What Kyle Petty said Sunday that Denny Hamlin didn't like

   What Speed TV analyst Kyle Petty said about NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin before Sunday's race
                                               
   Kyle Petty:

   “I think Denny’s a good race car driver -- really solid race car driver -- and he’s been banged up numerous times this year. We go to California. We can go to a lot of race tracks --Dover -- that hit he took up there. Honest to gosh, though, he didn’t have a shot at making the Chase, though. I’m sorry. He just didn’t. He was so far out. You can’t compete with teams like Jimmie Johnson and those guys and sit out five or six weeks. I think since that time now, he’s started to talk a lot. He’s talked about being the face of Joe Gibbs Racing. I think he’s got a little bit of the ‘BK (Brad Keselowski) syndrome’ in him right now. He’s not relevant to the sport right now as far as the Chase and what’s going on in the Chase and winning the championship. He can win the next four or five races, but it’s not going to change the championship this year, and it’s not going to change the Chase. It is what it is and he needs to focus on next year, get his body back together and come back and have a shot at winning next year.”

Yes, Brad Keselowski's team is focused on the No. 48. There's a reason, too

   Former Cup series champion Dale Jarrett recently said on ESPN that he thought reigning champion Brad Keselowski and his team might be focused too much this season on Jimmie Johnson and his No. 48 team, which could be distracting them.

 

   Keselowski's crew chief, Paul Wolfe, was asked about the issue on Saturday and basically agreed but with an important caveat.

 

   Here was his response:

 

   "Whether or not that is a problem, I don’t know. I think the reason you look at them is because, let’s face it, over the last five or six years they have been the team to beat. So when you are trying to reach a goal, you need to pay attention to what is going on around you. We definitely have focused on them," Wolfe said.

 

   "Now obviously, we were able to beat them fair and square in the Chase last year so that definitely gives us confidence and I think that is why we’ve set the bar higher for ourselves and we know that is the team we need to beat to be able to win another championship. I think that is where some of that focus was but as I said, now we are at a point where we need to get the best we can out of what we have to work with right now and that is what we are going to do for the next six weeks.”

Crew member dies at Southern National Motorsports Park near Raleigh

   Mike Sabiston, a crew member of New Day Motorsports, died Friday, Aug. 2, after falling from the lift gate of his team's hauler in the infield at Southern National Motorsports Park near Kenly, N.C., about 40 miles southeast of Raleigh.

   According to speedway officials, the remainder of the day's activities at the track were canceled after the incident. Saturday night's Pro All Stars Series South race remains on schedule.

   "We at Southern National Motorsports Park are saddened to report a member of our racing family was in a tragic accident while working with his team unloading their car. The owners, staff and all racing teams at Southern National would like to send our prayers and deepest sympathy to his family," said a statement posted on the track's Web site.

   New Day Motorsports, which fields a car for driver Brandon Ward, withdrew from the event.

   "Mike was a longtime friend and supporter of New Day Motorsports and was an integral part of our racing family. He was certainly loved by us all and deeply appreciated," said a statement released by the team.

   Ross Kenseth, son of NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Matt Kenseth, and Harrison Burton, son of Cup driver Jeff Burton, are among the drivers scheduled to compete in Saturday night's race at Southern National.

   The team's statement said funeral arrangements were incomplete.

  

What Jeff Burton means when he says, "Some drivers aren't race fans"

   Friday morning, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Jeff Burton was asked about the different perspectives in what makes good racing - from the driver's seat and from fans watching on TV - and how they don't always mesh.

 

   Burton was asked if there was any way fans can appreciate what the driver's perspective and vice versa. Burton's answer may surprise you.

 

   “Not completely. Some drivers aren’t race fans. They race because it’s about them which is fine, there’s nothing wrong with that. We have other drivers that are big race fans. If a driver is a race fan, I think he can understand what the race fans are thinking and what they are saying but not in the extent that you pay however much money as you pay to sit in your seat and you watch a raced that wasn’t satisfying to you. The driver, no matter what the quality of the race is for the fan, his effort and his dedication it might be racing for 15^th but he’s doing is best all day to find a way to go to 14th," Burton said.

 

   "I go up in the (race control) tower a few times a year, go up on the spotters stand or whatever and watch a race. Man, it’s a different perspective. It looks like everybody is just riding around. I’ll be honest, I’ve driven these things for a long time, there’s times I’m up there thinking, 'Man, just drive it in the corner', but it’s just not that easy. It’s hard for both sides to see the other side, but I think drivers understand the fans want to see exciting racing. I think the fans know that the drivers want to be involved in exciting racing. It’s way more fun to run side by side and be in the middle of a real tight battle than it is to be nose to tail trying to find your way around one guy. It just is, so we want to be part of that, too."

 

 

Joey Logano relishes 'fresh start' at Penske

 

   NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Joey Logano was asked this week if he thought his career in NASCAR's top series had gone tougher than expected.

    Here was his answer:

    Logano: “Yeah, obviously it is tough. But this year has gone very well in my eyes. We've had really fast race cars. We've had opportunities to win, but, yes, we've had a lot of adversity. When you look at those two 40th place finishes, you look at the issues we had at the beginning of the year, you look at a penalty, I feel like this year we're easily a Chase contending team that's capable, I think, of winning a championship. Right now we're out of position because some things that were our fault and some things that we couldn't control. That's part of our sport, and that's how it goes, but we're in contention of winning races now. I'm excited about that.

    "I had to go through a learning curve when I first started racing Cup in a lot of different areas and in a lot of different things, and I feel like having this fresh start here at Penske Racing with Shell and Pennzoil and Roger (Penske) and Brad (Keselowski) and Todd (Gordon, crew chief) and all these guys, we're all working great together. So I feel like we're right on the verge of getting that win this season and getting ourselves in.”

Who says Fox Sports 1 isn't ready to roll out?

   NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver Joey Coulter debuts a new partner at Pocono Raceway this weekend on his Toyota Tundra - FOX Sports 1.
 
   The rebranded Speed Channel will be America's newest sports network and set to launch Saturday, Aug. 17. The network will serve as TV home to the series. Pocono will mark the first of two consecutive appearances onboard the No. 18 Tundra for the network and will incorporate a unique concept to count down the days until its official launch the weekend of the Truck Series race at Michigan International Speedway.

Indianapolis residents love NASCAR, they just don't go to the Brickyard

   Some very telling information came out this week in the Nielsen ratings for last Sunday's Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway which was broadcast on ESPN. The race received a 3.6 rating - up nine percent from a year ago.

   Attendance at the track, however, was perhaps the lowest in the race's 20-year history. That was not necessarily a surprise. What was a little surprising were the details behind the ratings.

   The market with the largest rating - where the most people had their TVs tuned to the Brickyard 400 on Sunday - was Indianapolis, with a whopping 13.7 rating. And that was up 26 percent from last year's 10.9 rating.

   What that means is a very large segment of residents in the Indianapolis TV market remain firmly loyal NASCAR fans. What it also means is they were not interested in attending the race in person.

   That is the best evidence I've seen of the growing disconnect between fans who attend NASCAR races in person and those who remain at home and watch on TV.

   It's a gulf NASCAR and the tracks are going to have to work hard to bridge.

   The rest of the best
   The rest of the top 10 TV markets for Sunday's Brickyard 400:

   2. Greensboro, N.C., (10.1)
   3. Greenville, S.C., (9.4)
   4. Charlotte, N.C., (9.1).
   5. Norfolk, Va., (8.3)
   6. Jacksonville, Fla., (8.2).
   7. Nashville, Tenn., (8.1).
   8. Birmingham, Ala., (7.8)
   9. Richmond, Va., (7.7)
   10. Knoxville, Tenn., (7.2)