During Tuesday night's edition of
NASCAR Race Hub on Speed, Elliott
Sadler, driver of the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, re-capped
his incident with five-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion, Jimmie
Johnson. He spoke with host Danielle Trotta
about what happened.
“I just kind of got into the back of
Jimmie, it was 100-percent my fault,” said Sadler, describing the incident that
started as the field had just entered the race’s second lap. “It got other cars
involved like you see in a lot of the restrictor plate races. We were coming
into the outside lane, through the tri-oval, the 78 (Regan Smith) and the 48
(Jimmie Johnson) kind of get bunched up a little bit. They came down and its
100-percent my fault in getting into the back of Jimmie.
“We were kind of bogged down, everyone
was side-by-side and I didn’t check up in time, and I got into the left-rear
quarter (panel) of Jimmie. It was just a little bit, but that is usually all it
takes at these types of speeds. It’s a bad way to get
started.”
Sadler also talked about the phone call
he made to Johnson Tuesday morning.
“You
never want to be involved in a situation like this. Being good friends with
Jimmie, and his crew, (as they) actually pitted my truck last year in Bristol
(Tenn.). I saw his guys last night at the airport, and I apologized to all of
them. I called Jimmie the first thing this morning just to say to him, ‘Look.
And explained to him what happened. I was sorry. I had no excuses. It was 100
percent my fault.’ I just probably really shouldn’t have been racing that hard,
that soon. I snuck up on him a lot quicker than I thought," Sadler said.
"Jimmie handled it like he handles
everything else. He’s just a class act and a good guy. I also called Chad Knaus
also. We reached out to those guys as well. It was just a tough way to get the
racing season started.”
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Three days' worth of the Daytona 500
Observations
NASCAR and its tracks have all kinds of contingency plans for various emergencies. But sometimes you just have to learn from experience. It seems save to say that all the work that went into dealing with the crumbling of asphalt and the pothole that emerged during the 2010 Daytona 500 played a role in NASCAR and Daytona International Speedway's ability to deal with the jet dryer explosion and resulting fuel spill on the track this year. So in a sense, while the 2010 race may have been a black-eye, what was learned from it helped allow the 2012 version of the race from becoming a bigger one.
It was somewhat surprising to see how little a factor Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards were in this year's 500. The two drivers who battled down to the wire for the 2011 Sprint Cup title had shown to have fast cars at Speedweeks. Edwards won the pole for the 500 while Stewart won his Gatorade 150-mile qualifying race. Both eventually got involved in late-race accidents in the 500 but were rarely up front.
I don't know if Danica Patrick is going to be a great NASCAR driver. At this point, neither does anyone else. What she deserves is the opportunity to find out – and without unrealistic expectations lofted on her from the get-go. What she also doesn't need are TV announcers who constantly try to bolster her "case" by making outrageous claims. Examples: Claiming Patrick, who had yet turned a lap in the a Cup race, is now the "face" of NASCAR. Another: Suggesting that same driver was one that could teach others like five-time series champion Jimmie Johnson. Johnson has done quite well on his own before Patrick's arrival. That kind of talk enrages far more NASCAR fans than it engages.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Daytona 500 postponed until 7 p.m. tonight
The Daytona 500 - which had never been
postponed in its history - has been delayed again.
NASCAR was going to try a noon Eastern start today for 2012's biggest Sprint Cup Series race but has now
rescheduled the season opener for 7 tonight. It will be broadcast live on
Fox.
Rain continues to fall in the area.
NASCAR President Mike Helton said there was a "reasonable expectation"
the race can begin by 7 p.m.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
NASCAR update on rain delay
NASCAR President Mike Helton provided Fox Sports an update on Sunday's rain-delayed 500:
Q: The cars cannot race in the rain. We have been rain-shortened, we have been rain-delayed but we've never rained out. With all of the information available to you, what are we looking at? What is the contingency right now?
It's one of those days here in Daytona where it pops up and falls off and pops up and falls off. But as the day progresses, we think the chances of the pop-ups diminish quite a bit. Hopefully this will be the last big cell we see and things will start falling apart and we can get the track dry and go on and get finish and run the Daytona 500 today.
Q: I understand your crew has an unprecedented amount of equipment, jet dryers and other machinery to get the track as raceable as quickly as possible once the rain stops.
HELTON: That is it needsto stop before we can begin the process of drying. So we areequipped. The International Speedway, the Daytona International Speedway, has every drying piece of machinery they got across the country here today, because we know that the fans at home and the fans here in Daytona want to see the race run, and we do, too. The sooner, the better.
Q: The cars cannot race in the rain. We have been rain-shortened, we have been rain-delayed but we've never rained out. With all of the information available to you, what are we looking at? What is the contingency right now?
It's one of those days here in Daytona where it pops up and falls off and pops up and falls off. But as the day progresses, we think the chances of the pop-ups diminish quite a bit. Hopefully this will be the last big cell we see and things will start falling apart and we can get the track dry and go on and get finish and run the Daytona 500 today.
Q: I understand your crew has an unprecedented amount of equipment, jet dryers and other machinery to get the track as raceable as quickly as possible once the rain stops.
HELTON: That is it needsto stop before we can begin the process of drying. So we areequipped. The International Speedway, the Daytona International Speedway, has every drying piece of machinery they got across the country here today, because we know that the fans at home and the fans here in Daytona want to see the race run, and we do, too. The sooner, the better.
It's raining at Daytona
It's approximately 90 minutes before the green flag is scheduled to drop on the Daytona 500 and right now the only thing dropping is rain.
That's no surprise. It's been predicted for a while and, say what you will about weather forecasters, but they got it right this time.
The question is when will it stop raining. It will eventually stop. It always has.
NASCAR will do its best to get its biggest race in today, studying radar images in NASA-like detail, looking for a window to get in at least 100 laps (250 miles). With lights at Daytona, no one's going anywhere for a while.
At the moment, ponchos are obscuring the multi-colored t-shirts so popular among race fans and there are tarps over the set that rocker Lenny Kravitz is scheduled to use for his pre-race concerts. Kravitz did stop into the infield media center earlier for a quick question-and-answer session and said he's pulling for Danica Patrick today.
Wearing a heavy jacket, a brown scarf around his neck and Tom Cruise/Top Gun-style shades, Kravitz looked like he was ready for a winter walk in Paris rather than the infield at a stock car race.
Presidential candidate Mitt Romney stopped by to campaign today and, at the drivers meeting, said the Daytona 500 combines "two of the things I like best -- cars and sports."
While Romney showed up in person, Rick Santorum's name showed up on the side of Tony Raines' race car. The Florida primary has come and gone but the campaign continues.
So, for the moment, does the rain.
-- Ron Green Jr.
That's no surprise. It's been predicted for a while and, say what you will about weather forecasters, but they got it right this time.
The question is when will it stop raining. It will eventually stop. It always has.
NASCAR will do its best to get its biggest race in today, studying radar images in NASA-like detail, looking for a window to get in at least 100 laps (250 miles). With lights at Daytona, no one's going anywhere for a while.
At the moment, ponchos are obscuring the multi-colored t-shirts so popular among race fans and there are tarps over the set that rocker Lenny Kravitz is scheduled to use for his pre-race concerts. Kravitz did stop into the infield media center earlier for a quick question-and-answer session and said he's pulling for Danica Patrick today.
Wearing a heavy jacket, a brown scarf around his neck and Tom Cruise/Top Gun-style shades, Kravitz looked like he was ready for a winter walk in Paris rather than the infield at a stock car race.
Presidential candidate Mitt Romney stopped by to campaign today and, at the drivers meeting, said the Daytona 500 combines "two of the things I like best -- cars and sports."
While Romney showed up in person, Rick Santorum's name showed up on the side of Tony Raines' race car. The Florida primary has come and gone but the campaign continues.
So, for the moment, does the rain.
-- Ron Green Jr.
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Keselowski talks late-race cautions
NASCAR had a quick trigger finger when it came to throwing a caution for a last-lap wreck in Thursday's first Gatorade 150-mile qualifying race.
In Saturday's Nationwide race, a 14-car wreck off Turn 4 of the last lap saw no caution flag until the race winner reached the finish line.
Brad Keselowski, who could have won the race depending on the timing of the flag, was asked about last-lap caution decisions and how drivers respond to them.
"You know, I think that I walk a fine line with the comment there, obviously. I think there is no doubt to me the most dangerous aspect of our sport that’s left is the yellow flag situation in the closing laps of a race. And I make those comments not in regard to the fact that if the yellow came out a little earlier I would have won the race, in no way do I make those comments in that regard. I make those comments in regards to the fact that if you’re running 25th, five or six seconds behind the pack when the wreck happened, the yellow didn’t come out for about six seconds from what I can estimate. And obviously there was a lot of attention on that area so I’m pretty sure it was seen," he said.
"So the question is what is the appropriate amount of time? I think it’s very much a judgment call. With the wreck, I think it was in the Shootout, I think I would rather lean to the cautious side. It’s tough for NASCAR, obviously, to wave the yellow early and then take all the criticism from fans that didn’t see their driver win if the yellow wouldn’t have come out that early. So I can see that side of it, but I think that when I look at the sport and I look at the most dangerous frontier, it’s not the head and neck system or anything like that. It’s getting hit from a car that is six or seven second behind a wreck, but has to keep going because the yellow is not out.
"Eventually it will happen where they’ll hit a very, very slow car at a very high rate of speed and it will not be good. So I think that that’s an area that is still loosely defined and I’m not sure how to define it because I understand the difficulties that remain in that area to make those decisions. When I think of what I’m most nervous about, I’m most nervous about the last lap, being in the front pack, being wrecked and stopped in the middle of the field and some guy from 35th, knowing that the yellow is not going to come out for another six seconds, whales me going 180 when I’m going five or 10 or maybe stopped. That’s certainly an area that I think about for sure.”
In Saturday's Nationwide race, a 14-car wreck off Turn 4 of the last lap saw no caution flag until the race winner reached the finish line.
Brad Keselowski, who could have won the race depending on the timing of the flag, was asked about last-lap caution decisions and how drivers respond to them.
"You know, I think that I walk a fine line with the comment there, obviously. I think there is no doubt to me the most dangerous aspect of our sport that’s left is the yellow flag situation in the closing laps of a race. And I make those comments not in regard to the fact that if the yellow came out a little earlier I would have won the race, in no way do I make those comments in that regard. I make those comments in regards to the fact that if you’re running 25th, five or six seconds behind the pack when the wreck happened, the yellow didn’t come out for about six seconds from what I can estimate. And obviously there was a lot of attention on that area so I’m pretty sure it was seen," he said.
"So the question is what is the appropriate amount of time? I think it’s very much a judgment call. With the wreck, I think it was in the Shootout, I think I would rather lean to the cautious side. It’s tough for NASCAR, obviously, to wave the yellow early and then take all the criticism from fans that didn’t see their driver win if the yellow wouldn’t have come out that early. So I can see that side of it, but I think that when I look at the sport and I look at the most dangerous frontier, it’s not the head and neck system or anything like that. It’s getting hit from a car that is six or seven second behind a wreck, but has to keep going because the yellow is not out.
"Eventually it will happen where they’ll hit a very, very slow car at a very high rate of speed and it will not be good. So I think that that’s an area that is still loosely defined and I’m not sure how to define it because I understand the difficulties that remain in that area to make those decisions. When I think of what I’m most nervous about, I’m most nervous about the last lap, being in the front pack, being wrecked and stopped in the middle of the field and some guy from 35th, knowing that the yellow is not going to come out for another six seconds, whales me going 180 when I’m going five or 10 or maybe stopped. That’s certainly an area that I think about for sure.”
Attention on Danica Patrick irks Robinson
Apparently the first woman driver to win a pole in the NASCAR Nationwide Series
is not all that happy with the attention being lauded on the most recent.
On Saturday, Shawna Robinson, who became the first woman to win a pole
in March 1994 at Atlanta, posted the following message on her Facebook
page:
"OK I've held it in long enough!!! It's not that hard to qualify at
Daytona or Talladega!! Race, draft yes …qualifying is CAR! If only POLAROID
would have been the event sponsor and I was driving for Tony!!"
Robinson was referring to Danica Patrick, who won the pole for
Saturday's series season opener at Daytona International Speedway. Her reference
to Tony Stewart is likely related to Patrick's Sprint Cup Series team, but in
the Nationwide series Patrick drives for JR Motorsports, owned in part by driver
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
In fairness Patrick did assign much of the credit for the pole-winning
run to crew chief Tony Eury Jr. and her team for building a fast car.
Robinson made 61 starts in what is now the Nationwide Series, winning
one pole and one Top-10 finish, a 10th in 1994 at Watkins Glen, N.Y.
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