NASCAR, Talladega skirt major disaster with Eric McClure wreck

NASCAR Nationwide Series driver Eric McClure pounded an inside wall equipped with a SAFER barrier on the backstretch of Talladega Superspeedway on Saturday in a vicious crash. Although the crash sent him to the hospital, he was only a few hundred feet away from crashing into a wall that could've done much more serious damage.

The SAFER barrier is a combination of steel and foam that absorbs energy during a hard crash. However, Talladega does not have SAFER barriers on all of its walls. In fact, an exposed concrete wall sits along the backstretch towards Turn 3 not far from where McClure hit.

McClure had to be airlifted out of the track and taken to the hospital for further evaluation after his #14 car collided with the SAFER barrier. Had he hit the nearby concrete wall, well, Talladega Superspeedway might have had a much worse situation on its hands.

That is why it is mind-boggling that race tracks still don’t cover every wall with a SAFER barrier. One of the common phrases about wrecks in auto racing is that if there is an unsafe spot at a race track, a car is sure to eventually find it.

Jeff Gordon found exposed concrete walls at both Las Vegas and Richmond in recent years, Elliott Sadler found an unsafe wall at Pocono two years ago, and several drivers found the walls surrounding the final turn at Watkins Glen to be very dangerous in the past few years.

Each of those tracks have since fixed its problems and retroactively installed SAFER barriers to cover the previously exposed walls, but why does it take a hard wreck to identify problem spots at a track?

Sure, SAFER barriers are expensive to install, but if tracks are going to fork out the money to install the barriers on some parts of their walls, why not cover every wall? Driver safety has to be a higher priority than money.

It is extremely unfortunate, and considering the technology NASCAR and its tracks have in 2012, slightly barbaric to not have SAFER barriers on any wall both on the outside and inside parts of the track, excluding pit wall because that would be a safety hazard for crew members going over the wall on a pit stop.

Most tracks, including Talladega, still don’t have SAFER barriers on their straightaways. Yes, a crash is more likely to occur in a corner, but a car running 200 mph on the bottom lane is going to hit the outside wall with quite an impact if it gets turned sideways.

McClure’s wreck showed that drivers can still be injured even with a SAFER barrier, but the severity of his injuries might have been much worse had he hit an unprotected wall.

Somebody is going to take a hard lick in Sunday’s race, but hopefully nobody finds a wall that doesn’t have a SAFER barrier.

Sadly, NASCAR officials, drivers, teams and fans still have to hold their breath and hope that doesn’t happen because hitting an unprotected wall is still a possibility.

Ryan Blaney and Co. show NASCAR might soon have new young guns

Travis Pastrana caught a lot of the spotlight leading into his Nationwide Series debut Friday night at Richmond International Raceway, but the debut of another driver could be the true future of NASCAR.

Ryan Blaney, the 19-year-old son of Sprint Cup Series veteran Dave Blaney, also made his debut at Richmond and finished a very impressive seventh.

Blaney’s entrance into the Nationwide Series marks a trend that NASCAR has not seen in several years now. Other than Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski, the Cup series has not had a young rookie driver splash onto the scene.

Yet new hotshots were a common sight during the first half of the 2000s with the likes of Jimmie Johnson, Ryan Newman, Kasey Kahne and the Busch brothers bursting into NASCAR’s top level.

But, since Kyle Busch entered the Cup series full time in 2005, the pipeline of new NASCAR drivers shut off to the point where the Rookie of the Year award became a joke as the driver who made the most races ended up winning the award.

Although there might not have been an abundance of talent in NASCAR’s lower divisions at the time, Cup series owners made matters worse by bringing in several open-wheel or road course racers and giving them some of the best rides in the series.

Most of those drivers failed in their attempts at NASCAR racing and few remain, including Sam Hornish Jr., Danica Patrick, A.J. Allmendinger and now Pastrana, who finished 22nd in his debut.

However, the pipeline of young NASCAR talent might open back up in the next few years. Along with Blaney, Richard Childress’ grandsons Austin and Ty Dillon are making their way through the Nationwide and Camping World Truck series. Cole Whitt is also doing a solid job in JR Motorsports’ #88 Nationwide car.

Other NASCAR veterans also have sons in NASCAR’s minor leagues, including Ward Burton’s son Jeb, Bill Elliott’s son, Chase, and Matt Kenseth’s son, Ross.

When these drivers, along with current Nationwide drivers Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Trevor Bayne are ready for the big show, Gillette might have to bring back it’s “Young Guns” campaign.

A new influx of talent into NASCAR’s top series is vital. Obviously this sort of thing is cyclical, but the current generation of drivers who make up the 43-car field on Sundays has raced together for several years in a row without much turnover.

That might also be part of the reason the Cup series has had fewer and fewer cautions in the past few couple of years.

The current stars of NASCAR who came through in the past decade eventually replaced the Dale Earnhardt generation that included drivers such as Dale Jarrett, Rusty Wallace, Sterling Marlin and Ricky Rudd.

Right now Johnson, Kahne, Kevin Harvick and several others are similar to the previous group, and eventually be replaced by the young drivers who are just getting started.

It might still be a few years before these new drivers show up in Sunday races, but at least there is a new group of potential stars getting ready to take the stage.

Drivers’ weigh in on new Phoenix track

The Nationwide Series had the honor Saturday of running the first race on the newly repaved and reconfigured Phoenix International Raceway. Overall, the race was not that different than previous races at the track.

Phoenix has always been a track where the bottom lane is the way to go. It generally races similar to a short track but also has a little more room for error than other flat or short tracks.

That margin for error might be a little smaller now with the new pavement, but at least the Nationwide race was pretty similar to previous Phoenix races.

What does that mean for the Sprint Cup Series race on Sunday? Probably more of the same.

Even though there were seven cautions in the Nationwide race, other races at flat tracks such as Richmond and Martinsville had a lot more wrecks than what could reasonably be expected on Sunday.

Carl Edwards said he was nervous about the condition of the track before he got in his car for practice Friday, but he found it to be more forgiving than what he had experienced during the open test session Oct. 4-5.

However, Edwards also said the new surface and configuration leaves little comparison to previous races at Phoenix.

“From the driver’s seat, it feels like a brand new racetrack,” Edwards said.



He also said the new surface will make it difficult to predict who will run well and who will run poorly.

“This is so different. The pavement drives differently, the layout is a little different, the setups are different,” Edwards said. “It’s going to be its own race and that’s why I was a little nervous to come here because you just don’t know how you’re going to stack up.”

Denny Hamlin said he thinks Sunday’s race to be better than many people feared heading into the weekend.

He said the drivers were able to extend the racing groove by about 3 feet Friday, which almost makes a groove wide enough for two cars to race side-by-side. The on-track action Saturday that includes 325 miles of racing for the Nationwide Series and K&N Pro Series West should extend the groove far enough to where it will be plenty wide for the Sprint Cup Series race, Hamlin said.

“We’re going to have a good race, better than what people are expecting,” Hamlin said.

Edwards, on the other hand, still believes it will be difficult to pass on the track, putting a larger premium on strategy and pit stops.

Edwards’ concern about passing showed up in the Nationwide race, which had just two lead changes among three drivers. Once the leader broke free ahead of the field, nobody could catch him, including first-time winner Sam Hornish Jr.



So, the quality of the Cup race is still up to speculation for another evening, and the potential for rain overnight could further complicate the situation. But, the on-track action so far this weekend has shown that at least this race won’t artificially mess with the championship picture.

For more photos from the racetrack, check out the Monday Morning Crew Chief Facebook page.

Sprint Cup Series continues unpredictable races at Kentucky

After one of the most unpredictable races ever at Daytona, the Sprint Cup Series heads into another unpredictable race Saturday night at Kentucky.

Kentucky Speedway has been around for more than a decade, but it has taken almost that long for the track to finally get the biggest NASCAR series to come to town.

The Nationwide Series will run its 11th race at the track Friday night, and five drivers in the Cup field have already won at that track. So, why is this race unpredictable?

Well, two of the winners, David Gilliland and Joey Logano, who has won the last three Nationwide races at Kentucky, haven’t won at the Cup level since Logano won the rain-shortened race at New Hampshire in 2009.

The other three winners who are in the Cup race, Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick, all won at the track in the old-style car. The current Cup cars will not drive very similar to the cars each of those drivers took to Victory Lane.

Usually when something new comes into the sport, one team tends to dominate for a little while. Hendrick Motorsports dominated when the Car of Tomorrow was introduced in 2007, and Joe Gibbs Racing dominated last year when NASCAR brought back the rear spoiler and did away with the wing.

To add a little more concern that Saturday’s race might not be the most exciting race ever, the winner in nine of the 10 Nationwide races has started inside the top 10. Only Harvick came from outside the top 10 in the first-ever Nationwide race at the track. He started 11th. Plus, Logano has started from the pole in each of his three wins.

With all that said, it is still very possible Saturday night’s race will be fun for both the drivers and fans. Although the track is 1.5 miles long, it is different from several of the other intermediate tracks.

Kentucky Speedway doesn’t have long, sweeping corners. The straightaways are long and the drivers really have to bury the car down into the corner, but they can still race two and three wide through those corners. This track races more like Rockingham than it does Chicagoland or Kansas.

The bigger teams might have a bit more of an advantage than usual this weekend because although the race has many unknowns, the big-time teams are able to limit them through simulation work before the cars ever leave the shop to pull ahead of the competition. Enjoy the race, everybody.

Nationwide Series move to Brickyard a bad deal

Another short track bites the dust as the Nationwide Series will move its race to the Brickyard in 2012.

The Nationwide Series had run at the short track, originally known as Indianapolis Raceway Park, across town in Indianapolis since the series was created in 1982. Now, it might not return.

The Nationwide Series will run at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 28, 2012, the day before the Brickyard 400.

What were NASCAR and everybody else involved thinking? Surely this deal was driven by the prospects of making more money. The purse will likely be larger for a race at the big track and the seating capacity is substantially larger, but this is a bad deal in every way other than money.

Since the Sprint Cup Series first came to Indianapolis in 1994, the Brickyard 400 has been one of those special races on the motorsports schedule. Any race at Indy is a big deal, but that’s also because only the best get to race there.

Having only the Sprint Cup cars compete once a year on the 2.5-mile speedway kept the Brickyard 400 as an exclusive event. Sure, it will be a special moment for whoever wins in the Nationwide Series at the track, but it waters down the weekend, especially since most of the regular contenders in the Nationwide Series are Cup drivers anyway.

Another negative is the fact that the Nationwide Series is kicking a great short track to the curb. That move will only perpetuate the bland reputation the series has as a knock-off version of the Sprint Cup Series. Many of the drivers are the same in both series, the cars look very similar and most of the tracks are the same.

The Nationwide Series had a cool deal at the short track. Indianapolis Raceway Park was one of the only remaining short tracks that still had a bit of the country fair feel to it. Plus, the racing was usually close and exciting. It was a unique place. The Nationwide race at the Brickyard will be little more than just another tandem race weekend, especially when the novelty wears off.

In some ways, this is just another case of NASCAR’s eternal longing to reach big markets. NASCAR got tracks in Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas and Kansas City, and for years it wanted to put tracks up by Seattle and New York.

Thankfully we didn’t get another bland 1.5-mile track from those deals. At least this week’s race in Kentucky is a little closer to traditional NASCAR markets, even if they might not be as big. Saturday night’s race at Kentucky Motor Speedway is already sold out.

Now that the decision has been made to move the Nationwide race, it will be tough to bring the series back to the short track. No matter how boring the race is on the big track, there will always be a Nationwide race the day before the Sprint Cup race from here on out.

Even if the Nationwide Series would return, it would be on a different weekend and would lose the excitement of having racing throughout the weekend in the same city, but at completely different racetracks. That’s also part of what made the Indianapolis weekend special. Only a big-time racing city would have two races on the same weekend at different tracks.

So, savor the upcoming Indianapolis race weekend July 30-31, because it will likely be the last time it stands out as a weekend that is different than any other weekend.

The Indy race weekend will still important simply because it’s Indy, but it won’t be the same.

Earnhardt Jr. wins in 'Daddy's' car

Sometimes purely good things do happen. That was certainly on display Friday night at Daytona when Dale Earnhardt Jr. brought back the #3 for the final time and put it in Victory Lane.

The Earnhardt story in racing is one of the most compelling in any sport. The pioneer father Ralph Earnhardt battled on dirt tracks for much of his career before passing away at the age of 45 from a heart attack.

His son, the Intimidator, moved the story forward with a will to win that has gone unmatched. He too started out on the small dirt tracks in North Carolina before making himself one of the most revered people to ever be in the sport. With seven championships and 76 career Cup victories, he is one of only five men to have a pillar in their honor in the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

Then, along came the brash, blond-headed son. Dale Earnhardt was always a nose-to-the-grindstone type that had one mission: to win. His son, Dale Earnhardt Jr., was the one that was never quite sure of his direction in life and often did things to bring out the rough side of his father. Dale Earnhardt was one of the greatest racecar drivers to have ever lived, and Dale Jr. always wanted to live up to what his dad expected of him, but at least in his mind, he was not sure he had.

As an example of those standards, during Dale Jr.’s high school years his dad sent him to Oak Ridge Military Academy for two years to teach him discipline.

Eventually, Dale Jr. decided to follow in his father’s giant footsteps and become a professional racecar driver himself. Once he made that decision and committed himself, Dale Sr. supported him 100 percent. Dale Jr. had a bunch of success in what is now the Nationwide Series and won the series championship twice. A feat only accomplished by six other drivers.

In 2000, Dale Jr. splashed onto the Cup scene with two point-paying victories and a win in the All-Star Race. After each of those victories Dale Sr. was one of the first to come over and celebrate with his son.

However, in the first race of the 2001 season, Dale Jr. lost his dad in a crash on the final lap of the Daytona 500. The entire NASCAR world was struck to the core by the tragedy, but Dale Jr., only 26 at the time, and the rest of the Earnhardt family felt it the hardest.

Since that time it has seemed as though Dale Jr. has been trying to live up to what he thinks his father would have expected of him. Not necessarily the expectations set forth by the fans or the media. With his father’s passing, Dale Jr. lost that validation of whether or not he was doing well enough.

Fast forward to July 2, 2010. Dale Jr. got everybody back together and brought out the yellow-and-blue #3 Chevrolet that his father drove to two championships from 1983-1988. It was the first time Dale Jr. had driven the #3 car since he did it twice in the Nationwide Series in 2002, and it was also the final time. In a race that felt like a movie, Dale Jr. drove the #3 car to Victory Lane at Daytona.

There was simply no other possible ending for that race Friday night. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was going to win. No matter what runner-up Joey Logano tried to do from the second-place position, he was not going to get around the #3 into the lead. The story wouldn’t allow for it.

Emotions had not been this high after a race since Kevin Harvick won at Atlanta in 2001, just a month after Dale Earnhardt’s death. Crew chief Tony Eury Jr. was reduced to tears, but Dale Jr.’s emotions after the race told what so many others were thinking.

"I worked hard to try to win it, not only for Daddy, I am proud of him going into the Hall of Fame, and he would be proud of this, I'm sure," Earnhardt Jr. said. “Just all his fans. He had so many great fans. Not just mine. This is for his fans. Hopefully, they enjoyed this."

Whether or not this win allows him to settle in and propel his Sprint Cup career forward is yet to be seen, but at least for this one special night, Dale Jr. was able to be sure he had met his father’s expectations.