Hard to believe, but Carl Edwards issue actually quite simple

   As confusing as the issue surrounding Carl Edwards getting black-flagged late in Saturday night's race at Richmond may sound, it's actually very simple.

   When the caution came out on Lap 312, Edwards was the only car not to have made a green-flag pit stop. Thus, there were only three cars on the lead lap at that time - Edwards, Tony Stewart and Jimmie Johnson who had just completed his pit stop on pit road.

   Edwards then pit. There is no way you can be the only car to pit and still be the race leader. Regardless of who told who what, what Fox's TV graphic said, or what the scoring pylon showed, Edwards should have known the moment he went down pit road he was no longer the race leader.

   It really is just as simple as that.

RCR and Turner Nationwide teams in trouble with NASCAR

The NASCAR Nationwide teams of Richard Childress Racing and Turner Motorsports altered the contoured areas surrounding the wheel hubs of their nose pieces, which are provided by manufacturers.

All three RCR teams and all three Turner teams had the upper front bumper covers of their cars confiscated by NASCAR during opening inspection on Thursday at Richmond International Raceway.

Any penalties will be announced next week for the cars driven by Elliott Sadler, Austin Dillon and Kevin Harvick with RCR and James Buescher, Justin Allgaier and Kasey Kahne with Turner.

The nose pieces, or upper front bumper covers, are designed by manufacturers and approved by NASCAR. The Nationwide Series rulebook states "cutting and reshaping of bumper covers will not be permitted."

Series director Joe Balash said the RCR teams had changes made on both sides of the nose piece, while the Turner teams were altered on just one side.

Balash said he wasn't sure why the changes were limited to one manufacturer.

"Sometimes there are different trends in the garage. Sometimes they cross manufacturers and sometimes they don't," Balash said.

Balash said NASCAR's concern with the teams is altering a piece of the car which has to be run "as-is."

A visual inspection of one of the Turner team's nose pieces showed a complete absence of the contoured area around the left wheel hub, compared to a generic manufacturer piece.

 

The rulebook allows NASCAR officials the ability to use bumper covers provided by manufacturers as a guide in determining whether a competitor's bumper cover conforms to specifications.

Sadler contended NASCAR officials confiscated the pieces through a visual inspection, not by measuring by templates. The rulebook, however, allows for such a determination.

Sadler, currently the series points leader, has potentially the most to lose with a sizable NASCAR penalty.

"It's the same car I've run already twice this year and passed post-race tech since we won both races," Sadler said. "We don't really know what is going to happen."

Bristol not "going to be much different," Hamlin says

   Denny Hamlin was among the drivers who thought something should be changed at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, but what track owner Bruton Smith has chosen to do doesn't provide Hamlin much confidence the racing will change.

   A loud contingent of fans have complained changes made to Bristol in 2007 have reduced the bump-and-run style of passing, which was typical of most Bristol races.

   Smith announced earlier this week he was going to grind the track to remove the top racing groove and eliminate the progressive banking. Hamlin has advocated paving the now concrete track or at least having Goodyear bring a softer tire which wears more.

   "I don't know how a whole lot about it, because I wasn't in construction but for a little bit of time when I was younger, but there's rebar in there, so you can't grind but so much, so I don't know -- I don't think it's going to be much different to be honest with you," Hamlin said. "What we had -- if anything maybe the grinding will cause for grip and people are going to run up high anyways, so who knows what's going to happen. You want to fix it and make it a tough track? You need to pave it.

   "Concrete is not the answer as far as that is concerned. They're in a box. They have to -- they're trying to do everything they can. I understand that, because the fans want a change. You commend them for trying, but I think that they're time limited on what
adjustments they can really make to that track. As far as repavings, none of us drivers like to see it.

   "I talked with a couple guys who ran the Pocono test and they weren't overly excited about it after running it, so it's one of those things -- the tracks have to do it or we're going to have a four-hour delay in the middle of it because we have a pothole in the middle of the
track. It's just a tough box that our cars are running so fast that they have to limit our speed with the tires, so that's what makes it tough to race on."

Have NASCAR drivers had enough of "havin' at it"?

   Have NASCAR drivers had enough of “Boys, have at it”?

   In the hours after Sunday’s Sprint Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway, there was a lot of discussion among NASCAR fans and media members about the fact that 900 miles of racing had been completed in back-to-back weekends without a single wreck.

   There were lots of reasons offered, such as the high winds at Texas and Kansas; hard tires; aerodynamic issues; and so on. Many have been stated before. One – proffered by driver Brad Keselowski – was new.

   On Twitter, Keselowski noted that drivers may be less inclined to put themselves in position to accidently run into someone because those drivers now have a “free pass” at intentional retaliation.

   At first it sounds iffy. If a driver accidently gets into another one, why would that driver then want to intentionally wreck him back?

   For one, whether an action on the track is intentional or not is in the eye of the beholder. Just because the driver who commits the act didn’t intend it to happen doesn’t mean the driver who was hit has to believe that.

   And Keselowski is right. The “boys, have at it” mantra gives drivers an open invitation to settle things among themselves.

   Has the ability and willingness of drivers to take retaliatory action now dissuaded others to not put themselves in position for it to happen in the first place?

   Think about this. If only one on-track incident has been avoided in the first eight races of the season because of that reason, the entire premise of “loosening the reigns” of NASCAR’s regulatory powers has been lost.

   Instead of “opening things up,” an even larger clamp will have been placed on the participants.

   That’s certainly not what anyone intended.  

Drive-in movie night at Charlotte Motor Speedway

   Charlotte Motor Speedway will kick off a month of racing in May with "One Hot Fan Night," a free event featuring appearances by NASCAR celebrities and a showing of the historic 1992 NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race on the world’s largest HDTV.

   On Tuesday, May 1, the speedway will open the infield at 5:30 p.m. to fans for a drive-in-movie style night of entertainment. Scheduled to appear are Matt Kenseth, the 2004 NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race winner, NASCAR Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton and NASCAR on Fox broadcasters Larry McReynolds and Mike Joy. The NASCAR personalities will participate in a fan forum at 7 p.m. before the showing of the 1992 All-Star Race known as “One Hot Night” at approximately 7:30 p.m.

   CMS made motorsports history in 1992 when the All-Star Race became the first modern superspeedway race run under the lights in prime-time. The race produced one of NASCAR’s most memorable moments when Dale Earnhardt spun out of the lead on the last lap and Davey Allison crashed past Kyle Petty at the finish line to take the victory.

   “We want to celebrate that historic race with the fans and some of the men who took part in it,” speedway president Marcus Smith said. “And I’m looking forward to hearing what Matt has to say about the upcoming May races. As a past winner of both the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race and the Coca-Cola 600, he’s got a great perspective on what it takes to win at Charlotte.”

   Fans can take advantage of special offers on May race tickets in the speedway ticket office or by calling (800) 455-FANS.

Winless streaks for 2011 Chase drivers

Winless streaks among 2011 Chase drivers

Driver, races without a win

Dale Earnhardt Jr., 136

Carl Edwards, 40

Kyle Busch, 20

Jeff Gordon, 18

Kevin Harvick, 17

Kurt Busch, 14

Jimmie Johnson, 13

Matt Kenseth, 6

Denny Hamlin, 5

Brad Keselowski, 3

Tony Stewart, 2

Ryan Newman, 1

Are there any secrets in Dale Junior's family tree?

   What secrets lie in the Earnhardt family tree?
  
   Dale Earnhardt Jr. has been spending time over the last six months trying to find out. And they may not be secrets, but perhaps just things he and his closest relatives may not have been aware of.

   Earnhardt was one of 12 drivers to make a visit last week to the White House, honoring drivers who made last season's Chase. He said he had a new appreciation for some of the old artwork in the White House in light of time he's spent researching his family tree.

   "I didn’t really appreciate how old some of the artwork and stuff is in that house until I did some work on my family tree this last six months and I’ve started to understand what 200 years really means or what 150 years truly means in the grand scope of things," he said.
  
   Asked if he has discovered anything new or interesting about his family tree so far, Earnhardt said:

   "We don’t have time today to talk about how much fun I’ve had with working on my family tree. I was fortunate enough to find someone in the field of genealogy that helped me out and I’m trying to put together some kind of a well-organized document to sort of be able to show to family members and what have you and just keep so Kelley’s (Earnhardt, his sister) kids and if I have any one day, they won’t have to do the work.

   "I had one interesting experience. Ralph’s (Earnhardt) father, I didn’t know who he was and never really cared who he was, never thought about who he was or what his family would be like. Never thought past Ralph all these years and I started getting into his father and Ralph’s grandfather and I found their burial plots and so me and my grandmother Martha and my sister and my mom Brenda and my girlfriend rode up there one day, just in Kannapolis or Concord and visited their burial plots and a lot of relatives that were born in like 1809 and 1822 and stuff like that. 

   "It’s really cool to stand there over somebody that is responsible for you being there and that was pretty neat. I had done that before and I had people tell me to work on my family tree before, but I didn’t think it was that big of a deal. Once I got into it and started realizing the importance of it so it’s been a lot of fun.”