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NASCAR Daily News Headlines * March 20, 2009
Martin Wins Second Straight Pole50 year-old Mark Martin isn't slowing down -- he's only getting better. On Friday Martin picked up the pole for Sunday's Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. It was Martin's second consecutive Sprint Cup pole and the 43rd of his storied 737 race career. Martin had not won back-to-back poles since 1989. “It really feels good. The car felt so good today and the team is just learning. It’s such a pleasure to drive that car," Martin said. "They’re hitting the race track with great, great set-ups based on learning about what I like in the race car and everything. And it’s no secret that we have not had the best of luck this year. And it’s really nice to come back this week and display speed once again. We’ve got speed and the other part is going to turn around sooner or later, the luck part. But it’s nice. We’ve got a great race team.”
Ryan Newman, who also needs a good run at Bristol, put his Chevrolet in the second spot. Newman unloaded quick, was second fastest in practice, and posted a lap at 125.740 mph. Newman just missed knocking Martin from the pole. Jimmie Johnson rolls off in third and Greg Biffle, who was slightly injured in a boating accident on Tuesday, starts fourth. Kasey Kahne nailed down the fifth spot followed by David Reutimann, Reed Sorenson, Dave Blaney, Jamie McMurray and Jeff Gordon to round out the top ten. Sunday's Food City 500 will start at 1:30 p.m. eastern time and will be televised by Fox networks.
Biffle Injured At Boat DockThe beating and banging typically associated with Bristol Motor Speedway will become painfully evident to Greg Biffle this weekend. The Roush Fenway Racing driver will compete on the physical short track with bruised ribs he suffered in a fall on a boat dock Tuesday night. The injury led Biffle to turn his scheduled Nationwide Series ride over to teammate Matt Kenseth.Biffle suffered the injury trying to jump from a boat onto the dock. "It was about 11:30, so there was a little bit of dew in the air and the platform must have been wet, and when I jumped over it just shot my foot out from underneath me. It turned me around backward and put me right on my side and on my back on the edge of the boat," he said. "It's not a normal boat. It's got a sharp edge on it because it has a platform on the front. So it's just one of those freak, stupid accidents where you take a fall and you have no way to stop it or brace it or grab, because I was over top of water. You're going to land on your ribs with all your weight, plus you jumped on top of it, so it was a stupid deal. If I had to do it over, I didn't do anything out of the ordinary. Everybody's jumped onto a boat before, but I just lost my footing." (nascar.com)
Bigger Tires In 2011?Implementation of a bigger tire in NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series probably will not happen until at least 2011, according to a report Thursday in the Virginian-Pilot. Greg Stucker, director of race tire sales for Goodyear, said the new tire is at least two years away from fruition. Goodyear is in the process of designing a taller and wider tire that should improve handling on the new car, but it's a long and complicated process. Goodyear officials originally hoped the bigger tire might be ready by next season. Now they say that timetable is too soon."We feel like we've still got some work to do," Stucker told the Virginian-Pilot. "We're certainly seeing some performance advantages, which was one of the goals. There are a few things we're not comfortable with yet as far as the overall footprint shape, the way the tire interacts. "We think we've got some thing to improve before we put it on the race track. I'd say there's an outside chance we could be on a race track by the end of this year [for testing] but there are still a lot of things that have to happen before you put it in the race. We're a couple of years out before we do that. It's going to be some fairly significant changes we think." The design of the new tire is two inches taller (17 inches compared to 15 inches now) and 1.5 inches wider. It's possible the wheel well area on the car will need changes to accommodate the bigger tire. The larger size should increase stability in the turns for the new car and decrease wear.(sports.espn.go.com)
Two Indy Tests PlannedGoodyear will return to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for at least two more tire tests before NASCAR races at the track in July. Goodyear has twice tested tires at the track since last year's debacle of a race. NASCAR had to throw a caution every 10 to 12 laps because the tires Goodyear brought weren't sturdy enough to hold up longer than a few laps. Now the tiremaker says it will take four teams to Indianapolis in late April for another test. Then, about 12 teams will be invited to a test in July.(google.com)
Mayfield Featured In Music VideoJeremy Mayfield depicts a small town racing hero in Saving Abel’s music video for the single “Drowning Face Down”. The video, shot today at Mayfield Motorsports in Harrisburg, N.C., was produced and directed by Camp Riley and Shaun Silva, respectively. The single was released last week, with the video debut scheduled for mid April. “It was really cool to be a part of this video,” said Mayfield. “I’ve done this sort of thing in the past, but this one really hits home because it’s a story that’s a lot like my own.”The video offers a portrayal of one man’s quest for greatness in the world of NASCAR, prompting fan support for his underdog racing organization – a state of affairs Mayfield knows well. “Considering we just started this team 52 days ago, I think it’s safe to say we know what it’s like to be an underdog in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series,” added Mayfield. While the video primarily features Mayfield as the hard working driver, there are special cameos by fellow drivers Clint Bowyer, Martin Truex Jr., Carl Edwards and Brian Vickers. Mayfield’s race shop offered the perfect setting for the video’s depiction of a small town garage in contrast to the typical big-team facilities. While Mayfield’s efforts represent the heart of every small racer across the country, the hopeful hero depicted in “Drowning” will strike a chord with race fans and the general public alike.
Bristol Goodyear Tire NotesTeams in both the NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series will be running the same combination of left-and-right-side tires at Bristol this weekend . . . this will be the first time Goodyear has brought this combination to the track in 2009, though this is the same tire set-up that NASCAR teams ran at both Bristol (both series) and Pocono (Sprint Cup only) in 2008 . . . Bristol is unique in that teams will be required to run inner liners in only their right-side tires this weekend . . . air pressure in those inner liners should be 12-25 psi greater than that of the outer tire.
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