Timothy Peters didn't come eighteenth in the Kroger 200

Peters showed true emotion after his win and let out a long breath of air after he exited the car. He has had a long and frustrating road getting to this point but he can take a deep breath and prepare for the only thing harder than winning your first Camping World Truck Series race, winning another one. He has definitely reached a page turning point in his NASCAR career and can relax and try to reproduce his win, now that he has gotten himself off the bubble. Winning additional races probably isn’t going to be any easier now that he has been victories in a Camping World Truck Series race, but at least he can say he has won a race, which isn’t something many drivers can say.

Todd Bodine finished second in the Kroger 200, while Colin Braun had a good day and finished third, and Ron Hornaday came in fourth in his Chevrolet. Kevin Harvick had a fast car all day and finished fifth, Denny Hamlin finished sixth, Dennis Setzer seventh, David Starr eighth, Matt Crafton ninth, while Terry Cook rounded out the top ten.

“Image: Zuma Press”

Post from: EveryJoe

Timothy Peters Wins the Kroger 200

Kurt Busch could be a car to watch Sunday

Martinsville is one of the tougher tracks to be consistent on and the size of the track means it can often be more of a demolition derby for many of the competitors, since you’re bound to run into something during a race at Martinsville. There just isn’t as much more to manoeuvre on the pavement of Martinsville, you’re always being crowded or crowding someone else and you never have a moment to relax, since the margin of error is so fine between racing well and total crash and burn failure.

A bad pit stop at Martinsville is going to cost you quite a few spots also, so if you go in for a pit stop in 8^th place, and have a problem getting the work done, then you’ll come out in 28^th place or worse. The corners at Martinsville are tight ones and the track is slick in areas, so you have to watch where you run, which you’ll get to see on Sunday during the race. Martinsville is so unique that it might be a taste that needs to be developed over a career of races and this is why Kurt Busch in my opinion has a good chance, if his car is up to speed, of having a good result at Martinsville. The set up on his car is going to be critical and he has a lot of experience racing at Martinsville and he might have an advantage due to his experience. The race will be entertaining in that this is definitely one of the more challenging tracks and should give us plenty of the bumping and jostling we love to see on a race track.

“Image: Zuma Press”

Post from: EveryJoe

Martinsville a Difficult Nut to Crack

Harcik does it again

Busch lost ground when he was penalized for a line violation because he ran against the inside backstretch wall when the race was under caution to try to straighten out a bent fender, but still managed to lead the race for 139 laps and finished a respectable 17th. Busch had company in this accident filled affair that saw a total of 13 cautions during the race, the first one slowing the race on the first lap.

Ron Hornaday finished second in his Chevrolet, Mike Skinner third in a Toyota that ran pretty well, Johnny Benson finished fourth on a day where his Toyota held together pretty good, while the race pole-sitter Rick Crawford managed to stay in the race and finished fifth to round out the top five. Stacy Compton ran sixth in his Toyota, Dennis Setzer came seventh in a Chevrolet, Brian Scott came eighth in a Toyota, Matt Crafton ninth, and Ken Schrader tenth on this day at Martinsville Speedway.

Kyle Busch stays on top of the series points race, despite his poor finish and a partial race schedule which will see him miss the next race at Kansas Speedway, over a Todd Bodine who had trouble with the track and drivers, finishing 18th because of two different accidents, the last of which happened with just two laps to the checkered flag, and put the race under a caution flag for the last few laps.

Images Newscom.com

Post from: EveryJoe

Kevin Harvick Wins Kroger 250

Jimmie Johnson at the 2008 Subway 500

The 2009 NASCAR season is Hendrick Motorsports 25th year in Cup Series racing and with a return to the spot of the owners first victory Sunday, Geoffrey Bodine raced to victory for Hendrick Motorsports on April 29, 1984 in the Sovran Bank, the owner is probably planning on having a huge party after the race to celebrate the occasion, and hopefully another victory at a oval that hasn’t been as generous to other owners.

Images: Newscom.com

Post from: EveryJoe

Johnson and Gordon Own Martinsville

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

It’s going to be a big weekend coming up for the Wallace’s as the NASCAR Nationwide Series makes a trip to St. Louis this weekend for the Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers 250 at Gateway International Raceway, hometown to brothers Mike and Kenny Wallace. Considered to be the home track for the Wallace family, the track has been kind enough to name the grandstands in Turns 1 and 2 after the Wallace’s, and even honored them by placing their name on the race itself during older brother, Rusty’s retirement year.

Despite all of the hometown recognition, though, a member of the Wallace family has never put a tally in the win column since the Nationwide Series began racing here back in 1997, but they’ll have a prime opportunity to change that this weekend. Mike Wallace is having one of his finer seasons as he currently sits 8th in points and would like nothing more than to notch one up here in front of his hometown fans. He nearly did just that back in 2005 when he finished 2nd here in an Evernham Motorsports car. Mike will also be an honorary guest at the St. Louis Cardinals game on Thursday where he will throw out the first pitch of the game.

Kenny Wallace will also attend the race, as will Steven Wallace, who will be driving for Rusty Wallace Inc, the team owned by his father, Rusty Wallace. That team is still looking for their first win of the season. Steven is currently 12th in the points standings, and Kenny is 18th. All three Wallace’s will also compete in a dirt track race at Tri-City Speedway on Friday in Pontoon Beach, IL.

Mike’s daughter, Chrissy Wallace, will be competing this weekend as well. Chrissy will make the third Craftsman Truck Series start of her career on Saturday in the Built Ford Tough 225 at Kentucky Speedway. To date, she’s finished 18th at Martinsville and 20th at the Milwuakee Mile.

Post from: EveryJoe

Big Weekend Ahead for the Wallace Bunch

We all know that Joe Gibbs Racing has established themselves as the powerhouse of the field at this point in time. We know that Roush-Fenway Racing has come a long way in figuring out this new car and that Hendrick Motorsports seems to have lost the edge that they had on everyone else last year. We’ve analyzed potential contractual signings every which way we could, and still found ourselves locked in a guessing game. Been there, done that, but perhaps one of the stories that we haven’t talked nearly enough about are two teams that are holding out hope of getting a driver into contention for the Chase for the Cup for the first time in their team’s history, and another that hasn’t fielded a Chase contender since 2004.

Once considered one of the top organizations in NASCAR, Yates Racing last visited Victory Lane back in the Fall of 2005 when Dale Jarrett drove the no. 88 car to a win at Talladega and the last time they were able to land a driver inside the top-12 in points was with Elliott Sadler back in ‘04. Since those days, the team has gone through a horrendous rebuilding stage and continue to struggle week in and week out to find primary sponsorship of their cars driven by Travis Kvapil and David Gilliland. Both are highly regarded as “underdogs” every Sunday when the series hits the track, and both have failed to land a top-five finish all season long. Still, they’ve continued to push forward, and have managed to turn a few heads along the way, particularly Kvapil. Coming into the season as a driver that nobody really paid much attention to, Travis admittedly got off to a rather slow start. But, something seems to have clicked within this team ever since a solid run at Phoenix turned sour and he finished 22nd. After that race, Kvapil sat 24th in points, but four finishes of 16th or better in the last six races – highlighted with a 6th place run at Talladega and an 8th place run in Darlington – have now moved Travis up six spots in the standings. He’s now 18th in points and trails 12th place, Tony Stewart, by only 150 points.

Red Bull Racing has been the team that quite a few people have been talking about as of late. With Brian Vickers and AJ Allmendinger behind the wheel for the organization, the team managed to qualify for only 40 races in a combined 72 attempts in their inaugural season in 2007. Coming into the season with both cars outside of the top-35 in points and forced to qualify on time, Allmendinger again missed out on the first three events of ‘08 before being replaced temporarily by veteran driver, Mike Skinner. Despite failing to finish inside of the top-25 in any of the five races that Skinner filled in, the move appears to have paid dividends. AJ has been able to take what he’s learned from Skinner and put it to good use on the track, first winning the All-Star Showdown at Lowe’s to make the cut for the All-Star event itself, and then scoring a career best 12th place finish last week at Pocono. Still, the focus of the media on this team has been placed with Brian Vickers, who appears to be on the verge of scoring the second Cup victory of his career. After a disappointing 2007 that brought him only 1 top-five and 5 top-ten’s, Vickers has been impressive on several occassions this year, though it may not always show up in the results column. He’s been strong on all of the superspeedways, but the team really started to turn heads when they established themselves as one of the dominant cars in the Coca Cola 600 before an equipment failure ended their day. Since then he’s bounced back with a 13th place effort at Dover and finished 2nd last week at Pocono. Brian has now moved up to 17th place overall and trails 12th by a mere 112 points.

Rounding out the list of underdogs making a charge towards the Chase is non-other than Petty Enterprises. Despite the fact that this team has more wins than any other organization in the history of the sport and a slieu of championships from when “the King” himself, Richard Petty, drove the car, the company hasn’t celebrated a win since 1999 when John Andretti won at Martinsville, and the closest they’ve come to a bid for the Chase was an 18th place finish in the standings last year from Bobby LaBonte. Now, nobody’s really sure who will drive the no. 45 car next year as Kyle Petty, Chad McCumbee, and Terry LaBonte have all failed to do much with the ride, but Bobby continues to press forward. Though he’s failed to score a top-ten all season long, he does have seven top-15’s and has gone the entire year without a DNF, something that has hindered the team in recent years. Additionally, he’s got six finishes of 18th or better in the last eight races, which started with a 12th place run at Phoenix, and LaBonte now resides in 19th in the standings, trailing his former Gibbs teammate in 12th by 159 points.

As many of the drivers in the top-12 continue to experience their share of misfortunes as they bounce back and forth between the bubble spots, this could be a prime opportunity for one of these teams to capitalize. But, with the recent emergance of guys like David Ragan, the resurgance of Matt Kenseth, and other perrenial Chase hopefuls such as Ryan Newman and Martin Truex Jr. standing between them as well, the guys currently in the top-12 may not be all they’ll have to contend with.

DYN Imposes:
This week, Do You NASCAR also asks its readers …

1. Which driver in these 3 organizations will be the first to score their first / next win?
2. Are consistent top-15 and top-20 runs going to be enough to land a driver in the Chase field?
3. Which of these teams has made the best organizational move(s) in the last 2 years?
4. Will any of these 3 teams get a driver into the 2008 Chase? If so, who?

*Credit photos to Newscom.

Post from: EveryJoe

3 Teams Under the Radar & On the Move

10. Busch gets spun by Jeff Burton at the finish line as they race for the win at the Sam’s Town 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 2007.

9. Kyle Busch sets off “the big one” in the 2006 Aaron’s 499 at Talladega.

8. Richmond wasn’t the first time that Kyle Busch has been involved in an accident with Dale Earnhardt Jr. Here they make contact on pit road during the Ford 400 in 2007 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

7. Kyle is involved in another “big one” at Talladega Superspeedway, this time during the 2007 UAW-Ford 500.

6. Kyle Busch and Mike Skinner get into it at the Craftsman Truck Series’ opening event in 2008, the Camping World 300, at Daytona International Speedway.

5. In the closing laps of the Craftsman Truck Series’ Kroger 250 at Martinsville Speedway, Kyle plows into Johnny Benson as they race for third place.

4. Kyle’s involved in a horrific accident in the 2007 Aaron’s 312 at Talladega Superspeedway, in which his Nationwide car performs several barrel rolls.

3. Kyle Busch was already quickly approaching notoriety status with the NASCAR fans, but here’s the one that pushed him over the top. Watch again, as Kyle battles Dale Earnhardt Jr. for the lead in the closing laps of the 2008 Dan Lowry 400 at Richmond International Raceway.

2. Kyle gets into his older brother, Kurt, while racing him for the lead at the 2007 All-Star Race. Neither of the brothers appeared to take it personally, and Kurt even makes some witty comments following the race to make light of the situation.

1. Saving the best for last … at the 2006 NASCAR Awards Banquet held in New York City, Kyle Busch was giving his “thank you” speech – and, actually called his girlfriend by the wrong name. You’ll love this!

Post from: EveryJoe

the Big Ten: Best Kyle Busch Wrecks

Image details: The Dan Lowry 400 Qualifying served by picapp.com

Mark Martin is regarded by nearly every driver, fan, and anyone associated with NASCAR as being one of the greatest drivers in the history of our sport, despite not having a Cup Series championship on his resume. He’s won 35 Cup Series points races, has the Nationwide Series record for wins with 48, and has finished 2nd in the Cup Series points standings on four occasions … so, yes, like him or not, I would be inclined to agree that he does indeed rank amongst NASCAR’s all-time elite.

Mark Martin’s status in this sport’s history, however, is not what is in question. Rather, I question his status in racing as it stands today. Following the 2006 season in which Martin finished the year 9th in points, he made a concious decision to part ways with long time car owner and friend, Jack Roush, and simultaneously retire from racing … or, so it seemed. After a long farewell tour that seemed to hit every track on the NASCAR season, in the offseason between ‘06 and ‘07, Mark announced that he would return to the track on a part-time schedule to help the no. 01 team in the DEI camp. This “part-time” schedule, however, included a 24 race tour out of the Cup Series’ 36 races – that’s 2/3rd’s of the complete schedule, and it has since carried over into 2008, despite the fact that he’s abondoned the 01 car and now races Dale Earnhardt Jr’s former car, the no. 8.

At first glance, the typical fan would probably say, “so what, what’s the big deal?”, and rightfully so. But, about the side-effects that Martin’s lingering presence is having on the sport? After NASCAR hit an all-time boom in production of young talents in the late 90’s and earlier in this decade, the manufacturing of standout prospects has been relegated to a minimum these past couple of years, and for a guy that’s presented himself as an ambassador for doing what’s good for the sport, Martin hasn’t been much of a help in that department.

The rise of young David Ragan into the Cup Series ranks was delayed for a year or two with Martin’s uncertainty as to whether or not he would return year after year, but he finally earned that opportunity last year after Martin had finally departed from the no. 6 car, and now it appears to be happening all over again with Aric Almirola.

Almirola fell into a spot with DEI after the purchase of Ginn Racing at the end of the season, and was immediately slotted to share driving duties in the no. 8 Army Chevrolet with Mark. Prior to this season, the 23 year-old Almirola’s professional driving experience had been minimal. He competed in a few truck races in 2005 and 2007, and full-time in 2006, though with very little success. He also raced in 21 Nationwide Series events from ‘06 to ‘07, and was credited with a win in Milwuakee for Joe Gibbs Racing, though Denny Hamlin actually finished that race. The bulk of his racing this scheduled is slated to come in the Sprint Cup Series, racing in only 12 races, while Martin handles the other 24.

Almirola impressed the masses by finishing 8th at Bristol in the Food City 500 in his first Cup Series start of the season, and seventh overall (he raced in 6 events in 2007). Since then, he’s finished 42nd at Martinsville due to engine failures after starting 3rd and running near the top-ten all day, and most recently settled for a 33rd place finish at Talladega.

Meanwhile, Martin has finished in the top-ten in four of his seven races this year, and is currently riding on a streak of three consecutive finishes of 8th or better, including a 3rd place run last weekend at Richmond. This now totals 15 top-ten’s for Martin in only 31 races for Martin since joining DEI, and he has been in contention for a win on several occasions.

So, it’s not that I question whether or not Mark’s still got it. It’s not that I question whether or not turning 50 next January will slow Martin down at all. Heck, I’m not even questioning whether or not Aric Almirola is more suited for a full-time Cup ride these days than Mark Martin. What I do question, though, is should we view this as Mark Martin getting to race 2/3rd’s of the schedule, or as Aric Almirola being forced to miss 2/3rd’s of the schedule?

DYN Imposes:
This week, Do You NASCAR also asks its readers …

1. Is it still beneficial at this stage for DEI to have Mark Martin run a 24-race schedule, and, thus, eliminate one of their cars from competing for a spot in the Chase?
2. If Mark Martin were to run a full schedule, could he still compete for his first Sprint Cup championship?
3. What rate of success should we expect from Aric Almirola once he does have the opportunity to compete full-time in the Cup Series?
4. Should Mark Martin go into full-time retirement?

For a glimpse of Mark Martin’s entire 2008 Sprint Cup schedule, please visit Bruce Simmons’ post, Mark Martin’s Race Schedule for 2008 – the Full Details, over at Bruce’s NASCAR Bits & Pieces.

Post from: EveryJoe

Mark Martin Continues to Race Against Time

10. Justin Allgaier – 21 years-old, currently driving in his third full season in the ARCA/REMAXX Series. Has compiled one victory in each of the past three seasons.

9. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. – 20 years-old, has recorded 2 wins and 4 top-five’s through his first 20 races in the USAC Series.

8. Brad Keselowski – 24 years-old, currently driving in the Nationwide Series for Bob & Kay Keselowski. Currently 7th in points with 4 top-ten finishes.

7. Steve Wallace – The twenty-year-old son of Rusty Wallace; finished 17th in the Nationwide Series points standings last year, and currently 15th in points with a top-five and two top-ten’s.

6. Marcos Ambrose – The 30-year-old Australlian native has won several accolades in lesser series, and is known as an accomplished road racer. He’s turning that into some noticeable stock car success, and through two seasons has 2 top-five’s and 8 top-ten’s. He’s currently 16th in the Nationwide points standings.

5. Brad Coleman – Brad has a future with Joe Gibbs Racing, though the timeline is still a bit sketchy as long as JGR has Joey Logano in the waiting. He made his debut in the Nationwide Series this year and is currently 17th in points with one top-ten finish through ten races.

4. Austin Dillon – Being the grandson of Cup Series teamowner, Richard Childress, is sure to have its perks, and having the fortune to know that you can one day bring Dale Earnhardt’s former number back into NASCAR one day is one of them. He already has a win this season in the Camping World East Series, and is expected to win quite a few more before long.

3. Chrissy Wallace – She earned herself a top-20 finish in her first career start in the Craftsman Truck Series in March, and has recently signed a deal with Germain Racing that will have her competing full-time in 2009. With her family name, superior backing inside the NASCAR garage, and her appeal as a standout female star, big things could be on the horizon for Chrissy Wallace.

2. Aric Almirola – He’s scheduled to run a part-time schedule this year inside the no. 8 car for DEI that includes 12 races, the first of which came earlier in 2008 with a top-five run at Bristol. He’s currently slated to run full-time for the organization when Mark Martin goes into full retirement, which could be as early as next year.

1. Joey Logano – His future lies with Joe Gibbs Racing, producer of three Cup Series championships, and could have a pretty sweet deal lined up for himself depending on what Tony Stewart decides to do at the end of his contract in 2009. He recently won his first-ever start in the ARCA series a little over a week ago in Rockingham, and will make his first Nationwide start at the end of this month when he turns 18 years old.

Post from: EveryJoe

the Big Ten: Potential Stars in the Waiting

Image details: Goody’s Cool Orange 500 Qualifying served by picapp.com

The Sprint Cup Series was off this past week while the Nationwide Series took to the streets of Mexico City for the Corona Mexico 200 as Kyle Busch cruised to his third consecutive Nationwide Series victory. That, however, was not the headline that the sports world took away from auto racing on that day because while Kyle Busch was debating whether or not to dump Scott Pruett, Danica Patrick was out in Japan making history en route to winning the first IRL race of her career, as well as becoming the first female driver to ever win a race in that series.

In a pure incident of coincidental timing, just days before Danica broke down the barriers for females in racing, Chrissy Wallace inked a deal with Germain Racing that will have her competing full-time in the Craftsman Truck Series in 2009.

Chrissy made her NASCAR debut just a few weeks ago at Martinsville Speedway in the Truck Series’ Kroger 250. Despite starting that race all the way back from the 35th position, she was able to find her way up to 18th by the final lap of the race. Her run was impressive enough to force the hands at Germain Racing to offer her up a contract, and they finalized the deal this past Wednesday. Chrissy will run another six races this year in the no. 03 Toyota Tundra – the first of which will be on June 20th in Milwuakee, and from there she will begin to prepare for her 2009 rookie campaign.

Regarding her signing with Germain, Chrissy stated, “I’m extremely excited. This is a big deal for us. When I saw my name on that contract, I almost couldn’t believe it. But, I’m thrilled about this opportunity.”

Chrissy comes from a long line of racers in her family, to include her father Mike Wallace, and uncles Rusty and Kenny. She has spent the majority of her amateur career racing late model stock cars, and became the first female driver to win at Hickory Motor Speedway in 57 years.  She has also earned herself the backing of the unofficial NASCAR spokesman himself, Tony Stewart, and that just simply can’t hurt matters.

The official signing of Chrissy Wallace is a huge step for NASCAR as they continue to work on building diversity within their garage areas. In recent years, the sport has added a number of drivers with foreign backgrounds, to include such names as Juan Pablo Montoya, Dario Franchitti, and Patrick Carpentier. They have also created and contributed to a multitude of diversity programs in an effort to help this cause. Although Chrissy certainly is not the first female to dawn a NASCAR firesuit, it certainly appears as though that she may potentially be the first to have the necessary combination of talent AND proper equipment afforded to her that it takes to win at NASCAR’s highest levels.

DYN Imposes:
This week, Do You Nascar also asks its readers …

1) Do you think that Chrissy Wallace will be successful in the Craftsman Truck Series in 2009, and will she win Rookie of the Year?

2) Are female drivers often given some of their driving opportunities simply because of their market value as women?

3) Have NASCAR’s diversity programs been successful, and is the diversity they’ve added been good for the sport?

4) What could NASCAR do to expand their diversity programs?

Post from: EveryJoe

Women Charging on Cup Series’ Week Off