Cut Tire Relegates Marlin to 40th-place Finish in Daytona
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (July 7, 2007)-- Sterling Marlin's bad luck at Daytona International Speedway continued Saturday night when a cut tire on lap 115 of 160 sent his Waste Management Chevrolet into the outside wall and to a 40th-place finish in the Pepsi 400.
"We can't catch a break," said Marlin, who was running in the 14th spot when the incident occurred. "As much as I like Daytona and as good as these Ginn cars are at superspeedways, we can't seem to get a deserving finish. It's been a frustrating weekend."
Kyle Busch looked like his future at Hendrick Motorsports was secure when team owner Rick Hendrick said he didn't have any room to add Dale Earnhardt, Jr. to his stable with four drivers under contract. But that changed this week when Junior signed a five-year deal to join Hendrick beginning next season, essentially replacing Busch. Busch maintains the decision for he and Hendrick to part ways was mutual, at least publicly, but there have been several reports he was completely surprised by the turn of events.
"We decided it and sat down and talked about things and decided it would be in both of our best interests to get a fresh start," he said Friday in the Michigan International Speedway media center. "I feel like it's a time where I can step away from where I've been for a few years and try to get a fresh start and see what else is out there."
H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler says it will be Jimmie Johnson, who has driven his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports car to victory in four of the first 11 Nextel Cups points races this season who will win NASCAR's upcoming Nextel All-Star Challenge at Lowe's Motor Speedway. "This race is Jimmie Johnson's to lose," Wheeler proclaimed. If Johnson can avoid losing it and fulfill Wheeler's prognostication in the process, he will join Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon as the only three-time winners of NASCAR's annual All-Star event, having also won it last year and in 2003. He also would take home the top prize of $1 million.
RICHMOND, Va. -- Jimmie Johnson's celebration seemed a bit subdued. Maybe all these trips to Victory Lane are becoming routine for the Hendrick Motorsports crew. Johnson gave Hendrick its seventh win in the past eight Nextel Cup races by leading teammate Kyle Busch to a 1-2 finish Sunday at Richmond International Raceway. (watch video) It was the third consecutive victory for Hendrick, which remained undefeated in the four races NASCAR has used its new Car of Tomorrow. But there was no gloating for a team all too aware how quickly the competition can catch up.
"Our team is in full stride, but this is a very circular sport," said Chad Knaus, the winning crew chief. "You get your time at the top and you fall to some degree. What you've got to do is make sure when you are taking your time at the top, you don't get too full of yourself that when it's your turn to fall, it doesn't break you apart."
Johnson, who was second to teammate Jeff Gordon last week at Talladega, finally broke through on one of the worst tracks on his resume. The .75-mile oval had given Johnson fits through his career, and he came in with just one top-10 finish in 15 previous visits. In this year of Hendrick Motorsports, everything has gone right and Johnson finally conquered the track for his series-leading fourth victory of the season.
"It's cyclical," the defending Nextel Cup champion said. "You enjoy it while you've got it, but we know that somebody is going to figure something out. We'll just hope that the valley's aren't that low and the valley isn't in the final 10."
Johnson used the victory to pull into second place in the standings, where he now trails Gordon by 211 points. But based on NASCAR's new seeding system for the Chase, Johnson would start the final 10 races with a 40-point bonus on the competition. And, five of the 10 Chase races will use the COT.
After a thrilling Grand Prix in Sepang, the Formula One teams have packed up and now face the logistical challenge of reaching Bahrain in time to begin preparations on Thursday for this weekend’s race. Each of the 11 teams travelling to the Kingdom of Bahrain will bring 50-80 shipping cases, containing up to 40 tonnes of equipment. Of that total weight, over 30 tonnes will be taken up by the mechanical needs of the Formula One cars themselves - including three chassis, engines, spare parts, tools, wheels and pit equipment. The remainder will be made up of pit-garage branding and extraneous equipment - even the utensils used by the team chefs!
Formula One racing has an information superhighway all of its very own - there will be approximately 180 large computers and 300 laptops in use between the 11 teams over the race weekend in Bahrain, supplied by over 3.5 kilometres of power cable and sending information through 5.5 kilometres of data cable. The team members themselves - approximately 1,200 in total - will be equipped with 1,100 walkie-talkie radios and headsets.
With just one week between Malaysia and Bahrain there's no time for anything except to head for the next circuit and do it all over again. As with Sepang, most of the teams tested at Bahrain's Sakhir track during the winter so should be prepared for the challenges of the desert. It's another hot race but the humidity isn't quite so bad as Malaysia.
Just under five and a half kilometres in length, Sakhir requires a compromise between downforce and speed to deal with the slow corners and long straights respectively. If it's windy sand can be a concern but over the last couple of years it's never seemed to be a huge problem. A variety of pit stop strategies were used in last year's Bahrain race so it will be interesting to see who does what this time around.
The Bahrain International Circuit opened in 2004 and hosted its first Formula One Grand Prix in April of the same year. The development of the circuit was funded by the Bahrain Government and firmly supported by the Crown Prince of Bahrain, Shaikh Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, a lifelong motor sport enthusiast. It is located in the city of Sakhir which is southwest of Manama, the capital of the Kingdom of Bahrain.
The track is a complex mix of 15 slow and medium speed corners connected by three high speed straights, the fastest of which will see the cars peak at 320kph (approximately 198.84 mph) at the end of the pit straight going into turn one. With the lowest cornering speed registered at just above 100kph (approximately 62.14 mph) at Sakhir’s turn five, and taken in first gear, the number of extreme braking events is high so brake preservation is paramount. Due to the extensive, high speed stretches, each lap will demand a full throttle percentage of 62%; combined with the braking, cooling and sand variables, engine reliability will be a considerable factor in the race’s outcome.
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