Nascarspeed's Blog

NASCAR will test unleaded fuel in a Busch Series race next month and hopes to have it in all of its series by the start of 2007. The tentative timetable set Monday by NASCAR speeds up the stock-car series' earlier intent to move away from gasoline with lead based additives by 2008. "The target date is obviously to have it in use for Daytona in 2007," spokesman Jim Hunter said. "Assuming that everything goes well, and there are no unforeseen problems, that is possible. But we'll have to run it the Busch and Trucks Series and ARCA to evaluate it." Busch cars will use the unleaded fuel in the July 29 race at Gateway International Speedway, beginning a four-week trial of the gas. The Truck Series will also use it in Indianapolis and Nashville, Tenn., in August. Following those events, NASCAR will switch back to the regular gasoline while NASCAR, Sunoco officials and team engine builders evaluate the unleaded fuel. Both series will then switch back to the unleaded gasoline on Sept. 23 for the remainder of the season. Also, the ARCA Series will use the unleaded fuel in a race at Talladega to give engine builders a chance to examine the use of the gasoline in restrictor plate engines. A decision on using unleaded fuel in the Nextel Cup Series isn't expected until the end of the season. NASCAR has used high-octane leaded fuel for decades, but has been searching for an alternative for years and has finally found a solution through supplier Sunoco. NASCAR is exempt from the 1970 Clean Air Act, which required all automobiles to use unleaded fuel. Still, series officials tried an unleaded fuel in 1998 during some Busch races, only to find it contained additives that were dangerous when they came in contact with ground water. All efforts to develop something that worked were lost when supplier Unocal pulled out after the 2003 season, and its taken the last few years to get up to speed with Sunoco.

When the racing action ended at Michigan International Speedway this past weekend, Dale Earnhardt, Inc. produced measurable successes. First, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and the No. 8 Budweiser Chevrolet did their vintage paint scheme – a tribute to Ralph and Dale Earnhardt – justice with a top-five finish. As a result of their best showing at MIS, they also moved up two positions in points. Martin Truex, Jr. and the No. 1 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet team had a top-15 start and produced a top-20 finish. As a result, they moved up one position in points. No. 8 team finishes third Earnhardt, Jr. came to the two-mile oval of MIS sixth in points with a previous best finish of seventh to his credit. When the 200-lap race started, 50 minutes late because of rain, the cream-colored No. 8 Budweiser Monte Carlo SS quickly made its presence known. After the Happy Hour session on Saturday, the driver simply asked the crew not to touch anything on the car because he was pleased with its handling. Right from the start, Earnhardt, Jr. jumped into the top-five and remained there for much of the race. At one point, he took over the lead for three laps picking up five bonus points, as well. Rain showers would stop and start causing more delays and forcing crew chiefs to utilize weather-related pit strategy. With 70 laps remaining, a persistent rain forced the cars to pit road and drivers to the garage. After seeing the weather wouldn’t let up, and with the race being past the halfway point, NASCAR called it a completed event. The team’s third place finish is their first top-five and third top-10 in 14 starts at MIS. Aside from going the distance to see if they could have won, Earnhardt, Jr. was very pleased with the team’s results. “We had a good car all weekend, from the first practice to the race,” he said. “The weather was different obviously, so we weren't as good when the race started, but we made some changes and hauled butt. It was so much fun racing for the lead with Jeff (Gordon) - you can run side-by-side here and having a good car really made it fun. “This is a moral victory for me and (crew chief) Tony (Eury) Jr. It's like a personal victory for us because we've never had a car that good here. And, it makes us really excited about coming back here again and tracks like Chicago where we will be just as good. We've found some things and I think we've really turned the corner. Today is a sign of things to come. “We were too tight on the last run so I couldn't catch the 9 (Kahne), but I told them I needed to be tighter and they made those changes. Who knows if we could have caught him if we would have been able to finish the race, but the car was good all weekend.” The No. 8 team is now fourth in points, up from sixth, trailing third by 31 markers. No. 1 team almost cracks top-15 Truex and the No. 1 Bass Pro team started 11th and remained in the top-15 for much of the race. After dropping back some positions because of a loose condition early, the crew took advantage of several cautions to make adjustments. Soon after, Truex radioed in that the car was better and he could get into the 18-degree turns of MIS better than before. Starting to move forward with the better handling car, he would advance to 16th place when the race-ending rain started. “That’s just been our luck the last few weeks,” Truex said. “We had a good car, but we didn’t get a chance to prove it. “Kevin and the boys kept working on it until it felt more comfortable, but then the rains came. I feel like we could have been a top-10 car if the race would have gone the distance.” The finish did move the team up one position to 24th in points where they trail 20th by 31 markers. This weekend, the Nextel Cup Series heads to the first road course race of the year when they’ll visit Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif.

Brandon Routh, who stars as the Man of Steel in Superman Returns, Warner Bros. Pictures’ soaring new action adventure opening nationwide on June 28, will serve as the Grand Marshal for the 48th annual Pepsi 400 on Saturday, July 1 at Daytona International Speedway. Routh will give the command “Drivers, start your engines” in NASCAR’s mid-summer classic. His Grand Marshal duties also include leading the 43-car field in the pace laps from the Grand Marshal pace car. “We’re excited to have Brandon, the star of one of this summer’s blockbuster movies, give the starting command for this year’s Pepsi 400,” Daytona International Speedway President Robin Braig said. “Brandon’s participation proves the Pepsi 400 continues to attract top celebrities to one of NASCAR’s premier events.” Prior to his casting as Superman, Routh starred in the ABC sitcom Odd Man Out and the ABC Daytime Drama One Life To Live. He has also made guest appearances on the hit shows Gilmore Girls, Cold Case and Will & Grace. Pepsi is the official soft drink partner of this summer's blockbuster Superman Returns and is honoring the Man of Steel all summer long with exclusive promotions, packaging and sweepstakes tied to the movie. In addition to Routh serving as the Grand Marshal of the Pepsi 400, Pepsi’s own hero, Jeff Gordon, will race his No. 24 Pepsi Chevrolet in a special Superman Returns paint-out car featuring the Superman S-Shield.

The imposing Super Cobra and Huey helicopters were only part of race weekend attractions at the Marines interactive exhibit on the midway at Richmond International Raceway. Shannon Johnson, a 21-year-old from Apex, N.C., is gathering plenty of attention - much from similar-aged men - as she battles to keep her head above the chin-up bar for 70 seconds, the time required to earn a free T-shirt. "They've got to earn it. We don't give them away," says Marine Gunnery Sgt. Curtis Eaton, an area recruiter. Hours before NASCAR's roaring machines light up the track, Johnson became part of the show the U.S. military relies on to create awareness and eventually lure the numbers to its enlisted ranks. It's part of the marriage between NASCAR and the armed forces, a union fueled by the common denominators of testosterone, petroleum and speed-driven excitement. "It kind of surprises me. I didn't know the Marines would be out here," says Johnson. "I figured there'd just be race cars, drivers - that kind of stuff. But think of the guys who come here - young guys that might not have any idea what they want to do in life. It's definitely a good crowd of people for the military to be promoting to." That's what the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard and National Guard think, too. It's why Robert Van Antwerp, commanding general of the Accessions Command (in charge of enlisted recruiting, ROTC and initial military training), says the Army budgets about $17 million to grace the hood of Joe Nemechek's Monte Carlo and pay for the other initiatives involved in supporting a Nextel Cup sponsorship. "NASCAR is very important to us, as is all of our event marketing," Van Antwerp says. "Our mission for our three components - Army active, the Guard and the Army Reserve - is 175,500 young people this year to recruit into the enlisted ranks. "We think we're going to make it this year. It's because of venues like this but also because there is a patriotic group out there and we're finding them." Jeff Priest, the U.S. Navy Motorsports Program manager, agrees that NASCAR delivers the military's target audience. "In my opinion, it's the most patriotic fan base of any sport. . . . We're looking at influencers to help those young kids make decisions, and this is where we find them. It's another tool in our tool bag to get the message out that the Navy is a winning team." According to Priest, the Navy is spending about $5 million a year to partner with Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s JR Motorsports to field the Busch Series car driven by rookie Mark McFarland. Like the Marines and the Navy, the Army and Air Force have impressive exhibits amid the souvenir trailers and concession stands that pack the NASCAR midway. "There are a lot of mechanically and electronically inclined individuals here, the kind of individuals the Air Force is interested in recruiting," says Scott Campbell, public affairs representative for the 317 Recruiting Squadron responsible for the Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., area. "We come into contact with lots of people by doing this. Recruiters will ask, 'How did you hear about us?' Kids will often say, 'I saw the booth at the NASCAR race' or 'You came out to my local high school a couple months ago.' " More than any other NASCAR driver, Nemechek has become synonymous with the military. "I take a lot of pride in driving the U.S. Army Chevrolet," says the driver affectionately known as "G.I. Joe," who took over the No. 01 Army car after driver Jerry Nadeau was injured in 2003. "It's an awesome relationship," says Jay Frye, co-owner of the MB2 race team that fields Nemechek's Cup car. This year the Coast Guard went with Kevin Harvick, a move that has paid huge dividends in exposure as Harvick's No. 21 Chevrolet has emerged as the best in Busch, similar to baseball's minor league Triple-A teams. Harvick is also in position to make the cut for the Nextel Cup Chase. "We made a great pick," says Todd Prestidge, the Coast Guard program manager who is heading back to sea this month as the captain of the 210-foot Resolute out of St. Petersburg, Fla. "Somebody asked me the other day, 'How did you know?' I said, 'If you have the opportunity to go with a quality organization like RCR (Richard Childress Racing) and great drivers like Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton (who is driving selected Busch races), we would have been fools not to go with them." Greg Biffle, who won his race at Darlington Raceway in the National Guard Ford, has been in the seat of an F-16 and in an Abrams tank shooting a howitzer during drills in Utah. It's given him new appreciation of what soldiers go through, he says. And McFarland makes it a point after his general autograph sessions to spend extra time with Navy personnel. "All the people we've met in the last two or three months have changed my life," he says. "I think a lot more about what's going on overseas, the people defending you. It makes you real proud every time you hit the track."