Forum Activity for @tmc-chase

Same here locally. WKRN, local ABC affiliate, has contract with Titans to broadcast their 4 pre-season games. Apparently iron-clad. As a result, Bristol is getting bumped to a non-HD weather station.

http://www.wkrn.com/story/26290627/nascar-sprint-cup-series-at-bristol

Referencing this post from a year ago I suppose?

http://stockcar.racersreunion.com/profiles/blogs/personal-racing-history-minute-august-21-1969

With Herb off the board, I guess I'll go with Fonty Flock. Tim had more success, but I think Fonty would have made me laugh more & press my face harder against the fencing.

Schaefer jacket ya say? You have my attention.

I agree Dave. Atlanta has been in a free fall for some time. On paper, the winner in this deal in the short run will be ISC. If this date swap indeed happens, I'd think the masses will receive it favorably - and hopefully buy tickets and watch TV accordingly. The short run loser will be AMS and SMI for having the track's single date moved to late winter.

Long term, SMI could still be OK I suppose. Bruton may well shutter AMS and move its date to Vegas. Obviously another schedule shift would have to occur because Vegas already runs in late February / early March.

But I imagine they'll figure that out down the road. Maybe NASCAR will move ISC's Homestead to early March and put the now-new Atlanta date as the season ender at Vegas to benefit SMI. *chuckle* Naaaah, who am I kidding. NASCAR do something to benefit Bruton? Nope, likely not.

I originally blogged about this race back in 2011. I'll update it a bit and share it here. Original post is here:

http://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2011/08/august-18-this-day-in-petty-history.html

On August 18 1962, Richard Petty picked up career win number 11 by winning the International 200 at the quarter-mile track in Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, NC. Petty had pretty good success at Bowman Gray with four wins and 20 top 5's in 26 total starts.

In March 2011, NASCAR.com [ published an article ] about Bowman Gray under its Hometracks section - including a photo from the 1962 race of Petty leading Larry Thomas. The article gets a +1 bump for being written by Paul Schaefer .

Jack Smith won the pole and was flanked by Joe Weatherly in Bud Moore's Pontiac. Petty and Jimmy Pardue made up row two, and Dick Getty rounded out the top 5. Getty had 26 career GN starts. In 5 of those starts, the field had Dick Petty and Dick Getty. Richard and his mother were probably not the only ones who insisted he be referred to by his given name. The PA announcer at various tracks likely wanted some relief as well!

The race was unique in that the 24-car field included several foreign car makes. Nine of the 24 starters drove cars such as an MG, Austin-Healey, Sprite and Alfa-Romeo. Seven of the drivers in these cars made their one and only GN start in this race:

• Bill Block
• Doug Duvall
• Bill Faulkner
• Steve Garrett
• Kelly Ryan
• Herbert Scott
• Jim Street

Smith was the lap bully of the day. He led about 3/4 of the race's 200 laps. But after leading a shorter lap segment earlier, the 43 found the lead again with 45 laps to go. He led the rest of the way to collect the checkers.

Petty's win continued a hot streak for the Petty Engineering team. Between Richard and Jim Paschal, the duo had won 5 straight at Nashville (JP), Huntsville (RP), Asheville-Weaverville (JP), Starkey Speedway in Roanoke (RP) and Bowman Gray (RP). Paschal also won at Bristol two races before Nashville. Only Joe Weatherly's win at Boyd Speedway in Chattanooga kept the Plymouth team from rattling off 7 wins in a row. Paschal was a key pick-up by the Petty team in 1962 after having started the season with Cliff Stewart.

Smith initially decide to protest the Petty Plymouth after the race. If he did, apparently the protest was not successful. I haven't found anything more detailing Smith's complaint - nor the resolution. But the record books say the 43 was the winner so the protest was either never filed or rejected.

I'd like to know if Tim Leeming cornered Buz McKim to ask him about the 43 door at the NHOF that actually isn't a Richard Petty door as it's labeled. Ha.

With Tony not qualifying or racing at Michigan, he is no longer eligible for the final 10 race championship anyway - unless he were to be granted a waiver by NASCAR whereby he does not have to attempt every way in order to be eligible. I don't think he'd ask for one - and I think NASCAR would have a PR challenge on its hands if they granted him one anyway.

Even if he were granted a waiver, the likelihood is slim that Tony would win a race over the next 3 races at Bristol, Atlanta or Richmond anyway to qualify for the championship. He wasn't running well enough to win races even before the recent dirt track accident. So best to lay out a few more weeks - particularly with the legal investigation continuing.

Once the championship begins, NASCAR will want the media's total focus on the final 10 races and the 16 drivers who will begin competing at Chicago to race for the title at Homestead.

I'd suggest NASCAR's marketing and legal folks are working with Mobil 1, Bass Pro Shop, Coke, etc. to keep Tony on the sidelines the rest of the year.

With Adam Alexander chiming in with his usual brilliant insight. Not.