Posted on by Holly Cain

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series runner-up brings Midwest flavor to international event

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Clint Bowyer had plenty of first impressions from his first 90-minute stint in his Rolex 24 at Daytona debut Saturday — from inside the car and out. And instead of worrying about staying awake for the twice-around-the-clock race, NASCAR’s famously amped-up Sprint Cup Series championship runner-up was more concerned about how or when he’d ever grab some sleep.

“The guys on the pit box don’t sleep,” Bowyer said. “I was asking them, what stint they sleep, and they don’t.

“They have an espresso machine and I have a case of 5-Hour (Energy drink), so we’ll charge on.”

“What time is it anyway?”

“Seven-thirty?” he repeated when given the answer, “We’re almost to halfway right?”

"Of course it’s their biggest race of the year. Our Daytona 500 is exactly like that with the excitement in the air like that, especially down on the starting grid."

—Clint Bowyer

As the pressroom erupted in laughter it was clear NASCAR’s Bowyer had won over the wine-and-cheese sports car types just as his aw-shucks Midwest charm has made him popular with NASCAR fans. But he professed again Saturday that he felt very much out of his element; i.e. not in Kansas anymore.

“I was going to wear cowboy boots to this deal, but there’s no rednecks in this,” Bowyer said jokingly Friday during final practice. “Looks like a lot of rich guys to me.”

Bowyer figured he had 10 good laps — or about 20 minutes — around the 3.56-mile Daytona road course before the green flag fell Saturday afternoon for his 24-hour debut.

“But it is a big track so those were long laps,” he said, only half-joking.

Standing with fellow NASCAR stars, 2010 Daytona 500 winner Jamie McMurray and Juan Pablo Montoya, who later became a three-time winner at Rolex 24, during a photo opportunity on Friday, Bowyer explained that he had knocked two seconds off his lap times simply by the team hiring a spotter.

Because he was driving a slower GT-class production based Ferrari, Bowyer was slower than the race’s marquee Daytona Prototypes that began lapping the GT cars 15 minutes into the race. And it was an adjustment.

“I still don’t have any answers on where I’m supposed to be when these lunatics in the faster (Daytona Prototype) cars come blowing by me 50-mph faster,” Bowyer said to McMurray and Montoya.

“There is no answer because no one drives the same place twice,” Montoya said, genuinely trying to reassure him.

What was McMurray’s advice?

“What you need to do is drive your own line.”

But Bowyer wasn’t convinced.

“If I do that, the driver will be cussing me in some other language while I’m trying to get out of his way,” Bowyer said while laughing. “All I can see is headlights, and they get real big in the window.”

The language barrier at this international event of racing’s Who’s Who came up again during Bowyer’s first stint.

“The guys that talk to you, I can’t understand them, other than when they say to pit,” Bowyer said with a smile. “I understand ‘pit.’ ”

Despite earning his first Sprint Cup Series road course victory at Sonoma, Calif., last season, Bowyer was unyieldingly humble about what he brought to the 24-hour effort: fun. And what he hoped to get out of it: bonding time with his Sprint Cup Series co-owners, Rob Kauffman and Michael Waltrip, whom he was co-driving with this weekend.

The two-time Daytona 500 winner Waltrip said he was impressed with how quickly Bowyer got up to speed in the Ferrari during this limited practice.

Even after accidentally hitting the engine “kill” switch while climbing into the No. 56 Ferrari 458 for his first stint Saturday evening, Bowyer was able to win back several positions he lost on pit road. The car was 26th overall, 13th in the GT class at midnight. It finished eighth in the class and 16th overall on Sunday.

“Obviously, because of that we couldn’t get going and lost a lot of track position, and I’m super bummed out about that,” Bowyer said. “The biggest thing is getting used to the car. Man, it’s hard to be consistent out there. You can’t ever get a clean lap. About the time you do, you’ll go in the chicane and there will be dirt everywhere and you revisit your dirt racing experience.”

But he was also quick to stress, “The cars are a lot of fun to drive. They’re lightweight and pretty loose. But with the paddle shifting you can downshift too (quickly) and get yourself in trouble.

“I’ve gotten myself in trouble a couple times, had to shoot through the chicane then have a conversation with myself to calm down a little bit; then I was slow, so had to have another conversation with myself to pick it back up.”

Judging by his demeanor after his time behind the wheel the conversation went well. He was taking in the experience — all it had to offer.

“Really, really cool there the atmosphere before the race,” said Bowyer, before jokingly suggesting that “the starting grid is definitely in my opinion some room to improve in our sport after what I saw.

“Of course it’s their biggest race of the year. Our Daytona 500 is exactly like that with the excitement in the air like that, especially down on the starting grid.

“But there was body paint. I saw body paint and I thought that was a great addition to the day. And some of them had umbrellas. That would be one area that could be worked on.”

And then after the last reporter’s question, Bowyer turned the tables.

“Raise your hands, how many of you are going to stay up 24 hours?” Bowyer asked, acknowledging the few who raised their hands.

“Well, have fun with that,” he said, standing up and smiling and heading out of the media center to take some more in.

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JGR driver gains new perspective with birth of first child

HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. — Denny Hamlin has this fatherhood thing down.

Five days of it, at least.

“It actually hasn’t been too bad,” said the Joe Gibbs Racing driver, whose daughter Taylor James Hamlin was born Sunday. “She’s sleeping most all the time now in between feedings. So it’s been relatively easy. So far.”

Surely that will eventually change, as Hamlin juggles his new daddy duties along with his role as one of the top drivers in the Sprint Cup Series. But to this point, it’s all gone smoothly — the baby is healthy, Hamlin said his girlfriend Jordan Fish came though the birth without a hitch, both sets of parents have arrived in town to help, and even the dogs seem to get along with the new arrival.

“The experience is great,” Hamlin said Thursday, when the Gibbs shop was visited by the NASCAR Sprint Media Tour hosted by Charlotte Motor Speedway. “Your outlook changes, on when you have to leave home, when you have to get home, things like that. How excited you are to pull into the driveway knowing you get to see your daughter. So that part of it is cool.”

Soon enough, it will be time for Hamlin to say goodbye to mother and daughter — the baby is too young to venture to Speedweeks — and work on bringing home another new addition: the Sprint Cup championship that eluded him again last season. He still shakes his head over how it ended for him last year, when he opened the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup running as well as anyone, and ended it out of contention because of a mechanical problem.

This time, it was an electrical switch that went awry at Martinsville, one of Hamlin’s best tracks. He still won five times in 2012, but believes he should have doubled that number, and the way last year ended made it clear in his mind what the offseason priority needed to be.

“You can’t have any DNFs. We’ve seen that,” Hamlin said. “There are no more mulligans in the Chase … It’s just too hard nowadays. You’ve got to average a finish in the top five. That’s extremely hard to do, but we can do it. We’ve been in championship hunts and something mechanical has taken that away every single time. … Our key in the offseason has been reliability, coming up with a system to make sure our cars are bulletproof when they hit the race track.”

These are not new issues at JGR, where Kyle Busch’s dominant 2008 season came unglued in the Chase opener because a rear suspension piece simply wasn’t hooked up correctly. Jimmy Makar, vice president for racing operations at Gibbs, says the team is working on it. Last year, JGR implemented a system that analyzes potential failures and ranks them in terms of importance, from something relatively innocuous to something that can knock a car out of a race.

“We’re real good at fixing failures once they happen,” Makar said. “That’s something we’ve always been good at. We’re trying to get to the point where we recognize a potential failure before it ever happens, and be proactive instead of reactive.”

Hamlin feels the team is heading in the right direction. “Things that went wrong with our cars, or things that fell off or got loose or whatever, it was human error, and you need to take that kind of out of the equation,” he said. “To do that, you have to have more than one set of eyes working on your cars. We’re hopefully working on some things to make sure that our cars are reliable as the planes you fly in the air.”

Right now, though, Hamlin still has a few weeks to bask in his newfound fatherhood before the season begins. “Leaving the house for sure will be hard. I have solace in knowing in just a few months I’ll get to see her all the time every day,” he said. And there are plenty around him willing to offer advice, team president J.D. Gibbs included.

“I asked Jordan, ‘How was he?’ I went and saw the baby a couple of days after and said, ‘How’s he been?’ She said he’s been really good,” said Gibbs, who has four children. “My wife would not say that about me. So it was good to hear that. I said, ‘Hey, this ain’t easy, so hang in there.’ ”

Hamlin’s crew chief Darian Grubb has two kids, and they might offer a preview of what the driver is in for. “My 4-year-old son’s got strep, and my 6-month-old is sick and has goo running out of every orifice she has. So it’s one of those things,” Grubb said, laughing.

“It’s a tough time, but it’s also one of the most gratifying times you’ll ever have. I sent him a text and said, ‘Let me know when you get to take that first nap with her sleeping on your chest, and you’ll know what it’s all about to be a father then.’ He sent me back a one-word text that just said, ‘Awesome.’ ”

Posted on by Holly Cain

Bowyer, McMurray, Montoya confident for 24-hour race

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Sure, it took 43 years for a NASCAR regular to win sports car’s great Rolex 24 at Daytona.

But ask the stock car drivers entered in this weekend’s 51st annual twice-around-the-clock Grand-Am season-opener on the 3.56-mile Daytona International Speedway road course and they’ll tell you they hold their own just fine these days, even on a 59-car starting grid filled with a Who’s Who list of racing greats.

Casey Mears became the first full-time NASCAR driver to win a Rolex timepiece in 2006. Since then, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers have been on three of the last six winning teams.

A pair of Chip Ganassi Racing teammates — 2010 Daytona 500 winner Jamie McMurray and Sprint Cup Series teammate Juan Pablo Montoya — held a lively discussion in Victory Circle on Friday afternoon surrounded by former Rolex race winners participating in a pre-race photo opportunity.

"It’s absolutely crazy that you can race for 24 hours and it will come down to the end."

— Jamie McMurray

They are drivers on the two front-row starting Ganassi team BMW/Rileys — Montoya on the pole-sitting No. 01 car and McMurray on the outside pole-winning No. 02 — but they acknowledge even a prime starting position is overrated in this race.

“This race is interesting because you get so worked up by what happens in the first hour and then by hour nine, you’re like, ‘why in the world was I worried about what happened eight hours ago,’ ” McMurray said with a smile.

His words were well-received by another NASCAR full-timer, Rolex 24 rookie Clint Bowyer who briefly joined the group and took in the advice — real and otherwise — from McMurray and the two-time Rolex winner Montoya.

The biggest thing they stressed was the need for “give and take” — especially in Bowyer’s case as he is driving a slower GT-class Ferrari and they are driving the faster Daytona Prototypes. Bowyer, who will co-drive with his Sprint Cup Series team owners Michael Waltrip and Rob Kauffman, said his biggest concern going into Saturday’s green flag is how to appropriately handle the speed discrepancy between the two classes of cars.

As Indy 500 champs and Formula One stars mingled around the threesome, both McMurray and Montoya assured Bowyer that their NASCAR education put them well ahead of the competition on several fronts.

“You learn the give and take in NASCAR and it’s something no one else knows here,” Montoya said, looking around. “I’m being honest. When I came here I didn’t know that. When I started NASCAR, I didn’t know that. And you realize it makes life in racing so much better.”

McMurray was quick to back Montoya up.

“Here’s the thing, the value of give and take in our world is, if you give early, then later on the race, your competitors give back,’’ McMurray said. “So I think that’s what makes it harder for rookies when they come in to Sprint Cup. They typically don’t give and then when they’re trying to pass, they have to work twice as hard to make it happen.

“You don’t see it any other form of racing; someone letting someone go. It’s the smarter way to go — especially in this (Rolex 24) race — because it doesn’t matter until the last 30 minutes.

“That’s the race. It’s absolutely crazy that you can race for 24 hours and it will come down to the end.’’

And when the clock does wind down Sunday afternoon, these drivers say they are the best prepared to compete.

“Apart from the endurance races in any series, we run the longest races,’’ Montoya said. “We’re used to being in the car for three or four hours, no one else is.’’

Bowyer — sitting on a wall taking in the conversation — laughed out loud when a reporter asked if he had watched any simulations or otherwise special preparations for his first Rolex 24.

“No,’’ he said, “It’s 24 hours long, what are going to prepare for? It’s a long race. I’m along for the ride and I’m having fun.

“It’s just neat to come down here and get the year started off with both of my bosses.”

Posted on by Holly Cain

Family patriarch proud of performance in Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — A year after celebrating a Daytona 500 win, Jack Roush was back in Daytona International Speedway’s famous Victory Circle on Friday — this time celebrating a win by son Jack Roush Jr. in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge season-opener.

It’s the second consecutive win for Roush Jr. in this race — a prelude to the weekend’s Rolex 24 at Daytona – – steering one of his father’s famously prepared Roush Performance Mustangs with co-driver Billy Johnson in the series’ GS class.

"It’s so great for him to have a chance to be here considering how busy his schedule is."

— Jack Roush Jr., on his father’s presence

“My dad sat me down before the race and gave me some advice,” said a grinning Roush Jr., holding a half-empty bottle of champagne in one hand and carrying his large trophy in the other. “He told me it’s important to be aggressive, but as the main part of my job I have to turn the car over in good position.

“That was one of my goals, obviously. But also I wanted to turn it over in good health and good position.”

It was a rare trackside appearance for family patriarch Roush, whose teams used to dominate the GT production class portion of the Rolex 24 in the 1980s and 90s, and whose former driver Matt Kenseth is the defending Daytona 500 winner.

Comparatively speaking, Friday was an understated celebration. After shaking hands with his namesake in victory lane Roush went straight to the motor coach to “babysit” his four grandchildren.

He said this week during the NASCAR Sprint Media Tour hosted by Charlotte Motor Speedway that while he is proud of his son’s racing progress, he predicts Roush Jr. will ultimately have a more traditional role in the family company.

“Well, he’ll be 40 years old the second of July this year and I just hope he can race as long as he wants to and be healthy,’’ Roush said. “He’s got four young children — I’ve got four grandchildren that he’s delivered to me — I look more forward to his being a family man and carrying forward the traditions of the business than I do him being able to win a championship.’’

“Although,’’ he added, “He came second in the championship in 2011.’’

Roush Jr., who has co-driven with Johnson to eight wins in the series since 2009, was obviously pleased to have his father on hand.

“It’s so great for him to have a chance to be here considering how busy his schedule is,’’ Roush Jr. said.

“It is a big deal given what he’s accomplished here and to have this victory.’’

“We’re not out here to be mid-pack,’’ he added, sounding a lot like his father. “There’s a lot of internal pressure to win and perform. Bringing home a win is exactly what we shoot for.’’

The Continental Tire Series race was noteworthy for another reason as Lara Tallman was a co-driver on the winning ST-class Nissan team, making her the first woman to score a class victory in a race car since Claudia Huertgen in the GT2 class in 1997 Rolex 24.

“Really honored to be one of the few women to win here,’’ said Tallman, 45, a mother of two from Salt Lake City. “I hope I can inspire more to get out there and give it a try, so to all the young girls out there, get going and don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t.”

Posted on by Staff Report

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Sunoco Rookie of the Year rivals announce relationship

Danica Patrick and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who will compete against each other full time in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series this season, are dating off track, according to an Associated Press report.

"We are dating, and I know there’s been a bit of a runaround this week at the media days and poor Ricky got grilled (with questions)," Patrick told the AP. "It was out of respect to NASCAR, to all the manufacturers, the new cars, the teams, the sponsors, just to allow all the news of the day to be about racing and not let anything interfere with that."

Patrick also acknowledged the relationship on Friday via Twitter, retweeting the AP story and telling fans, "Thanks everyone for all of your nice messages."

Earlier this month, Patrick filed for divorce from husband Paul Hospenthal after seven years of marriage. She announced the split via Facebook on Nov. 20.

In Friday’s report, Stenhouse tells the AP, "Yes, we are dating." At Thursday’s Roush Fenway Racing stop on the NASCAR Sprint Media Tour hosted by Charlotte Motor Speedway, Stenhouse said of Patrick, "We’ve got a great relationship. Obviously that started when she first came into the sport. We were both going to rookie meetings. It’s been cool to work with her in the Nationwide Series. I felt she could come to me for advice with the experience that I’ve had."

Stenhouse won his second consecutive NASCAR Nationwide Series championship last year while Patrick finished 10th in the series, becoming the first woman to finish among the overall top 10 in a NASCAR national series.

In 2013, the two drivers will compete for Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors in the Sprint Cup Series. On Thursday, Stenhouse acknowledged and welcomed the friendly competition.

"Obviously, our friendship is great," Stenhouse said. "Who knows what it’ll be like when it’s coming down to the wire? It’s going to be a lot of fun. We’re ready to go out there and win it, and that’s our plan."

At Stewart Haas Racing on Monday, Patrick said of Stenhouse and their rookie rivalry, "Both of us are running for rookie of the year, and I’m sure we both want that."

Last year, Patrick and Stenhouse raced against each other twice in NASCAR’s top series. Stenhouse finished 20th to Patrick’s 38th-place result in the season-opening Daytona 500. Last September at Dover, Stenhouse finished 12th while Patrick was 28th.

Stenhouse has five career Sprint Cup starts with a best finish of 11th at Charlotte in his debut in May of 2011. Patrick’s best series finish in 10 starts is 17th at Phoenix last November.

Posted on by Staff Report

Report: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Sunoco Rookie of the Year rivals announce relationship

Danica Patrick and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who will compete against each other full time in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series this season, are dating off track, according to an Associated Press report.

"We are dating, and I know there’s been a bit of a runaround this week at the media days and poor Ricky got grilled (with questions)," Patrick told the AP. "It was out of respect to NASCAR, to all the manufacturers, the new cars, the teams, the sponsors, just to allow all the news of the day to be about racing and not let anything interfere with that."

Patrick also acknowledged the relationship on Friday via Twitter, retweeting the AP story and telling fans, "Thanks everyone for all of your nice messages."

Earlier this month, Patrick filed for divorce from husband Paul Hospenthal after seven years of marriage. She announced the split via Facebook on Nov. 20.

In Friday’s report, Stenhouse tells the AP, "Yes, we are dating." At Thursday’s Roush Fenway Racing stop on the NASCAR Sprint Media Tour hosted by Charlotte Motor Speedway, Stenhouse said of Patrick, "We’ve got a great relationship. Obviously that started when she first came into the sport. We were both going to rookie meetings. It’s been cool to work with her in the Nationwide Series. I felt she could come to me for advice with the experience that I’ve had."

Stenhouse won his second consecutive NASCAR Nationwide Series championship last year while Patrick finished 10th in the series, becoming the first woman to finish among the overall top 10 in a NASCAR national series.

In 2013, the two drivers will compete for Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors in the Sprint Cup Series. On Thursday, Stenhouse acknowledged and welcomed the friendly competition.

"Obviously, our friendship is great," Stenhouse said. "Who knows what it’ll be like when it’s coming down to the wire? It’s going to be a lot of fun. We’re ready to go out there and win it, and that’s our plan."

At Stewart Haas Racing on Monday, Patrick said of Stenhouse and their rookie rivalry, "Both of us are running for rookie of the year, and I’m sure we both want that."

Last year, Patrick and Stenhouse raced against each other twice in NASCAR’s top series. Stenhouse finished 20th to Patrick’s 38th-place result in the season-opening Daytona 500. Last September at Dover, Stenhouse finished 12th while Patrick was 28th.

Stenhouse has five career Sprint Cup starts with a best finish of 11th at Charlotte in his debut in May of 2011. Patrick’s best series finish in 10 starts is 17th at Phoenix last November.

Posted on by George Winkler

Camping World Truck Series director eases into new role

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Representing the second of three generations in a racing family, Chad Little knows what it takes to move up the ranks within the sport. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise to see him in his new role as director of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.
 
Little has worked in a variety of roles since his career behind the wheel ended in 2002 after 217 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts and a second-place finish in the NASCAR Nationwide Series in 1995. Most recently, he was the director for the Whelen Modified Tour as well as the director for racing development for the NASCAR Mexico Corona Series.
 
During the NASCAR Sprint Media Tour hosted by Charlotte Motor Speedway, Little said he was excited about the opportunity to be the competition director for the Truck Series. With champion James Buescher back for another season and with a different winner, it seems, every week, there is a lot for fans to look forward to.

“All of the people in NASCAR were pretty consistent in saying there’s not a lot of issues in the Truck Series,” Little said. “I want to sit back and look at it before I do anything to change it, because it seems like it’s a well-oiled machine.”
 
“I think Eldora is very exciting, the race in Canada at the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park is exciting,” Little said. “Obviously, the young drivers coming in, the number of new winners that the Truck Series sees each year, a lot of things like that. But as new as I am, I want to reserve judgment for a little bit.”
 
While Little is taking something of a wait-and-see approach with his new job, he is just as busy as he was during his racing career, when he balanced his responsibilities as a driver with getting an education. The Spokane, Wash., native earned a degree in marketing from Washington State University and a law degree from Gonzaga University.
 
He said education was the key in making a successful transition from being a driver to the path that led him to his current role as director.
 
“A young driver has to balance whether it’s important to get a degree … or does that take away from his driving,” Little said. “And that’s an important decision, especially nowadays with as young as they start driving. I think the education part is something you have to look at beyond your driving career.”
 
Little’s son, Jesse, is certainly faced with that challenge. The 15-year-old is set to run a full season in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East this year after having a limited engagement last year. The elder Little wants his son to be focused on his racing but to think about education as well.
 
And whether it’s with education or moving through life, Little says he’d give any driver, including his son, the same advice as far as trying to be successful in this line of work.
 
“Don’t burn any bridges,” Little said. “As big as the world of motorsports is, sometimes it’s still amazing how small it is. We turn around, and we meet people we’ve known for a long time. So that’s one (piece of) advice: don’t ever close your doors.”