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The Answer Man on SPEEDtv.com - the Online Motorsports Authority ยป More Photos
Note: By popular demand, The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. I will be answering questions during every race week and look forward to hearing from you as the season goes on.
If you have a question, please e-mail it to – Tom Jensen
Tom: I disagree with you on Roush’s Daytona performance. Except for a strong finish at the end, they or any Ford product as usual led hardly any laps. Fans and/or car guys have put Daytona and Talladega off our list to attend. I know Ford has won some July races at Daytona, but the laps led tell the real story, GM has led about 70 percent of the laps at these races for the last 12 years, and wins as well! NASCAR is supposed to 'even it up' but the races at these two tracks are usually a GM playground — 125 Duels, Bud Shootout, etc. Now I know Toyota is doing well now, but Dodge had a few good years when they first came. Look, GM has great cars and teams, but at the Super Bowl of NASCAR, it would be refreshing to see other brands lead more and have a better chance! — Charles Jackson, North Carolina
Thanks for your thoughtful comments, Charles. Let’s see here … hmm … at the Daytona 500, the highest-finishing Chevrolet was ninth, as Dodges finished 1-2-5-6-7-8. At Talladega in April, the top Chevy was seventh, with Toyota having three of the top six, Ford two and Dodge one. On Saturday night at Daytona, a Toyota won, with three Fords and three Dodges in the next six spots. The best Chevy was eighth. Three plate races this season and Chevy doesn’t have a single top-five finish at any of them. That sure doesn’t seem like GM is dominating. Leading laps only pays 5 points. It’s where you finish that counts.
When will NASCAR take away the 30 horsepower advantage from the Toyotas so that it is an even playing field again? I'm so tired of hearing how great Kyle Busch is — put him in a car with the same horsepower as the Chevys, Fords and Dodges and let's see how he runs then! When we watch the races, they very rarely make mention of the advantage given to the Toyotas on the track. Why is that? I understand that initially they were given the advantage to keep the Toyotas running and make the team owners want to race them, but enough is enough! — Sandy Rockett, Ledyard, CT
Sandy: Thanks for the question. Just so everyone is clear on this, Toyotas do not have a 30-horsepower advantage on everyone else. If they did, Michael Waltrip and Dave Blaney would be winning races and J.J. Yeley would be making them. Joe Gibbs Racing, which builds it own engines, is one of the three best teams in NASCAR, and has been for the last decade. And even within that team, Denny Hamlin and Tony Stewart, who combined to win 11 races in 2006-07, have only one victory between them this year. Kyle Busch is just having one of those magical years where he’s on the top of his game and everything is going right. But the season is only half finished and last year at this time, everyone was complaining about being sick of Jeff Gordon winning so much. We’ll see what happens at playoff time.
Do you find it odd that this season the number of blown motors for DEI has gone done dramatically? Could there be any validity to the claims that they did not work as hard for Dale Earnhardt Jr. as they seem to be working this year? I do not think the claims of sabotage were correct, but it seems quite suspicious. — Charlie
Riddle me this, Charlie: Do you think DEI deliberately built a bogus car last weekend, so Martin Truex Jr. would get hit with a big penalty, miss the Chase and lose millions of dollars in sponsor and prize money? Think they deliberately blew the late pit-stop call for Mark Martin at Phoenix so he lost the race? I mean, c’mon fella. Do you really believe what you’re asking me? No, there is absolutely no validity whatsoever that the DEI crew didn’t work as hard for Earnhardt
Mark Martin is a great driver, but at 49, he almost gave it up two years ago. Why is he still there? Doesn’t he realize there are a lot of young drivers out there waiting for a chance? Can’t he enjoy helping other young drivers (and) enjoy time with his family? — Helen Buck
Helen: I’m not sure why so many fans are upset about this. Mark Martin has decided that instead of running 24 races, as he did this year, that he’s going to run 36 in 2009. So what?! Martin has demonstrated two things: First, after 35 years in racing, he’s earned the right to do whatever he wants to do, be it run two races a year or the full schedule. Second, he can still get it done on the track. Of the five drivers at Dale Earnhardt Inc. (Martin, Aric Almirola, Paul Menard, Martin Truex Jr. and Regan Smith), Martin has been the strongest this season. In 13 starts, Martin has averaged 121 points per start. Truex has averaged 114, Menard 91, Almirola 83 and Smith 80. There may be a lot of young drivers out there, but I don’t see Martin blocking anyone’s career.
It appears on TV that the Toyotas are running chrome wheels, if this is true, is it not breaking the rules? — Jerry
Good eye, Jerry! Michael Waltrip Racing uses wheels that appear to be chrome. Actually, they are the old-fashioned steel wheels that are anodized or powder coated to make them look like chrome. The problem with real chrome wheels — and why they are forbidden in NASCAR — is that it’s extremely hard to keep wheel weights attached to chrome wheels.
What is the fastest pit stop ever recorded in NASCAR history? — Rachel NASCAR does not keep official records of pit-stop speeds. The fastest that I know of have been in the 12.6-second range, although someone may well have done one a tenth or two faster.
I don't know what the big deal is about Detroit cutting back on their participation in NASCAR. From a fan’s standpoint, there is absolutely no brand identification left with the car they now run. To say that Jeff Gordon is running the DuPont 'Chevrolet' is actually lying. The same for the Dodge or Ford. The problem started when NASCAR allowed the Ford teams to build and run a two-door Taurus, a car that didn't exist. A spec race car with fake decals is not something that fans can go see in the showroom the week after a race. Frankly, I am surprised that Detroit participates in NASCAR at all. Truthfully —Rick Schneider, Charlotte
Rick, I think you raise a fantastic point, one that I’ve wondered about for years and one that I’ve written about a lot. Without exception, whenever I talk to someone from an automaker about why they’re in NASCAR, they always tell me exactly the same thing: “Our return on investment in NASCAR is significantly higher than in any other form of marketing that we do.” I’ve heard that from people at GM, Ford, Dodge and Toyota. They say NASCAR works for them, which is why they are here. You have to remember, too, that much of what they do never shows up on TV. They do an incredible amount of at-track marketing and promotion. Go to a NASCAR race and outside the track you’ll find huge displays from all the automakers, complete with their latest cars and trucks, sales literature, etc.
Tom Jensen is the Senior NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He 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 to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the President of the National Motorsports Press Association. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to
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