Norris McDonald's Auto Racing Blog

Did Oscar broadcast help scuttle Daytona 500?

It's 8:30 p.m. Sunday night as I write this and the Daytona Beach Dopler Radar shows no rain falling or expected in the immediate future and I suggest the reason they pulled the plug on the Daytona 500 for the first time in recorded history is not because it would too late to race but because of the Academy Awards.

Let me give you the background first. Then I'll explain my theory.

Persistent rain in the Daytona Beach area forced NASCAR to postpone the 500 from its scheduled 1 p.m. starting time. Shortly after 5 p.m., it was announced out of the blue that, for the first time in its 54 years, the race was being cancelled and would be held Monday, starting at noon. 

Fair enough.

But what if it had cleared up? Don't they have lights at Daytona? Even if it was 9 p.m. or so, couldn't they have gotten it in?

Maybe they could have, but there were other forces at work here.

NASCAR likes to tell everybody that more than a third of its audience is women. Which is true, because men like to drag their wives and girlfriends to the speedway or have them with them when they watch the races on television.

But I have noticed - and I am a keen observer of the human condition - that unlike men, every few (if any) women actually go to the race tracks by themselves, or with a friend. They are usually with their men or their families. Along the same lines, I would be very surprised if any more than one or two women actually sit home by themselves on a Saturday night or Sunday afternoon to watch NASCAR, or NFL football or Ultimate Fighting. If truth be told, they watch because their men friends want them to.

So women watch car racing, or whatever, as a mating or family activity. Fair enough. I know men who go shopping with their wives, or to the opera, just so their wives will go fishing with them. It's the way of the world. 

Sunday afternoon, as the rain continued, NASCAR realized it had a problem. Never mind the delay of the race, because they would be able to get that going whenever. The problem was that when they did, would anybody be watching?

The Academy Awards were scheduled Sunday evening and coverage started at 6 p.m. with what's called the Red Carpet. The Red Carpet is really a fashion show. It is primarily for women. The first question anybody asks the female movie stars is, "who are you wearing?" It is a time when women are watching and men are out buying Chinese food or Kentucky Fried Chicken for the family to eat in front of the TV.

So NASCAR knew that if the race had started at 1 p.m. like it was supposed to, it would have been over in time for the Oscars. But otherwise, it would be game over at 6 p.m. when all the wives in North America would say to their boyfriends and husbands, "I don't care if (take your pick: Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick, A.J. Allmendinger, etc.) is winning, I want to know who designed Gwyneth Paltrow's dress."

Which is why NASCAR, wisely, decided to pull the plug on the Daytona 500.

Better to have lower ratings on Monday when everybody is working than to get killed in the ratings on Sunday night when they put their car race up against the Oscars.

Crashes could determine Daytona 500 winner

Two unknowns won Friday’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race and today’s Nationwide Series stock car race because, in both cases, just about everybody else crashed.

John King (who?) was the winner of the truck race after surviving three attempts at green-white-checkers finishes that featured a truck flying up into the catch-fencing on the last one.

Today, as the laps wound down on the Nationwide race, they had not one but two Big Ones, the first involving 17 cars and the last involving 20.

James Buescher (who?), who was running 11th on the last lap when chaos erupted in front of him and all the leaders were taken out, found himself in Victory Lane.

For the second straight race – the first Sprint Cup qualifying race on Thursday and the Nationwide feature today – Danica Patrick was crashed out. Thursday, Aric Almirola rammed her in the side and sent her into the wall on the backstretch and today she was hit from behind by her rookie teammate, Cole Whitt, and rammed the third turn wall.

Between the two wrecks, she won the pole for the Nationwide race and led the first two laps.

The on-track mayhem in the first two feature races of NASCAR’s showcase weekend suggest that Sunday’s Daytona 500 could also be a wreck-fest and that pileups will determine the winner, not skill.

Lots of crashes will certainly entertain folks who like that kind of thing but lots of crashes also tend to disrupt the rhythm of a race and interrupt any racing that actually might be taking place.

The Sprint Cup drivers, for the most part, are among the best in the U.S. and, given their druthers, would undoubtedly rather show how good they are by outracing their rivals rather than by watching them crash out.

Of course – and nobody likes to talk about this, but – there is also the possibility that somebody going into a wall at 180 miles an hour might get hurt.

NASCAR has had incredible luck since 2001, when Dale Earnhardt didn’t survive what looked to be a routine (for NASCAR) trip into the wall, and sooner or later, it’s not going to be good news again.

But NASCAR wants it that way, apparently, because they’ve gone to great lengths since the end of last season to recreate the “pack racing” that sees dozens of cars tear around the speedway at extremely high speed and extremely close quarters.

The problem with that, of course, is that if anything goes wrong with one car, or a driver makes a mistake, everybody crashes and not just one or two.

Which means, as was the case twice already this weekend, somebody not a household name could wind up winning NASCAR’s biggest race by accident - literally.

Star booth at Auto Show to have Daytona 500

If you're going to be attending the final day of the Canadian International Auto Show at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on Sunday, and you also happen to be a NASCAR racing fan, you can have your cake and eat it too.

The Toronto Star will be showing Sunday's Daytona 500, starting at noon with the pre-race show and following through from green flag to checkers.

Just go to the Star booth in the lower level of the North Building (that's where all the exotic cars and the Cruise Nationals cars are) any time after noon and the race will be on one of two big screens that are there.

All your favourite NASCAR stars will be racing, from Carl Edwards on pole through Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick and back to Juan Pablo Montoya and Danica Patrick, who will be starting at the rear of the field in backup cars because of crashes they suffered in qualifying races.

For those at home, the race - expected to be flagged off at or about 1 p.m. - can be seen on Fox and TSN2.

Pole for Danica Patrick after handling first big crash with class

Two down and one to go.

Danica Patrick's introduction to NASCAR stock car racing at Daytona this week has encompassed two of the three things associated with that sport.

The three things are (not necessarily in this order): crashing, starting from pole and winning a race.

Thursday, she survived the first initiation - crashing nearly head-on into a wall at Daytona International Speedway while going more than 180 miles an hour.

Today - Friday - she shocked the NASCAR fraternity by winning the pole for Saturday's Nationwide Series race (and veteran Elliott Sadler opined that she was the most improved driver in NASCAR in the last three years).

Tomorrow or Sunday, she could find herself in Victory Lane after either the Nationwide race or the big one, the Daytona 500.

She's got two of the three things out of the way already, so who's to say how long it will take her to win that first race?

Thursday, as luck would have it, the Daytona 500 driver everybody had their eyes on during the first of two qualifying races delivered the goods — big time.

The problem, however, is that what she delivered wasn’t what anybody was expecting.

No, she didn’t win that first Duel at Daytona race, nor did she put on a particularly spectacular display of driving (although she was certainly competent in that area).

But boy, did she ever crash big.

Not her fault, of course. She was driving low on the track, in or around tenth place, minding her own business and less than a lap away from completing his first NASCAR Sprint Cup race when she was blindsided by a car driven by Aric Almirola and before anybody could say Holy Danica she was heading almost head-first into a retaining wall on the backstretch.

That she wasn’t hurt in the pileup is a miracle.

But she sure got everybody’s attention — and when I say everybody, I mean every body.

The crash was on all the major American TV newscasts Thursday night and pretty much everywhere on all the cable news networks.

It was almost as good as winning (which would also have received major attention, by the way) because that’s what sponsor GoDaddy and NASCAR are counting on.

The more eyeballs focused on Daytona, and NASCAR racing in general, the better.

Why? Here’s why.

According to The Nielsen Co., ratings for the 2010 Nationwide Series opener at Daytona were up 33 per cent with her in the race from the 2009 ratings.

Overall, 11 of the 13 Nationwide races Patrick ran in 2010 had better ratings than the 2009 events. Average viewership for her 13 events was up 9 per cent.

Patrick's merchandise sales last season ranked in the top 15 best-selling drivers at the NASCAR.com Superstore — and that was when she was a part-timer.

Through last week, Patrick already ranked in the top 10 in merchandise sales in 2012.

A survey last August of the NASCAR Fan Council showed that 80 per cent of those polled agreed with the statement, "Danica Patrick is good for NASCAR."

Nielsen N-Score data through January showed that Patrick ranks in the top five of most recognized NASCAR drivers among the U.S. population.

And the cover of the largest-circulation daily newspaper in the U.S. on Friday, USA Today, had a feature on — you guess it — Danica P.

"There's so much interest with Danica coming over to NASCAR (from IndyCar), I think it's going to really broaden our fan base," said Lesa France Kennedy, the CEO of NASCAR.

“When she shows up, it just has a different feel to it. She's a real dynamic individual to start with, and I think it'll be interesting to see her compete on the track. There's certainly a spotlight, without a doubt, but she seems to do well with that. She seems to do well under pressure."

You (or Lesa France) can say that again because it was a trial by fire for her Thursday. It was her first big crash in a stock car (and it really was a doozy) and she handled it calmly and with sophistication, finesse and aplomb.

And good humour: she finished her interview with pit reporter Dick Berggren thusly:

“Maybe the backup car’ll be faster.”

You can’t handle a near-disaster any better than that.

P.S. The Nationwide Series race will be telecast live on TSN2 Saturday starting at noon with the green flag expected at 1:15 p.m. The Daytona 500 pre-race show can be seen on Fox/TSN2 at noon Sunday with the green flag expected to fly at or about 1 p.m. Patrick will drop to the back of the pack for the start, as will several other drivers whose primary cars were wrecked during the qualifying races on Thursday.

I'll take some of that 1,000-to-one Danica action

Some bookmaker in Las Vegas has got Danica Patrick at 1,000 to one to win the Daytona 500.

I’d like that bet. In fact, I hope a whole bunch of people slap ten bucks down on Danica and maybe put the guy out of business if she should happen to win on Sunday (Fox/TSN2 at noon).

Who’s to say it won’t happen? Some kid named Trevor Bayne won it a year ago and, like Danica, he was a rookie.

He got lucky. Who says lightning can’t strike twice?

You can have all the talent in the world and win all sorts of other races and still roll snake eyes at Daytona.

Take Tony Stewart. He’s won the Sprint Cup championship three times and had 13 kicks at the Daytona 500 can and he still hasn’t won it.

It took Dale Earnhardt, arguably the greatest racer of his generation, 20 shots (count ‘em, 20) before he won his one and only. One of the times he lost came on the third turn of the last lap when he was leading and a tire went down. Darrell Waltrip ran the 500 17 times before he won.

Which means it’s virtually impossible to pick a winner going into Sunday’s race. Too many things can go wrong, starting with the potential to wreck.

Last Saturday night’s Budweiser Shootout started with 25 cars and 12 of them failed to finish the 75-lap feature because of three big crashes. The 500 on Sunday will start 43 and go for 200 laps and does anybody really think that any more than 20 will be running competitively at the finish?

Everybody — including the drivers — thinks it’s wonderful that NASCAR has managed to fiddle enough with the aerodynamics to bring back “pack racing” on superspeedways like Daytona.

“Pack racing” is why, when somebody loses control, just about everybody else winds up crashing.

“Pack racing” is what killed Dan Wheldon. IndyCar is doing everything it can not to have a repeat.

Not NASCAR. Bring it on.

For what it’s worth, I’ll be cheering for Tony Stewart on Sunday. If he can’t win, I want Jimmie Johnson.

I hope Danica Patrick drives a solid race.

And if anybody knows how I can get a little of that 1,000-to-one Vegas action, I have a sawbuck to waste.

Or maybe not.

Because, when it comes to the Daytona 500, you never know.

Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame to induct Michael Andretti

 Michael Andretti, who won seven Molson Indy Toronto races and then rescusitated it after it was dropped from the schedule in 2008, is being inducted into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame.

Dr. Hugh Scully, chairman of the Canadian Motorsport Heritage Foundation, made the official announcement Tuesday and said Andretti would be inducted in the International category, which honours non-Canadians who have made significant and lasting contributions to Canadian motor sports.

Previous inductees in the International category include Carroll Shelby, Prof. Sid Watkins and Bobby Rahal.

Andretti, who retired from race driving in 2003 to concentrate on team ownership in the IZOD IndyCar Series, won 42 CART/Champ Car races in his 20-year racing career, including a record seven in Toronto.

And he recently solidified his Canadian connection by signing Oakville native James Hinchcliffe to drive for his Andretti Autosport team in the 2012 IndyCar championship, replacing Danica Patrick in the Go Daddy-sponsored car.

Andretti will be inducted at the 18th annual Hall of Fame Gala, which will be held at the On the Park banquet and meeting centre in Toronto on Sat., April 21. Seven Canadians who made their marks in stock car racing, sports car racing and rallying will join him in being honoured.

Said Scully: "We are delighted to welcome Michael Andretti into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame.

"Besides entertaining thousands of race fans with his on-track performances in Canada over the years, and holding the record for the most wins at the Toronto Indy, Michael Andretti’s contribution to the promotion of motorsports in Canada and to the development of Canadian drivers is well established.

"We are proud to be able to recognize him in this way and are pleased to announce that he will be on hand at our induction ceremony on April 21."

Son of motorsports icon Mario Andretti, Michael Andretti has left a lasting legacy of his own in the world of open-wheel racing both as a driver and team owner. In 2008, his love of Toronto was instrumental in his decision to purchase the assets of the Toronto Indy, a move that brought the marquee event back to the city in 2009 after a one-year absence.

On Jan. 11, Andretti also announced that his company had signed 2011 IndyCar rookie-of-the-year Hinchcliffe to a multi-year contract. Hinchcliffe will also attend the gala as guest speaker.

"I'm extremely honoured to be inducted into the Canadian Motorsports Hall of Fame," Michael Andretti said.

"Throughout my career, I’ve always considered Canada to be almost like my second home. The Canadian race fans have been some of the most supportive I’ve ever seen and I’m thrilled that so many of my career wins came on Canadian soil and in front of such enthusiastic fans."

The seven Canadians include Richard (Dick) Foley of Montreal, Rudy Bartling of Courtrice, Robin Edwardes of L'Orignal, Ont., Paul Manson of Toronto, Ben Docktor of Calgary, Greg Sewart of Halifax and Norm Ellefson, who now lives in Spokane, Wash.

The Hall of Fame was founded in 1993 and now has more than 150 inductees. It falls under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Motorsport Heritage Foundation, which was created by a group of leading international businessmen.

Tickets for the Gala are available by telephone at 905-852-6764; the Hall of Fame website at cmhf.ca; via email at galatickets@cmhf.ca or by faxing 905-852-7012.

 

'Jerk' Busch puts on a driving exhibition

Moments after Kyle Busch won the Budweiser Shootout on Saturday night, a friend of mine sent me this message:

“How can such a jerk be such a great racing driver?”

I’ve wondered myself. I have other friends who have questioned their Christian faith as a result of watching Kyle and his brother Kurt behave like nincompoops one minute and then put on an amazing display of race driving the next.

The problem is that when talent is mixed with a sense of entitlement brought on by an already inflated ego, you have volatility. It can be a pretty dangerous combination.

Kyle’s brother, Kurt, has said he’s working with a sports psychologist in an effort to get his temper — and behaviour, generally — under more control. This was as a result of being fired by Roger Penske last fall after a season in which he harangued his pit crew in public and wound up insulting a TV reporter.

I’m convinced Kyle Busch had already been doing that. Seeing a counsellor, that is. After several years of behaving apparently irrationally and abnormally (and also winning races left, right and centre), Kyle B. spent most of the 2011 season being anything but rude and nasty. In fact, he was a total gentleman — until just before the end of the season when he drove Ron Hornaday truck-first into a wall in a fit of rage that’s generally not seen at that level of the sport.

He came very close to being dismissed — and maybe he should have been. There is a school of thought out there that says the only way anybody ever learns from their mistakes is if there are consequences. While Kurt Busch might eventually be brought to heel, as a result of his firing (his second from a top team, by the way) the jury will always be out on Kyle because he has not yet had to endure that kind of humiliation for actions that were every bit as reprehensible as his brother’s.

I watched a fascinating interview years ago between TSN’s Michael Landsberg and Linda McMahon, wife of  the WWE’s Vince McMahon. She was talking about how their company employed full-time psychologists and psychiatrists to work with “the talent” to keep their egos in check.

This is a paraphrase, but she said something like this:

“When you can make 15,000 people either cheer with delight or boo you unmercifully just by cocking your finger a certain way, that kind of power can go to your head pretty quickly. The line between the ring and real life can sometimes get blurred and we have counselors on staff to meet regularly with these people to help them differentiate between the part they play and reality. It’s for their good and for ours that we do this.”

The last thing the WWE needed was for a Hulk Hogan or a Randy Savage to go around pissing people off in the real world. As a company, then, they acted to make sure it didn’t happen.

NASCAR is different. All of the drivers in NASCAR are “independent contractors” and that’s why there  isn’t league-supplied medical or life insurance and there isn’t a pension plan and so-on. So NASCAR can't be as proactive in the same way the WWE could.

But that doesn’t mean the team owners can’t be. Penske reached a point where he was not going to allow the antics of a racing driver, regardless of how talented and popular he was, reflect badly on his organization. Joe Gibbs, who employs Kyle Busch, is a devout Christian and opted to stand with his driver. We will have to wait to see whether this was the correct course.

Meantime, Kyle Busch put on a driving exhibition Saturday night that you would have to see to believe. Words, for once, cannot do justice.

Not once, but twice, he was out of control in a stock car going 185 miles an hour on the high banks of the Daytona International Speedway and both times he managed to get it under control and to keep racing. Not for him a long slide through the infield grass before rejoining; he regained control both times by using his steering wheel, the throttle and the brake to straighten out his race car before it left the racing surface.

It was a work of art, both times.

And then, at the end of the 75-lap shootout, he timed his move on the high side to pass Tony Stewart just at the finish line to win the first race of the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season by inches.

Marcos Ambrose finished third. Brad Keselowski was fourth and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top five.

Twenty five cars started the exhibition race and 12 went off on the hook (which does not bode well for the Daytona 500, if Saturday night's wreckfest is any indication of things to come).

There were several serious accidents — Jeff Gordon was upside down in one — that were as a result of NASCAR’s recreation of “pack racing” that had gone away in 2011 because of aerodynamic changes to the cars then. Those changes have since been negated and we’re back to 20 to 25 cars running three wide and nose-to-tail and one bobble can take out half a dozen cars, as was seen Saturday night.

Carl Edwards could do no better than ninth on Saturday night but went out Sunday afternoon and won the pole for next Sunday’s "Great American Race" (FOX and TSN2 at noon). Greg Biffle finished second. The rest of the 43-car field will be set on Thursday when two qualifying races will be held (TSN2 at 2 p.m.)

For what it’s worth, Danica Patrick turned the 30^th best time of the 49 drivers who went out to qualify. Her time around the 2.5- mile Daytona race track was 46.939 seconds, as compared to Edwards’ 46.212.

And, by the way, the entry list for next year's Shootout will revert to what it was originally - a special race for pole winners in 2012 and previous Daytona winners who try to make at least one qualifying attempt during the 2012 season.

This year's race allowed the top 25 in points to enter.

Canadian Motorsports Expo on this weekend

Carl Edwards, Robert Yates, Randy Lajoie, James Hinchcliffe and Ron Fellows are just some of the many racing greats who will be in attendance at this weekend’s sixth annual Canadian Motorsports Expo at the International Centre in Mississauga.

Adjacent to Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, the Expo, now presented by Inside Track Motorsport News, will kick off Friday at 1 p.m. and continue through until Sunday afternoon at 5 p.m.

Doors open Saturday and Sunday at 10 a.m.

The action will be just about non-stop throughout the weekend.

The Castrol Canadian Touring Car Championship is planning a major announcement shortly after the show opens Friday. And the Honda Indy Toronto display — and it’s nice to see that event involved with the Expo — will unveil one of the new-for-2012 Dallara DW12 Indy cars that will be in action at the CNE in July.

Friday evening, the Inside Track Readers’ Choice Awards will be presented, as well as Spencer Lewis’ Ontario Asphalt Power Rankings Top 10 Awards. Special guest will be former NASCAR racer Lajoie.

Saturday at noon, sharp, NASCAR superstar Carl Edwards will take Centre Stage for a question-and-answer period followed by an autograph session. But listen up: if you want an autograph, you will have to get to the Expo early in order to get one of the 150 autograph “badges” that will be handed out. The rules are too complicated to go into completely here, but don’t say you weren’t warned. For complete details of the Edwards appearance, which is being timed to the minute, go to the show’s website.

After the Edwards riot — I mean, appearance — the annual media panel discussion will take place. This is when Toronto's racing reporters try not to insult each other too much. In my case, I really try to look as if I know what I’m talking about, which - as anybody who knows me knows - can sometimes be difficult. Thank goodness F1 expert Gerald Donaldson, Toronto Sun reporter Dean McNulty and Jeff Pappone of the Globe and Mail will be there to add some dignity (and legitimacy) to the proceedings.

At some point on Saturday afternoon, Fellows — one of three people who purchased Mosport International Raceway last summer — will discuss plans that he and his partners have for the legendary circuit north of Bowmanville. There has been all sorts of speculation as to what’s going to happen there, so just about everybody will be keen to hear what he has to say.

Sunday, IndyCar rookie of the year Hinchcliffe, of Oakville, will be the special guest. As well, a reunion of CASCAR officials, racers, crew and fans is planned for 3 p.m. following a NASCAR Canadian Tire Series Q & A and autograph session. CASCAR founder Tony Novotny, five-time national champion Don Thomson Jr., Dan Shirtliff, Alex Nagy and Kelly Williams are among the former racers who’ve confirmed their attendance.

Also on tap:

— Legendary NASCAR engine builder Robert Yates will be at the Canadian Tire booth and on the Mazda Stage Saturday.

— Seminars, from “how to get involved in karting” to expert technical seminars featuring guys like Darrick Dong, Performance Friction Brakes’ Director of Motorsports, will be held.

—   Sunday morning, a technical forum will be held on stage with Grand Am racing star Scott Maxwell and several other experts discussing what it takes to do a fast lap around Mosport, considering the balance you need to strike between the tires, chassis, suspensions, brakes, driver feedback, etc. Steve Scala will moderate, and participants will include Dong, Larry Holt of Multimatic Motorsports, Ian Willis of AIM Autosport and others.

- Mazda Canada will unveil details of a Canadian grassroots contingency program for Canadian road racers. They’re also putting on a sponsorship and marketing seminar.

- And a little bird told me that up-and-coming Canadian Formula One driver Robert Wickens might drop in on Saturday.

Wow. See you there!

Daytona deal for Danica Patrick is a bad move

Danica Patrick is a good enough race driver that she should be able to qualify for the iconic Daytona 500 without being handled with kid gloves by new Sprint Cup employer Tony Stewart.

It was announced Tuesday that Stewart made a deal with Tommy Baldwin, whose Tommy Baldwin Racing’s car No. 36 (now renumbered 10) driven by Dave Blaney finished 32nd^d in points last season and is thus guaranteed a starting spot in the first five races of 2012, for Patrick to drive the car at Daytona.

She doesn’t need the pampering. And if, in fact, she does, then she shouldn’t be driving in Sprint Cup.

Now, we all know that this sort of thing goes on all the time in NASCAR. Deals get made for drivers to have places in major races – and it’s happened in all the other major series too.

But NASCAR, sponsor GoDaddy and Stewart have a lot riding on Patrick. She has to prove she’s not just another pretty face or the wonderful reception she’s received by fans to date will very quickly turn to jeers.

Patrick did well in IndyCar but that didn’t stop the whispers in the paddock that the sanctioning body allowed her to have more horsepower than all the other drivers. And that her one victory was a "fuel- mileage" deal that somehow really didn’t count, her critics conveniently forgetting that many of the IndyCar men who won races over the years also did it because they managed their fuel better than everybody else.

But that doesn’t matter. It’s all perception in today’s world and if she’s to succeed in NASCAR, Stewart and her other handlers would be better off throwing her to the wolves and seeing if she can survive before the whispers about favouritism grow loud in that series too.

The NASCAR drivers, by and large, are a tougher bunch than those who drive in IndyCar. They go almost as fast as the open wheelers but they also trade paint, drive primarily on ovals and it can be a pretty intimidating scene out there. (Note that I said tougher, not braver. There's a difference.)

It really is survvival of the fittest. If Patrick is to survive, she has to give as good as she gets.

Which means qualifying for the dozen or so Sprint Cup races she’s to run this season is essential in order to prove she’s at least as fast as that gang.

Let her do that, and then let her do some bashin’ and crashin’ to prove her mettle in combat, and she’ll continue to be a fan favourite. Paving the way for her before she’s even driven in her first Sprint Cup race will only prove to be counter-productive.

F1 refugee Rubens Barrichello finished two days of testing with KV Racing in the IZOD IndyCar Series and said that he’d enjoyed himself and hoped he’d been able to give the team some good feedback.

KV co-owner Jimmy Vasser said it had been a pleasure to have him around for the Sebring test and there was a budget in place to run him if details can be worked out.

There’s the rub, however. The details.

Rubens Barrichello has been a "paid" Formula One driver for 19 years. He was never a driver who had to "bring money." He is used to the F1 lifestyle; he travels around in his own private jet and he’s been able to do that as a result of the millions of dollars he’s been paid to drive cars for Ferrari, Williams and the rest over the years.

A "budget in place" in IndyCar means it won’t cost the driver any money to race the car.

But does KV Racing have several millions of extra dollars lying around to pay Rubens to race their car in order for him to continue living in the style to which he’s become accustomed?

I doubt it, but there’s the rub.

Tony Kanaan, KV’s regular driver and Barrichello’s best pal, has had to bring sponsorship money to continue racing in the series. Rubens will want to be paid to race.

Regardless of their friendship, how long will Kanaan be happy racing on that team when he’ll be writing cheques that may very well just be signed over to Rubens?

Canadian champion Don Thomson Jr. retires

THOMSON TO WRENCH FOR J.R. FITZPATRICK

 

Canadian racing champion Don Thomson, Jr. has put his Farewell Tour plans on hold - perhaps permanently - to take over as crew chief for rising young talent J.R. Fitzpatrick in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series, effective immediately.

 

Thomson, of Hamilton, who's won seven Canadian championships, including five consecutive CASCAR national titles, is returning to the Fitzpatrick Motorsports shop where he spent many years as a mechanic and driver. 

 

Shortly after the 2011 season ended, in which Thomson drove the EHR/Team 3 Red Dodge car to fifth place in the standings, team owner John Fitzpatrick began discussing the idea of him returning to the fold to help his son, who finished third in points behind champion Scott Steckly and D.J. Kennington, win the NASCAR Canada championship.

“I know Thomson well and I know what he brings to the team,” said John Fitzpatrick. “We were a pretty
formidable program, winning eight championships between him and J.R. during the CASCAR days, and I expect at his transition to Crew Chief here will be pretty seamless.”

The role of Crew Chief and advisor to Fitzpatrick is not unknown to Thomson. When J.R. Fitzpatrick was just starting out,Thomson built and crewed a late model program for him and then mentored him when he moved into the CASCAR Super Series.

 

“I am really excited about this next chapter in my career and glad to be back at Fitzpatrick Motorsports," said
Thomson. “I am comfortable here, I know the way the system works and John is really committed to putting the best product on the track for J.R. and our sponsor partners.

 

"I have also known J.R. since he was 8 years old and he has grown to become the best driver in the series so I really want to be a part of whatever he does." 

“I am really pumped to get this season started,” said J.R. Fitzpatrick, who had success several times in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and the Nationwide Series for stock cars in the last few years. “I had a lot of good runs last season and Thomson’s addition to the team will only make us stronger."

The NASCAR Canadian Tire Series season gets under way May 20 on the road course at Mosport International Raceway. The championship will be made up of 12 races in Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia.

 

Thomson told me last fall that he would run one more season and then hang up his helmet. But the opportunity to resume working with the Fitzpatrick family apparently hastened his retirement.