The newly-renamed Auto Club Speedway of Southern California (man, that's a gawdy mouthful) had plenty of laps turned on its banks Friday.
The only problem, though, was that those laps didn't have a single racing vehicle involved.
Rain, seeping water, and more rain prevented all three of NASCAR's series -- Sprint Cup, Nationwide, Craftsman Truck -- from practicing or qualifying Friday, leaving all of the driving duties up to the jet dryers who tried all afternoon to get the surface prepared.
Instead, Saturday will be quite a busy day at ACS (yep, still weird) as both the Nationwide and Craftsman Truck Series will race, Nationwide will get a practice session, and the Sprint Cup teams will get practice sessions.
As FanHouse stated yesterday, the rain definitely played havoc with teams outside of the Top-35 from last year's owner points who made the trip trying to make Sunday's Sprint Cup Auto Club 500.
While Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon will share the front row, five drivers will head home including A.J. Allmendinger, Ken Schrader, Patrick Carpentier, Burney Lamar and Mike Skinner.
The forecast for Satuday in Fontana looks a little bit better during the day with skies expected to be partly sunny, but there's a 60% chance of rain in the evening when both races are expected to be run. Sunday doesn't look very promising for racing with a 90% chance of rain during the day and 20% that evening. Fortunately, California Auto Club does have lights, and teams would much rather stay deep into the night than have to run a race on Monday.
First rainout of the year in its second race? Let's hope not.
Last season, a number of drivers were burned by the combination of the Top-35 rule and rain on the day of qualifying for several NASCAR Sprint Cup events.
Case in point? Boris Said.
The road course ace has tried to gather together sponsorship and a quality team together to compete in a handful of races every year, and his current situation has No Fear Energy Drink as the sponsor with support from Roush Fenway Racing.
That combination had Boris on the pole for last year's Pepsi 400 at Daytona in July -- until a rain storm canceled qualifying midway through the session, sending Boris home instead of into a race on the following night.
The top 35 in owners points from 2007 are locked into the field. If qualifying is canceled, the first 35 positions are allocated by owners points from last year for the first five races of the season.
Barring any teams having missed the entry list deadline, the remaining eight spots would be allocated like this:
If there's a prettier scene than that in NASCAR, I've yet to see it.
I didn't say the racing was amazing in California -- frankly, it's not -- but it's still a gorgeous background. Almost on par with Labor Day in the Darlington, S.C.-area.
Almost.
Anyways, Jeff Gordon took top honors in the afternoon session Thursday with his lap of 180.505mph on his 75th lap of the session. Yes, seventy-fifth.
The California-native, though, didn't pace the overall speed chart from the morning and afternoon sessions as that honor belonged to Denny Hamlin's Toyota with a lap of 182.523.
Ryan Newman, Kyle Busch, Mark Martin, and Gordon's lap from the morning session rounded out the top-5 in the cumlative morning and afternoon results.
Teams were given the option over the two-day California Speedway test to choose from four of the five sessions offered. Three were offered Thursday (including one under the lights) and two on Friday, to give teams either a chance to test at night for when they return for the track's second date in September or to head home Friday afternoon.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. sat out the first session on Thursday meaning he'll be around until the track closes Friday afternoon.
As of this post, times haven't been posted for the night session. Until then, go back to looking at that gorgeous picture.
The first western swing of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series 2008 campaign hits full stride Monday morning at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
The second scheduled stop of the Preseason Thunder testing sessions will offer drivers their first opportunity to turn laps at Vegas in the new model of NASCAR race cars. Sprint Cup Series director John Darby thinks that's nothing but a good thing.
"The good part of it is we're not all worried about it," said Darby, referring to the flurry of criticism that followed last years new car testing.
"All that's behind us."
The test -- it runs Monday and Tuesday at LVMS -- will also give the drivers a better idea as to what the new car feels like without a restrictor plate on the motor and in the exact specifications that the teams will come back with in March for the third race of the year.
A travel day is scheduled for Wednesday as teams make the trek towards California Speedway in Fontana, site of the first "normal" race following the Daytona 500 in February. Once they've arrived, the garages will be open for any work teams need to get done before testing on Thursday and Friday.
Thursday's session runs from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. while Friday's goes from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. -- local times of course.
Darby said that because of the new car's design requirements, many teams will bring two cars total out west instead of swapping in the middle of the week like years past when teams would build track-specific cars. The new car has much fewer tolerances as a cost-saving measure.
Check back at NASCAR Fanhouse throughout the week for recaps and speeds or bookmark NASCAR Testing for complete testing coverage.
Jim Covey, Engine Technical Director for GM Racing:
"If the teams can get through today's race -- given the stress 500 unrestricted miles puts on an engine anyway -- they will feel more comfortable going to a (track like) Bristol or Martinsville. Of all the tracks on the circuit, California Speedway is the toughest race track on an engine. If they can make it here, there shouldn't be any concerns at the other tracks on the tour."
And if they can't?
NASCAR debuted unleaded fuel in the Cup series today.
Dale Earnhardt Inc. driver Martin Truex Jr. fell out of Sunday's race on lap 16 due to a blown engine. Last year's championship contender Dale Earnhardt Jr. scored his second consecutive DNF and fell to 41st in the standings after his engine gave up on lap 120. Junior initially started to lose oil pressure on lap 66:
"I was really, really worried about the engines today because we blew two motors at the test in Las Vegas (in January) and I saw (teammate) Martin (Truex Jr.) blow up early on. We were able to get this one into the garage the first time without blowing it up like a grenade. If it's still intact, it's a lot easier for our guys to take it back to the shop and figure out what may be causing the problem. But, we went back out and it blew up big time. We're lucky to have next weekend off so we can spent that extra week figuring it out and be ready to race at Vegas. Everybody needs to keep their heads up and we'll figure it out."
DEI driver Paul Menard finished 20th, but also radioed in at one point with a vibration he thought was coming from the engine. Kasey Kahne's engine blew up early in the race, too, and Ken Schrader, Dave Blaney and John Andretti also had trouble.
The teams have had plenty of time to prepare for the switch to unleaded, but engine builders haven't mastered the adjustments necessary to compensate for the additional wear and tear on valves and valve seats caused by unleaded's lack of lubricity.
But that concern seemed to be an issue of running 500 miles vs. 300 or less.
These cars had trouble before they'd run even 100 laps. So, is it the fuel ... or is that just a coincidence?
Matt Kenseth found his way to the Auto Club 500 victory lane for the second year in a row--and the second day in a row following his Stater Bros. 300 win to sweep the weekend at California Speedway.
The Busch and Cup wins are the first for the newly created Roush Fenway Racing team.
Jack Roush recently sold half of Roush Racing to the Fenway Sports Group, which also owns the Boston Red Sox, for support in marketing and sales activities. The intention is to "use FSG's experience, network of relationships, and powerful demographic base to add value to Roush Fenway Racing sponsors and help Roush Fenway Racing maintain an unsurpassed position among NASCAR teams on and off the track."
Yada yada yada ... marketing speak. But it's good marketing speak.
Hiring good drivers helps them on the track ... they definitely have that one down (see also: Kenseth, Greg Biffle).
Hiring the ones with personality and who articulate themselves well in the media is a plus (see also: Jamie McMurray, Carl Edwards).
And it won't hurt if they're young and total cuteness, either (see also: David Ragan).
The growing female fan base will not be denied. Many of them certainly pick their favorites based on other factors, too, but admit it, girls, more than likely your fav is easy on the eyes.
Speaking of the easy-on-the-eyes--and articulate--Ragan, also an RFR driver, my rookie pick placed highest again ... this week in the 17th spot.
Sammy Hagar is my favorite Van Halen singer, but given the fact I can't stand David Lee Roth and don't think Gary Cherone ever should have left Extreme ... that's not saying much.
I heard a radio interview with Hagar a couple of weeks ago after he had learned that Van Halen will be inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame this year. He's obviously thrilled and said the whole band is as well ... and that they can all get along for one night.
But not for a whole tour.
At the time I was thinking how great it would be if he was doing the reunion tour with Van Halen instead of Diamond Dave--and since then, DD has pulled out, leaving the door wide open for Hagar to step in.
But after hearing his performance during the NASCAR pre-race ceremonies today, I can understand why that's not happening.
Everybody sounds bad on TV, but Sammy just can't sing anymore. (Could he ever?)
He needs some media training, too. During an interview on "NASCAR Raceday," Wendy Venturini put Hagar on the spot in front of Chevrolet driver Casey Mears when she asked him who his pick to win:
"I'm a Ford guy ... my father drove a Ford ... you couldn't have a Chevy or anything else ... but I just did a commercial with "I Can't Drive 55" for NAPA with Michael Waltrip ... right? ... and Toyota ... that's about my least favorite car ... so I gotta go with Michael ..."
Guess he hadn't heard Mikey didn't make the show.
Also, sponsors don't really like it when they pay you to advertise their product and then you say you don't even like it.
At the end of the day, he was non-committal about his pick and mentioned Junior as a friend and an option, too. Not any more ... the Bud car just went to the garage with a bad engine.
Kevin Harvick debuts his new and improved reduced Shell uniform today at California Speedway.
Compared to last week's, the new Shell shell takes up roughly half of the new uniform's front panel billboard and splits the difference with Pennzoil, its automotive lubricant.
The firesuit alteration is a "temporary" change - a soft tissue to wipe away Sunoco's tears ... We have yet to learn what will stop the crying.
The oil war games have just begun. I think we all have an idea how long those can last.
Stay tuned ...
I filled up before going to the track on Saturday. Guess where? (I have a thing for my Speedpass.) I hope Shell and Sunoco will get by without my $40. And shhhh, don't tell--I snuck a Diet Coke into the Pepsi-contracted speedway. I feel so naughty.
It might look sunny and warm, but at 10:30 Friday morning it was anything but.
I'm sure there are some fancy weather stats from California Speedway, but just know I was layered x 3 for most of the day and many of the drivers were wearing jackets over their firesuits while waiting on pit road (and not because they were forced to cover their sponsor's logo).
I don't think these girls got the forecast. But several in the ticket line got a kick out of them, especially the hair that didn't blow with the wind.
On the Track
Toyota got its second NCTS win in as many races ... Mike Skinner was the first California native to win at home in the truck series ... he was excited not only about the win, but about his wife straddling him in victory lane.
Kevin Harvick Inc. driver Ron Hornaday spun leader Mark Martin out relegating him to a 23rd finish ... Didn't Martin have enough Harvick last week?
Jeff Gordon won the Nextel Cup Bud Pole award ... Michael Waltrip lost his qualifying spot to his own driver, David Reutimann, by .033 seconds ... Brian Vickers qualified for this Sunday's race after he and A.J. Allmendinger made Team Red Bull sit last week out.
Shell plans to market Daytona 500 championship merchandise and signage at its stores in the near future. "We think that's a problem," [Sunoco VP/Marketing Cynthia] Archer said.
Shell thinks they've operated within the parameters of the deal ... Sunoco thinks Shell has operated outside spirit of the deal ... I think I need gas.
After a media blitz in NYC, Daytona 500 winner Kevin Harvick returns to his home state of California this week in hopes of another sweep.
Harvick spent Wednesday in Hollywood with Cali Speedway prez Gillian Zucker celebrating California Speedway Day. The event took place in the courtyard of the Hollywood & Highland Center in the heart of Los Angeles before a gathering of hundreds of fans and dozens of media members.
"This event was even bigger than I had anticipated. I underestimated the power and popularity of winning the Daytona 500. It's pretty impressive the amount of fans and media that turned out today."
The first time that the Bakersfield native ran a stock car in a NASCAR event at California Speedway, he finished second to veteran Ken Schrader. Two months later, he qualified on the pole and finished in Victory Lane. That was 1998, in the NASCAR Grand National Division, West Series, where Harvick drove his way to the championship.
But he's never won a national series here and he'd like to drive into victory lane three times this weekend:
"It's going to be nice to run all three races this weekend at California Speedway. I have a lot of friends and family coming out to watch me race and it's a nice escape from the media frenzy to get back to racing."
On the Rebound
Only four drivers who participated in the 2006 Chase for the NASCAR Nextel Cup find themselves in the top 10 heading for the season's second event at California Speedway. With Chase eligibility dependent on each of the first 26 races' performances, those drivers must begin their rebound at California.
The newly-renamed Auto Club Speedway of Southern California (man, that's a gawdy mouthful) had plenty of laps turned on its banks Friday.
Last season, a number of drivers were burned by the combination of the Top-35 rule and rain on the day of qualifying for several NASCAR Sprint Cup events.
The first western swing of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series 2008 campaign hits full stride Monday morning at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Matt Kenseth found his way to the Auto Club 500 victory lane for the second year in a row--and the second day in a row following his Stater Bros. 300 win to sweep the weekend at California Speedway.
Kevin Harvick debuts his new and 
It might look sunny and warm, but at 10:30 Friday morning it was anything but.
After a media blitz in NYC, Daytona 500 winner Kevin Harvick returns to his home state of California this week in hopes of another sweep.
