and the co-owner of Johnson's car, Jeff Gordon.

The last caution and the one that led to an attempted Green-White-Checker finish was caused as Denny Hamlin, who was leading at the time, couldn't get up to speed.  Original thoughts had Hamlin running out of fuel on the restart but it was later determined that Hamlin and at least one other car - that of Dave Blaney - had water in their fuel cells. 

After receiving the contaminated fuel samples from the two teams, John Darby, Nextel Cup competition director conferred with Sunoco officials:

"What you don't know is when the water got introduced," Darby said. "What doesn't make sense about it, if you look at the 22 and 11, you're dealing with a Chevrolet team and a Toyota team. It's not like three teams out of one organization have the problem.

"We're trying to backtrack to see where this came from. There's no reason to think about conspiracy, going back to the fact you have a Chevrolet team and a Toyota team. There's no connection there that would make anybody think of some evil spirit trying to sabotage somebody's race car. Our focus is on trying to understand where the water came from, especially in one of the largest drought states."

The Buzz ON PIT ROW is:

Is NASCAR becoming like the NBA-you only need to watch the ending?

The Fast Lap this week asks:

1)  Is Chad Knaus the best crew chief ever?

2) Is there anything to the Dale Jr. cospiracy theories?

3) Who is to blame for the tire problems, then wrecks, at Atlanta; Goodyear, NASCAR or the crew chiefs?

4) Does the GREEN -WHITE-CHECKER finish need adjusting?

Let us know how you feel about these questions, or anything else that happened in front of half empty stands at Atlanta.  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.

NASCAR looks Back to the Future

I am always impressed with the info that Jeff Hammond imparts ON PIT ROW, but one thing really piqued my interest when talking with him on Tuesday. 

The talk of big name drivers working part-time schedules turned to Jeff mentioning such NASCAR icons as Curtis Turner, Fireball Roberts and David Pearson, who would only run in the big races and not for points.

I asked Jeff if this could be the beginning for more of an emphasis on an owners championship instead of a drivers championship.  Jeff agreed that it was quite possible that the team concept of NASCAR could become more apparent as teams could have two drivers for a variety of reasons including injury.

I can see how this could be a part of the whole franchising thing that has been bounced around by the NASCAR wags recently. 

It is hard believe that NASCAR drivers weren't always totally focused on winning the championship and cared more about specific race wins.  Maybe that had more to do with these drivers concentrating on making a living for their families, which racing may not have offered in the 50's and 60's.  Hopping in a race car to win a big purse at Daytona or Darlington was attractive for the big names, but schlepping around the Southeast to run 100 short track races that paid little wasn't able to put food on the table on a consistent basis.

Two weeks ago we had NASCAR old timer Lloyd Moore on the show and he said he needed to make a living and racing wasn't the way to provide for his family.

While todays drivers obviously don't have that problem; their dissatisfaction can be traced more to the "outside" demands placed on them by more and more sponsors.  This problem will only get worse as drivers have to appease not just one major sponsor, but multiple major sponsors. 

The days of one car- one driver-one sponsor are disappearing.  Carl Edwards' #99 Office Depot Ford will have AFLAC as its primary sponsor for at least 8 races in 2008.  Edwards will have to do appearances for Office Depot and AFLAC, thus cutting what little personal time he has.

Using multiple drivers in a car and having the car win the championship, instead of the driver, could lighten the load for these teams front man.  The other added benefit from the teams owners perspective is having driver specialists on the payroll.  Got a driver that sucks on a road course?  Have a road course driver on the payroll.  Your guy isn't much at the restrictor plate tracks--throw your plate specialist in the ride four times a year.

As the song says: "Everything that is old, is new again."

You can listen to the entire interview with Jeff Hammond at Race Talk Radio on Thursday at 7pm. and archived there, thereafter.

Ford's new direction

The 2007 Nextel Cup season hasn't been a banner one for the Ford Racing folks.

Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth managed to qualify for the Chase to the Nextel Cup playoffs.  They have slipped too far behind the Chevy juggernaut of Jeff Gordon, Jimmy Johnson and the rest of the bow-tie brigade to be considered contenders anymore.  Edwards and Kenseth were joined by Greg Biffle in Victory Lane this year, but that's about it for positives.

At the end of the year, Robert Yates Racing will become Yates Racing - and more importantly, a shadow of it's former self.  The Charlotte Observer's David Poole, ON PIT ROW this week, actually referred to RYR as merged with Roush Racing.  That's the first time I've heard anyone on the NASCAR scene actually call the spade the spade.

And now Lee Spencer of Fox Sports has this news about Robby Gordon Racing.

Brendan Gaughan substituted for Robby Gordon, who missed the first Cup practice on Friday because of rescheduling due to rain. Gaughan was 15th on the speed chart after 11 laps. Gordon was at his Charlotte office putting the finishing touches on his sponsor package for next season, which he claims is "seven-eighths of the way complete."

Lee goes on to say that RGR (check out the architect's rendering of RGR headquarters above) has fourteen Car of Tomorrow Fusions set for next year - perhaps a signal that Robby will have a second car for 2008.  She suggests maybe Gaughan will get a second chance in the Cup Series with RGR.

What about Robby's offers to Marcos Ambrose of drives in recent Cup races?  Maybe a Wood Brothers-Robby Gordon Racing alliance is forming.  That would, I think, be good news for Blue Oval fans.

Image credit:  www.howardmodels.com

Mike Wallace the next to drive the #88

Mike Wallace will drive the #88 Snickers Ford Fusion for Robert Yates Racing in the UAW Ford 500 at Talladega on Sunday. Mike takes the place of brother Kenny Wallace who had been filling the seat for injured Ricky Rudd. Got all that?

Mike spends most of his time these days competing in the NASCAR Grand National – still the Busch Series for a couple months. Wallace is sponsored by GEICO Insurance. The GEICO/Wallace team is a strong one, as Scene Daily noted….

GEICO has sponsored Mike Wallace for the last few seasons and is currently sponsoring him at Phoenix Racing. The company is known for its commercials featuring a "cousin" of Mike's.

The picture here is of Mike and cousin Warren Wallace - or is it Lauren – training for the three-wide chaos that is sure to be plentiful Sunday at “Dega.

The other news of the day was NASCAR’s announcement that Nationwide Insurance will become the title sponsor of the Grand National Series. Yikes! Nationwide, NASCAR and GEICO? Sprint, NASCAR and AT&T. Queue the sound of lawyers slobbering.

No worries, says the legal team that brought you the summer of 2007. GEICO has a two year “sunset clause” to shift their sponsor dollars to the Sprint Cup Series or possibly Craftsman Truck. Or maybe they just fade away.

I hope not. Those Lauren Wallace – GEICO commercials are some of the best television I’ve seen this year featuring a race car.

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Ford seems to be circling it's wagons around Roush-Fenway Racing

Final practice for the Dodge Dealers 400 at Dover International Speedway had Denny Hamlin's Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet fastest in the rain shortened session.  Most of the rest of the fast guys were Chevys too.  Pole sitter Jimmy Johnson and last week's winner Clint Boyer were 4th and 5th.

The two Roush Fenway Racing Fords of Chasers Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards were 2nd and 3rd - and Ford Motor Company must audibly sigh and thank the late Henry Ford that someone driving a Fusion may have a chance Sunday.

The late week revelation that Yates Racing may be losing the lead sponsor for the #38 car -  M&M's - to Joe Gibbs Racing  seems potentially devastating.   Yates was the one Ford  organization that seemed it might be able to compete side by side along with Roush Fenway in the NASCAR wars. Things look bleak from here for the team.  Yates is only one year removed from losing the UPS backing on their second car.  Now, the company that has sponsored both entries in 2007 may be heading elsewhere.

Good luck to Doug Yates.  Working closely with Jack Roush may help bolster the team.  Right now it sure doesn't look good.

Picture credit: Beth Anne Heisler - ON PIT ROW

Dale Junior's new rides are lookin' good

I found these pictures of Dale Earnhardt Junior's new Amp Energy Drink and National Guard paint schemes for the 2008 Sprint Cup season. 

The Mountain Dew presence is a bit more subdued than I expected but I like the look of both cars.

That National Guard car has a very patriotic look to it.  It's going to take a little while for that #88 to sink in though.  Probably about 100 laps at Daytona.