Drew Hierwarter photos

Asheboro, NC (7/28/12) –Sean Rayhall and his team, under the guidance of Tom Pistone, celebrated a UARA-STARS victory for the first time following the Racing Electronics 150 event at Caraway Speedway Saturday night.  Rayhall’s win was certainly what the young driver needed as he is still recuperating from his Legends Car wreck at Charlotte Motor Speedway in June.  

After qualifying second, Rayhall floated in the top five for the entire race. Four-time Caraway track champion Travis Swaim jumped out front early and led the majority of the race earning the Tilton Most Laps Led Award. At the restart of the second to last caution Swaim got the jump on Rayhall. The two were neck-in-neck for an entire lap, but once Rayhall got out front it was smooth sailing to the finish. Not only was this Rayhall’s first career win, he was also awarded the Circle Wheel/Xtreme Trophy Rookie of the Race award.

While the crowd was watching those two swap paint, the Bassett Brothers and Ben Rhodes were also putting on a good show. The three cars were battling for 3^rd position when Ronnie Bassett Jr. turned Rhodes around on the backstretch. Ronnie Bassett Jr. and Rhodes had made contact earlier in the race and both drivers were warned by UARA officials about the contact. Rhodes made a clean 360 degrees turn and blended back into the top five while Bassett Jr. was black flagged and pulled his car off the track.

Devin Jones won his first career Sunoco Pole but it didn’t come without significant effort on the part of his crew. Jones had suffered his third engine failure in as many race weekends during practice on Friday.  The team took the car back to their shop for an engine swap and returned on Saturday morning ready to get the job done.  Jones floated around the top five all night. Jones was awarded Pigwire’s Electrifying Move of the Race for his ability to hold on to his racecar during some three-wide racing with Dillon and Ronnie Bassett, Jr.  

Rookie challengers Brodie Kostecki and Brandon Jones had a rough night during the Racing Electronics 150. Brandon Jones made contact with teammate Will Gallaher during the parade laps of the race. The field was setting pit road speed, when Jones ran into the back of Gallaher. Jones made several visits to the pits and seemed to never fully recover all night. Kostecki brought out the first caution when he spun in turn two. Although he was able to fire his machine back up and drive it to pit road, his numerous visits to pit road left him many laps down.

Trey Marcham had a rough night as well giving the fans a big scare. As he was coming down the front stretch, his motor broke resulting in a fire under the hood. Marcham safely exited his car, but was done for the night.  

For more information on the UARA-STARS, visit them online at www.uara-stars.com or call (828) 692-3833. Fans are also encouraged to “like” them on Facebook under the United Auto Racing Association and follow them on Twitter @uarastars.

Drew Hierwarter photos

Newport, TN (7-14-12) –. The thunder in the Tennessee mountains and the storms looming all around were no comparison to the thunder at Newport Speedway in another spectacular UARA event that will keep the fans talking for quite a while.  The UARA-STARS have been working double time putting on some of the best and most competitive racing around.  The fans that came out were nothing short of wowed once again by the close racing and spectacular finish of the Jeff’s Auto Sales 150 delivered by the UARA-STARS.  In a three wide battle to the checkered flag it was Ronnie Bassett Jr. who came home as the victor after he held off Chad Finchum and current points leader, Travis Swaim. Bassett’s win is the first UARA win of 2012 for Chevrolet and Team Dillon.

During the last visit to Newport, Bassett’s no. 04 machine suffered major damages from the “Big One” so while Tim George Jr.was in Iowa for the Camping World Truck race, car owner Mike Dillon asked the focused driver Ronnie Bassett Jr. to fill in as driver of the Team Dillon Racing’s no. 2 machine. Qualifying on the outside pole, Bassett jumped to the front, but only led two laps before he began saving his equipment. He turned on the heat on lap 115.

Sunoco Pole winner Travis Swaim hogged up Bassett’s rear view mirror and was determined to land his first win. With only seven laps to go, it looked like Swaim clinched the lead but he got passed by Bassett with three laps to go. On the way to the checkered, Chad Finchum challenged both drivers to create the three-wide, photo finish. Swaim wouldn’t bring home the win but was voted to receive the “Pigwire Most Electrifying Move of the Race” for this final challenge for the win.

After qualifying 12^th, Finchum’s second place was his best career finish and he was awarded Holley Performer of the Race. Former Newport winner, Roger Powell had a strong night as he battled his way from seventh to third. He made his way up to the front numerous times, but didn’t quite have enough to steal the lead.

Driving for Marcos Ambrose Motorsports, Ben Rhodes had the best finish among the rookies, earning the Rookie of the Race award for his fifth place finish. It’s safe to say Rhodes made a great recovery from the first caution of the night. Rhodes and Rookie Jake Morris battled hard for position which turned into Rhodes making a clean spin in turn two. Morris came back to finish 13^th. The second caution of the night came out when Cory Joyce and Will Gallaher exchanged some love taps, resulting in hot tempers and a spin for Gallaher. Gallaher spun clean and was able to make a full recovery until he got caught up in a later caution.

Recent UARA-STARS series winner, Dillon Bassett was making his way up through the field until he made hard contact with Morris and ended his night early. The Dillon Bassett team worked feverishly on his car to get him back in the race to continue his battle for points. “Hate to have such a great car last night and have a right front hub break,” Bassett said, “but I gotta thank the whole team for the hard work and effort they put in last night. . .”.

Julia Dawson and local driver Robbie Henry were involved in the fourth caution of the night. Dawson had a strong run coming off of turn four, and clipped the back end of Henry’s car. Dawson was able to work her way back to an 11^th place finish.

With less than 50 laps to go, Trey Marcham spun on the front stretch. With nowhere to go, Gallaher ran underneath Marcham, causing him to do a complete 180 degree spin. Marcham had a hard hit to the wall, but was able to hop out the car. That earned Marcham the ARbodies Hard Luck Driver of the race. During the midst of this incident, Henry and Blake Jones got piled up on the front stretch bringing out the red flag halting the race for an extended clean up and that ended Jones’ night.

Scott Turlington then jumped out in front and worked the high side groove. He was looking to win his second UARA-STAR event, but began falling back after leading the majority of the race due to a right rear tire going down. He was awarded Tilton’s Most Laps Led Award after leading 113 of the 150 lap event.       

The next event for the UARA-STARS will be at Caraway Motor Speedway on July 28^th in Asheboro, North Carolina.

From UARA press release, photos by Drew Hierwarter

NEWPORT, TN (June 18, 2012) — Roger Powell missed the “big one” to survive a chaotic and action-packed Jeff’s Auto Sales 150 and take his first career UARA-STARS win at Newport Speedway on Saturday night. Rookie of the Race Trey Marcham finished second, followed by Darrick Coomer, Brandon Jones and Holley Performer of the Race Joey Herques, the only five cars on the lead lap.

Ronnie Bassett, Jr. claimed the Sunoco Pole with a lap of 13.069 seconds but failed to lead the opening laps as Anderson winner Scott Turlington took full advantage of his second starting spot to lead the opening circuits. Bassett and Turlington battled side-by-side on the Newport high banks for much of the first third of the event until the first caution of the evening came out for Cory Joyce’s solo spin in turn two on lap 48.

Soon after the first restart, Chad Finchum climbed the left rear of Devin Jones’ car exiting turn two and collected Josh Wright and Dillon Bassett in the process, leading to the first of two red flags of the evening on lap 67. Bassett and Finchum were able to continue with minimal damage. Wright and Jones were effectively done for the evening.

Turlington continued to fend off all challengers, including local favorite Kaleb Pressley, as the race eventually crossed two-thirds mark and slowly wound towards the conclusion. It appeared he was headed for his second consecutive triumph until a caution on lap 109 set up one of the most talked about, yet scary, finishes in UARA-STARS history.

With 36 laps to go, Turlington once again sprinted ahead of the pack, but the battle raged behind him. While Travis Swaim and Ronnie Bassett, Jr., were saving their out-of-control racecars in turn one on lap 133, Tim George, Jr. and Cory Joyce spun in turn three. As the leaders exited turn two, the two cars sat broadside in the racing line of turn three.

Turlington entered the accident scene nearly wide open and after locking up the brakes in an evasive emergency maneuver to avoid the drivers’ doors, spun, clipped both cars and sent debris scattering. Ronnie Bassett, Jr. also saw the accident at the last second and drove head-on into the incident, making heavy contact with at least one other machine and the outside retaining wall, erasing any shot he had at a third win in 2012. Eventual winner Roger Powell, Dillon Bassett, Kaleb Pressley and others also sustained damage in the incident. All drivers involved in the crash walked away.

Under the 25-minute red flag, Kaleb Pressley was being scored as the leader after entering the wreck in third place. But idle time on the track allowed the driver of the No. 54 to analyze the situation on his machine and the damage received while avoiding the incident turned out to include a rear trailing arm. Under the red flag, Pressley fired up his machine, crept down pit road, and elected to take the three-lap penalty for working on the car under the red flag. The decision eliminated him from contention for his first UARA win.

With ten laps to go, the field restarted for the final time and Roger Powell battled side by side with Trey Marcham for two laps until Powell emerged ahead of the rookie from Oklahoma. Despite a pair of last-lap challenges, Powell was able to hold off the No. 32 of Marcham and a hard-charging Darrick Coomer for his first career UARA-STARS win.

“I really don’t know what to say, this is amazing, unbelievable,” said the driver of the No. 23 ARM Trucking/Mansch Speed Ford in victory lane. “We knew we had the speed, it’s just so hard to beat all of these guys. I really have to thank Trey for running me clean. I think he had a better car than we did and he could’ve easily taken me out, and I’m glad he didn’t. He’s a great racecar driver and I’m sure he’ll be in victory lane before the year is over, too. This is just such a big win for everyone involved in our team, our families especially, who sacrifice so much to help make this happen.”

“I can’t say a whole lot right now,” said runner-up Marcham in panting breaths after the race. “150 laps here takes everything out of you. I’m thrilled to come home second. I wish we could’ve gotten around the 23 (Powell), but to leave here finishing second after everything that’s happened, I’m so proud of Roger Johnson and everyone on this team to get us to where we are.”

The Jeff’s Auto Sales 150 was slowed six times by caution and halted twice for red flag periods totaling 32 minutes. Five drivers finished on the lead lap and all drivers involved in incidents during the race exited their cars under their own power.

The next event on the calendar for the UARA-STARS is the Banjo Matthews Memorial 150 this Saturday, June 23, at Hickory Motor Speedway. NASCAR Hall-of-Famer Bobby Allison will be on hand to sign autographs as part of a four-division program that also includes the Southeast Super Truck Series, the Carolina Vintage Cars and the Allison Legacy Series.

For more information on the UARA-STARS, visit their website at uara-stars.com or call (828) 692-3833. Additional information is available via the UARA’s social networking pages on Facebook (United Auto Racing Association) and Twitter (@uarastars).

NOTES OF INTEREST:

ROYAL FLUSH: While Roger Powell has shown speed in the past at UARA events, it was still a surprise to many that he claimed his first win at Newport on Saturday, However, the bigger story included him and the rest of the top five finishers in the Jeff’s Auto Sales 150. All five drivers (Powell, Marcham, Coomer, B. Jones, Herques) claimed their career best finishes in UARA competition on Saturday night. Other career bests were Robbie Henry (8th) and Will Gallaher (11th).

ENGINE, ENGINE ISN’T FINE: Two teams experienced major engine issues during the weekend of the Jeff’s Auto Sales 150. The No. 20 team of Cory Joyce blew up in Friday practice and didn’t complete their engine change until 3am after a new powerplant arrived from Charlotte at approximately 9pm. The No. 14 team of Sean Rayhall experienced problems in qualifying and they were able to repair the powerplant before the race. After starting 21st, Rayhall had worked his way inside the top 6 before catching a piece of two incidents during the night.

DIDN’T WE JUST….: It generally is a few months between repeat visits to tracks on the UARA-STARS schedule. In 2012, the UARA has one event (Hickory) and 4 weeks separating repeat visits to Newport. The series will visit the high-banked bullring again on July 14. The good news is that the lunar cycle should be about the same and a full moon is not expected. After Saturday’s event, many teams are wondering if some special stars or planets were aligned properly to create such an insanely memorable event for fans.

By winning the STP 400 at Kansas Speedway on Sunday, Denny Hamlin became the second driver this season with more than one win. (Hamlin also won at Phoenix. Tony Stewart won in Las Vegas and Fontana.) With the current points system placing such an emphasis on winning, these two drivers may have already assured themselves a place in the Chase.

No, in the current climate, it’s not too early to be thinking about the Chase.

All three competing manufacturers in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series have won at least one race.

Hendrick Motor Sports and Richard Childress Racing are 0 for 8.

 Last October when Jimmie Johnson won at Kansas, was the last time a Hendrick Motor Sports car was in victory lane.

The fans who come to the races to see crashes have been bitterly disappointed lately. You have to go all the way back to the green-white-checkered, multi-car pile-up at Martinsville to see the last time crashing race cars brought out a yellow flag.

Since then there have been 602 laps run without anybody wrecking a race car. The drivers like that, the owners certainly like that, but a lot of fans don’t.

The Kansas race this weekend had only three caution periods for a total of 18 of the race’s 267 laps. That resulted in a record race speed of 144.122 mph.

Daytona holds the record so far for the most cautions flags at 10. Followed by 8 for Las Vegas, 7 for Phoenix and Martinsville, 5 for Bristol, 3 for Kansas, 2 for Texas, and only one caution flag period for Fontana.

If you’re an old school fan of the sport from way back it was great to see the 43 car in those STP colors again.

Speaking of the 43, it was driver Aric Almirola’s 43^rd start in the Sprint Cup Series. Unfortunately he finished 23^rd, 3 laps down.

Even though Richard Petty has 200 wins, not all of them were in a car numbered 43. The number 43 has now been passed by the 11 as the winningest car number in NASCAR history, 199 to 198.

Ned Jarrett, Parnelli Jones, Junior Johnson, Mario Andrettii, Bobby Allison, Buddy Baker, CaleYarbourough, Bobby Allison, A.J. Foyt, Darrell Waltrip, Bill Elliot, Geoff Bodine, and Denny Hamlin have all won races in a car with 11 on its flanks.

The next race is under the lights on Saturday night at Richmond.

Every year from 1965 until 2004 the one-mile speedway not far from the North Carolina town of Rockingham hosted what today is known as the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. And except for the first and last year, NASCAR’s top series made a regular twice a year visit to the track that was built by local peach farmer L.G. DeWitt.

By the late 1990’s however, with NASCAR looking to expand into bigger and better venues, a sagging local economy began to take its toll on attendance. International Speedway Corporation (A wholly owned subsidiary of NASCAR) bought the track in 1999 and in 2004, cut the schedule to only one race per year. The track was then sold to Bruton Smith’s Speedway Motorsports, Inc., which immediately closed the track and moved its NASCAR race to Texas Motor Speedway.

In 2007, former racer Andy Hillenburg bought the track at auction for $4.4 million with the dream of someday bringing Rockingham Speedway back to life as a NASCAR track.  After 78 Cup races, 42 Nationwide Series races, and eight years of rebuilding and running smaller events and talking with NASCAR almost from the moment he bought the place, Hillenburg’s dream has been realized and “The Rock” is back.

On Sunday, April 15^th, 2012, 27,500 race fans witnessed the first ever race of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series at Rockingham Speedway. To say that the event was a success is an understatement. The excitement at the track was visible in everybody from the fans, the local merchants, the city leaders, the folks working in the media center, the competitors and their crews, all the way down to the security guards at the various gates around the speedway grounds. Even track owner Hillenburg could be seen seemingly in a dozen different places at the same time greeting people, shaking hands, making sure everyone was having a good time.

“I’m very proud of our effort, the team effort,” Hillenburg said. “. . . but now I also feel confident in saying that if I get a second chance from NASCAR, I can do even better.”

Regular Sprint Cup driver Kasey Kahne couldn’t do any better as he was the winner of the inaugural Good Sam Roadside Assistance 200 presented by Cheerwine. Because Kahne was competing in the Nationwide and Cup Series races in Texas that same weekend, Turner Motorsports used Brad Sweet to practice and qualify the truck. Kahne flew to Rockingham after the Saturday night Cup race and, because of the necessary driver change, started the truck race from the back of the pack.

It took Kahne until the 155^th of the race’s 200 laps to get to the front and he ran from there to the checkers notching his fourth win in five starts in the truck series.

“This is probably the best weekend I’ve had in a long time . . . I ran three hard races this weekend, and everything’s clean — not a dent on ‘em. …” Kahne said, referring to the condition of all three race vehicles.

So, will “The Rock” see another truck race? Given the fact that everybody you talk to was pleased and excited about the way this weekend went, I wouldn’t bet against it, or Andy Hillenburg’s desire to keep the momentum going.

DILLON, SC (April 9, 2012) –A full moon hung over Dillon Motor Speedway as the Bassett brothers led the UARA-STARS field to the checkered in Saturday night’s Eggs-traordinary 150. Elder brother Ronnie took his second UARA win in a row followed by his younger brother Dillon, Scott Turlington, Josh Wright and Sunoco Pole winner Travis Swaim.

Ronnie Jr. and little brother Dillon battled for the top two positions during the last thirty-five laps of the race. The pair held on to the top two spots following two late-race, double-file restarts and a side-by-side fraternal battle during the last four circuits

“I had a blast racing with my brother during those last couple laps,” Ronnie Jr. said in victory lane. “To be his first year in this series, I’m very proud of him. I spun the tires on that last restart and I thought he might get me on the outside, but we were able to drive back around him with less than two to go. It’s just a testament to this team and what they do to these cars for us to come home one-two.”

Dillon fought his way from the ninth position, earning the Holley Performer of the Race Award for gaining the most positions in addition to his first Xtreme Trohies and More Rookie of the Race award.

“That was fun, but I really wish I could’ve beaten him,” said Dillon Bassett after congratulating his brother on the win. “He’s a great driver. He’s taught me everything I know and I keep learning from him everywhere we
go.” 

The Bassett family gathering did not take shape until the final half of the event. Sunoco Pole winner Travis Swaim and outside pole starter Scott Turlington jumped out to a straightaway lead on the field, battling amongst
themselves for the opening segments of the race. Swaim’s tires gave up first, causing him to relinquish the lead to Turlington, but the late race restarts were the downfall of both drivers.

“We weren’t saving anything,” said Turlington after the event. “We saved too much last race at Hickory and we didn’t want that to happen again. I knew when we got those late restarts, though, that the Bassetts were both
back there and coming, and they had more tire left than I did. We’ll figure this deal out though and be back at Rockingham trying to get a win.”

While those up front were jubilant, there were some heated tempers further back through the field under Saturday’s full moon. Jake Morris, who qualified fourth, broke a crankshaft during the opening pace laps and finished 25th. Once the race started, turn four became “calamity corner” as R.A. Brown got turned around twice (the latter of which ended his night).  Teammates Ben Rhodes and Clayton Pyne collided, and many other young drivers found themselves turned in the opposite direction to traffic at various times during the evening.  Joey Bryant who was making his first UARA run of the season was awarded the Pigwire Electrifying Move of the Race Award for dodging the bullet many times as his fellow competitors had their spins.

Ronnie Bassett, Jr. in victory lane.

Dillon Bassett finished 2nd and was named Rookie-of-the-Race

The next stop for the UARA-STARS will be next weekend at Rockingham Speedway Saturday April 14, 2012 as companion to the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.

Yes Virginia, there are empty seats at Bristol. It’s no longer a secret and there’s nothing to hide anymore. What people now want to talk about is why and it seems that everybody, from those in line at the concession stand to the guy sitting in his recliner at home who never goes to a race, has an opinion. Including me!

There are two reasons attendance has dropped off at Bristol, one is real and the other is perceived. The real one is the economy. The perceived one is the racing, or rather the lack of wrecking.

Bristol Motor Speedway is not exactly in the center of a large metropolitan area. Not even close. I don’t have exact population numbers, but the three cities of Bristol, Johnson City, and Kingsport, Tennessee that make up the “Tri-Cities” area aren’t quite Mayberry but they aren’t Charlotte or Atlanta either. Even when you include The Virginia Bristol and Abingdon, right up the road, you still don’t have a huge population center. The point here is that Bristol must rely on race fans coming from far and wide to fill all of those 160,000 seats. (Remember that number, 160,000!)

Now, here’s a news flash for you; those big motor homes and pickup trucks pulling fifth wheel trailers that used to completely cover the hills and campgrounds surrounding BMS are not exactly fuel mileage champs! Gasoline is $3.60 per gallon and up everywhere around the area and diesel is right at $4.00.

For a fans to come to Bristol from almost anywhere beyond the local area, the fuel to get there and get home again is a huge expense. As evidence of that you only have to look at the campgrounds around the track that are even emptier than the seats.

The local motels aren’t helping either. Although some have agreed to work with the speedway and lower race week rates, you still have some that are charging $150 - $200 per night for a room that would be $70 - $90 on any other night of the year.

Add in the cost of the tickets themselves and it’s not hard to spend $1,500 to $2,000 dollars for a race weekend at Bristol. It’s a simple fact that fewer folks are able to do that these days.

Next is the racing itself, or rather the lack of wrecking. Bristol used to be a one groove race track. You ran on the bottom and if you got out of line, you’d get shuffled back ten, fifteen, even twenty spots before you could get back in line again. The only way for one car to get past another was to push and shove and pretty much just knock the other car out of the way. That’s not racing, at least not to me anyway.

A few years ago they reconfigured the track and added progressive banking, i.e., the higher up the track you go, the steeper the banking gets. The result is that now two and three wide racing is possible. Cars can race side-by-side all over the track and all throughout the pack.

And yet some say it’s boring. What’s boring is watching cars slowly parade around the track behind a pace car while crews clean up the wrecks. Caution laps are boring. In 2005 the spring race had 14 caution flag periods for a total 115 laps! Twenty three per cent of the race, almost one quarter of the distance run at reduced speed. In 2006 it was 104 laps, 21 per cent.

This year they only ran 49 laps of caution, not quite ten per cent. What the fans saw instead was one stretch of 218 green flag laps with cars racing for position all over the place. They saw Matt Kenseth try to pass Brad Keselowski, the two battling for the lead lap after lap. Kenseth would gain a little at one end of the track and lose it at the other. He would get up to Keselowski’s quarter panel in one turn and have to drop back in another.

The fans that preferred seeing race cars get all beat up and wrecked over the real racing that we have now are gone. Those fans who liked endless laps run under yellow so they had time to get another beer are gone too. I say good riddance. What you have now at Bristol is racing and it’s good.

Remember earlier I mentioned the 160,000 seats that Bristol has. The official attendance figure for this year’s Food City 500 was 102,000. That means that 58,000 seats went unsold and, yes, that’s bad. But look at it this way; how many other tracks on the circuit would love to have 102,000 fans for a race?

The next race on the schedule is Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. The track in Fontana is an hour’s drive from Los Angeles and smack in the middle of 22 million people! I promise you, the management there would be breaking out the champagne if they got 102,000 people to come the race next week. They’d be happy if they just got the 58,000 that didn’t come to Bristol!

So, yes Virginia, there are indeed empty seats at Bristol. But it’s understandable in today’s economy and things will improve. In the meantime, folks are still excited about coming to Bristol and you only had to talk to some of the fans in attendance this past weekend to get that.

Photo courtesy of Las Vegas Motor Speedway

Several weeks ago Penske Racing announced that they were severing their 10 year relationship with Dodge and, beginning with the 2013 NASCAR season, would be racing Ford products.

That leaves Robby Gordon as the only Dodge team in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series.

Dodge executives say they understand Roger Penske’s decision as being strictly a business one and are actively seeking another team.

Dodge Motorsports president Ralph Gilles has stated that there are several teams who have shown an interest in running the new Charger; “With the way our phone is ringing, I’m not too concerned,” Gilles said. “It’s been a pretty positive thing”.

However, Gilles also left open the possibility that Dodge would not be in NASCAR in the near future. “Based on the momentum we’ve developed, we don’t feel it’s going that way,” Gilles said, “We would love to stay if we can, but we have to figure it out. We’re actually investing in NASCAR more than ever. Some of this timing (of Penske’s announcement) was unfortunate. Some things Roger didn’t realize we were doing are coming to pass.”

All four of the manufacturers competing in NASCAR will debut a new car for the 2013 season. They have been working together with NASCAR since 2010 to develop a car that retains the parity that NASCAR wants with the individual brand identity that both the manufacturers and the fans want.

The new Ford Fusion was unveiled at Daytona, and this past weekend at Las Vegas, Dodge debuted the new Charger.

David Bailey is the senior manager for SRT Motorsports Engineering and he said; “We didn’t want to do it with just decals. We wanted a real identity, real features on the car that you see on the street car. After the design process started — and approximately 2,000 e-mails, and 600 drawings later — we’ve got a car that everyone knows is a Dodge Charger.”

So Dodge has a new racecar for the 2013 NASCAR season. It looks a lot more like a production Charger that you can buy than the current NASCAR Charger does. The only real question is; who will race it?

At approximately 1:00 pm on Sunday, February 26, the drivers were introduced to the fans, the color guard presented the nation’s colors, the invocation was given, and the National Anthem was performed.

The 54^th annual Daytona 500 was officially underway.

At exactly 12:55 AM on Tuesday, February 28^th, Matt Kenseth was the first racer under the checkered flag finally and officially bringing the 54^th Daytona 500 to a conclusion some 36 hours after it began.

In between those two events was rain, track drying, more rain, filling TV time with replays of earlier races, more rain, official announcements of rescheduled start times, more rain, watching weather radar, more rain, watching jet dryers circle the track, and then, after all that, when the green flag finally fell, (at 7:00 PM on Monday!) that’s when things got really strange.

After three months of car preparation and two weeks at the track, five-time champion Jimmy Johnson is wrecked just a few hundred yards into the second lap of the race.

Also damaged in the same wreck are the cars of defending race champion Trevor Bayne and media darling Danica Patrick. Both cars required extensive repairs in the garage and immediately threw out the TV broadcast’s planned story line.

The race then settled down, for the most part, and drivers just concentrated on saving their equipment to the end. Except for Jeff Gordon, apparently, whose engine expired in a huge fire ball. He blamed faulty gauges but it wouldn’t be the only fire of the night.

During a caution period with 40 laps still to go, Juan Pablo Montoya was trying to catch up to the pack after a pit stop. He was running down the back straight at a pretty good clip when something in the car’s suspension broke and sent the car careening into the back of a jet dryer truck. The impact not only destroyed Montoya’s car and the truck but also set 200 gallons of jet fuel ablaze!

The fire grew and spread down the banking being fed and intensified by the leaking fuel for several agonizing minutes before fire fighters could get the conflagration under control. No one was injured but the resulting clean up required a two hour red flag period.

During this time, with the entire field of race cars parked on the back stretch, it turned into a driver’s social hour with everybody just hanging out and telling stories and having all sorts of fun and frivolity.  Brad Keselowski was even tweeting to his fans with his smart phone! (He claims to have picked up more than 1,000 new “followers” during the red flag period!)

And speaking of the fans, I would be remiss if I didn’t give a shout out to those fans. You would expect that once the race was postponed to Monday that many of them would have to go home. Back to jobs and family and the reality of everyday life. Flights were booked, bags were packed, and motels were checked out of. But the stands were nearly full at the start of the race and, on TV at least, it appeared as if nobody left early even as the race dragged on past midnight. They are truly amazing!

So the race finally ended, going a few laps extra for a green-white-checkered finish. Kenseth got help from his Roush-Yates Racing teammate Gregg Biffle who held back the pushing Dale Earnhardt, Jr. by dragging his brakes for most of the last lap. Junior was finally able to get around Biffle after the fourth turn but too late to catch Kenseth who captured his second Daytona 500 trophy.

In a final piece of irony for the longest Daytona 500 weekend on record (the race has never been postponed before) many of the team’s planes could not leave Daytona after the race because the airport in Charlotte was socked in with fog and nothing could land.

They all got one more night in Daytona just for good measure!

NHRA Photo

The 49^th edition of the NHRA Winternationals got under way yesterday in Pomona, California under leaden skies and 15 time Funny Car champion John Force got his 34^th season underway with a victory.

It’s the sixth time Force has won the Winternationals, the 15^th time he has won at Pomona, and the 143th win of his amazing career.

At the age of 62 Force shows no signs of slowing down. And why should he. He has, arguably, the strongest team in the division. All four of the team’s cars are fully funded by major sponsors, crew by the best people in the business and driven by experienced drivers that are proven winners. Well, all but one of those drivers.

Force’s 23 year old daughter, Courtney, made her professional Funny Car debut at this event and she did her old dad proud by getting her very first round win against Bob Tasca. She was defeated in the second round by teammate Mike Neff who eventually go on to meet the boss in the final.

Even though Neff went quicker and faster in the final than Force (4.036 @ 316.82 to Force’s 4.080 @ 315.64), Force’s much better reaction of .067 to Neff’s .175 proved to be the difference.

Neff admitted that something distracted him on the starting line and he was, in his own words; “. . .dead late.”

The duo of Force and Neff were easily the class of the field as Neff’s 4.036 was low ET of the meet and his first round 316.97 mph in defeating Tony Pederegon was the top speed. John Force’s final round reaction time .067 was the best of the division.

In the other pro divisions, Spencer Massy defeated Steve Faria, Clay Millican, and 7 time Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher before facing his Don Schumacher Racing teammate Antron Brown in the Top Fuel final. He beat Brown 3.750 to 3.794 in spite of Brown’s slightly better reaction time.

Over in Pro Stock it was Greg Anderson over the returning Jeg Coughlin in a squeaker, 6.549 to Coughlin’s 6.586.

So the 2012 NHRA season is no officially under way and now the teams all head down to Phoenix, Arizona for the second event next weekend.

Given the way he and the team performed in Pomona, for John Force, this could very well be the beginning of his unprecedented 16^th championship season.