Another Bruton Smith special comes to fruition the week that he gets inducted into the Texas Motorsports Hall of Fame (along with Bobby Labonte). NASCAR and the Las Vegas Convention and Vistiors Authority announced today that the Sprint Cup Series banquet, stationed in New York City’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel since 1981, is moving from the Big Apple to Nevada’s largest city, beginning this year. Though announced, both sides still have to finalize some details of the agreement. The LVCVA reportedly will pay NASCAR an amount between $500,000 and $1 million per year to host the banquet.
LVCVA president Rossi Ralenkotter says that the week’s festivities will center around the Vegas Strip, though a location for the banquet has not yet been determined. The tentative banquet date is reported to be December 4th.
Vegas gives a warmer welcome to NASCAR’s elite series than the City of New York has given the past couple of years. Complaints of bad weather, pricey accommodations, and traffic jams due to the Chase drivers’ “Victory Lap” around Manhattan have overshadowed the week’s festivities in recent years. Ralenkotter says that the LVCVA has been in discussion with NASCAR about moving the banquet for the past couple of years. Bruton Smith, who owns Las Vegas Motor Speedway via Speedway Motorsports Incorportaed, has publicly tossed around the idea of moving the banquet the past few months. Recently, Ralenkotter helped Vegas land a three-year agreement with the NHL to move that league’s banquet to the city.
Post-race engine tear moves away from the track
NASCAR’s tradition of tearing apart and inspecting the engines of each race’s top two finishers and another random competitor’s moves from the race track to NASCAR’s Research and Development Center, the sanctioning body announced Wednesday. The move was prompted at least partially by efforts to try and save the sport and teams money. The inspection will still remain open for the respective teams to see and any rules infractions will still be handled in the same manner. Other post-race inspections will still occur at the race track.
Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 team to honor longtime driver Labonte
On the week he gets inducted to the Motorsports Hall of Fame at his home track, Bobby Labonte’s longtime race team will honor the occasion. Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 18 and driver Kyle Busch will carry the classic Interstate Batteries paint scheme that the 2000 Cup champ drove with during his 11-year tenure with the team. Labonte won 21 races for JGR and the organization’s first NASCAR championship, before leaving the team after the 2005 season, after scoring back-to-back winless seasons and slumping points results.
The No. 18 floundered for the next two seasons with driver J.J. Yeley, while Labonte’s results were similar in the Petty Enterprises No. 43 through 2008. Labonte switched to the Yates/Hall of Fame Racing No. 96 this year, after funding at PE fell through. The No. 18’s first win since 2003 came with Kyle Busch behind the wheel at Atlanta Motor Speedway in March 2008. After taking the checkered flag, Busch was heard on the radio honoring the No. 18 returning to Victory Lane at AMS. Labonte won six times in the No. 18 at AMS.
Junior Johnson’s son joins racing fraternity
Two weeks after Junior Johnson drove a racecar for the first time in 40 years at Bristol, his son Robert makes his racing debut this weekend at Friendship Speedway in Elkin, NC. Junior and veteran NASCAR crew member Rock Harris will lead the effort which will be sponsored by Carolina Carports and Junior Johnson Country Ham.
Harvick to remain at RCR through at least 2010
Kevin Harvick’s run at Richard Childress Racing will remain intact at least through the end of next season. The driver of the No. 29 told reporters this week that despite reports that his contract runs out after this season, he is set to remain in the Shell Chevrolet through 2010. Harvick, who had an up and down first few years with the team, signed a contract extension midway through the 2006 season, the same year he won six races. He and the team also won the 2007 Daytona 500, but have not won a points race since. Harvick did win the 2007 Nextel All-Star Challenge and the 2009 Budweiser Shootout.
McMurray’s money at bank frozen
Jamie McMurray’s five accounts at Stanford Financial Corporation have been frozen, because the company is under investigation for fraud. According to a file in a Dallas court, the frozen assets may keep McMurray from paying his income taxes on time this year. McMurray is believed to be involved in any fraudulent activities, according to the court document, but officials are still making sure that McMurray’s assets are not tied to any fraudulent transactions at the institution.
Castroneves tax trial forces Johnson to testify
Three-time defending Sprint Cup Series champ and Sunday’s race winner Jimmie Johnson testified Monday at the federal tax evasion trial of Indy Racing League driver Helio Castroneves. Johnson’s agent, Alan Miller, is a co-defendant in the trial, and is whom Johnson testified on behalf of at the trial. Johnson says that Miller feels confident the trial will end well. Miller used to represent Kyle Busch, but was fired by Busch in 2007, after he shopped the then-Hendrick Motorsports driver to other team unbeknownst to Busch. Busch says he likes Miller as a person, but does not approve of his business practices. No NASCAR drivers have been tied to any accused wrongdoing by Miller.
Top 35 and entry list update for Texas
Many of the same startup teams return to Texas Motor Speedway that have been running full-time all season. Four known part-time teams, the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing entry and Regan Smith, the No. 21 Wood Brothers team and driver Bill Elliott, the No. 13 Germain Racing team and driver Max Papis, and the No. 25 Hendrick Motorsports team and Brad Keselowski, are also on the entry list. Texas may be the last stop for EGR’s No. 8 team and driver Aric Almirola, if the team is unable to secure more sponsorship.
After last week’s Martinsville race, David Gilliland and the No. 71 TRG team fell out of the Top 35, trading places with Paul Menard and the No. 98 Yates Racing team. Almirola’s team and the No. 82 Team Red Bull entry with rookie driver Scott Speed also find themselves on the outside looking in. Just above the Top 35 cutoff are the No. 77 Penske team and Sam Hornish Jr., the No. 34 EGR/Front Row team and driver John Andretti, and the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team and rookie driver Joey Logano.
Kyle Busch takes Nationwide Series pole at Texas
Let the hot streak continue for Kyle Busch. The driver of the No. 18 scored the pole late Thursday at Texas Motor Speedway, the site of his breakthrough win last season in the Nationwide Series. Matt Kenseth and the No. 16 Ford sit on the outside pole for the race. Georgia driver David Ragan starts 4th and the other hometown hero in the race, John Wes Townley, starts 29th. Terry Cook, driving for the MSRP start and park No. 91 team, qualified a surprising 7th.
Some recognizable names are missing the race, including Scott Wimmer in the Key Motorsports’ No. 40, Josh Wise in the Baker Curb Racing No. 43, and Kerry Earnhardt, making his first attempt in Rick Ware’s No. 31. Brad Keselowski made the race, but continued his horrid 2009 season by wrecking the No. 88 on its first qualifying lap.
Two Georgia driver debuts in Truck Series last week; Ragan’s struggles continue
Georgia drivers made news at Martinsville in both the Cup and Camping World Truck Series last week. In the Truck Series, Brett Butler and Ryan Sieg, both of whom have older NASCAR siblings, made their NASCAR debuts last week. Butler, whose older brother Ken races part-time in the Nationwide Series, started Andy Hillenburg’s No. 47 Chevy truck in dead-last and finished 36th. Sieg, whose older brother Shane has raced for several years off and on in the Truck Series, started the No. 21 Gunbroker.com Dodge 16th and finished 34th. Shane, by the way, started on the outside pole for the race, but finished 32nd in the Billy Ballew Motorsports No. 15 Toyota. His teammate, Kyle Busch, led almost the entire race, but got bumped out of the way by race-winner Kevin Harvick and faded back in the pack. The Truck Series is off this week.
In the Sprint Cup Series race on Sunday, Reed Sorenson started 29th and finished 17th in the No. 43 Dodge, a run much-needed for the struggling team. David Ragan and the No. 6 UPS Ford struggled all weekend, eventually tangling with Robby Gordon during the race. Ragan finished 27th. UPS did announce this week that it is launching a new advertising campaign with Ragan, in which Ragan competes with other drivers in physical endurance tests, for a chance to become a UPS driver.
Listen to Doug on the Alan Vigil Ford Lincoln Mercury 120 with Captain Herb Emory on News/Talk 750 WSB in Atlanta and online at wsbradio.com, Saturdays from 2-4 p.m. You can also hear Doug as a pit road reporter on the GAS (Georgia Asphalt Series) Radio Network, this Saturday at 6:30 p.m. A link to the broadcast can be found at lanierspeedway.com.
Ford Bronco for sale
NYC to vegas — wow, thought I would never see that happen.