Posts tagged SprintCup at FanHouse

Stop by NASCAR FanHouse on Sunday at 1pm/ET for some good ol' fashioned live bloggin' of Sunday's Chevy Rock & Roll 400. It'll be Chase-tastic!

Soon-to-be rookie Sprint Cup driver Joey Logano -- you've heard all about him I bet -- was planning to race Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway for the first time in NASCAR's top division.

Tropical Storm Hanna had other ideas, though.

The rain and winds from the weakened storm moved through the Richmond, Va.-area Friday night and Saturday, forcing the postponement of the event until Sunday afternoon, and in the process, forcing Logano to miss his first try at a Sprint Cup race because NASCAR canceled qualifying and set the field via points.

Logano was supposed to drive Joe Gibbs Racing's No. 02 Toyota in a paint scheme exactly opposite that of Tony Stewart's No. 20 Home Depot machine. Logano, of course, will be taking Stewart's seat at JGR in 2009.

In practice, he was 9th quickest on the speed chart.

Originally, his next start was supposed to be at New Hampshire Motor Speedway next weekend, though the plans for that seem to be evolving after the Richmond setback.

I'm not really sure why it took until Friday afternoon, but NASCAR and Richmond International Raceway's staff have pushed what-was-to-be Saturday night's Chevy Rock & Roll 400 to Sunday thanks to Tropical Storm Hanna.

The bad part? We're not getting to watch NASCAR on a Saturday night.

The good part? FanHouse will be live bloggin' the race Sunday afternoon at 12:45pm/ET to make flipping between opening weekend NFL and the Sprint Cup Series easier to follow.

Saturday night's Sprint Cup race -- and potentially Friday night's Nationwide Series race -- appear to be in jeopardy of postponement thanks to the beautiful tropical weather.

And by beautiful I mean that nasty Tropical Storm Hanna that is currently churning off the coast of Florida.

Penske Racing made a solid choice Wednesday by selecting, officially, David Stremme to drive the No. 12 Penske Racing Dodge in 2009.

From the team's press release:

"We're pleased to have David join Penske Racing as the driver of the No. 12 Alltel Dodge," said Roger Penske. "His past accomplishments and current experience as our NASCAR test driver, as well as his character and desire for success, make him a good fit into our culture."

And I certainly couldn't agree more.

Penske could have easily gone with one of the two trends in the NASCAR garage of recent years by hiring in either 1) a young guy with limited experience or 2) an open-wheel driver. Of course, the latter seems to not be working out so well.

But by hiring Stremme, they are putting a driver behind the steering wheel that not only has NASCAR experience (he drove for Chip Ganassi Racing before getting canned after 2007), but also has plenty of experience behind the wheel of a Penske Racing car.

Dario Franchitti is done with NASCAR, and if you're surprised, then, well, you shouldn't be.

Franchitti announced Tuesday that he'd be heading back to life in the IRL IndyCar Series with the same owner who drove for in NASCAR, Chip Ganassi. The move was a little puzzling especially knowing that Franchitti would be replacing Dan Wheldon -- one of the series' top drivers.

But more telling of Franchitti's move was how quickly the idea by NASCAR owners to bring open-wheel talent to NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series with limited stock car experience at best became a bust.

Franchitti is the third driver to take the reins in NASCAR with intentions of making a long-term career move at the beginning of 2008 to succumb to the economics of NASCAR. In other words, open-wheel drivers with limited experience struggle early in their stock car careers and sponsors just don't want to spend money and time on such a move.

That list includes Franchitti, Jacques Villenueve and Patrick Carpentier, and leaves just one question.

Who's next?

After reading about yet another one of Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s personal quirks, my head is still spinning.

And it's spinning because frankly I just don't get it, despite the article talking about his way of collecting old race cars like its an entirely normal thing. From the NASCAR Scene:

So whatever happened to the car that slid along the Auto Club (Calif.) Speedway wall last year, leaving a trail of flames as driver Brad Keselowski held on?

It's not at JR Motorsports.

It's at Junior's home.

OK, it's not inside the home, but it's on team co-owner Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s property. [...]

"It's a good conversation piece," Keselowski said. "It's actually out back in the woods. It's on a hill and there's vines and stuff growing through it. It's cool because Dale left it completely intact. Every single piece other than the radio is in it. It's really cool to see."

So, in short form, Dale Earnhardt Jr. collects old race cars only to leave them to rust, rot, and generally just turn to nothing on the deepest parts of his property.

Is that not at all weird?

If nothing else from NASCAR's Labor Day weekend trip to Auto Club Speedway in southern California is a positive, at least the sanctioning body is taking steps to make the sport safer in the coming weeks.

NASCAR CEO Brian France announced Sunday at the track that NASCAR will be unveiling a new drug testing policy in the coming weeks that will likely take effect when the 2009 season begins at Daytona in February.

NASCAR officials have approached several teams in recent weeks, using them as sounding boards on ideas for the new policy. A form of random testing is expected, members of several team sources have confirmed.

"We're going to expand the scope of the policy," NASCAR's Brian France said. "That's where we are today. We have a very good policy," he said.

"We will be looking at broadening testing, even though we have a lot of latitude today. We're going to broaden it. The circumstances around all of sports have changed in the past three, four or five years. We need to be mindful of that."

That stance is a long way from the one NASCAR originally took earlier this season when former driver Aaron Fike admitted that he used heroin on race days.

A.J. Allmendinger has a lot in common with Patrick Carpentier.

Both are former open-wheel racing drivers. Both have struggled at times to get a strong foothold on NASCAR racing.

And both have now been strung along by their race teams, with Carpentier finally getting the word this week that his services aren't a top priority at his Gillette-Evernham Motorsports home. Allmendinger has yet to receive word on his 2009 plans.

Most people in the NASCAR world would have signed Allmendinger a month ago to an extended contract after the driver has shown an obvious improvement in not only finishing races, but qualifying for them, too. But Red Bull Racing isn't like most other teams.

The operation has its NASCAR base in North Carolina, but most of the big personnel decisions -- like hiring a driver -- are handled by the ownership group in Red Bull's native country Austria. And that ownership group is used to the Formula One train of thought when it comes to driver decisions of waiting until September or October to make plans for the following year.

That has got to be frustrating to Allmendinger for many, many reasons -- the least of which is Scott Speed.

Reed Sorenson made his way to Gillette-Evernham Motorsports earlier this week, transferring across Sprint Cup team lines from Chip Ganassi Racing.

And as he did so, rookie Canadian driver Patrick Carpentier in first year with GEM's No. 10 car could read the writing on the wall.

Simply, the team was placing him on the back burner of its sponsorship search -- meaning he more than likely won't be in a sponsored car if he decides to stick with the GEM team in 2009 because the emphasis will now be on Sorenson.

And when he was asked about Friday afternoon at Auto Club Speedway, he didn't exactly toe the company line:

"They hired Reed Sorenson for next year, so it's over," Carpentier says. "They're working on a fourth team and looking for sponsorship, but you know how that goes."

So Carpentier says he's a free agent. "I'm talking with other teams to see what's out there," the Montreal native says.

I'd classify what was said by Carpentier as another round of those "you can't blame him"-type comments.