Wessa Fund continues to gain traction

It's not your usual coin collection; in fact, an armored guard would be in order. The Pennies for Wessa Fund has become a grass-roots phenomenon within NASCAR.

The seed was planted by writer David Poole in an effort to assist the needs of Wessa Miller and her family. Wessa has spina bifida and her story was told in a heart-touching feature in the Charlotte Observer. And this weekend the NASCAR community gave the fund a financial shot in the arm.

Racing fans know the story of the little girl who gave Dale Earnhardt a lucky penny the day before he won the 1998 Daytona 500. Of course, Wessa is the little girl who gained fame for giving the Intimidator the penny that he glued to the dashboard of his No. 3 Chevrolet on Feb. 15, 1998. Later that year, at Bristol, Earnhardt presented the family a new van to help the family in its daily needs.

Eleven years later, the Miller family returned to Bristol on Saturday. Wessa met a number of drivers, including Dale Earnhardt Jr., her favorite driver. NASCAR Angels will highlight her story and return to Bristol on an episode to air the weekend of May 9-10.

As part of the broadcast, Goodyear Gemini has committed to a full tune-up and new tires for the 11-year-old van. Richard Childress said he will make a $1,000 donation to the Pennies for Wessa Fund, and Rusty Wallace designated $5,000 of the proceeds from the Saturday Night Special legends race for the fund.

The NASCAR Foundation has partnered with NASCAR Angels and Motor Racing Outreach to launch an online auction to raise funds for the MRO Benevolence Fund to support causes like Pennies for Wessa. The auction features a variety of items including autographed memorabilia from numerous Sprint Cup Series drivers, including Earnhardt Jr., Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch, exclusive VIP experiences at upcoming races and items from the Dale Earnhardt Foundation, Richard Childress Racing, Joe Gibbs Racing and NASCAR Performance.

The online auction continues through Friday on www.nascar.com/foundation.

Thumbs up

Montoya

• Juan Montoya -- Posted a ninth-place finish, his second top-10 at a short track in 13 starts, and moved up six positions, to 15th, and now sits only 38 points behind 12th-place Kevin Harvick. As with all drivers, finishing on the lead lap is key: his overall average finish in 2009 -- 18.4; when he finishes on the lead lap -- 11.3. That's a swing of about 20 points per race; you do the math.

• Bristol Motor Speedway -- The Saturday Night Special legends race should be an annual event at the bullring. (Make it happen before another track takes the inside line and beats you to the stripe.) It would be yet another thing uniquely Bristol -- and in Victory Lane, the winner should munch on a deep-fried Oreo and drink milk from a concrete chalice!

• Travis Kvapil -- Facing an uncertain future as driver of the No. 28 Ford, Kvapil finished 18th on Sunday. Yates Racing does not have sponsorship for the car, which is outside the top 35 and not guaranteed a starting position at Martinsville. It's been feast or famine for Kvapil this season: two 42nd-place finishes and two 18th-place finishes (plus a DNQ at Las Vegas).

Impressed by ...

Marcos Ambrose, who finished 10th at Bristol -- his first top-10 on an oval in 14 starts (his career-best finish is a third-place showing at Watkins Glen in 2008). "I'm hoping these kinds of runs will help me cement my reputation in the series, with my fellow drivers, too -- to know that I can do it, that I'm on form," he said. (Read more)

Thumbs down

• Lady Luck -- If you're scoring at home, that's four consecutive DNFs (and six in his past eight starts) for Joe Nemechek: fuel pump at Fontana, transmission at Las Vegas, wheel bearing at Atlanta and rear end at Bristol. ... So it's on to Martinsville, where he has only two DNFs in 27 starts -- including one in October 2008.

• Kyle Busch -- Driving talent aside (and I'm a fan of his take-no-prisoners approach), taking verbal shots at the competition doesn't wear well: "I'm not out there to be No. 1," he said. "We all know who No. 1 is and forever will be. To me, I go out there to win races, to be No. 1 on the race track. ... For me, I don't think I would enjoy having the most fans out there. I actually like the way I am, the role I portray. And I think that there's probably too much pressure on one guy's shoulders who doesn't seem to win very often." (Read more)

• Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- Well, it's hard to bash Busch when No. 1 plays the blame game: "It's not that hard to stay positive until you get around the media," he told the Charlotte Observer. "[The media] have got to take a little responsibility for being so hard on everybody. Some people are going to argue that you all are just calling out to the reality of a situation, but we're trying to work hard and trying to do our job and that's what we do every week." Here's some unsolicited advice, which shouldn't be a career-changing revelation: win and who'll care what the media says?

Disappointed by ...

Chevrolet is 0-for-2009. The Bowtie Brigade -- which now includes Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman -- has not been to Victory Lane this year (yet Chevy still leads the manufacturers' standings).

Fantasy Racing

Up Next

• Cup Series tickets
• Truck Series tickets
• Book your travel

• Track: Martinsville Speedway
• Qualifying: 3:30 p.m. ET Friday on SPEED
• Race: 1:30 p.m. ET Sunday on FOX

Some of the top Sprint Cup Series drivers plus one of the sport's legendary drivers will headline the Half-Mile Club prior to the running of the Goody's Fast Pain Relief 500 on Sunday at Martinsville Speedway.

Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Kasey Kahne, Ron Hornaday and Darrell Waltrip will be part of a Q&A session at the track's Half-Mile Club, formerly the fan zone, in the hospitality area.

Admission to the Half-Mile Club is $99 and includes continental breakfast, lunch buffet, Pepsi products, four beer coupons per adult, pre-race track pass and speedway souvenirs. The $99 price does not include a ticket to the race and there will not be an autograph session.

The pre-race track pass allows fans to stroll on the track along the front stretch from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The Half-Mile Club will open at 8 a.m. Sunday. The continental breakfast will be served at 8 a.m. with the lunch buffet beginning at 10:30 am.

To purchase tickets for the Half-Mile Club, call 1.877.RACE.TIX or visit www.martinsvillespeedway.com.

And Finally

After last week's take on the Driver Rating (and NASCAR's subsequent rebuttal), NASCAR's resident Good Will Hunting, Mike Forde, weighed in with the formula:

• SECTION 1 -- Primary Statistics

The "Primary Statistics" are those that are most important to the formula -- and therefore awarded the most points.

The points assigned to each "Primary Statistic" are based on the point structure in place when the Driver Rating was developed in 2005, and use the points structure in place from 2004-2006. In the interest of continuity, the formula still uses the old points structure, even though the point structure was changed in 2007.

In the formula, the first place driver earns 180 points and the 43rd-place driver earns 34, with the increments in between the same as NASCAR's points distribution scale. Each statistic is then "multiplied" or "weighted" depending on its importance to the formula. All ties in the "Primary Statistics" are broken by finishing position.

• SECTION 2 -- Fixed Bonus Points

Bonus points are given for reaching certain goals. Below are the goals and the bonus points for each. (Note: All ties in "fixed bonus points" result in the bonus being added to all applicable drivers.)

Each "Fixed Bonus Points" total is then added together.

• SECTION 3 -- Variable Bonus Points

These are bonus points that are dependent on two statistics a driver earns in a given race -- green flag laps led and green flag fastest laps.

The two stats are added together and then divided by the total green flag laps the driver has run in the race. The resulting number is then multiplied by 100.

The maximum number of points a driver get can in this section is 100.

• OVERVIEW

When all three sections are tallied, the points from each section are added together (the maximum number possible is 900 points, the minimum is 139.8 points) and then adjusted by dividing by six, which makes a perfect Driver Rating 150.0 (the minimum rating is 23.3).

Also, if a given race has less than 43 participants, the points awarded are adjusted accordingly to prevent inflated ratings. This is by design with reference to the Truck Series which has a standard field of 36 trucks.

When sections are added together: 665.3 + 25 + 8.9 = 699.2
Then divide by 6, per the formula: 699.2 / 6 = 116.5

GORDON'S DRIVER RATING IS 116.5.

Got it? Your MIT application awaits ...

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.