NASCAR legend Junior Johnson would take Stewart over Jimmie Johnson
Gilbert Sam, Jr.
http://www.racewayreport.com
Monday, February 15, 2010
NASCAR legend Junior Johnson would take Stewart over Johnson: Junior
Johnson said that, if he still owned a NASCAR team, Tony Stewart would
be his first choice as driver. “Jimmie Johnson’s a great, great race-
car driver,” said Johnson, himself a legendary driver, “but he’s got a
mechanic (Chad Knaus) who’s one of the very best I’ve ever seen. “I
believe if I was hiring a driver, I’d go after Tony.” (Gaston Gazette)
http://www.racewayreport.com/tonystewart
Daytona president says track doesn�t need to be repaved: Daytona
International Speedway President Robin Braig addressed the media after
Sunday�s race to do a little damage control after the Hole That Ate
Daytona. But he probably just made things worse. Consider: Braig was
asked about Dale Earmnhardt Jr.�s post-race comment that if Daytona
had been repaved years ago this problem would not have happened. �Dale
Jr. has not liked our pavement for many years,� Braig said. �I think
you can look that record up. We listen to our sanctioning body and
Goodyear. We take the drivers� and the crew chiefs� concerns. We mix
that in with a lot of decision-makers. But we don�t think it�s time to
repave, unless we find out something different after we evaluate it
this week. We�ve got engineers all over this. You know how many people
are waiting in line to get out there and see that in the morning?�
(Birmingham News)
http://www.racewayreport.com/news/daytona.html
Research: 86% of NASCAR races have no upsets: Before the NASCAR green
flag is even waved, the long shots have already become statistical
also-rans. That’s the finding of a new study by two University of
Redlands professors, Kathleen and Francisco Silva, who looked at how
frequently a driver’s finish in a race directly corresponds to his
final practice run, his qualifying time (and thus position on race
day) and his season point ranking. The professors collected results
from last year’s Sprint Cup series, using the data to calculate
something called a Spearman rank correlation coefficient, which
measures the strength of the relationship between two variables (1
represents a perfect correlation, 0 means no correlation and -1 is a
perfect negative correlation). In 81% of the races, there was a
statistically meaningful relationship—which is more than 0.31 in the
Spearman rankings—between how a driver fared in the final practice
session and where he finished in the actual race. Similarly, in three-
quarters of the races, a driver’s starting position generally
determined the place he finished.(Wall Street Journal)
http://www.racewayreport.com/news/nascar.html
NASCAR in 3-D coming soon? As live 3-D sports coverage is being talked
about as the Next Big Thing —ESPN this year will launch a 3-D channel
— Fox Sports chairman David Hill suggests it’s not an imminent big
thing on NASCAR. The question, he says, is how many viewers will buy 3-
D TV sets and service: “3-D coverage of racing is going to be
incredible. … In a couple of years, we’ll have cameras that could
shoot it and it will look absolutely fantastic. And nobody would see
it.” (USA Today)
http://www.racewayreport.com/tv/news.html
Waltrip wants to run in next year's Daytona 500: Michael Waltrip wants
to make the 2011 Daytona 500 his last competitive event in the Sprint
Cup series. "I want the Daytona 500 to be my last race,'' said the
owner of Michael Waltrip Racing, who won this event in 2001 and 2003.
"I just [don't] want this one to be it. So we'll work on trying to
figure out if we can talk someone into sponsoring me for 2011. Twenty-
five is a nice even number. Well, not an even number, but it's
funny.'' Waltrip, who already plans to run at Talladega later this
year, hinted several times during Speedweeks he wanted this to be his
last 500. But as he sat through a second red flag to repair a hole in
Daytona International Speedway he said the plan is for one more. "I'd
like to run Talladega and run here one more time and then be done,''
he said. "That would be 25 of them in a row. That would be
cool.''(ESPN.com)
http://www.racewayreport.com/michaelwaltrip
$1 tickets available at Atlanta Motor Speedway for Kobalt Tools 500:
NASCAR fans can purchase $1 tickets to the Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta
Motor Speedway after Jamie McMurray won the Daytona 500 in the #1 Bass
Pro Shops Chevy. Setting the price for the Racing Roulette 50-Hour
Sale, Atlanta Motor Speedway will sell 2,000 tickets to the Kobalt
Tools 500 for just $1 to commemorate McMurray's win on Sunday. The
first 1,000 tickets will be available to fans in line at the
Speedway's Ticket Office at 7:30am/et, while a second 1,000 tickets
will be made available at 9:00am/et to phone and online customers.
Fans in line at the Speedway's Ticket Office will also have the
opportunity to win a number of prize packages, including a trip to
Victory Lane with the winner of the Kobalt Tools 500 for one lucky
customer. In addition to the initial offering, fans can also purchase
one ticket at regular price ($85) and receive a second ticket for $1
for 50 hours, until 9:30am/et on Wednesday, Feb. 17. Tickets purchased
through the Racing Roulette promotion are located in the Petty and
lower Winners Grandstands. For more information on the upcoming Kobalt
Tools 500 race weekend or to purchase tickets, contact the Atlanta
Motor Speedway Ticket Office at (770) 946-3917, (877) 9-AMS-TIX, or
visit www.atlantamotorspeedway.com.(AMS)
http://www.racewayreport.com/news/atlanta.html
Doctors confident Lynda Petty will defeat cancer: Richard Petty
updated his wife Lynda's condition on Sunday, saying doctors are
confident she can defeat cancer. Lynda Petty is being treated at Duke
University Medical Center for central nervous system lymphoma, a form
of brain cancer. "She's already had a couple of treatments and she
went through them real good," Petty said. "Yesterday she looked at me
and said, 'Get up and get out of here and get on to Daytona.' So I
know she's doing pretty good. They [her doctors] feel like they can
completely wipe the cancer out." Petty, who shares the Sprint Cup
record of seven championships along with Dale Earnhardt Sr., is the co-
owner of Richard Petty Motorsports. Petty said he hasn't been involved
with the team much since Lynda became ill. RPM merged with Yates
Racing last month. "Since November I've spent a lot of time with Lynda
Gale," Petty said. "After more than 50 years together, I thought
that's what I needed to do. I've still been involved in all major
decisions [at RPM]. But some of the PR stuff I put on the back burner.
She is more important than racing right now." Petty said his wife
started showing systems of vision problems a year ago, but it took
doctors a long time to diagnose the problem. "It took until December
for them to really understand the problem and the way to treat it.
They have operated on both her eyes to make sure they are in good
shape when the cancer goes away." Petty said he's thankful for all the
interest and support his family has received from fans and friends.
"Just keep us in your prayers," he said. "We've been real fortunate.
We appreciate everybody thinking about her."(ESPN.com)
http://www.racewayreport.com/rpm
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