Who made the decision that it would be this at the end of the Aaron’s 499 at Talladega last Sunday…
Instead of this? There are a couple of possible answers to this question. First let me make it clear I don't think Richard Hendrick would demand a specific outcome, so let's throw out that theory right off the bat.
Do you think it was ultimately an agreement made between crew chiefs? Was it an agreement between the drivers? or... Was it just a matter of timing?
I'm leaning toward one of the drivers making a conscious decision to be a good teammate and if this is so, will Dale Earnhardt, Jr. ever win another Cup race? _______________________________________________________
Leading to the first picture up above we all witnessed several hundred feet of this as HMS’s Johnson/Earnhardt tandem sacked their teammates…
How’s that rule about the yellow line go again?
You can tell me that while the 48 and 88 rode the yellow line they weren’t improving their position, but it doesn’t hold water… The simple act of moving to the inside while rounding turn four combined with two sets of cars racing in tandem immediately in front and on a headwind killing angle automatically set up “5 Time” and Junior to be sucked into the lead. The proof is that Johnson won the race…
What did Denny Hamlin do in the Shootout?
Oh… He was below the line at Daytona… Those HMS cars at Talladega were justontop of the line. I see...
You know what? There’s too much gray area involved here. The appearance is that NASCAR is doing a smoke and mirrors deal in terms of who it is, not what they've done. The grand hoopla of NASCAR has gotta revisit this “over the line” rule. I was reading somewhere that in the spirit of “Have at it” NASCAR should throw out their yellow line rule on the Superspeedways for the final, white flag lap of the race only. Let the drivers go for the gusto! This year alone it would have already affected the result on one exhibition race and would have eliminated any potential questioning concerning the outcome of the most recent Cup race…
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.” _________________________________________________________________ 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.”
The races at Talladega, just as at Daytona, have become highly anticipated events. Here's a little quiz concerning the track's past history and what you think may happen this Sunday. ______________________________________________The Really Big “Big One”! The 1973 Winston 500 at Talladega
______________________________________________1. Okay… What percentage of the starting field got taken out by that huge wreck on the 11th lap? A. 15% B. 21% C. 32% D. 27%______________________________________________2. Following along, what percentage of the starting field actually finished that race? --A. 46% B. 52% C. 33% D. 28%______________________________________________3. Since 1969 there have been 83 Cup races at Talladega. Which of the following manufacturers are correctly matched up to their number of wins at Dega? ______________________________________________1. Buick-- 2 - 2. Chevrolet-- 3 - 3. Dodge-- 36 - 4. Ford-- 3 - 5. Mercury-- 7 --6. Oldsmobile-- 6 - 7. Plymouth-- 18 - 8. Pontiac-- 6 - 9. Toyota-- 2 -______________________________________________4. How many races were run at Talladega before a Chevrolet was driven to victory?-- A. 11 B. 18 C. 3 D. 15______________________________________________5. Following along, who drove the first Chevrolet to Victory Lane at Talladega? ------A. Darrell Waltrip B. Dale Earnhardt C. Donnie Allison D. Cale Yarborough ______________________________________________6. Do you know what Talladega means in the Choctaw Indian language? ______________________________________________Concerning the Aaron’s 499 race this Sunday…______________________________________________7. How many lead changes will there be at the Aaron’s 499? _____________________________________________Last year’s Aaron’s 499 set a new record with 88 lead changes but it was set due to extra laps on three tries at the green-white-checker finish. Last year’s Amp Energy Drink 500 in October had 87 lead changes in the regulation number of laps. _____________________________________________8. How many cautions will there be?_____________________________________________Here are the last 4 races and the number of cautions at Talladega – _____________________________________________2010 AMP 500 – 7 Cautions --- 2010 Aaron’s 499 – 8 Cautions --- 2009 AMP 500 – 6 Cautions and 1 Red Flag --- 2009 Aaron’s 499 – 9 Cautions _____________________________________________9. Here are the makes of the last 10 Cup race winners at Talladega – -Aaron’s 499-----------UAW Ford 500--------Amp Energy 500 _____________________________________________2006 ------Chevrolet--------------- Chevrolet ------------------------------2007-------Chevrolet--------------- Chevrolet ----------------------------2008-------Toyota---------------------------------------------Toyota ---2009------- Chevrolet-----------------------------------------Ford ----2010------- Chevrolet-----------------------------------------Chevrolet- _____________________________________________Will Chevrolet’s dominance continue this Sunday? ____________________________________________10. Will there be any en mass green flag pit stops this Sunday? _____________________________________________11. These are the last 10 race winners at Talladega – Alphabetically--------------------- Clint Bowyer, Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Brad Keselowski, Jamie McMurray, Tony Stewart and Brian Vickers (Gordon won 2 times in the last 10 races)._____________________________________________If you look at that list, there are two pairs of teammates. Knowing the importance of having a good draft partner at Talladega, do you think the Bowyer/Harvick or Gordon/Johnson combination will result in a winner?_____________________________________________And finally, 12. Will Sunday’s race have a new face in Victory Lane like the Daytona 500 did?_____________________________________________Knowing the NASCAR knowledge capabilities of all of you Lug Nuts... The answers will be posted only if necessary. Enjoy!
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, theLotusnaming 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.
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.
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.
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
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.”
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…
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.
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?
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…
There’s an old axiom that says “The fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree…” and it’s used to describe how closely a person’s offspring resembles and/or acts like their parent. Evidently this isn’t necessarily true in NASCAR. The two greatest drivers in the sport were followed by sons who, for whatever reason, have not risen to the same heights. Yes, there are other examples of young drivers with well-known names who have performed very well at the top level of the sport (Dale Jarrett and Davey Allison immediately come to mind), but they are few and far between… This shortfall was excruciatingly evident in yesterday’s finale at Martinsville's Goody's 500. Just for a few moments in time (the final two laps), imagine Dale Earnhardt Sr. was behind the wheel of the 88 Chevrolet instead of Dale Jr. Given everything else being equal, who do you think would have crossed the finish line first? _______________________________________________________ But what we got was Kevin Harvick explaining on the post-race interview how sorry he was to be the bad guy for winning the race and then expressing thanks to Junior for driving clean. This while Junior was apologizing to Kyle Busch for bumping him and then hanging his head in his own interview wishing he had won the clock! _______________________________________________________Man! It’s been what, almost 100 Cup races since Dale last visited victory lane? _______________________________________________________I’m thinkin’ the Martinsville crowd would have literally gone bonkers if Dale had punted Kevin for the win, I know I would’ve been and I’m not what you’d call even a remote Earnhardt fan… My apologies to you Harvick fans, but that one move for the win by the sport’s most popular driver would have been like a tonic to NASCAR. Junior’s victory in a manner so reminiscent of “The Intimidator” would have been splashed all over the sporting news wires each and every day of the next week. The news would have done wonders for a sport that’s been floundering with fans starving for such a thing… A victory like that would have been remembered for years to come. ________________________________________________________Yeah, I know. Then we would have been inundated by the whining conspiracy theorists.
I’m just curious…
There are a couple of possible answers to this question. First let me make it clear I don't think Richard Hendrick would demand a specific outcome, so let's throw out that theory right off the bat. 
How’s that rule about the yellow line go again? 
