Camping World 300 News and Notes

Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the #5 National Guard Chevy was fastest in the Camping World 300 1st practice session today with a lap time of 48.447 and a top speed of 185.77 - Clint Bowyer in the #2 BB&T Chevy was second fastest with a 48.609 and a top speed of 185.151 - Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Greg Biffle rounded out the top five with Kevin posting 3rd fastest at 48.619 in the #33 Camping World 300 Chevy with a top speed of 185.113 - followed by Kyle driving the #18 Interstate Batteries with a lap of 48,679 and 184.885 - Greg posted a 48,723 at 184.718 in the #16 Citifinancial Ford. There were three drivers who did not make the track for the first practice today and those drivers are = 24-Eric McClure, 84-Mike Harmon, and 89-Morgan Shepherd.

The Camping World 300 second practice was lead by the #00 RIMCO Toyota driven by Michael McDowell with a lap time of 47.998 at at speed of 187.547 - Second was the #64 Atreus Homes & Communities Chevy driven by David Stremme with a lap time of 47.994 at a speed of 187.523 - Third was #24 Hefty Brand Chevy driven by Eric McClure with a 48.027 and a speed of 187.395. Unfortunately early into the session the #64 driven by David Stremme was involved in an accident along with Carl Edwards #60, David Reutimann #99 and Mark Green #70. At this point it looks like everyone will be able to fix their cars with the exception of Mark Green who will go to his backup car.

Driver to win the Camping World 300

Dale Earnhardt Jr +305
Tony Stewart +405
Kevin Harvick +585
Kyle Busch +625
Denny Hamlin +805
Matt Kenseth +965
Clint Bowyer +1150
Martin Truex Jr +1150
Carl Edwards +1450
Bobby Labonte +1750
Kasey Kahne +1850
Greg Biffle +2150
Scott Wimmer +2650
David Reutimann +3800
Jason Leffler +3800
Field +1250

TheGreek

Earnhardt's Nationwide car impounded for altered spoiler
ESPN.com

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Speedweeks at Daytona International Speedway hasn't been perfect for Dale Earnhardt Jr. after all.

The No. 5 car Earnhardt will drive in Saturday's Nationwide Series opener was impounded by NASCAR on Thursday night after officials discovered the team altered the spoiler to create an aerodynamic advantage following inspection.

The car was returned on Friday morning minus the trunk lid and spoiler, repaired and sent back through inspection. It will be allowed to run in the race.

Joe Balash, the Nationwide Series director, said further sanctions against the team and crew chief Chad Walter will be issued on Tuesday. NASCAR officials considered sending Walter home because the offense was considered blatant, but opted to hold off on what could result in a suspension.

Rick Hendrick is listed as the car owner, but the car is co-owned by Hendrick and Earnhardt and run by JR Motorsports in Mooresville, N.C.

Tony Eury Sr., the competition director at JR Motorsports, said Earnhardt and Hendrick weren't "too happy" with what happened. He said the company could take action against Walter on top of what NASCAR does.

"That's not something either of them approve of," Eury Sr. said. "Neither side [NASCAR or Earnhardt] is happy about it."

JR Motorsports officials learned of the incident during the first of Thursday's 150-mile qualifying races for Sunday's Daytona 500. Earnhardt, who won Budweiser Shootout on Saturday, won the race to keep his record at Hendrick Motorsports perfect.

Earnhardt was not told about the infraction until later.

Stewart Takes Daytona Pole
RacingOne.com

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Tony Stewart will start on the pole for Saturday's Camping World 300, while Dale Earnhardt Jr. faces penalties after NASCAR confiscated his rear deck lid. NASCAR also disallowed several qualifying times for post-inspection infractions.

Stewart won the pole with a lap of 180.937 mph in the No. 20 Toyota.

"The hardest part of our job is shifting three times," Stewart said. "The rest of it is the hard work put in by the team. They work just as hard as they do on the Cup cars."

Stewart will be seeking his third victory in four years in the event. He won here in 2005 and 2006.
"The cars are so different that I don't think anything I learn in Saturday's race will help me on Sunday," Stewart said. "The Nationwide car drives like an old pair of shoes, while the Cup car is a handful.

Clint Bowyer made it an all-Sprint Cup Series front row, running a lap of 180.101 in the No. 2 BB&T Chevrolet.

Jason Leffler led the Nationwide Series regulars by qualifying third, goin 180.047 mph in the No. 38 Great Clips Toyota. He will be joined in the second row by NASCAR rookie Dario Franchitti, 179.698 mph in the Fastenol Dodge.

NASCAR disallowed the qualifying times of five cars for an infraction found in post-qualifying inspection. Kertus Davis, Cale Gale, Johnny Sauter, David Gilliland and David Stremme were the drivers of the cars in question. All but Davis will start the race from the rear of the field based on owner's points. Davis will lose his spot in the race to teammate Dwayne Leik.

David Stremme did not make a qualifying lap when the transmission failed on the Atreus Homes & Communities Chevrolet, putting the Rusty Wallace-owned car to the back for the start.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s JR Motorsports team was forced to change the rear deck lid on the No. 5 National Guard Chevrolet that he qualified 21st.

"We had a little problem yesterday with the deck lid and NASCAR wanted us to put another one on it," Earnhardt Jr. said. "That didn’t really slow us down much, but they kept the car all night, so we didn’t get to work on it put the deck lid on until this morning. We didn’t get the setup where we wanted it. We should have run a little bit better. I’m glad to be in the show. There are a lot of people here for this race, and I’m just glad to be here.

“I was disappointed with my team," Earnhardt said. "We’ve got good cars, this car won here last year with Kyle Busch driving. Everybody tries to get a little bit out of the cars and bend the rules and get in the gray area. Our guys were trying a little too hard on the car that didn’t need it, because the car’s pretty good. So we all learned a lesson down here. We’ll move forward. We’ll have to deal with penalties and what not probably next week, which is pretty much standard. We’ll be alright. We’ll try to get the best finish we can. We’ve still got a car that we can win the race with.”

Stewart, Busch finish one-two in Camping World 300

Daytona Beach, FL (Sports Network) - Tony Stewart held to the bottom of the track and it turned out to be the right move as he captured the Nationwide Series (formerly known as the Busch Series) season opener at the Daytona International Speedway. The No.20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota driver crossed the finish line 0.259 seconds ahead of teammate Kyle Busch.

The victory was the third of Stewart's Nationwide career - all of them at Daytona (2005, 2006, 2008).

"This thing had so much speed, it was just plain fast," said Stewart. "I think Kyle's car handled better than ours did, but we had a car that would go in a straight line, for sure."

Stewart brought the field to the green flag for 120 laps of restrictor- plate racing. In his new Toyota-powered No.20 machine, he quickly pulled out a three-length lead. But in restrictor-plate racing that can get eliminated in a heartbeat.

Stewart led the early single-file leaders while behind them was some wild three-wide racing. Through 10 laps Stewart led fellow Toyota-powered drivers Busch and Brian Vickers.

By lap 20, Dale Earnhardt Jr. cracked the top-10 as the first 12 cars were all Sprint Cup regulars. After leading for 22 laps, Busch went to the lead with Martin Truex Jr. sliding into second place. Stewart, complaining of a "tight race car" fell all the way to sixth.

Busch and Truex Jr. built a lead of almost half-a-second on third-place Denny Hamlin - a huge margin at Daytona. With almost 40 laps completed, the cars were very loose at the end of the first green-flag run and speeds widely varied.

The leaders pitted under green on lap 37 to begin the first round of pit stops. After the stops the lead group shuffled their order with Truex Jr. Vickers and Busch the top-three.

A mistake by the No.33 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet on his pit stop caused Harvick to have to make a second stop and left him one lap down.

A couple of laps later, David Gilliland and Mark Green collided catching part of Greg Biffle's rear bumper. Gilliland and Green hit the outside wall and were through for the day, but Biffle survived to continue on.

At the mid-point, Busch was back out front, but Stewart's crew had evidently made the correct adjustments because he was moving back towards the top. Stewart was second by lap 65.

One non-Sprint Cup driver having a good day was the No.88 Chevrolet of Brad Keselowski. He was the only full-time Nationwide driver in the first dozen drivers (ninth).

Another car which suddenly came to life around the halfway point was that of defending series champion Carl Edwards. He cracked the top-five by lap 74 and looked ready to join Busch and Stewart in a challenge for the lead.

On lap 78, Marcos Ambrose had a tire blow and the beneficiary of the "Lucky Dog" pass was Harvick, getting him back on the lead lap.

Stewart returned to the top spot by lap 80, but Busch refused to go away and they fought back and forth for the lead. In fact, the top-five cars (including Earnhardt Jr.) were all within one second of the leader.

With 27 laps to go, Bowyer's car got loose and he slapped the outside wall a couple of times coming out of turn two. He was running third at the time, but saved the car, and brought it to pit lane.

Twenty-five laps to go and it was Stewart, Truex Jr., Busch and Earnhardt Jr. But a debris caution slowed the field on the next lap.

Would the drivers stop and get new tires or keep track position?

It was unanimous, all the leaders chose to pit, but Truex Jr.'s crew had some problems and it took an additional six seconds for the car that came in as the runner up. By the time they got him back out, he was in 11th place.

Busch and "Junior" beat Stewart to the stripe and sat one-two-three as the green flag dropped with 21 laps to go. Earnhardt Jr. dropped to the bottom of the track to pass Busch, but no one went with him and he slid backwards to eighth place.

Five Toyotas led the way as Earnhardt Jr. with friend and former Sprint Cup teammate Truex Jr. tried to work the outside. They got up to third before settling in, but there was still 15 laps to go. Matt Kenseth also woke up and joined the outside line.

But Busch and Stewart were locked together at the bottom of the track and they were going to be tough to pass.

Ten laps to go and Jason Keller, Kasey Kahne, Harvick, Steven Wallace and Johnny Sauter were victims of a loose race car in front of them. It started when Keselowski got loose and clipped Wallace's car. The other guys had no where to go to avoid the incident and ran right into Wallace who was sideways across the race track.

The race would restart with six laps remaining.

With four laps to go Vickers got around the outside of Stewart and Busch to take the lead. Then Stewart charged to the lead with Earnhardt Jr. sliding into second place. Busch dropped to the bottom and rejoined up with Stewart on the bottom. Kenseth was lined up with "Junior" on the top.

Which line would be faster?

It was the inside line and Stewart with Busch on his bumper held on for the first Nationwide Series win of the season.

The next race will be Saturday night, February 23rd at the California Speedway.