Could There Be Only One Cagnazzi Car This Season?

I stood at the back of the room with Victor Cagnazzi watching the hoopla surrounding the unveiling of The Dragway @ Lowe's Motor Speedway. In the front corner, Cagnazzi's driver and three-time NHRA Pro Stock champ Jeg Coughlin answered reporters' questions about what the new drag strip will mean to the series.

“I was sure Dave (Connolly) was going to win the title last season,” I remarked, glancing around the room.

“Yeah, so did we,” said the gray-haired Long Island, N.Y., native who had moved to the Charlotte area in 2003 to build up his Pro Stock team. “But at least we still did it with Jeg.”

But after a minute, Cagnazzi’s upbeat attitude took a slight detour. “That poor kid’s going to be sitting this season,” Cagnazzi said of Connolly with a sigh, “unless we find a sponsor.”

Torco Racing Fuels’ abrupt end to its sponsorship of teams earlier this month left Cagnazzi’s second Pro Stock team sponsorless less than a month before the first race of the season.

Other teams — no less than 14 total — were also left in the lurch. And not to take away from other competitors’ accomplishments, but Connolly is, well, good.

“But he’s good,” I stammered to Cagnazzi, not believing that a second bright yellow car wouldn’t be running next to Coughlin’s JEGS.com-sponsored Cobalt. “He went five in a row and only lost to Jeggy.”

Better than that, Connolly finished third in series points in 2007, his best point finish to date, and scored multiple final-round victories, including a string of five straight that ended only when his teammate Coughlin beat him to the line in the season’s next-to-last race at Las Vegas.

And now one of NHRA’s top Pro Stock teams and promising young drivers doesn’t have sponsorship?

“You can’t run his team out of pocket until you find something?” I asked.

Cagnazzi shook his head. “We can’t afford it.”

I stared off again into the crowd milling about the drivers and Speedway Motorsports, Inc. officials gathered for the press conference. After a moment, I said hopefully, “I’m sure something will come along. I mean, if Rod Fuller —”

“We’re making calls all day long until the businesses close in California,” Cagnazzi smiled. “We have a few possibilities, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed.”

So am I, Victor. So am I.

Analyzing Speeds From The World Center Of Racing

Preseason testing at Daytona Int’l Speedway has come and gone and teams’ speeds and times are in the records books. Much has been made of Toyota’s strong runs, with six of the top 10 spots on the cumulative chart for single-car runs going to the Japanese manufacturer. In fact, all 11 Toyota teams posted speeds in the top 20. In overall speeds, Toyota took three of the top 10 spots.

SWEETNESS: Kyle Busch posted the second fastest overall time during preseason testing at Daytona Int'l Speedway. (Autostock Photo)

Given Toyota’s struggles in its first season of competition in NASCAR’s premier series, do these numbers mean that the manufacturer has turned the corner and will be a force to be reckoned with in 2008?

Not necessarily.

Testing speeds neither reflect how a driver will perform in the Daytona 500 nor how he will do throughout the season. Just a brief analysis of speeds from last season’s test session will attest to that.

Paul Menard posted the fastest lap during 2007 testing at Daytona. Did that make him a favorite to hoist the Harley J. Earl Trophy in February or even the Nextel Cup in November? Hardly. Menard missed the field for the series’ biggest race and finished 34th in points.

Ricky Rudd, who captured the pole for the 500, was 16th overall in preseason testing. His teammate, David Gilliland, joined him on the front row after posting the 43rd fastest time in testing. Both drivers’ seasons went down hill from there.

Kurt Busch, who started fourth (thanks to a strong run in his Gatorade Duel event), led 95 laps, yet finished 41st after a wreck with Tony Stewart, who started third and led 35 laps before finishing 43rd. Busch posted the eighth fastest time during preseason testing; Stewart skipped the trip to Daytona in favor of running the Chili Bowl.

Kevin Harvick, winner of the 49th annual Great American Race, was 41st in testing. And 2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup champ and defending race winner Jimmie Johnson had the 35th fastest time in preseason testing and finished 39th in the race.

What Toyota has done is get more of its teams to the top of the speed charts. Last season, only two Toyotas — Dale Jarrett and David Reutimann — cracked the top 20 at seventh and 19th.

So do the numbers mean that testing leader Kasey Kahne will be victorious on the beach this season or that he will win the championship? Or will Johnson, who again posted the 35th fastest overall time, hoist the Cup at Homestead in November?

Only time will tell, not these speeds or stats, especially with a new car (the infamous Car of Tomorrow) running full time in 2008. After all, the test sessions were for one race — a 500-mile trip with 43 unstable stock cars drafting next to each other closer than cars parked in a Wal-Mart parking lot. One race does not a season make.

Rolex 24 Could Be Crucial For Allmendinger

This year’s Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona will be A.J. Allmendinger’s third go in the twice-around-the-clock sports-car showcase, but 2008 may be Allmendinger’s most crucial run to date.

After his initial foray into NASCAR, the former open-wheel ace may need to prove his worth and driving ability to those who had never heard the name Allmendinger before his debut in the No. 84 Toyota Camry for Red Bull Racing.

ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK: Sprint Cup regular A.J. Allmendinger was among the fastest during testing at Daytona Int’l Speedway. (Grand Am Photo)

Allmendinger’s rookie season was at best dismal. After failed attempts to qualify in the season’s first four events, the California native started his first Cup race at Bristol and finished 40th. There were few highlights afterwards. Allmendinger qualified for 17 of 36 events, scoring an average finish of 29.3. His best finish — 15th — came at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in October, and he led his first and only lap of the season two weeks later at Atlanta.

Given these abysmal stats, the NASCAR faithful undoubtedly believe that Allmendinger has about as much racing talent as Jeff Gordon has in his little finger. But motorsports fans who follow multiple disciplines of racing know better.

Before switching to the stock car ranks, Allmendinger was a title contender in the Champ Car World Series. In 40 starts, he scored 14 podium finishes and two poles. In 2006, Allmendinger finished third in series points after notching five victories — including three in a row — and led 246 laps. He was named the Roshfrans Rookie of the Year in 2004 and captured the Toyota Atlantic and Barber Dodge Pro Series titles in 2004 and 2003, respectively.

Now Allmendinger is returning — if only for a brief 24 hours — to the road racing that helped gain him so much success. In his two previous starts in the No. 6 Michael Shank Racing Ford Riley, Allmendinger has scored a runner-up finish in 2006 and a 26th last season. But by posting the fastest time during Saturday’s test session (and third quickest overall) at Daytona Int’l Speedway, Allmendinger may be poised to post a strong finish in the late-January endurance race.

And with a large NASCAR contingent tuning in to see a host of other Cup regulars competing in the Grand Am Series opener, there may not be a better time for Allmendinger to prove that he does, after all, have the ability to race.

Off-Season? What Off-Season?

Let’s begin 2008 with a pop quiz. What do the Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and NASCAR’s off-season have in common? Answer: None of them really exist.

In fact, the term ‘off-season’ should be eliminated completely from NASCAR terminology, as it gives the impression that NASCAR competition actually stops — even briefly — between one season’s finale at Homestead in mid-November and another’s beginning in early February in Daytona Beach.

When Sprint Cup — née Nextel Cup — teams headed home from the season-ending Ford 400 Nov. 18th, there were exactly 90 days until the first point-paying event in 2008. Still, preparations for the next season had begun months before teams even set foot in Homestead, with on-track testing rolling on into mid-December and crew members diligently completing their daily shop tasks with little respite, even for the holidays. In between their NASCAR duties, some drivers took to the track in other series and forms of racing.

And now within a few short days, teams will return to Daytona Int’l Speedway for the first test session of 2008. It’ll only be a matter of time until teams head west to Las Vegas and California for more tests. Then, in a blink of an eye, Speedweeks will be upon us and the green flag will wave on the 50th Daytona 500.

Off-season? Not hardly. Teams barely even have a break from on-track activity. There may be a lapse in point-paying races, but the competition rolls on through every test session and every turn of every wrench in teams’ shops. Just as the marjority of NASCAR events travel in endless circles, so does the life of anyone involved in NASCAR. There’s just no stopping.