Full Throttle

CHARLOTTE, N.C.

Bank of America joined the race for millions of loyal NASCAR fans Wednesday by unveiling two major marketing programs that will make the bank the lead sponsor of a televised pre-race show and a fall race not far from its downtown headquarters.

The deal makes Bank of America the title sponsor of the Nextel Cup race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in October. Starting in the fall of 2006, the race will be known as the Bank of America 500. The bank also will become a major sponsor of the track and four others owned by Concord-based Speedway Motorsports in Las Vegas, San Francisco, Atlanta and Fort Worth.

Financial terms of the agreement were not released.

In a separate deal, the bank will become the lead sponsor of the “Countdown to Green” pre-race show that airs on NBC and TNT.

Oops… I spoke too soon. Here’s the ATM slot. “Bank of America’s deal to officially sponsor tracks in Atlanta, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Dallas allows the bank to install ATMs, put up signs and offer more promotional events at all five tracks.”

Watch for beer sales to sky rocket!

The FIA kangaroo court has returned a verdict. Guilty on 2 of the five charges. BAR Honda, along with the other six Michelin tyred teams, has been found guilty on two charges of bringing the sport of Formula One into disrepute.

The teams have been found not guilty on the other three charges.

Any punishments will be decided on 14 September, after the Belgian Grand Prix, once the FIA see what steps the teams have taken to remedy the situation, starting with Michelins offer yesterday of refunding the fans at the US GP.

The end result is these idiots in 3 thousand dollar suits have kicked the can further down the road for the sentencing phase. All the while hopeing the Championship will be decided and they can extract their revenge and start suspending teams a couple at a time.

Not that I expected one, but this doesn’t resolve anything.

UPDATE: From the mouths of babes…er… George.

“What garbage! Can anyone show me anywhere within the rules the definition of a suitable race tire? Is it a tire that is puncture proof under all conditions? Most conditions? Some conditions? Is it a tire that won’t flat spot under the hardest of braking conditions, over and over again? Or is it a tire that will not shred on impact with carbon fiber shards? You could go on forever with the questions and you won’t find any answers because they don’t exist, only within the figment of Max’s politicaly driven imagination.”

WOW, Max has an imagination! Who’d a thunk it! If he had the slightest bit of imagination and guts Ferrari would have been told to race with a chicane or sit Indy out. A race would have been held, fans would have been happy and 7 teams wouldn’t be waiting for the Sword of Damocles to fall come September.

“That sword! That sword!” cried Damocles 7 teams awaiting.

UPDATE II: Max Mosley speaks after the verdict was announced:

The difficulty that we have is that the FIA has no direct relationship with the Michelin tyre. We have no contractual relationship with them, we are therefore not in a position to impose a penalty on Michelin. Had we been in a position to do that, they would have been summoned to the World Council and, judging from what we heard from the teams, they would have found themselves in a very difficult position.

In “”FIA speak” that means Max went after the only target he could get his slimmey hands on. Read the rest of the interview, including the part about “one eccentric gentleman.” Also note this statement that was signed by all drivers except Michael Schumacher. If the FIA had followed these recommendation the race would have been run, possibly without Schumacher, but it would have been a RACE, vice a FIAsco!

I’ve been tinkering under the hood again.

You’ll note a new link in the “Pages” section of the sidebar titled Recently Read. The content is rather short at the moment but will soon fill up. It contains links to racing related articles and blog posts that I found interesting but felt didn’t rate a full blog entry. [Read, too damn lazy to write it!]

If you happen to find something of note drop me a line and I may add it to the list. One other note, the digital world being what it is, sometimes links go dead, particularly links to newspaper stories. If you find a dead link let me know so I can delete the entry.

Enjoy.

The U.S. Military has run it’s own little security enclave called Area 51 for decades. Stories of captured UFO’s and secret military black ops abound from Area 51 and some have called it one of the great mysteries of the 20th Century.

For the last forty years Caraway Speedway, a half mile asphalt oval in North Carolina, has operated as one of the backbones of NASCAR. Racing mostly modifieds and late model stocks it has provided a place for future NASCAR stars to hone their skills and, with hard work and luck, have a chance to become the next “big thing.”

It has also become auto giant General Motors own little Area 51. A place to test and evaluate young talent outside the watchfull eyes of the media. Late last month at Caraway three days were set aside for GM to evaluate thirteen young drivers hopeful of making the final jump to NASCAR.

The 13 candidates were tested driving GM trucks and watched by GM racing engineers for it’s first computer-data driver auditions. NASCAR veteran Dennis Setzer and chief mechanic Randy Goss set up and baseline the testing truck, then each driver gets an hour and two sets of tires to show his best stuff. Pat Suhy, the head of GM’s NASCAR field operations, listens intently on the radio to the point-counterpoint, judging not only how fast these guys can drive but how well they can communicate about the chassis.

Here is a list of some of the drivers involved and a short bio of each:

• Tavo Hellmund, born and raised in Mexico City, lives in Austin and once caught the eye of GM’s Herb Fishel, when Fishel, a Winston-Salem native, was the head of GM’s racing operations. “I had the NASCAR dream before it became fashionable with the ‘diversity initiative,’” Hellmund said. “I’ve been racing short-track stuff, and winning at every level.
• Woody Howard, lean, wiry and hungry, like a younger Greg Biffle, cooling his feet sitting behind the wheel of a car after driving down from Chesapeake, Va.. Trying to appear cool, and, like a good boxer, doing his best to manage the surging adrenalin rush. He’s from the Joe Gibbs camp … tentatively.
• Stephen Leicht, happy and carefree, wandering around the infield curiously, beaming like a kid on the midway. Only 18, Leicht seems under the least pressure. But then, he’s a kid that Richard Childress has his eyes on. Leicht, the youngest on the list, is running the full American StockCar League (ASL) tour. A native of Milwaukee, Leicht now lives in Asheville. Teaching him the ropes is veteran Howard Lettow, who worked with current NASCAR stars Jimmie Johnson and David Stremme.
• Ross Thompson, a road racer by trade who in 1998 had a Trans-Am series run, ran Winston West for a while and won a NASCAR Southwest Tour race. Although he has a full-blown game face on, insists: “There is no pressure. This is the opportunity of a lifetime, without a question. “When we showed up, Randy said ‘Just go have fun.’ Pressure is what you put on yourself, and I don’t have any pressure on myself.”

Todays NASCAR has come a long way from the days of bootlegging and NASCAR’s first “Golden Boy” Fred Lorenzen, but with luck and under GM’s tutelage and NASCAR’s diversity program some on this list may have The Chase in their future.

This weeks Cesspool simply has to start here, “Git r done and start your engines.” uttered by Grand Marshal Larry the Cable Guy. But Larry’s inclusion into the pool is not what you think, the phrase change from the normal wasn’t that bothersome to me. Larry gets in because of those that believe NASCAR is “de-Southernizing” the sport and are having very heated discussions about the subject. The obvious question to pose is this; If NASCAR, as some so ardently believe, is taking the South out of the sport how to hell did Larry the Cable Guy get such a high profile spot to prove otherwise?

The crew of Brian Vickers jumps into the pool this week with both feet. Why in the name of all that’s NASCAR do you burn up extra pit time patching up aerodynamics. It’s a road course guys. You just had a first lap shunt, you’re fighting for a spot in the Chase and the concern is slapping on what is mostly a cosmetic patch?

Speaking of Whine wine country, Gordon took advantage of this weeks venue to announce his commercial tie up with a local winery. Plans are to add his moniker to bottles of Chardonnay, and later Merlot. Nothing wrong in that, it just blows my opening pool entry out of the water. For that Gordon, and his wine gets tossed into the cesspool. Wonder if Larry the Cable Guy drinks wine?

This is a no brainer - the entire Hendrick team, who placed 33rd, 34th, 36th, and 40th Sunday takes its dip this week, “nuff said!

Dale Jr., who has taken up residence in the cesspool as if it were a time share, takes another water slide into the pool. Just who is running the House that Dale Built? Damn sure isn’t Jr.as evidenced by his remarks concerning the change in transmissions. Who ever made that bonehead decision cost another spot in the points and a further drop outside the 400 point Chase window.

And while we’re on the subject of gearchangers lets add all the others, 4 I believe and a couple more than once, who suffered tranny troubles. Enjoy tour swim boys!

This coming week marks not only a change in broadcast networks with NASCAR moving over to NBC but also signals the start of second NASCAR appearances at some tracks, starting with Daytona.

Who-Ha, back to restricter plates, “the big one,” and stuff fab shop nightmares are made of!

It wasn’t “look ma, no hands,” but closer to “hey guys I’ll beat you with one hand tied behind my back, to the gearshift!” The result was the same as Tony Stewart single handedly beat the best NASCAR has to offer in winning the [avatar:http://cranialcavity.net/files/cup.jpg]NEXTEL Cup[/avatar] Dodge/Save Mart 350 in Sonoma California. (As predicted he says, as his ego inflates larger than a bull moose on viagra)

With fourth gear gone and third gear about to puke Stewart held his car in gear with one hand, steered with the other, as he caught and passed Ricky Rudd for the lead with 10 laps to go for the win. The victory was Stewart’s first of the season and 20th of his Nextel Cup career.

Similar transmission woes crippled the Hendricks teamates of Jeff Gordon, points leader Jmmmie Johnson and Kyle Busch. With Johnson having problems, Greg Biffle leap frogged into the points lead by a 22 point margin.

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Pole-sitter Paul Tracy - avoiding any first lap, first turn dramatics that has plagued so many Champ Car events in Cleveland - captured his 30^th career win on the airport road course.

A.J. Allmendinger returned from a Saturday qualifying crash and a ride on a stretcher finished second. In what can best be described as, “Champ Car what’s that?” the race was shortened from 94 to 91 laps to accommodate TV coverage.

1 Paul Tracy 1 #3 46 91 running — $75,000
2 A.J. Allmendinger 9 #10 19 91 running — $50,000
3 Oriol Servia 6 #2 0 91 running — $40,000
4 Alex Tagliani 5 #15 5 91 running — $35,000
5 Sebastien Bourdais 3 #1 0 91 running — $30,000
6 Jimmy Vasser 8 #12 0 91 running — $27,500
7 Justin Wilson 16 #9 0 91 running — $25,000
8 Andrew Ranger 4 #27 0 91 running — $22,500
9 Ricardo Sperafico 17 #11 0 91 running — $20,000
10 Timo Glock 11 #8 0 91 running — $19,000
11 Tarso Marques 10 #19 0 90 running — $19,000
12 Marcus Marshall 18 #5 0 89 running — $18,000
13 Nelson Philippe 15 #34 0 89 running — $18,000
14 Ronnie Bremer 12 #55 0 80 mechanical — $17,000
15 Bjorn Wirdheim 13 #4 0 51 contact — $17,000
16 Cristiano da Matta 2 #21 21 50 contact — $16,000
17 Mario Dominguez 7 #7 0 38 contact — $16,000
18 Ryan Hunter-Reay 14 #31 0 1 contact — $15,000

Ray Evernham protege Erin Crocker drove a car owned by Kasey Kahne in the Richmond Times-Dispatch USAC Silver Crown Series race Saturday night. She started 23rd, finished only 27 laps and finished 29th.

“I was hoping to come from the back and pass a lot of cars. We started that way and I was up to 18th or something,” she said. “Part of the brake pedal broke and I went into turn one without any brakes.

“That was a little exciting.”

Crocker, 24, from Wilbraham, Mass., expects to be back at RIR in September to make her debut in NASCAR’s Busch Series.

Dave Steele won the race from the pole, leading all 100 laps for his third victory here and his seventh top-10 in as many career starts.

“Winning never gets old,” he said.

Steele also took the points lead in the series by 15 over runner-up Brian Tyler, while former leader Josh Wise dropped to third, 17 back.

Source: Sports Illustrated

Johnny Sauter, son of Wisconsin short track legend Jim Sauter, returned home to the Dairy State to capture the rain shortened SBC 250 at the Milwaukee Mile on Saturday night.

He overcame a black flag given for rough driving after spinning Tony Raines in turn four on lap 112. The resulting penalty sent him to the rear of the field, but it was only a minor setback as Sauter went on to dominate, leading 162 of the 200 laps run.

Martin Truex Jr. was second, and Paul Menard finished third. J.J. Yeley was fourth and David Stremme fifth as 10 cars were on the lead lap when the race was stopped.

Series points leader Reed Sorenson finished 12th, a lap behind Sauter.
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Helio Castroneves had a chance to perform his fence climbing routine for the first time since October in Texas after winning the Sun Trust Indy Challenge. Castroneves led the last 100 laps and survived a one lap dash to the finish brought about by a late race crash by Roger Yasukawa and Darren Manning.

Series rookie Danica Patrick improved from her 21^st starting position, by taking advantage of the many yellow flags and retirements to finish in 10^th place three laps down to the leader.
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