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Author: SM Staff

  • NASCAR Drivers – Off the Track Heroes Too

    NASCAR Drivers – Off the Track Heroes Too

    One must be a NASCAR fan to understand the loyalty and commitment the fans have for their driver. The drivers will tell you NASCAR fans are the greatest most loyal fans of any sport and without the fans there would be no NASCAR. There is an excitement in wearing your favorite drivers’ number or colors on a shirt or jacket. Something cool about color coating everything you own to match the colors on your driver’s car.  Like other sports where your driver finishes at the end of the season will determine how great a year your driver had or didn’t have in some cases, numbers don’t lie some would say.

    [media-credit name=”(c) CIA Stock Photo” align=”alignright” width=”236″][/media-credit]Let’s switch gears some and look at our drivers’ off the track. Would it surprise you if I said that most drivers would like their fans to be aware of their off the track commitments as well? More than half if not three quarters of the drivers in NASCAR have established a foundation or organization to help children, animals and families in their time of need and to give back to the less fortunate.

    Kyle Petty and his family established and even expanded over the last several years their organization Victory Junction Camp for Children. VJC was built in honor of Kyle and Patti Petty’s son Adam Petty who died at New Hampshire Speedway in May 2000. Thousands of children with chronic medical conditions or serious illness are able to spend a week at the “hole in the wall camp” which is also medically sound with a staff of professionals on hand to meet the needs of these children if need be. In 2006, Victory Junction Camp was to expand by building a superdome, indoor sporting facility at which time superstar Tony Stewart donated a million dollars to the project to make a great place even better!

    Other Nascar stars have donated their time and money to established some other great charities, such as the Jeff Gordon Foundation. This is the Children’s Hospital in Concord, NC which focuses on children with cancer. Hermie and Elliott Sadler have Sadler Foundation to raise Autism awareness. Tony Stewart has established the Tony Stewart foundations which administers to sick and injured children, abused and homeless animals and fellow drivers injured in accidents to help their families. Tony’s motto is “together we can accelerate change”.

    The main focus on this article is to honor a foundation, a sponsor, a driver and a child cancer patient and his family. Children’s healthcare of Atlanta, Aflac Cancer Center & blood disorder services, the driver is Carl Edwards and Kyle H. Abernathy. Kyle is my reason for writing this article, sharing his story and hopes to bring more awareness and one day a cure to childhood cancer and blood disorders. Kyle Abernathy is 11 years old, lives in LaGrange Georgia with Dad, and his sisters. Kyle was diagnosed in November 2010 with Ewing Sarcoma. The cancer started in the left femur and a spot on his lungs which was removed in December of 2010. After several more biopsies he began chemotherapy in December 2010 and to date has 3 more treatments and will begin radiation on his lungs. In March of 2011 Kyle’s left femur was replaced with what his Dad refers to as his new bionic leg. Kyle loves fishing, roller skating and Nascar, his favorite driver is non-other than the driver of the 99 Aflac Ford Fusion.

    Kyle loves Jesus, his family and the Aflac clinic, Doctors and staff who has taken care of him and his family since November 2010. Through the surgeries, treatments and trips from LaGrange to Atlanta for his care his Dad, Toby has posted pictures on FB along the way to share their faith and progress and incredible story of courage. The LaGrange community and surrounding areas began a prayer rally for Kyle and his family but it didn’t stop there. Kyle’s Aunt Paula had wrist bands made from donations requesting prayer for this precious child. They are yellow bands with red writing that read “Team Kyle”. These wrist bands which started in LaGrange have been given out to supporters from Niagara Falls to Gulf Shores to Saudi Arabia. The battle has not been won yet, but with the support of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Aflac and Carl Edwards, Kyle Abernathy and his family know they are all being taken care of completely.

    Carl Edwards and Aflac are only one of many drivers and sponsors who are giving back to those in need. The money these foundations raise to promote awareness and build hospitals, allow sick children and families the best care, research and accommodation’s while experiencing the devastation of cancer and other illnesses.

    As a fan, I urge you to not allow follow your driver on the track but off the track as well. Help your favorite driver and his organization continue to provide all we can to help others in need.

    You can log on to NASCAR.com and find your driver and their foundation or you can Google it and find it there as well. NASCAR fans are the greatest and I am proud to be one of them!

  • HOORAHS & WAZZUPS: THE ACTUAL RACE WAS GETTING TO THE TRACK ON TIME

    HOORAHS & WAZZUPS: THE ACTUAL RACE WAS GETTING TO THE TRACK ON TIME

    The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series July 9th debut at the Kentucky Speedway was greeted with much anticipation. 107,000 seats were sold out but weren’t completely filled by fans because they were stuck in a lengthy, mega hour, traffic jam at a freeway exit trying to get to the track. Oh, by the way, there was racing that weekend at the Kentucky Speedway. Brad Keselowski had a good weekend and Kyle Busch had a great weekend. With those thoughts in mind, let’s begin with:

    [media-credit name=”Brian Douglas” align=”alignright” width=”273″][/media-credit]A never before issued WAZZUP to the third power goes to Kentucky Speedway officials for not being properly prepared for their Sprint Cup debut. Traffic en route to the race track was deplorable and reported to be backed up as much as 20 miles on freeways and highways incapable of handling that many cars at one time. Many fans abandoned their vehicles on the side of the road and walked a reported one to three miles to the race track. There were also reports of fans paying home owners, adjacent to the highway, as much as $20 to park in their yards and then make the long hike to the track. A reported thousands who made it to the track, after being snarled in traffic for as long as five hours, were turned away because the inadequate parking lots were completely full.

    WAZZUP with not learning lessons from past events? The Kentucky Speedway is owned by Speedway Motorsports Inc, (SMI). Many years ago the SMI hosted Sprint Cup debuts at their tracks in Fort Worth-Texas and Las Vegas-Nevada. The traffic jams were equally intolerable. But the speedway and SMI officials made quick work of resolving those situations. The Quaker State 400 may have been a Cup debut at Kentucky, but it was not a NASCAR debut. NASCAR’s Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series have been racing at Kentucky for approximately ten years now. During that time there has been reported traffic jams that clearly indicated the freeway to highway interchange leading to the track was a problem. Officials should have seen this coming on Friday afternoon when these highways were overloaded with fans trying to get to the Nationwide Series race.

    There’s an ageless proverb that applies to this situation: “if we don’t learn from history, then we are doomed to repeat it.” What happened to those fans trying to get to the Kentucky Speedway on Saturday was definitely a repeat offense.

    In all fairness, in the aftermath, speedway officials did issue a formal apology to the impacted fans and has offered them tickets to any remaining 2011 events at SMI owned tracks. They deserve a HOORAH for that gesture. However, that offers only works towards soothing the public relations problem. It doesn’t address the real problems of highway access to and from the speedway as well as the need for more parking. The parking lot situation is easily resolved. The highway situation may take a lot of time and effort.

    HOORAH to driver Jimmie Johnson for coming up with a solution for getting to the Kentucky Speedway: rent a helicopter. On the Friday prior to the Cup race Johnson left Kentucky to return home to celebrate his daughter’s birthday. When it came time to return to the race track, Johnson was advised of the expected traffic situation and chose to ride a helicopter back to Kentucky.

    WAZZUP with Johnson sharing all of this on “Twitter”? With so many fans stranded for hours on a highway it’s safe to assume they read and sent “Tweets” just to pass the time. They couldn’t have been that thrilled about how easy Johnson made it to the track while they sat still and suffered.

    Then again, maybe Johnson really does have a good idea. How about let’s all rent helicopters to attend the Kentucky Speedway’s 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup event. Surely by 2012 SMI will have constructed enough new parking spaces to accommodate all of those whirly birds. If by chance parking is still a problem next year, you can exercise the option of sitting in that little rescue seat and have the pilot lower you to the grandstand area. Dare to dream.

    *************

    Oh by the way: in the midst of traffic jams, parking trauma and fans having to stand in line for as long as 30 minutes to use the insufficient amount of portable toilets, there was racing at the Kentucky Speedway that weekend.

    Yeah, you know what’s coming next. Fifty percent of you are going to read the next couple of paragraphs filled with rapture like joy. The other fifty percent will experience the biblical weeping and gnashing of teeth perhaps peppered with a few not so biblical four letter words. Brace yourself, it’s Kyle Busch time.

    HOORAH for Kyle Busch and the excellent weekend he enjoyed while visiting the bluegrass state. The weekend started on Thursday night when he won the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race despite having to be sent to the back of the starting field for being late for the driver’s meeting. While attempting to qualify for Friday’s Nationwide Series race, Busch spun out, hit the wall, had to roll out a back up car and again started at the rear of the field. He made a strong run to a third place finish in that event. During Saturday’s Sprint Cup race he was the class of the field and again returned to the Kentucky Speedway’s victory lane. He also took over first in the Sprint Cup championship points standings.

    The accomplishments from his driving talent always seems to generate some very impressive numbers and the Kentucky Speedway weekend was no exception. In a period of 48 hours Busch drove in three races for a total of 925 miles. He ran 619 laps, around the Kentucky Speedway’s 1.5 mile oval, and led 186 of them. Along the way he collected $301,816 in prize money.

    But the racing weekend didn’t conclude Saturday night in Kentucky. The following morning Busch flew to Slinger-Wisconsin where he won the Miller LIte Nationals 200, super late model race, at the Slinger Super Speedway.

    HOORAH for Brad Keselowski for winning the NASCAR Nationwide Series event at Kentucky while, once again, displaying his talent for conserving fuel. In victory lane the race winner said that his fuel conservation effort was “a seat of the pants operation” adding “I’d like to say it’s a special gauge we put in the car. I call it an Ass-on-o-meter. It’s my ass, that’s my gauge.”

    HOORAH to the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series for, once again, being the most entertaining race of the weekend at Kentucky. Anyone who has avidly followed this series from the beginning knows exactly what I’m talking about.

    ************

    HOORAH for being able to end this week’s column with something very emotional and very positive. A GOD BLESS goes out to Nicole and Greg Biffle who welcomed their new baby daughter, Emma Elizabeth, to their home. The newest member of the NASCAR Nation was born last Wednesday and weighed in a seven pounds six ounces. It’s the couple’s first child.

  • SOME COMMENTS DESERVE TO BE REPEATED

    SOME COMMENTS DESERVE TO BE REPEATED

    By now every NASCAR fan in the country is likely well aware of the traffic and parking trauma that created a public relations nightmare during the Kentucky Speedway weekend. Needless to say there has been a lot of comments on this matter since.

    [media-credit name=”Joe Dunn” align=”alignright” width=”225″][/media-credit]Some of the more interesting ones came from the social network phenomenon known as “Twitter” and “Face Book”. It’s only natural. When you’re snarled in a hopeless traffic jam that’s barely moving, with the dwindling hope that you’re not going to get to see a race you paid hard earned ticket money for, then sending messages on your cell phone is a great way to spend the five hours stranded in a vehicle. Some of those comments truly represented the telephone term “4 G Face Burner.”

    The following are just two examples obtained from “Face Book”: “Wow ! Paid $220 for tickets, took five hours to go 20 miles, saw a 67 lap race due to a SRO crowd taking all of the parking. Oh, and we walked three miles. All speedway memorabilia sold out, food and drink sold out. We are supposed to take this in the rear and shut up? Don’t think so, refund please.”

    Another message read: “for those unfortunate fans who never made it through the grid lock disaster, Kyle Busch won the Not Ready For Prime Time Quaker State 400.”

    ************

    The Kentucky Speedway is owned by SMI, Speedway Motorsports Inc. It’s one of the eight SMI owned race tracks that plays host to NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series. SMI is owned by Bruton Smith who is hands down one of the most interesting characters who ever set foot on a speedway. He’ll be the first to tell you that he’s “NASCAR’s biggest customer.”

    One of the best self promoters in the business, Smith was all over the Kentucky Speedway property placing himself in front of every media microphone and television camera he could find. With that effort came some genuine Smith verbal gems on a variety of subjects.

    Seemingly knowing well in advance that his fans were going to have a major traffic problem coming off of Interstate 71, Smith went on the offensive, as well as the SPEED Channel, and announced that he was going to “pressure” the Governor of Kentucky to make needed road improvements in that area because his race track was going to turn Sparta-Kentucky into the third largest city in the state. “Interstate 71 sucks,” Smith said adding “it’s the worst interstate I’ve ever been on. It’s a disgrace to the great state of Kentucky. We hope to get everybody out of the area and home by Tuesday. You don’t even want to be on it, (interstate 71), This is the worst section of interstate highway in America. The Governor and I have talked about that. Don’t go on I-71, you’re not going to win.”

    *************

    However, traffic wasn’t the only issue that had Smith going on the offensive that weekend. There were driver concerns regarding whether or not the Kentucky Speedway had an adequate amount of energy absorbing SAFER barrier walls around its 1.5 mile oval.

    That concern was primarily led by drivers Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart. Commenting on his safety concerns, Stewart said “they don’t have enough SAFER barriers yet, not near enough SAFER barriers for what we’re doing here and how close the wall is to the race track. Hopefully, none of us will have to test that out.”

    When the issue was presented to him by the SPEED Channel, Smith replied “I have not talked to Jeff and Tony, but tell them just to drive where Kyle Busch goes, If they will do that, they won’t have to worry about any padding.” It was almost as if Smith knew Busch was going to dominate the NASCAR Sprint Cup debut at his race track.

    There were also driver concerns regarding the state of the track surface which contained a series of bumps especially in turns three and four which turned out to be troublesome all weekend long. Smith said the track had “character” and added “maybe we’ll look at repaving after the 2013 race.”

    ***********

    In still other Kentucky Speedway comments that deserve to be repeated, Smith was asked about the possibility of his annual Sprint Cup race becoming as popular as the most famous race in Kentucky. That of course would be the Kentucky Derby. Without a second’s hesitation, Smith replied: “we will outdraw that horsey event and we will have a bigger impact.”

    ***********

    It’s hardly a big secret that Smith seriously wants a second Sprint Cup date for his SMI owned Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The annual numbers from the track’s lone date in March easily supports that argument. It’s safe to assume that the fans are solidly behind the idea as well. Any fan who has ever spent a NASCAR weekend in Las Vegas will stand proud and testify regarding how much fun it is.

    If the prospect for a second Cup date at Las Vegas isn’t likely anytime soon, Smith would love to see his March race moved to November. NASCAR’s final race of the season will again be held at the Flordia based Homestead-Miami Speedway. After that, it’s off to Las Vegas for the annual champions week and the gala Sprint Cup awards banquet. To Smith it makes all the sense in the world to finish off the regular racing season, as well as NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Chase For The Championship, at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and then head downtown for the annual party. There seems to be a lot of fans who supports that idea as well.

    When asked about the prospect of a Las Vegas date change, Smith quickly replied “yeah, we need to get that last race out of North Cuba.”

    Seriously Bruton? North Cuba? It’s easy to imagine the reaction that the Beach Boys, (that would be NASCAR officials in Daytona and not the famous rock n roll band), must have had when Smith let that comment fly.

    Was the comment appropriate? In all honesty not really. Was the comment politically correct? That’s hard to say because the PC boundaries seem to constantly change and we’re no longer sure what’s a joke and what’s an insult. Was the comment funny? If I may borrow a quote from famed comedian Larry The Cable Guy:”that’s funny I don’t care who you are.” Should yours truly be chastised for laughing to the point of pain when I heard this comment? Okay, I guess I should have displayed an extra ounce of self control and been a little more sensitive to the feelings of the “North Cubans.”

    Anytime Bruton Smith talks about any topic he always has my attention. Because I know he’s going to make a comment that deserves to be repeated.

  • Rod Johnson Jr. Picks-Up Fourth Win of Season at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale

    Rod Johnson Jr. Picks-Up Fourth Win of Season at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale

    [media-credit name=”Position One Motorsports” align=”alignright” width=”225″][/media-credit]For those fans who have never visited your local short track for a night of excitement on a Saturday night. Let’s just say you don’t what you’re missing unless you take the time to support not only the track, but the drivers who race just as hard, and sometimes harder than your favorite Sprint Cup star.

    Once again it was a wild night of racing race at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale, with six different divisions taking to the half and third mile asphalt paved tracks before an estimated crowd of 1,800 fans. The main event of the evening was the Lucas Oil Slick Mist Super Late Model 75-lap feature race. It has been a little over a month since Rod Johnson Jr., driver of the #03 King Taco/Sunrise Ford has climbed behind the wheel of his Super Late Model at this progressively banked half-mile.

    Starting with the day’s first practice session, Johnson quickly found himself first on top of the leader board with a time of 18.219 seconds. Before the second session was about to begin, Johnson along with his team felt the car was set up to his liking, so they chose to skip the session and stay with what they had from the first time out.

    Qualifying was equally successful for Johnson, when he placed the car on the pole with a time of 18.101 seconds. Not satisfied with this, Johnson bested his first lap performance with a time of 18.099 seconds while securing his fourth pole of the season. Because of the invert, Johnson would end up starting the race from the 13th position, but quickly made his way to the front after two separate red flag incidents stopped the race on the first lap.

    Johnson restarted the race from the sixth position, and after 50 laps of green flag racing captured his fourth win of the season.

    “Once we were able to get in a long run, we were able to pick off some cars and finally get to the #11 car and get passed him to bring home the win.  I really have to thank the whole Position One Motorsports team.  They worked their butts off all week and I have the honor of working with these guys and driving the car.  A big thanks to my sponsors as well for supporting us and helping us make this a reality for us.”

  • Jason White Hits Lottery Again for Joe Denette Motorsports with Best Team Finish

    Jason White Hits Lottery Again for Joe Denette Motorsports with Best Team Finish

    With his Mega Millions lottery winnings in hand, Joe Denette has been living the NASCAR dream , creating his own Camping World Truck Series team, Joe Denette Motorsports, this season.

    But Denette’s driver, Jason White, behind the wheel of the No. 23 BunBroker.com Chevrolet, hit the lottery again for him, scoring the team’s best finish ever at Kentucky Speedway this past weekend.

    [media-credit name=”Photo credit joedenettemotorsports.com” align=”alignright” width=”225″][/media-credit]After battling eventual race winner Kyle Busch in the final restart, White was able to score his first top-5 finish in 2011 and a career best finish for Joe Denette Motorsports.

    “It’s huge,” White said of his finish. “To drive for Joe Denette Motorsports is awesome.”

    “The guy was a huge NASCAR fan and hit the lottery and now for his first season to be able to come out and be competitive and to have a chance to win a race was big for him and us,” White continued. “It’s exciting for the team.”

    White credits the career best team finish with testing that he and his crew did at Rockingham the week before, along with fellow driver and competitor Ron Hornaday.

    “We went testing the week before with Ron Hornaday and we learned a lot, what not to do and what to do,” White said. “I ended up being just as fast as him so the team was all excited about that.”

    “We took what we learned there and took it to Kentucky,” White continued. “So, with the setup we came up with at Rockingham, we just fine tuned it.”

    White practiced in the top-10 and told his team that he thought they had at least a top-five truck and potentially could win the race.

    “I ended up qualifying ninth and even took the lead, going back and forth with Austin Dillon,” White said. “So, that was pretty exciting.”

    Unfortunately, White and his team had a problem with the jack during one of the pit stops later in the race and came out in seventh. He was, however, able to charge back to the front of the field, before the caution flew yet again.

    “That last restart, we were fourth and so basically went to second in the first turn and came up to Kyle (Busch) and was about to pass him for the lead with three to go and the caution came back out for that big wreck,” White said. “I was like ‘oh, man, I didn’t need that.’

    White also knew that the bottom of the track had limited grip and was very slick. On the restart, the young driver spun his tires, allowing Kyle Busch to go on to win the race.

    “I would have been OK but Elliott (Sadler) made it three wide and that really hurt us bad,” White said. “He was doing what he had to do, but looking back, if he would have just pushed me or stayed in line, we could have both had a chance on Kyle (Busch).”

    “We ended up fifth but it was a great weekend for the entire team,” White continued. “To be able to compete for the win was definitely exciting and we will be able to continue that throughout the rest of the season.”

    White was also pleased that he got to lead a few laps at Kentucky Speedway. And, although he has led before, particularly at Bristol, this meant a lot to the young driver.

    “I’ve led laps the last couple of years here and there but this year, we’ve got better equipment and better stuff,” White said. “We’re trying to be able to continue on with that for the rest of the season.”

    As for race winner and competitor Kyle Busch, White and his team are just a bit tired of continuing to run behind him.

    “I learned from him, but I’m just ready to beat him,” White said. “I’m at the point now that I can beat him.”

    “If we could have restarted the race the time before, I think we could have gotten him,” White continued. “We had a lot of fun and we learned what we did wrong and will fix it for next time.”

    White is definitely looking forward to his next chance, which will come this weekend in the Camping World Truck Series Coca-Cola 200 presented by Hy-Vee at Iowa Speedway.

    “I always liked the track,” White said. “We’ve always been fast there.”

    “I think we’ll be top-five and contending for the win,” White continued. “If we’re not, I’ll be disappointed.”

    “I really believe that with what we learned last week, we should be able to go out and continue to do what we did last week.”

    While Joe Denette most definitely feels like he won the lottery twice now after the team’s best career finish, White has reserved his judgment.

    “I don’t necessarily feel like I’ve won the lottery yet,” White said. “I need to win a race first.”

    “This weekend was a great shot in the arm, it was great for me and it was great for the team,” White continued. “But I want to be able to win. We need to win.”

    “This is the momentum we needed to continue for the next few races so we can prove we can go out there and do it,” White said. “Once I win a race, then I’ll say ‘I’ve won the lottery.’

  • Carl Edwards not ready to wonder if 2011 could be his year

    Carl Edwards not ready to wonder if 2011 could be his year

    With eight races left before the 2011 Chase for the Sprint Cup begins and with a firm grasp on the point lead until recently, Carl Edwards still doesn’t want to start thinking about what could be in terms of a championship.

    “Man, this thing can change quickly,” said Edwards in Daytona. “You guys know how this works. Look at what Kurt’s [Busch] been doing. They’ve turned things around. They’ve been running spectacularly.”

    [media-credit name=”David Yeazell” align=”alignright” width=”247″][/media-credit]While Busch might be one of the hottest drivers on the circuit, it’s Edwards who has been at the head of the class. He’s won both a point paying race, Las Vegas, and the non-point Sprint All-Star race. Had it not been for the likes of Trevor Bayne or Regan Smith, Edwards could have multiple victories and a bulls-eye on his back when it comes to the championship fight.

    Instead, his Roush-Fenway Racing team is satisfied just taking it one week at time. Back running competitively after an ugly 2010 is all they wanted, having the point lead was a bonus considering when the Chase starts teams will be seeded by wins and the lead reset.

    Edwards though, who came into 2011 as the pre-season favorite, isn’t concerned about what’s down the road. As far as the Chase is concerned, he wouldn’t even say he thinks he’s locked in because “anything can happen.” Engine failures, wrecks or even getting injured are all reasons Edwards isn’t going to be relieved until the right time.

    “Until this season is over, if I’m standing there with the [championship] trophy that would be great” he said. “But I’m going to just keep my head down and keep working because anything can happen, but we have had a very, very good year.”

    Perhaps it’s because Edwards has been in this position before that he isn’t ready to take it for granted. In 2008 Edwards sat second in points heading into the Chase, having already won six races. He was going to be the man that dethroned Jimmie Johnson but Edwards, even after going on to win three more races came up 69 points short.

    The following two seasons Edwards didn’t come close to contending for the title. The No. 99 team went winless in 2009 and not finding victory lane until the final two races of the 2010 season.

    “It’s nice to be disappointed with second-place runs at a lot of these tracks,” Edwards said.

    Yes, Edwards has been in this position before and he’s better for it. The last two years, a second place finish would have been like a win for Edwards’ team. While he remained competitive in the Nationwide Series, winning races and contending for a second championship, the Cup program lacked.

    Yet, Edwards forged ahead. Grateful for the opportunities that he was given and knowing things would soon change. Away from the track he enjoyed other successes like getting married and having two children. To Edwards, he says he’s won the lottery and is the luckiest man in the world.

    Not only does he get to travel to places like Daytona or Indianapolis and do what he loves, he’s become quite good at it. The 2011 season is shaping up to be one of his best, even though Edwards hasn’t been able to win since Las Vegas. But he knows they’re good enough to contend.

    “I believe that as a team we’re running well, our cars are fast enough that we don’t have to go make these lunges for life and have crazy strategies, and I don’t have to do wild things on the race track to run well and have chance at winning, so it’s been really good.”

  • Dario Franchitti Scores 30th IZOD IndyCar Series Win in Honda Indy Toronto

    Dario Franchitti Scores 30th IZOD IndyCar Series Win in Honda Indy Toronto

    [media-credit id=4 align=”alignleft” width=”100″][/media-credit]

    After taking the lead on lap 71, Dario Franchitti led teammate Scott Dixon to the checkered flag for his third win in Toronto and the 30th IndyCar Series win of the year for the points leader.

    “I was pretty happy just be in the company of Rick and J.R., and to get my 30th win today means a lot, especially here in Toronto,” Franchitti said. “I got my first pole here in 1997. I love racing in Canada. We had that incident with Will. He out braked himself to out brake me and opened up the door, I went down the inside, I held the wall and Will came down. I put my nose in there, I was trying to get my nose out, but ultimately he closed the door and paid the price.”

    The incident, in which Franchitti spoke of with pole sitter and points rival Will Power, happened on lap 56 when they were battling for fifth in turn three. Power kept soildering on, till hitting the tire barrier on lap 66 in turn five after contact with Alex Tagliani.

    “It’s just a really disappointing finish for the Verizon car today,” Power said. “My team did a great job in the pits and we were working our way back toward the front and we got past (Dario) Franchitti. We went into the corner and I gave him room and then he just drove into me. I understood he was going to get penalized but then there was no call – I just don’t understand that. After that we were just trying to get the best result possible before Tag (Alex Tagliani) hit me from behind. It’s very tough to have two DNFs (did not finish) in a row. All I can say is we’ll keep working hard and hopefully come back strong at Edmonton.”

    “The contact with Will was also a shame,” Tagliani said afterwards. “Will was on blacks. I tried to pass him a couple of times in turn three. He was blocking a bit, and then I made a move on the inside in turn eight and it got tight.”

    Meanwhile, it was Franchitti’s teammate Dixon who came home second for his fourth podium finish in the last five races.

    “It’s frustrating because these street races are part luck, you know,” Dixon said. “Will and I were one and two, then he comes out like 18th or something like that, so it’s—and the 10 car gets it everytime, so I’ll call back on the radio and say, ‘Let me guess who’s leading. The 10 car.’ Which, is good on him, they make good strategy, and obviously Dario is quick as well and we all had to pass a lot of cars, but it’s frustrating. We were getting into a nice rhythm there, car was quick and good, and then the strategy throws it all off.”

    Ryan Hunter-Reay finished third for his best finish of the season.

    “I got third and now we just have to go win one,” he said. “The Ganassi boys did a great job.  Congrats to Dario.  Those cars were the class of the field today.  The two red and white cars – they just took off.”

    Hunter-Reay’s day wasnt’ totally clean, however, as he made contact with Graham Rahal on lap 80 in turn three, though no caution was brought out due to the incident.

    “Unfortunately,  it  is a bit of a product of Toronto,” Hunter-Reay continued. “I feel really bad for Graham on that. When Dixon went by him,

    [media-credit id=4 align=”alignright” width=”225″][/media-credit]Graham kind of chopped him on the straight. Dixon went by him and really ran him wide in the corner into turn three.  There’s a football field worth of real estate there and I went for it and Graham slid across so. I’m not going to blame it on him and I certainly did not deliberately do that.  That was just part of Toronto.  As you can see, what we had out here today was a little bit of a crash test unfortunately. I hope the fans enjoyed it and I am just really happy to get DHL, Circle K and Sun Drop on the podium.  It was a hard fought day.  It wasn’t a straight forward podium that’s for sure.”

    Marco Andretti and Victor Meira rounded out the top five.

    The race was halted by five full course yellows throughout the 85 laps this afternoon.

    The first caution was on lap three when Ryan Briscoe and Tony Kanaan made contact in turn three, causing Kanaan to go airbourne, but he’d be okay.

    “I gave Briscoe plenty of room and he still took me out,” he said. “It was too early in the race to be doing stupid moves like that. I had a good car and was moving up the field,  I guess I overtook four cars in the first lap, so I was going to the front.  It’s a shame for the GEICO KV-Lotus guys.”

    The second caution was on lap 30 when Helio Castroneves and Tagliani made contact in turn three, halting Tagliani to a stop in turn three on the course. He’d get the car restarted and carry on.

    The third caution was on lap 39 when James Jakes stopped on the course.

    The fourth caution came out on lap 48 for a multi-car wreck involving Paul Tracy, Victor Meira, Charlie Kimball and Sebastain Bourdais.

    The fifth caution came on lap 56 for the incident involving Franchitti and Power, while the sixth caution came out on lap 71 for a multi-car accident involving Danica Patrick, Jakes and Tagliani.

    “It was just a really frustrating day,” Patrick said. “I thought we had a good race car. After we would pit for new tires, it would feel really good, but we kept getting caught out by the yellows. I have to thank the GoDaddy.com crew for working so hard all weekend.”

    The last caution was on lap 76 for another multi-car wreck involving Justin Wilson, Oriol Servia, James Hinchcliffe, Charlie Kimball, Mike Conway and Marco Andretti.

  • Rolex Series – Gurney takes advantage of Pruett mistake to win at Laguna Seca

    Rolex Series – Gurney takes advantage of Pruett mistake to win at Laguna Seca

    Alex Gurney took advantage of a rare miscue by Scott Pruett, beating him out of the pits on their final stops on Lap 80 after Pruett slightly overshot his pit. Gurney then held off the Daytona Prototype championship leader for the final 28 circuits, winning by 0.431 seconds.

     

  • F1 – Alonso wins first GP of 2011 on 60th anniversary of Ferrari’s first F1 win

    F1 – Alonso wins first GP of 2011 on 60th anniversary of Ferrari’s first F1 win

    Fernando Alonso, with a little help from a long pit stop by Sebastian Vettel, won the Grand Prix of Great Britain at Silverstone. It was Alonso’s first victory of the year and the first victory for Ferrari in 2011.

     

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Inaugural Kentucky Quaker State 400

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Inaugural Kentucky Quaker State 400

    The bluegrass state, known more for its horse racing than horse power, hosted its first ever NASCAR Sprint Cup race, the Quaker State 400. Here is what was surprising and not surprising from the inaugural running of the cars at Kentucky Speedway.

    [media-credit name=”Joe Dunn” align=”alignright” width=”225″][/media-credit]Surprising:  It was a bit surprising to find the biggest complaints of the fans echoed the complaints of the drivers on this historic night. And it was all about the traffic, on and off the track.

    Many fans never even made it into the race because of the traffic. This situation was so bad that both the track management and NASCAR had to issue statements of apology.

    Several drivers also complained vehemently about the traffic on the track as well, especially about not being able to pass. Four-time champion Jeff Gordon, driving the No. 24 Dupont Chevrolet, was most vocal about the both sets of traffic situations.

    “When the green flag dropped, I was surprised with how little grip there was because we had so much grip throughout the weekend,” Gordon said. “It was so impossible to pass here.”

    “I think the only thing that made this a great race today was the green-white-checkered and the excitement and energy of the fans,” Gordon continued. “I think when Bruton (Smith) is looking at how to get the traffic in here, he’s going to have to look at the race track as well.”

    “It’s rough and it’s really hard to pass.”

    Not Surprising:  It was not surprising to see one driver yet again prove his versatility and driving skills, especially with the spotlight shining on the inaugural run in the bluegrass state.

    That driver, Kyle Busch, proved that he can not only drive from the back of the pack to the victory, as he did in the Camping World Truck Series race, but also start from the pole, lead 125 laps of the 267 laps in the race, and win the first ever Cup event at Kentucky Speedway.

    “This is cool man,” the driver of the No. 18 M&M’s Toyota said. “This is right up there with the best of them.”

    “I haven’t won the big ones, so this is as good as it gets right now,” Busch continued. “I can’t put it into words. The way we ran tonight was awesome.”

    This was Busch’s 22nd victory in 240 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races and his third victory in 2011. The victory also catapulted the 26 year old driver into the lead in the Chase standings by 4 points over Carl Edwards.

    Surprising:  David Reutimann, driver of the No. 00 Tums Toyota Camry, surprisingly not only starred in the Tums commercial with team owner Michael Waltrip, but also starred in his best career finish, runner up to race winner Kyle Busch.

    This was only Reutimann’s second top-10 finish for the entire 2011 season.

    “It was a great race man,” Reutimann said. “It was a phenomenal race.”

    “We got a run on top and got it pointed in the right direction,” Reutimann said of the final lap as he battled five-time champ Jimmie Johnson. “Jimmie gave me enough room up there and we ended up getting a decent finish.”

    Not Surprising:   It was not surprising that the winner of the Kentucky Speedway Nationwide race was the closest contender in the Cup race as far as laps led to the race winner. Brad Keselowski, winner of the Nationwide race at Kentucky, led three times for a total of 79 laps in the first-ever Cup race.

    Unfortunately for Keselowski, driver of the blue deuce for Penske Racing,  the late restarts did not work in his favor and he ended up finishing seventh in the inaugural Cup run atKentucky.

    “It was an incredible Miller Lite Dodge Saturday night,” Keselowski said. “I led a bunch of laps and I have to thank my team for that.”

    “But I would have liked to have gotten a better finish from where we ended up.”

    Surprising:  Old five time Jimmie Johnson made a surprisingly uncharacteristic mistake behind the wheel of the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet. He lost count of the laps and thought there was one more lap to go in the race instead of it being completed.

    “I didn’t see the white flag,” Johnson said. “I saw some type of flag when we were coming, which was the checkered, but I didn’t see the white for some reason.”

    “I think the 18 was going to be the winner the way it was,” Johnson continued. “It didn’t change the outcome of the race by any stretch of the imagination.”

    Johnson finished the race in the third spot. He also moved up one spot in the point standings to fifth place.

    Not Surprising:  While Juan Pablo Montoya, behind the wheel of the No. 42 Target Chevrolet, may be known as a fiery, aggressive driver, it is not surprising that he and his crew chief Brian Pattie are calculating their every move with the Chase fast approaching.

    Montoya had a good car at Kentuckyand was up in the front lurking for much of the race. Although he finished 15th after qualifying for the outside pole, Montoya has inched ever nearer to Chase contention, moving up one spot to the 13th position in the point standings.

    Surprising:  Jamie McMurray, driving the No. 1 McDonald’s Chevrolet, is having a surprisingly bad run of motor failures for the season. The engine gremlin struck him again at Kentucky Speedway and it blew up, exuding a tremendous amount of smoke that forced him to a dead stop on the track.

    “Yeah, I got a little freaked out because I felt the motor start shaking and blow up and the smoke came in the car so fast I couldn’t see,” McMurray said. “That’s the first time that’s ever happened to me.”

    “I’m really frustrated,” McMurray continued. “I can’t believe we broke three engines in 18 races or however many we’ve run so far. I don’t know that I’ve blown up three engines in the last five or six years.”

    “So, it’s unbelievable that we seem to keep getting the engine that breaks.”

    Not Surprising:  After several drivers experienced challenging runs at their first ever attempt at Kentucky Speedway, it is not at all surprising that the last words out of the mouths of these drivers is how much they cannot wait to get to the next race in New Hampshire.

    “That was a tough night for the NAPA Know How team,” Martin Truex, Jr., driver of the No. 56 NAPA Good To Go Toyota Camry, said. “We started slow and then it looked like we were going to get a good finish but our car kind of plowed there at the end.”

    “I’m looking forward to New Hampshire.”

    Denny Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 FedEx Ground Toyota Camry, echoed Truex’s sentiments.

    “It was a fight,” Hamlin said of his inaugural Kentucky run. “We couldn’t make any moves, especially when it came night time and it seemed like our car went away from us.”

    “I’m looking forward to going back to a short track likeNew Hampshire.”

    Hamlin finished 11th and moved up to 10th in the point standings. Truex, Jr. finished 18th and held steady at 23rd in points.