Under the new procedure, cars will qualify in groups at Sonoma Raceway and Watkins Glen International.  The number of groups and number of cars in each group will be determined by the number of cars that participate in practice for the event.

Groups will be assigned based on practice times, and each group will be on the track for a set period of time as determined by the Series Director. The session will begin when the first car takes the green flag.

The best lap run during that time will be the qualifying time of record.

Robin Pemberton, competition director for NASCAR said:

The change will add an exciting element to road-course qualifying. Fans will be treated to new strategy and increased competition with several cars on track at once.

Steve Page, president of Sonoma Raceway, said:

This is going to be a terrific new format for our NASCAR weekend. It will intensify the action, with multiple cars on the track at the same time. It’s a very positive development for our fans.

Michael Printup, president of Watkins Glen, said:

The new format of qualifying at Watkins Glen International enhances the fan experience which is our top priority. Qualifying on Saturday for our Cheez-ItTM 355 at The Glen is even more of a not-to-be missed aspect of a weekend of high-quality racing.

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Keselowski had grabbed the lead in Turn 2 of the final circuit at the 2.45-mile road course, after he knocked Kyle Busch’s No. 18 Toyota for a loop, with both cars sliding through a patch of oil on the asphalt.

Ambrose, who scored the second win of his Sprint Cup Series career and his second in a row at the Glen, caught Keselowski moments later, and the two drivers battled side-by-side through the grass at the inner loop and through Turn 5 and beyond.

Ambrose’s No. 9 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford finally cleared Keselowski’s No. 2 Dodge in the last corner as Keselowski slipped in oil to the outside. Ambrose got to the finish line .571 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher.

Jimmie Johnson finished third and took over the series lead by one point over Greg Biffle, who wound up sixth. Clint Bowyer was fourth, followed by Sam Hornish Jr., Biffle and Busch.

“It was just absolutely crazy at the end,” Ambrose said. “I shot back up on the inside of Brad [in Turn 7] and put him on the oil, and we snapped through for the win.

“A big shout-out to NASCAR. A lot of guys are going to say, ‘Should they have thrown a caution, or should they not?’ but no one wants to see these races end under caution or bunched back up in these two-by-twos [double-file restarts], making a random finish. We had the three fastest cars duking it out for the win. That’s the way it should be, and I think they did the right call.”

Solidly in the Chase for the Sprint Cup with three victories and the fifth-place spot in the Cup standings, Keselowski enjoyed the quality of racing over the final lap, even though he came out on the short end.

“It just came down to who was going to slip up last, and I did, and he got by me and won the race,” Keselowski said. “But a good show — good beating and banging, and that’s the way racing’s supposed to be.

“Just real proud of that race, proud that there is a class-act guy like Marcos that can race that way without losing his cool and intentionally wrecking somebody. That’s really cool.”

Opinion was divided on whether the race should have continued with oil on the track, a condition several drivers attributed to the No. 47 Toyota of Bobby Labonte. The oil was particularly insidious because it was difficult to see.

“Those last two laps were just out of control with the oil down,” Johnson said. “You’re studying the road, trying to see if you can see an oil trail, and there really wasn’t a large visible one to dodge. But you could feel the oil on your tires, and slipping and sliding, and then guys are spinning all over.

“It was chaos, but I’m glad we got back to the finish line.”

Tony Stewart finished 19th, on the bottom end of a roller-coaster day. Starting from the rear of the field for dragging a gas can from his pits under caution on Lap 27, Stewart charged toward the front and was running second to Keselowski when he spun in Turn 7 on Lap 72 and backed his No. 14 Chevy into the guardrail.

That left Keselowski and Ambrose to restart 1-2 on Lap 75 in the 90-lap race, but before the two front-row cars cleared the first corner, Busch took them three-wide to the inside and grabbed the lead. After a protracted battle with Keselowski, Ambrose took over the second position on Lap 81 but couldn’t gain ground on the race winner.

Keselowski retook the second position in Turn 5 on Lap 89 — and then the fireworks started.

Johnson leads Biffle by one point and eighth-place finisher Matt Kenseth by two.

A late spin dropped Dale Earnhardt Jr. to 28th at the finish and cost him the points lead. He’s now fourth, 17 points behind Johnson.

Jeff Gordon spun in oil on the final lap and came home 21st, surrendering the second provisional Chase wild card spot to Ryan Newman, who ran 11th.

“We believe the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule will once again provide fans with what they’ve come to expect every season – the world’s most exciting and competitive form of motorsports,” said Brian France, NASCAR chairman and CEO. “Next year’s schedule has a few adjustments that we think will be good for the fans and good for the overall flow of the season. One thing will remain constant, however, and that’s the intense competition we see week in and week out from our drivers and race teams.”

One of those adjustments takes place during NASCAR’s playoffs – the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup – and could affect the strategy during the championship run. Talladega Superspeedway’s Chase event moves up two weeks to Oct. 7, becoming the fourth race in the Chase. Often labeled as the wild-card track in the Chase, Talladega’s grueling test is now staged during the first half of the Chase.

Talladega swaps its Chase date with Kansas Speedway (Oct. 21) to accommodate Kansas’ repave, scheduled for after the track’s spring event. As such, Kansas’ spring date has also been moved. Kansas now will be the eighth race of the season on April 22. Talladega’s spring event moves to May 6, and Dover International Speedway’s spring event returns to its traditional spot on June 3.

As previously announced, the season-opening Speedweeks at Daytona International Speedway will start one week later with the running of the preseason “non-points” Shootout at Daytona on Feb. 18. The 54th annual Daytona 500 will run on Feb. 26.

The race dates for Phoenix International Raceway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway have likewise been moved a week later, to March 4 and March 11, respectively.

Two other featured adjustments to the 2012 schedule:

Texas Motor Speedway’s spring date will be moved to April 14, to accommodate the traditional open week for the Easter holiday.

Daytona’s summer event and Kentucky Speedway’s race will swap weekends in 2012, as the July 4th holiday falls mid-week next year. Kentucky’s race will be June 30; Daytona will run on July 7.

As in past years, FOX will broadcast the first 13 races of next year’s schedule. TNT will follow, broadcasting the next six. ESPN/ABC will broadcast the final 17 events. Race start times will be announced at a later date.

NASCAR will also release the 2012 schedules for the NASCAR Nationwide Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series at a later date.

2012 NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES SCHEDULE

Rubbing is Racing

Boris Said and Greg Biffle weren’t talked about much during the race. Said spun early and ran in the back most of the day. Biffle ran out of gas early and ended up losing several laps. For them, the action heated up after the checkered flag. After Said spun, he spent the rest of the day racing near the back.  Biffle, who ran out of gas on lap 28, was also racing at the back, two laps down.  Said radioed to his spotter and said that Biffle was racing him “dirty” and let it be known that he would find him after the race to take care of it.

As soon as the race was over, Said parked his car in front of the No. 16 hauler to have it out. According to Said, Biffle threw some punches at him and then took off.  Said then got out of his car and took off angrily towards Biffle.  Pit crews from both teams restrained them and the drivers were sent separate ways.

Said let his voice be heard  in his post-race interview.  “He’s the most unprofessional scaredy cat I’ve ever seen in my life.  He wouldn’t even fight me like a man after (the race).  I won’t settle it out on the track. It’s not right to wreck cars, but he’ll show up at a race with a black eye one of these days.”

Said then went on to say he would get Biffle’s home address and give him a visit Wednesday for a ”whipping.”  Biffle responded via twitter, calling Said “unprofessional and disrespectful.”

NASCAR said let the boys “have at it”, but are they allowed to make threats towards other drivers?  I’m curious to see how far NASCAR will let this go.

Wild Wrecks

I’ve seen some crazy wrecks in my ten years of being a fan, but today’s wrecks rank as some of the wildest.  It started with Kurt Busch on lap 49.  Busch had a brake failure and crashed hard into the Turn 5 tire barrier.  Denny Hamlin, who also seemed to have a brake failure, had a very scary crash into the Turn 1 barrier.  The crash was so hard that it buckled the guard-rail behind the tire barrier.

The biggest crash of the day happened when Boris Said and David Ragan got together on the final lap.  Said and Ragan went for the same real estate at the same time. Said got his nose up to Ragan’s left-rear quarter panel. The two made contact, which ended up hooking Ragan causing him to bounce off the left rail.  Ragan then slammed into Reutimann, sending him into the right guard-rail.  The impact caused Reutimann to go airborne, then crash viciously into the fence.  Both Ragan and Reutimann walked away from the accidents sore, but okay.

The Tasmanian Devil

It’s no secret that when the NASCAR series comes to a road course, Marcos Ambrose is a contender.  He was able to beat last week’s winner, Brad Keselowski to get the win.  Ambrose is the fifth, first-time winner this year.  This puts him, along with Brad Keselowski and Paul Menard, into the Sprint Showdown, which pays a $3 million bonus if one of them were to win the race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Amborse is also locked into the 2012 All-Star race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Suprising Contenders

Brad Keselowski isn’t just the surprise of this weekend, he’s the suprise of the month.  Racing hurt hasn’t phased him at all.  Keselowski finished a hard-fought second at the Glen.  He has moved up four spots in the chase to 14th position.  If he keeps this up, he may make his way into the top 10 in points!

Martin Truex Jr also deserves a shout-out for his fourth place finish.  Truex ran in the top five for most of the day and drove a clean race.  Martin has always been a good road course racer, having road course victories in the Nationwide series.  Hopefully this is the medicine this team needs to turn their season around, and finish the year out right.

Also, give a call to Dale Earnhardt Jr. The team was fortunate when the caution came out for Biffle running out of gas while Earnhardt was on pit road. When the race went green, he found himself in fourth. Several thought it would only be a matter of time before he started losing positions. But, he didn’t. He maintained his position in the top 5, holding off Truex Jr, Tony Stewart, and Jimmie Johnson.

Unfortunately, his pit strategy late in the race backfired, and he wound up 15th. Still, 15th place is his best finish at the upstate New York road course since 2005, and he moved up one position in points to ninth, 36 points ahead of 11th place.

The car will be sponsored by Long John Silver, and will feature a decal to raise awareness for the Jenni-Lyn Watson Memorial Fund. Jenni-Lyn Watson was a 20-year-old college student and aspiring ballerina from Central New York who was tragically murdered last November in a case that drew national attention. The decal encourages fans to donate to the memorial fund.

The No. 5 Chevy will be split among team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr, all-time series wins leader Mark Martin, Ryan Newman, Tony Stewart, and Scott Wimmer.

Jr will drive at Texas Motor Speedway in April, Talladega Superspeedway in April, Lowe’s Motor Speedway in May, Daytona International Speedway in July and Atlanta Motor Speedway in Sept. in Chevys that will be sponsored by Fastenal, Godaddy.com, and Unilever.

Martin will drive the Chevy at Richmond International Raceway in May with Lipton as a sponsor. Tony Stewart will drive at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Oct. with Delphi as a sponsor. Stewart already has one victory in the series this season, winning the Camping World 300 at Daytona in a Hendrick Motorsports Chevy.

Newman will drive the No. 5 Fastenal Chevy in four races: Dover International Speedway in May, Chicagoland Speedway in July, Michigan International Speedway in Aug., and Kansas Speedway in Oct.

Wimmer will also pilot the No. 5 Fastenal Chevy for six races: Darlington Raceway in May, The Milwaukee Mile in June, O’Reilly Raceway Park in July, Iowa Speedway in Aug., Bristol Motor Speedway in Aug., and Richmond International Raceway in Sept.

Wimmer said in a JR Motorsports press release:

I am really excited to be associated with JR Motorsports and a great sponsor like Fastenal. I will be running at tracks that have been good for me in the past and look forward to my first event with JR Motorsports at Darlington in May. Hopefully, we can get the Fastenal car in the Winners Circle.

The announcement leaves two races without a named driver — the road-course events at Watkins Glen and Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, both in Aug. Drivers for those races will be announced at a later date. Last season, Ron Fellows drove the No. 5 GoDaddy.com Chevy to victory in the NAPA Auto Parts 200 presented by Dodge at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, so he may be considered for that race.

Earnhardt Jr. drove at Watkins Glen last year, presumably to get more experience at road courses, so he may take one of those races.

Also, anytime you mention road courses, you have to mention Boris Said’s name. He could also be considered.

Earnhardt Jr said:

This No. 5 team carries a strong tradition and a lot of expectations, and we are fortunate to attract such quality talent to help carry on that tradition. We had a similar set-up with this team last year, and we were able to go to Victory Lane twice. Obviously with this driver line-up, there’s no reason we can’t exceed last year’s win total.

But, the problem is that the white space is used by a variety of low-power devices such as wireless microphones. For example, they are used by drivers at Watkins Glen International. And, current users of white space believe that opening the space up to high-speed internet access would squeeze them out.

The alliance said that opening up the spectrum would bring economical broadband access to areas currently underserved by internet service providers.

If devices that provided internet service on the white space were able to detect users and move to other channels to avoid interference, there wouldn’t be a problem. But prototypes tested by the Federal Communciations Commission were not able to do that. Still, that capability appears to be feasible.

But, in order to for opponents to consider sharing the spectrum, the capability would have to be effective, not just feasible.

Reps. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) and Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) said in a statement:

That’s why a real diversity of groups including…NASCAR…have all come together to ask the FCC not to pull the plug on wireless microphone users everywhere.

If you take someone with the talent of Jr. and combine him with a dominant team like Hendrick, it’s a recipe for success, right? So, what’s missing?

Some people seem to think Tony Eury Jr. is the weak link. As Jr. was leading the Centurion Boats at the Glen at Watkins Glen International, a track he rarely performs well at, Eury’s decision to keep him out cost the team big.

Eury Jr. is usually a play-it-safe kind of crew chief. Jr. nation often times gets frustrated at Eury’s decision to go for the good finish instead of going for the win. But, the one time Eury rolls the dice, fans still criticize him.

I’m sure that Eury knows that being the crew chief of NASCAR’s most popular driver is no easy task, and he makes his decisions based on the best interests of the team and his driver, not to appease the fans.

Some fans seem to forget that it was Eury’s strategy that got Jr. the win at Michigan International Raceway this year. They also don’t remember that it was Eury who used strategy to salvage a fourth-place finish after Jr. suffered damage to his Chevy at the Dodge Challenger 500 at Darlington Raceway.

So, before fans start calling for Eury’s head, they should realize that he’s got one of the toughest jobs in NASCAR. And, thus far, he’s not doing too bad.

He’s managed to keep Jr. in the top 5 in points throughout the season, and he’s earned a win for his driver, all in his first season with a new team. Add in the fact that Hendrick has not been as dominant as it was last year, and you’ll see that Eury’s been a positive for the team.

Every driver goes through bad stretches and hits some bad luck. It’s the nature of the sport. (See Marcos Ambrose.) So, before you call for Eury Jr. to be replaced, compare Jr.’s stats this year to his stats last year.

I think most of Jr. Nation would be happier with Jr. being fourth in the standings with three races to go until the Chase, instead of 13th in the standings at the same point last year.

Make no mistake about it, Jr. cannot enter this weekend’s race care-free. He’s got a lot of pressure on him right now to perform. Every year, Jr. has to come to the same stretch of tracks that he’s not a particular fan of: Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Pocono Raceway, and Watkins Glen International.

This not to say he hates these tracks. He just doesn’t run particularly well at them. Since 2004, Jr. only has thee top fives during this three-race stretch. He finished second at Pocono in 2007 and sixth at the Brickyard in 2006, and fifth at the Glen in 2004.  

He did lead some laps at Watkins Glen last weekend before pit strategy bit him, but overall, these are not his strongest tracks. He’s dropped from second in the standings to fourth.

As the series heads into Michigan, Jr. looks to rebound as he has in year’s passed. He’s won at three of the next four tracks and looks to work his way out of his slump. And, this weekend could be just what Jr. needs to gain some momentum heading into the Chase.

At this point, there are about 16 guys vying for 11 spots, so Jr. needs to get back to form, or he could risk starting the Chase with a huge deficit, or falling out of the Chase entirely.

Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Tony Stewart finished second.

Rounding out the top 5 were Marcos Ambrose, Juan Montoya, and Martin Truex Jr.

Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards, and Kurt Busch finished sixth through 10th respectively.

Notables: Matt Kenseth (12th), Kasey Kahne (14th), Jeff Burton (17th), Greg Biffle (21st), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (22nd), Clint Bowyer (23rd), Ryan Newman (26th), and Jeff Gordon (29th).

Earnhardt Jr. was leading with 27 laps to go, a rarity at a road course for him, but he waited to long to pit, and the caution came out, forcing him to pit under caution, and lose his lead to the other cars that pitted under green. He dropped from first to 32nd on the grid, and finished 22nd. He dropped from second to fourth in the standings.

Give a call to Marcos Ambrose who piloted the Wood Brothers’ No. 21 to its first top 5 since 2005.

On lap 83, David Gilliland and Michael McDowell were fighting over the same real estate in turn 11, when the two made contact and hit the tire barrier. Gilliland bounced off of the tire barrier and slid back into oncoming traffic, collecting Bobby Labonte, and several other cars.

Sam Hornish Jr. turned to avoid the cars and slid into the sand barriers. Nine cars were collected and Labonte was taken to a local hospital where he was evaluated and released. He is OK.

The wreck:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5_pCKLteN4]