Pocono & Iowa set 2013 NASCAR dates

   Pocono Raceway announced on Wednesday its 2013 NASCAR events will be held on their traditional weekends - the Pocono 400 Sprint Cup race will take place on June 9, 2013, and the Pennsylvania 400 will take place on Aug. 4, 2013.

   The Pocono 400 weekend, June 7-9, will also feature an ARCA race. The Aug. 2-4 Pennsylvania 400 weekend will also include ARCA and a NASCAR Trucks race.

   Iowa Speedway also announced its NASCAR race dates for the 2013 season.

   The track will host Nationwide Series races on Jun 8 and Aug. 3, 2013. Iowa Speedway will also host NASCAR Truck races on July 13 and Sept. 8, 2013.
  

Kansas Speedway repave gets good early reviews

   Several NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams took to the newly reconfigured Kansas Speedway on Tuesday and several offered positive reviews as teams navigated the variable banking for the first time.

   “I think they did a really nice job repaving,” said Matt Kenseth. “Drivers aren’t huge fans of repaves, especially being the first ones on the track, by this afternoon the cars were more comfortable on the track. I think the repave is awesome.”

   Regan Smith agreed.

 “We’ve seen quite a few of these this year already. They did a pretty good job with this one.”

 

   For Dale Earnhardt Jr., the day was about getting some time on the track.

    “It’s nice to get out on the track. It’s nice to see the track. I like this place,” said Earnhardt, Jr. “The banking will add speed to the race track and one and two definitely have more banking. This should be a fast little race track.”

   Kenseth, who holds the track record of 180.856 mph set back in 2005, expects a new track record this fall.

    “We’re already running, the last lap was 30.30 or something,” said Kenseth. “You know it’s going to be faster when everybody runs in qualifying runs. I expect it to be the high 28s in a qualifying run.”

Hillenburg named NMPA Spirit Award winner

   Members of the National Motorsports Press Association have selected Rockingham Speedway President Andy Hillenburg as the second quarter winner of the NMPA Speedway Motorsports Spirit Award.

   The award is designed to recognize character and achievement in the face of adversity, sportsmanship and contributions to motorsports. Each year, quarterly winners are selected, and an overall winner is determined by a vote of the National Motorsports Press Association membership.

    Hillenburg was selected for his efforts to return Rockingham Speedway to prominence. He bought the track at auction in October 2007 and in April of 2012 NASCAR returned to the track for the first time since 2004.

   Also receiving votes were: Jimmie Johnson, Ricky Benton Racing, Ellen Siska and Tony Stewart.

Matt Kenseth's take on Tony Stewart's helmet toss

   Upset that he and Matt Kenseth wrecked while racing for the lead in Saturday night's Irwin Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, Tony Stewart provided a moment that will likely make its way to commercials everywhere the remainder of the NASCAR season.

   Stewart waited for Kenseth's car to come back around the track and launched a two-handed toss of his helmet that landed on the nose of Kenseth's car. Stewart vowed he would wreck Kenseth every chance he got the remainder of the year.

   Kenseth was asked about the racing at Bristol and the helmet throw after the race. His responses:

   Q: What happened with Stewart?
   Kenseth: I’m a little confused. I was running the top leading and he got a run and he went into turn one like I wasn’t there and just went straight to the fence. If I wouldn’t have lifted, like he chose not to do the next corner, we would have wrecked, so I let him have it and I got a run back, drove all the way alongside of him and we just kept going. I mean, I lifted down there or else we would have wrecked and he chose not to lift and wrecked us both, so I don’t know. He’s already had two in this series he’s pretty much taken us out of and I told him after Indy I was gonna race him the way he raced me and I did the exact same thing down there that he did down there – the exact same thing, except he didn’t give it to me. I guess he just wanted to do all the taking, so that’s where we ended up.

   Q: He said he's going to run through you every chance he gets.
   Kenseth: Yeah, that’s fine. Look, Tony is probably the greatest race car driver in the garage. I don’t really have anything bad to say about Tony. On the race track for years and years and years we’ve had tons of respect for each other and, for whatever reason this year, he ran me off the track at Sears Point and said he was sorry. It cost me seven spots in the finishing order and at Indy he was mad because he said I blocked him and I asked for five minutes of his time to clear the air and he wouldn’t give it to me and pretty much just got cussed out and knocked my whole side off and put us in position to get wrecked, so I just said, ‘OK, that’s fine. I’m just gonna race you the same way you race me,’ and he showed me how he was gonna race me down there, so I just did the same thing on the other end. So I don’t know. If you look at it we did the exact same thing, it’s just that he didn’t lift so I don’t really see where that’s 100 percent my fault or problem.

   Q: What did you think when you saw the helmet coming at you?
   Kenseth: I was expecting it. I’ve seen that for awhile. I was expecting it and it didn’t really bother me. It wasn’t gonna hurt it any worse.

   Q: Did the changes to the top of the track play into what happened or would you guys have raced like that regardless?
   Kenseth: I don’t know. I didn’t want to race him like that and I never like to really race people like that. If he would have just stayed around the bottom for two laps and passed me clean, I would have just probably lifted and let him up in line, but, like I said, the first shot he had he just went straight like I wasn’t even there and went straight to the top groove, and it was either lift or wreck him and I lifted, so he just chose to do the opposite at the other end. The top really came in for whatever reason. It’s so smooth up there that it built a lot of rubber and that was the only groove. It was pretty much a one-groove track because the top actually got really good at the end.


  

Earnhardt Jr. takes offense at Keselowski's comments

   Dale Earnhardt Jr. expressed his displeasure on Friday morning over comments Brad Keselowski made last weekend, which many in the media claimed were allegations of cheating at Hendrick Motorsports.

 

   Here is what Earnhardt was asked:

 

   Q: YOU KNOW BRAD KESELOWSKI BETTER THAN MOST BECAUSE HE DROVE FOR YOU IN THE NATIONWIDE SERIES. IS BRAD (KESELOWSKI) A GUY WHO LIKES TO PLAY MIND GAMES A LITTLE BIT WITH SOME OF THE STUFF HE HAS HAD TO SAY ABOUT HENDRICK AND THE REAR-END/SUSPENSIONS LATELY? IS THAT EFFECTIVE IN YOUR MIND?

   Earnhardt: “No not really. I do know Brad (Keselowski) pretty well. Brad is a really good guy. He has a pretty good heart. He is a really great race car driver and I wish he would concentrate on that. I think he likes to talk a lot, but I think his true skills shine on the race track not really behind the microphone.”

   Q: TELL US ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED WITH YOUR HIGH SCHOOL VISIT HERE IN BRISTOL AND HOW YOU THOUGHT THAT WENT. ALSO WE TALKED TO RUSTY WALLACE LAST NIGHT HE SAID BETWEEN HIMSELF AND YOUR FATHER SOME OF THE DRAMA THAT THEY CREATED WEATHER IT WAS FOR SHOW OR JUST AS A RESULT OF WHAT HAPPENED ON THE RACE TRACK WAS GOOD FOR THE SPORT. THAT KIND OF DISAGREES WITH WHAT YOU SAID ABOUT BRAD. WE DON’T HAVE AS MUCH OF THAT DRAMA NOW AS WE DID BACK IN THE HAY DAY.
   Earnhardt: “I mean I don’t disagree with Rusty (Wallace). I just…me and Brad are friends I don’t want any drama with Brad. I don’t particularly like the things he says lately about the company I drive for. I take offense to the claims and accusations. It’s just natural for me to do that, but we’re friends and I don’t want any drama between him. So, that is where I stand with that. I mean certain individuals and personalities, when they clash it’s great. It makes great TV and there have been a lot of great rivalries in this sport that have moved it along and taken it to certain levels. I don’t dislike that or disagree with it."

   To read what Keselowski said last week, go here.

How Earnhardt's death contributed to Rusty Wallace's retirement

   On Thursday night, many NASCAR media had the chance to talk quite a while with NASCAR veteran Rusty Wallace and the driver who now wheels the No. 2 Dodge at Penske Racing, Brad Keselowski.

   I have always been curious on how Wallace came to the decision to walk away and retire as a driver - while he was still on top of his career - and how unlike many others, he has never returned to NASCAR competition in any form. So, I asked Wallace about it Thursday night and his answer I found quite interesting. I'm not sure he had shared such details before.

   Here was his response:

   "There are many reasons why I quit driving the car. Really, I had accomplished all I could. I have just kept running and kept winning, but I had won at just about every track. That particular year I made the Chase. I remember going to Richmond - had a great race that day - and remember moving into second in points behind Jimmie Johnson. But there was one thing that was lingering in the back of my head while this whole thing was going on. And it was when Dale (Earnhardt) got killed. Mr. (Bill) France came up to me before Dale passed away and said, 'Rusty, how much longer you going to keep doing this?' He actually took his hand and did something - he told me in his office about a month before Dale died, he said he was watching my career. He said I was still getting it done, still winning. He said, 'I watched you go up, and you got to the very top and now you're teetering back and forth.' He said he thought I needed to hang this up and work for NASCAR or work with TV. He said, 'You can't prove any more. I don't want to see you get hurt.'

   "So, we were at the hospital the night Dale passed away and I looked across the room and there was Bill France and he looked me right in the eye and held his hands up like this (Rusty made a T with his hands and had the top hand teetering back and forth). It made me think. I ran the rest of the year. We put together a proper go-away - Rusty's Last Call. I thought about the next chapter of my career. Then I got a phone call from ESPN asking me to be an analyst for them and I said I need to do that. It was a great offer and it was a good time to do it.

   "When I go to certain tracks, like Richmond or Bristol, I wish I was out there. When Talladega happens, I go, 'Oh my God you can have it.' I think about it at different tracks."


  

Is Bristol in a no-win situation?

   Nobody many know what the racing will look like on the altered surface at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway this weekend but that won’t keep snap judgments from being made after the race as to whether it was a success.

   The problem is Bristol may be in a no-win situation.

   Already it looks very unlikely Bristol will have anything close to a sell-out on Saturday night and in the past, even when the March race under-performed, the summer night race still sold out or came close to it.

   So with the very public way track owner Bruton Smith went about ordering the changes to the track, if the crowd Saturday night is down from last year, does that mean the move was a failure?

   It will be very difficult to tell.

   Whether some want to believe it or not, the economy still drives many of the ticket-buying decisions in NASCAR right now. People have more disposable income these days, but it’s still a big decision on how to use it.

   Lower ticket sales could easily be attributed to economics, but that same argument was made for the lower attendance at the past two spring races and nobody wanted to hear that. The answer was only “fix the track.”

   The progressive banking added to the track in 2007 produced side-by-side competition in which passes could be executed without re-arranging a competitor’s doors and fenders and lately had reduced caution periods. Although, the results were different depending on which NASCAR series was competing.

   If the racing is deemed “great” on Saturday night, perhaps fans will overlook empty seats. Those who didn’t want a change, to be sure, will look to those seats as proof the changes didn’t increase attendance – which, in public comments at least, was what was said to prompt the change.

   Last week’s Sprint Cup race winner, Greg Biffle, called the reconfiguration “a shot in the dark.”

   He’s right. On Saturday night, we’ll see what – if anything – it hit.