Green Flag 1.18.08: A Demise, a Demon, and Daytona

Posted by Jim Carson on 01.18.2008

The big news comes from Daytona and the Chili Bowl, but the big depression comes from Abingdon VA.

Happy New Year, everybody. I felt obliged to say that because this is my first offering of 2008. But it's sincere!

Some racers play golf, and so do I, so allow me to say a few words in support of the magazine-maligned Kelly Tilghman. Had the dominant #1 golfer in the world been Phil Mickelson or Sergio Garcia or Ernie Els or Ben Hogan for that matter, Nick Faldo would still have made the comment that the others need to gang up on him, and Kelly still would have cut in with "lynch him in a back alley" and no one would have given those words a second thought. But since Tiger happens to be black, it's opening a whole can of worms. OK, maybe Kelly's suspension was a good idea, giving her a chance to get out from in front of the cameras for two weeks. But if Kelly gets any further disciplinary actions or loses her employment because of this crap, it would be one of the biggest loads of bullshit in the history of televised sports. You'll never find me with a Golfweek in my hands. And someone please put Al Sharpton in that noose.

In the past two weeks all of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams (gotta get used to saying that) have been testing at Daytona. The solo and drafting experience that the drivers received in the restrictor-plate Wingboxcars was important, especially for the rookies. But the lap times and speeds that the so-called amazingly-fast Toyotas and everyone else aren't important. The main things a team wants to do are improve through the session, even slightly, and avoid things like the crash that happened to Roushketeers Colin Braun and Joey Clanton in the Craftsman Truck test run.

There was some sad news from the past week. It didn't have anything to do with those testing at Daytona. It concerned the team that wasn't there.


MORGAN-McCLURE MOTORSPORTS (1983-2007)

A team that gave us some of the most exciting and important times in NASCAR history has closed its doors. The saddest thing is that one year from now, the only point remembered by today's fans about the Morgan-McClure team will come out when one of the mega-teams makes a move to get the #4 for one of its Sprint Cup cars.

Morgan-McClure (which stayed in southwestern Virginia instead of flocking to Charlotte or Mooresville like everyone else in racing) couldn't find sponsorship for 2008, and co-owner Larry McClure and his numerous brothers decided they aren't going to spend their own money any more, as they have had to do near the end of the last few seasons. M-M's departure leaves Robby Gordon Motorsports as the only single-car team left in Cup (technically the Wood Brothers are on the list too, but they share some info with Roush and Yates, and only Robby's locked into the first five races of 2008).

M-M ran its first full season with Rick Wilson in 1987 (I might see Rick at a short track in Lakeland FL next week watching his son Travis race, and if so I'll have to ask about this), and that was the second year of an 18-year consecutive sponsorship agreement with Kodak Film. The Kodak-#4 tie-in may be the second-longest sponsor-team deal in Cup history, behind STP and King Richard (not positive about this, and it'll soon be passed by DuPont and the #24, but you get the point.

In the role that Wilson started, Ernie Irvan flourished. Swervin' won the pole in the 1990 spring race at Bristol (about 20 miles from the team's HQ) and then took the victory in the fall visit to Thunder Valley. Then came 1991, where he did just enough swervin' to win that ever-popular Daytona 500. Ernie won again at Watkins Glen and put the #4 in fifth in the final standings. The next year he found magic three more times, including the race formerly known as the Firecracker at Daytona.

When Davey Allison was killed in the 1993 plane crash, Robert Yates wanted to pluck Irvan for the #28, and it got ugly in the garage and the courts until the end of the season. It could have been a damaging blow for the M-M team, but new driver Sterling Marlin fit in pretty well ... winning the Daytona 500 two years in a row. Sterling took the #4 to victory lane in three of the next five restrictor-plate races after that (plus one at Darlington). Yes, before Hendrick Motorsports and Dale Earnhardt Inc. were in unbeatable phases at Daytona and Talladega, there was Morgan-McClure.

Bobby Hamilton gave M-M its last win after coming from a lap down (no lucky dog back then) to win at Martinsville in 1998 (rain delayed to Monday; personal note: I was at the NHRA event in Commerce GA, also delayed to that Monday). Hamilton still made the #4 respectable through 2000, but Bobby was the last driver to pilot the #4 for two consecutive full seasons. In fact, the team didn't go ONE full season without a driver change by the fall. The downturn began with Robby Gordon (back then, anything in NASCAR that Robby touched turned to crap), then came Kevin Lepage, Mike Skinner, P.J. Jones, Johnny Miller (road course ringer), Larry Friggin' Foyt, Jimmy Spencer, Mike Wallace, John Andretti, Todd Bodine, Scott Wimmer, and for 2007, Wawd Buhton. Worse than its driver flux was its sponsorship battle; Kodak left after 2003, and there were partial-season deals with sponsors like Lucas Oil, Aero Exhaust, and last year, State Water Heaters, which recently announced it was switching to Scott Riggs' #66 for 2008.

Beginning with the first post-Robby year, the #4 started occasionally missing races. The team's last notable accomplishment came in 2005, the first year of NASCAR's top-35 exemption rule. The #4 was non-exempt from 2004 owner points, and Mike Wallace near-miraculously qualified for every race from February through July. It was a fascinating battle for 35th in points between Wallace and Jason Leffler in the new #11 car (bumped in September when Denny Hamlin became the proper Federal Express delivery guy), and the #4 relaxed a bit in June after taking 35th and watching Leffler DNQ at the Coke 600. Wallace finished eighth in July at Daytona, but later the #11 passed the #4 in points, and Wallace missed the Brickyard 400 to end the underdog streak, then he missed three more races the rest of the way. Wimmer in 2006 and Buhton in 2007 were lucky to get the #4 in the show half the time.

Despite laying off almost all his employees, McClure says he's prepared to enter Wallace in this year's Daytona 500 if M-M can find a one-race sponsor. That ain't gonna happen, because no company's going with the #4 team when there's still a Bill Davis Racing car with a high-profile pointy-car guy (Jacques Villeneuve) and two Yates Racing cars with blank hoods now; they're better options for sponsors than the lame-duck M-M group.

In the past decade, NASCAR has lost hard-working teams such as multi-time race winners Andy Petree Racing, Melling Racing and Cal Wells Racing, plus the Stavola Brothers, Donlavey Racing, Ultra Motorsports, Jasper Motorsports, Bahari Racing, and teams owned by brothers Geoff and Brett Bodine. But not seeing Morgan-McClure Motorsports on the grid this season is going to be strange, and a little sad.


There will be a few more teams than available starting spots in Sprint Cup this season, something like 46 for 43. What if there were 275 cars vying for 24 spots every week? It happens once a year, in Oklahoma of all places.


CHILI DIPPING

You should read the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals thoughts of 411Movies/TV columnist Bryan Kristopowitz because Bryan actually ordered the PPV from last Saturday, and I didn't, mainly because I was at the Clemson-Florida State 2OT hoops game. Hey Bryan, you wouldn't want to be accused of being one of those stereotypical race fans who watch mainly for the crashes, eh? And the recap of the prelims didn't really explain how they determined who got into the A-main on Saturday, because THEY probably couldn't figure it out. When they get to the Knoxville Nationals in August, you could do a master's thesis on how they set the Saturday grids.

Instead I'll do a little Demon searching. Winner Damion Gardner is not what you'd call a household name unless you're a regular at dirt tracks in California. The Demon was a regular in the West Coast sprint car scene from about the turn of the century until 2006; he breezed to the USAC-CRA championship in 2005 and was second in points in '06. Last season he made the move east for a new ride and his first full run in the USAC national (OK, mostly Indiana and Ohio ... OK, mostly Indiana) sprint car series, where he was 10th in points and came close to winning a few times but didn't. Gardner had done pretty well in a handful of midget starts in recent years; his last win in one of the itty bitty cars was 2005 at Bakersfield, in a car owned by NHRA Funny Car star Cruz Pedregon. This was his sixth time at the Chili Bowl; he had made the A-main only once before. This time his car was owned by Jason Leffler, who has bounced around the NASCAR Big Three until 2007 when he became the first Toyota driver to win in the series formerly known as Busch.

The top group of finishers in the A-main at Tulsa Expo Raceway produced a nice mix of midget/sprint car veterans dating back to ESPN's Thunder days, young USACers with their eyes on NASCAR advancement, NASCAR guys returning to their roots, and racers that I've never heard of and freely admit it. The second-place finisher was Dave Darland, one of those household names in open-wheel racing and is a past USAC sprint and Silver Crown champion. Darland recently joined forces with a new team for 2008 ... perhaps the most recognizable team in USAC, Nine Racing. Car owner Steve Lewis' white #9 cars (or #19 or #91 or #9x or #191, thanks to thin black tape; multi-car teams in USAC all start with the same number, unlike NASCAR etc.) have propelled Tony Stewart, Jason Leffler, Kasey Kahne, Mike Bliss, J.J. Yeley and the late Kenny Irwin to various USAC series championships and NASCAR rides. This Chili Bowl run ought to put to rest any doubts that Lewis might not know what to do with an old guy behind the wheel.

Leffler and Kahne made it to the A-main through the prelims, while Baloney won one of the B-mains. (They start with K on feature night, with 270+ on the entry list.) Baloney finished eighth, three spots ahead of his employee Levi Jones, who won the last USAC sprint championship. Tracy Hines, who had a season with Jim Smith's powerhouse team in Craftsman Trucks a few years ago, wound up ninth. As for the rising stars, Ganassi development driver Bryan Clauson was fourth, fellow Ganassi contractee Brady Bacon seventh, and Kevin Swindell sixth; Kevin is the son of World of Outlaws legend Sammy Swindell and is about as boring an interview, but odds are Kevin will end up pursuing cars with fenders. Then there are the surprises, like third-place Shane Cottle (a two-time points titlist in something called Indiana Midget Week) and fifth-place Jon Stanbrough (a champ in Indiana Sprint Week ... those Hoosiers love this kinda stuff).

Among those missing the feature, which is no disgrace: Danny Lasoski (missed a transfer by one spot in his B-main), Sammy Swindell and 2006 Chili Bowl winner Tim McCreadie (out in B), P.J. Jones and Joey Saldana (C), one of my favorite names in racing, Critter Malone (D), ARCA star Justin Allgaier (F), and drag racing crossovers Gary Scelzi and Cruz Pedregon (H).


Now to that other major American motorsports event in January...


TO WIN THE ROLEX, YOU GOTTA TAKE A LICKING AND KEEP ON TICKING

The last weekend of the month offers the first meaningful activity at Daytona, at least for fans, when Daytona Prototypes and Grand Touring road racing cars start their engines at the Rolex 24. This will be the 43rd year that the sports car race will be scheduled to go around the clock twice. And this is the Grand-Am race which attracts more than just road racing fans, because of the driver lineup, and the fact that many racers have been on vacation for too long and they want to see or compete in anything on four wheels.

OROF (One Real, One Fake) NASCAR Cup champion Jimmie Johnson is joining the Gainsco team with defending Rolex Series champions Jon Fogarty and Alex Gurney. Chip Ganassi's two open-wheel defectors, Juan Pablo Montoya and Dario Franchitti, will team with the former Rolex champion Scott "Hitomyfamilyathome" Pruett and some other guy that starts the other races so that Pruett can be interviewed from the pits to say hitohisfamilyathome. Chipster's pointy-car guys Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon are in another entry. Captain Roger Penske's fielding a car (betcha his ALMS group isn't happy) and putting Kurt Busch in it, to rotate in and out with his IRL drivers Helio Crazydancer and Ryan Briscoe. A.J. All-Americandinger is one of the drivers on the Michael Shank Racing list, along with Champ Car stars Justin Wilson and Graham Rahal, and former Indy winner Buddy Rice also has a gig. That's just in the DP class, although nobody really cares about GT cars unless one of them gets in the way and takes out your favorite DP contender.

Ganassi cars have won this sucker the last two years. Last year it was Chip's primary car, with the seat shared by Pruett, JPM and Salvador Duran. In 2006 it was the team's second car, with the recognizable driver list of Chip's two pointy-car guys and Casey Mears. The Mears/Dixon/Wheldon year was the only time that guest stars have ruled since the Grand-Am revolution before the 2004 season (when NASCAR and the France family bought into Grand-Am and actually made things interesting).

Last season, the only cars to find DP victory lane more than once were Ganassi's #01 led by Pruett, the SunTrust #10, and six-time winner and series champions Fogarty and Gurney in the #99. Only three other cars even won once (#23, #91 and #05), and now the #05 team folded and lead driver Bill Auberlen has gone to the #23 Ruby Tuesday team (watch for the Rolex 24 posters on any Ruby Tuesday all weekend). There's no reason why anything should be different now; there's the top three teams and then everyone else. The second tier consists of the #23, #91, the two Brumos Porsches #58 and #59, maybe the Shank cars #6 and #60, the Krohn cars #75 and #76, and maybe the Samax cars (OK, scratch the #11 because Milka Duno's one of the drivers). If the three favorites all have major mechanical failures or crash damage (a possibility in the SunTrust car, because team owner Wayne Taylor's son Ricky will get some driving stints and he might not be ready), that'll leave the door open for the second Ganassi car or the Penske car with the big stars invading. But I pick the #99 with Fogarty, Gurney and JJ, who's bringing along Lowe's sponsorship.


I'll be back in two weeks. Go Packers, I suppose.

---Jim