Richard Petty Motorsports "Welcomes" Penske Racing to Ford

I find it curious that another team would feel the need to publicly welcome a team to coming under the same manufacturer umbrella. But that's exactly what Richard Petty Motorsports did today following the announcement that Penske Racing will be joining the Ford family next season (while still running Dodges for the next 10 months).

Although I'll admit some of the phrases sound as though RPM isn't exactly thrilled with another team coming to Ford: why say anything along the lines of "evaluate all of our options"?

Statement from Richard Petty Motorsports Regarding Today’s Ford/Penske Racing Announcement

“We welcome Penske Racing to the Ford Racing Family in 2013. Additional teams mean more information for everyone and that's a very good thing from a competition standpoint.

“We have a partnership with Roush Fenway Racing and we are happy to be a part of the Ford Racing program. As we always do, we will evaluate all of our options and make decisions based on what is ultimately best for our race team.”

Danica Patrick Earns Rave Reviews for Daytona Pole

On Friday afternoon at Daytona International Speedway, Danica Patrick became just the second woman to win a pole in NASCAR’s Nationwide Series.

The GoDaddy girl went out and posted a lap of 182.741 mph, narrowly edging the time of 2011 Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne.

Following qualifying, third-place qualifier Elliott Sadler had high words of praise for Patrick.

“In the last 24 months, I’d say she is by far the most improved driver we have on the circuit,” Sadler said. “Last July, that was kind of her breakthrough race as far as I’m concerned as far as drafting and feeling comfortable racing with her.”

The only other woman to win a pole in NASCAR’s second-tier series was Shawna Robinson at Atlanta Motor Speedway in 1994. Patrick already holds the record for best finish by a female in any NASCAR national touring series, a fourth-place run at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the Nationwide race last March.

Patrick has high hopes for Saturday’s DRIVE4COPD 300. “Any [driver] that sits on the pole is expected to do well because they have one of the fastest cars,” she said.

A win is not out of the question for Patrick. Last July at Daytona, she teamed up with Tony Stewart, leading laps on multiple occasions, and was in position to threaten for the win before being caught up in a late-race crash.

At any race, she is glad for a positive development after crashing hard on the last lap of her Gatorade Duel on Thursday. “I was thinking how disappointing the end of the day was yesterday and how happy you can be 24 hours later. It’s a good turn of events.”

A proposal for a new and improved points system

The new points system is quite good, but here's an idea for how to make it even better.

Problems solved:

1. Not enough incentive/reward for winning
2. Qualifying is meaningless
3. Why reward a driver for staying out to lead a lap under caution?

There are other benefits to my proposed system as well...click the link to check them out!

First testing of 2012 shows NASCAR still working on rules for Daytona 500

NASCAR drivers finally hit the track in preparation for the 2012 season during a three-day test session at Daytona International Speedway last week.

“We’ve had a good test and gained a lot of information,” said Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton. “We know that when we come out of here, there will be some loose ends we have to tie up as we get all of our information together and come up with our final plans for Speedweeks. I can say that all in all everything is going according to plan.”

The new rules include a smaller radiator, a smaller spoiler, and larger restrictor plate openings. Drivers acknowledged that the changes made it more difficult to hook up in two-car drafts, and did quite a bit of old-fashioned pack racing at NASCAR's request.

“We did some drafting, which is very interesting,” said four-time NASCAR series champion Jeff Gordon. “With the smaller spoiler and restrictor plate, cars have a lot of power, a lot of speed and that has changed things a bit.”