It seems like Denny Hamlin is trying not to end up a “Tony Stewart Statistic”.

As in, he’s not going to risk injuring himself if he wrecks in the Nationwide Series race so much to the point that it effects him racing in the Sprint Cup. Tony Stewart did it last season when he injured his shoulder. Hence why I personally call it the “Tony Stewart Statistic”

NASCAR.com reports that Denny Hamlin will sit out the Nationwide Series race this week. Denny mentioned that since he is only 12th in points, he basically felt he didn’t have anything to lose.

He considered sitting out the Sprint Cup race as well, but he is currently reported to be definitly racing this week and feeling better from last week’s hard wreck.

No diaper baby whining this week for Hamlin! I feel so lost!

With the media hype of Ron Hornaday using steroids. NASCAR organizers have announced that random drug testing for drivers, crew and officials in all three NASCAR series will begin next season.

It does not identify the substances that are banned, but it will most likely include steroids. (*cough*Carl Edwards*cough*!)

There will be a pre-screening and officials will have the authority to test anyone if they suspect there is drug abuse. Failing a drug test could get you a lifetime ban,

Drug use/abuse I felt was never a big issue in NASCAR. Or should I say, it wasn’t hyped in the media so much. But then again, I havn’t been watching NASCAR for all that long. It almost seemed like it was the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” rule. In this day and age how many people can honestly say that they havn’t tried some form of illegal drug. I’m sure there are people that are out there that can say “No” to that question, but it’s probably not many.

Aaron Fike was arrested for heroin possession a little over a year ago, and that seemed like the first media blitzed story on the subject of drug use. He was suspended from racing, because he had admitted to being high during more than a few races and was addicted to pain killers.

“The reason we don’t have a list is, we believe a list is restrictive,” Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR VP of Racing Operations said. “By having a broad policy that doesn’t list anything, we feel like we can test for any substance that may be abused. . . . It states right now in our policy that cough medicine could be abused if you’re taking that too much and it’s going to affect the safety on the racetrack.”

What do the other drivers think about this new policy?:

• “This is more of a reaction to the modern responsibilities that we also have, not just in Nascar, but the whole community of sports, I think the industry feels like that’s the right thing to do.” -Mike Helton, NASCAR president.
• “It’s a sign of the times that we’ve got to do that sort of thing,” -Jack Roush
• “Zero tolerance is the tolerance it needs to be,” -Robby Gordon
• “Look, a drug is a drug is a drug. This is not shooting hoops; this is not hitting a fastball. This is life and death. In a sport like this, everything should be off limits unless there is a medical reason.”  -Kyle Petty

Joe Gibbs racing will announce on August 25th in a news conference forum that Joey Logano will replace Tony Stewart in the #20 car next season as Tony will go on to his Stewart-Haas car owner duties.

The goal is to get Logano in a fourth Sprint Cup car by the Richmond Race…THIS SEASON! The last race before the Chase is officially underway.

NASCAR.com reports: “In no way will JGR jeopardize any of those cars’ chances of making the Chase [by putting Logano in a Cup car at Richmond],” the source said. “They don’t even want to risk the appearance of possibly jeopardizing the Chase chances of the other three cars.”

The regular NASCAR fans know that Joey Logano is a great race car driver, his track record in the Nationwide Series is far superior to most of the drivers running in the Nationwide Series full time, in 9 Natiowide Series starts he’s won once, got 2 poles and 3 top five finishes. But the big question is…is it too soon to be putting him into a Sprint Cup car?

What does Elliot Spitzer and Joe Gibbs Racing have in common?

Cheating. Or what the media defines as cheating. I’m personally still trying to figure and understand the details as of now, but my glass of pineapple rum and juice is clouding my common sense thinking right now. Ugh!

After the Nationwide Series Michigan race last weekend, NASCAR confiscated 10 cars. By Wednesday, NASCAR had suspended 7 Joe Gibbs Racing crew members indefinitely for attempting to “manipulate horsepower” including crew chiefs Dave Rogers, of the No. 20, and Jason Ratcliff, of the No. 18.

I am a little sad about the Dave Rogers thing, he was, I thought…a great crew chief.

There were magnets found on the gas pedals on both Tony Stewart & Joey Logano’s cars when they were examined, which NASCAR explained was a method to disguise the cars true horsepower. The Toyota cars had three percent more horsepower than the other makes. The driver’s had no idea of these circumstances.

Hopefully Tony Stewart didn’t take the time to take notes on this situation for his own race team next season.

According to NASCAR the penalties fit the crime as follows:

Tony Stewart and Joey Logano each were penalized 150 championship points and placed on probation until the end of the season. Joe Gibbs was also penalized 150 owner’s points.

I’m sure this means a lot to them seeing that Stewart will not be racing in the Nationwide Series for the rest of the season and Logano has been racing for part of the season.

Crew cheifs Ratcliff and Rogers were suspended and fined $50,000 each.

Dorien Thorsen, Michael Johnson, and Toby Bigelow, all of the No. 18, and Richard Bray, and Dan Bajek, of the No. 20, have been placed on indefinite suspension.

ESPN reports that JGR would not appeal the penalties. He also claimed that he had no knowledge of the cheating.

Yeah, and I drink on the job with my boss sitting in his office across the way.

AP reports: “In 17 years we have never had any representative of Joe Gibbs Racing knowingly act outside of NASCAR’s rules, and that is something we consider essential to how we operate on a daily basis,” Gibbs said in a statement. “What we have determined is that these individuals involved used extremely poor judgment.”

Maybe with the big boys on suspension some of the full-time Nationwide drivers can shine for once?

After four years of racing in Mexico with the NASCAR Nationwide Series, it looks like NASCAR will not be coming back for the 2009 season due to attendance drops.

The speculations for the drop in attendance is in part to the lack of drivers from Mexico running in the series.

“From a team’s perspective, we will save costs by moving to another domestic venue. From a sponsorship vantage point, Mexico City was positive and negative. Positive for multinational companies such as 3M, and negative for companies who had no product distribution in Mexico and therefore could not activate their sponsorships in Mexico. All in all [it was] a worthwhile endeavor.” Roush Fenway Racing president Geoff Smith claims.

I guess Juan Pablo Montoya and Kyle Busch is not enough Mexican for them! (Hey – I’ve read the speculations that Kyle Busch is an alien…so for the sake of it, we’re calling him out.)

However, NASCAR claims that it is not dropping efforts to build the fan base in Mexico. It looks like its Adios Mexico for now.

Tony Stewart’s luck may not be looking up in the Sprint Cup Series, but luck has been on his side in the NASCAR Nationwide Series as he wins his 5th victory (out of seven starts) last Saturday in the Camping World RV Sales 200.

So far in the Nationwide Series season, the #20 car has seen victory 8 out of 17 times; Five wins from Stewart, 1 from Hamlin and Kyle Busch, and one with the popular rookie, Joey Logano.

On Stewart’s final pit stop of the race, pit strategy played in his favor as his crew chief, Dave Rogers opted to only take two tires which put Stewart restarting third.

“I look up and they’re all coming,” Rogers said. “It was a parking lot, and I knew if we got back in traffic, we would never make it to the front. This is a track position race.”

Stewart took over the lead around lap 136 from Carl Edwards where he dominated until the end of the race. Finishing right behind Stewart were his teammates, Hamlin finishing second, and Kyle Busch finishing third.

“That last stop is what won the race for us,” Stewart said. “To get track position and be able to stay up front and not have to overdrive the car or abuse the tires was the key to the win.”

When I herd Joey Logano was starting in the Nationwide Series I will admit I was a little excited, after reading all the news stories revolving around him and looking at his track record of succesful wins and top 10 spots that put me to sleep before I could finish reading them all, I couldn’t wait to see what this kid was all about.

When he made his Nationwide Series debut almost five races ago, I was preparing for my “baby” cousins high school graduation, I missed it. A week later, I was drowning in laundry and the house was falling apart and dogs and ferret were dirty and flea infested…I missed it again. Last weekend, my cousin’s graduation party which for some reason, required me to help setup, run and clean up afterwards…Joey Logano wins a race and I bang my head against the wall for not dragging a TV to the grad party to watch it.

This was the weekend I could finally sit down with a beer, my recliner popped up and watch the race, I was excited to finally see Joey Logano in action. An hour before race time…

POP!

A transformer down my street blows and we loose power. Lucky me! The electric company will come out and fix it in time for me to view it mid-race, right?

WRONG!

I spent the rest of the night with a light headband and a book in front of my face. To which I have to say, I have not read anything in a while and it was very relaxing, but darnit, so would have watching a race! Dur! Arrgh!

I guess I could start a new fad with the light headband thing now!

So once again, Joey Logano and I are seperated! I will sound like a  NASCAR Nerd for complaining that I am disapointed, but I am! So wah, wah, wah….and WAH!

Obviously the power came back on…at 1AM and to which I immediatly got on the internet to find out who won. Thanks for Diary of a Track Bunny and Do You NASCAR? for being so punctual on updates and saving me from trying to surf the confusing mess that is NASCAR.com.

For posterity sake, your Top 10 Race Results: