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“It’s been a while. We all know
how long it’s been since I’ve been
in Victory Lane.”
— Elliott Sadler, on winning the Bashas Supermarkets 200 Nationwide series race Saturday at Phoenix
International Raceway. The victory was Sadler’s first
Nationwide win since 1998 — a stretch of 91 starts.
®
© 2012 Charlotte Observer. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services
Go online and check out www.thatsracin.com for the latest information and news on stock-car racing, updated daily.
KOBALT TOOLS 400
Where: Las Vegas Motor Speedway, a 1.5-
Tony Stewart isn’t panicked by his slow Sprint Cup start
BY CARLOS MENDEZ
McClatchy Newspapers
obody’s talking about Tony
Stewart right now. He hasn’t
given anybody any reason to.
He finished 16th in the fiery, prime
time Daytona 500 and 22nd last week
at Phoenix. He’s 15th in the NASCAR
Sprint Cup points standings as the
series heads to Las Vegas this weekend.
Not really looking like the hunted.
But not really caring whether he’s
the hunted or the hunter.
“I’m one of these guys that, I guess,
feels like everybody starts the year at
zero,” he said Tuesday at Texas Motor
Speedway’s Media Day, where the
defending series champion met with
reporters to promote the racing season
at TMS.
“This sport changes so rapidly as
far as the technology, it’s easy to get
behind if you’re not paying attention,”
he said. “So I don’t feel like the hunted
guy. I focus on what we’ve got to do
to stay where we’re at.”
Where he is isn’t bad.
He won his third Sprint Cup series
championship last year, outdueling
Carl Edwards in a breakneck 10-race
finish.
He has a new crew chief, Steve
Addington, who he feels comfortable
with. He already has a win, in one of
the Gatorade Duels at Daytona, as
does his former crew chief, Darian
Grubb, who won last week in Phoenix
with Denny Hamlin.
“I was proud of him,” Stewart said.
“It’s hard when you switch. You feel
like you have to improve yourself. We
both got that first win out of the way. I
think it takes a load off both our shoulders.”
Stewart is also poised to expand his
race team, Stewart-Haas Racing, to
three cars in Sprint Cup next year, and
he is reaping publicity with his hiring
of Danica Patrick.
At 40 years old, Stewart can’t
imagine slowing down right now,
much less retiring. He’s got too much
to do.
S T E P H E N M . D OW E L L / O R L A N D O S E N T I N E L / M C T
Tony Stewart celebrates his
Gatorade Duel win at Daytona
(Fla.) International Speedway in
February.
STAY CALM, RACE ON
Stewart also started last year’s
championship-winning season slow.
Here’s how he did in the first 10
Sprint Cup races of 2011.
Track
Finish
Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway 13
Phoenix International Raceway
7
Las Vegas Motor Speedway
2
Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway
19
Auto Club Speedway (Fontana, Calif.)
13
Martinsville (Va.) Speedway
34
Texas Motor Speedway
12
Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway
17
Richmond (Va.) International Raceway
9
Darlington (S.C.) Raceway
7
S O U R C E : R AC I N G - R E F E R E N C E . I N F O
But he’s not relaxed. He’s itching.
The finishes from the first two races of
the season leave him with a sense of
urgency, even though he can look back
at last year when he didn’t have a win
until the 27th race, the opener of the
10-race Chase “playoffs.”
Can he get that hot again?
“I’ve always thought that, but you
look at how our first 26 weeks went
last year, I never would have predicted
we would have struggled that bad the
first 26 weeks of the year,” he said.
“You look at it from that standpoint,
you learn not to take anything for
granted. The competition is getting
better and better. You don’t have that
luxury of taking it easy. You’ve got 26
weeks just to get yourself into a shot
for the championship.”
Stewart might start heating up
sooner than later. At Las Vegas last
year, he led 163 laps but cost himself
the win (finishing second) by taking a
penalty for dragging an air hose from
the pit box.
He said bad luck like that dogged
him all year until the Chase began in
Chicago.
Maybe not this year.
“It’s nice to go back to some of
these tracks where we ran well, but
with this Chase format, you’ve got 26
weeks to get yourself in there, so you
can’t take it easy at the beginning of
the year and think you’re going to
waltz into a spot in the Chase,” he
said. “You’ve got to get after it right
away.”
mile banked, paved quad-oval located in Las
Vegas.
When: Sunday 3 p.m. (all times ET).
TV: Fox.
Radio: Performance Racing Network.
Last year’s winner: Carl Edwards.
Worth mentioning: Dodge will unveil the
2013 version of its Charger, which it plans to
use in the Sprint Cup Series, during a ceremony prior to the start of Sunday’s race at Las
Vegas. The 2013 models have far more in common with the production models than the cars
currently used.
WHO’S HOT
■ Denny Hamlin: Grabs a much-needed victory at the site where he lost the 2010 championship.
■ Kevin Harvick: He may have run out of
gas, but his second-place finish continues a
strong start to 2012.
■ Elliott Sadler: His first Nationwide Series
win since 1998. Could this be the year he wins
a championship?
WHO’S NOT
■ Jimmie Johnson: At least a fourth-place
finish at Phoenix leaves him with positive
points.
■ Jeff Burton: Engine problems put an abrupt
end to a strong run at Phoenix.
■ Danica Patrick: The Nationwide Series is
where she has the most experience and she finished three laps down at Phoenix. Not a good
start to the season.
— Jim Utter
SPRINT CUP POINTS LEADERS
The top-40 drivers as of March 4:
Stewart is 15th in the Sprint Cup
points standings.
J A R E D C . T I LTO N F O R N A S C A R
Rank/Driver
Points
1. Denny Hamlin . . . . . 89
2. Greg Biffle . . . . . . . . 83
3. Kevin Harvick. . . . . . 81
4. Matt Kenseth . . . . . . 79
5. Dale Earnhardt Jr. . . 72
6. Martin Truex Jr. . . . . 71
7. Mark Martin . . . . . . . 71
8. Joey Logano . . . . . . 70
9. Kyle Busch. . . . . . . . 66
10. Carl Edwards. . . . . . 63
11. Bobby Labonte . . . . 58
12. Brad Keselowski . . . 52
13. Jeff Burton . . . . . . . . 52
14. Paul Menard . . . . . . 52
15. Tony Stewart . . . . . . 52
16. Dave Blaney . . . . . . 51
17. Clint Bowyer . . . . . . 47
18. Ryan Newman. . . . . 46
19. Regan Smith . . . . . . 45
20. Aric Almirola . . . . . . 43
Rank/Driver
Points
21. Marcos Ambrose. . . 43
22. Jeff Gordon . . . . . . . 42
23. Juan Montoya . . . . . 41
24. David Gilliland . . . . . 37
25. A.J. Allmendinger . . 36
26. Kurt Busch. . . . . . . . 35
27. Landon Cassill. . . . . 31
28. Terry Labonte . . . . . 27
29. David Reutimann. . . 26
30. Tony Raines. . . . . . . 25
31. Travis Kvapil. . . . . . . 25
32. Kasey Kahne . . . . . . 25
33. Casey Mears . . . . . . 24
34. David Stremme . . . . 22
35. David Ragan . . . . . . 21
36. Jamie McMurray . . . 21
37. Jimmie Johnson . . . 18
38. J.J. Yeley. . . . . . . . . . 18
39. Brendan Gaughan. . 17
40. Michael McDowell . . 15
NATIONWIDE SERIES POINTS LEADERS
The top-20 drivers as of March 3:
Rank/Driver
Points
1. Elliott Sadler . . . . . . 89
2. Austin Dillon. . . . . . . 79
3. Trevor Bayne . . . . . . 72
4. Cole Whitt . . . . . . . . 71
5. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 66
6. Sam Hornish Jr.. . . . 63
7. Tayler Malsam . . . . . 62
8. Michael Annett. . . . . 51
9. Benny Gordon . . . . . 49
10. Joe Nemechek . . . . 42
Rank/Driver
Points
11. Jeremy Clements . . 41
12. Justin Allgaier . . . . . 40
13. Blake Koch . . . . . . . 40
14. Eric McClure . . . . . . 38
15. Brian Scott. . . . . . . . 37
16. Casey Roderick. . . . 35
17. T.J. Bell. . . . . . . . . . . 35
18. Mike Bliss . . . . . . . . 34
19. Joey Gase . . . . . . . . 34
20. Danny Efland. . . . . . 31
NEXT RACE: Saturday, Sam’s Town 300,
Las Vegas
TRUCK SERIES POINTS LEADERS
The top-10 drivers as of Feb. 24:
Rank/Driver
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Points
John King. . . . . . . . . 47
Timothy Peters . . . . 42
Justin Lofton . . . . . . 41
Jason White. . . . . . . 40
Todd Bodine . . . . . . 38
Rank/Driver
Points
6. Chris Fontaine . . . . . 37
7. Ward Burton . . . . . . 36
8. Ty Dillon . . . . . . . . . . 35
9. Clay Greenfield . . . . 34
10. Parker Kligerman . . 33
NEXT RACE: March 31, Kroger 250, Martinsville,
Va.
Cheating is nothing new in NASCAR, pro sports
t first blush, it’s easy to label
crew chief Chad Knaus a noA
good, low-down cheating scoundrel.
It’s true he didn’t
play fair. It’s true he
tried to rig the car of
his driver, Jimmie
Johnson, to gain a
competitive edge
while prepping for the
Daytona 500. It’s true
that he’s not new to
this shame game.
Knaus has been suspended four times in the past 11
years, and has been penalized for
technical violations nine times in
the past 11 years.
And it’s also true that Knaus
was doing something that is
ingrained in the fabric of
American sports:
We are a nation of cheaters.
Some subtle, some dubious,
others despicable.
But the common
thread here is that
Knaus was simply
being true to the
roots of a sport that
has historically
pushed the envelope.
“If you ain’t cheatin’
you ain’t tryin’,” is a
phrase commonly
associated with
NASCAR, but it’s
also a mantra that has been
embraced universally by the stick
and ball boys, too.
Long before baseball players
juiced up on all sorts of goodies,
including the cream and the clear,
pitchers would scuff balls and
throw spitballs to make the little
white ball do all sorts of nasty
things. Hitters got even by corking
their bats.
The Olympics gave us blooddoping, judging scandals in figure
skating, and of course, the infamous “let’s whack Nancy
Kerrigan in the knees”craziness
involving Tonya Harding and her
henchmen.
And just this Monday, we had
former New Orleans Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams
getting called to the principal’s
office in New York, to explain to
Roger Goodell the concept of
placing bounties on players’
heads.
To be clear, I don’t condone
any of this. This isn’t a blanket
get-out-of-jail free column for
every single cheater in sports history. But the highly competitive
nature of sports breeds this type of
warped thinking. If you get too
caught up in moral outrage, we
might have to shut down most
professional sports in existence.
Open up your NASCAR history books, kids. Legendary engine
builder, crew chief and car owner
Smokey Yunick once installed an
11-foot long fuel line on his car.
Darrell Waltrip’s team was once
accused of filling the car’s frame
rails with buckshot in order to
pass inspection. Then once the car
got up and running, Waltrip supposedly would release the BBs
from a trap inside the frame rail.
Heck, there is even a book
about NASCAR’s not-so-dirty little secrets called: “Cheating: An
Inside Look at the Bad Things
Good NASCAR Winston Cup
Racers Do in Pursuit of Speed.”
“As far as my reputation goes,
I’m not too concerned about that,”
Knaus said
last week.
“What we
want to do is
go out there
and do the
best thing we
can for
Hendrick
Knaus
Motorsports
and the best things for (sponsor)
Lowe’s and try to win races and
championships.”
Don’t blame Chad Knaus for
cheating.
I suspect he simply was following NASCAR company policy.
George Diaz covers sports for
the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel. For more,
visit blogs.orlandosentinel.com/
en_fuego
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