There were plenty of headlines being made to serve as a calling card that NASCAR was on the way to Motown. The halls of the automaker offices were buzzing with the news of driver changes, lawsuit judgments and the hint that Tony Stewart might not be in the Chevrolet machines he has piloted for his entire Nextel Cup career.
Kyle Busch and Joe Gibbs seem like an unlikely match, but that was Wednesday’s big announcement. The younger of the Busch boys will assume the driving duties of the No. 18 car in the Gibb’s garage. Busch had learned earlier this year that Dale Earnhardt Jr. was being brought in to replace him at Hendrick Racing.
J.J. Yeley has been the driver of the Interstate Batteries-sponsored car since Bobby Labonte left the team following the 2005 season. Labonte won his championship with Gibbs in 2000 and finished second in the points in 1999.
Questions and comments during the press briefing added fuel to the rumors that Joe Gibbs might be the next race team to make the switch from American to Japanese cars in NASCAR. Gibbs has used Chevrolets to accumulate the 58 Winston/Nextel Cup wins he has registered since launching his race team in 1992.
“We had some great conversations with GM (General Motors) here. We’ve obviously had a great partnership with them over the past 16 years. We’ve been great partners as well,” responded Joe’s son J.D. after being ask about the possible switch.
“We’re going through a process with all of our technical guys, figuring out where we need to be. GM, I think, just got a verbal agreement with Hendrick – the first team to kind of re-sign for next year. We’re kind of in the same phase as I think a lot of the teams are. In the next several weeks, we’re going to have to really figure out where our future is and our direction.”
I don’t know about you, but to me that kinda sounds like they might be ready to untie the team’s ties with the bowtie bunch and start placing the foreign car brand of Toyota on the front of their machines.
I hope Joe proves all these predictions wrong and makes the right decision. It would exhibit that loyalty, honoring the Veterans of Pearl Harbor and American pride still rules over the almighty dollar, but I’m not getting my hopes up too high. I’m still having a hard time accepting Dale Jarrett snubbing the Fords, like the one his dad drove in the 1960s, for the Japanese jalopies.
The news brought reasons to celebrate in Daytona Beach this week as a judge sided with NASCAR officials and against AT&T in a sponsorship dispute. AT&T had to file suit against NASCAR to replace the Cingular stickers with AT&T decals after the two telephone companies merged last year.
AT&T won round one, but that ruling was voided by a higher court and the AT&T stickers must come off the No. 31 car driven by Jeff Burton. NASCAR contends the AT&T sponsorship violates polices adopted when Nextel and Sprint (AT&T’s competitors) became the title sponsor of the premier division in 2004.
Cingular had been a sponsor of the Richard Childress Racing team since before Nextel took the main sponsorship of NASCAR over from Winston.
And did you feel the ground shaking earlier this week? It had to be the result of two Earnhardts spinning in their graves near Kanapolis, North Carolina after the announcement that Teresa Earnhardt was refusing to allow Dale Jr. to use the No. 8 when he moves over to the Hendrick race team next year. Dale Jr. has used the No. 8 since he started driving for his father in the Busch Series. Dale Sr. had picked the number because his dad, Ralph, used it during his career in the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s.
Ralph Earnhardt died of a heart attack in 1973.
Rumors are that Dale Jr. will use the No. 81 next year, since his stepmother wants to keep the No. 8 for the DEI operation she inherited after Dale Earnhardt’s death in 2001.
Motown Maneuvers: Big, wide and fast is the short answer when asked to describe Michigan International Speedway.
Dale Jarrett and Mark Martin have accumulated four Michigan wins each. Jarrett’s wins were between 1991 and 2002. Martin collected his victories between 1990 and 1998.
Bobby Labonte has crossed the finish line first three times. Labonte’s wins were in 1995 and 1999.
Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle, Ryan Newman and Jeff Gordon have a pair of wins each at the track. Kenseth won last year and in 2002. Biffle went to Victory Lane last year and in 2004. Newman won in 2003 and in 2004. Gordon’s two Michigan wins came in 1998 and 2001.
One-time winners at the two-mile speedway include Carl Edwards (2007), Kasey Kahne (2006), Jeremy Mayfield (2005), Kurt Busch (2003), Sterling Marlin (2001), Tony Stewart (2000) and Ricky Rudd (1993).
The top-five finishers of the June race at Michigan were Carl Edwards, martin Truex Jr., Tony Stewart, Casey Mears and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Edwards led 63 of the 200 laps in the event and collected the bonus points for leading the most laps.
Eleven drivers traded the lead position 22 times. The other drivers leading more than a single lap included Jimmie Johnson (56), Martin Truex Jr. (54), Jeff Gordon (18), Tony Stewart (2) and Kurt Busch (2).
There were four caution flag incidents and the event took just over two hours and 42 minutes to complete.
J.J. Yeley was the Bud Pole Award winner for the June race with a qualifying lap of 187.505 miles-an-hour.
Georgia Boys: Peachtree City’s Reed Sorenson was the top-finishing Georgian in the Nextel Cup race at Watkins Glen. Sorenson finished 28th and is ranked 26th in driver point standings.
David Ragan registered a 32nd place finish at Watkins Glen. He fell to 23rd in the Nextel Cup points. The Unadilla driver finished 21st in the Busch Series race at Watkins Glen. He is ranked fifth in Busch points.
The only other Georgia driver running at Watkins Glen was Alex Garcia. The Clayton County driver finished 23rd in the Busch race. It was his third Busch event this year.
Joey Clanton has scored another top-ten on his Craftsman Truck Series report card. Clanton started fourth and finished tenth in the truck race at Nashville. Clanton, of Fayette County, has run nine of the 15 truck races this year.
Bill Lester started sixth and finished 20th in the truck event. The Cobb County driver is ranked 16th on the truck point chart.
There were two Georgia drivers in the ARCA/ReMax race at Nashville. Michelle Theriault, of Alpharetta, finished 28th and Ron Young, of Conyers, finished 33rd.
High Speed TV:
Thursday August 16
6:00 p.m. NASCAR Now—ESPN2
Friday August 17
11:00 a.m. NASCAR Live—Speed
11:30 a.m. Michigan Nextel Cup Practice—Speed
2:30 p.m. Go or Go Home—Speed
3:00 p.m. Michigan Nextel Cup Qualifying—Speed
5:30 p.m. NASCAR Live—Speed
6:30 p.m. Survival of the Fastest—Speed
7:00 p.m. Trackside at Michigan—Speed
Saturday August 18
10:00 a.m. Nextel Cup Michigan Practice—Speed
11:00 a.m. Busch Series Michigan Qualifying—Speed
1:30 p.m. Michigan Happy Hour Practice—Speed
3:30 p.m. Michigan Busch Series 250—ESPN2
7:00 p.m. Tradin’ Paint—Speed
7:30 p.m. NASCAR Performance—Speed
8:00 p.m. Replays of Eldora and Macon Nextel Driver Dirt Races—Speed
Sunday August 19
10:00 a.m. NASCAR Now—ESPN2
12:00 p.m. NASCAR Raceday—Speed
1:00 p.m. Michigan Pre-Race Coverage—ESPN
2:00 p.m. Nextel Cup Michigan 400—ESPN
7:00 p.m. The Speed Report—Speed
8:00 p.m. NASCAR Victory Lane—Speed
9:00 p.m. Wind Tunnel—Speed Channel
Saturday’s Allan Vigil Ford 120 will air from 2:00 p.m. until 4:00 p.m. on Newstalk 750 WSB Radio and www.wsbradio.com. For more race information visit our Fastcar Newsdesk at www.captainherb.net.
Gibbs and GM, not Chevrolet, for the record. They used to drive Pontiacs. Remember, Captain? I didn’t think you were a new guy.
Yes, Gibbs did initially drive Pontiacs. They switched in 2003 just after Tony Stewart won his first championship in 2002. I’m sure the folks at Pontiac loved JGR for the missed marketing opportunity.