In the process he makes some NASCAR history. From AP-
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – If Kyle Busch has a weakness, it’s apparently going to be awfully difficult to find. After rivals Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon said during the week they thought he was slipping following two straight lackluster finishes, Busch answered by making NASCAR history on Sunday.
He led 52 laps from the pole and won the Centurion Boats at The Glen at Watkins Glen International to become the first driver in NASCAR’s history to win three road course races in one season.
“That’s pretty neat, pretty special to me,” said Busch, who finished second Saturday in the Nationwide race here. “To be a force to be reckoned with means a lot. This year has just been phenomenal. It’s just crazy.”
Busch, who also clinched the top spot in the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup title, has won 16 races in NASCAR’s top three series this season — eight in Sprint Cup, six in Nationwide and two in trucks. His win Sunday completed a trifecta on road courses that includes the Nationwide race in Mexico in April and the Cup race at Sonoma in June.
Busch also joined another select group. Only Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Robby Gordon had swept both Cup road course events in the same year.
So this conclusively proves it requires more of a driver than lots of left hand turns to win a NASCAR race. Before someone shoots me, let me note I used to watch alot of NASCAR when I was a teenager. Ask me about the finishes of the 75 and 76 Daytona 500s if you don’t believe me.
RICHMOND, Va. – Richard Childress always tells his drivers that luck occurs when preparation meets opportunity. Clint Bowyer proved the boss right on Saturday night.
Bowyer was a surprise winner at Richmond International Raceway, stealing a win that first seemed destined for Denny Hamlin, then Dale Earnhardt Jr. Neither made it to Victory Lane, though, because of a wild ending that saw three drivers denied the trip Bowyer made to Victory Lane.
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Hamlin, the hometown favorite, ran away with the race and led a record 381 of the 400 laps in search of his first Cup victory at Richmond. Nobody came close to challenging him until a leaking right front tire allowed Earnhardt and Kyle Busch to catch him.
The two drivers split Hamlin as they moved past him, with Earnhardt emerging as the leader with 18 laps to go. Hamlin’s tire finally failed with eight to go, and NASCAR accused him of intentionally bringing out the caution that regrouped the field and gave Busch a chance to race Earnhardt for the win.
The two staged a strong battle for the lead when the race resumed, but contact between the two cars in turn three sent Earnhardt into the wall.
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Bowyer used the opportunity to slide past both Earnhardt and Busch and into the front for the first time all night. Bowyer then held off Busch on a final restart to score his first Cup victory of the season, second of his career.
Here’s the video of what happened between Earnhardt and Busch last night.
I watch next to no auto racing these day. Back in the 70′s before I went in the military, I followed NASCAR quite a bit. These days my auto racing is pretty much confined to the Indy 500.
Clint Bowyer won last night’s race, he didn’t steal it. Hamlin’s car quit on him, fine. Busch and Earnhardt tangled with each other putting the kibosh with both these driver’s chances. Bowyer crossed the finish line first, he’s the winner. Memo to AP- Drop the ‘steal shit’
For did Al Unser steal his 4th Indy 500 in 1987, when Mario Andretti who was running away with the race for 180 laps, had his day end due to electrical failure?
Did Richard Petty steal the 1979 Daytona 500 after Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison collided on the final lap? That was the race with the famous fight afterwards that also involved Donnie’s brother Bobby.
I don’t remember anyone saying those races were stolen. The difference between A. Unser and Richard Petty versus Bowyer is that they were stars and Bowyer isn’t. So Bowyer gets slighted in his moment of triumph by it being said he stole the race. What a bunch of bull crap.
The only reason I’m writing this, is the ‘Morgan Pressel had the US Open stolen from her’ meme that is still floated by the golf media. Remember the 2005 US Open and Birdie Kim’s bunker shot that won the tournament? The way you here it today is that Morgan had it stolen from her. Let me point out a few salient facts.
1- Pressel finished 2 shots behind Kim.
2- Pressel finished tied for 2nd with fellow amateur Brittany Lang.
So even if Birdie hadn’t holed out, and made bogey or worse on 18 like almost the entire field did that day, Morgan still would have had to go 18 holes in a playoff with at least Lang, and possibly Kim also. In other words Morgan still hadn’t won the tournament by any stretch of the imagination.
Yesterday’s broadcast of the LPGA tournament in Oklahoma, mentioned Lang’s 2nd place finish in 2005. For a change it was nice to hear the media remember someone tied Morgan that day.
Note- The golf media has another meme going about the 2005 US Open also. That Lorena Ochoa lost it. Lorena hit 2 balls in the water at 18 on Sunday, finishing with a quadruple bogey 8 and 7 over par for the tournament. If Lorena scored what most of the field did on Sunday at 18, bogey she would have finished 4 over. Now if Kim had finished bogey too like the media wishes, how can they say both Ochoa lost the 05 Open and Pressel had it stolen from her? The two memes are contradictory.
Bowyer was opportunistic, Kim may have been lucky the hole got in the way of her ball. When it is all said and done, they are the champs. No member of the media can take that away from them.
I once heard life is all a matter of timing. Danica’s timing(or breaks) in Japan were excellent today.
MOTEGI, Japan – Danica Patrick became the first female winner in IndyCar history Sunday, taking the Indy Japan 300 after the top contenders were forced to pit for fuel in the final laps.
Patrick finished 5.8594 seconds ahead of pole-sitter Helio Castroneves on the 1.5-mile Twin Ring Motegi oval after leader Scott Dixon pitted with five laps left and Dan Wheldon and Tony Kanaan came in a lap later.
“It’s a long time coming. Finally,” Patrick said. “It was a fuel strategy race, but my team called it perfectly for me. I knew I was on the same strategy as Helio and when I passed him for the lead, I couldn’t believe it. This is fabulous.”
The 26-year-old Patrick won in her 50th career IndyCar start, taking the lead from Castroneves on the 198th lap in the 200-lap race.
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Patrick went from fourth to second place on lap 197 after Wheldon and Kanaan went into the pit on lap 196. She was as low as eighth place on the 189th lap.
I mainly remember Patrick for the 2005 Indy 500 where she led with just a few laps to go. Now that she has won a race, will the hype going into next month’s 500 be even louder than it was in the past? In any case, congratulations Danica.
REIMS, France – Formula One star Lewis Hamilton has been banned from driving in France for speeding, a French police spokesman confirmed on Tuesday.
The 22-year-old Briton, who finished runner-up in the world drivers’ championship in his debut season this year, has been banned for a month after being caught speeding at 122mph in a Mercedes by police on a motorway near the northern town of Laon.
The speed limit on French motorways is 85mph.
“He admitted the offence immediately and was really very polite,” the police spokesman said, adding that Hamilton had said in his defence that the motorway was “very clear” at the time.
“It’s a section of motorway which is used regularly by foreigners who have a tendancy to speed,” the spokesman added.
The McLaren driver, who was also ordered to pay a 600 euro fine, will appear before a court in Laon in January.
No word yet if Hamilton will be allowed to drive in next year’s French Grand Prix. That formula one race, which was facing an uncertain future past 2007, is on next year’s race schedule.
PARIS — The first night race in the 57-year history of Formula 1 Grand Prix racing is set to be held September 28 of next season on a street course in Singapore.
The race will be staged on a 5.067-kilometer circuit set up on the streets of the island city-state at the Southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. Organizers have a five-year deal to stage the event. The temporary circuit will use public roads around the Marina Bay area.
With the Indianapolis race being dropped, this will mark the first time in eight years there has been no race in the United States.
PARIS — Indianapolis was dropped from the Formula One calendar for 2008, with Singapore and Valencia, Spain, added to the schedule. It will be the first time in eight years there will be no F-1 race in the U.S.
The 18-race season will start in Australia on March 16 and finish in Brazil on Nov. 2, world motor sport’s governing body said Thursday.
Valencia will host the European Grand Prix on a street circuit Aug. 24, subject to approval. Singapore will also stage a street race Sept. 28 — possibly at night — subject to circuit approval.
The Canadian GP on June 8 is listed as provisional because of its financial link to the United States GP. Montreal has traditionally held its race after Indianapolis.
Singapore is a very small country that the wife and I had the pleasure of visiting in 1998. The only place there could be a race is within the city area and I’d expect it to take place at night-time. I still remember watching the Monaco Grand Prix, another race taking place within a city, when televised on ABC’s The Wide World of Sports. It could make for an exciting race, if you like this type of racing.
Seven people have died so far in a bizarre mishap during a charity drag racing event.
Three more people have died after a drag-racing car went out of control and careened into a crowd of spectators, raising the death toll to seven, state officials said Sunday. The crash occurred Saturday night during an “exhibition burnout” — when a driver spins his tires to make them heat up and smoke — at the Cars for Kids charity event in Selmer, located about 80 miles east of Memphis. Several other people were injured.
Amateur video of the crash, broadcast on WMC-TV in Memphis, showed the car’s engine revving loudly before the vehicle sped down a highway lined with spectators on both sides. After a few hundred feet, the smoking car skidded off the road.
The identities of the victims and the driver were not immediately released.
Witness Scott Henley said the vehicle started burning off its tires, then fishtailed and slammed into a utility pole before spinning around into the audience. Selmer Police Chief Neal Burks said “bodies were flying into the air when it happened.”
Tennessee Highway Patrol spokesman Mike Browning said at least eight people were taken to three hospitals. Browning said the vehicle was described as a drag-racing car, but he did not have more details about it.
Matthew Brammer, administrator of AMS Pro Modified Series, which sanctions drag races, said late Saturday that the car involved has been driven by drag racer Troy Critchley, of Wylie, Texas, but he did not know if Critchley was driving when the car struck the crowd. The AMS Pro Modified Series later issued a news release saying the driver was a veteran of more than 20 years in drag racing and had to be taken to an emergency room.
The release said the driver was performing a burnout when road conditions caused the car to go out of control. “The race team is in shock and deeply saddened by this unexpected event. Their hearts and prayers are with the injured people and their families,” the release said.
Sheriff’s officials and police closed the festival shortly after the crash. About 40,000 to 60,000 people were expected to attend the weekend event. Cars for Kids holds several events throughout the nation and raises close to $200,000 annually for charities that help children in need, according to its Web site.
The charity was formed in 1990, two years after founder Larry Price’s son, Chad, suffered a severe head injury in a bicycle accident. Price promised that if his son was saved from lifelong injuries, he would spend the rest of his life raising funds for disabled children, according to the Web site. Price could not be reached for comment Saturday night.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. will join Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson in the Hendrick Motorsports stable starting in the 2008 season.
NASCAR’s most popular driver announced on Wednesday that he is joining the sport’s most dominant organization in 2008. Earnhardt will replace Kyle Busch, who has agreed to a release from his contract with Hendrick.
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He chose an organization that has won six since Jeff Gordon captured the first of his four titles in 1995 and Jimmie Johnson walked away with the 2006 championship. He chose an organization that has won 10 of 14 races this season, including last week’s rain-shortened victory by points leader Gordon at Pocono.
“When you have a big team like we do, and four winning teams like we do, I think we’ve had that challenge: Are there too many successful drivers in one place? I think we’ve already proven, if there is a team that can deal with that, Hendrick Motorsports is one of them,” Johnson said Wednesday. “I think we’ll all be helpful to one another, crossing over to different fan bases. … Junior will learn from Jeff, and we’ll learn from Junior.”
Earnhardt Jr. and Gordon as teammates will be an interesting mix. Although the two get along, Gordon has been the driver most Earnhardt fans love to hate going back to his rivalry with the late Dale Earnhardt. “We do have a personal competition. If you want to call it a rivalry, fine,” Earnhardt said of his relationship with Gordon. “He’s fun to race with, and especially if you beat him, it’s a good feeling. … We can both challenge each other to be better race car drivers.”
Where Busch lands becomes the most pressing question. There has been speculation that he may move to Ginn Racing, which is supported by HMS. DEI officials have said they would be interested in the 22-year-old star if he is released from his contract. “Although we haven’t had conversations with Kyle Busch, if speculation is correct that he may become available he’s certainly somebody we’d be interested in talking with,” DEI president Max Siegel said on Tuesday.
It is not known what number Earnhardt will drive, or whether sponsor Budweiser — since starting in NASCAR, Earnhardt has driven the No. 8 Budweiser Chevrolet — will follow him to Hendrick. Anheuser-Busch has had a relationship with Earnhardt since 1999. “Dale Jr. is an excellent ambassador for the sport and our company, and we look forward to exploring options with Hendrick Motorsports and JR Motorsports to continue Budweiser’s relationship with him as he enters this new stage of his racing career,” said Tony Ponturo, the company’s vice president of global media and sports marketing.
It would be quite interesting to see an Earnhardt-Busch swap. It’s still bizarre, though, for a team called Dale Earnhardt Enterprises not to include the surviving Dale Earnhardt.
I have always wondered what it would be like to get behind the wheel of these monster machines. And now my favorite player of all time, John Elway, will be one of a dozen celebrities taking part in Gillette’s “Fast Cars & Superstars†reality show sponsored by Cars.com, which begins airing June 7 on ABC.
“Speed’s kind of a scary thing,†Elway said after his ride in the Cars.com racecar. “I’d never gone that fast before, so it was … very interesting.”
There’s clearly a difference, the former Denver Broncos star notes, between riding along in a race car and being in the pocket as the defense closes in.
“In football, you really don’t realize the impact of it,†he said. “I’m sure that [NASCAR driver] Kurt [Busch has] been around in that car enough that you become numb to kind of what’s outside of it. For me, I was a lot more aware of what was going on than I’m sure Kurt is, because he’s been doing it for so long.â€
Cars.com was able to get in a few questions between Elway’s training and the competition.
The Interview
What was the very first car you drove?
“I had a ‘61 Buick LeSabre.â€
Big engine?
“Big engine; it was my grandmother’s car and it had snow tires in Southern California.†[Laughs]
What do you drive now?
“I have a (Mercedes-Benz) S55 AMG.â€
What do you use for carting the kids around?
“I use the S55, but I’ve got a [Toyota] Land Cruiser for getting through the snow. I still live in Colorado, so needless to say I’ve got a lot of use out of the Land Cruiser this year.â€
Do you ever lose your competitive nature?
“No, that is one thing that you never lose. When you retire, it’s what you miss. When they called me to do this, it took me about one second to say yes, because you get a chance to compete. So, you never lose that, no matter how old you are.â€
Have you always been a race fan, or is it something that you’ve picked up recently?
“No. Over the last five years, or somewhere in there, I started following it a little bit. I’m always intrigued — it’s the same thing in football; it’s always the little details that make the difference between winning and losing. And then you start looking at NASCAR, and it’s the same type of game. Such a small difference.â€
It is odd to think that Dale Jr. will not be driving for Dale Earnhardt Inc. (DEI) next season, but looking past that will the infamous company built by legend Dale Earnhardt be competitive next season?
Morale is solid at DEI, the company Dale Earnhardt and his wife, Teresa, formed in February 1980. Some there believe that once the smoke clears, once things get settled, a more powerful company very well could emerge.
After all, this is a company that remained strong after Earnhardt’s death at the 2001 Daytona 500.
“It’s good, it’s good,” said Steve Hmiel, technical director at DEI, when asked about the morale at DEI since Dale Jr. made his announcement. “It’s frustrating because … I have to be careful, because I’m going to say something wrong.
“There’s a company there that has fed people’s families and bought ‘em cars and given a real nice place to work and gave them insurance and what have you for a long time. That thing made it through February of 2001, and it’s going to make it through all the rest of Februaries that Teresa wants it to make it through. And Teresa wants it to go on forever, as Dale Sr. did.
It seems that the company is making a major step to be competitive by join up with Richard Childress Racing to build engines. The question though many want answered is will #8 be given to Dale Jr. or will another person fill the #8 car.
