NASCAR: Martin makes statement about Junior

Much was made last week when Mark Martin became the third-oldest winner of a NASCAR race after winning at Phoenix. Don’t know why, since everyone knows he is enormously talented and the consummate professional. If anything, maybe Martin has been too respectful on the track,  unwilling to bump someone out of the way to win a race. But that’s the way he races, and that’s another story.

Martin’s victory came in only his eighth race since joining Hendrick Motorsports. By comparison, Dale Earnhardt Jr., won in his 15th race after joining owner Rick Hendrick’s team, his only victory through 44 races heading into Talladega. By comparison, it took Jimmie Johnson 13 races overall, 10 in his first full season (2002) when he won three times.

Should also point out that Martin, despite beginning this season with consecutive finishes of 16th, 40th, 40th and 31st, is now  only nine points out of the top 12 (which is led by Hendrick teammates Jeff Gordon and Johnson). Martin is 94 points ahead of 19th place Junior in the championship.

Which, of course, means that Junior is definitively the No. 4 driver in Hendrick stable.

No question Junior is a good driver. But he’s the No. 4 driver on that team.

In case anyone was wondering.

IRL: Dixon currently trails, ahem, Stanton Barrett

So this is what they mean when they say it’s tougher to repeat as a champion than win it in the first place.

Scott Dixon? The defending IndyCar Series champion is 55 points behind Dario Franchitti and in 17th place after two races. Two races, two sub-par finishes. It happens.

But Dixon’s misery has happened on two street circuits, and there’s only one thing that needs to be said to put a little perspective on how bad his season has gone thus far.

He trails Stanton Barrett.

IRL: Franchitti lays down the gauntlet

Get used to it.

Dario Franchitti won the 35th Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, and given that  it’s only his second race with owner Chip Ganassi,  you have to believe that this won’t be the last time the Scot wheels his Indycar into the winner’s circle.

Franchitti’s dominant and fortuitous victory —  he led 51 of 85 laps — was his first on an IRL street or road course, which is quite amazing given his proclivity for victory while in Champ Car. We already know he’s not going to roll over on ovals where he has eight victories in the series.

Chemistry is usually the key element in developing great teams. Chemistry takes time. If the chemistry on Franchitti’s team is already there, look out.

And look out often.

NHRA: Lucas puts his foot down, finally

Score one for the gecko.

It was good to see Morgan Lucas score a victory — his first — in a pedalfest at the Summit NHRA Southern Nationals in Atlanta. I’m not sure there is a driver out there who needed a victory more than Lucas.

He has been at it for a few years, and with sponsorship so difficult to get — and maintain — you have to hope this top fuel victory goes a long way toward keeping that GEICO program together.

I’ve always had the feeling that Lucas, 25, might be one of those drivers who wins once, and then becomes a factor every week. With a little confidence, and a little success, it may be that he becomes a player in the championship. The more solid competitors there are in top fuel — and right now it’s trailing the funny car field in that area — the better for the sport.

NHRA: Maybe God drives a Mustang

It’s stuff like this that forces you to believe in providence. The Ford Mustang is celebrating its 45th anniversary this weekend.

The Ford Mustang is No. 1-2 in funny car qualifying at the NHRA Southern Nationals in Atlanta.

The two drivers are Ashley Force Hood and her father, John Force.

Who faced each other a year ago in the finals of the same event.

Where Ashley became the first female winner in a funny car.

And beat her dad, the winningest driver in NHRA history.

Driving a Mustang.

IRL: No lack of drama with Tracy at Indy

Paul Tracy is back, and apparently, with a vengeance. It’s good to see PT spitting fire. The unofficial winner of the 2002 Indianapolis 500 — also known as the official loser — announced that he will be driving for KV Racing when that one-car team fields a second car at the Brickyard.

Short of Richard Petty driving in the 600-mile race at Charlotte, or Michael Schumacher making an appearance at Monaco, it is the most welcome sight of the Memorial Day Race Weekend.

With all due respect to Jimmy Spencer, Tracy is Mr. Excitement. Few drivers of any generation have created as much drama, whether it’s fighting with Alex Tagliani, drawing the ire of Sebastien Bourdais or choking his team owner — yep, it really happened — Tracy is passionate and doesn’t pull any punches.

Right or wrong, jackass or not, the 35-time winner and 2003 CART champion calls it the way he sees it.

“We’re not going to take the rookie orientation program,” he said at the IRL press conference in Long Beach.  “I don’t think they let past winners do that there.”

Ouch! He is the one guy Danica Patrick does not want to mess with.

IRL preview: Castroneves is right on target

The Indy Racing League may have opened two weeks ago in St. Petersburg, but the series’ arrival in Long Beach makes the season official. Not to dismiss Ryan Briscoe’s victory, but Spring Brake has been around three times longer than the IRL. If there is one marquee event on the schedule that’s not named the Indianapolis 500, this is it.

And so it’s with the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach that we find a few moments to offer up a preview of the 2009 season, completely dismissing what transpired two weeks ago.

Ganassi vs. Penske.

Is that simple enough?

IRL: Taxing, Not Dancing, is Castroneves’ Situation

Any time the federal government decides to press charges against a celebrity, it ain’t for kicks and grins. That’s what makes the Helio Castroneves situation so distressing. It’s reasonable to assume the Feds dotted their I’s and crossed their T’s before trying to make an example of one the sport’s most marketable stars.

Indicted for tax evasion and free on a $10 million bond, Castroneves was at the press conference in which Team Penske announced Will Power will handle preseason testing in Castroneves’ No. 3 prior to the start of the IRL’s Indycar Series.

Team owner Roger Penske had previously indicated that Castroneves didn’t need racing to get in the way of proving his innocence. If he can’t contest the entire season, which begins on April 5, the ride is Power’s. The trial is scheduled to begin March 2.

At the press conference, Castroneves almost apologetically reiterated his innocence, that he was “very confident.”

“I can’t wait for this thing to be over, for me to be back in the race car, do what I love most, which is racing,” Castroneves said.

If those words stand up, Castroneves will almost certainly have an opportunity to win the Indianapolis 500 for the third time.

Yet, it’s not the 500 that needs Castroneves. It’s the 2009 season.

NHRA: Capps tops Head after remembering the past

Gary Densham had a sign on the back of his trailer asking for financial support for his racing operation. His car was black, devoid of the color livery of a sponsored team.

Same with Jim Head. No sponsor, no commitment to running the full NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing season.

Yet Densham and Head faced off in the Funny Car semifinals at the 49th Kragen O’Reilly Winternationals at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona. What does that say about the economics at play in professional motorsports when a couple of independents can get just as far as cars backed by NAPA Auto Parts and the Auto Club of Southern California?

Well, it says there are still sponsor bargains to be had. It also says that Densham and Head know what they’re doing, that professional racers have become notoriously adept and learning to steal from Peter to pay Paul, that they will manipulate parts and favors and do everything they can to squeeze every ounce of horsepower out of an engine that produces 7,000 of them.

NHRA: It’s a golden moment for Connie Kalitta

One couldn’t help but pull for Doug Kalitta on Tuesday afternoon in the finals of the 49th Kragen O’Reilly NHRA Winternationals for one reason: Pulling for Doug Kalitta meant pulling for Connie Kalitta.

The man known as “The Bounty Hunter” in his racing days is celebrating his 50th year in drag racing, but nobody could have faulted him if he had stopped at 49.

He will be 71 on Feb. 24, and has given the bulk of his life to drag racing. Last year he gave his son, Scott, a two-time champion who was killed instantly in a qualifying crash at Englishtown, N.J.

Kalitta Motorsports was at the next event a week later, so maybe it shouldn’t be a surprise that it cobbled together its resources to open the Full Throttle Drag Racing season at the series’ second-most prestigious race.

Conrad “Connie” Kalitta is a drag racer, and will be for as long as his heart continues to beat. It’s what he knows, it’s what he is.

NHRA: Not exactly off to a Full Throttle start, but not exactly lacking storylines, either

The first  two days of the season-opening Kragen O’Reilly NHRA Winternationals at Pomona weren’t exactly run at full throttle. New series presenting sponsor Full Throttle Energy Drink must see the irony: “Go Full Throttle or Go Home,” which pretty much summed up the fan experience as the rain poured on Pomona. There was no throttling, and everyone went home wet. That is, if they came out to the track at all.

But you had to like the drama Saturday in the first day of on-track activities. Although Antron Brown at first appeared to run the fastest 1,000-foot time in history, the story of the day was Larry Dixon’s failure to qualify in the debut of the Alan Johnson Al-Anabi Racing dragster.  With the team behind him that helped Tony Schumacher win his fifth consecutive title a year ago, Dixon’s debut was nothing short of disastrous, a full-throttle flameout. Lined up against Schumacher in the last pair of the day under threatening skies, Dixon encountered problems and coasted to the finish. He wasn’t going full throttle, and you can pretty much figure out what that meant.

NHRA Top Fuel preview: A rivalry where ‘the Dark Side’ resides

Take Brandon Bernstein, Antron Brown, Cory McClenathan and J.R. Todd and place them all on one side of the street.

Then look to the other side where Tony Schumacher and Larry Dixon are standing because that’s where the action is.

Schumacher alone won 15 races in 2008, and now his crew chief, Alan Johnson, formed his own team and not only hired the best driver in the division, but also brought 15 of the 16 members from last year’s team that gave Schumacher a season for the ages.

Is it possible for that team, with first-time crew chief Jason McCulloch handling the major decisions under Johnson’s guidance, to repeat what Schumacher did a  year ago? Probably not.

Nevertheless, it’s easy to understand why Dixon bought out his contract from Don “the Snake” Prudhomme: These opportunities A) don’t come around often, and B) are too good to pass up.

NHRA Funny Car preview: Expect the Hight of drama in this shootout

Cruz Pedregon proved in 2008 that timing is everything. As two of the three North American racing series determine championships based on playoffs, the only thing that matters is making those playoffs.

That’s how Pedregon managed to win his first NHRA Powerade Funny Car title since 1992. He made the six-race playoffs, then won the last three races after winning only once in the previous 11 years.

The smart money in 2009 says the title will come down to a two-time champion and two-time runner-up, neither of whom finished in the Top 3 last season.

Tony Pedregon and Robert Hight.

The quill has been busy even though the site hasn’t

Just a note to all the good people who stop by RACESCRIBE. I haven’t forgotten about you, it’s just that the hardest job in the world is being unemployed, and I’ve been trying to find work in order to, you know, pay my bills.

Having said that, I’m hopeful of getting out to Pomona for the season-opening NHRA Winternationals, which will initiate the 2009 RACESCRIBE season. I’m hoping to post some columns that I’ve already worked on, meaning you will get Gary Scelzi, Hillary Will, and a preview of Funny Car and Top Fuel.

For those with NASCAR allegiances, who would you rather read about, Jeff Gordon or Robby Gordon? Well, columns about both are on the horizon. Might even be able to fit in a Sprint Cup preview before Daytona (the 500, not the Shootout). Plus, a couple of other things are lined up.

Don’t worry, there’s an Indycar column already done, but no sense in wasting it now. The season doesn’t really begin until March when Helio Castroneves goes on trial.

The point is, there’s stuff coming down the pike, even though the site hasn’t been updated for two months. It wasn’t my intent to leave it that long, but it wasn’t my intent to still be out of a job, either.

Anyway, keep checking out racescribe. I’ll try to take care of you.

NHRA: Herbert’s ‘championship’ season complete

Doug Herbert said all the mandatory things after his two young sons were killed in an automobile accident a few days before the start of the 2008 NHRA Powerade Drag Racing Series season.

He christened this the “For My Boys” tour and promised the media at the Winternationals in Pomona he would win the championship.

It was a pipe dream, of course.

But 24 races later, at the Auto Club Finals in Pomona, he made good on that promise.

No, Herbert didn’t take a trophy back to Charlotte, N.C. No, he wasn’t recognized in the NHRA Record Book. No, he won’t receive all the spoils that Tony Schumacher earned in the most remarkably dominant season in drag racing history.

But sometimes, championships are won by finishing the race. By digging deep against long odds. By powering forward when you want to give up. By keeping things together in your head, your family, your business, when it seems your world is falling apart.