Full Throttle

Lets call this partial qualy results, you can see the entire lineup here. I’ll only cover starting positions of those in the top fifteen in points.

1 Tony Stewart 17
2 Jimmie Johnson 29
3 Greg Biffle 4
4 Rusty Wallace 20
5 Mark Martin 25
6 Jeremy Mayfield 6
7 Kurt Busch 7
8 Ryan Newman 8
9 Carl Edwards 37
10 Jamie McMurray 9
11 Dale Jarrett 10
12 Jeff Gordon 2
13 Elliot Sadler 9
14 Kevin Harvick 18
15 Matt Kenseth Pole Position

It’s an interesting mix isn’t it? Those needing a good result, from 10^th to 15^th with the sole exception of Harvick all start in the first five rows. A distinct advantage? Maybe not, since 1999 five winning efforts have come from 18^th position or worse.

Bristol is always tough to pick because of the constant fender banging, not that I’m complainin’, and brakes are always a factor. With a yellow flag count most likely in the double digits fuel loads shouldn’t come into play.

Last week I went with the trend of Dodge success at Michigan, I had the wrong driver but the correct brand. This week I’m bucking that trend. MIS saw three events and three Dodges in the winners circle. Bristol continues the streak with a Ryan Newman Dodge win in Fridays Busch Series event (His third straight win in the series). That streak ends tonight, here is my top ten.

1 Jeff Gordon
2 Matt Kenseth
3 Rusty Wallace
4 Elliot Sadler
5 Tony Stewart
6 Kurt Busch
7 Greg Biffle
8 Kasey Kahne
9 Ryan Newman
10 Mark Martin

NASCAR, Auto Racing, Sports

Roush Racing announced Friday driver Ricky Craven would not return to the organization in 2006. Craven has been driving Roush’s No. 99 Ford in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series this season.

Out with the old.

In with the new: Everyone’s pick to win a CTS seat through the Roush “Gong Show,” David Ragan, now has an opening.

Craftsman Truck Series, Roush Racing, NASCAR

NASCAR history has many pages of its history filed will tales of cheating. Smokey Yunick called it “creative use of the rulebook.” As an owner, Junior Johnson was known for cars that teetered on the legal edge. Richard Petty’s philosophy was “cheat neat.” Darrell Waltrip was nabbed during qualifying for the 1976 Daytona 500 for using nitrous oxide, the substance that drivers of today’s tuner cars squirt for speed bursts.

Tom Jenkins even wrote a book about the practice called “Cheating.”

As NASCAR returns this week to it’s roots and the Bristol Motor Speedway another page is written in NASCAR’s cheating history.

Two members of Reed Sorenson’s crew were thrown out of Bristol Motor Speedway on Friday after NASCAR officials caught the Busch team rubbing an unapproved substance on its tires.

Brian Pattie, crew chief for the No. 41 Dodge, and team member Brian Stafford were removed from track property and not allowed to participate in Friday night’s Busch race.

As yet there is no word on what was used but the practice of “soaking tires” also has a long history, for both pavement and dirt racers. The practice was so prevalent in the Featherlite Modified Tour Series a few years ago the sanctioning body mandated all tires be purchased from the tire truck for each event..

For good reason it is illegal at all levels of NASCAR. Dependent on the chemical used it can adversely effect the tire compound in ways that compromise safety. It’s a little disconcerting that Pattie and Stafford would chose Bristol to resurrect tire soaking. Despite it’s diminutive size Bristol produces high cornering speeds and heavy traffic. Not the best scenario for a chemical weakened tire to suddenly deflate.

It will be sometime next week before penalties are announced but I suspect Sorenson will escape unscathed, save the rear of the field start, and both Pattie and Stafford will be fined and suspended. Sorenson’s Rookie of the Year bid shouldn’t be effected, as those points are compiled separate from Series points.

NASCAR, Auto Racing, Busch Series

The sound of 16 A1 Grand Prix cars in full race livery jostling for position over the start-finish line was the highlight of day two of the series’ latest group test at Paul Ricard, but it was Team USA who once again came out on top of the timesheets.

The day was a huge success for all involved, as lap times continued to fall and several different teams and drivers showed that they were capable of pushing for the top slot. In the end, the top three featured the same teams as it had on day one of the test, although France manage to usurp Brazil from P2 in the wake of the Scott Speed-driven Team USA machine. Colin Fleming replaced Speed behind the wheel of the USA car during the day, while Alex Premat replaced GP2 rival Nicolas Lapierre in the French entry, as Nelson Piquet Jr continued his stint in the distinctively-liveried Brazilian Lola.

With Team Great Britain slipping back down the order despite the best efforts of Robbie Kerr, New Zealand and Portugal took the opportunity to sneak into the top five. Again, both teams continued with the drivers that ran on Wednesday - Jonny Reid and Alvaro Parente respectively - while Ralph Firman began to find his feet in the new Irish entry to move up to sixth. Jos Verstappen and Romain Grosjean also stayed in the cockpit of the Dutch and Swiss entries respectively, with the young Formula Renault racer impressing team principal Max Welti.

Source: Crash Net
A1 Grand Prix, Auto Racing, Sports
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BRISTOL, Tenn. - Mike Skinner led all but 10 laps and won in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series for the first time since 1996 by turning back a late challenge from Todd Bodine on Wednesday night.

Former champion Skinner, who left in 1997 to race in the Nextel Cup Series and returned last year to compete full time in the trucks, won for the 17th time on the circuit.

“What a motor in this thing,” Skinner said after giving owner Bill Davis his first victory in the series.

Using lapped traffic to his advantage, Bodine ran down Skinner with 18 laps remaining in the O’Reilly 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway. Then series points leader Dennis Setzer brought out a caution when he crashed on the 187th lap.

But Skinner held off Bodine when the green flag waved on lap 195.

NASCAR, Auto Racing, Craftsman Truck Series
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Is the speculation true, are the much denied rumors more fact than fiction? A German newspaper believes it has the scoop of the current F1 silly season.

Hamburg, Germany

A1 Team USA recorded the fastest lap time at the Paul Ricard High Tech Test Track Wednesday during A1 Grand Prix’s second team test session. Making its debut appearance following its official unveiling in the morning, the USA car emblazoned with the American flag and the slogan “We the People” crept above A1 Team Brazil mid-way through the afternoon session.

Commenting on his team’s success, seat holder, Rick Weidinger said:

‘A1 Team USA is very pleased with the today’s results. Anytime you finish a test, especially at Paul Ricard, and you’re P1 you have to be happy. Our test driver, Scott Speed has a rich heritage of racing results and today is another indication of his talent. The team did a wonderful job, they all pulled together, and that’s a goal of ours, to be a team in the garage and on the track. We made a huge step forward today.’ Emphasising the team involvement in A1 Grand Prix.

‘Today’s A1 Team test session showed just how exciting the A1 Grand Prix races are set to be’ said A1 Grand Prix Founder, President and Chairman, Sheikh Maktoum.

“Each team became increasingly competitive as the day progressed with the countries in the top few positions changing constantly. We saw 20 identical cars each driven by a mixture of established drivers and young up and coming talent, each racing for the pride of their nation. A1 Grand Prix is a diverse Series and from today’s results we can see that it is also highly competitive. I’m looking forward to tomorrow where the Teams will experience the first rolling start of A1 Grand Prix where you will see 20 nations in a league of their own starting to compete for the first World Cup of Motorsport”‘

Fastest lap times - Wednesday 24 August 2005
01 USA 1.24.559 - SCOTT SPEED
02 BRAZIL 1.24.973 - NELSON PIQUET JR
03 FRANCE 1.25.095 - NICOLAS LAPIERE
04 GRAT BRITAIN 1.25.281 - ROBBIE KERR
05 MEXICO 1.25.296 - SALVADOR DURAN
06 PORTUGAL 1.25.377 - ALVARO PARENTE
07 NEW ZEALAND 1.25.536 - JONNY REID
08 IRELAND 1.25.687 - RALPH FIRMAN
09 AUSTRALIA 1.25.692 - WILL DAVISON
10 MALAYSIA 1.25.717 - ALEX YOONG
11 NETHERLANDS 1.25.751 - JOS VERSTAPPEN
12 PAKISTAN 1.26.139 - ADAM KHAN
13 SWITZERLAND 1.26.147 - ROMAIN GROSJEAN
14 SOUTH AFRICA 1.26.177 - THOMAS SCHECKTER
15 GERMANY 1.26.440 - TIMO SCHEIDER
16 LEBANON 1.26.477 - BASIL SHAABAN
17 INDIA 1.27.978 - KARUN CHANDOK
18 INDONESIA 1.28.430 - ANANDA MIKOLA
19 CHINA 1.29.377 - TENG JIANG
20 RUSSIA 1.32.760 - NIKOLAY FOMENKO

Source: Everything About MotorSports

A1 Grand Prix, Auto Racing, Sports, Scott Speed

I’m all for promotion, as you can tell by my “accolades” section in the sidebar and the recent addition of an occasional Goggle ad.

And I have no problem with NASCAR drivers promoting their sponsors that spend hundreds of million of bucks on race teams and advertising schemes. But do we really need to see NASCAR drivers in pajamas? I guess Goodyear does.

AKRON, Ohio, Aug. 24 - NASCAR drivers in pajamas are not normal sightings, but there they were - four of them - sporting designer PJs and matching slippers.

Looking like they just rolled out of bed were Gregg Biffle, Kurt Busch, Matt Kenseth and Jeremy Mayfield, arriving at a quaint Charlotte, N.C., neighborhood to star in a series of TV commercials for Goodyear Gatorback automotive belts.

The theme of the advertising campaign is Gatorback Delivers and calls for drivers to make early-morning appearances on front porches of side-by-side homes. They retrieve belts delivered by a bike-peddling, bell-ringing youngster carrying a bag full of Gatorback Poly-V belts, throwing them paperboy style.

At the end of each commercial, an announcer proclaims, “Nothing delivers like Goodyear Gatorback belts; these guys wouldn’t start their day without it.”

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for a little levity in advertising and in life in general and I haven’t seen the ad, (pssst, the video is available here and hi-res stills here, enter keyword: pajamas), but the sight of three Roushketeers plus Mayfield in pajamas doesn’t make me want to run out and purchase fan belts for my 1909 Hupmobile, or a new Ford Fusion racer for that matter.

I do have a question. If and when Erin Crocker makes it to NASCAR will Goodyear make…

Nevermind!

NASCAR, Advertising, Auto Racing, Sports

Lets walk back into history for a moment.

Ronnie Bucknum had a flurishing sports car racing career, winning Sports Car Club of America titles in 1959, 1960, 1962 and 1964, scoring 44 wins in 48 races. Like a bolt from the blue he was spotted by Honda engineers racing a Porsche 904 at Sebring and he was chosen to debut Honda’s fresh out of the box Formula 1 car in the 1964 German Grand Prix. Ronnie could never live up to expectations and scored his only World Championship points at Mexico City in 1965 where he finished fifth. His teammate Richie Ginther won that event in the sister Honda.

Later Bucknum ran a Carroll Shelby GT40 to third place at Le Mans in 1966 and competed in Indycar racing, winning the 1968 Michigan 500. He died from the after-effects of diabetes at the early age of 56.

During the same time frame the legendary AJ Foyt was winning in almost every form of racing known to man. If it had four wheels and a seat A.J. won with it. Indianapolis, 4 wins. IROC championship twice in succession. Foyt is the only driver in history to win Indy 500, Daytona 500 (1972) and 24 Hours of LeMans (1967 with Dan Gurney). His victories in his early days of sprint car and midget racing are countless.

Fast forward a few decades and the grand “Lady Irony” steps into, and merges this picture.

AJ’s grandson, A.J. Foyt IV, has run every IndyCar series event since 2003 in the #14 Foyt owned Dallara. With this weeks event on the road course at Infineon Raceway a change will be made as dictated by AJ the first and apparently “Lady Irony.”

Ronnie Bucknum’s son, Jeff Bucknum, takes over the ride this week.

In fact none of the current F1 million/billionaires would do it. Which probably explains why Eddie decided not to be a part of that exclusive club any longer. Via Update F1.

In one swift stroke this week, Eddie Jordan will no longer be thought of as formula one’s former rock’n'roll team owner - now, he’s just a golf caddie.

The Irishman will carry the clubs for compatriot Paul McGinley at the BMW International Championship in Munich.

”This was a bit of a joke when it first came up,” Jordan, 56, who sold his yellow clad team earlier this year, smiled.

”There were lots of things I wanted to do in ‘retirement’ and caddying for a top class pro like Paul was one of them.”

Even so, EJ is ’staggered’ that McGinley wants him to stand in for regular Darren Reynolds at the prestige event.

McGinley said: ”We’ve been friends for years and years. I only hope my driving is better this week than his cars over the past couple of years!”

This is a prime example why F1 misses Eddie. The sport needs more like him.

UPDATE: Reuters also picked up this story and adds this McGinley quote about EJ: “He is used to dealing with drivers and egos and all that sort of thing associated with professional sportsmen and he will be good for me.”

Formula One, Auto Racing, Sports