Six Pack of Pop: Ray Lewis

Posted on March 1, 2013 by Staff Report

Ravens linebacker in the spotlight at Daytona 500

Ray Lewis, the recently-retired two-time Super Bowl champion with the Baltimore Ravens, waved the green flag as the honorary starter to begin the 2013 Daytona 500. The certain NFL Hall of Famer spoke to the media before the event at Daytona International Speedway.

Q: Ready to be the official starter?
Lewis: “I’m a little nervous. I actually had Brad (Keselowski) … he texted me on the way in. He said the one rule is, don’t drop the flag. So I guess I can’t drop the flag. But I’m excited.”

Q: You’re here at the Daytona 500, as are rappers 50 Cent and T.I. What does that say about the NASCAR fan base?
Lewis: “The things that we actually indulge in are just overwhelming at times. We’re just real art fans. It’s not just football, just music. We like everything — basketball, lacrosse, hockey, anything. Anything that really challenges a person’s athletic side and mental capacity. So being here today is an awesome experience I think for all of us, because we get to see a totally different world than our world. Our world is different. You see these race cars, and it’s like — wow. To be able to control machinery like that — I actually drive my car fast, but not as fast as they drive here.”

Q: How did your relationship with Sprint Cup champion Brad Keselowski begin?
Lewis: “Honestly, with me and Brad, he got in contact with me a few months ago, and he’s following my last ride. He came to a couple of my games, and I caught a glimpse of how he’s always watching my videos and really inspired him in different things. So that’s when me and him really started to have a conversation with each other. From there it just turned into a friendship.”

Q: Do you and Keselowski stay in touch?
Lewis: “We texted each other with motivational things and I kind of send him a heads-up about what I’m doing, and he’s kind of followed my ride all the way through. That’s kind of the way the relationship has gone. On my way in, I was just telling him, ‘Do what you do. Stay calm and have fun doing what you do.’ So we just have conversations like that.”

Q: Your son recently committed to play football at your alma mater, the University of Miami. Ready to enjoy being a dad in your retirement?
Lewis: “I’m retired and ready to enjoy life, and ready to tailgate and do all those things. So it’s probably one of the most exciting things. Winning a Super Bowl was awesome, don’t ever get me wrong. But watching my son walk into college in another month or so will probably be the most amazing thing I’ve probably ever done.”

Q: You’re used to being in the spotlight in the NFL. How does that compare to being at the Daytona 500?
Lewis: “In my world, I’m very comfortable because I kind of know my world. But raising the flag, I might be a little nervous. I don’t really know. I might be a little nervous, so I will squeeze it very hard when I’m holding it. But honestly, it’s going to be good time. I’m really here just to get these guys going and just really watch the respect of what they’re going to do, and getting out there to everything they can to be crowned champion. Just to be a part of it, just to be around it, is an awesome experience.”
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Posted on March 1, 2013 by Nascar

Driver tries ‘detox diet’, sheds 15-20 pounds in offseason

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Dale Earnhardt Jr. fans can breathe easy. NASCAR’s most popular driver isn’t turning in his man card for Pilates, soy burgers and non-alcoholic beer.

“I’m no health freak by no means,” Earnhardt Jr. said Friday at Phoenix International Raceway, site of Sunday’s Subway Fresh Fit 500 for NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series.

But Earnhardt Jr. has, he said, dropped approximately 15 to 20 pounds since last year. Watching what he ate, how much he ate and a two-week long “detox diet” contributed to the slimming down of the 38-year-old.

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"The older you get, the more you have to do to kind of maintain a healthy weight."

— Dale Earnhardt Jr.

“I think the older you get, the more you have to do to kind of maintain a healthy weight,” he said. “That’s really what it’s about for me is just trying to maintain my weight so I don’t have to keep getting my driver suits altered throughout the season. Last year I was like, ‘Man, they’re shrinking, something is wrong with the washer.’ ”

The detox diet was a 15-day process of “just fish, chicken and steamed vegetables,” he said. “And then there was like two days where you just ate vegetables and fruit. That was pretty tough for me to not have any meat.”

Earnhardt Jr. said he really didn’t think about what — or how much — he was eating. “All kinds of stuff like pizza and wings and … not really watching portion controls and stuff like that,” he said, explaining that it had gotten out of control.

“Reining all that back in; not getting too crazy about it though.”

• Earnhardt Jr. said he felt no ill effects from his crash in the Feb. 23 NASCAR Nationwide Series race, and that he “felt awesome” the following day as he prepared for the season-opening Daytona 500.

Earnhardt Jr. was one of 12 drivers involved in the last-lap crash that saw the car of Kyle Larson slam into the catchfence on the frontstretch. More than 30 fans were treated for injuries following the accident. Earnhardt Jr. was one of several drivers in the incident that endured hard impacts.

Having sat out two races near the end of the 2012 season after suffering two concussions, he said he was pleased the incident didn’t trigger any more issues.

“I was real happy that I was able to pass a personal test I guess,” he said. “When you have concussions sometimes they’re easier to get the second, third, fourth time around, so we survived that one. We’ll move on and try not to get in anymore wrecks.”

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Posted on March 1, 2013 by Nascar

Move should lessen turbulent air impact at intermediate tracks

CONCORD, N.C. — NASCAR Sprint Cup Series cars competing on the series’ intermediate tracks this season will be doing so without the familiar roof camera, beginning with Sunday’s Subway Fresh Fit 500 at Phoenix International Raceway.

According to series director John Darby, the removal of the camera (for approximately two-thirds of this year’s points races) is just one of several moves made during the offseason as officials worked through changes on the new Generation-6 car. Of primary concern was how to lessen the impact of turbulent air that previously hampered side-by-side competition at the series’ intermediate tracks.

What officials found was that changes made underneath the car “seem to stay more consistent, whether you are out front by yourself or seventh in a pack of cars,” Darby said.

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“Those are the kind of enhancements that we were looking for. Typically a spoiler would … give you more (downforce). The problem with the spoiler is the guy out front gets more value from that than the guy that’s seventh trying to come through traffic.”

Likewise, he said, roof cameras can provide as much as 80-90 pounds of downforce on a car, but are much more beneficial to the race leader.

“The old way of thinking was, if that’s the case then … make sure everybody has got one on the car so everybody’s the same,” Darby said. “But in reality the downforce is toward the 80-90 pound range for the leader that’s out front by himself. But going back to (the car) in seventh place, you’re not getting (any benefit) off it because the air is too turbulent.

“It’s not just about having them all the same, it’s removing stuff like that that gives the leader even more benefit than he used to have.”

Roof cameras will continue to be used at Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway, the road courses at Sonoma Raceway and Watkins Glen International, as well as the series’ smaller venues.

“We want the air messed up (at Daytona and Talladega),” Darby said. “The short tracks are slow and small enough that it doesn’t affect it as greatly.”

Television partners FOX, TNT and ESPN will continue to have cameras in various locations inside the cars. Among the new pieces for FOX, which opened the season with coverage of The Sprint Unlimited and Daytona 500, was the Gyro Cam, a center-mounted camera that rotates to remain level with the horizon as a car speeds through the turns.

According to Rich Feinberg, vice president of motorsports production for ESPN, the same company provides the in-car camera systems for ESPN, FOX and TNT.

“And we are in the process now of developing new options to replace (the roof camera),” Feinberg said. “Perhaps behind the rear-view mirror, various places inside the car.

“We try to be at the forefront of creating new elements. So we’ll get to see what happens over the next few weeks; we’ve begun the conversations about alternate locations inside the car because that seems to be the area in which we can have the most significant conversation with the teams and with NASCAR.”

Hendrick Motorsports crew chief Chad Knaus, fresh off a victory with driver Jimmie Johnson in the Daytona 500, said the removal of the roof camera isn’t that much of a concern for teams.

“It’s minor,” he said, “and everybody has the same thing so it’s not a huge, huge deal. It’s not a big change.”

Knaus said the Hendrick organization had been aware of the change, and tested its intermediate-style cars with that in mind.

“So that’s the way all of our cars are now baselined,” he said.

READ MORE:

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Posted on March 1, 2013 by Staff Report

Posted on February 28, 2013 by

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Riding a high he hasn’t experienced in his NASCAR career, Sam Hornish Jr. heads to Phoenix International Raceway for Saturday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series Dollar General 200 Fueled by AmeriGas (4:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2) with something he’s never had before — the series lead.

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His runner-up performance in last Saturday’s DRIVE4COPD 300 at Daytona International Speedway was his best finish at the 2.5-mile superspeedway in NASCAR’s three national series. Because NASCAR Sprint Cup Series regular Tony Stewart won the race and was not eligible to receive championship points, Hornish was the lucky benefactor of the points lead leaving Florida.

And Hornish couldn’t ask for a better track at which to defend his first points lead.

"We had a good run in Daytona, which we feel good about," said Hornish, the driver of the No. 12 Penske Racing Ford. "Now we are getting to a track where we feel that we are capable of running well. So I feel great."

In the fall 2011 race at Phoenix, Hornish beat Brad Keselowski to the checkered flag by 0.553 seconds, his first and only victory in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.

In Hornish’s last three starts at Phoenix he has an average starting position of 5.0 and an average finishing position of 7.0, proving that despite rough outings in his first two races (36th- and 39th-place finishes, respectively) and the one-mile track’s tricky configuration, he’s learning the secrets of mastering the Southwestern track.

"I’ve always enjoyed tracks that are very different from end to end," said Hornish. "Of course, some of that success is also having equipment and a team that is capable of winning, which we have with our Penske Racing Ford Mustang."

With another solid performance this weekend, Hornish should expect to increase his one-point lead over Sunoco Rookie-of-the-Year contender Alex Bowman, who finished third in the Daytona race.

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