NASCAR news and notes on raceday at Texas

With the Samsung 500 just hours away, I thought I’d drop some news and notes on you, the faithful readers of the blog.

Earlier in the week, NASCAR.com ran a story on the costs of running a Nationwide (nee Busch) Series team. Kenny Wallace said, “Here's what we say: The lowest we can race for is $100,000 a race.”

For more of Herm’s thoughts and details on what it costs to run a Nationwide Series team, click on the link: http://www.nascar.com/news/110406/nationwide-costs-economy/index.html

Speaking of the Nationwide Series, the July 8th race at Kentucky now has a name: the “Feed the Children 300.” The non-profit agency from Oklahoma City will step up and sponsor the second race in the three-race weekend in Sparta, which includes the first-ever Sprint Cup Series race at the 1.5-mile oval.

The logo for the Feed the Children 300 (courtesy of Kentucky Speedway's digital media guide)

And if you get Sports Illustrated you might have seen the special section that SI ran on the poll of readers about the NFL lockout. SI asked readers about which sports they’d spend more time on if the NFL season is canceled or shortened. Of those polled, 22.7 percent said they’d follow NASCAR more closely.

Respondents could choose more than one sport, and college football was the leading vote getter at 57.3 percent. Still, NASCAR getting some more fans because of the NFL lockout can only help the sport in the long run.

Speaking of long runs, five-time defending champ Jimmie Johnson acknowledged that his teammate Mark Martin does extremely well when races get into long, green-flag runs. In an article on NASCAR.com on Friday, Martin summed up his season by saying, “I feel like I know what we've got, which is a pretty doggone solid-speed race car, terrific communication and lots of opportunity. We just have to hit on something that I really, really like in the race car and if we do that, where we are right now if we do that, we'll be strong, really strong.”

Read more of Dave Rodman’s article about the 52-year-old Mark Martin here: http://www.nascar.com/news/110408/happy-hour-mmartin-texas/index.html

Thanks to everyone who sent thoughts and prayers for my mom, who underwent (scheduled) surgery yesterday. All is well, and she’s back home resting.

Also a congratulations goes out to one of my favorite aunts, Nancy, who reads the blog often. She called me today to inform me that she is pregnant. Cousin No. 23 is on the way!

(From the left) My grandma, me, Aunt Nancy and Uncle Mark at my graduation in 2007

Tune in tonight at 7:30 p.m. for the Samsung 500 and I’ll be back with thoughts and opinions about the race later in the night or early tomorrow. Enjoy your Saturday evening everyone.

NASCAR rule changes leak

While Twitter was aflame with comments about the Auburn-Oregon National Title game last night, one bit of NASCAR news hit the headlines. Buried in between comments about Cam Newton’s eligibility and Oregon’s bright yellow socks were comments about an article that David Rodman of NASCAR.com broke last night.

Rodman’s story notes that drivers can only receive championship points in one of the three NASCAR series.

Kenny Wallace, who picked up his competition, membership and license application in Daytona last weekend, said the application said, “The brand-new license forms that are out, there's a box and in it, it states that you have to mark -- put an X -- what championship you're running for,” Wallace said. “A driver will only be permitted to earn driver championship points in one (1) of the following three series: NASCAR Sprint Cup, NASCAR Nationwide or NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Please select the series in which you would like to accumulate driver championship points. Choose one.”

This is to prevent drivers like Brad Keselowski and Carl Edwards, who finished 1-2 in the Nationwide (nee Busch) Series points last year, from running for titles in both the Cup and Nationwide Series.

NASCAR has declined to comment on the release, saying that president Mike Helton and vice president for competition Robin Pemberton would be available to speak during a “competition update” on Jan. 21 as part of the “Preseason Thunder” testing at Daytona.

NASCAR spokesperson Kerry Tharp told Rodman, “I’m sure we can answer all your questions at our competition update.”

So until that date, everything seems to be rumors, but it sounds like NASCAR will be changing their tune about “double dipper” drivers in 2011.

Logano 1st repeat winner at Kentucky

This picture (from Friday night's practice) shows eventual race winner Joey Logano diving down into turn 3 at Kentucky Speedway

With some advice from Mark Slaughter, the Channel 9 photographer I went to Kentucky Speedway with on Friday evening, I traveled down to the track on Saturday the 13^th. I went on my own to enjoy the best racing to visit Cincinnati’s nearest NASCAR venue. And, let me tell you, did I have a ball.

But I was also on a mission to change my own perception on Kentucky Speedway. As you have probably read in the past, I absolutely can’t stand the place after a bad experience in 2000. This night would change my opinion, but only slightly.

We arrived nearly an hour and a half before the green flag was to drop and found zero traffic (something I’ve been skeptical of for years at Kentucky). I walked through the gate and headed down to the media center and the infield where I was the night before. I waited there and walked amongst team members and drivers, fans and other media personalities until the green flag dropped. Along the way I spotted some NASCAR drivers, and their rides.

Kyle Busch--NASCAR's most hated driver--walks toward driver intros

Kyle Busch's crew pushes his #18 Camry onto the starting grid

I also saw all the cars that I stood inches from the previous evening, including the famed #60 that Mark Martin drove for years. Although it looks different in red, white and blue, it will always be the car that “The Kid” drove to 47 wins in the Busch Series.

The Save-A-Lot Ford Fusion carries the famed #60, but no longer carries the Winn-Dixie logos

And I also found two legends of the sport milling around, Derrike Cope and Morgan Shepherd. I grew up watching these guys compete in the Cup Series against Mark Martin, and although they’ve since dropped to running Nationwide Series cars, they’ll always be famed Cup guys to “oldies” like me. Plus, I’d be remiss if I didn’t include Morgan Shepherd’s sponsor. He drives the Racing with Jesus car. How cool is that? Let the NASCAR fans say, ‘Amen.’

Derrike Cope hanging out on pit road before the start of the Meijer 300

Morgan Shepherd makes his way to his Chevrolet. He finished 25th

Kenny Wallace before he blew his engine and finished only 19 laps of the Meijer 300

I’ve sat for a few years behind the pit stalls at Indianapolis, but never have I been close enough to actually put my foot on the pit wall. After the green flag dropped, I headed down pit road to check out some early race pit stops, including Stephen Leicht, who spun, and Danny O’Quinn, who had his hood up.

Stephen Leicht, the 2007 winner at Kentucky, spun early and had to pit

Danny O'Quinn's #01 Sun Drop sponsored car had a less than sunny opening to the race

After about twenty laps, I headed up to the top of the grandstands to get a better view of the entire race. You really can’t see much from the pits, but it is an experience. Logano and teammate Kyle Busch ran up front for most of the race, but Logano got caught speeding on pit road (as did numerous other drivers, including Carl Edwards, twice) and had to start from deep in the field.

It didn’t matter. The youngster ran down his teammate and after a late race red flag period, ran right by him. Logano pulled away from Busch and ended up winning by a shade over 1.6 seconds. By the time Logano took the checkered flag I was maneuvering through the masses, heading back down to the media center to take part in the post race interviews.

Although I didn’t have a camera, I brought along my brand new voice/sound recorder. I figured if I was getting into this profession I might want to have one just in case. To be honest, the press conferences were less exciting than I thought they’d be and I couldn’t think of a single thing to ask any of the drivers (Brad Keselowski, Brendan Gaughn, Logano and Logano’s crew chief Dave Rogers).

Logano (left) and crew chief Dave Rogers answer questions about Logano's second straight win at Kentucky Speedway

Either way, it was quite an interesting weekend. I’d love to get paid to do that. Imagine my excitement if I was at Michigan the next day when Mark Martin had won. So, maybe I need to look into getting paid to do this. After all, I think it’d be awfully sweet.

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Also, I’ve e-mailed Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s media relations department about getting a media pass for the Brickyard 400 in July. We’re just a few days away from the four week mark until Indy, and I’ll start counting down next week.

I’m hoping that I have enough free time every day here in the office to knock out a post, or I get a decent working computer back up and running at home. Either way, I’m looking forward to posting once a day Monday through Friday up to the Brickyard 400. It should be an entertaining countdown. I’m looking forward to it. Have a great day, a great weekend, and I’ll be back on Monday with some thoughts on the weekend in NASCAR.