The Cover of my upcoming book -- At stores on August 2

The Cover of my upcoming book -- At stores on August 2

Ganassi, McMurray Win the Brickyard 400

Sunday, July 25, 2010 By: Jerry Bonkowski
(Photo: John Harrelson/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Ganassi: Winning Truly is Everything

It was sometime in the early 1990s, maybe 1992 I'm guessing. I was sitting in Chip Ganassi's motorcoach at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with Arie Luyendyk sitting across the aisle.

Chip was sitting in the captain's chair, turned towards me, the ever-present smile on his face. It was quite an appropriate position, as he was the budding captain of what would become a motorsports racing realm that has continued to grow in each passing year.

Sure, some years have been better than others. And some of those others were nothing but miserable, to say the least, particularly ever since his foray into stock car racing.

But I'll never forget the words Chip said to me that day nearly two decades ago when I asked him why racing was so important to him.

"Vince Lombardi was right, winning isn't everything, it's the only thing," Ganassi said.

That sums up why, even with all the ups and downs he's had as a race team owner – particularly with more downs than ups on the NASCAR side of the ledger – Ganassi continues to pursue high achievements in the stock car world.

He's a guy driven by winning and nothing else matters.

And it was Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway that Floyd Ganassi Jr., aka Chip, not only won a big NASCAR race, he won something that no other team owner has ever accomplished: his drivers captured the Daytona 500 (Jamie McMurray), the Indianapolis 500 (Dario Franchitti) and now the Brickyard 400 (McMurray again) in the same year.

No other owner can boast that. Not a Penske, a Roush, a Gibbs or even a Hendrick.

But Ganassi now can. And it's likely he'll continue to be able to boast that for many more years to come, given that no one else up to now has been able to pull off such a glorious trifecta.

Ever since he purchased controlling interest of Felix Sabates' struggling NASCAR operation in late 2000, Ganassi has never lost faith that one day he'd start to see the kind of success in stock car racing that he has enjoyed in open-wheel racing.

And what a lofty level of success he's had in the open-wheel world, with 50 wins that have led to four straight CART/Champ Car championships from 1996 to 1999, IRL championships in 2003, 2008 and 2009, and three Indy 500 wins (2000, 2008 and earlier this year).

NASCAR success has been another story. Ganassi has faced some lean times, there's no doubt about it. Other owners would have closed up shop, lock, stock and barrel, and moved on.

But not the Chipster. No sir, he was in it to win it. Again, winning isn't everything, it's the only thing.

Following Sunday's race and with six races to make it, McMurray still has a shot – he's 151 points out of the 12th and final qualifying spot – at making the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Sadly, teammate Juan Pablo Montoya, currently 22nd, is almost a certainty to fall agonizingly short of making the Chase after being one of the Chasers for the first time last season.

McMurray, who was cast off by Jack Roush at the end of the season – boy, do you think Jack may be kicking himself now at that move, given that the guy Roush kept, David Ragan, is currently in 24th position – has had nothing short of an incredible season.

What makes his story even more remarkable is that McMurray never burned bridges with Ganassi, even after requesting an early exit to his contract following the 2005 season so that he could replace Kurt Busch at Roush Fenway Racing. Sure, Ganassi could have held McMurray to his deal, but that wouldn't have served to help anyone. So, he let McMurray jump to the Roush camp, where he was virtually invisible for four very, very, very long seasons.

And yet, when Roush ultimately told McMurray that there was no longer any room at the Roush Fenway Inn for 2010 due to a NASCAR mandate that RFR had to downsize its holdings from five to four teams, one of the first guys Jamie Mac called was his old boss and still good friend, the Chipster.

Ironically enough, Ganassi, who had joined forces prior to last season with Teresa Earnhardt and Dale Earnhardt Inc., just so happened to be looking for a driver to replace Martin Truex Jr., who announced he was leaving for Michael Waltrip Racing at the end of 2009 (Truex is 20th in the standings this year in his new environs).

But there was something about McMurray that Ganassi liked, and while other owners would never consider bringing back a former driver into their fold (i.e., Roush one day bringing back Kurt Busch), Ganassi always admired McMurray's Midwest roots and work ethics. They reminded Ganassi of his upbringing in the tough environs of Pittsburgh.

A few more phone calls back and forth and a deal was struck. McMurray was headed back home, back to Chip's racing family.

And look how that ironic twist of fate, to allow McMurray to return to the same organization that he began his Cup career in, has played out. The driver of the No. 1 Chevrolet has won at the two biggest venues in the racing world this season, Daytona and Indy, not only enjoying success like he's never had, but also giving similar success to crew chief Kevin "Bono" Mannion, who chose – a wise choice, it would appear, given how things have gone so far in 2010 – to remain at Ganassi/Earnhardt Racing than to follow Truex to MWR for this season.

Sunday was Chip Ganassi once again at his finest. He had just won at Indy for the fourth time, only this was the first time in a stock car. More importantly, with six more races left before the final 12-man Chase field is locked in, Ganassi is now looking to take his own personal triple crown and go for a fourth major of the year: winning the Chase.

That's right, even though it'll require McMurray to get some big breaks along the way in the next half-dozen events, there's still a good chance McMurray and Ganassi, after teaming up for success at Daytona and now Indy, can add yet another crown jewel to what has been nothing short of an outstanding 2010 season for both men as well as the overall organization.

All it will take is to make the Chase. Chip and Jamie will take it from there. Of course, it would help if they earn another win or two or more in the final six pre-Chase events, but something tells me that after winning Daytona and Indy together, winning at Pocono, Watkins Glen, Michigan, Bristol, Atlanta and/or Richmond should be a lot easier.

Remember, winning isn't everything. It's the only thing. And Sunday, Chip and Jamie Mac proved just how true that old Lombardi axiom really is, no matter if it's in football, racing or in life.

To LEAVE A COMMENT, please e-mail me at JerryBonkowski@gmail.com

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Wednesday, July 21, 2010 By: Jerry Bonkowski

Photo: Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images for NASCAR

Can Carl Edwards Resist Brad Keselowski's Temptation?

One more strike.

Carl Edwards now has two strikes against him in his ongoing feud with Brad Keselowski.

First was the highly-publicized incident this past spring in the Sprint Cup race in Atlanta, when Edwards' banzai move put Keselowski's car first hard into the fence and then onto its roof.

Second was this past Saturday's confrontation in the Nationwide Series race at Gateway International Raceway in suburban St. Louis.

Both times, Edwards admitted he intentionally hit Keselowski's car on purpose: in Atlanta as payback for an earlier incident in the race, and to prevent Keselowski from winning at Gateway.

Meanwhile, Edwards merrily motored on in both instances.

What strikes me as odd is Edwards must have some type of selective memory. For it was just last year at Talladega that he himself was a victim of Keselowski's wrath. Edwards went up into the catchfence, while Keselowski went on to victory lane – a situation that, while much less worse in impact, was similar nonetheless at Gateway.

Several people got hurt in that incident at 'Dega, and had it not been for a bit of good luck and fate, Edwards could have sailed through that catchfence and done a lot more damage to both himself and the crowd.

Still, the battle between Edwards and Keselowski has continued unabated since then.

So NASCAR on Wednesday put both drivers on probation (they both received minimal and non-effective three-race probation sentences after the Atlanta incident earlier this year) until the end of the year, fined Edwards $25,000 and 60 Nationwide Series driver points – further increasing Brad's lead in the standings over him – and also penalized team owner Jack Roush with a loss of 60 owner points.

Is that going to stop the Carl-Brad feud? Not a chance. Somehow, some way, you know this battle royale is far from over. It could very easily flare up once again Saturday night at O'Reilly Raceway Park, or Sunday a few miles down the road at the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Or maybe Bristol or Watkins Glen, places where close racing has a more special and unique meaning unto itself that at most any other racetrack on the circuit – particularly with us being in the seven-race home stretch of the so-called "Race to the Chase."

Granted, this is the year of "have at it, boys," where NASCAR has all but given drivers carte blanche to do what they want – supposedly within reason. At the beginning of the season, NASCAR chairman Brian France said the sanctioning body would allow drivers to supposedly "police themselves" and see if things got measurably out of hand.

Well, so far, the "have at it, boys" mantra has brought excitement and attention to the sport, and either increased long-term rivalries between drivers or started new ones. Thus far, 95 percent of the drivers have maintained a semblance of respect for both the sport and each other, gladly accepting NASCAR's challenge to "have at it, boys," while also having enough common sense not to turn NASCAR into Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.

But somewhere, Keselowski and Edwards just haven't gotten it. Sure, you can still have a rivalry – and admittedly, fans seem to have enjoyed their bitter feud, wondering when would be the next time the two would tangle.

Yet when you admit you're intentionally wrecking a competitor to either gain an advantage or hurt the other guy on purpose (not to mention the chance of hurting other innocent drivers who get caught up in the resulting mess, like what happened Saturday at Gateway), that far exceeds the "have at it, boys" concept and directive.

That's why I started this column off with the phrase, "one more strike."

NASCAR is giving Edwards primarily, and Keselowski secondarily, just enough rope to hang themselves. Right now, it would appear Edwards has more rope. He's caused his own problems; let him cause his own ultimate punishment. That seems to be NASCAR's logic. That's why Edwards was slapped ever so lightly on the hand when the punishment came down Wednesday.

It was the calm before the storm, if another Edwards' action warrants an even stiffer punishment.

I admit I originally didn't see all that much wrong with what Edwards did at Gateway, at least compared to other incidents he's been involved in, particularly with Keselowski. But after pondering what happened for the last few days, I've come to the conclusion that Edwards is a marked man – of his own doing.

No matter how much Edwards tries to stay within NASCAR's probationary confines, he's a racer first and foremost. And racers don't let themselves stay within confines.

And for that matter, Keselowski, who has shown a significant amount of restraint since Saturday's incident, is probably purring like a content kitten, knowing that if he goads Edwards just enough, Edwards is probably going to react – or would that be overreact -- and not in the best way.

Probation violated. Problem solved. Edwards gets parked for a race and Keselowski sails on to the Nationwide Series championship in a virtual solo run.

Or, in the Sprint Cup Series, Edwards' chances of making the Chase could be significantly diminished if he allows himself to bite if Keselowski offers him a proverbial poisonous apple.

Edwards is currently a shaky 10th in the Cup standings right now, with seven races left to solidify his spot in the Chase – which he finished a poor 11th in last season after ending up runner-up to Jimmie Johnson the year before (2008).

What's more, Edwards is just 59 points ahead of 12th-ranked Clint Bowyer. No one would be happier if Edwards missed the Chase by his own doing than Keselowski, who has no statistical chance of making the so-called 10-race playoffs.

That's why Edwards is going to have to learn to control the pleasure he takes at banging into Keselowski. He's going to have to control his temper and emotions.

And, I dare say, he's going to have to realize that if a situation arises again where the two drivers are battling for the same real estate, it might be the smarter thing for Edwards to let Keselowski get a free pass this time – even if it goes totally against the motivation of what racers race for.

For if he incites something with Keselowski, Edwards stands to lose much more than just losing a race to his arch-rival. He stands to miss at least one race on the sidelines, maybe even more. Hell, if I was in Carl's shoes and I had to make a choice between finishing second or sitting out a race as punishment for yet another skirmish with Keselowski, I'll take runner-up every time.

Other drivers have been in similar situations over the years, either being the protagonist or antagonist. But very few have let their emotions and lack of better judgment get the better of them in the most intense heat of the moment to where NASCAR has had to sit them for a race or longer.

No one wants to be parked. Sure, they may push the envelope as far as they can, and that's the place where Edwards is at today, in my opinion.

Edwards more so, and Keselowski to a lesser extent, have taken "have at it, boys" a bit too literal. Unless they both learn to contain themselves, particularly Cousin Carl, NASCAR can very easily change its tune from "have at it, boys" to "have a seat, boys."

And then they'll have no one to blame about what happens but themselves.


To LEAVE A COMMENT, please e-mail me at JerryBonkowski@gmail.com

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