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Sprint Cup
CUP: Sweet, Sweet Speedweeks
Brian Keselowski was just one of many big winners this week...
Brian Keselowski tours Daytona International Speedway in his unsponsored car. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
At its best, auto racing is about human drama and emotion, common people achieving uncommon success, often against daunting, if not impossible, odds.
This year’s Daytona Speedweeks has delivered so many of those story lines that it seems each one is bigger than the one that came before it.
And they couldn’t have come at a better time, with NASCAR trying to regain its traction after a couple of down years and millions of race fans dealing with the emotions surrounding the 10th anniversary of Dale Earnhardt’s death.
The stories have been remarkable.
Brian Keselowski got a push from his brother Brad in the Gatorade Duels to earn a spot in the Daytona 500. Brian qualified for the 500 in an unsponsored, five year-old car built by Ray Evernham and powered by Dodge’s obsolete old-generation Sprint Cup engine.
After he made the 500, Evernham told Brian he’d pick up his tire bill for the weekend. Roger Penske offered him a current-generation Dodge engine, though ultimately there wasn’t enough time to convert the car to use it. Fans launched a Twitter campaign to find a sponsor for him. It worked, as Discount Tire and tires.com stepped up to sponsor Keselowski.
“It's been a very tough winter,” said Keselowski. “We were lucky just to survive through the winter let alone come down here. As of Wednesday, I didn't know if we were going to make it. That's been a great thing, thank God. We're in the Daytona 500. I mean, Wednesday, if you couldn't even get here, now you're in the race, it's amazing.”
Then there’s J.J. Yeley. After an unsuccessful stint with Joe Gibbs Racing, Yeley went back to running open-wheel cars on dirt. In August 2009, he flipped his sprint car eight times at Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City, Kan., breaking two vertebrae in his neck. Months of painful rehab followed, with great uncertainty about whether Yeley would ever race again.
But like Brian Keselowski, Yeley made a late-race pass in his Duel and suddenly, he put the No. 46 Red Line Oil Chevrolet in the Daytona 500 field.
“It's definitely tough,” said Yeley. “I was starting to get worried if we were going to get our car ready to come down here. We got our engine very, very late. The guys worked over the weekend to get the car ready. They spent most of the day Tuesday at the pulldown rig and doing chassis dynos and the car left at 7 p.m. in order to get here for practice and tech and everything. Just to know we made it was a stretch.”
But he made it, and that’s all that matters.
“It was a roller coaster of emotions not knowing what was going to go on, knowing we had to race our way in,” Yeley said. “Once I took the checkered flag in, and rolled across there and realized that we just put this thing in the show, I was beyond myself with excitement.”
Jennifer Jo Cobb somehow dodged a maze of accidents to finish sixth in Friday night’s NextEra Energy Resources 250 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race. It was the best finish by a female driver in series history.
“I'm so excited with what we accomplished tonight,” said Cobb, who drives the No. 10 Lilly’s Cosmetics Ford. “This finish is a testament to my team's hard work and dedication. We don't have near the budget that some of the other teams operate with, but we never give up. It's like Walt Disney said, ‘It's kind of fun to do the impossible.’
“When you think about drivers like Janet Guthrie and Erin Crocker who have accomplished so much in their careers, to think that I was able to achieve something that they didn't at Daytona is really special.”
There were other special moments, too: When Bobby Santos crashed in NASCAR Nationwide Series practice, he destroyed the only car that team owner Jimmy “Smut” Means brought to Daytona. No worries. Dale Earnhardt Jr., a longtime family friend, stepped up and offered Means a JR Motorsports Chevrolet. As a result, Santos will start today’s race from 23rd in his Target Your Market Promotions Chevrolet.
“It means a lot,” Means said of Earnhardt Jr.’s generosity. “I’d never ask him for stuff like that. He’d probably do anything in the world he could for me, but I’d never ask him. For him to do that, it’s pretty amazing. It shows there are people out there that don’t forget where they came from. And Junior doesn’t forget.”
Young Clay Rogers had a big night Friday, as he drove the No. 92 Action Gator Tire/Fleet HQ Chevy to a third-place finish in the Truck Series race. Not bad for a part-time team. And, oh, by the way, with NASCAR’s new rule about only earning points in one series, Rogers is now the Truck Series points leader, which he found out in Friday night’s post-race press conference.
“To be honest with you, my heart just dropped when you said that,” Rogers laughed Friday night. “I hadn't even thought about that. You know, our plans coming into Daytona were not to compete in the full Truck Series schedule this year. We'll have to talk ... after tonight. But, you know, our team is a very small team. We're based out of Cerro Gordo, N.C., an hour on the other side of Rockingham. We'll see what we can do.”
And what can one say about Michael Waltrip’s Truck Series victory, which came 10 years to the day after he won the Daytona 500 and simultaneously lost his car owner and close friend Dale Earnhardt?
“Today, obviously with it being the 10th anniversary of that terrible day, I wanted to be able to tell people that I was here in honor of Dale,” Waltrip said Friday night. “So there certainly was a lot of motivation from him, for me, and then fate. I believe in God. I believe in Jesus. I believe everything happens for a reason. That's my faith. That's what has enabled me to live the last 10 years without total self-destruction because of that.
“You know, someone said, ‘I can't believe it's been 10 years.’
“I said, ‘Well, I can. I live it every day.’”
Maybe, just maybe, Waltrip got to let go of some ghosts and demons on Friday night.
But without question, this Speedweeks so far has delivered on the promise of the best that racing has to offer, great stories of dreams, hope, courage and, ultimately, triumph. Let’s hope there’s one more great story to come on Sunday.
Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100 and e-mail him at Jensen is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association and an NMPA Writer of the Year.
This year’s Daytona Speedweeks has delivered so many of those story lines that it seems each one is bigger than the one that came before it.
And they couldn’t have come at a better time, with NASCAR trying to regain its traction after a couple of down years and millions of race fans dealing with the emotions surrounding the 10th anniversary of Dale Earnhardt’s death.
The stories have been remarkable.
Brian Keselowski got a push from his brother Brad in the Gatorade Duels to earn a spot in the Daytona 500. Brian qualified for the 500 in an unsponsored, five year-old car built by Ray Evernham and powered by Dodge’s obsolete old-generation Sprint Cup engine.
After he made the 500, Evernham told Brian he’d pick up his tire bill for the weekend. Roger Penske offered him a current-generation Dodge engine, though ultimately there wasn’t enough time to convert the car to use it. Fans launched a Twitter campaign to find a sponsor for him. It worked, as Discount Tire and tires.com stepped up to sponsor Keselowski.
“It's been a very tough winter,” said Keselowski. “We were lucky just to survive through the winter let alone come down here. As of Wednesday, I didn't know if we were going to make it. That's been a great thing, thank God. We're in the Daytona 500. I mean, Wednesday, if you couldn't even get here, now you're in the race, it's amazing.”
Then there’s J.J. Yeley. After an unsuccessful stint with Joe Gibbs Racing, Yeley went back to running open-wheel cars on dirt. In August 2009, he flipped his sprint car eight times at Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City, Kan., breaking two vertebrae in his neck. Months of painful rehab followed, with great uncertainty about whether Yeley would ever race again.
But like Brian Keselowski, Yeley made a late-race pass in his Duel and suddenly, he put the No. 46 Red Line Oil Chevrolet in the Daytona 500 field.
“It's definitely tough,” said Yeley. “I was starting to get worried if we were going to get our car ready to come down here. We got our engine very, very late. The guys worked over the weekend to get the car ready. They spent most of the day Tuesday at the pulldown rig and doing chassis dynos and the car left at 7 p.m. in order to get here for practice and tech and everything. Just to know we made it was a stretch.”
But he made it, and that’s all that matters.
“It was a roller coaster of emotions not knowing what was going to go on, knowing we had to race our way in,” Yeley said. “Once I took the checkered flag in, and rolled across there and realized that we just put this thing in the show, I was beyond myself with excitement.”
Jennifer Jo Cobb somehow dodged a maze of accidents to finish sixth in Friday night’s NextEra Energy Resources 250 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race. It was the best finish by a female driver in series history.
“I'm so excited with what we accomplished tonight,” said Cobb, who drives the No. 10 Lilly’s Cosmetics Ford. “This finish is a testament to my team's hard work and dedication. We don't have near the budget that some of the other teams operate with, but we never give up. It's like Walt Disney said, ‘It's kind of fun to do the impossible.’
“When you think about drivers like Janet Guthrie and Erin Crocker who have accomplished so much in their careers, to think that I was able to achieve something that they didn't at Daytona is really special.”
There were other special moments, too: When Bobby Santos crashed in NASCAR Nationwide Series practice, he destroyed the only car that team owner Jimmy “Smut” Means brought to Daytona. No worries. Dale Earnhardt Jr., a longtime family friend, stepped up and offered Means a JR Motorsports Chevrolet. As a result, Santos will start today’s race from 23rd in his Target Your Market Promotions Chevrolet.
“It means a lot,” Means said of Earnhardt Jr.’s generosity. “I’d never ask him for stuff like that. He’d probably do anything in the world he could for me, but I’d never ask him. For him to do that, it’s pretty amazing. It shows there are people out there that don’t forget where they came from. And Junior doesn’t forget.”
Young Clay Rogers had a big night Friday, as he drove the No. 92 Action Gator Tire/Fleet HQ Chevy to a third-place finish in the Truck Series race. Not bad for a part-time team. And, oh, by the way, with NASCAR’s new rule about only earning points in one series, Rogers is now the Truck Series points leader, which he found out in Friday night’s post-race press conference.
“To be honest with you, my heart just dropped when you said that,” Rogers laughed Friday night. “I hadn't even thought about that. You know, our plans coming into Daytona were not to compete in the full Truck Series schedule this year. We'll have to talk ... after tonight. But, you know, our team is a very small team. We're based out of Cerro Gordo, N.C., an hour on the other side of Rockingham. We'll see what we can do.”
And what can one say about Michael Waltrip’s Truck Series victory, which came 10 years to the day after he won the Daytona 500 and simultaneously lost his car owner and close friend Dale Earnhardt?
VIDEO: Trucks Daytona 250 Michael Waltrip wins an emotionally charged race. (Image: SPEED)
“You know, someone said, ‘I can't believe it's been 10 years.’
“I said, ‘Well, I can. I live it every day.’”
Maybe, just maybe, Waltrip got to let go of some ghosts and demons on Friday night.
But without question, this Speedweeks so far has delivered on the promise of the best that racing has to offer, great stories of dreams, hope, courage and, ultimately, triumph. Let’s hope there’s one more great story to come on Sunday.
Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100 and e-mail him at Jensen is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association and an NMPA Writer of the Year.
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