Busch wins Cup race at Dover

Kurt Busch pulled off the win at Dover in the Chase for the Nextel Cup and that, among other things, helped to shake up the standings. After Dover, Kevin Harvick and Carl Edwards are at the top while Tony Stewart, even though he had a bad day at his nemesis track, is still third along with Kurt Busch, both -9 points out of first place. The top nine are all within only 19 points of each other. That’s sure to mean there will be some pretty tight suspense in the offing!

In the under classes, Carl Edwards took the Nationwide go at the same track while Ron Hornaday won his 50th CWS race at Kentucky. Early in the Dover weekend, Darrell Wallace took the laurels in the K & N Pro Series East race while Max Gresham took the series championship. Elsewhere, Ed Carpenter posted his first IZOD Indy Car win at Kentucky. Montigny, Sarrazin and Wurz combined for the ALMS win at Road Atlanta.

Now for some bad news. Both Scene Daily and StockCarGazette report that Speedway Motorsports, Inc. (SMI) is on the hook for some 950k after they bought NHMS in Loudon, NH, and couldn’t agree on a termination fee with the Motor Racing Network (MRN) affiliated with International Speedway Corp. and NASCAR. SMI has their own radio network Performance Racing Network (PRN). With two races into NASCAR’s Chase, there’s hope the postseason audience could bring a bit of recovery after a dismal 2010. New Hampshire’s ratings were up somewhat from a 2.3 to a 2.7 U.S. Rating for a year-to-year increase of 17 percent. Viewership increased by over half-a-million to 4,235,000 and the race finished in the top 10 in Cable TV programming for the week.

A much-needed boost to the postseason happened after Chicagoland’s rain-delayed event earned a paltry 1.8 to start. Even more encouraging were audience numbers within the key, males ages 18-34, causing a dramatic 28 percent increase in the Nielsen’s. These viewership numbers would have ranked fifth overall in the 2010 Chase behind Homestead, Charlotte, Talladega, and Texas.

However, looking at the landscape overall, stock car’s audience still has plenty of room for improvement. New Hampshire’s 2011 numbers are still well off the pace of 2009, when 5.04 million watched the Chase race debut there and far behind the NFL’s 13.2 rating for, say, Sunday Night Football. Even MTV’s Jersey Shore outperformed New Hampshire that Sunday, scoring 6.2 million viewers for its latest episode and a rating of 4.2. Overall this season, ESPN’s NASCAR ratings are up 2 percent over 2010. This came from StockCarGazette.com.

NASCAR on FOX’s pre-race shows will have a little more “Waltrip” in them than usual beginning next season. Starting in 2012, Michael Waltrip will be joining his brother Darrell and FOX analyst Chris Myers in the “Hollywood Hotel” during the network’s 14 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races. Two-time Daytona 500 winner, Waltrip currently works in the broadcast booth during SPEED’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series broadcasts as well as Showtime’s program “Inside NASCAR.”

“Michael is simply one of NASCAR’s most gregarious, genuine personalities, and we loved the dynamic between him and Darrell when we paired them up on occasion last season,” said Eric Shanks, FOX Sports Media Group President, Co-COO and Executive Producer. “Michael has also been featured in numerous television commercials over the last decade, which makes him familiar to a much broader audience. I expect a lot of ‘gotta see’ TV coming out of an all-Waltrip Hollywood Hotel next season.”

In addition to these changes, championship-winning crew chief Jeff Hammond will expand his role on the network to pit road and the garage area to chase down stories and interviews. Hammond has worked with the network for the last 10 seasons in some capacity, working with Myers in the Hollywood Hotel in addition to his work with SPEED’s NASCAR coverage.

FOX’s coverage will begin Saturday, February 18, 2012, for the Budweiser Shootout, the unofficial start to the NASCAR season. The network will air the 54th running of the Daytona 500 on February 26th.

The International Motorsports Hall of Fame announced that two NHRA greats, Kenny Bernstein and John Force, will be inducted into the Hall fo Fame along with NASCAR’s Richard Childress. “Congratulations to the Class of 2012. Kenny and John have shown a competitive fire in their sport that earned them this international honor,’ said IMHOF Executirve Director Grant Lynch.

The 2011 AMA Pro Flat Track Banquet will be held on Sunday, October 16, 2011, at The Radisson Suites Hotel Covina, in Covina, CA. The event will kick off with a cocktail reception at 12:30 p.m. followed by an end-of-the-season celebration at 1:30 p.m.