Full Throttle

You are browsing the archives of 2008 July.

This year’s M&Ms NASCAR Night of Stars at I-55 Raceway was promoted as a shootout between some of the top drivers in racing and Wednesday night’s event didn’t disappoint.

Great Clips driver Gabi DiCarlo will be one of a select group of female drivers being honored at the upcoming Women in the Winner’s Circle Luncheon on July 24 at the Plaza Village Pavilion inside the Indianapolis Motor Speedway today.

Here’s NASCAR’s official headline on their announcement of a horsepower decrease for all Nationwide Series Toyotas:
“Rule Amendment Brings NASCAR Nationwide Series Engines In Line”.
Specifically they are targeting all engines “with a cylinder bore spacing of 4.470 inches or more”. Those engines will have to compete with a tapered spacer with four 1.100-inch diameter holes.
At the [...]

Despite my supposition the Ryan Newman and Tony Stewart satellite new conferences held today would shed some light on a second driver for the new Stewart-Haas Racing team - they didn’t and both drivers were playing coy with the subject - some related news did hit the wires.
Haas CNC Stewart-Haas Racing general manager Joe Custer [...]

Mostly holding an umbrella is the short story, the longer story follows.
Kevin Harvick decided to stay in Maine an extra day and his decision paid off as he raced to victory in the rain-delayed TD Banknorth 250 at Oxford Plains Speedway.
Harvick built a comfortable lead before turning back a late challenge by Glen Luce.
Harvick, who’s [...]

… Dale Earnhardt Inc. are screwed.
In the case of DEI vs The Kangaroos, it is the unanimous decision of the National Stock Car Racing Commission to uphold the original penalties [assessed the team of Martin Truex Jr.] by NASCAR. The periods of the suspensions are to be adjusted from the date of this hearing. [...]

The biggest domino of NASCAR’s free agency season fell when Tony Stewart decided to bolt from Joe Gibbs Racing at the end of the year.

Matt Kenseth tried to keep up.
But in the end, Midwest horsepower trumped NASCAR starpower as Tim Schendel of Sparta, Wis capped a sweat-soaked Sunday with a dominant win in the Rasmussen Group Twin 75s ASA Super Late Model Series race at Iowa Speedway.

“It’s top three,” Schendel said of the triumph that came two weeks after [...]

Sit down. Hold onto your hats, sombreros and cowgirl hats, it’s shocking but this NASCAR Stupid Idea of the Day didn’t originate in Daytona or Charlotte.
It comes by way of Canada and the Toronto Star.
Tyler Hamilton opines for the fish wrap’s business section and notes both auto racing’s history of innovation transferred to street machinery, [...]

LEXINGTON, Ohio - Australia’s Ryan Briscoe won the Indy 200 IndyCar Series race today, by defeating pole sitter and Team Penske teammate Helio Castroneves.

Mike Skinner captured the pole for tonight’s Built Ford Tough 225 at the Kentucky Speedway. The #5 Bill Davis Racing Toyota driver rounded the 1.5-mile speedway in 31.487 seconds (171.499 m.p.h.).

Red Bull Racing driver Scott Speed earned his second ARCA RE/MAX Series win of the season and first at Kentucky Speedway by 0.561 of a second over Sean Caisse tonight in the “Kentucky 150.”
The converted Formula One star drove to the pits on Lap 19 to take on fuel in his No. 2 Red Bull [...]

NOTE: What follows is the first of what I hope will be a long series of interviews conducted with various females that are just below NASCAR’s radar. They are for the most part underfunded, but dedicated to making it to the top rung of the stock car ladder.
My roots being in the Mid-West, and specifically [...]

Michael Phelps and his No. 45 Bowen Family Homes Dodge emerged from a two-hour Kentucky Speedway practice session atop the ARCA RE/MAX Series speed chart after turning a quick 175.006-mph (30.856 seconds) lap.
The Suwanee, Ga., driver successfully built on an effort that began July 1 when he was fastest in a 20-car Kentucky test session [...]

It appears Jacques Villeneuve is returning to the Montreal racetrack named after his father.
The star driver from Iberville, Que., will meet with the media at his trendy downtown restaurant today to unveil the details of his participation in the Nationwide Series NASCAR event Aug. 2-3 at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
The announcement comes five months after Villeneuve [...]

With NASCAR’s premier division enjoying one of the few off-weeks in its hectic schedule news has been somewhat slow.
Between that and my blog software having an upgrade released this week that has thrown asunder my site redesign plans for some unspecified time I offer the following, it won’t make the list of Classic Short Story [...]

The just announced marriage of convenience between Brad Daugherty and JTG Racing has spawned dreams of grandeur in Charleston, West Virginia’s Kanawha Valley.
Charleston councilman David Higgins, noting Daugherty’s racing connections along with hometown football hero Randy Moss, thinks the two should persuade the powers that be to build “a large speedway on a Wal-Mart site” [...]

Tasmania’s favorite son Marcos Ambrose, the Devil Racer, will become a full-time Sprint Cup driver next season, thanks to a new partnership former NBA player Brad Daugherty has with JTG Racing.
Daugherty, who choose to wear Richard Petty’s number – 43 – throughout his NBA career has bought a financial stake in JTG Racing.
The new [...]

Fans, and non-fans of Kyle Busch would probably agree the Gibbs Racing driver has become the “official” Bad Boy of NASCAR.
But did you know Kyle has an official band?
The Last Vegas (pictured left), named by Spin Magazine as “Best New Discovery,” is his official band. A quick spin through the interwebs to Kyle’s website [...]

Former Champ Car title-winner Paul Tracy - out of work since the series’ IndyCar merger earlier this year - will be back at Edmonton, he has confirmed - only not with Vision Racing, as had been surmised.