Saturday, December 19, 2009

Saturday Afternoon ARCA Practice: Live Scanner From Daytona


The ARCA Series has been nice enough to provide a live feed of the scanner chatter and the updated lap information as the teams practice in Daytona.

Danica Patrick has been featured during the morning session. Tony Eury Jr, Danica and their spotter have been busy making eight to ten lap solo runs. She is new to stock car racing, so she calls the Daytona tri-oval the "dogleg" and the Superstretch is the "back straight."

Patrick has been flat-out and searching for more speed and better handling. There are a ton of teams at Daytona and this afternoon ARCA will allow limited drafting practice. This will put Patrick in new situations and should provide a glimpse into her talent and patience.

Click here for the direct link to the ARCA website. Make sure you have the computer speakers turned up. The audio will come automatically when ARCA chooses to put a scanner online. There are no announcers, this is just raw team audio.

If you follow us at twitter.com/TheDalyPlanet, we will be on in the afternoon chatting and updating the information from this test session. If you are not yet on Twitter, please consider it.

As the afternoon session begins at 1PM, we will open up this post to comments. Thanks.

Friday, December 18, 2009

What should Robin Miller Ask Danica Patrick Friday On SPEED?


Friday at the Daytona International Speedway is going to bring some interesting weather. Scattered thunderstorms are going to be underway in the morning, followed by a likely tornado watch with a 100% chance of heavy thunderstorms. That from the Weather Underground website. Into this scenario walks Danica Patrick and SPEED reporter Robin Miller.

SPEED will carry at least ten ARCA races this season and that lets them get a piece of Danica. So, Friday the idea was to feature updates and information as the first day of ARCA open testing got underway.

Miller is going to do a live interview with Danica at 1PM, probably during the lunch break from testing. That would have given him an angle of being first to ask about her "at speed" laps at Daytona among the ARCA horde. Now, it appears that Danica will have lots of downtime long before the interview.

Let's take a moment and recap Danica and her recent media courtship.

First, we saw Danica make the rounds of the morning talk shows in NYC and unveil her new green IRL Go Daddy car. Even with the new sponsorship, IRL team owner Michael Andretti did not look very happy on camera. Now we know the reason why.

Danica next appeared with Mr. Bob "Go Daddy" Parsons at a hastily called Phoenix, AZ press conference to unveil a new green stock car and confirm her plans to race part-time in both ARCA and the Nationwide Series for JR Motorsports. Andretti was suddenly going to have his star sharing time with the stock car set.

Thursday morning, SPEED went live with Patrick as she was the focus of yet another press conference, this time in the Concord, NC area. Patrick was joined by Dale Earnhardt Jr. who spoke about her future in the sport with his team. Kelley Earnhardt spoke about the business decisions and sponsorship that Patrick's name would bring. Crew chief Tony Eury Jr. talked about Patrick's solid learning skills in a recent Orlando area test.

While JR Motorsports driver Kelly Bires was polite with his words, it was the old crafty veteran Tony Eury Sr. who threw down some choice phrases about her potential. Eury said she ran laps in Orlando just as fast as other teams testing there. He said the goal was to go down and have Patrick win the ARCA race in Daytona and then try to win her other races. He was up front with his contention that she is not just a show.

After all of this, Robin Miller steps in for the Friday live interview. There will probably be little or no track time. The afternoon looks like a washout. Patrick was just quizzed on Thursday by the NASCAR media on a variety of topics. So, what's left?

How about helping us out and suggesting some questions that Miller can ask Patrick during his live 1PM Friday interview. Whether or not Miller even looks at this website is unknown, but what is clearly known is that we have some of the most creative and knowledgeable fans out there in racing land.

What would you like to see Miller ask Patrick? To add your question and maybe a good reason or two why he should ask it, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Thanks for taking the time to stop by.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Live Blogging JR Motorsports Press Conference (11AM - SPEED)


We are watching a live press conference Thursday morning on SPEED. Originating from the JR Motorsports shops in the Concord, NC area, SPEED's Bob Dillner will host the festivities.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., his sister Kelley, Tony Eury Jr., Kelly Bires and Tony Eury Sr. are going to be present. Also featured will be a new driver for JRM named Danica Patrick.

The only thing fans have not been told is what races Patrick will be running in 2010. Her stock car package includes ARCA and the Nationwide Series. Speculation is that Patrick will run the Daytona ARCA race, but the jury is still out on whether or not she will join the Nationwide action.

This media event will also be streamed online at speedtv.com and godaddy.com/danica simultaneously.

This post will serve to host your comments on this press conference. To add your TV-related comments, just click the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting.

Thank you as always for stopping by The Daly Planet.