JTG Daugherty Racing announced today that 2000 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Bobby Labonte will take the reins as driver of the No. 47 Toyota Camry for the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series 36-race schedule.
“JTG Daugherty Racing is a solid race team that has come close to winning races with Marcos Ambrose and I’m looking forward to developing our new partnership in 2011,” Labonte said. “The team is thriving and their technical alliance with MWR (Michael Waltrip Racing) is intact. It’s great to have next year already set in stone so when this season ends we can begin focusing on next year right away. Everything is in place and we have all the right ingredients to win races together.”
Labonte’s credentials speak for themselves. The Corpus Christi, Texas native is a 21-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series winner with 26 pole awards, 114 top-five and 199 top-10 finishes. Team owners Jodi and Tad Geschickter and Brad Daugherty are pleased Labonte accepted the offer to drive the JTG Daugherty Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup Series entry as they enter their third full-time season of competition at Daytona International Speedway on February 13th.
“We are really happy Bobby has decided to join our team because I have known him for a long time and I have always admired him as a professional driver and as an individual,” Daugherty said. “He will do an outstanding job representing our products and team. He has gotten to a point in his career that he still has some things to accomplish. He is highly experienced with a championship on his résumé’ and we know he is capable of winning.”
“We would like to give a warm welcome to Bobby as he joins the JTG Daugherty Racing family,” said Jodi Geschickter. “We know he is an amazing fit for our sponsors and racing organization. The Labonte name has a history of excellence. Bobby is a proven winner, a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion and his character is solid. We share similar goals and views regarding the future. We are pleased that he has accepted the offer to join JTG Daugherty Racing in 2011.”
JTG Daugherty Racing’s partners concur.
“We are extremely excited to have Bobby coming on board,” said Grant LaMontagne, Senior Vice President and Chief Customer Officer of The Clorox Company, the longest running sponsor partner of JTG Daugherty Racing. “He’s a champion and a great fit for our brands. We expect to have a serious run for the Chase next season.”
This announcement follows Marcos Ambrose’s decision to part ways with JTG Daugherty Racing at the end of the year, which was confirmed on Tuesday by team officials.
AUSTIN, Texas — Tavo Hellmund, managing partner of Full Throttle Productions LP, revealed Red McCombs as the primary investor for the Formula One United States Grand Prix racing project. McCombs is the co-founder of Clear Channel Communications and the former owner of the Denver Nuggets and San Antonio Spurs in the NBA and the Minnesota Vikings in the NFL. He also owns McCombs Partners, an investment management company.
Hellmund and McCombs Partners announced Tuesday the location of the proposed Formula One track in Austin, Texas. The track will be located on a 900-acre site in southeast Austin along the State Highway 130 corridor near Farm to Market Road 812.
The majority of land involved in the project is formerly known as the Wandering Creek property. The site’s natural topography is expected to provide an excellent canvas for the facility. The group plans to have the track completed by 2012.
“This project has been a tremendous undertaking,” stated Hellmund. “But for at least the next decade, Texas will host a global sporting event on an annual basis in a new world-class multipurpose facility. Knowing that our hard work is being rewarded and that my dream is becoming a reality is extremely gratifying.
“It is a great honor to have Red McCombs and McCombs Partners as our primary investor and partner. Red’s success in business and the professional sports arena is legendary. Working together as a team and under Red’s direction, we will ensure that this project will make all Texans very proud and will benefit our great State.”
“Bringing Formula One back to the United States represents the opportunity of a lifetime and one that any city in the world would want,” stated McCombs. “The size and scope of an F-1 event is comparable to hosting a Super Bowl and will bring substantial economic benefit to Austin, San Antonio and the entire state of Texas.”
In addition to McCombs Partners, Hellmund’s team includes Prophet Capital Management, an Austin based private investment company founded in 1995, and MotoGP World Champion Kevin Schwantz.
If you're one of the few that happens to have Versus on your cable network then you may have witnessed one of the most ridiculous auto ports broadcasts in recent memory. Not ridiculous because of the broadcasters. Not ridiculous because of the coverage. And not ridiculous because it just wasn't worth watching. Well… maybe that last one fits the bill, too. If you watched the Honda Indy Edmonton IZOD IndyCar Series race at Edmonton this week then you saw one of the most ridiculous officiating calls in history.
With just 4 laps left until the checker flag waived Helio Castroneves was penalized with a blocking penalty that took him out of contention for the win. The moment it happened the entire broadcast crew changed from their typical end-of-the-race excitement to a completely deflated tone that created a feeling of 'what the heck just happened.' And on live television nonetheless.
In a professional auto racing series that is struggling to find its current identity and at the same time keep even a handful of fans both in the stands and in front of TV sets in homes around the world, the IRL officials certainly blew it big time. What a joke. But, it's no laughing matter.
With the checkered flag waiving, Jamie McMurray's #1 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet crossed the yard of bricks at the 2010 Brickyard 400 to take the win and to mark a significant moment in auto sports history. At that very moment Chip Ganassi became the only team owner in auto sports to win the Daytona 500, Indianapolis 500, and the Brickyard 400 in a single season. A feat that he's sure to enjoy for a long time to come.
It didn't come without a twist, though. Chip Ganassi also owns the #42 car driven by Juan Montoya which was heavily favored to win Sunday's Brickyard 400. But, with only a handful of laps to go (15 to be exact) Montoya hit both the wall and Dale Earnhardt Jr's #88 Chevrolet within a matter of seconds bringing an abrupt end to what was supposed to be his day at the Brickyard. However, it was not meant to be. Instead it was Jamie McMurray who kissed the bricks and was showered in champagne in victory lane with team owner Chip Ganassi.
Many of the drivers commented on Ganassi's success this year. "To win all those in one year is remarkable," Said Kevin Harvick. "It will probably never happen again.'' In a post race interview Tony Stewart, owner of the #14 and #39 Stewart-Haas Chevrolets, added; "Can I appreciate what he's done here? Oh yeah.''
Hoping to pick up where he left off during last year's Brickyard 400, 2000 Indy 500 winner Juan Montoya will sit on the pole for this Sunday's Brickyard 400. Montoya had the car to beat in 2009 as he lead the field for much of the race. However, luck was not on his side as he was hit with a pit road speeding penalty late in the race.
Other top contenders at this year's Brickyard 400 are P2 Jimmie Johnson, P3 Mark Martin, P4 Jamie McMurray, and P5 Ryan Newman. All five drivers are running Chevrolets.
Another significant landmark in American Le Mans Series history.
The American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón took another monumental step toward enhancing its position as the Global Leader of Green Racing with today’s announcement that Porsche’s innovative 911 GT3 R Hybrid race car will race for the first time in North America at the Series signature event – Petit Le Mans on October 2 at Road Atlanta.
After debuting in April at Germany’s world-renowned Nürburgring race circuit in a six-hour event, the Porsche Hybrid challenged the 24 Hours of Nürburgring in May. It earned worldwide acclaim with its performance that had it leading many hours of the race – at times by a significant margin – until the closing two hours when a combustion engine issue forced the car to retire.
“After the 911 GT3 R Hybrid’s fantastic performance at the Nürburgring 24 Hours, we are now eager to gain more experience with the hybrid technology on a variety of race tracks,” says Hartmut Kristen, Head of Porsche Motorsport. “At the same time, we would like to show fans and customers in our most important market how our ‘race lab’ performs under racing conditions,” adds Kristen.
The Porsche Hybrid will take its place on a worldwide stage at Petit Le Mans, which not only is the Series’ cornerstone event but one of the most important endurance races in the world. This year, for the first time, it will hold the distinction of being the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup’s sole North American stop. The Intercontinental Le Mans Cup, announced by the Automobile Club de l’Ouest a year ago, will decide an international champion based on results from three Le Mans-based series on three different continents – Europe, North America and Asia.
“This is an outstanding opportunity to demonstrate the advances in automotive technologies and energy efficiencies that you won’t see in any other motorsports environment in the world,” said American Le Mans Series President and CEO Scott Atherton. “Porsche has always led by example throughout its motorsports history – transferring what they learn on the race track to their production cars. And I believe this becomes the modern-day benchmark of how a manufacturer uses the American Le Mans Series’ platform to develop and showcase new technology that is destined for road-car application. This car truly offers a glimpse into the future of high-performance road car technology.”
The distinctive aspect of Porsche’s hybrid technology features an electric flywheel power generator located in the cockpit beside the driver that has the advantage of storing and delivering high amounts of energy very quickly. The combination of the combustion engine and electric motor fulfils a simple objective – using less fuel without compromising performance. When overtaking or accelerating, the driver can engage the system by pressing the boost paddle on the steering wheel to send energy from the charged generator.
Because the ACO (sanctioning body for Le Mans racing) has not yet created rules for hybrid technology in production-based cars, the Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid will race unclassified at Petit Le Mans.
The American Le Mans Series has achieved the distinction of being the Global Leading of Green Racing by providing a platform that encourages manufacturers to showcase leading-edge, relevant technologies and requiring all vehicles that compete in the world’s leading sports car series to utilize an alternative fuel or energy source. At Petit Le Mans, five different types of alternative energy sources will be raced: clean diesel, E10, cellulosic E85, isobutanol and electric hybrid.
The U.S. Department of Transportation and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, along with SAE International, have cited the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón as the only motorsport series to meet its green protocols. In recognition of that achievement, the groups have created a Green Challenge™ award to a prototype and GT (Grand Touring) manufacturer at season’s end. Michelin, meanwhile, has extended the award – the MICHELIN® GREEN X® Challenge Award – to teams on a race-by-race basis. The award goes to the teams that demonstrate not only the best overall performance but also the most efficient use of fuel and least amount of carbon emissions.
Porsche won the inaugural Green Challenge at Petit Le Mans in 2008 with a Porsche RS Spyder that featured direct fuel injection. In 2009, Porsche and Flying Lizard Motorsports won the event at Petit Le Mans behind an E85-powered Porsche 911 GT3 RSR. Porsche and Flying Lizard also claimed the season-long GT manufacturer and team championships, respectively.
Tickets for the 13th annual 1,000-mile/10-hour Petit Le Mans are available online.
The next round of the 2010 American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón is this weekend’s American Le Mans Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park. The two-hour, 45-minute race is set for 2:05 p.m. ET on Saturday, July 24 from the historic 1.5-mile, 10-turn road course in Lakeville, Conn. SPEED will air the race live at 2 p.m. ET. Live radio coverage will be available on American Le Mans Radio presented by Porsche – a production of Radio Show Limited – as well as Sirius Channel 127 and XM Channel 242. Visit the Series’ schedule page for ticket and accommodation information. Live Timing and Scoring, track schedule, entry list and much, much more will be available on Racehub at americanlemans.com.
Courtesy of NASCAR.com: http://tinyurl.com/2afljzt
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- NASCAR has penalized the No. 60 team and the No. 22 driver for rule violations committed during last Saturday's Nationwide Series race at Gateway.
The penalties come as a result of violating Section 12-1 (actions detrimental to stock car racing/aggressive driving) of the 2010 NASCAR Rule Book.
Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 60, has been penalized with the loss of 60 Nationwide Series championship drivers' points, fined $25,000 and placed on NASCAR probation until Dec. 31. Car owner Jack Roush has been penalized with the loss of 60 series championship owners' points.
Brad Keselowski, driver of the No. 22, has been placed on NASCAR probation until Dec. 31.
The usual day for announcing penalties in NASCAR came and went Tuesday with no news on what, if anything, will be done regarding the latest Carl Edwards-Brad Keselowski dustup in last Saturday's Nationwide Series race at Gateway.
That left several participants in the sport wondering just how far the sanctioning body is willing to let drivers go when it comes to exercising their self-professed "have-at-it, boys" policy on the race track. Edwards won after deliberately dumping Keselowski just before taking the checkered flag. Edwards candidly admitted this fact, citing it as payback for Keselowski making contact with him earlier on the final lap as the two drivers guided their cars through Turn 1.
Four-time Cup Series champion driver Jeff Gordon was among those left wondering aloud if NASCAR was going to do anything to police Edwards' aggressive actions. Earlier this season, NASCAR did place Edwards on a three-race probation when he admitted intentionally wrecking Keselowski while going nearly 200 miles per hour down a straightaway at Atlanta Motor Speedway. That sent Keselowski's Sprint Cup car airborne before it eventually landed upside down.
On both occasions when Edwards intentionally wrecked Keselowski, a multitude of other cars trailing them ended up violently wrecking as well.
"I think it's been well documented this year that NASCAR is allowing the racing to be more in the drivers' hands, to try to stay out of some of those incidents that are judgment calls," Gordon said. "Probably it's hard to really say [what should happen], just because there is a little bit of a past history with those two. You don't really know what all has gone on over the years with them that has brought it to this point."
That was Gordon's diplomatic opening statement. Then he revealed what he really thought. "Just looking at the incidents, it looked to me like Brad got into him a little bit getting into [Turn] 1, but was just racing hard for the position, for the win. Then what Carl did, I felt like was definitely out of line. I felt like it was over and above what needed to be done," Gordon said.
"Again, you don't know what kind of bad blood there is between the two. Whether or not NASCAR gets involved in it, I think two, three, four, five years ago, I would have thought absolutely they would do that. Today, it's letting the guys race. That means that I'm sure you'll want to watch the future Nationwide races and those guys battling one another, and in the Cup Series as well. You just know there's going to be more to come."
Gordon said he has questions for NASCAR officials, who, for their part, indicated that the Edwards-Keselowski situation is still under review and no "final determination" has been made regarding whether or not any fines or penalties will be forthcoming.
"That's kind of where I'm anxious to see how far it's going to be taken before they do step in or if they step in," Gordon said, adding that one specific he and "a lot of people" have in mind to ask is, "This is great, but what's too much?"
Dale Jarrett, another former Cup champion who now is retired as a driver but works as a television analyst, admitted he was left wondering the same thing.
"Ultimately it's between the drivers. What we see a lot of times what we see on TV or even if you're there watching it live looks totally different than what actually takes place in the driver's compartment," Jarrett said. "But certainly looking at it, it looked like Carl maybe stepped over the line a little bit there. It looked to me like Brad gave him plenty of racing room and had done his job, had gotten himself in position.
"We've seen guys being a lot more aggressive driving in Nationwide and in the Cup Series, and I think it's just a product of what our sport has become. That's not saying it's right or wrong. It's up to these drivers more to police what is happening between themselves, and what NASCAR determines and what they decide to do will be interesting to see. If I had to guess, I would say they'll put Carl on probation or something like that and make him think about what he's doing."
As of Wednesday afternoon, that had not happened. Gordon admitted that if NASCAR doesn't do anything to Edwards, it's likely some form of payback might be headed Edwards' way on the track in the future. That's just the way it works, he explained.
"Right now what I saw happen Saturday night, to me that was right there on that edge of crossing the line, if not possibly crossing the line," Gordon said. "So it's kind of a new era now. In the past, like I said, I would have immediately thought something would have been done [by NASCAR]. "The thing is, the drivers have always taken care of these things on track, whether you knew about them or not. They just weren't maybe as much out in the open because there would be a fine or there would be some kind of penalty handed down immediately. So from an outsider's standpoint you thought, 'That's over.' Trust me, as a driver that was not over, that was not the end of it. That's just how racers go about it. They log that in the back of their mind -- and there is going to be a time and a day." Car owner Chip Ganassi of Earnhardt Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates said he believes NASCAR will handle the situation properly in the long run.
"I think someone has to be the referee in this, and I think NASCAR does a good job of that," Ganassi said. "Let me preface this by saying that it's very hard to police. I think each guy should be allowed one move -- but I don't think you should be allowed to use your car as a weapon.
"I just thank God that nobody gets hurt in any of these things because I wouldn't want to see that happen. I don't think that's what NASCAR had in mind when they said, 'Boys, have at it.' I'm positive that's not what they had in mind."
I'm no fan of Carl Edwards. Doesn't matter what series he's racing in - Sprint Cup or Nationwide - I'm just not a fan.
But, he's a race car driver and he's a pretty good one at that. Just for being a race car driver and doing what he does on a weekly basis I have to show him some respect. Unfortunately, all respect I had for him was lost this weekend at Gateway International Raceway when he dumped another race car driver into the wall on the last lap. The other race car driver was none other than Brad Keselowski. Edwards and Keselowski have tangled before. Remember Atlanta Motor Speedway earlier this year where Edwards nearly put Keselowski over the fence and into the stands because of a small incident between the two earlier in the race? Edwards did that when he was 150+ laps down and Keselowski was racing for a top 10 finish. After the Atlanta race Edwards openly admitted his wrong doing and was handed a small slap on the wrist as part of NASCAR's "Have at it, boys" new motto. It was as if NASCAR was cheering him on for being honest about what he'd done. Well, guess what? Edwards has once again admitted that he pushed Keselowski out of the way because of an incident between the two earlier in the Gateway race. "I just couldn't let him take the win from me. We came to win. He took it from us there in Turn 1. And, man, I just couldn't let him take it from us. I had to do what I had to do," Edwards said.
That's where I draw the line. He's shown no remorse for what he did on either occasion. I can't say that he tried to hurt anyone buy wrecking Keselowski but he came really close both times. In the first incident at Atlanta Keselowski's car flew up into the fence and landed hard on the wall nearly crushing Keselowski in the process. At Gateway, Keselowski's car was pushed into the wall at a high rate of speed. But, because they were both going for the win, and doing so at full speed, there was nowhere for the rest of the traffic t behind them to go. 2 more cars were involved right away as they pummeled Keselowski's Dodge leaving many to wonder if Brad would emerge from the tangled wreckage.
Now, if he's smart, Brad Keselowski will stay calm and leave well enough alone. There's no need for him to become another idiot on the track with an attitude. If he can keep his calm, and not get on the track and retaliate in the next race, he''ll likely gain a few more fans and a lot more respect from his peers. Hopefully someone tells Keselowski's dad to do the same. After Saturday's Gateway race Brad's dad Bob Keselowski had this to say: [Edwards] "flipped out like he did at Atlanta and tried to kill the kid." Having once been a race car driver himself Bob Keselowski noted: "I'm sick and tired of this. I'll get my own damn uniform back on and take care of this. He ain't gonna kill my boy." This isn't Little League, Bob. Sit down next to Mr. Logano over there and shut up. Let your kids do the driving and learn for themselves.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
MILLVILLE, N.J. - Alex Gurney caught and passed Scott Pruett with less than two laps remaining and won Sunday at New Jersey Motorsports Park, giving the defending Daytona Prototype champions Gurney and Jon Fogarty their first Grand-Am Rolex Series victory of the season in the NJMP 250.
Pruett beat Gurney out of the pits following his final pit stop and led 45 laps in his quest for a record fourth consecutive victory in the No. 01 Telmex BMW/Riley started by Memo Rojas. However, Pruett brushed Ozz Negri with less than three minutes remaining in the two-hour, 45-minute event, causing a slow leak in his right-front tire.
"My engineer told me that Scott had a cut tire, so I took my time and held back to make a clean pass," said Gurney, who joined Fogarty in winning their 13th career Daytona Prototype victory in the No. 99 Gainsco Auto Insurance Chevrolet/Riley. "Scott moved over for me and it all worked out."
With six victories in nine races, Pruett and Rojas lead fifth-place finisher Ryan Dalziel by 19 points with three races remaining in the Daytona Prototype championship.
MADISON, Ill. -- The feud between Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski -- dormant since Atlanta in March -- erupted like an angry volcano at Gateway International Raceway.
In a drag race to the finish line, Edwards sent Keselowski hard into the outside wall on the way to winning Saturday night's Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers 250 Nationwide Series race at the 1.25-mile track. As Edwards took the checkered flag two car lengths ahead of runner-up Reed Sorenson, Keselowski careened into the inside retaining wall and took a vicious shot from Shelby Howard's Chevrolet just short of the finish line.
Less than a lap earlier, Keselowski had bumped Edwards in Turn 1 in an attempt to take the lead after a restart on Lap 199 of 200. Edwards' Ford and Keselowski's Dodge raced side-by-side for most of the final lap. With Keselowski edging ahead as the cars approached the stripe, Edwards turned Keselowski's Dodge, igniting a multicar pileup on the frontstretch.
"I just couldn't let him take the win from me," said Edwards, who drew a three-race probation in March for unabashedly turning Keselowski in a Sprint Cup race at Atlanta, with the unintended consequence of sending the No. 12 Dodge upside-down into the frontstretch wall. "My guys work way too hard for that.
"We had a great restart. My guys built me a great car. We came to the checkered flag, and I hate to see stuff tore up, but we came here to win and he took it from us there in Turn 1. Just an awesome race. ... I'm sure some of them don't like that win -- Brad Keselowski fans and stuff -- but, man, I just couldn't let him take it from me. I had to do what I had to do."
In Keselowski's view, Edwards' action at Gateway was intentional.
"He turned left into me and wrecked me on purpose," Keselowski said. "I gave him the lane, and he still wrecked me. … I figured out a way to beat him. He wasn't happy with me, so he wrecked me. Wrecking down the straightaway is never cool, whether it's at 200 mph or 120. I'm sorry that's the way it had to end."
Keselowski's father, old-school racer Bob Keselowski, had an even stronger take on the finish.
"Brad got into Carl getting out of Turn 1 -- racing -- they bumped, they rubbed, typical rubbing-racing deal," Bob Keselowski said. "Carl flipped out like he did at Atlanta and tried to kill the kid. I'm sick and tired of this. I'll get my own damn uniform back on and take care of this. He ain't going to kill my boy."
"He just overreacted so bad. If he wanted to bump Brad, it's one thing. But don't drive him through the inside guardrail. Don't put him in the grandstands at Atlanta. That's asinine."
After meeting with Edwards in the NASCAR hauler, Nationwide Series director Joe Balash attributed the final-lap crash to hard racing.
"I think at the last lap there was a lot of hard racing going on," Balash said. "There was some movement on the racetrack. It was a tough finish for a really great race.
"We've chatted about this evening, yes. We don't talk about any of those conversations [that we have] in the hauler."
The last-lap crash marred what should have been a triumphant finish at the venue Columbia, Mo., native Edwards considers his home track. Edwards is the first three-time winner at Gateway, and with his second victory of the year and the 27th of his career, he trimmed Keselowski's lead in the series standings from 227 to 168 points in what has become, for practical purposes, a two-man race.
Pole-sitter Trevor Bayne ran third, his best finish to date. Paul Menard came home fourth, followed by Steve Wallace. Brian Scott, Colin Braun, Josh Wise, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Tony Raines completed the top 10.
1. George Gillett is now majority owner of RPM with Richard Petty in a mentor/advisory role.
2. Kasey Kahne is gone at the end of 2010. He's officially headed to Hendrick in 2012 to drive the #5 car. There's still a question about where he'll be in 2011.
3. Elliott Sadler just announce that he is also laving RPM at the end of the 2010 season. No word yet on where he'll land.
What future does RPM have left at this point? What will become of AJ Allmendinger? Does he stick it out and become the main guy or does he jump ship and move on to another team?
David Reutimann can now see his name in the winners column without an asterisk. Winning the Lifelock.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway left Reutimann and his crew chief, Rodney Childers, speechless. It seems that the team is in complete agreement that this marks their first "real" victory since it came ended with the checkered flag waiving instead of a downpour of rain. To top it all off this win comes just 13 days before Ty Norris, General manager for MWR, was to announce the future of both driver and crew chief of the #00 car. The duo has been pretty consistent when compared to so many in the rest of the weekly 43 car field. I'd say that they've just secured themselves a spot on the team for some time to come.
The Red Bulls were in a league of their own - Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, in third, was 0.811secs off Vettel.
Lewis Hamilton salvaged fourth from a difficult weekend for McLaren as team-mate Jenson Button managed only 14th after struggling for rear grip.
"I think there's something wrong - the car was pretty much undriveable," the world champion told BBC Sport.
Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg was fifth fastest, ahead of Renault's Robert Kubica and Ferrari's Felipe Massa.
Rubens Barrichello was eighth in the improved Williams, ahead of Sauber's Pedro de la Rosa and Mercedes' Michael Schumacher.
Hamilton will probably be happy with fourth after McLaren were forced on to the back foot when they had to abandon a major upgrade following problems in Friday practice.
The 'blown diffuser', which the team had hoped would enable them to challenge Red Bull for pure pace, caused instability in the car's handling and overheating of its rear bodywork.
But McLaren are continuing with a new front wing that was intended to work in tandem with the new exhaust and diffuser system.
Red Bull dominated as they were expected to do, and it was Alonso rather than McLaren who was their closest rival.
The Spanish double world champion's best lap was ruined by Schumacher's Mercedes holding him up but he played down the incident, saying it was unlikely he would have beaten either of the Red Bulls.
Vettel said:"We have a lot of races and then we come here and you do the first couple of laps and it's amazing - the combination of corners, the speed we reach here, it's a bit crazy, but it's so much fun. "I really like this track and fortunately our car works well here. It was a tight session here. In Q2 I was not perfectly happy but I had two very strong laps."
But there may well be another controversy brewing between the two drivers who collided when disputing the lead in Turkey three races ago.
Red Bull came to Silverstone with a new front wing - but they only had two examples of it.
Vettel's was damaged when it fell off the car in morning practice - but it was the German who had it on his car in qualifying.
Team boss Christian Horner said: "We only had one wing after this morning's incident and sometimes I have to make difficult decisions, and based on final practice and championship positions it had to go to the left-hand side of the garage."
He said the performance difference between the two wings was "minimal".
Vettel said: "Fortunately we could continue with the same kind of wing and that was the key for this afternoon."
Webber said: "I think the team were happy with the result today."
Vettel added: "From the outside, it is often quite difficult to judge what is going on. We know what we are doing, I think.
"I don't think it is black and white answer on the wing but I was very happy I could continue with the same kind of wing."
Asked about his prospects of beating the Red Bulls in the race, Alonso said it was more likely that Spain would win the World Cup final against the Netherlands later that day.
JOLIET, Ill. -- Kurt Busch believes Danica Patrick will be better equipped to compete in NASCAR once she makes a full-time switch to stock-car racing.
Busch, the 2004 champion in NASCAR's top series, said Patrick will have a hard time making the most of her talent in NASCAR without making a commitment to the sport.
"Right now, she's very limited because she's still committed to the IRL schedule," Busch said. "This is just a work in progress. We'll have to wait and see the final product when she decides what road she's going to go down."
Patrick, who will be racing in Friday night's Nationwide series race at Chicagoland Speedway, doesn't necessarily disagree.
"If you want to be really good at anything you have to obviously centralize your focus," she said. "But at this point in time, I have a tremendous amount to learn. Even if it was full-time, would it be going better? Maybe. But it wouldn't be some big, dramatic -- I don't think -- difference."
Patrick doesn't expect to deviate from her plan of racing part-time in NASCAR while also running a full IndyCar schedule anytime soon.
"We're going to do the schedule like this for this year and next year, and then we'll sort of assess where we're at and what we want to do in the future," Patrick said.
Patrick has struggled in her first four Nationwide races this season, finishing no better than 30th. Busch said he expects Patrick to go full-time in NASCAR down the road, joking that such an announcement might be NASCAR's answer to the LeBron James free-agent free-for-all.
"She'll probably have a one-hour ESPN prime-time special when she wants to announce it," Busch said.
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service JOLIET, Ill.—Elliott Sadler said Friday he has no plans to return to Richard Petty Motorsports after the 2010 season and is open to other options.
Sadler indicated he was not a part of RPM's plans going forward, saying he has "no future plans with this race team."
Sadler joins Kasey Kahne in his decision to leave RPM at the end of the season. Kahne will drive the No. 5 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports in 2012 after a year in a ride to be determined.
Sadler joined Evernham Motorsports for 14 races in 2006 after the firing of Jeremy Mayfield. Sadler has remained with the organization through a series of mergers and acquisitions that have installed George Gillett as majority owner and seven-time Cup champion Richard Petty as a partner in the operation.
Sadler signed a two-year contract extension in the spring of 2008. He has three Sprint Cup victories, the last coming in Fontana, Calif., in 2004. Sadler's best finish so far this season was 17th at Sonoma, though he was running consistently in the top 10 last Saturday at Daytona before a late-race wreck involving Sam Hornish Jr. and Kurt Busch took him out.
Sadler acknowledged the importance of running well for the remainder of the season, both from a personal and a team standpoint.
"We need to run good," said Sadler before qualifying for Saturday night's Sprint Cup Series race at Chicagoland Speedway. "I need to run good to further my career next year. They need to run good because they have great sponsors that they're trying to land and drivers that need to come back. Richard Petty needs to be a part of this sport, I think. So it benefits both of us for this car to run good the rest of this season."
Sadler is trying to win $1 million for the Racing for a Miracle program created by Stanley Tools, Ace Hardware and the Children's Miracle Network. If he wins Saturday's LifeLock.com 400 , his sponsor, Stanley Tools, will donate $1 million to the charity, on top of the $100,000 Stanley donated during a check presentation on Friday.
Saturday's race will be Sadler's first since being reunited with crew chief Todd Parrott, who made the pit calls for his last two wins, at Yates Racing, in 2004.
Once again NASCAR's need for entertainment value over real-life race finishes took the win out of Joey Logano's hands and dropped it right into the lap of Kyle Busch. Sorry Joey, maybe next week. Then again, if next week has another Green-White-Checkered finish I wouldn't give Joey a shot any time soon. Poor kid seems to have no luck when it comes to playing with NASCAR's new way to make a race more "exciting" at the end.
Below is an excerpt of the FIA Press Conference held on Thursday, July 8th. Of special note is the section about the use of Scalextric brand slot cars. Being a home slot car enthusiast I found this rather intriguing.
Q: Can I ask all four drivers about the new circuit. Have you had a look at it? What are your feelings about it? Mark Webber: I think when they designed it they weren’t really planning probably to have a Formula One race here, so they were looking very aggressively towards making it more towards the bikes. I think then it was a bonus they got the cars back which we are all very happy about. The work the BRDC, Damon, everyone has done I must say it’s incredible how they kept their heels in the ground and kept the event here which is great for all of us. Back to the track itself they kept all the good stuff, the sections of the circuit that the drivers like I believe. It would still be nice if we had Bridge in there and some of the other corners were nice, but you can’t have everything when you have certainly a world class category in Moto GP here. They have made an adjustment and I think it is still good for both of us. I don’t think there will be any more overtaking than it was in the past. It was always a difficult track to overtake on and I think that will still be the case but that’s the same for most circuits around the world. So overall positive. A huge amount of effort has gone in and that needs to be applauded and hopefully we can have a good race this weekend.
Q: Fernando, have you had a look at it? Fernando Alonso: I did some laps with a bicycle today. Nothing really more to add to what Mark said. We love to drive here. We love high speed circuits as this one. As Mark said I think overtaking will be difficult but no more difficult than it was in the past, so here we will enjoy this weekend a lot.
Q: I believe the McLaren duo have been practicing it on Scalextric. Is that right? Jensen Button: Yes. It is very slippery at turn one, lot of oversteer. Apart from that the circuit was pretty good and I enjoyed it. Lewis Hamilton: He was really quick on Scalextric, so watch out for him this weekend.
Q: He was quickest? Lewis Hamilton: He lapped me, almost twice. I crashed quite a lot.
It's not every day that you see professional drivers commenting on their use of slot cars. Especially in the day of iRacing.com.
It's not Indianapolis -- not yet, anyway -- but to Tony Stewart, that's just fine. The annual trip to Chicagoland Speedway affords the Columbus, Ind., resident a race weekend relatively close to home, where he can visit with friends without the pressure and expectations that accompany each trip to the Brickyard. That he's won twice at the track, most recently in 2007, is something of a bonus. "A lot of our friends that are from Wisconsin and Illinois get a chance to come to watch us there," Stewart said. "It makes for a really cool weekend."
This season, it also makes for another potential step back toward championship contention for Stewart, who as recently as two months ago seemed buried in points and with little hope of becoming one of the 12 drivers to challenge for the Sprint Cup title. Recent weeks, though, have seen a dramatic turnaround for the driver and owner at Stewart-Haas Racing, not exactly surprising given that the two-time series champion is typically at his best when the asphalt gets slippery and the temperatures tickle triple-digits.
We've seen this before -- both of Stewart's previous championship campaigns were fueled by strong summertime stretches, which the driver credits to the car control he learned while wheeling sprint and midget cars around greasy short tracks in the U.S. Auto Club ranks. While Stewart hasn't quite earned a place among the top title contenders this season, he's certainly placed himself on the periphery by knocking out top-10 finishes in five of his past seven starts, and climbing from 18th in points after the May 8 event at Darlington to ninth today.
Stewart actually had a streak of four consecutive top-10s snapped last weekend at Daytona, when his car suffered damage in one of the night's many accidents and wound up 24th. But because so many cars were taken out and so few drivers finished on the lead lap, he didn't lose any ground in the standings.
"You know, it is kind of weird how last year we started off the season really well, literally the first half of the year was right on pace with what we were looking for. Then four or five weeks before the Chase started, we started falling off and then really we were struggling during the Chase," he said. "It was kind of frustrating from that standpoint, and we couldn't really put our finger on what we were doing different and what we were doing wrong that was causing us to not have that kind of performance. It seems like this year, we got a slow start to the year, and it seems like we are picking it up, so hopefully we're having the polar opposite of what we had last year. We are going to start slow and finish strong this year."
That would be more typical of Stewart, whose most recent Cup championship in 2005 preceded Jimmie Johnson's unprecedented stretch of four straight titles. Last year, in his first campaign at the helm of Stewart-Haas, the driver of the No. 14 car defied all expectations by leading the points for 12 weeks before fading to an eventual sixth-place finish. The growing pains everyone predicted at last seemed to set in this year, particularly during a six-week span in the spring where Stewart went without a single-digit finish. Since then, the results have markedly improved.
"It's not just one thing. It's a lot of little things here and there. The engine department, they keep making gains. Our chassis are getting better," said Stewart, who gets engines and chassis from Hendrick Motorsports. "At our shop, our shock engineers, everybody has just really been digging deep. You don't have to find one big chunk to make a big gain like that. A lot of times it's very, very small details that each individual department will find that helps bring the whole performance of the team up."
There is still work to be done, of course. Two weeks ago at New Hampshire, Stewart matched his best finish of the season with a runner-up result, but he still hasn't won this year. The recent announced departure of sponsor Old Spice makes Stewart's ownership role more complicated, requiring him to find another company to fill the financing void on his car for the 2011 season. That makes the chance of him adding a third team for next year "probably zero percent," he said. On-track, though, things are clearly turning around.
"Every week we're just learning a little more about what to do to get the feel in the car that I like," he said. "It's been working out ... We weren't happy where we were at in the points. I'm still not really comfortable where we're at in the point standings right now, but we're definitely making gains, for sure."
MARYHILL, Wash. - One day after capturing GT honors for TRG in the Brumos Porsche 250 at Daytona, Andy Lally won both the street luge and classic luge championships in the International Gravity Sports Association World Cup event, the Maryhill Festival of Speed.
Lally, the defending ISGA world champ in classic luge, missed the "King of the Hill" race due to competing at Daytona, where he won his third GRAND-AM Rolex Series race of the season. He had to start on the outside due to missing qualifying for the luge races, but went on to score easy victories in all of his heats and then beat the favorites in the finals.
At Daytona, Lally admitted that he would be lucky to take a third due to the strong depth of competition in the meet. He drafted past Matthias Lang in the closing yards to score a close victory in Street Luge - denying Lang his third consecutive victory - after beating Louis Bouchard in Classic Luge.
"It was two really wild finals," Lally said. "I knew I had a good chance of making it to both of the finals, and I did. I made the final six in both. I thought I had a pretty good chance in the spec class (Classic), but picked myself for third in the unlimited class. I made a few changes to my luge to make it better in the corners, but I paddled off fourth. I sat in the draft and saw the leader slip, and when he did that we went three-wide at 50 mph into the final corner. I got the inside line and held on. It was amazing to pull it off. Second had his feet on my head at the finish."
Now, Lally is thinking about taking on a new challenge - stand-up downhill skateboarding. "There were 194 competitors in that class, and it was a good time watching them," Lally said. "That's my next goal - to try the stand-up stuff and see if I can get in the top 50."
Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge driver Ryan Eversley competed in Street Luge, where he made it to the consolation but had a massive wipe out in the final turn.
Despite running second in the GT championship, Lally is still looking for a ride in the upcoming Rolex Series race July 18 at New Jersey Motorsports Park.
"I'm working hard to hopefully make it pay off with a championship at the end of the year."
The Richard Childress Racing No. 3 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet Monte Carlo that the legendary Dale Earnhardt drove to victory in the 1995 Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway will be driven by his eldest son, Kerry Earnhardt, in this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed in England.
The Goodwood Festival of Speed, July 2-4, is one of the world’s premier historic race car events. The event has been held annually since 1993 on the grounds of Goodwood House, West Sussex, England . Race cars past and present participate in both demonstration and competition runs up the nine-turn, 1.16-mile hillclimb circuit.
This is the second consecutive year RCR has participated in the Festival of Speed. Last year, Taylor Earnhardt, Dale’s youngest daughter, drove the black No. 3 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet her father earned his 76 th and final NASCAR Cup Series victory in, on Oct. 15, 2000, at Talladega ( Ala.) Superspeedway.
Dale Earnhardt qualified 13 th for the second running of the Brickyard 400. He drove the famous black No. 3 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet to the top spot on lap 133 and led the final 28 laps to beat Rusty Wallace to the checkered flag by 0.37-of-a-second.
“It was an honor to again be personally invited by Lord March to enter one of Dale’s No. 3 Goodwrench Chevrolets in this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed,” said Richard Childress, president and CEO of Richard Childress Racing. “Winning the 1995 Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway was one of Dale’s, and RCR’s, proudest moments.
Both last year’s car and this year’s entry were prepared by and will be cared for at the Festival of Speed by former No. 3 team crew members Danny Lawrence and Rich Burgess. Lawrence is the assistant head engine builder/trackside manager for Earnhardt-Childress Racing Engines and Burgess is the shop manager for RCR’s No. 31 Caterpillar team in the NSCS.
“It’s going to be an awesome experience for me to drive the car my dad won the Brickyard 400 in,” said Kerry Earnhardt. “Dad winning that race was a pretty big deal because it’s such a special race. I’m honored to be driving it at all, but doing it at the Goodwood Festival of Speed makes it that much more special. Taylor (Earnhardt) drove one of Dad’s cars last year at Goodwood and she told me it was a lot of fun and there were a lot of great people there.”
For General Motors, the automaker behind the GM Goodwrench brand proudly carried on the hood of the car, it is a chance to celebrate the history of the partnership with Dale Earnhardt, Inc. and the legacy of Dale Earnhardt as a champion.
“Chevrolet is honored to see the famed No. 3 GM Goodwrench Monte Carlo once again participating in the Goodwood Festival of Speed,” said Jim Campbell, U.S. Vice President, Chevrolet Marketing. “The legendary black No. 3 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing and Dale Earnhardt teamed together to form a powerful combination that changed the sport of NASCAR – both on and off the race track.”
A daily blog of the eight-day adventure (June 29-July 6) will be posted on SPEED’s website (www.SpeedTV.com) and linked to the Richard Childress Racing website (www.rcrracing.com).
