Grist for the NASCAR Rumor Mill

The talk started a few weeks back. Now with the announcement that Red Bull is planning to pull out of NASCAR at the end of the 2011 season, the speculation has kicked into high gear concerning who is going where prior to 2012.

First off, if it’s true about Red Bull, Brian Vickers will be looking for a new ride. Based on the fact that Red Bull bought out Ginn Racing a couple of years back, talk is now swirling that a new investor may step forward and take over the operation. Who might do such a thing has led to rumors that Mark Martin could be interested in leading a group to buy the team but as recently as yesterday Martin squelched that rumor stating in an interview on WindTunnel that he has no interest in owning a team. Then there’s talk that Red Bull’s general manager Jay Frye might try to line up an investor group to take over the organization. If something like that happens then Vickers may not have to leave. If a strong enough group steps forward and they remain a two car operation, then there will be a Sprint Cup ride available since Kasey Kahne is moving to Hendrick Motorsports next year. Here again there’s speculation that Martin would be a logical choice to move into this new team. Another rumor has Carl Edwards, who for some reason (more money?) hasn’t re-upped with Roush-Fenway, being the lead man in a buyout of Red Bull. This seems like a stretch to me, but who knows? Why hasn’t Carl followed right along with Greg Biffle and got a deal done with Jack Roush?

Speaking of Edwards, his lack of activity on a new contract has led to a lot of conjecture. One popular rumor that I can’t fathom has Joe Gibbs signing Cousin Carl and putting him in the Home Depot number 20 Toyota and either cutting Joey Logano loose or going to a four car Sprint Cup organization. This has been fueled by talk that Home Depot isn’t happy playing second fiddle to Lowes and their five time champion Jimmie Johnson. Now I have to admit Carl strikes me as being a do-it-yourself type of guy and would be much better suited to representing a company such as Home Depot while Joey is better suited to what, video games? All that talk about Joe Gibbs Racing makes me think Carl might have started the rumor to give himself leverage in negotiations with Roush. Now that strikes me as feasible. Roush has called Edwards a “Rock Star” so maybe Carl’s shooting for rock star wages (!) and Roush is sorry he ever said such a thing. Here again, who knows?

The gossip about Logano possibly being moved out of the Home Depot ride may cool now that he’s finally showing signs of living up to his “Sliced Bread” moniker with JGR. He’s still one of the youngest drivers on the circuit and I expect Gibbs to hang with the guy.

Based on his success, or lack thereof, across the 2011 Sprint Cup season while driving top quality Hendrick Motorsports equipment I have to think Mark Martin is done at the Cup level. Maybe he’ll get back into Nationwide and try to preserve his lead in career wins at that level.

Another top flight driver who has been rumored to possibly be on the move is Clint Boyer. There was talk not too long ago that Clint might be interested in taking over the number 4 Toyota with Red Bull, but that’s all gone away with the Associated Press release last week that Red Bull is done with NASCAR. Boyer strikes me as the type to be an organization’s lead driver and that’s not going to happen in the Childress organization as long as Kevin Harvick is there. So will Boyer move? He’s stated his prime concern is to stay put with Childress.


Then there’s Juan Pablo Montoya and Ryan Newman who both have their deals up for negotiation this year with Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing and Stewart-Haas Racing respectively. I’ve got to say that whether Juan wants to move on or not, I don’t know of much interest for the man anywhere other than with Chip Ganassi. If he stays in NASCAR he’ll be with EGR… As for Newman, I think he knows where he’s well off and that’s with Stewart-Haas.

With all these rumors being kicked around I have to say it looks like the best course for most of these guys is to stay put.

In another vein, there continues to be a question concerning Danica Patrick.
Will she finally stick to one racing series next year? I believe if she’s ever going to be a consistent top driver she’s got to make the move into just one series. Whether her detractors believe it or not, I think she’s shown marked improvement with the fender rubbers in NASCAR’s Nationwide Series and that her best option would be to move full-time to that series and then consider a ride at the Cup level. She has one heck of a following, she’s good for NASCAR and if she follows that course maybe we’ll see her in victory lane. It’s supposed to be about winning isn’t it?

I’m sure I’ve missed out on some of the rumors out there. What have you heard?

Red Bull’s Post-Talladega News Release

THANKS, KURT

The following article is from Red Bull’s web site: http://www.redbullusa.com/cs/Satellite/en_US/Article/nascar-talladega-sprint-cup-series-021242996983749

Two-car packs carrying the No. 22 were Goliath. The two Red Bull Toyotas carrying Brian Vickers and Kasey Kahne were the Davids. One David took a beating; the other David got burned Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway.

After starting a season-best ninth, No. 83 driver Brian Vickers, for the fourth time in eight races, was collected in an accident that had nothing to do with him. In the early laps of the Aaron’s 499, Vickers and teammate Kasey Kahne had formed an all-Red Bull Toyota two-car pack — despite starting 22 positions apart — and that tandem was well on its way to front. “When I was with Brian before Brian got taken out, we were working pretty well together,” Kahne said. “We led laps, we were up front and everything was good and then we lost him.”

Enter the No. 22 of Kurt Busch, who on lap 28 shoved Landon Cassill’s No. 09 into Vickers’ Red Bull Toyota. Boom! The right side took a shot, broke loose, sliced back
across the track and careened head-on into the outside wall along the backstretch. That was essentially it for Vickers, whose car lacked the aerodynamic shape that’s critical at NASCAR’s widest, longest and, arguably, fastest track. Hard work by the No. 83 crew got Vickers back out, but the effort proved to be futile. After the wreck, Vickers exited the track in 40th, returned in 40th, left again for a driveshaft change in 40th and rode out the remaining laps to finish 38th. He slipped two positions to 28th in the standings — 36 points out of 20th.

“I was riding around minding my own business and we just got hit in the door,” Vickers said. “It looked like Kurt got into the left rear and turned the 09, and we happened to be the unlucky victim. Again, we’ve had a really good car — ran up front, like we’ve had many times this year and we were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Enter the No. 22 of Busch again on lap 90. Busch’s car tagged his teammate’s car — the No. 2 of Brad Keselowski, who went spinning near turn three and collected the No. 6 of David Ragan. Ragan, of course, was a passenger and went up into the wall, down to the apron and up the track again. Smoke was everywhere. Behind that smoke was Kahne’s No. 4 Red Bull Toyota. Kahne bounced off the No. 6 and into the grass. He proceeded to roar through the infield with his tail on fire — literally. He was eventually forced to stop near the entrance of pit road, car on fire and thick, black smoke puffing everywhere.

In true Red Bull form, the No. 4 guys got cracking and got Kahne back out. And like Vickers, he rode out the remaining laps and ended up 37th. Kahne dropped two spots in the driver standings. He’s now 51 points out of 10th. “I actually didn’t really even get in that bad of a wreck. It was more the car just got some flames in the back,” Kahne said. “I sucked up a little bit of black smoke, but that was it. I stink, too.”
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After a horrendous day at the superspeedway, a day in which he was involved in three different racing incidents, Kurt Busch had the following to say: “Hell, I wrecked my teammate today just with the front bumper, just me not keeping track of it or it getting too gaulded up with crud."

“[It was] just really an odd day. Restrictor-plate racing and this two-car draft is really tough, and I was in the middle of a bunch of incidents,” Busch said. “I feel bad for wrecking a bunch of cars, especially my teammate, Brad.”

Defending what happened with Kurt, Brad Keselowski stated: “We made some great moves but got towards the back in the shuffle and when we did, we caught a big group that just stopped for some reason,” Keselowski said. “I heard that David Ragan blew up — I’m not exactly sure. We ran up on the group, and I just wasn’t able to stop quick enough with Kurt on my tail, and it just spun me right out.

“Just one of them deals here at Talladega. It’s just racing. I just got on the wrong end of it.”


Dave Blaney was another pushee that got rear ended by the yellow and red 22 but here again there were no hard feelings as Blaney admitted he had to check up leaving Kurt nowhere to go.

Groping for something positive, Kurt went on to say, “My car was really fast all day getting pushed. Once I had to push, the car didn’t seem as stable as I needed it to be.”

After Texas Busch stated, “We struggle to make adjustments as we go. We want to compete for top-fives and wins and we're only getting top-10s right now."

After Talladega, Kurt summed up the day with one word…”Frustrated.”

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In this day and age of "Have at it boys", it kinda makes me wonder if paybacks are coming...

Off The Wall Racing News

There are two kinds of Indy car drivers: those who have hit the wall

and those who will hit the wall." -- Eddie Cheever.

Formula One

Controversy ought to be Formula One’s middle name. We’re one race into the 2011 season and already several contentious scenarios have unfolded…

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Red Bull – Coming out of Red Bull’s strong showing in Melbourne Australia, with last season’s champion Sebastian Vettel coming in first and Australia’s own Mark Webber placing fifth in Red Bull’s 2011 edition cars, there are a lot of questions concerning a supposedly illegal front wing/nose cone assembly. Last season the same accusations were made and F1A responded by putting the front wing through extensive testing but nothing came of it. These more stringent tests haven’t put a damper on the suspicions. The flex works to create more downforce on the front tires at high speed. It’s claimed that this in turn allows the Red Bull cars to make quicker turns resulting in seconds being cut off each circuit around the track. Here’s video evidence of the flexing nose wing:

Pay close attention to the nose camera position at top speed and after braking for the first corner. I’m not sure about this and maybe our resident engineer can shed a little light on the subject, but I doubt F1’s stringent rules include the type of materials used to manufacture the various body parts on these cars. It makes me wonder if the composite materials used by Red Bull’s engineers have some hidden qualities the other teams’ haven’t figured out.

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Sauber – Both of Sauber’s cars were disqualified for technical infringements after the post Australian Grand Prix inspections. The cars were in breach of technical rules 3.10.1 and 3.10.2 that deal with the rear wing. The disqualification took away Sergio Perez’ and Kamui Kibayashi’s seventh and eighth place finishes. The infringements concern the measured distances across the wings and the placement of the wing.

James Key, Sauber’s technical director stated, “This is a very surprising and disappointing result. It appears that there is a question over the top surface of the uppermost rear wing element, this area is not the working surface of the component and therefore relatively unimportant to its function. "Certainly this has not led to any performance advantage. We are checking the design of the parts now to better understand the situation and we intend to appeal the decision made by the stewards." _______________________________________________

By the way, the Lotus naming rights controversy continues to boil between Team Lotus and Lotus Renault with a court hearing now scheduled for after the 2011 racing season.

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F1 Makes Several Rules Changes…

The KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) has once again been allowed in 2011. First allowed in 2009, the KERS system was discarded with the thought that it actually slowed the cars down. Red Bull will run their version in Malaysia this Sunday.

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The 107% Rule (drivers must be within this much of the pole time to qualify) has also been resurrected in 2011 due to three different teams being deemed uncompetitive in 2010.

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2011 will also see the approved use of moveable rear wings that the driver can use at any time during practice and qualifying but only under certain conditions during the actual racing. Then the wing can only be moved when a driver is one second behind another car. In another controversial move, the ban on team orders has been lifted.

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F1A removed the ban on team driving saying the ban was near impossible to enforce as it stood. So 2011 will once again see team rather than individual racing… ____________________________________________________ 2011 FORMULA 1 PETRONAS MALAYSIA GRAND PRIX

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IndyCar

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Guess who’s going to drive the pace car at the 100th anniversary of auto racing at Indianapolis… None other than “The Donald”… No not the duck, the Trump!

“It’s a great honor to be selected as the Pace Car driver for such an American institution as the 100th anniversary of the Indianapolis 500,” Trump said. “The Indianapolis 500 has been the gold standard of motorsports for a century, and I can’t wait to get behind the wheel of the Camaro and bring the famous field of 33 drivers to the green flag.”

“We’re thrilled to welcome Donald Trump as the driver of the Pace Car for the 100th anniversary Indianapolis 500,” said Jeff Belskus, Indianapolis Motor Speedway Corporation president and chief executive officer. “He is an iconic American success story, a business leader without peer who is a fitting choice to bring the field for ‘The Most Important Race in History’ to the green flag.”

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In a sidelight, Chevrolet wants everyone to know the new Camaro SS convertible pace car can handle the duty unmodified from the factory…

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So we’ve got an American built muscle car that flies in the face of the liberal green crew and it will be driven by a leader of American business, institutions under extreme pressure from the left. In addition, Donald Trump has been reported just this week to be running for the Republican nomination for President and is leading the New Hampshire polls…

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St. Pete Revisited…

IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard has expressed elation at the television ratings the Honda Grand Prix received and the large crowd that attended the event. The fact that the event was shown on network television (ABC) meant a 100% increase in viewership over last season’s final race for the IndyCar title in Homestead Florida that was shown on cable TV (1.4 rating at St. Pete verses a .7 rating). "I'm very encouraged by the ratings for several reasons. First of all, it was a standalone. It wasn't in the late time slot, during which there typically is more household viewership. Second, it's our highest-rated non-Indianapolis show since 2007, but even that show [Mid-Ohio] had a great lead-in with the British Open...," shared Bernard.

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In organized racing for nearly 10 years now, Simona de Silvestro apparently is the real deal and IndyCar is more than happy to have her. All eyes will be on the young driver after her fourth place finish in St. Petersburg.

Will Gene’s proclamation that Ms. de Silvestro is the best woman driver in IndyCar continue to be backed up?

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Driver News…

Bryan Herta Autosport, in a move announced just before the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, signed Dan Wheldon to drive the team’s 2011 Indianapolis 500 entry. Co-owners Bryan Herta and Steve Newey are thrilled to have a driver of Dan’s caliber behind the wheel of their car…

Canadian James Hinchcliffe will make his IndyCar debut Saturday in Alabama driving for Newman/Haas Racing in the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama next weekend. Newman/Hass will expand to two entries to accommodate young Mr. Hinchcliffe.

A.J. Foyt Racing announced the signing of Brazilian Bruno Junqueira to drive in the Indy 500 this year.

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The 100th Year of racing at Indianapolis…

The celebration is ramping up for the May 29th Indianapolis 500. I was surprised to run across this…

Painted by Thomas Kincaid, known as “The Painter of Light”, I was surprised since I’ve never seen him paint a scene such as that before…

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Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama

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Enjoy the racing this weekend!