5-time champ gets new pit crew

   Jimmie Johnson may be a five-time Sprint Cup Series champion but his pit crew this season will be looking for its first championship.

   During Thursday's media day activities at Daytona International Speedway, Johnson said most of the people in the shop will be the same but his over-the-wall crew "will be much different."

 

   "We're in a very fortunate situation in making big changes that we have a very young crop of guys coming along and guys are earning their way on the team by participating in a series of competitions," Johnson said.

 

   Johnson said he witnessed the final day of competitions and was uncertain who exactly got all the positions.

 

   "What I saw was a very strong first and second-string group of guys," he said. "That's our plan - to have depth. If someone is having a bad day we can make changes and not lose anything on pit road."

 

   In last fall's race at Texas, Johnson's crew was a having problems on pit road and after his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Jeff Gordon, wrecked out of the race, Gordon's pit crew swapped places with Johnson's.

 

   The change remained intact for the remainder of the season and Johnson won his fifth consecutive Cup title.

  

Suspended driver Jeremy Mayfield issues public apology to his stepmom

   Suspended NASCAR driver Jeremy Mayfield issued a public written apology to his stepmother, Lisa Mayfield, on Tuesday, part of a settlement to a 2009 slander lawsuit she filed in Iredell County.

   “I have previously made statements to the press in which I accused Lisa Mayfield of either murdering my father, Terry Mayfield, or being involved in a conspiracy to murder him,” the signed and notarized statement from Mayfield reads.

   “Those statements were made in the heat of my emotional state at the time. I now retract those statements and apologize to Lisa for having made them.”

    Lisa Mayfield filed the suit in July 2009 seeking damages against her stepson for public comments he made in regard to his civil case against NASCAR.

   NASCAR had filed an affidavit in the case from Lisa Mayfield in which she said she had witnessed her stepson taking methamphetamine at least 30 times since 1998.

   In response to the filing, Jeremy Mayfield made public statements to several news organizations accusing his stepmother of murdering his father and for being paid by NASCAR for her testimony.

   Mayfield was suspended by NASCAR on May 9, 2009, after a random drug test came up positive for methamphetamine. He filed suit against NASCAR shortly thereafter for breach of contract, discrimination and defamation.

   In May 2010, U.S. District Court Judge Graham Mullen dismissed all claims by Jeremy Mayfield in his lawsuit against NASCAR.

Where is the perspective?

   Something is wrong here.

   I hear lots of apologies from NASCAR driver Michael Annett over his arrest for drunken driving (among other charges) and promises of strict accountability from his Rusty Wallace Inc. team. And NASCAR promises to investigate as well.

   What I don't see is any real action.

   Annett was found to have a blood alcohol level of .32 following his arrest early Sunday morning. That's FOUR times the legal limit of .08 in North Carolina. This isn't a case of someone "having a few beers." This is a serious problem.

   Do some research. Lethal alcohol poisoning  - meaning enough to cause death in half the population - begins around .40. That means some people can die with a higher level and some with less. Annett was pushing the envelope to the edge here.

   And he wasn't just affecting himself. He had one passenger in his car and hit another car with four people inside. The total estimated damages of the two vehicles was placed at $10,000 by the Mooresville Police.

   So far, the most concrete information we have is from team owner Rusty Wallace, who assured NASCAR fans in an interview with ESPN that Annett would drive in the Feb. 19 season opener at Daytona.

   Are you kidding me? The LAST thing I want to be assured of is that Annett is going to get behind the wheel of another car, this time going 200 mph. Where is the perspective? The common sense?

   This young man has a problem that goes far beyond this accident. Get him help. It's not enough that he's sorry for what he did. He needs to think about everything that could have happened, but luckily didn't.

   Sometimes getting right back in the car is not the most important thing.


  

Speed TV will broadcast spring Richmond Nationwide race

   A combination of the NFL Draft and NBA Playoffs will send the April 29 NASCAR Nationwide Series race off ESPN and to Speed Channel this year.

   As I pointed out last week, a chart of TV start times for 2011 on NASCARMedia.com had listed the network for that race as "TBD." NASCAR confirmed on Monday Speed will carry the race.

   “The Richmond race presented extraordinary scheduling challenges for us due to the NFL Draft and the NBA Playoffs," said Julie Sobieski, ESPN vice president of programming and acquisitions. "We are happy that NASCAR fans will be well-served with the race airing on Speed, and we appreciate the cooperation of NASCAR and Speed in making this change.”

   Speed has long supported the Nationwide Series, having aired 44 practice and qualifying sessions just last season.

     “An exclusive NASCAR Nationwide Series race on Speed is a stout addition to our lineup,” said network president Hunter Nickell. “There is a real sense that the 2011 NASCAR season is building early momentum, so adding a Nationwide Series race to our full complement of NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races and all that we do from each track all season long adds to the excitement.”

Does ESPN broadcast the entire NASCAR Nationwide Series or not?

   One of the things I thought was most helpful for the Nationwide Series in NASCAR's most recent TV contract was that one network - ESPN - would broadcast all of the series races. Yes, races are on different channels but you always know that if there is a Nationwide race, it's on an ESPN entity.

   Apparently, that certainty may end this season.

   On an internal TV chart posted on NASCARMedia.com - probably inadvertently - the TV start and green-flag start times for all races in all three series - Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Trucks - are listed.

   But under the network column for the spring Nationwide race at Richmond - and outlined in bright red - are the letters 'TBD.' Looking at the key to the chart, TBD means "Network To Be Determined." It is the only race on the entire schedule marked as such.

   Several sources indicated on Friday the problem may be due to a conflict that same weekend between the Nationwide race and the NFL draft. So, I sought out information to see whether another network other than ESPN was going to broadcast the race.

   The initial response from ESPN was that I should contact NASCAR because "NASCAR sets and announces the schedule." To say ESPN has no say in setting the start time or networks of where races will be shown is ridiculous, but that's another story.

   The response from NASCAR was "We are in the process of finalizing the broadcast schedule for the three national series and expect to announce it next week." OK, so what are the three charts on NASCARMedia.com? Somebody's wish list?

   And why could no one simply answer 'yes' or 'no' to my question which was, "Is ESPN broadcasting this event?"

   My guess is there is no straight answer because ESPN is not carrying the race, for whatever reason. Perhaps we'll find out why next week.

   And my other guess? Clear some space on the schedule Speed Channel.

Would a HANS device have saved Dale Earnhardt in 2001 Daytona wreck?

HANS Performance Products released a question-and-answer transcript on Tuesday with Jim Downing, co-founder of HPP, dealing with a number of safety issues surrounding the death of Dale Earnhardt in a last lap wreck in the 2001 Daytona 500.

Here are some of the most relevant questions.

   Q: If Dale Earnhardt Sr. had been wearing a HANS Device during his crash at Daytona in 2001, would that have prevented a fatal injury?
   Downing: "We have learned over the years at HANS Performance Products that re-constructing accidents is an extremely difficult and complex chore. We rely on the professional experience of others and in this case there were different opinions by experts about the cause of the fatal injuries. With that in mind, I believe that when Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s car hit the wall and the belts from his safety harness were loaded by the impact that a HANS Device would have kept his head back. That likely would have produced a better outcome under the different scenarios that have been proposed by experts. This is what it seems like to me, but we don't really know for sure."

   Q: People may not be aware that the fatal crash of three-time world champion Ayrton Senna in 1994 also influenced the development of the HANS Device. How did that come about?
   “The Senna crash started a really serious re-evaluation of safety in Formula 1 much as what happened later in American racing in 2001. This crash led to cooperation with Daimler Benz to get the HANS Device to fit into an F1 car and more independent testing which also confirmed that it worked. Through that development, we were able to reduce the size of the HANS Device and get a better fit for drivers in all types of cars, including stock cars.

   "The HANS Device would have been recognized as a safety breakthrough without the catalyst of the unfortunate crashes of Senna and Earnhardt Sr. It just would have taken longer. In America, the legacy of Earnhardt Sr. includes not only the HANS Device, but soft walls, better seats and cockpit safety and the ‘Car of Tomorrow.’ Even now when I think of Dale Earnhardt Sr. I think of safety instead of the macho driving style he was known for."

   Q: The high-speed crashes get a lot of attention, but isn't it accurate that low-speed crashes can also cause serious or fatal head and neck injuries?
   “There's a misconception that almost everyone has, that you're safe at 30 or 40 miles per hour. Earnhardt Sr.’s actual change of velocity caused by hitting the wall was 43 or 44 mph. To many observers it looked like a fairly routine wreck and they never expected the outcome. This happens on a regular basis on the street or in racing. A car’s speed may not be very high but if it stops suddenly you can be in real trouble.

   "It’s not how fast you go, but how quickly you stop. Trying to get that message across to short track racers and drag racers has been especially difficult. A short track driver can easily get turned into the wall by another car. If a drag racer has a mechanical problem and turns into the retaining wall, the vehicle can come to a very sudden stop. Both circle track and drag racing are relatively underserved when it comes to frontal head restraints."

The King is ready to move past football

   Richard "The King" Petty is ready for some racing.

   After all the problems the Richard Petty Motorsports organization went through at the end of the 2010 season, you might think Petty would like some time off. Not so, with a more streamlined RPM run by new ownership, Petty is ready to return to the track.

   “For the last three or four months it’s been football, football, football, so now that football is almost over, we’ve got you all out here to carry the ball forward into next season. I think everybody here and everybody I’ve talked to is really looking forward to a new season," Petty said.

   "It’s been a couple of months since we’ve raced and racers want to race all the time, so with your help to get the spectators and the fans and help us please those people, all of our sponsors that have helped us all this time, you do your job and we’ll try to do our job and work together and make all of this a lot bigger operation."

   Petty said the financial problems were a great distraction at the end of 2010 but he looks forward to a fresh start.

   "You’ve got to give our crew a lot of credit the last five or six races because they didn’t know if they were gonna have a job when they came in the next week or not, but they stepped it up – the drivers stepped it up and the whole crew stepped it up and we ended up with a pretty good season," he said.

   "Our sponsors stayed with us all the way through the winter and came back this spring and we’re getting ready for the new season. It was really good to have all of those people say, ‘OK, guys. Stay in there and keep digging and we’re gonna be ready for the next year.’ "