Paul Menard kisses the bricks after his victory in Indianapolis (Photo Credit: Tom Pennington/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Richard Childress Racing’s Paul Menard is aiming for a spot in the Chase in 2012, having broken his duck on his 167^th start at the Brickyard 400 last summer.  The 31-year-old from Wisconsin joined fellow first time winners Trevor Bayne, Regan Smith, David Ragan, and Marcos Ambrose in 2011, and is hoping that despite RCR downsizing to just 3 full time cars in 2012, the continuity in his #27 team will work in his favour.

“Our realistic goal is to make the Chase,” he said. “We have the same group of guys from last year. We didn’t see a need to make many changes on the team. Everybody’s really happy. I come to the shop once or twice a week and see smiles on people’s faces.”

“I’ve been racing for 25 years now. I’ve won at everything I’ve done. Obviously, as you get higher in the ranks, it gets more difficult. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever win in Sprint Cup, but I sure as hell was going to try. It makes you hungry for that second one and that third one.”

Menard also scored a fourth place at Michigan, helping him to 17^th in the standings, his best yet.  He attracted controversy at Richmond after a dubious spun brought out a caution, allowing team-mate Kevin Harvick to snatch victory from Jeff Gordon, but has since put this behind him and is optimistic of a good start to the year.

“We had a really good test at Daytona, even in the single-car runs. We want to go down there and sit on the pole and see what happens.”

This year marks Menard’s second at Richard Childress Racing and his third with crew chief Slugger Labbe.

“A year ago I was a new guy, but I felt like I’d been here for a long time,” Menard said.

“There were a lot of familiar faces from DEI that I had worked with. Having Slugger for a second year last year brought some familiarity. I just know everybody. I know how our system works. I know how everything operates. It makes me a little more comfortable.

“Slugger and I met at a coffee shop a couple of years ago. It was one of those ‘How you doing’ meetings. We thought it would be for about 45 minutes, but we sat there for two or three hours shooting the breeze. We talk every day, at least once a day. Our personalities are very different, but, at the same time, we’re very similar. It works.”

NASCAR driver Jamie McMurray speaking to NASCAR President Mike Helton before the Rolex 24 (Photo Credit: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)

­The 50th running of the Rolex 24 at Daytona featured a strong NASCAR contingent, with Penske’s new signing AJ Allmendinger, and Ganassi duo Jamie McMurray and Juan Pablo Montoya, as well as Michael McDowell and Italian road course ringer Max Papis in front running DP cars.  The GT class also featured a strong cast, with twice Daytona 500 winner Michael Waltrip, X-Games star Travis Pastrana, and the Sprint Cup Rookie of the Year Andy Lally all challenging for glory.  So how did they get on?

Let’s start with AJ Allmendinger.  The 30 year old Californian was the lead pilot in Michael Shank Racing’s #60 MSR Riley-Ford shared with Ozz Negri, John Pew and Justin Wilson, and drove a tenacious final stint to hold off the charging pole sitting car of Ryan Dalziel.  Allmendinger’s breakthrough win ended a five year drought dating back to his time in Champ Cars.  He hopes that this against the odds win for his close friend Shank – who are rumoured to be running Paul Tracy in their debut Indycar foray this season – will mark the start of his best season yet, as he looks to race his way into the Chase for the first time with the #22 team.

Shank’s second car produced a giant-killing performance in the hands of McDowell and his South American rookie team mates. 27 year old McDowell, who will be looking to race his way into the Daytona 500 with Phil Parsons Racing, was placed alongside British Formula 3 champion Felipe Nasr and Indy Lights challengers Jorge Goncalvez and Gustavo Yacaman in the old Riley Mk. XX chassis.  The #6 team spent much of the race on the fringes of the lead lap, and was in prime position to capitalise on the misfortune of Scott Pruett –last year’s winner in the lead Ganassi car – and snatch a surprise podium. 

Ganassi twins McMurray and Montoya had a tough time of things in the #02 Riley BMW, suffering gear problems while 2008 Indycar champion Scott Dixon was behind the wheel in the early hours of the morning.  Despite getting the problem turned around in a sprightly four laps, the damage had already been done, and with no problems for the leading trio, they were condemned to a lowly fourth place finish. 

In GT, Andy Lally brought the Magnus Racing Porsche 911 team their first ever win against a competitive field of 45 entries.  The 36 year old New Yorker, partnered by reigning double Porsche Supercup champion Rene Rast, Richard Leitz and owner John Potter, took his fourth Rolex 24^th win in style ahead of the Jeroen Bleekemolen TRG Porsche.  Sadly Lally won’t be back in NASCAR in 2012 – he will be racing sportscars full-time instead.

Waltrip made his second appearance in a twice around the clock event, having ran the Le Mans 24 hours last year.  Waltrip, sharing with business partner Rob Kaufmann, Portugese driver Rui Aguas, and Travis Pastrana – who used the Rolex 24 to prepare for his Nationwide debut to come at Richmond in April – suffered clutch issues which cost the Ferrari 458 an hour of repair time, and gearbox induced off-track excursions in the latter stages.  Nevertheless Waltrip was still running at the finish, salvaging 35^th overall.

Danica Patrick (Photo Credit: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Stewart-Haas Racing have made a deal with Tommy Baldwin Racing which sees Danica Patrick take over Dave Blaney’s guaranteed spot in the season opening Daytona 500. 

NASCAR rules dictate that the top 35 in the previous season’s owner’s points get a guaranteed place on the grid for the first 5 races of the new season.  Therefore, the top 35 spot won by Blaney’s #36 team last year will transfer to Danica’s #10 team, ending speculation that an anticlimactic failure to qualify for her heavily publicised first race in Cup was on the cards.

The deal marks a sort of dual-ownership of the #10, with SHR competition director Greg Zipadelli running the car when Danica is in the hot seat, and TBR-contracted David Reutimann driving the 26 races Danica is scheduled to miss.

“Partnering with Tommy and his team provides Danica with the foundation she needs to succeed,” Zipadelli said. “With a guaranteed starting spot, we can go into each weekend and simply learn.

“It’s all about getting her comfortable in the car, and with the variety of tracks she’s running, seat time will be incredibly valuable. A guaranteed spot in the race ensures that she’ll have the opportunity to make as many laps as possible.”

Baldwin is expected to run a second team for Blaney full time, although the 49 year old veteran will have to race his way into the 500 by being in one of the four transfer spots in the Gatorade Duels.

Brad Keselowski in the Penske garage (Photo Credit: | Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Roger Penske is optimistic that Brad Keselowski can prove a capable team leader in 2012.  Penske, who fired Kurt Busch after one controversy too many, picked up AJ Allmendinger to drive the no.22 car in the offseason, but with the Richard Petty Motorsport refugee yet to win a race in his NASCAR career, the onus will very much be on Keselowski, a three-time winner last year en route to fifth in the Chase, to lead the team to its first Cup title in 2012. 

Penske has won the Indianapolis 500 15 times, with legendary names like Rick Mears, Emerson Fittipaldi, Al Unser Jr and Helio Castroneves, but has found success in NASCAR curiously elusive.  The team has only ever won the Daytona 500 once – with Ryan Newman in 2008 – and Penske, who also conquered Formula One with a victory in the 1976 Austrian Grand Prix with John Watson, knows as well as anyone that NASCAR is proving an unwanted blemish on his CV. 

But Penske is optimistic that the maturity and determination of lead driver Keselowski – in contrast to the temperamental Busch – will prove to be key to the team’s success. 

“When I met with Brad the year before he came to drive for us, he came to the shop and said, ‘Look, I’d love to come to your organization someday and help you build the best team in the business,’” the owner said.

“I think he was instrumental in helping us get A.J. on board – because when you’re changing drivers like that, you don’t have months and months to do all kinds of research outside of what you can see on the track,” The Captain added.

“As we’ve tried to recruit other people into the organization, Brad’s the first guy to say, ‘Let me get on the phone and give them some input into how good the team is and what we can deliver if you come to work for us here.’”

As for Keselowski himself, it is clear to see that his time at Penske has seen him develop – not only into a consummate race winner, but an intelligent thinker who can see events unfolding before they happen, a skill which has served the Jimmie Johnson’s, Tony Stewart’s and Jeff Gordon’s of the sport very well indeed.

“It takes more than talent to win a championship,” Keselowski said. “This is a big, big ship at Penske Racing. There’s over 300 employees. The words of three or four people set the path for 300 some-odd employees. As a driver, you’re one of those three or four people.

“That path is so important because it’s a team sport. You can be the most talented quarterback in the league and not make the right calls at the line or not have the belief of his players. I think there’s a lot of power behind that. At the NASCAR level, it’s not good enough to be the most talented driver. You have to be a motivator. You have to be a team player.”

Last year, Brad broke his ankle after a hard crash testing at Road America, but bounced back to win at Pocono, still suffering from the after-effects, silencing many of his critics.  He certainly has the respect of SPEED racing analyst and former driver Jimmy Spencer.  ‘Mr Excitement’ lost his bet that Brad would fail to make the Chase, and was memorably pied, live on air, by the man himself. 

“I think he’s at the right age,” Penske says. “You could see how good he really is when he got hurt. He’s a great commodity for us, and I think he’ll be a great star.”

It would take a brave man to discount Keselowski again this year.

Michael Annett will race for Richard Petty Motorsports in the 2012 Nationwide Series (Photo Credit: Jason Smith.Getty Images for NASCAR)

Richard Petty Motorsports announced on Thursday that they will run Michael Annett in a new NASCAR Nationwide Series team in 2012.  Iowan Annett, 25, finished ninth last season with Rusty Wallce Inc, and believes the move to the gold standard team will help him become a race winner. 

“They say that when one door closes, another door opens, and that is most definitely true,” said Annett. “We were left scrambling a bit because of the situation with RWI and were unsure what the future held, but I couldn’t be happier with the way things have turned out. To have the chance to race for Richard Petty and to be under the RPM umbrella is amazing.

“It has all come together really quickly, but together with Pilot Flying J and Ford, this is the best opportunity I have ever had to race a Nationwide Series car. There’s a lot to be done before we get to Daytona in a few weeks and I can’t wait to dive in and get started.”

Petty, whose Cup team signed Aric Almirola over the off-season to run its iconic #43 car, is looking forward to working his newest signing. 

“This has been an exciting couple of months for Richard Petty Motorsports,” said Petty, a seven time champion and inaugural Hall of Fame member. “We are looking forward to getting back into the Nationwide Series full time and seeing what Michael Annett can do in an RPM Ford Mustang. Michael has improved every season he has raced in the Nationwide Series and has the dedication and drive to be a success.”

The addition of RPM to the Nationwide Series only adds to its growing prestige.  Last year, new regulations were introduced which meant drivers could only nominate one series in which to score points, thus rewarding Nationwide-only teams and preventing them from being “Buschwhacked” by drivers from the Cup series. This ruling means that Kyle Busch’s team – the Monster Energy-backed Kyle Busch Motorsport squad, will only be competing for owner’s points.

Last year, Roush Racing driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. took his maiden title, but will have to fight tooth and nail to fend off the tenacious Elliott Sadler, denied the chance to take the fight down to the wire last year by an accident not of his making at the penultimate round, if he is to have a chance at holding onto it. ‘Little Gator’ Justin Allgier will as ever be a threat with Turner Motorsports, while Danica Patrick, who peaked with 4^th at Las Vegas in a part-time schedule last year, will look to impress in her first full season since moving from Indycar.  Partnering Patrick at Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s team JR Motorsport, is promising 20 year old Truck Series graduate Cole Whitt, who according to Earnhardt, has a big future ahead of him.

“Cole is the guy we wanted, and we’re lucky to get him,” Earnhardt said. “He’s got raw, untapped talent, but we are most impressed with his ambition. I sought advice and input from people I respect in the industry, and the overwhelming consensus was that Cole has the potential to do great things in this sport.”

One of the undoubted favourites this season will be former Indy 500 winner Sam Hornish Jr., who took his first NASCAR Nationwide win at Phoenix last year in a part-time campaign, and will be back with Penske this season for a fully-fledged title tilt. 

“I’m really excited about this season,” Hornish said on Thursday. “Last year was a little difficult to say the least.  I was able to learn a lot last year. We’ve definitely got a lot of things headed in the right direction.”

Reigning Truck series champion Austin Dillon will make the step up to the Nationwide championship in the iconic Richard Childress Racing no.3, while fellow Truck graduates – Californian Brad Sweet, the Brazilian former F1 racer Nelson Piquet Jr. and 2010 Snowball Derby winner Johanna Long, will also compete for Rookie of the Year honours.

Sadly, budget trouble is hamstringing reigning Daytona 500 champ Trevor Bayne’s attempts to get back into the Nationwide Series full time in 2012.  Bayne, 20, was 11^th in points last year despite missing 5 races to recover from Lyme disease.  Although he has a part-time deal in place to remain with the Wood Brothers in Cup, Bayne lacks the sponsorship to compete full time for the Nationwide championship with Roush.

“We’re working at it as hard as we can, because I want to run for a championship,” Bayne said. “But right now, it’s probably part-time.”

Stenhouse is worried that the loss of Bayne could work against him in his attempts to defend his title.

“To not have that second car there is going to be a little tough,” the 2011 champion said on Tuesday. “Every single practice last year, we had a meeting after and when one person was struggling, we were able to help them out and make it better. They’ve helped us throughout last year. So taking that out of it is going to be tough.

“Having that teammate there to bounce ideas off of, whether it’s the way he’s driving the race car, the way his feels versus mine feels, setup differences – there’s a lot that I think is not there right now. I think that’s going to be the biggest challenge for us.”

The Nationwide season starts February 25^th at Daytona International Speedway with the DRIVE4COPD 300, an event won the last four years running by Sprint Cup interloper Tony Stewart. Can ‘Smoke’ do it again?

Bill Elliott (Photo Credit: Harold Hinson Photography)

Bill Elliott will make a comeback this July when he drives the no.50 Turner Motorsports Chevrolet at the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona in July.  Elliott, 56, famously won the first Winston Million in 1985 – a prize of one million dollars up for grabs for anyone who could win three of the four ‘grand slam’ races on the NASCAR tour – which earned him the nickname ‘Million Dollar Bill’.  Elliott’s feat was not repeated until Jeff Gordon finally prevailed in 1997.

The 1988 Cup champion has not run a full season since 2003, but has kept his hand in with selected appearances, becoming only the seventh member of the ‘800 club’ in 2010.  His new deal will be backed by Walmart to commemorate their 50th year in business, and will utilise engines prepared by Hendrick Motorsports.

“Turner Motorsports has a lot of resources,” Elliott said. “I think they can do a really good job from what they’ve done in the Nationwide Series. I feel comfortable with it. I’m very excited about this program.”

Elliott, the winner of a record 16 Most Popular Driver Awards, believes that the Walmart deal, the first time the supermarket giant has sponsored a NASCAR operation, marks a significant step for the sport.

“This is a big deal to have Wal-Mart on a car and get more involved in the sport,” Elliott added. “It helps to have a company like this take a major step forward in NASCAR.”

Sadler gets the nod for the 2012 Daytona 500 with RCR - Credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images

Richard Childress Racing will run 9 cars this year across the three series in NASCAR and will run a tenth for at least the first five races, with the news that Elliott Sadler and Brendan Gaughan will share the #33 car in the opening rounds to utilise its guaranteed starting position (the #33 finished in the top 35 last season).  Last year the #33 team failed to make the Chase for the second time in three years, and with driver Clint Bowyer moving over to Michael Waltrip Racing and a sponsor drying up, Childress looked certain to revert to just a three car Cup team.  However with Sadler, second in the Nationwide Series in 2011, joining the team for the Daytona 500, and Gaughan taking over for the next four events, RCR will now have an even number of cars, which could prove crucial in the closing stages at Daytona as cars link up in two-car tandems.

“Richard called me into his office and told me, and man, I was blown away,” said Sadler, who will continue to run full time in the Nationwide Championship in 2012. “I pretty much stood up and gave him a hug and told him I appreciate the opportunity.  Being part of a four-car team, hopefully I can help my teammates as much as I can, with Paul [Menard], Kevin [Harvick] and Jeff [Burton]. To put this together and put together an effort where we can go down and be a part of the Daytona 500 means a lot to me. Man, I love that race.”

Gaughan has not raced full-time in Cup since he drove for Roger Penske back in 2004, and was thrilled to get a second chance.

“That’s the second chance you normally don’t get,” he said of his four-race deal. “I had a great opportunity before, and it didn’t work out for us. But to be able to come back with the caliber of Richard Childress Racing is really an opportunity – I’m kind of pinching myself saying it really came true.

“I’ve waited eight years. I was always kind of stubborn saying it had to be my terms. I wanted it to be the right type of thing, not just go out there and run. Here you go. It took a while, say what you want about it, but I’ve got a chance, and I promise you, I’m not going to let it slip through my fingertips.”

If the team runs well in its first five races, RCR vice president Mike Dillon has not ruled out continuing the gig – but of course, this is dependent upon finding sponsorship.

“Right now we’re focused on the five races we have, the sponsorship we have,” he said. “Obviously if we had more sponsorship come in, would we run the car further? We most definitely would take a look at that and just see what all it could entail. If it was enough to do it, probably. We don’t want to go at it halfway. We want to go at it with a winning effort, and as long as we we’re able to do that, yes, we’d probably add [to] it.”

RCR also announced that veteran road-course specialist Max Papis would join its Nationwide line-up when the series visits Road America, and will also serve as a driver coach for reigning Truck Series champion Austin Dillon, who will compete in the Nationwide Series with the famous no. 3 this season, and his younger brother Ty, who races in the Trucks.

“Max is a great addition to our driver lineup and to RCR overall,” said owner Richard Childress. “He has shown his talents in many different forms of auto racing all over the world and will be able to share that knowledge with our less experienced drivers.

“He’s the perfect driver for the #33 Menards Chevrolet when the NASCAR Nationwide Series gets to Road America. Max also has a tremendous amount of enthusiasm wherever he is, at the track or the shop

Italian Papis, who briefly raced in Formula 1 for Footwork in 1995 before competing in Champ Car, raced full time in the Truck Series for Germain Racing last year, finishing eighteenth overall.  His best result in NASCAR remains his second place finish at Montreal in the Nationwide Series in 2010, when he famously was overtaken by Boris Said in a drag race to the line coming off the final corner.

Bowyer and Waltrip chat - Credit: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images for NASCAR

Michael Waltrip has said that his team is in a stronger position than ever before ahead of the 2012 campaign.  Waltrip, who founded Michael Waltrip Racing in 2007, will have closer ties with fellow Toyota outfit Joe Gibbs Racing in 2012 in a move which he feels will help MWR get closer to its first win and first Chase appearance.

“If you look where we are today, it’s facts, it’s science, it’s black and white,” Waltrip said. “We have partnered with Gibbs on the engines. We’re going to have the same engines that they have. We couldn’t say that a year ago. Our aerodynamics have improved to where our cars are as good as theirs, we couldn’t say that a year ago.

Our driver lineup, if you just look at the numbers, we have more wins than we’ve ever had before. We have more Chase appearances than we’ve ever had before, so I love our driver lineup. Everything is pointing towards us having a banner 2012 season and I’m confident in that and I couldn’t have said that a year ago.”

Waltrip, who retains Martin Truex Jr., has added a third team to his operation for Clint Bowyer, who moves across from Richard Childress Racing, while 53 year old veteran Mark Martin moves across from Hendrick Motorsports to share with Waltrip.

“I really believe in my heart that we never have gone into a season like we’re going into 2012 – we’re ready,” Waltrip said.

“I just love my lineup. I think that Clint is a very energetic, engaging guy. I like the way he likes to have fun. That’s a good step up for our organization. Then you have the respected, savvy, tough, committed, dedicated veteran Mark Martin.

“I think both those guys will revive Martin [Truex]. You know, Martin is a really fun guy and he’s a guy that is very popular and won the Nationwide championship twice and made the Chase early on in his career, but he hasn’t had a whole lot to smile about lately. Now, with the cars that we’re building and the way he ended the 2011 season, we’re giving him something to smile about and we’re surrounding him with guys that like to smile and like to have fun.”

MWR has come a long way since its involvement with Toyota began in 2007, when the three teams racked up an astounding 39 failures to qualify, which required Waltrip to float shares in his team on the stock-market.

“We started it up and it makes me a little sad today to look back and see how naïve I was and how unprepared we were and how much ground we needed to make up in order to be able to ever contend,” Waltrip said. “We missed a ton of races in ‘07, we made them all ever since. We’ve been able to make races and consistently and steadily get a little bit better.

Now Waltrip, a twice Daytona 500 winner as a full-time driver, feels the time is right to mount a challenge for the Chase.

“We have to win more than a race, we can’t just win a race and finish 16th in the points. I think we have to win multiple races and we have to make the Chase. We have to be right there fighting for it at least to make it,” Waltrip said.

“I think if you break it down, there was more pressure last year because we basically had the same goals as we have this year. But, we didn’t have the equipment to go do the job with. So, now we still aspire to accomplish the same things but we have a better toy, you know – we have a faster car. We have a more aerodynamically designed, we have a better Toyota Camry to go race with. I’m glad our expectations are high and I’m glad they were this past season, but now we have a car I believe we can go win with. I believe we’re going to do the job.”

Waltrip’s no holes barred approach concurs with that of Truex, who believes that there will be no excuses this season if he fails to make the Chase.

“We had a performance easily last year to make the Chase,” Truex said.  “You look at our finishes, we had six finishes worse than 34th or 35th and without those we were in. I made just as many top-fives and top-10s at the start of the Chase as Dale [Earnhardt] Jr. did and he was sitting fifth or something. If you take a step back and really look at it – last year we had the performance to make it, we just didn’t do all the little things right.

“There was a few races where we had the speed to win and we threw it away so we need to do better at that. We need to be smarter, better prepared and I know what it takes to do it. We just need to do it consistently and we will work on that.”

Bowyer agrees that the potential is there to make a realistic challenge for wins this year.

“I really see a lot of potential here – a lot of things coming together at the right time for me to make a change and ride that wave on into the future,” he said.

“You see the speed in the race cars, the people on my team, the potential. We’ve got a good group of guys. We were able to take advantage of a not-so-fortunate time in this sport — a lot of teams and organizations pulling back. We were able to go out and pick the cream of the crop so to speak and I feel like we’ve done that with our group of guys on the 5-Hour Energy car.”

“It’s been a lot of fun,” Bowyer added. “There’s some history there. I [once] called him the worst driver in NASCAR and I knew that was going to come up at some point in time and it came up the very second that I walked in the door of his office. He was like, ‘Do you still think I’m the worst driver in NASCAR?’ I was like, ‘Well, good way to break the ice.’ That’s when I told him yes, but he could be a very good owner. I hope that he is.”

Earnhardt Jr. at the Daytona press conference following testing - Credit: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images for NASCAR

Dale Earnhardt Jr. had a good 2011 season, he made it through to the Chase and finished seventh, all of this without a single win. In 2012 he is looking to change that and put an end to his 129 race winless streak.

Two times last year he came agonisingly close to winning, first in April at Martinsville he was leading with four laps to go, lady luck was not with Junior that day as Kevin Harvick took the chequered flag.

Running out of fuel would prove even more frustrating as he led the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Harvick again would take the win as Earnhardt Jr.  slipped back to finish in seventh

These two moments would frustrate the best drivers but the #88 driver is looking to use these moments to help his mind-set for the season ahead.

“That was an ‘up’ side because we hadn’t come that close to winning races before,” he said. “Whether it was our strong performance or Steve’s (Letarte – Crew Chief) strategy, he’s given me the chance I didn’t have. I feel closer to winning than I felt before.”

Rather than dwelling on the aforementioned close but not close enough moments Earnhardt Jr.  is looking to move on.

“It doesn’t matter how close you were; we didn’t win,” he said. “Last year’s over. I have the stat sheet. That [win] column has a zero. It doesn’t matter if we were leading off turn four at the 600 or not, it’s still a zero. 

“I’m proud of leading off turn four. I’m proud of almost winning a race. But to hang our hat on that is absolutely a waste of time. That day is over, and there wasn’t a trophy at the end of it.”

Earnhardt Jr. praised Letarte after he suggested Junior changed his approach to race weekends.

“He had me filling out forms and giving him information about the car after the races,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “I was sitting in on the discussions about the car in the garage area. As soon as I got to the truck in the morning, I never left the garage area until the day was over. I never did that [previously] in my career. I always went back to the bus between practices. And I was never there early.”

“I don’t think I was realizing my full potential. I think he made me understand those things that I thought were trivial are important to him and his ability to do his job.”

“He deserves a lot of credit,” Junior said. “This is a tough gig for him, and he’s done well with it. The guy he was last year was perfect. The more of that, the better.”

That must change, Letarte added: “We were the only team in the Chase with a zero in that column, I’m proud to say that because we were in the Chase. We had a very, very good year last year. We want to have a great year this year. The only way to do that is if that column doesn’t have a zero.”

Felix Sabates, Jamie McMurray, Juan Pablo Montoya, and Chip Ganassi - Credit: Credit: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images for NASCAR

Chip Ganassi has stated that the performance of his NASCAR team in 2011 was “pathetic.” Ganassi, whose Indycar and Grand Am teams won their respective championships last year – his Indycar arm taking their fourth consecutive title – saw his NASCAR operation flounder in 2011, with no wins and drivers Juan Pablo Montoya and Jamie McMurray down in 21^st and 27^th respectively in the points standings.

“I don’t need to get philosophical about it,” Ganassi said. “We were 21st and 27th in the standings. That’s pathetic for a team with our ability and our resources.”

EGR co-owner Felix Sabates agreed. “There’s not much further we can fall back,” Sabates said. “With the money we spent we should have done better.  It’s time for us to put up or shut up. This is the year that we have to shine and show people we’re here.”

EGR’s poor run of form prompted a dramatic personnel shuffle, with long-time employees Steve Hmiel, Tony Glover and Ed Nathman leaving the operation and Chris Heroy being brought in from Hendrick Motorsports as crew chief to Montoya’s #42 team.

“You either have it or you don’t,” Ganassi said. “If you’re working, good. If you’re not, you’d better make some changes.”

“As for 2012, the great thing is you get to start all over again.  Certainly after the year we had, we had to start over in a lot of areas.”

“It wasn’t one person,” Sabates added. “It was a combination of 40 people not doing a good job. If you are going to change that, you have to go big, and that’s what we did.”

Ganassi had his best ever season in 2010, with Dario Franchitti winning the Indy 500 and the Indycar title, and McMurray winning NASCAR’s crown jewel – the Daytona 500 – in his first race with the team, as well as the Brickyard 400 and Bank of America 500 at Charlotte.

However the team’s alarming regression means that they start 2012 essentially were they were two years ago – having taken one step forward and another step back.

“The one thing about sports is that it’s constantly changing,” Ganassi said. “You have to change with it and you have to change fast. I like to think I can shift gears and change directions as fast as anybody, but we got a little bit behind the curve — in terms of performance — and it’s because we didn’t change with the sport.”

“You’re always working to get your recipe just right. Sometimes you can have 100 or 200 items in your recipe, but sometimes [one thing] can make all the difference in the world to the other 99 ingredients.

“It doesn’t mean to take away from the other 99 things, but that one thing may be the difference between winning and losing.”

In such a tough economic climate, EGR can take heart from signing up a group of new sponsors.  With reigning Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne looking unlikely to be able to find the funding for a full Nationwide Series season, and Matt Kenseth having lost two major sponsors over the off-season, Sabates believes it is a credit to his operation that it has the required funding to go racing.

“Most of these [Cup] teams don’t have full sponsorship, but we do,” Sabates said. “That shows the trust sponsors have in Chip to do the right things, and we are doing the right things.”

“There’s no way to go but up, so it shouldn’t be that hard,” Ganassi added.

JJ Yeley - Credit: John Harrelson/Getty Images for NASCAR

The new Robinson-Blakeney Racing Sprint Cup team has announced that J.J. Yeley will drive its No. 49 Toyota for the entire 2012 season.

Yeley, 35, has not raced a full season since 2007, when he was dropped by Joe Gibbs Racing in favour of Kyle Busch.  Since then, the multiple USAC champion has driven for several smaller teams in the top echelon of NASCAR competition.  Last year Yeley raced through the Gatorade Duels to get the #46 Whitney Motorsports car into the Daytona 500, and shared the #38 Front Row Motorsport Ford with Travis Kvapil, managing between them to get the car into the top 35 in owners points.

“I am energized and looking forward to working with Jay Robinson and our team beginning at Daytona in the Duel 150 race and building success all the way to Homestead,” Yeley said.

“I have enjoyed a good working relationship in the past with Tony Furr as my crew chief and am happy to be partnered with him again on this team.”

Robinson, who has fielded cars in the Nationwide Series since 2000 under the Jay Robinson Racing banner, is excited about his new partnership with businessman Troy Blakeney.

“We are preparing the team for a very successful 2012 season and we are very pleased to announce our partnerships with Tony and J.J.”, Robinson commented.

It is unlikely to be a start and park operation.

Juan Pablo Montoya and Greg Biffle talking during 2011 - Credit: Elsa/Getty Images for NASCAR

Greg Biffle hopes that an expansive restructuring of his no. 16 Roush Racing team will enable him to return to Chase Competition.  Biffle, 42, went without a win in 2011 for second time in three seasons, and ended up outside the Chase down in 16th place.  Even David Ragan, who lost his ride when Roush decided to downsize to three full time cars, took a win at Daytona, while Carl Edwards finished runner up and Matt Kenseth was a solid fourth.

“The 16 car didn’t have the best season,” Biffle admitted.  “Yet Matt and Carl both made the Chase, and Carl almost won the championship.  I’m a believer that you make your own luck. But last year we had the crappiest luck that I’ve ever seen in my life. Ever. We couldn’t do anything right.”

General manager Robbie Reiser felt it was time for a change and pulled the trigger on crew chief Greg Erwin, before adding the best of Ragan’s team at seasons end.

“Obviously they started out the year and Greg Erwin was the crew chief. They had run well the year before, but some of that chemistry had worn out a little bit,” Reiser said. “So in the middle of the season, we decided a crew chief change was in order. That crew chief situation on the 16 was not working, so we made the change and went to Matt Puccia.

“At that point, we kept the rest of the 16 crew together — but whenever you change the management of a team, you change the character of it. Once we were able to get to the end of the season and downsize some of our personnel, that allowed us to pick some of our personnel apart and change that team dramatically.”

“Any time you have the chance to choose from a larger pool of people, you’re at an advantage.”

Biffle stated that he felt the difference immediately at the recent Pre-Season Thunder test at Daytona International Speedway.

“I think those guys are ready to race hard and bring it to another level. … I watched them work at Daytona and they were quick and smooth and got the car turned around in a hurry,” Biffle said. “I really feel like it’s going to be a good season.”

Biffle said that he can take heart from the fact that eventual champion Tony Stewart had the similar problem of struggling to turn a fast car into a consistent winner before the Chase.

“The funny thing is that at one point, four or five races before the Chase, we were neck-and-neck with Tony Stewart, trying to take that Chase spot from him,” Biffle said. “He’d be ahead of us and then we’d be ahead of him. And then he made the comment that they didn’t even deserve to be in the Chase. We were like just clawing at his heels, trying to get that spot away from him.

“That’ll give you an idea of how tight it can be and how things can suddenly turn for a team. It’s the perfect example. The 14 team, they got it turned around a little bit, got upright in the boat, started popping the water out, made the Chase — and then the rest is history. We just need that to happen now to the 16 team. That gives me the confidence that we can make it happen.”

Although Roush will be celebrating its 25^th season in NASCAR competition this year, they are not without their problems.

“I’m disappointed because of the 100 or so people we had to lay off – people who depended on us,” Roush said. “And going from four to three teams, we didn’t have a seat for David Ragan. That’s unfortunate.”

“The economic climate has just been tough,” Steve Newark, RFR President said. “Look at all the drivers out there looking for sponsorship this year — guys like Kyle Busch, Jeff Burton, Clint Bowyer. It impacted a lot of younger drivers. If they’re not bringing sponsorship with them, they’re not getting a seat.”

Roush will run 2011 Nationwide champion Ricky Stenhouse Jr. on a one-off basis at next month’s Daytona 500, and expect him to defend his Nationwide title with a full schedule.  On the other hand, 2011 Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne is still looking for sponsors to run a full Nationwide programme alongside his part-time Cup deal with Wood Brothers Racing.

“You look at, what does he need to get that development? He needs to race, and we’re lucky that he has such a great relationship with the Wood Brothers,” Newmark said of Bayne.

“We’re working at it as hard as we can, because I want to run for a championship,” Bayne said. “But right now, it’s probably part-time. What would be difficult is, the first week they all load up and send their cars to the track, and I’ll still sitting at home watching it on TV.

“It’s going to be tough, but I know if that’s where I’m supposed to be, that’s where I’m supposed to be, and I’m going to go out there every weekend to win, and it’s going to give us a fire. If we’re not racing every weekend, we may not have the momentum or the experience, but we’re going to have more fire than ever to go out there and kick butt in those few we have a chance at.”

Kyle Busch talking to the media - Credit: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images for NASCAR

Kyle Busch says that cutting down the number of races he runs in other levels of NASCAR will help him focus more on winning the big prize – the Sprint Cup.  This comes soon after Carl Edwards announced that he too will cut his Nationwide programme in order to work more closely with his Cup team.

“The focal point needs to be on the Cup deal and trying to win a championship there, of course, and put my primary focus into that,” Busch said.

Busch, 26, won four times in the lead up to the Chase in 2011, but failed to even come close when it really mattered.  In contrast, champion Tony Stewart took all of his five wins in the Chase, having not won all year previously.

 “I think it’s been most frustrating for me because I’m getting more and more into my Cup Series career and I have yet to win a championship. For me, you get down to the end of the season and the first 26 races go well and then you start the Chase and you kind of fumble a little bit and you’re chasing a ball sometimes.

“We still had a shot – we were running fourth or fifth in points at Talladega and then got crashed out there. Then we’re fifth in points or something like that in Martinsville and we get crashed out there. Your whole season’s shot. It’s not like one week’s gone – like you didn’t win that race or something. You’ve got to wait all the way until next February to start a whole new year in order to get down to November. Think about it – when you throw a whole year of your life away, it’s like, damn, this sucks.”

Busch’s crew chief at Joe Gibbs Racing, Dave Rogers, said that he wholeheartedly supported the decision.

“Each year Kyle gets older and older and he gets more mature and more dedicated. I think he re-dedicates himself every off-season and he’s made some personal decisions this year to free up more time for him to focus on the Cup program and help us get to where we want to be. I think he’s doing a good job of it. I think cutting out some of the Nationwide races and taking a step back – he’s hired some really good people that can give [Kyle Busch Motorsports] direction with a little less involvement from him. The less time he has to spend at KBM working on that deal, the more time he has for Joe Gibbs Racing and the 18 and I think that is going to add up at the end of the year.”

Rogers added that the loss of extra running time would probably benefit his driver mentally.

“I do think Kyle will have more time to just relax and spend some time with Sam [Kyle’s wife] and freshen up a little bit. That is going to help us out.

“I think if you look at it – Carl Edwards is backing off, Kyle’s backing off, Jimmie Johnson hasn’t done it – those are the guys you are going to have to race against. Denny Hamlin hasn’t done it. They’re all freeing up their schedule for a reason. It’s not because it’s a competitive disadvantage. That’s the way I look at it.”

2013 Ford Fusion NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Car - Credit: Ford Racing

On Tuesday Ford became the first of the four manufacturers in NASCAR to unveil its 2013 Sprint Cup car as part of the Charlotte Motor Speedway Media Tour, with the new Fusion the basis for its attack on the Sprint Cup.  The new car design mirrors the recently released prototype for the 2013 Fusion production car, and is indicative of the dawning of a new era in NASCAR, one of increased manufacture involvement and emphasis on brand identity.

“We wanted Fusion to be the car that helped return ‘stock car’ to NASCAR,” said the director of Ford Racing Jamie Allison.  “I think fans, when they see the car, are just going to smile and cheer. It is going to reengage them with the sport and make the sport better because there is just something natural about seeing race cars that look like cars in their driveways.

“The 2013 Fusion is a stunning car and the 2013 NASCAR Fusion is even more stunning and I can’t wait to see it perform on the track and connect with race fans.”

“We went away from true stock car racing and got to a point where the cars we’re racing in Sprint Cup were very vanilla,” added Bernie Marcus, Ford Racing’s senior aerodynamicist.

“Moving forward, we have a lot more brand identity; we have a lot more character lines in everybody’s car, so I think you’ll be able to differentiate them a lot more.  I think it will appease the race fans and it will give the sport an upturn because now the term ‘stock car’ racing actually means something again.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELSd1zEOWF8

The new car will make its competitive debut at the 2013 Daytona 500, and will undergo rigorous testing throughout 2012.  Its design team, led by Garen Nicoghosian, are thrilled with their final product.

“It looks fun to drive and very much eager to go and tear up the track.  It has a very aggressive stance. From all angles the vehicle exudes performance and I think it reflects our general attitude of how we go about designing our production cars very, very nicely,” said Nicoghosian.

“It brings a certain level of nimbleness and lightness and agility to the NASCAR platform. Our production cars have that nimbleness and agility and eagerness about them as well.”

“I don’t think we could do any better. With help from guys like Garen and the whole design community, every time we went in there they shaped that car a little better,” said Andy Slankard, NASCAR Operations Manager for Ford Racing.  “You can’t imagine the talent these guys have and how they’re able to make that car look so good. I think this is a nice sporty version of the Fusion, and a lot of people will be excited about it.”

“I am most proud that it looks like the 2013 Fusion, plain and simple. I think this will bring back the fans to NASCAR,” agreed Pat DiMarco, Ford Racing NASCAR program manager.  “A lot of people have said the cars all look the same and they can’t tell the difference.  There is very little brand identity in the sport right now. In 2013, they will not be able to say that.”

The sentiment was shared by reigning Daytona 500 champion Trevor Bayne, who expressed his excitement about seeing the new car in action.

“The coolest thing about it to me is that the Fusion looks like you just took that production version and put a race kit on it,” Bayne said.

“It seems like you put a Roush package on it or something like that and that’s what is so awesome about what they’ve done here.  I’ve heard about the Win on Sunday and Buy on Monday, and I think that could come back.  I’ve been excited to tell my friends about this.  I’m 20 years old so this is more of my generation here, but I’m just happy that now I can show them pictures and I think they’ll be excited about it.”

Denny Hamlin (Photo Credit: Nick Laham/Getty Images)

Denny Hamlin is optimistic that his form will improve in 2012, with Joe Gibbs Racing having acquired last year’s championship winning crew-chief Darian Grubb from Stewart-Haas Racing in the offseason.  Hamlin, 31, failed to build on a superb 2010 which saw him take the title battle to the final round and win eight times, with an underwhelming 2011 which saw a solitary win at Michigan and a lowly ninth place in the Chase.  However with Grubb as his new crew-chief, Hamlin expects to be battling at the front again in 2012.

“It was big for us because [Grubb] had so many good options and he had an offer from every race team in the garage area. For him to pick me as his driver and continuing to want to be a crew chief, that’s a big deal. So, at least it gives you the faith that the guy has got a lot of faith in your talents and that you can bring him another championship.

Grubb was informed by Tony Stewart mid-way through last year hat he would be leaving the team at the end of the season, but under awkward circumstances delivered Stewart his third title.  It is this tenacity which Hamlin believes can help return JGR to the top.

“The guy is mentally tough,” Hamlin explained. “When he knows his job is on the line and might not know what he’s doing next year, he’s still got the focus to bring what he brought to the race track. For me, I think he’s one of the most well-respected guys within our garage and that’s going to be a key asset to have.

“Everyone knows that the driver and crew chief relationship is very, very important. It’s as important as anything as far as being successful so we know it’s going to work. It’s going to take some time for him to understand what I need in my car and for me to tell him what he needs to hear. That part is going to be a little bit of a transition, but I think right now we have enough motivation and confidence that should carry us until that point happens.”

Hamlin added that Grubb’s addition is just the start in the team’s reversal of fortunes, with the team’s partnership with Michael Waltrip Racing another step in the right direction.

“We feel like we’re heading in a good direction, there’s no doubt about it. I feel like Toyota is getting stronger than what they were last year, all three teams are on the same engine program, we’ve got an alliance with Michael Waltrip Racing – there’s a lot of things that are stronger this time around,” Hamlin said.

“And, on top of that my confidence is way higher right now than it was to start 2011. When you know a guy has been as successful as [Grubb], it’s hard not to have confidence when you’re behind the wheel. All of this stuff has worked out it seems like perfectly for my career. There’s a lot of things that’s been put into place for me to be successful and I feel like this year is my best opportunity to do that.”

Hamlin, who has won at least one race every year since he started racing in Cup full time in 2006, will be looking to add to his tally in the season ahead.

“I think our team is going to look totally different even though there’s just a few changes here and there. It’s going to be a total different race team I feel like. I’ve got two different people speaking in my ear and you’ve got a lot of energy within the shop. I know you hear that a lot, but we’ve really gone through some big changes with our team and it’s obviously got a lot of people excited.”

“I can’t even remember more than about five races last year in the sense of that we were really competitive, had a shot to win and those are the races that get me motivated. The rest of them, I feel like I was just there. I was one of those cars in the middle of the pack and that’s not me. I’m too competitive for that, I won’t stand for it and I’m not going to have the rest of my career go that way. We’re going to go back to the front where we belong.”

Joey Logano (Photo Credit: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images For NASCAR)

Joey Logano says that he is not feeling under pressure despite an off-key 2011 season.  The 21-year-old has never made the Chase in his NASCAR career, and finished a lowly 24^th in points last year, despite being part of the same Joe Gibbs Racing stable as Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin, who have been Chase regulars in recent years.  This led to rumours that he was to be replaced by Carl Edwards, but when these proved to be wide of the mark, Logano was allowed to keep his ride.  He is determined that with new crew-chief Jason Ratcliff alongside him, he will make a strong challenge for a spot in the Chase this season.

“I’m very relaxed. I feel like my head is in the right spot. I feel like I’m very confident in myself, I’m very confident in Jason and my whole team and doing the right thing,” Logano said.

“I tell you, Jason – I’ve talked to him a ton. Everyday we’re on the phone, I’m at the shop talking to him, doing something with him. I think that’s gone along really well. Then, Jason is one of the hardest working guys I’ve ever seen in my life. He’s there all the time. It’s going to be unreal. I’m pretty pumped up about it. I think there are some really good changes at Joe Gibbs Racing that I think are going to help all three teams.”

Logano believes that there are several lessons that he can learn from the season past, and that this motivates him to go out and do a better job this time around.

“Obviously last year was a disappointment I think for all three teams. I can speak for myself – that was terrible last year. We did everything as a team completely wrong in a lot cases, whether it’s driver mistakes, team mistakes — whatever it was, we weren’t on it. With a year like that, talk about being humble, that will humble you in a hurry. That’s when you have to dig down deep. You don’t want to do that again. It was seriously no fun at all to do something like that.

“That motivates you a ton to go out there and do a lot better. I know I have the guys behind me now. I’m very confident going into this season, probably more confident than I’ve ever been going into a season.”

“You should treat every year like it’s a make it or break it year. So, what’s the difference? That’s how I look at it. I should go out there and try to win every race, whether it’s contract year or not. There’s no difference there for me.”

Logano, who has not won a race in Cup since he broke the record for the youngest ever winner in Cup – at 19 years and 35 days – at New Hampshire in 2009, has attracted a new sponsor to the no.20 car in Dollar General, who have supported Sarah Fisher’s Indycar team since 2008.

“It is pressure bringing them in, but it’s confidence when you get them”, Logano said of his new sponsor. “Think about how hard it is to get a great company like Dollar General in our sport. It’s very hard to do, there are a lot of other teams out there trying to get them. A lot of other teams with great drivers trying to get them. For us to be able to reel them in and get them, that puts a lot of confidence in our team and myself for sure.”

Logano also said that positive thinking was vital to making sure a repeat of 2011 is not forthcoming.

“Positive thinking is very important no matter what is going on. That’s something I’ve learned more this last year than I’ve ever thought of,” Logano said.

“I went to a sports psychologist, you talk to those people and you find a new way of going to a race track and a new whole way of thinking about a lot of things. That’s very, very important. I was able to see the gains you can make in that stuff. That’s the stuff when you’re down, you look at anything.”

Danica Patrick (Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Danica Patrick has announced that she will add the Coca Cola 600 to her Cup schedule in NASCAR, meaning that she will not participate in the 96^th Indianapolis 500, which runs on the same day, May 27^th.  Patrick, 29, made the decision last year to turn her back on the Indycar series, which she has competed in since 2005, in light of the diminishing number of ovals on the calendar, and will compete in NASCAR full time this year.  However Danica, who became the first woman ever to lead at Indy in 2005 en route to a fourth place finish, and has a best result of third – attained in 2009, did not rule out a return in future.

“I’m not going to do the Indy 500,” she confirmed on Monday. “I hope to do it in the future. Maybe it’ll be a double [the Indy 500 and Coke 600 on the same day].

“But at this point in time, after a lot of conversations, it’s just going to be the Coke 600. It’s going to be a big challenge.”

Danica’s Cup series owner Tony Stewart, who also made the switch to NASCAR from Indycar racing, praised Patrick’s decision making, and believes that not dividing her attentions between the two races will help her get up to speed in NASCAR much quicker.

“We didn’t tell her she couldn’t run the 500. It was left up to her,” Stewart said.

“Obviously, she’s running the Nationwide car full time, and it’s a good weekend to get a lot of laps in the car. I don’t think about [Indy] anymore. It’s been so long since I’ve done it. You just focus. It shows how dedicated she is to making this transition.”

Only Stewart, Robby Gordon and John Andretti have ever managed to compete all 1100 miles in the same day. Stewart came closest to taking the double, finishing ninth at Indy and fourth at Charlotte in 1999, and in his most recent attempt in 2001, taking sixth at Indy and third at Charlotte. He has since given up on his boyhood dream of taking Victory Lane in the 500, but has won the Brickyard 400 twice, in 2005 and 2007.

“The hard part for me was you make that decision when you sign up to do it,” Stewart said. “The decision you make, you have to come to peace with yourself with saying ‘I’m not going to do this.’ That was my childhood dream anyway. It may be a different scenario and feeling for her. But it was hard knowing when I signed that [NASCAR] contract that I was writing off the opportunity to go race at [the 500].

“It’s figuring out at the end of the day what do you really want to do. I guess that’s the part that even though it was hard to watch opening day of practice at Indianapolis, I’m enjoying what I’m doing, too, and this is what I want to do at the end of the day,” he continued. “It makes you want 30-hour days and 400-day years and we always want to do more than what we’re capable of doing, but the reality is you have to pick at some point and choose your career path. This is what I’ve done and what she’s doing now.”

Stewart echoed the sentiment of Jeff Gordon, a four-time winner of the Brickyard 400, who said back in 2010 that doing the double was no longer viable in the modern era.

“To me, they could offer $100 million to run both of those races or win both of those races and it wouldn’t affect my decision because I’m only going to go there [to Indy] if I feel like I can be competitive. To be competitive, I would need to be in those cars all of the time,” he said.

“I just don’t think you can do both Indy and the 600 and do them both really well, or good enough to win.”

Kurt and Kyle Busch at a KBM Event (Photo Credit: Monster Energy)

Last week’s announcement that NASCAR bad-boys, the Busch brothers, will team up and share the no. 54 Kyle Busch Motorsport Camry in the 2012 Nationwide Series is a curious one to many, but one which at the same time makes perfect sense.  This writer has watched with interest as the immensely talented Busch brothers’ edgy characters have seen their popularity decline, despite the fans adoration for the maverick figure, the driver seen to be taking the challenge to the dominant 5-time champion triumvirate of Jimmie Johnson, Chad Knaus and Hendrick Motorsports.

However this week, Kurt Busch figuratively flipped the bird at Richard Petty Motorsports – which refused to take him on to replace AJ Allmendinger, believing him to be unmarketable and instead hiring the less proven Aric Almirola - by teaming up with his brother Kyle Busch and signing with the Monster Energy drinks corporation, in a move which underlines his desire to keep proving people wrong, while at the same time rebuilding his battered reputation.

Elder brother Kurt, the 2004 Cup champion, parted ways ‘by mutual consent’ with Penske after his now-infamous altercation with pit-lane reporter Dr. Jerry Punch following his retirement from the final race of the 2011 Cup season.  This dramatic turn of events came despite a bright start to the season, with victories in the Budweiser Shootout invitation race and the First Gatorade Duel, which decided the grid for the Daytona 500.  However his relationship with the team soon soured, and ‘Kurt Busch: Radio Sweetheart’ – a compilation of his best radio tirades at the team – became a regular feature on Jimmy Spencer’s post-race show for SPEED.  Despite managing to win at Sonoma, which propelled him into the Chase, poor form saw him finish down in a disappointing 11^th at the end of the season.

Following his departure from Penske and snub by ‘The King,’ Kurt joined James Finch’s tiny Phoenix Racing squad, and was quickest in testing last week.  He has spoken at length about his desire to go back to basics this year, and just have fun.  Contrary to expectations, he has found this in his brother’s operation, which steps up from the Truck Series to the Nationwide championship and will be competing for owners points, as neither Kurt nor Kyle is eligible to score points in the Nationwide series (drivers may nominate just one of the three tiers of NASCAR in which they score points).

“Conversations have been good. We’ve certainly have had a lot of talks about how this whole deal is going to work out and what we both are looking to get out of this,” Kyle said of his relationship with his brother.

“You know, Kurt’s never really done a full Nationwide deal. He’s always kind of had the itch, but never really cared about it. But now this is something for him to get out there and hopefully win some races in our car and help us put up some win banners here in our shop.”

All that has been said above about Kurt could be repeated for his younger brother – Kyle Busch is of course no stranger to controversy himself.  Released by Hendrick Motorsports in 2007 after a turbulent relationship with Kellogg’s – see the connection? – Rowdy made an obscene gesture at a NASCAR official while serving a pit-lane speeding penalty in Cup at Texas in 2010, earning himself another penalty and an angry message from crew chief Dave Rogers.

“Kyle, stop, please! We all work too hard for this; you’re costing us!”

He was placed on probation and fined $25,000 following multiple collisions with Kevin Harvick at the Darlington Southern 500 last year, and subsequently had his license suspended for 45 days after being caught well over the speed-limit driving at over 120 mph in a 45 mph residential zone.   Further controversy continued to find the 26 year old, as Busch then gave Joey Coulter’s truck a “congratulatory bump” after the race at Kansas, earning him a punch from Coulter’s team-owner Richard Childress. Then at Texas in the truck series last November, Busch retaliated against title contender Ron Hornaday after slight earlier contact and dumped him into the fence while under caution, an act for which he was parked for the rest of the weekend, costing himself any chance at winning the Chase in Cup. The deliberate crash prompted Mars Inc, the parent company of his primary sponsor M&M’s, to publicly condemn his actions and even consider replacing him with Almirola for the last 2 rounds of the Chase, while Z-Line Designs, who sponsored his Joe Gibbs Racing Nationwide car last season, asked for him to be replaced by fellow JGR Cup driver Denny Hamlin at the final round in Miami.

Ever controversial Kyle was parked by NASCAR after this clash with Ron Hornaday at Texas

“I’ve had a lot of fans tell me, ‘Don’t change anything, we love the way you are and keep that attitude,’” Busch said recently. “At the end of the day, it doesn’t seem like me not changing anything is helping.

“I have to change something, I just have to figure out what that is and make it work for me.”

Busch said that he does not think that the controversies which have engulfed him of late have caused any lasting damage to his relationship with his Cup team boss Joe Gibbs.

“Him and I have a great dialogue, we talk quite a bit,” he said. “It’s been really good. He believes in me – I wouldn’t be here if the guy didn’t believe in me. He knows what kind of person I am. And it’s not that I have to convince the people that are closest around me what kind of person I am – I have to convince those that are furthest from me that don’t ever get to see me.”

The fact is, Kyle remains a phenomenal talent, and remains the only man ever to have won all 3 NASCAR events in one weekend, taking victories in the Cup, Nationwide and Truck Series at Bristol in August 2010.  The 2009 Nationwide champion also holds the record for the most wins in series history, with 51 victories in 222 starts in the second tier category.  For all his troubles, he still holds an appeal.

“Monster Energy has always stood for competing and winning no matter what the sport,” said Monster Energy Company President, Mark Hall.

“To make this happen, we’ve always sought out the most determined, fearless and committed athletes for the Monster team. With the Busch brothers sharing the wheel of the Kyle Busch Motorsports Monster Energy Camry, we have every reason to believe we have drivers capable of running up front every weekend.”

“Since debuting in NASCAR, Kyle Busch Motorsports has had the goal to add a championship-caliber Nationwide Series team to our organization,” Kyle Busch said. “With today’s announcement of Monster Energy as primary sponsor and my brother Kurt as the second driver, we’ve accomplished that goal.”

For the time being, Kyle says that his team will limit its activities to the Nationwide Series, although he does harbour aspirations of moving up to the Cup series in future.

“One day, maybe,” Kyle said. “It takes a hell of a lot more money to go Cup racing competitively than it does to go Nationwide racing. But this is a step in the right direction for sure.

“Hopefully this place is going to be around a long time. It’s a beautiful facility. You know, this is something that I feel is near and dear to my heart. I didn’t inherit this. It’s something that I’ve been building. I’ve tried to build all of this and hire the right people and put them in the right places so we can be successful.”

“The limits [for KBM] are endless,” adds Kurt. “You can say it’s surprising, but I just know how our dad raised us with racing. It’s all we’ve ever known; it’s all we’ve ever done. It’s obvious because we’ve always been so focused on what’s happening through our windshield that we’ve missed out on some everyday life — because we’re so focused on winning.

“So that’s what this building is built off of, and that’s why Kyle surrounded himself with the kind of people that he has. It’s all about winning. So it’s just neat to be able to team up as family. The possibilities are endless.”

But one thing is for certain about this most unpredictable partnership; expect fireworks.  Asked recently whether his issues with Kyle had been resolved and the tension between them over, Harvick answered unequivocally “I don’t think so – I hope he heard that too.” Some things never change.

AJ Allmendinger - Credit: Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR

AJ Allmendinger is embracing the challenge of working with new team Penske Racing, following his move from Richard Petty Motorsports.  The 30 year old Californian will be entering his sixth season in NASCAR in 2012 following his move from Champ Cars, where on his day he could beat the dynamic combination of Sebastian Bourdais and Newman-Haas Racing.  Although he is still yet to win a race in NASCAR, he believes that his move to replace the sacked Kurt Busch will give him his best shot yet.

“This is a challenge that I welcome and look forward to,” Allmendinger said. “The two Penske teams were strong enough to both win races and make the Chase last year, and we’re looking for that same level of success this season. It’ll be important to start off the season on a positive note.

“Testing proved to each of us that, even though we haven’t had much time together, we all have the same goal and are really excited to get going. Testing also showed, though, that the drafting and NASCAR making changes to try and put forth the best racing possible, makes the Daytona 500 just about anybody’s game. I think we’ve got one of the best shots out there, and definitely a team capable of winning at any of the 36 races.”

Allmendinger was a career best 15^th in points last season, and will be hoping to continue his steady upward progression since finishing 24^th in 2009 and 19^th in 2010.

“I think it is a very realistic goal to win races and make the Chase this season,” he said. “I think Penske Racing proved last season that working with Dodge as only a two-car effort isn’t necessarily a bad situation. They proved that a smaller group with a strong common goal and clear way of doing things can be just as strong, maybe stronger.

“This is my second time around working with Dodge, and I’ve seen how dedicated they are to our sport. We’re really looking forward to taking them to victory lane this season.”

Allmendinger is aware of the scrutiny he will be under that comes with the promotion to a top drive – his new team-mate Brad Keselowski endured similarly rough treatment following a lamentable first year with the team before his breakthrough year in 2011 saw him finish fifth in the Chase with three wins.  The Dinger is confident that he will cope with the pressure.

“We have spent most of our time in NASCAR just trying to survive,” he said. “Getting this opportunity to drive the Shell-Pennzoil Dodge for Penske Racing is truly like a double blessing. I am finally getting the stability I have needed to do my best, but I am also realizing a dream in driving for Mr. Penske.

“Coming from my open-wheel background, Roger Penske and his organization and race teams are just the best of the best. I am committed to representing Penske Racing, Shell-Pennzoil, Dodge and all the other great partners the best I can on and off the track.”

A sneak-peek at the all new Ford Fusion - Credit: Ford Racing

Ford will be the first manufacturer to unveil its new 2013 model when it hosts a media event tomorrow (January 24) at Charlotte Motor Speedway.  The Fusion Sprint Cup race car is based on the new Ford Fusion production model, which broke cover at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, and is also due for a 2013 release.

The car is set to be unveiled by Ford Racing Director Jamie Allison and lead Ford designer Garen Nicoghosain, along with senior NASCAR management, in a move which marks a major return to manufacturer identity in the sport – at a time when Indycar will be returning to a multi-manufacturer format with Honda, Chevrolet and Lotus.

Teams running the current Ford model include Roush-Fenway Racing, which ran Carl Edwards to the runner-up spot in 2011, Richard Petty Motorsports, and defending Daytona 500 champions Wood Brothers Racing.  Ford finished second behind Chevrolet in the manufacturers standings in 2011, with seven wins for Edwards, Matt Kenseth, David Ragan, Trevor Bayne and Marcos Ambrose.

Ford will be providing a live stream of the event, available at www.fordracing.com and www.facebook.com/OfficialFordRacing.

Race cars are lined up for fans to see - Credit: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images for NASCAR

Day 2 of NASCAR Acceleration Weekend, the kickoff event for the 2012 season, concluded yesterday in the Charlotte Convention Centre, adjacent to the NASCAR Hall of Fame which inducted Cale Yarborough, Darrell Waltrip, Glen Wood, Dale Inman and Richie Evans on Friday.  The event saw fans get unprecedented access to the stars of NASCAR, such as 1995, 1997, 1998 and 2001 champion Jeff Gordon, who was on hand to unveil a new livery to commemorate the 20th anniversary of his sponsorship deal with Du Pont.

“If [team owner] Rick Hendrick and DuPont didn’t take that chance on me almost 20 years ago, I honestly don’t know if I’d be where I am today,” he gushed. “To stick with one driver and one team through all the highs and lows, and to still be here with us today celebrating our 20th full season, is really incredible.”

The 40 year old Californian enjoyed meeting the fans, and was touched by the dedication of those who had queued for over a day to be among the first in line.

“It’s very cool. You’re getting a chance to interact with the fans.  Especially as avid as these fans are, coming here from all over the country, if not further, and standing all night out on the sidewalk or getting up early to be the first to get in, it’s impressive. The weather’s not great, either,” Gordon said.

“One lady came through and she’s crying because of the experience. And you’re blown away, when you see and hear that kind of commitment. I mean, you see people with tattoos [to be signed] and everything else. It’s incredible and I think this is a great way to kick off the 2012 season.”

Fans also got a chance to see for themselves the famous exhibits in the Hall of Fame, including Richard Petty’s iconic #43 Plymouth, and meet over 60 of the top names in NASCAR, including 2011 champion Tony Stewart and 5-time champion Jimmie Johnson, who were out in force to greet fans, sign autographs, and participate in fan Q&A sessions. On stage, Joie Chitwood, President of the Daytona International Speedway, shared the humorous story of Trevor Bayne struggling to lift the Daytona 500 trophy, Dale Earnhardt Jr. admitted to having racked up 230 hours of game time on the Battlefield 3 computer game over the off season, and Ryan Newman ribbed Clint Bowyer for his flying hobby.

“We’re thrilled with the turnout and the passion our fans continue to express,” said Steve Sweeney, NASCAR’s director of consumer marketing. “The NASCAR Preview 2012 Presented By Sprint offered a perfect lead-in for the Daytona 500 on Feb. 26 and will only grow in the upcoming years.”

Head across to our Facebook page to see more images from the fan preview and Hall Of Fame Inductions.

NASCAR Hall of Fame (Photo Credit: NASCAR)

Friday saw the membership of the NASCAR Hall of Fame raised to 15, as 5 new names were presented with their rings. Darrell Waltrip, Cale Yarborough, Dale Inman, Glen Wood, and the late Richie Evans were each honoured for their achievements in an emotional, star-studded ceremony in Charlotte, North Carolina, and joined the likes of Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt Sr., Junior Johnson, Bill France Sr., Bill France Jr., Bud Moore, Lee Petty, Bobby Allison, Ned Jarrett and David Pearson among the ranks of NASCAR’s all-time greats.

Yarborough, whose record of winning three back to back titles from 1976-78 was only recently eclipsed by Jimmie Johnson’s phenomenal run of 5 successive championships in recent times, took 83 Cup victories (including 4 Daytona 500 victories) and 69 poles in his career, although is perhaps best remembered for his fight with the Allison brothers after crashing out on the final lap of the 1979 Daytona 500, gifting the win to Richard Petty.  Yarborough, 72, was humbled by his inclusion in the Hall of Fame.

“I’m going to remember that this was one of the best days of my life,” Yarborough said.  “This is what I have - I didn’t know I was working for it, but I’ve worked for all of my life, and it just happened tonight. 

“I’m just so proud to be a part of it and been so blessed to climb that long ladder from the bottom step, now I’m standing on that top step.  Can’t go any higher, but can’t nobody push me off, either.”

Waltrip, 64, was also a three time champion, taking the spoils in 1981, 1982 and 1985.  In his long year career as a driver, spanning 28 years and 809 starts, Waltrip took 84 wins, including the 1989 Daytona 500, making him the fourth most successful driver in history.  Now a respected broadcaster, DW is famous for yelling his trademark catchphrase “boogity, boogity, boogity, let’s go racing boys!” as the cars take the green flag to start the race, and memorably broke down in tears watching his brother take victory in the 2001 Daytona 500, an event marred by the death of his good friend Dale Earnhardt.  Following the race, Waltrip was among the most vociferous backers of mandating the HANS device, which arguably could have saved ‘The Enforcer’ had he chosen to wear it.

“This night, these men, and the people in this room, they’re what inspire me,” Waltrip said. “Every year you’ve got to climb that mountain, and every year you’ve got to do it all over again and do it all over again.  This is the last mountain you have to climb.  You’re at the pinnacle.  You’ve made it to the top.”

“It’s not about one race, one championship.  I said it from day one; it’s about your body of work.  And what made me the proudest and what makes me the proudest is you’re voted on by your peers.  It’s not a popularity contest, thank goodness.  It’s basically 50 guys that you’ve worked with, raced against, raced with, whatever the situation may be, and they recognize what you’ve done, and they reward you by nominating you and inducting you into the Hall of Fame.  And that speaks volumes to me.”

Inman, 75, is best known as the crew chief and head mechanic for each of Richard Petty’s seven Cup championships, but also won the 1984 title with Terry Labonte.  Inman is the first crew chief to have been admitted to the Hall of Fame since its inception in 2010.

“I’m kind of familiar with this ring,” Inman joked, referring to his NASCAR Hall of Fame ring. “For the last two or three years Richard has put it in my face a bunch of times!”

“You know, what an honour it’s been to work with the different drivers over the years but most of them with Richard,” he added.  “They used the term eight championships, but it’s in a different league from what the drivers are, and I give that respect. But to be the first crew chief to come in – and I’m sure there will be more after this – is quite an honour.”

He said that the job criterion for a crew chief is unrecognisable to the role he fulfilled before his retirement in 1998.

“It’s tough on the crew chiefs now,” Inman said.  “I mentioned the wave-around, the lucky dogs, the pit strategy, two tires, four tires, track position is so important.  And years ago we practiced from early in the morning until late at night.  Now they give you an hour and 15 minutes of practice, man, it’s just a different world from what it used to be.”

Team owner Glen Wood, 86, has been in the business since the 1950s, when he started the Wood Brothers racing team with his brother Leonard, who said “Glen was always fair, honest, gave good advice. You needed no more than a handshake with him.”  Yarborough also heaped praised on Glen Wood during his own acceptance speech, adding: “I am so honoured and so pleased to be inducted in the same class with Glen Wood. It’s so great that it turned out this way.” Wood started out as a driver before running the team, which also expanded into Indycar racing, running the likes of Scottish hero Jim Clark. 

“Well, that means as much to me as anybody else, I can tell you that,” Wood said. “It’s the greatest honour you can get in this sport.  One of the proud things is that two of the ones that are in already have driven our car, [David] Pearson and Yarborough.  I just learned today how big this is.  It’s as big as it gets.”

NASCAR’s oldest team, the Wood Brothers are still going strong today, the iconic Wood Brothers no.21 taking a famous victory at last year’s Daytona 500 in the hands of 20 year old rookie Trevor Bayne.

Modified Series driver Richie Evans was admitted posthumously to the Hall of Fame.  He died aged 44 in a practice session at Martinsville Speedway in 1985 having clinched his ninth championship a week prior.  The ‘Rapid Roman’ remains to date the most successful Modified driver of all time, and the #61 Evans used on his ‘Orange Chariot’ remains to date the only number ever to have been officially retired by NASCAR. He becomes the first individual inducted into the Hall from outside NASCAR’s premier division, a fact which left his wife Lynn, who accepted the award on his behalf, “speechless.”

“I’m speechless.  Not that he didn’t work hard, not that he shouldn’t be here, but it just happened so soon.  There’s so many other greats that we figured maybe sometime down the road he definitely would, but not this soon, and we’re just thrilled and honoured.  He worked hard.  He would be so proud of himself. 

“I’d especially like to thank the Hall of Fame voting panel for stepping outside the box and making Rich the first driver inductee not to have raced in NASCAR’s top series full time. You have now given hope to thousands of NASCAR competitors throughout the country to maybe someday reach their dream. ”

Regan Smith and Jess McMillan (Photo Credit: Furniture Row Racing)

NASCAR star Regan Smith took his no.78 Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet Impala on an adventure 9,000 feet above sea level in the snowy Colorado Mountains this week for an upcoming ski movie.

The Denver, Colorado based team is the only operation not located in the historic NASCAR heartland of Charlotte, North Carolina, making them ideally suited for the experience.  Nevertheless, the snowy mountainous conditions presented Smith, 28, who broke his duck last year by winning the Southern 500 at Darlington, with a challenge altogether different, but just as difficult as 200mph pack racing at Daytona, where he spent last week testing the new-for-2012 restrictor plate regulations. 

“The conditions were tricky and the car was a handful to drive at times, but it was a blast,” said Smith. “However, I did have my moments and let’s just say that the car didn’t leave Telluride dent free!”

Alongside Smith in the Furniture Row car, which was fitted with specially studded snow tyres for additional grip, was national and world tour freeskiing champion Jess McMillan, who thoroughly enjoyed her experience

“There is nothing like riding in a race car,” stated McMillan. “When Regan started his engine, my heart rate skyrocketed. I had a blast working with Regan and the Furniture Row team. It was an experience I will never forget. Car 78 looked so cool with a ski rack on its roof driving through snow-covered mountain passes. I can’t wait to go to my first race.”

NASCAR‘s 2013 Cup car is expected to take to the track in June for the first time in a move which will give manufacturers competing more of a brand identity.

“We’ll be in the wind tunnel over the next 30, 45 days with the new prototypes as we do our evaluations on the submission cars, parts and pieces,” Robin Pemberton, NASCAR’s vice president for competition said.

“Everybody seems to be pretty far along, and the changes that will come out of those will be based on parity due to the wind-tunnel numbers. We’re optimistic that there will be some real race cars on race tracks probably in the second quarter this year doing some evaluation runs, if not before then.”

NASCAR president Mike Helton praised the cooperation between the manufacturers who with the sanctioning body gave the go ahead for the redesign.

“Never before, I think, has there been such a collaborative effort between NASCAR and the automobile manufacturers that are involved in our sport to start from the ground up and design a race car that they participate in the design of,” Helton said.

“And we regulate it so that there’s a level playing field across the board. And the energy level that came from that, from the manufacturers and all of them sitting in a room together to create what we’ll begin to see unfold in 2012 and see on the race track in ’13, I think is pretty remarkable, and certainly a sign of the time.”

NASCAR Hall of Fame (Image Credit: NASCAR)

Among the five NASCAR legends to be inducted into the 2012 class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame on Friday, the only one not in attendance will be New Yorker Richie Evans, who was tragically killed while practicing at Martinsville Speedway for the 1985 season finale of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour aged just 44.  

Known as the ‘Rapid Roman,’ Evans was the indisputable king of the modified class, with a record nine titles in 13 years, including a streak of eight consecutive titles between 1978 and 1985, with a 36.5% win rate which is simply unheard of in the modern era. 

Named one of NASCAR’s “50 Greatest Drivers” in 1998 despite having never raced in the top flight, his legacy will be immortalized in the Hall of Fame along with legendary crew chief Dale Inman, team owner Glen Wood and Cup Series champions Darrell Waltrip and Cale Yarborough.

“He was our Dale Earnhardt. Before I knew Dale Earnhardt, I knew Richie Evans,” said Ray Evernham, who competed against Evans before becoming a successful team owner in the Cup Series.

“He was the guy who let you know that it was possible. He was a mechanic, he had a gas station, he was a guy who built his own race cars, and he went out and beat the big racers.”

“It gave us hope more than anything, because we knew the door wasn’t locked. If you were willing to work, and had some talent and some mechanical ability, you could get that door open and go race with the big guys. Being around Richie, being able to rub shoulders with Richie, gave a lot of people the hope and confidence to continue their racing careers.”

That Evans’ iconic orange #61, affectionately known as the ‘Orange Chariot’ remains to this day the only number ever to have been retired from any level of NASCAR competition is testament to Evans’ incredible feats.

“Richie Evans was an original, colorful personality, and there has been no one like him since,” said veteran NASCAR reporter Dick Berggren.

“The driving certainly was a big part of him, but the fun-loving Richie Evans was also a huge portion of who he was. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a guy who was more popular in the grandstands than Richie. He brought people to the grandstands who were thrilled with watching him race, but he also brought people who just wanted to see this outrider, this guy who was so different from so many of the others. The stories, even without embellishment, are hard to imagine in today’s world.

“For all the screwing around he did, when he pulled the helmet on, he changed.  The switch flipped. He became a hard-nosed competitor who was completely focused on where his car was in relation to everyone else’s, getting it to the front and keeping it there.”

SPEED analyst and twice modified champion Jimmy Spencer agrees.

“When he put his helmet on, it was all business and he didn’t care about anything but racing.  He reminded me a lot of Dale Earnhardt in that respect. When Richie put that helmet on, he had no friends. He was there to win the race and was one of the best I’ve ever raced against. You knew if you beat Richie, you beat the best.”

“There always was drama around Richie,” adds Berggren.

“The race I remember the most was the Martinsville race where he and Geoff Bodine tangled with a couple of laps to go and literally bounced off of each other for two laps at the finish. They came across the line crashing with Richie winning the race and Bodine finishing second – both cars steaming hunks of metal in the infield. It was a beautiful thing. They both felt they had to drive that hard to beat the other.

“I know people who sat in that grandstands that day who still say that was the closest to a stock car race they ever saw, and without Richie, they wouldn’t have had that.”

Evans was rare in that he won a lot of races, yet his popularity remained impeccable.

“Look, I was a nobody. I would run 10th in the races Richie would win,” continues Evernham. “But in the bar, or after the races with a beer, Richie was the same. He didn’t care if you were a 10-time champion. He treated everyone the same. He always spoke to us, he always answered my questions, and he had time for a kid from New Jersey that was running in 10th place and asking him a dumb question.”

Evans’ addition to the NASCAR Hall of Fame, Spencer believes, gives hope to those racing in the lower ranks of the sport.

“Putting Richie Evans in the NASCAR Hall of Fame solidifies the Hall of Fame,” he said.

“It shows all these guys racing from California to Maine to Florida they can make a name for themselves if they want to stay in NASCAR. They can become a Hall of Fame member. His presence brings attention to the great drivers that have come up through the years and notoriety to NASCAR from all across the country, and it rounds out NASCAR’s history.”

Trevor Bayne (Photo Credit: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images for NASCAR)

The shock rookie winner of the 2011 Daytona 500 Trevor Bayne will return for Wood Brothers Racing with the same grounded approach as last year. Bayne, who won the 500 in only his second ever Cup event, believes that the knowledge of having won the race before will have little bearing on his preparations for the ‘Great American Race’ this time around.

“I’m kind of the same mindset that I was last year,” the 20-year old said.

“Last year I came in thinking there’s no way we can win this, and now I’m coming back saying there’s no way we can win two in a row. But then the Wood Brothers keep showing up with great race cars and they keep showing up with the guys that can do it and that can win, and I think that’s what’s so important.”

Bayne’s breakthrough victory was the first for the famous #21 Wood Brothers Ford since Elliot Sadler’s win at Bristol in 2001, but until recently there was a level of doubt as to whether he would be back to defend his crown. Bayne was kept in the dark throughout the off-season, with Roush stablemate and newly crowned NASCAR Nationwide champion Ricky Stenhouse Jr. rumoured to be in talks. However, it all fell into place last week, with Bayne being retained by the Wood Brothers and Stenhouse stepping into the #6 Roush Ford vacated by David Ragan.

“All offseason long we didn’t know what was going to happen,” he said.

“I kind of sat back to see if I was going to be running a Nationwide car or a Cup car or what I’d be doing. Nobody really knew. I think even the Wood Brothers were at a loss for words for a little while. And then finally it all came back together that we could be together again, and there’s no better team for me to be driving for I don’t think. I think the Wood Brothers are great racers that have done it for a long time, and they just want to race.”

Sidelined for much of the 2011 season after being diagnosed with Lyme disease, Bayne fought back to fitness to win his first Nationwide Series event at Texas in November, and is confident that he can carry his form into the 2012 season.

“It’s an honour to drive for the oldest team in NASCAR that’s still standing, and it’s no wonder that they’re still winning races, and I think we can do it again this year. We’re just going to have to work really hard at it.”

Jamie McMurray (Photo Credit: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images For NASCAR)

2010 Daytona 500 winner Jamie McMurray is hoping that the 2012 season will see him return to winning ways, after a dire 2011 season saw him finish winless and fail to make the Chase, down in 27th in points. The Earnhardt-Ganassi driver is optimistic that changes introduced over the winter will enable the team to leap back up the pecking order.

“We’re coming into 2012 so open-minded [because] we’ve made so many changes at the shop and within each team. Chip [Ganassi, team-owner] has made a really big commitment,” McMurray said. “I mean, they changed a lot of management. We hired a lot of new people from different organizations. You know, we hired John Probst [technical director] from Red Bull, and he’s done a really good job, with getting everything organized.”

“The frustrating part is that we won races with the guys that were there before, won some really big races. But I think the morale in the shop got way down, and everyone, you know, you start criticizing everybody, and Chip needed to make a change to get everybody pumped back up.”

McMurray says that Ganassi is conscious of the need to up their game in 2012, with his team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya also outside the top 20 in points last year. However he is cautious about the gains the new staff will bring, and believes it will take time for them to have any effect on the team’s performance.

“I don’t think you’re going to see just immediate results because it’s going to take a little time. Daytona is not a good measurement [to compare with rivals] - it really isn’t. When you get to Phoenix, Vegas and those kinds of tracks you kind of know what you have and what your season’s gonna be like.

“But from my perspective looking at it, it seems much more organized and everyone seems to be behind us.”

Montoya has a new crew-chief for 2012 in the form of ex-Hendrick Motorsport engineer Chris Heroy, who he hopes will help him return to Chase-contention. The Colombian is similarly wary of over-estimating Ganassi’s realistic goals for the coming season.

“I love racing at Daytona but it’s not something you can gauge the rest of the year on,” Montoya said.

“Plate racing is much different than what 90 percent of our schedule is. Teams will have a better idea of what they have after the Phoenix race.”

Danica Patrick (Photo Credit: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images for NASCAR)

NASCAR’s new poster girl Danica Patrick announced herself “comfortable” in a Cup car, after participating in her first NASCAR Sprint Cup test at the Daytona International Speedway last week. Patrick, who will dovetail her full-time Nationwide Series campaign for JR Motorsports with a part time schedule in Cup for the Stewart-Haas team following her switch from Indycar, impressed crew chief Greg Zipadelli with the ease with which she got on with the job.

“She did a lot better job than I thought,” Zipadelli said following the Saturday running.

“I didn’t want to put any expectations on her coming down here. So I was very relaxed and just kind of stepped back with a game plan and we worked through our things. She responded very well, very good feedback [and] did a really good job in the draft, which was great.”

Patrick likened the experience to her first day at school, and was pleased to progress unscathed when the likes of Mark Martin, Clint Bowyer, Jeff Burton and Dale Earnhardt Jr. came unstuck.

“Just like going to the first day of school, you want to make a good impression, you want to do a good job,” she said.

“And probably missing pit-in on pit road and having to back up is probably not what you want to do at school. I didn’t want to trip like that. But it’s probably not that big of a deal. It’s finding your way around, finding my locker, literally. There’s no combination for it, of course, but it is a locker that I needed to find, getting in sync with that. … [It's] just getting familiar with all the little things and getting comfortable and setting everything up, so when I hop in throughout the year it’s simple and straightforward.”

Patrick pledged to adopt a “honey badger” attitude to racing, and refuses to be intimidated by anyone.

“The honey badger, he doesn’t give a crap; he takes what he wants,” Patrick said. “And that’s how I’m going to be this year, like a honey badger… he eats poisonous snakes, and he falls asleep and wakes right back up.”

The next stop on Patrick’s 10-race Cup calendar will be a visit to the fearsome ‘the Lady in Black’ – Darlington Speedway – before trips to the Monster Mile of Dover and Thunder Valley in Bristol. Unsurprisingly therefore, Patrick is relieved that she can get to grips with the nuances of the Cup car around the 2.5 mile speed bowl before getting to the more technical circuits on the tour.

“I’m really kind of glad that the first time that I’m in a Cup car is here at Daytona,” Patrick said. “I can get the fit right and get all the little things right so that when we go to a track that’s a little more challenging from a driver’s perspective, that stuff is all good to go, and there’s no concern or no distraction. Overall, I’m feeling comfortable, as comfortable as I could imagine myself in this situation.”

Kahne and Gordon chat during testing - Credit: Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR

Hendrick Motorsports new signing Kasey Kahne is optimistic that his new team will offer him his best chance yet at mounting a challenge for a spot in the Chase.  Kahne, who finished 14^th in points in 2011 with a win the penultimate race at Phoenix for the now defunct Red Bull Racing team, tested for his new squad for the first time at Daytona last week and was pleased with the way he settled in.

“I’ve always thought that if we do everything right and are consistent, that we could contend,” Kahne said, after pushing his team-mate Jeff Gordon to the top of the time sheets on Saturday at 200.562 mph.

“To win it is another story. I don’t think you can say because you’re here, now you can win a championship because there are so many little things that you have to do and you have to do as a team. So if we can put that full deal together, this is definitely a place that wins championships.”

“It definitely takes time because it’s all different,” Kahne added. “The way they build the parts and pieces and the way that feels to me and the way I relay that to Kenny [Francis, Kahne’s crew chief since 2006] – that’s something that takes time, and hopefully it doesn’t take us too long. But there will definitely be some things that will confuse me at times for sure!”

The 31-year old also said that he was looking forward to racing alongside his illustrious team-mates, who have won 8 titles between them.

“It’s neat, though. It’s awesome to be able to talk with Jimmie [Johnson] and Dale [Earnhardt Jr.] and Jeff [Gordon] about racing and driving and things like that, and then just all the people that they have there.

“I don’t know; it’s just been kind of a different feeling more than anything than what I’ve had before at other race teams. It’s a great opportunity, and I want to take full advantage of it.”

Gordon was keen to welcome the 2004 rookie of the year to the team.

“They’re a great addition” he said of Kahne and Francis.  “I think they’re a great package.  They seem to really get along well and understand one another well.  Kenny is a super smart guy. I think he’s a great crew chief, and I think that Kasey is one of the top drivers in the series.

“Kasey and I have been texting one another back and forth all last year. Every time that we were fast in qualifying or won a race, he was texting me, and I kept telling him, we’re just getting things ready for when you come!” Gordon added.

Credit: Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR

Preparations for the 2012 season began in earnest this week as teams took to the track at the Daytona International Speedway for Preseason Thunder.  Speeds reached in excess of 200 mph despite a new set of restrictor plate regulations, with new Phoenix Racing signing Kurt Busch topping the time sheets with a fastest lap of 206.058 mph on Friday, although fastest times on Saturday were considerably slower.

“It’s been a lot of fun to work with a small group of guys and thrash on just getting the car to the hauler to get the hauler down here on time,” Busch said.

“Everybody on the team is just walking on cloud nine right now with excitement, with the way that we’ve been running so far on track.”

The new regulations for 2012 are designed to make it more difficult for cars to link up in two-car tandems, which became a trend at Talladega and Daytona last year.  NASCAR hopes that as a result we will see a return to the traditional style of pack racing, with no single car able to break away from the peloton.  They include the outlawing of driver-to-driver communications, smaller radiators, and smaller spoilers.

Joe Gibbs driver Joey Logano was indifferent to the new regulations.

“Either way’s fine for me, but I personally like the two-car draft a lot, I have fun with it; it’s kind of cool to communicate with someone,” Logano said.

“But a lot of people don’t like it. So we’ll go back to the other way, or whatever.”

The general consensus remains however that tandem drafting will decide the race in the closing laps around the 2.5 mile oval – incidentally, Busch’s quickest time was set in a tandem with his 2010 tandem partner, Furniture Row Racing’s Regan Smith.

“The two-car tandem is definitely the way to go, as far as speed,” Hendrick Motorsports driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. commented.

“You’re not going to be able to out-run that. That tandem stuff is what’s gonna win the race.”

Earnhardt added that he believes the new regulations, particularly the outlawing of intra-car communications, will have little overall effect on the spectacle.

“You know, pretty much everybody is working with teammates anyways. When we first started tandem drafting, you might end up working with somebody outside of your company, but then everybody sort of got a little strict on who they were going to work with.  So I don’t think it’s that big of a deal.”

Despite having collided with new Michael Waltrip Racing team-mate Clint Bowyer while practising tandem drafting without a radio on Thursday, veteran Mark Martin agreed with Earnhardt.

“We’re practicing tandems, you’re gonna have to do it – you’re just gonna have to,” Martin said.

“It’s gonna be really, really hard, but people are gonna figure it out and have a huge advantage to be able to do it so we wanted to get a taste of it. And what did we get, two laps and I turned him around?”

“Everybody’s trying to pick this [tandem drafting] up,” added Bowyer.

“You can do it and that’s the problem … it’s an advantage so you’re gonna have to do it. The cars move around a bit more than they did and when we made that switch it just pulled the air and turned me around.

“It’s going to be interesting to see. I don’t know what the fix is, and I know they’re trying. They either have to make it so you can’t do it at all, somehow, or get it back to where you can at least make laps and not wreck each other.”

The only major crash occurred on the Saturday, when Earnhardt was hooked into the path of Jeff Burton after slight contact with Juan Pablo Montoya.  It was Burton’s second accident of the test, having had slight contact with the wall following a puncture on Friday, and left him to rue his bad luck.

“I don’t know what happened, but maybe we’re getting it out of the way now,” reflected the Richard Childress driver.

“Other than the obvious, we’ve had a really good test … My car was really stable. My car drove really good and felt good. I was a little surprised. With the spoiler, I thought it might not feel that way.”