Johnson beats Stewart in final race at Richmond before Chase.
September 7, 2008
Jimmie Johnson has momentum on his side and history in sight.
Nevermind that Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards dominated the regular season, the Chase is Johnson’s time of the year and the two-time defending NASCAR champion isn’t turning his title over without a fight.
He won Sunday at Richmond International Raceway to grab his second consecutive win, fourth overall this season, to take a big boost into the Chase for the championship. Johnson is trying to become the first driver to win three straight titles since Cale Yarborough (1976-78).
“I do think about it,” Johnson admitted, “but the less I think about it, the better I’m going to be. The less I can think about all this stuff the last 10 races, the better I am going to be. I just need to fall back to the confidence I have in my race team and my abilities.”
“If you show up and you’re swinging for the fences every time, you’re going to make mistakes.” Johnson hasn’t of late, chasing down Busch and Edwards to arguably claim the role of championship favorite. Busch, winner of eight Cup wins this season, is the top seed in the Chase. Edwards is second based on his six victories and Johnson is third. They are the only three drivers in the field with multiple wins, and five of the contenders start the Chase winless on the season. Edwards, however, believes all 12 drivers will have a shot at the title when the 10-race Chase begins next Sunday in New Hampshire.
“Anything can happen,” he said. “I think it’s going to be defined by your bad days.”
And there were plenty of them on Sunday: Busch was wrecked twice — once by Dale Earnhardt Jr. while leading — and David Ragan had numerous on-track miscues to eliminate himself from Chase contention in a race delayed a day by NASCAR because of Tropical Storm Hanna.
Ragan and Kasey Kahne were the only two drivers mathematically eligible to race their way into the Chase field. Ragan put on a gutsy push before contact with other cars ended his run with a 32nd-place finish.
“Regardless of how we ended today, I told everyone before the race whether we made the Chase or not, it wasn’t going to be solely on the Richmond race,” Ragan said. “I can look back at three or four races earlier in the year where we didn’t do a good job and resulted in the loss of a few points.”
Kahne finished 19th, giving the final Chase spot to Clint Bowyer.
“I drove everything I could all day,” Kahne said. “It was a long day in the pits — we came out close to last almost every time. But we were never going to beat Clint.”
The Chase field according to seeding is Busch, Edwards, Johnson, Earnhardt, Bowyer, Denny Hamlin, Jeff Burton, Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle, Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick and Matt Kenseth.
Busch had a rough day at Richmond in his final tuneup for his title run, starting with the wreck with Earnhardt that delighted the crowd. It was a reverse of the May race here, when Busch wrecked Earnhardt when Earnhardt was leading.
Earnhardt said Sunday’s contact wasn’t deliberate or retribution.
“If I wreck somebody, I ain’t going to leave him in good enough shape to come back and get me in the same race,” Earnhardt said. “I really ain’t never wrecked anybody on purpose. If I wanted to do it, I would do it really, really good.”
Busch, who was later wrecked by Elliott Sadler, finished 15th and downplayed the Earnhardt incident.
“Was that revenge? Who knows,” he said.
Edwards also had a long day after an early tire problem relegated him to the pack. He finished 13th.
Johnson, meanwhile, was steady all day and eventually passed Stewart and Martin Truex for the lead with 34 laps to go. He then had to hold off Stewart’s late challenge over the final 10 laps.
“That’s how you want to win a race — going against the best in the business and Tony is certainly one of those guys,” Johnson said.
Stewart, along with Gordon, is one of the winless drivers headed into the Chase and neither has ever gone this deep into the season without a victory. Stewart was visibly frustrated after failing to catch Johnson and end his 39-race winless streak.
“That’s probably one of the greatest races I think I’ve ever had here at Richmond, racing there with Jimmie like that,” Stewart said. “Can we go for one week, just leave it as we run second and we had a good hard-fought battle and we just fell short.
“I mean, that’s the moral of the story. We could sit here for hours and try to dissect exactly why we didn’t win the race. But you know, we still had a good run.”
Hookscenter.com wire report.
Cup qualifying rained out at Richmond, race moved to Sunday.
September 6, 2008
Steady rain that began Friday night and expectations that it would continue through Saturday with Tropical Storm Hanna moving in forced NASCAR to postpone Saturday night’s Sprint Cup Series race at Richmond International Raceway.
The Chevrolet 400, which will finalize the field of 12 drivers who will be eligible to compete for the 2008 series championship, is now scheduled for 1 p.m. Sunday.
“We just felt this was the right thing to do,” NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter said, adding that the decision was made after consultations with emergency officials in the area who warned that besides heavy rain, the storm was expected to bring high wind on Saturday.
“Tomorrow’s going to be a tough day,” track president Doug Fritz said, based on the forecasts. “Sometimes there’s hope and sometimes there’s not. This is one of those moving targets. … We’re still looking for two days of great racing, all crammed into one now.”
The Nationwide Series race scheduled for Friday night was moved to Sunday at 7 p.m.
NASCAR said the field for both races will be set based on driver’s standings and that the garage will be closed and the cars impounded from Friday night until 7:30 a.m. on Sunday.
The postponements are particularly bad news for rookie sensation Joey Logano, who was scheduled to make his debut in NASCAR’s premier series driving for Joe Gibbs Racing. Because qualifying was washed out, he didn’t get a chance to make the field.
“I can’t change the weather, so I just go with it,” said Logano, who will replace the departing Tony Stewart in Gibbs’ No. 20 next season.
Fritz said the hundreds of motor homes already in place on the grounds of the track will be allowed to stay, even though there are no activities planned at the track on Saturday.
It was the number of fans that come from far away that made the decision hard, he said.
“You’ve got to balance the fans and obviously the uncertainty of the weather,” he said. “That’s where we were when we made this decision. … We really pushed to get the races in as scheduled and at some point you’ve got to make the decision that it’s not going to happen.”
The Sprint Cup Series race will be televised on ESPN, Hunter said, and the Nationwide Series event will be televised on ESPN2. The start of that race will depend on how quickly the grandstands can be cleared following the Sprint Cup race to allow other ticket-holders in.
Hookscenter.com wire report.
Penske Racing signs David Stremme to replace Ryan Newman.
September 3, 2008
Penske Racing hired David Stremme on Wednesday to replace Daytona 500 winner Ryan Newman.
The move has long been expected. Newman will leave the No. 12 Dodge at the end of the season to drive for Tony Stewart’s new team. Stremme has been under contract as a test driver for Penske while waiting for an open Sprint Cup seat.
“We’re pleased to have David join Penske Racing as the driver of the No. 12,” Roger Penske said. “His past accomplishments and current experience as our NASCAR test driver, as well as his character and desire for success, make him a good fit into our culture.”
Stremme spent two seasons driving for Chip Ganassi Racing in the Sprint Cup Series, but Ganassi let him go at the end of last year to sign Dario Franchitti.
Stremme passed on several sub-par Cup rides, choosing instead to sit the year out and run most of the second-tier Nationwide Series schedule for Rusty Wallace. He’s ranked 12th in the Nationwide standings, with 13 top-10 finishes in his 24 starts.
Penske hired him in April as a test driver, helping Newman, Kurt Busch and Sam Hornish Jr. accelerate their car development.
“To be a part of Penske Racing’s 40-plus-year legacy has been a longtime dream of mine,” Stremme said. “I cannot wait to join my new teammates and work to get the No. 12 into the 2009 Chase.”
Alltel will remain sponsor of the No. 12.
Hookscenter.com wire report.
Franchitti leaves NASCAR to return to IRL’s Ganassi Racing.
September 2, 2008
Dario Franchitti will return to IndyCar in 2009 as the replacement driver for Dan Wheldon at Chip Ganassi Racing.
Franchitti, the 2007 IndyCar Series champion and Indianapolis 500 winner, left open wheel at the end of last season to move into NASCAR driving for Ganassi. But his Sprint Cup team never found sponsorship, and Ganassi shut down the No. 40 car in July.
Franchitti has been lingering in NASCAR since, and Ganassi has entered him in a handful of second-tier Nationwide Series races. He had said at the time his team closed that returning to IndyCar was not an option, but apparently changed his mind when Ganassi decided not to re-sign Wheldon.
Hookscenter.com wire report.
Johnson, Burton, and Earnahrdt Jr. clinch spots in 2008 Chase.
September 1, 2008
Jimmie Johnson’s otherworldly performance Sunday night at Auto Club Speedway was borderline superhuman. But let’s not forget the all-important subplot of the Pepsi 500. You know, that thing they call the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
The playoff picture is getting clearer … sort of.
What do we know heading into Saturday night’s regular-season finale at Richmond International Raceway?
Three more drivers clinched Chase berths in Fontana. Johnson (winner), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (11th) and Jeff Burton (17th) officially joined points leader Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards in the 2008 Chase field.
• Greg Biffle, who’s sixth in the standings, didn’t clinch a spot after finishing second Sunday, but he will just by starting the Richmond race Saturday.
• Four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon, a six-race winner in 2007, continues to struggle. He tumbled one more spot in the standings, to 10th, after finishing 15th.
• Denny Hamlin strengthened his hold on 11th place with his second consecutive third-place showing.
• Tony Stewart had another quiet night, finishing 22nd and falling two spots to eighth.
• The bubble boys — Clint Bowyer (10th at Fontana), David Ragan (13th) and Kasey Kahne (eighth) — remained unchanged in the standings, with Bowyer still holding down the 12th and final spot in the Chase cutoff.
While championship contenders jockey for position next weekend at Richmond — the last race before the Chase kicks off the following week at New Hampshire Motor Speedway — the real dogfight promises to be for that last playoff spot.
Bowyer leads Ragan by just 17 points. Kahne is lurking 48 points back.
“It’s going to be a battle right down to the end,” said Bowyer, who trails Hamlin by 76 points. “Anything can happen at Richmond.”
Ragan knows he’ll have his hands full. Bowyer won the spring race at Richmond. Ragan finished 17th.
“We’ve got to have more speed,” Ragan pleaded Sunday. “We didn’t have the fastest car on the racetrack today. Our AAA team never gave up. We kept working on it, but the bottom line is we’ve got to qualify good, race good and not have any trouble next week to make the Chase.”
Kahne took the cup-half-full approach after a solid outing in Fontana. He said being 48 points out of the last Chase spot is better than being 58 back. Still, he is aware he’ll need some help to overcome recent back-to-back 40th-place finishes at Michigan and Bristol to overtake both Ragan and Bowyer.
“We gained a little bit,” Kahne said. “Hopefully they have a problem. That’s our only way in, I think, because the other two are strong. So we’ll see happens there, and other than that, hopefully our Budweiser Dodge will be fast and we can win and gain a bunch of points. Who knows?”
Hookscenter.com wire report (Breeze).
Johnson becomes first Cup pole sitter to win in California.
August 31, 2008
Jimmie Johnson overpowered the field Sunday night in the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Auto Club Speedway, grabbing his third victory of the season.
The two-time reigning Cup champion was easily the class of the field in the Pepsi 500, leading 228 of the 250 laps on the 2-mile oval. He won the race at the former California Speedway for the second straight year and again gave notice to points leader Kyle Busch and series runner-up Carl Edwards — the two hottest drivers in the series coming into this race — that he remains a serious contender for a third straight title.
Runner-up Greg Biffle had the next best car throughout the race, but he couldn’t keep up with Johnson’s No. 48 Chevrolet, finishing more than two seconds behind the winner.
“This race car was unbelievable,” said Johnson, who has struggled at times this season, particularly on the bigger ovals. “We’ve been working hard to get it right. We’ve been burning the midnight oil, burning the wick at both ends, and it’s paid off. We clinched (a spot in the Chase for the championship) and we got 10 more bonus points, which is important.
“We’ve been doing all the right things,” he added, grinning.
In February, Johnson led the most laps here but lost the race when Edwards passed him with 23 laps to go. This time, nobody could touch Johnson, whose car was a rocketship from the start.
Time after time he built leads of between 5 and 12 seconds, only to see them erased by yellow flags. But it didn’t faze Johnson, who just rebuilt the margin after the next restart.
On a pit stop on lap 162, during a caution period, Johnson took four tires and found himself in sixth on the restart, trailing five drivers who had each taken two tires on the stop.
After the restart on lap 166, Johnson was fourth after one lap, second after two trips around the 2-mile oval and back in the lead on lap 168.
On the next pit stop, on lap 182 during another caution, Johnson’s jackman got tangled up in the air hose, costing the team valuable seconds. Johnson again came out of the pits in sixth. And, again, he rocketed back into the lead in just three laps after the green flag waved.
On lap 192, during yet another caution, Biffle’s crew pulled off a lightning stop that got the No. 16 Ford out just ahead of Johnson’s Chevy. But it took Johnson less than half a lap to zoom back into the lead this time.
And that was the race as Johnson pulled away over the last 28 laps to get his 36th career win.
“This is the same car we won with at Indianapolis (in July), and I’m real proud of that,” said Chad Knaus, Johnson’s crew chief.
“The car was really good, especially the first 15 or 20 laps,” Johnson said. “When you have a car like that, it doesn’t really matter where you are on the track.”
Biffle just shook his head when asked how good Johnson was.
“He would get better as the run went anyway. But he had more grip up off the corners,” Biffle said. “The 48 was a better car tonight. If it’s not 18 (Busch) beating us, it’s the 48.”
For a change, neither Edwards, who had won two straight races and three of the last four, or Busch, the series leader with eight wins in 2008, were in contention.
Denny Hamlin finished third, followed by Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Edwards, Kasey Kahne and Busch.
Johnson, Hendrick Motorsports teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr., who finished 11th, and Jeff Burton, who was 17th, clinched spots in the 12-man Chase for the championship that will begin after next Saturday night’s race at Richmond. They joined Busch and Edwards who had previously locked up spots in the postseason.
But the drivers vying for the final positions in the Chase remained in a close battle, with Kenseth moving past 15th-place Jeff Gordon into ninth in the points, and Hamlin and 10th-place Clint Bowyer remaining 11th and 12th in the standings. David Ragan, who finished 13th Sunday remained 13th, 17 points behind Bowyer, while Kahne stayed in 14th, 48 points out of the Chase lineup.
Hookscenter.com wire report.
Kyle Busch wins 7th Nationwide race of 2008 in California.
August 31, 2008
It’s Kyle Busch — again.
The 23-year-old NASCAR star was dominant Saturday night on the 2-mile oval at Auto Club Speedway, leading 144 of the 150 laps to race off with his seventh Nationwide Series victory of the season.
Busch easily held off Sprint Cup rival Carl Edwards on a pair of late-race restarts, piling up his record 18th NASCAR victory of the season, including eight in the Cup and three in the Craftsman Truck Series.
This one was one of the easiest of the season as Busch gave Joe Gibbs Racing its 15th Nationwide win of the year, including a victory in the February race here by teammate Tony Stewart, who led 136 of 150 laps. It was also the first win for the Gibbs Nationwide team since it was hit with seven suspensions, big fines and the loss of championship points for cheating on a chassis dyno engines test following the Nationwide race at Michigan.
“These guys got a bad rap a few weeks ago for what happened, but they don’t deserve it,” said Busch, who started from the pole. “This one means a lot. These guys have had a lot of adversity on them the past few weeks.”
Busch said his No. 18 Toyota was “flawless, really amazing.
“I think the biggest challenge was just being good on the restarts and getting away,” he added. “It just fun to run like this.”
Edwards, the defending Nationwide champion who is locked in a three-way points battle this season with leader Clint Bowyer and Brad Keselowski, finished second, followed by Brian Vickers, Jeff Burton, Jamie McMurray, rookie Joey Logano and Bowyer.
Keselowski had a long stop for repairs after his engine quit and wound up 33rd. That left him in second, 204 points behind Bowyer and 18 ahead of Edwards.
“It was a great points night for us,” Edwards said. “Nobody was going to touch that (No.) 18. Those guys were scary fast. It was a lot of fun, but he was in a different zip code.”
Busch and Edwards are 1-2 in the Cup points and have been the two hottest drivers in NASCAR’s top series over the last few weeks, with Edwards winning three of the last four races and Busch finishing second to Edwards the last two weeks after winning the previous race.
Edwards bumped a dominating Busch out of the lead 30 laps from the end last week in the Cup race at Bristol, and the two then bumped each other on pit road, with NASCAR later putting both on probation for six races for the postrace incident.
Edwards gave Busch’s car a small bump on the rear as they drove slowly to pit road after the race.
“Oh yeah,” Edwards said. “I was just messing around with him. I couldn’t get to him to hit him all day. Even if I wanted to wreck him, I couldn’t because he was so fast. “He can have tonight,” Edwards added. “Tomorrow will be ours. We’ve won two in a row and I believe our car will be real good.”
Busch made his last pit stop under the green flag on lap 125. He came out of the pits behind the cars of Bowyer and Kelly Bires, who had not yet made their final stop. He was back in the lead three laps later and stayed there the rest of the way.
A crash by Chase Miller on lap 132 wiped out Busch’s 2.2-second lead and gave Edwards a shot at the leader on the restart on lap 136. But the Toyota easily pulled away from Edward’s Roush Fenway Racing Ford.
Debris brought out another caution on lap 139, this time erasing Busch’s 1.2-second margin. But, again, he pulled away steadily after the green flag waved for the final time on lap 143 and was a solid two seconds ahead before the race ended under caution after a crash by Josh Wise on the final lap.
Hookscenter.com wire report.
Ganassi’s NASCAR partner, Felix Sabates, shoots mouth off.
August 30, 2008
Felix Sabates has never been one to hide his true feelings. Whatever pops into his head comes out of his mouth. In many instances, I admire that characteristic in people. Far too many times, people say what they think others want to hear no matter if that is what they truly believe.Sabates is part owner of the Dodge teams of Chip Ganassi. The official name of the team is Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates. Currently, the team fields teams for Juan Pablo Montoya and Reed Sorenson. Early this year, the team shut down the No. 40 team of Dario Franchitti, one of the best racecar drivers in the world, due to lack of sponsorship.
Over the past week, however, Sabates’ comments concerning Reed Sorenson and long-time sponsor Texaco Havoline were just plain stupid and reeked of deep down bitterness. Don’t get me wrong; I am a fan of Sabates. He is the epitome of the American dream and has been successful in nearly every endeavor he has ever been involved with.Sorenson announced this week that we would leave the Ganassi/Sabates organization at the end of the year to drive for Gillette Evernham Motorsports next season. Sorenson, 22, has driven in 97 races over the previous three years for Ganassi/Sabates, earning three top-fives and 13 top-10s.
The other Ganassi/Sabates racers have not exactly set the woods on fire over that time period, either. Montoya has posted the company’s only win over that span. In fact, Ganassi has won only eight races over the last eight years with Sterling Marlin collecting half of that total in 2001 and 2002.
Speaking of Sorenson’s departure to Gillette-Evernham, a team that has won 15 races over that same eight-year period, Sabates really threw the young driver under the bus. “I think Reed is today as good as he’s ever going to be. If somebody else wants to put him in a car, fine with us.”
If Sorenson would have remained with Ganassi/Sabates, I agree with Felix. In my view, that team is going nowhere fast, and Montoya would be wise to start checking out other options in the garage.
Relative to Texaco, one of the more identifiable sponsors in the sport over the last 20 years, Sabates was just as unappreciative. Texaco announced the decision to leave NASCAR and allocate marketing money in other areas.
“They (Texaco) have focused on other things. We really didn’t get that much support from them. The money wasn’t all that great, for us, it was a blessing that we can go out and find somebody who can pay us some real money,” Sabates said about Texaco.
Yeah, sure, Felix, I bet there are plenty of sponsors out there waiting to dish out $20 million to see crappy performances every week. Just as successful as this team was at finding a sponsor for Franchitti, one of the most recognizable drivers in the world, it was at finding money for Montoya’s No. 42.
Don’t take anything away from Sabates’ accomplishments on the track and off the track, but he spoke way out of turn in these two instances.
Hookscenter.com wire report (Findley).
Jimmie Johnson wins pole for Pepsi 500 holiday race in Fontana.
August 29, 2008
Aiming to build some momentum heading into NASCAR’s Chase for the Sprint Cup championship, Jimmie Johnson got off to a good start Friday, winning the pole at Auto Club Speedway.
The two-time reigning Cup champion was easily the fastest driver on the 2-mile oval in qualifying for Sunday’s Pepsi 500, turning a fast lap of 180.397 mph.
“I’m really very proud of that lap,” said Johnson, the defending race winner.
For much of the session, it appeared that the front row would be all Hendrick Motorsports, with Jeff Gordon sitting in the second spot with a lap of 179.565. But A.J. Allmendinger, one of nine drivers who had to qualify on speed, elbowed his way between the teammates with a lap of 179.659.
Kasey Kahne was fourth at 179.158, followed by Gillett Evernham Motorsports teammates Patrick Carpienter at 178.860 and Elliott Sadler at 178.492. Rounding out the top 10 were Martin Truex Jr. at 178.434, Dave Blaney at 178.381, Kurt Busch at 178.165 and rookie Aric Almirola at 178.134.
For Johnson, it was his first pole at the Southern California track, but the series-leading fourth of the season and the 17th of his career.
Heading into the penultimate race of the “regular season,” Johnson is fourth in the season points. But, based on his two victories this year, he currently would be the third seed in the Chase, trailing only eight-time winner Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards, a six-time winner this season.
And Busch and Edwards have been the story lately, with Edwards winning three of the last four races and Busch turning in a win and a pair of runner-up finishes during the same span.
Johnson knows he has a lot of work to do if he is going to beat those two hot drivers once the Chase gets going. And a win here on Sunday would be a great way to gain some momentum.
“Yeah, it would mean a lot for us to win on a big track like this,” Johnson said before his qualifying run. “Mile and a half and above tracks and downforce tracks have been kind of our weak spot.
“We’ve been making a lot of gains. Hopefully, we made some gains that will help us this weekend and moving into the Chase.”
Johnson said it was the victory here last year that gave him a big boost toward his second title.
“It just started the confidence in our minds that we’re ready for the Chase,” he said. “The top-five guys (in the points) have a very good point of view or mind-set they’re going to be in the Chase. So you’re looking at what you need to do to be as good as you can in the Chase, and building the confidence around yourself and the team that you can be a contender.
“Our past history shows that we can do it. But, winning here last year just kind of cemented those confident thoughts in place and we rolled it from here into Richmond and won again on a track that’s been very challenging to us over the years. That really just put us in the right mind-set that `Hey, you can do this.’”
Edwards and Busch were both fast in practice, but it didn’t show in qualifying. Busch will start the race 11th, while Edwards, who was fastest in Friday’s practice, will start a disappointing 26th.
Hookscenter.com wire report.
Ky. Busch and Edwards placed on probation for 6 races by NASCAR
August 27, 2008
NASCAR has placed Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards on probation for the next six races in the Sprint Cup Series, the result of their on-track incident last weekend at the end of the race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
During the cooldown lap after Edwards’ Ford took the checkered flag for Roush Fenway Racing, Busch drove alongside Edwards and bumped his car. Edwards responded by driving the nose of his car into the right side of Busch’s Toyota, spinning him out.
The postrace incident was apparently a reaction to Edwards nudging Busch aside with 30 laps to go Saturday night. Busch had led the previous 415 laps.
Busch was unrepentant after the race, saying, “We’ll go on and we’ll race him that way in the Chase if that’s the way he wants to race.”
Edwards wasn’t backing down, either.
“A real smart racer explained it to me this way after he wrecked me and I was real mad. He said, ‘I just had to look at your rear bumper and decide if you would do this to me, and you had, and so it was a real simple decision,’” Edwards said. “I’d do it again.”
Both drivers were later summoned by NASCAR to explain their actions.
This is just the latest development in a growing rivalry between the 23-year-old Busch and the 29-year-old Edwards, the winningest drivers in Cup this season.
Busch, who drives for Joe Gibbs Racing, has been the most dominant driver this season, winning eight times and building a lead of 212 points over runner-up Edwards in the Cup standings with two races remaining before the start of the 10-race Chase. But Edwards, who now has six wins, has come on strong in recent weeks, winning two in a row and three of the last four races.
The points race would have been even closer if not for a penalty Edwards received for racing without a cover on his oil tank after winning at Las Vegas. He was docked 100 points and NASCAR also took away the 10 bonus points for the win that would have transferred to the Chase.
Once the 12-man lineup for the Chase is set, their point totals will be reset to 5,000 and they will then be seeded by victories. If the Chase began this week, Busch would be on top with a 30-point lead over Edwards.
Hookscenter.com wire report.