Full Throttle

Much has been written in the last few years about multi-car NEXTEL Cup teams (Not to mention HWSBO’s team size limit decree) and their influence on the smaller operations that populate the back half of Cup starting fields. With the introduction of a Cup testing rule that limit testing to only six times, on selected tracks, the issue has become more acute as evidenced by the number of multi-car teams that are dominating the Busch Series this year.

There is an untold story here, the multi-car teams have affected not just those at the back end of Cup fields and the Busch Series, it has trickled down to the ARCA RE/MAX Series.

Let me introduce Brandon Knupp. At 20 years of age he has 44 career ARCA RE/MAX starts since 2004, has 9 top-10 finishes including career-best 4^th at Salem

The Jarrett to Toyota/Waltrip story has been run into the ground this week. The newsprint and bandwidth expended hasn’t reached the level of the Kurt Busch mid-season defection last year, but there are a few less shade trees in the wild due to DJ’s defection none the less.

Mark DeCotis notes a part of the story that has gone unnoticed and starts with this question: What do Jeff Gordon, Rusty Wallace, Bill Elliott, Kurt Busch, Kasey Kahne, Kyle Busch, Michael Waltrip and Jeff Burton have in common?

They, along with the newly departed DJ, at one time either drove, were committed to drive or expected to drive for Ford only to leave Ford for another make.

With DJ’s departure and the retirement of Mark Martin this is Ford’s lineup in drivers for ‘07: Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards and Jamie McMurray (Roush Racing), Elliott Sadler, (Yates), and Ken Schrader. (Wood Brothers)

Both Yates and the Woods Brothers are rumored to have additional teams in ‘07 but even if they come to pass, and you count DJ’s and Martin’s replacement, that’s only 10 Fords in a field of 43. Chevy’s 20 full-time cars and Dodge’s 14 walks all over Ford’s paltry number of 10.

But that is nothing new in reality. Chevy has won the manufacturers championship 22 times (Ford 6, Buick 2) in the last 30 years and in most cases they have had the upper hand in car counts.

Another point to consider is Roush’s Mongol Hoard. If you desire to run a Blue Oval, and be competitive, your road map has to go through the Lavonia, Michigan shops of Roush enroute Charlotte. All others need not apply.

The one exception to that rule is Jamie McMurray, who is the “outsider.” Everyone else has come thru the ranks of Roush’s efforts with the Gong Show, the Craftsman Truck Series and the Busch Series.

That said, Ford retention of Sadler, who has a year remaining with Yates, and its other drivers have to be a priority. And Sadler is a wild card, there are reports Sadler is hoping to sign with a new team, effective once his Yates deal expires, much as Kurt Busch and Jamie McMurray did in hopes of obtaining early release.

Can you see a reteaming of Sadler and Jarrett down the road at the Toyota shops? It’s an interesting problem for Ford and with Toyota prowling around the edges it’s even more so.

Another thought: If the “elephant in the room” pans out and one of the Big Three pulls out of NASCAR, maybe I’m wrong in thinking it’s Dodge. Ford in terms of investment as gaged by car count has the least to lose.

UPDATE: Maybe Ford should look into signing one of these “drivers.” It could be a package deal, kind of a two’fer, a “driver” with a driver.

NASCAR, NEXTEL Cup, Yates Racing, Roush Racing, Woods Brothers Racing, Auto Racing, Motorsports, Full Throttle

Six events into the current F1 season Kimi Raikkonen has given up, quit. Put a gun to the head of his Championship hopes and pulled the trigger.

Kimi Raikkonen has ruled out winning the Formula One championship this season and may have set the stage for his depature from McLaren at the end of the year.

“The title battle will be fought between Ferrari and Renault because they always get to the end of the races and they are always fighting for victory and podiums,” Raikkonen tells Gazzetta dello Sport following a fifth place finish in Spain.

Geesh… Kimi must be taking notes from NASCAR’s eternal crepehanger Mark Martin. You should note the highlighted section, which may be behind this bit of pessimism and created because Prancing Horses are dancing in Kimi’s head.

And Kimi’s not alone, managing director Martin Whitmarsh has thrown in the towel as well. “Probably at the moment we shouldn’t be focusing on the championship,” Whitmarsh told Reuters. “We should be focusing on making our car go quicker and winning some races.” Well OK, so you suck. But there are 12 events left and to go public with such a caviler attitude seems counter-productive me. Then again, I don’t have hundreds of millions of Euros invested in the Woking-outfit.

Anyway, on the flipside of this is DC, who claims he can not only compete, but win for Red Bull.

Candidates for this weeks Cesspool is rather sparse to say the least. Surprising given the venue was The Lady in Black a place that is never kind to anyone and normally sets tempers on edge. But seek and you shall find.

And the first two nominees both belong under the banner of stupidity and hype by FoxSports. Picture that crawl that runs across your TV screen during green flag racing. Allegedly it gives the lap by lap running order of the entire field each lap - “Running Order: 1 Kasey Kahne, 2. Matt Kenseth, etc…” - for example. Saturday night that feature was turned into someones personal cheering section. For the first third of the event the graphic appeared this way: “Go Dale Go,” 1, Kasey Kahne, 2, Matt Kenseth, etc…” Someone needs to be horse whipped for that little stunt, this dip in the Pool isn’t enough. You guys report, nothing more. You want to cheerlead, go get yer-self a pleated skirt a couple pom-poms and have at it. In the frontstretch grandstands.

Not to be outdone by an idiot in the FoxSports Graphics Dept., the entire Fox Crew gets to taste a bit of the Cesspool’s malodorous contents also. Everyone, from the TV ads pimping the show, to broadcast booth bobbleheads, the guys in the production truck” and again the aforementioned Graphics Dept.

The phrase “Darlington Stripe” was heard (and hyped!) more times than “Bush is Hitler” at a world peace rally!

The final example and tally was shown at the end of the race: “Darlington Stripes: 25.” It should have read, “Darlington Stripes 00,” there hasn’t been a true Darlington Stripe in two decades. True Stripes were intentional, not the result of a driver getting too high, into the dust, dirt, and dinggle-berries and coming away with what can only be called a pseudo-Stripe.

But wait, there’s more from TV Land. This time Fox News on Sunday morning. (can you tell not much happened on track?) Speed Channel’s Dave DeSpain appeared on the Morning Show discussing the increase in NASCAR accidents this year. All the usual suspects were discussed but that’s not the point. While they talked a loop of film clips were shown. The first was the “Blue Deuce” getting upside down. The second featured Dale Jr. but not in a NASCAR ride! They ran a clip of Jr. as he was momentarily trapped in his burning ALMS sports car at Sonoma in 2004. Ahemm… excuse me! This segment was about NASCAR, NASCAR “road Rage” and drivers getting “even” on track and a perceptable increase of NASCAR accidents!

IDOITS! Oh, and is it any surprise they never mentioned the historic venue or the results from Saturday night? NOT!

A quick Cesspool shoutout to Roush Racing. How the hell do you have two, count’em, two oil pump belts go south? (#26 and #99) On two different cars. In the same event. I don’t know either, but there you go, it happened and made this weeks offensive, putrid Cesspool of Infamy!

That’s it this week. With next weeks All-Star event at Humpy’s place that features one off race cars for a non-points paying race I expect considerably more on track antics for the Cesspool.

NASCAR, NEXTEL Cup, Darlington Raceway, Auto Racing, Motorsports, Full Throttle

Lady Luck has not been Biffle

Steve Wallace, son of NEXTEL Cup racing legend Rusty Wallace, held off a fellow 18-year-old Saturday to win the Harley-Davidson of Cincinnati 150 at Kentucky Speedway, his second career ARCA-RE/Max victory.

Wallace had the lead in the oft-delayed 100-lap race when a caution on the second-to-last lap prolonged it by three for a green-white checkered finish.

Brad Coleman, who hasn’t yet graduated from high school, made several attempts to pass Wallace on the final lap but couldn’t get by.

“Everything was just perfect,” said Wallace, of Mooresville, N.C.

Earlier in the day, Wallace earned the pole position with a record 177.509 mph qualifying lap. That time was 2.24 mph faster than the previous record set by David Keith on July 2, 2000.

Coleman got his second runner-up finish of the year, also taking second in Nashville. Matt McCall was third.

“Man, we were so close,” he said. “We’ll be there next time.”

Frank Kimmel, who won the Kentucky Speedway race last year and was coming off a victory last weekend at Winchester Speedway, started alongside Wallace on the front row after qualifying second.

Kimmel got an early lead but crashed into a wall after brushing Wallace while attempting to pull back in front on the 20th lap. The rear of Kimmel’s car sustained heavy damaged, and he had to pit several times, finishing in 28th.

“I went up to him and apologized like 100,000 times,” Wallace said. “He said it wasn’t my fault.”

Wallace won for the first time this year. His only other victory in five previous starts came last August at Michigan International Speedway, when he also won from the pole.

Scott Lagasse emerged as the top challenger to Wallace midway through the race and even spent some time in the lead, but his car spun coming out of turn two. Maintenance vehicles had to help remove the car from the track, and Lagasse was examined for injuries but released.

The race was delayed more than three hours by rain, then was stopped for nearly two more hours after 32 laps. The race went under caution six times.

ARCA, Automobile Racing Club of America, Kentucky Speedway, Auto Racing, Motorsports, Full Throttle