The Frontstretch Newsletter: October 22nd, 2009

[Frontstretch.com]

THE FRONTSTRETCH NEWSLETTER 
Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
October 22nd, 2009
Volume III, Edition CCIV

DON'T FORGET THE FRONTSTRETCH LIVE BLOG THIS SUNDAY!
Jimmie Johnson's victory in the Pepsi 500 Sunday has given him a bit of a cushion in the point standings over teammates Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon.  But hope is not lost for the other Chase contenders.  This Sunday is the TUMS Fast Relief 500 at the .526-mile Martinsville Speedway in Martinsville, Virginia where anything can happen.  You're guaranteed to see side-by-side action, incidental contact, and tempers flaring at the paper clip that also serves as the smallest track on the NASCAR circuit.
 
Of course, there's no better companion to watch Sunday's beating and banging with than the Frontstretch Live Blog. Join your favorite writers for race discussion, polls, comments, and inside information from the track you won't find anywhere else!  The action starts at 1:15 PM on Sunday, so be sure to click the link on the main page and join right in!

Today's Top Story
Doug Taylor Pressing Forward At Specialty In Wake Of Matt Carter's Departure

By Bryan Davis Keith

Driver Matt Carter left Specialty Racing’s No. 61 Ford team following Friday night’s race at Lowe's Motor Speedway in which he drove the car to the garage on his own accord, claiming repairs were needed in order to make it competitive. The driver gave his explanation of what happened to Scene Daily on Tuesday, while Frontstretch caught up with car owner Doug Taylor to get his take on a conflict that ended with both sides parting ways.

“Something was not right with the car,” Taylor admitted as he told us his version of events. “The race started off and in four laps he [Carter] wanted to come in under green and make some chassis adjustments. I wasn't in total agreement, as there's usually a caution early in the race. He came down pit road, and we started to make some changes and put fresh tires on it. The caution came out, so we wound up staying on the lead lap [Lucky Dog]. We ran about 30 laps, not quite a fuel run or a tire run, but he just called on the radio and said he was going to the garage to work on the race car.”

“I said, ‘Hold on Matt, we can't do that, stay out there and race.’ If you want, pit and we'll make adjustments to the car. I didn't mind losing a lap or two to make adjustments. Obviously, we were the slowest car there. I know the tracks take awhile to get used to [and Carter’s a rookie in the series].”

“Anyhow, he just went on to the garage, and I asked him to please get back in the car, we needed the points. I know it’s very embarrassing, but we've got to just [keep going]. [Carl] Edwards finished 39th the other night, and I'm sure it was embarrassing to Carl, but he didn't pull it in the garage. ”

Witnesses tell of a far more heated exchange, however, with Taylor and Carter getting in a loud argument before the driver stormed off and called it a night.

“He wouldn't get back in the car,” was Taylor’s bottom line on the conflict. “So I said, ‘Well, I'm going to have to get somebody.’ We can't afford to lose our position in points. We were perilously close to the No. 24 car passing us [for 28th in owner points], the position we were in while sitting in the garage.”

So Taylor went out and snatched up Chase Miller, who had just walked out of his start-and-park JTG Racing No. 47 car, to hop in his Ford. The team then limped home to a 29th place finish, 37 laps down, while eventually discovering the problem.
 
"I'm not pointing any fingers… we did find an issue with the right front lower control arm,” he said after Carter was bumped from the seat. “Chase [Miller] noticed it, but we couldn't hear it, couldn't pinpoint it with Matt.”

Now, the relationship between Carter and Taylor appears broken beyond repair. When asked further about the driver’s departure, Taylor noted it was not simply a matter of him deciding to leave, claiming he “didn't hear from Matt all weekend.”

“My partner (co-owner Charlie Shoffner) told him [Matt] to give me a call,” he said. “But during the race, one of our crew texted Charlie that Matt had just pulled in the garage and I told him not to. Charlie told Matt from what he saw on TV, 'it looks like you quit.' Matt told Charlie he wasn't quitting, that he didn't want to quit, but Charlie told him 'you need to take that up with Doug.' You know, you park the car and get out of it, and refuse to get back in, it's pretty much like you're quitting.”

“And I hadn't heard from Matt by Sunday evening, so...”

According to Taylor, hiring Carter also put a string on his budget, as attempts to buy better equipment for the rookie didn’t lead to better results. As a result, he feels the most prudent financial decision going forward is to start and park for the final four races while using them as glorified test sessions to improve.

“It just got more expensive to race with Matt for some reason,” he explained. “I can't put my finger on anything...but we were purchasing things, buying stuff, and we slowed down. That puzzled me, and I lost faith at some point along the line. The last couple races, I thought, ‘Man, have I forgotten how to do this stuff, you know?’”

“So Kenny [Hendrick] is going to help us at Memphis,” he continued. “I just made the decision Sunday evening that unless we had funding, we were probably going to have to, I hate to use the term, possibly start and park for the rest of the year to lower our overheads, tires, crewmen, and whatnot. We're secure in the points [top 30], so as long as we attempt to race every race we'll be in good shape for Daytona.”

In the meantime, Taylor’s busy dissecting what went wrong. Truth be told, the No. 61 car has slowed drastically over the last month or so. And a lot of that boiled down to a communication breakdown between driver and crew chief.

“Matt's a fine race car driver, a fine racer,” he said. “But our communication [wasn't there.] At Atlanta, we had a car that was 'wobbly jobbly.' And as I explained to Matt, I don't understand how to fix 'wobbly jobbly.' But if I can get some concise idea of what the car is doing in more than a few words, even a paragraph, maybe then we can figure something out.”

“So it's communication. Without pointing the finger at Matt, we just didn't understand what each other was trying to say, and I don't know if he had any faith in me, from the sound of the [Scene Daily] article he didn't have much faith in my ability to fix the thing. We brought a lot of help around at different times to try and help Matt, and it didn't seem to fix anything."

"Since Dover, I don't think we'd been to a track that Matt had ever seen. We've done the best we could, and obviously it wasn't good enough for either one of us. Matt's like me, he wants to win every race, and wants to take what we get and make it better. I think it was a conflict of personalities, and instead of bettering us it probably hurt us. I'm pretty calm about trying to fix things, and that bothered Matt. I try not to get excited in my attempt to get the car better, because it usually doesn't work.”

But regardless of who’s to blame, Taylor knows he must put the incident behind him quickly with a car yet to score a top 10 finish in 65 starts since returning to the series full-time 2008.

“We're going to test and use our time wisely,” he said. “I would have done it with Matt, but apparently he had previous conversations about his unwillingness to do that. At Charlotte, that's not how I prefer to test. Once we've committed to racing with crewmen, which are an expense you can't get out of once the green flag drops... I wouldn't have bought a bunch of tires and had a full pit crew out there [if he was just going to pull it in the garage]. These guys are awesome, and they were upset...they were highly upset that Matt didn't stop and let them work on the car, and try to adjust it.”

Now, as he looks towards the future, Taylor finds himself at a fork in the road. Though he was highly complimentary of the job Chase Miller did for the team at Lowe's, the longtime Nationwide crew chief is now rethinking his team's philosophy on drivers.

“Historically, we've taken our money and paid the tuition to get a rookie driver going, and I'm going to maybe rethink my strategy here and look for, get funding for a driver that has a fair bit of seat time and a record of being able to fix the race car, help the team get the car better,” he said. “I do want to find somebody of David Green quality, that has a history of getting the cars to go as fast as they'll go and give some concise input on what the car is doing. It's a very, very daunting task to take a rookie, knowing that your equipment isn't the best piece out there, and have him figure out what's wrong with it. We need a driver in our ranks that can say this is how a car should feel at Charlotte, this is how a car should feel at California, because those tracks take laps to get used to.”

Bryan Davis Keith is a Senior Writer for Frontstretch.com. He can be reached at bryan...@frontstretch.com.

Newsletter Exclusive: TRG Trying Hard To Take The Next Step
by Tom Bowles

Back in February, few observers thought the unsponsored, single-car team of TRG Motorsports would make it through an entire season – least of all owner Kevin Buckler. But eight months later, only the newly-minted No. 33 of Richard Childress Racing has had a better first year than Buckler’s No. 71 Chevy among new cars, sitting 37th in owner points with one top 15 despite having a primary sponsor for just a handful of races all season.

“We went after it, we put our head down,” he said recently in describing a year’s worth of perseverance while several other startups have fallen by the wayside. “We’re very efficient, made some clever decisions. When we go to work in the morning, we’ve got a little buzz going, and there’s not a lot of shops that can say that right now.”

That buzz has been in the form of hiring key personnel, such as former RFR Marketing executive Torrey Galida as CMO, which has put the organization in a unique position as one of the few teams looking to expand in 2010. Finishing off the season with David Gilliland and Bobby Labonte, Buckler’s dream would to keep both with enough sponsorship to run two cars full-time. But as all sides work to find their best possible option, the car owner knows it’s easier said than done.

“That’s a tricky one,” he explained of the juggling act to keep all pieces of the pie in place. “We would like to have commitments from the drivers, so we could sell that to the sponsors. But a lot of times they would like to know we have a deal. So really, it’s a Catch-22 where we’re very delicately approaching that. If we get a sponsor that says ‘I gotta have this driver,’ we’re going to go right to the driver and tell them, ‘Listen, you’re part of the yes from the sponsor and here’s x number of races we can give you.’ But it’s not easy because we don’t have the drivers signed and we don’t have the sponsors signed, and they’re both here at the party at the same time wanting to get signed and wanting to talk to us.”

Right now, TRG has no driver or sponsor officially under contract for 2010, splitting their focus between the future and simply making it through the rest of the season. With TaxSlayer.com funding the car for just two more races, the team is desperately searching for money for the other three.

“We’re going to start and park the next one,” Buckler said of Martinsville this weekend, a tough way to end Gilliland’s last turn behind the wheel of the No. 71 this season. “We have TaxSlayer for Talladega, Texas and Phoenix are open -- we’re still working on sponsorship for those two -- and then TaxSlayer for Homestead.”

Labonte is scheduled for the final four events, but while the 2000 Series titlist comes with an automatic spot in the field (his past champion’s provisional) without sponsorship going the distance is far from guaranteed.

“It’s a complex business decision,” Buckler said of starting and parking.  “Do you stay at home? Is it diminishing to your brand? Is it better to be in the show? Is there more opportunities in the paddock if you’re there? And the answer is yes, we’d rather be there, be in, try to make all 36 races this year, and be one of the teams that everybody starts to recognize.”

“But at the end of the day, [the decision to race or not race] has to be business–driven. We can’t race ourselves into oblivion and not be able to take care of our obligations like a lot of teams have done before us. So we’ve got to be responsible.”

In the meantime, this small group of two dozen is working hard to build on the success of the races they do complete. With Mike Bliss scoring a 24th place finish at Charlotte, it’s the third such driver to score a top 25 in TRG equipment this season. But for the team to have a permanent place on the grid, Buckler knows the time is running out to get the cash and manufacturer support (Chevy or Dodge) he needs for next year.

“My arms are tired from juggling the last few weeks, we have so many deals we’re trying to get planned,” he said. “My whole job from the morning when I wake up to when I go to bed at night is to try and keep the balls in the air so I could get a new dance partner for seven races. A new primary for next year. Maybe a couple of small sponsors.”

“We’re working hard. We have a great business model; we’re lean, we’re mean, we’re competitive, and we’re hungry.”

Now, the key is to find people with money who agree.

Tom Bowles is Managing Editor of Frontstretch.com. He can be reached at frontstre...@googlegroups.com.

 

Hey, Frontstretch Readers!

Do you want the chance to win a free Frontstretch T-Shirt, and are you really good at talking about NASCAR? Well, we have the perfect opportunity for you. Our staff will be giving away a free T-Shirt to the reader who makes the best post in our Frontstretch Forum between now and the end of the season. So, what makes a good post? It's pretty hard to impress us, but here are some things we are looking for:

Does your post spark passionate reactions from other readers? Are you commenting on meaningful NASCAR-related events? Do your posts have substance? In other words, "Dale Jr. is the best driver ever" or "Danica Patrick is hot" will not cut it.

 

So go to the Frontstretch Forums, post early, post often, and post well! We'll announce the winner following the final race of the season at Homestead.

Top News
by Phil Allaway

Crew Chief Shakeup at RCR

 

Richard Childress Racing (RCR) announced on Wednesday that Todd Berrier, currently the crew chief of the No. 07 Jack Daniel's Chevrolet, will move to the No. 31 team and take over crew chiefing duties for Jeff Burton effective immediately.  Berrier will replace current crew chief Scott Miller, who will move to the position of Director of Competition full-time (Miller had already assumed the position in September, but was doing it part-time previous to this announcement).

 

In addition, Doug Randolph, currently the crew chief of the No. 29 Holiday Inn Chevrolet in the Nationwide Series, will move from that car to the No. 07 in the Sprint Cup Series to replace Berrier.  Randolph's duties with the No. 29 NNS car will be filled by Dan Deeringhoff, who was actually the crew chief on the No. 29 at the beginning of this season before an earlier move saw Randolph take over the No. 29 and Deeringhoff sent to oversee the No. 2 RCR Development team, which has fielded cars for Sean Caisee and Austin Dillon this season on a part-time basis.  These changes all take effect starting this weekend in Martinsville and Memphis.

 

Team owner Richard Childress considers these moves to be steps in the right direction for the company.

 

"I said previously that RCR would continue to adjust our team lineups in order to have the right personnel in place, and this is the next step in that process," the car owner said on Wednesday.  "Todd, Doug, and Dan are all proven winners, so the goal of these moves is to put them in the best situations to continue that success. I’m confident that making these changes now will be a benefit to the teams for the rest of this season as well as in preparing for 2010."

 

The 2009 season has been a struggle for RCR in the Sprint Cup Series.  None of their four teams qualified for the Chase for the Sprint Cup, and the team as a whole is winless in Cup Series competition.  Currently, Clint Bowyer is the highest-ranked RCR driver at 15th in points.  Casey Mears and Jeff Burton are 18th and 19th, respectively, while Kevin Harvick -- the only driver in the stable unaffected by this latest shakeup -- is 21st.

 

Sealed Engine Violation on the NNS No. 16

 

On Wednesday, NASCAR announced that the No. 16 team in the Nationwide Series had violated the engine sealing rules.  As a result, car owner Jack Roush has been docked 100 owner points and driver Matt Kenseth has been docked 100 driver points.  In addition, crew chief Eddie Pardue has been fined $30,000.

 

NASCAR judged that the engine out of the No. 16 violated multiple sections of the Nationwide Series Rulebook.  The release specifies that the engine violated Section 12-1 (the blanket "Actions Detrimental to Stock Car Racing"), Section 12-4-J (Race equipment that has been previously sealed by NASCAR), and subsection 8-6 (Failure to submit the sealed engine from the race winner for inspection; removal of the seal without authorization from NASCAR).

 

SceneDaily.com reports that the penalty appears to be the result of a clerical error.  In addition, NASCAR has known about this accidental engine teardown for the past couple of weeks.  The engine referred to in the NASCAR press release was the engine that Matt Kenseth won the Diamond Hill Plywood 200 with at Darlington Raceway, one that was then sealed and used again at Nashville in June.  At that point, the engine was sealed again for use in one more race.

 

Roush Fenway Engines self-reported the violation after employees at the engine shop cut the seals and tore down the engine back at the shop.  The engine was never actually torn down for inspection by NASCAR officials, however, and they consider this to be a serious issue -- despite the fact that it was a complete accident.

 

"It’s very serious," NASCAR Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton said on Wednesday.  "It's the intergity of our sealed-engine program, which has been put in place to try to aid the teams in cost control and budgets of things of that nature."

 

The 100-point hit in owner points drops the No. 16 one place to 10th behind the Braun Racing No. 38.

 

Travis Kittleson and Rick Ware Racing Part ways

 

On Wednesday, driver Travis Kittleson announced that he has left Rick Ware Racing, effective immediately.  The reasons given for his departure from the team were the disappointing performances on the track.

 

"This has been a very frustrating year in many aspects for me," Kittleson said in the press release.  "I really marked this season as an important one for my career, and I was looking for an opportunity to go out there and really make a statement. Needless to say, that did not happen and I have put myself in this situation."

 

In addition, Kittleson also announced that his longtime sponsor, Bob Steele Chevrolet, is also ending their sponsorship of the Florida-based racer at the end of the season.

 

"The economy has really taken its toll on Bob Steele and his business," Kittleson said.  "I really appreciate the support that he has given me over the last 10 years – that is a great run for a driver and sponsor.  We have a little sponsorship money left for this season, and we are looking for the best opportunity for ourselves in either the Nationwide Series or Camping World Truck Series with the last few races of the season.  It is important for me to put myself in a favorable situation where I can showcase my talents and prove to team owners what I can do behind the wheel."

 

Kittleson has attempted eight races this season in the No. 31 Chevrolet sponsored by either Circle K's "Thirst Buster," or Kittleson's sponsor Bob Steele Chevrolet of Cocoa, Florida.  In the five races that Kittleson qualified for, his best efforts have been a pair of 27th place finishes at ORP and Richmond (September).

Have news for Phil and the Frontstretch? Don't hesitate to let us know; email us at ashl...@mail.com with a promising lead or tip.
 
Listen In To Frontstretch On iTunes!
Tune in every Thursday afternoon to the Inside Racing Podcast presented by Wrigley's to get the inside dish on the week’s racing news. The Frontstretch’s Matt Taliaferro and Tom Bowles break down last week’s events, discuss current issues within the sport, and take a look ahead to this weekend’s upcoming race. With host Braden Gall keeping things in order for segments like Tom's Track Talk, Matt's Hot Laps, and more, it's an action-packed, fast-paced 30 minutes of racing debate. So if you’re tired of the cleaned-up, glossed-over network coverage, Inside Racing presented by Wrigley's is the place for you — Matt and Tom ask all the tough questions and provide the politically incorrect answers you seek. Look for our podcast on iTunes under the keyword: Athlon.

Editor's Note:  What's Vexing Vito will not appear today.  Vito will return next week with another new commentary.

TODAY ON THE FRONTSTRETCH:

Whither Art Thou, Ford Motor Company?
by Matt McLaughlin

Fanning The Flames: Shuffling Chase Venues Won't Slow Johnson Down
by Matt Taliaferro

Martin / Montoya: The Closest Martin Has Come To An On-Track Feud
by Tommy Thompson

If Only The Tony Stewart / Burger King Test Was A NASCAR Mandate
by Jeff Meyer

Fantasy Insider: Easing Roster Indigestion in the Foothills of Virginia
by Bryan Davis Keith and Mike Neff

FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:
Today's trivia question was provided by Buzztime. Be sure to visit buzztime.com to battle against others in trivia challenges about NASCAR and all of your favorite sports!

Q. Many drivers have chosen relatively difficult race tracks to make their Sprint Cup Series debuts.  Jeff Gordon made his debut at the pre-reconfiguration Atlanta Motor Speedway in 1992 (a 1.522-mile true oval), while Dale Earnhardt made his debut in the 1975 World 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.  Where did two-time Winston Cup Champion Terry Labonte make his Winston Cup debut, and how well did he do?

Check back Friday for the answer, here in the Frontstretch Newsletter!
 
Wednesday's Answer:

Q. Over the years, we've seen plenty of good rookie classes in the Sprint Cup Series.  1993 with Jeff Gordon and Bobby Labonte come to mind, along with Matt Kenseth and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. in 2000.  However, it is very rare that a rookie driver ever earns the right to lead the point standings.  Who was the first rookie to claim the points lead in the Sprint Cup Series?

A: OK, let's just be honest here: this is not a surprise.  Jimmie Johnson was the first ever "Rook" to claim the points lead, accomplishing this feat of strength by finishing tenth (one lap off the pace) in the Protection One 400 at Kansas Speedway in September, 2002.
 
Frontstretch Trivia Guarantee: If we mess up, you get the shirt off our backs!  If we've provided an incorrect answer to the Frontstretch Trivia question, be the first to email the corrected trivia answer to tri...@frontstretch.com and we'll send you a Frontstretch T-Shirt ... FREE!
 
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Coming tomorrow in the Frontstretch Newsletter:
-- Top News by Kurt Smith
-- In Case You Missed It by Kurt Smith
-- Links to your favorite Frontstretch articles, Phil and Mike's Spoiler Picks, the "mystery" continues, and more!
 
Tomorrow on the Frontstretch:

NASCAR Driver Diary: Marcos Ambrose as told to Toni Montgomery
As the Frontstretch continues to grow, we decided to expand our horizons by taking a trip Down Under with the sport's flashy new freshman, Marcos Ambrose. The Tasmanian driver starts up the first of what will be monthly Driver Diary entries with our Toni Montgomery as he discusses the ups and downs of his first full season in the series.

Driven To The Past by John Potts
Our famous former racing vet shares more memories from the good ol' days. This week, he goes through the tough decision every flagman has to go through during the race: how quickly you choose to throw the caution flag.

Holding A Pretty Wheel by Amy Henderson
Many people have argued recently that the Chase schedule as it is heavily favors Jimmie Johnson and the No. 48 team.  But is that really true? Amy delves a little deeper, openly wondering what NASCAR could do to make things harder for this year's championship leader.

Happy Hour by Kurt Smith
All year long, NASCAR's focused on providing parity through the new car and rules that try and keep the field bunched up. But as Kurt shows in his latest commentary, no matter how much you try and even the playing field someone's always going to have an edge ... which is why it's high time he thinks officials need to stop tooling around and simply back off.

Tearing Apart The Trucks by Beth Lunkenheimer
As the Trucks come back from a three-week hiatus, so does Beth as she gives her latest views and the latest news on NASCAR's third-tier division as they head to the short track out in Martinsville.
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