TheState.com: Motorsports

Kyle Busch: Mr. Popularity

Sun, 11 May 2008 01:35 EDT

DARLINGTON — Boo Kyle Busch. Boo his mother. Call him names, Make it colorful.

He feeds on the hate. He dines on your bile.

“I don’t care,” said the 23-year-old Saturday night after becoming the youngest driver ever to win a race at Darlington Raceway.

“I’m here to race. I’m here to win,” he said. “If I win, it just makes ‘em more upset and cry on their way home.”

Throw stuff at him as he does his victory burnout. He knows no one is happy to see him leave fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. in his rear-view mirror on the way to winning the Dodge Challenger 500.

Racing: testing their metal

Fri, 09 May 2008 23:43 EDT

DARLINGTON — The Lady in Black dined on a steady diet of sheet metal Friday afternoon.

By the time qualifying for the Dodge Challenger 500 began, 24 cars (including both of Jimmy Johnson’s rides) had sustained significant damage as Darlington Raceway once again proved it was too tough to tame.

In fact, the newly repaved track was so fearsome a Nationwide driver, Terry Cook, asked to drop from Row 16 to the last row prior to the start of Friday’s Diamond Hill Plywood 200.

Into this situation roared two-time Darlington winner Greg Biffle, who destroyed Ward Burton’s 12-year-old track record with a 179.442-mph lap. It was his first pole of the year and the fifth of his career.

So fast were the conditions that every qualifier save one — Reed Sorenson — surpassed Burton’s former record speed of 173.797.

Stewart survives first Darlington win

Sat, 10 May 2008 09:52 EDT

DARLINGTON — A night of attrition at Darlington Raceway allowed Tony Stewart to finally see a checkered flag at the famed oval on Friday night.

In a Nationwide Series race that saw eight cautions and two red flags, Stewart survived two wrecks in the final five laps to earn his first Darlington win in the Diamond Hill Plywood 200.

“You’ve got to be in the show to win it and you’ve got to be in at the end to get it,” Stewart said. “We finally got a win at Darlington.”

Stewart led 90 of the 147-lap event as he dodged the carnage to reach victory lane. Some 20 cars failed to finish the race, including pole sitter Carl Edwards who exited the field on lap 1 when he slid into the wall twice.

Nationwide points leader Clint Bowyer placed second behind Stewart, both fortunate to finish given the two late-race mishaps involving eight cars.

Anger no longer driving Patrick

Fri, 09 May 2008 21:59 EDT

INDIANAPOLIS — A deep-seated intensity that often turned to anger has fueled Danica Patrick’s racing personality — until now.

Preparing for her fourth Indianapolis 500 in the wake of her historic and long-awaited first win, Patrick is trying hard to focus that intensity in a more positive direction.

“I realize, over time now, how unproductive being angry all the time is and how it doesn’t really do any good for my driving,” Patrick said Thursday while watching the rain fall outside the Andretti Green Racing’s hospitality tent, washing away the second consecutive day of practice for the May 25 race. “I think that being positive does.”

Patrick said part of the problem is that there are always doubters, people who refuse to believe a woman can be truly competitive in racing.

“Unfortunately, in my position, it takes a while to prove yourself,” she said. “And, unfortunately, also in my position, I’m never going to convince some people.”

Star lights the way to change

Fri, 09 May 2008 21:59 EDT

DARLINGTON — Brad Daugherty represents a paradox in the world of stock-car racing: He is a basketball star who knows about speed, and he is a black man in a sport sorely lacking diversity.

He traded dunks, blocked shots and assists for cams, carburetors and roll bars — an odd transition by any standard.

He loves the change.

The only thing is, the change is not really a change.

The basketball All-American at the University of North Carolina and the first pick in the 1986 NBA draft felt the tug of auto racing long ago, and his moving into an announcer’s role with ESPN’s stock-car coverage came naturally.

Female doesn't want to be pit-crew booster girl

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 14:19 EDT

A pair of young women wearing white T-shirts with "Race Girl 8" printed on the back stood behind the red line that separates the pit crews from spectators at the start of Sunday's Coca-Cola 600.

A few feet away, on the other side of the line, stood a young woman wearing a red Budweiser fire suit. She, too, was a race girl. Only Brienne Davis wasn't advertising her status as a woman or a fan as were the two worshippers of Dale Earnhardt Jr. She simply was doing a job.

But in a world dominated by men, doing her job in Earnhardt's pit area made her stand out as much as the giant billboards that surround Lowe's Motor Speedway.

Not that it's unusual to see women in the garage or on pit road. There were plenty on Sunday, most of them carrying clipboards as a part of a team's marketing crew or dressed in blue jeans and belly shirts, hoping to get a glimpse of their favorite driver.

Or, as Davis said with a laugh, "Not working."