Win $1 Million, Then Race in Iowa

Originally Posted on May 22, 2007 on foxsports.com 

Kevin Harvick blasted the other All-Stars Saturday night, collecting the $1 million prize, then flew to Iowa to race in the Nascar East-West Series at Iowa Speedway.  Harvick's career originated in the West Series before his talent earned him a spot on the bigger Nascar stage.

  

Harvick quickly showed he was in Iowa to win, rocketing to the pole position.  Joey Logano, a Joe Gibbs development driver, took the outside pole.  Logano, a 16 year old who just got his street license, raced for the East series.

 

Harvick took the early lead, and it was quickly apparent that Harvick and Logano had the cars to beat.  The two dueled side by side for much of the race, eventually swapping the lead over 15 times.  Most laps were too close to call, with the cars in a virtual dead heat at the line.  The largest crowd to attend a race at the less than one year old facility was delighted by the action.

  

The rest of the field contained other  notable drivers:  Jeffrey Earnhardt raced for DEI, while Tim McCreadie, World of Outlaws Late Model champ, raced for Childress; joining Logano for Gibbs was Marc Davis, as Chase Austin failed to qualify after a crash during qualifications.  Sean Caisse and Peyton Sellers, who have both been tagged as development drivers by Nascar teams, raced.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Logano ultimately prevailed, winning the race by several car lengths.  Harvick remarked that he enjoyed his road trip to Iowa, but then again, he'd won $1 million less than 24 hours before.

 

It Wasn't On Fire When I Started the Race?!?

Originally Posted on foxsports.com on April 3, 2007.

The first two "Car of Tomorrow" races have something in common. 

Yes, both were won by Hendrick Motorsport drivers.   And, Yes, both were Chevys.

The answer is that two cars had fires within the car while the drivers were running the race.  At Bristol, Matt Kenseth had "smoldering foam" problems, and more spectacularly, at Martinsville, Kevin Harvick had a fire.

Nascar has maintained that the foam installed in the doors was not the cause of the fire at Bristol, and alleged that the Roush team had improperly installed the foam in the door.  Roush Racing denied the foam was improperly installed.  Nascar maintained the foam was NOT flammable.  Nascar suggested Roush Racing add a heat shield to the foam to prevent future "smoldering foam" issues.

Then at Martinsville, Harvick had his problems - with a heat shield on the foam in place.  The Foam that wasn't Flammable shot out flames large enough to toast marshmellows for the entire crowd in the stands. 

Today, Nascar announced that it was allowing teams to modify the foam in the doors.  Teams can eliminate part of the foam in the right door, hopefully moving the foam off the exhaust pipe area will limit the flammability of the foam.

Other teams had problems at Bristol that Nascar traced to the exhaust pipes.  However, it appeared at Martinsville that the teams had corrected that problem.

Drivers are voicing concern that the foam released toxins that has or could affected their health, at least temporarily. 

Interestingly, Nascar appears to be relying on the foam manufacturer for the testing on the toxicity, and the manufacturer hasn't tested it under race conditions.

Perhaps before the next COT race, these questions about the foam should be answered.

Information from:  Lee Spencer, "Drivers seek answers for fires in COT" on foxsports.com; "Biffle:  Nascar needs to figure out foam problems" on scenedaily.com; related articles on espn.com and jayski.com. 

Harvick: Punk, Potential Intimidator or Savior of the Busch Series

Originally Posted on Foxsports.com on November 8, 2006

Kevin Harvick has clinched his second Busch series Championship, and is poised to steal away the Nextel Cup trophy this year too.   On top of that, Harvick has won nine Busch races and has two chances to tie or best the Busch series record of 10 wins in a season (currently held by Sam Ard).

Harvick has been a lightning rod of controversy since he took over Dale Earnhardt's #3 car after the Daytona crash that took Earnhardt's life.  He won in short order, but was unable to do more than the occasional win, and he was never a contender for the Championship.

During those years, Harvick had altercations with Ricky Rudd (resulting in a one race suspension) and bump and runs with competitors too numerous to list.  He trash talks with the best of them, with his favorite target of late to be Kurt Busch.  Harvick hasn't rumbled with Tony Stewart, and Stewart calls Harvick his "probable" best friend in Nextel Cup series.

Last week at the Texas race, Harvick had an on-track incident with Scott Riggs.  Riggs was running in the top five at the time.  Depending on whether you like Harvick or Riggs, you either saw Harvick get Riggs loose and Riggs lost it, or saw Harvick take him out.  Definitely shades of a Black #3 bumping whomever out of the way to get the win or just a better finish.

After the race, Rigg's front tire carrier, Craig Curione started arguing with Harvick as he and his wife, Delana, walked to the media center.  Curione eventually shoved Harvick, who fell into Delana, who fell into a Nascar Official.  Unfortunately, the official fell in front of the pit box and was injured.  The incident was observed by many people, including Roger Penske, who got called to the trailer to tell his side of the story.  Nascar fined Curione and suspended him indefinitely.  Evernham Motorsports does not plan to appeal the decision, and gave Curione its own suspension.

The media and fans have been outraged.  Mostly because Delana was shoved, bumped, or accidently knocked to the ground.  Had it just been Harvick, I'd imagine most would say he probably deserved it for one thing or another.

Harvick has proven this year why he was a hot commodity when he was negotiating with Richard Childress to renew his contract.  Rumors floated that Harvick would leave RCR and move onto greener pastures.  Harvick remained loyal to Childress.

It is due to RCR's resurgence that Harvick has dominated the Busch series this year.  In addition to running races for RCR, Harvick owns Busch teams with his wife Delana.  And Harvick has ideas on how to make the Busch series less attractive to Cup drivers.  First, Harvick would change the schedule so that Cup drivers couldn't run the full series.  He'd do this by scheduling on opposite ends of the country and at times that would make it impossible to do both series.   He'd start with five races that would be impossible to get to without missing the Cup races.

Next, Harvick would use crew rosters to prevent Cup teams from pitting Busch cars.  That way, he'd develop the next group of outstanding Cup pit crews, and make Busch pitstops more competitive. 

Finally, Harvick would seal the motors so that they would have to be run twice, thereby saving $500,000 to $700,000 each year in motor costs.  In Harvick's opinion, it is the cost of running a Busch team that is causing problems for the smaller teams (like FitzBradshaw, Braun, etc.).

Regardless what you think about Harvick, his ideas about the Busch series are worth pondering.  The ideas have the potential to return the Busch series to the original plan of a development series for the Nextel Cup series.  And Harvick's on-track savvy and wins are making it possible that he will have the "bully pulpit" of the Championship to push his ideas.

Whether you like him or not.

Bad Boys, Bad Luck and Bad Endings

Originally Posted on May 29, 2006 on Foxsports.com

Bad Boys:  Kurt Busch - On Friday night, Kurt Busch had a literal "run-in" with a traffic control person at the "Cars" premiere at Lowe's Motor Speedway.  Apparently, Busch was following a police escort when the traffic controller tried to stop Busch's car by stepping in front of it.  (maybe he wanted an autograph?)  Busch brushed by, grazing the man's knee.  The man's knee was checked out after he finished work about 15 minutes later.  Nothing further will happen as a result of the incident, as it appears no one knows who should do something about it - Nascar claims it wasn't their event, track security was not contacted, and the local authorities can't do anything without a report. 

Not to be out-done by his brother's second run-in with traffic control laws, Kyle Busch drug a Nascar official away from the ambulance after a caution flag. Casey Mears slid to start crash, which culminated in Busch violently crashing into the wall.  Busch was so disgusted with Mears that he pulled the official from taking him to the ambulance and threw his HANS device at Mears.  This happened in the same week Busch pled guilty to improper driving in Richmond, VA.

Bad Luck:  Tony Stewart crashed twice this weekend - first in the Busch race on Saturday, and then in the Cup race on Sunday.  At this time, he has a broken right shoulder.  Will this slow down his extracurricular driving activities?  In addition to his Cup duties, he has more Busch races on-tap, a Modified race in New Hampshire in July, and the Prelude to the Dream Late Model race at Eldora next week.  And that's just what he's told us about ...

Kevin Harvick, who has been solidly in the top 10, had another bad race, following his trouble at Darlington.  Harvick had a tailpipe that broke, which caused him to be stuck in the garage for several laps.

Is it me or does Jeff Gordon have the same undiagnosed mechanical problem every other race? 

Bad Endings:  The Indy 500 was a bad ending for the Andretti family - leading the race going into the fourth turn, Marco Andretti looked destined to win the race as a rookie.  However, Sam Hornish had other ideas and took the race at the line.

Scott Riggs was leading the Coca-Cola 600 when he had problems in the pits that probably cost him the race.  The only solice had to be that his teammate won (although that might be more like salt in an open wound).

Jimmie Johnson finished second in the 600.  Given his domination at Lowe's over the past few years, second has to feel strange.