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Petty wants open track testing.

Kyle Petty said that NASCAR should just scrap its testing limits and reopen testing at all Nextel Cup tour tracks and with the right Goodyears.

Winston-Salem Journal

Buckshot running Hooters circuit

Buckshot Jones is back behind the wheel of a stock car, but not on the Nextel Cup circuit, where he raced from 1997 to 2003. He's running the Hooters Pro Cup circuit, which is racing's version of Triple-A baseball, and driving at tracks such as Peach State Speedway in Jefferson, where the green flag is set to drop today on the rain-delayed Aaron's 199. His focus these days is on real-estate development and spending time with his sons.

Atlanta Journal Constitution

Will 2007 be Elliott's last ride?

Bill Elliott's reasons for wanting to help Wood Brothers/JTG Racing turn around its NASCAR Nextel Cup Series program involve more than simply helping out good friends. It's likely, Elliott said Saturday at Dover International Speedway, that his next departure from the Cup series will be his last.

SceneDaily.com

Baldwin Blaney's new crew chief

Tommy Baldwin gave up one crew chief job a week ago at Bill Davis Racing, and he already has another. Baldwin, the team's competition director, had guided Jeremy Mayfield's crew until this past weekend when David Hyder took over. Now he will crew chief the No. 22 Toyota of Dave Blaney as Kevin Hamlin and the team have parted ways.

SceneDaily.com

NASCAR Nextel Cup points-leader Jeff Gordon has denied accusations from rival team owner Jack Roush that his team gained an unfair advantage with their Car of Tomorrow program.

Speaking at Lowe's Motor Speedway last week, Roush told reporters that NASCAR and Goodyear did not let teams own tires, preventing them from testing with the current specifications of rubber. Instead, they can only get the tires leased during race weekends but they have to return them at the end of each meeting.

Roush claimed that despite this, some teams, including Hendrick Motorsports, have got around the limitation by testing their Cars of Tomorrow at tracks where NASCAR doesn't have any control and with different tires built by other manufacturers.

"Well, the teams that have been successful and I'll name names - the Hendrick organization, the Gibbs organization, and the Childress organization have been testing these cars multiple times a week on race tracks that were outside of NASCAR's control with tires that were not Goodyears for the most part because they wont sell the tires," said Roush.

Gordon responded to Roush's accusations on Friday at Dover, revealing that his team had tested on Goodyear tires. He said they got the jump on rivals by buying a stock of year-old Goodyear tires once the testing rules were clear last year.

"Well, anybody who says it's not fair, they don't know what they're talking about," Gordon said. "All we did was last year when (NASCAR) set the test rules, we bought up a bunch of tires. Everybody else had the same ability to do that.

"Give Hendrick Motorsports credit for planning ahead, I think that's what should be said out there. Yeah, we're in Goodyears. But they're two-year-old Goodyears. They had already been sitting there in the warehouse for a year."

The four-time Nextel Cup champion, who owns equity in Hendrick Motorsports, also said that Roush should not complain because his team has the advantage of running one of it's five cars as a permanent test-team, a designated test team because we have four teams out there racing on the track," Gordon said.

"His test team is his fifth (race) team that's already out there on the track doing it every weekend, racing on the tire and getting way better information that what we're getting. So, I don't know where they're coming on from that. We've had a test team for years that have not given us good information and we've used just 10 percent of it.

"Now we've gotten a really strong, solid test team that really has come along and is giving us the value that we're putting into that. That's what I'm excited about and I think that's just where the sport's been heading for years and where it's at today. Give credit where credit's due, in my opinion."

Roush announced this week that he has created a test team which is set to deal specifically with their issues with the Car of Tomorrow.

While Hendrick Motorsports have won all the Car of Tomorrow races of the year thus far, Roush-Fenway's best results with the new car have been three fifth places with Greg Biffle at Bristol, Matt Kenseth at Phoenix and Carl Edwards at Darlington.

Bill France Jr.: during the race broadcast on FOX from Dover, it was reported that NASCAR Chairman, Bill France Jr., 74, passed away today, Monday, June 4, 2007.
MORE Bill France Jr., who transformed NASCAR from a small Southern sport into a billion-dollar conglomerate during his 31 years as chairman, died Monday. He was 74. He died at his Daytona Beach, Fla., home, NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said. France had been in poor health for much of the last decade - he was diagnosed with cancer in 1999. Although he was in remission, the extensive treatments took a toll. He never regained his full strength, often had difficulty breathing and had taken to using a motorized scooter to get around. France was hospitalized at least twice this year but spent his final days resting at home. His last public appearance was Feb. 12 in Daytona Beach, where NASCAR's top names gathered to "Roast and Toast" him at the Bill France Hot Dog Dinner during the Daytona 500 build-up. Even there, especially there, France Jr., who ruled NASCAR with an iron fist, called the shots. His toasters that evening were gently reminded to avoid any harsh roasting. France did not speak during the dinner but received guests from his seat on the banquet floor

I was reading on Jayski that toytota has approached Gibbs racing to switch from chevy to toyota.Gibbs hasn't responded yet. Also Penske was rumored to change from dodge to toyota and possibly merge with Waltirp racing. Ah silly season you got to love it.

By Jerry Bonkowski, Yahoo! Sports

DOVER, Del. – It's oftentimes easy to laugh at someone else's troubles.

There's no question Michael Waltrip has been the butt of so many "jokes" this year because of the trials and tribulations his own race team as well as the three-team Nextel Cup organization he owns have endured.

It's been easy for fans, media and even members of other teams to get a laugh at Waltrip's expense, snickering about what would be the next spate of bad luck to befall him.

Yet through all the issues he's gone through in the last four months – the illegal fuel additive in his engine at Daytona, all the races he's failed to make, hitting the wall in qualifying twice, not to mention the wreck he had in his own personal vehicle a mile from his home – Waltrip has been a picture of stoicism.

He's carried on from week to week, facing each stroke of bad luck with pretty much the same response: a shrug of the shoulders and a "what can you do?" response.

Needless to say, smiles have not been in great supply this year for a guy who used to be called the most happy-go-lucky guy in NASCAR.

But Friday, Waltrip had a broad smile on his face. After missing the last 11 races, race No. 13 of this season proved to be lucky Friday as Waltrip qualified for Sunday's Autism Speaks 400 here at Dover International Speedway.

"That's such a relief more than anything," Waltrip told Yahoo! Sports after qualifying 23rd, one spot behind teammate Dale Jarrett, who qualified for his second consecutive race on speed.

"It's great to see a smile back on Michael's face," Jarrett said. "He's maintained a lot better than a lot of us ever could going through something similar to this, and I wouldn't wish it upon anybody."

What Waltrip accomplished Friday was more than just simply making the show. It also helped erase doubt around whether he was over the hill and should hang up his fire suit once and for all.

"It'll be a huge relief for Michael just to be able to get in and race again and know he can do it again," Jarrett said. "He's just been pressing, trying to make these races, and when you start trying to do things that your equipment is not capable of, that's when you find yourself getting into trouble."

That has been the hardest part to watch, Jarrett added.

"He's such a good person and a good friend and he's a good car owner," he said. "We just want everyone to know that this is going to take time."

Even though he was full of sweat when he climbed out of his No. 55 Toyota, Waltrip appeared as if he had just come back from a long vacation.

When I quipped that he was looking remarkably refreshed, given all the struggles he, his team and organization have been through, Waltrip quickly focused attention away from himself and instead gave credit to the team that not only has stood by him the last four months, but also was directly responsible for him making Sunday's race.

"I am mainly (refreshed) because we showed up competitive and didn't have to try to come from left field to make the show," he said.

Others agreed, such as longtime friend and former teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr.

"When I think of Michael, I think of how big a struggle it's been for him and how hard it has been on him," said Earnhardt, who qualified second Friday. "I know he's been in a rough spot, so this is good for him and I'm sure he's going to try to make the best of it this weekend, try to do his best to finish all the laps and not make any mistakes."

Waltrip and Jarrett both know that Friday's qualifying effort didn't exactly set the NASCAR world on fire. But just being among the 43 drivers that take the green flag Sunday, coupled with the unpredictability of the Car of Tomorrow – well, it's not a stretch to think that Waltrip could have a decent finish if everything that's gone against him up to this point suddenly starts going in his favor.

And, as remote as it might seem, that includes the possibility of the No. 55 reaching victory lane – especially with Waltrip, who earned his first career Cup pole and first Busch Series win at Dover, behind the wheel.

"You get in these races and especially with these cars, you don't know what's going to happen," Jarrett said. "If you play your cards right, and he obviously knows how to get around here, anything can happen. There's a lot of things that are possible, but the hardest part of the weekend is just getting in the race."

After 11 attempts that came up empty, Waltrip has done just that. For at least one race, the big gorilla that's been on his back is, at the very least, teetering.

"He ain't off yet; he's still hanging on by his fingernails," said Waltrip, who finally will climb out of the negative points hole he's been in since Daytona. "I've been telling people all year so far that we ain't writing the end of our book, we're writing the beginning of it.

"And I ain't going to say that starting today, everything's going to be rosy, but it's certainly a step in the right direction."

Saturday night at the Talladega Superspeedway, and the smoke that sits in the air from the grills and the campfires is so thick you have to use high beams when you drive, which is pointless because you're not getting anywhere anyway.

Cars crawl along the strip. Men and women in separate rides toss beads to each other for showing things unmentionable in this story.

On the campgrounds opposite the Superspeedway, campers are lit up in the glow, and generators hum. Fires burn here and there in the distance. It all has a postapocalyptic feel.

There is a stand offering chicken on a stick, deep-fried turkey legs, funnel cakes and coconut shrimp, also on a stick. A band called Savin' Dixon plays a rock number about Dale Earnhardt Sr. to lusty cheers and raised cups of beer.

A sampling of T-shirt messages seen around here:

"Why Are the Best Weekends A Blur?"

And: "A Day Without a Buzz Is a Day That Never Was."

And more to the point: "Hello, I'm Drunk."

Inside the infield, along Talladega Boulevard, a strip of land with campers lined up on either side, the party is under way.

The smoke and the raging fires in the bowls of grills and the ubiquity of alcohol have a vaguely fictional, or maybe dreamlike, feel. Like Pleasure Island in the "Pinocchio" story.

Here is a blind man playing a saxophone, strands of colorful beads all around his neck, in front of what looks like a lemonade stand but is labeled Crown Royal Bar & Grill.

Here is another man pulling a cart full of God knows what, not much recognizable because of the bright Christmas lights strung around the rim.

And here, sitting in folding chairs before a camper with two strings of lights in the shape of palm trees that can impartially be called tacky, are Bob Mask and Stevie Mercer, friends from Pensacola, Fla.

Mercer, who is here for the first time, thinks it is something like Bourbon Street, without the restraint. Mask, who has been coming to Talladega for 21 years, still finds it mindboggling.

"It's the biggest picnic you've ever been at, with nothing but friends," he says. "It's just like a club, anymore. We've had these spots, these right here, for nine years alone. You probably have never seen so many people having fun. It's a blast."

Their spot along the boulevard happens not to be far from Brad Bradford's, and the next morning - with the revelers from the night before still asleep, probably to wake to a few regrets soon - he compares it all to a family reunion.

"You don't meet any bad people," he says. "The first time I was here I walked up and down the road and people would come out and introduce themselves, find out where you was from, offer you something to eat, something to drink, ask if you needed anything."

But that is not what he wants to talk about, because the race is about to start. And "Brad" Bradford, like just about anyone else you talk to here, comes back around to the thrill of the fast cars.

He wants to talk about the first time he ventured down to pit road, and heard those cars start - chills down both his arms. And about the improbable sight of 40 cars racing past you at nearly 200 mph, three or four inches apart.

"To hear the tires scream, the smoke, all that. If you ever come one time," he says on this, his 12th time, "I guarantee you you'll come back again."

And when you do, you might just run into Cindy Powell of Semmes, Ala. She is the girlfriend of James "Junior" Fondren, the man who posted the Confederate battle flag with the yellow large-print "REDNECK" over it.

She is perched on a scaffold mounted atop another bus - the setup could be charitably called shaky. Down below, someone is snapping apart a crawfish and sucking out the head.

Up above is Fondren, seated in a tall, wooden chair. And here is what makes Powell and Fondren almost fictional NASCAR fans, they so fit the stereotype: It is secured to the scaffold, terrifyingly, by duct tape. He is having a blast.

Powell has a can of Bud in her left hand and a Marlboro Mild 100 in the other and squeals joyfully as the cars race by. And as the roar dies down, she grows very sincere about why she loves it here.

"You get to know people," she says. "You come back every year and see the same people. And the race. Of course the race. It's totally different than on TV. And I will not wear earplugs."

Nascar Fan House

Posted May 27th 2007 3:25PM by tallglassofmilk

Illegal Fuel Additive Chief Hired to Pump New Life Into BDR

Now that NASCAR has lifted the indefinite suspension of David Hyder, team owner Bill Davis has no qualms about picking up the crew chief who was in charge during Michael Waltrip Racing's "Intake Gate":
"My opinion is he served his time with NASCAR, and they've reinstated him and that's all I need. I certainly don't think I'll ever know what happened in Daytona, nobody does. But the penalty was assessed and he's served it. He deserves the opportunity to go back and work."
Davis told the AP that he's been trying to bring Hyder on for years but didn't have the right position. Now he does. Next week, Hyder starts his new gig as crew chief for Jeremy Mayfield, who has qualified for only four races this season. Davis hopes that Hyder can pump some illegal fuel energy into the struggling #36 team:

"I've been everything you can think of -- sad, mad, angry, frustrated -- anything you can call it or everything you can call it. We just didn't expect to struggle with that deal."
By "that deal," I assume Davis means being far outside the top 35 in owner points and failing to qualify for races.

It's that time of year ... almost a third of the way through the season, halfway through the race to the chase ... time for teams to assess where they're at. During this phase, crew changes tend to come before driver changes--Dale Jarrett and Greg Biffle are also trying new ones on. Something better click pretty quick for this #36 team or Mayfield himself is likely to be the subject of the team's next silly season headline.

By Elliott Sadler, Special to NASCAR.com

It's not often in this sport that you can indulge a couple of your passions -- those that don't involve racecars -- in the short weeks that we have out of our cars.

But this week I'm blessed to be able to do that, along with Jamie McMurray, when we serve as honorary co-chairs of the sixth annual Drive for Autism Research golf tournament that FOX Sports director Artie Kempner has organized for Thursday in Wilmington,Del., just north of Dover International Speedway.

We're pretty excited about it, because it's at the DuPont Country Club, which is really a beautiful place; and we'll raise a couple hundred thousand dollars for autism research.

Along with Jamie and I, who are really lucky to co-host this thing, Michael Waltrip, Kasey Kahne, Ray Evernham and a bunch of other NASCAR celebrities and personalities will be there, and we've also gotten a lot of help from the NFL.

There are a lot of NFL players that will show up. We've had several Dallas Cowboys players in the past and a ton of Philadelphia Eagles players plan to be there, from what I understand.

Artie has done an amazing job with this golf tournament the last couple of years, and he deserves a lot of credit.

Along with him, we've all done a great job of promoting it, and Jamie and I are the lucky ones who get to host it. Jamie and I are great friends, but we share a lot of common interests where autism is concerned, because we both have nieces that have autism, so we're both affected by it.

So to be able to have a golf tournament like this, which we both can be involved in, at a beautiful place like DuPont is pretty neat.

The waiting list to get a team in this thing, from what I understand, is pretty big. Artie starts with a lot of the corporate sponsors that are involved in NASCAR racing and the NFL first, through his connections with those sports, and it kind of goes from there.

The participation we get from drivers and all kinds of people in the NASCAR world probably makes this the biggest tournament of the year. All the FOX guys show up: D.W., Jeff Hammond, Larry McReynolds and Steve Byrnes -- all those guys.

Everybody that's anybody involved in sports seems to show up, and it's just a neat deal. I've very honored to be involved in it and to be able to raise so much money for autism awareness -- because we average around $200,000-300,000 each time we do this and it's just a neat, neat deal.

It's an honor for me to be able to play in it, not to mention hosting it along with Jamie -- and we really appreciate all the guys that take a day to come and support it, because our month of May has been really busy. And we're looking at the same think coming up in June and July.

You can't thank guys enough -- especially people in the racing world -- that will come on a day off and support a great cause, and play in a tournament for you, to help build interest and excitement; so we really want to thank all of them, for that.

But as much as we appreciate the athletes and celebrities that come out, we also appreciate the people in the public that support this. To pay a couple hundred dollars to play 18 holes with one of your favorite NFL players or NASCAR drivers is nothing -- and the best thing is all the proceeds go to a great cause.

And I'm not going to lie; it's pretty cool for me, too.

Any time NFL guys show up, I love that. I love meeting athletes from different sports. I've had the privilege of playing in the same golf tournament with Emmett Smith, Darryl Johnston and some other Cowboys' players, like Troy Aikman.

To get to go up to people like that, who are stars and heroes in other sports, and to talk to them about any subject under the sun, for even a few minutes, is a privilege.

And we carry it out as one, and it's something you don't take for granted. It's something I cherish very much -- finding out how other guys view their sport, but also how they view our sport.

I've had chances to talk to them about what they do in their off-time, to make comparisons and also how they get ready for championship games. There are just certain questions that you ask -- and it's neat and a privilege of being a NASCAR driver, to be able to do this.

How else does a small-town boy from Emporia, Va., get to meet some of the people that I've been able to meet? I've been very fortunate, very lucky.

Just look at last weekend at Charlotte for the Coca-Cola 600. It was phenomenal all the great people I was able to meet, since I had the Fantastic Four Fantasticar paint scheme on my Dodge Dealers/UAW Charger.

The bald-headed guy that also plays on The Shield, Michael Chiklis, is one of the nicest guys I've ever met in my life. He came up, and he's bald and kind of big, stocky -- and he had on sunglasses.

And I'm thinking, on The Shield he's Billy Badass -- and he also is on the Fantastic Four. What next? But I'm telling you, he is one of the most sincere, down-to-earth, nicest guys I've ever met.

He was genuinely interested in our sport. He was at his first NASCAR race, and he was so into it -- and so was Jessica Alba.

She was just so nice and really wanted to learn NASCAR and what we go through and what all our pre-race stuff was all about. They were just happy to be there, so it was really neat to meet those two people, especially.

And John Cena was there. I'm probably the biggest pro wrestling fan in the world, and I got to meet him.

And I couldn't believe it -- because I am so hooked on this show -- but the guys from Deadliest Catch were there. To me, They're movie stars.

When they showed up, I was like, "are you kidding me -- the guys from Deadliest Catch are here?" I wanted to meet them more than anyone, and I got to meet Sig Hansen, who is probably my favorite guy on the whole show.

And the guy from Cornelia Marie was there, and I was like, "this is awesome?"

In fact, I watched the show just Tuesday morning, so to have those guys there, to be a part of our sport and to be fans of NASCAR was sweet -- just awesome.

So yeah -- I knocked a few celebrities off my list, last weekend.

But through all of that, and looking ahead to Thursday, which I really am -- Michael Jordon is still No. 1

We've had some cool people around our sport: John Travolta, Britney Spears, the Duff sisters and Will Ferrell. I have met some really cool people that I never thought I'd get a chance to.

But I would say of all the people I have met, stars from all over, like Matthew McConaughey, who was at Daytona a couple of years ago, and Ashton Kutcher -- the list goes on and on of people that have visited our sport.

But Michael Jordan, to me, took the cake. I know, I'm biased -- I'm a Tar Heel fan and he won us the national championship in 1982 and he loves to play golf, and I'm a basketball fan.

But to me, he was the biggest hero I've ever met at one of our races.

I got to meet him at the Nextel All-Star Challenge two weeks ago. I just went up to him and we talked about golf. We have a mutual friend that I went up to him and asked him about -- and we laughed about it because we all play golf together.

Well, not all together; but I went up to him and asked him if he'd played golf with Tyler lately -- and we started BS'ing about that and talking a little bit.

I told him I was a big fan and had been following him for a long time and looked forward to one time we might get a chance to play golf together.

So hopefully that day will come, one day. We'll see.

Nascar FanHouse

Posted May 26th 2007 1:24PM by tallglassofmilk

Not what I'm hearing. And even when I was hearing it, I knew only a fool could believe it.

At this point, I think we can almost count on seeing Dale Earnhardt Jr. behind the wheel of a Hendrick Motor Sports Chevrolet in 2008 and beyond.

But ... but ... there's no room at the inn.

Not right now. But Rick Hendrick's no fool.

The Fanhouse has learned that Hendrick closed up shop on Tuesday for a private walk-thru with the free agent.

Personally, I'd like nothing better than for Junior to make a deal with Hendrick. I can't think of a better surrogate father for Junior. Nor a better surrogate son for Mr. H.

So, who's the odd man out? Kyle Busch, as speculated.

But would Hendrick really uproot the Shrub for Junior?

He may not have to. Word 'round the garage is it that Lil' Busch has had all the Frosted Flakes he can stomach. He's said to be fed up with playing third fiddle to Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson and contemplating another ride regardless of the Junior factor.

But ... only a fool in Busch's position would leave HMS, right? Right.

See ya, Shrubbery.