Has Tony Stewart been too nice?

   Has Tony Stewart been too nice this season?
  
   Stewart said he received some advice prior to Sunday's Tums 500 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway that he needed to stop being so pleasant to some of his competitors on the race track.

    "I was reminded by Darian (Grubb, his crew chief) this morning, I was reminded by my spotter this morning, and I was reminded before the race by many crew members to not be so nice today, which I know sounds odd of me," Stewart said. "You know, this is a tough race. I think right at the end, a perfect example is having Jimmie (Johnson) there racing you, Jeff, Jeff Burton, the guys that we were around at the end of the day. You race these guys with respect and they're going to race you back with respect.

   "Could Jimmie just hauled it off in the corner, blown the corner to try to take us down? Absolutely. He could have done that to anybody. He didn't do that to us. I think he knows we respect him and have that level of respect."

   But Stewart wasn't pleased with many drivers Sunday. On Friday, he said the sport had become too political. Sunday it was a lack of respect that bothered him.

   "NASCAR is going to have to at some point make these drivers be responsible for their actions amongst each other and not baby sit and not protect these guys. Let them get their butt kicked. That's what used to happen in the old days. You didn't have guys dumping each other and taking cheap shots like that," he said.

   "I used to be as guilty of it and bad as anybody about taking a cheap shot at guys early. But you realize that it's not about the two guys driving the cars out there as much as it's there's a bunch of guys that go back to the shop. There's a car owner that spends a lot of money. There's a bunch of crew guys that spend a lot of hours and put a lot of heart and soul into what we have as a product each week with these race cars. I think at times we all forget about that.

   "You let a guy get his butt kicked once or twice, he'll quit doing stupid stuff like that. I saw a bunch of it today out there. Luckily we weren't one of the guys that were in the middle of it a lot."

Dale Jr. offers his plan to end two-car tandem drafting

   Dale Earnhardt Jr. has been an outspoken critic of the two-car drafting tandems that have become commonplace at Daytona and Talladega this season. He has maintained from the get-go he much preferred the racing in large packs.

   Earnhardt came up on the short end last Sunday, running much of the race in the back of the pack with teammate Jimmie Johnson. The two failed to make a planned run to the front late in the race, frustrating Earnhardt again.

   Friday at Martinsville Speedway, Earnhardt was asked for his suggestion to NASCAR to change the tandem drafting. This was his response:

   "Well, we need to go test, we need to take a lot of race cars out there and test a lot of things and get creative and unique in the ideas and get everybody on the same packaging and go thoroughly through it. We have three days of testing in Daytona and to be honest, you don’t really do a lot while you are testing in Daytona. You have three days, so you fill it up with ideas and gimmicks and carry on, but you don’t really find things that bring a lot of speed," Earnhardt said.

   "You have a rules package in the back of the car as far as shocks and springs and you have such a stringent guidelines on the bodies, but there are not a lot of things to do in three days, so really it is just your burning fuel and wasting a lot of time. When we go to Talladega, we put the car together, you unload it, you make a couple of laps, make sure nothing falls off and you are ready to race. There is not much to it. We could take those three days or invent another test sooner, and take 15 cars or whatever, go down there and go to Daytona or Talladega and try smaller spoilers.

   "I think the spoilers are way too big, when I look at that spoiler, I can’t imagine there was a lot of study that went behind how effective it would be and what it would do, it is just a big square piece of steel, as wide as it could possibly be, and pretty tall. Make the spoiler more narrow, or smaller, run some softer springs in the back to get the cars a little lower. They have to make the hole that we punch in the air a little smaller. Right now, it is so giant it is very easy for another guy to fit up in that void and draft and push all the way around the race track. They need to bring the ceiling down that the car creates by the hole it pushes in the air, the car just punches a hole in the air and they need to bring that hole closer to the ground. Get a little bit more air on the second car’s windshield cause a little more drag on that car. I think the spoiler is just way too big. The corners on the ends, they could cut those off and round that spoiler off, going back to anywhere from 1998 to 2004, that type of spoiler was a little bit better, even smaller than that."

   Earnhardt's proposed change wasn't limited to the spoilers.

   "We have de-tuned the cars so that they go very slow and we have also resurfaced the race tracks to where they have a lot of grip so you could really take quite a bit away from the spoiler on the back of the car before I believe you would start to feel the handling effects of that. Otherwise, that entire thing does is really try and drag it down. Hopefully, we will get fortunate and the fuel injection will throw a few curve balls in the positive aspect that will change the drafting and change the ways the cars work in the draft. You never know and it might not change anything but maybe those going to fuel injection might have some positive effects," he said.

   "I think we can take the spoiler away, get the back down with softer spring or whatever and different shock package in the back of whatever, and make the cars a little tougher to connect to, when you do those two things it will create a little bit of a beach ball effect in between the cars, like it is an imaginary beach ball in front of you. When you drive up to a guy, you kind of push him away. We will be able to open up the motors a little bit, get the qualifying faster, have a little more response in the cars when we are racing and driving them, but yet, we probably will not draft faster than we do now."

      

NASCAR statement on Chad Knaus

   NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp issued the following statement on Friday about a meeting between series officials and crew chief Chad Knaus:

   "We had the opportunity to visit with Chad and Jimmie this morning in Martinsville. As the sport's governing body we were doing our due diligence to look into this and gain some insight into the comments Chad made before the race at Talladega. We have a responsibility to the rest of the garage area to ensure that everyone is competing on a level playing field with the inspection processes we have in place. The 48 organization knows that from this occurrence that their car is likely to be a regular customer at the R&D Center for post race inspection the balance of this season."

Tony Stewart talks safety in IndyCar

   Tony Stewart, a two-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion and also former IndyCar Series champion, was asked Tuesday his thoughts on the accident two weeks ago that claimed the life of IndyCar star Dan Wheldon and what safety changes he might like to see.

   Here is Stewart's response:

   "It was a freak accident. It was something that nobody ever wants to see happen, but unfortunately it's a part of all of auto racing. It doesn't matter whether it's NASCAR or IndyCar or drag racing or motorcycle racing. It's just an aspect of our sport and everybody involved knows that and understands that and accepts it going into that," he said.

   "You know, it's definitely something that none of us wanted to see but I think it's been very easy and unjust for people to sit back on Monday and point fingers and say, well, this needs to be done and that needs to be done. And most of the people that are making the suggestions are not even people that are involved with race teams or sanctioning bodies and really don't know what they are talking about.

   "It really boils down to the basics of, it's auto racing. Auto racing, football, hockey, they are all dangerous sports. But we all love to do it and the fans love to watch it. I think safety has come a long way in all of our sanctioning bodies across the board. But you're still not going to make it 100% safe all the time, and everybody is doing everything they can to keep incidents like that happening in the future. But it's never going to be 100% safe. You're always going to have that element of danger that's involved in it."

Statement from Jack Roush

   Oct. 25, 2011- Statement from Jack Roush, co-owner Roush Fenway Racing regarding Sunday’s Sprint Cup Race at Talladega:

 

   “At Roush Fenway Racing we expect our individual drivers to make decisions that put themselves in the best position to win each and every race. That is a philosophy that we have lived by for over two decades, and one that we will continue to abide by going forward.

   "Of course, as in any team, we would prefer for our drivers to work together when possible. However, to be clear, we did not micromanage or dictate to any of our drivers, nor any other Ford drivers, how to race with other drivers at Talladega last Sunday. There are unique codes that all drivers establish and have to live by on the track. How they manage their code is up to our drivers as individuals. This weekend, there were no team orders, from myself or anyone at Roush Fenway, given to any of our drivers as to whom they could or could not choose to run with or assist, nor did I give similar directions or suggestion to any of the other Ford drivers.

   “I’ve spoken with Trevor (Bayne) and understand that he was put in a situation requiring a split-second decision on the track and in his response to questions justifying his actions afterwards, where it was almost certain that not everyone was going to be satisfied. Trevor is extremely talented, but it is still very early in his career. Over time he will grow to understand that in such a high-paced, competitive and hostile environment it is unlikely that all of his decisions will make everyone happy. I’m confident in his decision making, his ability and actions on the track, and I'm excited as we continue to move forward with his development."

NASCAR goes window shopping

      NASCAR on Friday confiscated the front windshields on three Sprint Cup Series teams fielded by Michael Waltrip Racing - the No. 00 driven by David Reutimann, the No. 47 driven by Bobby Labonte and the No. 56 driven by Martin Truex Jr.

   The windshields were taken for having unapproved modifications and were on display Friday outside the Cup series hauler.

   NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp said additional penalties were expected and will be announced next week.

Labonte to remain with JTG Daugherty

   Former Sprint Cup Series champion Bobby Labonte will return for a second season with JTG Daugherty in 2012 driving for the No. 47 team, The Observer has learned. An official announcement of Labonte's return is scheduled for Sunday at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.

   At that time, JTG Daugherty will also announce with what organization it plans to team with in 2012 to field its No. 47 team. JTG Daugherty has been running its team out of Michael Waltrip Racing.

   In his first season with JTG Daugherty, Labonte is currently 29th in the series standings with one top-five and two top-10 finishes. Labonte won the 2000 season title and has 21 career Cup wins. His most recently victory came in the 2003 season.