Post by Blaise Zebrataur on Oct 26, 2014 0:15:13 GMT -5
From NASCAR.com:
As drivers work their way to Martinsville, Virginia for the sixth race of the season, many questions are still left unanswered as to who will make the chase and who might lose their ride. One week after scoring an emotional win at Auto Club, Kyle Busch is seeking to prove that he deserves to stay at Joe Gibbs Racing, however Joe Gibbs has expressed his displeasure about Kyle's attitude and after the Bristol race added more fuel to the fire Gibbs expressed what some fans have been hoping for in the press conference before qualifying began "If Kyle expressions himself outside the guidelines we have for a team, I feel I have no choice but to let him go. We are a family at JGR, but if he continues to showcase us in a bad image I see no point in keeping him around anymore." When asked if Kyle would be released after that race if a problem came around or if it would happen at the end of 2012 Gibbs replied "If Kyle has a problem during/after a race, that will be the last straw, he will be cut ASAP."
After scoring a dominating win at Bristol and scoring a second place at Auto Club, Kurt Busch and James Finch are riding a wave that sees them with a win and sitting in 3rd place in the points standings. James Finch sat down at the table to make an announcement that surprised quite a few "Due to Kurt's performance so far this season, I have decided that Phoenix Racing will be going back to a two car team starting with this weekend at Martinsville." A reporter pointed out that only one Phoenix Racing car was on the entry list to which Finch replied "Yes we wasn't able to make the entry list and it will be a post entry this week and veteran Geoffrey Bodine will be making a return to the Cup Series for us by trying to make the field in the number 09 car. Geoffrey has some good runs here and we hope he can do well and try and get the 09 into the Top 36 in points for next year."
Here is a screenshot of Geoffrey Bodine during practice, he had the 26th fastest time out of 49 drivers
The last official piece of business was announced by NASCAR President Mike Helton who seemed to be walking with an extra step and spoke about several tracks rumored to be returning to the schedule "Right now I can confirm that the Cup Series in fact will be returning to Australia for the first time since 1988 after the first Richmond race and also three weeks after the season finale at Homestead-Miami we will be holding another exhibition race in Japan, however we haven't made a decision yet between Suzuka Circuit or Twin Ring Motegi but we should have an answer around when we return to Daytona in July. Right now we are trying to listen to what the fans want and a popular track seems to be Road America and Rockingham, we try and see what we can do about those tracks but only the future knows what is in store for us here at NASCAR and hope the fans enjoy the ride."
The betting odds heading into the Martinsville race look like this:
Jeff Gordon-8-1
Tony Stewart-8-1
Jimmie Johnson-8-1
Denny Hamlin-7-1
Kurt Busch-7-1
Kyle Busch-6-1
Ryan Newman-5-1
