Full Throttle

I’ve been tinkering again.

Under pages in the sidebar your will find two new links. One, “Latest Poll,” is a weekly question that you can cast your vote on. This week is related to the NASCAR points system. The poll registers your IP and sets a cookie so you ballot stuffers out there will be disappointed. One vote per fan, this isn’t Washington State!

The second link is “Test your Knowledge.” At present it’s mostly blank and not operational - damn coding, I hate it! - in fact nothing but a blue button appears. If you push it evil things will happen, like your first born daughter grows hair on her legs that rival a French born Bigfoot. Or a Bristol match race is automatically set up consisting of Dale Jarrett, Ryan Newman and Kevin Harvick with special guest referee Buckshot Jones.

You get the picture, it’s not pretty.

The verdict is in, but NASCAR’s sentence is light.

Busch Series driver Reed Sorenson’s crew chief was suspended for six races Tuesday for soaking tires at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Brian Pattie was fined $35,000, suspended until Oct. 26 and placed on probation until the end of the year. Crew member Brandon Stafford also was suspended for six races.

Sorenson was also docked 50 championship points which at this point is meaningless, he had zero chance at reigning as champ without the penalty. Ganassi was also docked 50 points in the owners championship, again meaningless. The train wreck that is Ganassi Racing had zero chance of winning the title.

My question is, where’s the accountability? The crew chief gets fined for being in charge and is being held accountable. Where is the fine for the team owner where ultimate responsibility resides?

Stafford has widely been descibed as the “tire specialist” so where is his monetary fine? Are we to believe it was just an error in judgement? No, he knew exactly what he was doing and that it was illegal.

The penalties are entirely too light my book. But when in Daytona Beach I wear a swim suit, not a “suit.”

This thread should be interesting to read in the next few hours as a guage of fans reaction.

Busch Series, NASCAR, Auto Racing, Sports

Erin Crocker confirmed Tuesday she will make her Busch Series debut at Richmond International Raceway in the FUNAI 250 on Sept. 9. Evernham Motorsports is expected to announce a full-time Busch sponsor for Crocker in 2006.

“[Ray Evernham’s] given me an awesome opportunity with good equipment and good people around me,” she said. “Now I feel it’s up to me. ARCA is definitely a good learning ground. I think I’m ready. I know it’s going to be a big step and a lot of stiff competition, but you’ve got to start somewhere.”

Nextel Cup teammate Jeremy Mayfield provided tips during a rental car ridearound of RIR.

ARCA, Busch Series, Auto Racing, Sports

Well now, as predicted, this weeks NASCAR Cesspool is overflowing with odoriferous goodness. It just had to be. When you combine a Saturday night with a legendary half mile oval, 43 cars and a “Race to the Chase,” the result was all too predicable.

Lets start with the most egregious event of the weekend. Friday night’s Busch event saw a return to the “bad old days.” Two members of Reed Sorenson

OSCHERSLEBEN, Germany - Alex Zanardi won his first race Sunday since losing both legs in an accident in Germany in 2001. Zanardi captured the seventh race of the world touring cars championships in his BMW 320i.

The former Formula One driver and two-time CART champion lost both legs in a collision during a CART race on Sept. 15, 2001. He walks and drives with the help of two prostheses.

Zanardi started from pole due to the reverse grid and he drove a solid race to ensure he was the victor. It was in fact a BMW 1-2-3 as J

Here are a few stories that are making the rounds of NASCAR’s garages and boardrooms.

Petty offers hint at retirement.

“One day I’m going to wake up and decide to get on my motorcycle and go riding around the country. It’s getting close. Maybe next year. Who knows?”

Petty, 45, has not won since the summer of 1995, a string of 313 races. His famous father Richard won a record 200 times.

Petty Enterprises also fields the No. 43 driven by former Fairgrounds Speedway champion Jeff Green. Petty said Green will be back in the car next season.

Testing at Indy might be history.

NASCAR-imposed limits on testing could result in teams no longer spending two days at Indianapolis Motor Speedway preparing for the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.

Starting in 2006, teams will be allowed six tests on tracks that host Nextel Cup races. Series director John Darby met with teams this week to outline the restrictions and is waiting to hear from them on which six tracks are preferred by the majority.

Daytona International Speedway, where the season begins, and Homestead-Miami Speedway, where it ends, are sure to be on the list. The rest will be chosen based upon their ability to provide information applicable in as many places as possible, which is why Indy’s unique, flat, 21/2-mile oval could be left out.

This is a welcome change I have advocated for a long time. Limiting testing will negate much of the advantage multi-car teams now possess. I doubt if it will effect the size of teams - their are monetary incentives to maintain them - it should not only cut costs for everyone but will even things out as far as testing data collection goes.

Erin Crocker making the move to the Busch Series.

Evernham said he is “reasonably confident” the team will field a full-time Busch car for Erin Crocker in 2006. A deal could be announced within the next couple of weeks, and Evernham said Crocker would race six Busch events this season. The 24-year-old probably would make her debut at Richmond or Dover.

Crocker reportedly has drawn the interest of rival manufacturers, and Evernham said he must keep her in a ride to keep her under the terms of a developmental deal.

“If I don’t, and someone else comes and gives her a better ride, I’m going to tell her to go ahead and take it,” he said. “She’s a good kid and part of our family now and I want what’s best for her. Right now, it looks like we’re going to be ones to provide the best opportunity for her.”

This is a smart move on Evernham’s part, Crocker has proven her worth to the organization in her ARCA Series starts. By providing a ride now - when many others have shown an interest in her - Ray prevents another Kasey Kahne situation where Ford lost the services Kahne by not giving a promised ride.

Kevin Harvick, Herb Thomas Voted In As “Fans’ Favorites” For 2005 Talladega-Texaco Walk Of Fame Induction.

The 2005 Talladega-Texaco Walk of Fame Induction Ceremony is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 1 at the Davey Allison Memorial Park in uptown Talladega, a block south of the town square. This year’s induction ceremony begins at 7 p.m. and will be emceed by Benny Parsons.

France: No tampering rule likely for NASCAR.

While NASCAR has no plans to add any rules about tampering, chairman Brian France does expect the recent signings of Jamie McMurray and Kurt Busch while still under contract to other teams to cause some changes.
“Well, we’re not happy about it,” France said. “It’s an issue that’s new, but it’s really between the team owner and the driver. My sense (is) the team owners will be shoring up their own contracts in the future to prevent such possibility of a lame duck time. I think it’s an area the team owners are going to really start addressing a little differently.”

Many have called for NASCAR to step in and prevent such contract signings. Something I find strange because some of the same people are very vocal about the sanctioning body “over regulating” the sport. Both owners and drivers are independent contractors and it should stay that way.

NASCAR, Busch Series, Auto Racing, Sports

Montreal - Oriol Servia of Spain passed Timo Glock of Germany on the next-to-last lap to win the Montreal Molson Indy on Sunday at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve. Race control ordered Glock to let the Spaniard pass after the German took a short cut across the grass two laps earlier to preserve his lead.

Servia, driving for the powerful Newman-Haas team, scored his first win of the year by .999 of a second over Glock. Justin Wilson of Britain was third, 1.4 seconds behind, and series leader Sebastien Bourdais of France was fourth at 1.6 seconds back.

SONOMA, Calif. (AP) — Tony Kanaan took advantage of teammate Dan Wheldon’s misfortune to move into the lead, then ran away from the rest of the field Sunday to win the Argent Mortgage Indy Grand Prix at Infineon Raceway.

Kanaan beat Buddy Rice by 1.182 seconds — about eight car-lengths — for his second IRL IndyCar win of the season, completing a sweep for Andretti Green Racing on Sunday. Owner Michael Andretti’s son, Marco, won the Menards Infiniti Pro Series earlier in the day.

It was Wheldon’s broken fuel pump that allowed Kanaan to take the lead on the 53rd of 80 laps.

“I have had bad days and he capitalized a lot on them,” Kanaan said of Wheldon, the IndyCar points leader.

Kanaan averaged 91.040 mph around Infineon’s 12-turn, 2.26-mile track in the first IRL race held on a road course.

IndyCar, Auto Racing, Sports
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Because I connected these dots two weeks ago.

Scott Riggs was hired Saturday to drive a third car for Evernham Motorsports, the highest-profile job of his racing career.

Riggs is in his second season of Nextel Cup racing, and his contract is up at the end of the year with MBV Motorsports, for which he has six top-10 finishes in 58 starts. But he had several factors working in his favor when Evernham began searching for a teammate for Jeremy Mayfield and Kasey Kahne.

NEXTEL Cup, Auto Racing, Evernham Mortorsports

Bristol Motor Speedway is a place of dreams, both past and present. It can also be the site of NASCAR nightmares, the Food City 500 provided both for those chasing the Chase. Saturday night Matt Kenseth wrote his own script for his by winning from the pole and leading 415 of 500 laps in winning the Food City 500. The performance may have earned him a shot at another dream, a [avatar:http://cranialcavity.net/files/cup.jpg]NEXTEL Cup[/avatar] Championship. Kenseth’s victory elevated him to 11^th in the points. He started the night 15^th in the standings, but is now just 11 points out of the top 10.

Jeff Burton was second - only his second top five this year - followed by Greg Biffle and Ricky Rudd. Rusty Wallace, in his final race at his favorite race track, finished fifth. Jeff Gordon, who I picked to win, ended the day in sixth but it was enough to move Gordon into 10^th in the standings for the first time since June.

For the rest of the field it was a typical night, for Bristol. A tale of flashing [avatar:http://cranialcavity.net/files/caution.jpg]cautions[/avatar], more than a little bumper tag and in one case blatant retribution. The retribution came after Ryan Newman tapped Dale Jarrett mid-race that sent the #88 backing into the wall. Newman claimed innocence, “Mine was unintentional. His was intentional, that was obvious.” Jarrett didn’t “claim” anything but he did get even (or ahead dependent on your point of view) by laying in wait for the #12. As Newman tried to pass on the outside Jarrett jinked right ending the #12’s day in a crumpled heap. That earned Jarrett a 2 lap penalty and the incident dropped Jarrett to 14th in the standings, and ends his chances of making the Chase.

Carl Edwards during the course of the night took out both Petty Engineering entries. Post race Kyle Petty could be seen talking out the “issues” along pitwall. The discussion ended amicably as they shook hands and there were smiles all around. Maybe Carl reminded Kyle how the #22 of Scott Wimmer brought out caution flag number four.

With two more events left before the Chase cutoff and only 84 points separating 8^th through 13^th place the tension builds and you can expect more tempers flaring on the Left Coast next week.

NASCAR, Auto Racing, Sports, Bristol

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