NASCAR Announces A New "Chase"
NASCAR Announces Adjustments to ‘Chase’ Format and Points System: Race victories will become more important than ever in 2007 as a result of adjustments to the points system and the Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup format announced today by NASCAR. The adjustments are designed to establish more balance between winning and consistency, but there is a new emphasis on the former. “The adjustments taken today put a greater emphasis on winning races,” said NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France. “Winning is what this sport is all about. Nobody likes to see drivers content to finish in the top 10. We want our sport – especially during the Chase – to be more about winning.”
Chase Adjustments: The Chase – consisting of the season’s last 10 races – will further reflect the importance of racing to win, via a variety of adjustments.
During the format’s first three years, the top 10 drivers in points after the 26th race of the season (at Richmond International Raceway) qualified for the Chase; in addition, any other driver outside the top 10 but within 400 points of the standings’ leader was also eligible.
Starting this season, the 400-point cut-off is eliminated.
Also, after Race 26, the top 12 drivers in the points will qualify for the Chase.
All 12 drivers will have their point totals re-set to 5,000; each will then receive a 10-point bonus for each race victory they had during the first 26 races.
The Chase drivers will be “seeded” to start the Chase based on the number of wins amassed during the regular season.
Points adjustment: In line with the Chase adjustments, wins throughout the season will be more valuable.
Race winners throughout the 36-race season will now receive 185 points, a five-point increase. Counting the five-point bonuses available for leading at least one lap and leading the most laps, a race winner now can earn a maximum of 195 points, creating a possible maximum of 25 points between first- and second-place finishers.
The 2006 season of Kasey Kahne provides a dramatic illustration of the adjusted Chase format’s implications. Kahne qualified for last year’s Chase, but started it in 10th place – despite having won a series-high five races. Under the new format, Kahne would begin the Chase in first place, with 5,050 points. Mark Martin and Jeff Burton, seventh and eighth at the outset of last year’s Chase, would instead start in 11th and 12th, each with 5,000, since they had no race victories entering the Chase. Also, Tony Stewart and Greg Biffle, who failed to make the Chase last year – they were 11th and 12th and beyond the 400-point cut-off – would qualify under the adjusted format. Stewart would be fifth with 5,020 points, Biffle 10th with 5,010.
(NASCAR PR)(1-22-2007)
Benny Parsons Dies
1973 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup champion Benny Parsons, 65, passed away today at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte.
Parsons, who became an award-winning television and radio personality after retiring from driving in 1988, entered the hospital Dec. 26 as the result of complications stemming from his battle with lung cancer.
Born July 12, 1941, in Wilkes County, N.C., Parsons spent his childhood in the Blue Ridge Mountains and, after graduating high school, moved to Detroit, Mich., where his father operated a taxicab company. Parsons worked as a gas station attendant and taxicab driver during the early stages of his racing career.
He captured back-to-back ARCA stock car championships in 1968 and 1969 and joined NASCAR's premier circuit full-time in 1970 where his first victory came in 1971 at South Boston Speedway.
Parsons captured the 1973 championship in dramatic fashion as crew members from numerous teams literally rebuilt his car that was heavily damaged in an early race crash during the season finale at North Carolina Motor Speedway. He returned to the track and completed enough laps to edge Cale Yarborough for the title.
Parsons went on to record 21 victories, including the 1975 Daytona 500 and the 1980 Coca-Cola 600, in a 21-year career that included 283 top-10 finishes in 526 starts.
Even before hanging up his helmet in 1988, Parsons dabbled in the broadcasting industry, setting the stage for a very successful post-driving career.
He became a popular figure on NASCAR telecasts, first with ESPN and most recently with NBC and TNT. Parsons also hosted Performance Racing Network's "Fast Talk with Benny Parsons."
Parsons was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1994 and became a member of the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2005. He was selected as one of NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998.
Survivors include his mother Hazel Parsons; wife Terri Parsons; sons Keith and Kevin Parsons; brothers Steve and Phil Parsons; sister Patty Severt; and granddaughters Emily and Libbie Parsons.
In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that donations be made to the Connie E. Parsons Memorial Scholarship Fund, P.O. Box 443, Ellerbe, NC 28338; Victory Junction Gang Camp; or the Blumenthal Cancer Research Center.
NASCAR now requires six-point belt harnasses
Scenedaily - BY BOB POCKRASS - ASSOCIATE EDITOR
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - NASCAR is requiring drivers in its three national series to wear six-point belt harnesses beginning this season.
Most drivers already used a six-point device but some still used five-point seat belts. The six-point harness has an extra strap and does not come straight up through the crotch as a five-point. Some of those using the five-point belts have added two straps to make it a seven-point system.
"We have tested restraints pretty heavily the last few years, and as we continue to test and we continue to find better things, it only makes sense to implement them as they come," Nextel Cup Series Director John Darby said.
Drivers went through their annual safety briefing with NASCAR's safety expert Steve Peterson, General Motors biomedical research scientist Dr. John Melvin and General Motors Racing Safety Manager Tom Gideon on Tuesday morning.
Melvin said the change in belt requirements was probably the biggest change for 2007.
"It gives much better chest protection and it actually reduces your head motion," Melvin said. "One of the common injuries that occurred with crashes in five-point belts was broken ribs, broken sternums, broken clavicles.
"That was a common NASCAR injury. The six-point belt just eliminates that by making the shoulder belts work better. We've proven that in the laboratory."
Courtesy of Scenedaily.com
Shelmerdine and Daytona: "So, Your Saying I Have A Shot!"
Shelmerdine Looking to Pull off the Impossible Again
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., -- Kirk Shelmerdine pulled off the Cinderella story of Speedweeks 2006 when he qualified for the 48th annual Daytona 500 as an independent team.
Shelmerdine, operating on a shoe-string budget with only two full-time employees and a third one hired for Daytona, qualified 42nd and finished 20th in NASCAR’s biggest, richest and most prestigious race. Among the notable names who failed to qualify included Kenny Wallace and Evernham Motorsports’ Scott Riggs.
The former crew chief that led Dale Earnhardt to four of his seven NASCAR championships says that making the field for the 49th annual Daytona 500 on Sunday, Feb. 18 gets tougher every year.
“It was impossible last year and that’s what we do here at Kirk Shelmerdine Racing is the impossible,” Shelmerdine said before he began testing on Thursday. “It’s gets tougher every week. We’re a year later and the same thing that got it done last year won’t get it done this time. We have to improve on it. That’s why we’re down here now.
“Last year, we had a snowball’s chance and that’s about the same right now too. We’re doing everything we can. It would be really great. We’re not out of it. The car is much faster than it was in testing a year ago relative to the other cars. We’ve found a few things since then. We still think it’s a pretty good car. We got a shot at it.”
more on Shelmerdine's chance at making the Daytona 500
Hamilton, longtime NASCAR driver, dies at 49
ESPN.com news services
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Bobby Hamilton, the longtime NASCAR driver who won the 2001 Talladega 500 and was the 2004 Craftsman Truck Series champion, died Sunday of cancer, said Liz Allison, a family friend who co-hosted a radio show with Hamilton. He was 49.
Hamilton was at home with his family when he died, said Allison, the widow of former NASCAR star Davey Allison.
"The thing I loved about Bobby Sr. so much is that he treated everybody the same," Allison said. "It didn't matter if you were one of the drivers he competed against or a fan he'd never laid eyes on before.
"He didn't have a pretentious bone in his body. I think that's why people were drawn to him. He was just very real and had a way of relating to everyone."
Hamilton was diagnosed with head and neck cancer in February. A malignant growth was found when swelling from dental surgery did not go down.
"NASCAR is saddened by the passing of Bobby Hamilton," said Jim Hunter, NASCAR's vice president of communications. "Bobby was a great competitor, dedicated team owner and friend. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all of the Hamilton family."
Hamilton raced in the first three truck races of the season, with a best finish of 14th at Atlanta Motor Speedway, before turning over the wheel to his son, Bobby Hamilton Jr. The senior Hamilton then started chemotherapy and radiation treatment.
By August, he had returned to work at Bobby Hamilton Racing in Mount Juliet, about 20 miles east of Nashville, and doctors indicated his CAT scans looked good. But microscopic cancer cells remained on the right side of his neck.
more on Bobby Hamilton passing away