Full Throttle

You are browsing the archives of 2004 June.

It’s hard to believe but it has been 20 years since Richard Petty won his 200th NASCAR Cup Series race. The King’ (Richard Petty) did a lot of amazing things behind the wheel of a stock car. Winning 200 races, and then winning his 200th at Daytona, is just absolutely incredible. I don’t believe we’ll [...]

Andy Belmont, part time NEXTEL Cup driver who also runs full time in the ARCA ReMax Series takes on the current sponsorship problems of NASCAR.
We have grown to be such a politically correct nation and world it makes me want to puke. Read the papers daily and the clear cut ability to abandon any level [...]

There is little question DEI, in general, and Dale Earnhardt Jr., in particular, have dominated restrictor-plate racing over the past few years. The larger question is just how dominant he has become in the sport.
Earnhardt Jr. and Michael Waltrip, DEI’s other full-time driver, return to Daytona for Saturday’s running of the Pepsi 400, where, once [...]

I should think Jack Roush and Jeff Burton should take a road trip north.
NASCAR now has a business home north of the border. But don’t expect a NEXTEL Cup race in Canada anytime soon.
NASCAR’s recent announcement heralding the formation of NASCAR Canada, a collaboration with television partner TSN, is aimed at opening a door [...]

Jeff Gordon wrapped up a near perfect weekend Sunday, starting from the pole and racing to an overpowering victory in the NASCAR race at Infineon Raceway.
Gordon picked up his fourth victory on the 1.99-mile, 10-turn road course, winning for the third time from the pole. It also extended his own Nextel Cup record for road [...]

Veteran Ron Hornaday fought off young guns David Stremme and Shane Hmiel to win Saturday night’s NASCAR Busch Series Alan Kulwicki 250 at the Milwaukee Mile.
Hornaday battled back from a lap down and took the lead from Hmiel with six laps to go to score his fourth career Busch win. Hornaday drove his Richard Childress [...]

… is a racer that started their career at the age of 13.
Jesica Matzdorf always wanted to drive the family car down the long driveway at her family’s home in Grand Rapids, but her father, Bill, wouldn’t let her until she got her driver’s license.
But Jesica Matzdorf didn’t want to wait until she was 16. [...]

… they just pull in for an elongated pitstop. Nick Trgovich isn’t ready for that final “gas an go” and even at the young age of 79 he still has the desire to rub a few finders and play “bumper tag” with the rest of the boys at Illiana Motor Speedway.
A front-runner at Illiana [...]

Polesitter Ted Musgrave retook the lead with nine laps remaining and became the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series’ seventh different winner of the season with a victory Friday night in the Black Cat Fireworks 200.
Musgrave, who pitted his Dodge from the lead on the 129th lap and restarted the race in 18th position, methodically worked his [...]

In a previous commentary I outlined NASCAR’s current dilema over the sponsorship of Jeff Burton’s #99 ride. In keeping with NASCAR’s complete lack of common sense they have denied access to the multi-million dollar “hard liquor” sponsorship. You would think in a multi-billion dollar industry they could come up with a more plausable reason other [...]

For some reason I don’t really buy this: “FIA satisfied with handling of Schumacher crash.”
Formula One’s governing body says it is satisfied that marshals and emergency medical teams handled Ralf Schumacher’s crash in Sunday’s U.S. Grand Prix correctly.
An International Automobile Federation (FIA) spokesman also justified on Wednesday the decision not to stop the race at [...]

Nascar Is Keeping Liquor Company Out
You were expecting common sense out a bunch of erroneous yellow flagwavers at NASCAR.
Jeff Burton drew plenty of attention by finishing fourth in a Nascar Nextel Cup race two weeks ago in Dover, Del. The engine in his Ford was not much more powerful than any other in the field, [...]

Chad McCumbee isn’t preparing an acceptance speech for the Academy Awards. In fact, his only hope is that his performance in “The Dale Earnhardt Story” pleases the man he portrayed: Dale Earnhardt Jr.
McCumbee, a fresh-faced, 19-year-old race car driver, played the son of the seven-time NASCAR Nextel Cup champion in the upcoming, self-titled ESPN biography.
Don’t [...]

No not another dominate Ferrari performance, that’s so common that red faces on the Williams and McLarens teams have long since turned to scowls of anger and frustration. No think about other podiums and victory celebrations in F1. Picture “little” Rubens Barrichello or the diminutive Takuma Sato as they hold aloft their well deserved “hardware.” [...]

Brazilian Rubens Barrichello swept out of Michael Schumacher’s shadow at the U.S. Grand Prix Saturday to seize his first pole position of the season. World champion Schumacher, gunning for his eighth victory in nine races Sunday after winning in Canada last weekend, had to settle for second best in an all-Ferrari front row.
The German was [...]

When it was all said and done, eighteen-year-old ARCA RE/MAX Series rookie Reed Sorenson, in only his second series start, had nary a challenger on his way to victory lane Saturday afternoon in the Flagstar 200 at Michigan International Speedway. Sorenson, in Chip Ganassi?s Sherwin-Williams/Target Dodge, finished more than six seconds ahead of second place [...]

The Kentucky Speedway track and event record for the NASCAR Busch Series Meijer 300 already had fallen twice on Friday by the time Martin Truex Jr. began his qualifying run.
Truex set the bar even higher.
Truex, the series points leader, captured the pole with a lap of 180.102 mph in his Chevrolet around the 1 1-2-mile [...]

BROOKLYN, Mich. ? In a game of Hendrick Motorsports tag, Jeff Gordon came out the winner. Jimmie Johnson was the first Hendrick driver to put up the fastest lap in qualifying Friday, only to see Gordon knock him off.
Then, late in the session as Gordon appeared assured of the pole for Sunday’s DHL 400 at [...]

But maybe not the one you might guess:
BROOKLYN, Mich. ? Dion Hinskey, the official who mistakenly triggered a caution during the May 21 Craftsman Truck Series race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., was suspended by NASCAR for three races, ThatsRacin.com has learned.
As of Friday, NASCAR, however, had not suspended Nextel Cup Series official [...]

But lets be honest, if only between our selves. Its the racing babes that spice up every circuit and give us gearheads the real reason to visit the track. In Formula 1 (European race babes here) they pretend to shade the drivers from the elements with their logo covered parasols. Here in the Philippines during [...]