Going Around in Ovals

How about some in car action?

2008-08-21T10:00:00.000-04:00

From a Car of Tomorrow test at Nashville Super Speedway courtesy of KHamlin Racing.

The News Dump: August 20th

2008-08-20T13:00:00.000-04:00

Texaco leaving NASCAR: After sponsoring NASCAR teams for the last 20 years. Texaco Havoline has decided to leave the sport at the end of the year leaving Juan Pablo Montoya and the Chip Ganassi to find new sponsorship in 2009. [Scenedaily.com]

NASCAR handed down stiff penalties to the Joe Gibbs Nationwide Series teams for placing magnets under the throttle of their cars before a dyno test. Both teams have had thier crew cheifs, thier car chiefs and thier engine tuners, indenfietly susepnded. And both teams lost 150 driver and owener points [NASCAR PR via Jayski.com]

Ken Schrader will attempt to get the Hall of Fame racing team back on track Satuday night in Bristol [Scenedaily.com]

Current Indycar Points Leader Scott Dixon will join De Ferran Motorsports for the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta in October [Autosport.com]

The News Dump: August 19th

2008-08-19T16:35:00.004-04:00

NASCAR- Newman in 39 for 2009: Last night on his radio show Tony Stewart said that his driver Ryan Newman will drive with the number 39 in 2009, not 4. Should make those crybaby Morgan-McClure boys happy. [Scenedaily.com]

NASCAR- 2009 Schedules Announced: NASCAR Announced the schedules for the three big series. The Sprint Cup Series Schedule had a big date swap as Atlanta Motor Speedway will have their second race on Labor Day Weekend. California Speedway will get a date in the chase in October and Talladega Speedway will get a new date in November.

Meanwhile, the Nationwide Series will visit the Iowa Speedway in 2009 and the Truck Series will have the Chicagoland Speedway as a new venue. [Scenedaily.com]

Too much, too soon?

2008-08-19T15:21:00.002-04:00

Over the last few months we’ve seen and heard about the great talent that Joe Gibbs Racer Joey Logano has. Last year he took the Camping World Series East Championship and in May he won the inaugural Carolina 500 in the ARCA Series, all before his 18th birthday. In his third nationwide series start he took victory at the Kentucky Speedway becoming the youngest victory winner in any of NASCAR’s three big series. Now there are plans that young Joey Logano will inherit Tony Stewart’s vacant Sprint Cup seat next year. Which leaves me to wonder, is he ready for this big ride?

We’ve seen in the past how drivers that started racing in the Cup Series with very little seat time behind the wheel of a stock car have failed miserably. A notable example would include Casey Atwood who drove started driving in Sprint Cup with Ray Evernham at the young age of 19. After a ho-hum rookie season in 2001, he was moved over to a new ride that Evernham had teamed with Jim Smith, but the partnership dissolved and left Atwood with out a ride. Atwood has never found a new full time ride he still gets the occasional ride here or there.

A more current example would include Michael McDowell. McDowell finshed 2nd in the ARCA/Remax Championship last year and was tapped by Micheal Waltrip to drive his 00 car starting at the 6th race of the year in Martinsville. How was McDowell prepared for this big opportunity? He had one Nationwide start at Daytona. McDowell is now out of the 00 while hired gun Mike Skinner now tries to get the team back in the top 35 in points.

Even the new onslaught of open wheel drivers has had trouble getting adjusted to getting adjusted. Names like Dario Franchitti, Sam Hornish Jr, Patrick Carpentier and A.J. Allmendinger have all struggled getting adjusted to the Sprint Cup series and all have few starts in the Nationwide Series or the Truck Series. More starts would have helped them get used to handling these heavy beasts of a car.

So is Logano ready for prime time? Maybe. Being with an experienced team like Joe Gibbs Racing will help. All the other drivers listed in this little rant are not on the best of times. But certainly more track time could help and lets hope JGR has the horse sense to keep him in the Nationwide Series a little longer.

Tune in and tune out

2008-08-17T12:00:00.002-04:00

Your Sunday afternoon tv schedule:

1 pm NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: 3M Performance 400 from Brooklyn, Mich. Definitely taping this race. *writes reminder on post-it note* [ESPN]

2 pm Moto Gp from Brno. Czech it out, while I'll show myself out. [CBS]

3 pm AMA Superbike: Big Kahuna Nationals from ~~Hawaii~~ Virginia. [Speed Channel]

10 pm NHRA: Toyo Tires Nationals. Yeah, the Olympics are looking good right about now. Oh, hey pre-season football is on! [ESPN2]

For your viewing pleasure....

2008-08-16T12:00:00.002-04:00

<"Trust me, Carl. Chicks will dig you if you stop letting your mom hang out with you constantly."

Trust there isn't nothing really much on motorsport wise:

3 pm NASCAR Nationwide Series: Carfax 250 from Michigan. This race is really hot! Not really. [ESPN2]

6 pm NHRA Qualifiyng from Reading, Pa. I'm sorry folks, but if it's something that involves reading I'm staying away from it. [ESPN2]

But, hey if you don't like this lineup theres always the Olympics, am I right? Right? Guys?

Newman to drive for Stewart-Haas Racing in 2009

2008-08-15T11:59:00.002-04:00

So it will be Ryan Newman that will drive the 4 car for Tony Stewart in 2009. Well, no surprise there as Ryan had been pretty much the driver Tony has been eyeing his fellow Hoosier for this ride during the past few months. So the announcement this morning at the Micihigan International Speedway pretty much confirmed it.

Of course they’re just glad to be teaming up with each other. "It's just a great opportunity," Newman said. "I think a lot of Tony from a personal standpoint as well as a driving standpoint. Talking to Tony and his people, it seemed to be the best decision for the right reasons."

“The thing that impressed me the most about Ryan was he asked me all the right questions from day one," Stewart said. Sponsorship for Newman’s car has yet to be determined at this moment, but those dominoes will fall soon enough.

Dumb driver of the week

2008-08-15T11:00:00.001-04:00

This is a new weekly feature we will have on Going Around in Ovals we hope you will enjoy it:

This weeks winner is a Grandmother from Marathon, Fl (which is in the Florida Keys) who decided to give her 3-year old granddaughter a ride of a lifetime by leting her ride on the roof of her car. The grandmother now faces child abuse charges.

Story [Miami Herald]

Carl Edwards used to date her

2008-08-15T10:00:00.003-04:00

Yes, once upon a time Carl Edwards use to date Olympic swimming goddess Amanda Beard. Eventually they went their separate ways (I think it was because Carl kept bringing his mommy to all their dates and Amanda found to that be very creepy). So what is Amanda up these days?

Well when shes not choking up at the Beijing Olympics to people twice her age. She can be found teaming up with PETA campaigning against the use of fur in fashion. Well whoopity freaking do. Hey, we're on top of the food chain, you animal hugging freaks, deal with it! While I may support naked chicks, I surely don't support animal rights groups. Animals don't have rights, you know why? Because they don't have the brain power to get up and make a stand, but I'm sure they will in the near future.

So for now take advantage of our furry little friends while you can before they learn to strike back. I know I will and let us hope that Carl will stop listening to his momma's rants about how girls are "the devil" and bag him a nice one. Now excuse me while I go and make myself a nice bacon and turducken sandwhich. Mmmm, taste like america!

Note from your friendly editor

2008-08-14T09:30:00.000-04:00

Hello all, long time, no post. Yeah, life for me lately has been a bit busy so getting to work on this blog has been hard to do, but I'm back and ready to work again. As you may notice the name of this place has change and the format will change as well. I won't be posting news as much as I use to, instead I will focus more on writing articles and rants and the news will come through link dumps instead. But the good news is that the theme and the author of this blog will remain the same and that is all that really matters.

Your Random F1 News update for July 29

2008-07-29T15:45:00.001-04:00

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]

Your Random NASCAR News Update for July 28th

2008-07-28T14:45:00.002-04:00

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

2008-07-28T13:15:00.001-04:00

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

2008-07-28T11:36:00.003-04:00

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

2008-07-28T11:26:00.005-04:00

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]

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

2008-07-26T14:04:00.004-04:00

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

2008-07-26T13:14:00.009-04:00

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]

Miss Teen South Carolina works for Indycar.com

2008-07-25T21:36:00.005-04:00

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?

2008-07-25T21:20:00.002-04:00

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

2008-07-25T16:52:00.003-04:00

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]

Shocking

2008-07-22T16:24:00.002-04:00

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....

2008-07-22T16:08:00.003-04:00

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?

2008-07-22T14:15:00.003-04:00

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

2008-07-22T12:46:00.005-04:00

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:

About this whole Danica-Milka mess

2008-07-21T13:01:00.004-04:00

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

2008-07-21T12:35:00.002-04:00

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?

Note from your friendly editor

2008-07-07T13:48:00.002-04:00

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

2008-07-07T12:45:00.004-04:00

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

2008-07-07T12:02:00.005-04:00

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]

Don't touch that dial!

2008-07-06T12:07:00.003-04:00

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

2008-07-06T12:04:00.001-04:00

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

2008-07-06T10:40:00.005-04:00

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]

Indycar Preview: Watkins Glen

2008-07-05T13:41:00.003-04:00

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

2008-07-05T09:07:00.003-04:00

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.

F1 Preview: British Grand Prix

2008-07-04T13:15:00.004-04:00

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...

2008-07-04T12:44:00.005-04:00

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

2008-07-04T12:22:00.005-04:00

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

2008-07-04T12:03:00.004-04:00

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

2008-07-04T10:39:00.008-04:00

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

2008-07-04T10:14:00.002-04:00

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:

Howard returns

2008-07-02T10:42:00.003-04:00

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]

40 team shuts down, Franchitti out of a ride

2008-07-01T16:56:00.006-04:00

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

2008-07-01T12:54:00.003-04:00

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...

2008-07-01T11:41:00.004-04:00

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

2008-07-01T10:43:00.004-04:00

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...

2008-07-01T10:41:00.001-04:00

The youngest of the Earnhardt children is into barrel racing.

Earnhardt to race in V8 Supercars

2008-07-01T10:04:00.004-04:00

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]

Stewart still mulling over options

2008-06-30T12:35:00.004-04:00

Boy, Tony Stewart must love the attention he is getting these days with no wins this season (more on that to come later) and lot options when it comes to picking up a ride next year. And now with Casey Mears being released from Hendrick Motorsports at the end of the year, Tony may have another option.

"There's no one in the garage area that's not going to look in that direction," Stewart said. "You've got to look at it. Absolutely."

Of course it is most likely that Mark Martin will take over the 5 ride at Hendrick Motorsports in 2009, but Stewart feels like the opportunities to maybe get a ride at Hendrick are still open and may affect his search for what ride he wants in 2009.

"It may be pushed back even more." Stewart said. "We'll wait and see. It's however long it takes to make the right decision. There's a lot of variables to look at. We've got all the information except what happened today. The good news is we still have time to look at it."

Stewart interested in filling Mears' spot at Hendrick Motorsports [ESPN.com]

Coulthard not thinking about retirement

2008-06-30T10:20:00.003-04:00

David Coulthard is not thinking about retirement from Formula 1. The oldest driver in Formula 1, at the age of 37, will be racing in his 14th British Grand Prix this weekend, but it is unsure if this will be the last time he races at Silverstone.

"We're all different, and I'm quite a realist," said Coulthard. "When something has happened, or a decision has been taken or whatever it happens to be, it's not something I dwell on, I just get on with the next thing. It's just one of those things. When that moment comes, it's the journey of life. You just move on to the next thing.'

"I'm currently a grand prix driver, I have been for many seasons, and I'm sitting here still as a grand prix driver because I still enjoy it, and I get a buzz from it, and clearly I deliver a value enough for the team to commit to me for the last few years."

"There will come a point, naturally, where that's not going to continue and... boo hoo, you know? There are a lot of worse things that can happen to you. You just move on to the next challenge."

Coulthard who drives for the Red Bull team has drawn the anger of fans and competitors for being old and in the way, but had a great run in Canada finishing on the podium. And there is now speculation that Coulthard will be replaced by the young German Sebastian Vettel in 2009.

Coulthard realistic about F1 future [Autosport.com]

Temper, Temper

2008-06-30T09:46:00.005-04:00

Kyle Busch and Juan Montoya had meeting of the fenders towards the end of Sunday's race in New Hampshire. Before the final caution came out the two were racing each other hard and after they both took the caution Busch rubbed into Montoya's car, Montoya didn't appreciate that and turned Busch unfortunately it didn't work out well for Montoya, as he was tagged by Busch's spinning car and spun out also. NASCAR didn't really care for Montoya's actions and penalized him two laps dropping him from 25th to 32nd in the final results.

"He hit me under caution, he hit me under green and I retaliated," Montoya said. "Did I go too far in retaliating? Yeah. I think they are giving me a penalty and it's OK for what I did. The only thing I told them was that they are always saying be very careful not to do anything under caution. The only reason I did that was that I was just defending myself."

Busch claims that he did nothing to upset Montoya.

"I got a run on him earlier and I got on the outside and he kind of kept coming up a little bit," said Busch. "I didn't turn down into him and just barely touched his quarter-panel. Then I got by him in three and four and he run me up the racetrack in the left rear. Then we came to that caution flag and he thought he beat me to the caution flag and I was just trying to get around the 40 (Dario Franchitti) car, who was in front of us there and touched him on the door and he just turned left and spun me down the front straightaway. I don't know what his beef is, but obviously NASCAR should probably fix it."

Well here is the video of the incident. You be the judge:

Sunday also featured another incident between Kasey Kahne and Aric Amirola as the two took turns punting each other.

Montoya penalised for Busch incident [Autosport.com]

Let it Rain

2008-06-30T08:50:00.006-04:00

Kurt Busch's 2008 season has been full of highs and lows. After finishing second at the Daytona 500, Busch would fail to score another top 10 finish until Pocono in June. Busch would come into Sunday's race outside the top 20 in points, but on Sunday with a little help from Mother Nature, Busch would find himself in victory lane at the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 in New Hampshire. Pit strategy had him out in front and all it took was a little rain shower to seal the deal.

"Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good," Busch said. "Sometimes you just don't win them the right way, I think we can honestly say that, but we had a lot of work and a lot of effort put in today and we'll take it."

Busch's win wasn't the only surprise of the day as it was Michael Waltrip finished second, his first top five finish since 2005. J.J. Yeley who missed the race last week finished third. Martin Truex, Jr. finished fourth and Elliot Sadler rounded out the top five, his first top five since leaving the Yates team in 2006. Of course the race had a much different picture before Kurt Busch took the lead on the second to last caution came out when Jamie McMurray jacked up Dale Earnhardt Jr. who forgot to use the apron when entering pit road. Tony Stewart dominated the day leading over 130 laps, but the pit strategy of others and the rain relegated him to a 13th place finish.

The race saw seven cautions for 33 laps including the final one in which Clint Bowyer was punted by Sam Hornish, Jr.

While his brother was celebrating in victory lane, Kyle Busch saw his points lead over Jeff Burton dwindle down to 64 over Jeff Burton. The younger Busch suffered a late race incident with Juan Montoya (more on that later) and finished 25th.

The series now moves heads back to Daytona to the newly named Coke Zero (yuck) 400 on Saturday.

Rain hands Kurt Busch Loudon Victory [Autosport.com]

We'll do it live!

2008-06-29T11:01:00.003-04:00

What to watch today as Chicago Cubs pitcher Kerry Wood shows his appreciation for the game to a national television audience...

Noon- NHRA Sportsman Series from Englishtown, NJ. Tape delayed action! [ESPN2]
1:30 pm- NASCAR Sprint Cup from Loudon, NH. A Canadian on pole, eh? [TNT]
2 pm- AMA Motorcross Lites from Mt. Morris, where ever the hell that is. [Speed Channel]
3 pm- Superbike World Championship from San Marino. [Speed Channel]
5 pm- MotoGP 250 from Assen, Netherlands. This race will leave you feeling pretty high. [Speed Channel]
6 pm- MotoGP World Championship. The Dutch Grand Prix from Assen, Netherlands. Winner will be payed in uncomfortable wooden shoes. [Speed Channel]
7 pm- NHRA from Norwalk, Oh. More tape delayed action! [ESPN2]
9 pm- Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain. Your guests tonight are Robin and Kevin Miller. No realtion. [Speed Channel]

Big changes at Andretti-Green's ALMS team

2008-06-29T10:33:00.003-04:00

Andretti-Green Racing on Friday announced that both their American Le Mans Series drivers Bryan Herta and Christian Fittipaldi have been let go and will be replaced by former F1 driver Franck Montagny. Montagny will be partnered with Marco Andretti at the next round of the ALMS championship at Lime Rock in a few weeks, who Montagny will be partnered with after that is unknown. It is also unknown why Herta and Fittipaldi was let go by the team. One may suspect that the duo was let go because they couldn't put together a win something the team hasn't seen since the 2007 12 hours of Sebring.

But owner Michael Andretti wants to show there is no hard feelings towards his former drivers: "Making a change in the middle of the season isn't something you enjoy, and I think it's even tougher in this case because we're talking about Bryan and Christian," said Andretti. "Bryan has done everything we've ever asked him to do since he joined Andretti Green in 2003, including helping us win the 12 Hours of Sebring in our first American Le Mans Series start last year. Christian joined us this year and wanted to win as badly as we did. We will always appreciate the effort that both Bryan and Christian gave to the team." Yeah, okay Michael.

"We're looking forward to seeing what Franck can do in the XM Acura," Andretti continued. "He's got a lot of experience in different types of cars, including prototypes, and that should help him adjust pretty quickly to what we're doing here."

Montagny joins Andretti Green [Autosport.com]

Oh Thank Heaven

2008-06-29T09:54:00.003-04:00

Tony Kannan took his first win of the Indycar Season last night in the Suntrust Indy Challenge in Richmond. Kannan dominated the race from pole and held off his fellow Brazilian Helio Castroneves and points leader Scott Dixon for the victory. Dan Wheldon and Oriol Servia rounded out the top five.

"I'm going to enjoy my win tonight for sure," Kannan said. "I knew that I had to keep fighting. There's nothing else I can do. If you're going to have the season you expect every year, then it's going to be pretty boring I would say. I knew it was going to turn around," Kanaan said. "I didn't know when. I thought it was last weekend [at Iowa] and I made a mistake."

"When those kind of things happen, I have a tendency to actually have more strength to turn the situation around. I think I work better when I put a lot of pressure on myself, and you know, I came in determined to win this race, and it worked out."

The night featured heavy carnage in which the yellow flag was waved nine times, tying the race record set in 2001. Only 12 cars of the 26 that started managed to finished the race, leaving many drivers frustrated at the end of the night. The crash during the restart on lap 79 was probably the worst as 5 cars were caught up in a crash. Ryan Hunter-Reay crashed out of a race for the second time in three weeks and was none to happy with the man he tangled up with Mario Moraes.

"I was going to give him the benefit of the doubt until I saw the tape of the crash but now I don't know that I can do that," Hunter-Reay said.

"It's just short-track racing. We had a busy race out there tonight. I was holding my breath on every lap. We were just out there surviving and trying to get some points and we can't even get that done without something like this happening to us."

Meanwhile Scott Dixon's points lead over Helio Castroneves was narrowed a little to just 43. The Indycar Series now moves on to twisty road course in Watkins Glen. The race will be next Sunday on ABC.

Kannan thrilled to end win drought [Autosport.com]

Drivers play down Richmond carnage [Autosport.com]

Tune in and tune out...

2008-06-28T13:39:00.002-04:00

What to watch today, while you try to constantly remove that smell.

2 pm- Koni Challenge Series from Mid-Ohio [Speed Channel]
2:30 pm- NASCAR Nationwide Series from Loudon, NH. The Cup drivers are back! Oh boy! [ABC]
4 pm- World of Outlaws from Dodge City. [Speed Channel]
6 pm- NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Qualifying from Memphis. [Speed Channel]
8 pm- Indycar Series from Richmond. DANICA DANICA DANICA! [ESPN]
8:30 pm- Craftsman Truck Series Race from Memphis. Somebody will be singing the blues tonight. [Speed Channel]
10 pm- NHRA Qualifying from Norwalk, Oh. [ESPN2]
11:30 pm- AMA Motocross from Lakewood, Co. High flying action to put you to sleep. [Speed Channel]

NASCAR Preview: New Hampshire

2008-06-27T20:47:00.003-04:00

NASCAR makes one if its two visits to the newly named New Hampshire Motor Speedway this weekend for the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 (because 300 laps weren't enough for you) and qualifying turned out a big surprise as Patrick Carpentier stole the pole away from Bobby Labonte towards the end of a rain-delayed qualifying session. The last time Carpentier found himself leading a field to the green flag was in a Champ Car at Laguna Seca in 2004.

"It's amazing," said Carpentier."The car was great. We made a couple of changes from this morning and the car just rotated beautifully through the middle of the corner. It was just stuck on the track. I'm real happy.

"Honestly, if I had won the first pole on a road course I wouldn't be as happy," he added. "I want to do well on the ovals because that is where they do most the racing in this series." Carpentier who makes his 17th career start on Sunday, hopes to get his first top 20 finish.

Being in New Hampshire means that were close to Boston. Which means we have to hear about all those god damn Boston sports championships. Of course with Roush-Fenway Racing having ties to the Boston Red Sox means we get to see all of their cars decked out with reminders of how much I hate the city of Boston. David Ragan's car is decorated in Red Sox colors for Sunday's race, while Matt Kenseth's car has decal commemorating the Boston Celtics’ recent NBA championship. Hey, how about one for the Patriot's accomplishment of 19-0 and the win in Super Bowl XLII? Oh wait, they didn't get it! And what have the Bruins or the Revolution done lately? Yeah, that’s what I thought. Suck on that, Boston.

Anyway the New Hampshire Motor Speedway, despite its smug neighbors to the south, will provide some great action and maybe a surprise or two. (Can we say David Ragan, winner of a Sprint Cup Race?) The race will start a little after 2 pm eastern, Sunday on TNT.

Carpentier wins 1st Cup Pole [Seattlepi.com]

Indycar Preview: Richmond

2008-06-27T15:30:00.004-04:00

The Indycar Series is in Richmond for a little Saturday night, short track action. While Dan Wheldon may have won the race on his birthday and donated his winnings to charity the main focus was on Danica Patrick as her racing moves were called out by her fellow competitors. Points leader Scott Dixon called her "a menace", but Danica says she’s probably not being aggressive enough on the track.

"I'm always trying to be aggressive," Patrick said. "If anything, last weekend I maybe wasn't aggressive enough on the restarts and whatnot. That's where I lost my spots."

"I've always been the same person. So I just try and be consistent and follow the weekend as it goes. I really try not to pay too much attention to what goes on around me and focus on myself, because ultimately at the end of the day there's nothing I can do about those emotions and there's nothing I can do about negative comments.

"I don't really know where the comments came from last weekend. I don't even know where they're coming from. So, unfortunately, I don't have a lot to say about it."

Well Danica you better watch out this weekend or you might get the old chrome horn for someone who has lost their patience.

Other than that it will be an interesting race to see who can conqueror lap traffic the best and who can answer the physical demands of the Indycar Series' shortest track.

Always Aggressive [Indycar.com]

Done Deals

2008-06-27T13:02:00.003-04:00

Greg Biffle's choice has been made, he will still drive for Roush Racing in 2009 and beyond. Biffle today signed a three-year extension of his contract with Roush Racing, the team in which has spent 10 years of his racing carrer with.

“I’m extremely happy and relieved to have this contract complete,” said Biffle. “I have a team that can contend for the championship this season and for future seasons as well. 3M has been an incredible partner for several years now and having them on board made the decision even easier. All the elements are in place: the resources of Ford and Roush Fenway, the excellent team, the outstanding cars and having a great primary sponsor like 3M for the next few years.”

Another deal that has been done is that Clint Bowyer has resigned with Richard Childress Racing also for three years. Bowyer revaled the resigning on PRN's Garage Pass show.

It looks like all the deals are coming together for 2009, there are only a few more holes to fill.

[Source: Roush Racing PR and PRN's Garage Pass]

Hendrick to Mears: Get Lost

2008-06-27T12:37:00.005-04:00

Well maybe not that harsh, but Casey Mears will not return to Hendrick Motorsports in 2009. "We've put a ton of emphasis on the #5 program," said Rick Hendrick, owner of Hendrick Motorsports. "It's been a total team effort, and Casey has worked as hard as anyone to help us improve. We've tested more than we ever have, but the results just haven't come. None of us, Casey included, have been satisfied with the situation this season. But he's confident there are other options out there for him in 2009, and we feel like Hendrick Motorsports will have some opportunities, too."

"I know the effort has been there, but we haven't had the finishes to show for it," Mears said. "I've never tested this much or put more energy into racing. But for whatever reason, we just haven't been able to make it click. It's certainly not for lack of dedication on anyone's part. I'll talk to people about opportunities and get my 2009 plans wrapped up soon, but I'm also focused on the next 20 races and finishing 2008 on a positive note. We ran well the second half last year, and I know we can do it again. I want to close this season the right way."

This move has left the door open to see Mark Martin behind the wheel of this car for the 2009 season.

[Source: Hendrick Motorsports PR]

NASCAR not in Wheldon's future

2008-06-27T12:14:00.004-04:00

Dan Wheldon has ruled out a possible move to NASCAR in the future. The young (if you consider 30 being young) English driver who found victory lane last week in Iowa has changed his mind about making a move to stock car racing.

"Up until this year, I really did consider NASCAR and the reason I did is I'm a driver," Wheldon said. "I like to be on track and I like the fact they race so much. But with the merging together of both open-wheel series, the series is really fun to drive in right now."

Wheldon is in the final year of his contract with Target Chip Ganassi Racing, and said he has talked with Ganassi about an extension of his original three-year deal. Wheldon said the deal isn't done yet, but he hopes it will be done soon.

"When you have more cars like that, it's definitely fun to drive," Wheldon said. "So I would say with the fact I think they're going to continue to build the schedule and from what I understand they're going to allow more testing during the season . . . that's what I'm looking for. . . . I definitely think I will be in IndyCars for certainly the next three years after this one."

NASCAR? Wheldon says no [Richmond Times Dispatch]

Ecclestone warned Mosley about plot against him

2008-06-27T11:47:00.005-04:00

A report in The London Times today said that FIA head Max Mosley was warned by F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone about the plot against him two months before the whole sex scandal started. Drew Attew, an consultant who had worked for both Ecclestone and Mosley in the past, was tipped off about the plot earlier in the year.

"I received a call from a friend in January this year," Attew told The London Times. "We had a meeting and I was told there was an open budget to effectively go out and source material that would bring Max to his knees, remove him from office, and discredit him publicly."

"The person contacted me because they knew of my relationship with Bernie, but they didn't know of my relationship with Max. The reason they contacted me was to find out whether I had any loyalty to Max, and whether I knew anything of value. I asked 'are you after Max, the FIA, or Bernie?' They came back a little while later and said they weren't going to pursue it for the time being."

Attew then warned Ecclestone about the plot, who then told Mosley about it.

"I sat down with Bernie and told him what I'd heard," said Attew. "Bernie then told Max, I know this because Max later confirmed it to me. I assumed the warning would be taken seriously. It was clear that Max disregarded the advice and failed to realise his vulnerability. The issue for me was his total disregard for genuine advice from individuals that he knew had his best interests at heart. I asked Bernie if there was anything anyone was going to find out about Max and he said 'you're not going to find anything because there's nothing there, he's Mr Boring in that sense'. Mosley had kept this a good secret."

Attew also believes that Mosley should had come forward about this incdient and shake off any indication that Ecclestone was involved in the plot.

"I hear people suggesting Bernie was behind this, but that's ridiculous," he added. "From the very first indication, Bernie and I, with Max's knowledge, have tried to find out who was the source. When we saw what was in the News of the World, Bernie was as flabbergasted as I was."

Ecclestone had warned Mosley about plot [Autosport.com]

Tire warmers to stay in F1 for one more year

2008-06-27T11:07:00.003-04:00

The FIA have decided to keep tire warmers in Formula 1 for one more year. The original plan was for tire warmers to be banned after the 2008 season, but with slick tires being introduced next year the FIA decided to change their mind and give help the teams cut costs and be able to race competitively and calm fears about the amount of crashes happening on cold tires. Though Bridgestone, which supplies the F1 teams with tires, has opposed a keeping tire warmers saying that the rubber should be strong enough to not have so many crashes.

One option that has been suggested to substitute tire warmers is that of introducing a minimum tire pressure rule, but Honda boss Ross Brawn and quite a few others think that enforcing the rule will be impossible. Brawn had this to say to autosport.com during a recent interview: "You can run tyres for sure without blankets, lot of formulae do, but we are a particularly competitive formula and if you don't run blankets with tyres you need to have a minimum pressure control."

"We haven't worked out how to do that and that was the big concern – how to introduce it fairly and effectively for all the teams? And how do you avoid the massive overhead of policing it?"

"The TWG (Technical Working Group) said it wanted to keep tyre blankets because it could not see a solution to controlling minimum tyre pressure, and that was a big worry. So the option of having blankets was the easiest. And interestingly tyre blankets are not prohibited in testing, so for efficiency of testing we will almost certainly be using tyre blankets in testing. So we will have had them in testing and not racing."

FIA scraps plans to ban tyre warmers [Autosport.com]

Flashback: 1994 Slick 50 300

2008-06-26T14:31:00.003-04:00

Great battle between Dale Earnhardt and Ricky Rudd in the final 8 laps of the 1994 race at New Hampshire. TNN's Mike Joy, Buddy Baker and Kenny Wallace are there for the call:

This guy really loves his Dexys Midnight Runners

2008-06-26T14:24:00.004-04:00

But seriously would to try to film someone while driving a car on the Interstate?

Stewart maybe looking at sponsorship for Haas CNC team

2008-06-26T13:40:00.007-04:00

Of course you've all heard by now that Tony Stewart may be looking into buying into the troubled Haas CNC team. Well sponsorship for those teams may be lining up already. ESPN.com has been reporting that if Stewart joins Haas CNC he may be sponsored by Office Depot or Old Spice, there have also been speculation that Stewart may leave Joe Gibbs Racing at the end of the year and Joey Lagano may come to Sprint Cup racing sooner than expected because of Stewart's absence. Of course Stewart is mum on the situation and Joe Gibbs Racing says that Tony isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

The second question is who will join Tony at Haas CNC if such moves do happen. Rumoured drivers include Ryan Newman and Martin Truex Jr., both drivers have contracts that expire at the end of the year. It also rumored that Truex may bring his Bass Pro sponsorship with him from DEI. UPS also may sponsor the second the car.

But for right now everyone is waiting for Tony Stewart's move and he isn't budging.

With Haas partnership possible, Stewart has eye on sponsorship [ESPN.com]

Truck owner may have used charity funds inappropriately

2008-06-25T14:50:00.004-04:00

Co-owner in the Green Light Racing team in the Craftsman Truck Series, Gene Christensen may have inappropriately used his charity funds to fund his race team and his political career.

The Texas state attorney general’s office filed a civil suit yesterday against Christensen for using an apartment complex which he co-owns that was originally intended to be used as drug-free low rent housing charity instead was used as regular complex with full rent which meant a profit for Christensen and his partners. The details of the lawsuit says that Christensen used the money from the complex to fund his racing team and his unsuccessful bid earlier this year to gain a seat in congress and even give himself a salary of over $180,000 with benefits and a company vehicle.

Christensen will face a probate judge in Austin, Texas on July 21.

Lawsuit says Garland charity spent funds on campaign, NASCAR team [Dallas Morning News]

JTG Racing to Cup in 2009?

2008-06-25T14:07:00.003-04:00

JTG Racing has big dreams about the future as they may start a Cup team in 2009 and use Chevys instead of Fords. There is no indication that if Brad Daugherty's new partnership within the team has any part in this move. There is also no indication on what Marcos Ambrose future with the team is as he may reamain as a driver with Ford driving for the Wood Brothers in 2009 in the Sprint Cup series.

[Source: Jayski.com]

The return of Formula Two

2008-06-25T12:53:00.002-04:00

The FIA announced today that decided to resurrect the old Formula Two series which has not been in existence since 1984. The FIA hopes to create an inexpensive feeder series in which teams won't to spend more than $311,000 a year on a team.

People are finding that hard to believe. One GP2 team boss told autosport.com: "Our cars actually cost €190,000 [$300,000], and that's without the engines. If it's a junior formula, like Formula Ford or something, then fine, but you cannot run anything substantial for that kind of money. For example, a Formula BMW costs just under €300,000 [$470,000] to run per car in Europe, and that's with zero margin.
"I can't think what cars they expect to run for €200,000, because there are people spending that kind of money in karting in Europe."

No word though on whether or not this series will replace the GP2 series or how the series will be run within the F1 feeder series ladder.

FIA plans to resurrect Formula Two [Autosport.com]

2009 F1 Calendar is out

2008-06-25T12:20:00.004-04:00

The provisional 2009 F1 calendar has come out today and the schedule will have a few changes to it. The first is that a new race in Dubai has been added to the schedule gving 2009 one more race than last year. The race in Dubai will occur in mid-November and will be the season finale.

Meanwhile the rest of the calendar remains the same with the exception of the Turkish Grand Prix which has been moved back to a date in August. The British and French Grand Prix, which will remain in Magny-Cours despite speculation, have swapped positions on the calendar.

The calendar once again will not have a round in the United States as Tony George and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway have failed to find a financial supporter.

Provisional 2009 F1 calendar:
29 March Australia
5 April Malaysia
19 April Bahrain
10 May Spain
24 May Monaco
7 June Canada
21 June Great Britain
28 June France
12 July Germany
26 July Hungary
9 August Turkey
23 August Europe (Valencia)
6 September Italy
13 September Belgium
27 September Singapore
11 October Japan
18 October China
1 November Brazil
15 November Abu Dhabi

No Indy on provisional 2009 calendar [Autosport.com]

Brad Daugherty buys into JTG Racing

2008-06-24T18:05:00.003-04:00

ESPN analyst Brad Daugherty has bought into JTG Racing who compeats in the Nationwide Series with drivers Marcos Ambrose and Kelly Bires and up until recently fielded a team in the Craftsman Truck Series.

Daughtery has former experience in part-owning a NASCAR team including Liberty Racing back in the late 1990's in which drivers such as Kevin Harvick and the late Kenny Irwin made thier names in the Craftsman Truck Seires.

No word on what the team's plans are now with Brad Daugherty being invovled with the team.

Bires catching on at JTG Racing [ESPN.com]

Crew member suspended by NASCAR

2008-06-24T17:52:00.003-04:00

Amanda Mathis, who up until recently was a crew member for Bill Davis Racing, was suspended by NASCAR until July 30 and placed on probation for the rest of the year. Mathis apparently got into altercation with security officials during the race weekend at Michigan International Speedway, but exact details about the incident are unknown.

NASCAR suspends former BDR truck series crew member [Scenedaily.com]

Busch to drive in modfied race in New Hampshire

2008-06-24T17:33:00.003-04:00

Kyle "Rowdy" Busch will have another chance to give competitors a headache this weekend as he will drive in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Series race in New Hampshire on Saturday. Busch will team up with Martin Truex Jr's crew chief Kevin "Bono" Manion and pilot his #7 car in the race.

[Source: Jayski.com]

Babe of the Week: French Grand Prix Girls

2008-06-24T15:13:00.007-04:00

Since today has been kind of a slow news day, I decided that I should introduce a new feature called Babe of the Week. Which is pretty much where I put pictures of hot girls from around the motorsports world. So our first babe of the week goes to some hot girls seen around during the French Grand Prix Weekend. Credits go to my good friend Barre for uploading these fine pics.

Carpentier to miss Pocono race

2008-06-23T16:55:00.005-04:00

Canoe Sports is Canada is reporting that Patrick Carpentier will miss the Sprint Cup race at Pocono in early August so that he can fully concentrate on running the Nationwide race in Montreal that same weekend. Carpentier made his debut in Montreal race in which he finished 2nd. No word from Gillet-Evernham Motorsports on if this will happen and if it does who will replace Carpentier for that race. Canoe is reporting that former Evernham driver Bill Elliott will be the most likely choice.

Carpentier to miss Pocono race, the article is in French. QUE PASA! [Canoe.ca]

And the silly season is just getting started

2008-06-23T15:37:00.005-04:00

ESPN.com reported yesterday, that Mark Martin is going to replace Casey Mears in the 5 car for Hendrick Motorsports in 2009. Of course this rumor has spawned out of a couple moves by DEI. The first is that Aric Amirola who splits time with Mark Martin in the 8 car at Dale Earnhardt, Inc. will most likely drive that car full time in 2009 and with DEI possibly downsizing in 2009, that would leve Mark Martin without a ride, hence the rumor about Mears getting booted out fo the 5 car.

The rumor comes at no surpise to me as Mears has not been performing up to expecations, he just scored his first top 5 of the year yesterday in Somona. But Mears' car owner Rick Hendrick doesn't to seem be ready to let go of Mears just yet.

"I'm committed to him [Mears] right now," Hendrick said on Sunday at Infineon Raceway. "I'm committed to him making that car run better right now."

Another thing to figure in is that Mark Martin is not running full time and will need a driver to split time with Martin and that driver will most likely be Brad Keselowski. It will be interesting to see what comes out of this little drama.

Martin to leave DEI, replace Mears in No. 5 [ESPN.com]

Corn, France and Kyle Busch

2008-06-23T11:51:00.004-04:00

F1: Man, I wish really had something to talk about this race, but the French Grand Prix was terribly boring. Felipe Massa got the win after his Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen had a piece of his exhaust come lose that cost him dearly in the horsepower that he needed to get the victory, Raikkonen did hold on to second though. Jarno Trulli finished third in his Toyota, his first podium since 2005. Hekki Kovalainen, Robert Kubica, Mark Webber, Nelson Piquet and Fernando Alonso rounded out the top 8. Massa with the win, now takes the points lead away from Kubica. The F1 circus will head off to jolly old England for the British Grand Prix in two weeks.

Indycar: Despite the gloomy weather the state has seen over the past few weeks, Sunday produced beautfiul weather for the Indycar race in which Dan Wheldon, on his 30th birth used pit stratgey to hold off the young Japaneese rookie Hideki Mutoh for the win. But the day was for the flood victims as Wheldon and his teammate Scott Dixon donated thier winnings to the victims. Marco Andretti, Dixon and A.J. Foyt IV rounded out the top 5. Scott Dixon extends his points lead over Helio Castroneves to 48.

NASCAR: Kyle Busch got another victory on Sunday in Somona in a very strong car. Busch held off a final challenge by David Gilliand and took his fifth victory of the season. Jeff Gordon, Clint Bowyer and Casey Mears rounded out the top five. Busch extends his points lead over Jeff Burton to 103 points.

Tune in and tune out

2008-06-22T11:45:00.003-04:00

What to watch today while you play with your food:

1 pm- Indycar Race from Iowa. The winner gets paid in chicken feed. [ABC]
Also at 1- Formula 1 French Grand Prix. Exciting tape delayed action. [FOX]
4 pm- MotoGp from Donnington Park, England. [Speed Channel]
4:30 pm- NASCAR Sprint Cup Racing from Somona, Ca. Watch a stock car make a left and right turn. [TNT]
5 pm- CORR from Pomona, Ca. [Speed Channel]
8 pm- NHRA from Englishtown, NJ. They're doing it for Scott. [ESPN2]
9 pm- Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain. Your guests tonight are Scott Speed and Tommy Kendall. [Speed Channel]

Scott Kalitta (1962-2008)

2008-06-22T00:07:00.002-04:00

I don't know what it is about death, but it has a sneaky way of coming up and surprising me. As I sat there and watched the entertaining Grand-Am race last night I heard the terrible news that Scott Kalitta had died during NHRA qualifications up in Englishtown, NJ. I'm not really a big drag racing fan, so I can't really say I knew Scott that well. But there is one thing I do know, he died doing what he loved and that was racing. Racing was was in Scott's blood, it was in his family, his father was a drag racer, his cousin still is a drag racer and he certainly had a loving wife and two children that supported him all the way.

Drag racing is a risky sport, as is all forms of motor sport, Scott knew the risks and yet he came back every week to race. Scott even retired twice, but came back because he couldn't get rid of that itch, the itch of competition and no one can fault him for that.

Godspeed Scott, you will surely be missed.

Weekend Preview: June 21-22

2008-06-21T11:25:00.003-04:00

F1: The Formula 1 circus is back in France this weekend and Robert Kubica is looking to continue his streak of momentum after winning for the first time in Montreal two weeks ago. Meanwhile Ferrari and McLaren are looking to get back on track after a disappointing showing in Canada that included an embarrassing pit road collision between Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen. Hamilton got a 10 place grid penalty and will start 13th on Sunday. Raikkonen meanwhile scored pole and will start next to teammate Felipe Massa on Sunday. The will be televised at 1 pm eastern, Sunday on FOX.

NASCAR: The Sprint Cup Series makes its first right turns of the year at the road course in Somona, California. Kasey Kahne scored his first pole on road course last night and streak of momentum spanning back a month to a win in the All-Star race in Charlotte. But the big story of the weekend will be the road ringers who have invaded the Sprint Cup series, some have come for glory and others have come in to bail teams out of a dangerous situation. But whatever their cause there are people out there who do not care much for the road ringers. All I can say to those people is since they're racing in northern California is would you like some cheese with that whine? The race will be on TNT starting at 3:30 pm eastern on Sunday

Indycar: The Indycar Series comes to a Iowa Speedway in a area that has been soaked by lots of rain and many people are still trying to recover from the floods. Meanwhile, the Indycar circus hopes that this race won't be the total wreckfest like it was last year. Scott Dixon also hopes that he can continues his momentum and score his fourth win of the year. The race will be on ABC starting at 1 pm eastern.

Grand-Am: Hey, there’s sportscar racing too, this weekend. The Rolex Sportscar Series is in Mid-Ohio for the EMCO Gears Classic and Brumos Porsche pairing of David Donahue and Darren Law is on pole, but everyone will have the eyes on the 01 Chip Ganassi Lexus with Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas behind the wheel. The pairing have won three races this year. The #72 Autohaus Ponitac is on the GT pole. The race is today at 5 pm eastern on Speed Channel.

Marlin in trouble with the law

2008-06-20T12:05:00.002-04:00

Two-time Daytona 500 champ (Could have been three if it wasn't for that lousy fender) Sterling Marlin is trouble with the state of Tennessee for dumping fill dirt into a stream. Marlin now faces over $8,600 in fines. This also isn't the first time that Marlin has had this problem, Marlin was fined $2,500 for the same offense back in May of 2006.

But not to worry folks, I'm sure Sterling can pay off these fines with his current ride in NASCAR. Oh wait.

NASCAR Driver Sterling Marlin fined on TDEC [Columbia Daily Herald]

Pacific Coast Motorsports to skip Iowa Indycar race

2008-06-19T21:32:00.004-04:00

Yeah, I'm pretty bummed out about it, too. [Speedtv.com]

Ricardo Zonta marks his territory well

2008-06-19T20:46:00.007-04:00

Yesterday, I showed you a picture of Mika Salo signing a woman's boob during the 24 hours of Le Mans weekend. Well a few more pictures of this mysterious woman has turned up including one here of Ricardo Zonta, who drives for the Peugeot team, who took the autograph signing to a whole new level. I don't think she'll wash that right buttcheek ever again. Of course if that was me I would have at least left my phone number, though she would have to have a friend read it off to her.

But wait! There's more:

Clint Bowyer and RCR to team up with Ice Road Truckers

2008-06-19T15:06:00.003-04:00

Here is one to file under "okay...". Directv has teamed up with Richard Childress Racing and History Channel's non-Adolf Hitler related program, Ice Road Truckers for new segments on the tv show featuring the #07 team of Clint Bowyer.

These little segments will compare the equipment that the race team uses to the equipment that the truckers use.

So does that mean RCR has something for these kind of situations?

[Source: RCR PR]

Doug Richert joins Speed Channel

2008-06-19T14:52:00.005-04:00

Doug Richert is now officially an Speed Channel employee. The former championship winning crew chief (he won it with Dale Earnhardt back in 1980) will join Speed Channel and provide analysis for their various NASCAR programs and will also be in the booth for select Craftsman Series Truck races, when Michael Waltrip can not be there.

[Source: Speed Channel PR]

More Mo Grant

2008-06-19T14:33:00.004-04:00

Mauricia Grant was interviewed by Sports Illustrated yesterday. It's a fun read, I promise. [SI.com]

Tracy to drive truck at Las Vegas and maybe an Indycar at Edmonton

2008-06-19T13:11:00.006-04:00

After a succesful test at Chicagoland, Paul Tracy will get a chance to race in a Craftsman Truck Series race later on this year in Las Vegas.
"Paul did a nice job so we got a little bit if support and decided it would be fun to run him in his hometown," said Tracy's truck owner Bob Germain. "He's our style, very aggressive, and he and Todd are a lot alike." Yeah except for the fact that Paul has hair, Bob.

Tracy hopes with the possible expansion of Germain Racing that he will able to get a full time ride with the team. Tracy may also get ride for the Indycar race up at Edmonton with Derrick Walker in July.

Tracy set for trucks, possibly Edmonton (Speedtv.com)

I'm baaaaaaaack, back in the saddle again

2008-06-18T20:14:00.004-04:00

Chip Ganassi Racing continuing with the theme of video game sponsorship in the 2008 season will have Guitar Hero sponsor the #40 car driven by Dario Franchitti at New Hampshire in a couple of weeks. Rock band Aerosmith will also be on the car for the race which will certinally spring back memories of when the band did the theme song for ESPN's NASCAR coverage:

My God, Steven Tyler's face will give me nightmares tonight.

CGRFS Partners with Activision and Target to Sponsor No. 40 Dodge (CGRFS PR)

Same CAT, different Burton

2008-06-18T19:46:00.003-04:00

Richard Childress Racing today announced that Jeff Burton will be sponsored by the same company that brought his brother, Ward, so much success as Caterpillar will leave Bill Davis Racing at the end of the year to replace AT&T as the sponsor for the #31 Chevy that Burton drives.

Unfortunately this leaves the 22 car of Dave Blaney without sponsorship for next season, but Bill Davis Racing doesn't seem to worry about it. “This is an exciting time for our team, and we are looking forward to the future,” Bill Davis said about the announcement. Okay, you are barely in the top 35 in points and are looking for sponsorship for next year and you feel "excited" about it?! I would be in panic mode right about now, and the only thing you should be looking forward to, Mr. Davis, is finding the nearest hole in the wall when you can't secure sponsorship for the next season and top all off you want two teams for 2009.

But truly my real worry is not that Bill Davis Racing may be in dire straits, but if Jeff Burton can say Cat Skid Steer Loader without getting tongue-tied.

Catterpillar to sponsor Jeff Burton and RCR's No. 31 team in 2009 (RCR PR)

No. 22 Bill Davis Racing Sprint Cup team will have new look for 2009 (BDR PR)

Meet Formula Le Mans

2008-06-18T19:37:00.002-04:00

The ACO has announced that they have teamed with the Oreca team and have created a new feeder series for the Le Mans Series in 2009 (Autosport.com)

Mika Salo is really good at signing things

2008-06-18T12:03:00.003-04:00

Here is a little pic from the 24 hours of Le Mans in which a woman had the drivers sign her dress, including Mika Salo here. Looks like Mika will be disappointed here in a sec once he finds out that someone has already beat him to the spot he wants to sign.

What a weekend

2008-06-17T17:46:00.003-04:00

Sorry for the AWOL treatment, I figured I needed a little break, but what a weekend in racing, Audi gets another Le Mans win in one of the most exciting endurance races in that I have ever seen. Dale Earnhardt Jr. finally breaks his winless streak with a win in the Nextel Cup race in Michigan. Michigan also had one hell of a finish in the Craftsman Truck Series race on Saturday between Johnny Benson and Erik Darnell with Darnell being the victor. And Joey Lagano became the youngest winner in NASCAR Nationwide Series at Kentucky. It will be quite interesting if this weekend can produce the same excitment as the last.

Flashback: Oh those crazy Germans and their flying machines

2008-06-13T21:25:00.003-04:00

And you thought the flips this year in sports car racing were pretty bad:

Obscure Music Video: I bet this get a lot of play in China

2008-06-13T21:19:00.002-04:00

Lets all sing the praises of Yao Ming!

Two officials suspended in Grant investigation

2008-06-13T20:57:00.005-04:00

Two NASCAR Nationwide series officials named in the Mauricia Grant case have been suspended by NASCAR for indefinite period for violating NASCAR policy after being interviewed along with 25 others releated with the case.

Grant's lawyer, Benedict P. Morelli called NASCAR's action "unbelievable and astonishing."

"It seems to me that maybe they should close the barn door before the horse runs out, instead of after the horse runs out," Morelli said. "This is what you do when you are in a defensive posture. They should have known this was going on."

Morelli beleives that the suspensions helps Grant's case. "All this does is prove that she was telling the truth," Morelli said. "It's proof positive that it was going on, and it's too little too late."

Yeah, okay.

NASCAR suspends 2 officials in lawsuit investgation (FOXSports.com)

NASCAR to drivers: quit your damn whining

2008-06-13T18:42:00.003-04:00

Today at the Michigan International Speedway, NASCAR held at meeting in which boss man Mike Helton told the drivers that crap given about the Car of Tommrow needs to stop.

"He (Mike Helton) wanted to remind our drivers about their responsibility to the fans," said NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter. "He felt it has become a negative environment and reminded them to think about the fans, what they are facing, the rising cost of gas and the hardships, particularly in an area like this that has been hit so hard by the economy." Yeah, okay Jim.

The drivers response to the message was rather positive.

"I think it just got a little out of hand this week, everybody complaining so much about everything," said Carl Edwards. "It's almost a little bit silly."

"He (David Pearson) told me (that) when all those people started putting power steering in their cars, (he) wouldn't do it because it was worth three horsepower," Edwards said. "So he never used power steering. He had some other choice words that were pretty funny."

"It just seems like every week (people) would get out of the car and there (are) more complaints, and I think that's what Mr. Helton was addressing there."

Dale Earnhardt Jr. had his own thoughts about the meeting: "My interpretation was the drivers should be thankful for the position they're in and should be more positive about where this car is going to be in a year or two," he said.

Earnhardt admitted to being very critical when it came to the CoT.

"I was pretty critical," he said. "Overly critical at times. The only reason drivers are like that is we feel like our best avenue is through the media because it's very effective. I try to talk to Mr. Helton once a month on the telephone if I have any comments or input to give to him. I've always had an open door. He's always been great to me."

Earnhardt said the public is very interested in when the new car is going to be fixed and how NASCAR is going to get it done. But he noted it isn't always possible for them to get that information.

"A lot of companies are not eager to give that information out until it's done and finished," Earnhardt said. "I see NASCAR with the same attitude. I think they do a lot of work behind the scenes and they probably agree with us more than we tend to believe.

"They understand that the car is new and it's going to evolve and maybe three years from now we'll look back at today: 'Man, can you believe that is the way we did it?' They're doing more than we give them credit for and us drivers should do less complaining."

Greg Biffle then added his two cents: "I think it was (NASCAR) saying, 'Hey, we haven't raced this car at all the tracks yet' was the message," Biffle said. "We haven't been to Michigan with it, we haven't been to Chicago and all these other places with the car yet. So don't jump to conclusions prior to actually seeing what it's going to be like.

"So, I think it was more like, 'Hey, let's wait and see.' This is our first year with this car. Like they said, they're making a commitment to keep working on the car or working with the teams to make the racing better. If we need to make an adjustment, I don't think they're against making adjustments as we go with this car."

"I took that they are just frustrated that they're not getting a fair shake from us drivers," Denny Hamlin added. "We're jumping to conclusions a little too soon and not giving this car enough time to develop."

Lets just hope that some people out there will realize this too.

NASCAR tells drivers to shut up and drive (FOXSports.com)

24 hours of Le Mans Preview

2008-06-13T10:44:00.007-04:00

It’s the time of year, when the days are their longest and its too hot to go outside (and I mean hot, really hot, the kind of hot where birds burst into flames), meanwhile somewhere in France 55 cars and 165 drivers are getting ready to take on the world’s greatest endurance race, the 24 hours of Le Mans. For almost eighty years drivers have returned to France to get their shot at glory to become one of their worlds greatest drivers.

But their have been some worries about how safe the cars are. The have been six occasions this year in which a Le Mans prototype has spun and gotten airborne. Hedeki Noda was the latest victim as his Lola Mazda went through a series of barrel rolls late in Wednesday night’s qualifying session, thankfully Noda walked away unharmed. The series of accidents have gotten the attention of the ACO, the governing body of the 24 hours of Le Mans, who promises changes for next year, but will this promise come too little, too late?

Now here is what to look out for during the race:
Prototype Class 1: This race will be all about the Audis and the Peugeots as both manufactures have entered three cars in the event. Unlike last year we have been able to see the big two run against each other in other races and in 4 races, the Peugeots have come out the victor in three of them. The Peugeots were also superior in qualifying on Wednesday and Thursday, even though Audi has admitted that they weren‘t really trying in qualifying and focusing on race setup. But the true question will be is how reliable will the cars be in a 24 hour race? My Prediction: The Peugeots will push themselves too hard and that will let the Audi’s sneak by for the win.

Prototype Class 1 1/2: Because of the supremacy of the diesel engines, the P1 class can almost be considered two classes within itself between the diesel powered engines and the gasoline powered engines. Surprisingly, leading the best of the rest is the Aston Martin powered Lola of the Charouz Racing Team who qualified 6th for Saturday’s race ahead of one of the Audis. Other teams to look out for is of course the Pecarolos, the perpetual bridesmaids of the 24 hours of Le Mans. The other team to watch out for is the Dome Team from Japan. They have brought a new car and so far it has proven its worth and will start 8th on Saturday. My prediction: The Pescarolos will prevail in the battle for “best of the rest”.

Prototype Class 2: Last year this class was consider to be a disgrace, the winning team Binnie Motorsports finished over 50 laps down to the winner of the race, but that part. Not only did they get beaten by the GT1 class winner they gotten beaten by the GT2 class winner! This year the class is back to redeem itself. Leading the class this year is the Porsches Spyders of Team Essex and Van Merksteijn Motorsport. Both teams have grabbed all of the wins in the LMS series for P2 cars and look ready to show that this class is not the pushover that it has been in the past. My Prediction: Van Merksteijn Motorsport will be on top of the podium.

Grand Touring Class 1: As in years past, the GT1 class will come down to a battle between the Aston Martins and the Corvettes. But the Saleens and the Lamborghinis will want to change that. My prediction: No upset, Corvette will slay the GT1 field once again.

Grand Touring Class 2: The greatest of all sports car rivalry Ferrari and Porsche will battle it out again for small sportscar supremacy, Porsche has dominated this small class for years and look ready to do it again. My prediction: I think this is the year Ferrari will finally come out on top in this class.

The race will start at 9 am eastern on Saturday on Speed Channel, hopefully it will be one to remember.

Leicht celebrates one-year anniversary of first win without a ride

2008-06-12T11:52:00.005-04:00

One year ago, Stephen Leicht was on top of the world, he had just held off Brad Coleman to win first Nationwide Series in Kentucky and today Leicht is without a ride, doing practice duties for Clint Bowyer's Nationwide car when Bowyer has other commitments with his Sprint Cup car. Leicht did have a ride with Richard Childress earlier this year, but the team was forced to fold after they could not secure any sponsorship. Now Leicht is setting up cars for his teammate.

“Plain and simple, it’s not going to be a good feeling when that race starts, knowing I’m not in the race,” Leicht said. “Anyone that’s won at a track and then has to go sit and watch the same race, knowing they won and they can win again, is not going to be good. It’s disappointing not being able to race, especially having to sit and not being able to defend my title at Kentucky next weekend. There’s something that doesn’t seem right about it.”

Leicht blames his misfortunes on bad timing. “Look at David Gilliland. He won that race [at Kentucky] two years ago, and now he’s in a full-time Cup ride,” Leicht said. “I won it last year, and here I am, and I don’t even have a full-time [Nationwide] ride. It’s not one person’s fault, it’s nobody’s fault. It’s just the way sponsorships have been working out and the way the economy is right now. Everyone’s struggling. Wrong place, wrong time.”

“I knew Robert [Yates] was going his own way and Doug [Yates] was going his own way, and I was going to go in a different direction,” Leicht said. “I never in a million years thought that by the beginning of this season that I wouldn’t have at least a sponsor. When I got hooked up with Richard [Childress], it was a dream come true. I always wanted to run for Richard. I still have all the confidence in the world in him and his team and his marketing people to find a sponsor. But here we are, 12 races in, and still don’t have a sponsor – for the [No.] 21 car. That’s the winningest car in the series, and they cannot find a sponsor for it. It’s unreal. It’s almost like bad timing on my part. I’m here, and they can’t find a sponsor for it.”

Leicht went on to say that Childress has been helping him to find a ride with a different Chevy team, but nothing has come together, but he still keeps memories of that first win close to him.

“Everything just seemed to be in place,” Leicht said. “I said, ‘If we’re going to win, it’s going to be this weekend.’ Sure enough, we went there, and the car off the trailer was awesome. It felt good. We qualified fifth, and in the race, I was in a position to win, and I got it done. I think it’s sunk in now more than ever because now that I’m not racing, and we don’t have a sponsor, and I’m on the sidelines watching. That to me is when it really sinks in. You’re like, ‘Man, right now I’m not racing but I know if I could race, I can win races. We’ve already shown that.

“It’s just a shame that this 21 team can’t find a sponsor. These guys deserve to be racing. That 21 car is the best team out here. … We need a sponsor so we can prove that.”

Lets hope something does come to him.

Leicht returns to site of win - looking for a full-time Nationwdie opening (Scenedaily.com)

Montreal to be reprofiled?

2008-06-12T11:30:00.003-04:00

Officials at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve believe that the circuit may have to be reprofiled after parts of the circuit had problems during the Canadian Grand Prix weekend. Repairs were made to track during the night before the race and did solve some of the issues, but not the whole problem. The track's executive vice president Francois Dumontier said that the turn 10 hairpin, which caused most of the problems, could be realigned in the future.

"The problem seems to be in the curves," Dumontier said. "We'll look at the hairpin, and the configuration of the hairpin. We'll look seriously at it with the FIA.

"We had the same problem last year, since 2005 in fact, so after last year we took a serious look at what product to put there, and we really thought that what we installed was good enough to hold for the weekend.

"So we were pretty upset with what happened in qualifying, and we'll have to go back again and see what we can do. We'll look at what other tracks are doing, and see if we can use the same kind of product."

Dumontier believes the Montreal track is hard to keep in top condition due to the fact it used by the public the rest of the year and that it is exposed to extreme weather conditions all year long.

"We're the only racetrack that goes from plus-30 in the summer to minus-30 in the winter," Dumontier said. "The asphalt is affected by that, and the track is used a lot by buses and cycles all the time, so there's something there."

Montreal boss hints at track changes (Autosport.com)

Former NASCAR crew chief barely escapes explosion

2008-06-12T11:10:00.003-04:00

Former Sprint Cup crew chief, Cliff Champion, the person in the middle of the picture, escaped injury along with three others after the yacht the Champion operates exploded while being refueled on Lake Norman in North Carolina. A 19-year old deckhand who was refueling the boat is still missing.

Champion who has worked with drivers Benny Parsons, Alan Kulwicki and Ricky Rudd in the past, started his charter yacht company about a decade ago and helps NASCAR teams charters rides for sponsors, competitors and for the teams themselves.

Recovery effort underway at exploded boat site on Lake Norman (WSOCtv.com)

Paul Newman is battling cancer

2008-06-12T00:50:00.006-04:00

A close friend of Paul Newman, who one of the owners in Newman Hass Lanigan Racing team in the Indycar Series, has revealed that 83 year old actor is battling cancer. Writer A.E. Hotchner, who helped Newman start his salad dressing company in 1982, said that Newman told him about having cancer almost a year and a half ago.

“I know that it’s a form of cancer,” Hotchner told The Associated Press. “It’s a form of cancer and he’s dealing with it.” Hotchner said that Newman had an operation a few years ago. “It was certainly somewhere in the area of the lung,” he said.

“He’s battling.” Hotchner continued. “He’s doing all the right stuff. Paul is a fighter. He seems to be going through a good period right now.”

When asked about his prognosis, Hotchner said, “Everybody is hopeful. That’s all we know.”

But the story only gets a little stranger as later yesterday Hotchner denied knowing about the illness to the tv show "Access Hollywood", but then confirmed the illness to the Reuters news agnecy later that day. Other close friends of Newman deny any knowledge of an "illness" says that he’s doing fine and that he was "lively" during a fundraiser for his Hole in the Wall Gang camp for ill children.

Micheal Brockman, who also partners in the racing team, said that Newman wanted to get back into a race car and run a race later on this year.

So believe what you want to believe, that picture though was taken last month and Paul doesn't look too well. Lets hope he gets better.

Friend says Paul Newman is battling cancer (MSNBC)