Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
March 8th, 2012
Volume VI, Edition XXXIV
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Today's Top Newsby Phil Allaway
Regan Smith and Paul Menard Uninjured in Colorado Crash
Two NASCAR stars were lucky to escape injury after a scary, off-track incident out West. On Wednesday morning, Sprint Cup drivers Regan Smith and Paul Menard, along with Smith's wife Megan and an unidentified fourth person referenced as "a friend of the Smiths" were involved in a crash near Denver, Colorado. According to a press release, Smith was driving his own Chevrolet Silverado and hit a patch of ice, losing control of the vehicle. Skidding off the road, unable to stop he crashed right into a batch of trees. Luckily, none of the four passengers were injured in the crash, although Richard Childress Racing posted on their Twitter page that Menard was a little sore from the wreck.
The quartet were on their way to a ski resort for some midweek fun before heading to the next Sprint Cup event at Las Vegas. Both drivers, longtime friends will still race this weekend and there are no signs that relief will be required.
Entry List Update
Note: These entries are accurate as of Wednesday night. However, they are still subject to change.
Sprint Cup Series Kobalt Tools 400: 45 cars entered
Drivers Ineligible to Earn Points:
No. 87 - Joe Nemechek for NEMCO Motorsports
Driver Changes:
No. 32- Ken Schrader returns to the seat, replacing Mike Bliss. It's the first in a limited schedule of events for the 56-year-old in this car; he brings sponsorship from longtime backer Federated Auto Parts.
Drivers who must qualify on speed:
No. 7 - Robby Gordon for Robby Gordon Motorsports*
No. 21 - Trevor Bayne for Wood Brothers Racing
No. 23 - Scott Riggs for R3 Motorsports*
No. 26 - Josh Wise for Front Row Motorsports*
No. 30 - David Stremme for Inception Motorsports*
No. 36 - Dave Blaney for Tommy Baldwin Racing
No. 37 - Timmy Hill for MaxQ Motorsports/Rick Ware Racing
No. 49 - J.J. Yeley for Robinson-Blakeney Motorsports
No. 87 - Joe Nemechek for NEMCO Motorsports*
No. 98 - Michael McDowell for Phil Parsons Racing
* - Expected to start and park
Nationwide Series Sam's Town 300: 43 cars entered
Drivers Ineligible to Earn Points:
No. 13 - Jennifer Jo Cobb for JJC Racing
No. 18 - Mark Martin for Joe Gibbs Racing
No. 22- Brad Keselowski for Penske Racing
No. 28 - J.J. Yeley for Jay Robinson Racing
No. 30 - James Buescher for Turner Motorsports
No. 33 - Brendan Gaughan for Richard Childress Racing
No. 38 - Kasey Kahne for Turner Motorsports
No. 42 - Josh Wise for Key Motorsports
No. 47 - Scott Speed for Key Motorsports
No. 54 - Kyle Busch for Kyle Busch Motorsports
Driver Changes:
No. 08 - Tim Andrews is in the seat, replacing Casey Roderick. This "placeholder entry" for owner points is expected to start and park.
No. 4 - Danny Efland returns to the seat, replacing Daryl Harr. Efland ran the first race of the season, Daytona, with the team.
No. 18 - Mark Martin is in the seat, replacing Denny Hamlin. It's the first start for Martin with Joe Gibbs Racing.
No. 23 - Robert Richardson, Jr. returns to the seat, replacing Jamie Dick. Richardson's family owns the team.
No. 27 - An unknown driver will be in the seat, replacing J.J. Yeley. The team is expected to start and park.
No. 28 - J.J. Yeley returns to the seat, replacing David Green. Jay Robinson's team, running a full Cup slate with Yeley is still searching for sponsorship in this series.
No. 33 - Brendan Gaughan is in the seat, replacing Kevin Harvick. Gaughan is running a limited schedule, with backing from his father's casino in all three NASCAR series this season.
No. 70 - Johanna Long returns to the seat, replacing Charles Lewandoski. Long's ML Motorsports team returns to run their own car number; they're competing with the rookie in a limited schedule of events.
Since there are only 43 cars entered, no one will fail to qualify. However, these teams must still qualify on speed:
No. 08 - Tim Andrews for Randy Hill Racing*
No. 10 - Jeff Green for TriStar Motorsports*
No. 13 - Jennifer Jo Cobb for JJC Racing
No. 22 - Brad Keselowski for Penske Racing (Guaranteed to start via the Past Champions' Provisional)
No. 27 - Unknown driver for GC Motorsports International*
No. 42 - Josh Wise for Key Motorsports*
No. 44 - Mike Bliss for TriStar Motorsports
No. 46 - Chase Miller for Key Motorsports*
No. 47 - Scott Speed for Key Motorsports*
No. 54 - Kyle Busch for Kyle Busch Motorsports (Has second crack at the Past Champions' Provisional)
No. 74 - Mike Harmon for Mike Harmon Racing*
No. 89 - Morgan Shepherd for Faith Motorsports
Not Entered:
No. 20 - Joey Logano for Joe Gibbs Racing
*-Expected to Start-and-Park
ESPN's Jamie Little Expecting
Jamie Little announced on Wednesday via her Twitter feed that she is pregnant with her first child. As of now, Little and her husband, Cody Selman, do not know the sex of the baby which will be due in early August, during the heart of ESPN's Sprint Cup schedule. The pit reporter is expecting to continue working at the track on weekends, full-time for as long as possible during her pregnancy.
It's not the first time that one of ESPN's pit reporters has dealt with this scenario. In 2009, Shannon Spake worked in the pits for the entire ESPN portion of the Sprint Cup schedule while pregnant with twins. Spake's pregnancy was announced by ESPN via a press release when she was approximately 22 weeks along; in it, there was an announcement about a special firesuit being created for Spake by Impact Racing. That firesuit had adjustable straps built in so that Spake could continue to work without having to acquire additional clothing every few weeks. Expect something similar to be implemented for Little later this Spring.
ESPN is well-equipped to handle a prolonged maternity leave for Little, although it is unclear when such a leave would occur, or how long it would last. Later tweets from Little insinuated that her maternity leave will allow Jim Noble to get more pit reporting duties.
Have news for Phil and the Frontstretch? Don't hesitate to let us know; email us at ashland10@mail.com with a promising lead or tip.
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Got NASCAR-related questions or comments?
Send them John Potts' way at john.potts@frontstretch.com; and if you're lucky, you'll get your name in print when he does his weekly column answering back to you – the fans that keep Frontstretch afloat. Potts' Shots will run on Thursdays with a whole new set of Fan Questions and Answers!
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Today's Featured Commentary
Peculiar Penske Defection From Dodge is Disheartening
What's Vexing Vito
by Vito Pugliese
Many theories abound as to why Penske Racing bid adieu to Dodge last week, announcing that following the end of their contract for the 2012 season, they are going to join the Blue Oval brigade next year with Ford Motor Company. So it ends, a partnership dissolved just like that for the lone multi-car leftover of the Mopar camp after Evernham begat Gillett, then Petty Enterprises shuttered operations at Level Cross. Robby Gordon has signaled he'd love a factory-supported Dodge effort – however, don't expect Chrysler SRT group President and CEO Ralph Gilles to toss him the checkbook just yet.
So why did Captain Penske go Captain Schettino and abandon ship a week before the 2013 Dodge Charger was to be rolled out?
I might be grasping at straws here, but it could go back to something that happened a few years ago in the midst of the auto industry collapse of 2008-09.
During the auto bailout of 2008, the Saturn auto division of General Motors along with Pontiac were both on the chopping block. Roger Penske had all but engineered a deal to purchase Saturn, a supply of parts, and had a deal in place to source an entry level compact sedan and a family model. The deal was all but consummated, with a joint venture car from Nissan and Renault to be imported into the United States as a new Saturn offering. But while Uncle Sam had just spent a lot of money (i.e., ours) to save the UAW-engineered shipwreck that was the American auto giants General Motors and Chrysler, they were probably none too interested to learn that Penske was about to import a family sedan that would retail for under $18,000 – and clean the clock of anything that government-owned General Motors or Chrysler had to offer at the time.
So word came down at the 11th hour that the deal was off, primarily because there was no way the United States would allow the Penske-owned Saturn cars to be imported into the U.S. Renault backed out, with them and the deal was off. Connecting the dots further, Italy-based Fiat now owns part of Chrysler, which is the parent company of Dodge. Perhaps they had a say in if a competing fellow European manufacturer would be stealing sales away from them?
Might there also be some lingering ill will between Penske and others who helped to scuttle the deal to save Saturn? Ford, after all, was the one U.S. automaker who resisted government involvement. Or is it my fellow countrymen, the ones who control the purse strings that do not understand the importance of NASCAR and motorsports marketing in the United States as some have surmised? Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Chrysler (who turned down a salary and bonus for 2011) and his sweater weren't seen around Daytona a couple of weekends back – though he does drive a black Dodge Challenger and is ostensibly Canadian. Then again, Fiat also owns Ferrari which is also synonymous with Formula One, whose annual motorsports budget could power Penske, Hendrick Motorsports, and a couple of the Roush Fenway entries for a season.
It would be a shame if Dodge is not available to attract any top-flight talent in the Cup Series, and uses that as an easy-exit strategy after having just returned barely a decade after a much-heralded return. As Kyle Petty has made the case recently, the biggest stumbling block is that of an in-house engine program with an existing Cup team. With Penske being the last Dodge holdout and Red Bull beating a hasty retreat back to Austria, there are few teams willing to either start an entirely new engine program or switch existing team/brand strategic alliances.
So if Dodge is committed to staying in the sport, they may have to go the route of establishing a factory team, or at least provide engines for all potential cars, much like Toyota has done through its TRD program. Dodge has the SRT nameplate under which to operate under; however, now it is suddenly starting from scratch with only Arrington Engines being the other outlet besides Penske who have as much expertise in making Pentastar power at a professional level. Whoops.
Penske's decision has proved to be peculiar timing, to say the least, what with the debut of the new 2013 Dodge Charger, the latest iteration of the second generation COT – and arguably the best-looking and most closely resembling the street model. The last time Chrysler bowed out of the sport was in 1980, as the newer, downsized cars made their first appearance. By then they had all but left anyway after Richard Petty's short-lived and fruitless season driving a 1978 Magnum, with only Buddy Arrington left to fly the five-star flag in the coming years in a Dodge Mirada. Whatever the hell a Mirada is. Editor's Note: Arrington raced the Miradas, purchased from Petty Enterprises until 1982. They were then rebodied as Chrysler Cordobas and raced until 1985.
Here's hoping that Gilles and company can find a garage to house a Dodge or two by the end of the season. With the state of the sport in such a perilous position, we need all hands on deck to power forward back into prosperity.
Vito Pugliese is a Senior Writer for Frontstretch.com. He can be reached via e-mail at vito.pugliese@frontstretch.com.
Editor's Note: The Critic's Annex will return next Thursday.
Inside Paulie's World: Harraka Dishes On Duke, Drafting, And Daytona
as told to Tom Bowles
22-year-old Paulie Harraka is far from your average Truck Series rookie. He's a race car driver by weekend, college student by weekday as the Duke senior looks to become one of only a handful of NASCAR wheelmen with a bachelor's degree to his credit. One of the sport's most successful Drive For Diversity graduates, accepted into the program in 2006 he was the first to win a local track championship... and he doesn't plan to stop there. The minority driver, of Syrian descent (but born and raised in New Jersey) hopes to become the first such candidate to make it all the way to Sprint Cup. How was he able to take advantage of these opportunities? Why is he different? And how has Duke changed the way he looks at racing... and college basketball, for that matter?
Find out all that and more, along with a surprising connection to an old Cup legend in the first edition of our monthly feature with one of NASCAR's newest, up-and-coming stars.
I am… the most competitive person you will ever meet. Everything, everything in my life is a competition. I always want to be better, always thinking of how I can make stuff better. In conjunction with that, I'm an adrenaline junkie. And when you combine those two things, I guess you get a racecar driver. Richie (Wauters owner/crew chief) and I, we get along really well because we're both always thinking about how to make cars go faster. The wheels are always turning.
When I get in the racecar, I love it. I love, even over the course of a run figuring out how we get ourselves positioned right. Figuring out where this truck wants to be. Figuring out how to win races.
Tell me how a Duke student came to find this opportunity.
I think it was more of a racecar driver ending up at Duke than a Duke kid ending up at NASCAR. But I got to the end of my high school career and had the grades to go wherever I wanted to, but also had a racing career that was going really well. I had to make a decision and at that point, in 2008 I decided it would be best for me to go to Duke. It ended up working really well because it helped differentiate me from other drivers. And I always looked at Duke as a way to augment my racing career. Not as a backup plan, but as something that could augment it. Whether that would be the unique branding platform that it gives me, whether it's the alumni network, the classes that I take, all these things…
So far, so good. I'm in my last semester and it's been a lot of work traveling back and forth to California, running for Bill McAnally in the K&N West Series and doing all the things that were required to make both of those two work, we made happen. But ultimately, when you get two opportunities like that, driving racecars and going to Duke, you don't pass either up. So I made that happen, climbed through the ladder with Bill, ran the All-American Series, won the championship in that. Ran the Pro Series West, won a bunch of races in that. Obviously, the Truck Series is the next ladder in my progression. And Richie and I started talking over the winter, late November and realized, really quickly that we think the same way and we want to do things the same way. One thing led to another, we went and tested at Rockingham, the test went really well and… here we are.
Now, a lot of people say that "smart," in an intellectual sense and NASCAR don't necessarily go hand in hand. Prove them wrong.
I'm not a type to sit and talk Shakeseare with somebody. I don't know anything about it. I don't care. But for me, it's about how I can use a Duke education, or any education to make me a better competitor. To understand the race car better, to communicate with my crew chief better, to give more value to my sponsors, to do whatever it takes at the end of the day to make race cars go faster.
What is something you've learned in class that has helped you on the racetrack.
I think it's engineering courses. And you can take that engineering knowledge, and understand the physics and chemical engineering that's what makes these race cars go. When I was in the West Series, and the All-American Series, I built all my own shock absorbers. It's that knowledge, understanding the physics behind it that enables you to do that. And while I don't plan to build my own shocks in the Truck Series, having that understanding of how shocks work, what they do, the details of how they function not just from an operational perspective but from a big picture of the race car perspective, enables me to communicate better with Richie.
What's the reaction been when you meet somebody for the first time on campus and they find out you're a NASCAR driver?
Well, a lot of people know about it. Those that don't, they always think it's really cool and they're really interested in it because it's unique. I'm unique in the NASCAR community because I'm a Duke student; I'm unique in the Duke community because I'm a NASCAR driver. And everybody thinks the other is cool. I can't tell you how many people in the garage make comments about it because everybody here knows that I go to Duke and I'm a huge basketball fan. Mason Plumlee's actual jersey is in my locker right now. Not like an off the shelf Mason jersey… because Mason is a good friend of mine, and he's number 5, and we're number 5, so Mason sent me his jersey to use for a farce.
That's awesome. How did you get to know Mason?
Just randomly, we became buddies, good friends. He's a fantastic guy. I think athletes have a similar mindset; we all congregate in some ways. I think a lot of my friends at Duke are athletes of basketball, soccer, lacrosse, whatever teams. But being a race car driver at that university makes me unique. And for people, they think it's cool.
OK, let's move onto the 2012 season. Every rookie sets personal goals as to what they want to accomplish throughout the year. What are yours?
Certainly, I've got a lot of experience to get. Almost every racetrack we go to, it will be my first time racing there. That puts a big learning curve in front of me. I've got a veteran crew chief to help me do that; Johnny Benson is here with us at Daytona to help. That said, I only race for one reason and that's to win. That's always my goal. If I ever don't come to the racetrack to win, I need to not come to the racetrack. So for us, we want to win Rookie of the Year. We want to win races this year. We think we're more than capable of doing it; we expect it.
Is it hard to move up in a series and change your mindset? What I mean by that is any talented rookie, no matter how good they are, will get to a new track and know by the end of practice they don't have the "ability" – whether it's equipment, inexperience or otherwise - to win there.
But the approach is always the same about the race. Learning as much as I can about the racetrack, learning as much as I can about the race car. Figuring out what we need to do to win. Is it one thing to go to All-American Speedway, where I've won 11 races in Late Models and two K&N Pro Series West races? Yeah, it's a little different than going to Daytona or Martinsville for the first time. I don't have that knowledge base to draw off of.
But, the preparation and the mindset is still the same. For me, that's "We're going to a racetrack. We're going to do the best we can, and we need to learn and improve all weekend long; whatever the net result is, the net result is."
Now, with Daytona, the draft is what makes or breaks you. As a rookie, you're out there for the first time with some of these guys. How do you prove you're worth working with in the draft?
I think everybody looks for two things: they want to work with somebody who's fast, and they want to work with somebody who's smart. The fast thing, I think Richie's got covered. And the smart thing, I've got some ARCA experience to draw off of. Am I Ron Hornaday? No. Have I done this a bunch of times, have I won this race a bunch of times like Todd Bodine has? No. But, you go out there, you don't put yourself out there in compromising positions, you don't put your competitors in compromising positions. You go out there, run your race in a smart way for the first half and show guys, "Hey, we're for real."
Note: During the race, unfortunately Harraka didn't get to "mix it up" with the draft for all 250 miles. Just 18 laps into the event, while working around the lapped car of fellow rookie Chris Cockrum he lost control of the No. 5 Toyota, triggering a multi-car wreck that also collected Jason Leffler and Dakoda Armstrong. Limping around with torn sheet metal, Harraka lost several laps for repairs and dropped out of contention. Through the attrition of a crash-filled event, however, he finished the night in 19th place, the last car running four laps off the pace. "We proved that we are fast and that we will be a contender all year long," he said after the event. "While the end result is certainly not what we're looking for, I believe we have a lot of great takeaways from this debut.
CURRENT EVENTS
Alright, so for NCAA Basketball we've got the big tournament coming up, but already Duke has played a few close games of its own. The second one with North Carolina didn't work out, but the first… can you explain your feelings surrounding the last-second win? How do you feel the basketball team, and Austin Rivers in particular has played this season?
I think that game was fantastic. The comeback win, and to be that far down and see us rally was something else. My roommates and I, some other friends were watching at my apartment and we were so excited. We were going crazy, everybody in our apartment complex was going crazy. Me and one of my buddies ended up going back to campus, because there was a bunch of stuff going on as the players arrived back – UNC is only 15 minutes away – and it was a blast. It was a really fun night. And the whole Duke basketball atmosphere… we're a basketball school. It's what we are. And there's a tremendous amount of school spirit pride behind that. And it adds to it when there's friends on the team.
Now you mentioned you're good friends with Mason. How well do you know the team?
No, I know a few of the different guys. Some of them I've never met, some I don't know. I know both Mason and Miles Plumlee, Seth Curry. A decent number of guys. And Coach K is the man. I've had the privilege of spending a little bit of time with Coach, getting to know him and he's a fantastic guy and a fantastic role model. The way he runs his life and his basketball program is something that everybody could learn from.
FAN QUESTION
Growing up, did you follow a driver in particular on the NASCAR circuit? And now that you're in the "Big Leagues," have you gotten a chance to meet them? Were they everything you thought they would be? – Shannon, Ann Arbor, Michigan
So, growing up I was a Ricky Rudd fan. And Ricky and I became friends and ended up racing together. Mark Dismore, the former Daytona 24-Hour winner, built a road course for go karts out in Indiana and they have a big 200-lap race there every year. It's a big deal, and it draws all the big "open-wheel" guys. It takes at least two drivers to do it, you make pit stops - the whole nine yards. And Ricky and I did that race together. We shared a car competing against Dan Wheldon, Tomas Scheckter, all the IndyCar names who run this race. Leonard Wood, Ricky had just stopped driving for the Wood Brothers at the time, built us a refueling rig so we had some of the fastest pit stops of anybody. And, long story short we ended up taking the lead during the second stint and ended up winning that race. Lapped almost the entire field. From that point, Ricky and I have remained friends and we still talk on the phone all the time. He's even going to be analyzing me on SPEED this year! Picking me apart for the whole world to hear (laughs).
WHAT'S HOT / WHAT'S NOT IN PAULIE'S WORLD
This Month's Topic: NCAA Tournament
What Team Scares You For Duke Heading In? At this point, where our basketball program is, I don't know if there are any teams that "scare" me. There's always those that pop up in the tournament you never would have thought would be good. You had Butler the last two years, and then you had everybody talking about VCU as the new Butler last year. I don't know if there are any schools out there like that right now, but nobody saw them in the Final Four.
So that's the biggest thing the last two years have taught us: you don't know what underdog is going to steal the big school's thunder, like Duke and Syracuse and Kentucky. It seems like a tiny little school always comes out of nowhere; so let's see who that might be. I think it is cool where you get this underdog, nobody really thought about them kind of teams and suddenly they're in the Final Four and you go, "Where did they come from?"
What Team Doesn't Scare You? Well, I think Florida State, having beat UNC and beat Duke, was somebody that I was kind of like, "Uh oh." But not anymore.
The Duke – North Carolina Rivalry. How special is it for you, and have you ever done something special to celebrate it?
Well, the rivalry is so big because we're so close. And I have friends at Carolina, and you'll see Carolina kids at Duke because we're so close. I even had a girlfriend that went to North Carolina. It wasn't during basketball season, thankfully. But that rivalry makes it so cool, that much more fun to go to school there because Duke and Carolina kids are generally, in the "big picture" friends but obviously fierce, fierce rivals during basketball season. It makes it that much more fun.
Duke has all kinds of traditions around the Carolina game. When we beat Carolina or win the national championship, we have these big benches on campus: I'm talking 10 feet tall by 25 feet wide, wood. And we burn benches on campus and there are some really cool traditions around that. When we won the national championship, I was on campus and one of my best friends and I had gone to Cameron and we're sitting there, watching the game inside. And obviously, it was crazy because the whole arena was just packed with students, going nuts… when you've got rivalries like that, they just add to the mystique of the basketball program. When so many people are behind the program, it makes it so much fun.
Have a question for Paulie? Email us at frontstretcheditors@googlegroups.com and you could be a part of the next edition of this feature!
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Tom Bowles is the Editor-in-Chief of Frontstretch. He can be reached via e-mail at tom.bowles@frontstretch.com.
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TODAY ON THE FRONTSTRETCH:
Charging Into The Future: A Look At Dodge's Top Targets For 2013
by Tom Bowles
MPM2Nite: The Way We Were
by Matt McLaughlin
Potts' Shots: Safety And Rules Remain A "Moving Target"
by John Potts
Professor of Speed: Is It A Crime If Everybody Breaks The Law?
by Mark Howell
Backing Up Complaints With Cash: An Open Letter to Fans
by Amy Henderson
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FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:
Q: After 1982, Formula One decided to cut down from three U.S. Grand Prix to two. As a result, the decision was made to dump the Caesars Palace Grand Prix in Las Vegas, Nevada while keeping the new (for 1982) race in Detroit and Long Beach for 1983. Generally, this adjustment was considered to be a good move at the time. However, the Caesars Palace Grand Prix continued on with CART. What was done to the track to facilitate CART's arrival?
Got NASCAR-related questions or comments?
Send them John Potts' way at john.potts@frontstretch.com; and if you're lucky, you'll get your name in print when he does his weekly column answering back to you – the fans that keep Frontstretch afloat. Potts' Shots will run on Thursdays with a whole new set of Fan Questions and Answers!
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Today's Featured Commentary
Peculiar Penske Defection From Dodge is Disheartening
What's Vexing Vito
by Vito Pugliese
Many theories abound as to why Penske Racing bid adieu to Dodge last week, announcing that following the end of their contract for the 2012 season, they are going to join the Blue Oval brigade next year with Ford Motor Company. So it ends, a partnership dissolved just like that for the lone multi-car leftover of the Mopar camp after Evernham begat Gillett, then Petty Enterprises shuttered operations at Level Cross. Robby Gordon has signaled he'd love a factory-supported Dodge effort – however, don't expect Chrysler SRT group President and CEO Ralph Gilles to toss him the checkbook just yet.
So why did Captain Penske go Captain Schettino and abandon ship a week before the 2013 Dodge Charger was to be rolled out?
I might be grasping at straws here, but it could go back to something that happened a few years ago in the midst of the auto industry collapse of 2008-09.
During the auto bailout of 2008, the Saturn auto division of General Motors along with Pontiac were both on the chopping block. Roger Penske had all but engineered a deal to purchase Saturn, a supply of parts, and had a deal in place to source an entry level compact sedan and a family model. The deal was all but consummated, with a joint venture car from Nissan and Renault to be imported into the United States as a new Saturn offering. But while Uncle Sam had just spent a lot of money (i.e., ours) to save the UAW-engineered shipwreck that was the American auto giants General Motors and Chrysler, they were probably none too interested to learn that Penske was about to import a family sedan that would retail for under $18,000 – and clean the clock of anything that government-owned General Motors or Chrysler had to offer at the time.
So word came down at the 11th hour that the deal was off, primarily because there was no way the United States would allow the Penske-owned Saturn cars to be imported into the U.S. Renault backed out, with them and the deal was off. Connecting the dots further, Italy-based Fiat now owns part of Chrysler, which is the parent company of Dodge. Perhaps they had a say in if a competing fellow European manufacturer would be stealing sales away from them?
Might there also be some lingering ill will between Penske and others who helped to scuttle the deal to save Saturn? Ford, after all, was the one U.S. automaker who resisted government involvement. Or is it my fellow countrymen, the ones who control the purse strings that do not understand the importance of NASCAR and motorsports marketing in the United States as some have surmised? Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Chrysler (who turned down a salary and bonus for 2011) and his sweater weren't seen around Daytona a couple of weekends back – though he does drive a black Dodge Challenger and is ostensibly Canadian. Then again, Fiat also owns Ferrari which is also synonymous with Formula One, whose annual motorsports budget could power Penske, Hendrick Motorsports, and a couple of the Roush Fenway entries for a season.
It would be a shame if Dodge is not available to attract any top-flight talent in the Cup Series, and uses that as an easy-exit strategy after having just returned barely a decade after a much-heralded return. As Kyle Petty has made the case recently, the biggest stumbling block is that of an in-house engine program with an existing Cup team. With Penske being the last Dodge holdout and Red Bull beating a hasty retreat back to Austria, there are few teams willing to either start an entirely new engine program or switch existing team/brand strategic alliances.
So if Dodge is committed to staying in the sport, they may have to go the route of establishing a factory team, or at least provide engines for all potential cars, much like Toyota has done through its TRD program. Dodge has the SRT nameplate under which to operate under; however, now it is suddenly starting from scratch with only Arrington Engines being the other outlet besides Penske who have as much expertise in making Pentastar power at a professional level. Whoops.
Penske's decision has proved to be peculiar timing, to say the least, what with the debut of the new 2013 Dodge Charger, the latest iteration of the second generation COT – and arguably the best-looking and most closely resembling the street model. The last time Chrysler bowed out of the sport was in 1980, as the newer, downsized cars made their first appearance. By then they had all but left anyway after Richard Petty's short-lived and fruitless season driving a 1978 Magnum, with only Buddy Arrington left to fly the five-star flag in the coming years in a Dodge Mirada. Whatever the hell a Mirada is. Editor's Note: Arrington raced the Miradas, purchased from Petty Enterprises until 1982. They were then rebodied as Chrysler Cordobas and raced until 1985.
Here's hoping that Gilles and company can find a garage to house a Dodge or two by the end of the season. With the state of the sport in such a perilous position, we need all hands on deck to power forward back into prosperity.
Vito Pugliese is a Senior Writer for Frontstretch.com. He can be reached via e-mail at vito.pugliese@frontstretch.com.
Editor's Note: The Critic's Annex will return next Thursday.
Inside Paulie's World: Harraka Dishes On Duke, Drafting, And Daytona
as told to Tom Bowles
22-year-old Paulie Harraka is far from your average Truck Series rookie. He's a race car driver by weekend, college student by weekday as the Duke senior looks to become one of only a handful of NASCAR wheelmen with a bachelor's degree to his credit. One of the sport's most successful Drive For Diversity graduates, accepted into the program in 2006 he was the first to win a local track championship... and he doesn't plan to stop there. The minority driver, of Syrian descent (but born and raised in New Jersey) hopes to become the first such candidate to make it all the way to Sprint Cup. How was he able to take advantage of these opportunities? Why is he different? And how has Duke changed the way he looks at racing... and college basketball, for that matter?
Find out all that and more, along with a surprising connection to an old Cup legend in the first edition of our monthly feature with one of NASCAR's newest, up-and-coming stars.
OK, first question. It's a simple one: How would you describe yourself? And why do you race?
I am… the most competitive person you will ever meet. Everything, everything in my life is a competition. I always want to be better, always thinking of how I can make stuff better. In conjunction with that, I'm an adrenaline junkie. And when you combine those two things, I guess you get a racecar driver. Richie (Wauters owner/crew chief) and I, we get along really well because we're both always thinking about how to make cars go faster. The wheels are always turning.
When I get in the racecar, I love it. I love, even over the course of a run figuring out how we get ourselves positioned right. Figuring out where this truck wants to be. Figuring out how to win races.
Tell me how a Duke student came to find this opportunity.
I think it was more of a racecar driver ending up at Duke than a Duke kid ending up at NASCAR. But I got to the end of my high school career and had the grades to go wherever I wanted to, but also had a racing career that was going really well. I had to make a decision and at that point, in 2008 I decided it would be best for me to go to Duke. It ended up working really well because it helped differentiate me from other drivers. And I always looked at Duke as a way to augment my racing career. Not as a backup plan, but as something that could augment it. Whether that would be the unique branding platform that it gives me, whether it's the alumni network, the classes that I take, all these things…
So far, so good. I'm in my last semester and it's been a lot of work traveling back and forth to California, running for Bill McAnally in the K&N West Series and doing all the things that were required to make both of those two work, we made happen. But ultimately, when you get two opportunities like that, driving racecars and going to Duke, you don't pass either up. So I made that happen, climbed through the ladder with Bill, ran the All-American Series, won the championship in that. Ran the Pro Series West, won a bunch of races in that. Obviously, the Truck Series is the next ladder in my progression. And Richie and I started talking over the winter, late November and realized, really quickly that we think the same way and we want to do things the same way. One thing led to another, we went and tested at Rockingham, the test went really well and… here we are.
Now, a lot of people say that "smart," in an intellectual sense and NASCAR don't necessarily go hand in hand. Prove them wrong.
I'm not a type to sit and talk Shakeseare with somebody. I don't know anything about it. I don't care. But for me, it's about how I can use a Duke education, or any education to make me a better competitor. To understand the race car better, to communicate with my crew chief better, to give more value to my sponsors, to do whatever it takes at the end of the day to make race cars go faster.
What is something you've learned in class that has helped you on the racetrack.
I think it's engineering courses. And you can take that engineering knowledge, and understand the physics and chemical engineering that's what makes these race cars go. When I was in the West Series, and the All-American Series, I built all my own shock absorbers. It's that knowledge, understanding the physics behind it that enables you to do that. And while I don't plan to build my own shocks in the Truck Series, having that understanding of how shocks work, what they do, the details of how they function not just from an operational perspective but from a big picture of the race car perspective, enables me to communicate better with Richie.
What's the reaction been when you meet somebody for the first time on campus and they find out you're a NASCAR driver?
Well, a lot of people know about it. Those that don't, they always think it's really cool and they're really interested in it because it's unique. I'm unique in the NASCAR community because I'm a Duke student; I'm unique in the Duke community because I'm a NASCAR driver. And everybody thinks the other is cool. I can't tell you how many people in the garage make comments about it because everybody here knows that I go to Duke and I'm a huge basketball fan. Mason Plumlee's actual jersey is in my locker right now. Not like an off the shelf Mason jersey… because Mason is a good friend of mine, and he's number 5, and we're number 5, so Mason sent me his jersey to use for a farce.
That's awesome. How did you get to know Mason?
Just randomly, we became buddies, good friends. He's a fantastic guy. I think athletes have a similar mindset; we all congregate in some ways. I think a lot of my friends at Duke are athletes of basketball, soccer, lacrosse, whatever teams. But being a race car driver at that university makes me unique. And for people, they think it's cool.
OK, let's move onto the 2012 season. Every rookie sets personal goals as to what they want to accomplish throughout the year. What are yours?
Certainly, I've got a lot of experience to get. Almost every racetrack we go to, it will be my first time racing there. That puts a big learning curve in front of me. I've got a veteran crew chief to help me do that; Johnny Benson is here with us at Daytona to help. That said, I only race for one reason and that's to win. That's always my goal. If I ever don't come to the racetrack to win, I need to not come to the racetrack. So for us, we want to win Rookie of the Year. We want to win races this year. We think we're more than capable of doing it; we expect it.
Is it hard to move up in a series and change your mindset? What I mean by that is any talented rookie, no matter how good they are, will get to a new track and know by the end of practice they don't have the "ability" – whether it's equipment, inexperience or otherwise - to win there.
But the approach is always the same about the race. Learning as much as I can about the racetrack, learning as much as I can about the race car. Figuring out what we need to do to win. Is it one thing to go to All-American Speedway, where I've won 11 races in Late Models and two K&N Pro Series West races? Yeah, it's a little different than going to Daytona or Martinsville for the first time. I don't have that knowledge base to draw off of.
But, the preparation and the mindset is still the same. For me, that's "We're going to a racetrack. We're going to do the best we can, and we need to learn and improve all weekend long; whatever the net result is, the net result is."
Now, with Daytona, the draft is what makes or breaks you. As a rookie, you're out there for the first time with some of these guys. How do you prove you're worth working with in the draft?
I think everybody looks for two things: they want to work with somebody who's fast, and they want to work with somebody who's smart. The fast thing, I think Richie's got covered. And the smart thing, I've got some ARCA experience to draw off of. Am I Ron Hornaday? No. Have I done this a bunch of times, have I won this race a bunch of times like Todd Bodine has? No. But, you go out there, you don't put yourself out there in compromising positions, you don't put your competitors in compromising positions. You go out there, run your race in a smart way for the first half and show guys, "Hey, we're for real."
Note: During the race, unfortunately Harraka didn't get to "mix it up" with the draft for all 250 miles. Just 18 laps into the event, while working around the lapped car of fellow rookie Chris Cockrum he lost control of the No. 5 Toyota, triggering a multi-car wreck that also collected Jason Leffler and Dakoda Armstrong. Limping around with torn sheet metal, Harraka lost several laps for repairs and dropped out of contention. Through the attrition of a crash-filled event, however, he finished the night in 19th place, the last car running four laps off the pace. "We proved that we are fast and that we will be a contender all year long," he said after the event. "While the end result is certainly not what we're looking for, I believe we have a lot of great takeaways from this debut.
CURRENT EVENTS
Alright, so for NCAA Basketball we've got the big tournament coming up, but already Duke has played a few close games of its own. The second one with North Carolina didn't work out, but the first… can you explain your feelings surrounding the last-second win? How do you feel the basketball team, and Austin Rivers in particular has played this season?
I think that game was fantastic. The comeback win, and to be that far down and see us rally was something else. My roommates and I, some other friends were watching at my apartment and we were so excited. We were going crazy, everybody in our apartment complex was going crazy. Me and one of my buddies ended up going back to campus, because there was a bunch of stuff going on as the players arrived back – UNC is only 15 minutes away – and it was a blast. It was a really fun night. And the whole Duke basketball atmosphere… we're a basketball school. It's what we are. And there's a tremendous amount of school spirit pride behind that. And it adds to it when there's friends on the team.
Now you mentioned you're good friends with Mason. How well do you know the team?
No, I know a few of the different guys. Some of them I've never met, some I don't know. I know both Mason and Miles Plumlee, Seth Curry. A decent number of guys. And Coach K is the man. I've had the privilege of spending a little bit of time with Coach, getting to know him and he's a fantastic guy and a fantastic role model. The way he runs his life and his basketball program is something that everybody could learn from.
FAN QUESTION
Growing up, did you follow a driver in particular on the NASCAR circuit? And now that you're in the "Big Leagues," have you gotten a chance to meet them? Were they everything you thought they would be? – Shannon, Ann Arbor, Michigan
So, growing up I was a Ricky Rudd fan. And Ricky and I became friends and ended up racing together. Mark Dismore, the former Daytona 24-Hour winner, built a road course for go karts out in Indiana and they have a big 200-lap race there every year. It's a big deal, and it draws all the big "open-wheel" guys. It takes at least two drivers to do it, you make pit stops - the whole nine yards. And Ricky and I did that race together. We shared a car competing against Dan Wheldon, Tomas Scheckter, all the IndyCar names who run this race. Leonard Wood, Ricky had just stopped driving for the Wood Brothers at the time, built us a refueling rig so we had some of the fastest pit stops of anybody. And, long story short we ended up taking the lead during the second stint and ended up winning that race. Lapped almost the entire field. From that point, Ricky and I have remained friends and we still talk on the phone all the time. He's even going to be analyzing me on SPEED this year! Picking me apart for the whole world to hear (laughs).
WHAT'S HOT / WHAT'S NOT IN PAULIE'S WORLD
This Month's Topic: NCAA Tournament
What Team Scares You For Duke Heading In? At this point, where our basketball program is, I don't know if there are any teams that "scare" me. There's always those that pop up in the tournament you never would have thought would be good. You had Butler the last two years, and then you had everybody talking about VCU as the new Butler last year. I don't know if there are any schools out there like that right now, but nobody saw them in the Final Four.
So that's the biggest thing the last two years have taught us: you don't know what underdog is going to steal the big school's thunder, like Duke and Syracuse and Kentucky. It seems like a tiny little school always comes out of nowhere; so let's see who that might be. I think it is cool where you get this underdog, nobody really thought about them kind of teams and suddenly they're in the Final Four and you go, "Where did they come from?"
What Team Doesn't Scare You? Well, I think Florida State, having beat UNC and beat Duke, was somebody that I was kind of like, "Uh oh." But not anymore.
The Duke – North Carolina Rivalry. How special is it for you, and have you ever done something special to celebrate it?
Well, the rivalry is so big because we're so close. And I have friends at Carolina, and you'll see Carolina kids at Duke because we're so close. I even had a girlfriend that went to North Carolina. It wasn't during basketball season, thankfully. But that rivalry makes it so cool, that much more fun to go to school there because Duke and Carolina kids are generally, in the "big picture" friends but obviously fierce, fierce rivals during basketball season. It makes it that much more fun.
Duke has all kinds of traditions around the Carolina game. When we beat Carolina or win the national championship, we have these big benches on campus: I'm talking 10 feet tall by 25 feet wide, wood. And we burn benches on campus and there are some really cool traditions around that. When we won the national championship, I was on campus and one of my best friends and I had gone to Cameron and we're sitting there, watching the game inside. And obviously, it was crazy because the whole arena was just packed with students, going nuts… when you've got rivalries like that, they just add to the mystique of the basketball program. When so many people are behind the program, it makes it so much fun.
Have a question for Paulie? Email us at frontstretcheditors@googlegroups.com and you could be a part of the next edition of this feature!
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Tom Bowles is the Editor-in-Chief of Frontstretch. He can be reached via e-mail at tom.bowles@frontstretch.com.
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TODAY ON THE FRONTSTRETCH:
Charging Into The Future: A Look At Dodge's Top Targets For 2013
by Tom Bowles
MPM2Nite: The Way We Were
by Matt McLaughlin
Potts' Shots: Safety And Rules Remain A "Moving Target"
by John Potts
Professor of Speed: Is It A Crime If Everybody Breaks The Law?
by Mark Howell
Backing Up Complaints With Cash: An Open Letter to Fans
by Amy Henderson
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FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:
Q: After 1982, Formula One decided to cut down from three U.S. Grand Prix to two. As a result, the decision was made to dump the Caesars Palace Grand Prix in Las Vegas, Nevada while keeping the new (for 1982) race in Detroit and Long Beach for 1983. Generally, this adjustment was considered to be a good move at the time. However, the Caesars Palace Grand Prix continued on with CART. What was done to the track to facilitate CART's arrival?
Check back Thursday for the answer, here in the Frontstretch Newsletter!
Tuesday's Answer:
Q: In 1997, Las Vegas Motor Speedway hosted the first-ever race west of the Mississippi River for the then-Busch Grand National Series. As it was held on an off weekend for Winston Cup (the event was held the weekend in-between Atlanta and Darlington), many Cup regulars made the trip out to Nevada.
One of these drivers, Joe Nemechek, had an excellent run, leading 49 laps. Unfortunately, his day ended in the concrete. What happened to put him there?
Editor's Note: Originally, this question claimed that the race took place the first weekend of March, and that the Richmond race weekend had been pushed back to June. This change did not happen until 1998. In 1997, Richmond was still the third race of the season for both series, and still very cold.
A: On Lap 123, Todd Bodine got loose in Turn 4 and slid up into Mike Wallace. As a result, Wallace spun the unsponsored Whitaker Racing No. 7 and backed into the wall. Behind Wallace, Jason Keller also crashed and Nemechek crashed into Keller. In a third, related crash, Tim Bender backed Robbie Reiser's No. 17 Kraft Singles Chevrolet hard into the wall. Finally, Jerry Robertson, driving a Ford for Doug Taylor also spun. Of note, Wallace nearly wrecked in front of the pack two laps later exiting Turn 4 after Bodine hooked him in the left rear corner. The crash can be seen at the 1 hour, 27 minute and 40 second mark of the full race.
Nemechek, Keller, Wallace and Bender were out on the spot. Robertson's Thunderbird was undamaged, so he was able to continue, eventually finishing three laps down in 22nd.
Frontstretch Trivia Guarantee: If we mess up, you get the shirt off our backs! If we've provided an incorrect answer to the Frontstretch Trivia question, be the first to email the corrected trivia answer to trivia@frontstretch.com and we'll send you a Frontstretch T-Shirt ... FREE!
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Coming tomorrow in the Frontstretch Newsletter:
-- Top News from Nick Schwartz
-- In Case You Missed It by Nick Schwartz
-- Keepin' It Short by Mike Neff
-- Links to your favorite Frontstretch articles, and more!
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Tomorrow on the Frontstretch:
Four Burning Questions: Las Vegas by Summer Dreyer
Summer returns with her four-part look at what we should expect from this weekend's Kobalt Tools 400 in Las Vegas.
Holding A Pretty Wheel by Amy Henderson
This week, Rockingham Speedway played host to a Goodyear Tire Test in preparation for next month's Good Sam Club 200. Amy is here to show you just how important this race really is.
Friday Fast Forward Into NASCAR's Future by Bryan Davis Keith
Bryan returns with another interesting commentary piece.
Voices From the Heartland by Jeff Meyer
Jeff may no longer live in Iowa, but he's still back with his own particular brand of writing.
5th Column TBA
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