Busch Wins at Darlington: #18 Kyle Busch in the one time Indiana Jones Paint Scheme won the Dodge Challenger 500 at Darlington Raceway for his 3rd win of 2008 and his 7th career win. He dominated the later stages of the race and led 169 laps on the night. #99 Carl Edwards was second, with the rest of the top-10 being #24 Jeff Gordon, #88 Dale Earnhardt Jr., #6 David Ragan, #17 Matt Kenseth, #11 Denny Hamlin, #28 Travis Kvapil, #22 Dave Blaney, and #10 Jeff Burton (who continues his streak of finishing every lap this season). Pole sitter #16 Greg Biffle broke a transmission midway through the race and finished 43rd. There were 8 cautions for 31 laps and 15 leaders with 35 lead changes.

MADISON, Ill. – One week after his daughter made Funny Car history with a breakthrough victory in Atlanta, Ga., John Force celebrated his 59th birthday Sunday by becoming the first driver to win 1,000 competitive rounds in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series. When Force drove his Castrol GTX High Mileage Ford Mustang to a quarter mile time of 4.862 seconds, 320.20 miles per hour to beat defending event champion Ron Capps in the first round of Sunday’s 12th annual O’Reilly Midwest Nationals, it propelled him to what may be his ultimate accomplishment in the sport.

NHRA officials suspended first round competition to bring Force back to the starting line area where he was congratulated by NHRA president Tom Compton and presented a crystal trophy commemorating his accomplishment.

“You can’t win without a good crew, sponsors like Castrol, Ford, the Auto Club and Old Spice and crew chiefs like Austin Coil and Bernie Fedderly,” Force said. “Five hundred races (a milestone he achieved at Atlanta) just means you showed up a lot. But winning a thousand rounds, that means that at a point in time, we were pretty good.”

Bristol Dragway, Friday, May 9, 2008
BRISTOL, Tenn. — Jeg Coughlin Jr., is the defending Pro Stock champion at the O’Reilly Thunder Valley Nationals, defeating Ken Koretsky in the final round. At the 2007 O’Reilly Thunder Valley Nationals, Jeg Coughlin qualified in the No. 1 spot. Jeg has qualified in the top spot 11 times in his career. Last year, Jeg qualified No. 1 and won the race. He has done so two other times in his career (2000 Topeka and 2000 Englishtown). Jeg has set low elapsed time of the race 15 times in his career including last year’s Bristol event.
In six career starts at Bristol Dragway, Coughlin has a 7-5 record in Pro Stock elimination rounds. He has also qualified in the top half of the field four times. Jeg Coughlin enters the 2008 Bristol event in second place in the NHRA POWERade points standings. He trails current leader Jason Line by just seven points following a round two finish at last week’s O’Reilly Midwest Nationals in Madison, Ill. Coughlin is one of just four NHRA pros who have won at least one round of competition at each of the season’s first seven events. The others are Tony Schumacher (Top Fuel), Antron Brown (Top Fuel), and Allen Johnson (Pro Stock).
Jeg is ranked No. 4 in the K&N Horsepower Challenge standings. The K&N Challenge is a special event that will take place in Norwalk, Ohio on June 28. It is a special $50,000 to win event that is open only to the top eight Pro Stock racers based on their qualifying performance over the previous year.

DARLINGTON, S.C.: Car owner Richard Childress watched Dale Earnhardt win a lot of races and wreck his share of competitors through the years. And while Kyle Busch has gained a reputation for hard driving Earnhardt-style, Childress says the 23-year-old is no “Intimidator.”

“I don’t think there’s a comparison,” Childress said Friday. “Maybe some of what happens in their careers could be, but as far as comparing the two, I think they’re two different people.”
But like the late Earnhardt, Busch can’t avoid on-track dustups.

Last week, Busch angered “Junior Nation” when he and Dale Earnhardt Jr. tangled three laps from the finish while racing for the victory at Richmond International Raceway.

No less an authority than Dale Jr. thought Busch had a touch of his late daddy’s uncompromising style.

“On the racetrack, there may be some comparisons there,” Earnhardt Jr. said between practice sessions Thursday. Busch is “fast. He’s running well. He’s quick. He’s aggressive.”

Sounds a lot like Junior’s old man, and even Childress agreed.

When Earnhardt “was young in the early 1980s, he was really aggressive and bounced off a few people,” Childress said.

Then thinking some more, Childress admitted Earnhardt was “still as aggressive in 2000 as I’ve seen him.”

Earnhardt won six championships with Richard Childress Racing, the last in 1994, and he was killed in an accident on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500.

Busch was grateful to be linked with one of NASCAR’s greatest, sort of.

“It’s flattering, I guess,” he said. “It’s just not what I’m out there concentrating on being. I’m out there concentrating on being Kyle Busch and trying make sure that I can go out there and compete for wins and win races and compete for championships.”

Last year, Childress recruited Busch after the young driver lost his ride at Hendrick Motorsports — one coincidentally filled by Earnhardt Jr.

In time, Childress expects Busch to mature as a driver. “He’s got a tremendous amount of ability, and he’ll grow into being a little more patient,” the owner said.

by The Associated Press

Michael Waltrip sat helpless in the garage as the laps counted down at Richmond last Saturday night. Parked by NASCAR after contact with Casey Mears turned into an ugly, intentional wreck, the 45-year-old veteran could do nothing to save face in the latest of a series of missteps since his self-owned program moved to Toyota in 2007. Frustrated, all he could do was sit and watch as his No. 55 car lost track position like wildfire.

During its two-year existence, Michael Waltrip Racing has been through many trials and tribulations, but none like the hole it’s in now. For all the talk about the possible demise of several smaller teams these days, it’s Waltrip’s three-car program that’s in danger of being parked following the season.

The team lost its biggest asset in March when former Cup champion Dale Jarrett retired after five events rather than face a second full season building up a program while running towards the back of the pack. Now his longtime sponsor, UPS, is considering leaving the No. 44 car Jarrett drove following this season. The company is in search of a “rock star” driver for its program and has talked to several big name teams, in addition to Waltrip Racing, to continue its sponsorship in ‘09. Roush Fenway Racing is on the short list and Penske Racing is believed be there too.

Waltrip Racing’s case for retaining UPS grows weaker with each passing race. Currently 32nd in the owner standings, its No. 44 car, now driven by David Reutimann, has yet to score a top 10 finish in its year and a half of existence. That might have been acceptable when Toyota was just starting out its program, but with the manufacturer heading to Victory Lane with Joe Gibbs Racing these days, increased scrutiny has been given to Waltrip Racing’s improvement — or lack thereof.

Reutimann’s more than capable, but his results pale to those of a Carl Edwards or even fellow sophomore David Ragan. UPS says it’ll make a decision within the next few months; if so, that’s not enough time for Reutimann to close the gap on paper.

The news isn’t any better on the other side of Waltrip’s shop. The team’s No. 00 program is running out of time to find a sponsor; after Nationwide backer Aaron’s supported the first 10 races, the car shows up barren this weekend for Cup Series rookie Michael McDowell. To date, McDowell’s claim to fame is a spectacular crash during Texas Motor Speedway qualifying. That tendency to wreck has carried over to his racing, with the Arizona native spinning out in three of five Cup events thus far. With a best finish of 26th, McDowell has watched his program drop to 31st in the owner standings, and he’s in jeopardy of falling outside the top 35.

And there’s the perplexing case of Waltrip himself. His self-driven No. 55 program seemed to be improving toward the end of last year — after missing 11 of the first 12 races, he scored two top-15 finishes over the season’s final two months. It seemed he was building on that momentum to start ‘08, qualifying for the first five events to lock himself into the field for the first time in two years.

It should have been the building block to something more, but while Waltrip’s in the show each week, he’s hardly been visible. A best finish of 23rd has him ranked just 33rd in those owner standings, close enough that one bad race could put him back in the “Go or Go Home” crowd.

In the past two weeks, word came that championship crew chief Paul Andrews has left the program. Replaced by Bobby Kennedy in March in a surprising move, Andrews was relegated to test team duty. Since then, Kennedy’s hardly been the answer; Waltrip’s average finish has dropped from 23rd to 30th since his old Busch Series head wrench moved into the role. In the meantime, Andrews went from the next big thing at MWR to the unemployment line in a matter of five months.

Waltrip’s just hoping the same thing doesn’t happen to his three-car operation. It’s been a rocky road this past year and a half, beginning with the team getting caught cheating at Daytona in ‘07 and including several personal problems along the way, the most bizarre of which was when Waltrip rolled his SUV and left the scene of the crash in April ‘07.

But this pending disaster may be impossible to walk away from, in more ways than one. It’s no secret the driver mortgaged his financial future to move ahead with this program and that he took on an investor (Robert Kauffman) in October to salvage the team’s long-term future. But if all three sponsors bail — this is the final year of NAPA’s agreement with the No. 55 — all the investment money in the world won’t keep this program on track. And with a tough economy making sponsorship difficult, this could be the biggest-level program that winds up biting the dust.

Two years ago Waltrip would have hardly envisioned this inglorious ending as he embarked and what should have been the crowning phase of his career. “I am honored to be a part of Toyota’s entrance into the sport,” he said back then. “Their standards are high and their approach into the sport is well thought out.”

Ironically, those lofty standards are what Waltrip has failed to meet from Day One. In the end it could be what leaves him on the outside of the Cup Series looking in.

Tom Bowles     >     INSIDE NASCAR

Testing at Lowe’s Motor Speedway is over: Sprint Cup testing at Lowe’s Motor Speedway ended Tuesday evening, with 51 cars running laps, the fastest was Jamie McMurray #26 at 185.720mph in a Ford followed by the Dodge of  Ryan Newman #12, the Toyota of AJ Allmendinger #84, Scott Riggs #66 in a Chevy and the Dodge of Patrick Carpentier #10. There were six minor incidents during the 10 hours of testing. A.J. Allmendinger, Robby Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kurt Busch each brushed the yellow outside SAFER barriers. All five cars received only minor damage and each driver was able to drive back to the garage area. Regan Smith was a double-dipper, making contact with the outside wall twice. He was able to drive into the garage following each fender-bender. By Jayski.com

Kyle Busch, like most prairie fires and runaway trains, arrived when the world wasn’t ready for him. For instance, the story at Hendrick Motorsports this year was supposed to be the arrival of Dale Earnhardt Jr., not the departure of Busch. Many knew of Busch’s talent, but few anticipated that he would become the central figure of the NASCAR season’s first three months.

In the aftermath of Saturday night’s race in Richmond, Va., the heat surrounding Kyle Busch is on. Late in the Dan Lowry 400, Busch rammed his No. 18 Toyota into the third turn of Richmond International Raceway to occupy space Earnhardt Jr. coveted for his own No. 88 Chevy. The result? Earnhardt hit the wall. Busch continued on, though the incident cost him first place. Clint Bowyer took advantage of Earnhardt’s misfortune and Busch’s aggressiveness to win a race from off the radar screen.

Busch, who only turned 23 on the day before the race, has been agitating and marching in the NASCAR streets all year, but it took a crash involving the sport’s most popular driver for him to demonstrate that the revolution is on. Coincidentally, his second-place finish made him the Sprint Cup point leader.

For the record, Earnhardt Jr., the victim, wasn’t nearly as angry about the incident as his fans. He was frustrated at, once again, having victory snatched away — it’s been exactly two years now — in the waning moments of a race. Even before the race was run, he’d talked about feeling as if he’d been wearing a bull’s-eye.

“Everybody’s out to get you,” Junior had said, in specific reference to the Talladega race a week earlier. “Everybody’s out to beat you.”

Busch’s attitude, meanwhile, was sympathetic but unapologetic. Busch said he was sorry it had happened but not sorry that he had raced Earnhardt aggressively for the win. He said he didn’t mean to wreck him. If he had cut a break to Earnhardt, or given undue deference to his popularity, Busch said he would’ve been less than a racer.

“Everybody probably is racing around the track, scared to death of wrecking Dale Earnhardt Jr., so why wouldn’t I be any different? You know, that was just a product of good, hard racing,” he concluded.

It’s really no wonder that the person who has most championed Kyle Busch’s cause is an ex-driver who mimicked Busch’s climb more than three decades earlier.

Like Busch, Darrell Waltrip, now Fox’s prime analyst of NASCAR coverage, had been a brash young driver who never backed away from confronting established stars, thus earning the enmity of Bobby Allison, Cale Yarborough and other giants of the time. All season, Waltrip has praised Busch and expressed admiration for his skill and style.

When Busch poked fun at the Earnhardt fans who booed him — “I don’t know why they were telling me I was number one: I was in second place,” he quipped — it was exactly what Waltrip might have said under similar circumstances in, say, 1977.

Like Waltrip, Busch is better regarded in the media than in the grandstands, simply because he’s good copy. In Waltrip’s case, time remedied his early lack of popularity. Fans accepted him as they came to know him. By Waltrip’s retirement in 2000, he had become an elder statesman.

It will be interesting to see how Busch progresses from here.

By MONTE DUTTON

Clint Bowyer wins at with the BB&T #07 Richmond: #07 Clint Bowyer won the Crown Royal Presents The Dan Lowry 400 at Richmond International Raceway for his first win of 2008 and 2nd of his career after #18 Kyle Busch and #88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. tangled with a couple laps to go, sending the leader, Dale Earnhardt Jr. into the wall. Kyle Busch held on to 2nd, with the rest of the top-10 being #8 Mark Martin, #20 Tony Stewart, #1 MartinTruex Jr., #12 Ryan Newman, #99 Carl Edwards, #29 Kevin Harvick, #24 Jeff Gordon and #9 Kasey Kahne. #11 Denny Hamlin dominated most of the race, leading 381 of 382 laps before having a right front tire going down, giving way to Dale Earnhardt Jr until he tangle with Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin finished 24th. #88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished 15th on the lead lap. Points leader coming in to the race, #31 Jeff Burton finished 11th, but lost the points lead to #18 Kyle Busch 1495 to 1477 points. There were 11 cautions for 62 laps and 4 lead changes amongh 4 drivers.

Edwards re-signs with Roush: Carl Edwards, driver of the #99 Ford for Roush Fenway Racing has signed a multi-year stay with the team on Thursday. His old contract was thru the end of 2008. Carl Edwards said Friday he signed a multiple-year contract extension to continue driving the #99 Ford, a decision that takes NASCAR’s most sought-after free agent off the market. “I’m staying with Roush,” Edwards said. “I looked at everything and I talked to everybody and, for me, the number one thing is looking into the future and saying, ‘Where can I win the most races and have the most success?’ I just feel like for me, personally, this is where I want to be for the near future.” He negotiated the contract himself with Geoff Smith, president of Roush. “It took us about a week and a half of going back and forth with just little things and I feel like the luckiest guy in the world for the contract I got,” he said. “If I was dealing with someone that I didn’t trust or that I felt like I couldn’t just kind of air everything out with, then I’d probably have to have an agent, but dealing with Geoff from day one has been very easy at Roush for me, so it was really pretty simple. Besides, I feel like I know what I need more than anyone else. I know what I want to make me happy and this is cool.” It’s not clear if sponsor Office Depot will remain on the car. A spokeswoman for the company said only they are continuing their negotiations with Roush. Roush said he was battling two rival car owners for Edwards’ services. One of the men in the running for Edwards was apparently Chevy kingpin Rick Hendrick. The other was apparently Joe Gibbs, with backer Toyota; Joe and J. D. Gibbs and Toyota executives may well be resigned to the distinct possibility that Tony Stewart could be leaving their team at the end of this season and thus made a quick — and high-priced — run at Edwards to fill that seat. Whether that means the Gibbs and Toyota will play hardball to keep Stewart or will look for another championship-caliber driver is unclear. On Friday Edwards announced that he had renewed his contract with Roush Fenway Racing, keeping him behind the wheel of the # 99 Ford for an additional three years. On the Fox pre-race show, Chris Meyers said Edwards salary would be $6 million a year.

by jayski.com

Ten years, two NASCAR Sprint Cup Championships, 29 Cup wins and the partnership between Tony Stewart, Joe Gibbs Racing and The Home Depot is still going strong. 2008 marks the tenth anniversary of one of the sport’s most recognizable pairings as Tony Stewart continues to carry the intense orange color of NASCAR’s Official Home Improvement Warehouse, The Home Depot. Look for this union to continue building success on and off the track in 2008 and beyond.
The partnership between Tony Stewart and The Home Depot is one of the most recognizable in all of NASCAR. As part of this anniversary celebration, Smoke’s long-standing orange paint scheme gives way to
a predominately black car that will surely have NASCAR fans and collectors clamoring for a piece of history. To support this special anniversary and capture the excitement created by such a drastic change in Tony’s
paint scheme, Motorsports Authentics is unveiling a line of merchandise and memorabilia that will allow this unique moment to live on for years and years to come. This Tony Stewart Diecast car is produced in both 1/24 and 1/64 scale. To purchase this product of for more information please click here.

The championship was called the Nextel Cup, a vehicle called the Car of Tomorrow was still in the development stages, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. was still the face of Dale Earnhardt Inc. on that Saturday two years ago in the capital of the old South. NASCAR’s most popular driver recorded his 17th career victory that night, marking the seventh consecutive season in which he had won at least one race in the sport’s premier division.
There was no hint of what was to follow — the falling-out with DEI, the eventual move to powerhouse Hendrick Motorsports, the now 71-race-long winless streak that’s prompted so many critics to question whether Earnhardt was worth the hype. Saturday that journey again comes full circle, as Earnhardt and the rest of the Sprint Cup tour compete at Richmond International Raceway, where 727 days ago the driver of the now-No. 88 car last visited Victory Lane.

“Coming up on two years without a win, you know, it’s definitely something you recognize. It’s definitely a stat that you are aware of and reminded of. It’s not a whole lot of pressure. I still drive for a good team, I still have a great opportunity to win every time I show up,” Earnhardt said.

“I guess if this losing streak, or whatever you want to call it, if while that was going on I was suddenly finding myself trickling down the list of good racecars and good owners and finding myself in equipment that I felt was under par, not on par with what wins races, I would be worried, and the pressure would be a lot. But I feel like a win is around the corner. I feel like we’ve been in position to do that just about every week we’ve had a good enough car to contend.”

He outran a rookie named Denny Hamlin by .571 seconds (watch video) on that May 6, 2006, and went on to easily qualify for the Chase. Back then he wasn’t too far removed from his series-best six race wins and Daytona 500 triumph in 2004, and he would go on to finish inside the top five in final points for the third time in four seasons. Statistically, he was at the peak of his career. He had no way of knowing that a fifth-place finish at Darlington Raceway the next weekend would be the beginning of a two-year winless streak.

“The last time I won was at Richmond, [and it] seems like forever ago, but I try not to think about it,” he said. “I don’t want to be thinking of how long it’s been since a win. Knowing we have a shot at it every week and something or another happens can make it frustrating. We couldn’t be doing anything different to prepare — the team and everyone at Hendrick has been working so hard. It will happen.”

It’s not like he hasn’t had chances. In the past 71 races he’s had 17 top-five finishes, and been a runner-up three times. At Fontana later in 2006, he led five laps and finished 3.4 seconds behind winner Kasey Kahne. Last year at Pocono he started from the pole, led eight laps, and finished 4 seconds behind winner Kurt Busch. His best chance might have been earlier this season at Las Vegas, where he led 15 laps and finished a half-second behind eventual winner Carl Edwards.
Watch the Stars Come out at Richmond

If anything, the winless streak has overshadowed how well Earnhardt has run this year with his new team. He’s placed inside the top 10 seven times — only five fewer than all of last year — while his only finish worse than 12th was a wreck-induced 40th-place result at Fontana. He’s a solid third in championship points, trailing only Jeff Burton and Kyle Busch. There also have been events like the race three weeks ago at Phoenix, where Earnhardt led 71 laps before fading to seventh at the end.

“We’ve obviously failed to capitalize on some races where we led a lot and ended up finishing sixth or seventh,” he said. “That’s just, you know, you’ve just got to be able to make the right decisions at the end of the race, and we haven’t been able to do that.”

Maybe this week at Richmond. Earnhardt has always liked short tracks, dating back to his days racing late models at Myrtle Beach Speedway on the South Carolina coast. He has three career wins at Richmond, along with Tony Stewart the most of any active driver on the .75-mile oval. He’s also running as consistently well as he has at any point in his career, something he urges his long-suffering fans to remember.

“I feel like the fans want to win. They’re ready for a win,” he said. ” Right now I suppose, from what I can tell, they’re pretty happy that we’re running well and we’re up front and stuff. And they have to keep reminding themselves to be patient for that win to come, because they’ve wanted the opportunity for their driver to be running well each week, and they have that now. They have to remind themselves to be patient for that win, but they want it just as bad as we do. So that’s the deal. You just have to wait. When it happens, it will happen. There’s really not much you can do other than just be as prepared as possible each weekend.”

By David Caraviello, NASCAR.COM

Jeff Gordon announces his foundation’s latest partnership with Speed Racer Enterprises. A special paint scheme featuring The Jeff Gordon Foundation, along with the iconic characters from Classic Speed Racer, was unveiled during the show in addition to a new line of Action Racing Collectables die-cast from merchandise partner Motorsports Authentics, Inc. Jeff selected Speed, a beloved animated race car driver to represent the foundation for a two year program celebrating their unique passion for the sport. Speed Racer made its original debut in 1967 and 40 years later, it is still one of entertainment’s most recognizable animated cultural icons. The series centers on friendship and family issues amidst the world of highoctane racing which works to create a winning combination for Jeff Gordon and his foundation.
“Speed Racer Enterprises is proud to be an integral part of the efforts of The Jeff Gordon Foundation. Speed and Jeff are two legendary racing heroes, particularly in the eyes of children, and this is truly an inspiring program designed to captivate our love of racing and our willingness to help the community and children in need,” said James Rocknowski, President of Speed Racer Enterprises. “The Jeff Gordon Foundation is thrilled to be associated with partners who are as
committed to bringing joy to children as we are. Speed Racer Enterprises and Motorsports Authentics have worked with us to create something special, something that appeals not only to children and racing fans, but also to an entire generation who watched the original ‘Speed Racer’ on television. We’re excited to be part of Speed Racer’s enduring history, and we look forward to translating the success of this program into support for critically ill children,” said Jules Moss, Business Development Manager of The Jeff Gordon Foundation. In support of the foundation’s efforts, Motorsports Authentics has developed a line of Action Racing Collectables die-cast featuring the classic Speed Racer characters the world has grown to love for the past 40 years. Sale of Jeff Gordon Foundation merchandise directly benefits children with chronic and life-threatening diseases. “In addition to being one of the most talented drivers in Sprint Cup history, Jeff
Gordon is one of the people who make the sport of NASCAR so great,” said Mark Dyer, president of Motorsports Authentics. “We’ve watched him grow with the sport; he’s a certified champion and one of those rare people who is always willing to give back to the community and children in need. We’re happy to partner with The Jeff Gordon Foundation and Speed Racer Enterprises to bring this unique line of merchandise to racing fans and collectors of all ages.
The Jeff Gordon Foundation is continuing their affiliation with top licensed properties. From Sesame Street to Mighty Mouse, the JGF has established a tradition of bringing these highly recognized characters to the motorsports world. Having four time NASCAR great Jeff Gordon as the foundation of this great relationship adds to the power and prestige of partnering with their newest character, Speed Racer! This 2-year program over 2008 & 2009 will consist of the classic Speed Racer and The Next Generation, so when fans think of the Speed Racer how can they not think of Jeff Gordon? Go Speed Racer stands for everything good in the world of not only motorsports, but helping others in need. The JGF is all about helping support youth charities with an integrated marketing platform with licensed co-branded merchandise to create fundraising revenue streams.

For more information or to purchase the Collectible Nascar Diecast please click here.

Motorsports Authentics is offering a Fantasy diecast car to commemorate the Opening of Dale Jr’s New Whiskey River Bar. They are only offering 1/24th scale diecast version of this car. Dale Earnhardt Jr has opened a bar named Whisky River in downtown Charlotte, NC in April 2008. With a unique blend of rock and country music, VIP tables and mechanical bull riding, live music and electrifying DJs, Whisky River is unlike any party you’ve seen before. Situated in the EpiCentre with excellent views of Uptown Charlotte and Bobcats Arena, Whisky River really is in the center of it all. Are you looking for a casual drink after work or a rockin’ late night party; maybe a drink before the game, or the spot to celebrate the big win; or maybe you looking to show off your bull ridin’ skills or you just want to sit back and listen to the music - this is the spot. This is what Charlotte’s been waiting for.

For more information or to purchase this Diecast collectible car. Please click here.