Night riders gear up
There’s nothing in NASCAR quite like a Saturday night race under the lights, a throwback experience that takes drivers back to their early years of running every weekend down at the local track.
So there’s something special about Saturday night’s event at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., which track promoters are trumpeting as the “only night race in the Chase.”
“Night brings out an intensity in athletes you simply don’t get during the day,” said Humpy Wheeler, president of the suburban Charlotte track. “Possibly this goes back to primitive man, whose greater alertness at night often meant life or death. Animal behavior is certainly different in the dark. Sharks, tigers, lions and other big cats hunt primarily at night.
“Ask anyone who has ever hooked a big shark at night if it wasn’t a great deal scarier than the same hookup in the daytime.”
The analogies might seem a little far-fetched, but there’s little doubt that drivers dig the dark.
“Everything seems more exciting under the lights and that goes for the fans and the drivers,” said Chase contender Denny Hamlin. “It reminds me of running at the local tracks growing up, and that was some of the most fun I have ever had in a race car.”
Wheeler, a sort of modern day P.T. Barnum when it comes to promoting NASCAR, firmly believes that drivers can see the track more clearly and have better focus when racing under the lights.
“With the light concentrated on the racing surface, everything in the background is blacked out and the driver’s eyes can focus on the surface itself, which leads to increased racing,” he said.
Of course, there’s no actual proof to back up Wheeler’s theories. But something about the night racing at Lowe’s sits well with Jimmie Johnson, who has five wins at the track that shares a title sponsor with him. He narrowly missed out on winning a sixth time in May, when Kasey Kahne beat him in the Coca-Cola 600 – a race that begins in the day and ends in the night.
Johnson won this event last year in a wild race in which tire problems caused havoc.
The tire that Goodyear brought could not stand up to the increased speeds that had been created when Wheeler smoothed out the track surface. It forced NASCAR to issue a midrace mandate on the minimum air pressure used on right front tires, and led inspectors to police pit road with a threat of docking points of teams that disobeyed.
Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch, Elliott Sadler and Kasey Kahne all blew tires while leading, and many drivers said the tire concerns left them too scared to push their cars to the limit, so they instead chose to race at about 85 percent effort to prevent a possible tire failure.
Roush selects Ragan
David Ragan was tabbed by Roush Racing to replace Mark Martin in the No. 6 Ford next season.
“David is a driver with outstanding talent and, as a result of his actions, he is the young man I selected to fill the seat,” team owner Jack Roush said from Concord. “The No. 6 is obviously a very special car to me personally, and to this organization, and we are confident in David’s ability to step up and get the job done.”
Martin, who has driven the No. 6 since 1988, had planned to step back from Nextel Cup racing, but announced last week he was ending his longtime partnership with Roush to drive a Chevrolet for new owner Bobby Ginn.
Ragan, who is 20, is a regular in the Truck Series.
He beat out Busch Series regulars Todd Kluever and Danny O’Quinn Jr., and fellow truck series driver Erik Darnell for the Cup ride.