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Johnson, Knaus only looking at positives from titleless 2012

They would have won the race.

To a man, they’re convinced of it. The car was fast, and under the lights of Homestead-Miami Speedway, the No. 48 team had that old championship mojo working again. Pit strategies had played out to the point where Brad Keselowski was going to have to stop one more time, and they could go the rest of the way. Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus had the path to a sixth NASCAR Sprint Cup Series title laid out before them.

“We had them,” car owner Rick Hendrick remembered. “There was no way. They were going to have to stop, and we didn’t. We were sitting there saying, ‘We’ve got them.’ All we’ve got to do is finish the race.”

"Last year was, I think, our best year as a whole. Which is I guess why I didn’t really think of the bad stuff."

— Chad Knaus, crew chief

They were on the way to doing just that — until a fractured oil cooler brought an abrupt end to Johnson’s run in the 2012 season finale, removing the final obstacle in Keselowski’s title quest. The Penske driver won the championship by 39 points, finishing high enough to clinch the crown without any help, but there was some lingering curiosity in the Hendrick camp over what might have happened had Johnson been able to push Keselowski to the finish.

“They never really had to make anything happen,” Knaus recalled. “And if they had to, you don’t know what the situation would have been. But I don’t reflect on that too much.”

Even now, he still doesn’t. No question, Johnson and Knaus have both endured offseasons where they’ve struggled to leave the previous campaign behind — the driver in 2011, when he was frustrated by the lack of speed in his car; the crew chief in 2004, when he was beaten down by an unrelenting testing schedule — but in that regard, this one does not qualify. When Johnson and Knaus look back on 2012, they don’t dredge up frustration over letting a potential championship get away. Instead, there’s satisfaction over what they believe is the best year they’ve had together.

That seems downright odd, given the expectations placed on the best team of NASCAR’s modern era. Even Hendrick refers to the 2012 finish, which saw Johnson go behind the wall in each of the last two events of the year — a blown tire at Phoenix International Raceway preceding the problem at Homestead — as fumbling the ball in the final minutes of a football game. But when Knaus looks backs on a campaign that saw Johnson tie for the series lead in victories, and record more top fives, top 10s, and laps led than anyone else, all he sees are positives.

“Last year was, I think, our best year as a whole,” Knaus said. “Which is I guess why I didn’t really think of the bad stuff. It was a great year, we had a lot of fun, we won a bunch of races, we led a ton of laps. … It was a great year. We had a great time last year;  we really did. It was a lot of fun. I wasn’t even really tired at the end of the season. I could have kept on going a few more. So that’s why I think I’m looking forward to this year.”

The driver agreed. “We had a kick-ass year, and it just didn’t turn out,” Johnson said.

There was no stewing over shortcomings as there had been a year earlier, when Johnson’s car simply wasn’t fast enough to keep up with the title contenders, and he was out of the championship picture before the season finale. Compare that to Homestead this past November, when he felt hardly any emotion at all once his damaged car was listed as out of the race.

“I was just flat-lined,” Johnson said. “I don’t know why. I actually went out that night and had a big time and celebrated and had fun. I guess looking back on it now, we had a year we were very proud of. I know the things I’m responsible for; I think I did the best job in my history as a driver in my career. So I think I just stopped. Things happen. This is a team sport, things go wrong. I just reflected back on the incredible year we had as a team, and certainly what I was able to accomplish as a driver.”

Granted, the circumstances surrounding the final knockout were rare — in 30 years of racing, Hendrick said he can’t remember another one of his cars suffering a broken rear-end oil cooler, the failure that befell Johnson in the 2012 finale. Even though the No. 48 team dropped to third in final points behind Clint Bowyer, the emotions in the aftermath were far from negative.

“We wanted to go back and race again,” Hendrick said.

No wonder, given the performance Johnson showed for much of the season.

“We did a very good job last year,” Knaus said. “Did we win the championship? No. Could we have? Yes. Were we in position to do it? Yes. But we didn’t pull it off. I am very proud of Jimmie, I am very proud of this team, I am very proud of the way they reacted throughout the course of the season. Man, everybody said we were out of it at Kansas. … But I felt great about last season, I really did. I had no heartburn at the end of the season, there were no weird actions taken, nothing like that. We had a great year last year.”

No question, it helps to have a perspective shaped by success, and those five championship banners hanging from the rafters of the Hendrick Motorsports team center can make a single near-miss easier to digest. Still, it’s been two years now since Johnson last won a title, and given the increased competition that sixth — not to mention record-tying seventh — crown isn’t nearly as guaranteed as it once appeared.

But Johnson and Knaus show no signs of breaking up. The No. 48 team thrives on adaptation, which will be key with the Generation-6 cars ready to make their debut. Unlike some other owners, Hendrick isn’t wringing his hands over the distribution of certain car parts for the new vehicle. And for the five-time champions, the focus is on what’s possible rather than what might haven gotten away.

“We can’t sit back and reflect on the bad things or the negatives and look too far in advance saying, ‘Oh man, we’re never going to win again,’ or ‘We’re never going to do that again.’ You just can’t do that,” Knaus said. “If you do that, you’re just going to beat yourself to death. And that’s not how we roll. We don’t do it like that. We look forward. We feel like we’re a comfortable team, we’re confident, we’ve got great players, got great equipment — we just keep moving, man.”

Posted on by NASCAR Official Release

Traveling media blitz starts at Autoweek in Detroit and culminates in Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Following extensive on-track testing over the last 18 months involving more than 30 drivers, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Gen-6 car’s roll out has reached its next phase, and it starts in less than 24 hours.

It’s time to meet the masses. 

The NASCAR #Gen6 Road to Daytona Fueled by Sunoco — a multi-city media blitz introducing the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Chevrolet SS, Ford Fusion and Toyota Camry to America — begins tomorrow in Detroit, with additional visits to New York City and other locations before culminating in Daytona Beach, Fla., on Feb. 13-14 for Daytona Speedweeks.

Appearances by NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers Dale Earnhardt Jr., Brad Keselowski, Clint Bowyer and Michael Waltrip as well as NASCAR executives and Miss Sprint Cup highlight the two-week media tour.

Speedweeks opens with The Sprint Unlimited (Feb. 16 on FOX, 8 p.m. ET) and concludes with the 55th running of the Daytona 500 on Sunday, Feb. 24 (FOX, 1 p.m. ET).

The Gen-6 marks the first platform revision in NASCAR’s premier series since 2007. It features body panels unique to each manufacturer that better represent their production counterparts — effectively putting the word “stock” back in stock car racing for 2013. The long-nose, short-tail designs more closely mirror the styling of the production cars and better enable the manufacturers to use NASCAR to market their brands.

“Manufacturers, teams and drivers have praised the Gen-6 car in terms of both performance and styling,” said Steve Phelps, NASCAR senior vice president and chief marketing officer. “All of us are eager to share their enthusiasm with media and fans across the country as we prepare to open the 2013 season with The Sprint Unlimited and the Daytona 500.”

The NASCAR #Gen6 Road to Daytona Fueled by Sunoco can be followed on Twitter via @NASCAR and @SunocoRacing using the hashtags #Gen6 and #NASCAR. Since 2004, Sunoco has been the “Official Fuel of NASCAR,” providing fuel for NASCAR’s three national series — the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, the NASCAR Nationwide Series and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. 

Some scheduled highlights of the NASCAR #Gen6 Road to Daytona Fueled by Sunoco:

•    In Detroit on Feb. 5, Autoweek will host a breakfast and panel session at the College for Creative Studies. Participants include Mike Helton, NASCAR president; Robin Pemberton, NASCAR vice president of competition; Kim Brink, NASCAR vice president of brand, consumer, series marketing; Jim Campbell, U.S. vice president of performance vehicles and motorsports, Chevrolet; Jamie Allison, director of Ford Racing; and David Wilson, senior vice president of Toyota Racing Development. Autoweek Editorial Director and Associate Publisher Dutch Mandel will moderate the conversation. The program will be streamed live starting at 9 a.m. ET on NASCAR.com and autoweekracing.com.

•    NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Brad Keselowski will accompany the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford at ESPN’s campus in Bristol, Conn. on Feb. 6 and appear on several of the network’s shows.

•    On Feb. 7, two-time Daytona 500 winner Michael Waltrip and his team’s No. 15 5-hour ENERGY Toyota will visit FOX Plaza in Manhattan.

•    Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet will be in New York on Feb. 8 and visit the set of FOX News’ “America’s Newsroom,” among other New York City media stops.

•    The tour also will visit Jacksonville, Fla. — a city less than 100 miles north of the birthplace of speed, Daytona Beach — as well as other cities along the Road to Daytona. 

The NASCAR #Gen6 Road to Daytona Fueled by Sunoco arrives in Daytona Beach, Fla., on Feb. 13, and will be on display throughout the annual NASCAR Media Day scheduled on Feb. 14.

Posted on by Staff Report

Corporate change alters sponsorship look for No. 24

One of NASCAR’s longest-running sponsors will have a new name in 2013, meaning a new look for the sport’s winningest active driver.

Jeff Gordon will be backed in 14 Sprint Cup series races by Axalta Coating Systems, which has assumed ownership of DuPont Performance Coatings, which had graced the four-time champion’s No. 24 Chevrolets since his debut in NASCAR’s big leagues more than 21 years ago. The change was announced Monday after the Carlyle Group completed its acquisition of the performance paint business for $4.9 billion.

Hendrick Motorsports said in a statement later Monday that the sale would not affect the company’s continued support of its NASCAR efforts.

"We may have a new name on the No. 24 Chevrolet SS in 2013, but it’s the same core group that I’ve enjoyed working with for more than 20 years," said Gordon, who has long been associated with DuPont’s splashy paint schemes. "We’ve had success together on and off the track. We plan to carry that success into our third decade."

Posted on by Staff Report

Air Force to be primary sponsor for two races, associate sponsor all season

The U.S. Air Force will once again partner with Richard Petty Motorsports as a primary sponsor for Aric Almirola‘s No. 43 Ford Fusion for two NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races, while being an associate sponsor of the car for the entire season.

The star-studded U.S. Air Force paint scheme will adorn the car for the Memorial Day weekend race at Charlotte Motor Speedway and the Fourth of July weekend race at Daytona International Speedway.

This is the 13th season the Air Force has been associated with NASCAR, and the fifth year as a partner with Richard Petty Motorsports.

The Air Force will also continue its experiential marketing activities at NASCAR events, air shows and festivals throughout the year, taking the No. 43 U.S. Air Force Ford show car and "Hangar 43" interactive display to environments where recruiters can connect with young adults. It will also continue to hold swear-in ceremonies of Airmen in the Delayed Entry Program at NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races.

Almirola, who was born on Elgin (Fla.) Air Force base and whose father served in the Air Force, will take part in the at-track swear-in ceremonies.

"I’m really proud of how Richard Petty Motorsports helps connect the Air Force with race fans," Almirola said. "We go out to the Air Force display and the swear-ins at the track, and it’s great to see people lined up wanting to learn about the technology and the opportunities available. It’s a perfect partnership, especially for me, having a lifelong history with the Air Force."

Posted on by Nascar

Unable to stay away from the sport, Terance Mathis finds home with LFR

Terance Mathis, vice president of marketing for Leavine Family Racing, has more than just a passing interest in this year’s Super Bowl, having played in the annual contest during a 13-year career in the NFL. 

Although his Atlanta Falcons lost to the Denver Broncos and quarterback John Elway in Super Bowl XXXIII (played in 1999), Mathis, a wide receiver, did score on a 3-yard TD pass late in the fourth quarter.

While he played with three teams, the New York Jets, Atlanta and Pittsburgh Steelers, his best seasons came during an eight-year stint with the Falcons. He gained more than 1,000 yards four times with Atlanta, and was named to the 1994 Pro Bowl.

"Three years ago I said I’m done. But every year I keep getting brought back closer and closer."

— Terance Mathis, former NFL wide receiver

“Of course I’m still a football fan,” Mathis said. “And I keep up with what’s going on with the (Falcons) … how they’re doing. I don’t go to … see them play; I mostly watch them on TV.

“Every once in a while I send a message to (wide receiver) Roddy (White) and wish him luck or congratulate him on breaking my records.”

Mathis isn’t exactly new to NASCAR; for nearly eight years he has sought out ways to become involved in the sport. He’s been part owner on at least one occasion and saw that fall apart for a number of reasons. “It got sticky,” he said.

He’s met with teams both large and small, “and some I just didn’t feel right about,” he said. But something kept drawing him back even when it seemed NASCAR was nothing more than a dead end. 

“Three years ago I said I’m done. But every year I keep getting brought back closer and closer,” Mathis said. “Then a good friend said ‘I’ve got something you might like. You need to call this gentleman; see if there is any kind of synergy.’”

Mathis called, and spoke with Bob Leavine for the first time. Leavine had a team, cars, a driver in Scott Speed, crew chief Wally Rogers and a handful of crewmen. But most of all, Leavine’s family-owned organization offered opportunity, potential and an atmosphere that Mathis said, “just felt right.”

“Bob is one of those smiling assassins,” he said. “He’s lovable, he’s polite, and he’s genuine. But inside he’s that guy that just wants to win. He’s not going to say that, but you can tell. … He knows you don’t win every race. But if you go out and run well and to best of your ability, that’s a win for us, a small win.”

As Vice President of Marketing, Mathis says he hopes to bring stability and growth to the organization. His formed his own mobile marketing group following his retirement from the NFL, working with several record labels. He knows where NASCAR has been and says he has a good idea where it needs to go.

“We have to capture the urban community,” he said. “There are more NASCAR fans in urban communities than you think … more black Americans. But the question is, who do they root for? They don’t have an allegiance to a team, maybe to a product or to a company but not to a team. And we know NASCAR fans are most loyal when it comes to products.

“So if we can present a product to them and we run successfully, that company will prosper from our visibility.

“I’m very competitive; I want to win. It’s fun to go to the track and have relationships, build relationships. But at the end of the day it’s about winning.”

Mathis could have had an ownership role in the team, both he and Leavine said, but providing the opportunity to be involved from a marketing standpoint made the most sense and kept the operation of the organization simple.

"We could have gone and done that, without a doubt,” Leavine said, “but however it was done really wasn’t an issue. I think what Terance brings to the team will be tremendously beneficial to LFR.”

Mathis said he isn’t worried about who brings what to the table, only that everyone contributes to the best of their ability.

“Right off the bat I said, ‘Look, I’ve been down this road before. This is how I operate, I don’t want anything from you until I produce. That way if I don’t produce and we part ways, there are no hard feelings,’” he said. “I’ve been sued in this business before but I keep coming back.

“I could have put a car on the track for one race, sure. But I said I would never do it unless it was done right. 

“And Bob and his family are doing it right.”

Posted on by Nascar

RPM driver confident fortunes will change in 2013

If Marcos Ambrose has grown weary of the question, he hides it well.

One of NASCAR’s most talented road-course racers, Ambrose has yet to deliver for his Richard Petty Motorsports team on the oval tracks that dominate the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series landscape.

Almost as soon as he won his first Cup race — at Watkins Glen International in 2011 — the question arose. Can he win on an oval?

Ambrose, now twice a winner at the Glen, says he can and insists he will. It’s the “when” that’s a bit unknown.

He’s closer than ever as he enters the 2013 season, he said.

How close?

"Short tracks are our bogey tracks — we’ve got to really work on that for 2013 and get better there."

— Marcos Ambrose

“I’ve just got to wait until the (Daytona) 500, that’s all,” said Ambrose, the driver of the No. 9 RPM Ford. “I’ve already got my name on the trophy. We’re ready.”
 
Maybe it happens in the season-opening race, slated for Feb. 24, and maybe it doesn’t, but where better than in the season’s premier event?
 
“We’ve got opportunities every single week,” Ambrose, 36, said. “We ran great on intermediates (last year), we have done that as a company for a couple of years. We’ve run good on superspeedways; road courses are always really good for us. Short tracks are our bogey tracks — we’ve got to really work on that for 2013 and get better there.
 
“We can win any week, and we need to feel that way to be competitive.”
 
Stability has been as much of a concern as anything for the RPM group, which was under financial duress in previous years. Able to weather that particular storm, the bigger issue of late has been simply being competitive on the track. To that end, a personnel shake-up late in the 2012 season saw veteran Todd Parrott move from the No. 9 team to that of teammate Aric Almirola. Mike Ford, who had overseen Almirola’s No. 43 entry since April 30, was named crew chief for Ambrose.
 
Less than two months after the swap, which included crews as well as crew chiefs, Drew Blickensderfer replaced Ford. The initial changes hurt his own team, Ambrose said, “but we’ve come through all that.”

His 18th-place points finish was seemingly short on highlights and long on disappointment, with the bright spot being the lone win at the Glen, followed by consecutive fifth-place finishes at Michigan International Speedway and Bristol Motor Speedway. Ambrose did not finish higher than 12th in the remaining dozen races, but did qualify on the outside of the front row at Homestead-Miami Speedway at season’s end, and led 14 laps before finishing 13th.
 
Looking past the statistics and considering what Ambrose has seen from the inside, “I think as a company we’re a lot stronger,” he said. “I’ve got Drew … as my crew chief; to get him into our team has been a huge plus. We’re lucky to have him.
 
“We’re a pretty tight-knit group (and) we need to keep that run going that we finished with in 2012.”
 
Petty, the series’ leader in career victories, has been less than successful since stepping out of the car two decades ago. Former RPM driver Kasey Kahne remains the only Chase participant for the organization, finishing 10th in 2009.
 
Petty said he believes better days are ahead as well, and that last year’s late-season changes showed promise and hinted at potential.
 
“We thought we qualified better; we ran better in some of the races,” Petty said. “Some of the finishes might not have been better but sometimes that’s our fault.
 
“I kind of hated to see the season end because we felt like we were finally getting our feet on the ground and getting going.”
 
Ambrose said the organization has “all the resources in place,” highlighted by the addition of Blickensderfer. A former Roush Fenway Racing crew chief, Blickensderfer helped guide Matt Kenseth to back-to-back wins in the 2009 Daytona 500 and Auto Club 500 while at RFR, and won again at Daytona in July of 2011 with RFR driver David Ragan.
 
“We’ve turned a corner and have Drew on board, I feel really great about that,” Ambrose said. “He’s a similar age to me. Very similar in chemistry and the way we go about our business. I’m lucky to have him.”
 
And that’s because once you get past the resources, the cars, engines and other assorted parts and pieces that make up the sport, “racing is all about people,” Ambrose said. “A team is nothing without good people.”
 
As for winning on an oval?
 
“It’s coming this year. It needs to; it’s time,” he said. “If we can win on an oval and win on a road course … we’ve got a chance to make the Chase (for the NASCAR Sprint Cup) just on wins alone. We know we can’t rely on the road courses just to make the Chase, we’ve got to win somewhere else and 2013 is the year it’s got to be done.”

Posted on by Staff Report

Michigan honors Sprint Cup champ and home-state hero with ‘Brad Keselowski Day’

For the second time in three years, the Michigan Senate welcomed Brad Keselowski, honoring the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion on Thursday.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Brad Keselowski addresses the Michigan Senate on Thursday in Lansing, Mich.

"I felt more nervous up there the first time," Keselowski told the Detroit Free Press, after receiving a standing ovation and addressing the chamber at the State Capitol in Lansing, Mich.

Keselowski, of Rochester Hills, Mich., also was honored by the senate following his 2010 NASCAR Nationwide Series championship.

In addition to a senate resolution, the governor’s office will name Feb. 2 "Brad Keselowski Day" in the state of Michigan.

The state’s first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion continued the celebration with Michigan International Speedway fans and another Michigander, Miss Sprint Cup Jaclyn Roney, at the Henry Ford Museum.

"We are excited to welcome Brad back to Michigan and offer a chance for our fans to interact with the NASCAR champion," MIS President Roger Curtis said. "Brad is the state’s first Michigan-born driver to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup championship and we are thrilled to welcome him back home."

The kickoff to the track’s 2013 season included another return as Detroit-based Quicken Loans will be back to sponsor the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race as Dale Earnhardt Jr., who snapped a 143-race winless streak in the 2012 event, attempts to defend his title. 

"Last year’s race was extremely exciting, and I know a lot of fans were thrilled to see Dale Jr. bring home the Quicken Loans 400 trophy," Jay Farner, president and chief marketing officer for Quicken Loans said. "We look forward to an equally exciting race this year at NASCAR’s fastest track."

(Left to right) Michigan Lt. Gov. Brian Calley, Speaker of the House Jase Bolger, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Brad Keselowski, Sen. Jim Marleau and Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville.

Posted on by Zack Albert

Gen-6 debut has Ford team scrambling to recover speedway form

The debut of the sixth-generation NASCAR Sprint Cup Series car (Gen-6 in shorthand) has driven home a new emphasis on brand identity and a showroom-style look, but has also left teams with a back-to-the-drawing-board mentality in a busy offseason of prepping their new rides. 

Teams will have a difficult time hanging their hats on their 2012 accomplishments. No one knows this more ahead of the season’s biggest race than Jack Roush.

Roush Fenway Racing enters the Daytona 500 as the defending champion after Greg Biffle helped push then-teammate Matt Kenseth to his second win in the Great American Race. That triumph kicked off a season of success at Daytona and Talladega, where engine restrictions level the playing field and demand even more finesse from crews.

"I’m guardedly optimistic that we can return to that form, but I will not be surprised if we are not as good this year as we were in 2011 and 2012."

—Jack Roush, on his team’s restrictor-plate success

Kenseth’s No. 17, which Ricky Stenhouse Jr. inherited in the offseason, was at the head of the class with two wins and two third-place finishes at the four restrictor-plate races last year. Now with Gen-6 cars emerging from the Roush Fenway stables, the team won’t have laurels to tout.

"I’m guardedly optimistic that we can return to that form, but I will not be surprised if we are not as good this year as we were in 2011 and 2012," Roush said after presenting his roster of drivers at the Sprint Media Tour hosted by Charlotte Motor Speedway. "Those were incredible years where if things had broken for us, we could’ve won virtually every restricted race we went to and that’s unusual for me for Daytona and Talladega."

Testing the new car over three days at NASCAR Preseason Thunder at Daytona International Speedway did little to bolster the still-guarded hopes of the venerable team owner, who called the test "inconclusive." Biffle, now the senior statesman at Roush Fenway, suggested that the team may already be playing catch-up for the Daytona 500.

"My honest opinion is, we’ve lost our edge that we’ve had over the last two or three years when it comes to restrictor plates," Biffle said. "Maybe we’d gotten that old car tweaked and dialed in, but we were mediocre at best the whole time in Daytona."

A mediocre review was hard to process after Biffle topped the speed charts in the sixth and final session of Preseason Thunder testing, a half-tenth of a second better than the Joe Gibbs Racing pair of Kenseth and Kyle Busch. But Biffle was quick to note that the unofficial stat sheet shouldn’t be taken at face value.

"We went to full qualifying (mode), everything we had," Biffle said. "We even had a qualifying engine. We had everything — I mean, this would’ve been pushing out for 500 qualifying. We were the fastest. But not everybody had that, not every last bit. My fast lap probably wasn’t comparative to the second-, third-, fourth-place car because they didn’t have as much done as mine."

So is the outlook all gloom and doom for a Roush Fenway repeat? Not if newly minted vice president of competition Robbie Reiser can help it. Roush’s longtime right-hand man has kept the team’s Fords competitive through a multitude of changes as NASCAR’s vehicles have evolved. This latest change may be the biggest challenge yet.

"The pressure’s on us, right?" Reiser joked. "We’ve had a really good speedway program the last few years, so the pressure’s on to keep that up and we’ve been working pretty hard on that. But this car here has thrown us a curve that we’ve got to work on everything. Otherwise, we come out and run strong at one venue and not at the others. Speedway racing is a very different thing."

The nature of racing at Daytona and Talladega typically has a wild-card element to it, but Roush Fenway’s preparation had given the team an advantage at two tracks where even the most incremental advantages are sought after. Even if the team’s grade so far with the Gen-6 car is incomplete, Reiser seems confident that Roush Fenway can earn high superspeedway marks again soon.

"You know, you always go down there with a fleet of cars … there’s some that run and some that don’t and you’ve got to come back and work on them and change them around," Reiser said. "That’s kind of where we are right now, and if we don’t start as strong as we need to be on the speedways, by God, we’re going to go back and work on it and try to fix it. What I saw at Daytona testing and what I saw at Charlotte testing with our downforce cars, I think we’re going to come out of the box pretty strong."

Posted on by Nascar

Veteran and youngblood will suit up for Tommy Baldwin Racing in the NASCAR Nationwide Series

Scott Lagasse will be making a return of sorts and Corey LaJoie will be making his debut when the two drivers suit up with Tommy Baldwin Racing in the NASCAR Nationwide Series this season.

Lagasse made three starts late in 2012, his first races in the series since 2010. He said he is scheduled to compete in 15 races, and the team will be run through Scott Lagasse Racing in conjunction with TBR.

LaJoie is scheduled to compete in three races later in the year for TBR.

“The three I ran last year (with SLR) were in total preparation for this year,” Lagasse said.

"I feel no matter what race I’m in, whether it be go-karts, K&N cars or Late Models, every race is a try-out."

—Corey LaJoie

Lagasse, who will be in the No. 8 Chevrolet, will have funding from the Boy Scouts of America as well as HybridLight, which manufactures solar-powered light products.

Lagasse said he hopes to be running his Late Model dirt car, when he’s not competing in the Nationwide series.

“I know that as a driver when you’re not in the seat a lot, it’s tough to be good,” he said. “I ran six total races last year, three were Nationwide … I hadn’t been on asphalt in two years and we kind of struggled through those. So I told myself I’m going to race a lot this year.”

Brad Parrott will serve as crew chief for the team, which fielded the No. 36 Chevrolet for Ryan Blaney (five races), Ryan Truex (one) and Bobby Santos (1) last season. John Blankenship also competed in three racesunder the TBR banner, running the No. 44 entry.

“We had great runs last year at Richmond (7th) and later in the year, at Bristol (7th),” Parrott said of the team’s efforts with Blaney. “… The process is there for Tommy to bring younger guys up through this division and get them rides with bigger teams.

“Scott has only run 52 Nationwide races … only three with this current car. We’re looking forward to getting out there and getting him more experience.”

LaJoie is the son of two-time Busch (now Nationwide) Series champion Randy LaJoie. A five-time winner in NASCAR’s K&N East Series last year, Corey LaJoie will compete at Dover (June), New Hampshire (July) and Atlanta (August).

“I feel no matter what race I’m in, whether it be go-karts, K&N cars or Late Models, every race is a try-out,” LaJoie, 21, said. “You never know who’s going to be watching. The Nationwide Series is definitely a big deal.

“I couldn’t be more excited to run my first Nationwide race with Tommy; he’s just an old-school racer just like I am. I’m looking forward to opening, hopefully, another chapter in my career.

 “Seeing Kyle Larson jump in a truck and run really good; Brett Moffitt running a Nationwide car at Iowa, he ran really good; Ryan Blaney. All those guys have gotten in good stuff and ran really good. And Ibeat all those guys last year. I think I can hold my own with the best of them.”

Posted on by Nascar

NTS Motorsports pleased with relationship

Kevin Harvick may be a year removed from his role as a team owner, but that doesn’t mean the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver has completely removed himself from either the Nationwide Series or Camping World Truck Series.

Harvick, 37, shut the doors on a highly successful organization after the 2011 season, and while Kevin Harvick Inc. no longer exists, he continues to compete in both series for a limited number of races.

For 2013, he’s also become a bit of a sounding board for at least one current owner in the Truck Series –- NTS Motorsports owner Bob Newberry.

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“Bob has been a huge contributor to our foundation and, obviously, being from Bakersfield (Calif.), I’ve gotten to know him fairly well,” said Harvick, who is also a Bakersfield native. “But I don’t necessarily have a role other than to give my feedback when I drive the vehicle.”

To that end, Harvick will return to the Truck Series at least twice in 2013, piloting the No. 24 NTS Chevrolet at events held at Martinsville Speedway.

“Bob asks a lot of questions and you try to tell him exactly what the experiences that you had (were), and give him the most advice you can give him with the things we had done in the past,” Harvick said. “I’m more of a bounce-the-questions-off guy than I am anything else.”

Harvick is also a successful driver and owner in the series. As a driver, he’s won 14 times. His KHI team won 43 races, including championships with Ron Hornaday Jr. in 2007 and 2009.

The NTS Motorsports organization is the result of a merger of NTS and Joe Denette Motorsports teams from 2012. The group plans to field three trucks this season, with Hornaday and Newberry’s son, Brennan, running the full schedule. A third truck is scheduled to be fielded full time, although the only races announced thus far for that team are the two in place for Harvick.

“Kevin has offered a lot of information to us,” Newberry said. “He’s been around the racing enough and he’s the king when it comes to trucks, in my opinion. … In 10 minutes, he can tell you what it takes most people a week to try to figure out. The guy’s just really intuitive.”

Hornaday, 54, failed to win a race last season while paired with Denette, ending a seven-year run that saw the veteran win at least one race a season. Harvick’s input, he said, would be a huge plus for the organization.

“(Bob Newberry) has been talking to Kevin on  … how to run the business to be successful … some of the mistakes that Kevin made so we don’t have to go down that path,” Hornaday said. “They speak rather frequently on how to run the business and mainly how to run the competition side of it.”

Bruce Cook will serve as director of competition for the organization, as well as crew chief for Hornaday and the No. 9 team. Eddie Pardue was just announced as crew chief for Brennan Newberry and the group’s No. 14 team. No crew chief has been named for the No. 24 ride at this time.

Newberry say’s he confident the company can succeed, in part because of Harvick’s help.

“Kevin’s been there, he’s done it,” Bob Newberry said. “He doesn’t have to do this. (He’s) really stepping out and, as a friend, helping NTS build up to where Kevin actually ended up with KHI. Just to have the opportunity to do that is a dream come true.”