Latest Daytona Stories
Posted: Jul 3rd 2009 6:47AM by Geoffrey Miller (author feed)
Filed under: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Sprint Cup
Saturday night's Coke Zero 400 at Daytona will mark the official midway point of the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. Naturally, it's a great time to review what we've seen so far from the Cup boys, their teams, the series and the tracks. First, we'll start with the not-so-hot performers:
Motorsports FanHouse Grade: FDale Earnhardt Jr. - It's been easy to see why the season for driver No. 88 has earned a failing grade. He's been slowly -- very slowly -- improving of late, but still has no chance for the Chase in 2009 and has one track left with a great chance to win at --
Daytona.
Posted: Jul 2nd 2009 12:18AM by Geoffrey Miller (author feed)
Filed under: NASCAR Media Watch, Sprint Cup

After what the
Charlotte Observer is calling a "
loud confrontation" at a Manchester, N.H., hotel prior to last Sunday's Lenox 301 at
New Hampshire Motor Speedway, TNT play-by-play announcer Bill Weber won't be returning to the booth in 2009.
The network announced the move Wednesday, and also confirmed that Ralph Sheheen will continue in the replacement role for the final two TNT races this weekend in
Daytona Beach and next at Chicagoland.
Sheheen did a bang-up job in his first coverage of a
Sprint Cup race on Sunday, but the bigger question surrounds what exactly Weber did to force himself out of the booth for what will ultimately be half of TNT's NASCAR coverage.
Posted: Feb 24th 2009 11:22AM by Geoffrey Miller (author feed)
Filed under: Jeff Gordon, Sprint Cup, Hendrick Motorsports

It's quite easy to think that after the season's first two races,
Jeff Gordon's 2009 appears headed in one direction.
A direction, that is, that will lead to his four
Sprint Cup championship trophies earning a fifth partner on Gordon's mantle.
But lest we get caught up in the hype -- or is it desire? -- of seeing one of the sport's icons rise back to the top before realizing that the No. 24's disappointing 2008 started out in much the same fashion.
Posted: Feb 20th 2009 4:24PM by Geoffrey Miller (author feed)
Filed under: Pit Crews, Sprint Cup

That didn't take long.
NASCAR's newly-revised drug abuse policy -- instituted with a heavier hand and heavier rules for 2009 -- picked up its first positive test following the sport's season opening events last weekend in
Daytona Beach, Fla.
That test belonged to Paul Chodora, an over-the-wall crew member for
Jeremy Mayfield's No. 41 upstart race team.
Posted: Feb 20th 2009 2:52PM by Geoffrey Miller (author feed)
Filed under: Kyle Petty, Petty Enterprises

Former
Sprint Cup driver
Kyle Petty made some interesting comments last weekend at
Daytona that were somewhat swept under the rug.
Of course, the factors of the race being the biggest on the circuit and the controversy that followed will often do that news stories of smaller value.
However, Petty's words indicated that there was obviously a healthy dose of tension between him and the rest of the leaders at the now-former
Petty Enterprises -- including his father, Richard -- thanks to the business moves the team has made in the past year.
Posted: Feb 15th 2009 10:09PM by Geoffrey Miller (author feed)
Filed under: Elliott Sadler, Jamie McMurray, Sprint Cup, Joey Logano
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Here's a few rumblings and bumblings from a soggy evening at
Daytona:
Are television viewers more important than full races? I think its a very valid question to wonder why NASCAR is so willing to push the snooze button later and later on Sunday afternoons with the start times of its Sprint Cup Series races.
It was just eight years ago that the Daytona 500 started at 12:30pm local time, while Sunday, it started after 3:40pm local time. The reason? Television ratings and commercial advertising rates go up the later in the day thanks to West Coast viewers and the "prime time" effect kicking in on the East Coast.
Posted: Feb 15th 2009 10:15AM by Geoffrey Miller (author feed)
Filed under: Daytona Int'l Speedway, Sprint Cup
The Essentials
Where: Daytona Int'l Speedway
Time: 3:00 PM/EDT (Green: 3:40pm)
TV/Radio: FOX Sports, MRN Radio
Forecast: Rain, Clouds, High of 68
Distance: 200 laps (500 miles)
Pole Sitter: Martin Truex Jr.'08 Winner: Ryan Newman
The Storylines
Starting the season with the Super Bowl looks like an incredibly smart idea at the moment. Thanks to an economy that has forced the NASCAR world to talk about the economy, NASCAR racing needed to come back strong from an offseason mired with questions.
Posted: Feb 14th 2009 7:12PM by Geoffrey Miller (author feed)
Filed under: Carl Edwards, Nationwide Series, Sprint Cup
DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. -- After the dust settled in
Daytona from
Tony Stewart's verbal lashing of Goodyear and later his win in the
Nationwide Series race, there were a few other things that are worth noting from the garage area:
Bowyer, Edwards get in some good-natured ribbingTowards the end of the post-race press conference for second-place and Missouri-native
Carl Edwards and third-place
Clint Bowyer after Saturday's Nationwide Series race, the two drivers got on the topic of
Daytona's plan to resurface the 2.5-mile superspeedway.
"I like the fact that his track gets rougher and slicker and there's different grip levels all over it. I was kind of sad to hear they were going to repave it," said Edwards. "I wish they'd just kind of patch it up or do whatever they do."