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Richmond, Va., May 5 — Christian Lovendahl, crew chief for driver PJ Jones in the Busch Series, was killed in an automobile accident this afternoon while returning from Richmond International Raceway.
Lovendahl, nephew of NASCAR star Mark Martin, had flown back to Concord, N.C., after the David Ridling-owned No. 19 car failed to qualify for Friday night's Hardee's 250 at Richmond. He was driving a car, with three crewmen as passengers, when the accident occurred outside Mooresville, N.C.
The other three men in the car were treated at a Mooresville hospital and were expected to be released tonight.
Lovendahl, 27, was born in Batesville, Ark., also Martin's hometown. He is survived by his wife, Jennifer. No information was available on further arrangements.
According to later reports, the car Lovendahl was driving ran off the road and overturned. Lovendahl, who police say was not wearing a seat belt, was thrown from the car and died at the scene.
Martin, who raced in Friday night's Busch race at Richmond, was aware of the circumstances. After finishing fourth, he noted that his "head really wasn't in this race tonight." — Ben Blake, Senior Editor, RACER
RICHMOND, Va. - The crew chief for NASCAR Grand National series driver P.J. Jones was killed Friday evening in a car wreck while returning from Richmond International Raceway.
Christain Lovendahl, 27, and several crew members had left the track after Jones failed to qualify for Friday night's Hardee's 250 and returned via plane to Concord (N.C.) Regional Airport.
The automobile accident, which included two crew members in addition to Lovendahl, occurred on Faith Road just outside Mooresville while the group was driving from the airport. The N.C. Highway Patrol confirmed Friday night Lovendahl was driving the vehicle and was not wearing his seat belt at the time of the accident.
The other crew members in the car - Michael Johnson and Jason Owens - were treated for minor injuries at Lake Norman Regional Medical Center and released late Friday.
Lovendahl, a native of Batesville, Ark., was the nephew of Winston Cup star Mark Martin and joined the Emerald Performance Group this season. He had also worked for Team Sabco and Bill Amick Racing during his career.
Lovendahl is survived by his wife, Jennifer. Funeral plans are incomplete. Lovendahl lost his grandfather, Julian Martin of Searcy, Ark., when Martin, his wife and daughter died in a plane crash in Nevada in August 1998. Julian Martin was the father of Mark Martin.
MARTIN SELECTED TOP DRIVER OF QUARTER: Mark Martin was the top vote-getter in the first-quarter 2000 Driver of the Year voting. Martin edged F1 driver Michael Schumacher in the voting by a 16-member panel of national motorsports media and ESPN.com users. "It's a real honor just to be considered, let alone win the first-quarter Driver of the Year balloting," Martin said. "There are so many talented drivers, not just in NASCAR, but in all forms of motorsports. To be considered with the likes of Michael Schumacher is just amazing to me." A final Driver of the Year ballot will be taken at the end of the season to determine the winner for the year. For more on this story, go to: Click here
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (May 1, 2000) Mark Martin will not apologize for soundly beating his NASCAR Busch Series Grand National Division brethren this season, so don't expect it.
Martin doesn't feel sorry for anybody. It's his job to go out and win -- not finish second, third or anywhere else -- but first. He's been beaten before, and nobody's bothered to fret about it, so why should he?
Cold? Maybe. But that's just the way Martin is about racing.
"These guys can beat me, especially short-track racing," Martin says. "I can be had, because I don't use the latest stuff. I don't use the lightest equipment. My cars are very heavy. We don't build light race cars. I don't know that stuff. I don't trust that stuff. We don't need to be on the cutting edge of technology."
Maybe not, but one thing Martin -- the NASCAR Busch Series' career victories leader -- has been is successful. Everything's fallen into place for crew chief Tony Lambert and Martin, who's running his last NASCAR Busch Series campaign in NASCAR 2000.
"It's easy," Martin says, and leaves the explanation of how his team can be so good at that until prodded a bit.
"We have great race engines," Martin continues, almost reluctantly. "I know exactly what kind of chassis I'm gonna run. I'm not gonna run what everybody else wins with. I'm gonna run what I run. I don't mess with anything else. I know exactly what I've run every year for 13 years for springs and shocks.
"I have someone that pays attention to the aerodynamics and to the reliability of the cars. We run extremely reliable parts, not the newfangled, lightweight, faster stuff, but the bulletproof stuff. My guys pay attention to the pit stops. When you've got all that, it just flows."
That across-the-board combination is what makes Martin's program click, figures NASCAR Busch Series Director John Darby.
"They've got a great crew. They've got a great engine program. They've got a great car. And they've got one of the best drivers that's ever sat behind the steering wheel," Darby says. "There may be a Busch team that's got better engines, but they might be missing the great crew. They might have the best engine and the best crew and a very good driver, but they might be missing something on the car.
"Once that momentum starts, you almost get invincible because other teams start to give up a little bit. We've still got our best core group of Busch teams that come to the race track saying, 'We're gonna get that guy. We're gonna beat him.' But you get that other group that says, 'Man, we're here to race for second.' When the teams start doing that, they're giving up the attitude and drive to beat Mark Martin."
NASCAR Winston Cup drivers have almost always won their share of NASCAR Busch Series races, but in 1998 and '99, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Matt Kenseth made the task much more difficult. Now that Earnhardt and Kenseth have moved on, there's something missing again, but it's a cycle where Jeff Burton thinks other NASCAR Busch Series teams will soon catch up to himself and Martin.
"For Mark to make it look easy, no, that is not good for the Busch Series, but I don't think it'll stay that way," says Burton, who inherited the March 4 win at Las Vegas when Martin had to check up to avoid a spinning car late in the race. "If I thought it would stay that way, then, hell, it wouldn't be any fun.
"It's more fun when it's hard. It is hard right now, but it was harder last year. I think the Busch teams will get better than they are now."
There's one suggestion that angers Martin, and that's the whisper that sometimes crops up about how he and his team go outside the rulebook to achieve their success.
"I certainly don't think anybody thinks that I would cheat to win a Busch race," Martin says flatly. "Anybody who knows me knows that I don't need to win another Busch race as long as I live. Any of 'em that are any good over there know that I haven't cheated to win.
"I don't think that any of 'em that are any good have said that. They can have our stuff. Our stuff's for lease. I've raced against my cars. Our crew chief's out there, and if they want to know what we're doing so bad, enough money will hire Tony, probably."
"All I can say is let 'em take everything they can take out of that car except the seat," Lambert adds. "We're more legal than anybody out there. If we're caught cheating, they're gonna make an example out of us."
Todd Bodine and Randy LaJoie say it boils down to this: Martin is an awesome talent who drives a Ford that's got more horsepower, less drag and more balance than their Chevrolets. Those are extremely tough obstacles to overcome, and Bodine's Cicci-Welliver Racing outfit is trying its best to fight back. A recently announced working relationship with Hendrick Motorsports will help.
"Mark Martin's probably one of the best drivers that's ever raced a NASCAR race car," Bodine says. "You put him in a superior piece of equipment, and you're not gonna beat him. It's hard enough to beat him on equal grounds. He's that good.
"We're not just sitting here crying about it. We're trying to work on our stuff to make it better. Most people cry and yell about it and want NASCAR to take away from them. We're not doing that. We get better all the time, but it's gonna take time."
Bodine calls for NASCAR to give Chevrolet a full two inches of kickout on the front valence. He feels that'd make his mount as balanced, but it would still have more drag on the straightaways. That's a significant disadvantage on tracks a mile or more in length. LaJoie echoes the sentiment.
"I think you could take the top five Busch drivers, put 'em in that car and they'd do as well as he's done," LaJoie says. "Obviously, from what they've seen in the wind tunnel, he's got better stuff than we've got. Their Fords don't look like the Fords that run regularly in the Busch Series.
"They've got their stuff together. They use their Winston Cup technology. The Busch guys can be as good as that, but right now, we're not. It's just a tribute to that race team how good they are. They're on the deal."
In racing, and from LaJoie especially, being "on the deal" is the ultimate compliment. Another factor is that because Martin and Burton aren't running for points, they can afford to wring the very most out of their equipment.
"They're on tilt," LaJoie says. "Not racing for points, that might mean five or 10 horsepower. How are you gonna make that up with a Mark Martin or a Jeff Burton behind the wheel?"
Burton says all of Martin's cars are built on stock BSR chassis, purchased from Billy Hess. The bodies on Martin's Fords are hung by people who do work for other teams. Burton's cars are built in-house, but again, he says other teams can purchase the same chassis, provided they're not copied in any way. Eight full-time employees prepare both his and Martin's NASCAR Busch Series cars, in a shop he calls "primitive by today's standards."
"Jeff Burton's made the comment, 'We don't have anything that anybody else can't get.' That's kind of a b.s. answer. That's just trying to cover it up," Bodine continues. "They've got probably 10 times as much wind-tunnel time as any other Busch team. Just because their car hasn't been to the wind tunnel doesn't mean their wind-tunnel technology didn't go into it, from what they've learned off their Winston Cup car."
Burton, though, insists the situation is just the opposite -- Roush Racing's NASCAR Winston Cup technology doesn't work when applied to its NASCAR Busch Series program.
"We try to put our Cup program into the Busch program, the further we get behind on our Busch program," Burton said. "I don't know why that is. I guess it's the body location rules, the horsepower. Our philosophy of racing in the Cup cars does not work for the Busch cars. That doesn't make sense to me."
Martin's NASCAR Busch Series testing is at a bare minimum. He tested once last year, at Richmond, and he plans to shake down a car at Charlotte that's been ready since last year, but he's adamant about not racing it. Why? Martin's already got a car that's race-proven, so he sees absolutely no reason to gamble on new equipment.
"I have a car that I like, and I won't run the new one because I don't know if I like it or not," Martin says. "I don't want to waste a race on it. I've done all my running in '99 and so far this year, basically, on two cars. I just use stuff I know, and I don't test.
"I appreciate that they bought new parts, and that they've worked real hard over the winter turning (the unused car) into a 2000. It sits there and it's all beautiful, looks great, but just because it's new doesn't mean that it's more functional than the car that I've been winning with."
Roush Racing's NASCAR Busch Series shop had been in Liberty, N.C. But when team owner Jack Roush moved it to Mooresville, N.C., during the 1998-99 off-season, then-crew chief Bobby Leslie chose to stay near the former location and work on the organization's NASCAR Winston Cup side, and several crewmembers either did the same or found other jobs.
That left Lambert to hand-pick most of Martin's current team, and he says it's now a close-knit group.
"Everybody's worked together for a year," Lambert says. "Last year was our first year together. There were some mistakes, miscues, bad calls. This year, Mark's more comfortable with us and we're more comfortable with him. Starting with him last year, it was like he's a superstar and we're just nobodies. We had big shoes to fill."
Summing up Martin in a single word is simple for Lambert. It's called "intense," and maybe moreso this season than last. Martin suffered excruciating back pain during the 1999 campaign in silence. Off-season surgery worked wonders.
"This year, he's more outgoing," Lambert says. "I don't think he's in pain as much as he was last year. He didn't tell people. He never even told me about the pain he was in. Between last year and this year, it's unbelievable the difference in him.
"Before, he was like, 'The car's doing this. You need to try this,' and he'd leave. This year, he'll sit and explain where it's tight and where it's loose. That helps a bunch."
To Darby, it's not a concern that Martin has been so thoroughly in control of the series this year. It'll come back around.
"If a competitor shows up and the car meets the rulebook, the engine meets all the engine rules and they go through the same inspection process that the rest of the garage is put through," Darby said, "then NASCAR has to sit back and say, 'That guy is good,' more than 'Something's wrong, because nobody's that good.'
"They didn't suspend Michael Jordan because he was such a good basketball player. Every good athlete hits their moment, and right now in the Busch Series, Mark's on top of his game. He's not invincible by any means.
"I believe before this year's over, he'll be beatable. The Busch teams are catching up more and more."
Phillis Espinoza 3/27/00 OH NO! It's the Winn Dixie FORD!
Phillis Espinoza (aka gertie) is a single mom and a regular at RacingDiva. She has a daugherJennifer and is currently training to be a dental receptionist. She moved to Florida in 1994 and became a Nascar Nut in 1995.
Up until the Bristol race, Mark Martin sat 2nd in the points, and that was after missing a race. He didn't race Daytona. This season so far he has racked up 3 wins and a second place finish. And actually, with a car spinning just in front of him, he lost the win at Vegas, to corporate Winston Cup teammate Jeff Burton, with 3 laps to go. He could have had 4 wins already this season. He has only run 4 races, so from the owners, the team, the Mark Martin fans and sponsor standpoint, they are having a fantastic start to the part time season! Who can fault a driver for wanting to win while sitting in a racecar? That is what he is there to do, isn't it? It's every driver's goal. Because Martin is a Winston Cup regular should he not want to win? That is ridiculous! Why even bother putting on the helmet and strapping in the car! There are some folks out there that don't like Mark Martin in the Grand National races. I am sure that when he is listed as an entry for the Busch races, everyone entered in the same race has to work that much harder. He has the money backing him, a good team, and experience on his side. The other car owners and drivers must cringe when he goes out to qualify. They know he will make it into the race. Comments are made that it isn't fair. Is it? When I mentioned folks, I wasn't only talking about the people at the track. I was talking about fans. Just like Jeff Gordon when he dominated races in Winston Cup, no one wants to watch a winner win, or one team dominate. And that is what Mark Martin seems to be doing in the Grand National races. Dominating and winning! I have even heard some fans say they won't watch a race because Mark is entered. If you don't watch the Busch races because you don't want to see Mark Martin and his Winn Dixie car run, then what does that say about you as a stock car race fan? The rest of the drivers, they don't count? There are 43 cars entered in the Grand National races, 42 of them at the very least need your support. And this is especially true because the Winn Dixie Ford is in the race. So when you think of not watching the race because Martin is entered, think again.
Whose fault is it that Mark Martin is able to enter the races? NASCAR could be somewhere to look for that answer. Whose fault is it that the cameras hone in on the #60 black ford with the checkers on the front hood? The TV station televising the race may be a place to look. Whose fault is it that Mark is so good at running the races? Okay, that one may be his fault. Bad Mark! The race at Darlington showed the majority of the day, Mark Martin, Matt Kenseth and Jeff Burton swapping the lead. Are they to blame because someone other than you liked to see if Mark could actually pull off their goal of winning every race? Do you think this may have been interesting to some? Was there a deal made so the camera stayed on his car all day? I don't think so. Should you not like him because he is so good? Well, that is something you have to deal with. As a Mark Martin fan, if he gets booed because he wins, so! Doesn't bother me at all! My man is in victory circle, whether you boo or not, whether you watch or not. He races to win no matter what car he is in. And I would expect no less.
When you watch any race, the cameras always want to stick with the leaders for some reason. The rest of the field seems to always be forgotten when televising a race. I have said in the past that if the leader is out there, leading and lapping, with no threat of a lead change, go to the rest of the field. They are racing back there, I just know it! Well the same goes for the Grand National races. Is there some kind of unwritten rule you have to show the leader all day? But it isn't the leader's fault nor is it the teams.
The "cryin' towel" or the "sour grapes" complaining that you hear from other drivers is just that, "sour grapes". I have heard all the arguments about Martin's team. They have more money, a great sponsor and the opportunity for wind tunnel testing. What's he supposed to do about that? If the drivers you hear complain about that had the same opportunity, would you hear them complain anymore? I don't think so! They would think they have earned it! They had worked hard for what they have. Does that mean Mark hasn't earned what he has? Mark Martin, he is a gentleman driver. We should wish all the competitors were like Mark Martin. If a competitor is faster then he, he doesn't block, you see him get passed. Sometimes he just moves out of the way. If he is the leader, and the caution comes out, he slows up so the drivers he just lapped can get back the lap. He may be a Winston Cup driver, but he shows respect to the guys who run the series full time. He isn't running for points or the championship, why shouldn't he or wouldn't he be gracious? He doesn't have to be.
Next season, there is a rumor that Roush would field a full time team in the Busch Grand National series. You know rumors in NASCAR. Well, let us see what driver jumps into that seat and if they turn down all the money, support and testing that comes along with driving for Jack Roush. Maybe we will hear that driver say, "the other guys don't get this, so I don't want it either". Or maybe, "it isn't fair to my competitors, so please don't take my cars to the wind tunnel". Yeah right! Just think of this. Maybe Mark Martin has gotten sick of people saying he shouldn't be in the Grand National Series because he is a Winston Cup driver. Maybe Mark is fed up with coming so close to getting a Winston Cup title and still coming up empty. Maybe Mark is finished with the stress that comes along with the senior series. Maybe Mark would rather spend time on Sunday with his family. Maybe Mark could just decide to race the Busch Grand National series FULL TIME! Oh, and by the way, next weekend the Grand National series races in Texas. The Winn Dixie Ford will be in attendance, and it's driver too! They have won two of the last three races there together. If you are a Mark Martin fan, lets root for the win. If you aren't, support the other guys! gertie
This article came from Racing Diva Check this site out !!!!
Even when things looked bad. When I was 5 my dad stood me up in the driver's seat, put his foot down on the gas and gave me the steering wheel. I was lucky I survived. I am also lucky that my son Matt won his first championship without ever having to stand on my lap and drive. In 1983 things looked real bad, I had to quit Winston Cup racing, auctioned off all my racing equipment and start over again. I was lucky I failed. If I hadn't failed that year I wouldn't have gone home to Arkansas and met Arlene, that was luck. And I was even luckier the day I talked her into marrying me. If I hadn't failed in 1983 I wouldn't have met Jimmy Fennig in the ASA series. Let me tell you that was luck. Without having to start over again I would have never met Jack Roush.
So sometimes when you think life is just plain miserable your luck may be just around the corner. I also had some luck without first having to take a dose of misery. I've got a team of guys that are behind me 100%, and they give 100% all the time. And you can ask any Winston Cup driver in the races how hard it is to get 100% of the guys behind you 100% of the time. Jimmy Fennig, Shawn Parker, and the entire Valvoline crew, simply amazed me this year. You guys are the best. And having some of America's best companies to support your career doesn't hurt either , Valvoline, Eagle 1, Cummins engines and Bugles have all teamed up for several years now in Winston Cup to fuel our competitive engine. While the WinDixie stores have helped me to win all those Busch races. And I continue to race and receive support from Ford Motor company and GoodYear. For all the luck I've had there is one piece of luck that has escaped me. With the loss of my dad last year I lost the opportunity to some day share with him the experience of winning the Winston Cup Championship. So I know how absolutely wonderful the Jarret family must feel tonight to be able to celebrate together, Ned, Martha, Dale, Glen, Patti You are the role model's for the rest of us in this sport. You know what simply amazes me is that they're father and son know the joy of winning the greatest championship in Motor Sports. And it's even more amazing that this isnt the first time a father and son have won the championship. And I'm hoping that someday there will be another father and son celebration. I'm hoping that celebration will take place right here in the Waldorf Astoria And I'm hoping that- that night it will be my son Matt and I celebrating our championship together.
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