Motorsports FanHouse

Rain Puts Johnson on Auto Club Pole

Geoffrey Miller — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 00:34:00 EST

Filed under: Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Hendrick Motorsports, A.J. Allmendinger, Ken Schrader, NASCAR Tracks, Sprint Cup

The newly-renamed Auto Club Speedway of Southern California (man, that's a gawdy mouthful) had plenty of laps turned on its banks Friday.

The only problem, though, was that those laps didn't have a single racing vehicle involved.

Rain, seeping water, and more rain prevented all three of NASCAR's series -- Sprint Cup, Nationwide, Craftsman Truck -- from practicing or qualifying Friday, leaving all of the driving duties up to the jet dryers who tried all afternoon to get the surface prepared.

Instead, Saturday will be quite a busy day at ACS (yep, still weird) as both the Nationwide and Craftsman Truck Series will race, Nationwide will get a practice session, and the Sprint Cup teams will get practice sessions.

As FanHouse stated yesterday, the rain definitely played havoc with teams outside of the Top-35 from last year's owner points who made the trip trying to make Sunday's Sprint Cup Auto Club 500.

While Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon will share the front row, five drivers will head home including A.J. Allmendinger, Ken Schrader, Patrick Carpentier, Burney Lamar and Mike Skinner.

The forecast for Satuday in Fontana looks a little bit better during the day with skies expected to be partly sunny, but there's a 60% chance of rain in the evening when both races are expected to be run. Sunday doesn't look very promising for racing with a 90% chance of rain during the day and 20% that evening. Fortunately, ~~California~~ Auto Club does have lights, and teams would much rather stay deep into the night than have to run a race on Monday.

First rainout of the year in its second race? Let's hope not.

Rain Puts Johnson on Auto Club Pole originally appeared on Motorsports FanHouse on Sat, 23 Feb 2008 00:34:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Top-5 Worst Paint Schemes at Daytona

Geoffrey Miller — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 07:07:00 EST

Filed under: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kyle Busch, Ken Schrader, Sprint Cup

Monday was pretty slow for the first time in a few years at Daytona following the first weekend of Daytona Speedweeks. There were no cars to inspect and no penalties assessed.

For NASCAR officials, that was nice. For writers, well, I needed something to do.

So here's my take on the five ugliest cars to be on track this week at Daytona. A few may be surprised by the cars on this list. What say you?

All Photos by Jonathon Ferrey, Getty Images

5) Boris Said, No Fear Energy Drink/ 7-11 Slurpee No. 60 Ford --
This car looks like Boris decided on one of two options. Either he let Boris Jr. (yeah, with the really cool hair like his dad) design the car with nothing except crayons and a sheet of paper, or he took the idea for Tony Kanaan's ride in the IndyCar Series and smashed it on to his own ride with fenders.

The car will be lucky to make the race, but regardless, it will still take honors as one of the true uglies at Daytona. However, it does make me want to go buy a Slurpee. M'm Slurpees.

4) Dale Earnhardt Jr., AMP Energy/National Guard No. 88 Chevrolet --
Dale Earnhardt Jr. went from one of the simplest and best paint schemes in the entire sport with his No. 8 Budweiser car at DEI to one of the simplest and worst looking rides.

Apparently, Dale Jr. had a hand in creating the design of this ride, and that appears to have been a mistake. An attempt was made at making the car look similar to Darrell Waltrip's old Mountain Dew car, but in today's day and age, there needs to be a lot more than just green and white (or blue and white on the National Guard version). The AMP energy can is such a cool design, why not incorporate that into the race car?

Maybe 2009 will bring us something much, much cooler.

3) Kyle Busch, M&M's No. 18 Toyota --
It's a new driver, a new sponsor, and a new manufacturer. Somewhere in that process some critical designs flaws of the new No. 18 didn't get themselves worked out.

With M&M's jumping on-board with Kyle Busch in 2008, they seemed to return to a tried-and-true scheme that Elliott Sadler used to campaign for Robert Yates Racing. The yellow base with the M&M characters in funny situations has been a hit in the past, and it's not a bad looking scheme. Not bad, that is, until you look at one of the integral parts of any cars paint job -- the number.

For starters, the color is god-awful ugly and is nearly impossible to see. Normally, a car number stands out well. On Busch's, it doesn't.

2) Joe Nemechek, Furniture Row No. 78 Chevrolet --
Nemechek nearly put this car on the pole for the 50th-running of the Daytona 500, but that still doesn't make it any prettier.

The Furniture Row racing team is a low-budget, virtual upstart team that hails from Denver, Colorado. Furniture Row is a chain of furniture stores across the nation, and somehow the paint scheme that Nemechek has on his car is supposed to sell mattresses and couches.

I'm not getting that.

The use of white on most of the car is just plain boring and the numbers on the side of the car look like they came directly from a mail-order short track racing decal catalog. I'm just not a fan.

1) Ken Schrader, HealthLife.com No. 49 Dodge --
Somewhere, sometime in a far, far away land, these colors used to make sense. Pastel colors with an Easter Egg theme are popular in that land.

But they surely aren't on the side of a Sprint Cup Series car. I've never actually heard of the website HealthLife before setting my eyes on this terrible mirage of colors, so that marketing scheme may be working.

I can only imagine that Schrader is utterly stoked to drive the this ride with orange numbers on the side and purple ones on top. On a black base, that might look OK, but not a multi-colored pinwheel that is the body of the Dodge.

This likely won't turn into a full-season sponsorship for the BAM Racing team, which is unfortunate for them, but its very fortunate for NASCAR fans everywhere. The blaze of color on the car is just too overwhelming.

Top-5 Worst Paint Schemes at Daytona originally appeared on Motorsports FanHouse on Tue, 12 Feb 2008 07:07:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Blaney Gains A Spot, Petty In the Hot Seat

tallglassofmilk — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Nextel Cup, Ken Schrader

Another top 10, another $10. Dave Blaney's 6th place finish earned him another spot in the owners points standings, which means I owe the Victory Junction Gang Camp more dough.

Blaney grabbed the 34th spot from the #45, driven mostly by Kyle Petty, whose 18th place finish in Saturday night's Bank of America 500 marked only his third top 20 for the season. His best finish was 3rd, last time around at Charlotte--his only top 5 of the season.

Lucky for him, Bill Elliott didn't fare too well in the #21, finishing 35th and doubling the gap between the 35th and 36th spots. I'm not understanding why Wood Brothers / JTG Racing isn't keeping Ken Schrader in the car. I realize he hasn't set the world on fire, but Elliott's not been significantly better and there's something to be said for a little consistency.

Scott Riggs is over 300 points out now and has the #10 car in 37th place--bummer for Patrick Carpentier who takes over driving duties in 2008 and will start the season being forced to qualify on time. Hey ... is he cleared to race in Daytona?

Blaney Gains A Spot, Petty In the Hot Seat originally appeared on Motorsports FanHouse on Mon, 15 Oct 2007 11:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Said Heads Inspire Boris into Top-35

Geoffrey Miller — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 04:04:00 EST

Filed under: Ford, NASCAR Rumors, Nextel Cup, Ken Schrader, Car of Tomorrow, Chase for the Sprint Cup

Boris Said was living the life Sunday at Watkins Glen. He, after all, got a last-minute ride in the Wood Brothers No. 21 after missing the race in his own car due to rain on Friday's qualifying.

And now, Ken Schrader should be back in the ride this weekend at Michigan International Speedway thanks to Said.

With his fake afro-clad legion of fans -- the "Said-heads" -- cheering the road course turned-nearly-regular-driver, Said powered the No. 21 into the top-35 ahead of TGOM's favorite driver, Dave Blaney, with a 14th-place finish.

Said was pretty fired up for the finish.

"Mission accomplished," Said said. "At the end, I think we could've gotten a top-10, but where the 22 car was, I had to really think about it. I kind of gave up and let the 2 car by and then made a little mistake and the 12 got by.

"But still, that's exactly what they needed - and I got to race instead of watching on the couch, and I get to take a picture away of me driving a Wood Brothers car, so it's a pretty special weekend."

Elliott started filling in the No. 21 at the Coca-Cola 600 so his past champion's provisionals could help the team return to the top-35.

Schrader, who's been a much better sport about his ride getting taken away than a lot drivers could ever be, should be back for Michigan, right?

To be announced.

Said Heads Inspire Boris into Top-35 originally appeared on Motorsports FanHouse on Mon, 13 Aug 2007 04:04:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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