With New Sponsor And Increased Confidence, Things Are Good For Stewart

November 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

 

Stewart

Tony Stewart announced that his Stewart-Haas Racing team has received new sponsorship for this year and next from Quicken Loans, which will serve as a primary backer for Ryan Newman in 2012. It's all going well for Stewart, whose win at Martinsville put him just eight points behind Carl Edwards with three races remaining.

KANNAPOLIS, N.C. – Right now things are going along swimmingly well for Tony Stewart.

Four days ago he won the Tums Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway. The victory propelled him into second place in the point standings, just eight points behind leader Carl Edwards.

There are just three races left in the Chase for the 2011 title and more than a few predict that it all could be settled between Edwards and Stewart at the last event of the year at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

As pleasing as all that might be for Stewart the driver, perhaps now he is as equally satisfied as Stewart the team owner.

On Tuesday, Stewart announced that Quicken Loans would join Stewart-Haas Racing as a primary sponsor for the No. 39 Chevrolets driven by Ryan Newman and an associate on the No. 14 Chevys raced by Stewart.

Quicken will be Newman’s primary sponsor for nine races in 2012, coming on board with the U.S. Army, slated for 21 events and Tornados, which could be the principal backer for as many as five more.

It’s anticipated that Stewart Haas will make at least two more sponsor announcements in the future.

For any NASCAR team to acquire new financial support is a significant achievement. Sponsorship is the lifeblood of every organization and it has not been easy to gain in the last few years, largely because of the sagging economy.

As a result some organizations have gone out of business while others – make that several others – have had to enact massive layoffs.

It’s a situation that continues today and has already affected the NASCAR landscape. Two of Sprint Cup’s most powerful teams – Roush Fenway Racing and Richard Childress Racing – will likely be reduced from four teams to three because of a lack of sponsorship.

Nearly all organizations now have multiple sponsorships for their teams. This allows them to implement the competitive budgets they need without having to pitch one company for full-season financial support.

Where single sponsorships were once common, they are now prohibitively expensive and a very hard sell.

“There is still a loot of value in NASCAR and announcements like we made today prove that,” Stewart said. “But the economy is tough. I always talk to sponsors about how aggressive our team is. We are young and we’re able to step outside the box. Some of the organizations which have been around a long time kinda get in the mode of, ‘This is who were are and this is how we do it.’

“I don’t think we are stuck in that rut. We find creative ways to take what potential sponsors’ goals and objectives are and make it work for them.

“It’s nice to have multiple cars to work with. Ryan’s car has not had a single season-long sponsor and that makes it very appealing to that partner that doesn’t necessarily want spend all the money it takes to sponsor one car for one year. They can share.

“We saw that a couple of years ago with the No. 88 team (Hendrick Motorsports with partner sponsors Amp Energy Drink and the National Guard). That arrangement made things very attractive for other sponsors.”

There’s no doubt that Stewart’s victory at Martinsville enhanced his team’s value and made it more rewarding for its present sponsors with increased appeal to potential new ones.

“NASCAR racing is a performance-based industry all the way around,” Stewart said. “Whether you are on the competition side or the business side, it’s very important to win races.

“But it’s also important to be able to figure out things outside the box and not just about asking partners to write checks. It’s about how they can use the sport to grow their business.

“It is still every bit as difficult as it was two years ago when the economy fell off. We talk about the competition on the track but it’s just as tough off the track. It’s very competitive today and that is what makes having an announcement like this one very special.”

While Stewart the businessman has already achieved a measure of success, he will play a different role in the championship hunt.

It will be Stewart the competitor that gets the job done on the track. The native of Columbus, Ind., knows exactly when to make the identity change; when to put on the game face.

“I’ll put it on Thursday like I always do,” Stewart said. “I’ve been in this sport long enough to know where and when to put the right focus.”

Stewart’s win at Martinsville bolstered his, and his team’s, confidence largely because they were successful at a track on which routinely they haven’t performed well.

Stewart was so elated with the victory, and how he stood in the Chase, he suggested Edwards would be so worried he would suffer a lack of sleep.

Stewart maintains those sentiments and admits increased confidence has a lot to do with that.

“At Martinsville we had a car that, after 200 laps, looked like it was going to be one or two laps down at the end of the day,” he said. “It didn’t and that’s what gives us the sense of confidence.

“We are through the Talladegas and the Martinsvilles and now we are going places where I feel like we can control our own destiny.

“It’s nice to know that you don’t have to rely on anyone else having problems. It’s nice to know we can control our own destiny.

“It’s an awesome position to be in right now.”

Stewart feels his team can do very well at the three upcoming tracks – Texas, Phoenix and Homestead.

“Everybody in the organization has worked hard. It’s not like we’ve done something different,” said Stewart, whose three victories this year have all come in the Chase. “We are coming around to the tracks where we run well. At Martinsville, we were at a track where we don’t run well, and we got it turned around.
“But I’ve said it a million times and I’ll say it again over the next three weeks. You take it one day at a time. I said before the Chase started I didn’t think we were one of the teams that deserved to make it. I wasn’t on my list of guys I thought could win this thing.

“Now, we can win it. But we still have to go out and do our job. We have three tracks ahead that are really good for us and we look forward to running them.

“And that’s a perfect position to be in right now.”

 

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Edwards Holds On, Stewart Presses And It’s Likely To Go Down To The Wire

October 31, 2011 By Leave a Comment

With his victory at Martinsville, Tony Stewart has emerged as Carl Edwards' most serious challenger for the 2011 Sprint Cup championship. Stewart only eight points behind leader Edwards with three races to go. While anything can happen, don't be surprised if it's down to the two drivers at the last race of the year at Homestead.

If Carl Edwards wins the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup championship, believe me, he will have earned it.

It’s likely he will have done so after holding off drivers who pursued him like starving wolves.

Presently, one of those drivers is Tony Stewart, who threw down the gauntlet with snarling force after he won the Tums Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway.

The victory lofted Stewart into second place in the point standings, only eight points behind Edwards with three races remaining.

Stewart has now won three races in the Chase – he won the first two of 10 events at Chicagoland and New Hampshire – and now, after Martinsville, has an excellent opportunity to win his third career championship.

In a wild, crash-filled Martinsville event, Stewart fell out of the 20 repeatedly only to come back into contention.

He was second behind leader Jimmie Johnson on the race’s final restart with three laps to go. One lap from the finish Stewart moved to the outside of the track – where there had been little grip throughout the race – and made the pass.

Johnson might have won the race almost immediately thereafter with a “bump and run” pass, but the five-time champion chose not to make the move.

Although Stewart has two previous wins at the track, he hasn’t been particularly productive at Martinsville. He came into the Tums Fast Relief 500 with an average finish of 13.9.

When Stewart got himself in position to win on the final restart, he figured there was only one way to do it.

“To be honest I would have rather restarted third, but Jeff (Gordon) got to us and I hit the curb off of four before the restart,” he said. “Jeff got underneath us going into one, so I ran that second lane and pulled two car lengths and said, ‘Wow, this lane has a little bit more grip than I thought it had up there.’

“The key was just getting into one beside Jimmie, and not letting him run up the race track like he did Jeff Burton and holding him tight and letting myself have the opportunity to at least get through there.”

Edwards, meanwhile, survived the Martinsville mayhem and wound up with a ninth-place finish at a track on which he has struggled.

Edwards knew he was vulnerable to his challengers at Martinsville, where he’s never won and has an average finish of 16.9.

But with his sixth top-10 finish in seven Chase races – best among all competitors – the Roush Fenway Racing team driver maintained the points lead he has now held for five weeks.

“That’s just a gift to have finished in ninth and have the day we had,” Edwards said.

“We were so bad. With about 200 laps to go I was
thinking, ‘OK, the Cardinals didn’t give up the other night.’  That was a little motivation. ‘The Missouri Tigers didn’t give up the other night.’ That was more motivation.

“I had become OK with the fact that we were probably gonna finish 20th or 25th. I was thinking
already about Texas and how we were gonna have to go there and everything we were gonna do, but my guys stuck with it and we got very, very fortunate.

“I’m just glad we can move on.”

Teammate Matt Kenseth, who was second in points, 14 behind Edwards when the race began, was one of many involved in numerous on-track incidents.

A crippled Kenseth wound up in 31st place and unlike his teammate, did not survive at Martinsville where he, too, had a mediocre performance record.

As result Kenseth fell to fifth in points, 36 in arrears and faces huge odds to win a title.

Drivers in the Chase took the top five positions in the Tums Fast Relief 500. Johnson was the runnerup, Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon was third, Kevin Harvick finished fourth and four-time Martinsville winner Denny Hamlin was fifth.

However, some of the top-five Chase finishers, and others, won’t figure in the championship scenario over the final three races – or at best have only a slight chance to win the title.

Even though he moved from seventh to sixth in points with his near-victory at Martinsville, Johnson is 43 points out of the lead – so daunting it would appear he will not win a sixth straight title.

Penske Racing’s Brad Keselowski came to Martinsville third in points, 18 behind, but saw what surely wound have been a top-five finish ruined when he was spun by Hamlin, who was whacked by Dale Earnhardt Jr., late in the race.

Keselowski wound up 17th and is now fourth in points, 27 behind with an uphill climb to the title.

Kyle Busch was sixth in points prior to Martinsville and dominated the first half of the race only to become one of the many crash victims – and that of a pit error in which he lost his left-front wheel because the lug nuts were not tightened.

He finished 27th and is now seventh in points, 57 behind and, most likely, has to wait until next year.

Like Stewart, Richard Childress Racing’s Harvick came away from Martinsville as a serious title contender.

With his fourth-place run, he moved from fifth to third in points, 21 behind Edwards and, therefore, still in the hunt.

Here’s the scenario as the Chase enters its final three races:

Edwards holds on, but barely, after Stewart’s victory, which makes the Stewart Haas Racing owner/driver his most pressing challenger.

Harvick is still in the mix in third place, 21 points down. Keselowski, in fourth and 27 down, has a chance.

Realistically, it’s all down to four drivers at best. Before Martinsville, it was also considered that only four drivers remained in the championship mix.

But the point separation between first and second is now much closer than it was.

If it all comes down to Edwards and Stewart, none of us should be surprised.

That is not lost on Stewart.

“Carl Edwards had better be real worried,” he said. “That’s all I’ve got to say. He’s not going to sleep for the next three weeks.”

“He’s wound up,” Edwards responded. “He won the race. We’ll see what happens at Texas. I feel
like we’re gonna go there and have as good a shot to win as anyone.”

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NASCAR’s Smallest Track May Be Big Player In Championship Outcome

October 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment

H. Clay Earles, the late founder of Martinsville Speedway, had a goal of making his half-mile track one of the most unique in all of motorsports. He succeeded as the track today is one of the most fan-friendly in NASCAR. It's also been the site of some good racing and it could play a key role in this year's Chase.

MARTINSVILLE, Va. – I truly believe that one of the goals the late H. Clay Earles had when he built the half-mile Martinsville Speedway was that it become a track that mattered; one that gained some notoriety in the world of professional auto racing.

When the speedway was completed in 1948 that goal didn’t seem difficult to attain. With the exception of Indianapolis and a few other large tracks in the Midwest and Northeast, every racing oval in the Southeast was the same – dirt, wooden fencing and rickety grandstands.

A fan that went into the outhouses that served as restrooms didn’t find much in the way of plumbing. There was a flat wooden seat with a hole to the ground and the floor was dirt. So, uh, take you pick.

Earles wanted Martinsville to be nothing like that. He didn’t want his track to be a place fathers told their daughters never, never to go. That edict was prevalent in the ‘40s and ‘50s.

Earles’ reasoning was logical and financially sound.

He determined that if he converted his speedway into a place where a man would feel comfortable taking his family for a Sunday outing, Martinsville could attract more people, and sell more tickets.

So over the years Earles constantly made improvements and added amenities.

He paved the track in the ‘50s after he saw those few female fans that attended Martinsville races leave with their high heels full of dust. Many swore never to return.

To Earles plumbing was a good thing. So restrooms became exactly that – real bathrooms with flushing toilets, toilet paper, sinks, soap, paper towels and everything else. And there were plenty of them.

As time passed there was something else. These restrooms were actually attended by folks whose job was to see that the facilities were cleaned and restocked.

That was an Earles innovation that other NASCAR tracks didn’t adopt for years.

Earles didn’t have a problem with folks bringing beverages, or lunch into the track. But he reasoned that if he provided good food at his concession stands for a very reasonable price, fans would be more inclined to purchase rather than brown-bag.

He provided bargains. For many years the most expensive item on the menu was a hamburger for $2. A hot dog cost a buck.

As any NASCAR aficionado knows, the Martinsville hot dog has become famous – at least among those who like it, and there are plenty of them.

It doesn’t cost a dollar any more but that doesn’t stop anyone. Drivers and crew members have been seen leaving a concession stand with boxes, yes boxes, of them.

Some folks like to brag about how many of them they ate over a weekend. I’m sure someone has eaten more but I’ve been told by one rather hefty fan he once ate 16.

When International Speedway Corp. purchased Martinsville Speedway a few years ago it decided to make some changes, which, admittedly, is routine under new ownership.

But ISC tampered with the hot dog. It was a simple change. Instead of being wrapped in wax paper the dog was served in a Styrofoam tray.

There was outrage and a near mutiny in the garage area, so great you might have thought NASCAR had ruled all drivers must race in the nude.

It took less than a day for the issue to be settled. You buy a hot dog today and it’s still wrapped in wax paper.

As the years passed, Martinsville continued to make changes in an effort to remain a part of NASCAR’s elite Cup circuit.

Like what was done at other speedways, more seats and amenities were added and the garage area was completely renovated.

Martinsville remains one of just three short tracks on the Sprint Cup schedule. It joins Bristol and Richmond, which, like Martinsville, are unique in their own way and remain popular with competitors and fans.

Earles accomplished what he set out to do. After his passing others maintained his legacy.

It might be the smallest track in NASCAR and one not located in a major United States venue, but Martinsville is still a competitive lynchpin in virtually every season.

I don’t think that will be any more obvious than this weekend when the Tums Fast Relief 500 is held on Oct. 30

It will be the first of four races remaining in the Chase and could well determine which driver emerges as the champion.

If you think that is hype or at best far-fetched, consider the following:

Carl Edwards is presently first in the point standings and has a 14-point lead over second-place Matt Kenseth.

The Roush Fenway drivers have records that could be politely described as mediocre – or more bluntly, that stink.

Edwards has made 14 starts at the track, has never won, has only one top-five and four finishes among the top 10. His average finish is16.9 and he wound up 23rd in the speedway’s spring race.

Kenseth has 23 starts, no wins, two top-five runs, seven among the top 10 and has an average finish of 15.8. However, he finished sixth in the spring.

Given their past at Martinsville, I think it would be reasonable to assume that, this weekend, both Edwards and Kenseth would take any positive result they could get and be thankful for it.

That’s because the numbers clearly indicate both are vulnerable.

There are a few drivers who have to take advantage of this vulnerability, or at least turn it good performances, else their championship hopes are dashed.

Jimmie Johnson, who has won five consecutive titles, is in seventh place, 50 points in arrears. He has to gain ground at Martinsville or he’s finished.

Kyle Busch is one spot ahead of him and is 40 points in arrears. His brother Kurt is in eighth place, 52 points down and has to rely on a good run at Martinsville lest he is mathematically eliminated.

Judging by past records Johnson might be in good shape. He’s won six times at Martinsville and has an average finish of 5.0. Good stuff.

Kyle Busch has no wins and six top-five finishes but his average finish is just 15.0. His brother Kurt doesn’t have much to crow about. Yes, he’s won, but otherwise his average finish is a poor 21.0.

Of course, this is all about numbers, but it clearly establishes a very important Chase scenario.

Unless two drivers, who are, incidentally, atop the standings, can reverse their past fortunes at Martinsville it’s like they will fall prey to others.

Three drivers whose title hopes are fading will either see them restored or dashed altogether at Martinsville – and only one has a record to suggest any sort of positive outcome.

All of this helps make the Martinsville race intriguing. Indeed, all sorts of scenarios could play out, but then, that just adds to the anticipation of what might happen at the half-mile track Earles built.

His speedway has long since gained the notoriety and significance he sought.

And now, it’s likely to be a major player in the outcome of what may become one of the closest fights for a championship in NASCAR’s history.

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Tampering With Qualifying Dates Nothing New In NASCAR

April 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

MARTINSVILLE, Va. – There was a lot of buzz about today’s qualifying for the Goody’s Fast Relief 500.
For the first time at Martinsville Speedway, time trials will take place on a Saturday, starting today at 12:10 p.m ET, just before the start of the Camping World Truck Series race. That’s what’s caused the buzz.

Not that it was entirely unexpected. Earlier we learned that several races held this year at International Speedway Corp. tracks, and others, would have qualifying shifted to a Saturday.
Martinsville is the first, so naturally the revised schedule got a lot of scrutiny, which fostered several opinions.

On Friday, the Sprint Cup teams completed two 90-minute practice sessions. That was their schedule for the day.
Today, they will be at the track to run just two qualifying laps. That’s it. And the truck race will follow.
Now, the idea is that fans can get more bang for the buck with Sprint Cup qualifying and a truck race held on the same day.

And since that day is Saturday, there’s likely to be more fans in attendance.
“I’m all about what’s best for the show,” said Richard Childress Racing driver Kevin Harvick. “If it’s best for the show for us to have qualifying on a Saturday, then that’s what we need to do.”

Other drivers are not so lavish with their praise. Their contention is that the schedule is awkward and a burden.
“We just have to cram everything together,” said Penske Racing driver Kurt Busch on Friday. “That includes race trim and qualifying trim. I would expect lap totals to be close to 250 and that’s half a race.

“Tomorrow it’s just going to be two laps and that’s where a driver has to step up and show what he can do for his team and make sure he gets the best out of his car.”
Busch, however, agrees that if the new schedule is best for the fans, then that’s as it should be.

Ryan Newman, who drives for Stewart-Haas, said: “I just don’t want to come here for a day and just qualify.
“Coming here, I have the opportunity to go back and forth so coming up tomorrow for two laps is not the most planned, I guess you could say, use of everyone’s time.

“I’m not mad about it but I don’t see that it makes entire sense right now.”
Many observed that the new schedule mirrors that of “impound” races, of which, this year, there remain only a few.
How Saturday qualifying holds up at Martinsville and elsewhere remains to be seen.
But, as I’ve said many times before, what happens in NASCAR today has happened in the past – and that includes fooling around with Sprint Cup qualifying dates.

You might find some of this hard to believe, but it’s true.
For many years, Martinsville staged not one, not two, but three days of qualifying.
The first round was held on Thursday and, get this, only 10 cars were permitted into the field. On Friday a second round usually increased the field to 30 cars. Then a third round, on Saturday, would complete the starting lineup of, usually, 36 cars.
Martinsville wasn’t the only track that adopted this quirky system. North Wilkesboro did, too.

It was the same process – qualifying for the top 10 on Thursday, followed by a second round and then, sometimes, a third.
The reasoning behind this didn’t have as much to do with the fans as it did the media.
Martinsville President Clay Earles and Enoch Staley, the boss at North Wilkesboro, both reasoned that if they had three days of qualifying, that could provide them with more newspaper coverage.

Without the Internet and only minimal television coverage, if any, newspapers were the primary tools of race track publicity.
So the more time reporters had to spend at a track to gather the news, the better it was for the tracks – at least that is what Earles and Staley believed. Common sense dictated three days of coverage was better than two.

But when it came to spending an extra day at a track, the media and competitors didn’t see where there was any common sense involved.
If one extra day seemed nonsensical, how about two?
For years Charlotte Motor Speedway held qualifying for the Coca-Cola 600 on Wednesday – and the race wasn’t scheduled until Sunday.

That meant competitors spent five days at the speedway. On some days there wasn’t much to do. There was plenty of grousing.
Best we could figure, Bruton Smith, the CEO of Speedway Motorsports Inc., which owns Charlotte and other tracks – which won’t hold qualifying on Saturday – wanted to have something as close to a Daytona Speedweeks as he could get.
It evolved that while CMS still held qualifying on Wednesday, there was no NASCAR activity on Friday.

The late Dick Beaty, then the Winston Cup Director, told me, “If we’re gonna have to be here Wednesday, we’re gonna take a day off.”
Today, of course, qualifying at CMS is on Thursday. Martinsville dropped its three-day policy years ago.
But it has something new now for the fans – that will, ultimately, determine if it is right or wrong.

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Martinsville: Personal Recollections Of A Professional Past

March 31, 2011 By 6 Comments

MARTINSVILLE, Va. – I must beg your indulgence. But I would like to offer some personal recollections from my professional past.

That I experience them now is unavoidable because they involve Martinsville Speedway.

My first occupation in newspapers was as a sports writer for the Martinsville Bulletin. I stumbled into the job.

I walked into the newspaper offices, met the managing editor and asked him if he needed a sports writer. He said yes. I was hired after 20 minutes.

NASCAR racing at Martinsville Speedway was the only professional sport the city had – as it is today.

Martinsville was a half-mile track built in 1947 that, in time, played host to NASCAR competition on its Grand National (much later Sprint Cup), Late Model Sportsman (now Nationwide Series) and Modified circuits.

As a rookie on a small staff – three – the task fell to me to cover Martinsville’s races.
I might as well been asked to translate the Koran.

When I set out to report on my first NASCAR race, needless to say, I was lost. My experience? I had heard of Richard Petty. That was about it.

I was told to contact Dick Thompson, the speedway’s public relations director. I was assured he would give me advice, guidance and all the information I’d need.

I learned that Thompson came from a newspaper background. He had been a sports writer for the Roanoke Times and had been tapped by Martinsville President H. Clay Earles to be one of the very few full-time PR directors then employed.

Thompson knew what sports writers needed because he’d been one. He made all information easily available to them and did more, much more. He was soon recognized as one of the best in the business.

So he certainly knew how to indoctrinate me into stock car racing, which he did. But he did more.
Thompson not only gave advice and direction that allowed me to write competent stories for the Bulletin, he also taught me how to go beyond simple reporting and best serve the readers.

He instilled in me something I have never forgotten. He said it was important to report the news, which is something he knew I had to do. But he also said anyone could do that.

He stressed that what takes more dedication, effort and talent, and ultimately is more compelling, is to tell stories about the people in racing. Let readers know who they are, where they came from, in what they believe and what they care to express about the issues of the day.

In other words, he said, always try to give the readers something they can’t find anywhere else – be original. And that can be easy because very person in racing has a story.

I always tried to follow his lessons and, fortunately, I had my successes.

I experienced enough of them, I think, to be hired by the much bigger Roanoke World-News after a year at Martinsville. It was, in a two-paper city, the afternoon edition and has been gone for years.

I continued to cover motorsports in Roanoke, but now, things were a bit different. The paper had – gasp! – expense accounts and company cars.
The big thrill for me was that I was now able to cover more races than ever. There was Martinsville, of course, but there were also Richmond, Bristol, Darlington, Rockingham, North Wilkesboro, Atlanta and, if I got lucky and the bean counters approved, Daytona.

I also had a traveling partner. He worked for the sister paper at that time, the morning Times. His name was Bob Adams and rest assured, his knowledge of NASCAR, and the contacts therein, were far, far greater than mine.

His nickname was “Boomer.” Reckon that was because he had both imposing size and voice. I also have to think it was because of his prodigious appetite.

I once asked him, “Boomer, how far is it from Roanoke to Daytona?”
He answered, “About 11 Dairy Queens.”
Once, Boomer, at the Gangplank restaurant in Florence, S.C., ate over 400 steamed shrimp. Thompson counted ‘em.

Boomer could have held me in complete disdain as a rookie beneath his attention. He never did. During our travels we always talked, laughed and spent time together away from the track.

He gave me advice and taught me lessons.
When we went to Martinsville, we had our jobs to do but we always found time to spend with Thompson and Earles, who also were, at several races, cocktail (not Thompson – drinks for him were tea and Pepsi) and dinner partners.

Boomer and I weren’t stupid. We always knew that our cordial relationships with Earles and Thompson could have been cultivated for a purpose, which was to make us, shall we say, allies and provide as much positive news as possible.

However, we became convinced it was never that way.
There were two important reasons. First, we all genuinely liked one another and enjoyed our company.
Second, at no time were Boomer and I asked specifically to write something in a positive light for, or in favor of, Martinsville Speedway.
I recall all of this because, at a very early stage of my career, I was fortunate. I had positive influences where I might not have had any.

I might not have been shown any direction, any friendship and, ultimately, any motivation to provide readers with the best I could offer. But I did.

So again excuse me for a personal indulgence, but when I return to Martinsville, I am always reminded of how much the speedway, and two of its most important and influential people, has meant to my career.

Clay Earles passed away on Nov. 16, 1999. Dick Thompson departed on Oct. 28, 2009.
“Boomer,” I know you are still out there, buddy. “Nutsy” says hello and thank you.

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Martinsville Television Ratings Should Climb

March 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Bristol and Fontana brought the averages television ratings down, but in the aggregate not by much. Bristol was a fan revolt and Fontana was only slightly down. Martinsville should climb in the ratings as it’s close quarter and physical. Just what the fans want to see. www.motorsportsunplugged.com

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