2011 Silly Season

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by MJ_N_09

Hey, every time the team gets a top 10 finish, if that ever has a chance of happening on non RP tracks, kids eat free at Golden Corral.

Yippie! Push dem kids up to the feed trough, honey.

[MJ_N_09]

Red Bull. What will they do for 2012?

Red Bull Racing: no drivers set for 2012, no Chevy? Red Bull Racing team manager, Jay Frye, says he's comfortable letting things play out elsewhere in the NASCAR garage over the next month or so before he needs to start pushing on the 2012 lineup. #4-Kasey Kahne is on only a one-year contract and moving to Rick Hendrick at the end of the year. That's one seat Frye needs to fill. #83-Brian Vickers is the final year of his contract, is just eight races into his comeback, after sitting out most of 2010 recovering from blood clots. Mark Martin could be the wild card. He's quite happy with Hendrick, though Martin says he has no specific plans for 2012, when he's to turn his Cup team over to Kahne. But Martin and Frye have worked together before and have a good comfort level; Frye, who is bringing along 20-year-old newcomer Cole Whitt (a part-time Nationwide schedule this season), might like Martin as mentor and part-time driver (as Martin did for Frye when they ran Bobby Ginn's team in 2007)&though Red Bull itself might prefer a different marketing demographic than Martin, at 52, might provide.
"Everybody knows who the players are," Frye says of the landscape. "And over the next month we'll just be watching and listening&before we have to start making moves and hard pitches. What we have to do right now is run well. When Kasey runs well, he helps us in 'selling' that seat, because that shows everyone what we've got to offer, shows everyone 'Hey, these guys are for real.'"
Is a Chevrolet deal in the works for Team Red Bull for 2012? That's not new; it keeps cropping up, in part because Frye has worked with General Motors in the past, and in part because Red Bull is a good co-promotional sponsor. Again Frye is shooting it down: "That's been going on for about three years now. There is no truth to that." [Supposedly Red Bull is signed with Toyota thru 2012](in part from Mikemulhern.net)(5-6-2011)

[MJ_N_09]

Testing news:

Drivers complete Brickyard tire test: UPDATE: #42-Juan Pablo Montoya, #22-Kurt Busch, #16-Greg Biffle, #27-Paul Menard and #56-Martin Truex Jr. got a head start on preparations for the 2011 Brickyard 400 by participating in a Goodyear tire test May 3-4 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Menard said drivers and teams still gained plenty of important data and experience despite a high temperature of only 60, at least 20 degrees cooler than the probable Race Day temperature in July. "It was good," Menard said. "Goodyear is trying a bunch of different things, and we hit on a couple things that will hopefully make a great race even better come July. It's a nice, cool day, and we'll come back in July and it'll be really hot, so times will be a lot slower. You have to take that into account in what you do as a driver and kind of set up trends that we learn today and tomorrow that we'll apply for July, for sure."(IMS PR)(5-5-2011)
UPDATE: After two days of testing earlier this week at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Goodyear has decided to use the same tread compound at this year's Brickyard 400 that drivers raced on in 2010, Stu Grant, Goodyear's general manager of worldwide racing, told Sporting News. Grant said the tire maker was opting for a known quantity in the tread compound, one that produced a problem-free race won by Jamie McMurray last year. In keeping with what Goodyear has done at many tracks this season, there will be a slight construction change to the tires supplied at Indy. The right-side tires will be slightly smaller, with an eye toward improved handling. The left sides will feature a mold shape change to preserve the stagger (the relationship to the right-side tires).(Sporting News)(5-8-2011)

And the first uses of fuel injection:

NASCAR says teams can use fuel injection at some tests: NASCAR told Sprint Cup teams Saturday that they can use fuel injection at NASCAR-sanctioned tests this season. The Cup series will switch from carburetors, used since the series' inception in 1949, to fuel injection next year. NASCAR told teams that they'll be allowed to test fuel injection at Kentucky in July - where teams will be given an extra day of practice since this will be the first Cup race there - at Goodyear tire tests, and at a test later this year on Phoenix's repaved surface. John Darby, Sprint Cup series director, also said that he would like to have additional fuel injection tests for all teams at a restrictor-plate track and a 1.5-mile track. A possibility is for teams to test at Talladega the day after the Cup race there in October and to a test at Charlotte Motor Speedway, since most teams are located near that 1.5-mile track, sometime this fall. Another option would be for teams to test in Daytona in January. Two years ago, teams did not test at Daytona, as part of NASCAR's testing ban. Last year, teams tested at Daytona because it had a new track surface. Fuel injection could allow Cup teams to test at Daytona in January for the second year in a row.(Virginian-Pilot)(5-8-2011)

[kurski]

former F1 driver Mika Salo will join his compatriot Kimi Räikkönen in the NASCAR series. Salo spoke to the Finnish news paper Turun Sanomat about his plans.

- This year it's finally going to happen. We had negotiations for who knows how long. We made progress little by little and now it seems by the end of July I'll take part in the truck series, Salo suggested.

[FIRE]

[kurski]

Jacques Villeneuve: Three new alleged to deny at once!

No, Jacques Villeneuve will not race in karting at Mirabel this weekend. No, Jacques Villeneuve did not mysterious Italian financial partner. And, no, Jacques Villeneuve will not prepare for NASCAR racing cars in Cornwall, Ontario.

NASCAR: Italians not flat! As for the "rumors" Advances in the record of the NASCAR Nationwide Series team, this is nothing.
"If there are mysterious Italians who want to finance my NASCAR team, I hope the journalist will introduce them to me because I, I do not know!, Villeneuve said, laughing. It's been many months that the Italians with whom I was talking to the F-1 informed me that NASCAR was not for them. It is no secret. I speak with great businessmen from Quebec to establish a solid structure but is still embryonic. "
One thing is certain: it has firm offers to drive on the road circuit in the NASCAR Nationwide Series but he wants to use it to establish the foundations of this solid structure.
"As the years Pase, I teams and preparers who have made bids for road racing in NASCAR Nationwide. I'm evaluating what will be best to establish our structure for the future, "said Villeneuve.

The maple leaf of ... Nashville As for the preparation of cars in Cornwall, "I'd love that," said Villeneuve, but the truth is that preparers NASCAR Nationwide in Canada, there are not any! "
In fact, a matter of illustrating the words of Villeneuve, even if it belongs to the Toronto businessman Steve Meehan and she claims to be "for Canadians by Canadians", the new team GoCanada Racing is perhaps Maple Leaf a household name, but the preparation of its cars is actually performed in the Nashville area.
"It would be a logistical nightmare to base the preparation of cars for a team here," concedes Tom Baker, vice president of business development GoCanada Racing joined by RueFrontenac.com.

[Axeman444]

i need a translator...

[MJ_N_09]

Originally Posted by kurski

former F1 driver Mika Salo will join his compatriot Kimi Räikkönen in the NASCAR series. Salo spoke to the Finnish news paper Turun Sanomat about his plans.

- This year it's finally going to happen. We had negotiations for who knows how long. We made progress little by little and now it seems by the end of July I'll take part in the truck series, Salo suggested.

I thought he said he was already doing it, but good to see plans finally going forward.

[kurski]

Translate:
EXCLUSIVE - Villeneuve to test with Penske Racing

Forget karting at the moment. Jacques Villeneuve will return to form for the NASCAR Nationwide the best possible manner: by testing in NASCAR Nationwide Series.