Newman and Penske Call it Quits
July 14, 2008
Looks like Ryan Newman didn’t have the patience to wait for Indy to make his move. Penske PR today put out a release stating that Newman and Penske Racing would part ways at the end of 2008. No big surprises there, but now the question becomes where will Ryan go?
The most obvious move for Newman is to a second team at the newly-formed Stewart-Haas operation. Rumors have been rampant for weeks that Tony Stewart already has both Office Depot and UPS ready to sponsor cars next year. Read more
Shorter Mile-High Nats still long on drama
July 14, 2008
The 29th Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals at Bandimere Speedway in Denver featured a fast all-concrete drag strip with innovative cooling strips, but less of it was used during the race than last year.
In an effort to get their arms around super-powerful nitro cars in the wake of Scott Kalitta’s tragic Funny Car death, the NHRA decreed that nitro races would run (at least temporarily) to 1000 feet instead of the traditional 1320 feet/quarter mile distance.
The slightly shortened nitro runs didn’t seem to lack for excitement. Read more
Double Clutchin’-The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly From Chi-Town
July 13, 2008
LifeLock’s not doing its job, because on Saturday night, NASCAR’s identity got stolen.
Kyle Busch continued his one-man campaign to make himself the face of NASCAR with another victory Saturday night; this time winning the Lifelock 400 at Chicagoland Speedway. Whether you’re a Busch fan or you hate him like the flu, allow me to steal a quote from one of the greatest performers of all time, “whether you like it or whether you don’t, learn to love it, because it’s the best thing going today”. Read more
Get on Your Chase Face!
July 13, 2008
With 6 races to go before we get to Richmond to decide this year’s playoff contenders, it’s time to do a quick rundown and postulate who will be in and who will be out when the Chase starts up in New Hampshire. Here’s my guess at who we’ll see in the top 12 and the reasons why. Agree with me? Think I’m an idiot who shouldn’t be behind a keyboard without adult supervision? Drop me a line in the comments section and let me know your predictions! Read more
Random Ramblings from Chicago
July 13, 2008
After a few weeks off in which I took a much needed vacation, got to see some family, and attended the Cup race in New Hampshire, I’m ready to start back into a venting/rambling groove again. Would have been nice to write last week, but alas, my Comcast DVR decided that it didn’t want to record the race for me. But…that is a different story for a different time. On to the semi-conscious thought stream… Read more
Silly Season is Underway!
July 13, 2008
With the NASCAR Sprint Cup teams entering the final week off before the end of their season the driver changes have started in earnest. This has always been dubbed the Silly Season… Read more
Dixon Wins Rain-Shortened Indy 200, Bia Triumphs in Lights
July 13, 2008
The rain fell in Nashville as Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon padded his huge lead in the Indy Racing League championship standings and twenty-three year old Brazilian Ana ‘Bia’ Beatriz became the first woman Firestone Indy Lights winner on Saturday. Read more
Our First Podcast!
July 11, 2008
Well of course the written word and the web browser wasn’t enough for us. We had to take our particular brand of motorsports fan-hood and give it some audible voice! With that we proudly present our first of what we hope will be many podcasts. We’re calling it the “Weekly FastMachines News Podcast” but we’re pretty sure you can come up with something better for us. Let us know what you think. We’re still working out the kinks, both technically and content-wise, so cut us a little slack on this first one. Not unlike a fine wine, we’ll get better with age.
Use the cute little player below to listen to us right now in your browser…
Click here to download the MP3 of Podcast #1 and load it on your iPod or whatever you listen to your tunes on.
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Stewart on the move!
July 9, 2008
Tony Stewart is leaving Gibbs at the end of this season. Reportedly he will take over an ownership position in a newly named Stewart/Haas team. Stewart will be back in a Chevy, but Read more
Ryan Hunter-Reay gets first win in Indy Car
July 9, 2008
Well the race certainly wasn’t pretty on Sunday for the Indy Car Series. The crashfest was fraught with full course yellows, drivers spinning out while driving slow under those yellow flag periods, chicks crashing in the pits, and a lot of other unprofessionalism.
But put that aside, and the rising American hope for Indy Car racing finally bubbled to the top. Ryan Hunter-Reay won his first Indy Car race (although technically he won a Champ Car race, which was no easy feat during the Bourdais era). If you’ve been paying attention at all to Indy Car this year, you know that while Marco and Graham have the famous names, that RHR has been more of an overall force in the series, and I think he has an incredible future.