Kurt Busch gets ride for 2012

Kurt Busch gets ride for 2012: Kurt Busch will drive the #51 Chevy for Phoenix Racing in 2012. Busch put the handshake deal together with team owner James Finch on Wednesday night. "I went to the shop, and on the Christmas tree was a sign that read, 'All we want from Santa is a winning driver,' " Finch said. "We will be at the Daytona test next month and start with the Shootout." The decision comes just weeks after Busch left [#22 Dodge] Penske Racing in a mutual parting. Upon his departure, Busch said he "wanted racing to be fun again." Phoenix Racing runs Hendrick Motorsports cars and engines. Said Finch: "I told Kurt, 'I won't fire you, and you won't quit. We'll do whatever it takes roll in the mud if we have to to win. I've worked construction all my life just so I could race and have a good time. I've worked with iron workers, I worked with construction workers, so working with a driver is not going to be a problem. As I said earlier, all we want to do is win". Landon Cassill most recently piloted the #51 for Finch last season. Finch finished 30th in owner points.(FoxSports)(12-22-2011)

Allmendinger to Drive Shell-Pennzoil Dodge in 2012

Team Release

            December 21, 2011

MOORESVILLE, N.C. (December 21, 2011) - Penske Racing has named AJ Allmendinger as the driver of the team's No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Dodge Charger for the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

Allmendinger, who has competed in the Cup Series since 2007, is coming off a strong season that saw him finish 15th in the series standings while battling for a position in the Chase for the Championship. The 30-year-old native of Los Gatos, Calif., earned one top-five, 10 top-10 and 22 top-15 results in 2011 while driving the No. 43 car for Richard Petty Motorsports.

"I am really excited about the opportunity to join Penske Racing and drive the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Dodge in 2012," said Allmendinger. "I have always admired Roger Penske and the way his teams compete and win in every series where they race. It is a privilege for me to represent such iconic and respected brands as Shell and Pennzoil, AAA and Dodge. I am honored to join Penske Racing and I will do my very best to continue to build on the standard of excellence established across the organization."

Allmendinger will join a winning team that's poised to compete for a position in the 2012 Cup Series Chase. The No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Dodge team produced two wins, three poles and 16 top-10 finishes in 2011 as it earned a spot in the Chase and finished 11th in the series standings. Allmendinger will be paired with crew chief Todd Gordon, who led the Penske Racing No. 22 Nationwide Series team to six victories last season and was named last week as the new chief of the Shell-Pennzoil Dodge.

"AJ is a very talented and motivated driver and we believe he will be a terrific fit with our team," said Roger Penske. "He has shown great promise and consistent results on the track over the last few seasons and working with Todd and the Shell-Pennzoil Dodge team will allow him to take the next step and compete for race wins and a spot in the Chase in 2012."

"Shell and Pennzoil are extremely pleased by Penske Racing's selection of AJ Allmendinger to drive the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Dodge," said Lisa Davis, President of Shell Oil Products U.S. "AJ has consistently demonstrated great potential and continuous improvement as a driver, and with Penske's track record, our employees and customers can look forward to seeing him contending for wins and ultimately a championship in the NASCAR Cup Series. We know he will represent our brands well on and off the track and we look forward to a successful 2012 with AJ behind the wheel."

Allmendinger honed his skills in the open-wheel racing ranks. After winning the Barber Dodge Pro Series title in 2002 and the Toyota Atlantic Championship in 2003, he earned Rookie of the Year honors in the Champ Car World Series in 2004. He posted five wins and finished third in the 2005 Champ Car World Series before making the switch to NASCAR. He first competed in the Cup Series in 2007 and he's earned 26 top-10 finishes in less than five Cup Series seasons. Allmendinger has finished inside the top 20 in points in each of the last two seasons.

2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Top Performances

2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Top Performances

New Champion, Surprise Winners, Broken Records Highlight Storybook Season

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Dec. 7, 2011) – “You come at the king, you best not miss.” – Omar Little, The Wire.

From the 2007 season – Jimmie Johnson’s first as a defending champion – through 2010, exactly 100 drivers started at least one NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. All took aim at Johnson’s throne. All missed.

A shocking victor claimed NASCAR’s most famous race to open the 2011 season, as Trevor Bayne, 20, became the youngest driver to ever win the Daytona 500.

Bayne’s storybook win signaled a season of change and surprise, none more remarkable than this…

Johnson’s five-year reign as king ended. Somebody didn’t miss. That somebody was Tony Stewart.

Stewart’s record-breaking, five-win playoff run in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup was just one of the many outstanding performances that took place during the recently completed 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. The following is a look back at some of those standout performers and memorable races, as selected from discussions with the national series directors, competition department and NASCAR IMC managers.

Top Driver

Tony Stewart – Some may argue Stewart was NOT the top driver of 2011 – at least not all of it. He failed to win a single race in the 26-race regular season, thereby starting the Chase as the ninth seed. But on the big stage, Stewart shined – and that’s why he gets the nod. Over the final 10 races, Stewart won a Chase-record five races – including the historic “walk-off win” at Homestead-Miami Speedway that won him a championship. With the victory, Stewart became A) the ninth driver with three or more championships; B) the first champion to win the finale since 1998; and C) the first driver-owner to win the title since Alan Kulwicki in 1992. Even after the winless regular season, Stewart’s five victories in 2011 were a series-high. Now, one hole remains in Stewart’s career: a Daytona 500 victory. He’ll get his chance to fill it soon enough – on Feb. 26 (FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90).

Carl Edwards (Honorable Mention) – Edwards captured just one victory in 2011 – and that was the reason he lost a tie-breaker that cost him the championship to Stewart. Still, 2011 was an impressive and productive season for Edwards. He held the points lead after 21 of 36 points races, by far the longest stretch of any driver this season. By comparison, Kyle Busch was second, leading the points for seven weeks in 2011. Edwards adds two other accolades to his impressive season. He won his first NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race (famously tearing up the front of his Ford while celebrating), and set a Chase record of his own. Edwards’ average finish in the 10-race Chase was 4.9, the lowest ever in the Chase’s eight-year history. The previous best was Jimmie Johnson’s 5.0 in 2007.

Comeback Driver of the Year

Dale Earnhardt Jr. – Welcome back to the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, and championship contention. NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver for the ninth consecutive season, Earnhardt enjoyed a rebirth of sorts under new crew chief Steve Letarte. With a fresh slate in 2011, Earnhardt piled up four top fives and 12 top 10s, his highest figures since his first season with Hendrick Motorsports in 2008. He also returned to the Chase for the first time in three years, finishing the season seventh in points. That points finish was his best since 2006, when he finished fifth. Despite a winless drought that stretched to 129 starts, Earnhardt flirted with Victory Lane a couple of times in 2011. At Martinsville Speedway, he held the lead with four laps remaining, but lost it to a charging Kevin Harvick. At the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, he led on the final lap only to run out of gas – and was passed by Harvick yet again.

Kasey Kahne (Honorable Mention) – Despite missing the Chase for the second consecutive season, Kasey Kahne lit up the back end of the schedule, finishing in the top 10 in seven of the final eight races. His 368 points scored in the Chase trailed only Stewart and Edwards, and his victory at Phoenix in the penultimate race of the season snapped an 81-race winless drought. Kahne’s late-season surge provided booming optimism for next season, when he and crew chief Kenny Francis join powerhouse Hendrick Motorsports.

Top Organization

Stewart-Haas Racing – That didn’t take long. Stewart-Haas Racing needed just three years to win their first championship, as Stewart became the first driver-owner to win the title since 1992. SHR racked up six wins in 2011, tied for most on the season. Five of those belonged to Stewart. Ryan Newman nabbed the other in the most dominant effort by a team this season. At New Hampshire in July, Newman and Stewart started 1-2, and finished 1-2 – the first time since 1957 that a team started and finished 1-2 with the same drivers starting and finishing in the same order.

Richard Childress Racing (Honorable Mention) – This was a tough one, as Roush Fenway Racing made a big play for inclusion into this category. But again, RFR lost the tiebreak to victories. Richard Childress Racing nabbed six victories in 2011. Roush Fenway had five.

But the win total alone isn’t everything. RCR captured glory in one of NASCAR’s “crown jewels,” with Paul Menard claiming his first career win in the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. During the Chase, Clint Bowyer – who moves to Michael Waltrip Racing in 2012 – collected RCR’s milestone 100th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory, in the Talladega Superspeedway Chase race. Kevin Harvick, RCR’s wins leader with four, finished third in the points for the second consecutive season.

Top Breakthrough Performer

Brad Keselowski – Don’t be surprised if more drivers attempt Keselowski’s patented “broken ankle-to-victory” strategy. During a test session at Road Atlanta in early August, Keselowski broke his left ankle, leaving his availability for the upcoming event at Pocono Raceway in question. He did race. And won. He did the same a few weeks later at Bristol. His three victories after race No. 26 were enough to land him the No. 1 Wild Card spot in the Chase. After a solid Chase that included four top-five finishes, he finished the season fifth in points.

Regan Smith (Honorable Mention) – Coming into 2011, here were Regan Smith’s career statistics: zero wins, zero top fives and zero top 10s. Any type of success whatsoever would land him a “Breakthrough Performer” nod. Instead, he built a career-year that included a victory in one of NASCAR’s most historic races – the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. To that feat, he added a third-place finish on another grand stage – the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis. In all, Smith had one win, two top fives and five top 10s.

Top Race

Ford 400, Homestead-Miami Speedway – If this race were smack in the middle of the season, it still would get consideration for “Top Race” – thanks to record-breaking numbers in leaders (15) and lead changes (26). But the implications of this race – and the clutch performances of those with everything to win and lose – made this an instant classic.

Championship clinch scenarios going in were simple: If Carl Edwards wins, he’s the champion. If Tony Stewart wins, he’s the champion. Edwards shrugged off any pressure as a first championship neared, leading a race-high 119 laps.

But this was Stewart’s show. With some early pit road magic to repair a grapefruit-sized hole in his grill, Stewart worked his way back to the front with daring four-wide passes. NASCAR’s Loop Data counted a total of 118 green flag passes for Stewart, who led the final 36 laps en route to the “walk-off win” and his third career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship.

Stewart and Edwards finished 1-2 at Homestead, leaving the 2011 season in a points tie. Stewart won the tiebreaker with five wins to Edwards’ one.

Aaron’s 499, Talladega Superspeedway (Honorable Mention) – Talladega’s April spring race matched two major NASCAR records – that of lead changes and margin of victory.

There were 88 lead changes, which matched the record previously set in 2010, also in Talladega’s spring race. With a margin of victory of .002 seconds, the race tied the closest MOV since the inception of electronic scoring in 1993. The record was previously set at Darlingon Raceway in 2003, when Ricky Craven edged Kurt Busch to the finish line.

In this one, Jimmie Johnson – with teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. behind him – barely beat Clint Bowyer to the finish line. It was Johnson’s first victory of the season. His next wouldn’t come until October at Kansas.

December 20, 2011 10:46 AM

Team Release 

Best Buy Partners with Roush Fenway Racing

Minneapolis, Dec. 20, 2011 – Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE: BBY) today announced a new sponsorship deal for the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Season. Best Buy will serve as primary sponsor of the Matt Kenseth No. 17 Ford for nine races and Carl Edwards’ No. 99 Ford for two races. In addition, Best Buy will serve as associate sponsor for each.
“Best Buy is thrilled to announce this new NASCAR sponsorship deal with Roush Fenway Racing,” said Drew Panayiotou, senior vice president of marketing for Best Buy. “Roush Fenway Racing is a great fit for Best Buy Racing. NASCAR continues to be a relevant way for us to connect with our customers. Our goal is to reach our target audiences in a meaningful way, while maximizing the value of our marketing and sponsorship investments.”
“We are extremely pleased to announce this partnership with Best Buy,” said Roush Fenway co-owner Jack Roush. “Best Buy is an industry leader and a top brand globally. They do a great deal to market and support their teams and we are pleased to be working with an organization that is as enthusiastic about racing as Best Buy. We feel it is a great fit with our organization and we look forward to a great partnership together.”
Best Buy has been a NASCAR sponsor for the past 7 years.

NASCAR to buy its digital rights back from Turner

By Tripp Mickle & John Ourand, Staff Writers

Published December 19, 2011,

 

NASCAR is close to reaching an agreement to buy its digital rights back from Turner Sports, a move that could see the sanctioning body manage its own digital business as soon as 2013.

Specific terms of the pending agreement were not available, and sources said the deal is not expected to be official until next year. It’s not clear how much NASCAR will pay to reclaim its rights, but sources said it would be in the mid-eight figures.

NASCAR and Turner Sports declined to comment.

NASCAR is the latest of Turner’s digital partners to change its business arrangement with the Atlanta-based company. Sports Illustrated last month announced that it would reclaim oversight of its SI Digital business from Turner, bringing an end to a two-year relationship. Recent talk in industry circles has centered on whether these moves represent a setback to Turner’s digital ambitions.

The move puts NASCAR in a stronger position to sell its media rights, which are expected to go on the market next year. NASCAR’s current eight-year, $4.48 billion media deal with Fox, ESPN and Turner ends in 2014. The company is preparing to put those rights up for sale, and its executives know that any network that bids on TV rights will also want digital rights to stream races online.

Though NASCAR is moving now to reclaim its rights, Turner will continue to run NASCAR.com for at least a year. That will give NASCAR time to build up an infrastructure that can support and manage its digital assets independently. The group will hire staff to oversee the site and likely base the group in Charlotte. The sport’s production arm, NASCAR Media Group, has four floors of studio and production space in a $43 million facility completed as part of its new building in 2010.

Turner plans to be involved with NASCAR even after selling back the digital rights. The deal now being discussed would see Turner continue to handle some business operations, including ad sales, for NASCAR’s digital properties beyond 2014, which is when Turner’s original deal is scheduled to end. The new deal would have a similar structure to Turner’s deal with Yahoo! Sports that was signed in 2008 and allows Turner to sell ads around Yahoo!’s NBA, golf and NASCAR pages.

NASCAR has been looking to reclaim its digital rights for some time. The sanctioning body sold its interactive rights to Turner in 2000. In 2008, it extended that partnership through 2014. But in recent years, NASCAR officials began to regret taking a big paycheck from Turner rather than controlling the sport’s digital future.

Turner manages digital operations for the NBA, the PGA Tour and the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, but NASCAR officials felt they ceded more control to Turner than those properties. That created frustration in recent years, when NASCAR officials realized that the deal — signed years before social media became popular — gave NASCAR no control over Facebook, Twitter or YouTube.

During the last few years, senior NASCAR officials, who declined to speak on the record, complained that the deal was so restrictive that even simple digital initiatives were difficult to undertake. For example, if NASCAR wanted a Facebook page or Twitter handle, it had to get Turner to create or approve them. The sport and its tracks also couldn’t create mobile applications without Turner’s approval.

NASCAR gave up rights that were so all encompassing that Turner had exclusive rights to any video shot at a track during race weekends. When magazines, cable channels and newspapers shot non-race footage at a racetrack, sources said, Turner would seek licensing fees from the outlets before letting them post the videos on their websites.

Even a rights holder like ESPN ran into issues because of the Turner-NASCAR digital deal. ESPN had to negotiate with a competitor, Turner, to get the right to simulcast live races on its WatchESPN application and site rather than negotiate and secure those rights from the actual rights holder, NASCAR. This fall ESPN and Turner fashioned an agreement that allowed ESPN to simulcast Sprint Cup races and Turner to show in-car footage on NASCAR.com during the same broadcasts.

Until that deal was struck, NASCAR officials thought its lack of live online races — standard with some other properties — helped contribute to its drop-off in young, male fans. They also blamed the Turner deal for NASCAR’s social media shortcomings. On Facebook, it has 2.4 million fans while a sports league like the NBA has 10.8 million.

By bringing the digital rights in-house, NASCAR believes that it can better market the sport. NASCAR last summer reorganized its operations to put its digital media division under its marketing department and tabbed Marc Jenkins to lead the company’s digital initiatives. Doing so paved the way to a deal with Turner by making the sport’s digital assets a marketing expense rather than a purely revenue-generating media asset.

2012 Shootout Event At Daytona Lineup Announced

2012 Shootout Event At Daytona Lineup Announced

Speedweeks Opener Features Deep And Talented Field

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Dec. 14, 2011) – In what could be the deepest and most talented field to date, NASCAR announced Wednesday the list of eligible competitors for the 2012 Shootout.

The 34th annual season-opening event launches Speedweeks at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday, Feb. 18 with a start time set for 8:10 p.m. FOX and MRN will broadcast live nationally. Criteria are based upon the following qualifications, with eligibility based on a driver having been active in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series during the 2011 season:

·               The highest ranked 25 competitors in 2011 NSCS driver points

·               Previous winners at Daytona, including the Daytona 500, Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola, and Shootout events

“By taking the top 25 competitors in last year’s driver points and combining that with former race winners at Daytona, you have all the ingredients for an extremely deep and talented field of drivers for the 2012 Shootout,” said Robin Pemberton, NASCAR vice president of competition. “When you take a look at the roster of drivers that this entails, I have to believe this is one of the most competitive fields that have ever been assembled for this event.”

The race distance will again be 75 laps (187.5 miles), consisting of two segments – 25 and 50 laps. Both green-flag laps and yellow-flag laps will count. Between segments there will be a 10-minute pit stop allowing teams to pit to change tires, add fuel and make normal chassis adjustments. Crews will be permitted to work on cars and will be allowed to perform functions they would do on a normal pit stop in a regular NASCAR Sprint Cup event. All work must be performed on pit road or in the garage. Changing of springs, shock absorbers or rear-ends will not be permitted.

Starting positions will again be determined by a blind-draw at the annual Shootout Draw Party on Friday, Feb. 17 at 8 p.m. on the SPEED stage in the Midway, outside Turn 4.

The Shootout – a “non-points” event for NASCAR Sprint Cup competitors – was first held in 1979. Kurt Busch is the defending race champion.

 

Tickets for all 2012 Speedweeks events are now available online at www.daytonainternationalspeedway.com or by calling 1-800-PITSHOP.

 

Drivers eligible for the 2012 Shootout include:

2011 Top 25 Driver Points

Tony Stewart

Carl Edwards

Kevin Harvick

Matt Kenseth

Brad Keselowski

Jimmie Johnson

Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Jeff Gordon

Denny Hamlin

Ryan Newman

Kurt Busch

Kyle Busch

Clint Bowyer

Kasey Kahne

AJ Allmendinger

Greg Biffle

Paul Menard

Martin Truex Jr.

Marcos Ambrose

Jeff Burton

Juan Pablo Montoya

Mark Martin

David Ragan

Joey Logano

Brian Vickers

 

Others (criteria in parentheses)

Bill Elliott (Daytona 500, Coke Zero 400, Shootout)

Geoff Bodine (Daytona 500, Shootout)

Derrike Cope (Daytona 500)

Michael Waltrip (Daytona 500, Coke Zero 400)

Jamie McMurray (Daytona 500, Coke Zero 400)

Trevor Bayne (Daytona 500)

Terry Labonte (Shootout)

Ken Schrader (Shootout)

RPM considering Kurt Busch in #43 car?

RPM considering Kurt Busch in #43 car? Sirius XM NASCAR Radio's Sirius Speedway with Dave Moody has learned that in an effort to retain sponsor Best Buy, Richard Petty Motorsports has proposed replacing AJ Allmendinger as driver of the legendary #43 Ford with Busch. RPM struggled to re-sign Best Buy a year ago, negotiating until early January before inking a one-year contract. The electronics retailer served as major sponsor of the #43 team in 26 events this season.
Richard Petty Motorsports Chief Operating Officer Robbie Loomis confirmed today that discussions have been held regarding Busch, saying, "Best Buy has been a great partner for a long time, and AJ Allmendinger has done a fantastic job for us. He's coming off his best season yet, but I can tell you there is a lot of interest on our part in having Kurt Busch in the fold. It makes sense to have Kurt with our team, if we can make it work.
"Our main focus is to continue building on what we finished the season with last year," said Loomis. "But right now, I feel like I'm running down two different sets of train tracks. From a personal standpoint, nothing has excited me more than when I heard Kurt had become available. I'm excited about the opportunity to add a driver like Kurt Busch to Richard Petty Motorsports. I would mortgage my house to make Kurt a part of this team. We value what he has done on the race track. He has won a (Sprint Cup) championship and worked for a first-class operation like Penske Racing. Guys like that don't come along every day."
Allmendinger finished 15th in 2011 Sprint Cup Series championship points, with one Top-5 and 10 Top-10 finishes. His best finish was a fifth in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in late May. Busch won a pair of races this season at Infineon and Dover en route to 11th in points, tallying eight Top-5 and 16 Top-10 finishes. He parted company with Penske Racing earlier this month, in the aftermath of a much-publicized verbal confrontation with ESPN pit reporter Dr. Jerry Punch during the 2011 season finale at Homestead Miami Speedway (Sirius Speedway).
AND no word what Allmendinger would do IF this happens; and not too sure Jack Roush [who Busch drove for before Penske and had issues with], who team supplies cars and engines to RPM would allow this to happen.(12-13-2011)

Instant Replay System for NASCAR

Telestream Builds High Definition Instant Replay System for NASCAR Race Officials

December 12, 2011

 

Pipeline video capture and new Replay multichannel video player enable instant race analysis

Nevada City, Calif., December 12, 2011 – Telestream®, a leading provider of video transcoding and workflow automation systems, today announced that it has created a new High Definition (HD) instant replay system for NASCAR race control officials.  Developed for the start of 2012 racing season, Telestream’s new Replay™ multichannel video player combines with its Pipeline™ HD video capture system to provide instant capture and display of 18 high definition 720p camera feeds. This allows race officials to instantly see detailed information to make rapid decisions about on-track aspects of the race.

"The NASCAR race environment presented the perfect challenge for Telestream to provide high-quality video capture and instant synchronous playback in a time-critical situation," said Barbara DeHart, Vice President of Marketing at Telestream. "Together, Pipeline and Replay provide NASCAR or any sports organization with a cost-effective, easy-to-use system for instant event review and analysis."

"The instant replay system that Telestream will be providing NASCAR next season will enable our officials to perform their jobs in an even more efficient and time-sensitive manner," said Robin Pemberton, NASCAR Vice President of Competition. "Having instant access to that many camera angles featuring such high quality video will be a terrific addition to our race weekends."

Telestream’s Pipeline HD video capture system simultaneously acquires multiple camera feeds in high-quality Apple ProRes 720p as well as other HD and SD formats. Video feeds are delivered to shared storage where they are available for immediate playback, editing during capture, or transcoding to other file formats. 

Telestream’s Replay multichannel video player provides instant, synchronous multichannel playback of multiple HD camera feeds for simultaneous review and analysis of incidents from different camera angles. The player also allows officials to easily locate any camera and scrub forward or backward through any portion of the event video.

Highlights of the Pipeline video capture and Replay system developed for NASCAR include:

• Simultaneous capture of 18 HD 720p camera feeds in Apple Pro Res format

• Ability for officials to view on-track incidents through synchronized multiple camera angle displays, including time-stamped track status metadata – in real time or on-demand

• Ability to seamlessly scrub video forward or backward for instant analysis 

• Ability to jump between past and current sequential camera angle clips

• Ability to create tabbed pages such as Start/Finish, Pits, Turn 1, etc. to view video

• Ability to instantly go full-screen on one or more selected camera angles

• A timeline which displays event information over the entire duration of the event

Telestream is demonstrating Pipeline and the new instant Replay system at Sports Video Group’s League Technology Summit in New York City this week.  For more information about Telestream and its products, visit: http://www.telestream.net.

NASCAR viewership jumps

NASCAR viewership jumps 8%, halts long slide

By Tripp Mickle & John Ourand, Staff Writers

Published December 5, 2011, Page 4

For the first time since NASCAR TV viewership peaked in 2005, the sport this year saw a year-over-year increase in viewers.

This year’s rise reversed a five-year slide in ratings that cost NASCAR nearly a quarter of its TV viewers, and it allowed the sport to return to the same level of viewership it enjoyed in 2009.

Over the course of 33 races across three networks — Fox, TNT and ESPN/ABC — NASCAR attracted an average of 6.5 million viewers, which equates to a 3.8 Nielsen rating. Those numbers are up from fewer than 6 million viewers (+8%) and an average 3.6 rating (+5.6%) for 34 races in 2010.

An exciting “race to the Chase” helped the fall Richmond ratings increase 19 percent. Photo by: GETTY IMAGES

“It was great to step forward on the ratings front,” said Steve Herbst, NASCAR Media Group’s vice president of broadcasting. “We know we have work to do, but we’re really thrilled with where this season ended up. That combined with a terrific on-track product can only be good for the future of NASCAR.”

Coming after a year when NASCAR ratings seemed to bottom out, network executives weren’t ready to call the uptick a complete resurgence.

“We’re still cautious,” said Lenny Daniels, Turner Sports’ chief operating officer and executive vice president. “Numbers like these tend to be cyclical. NASCAR’s been on a slide for a while. It is slowly working [its] way back in the other direction.”

Perhaps most encouraging was the fact that young male viewers returned in 2011. The sport saw a 24 percent decline among those viewers in 2010, but the group came back strong in 2011, with a 17 percent increase among the male 18- to 34-year-old demographic.

■ With half of expiring sponsor deals renewed, NASCAR guns for more with expanded sales team.

The viewership increases come at a critical time for the sport. Its current TV rights agreements expire in 2014, giving it two more years to show networks that it can deliver the type of viewers that allowed it to command $4.48 billion in combined rights fees from Fox, TNT and ESPN in its current deal.

Herbst said NASCAR has not made any decisions about when it will go to market with those rights. It was in 2005 that it closed the eight-year agreement with Fox, TNT and ESPN that began in 2007. Network executives say they have not started renewal talks yet.

“We look forward to sitting down with our partners to talk about the future,” Herbst said. “We don’t have a date or timeline attached to that right now.”

Television network executives were quick to cite the season’s competitive races and compelling story lines as reasons for the ratings jump. Eric Shanks, co-president and co-COO of Fox Sports Media Group, said his network made a concerted effort to focus more on the sport’s personalities and less on the sport’s mechanics.

“We changed the tone of our coverage this year and started focusing more on the drivers and their stories,” Shanks said. “More man, less machine.”

Julie Sobieski, ESPN’s vice president of programming and acquisitions, also credited NASCAR’s personalities for driving ratings. She cited 17 drivers who traveled to Bristol, Conn., this season to appear on ESPN shows.

The sport’s executives believe many of the rule changes they made prior to 2011 finally started paying off in the form of new and returning viewers this season. The sport added double-file restarts in 2009 and in 2010 fostered a more competitive environment by adopting a “boys have at it” philosophy, which encouraged drivers to race more aggressively. This year it also adopted a wild-card system for its postseason, reserving two spots in the NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup for drivers who won races in 2011.

The changes helped make the sport more competitive. NASCAR had 18 Sprint Cup race winners, one shy of the series record, and five first-time winners. It also had 14 drivers in contention for the final three spots in the Chase heading into the regular season’s last race at Richmond. That helped push up ratings for the race 19 percent from 2010.

The sport was able to sustain that late-season momentum even after the NFL season started largely because it shifted the start of its races from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. ET this year, therefore avoiding the finish of its races competing head-to-head with the conclusion of early NFL games. A year ago, when races began at 1 p.m., ratings would build over the course of the race and then fall around 4 p.m., when the 1 p.m. NFL games concluded every Sunday.

“We saw a lot of benefit from not going head-to-head with the 1 p.m. NFL window,” Sobieski said.

For example, the Sept. 25 Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire delivered a 3.1 Nielsen rating on ESPN, up 35 percent from 2010. Growth over the last hour of the race, when the 1 p.m. NFL game was over, increased 27 percent compared with an 18 percent increase in 2010.

Similarly, the Oct. 9 Hollywood Casino 400 from Kansas delivered a 3.1 rating on ESPN, up 15 percent from 2010, largely because the viewership increased 69 percent over the last hour of the race, up from a 25 percent increase in the last hour of the race in 2010.

Moving races also allowed ESPN to program its pre-race show, “NASCAR Now,” on ESPN immediately before the 2 p.m. race start time. When races were held at 1 p.m. in 2010, it showed “Sunday NFL Countdown” on ESPN and shifted “NASCAR Now” to ESPN2.

The foundation for NASCAR’s ratings increases were set at the Daytona 500 at the start of the season. The 2010 Daytona 500 was marred by a pothole problem that resulted in several delays and delivered a 24 percent decline in ratings. This year, significant promotion on Fox during the Super Bowl along with a repaved track and a surprise Daytona 500 winner, Trevor Bayne, combined to push ratings up 17 percent at the start of the year.

NASCAR built on that momentum two weeks later in Las Vegas. In 2010, the race went head-to-head with the Vancouver Olympics’ gold-medal hockey game featuring the U.S. and Canada. The weekend was devoid of competition this year, and ratings soared 34 percent from 2010.

In terms of young, male viewers returning, TV network executives attributed some of the gains to having more broadband product available. “It’s not all about the TV product,” Daniels said. “In any sport, if you don’t offer content across every platform, you just end up missing big, young audiences.”

The boom in online content was driven by a deal cut between Turner and ESPN that allowed both networks to stream races online. ESPN aired complete broadcasts of its races on its WatchESPN mobile app, and Turner offered in-camera video of select drivers on its “Race Buddy” platform at NASCAR.com.

Darian Grubb named No.11 crew chief

 

Team Release

HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. (December 9, 2011) – Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) announces today that Darian Grubb has been named crew chief for its No. 11 FedEx Toyota NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team.

“Darian is a great addition to our organization and person to lead our No. 11 FedEx team,” said Joe Gibbs, owner of Joe Gibbs Racing. “Obviously he has proven the ability to guide a team to a championship and we are excited to have him working with Denny (Hamlin) toward achieving that goal here at Joe Gibbs Racing.”
Grubb is coming off an impressive championship run with driver Tony Stewart at Stewart-Haas Racing which included winning five of the 10 Chase races en route to capturing the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series title. He spent the past three seasons as crew chief for Stewart on the No. 14 car after the driver left JGR to start his own race operation. Prior to joining Stewart-Haas Racing, Grubb spent six years with Hendrick Motorsports; rising through the organization’s engineering ranks and gaining invaluable crew chief experience.
“I’m thrilled to join Joe Gibbs Racing,” said Grubb. “The chance to work with Denny is something I’m excited about. When you sit down with Joe and J.D. Gibbs you can’t help but be excited about this opportunity and the team aspects of JGR. There is no question about the level of support you get here and I’m looking forward to working with everyone across the entire organization.”
Over the past three seasons as crew chief for Stewart, Grubb has helped lead the team to 11 victories, while amassing 33 top-five and 59 top-ten finishes over that time. Prior to joining Stewart-Haas Racing, Grubb gained previous crew chief experience while with Hendrick Motorsports. He was crew chief to Casey Mears in 2007, helping to lead the driver to his first Sprint Cup Series career victory with a win that season in the prestigious Coca-Cola 600. The team also won the pole at Chicagoland Speedway that year, while earning five top-five and 10 top-ten finishes. He also served as interim crew chief for Jimmie Johnson and the No. 48 car for the first four races of the 2006 season with the team winning two of those four including the Daytona 500.

“The Loopies”: The Fifth Annual Best-Of Loop Data For 2011

“The Loopies”: The Fifth Annual Best-Of Loop Data For 2011

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Confusion ravaged home viewers tuned into the driver introductions at Homestead-Miami Speedway a few weeks ago. There was a major misconception that when Kyle Busch was introduced, attending fans were screaming “Boo!”

False.

In actuality, the astute NASCAR fans knew that Busch owned the top Driver Rating in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, and was a shoo-in for a postseason Loopie – NASCAR awards given solely on Loop Data statistics, which includes Driver Rating. They were actually offering a verbal pat on the back to the driver of the No. 18 Toyota, and yelling “Looooooooop” to Busch. It was an emotional moment for all.

So, let’s start the show. For the fifth consecutive season, NASCAR Integrated Marketing Communications combed through the statistics to hand out a number of awards celebrating the best – and worst – Loop Data performances of 2011. The envelopes please…

“Still The Most Awesome Sport Ever” Award: This one goes to NASCAR. Congrats again, us. For the second consecutive season, the world’s best racing boasted numbers never before seen in its six-decade-plus history. According to the Loop Data, there were 131,989 green flag passes this season, the most since NASCAR started recording the stat in 2005. Though not Loop Data, there were also an average of 27.1 lead changes and 12.8 leaders per race, both Cup Series records. The 2012 Daytona 500 -- Feb. 26 on FOX, MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90 -- can’t come soon enough.

“Where Did He Come From” Award: Better known as the “Most Improved Driver” Award, this award goes to the driver who had the biggest gain in Driver Rating from 2010. Brad Keselowski, please accept your well-deserved award. Keselowski entered 2011 mostly as an afterthought. He finished the 2010 season -- his first with Penske Racing -- with a 25th-place points finish and a Driver Rating of 65.1. Still fresh to the series, most expected those growing pains to continue. But Keselowski scoffed at any low expectations with a quick win at Kansas. Then he won at Pocono on a broken left ankle. A few weeks later, he won the Bristol Motor Speedway night race. And soon after that, he made the Chase for the Sprint Cup, taking advantage of the new Wild Card berth. Keselowski finished the season fifth in points, with a Driver Rating of 87.1 – an improvement of 22.0 points, best in the series.

“Nice Guys Finish Not First” Award: We hate to give this award out, but no one ever said The Loopies were easy. Fans place a certain level of trust in The Loopies board of directors. This one is given to the driver with the largest drop in Driver Rating. This unfortunate award goes to Jeff Burton, whose 96.2 Driver Rating in 2010 fell to 78.7 in 2011 -- a decline of 17.5 points. The personable Burton need not worry too much. Optimism reigns in the No. 31 shop, as the team scored four top-10 finishes in the final five races.

“Rope-A-Dope” Award: Attention NASCAR Hall of Fame: Richard Petty’s plaque needs a re-write -- he has just won a Loopie. The King’s two drivers, A.J. Allmendinger and Marcos Ambrose, ranked 1-2 in the “Closer” statistic -- the number of positions gained or lost in the last 10 percent of races. Allmendinger gained a whopping 134 spots as races winded down; Ambrose improved 85 spots. In case you’re wondering, Kevin Harvick (aptly nicknamed “The Closer”) ranked third, with 78 positions improved.

“Irregular Season” Award: Season-to-Date Loop Data is what it says -- a statistical representation of the entire season. That’s why you’ll find Kyle Busch -- winner of this Loopie -- at the top of so many Loop Data charts, but at the bottom of the Chase standings. Busch led 10 different Loop Data categories this year: Average Running Position (10.4), Driver Rating (104.1), Fastest Early in a Run (average rank of 5.9), Fastest Late in a Run (average rank of 7.8), Green Flag Speed (average rank of 6.1), Laps in the Top 15 (79.6%), Laps Led (1,455), Mile Leaders (1,777.77), Quality Passes (2,219) and Speed in Traffic (average rank of 9.3). So why the 12th-place finish for Busch? The answer: Another subpar Chase. During the 26-race regular season, Busch had a Driver Rating of 108.4. In the nine races he ran in the Chase, his Driver Rating was 91.6.

“Brad Keselowski’s Ankle Deserves Its Own Award” Award: This award goes to Brad Keselowski’s ankle. Keselowski’s performance after his early-August accident that resulted in a broken left ankle defies logic. Check out the tale of the tape.

 

Tony Stewart, Carl Edwards and Austin Dillon earn first-team nods

Tony Stewart, Carl Edwards and Austin Dillon earn first-team nods

December 7, 2011

AMERICAN AUTO RACING WRITERS & BROADCASTERS ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCES 2011 ALL-AMERICA TEAM

FOR IMMEDIATE USE

Burbank, Calif. Dec 6, 2011 - -  As the National Motorsports Professionals Association has done since 1970, the American Auto Racing Writers & Broadcasters Association has announced its annual "All-America Team".

Unique in all of motorsports reporting, members of "AARWBA" each year elect a special team of drivers who represent the broad spectrum of professional motorsports.  AARWBA then bring  them all together at a gala dinner gathering where each is presented with the organization's coveted "Horsepower" trophy which symbolizes top performance in each category.

AARWBA members across the country vote on drivers by the specific category of racing which they participate in and two drivers from each of the disciplines are elected to the first team.

Here then, is the 2011 All-America team:

In the Open Wheel Division, Dario Franchitti and Will Power were the choices of the membership.  Driving for Target/Chip Ganassi Racing, Fanchitti three-peated as IZOD Indy Car Series Champion this year, and Verizon's Team Penske's Will Power sat pole eleven times and won six races in the series on the way to his second place in 2011 points for the open wheelers.

For Road Racing there are two, two-person teams:  Scott Pruett/Memo Rojas (Telemex BMW-Riley) and  Chris Dyson/Guy Smith  (Dyson Racing Lola-Mazda).  Pruett and Rojas are the 2011 Grand-Am Champs (as they were in 2010, '08. '06, and 04).  Dyson and Smith are the ALMS 2011 LMP1 driver champions.  Pruett and Rojas have also teamed up to win the 24 Hours of Daytona this past year as well as in 2008, 2007, and 1997.

Bryan Clauson joins the All-America Team (Short Track Division) on the basis of his twin consecutive USAC National Drivers Championships and back-to-back Mopar National Midget crowns.  Clauson drives every style of open wheel short track machine that USAC sanctions and has a winning record in all of them.  Kyle Larson also drives them all from Silver Crown to Midgets and did something that made everyone in the business stand up and take notice this year: he entered and swept all three USAC racing divisions at the 4-Crown Nationals at Eldora Speedway on September 24, 2011!

There was simply no way to separate these two All-America Team members who make up the first team in the Stock Car category during the last few races of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase.  In fact, Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards finished the season with identical points totals, Stewart's  win record being the deciding factor in his winning a third NASCAR driver's championship.  Edwards was right there, racing Stewart and the other 41 drivers as hard as he could every race.  (In the end, the wins "won" as many folks think they should.)

Del Worsham and Matt Hagan are the very worthy representatives of the Drag Racing Category.  Popular veteran Worsham won his first NHRA Full Throttle Top Fuel world championship, the former Funny Car driver got it right in his first year out of the floppers in the Al-Anabi Racing Dragster.  Hagan, on the other hand, drove his DieHard Dodge Charger Funny Car to a hard-earned championship that saw him win it in the last few rounds of the season, a much-preferred alternative to 2010 when he lost the same title in the last day of the final event.

In the  Touring Series  voting Austin Dillon got the nod for being a big winner in a very tough division this year, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.  Driving the Bass Pro Shops Chevy for Richard Childress, Dillion became the youngest-ever Champion at the age of 21.  And ? Andrew Davis and Leh Keen  teamed up to win the 2011 Rolex Grand Am Series /GT Class driving for A. Dano Davis (Brumos), together they won the Glen 6 Hour, and the event at Mazda Raceway in Laguna Seca.

Josef Newgarden and  Patrick Long both join this year's team in the At Large category. Newgarden is the 2011 Firestone Indy Lights champion winning five races and grabbing three poles over the season.  He was also named the Perkin Elmer Rookie of the Year in the same division.  His five wins in 2011 were the most by any driver in his series.  Long won his first Pirelli World Challenge Driver's Championship in fine style with four wins and four poles in the hotly-contested series.  His championship is just that little bit more special because he had to miss one series race to test for the factory Porsche team at Le Mans.

Sportscar specialist Amy Ruman will get AARWBA's "Rising Star" award in Indy for her work behind the wheel of the McNichols/Goodyear/Cenweld Corvette.  The first woman ever to win a Trans Am race,  Ruman finished third in the 2011 points in the hardtops and, along with her season finale win, was on three podiums during the SCCA Trans Am season.

One other tradition that AARWBA has followed as a long-standing tradition is to elect a Second Team to be honored along with the above All-America winners.  Here are the categories and names of that illustrious group of drivers:

Open Wheel:  Dan Wheldon (write-in)   James Hinchcliffe & Tony Kanaan (tie)
Road Racing:  Tony Ave        Max Angelelli/Ricky Taylor (team)
Short Track:  Levi Jones      Donny Schatz
Stock Car:  Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.     Kevin Harvick
Drag Racing:  Jason Line     Antron Brown
Touring Series:  Lawson Aschenbach       Ricky Johnson
At Large:  Frank Manzo        Esteban Guerrieri

Quite an honor roll, and the only such voted-on group that brings together champions from virtually every form of top professional motoracing in this country.

Perhaps the best part of the whole evening is the sort of personal interchange that these champions from such widely-divergent branches of the sport have with each other.

The mix and match aspect of this remarkable group of talented racers is often pure alchemy.  A once-a-season experience that's been another enduring motorsports tradition since 1970 when Al Unser, Mario Andretti, Richard Petty, Mark Donahue, Parnelli Jones, Dan Gurney, Don Garlits, Don Prudhomme, Gary Gabelich, and Ronnie Sox were all named as AARWBA's very first All-America Team.

This year's forty-second edition of the All-American Team Banquet will be held on Sunday evening January 8, 2012 in the beautiful Grand Hall at the Train Station at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Indianapolis, Indiana.

The AARWBA Banquet is thought to be to only major motorsports awards presentation that is made open to public attendance.  "We've always invited motorsports fans to join with us in honoring these great drivers each year,"  said AARWBA President,  Dusty Brandel.  "It's become a wonderful tradition at our annual recognition banquet for fans to be able to attend right along with our professional members, our honored guests along with members of their teams, and dignitaries from the sanctioning organizations."

Tickets for the 2012 All America Team Banquet in Indianapolis are on sale now at: www.aarwba.org

Founded in 1955 AARWBA is a motorsports organization comprised of writers, broadcasters, photographers, and other media-related professionals.  The organization's charter is aimed at providing not only proper recognition for members of the motorsports media, but to recognize their work as well as the work of the competitors that they follow in print, on the air, and on film.

Tony Stewart’s Walk-Off Championship Victory Voted Top Moment Of 2011

Tony Stewart’s Walk-Off Championship Victory Voted Top Moment Of 2011

Trevor Bayne’s Historic Daytona 500 Win Leads Remaining Top-10 Notable Events

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Dec. 8, 2011) — In a special season during which magic moments were many, Tony Stewart’s championship-clinching victory at Homestead-Miami Speedway has been voted the Top Moment of 2011. Members of NASCARMedia.com voted in the week-long poll, casting ballots for the top-10 moments from the just-completed NASCAR season.

Stewart’s walk-off win in the season finale, however, didn’t exactly prevail in a landslide among voting by members of the news media.

Trevor Bayne’s historic Daytona 500 victory – which opened the year on a spectacular note at Daytona International Speedway – barely missed out on the No. 1 spot. Below are the top 10 vote-getters from 2011.

1-Tony Stewart’s Homestead-Miami Clincher

Stewart trailed Carl Edwards by three points entering the 10th and final race in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup™. Both drivers had predicted the championship wouldn’t be decided until the final lap, and they were right. Edwards, who started on the pole, led the most laps while Stewart yo-yoed through the field after fixing damage to the front of his Chevrolet. Amazingly, Stewart took the lead with 36 laps remaining. Edwards, in second place, stayed in full-out pursuit mode until the checkered flag waved, but finished 1.306 seconds behind Stewart. Both drivers scored 2,403 points with the tiebreaker – five wins to one – falling in Stewart’s favor.

2-Trevor Bayne’s Daytona 500 Win

Winning The Great American Race is a career achievement no matter how many races or championships are won elsewhere. Example: Seven-time champion Dale Earnhardt needed 20 starts to win his Daytona 500 at age 46. All of which made Bayne’s victory both surprising and historic. Bayne, at age 20 years and one day, was making just his second NASCAR Sprint Cup start, although his team – the legendary Wood Brothers – had won the Daytona 500 on four previous occasions. Bayne, who started 32nd and led only the final six laps as a record 74 lead changes were recorded became the youngest Daytona 500 winner and just the seventh to make the race his first NASCAR Sprint Cup victory. The win was Ford’s 600th and 98th for the Wood Brothers.

3-Brad Keselowski’s Wreckers-to-Checkers Win at Pocono

Playing hurt is the measure of athletic success, as Brad Keselowski won August’s Good Sam RV Insurance 500 at Pocono Raceway just days after breaking his left ankle in a road course testing accident. Few might have projected a healthy Keselowski as a Pocono favorite. He’d won at Kansas Speedway earlier in the summer, but came to Pennsylvania ranked 21st in points. The race turned out to be a coming-out party for the 2010 NASCAR Nationwide Series champion, who followed the performance with three more top-three finishes capped by a Bristol victory, a Chase wild card berth and a fifth place finish in final NASCAR Sprint Cup standings.

4-Jeff Gordon’s 85th NASCAR Sprint Cup Win

Four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Jeff Gordon fell short in his title bid, but the 2011 season was his first with multiple victories since 2007. He broke a 66-race winless streak at Phoenix International Raceway in February, added another win at Pocono Raceway in June and scored a historic 85th career victory in a weather-delayed AdvoCare 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway in September. Atlanta’s victory gave Gordon sole possession of third among all NASCAR Sprint Cup winners, breaking a tie with NASCAR Hall of Fame member Bobby Allison and soon-to-be-inducted Darrell Waltrip.

5-Regan Smith’s Southern 500 Win

What Trevor Bayne began in February, Regan Smith continued in May. Smith entered Darlington Raceway’s SHOWTIME Southern 500 with a lean resume to say the least: no wins, top fives or top 10s in 104 NASCAR Sprint Cup starts. Smith, then 27, became the upset winner of NASCAR’s oldest “crown jewel.” He led just the final 11 laps and held off Carl Edwards by 0.196 seconds to give Furniture Row Racing – a team headquartered in Colorado – its first series victory.

6-Jimmie Johnson’s Aaron’s 499 Win at Talladega

At the time, Jimmie Johnson’s final-lap victory – with an assist by teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. – appeared to be an early harbinger of a sixth consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship. Johnson’s second Talladega Superspeedway win – and 54th overall – boosted him from fourth to second in the point standings. The race matched records for lead changes (88) and margin of victory under electronic scoring (0.002 seconds).

7-Paul Menard Holds Off Jeff Gordon to Win Brickyard 400

Surprise winners in 2011, take three. For much of its 19 years, Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s Brickyard 400 had been won by the greatest names in NASCAR: Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Dale Jarrett, Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt, bill Elliott – champions all. No first-time winners in the bunch – until this July. Midwesterner Paul Menard wound up kissing the start-finish line bricks after prevailing in a torrid battle with four-time Brickyard 400 winner Jeff Gordon. Menard joined Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne and SHOWTIME Southern 500 winner Regan Smith to score a first victory on the schedule’s largest stages.

8-Austin Dillon Becomes Youngest NASCAR Camping World Truck Champion

Though a number of young drivers have used their experience in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series as a springboard to NASCAR Sprint Cup success – think Carl Edwards, among others – veteran drivers, for the most part, have had a stranglehold on its championships. Only Travis Kvapil (age 27 in 2003) was younger than 30 in the series’ first 16 seasons. All that changed in 2011 as third-generation driver Austin Dillon, 21, became the youngest to win an NCWTS title. Dillon, a two-time winner, finished six points ahead of NASCAR national series veteran Johnny Sauter. Dillon, Richard Childress’ grandson, returned a title to RCR that Mike Skinner won in the series’ 1995 inaugural season.

9-Danica Patrick Posts Best Finish in NASCAR by a Female Driver

All agreed that Danica Patrick’s part-time NASCAR career was on the upswing in its second season. Patrick proved that with an exclamation point on March 5 with a solid, fourth-place finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The performance was record-setting: Patrick became not only the highest-finishing female driver in a NASCAR Nationwide Series race but also in any NASCAR national series event. Patrick’s feat broke a record from NASCAR’s earliest years – Sara Christian’s fifth-place finish in a NASCAR Sprint Cup (then Strictly Stock) race on Oct. 2, 1949 at Heidelberg, Pa.

10-2010 Sunoco Rookies-of-the-Year Win Championship

Two NASCAR national series champions gave media and fans yet another reason to keep an eye on the newcomers. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., whose uneven performance nearly cost him his job with Roush Fenway Racing in 2010, recovered to claim NASCAR Nationwide Series Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors. Roush’s faith was rewarded as Stenhouse won twice en route to the 2011 championship. Austin Dillon’s rookie of the year run in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series wasn’t quite so dramatic but like Stenhouse, he “graduated” to the champion’s chair. The season marked the first time that both Nationwide and truck rookies became champions in their sophomore years.

SPEED To Air NASCAR Media Group-Produced Biography Series

SPEED To Air NASCAR Media Group-Produced Biography Series

On 2012 Hall Of Fame Inductees

Series Debuts This Friday With Cale Yarborough and Dale Inman

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Dec. 6, 2011) – Emmy Award-winning NASCAR Media Group and SPEED announced today that a biography series of all five 2012 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductees will air on SPEED beginning this Friday, Dec. 9 with back-to-back shows featuring Cale Yarborough at 8 p.m. ET and Dale Inman at 9 p.m. ET.

The remaining biographies, also produced by NASCAR Media Group, will air on SPEED throughout December and January 2012: Richie Evans on Friday, Dec. 16 at 8 p.m. ET; Darrell Waltrip on Friday, Jan. 6 at 8 p.m. ET and Glen Wood on Friday, Jan. 13 at 8 p.m. ET.

Each year five NASCAR legends are inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame, beginning with the inaugural class of 2010. These five outstanding individuals make up the third class and will be officially enshrined at the third annual NASCAR Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on Friday evening, Jan. 20 in the Charlotte Convention Center’s Crown Ballroom at the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

Further information on the NASCAR Hall of Fame and the 2012 induction ceremony can be found at www.nascarhall.com.

Cale Yarborough – Friday, Dec. 9, 8 p.m. ET

Cale Yarborough is known as one of the greatest drivers in NASCAR history, but his dynamic personality and stories both on and off the track make him a legend. Yarborough is one of the first – if not the first – to help transcend NASCAR into mainstream America with appearances in movies and music, including a role in the movie “Stroker Ace”. Thus, his biography is aptly narrated by Academy Award nominee and “Stroker Ace” co-star Burt Reynolds.

The biography will cover highlights of Yarborough’s career such as his three consecutive championships, 83 career wins, five Daytona 500 wins, his affiliation with legendary teams and owners like the Wood Brothers and Junior Johnson, as well as his famous “sling shot” move.

Dale Inman – Friday, Dec. 9, 9 p.m. ET

Cousin to Richard Petty, Inman served as The King’s crew chief for nearly his entire career and boasts more wins and more championships than any other mechanic in NASCAR history. He will be the first crew chief inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame, and his biography will explore a career filled with leadership and a personality that influenced a generation of NASCAR crew chiefs.

Inman’s biography will contain many interviews with some of the most influential people of NASCAR past and present including Richard Petty, Kyle Petty, crew chief for the No. 48 team Chad Knaus, crew chief for the No. 9 team Todd Parrott and NASCAR Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton.

Richie Evans – Friday, Dec. 16, 8 p.m. ET

The story of Richie Evans is extremely compelling, as he is the first person inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame who never competed in NASCAR’s top series. A street racer from upstate New York, Evans became the king of modified racing, winning nine championships, 28 track championships and an estimated 475 races.

His biography explores how his racing career got started while living on a farm in New York and how his legendary orange No. 61 car – and the story behind the paint scheme – became one of the most iconic in NASCAR history. The heart of the show is driven through a fireside chat with Richie’s crew chief and members of his family.

Darrell Waltrip – Friday, Jan. 6, 8 p.m. ET

Dubbed “The Darrell Waltrip Story,” fans will be delighted, and perhaps not surprised, to see that Waltrip tells his own story – as only he can – of the road he traveled from a grassroots racer in Music City to a NASCAR icon.

Waltrip relives his memorable Daytona 500 victory in animated fashion, how he earned his “Jaws” reputation early in his career for how much he talked, and discusses why he decided to walk away from NASCAR after 29 years and 84 wins as a NASCAR Cup driver, as well as his dominance (three championships, 43 wins and 35 poles) with Junior Johnson in the 1980s.

Other interviews on Waltrip’s career include Junior Johnson, Rick Hendrick, Cale Yarborough, Richard Petty, former NASCAR driver and commentator Buddy Baker and co-founder of DiGard Motorsports Bill Gardner.

Glen Wood – Friday, Jan. 13, 8 p.m. ET

Under the shade of a 200-year-old beech tree on the Wood family property, Glen and his brothers built the No. 21 car into one of NASCAR’s most legendary rides. Led by his deep-rooted work ethic, Glen Wood and Wood Brothers Racing delivered illustrious wins spanning seven decades.

The entire story of Wood is told through unique roundtable discussions with members of his family including his brothers and children. Furthermore, the story encompasses the beech tree as a metaphor for his racing career, and depicts his success as an innovator and driver through never before seen photos and videos.

2011 NASCAR Nationwide Series Top Performances

2011 NASCAR Nationwide Series Top Performances

Bounty Of Unique Stories Flavor NASCAR Nationwide Season

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Dec. 6, 2011) – Remember standing at the ice cream counter as a kid? So many great flavors to choose from that sometimes you gave in to a double or triple scoop? That’s the way the 2011 NASCAR Nationwide Series season ended up – so many great stories were told.

From the “pick-a-series” rule that gave driver championship contenders an opportunity to truly chase a championship, to the first full year of competition for the new car, to new stars and veterans alike taking center stage, this past season was one that made its own headlines.

There certainly were some outstanding performances that took place during the recently completed 2011 NASCAR Nationwide Series season. The following is a look back at some of those standout performers and memorable races, as selected from discussions with the national series directors, competition department and NASCAR Integrated Marketing Communications managers. Additionally, click on the following links for special audio, video and photo packages commemorating the 2011 season.

Top Driver

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – Redemption may be an over-used word in athletic achievement, but there’s no better way to describe Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s recovery from infamy to the fame of winning the 2011 NASCAR Nationwide Series driver championship.

The story is worth repeating. Stenhouse, 24, barely made it through a 2010 season in which he filled Roush Fenway Racing’s shop with the remains of numerous Ford race cars. Relieved of his driving duties at one point in 2010 by owner Jack Roush, Stenhouse’s NASCAR career hung by the thinnest of threads. But the native of Olive Branch, Miss., listened – and learned – from the experience. He rebounded to claim Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors, in the process erasing the largest deficit in series history.

Stenhouse kept that momentum in 2011, winning two races, three Coors Light Pole Awards and piling up 16 top-five and 26 top-10 finishes. Stenhouse earned his first NASCAR national series win – and a reputation for never backing down – at Iowa Speedway in May, coming out on top of a door-to-door battle with his teammate Carl Edwards. His signature moment came three months later, also at Iowa, when he won despite a last-lap engine failure as Edwards rammed into Stenhouse’s rear, blasting him across the finish line.

Elliott Sadler (Honorable Mention) – His first full NASCAR Nationwide Series season since 1998 didn’t exactly get off to the rousing start Elliott Sadler had hoped for. He finished 38th at Daytona and left Speedweeks ranked 27th with just six points to his credit.

But the NASCAR veteran recovered, climbing to the points lead twice and challenging Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in what effectively was a two-man race throughout the last half of 2011. Sadler was a victim of an untimely wreck in the seasons’ penultimate race at Phoenix, costing him a real opportunity to take the title chase versus Stenhouse down to the season finale at Homestead-Miami. Still, his return to the series was a hit with the fans, who voted Sadler as the NASCAR Nationwide Series’ Most Popular Driver in an online poll on NASCAR.COM.

Comeback Driver of the Year

Reed Sorenson – Reed Sorenson led the points standings three times in the season’s first 20 races, took home the coveted Harley Davidson Sportster motorcycle trophy after winning a wild race at Road America and collected a cool $200,000 as highest finisher among eligible drivers in two of the first four NASCAR Nationwide Series “Dash 4 Cash” races. That was the high.

He was involved in an accident with his Turner Motorsports teammate, Justin Allgaier, resulting in a 32nd-place finish at Atlanta. He fell to 40 points behind the leader with eight races left, effectively ending his championship hopes. Then following the race at Dover, he was released by Turner. He was still third in the standings, but without a ride to keep that status. That was the low.

Despite a seemingly insurmountable task, he was able to work out a season-ending deal with MacDonald Motorsports. His finishes, although not what he had been accustomed to, were consistent enough to lock him into fifth place in the final championship standings.

Kenny Wallace (Honorable Mention) – Driving for an independent team – RAB Racing – and, by his own decision, without a paycheck – Kenny Wallace spearheaded one of the most unsung comebacks of 2011. In the process, he cemented himself in the record books by becoming the all-time starts leader in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.

Following the 2010 season, Wallace underwent a personal reinvention. He lost weight, got fit and rediscovered his “inner race-car driver” with his move to RAB. In addition to overtaking Jason Keller as the series’ starts leader – and becoming just the second driver in series history to surpass 500 starts – Wallace partied like it was 2005 registering or matching the following bests, all since that season: his first top-five finish, 11 top 10s and a seventh-place final championship ranking.

Top Team

RAB Racing with Brack Maggard – Before becoming the primary face of RAB Racing, Robby Benton, 32, got started in NASCAR doing summer jobs in Robert Yates’ shop before serving on Davey Allison’s crew. He still displays a pair of Allison’s racing gloves on his office wall.

Before this season Kenny Wallace, 48, had produced solid numbers in a NASCAR career that totaled over 800 starts among its three national series. But he felt as though he was running out of time to continue to prove himself on the track.

The two joined forces in 2011, providing proof for one another that they could compete – and how. Benton’s RAB Racing team finished 14th in the final 2011 owner standings, the highest among single-car independent teams in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. Its turnaround can be traced back to 2010, when Boris Said edged Kevin Harvick Inc.’s Max Papis at the finish line in Montreal, giving Said his first NASCAR Nationwide Series win while rewarding Benton and RAB with the organization’s first victory. More importantly, RAB learned it belonged.

This year, Wallace brought with him a renewed energy. He helped lead the fourth-year organization into uncharted territory, where it thrived. In addition to RAB finishing tops among one-car independents in the owner rankings with an average finish of 15th, Wallace was seventh in the final driver standings, collecting one top five and 11 top 10s. Since 2008, the team’s only previous top-five/top-10 finish was Said’s victory.

Roush Fenway Racing (Honorable Mention) – It took a while – four years to be exact – but Carl Edwards tenaciously ran down the three-time defending champion Joe Gibbs Racing to give Roush Fenway Racing its second NASCAR Nationwide Series owner championship. Edwards won the 2007 driver championship, a season in which Richard Childress Racing was the owner champion.

With Ricky Stenhouse Jr. winning the 2011 driver championship, this year marked the first time that the same owner claimed both the NASCAR Nationwide Series driver and owner titles with different teams.

JGR’s No. 18 Toyota, helmed mostly by 2009 series champion Kyle Busch, appeared unbeatable in the early going, winning five of the season’s first 10 races. But Edwards and Roush Fenway’s No. 60 Ford team, backed by veteran crew chief Mike Beam, kept chipping away at the deficit. He closed on his rival in September and kept up the pressure through the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Edwards competed in 34 of the season’s 34 races. GRAND-AM Road Racing veteran Billy Johnson drove the No. 60 at Road America and was headed for a top-five finish before being struck down by mechanical problems.

Top Breakthrough Performer

Timmy Hill – Winning the Sunoco Rookie of the Year Award in one of the most hotly-contested battles in series history is a testament to the resilience of Timmy Hill and his Rick Ware Racing team.

To begin the climb, Hill didn’t race in the season-opener at Daytona. He wasn’t yet 18. Twice during the season, RWR tragically lost a member of its team. Then, just one week after Hill had been honored at the season-ending banquet as the series’ top rookie, another member of the RWR organization unexpectedly passed away.

But through it all, Hill managed to grow in the moment. He battled fellow rookies Blake Koch and Ryan Truex from the moment the trio began racing against each other at Phoenix in February. His main competition turned out to be Koch, as Truex wasn’t able to secure a ride for the season finale, losing his rookie standings lead in the process.

Hill’s best result was 11th at Road America. He also posted finishes inside the top 20 at Talladega, Chicaogland, Richmond and Darlington. His Chicago result came three days before his high school graduation. He and Koch, who became good friends throughout the battle, finished just one position apart six times. The rookie award came down to the final race where the driver who finished in the best position between the two would claim the honor. Koch finished 23rd. Hill was 21st.

Hill is now the youngest rookie award-winner in NASCAR’s three national series.

Blake Koch (Honorable Mention) – Koch didn’t race at Daytona to open the season. He also wasn’t entered at Las Vegas. But with full sponsorship and a fresh, upbeat attitude in addition to solid skills, Koch’s season with MacDonald Motorsports truly began at Auto Club Speedway and showed improvement throughout. He drew close to Timmy Hill for the rookie honor at the season’s quarter pole and even took a slim lead late, thanks in part to a five-race string of finishes that bested Hill, including matching his career-best finish of 14th at Phoenix. But the string broke at Homestead, the worst time for Koch’s award aspirations.

Top Race

NAPA Auto Parts 200, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve – Marcos Ambrose, the class of the NASCAR Nationwide Series Montreal field, every year had continuously failed to bring home a victory for various reasons. He vowed to return to this event until he won. His chances this year again looked slim after having to start at the rear for missing qualifying while traveling from his NASCAR Sprint Cup duties in Michigan – which took him from a plane to a helicopter to a boat to finally get to his spot on the starting grid – just before the race.

He also had to deal with the hometown favorites: Jacques Villeneuve (the polesitter), Patrick Carpentier (making his last start before retiring) and Alex Tagliani (also started on the front row).

Villeneuve led 29 of the first 44 laps but his chances went away when he and Ambrose tangled in Turn 1 after a restart with 26 laps remaining. Ambrose powered through the mishap and kept pushing through the field, finally taking the lead from Tagliani on Lap 65. This time he held on around the final turn to take an improbable victory.

The excitement continued after the race when Carpentier’s frustrated crew chief Jerry Baxter grabbed Steve Wallace by the hair while Wallace was still in his car. Baxter’s pit road rage was in response to Wallace spinning out the local hero on Lap 56, ruining Carpentier’s final race.

U.S. Cellular 250, Iowa Speedway (Honorable Mention) – In its short NASCAR Nationwide Series history, Iowa Speedway is quickly becoming a track where the outcome can be counted on as one to remember.

Both races at the .875-mile track this season were sellouts (as have all series races there); both were thrillers and both had the same winner – Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – and the same protagonist – Carl Edwards.

But the August race resulted in one of this year’s top moments.

As he was leading out of Turn 4 on the final lap, Stenhouse’s engine unexpectedly gave way. Edwards, running a distant second but making obvious headway after Stenhouse’s misfortune, had his view blinded by the smoke and oil from Stenhouse’s expiring motor and plowed into the rear of the No. 6 Mustang. That short chain-reaction sent Stenhouse across the finish line first. The victory, and Stenhouse’s championship season, was indeed “Smashing,” as the next day’s headline blared in the Des Moines Register.