News-Record.com

The other Greensboro racin' blogger - actually, the first Greensboro racin' blogger, best I can tell - is back in the blog business.

You might remember him as the Scotsman or Scottish Racer from his AOL and Blogspot days.

Now he has set up shop at the news site he launched last year.

You'll want to keep a close eye on Bram. No, he's not going to steal your stuff - that's not what I mean. Probably more than any other unpaid* blogger I read, Bram knows a lot of folks in racin', and he knows how the cars work.

Is that some sunshine I see on a cloudy Friday?

* By unpaid, I mean folks who aren't NASCAR beat writers or Junior's PR duo. In other words - folks who write about racing because they love it.

That was my first impression when I clicked on the new-and-maybe-improved NASCAR.com site.

The NASCAR.com site, like most sports league sites (especially this one but not so much this one, which always to me been easy to get around on.), is busybusybusy. But once my eyes stopped spinning, I realized that most everything that used to be there is still there and in more or less the same place. The new look is just, I dunno, shinier? More 2003 than 1997?

If there was a Web site that needed overhaulin', NASCAR.com was it. It'll just take a little while to get use to.

Call me old school, but my favorite racing site on the net is still this one. If the Internet had existed in 1965, this is how it would have looked.

So anyone try out the new NASCAR.com site? Thoughts?

Meaning the Super Bowl. Not a classic game, not one of the best, but one of the better first halves. If you're a Colts fan or a Manning fan, it's a satisfying result. If you're a Bears fan ... thanks for playing!

But now we get down to the real business of sports: racin'. The Bud Shootout is Saturday - just five days from now - and the real Super Bowl is two weeks from yesterday. Man, where did the time go? And who am I going to pick to win it all in 2007?

On Feb. 14, Valentine's Day, Jack Roush will announce his new partnership with Boston Red Sox John Henry. That newless event (everyone knows it's going to happen) is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. at a ballpark near the racetrack.

Toyota (aka Jack Roush's nemesis) was looking for a time to hold a reception for the assembled media masses. Word came down yesterday that Toyota has decided to have the party at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 14 at Daytona USA, right next door to the track.

My guess is that Toyota's timing was not coincidental. I'll also guess that the turnout at the Roush grab-a-quote will be kind of light.

What do you think half of Dale Earnhardt Inc. is worth? With Junior, the Earnhardt name, the Garage Majal, the Budweiser sponsorship? It's gotta be worth a pretty good chunk of change, right?

So why in the holy heck does Junior think Teresa might, oh, I don't know, just give him a controlling interest in the family business? And would you really want to be busines partners (as opposed to an at-will employee) of your stepmom?

The WWL2 interview with Junior was amusing, mostly because of the delay between studio and remote location. (And is Stacy Compton supposed to be Sean Salisbury or John Clayton? - remind me to come back to that when I've seen the show more.) But I have no idea why Junior is negotiating in public. It's not like Kevin Harvick's she's-a-deadbeat-owner comment a few weeks ago drew Teresa Earnhardt out of hiding.

More
Earnhardt to DEI: 'I want majority ownership'
Marty Smith states the obvious (scroll down)
The hordes have invaded the comments here.

From the sound of things, we might as well give Robert Yates the Daytona 500 trophy and just call it a day. (Here's Dustin's story, in case you missed it.)

No doubt that David Gilliland is a great story. A year ago, he was like the rest of us - some slob on the couch watching the race. But he turned a thrilling Busch win in June into a full-time Cup ride two months later, and here he is sitting on the pole for the Daytona-freakin'-500. Wow.

But I don't think Yates' woes are over, mostly because there are 35 more races after this one. As for this race, Gilliland did win the pole at Talladega last fall (nothing seems to be wrong with the Yates plate program), then slid back through the field to finish 15th. He had two other top-10 starts in the six races that followed, but his best finish was 15th. Gilliland showed some guts to get back to the front and finish second in Saturday night's Shootout, but I would have liked to have seen him have to hold off the field on the final lap.

Maybe Gilliland wins. He probably won't - Daytona 500 pole-sitters over the past 20 or so years to win the race include guys like Gordon, Elliott (twice), Dale Jarrett and Yarborough, and he's not them. Then again, no one gave Derrick Cope much of a chance, either.

Sterno, according to Mighty Mike, could have been the stuff that's inside the manifold on Michael Waltrip's car. Nothing but air should be going into the manifold. Ed Hardin was explaining to me how sterno works in that situation - sort of like nitrous - but I'm such a car n00b that I didn't get it.

Poor Michael Waltrip - can't even build a good cheater car. (You did read Dustin's Sunday story on Waltrip, right? If you didn't, go read it now. It's an excellent tale.

As for Kasey Kahne and Matt Kenseth, Dustin said the word around the garage is big penalties - like Chad Knaus last year, but more severe. We'll find out at about 4 or so Tuesday.

The way to end cheating? According to the AP's Jenna Fryer, maybe a driver needs to be sent home. Ouch.

I was snooping around my local Borders store before coming to the salt mine and found a Martin Truex 2007 desk calendar with 1:64 diecast car for a buck. (It looks pretty much like this one, except mine has a Bass logo above the Oreo and Snap-On stickers on the side.) So I grabbed it. Sure, we're 45 days into 2007, and I've got all the calendars I need, and all I really wanted was the car anyway. And for $1, you can't go but so wrong.

On the same shelf was a Mark Martin calendar, with the No. 6 car as a prize, marked down to $6. They had Junior's calendar and car for $8, Ryan Newman's for $12 and Matt Kenseth's for $17.

Good thing I didn't have my heart set on walking out of there with a Tony Raines or Carl Edwards calendar.

.. what, you think I have a crystal ball?

Dustin Long does. His 2007 pick: Kevin Harvick. (And here are the 11 other drivers he thinks will make the Chase.)

Me, I'm not convinced. Harvick's a good pick, don't get me wrong -- he's a good driver on a good team. But the lesson that Roush Racing learned last year is this: If all five of your cars are in the Chase this year, you're not getting ready for next year. I suspect the Childress crew got bogged down with having two of its three cars in the 2006 Chase. But so did DEI (Junior), Hendrick (Johnson, Gordon and Lil' Busch), Gibbs (Hamlin) and Evernham (Kahne), and Roush did have two (Martin and Kenseth). I expect a lot of those guys not to be back this year.

History hasn't been so kind to repeat Chasers. In 2005, seven of the 10 Chasers from 2004 made it. Last year, only three of the 2005 Chasers - Johnson, Kenseth and Martin - made the 2006 edition. The safe pick is always to look at last year's 10 top, shuffle them around, drop out a couple (Martin, because he changed teams, and Jeff Burton, because he drove out of his mind last year), add in a couple of folks who came close last year (Tony Stewart, duh, and, oh, I dunno, Carl Edwards). Voila, a top 10 (or 12).

Of course, if you had taken that approach last year, you would have ended up looking smart in preseason but silly after the 26th race at Richmond. At this time last year, Tony Stewart was a lock to repeat as champion, there was no way that Roush wasn't going to get in at least four of his cars, and Jeff Burton, Jeff Burton ... I think I've heard that name somewhere.

It's definitely an inexact science. Just ask Dustin - he always reminds me before he files his annual list that he has never ever in nine years of doing this picked the winner correctly.

As for me, I need a couple more days. In the meantime, share your picks with the class. I promise I won't read them before I make mine.

Hot off the wires:

Crew chiefs suspended, drivers docked points in Daytona cheating scandal

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — NASCAR took its strongest stance against cheating Tuesday, suspending the crew chiefs for Matt Kenseth, Kasey Kahne, Scott Riggs and Elliott Sadler and docking all four drivers points before the season-opening Daytona 500.

Kahne, Riggs and Sadler are teammates at Evernham Motorsports. Kenseth, the 2003 series champion and runner-up last season, drives for Roush Racing.

Robbie Reiser, crew chief for Kenseth, and Kenny Francis, crew chief for Kahne, were kicked out of Daytona International Speedway and suspended four races.

Rodney Childers, crew chief for Riggs, and Josh Brown, crew chief for Sadler, were suspended two races. All four will miss the Sunday's premier event.

In toughening its penalties, NASCAR also made the unprecedented move of taking points away before the season has even started. Kahne and Kenseth were docked 50 points apiece, while Riggs and Sadler lost 25 each.

Reiser and Francis also were fined $50,000 each, while Childers and Brown were fined $25,000 each.

If Kahne and Kenseth finish 40th or so, they'll go into next week's race at California with negative points. Consider my mind blown.

Dustin Long will be doing his annual pre-Daytona 500 online chat Friday starting at about noon or so and running till 2 p.m.

Send questions to him at NASCAR@pilotonline.com and check back at the news-record.com site around lunchtime.

I'm intrigued by all the to-do over the suspensions of the Evernham 3 and Matt Kenseth's crew chiefs. (Dustin's story from today's paper is here.)

My biggest unanswered question so far has been, how does this all work? Not many of the reporters in the garage are gearheads, but Bram is, so I asked him to take a whack at explaining what was going on.

The short version -- it's all about downforce:

Here's what the holes do.. they leak air.. they lessen the air cushion that the car rides on, ever so slightly.. result? less air under the car means increased downforce pressure.. and the car is faster.. maybe by thousandths of a second.. but in a world where enough thousandths of a second can translate into a position or two on the track... and more money for winning or placing better..etc. or maybe a better starting position

Go read the whole thing here. It's only four paragraphs, but it'll give you an idea of the physics involved.

Dustin tole me today that the holes in question are less than a quarter inch in diameter.

P.S. Michael Waltrip's crew chief apparently has gotten the dreaded indefinite suspension. My original thought that this wouldn'nt be such a big deal ... let's just say I was really, really wrong about that.

1. The AP news alert:

DAYTONA BEACH (AP) — Michael Waltrip was penalized 100 points, while his crew chief and competition director were ejected from the Daytona 500 and suspended indefinitely.

2. That AP would even send out a news alert about a third-tier driver.

But 100 points? More like whoa than wow. I think this'll get a lot of people's attention. The question: Will NASCAR have the guts to do more next time?

Update 1: Dustin checks in - Buffy Waltrip lost 100 owner points, crew chief David Hyder hit with a $100,000 fine and the 55 car has been confiscated. No word yet on whether Waltrip can race Thursday.

Update 2:The mysterious substance? The AP says it might be jet fuel. As one of my co-workers just cracked, they should have let him run with it because on pit stops he'd get a bag of peanuts.

If I had to list the things that are natural fits with NASCAR, I'd have to go with:

1. Beer
2. Chips
3. Tires
4. Spark plugs
5. Beer
6. Auto parts
7. Martinsville hot dogs
8. Beer
... and I could probably go on.

But ice cream bars? Eh, not so much. When you put NASCAR and ice cream bars together, my first thought is, More trash in the grill of the cars. Which is ironic, I suppose, because the press release I got is from one of Ray Evernham's new Busch sponsors, and the Dodge nose picks up more trash than a community service weekender on the side of I-40.

After the jump, one of the more, ah, enthusiastic, press releases I've seen in a while. (I've changed the name of the company -- they're paying Ray Evernham, not me -- but you can probably figure it out yourself.)

Michael Waltrip, I mean.

I don't care what sort of junk they find in his gas tank - gas, rocket fuel, hair gel, luggage, whatever.

But knocking Junior out of the way while Junior is leading the race? That should be worth 500 points.

Didn't anybody learn anything from Brian Vickers last year at Talladega?

Dustin just called to tell me that he and a bunch of other racin' scribes are hanging around Jeff Gordon's car, which won the second Duel (Tony Stewart won the first).

The problem: The car might be too low.

And as I was on the phone with Dustin, Steve Letarte, Gordon's crew chief, walked by and said, "I'm out." Whether that means NASCAR has finished inspecting the No. 24 or something else more dire ... we're waiting and seeing.

Update: False alarm. From AP:

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Just when it looked like racing would snatch the spotlight from the cheaters at Daytona, Jeff Gordon's winning car failed inspection.

Gordon, who won the second of Thursday's two 150-mile qualifying races, now will start the Daytona 500 in 42nd place.

NASCAR inspectors said his Chevrolet was almost an inch too low but blamed it on a part failure — not cheating. He was not stripped of the victory.

"We feel it was unintentional, and actually fairly unsafe," said NASCAR competition director Robin Pemberton. "We feel that it was a part failure, and we feel that it was unitentionally done. I think it would be marginal at best if there was any advantage.

"I am 100 percent sure this is unintentional."

NASCAR said it believed a mechanic made a mistake when the shocks were installed before the race.

...

Gordon learned his car had failed inspection while finishing his post-race news conference.

"Are you serious? That sucks. I'm mad about that right now," he said with a look of disbelief on his face.

Asked what the penalty should be, Gordon wasn't sure.

"I mean, what do I think it should be? It's whatever NASCAR decides for it to be. That's what it should be. I mean, I think I should start the Daytona 500 on Sunday, but where I start will be the other thing.
Turns out that will be next to last.

"We're not going to take a win away from anybody," Pemberton said. "And the penalty is the tail end."

Dustin's already 7 questions into his online chat, and it's only 12:15 p.m.

Registration is free and relatively painless.

If you have a question, send it to NASCAR@pilotonline.com. Yes, that's our sister paper, and they've been really cool about hosting this annual (now third annual, I think) chat.

After you've e-mailed Dustin your question, check out our online-only piece on pit stops. Our online folks took their gear down to Bill Davis Racing in High Point.

First the Evernham teams and Kenseth, then Waltrip, then Gordon and now these:

NASCAR ISSUES FINES FOR DAYTONA PENALTIES

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Feb. 16, 2007) – NASCAR announced Friday that these drivers have been penalized for infractions during Thursday’s NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series event at Daytona International Speedway:

It's that time of year again when so-called experts (I use the term ironically in my case) study the stats, mull over the facts, create detailed comparisons then pull it out of their rear ends because some editor wants it now.

By "it" I'm referring to "my pick to win the 2007 Nextel Cup." And, yes, I know the Daytona 500 starts in about four hours. I waited as long as I could. Sue me.

This year there's no clear favorite. USA Today did its annual writers poll, and the SCEs were all over the map: A few liked Johnson, a few liked Stewart, a few (including Dustin Long) picked Harvick, some had Junior. There's even a Kenseth, Biffle and Busch the elder in there.

I think it might be easier to work backwards on this one.

Ever since Kevin Harvick took over the No. 3 after the 2001 Daytona 500, there's been a slow but steady move to ... not forget the old man exactly, but to create a new identity for Harvick. No one could replace Dale Earnhardt Sr., and Richard Childress was smart enough not to try.

Even before the grieving series went to the Rock for the second race of the 2001 season, Richard Childress announced a new number (29) and a new paint scheme. Everything else - the crew chief (Kevin Hamlin), the sponsor (GM Goodwrench), the over-the-wall crew, the cars - was exactly the same as it was six years ago yesterday.

On March 11, 2001 at Atlanta, when Harvick nipped Jeff Gordon at the line in one of the best finishes you'll ever see, the fans stood and cheered and cheered some more. They held up their signs and their three fingers because if they held enough enough signs and cheers and fingers maybe, just maybe, Senior and the black No. 3 would emerge from the burnout smoke on the front stretch.

He didn't, of course, but Harvick was close enough. Senior was gone, but daggone it, his spirit still lived in Harvick.

Over time it became clear that Harvick did have a lot of Dale Sr. in him. He had the drive to win and a willingness to use the bumper, and he was never boring. But he was a lot angrier, had a lot sharper tongue and didn't have the results of the guy who used to drive the 3. It was easy to ignore him, especially after back-to-back 14th place finishes in '04 and '05. He may have been Happy and smiling, but no was watching.

Over time everyone forget that Harvick had inherited Senior's old ride. The crew chief was gone, so was the crew. This year's change in sponsors - from the black and silver of the American GM to the red and bright yellow of Royal Dutch Shell -- was the final break. Look hard, and all you saw was Kevin Harvick. Senior and the black No. 3 lived only in the RCR museum.

But yesterday ... if you believe that folks in heaven have nothing better to do than to look down on us, you have to believe a certain race car driver Up There was smiling under his big bushy mustache. Coming from sixth to first in less than a lap and at the Daytona 500 no less - there's only one other driver who could have pulled off a move like that.

This time, though, there were plenty of boos when Harvick climbed out of his car. People didn't like the decision not to throw the yellow, people didn't like it that Mark Martin got robbed, people don't like Harvick and hated to see him win. It was the kind of reaction Earnhardt Sr. used to get back when he was wrecking and winning.

No, Kevin Harvick is not Dale Earnhardt. But for a minute there last night something seemed awfully familiar.

More elsewhere:
Harvick wins at Atlanta (8 laps to go)
Harvick wins at Atlanta (3 laps left, but more post-race)
Harvick edges Martin to win Daytona 500, by Dustin Long
NASCAR call at end doesn't make sense, by Ed Hardin

10 things we learned at the 2007 edition of the Daytona 500, courtesy of Dustin Long.

My favorite:

7. Michael Waltrip, penalized 100 points for the illegal additive in his engine, leaves Daytona last in the points at -27 points.

That's definitely something you don't see every day.

The finish of Sunday's Daytona 500 was pretty exciting, and we'll be talking about it a long time. But as ESPN's Rupen Fofaria notes, the 500 was just race 1 of 36. We've got a whole lot of racin' still to go. And don't worry too much about Tony Stewart -- the last time he finished 43rd in the 500, he managed to salvage his season.

Also:
Dustin Long explains how Kevin Harvick came from sixth to first here.

Dustin bravely tries to explain the finish here: "Where is the line between driver safety and fan entertainment?"

The Big Dog ignores physics here. (Just because the field is frozen doesn't mean a pack of cars going 180 is going to, you know, stop.)

The Diecast Dude calls NASCAR "morons," then gets jumped in his own comments section. Ouch.

Kevin Harvick is too old to have a My Space page, but he has one anyway.

... here be your Chasers:

Kevin Harvick, Mark Martin, Jeff Burton, Mike Wallace, David Ragan, David Gilliland, Joe Nemecheck, Jeff Gordon, David Stremme, J.J. Yeley, Elliott Sadler and Reed Sorenson.

Lucky 13: Boris Said.

I had no idea Mike Wallace was fourth. I think I was distracted by Clint Bowyer's unorthodox finishing style.

From Jalopnik, Deadspin's car-obsessed (but NASCAR bemused) sibling:

I mean, we knew NASCAR was easier than your average racing circuit, but we never realized it was easy enough that you could finish a race upside down and oh yes, on fire.

All of the above is intended to camoflague the fact that I have absolutely nothing for the California race. Is anyone going to be watching?

The California race, I mean. No, I haven't been in a Reutimann-like daze. (Man, that was a hard hit.) I've just been busy - maybe you've heard about the little tournament Greensboro is hosting?

Anyway. Just some random thoughts from the weekend and the week ahead:

Our own Dustin Long is on the ground in Bristol. (He's here; if that doesn't work, go here, look for the blogs, then hit "NASCAR Chase."). He'll be there tomorrow, too.

He has all of the speeds so far.

The fastest today: Denny Hamlin, who's smokin' this test.

The most reckless: Montoya (early spin) and Gilliland (brushed the wall). Those are really the guys to watch at Bristol. Gilliland has exactly 346 laps of Bristol Cup experience. Montoya has 346 laps fewer experience.

Our friends at thatsracin.com have a shot of Jimmie Johnson's car in full hardware blue with that hideous hot-dog wrapper catcher on the front.

Interesting note from Dustin:

Darby (John Darby, the Cup Series director) also said that team owners are being more vocal about making the Car of Tomorrow run in all races next season. This car is being phased in beginning this year through 2009. NASCAR has said if team oweners wanted the process sped up they'd consider it.

That makes some sense. Why work on two sets of cars?