Fox_NASCAR_Guy's Blog

DAY TWO PHOTO GALLERY

DAY ONE PHOTO GALLERY

Today we were visited by the Dodge teams and we went to the new WindShear Wintunnel...we started out the morning with a visit from Bank of America and Rusty Wallace..

Below are video highlights....and yes I know they aren't all that good, but what the heck , I tried...

The first day of the media tour is on the books…here’s a recap.

The day started with a visit by Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates. Reed Sorenson, Juan Pablo Montoya and Dario Franchitti joined Scott Dixon, Dan Wheldon, Alex Lloyd, Scott Pruett, Memo Rojas and Bryan Clauson for a little Q&A stressing the international flavor of the organization.

No real big news, Franchitti will run some selected Nationwide Series races with sponsorship from Fastenal and Sorenson will campaign a Dodge sponsored by Polaroid for a few races.

We then headed to the NASCAR Research and Development Center.  The biggest news items to come out of there were actually two things: Last year Kurt Busch said that he felt all monies that are taken from drivers over the year should go to some kind of charity. Maybe NASCAR was listening, because starting this year all money assessed, as fines from drivers and teams will go to the NASCAR Foundation. NASCAR pointed out that while average years bring in about $200,000, last year the total was nearly $1 million.

The other item that raised some eyebrows was the tweaking of the qualifying rule for cars that have to make it in on speed. Currently everyone draws a number and that’s where you qualify, those outside the top 35 in points are forced to make the race on speed. This year NASCAR will allow those outside the top 35 to qualify last. According to NASCAR this should give those outside the top 35 a fairer chance of making the show, allowing them more time to prepare for their qualifying run. Also of course since weather can sometimes play a role, a cooler track is always faster, teams may  be able to pick a bit more speed as well.

Two more new rules; teams can’t push a stalled care more then three pit stalls away from there own, and when tires are changed, the ones that have been taken off have to be ‘controlled’ according to NASCAR all the way back to the wall. Basically teams have to now carry tires instead of begin able to roll them back on a pit stop.

Monday night dinner was held at Richard Childress Racing in Welcome North Carolina. Childress showed off his development drivers including grandson Dillon.

Childress also announced that hr has partnered with Howard Motorsports to field a Daytona Prototype in a partial season of the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series. The No. 2 Childress-Howard Motorsports Pontiac Crawford effort will be led by sports car racing veteran Andy Wallace.

We finished a late night off with ‘hospitality’ with the SPEED channel personalities including Kenny Wallace and Jimmy Spencer. I’m also hearing the Lowe’s Motor Speedway president H. A. ‘Humpy” Wheeler also showed clips of his new TV show….