GM racing manager Mark Kent was the Newsmaker guest on Wednesday night's The Race Reporters show on Power Up Channel. Bob Pockrass and Dave Argabright were the media panelists and then World of Outlaws champion and current points leader Donny Schatz joined us. Schatz revealed he's been battling an ear infection leading up to this weekend's Outlaws' finale in Charlotte. (!)
Since Ford is going to use the Mustang as its new Nationwide Series entry, and Dodge the Challenger, I asked Kent if GM considered running the Camaro:
"We looked really hard at the Camaro. NASCAR came to us and did express the desire to try to get the Mustang and get the Camaro. We looked at it, but, at the end of the day, if you take the iconic lines of a Camaro or a Corvette, we couldn't get it to fit into the templates in a way that it maintained the iconic lines and met our requirements. So, we elected not to force the Camaro into where we felt it did not belong, in Nationwide, and instead race the Camaro in other series where it can maintain more of a production shape"
Listen to the entire show using this link:
http://www.modavox.com/voiceamerica/vepisode.aspx?aid=42227
A reminder that, along with Mark Armijo, I'll be covering NASCAR-in-Phoenix next week for the Arizona Republic. Check out this Sunday's paper for my long feature on Mark Martin. And, next Tuesday's paper, for my long story on how the automakers are able to justify their continued financial involvement in NASCAR. You might be surprised at some of the numbers . . . If you don't live in Arizona, you can read our stories on http://azcentral.com/
Upcoming The Race Reporters guests:
(Show is live Wednesdays at 7 p.m. EDT, downloadable, and available on-demand at no cost. Click on TRR page logo in upper right-hand column.)
November 11 -- Robby Gordon. Panelists: Bill Fleischman, Jim Pedley. Plus, Dave (The King) Wilson.
November 18 -- NHRA Funny Car or Top Fuel champion. Panelists: Mark Armijo, John Sturbin.
[ more early next week . . . ]
