CONCORD, N.C. - Ryan Newman won't have the same car he drove to win The Winston all-star race last year. Instead, he will drive a Dodge that hasn't been good enough to earn its name.
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Cars at the Penske Racing South are created with number stamped on the dashboard. Once they win, however, they get a name.
"Daisy" was scheduled to make a return this year, but a crash on the first lap at the California Speedway last month rendered her too beat-up for competition. So Newman's car Saturday night at the Lowe's Motor Speedway will be PRS-042.
"The frame rails on Daisy were bent pretty bad and the guys would have had to thrash a ton to get her ready for this weekend," said Don Miller, a vice president at Penske South. "It didn't make sense to kill the guys with work."
MOTHER-IN-LAW SEATS: There are about 20,000 tickets remaining for the Coca-Cola 600 May 25 at the Lowe's Motor Speedway, and the raceway is offering a deal for all mothers-in-law - half-price tickets.
The only drawback - if that's what you call it - is the deal is for hard-to-sell single seats. That means if you buy your mother-in-law a ticket for the 600-mile race, she won't be sitting with you.
HIT RECORD: Jerry Nadeau's crash into the first-turn wall at the Richmond (Va.) International Raceway on May 2 was the hardest impact since NASCAR mandated the use of data recorders more than a year ago.
While the sanctioning body won't reveal the exact numbers it extracts from the "black boxes" that have been used since the beginning of the 2002 season, NASCAR vice president Jim Hunter said Nadeau's wreck easily passed the other hard hits from the past two seasons.
Nadeau remains in fair condition in a semi-conscious state at a Richmond, Va., hospital with head, lung, shoulder and rib injuries, according to his race team.
CLEANING UP NASCAR: Clean Control Corp., which manufacturers a disinfectant called OdoBan Odor Eliminator, sent all Winston Cup and Busch series teams its product to help battle viruses. As the world deals with the threat of SARS, the company, which sponsors Stanton Barrett's car on the Busch Series, decided it would be good business to give its racing competitors gallons of the product.
"These two series are getting ready to go into their heaviest traveling period at the end of May, and that puts them around a lot of fans, a lot of people who are coming from all over the world," said Clean Control president Steve Davison.
PIT STOPS: An Iowa bachelor placed an ad in a racing magazine offering a ticket to any woman who will go with him to next week's Coca-Cola 600. Dan Robbins, a truck driver, is looking for a date to the race, and while he said he's a big Dale Earnhardt Jr. fan, he said if the woman isn't, "it's not a deal breaker." Robbins said he's looking for a woman between the ages of 21 and 35. No racing experience necessary. ... Herb Fishel, executive director of General Motors Racing, will retire on Sept. 1. He's worked with GM's racing for the past 40 years. He will be replaced by Doug Duchardt, GM's Group Manager for oval racing.
