ephatch02

kinda reminds me of my ep3 i had, from the middle of the doors back they look similar.

The car is a promotional car that was built by The Richard Petty Driving Experience, any of the nascar commercials you see on tv are RPDE cars. The tread tires are not for street legal purposes, they are the tires the teams use for pit stop practice and for taking the car to the track from the shop. Goodyear issues tires and the track, teams don't get the tires for each weekend until after hauler's roll in.

The race team I work with has two topkick's, they are perfect when we need to move a trailer or are going to the chassis shop to pick some new cars. It is a hell of alot easier to use the topkick than to screw around with the toterhome. A pick-up truck can't tow our 50' race transporters. I don't think they are a waste of metal at all, they are not good for daily drivers.

Actually, he cannot appeal the drug test. The only way to get reinstated is to go through the reinstatement program. There is an A & B test that they administer in Nascar, he failed both. The tests are done by a separate facility with no connection to Nascar. I have several contacts in the Nascar garage, and noone is buying the prescription drug story. From what I have gathered from talking to various people is that it was a "drug of concern" and NOT prescription or over the counter meds.

I think they are the Venom 1/8th scale electrics, probably using a 21.5 or 13.5 brushless setup.

The Testing ban is for all nascar regional and Sprint Cup Series, Nationwide and Truck series tracks. Teams will have to try hard to skirt the rules. Rockingham is a possibility but Richmond or Iowa speedway would be the only similar track that you would set up for. As far as a mile and half track they are screwed and far as by the nascar rule bulletin I have gotten. This is a big cost savings to the teams, I have talked to several drivers and they are all for the rule change in the nascar sereies.

he will be employed by Michael Waltrip Racing in one of the teams management positions

Ford will most likely use the Taurus, Chevy will use the Malibu (as stated earlier this year by Chevrolet), Toyota will use the Camry and Dodge will use the Challenger. Joe Balash said during the test that the new car will be used in 2010 not the 2009 series. Also the Nationwide COT will use the same suspension setup as the current car, unlike the Sprint Cup COT where bump stops are used.

This manufactured part was not on the car during the race, it was most likely put on during the teardown procedures the teams due after each event. It was not installed during the race in order to increase performance on the JGR cars, it would have hurt the performance. Most likely some certain team members took it upon themselves to modify the car before it went to the chassis dyno.

Ford and Chevrolet's power numbers were about the same at 611 and 612, while the Toyota and Dodge were at 632 and 628. Dodge certainly isn't having problems making power on their motors. With Dodges numbers so close to Toyota why aren't they being complained about. Maybe the Ford and Chevy should figure out how to make more power out of their engine packages instead of complaining about how Toyota has more power.

Tony has stated just yesterday that he has no desire to race at Indy, he wants to stay in Nascar. He likes to go back and run some of the USAC events and the Chili Bowl for fun. What is happening now with his contract negotiations happened when he was up for renewal last time it happened. In yesterdays press conference he said that there is nothing wrong at JGR, he just wants to explore his options. It is way to early to really speculate on anything happening in the near future, the media is blowing it up. You are right about that he wants to be with a winning organization, but I believe his heart still lies with General Motors, they do alot of backing with his open wheel, late model and ARCA programs.