RaceBud

Guest writer Josh Hunter has found the best seat at the track –behind the steering wheel. He is learning how to drive road courses, currently running his favorite “girl,” his 2005 Roush GT Mustang. In November, he participated in an event at MSR Houston, sponsored by SVT Cobra Club. Josh writes about two favorite laps.

Preparation
I had never driven with the Cobra guys before, nor driven on MSR Houston, so I was placed in the Green (beginners) group. I had been preparing for months, practicing nearly every weekend at Driveway Austin with instructor Bill Dollahite and his staff. For me, this would be the driving highlight of the year!

I learned to document tire temps, pressures, tire wear patterns, brake wear, rotor temps and suspension behaviors. I worked with Jim at Motion Dynamics to fine tune the suspension, as well.

Building confidence
The first half of Saturday was spent learning the drive line of MSR, with the rest of the day spent adding speed to that line. My confidence built rapidly as I warmed to the drive line faster than the others in my group. I started experimenting with some tactics that paid off and was rewarded by passing, then lapping, my “competitors.” Once I lapped a few, my confidence skyrocketed, regardless of whether my lap time was decent or not. Continue Reading »

Saturday night at Bristol was all the Kyle Busch show. He took the lead early and kept it for 415 laps. Then, Carl Edwards gave him a bump and went around, taking the lead for the last 30 laps and claiming the win.

It would be good to note that the bump from Edwards was just enough to move Busch aside, not put him in the wall or into another car.

Denny Hamlin was quick to get around Busch, leaving him in third place for a while. When Busch finally got around Hamlin, he had nothing left for Edwards and finished second.

Under normal circumstances, the rest of the story would be about Edwards doing his trademark flip and celebrating in Victory Lane. But a Bristol Saturday night is not normal, and Busch wasn’t finished. Thirty short laps weren’t enough for him to cool off from Edwards’ bump and run. He felt obliged to demonstrate his ill will toward Edwards by running into the side of the 99 car several times. These were not congratulatory tire rubs. Edwards’ in-car camera showed the jolts from Kyle’s retaliatory jabs. Continue Reading »

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. – as often pointed out by his distracters – was the beneficiary of one of the greatest names in NASCAR history. And, after last year’s public tussle with stepmother Teresa, it may be that his inheritance is his name and his driving ability, along with the lessons a father hands over to his son.But, it looks a lot like he may have also inherited his father’s generosity, as well as his tendency to quietly mentor younger drivers.

We hear about JR Motorsports on a regular basis. Some of the better known:

• Rick Hendrick merged his Nationwide Series operation with JR.
• Brad Keselowski and the #88 Navy Nationwide team are making great progress.
• Jr’s. sister, Kelley, is president of JR Motorsports.
• Uncle and father-figure Tony Eury, Sr. heads up the competition at JR Motorsports.

But, we don’t hear so much about the Late Model operation at JR Motorsports. It’s where Dale Jr. runs a development program, mentoring up and coming drivers and giving them the chance to learn and grow into bigger things.

Junior cut his racing teeth in the Late Model division. It’s where he built the cars he drove, where he worked with his half-brother Kerry and drove against Kerry and sister Kelley. Continue Reading »

They say nice guys finish last. And, that’s just what nice-guy Max Papis did last Sunday at Watkins Glen – 43rd out of 43.

Papis didn’t finish last because he’s nice. With seven laps to go, he got caught up in a wreck that took out nine cars. In doing so, he left us with a priceless quote, made so by his sincerity and honest assessment of his situation. “I am broken in the heart,” summed up his feelings about his Sunday at the track.

Papis, 38, was driving the #70 Chevy Impala for Haas CNC Racing. This was his second NASCAR Sprint Cup race of the 2008 season, the first being at Sonoma, also for Haas CNC. He is one of the noted road course specialists, and has precious few opportunities to showcase his talent.

His resume includes the Formula One and Champ Car circuits, as well as Chevrolet’s showcase Corvette Team. He also helps Hendrick Motorsports with road course testing, most recently at Road Atlanta. And, he is Emerson Fittipaldi’s son-in-law.

So, Papis rounded Turn 11 to find the 3400-pound version of pinball taking place with cars sideways and spinning. Then, he was one of them – sideways, spinning and being hit by others. Continue Reading »

August 10, 2008 - Today’s win marks Kyle Busch’s eighth in his stellar 2008 season – so far. Joe Gibbs did him a huge favor by recognizing his talent and putting him with the very capable #18 team. And Kyle has responded by leaving the competition in the dirt (or wall) at every opportunity. So much so that by the third race of the season, the race media looked ready to hand him the championship trophy.

But, the season is not over just yet. Four races remain until the Chase, then 10 more to the end of the season. Kyle is sitting solidly at the top of the points standings, but there’s more to prove before claiming the big trophy. In fact, there are plenty of reasons why he may not even get a close look at it – and here are the top five:

#5) The competition. Other top drivers are closing the points gap on Kyle – and they ARE top drivers. The biggest names in the sport are not likely to lie still and wait for their whipping from Busch. They are fierce competitors with championship trophies of their own – the likes of Gordon, Johnson and Stewart. They have sponsors, owners and crew chiefs who want the best from them, and they will do their best to deliver. Continue Reading »

Each year, the NASCAR Nation anticipates the fall of the first big domino as the launch date for Silly Season – that mid-season fiasco of swapping drivers and sponsors as contracts expire and business plans change.

Last year, it was the Dale Jr. drama. The whole Nation held its collective breath waiting for the big announcement. When it finally happened, there was a huge rush to fill every available, competitive seat with a competent wheel guy.

This summer’s drama has unfolded around Tony Stewart and his much-anticipated announcement of plans to partner with the Haas CNC organization. Now, we know. It’s Stewart-Haas Racing, and it’s going to hire another driver, most likely Ryan Newman.

I think it’s great. For a while, we can all speculate and argue about who’s going to fill what seat, and all the relish that goes with goes with the speculation. Then, next February, we can start re-learning which driver goes in what seat and with who’s logo on the hood. Continue Reading »

The Turn 3 Race Team just had another meeting at its home track, Texas Motor Speedway. The annual summer show features Craftsman Truck races on Friday night and Indy cars on Saturday night.

We were blessed with typical Texas summer heat, stout wind and good racing. The mainstream media sources did their typical job of reporting the racing news…but they completely overlooked the mouse in the house. I’ll explain.

One of the race team indulgences at the palatial Turn 3 campsites is the rental of the little blue building – the Porta-Potty. It’s always spotlessly clean and smells fresh as a summer rain. It does of a great job of lightening the load of the holding tanks, eliminating the need for a pump-out during the weekend.

After Friday’s long drive from Austin to Fort Worth, we greeted the other team members and Jeanette excused herself to the Porta-Potty.

We weren’t timing her, but somewhere around two minutes later, Jeanette was back in the motor home, where the air conditioner was waging a noble battle with the track heat. Jeanette wasn’t panicked, but her heart rate was definitely above the resting level.

“There’s an animal in that thing!” she let us know. As one, five surprised non-believers looked up from our beers and challenged, “where?”

“In the outhouse!” Continue Reading »

Silly Season gets bigger, earlier

NASCAR Silly Season – racing’s mid-season version of musical chairs, is underway. With rumors and speculation at their best, every season it comes a little bigger and a little earlier.

Last year was the ultra-biggie – when Dale Earnhardt, Jr. made the early play. Out came the family laundry for months of the evil stepmother ruining the favorite son’s inheritance with iron-fisted mismanagement. Junior’s “gotta-get-outa-here” news started some serious irregular breathing in the Junior Nation. In the meantime, the other dominoes lined up, everyone waiting to see where Jr. would go. Finally, all was made right in the world with the announcement that racing’s father figure, Rick Hendrick, would be the new boss. And the rest of the dominoes started falling.

This year, Tony Stewart got the silliness started when he announced to the world that he was entertaining the idea of leaving Joe Gibbs Racing a year before his contract was over. Tony says he is just exploring his options, and it looks a lot like the future may include team ownership and a return to Chevrolet.

From this point, the dominoes started lining up quickly (per the racing media). Every major player whose contract is about to expire has been “what-iffed” into all kinds of scenarios involving team and sponsor shuffling. Let’s take a look. Continue Reading »

Saidhead60 has made several guest appearances, always with a direct message and a refreshing point of view. This is her first post of the current NASCAR season…welcome back.

Never judge a man until you’ve walked a mile in his shoes – or in this case, drove a mile in his car! Maybe ‘fair weather fans’ can judge Boris Said’s entire career reputation by one incident – but, I refuse to turn against the guy – yet. Of course, the ‘incident’ in question is the Marcos Ambrose/Boris Said ‘row’ during last weekend’s road race in Mexico City.

After reading MANY post-race comments on NASCAR-related web forums, I was surprised by how many are suddenly ‘anti-Said’. It seems a good percentage of race fans, and at least one RacingOne journalist, are shocked by Said’s “dangerous threats” and “childish behavior.” The words ‘classless’, ‘whining,’ and ‘baby’ popped-up more than once.

Now, I’m NOT saying I think Boris is right or wrong in this situation. What I am saying is…I can understand where he’s coming from. Boris obviously feel strongly that Ambrose took him out intentionally. And, because Boris has never struck me as a driver who blames his bad luck or crappy performances on others – I have to ask myself, “Why would he start now?” Continue Reading »

It’s the good fortune of the Turn 3 Race Team to have the Texas Motor Speedway as our home track. This is one of the great NASCAR venues in the country. A few others compete closely, maybe even win the Best Track in the Country competition, but here are nine reasons the Texas track claims its place among the best.

1. Plenty of campgrounds. Serious NASCAR fans don’t just show up for a race. It takes time – more than a day or two – to properly enjoy one these events. Certain food and drink must be enjoyed, along with the company of longtime friends who meet a few times each year—same time, same place, same reason. And it takes a fair amount of space to spend that time in. Texas has that. Continue Reading »