Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Your Random F1 News update for July 29


Glock's crash caused by faulty part: Toyota’s F1 team determined what happened to Timo Glock’s car that caused it to crash during the German Grand Prix back on July 20th. The team had said a part on the right rear suspension that was damaged during the British Grand Prix two weeks before was used again at the German Grand Prix. The team has now changed their inspection policy to make sure that this never happens again.

"Following Timo Glock's incident during the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim, Toyota Motorsport initiated a thorough investigation," the team said in a statement. "This initially established that a rear toelink (trackrod) gave way causing Timo to lose control of the car, but confirmed that there were no exceptional circumstances before or during the incident in the German Grand Prix. Further investigation has established that damage sustained in the British Grand Prix two weeks earlier was the cause. During that race Timo suffered several incidents.

"As is normal practice, some parts from the British Grand Prix were carried over to Hockenheim, including most of the rear right suspension. Although the parts were subjected to the normal test and screening process following the Silverstone race and passed fit for use at Hockenheim, it has become apparent that it did not identify an issue which subsequently led to the incident at Hockenheim. As a result of this investigation, Toyota Motorsport has revised its inspection processes to include such cases and is extremely confident there will be no repeat."
Well, lets hope so. God knows we don’t need any more injuries caused by silly mistakes.

Toyota determine cause of Glock's crash [Autosport.com]


Renault boss says F1 needs makeover: Flavio Briatore says F1 needs a major overhaul to get the fans back love in with the sport. Briatore believes that Max Mosley’s sex scandal problems has damaged the sports reputation and have also hurt the teams along with the fans.
"His absence is felt as there's no project for F1. The teams feel abandoned," Briatore told Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper. "The Concorde agreement, the number of races, the costs, the spectacle, the imperative increase of revenues. Formula One needs to be re-designed. I feel that it should be down to the teams to decide, by electing in turns a director of operations. A guy who does things, not a PR person. On top of that, we need to decide with a 51% majority, not unanimously like now, otherwise we'll carry on being stuck."

"Nowadays [Bernie] Ecclestone takes 50% of all revenues,” he added. “But we are supposed to be able to reduce our costs by 50%. How? Starting from the engines. Making them more environment-friendly, accepting Mosley's challenge of reducing fuel consumption by 50% by 2015, while cutting the high costs of the engine themselves and also cutting the staff. The problem is that us, Renault, have stuck to the letter of the current regulations on frozen engines, and we've been buggered: others didn't do that and are far ahead, while we suffer. It's not fair."

Briatore says F1 needs an overhaul [Autosport.com]

Monday, July 28, 2008

Your Random NASCAR News Update for July 28th

Adios, Mexico: After four years of racing south of the border, the NASCAR Nationwide Series will not return to the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in 2009. Attendance at the race in Mexico has dropped every year since the series started racing south of the border in 2005.

"This was never about a single event. The big idea was to strengthen motorsports in Mexico," said Robbie Weiss, NASCAR’s vice-president of its international efforts. "We didn't create racing in Mexico and it has a long heritage, but in reality the racing market down there was very fragmented.

"The idea was could we help relaunch and strengthen the Mexican motorsports community with the big idea of launching a national championship that would be the most significant championship in the country."

And so far the idea of launching a National Championship has worked with the NASCAR Corona Mexico Series, which is holding 14 races this year. Unfortunately holding major series race down there has not worked. In my opinion, I think the lack of drivers from Mexico up in the Nationwide Series running is probably what keeps the race in Mexico from being any more successful.

The Nationwide Series will race at a new venue in 2009 to replace the Mexico race and the most likely candidate to take its place is the Iowa Speedway.

NASCAR removes Mexico City from schedule [thatsracin.com]

Petty taking another weekend off: Kyle Petty is taking another week off from driving his Cup car, but with usual fill-in driver Terry Labonte driving for Evernham Motorsports this week means that the Petty Enterprises team will have to find another driver to fill in for Petty. Most likely Chad McCumbee, who failed to qualify with Petty’s car, may be that driver. This move is making some people speculate that Kyle Petty’s career as a driver may be slowly coming to an end. Petty has not been behind the wheel of the 45 car since the Coca-Cola 600 back in May.

Petty out at Pocono [ESPN.com]

Newman not on Joe Gibbs Racing’s wish list: Ryan Newman is leaving Penske Racing at the 2008, but don’t count on Joe Gibbs Racing to be his destination in 2009. JGR President J.D.Gibbs said that Newman isn’t the person they’re looking for to replace Tony Stewart’s empty seat in 2009.

"It would be hard," Gibbs said before the Sprint Cup race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. "Another time, another day, maybe. He's a great individual. You would love to have him on your team. It’s just all those ducks aren't in a row."

Gibbs also denied the possibility of JGR expanding to four teams in 2009.

Newman’s most likely replacement at Penske Racing, David Stremme, is feeling pretty upbeat about maybe driving the 12 car in 2009: “We’ve talked,” Stremme told NASCAR Scene on Saturday at O’Reilly Raceway Park. “Obviously, I’m doing testing for them. But there are a lot of opportunities open, too.

“Who wouldn’t want to be racing for Roger Penske? He’s very successful in motorsports. I like how they do their program,” Stremme continued. “I just want to run good, and I want to be around people that want to race and perform,” Stremme said. “I can get right back in there and be competitive. I’m in the cars about every week testing.

“It’d be cool to get to drive for him - or another organization. But it’d be neat really for him because his reputation in motorsports and the success he’s had.” Stremme has talked to

Newman's List Getting Shorter [ESPN.com]

Stremme has talked to Penske Racing about driving No. 12 in 2009 [Scenedaily.com]

Dr. Stewart and Mr. Tony

If its one thing you have to know about Tony Stewart is that he is not one to mess with when hes having a bad day. Just look at him during the altercation with the USAC official last Thursday night. Boy, was he pissed:



But the amazing thing is that even with the debacle on Sunday, Tony was in good spirits. I was expecting, and I'm sure a lot of other people were expecting, for Tony verbally tear someone a new one as soon as the race ended on Sunday, but instead he had this to say:

"Just a tough day," Stewart said in a statment via his PR person. "There are really no other words to describe it."

Maybe, Tony was just choosing his words carefully to avoid the possible firestorm he would receive from the press and NASCAR had he gone off about how crappy the tires were on Sunday.

Who knows. Hopefully, Tony can keep his cool like this more often.

Stewart Mum on Tires [Tampa Tribune]

Dandy Dixon wins in Edmonton

Scott Dixon took his first road course victory of the year at Edmonton on Saturday. The Indy 500 winner held off championship rival Helio Castroneves and Justin Wilson to take his fifth victory of the year. Amazingly Dixon didn’t win this race on the track itself; instead it was the quick stops made by his Target Chip Ganassi crew that won him the race.

"I'd sort of envisioned making a move on [Oriol] Servia early in the race, but it wasn't on." said Dixon. "He was quite a bit slower in race conditions than qualifying, so that enabled me to just stay behind him and save a lot of fuel. When the pit stop came we didn't need as much fuel as he did and so we got around him. It was kind of the same thing with the Penskes. I got behind Helio and Ryan, saved fuel and jumped them on the pit stop. That was the key moment of the race."

The race itself was not very interesting featuring very little battles up towards the front, but there were a few noticeable incidents including one in which Marco Andretti punted off his teammate Danica Patrick. Oh, how I wish I could have been a fly on the wall at the Andretti-Green transporter on Saturday evening especially when both Andretti and Patrick were chastised by the team for not letting thier teammate Tony Kannan by who was trying to work in an alternate stratgey.

Paul Tracy who made his return to the Indycar Series on Saturday finished a respectable 4th with a team that was pulled together only a few weeks ago.

"I'm just super excited for the team," said Tracy. "They prepared this car in about a week and a half and I gave it a first class effort. With a little more practice and me not sitting on the couch for the last six months, maybe we could do better!"

With another win Dixon now pads his lead over Castroneves to 65 points, but Dixon knows that the fat lady hasn’t sung just yet.

"There four races to go and a 65 point lead is not that big when you get 50 points for a win," he said. "But it is a big margin if we're still running at the end of every race. And if we can win one or two more, that'll really put the final nail in the coffin."

The Indycar Series next race is on Saturday, August 9th at Kentucky Speedway.

Dixon beats Castroneves in Canada [Autosport.com]

Johnson wins a depressing Brickyard 400

Well folks, I don’t know what to say. In my mind yesterday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race, the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was one of the most that was one of the most pitiful races I ever watched. Sure, Jimmie Johnson had a great car and captured his second Brickyard win along with the 48 Lowe’s team, but what I saw yesterday was definitely not a race. If you were living under a rock yesterday and missed the race, you were probably one of the lucky ones. The tires that Goodyear brought were totally terrible; they couldn’t even last more than ten to 15 laps before blowing out. The tires looked the same every time they were pulled off with the cords showing due to severe wear. The rubber wouldn’t even stick to the track instead it became dust that blew away in the wind. This pathetic race was just mind blowing, but now everyone wants to know who is to blame?

The finger of course was pointed towards NASCAR and Goodyear for not handling the tire situation in a logical fashion. The first mistake that NASCAR made was not to have an open test at Indy this year like they do every year instead they only had a little tire test in which they only invited three teams to participate. They could have also used a different compound come race time, but they decided to stick with unreliable tire.

NASCAR VP of competition, Robin Pemberton said after the race on Sunday to Autosport.com that many of the solutions thought of wouldn’t help out one bit. "I think when you have an open test things like that have already been decided," Pemberton said. "I don't think an open test here would've done enough for us, it wouldn't have helped, I don't think.

"You may have had enough issues that you'd have gone back and redesigned the tires, but I don't know if we could've gone with that in time. Hindsight is always 20/20, I think we'll just learn from this experience and try to do a better job next year."

Other people tried to blame the abusive track surface at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the problems that were occurred on Sunday, but Pemberton denied that as a cause for the problems, instead he thinks that racing with the Car of Tomorrow for the first time at Indy may have caused the issues.

"This isn't the first time we've raced here with the surface the way it is, and in the past we've been able to accomplish what we need to accomplish," Pemberton said. "So to pick on the surface wouldn't be fair. I think the new car, and probably not having a test here, probably didn't help us at all. You can say that surface is abrasive, but we have been able to accomplish a full fuel run here in the past."
"We have to anticipate where the tires and the competition are going to meet on Sunday afternoon," he added. "We have challenges when we develop tires here because you have such a dramatic change in surface grip as the track rubbers in. You can make everybody happy on Friday, miserable on Saturday, and really miserable on Sunday, or you can come back and work best at trying to achieve the right grip when it comes to Sunday afternoon."

Pemberton also believed that not having any support races at Indy was the cause to the problems either.

Problems pushed aside a few good things did happen on Sunday, A.J. Allmendinger got his first career top 10 in NASCAR Sprint Cup competition, getting he and his Red Bull team ever closer to the top 35 in owner points. Elliot Sadler and Jamie McMurray got their best finishes of the season finishing 4th and 6th respectively. And with Johnson’s win Hendrick Motorsports got their first win of the season that didn’t involve fuel mileage, (with the way race was run, fuel mileage wouldn’t have been a factor anyway). The Sprint Cup Series moves on to Pocono where they and fans like I will hope that the memories of this race will disappear like a bad television series.

NASCAR to learn from tyre debacle [Autosport.com]

Saturday, July 26, 2008

So thats why they call it the boob tube...

Your tv schedule for today (all times eastern):

In progress- Sprint Cup Series Final Practice from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway [ESPN2], Koni Challenge Series from Birmingham, AL [Speed]

4 pm- World of Outlaws from Eldora Speedway Rossburg, Ohio [Speed]

4:30 pm-NASCAR Nationwide Series Qualifying from Indianapolis Raceway Park [ESPN2]

5 pm- Indycar Series: Rexall Edmonton Indy from Edmonton, Canada [ESPN]

6 pm- CORR from Chula Vista, Ca [Speed], NHRA Qualifying from Somona, Ca [ESPN2]

6:30 pm- NASCAR Camping World East Series from Adironack Speedway in New York. [HDNet]

7:30 pm- NASCAR Nationwide Series: Kroger 200 from Indianapolis Raceway Park. [ESPN]

10 pm- AMA Motocross from New Berlin, NY. [Speed]

Rusty Wallace and Ryan Newman just love to hate each other

It's a fact that Rusty Wallace and Ryan Newman had a strained relationship during their time together at Penske Racing, but even now with Rusty retired and running his own team and also being a "media personality"at ESPN, it doesn't mean that mudslinging between he and Newman has calmed down any. For example, look at the comments that good ol' Rusty made yesterday on Newman's departure from the team that will occur at the end of the year.

"I'll clear this leaving thing up," Wallace said on Friday. "He didn't leave. Roger called Ryan up to his office and said, 'I don't need your services next year.' Ryan didn't come to him and say he's leaving. You all need to write that. That's exactly how it went down. "Obviously, there was some bad blood there when that happened. I love Roger, so I'm going to help clear up the story for him."

Of course, team boss Roger Penske and Newman quickly fired back saying that it didn't go down that way. "I have read Rusty's comments and it is important for everyone to understand that I did not fire Ryan," Penske said. "His contract runs though 2008 and we sat down and agreed that we were not going forward beyond this year."

"I don't know what Rusty is trying to prove, but that's not the case," Newman said. "Roger and I agreed not to continue our association. If anything, it was me more than him. Our goals didn't align." Yeah, like the goal of having Mr. Penske care about his NASCAR team for once.

*Sigh* Why can't we all just get along?

He said, she said: Wallace claims Newman forced out at Penske [ESPN.com]

Friday, July 25, 2008

Miss Teen South Carolina works for Indycar.com

I'll be honest with you folks, I never been to Edmonton or even Canada. But I'll tell you this the picture to the left is definitely not of the sky line of Edmonton, Alberta. Unless Edmonton has copied or stolen the skyline of Long Becah, California.

It makes you wonder if Indycar.com has this girl working for them:



Too funny. Credit jcollins at TBK for this find.

Indycar Racing in Canada, eh?

The Indycar Series makes its first ever trip to the fast airport circuit up in Edmonton Canada and the first ever trip for the Indycar Series itself in Canada. Of course the big story is the “catfight” that happened last weekend between the females of the series Danica Patrick and Milka Duno. The two got into an altercation after a practice in which Duno threw her towel twice at Patrick. The good news is Duno is not racing this weekend and Patrick can focus solely on the race.

The Penske team is having some fabulous runs lately last week at Mid-Ohio the team started one-two with Helio Castroneves on pole and teammate Ryan Briscoe starting along side and the two flipped-flop in the final results with Briscoe taking the victory and Castroneves taking second. This weekend is starting out the same with Briscoe nabbing the pole and Castroneves taking second.

But even with the great runs by the Penske team it is still Scott Dixon on top of the point standings. The good news for the Penske boys is Scott Dixon’s results on road courses have been pretty ho-hum. Dixon has only one top 10 on a road course this year and that was a third last week at Mid-Ohio. With road courses making up three of the final five races this year this could make or break the championship for Dixon. But Castronves can’t rely on Dixon stumbling he has to get some wins to get himself closer to battling for the title with Dixon.

Edmonton also marks the return of “ theThrill from West Hill”, Paul Tracy. Tracy will be making his first Indycar Series start since the controversial 2002 Indy 500 that saw Castroneves and not Tracy himself in victory lane.

Tracy, himself, is not expecting big things to happen on Saturday. "We all want to do well, our expectations are to do well, but I haven't set any type of goal on myself that we have to win the race," Tracy said. “We’re just going to take it step by step every day. From my standpoint, this is my opportunity to get back in the (IndyCar) series."

Tracy, the 2003 Champ Car champion, has a hard time trying to find a ride in the Indycar Series. Tracy drove at the Grand Prix of Long Beach, but has no luck since, but now things are starting to come together. Tracy hopes that this one-off race with Vision and Walker Racing will lead to bigger things. I hope it does, too. The race will be live at 5 pm eastern on ESPN.

Quick out of the Blocks [Indycar.com]

Hey, they're racing at the Brickyard this weekend

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series makes it annual trip to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Brickyard 400 the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard (damn insurance companies). All the focus this weekend is on Indiana’s favorite son, Tony Stewart who is the defending winner of the race and also won it back in 2005. Earlier today Tony announced that the number that he would race with in the 2009 season, the number 14. Tony chose because it was the number that his own hero the grand champion, 4-time Indy 500 winner A.J. Foyt drove with in his career. Tony also announced that he would have Old Spice (perfect gift for your Dad on Father’s Day when you’re too lazy to get him something good) and Office Depot. No word though on who will drive or sponsor the second car.

Tony is also in the news after he got into an altercation with a USAC Sprint Car official during a race at nearby Indianapolis O’Reilly Raceway Park when the official refused to order a push truck to go and help Tony’s driver, Tracy Hines. Tony knocked off the official’s headphones and shoved him. Tony, of course, regrets the incident.

Winning at the Brickyard is one of the biggest things a driver can do in his career. Some have even said that winning at Indy may be bigger than winning the Daytona 500. There are the drivers who still seek their first win at the track. Casey Mears, is one of the drivers, Casey’s family are no strangers to the Brickyard his father, Roger, raced the Indy 500 twice and of course his uncle, Rick won the Indy 500 four times along with Foyt and Al Unser.

This weekend will also be special for Mears who will make his 200th Sprint Cup start this weekend. "I feel so lucky to have the career that I do and to be able to race these cars every weekend," Mears said. "And to do it for a living -- that's all I wanted growing up."

Speaking of four time winners at the Brickyard, Jeff Gordon is one and he is looking to grab win number five, not to mention his first win of the year. Gordon, who grew up in nearby Pittsboro also fins this track to be dear to his heart. "As a kid, I remember taking the bus around here, going to the museum and just thinking how cool it would be to race on the track one day," Gordon said. "The opportunity to race here in open-wheeled cars never materialized, and I chose to pursue racing stock cars in NASCAR."


"That [the first win at Indy in 1994] is still one of the most memorable moments of my career," Gordon said. "I thought I'd lost that chance to race here. Then, to get that chance in a stock car and to win was just incredible. Now I get the opportunity to race here every year, and I've been fortunate to win the event four times."

If Gordon gets win number five, he will join Michael Schumacher as the only drivers who have five wins at the Brickyard and Gordon will certainly love to get his 2008 season back on track starting with a win here.

Of course, as always, Kyle Busch will be a threat to win on Sunday and looks to make 4 wins out of 5 races on Sunday. Qualifying is tomorrow at 10 am on ESPN2 and the race coverage starts on Sunday at 1 pm on ESPN.

Stewart expects fine from USAC for role in 'altercation' [ESPN.com]


Gordon refreshed, ready for Indy after vacation [Hendrickmotorsports.com]

Mears to make 200th start at Indy [Hendrickmotorsports.com]

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Shocking

The FIA's introduction of the Kinetic Energy Recovery System, or KERS, is not going as smoothly as expected especially after a BMW mechanic received an electric shock from one during testing in Jerez, Spain earlier today, the mechanic only suffred an injury to his left arm.

The KERS system which is basically a new boost system that is powered by heat will be introduced to Formula 1 in the 2009 season,but there are still some bugs to work out though. Big bugs. The incident at Jerez isn't the only problem teams have had. Red Bull Racing last week had to evacuate part of their faclitiy after a battery test of the KERS system went horribly wrong. The teams are now very concerned about introducing the KERS system with all that issuses that have devleoped.

Toyota team boss John Howett spoke to autosport.com in Hockenheim about the issues: "I think all of these issues have been on the table from the beginning. So you have voltage issues, you have the battery issues; you have the cost of registering the batteries to transport them. People who use high-speed rotating flywheels have also got issues there.

"The perception of KERS is very simple, but the execution is incredibly difficult and the road car applications are completely different from a race car. Whereas the motor, the control unit, the battery, and the basic concept is similar, the actual sophistication and needs of a road car are completely different from what we are having to develop in Formula One. So there is a big difference"

Lets just hope that these problems get fixed before somebody becomes a roast duck.

BMW Mechanic Escapes KERS Scare [Autosport.com]

Pack your bags....

A1GP is switching venues for their South African round. They will race at Kyalami instead of on the streets Durban. You still won't get me near the country though. Not even for all the gold in the country. [Autosport.com]

Indycar Series getting fresh?

Been hearing stuff from the grapevine that Subway as title sponsor for the Indycar Series in the season 2009 season. The rumor sounds a little far fectched though as Subway may be only spending $10 million for the sponsorship for one year, which is chump change as major sponsorships go. Most sponsors spend more than that to sponsor a single NASCAR team, let alone a whole series. But with the way the Indycar Series is right now, they could use all of the help they can get.

There are other rumors of people like Kodak looking at sponsoring the series. Of course Subway will be sponsoring driver Paul Tracy as he makes his return to Indycar racing Saturday in Edmonton.

Subway, Kodak in running for Indycar Series title sponsorship [Indy Racing Revolution]

Kimi Raikkionen will not help up crying children



Kimi Raikkonen is very busy man people and he doesn't have time to sign your precious autographs or time console crying children hes just here to race, folks. Sure that may be cold, but then again hes called the iceman for a reason. He has a reputation to keep up.

He'll also shove photographers that get in his way:

Monday, July 21, 2008

About this whole Danica-Milka mess



I'm sure you've seen it all over the place now and I'm pretty sure your sick of it too. Why I do feel for Danica about being blocked by the rolling chicane that is Milka Duno. You think maybe would have thought this out before confronting her or maybe just do it like they do it in elementary school and be a nark and tell on her to the teacher aka Brian Barnhart. Just really sad to people do immature stuff like this, hopefully one day we'll be rid of these two and back to some simple racing.

Oh and if was to pick one of them in a fight, I would take Milka winning in three rounds of greuling mud wrestling. Yes i'n perverted, but can you really blame me?

Back in the Saddle Again

Hey I'm back its been a while. The move for me went pretty smoothly, but I just got lazy and decided to take a little more time off than expected. So while I'm flattered with the creative rumors of what happened with me the last few weeks ranging from being kidnap by terriorsts to being anal-probed by aliens, they are just not true. So lets get back to buisness, shall we?

Monday, July 7, 2008

Note from your friendly editor

Well, its been a great opening couple of months to this website, but the writing is going to have to stop for a little bit as I am in the process of moving to a new home and I want to focus all of my efforts on that. So I am taking a week off and resume my writing next week. So enjoy the races, go out get some sunshine and for God's sake don't watch too much porno, you'll go blind.

See you next Monday.

Cheers,
Cameron

Another new face in victory lane

A long time ago, 4 years ago to be exact, in another open-wheel series, Champ Car, Ryan Hunter-Reay won a race in Milwauke, but carrer went into a bit of a tail spin soon enough he found himself out of a ride, only doing part time work in the Grand-Am series. That was until late last year when he got a call from Bobby Rahal asking him to drive his car and in six races he scored three top 10s and took rookie of the year honors, but the was because he was really the only rookie around.
2008 for Hunter-Reay showed moments of greatness and moments of frustartion. But on Sunday things went all the way to the good as Hunter-Reay took his first Indycar victory at Watkins Glen.

"For something to finally go our way is great," Hunter-Reay said. "It didn't land in our lap; we had to go out there and earn it. Then we just checked out at the end, which was the best. We put an exclamation on the end of that one. It was a beautiful deal."

While Hunter-Reay got the victory, the race was dominated by the strong cars of Scott Dixon and Ryan Briscoe, but the two tangled during second to last caution, when Dixon accidently spun himself out leaving Briscoe nowhere to go, but to collide with him, that left them both out of contention.

"It was like a scene out of Days of Thunder," Hunter-Reay said about the collision. "I couldn't see where they were or where the opening was. I couldn't see any cars, just a dirt cloud. I picked left, and luckily it was open. I got through there, and then I immediately thought, 'This is the point where I get paid back for all the bad luck.'"

The incident moved Hunter-Reay up to 2nd behind Darren Manning and Hunter-Reay quickly dispatched Manning for the lead and held on to the take the victory.

The victory would also be the first for the Rahal-Letterman team since 2004 when Buddy Rice took victory at Michigan for the team. "This is vindication," team co-owner Bobby Rahal said. "Some guys who have driven for us in the past said this team doesn't have the will to win. It's all about having the right driver."

Manning held off Tony Kannan, who was driving with a hurt wrist, to take second. Buddy Rice and Marco Andretti rounded out the top five.

Meanwhile, Scott Dixon, despite all of the late race silliness, was still able to extend his points lead on Helio Castroneves to 48. The next round of the Indycar Series will be held at Nashville Speedway on Saturday night.

Hunter-Reay scores maiden victory [Autosport.com]

Lewis Hamilton pulls it off at Silverstone

One of the most greatest things you can do in your Formula 1 career is have a victory in your home country. It only took Lewis Hamilton two years to accomplish that feat as he took victory Sunday in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone in a difficult wet race winning by over a minute ahead second-place finisher Nick Heidfeld.

"This was the toughest race, but also one of the best ones I have ever driven," Hamilton said. "It was so extreme and slippery out there, very similar to the Japanese Grand Prix in Fuji last year. I had troubles with my visor and tried to clean it a couple of times. I thank my team for a great job; they did fantastic work and we always made the right decisions with the tires in the difficult conditions. When I came round the last time, I saw the crowd standing up and I prayed: 'Just finish, just finish.'

"It was a very emotional moment to win my home grand prix, and I want to dedicate this victory to my family. As everybody knows, I had some troubles over the past few weeks, and they have always been there for me and supported me."

For Nick Heifeld it was "close, but no cigar" once again. "It was a good race," Heidfeld said. "I am happy with second place because today it was the best I could achieve. Qualifying went well and in the race we did everything right. Obviously, it was crucial to make the right tire decisions. At the first stop we were wondering if we should stay with the used set of inters, but luckily we then decided on new tires. We were expecting a small shower, but when I drove down Hanger Straight and saw a black wall in front of me, I thought I should expect more than that!"

"The most difficult moments in the race were when cars were overtaking me who had been lapped but were just on better tires for the conditions at that time. There was so much water, and I couldn't see where it was lying. Once before Abbey I almost spun but just managed to keep the car on the track."

For Hamilton it had been a season of ups and downs. Amazing moments like wins at Australia and Monaco and disappointing moments like at Canada where ran into the back of Kimi Raikkonen on pit road.

Another feel good story was that Rubens Barrichello had a podium finish for the first time since left Ferrari back in 2005.

"It's a great feeling to be back on the podium today after such an exciting race where the weather conditions really helped us to get the best out of the car. The most important decision of the race for us was switching to the extreme wet tire when the heavy rain started to fall at half distance. I had a real moment at Club, going off at high speed and almost hitting the wall, and that made me realize that we needed to make a quick decision. After fitting the extreme wets, I was able to overtake the cars in front easily, which was a great feeling. Making such a crucial decision at a key time comes from experience and from the team having the confidence in me to make the call."

"I would like to say a big thank you to the team today -- to everyone back at the factory and also in Japan. Life is about learning from your experiences, and we have been through some tough times over the last couple of years. But I always had faith that there were good times ahead and I know there are plenty more to come."

Kimi Raikkonen, Heikki Kovalainen, Fernando Alonso, Jarno Trulli and Kazuki Nakajima rounded out the top 8 postions.

Meanwhile the battle for the world championship has tighten up even more as Lewis Hamilton, Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen are all tied for the points lead and Robert Kubica is only two points behind. The next race is the German Grand Prix in two weeks at Hockenheim.

Hamilton earns historic victory in British GP [Motorsport.com]

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Don't touch that dial!

What to watch today while your friends try to figure out what is in your pants.

1 pm- F1 British Grand Prix. Fish and chips not included. [FOX]
3 pm- CORR from Pomona. [NBC]
3:30 pm- Indycar Series: Camping World Grand Prix at the Watkins Glen. Winner gets a nice tent. [ABC]
4 pm- World of Outlaws from Dodge City. *insert Cowboys joke here* [Speed Channel]
5:30 pm- GP2 from Silverstone. The stars of F1 tomorrow racing yesterday. [Speed Channel]
9 pm- Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain. Your guests tonight are Kasey Kahne and Gary Scelzi.

Finish to the Coke Zero 400

Here is the wacky finish to last nights race, for tohse of you that haven't seen it or want to see it again:

Kyle Busch does it again at Daytona

Kyle Busch pulled another win out last night in last nights Coke Zero 400. Busch held off a spirited charge by Carl Edwards in a green-white-checkered situation to take his sixth win of the year.

"We didn't have the best car tonight," Busch said. "But these guys never gave up. Luckily, we were leading when the caution came out."

The night was bit of wreck fest with the yellow flag coming out 11 times during trace which included two large crashes at the end of the night, including one that sent the race into overtime when Jimmie Johnson spun and collected six others. Kyle Busch was given the narrow lead on Jeff Gordon for the final restart. The field was bunched up when the green flag came out for the final time and Carl Edwards turned Jeff Gordon spinning him out which made Gordon's car stall and relegated him to a 30th place finish. Meanwhile with Edwards and Busch duking it out for the lead, the rest of the field behind them decided it would be cool to play bumper cars that worked pretty well until Michael Waltrip and others got together on the final lap in turn 1 bringing out the caution and ending the race.

"I was driving as hard as I could," Edwards said. "Man, I hate to lose that thing like that. I was doing everything I could."

Meanwhile Jeff Gordon wasn't really surprised on how the race ended.

"We had such an awesome night going," Gordon said. "I'm so excited about the way we ran, obviously disappointed with the way it finished. … They were all laying back, we were all playing kind of cat and mouse on that last restart, you know on a green-white-checkered. … We were going for the win, trying to get the momentum and the 99 [of Edwards] got a run and I went low to block him and he kept going low and I guess I must have come across the front bumper."

"I knew it was just a matter of time before we got wrecked the way they were bump-drafting and getting pretty crazy out there," Gordon said. "I'm excited about the way we ran. We had a great opportunity to win the race. I have to look at the videos. It might have been my fault, I don't know."

After Busch and Edwards, Matt Kenseth, Kurt Busch and David Ragan rounded out the top five.
And Kyle Busch extends his points lead to 182 over Dale Earnhardt Jr. The next Sprint Cup race will be next Saturday night at Chicagoland Speedway.

Late-race crash didn't surprise Gordon [Scenedaily.com]

Busch wins again- this time at Daytona International Speedway [Scenedaily.com]

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Indycar Preview: Watkins Glen

The Indycar Series is in the state of New York this weekend for some road course action at Watkins Glen. The last few years have been pretty the same story, Helio Castroneves on pole and Scott Dixon taking the victory. Well so far its looks like will have a little parity, this year. Qualifying saw Ryan Briscoe take pole while his teammate, Castroneves comically struggled trying to get out of Q1.

Danica Patrick could have gotten out of Q1, but she forgot to finish her fast lap. The qualifying session also featured crashes by A.J. Foyt IV and Will Power. But it will be Briscoe and Justin Wilson on the front row. Points leader Scott Dixon will start 4th and last weeks winner Tony Kannan will start sixth.

NASCAR Preview: Daytona

It’s time once again for that midsummer classic, the Firecracker Pepsi Coke Zero 400. Yes, the NASCAR boys are back in Daytona for some high speed, tight racing action. But let's not kid ourselves were only watching tonight to see a giant crash. Racing? Yeah right. You want to see a big 25 car pileup and say "Its just like real life, except my dumbass isn't in it! WOOOOO!"

And by the way who's great idea was it to let Coke Zero sponsor a race? That has to be the second-nastiest drink to grace this earth. Pepsi Blue bieng the first.

Anyway, qualifying turned out another surprise as Paul Menard won the pole for tonight’s race. Paul Menard? Really, Paul Menard? Does anybody actually try in qualifying anymore?
Tonight TNT's will also feature "Wide Open Coverage", which means that will be less commercials and more Bill Weber, aren't you happy? It will also be a high def broadcast produced for the small screen. Which means everyone with a standard screen will slit themselves after the race because they'll will be still without HD long after the race has ended. So enjoy the race tonight and lets hope that all of your crash fantasies come true.

Oh, you wanted me to say something about what will happen the race. Um, okay, hmmm, oh. Boris Said still won't win a race. That's a fair enough prediction.

Friday, July 4, 2008

F1 Preview: British Grand Prix

The F1 circus heads off to the former World War II airfield and now racing circut and perhaps the world's busiest helipad this weekend at Silverstone for the British Grand Prix. Felipe Massa had brillaint drive in the French Grand Prix and took the win and the points lead and now Massa hopes to continue his momentum at Silverstone. Meanwhile his teammate Kimi Raikkonen hopes some luck will get hims back into victory lane. Raikkonen had the strong car all day until his exhaust pipe came off, costing him the power necessary to keep himself in front of Massa.

Defending polesitter Lewis Hamilton also looks to get himself back on track after back to back pityful results at Canada and France. A win at home would be big for young Lewis. And the BMW boys will also be looking at getting back on top of the podium as well. The race will air at 1 pm eastern, Sunday on FOX.

Alonso's future? Wait until September...

Fernando is all mum about his f1 future, at least until after the Italian Grand Prix in September, when he will announce which car he will drive for the 2009 season.

"I think (I will decide) after the summer when all this period of races, then the break and then Belgium and Monza are over," said Alonso.

"They are very important races for us to try to get this fourth position in the constructors' championship. And after that will be time to think about what the possibilities are for next year."

"We need to work as soon as possible on next year's car, but this year's position at the end of the championship is very important for the team," he said. "It's not the same if you finish seventh or you finish fourth, which is the area that Renault is moving towards now.

"We are seventh in the constructors', but we know that our target is to finish fourth and we can do it. So that will make a big change in the budget and everything for next year, so we need to push in two parallel projects, the R28 and the R29, as hard as we can I think."

If Renault fail to get into the top three in the constructors championship, Alonso has the option of leaving the team at end of the year.

The most likely place where Alonso will go is to Ferrari where he may take over Felipe Massa's seat. But with Massa picking up the pace and some wins, not to mention the lead in the drivers championship it looks very unlikely that Alonso will be in a Ferrari. But two other teams are looking at getting Alonso's services: Honda, where there motto is "We always work towards next year" and Red Bull Racing. Both have drivers that are at the twilight of thier carrers and both could use a guy like Alonso to help get thier teams on track.

Alonso to decide future after summer [Autosport.com]

British GP to Donington Park in 2010

The FIA announced that the British Grand Prix will move to circuit at Donington Park from 2010 onward. The move comes at no surprise as the circut at Silverstone has been having a hard time keeping thier date on the F1 calendar secured. This will also be the first British Grand Prix not held at Silverstone since 1986 when Brands Hatch hosted thier final F1 race to date.

"After many years of patient but fruitless negotiation with the BRDC, we are delighted that Bernie has nevertheless been able to ensure that the British Grand Prix will keep its place on the Formula One World Championship calendar," FIA President Max Mosley said. "We understand that the development programme planned for Donington will achieve the very high standards we and FOM expect from a modern F1 circuit. Finally, British Formula One fans will get the Grand Prix venue they deserve."

"Finally the uncertainty is over. A contract has been signed with Donington Park and the future of the British Grand Prix is now secure," F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone added. "We wanted a world class venue for Formula One in Britain, something that the teams and British F1 fans could be proud of. The major development plans for Donington will give us exactly that. A venue that will put British motor sport back on the map.

"I am sorry that we could not have helped Silverstone to raise the money to carry out the circuit improvements and run Formula One. I believe that the government should have supported them which would have cost probably less than .002% of the government's commitment for the Olympic Games."

Silverstone loses British GP to Donington [Autosport.com]

Indycar return for Franchitti unlikely

After his Sprint Cup team shut down earlier this week, there have been many rumors sprung up on what 2007 Indy 500 Dario Franchitti will do to get his racing career back on track. Dario will like everyone to know that a return to the Indycars is out of the question.

"Let's see what the future holds," Franchitti said. "I need to sit down with Chip and see where his head is, but NASCAR is where I want to be. I want to be successful here and I certainly don't want it to end like this.

"I made a big commitment coming over here and I'd like to get an opportunity to be successful."

"When I made the decision to come here (to NASCAR), I wasn't going to do the IndyCar thing anymore anyway, so this isn't a case of missing out on what could have been in IndyCar," he said. "That just wasn't a direction I wanted to go in. "Never say never, but it's unlikely I'll go back."

"We definitely struggled in the first couple of races, but we were getting there," Franchitti said. "The results have been this and that, but I really feel like we were getting there."

With a best finish of 22nd, yeah that is "getting there" alright.

"We were starting to run well, me and the No.40 guys all thought things were turning around."

Dario's misfortune has got him some sympathy from other drivers in the Sprint Cup garage.

"I think a couple things happened," Richard Childress Racing driver Jeff Burton said. "Dario is an accomplished racecar driver and I think he can get it done in the Cup Series, but it's going to take time. The question is, how patient can people be? And at a time when we don't have a lot of new sponsors coming in it's hard to build a company that wants to be patient. People that are wanting to make that investment want success right away.

"I think a lot of things stacked up against him and it made it harder for him than if he would have been able to have success sooner. Unfortunately Ganassi have been a little down, too. They haven't been as good as you would expect them to be."

"It's really shocking to us to see a team shut down like that, and it's tough," Roush Racing's Greg Biffle said. "You don't want to see that. Dario, I think, is a great driver. He's improved tremendously. He ran very well at Loudon, and qualified decently, but I don't know. Their organisation has been having a tough time competition-wise lately, and it's sad to see them without a sponsor and having to shut that down temporarily."

Four-time Sprint Cup champion Jeff Gordon believes the U.S. economy is to blame for Dario's bad luck.

"I think it's certainly a wake-up call, you know, any of us are vulnerable," Gordon said. "I would have never thought that they would have struggled getting sponsorship. I'm sure Chip Ganassi thought they wouldn't struggle. They probably didn't think they'd struggle on the racetrack as much as they have either, especially on the road course. We all can be vulnerable and it just makes you appreciate what you have, the sponsors you have, and it makes you work that much harder to try to stay competitive."

Plans about Dario's future may be announced next week, lets hope the boys at CGR aren't wearing rose-tinted glasses like Dario is.

Cup drivers sympathise with Franchitti [Autosport.com]

Franchitti says IndyCar return unlikely [Autosport.com]

Your Fourth of July NASCAR News and Notes

Truex's Car Impounded: Martin Truex Jr.'s primary car was impounded yesterday after it failed tech inspection when its roof did not match the templates set by NASCAR. That meant Truex and his team had to go to a backup car which meant they missed first practice and didn't get a chance to run second practice due to the rains that came on Thursday night. Truex was none too happy about the situation.

“Somebody made a big mistake,” said Truex. “That shouldn’t happen at this level of auto racing, but people make mistakes. We’ll go on.”

“It’s tough when you miss practice. Two hours of practice isn’t much to begin with, you miss one hour and it’s tough to catch up if you’re not right.”

Truex unhappy with team [Speedtv.com]

S**t happens, Chad Walter: Crew Chief for Jr Motorsports number 5 car, Chad Walter, was fined by NASCAR for dropping the s-bomb on live television during last Saturday's Nationwide race at New Hampshire. Walter recevied a $10,000 fine, while the team suffred a loss of both 25 driver and owner points. Chad Walter is also on probation and will have to have a bar of soap in his mouth until December 31st.

Boy, what a bullshit call. What? It's not like they can fine me, too. [Source: Jayski.com]

Amirola in the 8 for 2009: Dale Earnhardt Inc. announced that Aric Amirola will drive the full time in 2009. *Yawn* This is news? [Source: DEI PR]

Hylton and Kerry Earnhardt to race at Daytona tonight: The 1,000 year old man James Harvey Hylton and the lovable Kerry Earnhardt will particpate in the Nationwide Race. Kerry will drive a DEI car while Hylton will drive for Johnny Davis' car. [Source: Jayski.com]

The fireworks started early

Holy hell, what a finish last night in the Grand-Am Brumos Porsche 250 at Daytona. Scott Pruett edged out Alex Gurney it what would be the closest finish in Grand-Am series history. Heres the vid:



Jeff Segal also had a nasty flip towards the end of the race when his Mazda collided with Bill Lester's Lexus:

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Howard returns

After a five race absence, Jay Howard will return to behind the wheel of the 24 Roth Racing machine in the Indycar Series. Howard sat the last five rounds out while John Andretti drove the car. The team stated that Andretti's wealth of experience was needed for conquering the oval tracks, but since most of the final races are road courses Howard would have enough expeience to get through the final few rounds.

"To say I'm happy to get back in the car is an understatement," said Howard. "It's hard to describe the feeling when I'm on the sidelines watching.

"I'm only looking forward now and I'm going to go out and do what I do best and try to get a good result for the team."

Howard returns to Roth [Autosport.com]

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

40 team shuts down, Franchitti out of a ride

Chip Ganassi decided today to shut down his no 40 team laying off most of the employees on the team and leaving driver and former Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti out of a ride. Ganassi reasons that lack of funds and sponsorship also with the lack of perfomance on all three of his teams were the reasons that Ganassi had to shut the team down.

"If I keep going I run the risk of dragging the other two teams down. I don't want to do that," Ganassi told the Associated Press. "There's no money. It makes no sense to be running this out of my pocket. I had to put a stop to it."

Franchitti had struggled greatly this year in Sprint Cup with a best finish of 22nd at Martinsville and a 41st place position in points. Ganassi said Franchitti was "disappointed" when told of the teams closing, but Ganassi hopes that Franchitti will still particpate in his Nationwide car until his Sprint Cup program is built it up. But there are rumors that Franchitti might go into sportscar racing in 2009.

Lack of Sponsorship forces Ganassi to shut down Franchitti's team [ESPN.com]

Stewart to F1 drivers: Get a coach

Jackie Stewart thinks that F1 drivers need better training before getting behind the wheel of an F1 car, mainly through driving coaches.

"One of the weaknesses we have in F1 is the lack of training we have," Stewart said. "This is the only sport that I can think of that doesn't have coaching - at Wimbledon just now, coaches are coming out of their ears. And for sure it makes a difference. You have football coaches, you have rugby coaches, you have cricket coaches, and you have golf coaches.

"Tiger Woods wouldn't walk 10 metres without his coach, in terms of how that swing has to be repeatedly put into his head – is it too fast, too slow, the wrong muscular movement? Yet racing drivers claim they don't need any help at all."

"And when you suggest that they might benefit from it, there is a resistance. I don't understand that. They seem to think once you get into that zone that they race above it and don't need it – and they also wonder how is it going to make a difference?"

Stewart's comments were drawn from comments that F1 driver Lewis Hamilton made to the English Newspaper The Daily Mail.

"I'm in a unique position," said Hamilton. "Nobody has felt exactly the same things as I've felt. The only person I really take advice from is my Dad (Anthony). He's great. He says the right things. He's guided me the whole way through my career. So if I have any questions, I ask him."

Like on how to handle a expensive and borrowed Porsche on local streets.

"I don't doubt his motives. And I'm old enough to know whether to take his advice and also when to make my own decisions."

Like on whether to obey that red light at the end of pit lane or not.

"Whenever I speak to Damon or Jackie I do take what they say on board, but I'm not going to go searching them out and ask how I can be world champion. I want to do it on my own. I got to where I am on my own, with my family."

Good luck on that strategy, Lewis.

Stewart believes that accidents, like the one Hamilton and Nico Rosberg had in the Canadian Grand Prix earlier this year, could have been prevented.

"I think one of the biggest and most important elements is communication, and I don't think there is enough communication going on," he explained. "For example, the accident in Montreal – how did that happen? That happened because there was so much distraction going on, so much interference in the drivers' young heads, that they didn't hear the message: 'the pitlane is closed, the red light is on'.

"Here was Lewis, with nearly a nine-second advantage, and Nico with a very competitive car was up for a very good performance and possibly a podium, when the safety car comes out. It doesn't matter who you are, you are going to be upset and annoyed, and does it affect your head? Yes.

"They come in (to the pits), and they need to be talked down mentally. And that is almost a psychiatrist's job because that is where the coach could have come in, because the man who talks to him (the driver) should be the man who specializes in good, clear communication. He should know when to put the emphasis on a certain word – just like an air traffic controller.

"He will have had almost a lap to be talked down, to have his head clean, for when he comes in. There has to be the right choice of words, not unnecessary words spoken because that causes fog. So don't say anything you don't need to say.

"You have to bring the guys head down so when he accelerates out you say: "By the way the red light is on. The red light is on. Repeat. Do you understand?

"You say that while he is still in the pits. The blame that Lewis got and blame Nico got was all on their shoulders. That was wrong. Because the team should have actually ensured that they were clear, there was no big rush. The pitlane is closed, the cars are stopped. Each had the 'oh shit' factor. He looked up, and bang. They hadn't been properly prepared mentally to restart the race."

Stewart also beleives the teams should get into act of hiring coaches.

"I think it needs to come from the teams. At the end of the day they are the employer because they have so much more to lose than the drivers.

"Nowadays the safety factor is so big that there are not many penalties for drivers, but there are mammoth penalties for teams. If we in Williams do not finish races, the cost to Frank, the team and the sponsor not being as well pleased as they might be is very large. The leadership in this must come from the teams.

"I am a big supporter of Lewis although I have been quite critical. In 36 to 48 months is going to think back, why didn't I think about that? Why did I not do that? "

Stewart urges F1 to embrace driver coaches [Autosport.com]



The Batmobile lost a wheel...

The Toyota F1 team announced that they will team up with Warner Brothers to promote the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight, at the British Grand Prix. Both Toyota drivers and cars will be decked out with artwork from the movie. But to be honest folks, I don't think Batman would be caught dead behind the wheel of say, a Toyota Camry. He's too badass to be a Toyota driver. The Batmobile and Bat-Pod will also be at Silverstone for the race weekend.

In Toyota related news, Timo Glock, who drives for the Toyota F1 team, will get a chance to get behind the wheel of a Toyota GT-One sports car, the same car the that took pole for the 1999 24 hours of Le Mans, at Old Time Grand Prix event at the Nurburgring circuit in Germany on August 9th.

Maybe Batman would like to drive one of those, instead.

Toyota join forces with Batman [Autosport.com]

Glock to drive Toyota GT-One [Autosport.com]

Randy Moss' team is coming on well

Randy Moss is expected to announce this week on his plans with his new Craftsman Truck series team. A source to told the Boston Herald (a trustworthy newspaper, *cough* spygate *cough*) that Moss has purchased a major stake in the Morgan Dollar Motorsports team and will run his truck at Kentucky in a few weeks with the number 81 on it and a "prominent" Sprint Cup driver will be behind the wheel. (Kevin Lepage is a prominent driver?)

Moss should be making the announcement Thursday at Daytona.

Patriots' Randy Moss starts engine [Boston Herald]

Hey...

The youngest of the Earnhardt children is into barrel racing.

Earnhardt to race in V8 Supercars

Dale Earnhardt Jr. plans to have a little fun after the 2008 NASCAR season ends. Earnhardt will drive a Holden Commodore at final round of the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series (which is like Nationwide Series for the V8 Supercars) at Oran Park in Australia. Earnhardt will team up with Scotts Loadsman and drive the car that Steve Owen has driven all season, Owen will have a new car at the Oran Park round.

“I know that Dale Earnhardt Jnr wanted to drive in the last race and Paul Morris is organising for him to come out,” said Loadsman. “That’s confirmed.
“We’ve already got the car from Morris, we got the sister car to ‘Earnhardt’… we bought ‘Gidget’. So he’s going to drive in the last race out there so he’ll probably drive that [Earnhardt] car.”

The race weekend will take place on December 4-7.

NASCAR Superstar to make V8 car debut [Wheelsmag.com]