RSJ Gets it Done

When you compare the season he had last year, to the season he's had this year, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. could easily be called the comeback kid. But no matter what you call him, the only word that really describes him now, is Champion. A title that Ricky has worked so hard to earn, is now his.

Credit to espn.go.com

Every since Ricky was 3 years old, he's been racing. And he's been winning. He started out racing bikes at the age of three. Then he slowly progressed. He soon made his way in to go karts. After making his way through the ranks, he signed with Jack Roush to run in the ARCA Series in 2008. In 2009, he competed in a partial schedule for Roush in the Nationwide Series. Then in 2010, Roush gave Stenhouse a full time ride in the Nationwide Series. But it wasn't all fun and games for Ricky that year. He had 4 DNF's in the first 10 races of the season. This lead to him being replaced by Brian Ickler for three races, and Billy Johnson for a 4th. Then Ricky rejoined the team with a veteran crew chief in Mike Kelly, and had a sudden rebound. He began laying down top fives and top tens, which put him in a close battle with Brian Scott for Rookie of the Year. But after Brian was released from Turner Motorsports late in the year, Ricky clenched the Rookie of the Year battle with a fourth place finish at Homestead-Miami.

The 2011 season was Stenhouse's rebound from all his bad luck last year. Stenhouse brought home two wins for the Roush-Fenway camp, both at Iowa, which also marked his first ever Nationwide Series win. Team mate Trevor Bayne also brought home his first Nationwide win this season at Texas. Ricky also made his first ever Sprint Cup series start this season at Charlotte for the Wood Brother's team, in the #21 car, when Bayne fell ill.

And with all the success the year has brought him, and after everything his been through to make it where he is, I would like to congratulate Ricky on his 2011 NASCAR Nationwide Series Championship. Ricky, and the entire Roush-Fenway Racing camp have definitely earned this one.

The Dillon Way

21 years ago, there was a very gifted young man born. He had brown hair and brown eyes. But little did his mother know that her oldest son would someday grow up to be a NASCAR champion. And after everything that has happened this season, it still must be sinking in.

Austin hoisting the Championship trophy
(Credit to Yahoo Sports)

Austin Dillon has done something that many 21 year olds only dream of doing. Friday, November 18, 2011, Austin was crowned the 2011 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Champion. To get the championship, all Austin had to do was finish 16th or better in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. With 15 laps to go, and rain beginning to fall, NASCAR brought the trucks in to pit road with Austin's closest competitor, Johnny Sauter, leading the race. But that was no matter, because when NASCAR decided to call the race because of rain, Austin had been left in the 10th position, and that was all he needed. When Hermie Sadler told Austin that NASCAR had just decided to call the race, it was instant celebration.



Austin and brother Ty
(Credit to Yahoo Sports)

As the grandson of champion owner Richard Childress, and an RCR driver, standards are set pretty high for Austin. And he has completely blown away those standards in his two years of racing in NASCAR. Last year, he was crowned 2010 Camping World Truck Series Rookie of the Year. This year, he is one of the few people to have back to back Rookie of the Year, and then points championship honors. Austin is also, the youngest person to ever win the Camping World Truck Series championship. And with his transition to Nationwide series next year, this was the perfect way for Austin to end his truck series season.

Now Richard Childress has two new championships, with Austin in the Trucks, and Austin's younger brother Ty winning the ARCA series Championship. We all hope to see Richard with many more championships coming as Austin moves up to Nationwide next season, and Ty transitioning to run in the truck series. Good luck boys in the rest of your careers.

NASCAR Unleashed Challenge

Homestead-Miami marks the ending of 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, and is also marks the crowning of a new points champion. But despite all the competition and head to head battles on track, there is a little more friendly competition going to be taking place off track. A competition that puts NASCAR names on the lines of who's the best, and all the rest.

For the weekend of racing at Homestead-Miami Speedway, NASCAR Unleashed, a new video game released by Activision, has put out a bit of a competition for some of the kids of NASCAR. 5 of some of the drivers children will compete in a bracket-style tournament against each other. They will all be coached by their fathers for the tournament. They will be racing for first place (in the game) and the honor of being crowned the first "Battle of the NASCAR Kids" champion. Each family will donate $5,00 to the charity of their choice, and at the end of the day, the children who participate will hand out a check from Activision for $25,000 to The NASCAR Foundation. The children participating are as follows:

6 year old Faith Yeley, who is the daughter of JJ Yeley

6 year old Sebastian Montoya, son of Juan Pablo Montoya
8 year old Carson Kvapil, Son of Travis Kvapil
11 year old Todd Gilliland, son of David Gilliland
17 year old Ryan Blaney, son of Dave Blaney

Joey Logano, driver of the #20 Joe Gibbs racing Gamestop Toyota in the Nationwide series, will choose two lucky raffle ticket wild card racers from the audience, both of whom he will also coach for the event.





Pictures are all credited to ActivisionUnleashed.com (no copyright intended) Click pictures to enlarge.






JJ Yeley and daughter Faith

 

David Gilliland and son Todd



 

Dave Blaney and son Ryan





Juan Pablo Montoya and son Sebastian

 



Travis Kvapil and son Carson

 







From Truck to Cup

Earlier this season, Austin Dillon made his Cup series debut at Kansas Motor Speedway. Dillon piloted the #98 Ronald Reagan Centennial Chevy. He brought home a 26th place finish in his debut. But Austin isn't the only Truck series driver looking forward to the Cup series. There's another young hopeful looking to pave his way this weekend at Phoenix.

20 year old, California native, Cole Whitt is looking to begin making his way through the ranks this weekend. Whitt, who is in a tight three man battle for the Rookie of the Year championship in the Truck series, is making his Sprint Cup series debut this weekend at Phoenix. Whitt made his Nationwide Series debut a year ago at this very same track. Whitt, however, has been racing for years. He started out karting as a child and has worked his way up through the ranks. Last season, Whitt made his NASCAR debut, in NASCAR's K&N Pro Series East division. During that time, Whitt recorded 6 top five finishes--which includes two second place finishes--in only 10 starts.. He also laid down a 4th place finish in the championship standings. With all this success under his belt, Whitt is very confident in his start this weekend. There's only one little problem he has to cross over first. "The car doesn't have [owners'] points so we're gonna have to qualify it in," Whitt said. However, he also stated that he has a good team behind him helping work on the car, and felt he would be able to make it in just fine.

Whitt has partnered with a long time sponsor, Red Bull, this weekend and will pilot the #84 car in Sunday's race.

Kyle Busch's Big Slip

Courtesy catchfence.com

Last week at Texas Motor Speedway, there was a little bit of a rough encounter between Kyle Busch and Ron Hornaday during the Camping World Truck Series race. On lap 15 of the race, Kyle and Ron were both going to pass a slow car on the track. When doing so, there wasn't enough room and Ron got into Kyle which in turn, caused both men to rub against the wall. Kyle was not happy about the incident. So, after the caution had been thrown, Kyle caught up to Ron and spun him into the wall causing a horrific crash. Both men were fine physically, but mentally, they were both very upset.

After being released from the infield care center, Ron took the time to be interviewed by the media. Ron made it very clear that he was unhappy with what Kyle had done, especially since Kyle knew that he (Ron) was running for a points championship in the Truck Series. After NASCAR made the call to park Kyle for the rest of the truck race, the media caught up with him to hear what he had to say. Kyle, who was running for a Cup championship, stated that he knew Ron was running for his (truck) championship, but if Ron wanted to show he was a true champion, then he wouldn't have been racing him (Kyle) like that for position on only lap 15.

As everyone figured, this incident was hardly over. NASCAR had already announced that they would be having Kyle in the hauler at the end of the Truck Series race. So everyone just awaited the final word from what would be come of Kyle "Rowdy" Busch. And at the time, Kyle was living up to that nickname of Rowdy. At the end of the race, the media watched as Kyle flocked to the NASCAR hauler. And before we knew it, we had the final verdict. Kyle Busch had been parked for the remainder of the weekend. That meant no Nationwide racing, so he was replace by Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Denny Hamlin. But NASCAR also parked Kyle for the Sprint Cup Series race. A race where Kyle was running for a points championship. And in this race, Kyle was replaced by a Joe Gibbs Racing driver, Micheal McDowell.

Courtesy zimbio.com

Denny Hamlin brought home a second place finish in Kyle's Nationwide car, being beaten by Trevor Bayne, who collect his first ever Nationwide Series win. McDowell brought home Kyle's Cup car in 33rd place. The result of being sat out for the race has taken Kyle all the way back to 11th in the points standings.
Everyone still awaited word from Kyle's sponsors on what their actions would be. Late Thursday, Mars (M&Ms) stated that they would not run on Kyle's car for the last two races of the 2011 season, but would return for the 2012 season. However, Interstate Batteries has decided to stick around with Kyle and run on the car for the remainder of the season. Also, Kyle's Nationwide sponsor in Z-Line Designs has asked that Kyle not run the final race at Homestead-Miami, and has asked instead that his teammate Denny Hamlin be in the car.

We still await to here word from what Gibbs will do to Kyle, and if there is any chance of Kyle losing his job. But as of now Kyle is just ready to return to Sprint Cup Series racing at Phoenix.

Champions: Some Crowned, Some Lost

A lot has happened since my last blog post. The world of racing has been through a lot the past few weeks. Some of these events were good. Other's, not so much. So here it goes.

Credit to hometracks.nascar.com

First the good look at things. These past few weeks, we have crowned a lot of new champions in racing. We'll start with our K&N Series champs. On Friday September 30, 2011, the K&N Pro Series East division crowned their new champion. 18 year old Max Gresham, driver of the #18 car for Joe Gibbs Racing wrapped up his first K&N Series championship. "It means everything in the world right now," said Gresham in a press conference. But as Max wrapped up his points championship, the Rookie of the Year was also being crowned. Another 18 year old by the name of Alex Bowman was the ROTY. Alex drives the #16 St. Judes Children's Research car for X Team Racing. While most people know Alex as "That kid who won the only two ARCA races he ever started" there's a lot more to this boy than just that. “The whole year was a big learning experience,” Bowman told the press. Bowman, who transferred straight from open-wheels to stock cars, beat out second generation drivers Corey LaJoie and Chase Elliott who were his closets competitors.

Credit to hometracks.nascar.com

Another set of K&N Series champions was crowned recently too. This series is divided into K&N East division and the K&N West division. So, we still had yet to crown our K&N West division champion. Greg Pursley, the elder driver of the Gene Price Motorsports team, was crowned the K&N West series Champion. Greg, who only had to take the green flag in the final race to get his championship, was by far the dominant driver of the season. “The Gene Price Motorsports team did a great job and gave me a great car,” Pursley said. “That’s pretty much how it’s been all year. It’s been a dream season to me, winning six races and five poles and finally winning a championship here. I can’t thank them enough.” Now Greg had his championship. So, who was it that got Rookie of the Year. Well, it was none other than Pursley's teammate, Dylan Kwasniewski. Kwasniewski, a 16 year old Las Vegas Nevada native, had a strong rookie season. And after his back to back wins, I think it was obvious that he would be crowned ROTY by seasons end. Dylan, who has set the new record for the series' youngest race winner, set the bar high for the rest of the rookie field.

Credit to NationalSpeedSportsNews.com

We did have some more champions crowned recently too. The ARCA championship wrapped up recently. And this years champion was no surprise. 19 year old Ty Dillon took home this years points title. Ty drives the #41 car for his grandfather Richard Childress and is the younger brother of Camping World Truck Series driver Austin Dillon, who is chasing for a championship as well this year. Ty came out with a strong start to the season. He was a force to be reckoned with and was practically unstoppable. Ty was victorious over another strong hopeful this season, Chris Buescher. Which leads to this years ARCA Series ROTY in Chris Buescher. Chris had a very strong season as well. Starting his season with many 2nd place finish, including a couple to Ty, Chris ended his season with three wins, including the season finale at Toledo. Chris drives the #17 car for Roulo Brothers Racing and is a developmental driver for Roush Fenway Racing and David Ragan.

Credit to IndyMotorSpeedway.com

Now, even though we were crowning all these champions and having all this celebrating, the past few weeks have not all been happy endings. On October 16, 2011 we lost a very loved man. During the IZOD Indy car series finale, there was a horrific 15 car crash on just the 12th lap of racing. Involved in this wreck was 2005 Indy Car champion and 2 time Indy 500 winner, Dan Wheldon. Dan was instantly the worry of all the fans. He was taken to the infield care center for a short amount of time before being transported to a local hospital. After two hours of suspense, a press conference was held to announce the passing of Dan. Family, friends, and fans of Dan were crushed. However, even though the race was cancelled, all the drivers did a 5 lap salute to Dan while his number was displayed on top of the scoreboard. Dan was loved by many and hated by few. But he will always be in our hearts.

Now, as I close today, I'd like to congratulate every driver who has celebrated a great championship. But I would also like to ask that we all continue to remember Dan forever. And soon we'll be crowning three new champions in each of NASCAR's main divisions. :)

That Time of the Year



Well people, as I said in the title, it's that time of year again. This years Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup has rolled around. The field is set and the Chase is almost underway. Today's race at Chicagoland Speedway is under race delay, but is suspected to be underway by around 7:30 ET. Until then, lets take a look at the Chase field.

With the new points system, there was a way for getting into the Chase, without being in the top 12. Wild card spots were a part of the new system this year. Under this system, any driver between positions 11-20 that had a win, was eligible for a Chase spot. And anyone 1-10 still made it in the same way.



Twitter.com





So I'm sure some people havn'te heard the Chase field yet. Well, here is the lineup. Kyle Busch will be first in points with for start of the Chase with 4 wins. Kevin Harvick will be second, also having 4 wins. Third is Jeff Gordon, who has 3 wins. Fourth, it's Matt Kenseth, having 2 wins. Fifth is Carl Edwards, with one win. Sixth is Mr. "5 Time", Jimmie Johnson, with a surprising, one win this season. Seventh is Kurt Busch, who has one win as well. Eighth is Ryan Newman, who once again, has one win. Ninth is Tony Stewart who is the highest ranked guy with no wins. Tenth is none other than, Dale Earnhardt Jr, who is making his first Chase appearance in years. Dale Jr. also has no wins.

Courtesy newsroom.sprint.com

Then comes the well worthy wild card spots. These two gentleman make up eleventh and twelfth, since their wins are not counted once they enter the Chase. In eleventh, is Brad Keselowski. Brad respectively won 3 races this season, and overcame a huge deficit, despite  his broken ankle late in this regular season. And, rounding out the Chase contenders, twelfth place is Denny Hamlin. Despite all his wins last year, and falling just short of the championship, Denny will be sitting twelfth in points with only one win!



All in all, good luck to every one of these lucky gentleman who made the chase this season. And good luck to the other guys who just fell short. I hope the best of luck for everyone, in this season, and next.