Who thinks Jimmie Johnson will reach eight NASCAR championships?

 

   Jimmie Johnson is very close to earning his sixth Sprint Cup Series championship, which he can do in Sunday's Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. 

    That would put him one away from tying the record of seven which is held by Richard Petty and the late Dale Earnhardt.

 

   Some might be surprised who is among the group who thinks Johnson will have no trouble setting the new record in NASCAR - Petty himself.

 

   "They’ve shown (they are capable) in the past," Petty said Friday. "If you look back and look at how long Petty Enterprises lasted and won championships and won races for a lot of years, right now and from the beginning of racing the Hendrick operation is the only one that’s done that good and lasted that long to compete with what they did with Petty Enterprises."

 

NASCAR Hall of Fame selection process, eligibility to change

 

   NASCAR spokesman Brett Jewkes announced during Thursday's press conference with this season's NASCAR championship contenders that there will be "significant changes" made to the NASCAR Hall of Fame selection process and eligibility requirements.

    The changes will be formally announced during Champions Week next month at Las Vegas.

    However, Jewkes did unveil one change on Thursday.

    "As we meet to select the 2015 Hall of Fame class this May, NASCAR will become the first major sport to include a current competitor on the voting panel," he said. "Moving forward, the reigning Sprint Cup Series champion will have a vote for the NASCAR Hall of Fame."

NASCAR rising star Ryan Blaney to return to Trucks in 2014

   NASCAR rising star Ryan Blaney, who won his first Nationwide Series race earlier this season with Penske Racing, will return as a fulltime driver in the NASCAR Truck Series in 2014 with Brad Keselowski Racing.

    BKR made the announcement on Thursday while also noting that sponsor Cooper Standard had signed a contract extension to remain primary sponsor of Blaney's No. 29 Ford.

    Blaney, 19, has won a Truck series race with BKR in each of the last two seasons and won the Nationwide Series race at Kentucky in June.
With one Truck race left this season, he is sixth in the series standings.

    Blaney is the son of NASCAR veteran Dave Blaney.

What did Matt Kenseth's crew chief find inspiring in Sunday's race?

   On Tuesday, Jason Ratliff, crew chief for NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Matt Kenseth, was asked about how calm and collected Kenseth appeared to be following what was likely one of his more disappointing days at the race track this season.

   Kenseth finished 23rd at Phoenix and has fallen 28 points behind Jimmie Johnson with just one race remaining. In the hours after the race, Ratliff was able to find something inspiring.

   Let him explain:

    "It was something that after I was away from the racetrack for a few hours thinking about, okay, what could we do better, how can we prevent those types of days from happening, especially in these types of situations where we're battling for championships, the one thing that struck me - after I was away from it for a little bit, that I was most impressed with was exactly what you just mentioned, and that is how Matt is able to keep his composure, and even though I know he's in that car just ready to chew the steering wheel off the thing because I know he's frustrated as the rest of it, he's as competitive as the rest of us, very disappointed, had high expectations going into Phoenix, and we still do going into Homestead," Ratliff said.

   "But he was very rational, even though he's disappointed. He keeps his composure and does a really nice job of putting things into perspective. I think a lot of that, again, is from his experience, but at the same time I think that's Matt's personality. I think he takes things in and thinks through them very well, and in the end he knows that nothing positive is going to come from me getting out of the car and stomping my feet, even though that's really what I want to do. So how do we take this situation, pull something positive from it, learn from it so we can be better in the future?

   "That was something for me as a crew chief, I've worked with a lot of different drivers, and that's something that was very inspiring for me as well as this race team. When you have a driver like that, I mean, that leads by example with that type of composure in the midst of adversity, it just goes a long way, you know."

 

Former Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne diagnosed with multiple sclerosis

   Former Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne, who is competing fulltime in NASCAR’s Nationwide Series this season, has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

   MS is an autoimmune disease that affects the brain and spinal cord that can produce a wide range of signs and symptoms including both physical and mental and varying in degree.

 

   “I’ve never been more driven to compete,” Bayne said in a statement released Tuesday. “My goals are the same as they’ve been since I started racing. I want to compete at the highest level and I want to win races and championships. I am in the best shape I’ve ever been in and I feel good,” added Bayne.

 

   “There are currently no symptoms and I’m committed to continuing to take the best care of my body as possible. I will continue to trust in God daily and know that His plan for me is what is best."

   Bayne, who won the 2011 Daytona 500 while driving part-time for the Wood Brothers, was sidelined for over two months later that season with various symptoms, including nausea, fatigue and blurred vision.

   Bayne began feeling better after he received treatment for Lyme, a bacterial infection spread through the bite of the black-legged tick. He missed several races while undergoing multiple tests last summer and doctors searched for a cause.

   In January 2012, Bayne told reporters doctors believed he had contracted Lyme disease from an insect bite.

   Bayne returned to racing in June 2011 after missing five races and won the Nationwide race at Texas Motor Speedway on Nov. 5 of that season.

   Last season, Bayne ran partial schedules in both the Nationwide and Cup series. This year, he returned to a fulltime ride in Nationwide and with one race remaining this season, has one win, six top-five and 20 top-10 finishes and is sixth in the series standings.

   Bayne, 22, has also made 11 Cup starts this season with the Wood Brothers with a best finish of 16th at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May.

X-Games star Travis Pastrana leaving NASCAR competition

   X Games star Travis Pastrana, who has been running a full season in the NASCAR Nationwide Series this season, posted a message to his Facebook account on Monday saying he would not be competing in NASCAR after this season.

   Here is the entire message:

   This past season of NASCAR has been an awesome experience. I have made a lot of great friends, had a lot of fun and gained a new appreciation for all aspects of this sport. Jack Roush and everyone at Roush Fenway Racing have gone above and beyond to try and help me succeed and I am truly grateful for their support. I would like to thank them and all of the other people who stuck behind me during the last two years as I tried to learn how to make a successful career in NASCAR. Its tough to step back now and prove the critics were right, but unfortunately my results were not good enough to get the sponsors I needed to appropriately fund next season. 

 

   My wife Lyn-z has been more then supportive of my foray into NASCAR, often times being my biggest source of encouragement and support. But as my wife had to take a step back from being a professional skater to let me chase my goals in racing, I too need to take a step back and look at my situation as a father and husband. The NASCAR schedule is grueling and takes enormous sacrifices from those you love to make work. With a lack of funding next year, now is my opportunity to sit back and offer support as she chases her goals. 

 

   I hate to quit and I hate to fail, but sometimes things work out as they should. I've never been able to figure out the finesse required in pavement racing and that is disappointing, but I'm looking forward to driving more rally and racing more off-road trucks and there will be some announcements on those fronts shortly! My wife is excited to get back to skating on the Nitro Circus Live Tour and I'm excited to spend some quality time with my girls. 

 

   Thank you to all my fans for the support and I hope to see each of you at an event in the near future.

 

   TP

Carl Edwards did everything right. Well, almost.

  

   Carl Edwards and his No. 99 Roush Fenway Racing team had seemingly played the perfect strategy in Sunday's AdvoCare 500k at Phoenix International Raceway. The team got was running up front and when it came time for a final round of green-flag pit stops, Edwards short-pitted and was among the first to fill up with gas.

   When the green-flag stops had cycled through, Edwards was the leader and it appeared he had a victory in the bag. He did - but was a little over a lap short, as he ran out of fuel as just as he was about to take the white flag which signals the start of the final lap.

   After the race, Edwards was asked about the race's conclusion and if he had any indication he was close on fuel.

   Here was his answer:

   "I did not think we were that close. I saved just a little bit, but Kevin (Harvick) was catching me just a little bit too much and I thought I better just keep going. In hindsight, I definitely should have tried to save more, but we thought we were a lap to the good," he said.

   "It's gonna take me a little while to get over this one. We did everything right, we just didn’t calculate the fuel correctly and I’m as big a part of that as anyone. We’re all in this together, so we’ll just go to Homestead and win it.

   "Jimmy (Fennig, crew chief) talked to me about saving a little bit to have some extra, and I did that a couple of laps, but Kevin closed in and was obviously not saving fuel. There at the end we were a lap-and-a-half short or so and that’s tough, but we had an awesome car.  We did everything right, we just miscalculated that one part and that’s NASCAR. You’ve got to be perfect."