Daytona 500

As seen on Nascar.com:

CONCORD, N.C. -- It's a good thing the birthday cake Kyle Busch received for turning 21 on Tuesday wasn't as hard as the new tires being used at Lowe's Motor Speedway.
It would be inedible.
Goodyear came up with the harder compound to combat tire wear on the newly paved surface at LMS for the All-Star race and Coca-Cola 600 later this month.
NASCAR also implemented smaller fuel cells to assure teams would pit more often and avoid a repeat of last year's May and October Nextel Cup races in which there were a combined 37 cautions -- including a Cup record 22 in the 600.
Several drivers suggested NASCAR could have done one without the other.
"If we stick with smaller fuel cells we should go to a softer tire,'' Busch said. "If we stick to this tire we need to do away with the smaller fuel cell. Literally, I'd swear we can run 600 miles on this tire.
"I don't think we're going to need pit stops; the tire is that durable.''
Scott Riggs, who participated in Goodyear's first tire test in which a softer compound was used, said the smaller fuel cell is not necessary with the harder compound.
"To me, that's stupid,'' he said. "All that's going to do is make people come in and get gas only and go back out. So how does that fix your tire problem?''
There were no blowouts during the afternoon test session, but seven cars either spun out or wrecked. Track president H.A. "Humpy'' Wheeler said that had more to do with drivers testing the limits of the new surface.
"These guys have found out that you've got to get off the throttle earlier entering the turns, so they're testing out where they can get back on the throttle,'' he said. "They're on the edge as it is. We've just got some going over the edge.''
Rookie Clint Bowyer agreed, noting most cars were tight like his.
"We all saw these cars bouncing off the walls at this track last year, making guys a little gun shy,'' he said. "I know it made us gun shy, so it's hard to free it up to go fast.
"The cars that wrecked probably stepped overboard and got too free.''
The harder tires brought the speeds down considerably from the first test, when Bobby Labonte said his average speed in race trim was only three-tenths of a second slower than the qualifying record (193.219) that Elliott Sadler established in October.
Kevin Harvick turned the fastest lap (180.620 mph) during Tuesday's afternoon session.
"If the issue is to slow the car down by three seconds so they don't blow out in 30 laps, they've succeeded,'' Riggs said. "We ain't got a tire issue. We ain't got a speed issue.
"So why make the fuel cells smaller?''
Wheeler doesn't expect NASCAR to change its mind between now and the May 20 All-Star race.
"Despite the fact that you've got a hard tire, that doesn't mean you can't have tire problems,'' he said. "All this is a mystery, and everybody is being extra conservative to make sure we've got our bases covered.''
Busch belatedly tastes victories
Busch was given a bottle of champagne, which he couldn't accept for several of his Busch Series wins at LMS because he wasn't the legal drinking age, by the LMS staff in honor of his birthday.
Asked how he planned to celebrate his birthday, Busch said he and a few friends were going out.
"I've got a car service picking me up from wherever we go,'' he said. "I'm playing the smart rout. Besides that, I can't do too much. We've got testing here [Wednesday].''

Stewart caps 2nd championship with a steady final run

Long before he battled for a second NASCAR championship, Tony Stewart had to fight for his job.
Tired of his Bad Boy behavior, Stewart's crew was ready to walk away from one of the most talented drivers in history. Team owner Joe Gibbs intervened, ordering Stewart into an offseason heart-to-heart meeting with them to iron out their issues.
"Sometimes bad things have to happen for good things to come out of it," Stewart said. "All of the guys sat down and we got to air everything out. It was one of the most stressful meetings I've ever been in because when I went into it I didn't know what it was going to be. I didn't even know if I would have a job after it was over."
His crew hung with him and together they began a march toward the Nextel Cup championship that ended Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway. It capped an uncharacteristically calm season for Stewart.
He won races, kept his temper in check and avoided every major incident long enough to cement himself as one of the greatest drivers of his time.
Needing only to run clean at Homestead-Miami Speedway, he hovered just outside the top 10 and away from any potential danger. Stewart ended up 15th, winning the title by 35 points over Greg Biffle, who won the Ford 400 for the second straight year by besting teammate Mark Martin in a door-to-door finish.
Stewart became just the 14th driver in NASCAR history with more than one championship and joined four-time winner Jeff Gordon as the only active full-time drivers with multiple titles.
"I don't believe the trophy makes the man," Mark Martin said. "Tony Stewart, in my eyes, is the greatest race car driver I've watched drive in this era. A.J. Foyt might have been that when I was a little boy, but Tony Stewart is my driving hero."
But it was not his spot among the elite that earned Stewart praise from his fellow drivers. It was the attitude adjustment that helped him get there.
"Either the therapy is working or he's learned through experience," Gordon said. "He finally started to get the fact that this is a sport that has media involved, fans involved, sponsors involved and it's great that we get the privilege to go out there and drive these race cars ... but sometimes you forget about the big picture and I think it took Tony a little while.
"He gets it now and it's showing in his personality."
For Stewart, it was the perfect finale to what's been a perfect season both on and off the track.
He had a tortured run to the title in 2002, punching a photographer the lowest point of a rollercoaster season pocked by bad behavior and blowups. So he'll treasure this title, a gift to the team that stuck with him through thick and thin.
After an emotional embrace with crew chief Greg Zipadelli -- interrupted by chants of "Climb the fence!" from his fans -- he dedicated the win to his Joe Gibbs Racing crew members.

The alternator failed, the battery had to be switched mid-race and the entire electrical system was on the fritz. Add all that to a constant fear of having a tire explode at any second and even the most veteran driver would be rattled.
Not Jimmie Johnson, and not at Lowe's Motor Speedway.
Johnson overcame every problem thrown his way -- including the tire troubles that turned Saturday night's event into a laughingstock -- to win his fourth consecutive race at Lowe's and move into a tie with Tony Stewart in the Chase for the championship.
"I don't have a clue what took place tonight," Johnson said. "We had problem after problem. If it's meant to be, it's meant to be."
Johnson started 41st because his engine failed before qualifying. Then his alternator went mid-race. He cut a right rear tire. And then he had overtime.
In the end, he proved no one can beat him on the track his Lowe's-sponsored team considers its own private playground. Johnson has won five of the past six events at the suburban Charlotte facility.
"I can't believe that we always end up somehow toward the front at the end of a race ... this one in the closing laps after a long night of adversity," Johnson said. "We changed batteries, the alternator had some troubles, flat tire, all kinds of crazy things."
He took the lead with nine laps to go and was pulling away until Rusty Wallace brought out the 15th caution of the race with one of the many, many tire problems. It forced the field to be bunched up for one final restart and Johnson held off Chase contenders Kurt Busch and Greg Biffle to lock up the victory.
It moved Johnson up three spots in the standings and into a tie with Stewart -- who finished 25th after crashing while leading earlier in the race -- with five events remaining in the race for the Nextel Cup title. Biffle is third in the standings, 11 points out.
Johnson's win was the one bright spot in a race that was marred by tire problems for 16 drivers -- including five Chase competitors -- because Goodyear's rubber could not stand up to the increased speeds on the smoothed track surface.
It forced NASCAR to issue a mid-race mandate on the minimum air pressure used on right front tires, and led inspectors to police pit road with a threat of docking points to teams who disobeyed.
"As we got deeper in the event tonight, it was obvious this was an abnormal evening," NASCAR president Mike Helton said. "No one will be docked points because the teams responded."
Stewart, Kyle Busch, Elliott Sadler and Kasey Kahne all blew tires while leading, and many drivers said the tire concerns left them too scared to push their cars to the limit so they instead chose to race at about 85 percent effort to prevent a possible tire failure.
"I need a renewal of my life insurance policy, to tell you the truth," Stewart told his crew when asked late in the race what he needed. "I just can't wait for this thing to be over so I can get out of here and hopefully not be hurt."
His displeasure was evident by the scowl on his face after the race.
"It was just one of those screwed-up nights that's probably going to dictate the way the Chase comes out," Stewart said. "It doesn't matter what happened. It's over with. We're stuck with it the way it is.
"It just sucks when you're the fastest car and something that's out your control happens like that that really shouldn't happen."
Helton acknowledged the race was a disaster.
"I think everybody that was part of the evening would like to figure out how not to have another evening like this one," Helton said. "It was extremely undesirable ... I think there will be a lot of digestion of this one when we get the opportunity."
The smooth track surface was a concern all weekend because of the dizzying speeds created after track president Humpy Wheeler twice grinded out its trademark bumps.
Friday night's Busch race gave teams a preview of what to expect when Goodyear's tires struggled to hold over long runs and the race was marred by a record 14-cautions.
It had drivers on edge before the Cup event even started.
"If somebody gets hurt, then whoever made the call to change the race track needs to feel a little bit responsible," said Jeremy Mayfield, who wrecked in the Busch race.
"We're going way too fast here, it's not right."
NASCAR had a scheduled "competition caution" 30 laps into the race to give teams a chance to inspect their tires and assess how well the rubber was holding. Ryan Newman didn't even make it that far, with his right front tire blowing while he was running in second place.
The tire failure didn't cause him to wreck, but put him two laps down very early and forced him to battle back for a seventh-place finish. Newman came into the race second in the standings but dropped to fourth -- only 17 points back.
Newman's problem was the first sign that the tires would be troublesome all night.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s exploded with no warning and sent him crashing hard into the wall.
"It just went `BAM!' and then I hit the wall," he said.
Moments later, championship contender Matt Kenseth's right front failed, and the eruption tore the entire front panel off his Ford. He needed several stops on pit road to fix it and fell 11 laps down.
That's when Biffle realized just how perilous the situation was for the drivers: "Guys, we're not racing to win here. We're racing for a finish, whatever we can do to survive," he radioed to his crew.
As more and more tires popped -- leading Kevin Harvick to call the problems "the biggest joke in racing I've ever seen" after losing his right front -- NASCAR again called a competition caution and made the air pressure mandate.

NASCAR announced Tuesday that Busch Series crew chief Joe Shear Jr. has been suspended and fined for rule violations last week at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C.
Shear is the crew chief for the No. 43 Dodge driven by Aaron Fike. He was fined $1,000 for unapproved offset wheel hubs. Because he was already on probation, he was suspended until Oct. 26. His probation was extended through Dec. 31.
Additionally, Brad Pickens, crew chief for the No. 57 Chevrolet driven by Kyle Busch, has been fined for rule violations also discovered at the track.
Pickens was fined $1,000 for unapproved fuel cell installation found during pre-qualifying inspection on Oct. 14, and received another $1,000 fined for unapproved usage of two tires during the Oct. 14 race.

Capitalizing on NASCAR's proven ability to drive customer acquisition and retention strategies, DIRECTV has signed a corporate sponsorship agreement with NASCAR that will give the nation's leading digital television service exclusive rights among subscription television distributors to use the NASCAR brand in marketing and advertising promotions through early 2010.
The sponsorship agreement will enable DIRECTV to create consumer marketing and retail promotions targeting NASCAR's 75 million fans, and leverage the power of the NASCAR brand in promotions for DIRECTV customers who have access to all networks on DIRECTV that air NASCAR events.
The company says NASCAR will be integrated into many of its marketing campaigns, including national promotions. Many of these NASCAR-related campaigns will focus on the company's new DIRECTV Plus® DVR. Special NASCAR promotions are also planned.
DIRECTV will also sponsor a NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series race team and driver in the 2006 season, and has the rights to use NASCAR marks and taglines to promote its NASCAR sponsorships on DIRECTV receiving equipment, service vehicles and installer uniforms.
"In all my years televising NASCAR races, it's been very obvious to me that everyone involved in NASCAR demands the very best and most reliable equipment," said David Hill, president, DIRECTV Entertainment. "It also became very obvious that the television service most used by everyone in NASCAR is DIRECTV.
"On pit lane, in the drivers' and their team's motor homes, in NASCAR's official trailers, and in the fans' RVs -- a NASCAR race is a sea of DIRECTV dishes. It made perfect sense to DIRECTV President and CEO Chase Carey, John Suranyi, DIRECTV's president of Sales and Service, and me that we should cement our unofficial relationship."
The networks airing NASCAR events -- Fox, FX, NBC, TNT and SPEED Channel -- are currently available on DIRECTV. Through Fox and NBC, DIRECTV will begin delivering races broadcast in high-definition (HD) when it launches the local HD feeds of those channels in several major markets later this year and early next year.
NASCAR will be an important part of DIRECTV's subscriber acquisition strategy in 2006, as well as a retention tool for existing customers. DIRECTV plans to develop advertising and marketing campaigns to increase awareness of its new DIRECTV Plus DVR among race fans and emphasize how its many features can enhance their race viewing experience on DIRECTV.
DIRECTV will also communicate the ubiquity of DIRECTV DVRs in NASCAR racing on pit road and NASCAR control towers. Some of the marketing tactics will include on-site demos enabling fans to get a hands-on feel for the DVR product's performance and quality -- attributes that NASCAR fans are widely known to appreciate.
"Up and down pit road, NASCAR teams are using DIRECTV in their pit boxes. What works on the race track resonates with our fans," said Steve Phelps, vice president of corporate marketing for NASCAR. "As leaders in the world of entertainment and sports, NASCAR and DIRECTV will collaborate to enhance our fans' viewing experience and create marketing programs raising awareness of a sport on the move."

Texas Instruments Inc. will be the primary sponsor for a NASCAR team run by former Dallas Cowboys quarterbacks Troy Aikman and Roger Staubach, who aim to have a car and driver ready for the Daytona 500 in February.
Texas Instruments announced Tuesday it plans to use the car to promote its DLP, or digital light processing, technology used in high-definition televisions.
Company officials declined to give financial terms of the three-year NASCAR sponsorship, but primary sponsors on the Nextel Cup Series commonly spend $15 million to $20 million.Aikman, Staubach and veteran Trans Am series driver Bill Saunders formed Hall of Fame Racing, which in turn reached a deal with Joe Gibbs Racing to provide cars, engines and personnel.
One of the team’s first jobs is finding a driver and crew chief.
“We’re going to have to fast-track it on some things, but we can put a team together and a competitive team,” Aikman said. “Everything has come together in a positive way.”
Both former quarterbacks went into the business world after winning five Super Bowl rings between them. Aikman owns a car dealership and Staubach runs a real estate firm.
They have been trying to break into the racing game for about two years. They thought they had an agreement about a year ago with Hendrick Motorsports to provide cars and other gear, but the deal fell apart.
Aikman said Hall of Fame Racing’s car would run in both of next year’s Nextel Cup Series races in Texas. He said he and Staubach also are looking for a sponsor for a second car.
For Texas Instruments, NASCAR represents a new approach in the semiconductor company’s effort to promote DLP, which more than a half-dozen manufacturers including Panasonic, Samsung and Toshiba use in HDTVs and home and theater projectors.DLP sets compete with high-end TVs made using plasma and liquid crystal display screens. Last year, Texas Instruments tried TV, radio and Internet advertisements in eight cities to convince TV shoppers to look for sets with DLP technology. Another round of advertising is planned in the coming weeks.
“We had to find different ways to get our name out there,” said Doug Darrow, the Dallas-based company’s marketing manager for DLP. “We were attracted to NASCAR because of the tremendous fan loyalty, the huge fan base and great (TV) ratings.”
NASCAR cars are known for flash and color, resembling high-speed billboards that promote everything from breakfast cereals to Viagra.
Darrow said they hadn’t settled yet on a design for the new car.
“We are a technology company,” he said, “so we want it to look really cool.”

Michael Waltrip and NAPA on Friday announced they have entered into a partnership with Bill Davis Racing for the 2006 Nextel Cup Series season.
Nine victories and eight poles are shared between the parties including three Daytona 500 wins and a Southern 500 victory. Bill Davis Racing's achievements lured Waltrip to its High Point, N.C., race shop."I like the way Bill does business and he has created a strong organization," Waltrip explained. "NAPA and I look forward to continuing our winning ways at Bill Davis Racing on the track, as well as extending our successful marketing efforts off the track."
Waltrip and NAPA were brought together by Dale Earnhardt in 2001. Waltrip's first race with NAPA as sponsor ended in Victory Lane in the Daytona 500. Since then, Waltrip and NAPA taken advantage of their union to create one of the strongest partnerships in the sport.
"Teaming with Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Dale [Earnhardt] Jr. for the past five years has been the highlight of my NASCAR Nextel Cup career to date," Waltrip said. "I look toward my future with NAPA and BDR with gratitude to DEI for the memories and friendships I have formed."
In 141 races with DEI, Waltrip has four wins, 20 top-five finishes and 40 top 10s. He won his third career pole June 12 at Pocono -- his first since June 23, 1991, at Michigan.
"It is no secret that our association with Michael has been a key ingredient of our marketing efforts," said Bob Susor, president of NAPA. "Race fans associate NAPA Auto Parts with Michael Waltrip and vice versa. Michael has promoted our brand in his own unique style.
"Moving forward, we are pleased to announce our continued support of Michael Waltrip and a new partnership with Bill Davis Racing. This begins a new chapter in NASCAR team sponsorship for NAPA.
"We would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere appreciation for the many successes NAPA has enjoyed during our tenure with DEI such as two NASCAR Truck Series Championships and two Daytona 500 victories," Susor said. "We will value our DEI association and wish them nothing but the best in their future efforts."Next year will be Bill Davis Racing's 14th year of competition on the Cup Series level, the team's 19th year in NASCAR competition. As a team owner, Davis has worked with some of the sport's top drivers achieving wins in all three premier divisions of NASCAR, totaling 18 victories, 100 top-five finishes and 250 top-10s.
BDR has five Cup Series wins, all by Ward Burton, including the 2002 Daytona 500. He also won the '01 Southern 500 at Darlington.
Davis currently fields one full-time Cup team with Scott Wimmer driving the No. 22 Dodge. Mike Skinner has made five starts this season in the No. 23 Dodge.
In 2004, Davis expanded his operations to house three full-time Toyota-back teams in the Craftsman Truck Series. The teams' drivers are Skinner, Bill Lester and Johnny Benson.
"NAPA and Michael Waltrip are the perfect combination to re-establish our two-car Cup team in 2006," Davis said.
"NAPA and Michael are held in high regard in our sport and have been successful in each series they have competed. We plan to build on their success and create a very competitive team next year and beyond