2025 NASCAR

[MinnieM123]

Big Sponsorship news. Lowe's announced they will not return to Hendrick Motorsports in 2019. What I know is Jimmie's contract is through 2020. I'm waiting to see what will happen with the 48 team after this year from a sponsor standpoint.

I know Lowe's has been with NASCAR for a very long time. I remembered them sponsoring Junior Johnson's 11 car in 1995 with Brett Bodine being the driver. They also sponsored the 31 car at RCR from 1997 to 2001.

That is a big surprise about Lowes. They've been with NASCAR for many years. (Side note: I wonder what company is the # 1, longest-lasting sponsor, by the way?)

Lowes headquarters is in Mooresville, North Carolina, and there's a big fan base down there (in NC). NASCAR Hall of Fame is over in Charlotte, the Richard Petty Museum is in Randleman, and the Richard Childress Museum is in Welcome. It's no wonder that Lowes would be a sponsor of NASCAR. It may be interesting to see if they take up sponsorship again, but maybe with another team. We'll have to wait and see, I guess.

 

[wdwfan4ver]

That is a big surprise about Lowes. They've been with NASCAR for many years. (Side note: I wonder what company is the # 1, longest-lasting sponsor, by the way?)

I think it is Goodyear if counts. Goodyear has been giving NASCAR tires since 1954.

Outside of Goodyyear, I think its STP. They have been around NASCAR since 1972 with the 43 car.

STP is sponsoring the cup Martinsville race and is sponsoring the 43 car for 2 races this year.

 

[wdwfan4ver]

There was light shed on why on there haven't been 40 cup races teams showing up at a race after this year's Daytona 500.
There is a court case concerning the bankruptcy of BK racing. I'm sure NASCAR and the Race Team alliance are not happy what is revealed in that case.

There is an article that compares the race purses of 2015 to 2018. The races purses are down this year by a lot from tracks like Phoenix. This year, the cup race purse was under 1.5 million dollars compare to 5.1 million dollars in 2015 for Phoenix.
Atlanta cup race purse was under 2.5 million dollars this year compare to 6.3 million dollars in 2015.
This year's Las Vegas purse is 2.647 million dollars compare to 6.5 million dollars in 2015.

The Daytona race purse is 15.466 million dollars this year compare to 19.8 million dollars in 2015. The catch is the 20th place car got more this year compare to what it got in 2015. What caused increase of the 20th place purse money this year for the Daytona 500 is the charter system. If you are not part of the charter system, you are not going to get a lot of money for the Daytona 500.

The Daytona 500 race earnings also did show what happened for the Daytona 500 is much different than Atlanta, Las Vegas, and Phoenix. Charter teams actually are getting less money to place in Atlanta, Las Vegas, and Phoenix under the charter system than it did in 2015. 2015 was the last year before having a charter system for NASCAR. Based on the less money for placing for charter teams in Atlanta, Las Vegas, and Phoenix, there is no reason for Teams without a charter to show up.

Here is the article I am referring to:

http://nascar.nbcsports.com/2018/03...der-charter-system-through-bankruptcy-filing/

 

[wdwfan4ver]

I want to make a correction. I found out that STP isn't the longest running sponsor outside of goodyear. Although I mentioned STP, I thought back of my mind there was possibility of Coca cola due to Bobby Allison. I decided to do a search.

Coca Cola has been around even longer than STP in NASCAR. Coca Cola claims that they have been with NASCAR for 50 years. The Earliest information I found was in 1970 a driver named Don Tarr. Don Tarr is best known for two things. Don was known for being the first NASCAR driver ever to talk to television commentators from the car during a race.

He also was the first ever Physician to race in the cup series.

 

[wdwfan4ver]

Axalta and Hendrick has extended their partnership for another 4 years. What is known is Axalta is going to be a primary sponsor for Alex Bowman for 12 races in 2019 and William Byron for 13 races in 2019. This year, Axaltra is sponsoring Bowman for 15 races and Byron for 10 races. Axalta actually has been with Hendrick since 1992 with Jeff Gordon when Axaltra was Dupont.

 

[artvandelay]

RCR is going to have a 3rd cup car for Richmond. Daniel Hemric is going to drive the 8 car with Herbal Mountain Snuff as the sponsor.

Daniel raced in the truck series in 2015 and 2016 before going to the Xfinity series last year.

Daniel is a Terry Labonte/Clint Bowyer type driver. That type of a driver is not going to make a car better than it really is since you are dealing with a classic points racer. Daniel never won a truck series and Xfinity series race in his career yet.

Daniel finished in the top 10 in points for the truck series for the 2 seasons he was there. He finished 4th in the xfinity series in points last year and is currently 5th in points in that series.

Did he get the ride because he brought the sponsorship to RCR?

 

[wdwfan4ver]

Did he get the ride because he brought the sponsorship to RCR?

I don't know about getting the cup ride due to him bringing sponsorship, but It is possible. The problem is Daniel brought a primary sponsor called Blue Gate Bank to RCR for the Xfinity ride for the 2017 season, but that they are not Daniel's primary sponsor for any cup and Xfinity races this year.

Smokey Mountain Herbal Snuff was Daniel's primary sponsor for 3 races in 2017. All I know is Daniel didn't have a relationship with Smokey Mountain Herbal snuff before 2017.

 

[Dead2009]

So apparently all races got moved to tomorrow because of snow. Yes, snow.

 

[artvandelay]

Truck race starts today at 11am. Cup race follows at approximately 2pm.

 

[MinnieM123]

Truck race starts today at 11am. Cup race follows at approximately 2pm.

Ford # 14 (Clint Bowyer) for the Cup win today at Martinsville.

 

[JPPT1974]

In that of in the Bowyer and he breaks a winless streak of 191 there of races.

 

[wdwfan4ver]

Stewart-Haas is on a roll this year. Clint winning at Martinsville is not a surprise considering how Stewart-Haas Racing is this year. Clint is a very good short track driver and Stewart-Haas has the equipment to take advantage of it.

I do think there needs to be concern with Hendrick Motorsports. I know Hendrick got 2 drivers in the top 10 at Martinsville, but neither were Jimmie Johnson. That is a concern due to Jimmie's record there and Martinsville isn't an aerodynamic race track.

What I do know is the rule package NASCAR has doesn't fit Jimmie Johnson's driving Style and Hendrick getting adjusted to the new model of Chevy isn't helping matters.

The problem with the NASCAR rule package is NASCAR made the cup cars less heavy and took away horse power a few years ago. We started to see a decline of Jimmie Johnson a couple years ago including the year he won his 7th cup championship. Back in 2016, the cars had less horsepower and less weight than they did in the past.

Back when Jimmie Johnson was a Busch series regular, he was on the same level as he was for the cup series due to the Busch series cars not have the amount horse power and weight as the cup cars did. The proof of the problems with Jimmie Johnson not able to race cars with less weight and horsepower as well is the fact Todd bodine did better with Herzog Motorsports than Jimmie Johnson did.

I'm giving a free pass to William Byron because he's a rookie that didn't have any cup race starts last year and I think he's being rushed to cup. What also hurts William is Chevy has a new race car make this year that has affected most of the Chevy teams on Aerodynamic tracks.

 

[wdwfan4ver]

BK racing is now going to be operated by a Trustee after the team owner Ron Devine lost financial control. Right now the Credit Bank & Trust is owed $11.47 million in loans and interest that are now past due by BK racing. BK Racing owes the IRS $2,893,499 in primarily payroll taxes, interest and penalties. BK racing also owes Racing Engines Plus $2,247,611 in payment of a previous arbitration award and unpaid bills.

What happened was Ron Devine bought the remains of Red Bull Racing, but his organization ran into money trouble for a while. BK Racing is known for not paying their drivers and other people in the organization. The payment issue with their drivers started in their first year of existence.

Since BK Racing is now going to be operated by a trustee, its going to be interesting if the charter is going to be sold.

 

[wdwfan4ver]

While April's Day is known for people doing pranks, what happened in Auto Racing and NASCAR 25 years ago was no prank at all.

25 years ago today, Auto racing lost Alan Kulwicki to an Airplane crash. Alan died returning from an appearance at the Knoxsville Hooters in a Hooters corporate plane on a short flight across Tennesse before the Sunday spring race at Bristol. The plane crashed due to pilot's failure to use the airplane's anti-ice system to clear ice from the engine inlet system. Alan Kulwicki was only 38 years old at the time he died on April 1, 1993.

At the time Alan died, he was the reigning Cup champion. Back in 1992, Alan became the first driver/owner to win a cup championship since Richard Petty did in 1979. Alan Kulwicki was the person who got me interested in NASCAR. Alan got me interest in NASCAR by the factor he was a Wisconsin native and was an underdog driver. I recalled ESPN's Sportscenter show had a segment on him when Alan was alive.

At the time Alan raced in the cup series, he only had a million dollar budget compared to the top teams that had 3 million dollar sponsors a year at the time. What made him so competitive was he had an engineering degree despite his cup team had a low budget. His competitors such as Terry Labonte called him the smartest person in the cup garage. Alan raced stock cars in college and his engineering degree did was give him a better understanding the physics of a racecar.

There was a total of 4 people that died in that crash including Alan Kulwicki and the Son of the CEO/founder of Hooter's.

When Alan died on April fool's day, it was a big deal in Wisconsin including the news. He was very well known in Wisconsin when he was alive to put it mildly. His Autograph signing on Alan Kulwicki Day back in January of 1993 was proof of that with my information at the time coming from one of my old classmates.

That classmate was one of 4 to 5 thousand people getting Alan's autograph on Alan Kulwicki Day. The Autograph signing was at a high school in Alan's hometown of Greenfield with the signing being in the gymnasium with the gymnasium was packed to say the least.

 

[wdwfan4ver]

Fox started their top 50 NASCAR drivers of all time list yesterday.

Here are the top 4 that didn't make the cut:
Geoffrey Bodine, Jack Ingram, Ryan Newman & LeeRoy Yarbrough

I have hard time having Leeroy Yarbrough making the top 50 list. The problem with LeeRoy is he had a very short prime as a drive and didn't race long do to a nasty head injury. I do think he could've been the best Charlotte Motor Speedway driver of his era since he had 4 wins there in a short a mount of time besides could've been one of the best at Atlanta Motor Speedway in his era. LeeRoy was a natural at 1.5 mile track and was great at Daytona. I can not get a good reading on him for short tracks or 1 mile tracks.

The year before Leeroy's life altering crash, Leeroy had one of the greatest seasons in NASCAR. While Leeroy didn't win the championship, He won The Daytona 500, Daytona 4th of July race, The World 600 aka the Coca cola 600, 2 Darlington races in the same year including the Southern 500 on Labor Day, Fall Atlanta Race and Fall Rockingham race. Out of the 7 race Leeroy won in that season, 4 of them were majors. He won 14 career cup races

People are guessing he suffered from CTE. The description of his behavior after his crush did point to concussion did a terrible thing to him. All I know is I read that Leeroy couldn't remember anyone including his friends and even tried to kill his mom even. He ended up in a mental in mental institution before did in a hospital from internal bleeding in the brain.

I think a great case can be made for Geoffrey Bodine, and Jack Ingram, for making the top 50 and somewhat of one for Ryan Newman.

Geoff Bodine's problem is he became a rookie cup driver when he was 33 years old and he was the driver that built up Hendrick Motorsports. Geoff did win 18 cup races and is known as one of the greatest NASCAR modified drivers ever. Geoff had 50 modified wins in one season. Geoff Bodine's biggest strengths as a driver was at short tracks, Pocono, and Road Courses.

Hendrick had some bugs when Geoff was there since Hendrick was a start up team. I do think Geoff Bodine would've been ranked higher if his equipment held together better in 1994 because Geoff had only 3 wins despite leading over 1,700 laps as an owner/driver. Geoff had a chance to win 3 or 4 more races that year including the first ever Brickyard 400. I thought Geoff Bodine had the best car, but he was taken out while he in the lead, by his younger brother Brett.

My argument for Jack Ingram is he won 5 Championships in what is known the Xfinity series since Sam Ard in the top 50. Jack Ingram and Sam Ard raced very rarely in the cup series. The problem with Jack is the same as Sam Ard in the lower series. NASCAR didn't keep records for what is now the Xfinity series before 1982 and there is no way to tell for sure the amount of wins those two have.

My issue with Newman is take a look at his cup career. While he has 18 cup wins, he really lucked in a lot of his wins by fuel mileage, taking no tires when others pit, or taking 2 tires when other took 4. Ryan was better at qualifying than on race day. Newman's biggest strength is being hard to pass on the race track.

 

[wdwfan4ver]

Here is 50 to 26 for drivers:
50. Joey Logano
49. Greg Biffle
48. Marvin Panch
47. Jeff Burton
46. Tim Richmond
45. Richie Evans
44. Sam Ard
43. Neil Bonnett
42. Curtis Turner
41. Alan Kulwicki
40. Harry Gant
39. Ricky Rudd
38. Buddy Baker
37. Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
36. Martin Truex, Jr.
35. Denny Hamlin
34. Carl Edwards
33. Bobby Labonte
32. Davey Allison
31. Benny Parsons
30. Fred Lorenzen
29. Brad Keselowski
28. Kurt Busch
27. Rex White
26. Terry Labonte

 

[wdwfan4ver]

I'm disappointed in not seeing Jim Paschal on the top 50 list. Jim in his era won 25 cup races and he usually din't run for the cup championship. Jim had his first cup race in 1949 at the age of 23 and his last cup race was in 1972 at the age of 46. The problem with most of Jim's time frame as a driver was the Cup series had even more cup races than they do right now. From 1951 to 1971, the cup series ran anywhere from 34 races to 62 races in a season. NASCAR only ran under 40 cup races a season 3 times from 1951 to 1971 and a lot of drivers didn't go for the championship due to cost and the amount of races in a season. Back in that era, teams didn't travel by plane, they traveled by car. Jim was not as well balanced as you like, but this was in an era that Jim on short tracks that were dirt and asphalt and he did won 2 600 mile races at Charlotte including 1967 World 600 that he led 334 laps in.

My argument for Jim Paschal is there are drivers in the top 50 on the cup side that were not very well balance such as Bobby Labonte. Jim's 1967 World 600 lap total was impressive considered race cars were not where close to being aerodynamic as they are right now and the equipment was way less durable in that era compare to today's era of NASCAR.

I feel Fox should have lower league drivers in their rankings or make this a cup only ranking because there were some great lower NASCAR drivers that won in the cup series in a very limited amount of cup starts.

I'll be mention thought on the list itself after 25 to 1.

 

[wdwfan4ver]

Here is 25 to 1:


25. Joe Weatherly
24. Dale Jarrett
23. Fireball Roberts
22. Bobby Isaac
21. Matt Kenseth
20. Tim Flock
19. Mark Martin
18. Kevin Harvick
17. Bill Elliott
16. Buck Baker
15. Junior Johnson
14. Rusty Wallace
13. Herb Thomas
12. Kyle Busch
11. Ned Jarrett
10. Lee Petty
9. Tony Stewart
8. Bobby Allison
7. Cale Yarborough
6. Darrell Waltrip
5. Dale Earnhardt
4. Jeff Gordon
3. David Pearson
2. Jimmie Johnson
1. Richard Petty

 

[wdwfan4ver]

I am going to address the top first 5. They got Jimmie Johnson a bit too high and Earnhardt Sr. too low. Jimmie Johnson is not the balanced driver as Jeff Gordon was. I think it is due to Jimmie having 7 championships, but Jimmie really didn't serve that 7th championship. Jimmie in 2016 already was showing a decline in performance. and I don't think it was experimenting either. I think Earnhardt sr. and Jeff Gordon should put of the top 3 of all time.

Jimmie Johnson had better engines than Earnhardt Sr. did from a pure horsepower standpoint. I think the reason Earnhardt didn't win a lot at Michigan and Pocono was due to pure horsepower. Back in the 1980s and early 1990s, Robert Yates and Ernie Elliott built the fastest engines. Childress only had the best fastest cars in 1987 and 1990. Jimmie only had to deal with one crew chief unlike Dale winning championships with 3 crew chiefs and 2 different organizations.

Dale Sr. was the better pure short track driver driver than Jimmie Johnson. People have made the mistake of claiming Earnhardt was only threat at Bristol, but the truth is Dale won 6 times at Martinsville, 5 times at Richmond and 5 times at North Wilkesboro.

Jimmie was a master at Martinsville, but is not a great threat at Richmond and Bristol. Back in Dale's prime, the cup cars went to 4 short tracks. Earnhardt didn't have a weakness at a short tracks. Earnhardt was known as one of the greatest short track drivers of all time in the cup series. Earnhardt only had 5 cup wins at North Wilkesboro, but finished in the top 10 there in almost 90 percent of all the cup races he raced there.

Earnhardt's lowest amount of wins at a short track was the old Nashville fair grounds with 2, but that track only was there for Earnhardt from 1979 to 1984. During time period Earnhardt got 9 top 10s in 12 races there and that was before Earnhardt's peak as a driver aka 1986 to 1994. Earnhardt was going to have at least 3 or 4 more wins at the old Nashville Fair grounds if that track stayed through 1994.

Earnhardt was weaker at Dover and Charlotte than Jimmie although Earnhardt was a pretty good Charlotte driver with 3 All star wins and 5 regular points wins. Earnhardt Sr. was way better than Jimmie at plate racing. Jimmie was not on Dale's level at Darlington or Atlanta. The only driver better than Dale at Darlington was David Pearson and that speaks a lot about Dale considering Pearson was the best Darlington driver ever.

I can't get a good reading on Earnhardt for Texas and new tracks for the cup series starting with IMS due to the fact he was not the same driver after his 1996 Talladega crash despite being top 6-10 type of a driver after that crash. Earnhardt and Jimmie were equal in road racing abilities meaning it is not their specialty despite for Jimmie. Jimmie's background before NASCAR was off-road racing and there had been good road course drivers from that race background in NASCAR such as Robby Gordon.

Jimmie is a 3rd to 5th rank driver in my book. Jeff Gordon is a top 3 due to the fact he is one of the most balanced drivers of all time because he can win at any type of track unlike Jimmie johnson and Jeff came to a Hendrick Organization that was not true threat for a championship in the 1990s before Jeff came there.

David Pearson to me is a 4th or 5th rank. My problem is I'm under the impression he cherry picked his schedule a lot after his 3 cup championship. While David had 106 cup wins, he was a full time driver 4 times in the 1960s. The problem is David raced full time in those 4 seasons when there was 62 races, 49 races 2 times, 54 races in a season. What I'm getting at is David was winning races at short fields like Richard Petty was doing in the 1960s also. David was cherry picking races after his 3rd championship because he was happy with 3 championship. That reason is different than a lot of drivers that didn't run for a championship back in the 1950s, and

Richard Petty can be ranked 1st, but can be ranked as low as 5. The problem with Richard's win record was the same as David Pearson, but at a larger scale since there was a competition issue. You can not take away the talent of Richard Petty and David Pearson though. There is not really a weakness for Richard Petty and I thought he can be number 1 since he won a lot at short tracks, super speedways, 1 mile tracks and 1.5 mile tracks.

 

[wdwfan4ver]

Since I mention Robert Yates engines, I might as well mention Davey Allison. I think Davey might have been overrated by potential since he had 19 wins by the time he died at the age of 32. There are some big problems with Davey and did expose him quite a bit and I think Jarrett, Rudd, and Ivan had more talent at Yates. I even have Carl Edwards over Davey Allison. While Carl was weak on plate tracks and Martinsville on the cup level, the chase caused him to lose a cup championship in 2011.

The problem with Davey was Davey actually had the fastest engines in the cup series, but he only was 13th in points in 1990. Roush used Yates engines for Atlanta as the final race of the year because Roush didn't have the best horsepower out of the Ford Camp. That basically meant Davey underperformed as a cup driver that year and said Yates had the equipment to beat Childress with Davey Allison through 1992 at least.

While Davey did have 19 wins in the record book, he had a win he didn't deserve. Ricky Rudd get a win taken away on a road course because Ricky spun out Davey. The problem with that is a lot of drivers did spin out other drivers for wins or try to wreck them for that matter such as how Austin Dillon won the Daytona 500. Dale Jarrett as a driver had more talent than Davey did. I don't know if Davey would've won a championship like Dale Jarrett. Davey was able to win at short tracks, but don't compare him to Earnhardt Sr.,

Ernie Irvan before his near fatal Michigan 1994 crash actually the most talented driver Robert Yates racing ever had. Ernie was great at plate racing, road racing, very capable at short track racing, and was able to take advantage of horsepower at 1.5 mile race tracks from a talent standpoint. Ernie in 1994 was taught by Yates that he didn't have to be reckless with his equipment unlike his Morgan Mcclure days.

I have Dale Jarrett over Davey Allison. Dale Jarrett can get it done almost every type of a track. While Dale Jarrett didn't become a star in the cup series before his late 30s, he was a driver that was able to take full advantage of his equipment on tracks that horsepower can play a big role. Dale Jarrett was a driver though that can win races that don't depend on horsepower such as Darlington and Rockingham. Dale was great plate driver also.

I have Rudd over Davey because I think Yates got a few years too late despite how great Rudd was in 1999 and 2000. Rudd in his prime can be masked by Robert Yates horsepower. My reasoning is Rudd did win Atlanta once, Michigan by fuel mileage, and the Brickyard 400 by staying out. It is easy to make a driver better at 1.5 and 2 mile tracks by pure horsepower. Rudd didn't have great horsepower at RCR and Hendrick did not have the engines of Yates during the 1990 to 1993 time frame. Ricky Rudd also was able to overachieve at some cup teams such as Bud Moore, Kenny Bernstein, and racing for himself as a cup owner.

Ricky Rudd was a poor Man's Rusty Wallace with the big difference being Rusty being better at Pocono and Michigan. Ricky Rudd was weak at plate tracks to put it mildly. Ricky's strength was road racing and race tracks 1 mile or less in size. I know Rudd was affected by Kenny Bernstein's engines in 1988 because he could've won at September race at Richmond,fall race at Martinsville, and at Phoenix if it wasn't for engine problems.