Mike Ford joins Richard Petty Motorsports' No. 43 team

    Mike Ford, who won 17 races and made the Chase for the Sprint Cup six times with driver Denny Hamlin, has joined Richard Petty Motorsports and will becomes crew chief for driver Aric Almirola.

   The 42-year-old Morristown, Tenn., native spent the past six seasons with Joe Gibbs Racing as Hamlin’s crew chief. He and Hamlin earned 17 wins, 66 top-five finishes and 108 top-10 finishes. Ford has also worked at Robert Yates Racing and Evernham Motorsports.

   “Mike Ford is an elite crew chief who knows what it takes to be a winner at this level,” said team owner Richard Petty. “We’re fortunate that he was available and that we could reach a deal to bring him over to our place. We’ve taken a lot of big steps at Richard Petty Motorsports in the past year and I think this might be that one piece of the puzzle we were missing.”

   Ford replaces Greg Erwin. Erwin and Almirola have one top-10 finish in the first nine races of the 2012 season.

   “Everyone in the garage respects him and knows what he’s capable of," Almirola said of Ford. "It’s a goal of the No. 43 team to make the Chase this year and I think Mike’s experience and knowledge can help get us there. We’ve got some ground to make up but I think we can do it.”

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