As The Wheel Turns

Penske deal with Front Row at Richmond to help Logano? UPDATE: Penske Racing may have cut a deal with Front Row Motorsports in the closing laps at Richmond for track position to help get #22-Joey Logano in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship. In radio communications reviewed Wednesday by The Associated Press for Front Row driver #38-David Gilliland, his spotter informs the team of a request to let Logano pass him in the final laps of Saturday night’s race. Logano was trying to claim a spot in the 12-driver Chase field. Both Penske and Front Row are Ford teams and thus considered partners. A voice on the radio, believed to be crew chief Frank Kerr, asks who the request is coming from. The spotter replies: “We’ve got the big dog and all his cronies.” Kerr then says: “Travis knows what I’ve been asking for,” an apparent reference to Penske Racing competition director Travis Geisler. Logano passed Gilliland on a restart and finished 22nd, one spot ahead of Gilliland and good enough for a berth in the Chase field. “Good job, good job, man,” the spotter says after the race. “Hopefully we’ll get something out of that.” Statistics analyzed by AP also show Gilliland’s lap times dropped off by almost 1 second from the times he was running prior to the radio communication.(Associated Press)(9-11-2013)

If I was Gordon I would come in on the first yellow and have them attach a cow catcher to the front of my car and go hunting. Next year is not going to be any prettier.

Jeff (the whiner) Gordon should have run better all year it shouldn’t come down to the last race to worry about getting in and then cry foul. Plus I’m sure Hendrick cars have NEVER done anything like this to get their guys an advantage. How many times have you heard someone letting another driver pass them so they can lead a lap? Sounds like the same thing to me.

nascrap

How many times in nascrap during the course of the year have we seen the leader move over let the 2nd place car lead a lap for the points and then overtake the same car. Same old crap! So why whine now?

Hendrick invented team racing when he put Jeff Purvis in a start n park car to ensure the title for Gordon over Earnhardt!

Yes he did, it’s been going on for years. If a teammate needs a caution throw a piece of roll bar padding out of the window, or just spin out. Its called gamesmanship.It happens at each level of racing.

I thought the same exact thing. Big money team racing is hurting the sport.

Well, Joey “Spoiled Little Baby Girl” Lagano, should have run better during the year, and during that race, so she didn’t have to make a deal to get a spot. I like the cow catcher idea. If Nascar doesn’t do to the 22 and 38 what they did to the MWR cars, I say it is open season.

You are right! Removing Truex and suspending and fining the MWR team, how do you not do the same thing with Logano and Gilliland? Based solely on the reason set forth with the radio communications of the 55 car and Ty Norris saying what he said is not as clear cut and dry as the communication between the 38team and the 22 team. If you do it to one team you have to do it to the others. This will be interesting to say the least!

I am not a Loganno fan and in fact consider him to be no more than a peer to Steven Wallace. That being said, one outcome that would force NASCAR to make some meaningful change would be if Loganno would actually win the championship. How could the spin doctors handle that one. One would have to subscribe to AARN just to read Gary Londons comments.

I think you have to keep in mind whether you are a Gordon fan or not that his “poor runs” throughout the year gave him the opportunity to be in contention going into the last race, which would mean he still ran better than what 70% of the field? I think that means he deserved the shot, whether he ultimately made it in or not…just sayin’