Will history look down upon Joey Logano’s first Sprint Cup victory because it was not only a rain shortened race but a rain shortened AND a fuel mileage win? I certainly hope not. Logano and crew chief Greg Zipadelli put themselves in position for the win and were able to succeed at exactly the same game that Ryan Newman and his team failed so miserably at and that was hoping their fuel would last until the rains came.

Second place finisher Jeff Gordon said, “I’ve won because we made a great call and stayed out and it rained. Kurt’s (Busch) won them…you’ve got to be smart enough as a crew chief to be able to fill it up with fuel, put four tires on it, and play the only strategy that you have at that point, which is, you know, to stay out, and if you’re watching the radar and you see that rain is coming, you just basically they had nothing to lose and everything to gain, and it’s a lot easier to make that call when you’re in that position, and it was a gutsy call. You know, the only thing that wasn’t going to work out was if they ran out under caution because they were going to lose a lot more positions than they would have if they could have come in and topped off.” Third place finisher Kurt Busch, who ironically won under the same exact circumstances in 2008 at Loudon said, “Hey, when you win, it’s a win. And I’ve been on the other side of the fence, so I can’t complain.”
Joe Gibbs, owner of the No. 20 Home Depot has nothing but good things to say about that crew and the sponsor. “I want to say first of all, Home Depot, I’m so happy for them,” he said in the media center after the race. “They are willing to go with a young guy, Joey, backed us all the way, been with us all the way. Really, really proud for those guys. I feel like the team, you know, we talked some today, Zippy and his team last year, we were going to the racetrack knowing that they were going to be in the Chase, having a chance to win the championship. And this year, their mind set that’s been great. They know that Joey is young, fighting their guts out for every spot they can get. They have been a great support for Joey. I thought they fought it hard all year and it was great to see them have a chance to get this.”
Joey Logano was quite humble, “I think it’s just me still lost out there trying to figure out where I needed to be. We overcame a lot. We had a left rear cut down right before we made that last long green flag run and just trying to overcome that. When that happened, I thought we were done. I was like, the day just went bad, just try to finish it off and get as best finish we can and we made the right move at the end.” He also said, “He (Zipadelli) went for it and I was just lucky enough to be in the seat.”
The way I see it Logano made it to victory lane a little early. He has steadily gotten more comfortable in the Sprint Cup cars and the results have shown it. Nothing aggravates me more than people complaining about how a driver ‘doesn’t deserve’ a win because of the weather or because he was able to conserve fuel. It’s a race and he finished ahead of everyone else and if two drivers, with 5 championships between them (Gordon and Kurt Busch) call a win, a win then everyone else needs to simply simmer down and let the youngster enjoy his win. It’ll be interesting to see how Daytona goes this week for that team. Congratulations to the entire team, especially my good friend the gas man, Jeff Clark!!

Oh yeah, check out an auction of one of my photos: http://tinyurl.com/lspfaj

through a sobriety check point on my way home from the track. The check point was very close to the track. About a week after the story I received an e-mail from Lt. Will Laverty of the Pocono Mountain Police Department informing me that he was available for further information. I thanked him via e-mail and simply asked for the statistics of the detail.

I received the following press release:

“POTTSVILLE, PA – The North Central Regional DUI Enforcement Program and the Pocono Mountain Regional Police Department have announced results from a Sobriety Checkpoint conducted on Long Pond Rd. (SR 4002) on June 7, 2009 from 4:00 PM until 8:30 PM. Officers from four counties and 22 police departments, including County Detectives’ from the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office, participated in the checkpoint”

The statistics were as follows:
Cars stopped: 1,270
Drivers detained for further evaluation: 40
Drivers charged with DUI: 23
Under aged drinking arrests: 2
Disorderly conduct arrests: 3
Open container arrest: 1
Drug possession arrest: 1
Traffic Citations: 20
Warnings issued: 13

So, 3.15 % of all the drivers leaving the raceway and stopped were further evaluated. That is better than I thought it would be. Its certainly not good that ANYONE is drinking and driving but based on my observations I thought it would be much worse. I would like to publicly thank Lt. Laverty for the follow up.

FOREIGN CARS TO NASCAR - Honda, Nissan, BMW and other ‘foreign’ car manufacturers make cars in the U.S. just like Toyota does. So what is all the hoopla about Brian France, NASCAR Chairman, saying that “There’s some companies that are going to look at opportunities that may not have even been there in the past that could be presented in the future.”?
With two of the manufacturers in bankruptcy (GM and Chrysler) and the third (Ford) struggling mightily, what is NASCAR supposed to do? An Associated Press story said that GM’s decision to no longer support the lower NASCAR series has costs people their jobs at some shops.

Fans have complained for years about the cars NASCAR uses, the lack of identity with the manufacturers and brand loyalty being thrown aside. What about NASCAR’s loyalty to American manufacturers? That loyalty doesn’t matter when the chips are down and France needs to consider the future, which could include those named companies above. I say great.
Let me also tell you about my GM vehicles. The two that I had to replace the rotors and brakes on with less than 20,000 miles on 2 new vehicles, all the way around!! The costs to repair were in excess of $1,700!!! Do you know what I was told was wrong?

The CHEAP CHINESE STEEL USED IN THE ROTORS FAILED!!!

American car makers my butt. Its 2009 folks, all companies are global. Don’t continue kidding yourselves. The more competition in NASCAR the better I say.

Tony Stewart winning the Sprint Cup race at Pocono International Raceway was not the most shocking thing I saw this past weekend while at the track. In fact, the thing that surprised me the most was that local and state police agencies set up a sobriety check point on one of the back roads (they’re all back roads around there) leading north from the track. This was not just a couple of police spot checking drivers but a colossal checkpoint with well over a dozen police personnel on each side of the car. It was right in front of a volunteer fire department that in the past hosted some Jeff Gordon fan club events that I had worked at. The police were very polite and cordial. They asked me if I was at the track, which resulted in me laughing, showing them my lap top on my front seat as I dumped my photo cards onto my computer and my credentials still around my neck. He then stuck his head in the car, asked if I had been drinking which really got me laughing. I responded that I was hot and sweaty and the 3 hour drive ahead of me precluded any thoughts of drinking anything but water. He thanked me for being so polite and handed me my ‘pass’ which was a card informing me of the DUI laws in Pennsylvania. It allowed me to get past all the other police prior to the parking lot where drivers were being further scrutinized.

My first thought was one of a reporter, wanting to pull into the parking lot and observe the unfortunate souls who were being accused of drinking and driving. Immediately, I asked if I could cover this to which the policeman said, “sure”. Then I thought better of it, I had that 3 hour drive home and had to be at the airport at 5 AM the next morning. What could I gain by stopping, the names of those arrested? I do not think that it matters, does it?

So on the way home I began thinking about the ramifications of the road block. First, it cost me 30 minutes in traffic. The fire department used to have a ‘boot drive’ where they stopped traffic on race morning and held out a boot where they collected funds. I was frustrated with this practice and thought this was the same thing again, only this time when everyone is trying to leave. How wrong was I?

NASCAR fans like their beer and alcoholic beverages and scenes of adults enjoying is not rare during a race weekend. Many make the wrong choice and do so on race day and then get in their car in the parking lots and drive home. Clearly this is stupidity at its finest. This time many were caught. I said to my wife on the phone, they’re going to need multiple buses to take these people away. I beat most traffic out, there were thousands behind me, and how many got nabbed?

I wonder if law enforcement informed track staff? I spoke to a local person who told me, “this was publicized; they also did one last night at a different spot.” Local people had a jump on the visitors who came into town for the race as far as being notified of this check point. I don’t know if I agree with this practice but it sure is legal and the violators do need to be stopped. Most tracks have alcohol free family sections at the track but the vast majority of track grandstands allow coolers to be carried in. Because I was not in the grandstands I do not know if DUI warnings were posted and notification of the possibilities of check points was publicized. Again, I do not know if the track even knew.

What do you NASCAR fans think of this? Not the drinking and driving because I won’t even entertain an argument in support of it. I am asking about the road blocks as you leave the track after a race. It’s maddening to leave a track afterwards with all the traffic and this was an inconvenience but are you alright with this practice? I don’t think I like this. Initial reports indicated that 5 arrests were made for DUI and even more for various infractions. I can not at this time independently confirm this.

A couple of weeks ago in my column I wrote about the debut of Castile, N.Y. NASCAR driver J.C. Stout in the NASCAR Nationwide Series at the Lowes Motor Speedway. Stout had raced a limited schedule in the Camping World Truck Series since 2005. The Stellar –Quest race team is based out of the small upstate New York town about an hour from Rochester, N.Y. The team is made up of friends and family who all volunteer their services in support of Stout’s efforts to make it to the upper echelons of the NASCAR circuit. They are an example of how hard work can pay off.

Stout decided earlier this year that they would attempt to make their debut at the Lowes Motor Speedway during the Memorial Day weekend. Talk about taking on Goliath at the Coliseum in Rome! They had to take on a plethora of Sprint Cup drivers who also tried to make the field and despite the odds, the No. 19, unsponsored car made the race. Unfortunately the car sustained some damage when it hit the wall and they finished the race at the back of the pack. However, the weekend was still a success in their eyes. They made the race and were able to get track time at a time when testing is not allowed.

So last week, on the day that those involved with covering NASCAR were distracted by breaking news about the crew chief of a popular driver from Hendrick Motorsports, Stout gave me a call to talk about the experience. He was on his way to get the car fixed after the incident during the race that put him into the wall. “Though a crazy move to debut at Lowes (Motor Speedway) we needed to start off sometime,” he said about taking on the big names at their home track in Concord, N.C. Stout reminded me that he had run in the trucks out there two times and “it is a fun place to drive.”

He told me that for their first outing the goal was to finish in the top 25-30 and that he felt they had brought a “good piece” to Charlotte. One topic that came up was the lack of opportunity to test the car with the new rules restricting testing. Stout said, “The tracks around here are not similar to anything we would run. It’s really not worth it with the coil bind set up.” Stout discussed the lack of similarity between the trucks and the cars when not running the coil bind set up which is using a different type of springs that are very ‘soft’ in the front and stiff in the rear, completely opposite to the way race vehicles were previously set up, with stiff front springs that allowed for better grip. “It’s a different beast,” Stout said of the set up. “Each spring costs $1,500 and they’re really tricked out.”

We then spoke of Stout’s goals for the 2009 campaign. “First goal is simply to qualify for the race, get in the show,” he said. “Then we need to be competitive and be reasonable with our expectations. We would like to get some top 20 finishes.”

This is a hard working bunch and they have persevered through all sorts of situations. There’s always money issues ( a recent press release spoke about saving up for entry fees and credentials) and not having a sponsor always makes it tough. Stout himself wrenches on the car himself and those drivers are few and far between at the higher levels. The hope is that the perseverance and hard work will result in him finding more steady work. This is one person who wishes them all nothing but the best. Look for more updates over the summer as they attempt more races.

The Coca Cola 600 took almost 2 days to complete and when it was finally called a complete race they really only raced 180.5 miles because 40 miles were run under caution. Having had to cover these types of races in the past I must tell you that the first people that want NASCAR to call a race ‘complete’ are the media gathered to cover it. The efforts of the track and NASCAR to get the race in need to be recognized Herculean in light of the weather conditions. I believe that NASCAR made the right decision both days. As the clock on Monday ticked towards 6 PM I knew that the ‘window’ was closing. So when it was announced that David Reutimann was the winner of the 2009 edition of the Coca Cola 600 it was no surprise to me. What was a surprise was listening to a man with make up on telling NASCAR that the race needed to be called. Between Jeff Hammond’s call to end it and Darell Waltrip talking about his brother Michael , their first win, blah, blah, blah, I was just glad for the fans at home sake that they pulled the plug. This was why Mother Nature won, fans surely didn’t.

What was a surprise was that NASCAR stopped a race, in the middle of it, to honor our countrymen who have served and given their lives for our country. This is the sport that will bury a hero who died on the track and race the field, with someone else in that hero’s seat, the next day. “The show must go on” was not a mantra sung on this Memorial Day. I do not believe that I have witnessed anything like that and my hats off to NASCAR for making the decision to do so.

Now, let’s talk about this win for the No. 00 team. At the winner’s press conference the first one to speak was of course Michael Waltrip. “I’m real proud of the progression and real proud of the job that David did today,” he said. “Obviously his crew chief made an awesome call. I think they were surprised that more people ahead of them didn’t make the same call. But what a great call. You got to be proud of the result because these things are really hard to win. David and I both have been in position to win races before, had fate take it away from us. So I like to think of this as payback. David won the race, and I couldn’t be happier.”
Reutimann said in the media center, “I’m still waiting for Mr. Helton (NASCAR President) to come down and say, Hold up for a second, we changed our minds, we’re going to do something different, try to finish the deal tomorrow. I’ve been avoiding him I think for that.” The folks in the media center seemed to think that was quite funny.

Look, during an earlier red flag Tony Stewart came up and gave Reutimann a hard time that was captured by the television cameras. Stewart was upset that Reutimann was ‘racing so hard’ and holding up cars Stewart thought was faster. A crew member from the No. 00 team had a few words to say and it appeared to get ugly. Reutimann kept his cool and went back to racing. Just after the half way point ran began to fall and because the cars were very close to needing green flag stops the majority of the leaders stopped in the pits for service. Reutimann and a few others towards the end of the lead lap stayed out gambling that this was the end. They not only gambled that the race was over but gambled they had enough fuel to complete even the caution laps!

This worked out for Reutimann which I have no problem with. A win is a win. You have to be in a position to stay out in order to win. No one should discount this win as a fluke. Reutimann is running well, much better than everyone’s favorite driver who had a dismal day. Earnhardt’s day was so bad that I am beginning to believe that the only thing that could save that team is significant change. Many of the teams that came in really had no choice because you could not tell that the race was going to be called. They’d battled intermittent showers all day. What they did was also not that much of a gamble. They might have lost eight or nine positions otherwise. So what, instead they have that beautiful trophy that Darrell keeps talking about.

I will be glad when Fox is done this year (Next week in Dover!!). No More Digger!!!