This weekend is the ever popular NASCAR short track, Saturday night race at Richmond International Raceway (RIR). Coming into this race, some drivers are already locked into the Chase and a few aren’t. There are a few interesting options. Dale Earnhardt Jr. HAS to do well. If Brad Keselowski performs well, that takes him out of the wildcard position (depending on others finishing positions) and creates a new wildcard in the form of Tony Stewart or Dale Earnhardt Jr.. Depending on how they do. Before the race starts, the possibilities are rather engaging.
That is, if the weather cooperates. Right now the forecast is for 30% change of rain/T-storms for Saturday night!
Race Weekend Schedule
Wonderful Pistachios 400 at RIR
- NOON ET First Practice on ESPN2
- 2:45 PM ET Practice on ESPN2
- 5:30 PM ET Qualifying on ESPN2
Saturday 9/10
- 7:30 PM ET Wonderful Pistachios 400 live on ABC
Below are some stats, as I look at the top-10 in a couple of categories… wondering how this changes things. (Dale Earnhardt Jr. is ranked 13th in the driver ratings scale.)
[click to continue reading…]
Trevor Bayne
Trevor Bayne will be missing the Friday night race at Richmond International Raceway this weekend (April 29th) due to the resurgence of symptoms that is being considered related to the insect bite he acquired earlier this month (April).
Trevor Bayne is fourth in the points of the NASCAR Nationwide Series points standings and this absence could very well put Trevor in a points hole that he may not be able to recover from, considering the nature of the new, 2011 points system that was instigated for this season.
No driver has been named to run the No. 16 Roush Fenway Nationwide entry as of yet.
-
This is a wacky development and I hope it’s a quick turnaround for Trevor Bayne in getting through this silly situation. It has to suck to be in his shoes, dealing with this knowing that things are outside his sphere of control, to be out of a race because of a silly bug bite. And I hope that’s all it stays as, a silly bug bite.
Get well Trevor!
[ Yahoo Sports ]
This April 28th, the fourth annual Denny Hamlin Short Track Showdown will be taking place at Richmond International Raceway.
The event features several NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers and local drivers mixing it up and banging fenders in a Late Model Stock Car event. Yep, NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers getting behind the wheel of a different kind of car. I cringe worrying for the locals. LOL.
Drivers slated to participate in the event (at the time of this press) include Denny Hamlin, Tony Stewart, Kasey Kahne, Michael Waltrip, Joey Logano, Trevor Bayne, Hermie Sadler, Kyle Busch and Martinsville Speedway president Clay Campbell.
Proceeds from the Denny Hamlin Short Track Showdown goes to the Denny Hamlin Foundation, which helps folks affected by cystic fibrosis and supports The Children’s Hospital of Richmond, St. Jude’s Hospital and Victory Junction.
What a completely awesome idea… head out and have fun at the races watching NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers banging it up and helping out a great cause and superior support organizations.
If you were like me, you might have been watching the Twitter feeds of the media that covers NASCAR while waiting for any word on the appeal process for RCR. Some of the Twitter traffic was humorous as they stood around in the rain awaiting the results of the appeal board. We even received live reports of when pizza arrived and who opened the door and what not.
But to the serious matter at hand was the appeal of the penalties handed out to Richard Childress Racing in regards to Clint Bowyer’s No. 33 Chevy having not passed post race inspection after the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at New Hampshire.
In short, the penalty was not rescinded and all original penalties, as originally prescribed, stay as put.
Below is the official release of the Appellants findings:
[click to continue reading…]
John Wes Townley, Where Art Thou?
-
We all know that in a sudden moment of news, out of the blue, we heard that John Wes Townley was no longer driving for RAB Racing. This was at Richmond and it didn’t light up my radar. What I didn’t know was that it wasn’t the team the dropped him from the ride, but rather, one day, Tony Townley, (co-founder of Zaxby’s) called Robby Benton of RAB Racing and told him that John was sick and couldn’t make the race that day. (Eh?)
Landon Cassill filled in that day at Richmond, but then Benton received an email from Tony saying that Zaxby’s is dropping their sponsorship and John Wes Townley hasn’t returned since.
Now, no one can get anyone to answer any calls or emails.
[click to continue reading…]
Saturday night had the NASCAR race from Richmond International Speedway on ABC and it won the night for broadcast ratings by pulling in an estimated 4.9 million viewers. The season premiere of Cops was the 2nd place show in the 8 p.m. slot with 3.3 million viewers. At 8:30, the Cops numbers surged to over 4 million viewers.
When it comes to Saturday night, ABC has a decent trump card with NASCAR in its back pocket. NASCAR is important to ABC because of this. More viewers brings more eyeballs to ABC’s advertisers.
As any Cinema Static on Brusimm reader knows, advertising is what gets the shows on the air. For the upcoming 2010/2011 television season, the prime networks sold over $8 billion in advertising air time. For a single season.
[click to continue reading…]
The race at Richmond developed no real surprises unless Clint Bowyer “blowed up” and somehow Ryan Newman won the NASCAR race or had some such fantastic performance tricks up his sleeve. Newman did come in 11th, but it wasn’t enough.
The early part of the race watched Carl Edwards pull away and had 1/2 the front stretch between him and second place. Then his car faded and the race changed up leaders a few times but in the end Denny Hamlin led the most laps in a race with few cautions, including a bit for a short rain-delay, and ended up winning the race.
The racing was pretty good throughout the evening, and being a night race made it even better.
[click to continue reading…]
When I first wrote a piece about the new dates that Phoenix, Kansas, CA and Atlanta are looking at, it sort of went right over my head on some of the nuances that went into Kansas Speedway getting a 2nd NASCAR Sprint Cup Series date in the season. But then I started encountering some interesting perspectives on the track.
According to a few Kansas locals on bulletin boards and radio call-ins, Kansas hasn’t sold out the one race they have each year. Despite that, if you recall, consolidating to improve seat sales was a factor that was floated out there for consolidating Fontana’s dates into one day in 2011. It makes perfect sense.
Then it hit me… ISC is adding a casino to the track and they need more butts in the casino, so why not add a 2nd Cup date! It’s the only logic that makes any sense about adding a 2nd date to a venue that isn’t already selling out.
Granted, if I ran a business and wanted more customers in my newest venue, I’d probably do the same thing. It’s a smart business move. It really is, I get it.
[click to continue reading…]
Terry Labonte is returning to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series field of competition for 3 races for the remainder of 2010. He’ll be doing it in an entry fielded by Stavola Labonte Racing (SLR). Those races will be Richmond, Charlotte and Texas.
They expect to enter more races in the (next) 2011 NASCAR season.
Yes, I said Stavola Labonte Racing. Terry is now co-owner of the team, along with veteran team owner Bill Stavola.
Their team is partnered up with RCR and ECR. RCR (Richard Childress Racing) will give them the cars, ECR (Earnhardt-Childress Racing engines) will be providing the motors.
The sponsors for the SLR car will be Gander Mountain with the associate of American Cement. Be sure to give them your business if the opportunity presents itself! (Remember the good ‘ol days?)
[NASCAR]
The NASCAR Nationwide Series new car will make its on-track debut this year at four races. This is in preparation for its implementation for full-season use in 2011.
The new car will have the Chevrolet Impala, the Dodge Challenger the Ford Mustang and Toyota Camry stamps / look.
It will see its first real race at Daytona on July 2nd, with additional real-time tests at Michigan (Aug. 14), Richmond (Sept. 10) and Charlotte (Oct. 23) in this 2010 Nationwide season.
(But seriously, you knew this already, right?)
