First female tire changer on Cup team leaves without changing a tire

 

   Christmas Abbott, who in February became the only woman employed in NASCAR as a full-time pit crew member, has left her Michael Waltrip Racing team without ever changing a tire in a race.

   Abbott's departure was confirmed on Tuesday night by a MWR spokesman. The team declined to release any other details regarding her departure.

   In February, Abbott, an elite-level fitness athlete whose journey to become a full-time pit crew member has been well-chronicled, was named to MWR's Sprint Cup organization's traveling pit support team.

   "I'm here to do whatever my coaches ask of me, and I don't want any handouts," Abbott said at the time of her hire. "I'm ready to work three races a weekend if that's what it takes to get me where I want to be.

   "I'm in it for thre long haul."

   Abbott, however, never made it into a race with the MWR organization and in recent months wasn't seen at the track on race day. 

   The most recent race Abbott appeared to work in a race was for a noncompetitive Truck series team during February Speedweeks at Daytona International Speedway.

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/02/20/2695570/christmas-abbott-breaks-new-ground.html#storylink=cpyTo our knowledge, the last time Abbott changed a tire was on a non-competitive truck team during February’s Speedweeks in Daytona.

Kyle Petty: 'If the door is open ... it is easier to get here'

   Last Saturday's win by Darrell Wallace Jr. in the NASCAR Truck Series race at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway was important for many reasons, but the most important may yet to be felt.

   Former driver and current Fox Sports 1 analyst Kyle Petty talks about the long-term ramifications of Wallace's victory - the first by an African-American driver in a NASCAR national series race in 50 years.

   "Saturday was a big step for NASCAR, its Drive for Diversity program and the sport in general. No matter how much we want to rewrite history and make it politically correct, NASCAR predominantly was a white, Southern sport for so many years. Only in the last 20 or 25 years has it become more of a national sport," Petty said.

   "The doors don’t seem to have opened as quickly or there haven’t been as many people coming through any open doors. But we’ve been seeing change with Danica Patrick, Johanna Long, Bubba Wallace, engineers and crew members all through the industry. The sport is well on its way to being just a microcosm of any other business.

   "The last barrier to break is the driver barrier. It’s incredibly tough to break that driver barrier because of the sheer numbers. There are 43 Cup drivers, 30 to 40 Nationwide drivers and 30 to 40 Truck drivers. You’re looking at no more than 100 or 125 people, so the numbers are against everyone - not just minorities. But if the door is open and the barrier has been broken, it is easier for people with talent, regardless of race, creed or color, to get here.”

Clint Bowyer: 'The future will be brighter'

   A cheating scandal, the loss of a major sponsor, the loss of a team for next season and most recently the loss of a driver for the remainder of this year. Michael Waltrip Racing has taken its share of hits over the last two months and Sprint Cup Series driver Clint Bowyer has been in the middle of much of it.

   On Monday, he was asked about the morale at MWR right now considering all of the things that have happened of late.

   Here was his response:

   "I guess the biggest thing is we have a good game plan. You've got to be able to come up with a goal, set goals, come up with a plan of where do we go from here? Certainly, man, it's been a day‑by‑day thing," Bowyer said. "No more than I felt like we were turning the corner of trying to get past what happened in Richmond, and Brian out of the blue comes up with his illness. It was like 'Oh, my God, not again. When does it stop?'

   "But, nonetheless, very proud, to be honest with you, of where we're at considering all the circumstances. I mean, we're sixth in points. With all the distractions, all of the melees that have been going on with our organization, it just seems like it would have been very easy to get your eye off the ball and lose focus and not even completely be a factor at all.

   "I'm pleasantly surprised of the dedication and the hard work and the drive of everybody involved.  We've worked hard to get where we're at and the hard work and dedication will get us through all of this. The future will be brighter ahead."

What Kevin Harvick had to say about Saturday's Truck race one day later

   Sprint Cup Series driver Kevin Harvick spoke to Fox Sports 1's "NASCAR RaceDay" hosts John Roberts, Kyle Petty and Larry McReynolds on Sunday morning about Saturday's incident with Ty Dillon in the NASCAR Truck race.

    What made you angry in yesterday’s incident?
   “I think there was just a lot of emotion involved. I hate it for everybody at RCR. You go back and look at the things that happened, and sometimes you regret the things that you say for sure. Yesterday was definitely one of them. I hate it for my guys, and everybody working on the cars. Obviously, when those emotional situations come about; you say things that you really don’t want to say. I just want to apologize to all of those guys, work hard today and try and do everything we can to win the race."

   Were these comments a result of the frustration and the pressure?
   “I think yesterday was just some frustration on how the race ended. You never want to be in a situation like were in, and obviously, the short-track racing and everything that happened, you try to do the right things, and yesterday I didn’t do the right thing. We just have to do what we have to do today to put ourselves in a position to be as successful as we can.”

   Have you had a conversation with Ty Dillon?
   “No. I think it’s best for all of us to just cool down and have a sensible conversation about things that are going. I wish that’s what I would have done yesterday. It’s one of those situations that you don’t want to be a part of, but I don’t have anybody else to blame but myself.”

Video of the sledgehammer throwing incident in Saturday's NASCAR race

   Ty Dillon and Kevin Harvick were involved in a late-race wreck on the track that spilled over onto pit road at Martinsville Speedway on Saturday. And then the pit crews got involved, which included a sledgehammer being thrown at Harvick's truck.

   Darrell Wallace Jr. won the race, becoming the first African-American driver to win a NASCAR national series race since Wendell Scott won in Jacksonville, Fla., in 1963.

Former stuntman, NASCAR owner Hal Needham dies

 
   Hal Needham, a longtime stuntman, movie director and NASCAR team owner, died Friday in Los Angeles. He was 82.

  

   Needham served as director of “Smokey and the Bandit” and “Cannonball Run” for Burt Reynolds and from 1981 to 1989 he and Reynolds co-owned Harry Gant’s No. 33 with which he won nine races and 13 poles.

   During his Hollywood career, Needham won an Emmy and an Oscar, appeared in 4,500 television episodes and 350 feature films.

 

   Read more on Needham here.

 

Jeff Gordon talks about an offer Rick Hendrick may not have known about

   Four-time Sprint Cup Series champion  Jeff Gordon sat down with "NASCAR Race Hub" host Danielle Trotta this week to talk about his career and what big opportunity existed early on that car owner Rick Hendrick may not have known about.

   Here is what Gordon had to say on Thursday’s  edition of the show:

   “When I first started to come into the NASCAR Nationwide Series – I did both (sprint cars & stock cars) because I was still competing for championships in other series. Once I became more established in the Cup Series with (Rick) Hendrick, it really wasn’t something I thought about. I’ve always enjoyed all forms of racing, if I can get the opportunity and drive another car; have a new experience, like I did with the F1 car and the 24 Hours of Daytona," he said.

   "The one thing that went through my head that I don’t think Hendrick even knew about was that I had a potential Formula One offer at one time. But, it was going to race in lower series – maybe even IndyCar. I was established in Cup; very happy with where I was at, things were going extremely well and that was a whole career change for me, in a racing series I knew very little about from a driving stand point, I was always an oval track driver. But that conversation never happened with Hendrick, that was behind the scenes and I made the choice and the decision on my own. We were coming up on some contracts and I chose to stay with Hendrick and won the championship the next year. It was a good choice.”