Posted on by Holly Cain

Rolex 24 victor plans to rebound after tough 2011 and 2012 Cup campaigns

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — “Welcome back to Victory Lane.”

Those were the first words Juan Pablo Montoya heard over the radio from team owner Chip Ganassi as he drove the winning car past the checkered flag in Sunday’s Rolex 24 at Daytona.

And they were as much pep talk as they were congratulatory.

Sure, Montoya’s boss was overjoyed at his team’s historic Rolex 24 win, but he was equally as encouraged to see his driver’s change in fortune. 

It’s been two long years since the Colombian super talent hoisted any trophy or sprayed champagne. His last NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory came two summers ago on the venerable Watkins Glen, N.Y., road course and if you had told Montoya then that he’d be 0-fer ever after, he would have laughed dismissively.

"It was harder (to take) because I have never worked that hard in my life."

— Juan Pablo Montoya, on his disappointing 2012 season

“At this point, I think Chip and everybody, we all expected to run a lot better and have more wins (on the Cup side),’’ Montoya said. “Absolutely more wins.

“But I think Chip realized last year a lot needed to be done and he put a lot of things in place. The problem is once you put all those things in place, you’re not going to get results overnight. I hope we’re going in the right direction and it’s given us a little bit of a window to show we’re headed in the right path.’’

Ganassi is absolutely convinced that for Montoya, the sports car win is a good omen for the stock car.

“That’s a big shot in the arm for any driver in any series to start off the season with a win, and obviously it’s a completely different car than he’s driving on a full‑time basis, but a win is a win, and it all adds up and it all means something,’’ Ganassi said. “There’s not a driver out there that’ll tell you it’s not a motivating factor to start the season off with a win.”

It’s the third Rolex 24 victory for Montoya in a race that pits the best drivers from all forms of racing against one another. His seven Formula One victories, his 1999 Indy car championship, the 2000 Indianapolis 500 win and his two victories in NASCAR’s big leagues have earned Montoya elite status even in that company.

But he’s noticed that even during NASCAR race weekends, autograph seekers still overwhelmingly hold out F1 photos or memorabilia for him to sign or want to talk about his dominating victory in his first Indy 500 try.

And it motivates Montoya to diversify his resume with more stock car success, even if it’s been a more difficult path than he or Ganassi originally figured.

Because of his open-wheel background, Montoya’s wins at the series’ two road courses — Sonoma, Calif., (2007) and Watkins Glen (2010) — were no surprise. But after making the Chase for the Sprint Cup in 2009, Montoya’s No. 42 Target team has struggled, undergoing multiple transitions in the elusive search for the right chemistry.

Last year, for the first time in his career — including his seasons in Formula One and Indy cars — Montoya failed to have a single top-five finish. His two top-10 showings were also a career-low in Sprint Cup competition. He led only 22 laps all season.

“It’s frustrating because our speed wasn’t that bad — I mean, we had some really bad weeks — but our luck, there was nothing we could do to make it right,’’ Montoya said. “Everything we worked on, there was always something that went wrong. Things that are completely outrageous that never happen were happening. It was just an off year for everybody.

“The good thing is it makes everyone work harder and focus more. Everyone on this team is focused more. I’m more focused and determined to do well and I think it’s going to pay off.’’

Montoya insists that he has adapted his driving style for NASCAR and has been as perplexed as any of the armchair quarterbacks who expected more from one of the sport’s great natural talents.

“Last year, everybody just had such high hopes, honestly,’’ Montoya explained, saying that his team was prepared to better an underachieving, winless 2011 season that resulted in only two top-fives.

“We started the year thinking ‘we can’t do this again.’ And we actually did worse (in 2012).

“It was harder (to take) because I have never worked that hard in my life. I put a lot of time and effort into it. If you told me to look back and find where I could have done a better job, honestly, I would be speechless. I looked at everything and we worked at everything.’’

This season, the Earnhardt Ganassi Racing team will use Hendrick Motorsports power. Montoya is hopeful that proven entity combined with the new Generation-6 car will be just the break the team needs to re-establish it as a legitimate contender.

And it can’t come soon enough.

“In a weird way, I don’t want to be overly optimistic about it because last year I was and it was such a hard year so I want to keep the emotions in check,’’ Montoya said, pausing to make eye contact.

“But we’ve been going testing and we’ve been pretty good. … And we all have big hopes. We just have to go out there when it matters and get the job done.’’

Posted on by Staff Report

Steve Wallace to drive in limited schedule

Rusty Wallace Racing will return to the race track in a limited capacity in 2013, with Steve Wallace behind the wheel of the team’s No. 66 car beginning with the Nationwide Series event at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

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The team plans to announce other races at a later date. Richard Tocado Companies, a mortgage and real estate firm based in North Carolina, will back the team’s entry in the May 25 event at Charlotte. Rusty Wallace said the team hopes to compete in 10 to 15 events over the course of the season.

“I think we all learned a lot over the last year or two,” Wallace said, “and we’re looking forward to having the opportunity to show it.”

RWR shut down its two-car Nationwide Series operation in January of 2012 due to a lack of sponsorship. Former driver Michael Annett has since moved on to Richard Petty Motorsports, where he enjoyed the best season of his career last year. Steve Wallace made one Nationwide start last season, finishing 11th in a second-hand car he and a friend fielded themselves.

Rusty Wallace had fielded cars on the Nationwide tour since 1985, winning four times, the most recent with Jamie McMurray in 2004. Annett and Steve Wallace finished ninth and 10th, respectively, in 2011, their most recent full-time campaigns with the organization.

Posted on by Nascar

MWR driver hopes to hand over competitive ride for 2014

CONCORD, N.C. — Based solely on how well he continues to perform on the track, and the strength of his No. 55 Aaron’s Toyota team, it would not be far-fetched to label Mark Martin a favorite to qualify for this year’s Chase For The Sprint Cup.

Except for the fact that Martin, who just turned 54, will once again be splitting the driving duties of the Michael Waltrip Racing entry with teammates Brian Vickers and co-owner Michael Waltrip.

“I did that once,” Martin said, managing a laugh in spite of the fact that he no doubt gets asked about returning to full-time competition about as often as he climbs into a race car.

"His focus and determination is incredible."
—  Clint Bowyer, teammate

For the second consecutive year, Martin will be competing in the majority of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races for the team — 24 points races as well as both The Sprint Unlimited At Daytona and the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race, which are non-points events.

Vickers is scheduled to compete in nine races while Waltrip will compete in three of the series’ four restrictor-plate stops for the team.

Of more importance, Martin said, is making sure the No. 55 team is as competitive as possible, not only for 2013 but for the following season as well. By then, he said, he will be focusing his efforts elsewhere.

 “I don’t expect to be in it (in 2014),” he said. “That’s not my goal. My goal is to help Rodney (Childers, crew chief) make the 55 team a very, very sought after ride for 2014. That’s my whole mission. It’s not anything personal for me. I‘ll take a trophy (anytime) I can get one, don’t get me wrong. But it’s really important to make that a highly sought after ride.

“Rodney Childers is an amazing crew chief and I want to see him get to run for a championship. He and I have built a really strong tie and I hope to be able to help him beyond 2013.”

What Martin will be doing beyond the 2013 season, however, is anyone’s guess. It’s not something that concerns the veteran racer at this time. While he has discussed what his role might be going forward, he said it’s “way too soon” to look too far down the road.

The 2012 season was Martin’s first with MWR, and while running the limited schedule, Martin still managed five top-five and 10 top-10 finishes, as well as four poles. His points finish of 26th was higher than 10 others who competed in more races during the year.

A runner-up five times in the battle for the championship, Martin has 40 career wins in Cup, as well as 49 in Nationwide and seven in the Camping World Truck Series.

So what’s next for the driver who coyly admits he’ll “still be around?”

“This year,” he said, “having fun and being part of the organization.”

His presence is appreciated by everyone at MWR, but perhaps none more than Vickers, who is considered the likely candidate to take over the ride full time in 2014.

“You learn a lot over time, but you only learn from one perspective,” Vickers said when asked about Martin’s influence. “When you take knowledge from a different perspective, from another set of eyes, it’s always going to be unique and different; there’s always something to learn from it. When you take in perspective from not just another set of eyes, but that set of eyes, it’s valuable.

“Just watching him in action, how he interacts with the team, how he is always so positive, how he drives the car. I’ve really picked his brain.”

Clint Bowyer, who along with Martin Truex Jr. fields one of the two remaining Cup entries at MWR, calls Martin “a class act.”

“He’s a racer,” said Bowyer. “He’s driven beyond belief. His focus and determination is incredible and is just a great asset for our program and to be around as an individual.”

Waltrip describes himself and Martin as not only partners, but they also bond over being “the two old guys,” he said, adding that he’d be open to keeping Martin behind the wheel if such an opportunity presented itself.

“I love the way he became engaged at MWR in 2012 and just encourage him to continue to be a part of the 55 team even if he and I aren’t driving in 2014,” Waltrip said. “Maybe we can be supportive of (the) future driver and he can help mentor whoever that might be. He can mentor them on the track because he’s proven to be a Hall of Famer at that and I’ll help mentor them with the sponsorship services that we like to see at MWR.”

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The 2012 Sprint Cup champion checked another item off his bucket list

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Kid Rock is causing a problem.

Or, more specifically, one of his songs is. Brad Keselowski is at the studios of a local rock radio station where he’s been given an hour to play anything he wants, and the reigning champion of the Sprint Cup Series wants to open big — with a boot-stomping Kid Rock anthem that he feels symbolizes his Michigan roots. The issue is, the song prominently features an expletive. In the title. And even though there’s a clean version, stations are supposed to play it only at night.

Keselowski, true to form, will hear nothing of it. He’s chosen a list of songs for his hour guest-hosting the afternoon drive-time shift at WEND 106.5-FM, and each one of the tunes is significant to him personally.

Including the one by Kid Rock.

“I was at this place in my life,” Keselowski lobbies, “and this song was a motivator to help me go out there and kick ass.”

Of course, who wouldn’t have expected the Penske Racing driver to arrive and instantly shake things up? Rock ‘n’ roll has been a part of Keselowski’s life as long as he can remember, and his passion for it ranks close behind driving the car. Early on when his dad was off racing, Keselowski stayed with his grandmother, and the cousin who cared for her exposed him to Led Zeppelin records. Later, during those long hours in the shop he and his brother Brian spent working on the race car, the radio was a constant companion.

Last year at Food Lion Speed Street, the festival in downtown Charlotte that coincides with Coca-Cola 600 weekend, Keselowski asked WEND afternoon DJ Chuck Thompson — who on-air goes by the name DZL (pronounced “Diesel”) — why the station didn’t play more Metallica. Thompson made Keselowski a deal: You win the Sprint Cup championship, you can come and play anything you want. Soon after the driver secured the title, publicist David Hovis was on the phone with the station making it happen.

So this past Friday there was Keselowski, arriving at a station festooned with Miller Lite promotional items, including several of the big beer glasses the driver made famous during his championship celebration at Homestead and buckets of longnecks on ice.

“I was nervous, and then some big news story broke today,” Keselowski says before going on-air. “Then I figured, no matter what I do, it’s probably not going to be that big a deal.”

Oh, there will be more than a few mentions of Danica Patrick and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. during Keselowski’s stint behind the microphone, including a song dedication — Collective Soul’s “Shine” — sent out to “NASCAR’s newest power couple.” But to Keselowski, this is primarily an attempt to tell his own story through music. Struggle, triumph, motivation, overcoming obstacles, relocating to North Carolina — they’ll all be encapsulated in the nine songs he plays over the one hour the station allows him to take control.

“They all have a little personal flavor and touch to them, and that’s what makes them special,” he says. “The thing about music that’s great is, it’s an awesome way to tell a story. It’s a way to tell a story without it being really boring. But it can tell a story about your life, it can tell a story about what you need to be motivated (for), it just offers so many perspectives, and that’s why I have such a love affair with it. Every one of these songs has some kind of meaning to me.”

But first, the basics. Keselowski and Thompson hold a brief production meeting to go over the driver’s playlist, where the DJ explains that some songs might be shuffled to prevent similar-sounding tunes from going back-to-back, and others might have to be cut because of time. The Kid Rock issue is discussed at length and then kicked upstairs. Fixtures like traffic and weather can’t be overlooked, given that Keselowski will be on-air during afternoon drive time, and on a day when Charlotte is being pelted by freezing rain.

"I can check this off my bucket list. The next thing I’m going to do is jump a Harley through a ring of fire."

— Brad Keselowski

Once inside the studio, Thompson gives Keselowski a primer on the sound board, instructing him on how to control volume levels and select songs preloaded into a computer. He’s extremely patient, befitting a 14-year industry vet who teaches radio each summer at Appalachian State. Thompson explains tricks like “hitting the post,” or speaking right up to — but not over — the moment a song begins to ramp up. Before long, Keselowski will be working all the knobs and dials as comfortably as the switches inside his race car, tossing out terms like “two-song set,” throwing it to traffic and weather, and hitting the post like a center in the NBA.

“Dude,” the driver says during an early break, “we’re going to own this.”

There are fist bumps all around. “You’re killing this thing,” Thompson tells him later. “You’re doing way better than I expected.”

Indeed, even WEND program director Jack Daniel sticks his head into the studio at one point to offer praise. “You ever retire,” he tells Keselowski, “you’ve found something else you can do.”

But first, there’s Kid Rock. After spending the first hour as a co-host, Keselowski moves behind the board at 5 p.m. His scheduled opener has been in limbo all afternoon, given that within the industry tunes with such explicit lyrics are considered “safe harbor” songs, and stations aren’t supposed to play them during drive time. Before Keselowski goes on the air, though, Daniel enters the studio and says an exception has been made in this case. An edited version of Kid Rock will rock on after all, pleasing the guest host to no end.

“I had to open with Kid Rock, being from Detroit, Rock City,” says Keselowski, whose hometown of Rochester Hills, Mich., is a Detroit suburb. “That song just kind of personifies me.”

Many of the choices on his playlist come from a deeply personal place — like Moby’s “Porcelain,” a somber, introspective cut that Keselowski said he listened to often after his parents went bankrupt trying to keep the family’s racing team afloat. At the time, Keselowski was even thinking about joining the military.

“That song was like my driving force to keep going,” he says. It’s dedicated to a listener named Caleb, whom a caller says is going through a difficult time.

Conversely, there’s Linkin Park’s “One Step Closer,” an angry screamer that Keselowski refers to as “my hater song."

"I thought about that in the Chase last year when everyone said, ‘Jimmie Johnson is going to wax your ass,’” he said. Keselowski and Johnson battled down to the wire last season, with the Penske driver besting the five-time champion in the final event of the year.

The hour rolls on, with Keselowski spinning up Godsmack, Staind, Beck and Alice in Chains. He’s received plenty of requests over Twitter for Cake’s race-car themed “Going the Distance,” but that one seems too predictable. “I’m not a cliché guy,” he says. “I’m trying to be original.” Which he certainly proves by choosing a little-known band named Red Light King that he was first exposed to while living with Dale Earnhardt Jr., back when there were plenty of parties in the basement bar known as Club E.

“The first time I heard this was in Dale Jr.’s basement,” Keselowski says. “So let’s listen to some Dale Jr. bar music.”

It all goes by in a flash and suddenly Keselowski is playing his final selection, Rage Against the Machine’s “Bulls on Parade,” a relentless charger that can make anyone want to get in a car and drive 200 mph. Keselowski goes out strong, not just hitting the post, but slamming it right as Tom Morello’s opening guitar riff shifts into high gear. Except for a few minor hiccups, it’s been a flawless hour. Thompson beams like a proud father as he and Keselowski once again trade fist bumps.

Afterward, the NASCAR champion signs some autographs, trades some handshakes, poses for a few photographs. There’s some informal talk about him coming back one day, particularly if he wins another title. Keselowski seems to enjoy every moment of the experience, right up until the time he climbs into his icicle-covered car for the drive home. Inside the vehicle, the radio will surely be playing, just as it was during all those days back at the race shop while he was growing up.

“This is just a dream come true,” Keselowski says in the final moments of his on-air shift. “I can check this off my bucket list. The next thing I’m going to do is jump a Harley through a ring of fire.”

Posted on by NASCAR Official Release

Record winning percentage forged NASCAR Hall of Fame credentials

Editor’s note: This release is part of a series in advance of the 2013 NASCAR Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in Charlotte, N.C. on Feb. 8, broadcast live at 7:30 p.m. ET on SPEED, Motor Racing Network Radio and SiriusXM Satellite Radio. Buck Baker, Cotton Owens, Herb Thomas, Rusty Wallace and Leonard Wood are the five 2013 inductees. This installment spotlights two-time premier series champion driver Herb Thomas. Click here to download and listen to a special NASCAR Hall of Fame podcast on Herb Thomas with historian Buz McKim.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Take it from the King. Herb Thomas stood tall in an era when the stock in stock car truly defined what NASCAR’s pioneers raced.

“He was as good as they come,” said Richard Petty. “There have been very few guys who had more confidence in what he could do than Herb. He was so strong-minded that he willed his wins and what he was doing on the track.

“He was going to beat the guys on the track no matter what was going on. That was his mind-set.”

High praise indeed from a driver whose father, Lee, battled door to door with Thomas and traded NASCAR championships with him. Both Pettys, father and son, are members of the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Thomas is due to be inducted into the hall on Friday, Feb. 8, along with fellow NASCAR premier series champions Buck Baker and Rusty Wallace; championship owner Cotton Owens; and innovative crew chief, mechanic and engine builder Leonard Wood.

Thomas, born into a farming family in Olivia, N.C., not far from where North Carolina Motor Speedway would be built, was NASCAR’s first two-time champion. He captured premier series titles in 1951 and 1953 and finished second in two other seasons including 1954, Lee Petty’s first of three championship years.

PROFILES OF INDUCTEES
Ceremony set for Feb. 8

• Buck Baker
• Cotton Owens
• Herb Thomas
• Rusty Wallace
• Leonard Wood

Thomas, who died in 2000 at the age of 77, won 48 races between 1951 and 1956, establishing a record winning percentage of 21.05 percent over a 228-race career. He ranks 13th among all-time NASCAR premier series winners. Thomas won three of the first six Southern 500s at Darlington Raceway.

“It’s win or bust,” Thomas once said. “Second place is never good enough.”

Thomas caught the racing bug in 1947 when he attended a modified race in Greensboro, N.C., with a group of friends. He bought one shortly thereafter but never had much success with the car. Thomas’ son, Victor Herbert Thomas, guessed that his father honed his driving skills behind the wheel of a dump truck hauling dirt over winding back roads to Ft. Bragg, N.C., during World War II.

“Daddy came from farming; he never was associated with the moonshine bunch,” he said of his father, who cut timber and operated a saw mill.

Although he won in a variety of cars, Thomas forever will be remembered as the driver of the No. 92 Fabulous Hudson Hornet powered by engines built by Smokey Yunick, owner of the self-proclaimed “Best Damn Garage” in Daytona Beach, Fla.

Thomas, who had won races earlier in the season driving a Plymouth and an Oldsmobile, switched to a factory-supported Hudson Motor Car Co. effort in mid-1951. The Hornet featured a high-torque inline six cylinder engine and — according to Thomas — a low center of gravity which gave the car a performance edge.

The biggest edge, however, appeared to be the driver himself.

“The tracks were rough, dusty and weren’t hard-packed (clay). You had to learn to drive around the holes,” said Hershel McGriff, who competed against Thomas in 1954 and won five races driving an Oldsmobile for Frank Christian. “He was real competitive."

Baker frequently was quoted as saying, “The one guy you have to beat is Herb Thomas.”

Thomas won seven times in 1951 — five of the victories in his Hudson — and won the championship by a comfortable margin over Fonty Flock and became NASCAR’s first driver/owner title holder. He posted eight wins a year later, but finished second to Tim Flock, who also drove a Hudson.

Thomas won 12 times in both 1953 and 1954 as he and Lee Petty swapped championships. By 1955, Hudson’s factory presence was gone and Thomas switched to Chevrolets and Buicks. He crashed in May’s race at Charlotte Speedway, a 0.750-mile dirt track suffering injuries that sidelined Thomas through most of the summer. Yet Thomas returned to win the Southern 500 for the third time and finished fifth in points despite missing 19 races.

The 1956 season was Thomas’ last as a full-time competitor. He won five times including three consecutive victories in Portland, Ore., Eureka, Calif., and Merced, Calif., at the wheel of Carl Kiekhafer’s No. 300B Chrysler 300. His crew chief was current NASCAR Hall of Fame nominee Ray Fox.

Thomas raced three more times in 1957 and 1962 before retiring for good.

"I used to pass everyone in the turns. Now they pass me in the turns. It’s time to hang it up,” he said. “There’s no use running if you can’t be first.”

Thomas’ son, Victor, recalls his father his father as being quiet and never one to brag about his accomplishments.

“He always respected others and wasn’t a talker but if he said something, it would be the truth,” he said. “He never thought of himself as being a NASCAR champion. He was just a regular guy; a humble man.”

Induction ceremonies will take place at 7:30 p.m. ET in the Crown Ball Room at the Charlotte Convention Center which is directly connected to the NASCAR Hall of Fame. The event is the first half of NASCAR Acceleration Weekend followed on Saturday, Feb. 9 by NASCAR Preview 2013. Tickets for the ceremonies start at $45 (available at www.nascaracceleration.com) and the NASCAR Hall of Fame box office. In addition, a $20 ticket will gain fans all-day access into NASCAR Preview 2013 and the NASCAR Hall of Fame on Saturday, Feb. 9.

Posted on by NASCAR Official Release

Length of segments has been deicded, but pit stop and car elimination among aspects fans can still decide for The Sprint Unlimited at Daytona

This story originally ran on NASCAR.com on Jan. 21, 2013.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — NASCAR and Sprint confirmed today that fans will have a direct impact on several competition elements of the newly titled The Sprint Unlimited At Daytona, the 75-lap non-points race that opens the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.

Fans will play an integral part in how the fan-favorite race unfolds on Saturday, Feb. 16 (8 p.m. ET, FOX, FOX Deportes, Motor Racing Network Radio and SiriusXM Satellite Radio) at Daytona International Speedway. By casting their vote, fans are invited to design several competition aspects of the preseason event, including:

–        The number of laps in each segment

–        The type of pit stop a team makes after the first segment

–        How many cars will be eliminated after the second segment 

SPRINT UNLIMITED   
Sprint Cup Series kick-off

Fans decide: Vote on format

Mobile experience
New innovations for 2013

Sprint Unlimited content
Event gets an overhaul
New name, same setting
Video: Kyle Busch’s 2012 save

Votes can be cast on NASCAR’s new official mobile app — NASCAR Mobile ’13 — or at NASCAR.com/SprintUnlimited. All votes made through the NASCAR Mobile ’13 app will count twice.

“We are excited to provide our fan base this first-of-its-kind opportunity to directly be involved in determining the race’s format and in-race decisions,” said Robin Pemberton, NASCAR vice president of competition. “By allowing our fans this type of interaction, it is our hope that more fans will be tuned in to the event than ever before.”  

The voting window for the race format will close on Wednesday, Feb. 13 at 11:59 p.m. ET. The voting windows for the pit stop and elimination will close at various times throughout the race broadcast. Vote results will be relayed to teams during each segment and announced live on the FOX race broadcast.

“Giving fans such a strong voice in the design of the race is a fitting way to launch our 10th season in the sport,” said Steve Gaffney, Sprint vice president of corporate marketing. “We are giving them the ultimate access to the sport, the decision-making power to sculpt the type of race they want to see. With today’s technology, they can make these decisions in real time as the race is happening.”

“Sprint has been a great partner for the sport and I applaud them for developing new and innovative ways to give the race fans an unprecedented role in The Sprint Unlimited,” said Joie Chitwood III, Daytona International Speedway president. “We have some of the most passionate and knowledgeable fans in sports and I’m looking forward to seeing the choices they make and how it will impact this exciting star-studded event.”

Fan voting categories include:

Length of each of the three race segments:

Choice A: 40 laps, 20 laps, 15 laps

Choice B: 35 laps, 30 laps, 10 laps

Choice C: 30 laps, 25 laps, 20 laps

*Race format voting ends at 11:59 p.m. EST on Wednesday, Feb. 13.

 

Team pit stop after the first segment:

Choice A: No pit stop

Choice B: Two (2) tire change

Choice C: Four (4) tire change

*Pit stop voting concludes at the green flag of the first segment.

How many cars will be eliminated after the second segment:

Choice A: None (0)

Choice B: Two (2) cars eliminated

Choice C: Four (4) cars eliminated

Choice D: Six (6) cars eliminated

*Elimination voting concludes at the green flag of the first segment.

Fans are encouraged to follow @NASCAR and @MissSprintCup on Twitter to engage in the #SprintUnlimited conversation throughout the voting window.

Posted on by Staff Report

J.J. Yeley will pilot Tommy Baldwin Racing’s No. 36 full time in 2013

Longtime NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver J.J. Yeley will drive the No. 36 Chevrolet SS for Tommy Baldwin Racing full time this season. Yeley drove for the team three times in 2012 at Indianapolis, Watkins Glen and Dover.

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TBR announced Monday that Golden Corral would return to the team in 2013 as a primary sponsor for the No. 36 at the four superspeedway races. On Tuesday, the team announced an additional primary sponsor for three races. United Mining Equipment (UME) will be on Yeley’s car at Kentucky Speedway and both races at Bristol.

Yeley has a diverse background in racing, driving in all three of NASCAR’s premier series, the ARCA racing series, IndyCar and IROC and has participated in Tony Stewart’s annual Prelude to the Dream several times, coming in second in 2011.

Golden Corral will also bring back its “Top 10 Kids Eat Free” promotion. Only it will be called “J.J.’s Mondays” on the Monday following the race if Yeley finishes in the top 10.

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The No. 01 BMW/Riley of Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates captured the 51st Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona International Speedway

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — With the swagger of inevitably, given a decisive power advantage, the No. 01 BMW/Riley of Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates captured the 51st Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona International Speedway. (See full results here.)

Juan Pablo Montoya finished first in the crown jewel of GRAND-AM sports car racing, crossing the finish line of the grueling 24-hour race 21.92 seconds ahead of Max Angelelli in the No. 10 Chevrolet of Wayne Taylor. Defending champion AJ Allmendinger ran third in Michael Shank’s No. 60 Ford.

Filipe Albuquerque won the GT classification, finishing ninth overall with Audi R8 teammates Oliver Jarvis, Edoardo Mortara and Dion von Moltke. David Donohue captured first in the new GX division, winning the class in a Porsche Cayman with teammates Shane Lewis, Nelson Canache and Jim Norman. 

Montoya’s closing drive made a five-time overall winner of teammate Scott Pruett, who tied Hurley Haywood for the record in that category. Pruett extended his own record to 10 class wins in the Rolex 24, six of those coming in Daytona Prototypes.

"They did their homework and they played the game the best."

— AJ Allmendinger

Haywood, the race’s grand marshal, was one of the first to congratulate Pruett in Victory Lane.

“It’s just an incredible day all the way around, winning with these guys, winning with Chip, with (sponsor) TELMEX, with BMW,” Pruett said. “And then at the end of it, having gotten to know Hurley real well over the years by racing with him and just as a friend, and to have him there at the end was pretty special, a very special thing.”

Memo Rojas and Charlie Kimball teamed with Pruett and Montoya for the victory, which was owner Chip Ganassi’s record fifth in 10 tries. Montoya and Rojas each claimed their third victories in the Rolex 24. Kimball, who races despite being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, recorded his first.

The defending-champion No. 60 Ford/Riley found trouble almost immediately. Allmendinger, who took the checkered flag last year, started off in the car, but 40 minutes into the race, he returned to pit road with a broken tie rod in the left front.

Allmendinger lost seven laps while the crew repaired the suspension damage. After regaining three laps under subsequent cautions, the No. 60 again was seven laps down after a fueling issue forced the car back to the garage.

Throughout the night, however, the team rallied, regaining lost laps under a spate of cautions. A caution for debris at 10:20 a.m. put the No. 60 back on the lead lap, and superb drives by Justin Wilson and Marcos Ambrose brought the car to the second position, where it was running when Allmendinger took over for the final stint under green at 1:45 p.m.

Two minutes earlier, Montoya had replaced Pruett, in pain from an old ankle injury, as the No. 01 readied for its stretch run. Pruett made the call to take himself out of the car.

“It’s no secret that I’ve gotten pretty beat up over the years, especially in IndyCar,” Pruett said. “I don’t know, for some reason my left ankle was bothering me a lot. It was really painful, and sometimes that happens. I knew I could go out and run a fast pace, but I wasn’t confident that if I had to go head to head, some real hard, close racing, that I’d have enough strength in my ankle to be able to get it done.

“I told (team manager) Timmy (Keane), ‘I don’t want to do this, but for the good of the team, we need to do it because we don’t know how this thing is going to unfold, we don’t know who’s going to be there at the end.’ And I got in and ran a couple stints right there at the end and put us in a solid position. Juan got in and just did a tremendous job.”

Though the stakes for Pruett multiplied the pressure of the situation, Montoya made the most of his BMW power and opened a lead of 26 seconds before a caution at 2 p.m. for debris at the start/finish line slowed the race.

“It was a lot of pressure,” Montoya acknowledged. “I thought, ‘We have a decent lead, we’re just going to go out there and ride for two and a half hours or whatever is left,’ and then you realize there’s a caution and another caution and another caution…

“We were kind of concerned about the (60) car, what they were going to do with fuel, because they told me they could make it until the end and that we were going to have to push, and we pushed like crazy and opened up a hell of a gap. It was fun.”

Nevertheless, Allmendinger grabbed the lead during the exchange of pit stops, restarted with 70 minutes left and held the top spot for six minutes of scintillating racing before Montoya powered to the outside approaching the exit from the banking and cleared the No. 60 as the cars entered the infield.

Caution for debris at 2:30 p.m. — with one hour, two minutes left in the race — bunched the field again, but Montoya soon passed Max Angelelli for the lead. Both drivers stopped for fuel in the final six minutes, leaving Montoya with his decisive advantage.

The race was not without controversy. In a general sense, the Ganassi cars had a clear power advantage over their Chevrolet and Ford rivals. In fact, GRAND-AM officials mandated a horsepower restriction for the Chevrolets before the weekend — based in part on dynamometer comparisons — and relaxed it only slightly after Pruett and Dixon spanked the rest of the field in qualifying.

Angelelli said he couldn’t feel the post-qualifying change.

"Did they change?" he asked facetiously after his first stint in the No. 10 Corvette. "No feeling at all. If the change is .000001 millimeter, it is not a change. They need to be released (from the horsepower restriction). Just look at the top speed. It is very simple."

Ganassi credited aerodynamics, specifically the ability to run his cars with minimum wing, for their dominant speed at the end of the straightaway. After the race, Angelelli scoffed at that explanation.

“Montoya was in his own league,” Angelelli said. “He was ‘A’ class. We were ‘B’ class… it was like driving with handcuffs.” 

Despite holding off Montoya for four laps after a restart with 70 minutes left, Allmendinger echoed those sentiments.

“They had the cars to beat, for sure,” Allmendinger said. “They did their homework, and it’s no secret that with the way testing works, everybody is kind of hiding some stuff and trying to keep it in reserve for the race. Last year we were able to capitalize on that, and we got our turn and won the race.

“You know, it was their turn. They did their homework and they played the game the best. When it’s your year, you’ve got to capitalize on it. We did that last year; they did that this year.”

The fastest car in the field — Ganassi’s No. 02 driven by Dixon, Dario Franchitti, Joey Hand and Jamie McMurray — fell out after sunrise. McMurray’s collision with the pit road wall at 5:47 a.m. cost the team seven laps for repairs.

"It didn’t seem like the pit road speed monitor was working, and I got panicked," McMurray said. "I was speeding, just reading the dash. When I got to the end of pit road, I was too hot trying to exit the pits on cold tires.

"It’s crazy how slick it is. I just made a mistake. I feel like an idiot, because we have the best cars, and it’s really about making it to the end. I didn’t do anything out of the ordinary — I just messed up."

The No. 02 team regained all but two of the laps lost before Franchitti stopped on the track at 11:48 a.m., causing a caution that gave his teammates the opportunity for a much-needed brake change. Rival owners Shank and Taylor took umbrage at the coincidence.

But Franchitti bristled at the suggestion that he had caused the caution deliberately, believing instead that he still had a chance to win the race.

"We were two laps down, so it was very doable," Franchitti said. I think, if we got back on the lead lap, we could have created some hassle for the other guys. … It just lost drive. I could go up through all the gears, but it wouldn’t go anywhere. No warning at all."

Other notes:

Pruett extended his career Rolex Series victory record to 40. Rojas, his full-time teammate, is second with 26 wins… The race was run under caution for one hour, 45 minutes Sunday morning because of heavy fog. That’s the second time in three years the Rolex 24 has experienced a significant fog delay… The event featured a record 74 changes of the overall lead… The top three finishers all completed 709 laps over the 3.56-mile road course.

Posted on by Holly Cain

Several drivers from NASCAR’s national series take GRAND-AM teams to the finish line

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — After 23 hours, the 51st Rolex 24 at Daytona came down to the final few minutes, and it was NASCAR’s own Juan Pablo Montoya who delivered on the 3.56-mile Daytona International Speedway road course Sunday, collecting his third Rolex win and assuring his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Pruett a record-tying fifth.

It was the second straight year a NASCAR driver was not only on the winning team, but was the driver who brought the car to one of racing’s most prestigious checkered flags.

And as it turned out, Montoya’s biggest threat in the end came from last year’s winner and fellow Sprint Cup Driver AJ Allmendinger, who co-drove with NASCAR’s road racing superstar Marcos Ambrose.

In the final hour, Montoya and Allmendinger raced through the tricky infield portion of the course as if they were tangling on a NASCAR short track.

“I knew he was going to get by, I was just going to make him work for it, I wasn’t going to make it easy on him,’’ explained a smiling Allmendinger, who ended up third.

“Obviously, with his background in racing in general, it’s fun to compete against him,’’ Allmendinger added. “But I don’t look at it just as NASCAR and NASCAR. Obviously, we both have diverse backgrounds, so it’s just fun to compete with somebody like that for the win.’’

Montoya said he was trying to be patient and ultimately it came down to a fuel mileage situation anyway.

“With the speed we had on the car, it felt like we didn’t have to take any risk,’’ Montoya said. “I think we’ve both been doing NASCAR for a while and you learn the give and take and you learn to share the race track, and that’s something here other people don’t do.’’

While Montoya, Allmendinger and Ambrose represented NASCAR on the podium, their fellow stock car competitors left the track exhausted, but also mostly satisfied.

Last season’s Camping World Truck Series’ "Most Popular Driver" Nelson Piquet Jr. finished eighth overall, tweeting afterward what a great time he had in the race and that he will "soon be announcing my NASCAR plans." 

Two-time Daytona 500 winner Michael Waltrip and his co-driver, 2012 Sprint Cup championship runner-up Clint Bowyer, looked as if they could race another few hours.

They finished 16th overall in a Ferrari 458 — eighth in the production-based GT class — and for a fair portion of the event kept themselves in contention for a podium finish.

"With the speed we had on the car, it felt like we didn’t have to take any risk."

— Juan Pablo Montoya

“We were always just close enough to getting on the podium that it kept us engaged every moment,’’ Waltrip said. “I think Clint (Bowyer) said it best when he said that car was ‘one tough son-of-a-gun.’ It felt and drove the same in the last hour as it did in the first.

“I love being a part of this (race). Just being at Daytona and of course, what this place means to me. It’s all good when you’re driving a Ferrari on a Sunday afternoon in Daytona.’’

Bowyer, who was making his Rolex debut, seemed as happy as he could be without taking home any winning hardware. He had stints driving in the sunset, in the middle of the night, in the morning as fog brought out a caution period and then finally in the race’s closing hours.

“It took me ’til daylight to have a little fun,’’ Bowyer said with a smile. “That stint was probably my best and I enjoyed it the best. The fog was kinda boring. But we got back on the lead lap. … And that’s what’s neat, just seeing the rejuvenation in everyone’s faces. But it’s no different than what we do every week in NASCAR.’’

And, he added, “I’m not tired at all.’’

It was an early day for Montoya’s Ganassi teammate, 2010 Daytona 500 winner Jamie McMurray. He co-drove on Ganassi’s second car, which retired from the race because of mechanical problems with three hours remaining.

That wasn’t to say McMurray didn’t have an eventful event first, however.

His car hit an air hose exiting the pits Saturday night and after serving a penalty, McMurray went back on track and turned some of the fastest laps of the race, putting the car out front for a good portion of the early going.

Early Sunday morning, a problem with the speed limiter on the dashboard distracted McMurray as he was leaving the pits and he glanced off the wall.

“This is different than crashing in a regular event,’’ McMurray said. “When it’s just you it’s not the same as having three other teammates and the amount of people we’ve had down here for testing. It is very embarrassing, very humbling, just heartbreaking to be the guy that does that. … I’m normally overly cautious. It really is frustrating because I feel like I don’t do that too often.’’

Standing alongside team owner Chip Ganassi as they watched Montoya complete the final lap, McMurray broke into a wide grin and celebrated the bigger picture.  

“Even though it’s two separate teams, you want to see your teammates win.”