Nascar Rumors And News

NASCAR Silly Season Gains Momentum

Wow, what a week for NASCAR fans! We got to see a pretty interesting finish with Matt Kenseth hanging it all out sideways in an attempt to catch Denny Hamlin at the line. Congrats to Hamlin for finally breaking the ice in 2011, after being a dominant force in 2010. We had the “pan gate” at Michigan with all 3 Joe Gibbs Racing cars showing up with very heavy “unapproved” oil pans, then being told to change them before getting on track. We’ve now had 10 different winners for the season, which definitely keeps things interesting……

Rumors are flying all over the place, with silly season just about at full song; and we aren’t even at the half way point in the season. Was also reported this week that Red Bull Racing would be leaving the sport after 2011, also rumored that Jay Frye may be bringing in investors to take the team over… possibly with Mark Martin.  Another rumor has Greg Zipadelli leaving JGR to join Stewart/Haas as crew chief for Smoke, VERY interesting indeed. How about the ongoing “top secret” talks between Carl Edwards and Gibbs Racing? Word there is that Edwards might possibly take over the Home Depot ride, and Joey Logano would be moved to a 4th Gibbs car if sponsorship can be found. Personally, I think Cousin Carl would be smart to stay at Roush….

Right in line with “Danica mania” and her possible full time move to NASCAR, is the possibility of Andretti Autosports also coming to the NASCAR ranks. Lots of owners would be sure to be hungry for a piece of the Go Daddy dollars. There just seems to be no end to the possibilities of what next season may hold. One last piece of possibly interesting news is the Fox network making comments about shifting a few of the Sprint Cup telecasts to Speed TV for next season. I have already heard the screams from people on the NASCAR channel on Sirius/XM that would have to upgrade their cable packages to get Speed programming.

Until next time, keep the shiny part up.

Mirror Driving: Red Bull Reaction, Spoiled Oil And - The Frontstretch

, And ordered their removal. The items were not used in competition, so there is not a points penalty pending – at this time. Conjecture seems to be that the pans feature extra machining to allow the engine to sit lower in the cross member to allow more travel, getting the car lower to the ground.

Keep in mind that one of the key advantages of Ford’s fabled FR9 engine is it’s low center of gravity. If you remember as well, Kyle Busch’s car was penalized for sitting 1/16” too low in post-race inspection following last weekend’s race at Pocono. Busch’s car had some front fender damage as well from contact with the tire – perhaps the culprit of some excessive travel. Might this not be the first time the pans have been used in competition?

Kyle Busch said in his AM press conference that there was a manufacturer issue with the front springs at Pocono – however brother Kurt mentioned during his media session he did see the confiscated pans, how far they had cut down to fit into the cross member and how “heavy” they appeared.

Michigan International Speedway to Receive Facelift

In recent years, has made significant changes and improvements for spectators and the media. The big news surrounding changes at Michigan International Speedway this morning was regarding the track itself. Following the August 2011 race, the track will undergo a complete repaving, including grinding off two-inches of track and then applying the new asphalt. After Sunday’s race, pit road will be repaved first.

I asked driver Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 U.S. Army Chevrolet (who appeared this morning with 2011 ’s older track that have undergone a repaving have lost much of their character in process – such as Charlotte Motor Speedway.

“I was talking to someone a couple of weeks ago and they’re talking about turns three and four and I said, ‘Well, you realize it’s settled down there.’ The track has got two different – it’s almost got progressive banking and that’s something that the track has developed over time just due to the age of it. That’s character and that’s made for good racing.”

The real part of the equation for engineer Newman, are what rubber meets the road.

“No matter how good of a repaving crew there is, they’re still going to end up with character – and character comes with time. We don’t want it to be one grove obviously, it’s a super-wide track and it’s really a balance of what Goodyear does with the tires they bring here and how they marble up, what kind of debris they throw as far as making it a one groove track or giving us the ability to move around and get that clean air and make those passes.

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