There I am in the Pocono Media Center with the red Gater News shirt to the far left, while Dr. Joseph Mattioli (background, sitting and red Pocono shirt), known to all of us as “Doc". He came into the media center and let us all know that he was calling an impromptu press conference. It was August 5, 2011. Note, he is surrounded by many generations of his family who work at the track.

“50 years went by damn fast,” he started out. Then came the announcement, “Today this is sort of special to us. My wife and I felt that it’s about time that I got the hell out of here. In either case, as of today, I’m resigning all my positions here at Pocono Raceway. We’re going to take it a little easy and as I say get the hell out of here. We’re very fortunate that we have some great grandchildren and as of today my oldest grandson, Brandon (Igdalsky), who’s already president, is going to become president and CEO of Pocono Raceway.”

At that time I started to recall all the interactions I have had with Doc. It was all race related interactions but it never felt that way. Doc made it a point to always make you feel welcome and appreciated, something that I must say is missing at some facilities.

Doc would host a media get-together every year and he would always ask questions and engage most people that attended.

Pocono Raceway is close to my home and there’s such a huge feeling of loss right now. Doc’s history with NASCAR, the love and dedication that he showed to his family and friends is legendary.

The track press release said:

He served in the Pacific during World War Two as a Navy medic. Using the G.I. bill, he enrolled in the dentistry program at Temple University (where he met his soon to be wife, Rose.) Upon graduation, he developed his dental practice into a very lucrative business by working 12 to 14 hour days, six and sometimes seven days a week. He then began investing in and developing properties in Philadelphia and Northeastern Pennsylvania where he became involved in the start up of Pocono Raceway.

Dr. Mattioli is survived by his wife of 63 years, Dr. Rose, daughters Louie and Michele and son Joseph Mattioli III, seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. His passing leaves a void in the NASCAR community and especially to his family and extended “Pocono Raceway” family.

Service Arrangements for Dr. Joseph Mattioli are incomplete at this time.

God Speed Doc- You will be sorely missed.

Howdy NASCAR fans. Its that time of year where Ii apologize to all the NASCAR fans out there for not updating my blog on a regular basis. However, with all the news coming out of the NASCAR Media Tour hosted by the Charlotte Motor Speedway and elsewhere I thought I would throw some tidbits out there.
First, Danica Patrick will not be racing the Indianapolis 500 in 2012, she will be racing in NASCAR’s longest event, the Coca-Cola 600 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in the No. 10 Stewart-Haas Go Daddy Chevy. “I’ve wanted to race stock cars for a little while here and it’s happening,” Patrick said. “We’ve added another challenge with the Coke 600.”
“I hope to do it in the future, the Indy 500 that is. Maybe it’ll be a double,” Patrick said. I was in attendance when the owner of her car did it in 1999 and he was exhausted at the completion of the 400 lap race in Charlotte.
Another bit of news that came out of Charlotte was the unveiling of the 2013 Ford Fusion to be used in NASCAR. It debuted at the speedway with Roush-Fenway drivers taking the cars for a spin. Everyone seemed to like the look and feel of the car saying on Twitter that it appeared the car was more “stock” than the others.
”We wanted Fusion to be the car that helped return ‘stock car’ to NASCAR,” Jamie Allison, director, Ford Racing said. “I think fans, when they see the car, are just going to smile and cheer. It is going to reengage them with the sport and make the sport better because there is just something natural about seeing race cars that look like cars in their driveways.”
Earlier in the day at Earnhardt – Ganassi Racing Chip Ganassi called their 2011 efforts “pathetic”. Hopefully this is the last time I have to say we finished twenty-first and twenty-seventh in the points. He continued saying,” the thing about sports is that it’s constantly changing. You have to change with it and fast.” Let’s not forget that they won the Daytona 500, Brickyard 400 and Coca-Cola 600 in 2010 with Jamie McMurray and did not even make the chase! So Ganassi put everyone on notice that they have set some high goals for the 2012 season.
There’s changes all throughout the cup garages and offices and most notably is the addition of Greg Zippadelli to Stewart-Haas along with Steve Addington who left Penske to become the defending champs crew chief.
At Joe Gibbs Racing Stewart’s crew chief from his championship run is now with Denny Hamlin. At the media tour he said, “It feels really good to be a part of Joe Gibbs Racing. The professionalism that they have is pretty impressive. It’s good to be a part of that. Yeah, we had a lot of turmoil at the end of the year last year…still came out all positive. Won the championship and won five races. Came out of there with my head held high and then went on to my next endeavors. I’m really looking forward to getting a new chapter started at Joe Gibbs Racing.”
One bit of surprising news that came to my attention over the weekend was a phone call from some folks working on getting the Adirondack Speedway in New Bremen NY up and running again. The track closed while in a dispute with local government officials over everything from tax assessments and rates to their water. Paul Lyndaker had someone he was working with call me about some photographs I had taken of the NASCAR K&N East series races that were held at the short track earlier in the decade. Lyndaker said, The New Bremen Town Supervisor has scheduled a meeting. Adirondack International Speedway representatives will be presenting their position regarding the future of the track and its effect on the local business community. All race fans and drivers are invited to attend. It would be great if you could attend.”
I explained that I had prior commitments that evening and could not make it. He then explained that he was going to try and get K&N Series racing back at the track this summer. The track has seen some great rising stars race there including Martin Truex Jr., Ryan Truex, Joey Logano, and others. I will keep everyone posted as to how things in that arena are moving along.

NASCAR finally got what it wanted out of the Chase for the Sprint Cup, a walk-off grand-slam in the bottom of the 9th with a full count. With that exciting finish I ended up being crowned the winner of the “celebrity-media challenge” that is sponsored by Sprint. I was the last guy that should have won this thing because I did not even remotely come close to who would win the cup. The top two guys I picked, Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch finished near the bottom. I was not awarded a single bonus point for selecting a winner of a race in the chase either. My win, by one point over country musician Jonathan Birchfield, came as a result of gaining 30 points by having 3 of the final guys in the chase in the correct spot. The funny thing is I have no idea what I win although I did ask a NASCAR PR representative via email if I would get the best seat in the media center . I also asked if I would be guaranteed that my questions during all press conferences would get asked (not everyone gets called to ask questions). So, I patiently wait for a van with at least one of the current Miss Sprint’s to show at my house with a big check (I kid, really).

The guy that accomplished the big win was the least likely of champions in 2011, especially when he was pretty certain that he and his team did not deserve a spot in the championship battle due to their regular season performance. Tony Stewart was pretty ornery in Richmond this past September and I wonder if Kurt Busch’s melt down there, both on and off the track didn’t detract from the attention Stewart’s behavior should have gotten. However, the guy then went out and won the first two chase races and it was on. The 2011 Chase would not have been close if Stewart did not have bad days at Dover where he finished 25th and at Kansas the next week where he finished 15th.
Homestead-Miami was definitely something that will be remembered for a long time. Stewart did everything he had to do to win that race. He passed 4-5 cars at a time, sweeping from outside to inside with reckless abandon. It was certainly something to see. As I reflected upon that championship battle for a radio interview I did realized how perfect a storm there was that day. The pressure on those guys driving, changing tires and making the calls was immense.
What about Darian Grubb? We all found out as we headed to that race might that he may well be a lame –duck crew chief. Yet, they did it. What fans need to realize is that not every race can have that much on the line, so the feeling really just won’t be the same, I was asked why they can’t all have that much riding on it but I thought it was an absurd question, akin to asking why can’t every baseball game be a Game 7 of the World Series.
What we all hope for is that it spiked some interest, not only in fans but sponsors who remain sorely needed in 2012. Many quality teams seek sponsorships to run all races. We’ll see how it pans out but right now no new deals are being announced.
I’d like to thank all my readers for a great 2011 season. I apologize to all who think that this was selfish self promotion! I hope that your holiday season and New Year’s celebrations are all joyous.

http://community.nascar.com/nascar2000/blog/2011/11/23/jonathan_birchfield_holds_off_south_carolina_governor_nikki_haley_for_2011_celebrity_chase_tracker_title

Both Photos By Ed Coombs

I left Watkins Glen Sunday not knowing whether I would return or not for the 10 AM scheduled start time on Monday. The reason I did not know was because the weather forecast for Monday looked worse than it did for the already delayed Sunday race. I contacted a local meteorologist and one on the internet and they believed that they would get “the race in before it rained”. However, with the legal disclaimer that “there is going to be rain and a low ceiling, anything can happen.” So, I made the trip and the biggest obstacle I had was not the weather but traffic. I spent almost an hour getting up the hill towards the track and then ran into a parking lot attendant who threatened to have my car towed because my pass, that was good the day before, was apparently not any good and I needed to move my car outside the track! Mind you, the race was now GREEN!
A walk into the media center and a brief discussion saw me getting the right parking pass and I was on my way. I went up to the infamous “esses” and started my work. As I move down the track towards turn 1 I decided that would be my home for the day. The cars were fast and they were racing hard. I walk between turns 1 and 2 for most of the race.
Out of the corner of my eye I see a flash of black and notice that Denny Hamlin is without brakes and headed to the wall at a very high rate of speed. He tags the wall with a thud that I can still feel. The photos don’t give it justice, a replay on television or youtube should be looked at to understand just how hard it was. Thankfully, Hamlin walked away under his own power.

Then at the end of the race there was another horrific crash going into turn 2 that saw David Regan hit the outside retaining wall and then come back onto the track where David Reutimann slammed into the car and then head on into the wall, flipping across the track and into the opposite catch fence. This is the same area where there was a huge pile-up during the Nationwide Series race. Neither driver were injured.
However, neither Regan nor Reutimann were pleased with the safety features of the wall. “It’s a shame that a race track we go to in 2011 doesn’t have a better wall design all the way around the race track,” Ragan said. “Hopefully they’ll look at that. I’ve been to some dirt tracks that have better walls than that, but our cars are safe.”
“I’m thinking where I hit would probably be a good place for SAFER barriers,” said Reutimann.

Hamlin mentioned the safety equipment in his car, specifically the safety belts. Can’t say enough for all the safety precautions NASCAR takes,” he said. “Really encourage all these drivers to go to seven-point safety belts. I had those and it just really softened the blow quite a bit. A lot of these guys run five-point and it’s just not enough.”
I believe it was last year when Jeff Gordon had an incident that saw the track make some improvements in the walls. Gordon notes how much faster they race there than at Sonoma (the other road course they run on).

After hearing those comments I decided to ask the winner of the race if he had any concerns about the tack, the walls and safety at the track. Ambrose replied, “The track itself is a first-class facility. It’s a great race track. I think they’ve done an awesome job in some of the safety features they’ve already implemented around this place. I don’t drive around this place looking at any one spot saying, ‘Ooooh, that looks nasty to me.’ I think they’ve done great with what they’ve got.” He then noted with a grin, “If you don’t have a guard rail off of turn two, you end up going down a bank, so that’s not good either. I think the track itself is fine, I think we just have to keep working on safety. All of the drivers walked away. I have no complaints about this place. I think it’s a safe race track.”

Ambrose credited the hard crashes with how hard they run now. “We’re just driving these cars flat-out and it creates problems,” he said. “I think all the accidents today were mechanical issues, mostly, apart from maybe the last one. I didn’t see any of them, so I’ll have to look at the TV when I go back, but cut tires and failing brakes, that’s pretty much what started it. But I think the track is a classic road racing circuit. You don’t want to make it too sterile. You’ve got to have bumps and lumps and change of camber and roughness and all that kind of stuff that makes it what it is.”
I’m not an engineer so I can’t help with designing a new safer wall/ guardrail system for Watkins Glen International Speedway. What I do know is that where Denny Hamlin and Kurt Busch hit the wall, the wall had a tire barrier that held together and in the case of Hamlin his car pushed the wall back. I’m not sure that the SAFER barrier with a concrete wall would have helped anything out. As far as Regan and Reutimann are concerned their crash was nasty but again, what’s the solution? If you narrow that section up with concrete walls and a SAFER barrier it won’t solve the possibility that it’s a very, very fast part of the race track (in many cases they’re shifting as they enter the turn, gaining speed rapidly after the 90 degree turn behind them).

Reports over the weekend indicated that the track was looking to repave the track so that Sprint Cup and others could run the rain tires instead of delaying the race for a day. Michael Printup said the improvements were very expensive, somewhere around $15 million. There was no mention of replacing the powder blue guard rails that line the track during that discussion. Printup will do the right thing for both the drivers and the fans.

Last week at the Pocono Raceway I accompanied Speedway Media’s Mary Jo Buchanan on an interview with Regan Smith. I interviewed Smith a few years ago at Watkins Glen when he was racing for DEI and he was part of the Mark Martin mentoring program (remember those days, when Mark Martin was actually retired?). I found Smith to be rather well polished for being in the position that he was in at the time and found myself rooting for the guy that was born less than 50 miles from my home (Cato N.Y.).
So this time when I saw him he had won his first NASCAR Sprint Cup race a few months earlier at the Darlington Raceway. Look a few posts below at what I write then, it was one for the “good guys”.
At Pocono Smith had just come off a great run at the Indianapolis Speedway where his very good friend Paul Menard won the Brickyard 400. “We were real excited,” Smith said about his finish there. “We felt like we had a ninth or tenth place car. You know strategy is always going to play a part of these races. That’s why the crew guys and my crew chief really had to pay a little of attention. My crew chief did a really good job on the box, we were fortunate we were able to save enough fuel and came away with a strong run. It’s not like we’re backing into them anymore, which is the cool part.”
Clearly Smith isn’t backing into them anymore, he racing well. Smith finished 7th in the 2011 Daytona 500, 8th in the Coca-Cola 600 and 3rd in the Brickyard 400. Unfortunately the rest of the season has not gone that well in regards to how well Smith finishes races. He is qualifying very well and is regarded as one of the best qualifiers in the sport right now.
While he’s been regarded as a “big race” driver Smith said, “I’d like to be the every race driver because they all pay 47 points to win. But if you only have to pick big ones to do good at, that’s not bad either.”
Smith said of Watkins Glen, “That’s one of the races that I highlight on my schedule. We talk about the ‘big four’ or whatever but that’s the fifth one for me just because it’s my home track. I told my guys from the start of the year, if we can’t win one of the ‘big four’, then Watkins Glen is the next one for me. It’s the one I’m putting the most emphasis on.”
Then he realistically described his chances, “Certainly road racing has not necessarily been my strong suit but we did run pretty good last year until we broke a track bar of all things, which is a rare thing to have happen”, he said. “But in Sonoma, which is an even worse road course for me, we ran really well this year, led some laps and had a shot at a top ten. That gets me really motivated to go to the Glen. I feel like we’re going to be really strong there. We’ve been strong for quite some time and I think it’s going to continue there. It certainly doesn’t hurt to have the hometown fans on your side. It’s the one place we go each year where I get one of the louder ovations and that’s a good feeling.”
Smith was involved with a local newspaper’s website chat (Syracuse.com) on Thursday and took fans (and one of mine) questions. I asked him what he thought of his chances and if he was doing anything around the track on the weekend. “I feel good about them,” he wrote. “Road racing is something that I’ve personally been working on getting better at, and at the Infineon race we had a strong car and were able to lead some laps, and I look to do the same at the Glen.” He wrote about where he would be at the track for fans to see and possibly meet. “I will be at the Sprint Zone Sunday morning for a Q&A and will sign as many autographs as I can while I’m there,” he wrote.
I’ll share something else. If you’re camping around the track you might see him there as well. We discussed the infield campers and possibility of him venturing out at Pocono last weekend. So don’t be too surprised if you see him. Maybe he’ll bring other drivers with him, like the lottery, you never know.

See everyone at the Glen, tickets are available!!