NASCAR senior vice president Steve O’Donnell said Nationwide driver Jeremy Clements, suspended by NASCAR for a racially-insensitive remark, will work with Dr. Richard Lapchick before any reinstatement occurs.
Lapchick, a professor at the University of Central Florida, founded the Center for the Study of Sports in Society. He’s a national authority on diversity issues in sports and does annual studies of each of the four major leagues in minority-hiring issues.
Martin fastest in practice
After winning the pole Friday, Mark Martin continued to be the fastest in Saturday’s practice for today’s Subway Fresh Fit 500.
Martin drove a best-lap of 134.24 mph. Saturday. Kyle Busch was second-fastest at 133.90 and Brad Keselowski was third-fastest at 133.70
An extra day at Vegas
NASCAR is opening the track in Las Vegas for the next race a day earlier than usual. Jeff Gordon is surprised that isn’t standard practice every week.
“It’s very important – if they gave us an extra day going into every race track, we’d take advantage of it,’’ Gordon said. “When you have telemetry on the car, especially on a race weekend, you can gather that much more information.’’
Speaking of Gordon, he’s tired of being reminded Phoenix was the scene of the brawl last fall between his crew and the one for Clint Bowyer.
“It’s hard to get away from it; they’re still using it to advertise for the race,’’ Gordon said.
Any residual effect?
“I can’t run every lap worrying about every guy I’ve ever had an incident with,’’ Gordon replied.
