News for February 10th 2010
Party Crashers?…You make the Call
After championship finishes of 20th and 25th in his first two NASCAR seasons, Juan Pablo Montoya wasn’t a heavy favorite to make the Chase for the Sprint Cup last year.
Neither was Brian Vickers, who finished 38th and 19th in his first two seasons with Team Red Bull.
But after 26 races, both drivers stunned everyone by qualifying for the 2009 postseason. They were the two biggest surprises of the season along with David Reutimann and Joey Logano, who both won their first Cup races.
Who will crash the party this year?
Which drivers stand the best chance of sneaking into the Chase, winning their first race or returning to Victory Lane?
Here’s a look at the five drivers who will be the biggest surprises of 2010:
Martin Truex Jr. If wouldn’t be a shocker if Truex won a race or made the Chase — he’s done it before — but he’s looking to return to contention with a new team.
Truex, who made the Chase in 2007 with Dale Earnhardt Inc., left Earnhardt Ganassi Racing after last season to join Michael Waltrip Racing, one of the sport’s most improved organizations. He will drive the No. 56 Toyota and work with veteran crew chief Pat Tryson.
Truex is excited about what he has seen at MWR and many believe he has a good chance to bounce back. Four-time champion Jeff Gordon, for one, predicts Truex will make the Chase and be a contender.
“That’s a great compliment coming from someone like Jeff,” Truex says. “I feel this is my best opportunity and the best situation I have ever been in to be competitive every week and to have a great season.”
Truex will return to Victory Lane, capturing his second career victory, and make a strong push to make the Chase.
Jamie McMurray The only driver more comfortable in his new situation than Truex is McMurray, who is returning home, so to speak, after rejoining team owner Chip Ganassi, who gave him his big break.
McMurray won his first Cup race in just his second start with Ganassi in 2002 and nearly made the Chase in two of his four seasons, finishing 11th in points in 2004 and 12th in 2005.
After four disappointing seasons with Roush Fenway Racing, McMurray returns to Earnhardt Ganassi Racing to drive Ganassi’s No. 1 Chevrolet and team with Montoya.
He says he feels more comfortable in his new surroundings and with Ganassi’s two-car team than he did with Roush’s five-car armada. He appears to have meshed with his new team quickly, challenging for the lead and finishing third in Saturday’s Budweiser Shootout. After his strong run, he has visions of winning Sunday’s Daytona 500.
He believes Ganassi gives him his best shot in years, not only at Daytona, but throughout the 2010 season.
“I feel as good about this year as ever,” he said after the Shootout. “It’s a wonderful way to start my relationship back with Chip Ganassi and Earnhardt Ganassi Racing. It feels great to be back.”
Back in his comfort zone, McMurray should challenge for a spot in the Chase again.
Brad Keselowski No one is more anxious about the start of 2010 than Keselowski, the brash, young star who has yet to run a full Cup season but already has a target on his back.
Keselowski has already pulled off one of the biggest shockers in recent years, winning his first Cup race at Talladega last year after a furious last-lap duel with Sprint Cup star Carl Edwards.
He has also ruffled more than a few feathers during his ascent to the top. He ignited a feud late last year with Denny Hamlin, who sent Keselowski a message by intentionally wrecking him in the final Nationwide Series race of the season.
Keseslowski joins Penske Racing with a reputation as one of the sport’s most aggressive drivers, one who will do almost anything to win and whose hell-bent approach seems perfectly suited to NASCAR’s new “Boys, have at it” philosophy. And Keselowski has no intentions of changing his brash attitude and aggressive approach.
“My attitude towards racing is to do what it takes to win. I’d prefer to win honorably. I can’t always say that I’ve done that,” he says with a smile.
“Hopefully we can put together strong enough cars this year to where we can win without drama. A goal of mine is to win a race and look back and nobody say, ‘He screwed me over to do it.’”
Whether he will be able to strut his stuff and flash his considerable talent depends on whether Penske and new crew chief Jay Guy can give him competitive cars.
He will drive for Penske’s No. 12 team, which has struggled in recent years with Ryan Newman and David Stremme.
“I just want to be a threat to win week in and week out,” Keselowski says.
He won’t be a threat to win every week and probably doesn’t have a good enough team to make the Chase. But when he does, look out.
Sam Hornish Jr. Keselowski is not the only driver looking to stir things up at Penske Racing.
Hornish, the three-time IndyCar Series champion, has not lived up to the considerable hype he brought with him to NASCAR, but he made considerable progress last season — more than his final results showed.
Though he finished 28th in points, Hornish had two top-five and seven top-10 finishes and had several other races in which he ran up front only to have something go wrong.
Hornish was so disgusted with the way last season ended, 2010 couldn’t get here soon enough.
“With the horrible way that our season ended last year, all I was thinking about was getting two days off and go back (racing) again,” he said. “I’m just real excited about the season. I just want to go out there and race.”
Hornish looks at his third season in NASCAR’s Cup series as a make-or-break year. If he struggles again, he could be headed back to Indy cars.
He doesn’t plan to let that happen.
“I’ve looked at the last two years like they were make or break,” Hornish says. “I was never told that it was going to take three years and that we’re going to give you three years to do this. For me, I think that I’m going to approach it like I’ve got everything in my pocket and I’m coming into the season as a multi-time winner because it hasn’t worked the other way.”
Hornish obviously has the talent to win if Penske can give him fast cars, and it would be a shame to see him go back to open wheel racing.
Making the Chase seems like a stretch, but Hornish should win his first Cup race this season.
Marcos Ambrose Ambrose was one of the biggest surprises of 2009, finishing 18th in points in his first full Cup season and nearly winning the two road-course races.
He also proved he is more than just a road-course racer, finishing in the top 10 at both Bristol and Talladega.
With his JTG Daugherty Racing team getting help again from MWR, Ambrose expects to take the next step this season, challenging for a spot in the Chase.
“It’s really exciting for us,” Ambrose says. “There’s a lot of hard work to be done, so we can’t get carried away. We just want to build on what 2009 was, (and) 2009 was a great year. … We just have to be cautiously optimistic and keep our expectations in check.”
Ambrose has proven he can drive a Sprint Cup car, impressing the sport’s biggest stars with his talent and patience. If his team can show even slight improvement, he should challenge for a spot in the Chase.
He also will win his first race, and don’t be surprised if it comes somewhere other than a road course.
Edited: February 10th, 2010
“100 Dishes To Eat In Alabama Before You Die”
Scallops at the Battle House Hotel in Mobile, a sushi roll at Jensei in Homewood, fried chicken at Maggie’s Diner in Tuscaloosa and a peanut butter and jelly pastry at the Cotton Row in Huntsville are a few of the new dishes listed in the latest edition of the “100 Dishes To Eat In Alabama Before You Die” brochure released today.
From BBQ to fresh Gulf seafood, the brochure lists dozens of restaurants in small towns and downtowns across the state. Royal Red Shrimp at Old Bay Steamer and King Neptune’s on the Gulf Coast, the catfish and cheese grits at Radley’s Fountain Grill in Monroeville, fried chicken at Martin’s in Montgomery, the vegetable buffet at Niki’s West in Birmingham, BBQ Chicken with white sauce at Big Bob Gibson’s in Decatur and orange-pineapple ice cream at Trowbridge’s in Florence are just a few long time favorites.
Two of the state’s celebrity chefs appear on the covers. Lucy Buffett of Lulu’s in Gulf Shores is seen holding a “Cheeseburger in Paradise,” made famous by her brother Jimmy Buffett, on one side, while Frank Stitt is pictured on the reverse shucking fresh peas at one of his Birmingham restaurants, Highland’s Bar & Grill.
Buffett and Stitt were selected for the covers because of their dedication to serving food grown by local farmers as well as being champions of the Farm-to-Table Movement. Stitt was honored by the James Beard Awards in 2009 as one of the nation’s best chefs and Highlands Bar & Grill was named one of the top five restaurants in the U.S. by the James Beard Foundation. Stitt also owns Bottega and Chez Fonfon in Birmingham. Lucy Buffett has appeared numerous times on NBC’s Today Show and the Food Network promoting and preparing her recipes from her cookbook, “Crazy Sista Cooking.”
“It has by far been the most popular brochure that we have produced to date,” said tourism director Lee Sentell. “I think the reason it’s so popular is that people love food. We love to eat and we love to eat good food,” he added.
More than 800,000 brochures have been printed and distributed since its initial printing in 2005 as part of the “Year of Alabama Food” tourism campaign. This is the third update of the publication.
Copies of the brochures are available at the state’s eight Welcome Centers, by calling 1.800.ALABAMA (252.2262), or by downloading at www.alabama.travel.
The list of new dishes is as follows:
Abbeville
Homemade “Molly” Fingers at Huggin Molly’s
Aliceville
Barbecue brisket at Plantation House
Athens
Cinnamon Sugar Chips at Tortillas Blanco
Prime Rib at Clark’s Restaurant
Birmingham
Neopolitan pizzas at Bettola
Brundidge
Chicken Salad Blossom at Sit N Sip
Dadeville
Catfish fingers at the Circle A Catfish
Gumbo at Christopher
Daphne
Shrimp Po-Boy at Market By The Bay
Decatur
Green beans at Albany Bistro
Eutaw
Famous Chef Salad at Mama Leone’s
Fairhope
Blue Cheese Burger at The Pub
Big Daddy Burger at Big Daddy’s Grill
Muffaletta at Panini Pete’s,
Royal Red Shrimp at Old Bay Steamer
Triple Chocolate Cake at Sandra’s Place
Goshen
Rum bread pudding at Old Barn Restaurant
Greenville
Cranberry nut salad with Balsamic dressing at Emily’s Café
Guin
Monster Dog & Monster burger at Mutter’s Diner
BBQ sandwich and banana pudding at Jimbo’s BBQ
Gulf Shores
Peanut butter pie at the Original Oyster House
Seafood platter & gumbo at Wolf Bay Lodge
The Wipe-Out Burger at The Hangout
Farmer’s Omelet at Tacky Jack’s
Hanceville
Fried cheeseburger at Dodge City Restaurant
Homewood
Ribs at SAW’s BBQ
Kadoma Tuna Roll at Jinsei
Huntsville
BBQ stuffed potato at Little Paul’s BBQ
Coffee Rub Steak at 801 Franklin
Chili burger & slaw dog at Big Spring Cafe
Peanut butter & jelly in phyllo at Cotton Row Restaurant
Madison
Catfish & hush puppies at Greenbrier
Mobile
Alabama shrimp & grits at The Blind Mule
Bacon cheeseburger at Callaghan’s Irish Social Club
Caramelized Day Boat Scallops with Wild Mushroom Risotto, Swiss Chard and White Truffle Oil at The Battle House Hotel
Ginger donut at NoJa
Praline Dobash Cake at Pollman’s Bakery
Seafood and sausage gumbo at Oysterella’s
Monroeville
BLT Supreme at Radley’s Fountain Grill
Montgomery
Pecan pan-fried snapper at Chophouse
Pecan Pie with Jack Daniels Ice Cream at Garrett’s
“Walk-Thru-Fire Pancakes” at Red Bluff Cottage B&B
Moundville
Lane Cake at Miss Melissa’s Café
Orange Beach
Breakfast buffet with omelet bar at Hazel’s Seafood Restaurant
Sea bass wrapped in banana leaves at Cosmo’s Restaurant
Shrimp & grits at Ginny Lane Bar & Grill
Prattville
Home cooking at the Jim’s Restaurant
Rainsville
Catfish and chicken fingers at Katy’d Katfish
Rogersville
Homemade chicken salad at Cafe Savanna
Scottsboro
Chicken salad at Cups Cafe
Pulled pork at Triple R BBQ
Strawberry salad at The Veranda Café
Spanish Fort
Gumbo & crab claws at Blue Gill Restaurant
Seafood at The Original Oyster House
Theodore
Country cooking at Time to Eat
Thomaston
Pepper Jelly Omelet and Black Belt Eggs Benedict at Mama Nem’s
Tuscaloosa
Fried chicken at Maggie’s Diner
Smoke Chicken with white BBQ sauce at Cypress Inn
Tuskegee
Footlongs and burgers at TJ’s Bar & Grill
Yams at the Kellog Center Restaurant
Union Springs
Smoked meat & homemade stew at the Hilltop Grill
Vestavia Hills
Shrimp Etouffee at New Orleans Food & Spirits
Sandwiches on wheat roll with BBQ sauce at Mr. P’s Butcher Shop & Deli
Waverly
Seasonal gourmet ice cream at Yellow Hammer
Valley
Homemade soups at 559 Market Place
York
Baked Turkey Wings at Larkin’s Deli
Edited: February 10th, 2010
Penske Racing’s Brad Keselowski, not worried about making enemies
Brad Keselowski has run just 17 Sprint Cup races and is entering his first full season in NASCAR’s biggest series.
Yet Keselowski might already be the most hated driver in NASCAR, at least in the garage, where he has stirred up a mess of trouble over the last two years.
As a result, he has earned his share of disdain from the grandstands as well.
But here’s the thing you need to know about NASCAR’s newest star: He really doesn’t care.
And he doesn’t plan on changing.
“I really don’t want to be the villain,” he says. “I haven’t set out to walk out the door and get booed, that’s not something that I would take any pride in.
“[But] by the same token, I don’t think that you can spend your life looking over your shoulder and [worrying about] making every fan happy with what you do, because you’re not.”
Having landed a full-time ride at Penske Racing, Keselowski enters the 2010 season as one of NASCAR’s most exciting drivers. At 25, he already has more buzz surrounding him than any young driver since the arrival of Kyle Busch.
And he is already one of the sport’s most controversial characters, having drawn the ire of such stars as Busch, Carl Edwards and Denny Hamlin. He bumped and banged his way to four wins in the Nationwide Series last year, but ruffled more than a few feathers along the way.
Hamlin grew so tired of Keselowski’s antics that he vowed to get even – and he did, intentionally wrecking Keselowski in the season finale at Homestead.
Though the two bumped into each other a few times during the off-season, Hamlin makes no secret of his disdain for his archrival.
“I feel like I’ve probably given him more press than he deserves,” Hamlin says.
Keselowski enters his first full Cup season with a reputation as an overly aggressive driver who will do whatever it takes to win a race and who backs down from no one.
He proved that last year when he stood his ground during a furious last-lap duel with Edwards at Talladega. His tenacity led to a stunning upset, but the ensuing contact triggered an incident that sent Edwards’ car flying into the fence.
Though friendly, engaging and intelligent, Keselowski is also brash and cocky, and he carries himself with a swagger that says he knows where he’s going and he’s in a hurry to get there. He also appears to have the talent to back it up.
Ironically, he is part Edwards, part Hamlin and part Kyle Busch – the three drivers he has mixed it up with most often.
“He’s kind of like myself, I guess,” says Busch, who has made his share of enemies on the track and in the grandstands.
“He always wants to go out there and do the best he can and try to win, and he’s made a lot of enemies along the way, as I guess I have, and he hasn’t done a whole lot to smooth any of those over. We’ll see what happens this year. Hopefully, he has learned a little bit and can move forward in knowing what he needs to do to be a better, harder, faster, cleaner racer.”
Keselowski joins a successful, multicar organization that has put Kurt Busch in the Chase in two of the past three seasons, but he is driving for a team that has struggled in recent years. Whether he succeeds may not depend as much on what he does behind the wheel as on whom he riles on the track and what he does in the garage to smooth things over and earn respect from his peers.
“Brad has a lot to learn,” says Dale Earnhardt Jr., Keselowski’s former team owner in the Nationwide Series. “He’s a rookie coming into the sport. I’ve never met a rookie yet that’s known it all. He’ll learn his lessons.”
Or else.
“What he did in Nationwide may be different than what his approach will be in the Cup Series,” says veteran Tony Stewart. “You evaluate it when you’re around him. If he needs it, he’ll get it just like everybody else does.”
Keselowski understands and acknowledges the furor he has caused, yet he makes no apologies.
Despite being called onto the carpet and shoved into the wall, he isn’t backing down and refuses to alter his balls-to-the-wall, take-no-prisoners approach.
“My attitude towards racing is to do what it takes to win. I’d prefer to win honorably. I can’t always say that I’ve done that,” he says, smiling.
“Hopefully we can put together strong enough cars this year to where we can win without drama. A goal of mine is to win a race and look back and nobody say, ‘He screwed me over to do it.’ That’s the way race-car drivers are – we never get beat fairly, just ask us.”
Though he knows he has some fences to mend, he doesn’t seem too concerned about earning the respect of other drivers, as most young drivers set out to do. Instead, he says respect is a “two-faced part of the sport.”
“It’s so hard to come into this sport and run well when you’re worried about making everyone else happy,” he says. “I just don’t see how you can do that, because in competitive sports, anytime your competitors are happy with you is when they’re beating you.
“That’s why a lot of the established drivers don’t like young drivers coming into the sport, because there is an upset to that balance. Before, that ride wasn’t a ride that they had to worry about and now it is. Realistically, it’s that they don’t want to race that guy.”
In a dangerous sport in which drivers constantly preach the virtues of give and take, Keselowski says he’s not worried about his reputation as a driver who takes more than he gives.
“I feel like I give when it’s the right time to give and I take when it’s the right time to take,” he says. “For the most part I always do that. There have been a few races during the season where I step back and say, ‘Whoa, I did a terrible job of not giving right there.’ There have been a few [races] where I’ve given too much.
“But at the end of the day, when I look my team in the eyes, I want to be able to say that I took more than I gave. I want to be able to look at them and for them to know that when I got out of that race car, I left nothing on the table, I never gave up a spot that I shouldn’t have.
“If you have to make a few competitors mad along the way, that’s just part of it.”
Ironically, Keselowski enters the sport at a time when NASCAR is looking for more characters to stir things up. It is encouraging drivers to react with more emotion and show more personality.
NASCAR is doing it’s part by loosening the reigns on drivers, allowing them to be more aggressive on the track and to police themselves, up to a point, when it comes to on-track incidents.
That would seem to play right into the hands of Keselowski.
Asked if NASCAR’s new approach favors him, he laughs and says, “I actually did those things already last year. I’m not sure how much that I can change. I’m already right there for the most part.”
Keselowski says that when he met with NASCAR officials last year at Phoenix after another run-in with Hamlin, they told him they were OK with his aggressive driving style.
“The sport’s going through a transition. The mere fact that NASCAR has made some of the changes they’ve made over the year is an acceptance of that,” he says. “As to whether I’ll be one of the key players in that remains to be seen. I’d like to do everything I can to be that guy.”
Edited: February 10th, 2010