Fast Facts: Flags

To really get into a race, you need to understand what's happening before the announcers tell you. The action is extremely fast, and if there are a few things going on at once sometimes an incident isn't even mentioned. And if it involves your favorite driver, you'll definitely want to know what's going on. One of the best sources of information is the team communications at the track, which anyone with a scanner can hear. But at home, watching the officials at the start-finish line and which color flag they use at a crucial moment will also give you a heads-up. So, here are the flags and what they mean--

Green--the start of the race and any restarts; the track is clear and cars can get up to speed

Yellow--caution; the track isn't clear and cars have to slow down and stay behind the pace car, usually because of an accident or weather

Red--stop; the track isn't clear and cars have to stay where they are (or sometimes go to pit road if they can), usually because of a very serious accident or long weather delay

White--one lap remaining in the race

Checkered--finish of the race

Black--infraction for an individual car, or waved in conjunction with red flag to end practice

Black with white cross--after disregarding the black flag, no further scoring for individual car until they return to pits

Blue with Yellow stripe--faster car approaching from rear

Yellow with Red vertical stripes--localized debris or hazardous condition, on road courses only

Judging from the tone on various NASCAR-related websites, everyone's just waiting for the green to drop on the season. And I will definitely have a guess on who will take the checkered at Daytona soon!

Track Trivia: Indianapolis Motor Speedway

I've been lucky enough to be at three Sprint Cup races, in Las Vegas, Phoenix and Michigan. But again partly because of the history of the place, besides Daytona another race I'd really like to go to is the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, held since 1994. The track itself celebrates its centennial this year, and of course the most famous race ever is the Indianapolis 500 in May. The Brickyard NASCAR race is on July 26th this year, which is my biggest impediment to actually going (most people can't find a place to stay, but my sister would let me crash.) It is meltingly hot in Indianapolis in late July and my skin fries like an egg after a while in that kind of heat, no matter what I cover it with. 

The track itself is a quad-oval, with squared-off corners and 9 degrees of banking in the turns. The stands hold over 250,000 (sweating) fans, and the track says it is the world's largest in seating capacity. Jimmie Johnson won here last year, and Indiana native Tony Stewart finally won at his "home track" in 2005 and again in 2007. The track surface has been ground down to make it smoother--but last year all that did was wear down the tires so fast they only lasted 10 laps, making the race just a series of sprints and very frustrating for drivers and fans. I still want to go and see the place--it's got a golf course, it's so big, and you can actually drive your own car around on the track if there's no testing going on--but I hope for everyone's sake this year Goodyear gets the tires right so we can see some 200 m.p.h. action!

Driver Stats: Carl Edwards

I am an unlikely NASCAR fan. My sister lives in Indianapolis, and although I wasn't that interested, racing to me used to mean the open-wheel Indy cars and the Indianapolis 500. I thought NASCAR was silly, just a bunch of cars going around in circles. But then my other sister and her husband became interested in stock-car racing, and by being around them I was exposed to some of the excitement and strategy NASCAR embodies. We all have different favorites, but it's the sport itself that is the attraction. Rooting for your "team", including driver, crew chief, owner and manufacturer, only makes it more personalized. 

That being said, you can enjoy the success of more than one driver at a time. Nothing is more convincing to me than success that someone deserves my support, although I do cheer on the underdogs like Robby Gordon too. That's why I think I'll be following Carl Edwards' exploits in the #99  more closely this season. He actually looks a little like my brother-in-law in Indianapolis, and although he had success in the lower levels of racing on dirt tracks in the Midwest, he was a substitute teacher before he got into the big leagues! 

Carl came into Sprint Cup in 2004. He does have the trucks Rookie of the Year award and a lower-level Nationwide Series championship under his belt. He finished in the top 10 in his first career Sprint Cup start, one of only 5 active drivers to do so. In his four full-time seasons, he has finished in the top ten in rankings three times, missing out in 12th position in 2006. Carl finished the 2008 season in second place in the standings, but with the highest overall driver rating based on finishes and wins--he went to victory lane 9 times. In his overall Sprint Cup career, he has 16 wins, 4 poles, 54 top 5's and 85 top 10's. 

"Cousin Carl" is a another driver you either love or hate. He's had his share of controversy, but his intensity is focused on winning races. Period. He does backflips off his car after a win instead of burnouts, which I respect--do you realize the abdominal strength doing something like that takes? He even tried a "banzai move" in a race in the Chase last year, kind of a slide-off-the-wall to try to pass, that he said he learned in a video game. It didn't work in the end, but you have to admire the gutsiness. He has sponsor and owner support, and Ford is the least affected of the Big Three by their recent problems. And he's a newlywed--that first year of wedded bliss should add a little stability to his personal life. I actually got to see Carl win a race in person last year, and he really helped my fantasy team too. I'm not yet ready to predict individual race winners, but I'm not going out on much of a limb here to say I expect to see Carl flipping out on his way to victory lane this season. 

Fast Facts: Car Owners

First of all, I neglected to say in my post about new team owner Tony Stewart that he won two championships, in 2002 and 2005. Very big omission. Also, he is now in the Bud Shootout, the field for which is selected by manufacturers by owner ranking, because of a newly-added wildcard spot. It's confusing, but I'm glad he's in it, because he is the top seed based on his record over the last 5 and 10 years of this race. 

As far as other owners, the recession has really changed the look of many teams. The biggest news is that Richard Petty's name will continue in the sport as a result of a complicated merger with Gillette-Evernham Motorsports, now named Richard Petty Motorsports. If you've ever seen the animated movie Cars, the iconic blue King was Richard. As far as I know, they will be racing with a 4-car Dodge team. The lead car will still be the #9 Budweiser car driven by Kasey Kahne.  This merger was a classy move that respects the history of the sport. 

Other important teams include Hendrick Motorsports, with 4 Chevrolets driven by an all-star cast of Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and this year veteran Mark Martin. The top Ford team is Roush-Fenway racing, whose most-successful driver recently is Carl Edwards, but the whole stable is talented. The top Toyota team is Joe Gibbs Racing, looking to see if Kyle Busch can resume his winning ways this year. And another key Chevrolet team is Richard Childress Racing, with Jeff Burton in the lead there. There are many other teams, including the newly merged Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing in Chevrolets and Penske Racing in Dodges, but it's an expensive sport and in hard economic times sponsors are hard to come by. You'll see a full field at Daytona, but some of the smaller teams are underfunded and won't be able to keep up the weekly grind for long without sponsorship. 

I think knowing who the team owners are is important because it gives you a feel for the culture of the shop and what is tolerated (or not) from drivers and crew, beyond what NASCAR mandates. When I'm at a race, if I'm lucky enough to get to pit road, it's almost as exciting to see an owner as a favorite driver, and it makes me feel more a part of the sport when hardly anyone else recognizes them. Plus, if the team owner is a successful one, that success will filter down to your driver in equipment which will make his winning races more likely. Which is all we really want, to go fast and win, right?

Finally, a quick word about manufacturers. The NASCAR Car of Tomorrow, or Today now, is rigorously inspected within very narrow tolerances so they are almost identical among manufacturers. The bodies are not like those of cars on the street. The real difference is under the hood--Chevy, Toyota, Ford and Dodge still have different engines. Also, manufacturer support helps maintain teams as well. We'll see how much this year, with the Big Three crying bankruptcy and even Toyota posting its first-ever yearly loss. But even with all the changes and challenges, they're still going to start their engines in February, ladies and gentlemen!

Track Trivia: Daytona

The Daytona 500 is often referred to as NASCAR's Super Bowl. There are similarities--it is arguably the biggest race of the year--but it's the first race in a long season, not a race to determine the champion. It's prestigious because of its history--what we now know as NASCAR racing really has its roots in beach racing at Daytona and the France family who owns N'car started their empire here. To me, it's exciting just to get the season underway. There are a lot of activities before the NASCAR weekend, including the Bud Shootout and qualifying the weekend before plus other types of auto racing collectively termed SpeedWeeks. Then the Daytona 500 weekend starts with the Duel to determine starting position in the race, and there's a truck race and a Nationwide (kind of Sprint Cup minor league) race plus practice before the big race on Sunday. I haven't ever been to Daytona for racing, but one of these years I will go--it's a must-do on a NASCAR fan's list, plus it would be nice to get out of this awful weather. There's apparently a lot to do at the track and it would be great to combine it with a NASA launch--Cape Canaveral is very close. I have been to the Kennedy Space Center and loved it--one of my favorite souvenirs ever is my sweatshirt from there that reads "I need my space" over the NASA meatball. What can I say, the space program was still cool when I was a (very young) kid :)

So, I will be parked in front of the t.v. for the flyover and pre-race introductions on Feb. 15th, and to be prepared I refreshed my Daytona info. The race is a restrictor-plate race--they put an actual metal plate on the engine to reduce power, or else on a high-banked superspeedway like this there would be 43 cars capable of going over 200 m.p.h., which could get ugly. They still go VERY fast, but they're kind of bunched up in a pack because they're all running around the same speed which can lead to some nasty pile-ups. Some spectators like the wrecks, but I don't--I feel bad for the driver who didn't make a mistake but still gets collected and misses out on his chance to shine in the biggest race of the year through no fault of his own. Daytona is something to see, but I'm not a huge fan of restrictor-plate races.  The track is one of the longest in the schedule at 2.5 miles, and it's a tri-oval, with essentially three corners. There's 31 degrees of banking in the turns--if you ever get a chance, take a track tour (anywhere) and see what's it's like to stand upright on any degree of banking. 31 degrees is amazing--it's probably like driving in a pinball machine up the chute. But the best part is how fired up the drivers are to get into the car again, because everyone wants to do well in the first and one of the most important races of the year. I'm not going to make any predictions (maybe after I have a chance to select my fantasy team) but I will say this is a good chance to see how some of the old favorites and new teams are looking this year. I hope they're ready, because I sure am!

Driver Stats: Tony Stewart

Compared to other sports, the off-season in NASCAR really isn't that long. But it comes at the worst time of the year--when it's nasty outside, and it would be really nice to bask in the glow of a good race in front of the t.v. So I put on my new red #14 Tony Stewart hoodie my boyfriend got me for Christmas, to keep me warm and tide me over at least for today. 

Every NASCAR fan has a favorite driver. Mine happens to be Mr. Tony "Smoke" Stewart, new owner of Stewart-Haas racing. What I will do with all of my orange Home Depot #20 stuff, I don't know, although I will wish Joey Logano, a very young rookie taking over in that car, good luck in 2009. 

Tony joined the top-level series with Joe Gibbs racing in 1999, and has a career 14 poles, 33 race wins, 129 top 5's, 207 top 10's, and only finished outside the top ten for the season once--in 2006, when he finished 11th. He is temperamental and outspoken, but I see that as a manifestation of his drive to win. 

He's a smart guy--he runs a dirt track in Ohio and has several lower-level open wheel teams--and he has surrounded himself with experienced people. Regretfully, I don't think Tony will have the kind of success he demands of himself this first year in his new ride. Times are tough in NASCAR--they're not even allowing testing this year before races. And Tony is a driver who thrives on consistency, where a new team is still developing. Of course I will be happy if I'm proved wrong, and Tony the driver is talented enough to drive anything to victory lane at least once. But the distractions of 2008 were frustrating for Tony, and I don't see that changing in the new shop right away.

Fast Facts: Schedule

For my very first post of my very first blog ever, I am taking the easy way out. I plan on providing my thoughts on upcoming drivers and tracks in twice-weekly posts, but since we are still anticipating the long-awaited start of the season at Daytona, I thought starting with the schedule for about the first third of the Sprint Cup season would get the mental gears turning...

2009 NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES SCHEDULE
Date Site
Feb. 7 Budweiser Shootout at Daytona, Daytona International Speedway*
Feb. 15 Daytona International Speedway
Feb. 22 Auto Club Speedway
March 1 Las Vegas Motor Speedway
March 8 Atlanta Motor Speedway
March 22 Bristol Motor Speedway
March 29 Martinsville Speedway
April 5 Texas Motor Speedway
April 18 Phoenix International Raceway
April 26 Talladega Superspeedway
May 2 Richmond International Raceway
May 9 Darlington Raceway
May 16 NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race, Lowe’s Motor Speedway*
May 24 Lowe’s Motor Speedway
May 31 Dover International Speedway
* – Denotes non-points event.