WHEN: April 12-15
WHERE: Rockingham Speedway, 2152 N US HWY 1, Rockingham, NC 28379
SCHEDULE:
Thursday, April 12
Friday, April 13
Saturday, April 14
Sunday, April 15:
TICKETS: Call 855-NC ROCKS
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Trevor Bayne will sit out Nationwide race at Texas
Trevor Bayne, who is currently fourth in the NASCAR Nationwide Series points standings, and earned his first series victory last fall at Texas Motor Speedway, will miss Friday night's race at Texas due to lack of sponsorship.
Bayne was not listed on the original Entry form for this week's race and on Tuesday Roush Fenway Racing officials confirmed he is not running the event.
The missed race could all but end his quest at a series title this season. There was no immediate comment from RFR or Bayne.
Bayne had been hoping to run the full season in Nationwide and compete for the series championship. He had one top-five and three top-10 finishes in the first five races of the 2012 season.
Bayne is scheduled to drive the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford in Saturday night's Sprint Cup Series race at Texas.
Bayne was not listed on the original Entry form for this week's race and on Tuesday Roush Fenway Racing officials confirmed he is not running the event.
The missed race could all but end his quest at a series title this season. There was no immediate comment from RFR or Bayne.
Bayne had been hoping to run the full season in Nationwide and compete for the series championship. He had one top-five and three top-10 finishes in the first five races of the 2012 season.
Bayne is scheduled to drive the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford in Saturday night's Sprint Cup Series race at Texas.
Monday, April 9, 2012
Who's ready to race with Denny?
Twelve NASCAR stars, past and present, will run the Denny Hamlin Short Track Showdown, a NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Late Model
division race at Richmond International Raceway on Thursday, April 26.
Joining the best local Late
Model Stock Car drivers for the race are: Hamlin, Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch, Jeff Burton, Michael Waltrip, Joey Logano, Aric Almirola, Jason White, Timothy Peters, Chase Elliott, Darrell Wallace Jr. and Curtis Markham.
This season marks the second year the Denny Hamlin Short
Track Showdown will run at Richmond. The event features 12
NASCAR drivers and celebrities battling on the ¾-mile track with some of the
best local Late Model Stock Car drivers.
Proceeds from the Denny Hamlin Short Track Showdown benefit the Denny Hamlin Foundation, which raises funds for individuals and families suffering from cystic fibrosis. The foundation supports organizations like The Children’s Hospital of Richmond, St. Jude’s Hospital and Victory Junction.
Call (866) 455-7223 to purchase tickets for the Denny Hamlin Short Track Showdown.
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Why Allmendinger would not wreck Newman to earn the NASCAR win
With two laps remaining in Sunday's Goody's 500, A.J. Allmendinger - who had yet to earn a Top 10 finish this season - sat alongside Ryan Newman, each with a chance at the Sprint Cup Series victory.
Newman had won 15 times previously. Allmendinger was still looking for his first series win. The two races virtually side-by-side the first lap, then Newman pulled ahead on the final lap and earned the win.
Allmendinger was asked after the race what he thought about in that situation and why he opted not to wreck Newman to win the race.
His reply: "First time I've ever had a chance to win a Sprint Cup race, so I was going to do everything I could. Why didn't I wreck him? He actually got a good drive off Turn 2. I would have had to wreck both of us to get into him in Turn 3 to get him.
"I don't want to win like that. That's not the way I want to win a race. He did everything clean on the restart. He could have drove me off the race track, and if he would have done that then it's kind of like, OK, it's game on. But he gave me all the chances that I could to go beat him. We came off the white side‑by‑side and he rolled through Turns 1 and 2 really good, and that was it.
"You race people how they race you. And if he would have just drove into the corner, left side of me and got me out of the way, then I would have probably run into him. He didn't do that and he didn't deserve to get wrecked."
Newman had won 15 times previously. Allmendinger was still looking for his first series win. The two races virtually side-by-side the first lap, then Newman pulled ahead on the final lap and earned the win.
Allmendinger was asked after the race what he thought about in that situation and why he opted not to wreck Newman to win the race.
His reply: "First time I've ever had a chance to win a Sprint Cup race, so I was going to do everything I could. Why didn't I wreck him? He actually got a good drive off Turn 2. I would have had to wreck both of us to get into him in Turn 3 to get him.
"I don't want to win like that. That's not the way I want to win a race. He did everything clean on the restart. He could have drove me off the race track, and if he would have done that then it's kind of like, OK, it's game on. But he gave me all the chances that I could to go beat him. We came off the white side‑by‑side and he rolled through Turns 1 and 2 really good, and that was it.
"You race people how they race you. And if he would have just drove into the corner, left side of me and got me out of the way, then I would have probably run into him. He didn't do that and he didn't deserve to get wrecked."
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Look what NASCAR drivers are getting the most exposure on TV
Through television coverage of the this season's first four Sprint Cup Series races, reigning champion Tony Stewart leads in securing on-screen time for his sponsors, while Carl Edwards collected the most verbal mentions for his supporting brands and Jamie McMurray bested all drivers with $18.3 million of exposure value.
According to research conducted by Joyce Julius & Associates, Inc.— which has monitored every NASCAR race telecast over the last 28 seasons — McMurray's appearance on the Fox set during the Sunday rain-delay portion of last month's Daytona 500 led to quality exposure for several of his brands during some of the most valuable broadcast time of the season.
Joyce Julius calculates television exposure value by comparing the in-broadcast visual and verbal exposure to the estimated cost of a national commercial during the telecast and applying Joyce Julius Recognition Grading — which takes into account such factors as size and placement of the image on screen, as well as brand clutter and integration of the brand into the activity.
Stewart ranked No. 1 in camera time, as 29 of his sponsors enjoyed a combined two hours, 42 minutes, 42 seconds of clear and in-focus exposure time during live and replayed coverage of the first four races. Brad Keselowski (2:28:34) was second and Jimmie Johnson (2:27:53) third.
Carl Edwards, who led all drivers in sponsor mentions last season — either by him, or by announcers referencing his team — is off to another fast start with a series-high 37 verbal brand mentions.
According to research conducted by Joyce Julius & Associates, Inc.— which has monitored every NASCAR race telecast over the last 28 seasons — McMurray's appearance on the Fox set during the Sunday rain-delay portion of last month's Daytona 500 led to quality exposure for several of his brands during some of the most valuable broadcast time of the season.
Joyce Julius calculates television exposure value by comparing the in-broadcast visual and verbal exposure to the estimated cost of a national commercial during the telecast and applying Joyce Julius Recognition Grading — which takes into account such factors as size and placement of the image on screen, as well as brand clutter and integration of the brand into the activity.
Stewart ranked No. 1 in camera time, as 29 of his sponsors enjoyed a combined two hours, 42 minutes, 42 seconds of clear and in-focus exposure time during live and replayed coverage of the first four races. Brad Keselowski (2:28:34) was second and Jimmie Johnson (2:27:53) third.
Carl Edwards, who led all drivers in sponsor mentions last season — either by him, or by announcers referencing his team — is off to another fast start with a series-high 37 verbal brand mentions.
Friday, March 30, 2012
Townley apologizes to the NASCAR community
NASCAR Truck series driver John Wes Townley opened a media availability session on Friday morning at Martinsville Speedway by offering an apology to the NASCAR community for his actions that led to a drunk driving arrest in February.
Townley's team, RAB Racing, suspended him immediately and he did not drive in the series opener at Daytona. NASCAR has since placed Townley on probation for the remainder of the season and ordered him to seek an evaluation from a certified substance abuse counselor.
Here was Townley's opening statement:
"I want to start by apologizing to everyone -- to NASCAR, my team and to everybody that made this deal happen. This is something that I feel I'm really serious about as an individual and a driver in NASCAR. What happened that night, I take full responsibility for it. It reflected poorly upon my team, on my sponsors and everyone else and I want to sincerely
apologize.
"It's up to me moving forward to put this behind me and to make better decisions in the future and to really learn from this. I know that a lot of these words are real easily spoken, but its actions in the future that I'm going to be judged by."
Townley's team, RAB Racing, suspended him immediately and he did not drive in the series opener at Daytona. NASCAR has since placed Townley on probation for the remainder of the season and ordered him to seek an evaluation from a certified substance abuse counselor.
Here was Townley's opening statement:
"I want to start by apologizing to everyone -- to NASCAR, my team and to everybody that made this deal happen. This is something that I feel I'm really serious about as an individual and a driver in NASCAR. What happened that night, I take full responsibility for it. It reflected poorly upon my team, on my sponsors and everyone else and I want to sincerely
apologize.
"It's up to me moving forward to put this behind me and to make better decisions in the future and to really learn from this. I know that a lot of these words are real easily spoken, but its actions in the future that I'm going to be judged by."
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Keep it simple, NASCAR
Simpler always seems to work better in racing.
Anytime issues in NASCAR get bogged down in the wording and interpretation of rules and regulations, generally confusion reigns and competition gets lost in the shuffle.
The new rules unveiled for this season’s NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race, unfortunately, seem headed in that direction.
The motivation behind the change is a good one – encourage drivers to have to reason to win one of the four 20-lap segments by offering to those who do a “reward” heading into the final 10-lap segment, which decides the winner of the $1 million payout.
The method chosen for the reward – making segment winners the first four cars to pit prior to the last segment – doesn’t sound bad on the surface, but in effect has the potential for complications.
The new rule works great if four different people win the first four segments. But how often does that really happen? Answer: Rarely.
Then comes the tricky part. If the winner of Segment No. 2 is the same as Segment No. 1, the runner-up in Segment No. 2 gets the pit reward. If the same driver wins all four segments, you end up with one true segment “winner” and three other runner-ups getting the reward.
Please don’t ask what happens if in the above mentioned scenario the Segment 2 runner-up ends up winning Segment 3 or 4. Is that driver now a "true" segment winner or does he remain locked into his runner-up "win" from Segment No. 2?
Who can follow that from the stands? Who can follow that watching on TV? Oh, but Charlotte Motor Speedway will have it all spelled out on its giant HDTV.
That begs an even bigger question: Should events like the All-Star Race have to come with a follow-along instruction booklet?
Again, I think the concept here was laudable: Reward winning. The easiest way to do that would be to say if you win any of the first four segments, you move to the front in the final segment (regardless of pit stop and only true ‘winners’ of the segments).
One additional benefit this year is the elimination of the 10-minute break prior to the start of the final 10-lap showdown.
That’s great. Hopefully that time will not now be spent figuring out who starts where to win the $1 million.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)