Hey Open Wheel Guys, How’d That Work Out For Ya?
August 25, 2008
A mere two years after the beginning of NASCAR’s big ”Open Wheel Invasion,” we are about to come full circle. As of now, it looks as though the two original drivers who defected from open-wheel racing may be the last ones standing for 2009. Congratulations to Sam Hornish Jr. and Juan Pablo Montoya for having such staying power. Read more
Kyle gets gored at the bullring!
August 24, 2008
Three race leaders… sounds boring. But it wasn’t! Carl Edwards took the early lead, only to give it up to Kyle Busch. Other than a single lap up front by Jeff Gordon, Busch was firmly in control for more than 400 laps. After every pit stop, with fresh rubber, Carl would challenge Kyle for the lead, occasionally pulling beside him, but never getting ahead of him. On lap 469, following yet another caution, Carl got under Kyle, bumped him, and went back into the lead. Kyle’s teammate Denny Hamlin also got past Kyle to run second. Read more
Busch Bashed By Backflipper at Bristol
August 24, 2008
Ok, that’s really a very misleading headline, but Rocky beat me to the punch in his post, and I wouldn’t be able to sum it up any better than that. So it’s back to the fallback “random thoughts” format for me. By the way, this column was missing last week, and I apologize for that. My computer got zapped due to some ill-placed JGR magnets near my hard drive. Read more
Edwards Wins More Than Just a Race At Bristol, Has Busch To Thank
August 24, 2008
Let me use a little bit of pro wrestling slang if you don’t mind.
Kyle Busch is easily the best heel in NASCAR. What does that mean? It means more than just being unpopular with a majority of people. It means being downright hated by a bunch of people. It means being hated to the point to where you make other drivers more popular just because they beat you. It means that you are so hated that the crowd would rather see you lose, than they would their driver win.
I never thought that I would see the day that a driver got a bigger chorus of boos at Bristol than Jeff Gordon. Gordon has always been public enemy number one at Bristol. Not anymore. The chorus of jeers that rained down on Kyle Busch from the grandstands of the Sharpie 500 left no doubt as to who’s number one on the most wanted poster. Kyle’s not just hated, he’s despised.
When introduced, Carl Edwards got a nice little mix of cheers and jeers, but there were many drivers more popular than Carl and there were a few that were more hated than Carl. The crowd seemed fairly indifferent to the man who has been the second-most dominant driver in NASCAR this season.
That all changed when he passed Kyle Busch for the lead. When he passed Busch for the lead, Edwards took a crowd that had gotten a little sleepy, and a little restless from what looked like another easy Busch victory, and he popped them for a response that was worthy of any high moment in sports. You could hear the crowd hold their breath as they hoped that Carl could hang on to win, and when he did they erupted. He had beaten the bad guy. Cousin Carl had taken the white hat off the rack and used it to hold off the hated Busch brother.
And then there was the after-race activity. Let me tell you; if you thought the crowd popped when Edwards passed Busch for the lead, that pop was nothing in comparison to the one that Edwards received when he responded to Kyle’s bump by ramming him, hard. The crowd ate Edwards up, and when his interview aired on the big screen, and he said, “my left arm must have slipped”, the crowd laughed. The bad guy had gotten his, and Carl Edwards left Bristol the most popular driver of the night. I bet he sold a few more t-shirts, and I bet he’ll here a few more cheers next week. And next year when he comes back to Bristol, he’ll find out that Bristol fans have long memories, and he can expect more than a mix of applause.
And in a way he owes that to Kyle Busch. Every sport needs a bad guy. The New York Yankees come to mind. The New England Patriots have turned into that for the NFL over the past few years. There needs to be someone so good that people will tune in just to see them get beat. Kyle has that. Then, when you throw in Kyle’s attitude, which rubs many fans the wrong way, there is no doubt that he is probably the most hated man in NASCAR among fans right now.
Kyle’s not going to lose any sleep about that, nor should he. He’s comfortable in his role, and in reality, NASCAR needs him in that role. Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway, Carl Edwards was the man who went toe-to-toe with Superman and didn’t flinch.
That win helped Carl much more than the loss hurt Kyle. Kyle’s still first in the points race; and Kyle will win again, and in the process, he’ll probably get more heat for himself, and then the whole thing can start all over again. Someone has got to be the bad guy, or there’s nothing to by which to judge the good guys; and Kyle Busch is one hell of a measuring stick.
Right now Kyle Busch is Ric Flair back in the day. You love to boo him, and you love to watch him get beat, and you have to admit that he’s good at what he does. Whether you like it, or whether you don’t.
I’ll have the race breakdown with the G, B, and U tonight or tomorrow; in the meantime, I hope that you enjoyed the race as much as I did.
Rocky Kitts watches entirely too much NASCAR and old pro wrestling, and thinks that the “I Quit” match between Tully Blanchard and Magnum T.A was the greatest match of all time. He can also be reached at wwwthreestrikesandout@yahoo.com.
More Changes than Expected at RCR for 2009
August 23, 2008
The worst-kept secret in the Sprint Cup garage was announced today. Casey Mears will be the fourth driver at Richard Childress racing next year, but he will not be in the car he was expected to drive. Mears surprised everyone in the Bristol Media Center by showing up in a Jack Daniels shirt - with Clint Bowyer in tow wearing a Cheerios-logoed polo. Teammate Jeff Burton, who will evidently get the new Caterpillar sponsorship in 2009, was also in attendance. Read more
Capello beats Werner in Audi battle for Mosport pole
August 23, 2008
The American Le Mans series is in Canada this weekend for the Mobil 1 presents the Grand Prix of Mosport where qualifying was held today. And to the surprise of no one, the Audi’s battled head to head for pole. Dindo Capello driving the #1 Audi R10 bested his teammate, Marco Werner by a mere 94-one-thousands of a second.
In LMP2, Acura had a spectacular day, taking four of the five top spots in P2. However, they did not capture the LMP2 pole, as Romain Dumas set the top time of 104.318 that was also good enough for third position overall.
In GT1, the Corvettes blew the Aston Martin away by almost two seconds, as Johnny O’Connell beat out his teammate, Olivier Beretta.
Jaime Melo piloted his Ferrari F430 to the best time in GT2 for Risi Competizione.
Tomorrow’s race will air on SpeedTV at 3PM.
Qualifying Results
CP Driver Best Lap
1 Dindo Capello 01:04.1 2
Marco Werner 01:04.2 1
Romain Dumas 01:04.3 2
David Brabham 01:04.6 3
Franck Montagny 01:04.6 4
Luis Diaz 01:05.2 5
Simon Pagenaud 01:05.2 6
Sascha Maassen 01:05.2 7
Marino Franchitti 01:05.2 8
Chris Dyson 01:05.4 3
Jon Field 01:06.1 4
Ryan Lewis 01:07.2 9
Ben Devlin 01:07.7 1
Johnny O`Connell 01:13.9 2
Olivier Beretta 01:13.9 3
Terry Borcheller 01:15.6 1
Jaime Melo 01:16.9 2
Dirk Werner 01:17.1 3
Dominik Farnbacher 01:17.2 4
Wolf Henzler 01:17.6 5
Patrick Pilet 01:17.9 6
Tom Milner 01:18.4 7
Marc Basseng 01:19.7 8
Jim Tafel 01:19.9 9
Chris Hall 01:20.3 10
Seth Neiman 01:20.5 5
Tony Burgess ?.??? 11
Paul Drayson ?.???
Massa holds off Hamilton for Europe GP pole
August 23, 2008
The F1 circus turns toward the shores of Valencia this week for the Grand Prix of Europe. The street circuit in Valencia is a winding 3.4 mile course that highlights the beauty of this Old World city and it’s Mediterranean shore.
Today’s knock-out qualifying session had a few surprises at the tail end of the field, but the pole sitter is not surprising. Felipe Massa will start P1 for tomorrow’s race, but will have to fight Lewis Hamilton who starts from P2 for early control of the race. Massa was the class of the field, setting a torrid pace in the first few turns of the circuit that nobody, including Hamilton could compete with.
The first two rounds of qualifying were actually dominated by Sebastian Vettel in the Toro Rosso machine. The German phenom was quickest going into the final round of qualifying, and ended up qualifying fifth, which is a fantastic result for Torro Rosso. Likewise fellow Torro Rosso teammate, Sebastian Bourdais, qualified 10th in a solid showing.
The back end of the field yielded some big suprises as Button, Coulthard, Fisichella, Barrichello, Sutil all were knocked out in the first round! And in a huge disappointment for the hometown fans, Fernando Alonso was knocked out in the second round of qualify, although he starts a respectable 12th.
Tomorrow’s race airs live on Speed TV at 7:30 AM ET.
Results for Qualifying:
| Pos | No | Driver | Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1:38.176 | 1:37.859 | 1:38.989 | 19 |
| 2 | 22 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:38.464 | 1:37.954 | 1:39.199 | 15 |
| 3 | 4 | Robert Kubica | BMW Sauber | 1:38.347 | 1:38.050 | 1:39.392 | 18 |
| 4 | 1 | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | 1:38.703 | 1:38.229 | 1:39.488 | 21 |
| 5 | 23 | Heikki Kovalainen | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:38.656 | 1:38.120 | 1:39.937 | 18 |
| 6 | 15 | Sebastian Vettel | STR-Ferrari | 1:38.141 | 1:37.842 | 1:40.142 | 19 |
| 7 | 11 | Jarno Trulli | Toyota | 1:37.948 | 1:37.928 | 1:40.309 | 21 |
| 8 | 3 | Nick Heidfeld | BMW Sauber | 1:38.738 | 1:37.859 | 1:40.631 | 19 |
| 9 | 7 | Nico Rosberg | Williams-Toyota | 1:38.595 | 1:38.336 | 1:40.721 | 18 |
| 10 | 14 | Sebastien Bourdais | STR-Ferrari | 1:38.622 | 1:38.417 | 1:40.750 | 18 |
| 11 | 8 | Kazuki Nakajima | Williams-Toyota | 1:38.667 | 1:38.428 | 15 | |
| 12 | 5 | Fernando Alonso | Renault | 1:38.268 | 1:38.435 | 12 | |
| 13 | 12 | Timo Glock | Toyota | 1:38.532 | 1:38.499 | 14 | |
| 14 | 10 | Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 1:38.559 | 1:38.515 | 15 | |
| 15 | 6 | Nelsinho Piquet | Renault | 1:38.787 | 1:38.744 | 15 | |
| 16 | 16 | Jenson Button | Honda | 1:38.880 | 6 | ||
| 17 | 9 | David Coulthard | Red Bull-Renault | 1:39.235 | 9 | ||
| 18 | 21 | Giancarlo Fisichella | Force India-Ferrari | 1:39.268 | 10 | ||
| 19 | 17 | Rubens Barrichello | Honda | 1:39.811 | 10 | ||
| 20 | 20 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Ferrari | 1:39.943 | 9 |
FastMachines.com Radio Episode #7
August 21, 2008
This week Josh and Chris cover the unlikely event of anyone but Dixon winning the IndyCar championship, Texaco leaving NASCAR, NASCAR coming to Iowa, F1 under the lights in Singapore and in the concrete canyon in Valencia, another “furiner” in NASCAR, and more… Show notes below the fold…
Let us know what you think by commenting on this posting, or shoot Chris and I an email by sending to radio@fastmachines.com.
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What’s in a Number?
August 19, 2008
Last weekend at Michigan, Tony Stewart announced that Ryan Newman would drive the #4 Chevrolet for the new Stewart-Haas race team next year. A day later, stories surfaced online that Morgan McClure Racing was “not happy” about Stewart taking “their number.”
Today, an update! Newman will drive a #39 next season rather than the #4.
The most likely scenario is that someone from Morgan-McClure either contacted Stewart and persuaded him to change his mind about using the #4, but Stewart could just as likely have heard about the consternation his choice of number had caused MMR and decided to make the switch. I hope Morgan-McClure didn’t request the change. That would seem a little selfish to me seeing as their Sprint Cup program no longer exists. They “might” come back some day, certainly, but Kyle Busch ”might” announce that he is giving up NASCAR Racing to join the ballet.
Whatever happened, Stewart showed some class in relinquishing his first choice of a number. Yes, Morgan-McClure ran the #4 for many decades and won quite a few races with it. Yes, they have a sentimental attachment. However, they have no more claim on the number than do I. They have not raced this year, and unless a fairly large miracle occurs, they will likely never race again. NASCAR owns the numbers, and they gave the 4 to Stewart-Haas Racing.
Newman ended up with a cool number anyway. He won his first ever USAC midget race in a #39. But the “14 and the 39″ just doesn’t flow as well as the “14 and the 4.”
Stewart was very nice to give up the 4, but I hope his actions don’t set a precedent for other teams who think they are “owed” a certain number.
Double Clutchin’-The G, B, And U From Michigan: Part Two
August 18, 2008
Busch>Edwards>Everybody Else.
If you wanted to sum up this season in NASCAR. you could use the formula above to sum it up and it would be hard to dispute. There have been 23 races this season and 13 of them have been won by the duo. And that’s just in the Cup. The two have also combined for nine wins on the Nationwide Series, which gives them a grand total of 22 wins in both Read more