New York plane crash had NASCAR tie

Last week, when I first heard that a US Airways jet headed from New York to Charlotte had crashed into the Hudson River, my mind immediately began to think about my NASCAR cohorts and whether or not any of them were on board.

In fact, the first person I thought of was David Poole, who is the co-host of The Morning Drive on Sirius Satellite Radio and the NASCAR beat reporter for the Charlotte Observer. I was pretty sure that I heard him on the radio that morning and he was in the Charlotte area, but that didn’t mean that someone else from NASCAR might not be on that plane. Since everyone survived and there were no “Breaking News” alerts coming from any of the 10 million public relations people in the sport, I wasn’t too concerned.

Then, early this week, I received my weekly bulletin from ThatsRacin.com — The Observer’s blog/Web site. Anyway, I found out that there was someone from NASCAR on board and Poole interviewed her. I won’t go into the details but if you want to read it the address is www.thatsracin.com/commentary/story/21774.html.

The story is not long or drawn out and it gives a glimpse of what it was like on that plane. But it did something else for me. As someone who frequently flies to races around the country, it made me stop and think about what could happen.

When most people think about NASCAR they just think about the action on the track or their favorite driver; they aren’t thinking about what it takes to get everyone else to the event.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick — probably every driver in the NASCAR garage and most of the NASCAR hierarchy — get on a private, luxury jet each week to get to the track. But that is not the case for the rest of the people in the sport. Nearly everyone else boards a commercial airliner and goes through the same security nightmare as you trying to make their next connection. My only hope is that this is the last time that they have to worry about whether or not one of their own is on a flight that didn’t make it to its destination.

Around the garage

There are big things happening in the Sprint Cup Series, Nationwide Series and the Camping World Truck Series garages this week.

First, Kevin Harvick Inc. just announced that veteran motorcycle ace Ricky Carmichael will pilot the KHI No. 4 Chevrolet Silverado in 14 races in 2009 with sponsorship from Monster Energy Drink.

Ron Hornaday Jr. will fill-out the rest of the 25-race schedule.

In the Nationwide Series garage, the deal has been inked to switch the sponsorship that Alltel had in No. 12 Penske Racing Sprint Cup Series Car to the No. 12 Nationwide Series car. In case you missed it, Verizon completed its purchase of Alltel and because of the insane exclusivity clause that NASCAR granted Nextel prior to its change to Sprint, the sponsorship for Alltel couldn’t transfer to Verizon. Think AT&T.

Anyway, it’s a done-deal and a stroke of luck for rookie-to-be Justin Allgaier, who is the 2008 ARCA RE/MAX Champion. By the way, it’s not his first time behind the wheel of a Nationwide Series car. He did have four starts last year.

In other Nationwide Series news, Scotts Miracle Grow has signed a 16-race deal with Carl Edwards to be on the No. 60 Roush-Fenway Racing Ford. And Yates Racing driver Paul Menard will race in 16 events for the Roush-Fenway Racing camp. And I also received a press release that Tony Stewart will drive a Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet in the season-opening Nationwide Series race next month in Daytona.

Now, in the Sprint Cup garage. The deal between Gillette Evernham Motorsports and Petty Enterprises has been made official. The new organization will be call Richard Petty Motorsports, or RPM for short. The new team will field the 9, 19, 43 and 44 cars. Obviously, Kasey Kahne is in the No. 9 Budweiser car. The No. 19 car will be driven by Elliott Sadler with sponsorship by Best Buy and Stanley Tools. Fielding the No. 43 Dodge with sponsorship from McDonalds will be Reed Sorenson. A.J. Almendinger will drive the No. 44 in at least five outings this season with additional races possible, if sponsorship can be found.

And the new Earnhardt Ganassi Racing organization has announced that Target will switch its sponsorship from the No. 41 car to the No. 42 car that will be driven by Juan Pablo Montoya.

Well, that is about it for this week. But before I go, I can tell you that I just secured the deal with Texas Motor Speedway for The Examiner’s 2009 NASCAR Weekend Getaway. It’s huge. It’s something that we have never done before and it’s something that no other media outlet in Southeast Texas has done before. Sure, we send several people to the races at TMS each year and our grand prize winner always receives luxury hotel accommodations, but this year that person will get even more.

Check back next week or look on www.kickinthetires.net for all of the details and how you can enter to win an unforgettable NASCAR VIP experience.

 

Jerry Jordan can be reached at (409) 832-1400, ext. 225, or at jerry@theexaminer.com.

First post of 2009 - Teams, series deal with eco crisis

Before I get too far into what is happening in the Sprint Cup garage, I wanted to let everyone know what is happening in NASCAR’s other two national touring divisions — and it doesn’t look good for one of them.

Things seem to be shaping up OK for the Nationwide Series, primarily because of the Sprint Cup teams that drop down and run the races as a practice or testing session. There might be an occasion when the field is a little bit short but, for the most part, I expect to see 43 cars take the green flag in every Nationwide Series race.

I have noticed that there are more companies sharing space on the cars. One example was announced on Tuesday whereby SFP, an agriculture products company, announced that it would be a 10-race primary sponsor for Peyton Sellars beginning at Texas Motor Speedway in April. Another example is GoDaddy.com’s 20-race deal with JR Motorsports and Hendrick Motorsports. Obviously, the economy is wreaking havoc on auto racing but many companies are scrambling to find enough money in their ad budgets to at least stay in the Nationwide Series.

Over in the Camping World Truck Series, it’s another story. Only 36 trucks start each race in the series but I am hearing that NASCAR will be lucky to have a full field at even half of its events. Sure, there have been some announcements of drivers signing trucks deals for the 2009 season but sponsorships have been hard to come by. I am proud to say that my old team at ThorsSport Racing (I was the PR guy for the No. 13 truck a few years ago) has signed Johnny Sauter as its driver in 2009. Team owner Duke Thorson has deep pockets and has personally funded the No. 13 at least part of the time for several years. I haven’t heard if they have sponsorship for 2009 but I’m sure Menard’s, which sponsors ThorSport’s No. 88 truck, will have partial interest.

I will say this, if someone has a medium-sized or regional company, they could get a really good deal on sponsoring a truck series team.

Things aren’t looking so great in the Sprint Cup garage, either. It is unlikely that the sport’s top series will have a full field at every track in 2009. And the latest team mergers show that the money these teams were used to getting has dried up. Like I said last week, some of this is deserved because I think the teams were so used to getting mega-dollars that they got spoiled. They burned through wads of cash and when the bottom fell out, they were dumbfounded and near broke.

Ironically, it’s the smaller teams that may come out smelling like a rose in the 2009 season. I liked Tommy Baldwin’s comment last week when he said the smaller teams aren’t used to having unlimited bank accounts so they can better handle the downturn in the economy.

And teams like Michael Waltrip Racing are buying equipment that will help them save money and increase productivity at the same time. On Tuesday, I receiveda an announcement from MWR about a new hydro-cutting tool the team purchased to help fabricate its parts.

“These days we’re all looking for ways to save time and money, and Jet Edge’s X-Stream pump does both,” said MWR technical director Nick Hughes. “We couldn’t ask for anything more.”

The new device, which uses a 90,000 psi stream of water instead of a cutting blade or die, helps fabricate parts much faster than traditional milling technology.

In others news, NASCAR.com has reported that Bobby Labonte will drive the No. 96 car in a partnership deal between Yates Racing and Hall of Fame Racing.

Despite NASCAR’s ban on testing at sanctioned tracks, there was a tire test this past week at Texas Motor Speedway. The test was attended by Kurt Busch, David Reuttimann, Jeff Burton and Travis Kvapil.

And speaking of testing, if you are heading to College Station, you might want to check with the folks at Texas World Speedway. Since the track is no longer sanctioned by NASCAR, it is available for testing. And the track owners have completed its initial renovation of the asphalt there and look forward to hosting any teams that might want to test in 2009 and beyond.

On a final note, if you have ever wanted to attend a race at Bristol Motor Speedway, you better pick up the phone. The track announced last week that it has a number of season ticket packages available. This is the first time in years that there hasn’t been a waiting list for season tickets. I was in Bristol this past year and any seat is a good one, so this is a great opportunity.

Well, that’s about it for this week. I have been working on a schedule of the races that I will cover this season at www.kickinthetires.net and, so far, it includes the Las Vegas race in March, the fall Atlanta race, the May race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway and all events at Texas Motor Speedway. And, as always, we will be hosting our NASCAR Weekend Getaway Contest, but this year we are doing something that we have never done before. That’s all I can say for now but we will be making a major announcement in a week or two.