By: DJ DeSpain

RubbingsRacing.com has been around since 2000, and we have seen a lot of growth in the past decade. From a simple website posting NASCAR Cup points standings, RubbingsRacing.com has grown into a NASCAR-accredited website featuring dedicated writers, hosting multiple podcasts, and providing race coverage at the majority of the three national series NASCAR events.

Now, as the end of our first decade comes about, we have some big changes coming that are sure to excite our current fans and attract new fans to come! A new staff member will also be coming aboard, one who will be instantly recognizable, and will be an excellent complement to our wonderful staff of writers and reporters!

In partnership with our friends at Atlanta Motor Speedway, RubbingsRacing.com editor Chris Smith will have a live announcement at the track detailing our changes and introducing our newest staff member on Sunday, September 5th.

To help celebrate our announcement, we will have a joint tweetup at 4PM that Sunday outside the entrance of Gate 15 with Jeff Gluck, motorsports editor for SBNation.com, featuring prize drawings and special guests, including our newest staff member! Some of the prizes to be given away include:

• One AMP Energy Dale Earnhardt Jr. Embroidered Jacket
• One AMP Energy Dale Earnhardt Jr. Clock
• Ten Atlanta Motor Speedway Race Souvenir Packages
• And more!

Be sure to check in on September 5th on our facebook.rubbingsracing.com page, our twitter accounts below, or here on this website for the announcement!

Twitter accounts:

@RubbingsRacing

@Rubbings

@DJ_DeSpain

Photo Credit: Jason Smith/Getty Images

By: Toby Christie

The Daytona 500 eluded Dale Earnhardt for the majority of his career. Earnhardt lost that race every which way you can, until finally he was able to capture it in 1998. For Memphis Raines (Nicholas Cage), the main character in the film Gone In Sixty Seconds, his unicorn was “Eleanor” a 1967 Shelby GT500 Mustang. Every time Raines was in position to “boost” that elusive car, something bad would happen to him.

It seems anyone who is good at anything always has that one that continually gets away, even in fiction stories. This in the end makes it all so much more sweet when they finally triumph.

Marcos Ambrose’s “Eleanor” is Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Canada. It came back to haunt him again Sunday.

In the inaugural event at Montreal in 2007, Ambrose led 37 of the 75 laps on the day, but he was discarded after a Robby Gordon road-rage incident at the end of the race. He would hang on to finish seventh, but the thought of what could have been must have been on his mind.

Ambrose came back in ’08, and from the third starting position he led 27 of the first 48 laps. Then the rain came, and it fell hard. The race was called after 48 laps, and because of pit strategy Ambrose found himself a disappointing third.

Then in 2009 Ambrose suffered the most bitter of defeats. He utterly dominated the day leading 60 of the 76 laps, but following a miscue in the final turn of the race Ambrose was passed by Carl Edwards.

Sunday Ambrose found a new, and equally heartbreaking way to lose at the Canadian track.

In a field full of Sprint Cup stars and road course ringers, the Australian got off to a fast start. However with less than 40 laps to go, Ambrose began reporting that he was losing voltage. The power issues would doom him, as he would lose more than one lap on pitroad, while his crew changed the battery in his No. 47 car.

With 23 laps to go Ambrose’s diminishing hopes for victory would completely end, when he had a sway bar break on his car. He will now have to wait until 2011 for another chance at capturing a race that he woulda, coulda, shoulda, had four straight wins in.

It appeared now that with a huge lead, it was Carl Edwards’ race to lose. However with nine laps to go, the race became one of attrition as the leader had a rear trackbar break. This sent Edwards, who had led the most laps on the day with 29, behind the wall and effectively out of the running for the win.

This set up a great battle for the win between some of the greatest road course ringers in the sport today, including Robby Gordon, Boris Said, Max Papis, and Jacques Villeneueve.

On a restart with seven to go Gordon and Papis duked it out on a restart, and by then end of the first turn the two were in the grass, scrambling to regain their spots on the course. Both would get back on track without losing much ground, but it was a nerve-racking moment.

After several caution flags down the final stretch, including one with two laps to go, we were now forced to go to a green-white-checkered finish. This made many uncertain about how much gas was left in leader Robby Gordon’s fuel tank.

On the restart Boris Said, would get position on Robby Gordon for the lead, when all of a sudden Gordon would run out of fuel. Gordon’s shot at redemption from the 2007 race was over, and the race was to be settled between Said, Papis, and Villeneueve… And what a finish it was.

Boris Said just nudged Max Papis by the smallest of margins in an incredible photo finish for the ages. This is Boris Said’s first career victory in NASCAR, and he breaks a long standing curse of the “Zaxby’s Car”.

Max Papis would finish second followed by Jacques Villeneueve, Brad Keselowski, and Paul Menard.

In the end the NAPA Auto Parts 200 will be remembered as a race that tested the human emotions. There were so many ups and downs in the emotional roller coaster, but then in the end you have to be left feeling good for guys like Boris Said, and Max Papis.

This week, Chris Smith gets to sit down with Wesley Sherrill, the car chief of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. We talk about not only winning three contingency awards this weekend, but we also talk about the historic sweep of all three series at Bristol. Talks about how much momentum plays in this type of win. We also have a candid conversation on the advantages of running in multiple series with the COT. We preview Atlanta Motor Speedway a bit and talk about the schedule changes recently announced. A great show, enjoy and make sure you comment with your thoughts!

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Topics covered during the podcast were the following:

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Photo Credit: John Harrelson/Getty Images for NASCAR

By: Toby Christie

Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway Kyle Busch cruised to a record-setting performance, the likes of which has never been seen before in the history of NASCAR.

Busch swept the entire week of events at arguably NASCAR’s most difficult track.

That’s right he won the Camping World Truck Series race Wednesday, then spun Brad Keselowski en-route to a victory in the Nationwide Series race Friday night, then Busch utterly dominated the Sprint Cup Series race to cap off the ‘hat trick’.

Not only did Busch become the first driver to ever do this, but it is realistic to believe that he may be the only driver to ever do so, as not many of his peers compete in the Truck Series.

This is a feat that the entire world involved with this sport should be celebrating.

However when Busch climbed from his race car following each of his historic victories this weekend, he was hammered with a smattering of boos. Apparently people were left with a bad taste in their mouths, which led me to ask the question: Did his attitude this weekend overshadow his amazing accomplishment?

There’s no doubting that Kyle Busch is one of, if not the most talented race car driver in NASCAR, and the entire world.

Every time I see him out front I think: Alright! This could finally be the race where he turns from a heel to a face. From a villain to a hero. Each time I think to myself, finally people will be able to celebrate his greatness instead of hating his aggressiveness. Yet everytime Busch finds a way to let me down, and let the fans down. It’s a shame, a damn shame.

The moment that began to tarnish his accomplishment was during the second step of his three race milestone. In the closing laps of Friday’s Nationwide race, Busch made an incredible move to take the lead from Brad Keselowski, but he hadn’t quite cleared Keselowski when he decided to veer up the race track off of turn two.

Busch made contact with Keselowski, which sent the No. 18 Z-Line designs Toyota into the wall. However in the heat of the moment Busch felt he had been wronged, and he executed the latest episode of premature retaliation against everyone’s favorite target, Brad Keselowski.

The retaliatory nudge sent Keselowski spinning out of the lead, and into the wall. But this was just the beginning of the downward spiral of Busch’s weekend in the eyes of the fans.

The real moment of frustration for the fans was Busch’s post-race reaction to his actions.

Had Busch said; Well after looking at the tape I was in the wrong, but in these cars there is little time to think about what you’re going to do before you do it. And I’m sorry… Maybe, just maybe fans would have began to warm up to the 25-year old driver from Las Vegas. However Busch didn’t quite do that.

After taunting the fans, by acting like he was wiping tears away from his face on his victory celebration, Busch went on to state that he took his competitor out on purpose.

“I thought I had him cleared on the back, and I moved up in front of him, and instead of him doing an Earnhardt crossover move he decided that he would just run into the back of me and put me into the fence. That’s Brad keselowski, so you know I went down into the next corner and dumped him.” Busch said in victory lane.

“He does it to everyone else, why can’t I do it to him?”

I cringed as I heard the words project from his mouth. Busch officially squandered another opportunity to become a fan favorite.

Sure enough Saturday evening during driver introductions the boo brigade was out in full force when Kyle Busch was announced. Then moments later Brad Keselowski came out and yelled “Kyle Busch is an ass” into the microphone, and the crowd went wild.

However I began to think that maybe Busch could possibly turn some people’s perception around with a win in the big show. Surely people would change their mind if he pulled off the trifecta right?

Well he may have done that initially, but then following the race in his press conference he showed complete arrogance. Busch was questioned about Brad Keselowski’s actions during the driver introductions, and he acted as though Brad Keselowski didn’t exist.

“Who?” Kyle Busch asked.

A media member elaborated: “Brad Keselowski”.

“I don’t know who that is” Busch responded.

“Okay he drives the 12 car” the media member rebutted.

“I saw it. But I Passed It” Busch stated.

Now it’s back to ground zero for Busch. He takes a step forward, just to end up taking three steps back in the end.

Right now he has three victories on the season, and would begin the chase tied for third in the standings if it were to start today. Busch has been great all year long, and he is now on the short list of drivers that can dethrone Jimmie Johnson. For this reason alone Busch should have the fans behind him, but he doesn’t.

Johnson is obviously not a fan favorite, which makes the Busch situation all the more complexing. All season long fans have been living by one motto “Anyone but Jimmie”, but I think that honestly the consensus of the fans would rather see Jimmie take title number five, than see Busch hoist the Sprint Cup.

This week, Chris Smith sits down with Atlanta Motor Speedway President and General Manager Ed Clark to talk about the loss of a race in 2011, as well as his rise to success in the sport of NASCAR. We also look at some of the history of AMS as we celebrate 50 years of racing at Atlanta. Subscribe to the show so you don’t miss anything.

So please enjoy and comment either here, Twitter or Facebook. We need your thoughts on these topics. Your comments will help drive future shows.

So sit back and enjoy the show. Topics covered during the podcast were the following:

Enjoy the podcast. We’ll put a new one up next week. Please let us know how you like it and what changes you would recommend. Again, your comments will drive the content.

Remember, lots of giveaways going on, check out what we currently have available on our Giveaways page on our website for all of the details!

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Introduction of Buz McKim, NASCAR Hall of Fame HistorianWe talk about the process for nominationDiscuss the rules regarding being eligible even if still involved in the sportBuz gives us his personal top 10 out of this class of nomineesWe go down his list and talk about each one’s contributions to the sport and why he thinks they should be in that top 10Danny Lawrence, trackside manager of ECR Engines talks about the enormous success they had this week at the Brickyard 400

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Aug. 18, 2010) – NASCAR announced today the 2011 schedule for its three national series, highlighted by several key changes for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
“The adjustments and realignment of the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule will make for an exciting race season next year,” said NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France. “The revised schedule provides better situated dates for the tracks, a more challenging lineup for the drivers and ultimately more intrigue for the fans.”

The Schedules for all three series are listed here for your convenience.
2011 NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES SCHEDULE
Date Site
Feb. 12 Daytona International Speedway (Budweiser Shootout At Daytona *)
Feb. 13 Daytona 500 Qualifying
Feb. 20 Daytona International Speedway
Feb. 27 Phoenix International Raceway
March 6 Las Vegas Motor Speedway
March 20 Bristol Motor Speedway
March 27 Auto Club Speedway
April 3 Martinsville Speedway
April 9 Texas Motor Speedway
April 17 Talladega Superspeedway
April 30 Richmond International Raceway
May 7 Darlington Raceway
May 15 Dover International Speedway
May 21 Charlotte Motor Speedway (NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race *)
May 29 Charlotte Motor Speedway
June 5 Kansas Speedway
June 12 Pocono Raceway
June 19 Michigan International Speedway
June 26 Infineon Raceway
July 2 Daytona International Speedway
July 9 Kentucky Speedway
July 17 New Hampshire Motor Speedway
July 31 Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Aug. 7 Pocono Raceway
Aug. 14 Watkins Glen International
Aug. 21 Michigan International Speedway
Aug. 27 Bristol Motor Speedway
Sept. 4 Atlanta Motor Speedway
Sept. 10 Richmond International Raceway
Sept. 18 Chicagoland Speedway
Sept. 25 New Hampshire Motor Speedway
Oct. 2 Dover International Speedway
Oct. 9 Kansas Speedway
Oct. 15 Charlotte Motor Speedway
Oct. 23 Talladega Superspeedway
Oct. 30 Martinsville Speedway
Nov. 6 Texas Motor Speedway
Nov. 13 Phoenix International Raceway
Nov. 20 Homestead-Miami Speedway
* Denotes non-point event.

2011 NASCAR NATIOWIDE SERIES SCHEDULE
Date Site
Feb. 19 Daytona International Speedway
Feb. 26 Phoenix International Raceway
March 5 Las Vegas Motor Speedway
March 19 Bristol Motor Speedway
March 26 Auto Club Speedway
April 8 Texas Motor Speedway
April 16 Talladega Superspeedway
April 23 Nashville Superspeedway
April 29 Richmond International Raceway
May 6 Darlington Raceway
May 14 Dover International Speedway
May 22 Iowa Speedway
May 28 Charlotte Motor Speedway
June 4 Chicagoland Speedway
June 18 Michigan International Speedway
June 25 Road America
July 1 Daytona International Speedway
July 8 Kentucky Speedway
July 16 New Hampshire Motor Speedway
July 23 Nashville Superspeedway
July 30 O’Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis
Aug. 6 Iowa Speedway
Aug. 13 Watkins Glen International
Aug. 20 Circuit Gilles Villeneuve Montreal
Aug. 26 Bristol Motor Speedway
Sept. 3 Atlanta Motor Speedway
Sept. 9 Richmond International Raceway
Sept. 17 Chicagoland Speedway
Oct. 1 Dover International Speedway
Oct. 8 Kansas Speedway
Oct. 14 Charlotte Motor Speedway
Nov. 5 Texas Motor Speedway
Nov. 12 Phoenix International Raceway
Nov. 19 Homestead-Miami Speedway

2011 NASCAR CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES SCHEDULE
Date Site
Feb. 18 Daytona International Speedway
Feb. 25 Phoenix International Raceway
March 12 Darlington Raceway
April 2 Martinsville Speedway
April 22 Nashville Superspeedway
May 13 Dover International Speedway
May 20 Charlotte Motor Speedway
June 4 Kansas Speedway
June 10 Texas Motor Speedway
July 16 Iowa Speedway
July 22 Nashville Superspeedway
July 29 O’Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis
Aug. 6 Pocono Raceway
Aug. 20 Michigan International Speedway
Aug. 24 Bristol Motor Speedway
Sept. 2 Atlanta Motor Speedway
Sept. 16 Chicagoland Speedway
Sept. 24 New Hampshire Motor Speedway
Oct. 1 Kentucky Speedway
Oct. 15 Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Oct. 22 Talladega Superspeedway
Oct. 29 Martinsville Speedway
Nov. 4 Texas Motor Speedway
Nov. 18 Homestead-Miami Speedway
Note: one additional date to be added

Photo Credit: Drew Hallowell/Getty Images for NASCAR

By: Toby Christie

Kevin Harvick has a new primary sponsor for the 2011 season in Budweiser. The sponsor was announced to be moving to Richard Childress Racing in 2011 Tuesday.

Shell announced earlier in the season that they would be leaving Harvick, who they had sponsored since the 2007 season, when 2010 was over. So Harvick, who has been the point leader for the majority of the season, has had a question mark on what his sponsor would be for next year.

However this week Harvick has answered that question, as well as locking himself into the chase for the championship.

“It’s been a great start to the season. Obviously it’s nice to go into this week’s race and not have to worry about a Chase spot – better than anything going into Richmond without having to worry about a Chase spot.” Harvick said in a NASCAR teleconference Tuesday.

“The next three weeks are going to be a lot of fun, to go to three racetracks we’ve won at before and run well this year, to try to get more bonus points and get prepared for the Chase.”

Last season Harvick’s team and Richard Childress Racing in general had nose dived in performance last season, and as a result Harvick was rumored to be leaving the team. Childress talked about how far the team has come in the past year.

“Well, I didn’t do it alone. It took a lot of people to do it. We all really started working on it really hard about May or June. We knew we weren’t going down the right path with a lot of things. We pulled everyone together, put ideas together, came up with what we needed to change. We knew we had to work on things to become a championship-caliber race team.” Childress said.

“It started to turn around with eight or nine races to go last year. The performance of the car started picking up. I felt good about starting this season out.”

Harvick added that basically everything on the team from top to bottom changed, and that is why they are seeing results this season.

“I think the easiest thing to tell you, it would be easier to tell you what didn’t change to be honest with you. I think everything from top to bottom. Richard came in and made a lot of restructuring changes, restructured a lot of personnel on the race teams, moved Scott Miller into competition director.” Harvick said.

“After the personnel changes took place, I think we came up with a different direction. The engineering department has become more involved. We’re able to use the tools, our seven-post, simulation, all the things we already had here, just using them correctly and more often.”

Budweiser will help bring the No. 29 team to the forefront as far as marketing goes next season, and Richard Childress wasn’t shy on his excitement of the possibilities that will come the team’s way in 2011.

“From my part, it’s an honor to be with a company that has such a great activation program. They do so much around the racetracks. They do so much for the fans. They’ve got some really neat stuff coming next year for our fans.” Childress stated.

“To be part of that and to be Kevin, to see the car in so many places, the things that Budweiser does with their program, it’s an added benefit to Kevin and RCR.”

Harvick would go on to say the more publicity you can get the better things are.

“The more visibility you get from your sponsor activating your sponsorship is good for everybody. For me, I think the best thing about Budweiser coming onboard is the fact just it’s a real casual sponsor as far as the atmosphere and the things that come with it. They like to have fun. They like to be relaxed. They put so much behind it. It’s just a fun, fun brand to represent.” Harvick explained.

“I don’t think much is going to change. They like who we are or they wouldn’t be here. I think as we go forward, it’s going to be something great to see on the 29 car.”

Budweiser of course was the primary sponsor for Kasey Kahne at Richard Petty Motorsports. However with Kahne’s decision to leave the team, the sponsor was at that point free to look for a new team itself. That seemingly left the No. 9 car at Richard Petty Motorsports sponsor-less and driver-less, but another silly season domino would fall Tuesday.

Richard Petty Motorsports announced Marcos Ambrose as the driver for their No. 9 car starting in 2011. According to their twitter account Ambrose’s primary sponsor will be Stanley Tools.

Photo By: Farrah Kaye

By: Farrah Kaye

Continuing the Richard Childress Racing domination of the weekend, Kevin Harvick won the late-race battle with Denny Hamlin and took his No. 29 Shell/Pennzoil machine to Victory Lane, becoming the only driver to earn a spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup at the CARFAX 400 at Michigan International Speedway Sunday.

Although Kasey Kahne sat on the pole, he failed to lead even one lap. Outside pole-sitter Jimmie Johnson immediately took the lead and led the first 14 laps. However, Johnson began to fall back, and RCR weekend-rival Roush Fenway driver Greg Biffle took over the lead. The two battled for nearly 70 laps, which included two cautions (oil on the track and rain on the track).

Finally, on lap 83, Biffle had a tire problem which took him out of contention and Harvick battled with Tony Stewart until lap 155.

Biffle commented after the race about his tire issue.

“We got a weird set of tires in the middle of the race and were super-tight. I didn’t adjust on it and then I came back loose again and we did two and it wasn’t very good. So at the end I said ‘I’m going to leave it alone,’ and I put four on it and that was almost as loose as I had been all day.”

Overall, he said he was happy with the day he had.

While Stewart and Harvick battled for the lead, other drivers battled behind them for position.

On lap 149, Joey Logano got loose and took out Ryan Newman, causing him to finish 23rd. The two had a heated exchange after the race.

On lap 155, it was a battle of the Jeffs when Jeff Burton and Gordon got together. Burton finished 24th and Gordon finished 27th, the last car on the lead lap.

Stewart got back into the game for 10 laps towards the end until Hamlin surged forward and battled side-by-side with Harvick. But the No. 11 had nothing on the 29 and with five laps to go, Harvick took off.

“It was a battle for sure,” Hamlin said of the last laps against Harvick. “We are definitely happy with that run. We are trying all we can to get 10 more bonus points, but Kevin [Harvick] had a really strong car. It showed all day. We just kind of snuck up there. I knew we had a good car but we never had really good track position.”

But the RFR dominance was still there, as Carl Edwards finished third, Biffle finished fourth, and Matt Kenseth finished fifth. (David Ragan finished 11th.)

With Jack Roush being at the track, the RFR drivers wanted to bring him a win, but the strong performance was good enough for Edwards.

“We really wanted to get a win. That’s a strong performance for us and Ford. That’s huge. [It] meant a lot to perform that well for him.”

Rounding out the top 10 were Stewart, Juan Pablo Montoya, Martin Truex Jr., Elliot Sadler, and Joey Logano.

This is Harvick’s 14th win in 345 starts and third win in 2010. He has 16 top-10 finishes in 2010 and is first in the point standings by a 293 point lead over second-place Jeff Gordon. It is his first win at Michigan and also brought RCR their first win at MIS since Dale Earnhardt Sr. in 1990.

“The first time I came to Michigan was in 1999. we announced our AC Delco sponsorship. That was the first time I actually met Earnhardt. I walked up in the lounge. I sat down in the lounge and just kind of didn’t really have much to say. Then we went out and watched the race. To see all the people, I think we were in the last pit stall that day, watched the race, watched Earnhardt I think race at the front that day, just took it all in.”

Harvick continued discussing how important today’s win was.

“To come here and win is great for RCR for the fact that this hasn’t been our best racetrack. Our cars had run good here before, but I hadn’t. Last couple times we’ve really committed ourselves to driving in different spots on the racetrack and doing different things from inside the car and trying to manage the practice as well as we can to not fool ourselves.”

Hamlin posted his sixth top-10 at MIS and 10th top-10 of 2010. Edwards posted his 11th top-10 finish at MIS and 12th top-10 of 2010. They are now third and sixth in points respectively.

Noteworthy mentions:

- The first caution (oil on the track) occurred after Kurt Busch’s No. 2 Miller Lite Vortex Dodge’s engine “let go.” There was a trail of oil from the track to his garage stall. Busch said of the incident, “It was a big surprise for the Miller Lite Dodge. We’ve had great reliability with the Penske engines over the years. I thought that I had the conservative motor this weekend, the 12 and the 77 had a bit more power. We just needed a nice, smooth run today and nothing big to happen. It’s unfortunate. We’ll bounce back next week.”

- There were 17 lead changes among 9 drivers. They were Biffle (3/66), Harvick (5/60), Stewart (3/36), Johnson (1/14), Hamlin (1/12), Truex (1/5), Elliot Sadler (1/4), David Ragan (1/2), and Travis Kvapil (1/1).

- Seven cars did not finish the race. PJ Jones (7 – Brakes), Landon Cassill (09 – Electrical), Robby Gordon (07 – Brakes), Kurt Busch (2 – Engine), Max Papis (13 – Rear Gear), Michael McDowell (55 – Electrical), and Joe Nemecheck (87 – Ignition).

- The top 12 in points are now: 1) Kevin Harvick; 2) Jeff Gordon -293; 3) Denny Hamlin -353; 4) Tony Stewart -380; 5) Jimmie Johnson -386; 6) Carl Edwards -414; 7) Jeff Burton -414; 8 ) Kyle Busch -425; 9) Matt Kenseth -439; 10) Kurt Busch -465; 11) Greg Biffle -487; 12) Clint Bowyer -645

By: Farrah Kaye

After a lengthy qualifying session for the Nationwide Series CARFAX 250, Brad Keselowski and his Penske No. 22 Discount Tire Dodge took the pole for today’s race.

This is the second time the new car has been ran and Keselowski has taken the pole both times. The first one was at Daytona.

“That was an awesome lap for the Discount Tire Dodge Challenger. The Dodge Challenger is a beautiful car and it will look even better running up front,” Keselowski said. “It wasn’t an easy lap, that’s for sure. I had my hands full but Paul [Wolfe, crew chief] gave me a great race car. This Dodge Challenger is fast. We were good in race trim during practice and I think if the weather stays cool that we should be good later today. It means a lot to get a pole here at my home track. To get a win would be even better.”

The pole is made even more special as it is his first at MIS for the hometown boy in four starts. It’s his eighth pole in his career and fifth of 2010.

Starting second is Ryan Truex, who earned his first top-10 of his career (two races). Starting third is Colin Braun, posting his seventh top-10 start in 18 races of 2010.

Qualifying Notes:’

- Danica Patrick qualified 33rd.
- All rookies qualified in the top 15. (Braun: 3rd; Stenhouse Jr.: 6th; Scott: 12th)
- Johnny Chapman (No. 89) did not qualify.

Chris Smith sits down with Brian Pattie, NASCAR crew chief for the No. 42 Earnhardt Ganassi Racing team and talks about their recent success at Watkins Glen. We also get some insight on their overall season and what their goals are going forward. Pattie also gives us the skinny on how they approach the contingency award program and how their team utilizes this program to motivate the team morale. Another great show with candid conversation.

Read the entire press release here.

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Topics covered during the podcast were the following:

Enjoy the podcast. We’ll put a new one up soon. Please let us know how you like it and what changes you would recommend. Again, your comments will drive the content. Get in there and join in on the conversation.

Join in the Conversation