Full text of NASCAR statement regarding Richard Childress and Kyle Busch

 

   "NASCAR has reviewed the incident involving Richard Childress and Kyle Busch after the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race Saturday at Kansas Speedway. We have met with all parties involved and have determined what happened yesterday is unacceptable and will not be tolerated by NASCAR.

   "Richard Childress’s actions were not appropriate and fell far short of the standard we expect of owners in this sport. We have met with Childress this morning and made our position very clear to him. Further, we expect he will make it clear to all in his organization to ensure this situation does not escalate any further. We will announce our actions regarding this incident Monday.

   "Kyle Busch remains on probation with NASCAR and we continue to watch his actions carefully. However, we have determined that Kyle’s involvement in this incident does not violate his probation and no further action is required."

Chevy pleased with engine dyno results

   Tony Stewart may believe everyone is “bringing a knife to a gun fight right now” when it comes to competing with Ford engines, but that is not necessarily the view of Chevrolet officials.

   “I have seen the (chassis) dyno numbers and we are pleased with them,” said Alba Colon, the GM Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup series program manager.

   “We have seen the numbers. We have discussed the numbers with our teams. I am pleased so far; we just have to keep working on it.”

     NASCAR tested engines from each manufacturer following last month’s race at Dover, Del., on its chassis dynamometer, which measures rear-wheel horsepower.

    Colon pointed out in the 12 Cup races so far this season, Chevrolet drivers had won six races and five poles. “We want to win them all but we are constantly working on our parts - us and the teams,” she said. "We are constantly looking to get better.”

    On Friday, Stewart was asked how engines at Stewart-Haas Racing (which come from Hendrick Motorsports) stack up with those from Ford.

    “I think Ford definitely has an advantage right now over the whole field,” Stewart said. “They’ve been working on this motor for a long time and we’re still on about a six-year old model.”

     Ford was the last to complete an upgrade to its engine, which debuted in the Cup series last season.

Cup added to qualifying changes

   Earlier this week NASCAR announced it was changing the way qualifying order is done in the Nationwide and Trucks series beginning this weekend in Kansas and Chicagoland.

    The Sprint Cup series will also adapt the change beginning next weekend at Pocono, where the qualifying order will be set with every car ranked slowest to fastest based on their first practice session speed only.

    In theory, the change should allow teams not locked in the field by owner’s points a better opportunity to win the pole each week.

    If for some reason the first practice does not take place, NASCAR will use the second practice to set the qualifying order.

Biffle's 600 was one hot night

   There was certainly a lot going on with Greg Biffle during last Sunday night's Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. His problems with the cooling unit in his No. 16 Ford were well chronicled during the race, including the tirades over his team radio. He held the lead late in the race but was forced to pit for fuel and finished 13th.

    As it turned out, there was a lot more going on with Biffle than what he shared over the radio. Biffle was a guest on Claire B. Lang's show "Dialed In" on Wednesday night on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio and went into deep detail about what he was experiencing in the car and the after effects he was still feeling on Wednesday afternoon.

    Here are some excerpts from Biffle's interview:

    "The cool box malfunctioned somehow and it was burning up and it was heating the air so the air blowing in my helmet was really burning the side of my head, my ear and my face. I could feel my face turning orange. It was so hot. ...

   "It showed 155 degrees inside the car. With about 40 to 50 laps to go, my eyeballs started hurting from the carbon monoxide and exhaust. I had pretty bad carbon monoxide poisoning and I was on oxygen for a while. My hydration level was really OK. Why it took half the race to fix it - things begin compiling to where your frustration level starts to escalate. We should be better than this. ...

   "The side of my head is red. It felt like I had a rubber band around my forehead and above my ears and around the back. They call it a low pressure headache. I checked my blood pressure and it was 90/48. I probably should have gone to the hospital. I've never seen a blood pressure that low. My blood pressure started coming back (up) about 3 a.m. I killed a few brain cells, made it through it, almost won. ...

   "They were going to have to tow it to pit road and taking me to the infield care center unconscious if I wasn't in the car any more. That was the only way they were going to get me out. I wasn't going to give up. I was not going to leave voluntarily. We were laps from winning that race. ..."

NASCAR precedent is nothing to tout

   When a multi-car wreck erupted on the next-to-last lap of the Coca-Cola 600 and NASCAR decided not to throw a caution, there was an outcry from many fans and media.

   But there were a group of defenders who were quick to point out, “NASCAR has done this before.”

   Indeed it had.

   Unfortunately, NASCAR’s track record with precedent isn’t something to tout.

   Rewind to October 2008. Regan Smith dove below the yellow line to complete a pass of Tony Stewart at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway to win his first Sprint Cup race.

   Why would he do that? Because in February 2007, when media questioned how a three-wide finish in a Truck race could stand with one truck below the yellow line, NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said, “When the drivers can see the checkered flag, you can get all you can get.”

   But NASCAR disallowed Smith’s pass anyway.

   Soon afterward, NASCAR President Mike Helton issued this edict: “To be clear, as we go forward, there will be no passing under the yellow line at any time during NASCAR races at Daytona or Talladega, period. This includes any passing below the yellow line near the start/finish line on the final lap.”

   One wonders why Helton needed to be “clear” if as NASCAR officials claimed at the time of the Talladega race the rule was common knowledge to all. But I digress.

   Now fast forward to February 2010. NASCAR announces a new policy of using up to three green-white-checkered overtime periods in a race if necessary. Why would they do this?

   “We want to do all we can to finish our races under green-flag conditions. The fans want to see that, and so do the competitors,” Robin Pemberton, NASCAR’s vice president of competition, said at the time.

   The accident Sunday night occurred on the first lap of the first two-lap overtime. Had NASCAR thrown a caution, it still – under its own rules – would have two more attempts to finish the race under green.

   Instead, it held the caution flag. Why? To ensure a green-flag finish.

   Huh?

   Rule changes are announced but not written down. Some rules – the yellow line rule for instance – aren’t written down anywhere. Rules are added then not utilized for the circumstances for which they were designed.

   The problem isn’t with NASCAR trying to have it both ways.

   It’s NASCAR trying to have it every way.

Jeff Burton on cautions: "They have certainly thrown them for less."

   Stuck in the middle of a multi-car wreck, Jeff Burton wanted to see a caution on the next-to-last lap of Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600.

   Now, he’s not so certain.

   Burton’s No. 31 Chevrolet was among the most seriously damaged in the incident which was triggered when race leader Kasey Kahne suddenly ran out of gas on a restart on Lap 401.

   “I assumed the caution was coming out because there was a wreck,” Burton told the Observer on Monday. “At the time I thought there were more cars down there stopped (on the apron) than just me.

   “When I got home (Sunday night) and replayed it, as it turned out, there really wasn’t. It seemed everybody else cleared out.”

   Burton said his first instinct was that the caution ‘no-call’ wasn’t right and he complained about it over his team radio at the time. In retrospect, he thinks in terms of safety, NASCAR made the right call.

   That doesn’t mean, however, the debate on whether a caution should have been thrown is settled.

   “It’s tough because if the track is clear then they need to let the race continue,” he said. “On the other hand, that’s not necessarily what they do with 200 (laps) to go.

   “The big question is does NASCAR understand everyone has fuel issues? Should NASCAR care? I don’t know what the answer to that is.”

   Burton said NASCAR officials have been hesitant to throw cautions during green-flag pit cycles to try to keep it fair for all competitors.

   “You can debate all day long if NASCAR should have thrown a caution for a reason other than safety on Sunday night. They have certainly thrown them for less,” Burton said.

   “I think they knew everyone was short on fuel and they were trying to do everything they could to take care of everybody. I don’t know that for a fact, but I think that probably played into their mindset.”

   NASCAR has said in the past it would hold the caution flag at the race’s end as long as drivers’ safety wasn’t compromised. However, NASCAR also has a multiple green-white-checkered flag restart policy in place to ensure green-flag finishes.

   On Sunday night, the race ended in the first two-lap overtime. Had the caution been thrown at the time of Burton’s wreck, two more two-lap overtimes were still possible.

   It is likely several more drivers – including race winner Kevin Harvick and Dale Earnhardt Jr., who was leading entering the last lap – would have been forced to pit for fuel in that instance.

   “Throwing the caution isn’t like an out-of-bounds call. You’re either out of bounds or you’re not,” Burton said. “When to throw the caution – there is no definitive answer.”

    

One-on-one with Rick Hendrick

   I recently spent some time with Hendrick Motorsports owner Rick Hendrick discussing a story about the uncanny parallels between the careers of Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson. You can see that story here.

   We also covered some other topics, not directly related to that story, including Hendrick's thoughts on when Gordon may retire.

   What makes Jimmie Johnson a special driver?
   Hendrick: “You’ve seen some phenomenal moves and such and he’s just smart and can drive a car out of control. Carl Edwards beats himself a lot of the time when he gets pissed off. Kyle Busch beats himself a lot of times when he gets angry. You can lose control in the race car. You have to learn to deal with it. Jeff (Gordon) tried to carry it on his shoulders a lot, too - he drove the cars and we would just take one of Jeff’s cars and put Jimmie’s seat in it. I will say Chad (Knaus) has a butt load of intensity. He eats, sleeps and breaths racing. If you took the kid who drives the 6 car (David Ragan) and you put him with Chad and you put his crew chief with Jimmie -- which one would run better? Would they run better together - yes. Can Kyle Busch get in almost any car? I think you have to have the talent. I think talent -- there’s a whole lot of guys with talent. Car control -- there’s a whole lot of guys with car control. There are not a whole lot of them that are as smooth as Jimmie is when it comes to performing in the clutch.”

   Do you think Jimmie Johnson would want to win a championship with a crew chief other than Chad Knaus?

   Hendrick: “I don’t think Jimmie -- I think Jimmie is more focused. Jimmie may one day in his career, but not right now because they know that they know each other. They know how to pull each other’s trigger and they know what they like and dislike about each other. They’ve been together and the team has been together a long time. I’ve told them before that the toughest part you guys are faced with is how you can stay united when you don’t win. You’re not going to win them all and you can’t win them all -- there’s bad luck or somebody’s outsmarted you or whatever. You can’t win them all and how you handle not being the top dog is the deal.  They know how each other thinks and Chad knows how to adjust the car, Jimmie knows how to drive it."

    Can you believe it has been 10 years since Jeff Gordon has won a championship? 

   Hendrick: “I know two or three times that he was right there. He’s been so close. You have to think that for the last five years Jimmie has just been damn unbeatable. Four of the five anyway.  Jeff still has the fire, he’s got the talent and I think he and Alan, when we get to the Chase - he’ll be there. I think he’s going to win some more races and I think there are still championships left in Jeff. I think this car has been a bug-a-boo to him. He had a mindset that he didn’t like it. He’s got a fire in his belly.”

   What do you think will determine when Jeff Gordon is ready to retire?

   Hendrick: “I think he still really enjoys the racing. I think Jeff still loves the competition and I think when he feels like he’s not competitive, he’ll quit. I know him that well. He’s so competitive that he will quit. As long as he feels like he’s got a shot and he can run up front then he’s going to do it. I think drivers know when it’s time and he won’t be one of those guys that runs around.”

   Are you worried about Jeff Gordon retiring anytime soon?

   Hendrick: “No.  It’s kind of funny, every time we re-up a sponsor I go to him and say, ‘Jeff, I need a commitment for two more years beyond next year.’ That’s the way I hook  him up. I need at least two more after this. I keep throwing the carrot out there and I keep telling him that he has to commit to do this. We have a good relationship and I respect him a ton and his talent and the kind of person he is. He’s special.”