2009 Ride: No. 82 Red Bull Racing Toyota Camry
2009 Sponsor: Red Bull
2009 Owner: Dietrich Mateschitz
2009 Crew Chief: Jimmy Elledge
Stats: 35 races, 1 top 5, 1 top 10, poles, 3 DNQs, 35th...
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Denny Hamlin had quite a weekend in Florida. He won his fourth race of the year, spun a guy out, and declared himself the next threat to Jimmie Johnson’s “Drive for Five” championship quest. But...
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With Jimmie Johnson on the brink of winning his fourth consecutive Sprint Cup Championship, one thing stands out as he and the No. 48 Lowe’s team prepare to make history this weekend at...
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The 2009 Sprint Cup season is nearly over with Jimmie Johnson still responsible for his engine turning over next Sunday at Homestead-Miami speedway for the mercy killing of the 2009 season and Chase...
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Following months – well, years really – of speculation, it appears that Danica Patrick is at long last coming south to compete in NASCAR. “Danicamania” was the prologue to what will no doubt be...
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Three days following this past Sunday’s most recent unmitigated disaster at Talladega, most of the pundits have by now offered their assessment of what transpired over the weekend. Some dismissed it...
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In last Wednesday’s edition of The Voice of Vito, I stated my grievance with the media at large for celebrating the coronation of Jimmie Johnson as the 2009 Sprint Cup Champion following his...
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My uncle owns and operates an industrial lighting company, and has an interesting way of motivating people. Whenever they express the futility of the task at hand, he comes back and says, “You should...
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Oscar Wilde is quoted as saying, “Life imitates art more than art imitates life.”
That came to mind Sunday night following the Pep Boys Auto 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. As the race concluded,...
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It was announced this week that 2000 Winston Cup Champion Bobby Labonte was going to be replaced in effect, by Roush Fenway Craftsman Truck Series driver Erik Darnell in seven of the final 12 races...
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On Tuesday, the worst kept secret in NASCAR was made official, as it was confirmed that Brad Keselowski has joined Penske Racing as the new driver of their No. 12 Dodges for 2010 and beyond. The...
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Progress and change. Both are touchy subjects, and more often than not have no bearing or influence on the other. One can fly in the face of tradition while the other may support and reinforce it....
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This past weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway, the night race that was the Sharpie 500 was host once again to one of NASCAR’s most anticipated races of the year. As NASCAR continues its effort to...
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You know things have gotten pretty bad for Dale Earnhardt, Jr. when the motorsports community starts going ape-poo over his third place finish at Michigan International Speedway this past Sunday....
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Playing hurt is one of the inevitabilities in professional sports, and the world of motorsports is no exception.
In NASCAR particularly, it seems that more often than not, competing with an...
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In NASCAR lore, the popular theory has always been that “Rules were meant to be broken.” Drivers and crews, in an attempt to outwit the inspectors checking over their cars, harkened back...
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While the majority of news media yesterday were trained on the Michael Jackson memorial, there was another announcement being made on the opposite side of the country in Cornelius, N.C., at Michael...
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After taking last week off after covering the LifeLock 400 at Michigan, there have been a few stories floating around that provided some ammo for this week’s column. Some are the same retreads...
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If it isn’t rough, it isn’t right.
For well over 20 years, those words used to sum up a Mark Martin day perfectly. If there was a tire to be blown, an engine to burn a piston, a caution flag to...
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Ste-Pha-Nie….Number Five…is ALIVE!
Remember that from the 1986 movie, Short Circuit? It was about a robot that, after being struck by lightning, has an awakening and decides that he is not a...
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William Shakespeare is quoted as having said, “Tempt not a desperate man.”
During the last few weeks, it has become apparent to me that he must have been a NASCAR fan.
We’ve all read similar...
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Busch has most recently been likened to Dale Earnhardt (Sr.), christened the driver most likely to dethrone David Pearson from second place in career victories. Instead, he is pissing and moaning and...
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With the running of the 50th Coca-Cola 600, the biggest weekend of racing has mercifully come to an end. Finally. And with Monday’s running of NASCAR’s longest race of the season nearly being a...
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Do any of you remember that Robert DeNiro and Dustin Hoffman movie Wag The Dog ?
The plot of the movie was that in order to cover up a sex scandal involving the President prior to an election, a...
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There is no way to be polite about this. The United States auto industry is circling the drain.
Two-thirds of the largest manufacturing entities on the planet will have filed for bankruptcy within...
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The biggest story to break in NASCAR over the last few days has been Jeremy Mayfield’s suspension for a positive test for a banned substance following the May 2nd race at Richmond. A subsequent...
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Saturday night’s Southern 500 at Darlington was more than just a trip down memory lane. The walls weren’t the only things that were a throwback at the minnow pond “Too Tough To Tame.” Oh,...
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So, what is up with Dale Earnhardt, Jr.? After yet another disappointing outcome that saw Junior finish 27th, relegating him to 18th in points, the question remains — what is wrong with this...
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As you may have noticed, much of the action that many have become accustomed to in NASCAR has been absent over the last few weeks. Matt Kenseth winning back-to-back races was nice, and it surely did...
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Upon exiting his winning Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, Martin invoked the name of a previous Hendrick driver, Tim Richmond. He remembered how great it was to see Richmond win after coming back from...
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Everything old is new again.
A tired and trite saying, to be sure, but it could be applied to NASCAR lately. Since we are coming off of Easter weekend, maybe now is a good time to get all...
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Word has come down from on high at Earnhardt Ganassi Racing that the No. 8 Chevrolet now piloted by Aric Almirola – and formerly by some guy with a goatee and another one with a buzz cut – will be...
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With the Sprint Cup Series off this week, you might expect some of the senior writers of this staff or other publications would be absent as well. But that is not the case with me. Although I was...
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I am going to focus on what used to be one of the most anticipated times of the year, NASCAR’s short track season. Back when I first started really getting into the sport, four of the greatest and...
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Like many NASCAR journalists keeping up with the sport, I was thumbing through the article links on Jayski the other day – mainly to see if my most recent submission was featured – and came across an...
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The Sprint Cup Series is off this week, giving some teams a much-needed break. Not so much from the cross-country grind that is the first month of the season… but rather, to the stop the...
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The first few weeks of the 2009 Sprint Cup season have done much to fuel speculation of whether some different teams and new faces that are currently in the top 12 in points can stay there. The next...
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What happened to the old days when I could just show up, ready to go, and hit it hard for 90 minutes? Now it is a forced march necessitating a cocktail of thermogenics, energy drinks and protein bars...
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Well, another Daytona 500 has come and gone, and many are still talking about it. The 2009 NASCAR season is officially underway, and this year Speedweeks had many compelling stories to discuss....
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There are a myriad of changes on the horizon for NASCAR as the 2009 season kicks off in grand fashion this week. All (or most) of them are aimed at cutting spiraling costs of competing at any of the...
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Is it just me, or is there just a general malaise and “blah” feeling surrounding everything as of late?
See, I have an excuse. I live in Michigan – where hope goes to die. There is snow, slush,...
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Finally. After an offseason that seemed to last longer than it ever has in previous years — due in large part to a virtual ban on preseason testing and a harsh winter of Old Testament...
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A couple of weeks back, some friends and I made a road trip across the state of Michigan to Detroit for the weekend. While jammed in the back of a three-quarter ton extended cab 4×4 pickup, my...
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Not sure if you have noticed or not, but Caddyshack (arguably the greatest movie ever made, and easily the most quoted) has been on cable a lot lately, most recently having been on the Golf Channel...
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2008 Ride: No. 26 Roush Fenway Ford
2008 Sponsor: Crown Royal / Irwin Industrial Tools
2008 Owners: Geoff Smith / Jack Roush / John Henry
2008 Crew Chief: Larry Carter
Stats: 36 Races, Wins,...
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2008 Ride: No. 8 Dale Earnhardt, Inc. Chevrolet
2008 Sponsor: U.S. Army
2008 Owner: Teresa Earnhardt
2008 Crew Chief: Tony Gibson
Stats: 12 Races, Wins, Top 5s, 1 Top 10, 42nd in...
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Long before all of this NASCAR success began, Johnny Benson had claimed the 1993 ASA title, much the same as Mark Martin and Alan Kulwicki before him. Before that he won a track championship at...
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Should Brian France ever relinquish his title of Grand Poobah of NASCAR, he would probably have a successful career as a modern day politician.
He has managed the delicate task of alienating both...
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A lot of things must have been going through Johnny Benson’s mind Friday night at Phoenix.
Chief among them was probably, “… why did I just do that …” midway through a race while preparing to...
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Have you ever got the feeling while watching a movie, that you may have seen it once or twice before? You’ll notice it when viewing virtually any action movie made over the last 20 years that it is...
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With the 2008 NASCAR season winding down, we are in the middle of one of the more anti-climactic points races of the last decade, regardless of format. There is one outstanding title fight in the...
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To hear many pundits in the media lately, the sky is falling; it is quite possibly the end of the world as foretold in the Book of Revelations or Nostradamus. There is no pulling back from the...
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Jimmie Johnson is hearing footsteps.
Saturday evening’s Bank of America 500 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, NASCAR’s crown jewel of racetracks, was a showcase on many different levels . It...
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I am going to forego the normal flowery introduction to this week’s submission with a decidedly blunt statement: Regan Smith got screwed out of a win Sunday at Talladega.
The rules are pretty...
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There was a stunning admission made by Patti Petty, wife of NASCAR driver Kyle Petty, reported Sept. 29 in the Winston Salem Journal With a few choice words, she changed the landscape of racing’s...
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Broken: Dodge
If there has been a group more predestined for futility this year, it’s the Dodge bunch. Their best car sits 13th in points, and not one Charger is in the Chase for the first...
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Every four years, the world turns its attention to one of the greatest spectacles to be witnessed by man, a contest that is seen by some as the sporting equivalent to The Running of The Bulls in...
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The 2008 Championship Chase began in earnest this past Sunday with the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Greg Biffle’s lights out performance (pun obviously intended) passing race leader...
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If there is one thing that the Nationwide Series has desperately needed, it is an identity.
Once viewed as the stepping stone to NASCAR’s premiere division, the Nationwide Series had...
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This weekend marks the 26th race of the 2008 Sprint Cup season, and the final race before the fifth annual Championship Chase begins. With David Ragan and Kasey Kahne getting set to make a last ditch...
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Mercifully, the Pepsi 500 at California’s Auto Club Speedway has come to a close. A race that has supplanted the beloved Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway over Labor Day weekend was the highlight of...
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With Monday’s announcement that Joey Logano will replace Tony Stewart in the No. 20 Home Depot Toyotas fielded by Joe Gibbs Racing, the biggest piece of the silly-season puzzle was put into place....
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As the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series moves closer to the 26th race at Richmond in September, the Chase for the Championship became a little more clear on Sunday. As Carl Edwards outlasted Kyle Busch over...
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Johnny Benson had better win a Truck title. Johnny Benson’s last seven races have produced four wins (three consecutive), a second, and a third, yet he still leads Ron Hornaday by a scant 45 points...
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The last two weeks have certainly done their part in jumbling up the point standings, as races influenced by, um, extenuating circumstances have given us a look at how the Chase field may shake out...
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Not sure if you have noticed or not, but Caddyshack (arguably the greatest movie ever made, and easily the most quoted) has been on cable a lot lately, most recently having been on the Golf Channel...
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Two weeks ago at Chicagoland Speedway, the Petty Enterprises cars of Bobby and Terry Labonte carried special paint schemes to commemorate the first race ever run by NASCAR’s winningest driver...
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Be forewarned: Yes, this is another Kyle Busch article. Yes, that move on the outside of Jimmie Johnson on the final lap of the LifeLock.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway on Saturday night was nothing...
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I have never made any bones about it – I am a lifelong Alice In Chains fan. Hands down, they’re my favorite band… ever, quite possibly the most underrated yet often-imitated Seattle...
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The New NASCAR: Some love it, others revile it, but everybody’s got an opinion. The Car of Tomorrow has its share of detractors and supporters, as does the television coverage and what has...
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The rumors circulating in the garage area and beyond this week are that the Dale Earnhardt, Inc. No. 8 Chevrolet team will be looking for a new sponsor for 2009 and beyond. The car that has been...
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This past Friday at Michigan International Speedway, there was a question and answer session near several of the driver’s haulers following the first practice session. Outside of Dale...
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This weekend saw a changing of the guard of sorts in professional motorsports, as two young drivers finally broke through to score their first career victories in their respective series of...
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This past weekend at Dover marked the ascendance of one of the hottest young drivers in NASCAR. Many had wondered if he could really get the job done, if all the hype that has surrounded this young...
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The biggest racing weekend of the year has come and gone and, thankfully, most of us had a day off to digest it all. From Monaco to Mansfield, The Queen City to the Brickyard, after absorbing over...
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The 2008 Sprint All-Star race has officially come and gone, but there were a number of storylines still swirling following Saturday nights action at Lowes Motor Speedway. Did the racing live up to...
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There were a few ideas I had bouncing around in my head about what to write this week. Kyle Busch continuing to win races just to spite Dale Earnhardt, Jr. fans; Tony Stewarts future plans that may...
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Saturdays Crown Royal presents The Dan Lowry 400 was a relatively quiet affair… for the first 95 percent of the evening, that is. At that point, Denny Hamlin had led all but one lap of 382...
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Restrictor plate racing has always been seen as the great equalizer in NASCAR competition. The Nationwide Series, with their roof/wicker aero package that the Cup Series used in 2001 (but for some...
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Mexico City. What is the first thing you think of when you envision the second largest populated city on the planet? After you get past pollution, corruption, and drug trafficking, you can chalk up...
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Mark Martin must have thought somebody had sent him through some cruel time warp last weekend. In preparation for Saturday Nights Subway Fit Fresh 500K, Martin had qualified fourth, all while...
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A couple of weeks back, some friends and I made a road trip across the state of Michigan to Detroit for the weekend. While jammed in the back of a three-quarter ton extended cab 4×4 pickup, my...
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There are, to be sure, a number of unsung heroes in NASCAR. You can find them in a number of capacities with many in the more obvious sources: pit crew members, the guys in the fabrication shop, tire...
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NASCAR was looking to be in rough shape towards the end of last season. Ratings were consistently down, attendance figures were beginning to wane, and the general feeling amongst many fans was that...
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Over the years, Japanese auto manufacturers have built a reputation of building vehicles that are as reliable as the Pet Rock. The rationale behind purchasing a car from the Asian auto giant was its...
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A funny thing happened at the Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta this weekend. No, a driver did not laud praise on Goodyear. and no, the commentators did not bust out with some poor Atlanta analogy as...
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When asked where his favorite vacation destination is, Mark Martin will list Las Vegas as his place of refuge. No, it is not because he enjoys gambling, the nightlife, or the seedy underbelly of...
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While many in the media (yours truly included) were raving about Dodges impressive showing at the Daytona 500, many were looking to this past weekends Auto Club 500 in Fontana, California as the...
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All through testing and Speedweeks at Daytona, it seemed there was one thing fans could count on happening in the 50th running of the Daytona 500: The Toyotas and the Hendrick Chevrolets would be...
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Tony Stewart has been known to hobknob with more than a few celebrities. Chief among them — and one of his biggest fans — is none other than Kid Rock. One of his songs entitled,...
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The Beast is out there.and hes hungry tonight.
That line — from the motion picture Platoon — takes place during the calm before the storm in an exchange between the characters...
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Someone might want to contact Jim Cantore from The Weather Channel; it appears as if Hell has actually frozen over. For the first time since the November race at Atlanta in 1987, a streak of 621...
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I may be in the minority here (my heritage notwithstanding), but for many reasons, to me this season has been one of the worst in recent memory for NASCAR.
Perhaps ever.
To look back on it that...
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2007 Ride: No. 01 Ginn Racing / Dale Earnhardt, Inc. Chevrolet
*2007 Primary Sponsor : U.S. Army
2007 Owner: Bobby Ginn / Teresa Earnhardt (added in July)
2007 Crew Chief: Ryan Pemberton
2007...
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2007 Ride: No. 7 Robby Gordon Motorsports Ford
2007 Primary Sponsor: Jim Beam/Menards
2007 Owner: Robby Gordon
2007 Crew Chief: Greg Erwin (Feb-May), Gene Need (May-Sep), Peter Sospenzo...
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This weekend in Homestead, one thing is for certain: Hendrick Motorsports will be the team that captures the 2007 Nextel Cup. It will be the organization’s sixth championship, tying the...
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Its no secret that I am not a fan of the Car of Tomorrow. Just saying the phrase elicits certain feelings: Anger. Spite. Loathing. Still … as much as I would love to sit here and rail against...
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