PPistone's Blog: Pete's Pit Stop
NASCAR finally got the Sprint Cup Series schedule right - for the most part.
 
After finally admitting the failed experiment of running at Auto Club Speedway on Labor Day weekend was a bust, NASCAR shuffled around some dates that will turn out to be a win for everyone.
 
Bringing Labor Day back to the Southeast and Atlanta Motor Speedway is a great move and short of returning the event to its rightful owners in Darlington, is a homerun.
 
The track will no doubt sell more tickets than it does to its annual October race, which gets lost in the sea of pro and college football as well as cool weather. An end-of-summer race under the lights on the last holiday weekend of the season is a great opportunity for fans.
 
Fontana slides back into the Chase, off the heat of Labor Day weekend and into the championship season spotlight.
 
And moving Talladega futher back into the Chase - and away from Atlanta's fall date so both tracks don't have to wrestle for the same fans - is smart.
 
Plus how about four off weekends! That's also a great move that will break up the grind.
 
In all I'm pleased with the schedule on the Cup side and like the addition of Iowa to the Nationwide Series and Chicagoland hosting a truck race.
Posted: 8/20/2008 8:35:29 AM Total Comments: 0
The split personality of Tony Stewart was on display last weekend. After visiting with a terminally ill child and then donating an assortment of items including bullet proof vests to the Indianapolis Police Department, Stewart slipped into his other persona during the USAC Silver Crown Series race at O'Reilly Raceway Park.

If you've seen the fan video then you know all about the USAC official holding Stewart's driver on pit road - doing what he was told by the tower - then assaulted verbally and physically moments later by an angry Smoke.

Stewart slapped and shoved the official, throwing his headsets to the ground, before storming away. It was an action that would have gotten him thrown out of pretty much every other sanctioning body inthe country.

But not USAC.

USAC will meet with Stewart this week and I'll bet the family fortune (not much mind you) Stewart will have his wrists slapped with a lot less force than he used on the official.

Tony fans say he's passionate about racing. His detractors says he's a bully and needs to return to anger management.

I'm somewhere in the middle.

I don't think that all the charity work and donations he makes shoudl give him a free pass for stuff like what happened last Thursday.

But I also think it is cool to see someone who is such a throwback to guys like A.J. Foyt, who not surprisingly is Stewart's hero.

USAC got some major national attention of a niche series in the process and I'll bet Stewart has already talked with the official.

Maybe Stewart has it figured out anyways. He can get all of the anger at officials out of the way at USAC and short track events before each NASCAR weekend where an incident like what happened at ORP would have landed him at least a week or two suspension.
Posted: 7/28/2008 10:30:06 AM Total Comments: 8
The IRL should thank its lucky stars it has Danica Patrick around. Even in the post open wheel merger world, Patrick is the lightning rod for attention. Whether its television interviews, posing in magazines, showing up on the red carpet at the Emmys or being in the middle of arguments with fellow drivers, Patrick keeps the IRL in the mainstream media eyes.

Her celebrated tangles with Dan Wheldon and Ryan briscoe however don't hold a candle to the throwdown between Patrick and Milka Duno last Saturday after a practice session at Mid-Ohio.

In an internet video sensation, and a clip that has been run on virtually every television station across the country, Patrick calmly walks into Duno's pit stall to discuss her continually slow driving.

But before she can get out half a sentence, Duno begins to yell at Patrick and throws a towel in her face - not once, but twice.

It's amazing to me that Patrick didn't go ballistic in the wake of Duno's actions and unfortunately the video ends shortly after she asks the crew - standing there pretty much motionless throughout the encounter - "What the hell was that?"

Duno is a rolling roadblock but Patrick has been blamed by other drivers as a blocker in her own right.

But who is right or wrong isn't the issue. It's how Patrick contiunues to be the face of the sport and every move she makes, right or wrong, is news.
Posted: 7/23/2008 10:19:09 AM Total Comments: 2
This weekend is my annual "home" game of the NASCAR season, if you want to call Chicagoland Speedway a home race for me. I live in the Chicago area, but the speedway is a bit far from the actual city - about a 60 mile one-way trip.

But at least I can sleep in my own bed every night this weekend, albeit for a few hours.

And we have a couple of new wrinkles in the mix at Chicagoland this year - the debut of the new Sprint Cup car and of course lights.

For the first time since NASCAR has competed at the 1.5-mile track, we'll do it under the lights with both the Nationwide Series and Sprint Cup Series Friday and Saturday nights.

For fans, it's a great move. Getting out of the hot July sun for the relief of the cool summer evening should be a welcome relief for all. And of course the beauty of big league stock cars racing under the lights is unmatched.

For media, it's not the best scenario with the late nights ahead and for my newspaper and television reporter friends who will be sweating out those deadlines that come pretty quickly when you cover a prime time race.

I also feel for the short tracks around the country, which once again will be forced with going up against NASCAR in prime time on the two biggest nights of local track racing.

But overall this year's Chicago visit has a new feel to it - hopefully the racing will live up to the excitement.

And even better, we have the next weekend off.
Posted: 7/9/2008 8:50:58 AM Total Comments: 0

I spent the weekend in Milwaukee covering the Craftsman Truck Series and Nationwide Series races and couldn't have been happier.

Driving an hour from my house to the track in West Allis, Wisconsin was sure better than dealing with the horror of flying anywhere these days, which is what I faced with a trip to Sonoma.

But that would have been nothing compared with facing the prospect of watching Sunday's race at Infineon, yet another example of what NASCAR should bail out of road course racing immediately.

Grand Am, Indy Cars, ALMS, F-1 - those are all fine road racing series.

But putting stock cars on a road circuit is just plain dumb and about as boring a thing to watch as I can imagine.

Thankfully I had two great nights of racing at The Milwaukee Mile to fill my weekend capped off by an afternoon nap Sunday while most of the Cup race wore on - and of course a Cubs sweep of the White Sox to put a cherry on that sundae.

Who are the Cubs playing in August when Watkins Glen rolls around?
Posted: 6/23/2008 1:14:12 AM Total Comments: 0
Watching FOX televise a NASCAR race is like sitting through a motorized version of "Hee Haw" sometimes. But I'll take that over a presentation from TNT anytime.
 
Now that FOX has handed over the telecasts to TNT for its six race summer run, listening to races on MRN or PRN was never a better option.
 
While there are bits and pieces of the TNT telecast I enjoy - Wally Dallenbach and Kyle Petty are great in the booth together and Ralph Sheheen and Matt Yokum are fine on pit road - the overriding sentiment that comes through is of stuffiness and arrogance.
 
And I'm sorry that it all trickles down from the top and in this case it's lead anchor Bill Weber.
 
I know it's vogue to bash Weber but he has earned most of it. While he can sometimes have a way with words in the pre-race show, his tone and manner as the play-by-play guy seems to suck the life out of the entire telecast.
 
Although Darrell Waltrip, Jeff Hammond and Larry McReynolds take the good old boy bit too far, TNT's team has a buttoned-down feeling about it that is nearly unbearable.
 
Production quality isn't bad and it's hard to make any race at Pocono interesting, but last week's debut was to say the least less than thrilling.
 
My answer - set up the patio chairs, make yourself a cool drink and listen to the excellent radio broadcasts this summer. The fresh air will do you good.
Posted: 6/12/2008 1:57:02 PM Total Comments: 6
Reports have Jamie McMurray the odd man out at Roush Fenway Racing.

The Charlotte Observer and its racing website both quote sources saying McMurray will be the odd man out when Roush contracts his team from five to four cars to get in line with NASCAR's team policy in 2009.

It shouldn't come as a shock to McMurray, who after bursting onto the scene in spectacular fashion with his win at Charlotte subbing for Sterling Marlin in 2002, has been pretty much a non-entity in the Sprint Cup Series since.

He did win the photo finish in last July's Daytona race and has been coming on a bit during the last few weeks of the 2008 season, with a top ten finish at Dover on Sunday.

But David Ragan's upswing made McMurray the odd man out in Roush's mind when the time came to skrink to the four-car maximum.

Will another team take a chance at McMurray or will he join the likes of Jeremy Mayfield and David Stremme, recent Cup regulars who even with some success found themselves out of NASCAR's top division when the finishes weren't coming?

McMurray is personable and a good spokesperson, which should help his cause. And he does have two Cup wins to his credit.

But that may not be enough to keep McMurray from slipping down the ladder and possibly into the trucks or Nationwide Series in 2009.
Posted: 6/1/2008 10:52:20 PM Total Comments: 0

I wouldn't get in line to buy tickets for a Sprint Cup race at Kentucky Speedway just yet.

Just because Speedway Motorsports Inc. bought the track this week, it is far from a slam dunk that a Cup race will come to the track.

Bruton Smith may own the track now but he doesn't have the ultimate say in moving a date from one of his other facilities.

NASCAR has that final decision and I don't see anything different about Kentucky Speedway now than what the sanctioning body has said all along.

You'll remember NASCAR flat out told Jerry Carroll and the rest of the people who built Kentucky that it was not interested in putting a Cup race at the track.

But that didn't stop them from building what turned out to be a beautiful, state-of-the-art facility.

While NASCAR was happy to bring the second and third tier Nationwide and truck series to Kentucky, it had no desire to use one of the precious Cup dates at the track.

That of course led to a lawsuit with the Kentucky track management bringing legal action against NASCAR for not granting them a date.

Kentucky is in an over-saturated market for the Sprint Cup Series with Michigan, Indianapolis, Bristol and Chicago all within about a six hour drive from the region.

As the sanctioning body tries to grow the sport, there are other geographic areas to expand into including the Pacific Northwest and the Mountain Region, not to mention the coveted New York market.

Kentucky is not in any of those areas and thus now, just as when the track was first built, doesn't fit the criteria of realignment and expansion.

Smith disagrees with the geography of course.

"It’s still a great distance away from those places,” Smith said. “Also, I grew up in this area (North Carolina) and we had Darlington 90 miles away and North Carolina Speedway 70 miles north. I grew up on that and I’m not sure it doesn’t add greatly to the sport.”

But wait a minute. Apparently this is different from that scenario in Smith's mind since he was the one that unsaturated the Southeast by shutting down Rockingham and North Wilkesboro.

Now Smith can talk all about taking a date from New Hampshire or Atlanta or any of his other holdings and bringing it to Kentucky, but it must be approved by NASCAR.

Unlike when he harvested Rockingham and North Wilkesboro for dates to bring to Texas and Las Vegas - both markets that weren't serviced by a Cup Series race - stripping one for Kentucky doesn't broaden the circuit.

And I think NASCAR will stand by that view and not allow Smith to transfer a Cup date to Kentucky.

Both track heads at New Hampshire and Atlanta - Jerry Gappens and Ed Clark - vehemently deny their tracks would be losing dates next year anyways.

"Bruton has not given me any, any indication at all that he's looking to change anything," Gappens said. "I don't think this will have any impact. I think there's more to the puzzle that he's got to finish completing to do some of the things he's thinking."

"I'm tired of people bringing that up, because I get so sick of answering it, I'm about to scream," Clark said. "You can go ask Bruton, you can ask me – there is no chance. It is not going to happen."

Both bring up good points. Clark and Atlanta seem close to getting the coveted Labor Day weekend race in 2009 to go along with the track's annual March race, a move that would see AMS swap fall dates with California.

New Hampshire will undergo a massive reconstruction and it's hard to believe Smith would spend that kind of money on a track with only one Cup date.

And NASCAR likely views having two races a year at New Hampshire in the Boston market and Atlanta as more lucrative than holding one in a middle-tier metro area like Kentucky, which is near Cincinnati.

Speculation is Smith may be on more of a buying spree with Pocono and Dover now in his sights, both with four Cup dates between them.

Pocono doesn't need two dates and moving one from there would be a wise move.

But taking it to Kentucky still doesn't make business sense for NASCAR.

This story is far from over, but I have a feeling the folks of Kentucky still have a long way to go before a Sprint Cup race winds up in the Bluegrass State.
Posted: 5/23/2008 10:32:24 PM Total Comments: 1
Where did Kyle Busch head to after last weekend's busy NASCAR weekend in Richmond? To Madison, Wisconsin of course.

Busch went up to Madison International Speedway last Sunday afternoon to race in the ASA Midwest Tour event in his asphalt late model stock car. He's been up to MIS before and plans to race in about 15-50 late model races around the country this season.

It's great for fans who don't get a chance to see these NASCAR superstars up close at a Cup weekend when they show up at a local track. And rather than just making laps in an uncompetetive local car, guys like Busch, Tony Stewart and Matt Kenseth have their own potent late models that they take on the road with them. Make no mistake, they/re there to win, not just make an appearance.

If you get a chance to support your short track - and please before it's too late - look for the extra treat of seeing some of these NASCAR stars take on the locals.

Most of the time they're relaxed and friendly, a much different scene than we get to see in the high-pressured world of the Cup garage.

And a lot of the time, these guys are running upfront and showing off their skills.

It's a great way to spend a summer evening.
Posted: 5/7/2008 8:23:39 AM Total Comments: 0
This week's anouncement that Lowe's Motor Speedway has added a burnout and celebration competition to this year's Sprint All-Star Race has just about sealed my opinion of the whole event.

It's a waste of time.

I've never been a fan of the race, although was slightly intrigued back in the day when the idea first came up.

But since its inception, the event has evolved into a gigantic carnival that usually ends way past midnight after all the starts and stops and pageantry.

I can't imagine the amount of money teams spend preparing for this event, which is usually doubled in repair bills and body work by the time it's over.

It's also tough to explain what the heck this race really is. Other sport's "all-star" events are actual games. They don't give each side 5 outs and 14 players on the field in baseball's mid-summer classic or count a halfcourt shot for 10 points in the NBA mid-season affair. Why NASCAR and Lowe's Motor Speedway feel the need to jack up this event is beyond me.

If NASCAR really wants to showcase its sport as an all-star event, which really every week on the regular season schedule is, why not just add a 37th race to the slate and rotate the date around the country every year?

Make it a real race though, not the convuluted made-for-TV affair we have now (how SPEED can dedicate over 70 hours to this event is beyond me, although anytime we have less PINKS is fine), and bring the sport to places on a rotating random basis.

Who wouldn't like to see a Cup race once every four or five years at Rockingham, Gateway, the Milwaukee Mile, Nashville Superspeedway or the best of them all, Iowa Speedway?

To me that would be a great way to shine the spotlight on the series in a much better way than the "wreckers or checkers" event (over/under on Mike Joy using that phrase in the FOX telecast is about 44) in Charlotte we must endure every year.

And watching a driver do a real victory celebration or burnout at such an event would be much more satisfying than what we'll witness during the LMS contest this year.
Posted: 4/24/2008 11:29:29 AM Total Comments: 2
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