Vickers, Aaron's to Race Full-Time for Waltrip Racing in '14, '15

Brian Vickers poses with his new ride for 2014 (Google Images)

In what was arguably one of the worst kept secrets in the garage area, it was officially announced Tuesday afternoon that Brian Vickers will pilot Michael Waltrip Racing's No. 55 Camry with funding from longtime Waltrip sponsor Aaron's on the 2014 and 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series tours. What was surprising was the announcement that the lease-to-own retailer will be on Vickers's hood for every one of the 36 events on tap for next year. Full season sponsorships are few and far between in this day and age and 2014 will mark the first time Aaron's has backed a driver full-time since they did so for David Reutimann's No. 00 team back in 2009.

"This is huge," said the 29-year-old Vickers. "This is for me a very special moment, something I wasn’t sure would ever happen again. … It is an accomplishment itself to be back (in Cup) full time but the hard work is still ahead of us. We still have to go out and perform."

 Vickers and his team have already done so this season, scoring a win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. While the victory did not seal the deal for Vickers, Aaron’s CEO Ronald Allen did say that it didn't hurt. He also called the Thomasville, NC native "a real competitor, which is important. He wants to win races. And he has the character and integrity that we look for in folks who represent Aaron’s."



Brian Vickers and the Aaron's Dream Machine at
New Hampshire Motor Speedway (Google Images)

Waltrip made no bones about the fact that he wanted Vickers to run the No. 55 for the championship next year, saying so fairly emphatically after the driver won his third career Cup race this past July at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. But getting a deal done that would make that hope a reality was not as simple as it appeared on the surface. Aaron's has also been funding an ARCA car and Camping World Series truck for  up-and-comer Chase Elliott, son of 1988 NASCAR Winston Cup champion Bill Elliott, at Hendrick Motorsports. Team owner Rick Hendrick had been looking for the company to provide more funding to enable the younger Elliott to run a full slate of Nationwide Series races next season. Allen said that  the No. 55 team will, in fact, be the company's focus and that they will be spending more on Vickers than they have this past season. However, they would not disclose just how much more.


Aaron's has also proven to be one of the more fickle sponsors in the garage area. After winning two races and four pole starts with the aforementioned Reutimann (once known as "The Franchise" around the MWR shop) at the wheel, the company decided to unceremoniously dump the driver with three races left in the 2011 campaign, despite his having two years left on his contract with MWR. Since then, Aaron's has enjoyed decidedly mediocre results with Vickers, Waltrip and "future Hall of Famer" Mark Martin behind the wheel. So it would have been no surprise to see them bolt for the fresh-faced and consistently fast Elliott quicker than Waltrip could say "NAPA Know How." Elliott already has four top ten results in as many Truck Series starts this season and became the youngest ARCA Series winner when he won at Pocono in June. In seven career starts in the series, he has yet to finish outside of the top ten.


Vickers (right) talks with Brad Keselowski at Martinsville (Google Images)

But the powers that be at Aaron's decided to stick with Vickers, whose career has been anything but predictable. After winning the 2003 Busch Series title for Hendrick Motorsports, Vickers was promoted to Cup full-time in 2004. After two winless seasons, he finally broke through and won the fall race at Talladega in 2006. However, this proved too little too late, as Vickers was released and subsequently signed with Toyota startup team Red Bull Racing in 2007. After another two year winless drought, Vickers and his team won a fuel mileage race at Michigan in 2009 en route to Vickers's first, and so far only, Chase berth. But just as quickly as his career caught fire, it hit another road block. Part way through the 2010 season, Vickers was sidelined after 11 races with severe blood clots cause by a hole in his heart, a condition that very well could have killed him. He did not make a return until the 2011 season, a year which saw him be fairly rough on equipment and be released when Red Bull Racing folded at year's end. Vicker's has been part-time at MWR ever since. This season he is also running for the Nationwide title in a car prepared by Joe Gibbs Racing.

The one piece of the puzzle that has not yet fallen into place is MWR's ability to resign crew chief Rodney Childers to a new contract. The team has said that they are "close," but when asked about Childers's status, officials did not sound as certain a deal would get done with him as they did about Vickers. Childers has all three of his career wins with MWR, scoring the first two with Reutimann and his latest one with Vickers. The team is hopeful that a deal will get done because Vickers and Childers have a long history in racing together, and because the crew chief's name has come up as the possible new head wrench for Kevin Havick's new team at Stewart-Haas Racing.

But the future at MWR has still become that much clearer, and both parties are very optimistic about what that future holds. Vickers told reporters, "I can't put into words how this makes me feel. I've really found my home at MWR over the past few years, and I've enjoyed getting to know the Aaron's associates and customers. I am honored that Aaron's is welcoming me into their family full-time. Knowing that I have a top-notch team and a dedicated sponsor for a full season is a really great feeling every driver dreams about, and like everyone else, I want to win races and win a championship."

Mudsummer Classic Proves NASCAR in Desperate Need of More Short Tracks

NASCAR's truckers give fans a traditional Eldora four-wide salute
before the green flag (Google Images)

At a tiny half-mile dirt track in the cornfields of Rossburg, Ohio, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series ran the sport's first race on a dirt oval in 43-years. This history making event was dubbed the Mudsummer Classic at the Eldora Speedway and sold out months in advance of its scheduled July 24th date. That same weekend, the NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series' will be competing at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This track is the synonymous with motorsports greatness, having been conquered by names like Andretti, Foyt, Unser, Mears, Gordon and Earnhardt. So, in a week with two major NASCAR events, it would stand to reason that the sport's top tier series racing at the hallowed Brickyard would garner more attention than it's third tier level racing in a cornfields in Ohio, right?

Wrong.


Despite NASCAR's top two series racing at "the Brickyard," it was the half-mile bullring of Eldora that got fans the most excited. Those in the motorsports industry and those in the grandstands had waited with baited breath for the first NASCAR-sanctioned dirt race in nearly half a century and the Mudsummer Classic did not disappoint.

After qualifying was held, five heat races were run to set the field before the event. These eight lap sprints were followed by a last-chance for those who didn't get in through their heat race, and then the evening culminated with the A-Main feature race. This type of format has been suggested by fans as one that should be adopted as the new norm for NASCAR qualifying because it provides a little extra excitement from the usual format of simply taking the quickest of the two laps that a driver runs. The feature race consisted of 150 laps which were divided into 60, 50 and 40 lap segments. This is a much different structure than the typical practice on Friday, qualify Saturday and race on Sunday. It is quicker and proved very exciting for those in attendance. The race proved to be a duel between youngsters Kyle Larson and Austin Dillon, with Dillon claiming his first truck win since 2011.


Sparks fly as Kyle Larson (30) races teammate Ryan Newman (34)
for second at Eldora (Google Images)

The next day, in Speedway, Indiana, the Nationwide Series drivers took to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Until last season, the series had always raced at Lucas Oil Raceway (formerly known as Indianapolis Raceway Park), the short track down the street from the Brickyard. The half-mile short track was always a fan favorite, selling most, if not all of its 30,000 seats annually, and it also provided some very memorable moments, such as Jason Leffler's final NASCAR win. The attraction was simply the drivers racing door-to-door, beating and banging for every position. Unfortunately, in 2012, the Nationwide Series race was moved to Indy to create what NASCAR has dubbed a "Super Weekend" to help drum up attendance for the Brickyard 400. While evidence of this moves success remains to be seen, one thing remains certain; many fans undoubtedly wish the move had never been made at all.

Instead of watching drivers rough each other up for a victory, fans saw Kyle Busch and his No. 54 team run away from the field to his eighth Nationwide win this season and a chance to kiss the bricks (which should be an honor reserved specifically for racing's top levels, not a second tier, feeder series. But that's another story). After winning the pole for the race, Busch led 92 of the race's 100 circuits en route to what would be his 59th win in the series. There was little to no passing anywhere on the track, but it made no difference since no one could touch Busch, who was in his own zip code for the better part of the afternoon. And Sunday's Brickyard 400 was simply more of the same.

While it was Ryan Newman who got to lock lips with the famous yard of bricks at the end of the race, it was Jimmie Johnson who picked up where Busch left off the day before, proving to be more than the field could handle. Only Newman's No. 39 could keep pace with Johnson and after a pit strategy call, it was Newman who beat a quickly closing Johnson to claim his first Indy win before an estimated crowd of 70,000 fans. That may sound like a decent number, but considering that the speedway can seat 257,000 people and that this race used to fill around 200,000 of those seats, it would appear that NASCAR needs to rethink its "Super Weekend" idea.


Ryan Newman poses with the yard of bricks after
 his Brickyard 400 win (Google Images)

The solution is simple and, thanks to the Mudsummer Classic, it is now right in front of the powers that be; the sport simply needs more short track races. The truck race at Eldora was the tenth most watched truck race in the history of the series and the most watched sporting event on television that night. On the other hand, ratings for the Brickyard 400 were up 9% from last year, earning a 3.6 U.S. household rating, averaging 5,460,351 viewers, according to the Nielsen Company. But as far as attendance goes, Eldora sold out months in advance, while the Brickyard sold little more than a quarter of its seats for the Cup Series race. Good television ratings are nice, but if the grandstands are empty, not many people are going to bother to tune in.

Most, if not all of the drivers in Sprint Cup cut their teeth racing on local short tracks on Saturday nights and most would probably like to see the sport make a return to its roots. Stock car racing began with drivers racing on short dirt ovals all around the southeast, and later moving to paved tracks. But the racing was hard, close and exciting. All that mattered was winning and making enough prize money to be able to run the next race. Now, the almighty dollar rules the sport and it has led NASCAR to bigger and more famous venues simply because they can afford to write a big check and host a NASCAR event. While it is a big deal for NASCAR to race at a track as famous as the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the place was not designed to host events where drivers run 3,400 lb. stock cars, and the quality of the racing there shows it every year.

Tony Stewart chastised members of the media after the Brickyard 400 who dared criticize the on-track product, saying simply, "This is RACING, not PASSING" and directed them to the highway nearby if they wanted to see cars pass one another. Well Smoke, considering you own the track that hosted the most watched hosted one of the most watched races in NASCAR history, you should know firsthand what competitive, exciting racing looks like. Passing and racing are indeed two different things. Constant passing does not make good racing, but neither does each car running in a circle three seconds behind the one ahead of it because passing is impossible. Fans want close, side by side racing, where their driver can pass and have a shot at the win, and that is just what a short track will provide them.

The ball is now in NASCAR's court. Either the sport will make a return to its roots and run on more half-mile bullrings, or it will continue to run on big, flat two-mile ovals, where passing is almost non-existent and clean air is king. It's easy to maintain the status quo, but in this instance, making changes may be just what the sport needs to do to compete against stick-and-ball sports. Hopefully, NASCAR will make the decision that is best for the sport and, just as importantly, the one that gives the fans what they want to see.

Despite Jason Leffler Tragedy, NASCAR Will Perservere

There is a quote attributed to Ernest Hemmingway which claims, "There are but three true sports -- bullfighting, mountain climbing, and motor-racing. The rest are merely games." Whether it be baseball, football, or hockey, all sports involve a certain amount of risk. But the three mentioned in the previous quote are different. Unlike other stick-and-ball sports, when a race car driver straps into his seat and rolls off the starting grid, there is a very high likelihood that he may not roll back down pit lane when the checkers wave.

This cold, hard fact was brought back to the forefront of the minds of race fans everywhere Wednesday night when Jason Leffler was taken from us much too soon due to a horrific wreck at New Jersey's Bridgeport Speedway. The former USAC champion known simply as "LEFturn" was running second in a heat race when his car hit the wall and rolled several times. Leffler was airlifted to an area hospital, where he later succumbed to his injuries. An autopsy would later reveal that a blunt force neck injury was the cause of death. Leffler was only 37-years-old.

I, like many others, had seen through Twitter that Leffler had been injured in a dirt racing accident and assumed he would be out a few races and then back again once he had recovered. I was also in the group that refused to believe that that same wreck had, in fact, claimed Leffler's life, dismissing it as a news outlet merely trying to get ahead on a story in a "Dewey defeats Truman" moment. But as more networks picked up the story, the cold, shocking, and confusing reality of what had taken place began to set in.

NASCAR fans are fortunate. We have not experienced the loss of one of our racing heroes since Dale Earnhardt was killed on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500. While that loss still lingers over the sport 12 years later, stock car racing fans are admittedly, and thankfully, out of practice when it comes to having to make sense of the tragic loss of a driver in the heat of competition. There have been numerous safety advances in out sport, namely the HANS Device and SAFER Barriers, in the years since The Intimidator was taken from us, but Leffler was lost in a dirt racing accident, where the safety advances are not as far along as those in NASCAR. Leffler was racing a 410 Winged Sprint Car when he crashed Wednesday night. These are vehicles with 410 cubic inch engines that make around 800 horsepower and are capable of getting these tiny open wheeled machines up to 160 miles per hour. With the lack of the modern safety equipment NASCAR mandates all its drivers use, when one of these cars wrecks, there is a very great potential for the unthinkable to happen.

The advancements made to keep drivers safe that NASCAR has pioneered in recent years are a Godsend. But while they have made our sport that much safer, it will never be "safe." As long as race cars can break 200 mph there is a risk that they might blow a tire or bump another car or experience a part failure and then hit the outside retaining wall or a competitor's car. Hard. Until the laws of physics are revised, this will always be the case. Even with the modern safety advances in the Sprint Cup Series, we saw Denny Hamlin miss several weeks after a hard wreck at Auto Club Speedway left him with a compression fracture in his vertebrae. Take away the safer car and HANS Device and God only knows how that wreck could have ended. Race fans are fortunate in that they only  have to endure tragedies like this but once in a blue moon. But racing is still not fair, nor will it ever be, and the sport we all love so much can sometimes break our hearts.

Race car drivers have a unique relationship with death. They flirt with it whenever they climb behind the wheel and, even after tragedies like the one Wednesday night, they still believe that the same fate simply cannot befall them.While others would cringe at the idea of strapping into an 800 horsepower missile and driving it inches from 42 other 800 horsepower  missiles on a weekly basis, men like Leffler sign up and assume the risk because it is something that they love to do. As legendary NASCAR broadcaster Ken Squire put it, "these are common men doing uncommon things." Many drivers will run on dirt tracks and in late model races on their days off from their "day jobs" in NASCAR. Names like Kahne, Stewart, Reutimann, Blaney, Yeley, Busch, Wallace, Crafton and Sauter all race in their free time because it is in their DNA. Leffler was without a full-time NASCAR ride this season, so he returned to the dirt racing that had allowed him to make his name in the first place. Racing was what he loved and lived to do. He loved speed, he loved competition and he loved winning.


But more than that perhaps, Leffler loved his 5-year-old son, Charlie Dean. And Charlie, in turn, love his father more than anything. Telling a 5-year-old boy that his father is not coming home from the race track is something that no mother should ever have to do. While many fans lost a favorite driver, Charlie Dean lost his best friend, his hero, an his father all at once. That kind of loss is simply unfathomable, unspeakable and intolerable. There are no words that can possibly describe that type of sadness. Undoubtedly the biggest tragedy in the wake of last night's accident is that Charlie's father was taken from him in the prime of his life and that his father will not be able to watch him grow into a young man.

But if there is any good news that can be taken from this horrific event, it is that new ways to make dirt racing safer may come about as a result of Leffler's tragic passing. Social media has also shown the true heat of the NASCAR community. Multiple fans on Twitter are eagerly awaiting the arrangement of a trust fund so that they can donate to help the Leffler family, show that they care about Charlie Dean and show how much they loved his father. Every fan has a driver that they love and every fan has a driver that they love to hate. But it is during times like this that fans set all that aside and we are simply one community of NASCAR fans. Because our heroes drive race cars. Sometimes they win, and sometimes they lose. And sometimes, they don't come back at all.

On Sunday, there will be a race at the Michigan International Speedway. While we are still mourning, the roar of the engines, the whine of the air guns changing tires and the cheers of the fans in the stands will be nothing but therapeutic. Because racers race, no matter what. And on Sunday, 43 drivers will do so in memory of one of their own; gone much, much too soon.

Godspeed Jason Leffler. Rest in peace.

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race,

I have kept the faith.

Finally, there is laid up for me the crown which the Lord,

the Righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day.

2 Timothy 4:7,8

BREAKING: NASCAR Racer Jason Leffler Killed in Sprint Car Wreck

Jason Leffler, 37, was killed Wednesday night in a dirt track race in New Jersey

Tragedy struck the NASCAR community Wednesday night when Jason Leffler was taken from us much too soon following a frightening wreck in a 410 Sprint car at the Bridgeport Speedway in Bridgeport, New Jersey. Leffler was running second in a heat race at the time of the accident, which was reportedly a result of a faulty part that caused the car to make contact with the outside wall. The former USAC champion was rushed to Crozer-Chester Medical Center where he later succumbed to his injuries. New Jersey State Police declared him dead shortly after 9 p.m. Leffler was just 37 years old.

 

Known among drivers and fans for his familiar faux hawk and the "LefTurn" decal that graced the roof rails of his Leffler began his career in 1999 and made 423 starts across NASCAR's three national touring series, the most recent one coming just this past Sunday at Pocono when he ran just eight laps in a start-and-park effort. But despite his many starts, he only managed just two Nationwide Series wins and a Camping World Truck Series victory. He also made three Indycar  Series starts, and finished 17th in the 2000 Indianapolis 500 Mile Race.

 

While he never truly made it at the Cup Series level, Leffler did drive for a couple of established organizations while on the Sprint Cup tour. After running a full Nationwide Series season with Joe Gibbs Racing in 2000, Leffler got his first break in 2001 with Chip Ganassi Racing in the No. 01 Cingular Wireless Dodge, running the full schedule and scoring a pole at Kansas Speedway and 10th at Homestead-Miami Speedway. It would be the only top ten of his Cup career. His ride went away at season's end after failing to qualify for five of the 36 races on the schedule.

 

The mangled remains of Jason Leffler's sprint car

After losing his first chance at NASCAR's top level, Leffler went down to the Truck Series and scored a win at Dover in 2003. He also ran a 10 Cup races for Haas-CNC Racing that same year. The 2004 season brought more success for Leffler, with the Long Beach Calif. native scoring one win and 17 top tens in 27 Nationwide Series starts for Haas-CNC. This opened up another path to the Cup Series, with Joe Gibbs Racing signing Leffler to drive their No. 11 Monte Carlo with sponsorship from FedEx. But just like his first Cup ride with Ganassi, Leffler lost the ride after just 21 races, during which time he missed the Coca-Cola 600 and was ranked 35th in the standings. The rest of the schedule was filled out by drivers like Terry Labonte, J.J. Yeley and, the team's current wheelman, Denny Hamlin.



Leffler returned to the Nationwide Series, running the tour on a full-time basis from 2006 until 2011. He found success racing cars for Braun Racing, which would later become Turner-Scott Motorsports, scoring what would be his final NASCAR win in 2007 at Indianapolis Raceway with a late pass of David Reutimann, and finishing a career best third in points that same season.



But despite spending over a decade in NASCAR, Leffler's bread and butter was dirt track racing. He was inducted into the National Midget Hall of Fame in 2003 after a career that had seen him win four USAC championships, three of which were consecutive from 1997 to 1999. He also won a USAC Silver Crown title in 1998. After not being able to find a stable, competitive NASCAR ride, Leffler spent much of this year running on dirt.

 

A devoted racer, Leffler was also a devoted father. Professionals within the racing industry and fans alike mentioned the profound effect this tragedy will have on Leffler's five-year-old son, Charlie Dean, who graduated from Kindergarten just a few weeks ago.



Jason Leffler and his son, Charlie  Dean

Nationwide Opening Day Marred By Horrific Last Lap Wreck

Kyle Larson's No. 32 as it hits the catchfence (Google Images)

 



The season opener for the 2013 NASCAR Nationwide Series was 119 laps of side-by-side action. A few spins early by Scott Lagasse, Jr and Regan Smith were the only incidents that slowed the tandem racing that was so prevalent in the Sprint Cup Series last season. The DRIVE4COPD 300 also saw 34 lead changes among 20 different cars, a record for the Nascar's second-tier series at the famed superspeedway. It was a balmy 83-degrees outside and fans were getting ready for what was shaping up to be a breathtaking finish.

But a multi-car wreck with just four laps to go meant that the field would be bunched back together for the final run to the finish. The wreck collected championship contenders Austin Dillon, Michael Annett and Elliott Sadler, as well as Joe Nemechek, Matt Kenseth, Johanna Long and a few other drivers. It was triggered when Annett tried to slide in behind Dillon, bouncing his No. 3 off Sadler's Camry and sending them both into the outside wall while Sadler drove on. Dillon took at least two more vicious hits before making it back to pit road.

But this wreck merely set the stage for what was to come. What was supposed to be an exciting finish to a fantastic race would soon go very wrong very fast.

Larson's demolished car (32) slides past Regan Smith's
to the infield (Google Images)

As the field made its way off the final turn on the last lap, Regan Smith blocked a move by Brad Keselowski in an attempt to win the biggest race of the season. Instead, the JR Motorsports driver got clipped by Keselowski's Mustang and both hit the outside wall and collected, for all intents and purposes, the rest of the field and cleared a path for Tony Stewart to win his 19th race at Daytona. This was also his seventh win in his last nine starts in this race. But as Stewart took the win, somthing very frightening had taken place behind him.

This wreck also sent the car of rookie Kyle Larson into the catch fence. When his No. 32 machine landed, everything in front of the firewall was sheared from the car. The engine lay flaming just inside the grandstand side of the fence along with a wheel. The other tire off Larson's Camaro had gone over the fence and about 20 rows into the stands, hub, spindle and all.

In total, 28 fans were given medical treatment, 14 at the track's medical facility and 14 were taken to hospitals. Twelve of those were brought up the road to Halifax Medical Center. A Halifax spokesman said that of those 12, only seven needed treatment for injuries sustained from the crash and the other five were for issues like heat exhaustion. The latest news has two of these seven fans in critical condition and unfortunately one of them is a child. The other has head trauma that hospital officials say could be life-threatening. Area police said that six people were sent to Halifax Urgent Care in Port Orange and another was transported to Florida Memorial Hospital, all for minor injuries.



Larson's engine and tire lay on the wrong side
of the catchfence (Google Images)

There will be a press conference at the track's media center tomorrow at 9 a.m. EST to update fans on the condition of those injured.
NASCAR racing is an exciting sport. Unfortunately, it is also a dangerous one. Sometimes we forget this and when we are reminded, it can be sobering to say the least. The drivers all know that they assume the risks involved when they sign up to race on a weekly basis. The fans merely show up to spend a weekend with family and friends and enjoy an exciting race. The thought of something like what happened today actually occurring is the furthest thing from their minds. But we have seen wrecks of this nature before and, while extremely rare, they are a possibility.

Larson's machine was traveling close to 200 m.p.h. and while the grandstands looked like a bomb had gone off, the fence did serve to keep the engine and, ultimately the car, from landing in the seats. This is ultimately a reminder that racing is safer, and more can and will be done to make it safer still, but it will never be entirely safe, no matter how much we want it to be.

Repairs to the fence will continue through the night and the track should be ready to go for the 55th running of the Daytona 500 Sunday morning. Please keep the fans that were injured, as well as their families, in your thoughts and prayers.

If you haven't seen the wreck yet, the video is below:

Waltrip Racing Celebrates Success, But Refuses to Acknowledge the Arduous Path There

Former MWR teammates David Reutimann (00) and Martin truex, Jr (56)
draft around Talladega in the fall of 2011.

Th 2012 season proved to be Michael Waltrip Racing's best yet. They won three races with new hire Clint Bowyer. Both Boywer and Martin Truex, Jr, now MWR's most senior driver, made the Chase for the first time in the team's history. Bowyer had a shot at the title and finished second in points. The fact is that the three car team had a banner year this past season.

The fact is also that, while 2012 was very kind to MWR, most all of their previous seasons were anything but.

Michael Waltrip started the team which bears his name in 2006, preparing to run three cars in the 2007 Daytona 500. Waltrip had a deal to drive his familiar NAPA-sponsored car and the team had also signed Dale Jarrett to drive a Camry draped in his familiar UPS colors. But there was also a third car that had yet to be filled. Some speculated the driver would be Travis Kvapil. Still others speculated Scott Wimmer would take the helm. Neither driver got the ride.

Reutimann walks from his demolished Toyota
at California in 2007

Instead it was announced at a block party in Zephyrhills, Florida that David Reutimann, a dirt track racer who had driven three seasons for Waltrip's brother Darrell in the Craftsman Truck Series, would climb behind the wheel of a Camry co-sponsored by Domino's Pizza and Burger King. The car would also carry the number 00 on the sides, a number which had always been run on dirt cars by Reutimann's grandfather and father, dirt track legend "Buzzie" Reutimann. Getting his big break in the Cup Series with his family number meant this was going to be a special year for Reutimann.
Well, that dream season quickly turned into a nightmare. Waltrip's car was found to have an unknown substance, supposedly jet fuel, in his No. 55's intake manifold prompting Nascar to confiscate his car and force him to qualify for the 500 through the Gatorade Duel races. He did and all three MWR entries made the field. But as the year progressed, Waltrip missed a whopping 22 races, Jarrett missed 12 and Reutimann missed only 10 events.

While Waltrip and Jarrett have since retired and every one of those original sponsors have left for other teams, or the sport altogether, Reutimann remained a constant at MWR.

In 2007 he was involved in a horrific wreck, which would have probably killed him had it not been for the safer barriers at California Speedway and was forced to qualify for every race from his debut in Daytona that same year through the spring Texas race in 2008. Through thick and thin, good and bad , success and failure, Reutimann stood behind his team believing that they would, one day, enjoy the same level of achievement as teams like Hendrick, Roush and Gibbs. At one point, Reutimann had the opportunity to join Richard Childress Racing, but turned the offer down to remain with the team that gave him his first big opportunity.

After winning a Busch Series race and finishing a very solid second in the series points in 2007, Reutimann finished 16th in points after nearly making the Chase in 2009 and also scored MWR's first Cup Series win in the Coca-Cola 600. But the race was rain shortened so, naturally, the race never really counted as an actual win in the eyes of many fans. So one year later at Chicagoland Speedway, Reutimann outran Jeff Gordon and Carl Edwards to score his, and his team's, second Cup Series win and silenced his critics once and for all.



Reutimann celebrates his Chicago win with his No. 00 team

This success also earned Reutimann the nickname of "the Franchise" since he was MWR's most accomplished driver to date.
But after a mediocre 2011 season, with three weeks left in the season, Waltrip showed his true colors when he released Reutimann from his contract one year early, replaced him with Nascar's answer to a really bad itch, Mark Martin, and called the move "just business." That is the thanks Reutimann got after everything he had done for Waltrip and his organization. Drivers like Bowyer, Truex and Martin would not have touched MWR with a 50-foot pole when the team started. But with Reutimann pouring his blood, sweat and tears into his No. 00 team to make them better and better, it was easy for these drivers to suddenly take notice.

While MWR won three races and made the Chase in 2012, Reutimann was reduced from a race winner to a field filler when he was tabbed to race the No. 10 car for Tommy Baldwin Racing when Danica Patrick was not behind the wheel. It was as if this was MWR's first year on the circuit and they simply came out of nowhere and won. This was simply not the case. It was through the hard work of a quiet, soft spoken dirt racer from South Florida that MWR is running up front every week. The team simply turns a blind eye, refusing to acknowledge where they came from and those who helped to get them there. How can the team enjoy their accomplishments without remembering the struggles they faced, the people they faced them with and those who helped them through it? It is simply disrespectful, childish and arrogant behavior from an owner who prides himself on representing the sport of Nascar racing with as much integrity as possible.

David Reutimann will probably never get the credit he rightly deserves for the role he played in building MWR and that is truly a shame.

Kevin Harvick Wins After Wild Phoenix Finish

 

"Happy" Harvick won Sunday night's wild Phoenix race

ESPN's Marty Smith reported earlier this weekend that Kevin Harvick would leave his familiar No. 29 car for a fourth car at Stewart-Haas Racing in 2014. Harvick, his owner Richard Childress and Tony Stewart, the owner of SHR all remained tight-lipped on the subject, but all said they were going to focus on the remained of the 2012 season and work towards 2013. It seemed as if the final two races would be a wash for the Budweiser team, knowing of their potential "lame duck" status.

But Harvick and crew chief Gil Martin played their strategy right and proved everyone wrong when they pulled into victory lane for the first time in 2012 Sunday night in Phoenix. This was also the first win for RCR in 35 races and Harvick's first win in 44 events.

Harvick's win may have been exciting and a little bit improbable, but that is not what the 2012 Advocare 300 will be remembered for.

Jimmie Johnson limps to pit road after losing a tire

On lap 77, the championship points were severely shaken up. Jimmie Johnson, the leader by seven markers at the start of the day, melted a beat on his right front tire, which blew out and sent his No. 48 car into the outside wall. Now, the driver known simply as "Five Time," will go into the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway 20 points behind the No. 2 of Keselowski. And all Keselowski must do is finish 15th or better to clinch his first ever Sprint Cup title and, what could be the last for Dodge, as they will leave the sport at season's end.

While this seems like enough drama for one weekend, that was not the end of what would prove to be, arguably, Nascar's most controversial race in years.

Clint Bowyer (15) gets collected after wreck with Jeff Gordon

Coming off of turn two late in the race, Clint Bowyer made contact with Jeff Gordon's left rear, which cut down the tire and sent him into the turn three wall as he tried to retaliate on Bowyer. Bowyer's spotter alerted his driver that Gordon was waiting for him between turns three and four. So when Bowyer ducked to the apron to pass Gordon, the two hooked when Bowyer came back up, sending the two drivers into the wall. This also collected the cars of Joey Logano and Aric Almirola.

Gordon made his way to the garage area and Bowyer was forced to limp back around to pit road. When Gordon climbed from his mangled No. 24 car, he was met by Bowyer's pit crew who, like a scene out of West Side Story, emerged ready to fight the four time champion and his team. They did come to blows, but Gordon escaped any harm.

Soon after the dust settled, Bowyer B-lined from his car on pit road to Gordon's hauler to defend his crew and express his displeasure. But he didn't get past the truck's liftgate, where he was met by two of Gordon's team members, which started both driver's pit crews fighting again. Both drivers met with Nascar and the hauler was guarded by two sheriff deputies.

If you missed all of this insanity, or didn't believe it happened and want to see it one more time, you can watch it here.

 

On the subsequent green-white-checker finish, Jeff Burton got loose under Danica Patrick getting into turn three, sending her No. 10 car into the wall. Nascar, for whatever reason, didn't throw a caution flag, so when the field came back around to take the checkered flag, they drove through the oil Patrick's car had put down on the frontstrech. This sent Ryan Newman spinning, which also collected the cars of Kurt Busch, Mark Martin, Paul Menard and current points leader, Brad Keselowski. Patrick was also involved in this pileup, as she stayed on the racetrack as opposed to pulling down pit road when she first spun.

Danica Patrick (10) gets wrecked by Paul Menard on the last lap

So while most fans thought that Johnson would lap the field, win the race and clinch his sixth championship. It was just going to be another typical Phoenix weekend. But after two crazy races that saw Truck Series points leader James Beuscher wreck late Friday night and Nationwide points leader Elliott Sadler wreck with just two laps remaining Saturday afternoon, the Cup race also proved to be anything but typical, especially for those in the title hunt.

There is one race left in the 2012 season for Nascar's top three series. When the Ford 400 finishes next weekend, we will have crowned three champions. Most believe they know how each of these three championship battles will end up. But if this weekend was any indication, nothing is certain and anyone with a shot at a title could very well win it.