Roger Penske talks Ford move

    Penske Racing and Ford Racing announced Thursday they will be joining forces for the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season and beyond. Roger Penske answered several questions about the move.

   Penske: We announced today that Penske and Ford will campaign in 2013 in NASCAR Sprint Cup. Penske Racing will obviously race the new 2013 Fusion. We’ll also run Mustangs in the NASCAR Nationwide Series in 2013. I personally want to thank the Ford
leadership team -- Edsel Ford, Jamie, Mark Fields, Jim Farley and Ken Czubay for their commitment in this very important time for our team to Penske Racing. As you know, Dodge has been aligned with Penske Racing for the past 10 years. Together, we’ve had much success on and off the track. Obviously, throughout the 2012 season we are committed
to winning races, making the Chase and hopefully winning the championship. The timing of this announcement with Ford is obviously very important due to the implementation of the new 2013 NASCAR Ford Fusion, which we will compete with next year at Daytona. With only a year to go, we needed to plan for the future and make important commitments to our sponsors, drivers, crews and employees. As many of you know, Penske Racing is no stranger to Ford Racing. Over the years we’ve raced with Ford for 11 seasons with over 500 NASCAR starts. We have 27 victories and 36 poles, so, again, I’m very excited to join
Ford again in 2013."

   Q: Why are you making this move? Who is going to do your engines?
   Penske: From an engine perspective, if you go back in Penske Racing’s history, I would say that all the time we’ve been in many different motorsports, we have had our own engine company and developed our own engines. And I think this was not part of the agreement, from the standpoint with Ford, that we would use Roush Yates or use other people’s engine. This is certainly something that we’re going to evaluate going forward. We have got a great engine company with great people. You can see what they’ve been able to do
with the Dodge product, so we just want to be able to benchmark, and I think that’s one of the reasons when we looked at the change in 2013 is it’s going to be a difficult year for everyone as we have to change bodies on all of our cars and if we were going to make a change, this was going to be the year that we would do that. Obviously, our contract with Dodge ends at the end of 2012, so when you take the contract ending, I think the chance for us in this particular case to be able to benchmark against someone like Roush and Roush Yates will give us a chance to be sure that we can be a leading team in NASCAR in
the future. We’ve had a great relationship with Dodge. We’ll continue, as I said earlier, to commit 150 percent to what we need to do. There’s no disincentive for Penske Racing not to be the best in 2012, and I think that at this particular time when we assessed the
options, and this is something that didn’t come overnight. We had a relationship with Ford before, and I think at the end of the day we felt that this was an option that we couldn’t turn down.

   Q: Can you say how long the deal is for? Will you use Roush Yates Engines?
   Penske: This is a long-term deal. We don’t really comment on length of different agreements, but this is a multi-year agreement and we’ve obviously have multi-year agreements with Ford and Dodge in the past, so it’s consistent with what we’ve done in the
recent deals that we’ve had. From an engine perspective, we have a commitment to our people at the engine shop. We’ve got a big investment in dynos and other things, so this is something that we’ll take a good look at, but what I like about it is we’ll be able to benchmark our capabilities at Penske Engines versus the best in the business at Roush Yates.

   Q: Why is this a better deal than Dodge?
   Penske: Let me say this, this wasn’t about money and I want to make that clear from the standpoint of everybody that’s on the call. I think that we evaluated, when you look at the strength of the teams in NASCAR – the multiple car teams – the success that Stewart-Haas had and the alignment with Hendrick. Also with Gibbs and Waltrip and the teams that were out there. We’ve been operating for the last 10 years pretty much with some support in the previous years, maybe four or five years ago, but we needed to have a benchmark and I think that having that additional technical information flow through the process as Ford has outlined it to us, I think, was very important to us. The term was important to us. We wanted a long-term deal because I have to make commitments to sponsors. Obviously with drivers today you can’t just hire a driver at the last minute, so I think some of those things came into play. We want to thank Dodge for what they’ve done for us. I think we’ve delivered and they’ve delivered, and we’ve got a big job to do ahead of time, but this was a business decision. We had a long, important relationship with Ford in the logistics and dealership area, and all of these things carry some weight in our final decision.

   Q: How tough is it to leave Dodge and did you look at joining Chevrolet?
   Penske: This was a very tough decision and I think we had discussions with Dodge. This wasn’t something that happened in the last 24 or 48 hours. It was over a few months and I
think when we weighed the plusses and minuses of the opportunity, it was apparent to us that we need to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup championship and we have been trying to do it alone. I think with a certain amount of sponsorship available to us and we were fielding
two, three cars and then some in the Nationwide, but having the opportunity to benchmark with someone like Roush, who has been world-class, you could see the performance this past weekend with Kenseth and how good their cars are, we thought that it was the time
for us to evaluate other options. Chevrolet, obviously, when you look at that lineup, we’d have a hard time getting in that line with the teams that are already associated with Chevrolet, and I felt that the relationship in Detroit that we had with Ford, Chrysler and Dodge is very important to us, but at the end of the day, we had very good conversations with Ralph Gilles and Beth Paretta and the SRT brand is very important. In fact, the good news is that if you saw the activation at Daytona, they’re fully committed and I know they’ll move out on the racing circuits, not only just in NASCAR, but in other areas as we go forward. So it was a tough decision for me, but, on the other hand, I think it’s the right one.

   Q: Does this deal require a certain number of Cup cars and Nationwide series cars?
   Penske: We have committed to run a minimum of two cars in the Cup Series and we’ll be running two cars in Nationwide. At some point, once we have been able to stabilize from the standpoint of the changeover, we could move one of those Nationwide cars to run in the
Cup Series. So I think we have a very viable plan with Ford, one that has some elasticity so we can change from two to three and, obviously, we’ve been able to build a lot of good people through the Nationwide programs when you look at Paul Wolfe and Chad Walter and certainly Todd Gordon are the people that we have today that have come up
through that wing, and we expect to continue that, so you’ll see us performing and running in both series.

   Q: Is there a disincentive in performance for Dodge given they are now in a lameduck situation as far as developing their 2013 car?
   Penske: They’ve got a committed group of guys there and I know for a fact in having several conversations with key management around this discussion that both of us said we are going to do our utmost to perform, not only for the Penske Racing team, but for the Dodge brand and certainly SRT as they’re growing that brand throughout the world. I think that they have an option now to look at the different teams and other areas that they can invest in motorsports. They’re fully committed and I think this might incent them even more to do more. They’ve done a lot with us on the 2013. This wasn’t just thrown over the wall to us. They’ve been involved and I’m sure they have the ability to carry it on to get it to be competitive for whatever team they might choose in the future. Obviously, when you look at the Challenger, we developed that vehicle together with Dodge and you’ve seen the success with Brad and the way Sam ran this past weekend, so there are some good bones that they have to work with. Certainly, we’re going to live up to our obligations on our contract with them throughout 2012.

How NASCAR helped solve cold case

   The following press release was distributed on Wednesday:

   NASCAR driver Kevin Conway learned this week that through his involvement with the ‘ExtenZe Local Hero’ race program, a four-year-old unsolved homicide hit-and-run case has finally been solved. The Joliet Police Department informed Conway and a member of his executive team at eXclaim Marketing via email the suspect in the Melissa Lech case that was featured on his No. 87 NEMCO Motorsports car for the September 17, 2011 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Chicagoland Speedway finally turned himself in this past Sunday, February 26.

   Authorities say that 27-year-old David McCarthy of Naperville showed up on the doorstep of Melissa Lech’s sister’s house on Sunday morning to finally come clean about the hit-and-run accident he caused that took Melissa’s life in August 2008. Lech’s sister also told authorities that McCarthy admitted to her that he would think about the night he hit Melissa every time the case was in the news with the most recent significant impact coming in September 2011 when Conway’s car featured Melissa’s photo and a plea for information in a nationally televised NASCAR race at Chicagoland Speedway.

   “We feel confident that the extensive media coverage in the Melissa Lech investigation helped bring this case to a successful conclusion,” said Chief Michael P. Trafton, Joliet Police Department. “The Joliet Police Department would like to give special thanks to NASCAR Driver Kevin Conway, eXclaim Marketing, and the NEMCO Motorsports racing team for keeping this case in the spotlight.”                       

   In 2010 Conway, through his company eXclaim Marketing, wanted to create a cause-marketing campaign tied back to his race program that would really give back to the communities and markets NASCAR races in. From support from ExtenZe the ‘Local Hero’ program was formed. At first the campaign paid tribute to people who had gone to great lengths to make a difference in their communities and those selected typically had faced danger, sacrificed their own safety for others or in some way displayed leadership that changed their community for the better.

    It was the September 2010 Kansas race where the program took a bit of a different turn and started featuring unsolved homicide or missing persons cases on the car’s rear decklid. In total the program has featured nine unsolved cases across Kansas, Martinsville, Fontana, Nashville, Daytona, Bristol, Chicago, and Homestead-Miami with the Melissa Lech case out of Chicago being the first one solved due to the efforts of Conway and eXclaim Marketing.

   For more on the story, read this.

Elliott Sadler talks about his wreck with Jimmie Johnson

   During Tuesday night's edition of NASCAR Race Hub on Speed, Elliott Sadler, driver of the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, re-capped his incident with five-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion, Jimmie Johnson. He spoke with host Danielle Trotta about what happened.

   “I just kind of got into the back of Jimmie, it was 100-percent my fault,” said Sadler, describing the incident that started as the field had just entered the race’s second lap. “It got other cars involved like you see in a lot of the restrictor plate races. We were coming into the outside lane, through the tri-oval, the 78 (Regan Smith) and the 48 (Jimmie Johnson) kind of get bunched up a little bit. They came down and its 100-percent my fault in getting into the back of Jimmie.

   “We were kind of bogged down, everyone was side-by-side and I didn’t check up in time, and I got into the left-rear quarter (panel) of Jimmie. It was just a little bit, but that is usually all it takes at these types of speeds. It’s a bad way to get started.”

   Sadler also talked about the phone call he made to Johnson Tuesday morning.

    “You never want to be involved in a situation like this. Being good friends with Jimmie, and his crew, (as they) actually pitted my truck last year in Bristol (Tenn.). I saw his guys last night at the airport, and I apologized to all of them. I called Jimmie the first thing this morning just to say to him, ‘Look. And explained to him what happened. I was sorry. I had no excuses. It was 100 percent my fault.’ I just probably really shouldn’t have been racing that hard, that soon. I snuck up on him a lot quicker than I thought," Sadler said.

   "Jimmie handled it like he handles everything else. He’s just a class act and a good guy. I also called Chad Knaus also. We reached out to those guys as well. It was just a tough way to get the racing season started.”

Three days' worth of the Daytona 500

Observations

NASCAR and its tracks have all kinds of contingency plans for various emergencies. But sometimes you just have to learn from experience. It seems save to say that all the work that went into dealing with the crumbling of asphalt and the pothole that emerged during the 2010 Daytona 500 played a role in NASCAR and Daytona International Speedway's ability to deal with the jet dryer explosion and resulting fuel spill on the track this year. So in a sense, while the 2010 race may have been a black-eye, what was learned from it helped allow the 2012 version of the race from becoming a bigger one.

It was somewhat surprising to see how little a factor Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards were in this year's 500. The two drivers who battled down to the wire for the 2011 Sprint Cup title had shown to have fast cars at Speedweeks. Edwards won the pole for the 500 while Stewart won his Gatorade 150-mile qualifying race. Both eventually got involved in late-race accidents in the 500 but were rarely up front.

I don't know if Danica Patrick is going to be a great NASCAR driver. At this point, neither does anyone else. What she deserves is the opportunity to find out – and without unrealistic expectations lofted on her from the get-go. What she also doesn't need are TV announcers who constantly try to bolster her "case" by making outrageous claims. Examples: Claiming Patrick, who had yet turned a lap in the a Cup race, is now the "face" of NASCAR. Another: Suggesting that same driver was one that could teach others like five-time series champion Jimmie Johnson. Johnson has done quite well on his own before Patrick's arrival. That kind of talk enrages far more NASCAR fans than it engages.

Daytona 500 postponed until 7 p.m. tonight

The Daytona 500 - which had never been postponed in its history - has been delayed again.

NASCAR was going to try a noon Eastern start today for 2012's biggest Sprint Cup Series race but has now rescheduled the season opener for 7 tonight. It will be broadcast live on Fox.

Rain continues to fall in the area.

NASCAR President Mike Helton said there was a "reasonable expectation" the race can begin by 7 p.m.

NASCAR update on rain delay

   NASCAR President Mike Helton provided Fox Sports an update on Sunday's rain-delayed 500:

   Q: The cars cannot race in the rain. We have been rain-shortened, we have been rain-delayed but we've never rained out. With all of the information available to you, what are we looking at? What is the contingency right now?
   It's one of those days here in Daytona where it pops up and falls off and pops up and falls off. But as the day progresses, we think the chances of the pop-ups diminish quite a bit. Hopefully this will be the last big cell we see and things will start falling apart and we can get the track dry and go on and get finish and run the Daytona 500 today.

   Q: I understand your crew has an unprecedented amount of equipment, jet dryers and other machinery to get the track as raceable as quickly as possible once the rain stops.
   HELTON: That is it needsto stop before we can begin the process of drying. So we areequipped. The International Speedway, the Daytona International Speedway, has every drying piece of machinery they got across the country here today, because we know that the fans at home and the fans here in Daytona want to see the race run, and we do, too. The sooner, the better.

It's raining at Daytona

  It's approximately 90 minutes before the green flag is scheduled to drop on the Daytona 500 and right now the only thing dropping is rain.

   That's no surprise. It's been predicted for a while and, say what you will about weather forecasters, but they got it right this time.

  The question is when will it stop raining. It will eventually stop. It always has.

  NASCAR will do its best to get its biggest race in today, studying radar images in NASA-like detail, looking for a window to get in at least 100 laps (250 miles). With lights at Daytona, no one's going anywhere for a while.

   At the moment, ponchos are obscuring the multi-colored t-shirts so popular among race fans and there are tarps over the set that rocker Lenny Kravitz is scheduled to use for his pre-race concerts. Kravitz did stop into the infield media center earlier for a quick question-and-answer session and said he's pulling for Danica Patrick today.

   Wearing a heavy jacket, a brown scarf around his neck and Tom Cruise/Top Gun-style shades, Kravitz looked like he was ready for a winter walk in Paris rather than the infield at a stock car race.

   Presidential candidate Mitt Romney stopped by to campaign today and, at the drivers meeting, said the Daytona 500 combines "two of the things I like best -- cars and sports."

   While Romney showed up in person, Rick Santorum's name showed up on the side of Tony Raines' race car. The Florida primary has come and gone but the campaign continues.

   So, for the moment, does the rain.

-- Ron Green Jr.