The Racing Weekend in Review--NASCAR Phoenix Weekend

The NASCAR racing all took place on Friday and Saturday last weekend, but that didn't mean the racing weekend was over.

The new rules in Formula 1 are turning things upside down. With a new car design, new tire design, and a slower top speed, all the teams in the world's most prestigious racing series have to start from square one. Gone is the dominance by team Ferrari and team McClaren/Mercedes. Now we see the start up team of Brawn Racing--created from the ashes of Team Honda, and racing with Mercedes power--and their driver Jenson Button dominating. I remember many F-1 fans claiming that Button wasn't good enough to be racing in Formula One.

Early Sunday morning, when most of us were asleep, the Bejing Gran Prix was run in wet weather in China. Sebastion Vettle, who surprised everyone in his first win last year with Toro Rosso, took the victory. This was the first victory for Team Red Bull, the "big brother" of Toro Rosso, which is. of course, Italian for "Red Bull."

Mark Webber, Vettle's Red Bull team mate, finished second. Points leader Jenson Button finished third, keeping his podium percentage at 100%.

Add to that, the Formula One "COT" if that is what we may call it, has put the racing more in the hands of the drivers. Hmmm, that sounds familiar.

Yesterday the ALMS Gran Prix was held at Long Beach, California. ESPN/ABC decided to broadcast the race today. Although we already knew that racing legend Gil de Ferran won the race--his first since coming out of retirement--we had to watch anyway. ALMS can give us some of the most exciting street course racing there is, and Saturday's race on Sunday was no exception. With around sixteen laps to go, Boris Said, driving a Corvette in the GT 2 class, was blind-sided by a BMW driver trying to make a heroic, but ill-advised pass on the inside, after Said had already made his commitment. Both cars spun, but continued the race. With six laps to go, Said's Corvette burst into flames. Boris exited the car safely, but the race ended under caution.

Team Corvette, running their final US race in the GT 1 class, took the awesome and dominating C6.R to victory one last time. Although they will still have a presence in the GT-2 class of ALMS, and will race in GT 1 at Le Mans, this feels like the beginning of the end for the last American factory team in motorsports.

Many race fans claim outrage that NASCAR dropped Rockingham from its schedule nine years ago, and that the new Sprint Cup car has ruined racing as they knew it. So, one would expect that when Andy Hillenberg bought the race track at Rockingham, and landed the ARCA Carolina 200 as the main attraction, that these disgruntled fans would flock to that track to watch the aero-cars race. One would think that they would congregate to watch racing untainted by the competition, publicity, and high dollar sponsorships that they complain about in NASCAR. One would apparently be wrong. Less than 10,000 people showed up for last years event, and there were only about a thousand this year. If there was an ARCA race today at PPIR, I bet there would be at least 20,000 people there. I could almost guarantee it.

Anyway, most of the young ARCA stars from last year have moved up to the NASCAR developmental programs, or elswhere. Michael Annett and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr have moved to the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, and Annett is still making a good showing in the Rolex Grand American Series. Justin Allgiaer is the new Next Great Racer in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. We did see Ken Schrader dominate most of the race, until he ran out of fuel with less than one lap to go.

All of the cautions during the race came in the first 100 laps, and apparantly that was just sorting out the chaff, because the final 100 laps were caution free, which actually caused more problems than Schrader running out of gas. Tires aren't supposed to last that long, especially at Rockingham.

The drivers who hung in there, so to speak, for that final 100 laps were race winner Sean Caisse, Up and coming NASCAR Star and fourteen time AMA Supercross champion Ricky Carmichael--who had tire problems in the closing laps of the race, and finished three laps down--and Brian Ickler, who is Kyle Busch's developmental driver. Ickler stayed on the lead lap for most of the race, but tire and fuel problems forced him to make a pit stop late in the race, after he was lapped. Only six cars finished on the lead lap.

If there isn't more enthusiasm for this race in South Carolina, I don't think it will be there much longer, and race fans will once again lose Rockingham. This time the only fingers they can point will be at themselves.

The street course at Long Beach, CA is the oldest active street course in the USA, at the age of 35. Sunday marked the first time the IRL held a race there. It also marked the return of Helio Castroneves to racing, after he was acquitted of six counts related to tax evasion. Claiming that he was out of shape and out of practiced, he still managed to finish seventh in the difficult race.

Risky pit strategy and full course cautions combined to help Dario Franchitti take the victory, as well as earning Danica a fourth place, after starting at the back of the field. It was almost as if their teams could predict the full course cautions, because the strategy of "pitting just before the caution" worked. It was an interesting race, and watching the long, low slung racing machines go around the infamous hairpin nose to tail was fascinating. We knew that was a recipe for disaster if one of the leading cars were to slip up, and at one point of the race, it did happen, collecting 5 cars whose drivers were unable to avoid the big one.

Also interesting was watching Danica hold her own against road ace Will Power (love that name!). Street racing has not been a strong point for Danica, but she has obviously been practicing. She actually gained time on Power, in some of the most difficult parts of the course. A great racer never stops learning, and although she is not yet a great racer, Danica Patrick will not stop learning. Say what you will about the temperamental, titillating, and tiny bundle of eye candy, but, if Danica continues to improve her racing skills, she will one day be an IRL Champion.

Before we finish this post, we have to remark some more on Saturday night's Subway Fresh Fit 500 from PIR. Night racing is fun to watch, and the drivers, for the most part, like it. It provides a challenge for the crew chiefs in keeping up the car set up with the changing track conditions. The racing always seems better at night.

However, we would not recommend that NASCAR add even more night races to the schedule. For one thing, the folks on the East Coast can not, or perhaps should not, stay up that late. Night racing in NASCAR is fun as long as it remains somewhat of a novelty in the top series. Otherwise, we may find that too much of a good thing is just too much.

Besides Mark Martin's outstanding domination of the race, Tony Stewart, David Reutimann, and Sam Hornish, Jr all had notable performances. Tony Stewart finished in the runner up spot, scoring his third consecutive top five finish, and making his top ten score 6 out of 8 races. This is with a team we believed would be slow in building to success, but, so for, Smoke has proven us wrong. We are very happy that we have been proven wrong.

David Reutimann is showing up these days as "The Franchise" for MWR. That nickname is more than just a lark. Racing for a team that is definitely thought of as an underdog, he has 2 top tens and one top five so far this season. He finished eighth Saturday, and currently sits ninth in the points standings.

In the "Where did that guy come from?" category, Sam Hornish, Jr finished ninth, scoring his first top ten in his Sprint Cup career. Hornish, a three time IRL series Champion, reportedly turned down a chance to return to the IRL in favor of continuing his education in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. His learning curve has risen much slower than AJ Allmendinger's, but he has been plugging along, learning little by little. Who knows? Along with Allmendinger, Gilliland, Martin, Stewart, and Smith, he could become one of the feel good stories of the year.

And with all the turmoil in our world, we can use as many feel good stories as we can get.

What makes a race exciting or boring?

The answer to that question is different for different fans. For instance, to many NASCAR fans, watching a Formula 1 car run by itself for an hour and twenty minutes is boring, but F1 fans liken it to watching jet fighters performing precision maneuvers, and think that cars going in circles turning left is boring. Some "Old School" NASCAR fans enjoy seeing the lead cars lap the field several times, while those that have adapted to the changes in NASCAR, or those who are relatively new to the sport, prefer to see more side by side racing and lead changes.
There are those of us who enjoy the thrill of stock cars racing on a road course, such as Infineon (Sears Point) or Watkins Glen, while others will not even watch a race on a road course.

Many fans get bored if there is not a good crash during the race, and you can see the excitement when there is a crash and their favorite driver is involved. Even those of us who are not fans of crashes get involved in that excitement, so that could be one definite answer to the question of what makes a race exciting.
It should be noted here that those of us who have a favorite driver who happens to be the type who is always where the action is are likely to see our driver involved in a crash, whether it is that driver's fault or not.

NASCAR has attempted to present races that have plenty of side by side action by introducing the restrictor-plate to races at Daytona and Talladega. The restrictor-plates pack the field closer together, and increase the opportunities for crashes. At venues where the restrictor-plate is not used, track officials will sometimes call for a caution for "phantom debris" to bring the field closer together. However, that practice has been criticised heavily by both fans and drivers, and doesn't occur as often as it once did.

Because of the characteristics of the new Sprint Cup car, once known as the CoT, a car in the lead will often be hard to catch, as it is able to run faster in "clean" air than it does in traffic, where the turbulence of the air has a direct effect on the aerodynamic performance of the car. But that is not to say there isn't excitement in the field trying to catch the leader. Most of the great racing happens back in the field, as drivers vie for position in the top ten or fifteen places. It is more exciting for some of us to watch our drivers make their way up through the field than it is watching the lead driver running by himself. Unfortunately, television doesn't always show us the best racing on the track. That is why it is often preferable to mute the television and listen to the play by play of the race on MRN or PRN, whichever racing network happens to be broadcasting the particular race.

The upcoming Memorial Day weekend is the biggest day in racing of the year. On Sunday, we will see three of the biggest annual events in racing history, the F1 Gran Prix of Monaco, the Indianapolis 500, and the World 600, aka the Coca-Cola 600. If there isn't enough excitement for the fan in at least one of those races, there will be a live broadcast Friday evening of a World of Outlaws Sprint car event from Charlotte, on Speed at 7:00 PM EDT. There will also be the always exciting prospect of a Truck Series race from the short track at Mansfield, Ohio on Saturday, at noon-thirty, also on Speed. And, if you are the type who may prefer restrictor-plate races, there is the Nationwide Series race from Lowe's Motor Speedway Saturday night, at 7 PM on ESPN 2.

This weekend there is something for everyone, no matter what kind of racing one enjoys. I will be enjoying all of it, boring or not. Here's wishing a happy race weekend to all!

Bristol: Random thoughts and such

Last August, Bristol Motor Speedway debuted its new configuration with a concrete surface and progressive banking. Then, we saw, for the first time at Bristol, three-wide racing. Since the speedway was first paved, in 1972, "racing" at the "world's fastest half mile" meant a single file of cars moving around the bottom of the track, and the only way to gain position was to move the car in front out of the way, by making contact with the rear bumper and either forcing it to move up the track or spinning it out and off the track.
Now, the chrome horn isn't necessary, and the drivers can race each other side by side, fender to fender, and door to door (if the cars had doors). This is a feature that, after last August's race, was met with mixed reaction by the fans. Most of those who declared the race "the most boring" they have ever seen at Bristol, may have been the same ones who had yet to accept the Sprint Cup car. Or they may just miss the bump and run tactics of days past. However, the new car is not as aero dependent as the old car was, and the old Bristol style would not be the same thing, even if there was still only one groove. For most of the fans, as well as the drivers, the new configuration continues to promise racing that is very exciting for Bristol. The Cup race is, as always sold out, and the fans will not be disappointed.
Sunday's race will be Dale Jarrett's last show in the Cup series. His NASCAR career is one of the best stories in racing, and he is every bit as much a part of NASCAR history as Dale Earnhardt or Darrell Waltrip. Always the sportsman, he usually reacted to being spun out not with anger and retaliation, but with a simple shrug of the shoulders and "that's just racin'."
He participated in the sport with a sense of honor that is all too rare these days. He will be missed.
This could possibly be the last Cup race for Kyle Petty. Though he hasn't announced any intention of stepping out of the series, judging by the fact that he seems to be getting slower instead of faster, and that he will be outside the top 35 provisionals, we may not get very many chances to see him in a Sprint Cup race. He will have to qualify his way into the line up from now on, and. though he may be able to do that, there is nothing to show that he will work his way back into the top thirty-five. The pressure of having to qualify for every race may be too much for him, and it seems likely that he will step aside and find another driver for the #45 car.
But of course, I could be wrong, and Kyle Petty is far from done.
With the cars lining up on the Food City 500, according to last year's owners' points, the chances that Hendrick Motorsports will get their first win of the season at Bristol are pretty good. Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon are lined up on the front row. While Johnson's crew chief, Chad Knaus, has yet to get a handle on the new car at the intermediate tracks, the short tracks and the Sprint Cup car form a combination with which he has some expertise. However, the HMS team that has the most momentum is Dale Earnhardt, Jr's #88 team. These guys seem to know what they are doing better than the 48 or the 24 team, and Bristol, even with the new pavement and configuration, is Jr's kind of track.

Formula One racing begins it's new season tonight, with the Australian GP at Melbourne. The changes in the cars for this year may be as tumultuous for the regular favorites as the Sprint Cup cars have been to the NASCAR Cup regulars, if not even more. Starting this year, the cars will no longer be allowed to have traction control or engine braking. This is no big deal for polesitter Lewis Hamilton, who has not been in Formula One long enough to get used to those features. Robert Kubica, the young Polish driver who timed BMW/Sauber into the second place on the starting grid, has never driven a car with traction control or engine braking, and Heiki Kovalainen, Hamilton's team mate for McClaren Mercedes, has had less experience with the car than Hamilton.
We see a glimmer of hope that real racing may have returned to Formula One.

Back to NASCAR, Patrick Carpentier did not get a chance to qualify for the race at Bristol due to weather. This is somewhat sad, as we have begun to like the Canadian for his wit, his enthusiasm, and his determination. Last week, he went all out in a death-defying second qualifying lap at Atlanta to make the race. We would have hoped to see him do something similar at Bristol. Now we must wait two weeks for Martinsville, a track that can't get 1/20 as many fans to attend a Cup race as PPIR got to attend a Busch Series race. (I just had to get that in while I had the opportunity.)
Juan Paul Montoya seems to have maintained his enthusiasm for racing in NASCAR. It seems even greater now than it was last year, and his enthusiasm is reflected in the fact that he still sees each race as a new challenge. When asked, on Speed TV's Trackside if he would watch the Australian GP tonight, he said no. "The first lap and the standing start are exciting and that's about it."
We may remember that the main reason Montoya gave for leaving F-1 was that he wanted to get back to real racing.
But we have to wonder why the Speed TV program Trackside even bothers to have guests. Whenever a guest driver, such as JPM, Martin Truex, Jr, or Kasey Kahne, begins to tell a story or answer a question, co-host Darell Waltrip quickly jumps in to tell one of his own stories. We get to hear Waltrip's stories every week and in several online and print publications, and personally, I have heard enough of his stories. He should, in my opinion, either let the guests tell their stories, or the producers should stop wasting DW's time with guests.

Well, I can't think of anything witty to end this post with, so I will wish everybody a happy race weekend, Happy St Patrick's Day, and, to my Wiccan and Pagan friends, Happy Complaining About St Patrick's Day Day.
Meanwhile, "It's Bristol, Baby!"

Andretti gets international recognition he deserves

As almost every race fan knows, Mario Andretti is the only driver to win a Formula One world championship, the Indianapolis 500, and the Daytona 500. For this feat, and for his outstanding career in motor sport, Andretti was awarded the FIA Gold Medal in Monaco,at the FIA awards gala Friday night.
Although the award is relatively new, it still carries the prestige of international recognition.

Andretti...is the fourth recipient of the award since it was launched in 2004 and he joins a prestigious list alongside Sir Stirling Moss and Michael Schumacher.

"I was full of pride when I learned I would be the recipient of the FIA Academy gold medal," said the American, who won at virtually every level of racing during a career that stretched five decades, including taking the Champ Car National Championship four times.

Thank you Mario, for being such a great racer, and giving us a racing hero as we were growing up.

Also, at the banquet, the FIA awarded the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with a medal for the best promoter of 2007. Unfortunately, IMS will not be hosting a F-1 race in 2008, as negotiations between Tony George and F-1 cheir Bernie "Mr Snooty" Ecclestone broke off earlier this year. Ecclestone decided that "Formula One doesn't need America," and there will be no more United States Gran Prix. When the award for IMS was announced, Ecclestone was seen headed for the Men's room to change his Depends. Sorry, I just couldn't resist that.

I Meander

The writing bug has bit me today, and I am faced with a choice of either posting several subject-specific items, or just one that meanders all over the place. The regular reader of this blog expects me to meander, which I do whether it's subject specific or not. I'll just let my fingers figure out how to handle this.
I watched a race Saturday that had me raving and raging as much as any NASCAR Nextel Cup race does. It wasn't the CTS race--which was pretty much an all-Hornaday all the time affair--that had me all excited. It was the final race of the Rolex Grand-Am series, from Salt Lake City, that got me going.
This was a real championship chase, with four drivers all within three points of each other for the season championship in the Daytona Prototype (DP) class.
Scott Pruitt, Alex Gurney (the son of the legendary Dan Gurney), Max "The Ax" Angelelli, and Gurney's co-driver, Jon Fogerty all entered the final race of the season with the knowledge that the one who finished ahead of the others would be the Rolex DP champion. The race was on, for seven and a half hours, or 1000 kilometers, whichever came first.
And race, they did. All four of these drivers are well known for their aggressiveness on the track, and that aggressiveness manifested as they picked their way through the slower GT class traffic, and fought for position among the DP cars the entire time. Their teams performed with excellence, performing the pit stops flawlessly, and the driver changes smoothly. In between the driver changes, their co drivers expertly kept the cars in the running. Deep into the race, with 32 laps to go, the championship was still up for grabs.
Then the proverbial doo-doo hit the proverbial fan. On lap 115, the #99 car of Jon Fogarty hit the back of Pruitt's #01 Chip Ganassi Racing car, spinning Pruitt, and cutting tires on both cars. This literally gave the championship to Max The Ax, but, on lap 117 a fire broke out in Angelelli's car, putting him out of the race and the championship run. Weird, huh? Wait, there's more.
As much as Chip Ganassi wanted there to be a penalty against the #99 car, for avoidable contact, there wasn't. Fogarty and Pruitt both pitted to change tires and fuel up, and Gurney got back behind the wheel of the 99. Pruitt stayed in his car. Ganassi filed a protest, and the race continued.
Then, on lap 132, with only seven laps to go, a reversal of the lap 115 incident happened, and it was almost identical, except nobody left the track, there were no cut tires, and Pruitt was assessed the drive-through penalty. Sheesh! You have probably guessed that this gave Gurney/Fogarty the championship.
There has been no news of the Ganassi protest at this time, so the outcome is probably not yet official. Does it seem like the race was fixed? You bet, but I refuse to believe it. I think the Grand Am officials have the same problem as the NASCAR officials--arguing with their inner voices on when and how to exact a penalty, while having serious problems deciding if there even was a rules infraction.
Even after the DP's finished the race, there was still some incredible racing going on in the GT class. Paul Edwards and his co-driver, somebody named Collins, pretty much controlled the entire race in the GT class, but, as has happened so many times this season in that class, the Wow meter pegged out hard on the last lap. Edwards, in the #07 Pontiac GTO/R, was being hounded by the #85 Porsche, when they came upon the lapped #36 Pontiac GTO. Edwards floundered in the marbles while trying to pass, and the Porsche took the lead--for less than one second. The Porsche also hit the marbles, and ran into the 36, sending both cars spinning. Edwards had contact with the other two cars, but continued forward to finish, and win the GT class race. Now, that was a show!
All of this made me think, which is dangerous, sometimes. I have mentioned before that the broadcast team for the Rolex Grand Am Series should spend some more time covering the GT segment of the race. The same SpeedTV team covers the American LeMans Series (ALMS) and pays equal attention to all four classes in that series, but in the Grand Am broadcasts the GT class is pretty much ignored, except when it causes a hazard to the DP drivers. Perhaps, the reasoning is that, in Grand Am, the GT class is more like a developmental class for the Daytona Prototypes, and therefore not as newsworthy as the well funded DP's. I would like to see that change.
Now that I am in the realm of dangerous thinking, I have a proposal to NASCAR, inspired by the Grand Am series: With the Sponsorship TBA (Busch)Series being reinvented by the surrounding circumstances, why not have a non-points race at a road course, based on what Grand Am has? At VIR, Road Atlanta, or some other place at which NASCAR hasn't officially raced, run a race that is mixed Formula N (COT) car and TBA series car. Qualifying would be similar to that system used for the Mexico City race, and the top twenty-one cars from each division qualify. The Formula N cars race 300 laps, and with 200 laps to go, the TBA cars start.
That should be interesting.
We should turn our backs on Formula 1 racing, just as Echelstone and the FIA turned their backs on the United States. "Formula 1 does not need the United States," says the cantankerous, senile old fart, Bernie Echelstone.
Well we don't need F-1. Grand Am can have controversy every bit as good as Formula One, without costing anybody 100 million dollars. NASCAR has the rivalries that make the F-1 rivalries look like pillow fights, and has real racing to boot, rather than F-1's single file parade of expensive and pretty machinery. Let's make Grand Am and ALMS the new Formula One for America!
Whew! I must be nuts.
Back to the CTS--
I love to watch the truck racing, but Loudon isn't the venue where it runs the best. Ron Hornaday ran away with the race from the start. I like Hornaday, and I like the folks he drives for--Kevin Harvick Incorporated. I really liked him when he was driving the RCR #2 in the NBS. But my favorite in that series is Johnny Benson. Benson is having a great time in the CTS, making up for the hard time in the Cup Series. I love to see him win, but Saturday wasn't his day.
Well, I've come a full circle now, and this didn't meander as badly as I thought it would. We have more racing to come this weekend, so we will stay interested. Right?

Retrieving my memory

Leave it to me to rush to the library, yesterday, and forget my flash memory stick. I was all set to post my observations on all of the racing that took place over St Patty's Day weekend, from the CTS race to the Busch Race, to the Sebring 12 hours and the Formula One races, the NNCS race and Ricky Carmichael's final Supercross race. Unfortunately, it was written and ready to go, except, it couldn't get posted because I literally lost my memory, even if it was temporary.
So, since all of this has already been discussed in detail by others, this post will be limited to a few summary points.
1. The hard, clean racing between James "Bubba" Stewart and Ricky Carmichael at the Sebring Supercross event was a fitting tribute to the all time leader of the sport. Carmichael will now be trading his racing leathers for a fire suit, racing in Dirt Modifieds next Saturday under the apt tutorage of Mark Martin, who has nothing but good things to say about the young racer's future in NASCAR.
2. Television commentators for the Formula One race, trying to be politically correct while describing rookie sensation Lewis Hamilton's ethnicity, actually made comments that unwittingly came across as racist. Something seems wrong with the statement "the darkest face ever on the podium." Race really shouldn't be a consideration, just say the kid is a brilliant racecar driver, and leave it at that. Hamilton is, by the way, worth every bit of the anticipation and high expectations that preceded his entry into the world's premier racing series. As long as Hamilton's ethnicity seems to be important to some, may I suggest that the term "AfroBrit," or "Afro-British" may be more appropriate, and, perhaps, more politically correct. If only we could live to see the day when the Human Race would grow out of having to make distinctions due to the color of one's skin.
3. Speed TV's coverage of all four classes in the 12 hour sports car endurance race at Sebring, Fla, was excellent, compared to their coverage of the 24 Hours at Daytona, where the GT class was totally ignored in favor of the Daytona Prototypes. We were treated to a very exciting and memorable finish in the GT2 class. To see a Porsche and a Ferrari beating and banging each other through the turns and down the final stretch was classic hard racing that would impress any race fan. The word for it was "Incredible!"
4. Craftsman Truck Series racing is Da Bomb!
5. The main topic of discussion concerning Sunday's NASCAR Nextel Cup race has been The Yellow Flag. As a Tony Stewart fan, I can commiserate with those who feel that Smoke was robbed of victory due to a late race caution for "debris."
It is true that NASCAR seems to be in the habit of throwing an unnecessary caution toward the end of every race to tighten up the field for the finish, but, in this case, the commentators on the PRN radio broadcast of the race were talking about the debris in turn four at least three laps before the caution was actually thrown. They were debating whether enough drivers would report the debris as possible interference or danger for NASCAR to call for the yellow flag. So, with this information, we have to believe that there actually was debris, and that enough drivers reported such to warrent the caution. Just move along, folks, nothing to see here.
6. Finally, many of us race fans will be curious about the debut of the "Car of Tomorrow" at Thunder Valley. That curiousity will soon give way to appreciation for the extraordinary spectacle that has been, and always will be Bristol, no matter what kind of car is being raced there. Bristol is not the kind of track where the aerodynamic differences between the "stock car" and the COT will be noticable.
Bristol is my kind of racing!

Not in it for the Money

Previously, I mentioned that JPM didn't go to NASCAR just for the money, that there is much more to be had for a driver who is in demand by other teams in the high-stakes world of Formula 1 racing. This article sort of vindicates that thought.