Earnhardt Earned His 1st Victory at Texas; He Could Use Another

It was the spring of 2000 and a career was blossoming. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No. 88 Amp Energy/National Guard Chevrolet), a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series rookie fresh off winning consecutive NASCAR Nationwide Series titles, came to Texas Motor Speedway.

PHOTO: CIA STOCK

Making only his 12th start in NASCAR’s top series, Earnhardt went to Victory Lane, where he was joined by his father, the late Dale Earnhardt Sr. for a memorable celebration. Earnhardt went on to win twice more in 2000, at the Richmond spring race and, incredibly, in the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race — becoming the first rookie to do so.

Of course, Earnhardt was almost immediately considered a “champion in waiting.” Nine years later, the waiting continues, with Earnhardt’s early-season struggles attracting increased focus on his team, in his second season with the highly successful Hendrick Motorsports organization.

Criticism has surfaced this season from both media and at least one rival in the series, Kyle Busch (No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota). None other than Rick Hendrick himself defended the No. 88 team vigorously last week, saying, “I am 100% behind this group. I have no intentions of making any changes. I have all intentions of making it better.”

Continue reading “Dale Jr. got his first Cup win at Texas”

Q. Tony, now that you’re six races into your new role as owner/driver, could you tell us, even if it was during a yellow flag lap, you have caught yourself thinking more as an owner than a driver?

PHOTO: CIA STOCK

TONY STEWART: I haven’t. I mean, I think the reason for that is we’ve been really good about knowing, even before the race, once Friday starts that I switch that hat over and I strictly stay in driver mode. You know, I catch myself worrying sometimes about where Ryan is, you know, with some of the bad luck he had early in the year, a couple of races I would ask where he was at. But, you know, that’s probably the only difference between what I normally would do and what we’re doing now.

I mean, now that I’ve got Ryan as a teammate, and as his car owner, I’m a little more curious about where he’s at sometimes during the race than I have been in the past with other teammates.

But, you know, there’s other times that I’ve had teammates and have asked where they were at, too. But I think a little bit more of it on the cautions now because I am a car owner. For the most part, I stay strictly in that driver mode and concentrating on what I’ve got to do to get to the front.

Q. Now that you have these expanded business relationships, have you felt any need or pressure to not get involved in the controversies that come along during race weekends?

TONY STEWART: Not at all. I mean, I think, if anything, it’s made me feel like I could get involved in them if I chose to.

But, you know, I think I focus more on what I got to do to work with a new crew chief during the weekends. Last couple years we’ve been a little better, with the exception of the Goodyear controversy last year, and that wasn’t in an effort to get in a debate with them as much as it was just a response to try to get ’em to make something better.

I think they’ve done a good job with that this year. But, you know, it’s been easy to kind of stay out of the controversy. We’ve got enough stuff to keep us busy that I think it’s a little better to put it all in perspective and realize that some of those controversies aren’t worth the time and effort.

Continue reading “Q & A With Tony Stewart”

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (April 1, 2009) – In a move that should be more cost-saving to the industry and help enhance the inspection process, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series will begin conducting its post-race engine tear-down at the NASCAR Research and Development Center in Concord, N.C.

“Along with cost savings, this will provide our officials and teams with the means to analyze the engines in a more controlled setting,” said Robin Pemberton, NASCAR vice president of competition. “We have been moving towards doing this in the past, and as the stakes continue to rise in our sport, we believe it’s the most effective way of doing things.”

Continue reading “NASCAR Changes Engine Tear Down Rules”

Edwards Looking To Rebound At Familiar Texas Motor Speedway

After having a rough weekend at Martinsville last weekend, the 99 crew looks to rebound this coming weekend at Texas.

Carl Edwards swept both Texas races in 2008 and is hoping to repeat some of that magic this week.

Currently eighth in points, Edwards is seeking his first win of the season. He has three victories at Texas.

This season Edwards has posted one top five and two top 10s in the first six races.

His best finish was third at Atlanta a similar styled 1.5-mile track like Texas. In eight starts at Texas he has three top-five finishes.

Another stat in Edwards’ favor this week is that his team owner Jack Roush, leads all other car owners in wins at Texas Motors Speedway with seven.

Continue reading “Carl Edwards Looks to Rebound”

Johnson Hitting His Stride
Three-time defending series champion Jimmie Johnson has overcome his trademark “slow” start and climbed to fourth in the points standings. His win at Martinsville last Sunday enabled him to jump five spots. At this same time last season Johnson was 10th in the standings. Currently, he is 142 points behind his teammate and standings leader Jeff Gordon.

Johnson heads to Texas with a good chance of continuing to shrink his teammate’s points lead. Johnson won the fall race in 2007 at Texas, and has posted five top fives and eight top 10s in 11 starts.

Johnson has finished second twice at Texas including last season’s spring race. Barring some unforeseen mechanical problem; watch for Johnson to be up front this weekend.

Continue reading “Look Out, Here Comes Johnson”