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Darlington Raceway has the only change in start time in the 2012 Sprint Cup Series schedule as its race will start at 7 p.m. Eastern instead of 7:30 p.m. as it did in 2011. The 7 p.m. start time is a departure from NASCAR’s attempt at consistent start times but one Darlington asked for so its race – the second-longest on the schedule at 501.322 miles – will end earlier.
At last, there's a large patch of blue to break up the doom and gloom that has clouded the NASCAR economy for the past three seasons. To major corporations, there is still a strong perceived value in association with NASCAR teams and with the sport itself, but the focus of those commitments has changed, along with the numbers of dollars sponsors are willing to allocate to motorsports marketing.
Clint Bowyer admits he’s fortunate. As difficult as it is to find primary sponsorship, the 32-year-old has one in 5-hour Energy that pursued him. And while Bowyer had to leave Richard Childress Racing, the only team he’s ever driven for in Cup competition, he is looking forward to starting a new chapter in his career at Michael Waltrip Racing.
Danica Patrick likes to watch the Super Bowl – and more than just the commercials. That might seem natural considering she stars in the popular Go Daddy commercials that are prominent during the Super Bowl telecast. But Patrick typically watches so she can see what the final product looks like on television, as well as the company’s internet-only ads.
Pathetic. That’s what team co-owner Chip Ganassi called Earnhardt Ganassi Racing’s performance in 2011. Ganassi’s honest assessment of his own team was so blunt that even driver Jamie McMurray was taken aback.
If officials at Michael Waltrip Racing proved anything last year, it’s that the team won’t shy away from making major changes. As a result, MWR will look much different as drivers Clint Bowyer and Mark Martin join Martin Truex Jr., and competition director Scott Miller takes the team in a new direction.
The way he sees it, Brad Keselowski says he’s “a B+ driver with A potential.” This from a driver who won three Sprint Cup races in 2011, had 14 top-10 finishes and not only qualified for the Chase For The Sprint Cup, but wound up fifth in the final standings.
The Daytona 500 will have a record purse of more than $19 million, and a new bonus for the leader at the halfway point, Daytona International Speedway announced Wednesday. ... In a new twist, the leader at lap 100 will earn a $200,000 bonus.
Kentucky Speedway will allow fans to bring coolers into the facility for the first time in track history beginning with its 2012 events. Coolers will be limited in size to 14-by-14 inches. Customers will be able to carry in snacks, unopened soft drinks and water but Kentucky law prohibits alcoholic beverages of any kind to be carried through the speedway gates.
One of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s first moves as the owner of JR Motorsports was hiring Tony Eury Sr. as competition director and crew chief. Not only is Eury Sr. his uncle, but Earnhardt Jr. certainly wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice.
Few people in racing know more about winning than Joe Gibbs. There are team owners who have won more races – though not many – and some who have won more championships. But how many have won three NASCAR Cup championships, and three Super Bowls?
CHARLOTTE – Telling a North Carolina judge that they have learned their lesson, two former Earnhardt Ganassi Racing crewmen avoided jail and were sentenced to 18 months probation Wednesday for possession of marijuana. Trevor Lysne and Jerome Frey appeared in North Carolina Superior Court on charges stemming from their arrest Aug. 9, 2011, after authorities seized 10.62 pounds of marijuana from an apartment that belonged to Lysne.
As drivers go, Jeff Burton is as analytical as they come. Coming off his worst season since 1995, the 44-year-old isn’t howling-at-the-moon crazy. Instead, he’s focused on dragging the No. 31 Richard Childress Racing team back into Chase contention.
It wasn’t the first time Chad Knaus needed a break. But it might have been the first time a vacation was his idea. “I had nothing to do with it,” a grinning team owner Rick Hendrick said of his crew chief’s offseason trip to South Africa last month.
His incredible run through the record book now halted, temporarily or otherwise, Jimmie Johnson said he looks back on the 2011 season as a time of learning. And the lessons it provided, he said, should help make him a better driver in 2012.
HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. - A small fire broke out in the Joe Gibbs Racing machine shop Monday afternoon but appeared to be contained quickly.
Danica Patrick has never been known for a lack of confidence. As a woman competing in a man’s world, she has to be confident, strong-willed and perhaps even a bit arrogant at times. But even Patrick raised a few eyebrows when she declared on the Sprint Media Tour that she can win the Daytona 500 in her very first Sprint Cup race.
When Martin Truex Jr. made the Chase For The Sprint Cup in 2007, many took it as a sign of things to come, that Truex would turn into a perennial Chase participant. Fast forward to 2012 and Truex still has only one Chase appearance and faces a season of scrutiny if he doesn’t reach the potential he showed earlier in his career.
Danica Patrick will be locked into the Daytona 500 with points from Tommy Baldwin Racing as part of a partnership with Stewart-Haas Racing that will have the No. 10 car on the track throughout the 2012 season. Patrick will get the points from TBR’s No. 36 car, driven last year primarily by Dave Blaney. The car was 33rd in the owner standings and has one of the 35 guaranteed spots for the first five races of 2012.
Marcos Ambrose got the proverbial monkey off his back by snaring his first Sprint Cup victory last year at Watkins Glen International. The challenge for Ambrose now is to prove that he can win somewhere other than a road course. Ambrose will join Juan Pablo Montoya as the drivers most mentioned in the same breath as “looking for his first win on an oval” in 2012.
