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J.R. Hildebrand from Sausalito Qualifies 22nd in Brazil

J.R. Hildebrand from Sausalito, CA driver of the Panther Racing No. 4 National Guard Dallara Honda. — J.R. Hildebrand from Sausalito, CA driver of the #4 Panther Racing Indy car.

SAO PAULO, Brazil – (April 30, 2011) – Panther Racing and IZOD IndyCar Series rookie driver J.R. Hildebrand qualified in the 22nd position Saturday afternoon on the Streets of Sao Paulo, Brazil for tomorrow’s Itaipava Sao Paulo Indy 300 presented by Nestle. Hildebrand had finished in seventh position it the practice session preceding qualifications but the team was unable to advance into the second round of knockout qualifications and will start in the 11th Row alongside local favorite Tony Kanaan.

Hildebrand posted a best speed of 108.888 mph, 1:23.8443 seconds, which was actually faster than Kanaan’s speed of 108.401 mph but the rookie starts behind TK because the drivers were in separate groups during the first round of qualifications.

In 2010, with former driver Dan Wheldon, Panther started in the 18th position but was unable to overcome its starting position, and a broken front wing during the race, to finish in fifth position in the inaugural IZOD IndyCar Series event on the 11-turn, 2.6-mile temporary street circuit. Hildebrand has shown the same ability to move to the front of the field; in St. Pete he climbed from 24th-to -11th, advanced from 15th-to-13th at Barber after initially falling a lap down and back to 25th, and moved up from 27th-to-17th in the Grand Prix of Long Beach.

He has completed all of the possible 275 laps of IndyCar competition this season, one of only seven drivers (Kannan, Franchitti, Power, Meira, Tagliani and Servia) to do so through the first three races of the season – and the only rookie. Hildebrand is the current leader of the IZOD IndyCar Series Rookie of the Year point standings. Sunday will mark his sixth career IndyCar Series start, as the 23-year-old Californian made two starts with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing in 2010 in addition to his three races this season with Panther.

Team Penske driver Will Power captured his fourth consecutive pole position and will be joined on the front row by Andretti Autosport driver Ryan Hunter-Reay.

The Itaipava Sao Paulo Indy 300 presented by Nestle will be broadcast live on VERSUS on Sunday, May 1st at 12:00 pm (EST) with additional coverage provided by the IMS Radio Network, XM Channel 145 and Sirius Channel 121.

JR Hildebrand, No. 4 National Guard Dallara Honda, had this to say:

“We definitely know that the National Guard car is really good, and we were able to make good of it in the second practice but then we were going so much quicker from second practice to qualifications that it put me in a little bit of a bind with the gearing in the car because I was going so much faster through the corners that I was having to reconfigure the gears that I was running this morning. I’m disappointed; we were in a tough group but I feel like I could have gotten a couple more tenths out of the car and, even being in the group that we were in, I felt like after the second practice that we’d have a shot to advance to the Top 12. Like I said, the car is going to be really good tomorrow and I’m bummed about starting in the back, but it does leave us some options as far as strategy in the race.”

– Panther Racing, Press Release

Keep an Eye Out for Team Cass Racing

By Ashley Schindler of The NASCAR Corner

I’ve recently had the privilege to meet a wonderful woman named Terri Cass, who is the owner of Team Cass Racing. For you who follow the K&N Pro Series West, you know who she is and what her team is about, but for those who don’t here’s a great opportunity to catch up on an awesome team! So sit back, relax, and enjoy an interview with Terri Cass.

Jason Fensler from Elk Grove and the Team Cass Racing Team. — Jason Fensler from Elk Grove and the Team Cass Racing Team in victory lane.

How did Team Cass Racing start?

“Jim and I came from Sprint cars at Ascot years ago. We stopped racing due to the kids and our growing family. When my youngest son was in ninth grade Auto Shop, he came home and asked to build a drag. I told him if we would build anything, it would be a stock car, end of discussion. So we built a Super Stock and started racing weekly at Irwindale Speedway. We spent two years in Super Stock. Our first driver was Kenny White, then Johnny White. We then went into Late Models with Johnny as our driver. With him, we broke the track record in qualifying. Then we moved to Super Lates for one year, and from there we moved to Camping World, which is now the K&N Pro Series. In this series, we have had three drivers: Chris Johnson (whom I adore), Auggie Vidovich (who won the July 4th race at Irwindale in 2010) and now we have Jason Fensler. No more driver changes for us, we have found the equation that works.”

How long have you owned the team?

“We have been in stock cars for eight to ten years now with plenty of ups and downs.”

Jim & Terri Cass with their driver Jason Fensler at Roseville's All American Speedway.

How does it feel to be a woman in the world of NASCAR?

“Men look at me like I don’t know anything, then we start talking about the cars and blow their minds with knowledge.”

Does the K&N Pro Series West do a lot of travelling?

“Yes, we travel the western United States, so we go to Iowa, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Montana and Northern and Southern California.”

Do you feel a small team has more of an advantage because you only have to work on two cars?

“We have two cars and each track requires different setups, so one car is always being worked on.”

Does religion play an important role to you?

“Religion does! I listen to my Christian music on my iPod before each race for meditation and pray my rump off; first for the safety of the drivers and then for a good finish.”

Jason Fensler driving the #59 Team Cass Racing Chevrolet in Roseville, CA.

How does it feel to have won last week?

“Winning? Awesome! The best feeling ever that we as a team have accomplished a goal together and have had fun doing it. Jason raced one heck of a race, and we are very pleased with him over all. His personality, driving ability, fan interaction (which is very important) and his willingness to do what we ask of him with the media (which he is not used to, but he does). When Jason went three wide on the track in Roseville, I thought I was going to have a heart attack! He did great, and put on a show for the fans!“

Terri is a very appreciative woman, and would like to say a special thanks to her team with all of their hard work, Rene’a Bracken for all of the media exposure, Roger Bracken for being the best crew chief ever, their sponsors (Pick N Pull, MtFX Graphics and Simple Green), all of the fans for their support and most importantly, the military. “I have two sons, both serving our country (one in the Navy helping in Japan) and the other in the Army, fresh home from Afghanistan. I would like to thank our troops and their families as I know the sacrifices made for freedom and safety. My nephew is in the National Guard and my daughter’s boyfriend is in the Air Force.”

Thank you, Terri, for taking the time out Friday morning to answer these questions for me. I know I appreciate it and the readers appreciate it! If you want to learn more about Team Cass Racing, friend them on click here or check out their website www.teamcassracing.com.

Jason Fensler with the Toyota / NAPA Auto Care 150 trophy.

All photos are courtesy of Team Cass Racing.

To follow Jason Fensler’s progress please visit his driver page at www.racing-reference.info.

Our thanks to Ashley Schindler who generously allowed us to reprint her excellent article and interview here on NorCal Car Culture. Hopefully there will be more to follow.

Ashley Schindler is a student and serious NASCAR fan from New York, studying journalism and public relations. She hopes to someday be a PR representative for a NASCAR team or a race reporter. She has a great website called The NASCAR Corner where she shares her interesting take on the world of racing. Ashley known as nascarchick_3 on Twitter, has over 650 followers. Her tweets are sometimes informative but always entertaining. I think she is well on her way to becoming an established NASCAR journalist.

A Sneek Peek at A.J. Allmendinger’s New #43 Nautica Ford

The #43 Ford driven by A.J. Allmendinger of Los Gatos and new sponsor Nautica.

A.J. Allmendinger from Los Gatos, CA will have a new sponsor on the hood of his car this weekend. Nautica, an apparel company will be the primary sponsor for this weekend’s race at Richmond International Raceway. Best Buy is the main sponsor for most of the other races.

“We feel good that an organization as well known as Nautica has decided to showcase its brand on the No. 43 Ford,” said team owner Richard Petty. “We welcome them to the RPM family and look forward to showing them everything the sport has to offer this weekend in Richmond.”

The following is a press release from Ford Racing about A.J and his successful start to the 2011 Sprint Cup season.

AJ Allmendinger is off his best start as a Sprint Cup driver, currently residing 15th in the latest points standings heading into Saturday night’s race at Richmond International Raceway. Allmendinger took a few moments to talk about his season to date, what the 43 team still needs to improve on and look ahead to what he thinks of Richmond and the characteristics of the driver that will win Saturday night.

AJ ALLMENDINGER, driver No. 43 Ford Fusion – YOU ARE QUIETLY HAVING A REALLY STRONG SEASON, WHAT HAS BEEN THE KEY FOR YOU TO BE 15TH IN THE POINTS RIGHT NOW? “We have been fortunate enough to not make any huge mistakes to take ourselves out of races. We have just kind of been there. It is a little up and down. I feel like certain places we struggled at last year we have gotten better and other places we haven’t gotten better. Ultimately if we want to be a real Chase contending team we need to get better in certain areas. The mile-and-a-half tracks are our weakness right now. We have been fast at times in those races, like Vegas and Texas, but we faded. That is the kind of stuff that happened last year at those places. The good thing is that a lot of Ford cars are fast there and have won those races. We have things we can look at to improve on. We as a race team with the 43 have to get better there. That is between Mike Shiplett and me. I feel like we can and have the potential to be better there. That is the thing that sticks out in my mind because we have to be better on those tracks because they make up the majority of the schedule. To be an elite team and contend for the Chase we have to be strong on those. At the same point we have been strong on the short tracks. I am looking forward to Richmond this weekend. The Dover tire test went really well so I am really looking forward to Dover as well. We just have to keep getting better. If we do that then we can be there. We are just on the cusp right now. We are right on the outside. We are a 12th to 15th place team that needs to improve in certain areas. If we do that and keep the strengths we have then we have the potential to be a good team throughout the year.”

YOU SAY YOU ARE ON THE CUSP, WHICH IS REMINISCENT OF THE ROUSH FENWAY GUYS LAST YEAR AND WHAT THEY WERE SAYING. DO YOU LOOK AT THEIR SUCCESS THIS SEASON AS A GOOD OMEN FOR YOU? “I look at the Roush guys but more than anything I look at Marcos (Ambrose). Although we are in the same Ford family when it comes to everything you still have to look at your own race team personally. Marcos has finished like fourth and sixth or seventh at those places. He has been really fast. It is not like we haven’t been fast at those race tracks, we have been. We have qualified up front and ran up front but we faded as the race went on and the track changed. We can get there. Everybody looks at the Chase and that is the ultimate goal and winning races, but for me it is still baby steps. We are not quite there yet. Would I love to say that we are there and we are going to be a top-ten team or we are? Yeah, I would love to say that. We are just not quite there yet at certain race tracks. To me, other race tracks we are. We have some tracks coming up where I think we can be. Teams that are like that are good every weekend and we are good at times and then we are average. We are never really bad which is something that is good because even on our worst days when I think we are terrible we are inside the top-20 which is hard to do in this series. We just have to be good all the time and that is something we are working on.”

YOU HEAD TO RICHMOND THIS WEEKEND, WHAT MAKES THAT TRACK DIFFICULT FOR YOU? “I enjoy it there. We have had our ups and down there for sure. Last year in the second race there we were really good. It is a really tough place because it gets really slick and you tend to start to get some long runs in there and if you are just a little bit off with these cars lately you can get one or two guys that get dialed in and they can lap the field real quick. You really have to have a good qualifying run and then you really have to be good from the start. From there on it is just the track getting slick and when you get in the long runs you have to conserve your rear tires. It is a tough race track. It is one of those places where we have been good and faded and last year we were pretty good all race. We finished eighth and we were even better than that. It is a tough place but a fun place to drive for sure. I am looking forward to it because I feel like our short track program has really improved and we have a chance to be really good there. It is definitely a tough race, especially when it is hot out. As the sun goes down it makes for a cool Saturday night short track race. I am really looking forward to it.”

IS THERE A POINT IN THE SEASON YOU LOOK TO AS A MAKE OR BREAK TIME FOR MAKING THE CHASE? “I think for me I go in a couple of stages. My first goal was to get to Charlotte and the All-Star break. We have three races before that, two tracks I think we can be good at and one that is a question mark in Darlington. I look at that as the beginning of the season and say that we need to get to Charlotte and see where we are legitimately. If we can have three good weeks we might be able to get inside the top-10 in points or right on the cusp and have a legitimate chance at it. Then after that there is a tough stretch with tough tracks for us that can make or break our season. There is a big stretch there that starts with the 600 and then goes to Kansas and Michigan where we have never really been great at. We should be okay at Pocono and Sonoma, but that stretch before the Daytona July race is tough. Once you get to mid July that is when you make your stretch run at the Chase. I go in stages though and it starts with these next three races to get to that first stage.”

WHEN THE RACE IS OVER SATURDAY NIGHT, THE GUY STANDING IN VICTORY LANE WILL BE THERE BECAUSE OF WHAT? – “Because they are patient all night and probably have the best forward drive off the corners because that is what it comes down to. You have to get your car to turn through the center and have great forward drive off to not burn the tires up. The guy that does that and is patient all night will probably be the winner.”

– PCGCampbell for Ford Racing, Press Release