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Zipadelli & Logano steal Cup win at New Hampshire

Greg Zipadelli rolled the dice and called a perfect weather-race to bring Joey Logano in first today at the rain shortened Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.   The win is rookie’s first in Sprint Cup compeition.

Everything went Logano’s way in an odd sort of way.  Logano had some early problems that put him out of sequence, a turn of events that may have assisted in his win.  Logano actually was the cause of the nine of eleven total caution periods in the race when he had a tire failure.  Ed Hinton of ESPN.com points out that Logano was the fortunate recipient of the Lucky Dog not once, but twice.    But the tire failure actually put the Home Depot team on an alternate strategy that played out perfectly under the conditions.

RACE NOTES

Jeff Gordon falls short
Gordon ran up front all day, and probably would have won the race had the rain held off for another five or six laps. Lady Luck didn’t shine down on Jeff today.

Tony Stewart’s strong run
The Stewart-Haas team really has the #14 car hooked up, and Tony was the fastest car on the track for a lot of the race. He ended up snake bitten by his former crew chief, but still a good day for Tony.

Dale Jr.’s strong run doesn’t show in the results
Dale Jr. didn’t look to have car to win, but he could have easily finished in the top 5 if the weather hadn’t broken up the party. Dale and the team have to figure out how to do better on restarts.

Was the big wreck Kyle’s Bush’s fault?
Kyle Bush made another friend in Martin Truex Jr. today when contact between the two created a huge accident that took out multiple cars. The question is, “Was it Kyle’s fault?” Truex sure thought so. From my seat, it looked like a pretty dumb move on Kyle’s part to stick his nose in a hole between two cars just before the entrance of turn 1.

LINKS

ESPN: Logano scores unlikely win at Loudon

SI:  Rain gives teenager Joey Logano first Cup win

FIA & FOTA reach agreement to save F1, boot Max in October

Well that was a short war.  Cooler heads have prevailed in the shortest split in auto racing to save F1.  The FIA announced this morning that they have come to an agreement to bring the FOTA teams back in the fold with plans to phase in cost reductions over the next couple of years.  But that’s not all.  As part of the agreement, Max Mosely will not stand for re-election of his position this fall.

While I’m sure that certain track promoters are disappointed today, this resolution is probably the best case scenario for everyone.  F1 stays intact, and Max is out the door.

UK Whitney Gazette:  Formula One row settled

Here is an official statement from the FIA.

FIA STATEMENT 6/24/2009

All currently competing teams have committed to the FIA Formula One World Championship.

There will be no alternative series or Championship and the rules for 2010 onwards will be the 2009 regulations as well as further regulations agreed prior to 29 April 2009.

As part of this agreement, the teams will, within two years, reduce the costs of competing in the Championship to the level of the early 1990s. The manufacturer teams have agreed to assist the new entries for 2010 by providing technical assistance.

The manufacturer teams have further agreed to the permanent and continuing role of the FIA as the sport’s governing body. They have also committed to the commercial arrangements for the FIA Formula One World Championship until 2012 and have agreed to renegotiate and extend this contract before the end of that period.

All teams will adhere to an upgraded version of the governance provisions of the 1998 Concorde Agreement.

The following teams have been accepted for the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship.

Team (Constructor)
Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro (Ferrari)
Vodafone McLaren Mercedes (McLaren Mercedes)
BMW Sauber F1 Team (BMW Sauber)
Renault F1 Team (Renault)
Panasonic Toyota Racing (Toyota)
Scuderia Toro Rosso (STR TBA)
Red Bull Racing (RBR TBA)
AT&T Williams (Williams Toyota)
Force India F1 Team (Force India Mercedes)
Brawn GP Formula One Team (Brawn TBA)
Campos Meta Team (Campos Cosworth)
Manor Grand Prix (Manor Cosworth)
Team US F1 (Team US F1 Cosworth)

In view of this new agreement and with the prospect of a stable future for Formula One, FIA President Max Mosley has confirmed his decision not to stand for re-election in October this year.

F1 in crisis - The eight elite teams of FOTA to form new series in 2010

Either hell just froze over, or the end is nigh.   The unfathomable, the unreal, the unbelievable, the insane, has happened.  Just as the open-wheel racing split of the 20th century has come and gone, the 21st century open-wheel split has begun.  Articles all over the web are rocking the autosports world with news that a Ferrari, McLaren, Renault, Toyota, BMW Sauber, Brawn GP, Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso have all declined to enter the Formula 1 World Championship for 2010.

Today was the day of reckoning for Bernie and Max, and things certainly did not go their way.  The elite teams that really *are* Formula 1, announced that their team assocation will be forming a new series in 2010.

These eight teams make up the Formula One Teams’ Association (FOTA) which released a statement just hours ago that included:

“It has become clear, however, the teams cannot continue to compromise on the fundamental values of the sport and have declined to alter their original conditional entries to the 2010 world championship.

“These teams, therefore, have no alternative other than to commence the preparation for a new championship which reflects the values of its participants and partners.”

Sky News has more: F1 - Eight teams to form rival championship
BBC Sport has more of the FOTA statement:  Ft teams drop breakaway bombshell

Keith Collantine at the F1 Fanatic blog has his take on the situation. His headline: “F1 to split in two as FOTA teams announce their own championship”. I’m not exactly sure the headline really captures the devastation of today’s developments. This isn’t a “breaking in half”. This is *the* elite teams of F1 ripping away and leaving nothing but a few backmarker teams. One half is Mt. Everest, the other is mole hill.

Fan and media reaction is going to be interesting, to say the least.

FastMachines.com Radio Episode #32

This week we get pumped for Le Mans with Declan Brennan from Midweek Motorsport and Radio Le Mans as our guest. Declan has the skinny for us on all the latest activity around Sarthe this week as we head into the biggest event in endurance racing - the 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans. We also talk about Tony “Smoke” Stewart’s first points win in Sprint Cup, much ado about Danica’s future,

Let us know what you think by commenting on this posting, or shoot Chris, George and Josh an email by sending to radio@fastmachines.com. Also check us out on Twitter “@fastmachines.

Click below to listen to us right now in your browser…

Click here to download the MP3 of this week’s podcast and load it on your iPod or whatever you listen to your tunes on.

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FastMachines.com Radio Episode #31

Chris and Josh wrap up the 2009 Indy 500 with the Indy blogging elite - Bill from PressDog.com and Jeff from MyNameIsIRL.com. We talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly from Indy including the Maro wreck, Danica’s excellent run, Tony and Vitor’s HARD crashes, and the poo that Robin Miller has stirred up over Tony George’s supposed ousting at IMS. We also check in on NASCAR with the bounce of Tony Eury Jr. from the 88 car, as well as some ALMS talk with Le Mans looming large next month. Have a listen and shoot us your comments - good, bad, or ugly.

Let us know what you think by commenting on this posting, or shoot Chris, George and Josh an email by sending to radio@fastmachines.com. Also check us out on Twitter “@fastmachines.

Click below to listen to us right now in your browser…

Click here to download the MP3 of this week’s podcast and load it on your iPod or whatever you listen to your tunes on.

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NHRA Needs To Do The Unthinkable

In this modern era when motorsports and sports media are interwoven, I am going to suggest the unthinkable. The NHRA needs to schedule the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals on Memorial Day weekend.

The Mac Tools U.S. Nationals, the longest running and the most prestigous drag race the NHRA hosts, has traditionally been held on Labor Day weekend. The race is so large and the competitors are so numerous that an additional qualifying session is granted to the professional competitors and elimination rounds are held on Monday instead of Sunday. It truly is a unique racing experience given the history and tradition of “The Nationals”. So if it ain’t broke, why fix it? Because it could be so much better with just a slight change in date.

I would suggest the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals be moved to Memorial Day weekend. I am not suggesting moving the U.S. Nationals away from O’Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis. I am not suggesting changing the daily racing schedule. I am merely suggesting moving the race dates from Labor Day weekend to Memorial Day weekend.

I can hear what everyone would be saying already… “Don’t you realize that the Indy 500 is held in Indianapolis that same weekend?”. “The NHRA can not compete with the Indy 500″. “The U.S. Nationals would get lost and pushed to the wayside in the wake of the Indy 500″. I would argue that the U.S. Nationals would greatly benefit from sharing the national spotlight with the Indy 500.

Let’s face it. The nation’s top motorsports journalists will already be in Indianapolis covering the Indy 500. With business travel budgets squeezed tighter than a drum, we all know that the Indy 500 is so huge that news outlets must budget every year to send at least someone to Indianapolis over Memorial Day weekend. They know their competitors will be there so they just find the money in the budget to go. Convincing a motorsports journalist’s editor to send a writer to Indianapolis to cover racing two times a year is nearly impossible.

I speak from a position of experience on this one. When I was working for the NHRA’s Media Relations Department I was the lead manager in charge of the U.S. Nationals for a few years. I would make calls and send emails to all the heavy hitters in the world of motorsports journalism and invite them to Indy for the U.S. Nationals. After all, it is the NHRA’s Super Bowl so why wouldn’t they be there covering it? Many of the responses from those big time journalists I had targeted was the same. “Sorry, there is no money to go to Indy twice a year. Given the fact they I was already in Indy in May, we can’t pull it off to go there in September.”

If the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals were moved to Memorial Day weekend, all the world’s motorsports journalists would be at The Brickyard on Sunday. I am not so naive to believe they would skip that race to attend the final day of qualifying of the U.S. Nationals. But extending their stay in Indy an extra day in order to cover the U.S. Nationals eliminations would not be a hard sell to those dolling out travel budget per diems. Everyone would prefer to have the reporters on site for qualifying and eliminations. But wouldn’t you rather have the number of reporters covering the eliminations be double or triple than what you normally get if they weren’t covering the NHRA on Sunday? After all, qualifying results are nice but it is the head to head racing that most people are concerned with.

Will this suggestion fall on deaf ears in Glendora? Possibly. But it is something to consider if the NHRA wants to be considered a major player in the world of motorsports. Sometimes you need to change things drastically that will undoubtedly annoy the traditionalists in order to move the sport forward. Then again, traditionalists are not the ones moving the sport forward. If it were up to them Fuel Altereds and Front Engine Dragsters would still be competing.

FastMachines.com Radio Episode #30

Chris and Josh mix it up with the Pressdog over F1 and the Indy 500 qualy hoopla and build up. We talk politics, racing, and customer service! That’s right, Pdoggy-dog is still on the whole “customers” thing…imagine that. :) Maybe if the IRL and NASCAR listened to them they’d have higher TV rankings.

Let us know what you think by commenting on this posting, or shoot Chris, George and Josh an email by sending to radio@fastmachines.com. Also check us out on Twitter “@fastmachines.

Click below to listen to us right now in your browser…

Click here to download the MP3 of this week’s podcast and load it on your iPod or whatever you listen to your tunes on.

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FastMachines.com Radio Episode #29

It’s the month of May so that means the start of Indy 500 talk on the FastMachines Podcast. Chris, George & Josh talk about the favorites to win and the happiest man in Indy this month. There’s of course much F1 chatter as well as a look forward at this weekend’s race in Spain. We also talk a bit of sports car - Grand Am, much to Chris’ chagrin - and we find out that a famous cartoon character is running Funny Car this year. ** NOTE: listen in to learn how to win a 2009 Daytona 500 hat autographed by Mr. Jeff Burton **

Let us know what you think by commenting on this posting, or shoot Chris, George and Josh an email by sending to radio@fastmachines.com. Also check us out on Twitter “@fastmachines.

Click below to listen to us right now in your browser…

Click here to download the MP3 of this week’s podcast and load it on your iPod or whatever you listen to your tunes on.

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Indy Notes - May 5th - Tracy schools the rookies

The Indy 500 on-track activities have begun.  Well, sort of.  The “Rookie” orientation program was run today at the Brickyard, with a few non-rookies running refresher courses. Most notably, Paul Tracy and Scott Sharp were in action today, putting on a little competition for the fastest lap by the “old guys”. Tracy ended up posting the best lap of the day at 223.089 mph.

“I am just excited to be back on track,” Tracy said. “The GEICO - KV Racing Technology team did a great job today. The mechanics, the engineers, everyone on the team did great. The first few laps were a little hair-raising, but the car was good, just like Jimmy Vasser said it would be, so I just had to keep my foot down. I want to thank GEICO, Kevin Kalkhoven, my personal sponsor Monster and Firestone and Honda, who are all contributing to this program, as well as everyone who is involved on the team for making this an exciting day for me.”

The top time by Tracy was not a huge surprise. The 2003 Champ Car champion has plenty of previous experience at the brickyard, and raced well in a Dallara last year at Edmonton.

Scott Sharp returned to Indy for the first time since 2007, and put up fast times today as well in his Panther entry. Sharp won the pole in 2001, and more than knows the fast way around Indy.

Robert Doornbos continues to impress the Indy Car world with his ability to learn the ovals quickly. After qualifying in the front row at Kansas, Doornbos posted third quick time on his first day ever on the 2.5 mile oval.

PRACTICE TIMES 5/5/09
1 - Paul Tracy - 223.089
2 - Scott Sharp - 221.878
3 - Robert Doornbos - 221.735
4 - Raphael Matos - 218.613
5 - Alex Tagliani - 218.333
6 - Mike Conway - 217.063
7 - Nelson Phillippe - 214.786
8 - Alex Lloyd - 213.032
9 - Stanton Barrett - 207.522

Paul Tracy quote credit: KV Racing PR

McLaren At WMSC Hearing: “Off With Their Heads!”

As the oft quoted Madame Dufarge would have said, it’s time to separate McLaren’s head from its body. The World Motor Sport Council will deliberate the validity of McLaren’s Liargate charges and issue their punishment tomorrow. Read more