NASCAR_ 11-13-14 ADVP NASCARcover1118

NASCAR 2008
GREEN FLAG:
NEWS AND NOTES
FINAL STANDINGS
SPRINT CUP SERIES
Driver
1. Jimmie Johnson
2. Carl Edwards
3. Greg Biffle
4. Kevin Harvick
5. Clint Bowyer
6. Jeff Burton
7. Jeff Gordon
8. Denny Hamlin
9. Tony Stewart
10. Kyle Busch
11. Matt Kenseth
12. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
13. David Ragan
14. Kasey Kahne
15. Martin Truex Jr.
16. Jamie McMurray
17. Ryan Newman
18. Kurt Busch
19. Brian Vickers
20. Casey Mears
Roush says he won’t
build a test track
Points
6,684
6,615
6,467
6,408
6,381
6,335
6,316
6,214
6,202
6,186
6,184
6,127
4,299
4,085
3,839
3,809
3,735
3,635
3,527
3,527
Race victories
Driver
Carl Edwards
Kyle Busch
Jimmie Johnson
Greg Biffle
Kasey Kahne
Jeff Burton
Tony Stewart
Ryan Newman
Clint Bowyer
Denny Hamlin
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Wins
9
8
7
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
Kurt Busch
1
NATIONWIDE SERIES
Driver
1. Clint Bowyer
2. Carl Edwards
3. Brad Keselowski
4. David Ragan
5. Mike Bliss
6. Kyle Busch
7. David Reutimann
8. Mike Wallace
9. Jason Leffler
10. Marcos Ambrose
11. David Stremme
12. Jason Keller
13. Kelly Bires
14. Steve Wallace
15. Bobby Hamilton Jr.
16. Kenny Wallace
17. Scott Wimmer
18. Kevin Harvick
19. Denny Hamlin
20. Joey Logano
Points
5,132
5,111
4,794
4,525
4,518
4,461
4,388
4,128
4,086
3,991
3,887
3,873
3,764
3,615
3,566
3,121
3,002
2,936
2,758
2,555
Race victories
Driver
Kyle Busch
Carl Edwards
Tony Stewart
Denny Hamlin
Brad Keselowki
Mark Martin
Clint Bowyer
Marcos Ambrose
Scott Wimmer
Joey Logano
Matt Kenseth
Wins
10
7
5
4
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
Ron Fellows
1
CRAFTSMAN TRUCKS
Driver
1. Johnny Benson
2. Ron Hornaday
3. Todd Bodine
4. Erik Darnell
5. Matt Crafton
6. Mike Skinner
7. Rick Crawford
8. Dennis Setzer
9. Jack Sprague
10. Terry Cook
11. Chad McCumbee
12. David Starr
13. Colin Braun
14. Kyle Busch
15. Brendan Gaughan
16. Brian Scott
17. Shelby Howard
18. Donny Lia
19. Jason White
20. Ted Musgrave
Points
3,725
3,718
3,621
3,412
3,392
3,363
3,315
3,197
3,125
3,072
2,999
2,929
2,856
2,854
2,840
2,787
2,636
2,466
2,338
2,099
Race victories
Driver
Ron Hornaday
Johnny Benson
Todd Bodine
Kyle Busch
Kevin Harvick
Donny Lia
Scott Speed
Dennis Setzer
Mike Skinner
Erik Darnell
Matt Crafton
Ryan Newman
Wins
6
5
3
3
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
GEOFF BURKE/Getty Images for NASCAR
Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 99 Ford, makes a pit stop during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Sharpie 500 on Aug. 23 at
Bristol Motor Speedway. Edwards won nine races and finished second in the standings. Edwards’ team, Roush Fenway Racing, is
one of a few teams with full sponsorships lined up for 2009. Despite that, Roush still had lay off 40 employees.
Economy in the pits
NASCAR teams turn to layoffs in effort to survive downturn
By DON COBLE
Morris News Service
ATLANTA — Minutes
before Scott Zipadelli left his
team’s hauler for pit road last
Saturday, he took a picture of
his wife and children off the
wall and looked around for
any loose ends.
He placed the photo in a
box packed with old shirts,
hats and other memorabilia
collected throughout a long
Nationwide Series season.
Like so many other people,
Zipadelli was preparing for
the most uncertain offseason
in NASCAR’s 60-year history.
A stagnant economy
has forced the sport to do
something out of character —
show some financial restraint.
Massive layoffs started in the
middle of summer, continued
throughout the Chase for the
Championship and hit full
speed this week as teams look
for ways to survive.
Hundreds already have
been given their pink slips.
Hundreds more, like Zipadelli,
don’t know what’s going to
happen.
“This is completely gutwrenching,” said Max Siegel,
president of Dale Earnhardt
Inc. global operations.
In the past week, Siegel has
supervised the relocation and
termination of 116 employees.
His team will merge with Chip
Ganassi Racing next year,
and the new organization will
have four cars. Because DEI
started the 2008 campaign
with four cars and Ganassi
three, hundreds of employees
will be trimmed from the
payroll.
Ganassi started the ball
rolling in July by firing 71
workers. Siegel continued the
trend last week.
“We have some of the
greatest people in the sport,
very talented people,” Siegel
said. “Having to do anything
that has a negative impact on
JERRY MARKLAND/Getty Images for NASCAR
Driver Aric Almirola (from left), crew chief Tony Gibson and
driver Martin Truex Jr., all members of the DEI team, talk
during practice for the Sharpie 500. For financial reasons,
DEI will merge with Chip Ganassi Racing next year, forcing
hundreds of workers to be relocated or laid off.
anybody is very difficult.”
Siegel said some workers
were placed in new jobs with
other teams, but most were
left unemployed. Those who
were terminated received a
severance package and were
offered placement counseling.
Nothing, however, could
brace the sport for what’s
already happened — and
what’s ahead.
Since the season ended last
weekend in Homestead, Fla.,
hundreds already have been
added to the unemployment
rolls.
Wood Brothers Racing let
90 people go. Hall of Fame
Racing trimmed its workforce
by 21. Bill Davis Racing
released 40 employees, and
the newly formed StewartHaas Racing fired 16.
By the time terminations
end, the collective estimation
is that 1,000 workers will be
forced out of the business.
A lot of the cuts will come
in the Camping World Truck
and Nationwide series, where
sponsorship deals have dried
up.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. was
forced to shut down one of his
Nationwide teams — which
prompted the layoff of 17
people — because he couldn’t
find full-time sponsorship.
Fitz Motorsports and
JTG Daugherty Racing both
have limited deals in place
for next year. Fitz has a deal
for only 15 races next year,
and JTG Daugherty has 10
races covered for one car in a
two-car operation. That’s not
nearly enough to cover a 35race schedule.
Zipadelli is the crew chief
for one of the cars at JTG
Daugherty Racing. Like many,
he doesn’t know if, or how
long, he will keep his job.
“It’s really tough out there,”
he said. “It costs … to run one
of these cars, and everybody
is cutting back, not spending
money. I know it will turn
around, but if it doesn’t
happen soon, I don’t know
what’s going to happen.”
Although Roush Fenway
Racing has full sponsorships
for 2009, that team still laid off
40 people this week. Others
might follow.
“It’s really tough to even
make a decision to shrink,”
team president Geoff Smith
said. “We’ve been fortunate.
It’s tough for people like Jack
[Roush, co-owner] and myself.
Our entire business careers
have been spent developing
jobs, adding jobs, building
businesses and never having
to face limitations on that.
“At the end of the day,
there’s nothing you can do.
Ours comes from the phased
withdraw of the truck series
and the elimination of the
ARCA team. There are about
40, so far. It might be more. We
don’t know for sure.”
Economists said the current
financial environment is
nothing more than a natural
correction that will force the
businesses that survive to
be more fiscally responsible.
For nearly 1,000 unemployed
mechanics, fabricators and
racers, that is of little comfort.
“It’s very difficult for the
car owners, for everybody
involved,” driver Jeff Burton
said. “The last few years, we’ve
been at a, I would be willing
to say, an all-time high in the
number of fully funded, fully
staffed race teams. I’m sure
I’m correct when I say I would
imagine more people have
been employed within the
teams in the last three years
than any other point in our
history.
“… We think about this as
a sport, and that’s what it is.
But to the people involved in
this sport, this is the way they
pay their mortgages, and this
is the way they pay their car
loans and send their children
to school and pay their bills.
This is the way that you make
a living, and at a time when
the economy turns bad, it’s
just tough times. But it will
come back.”
For the unemployed people
in racing, it can’t happen soon
enough.
When NASCAR outlawed all
testing at its tracks last week, it
sent some teams scrambling for a
backup plan.
The Rockingham Raceway
Park, a one-mile oval near
Charlotte, N.C., is nearly booked
for the next year. Officials
at Pikes Peak International
Raceway said they’ve received
calls about their one-mile oval.
The same goes for New Smyrna
(Fla.) Speedway, Virginia
International Raceway and Road
Atlanta.
NASCAR announced that
teams won’t be allowed to test at
any track that hosts a NASCARsanctioned race for the Camping
World, Nationwide, Sprint Cup
and Camping World Grand
National series.
One track that, for now, will
sit idle is North Wilkesboro
Speedway near Greensboro, N.C.
Although that half-mile track
hosted events for 25 years,
it closed in 1996 to give New
Hampshire Motor Speedway a
second racing date and Texas
Motor Speedway a single date.
Car owner Jack Roush has
thought about building a test
track, so he was asked last week
if he was interested in buying
North Wilkesboro.
“I have neither the money
nor the inclination to build
a test track and also have
had conversations with Mike
[Helton, NASCAR president],
and I don’t have any intention
to try to get around their test
rules,” Roush said. “If we could
organize a situation where all
the established teams would
hold hands and resolve not to
test outside of the NASCAR
mandated or approved testing,
not go to the skid pads, not go
to Canada, not to go to Pikes
Peak or any of the places they’re
checking on, I’d be happier with
that than to skirt around.”
Preseason event is on
Although NASCAR’s ban
on testing will keep cars
from working out at Daytona
International Speedway in
January, track president Robin
Braig said he still will host
Preseason Thunder for the fans.
Drivers made appearances one
night during each of two threeday test sessions in the past. Now
Braig said he hopes to get the
drivers in Daytona Beach to meet
with fans.
“We’ll have all those folks
there,” Braig said. “It’s an
important marketing platform
for us. Our [ticket] sales [for the
Daytona 500] are soft, so we
need the same launch that we’ve
had in the past, and NASCAR’s
promised they’ll deliver.”
Braig hopes to include the
Richard Petty Driving Experience
with Preseason Thunder. Crew
chiefs and car owners also will
participate in fan forums.
With no testing, then next
time stock cars are scheduled
to be on the track is Feb. 6 for
practice for the Budweiser
Shootout all-star race and pole
qualifying for the Daytona 500.
Looking to politics
Jeff Burton is considered one
of the leaders in the NASCAR
garage area. Now he’s thinking
about running for the U.S. Senate
or Congress. Burton admitted
he’s thought about a career in
politics and is trying to decide
whether to run in his home state
of Virginia or in his current home
in North Carolina.
DON COBLE/Morris News Service
NEWSMAKER: CLINT BOWYER
Fateful phone call leads to a Nationwide Series title
Clint Bowyer has come a long way,
from racing on dirt tracks near his
Emporia, Kan., home to winning the
Nationwide Series championship.
Bowyer talked about winning his first
NASCAR championship
and what’s ahead for
him at Richard Childress Racing. Here are
excerpts of that interview:
Bowyer
What does it feel
like to be a NASCAR
champion?
Man, it’s just incredible. It makes
you think back to how it all started.
You know, working in a body shop in
Kansas and trying to figure out what
was the next move. You’re out of money.
Your parents gave up three retirements
to get you where you’re at, and, you
know, it was kind of the end of the road.
Out of nowhere, my cell phone rings
and it was Richard [Childress]. It was
just unbelievable to think back how
my career started … and then winning
my first race in the Nationwide Series
at Nashville. It’s fun to be able to roll
through RCR as a race-car driver and
know the guys and know that they’re
pulling for you and happy that you’re
racing for them. … What Richard has
formed there is a family atmosphere,
where a guy can go there and feel like
family.
You’re a big Elvis Presley fan. What
would he say about this Nationwide
Series championship?
Taking care of business, baby.
You beat Carl Edwards by 21
points. He raced in Missouri. You
raced in Kansas. What does it mean
for the championship to come down
to a pair of Midwesterners?
It was funny. He shared a story, and
we both thought it was funny we raced
at the same race in Moberly, Mo. [in
2002]. It was my first asphalt race. We
went over there with a guy named Scott
Traylor and his modified car. He let
me have an opportunity, and we had
an awesome car. I mean, this thing
was beautiful, top notch. This other
guy showed up, and here comes this
ragged-out race car that was way louder
than everything else and, for whatever
reason, had different tires than everybody else, and he killed us that day.
And I’m like, who in the heck is that
guy? It was Carl Edwards. I told him, I
said, ‘That’s payback for Moberly.’ That
was our first race together. We race a
lot. He did a better job of wrecking my
cars this year than I did. But we had a
lot of fun.
So you two are friends?
You know, I’m proud to be able to
beat a race-car driver like that and a
team and an organization like he’s got
behind him. It says a lot about ours and
the people that surround me. Carl, he’s
been a longtime friend from those days,
and I think it’s a true testament to the
steppingstones of NASCAR. We both
came from the weekly racing series,
went through the regional touring
series and he went to the truck series.
Luckily, I got the right phone call and
went to the Nationwide Series.
Will you race on a full-time basis
in the Nationwide Series next year to
defend your championship?
I’m going to run as much as I can. I
love this series. I love what Nationwide
has done for this series. I appreciate
them coming in and helping stepping
up to the plate. They really did. I mean,
times are tough, and this series is on
top, and it’s a lot of fun to be able to participate in this series, and I want to be a
part of it as long as I can.