http://www.thatsracin.com/148/index.xml Motorsports News from ThatsRacin.com en-us Copyright 2008 ThatsRacin.com Talladega Superspeedway 60 Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:40 EDT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss McClatchy Interactive Workbench webmaster@thatsracin.com http://www.thatsracin.com/148/story/17635.html http://www.thatsracin.com/148/story/17635.html Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:38 EDT The Iowa Speedway in Newton will host a NASCAR Nationwide Series race next season.<p/>Track officials announced Tuesday that the 250-lap race will be held Aug. 1.<p/>Landing a Nationwide Series race is a major coup for the track, which was designed by Rusty Wallace. The yet-to-be named race is the second from a major circuit on the track's 2009 schedule, joining the Indy Racing League's Iowa 250.<p/>Wallace says it hasn't been determined if it will be a day or night race.<p/>The Nationwide Series is NASCAR's second-tier stock car circuit, often drawing many of the sport's top drivers. http://www.thatsracin.com/148/story/13252.html http://www.thatsracin.com/148/story/13252.html Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:09 EDT By Andy Cagle<p/>To most people, auto racing is simply a sport. <p/>But in Richmond County, N.C., home of the Rockingham Dragway and the one-mile oval formerly known as the North Carolina Speedway, racing has been part of the economic lifeblood of the community for the better part of four decades.<p/>So, understandably, the county and the region took quite a hit in 2004 when NASCAR and Speedway Motorsports Inc.'s Bruton Smith moved Rockingham's races to points west.<p/>“Everybody here saw a decrease when NASCAR left,” said Richmond County Economic Developer Rick Sago.<p/>“The exact impact is hard to calculate, but losing NASCAR definitely didn’t help the economic situation in the county and the region.”<p/>Couple the loss of tourism dollars with the loss of thousands of manufacturing jobs regionally over the last decade and it creates an unenviable economic situation.<p/>Fast forward to Oct. 2, 2007.<p/>SMI, which acquired North Carolina Speedway from International Speedway Corp. in the deal that ultimately led to the loss of the track’s NASCAR dates, sold the track at auction - after deeming it terminally unprofitable - to former driver Andy Hillenburg for $4.4 million.<p/>On the day of the auction, Hillenburg promised to return racing to the track.<p/>“We will definitely have racing here in the next 13 months,” Hillenburg told the assembled crowd after the auction.<p/>With that statement, Hillenburg began restoring hope to a community.<p/>“The folks in Rockingham, and race fans everywhere, should be excited about Andy Hillenburg purchasing the North Carolina Speedway," said Rockingham Mayor Gene McLaurin. “I’m ecstatic, I’ll tell you that.”<p/>Shortly after closing on the transaction to buy the track, Hillenburg announced that he had entered into an agreement for the track to host an ARCA/REMAX Series race in 2008. <p/>That race is scheduled for May 4.<p/>Local leaders are looking for an economic boost from the return of stock car racing to the newly rechristened Rockingham Speedway.<p/>“Racing is going to bring some direct revenue,” Sago said. “Hotels are going to be full. Grocery stores are going to see increased sales. There will definitely be money spent here that wouldn’t have been spent otherwise.”<p/>In addition to the increased retail business and hotel occupancy, the reopening of the speedway, has positively impacted the employment situation.<p/>According to Hillenburg, the speedway has created 10 full-time and 20 part-time jobs and will employ more than 200 people over the course of the race weekend.<p/>Even before the scheduled races, the economic impact has reached beyond the county lines.<p/>“The race is a three day event,” Hillenburg told the Laurinburg Rotary.<p/>“A typical racing team will rent six to seven hotel rooms, and Richmond County hotels are already full for racing weekend. The racing crowd is branching out to Scotland and Moore counties now, and we have placed icons on our website to steer people here.”<p/>Laurinburg is located in Scotland County, immediately east of Richmond County.<p/>While the economic impact is undeniable, many in the area have focused on the return of racing to Rockingham as more of boost to community pride.<p/>“The people of Rockingham are proud to have another chance,” said McLaurin. “Rockingham has a chance to regain its place in the racing world.<p/>"Racing means a lot to who we are as a community. The people here didn’t accept the closing of the track and fought to do something about it.”<p/>According to McLaurin, Hillenburg has been a perfect fit for the community and the track.<p/>“There are a lot of parallels between our story and Andy’s,” said McLaurin. “This is not a real glamorous place, but it is home to many hardworking, down-to-earth people. People like Andy Hillenburg.<p/>“What we need now is for people to come out in force to help us continue what Andy has helped us rebuild.”<p/><i>Andy Cagle is a freelance writer from Southern Pines, N.C.</i> http://www.thatsracin.com/148/story/7990.html http://www.thatsracin.com/148/story/7990.html Tue, 09 Oct 2007 15:05 EDT NASCAR on Tuesday docked Reed Sorenson 25 driver points and fined crew chief Jimmy Elledge $25,000 and placed him on probation until Dec. 31 for rules violations found after Sunday’s UAW Ford 500 at Talladega.<p/>Sorenson finished 10th in the No. 41 Dodge, but the car was picked at random for postrace inspection and was found to be too low to meet NASCAR’s minimum height requirement.<p/>Team owner Chip Ganassi also lost 25 owner points for the infraction.<p/>Despite the penalty, Sorenson remains 23rd in the Nextel Cup standings after 30 races. http://www.thatsracin.com/148/story/7975.html http://www.thatsracin.com/148/story/7975.html Mon, 08 Oct 2007 11:58 EDT That's Racin's David Poole ranks the top 40 teams in the NASCAR Nextel Cup series following the UAW Ford 500 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. <p/>(Rankings based on team performance and potential. Each team's previous week's ranking in parentheses:)<p/><strong>1. (2) Jeff Gordon – car No. 24</strong> <p/>Points leader now goes to Charlotte where his average finish in past five races is 34th.<p/><strong>2. (1) Jimmie Johnson – car No. 48</strong> <p/>It's tough sledding when you finish second in the race and it costs you the points lead.<p/><strong>3. (3) Clint Bowyer – car No. 07</strong> <p/>Escaped RCR/DEI engine maladies at Talladega and hung in for an 11th-place finish.<p/><strong>4. (4) Tony Stewart – car No. 20</strong> <p/>Poster child for what could have been after what happened at Kansas and Talladega.<p/><strong>5. (5) Carl Edwards – car No. 99</strong> <p/>Said he got “snookered” late in the Talladega race. Snookered is better than wrecked. <p/><strong>6. (6) Kyle Busch – car No. 5</strong> <p/>Twice in two weeks he has been KO'd by wrecks that were just plain not his fault.<p/><strong>7. (9) Kurt Busch – car No. 2</strong> <p/>He and teammate Ryan Newman played well together for top-10 Talladega finishes.<p/><strong>8. (8) Kevin Harvick – car No. 29</strong> <p/>Limped home on the lead lap and could only manage a 20th-place finish at Talladega.<p/><strong>9. (11) Denny Hamlin – car No. 11</strong> <p/>Led the most laps at Talladega and got it home in one piece with a fourth-place finish.<p/><strong>10. (7) Martin Truex Jr. – car No. 1</strong> <p/>Blown engine at Talladega has team's title dreams teetering on brink of extinction.<p/><strong>11. (10) Matt Kenseth – car No. 17</strong> <p/>Simply put, there just isn't much that has gone right for this team in the Chase so far. <p/><strong>12. (14) Casey Mears – car No. 25</strong> <p/>Four top-10s in four Chase races for what will be Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s team next year.<p/>13. (12) Jeff Burton – car No. 31<p/>14. (13) Greg Biffle – car No. 16<p/>15. (15) Dale Earnhardt Jr. – car No. 8<p/>16. (19) Ryan Newman – car No. 12<p/>17. (18) Reed Sorenson – car No. 41<p/>18. (17) Kasey Kahne – car No. 9<p/>19. (16) Aric Almirola/Mark Martin – car No. 01<p/>20. (21) Juan Pablo Montoya – car No. 42<p/>21. (20) Jamie McMurray – car No. 26<p/>22. (25) J.J. Yeley – car No. 18<p/>23. (22) Robby Gordon – car No. 7<p/>24. (23) David Ragan – car No. 6<p/>25. (24) Bobby Labonte – car No. 43<p/>26. (27) Tony Raines – car No. 96<p/>27. (28) Jeff Green – car No. 66<p/>28. (26) Elliott Sadler – car No. 19<p/>29. (31) Dave Blaney – car No. 22<p/>30. (29) David Stremme – car No. 40<p/>31. (33) David Reutimann – car No. 00<p/>32. (30) David Gilliland – car No. 38<p/>33. (32) Mike Wallace/Ricky Rudd – car No. 88<p/>34. (37) Johnny Sauter – car No. 70<p/>35. (36) Ken Schrader – car No. 21<p/>36. (38) Brian Vickers – car No. 83<p/>37. (34) Paul Menard – car No. 15<p/>38. (39) Kyle Petty – car No. 45<p/>39. (40) Michael Waltrip – car No. 55<p/>40. (35) Scott Riggs – car No. 10 http://www.thatsracin.com/148/story/7968.html http://www.thatsracin.com/148/story/7968.html Sun, 07 Oct 2007 21:33 EDT Riding on the racing elevator down in Alabama:<p/><B>UP</B> – Hendrick Motorsports<p/>Second 1-2 finish for Gordon and Johnson at Talladega this year, and they’re also 1-2 in points. Casey Mears, meanwhile, finished sixth.<p/><B>SIDEWAYS</B> – Talladega racing<p/>More single-file racing than usual in a plate race and it wasn’t nearly as wild as some expected it to be.<p/><B>DOWN</B> – Richard Childress/Dale Earnhardt Inc engines<p/>It’s hard to imagine a valid reason for one group having this many problems in one race. http://www.thatsracin.com/148/story/7966.html http://www.thatsracin.com/148/story/7966.html Sun, 07 Oct 2007 21:25 EDT Some observations on Sunday's Talladega race from David Poole of The Charlotte Observer and ThatsRacin.com:<p/><LI>With all the hype about how wild this race was going to be, several of us in the press box Sunday morning starting talking about how it had started to feel like Bristol. Everybody expected so much that night, and the race didn’t live up to the build-up. That’s how it turned out this time, too, although the finish was certainly memorable.<p/><LI>So many cars that ran so well in the first two-thirds of the race wound up wrecked or in the garage with mechanical issues. It was almost like the more you ran up front, the more you were tempting fate. Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, meanwhile, made the rope-a-dope pay off.<p/><LI>Gordon has now won 12 restrictor-plate races, more than any other driver. Sunday’s win broke a tie with the Dale Earnhardt for first on that list.<p/><LI>Put yourself in Tony Stewart’s shoes. He’s leading on Lap 175, but there’s no way he can block freight trains coming up to either side of him. He gets shuffled back, but rallies in the final eight-lap run and is coming to the front when Gordon pulls out right in front of Stewart. Stewart can’t slow down, so he slams into the back of Gordon’s car and gives Gordon the push that effectively wins the race. Stewart loses a whisker’s worth of momentum and winds up eighth. It has to be maddening. http://www.thatsracin.com/148/story/7965.html http://www.thatsracin.com/148/story/7965.html Sun, 07 Oct 2007 21:22 EDT Key moments in Sunday's race at Talladega Superspeedway:<p/><B>Lap 136</B><p/>Dale Earnhardt Jr. blows an engine on a day when most of the cars using power plants from the Richard Childress Racing-Dale Earnhardt Inc. operation encounter trouble. To that point, it appeared that the No. 8 Chevrolet was good enough to win.<p/><B>Lap 153</B><p/>Ken Schrader’s troubles are a huge break for Jeff Gordon, who’d had to serve a pit-road pass-through penalty after his previous stop for running over a hose and pulling an air hose out of his pit box. The subsequent yellow gets Gordon back in the game.<p/><B>Lap 175 </B><p/>Tony Stewart can’t block the draft forming both to his inside and his outside at the same time, but it’s not for lack of trying. He goes low, then back high trying to keep the lead, but loses momentum and drops back after having led since Lap 153.<p/><B>Lap 183 </B><p/>Just after the final restart, Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Casey Mears go to the low lane and line up in the draft. That allows them to mount a challenge to the outside line led by Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch.<p/><B>Lap 188</B><p/>Gordon pulls out from behind Johnson and gets to the outside just in time to get in front of Stewart, who has a big run with drafting help behind him. The push gives Gordon the impetus he needs to take the lead and the win. http://www.thatsracin.com/148/story/7964.html http://www.thatsracin.com/148/story/7964.html Sun, 07 Oct 2007 21:16 EDT Examining the Talladega race day for the 12 contenders in NASCAR's Chase:<p/><B>1st – Jeff Gordon (5,690 points) </B><p/>Jeff Gordon’s daughter, Ella, made her debut in victory lane after Sunday’s race. Gordon’s last victory this year had been at Pocono on June 10, just 10 days after his first child’s birth.<p/>“That was cool,” Gordon said. Crew chief Steve Letarte was happy to be back in victory lane, too, but he knew his team had made what could have been a big mistake on a pit stop after a caution on Lap 145. Gordon ran over an air wrench hose, pulling the wrench out of his pit box. Gordon had to come back in as the field came to take the green to serve a pass-through penalty, and might have lost the lead draft had another yellow not come out soon thereafter.<p/>“We can’t have mistakes like that and expect to be lucky in the Chase,” Letarte said. “It just shows that there is always something that can be worked on.”<p/><B>2nd – Jimmie Johnson (nine points back) </B><p/>Things went the way Jimmie Johnson and his team had planned right up until the final lap on Sunday. He hung back until near the end of the race, and had the lead coming to the white flag before being passed by Jeff Gordon and finishing second.<p/>“I wasn’t happy with getting passed, but that would have been the situation with anybody,” Johnson said when asked if it bothered him that his Hendrick Motorsports teammate didn’t stay with him in the draft. <p/>“There must have been stuff going on behind me that I couldn’t see that Jeff could in his mirror. That’s great for him.”<p/>Johnson said that while he’s never happy to finish second, considering that his previous finishes in Talladega’s fall races had been 37th, 34th, 37th, 31st and 24th, second also isn’t all that bad.<p/>“I have to think about the big picture,” he said. “When the race started. I would have taken a 15th-place finish at that point.”<p/><B>3rd – Clint Bowyer (63 points back) </B><p/>Clint Bowyer was practically the last man standing as Richard Childress Racing and Dale Earnhardt Inc. engines had a rash of trouble all day.<p/>“It wasn’t as strong as it needed to be,” Bowyer said after finishing 11th to stay within shouting distance of the points leaders. “But, hey, it did its job and got me to the end. That’s what we needed to do here.”<p/>Indeed, Sunday’s finish was the first time in four career Cup starts at Talladega that Bowyer has finished better than 35th.<p/>“The bottom line was we needed to get out of here with a good finish or a solid finish, and we did that,” Bowyer said. “It was nerve-wracking there at the end. I just kept patting the old girl and praying.”<p/><B>4th – Tony Stewart (154 points back) </B><p/>Tony Stewart led 38 laps, only two fewer than teammate Denny Hamlin, who led the most laps in the race.<p/>But Stewart lost the lead on Lap 175 when he wasn’t able to halt the charge from two lines coming on either side of him, then wound up pushing Jeff Gordon’s car to the lead on the final lap.<p/>Stewart wound up eighth and had no comments after the race.<p/><B>5th – Kevin Harvick (202 points back) </B><p/>Kevin Harvick finished 20th, nursing an ailing engine for the final portion of the race, but still completed all 188 laps.<p/>Harvick’s Talladega record is remarkable. In 14 career races here he’s completed all but 21 of 2,644 laps.<p/>“With 50 laps to go, we dropped a cylinder,” crew chief Todd Berrier said. “I could have been a lot worse. It was worse for 23 other guys.”<p/><B>6th – Carl Edwards (205 points back) </B><p/>Carl Edwards finished 14th, but thought he was going to do better until the very end.<p/>“We had a great run going there coming down the back straightaway,” Edwards said. “I thought Denny (Hamlin) and myself were working pretty well together, but he snookered me. ...But it was a good effort because we didn’t wreck the car. I did the best that I could there.”<p/><B>7th – Kurt Busch (215 points back)</B> Kurt Busch got into position late for the best possible finish, lined up with Penske Racing teammate Ryan Newman contending for the win.<p/>But Busch wound up seventh, which is still his best performance so far in the Chase.<p/>“We survived and finished in the top 10,” Busch said. “We didn’t quite lead a lap. It would have been nice to get the five bonus points for that. All in all we consider this a big success.”<p/><B>8th – Kyle Busch (260 points back) </B><p/>For the second race in a row, Kyle Busch was the unwitting victim of someone else’s accident.<p/>Last weekend, he got wrecked by Dale Earnhardt Jr. On Sunday, Busch was caught up in an 11-car wreck triggered by Bobby Labonte in Turn 4.<p/>"Nothing of his doing. (Labonte) just came right across the race track. We were the first one that hit him,” Busch said. “It is a shame, not only for us but all the other guys that got involved in the wreck as well.”<p/>Busch said it was hard to remain optimistic about his title chances.<p/>“It is just the realism of what has happened that sets in and you try to realize you are so far back, it is going to take a lot to get back in this deal,” he said.<p/><B>9th – Denny Hamlin (262 points back) </B><p/>Denny Hamlin got a piece of 11-car wreck on Lap 145, but his crew was able to repair much of the damage and he still came away with a fourth-place finish.<p/>“It was pretty exciting those last few laps, a lot of pushing and shoving going on there but everyone did a good job of holding their line there at the end,” he said.<p/>“We just got behind there when we got a little bit of damage but, this crew did a good job putting it back together. We were able to march our way to the front there at the end.”<p/>Hamlin was able to make up some ground, picking up three spots in the Chase standings.<p/><B>10th – Martin Truex Jr. (300 points back) </B><p/>Martin Truex Jr. is just looking for a little luck.<p/>“The past three weeks we’ve had great cars capable of winning every race and we just can’t seem to find any luck,” he said.<p/>Sunday, Truex had a fast car but his engine blew up after 113 laps. His 42nd-place finish came on the heels of 13th- and 38th-place finishes the previous two weeks.<p/>“We’ll just keep trying to win races from here on out and do the best we can,” Truex said. “We’re way back in points and that’s not looking good. But we can still win a bunch of races.”<p/><B>11th – Matt Kenseth (318 points back) </B><p/>Matt Kenseth said there wasn’t a whole lot of racing at Talladega, but in what racing there was he was caught up in an 11-car accident.<p/>“It’s the same as every other plate race,” Kenseth said. “You didn’t really get to see a race because even the leaders rode around for the first half because everybody was afraid of wrecking.<p/>“Out of 188 laps, you probably saw 30 laps of racing. That racing was exciting. It’s three and four-wide with people hitting each other and all the crazy stuff you see in every plate race.”<p/><B>12th – Jeff Burton (336 points back) </B><p/>If anything, Jeff Burton hopes his team came away from Sunday’s blown engine and 43rd-place finish with at least some more knowledge about the car of tomorrow.<p/>“I think there were a lot of unknowns turning 8,500 (rpms) all day long, which is something we typically don’t do,” Burton said.<p/>“We learned something today, hopefully. I am extremely disappointed, but I am not disappointed in our effort.” http://www.thatsracin.com/148/story/7963.html http://www.thatsracin.com/148/story/7963.html Sun, 07 Oct 2007 20:57 EDT Dave Blaney finished third, tying his best Cup finish.<p/>He also was third at Darlington in 2003.<p/>The finished moved his No. 22 team into 35th in the car owner standings, which means Blaney is guaranteed a spot in next week’s race at Charlotte.<p/>The No. 21 Ford team fell out of the top 35.<p/>Blaney said he would have followed Tony Stewart to the outside on the final lap to take a shot at winning, but didn’t want to pull out from behind Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon to do it.<p/>“It was hard to bail out on that lane,” Blaney said. “I know Tony wishes I would have gone with him, but I had to watch out for myself.” http://www.thatsracin.com/148/story/7962.html http://www.thatsracin.com/148/story/7962.html Sun, 07 Oct 2007 20:55 EDT Bob Burdick, who won a race in NASCAR’s top series in 1961 at Atlanta, died this week at 70.<p/>Burdick ran 15 races between 1959 and 1962 and finished in the top 10 nine times.<p/>He also won two poles. His funeral was scheduled for Monday in Nebraska. http://www.thatsracin.com/148/story/7958.html http://www.thatsracin.com/148/story/7958.html Sun, 07 Oct 2007 20:36 EDT http://www.thatsracin.com/148/story/7957.html http://www.thatsracin.com/148/story/7957.html Sun, 07 Oct 2007 20:32 EDT TALLADEGA, Ala. – Jacques Villeneuve finished the race and made no enemies Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway.<p/> After several drivers were critical of the former Formula One champion and Indy 500 winner for deciding to make his NASCAR Nextel Cup debut at one of the most dangerous and demanding stock car tracks, Villeneuve came through with a 21st-place finish in the UAW-Ford 500, despite bouncing off the wall at one point.<p/> Villeneuve qualified sixth in his Bill Davis Racing Toyota, but relinquished that spot to move to the back of the field for the start of the race.<p/> “We decided to do it this morning,” he said. “It was the logical thing to do. Our car was set up for qualifying and we didn’t know how it was going to handle. Starting from the front or the back doesn’t really change anything.<p/> “I had more to learn from the back, anyway. Also, it was to show respect to all the guys fighting for the Chase (for the championship). I was thankful for them allowing me to race here, which is really special to me. It was just a way of saying thankyou.”<p/>It wasn’t an easy day for Villeneuve, though.<p/>“Early in the race was tough for some reason,” he said. “I was really tight. I almost ran into a couple of people on the inside line because of that. I didn’t want that to happen, so I moved up to the high line. That’s why I got into the wall.<p/> “On one of the big wrecks, I slammed on the brakes and went down to the apron, but got sandwiched between a couple of cars. I lost the shifter ball and the radio plug came loose, and I lost third gear on the last restart. So we had a lot of things going on. But it was a great day to learn and I’m quite happy with the result.”<p/> Reigning series champion Jimmie Johnson, who spent a lot of time deep in the pack before coming on late in the race to finish second to teammate Jeff Gordon, said he was impressed by Villeneuve’s drive.<p/> “I saw him a little bit and he was just doing fine,” Johnson said. “He got through the race and I’m sure gained some respect from the other guys and trust. I’m sure he’ll say that was a good day.”<p/> He did.<p/> “The goal today was to stay out of trouble and not make enemies so next time I come back everything will be a little bit easier,” Villeneuve said. “We accomplished that.” http://www.thatsracin.com/148/story/7956.html http://www.thatsracin.com/148/story/7956.html Sun, 07 Oct 2007 20:28 EDT Former Champ car star Patrick Carpentier is a candidate to fill the No. 10 Dodge at Gillett Evernham next season, but co-owner Alex Gillett said the team is looking at several drivers.<p/> Scott Riggs is leaving to drive for Haas CNC Racing next season, and the new majority ownership group is taking its time replacing him. Among the contenders is David Stremme, who lost his job at Chip Ganassi Racing when it hired Dario Franchitti.<p/> But many believe the Gillett family is partial to Carpentier, a Quebec native with ties to the owners of the Montreal Canadiens.<p/> “He is one guy we like, absolutely,” Gillett said Sunday. “He tested pretty well at Kentucky and drove the car pretty well on the track, so we’ll see.”<p/> Carpentier has driven in only one Nextel Cup race and two Busch Series events, all on road courses. The No. 10 is currently outside the top 35 in owner points, and Riggs has failed to qualify for seven events, including Sunday’s race at Talladega.<p/> It creates a tricky situation if the team decides to hire Carpentier. If the car isn’t locked into the field and misses races, Carpentier won’t get the experience he’d need to race it inside the top 35 in points.<p/> Gillett acknowledged the difficulties Carpentier could face.<p/> “Like all of these new guys, there is going to be a learning curve in regards to ... if you bring them into this sport, how do you bring them in properly?” he said. “I’m not sure you take somebody like Patrick Carpentier and throw them right into Nextel Cup.”<p/> Carpentier remains attractive because the team can court Canadian companies to sponsor the car.<p/> But Gillett said the team is continuing to talk to other drivers. Stremme has been mentioned for several rides, and David Reutimann, another current Cup driver who isn’t yet signed for 2008, has indicated he’s close to a deal to stay at Michael Waltrip Racing.<p/> “We’ve got some other good options for the No. 10 car that we’re exploring right now,” Gillett said. “We’ll see over the next couple of weeks where that ends up. Right now we’re kind of at the point where we’re talking to two or three different people.<p/> “We just have to be careful about creating too many rumors.” http://www.thatsracin.com/148/story/7954.html http://www.thatsracin.com/148/story/7954.html Sun, 07 Oct 2007 20:22 EDT TALLADEGA, Ala. – NASCAR’s new car of tomorrow didn’t exactly pass its first superspeedway test with flying colors.<p/> But, on the plus side, there were no flying race cars Sunday at Talladega.<p/> Despite all the trepidation and unanswered questions heading into the next-generation stock car’s first race on the biggest and most dangerous oval in the Nextel Cup series, the UAW-Ford 500 did bear at least some resemblance to a typical Talladega race.<p/> There were two- and three-wide freight trains racing inches from each other at nearly 200 mph – at times.<p/> There were multicar crashes, including the expected “Big One” involving 11 cars.<p/> And the finish, with Jeff Gordon outdueling Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson at the head of a huge pack of challengers, shouldn’t have disappointed any real racing fan.<p/> But there also were long periods of ho-hum racing during the 188-lap event, with most of the drivers riding lap after lap in single-file, apparently holding their collective breath in anticipation of disaster just up the road.<p/> The 145,000 fans on hand at the sprawling Alabama track had little to cheer until the waning laps, except for the brief periods when their favorite, Dale Earnhardt Jr., surged into the lead before his day was cut short by another broken engine.<p/> Even the drivers felt it.<p/> “It was really, really boring,” Earnhardt Jr. said after his early exit.<p/> And Gordon, whose victory bore little resemblance to his six previous wins on Talladega’s 2.66-mile oval, agreed with the driver who will be his new teammate next season.<p/> Gordon spent three-quarters of the race riding near the back of the field, biding his time and just trying to stay out of trouble. It wasn’t until the last 30 laps that the four-time Cup champion, now the leader in the Chase for the championship, got racy.<p/> “It was terrible,” he said. “It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in a race car. I like to think that I’ve got pretty good patience, but that’s beyond patience. There’s just nothing fun about that, but I knew it was a smart thing.<p/> “I’ve never yawned in a race car in my life and I yawned back there.”<p/> This was the 14th of 16 CoT races this year, but the first on an oval longer than 1.33 miles for the car that will be run for the entire schedule in 2007.<p/> The problem is that NASCAR and the Cup teams have not yet totally figured out the car of tomorrow, a bigger, bulkier car developed over a seven-year period to enhance safety, cut team costs by making all cars more uniform and level out the competition.<p/> On the big Talladega track, the bulky car carves a huge hole in the air and gives a car coming from behind an accelerated closing rate. And, with the bumpers lined up perfectly level on the new cars, the competitors gain most of their momentum for passes with lots of hard bump drafting.<p/> If this was a preview of the next COT race on a carburetor restrictor-plate track, there are going to be a lot of people yawning in the Daytona 500 in February.<p/> “I still think we need to work on this car a little bit,” Gordon said. “I think we would never race like that if we didn’t have the closing rate that we have, and (with) the bump drafting being so drastic that I think we need to make some adjustments here.<p/>“I knew the race was going to be spectacular at the end. It’s always going to be spectacular at the end here at Talladega. But that wasn’t the kind of race we want to see up to the 10-to-go or 20-to-go mark, guys riding single file or guys running the back with a group of 10 cars.”<p/> Dave Blaney, who matched his career best with a third-place finish, also agreed that most of the race wasn’t very exciting. But he noted that NASCAR has plenty of ammunition to make the racing better.<p/> “They can play with the restrictor plate and the wicker and the wing and gearing,” Blaney said. “They could change it all around. So the package is all right. It just maybe needs tweaking a little bit.”<p/> Hopefully, NASCAR will get it done before Daytona. http://www.thatsracin.com/148/story/7951.html http://www.thatsracin.com/148/story/7951.html Sun, 07 Oct 2007 20:14 EDT TALLADEGA, Ala. - The No. 41 Dodge of Reed Sorenson, who finished 10th, was found too low in front-end height during post-race inspection on Sunday.<p/>The No. 41 was a random selection for inspection.<p/> NASCAR officials decided to take the car back to teh company's research and development center in Concord, N.C., for further evaluation.<p/>Any penalties would be announced later this week.