Friday Bristol Dale Jr. Quotes

Dale Earnhardt Jr. has gotten off to a great start in the 2011 season with new crew chief Steve Letarte. With the team chemistry improving more and more as the races begin to click off, Jr. Nation gains more hope and excitement. Dale Jr. however, is happy but is not ready to call it a good year yet. Here are some statements made by Earnhardt Jr. in Fridays practice and qualifying day at Bristol.

"I think we've just got to temper our excitement over what we've seen so far. Just got to temper your mood and keep working hard. Keep focused on how much further in the season we've got to go."

"It's just such a clean slate starting this season that it allowed me to sort of reboot a little bit," he said. "Me and Steve are getting along really good. Hopefully we can maintain that. That's going to be the challenge, really – maintaining our positive attitude and the communication and the consistency that's working right now."

"It's just such a clean slate starting this season that it allowed me to sort of reboot a little bit. Me and Steve are getting along really good. Hopefully we can maintain that. That's going to be the challenge, really – maintaining our positive attitude and the communication and the consistency that's working right now"

Talking about Steve Letarte, Jr. said, "He does a great job of just keeping you in the game. You're part of the puzzle and everybody needs to be pulling in the same direction. He's good at what he does, you know? There's no doubt about it."





Thanks to Jeff Gluck for the quotes

NASCAR, Goodyear To Make Weekend Tire Change

Based upon the fact that the Bristol Motor Speedway is not gaining tire rubber on the surface during NASCAR Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series practices, NASCAR will switch the tire compound for the teams this weekend. The tires will arrive later Friday night, so the Sprint Cup Series teams will qualify on the old tires and will practice on the new ones in practice on Saturday. The Nationwide Series will run the old tires in qualifying and the start of the race and will switch the tires on a competition caution during the race.

The move comes after the tires were laying down a powdery substance.

A Look Back: New NASCAR Video Game - Just What NASCAR Needed

The new NASCAR Video game release is coming up later this month, March 29th for Playstation 3 and XBOX. The Wii version will come out April 12th. There has been a large amount of hype around the video game and how it could help NASCAR. The following is an exact re-post of the blog posted on this website following the news of the video game. Please remember that some news facts in the re-post have changed, such as the release date, which was supposed to be just prior to the Daytona 500.

On September 29th, 2010 the official announcement was made about the next NASCAR video game, something that has been absent for quite some time.

Activision along with Eutechnyx announced the multi-year agreement with NASCAR to distribute multiple NASCAR games over the next few years. The first of them will be "NASCAR The Game 2011," coming out just days before the 2011 Daytona 500.

EA Sports covered the NASCAR games for years, but lack of interest from EA eventually led to the end of the partnership. Their final game was NASCAR 09.

For years, there was uncertainty around NASCAR fans and gamers about when or if there were to be a new NASCAR game in the near future. Just about a year ago, rumors began to spread.

People began hearing that Activision was currently designing the next NASCAR game, but there was never any more confirmation. There was just the same old rumors that only seemed the exist on forums.

About three months ago, rumors began to pick up. A popular NASCAR rumor website, Jayski.com, discovered of the rumor, which led to even more speculation.

Then, the announcement came. There would finally be a NASCAR game.

Within days, it was a big topic within NASCAR. The same week of the official announcement, the show NASCAR Raceday on SPEED showed fans the first ever trailer. Great graphics along with a well put together piece increased the excitement. Fans began following the official social media sites for the game in bundles, allowing Eutechnyx to interact with NASCAR fans nicely, answering loads of questions along with trying to put requested features into the game by the time the game would be released.

So far already, based upon great screen shots, wallpapers, videos, and even pod casts answering the questions of fans, Activision and Eutechnyx have proven this game will be better than any NASCAR game of the past. They may not be perfect to start with for the first game, but they have many years to constantly improve the games, plus the ability to update the games after buyers purchase it. The racing game company has done their homework. There is a good chance this will be a good relationship for fans, Eutechnyx, and NASCAR.

NASCAR needs as much exposure as they can get. This has been one of the problems with NASCAR, according to many. This video game will expose NASCAR to more than just NASCAR fans, but to the entire public.

Activision and Eutechnyx, welcome to NASCAR.

Note: Here are some website dealing with the game:
Official Site: http://nascarthegame.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/NASCARthegame
Twitter: http://twitter.com/NASCARTheGame

Twitter of one of the game developers: http://twitter.com/davet_etx
Twitter of Community manager: http://twitter.com/baker011
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Thanks to the official site for the image.

Racebuddy for the Truck Series is doing wonders for everyone

At the beginning of 2011, NASCAR.com and SPEED Channel announced an agreement to make a Racebuddy application available, free of cost, to fans for the entire Camping World Truck Series season. The announcement was a huge step for NASCAR in online applications as there used to be very little available.

The Racebuddy feature is a four camera angle live video, with no commentators or commercials. It has two in car cameras, a battle camera, and a pit road camera angle. This combination allows fans to use the application as an extra tool to watch the race. So far in the 2012 season, it has been perfect.

With great television coverage this season, Racebuddy has been a major success. Action on the track is never missed, which allows a lot more forgiveness for fans when watching the telecast.

Contrary to what major NASCAR TV partners, like FOX and ESPN, believe, the application does not draw fans away from the race on TV, lowering the ratings. It is not an actual stream of the race, meaning fans cannot watch the same thing in multiple places. The telecast is still needed to get an understanding of the race, but Racebuddy is able to allow the fan to get even closer to the action. Remember, there are 36 to 43 cars or trucks on the track - the TV cannot show all of them. It is a perfect match for all.

As of now, there are no plans to run the Racebuddy application for the Nationwide or Sprint Cup Series (except for the TNT races in the summer). However, Racebuddy for the Truck Series was a huge step in the direction. Hopefully, it won't be long until the next big step.

NASCAR The Game 2011 Sneak Peak

After a few silent years of video games for NASCAR, Activision along with Eutechnyx will be releasing "NASCAR The Game: 2011." The release date is scheduled to be March 29th for Playstation 3 and XBOX and April 12th for the Wii.

This video game, which had seen a lot of hype in the recent months, may be what NASCAR is looking for in expanding the viewership to a younger audience. With graphics that were seen in a recent sneak peak on Youtube, that goal is looking possible.

Here is a preview of the game at Daytona. If for some reason you are not impressed, the developers say that they have made improvements since the video was made to make the racing more exciting and realistic. They have made it clear that with certain settings and a good steering wheel setup, a fan can drive a track just like their favorite driver.

Ineligible points scoring drivers winning in Nationwide and Truck nothing to be worried about

Kasey Kahne took the number 18 Kyle Busch Motorsports truck into victory lane at Darlington during the Sprint Cup and Nationwide series off weekend. This marks yet another ineligible championship contender winning in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and the Nationwide Series this season. In fact, there have been no eligible winners so far after three races in each series.

This has many fans concerned about NASCAR's new rule for 2011 - a driver can only score points in one series. Many say this rule is making problems for the two series. However, there is not much to be concerned about - it is still very similar to any other year in the past.

All the drivers that have won in the Camping World Truck Series or Nationwide Series so far in the 2011 season are not scheduled to run the full season in that respective series (and did not run the full season in that series last year as well). This means that it doesn't matter whether or not they can score points. So this new rule has not done anything to hurt the series.

People's concerns are definitely revolving around the championship winner not winning a single race in the season. While this is a good possibility, it is important to remember there are many good teams out there and that number seems to be growing, so it may not be as bad as many think.

Let's face it - NASCAR can't just ban Sprint Cup drivers. They, first of all, sell tickets and sponsors, but also improve television ratings and fill up the entry lists. They are needed - at least right now - in the two series. Getting rid of them would just be a bad move to say the least.

So if you're one of those people who are thinking NASCAR needs to make a change - there's not much they can do. The situation may not be pretty all the time, but it's far better than what it has been these past few years.

Fuel Injection This Year?

On SPEED's NASCAR Race Hub, Jimmy Spencer pointed out that he has heard from someone within NASCAR that there will be at least one fuel injection race this season, most likely in the Chase race at Martinisville. Although there are no official announcements about this, it is a fact that the Sprint Cup Series will run fuel injection in the 2012 season.