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March 30, 2007

NASCAR News Rewind
Martinsville Memories Edition
By Dennis Michelsen

Every week so much happens in the world of NASCAR. As a public service we will attempt to wrap up the three biggest stories of the week in one easy to follow story every week. Just because we can't resist being wise guys we will also present our take on the news!

NASCAR Working on COT Problems
NASCAR officials are scrambling to solve a couple of potentially serious issues with the "Car of Tomorrow." Denny Hamlin and several other drivers complained about an unusual amount of carbon monoxide in their system after Sunday's inaugural COT race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Some teams had issues with the protective foam in the right side door overheating, melting and producing toxic fumes. Some had springs that failed for no apparent reason, which may have been the reason for the #16 car of Greg Biffle being too low during post-race inspection. NASCAR officials plan to talk with crew chiefs before they arrive in Martinsville on Friday to discuss solutions to these issues. They will look at adjusting the tolerances for minimum height until it is determined what makes the new car settle. They will suggest that teams use a thicker exhaust pipe after determining those that had exhaust systems failures used a thinner pipe to conserve weight. They already have talked to Roush Fenway Racing officials about putting a heat shield over the pipe near the right door and notching the foam higher around the pipe to keep heat from compromising it. NASCAR vice president of competition Robin Pemberton and Nextel Cup series director John Darby have scheduled a Friday morning press conference to discuss the issues. (ESPN.com)

My Take: Do all the testing and computer modeling in the world but you won't find all the problems that are likely to surface with a new car until it races for 500 laps or 500 miles! Teams are always looking for a way to save weight in anything they build. Taking chances with the exhaust systems is never a good idea. The protective foam melting was a huge surprise to NASCAR and since they touted how important this foam is they now have to find a solution. I still think the front splitter will dig into the grass when the cars spin off tracks with high banking. Any time you try to make something safer there will be unintended consequences with untested parts!

Biffle Will Not Face Discipline for Car Height
NASCAR will not penalize Greg Biffle's #16 team, despite the fact his Ford was found to be too low in post-race inspection at Bristol Motor Speedway, NASCAR vice president for competition Robin Pemberton said Wednesday. NASCAR has scheduled a news conference for Friday morning at Martinsville Speedway to explain their reasoning in detail. NASCAR took the #16 car back to its research and development center Sunday night after the Food City 500 and gave it a thorough inspection Monday. Officials determined that no unapproved adjustments had been made to the car, so NASCAR cleared the machine and returned it to Roush-Fenway Racing on Monday afternoon. The 2007 season began with a new, less tolerant approach toward rules violators, prompting many to suspect that Biffle and his team would receive a stiff penalty following the Bristol mishap. But NASCAR officials said the Car of Tomorrow is a work in progress, and that they anticipated the cars would lose some height during the race at Bristol. Officials ran eight cars through the height sticks during post-race inspection, and Biffle's was the only one that came back too low. Before making any permanent changes, NASCAR said it will likely make some rules adjustments in the future that benefit everyone. (ESPN.com)

My Take: Either a car passes post race technical inspection or it fails! Letting a team slide like NASCAR did at Daytona with Jeff Gordon or at Bristol with Greg Biffle sets a bad precedent. At your local short track if a car fails post race technical inspection he loses the win and the cash. NASCAR has always wanted to leave the win alone and that has never been a wise idea.

AT&T Wants Logo on Burton's Car Immediately NASCAR Fires Back
AT&T has been pressuring NASCAR with its lawsuit over how to paint the quarter panels on Jeff Burton's Nextel Cup #31 Chevy car as it rebrands Cingular under the AT&T logo. According to papers being filed in the suit, NASCAR officials told Stan Sigman, the president and CEO of Cingular, five weeks ago that in April 2005, George Pyne, NASCAR's CEO at the time, told the Richard Childress-Burton team that it would not allow a change in paint scheme or logos if Cingular was bought and had its name changed. NASCAR further said that its grandfathering of Cingular - after Nextel signed on as the series sponsor - "was tied directly to the Cingular Wireless brand and not the Cingular company." The papers further say that "it is generally not in NASCAR's interest to limit sponsors' participation in the sport." NASCAR suggested that AT&T could sponsor a Busch team or a Trucks team instead, if it wished. That is precisely the route that Verizon has taken. NASCAR's filing refers specifically to Pyne's letter to Childress, dated April 4, 2005. It specifies that "should Cingular be acquired by a third party, the Cingular brand is continually welcome as a team sponsor. However, should the company's name change, we will not allow any paint scheme or branding on the car promoting this new name." The papers go on to say: "NASCAR certainly has no desire to eliminate the Cingular brand from NASCAR Nextel Cup series competition." But, "unfortunately AT&T's decision to purchase Cingular and then to eliminate the Cingular brand puts NASCAR in the position of having to now enforce the rights granted Nextel in the series sponsorship agreement."(Winston Salem Journal)

My Take: The proposed change to the No. 31 car simply involves adding the AT&T logo to the Cingular car. They have no intention to eliminate the Cingular logo from the hood just add the parent companies name on the side. While this violates the agreement that was in place, it is comical that Nextel can add or change to Sprint and another brand cannot do so. In this day and age of limited sponsors this change adding an AT&T logo should be allowed. Besides when Nextel signed up AT&T was a sponsor part time in the Cup series and so it is not like they just discovered the sport!