Full Throttle

A few days ago Speed TV floated the rumor Joey Logano would make his Cup presence felt at the wheel of the #96 entry fielded by Hall of Fame Racing.

At the time I rated it less than likely, but also used the “weasel phrase” on the other the hand as a way to hedge my bet.

Well I lose, (But glad I weaseled my way into being close) HoF has confirmed what was rumor, Logano will make 5 Cups starts for HoF starting with the Sept. 14 Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. (Can you hear Bruton Smith cheering in the background?)

“We look forward to working with Joey during the five races he will drive the No. 96 DLP HDTV Toyota,” said Tom Garfinkel, co-owner of Hall of Fame Racing. “We’re happy to work with Joe Gibbs Racing to assist in Joey’s development as he prepares for a full season in Sprint Cup next year.”

“We appreciate Hall of Fame Racing helping us get Joey ready for 2009,” said J.D. Gibbs, president of Joe Gibbs Racing. “They came to us with the idea before the August Michigan race and we think it’s a great win/win for all of us.”

Well good, for that kid but it was just a short time ago, Aug 7th to be precise, another kid had this to say about racing for HoF:

“I have really enjoyed my time testing with the people on the team and I’m looking forward to having a successful weekend at Michigan in the DLP HDTV Toyota and helping Hall of Fame Racing finish out the season as strong as possible.”

That was Brad Coleman a short three weeks ago when he was handed the #96 ride.

I guess when you’re 20 as Coleman is, and Joe Gibbs comes knocking on the door of its satellite team HoF 18 years of age is the “new 20″

Too bad because they both deserve a shot at a quality ride in Cup.

I’ll provides a few quotes and anecdotes, you provide the answer as to who said driver is. And note, those with sensitive ears and eyes may want to look away.

I’ll start with the most astounding quote in my book because it comes from Jim Hunter, Hunter of the “vanilla ice cream is too racy for my tastes,” and the “any answer is a good answer as long as it’s noncommittal” when talking to the press.

“He’s been an asshole at times,” Jim Hunter.

On the plane ride home from a track he plays computer mah-jongg and listens to Led Zeppelin. His fridge at home contains a six-pack of Schlitz and some canned tangerine wedges marinated in rum.

There is virtually no reading material in his house, “You want to hide something from me?” he says. “Put it in a book.”

This driver looks at the screen during quals, and another car’s time pops up. “There’s the dickhead,” he says to no one in particular.

Said of Dale Jr. while watching the spring NNS event at Talladega and wearing tighty-whiteys and eating microwaved Chef Boyardee ravioli: “Shit, you can’t blame Junior, even if it’s his fault.”

There’s so much more in the eight page article, but as I said it might not be safe for sensitive ears and eyes, it is Rolling Stone afterall.

So, before you look who is the driver?

So, there’s a change to next year’s Budweiser Shootout format at Daytona.

Instead of it being a race between the previous years race and pole position winners it will pit a field of 24 cars representing the top six teams from Chevrolet, Dodge, Ford and Toyota. The starting line-up will be by determined by a blind draw held Feb. 5 at Daytona.

What does it all mean? For starters it means Tony Stewart and 2008 Daytona 500 winner Ryan Newman won’t be in the Shootout lineup because of their change of teams.

Beyond that, not much.

Sure, the Chevy, Ford, Dodge (formerly known as The Big Three, now not so much) and Toyota will burn up a few hundred reams of paper with press releases pimping the event, fans will awaken from their two month slumber and the booth bobbleheads get a chance to shake off their broadcasting cobwebs but when looking at the big picture, who cares?

Unless you’re a die-heard fan of this years winner can you name him? (when will it be a her?) The event means no points, with a bit of glory for the driver that lasts a few days and that’s about it.

Ho-hum!

As long time and probably occasion readers know I’ve not been totally sold on the idea of another international open wheel auto racing series, let alone one that brands itself as SuperLeague Formula has with a tie-in to the “Beautiful Game,” football.

The latest to jump on this crapwagon bandwagon is the most successful club in the history of English football, Liverpool FC.

The “Reds” will make their racing debut less than 100 miles away from their Anfield home at the historic Donington Park circuit on August 30/31, the opener for the SuperLeague Formula series.

Liverpool becomes the 17th club to sign up for the championship and the second Premier League outfit – joining London team Tottenham Hotspur (Spurs). Local fans at Donington Park will now have three teams to follow covering the UK from top to bottom – Tottenham, Liverpool and Scottish side, Glasgow Rangers. (Here’s a short video of the race team unveiling in Liverpool.)

(Gee, wonder if their fans will get to see the live action, or will they get the shaft and have to pay an arm, leg and their first born to see the broadcasts as the A1GP fans are required to do? - ed)

Liverpool’s entry has given the opportunity to glimpse behind the curtain at SuperLeague’s finances. If your a football club owner it looks like a potential winner, if you’re a financier of the racing series itself not so much, more like a bottomless money pit.

Liverpool’s commercial director Ian Ayre is confident the club will feel the financial benefit of competing in the new Superleague Formula series. As well he should, it’s not only a cost-free experience for the club, but they are actually guaranteed to make money via a licensing fee charged SuperLeague for the right to use the club’s branding.

“We’re licensing our colours, our brand, into the series.” Ayre told BBC Radio Merseyside.

But wait there’s more…

“We get a guaranteed signing-on fee and each year we have a guaranteed revenue stream. The race series, the drivers, the tracks - all of that is covered by the race organisers and the series organisers.”

“We’re hopefully supporting [the series] and hopefully bringing some of our sponsors along to support it but we have no financial burden,” said Ayre.

I’d say Ian Ayre has a strange sense of what “series support” means, but your mileage may vary from mine.

Superleague Formula President and CEO Alex Andreu believes the addition of Liverpool will significantly boost the profile of the new championship.

“As a global sports brand, Liverpool is one of the biggest names in the world,” Andreu said.

I don’t doubt that, I just wonder where all this cash is coming from. It isn’t cheap placing 17 drivers/teams, 17 special-built Élan Motorsports tubs, and 17 Menard Competition Technologies V12 engines on a single starting grid.

Multiply that by 6 events and all the spares needed, plus 1 million euros ($1.4 million USD) in prize money awarded each event, and this is a huge undertaking.

I’d be curious to know what the sanctioning fee for each track is. Judging from ticket prices at Donnington (Sunday only: $35 USD, $57 USD with paddock access), they can’t be over-the-moon high.

Let’s face it, it isn’t F1, but for 57 bucks you get paddock access on race day.

To get that in F1 you’d need a multi-million dollar drivers contract, be a regular visitor to London sex dens to assuage your S&M sexual fetish, or wear short skirts and have silicone implants the size of hot air balloons. (or a billionaire Gnome - ed)

So that’s something, but still, where is all this cash coming from?

F1’s driver safety union, the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, is concerned about Formula One’s forthcoming inaugural night race in Singapore.

The floodlit event, to be held on the streets of the Lion City at the end of next month, will take place without any prior pre-race testing under lights and that has GPDA concerned and allowed Toyota’s Jarno Trulli to bust out a carafe of whine.

“At the moment we still don’t know what the schedule of the weekend will be,” Toyota driver and GPDA stalwart Jarno Trulli told reporters at Valencia at the weekend.

“We are a little bit concerned,” the Italian admitted. “We go there, we haven’t tested, we don’t have any idea. It’s going to be a night race, it’s going to be the rainy season, so it’s not exactly what you really want from a safety point of view.

“It doesn’t look comfortable so far.”

Geesh, remind me again who’s allegedly the best drivers in the world? (Some make that claim, but I say the WRC pilots are, but I’ll leave that for now - ed.)

Trulli also made the claim it would be a waste of time comparing notes with the MotoGP riders who recently ran their first night event:

“Because riding a bike is different to driving a car. And they were racing on a circuit and we are racing on a street circuit. They had run-off and we have walls,” Trulli added.

Yeah but, it wouldn’t hurt would it Jarno? While there are major differences in the two disciplines one could get a feel for the lighting and any problems with glare caused by the lighting.

He could have taken a couple days from his less than normal packed schedule during F1’s break and checked the lighting in person. As one who’s spent a fair amount of time in the city I feel relatively confident in saying the locals would have been more than accommodating demonstrating what the circuit looks like at night.

Hell…, he may have been able to consult a local weather-guesser and learned the cities rainy season is from November to February, not late September. Too much to ask I suppose, better to look ill informed.

In fact today’s three day Singapore forecast is for early morning and afternoon thunder-boomers. That’s not to say it won’t rain during the event, but they will be isolated and generally light and shouldn’t concern the “best drivers in the world.”

An interesting wrinkle has been added to Kansas Speedway’s plans to add a 300-room Hard Rock Hotel & Casino outside turn two.

The casino plan announced nearly two weeks ago included ISC president Lesa France Kennedy intentions to petition NASCAR for a second Cup date: “I have made a commitment on behalf of ISC to ask NASCAR to bring a second Cup date to Kansas Speedway,”

At the time I saw this as a Battle of the Titans between the sports powerhouses, ISC and Bruton Smith’s SMI.

But maybe not, maybe it will be an internal ISC struggle that sees Watkins Glen sliced off the Cup schedule in the future vice snatching a date from SMI.

Kansas Speedway officials announced Monday that in addition to a potential second NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race, the facility will add a road course to its infield if the hotel & casino proposal submitted to the Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission is approved.

Kansas Speedway’s proposed road course has caught the eye of Sports Car Club of America (SCCA), which is based in Topeka, Kan.

“As the largest active motorsports membership organization in North America, SCCA would certainly welcome and support another venue to host events,” said Jim Julow, SCCA, Inc. President and CEO. “Any time ISC has included a road racing course within one of its facilities, it has been nothing short of first class.”

The addition of a road course might set-up an interesting scenario no?

Although it would be tough leaving upstate NY considering the large Canadian contingent that attends, and as the only NASCAR penetration in the area it’s one they are loath to abandon, the Glen has exactly been lavished with dollars by ISC to bring it up to the standards of today’s modern road courses.

I can picture this scenario:

Sometime after 2010 Kansas gets the Watkins Glen date vice a Cup date. The Glen keeps it’s NNS date - or whatever it’s called by then - in addition to the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series making its first ever trip into the U.S. as part of a triple header weekend with the Camping World East series. The ARCA RE/MAX Series could be tossed into the mix as well.

Or, this is all just a SWAG (Surface warfare Wild Assed Guess) on my part, a term commonly used in my former occupation in the U.S. Navy.

Take your pick. And make your own guesses how this will all play out.

I’ve been waiting for this, the dyno numbers from the chassis dyno tests performed at MIS that resulted in the Gibbs Racing penalties, but it’s a case of close but no cigar.

The results? Not only “inconclusive,” according to the Winston-Salem Journal, but the numbers are for tests on the MIS Cup engines. So, I’m still waiting and probably will until a frozen yogurt stand opens in Hell.

However there are things to be gleaned from the tests if you chose to believe unofficial and apparently leaked numbers.

They may not be what some would expect, or hope for if you one of the legion of Toy haters or the newly minted sub-category of Gibbs Racing haters.

As so ably reported by Diandra last week there’s a major difference between the chassis dyno test at MIS and engine dyno tests. (reported to be a 7% loss but I’ve read previously of a 10% loss on a chassis dyno - ed)

The chassis dyno tests at MIS had Kurt Busch’s (Sprint Cup) Dodge leading the HP rankings with as much as 21HP over that of Jimmie Johnson’s Hendrick-Chevy. The #12 Dodge registered in with 839 horsepower at the rear wheels.

Two days later at NASCAR’s Concord R&D facility Jeff Burton’s RCR Chevy (also a Cup engine) demonstrated the most power with the engine out of the chassis. (the most accurate method - ed)

The rest of the “unofficial” numbers, all obtained from the teams Cup engines.

• Jeff Burton (11th at Michigan), 830 horsepower.
• Mark Martin (sixth), 827 horsepower.
• Kyle Busch (race runner-up) 825 horsepower.
• Carl Edwards (race winner) 819 horsepower.
• Jimmie Johnson (17th), 819 horsepower.
• Brian Vickers (seventh), 818 horsepower.

Again, keep in mind these are not only Cup engines but unofficial numbers which are probably about the best we can expect, it’s not like NASCAR will become transparent overnight, or ever for that matter.

What one could wish for, given the massive amount of discussion on this matter, for once they could come clean and put out all the HP numbers for all teams tested both in Cup and NNS.

I could also wish for butterflies to deliver my morning newspaper so it would be gently lowered on my stoop, but like most of you out there I’ll have to settle for it being tossed into the bushes along with the cat droppings and rain runoff.

I’m betting I see butterflies before I see real numbers out of NASCAR.

Jason Bowles led wire-to-wire to take the win in the Pipe Careers 200 presented by Pipe Trades at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale on Saturday night, giving him a sweep of both NASCAR Camping World Series West events at his home track this season.
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In the second venture for the NASCAR Camping World Series East to the Buckeye State, Brian Ickler took the checkered flag in the Mansfield 150 Saturday evening in Mansfield Motorsports Park to secure his third win of 2008.

For Ickler, who made his NASCAR Camping World Series East debut at Mansfield a year ago and finished 11th in the race, Saturday’s win was the third of his first full season in the East. The San Diego, Calif., native added Mansfield to a resume that also includes wins at Iowa Speedway and South Boston (Va.) Speedway.

Ickler led six times for a total of 128 laps. He held off a late charge from points leader Matt Kobyluck, who was going for his fourth straight victory. With the runner-up finish, Kobyluck expanded his points lead to 176 over Jesus Hernandez, who finished fourth in the race and moved into second place.

Peyton Sellers (No. 44 Specialty Fertilizer Products Chevrolet) came home third in the race followed by Hernandez and Craig Goess. Austin Dillon, Derek Thorn, Ricky Carmichael, Kyle Cattanach and Jeffrey Earnhardt rounded out the top 10 finishers.

Earlier in the day, Trevor Bayne won his second Coors Light Pole Award. Bayne finished 20th.

The NASCAR Camping World Series East will be idle for three weeks before moving on to New Hampshire Motor Speedway for the Heluva Good! Fall 125 on Friday, Sept. 12.

Kyle Busch tried to win at Bristol Saturday evening, in fact he dominated the race leading over 400 laps, but a little thing called a graphite bumper from Carl Edwards got between him and the checkered flag.

Not an entirely bad thing when looking at the overall scheme of things. In fact it might even be a good idea for someone to pull an old short track promoters scam out of their bag of tricks.

Put a bounty on his head.

There’s no need to wipe out a race, just bang him around enough, and late enough in the next two events to prevent a win. And don’t think that wasn’t Edwards secondary thought behind winning when he tapped Busch on lap 470 even if it was sans any bounty. That little exhibition of bumper tag created a 20 point swing in Chase bonus points. No small thing at this late date.

Better to be 30 points out than 50 if every thing remains the same between now and Loudon.

Oh, and that rivalry thing everyone was drumming up the last couple weeks between Busch and Edwards, think nothing of it. Just because Edwards had won 2 of the last seven events and Busch 3, think nothing of it, they both say so.

And don’t think nothing of that “love tap” Busch gave Edwards during the cool down lap either, nor the reciprocal tap Edwards gave Busch.

Cousin Carl claims the steering wheel slipped out of his grip, that’s his story, and probably sticking to it!

Jack in the Hat said a couple weeks ago Edwards was ready to win a title, this Edwards quote plays into that remark very well: “I just kind of ran into him. That’s what happened … I have a lot of respect for the guy, and he was real fast, but we can’t give up points when they’re right there for us to take.”

OTHER NOTES: Wonder what story Dale Jr. is sticking to after getting nabbed at race start for jumping the green.

Has anyone sitting third in points at this stage ever seen so many things go wrong? Jumping the green was just plain dumb, but with all the pit calls gone wrong so far it’s like the team has a snake under the seat that jumps out and bites at the most inopportune time.

But amazingly he sits a comfortable third, but you get the feeling come Chase time that snake will still be there.