Off the Wall Racing News

NASCAR

Denny's got good reason to shoot 'em up!

Sobering fact for everyone other than Denny Hamlin and his fans: Since the NASCAR Chase for the Championship format began in 2004, the driver leading in points after eight of the 10 Chase races has gone on to win the Championship.

Yep, records are made to be broken…

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How about Mike Ford (crew chief on JGR’s number 11 team) choosing to pit right next to Jimmie and Chad’s pit. Great strategy! If Johnson is so unshakeable then why not go after his pit crew. Obviously intimidated watching the 11 crew out work them and then seeing Jeff Gordon’s rig go down hard and leave the race, Chad Knaus effectively fired the 48 crew after four substandard time and position losing pit stops when he pulled the over-the-wall portion of the 48 team (tire changers and fuelers) out of the pits in favor of the suddenly idle 24 crew. Hendrick Motorsports then announced on Monday the changes made in Texas will stay in place through the next two races.

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It appears Phoenix, in terms of the three Chase contenders’ history of success here, can be won by any one of 'em. Other Chasers who’ve done well on this track? None other than last week’s news makers, Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch (Kyle earned himself a $25,000 fine besides the laps penalty for his HANDy work).

Phoenix International is a relatively flat one mile “D” oval with 11 degree banking in turns 1 and 2 and 9 degrees of banking in turns 3 and 4. Check out this info from Racing-Reference (http://racing-reference.info/factsheets/statfacts_2010-35.htm):
From 2005-2010 a typical Phoenix race had 12.9 lead changes, 8.0 cautions for 41.6 laps, and an average green-flag run of 30.7 laps.

31 laps per green flag run? Sounds like rock-em sock-em NASCAR to me!
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New driver at JGR


JGR signs Brian Scott for full-time driving in the Nationwide series next season. I wouldn’t normally put this up, but it certainly flies in the face of Joe Gibbs’ past high-profile driver selections. Scott has driven in 97 NASCAR events with only one win (0-40 in NWS and 1-57 in CWTS) driving for his family-owned racing team. No hype, no muss, no fuss…

Joe certainly seems to have an eye for talent… Good Luck Brian!
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Formula 1

F1 Brazilian Grand Prix… The state of Brazil


Jenson Button and a group including his father John Button, his trainer Mike Collier and his manager Richard Goddard were being driven in an armored vehicle with an off-duty policeman at the wheel in Sao Paulo when a group of bandits brandishing weapons unsuccessfully attempted to hold them up. The driver, trained in danger avoidance techniques, was able to bang his way through several vehicles in a traffic jam and leave the congested area where the attack took place. No one was injured. Later it’s been speculated this may not have been a hold-up after all but rather an attempted kidnapping.

Jenson Button in Brazil

Both Button and his Vodafone McLaren Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton had been provided with bullet-proof vehicles driven by police drivers in anticipation of such an event (The proverbial ounce of prevention).

In a second F1 incident with Brazilian thugs, three Sauber Motorsport engineers were robbed after leaving the Interlago race track Saturday evening. Five men, one reportedly carrying an automatic weapon, stopped the van they were in. No one was hurt but a couple of backpacks with cameras were stolen. Guess those engineers don’t get the same kind of protection as the drivers… It’s either that or they’re simply easy marks… Ha!

In 2009 Tonio Liuzzi had to run down a Brazilian race Steward who made off with his steering wheel after Tonio was wrecked out of the Grand Prix. Evidently the Steward thought it would be a collectors’ item or something. I understand an F1 steering wheel costs somewhere around $45,000 (!). Kinda sounds like those very expensive US Air Force toilet seats we’ve all heard about… Now can anyone tell me why a steering wheel is so expensive?

In 2008 Lewis Hamilton’s luggage was stolen while he was vacationing in Brazil.

The first paragraph of the U.S. State Department’s crime warning to Americans considering travel to Brazil:

Crime throughout Brazil has reached very high levels. The Brazilian police and the Brazilian press report that the rate of crime continues to rise, especially in the major urban centers – though it is also spreading in rural areas. Brazil’s murder rate is more than four times higher than that of the U.S. Rates for other crimes are similarly high. The majority of crimes are not solved. There were rapes reported by American citizens in 2008.

For the complete warning, refer to: http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1072.html#crime

Sounds like a great place to go racing (sarcasm)… or go do anything else for that matter.
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F1 moves from Brazil to the United Arab Emirates’ capital of Abu Dhabi for the final showdown. This is the first sentence in the U.S. State Department’s Travel Information on crime for the UAE: Most travelers to the UAE are not impacted by crime. F1 passes from one end of the spectrum to the opposite concerning personal safety, all in one week’s time.

Speaking of Abu Dhabi’s final showdown in F1’s 2010 season, Team Red Bull official
Christian Horner speaking to the fact that both Red Bull drivers, Sebastian Vettle and Mark Webber have a chance to win the driver’s championship, announced there will be no team orders. “The drivers know that they need each other. It would have been wrong for us this weekend to remove one of the drivers from the World Championship effectively. If they’re in that situation I’ve every confidence that they will do the best thing for the company, which is to ensure that we achieve the best result. Still a few racing laps before we get there.

“Both drivers can win this World Championship. We’ve backed them all year, and we’ll do it again next weekend. They’ve both got a chance. Some of it will depend on what Fernando (Alonso) does, but we’re going there with an objective to try and win the championship, and I’m sure that they’ll do the best they can to ensure that we lift the trophy.”
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The question that came to mind about the F1 steering wheel sent me off on a search... The results:

This is the Mercedes version... I knew it had to be high tech. Kinda looks like a gamer's control.

1/ MSG OK
Confirms settings dialled in with multi-function dial and menu settings.

2/ Menu scroll buttons
Steps through menus of settings chosen using the master switch (14).

3/ Differential adjustment
Can be shifted to suit track conditions and tyre wear, for instance to increase traction, grip, braking stability and turn-in.

4/ Neutral switch
Engages neutral/reverse.

5/ Front wing switch
Adjusts angle of front flaps to increase downforce.

6/ Radio LED
Illuminates in blue to inform the driver that the pit-to-car radio is active.

7/ Pit-to-car radio
On/off toggle.

8/ Fuel mix adjustment
Adjusts the fuel mix and revs either to preserve the engine or increase performance, as required.

9/ Throttle map override
Adjusts throttle and power characteristics to suit track conditions.

10/ Overtake button
Momentarily increases the engine revs to its 18,000rpm maximum. Helps with overtaking and scaring off pigeons.

11/ Pitlane speed limiter
On/off toggle.

12/ Engine braking level
Particularly useful in the wet for increasing rear-end stability.

13/ Tyre configuration
Optimises car settings for slick, intermediate or wet tyres. Also activates the rear rain light.

14/ Master multifunction switch
Allows the driver to access a number of system settings including engine maps, front wing controls and an aero-mapping function that monitors and maximizes car airflow.
I REALLY like that overtake button...
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IndyCar

Take a look at Honda’s short film, Failure: The Secret To Success (Caution Gene… Danica Patrick is featured here along with other IndyCar racing people and Honda America management). Interesting film if you haven’t seen it…

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Is Chevrolet planning to reenter the IZOD IndyCar series with their racing engines? That’s the rumor circulating for 2012, but GM (Government Motors) hasn’t confirmed as yet. Hopefully they’ll repay America’s tax payers before challenging Honda’s IndyCar dominance… Ya know… I can remember a time when Japan’s automakers were passed off as a joke by the “Big Three” American automakers. That was way back before government mandated safety and emission standards were enacted. The Japanese addressed those problems and kept infiltrating the American market while our auto builders cheapened their products (GM was the worst) in order to meet the regulations and keep profits up. Damned short sighted if you ask me.
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The Edmonton Deal…
Edmonton is off the 2011 IndyCar schedule due to the City of Edmonton wanting to reconfigure the race course around the municipal airport in order to keep a runway open during the event. The city was unwilling to foot the bill for the change while the race promoter, Octane Management, couldn’t afford the changes on their own. Octane’s only option was to shut down the race.
IndyCar Series commercial division president Terry Angstadt commented, “It is tremendously disappointing, particularly after the fanfare of welcoming Octane to the fold and having the press conference with the mayor," Angstadt told the Edmonton Journal. "Just in terms of the way it has happened, it doesn't make you feel terribly welcome. We always say that we need places that want us to be there. We thought we had that in Edmonton. To have this come down and not receive a call is a little shocking."

Currently there’s no make-up race in the offing for the suddenly open July 24th date…
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Hold on tight! It oughta be a great weekend of racing coming up out on two deserts half a world away from each other!

Out of the Box

Last week there was an article on NASCAR.COM by regular contributor Dave Rodman that caught my eye. I think this guy likes to think out of the box but I believe this idea has merit…

He suggests NASCAR should consider a 69 race Cup season instead of the current 36. How is this possible? Well… On all but three Sprint Cup events he proposes splitting the races in two. The sacred ground to be left undisturbed would be the Daytona 500, the Coca Cola 600 at CMS and the Brickyard 400. Races like the Pocono 500 or the 400 mile Michigan run would become 250 or 200 mile races respectively. The race we just witnessed at Bristol would go from 500 laps to 250. Rodman proposes having Saturday and then Sunday, same weekend races at each track and awarding full points for each race.

What gave Rodman this idea? He’d just witnessed this season’s 50 lap first time
truck race at Pocono. Rodman described it as, “a wham-bam action-packed format” that produced “the best Saturday crowd a number of veteran Pocono observers had seen in years”. The quick race pushes the drivers to a much higher level of competition. Now think about it, don’t you find yourself sitting on the edge of your seat watching these truck races? The end of the race is near, the drivers are right up on the wheel and the action can change the racing order at any time. They’re running three and four wide, bumpin’ and grindin’ all the way. The crowds love it… Just ask Gene Haddock how he felt coming away from the Too Tough To Tame 200 a couple of weeks ago at Darlington.

Check out the article. In it Rodman gives his thoughts on how practice and qualifying could be handled, the importance of having the race distance long enough to insure two pit stops allowing a higher degree of strategy and such things as television slotting and adding first place points to the final 15 races of the season. Rodman also has his ideas about what to do with this wonderful Chase format.

The fact of the matter is these drivers and their teams need to get back that
feeling of urgency. It’s like the will to win has been removed from these guys. The way it stands now we’ve got a bunch of top drivers that have the system (current point distribution and Chase) figured out. They’re doing just enough to make the field of twelve and what do the fans get? Lackadaisical single file performances.

Here’s the link to Dave Rodman’s ramblings:
http://www.nascar.com/2010/news/opinion/08/19/road.ramblings.drodman.schedule/index.html

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Okay, something Gene brought up recently…

What would the current Cup standings look like if NASCAR’s point system was the same as Formula 1’s? (Awards 20 points for first place, 19 for second and so on down to 1 point for finishing 20th).


Here are all 68 drivers that have strapped in during the 2010 Cup Season. This is where they would rank under the F1 system with their rank under NASCAR’s current point scoring system to the right:

-----Formula 1 Points System----NASCAR
Place Driver -----------Points ----Cup Place
1 Kevin Harvick ---------319 ---------1
2 Jeff Gordon -----------249 ---------2
3 Carl Edwards ----------248 --------4
4 Kurt Busch ------------233 --------10
5 Kyle Busch ------------230 ---------3
6 Jimmie Johnson -------225 ---------9
7 Jeff Burton ------------220 ---------7
8 Matt Kenseth ---------218 ----------8
9 Tony Stewart ---------217 ----------6
10 Denny Hamlin -------216 ----------5
11 Greg Biffle -----------211 ---------11
12 Clint Bowyer --------205 ---------12
13 Juan Montoya -------184 ---------19
14 Jamie McMurray ----175 ---------13
15 Ryan Newman ------168 ----------15
16 Kasey Kahne --------167 ----------16
17 Mark Martin --------163 ----------14
18 David Reutimann ---160 -----------17
19 Dale Earnhardt Jr. --149 -----------18
20 Joey Logano --------145 -----------21
21 Martin Truex Jr. ----140 -----------20
22 A J Allmendinger ----126 -----------22
23 Marcos Ambrose ----107 -----------26
24 Paul Menard ---------93 -----------23
25 David Ragan ---------68 ------------24
26 Brian Vickers --------62 ------------36
27 Brad Keselowski -----58 ------------25
28 Sam Hornish Jr. -----49 ------------28
28 Scott Speed ---------49 ------------27
30 Robby Gordon ------36 ------------34
31 Elliott Sadler --------24 ------------29
32 Mike Bliss -----------23 -----------40
33 Reed Sorenson ------19 ------------41
33 Regan Smith --------19 ------------30
35 Boris Said -----------13 ------------47
36 Jan Magnussen ------9 ------------60
37 Bill Elliott ------------8 ------------42
37 Steve Park ----------8 -------------59
39 Kevin Conway -------7 -------------35
40 Bobby Labonte ------5 -------------31
41 David Gilliland-------4 -------------33
42 Andy Lally ----------3 -------------56
42 Michael Waltrip -----3 -------------51
42 Travis Kvapil -------3 --------------32
45 J.J. Yeley -----------2 -------------46
46 Aric Almirola -------0 --------------57
47 Casey Mears -------0 --------------43
48 Chad McCumbee ---0 --------------68
49 Dave Blaney -------0 --------------44
50 David Stremme ---0 --------------39
51 Geoff Bodine -------0 --------------67
52 Jacques Villeneuve -0 -------------64
53 Jeff Green ---------0 --------------63
54 Joe Nemechek -----0 --------------37
55 John Andretti ------0 --------------65
56 Johnny Sauter -----0 --------------58
57 Landon Cassill -----0 ---------------49
58 Mattias Ekstrom --0 ---------------62
59 Max Papis --------0 ---------------38
60 Michael McDowell 0 ---------------45
61 P.J. Jones ---------0 ---------------52
62 Patrick Carpentier 0 ---------------54
63 Rob Richardson Jr. 0 ---------------50
64 Ron Fellows -------0 ---------------66
65 Scott Riggs --------0 ---------------61
66 Terry Cook -------0 ----------------55
67 Todd Bodine ------0 ----------------48
68 Tony Raines ------0 ----------------53

The top positions are much the same as the current point accounting system… I guess they’re doing something right.

On to Atlanta!

This just came to my attention... It's not a joke. The city of Philadelphia is forcing it's citizens who have reported income from internet based business transactions (including being paid by advertisers) to obtain a business license. The cost is $300 per year. Nice, huh?

Is this where the government is going now?

In case you're interested, here's the link to the newspaper article:

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/philly-requiring-bloggers-to-pay-300-for-a-business-license-101264664.html

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