December 8, 2010
By Chuck Abrams
Ahhhh, the off-season.
No more banquets, no more feuds, no more racing, no more....
What?
Not if you look beyond the regular NASCAR fare. This weekend in sunny Florida, the Snowball Derby was won by 18 year-old Johanna Long, beating Landon Cassill and Snowflake 100 champ Chase Elliott.
Long has several starts in the Camping World Truck series and is looking to make her mark in NASCAR after a frustrating 2009 season. At only 18, she has a long career ahead of her if she can continue to progress. As any female driver will tell you, there are no easy paths to the top and no one will cut you any slack. It is a performance based business and it is even tougher for a female driver since the microscope is on all the time.
Since my last article, Scott Speed has been released form Red Bull Racing. This is not surprising on one hand -- his performance was not that great and Red Bull has Kasey Kahne on board for 2011 -- and Brian Vickers is returning. But if there was a better chance for Speed to learn from veteran drivers, this would have been the year considering Kahne is there for only one year before he heads off to Hendrick Motorsports in 2012.
So what are the plans for 2012 to replace Kahne? Cole Whitt? He has yet to run a full season in Nationwide and rushing him to a Sprint Cup ride in 2012 would be disastrous. More than likely, they will look to the Silly Season of 2011 to nab a new driver -- possibly Elliott Sadler?
Sam Hornish, Jr. still does not have a full-time sponsor for 2011 and may not compete outside of a few races if no one steps up. Hornish has not achieved anywhere near the success in NASCAR that he had in the IRL. In fact, rumors are that he will return to do some racing in the IRL in 2011. All that will depend on the depth of Roger Penske's pockets. With no sponsor for NASCAR or the IRL, Sam will be hard pressed to do much racing unless Penske can nab a sponsor for his Nationwide team.
Dale Jr. is working on an extension at Hendrick Motorsports. The eight-time most popular driver had an abysmal 2010 season and is looking forward to some big changes in 2011 with an entirely new team. The reported crew chief change was not as much a crew chief change as it was a driver swap since the rest of the No. 24 team will be staying with Junior.
It will be hard to not expect big things out of the No. 88 next year, especially if Mark Martin does better than Earnhardt did with his old team. While many Earnhardt fans wish Junior had gotten Alan Gustafson in the swap, there was no way that Jeff Gordon was going to get left holding the bag in this deal. That honor goes to lame duck driver Mark Martin.
Robby Gordon is suing Extenze, claiming that they failed to pay him for several races. He is seeking nearly $700,000 in damages. I will do my best to refrain from all the cheap jokes that are just waiting to be written. It was not that long ago that 'The Other Gordon' was a threat to win in any Cup road race and perhaps an odd race here or there. But with all the distractions, sponsor issues and his financial issues that surround his other racing efforts, I don't know how he stays afloat. Robby only started 27 races in 2010 and it will be a challenge for him to keep that up much longer without some huge sponsor help.
Brian France had made it known that changes to Sprint Cup and Nationwide racing will be announced in January. Among the changes may be shorter races, more points for winning and some changes to the Chase format.
Stay tuned!
Let me know your thoughts.
Drive fast, turn left and keep the shiny side up.
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