{"id":23033,"date":"2018-11-16T16:55:53","date_gmt":"2018-11-16T22:55:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=23033"},"modified":"2018-11-19T14:05:58","modified_gmt":"2018-11-19T20:05:58","slug":"nascar-friday-homestead-miami-notebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/11\/16\/nascar-friday-homestead-miami-notebook\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR: Friday Homestead-Miami Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/b>By Reid Spencer and Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

Team owners extol NASCAR\u2019s virtues as a strong medium for partners<\/b><\/p>\n

HOMESTEAD, Fla. \u2014 For all the honest excitement surrounding this week\u2019s NASCAR Ford Championship race weekend, the trophy-eligible Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series team owners contend there has been a healthy energy away from the track as well.<\/p>\n

Team Penske Vice Chairman Walt Czarnecki, Furniture Row Racing President Joe Garone, Joe Gibbs Racing founder Joe Gibbs and Stewart-Haas Racing co-owner Tony Stewart met with reporters Friday morning in advance of Sunday\u2019s Ford EcoBoost 400 (at 3 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

The group of team leaders discussed topics on-track and beyond the garage, grateful their teams would be settling the title and even offering a few good-natured jabs among themselves.<\/p>\n

When asked about the evolution of Stewart from championship driver to championship team owner, Gibbs joked, \u201cThanks for mentioning he (Stewart) dumped me.”<\/p>\n

Asked about the economy of the sport, Czarnecki spoke up to talk about another event taking place Friday morning. Team Penske hosted about 100 sponsor representatives in Miami \u2013 an hour away from the speedway \u2013 and the sheer number of corporate partners generated a promising vibe for both the sport\u2019s present and its future.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very interesting, because simultaneous with Ford Championship Weekend, we (Team Penske) are conducting our annual sponsor\/partner summit at the Intercontinental Hotel,” Czarnecki said. \u201cWe have 100 people there, the largest group we\u2019ve ever had, representing 40 organizations. Forty-five of those people are with us for the very first time, and in the last 18 months, we\u2019ve added 15 more.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo there\u2019s an appetite out there as long as you\u2019re delivering the value. As long as we can deliver the value as teams. \u2026 Now here we\u2019re are in a situation where as an organization we have 40 different companies that work with us as sponsor partners, business partners, strategic partners on many different levels.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s indicative of the strength of the sport, that there\u2019s still an appetite to get involved.”<\/p>\n

ELLIOTT SADLER FACES LAST RACE WITH MIXED EMOTIONS<\/b><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot Elliott Sadler will miss after he runs his final race as a full-time NASCAR driver on Saturday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.<\/p>\n

Sadler will miss the competition and the friends he has made within the sport. But he\u2019s also looking forward to a schedule that keeps him at home with his family. And he\u2019ll get his share of competition, not behind the wheel of a stock car, but as a coach for his son Wyatt in youth baseball.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I left for Phoenix (last week), my daughter said, \u2018This is the last time you\u2019re leaving home, Dad,\u2019\u201d Sadler said on Friday at Homestead. \u201cAnd I thought to myself, \u2018This is the last time I\u2019ve got to leave my kids to go do something that\u2019s just for me, that\u2019s not really for my family\u2019\u2014it\u2019s not their dreams, it\u2019s not something that they\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow when I leave the house, it\u2019s with them or for them, something they\u2019re involved in. I\u2019ve been coaching going on 13 or 14 years now but have really gotten into it a lot the last couple of years. I thoroughly enjoy it, and that\u2019s what\u2019s going to keep me motivated and keep me going. I still have that competition side of it, and I\u2019m looking forward to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though Sadler never won the NASCAR title, he has no misgivings about calling it a career after Saturday\u2019s Ford EcoBoost 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series race (3:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to win a Daytona 500, because it was so close,\u201d Sadler said. \u201cI wanted to win a championship, because it was so close so many times in the Xfinity Series\u2026 but to be one of only 18 drivers, I think, that has a pole and a win in all three series in the sport\u2014I\u2019m the only driver in NASCAR history that was a part of the Xfinity Playoffs and the Cup Playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI won the very first-ever Playoff race in the Xfinity Series. You name a couple of those things, and, doggone it, that\u2019s pretty good. Yes, I wish we had some other things we could have hung our hat on. We came up short, but we gave it everything we could\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I have no regrets. I have absolutely no regrets at all for the time I had and the experience I\u2019ve had.\u201d<\/p>\n

COLE CUSTER OPTIMISTIC ABOUT TITLE RUN\u2014BUT CAUTIOUSLY SO<\/b><\/p>\n

When he showed up for Championship 4 Media Day at The Edition in Miami Beach, Cole Custer didn\u2019t exhibit the bluster or braggadocio of a driver who had blown away the competition in last year\u2019s season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.<\/p>\n

Custer didn\u2019t qualify for the NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship 4 Round last season, but his performance at Homestead was head-and-shoulders above that of any of the title contenders. Custer led 182 of the 200 laps and finished 15.405 seconds ahead of runner-up Sam Hornish Jr.<\/p>\n

But that was last year\u2014and Custer knows it, as he ponders Saturday\u2019s Ford EcoBoost 300 (3:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t know if you can really expect to do the same thing, because things change,\u201d Custer said. \u201cYou know, little things that we have to kind of account for. And obviously Christopher (Bell) and Tyler (Reddick) got to go down there and test, so I bet they got faster.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think you’ve just got to work off your notes from last year and do your homework, and I think there’s no reason why you can’t compete for a win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another major difference. In his second year in the No. 00 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, Custer is battling Bell, Reddick and Daniel Hemric for the Xfinity Series championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would mean a lot, especially just to our whole team, because as a new team last year, I think everybody had to work so hard to get to the point that we’re at now, so it would mean a lot to all of our people to get this championship and bring it home.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer and Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Team owners extol NASCAR\u2019s virtues as a strong medium for partners HOMESTEAD, Fla. \u2014 For all the honest excitement surrounding this week\u2019s NASCAR Ford Championship race weekend, the trophy-eligible Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series team owners contend there has been a healthy energy away from the track<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":23035,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[527,16],"class_list":["post-23033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-homestead-miami-speedway","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-5Zv","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/358618.jpg?fit=4694%2C3129","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23033"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23034,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23033\/revisions\/23034"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}