Penny20Fan's blog: "Nascar"

Stewart looking for repeat at this year's Chili Bowl By Team Release January 4, 2008 03:55 PM EST type size: + -TULSA, Okla. -- Tony Stewart has won 32 Cup Series races, led the 24 Hours of Daytona, and started from the pole in the Indianapolis 500. Clearly, the 36-year-old from Columbus, Ind., knows a thing or two about world-class venues and motorsports events surrounded by high publicity and international intrigue. Yet it is a midget-car contest held each January inside a converted rodeo arena and livestock hall in Oklahoma that Stewart calls "the best race of the year for me." Tony StewartStewart, the Sprint Cup champion in 2002 and 2005, declares, "Yeah, if I could run only one race a year, and I had to pick, it would definitely be the Chili Bowl." He is referring to the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Midget Nationals, the 22nd-annual edition will be held Jan. 8-12 inside the Tulsa Expo Center. The Chili Bowl semifinals will be streamed on NASCAR.COM at 8 p.m. ET on Friday, Jan. 11. Saturday night's headline action will be televised for the first time live on pay-per-view. The Chili Bowl, in Stewart's opinion, is "the toughest race to win," and he should know. He has emerged as the victor in the Saturday-night A-Main finale, one of the most coveted short-track events in America twice, once in 2002 and again in 2007. This year, some 280 plus Midgets are expected in Tulsa for the mid-winter classic. "When you've got [that many] guys that come to one track to try to make a 24-car starting field, and you beat those guys, that's something," Stewart said. "You just don't get lucky and do that. That's something you have to earn. I mean, the pressure is very intense to perform well -- not only for myself, but for everybody there -- because there's so many great champions from so many different parts of the country, and they want to prove that they're the best." Stewart has been a semi-regular entrant in the Chili Bowl, missing some years due to conflicts with his NASCAR and IndyCar duties. But, whenever time has allowed and good rides have been available, he has come to Tulsa each January since the mid-1990s, when he was a dirt-track regular piling up feature wins from Ohio to California and earning a pair of United States Auto Club National Midget championships, not to mention titles in USAC's Silver Crown and Sprint Car divisions. Always, his Chili Bowl philosophy has been the same: "Plan ahead." A driver cannot win on Saturday night without first surviving the rugged qualifying nights on the tight Expo oval, when he is put to the test by heat races, last-chance events and preliminary features, not to mention rivals he may be seeing for the first time since the previous year's Chili Bowl. Toss in the ever-changing nature of dirt-track racing, and the whole exercise becomes as much a mental challenge as a physical contest. "You always have to be paying attention," Stewart declares. "During your preliminary night, you have to watch the racetrack and see how it changes. You don't necessarily want your car to be handling perfect the first five laps [of the prelim feature]; you have to know what you need your car to be doing the last five laps, and how to set it up for that. "There are so many good guys, great championship drivers, that won't make the A-Main. So the goal is to get yourself in the A-Main, and then, once you get yourself in, finish as high as you can finish." If all goes according to his plan, it will mean a third Chili Bowl championship and a third "Golden Driller" trophy emblematic of the accomplishment. But Stewart, though generally a bright-eyed optimist, is realistic enough to know that no race tests the best-laid plans like the Chili Bowl. "There's so many great guys," he says. "It's like going to an all-star game, an all-star event. I mean, you are racing against the best."

By Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports May 10, 2007 The Boston Red Sox once sold Babe Ruth so its owner could fund a play. The Portland Trail Blazers once passed on Michael Jordan. The Minnesota Vikings once traded five players and six draft picks for Herschel Walker. None of those moves were as disastrously bad as the one Teresa Earnhardt made when she thought she could call Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s bluff about leaving his late father's racing team. Her stepson was serious. Painfully so for DEI. Thursday at his JR Motorsports headquarters in North Carolina, Earnhardt Jr. announced he is leaving DEI. Whether he is going to drive for his own team or will join an existing competitor is not certain. What is known is that he'll still be sponsored by Budweiser, still will drive a Chevy and, of course, still be the overwhelmingly most popular and recognizable driver in NASCAR. Only now, he'll be doing it for even more money and even more (if not total) control. Junior had asked for a majority stake of DEI to stay. No one yet knows how negotiations between Junior and Teresa broke down – maybe Teresa really did all she could, but it doesn't seem like she was willing to give Junior the 51 percent control he wanted. Now she has 100 percent of a company in ruin. Financially, the best move for Junior would be to expand his JR Motorsports, currently a Busch Series operation, to Nextel Cup, where he and current teammate Martin Truex could form a two-car team. With engine and technical support from Hendrick Motorsports, winners of seven of the season's 10 races, it could be a formidable team from Daytona on. Most importantly, it would allow Junior to control the outrageous revenue he brings in, cashing in on the popularity that made him bigger than DEI, even if DEI couldn't realize it. Since his father's on-track death in 2001, Earnhardt Jr., now 32, has become the driving force in all of NASCAR. He has what, half the fans? Sixty percent? Seventy? Any track, any weekend is a home game for Junior, as a sea of red-clad worshippers make him more beloved than his nearest competitors – the likes of Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon – combined. When Junior takes the lead the place goes nuts. When someone bumps him into a wreck, they'll be met, eventually, with a hail of boos and beer cans from the grandstands. There essentially is nothing else like it in sports. Only Tiger Woods controls golf in the same manner – assuring crowds, television ratings and revenue. But Woods doesn't play every week, and culturally golf and NASCAR fans are little alike. Even so, you wouldn't see Nike Golf let Tiger walk under almost any circumstances. You wouldn't see Nike co-founder Phil Knight assume he could just rebuild the division with someone else. Nike knows Tiger is the golf division. That Teresa Earnhardt didn't see the same in her stepson is stunning. Maybe she really never does show up at the track? Maybe she really never talks to Junior and still thinks he was some silly, hard-partying kid who didn't know the difference between tens of millions and hundreds of millions? Whatever it was, it was a colossal miscalculation. If both Junior and Truex leave (Truex's future is unknown), DEI's Nextel Cup driver stable would consist of rookie Paul Menard and, uh, yeah, that's it. It will still have the Intimidator' s likeness to sell – a considerable cash stream. And Jeffrey Earnhardt – Senior's grandson and Junior's nephew – is under contract, but he's 17 and several years away, if ever. But other than that, it's a leveling of the company. By not sharing more with Junior, Teresa wound up with all of nothing. Meanwhile, if Junior keeps this in-house at JR Motorsports (where his sister Kelley is president) he officially can begin to print money. His new operation will select its marketing partners from a crush of Fortune 500 companies. In terms of merchandise sales, this could be historic; the most popular driver with a new car and number. Many fans hope Richard Childress Racing would surrender the rights to Senior's No. 3 and allow Junior to run it himself, but no matter the number, there are millions of Junior fans now in the market for new T-shirts, bumper stickers, key chains, flag, tattoos and heaven knows what else. The No. 8 is obsolete. It's like the New York Yankees changing colors. Only with more fans who are more loyal. If Junior is as smart as he has demonstrated recently, he'd invest some of that revenue into a great CEO for JR Motorsports. And that is, perhaps, why just joining an existing team, albeit with a hefty compensation or partial ownership deal, would be the better choice. The demands of being an owner-driver can become too big. It's a double responsibility that has proven extremely challenging for Michael Waltrip and Robby Gordon. Earnhardt needs to concentrate mostly on driving. Of course, it's not like he's been tearing up the track. The most remarkable thing about his popularity is that it is not – like Tiger Woods' – based on dominating the competition. Junior never has won a Cup title, hasn't won a race in a year and has taken checkers just twice since 2004. Yet he has the most fans. The on-track results had to factor into his decision to walk. It's not like DEI was giving him the best car each week to begin with. If they weren't going to meet his business demands either, what was the point? But for whatever reason, Teresa Earnhardt figured he wouldn't leave his daddy's company. Maybe she underbid him. Maybe she refused to give up control. Maybe she banked on a family discount. Whatever it was, she guessed wrong. Terribly so. The good news for DEI is it only took the Red Sox 86 years to recover from something so dumb. Dan Wetzel is Yahoo! Sports' national columnist. Send Dan a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.

Stewart likens NASCAR to wrestling Stewart likens NASCAR to wrestling April 25, 2007 AP - Apr 25, 2:55 pm EDT More Photos CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- Two-time champion Tony Stewart likened NASCAR to professional wrestling and accused it of using bogus caution flags to shape races in biting comments made on his weekly radio show. Stewart's appearance on his Tuesday night show was his first since skipping a post-race press conference in Phoenix. He dominated Saturday night's race but lost after a late exchange of leads with winner Jeff Gordon. Stewart said he refused interviews to avoid bashing NASCAR after officials threw four cautions for debris on the track. ``It's like playing God,'' he said on his Sirius Satellite Radio program. ``They can almost dictate the race instead of the drivers doing it. It's happened too many times this year.'' Stewart, who said he was fighting a fever and left the two-hour show early, went on to say fans are complaining about debris cautions and NASCAR isn't listening. ``I guess NASCAR thinks 'Hey, wrestling worked, and it was for the most part staged, so I guess it's going to work in racing, too,''' he said. ``I can't understand how long the fans are going to let NASCAR treat them like they're stupid before the fans finally turn on NASCAR. ADVERTISEMENT ``I don't know that they've run a fair race all year.'' NASCAR called Stewart's comments ``very, very disappointing.'' ``NASCAR has been running races since 1948, and we place the safety of the drivers at the top of the list,'' said spokesman Jim Hunter. ``We have more people and more resources than ever officiating our races. The safety of the drivers is our first priority. It has always been that way and will continue to be that way. ``There are thousands of talented race drivers out there who would consider it an honor to compete in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series.'' Although NASCAR has a policy that prohibits obscene language and gestures on television, the sanctioning body has no rule against criticizing its officiating. The NBA and NFL both fine its participants for criticizing the referees. Hunter said NASCAR had no plans to punish Stewart for his remarks about officiating, which is done from a tower above the race track by a team of eight that includes NASCAR president Mike Helton and competition director Robin Pemberton. NASCAR also does not force its drivers to meet with the media but has post-race procedures in place for the top three finishers and highest finishing rookie. The official entry blank each week lists the policy, but Stewart was adamant on his radio show that he is not required to abide by it. ``There's nothing, zero, in my contract that says I have to do that,'' he said. ``We do that as a courtesy to NASCAR and the media. The thing with the media is they think it's our obligation to do those things. It's not our obligation. It's a privilege that they get to do that.'' He said skipping the press conference was his way of getting even with NASCAR over what he considered unfair officiating. ``NASCAR is the ones that always ask us to go to the media center, so instead of doing what they wanted, they don't do what we want to do and run the race fair,'' he said. ``So why would I go to the media center and make them happy?'' Stewart led a race-high 132 laps at Phoenix but lost the lead while pitting under the final caution, which came for an accident. He used an impressive three-wide pass to re-claim the lead, only to swap it right back to Gordon, who drove away to victory. Stewart called it the only legitimate caution of the day. ``To me, it's not all about the money, it's about the integrity of the sport,'' he said on his radio program. ``When I feel our own sanctioning body isn't taking care of that, it's hard to support them and feel proud about being a driver in the Nextel Cup Series when they're throwing debris cautions.'' He has had a frustrating start to the season, dominating several races but failing to find his way to Victory Lane. He was the class of the field at Daytona and Bristol, only to lose those races because of a wreck and mechanical failure. He also lost a race in Atlanta when a debris caution came out while he was leading with 25 laps to go and the field pitted. Jimmie Johnson passed him for the victory with three laps to go. Stewart was so frustrated after wrecking in Texas two weeks ago -- an accident caused by hard racing with Juan Pablo Montoya and criticized because Stewart ultimately wrecked Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- he threatened retirement. The 35-year-old Stewart had calmed by the time he hosted last week's radio show, when he said he talked of retiring out of frustration. Updated on Wednesday, Apr 25, 2007 6:43 pm EDT

Stewart yearns for Daytona victory -- in 24-hour race. Stewart yearns for Daytona victory -- in 24-hour race. By MIKE HARRIS, AP Auto Racing Writer January 26, 2007 DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- Because Tony Stewart's main job is driving Chevrolets for Joe Gibbs Racing in NASCAR's Nextel Cup series, you might think the victory he would most covet at Daytona International Speedway is winning the Daytona 500. You would be wrong -- at least this week. ADVERTISEMENT Stewart, who loves to race just about anything with wheels, will spend the weekend co-driving a Pontiac Crawford Daytona Prototype with three-time winners Andy Wallace of England and Butch Leitzinger in the Rolex 24 sports car endurance race here. With the start of the stock car season still two weeks away, and coming off a victory in the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals in Tulsa, Okla., on Jan. 15, Stewart has his sights firmly set on a Daytona 24-Hour win. "I've driven 22 different types of cars and won in 21 of them," Stewart said. "And I should have won here twice. Only bad luck got us and kept us from winning." Three years ago, Stewart's team lost the lead and the race when his suspension failed with fewer than 20 minutes remaining. In 2005, a gearbox failure ended his team's hopes of victory with a little over two hours remaining. "It is a big deal, a big letdown getting within 17 1/2 minutes of winning this event," he said Friday after the final practice session on Daytona's 3.56-mile road circuit. "It makes you want it even more." Although the field for the 45th 24-hour race is possibly the deepest ever, with stars from NASCAR, the IRL and Champ Car joining most of the world's best road racers, Stewart's team is among the favorites. Team owner Rob Dyson, who has two Daytona wins, is only cautiously optimistic. "I know we have a couple of good cars and a lot of great driving talent, including Tony, of course. But it's such long race and so many things can go wrong," Dyson said. "This is the easiest race on the planet to lose." ANOTHER TONY: Among the other entries at Daytona is a Porsche Crawford prototype with a five-man team listed, including car owner Tony George. George, founder of the IRL and president and CEO of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, will make his endurance racing debut here, joining stepson Ed Carpenter, Tomas Scheckter, Anthony Foyt and Stephan Gregoire. Asked who is the more important Tony in the race that begins Saturday at 1:30 p.m., Stewart, who owns Eldora Speedway, a dirt oval in Ohio, said, "Well, he owns a bigger racetrack than I do. And he's taller than I am. "But we can have an autograph line and see who has more people lined up," he added, grinning. TOUGH TASK: Scott Pruett, a six-time Daytona winner and the career leader in Daytona prototype victories with 12, has the difficult assignment of trying to win again this year with a pair of co-drivers making their first endurance starts. He will share one of two Lexus Rileys entered by Chip Ganassi Racing with former Formula One and CART star Juan Pablo Montoya and Mexican driver Salvador Duran. The other Ganassi car will be co-driven by defending Daytona winners Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon and Memo Rojas, another Mexican newcomer. "Salvador Duran is a young, very talented driver and, obviously, Juan Pablo Montoya, who brings just an unbelievable list of accomplishments, as well, is a great teammate," Pruett said. "Between those two and myself, we have a great chance. "The only issue, if any, is that they haven't run this race before. So, Scott Dixon, Dan Wheldon and myself are trying to get all of our teammates who haven't been here before up to speed on what to expect, what to worry about, what not to worry about, when to get excited, when not to get excited." Pruett said he has tried to get across to the youngsters the kind of test the twice-around-the-clock race is. "I've told them it's a grind," Pruett said. "It's a driver digging down deep and a team digging down deep. It's a driver jumping back into the car at 2 in the morning. It could be raining, it could be foggy -- the conditions could be absolutely horrible -- but you're going out there driving. "So, when you get to the end of it, it's just a huge sigh of relief. And, if you win, it's just a tremendous high." Updated on Friday, Jan 26, 2007 5:34 pm EST