Two Rick Ware Racing contract employees involved in fatal wreck

   Two independent contractor employees of Rick Ware Racing's NASCAR Nationwide and Truck teams were involved in a fatal accident Friday night in Thomasville, N.C.

   The driver of a Toyota Tundra truck, Dean Shaut, lost control of his vehicle while driving on Ball Park Road in Thomasville and was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. The passenger Stephen Masch was airlifted to Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem, N.C., with spinal cord and head injuries and is listed in critical condition.

    Shaut, 44, and Masch, 29, began assisting RWR this season on the Nationwide and Truck teams as independent contractors.  Shaut was a 20- year veteran of the NASCAR community as a fabricator and mechanic. Masch is an independent contract mechanic for the RWR's N0. 15 Nationwide team driven by rookie Timmy Hill.

   “All of us at RWR are deeply saddened about the news and are suffering a great loss over this tragic accident,” said team owner Rick Ware. “We can’t express our condolences enough at a time like this to each of the families and words alone right now just don’t express our thoughts enough."

   Shaut is survived by his wife, Sandy; stepchildren, Chris and Megan; brother, Rick Shaut; and two nieces. Memorial service is 7 p.m. Friday at Davidson Funeral Home, 858 Hickory Tree Rd., Winston Salem, N.C. Visitation is 5 to 7 p.m. Friday.

   Memorials may be made to the American Heart Association, 101 CentrePort Dr., Suite 130, Greensboro, N.C. 27409.

   To see the story filed by Fox 8 TV out of High Point go here.

Find Speed in Charlotte this weekend

   Who's in the mood for some speed this weekend?

   Charlotte Motor Speedway as well as the NASCAR Hall of Fame, Roush Fenway Racing, Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing are working together to present the first “Charlotte SpeedFest” from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on March 12 at the speedway in Concord, N.C.

   SpeedFest activities include: Free tours of Charlotte Motor Speedway and zMAX Dragway and free shuttles offered to the Hall of Fame, Hendrick Motorsports, Roush Fenway Racing and Joe Gibbs Racing; appearances and autographs by NASCAR celebrities, including drivers, Speed TV personalities, Miss Sprint Cup and motorsports artist Sam Bass; NASCAR show cars; video games; kids activities; petting zoo; concessions and live music.

   Also, several of the area NASCAR shops will offer merchandise discounts in their respective gift shops on Saturday.

   At the speedway, those who purchase $150 in tickets for speedway NASCAR events will get the opportunity to race their personal vehicle down zMAX Dragway, receive a free one-night hotel stay and a free piece of Sam Bass Racing Art.

   For more information, call (800) 455-FANS.

More from Kevin Conway on his run-in with Robby Gordon at Vegas

    Late Monday, NASCAR driver Kevin Conway released a statement further describing his run-in with Robby Gordon Friday afternoon at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

   Gordon was placed on indefinite probation by NASCAR for his role in the incident. Conway was not penalized. Conway filed a complaint with the Las Vegas Police Department on Friday night.

   Here is the statement in its entirety:

   “I don’t mind stiff competition, but I want to make sure the hard facts are told. First and foremost, I love being a part of NASCAR and have worked very hard to earn the privilege of competing in the Sprint Cup Series. On Friday night, Robby Gordon, who has a long history of issues in NASCAR decided to ambush me in the garage area at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, completely unprovoked. Robby even confronted Joe Nemechek, my car owner, on pit road during Cup Series qualifying shoving him and telling him that he was looking for me and going to assault me. We have many witnesses including a crew chief that signed a police report documenting the truth of his physical attack on me.

   "Situations like this are not good for our sport. It’s one thing if we were racing each other and I wrecked him or he wrecked me, that’s an entirely different situation. It’s very unfortunate that he chose to physically attack me to address his rage. Our fans, sponsors and NASCAR expect and deserve more from our competitors than this bullish, illegal behavior that was displayed by Robby against me.”

   To read the original story about the incident, go here.

Who's hanging out with Chad Knaus?

   So, who's been hanging out with Chad Knaus?

   Turns out, Danica Patrick. And it's yet another step in her NASCAR learning process.

   Patrick spent part of Friday's Sprint Cup Series practice at Las Vegas Motor Speedway standing atop Jimmie Johnson's hauler with Knaus, Johnson's crew chief, listening in on the communication between Johnson and Knaus during the session.

   "I've gotten to know Chad over the last year or so. Actually from Daytona last year, the first time we got together and went out to dinner. We get along really well. He told me I needed to get over to the Cup garage and check it out and that they had a headset for me and I could listen in," Patrick said.

   "For me, it's really interesting to hear the drivers to hear how they talk about the car and how they describe it. Also, potentially, being able to determine what things are important to the car and what you don't need to worry about.

   "It's just all learning for me. I wouldn't say I went and listened and felt I needed to make a change to the race car or do something completely different. It's just more knowledge and more education and how they talk about the car."

New policy doesn't ensure new winners

   So far, NASCAR’s new policy of limiting drivers to earning championship points in one series seems to have several unintended consequences.

   A grand total of zero points were earned by the drivers who won the first five NASCAR races of the season, including the Daytona 500.

   That may be a statistical oddity, but there also seems to be a growing uproar over how ESPN covers the emerging championship battle in the Nationwide Series, which is likely to produce many race winners this season not running for the title.

   Let’s be clear: NASCAR’s new policy ensures there will be a new Nationwide Series champion this season, but nothing it did ever guaranteed anybody new would win the series races so long as those who have been participating in it continued to do so.

   In other words, it’s perfectly possible for the Nationwide champion this year to have won zero races.

   Now, some seem to think ESPN is obligated to produce almost separate coverage of the drivers in each race running for the championship but perhaps not in contention for the win.

   That’s silly.

   Networks sign up to broadcast and cover races – not points standings. This week’s race is in Las Vegas, not this week’s championship battle.

   The last thing I want is for a network to feel compelled to produce and cover “fake drama” totally irrelevant to what is taking place on the track. We already have a Chase in the Sprint Cup Series for that, thank you.

   Fans don't buy tickets to sit in the stands, calculator in hand, to see how the points play out. They watch to see who wins the race.

   The new NASCAR policy may have changed who wins a series title but by no means did it guarantee new race winners or alter the way a race should be covered.

   If that’s what NASCAR wanted, it should have come up with a better plan.

Johnson odds on favorite at Vegas

   Jimmie Johnson, a four-time winner of the Kobalt Tools 400 event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway who has won the past five NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championships, is a heavy favorite to win in Sin City again this weekend.

   Although winless in the first two races of the 2011 campaign, Ed Salmons, Race and Sports Manager at the Las Vegas Hilton Super Book, has tabbed Johnson as the favorite at 9-2.

   The most recent winner, Jeff Gordon (who snapped a 66-race winless streak last weekend at Phoenix), is listed at 10-1 and Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne is posted at 100-1.

   Las Vegas natives Kyle and Kurt Busch are listed at 6-1 and 12-1, respectively. Kyle Busch currently leads the Cup standings.

You can't argue with this Kyle Busch

   Kyle Busch gets a lot of criticism for the way he handles bad situations and even situations many people wouldn't consider so bad, such as finishing second. Sunday's race at Phoenix appeared to set the stage for another 'bad Kyle' moment after he had a run-in with Carl Edwards on the track and lost his lead late in the race to eventual winner Jeff Gordon.

   But tracked down post-race on pit road by Fox, Busch offered the following response to a question asking about the incident between himself and Edwards:

   “It was a real big mistake on my part and the first person I have to apologize to is Carl Edwards, obviously for what happened there on the backstretch. It just got out from underneath me and we were getting bounced around like a ping pong ball there for a while. I got into him and just killed his day. I know he was frustrated and I could tell out there on the race track. I apologize, I don’t know how many times. It was unintentional, especially for the way we raced yesterday -- it was so good to race that way and put on a good show for the race fans. To have that happen, I know they had a good race car. All that aside, I can’t thank these guys enough for this Combos Camry. They did a great job this weekend bringing up a great race car off the truck. We had a fun time today. We came through a lot of adversity. We worked real hard, Dave (Rogers, crew chief) and the guys never gave up. The pit stops were good all day.  We kept battling through everything that was thrown at us. There at the end, Jeff (Gordon) just had a better car than us. I thought when I got out to a big enough lead, I thought I was going to hold him off this far and he just ran me down and flat out passed me. He was really, really fast and we couldn’t hold him back. It’s good to see those guys in victory lane.  Those are my old 5 guys. That’s cool if anything is good about today.”

   Say what you want, that was a comprehensive, rationale and level-headed response from Busch addressing just about everything (even what was not initially asked).

   This is what fans and media would like to see more often from Busch. No one expects anyone who loses to be happy. They would appreciate, however, the opportunity to hear Busch's side of the story. Most times he is not required to do so.

   Making the effort, however, does leave a more positive, lasting impression on everyone.