I’d like to welcome Bruce Simmons back to the forum this week as he is now officially back from his trip. Bruce, it’s good to have ya back. I’d also like to thank Roc for stepping up to the plate for us last week in his absence and keeping this alive. And, of course, with us as always is Charlie Turner from On Pit Row. Now, let’s get started.

At the end of April, future NFL Hall of Famer, Randy Moss, announced that he was looking to break into NASCAR as a team owner, more specifically in the Craftsman Truck Series in 2009. With Moss’ announcement immediately came speculation that he would get his team into a few races prior to the end of this season, and rumors began to fly surrounding the team’s manufacturer, sponsor, and affiliates. Many even believed that Moss would land one of the bigger stars from the Sprint Cup Series to debut his truck.

The rumors were finally laid to rest two months later when Moss announced that he had bought into Morgan-Dollar Motorsports as a part-owner, and that the team would be renamed Moss Motorsports. They renumbered the truck #81 in favor of Moss’ jersey number, and the new team debuted at Kentucky Speedway in July with Willie Allen behind the wheel, finishing 15th.

Things continue to evolve for the race team, however, as they have recently announced an agreement that will put two-time Sprint Cup champion, Jimmie Johnson, behind the wheel of the no. 81 truck at Bristol on August 20th. Johnson has never in his career competed in a Craftsman Truck race, and some feel that it may be the result of the partnership between Lowe’s – Johnson’s Sprint Cup sponsor – and Kobalt Tools, which will sponsor the #81 entry in the truck race.

Q: Is Randy Moss’ recent 50% purchase of what is now Moss Motorsports good for the sport?

TZ: I know there’s a lot of fans out there that probably only see this deal go down on the surface and immediately think to themselves, ‘oh, that’s crap’. Let me tell you, I don’t care if he’s white, black, or yellow, Randy Moss is a smart businessman, and he’s grown up an avid fan of racing. I also like the non-NASCAR star power that he brings to our sport, and it’s already taking its effect by putting Jimmie Johnson in a Craftsman Truck race for the first time in his career next month at Bristol. In my book, kudos to Randy Moss for venturing down this path.

Bruce:  I think it will bring a different demographic to the sport to some degree as Randy Moss fans might just tune in to see what this is about.  Right?  Maybe?  We can hope.  New fans are always a good thing, regardless of how many or few.

Charlie:  It is a step forward in NASCAR’s drive for diversity. But Randy Moss is an OWNER. He isn’t going to bring any star power to the sport beyond this initial slash of publicity as his new venture is announced. Do you doubt this. If so, name for me  – quick – three other Craftsman Truck team owners. If you can do it, look at the names and then quantify how many fans those owners bring to the races. Did Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman bring a bunch of Cowboys football fans to NASCAR? If Moss can hang in  for more than three years and build his team into something more than it is today, then he will have accomplished something significant.

Want more? The “Loose in Turn 3″ trio answers three questions each and every week, so be sure to check out the other sites to get the rest of our weekly discussion.

Over at On Pit Row, we answer “Should Tony Stewart look for the hot, young prospect, maybe someone from the open wheel ranks, instead of a current, high dollar star like Ryan Newman for his second car at Stewart-Haas?”

And, we conclude our talks over at Bruce’s Bits ‘n’ Pieces, where the question was posed, “With Tony Stewart acting out over in USAC, what’s that about? I thought he had gotten a grip on his outbursts? Do you think the stress of starting up a new team might be getting to him?”

Post from: EveryJoe

Randy Moss Runnin’ Loose in Turn 3 Along With Jimmie Johnson

Image details: Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers 250 served by picapp.com

Even with the Sprint Cup Series taking the week off, it was still a busy weekend for Missouri native, Carl Edwards …. particularly because he decided to commit to a three-day bicycle trip from his hometown of Columbia, MO to the track that lies in Madison, IL – just outside of the St. Louis metro-area.

Edwards made the trip and got to the track in time to qualify third for the Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers 250 at Gateway International Raceway, and then passed Jason Leffler with 48 laps remaining en route to picking up the win Saturday night. The win gave Edwards his second Nationwide Series win of the season, and the second of his career at Gateway.

Driving the dominant no. 20 car for Joe Gibbs Racing in just his fifth NNS start, Joey Logano started the race fourth and finished second, as he was unable to track down Edwards in the closing laps of the race. Jason Keller, Jason Leffler, and Brad Keselowski completed the top-five finishers, with rookie driver, Landon Cassill, running in 6th.

An incident involving David Reutimann and Brad Keselowski brought out the final caution of the day. The restart came on lap 146 with Edwards running third behined Jason Leffler and eventual 7th place finisher, James Buescher. The top two cars, however, took only two tires under the caution period, with Edwards taking four, which ultimately made all the difference in the world, passing Leffler for the lead just six laps later.

Earlier on a lap 116 restart, Landon Cassill got into the back of Scott Wimmer, setting off a chain reaction that eliminated the cars of Mike Bliss, Steve Wallace, and defending race winner, Reed Sorenson. Polesitter, Jamie McMurray, was in the lead at the time, but later retired with engine problems after lap 152.

Points leader, Clint Bowyer, finished 8th; David Ragan was 10th; and Marcos Ambrose ran in 15th. The hometown favorites of Mike, Kenny, and Steve Wallace finished 11th, 18th, and 26th respectively. Kenny was the only one of the three to lead any laps during the race.

Clint Bowyer and Brad Keselowski maintained the top two spots in the Nationwide standings, while Carl Edwards jumped up a spot to #3, where he now sits 201 points out of first.

Complete Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers 250 Results.

Nationwide Series Standings (from nascar.com):

Post from: EveryJoe

Edwards the Hometown Victor at Gateway

Image details: Stater Brothers 300 served by picapp.com

Dave Rogers has done absolutely nothing short of a spectacular job since taking over the helm as the Crew Chief for Joe Gibbs Racing’s no. 20 entry in the Nationwide Series in 2006. In his 2 1/2 seasons with the team, Rogers has helped coach five different drivers to a total of 14 Nationwide wins, to include: Denny Hamlin (6), Tony Stewart (5), Kyle Busch (1), Joey Logano (1), and Aric Almirola (1). More impressively, 8 of those wins have come this season with four different drivers behind the helm (five by Stewart). After putting Tony Stewart into Victory Lane last weekend at New Hampshire, Rogers will now have the task of getting Denny Hamlin back to Winner’s Circle Friday night at Daytona.

Rogers has previous experience at the Sprint Cup level, having served as the Crew Chief for Jason Leffler in the series back in 2005. The tandem was unable to produce satisfactory results, and Gibbs aptly found a place for Dave down at the Nationwide Series. Since then, however, Rogers has been compiling a very impressive resume’ that could land him back into Cup competition by 2010.

Why 2010, you ask? Because Joe Gibbs Racing has two very lucrative scenarios that could play out in Rogers favor between now and then, the first being that of Tony Stewart’s contract situation. Forget about all the hooplah that’s governed our Stewart talks in concerns of where he’ll be driving in 2009, the fact is that even if he stays, his contract expires next year, and he’ll most likely be driving for GM in 2010. And, with Smoke most likely goes his longime companion, Greg Zipadelli, as the two form the longest driver / chief combination currently active in all of NASCAR.

The second scenario, and truly the most likely one regardless of the Stewart situation, revolves around the young phenom, Joey Logano – or, “Sliced Bread” as you may know him better by now. Logano has all of the tools to be a great competitor in the sport, and Dave Rogers has been given the task of molding and fine-tuning his talents behind the wheel of the no. 20 car in the Nationwide Series. The team has already made it known that they plan to run Logano in a fourth team car in the Cup Series on a partial schedule next season, and possibly even get him a few races this year. Don’t be surprised – as it completely makes sense – if JD and ‘the Coach’ find it appropriate to keep the tandem of Logano and Rogers together as Joey goes about his Cup Series endeavours.

Some might chalk it up to simply being Gibbs’ superior equipment, but I don’t care who’s funding the goods … to switch over to a completely new manufacturer and have to work with a different driver every week and still find the level of success that this team has is truly special. Dave Rogers deserves all the credit in the world for what the no. 20 team has accomplished this year, and he adequately deserves a promotion back to the big leagues in the not-so-distant future.

Post from: EveryJoe

Only a Matter of Time Now for Dave Rogers

Image details: Camping World RV Rental 250 served by picapp.com

Carl Edwards was named the winner of Saturday night’s Camping World RV Rental 250 at the Milwuakee Mile, and pulled into Victory Lane in the Nationwide Series for the first time since winning in Nashville last June, but the 250-mile race was hardly one that lacked emotion, excitement and controversy.

The first half of the race was dominated by polesitter, Brad Keselowski, who was looking to his second win for JR Motorsports in a three-week span, but despite leading the most laps on the evening, it just wasn’t meant to be. Last week’s race winner, 18-year-old Joey Logano, caught Keselowski at the front of the field and the two raced side-by-side with 79 laps remaining in the books. Logano drover underneath the race leader to take the position through turns 3 and 4, but a slight bobble slid him up into Brad’s fender and took him out of contention for the win.

Then, during the final round of pit stops, Logano made contact with points leader, Clint Bowyer, on pit road as the two rubbed fenders and shuffled Joey back to fourth while Carl Edwards took the lead. Bowyer then passed Edwards with 39 laps to go and held the position until the next caution flag. The restart came with 25 circuits remaining. Edwards got underneath him on the restart and knocked him sideways and drove away for the win.

Logano was able to pass Bowyer as well, as he wound up finishing 2nd, and Bowyer had to settle for 3rd. Fellow Sprint Cup regulars, David Ragan and David Reutimann completed the top-five in 4th and 5th. Scott Wimmer continued with his recent success with another top-ten finish in 6th, and Mike Bliss came home in 7th. Brad Keselowski rebounded from his earlier adventure with Logano and was relegated to an 8th place run, while Jason Leffler and Jason Keller rounded out the top-ten finishers.

There were no changes amongst the top-four spots in the standings, as Bowyer now stretches his points lead to 188 points over second place, Brad Keselowski. David Ragan and Mike Bliss each jumped up a spot to 5th and 6th over Kyle Busch, whom did not attend the race this weekend.

Check here for complete Camping World RV Rental 250 race results.

Nationwide Series Standings:

Post from: EveryJoe

Edwards Wins a Wild One in Milwuakee

For the third time this season, rain has cancelled Sprint Cup qualifying, this time for this weekend’s Lifelock 400 at Michigan International Speedway. The field for Sunday’s race will be set according to the NASCAR rulebook, lining the first through thirty-fifth spots up according to the order in which they currently sit in the car owner points standings. This puts points leader, Kyle Busch, up front on the pole position, giving him his third of the year, with second place, Jeff Burton, lining up next to him on the outside of row 1. Row 2 will consist of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Carl Edwards; Sitting in Row 3 are Denny Hamlin and Jimmie Johnson; Row 4 will be Greg Biffle and Jeff Gordon; and rounding out the top-ten starts in Row 5, it will be Kasey Kahne and Kevin Harvick.

Starting the race in 36th and 37th based on the past champion’s provisional are Terry LaBonte and Bill Elliott, and behind them in 38th through 43rd are the next cars in car owner points. Failing to make the race are the cars of Jason Leffler and Tony Raines.

*Credit photo to Newscom.

Post from: EveryJoe

Rain Cancels Qualifying, Busch on the Pole

Image details: Heluva Good! 200 served by picapp.com

Saturday’s running of the Heluva Good! 200 at Dover International Speedway in the Nationwide Series ended with Denny Hamlin pulling his no. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry into Victory Lane, giving Gibbs their season leading 9th victory on the year. After sitting through a 3 hour rain delay due to storms along the east coast, Hamlin, who started the race on the outside of the front row next to polesitter, Carl Edwards, was the dominant car for most of the day, leading the most laps in the race and ultimately beating Edwards to the finish line with a 1.154 second lead. Edwards went onto finish second.

“It was alright,” Edwards said. “Second’s no fun, it’s not what we come here for, but my hat’s off to Denny. He did a great job. I just wish I could have got up to him.”

David Stremme used some late race pit strategy with a two-tire stop for some much needed track position, and he wound up third. Fourth place went to David Reutimann, and Greg Biffle wound up fifth after passing rookie, Joey Logano, in the closing laps of the race to take that position.

Logano – who started the race in 9th – ran solidly all day long in his Nationwide Series debut, but found himself in trouble early on. He made contact with the no. 9 Dodge of Kasey Kahne during a round of pit stops and was forced to return to the pits for a second time under caution, and he restarted back in the 28th position on lap 26. By the time that the next caution flag waived in the air just twenty laps later, Logano had worked his way up eleven spots to 17th, and he gradually worked his way through the field for the remainder of the race before finishing 6th.

Following the race, Logano stated, “We were a sixth place car and finished sixth. Overall it was a good day. I was hoping for that top-five, but I screwed up in the pits and put myself in a position that I didn’t need to. We’ll see what happens next.”

Clint Bowyer entered the race with the points lead, and a solid 9th place effort was good enough to keep him at the top of the standings, though Kyle Busch – second in points – gave him a little extra insurance earlier on. Busch, who had been running near the front for the entire race, was running ahead of Braun Racing teammate, Jason Leffler, when Leffler’s no. 38 Toyota got loose and hit Busch from behind. Both cars then collided with the outside retaining wall, ending both of their days permanently.

Busch, who finished in 28th and now trails Bowyer by 122 points, said, “I just have a teammate that can’t stand to be number two. I don’t know what Leffler was thinking there.”

Following the accident, Leffler apologized to both Kyle Busch and car owner, Todd Braun.

Nationwide Series Standings:

Post from: EveryJoe

Logano Finishes 6th in NASCAR Debut

Starting next to Greg on the outside of the front row will be former Roush-Fenway Racing teammate, Kurt Busch, who came in 0.188 seconds slower than Biffle. Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Jamie McMurray, and Brian Vickers rounded out the top-six qualifiers for the race. In rows four and five will be the cars of Jeff Gordon, AJ Allmendinger, Elliott Sadler, and Jeremy Mayfield, who is filling in for the injured Dario Franchitti in the no. 40 Chip Ganassi Racing car.

Carl Edwards, Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr, and Jeff Burton couldn’t find the speed they were looking for, as they all qualified 14th, 22nd, 25th, and 38th respectively. Failing to make the race were Jason Leffler, who got behind the wheel of the no. 70 Haas CNC Racing car this week, and Chad McCumbee, who was subbing in for Kyle Petty.

Post from: EveryJoe

The Biff is Fastest at the Monster Mile

Saturday’s win was the first for Busch this season in the Nationwide Series. He’s come close a couple of times, running second at Daytona and California, and running very strongly in most races since then, only to run into troubles on the track. The victory is the third for Joe Gibbs Racing this season.

Kevin Harvick started the day on the pole and was looking for his fifth career Nationwide victory at Texas Motor Speedway, but it was not to be, as he found himself with a broken axel in the early goings en route to a 34th place finish.

Jeff Burton ran second in the race, followed by his RCR teammate and series points leader, Clint Bowyer. Bobby LaBonte and Jamie McMurray rounded out the top-five. Jason Leffler was the highest finishing Nationwide-only regular in ninth place, and Dario Franchitti was the highest finishing rookie in eleventh. The next stop for the series will be next Friday night at Phoenix International Speedway.

Complete Results (from nascar.com):

Nationwide Standings (from nascar.com):

Post from: EveryJoe

Busch Wins a Texas Snoozer

The victory marked “Smoke’s” third win in this event in the past four years, and it was Busch’s second consecutive year finishing runner-up. Perhaps even more impressive is the charge Toyota has made during this Toyota stretch by finishing 2nd last week in the Budweiser Shootout, then winning the second Sprint Cup Gatorade Duel and the Craftsman Truck Series season-opener on Friday, and then winning the Nationwide season opener. As for Earnhardt Jr, he stated that he was just happy to have gotten to participate in the race after failing post-qualifying inspection earlier this week (fines and penalties will be assessed later this week), and appears to be quite content with a third place finish. Stewart will attempt to become only the sixth driver in history to sweep both the Saturday and Sunday races at Daytona.

Complete Results (credit nascar.com):

Post from: EveryJoe

Nationwide Series Results: Daytona

After winning the Super Bowl with the Washington Redskins in 1991, Joe Gibbs turned around the next year and decided to enter the realms of the NASCAR [then] Winston Cup Series, and he’s done nothing but reap the benefits of that decision ever since. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen any team enter the sport at NASCAR’s highest level and have as much immediate and continued success as Joe Gibbs Racing has.

With only Dale Jarrett driving for the team in its first three years, they finished 19th, 4th, and 16th in points from 1992 to 1994. After ’94, they parted ways with DJ and replaced him with Bobby Labonte, who finished 10th and 11th in ’95 and ’96 … and, that would be the last time that Joe Gibbs failed to place at least one car inside the top ten in points. Gibbs expanded to two teams in 1999 to make room for Tony Stewart, and the next season they won their first championship with Labonte. In 2002 and 2005 they would win two more thanks to the efforts of Stewart.

Looking back now, over sixteen seasons and just shy of 1,000 races in the sport, Joe Gibbs Racing has accumulated three Cup Championships (one by Labonte, two by Stewart), two Rookies of the Year (Stewart, Hamlin), and 58 wins. There have now been 537 points-races in which a Gibbs car has started in the field, meaning that the organization has won in approximately 11% of their opportunities.

 Equally impressive is the fact that Gibbs has won championships in both the old Pontiac and the Chevy Monte Carlo. This year they will venture into new waters as they climb aboard the Toyota wagon and hope to turn things around over there. They are undoubtedly being viewed as the driving force in the R&D for these cars, particularly in the engine department, and by the looks of the Daytona Speedweeks and early testing at Las Vegas and California, it appears that it may be paying off. With the addition of Kyle Busch to the team, every driver on the current Gibbs lineup made the Chase field last season, and they will look to continue their tradition of fielding at least one team in the Chase ever since the playoff format was first introduced to NASCAR.

Cup Series Roster:

#11: Denny Hamlin – First receiving his shot by Joe Gibbs to run in the Cup Series in 2005 after the team released Jason Leffler, Denny ran 7 races that year that resulted in three top-ten finishes. The following season he exploded with two wins, eight top-five’s, and twenty top-ten finishes en route to securing the 2006 Rookie of the Year Honors. He again qualified for the Chase field last year, picking up another victory along the way, but a late season slump resulted in Hamlin finishing only 12th in the standings. As the Gibbs camp makes their move to Toyota this year, he will rely on the veteran of the team, Tony Stewart, more than ever, and in the long run that could be the primary factor that determines this year’s outcome for the driver of the #11 Fed-Ex car. I think the Toyotas are going to hold up over the long haul, but they’re not going to dominate the way that some are hoping, which means that there’s only going to be room at the table for so many people. Hamlin’s going to have some good runs this season, maybe even pickup a win along the way, but look for him to fall just short of making the Chase for the Sprint Cup … likely somewhere between 13th and 15th.

#18: Kyle Busch – Yet another former Rookie of the Year (yes, all three Cup Series drivers for Gibbs won ROY in their respective seasons), Kyle Busch first came into the Cup circuit in 2004 to run six races. He went full-time in ’05 and picked up two wins of his own, nine top-five’s, and thirteen top-ten’s, but managed to finish only 20th in the standings for car owner Rick Hendrick. The following season he showed dramatic improvement, however, qualifying for the Chase for the Cup and jumping up to tenth in the points, earning himself another victory. Last year he did his share to contribute to a Hendrick-dominated season, with another win and a fifth place points finish. This year he will venture into unchartered waters by joining Joe Gibbs Racing at the most – or least (depending on how you look at it) – opportune time as they make their switch to Toyotas. It’s hard to say how Busch will handle the new Camry’s, but he’s certainly worked his way towards establishing himself amongst NASCAR’s best. It’s also uncertain how well he’ll be able to get along with new teammate Tony Stewart. Aside from Smoke’s current ongoing feud with Kyle’s brother, Kurt, he’s also had some run-ins with Kyle himself in the past. I think Busch is going to do what he needs to do to make this thing work, and I fully expect to see Kyle in the Chase competition, finishing somewhere between 10th and 12th.

#20: Tony Stewart – With the 1999 Rookie of the Year honors, two Cup championships, 32 wins, 119 top five’s, 191 top ten’s, an average points standings finish of 4.9, and an overall average race finish of 12.5 all in 9 seasons and 320 points races, I think it’s safe to say that this is also the single driver on the track that can push Toyota to the next level and really get them on the map. All off-season everyone’s been wanting to count him out of it – including me – for the simple fact that he’s going to be driving a Toyota this year, but the fact of the matter is that Stewart has won in every car model and in every type of car he’s ever driven, so why should this be any different? Everybody’s also been up in arms about his attitude, especially after we witnessed it flare up again this past weekend in Daytona. Now he’s on probation for the next six races, but it’s my opinion that NASCAR’s going to be very lenient on Stewart, meaning they’re going to do everything they can to make sure that he stays on the track for every race, regardless of how far he pushes the envelope. Why? Revert back to my opening statements on the guy … he’s the one guy that can legitimize the Toyota brand in NASCAR. Folks, he’s going to be competitive all season long, he’s going to pick up some wins, and he’s going to make the Chase field once again. I’m still not convinced myself that he’s got a real chance to win the whole thing, but he is my pick to finish sixth.

Driver Roster: A
Off-Season: B
2008 Outlook: A-

Post from: EveryJoe

Season Preview: Joe Gibbs Racing