This is good stuff... Edwards verses Stewart, One race, One championship

It ain't plagiarism if ya own up to it!


This is good stuff and I thought we'd all like to comment on it here...

Trash talk between Tony Stewart, Carl Edwards spices up championship race

By Bob Pockrass (for scenedaily.com) / Thursday, November 17, 2011

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards have a healthy respect for each other but that didn’t stop them from trading a few barbs on the brink of their showdown for the Sprint Cup championship.
Stewart, winner of four races in the Chase For The Sprint Cup, remains confident and almost cocky as he sits three points behind Edwards and knows that a win Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway could earn him the title.
Edwards, meanwhile, is acting more like a seasoned champion – he’s not while Stewart has won two Cup titles – by displaying confidence but not hitting below the belt.
When asked during the championship contenders news conference Thursday if he would wreck Edwards for the title, Stewart didn’t hold back.
“I’d wreck my mom to win a championship. … I respect him as a driver, but this isn't about friendships this weekend,” Stewart said. “This is a war. This is a battle. This is for a national championship. It's no-holds-barred this weekend. I didn't come this far to be one step away from it and let it slip away, so we're going to go for it.”
Edwards, sitting next to Stewart at the time, replied: “Did you say something?”
Stewart then said: “You can come visit my trophy in the room at Vegas [for the banquet] when you come out there.”
Edwards then mocked Stewart: “He's got the talking part figured out. Problem is, you haven't led the points yet this year, have you?”
Actually Stewart did lead the standings for two weeks earlier this year. Edwards, however, has led for 21 weeks, including the last six. Stewart didn’t need to know that to answer Edwards.
“They say there's talkers and doers,” said Stewart. “I've done this twice.”
And then Edwards had more: “That's the funny thing. I've listened to you talk a lot today. You've talked a lot about your past successes. That is very respectable. And truly, all joking aside, that will make it more fun if we're able to beat you. It will make me more proud.”
Throughout the day, Stewart played up his nothing-to-lose theme.
“He was doing a pretty good acting job up there today,” Stewart said after the news conference. “He’s a lot more nervous than he lets on. But he’s got a lot of class and he’s got a lot of character.
“He’s a strong person, but I don’t think he’s as strong as he wants to lead everyone to believe he is going into this weekend.”
Edwards swears he’s at peace with whatever happens.
“The things that are real important to me are not really what everyone is talking about,” Edwards said. “The things that are important to me are going out and doing my very best, enjoying it and having fun.
“That’s how I feel about this week and about this race. … This would be the hugest accomplishment of my career, that goes without saying. I have learned to temper the want for that so it doesn’t hurt me.”

If verbal sparring counts for anything then Tony's gonna win hands down!

Source: http://www.scenedaily.com/news/articles/sprintcupseries/Trash_talk_between_Tony_Stewart_Carl_Edwards_spices_up_championship_race.html

And The Winner Is...

Prior to NASCAR announcing their changes to the Sprint Cup points scoring procedures last winter I made the case for a much greater reward for drivers and teams that actually win the races. The thought being that it would act to stimulate competition at the front of the pack and diminish the benefits of playing it safe and shooting for consistency.

Today, with two races left in the 2011 Chase my fears have been confirmed as the top driver has a grand total of 1 win on the season. This while the second place driver has 4 wins and on top of that, all 4 wins have come in the 8 Chase races so far this season. Now how on God’s green earth is the guy with 4 wins in the Chase not in the lead?

I guess the name of the game still excludes winning…

Upon Further Review...

Take a look at what occurred during the initial contact between the 18 and the 33. Hornaday moves in on Kyle to take 3rd place and then slower traffic forces 3 wide as Kyle contends for the position. That's when the two rigs come together and Kyle is suddenly forced up the track... But that's not enough. Kyle hadn't gotten into the wall yet so there's the 33 moving up into the 18 again... That's where the wall comes into play. Here's Speed TV's video...

http://www.speedtv.com/video/nascar/trucks

Now I'm not condoning what happens next, but I think it's a little more understandable given that it appears Hornaday could've backed off but he didn't. The bottom line is Kyle will begrudgedly be given a measure of respect from other drivers knowing if they go out of their way to wham him they're going to get whammed back...

We've all heard the rhetoric coming from the Hornaday/Harvick camp, here's Kyle's take on what happened... “If you make it a three-wide situation, I can’t go up in the dirt, you know?” Busch said. “I’m already on the outside lane, there’s not three lanes out here right now. … So if I just lay over and give up everything for Ron Hornaday, that’s not Kyle Busch’s fashion. I’m out here to win a race just as much as anybody else is.

“When he races up on my inside, gets loose and takes me up to the fence, I ended up losing my cool. I’ve been wrecked four weeks in a row and finally I’d just had enough of it.”

Now this is being written prior to NASCAR's Saturday morning meeting with Kyle... Will they park him in the NW or Cup race? I'm thinking they may shut down KBM for Homestead, but they want him and all the controversy to flow. Let's face it, Kyle has a way of stirring NASCAR's drink, and with big football games to compete with, NASCAR should welcome the attention.

Goodyear's Good Work A Problem?

It's just been announced that NASCAR and Goodyear Tires has extended their working agreement through 2017. Goodyear has been very successful over the last couple of years matching their tires to the new COT car with the results really becoming obvious this season.

The bane of NASCAR 2011 has become the fuel mileage races that are now prevalent. What’s different from years past? Look no further than the excellent tires Goodyear is supplying to the sport. I don’t have the stats but I’d venture to say the number of cautions in 2011 are generally down and that there is a direct correlation to the number of tire problem cautions. This all adds up to fuel becoming the primary variable as less cautions result in longer runs that the improved tires allow…

Even Tony hasn't been bad mouthing Goodyear's tires!

 

NASCAR just addressed the tandem drafting with some rules changes to break up this superspeedway drafting practice (we’ll see the results in a couple of weeks). Can anything be done to put a more competitive product on NASCAR’s Cup tracks given the changes these excellent tires have brought about?

Will the momentum NASCAR rebuilt with it’s improving TV ratings and higher race attendance be negated by a less appealing form of racing thanks to Goodyear’s good work?

NASCAR Rules Changes for 'Dega

It was announced earlier today that NASCAR will change two rules for the Talladega Chase race designed to break up the multi-lap two car tandem drafting that's come with both this track's and Daytona's smooth resurfacing jobs.

First, the restrictor plate openings will be slightly larger (1/64th of an inch). This will yield from 7-10 more horsepower. I'm not sure how this translates to miles per hour or fuel mileage but I'm sure the former will go up and the latter will go down. How much of an effect this has remains to be seen, but it became obvious that the cars and driver skills were capable of safely running at increased speed as two car tandem racing speeds were up to 10 MPH greater than were single car qualifying speeds. I'm thinking the two car tango was actually much more dangerous than normal single car racing just based on the fact that the driver in the push car couldn't see what was happening up front. I know they tried to have radio communication between the two drivers hooked up, and it helped, but we all know how fast bad things can happen and we witnessed some accidents that normally wouldn't have happened.

Second, and the change most likely to break up the drafting, the cooling system's pop-off valve will be set to release water vapor at a lower temperature than before. In other words, the car doing the pushing won't be able to maintain a long-term draft like before. We've seen the two car hook-ups last as much as ten laps (in cool weather) before the trailing car had to get fresh air through it's radiator. The new valve will go off at 8 pounds per square inch less pressure than the old one and according to David Reutimann's crew chief Rodney Childers that change will drop the tandem run's durations down to 1 lap at the most.

A crew chief's nightmare?

We all know the drivers aren't going to give up a procedure that gives them more speed and because of this the rule changes will result in more pusher / pushee switching which, in terms of safety, may not be such a good thing either.

So what kind of speeds might we see considering more horsepower combined with the shortened draft durations? 220 MPH?

With A Little Bit of Luck

Like a group of hunting hounds, there are eleven NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers and their teams preparing to chase after a wily fox who happens to be the reigning Sprint Cup champion. Almost six years ago Jimmie Johnson joined his teammate Jeff Gordon and competitors Tony Stewart, Matt Kenseth, Kurt Busch and Bobby Labonte as an active driver in NASCAR who has won the Cup championship. The 2006 victory marked the beginning of one of the most impressive championship runs in all of sport as today Jimmie Johnson has amassed five consecutive titles standing only two championship victories away from tying NASCAR legends Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt.

Driving for one of the top funded teams in stock car racing, Jimmie was very fortunate to be paired with Crew Chief Chad Knaus. This combination of funding, one of the sport’s very best crew chiefs and a top wheel man, with a little bit of luck thrown in, has resulted in this astounding run.

So here we are in 2011 at the beginning of yet another Chase to the championship and the first question on everyone’s mind is: Can Jimmie Johnson extend the streak? The sport’s pundits are all analyzing what Jimmie and Chad have accomplished this season and how that compares to the past. Out of this comes a couple of fairly glaring differences. First and foremost, in all of his 5 previous championship seasons Jimmie has entered the Chase with at least 3 wins. This season he only has a single victory. That win came at Talladega thanks to teammate Dale Jr.’s push job (Take a bow Jr…). That’s definitely new. Right off the get go Jimmie’s an also-ran. Can he and the 48 team ramp it up? Don’t bet against them. This isn’t just a test of driving skill, equipment and teamwork, it’s a test of mental toughness and that’s something this team has proven to possess over and over again. The second potential difference maker is the new points earning format NASCAR has installed this season. It’s generally believed if a team gets down early in this year’s Chase it will be much more difficult than how it was under the old points system to catch back up. We’ve all witnessed Brad Keselowski’s very impressive August run (Two firsts, a second and a third place finish in four races) that catapulted the Blue Deuce into the 2011 Chase, but coming from 21st in the standings on July 31st with 511 points Brad could only move up to 11th place on the strength of the 178 points he generated in that timeframe and this was one of the best runs we’ve seen in quite some time. There should be a little more emphasis on the early Chase races this time around as a result.

There are other areas of concern if “5 Time” wants to change that moniker to “6 Time” in 2011. First off they’ve got to be thinking about the law of averages. Everybody knows at some point it’s going to catch up with ‘em. There’s got to be a little voice somewhere in the back of each member of the 48 team’s consciousness that’s quietly saying “Not this time…”.

Going clear back to late last season the 48’s pit crew has been having problems and it continues to be a concern at HMS. A couple of poor pit stops can be costly…

Another area of concern springs from the “have at it” side of the equation. JJ has had run-ins with competitors in the past, such things just can’t be avoided in this sport, but an on-going feud with past

champion Kurt Busch has bordered on ugly this season. Just this last weekend on the ¾ mile track at Richmond Kurt and JJ brought their differences back to a boil. Yes, they’d both already made the Chase at that point so it was a good time for them to stand their ground, and yes, conventional wisdom says these two top drivers will step away from confrontation as the Chase races commence since most of the things that can happen in these kinds of scraps are bad, but what if opportunity knocks?

Finally, Jimmie Johnson, Chad Knaus and the 48 team are damned good, but don’t forget, you don’t win 5 championships in a row without a little bit of luck. Does their luck run out this year?

I’m going to step out on that limb and bet there’s a different guy holding up the Sprint Cup Championship trophy come November. The next question then becomes: Who will it be?

For a little additional entertainment here’s some press conference fodder featuring JJ and then Kurt sparing from afar…

Johnson Vents About Kurt Busch… Mid August

Kurt’s Response

Quick Nascar News...

With the September 11, 2001 10th anniversary this Sunday several NASCAR teams plan tribute paint schemes to honor the victims of 9/11 on their cars at Richmond.

Stewart-Haas has released Tony Stewart's paint scheme...

Earnhardt-Ganassi's Jamie McMurray's car...

JGR's sponsor on the 18 car, Mars Candies, is mimicing an earlier paint scheme on Ken Schrader's number 36 car that was raced in September, 2001:

Here's JGR's sponsorless paint scheme seen today at Richmond... 

Several other teams and sponsors will also have tribute paint schemes. Look for the Roush-Fenway's Bayne, Edwards and Stenhouse Nationwide car paint schemes, all sponsored by Fastenall and the JRM GoDaddy number 7 Nationwide car driven by Danica Patrick.

After 10 long years our nation continues to be hounded by fears of terrorism...

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KHI to RCR

Interesting news just released: Kevin Harvick, Incorporated, is joining forces with Richard Childress Racing in the Nationwide Series and the Harvicks are getting out of truck racing completely.

KHI's equipment will be sold off, the racing team's 80,000 Sq. Ft. shop building in Kernersville, NC will be put on the market and 140 KHI employees were told Wednesday how many weeks they have left with the company.

In Kevin's words; “When RCR decided not to run the Nationwide cars, the cars were different. As the cars have migrated back to the same chassis, a lot of the same tires, a lot of the same components, it makes more sense from a performance standpoint to put them back at RCR to utilize the pieces. To make the things that need to be right (with the cars) in order to keep up with the Cup teams (fielding Nationwide cars) you have to be in a Cup shop. That’s just the unfortunate part about where we are with the process and things that come with the Nationwide cars. From a performance standpoint, I feel we will be better with the Cup people and technology in the (RCR) shop. … The Truck program, it’s just a tough model business wise and we’ve scrimped and scraped and got the sponsorship and things that you need and GM has been a great supporter of everything that we’ve done, but from a business standpoint sometimes you have to make the decisions on what you want to do and for us it just didn’t make sense.’’

Here's hoping KHI's 140 employees will be absorbed into RCR...

And this wonderful economy dishes out another hit.