Qualifying saw Kyle Busch extend his lead over second place due to the fact that neither Dale Earnhardt Jr or Carl Edwards managed to crack the top 17 in Richmond. In fact, there were just minor shuffling for the top 14 but Reed Sorenson stormed into the top 20 (15th) while Kevin Harvick and Juan Montoya join Reed to bump out Michael Waltrip and Matt Kenseth with Mike Skinner hanging in thanks to being tied for 20th with Juan. Possibly most interesting (for me anyway) was that now there's a three-way tie for 10th...interesting that all three guys scored points this week yet still manage to equal the others.
Tez's NASCAR Qualifying Championship - top 20 standings after 10 rounds:
The race was rather dull for the first 350 odd laps as Denny Hamlin showed his pole position was no fluke and he set about relighting Nigel Mansell's famous saying of "home race is always worth an extra couple of tenths a lap" (or something like that...apologies to Mr Mansell if you're reading this and know that's not the exact quote) by leading all but one lap. Unfortunately for Hamlin, but good for us watching, circumstances dictated that a slowly deflating tyre (yeah, yeah, I know I'll have to get used to the other spelling in a few weeks time) ruined his chances for a win and provided what should have been the second and third most talked about incident; Denny stopping on the track, Dale and Kyle having some fender bashing.
But, since Jr was involved, that incident jumped straight from three to #1 while the Michael Waltrip ramming Casey Mears thing got swept under the carpet...which I blame the commentators for doing that. Any other driver and Darrell would have been all over them but blood thicker than water and all that.
Anyway, Clint Bowyer snuck through the havoc to score his second Cup win while Kyle pulled out some more points on the field (again) by finishing right behind him. Amazingly, there's just one new face this week (Truex for Mears) but a few spots were swapped around which is possibly due to Richmond being the fourth 'half point' race as even with the green-white-chequered finish, it still didn't reach my 400 mile cut-off.
Tez's NASCAR Race Championship - top 20 standings after 10 rounds:
Righto, not much point in getting stuck into both races since they've been talked about on here for a few days (weeks in Phoenix's case) so I'll get straight to the standings.
Qualifying sees Jeff Gordon drop out of the lead while David Ragan relinquishes his top 10 spot as Tony Stewart moves up. Falling out of the top 20 completely are Aric Almirola, Greg Biffle, Clint Bowyer, Bobby Labonte, David Reutimann and Kevin Harvick who are replaced with Elliott Sadler, Ken Schrader, Joe Nemechek, Jamie McMurray, Scott Riggs and Matt Kenseth. I suppose Nemechek is possibly the biggest surprise considering until Talladega, he had just the one point...might be worth picking him in Daytona in July for a good starting position.
Tez's NASCAR Qualifying Championship - top 20 standings after 9 rounds:
The RC sees Kyle Busch still leading over Edwards...but that's only half the story. Carl did overtake Kyle after Phoenix but due to his problems at 'dega, he couldn't keep Kyle behind him. Denny Hamlin moves from 11th to 6th while Gordon goes from 10th to 12th. New to the top 20 are Casey Mears and Juan Montoya at the expense of Elliott Sadler and Martin Truex Jr.
Tez's NASCAR Race Championship - top 20 standings after 9 rounds:
In a rare 'off week' for the Cup teams, that leaves not much in the way of touring car racing as we only have the Nationwide race from Mexico City, right?
Not really...if you guys get a live feed from the V8 Supercars that is.
Hamilton...home of the Waikato Chiefs, perennial underachievers in the Super Rugby but the 'Mooloo men' can claim they were the first province to win the revamped National Provincial Championship (rebadged as the Air NZ Cup) in 2006 and also a rather popular place to buy wine from. Actually, Hamilton are having a big weekend this week as not only is the V8 round there but the Chiefs host the unbeaten Canterbury Crusaders in what will probably be, if it isn't already, a sellout game of rugby on Friday night.
For he past seven odd years, the New Zealand round of the V8 Supercars was held near the country's biggest city; Auckland. The Pukekohe circuit was a Holden benefit, with hometown boy, Greg Murphy, using it as his personal playground as he stomped on everyone for the first few years before the other Holden teams nicked his setup and were able to topple him for the round win.
However, the contract for Pukekohe ran out last year as the V8's wanted a street course instead of a purpose-built track...and the town of Hamilton stepped in to fill that gap. Not only that, but they also put their hand up to host the WRC round when that contract ran out a couple years ago as well...ensuring NZ kept their place on the rally calender.
So, welcome everyone, to the motoring capital of New Zealand.
The round is a three-race sprint one, like Pukekohe was, and will kick off with practice tomorrow (Friday) with both qualifying and race one held on Saturday while races two and three are on the Sunday.
track map of the Hamilton round of the V8 Supercars.
Alas, the weather may prove to steal the show as the North Island has been pretty much in constant rain so far in April (though the forecast looks ok for the weekend...but we're only halfway through the week of course). That will make things much more interesting as a few drivers have already said that this could be a crash-fest round and the slippery roads would only exaggerate those beliefs. Common sense says that drivers who excel on the streets of Adelaide and the Gold Coast will be the ones to beat...but if the rains come down, it's anyone's guess who will be in front after three races and 400km around the streets of Hamilton.
Alrighty, someone gave me this idea after informing us on Will's trifecta that they guess the F1 drivers so I thought I'd try to help out a bit.
First things first; the teams and drivers to beat. Ferrari (Kimi Raikonnen and Felipe Massa), BMW (Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica) and McLaren (Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen) were the 'big three' last year and the only things that has happened this season is that BMW have closed the gap a bit and Kovy replaced Fernando Alonso at McLaren...so not much change then.
Ferrari look like they are slightly ahead of McLaren in terms of outright pace (I believe the Maccas just missed the setup badly in Bahrain) and of their two drivers, you'd have to say Kimi has the edge given the fact that he won the Championship last season and Felipe tends to have brainfades every now and then. McLaren are a little tighter to pick...Lewis has a full season with the team behind him but Kovy is Finnish and that means he'll shine in a Macca (just like Mika Hakkinen and Kimi did before him...Keke Rosberg didn't fit the McLaren mould in 1986 so he's not being counted) but even so, I'd have to favour Lewis based on his 2007 form, but only just. The BMW's have the second hardest pairing to seperate with both Kubica and Nick showing on any given day they can beat the other. As biased as I am toward Nick, I would have to say that Robert appears to be the slightly better all round driver (qualy and race) but if you had to pick one to come through the field, you'd have to go with Nick.
The second tier of teams see a battle between Toyota (Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock), Red Bull (David Coulthard and Mark Webber), Renault (Fernando Alonso and Nelson Piquet Jr) and Williams (Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima). All four teams are fighting it out for the final two points paying positions assuming the top 3 teams don't strike problems in the race. Of the four, only Red Bull appear to have 'equal' lineups as Jarno, Fernando and Nico look to be clear number 1 drivers for the other three teams. Mark has the qualifying pace while DC seems to be better during the race...not much to pick between the two then since qualifying is vital in F1 but as Mark tends to have all the bad luck, you'd have to favour DC over the course of the season.
Best of the rest...well, Honda is doing their best to recapture their 2006 form when Jenson Button scored both his and the teams first win and with Rubens Barrichello as wingman, on paper the team looks to have the goods. However, 2007 was a truly horrible year and even with Ross Brawn on board, I can't see them consistantly challenging the second tier teams until the last quarter of this season. Toro Rosso are really the only other team likely to upset the apple cart on occasion with Sebastian Vettel and Sebastien Bourdais having the pace but the car seems to be far too fragile to keep up on Sundays. I'd have to give the nod to both Jenson and Bourdais to outpace their teammates but really, you'd have to pick the right week if you want a good score in Will's trifecta.
The lingo; vitally important since F1 is European while you follow NASCAR...so here's a few explanations for you.
- "oversteer" is the same as a "loose" condition. - "understeer" is the same as the car being "tight". - "neutral" is the same as being "snug"...which is the condition you'd want if you want to pull away from the cars behind you. - "huge shunt" means a crash of Michael McDowell at Texas proportions. - "they cranked on some front wing during that stop" means the team added angle to the front wing to assist in front downforce and reduce understeer. This is mainly done in qualifying or if rain comes during the race...yes, these guys race in the wet using something called a "wet weather tyre" which is a foreign concept in NASCAR but provides great racing. - "incident involving car X is under investigation" equates to "driver of car X better get his butt into gear and go faster since he's about to cop a drive through penalty for doing something stupid".
That's pretty much it for the basics in F1...hopefully they make sense and feel free to ask questions, preferably to bc525 or jbroomy since they know more than me :P
Martinsville saw Denny Hamlin finally collect his first grandfather clock. He's been rather handy at the paperclip track but until now hasn't been able to pick up a win...mind you, with Jimmie Johnson practically monopolising this place, that's not really surprising. Speaking of Johnson and the HMS boys, they had a fantastic race and had all four cars running in the top 10 for the most part and wound up second, fourth, sixth and seventh just to remind us that they are still a threat this year. Jamie McMurray and Regan Smith had solid races and finished in the top 15.
Hamlin guided his #11 Camry to score Toyota's second Cup win in his home state.
Texas saw a snoozefest that made me wish I had taped the Indycar race instead. The F1 race from Bahrain was far more exciting since you had Kimi trying to close down on Felipe during the middle stint and also the three-way tussle between Kovalainen, Trulli and Webber. Anyway, back to the Cup race and Carl Edwards scored his third win of the season to go past Dale Earnhardt Jr for second in the standings, a fraction behind Kyle Busch who maintained his lead due to finishing third behind Edwards and Johnson. Jeff Gordon had a torrid time and finished last after struggling with the handling of his Impala SS until it finally caught him out (no photo for Carl since I can't find a decent one of his Texas car).
Edwards and Johnson gained the most the last two races, going from sixth to second and thirteenth to seventh respectively while Greg Biffle drops down from equal third to ninth. Reed Sorenson is the only driver to drop out of the top 20, making way for Mark Martin.
Tez's NASCAR Race Championship - top 20 standings after 7 rounds:
Tight at the top with just half a point between two of the 'new generation' but there's a whole bunch of experienced guys lurking in their wheelpaths as we head to Phoenix and the first Sunday afternoon race for me :)
Well, after the washout in Bristol, the qualifying title headed to NASCAR's smallest track where Jeff Gordon proved, again, that he's rather handy around that place as he picked up his second pole position for the season. Dale Earnhardt Jr couldn't crack into the top 17 so Gordon extended his lead to more than a round (78 points), but as we saw last year, certainly not safe from being caught.
A few surprises in the top 10 with Aric Almirola, Jamie McMurray (after a horrid start to his 2008 campaign) and Ken Schrader all starting from the first five rows while Denny Hamlin continued his march up the pecking order as he lined up next to Gordon on the front row.
Texas saw a role reversal for the Hendrick boys as Dale Jr took the pole while Gordon failed to score any points. David Ragan's strong recent form stayed with him, qualifying seventh behind David Reutimann while Sam Hornish Jr picked up his first point of the year.
So, from Atlanta, no change at the top with Gordon leading Jr in a HMS 1-2 but Kyle Busch does manage to get past Carl Edwards for third. Michael Waltrip drops from outright seventh to equal 13th with Hamlin going the other way to move from equal 13th to outright sixth. Almirola, Ragan and Reutimann push out Casey Mears, Scott Riggs and Reed Sorenson to make up the top 20.
Oh, and I've given full points for qualifying unlike what I'm doing with the races...sort of hard to set a cut-off distance in qualifying.
Tez's NASCAR Qualifying Championship - top 20 standings after 7 rounds:
I shall put up the TNRC for both rounds tomorrow most likely...no pictures this week since both Jeff and Jr have had pikkies this season anyway so I didn't really see the point *shrugs*
**not hugely sports-related, but I did ensure I could include it in the NHL, Football and NASCAR sections....apologies if you're hoping to find a sports story but I had to share this with everyone since I find this disgraceful**
For three days in July (25, 26 and 27), the small town of Pemberton in British Columbia, Canada, will host an outdoor concert including such names as Tom Petty, Coldplay, The Flaming Lips and My Morning Jacket...a rather impressive feat for a town that has less than 2000 people living in it.
In fact, the only times Pemberton tends to get busy is when the Vancouver Canucks or the BC Lions are playing at home in the NHL or CFL respectively. I am yet to find out if they get any overflow from the Canadian Tire Series when they race in Vernon but I would imagine not.
Now, the organisers were nice enough to give the locals some $90 off ticket prices ($200 verses $290 for the rest) but had a limited number of 300 for them. A nice gesture right?
Wrong.
For reasons only known to the organisers, they elected to sell off the tickets to people who live in nearby Whistler...seems like Canada has a different perspective of the term 'local resident' to the rest of the world. The only excuse I can think of is that maybe they thought Pemberton wouldn't buy the 300 tickets which is extremely poor reasoning and shows a remarkable lack of faith in the host town. I understand that Whistler is less than 50 miles away, but to not give Pemberton first choice on the cheaper tickets is absolutely disgraceful and an outrage since I know the town has been buzzing with the news since finding out about the concert a few weeks ago.
But it could go deeper than that for Vancouver hosts the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. I wonder if they'll do the same for that; set aside a limited number of tickets purely for BC residents then fobb them off to the rest of the country before bothering to tell the 'locals'.
Not impressed, guys (John, you really should throw these morons under the bus next week, mate)...a very BLEEP-poor way to treat a wonderful country town and I hope you get nowhere near the 40 000 people you expect to turn up over the three days.
Marcus Marshall, V8 Supercar driver and Jamie McMurray's Australian counterpart (in luck, manufacturer and car number), said Saturday that fellow Aussie Marcos Ambrose's success in America has boosted the sport's popularity in the country, and sparked rumours that a dormant 1.5 mile track might get active again. The track hasn't been used for about eight years, he said. "It was pretty popular and now there are rumours at the moment of it opening up again, so that kind of fits with NASCAR maybe looking to be more international and Australia as a place to maybe take a round of one of their affiliated championships."
Queensland, Australia, is already a destination of the Indy Racing League.
Possibility for an exhibition race in December given it's summer here and all three NASCAR series would be in their offseason...but given the logistics (and the date), I highly doubt it would get a full field.
In other V8 news, rumours are afoot that Dale Earnhardt Jr may be considering racing in the final round given it's also in December. He would most likely replace Mark Skaife in the #2 HRT machine as Mark could be looking at retirement. It would also provide Jr with extra road course experience and assist in him catching up to the 'road experts' like Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Juan Montoya, Robby Gordon and Kevin Harvick.
So how'd you go, pick up the hint? No? Check what I wrote in brackets after the word 'logistics' while remembering that New Zealand is 20 hours ahead of the West Coast. I've been told that the bit about the 1.5 mile track has been around for a few days but not the rest of it.
Episode three of my epic, and very irregular, 'poke fun at motorsport' series. If you don't like having a sledgehammer taken to your favourite driver, I suggest you stop reading this now...although this is just F1 so most probably don't have a clue with half the names anyway.
The Formula One season kicked o...uh, green lighted off (not quite the same ring I think you'd agree) in Melbourne two weekends ago and it was thoroughly dominated by the McLaren duo of Lewis "do as I say, not as I do" Hamilton and Heikki "from henceforth dubbed Kovy as it's far easier on the keyboard" Kovalainen which was a big surprise as Ferrari looked to have stolen several marches on the field during testing...the joys of the unpredictabilty of motorsport, eh?
Lewis took the pole from Robert "I'm starting to catch my teammate" Kubica and, yet again, dived straight across the track off the startline to block Robert...clearly Lewis has yet to read the memo about it being bad form to BLEEP on about unfair blocking tactics from other drivers (Alonso at Spa) when you keep doing it yourself. The Kimster got off to a great start for 2008, making me look like an BLEEP for believing he had got over his 'car breaker' tag...thanks, Kimi, you cost me in Will's trifecta, mate. Not only did he start mid-grid, he then got stuck behind Rubens' Honda for half the race, elected not to pit under the safety car that came out mid-distance (insane as that would have put him in a great position to win the race), spun trying to pass Kovy on the restart and spun again trying to pass Toyota's rookie, Timo Glock, before retiring his limping horse when his engine went AWOL...not a good day for the reigning Champion. His teammate faired little better, selBLEEPestructing in the race taking out, firstly himself by spinning at turn one and then David Coulthard as he was trying to make his way through the field...DC won't be sending Felipe any Christmas cards this year if his interview afterwards was anything to go by.
Drive of the day belonged to Sebestian "Mr Champ Car" Bourdais who was on for fourth place until his engine let go less than two laps from the chequered flag while Glock got both Air-time and Crash of the day when he launched himself over the accessway and destroyed his car on landing...I don't think he actually hit the wall so the fact it got that damaged is truly an amazing effort. Kovy got done out of second place when the final safety car came out handing the place to Nick.
On to Malaysia then where Ferrari managed to show the pace everyone knew they had, monopolising the front row while the Maccas were pinged for being morons in the qualifying session by holding up Nick "the most underrated driver in the history of F1" Heidfeld as he attempted to complete his final flying lap. I will see if I can find the onboard camera form Nick's car so you can see the closing speeds as he had to duck and dive around the other cars...so why did just the McLarens get penalised, you ask? Well, of the other seven cars that were also trolling around at, what seemed like, 10 mph, only Lewis and Kovy were on the racing line. Of course, McLaren pleaded innocence saying it was purely coincidental that BMW were the best chance of ruining McLarens second row starting spots. The FIA gave both silver cars a five car penalty and they started the race from 8th and 9th, Kovy in front.
Here we go...good thing Nick used his head or McLaren would require two new cars for the race.
As expected, Ferrari ran away with the race, Kimi jumping Felipe at the first round of pitstops, but, as we've seen several times in his career, Felipe threw his race away when he exited the track, stage left. Of all the drivers, he was the one I was most worried about handling no traction control and so far has a big doughnut after two rounds...not boding well at all. My man, Mark Webber, had a great start...amazingly...and held up Lewis for the first two thirds of the race, helped by Lewis losing (at least) ten seconds on his first pitstop. Kovy managed to come through for third while Robert grabbed BMW's second consecutive second place finish. Jarno Trulli somehow ended up fourth showing that Toyota's early season pace isn't limited to just NASCAR...it remains to be seen if that keeps up the rest of the year however.
The circus heads to Bahrain next where it's BMW's turn to have bad luck and I'm expecting Kimi to be leading the Championship after that race...so naturally it'll still be Lewis in front instead.
Easy week for the QC as we had our second washout for the season. It looks like we're heading for a repeat of 2007 with those so maybe I should slap down a tenner on Jimmie going back-to-back...despite what frevr3 reckons on his blog.
To the race then; and what a cracking one it was!
Joe Gibbs were the team to beat once again, mirroring their early season pace of 2007, but failing to reach victory lane...hmm, better put it on Jimmie to win the RC too. Jeff Burton finally broke through to win his first Cup race in Bristol, backing up Clint Bowyer's win in the Nationwide race the night before. In a great day for Richard Childress, Kevin and Clint followed Jeff home to score a 1-2-3 finish.
Jeff takes his first win of the season...and also Chevy's first win. Who'd have thought that after 2007?
Carl Edwards dropped from equal second to outright sixth while Bowyer went from 19th to 14th. Bobby Labonte drops out of equal 20th as Denny Hamlin picked up points for finishing in sixth.
Tez's NASCAR Race Championship - top 20 standings after 5 rounds:
So what's all those half points for? Well, if you remembered my post in January explaining the new points system, then you'd know that I'm not giving full points for the races that are significantly shorter in distance than the majority. Tough bikkies if you are a Dale Earnhardt Jr fan and believe I'm sabotaging his points...if I'd wanted to do that, I'd have altered my system every week so Kasey Kahne would miraculously get the maximum points.
**ok, after much deliberating (ta JJD), this is how the points will go; races under 400 miles get half points, the rest get the full compliment. That means the races at Martinsville, Phoenix, Richmond, Loudon, Sonoma, and Watkins Glen will all be scored the same way this one was**
No race this weekend as the Cup guys enjoy some chocolate, assuming their trainers allow them, so we'll see in a fortnight if Martinsville can produce a similar race to this one.
Less than a week from having a huge shunt at Vegas, Jeff Gordon snared pole position and headed an all-HMS front row as Dale Earnhardt Jr had to settle for second. This also means that Jeff jumps up from third to first followed by Jr, Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch and Jimmie Johnson round out the top five (Jimmie getting it over Mark Martin by dint of his Daytona pole).
Kurt Busch, Patrick Carpentier, Matt Kenseth and Elliott Sadler all fall out this week while Clint Bowyer, Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr sneak their way into the top 20.
with his pole position, Jeff assumes the lead from his teammate, Dale Jr.
Tez's NASCAR Qualifying Championship - top 20 standings after 4 rounds:
After last weeks race, Carl's car failed post-race inspection and he was docked points from both his points standings as well as the bonus points he'd get for the win should he make the Chase...well, he might prefer reading my standings since I never bothered with taking points off a driver last year and am choosing to do the same; win on Sunday and get the points for TNRC, end of story.
Moving on, Atlanata saw Jr, Kyle, Clint Bowyer and Carl all take turns out front but Carl's visions of three in a row when up in smoke as he had to pull off with around 50 laps to go which all but gifted the win to Kyle...the first for Toyota. Tony Stewart backed up his teammate to finish second and jump from equal sixth to equal second overall while Ryan Newman and Kasey Kahne dropped from third and fourth to seventh and eighth respectively.
Out completely this week are Robby Gordon and Travis Kvapil, making room for Clint Bowyer, Denny Hamlin and Bobby Labonte.
Kyle managed to translate his early season pace into a win.
Tez's NASCAR Race Championship - top 20 standings after 4 rounds:
Next week sees the series head to Bristol...and the Busch brothers have won the last two races there at this time of year so we'll have to see if that trend continues. Amazingly, this blog also happens to be done exactly a year to the date (snuck in by three minutes the timer reckons) that my first foxsports blog was posted...can't believe it's been that long already.
The smell of ashes from the burnt bridges in his early days still linger...
Seemingly with all the talent in the world and a whole career ahead of them...
Racing fans divided on him; either you love the guy or you hate him, there is (apparently) no middle ground...
No matter where you stand, you cannot question his commitment to driving the car the minute he pulls the visor down to start a race...
You think I'm talking about Kyle Busch, don't you?
Well, you'd be wrong...try Michael Schumacher instead.
Michael made his debut at Spafrancorchamps for the old Jordan team and qualified seventh...a feat made even more incredible considering he'd never driven the track before despite living quite close by. His clutch blew on the first lap and he had to retire but the wheels were in motion regarding his future as Benetton left no stone unturned and managed to wriggle Michael away from Jordan for the next race.
Did Eddie Jordan feel bitter about it? Well, considering that the only car from Michael's F1 career that he doesn't own just happens to be a 1991 Jordan, you would have to think he does. As for the fans being divided on 'Schumi', that's a rather easy one to explain as his track etiquette was rather questionable at times; Adelaide 1994, Jerez 1997 and Monaco 2006 for example.
It does sound rather familiar to Kyle though, doesn't it?
The split with Roush as he joined Hendrick. The fact that Jack said "hell no!" when asked if Kyle could possibly rejoin the Roush-Fenway stable last year. On the track he appears too impatient and takes risks that would make even the most hardnosed racer think twice before attempting something similar while off it he portrays an air of arrogance with some of his actions and comments (winning at Bristol, leaving the track which led to Dale Earnhardt Jr getting his first taste of a HMS Cup car). Yet, despite all that, he still made the Chase amid the flurry of anticipation (and expectation) about Dale Jr taking his ride for 2008 and ended up fifth in the standings, his highest in his three full seasons.
'Shrub' is currently riding the crest of a wave in all three series, something he mentioned before this weeks race in Atlanta to which he quipped that he wasn't a bad surfer but we'll have to wait and see how long he can ride this one out.
So why the comparison to Schumacher? Well, Michael too was regarded as a 'bright young thing' in the early 90's and look where he sits in the F1 rankings after retiring at the end of 2006; 7 times Champion, most career wins, most career points and most career poles.
And while Kyle certainly won't be able to boast those stats in the NASCAR history books when he calls it a day, I reckon we should just enjoy watching this guy race the way we'd love all the drivers to...hard and flat out the whole day.
Fresh off winning the 2007 TNQC, Jimmie Johnson set about making sure he stayed on top by snagging pole position for the Daytona 500 with Michael Waltrip alongside him. Dale Earnhardt Jr and Denny Hamlin shared the second row of the grid as they quickly got to terms with their new rides for '08.
Rain was the main course at Fontana so the points from Daytona stood as they headed to Vegas. Hometown boy, Kyle Busch, showed that he's doing his best to prove to Rick Hendrick that he made a mistake by letting him go last year as he took the pole while Carl Edwards would start next to him. Dale Jr, by dint of Johson and Waltrip struggling to find the one lap pace to start near the front, leads the Qualifying Championship with Edwards, Jeff Gordon, Busch and Johnson nipping at his gearbox.
"I'm sorry, your name was Jimmie who again?"
Tez's NASCAR Qualifying Championship - standings after 3 rounds:
1 - Dale Earnhardt Jr, 81 points 2 - Carl Edwards, 78 points 3 - Jeff Gordon, 75 points =4 - Kyle Busch, 72 points (1 pole) =4 - Jimmie Johnson, 72 points (1 pole) 6 - Mark Martin, 66 points 7 - Michael Waltrip, 60 points =8 - Denny Hamlin, 45 points =8 - Casey Mears, 45 points =10 - Ryan Newman, 39 points =10 - Mike Skinner, 39 points =10 - Reed Sorenson, 39 points =13 - Greg Biffle, 36 points =13 - Tony Stewart, 36 points 15 - Scott Riggs, 33 points 16 - Kurt Busch, 27 points =17 - Kasey Kahne, 24 points =17 - Elliott Sadler, 24 points 19 - Patrick Carpentier, 15 points =20 - Bobby Labonte, 12 points =20 - Matt Kenseth, 12 points =22 - David Ragan, 9 points =22 - David Reutimann, 9 points 24 - Juan Montoya, 6 points 25 - Kevin Harvick, 4 points 26 - Dale Jarrett, 3 points 27 - Kenny Wallace, 1 point
After a rather unexpected victor in Ryan Newman won at Daytona, it looked like we were back to business with HMS being the team to beat as first Jeff Gordon and then Jimmie Johnson took turns at the head of the field. But it was to prove irrelevent in the end as the weather made the race go into Monday. And, it was the Roush team who ended up going to victory lane again at Fontana as Carl Edwards took the eighth win of his career.
He didn't have to wait long to win his ninth race either...just six days in fact. Now, there is a little black (fluid) cloud over his Vegas win so we'll see what happens with that. Vegas had me scrambling around for clarification over who finished sixth; Kasey Kahne or David Ragan. Sites were split as to who finished in front ofthe other while the foxtrax gave them the exact same time for crossing the line...but I've gone with Ragan in sixth and Kahne seventh, so tough bikkies if you lose out by two points at seasons end, Kasey.
With the win, Edwards flipped over Kyle Busch who is having a similar start to this season as last; having a great car but not closing the deal.
I still say one of these days he'll misjudge that.
Tez's NASCAR Race Championship - standings after 3 rounds:
So there we go, every driver who has scored points in both titles is there...I shall just list the top 20 each week after this I think. Thumbs up to Kvapil for a great finish at Vegas and thumbs down to no one mentioning it...guess that's due to not having a sponsor on the car which is a pathetic reason but very much in keeping with NASCAR.
So...think the rain in Fontana was the worst news for motorsport over the weekend?
I'll give you something else to compare it to then (and I haven't even seen it mentioned on here); Ashley Cooper.
He's a driver in the development series for the V8 Supercars in Australia and they had their opening round for the 2008 season in Adelaide. That was about the high point of the weekend for the 27 year-old really.
No need for me to add anything to it so this is straight from The Daily Telegraph paper article;
On Sunday afternoon fans at the V8 Supercar event were asked to stand in silence as chaplain Garry Coleman led a prayer dedicated to Cooper, who was given an emergency tracheotomy at the crash scene.
Sporting chiefs were yesterday left to defend their safety record and the Adelaide street circuit as they paid tribute to him.
Cooper was competing in the Fujitsu Series, a V8 Supercar support category, when he slammed his VZ Commodore into a concrete barrier as he exited the street circuit's fastest turn at more than 200km/h.
V8 Supercars chief executive Wayne Cattach said a preliminary look at crash footage suggested Cooper's car might have clipped the guard rail on entry to the corner.
There was nothing to indicate failure of the seat, his roll cage, seat belt or other safety systems.
"Our sport over-complies with the highest FIA (Federation Internationale De L'Automobile) rules for closed cockpit racing and most of our teams extend even beyond our own high standards with their own safety measures," Mr Cattach said.
"Certainly there have been accidents when drivers have walked away unscathed that would appear far more severe than was the case here.
"This one didn't look all that bad to me (but) at the end of the day, motorsport is a dangerous pursuit and we try and make it as safe as possible.
"But when you've got a 1350kg car travelling at say 260 km/h top speed, it's a risky combination."
According to Cooper's personal website, he started racing in 1998 and his career highlights included being crowned the 2006 V8 Utes Rookie of the Year.
In an interview published just six days ago he said he was looking forward to racing and had high hopes for his trip to Adelaide.
"I hope to be able to finish the race well, but myself and the team are focused on working out the potential of the car and working out any kinks in performance," Cooper said.
"Having strong support from the local community is something that is important to us all (so) we hope people tune in and watch the Clipsal 500 and give me some support. In turn I hope to do the region proud."
Cooper is the second driver to die in a V8 Supercar accident in the past 12 years.
New Zealand driver Mark Porter was killed in the Fujitsu Series race at Bathurst in 2006.
He leaves behind a wife and two kids...still reckon it was the rain now?
No, I didn't forget about doing my TNQC and TNRC for Daytona...I just didn't really see the merit in posting them this week since the top 17 are, funnily enough, the top 17 qualifiers/finishers so I'll wait until after Fontana to put the list up here...congrats to the Penske bunch though.
So what is a Teretonga you may ask? I'll add two more words for you; Ruapuna and Timaru...no idea?
Well then I suggest you do some geography, or at least look to your right and read my profile...yep, those three are names of racetracks in New Zealand, South Island if I want to get picky. To get to Teretonga, you head towards Invercargill and keep going before you get to the sign which states that it is the southern-most FIA sanctioned track in the world...at least, I think that's what it said but the wind was howling and pushing the rain sideways so it was hard to make out at the time. Luckily the weather did clear up (well, the rain stopped at least) around lunchtime so I could confirm that's what it says.
2008 marked the first ever time, apparently, that NZ hosted a few of the CanAm cars...which strikes me as odd considering how much success Kiwis had during the nine seasons it was raced from 1966 to 1974. In fact, the series was often called the 'Bruce and Denny show' as Bruce McLaren (yes, the same McLaren as the F1 team...rather poor they don't play the NZ anthem when they win but you can't have everything I guess) and Denny Hulme (NZ's only F1 World Champion) pretty much thrashed everyone until the Porsches showed up in the last few years of them.
In the 58 events the duo entered, they collected a total of 39 wins...makes HMS effort of 18 from 36 rather poor really. Oh and another four races were won by drivers using McLarens bringing the total percentage of races won in the nine years to 60%.
A familiar scene...the two orange McLarens out front
CanAm managed to attract drivers from the world over including Mark Donohue, A.J. Foyt, Dan Gurney and Jackie Stewart just to name a few. So what made drivers want to race these things? I suppose it would be the tight restrictions on what you could race...anything goes.
Yep, the rules for CanAm were very simple; build anything that has wheel arches and you could race it. That meant turbos, superchargers, four-wheel-drive, ground effects, wings, super-fat racing slicks...basically anything nowdays that you can't use *laugh*
CanAm provided the biggest Ferrari V12 engine ever (though I don't think they actually raced it) as well as the turbocharged Porsche flat-12. By the end of the series, the cars were pushing 1300 hp and well capable of speeds over 240 mph. Probably the funniest story we got told was that in a recent race over in the States, there was a quick flip-flop at the end of a straight which everyone was lifting off for. One driver however told his crew that if they BLEEP more wing on, he'd be able to take it flat...and he did...at over 200 mph...rather him than me *hair rise*
Anyway, just thought I'd share that one here and would recommend going and seeing them if you get a chance (there were just five on display here so I can only imagine what 20 would be like)...I just wish the weather had been better than it was at Teretonga.
Tez is a rare creature; an Australian living in New Zealand. He's also a Civil Engineer who generally spends his Monday to Friday sitting in front of a computer surfing the inter...uh, working hard for an Engineering Consultant. His heart is torn between his two loves; F1 and NASCAR.
Due to his high interest in those, his blogs will likely focus on them with the occasional foray into sports that don't get much (if any) mention on this website. All blogs and/or comments will more than likely have his usual dollop of sarcasm and general Aussie spin on them.
Amazingly, he also managed to score 2 MiB nominations on consecutive days (August 5 & 6, 2007) after announcing he had been keeping track of them...he's considering hiding under his bed as a result.
