Nationwide Series driver Kyle Larson speaks to the media at Auto Club Speedway.
Comments are currently unavailable. We’re working on the development of a NASCAR fan forum – please stay tuned.
Need to set up your fantasy lineup for the Auto Club 400? Check out what the experts are saying.
We apologize. We are having technical issues with our comment sections and fan community and it is temporarily unavailable. We are actively working on these issues and hope to have it up and running soon. We are also working on enhancements to provide a better forum for our fans. We appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience.
Dog-loving driver takes part in apprehension, narcotics exercises
Even as the defending champion at Texas Motor Speedway, Greg Biffle returned to the track as a "criminal suspect" on Wednesday. A known dog lover, Biffle suited up in padded armor and took part in a training exercise with members of the Fort Worth Police Department K-9 Unit and their canine partners. Two veteran dogs, German Shepherds Moro and Rocky, were put on the chase of the "suspect" Roush Fenway Racing driver.
“I was just hoping he was just going to bite me where the suit was,” Biffle said. “That’s all I was worried about. He wasn’t going to go for the hands or the feet. I did it twice and they asked if I wanted to do it again. I didn’t get bit or fall down … so let’s put it this way, you can play with fire but you are going to get burnt sooner or later."
"It’s incredible to see what dogs can do."
— Greg Biffle
Biffle also witnessed the skills of Kelev, a narcotics dog, and gave her commands to detect an illegal substance.
“It’s incredible to see what dogs can do,” Biffle said. “Their sense of smell and being able to train a dog with commands and being able to say the commands and the dog do it, it’s incredible. For situations like that for these police officers to have a safety net of an animal and to be able to get into places and get people is super important.”
In 2005, Biffle started the Greg Biffle Foundation as an advocate for the welfare of animals. The foundation’s yearly NASCAR Pets calendar, which features images of drivers and their pets, helps raise money for the foundation.
“There are a lot of cruelty cases with animals and you have to have a strong stomach for this story,” Biffle said. “We saw on the news one night that this lady was breeding Rottweilers in her back yard and she got tired of doing it and wanted to get rid of the pets. So she poured gasoline on them and lit them on fire to kill them while they were tied to a tree. That was kind of the turning point for me and we started the foundation shortly after that.”
See more images from Biffle’s "Dog Day Afternoon" below. Photos by Tom Pennington, Getty Images.
Greg Biffle speaks to the media alongside Lily, a dog from the SPCA of Texas.
Moro, a German Shepherd, helps her unit apprehend the Roush Fenway Racing driver at Texas Motor Speedway.
Forth Worth Police Department canine Kelev and officer Harald Cussnick show the driver of the No. 16 3M Ford a narcotic detection exercise.
"Suspect" Biffle tries to escape the bite of a member of the Fort Worth Police Department K-9 Unit, Moro.
Greg Biffle and Maura Davies, vice president of communications at the SPCA of Texas, play with two dogs that are looking for a loving home.
We apologize. We are having technical issues with our comment sections and fan community and it is temporarily unavailable. We are actively working on these issues and hope to have it up and running soon. We are also working on enhancements to provide a better forum for our fans. We appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience.
Larson would become first CA native to win Auto Club Speedway Nationwide Series race
After a thrilling race to the finish line in last Saturday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Bristol, Kyle Larson, who finished runner-up to Kyle Busch, returns to his home state for this Saturday’s Royal Purple 300 (5 p.m. ET, ESPN) at Auto Club Speedway.
In 23 NASCAR Nationwide races, no California native has ever won at Auto Club. Larson, of Elk Grove, hopes to build on his performance in Bristol to become the first. However, it will be his first visit to the track.
"I haven’t raced at Auto Club Speedway, but I’ve watched a bunch of races and it looks like a lot of fun to me," said Larson, who is currently second in the NASCAR Nationwide Sunoco Rookie of the Year standings. "There’s more than one groove, which makes for great racing."
If Larson finds his way to Victory Lane, he would be just the fourth driver to win in their first NASCAR Nationwide start at the track. Mark Martin was the most recent, winning in February 2005. Scott Riggs and Todd Bodine also accomplished the feat, with Bodine winning the inaugural series event.
In Larson’s first four races of the 2013 season, coincidentally also the first of his NASCAR Nationwide career, he opened the season with a pair of 13th-place finishes at Daytona and Phoenix followed by a 32nd-place finish at Las Vegas after an accident ended his day 18 laps shy of the scheduled 200.
Larson currently ranks ninth in the points standings, 49 points behind leader Sam Hornish Jr. Of the eight drivers in front of him, none have wins at the track while only three have top-five finishes (Austin Dillon, Brian Scott, Brian Vickers). Vickers is the only driver with multiple top fives (two).
His finish at Bristol moved Larson up five positions in the standings and had some considering him as a possible dark horse in the championship race. The way in which he raced Busch in the closing laps drew praise from the driver of the No. 54 Toyota and opened a lot of eyes throughout the garage.
He’ll be looking to do more of the same this Saturday.
Comments are currently unavailable. We’re working on the development of a NASCAR fan forum – please stay tuned.
With just 13 Nationwide starts under his belt, Travis Pastrana already exudes the confidence of a seasoned driver
To hear the ever-excitable Travis Pastrana talk can be a mile-a-minute experience. It’s almost as if this trait prepared him for last weekend’s racing at Bristol Motor Speedway, where NASCAR’s best cover roughly two miles a minute.
The learning curve for Pastrana in this, his rookie Nationwide Series season, remains steep, primarily because of the strength of competition. If his ability to speak the lingo is any indication, Pastrana is catching on at an accelerated pace.
In last Saturday’s Jeff Foxworthy’s Grit Chips 300, Pastrana’s communication with his crew nearly resembled that of a veteran, not someone with just 13 Nationwide starts in his portfolio. The full-time NASCAR driver with the extreme sports following is no stranger to speed in a variety of vehicles, but telling his Roush Fenway Racing crew which adjustments to make to his No. 60 Ford has been a huge component of his stock-car racing education.
"We’re getting there," Pastrana said Saturday after his 16th-place finish. "I know what I want the car to do to make it more comfortable, but I don’t know what I want to do to make the car faster. A lot of times, they’re two completely different things."
Finding comfort in the confines of the World’s Fastest Half-Mile was a significant starting point for Pastrana in his Bristol Nationwide debut. Even as he learns the secrets of speed through communication, his familiarity with the terminology is clear.
Turning four laps roughly every minute at high G-forces with 39 other cars on the .533-mile short track makes transmitting detailed information about a car’s handling nearly impossible during green-flag conditions. But during each of the race’s eight caution periods, Pastrana radioed in to crew chief Chad Norris and terms such as "loose on entry," "tight center" and "loose off" rolled off his tongue.
"…when we come back (to Bristol), we’ll be a little quicker."
— Travis Pastrana
While the adjustments didn’t help Pastrana pick off his rivals on his way to the top 10, it did help him survive 300 laps at one of NASCAR’s most demanding tracks with all four corners of the car intact at the finish.
"It felt really good there at the end, so I learned a lot," Pastrana said. "I feel like if we could start the day over again with the knowledge we have now, we would be better but that’s my goal — more knowledgeable at the end of the day."
That was plenty for car owner Jack Roush, who gave Pastrana two thumbs up and a pat on the back after the checkered flag.
"Solid, really solid," Roush said.
"I’m trying," Pastrana said. "We learned a lot, Jack, so when we come back, we’ll be a little quicker."
"You didn’t have the best car today," Roush concluded, "but you did a nice job with it."
The other end of the communication cog that helped keep his brightly colored machine clean by day’s end happened to be veteran spotter Joel Edmonds, who also acts as the second set of eyes for Greg Biffle in the Sprint Cup series. The near-constant chatter from Edmonds was nothing entirely new for Pastrana, who became well conditioned to highly vocal spotters in rally-cross competition.
"I’ve just got to keep remembering when I can’t see people and he’s saying ‘outside’ or ‘inside,’ I tend to kind of push the envelope with how far I can go," Pastrana said, "and because I can’t see them physically and I’m hearing ‘they’re still there, still there.’ It could be three or four laps and I’m like, ‘I don’t see this imaginary person that you’re talking about! I feel fine. I want that line!’ I just need to listen better, understand it better. We’re on a pretty good pace right now."
Pastrana hasn’t forgotten to have fun along the way, adding a dose of levity to his radio transmissions. "Do we want to do something crazy here, stay out and lead a lap?" he asked during an early yellow flag. "Whatever you did there, yeah, don’t do that again," he cracked after an midrace adjustment went awry. Then, after lining up for a restart as the second car one lap down to defending Cup champ Brad Keselowski: "Augh! That’s not the guy I want to be racing for the lucky dog."
The lighter moments aside, Pastrana’s fierce determination has impressed teammate Trevor Bayne thus far. As all sides of the communication begin to click, Bayne says there’s no limit to how far Pastrana could go.
"He didn’t come here just to make laps and get experience; he wants to be good at it," Bayne said. "To be good at something you have to be a listener and you have to be able to put it into action, and that’s two things he’s shown me so far this year."
We apologize. We are having technical issues with our comment sections and fan community and it is temporarily unavailable. We are actively working on these issues and hope to have it up and running soon. We are also working on enhancements to provide a better forum for our fans. We appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience.
The defending race-winner isn’t letting early struggles get to him
MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Tony Stewart’s demeanor was more similar to a driver leading the points than one currently 24th in the standings.
There’s a difference, he said, between panic and concern.
Yes, the three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion acknowledged, he is concerned that he finds himself mired deep in the points after the season’s first four races.
But he’s not ready to strip his No. 14 team down to bare bones and start over. This isn’t the first rodeo for Stewart, now in his fifth year as co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing. With the arrival of NASCAR’s Generation-6 car, it was inevitable, he said, that some teams would come out of the gate faster than others.
“We knew there were teams that would probably figure the (new) package out (and) teams that would struggle,” Stewart said March 20 during an appearance at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. “… It’s not that there’s no emphasis on catching up, that focus is already there … but we want to win races, too. We know we can get caught up; it’s just a matter of going through the process.”
Stewart, 41, finished 41st at Daytona after he was caught up in an early accident; damage from a flat tire early last weekend at Bristol sent him to the garage for an extended period and left him 31st in the 43-car field. In between, he managed an eighth-place run at Phoenix and was 11th a week later at Las Vegas.
“I don’t care how many cautions you have,” he said of the Bristol setback, “you’re not going to get back on the lead lap from that.”
So the team made the repairs it could, sent its driver back out onto the track, and in large part due to attrition, saw him pick up a dozen spots by the end of the day.
"If you’re not concerned, you’re not doing your job."
—Tony Stewart on his early-season struggles
Teammates Ryan Newman (23rd in points) and rookie Danica Patrick (28th) have had their share of struggles this year as well. Playing catch-up, Stewart said, might mean leaning a bit more on Hendrick Motorsports, the organization that provides the cars and engines, as well as some engineering assistance.
“We’d be foolish not to at this point,” he said. “We’ve got a great working relationship with those guys. This is a time that it can come into play for us, for sure. … We have to do a little better job of taking that information and executing.”
Cup teams head west once again this weekend for the Auto Club 400, slated for March 24 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif. Stewart is the defending race winner and has won two of the last three Cup races at the 2-mile track.
Hendrick teammates Jimmie Johnson (five wins) and Jeff Gordon (three) are also multiple winners at ACS, as is Joe Gibbs Racing driver Matt Kenseth (three).
“The good thing (about going back to ACS) is I know what my car needs to feel like to have a good day on Sunday,” Stewart said. “I know what it needs to feel like on Saturday to do that. The way we ran last year – we had an awesome, awesome race car. … It will be disappointing if we don’t run well there.”
With 22 races remaining before the field is set for this year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup, Stewart knows there’s plenty of time to get his program headed back in the right direction.
Concerned? Sure. But there’s no reason to panic.
“Are you concerned when you go home and your wife’s mad at you?” Stewart asks. “Do you panic? Same thing.
“If you’re not concerned, you’re not doing your job; if you panic, you’ve got just as much opportunity to go backward as you do forward.
“We’ve got a lot of races to get these points caught up.”
__________________________________________________________________________________________
We apologize. We are having technical issues with our comment sections and fan community and it is temporarily unavailable. We are actively working on these issues and hope to have it up and running soon. We are also working on enhancements to provide a better forum for our fans. We appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience.
We apologize. We are having technical issues with our comment sections and fan community and it is temporarily unavailable. We are actively working on these issues and hope to have it up and running soon. We are also working on enhancements to provide a better forum for our fans. We appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience.
We apologize. We are having technical issues with our comment sections and fan community and it is temporarily unavailable. We are actively working on these issues and hope to have it up and running soon. We are also working on enhancements to provide a better forum for our fans. We appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience.
Performing well is the best way Logano can pay back Hamlin
Watching the replay, it’s difficult to judge intent. Did Denny Hamlin mean to nudge Joey Logano just enough to move him out of the way in the kind of racing fans have clamored for at Bristol Motor Speedway? Or, given recent history between the two drivers, was there a little more involved? Things happen fast in the close quarters of the half-mile track, never more so than now thanks to a record-setting new Sprint Cup car, and the end result Sunday was the yellow No. 22 going around, its back end impacting the outside wall.
And afterward — well, we all know what happened then. Logano climbed out of his vehicle, stormed over to the No. 11 car parked conveniently near the media center, and started shouting into the cockpit before crews intervened and shoving ensued. Just another memorable day at Bristol, where the fireworks above the track are often outshined by those popping off below. Sunday’s antics came seven months after Tony Stewart capped the previous Bristol race by tossing his helmet at Matt Kenseth’s car.
And yet, that earlier episode was provided a certain gravity by the fact the combatants shared four premier-series championships between them and were viewed more or less as antagonists on equal footing. Neither driver was in a position to simply dismiss the other, a common thread seen throughout so many Bristol feuds, be it Dale Earnhardt against Rusty Wallace or Kevin Harvick against Greg Biffle or Kenseth against Jeff Gordon. So often, those thrown water bottles or tossed helmets or pit-road shoves have been exchanged between competitors who viewed one another as peers.
Was that the case Sunday? It’s difficult to believe so, given Hamlin’s reaction. “He said he’s coming for me,” the Joe Gibbs Racing driver said of his former teammate. “I usually don’t see him, so it’s usually not a factor.” It was a cutting response that underscored the stark differences in on-track accomplishments between the two drivers — one with 22 victories who’s made the Chase for the Sprint Cup every year, another who’s won twice and never qualified for the playoff. Fair or not, NASCAR is a performance-based sport, and performance matters even if only to solidify the ground on which a driver attempts to take a stand.
Granted, this doesn’t seem to have much to do with who was right and who was wrong Sunday at Bristol, which on the surface appeared to be one of those racing deals on a short track that punches them out with regularity. But even if he does feel like the victim here, there’s only one way for a driver like Logano to get even with a driver like Hamlin, and that’s to consistently outrun him — or run even with him — on the race track. Until he gets to that point, words alone simply can’t carry enough weight, particularly in a situation where it’s unclear who exactly is at fault.
"It’s frustrating when you’ve got a car that can possibly win it, and to get taken out from something like that is just frustrating."
— Joey Logano
No question Logano is trying to get there, and that effort clearly plays into all this, given that he was running among the leaders when the incident occurred. Understandably, he views the race as a missed opportunity. “It’s frustrating when you’ve got a car that can possibly win it, and to get taken out from something like that is just frustrating,” he said Sunday. “This team deserves better. We’ve run better than we’ve finished every week so far. We should have at least four top 10s in my eyes.” Instead, he has yet to finish better than 12th.
Now, none of this should be seen as an indictment of Logano, whom no less than Roger Penske and Brad Keselowski thought enough of make him a teammate to the reigning Sprint Cup champion. The 22-year-old broke in at such at early age, and has been around NASCAR so long already that it’s easy to forget how young he is and how much potential he still has ahead of him. He already seems more comfortable and confident in his current ride than he did during his days with Gibbs. True to his word, he’s more of a threat to win races now than he’s ever been.
But that doesn’t change the fact that with actions like Sunday’s, he’s only setting himself up. His remark three years ago about Harvick’s wife wearing the firesuit in the family — great line at the time, no question — got turned around on him when DeLana Harvick started using it on T-shirts. Now Bristol, and Hamlin dismissing him in so many words. Even compliments can come out backhanded: “He’s a good little racer,” Kyle Busch said of Logano, in what was intended as a term of affection. It all paints a scenario akin to a younger brother who the big kids won’t take seriously until he starts beating them.
Toward that end, an opportunity presents itself every week. Sure, some folks will clamor for Logano to seek revenge. But Auto Club Speedway, a lightning-fast layout where the Generation-6 car promises to smash another track record, is not the place to look for it. Martinsville looms two weeks later, but taking out Hamlin on a track where he’s a favorite to win is a sure way to lose the moral high ground. Besides, which would make more of a statement — Logano dumping Hamlin, or outrunning him at a facility where he’s won four times?
Easy answer. The former entrenches a reputation of a young driver impatient to break through, the latter shows a more seasoned competitor in the midst of doing just that. And the next time Joey Logano leans into someone else’s car to voice displeasure, his adversary will have no choice but to listen. Because in NASCAR, nothing speaks louder than performance.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
We apologize. We are having technical issues with our comment sections and fan community and it is temporarily unavailable. We are actively working on these issues and hope to have it up and running soon. We are also working on enhancements to provide a better forum for our fans. We appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience.
Lesa France Kennedy and Glenn S. Ritchey appointed to board of directors
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — At The NASCAR Foundation Board of Directors’ meeting today, Lesa France Kennedy and Glenn S. Ritchey, were elected as the two newest board members.
Kennedy is CEO and Vice Chairperson of the Board of Directors for International Speedway Corporation, as well as a Vice Chairperson for NASCAR. She is actively involved with several civic organizations in the Daytona Beach area, including the Chamber of Commerce, Seaside Music Theater, Leadership Daytona, the Civic League of the Halifax Area and the United Way. She also supports Victory Junction, the American Heart Association, Daytona Beach Museum of Arts and Sciences and Moffitt Cancer Center, where she is on the Board of Advisors.
Kennedy’s long list of honors include, among others, being named “Most Powerful Woman in Sports” in 2009 by Forbes, “Most Influential Woman in Business” in 2006 by Volusia Flagler Business Report, “Most Influential Woman in Sports Business” in 2005 by Street & Smith’s Sports Business Journal and “Female Sports Executive of the Year” in 2001 by Street & Smith’s Sports Business Journal.
Ritchey is the President and CEO of the Jon Hall Automotive Group/Ritchey Autos Southeast Automotive Management, one of the nation’s most successful automotive companies. The former two-term Daytona Beach mayor is on numerous boards and has served as Chairman of the following: Daytona Beach’s Board of Adjustments, Halifax Hospital Medical Center and its Foundation, Lively Arts Center, GMAC’s Dealer Advisory Board, Crime Stoppers, The Civic League of the Halifax Area, Halifax Area Chamber of Commerce and the Daytona Beach Rotary Club. He also serves as a Trustee on the Board of Embry Riddle Aeronautical University.
Ritchey has been presented the GM Dealer of the Year Award every year from 2002-2012, and the Genuine Leader Award from Chevrolet Motor Division every year since its inception in 1999. Among many other distinctions, he has also been honored with the Martin Luther King Chairman’s Leadership Award (2011), NAACP Humanitarian of the Year Award (2010) and the VCard Citizen of the Year Award (2008).
“This is a proud day for me on a personal and professional level,” said Betty Jane France, chairwoman of The NASCAR Foundation. “My daughter Lesa France Kennedy has become one of the country’s leading sports executives. Glenn Ritchey has excelled in the business world and community service. Collectively, they bring a wealth of expertise to The NASCAR Foundation. And then, most importantly, they both are simply good, caring individuals who personify what the foundation is all about.”
We apologize. We are having technical issues with our comment sections and fan community and it is temporarily unavailable. We are actively working on these issues and hope to have it up and running soon. We are also working on enhancements to provide a better forum for our fans. We appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience.