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Edwards Placed On Probation For Three Races
posted by Jay Pennell
Tuesday March 9, 2010
NASCAR President Mike Helton addressed the media Tuesday afternoon following Sunday’s late-race incident between Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. Well over 100 laps down, Edwards intentionally spun Keselowski through the tri-oval while Keselowski was running sixth. The No. 12 car lifted in the air and slammed the outside wall with the driver’s side window. NASCAR parked Edwards for his actions and ordered him to the NASCAR hauler for further discussion on the matter. Tuesday, Helton explained Edwards would be placed on probation for the next three races and the drivers and their teams would meet with NASCAR about the situation. “Following that incident we asked the driver of the 99 to visit us in the hauler, and we made it very clear to him that these actions were not acceptable and did go beyond what we said back in January about putting the driving back in the hands of the drivers,” Helton said. “We believe the driver of the 99 understands our position at this point.” For NASCAR, the biggest issue emerging from Sunday’s incident was the fact the No. 12 car lifted into the air. “But the bigger topic is the 12 car getting airborne at a mile-and-a-half track which we typically don’t see,” Helton said. “It’s been years since we’ve seen that. So a lot of our effort yesterday, today and until we find resolve to it is figuring out how it happened, why it happened and what we can do to prevent it from happening in the future.”
Keyed Up and Key Motorsports split
posted by Doug Turnbull
Saturday March 6, 2010
If missing the first three races to date was not enough drama for the No. 90 Keyed Up Motorsports Chevy team and Casey Mears, organizational upheaval may tip the scales. A member with the team tells Frontstretch.com that Raymond Key’s Cup operation, originally formed with ties to Curtis Key’s teams in the Nationwide and Truck Series, has become its own entity. As of Monday, the team began a move into Tommy Baldwin Racing’s old shop while planning to continue trying to qualify on Cup races. However, if sponsorship for the team fails to pan out, Keyed-Up may vie for a partial schedule similar to that of the Wood Brothers and only run about 12 races the rest of the year.
Wood Brothers running FR9 for now, Roush says no big problems with new motor
posted by Doug Turnbull
Saturday March 6, 2010
Ford’s new FR9 motor has not made a speedy entrance to the Sprint Cup Series, mainly because the Ford teams need adequate supplies from the engine parts vendors and not because of performance problems, says team owner Jack Roush. Claiming the engine will perform well over the long-term, he still expects the new design to be “the Ford engine of the future” and fully in use by the end of 2010. While his four Ford teams are not running the revamped engine, Roush revealed that the Wood Brothers Ford team will run the FR9 this weekend at Atlanta and in April at Texas. Beyond that, either Roush nor Ford officials have announced a set schedule for full or future implementation of the power plants.
Crawford says truck team is 'close' on sponsorship
posted by Doug Turnbull
Saturday March 6, 2010
While never a standout in the Camping World Truck Series, Rick Crawford has experienced moderate success over his long career in NASCAR’s third-tier. After losing sponsorship at the end of 2009, his Circle Bar Racing team finds itself on the ropes, wondering how many races the future may hold. The veteran Crawford, though, remains optimistic a deal is imminent. “I would say we’re pretty close on signing a sponsor for the 2010 season and 2011 and beyond. [Not starting 2010 with a sponsor] was a matter of losing a sponsor late last year and [the prospective sponsor] getting its marketing efforts done. We’ve got the contracts ready; we’re waiting to get that signed.” Crawford started 2010 with a DNF at Daytona, placing 28th.
Justin Marks Wins The ARCA Race!
posted by Thomas Bowles
Saturday February 27, 2010
Justin Marks won a rain-shortened event at Palm Beach Saturday, collecting his first ever win in the series. Robb Brent, Blake Koch, Tom Hessert III, and Steve Arpin rounds out the top 5. Stay tuned to Frontstretch.com for plenty of post-race coverage on both the website and our Newsletter.
Looking For ARCA Coverage? We Got It!
posted by Thomas Bowles
Saturday February 27, 2010
While the ARCA race at Palm Beach may not be televised … we’ve got you covered. Our own Bryan Davis Keith is at Palm Beach all weekend and will be posting news, commentary, and features from the Florida road course both on the website and in our newsletter. Don’t miss out! And don’t forget, our own Tom Bowles is spending the weekend in Vegas, too … so we’ve got you covered from all angles. Just another reason why we’re the best seat at the track and the best view on the ‘net!
Carter Simo still plans 2010 Cup races
posted by Doug Turnbull
Friday February 19, 2010
One story lost in the shadow of Speedweeks in Daytona was the absence of Carter Simo Racing’s No. 08 car. Much of the team’s equipment was put up for auction Tuesday; however, a source tells Frontstretch.com the operation still plans to field a car in 2010, with a limited schedule of races TBD. CSR may also try and field a car for the Talladega ARCA race in April; until then, most of the team’s employees have been temporarily released and are working for other teams in the sport. In mid-2009, team owner John Carter bought the assets of beleaguered owner/driver Jeremy Mayfield, using the newly purchased equipment and Toyotas to field entries in five races with two-time champion driver Terry Labonte. Equipment issues kept the team from cracking the top 30 in those races. Road course ringer Boris Said also wielded No. 08 Fords last year at both road course races, scoring the team’s season-best finish of 24th at Infineon. Later on that season, Said and longtime partner Mark Simo split, creating the newly-named Carter Simo racing with Labonte behind the wheel. On Tuesday, CSR only placed the equipment purchased from Mayfield on the block, including five Toyotas, a race hauler, and other pit equipment and tools. However, the source says that the team still owns three old Yates chassis and an old Ganassi piece (all of which they converted to Dodges last year) in the shop, with plans on returning to the track midseason pending sponsorship. The move is similar to what happened with Carter Simo last year, in which they took a four-month break between Daytona and Infineon while preparing to race at specific tracks. CSR, which still splits its time between its shops in Charlotte and in Toccoa, Georgia, just has to modify the top of the noses on their cars before returning to the track, due to a minor, lightly-discussed rules change before the season. As for CSR’s 2009 drivers and whether they will return to the team, Boris Said currently is driving the No. 26 for Bill Jenkins’ Latitude 43 Motorsports, and is working on a long-term deal that should remove him as an option. Terry Labonte is also out of the running; he and former owner Bill Stavola formed Stavola Labonte Racing in 2009, but are currently sidelined due to a lack of sponsorship. According to sources, Labonte was offered but initially turned down a return to the No. 08. A John Carter-owned car did participate in the ARCA race at Daytona on February 6th. Former CSR driver James Hylton borrowed a car from Carter, then leased it to driver Jill George for the race. But George infamously crashed the No. 48 roof-first into the wall just 25 laps into the 80-lap Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200, finishing 31st in the 43 car field.
Parrott In As Crew Chief For Kenseth
posted by Jay Pennell
Wednesday February 17, 2010
Less than a week into the 2010 season and Roush Fenway Racing has already made a switch at the crew chief position. News broke on Wednesday that Todd Parrott would take over atop the pit box for the No. 17 team with driver Matt Kenseth, replacing Drew Blickensderfer. The Kenseth-Blickensderfer combination won last year’s Daytona 500 and backed it up by winning the next weekend at the Auto Club Speedway. Despite their strong start out of the box, the No. 17 team failed to live up to expectations in 2009, scoring seven top-5s, 12 top-10s and failing to make, along with missing the Chase. Now after an 8th place finish in Sunday’s Daytona 500, Blickensderfer is headed to the Roush Fenway Racing R&D Department and Parrott is taking over as crew chief.
Danica Out in Daytona
posted by Mike Lovecchio
Saturday February 13, 2010
A lap 79 crash abruptly ended Danica Patrick’s first career NASCAR start Saturday in Daytona. Patrick went a lap down early in the race and later got back on the lead lap on lap 55 via the “Lucky Dog” rule. As she began moving through the field, she was collected in an incident that involved 12 cars. “I’m just going to take away the fact that I know what it’s going to be like out there come next year,” she said. “I felt we would’ve finished strong if we would’ve finished, but as you can see it’s easier said than done.”
Truck Series Race Postponed Until 7:00 PM Saturday
posted by Thomas Bowles
Friday February 12, 2010
It’s official – Friday track activities were washed out by the weather. Not only was Nationwide qualifying pushed back, but the Truck race was postponed, too – they’ll run at 7:00 PM Saturday night. Be sure to come back tomorrow for the latest news ‘n’ notes from the track! |
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Raybestos Rookie Johnny Sauter FIFTH in Lucas Oil 150
Monday November 16, 2009
Where the Raybestos Rookies finished at Phoenix:
Sauter 5th
Malsam 17th
Carmichael 18th
Buescher 23rd
JOHNNY SAUTER IN THE No. 13 FUN SAND/RODNEY ADKINS/CURB RECORDS CHEVROLET WAS THE TOP RAYBESTOS ROOKIE IN TONIGHT’S RACE AT PHOENIX.
NOTES:
- Sauter scored a fifth-place finish in tonight’s Lucas Oil 150, his seventh top-five of the 2009 season. He claimed Raybestos Rookie of the Race honors for the 13th time this season and third consecutive event.
- DID YOU KNOW? A Raybestos® Rookie has scored top-10 finishes in 19 of the 24 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races this season.
- This is the second consecutive top-five finish by a Raybestos Rookie at Phoenix. Other Raybestos Rookies to score top-fives at Phoenix
1996: Bryan Reffner, fourth (spring race)
1997: Kenny Irwin, fourth
1998: Andy Houston, fourth (spring race)
1998: Greg Biffle, second
2000: Kurt Busch, fourth
2003: Carl Edwards, fourth
2008: Brian Scott, fourth
- UNOFFICIALLY Sauter is fifth in the series championship standings, 84 points behind fourth-place Todd Bodine and 13 ahead of sixth-place Brian Scott.
SAUTER: DID YOUR TRUCK DRIVE DIFFERENTLY IN TRAFFIC? “It’s substantially tighter. I mean the farther back you go the worse it is. It is what it is and we’ll go to Homestead. It’s frustrating. I’m proud of everybody.” ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO HOMESTEAD NEXT WEEK? “I like it for various reasons. It’s the last race of the year [smiles]. It’s a cool racetrack. The banking there is a lot of fun. If you’re not working on the bottom you can move around substantially. The progressive banking or whatever they call it, the last time I ran there, it’s been a couple of years, but the last time I did I think I qualified in the top-15 or something like that in the Cup race and was running 12th and got wrecked. It’s a really good place, I love it there. We’ll just see what we got when we get there.” YOU HAVE A COMFORTABLE LEAD IN THE RAYBESTOS ROOKIE STANDINGS AND YOU HAVE AN EXCELLENT CHANCE TO FINISH TOP-FIVE IN POINTS. “That’s good. That’d be huge for a team that was 22nd in points a year ago.”
TAYLER MALSAM, No. 81 ONE-EIGHTY TOYOTA: YOU WERE RUNNING IN THE TOP-10 LATE IN THE RACE AND THEN WHAT HAPPENED? “The 16 just got into us at the end of the race. I guess he doesn’t know how to use the brakes or something. I’m just real proud of the guys. They did an awesome job of giving me a truck. We thought we weren’t any good but we ended up being pretty good. We’ll just go get ‘em next weekend. He just got inside of us. I don’t want to say anything until I see the replay but I’ve had two people come up to me and say he ran over me.” IT APPEARED THAT YOU MADE YOUR TRUCK BETTER THROUGHOUT THE RACE. “We just worked hard all weekend and that’s all you can do. To get wrecked on the last lap stinks but that’s just how it goes sometimes.”
RICKY CARMICHAEL, No. 31 MONSTER ENERGY CHEVROLET: We kept the fenders on it. We’d have liked to have finished a little better but we can’t demand too much. We threw this thing together and we’ll live to fight another day. We lost a lot of positions the first pit stop. I think if that wouldn’t have happened we would have never went a lap down and would have got a ten times better finish. That’s the way it goes. It’s racing. The truck was pretty good. I think I needed a little more front left downforce. That was my biggest problem. Like I said, I’m happy for the team and those guys worked hard. We had a decent qualifying round and we’ll get better.” DID YOU MAKE THE TRUCK BETTER DURING THE RACE? “When you compare how we unloaded to how we raced, ten times better. I’m happy for them. Like I said, we’ve got some work to do but we’ll start fresh next year with a whole bunch of new KHI equipment. I’m pretty optimistic about that, very happy for that day to come.” ARE YOU LEARNING MORE ABOUT WHAT YOU NEED TO DO TO MAKE THE TRUCK BETTER DURING THE RACE? “Yeah absolutely. You know, just getting laps like last week and this weekend and being competitive, I’m learning a lot. So when I get to come back to these places next year I’ll have already been here so I expect out of myself to be a lot better, yes.”
JAMES BUESCHER, No. 10 INTERNATIONAL MAXXFORCE DIESEL FORD: WHAT HAPPENED? “Just run out of room I guess. It’s just hard racing. TJ and I were running hard down the backstretch. I haven’t talked to TJ yet but, I don’t know, just got run all the way down to the grass and tried to hold on to it and give him all the room I could and couldn’t give him room so run up the track, hit him and it sent me spinning. The MAXXFORCE truck was pretty good early on in the race and about halfway through the race the brakes started fading pretty bad and the truck had gotten really, really loose everywhere. We tried to adjust on it a little bit and I think we made it worse. I was wishing we had some more tires in the pits with 20 to go.” DID YOU MAKE THE TRUCK BETTER DURING THE RACE? “I think we made it worse. The first pit stop we didn’t adjust on it at all. It was pretty good at the beginning. Then the second run was a little longer on the tires and a little more fuel burned off so it affected the way the truck was handling and we were trying to set up for the end of the race by making it better at the end of a long run and made it worse in the beginning of the run so just got us way behind, I guess trying to hard to catch back up from getting behind. Just ran out of room, just hard r acing. We’ll go to Homestead and finish this deal up.”
Raybestos® brand brake and chassis parts are produced by affiliated companies in Affinia’s Global Brake and Chassis Group, the leading manufacturer of braking systems and chassis parts in the transportation industry. The brake line includes everything from brake drums to rotors, pads, shoes and hydraulic parts, while the chassis line features tie rods, ball points, idler arms and sway bar links. Raybestos brand braking and chassis systems are also the only systems used by NASCAR’s Joe Gibbs Racing in competition. For more information about Raybestos brakes, visit Raybestos.com. For more information on Raybestos Chassis visit RaybestosChassis.com
Affinia Group Inc. is a global leader in the on and off-highway replacement products and service industry. In North America the Affinia family of brands includes WIX® Filters, Raybestos®, AIMCO® and BrakePro® brake products, and McQuay-Norris® and Raybestos™ Chassis parts. South American and European brands include Nakata®, Filtron®, Urba® and Quinton Hazell®. For more information, visit affiniagroup.com.
* Affinia Group Inc.’s affiliated companies include Brake Parts Inc. WIX Filtration Corp LLC, Affinia Products Corp LLC and other high quality manufacturers of the Affinia family of brands.
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This report was provided by an outside PR source and posted by Beth Lunkenheimer.
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