By Richard Allen

Yesterday, I posted pieces on what I believe Mark Martin( http://racingwithrich.com/?p=1267) and Kasey Kahne( http://racingwithrich.com/?p=1268) have to race for over the next eleven weeks despite the fact that neither will be racing for the Sprint Cup championship in 2010. Each of those drivers have legitimate reasons for not giving up on a season that will not offer the ultimate prize in NASCAR.

The subject of this particular piece is what Dale Earnhardt, Jr. has to race for over the next eleven weeks even though, like Martin and Kahne, a championship is not in the works in 2010. I also plan to do similar pieces on likely non-Chasers Jamie McMurray and Juan Pablo Montoya. Of each of the five drivers either already written about or about to be written about, the answer to what Junior has to race for over the next eleven races is almost certainly the most obvious.

Junior is racing to revitalize a career that has over the past several years taken a turn for the worse in a dramatic way. This driver who once looked to be on his way to a championship type career has not won a single race in over two years and has won only one race over the past four seasons.

He and his team need something, anything, to hang their hats on. A win, a series of solid runs, or anything of the kind is something this team could use in the most desperate way.

In a recent press conference, team owner Rick Hendrick was asked if he intended any crew chief changes for any of his teams for 2011. He stated his intention of keeping each of his current teams intact, including that of Junior and Lance McGrew.

These two need something to happen that will show they can succeed together over an extended period of time.

And more than just providing momentum for his team, a good showing for Junior over the course of the next eleven races could go a long way toward reinvigorating a large fan base that so badly wants something positive to cheer about.

Of all drivers currently locked out of the Chase for the Championship, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. has the most obvious reason for why he needs to do well in spite of the fact that he has no chance of winning the Sprint Cup. So many depend on him. His team, his fans and NASCAR all would like nothing better than to see him do well and build momentum toward a more successful 2011.

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Richard Allen is a member of the National Motorsports Press Association. His weekly columns appear in The Mountain Press and The Knoxville Journal.

By Richard Allen

I have followed NASCAR racing for as many of my 42 years as I can remember and I have to say that Kasey Kahne is in one of the stranger situations of any driver I can ever recall.

When the announcement was made back in April of this year that Kahne would drive the #5 car for Hendrick Motorsports in 2012, he was essentially made into a lame duck driver for two seasons with two different teams.

With still more than two-thirds of the 2010 schedule remaining at the time of that announcement, the Enumclaw, Washington driver had made it known he would not be returning to Richard Petty Motorsports next season. But also, since he would not be able to immediately assume a place at HMS, he would come into whatever situation presented itself in 2011 as an immediate lame duck.

So, what does a driver in such an odd situation have to race for over the next eleven weeks, especially considering that driver has no chance of winning the championship?

Consider this, Kahne has been the driver of the red #9 car since 2004. He has gone through a series of ownership changes from Ray Evernham Motorsports to Gillett- Evernham Motorsports to Richard Petty Motorsports. He, not the ownership, has been the rock of stability for that particular organization, or organizations.

While his tenure has been one of decent success with eleven race wins and two Chase runs, it would seem appropriate that he win at least once more before Marcos Ambrose takes the reins of that car. A win would go a long way toward leaving a positive taste in everyone’s mouth at the end of his seven year tenure in the only Sprint Cup ride he has ever had.

Before Kahne moves over to Team Red Bull to begin his second lame duck stint in as many years, he will be racing for the pride of himself, his team and for his legacy as the driver of what has become one of the sport’s most recognizable machines.

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Richard Allen is a member of the National Motorsports Press Association. His weekly columns appear in The Mountain Press and The Knoxville Journal.

By Richard Allen

Barring some unbelievable miracle, Mark Martin is not going to make the 2010 Chase for the Championship. And considering that 2009 was one of the most successful seasons in the Batesville, Arkansas driver’s career, that has to sting.

So for a driver who has accomplished so many things in racing aside from a NASCAR Sprint Cup championship, what is there to race for over the remaining portion of a season in which a title is not a possibility?

Well, for Martin there is plenty to race for. Keep in mind that this is a driver who has already had his replacement named despite the fact that his current contract does not expire until the end of the 2011 season. Kasey Kahne was tapped to drive the Hendrick Motorsports #5 car even when Martin still had over 50 races remaining in his tenure aboard that ride.

Despite the fact that statements were made to the contrary by just about all parties involved, the move took on the appearance that HMS was trying to hurry the 51 year old driver out the door to make way for his younger and more marketable replacement. On more than one occasion this year Martin’s frustration with the situation has been made more than a little apparent.

What Martin has to race for over the next eleven races is the attention of his team. While everyone involved will no doubt say all the right things during Martin’s final year and a third at HMS, it is only human nature for people to look forward, especially when they already know such a major piece of the equation as who the next driver will be.

If Martin is able to win a race or two and is able to be a consistent front runner over these final races of 2010 then his crew will be able to stay focused on his needs rather than allow their minds to wander toward the needs of Kasey Kahne.

Should Martin flounder over these final races, his hopes for a championship run in 2011 could suffer a serious blow before the final checkered flag falls on 2010.

What does Mark Martin have to race for over the next eleven weeks? He is racing for to show his team that he, not Kasey Kahne, is their driver and that his needs in the #5 Chevrolet should be taken care of before all other considerations.

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Richard Allen is a member of the National Motorsports Press Association. His weekly columns appear in The Mountain Press and The Knoxville Journal.

By Richard Allen

The Race to the Chase is essentially over with still a full week to go before the cutoff. Clint Bowyer currently holds the 12^th and final playoff spot by a commanding 117 point lead over 13^th place Ryan Newman. So, with the Chase for the Championship participants all but decided, what will happen in Richmond?

When the Chase format was first devised many fans, competitors and media members immediately looked to the 26^th race in Richmond as one that would provide great drama at a point in the season in which NASCAR could use great drama as football season kicks off.

However, that Chase deciding race has not always provided the type of nail biting excitement originally envisioned. Rather, drivers have had a tendency to find the place where they need to run to secure their playoff spot and just ride there. Instead of creating more intensity, the Chase has actually seemed to create less.

With no real drama within those first twelve spots this year, there is little more for drivers to do than race for the win. And that is true of those locked inside the Chase and those locked out.

A win for those locked into the Chase would provide much desired bonus points since each race win adds ten points to a driver’s total once everything is reset for the playoff. Five drivers currently inside the top-12 have no bonus points to look forward to as they have no wins thus far in 2010. A win in Richmond could change that for one of these drivers. Also, a win for any driver going into the Chase could provide a shot of momentum at just the right time.

For drivers outside the Chase, a win could salvage a non-championship contending season. For drivers such as Newman, Jamie McMurray and David Reutimann, a win could add to previous victories and give either of those drivers and teams something to show sponsors and supporters alike that their seasons have been successful despite having no chance at a series title.

With a first race win of the year, drivers such as Mark Martin, Kasey Kahne and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. could show that their seasons have not been a total loss in 2010.

Only two drivers, Bowyer and Greg Biffle, have to worry about scoring enough points to clinch a spot in the Chase, and they do not have much to worry about. Bowyer needs only a 28^th place result while Biffle only needs a 42^nd, and that’s if Newman wins the race and leads the most laps.

So, since there are very few worries in regard to points this weekend, the Richmond race has a chance to be among the most exciting of the season. The only motivation 41 drivers have going into this weekend is to win, and nothing else. That could make for some real drama, just not the type of drama NASCAR had envisioned when it set up this championship system.

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Richard Allen is a member of the National Motorsports Press Association. His weekly columns appear in The Mountain Press and The Knoxville Journal.

By Richard Allen

It was well documented a few weeks ago that NASCAR had fined some of its drivers for making comments and social networking posts the heads of the sport deemed detrimental. Virtually every major professional sports league has done that very thing at one time or another so to hear that NASCAR had done it was not necessarily surprising. It was just unusual that the organization had attempted to do it secretly in a sport that has long been known for its inability to keep secrets.

With all that said, I have compiled a list of things NASCAR ought to consider fining drivers and others for in the future. Here are those things:

1. Any driver who gets out of his car after a finish of any place other than first and says, “It was a good points day for us” should be fined $100,000 and have all driver and owner points for that day taken away for not understanding that fans don’t want to hear how great his 6^th place run was.

2. Any driver who gets out of his car after a wreck and says, “My spotter didn’t tell me…” should be fined $50,000 and made to drive that same wrecked car in the next race for not understanding that it is he and not the spotter driving the car.

3. Any driver who gets out of his car after a race and says, “If I only had one more lap” should be fined $25,000 for not understanding that the race distance is posted before hand, and besides, many of these races go extra distance anyway so there is no reason for such a statement.

4. Any driver who after a confrontation with another driver says, “I’m sure we’ll text each other and work it out” will be fined $1,000 per letter for any text or social networking post made in the upcoming week.

5. Any driver who shows up for a driver introduction with a spotless uniform and no grease under his fingernails will be fined $25,000 for not understanding he works in a sport that inherently requires grease on clothes and hands.

6. Any driver who complains about the comfort of his motor coach and/or the parking space of said coach will be fined $25,000 and made to stay the entire weekend in the seediest motel within 100 miles of the track.

7. Any driver who complains about his flight to a track in his private jet will be fined $25,000 and will be made to travel home on the worst looking bus that can be found.

8. Any TV or radio personality who mentions fuel mileage before the halfway point of any race will be made to drive home with half the amount of gas as would normally be required so that he or she will have to drive at a ridiculously slow speed with hundreds of angry race fans bearing down on him or her.

As you can see, there is a great deal of sarcasm in this post. However, perhaps NASCAR would be well served to consider some of these things nonetheless.

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Richard Allen is a member of the National Motorsports Press Association. His weekly columns appear in The Mountain Press and The Knoxville Journal.

By Richard Allen

Remember when the talk around this time of year was whether or not some of the lower tier teams in NASCAR would find sufficient sponsorship for the next season? Well, that’s not exactly the case now.

For the second year in a row an organization that fields cars for a former Sprint Cup champion is searching for a backer. Last year, Roush Fenway Racing had to shuffle Crown Royal, which sponsored a team being forced to fold by a NASCAR team limit mandate, over to Matt Kenseth’s #17 Ford. Kenseth had been sponsored by DeWalt Tools since his rookie season prior to that company’s announcement they would leave the sport in 2010.

At first, Crown Royal only looked to place its name on Kenseth’s machine for a limited number of races. However, after RFR searched for additional sponsorship, it was finally announced that Crown Royal would be the primary backer on the car of the 2003 champion for the bulk of the 2010 season.

This year, it is Hendrick Motorsports looking to find sponsorship on the car #24 of four time champion Jeff Gordon. Longtime backer DuPont has announced a decision to reduce their role with the team and driver they have worked with for the better part of two decades.

Rumors initially had it that retailing giant Wal-Mart was going to step in and take up the slack left by DuPont in 2011. But now, such does not appear to be the case as it has been reported that the company issued a recent statement denying those rumors.

The fact that for the second year in a row a former champion is losing a longtime sponsor and is having to scramble to find a new backer speaks volumes. It speaks to the fact that the economy has drained companies that once seemed to have money available to throw away. It speaks to the high price of competing in this sport. And, it speaks to the fact that companies no longer seem to be lining up for a chance to be associated with NASCAR and its teams, no matter who the driver/spokesman might be.

Like Kenseth, Gordon will have sponsorship. However, obtaining that sponsorship will not be the foregone conclusion it would have been a few years ago for a still competitive former champion.

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Richard Allen is a member of the National Motorsports Press Association. His weekly columns appear in The Mountain Press and The Knoxville Journal.

By Richard Allen

When NASCAR developed the Chase for the Championship playoff system they no doubt envisioned a somewhat wild scramble for positions among those running just inside and just outside the qualifying spots as the races wound toward the cutoff. This year, that has not been the case at all.

Since the Coke Zero 400 in Daytona, which was the 18^th race of the season, there have been only a scant few changes within the top-12. As a matter of fact, just three drivers(Clint Bowyer, Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt, Jr.) have exchanged positions around that final Chase qualifying spot over those past six events.

Currently, Bowyer holds the 12^th spot, where he has been for the last two races. For that matter, he has been in the 12^th spot after five of those most recent six races. Martin had only one week in the top-12 since Daytona while Earnhardt left that race on the 2.5 mile Florida track in the top-12 for the last time in 2010.

In other words, the top-12 has had virtually no change since the halfway mark of the season. It’s been pretty much the same twelve guys for six weeks. That’s not the way it was intended.

Bowyer now leads Jamie McMurray by an even 100 points and Martin by 101 with only two races remaining before the Chase field is set. Barring some sort of disaster, there isn’t going to be any change in the top-12 once again going into the 26^th and final ‘regular season’ race in Richmond.

Often times, fans who oppose the Chase for the Championship argue that the playoff has in reality created a system in which drivers spend the first 26 races of the season simply riding around and collecting points. After a close look at the top-12 in the standings and just how little movement there has been around that final transfer spot, it would be hard to argue with that point of view.

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Richard Allen is a member of the National Motorsports Press Association. His weekly columns appear in The Mountain Press and The Knoxville Journal.

By Richard Allen

Throughout the 1980s the Nationwide Series(Busch Series or even Late Model Sportsman Series if you prefer) ran a few races as companion events to the Sprint Cup Series(or Winston Cup Series if you prefer) and ran a number of other races on tracks the top series did not visit at all. Essentially, the series stood alone with unique tracks and drivers that did not feel the need to do double duty every weekend.

Tracks in locales named Hickory, Rougemont, Langley, Oxford Plains and South Boston played host to NASCAR’s ‘second series’. And best of all was that when the series came to town in those places, it was the biggest thing going. Grandstands were often filled to capacity with fans who were excited that NASCAR had come to their town.

Now, the series is little more than a Saturday filler event for the tracks hosting the Sprint Cup Series. It serves as a means of providing a ticket package deal for promoters who can advertise that drivers such as Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Brad Keselowski and Kevin Harvick will race twice at their facility rather than only once.

This year, 26 of the Nationwide Series’ races will serve as companion events. Twenty-five years ago in 1985, 13 of 27 Busch Series races were run on tracks not used by the top division. Only seven unique venues are a part of the series in 2010.

All that said, Sunday’s Nationwide Series race in Montreal was a perfect example of how this series could serve as more of a stand alone circuit in today’s NASCAR. The race had a thrilling finish among three drivers who are not Cup super stars. It was run on a track not used by the top division and contested in front of a packed grandstand.

Why can’t there be more races like that rather than the drivers mentioned above racing at some place such as Michigan or California in front of an embarrassingly empty grandstand?

I am not so out of touch with reality that I do not know the answer to the question posed above is money, pure and simple. Promoters want to sell those package deals to fans and sponsors want to be associated with the biggest stars in the sport, even if only at the lower level.

However, I believe the lower series could develop their own stars if given a chance to race more often out of the shadow of the Cup regulars. There could be even more young drivers such as Trevor Bayne, Steve Wallace and Justin Allgaier looking to make their way to the top. And, more of the likes of Kenny Wallace, Morgan Shepherd and Joe Nemechek could find a home in a place where their talents could shine beyond their Cup years.

Sunday’s side by side finish of the Nationwide Series race in Montreal was one of the best endings in NASCAR this season and it did not involve Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch or Brad Keselowski. And better, the grandstands were filled with people who looked as if they enjoyed getting to see NASCAR in their area.

Instead of looking at the possibility of adding a Sprint Cup date to this place, NASCAR should be looking for more ways to create this type of atmosphere in other places with their ‘second series’.

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Richard Allen is a member of the National Motorsports Press Association. His weekly columns appear in The Mountain Press and The Knoxville Journal.