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By Lefty Turner
03/10/09
As the FASCAR tour rolled into Atlanta for the fourth race of the 2009 season Road Rage Racing's Kurt Busch took advantage of a fast race car to demolish the field enroute to his first win of the season.
Season points leader Clint Bowyer in the Big Dawg Racing #24 Chevrolet took the pole position in qualifying but Busch took the lead by turn one and went on to lead the most laps.
Beezak Motorsport's Jeff Gordon finished second with Morgan Racing's Martin Truex, Jr., in third. Trailing Truex in fourth place at the finish was Double Trouble Racing's Kasey Kahne with Big Dawg's Bowyer rounding out the top five on the day.
Although several teams took turns leading a lap, most of those laps were under caution and during green flag pit stops as Busch dominated the action of the day.
Afterwards from Victory Lane Busch was pleased with the win. "We had a real hot rod out there today. The guys back at the shop built me a fast one and I drove the wheels off of it today! This one was great!"
Other teams continue to struggle. Rookie team Old Fart Racing is struggling to find some good luck out on the race track after suffering through a slow start. Said crew chief Goober Pyle, "I don't know what's going on. If we didn't have bad luck at the track, I don't think we would have any luck at all. The car's been good and Mark (Martin) has been up on the wheel but I think we've got to get better in the pits and on our strategy. If things don't turn around soon, I'm going to have to call back to Mayberry and see if my cousin can come over to the shop and take a look at the car with us."
R.G. Racing's rookie driver Joey Logano is also still learning the ropes on the tour and has been taking his lumps. Said team owner Raleigh Green, "We knew we were taking a chance with Joey. He's got a ton of talent but he's new and he's still learning these tracks so we're just going to have to stick with him through this phase. I think, though, things will turn around in the second half of the season once we start going back to the tracks that he's already seen."
With his top five finish, Big Dawg's Bowyer maintains his position atop the season points standings as the teams get a rare week-end off before heading to Bristol for the Food City 500 on 03/22/09.
By Redd Flagg
03/06/09
With a lot of big names and celebraties in the stands, FASCAR's top drivers took the green flag on Sunday in the Shelby 427. After a night of gambling on the Las Vegas strip it was up to the drivers and crews to see if gambling on the race track would pay off.
Donny Hall Motorsports driver Kyle Busch put his #6 Ford on the pole but with just two laps in the record books he suffered an engine problem that cost him some time in the pits and doomed his chance to win.
When Busch pulled off the track for repairs, that handed the lead to Shadow Racing's Ryan Newman but apparently a night of gambling in the Hooter's Casino with several FASCAR teams owners was too much for him. After a strong run early, Newman slid his #48 Chevrolet through his pit stall and found himself at the back of the pack in the closing laps. At least one FASCAR team owner was reported to have celebrated Newman's mis-cue to the point of nearly angering surrounding patrons and almost starting a riot in the stands.
With Busch and Newman out of the way, Big Dawg Racing's Clint Bowyer assumed the point. Through the closing laps and several late caution flags for debris, Bowyer held off Jamie McMurray in the Poorboy Motorsport's #16 Ford.
Crossing the line in third place was Big Jim's Racin's Jeff Burton. Behind Burton Beezak Motorsport's Jeff Gordon out-dueled Double Trouble Racing's Kasey Kahne for fourth.
The victory gave team owner Jay Christian a first-hand look at his race team and a chance to celebrate the win in person. "We're all heading over to the Planet Hollywood Casino after the race, " said Christian, "and the first round of drinks are on me! And then, I think I'll blow my winnings at the Craps table!"
The win also moved Big Dawg into first place in the season standings for the first time in team history. Crew chief Jimmy Jay Fudpucker Jones was well pleased with his team's performance. "We worked hard all winter to get our cars ready for this season and I'm really happy to see the boys' hard work paying off for them! They deserve a night out on the town partying...I say 'Let's paint this town red'!!"
Having completed their first west coast swing, the teams now stop back by Atlanta Motorspeedway for the Kobalt Tools 500 on Sunday, 03/08/09. The tour then moves on to Bristol Speedway after a week off for the season's first short track race.
By Lefty Turner
02/24/09
FASCAR race teams returned to the track Sunday for the running of the Auto Club 500 in Fontana, CA, and several drivers were looking to rebound from poor finishes the prior week in the season-opening Daytona 500.
As the green flag dropped, Poorboy Motorsport's Jamie McMurray lead the field to the line but Yachtsman Racing's Jimmie Johnson was in the lead as the checkered flag fell at the end of the evening to claim his first win of the 2009 season after going winless in 2008.
Afterwards in Victory Lane, the relief was obvious for crew chief Nug Lut. "We really struggled last year with this new car but when Jimmie came on-board this year, he really helped us figure out what we need to do to make the car drive better."
"Wow! That's all I can say, " said Johnson. "These guys worked really hard and we had a good break on one of those rain cautions to stay on the lead lap. That gave us the chance to get back in the running and pull this one out."
After leading the most laps, Kiddman Racing's Matt Kenseth had to scramble to finish second after getting a bad set of tires on the next-to-last pit stop. In third place at the end was Road Rage Racing's Kurt Busch, rebounding from a 15th place finished in Daytona. Jamie McMurray finished in fourth in the Poorboy Motorsports Ford with Pa-Pa's Scooter-Roos' Denny Hamlin in fifth.
In the first two races of the season, R.G. Racing's rookie driver Joey Logano has struggled, finishing last in both races. Logano was caught-up in an accident that was not his fault in Daytona and his #29 Chevy lost an engine before slamming into the outside retaining wall late in the race on Sunday.
"Daytona was frustrating, " said Logano "because we were just a victim in somebody else's mess and we were running good in California when something let go under the hood! But...I'm getting experience and learning and I'm hoping that my year gets turned around pretty quick."
Two other teams that are struggling out of the gate for this season are last year's defending champion Donny Hall Motorsports and third place finisher 3 Times A Charm Racing. Donny Hall is currently twentieth in the points and 3 Times is twenty-first.
Donny Hall crew chief Thomas MoJockamus says he has been at a loss so far this season for the performance problems. "We've been preparing for the races just last last year and we've got the same equipment. I don't know yet what's going on but we'll get it fixed. I think we have some team chemistry issues we need to get ironed out. It'll happen but after the success we had last year, it's hard to be patient."
3 Times owner Heather Wilkins was more direct, "The crew needs to make sure our engines are solid. We had a transmission failure in one race and we had mistakes on pit road that cost us at Daytona and we've got to get that fixed if we want to win!"
After visiting the west coast, the FASCAR teams now head back east with a short lay-over in Las Vegas for the Shelby 427 on Sunday, March 1st. With several FASCAR officials and team owners planning to be in attendance for the race week-end, this is expected to be a big event and media coverage is expected to be intense.
Said one team owner who wished to remain anonymous, "I'm expecting some FASCAR team owners to end up on an episode of 'Cops'!"
By Redd Flagg
02/19/09
The FASCAR 2009 season got under way Sunday afternoon with the annual running of the Daytona 500 as 22 race cars took the track.
Starting from the pole was rookie team Morgan Racing's Martin Truex, Jr., with sentimental favorite Mark Martin on the outside in the Old Fart Racing #17 Ford.
As the field took the green flag, Morgan's Truex held the lead for the first three laps, followed closely by Martin. Coming out of turn four on the fourth lap, though, Martin dropped low and took the lead to raucous cheers through the tri-oval. Martin held the lead for the next four laps until defending champion Donny Hall Motorsport's Kyle Busch took over the point.
Busch dominated the majority of the day until a late-race incident between Excuse Me Racing's Dale Earnhardt, Jr., and Wood Boys Racing's Brian Vickers. With rain threatening overhead and Vickers and Earnhardt trapped a lap down on a late restart, tempers boiled over as Earnhardt dove low on the backstretch and Vickers moved down aggresively to block him, beating Earnhardt to the yellow "out of bounds" line. Earnhardt backed off just a bit and then cut back up the track to his right, clipping Vicker's rear bumper. The move sent Vickers back across the track and right into the middle of the lead pack of race cars, triggering a multi-car melee that resulted in a number of top teams limping back to the garage area, including Donny Hall's Busch.
Afterwards, Wood Boys crew chief Russ T. Fender was irate with Junior. "I don't know what he was thinking!" fumed Fender. "Brian blocked him clean and he just had a fit and wrecked a bunch of good race cars, ours included. And then they don't even both to penalize him! It's just ridiculous!"
Earnhardt, however, refused to take all the blame and was defiant in his response. "I hate it happened...I really do! But I had a run on Brian and he run me down almost into the grass. I was just hanging on at that point and we got together. I hate it happened for the rest of the field."
Once the debris had been cleared and the race restarted the storm clouds were rolling in and crew chiefs were glancing anxiously at the sky, waiting for the first rain drops to fall.
Coming out of the tri-oval and heading into turn one on lap 128, Raisin' Cain's Tony Stewart dove to the inside of SpeedSport Racing's Carl Edwards and took the lead. As the field came out of the fourth turn two laps later with water building up on their windshields, FASCAR officials threw the yellow flag. Five laps of circling the track under a yellow flag condition was followed by the red flag and a 20 minute delay until the race was called official, giving Stewart his first victory in the #1 Chevrolet.
Said crew chief "Tail" Pipe afterwards in Victory Lane, "I was nervous...I ain't gonna lie! We knew the rain was a-comin' and we just wanted to get the lead. Tony did a great job in timing his move and it gave us the race."
SpeedSport's Edwards was dejected after the race, "We had it. We had the win in our hands and I let the car slip up the track going into (turn) one there at the end and Tony got by me. Congratulations to him but I sure hate we let this one get away from us!"
Following Stewart and Edwards across the line at the finish were Big Dawg Racing's Clint Bowyer in third, Morgan Racing's Martin Truex, Jr., in fourth, and Yachtsman Racing's Jimmie Johnson in fifth. The Bowyer and Truex finish was so close that FASCAR officials had to study photo-finish replays for several hours before declaring the finishing order. Morgan crew chief Allen Wrench was upset with their call and demanded a "re-count" from FASCAR officials.
Now the teams load up and head across country for the next two weeks with a stop in Fontana, CA, followed by the Las Vegas race on March 1st.