So I arrived in Richmond on Thursday just in time for the NASCAR K&N Series race. I’ll tell you I surely wasn’t disappointed. The racing was fantastic and there was a photo finish after a green-white-checkered ending.

Right Click on the photo and view to see just how good a save Pastrana is making here.

What I was excited to see was X-Games star Travis Pastrana drive a stock car. He was running in both the K&N Series and the Nationwide Series.

Before the K&N race Pastrana said, “It’s definitely been a really long time coming. We felt like we were fairly prepared last year coming in. Just really was looking forward to getting that first start at Indianapolis (Lucas Oil Raceway) and hurt myself and it’s been…since that race, it’s all I’ve been thinking about is just getting in here and starting the Nationwide and seeing what’s going on. The K&N (NASCAR K&N Pro Series East) has been great — been learning a lot. Doing a lot of testing with the Nationwide car now with RAB (Racing with Brack Maggard) in conjunction with all the guys that have been really helping out still through Michael Waltrip (Racing) and Matt Crafton. It has been a long road of, ‘Hey, how are you going to do? When are you going to race?,’ and I’m like, ‘I really don’t know.’ And you know what, we’re going to go out here and I finally get a chance to have some fun tomorrow, so I’m really pumped.”

One thing that Pastrana brings to the sport is fans. He’s quite popular with the younger kids and many hope that like Danica Patrick fans will come in droves. Pastrana was asked what his fans were saying and he said, “Completely mixed reaction. Obviously, NASCAR — for everyone saying, ‘Oh, NASCAR needs younger audiences,’ and that might be true, but you guys still have — your demographic is so much bigger than anything that we have in action sports. It’s just action sports is just a younger demographic. It was cool — I was actually at a Subway and a guy came up and was like, ‘Hey, my son was always action sports and I’ve always been trying to get him to watch NASCAR and now we something we can do together,’ which is, for me, that goes a long way. That’s a pretty neat thing. It’s not I wouldn’t say a matter of fans not liking NASCAR. It’s a matter of fans not understanding NASCAR. When it started back when David Pearson and even (Dale) Earnhardt and whatever, it was just rowdy. These guys they were racing. They were wild. They were whatever. It’s become much more of a — as it needs to be with money and sponsors and everything that comes in — it doesn’t get that 16-year-old going ‘I’m going to go peel the tires and cause some havoc and go fast.’ It doesn’t have that same imagine anymore, but it’s still at the core of it racing. It’s still fast. It’s still fun. It’s still exciting.”

Pastrana’s K&N race was going pretty well until there was some contact with another car and he spun out taking him out of the top 10.

Bill Elliot’s son Chase finished second in the K&N series race and almost won the thing losing by less than 1 foot. He also ran in Denny Hamlin’s charity late model race and I will tell you, from what I saw the kid can wheel a car around pretty good. I wonder who he is slated to replace at Hendrick Motorsports. anyone have any ideas?

Look for my column in this weeks paper and my thoughts on the ludicrous position that everything that is broken in NASCAR can be fixed by tinkering with it.

There was big news this week as we left Bristol and head to California. As I sit typing this there a lot of discussion surrounding, what is wrong with Bristol Motor Speedway. I am still trying to figure this out because I don’t understand how people could say that the racing in this past Sunday’s Food City 500 was not.
If you scroll down just a few entries in this blog you will see that I have gone through and written about this before. Bristol Motor Speedway is one of the premier motor racing facilities in the world. After an early crash on Sunday I stood in turn 3 wondering how much fun all the people complaining about the “boring” racing were having watching the cars circle the track at 35 miles per hour. I was bored to tears.
Now Bruton Smith is taking comments about the track from fans. Kevin Harvick said today, “Well, I think if I had the input, I think for me, all you have to do is look up…and we can debate it all day, whether it’s economy racetrack, whatever the case may be. I feel (Bristol) was one of our most popular races on the circuit, I feel like the old-style track brought what the fans want to see, and whether it’s what the car owners want to see or the drivers, and whether you’ve got to run into each other or you don’t, the old-style racing was more to the appeal of the fans. And if I had millions of dollars to spend and had spent the money on the racetrack to make it what it is today, sometimes when you take something that’s really good, and you try to make it better, sometimes it doesn’t work. Obviously they put a lot of effort into a lot of things trying to make it even better for the fans, and for the drivers, and for everybody involved. Sometimes things don’t work out and you’ve got to go back to what worked before, and I think what we had there before was what the fans want to see and it was an exciting race. You know, beating and banging like we all grew up racing, so that’s what they want to see.”
I sort of disagree with Harvick. I still consider myself a fan of the sport and I don’t like wrecks. Bumping and banging at 140 miles per hour causes calamity for many that were not involved. I’m not sure I want to continue beating this drum.
Why do I think the stands are half full at Bristol? There’s a multitude of reasons why, not just one.
1. There’s no where to stay but camp grounds. That means you are carrying everything with you there and dealing with the comforts of camping. For the folks that came with me we left on Thursday afternoon arriving after 3AM Morning. We left a couple hours after the checkered flag, drove through some bad storms, slept about 3 hours and arrived home about 4 PM. That’s a lot of work for a race weekend. Does anyone wonder why people might wait for the night race?
2. The economy- throw in the price of gas, food and a camping spot and it becomes expensive. What about the time off necessary to attend the race? Many people don’t have the time of money to attend a race.
That’s all I got folks. To me the racing is awesome. It reminds me of Richmond where there’s room to race yet they can still lean on each other. Didn’t we have the multi-car wreck early? What about two popular drivers, who were also team mates, racing hard but bumping for room causing one former champion to cut a tire and wrecking?
Yet the race was boring? Not for me.

BIG NEWS ROUND -2 Chad Knaus and Jimmie Johnson got a pardon. Violations that had Knaus and his car chief suspended, monetary fines levied and points taken away were over ruled on appeal. This puts Johnson in 11th for points.
Afterwards Hendrick said, “I’m glad this is over. I appreciate the fact that we had the opportunity to present all the facts. I’m happy with the outcome to see the points reinstated and Chad reinstated.” Hendrick and Knaus maintained that the car had been previously approved and that no modifications were made. Apparently the appeals officer agreed with Hendrick after hearing the second and final appeal.
I don’t have enough information to form an opinion on this. I’m not clear on what the violation was. What I do know is nothing’s changed. Johnson’s back in the hunt.

There I am in the Pocono Media Center with the red Gater News shirt to the far left, while Dr. Joseph Mattioli (background, sitting and red Pocono shirt), known to all of us as “Doc". He came into the media center and let us all know that he was calling an impromptu press conference. It was August 5, 2011. Note, he is surrounded by many generations of his family who work at the track.

“50 years went by damn fast,” he started out. Then came the announcement, “Today this is sort of special to us. My wife and I felt that it’s about time that I got the hell out of here. In either case, as of today, I’m resigning all my positions here at Pocono Raceway. We’re going to take it a little easy and as I say get the hell out of here. We’re very fortunate that we have some great grandchildren and as of today my oldest grandson, Brandon (Igdalsky), who’s already president, is going to become president and CEO of Pocono Raceway.”

At that time I started to recall all the interactions I have had with Doc. It was all race related interactions but it never felt that way. Doc made it a point to always make you feel welcome and appreciated, something that I must say is missing at some facilities.

Doc would host a media get-together every year and he would always ask questions and engage most people that attended.

Pocono Raceway is close to my home and there’s such a huge feeling of loss right now. Doc’s history with NASCAR, the love and dedication that he showed to his family and friends is legendary.

The track press release said:

He served in the Pacific during World War Two as a Navy medic. Using the G.I. bill, he enrolled in the dentistry program at Temple University (where he met his soon to be wife, Rose.) Upon graduation, he developed his dental practice into a very lucrative business by working 12 to 14 hour days, six and sometimes seven days a week. He then began investing in and developing properties in Philadelphia and Northeastern Pennsylvania where he became involved in the start up of Pocono Raceway.

Dr. Mattioli is survived by his wife of 63 years, Dr. Rose, daughters Louie and Michele and son Joseph Mattioli III, seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. His passing leaves a void in the NASCAR community and especially to his family and extended “Pocono Raceway” family.

Service Arrangements for Dr. Joseph Mattioli are incomplete at this time.

God Speed Doc- You will be sorely missed.

Howdy NASCAR fans. Its that time of year where Ii apologize to all the NASCAR fans out there for not updating my blog on a regular basis. However, with all the news coming out of the NASCAR Media Tour hosted by the Charlotte Motor Speedway and elsewhere I thought I would throw some tidbits out there.
First, Danica Patrick will not be racing the Indianapolis 500 in 2012, she will be racing in NASCAR’s longest event, the Coca-Cola 600 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in the No. 10 Stewart-Haas Go Daddy Chevy. “I’ve wanted to race stock cars for a little while here and it’s happening,” Patrick said. “We’ve added another challenge with the Coke 600.”
“I hope to do it in the future, the Indy 500 that is. Maybe it’ll be a double,” Patrick said. I was in attendance when the owner of her car did it in 1999 and he was exhausted at the completion of the 400 lap race in Charlotte.
Another bit of news that came out of Charlotte was the unveiling of the 2013 Ford Fusion to be used in NASCAR. It debuted at the speedway with Roush-Fenway drivers taking the cars for a spin. Everyone seemed to like the look and feel of the car saying on Twitter that it appeared the car was more “stock” than the others.
”We wanted Fusion to be the car that helped return ‘stock car’ to NASCAR,” Jamie Allison, director, Ford Racing said. “I think fans, when they see the car, are just going to smile and cheer. It is going to reengage them with the sport and make the sport better because there is just something natural about seeing race cars that look like cars in their driveways.”
Earlier in the day at Earnhardt – Ganassi Racing Chip Ganassi called their 2011 efforts “pathetic”. Hopefully this is the last time I have to say we finished twenty-first and twenty-seventh in the points. He continued saying,” the thing about sports is that it’s constantly changing. You have to change with it and fast.” Let’s not forget that they won the Daytona 500, Brickyard 400 and Coca-Cola 600 in 2010 with Jamie McMurray and did not even make the chase! So Ganassi put everyone on notice that they have set some high goals for the 2012 season.
There’s changes all throughout the cup garages and offices and most notably is the addition of Greg Zippadelli to Stewart-Haas along with Steve Addington who left Penske to become the defending champs crew chief.
At Joe Gibbs Racing Stewart’s crew chief from his championship run is now with Denny Hamlin. At the media tour he said, “It feels really good to be a part of Joe Gibbs Racing. The professionalism that they have is pretty impressive. It’s good to be a part of that. Yeah, we had a lot of turmoil at the end of the year last year…still came out all positive. Won the championship and won five races. Came out of there with my head held high and then went on to my next endeavors. I’m really looking forward to getting a new chapter started at Joe Gibbs Racing.”
One bit of surprising news that came to my attention over the weekend was a phone call from some folks working on getting the Adirondack Speedway in New Bremen NY up and running again. The track closed while in a dispute with local government officials over everything from tax assessments and rates to their water. Paul Lyndaker had someone he was working with call me about some photographs I had taken of the NASCAR K&N East series races that were held at the short track earlier in the decade. Lyndaker said, The New Bremen Town Supervisor has scheduled a meeting. Adirondack International Speedway representatives will be presenting their position regarding the future of the track and its effect on the local business community. All race fans and drivers are invited to attend. It would be great if you could attend.”
I explained that I had prior commitments that evening and could not make it. He then explained that he was going to try and get K&N Series racing back at the track this summer. The track has seen some great rising stars race there including Martin Truex Jr., Ryan Truex, Joey Logano, and others. I will keep everyone posted as to how things in that arena are moving along.

NASCAR finally got what it wanted out of the Chase for the Sprint Cup, a walk-off grand-slam in the bottom of the 9th with a full count. With that exciting finish I ended up being crowned the winner of the “celebrity-media challenge” that is sponsored by Sprint. I was the last guy that should have won this thing because I did not even remotely come close to who would win the cup. The top two guys I picked, Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch finished near the bottom. I was not awarded a single bonus point for selecting a winner of a race in the chase either. My win, by one point over country musician Jonathan Birchfield, came as a result of gaining 30 points by having 3 of the final guys in the chase in the correct spot. The funny thing is I have no idea what I win although I did ask a NASCAR PR representative via email if I would get the best seat in the media center . I also asked if I would be guaranteed that my questions during all press conferences would get asked (not everyone gets called to ask questions). So, I patiently wait for a van with at least one of the current Miss Sprint’s to show at my house with a big check (I kid, really).

The guy that accomplished the big win was the least likely of champions in 2011, especially when he was pretty certain that he and his team did not deserve a spot in the championship battle due to their regular season performance. Tony Stewart was pretty ornery in Richmond this past September and I wonder if Kurt Busch’s melt down there, both on and off the track didn’t detract from the attention Stewart’s behavior should have gotten. However, the guy then went out and won the first two chase races and it was on. The 2011 Chase would not have been close if Stewart did not have bad days at Dover where he finished 25th and at Kansas the next week where he finished 15th.
Homestead-Miami was definitely something that will be remembered for a long time. Stewart did everything he had to do to win that race. He passed 4-5 cars at a time, sweeping from outside to inside with reckless abandon. It was certainly something to see. As I reflected upon that championship battle for a radio interview I did realized how perfect a storm there was that day. The pressure on those guys driving, changing tires and making the calls was immense.
What about Darian Grubb? We all found out as we headed to that race might that he may well be a lame –duck crew chief. Yet, they did it. What fans need to realize is that not every race can have that much on the line, so the feeling really just won’t be the same, I was asked why they can’t all have that much riding on it but I thought it was an absurd question, akin to asking why can’t every baseball game be a Game 7 of the World Series.
What we all hope for is that it spiked some interest, not only in fans but sponsors who remain sorely needed in 2012. Many quality teams seek sponsorships to run all races. We’ll see how it pans out but right now no new deals are being announced.
I’d like to thank all my readers for a great 2011 season. I apologize to all who think that this was selfish self promotion! I hope that your holiday season and New Year’s celebrations are all joyous.

http://community.nascar.com/nascar2000/blog/2011/11/23/jonathan_birchfield_holds_off_south_carolina_governor_nikki_haley_for_2011_celebrity_chase_tracker_title