NASCAR Silly Season

[Jigga]

Great race by the DEI boys today i hope Menard will find work he has been rumored to RYR to drive the 28 though

Not a rumor. It's a done deal. Another Ford joins the ranks as Yates Racing (Robert's son Doug runs the show over there now) expands to 3 teams. Will likely go to four cars in 2010 when Roush Fenway pares down to four teams (all teams are capped at four cars starting in 2010).

Oh, and "Logano" has only one "a". I live just down the road from his grandparents. No, I don't know them, sorry.

Which will still be one more win than he gets next season. They are rushing that kid. Taking over the Home Depot #20 at age 19? Yeah that's not much to ask. He's the next Casey Atwood.

Or the next Kyle Busch.

[floydnimrod]

Great race by the DEI boys today i hope Menard will find work he has been rumored to RYR to drive the 28 though

Not a rumor. It's a done deal. Another Ford joins the ranks as Yates Racing (Robert's son Doug runs the show over there now) expands to 3 teams. Will likely go to four cars in 2010 when Roush Fenway pares down to four teams (all teams are capped at four cars starting in 2010).

Oh, and "Logano" has only one "a". I live just down the road from his grandparents. No, I don't know them, sorry.

Which will still be one more win than he gets next season. They are rushing that kid. Taking over the Home Depot #20 at age 19? Yeah that's not much to ask. He's the next Casey Atwood.

Or the next Kyle Busch.

If he's the next Kyle Busch, we'll wait three or four seasons for huge success.

Which is what I think is going to happen. He's not going be contending for a championship the next three years.

I really hope Scott Speed does well, Red Bull is turning into my favortie team, I just wish they would have kept Allmendinger after all they've invested in him, and went to three cars.

[infrared41]

I don't think they're rushing him, Gibbs is a smart organization. But as far as him being the next Casey Atwood, with all this hype, that may not be too far off. He's got that smug arrogance that are Gibbs drivers, if Gibbs doesn't have the most arrogant "my crap doesn't smell" drivers I don't know who does. I like the drivers, but they are arrogant and Logano fits in with them. I still think he's going to do better than Scott Speed will.

Logano will do better than Speed because he's in better equipment.

[gueman]

I am a fan and I think the season is way to long. I start to loose intrest after Labor Day. The start in mid Feb is fine but it should wrap up the weekend before the baseball playoffs start. That would be 33 weekends, and if you drop 3, one for Easter, one for Mothers Day, and one floater, it would give you a 30 race schedule, plenty long enough.

[floydnimrod]

More News:

In this week's race there is a lot of unusual entries. AJ Allmendinger is driving the #00 for Michael Waltrip Raing. Mike Skinner is in the 84 (He's run a few races this year for that car), Ken Schrader is back in the 96. Derrike Cope is driving the 75 car, which he owns. Brad Keselowski will make his Cup debut in the 25 as will Bryan Clauson in the 40, and Scott Speed in the 82 (I was hoping they's go #85 for that car). Bill Elliott is in the 21 and Cahd McCumbee in the 45. There are also 47 cars on the Entry List, meaning 4 will go home.

Stewart-Haas also announced that the US Army will sponsor the 39 car, to be driven by Ryan Newman.

[Jigga]

More News:

In this week's race there is a lot of unusual entries. AJ Allmendinger is driving the #00 for Michael Waltrip Raing. Mike Skinner is in the 84 (He's run a few races this year for that car), Ken Schrader is back in the 96. Derrike Cope is driving the 75 car, which he owns. Brad Keselowski will make his Cup debut in the 25 as will Bryan Clauson in the 40, and Scott Speed in the 82 (I was hoping they's go #85 for that car). Bill Elliott is in the 21 and Cahd McCumbee in the 45. There are also 47 cars on the Entry List, meaning 4 will go home.

Stewart-Haas also announced that the US Army will sponsor the 39 car, to be driven by Ryan Newman.

I don't forsee Awesome Bill making the race, but he used to be my dad's favorite driver, so I'm pulling for him.

I'm really excited to see how Keselowski does in his debut. I really think he's going to be a hell of a driver in the near future.

As for Logano, I don't think Gibbs is expecting him to set the world on fire or anything, but I think they think he'll be about 15-20 in the standings next year. I think that would be good enough for Rookie of the Year status.

[infrared41]

More News:

In this week's race there is a lot of unusual entries. AJ Allmendinger is driving the #00 for Michael Waltrip Raing. Mike Skinner is in the 84 (He's run a few races this year for that car), Ken Schrader is back in the 96. Derrike Cope is driving the 75 car, which he owns. Brad Keselowski will make his Cup debut in the 25 as will Bryan Clauson in the 40, and Scott Speed in the 82 (I was hoping they's go #85 for that car). Bill Elliott is in the 21 and Cahd McCumbee in the 45. There are also 47 cars on the Entry List, meaning 4 will go home.

Stewart-Haas also announced that the US Army will sponsor the 39 car, to be driven by Ryan Newman.

I don't forsee Awesome Bill making the race, but he used to be my dad's favorite driver, so I'm pulling for him.

I'm really excited to see how Keselowski does in his debut. I really think he's going to be a hell of a driver in the near future.

As for Logano, I don't think Gibbs is expecting him to set the world on fire or anything, but I think they think he'll be about 15-20 in the standings next year. I think that would be good enough for Rookie of the Year status.

I agree. If we're talking "up and coming" drivers then Keselowski is the one I believe will end up being the best of the bunch. He's a good driver and he's a smart driver. Reminds me a little of J.J.

EDIT: I just noticed that was my 4000th post. Damn I waste a lot of time here. Oh well, I'm good with number 4000 taking place in a NASCAR thread.

[TBGKon]

Another thing to keep an eye and ear on is the COT introduction into the Nationwide Series. There are rumors that instead of using the same models as the Sprint Cup, that the Nationwide series would go to "pony cars" like the Ford Mustang, Chevy Camaro, Dodge Challenger, and Toyota Solara. I would have to say that this might be a good idea to differentiate the two series.

[Jigga]

Another thing to keep an eye and ear on is the COT introduction into the Nationwide Series. There are rumors that instead of using the same models as the Sprint Cup, that the Nationwide series would go to "pony cars" like the Ford Mustang, Chevy Camaro, Dodge Challenger, and Toyota Solara. I would have to say that this might be a good idea to differentiate the two series.

That would be great. The big budget teams just use NNS as NSCS practice for their drivers. If they differentiate the two enough, maybe Busch, Stewart, Bowyer, Edwards, et al, can stick to their series and let the "minor-leaguers" have their shots at it.

[floydnimrod]

Another thing to keep an eye and ear on is the COT introduction into the Nationwide Series. There are rumors that instead of using the same models as the Sprint Cup, that the Nationwide series would go to "pony cars" like the Ford Mustang, Chevy Camaro, Dodge Challenger, and Toyota Solara. I would have to say that this might be a good idea to differentiate the two series.

That would be great. The big budget teams just use NNS as NSCS practice for their drivers. If they differentiate the two enough, maybe Busch, Stewart, Bowyer, Edwards, et al, can stick to their series and let the "minor-leaguers" have their shots at it.

I always loved that idea, mainly for greg's points.

[oddball]

Another thing to keep an eye and ear on is the COT introduction into the Nationwide Series. There are rumors that instead of using the same models as the Sprint Cup, that the Nationwide series would go to "pony cars" like the Ford Mustang, Chevy Camaro, Dodge Challenger, and Toyota Solara. I would have to say that this might be a good idea to differentiate the two series.

That would be great. The big budget teams just use NNS as NSCS practice for their drivers. If they differentiate the two enough, maybe Busch, Stewart, Bowyer, Edwards, et al, can stick to their series and let the "minor-leaguers" have their shots at it.

As of right now, the cars that will run are the Toyota Camry, Ford Fusion, Chevy Malibu, and the Dodge Challenger. Now the Challenger does have the nose of the street version, but I foresee that going because at 180 mph, that's going to create some horrible drag and also lift the nose of the car and make it push, so they may end up making it a decal. Here are some pictures of the Richmond test. These COTs will go into effect in 2010 at Daytona.

As far as the Cup guys running in the Nationwide Series... stop. That's a media created problem. The Bush/Nationwide Series was made on Cup drivers driving in this series and current Cup drivers have said that when they were in the Bush Series that they welcomed the Cup drivers because when they beat the Cup drivers, they knew they beat the best of the best. Cup drivers will always drive the Nationwide Series as they are racers and the race is the day before. There is nothing you can do to change that.

[floydnimrod]

Since qualifying was rained out neither Speed, Keselowski, Clauson, or Cope made the race.

Also Patrick Carpentier was fired. Mike Wallace will race the 10 this week and AJ Allmendinger will drive it the rest of the year.

[infrared41]

Another thing to keep an eye and ear on is the COT introduction into the Nationwide Series. There are rumors that instead of using the same models as the Sprint Cup, that the Nationwide series would go to "pony cars" like the Ford Mustang, Chevy Camaro, Dodge Challenger, and Toyota Solara. I would have to say that this might be a good idea to differentiate the two series.

I've heard it's basically a knock off of The Cup COT. In the long run it will help the low budget teams but in the short term it's gonna hurt because they'll all have to but new stuff.

[floydnimrod]

A bit of "Number News"

Petty Enterprises announced they will return to running the 44 car next year. The 45 car will only be raced by Kyle Petty next year, which only a few races. Some of you may recall Petty raced the 44 car until his son (Adam, who drove the 45 car) was killed in a wreck at New Hampshire.

The 44 car was driven by Dale Jarrett and David Reutimann this year, for Michael Waltrip Racing. Next year Reutimann will be back in the 00 where he started out this year. Michael McDowell is out of a ride for next year and Waltrip will only run a third car if a sponsor is found and that sponsor apoorves of a drvier. The 44 crew will go with Reutimann to the 00 car. The 00 crew will go to the 47, a car driven by Marcos Ambrose for JTG Racing, which signed a techinal alliance with MWR for next year.

[TBGKon]

In case some people missed it, looks like DEI and Ganassi will merge for 2009, fielding cars with Truex, Montoya, Almirola, and one other car. The only speed bump in the way right now would be to which manufacturer do they go with (DEI was Chevy, Ganassi was Dodge)

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/motor/nasca...si-merger_N.htm

[oddball]

To answer the question, it'll be Chevy.

[totc]

Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates?

WTF is this, a law firm???

[epper]

NASCAR Bans Testing in 2009

Very interesting. The best thing about this is that it includes ALL nascar sanctioned tracks, meaning that Hendrick couldn't just go test a million times at places like Nashville and Kentucky. I really hope this narrows the playing field.

[Frenchie]

Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates?

WTF is this, a law firm???

LMAO!!!!

And what if, manufacturers anticipated problems actually lead to some of the merger we've been hearing about?

ABC will have to allow MORE time for post race interviews...(wait, they don't allow ANY time for POST race interviews....)

INTERVIEWER: "So Martin, how does it feel to finally get your second Career win?"

TRUEX JR: "Well this #1 Bass Pro Shops Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Daimler-Chrysler-Chevrolet Malibu SS was so well tuned today that ...."

[infrared41]

NASCAR Bans Testing in 2009

Very interesting. The best thing about this is that it includes ALL nascar sanctioned tracks, meaning that Hendrick couldn't just go test a million times at places like Nashville and Kentucky. I really hope this narrows the playing field.

I think anything that can level the playing field has to help the sport. The question is will this level the field or simply send Hendrick, Roush-Fenway, and Gibbs to non-NASCAR sanctioned tracks? I like the idea of trying to save money but as usual the rich teams will find a way around it. We'll see what happens.

Having teams like Petty and Yates be competitive again can only help NASCAR. They need to find some way to make it worthwhile for those teams to show up every week. Right now it's the big three, an occasional RCR or Penske upset, and everybody else.