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NASCAR Daily News Headlines * November 1, 2008
Earnhardt Rips NASCARDale Earnhardt Jr. went from race car driver to philosopher Friday at Texas Motor Speedway. And in the process, stock car racing's favorite son likely ruffled quite a few feathers in NASCAR's front office. In one of his most poignant interviews ever, Earnhardt confirmed what a lot of people – most notably disenchanted or former NASCAR fans – have been thinking for a long time.Namely, NASCAR has grown too big, the season is too long and the watered-down result, particularly the Chase for the Sprint Cup, is hurting the sport dramatically, with potentially even more damage to come as the world remains in economic crisis. With rumors swirling that current Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Craftsman Truck Series teams will lay off close to 1,000 employees at season's end, as well as reports that several teams across the sport's top three series are likely to close their doors or merge with others, this is one of the most challenging times NASCAR has ever faced. In a year that the sanctioning body was supposed to get back to its roots, it may be time for NASCAR to take an even longer, harder look at itself, Earnhardt said. Foremost in his mind: the length of the season. "We have saturated the market with race after race after race," Earnhardt said. "The NFL, they do such a great job. I hate to keep comparing to them and using them as examples, but they do the best job. They give you just enough to keep you wanting more. The season ends before you want it to. You get just enough to get excited and then it's all over and there's such a long wait. The model works." With expansion both geographically and event-wise, the bloated NASCAR schedule has, in effect, become a victim of its own success. "We have basically a very similar reaction that baseball, hockey, a lot of other sports do that have long enduring seasons," Earnhardt said. "There's lulls and inactivity between the fan and the sport itself at times. There's no way to fix that." But perhaps Earnhardt's most pointed comment was a swipe at what could be construed as greed and excess, not only by the sanctioning body, but drivers, team owners and practically everyone associated with the sport. "We're driven by the ability to go make another dollar and make more money and there's no way we would ever trim it down," Earnhardt said with a shrug. "When we were a 28-race schedule, the sport was giving you just enough to get really get excited about the next season. When we were racing at 12 o'clock, people were racing home from church to get to see the start of the race. We've just made it too easy and too much. We sort of lost a lot of the substance that we really had before and the character of the sport I think has waned a little bit, but its part of the times, too." Even though it would mean a significant drop in revenue, Earnhardt would love to see NASCAR scale back. But he isn't holding his breath it'll happen any time soon.(yahoo.com)
McClure Pleads Not GuiltyMorgan-McClure Motorsports co-owner Larry McClure pled not guilty to tax fraud charges Thursday in U.S. District Court in Abingdon, Va., according to court records. According to the indictment issued Tuesday against McClure, in a dispute over $325,000 of unreported income from 2002-2004, the government alleges that McClure’s claim that the money was a loan he received was false and was an attempt to avoid paying taxes on it. The race team is not mentioned in the indictments. According to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice, McClure faces up to 115 years in prison and a $2.75 million fine if convicted.Bond was set at $10,000. A trial date is set for Jan. 20-23 on the tax charges as well as charges stemming for an alleged fraudulent $59,852 invoice for painting of show cars.(scenedaily.com)
Champions Honor ChampionLegends throughout NASCAR’s 60-year history will help crown the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion during Ford Championship Weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway. A group of past champions will be guests of honor during the Championship Contenders’ Press Conference at the Hyatt Regency Coral Gables on Nov. 13. They will be introduced during the luncheon and be available for media interviews and photos following the formal part of the program. On Nov. 16, the past champions will also be honored at Homestead-Miami Speedway as part of Ford Championship Weekend pre-race ceremonies prior to the season-finale Ford 400.Below is a list of the past champions scheduled to appear at the Nov. 13 Contenders’ Press Conference. Other past champions, including those competing in the Ford 400, will also be honored during the pre-race ceremony.
Kyle Busch Ties Record With Ten WinsKyle Busch doesn't run all of the Nationwide Series races, but when he shows up to race, it's usually bad news for the competitors. on Saturday night at Texas Motor Speedway, Busch overpowered the field, winning the O'Reilly Challenge in dominating fashion. Busch led 174 of the 200 laps. It was his tenth victory of the season in the series, tying the win record set by Sam Ard. Busch dedicated the win to Ard and then vowed to give Ard $100,000. Ard has been suffering from Alzheimer's disease and has been strapped financially. "Sam Ard was one of the pioneers of the sport and this really means a lot to me," Busch said after his famous victory bows to the crowd. "I got to thinking about it and I decided I'm going give him $100,000 to try to help him out." Busch has a total of 21 victories in the top three NASCAR series, the Craftsman Truck, the Nationwide and the Sprint Cup Series. Bush has led over 4,000 laps in NASCAR competition this year."Fortunately for us we were up front all day and didn’t have to mire through much traffic but I still feel like our car was good enough to do so," said Busch. (Jeff) Dickerson (spotter) made a good call and that slow car that brought out that caution that caught (Kevin) Harvick in the pits, he saved us there. Luckily we had enough gas to make it back to pit road. That was our saving grace and it was pretty much smooth sailing from there. The two tires on the last stop was my call, Joel wanted four and by being a rookie crew chief I had to over step him one time here, go me, that’s the first time I’ve won myself one. I’m proud of myself for that. Joel did a great job believing in me with that and bumping up the air pressures there to go at it at the end of the race. Luckily we hung on for enough there and beat out Carl.”
In a race for the Series points, Carl Edwards finished second after a spirited battle with points leader, Clint Bowyer. Bowyer faded late in the race and allowed Edwards to gain on Bowyer. Bowyer now leads by 91 points with two races to go. "Man, I needed about two more laps," said Edwards. "We got 25 points on Clint (Bowyer) today and now 91 points is completely doable, so I'm happy about that. Mark Martin clawed his way to third place, one spot ahead of 18 year-old Joey Logano. David Ragan finished fifth followed by Clint Bowyer, Brad Keselowski, David Reutimann, Marcos Ambrose and David Stremme to round out the top ten. -- The next event on the Nationwide Series schedule is the November 8th, the Hefty Odor Block 200 at Phoenix International Speedway. The race begins at 4:30 p.m. ET with live, high-definition coverage provided by ESPN2 beginning with its pre-race show at 4 p.m. ET. The race will also be broadcast live on SIRIUS Satellite Radio Channel 128 and MRN radio.
Hornaday Wins Sixth ~ Points Race TightensRon Hornaday, Jr. powered his way to his sixth victory of the season in the Silverado 350K at Texas Motor Speedway (TMS) to move just six points out of the point standings lead with two races to go. Hornaday also won the June ’08 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at TMS. “I am just really proud of this VFW team here tonight,” said Hornaday from victory lane. “I think I was kissing Eddie (Gossage) here last time with that Cowboy hat on last time because I wanted it really bad and to come back here and win this, that is awesome. Johnny Benson is right there and its going to come right down there to the end and that is what it’s all about. Kyle (Busch) and those guys ran me hard and Kvapil. It’s awesome to get our Silverado up there and this track is just really wide and just really happy tonight and we'll see everybody back at home soon." Hornaday, who drives for Kevin Harvick Inc., the defending and three-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion, led twice for a total of 45 of the 147-lap race.Also driving for KHI, Cale Gale, No. 2 American Commercial Lines Silverado, who had qualified second, was involved in a multi-truck accident and finished a disappointing 30th place. "We were just trying to settle out there and went three wide getting’ in to turn one," said Gale. "I don’t really know (what happened), but when the No. 09 pulled out from under my back bumper cover, I don’t know if it got me loose or what, but I got up in to Crawford (Rick) and caused a big mess on lap two of the race. It is really unfortunate; our Chevrolet Silverado has been fast all weekend and ended up on jack stands. I really hate it cause that Kevin and DeLana (Harvick) gave me just to go out here and show what I can do." Hornaday pitted under green early in the race and went a lap down when a caution came out while sitting on pit road. Hornaday was a little concerned at that point but managed to unlap himself and then drove to the front of the field. “I thought we were down and out again when the yellow flag caught us in the pits there and put us down a lap," Hornaday said. "I knew we had a good truck and Rick Ren made a great call. He did something to the track bar, I don’t know if he went up or down and I am not going to argue with him no more, I argued with him until the green flag dropped. The thing was a rocket ship again, just went where it wanted to go. Earlier in the run, I couldn’t run up top and whatever Rick did to the truck, it just took off. Kyle Busch taught me a lesson here two years ago about three times in a row up on the outside. So I figured I would go up there and try it. He wasn’t running up there. I watched (Travis) Kvapil and them get pretty loose so I just ran as hard as I could and when I got to them, I went to the top and got clean air on the front of our Chevrolet.
Johnny Benson continues as the points leader. Kyle Busch, Benson, Todd Bodine and rookie Colin Braun completed the top-five finishers. Terry Cook drove his Toyota Tundra to the sixth spot followed by Travis Kvapil, Mike Skinner, rookie Brian Scott and rookie Scott Speed to fill out the top ten. Round 24 of the 25-race season will be next Friday, November 7 at Phoenix International Raceway.
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