Dale Junior talks radio chatter

   Team radio communications have made their way into many storylines this season in NASCAR, especially when a driver and crew chief are sniping at each other, or a driver is venting his displeasure at an ill-handling car.

   Exchanges over the radio between five-time Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson and his crew chief Chad Knaus in last weekend's race at New Hampshire have been a topic of conversation this week.

   On Friday, Johnson's Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Dale Earnhardt Jr., was asked his take on team communications being on the open airways. Here was his response:

   “That’s sort of the nature of the way the networks want to provide the sport to the fans and that’s something that the media wants to cover. So I’ve kind of gotten used to it," Earnhardt said. "But I remember when you used to have a hard time getting a scanner or being able to listen to the teams or even when I was going to the races with Daddy, it was like pulling teeth trying to get a radio so I could listen to what they were doing. And nowadays it’s all sort of out there and in front of everybody.

   "Every driver and crew chief have their times where they are going to say and do some things that they would rather not be public, but under the circumstances you really could care less at the moment. But yeah, I would rather the public and the media not know what we were talking about on our radios but that’s not the way the world works today. And so you have to understand and accept that. And I think it’s good because it makes you be a better person. It makes you control yourself better.

   "Had we not have such freedom as we do today, who knows what kind of asses we’d be? I get a little bit more coverage than most guys, from what I’ve listened to. I’ve never crossed some of the lines these other guys cross, but that’s just the way it goes.”

Kyle Busch leads way in NASCAR TV exposure in first 26 races

   Kyle Busch earned the most in television exposure value among NASCAR drivers during the first 26 races of the Sprint Cup Series season. His presence in TV coverage produced $57.8 million of exposure value to his sponsors.

   According to research conducted by Joyce Julius & Associates - which has monitored every NASCAR race telecast over the last 27 seasons - Busch's sponsors as a group appeared for 21 hours, five minutes, 45 seconds (21:05:45) during live and replayed race telecasts.

   Also contributing were a season-leading 251 mentions of Busch's sponsors.    Reigning series champion Jimmie Johnson was second in cumulative sponsor exposure value with $43.9 million, trailed by Jeff Gordon ($42.1 million) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. ($35.1 million) a distant fourth.

Pattie Petty diagnosed with Parkinson's

    Pattie Petty, philanthropist and wife of retired NASCAR driver and TV analyst Kyle Petty announced late Tuesday she has been diagnosed with and is receiving treatment for Parkinson’s Disease.

   Petty, 60, suspected she had Parkinson’s in early 2010 when she began experiencing resting tremors and aching muscles – two symptoms her father suffered in the early stages of his 15 year battle with the disease. A doctor in Nashville, TN, confirmed her concerns giving her an initial diagnosis based on her distinctive outward symptoms and started her on anti-Parkinson’s drugs last summer.
  
   “After watching my father live with Parkinson’s, it was not a surprise when I was told that I may be suffering from this disease as well,” she said. “I followed my doctor’s advice and began a series of medications, so that I could continue my plan of working a couple of weeks a month in Kansas City laying the ground work to open Victory Junction Midwest.”

   Victory Junction Midwest is slated be the sister camp to Victory Junction in Randleman, N.C., a camp for chronically ill children started by Petty and her husband in honor of their oldest son Adam who died in a NASCAR practice session in 2000.

   Pattie Petty is the tenth person at The University of Kansas Hospital to undergo a breakthrough test to diagnose Parkinson’s disease and other tremors. The FDA earlier this year approved DaTscan, a test that uses a radioactive imaging drug injected into the bloodstream for the purposes of detecting dopamine transporters (DaT) in the brain. The University Of Kansas Hospital is the first in the region to offer DaTscan.

   The test confirmed Monday that Pattie has Parkinson ’s disease.

Katie Kenseth breaks shoulder blade

   Katie Kenseth, the wife of Sprint Cup Series driver Matt Kenseth, fractured her shoulder blade and sustained other "bumps and bruises," according to a message posted on Matt Kenseth's Twitter account late Monday night.
  
   Katie Kenseth was injured earlier Monday while practicing at Charlotte Motor Speedway in a Bandolero car in preparation for the "Better Half Dash," a 25-lap race featuring the wives and girlfriends of NASCAR drivers.

   The race is scheduled to run prior to the Oct. 15 Bank of America 500 at CMS.

   For a story on the incident, including photos from the scene go here.

NASCAR rules out messy bumpers

   Along with changes to the size of the restrictor-plate and the pressure release valves of Sprint Cup cars there is another change mandated by NASCAR that will affect the racing there next month.

    In the technical bulletin issued to teams this week outlining the changes at Talladega, there was also a note that “the addition of lubricants to the rear bumper cover will not be permitted.”

    The change covers all tracks, but in reality the use of lubricants on the rear bumper has been most commonly used this season at Talladega and Daytona to assist in the two-car drafting tandems.

    To keep the pushing car from spinning out the lead car in the two-car tandems, teams have used everything from grease, to ointment to cooking spray to keep the bumpers from getting locked up when they meet.

    Teams' inability to soften the blow, is likely to add to their unwillingness to utilize the drafting method, or at least use it more sparingly.

JJ Yeley's explanation of why he was pushing Matt Kenseth

      On the final lap of Monday's GEICO 400 at Chicagoland Speedway, JJ Yeley came up behind Matt Kenseth, who had run out of fuel, and gave Kenseth a shove through Turns 3 and 4 to help him make it to the finish.

 

   Kenseth crossed the finish line in eighth, but NASCAR later penalized Kenseth and moved him to 21st in the lineup, the first car one lap down.

 

   There is a rule which prohibits drivers from providing assistance to other drivers on the final lap of a race. NASCAR can penalize the driver being pushed as well as the one who does the pushing.

 

   Following the race, Yeley explained what took place during the race while making an appearance on Sirius NASCARXM Radio's post race show with Claire B. Lang and Jim Noble.

 

   Here is what Yeley had to say:

 

   "The rule I guess used to be is a little foggy and now, I guess, NASCAR has clarified it for me that no driver can get any assistance on the final lap. We were running along doing our own thing. We blew a right front tire which did significant damage to the front end. We were just minding our own business as we came to the white (flag). I went down to the apron and Matt went by me and as I got back behind him it appeared he was out of fuel, so I pushed him through Turns 3 and 4 and the way I thought the rule read was you weren't allowed to push them across the line. I got loose from Matt and went on my merry way.

 

   "It wasn't until I left the race track that (crew chief) Jay Guy called me and said I needed to have a conversation with NASCAR because they wanted to penalize the 17. It's not fair to them, you know, because he didn't ask me to push him. He just ran out of fuel in front of me and I was just trying to help out. Now I know the rule.

 

   "There is some clarification that is going to have to be made in the future because in every restrictor-plate race that we've run this year, there's been assistance on that final lap. In three restrictor-plate races, the winner has been pushed across the line. ... At the end of the day I don't think it was not fair to them."

 

NASCAR to take a look at Menard spin

   JOLIET, Ill. - NASCAR President Mike Helton said on Friday the sanctioning body will "take another look" at the spin by driver Paul Menard that brought out the final caution of last Saturday night's Sprint Cup race at Richmond, Va.o

    The caution allowed the field to be bunched up one final time. Jeff Gordon, who was leading at the time of the caution, came out second behind Menard's teammate, Kevin Harvick, following a round of pit stops.

    Harvick went on to win the race.

    Helton and NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp confirmed no driver or crew chief complained about the caution to NASCAR officials after the race.

    Gordon was the first to raise the idea the caution may have been intentional, during his postrace comments Saturday night and again on Thursday.

Harvick and Kyle Busch sit atop the Chase standings entering Sunday's 10-race playoff opener at Chicagoland Speedway.