RaceBud

It looks like lap 125 of the 2009 Daytona 500 will be with us for a while.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Brian Vickers got together and caused a wreck-fest, the Big One, if you will. Whether it’s ultimately remembered as the Lap 125 Caffeine Crash, Red Bull vs. Amp Energy Drink, or just another no-brainer dumb move by the driver of your choice, remains to be seen. Continue Reading »

The 51^st running of the Daytona 500 is counting down to the green flag. In spite of the economic crisis, a very prolonged silly season, and a mad scramble of teams trying to buy their way into the Top 35, the Great American Race will go green as scheduled on Sunday.

At no time in modern racing has the 500 seen such a scrambling of drivers, owners, sponsors and manufacturers. It’s almost as if the racing gods put all the players in a box and shook real hard. Predictably, race programs will be a big seller at the track, for what could well be called the “Who’s Running What for Whom 500.” Continue Reading »

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. – as often pointed out by his distracters – was the beneficiary of one of the greatest names in NASCAR history. And, after last year’s public tussle with stepmother Teresa, it may be that his inheritance is his name and his driving ability, along with the lessons a father hands over to his son.But, it looks a lot like he may have also inherited his father’s generosity, as well as his tendency to quietly mentor younger drivers.

We hear about JR Motorsports on a regular basis. Some of the better known:

• Rick Hendrick merged his Nationwide Series operation with JR.
• Brad Keselowski and the #88 Navy Nationwide team are making great progress.
• Jr’s. sister, Kelley, is president of JR Motorsports.
• Uncle and father-figure Tony Eury, Sr. heads up the competition at JR Motorsports.

But, we don’t hear so much about the Late Model operation at JR Motorsports. It’s where Dale Jr. runs a development program, mentoring up and coming drivers and giving them the chance to learn and grow into bigger things.

Junior cut his racing teeth in the Late Model division. It’s where he built the cars he drove, where he worked with his half-brother Kerry and drove against Kerry and sister Kelley. Continue Reading »

August 10, 2008 - Today’s win marks Kyle Busch’s eighth in his stellar 2008 season – so far. Joe Gibbs did him a huge favor by recognizing his talent and putting him with the very capable #18 team. And Kyle has responded by leaving the competition in the dirt (or wall) at every opportunity. So much so that by the third race of the season, the race media looked ready to hand him the championship trophy.

But, the season is not over just yet. Four races remain until the Chase, then 10 more to the end of the season. Kyle is sitting solidly at the top of the points standings, but there’s more to prove before claiming the big trophy. In fact, there are plenty of reasons why he may not even get a close look at it – and here are the top five:

#5) The competition. Other top drivers are closing the points gap on Kyle – and they ARE top drivers. The biggest names in the sport are not likely to lie still and wait for their whipping from Busch. They are fierce competitors with championship trophies of their own – the likes of Gordon, Johnson and Stewart. They have sponsors, owners and crew chiefs who want the best from them, and they will do their best to deliver. Continue Reading »

The Turn 3 Race Team just had another meeting at its home track, Texas Motor Speedway. The annual summer show features Craftsman Truck races on Friday night and Indy cars on Saturday night.

We were blessed with typical Texas summer heat, stout wind and good racing. The mainstream media sources did their typical job of reporting the racing news…but they completely overlooked the mouse in the house. I’ll explain.

One of the race team indulgences at the palatial Turn 3 campsites is the rental of the little blue building – the Porta-Potty. It’s always spotlessly clean and smells fresh as a summer rain. It does of a great job of lightening the load of the holding tanks, eliminating the need for a pump-out during the weekend.

After Friday’s long drive from Austin to Fort Worth, we greeted the other team members and Jeanette excused herself to the Porta-Potty.

We weren’t timing her, but somewhere around two minutes later, Jeanette was back in the motor home, where the air conditioner was waging a noble battle with the track heat. Jeanette wasn’t panicked, but her heart rate was definitely above the resting level.

“There’s an animal in that thing!” she let us know. As one, five surprised non-believers looked up from our beers and challenged, “where?”

“In the outhouse!” Continue Reading »

Saidhead60 has made several guest appearances, always with a direct message and a refreshing point of view. This is her first post of the current NASCAR season…welcome back.

Never judge a man until you’ve walked a mile in his shoes – or in this case, drove a mile in his car! Maybe ‘fair weather fans’ can judge Boris Said’s entire career reputation by one incident – but, I refuse to turn against the guy – yet. Of course, the ‘incident’ in question is the Marcos Ambrose/Boris Said ‘row’ during last weekend’s road race in Mexico City.

After reading MANY post-race comments on NASCAR-related web forums, I was surprised by how many are suddenly ‘anti-Said’. It seems a good percentage of race fans, and at least one RacingOne journalist, are shocked by Said’s “dangerous threats” and “childish behavior.” The words ‘classless’, ‘whining,’ and ‘baby’ popped-up more than once.

Now, I’m NOT saying I think Boris is right or wrong in this situation. What I am saying is…I can understand where he’s coming from. Boris obviously feel strongly that Ambrose took him out intentionally. And, because Boris has never struck me as a driver who blames his bad luck or crappy performances on others – I have to ask myself, “Why would he start now?” Continue Reading »

It’s the good fortune of the Turn 3 Race Team to have the Texas Motor Speedway as our home track. This is one of the great NASCAR venues in the country. A few others compete closely, maybe even win the Best Track in the Country competition, but here are nine reasons the Texas track claims its place among the best.

1. Plenty of campgrounds. Serious NASCAR fans don’t just show up for a race. It takes time – more than a day or two – to properly enjoy one these events. Certain food and drink must be enjoyed, along with the company of longtime friends who meet a few times each year—same time, same place, same reason. And it takes a fair amount of space to spend that time in. Texas has that. Continue Reading »

RaceKat is a long-time NASCAR fan, driver and car owner. She is a charter member of the Turn 3 Race Team, and has taught many a driver to fear her racetime activity of getting the knives after them. This is her first guest article on RaceBud.com.

Well Race Fans, it’s just a couple of hours before the race at Las Vegas and I am still upset about last week’s race in California. How about you?

What happened to NASCAR starting a questionable race on a questionable racetrack under a yellow caution for 15 to 20 laps to work the track in? If they would have done that, they might have avoided the two cautions and the five wrecked race cars last Sunday. They also might have gotten half of the race in, instead of sitting for an hour and a half while they were clearing the track.

Instead, five cars lost very valuable points, and the fans had to come back on Monday for both races. And, unless they had everyone change seats for the Nationwide race, those fans really lost out. Denny Hamlin lost 16 spots in the points race. Junior lost 15 places, Sam Hornish lost 19, Reed Sorenson 12 and Casey Mears lost seven. Continue Reading »

We’re finally home from what was probably one of the best Daytona 500 SpeedWeeks we’ve had the chance to experience. We’ve been to Daytona in February for the last 14 years, and it has always been a cold experience. Fry on Friday and freeze on Sunday, is the norm.

This year the weather was fantastic. The racing was close and exciting. The gala was spectacular. And, did I mention the weather ?

Dale Jr. was the toast of the town, and on Sunday, all eyes were on the 88 car. The big question was whether or not the Hendrick tsunami would keep inundating the rest of the field.

Dale Jr. did his best to make history happen, but with just a few laps to go, and a caution to bunch the field, Jr. was running out of help. Continue Reading »

Restating complex, sometimes technical, information to the media and the public in an understandable way is a common challenge in government public information offices. The spokesman of a state agency I once worked for was always trying to explain muddled public policy to the media the same way he would explain it to his neighbor.

Coincidently, my neighbor, dad of the twins, gave me a review of this site the other day. He says he wants to see more articles about Dale Earnhardt, Jr, the open wheel drivers that are new to NASCAR, and items of interest to the casual NASCAR fan.

So, John, here’s an attempt to explain Daytona qualifying. Continue Reading »