Who gets paid what in the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race

   NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race purse breakdown (by race finishing position):

   Total $3,214,212
   1st- $1,039,175
   2nd- $244,175
   3rd- $144,175
   4th- $114,150
   5th- $109,150
   6th- $103,150
   7th- $96,975
   8th- $95,975
   9th- $94,975
   10th- $93,975
   11th- $92,950
   12th- $91,950
   13th- $90,950
   14th- $90,450
   15th- $89,850
   16th- $89,575
   17th- $89,450
   18th- $89,350
   19th- $89,250
   20th- $89,150
   21st- $88,412
   22nd- $87,000

   In addition: Bruton Smith's "Big Bonus" of $1 million to the driver who wins all five segments, will be paid by Charlotte Motor Speedway. If no driver wins all five segments, the award will not be paid out.

 

It's NASCAR penalty day

   NASCAR issued several penalties on Tuesday, the most serious of which was to Joe Gibbs Racing's No. 54 Nationwide Series team, which won last weekend's race at Darlington, S.C., with driver Kyle Busch.

   NASCAR fined the team's crew chief, Adam Stevens, $10,000 and placed him on probation for the rest of the year for having an unapproved front upper bumper cover on the team's car. In addition, the team’s car chief Christopher Landis has been placed on probation for the remainder of the year.

   The violation was discovered during opening day inspection last weekend.

   Also Tuesday, Jackson L. Dodson II, a crew member in the Sprint Cup Series, and Frank W. Earnhardt, a crew member in the Nationwide Series, were indefinitely suspended from NASCAR for violating the sanctioning body’s substance abuse policy.

Entries for Saturday night's Sprint Showdown

Entries for Saturday night's Sprint Showdown (top two finishers advance into NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race):

Car number, Driver, Crew Chief, Car Make, Sponsor

 

1 (1) Jamie McMurray, Kevin Manion, Chevrolet, Bass Pro Shops-National Wild Turkey Fed

2 (7) Dave Blaney, Tommy Baldwin, Chevrolet, Sany

3 (10) Danica Patrick, Tony Gibson, Chevrolet, GoDaddy

4 (13) Casey Mears, Bootie Barker III, Ford, GEICO

5 (17) Ricky Stenhouse Jr John Henry Scott Graves 13 Ford Best Buy

6 (19) Mike Bliss, Peter Sospenzo, Toyota, Plinker Tactical

7 (27) Paul Menard, Slugger Labbe, Chevrolet, Serta-Menards

8 (30) David Stremme, Steve Lane, Toyota, Lean 1

9 (31) Jeff Burton, Luke Lambert, Chevrolet, Caterpillar

10 (32) Timmy Hill, Frank Stoddard Jr, Ford, OXY Water

11 (33) Landon Cassill, John Rahlf, Chevrolet TBA

12 (36) J J Yeley, Joseph Lax, Chevrolet TBA

13 (38) David Gilliland, Frank Kerr, Ford, LONG JOHN SILVER'S

14 (42) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chris Heroy, Chevrolet, Target

15 (43) Aric Almirola, Todd Parrott, Ford, Smithfield

16 (44) Scott Riggs, Walter Giles, Ford, No Label

17 (47) Bobby Labonte, Brian Burns, Toyota, House Autry

18 (52) Brian Keselowski, Ben Leslie, Toyota TBA

19 (56) Martin Truex Jr, Chad Johnston, Toyota, NAPA Auto Parts

20 (83) David Reutimann, Patrick Tryson, Toyota, Burger King/Dr. Pepper

21 (87) Joe Nemechek, Scott Eggleston, Toyota TBA

22 (93) Travis Kvapil, Todd Anderson, Toyota, Burger King-Dr. Pepper

23 (95) Michael McDowell, Wally Rogers, Ford, Leavine Family Racing

Want to buy Jeff Gordon's New York City condo?

 
   Interested in a lavish three-bedroom condominium overlooking Central Park in New York City? NASCAR star Jeff Gordon has the perfect place for you.

   At $30 million it may be a tad pricey, but the location is good!

   Read the New York Times write-up on it here.

The field is set for the 2013 NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race

The following drivers are already qualified to participate in Saturday night's NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race:

Race winners
Matt Kenseth
Denny Hamlin
Carl Edwards
Tony Stewart
Brad Keselowski
Ryan Newman
Greg Biffle
Kyle Busch
Jimmie Johnson
Kasey Kahne
Joey Logano
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Clint Bowyer
Jeff Gordon
Marcos Ambrose
Kevin Harvick
David Ragan
----------------------------------------------------------------
Previous NASCAR Sprint Cup champions
within the last 10 years
Kurt Busch
----------------------------------------------------------------
Previous Winners of
Sprint Cup All-Star Race within the last 10 years
Mark Martin
----------------------------------------------------------------

In addition, three others drivers will join the field - the top two finishers in the Sprint Showdown and the winner of the Sprint Fan Vote.

That will make a total of 22 entries.

Q&A with NASCAR President Mike Helton on appeals process

   NASCAR President Mike Helton took questions from a group of reporters on Friday about the two appeals decided this past week which reduced or eliminated NASCAR penalties assessed to both Penske Racing and Joe Gibbs Racing.
 

  Q: What is your reaction to the two appeal decisions this week?

   Helton: "It kind of is what it is now.  The thing that we all need to remind ourselves is it’s not us against them or them against us, it’s us doing our job and them doing their job.  We reacting to something that we find are not in tolerances that are spelled out.  Our due process is as strong as any in sports and it takes its course.  We’ve had a lot of activity through that due process recently.  It can come out in any way, but that’s what due process is all for.  I will say that every one of them has an opportunity to gain experience and we’ve done a lot of that recently.”

   Q: Does this undermine your authority?
   Helton: “I don’t think so.  I think the members that are involved in the sport, the team owners, the supplies, the OEMs understand our responsibility and how seriously we take it and I don’t feel like this in any way undermines what we do.  In most cases the processes don’t come back with anything that really changes our mind much.  We do our job and the due process exists for the members to have an opportunity for others to listen to it and the decisions are made that way.”

   Q: Would NASCAR react the same way next time in the same situation?
   Helton: “Yeah, when it comes and we’ve had a lot of activity going on this week, but across the board I think we put a lot of thought into our reaction to start with.  Every time something like this occurs, we put a lot of thought into it.  The circumstances of each element are so different that it’s due that respect.  When we do make a decision, it’s well thought out and we’ll stick by our decision also understanding that the due process has the opportunity to change that.”

   Q: Does the JGR situation make it complicated if a Hendrick engine in a Hendrick car has a problem?
   Helton: “First of all, I don’t know that we know exactly what the appeal members were thinking, but from the experience as I mentioned earlier, if there’s a way for us to be more precise in changing wording or adding wording to a rule so that the clarity of what we feel like our responsibility is translated to the member and is obvious to anybody from the outside looking at it, I think that’s where we benefit and the sport benefits from that experience.”
    “I think we’ve got quite a bit of evidence in clearing up things.”

   Q: Do you have any thoughts from Ryan Newman’s comments and how to keep the Gen-6 cars on the ground?

   Helton: “I haven’t personally talked to Ryan Newman, but I also think that the evidence would support my statement that there is nothing more important to us in this sport than safety.  The incident that occurred at Talladega with the 78 and 39 is something that we have the opportunity to take a look at, but the interpretation of what might have happened in that is up for debate I guess as it was delivered by the driver of the 39 car.”

 

   Q: What does the last two weeks say about the independence of the appeal process?

   Helton: “I will leave that to you all to decide.  We are the authors of the appeal process so we know its intent, but I would leave the others to define whether it works right or not.”

 

   "We’ve had a lot of appeals.  We’ve had a lot of them upheld and we’ve had some that have been tweaked in some form or fashion through the due process and that’s why it’s there.”

 

   Q: How can you find out what the appeals panel was thinking so you can be more accurate in your penalties in the future?

   Helton: “I think first of all the integrity of the appeal process needs to be maintained as its independent of the regulating arm of NASCAR.  Like I said earlier, we do learn from the appeal process as to how we may be able to write or be more clear so that you can show a third party why we reacted the way we reacted.  I think the biggest part is that it’s part of our process.  The appeal process is just part of our sport just like the officiating and the regulating has been ever since its existence.”

 

   Q: Where is the line for a driver to get fined for comments?

   Helton: “We’ve told our drivers all along that you can challenge us, you can challenge NASCAR and our calls or us to a certain extent now whether or not this was pushed to the edge or not, that’s been debated.  What you cannot do is criticize the product.  Our determination in Ryan’s case was that he was challenging us.  That’s what he was doing.”

   Q: Is NASCAR happy with Middlebrook?
    Helton: "You started this whole thing by saying the perception and I would leave that with you to start with.  We’re content with our appeal process that it’s designed to be independent, it’s designed to have layers to it and the personalities involved are those that we chose to be involved.”

   Q: Will the rule book be thicker next year?
   Helton: “It gets thicker anyway, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be thicker to be clearer.  I think there is evidence at NASCAR, particularly in the last decade or so to try to be more clear with things.  Every experience we go through gives us the ability to understand what more clear means.”

   Q: What do you want to be more clear from this experience?
   Helton: “Everything.  These are, the recent appeals are around specific parts and pieces, but around the engine area I think all of motorsports from go-karts to the grassroots level to the weekly tracks to all the national series that exist, engines are understood to be in that holy grail bucket and we need to be sure that we maintain the responsibility around the engine to be shared by the competitors because it’s not realistic for us to take a motor down in advance of an event like it is to measure parts and pieces that we can do that are visible to us.  The motor is something that we cannot break apart until after the event is over with.  The entire industry has historically and will continue to share the responsibility in that engine being correct.”

   “I don’t agree that an element has been stripped out of it with the rule making process or our ability to rule the sport.  It’s part of the due process and that’s how we look at it.”

   Q: Did the Newman bar work in the Talladega accident?
   Helton: “Both drivers walked out of the care center on their own so I would say that from that aspect of it, it worked.  Robin and those guys will look at all the incidents that occur every weekend to see what we can improve and make better.”


  

Kenseth happy with result of team's appeal

    Matt Kenseth said Friday the penalties remaining following his Joe Gibbs Racing team’s appeal are “way more in line” with what he considered appropriate for the engine violation found after his win at Kansas.

   A three-member appeals panel unanimously agreed to cut Kenseth’s points penalty from 50 to 12 points and reduce crew chief Jason Ratcliff’s suspension from six races to one. Wally Brown will serve as Kenseth’s Cup crew chief this weekend.

   “You never want to have a penalty and don’t want yourself to be in that position,” Kenseth said. “I’m happy it got reduced. I was pretty crushed before it got reduced.”

   NASCAR originally issued a $200,000 fine and six-week suspension to Ratcliff; docked Kenseth 50 driver points; and suspended the owner’s license of the No.20 car for six weeks after the car failed routine inspection following his Kansas win last month. Kenseth also was barred from using the win to make the Chase and the pole he won would not count toward eligibility for the 2014 Sprint Unlimited race. Toyota also was docked five manufacturer points.

   After the ruling, Kenseth moved from 11th to fourth in the Sprint Cup Series standings, 64 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson.

Read more here: http://www.thatsracin.com/2013/05/08/105528/nascar-panel-reduces-jgr-penalties.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.thatsracin.com/2013/05/08/105528/nascar-panel-reduces-jgr-penalties.html#storylink=cpy