Posted on by Holly Cain

With a new team and a new outlook, 2013 could be the year of the new Kurt Busch

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — If a peaceful, easy feeling can translate into 200-mph mojo, watch out for Kurt Busch and Furniture Row Racing in the 2013 NASCAR season.

Busch and team executives from the Denver-based Furniture Row team met with reporters Tuesday morning during the NASCAR Sprint Media Tour hosted by Charlotte Motor Speedway to preview the upcoming season. Their strategy, the group explained, is not to turn up the pressure and ramp up the work rhythm for their first full season together. Instead, Busch was directed to relax this offseason and have faith in the little-team-that-could.

“It was purposeful,’’ Furniture Row Racing General Manager Joe Garone explained with a smile. “We wanted to make it as peaceful as we possibly could for Kurt. And we’re able to do that being the owner and sponsor of the car. We can cancel sponsor appearances or commitments really easy and (team owner) Barney (Visser) was OK with that.

“We tried to keep Kurt as work-free as possible, let him relax a little bit. He feels real strong about the race team and has a real comfort level about what we’re doing at the shop to give him the cars he needs to go and win races. It was just a great offseason for him to relax.’’

It might seem counter-intuitive for an athlete to back off commitments and take an offseason pass, but in this case, both Busch and the team are betting the fresh start will ultimately pay big dividends.

Busch has spent the last few months skiing in the slopes near the team’s Denver base. He went to Jackson Hole, Wyo., for New Year’s Eve.

“I just took in the scenery and it was beautiful,’’ said Busch, looking comfortable and settled while leaning back into an oversized arm chair as reporters sized up his new situation and inquired about his mindset and chances for 2013.  

Whenever the opportunity arose during the media visit, Busch would turn the subject to his work bringing awareness and raising money for military causes — something he has passionately embraced.

Busch devoted a lot of time free time this off-season raising money for military causes — including $500,000 in a single Barrett Jackson auction event he helped organize — and visiting with military veterans “without a big crowd or bunch of television cameras.’’

“It’s so remarkable to see their internal drive to overcome their injury and their obstacles and it’s given me a lot of motivation to know when I’m having my rougher times it doesn’t hold a candle to what these guys have gone through,’’ Busch said.

And he has certainly endured his share of professional rough times since winning the 2004 Sprint Cup Series championship.

After claiming the sport’s big trophy with the Roush-Fenway Racing team, he moved to the legendary Penske Racing operation but parted ways unceremoniously following a tumultuous 2011 season.

Last year Busch drove for the small, lower-budget Phoenix Racing team intent on humbling his image and resurrecting his career.

Furniture Row hired Busch for the last six races of the 2012 season, convinced that a change in scenery and the right resources combined with Busch’s never-questioned talent would be the right move for everyone involved.

Busch promptly rewarded the decision with some of the best results the team had ever had, including three consecutive top-10 finishes to close out the season.

“It was great to be able to produce those results and it gives you that warm, fuzzy feeling that, ‘OK we’re going to be just fine,’” Busch said.

The team is certainly willing to see if “warm and fuzzy” works out for the famously temperamental Busch. Once prone to fuss and cuss at reporters, he seemed determined to show a kinder, gentler side.

No one has ever questioned his ability or desire, but much has been lost in the occasional headline-making missteps. He still believes people have a misconception about who he really is, the good he does and talent he possesses.

“All we’ve talked about is the competition, honestly,’’ Garone said when asked about any worries about Busch’s temper. “That’s what it’s all about right now. Anything we can do to make it better on the race track for him as a driver is where we’re at.

“We’re not wasting time worrying about it. It is something we’ve thought about obviously, especially from the sponsorship side. But again, the more we’ve gotten to know Kurt and who he really is, we’re really not thinking about it.

Busch offered up some insight on his own.

“Coach ‘K’ (Mike Krzyzewski) at Duke coaches through praise,’’ Busch explained. “If you miss a free throw, it’s, ‘OK, we’ll try another.’ Then you have (former Indiana Coach) Bobby Knight. If you miss a free throw, he gets all pissed off and throws a chair. That’s been my mentality over the years and it isn’t socially accepted.

“The fabric of our world is changing and that’s why a guy like Bobby Knight might have been phased out. That’s why I’ve had to learn from those situations.”

Judging from the vibe during this week during the team’s media session, Busch’s new attitude combined with an extraordinarily motivated and resourceful team may be just what he and the team need to achieve the kind of success both have sought.

“From my perspective, looking back at how the team has grown and (how) we’ve been able to acquire really good talent in our personnel, this year really is a pinnacle,’’ Garone said. “Everything has really come together. And Kurt, he truly ties it together.’’

There is a significant additional dose of confidence with a technical alliance established between Furniture Row and the legendary Richard Childress Racing program. Furniture Row is operating essentially as a “fourth RCR car.”

With the debut of the new Generation-6 car, a new team and a reinforced technical program, it is apparent that optimism is plenty as the team heads to Daytona Beach for the upcoming Speedweeks.

“When you have these scenarios where it’s new, fresh and exciting that’s when good things can happen,’’ Busch said.

“Barney Visser has been at this NASCAR game a long time and he needs to see his results now. And it’s time.

“We have everything we need to do our job.’’

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Hendrick offers no challenges, but drivers aware of stakes

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Wednesday afternoon session of the 2013 Sprint Media Tour hosted by Charlotte Motor Speedway at Hendrick Motorsports saw four confident drivers take the stage to address the media, sporting a combined nine Sprint Cup titles between them.

The most self-assured? Team owner Rick Hendrick, planted right in the middle.

After making the claim at last year’s event that he’d have four cars in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup — and seeing his declaration come through — Hendrick emerged from the 2012 season a proud owner, but knows there’s more work to be done between Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kasey Kahne.

“As a whole, we’re more confident this year and we feel we have a shot to win this year. We’re as prepared as we’ve ever been,” Hendrick said. “(Last year), we fumbled the ball in the closing minutes of the game. We want to get back to the Super Bowl.”

Between the notion that Hendrick has more faith in his drivers this season, and his hunger to bring the franchise its first Sprint Cup championship since Johnson’s five consecutive titles from 2006-10, there is an added pressure to his team that other organizations might not encounter.

“Last year, he kind of shocked all of us in throwing down the gauntlet by saying all four cars would be in the Chase and that was a lot of pressure,” Gordon said. “Rick typically in the past is the guy that really didn’t make those kinds of demands, but when Rick asks for something, we all try to achieve it because he’s the kind of guy that you ask him for something, he’s going to make it happen.”

Certainly the burden on Gordon, who hasn’t had a Cup title to call his own in more than a decade (2001), weighs heavier than it might on Johnson.

“It doesn’t (add any extra pressure), because we feel (that we’ll have four cars in the Chase) and we believe that,” said Johnson, who finished third in the Cup standings in 2012. “Last year, when he went on the record in front of everybody and said that, that was a lot of pressure. I was waiting for him to drop the hammer this year and I think a couple of us were smiling on the stage wondering what he was going to say, but he let us off the hook there. I’m sure we’ll hear about it all year long in our meetings, and that’s great. You know we love to have that; it’s a kick in the pants to get things going.”

It was a bit of a different story for Johnson last season, however, as he acknowledged that there was “a pressure on me that I didn’t know existed until the streak ended.” Now he says he’s got a “clear mind” and he isn’t worried about the streak anymore.

Perhaps the forgotten man among the four heavyweight Hendrick drivers, Kahne figures to take the added pressure that comes with competing alongside the sport’s biggest stars to improve upon his best-ever Cup finish (fourth) and make himself a household name in his second season with the organization.

“I don’t think we were far off,” Kahne said. “But if we can keep that same drive and same competitiveness that we’ve had, hopefully we can get right back in that same situation and make a strong run at a championship this season.”

One thing that appears to be a constant throughout the team is the shared excitement in the Generation-6 car, best illustrated by Gordon’s one-liner of “Now, that’s a race car.”

When the comparison was given to Johnson that the Car of Tomorrow was like a suit that he took off the rack and it fit just right, Gordon quipped that his suit was about five sizes too big. Despite that previous perfect fit, Johnson is embracing the change.

“All in all, it’s a different animal,” he said. “There’s a lot more downforce and the aerodynamics are there. It’s a lot more forgiving (than the Car of Tomorrow).”

Earnhardt Jr., who hopes the change in body style gives him the edge to finish in the top 10 in the final points standings for just the second time in his sixth year with Hendrick, feels there’s going to be a learning curve to the Gen-6 car and admitted his crash at the Preseason Thunder testing at Daytona earlier this month was the most embarrassed he has ever been on a race track.

When the season wraps up in November and the winner of the Sprint Cup Series is hoisting the trophy over his head in celebration, don’t be surprised if it’s one of these four drivers, with the other three right behind him in the standings.

Just like Rick Hendrick drew it up.

Posted on by Staff Report

Watch Hendrick Motorsports media day live from 12:30-1:45 p.m. ET.

Hear what Rick Hendrick, Kasey Kahne, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and others have to say about the upcoming NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. Watch the Hendrick Motorsports live stream this Wednesday from 12:30-1:45 p.m. ET.

While you wait for the live stream to start, read these driver previews from NASCAR.com:

Jimmie Johnson

Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Jeff Gordon

Kasey Kahne

 

Posted on by Nascar

Veteran driver has been second in points the last two years. Can a new team change the slump?

CONCORD, N.C. –- Elliott Sadler believes he can win the NASCAR Nationwide Series championship in 2013, and not just because the guy who won the last two titles is no longer in the series.

It’s because he’s with a Joe Gibbs Racing team that has a strong Nationwide record as well as one that boasts capable, talented teammates.

And it’s because Sadler, 37, has finished second the last two years and, quite frankly, he’s had enough of being the guy who almost won the title.

The JGR organization has “shown in the past the success they can have in the Nationwide Series,” Sadler said Jan. 22 during a late-evening stop on the annual Sprint Media Tour hosted by Charlotte Motor Speedway. “I really feel like our two teams, myself and Brian (Vickers), are going to be the two cars to beat. I think everybody else knows that, too.”

Sadler and Vickers are part of a retooled effort for JGR, although Vickers made one start for the team last year.

Sadler will pilot the No. 11 One Main Financial Toyota, driven last year by Brian Scott. Vickers will slide into the team’s No. 20 entry, one of two entries split among several drivers last season. The team’s No. 18 will likely see several drivers behind the wheel.

Chris Gayle, senior team engineer for the No. 18 Sprint Cup team with driver Kyle Busch, has been named crew chief for Sadler’s team.

While his team has been busy building cars, Sadler said he has been able to spend time with his family and enjoy the brief offseason. He has been on the track, testing one of the team’s Cup cars Jan. 23.

“They’ve just been building cars and getting ready for the upcoming season,” Sadler said of his Nationwide effort. “This time of the year, it’s all about getting your cars built and ready.

 “That’s what I told Chris –- if we need to be in the shop working on cars, let’s be in the shop. Let’s don’t miss days in the shop just to go test. I’ve been in a car enough in my career to know what I need to do when I get in a race car.”

After hitting a difficult stretch of seasons as a Cup driver, Sadler spent 2011 competing in Nationwide for Kevin Harvick Inc. While he failed to win, he did score 12 top-fives and 24 top-10 finishes and placed second in points behind champion Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 

The KHI effort was absorbed by Richard Childress Racing prior to 2012, and Sadler responded with four victories and another second-place points finish, once again trailing Stenhouse Jr., while at RCR.

At JGR, Joey Logano won nine times in just 22 starts last year for the organization. In all, JGR drivers have won 77 races in the series, as well as the 2009 driver’s title with Kyle Busch.

 “They’re tough to beat,” Sadler, a nine-time Nationwide winner, said of JGR.  “I really like what I see over there. I know we’ll have some stiff competition, but I feel good about Brian and myself as teammates. And I feel good about what we have to offer.

“I think we’ll be in good shape.”

Posted on by Brad Norman

New sponsor, Gen-6 car provide hope that 2013 can be different for EGR team

CONCORD, N.C. — Following a disappointing 2011 season in which Earnhardt Ganassi Racing drivers Juan Pablo Montoya and Jamie McMurray finished 21st and 27th, respectively, in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points standings, frustrated team owner Chip Ganassi made wholesale changes.
 
At the beginning of 2012 in came a new technical director and team manager for the organization, and practically a brand-new team for Montoya — including a new crew chief, Chris Heroy.
 
The changes produced a frustratingly similar outcome. McMurray finished 21st in the Cup points standings, and Montoya was 22nd. Between them, the drivers posted five top-10 finishes in 36 races.
 
Despite the mirrored results, it was a calmer, more patient Ganassi that took center stage Wednesday morning during the NASCAR Sprint Media tour hosted by Charlotte Motor Speedway.

His message: When one makes such wholesale changes, it takes time for success to take root. With a brand-new Generation-6 car that has everyone in the shop raving, the team expects 2013 to be the start of a fruitful future.
 
“I would say last year’s changes were a wholesale paint job, if you will,” Ganassi said. “This year’s changes are more like the work of an artist as opposed to a painter. A little more fine-tuning type of adjustments — oftentimes you have to see some patina before you can actually see what the true color is of something. I think this year’s changes are much smaller and more refined than a year ago.”
 
Perhaps the biggest visible change this season for EGR comes with a new sponsorship deal. The organization has partnered with Cessna, which designs airplanes and is considered the industry leader in private aviation.
 
Cessna will sponsor multiple races on McMurray’s No. 1 Chevrolet SS. The sleek, black paint job was unveiled in a hangar at Concord Regional Airport, along with a company-made private jet and helicopter.
 
With that sponsorship locked up, and with the stability gained by keeping the core together, it’s EGR’s turn to take flight.

EGR hasn’t had a Cup driver in Victory Lane since McMurray won the Bank of America 500 in October 2010. That was also the season in which the driver won both the season-opening Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400, two of the Cup Series’ crown jewels.
 
Winning big races isn’t just a floating concept in the minds of EGR drivers and team personnel — it has happened in recent years. The knowledge that it can happen again is what drives the organization to stay patient with an approach it believes will work in the long run.
 

“I think if you go back and look at my comments from last year, I said that it wasn’t going to come right out of the box and be a big change,” McMurray said. “When you bring in so many new people, everyone has good ideas and it takes a while to go through all those ideas. And a lot of ideas don’t work, so you have to weed through those. For us, the last 10 races of the year were really good, not because of our results but because we spent those 10 races doing everyone’s ideas and really try to work through those and see what were going to be big needle-movers.”
 
Some of the big needle-movers were concepts that didn’t concern last year’s teams or last year’s cars.
 
When it became clear that neither McMurray nor Montoya would challenge for a spot in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, the teams did the next logical step — start thinking about 2013.
 
Knowing that figuring out a brand-new car was a massive undertaking, and that every driver on every Cup team would face the same set of challenges, work on the 2013 season began in earnest in the summer of 2012.
 
“We’ve kept the personnel stable and we know we have good people. That was really our choice, to focus on the car,” said Heroy, who is 35 and entering his second season as Montoya’s crew chief. “We went to the test tracks, ironed all that stuff out and started to make our gains there.”
 
Both drivers and Heroy said they were pleased with offseason testing at Daytona International Speedway and Charlotte. At least one driver was consistently near the top 10 in practice times at the Preseason Thunder, with Montoya having the best showing on the final day. With the field reduced to 15 drivers, Montoya was fifth on the speed chart in the final practice run.
 
The Colombian was also 11th in the more robust field of 33 during testing at Charlotte Motor Speedway
 
“We’re going testing at the same places where, last year we were struggling. Now we’ve got one of the fastest cars,” Montoya said. “Things that are completely outrageous, just bad luck, were happening to us in 2012. It was just a rough year for everybody. The good thing is, it makes everybody work harder and become more focused. I think it’s going to pay off.”

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Michael Waltrip Racing driver expects to avoid sophomore slump

CONCORD, N.C. — On the morning after his victory last fall at Charlotte, he woke up with a driveshaft in his bed. After he was wrecked by Jeff Gordon a few weeks later at Phoenix, he sprinted though the garage area itching for a fight. So leave it to Clint Bowyer to scoff at the notion that the runner-up funk that’s engulfed a few of his predecessors will apply to him.

“Everybody keeps warning me about this second-place hangover,” he said Tuesday. “I’ve had a lot of hangovers. You can fight through them. I’m ready for it.”

That’s no surprise coming from Bowyer, as live a wire as there is in the Sprint Cup Series and a driver whose talent is sometimes eclipsed by the fury of activity that always surrounds him. That was certainly the case during the Michael Waltrip Racing portion of the NASCAR Sprint Media tour hosted by Charlotte Motor Speedway, when Bowyer held court on a variety of topics — a few of them actually pertaining to the fact that he almost won the championship last year.

Indeed, Bowyer surged to a surprise second in final points last season, taking advantage of Jimmie Johnson’s late-season unravelling to finish 39 points behind champion Brad Keselowski. At the time, it was so under the radar, not even he was aware of it. Exiting the race car after the finale at Homestead, he was told he had finished second — which he thought referred to the race, where he trailed only the winner Gordon.

“I was like, ‘I saw that, great point there,’” Bowyer recalled. “And he said, ‘No, in the points.’ I was like, ‘What?’”

To be sure, some others who watched the Keselowski-Johnson endgame unfold were wondering the same thing. But that’s Bowyer, a wide-open former dirt track racer whose spotter and crew chief often communicate on a separate radio channel to ensure their easily-distracted driver doesn’t lose focus. His car owner once referred to him as “Mr. ADD.”

No question, Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards each fell into a malaise after coming up just short of the title. But there’s perhaps no competitor better suited to avoid dwelling on such a thing, precisely because Bowyer doesn’t dwell on anything for very long.

“Here’s the thing — it’s either going to happen, or it’s not. I guess if it does happen, what are you going to do about it? You’re going to work hard to try to correct it, no different than they did,” he said, referring to the last two drivers to finish second in the championship race.

“I’m not going to sit here and tell you that it’s going to happen. I’m going to tell you why I don’t think it’s going to happen, and that’s … just being able to continually improve (like we did) all the way to Homestead last year. Those are the things that I see. There’s still room to improve. We’ve improved through the offseason from what we had, through preparation for those tests, the communication at the tests, unloading with a fast car. It seems like each of those guys had a piece of the puzzle gone, like they’d lost a guy or something like that. We were able to keep everybody intact, and aim to do so.”

Besides, the 33-year-old Kansan has more entertaining subjects to talk about, like food, friends and fitness training (or lack thereof). Mark Martin, the ageless wonder who once authored a book called “Strength Training for Performance Driving,” is helping MWR design its new gym.

“We’re looking forward to getting our new place built so we can watch you lift stuff,” Waltrip ribbed Martin before the media tour crowd.

How much will Bowyer use it?

“Probably never,” he said. “Weights are heavy. (Martin) told me he started working out like in his 40s. I’ve got some time to go yet. Last I noticed, that steering wheel is not near as heavy as those weights are. When that happens, I guess I’ll go to lifting weights.”

Besides, Bowyer has other things to do — like cook, which he did Monday night. “Yeah, surprised me, too,” he said. The menu consisted of steak and macaroni and cheese. “Ask Mark Martin if he was eating steak and macaroni and cheese last night,” Bowyer said of his teammate, who maintains a strict diet to complement his fitness regimen. “We did have asparagus. I didn’t cook that. That’s way too healthy for me.”

Bowyer handled steak sent to him by friend Jimmy John Liataud — yes, he of the sandwich shop of the same name — who advised the driver to sear it in a cast iron pan and cook it in the oven on very high heat.

“Now, I’m from Kansas,” Bowyer said. “We’re pretty simple folk. We grill our meat.” He even double-checked the recipe with another friend — this one in the cattle business, who demanded to know why he’d ever cook a steak like that.

But Bowyer did it anyway, in the process showing off a little adaptability, which will be on display once again this weekend when he competes in the Rolex 24 at Daytona Grand-Am race.

“It’s a long time, 24 hours,” he conceded. “I have enough trouble concentrating for three and a half hours.”

Bowyer said it will be his only appearance in sports cars, and he’s doing this race because team co-owner Rob Kauffman — who will be a co-driver along with Waltrip, Bowyer and Rui Aguas — requested it.

“Rob does so much for us,” Bowyer said of Kauffman, who owns an investment firm. “It’s like this — if Rob asks you anything, the answer is usually yes. I don’t care what’s in front of it, or what you’re doing.”

Which is why Bowyer will find himself behind the wheel of a Ferrari 458 in the GT class this weekend — that is, if he can keep out of the way of faster cars. “There’s no rules of the road, that’s the biggest problem,” he said. “… They just say, kind of hold your line and they’ll figure it out. I don’t like figuring things out when a car is 50 mph faster than you. I want to know exactly what’s going to happen. I can tell what’s going to happen if I’m going faster than them. But they come up on you — I don’t know who that guy is, or what he’s thinking, or how tired he is at 5 o’clock in the morning.”

Clearly, Bowyer will be in a much more comfortable atmosphere when he returns to Daytona next month for Speedweeks — by which time his runner-up championship finish last season will probably seem like a distant memory. But even at the 24-hour race, among exotic cars and drivers with unfamiliar last names, he still promises to bring his personality along with him. The Grand-Am boys may not know what hit them.

“Should I wear cowboys boots in the Ferrari?” Bowyer asked. “I think that would be cool. With my firesuit tucked in.”

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New technology could dry Daytona in 30 minutes

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Daytona International Speedway, dried in 30 minutes?

That’s the goal with the new track-drying system NASCAR plans to debut next month at Speedweeks, a year after the Daytona 500 was postponed for the first time in the event’s history due to rain. Instead of blowing hot air across the track surface as jet dryers do now, the new system will use compressed air to dry asphalt in a fraction of the time.

Imagine a drying time of 30 minutes for 2.5-mile Daytona. According to NASCAR Chairman Brian France, that will be possible with the new dryers, considerably shortening a routine that typically takes several hours. NASCAR’s goal is to make drying half-mile Martinsville in 15 minutes a reality.

The first generation of that system will debut at Speedweeks, and it will more eco-friendly as well more efficient than its predecessor. 

“We also are going to do it in a much more green, carbon-emission friendly way,” France said.

Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR’s senior vice president for race operations, said 24 of the new NASCAR-developed dryers will be on site at Daytona next month. Robin Pemberton, the circuit’s vice president for competition, added that the new technology was tested at Daytona and Charlotte and is ready for use next month.

The new dryers vary from the traditional jet dryers “quite a bit, visually and operationally,” NASCAR President Mike Helton said. “It uses compressed air as opposed to a jet engine. It’s designed to expedite, obviously, the removal of water using compressed air and heat, where the jet dryers were simply designed around blowing and depended more on hot air. The new system depends more on compressed air.”

NASCAR executives found it difficult to explain the look of the new system, which Helton called “a gain of pipes behind a pickup truck that the air is being pushed through, as opposed to a jet dryer.” Regardless, it’s another step forward in what has formerly been a painfully slow process.

“There’s a few faces out here that will remember when we used to dry tracks off with just a fleet of vehicles going around the race track, or dragging tires behind pickup trucks,” Helton said. “And then someone came along with the jet dryer that expedited it quite a bit and served its purpose for a long period of time, but in today’s world with the expectations of getting the show done and getting it on, there was a high priority placed by Brian and the rest of us to come up with a way that we could expedite that. And Robin and the folks at the R&D Center responded to that and came up with ideas, and this one seems to have quite a bit of validity to it."

Posted on by Holly Cain

Renovation proposal poised to launch speedway’s new era

Calling the project a vision for the “next 50 years” Daytona International Speedway President Joie Chitwood announced plans for a major renovation to NASCAR’s crown jewel facility Tuesday during the Sprint Media Tour in Charlotte.

Chitwood cautioned that his team is in the very earliest of stages with the proposed project and will still need final approval, but he was clearly excited about the possibilities to improve the fan experience at one of sport’s great venues and unveiled artistic renderings of what the massive facelift might look like.

“From the standpoint of what we have at our facility. … you’ve got an experience that is rich on history and heritage but isn’t quite there when it comes to what fans expect in terms of amenities, points of sale, all those elements,’’ Chitwood said.

“The Daytona 500 will always be the biggest event on the NASCAR schedule. It is our Super Bowl. We have to make sure as we talk about the vision of the ‘World Center of Racing’ that all of those elements that the fans enjoy live up to that. And this is our attempt to do that."

“You have to start someplace and we felt like these images really show everybody we’re thinking big.’’

Chitwood and Speedway officials have spent much of the last year getting the necessary local government clearances — Volusia County and city of Daytona Beach zoning approvals. The proposal still needs approval from the higher-ups in International Speedway Corporation, which owns the track.

And the speedway has hired an architecture firm with experience in sports venues — including work on Ford Field, home to the NFL’s Detroit Lions and New York’s famed Flushing Meadows tennis center.

“Part of the process I have to go through is creating this vision for what Daytona could be for the next 50 years,’’ Chitwood said. “So what you’re seeing (in the artwork) is some of that creative rendering of what it might be. “The second part to this is the continued business case I have to generate and produce so that my senior management here can consider its viability, hopefully later in 2013.

“But we worked so hard to get to this point, it just felt appropriate we start to give people an idea of what Daytona might look like.’’

The artist’s rendering shows a modern look to the outside of the venerable track and a real stadium-like feel inside.

Chitwood isn’t ready to discuss specifics yet, but hopes to be able to share more details about the project next month in the days leading up to the Feb. 24 Daytona 500.

“As it relates to how many seats are there, how many restrooms are there, when it gets to that point, we’ll have another session when we can get into detail,’’ Chitwood said. “This is the start, the big vision. If we’re going to host the Daytona 500 every year, it’s our biggest event, we have to make sure we’re living up to that expectation.’’

Unlike other sports whose teams pack up and move to another town or who build completely new arenas, the idea here, according to Chitwood, is to modernize without losing character or tradition.

“The beauty of our facility is that the start-finish line, the angle of that banking there, the angle of banking in the turns, those turns themselves; are the same track, the same location, the same dimensions that Lee Petty ran the first race and won,’’ Chitwood said. “That Dale Earnhardt won on, that Dale Earnhardt Jr. won on.

“We might have changed the asphalt but that’s no different than changing the sod on a football field. In our sport, we don’t tear down and rebuild in a new location and so we can work on the amenities that our fans enjoy.

“But that start-finish line is the same start-finish line that the original winner of the Daytona 500 crossed. That gives us a unique ability to continue the heritage of Daytona while we work on the amenities around it.’’

Posted on by Staff Report

Reutimann to drive full-time in Spint Cup with crew chief Pat Tryson

On top of becoming comfortable with the new Generation-6 race car, BK Racing team members are also adapting to staffing changes throughout the organization this season.

David Reutimann, who drove in two races for BK Racing last year and did not qualify for a third, will drive full-time in the team’s No. 83 Toyota. In his last full Sprint Cup season, Reutimann had three top-10 finishes with Michael Waltrip Racing. He also has two Sprint Cup wins, both with Rodney Childers as crew chief. Under the BK Racing team, Reutimann’s crew chief will be Pat Tryson, who has eight trips to Victory Lane.

Travis Kvapil will return to race in the No. 93 Burger King Toyota Camry this year. Kvapil finished the 2012 season with one one top-10 finish in the Sprint Cup Series, placing eighth at Talladega. While Todd Anderson will return as his crew chief for a second year, the team will still see some changes in the garage with additional oversight.

"I feel good about the additions we’ve made to this team in the off-season."

— Ron Devine, owner of BK Racing

Already announced is the transition of Mike Ford to director of competition. The veteran crew chief, who worked with Denny Hamlin for six seasons, will oversee the shop and race-prep activities of BK Racing’s two Sprint Cup entries.

Harry McMullen will remain in his role as the team’s general manager, a position he’s held since the team started in January 2012. This year, he’ll see additional support on day-to-day operations from new hire Rick Carpenter, who will be the assistant general manager. Carpenter comes most recently from Tri Star Motorsports, and formerly Rusty Wallace Racing, holding the position of general manager at both teams.

"The hiring of Mike Ford as our Director of Competition to work with a veteran like Harry McMullen really strengthens what BK Racing needs to move forward in this sport," Ron Devine, owner of BK Racing, said.

Doug Richert, who most recently worked with Landon Cassill, will move into a leadership role on the team as supervisor to the crew chiefs, overseeing their efforts at the shop and during race days.

“I feel good about the additions we’ve made to this team in the offseason,” Devine said. “We’ve brought winning and experienced management on board to guide us in the right direction."

According to Devine, there may be more changes coming for the team.

“We still have a few other things to announce in the near future," he said. "But the good part is we are building a team to go racing and be successful in all aspects of our team."