Stewart Donates Earnings From Michigan Race To Flood Victims

BROOKLYN, Mich. — The “Gum Guys” double-teamed an appreciative group of fans Sunday morning in the campground inside Michigan Int’l Speedway.
Juan Pablo Montoya invaded a gathering of fans of the No. 42 Wrigley Big Red Dodge, bringing along fellow IndyCar expatriate Dario Franchitti as a bonus. Not coincidentally, Franchitti drives the No. 40 Juicy Fruit Dodge. Both are from the Chip Ganassi stable.
It’s a scene that Montoya is doing 19 times in 2008, with Franchitti accompanying him at selected venues.
“You know, it’s kind of fun to do it, especially since I’m new to NASCAR,” Franchitti said of his autograph excursion. “I get to meet the fans — there are so many of them — and spend some one-on-one time with them. That’s really cool, and they’re such loyal fans.
“One of those guys came all the way from Florida. You look at what all he’s gone through with gas prices and the economy and realize that a guy is going to come all the way from Florida to Michigan to watch a race says a lot for the commitment of the fans.
“It’s cool to hang out with them.”

• The good folks in Columbus, Ind., normally in favor of Tony Stewart’s success in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup action, had some extra incentive to wish their “hometown hero” well Sunday in the LifeLock 400 at MIS.
Stewart had pledged his earnings in the race to the victims of last week’s devastating floods in and around his hometown.
“This is a community that has supported me for a long time and it wasn’t a matter of are we going to do something, it was a matter of what are we going to do,” he said. “This is just a small step this weekend. We don’t normally do press releases about something like this because it’s not why we do it. This weekend, the reason why we did it was hopefully to bring a lot of awareness to a lot of people who are fans of ours and the people who support us and hopefully they will support my community now.”

• Gone is the 40-year old relic known as the Michigan Int’l Speedway scoreboard.
In its place, and on the same site, is a new state-of-the-art LED scoreboard towering 110 feet.
The old board, which had the capacity to show only the top-five positions, has given way to a spectacular new creation.
The video panels of the $2.35 million board total 3,500 square feet and are capable of producing millions of colors and an infinite number of race positions at one time.
But what of the old board?
The “Position 1” and “Michigan Int’l Speedway” nameplate will be retained as museum pieces.

• NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver Ron Hornaday, Jr. left little doubt as to his feeling for Sprint Cup point-leader Kyle Busch, who knocked him out of a top-10 finish on the final lap of Saturday’s Cool City Customs 200 truck race.
“He had just put tires on and I knew he was coming,” Hornaday said. “He had the inside or the outside, but he just drove into me because he got mad because I took us four wide and passed him cleanly. Halfway through the race, he showed me he was upset because he lifted the back of my truck up. If he is going to race that way, that is pretty chicken. He doesn’t deserve to be a racer. He has a lot of talent, but that is just stupid.”
Busch, who left shortly after the race for Kentucky Speedway and the NASCAR Nationwide race, had no comment.

• No one likes to see rain at the race track.
Even though he is new to NASCAR, 2007 Indianapolis 500 winner Dario Franchitti shares that dislike, especially in the wake of a month off to heal a broken ankle.
“I think we are (getting a handle on the Big Red Dodge),” Franchitti said. “We came back from that month off. At Pocono, we qualified 14th and were having a pretty good day. Then, we came here and the car was good straight off the truck. When we finished qualifying practice, we were third quick and we ended up ninth.
“Then it rained.”
Franchitti said things were working out.
“We’re definitely seeing improvement,” he said. “To have that month off was difficult, but at the same time I made the best use of the time that I had. I turned a negative into a positive. In some ways that helped, but it would have been nicer to be in the car.”
Franchitti’s day ended early. A broken valve spring turned into a broken piston and sidelined the car after 30 laps. Franchitti wound up 43rd.

•The Stock Car Commission upheld the appeals by the Haas Racing No. 66 and No. 70 teams of the penalties its two cars were assessed following rules infractions on both cars at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in late May.