Saturday
Barrichello speaks out on his future: ?I am fighting?
Join the Yahoo! Sports/Marbles fantasy league! Do it now!
All right, here's the deal: Fantasy NASCAR is coming up soon, and we at Yahoo! Sports want to fantasize with you. (Wait, that sounded really wrong.) Anyway, you need to get in on this action. Go to the Fantasy NASCAR homepage and sign up for a team. Then make sure you jump in on our special private league:
Fans of From The Marbles
Group ID: 31
Password: marbles
(sneaky password, yes?)
Anyway, the whole deal begins in a month or so with the Daytona 500. There'll be acclaim and love for the weekly winners, and you'll get the satisfaction of knowing that you're a better race analyst than [insert announcer name here]. Win-win all the way around. Get on it!
Friday
Ricky Stenhouse to run Daytona 500 in No. 6 car
Roush Fenway Racing will be a four-car team again, at least for the Daytona 500, as Nationwide champ Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will run the 500 in the No. 6 car.
The team does not expect to run the unsponsored car for the full season but is locked into the first five races based on owners points from 2011 when the car was driven by David Ragan. The only race confirmed for now is the Daytona 500. The team currently does not have a sponsor for the race, team spokesman Kevin Woods said.
Ragan was let go from Roush Fenway when UPS moved to Carl Edwards as an associate sponsor and there was no funding for the car. The car is guaranteed a spot in the Daytona 500, so Stenhouse will not have to worry about qualifying on time.
The move also means that there is now one fewer set of owner points available for the Great American Race. According to NASCAR, teams don't officially "buy" owner's points, but points swapping has become a common occurrence to make sure that teams have a guaranteed starting spot for the 500 (and the next four races after that.)
With Roush's intentions to run the No. 6 in the 500, there are now three guaranteed spots stilll available via the No. 33 at Richard Childress Racing (Clint Bowyer moved to Michael Waltrip Racing) and the two Red Bull Racing cars. Because of the move to MWR, Bowyer's team is looking for owner points ? discussions between MWR and Red Bull have been reported�? and Stewart-Haas Racing is looking for points for Danica Patrick. However, that's an easy internal switch for the team, as Tony Stewart is guaranteed into the first five races as a past champion.
Jules Bianchi lands Force India reserve job
Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2012/01/27/jules-bianchi-lands-force-india-reserve-job/
Danica Patrick wants to be like? the honey badger?
Danica Patrick knows that she'll be under an even bigger spotlight when she makes her Sprint Cup debut Feb. 26 at the Daytona 500.
So how is she going to react? By going all honey badger, of course.
"And the honey badger, it was last year, I think, somebody showed me this video of the honey badger, and the commentator on it was very, very funny," Patrick said between test sessions at Daytona International Speedway on Thursday. "Anyway, the honey badger, he doesn't give a crap, he takes what he wants.�And that's how I'm going to be this year, like a honey badger.�But I feel like it's a little diluted with the football player that has the honey badger nickname, too.�He's No.�7, as well."
[Check out more pictures of Danica Patrick]
The football player she's referring to, of course, is LSU cornerback Tyrann Mathieu. LSU lost 21-0 to Alabama in Monday night's BCS title game.
"I bet he's not feeling like a honey badger.�I bet -- anyway, the video is great," Patrick said. "He eats a poisonous snake and he falls asleep and wakes right back up.�The video is funny, so I encourage you all to watch that.�I think Randall something is the commentator or the name on the YouTube video.
"I don't know, it's a mindset.�I even have a honey badger picture on my screen saver on my phone to inspire me.�It takes what it wants."
[Related: Daytona 500 Day 2 testing results]
Patrick may want to harness the honey badger in her a little bit during the Daytona 500 if Thursday's test session was any indication. NASCAR has introduced rules designed to inhibit the two-car tandem drafting that has become prevalent at restrictor plate tracks Daytona and Talladega, but teams were still experimenting with the tandems anyway.
After transitioning from the Izod IndyCar Series, Patrick is scheduled to race 10 times in the Sprint Cup Series and run a full schedule in the Nationwide Series. She had success in the July Nationwide race at Daytona, leading laps and finishing 10th while she crashed crossing the finish line.
Other popular content on the Yahoo! network:
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Thursday
Follow that Mole?
Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2012/01/24/follow-that-mole/
Why Vettel is ?stronger than ever?
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Formula1Fancast/~3/nXomzXGDwy0/why-vettel-is-stronger-than-ever
Jerome D?Ambrosio lands Lotus third driver job
Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2012/01/24/jerome-dambrosio-lands-lotus-third-driver-job/
Duane Carter Eugenio Castellotti Johnny Cecotto Andrea de Cesaris
Power Rankings: The biggest stories of the offseason
Sure, it's the offseason, but that doesn't mean we can't throw out a few Power Rankings now and then. Today, we focus on the most important developments in one of the wildest offseasons in recent memory. And we start exactly where you'd expect we would ...
1. The saga of Kurt Busch. Has any former champion in NASCAR ever gone through such a dramatic decline in fortune while still in the prime of his career? Busch's separation from Penske, regardless of fault, and his new gig at Phoenix Racing made for one of the offseason's most fascinating soap operas, and one of the 2012 season's more interesting stories.
[Richard Petty: NASCAR sponsors leery of Kurt Busch]
2. The rise of AJ Allmendinger. You can name plenty of winners in the Kurt Busch saga, like Phoenix and Kurt's former crew, for two, but Allmendinger has to rank at the top of that list. Just starting to come into his own as a driver at Richard Petty Motorsports, Allmendinger found himself in a Chase-worthy ride just days after losing his sponsor.
3. The journey of Darian Grubb. The offseason began instants after the checkered flag dropped at Homestead, with Darian Grubb being shown the door after leading Tony Stewart to a championship. Grubb landed on his feet at Joe Gibbs Racing, and will try to work the same mojo on Denny Hamlin next year.
4. The reloading at Stewart-Haas. How do you make a championship team better? By bringing in top-flight talent across the board. Steve Addington and Greg Zipadelli joined SHR and ensured no dropoff in talent from the departure of Grubb.
5. The drivers who've taken a step downward. Brian Vickers still doesn't have a ride for the 2012 season. David Ragan has dropped from Roush Fenway to Front Row (sorry, Front Row, but you know it's true) and David Reutimann's future is also cloudy because of sponsorship concerns at Baldwin.
6. The battle to kill tandem drafting dead. NASCAR hates the tandem drafting at Talladega and Daytona, and is doing everything possible to change it, right up to and including banning radio talk between cars. But it persists, and as last week's testing showed, it's at higher speeds than ever before. Great!
7. Kasey Kahne's ill-advised Twitter rant. Kasey Kahne may be headed to greener pastures at Hendrick Motorsports, but he managed to tick off an entire nation of breastfeeding moms along the way.
8. The reworking of the 29 team. Kevin Harvick has finished third two years in a row, and that's just not enough for Happy. Sent packing was former crew chief Gil Martin, and brought on board was former Clint Bowyer crew chief Shane Wilson. Will the change pay dividends?
9. The consolidation of sponsors. Carl Edwards now has pretty much every sponsor in the known universe lining up to get on his car, but we knew that already. Best Buy's departure from the RPM 43 to Matt Kenseth was a deep blow to the Petty team, and more sponsor shuffling is likely ahead.
[Related: Carl Edwards to quit Nationwide Series]
10. The existence of Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s girlfriend. This might be the most amazing news of the offseason: she's real!
All right, your turn. What have been your biggest stories so far? And are there more yet to come?
Other popular content on Yahoo! Sports:
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Kurt Ahrens Jr Christijan Albers Michele Alboreto Jean Alesi
2012 class inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame
Friday night, Richie Evans, Dale Inman, Darrell Waltrip, Glen Wood and Cale Yarborough were inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
Here are the some highlights of their remarks. The induction ceremony will be broadcast on SPEED on Sunday at 6 p.m. ET.
Evans won eight Modified Series championships in a row from 1978-1985. He passed away at a practice session in Martinsville in 1985 after he had already sealed the championship. Richie's wife, Lynn, accepted the honor on Richie's behalf. Richie was introduced by Billy Nacewicz, his long-time crew chief.
Lynn Evans: "Good evening.� Rich, I've had to do a lot of things for you over the years, but this time I wish you could be here to accept this honor.
I know you're here in spirit as the No.�61 appears often in my life, even as I checked into the hotel, the number 61 came up.� I'd like to congratulate Dale Inman, Cale Yarborough, Glen Wood and Darrell Waltrip at being inducted in NASCAR's Hall of Fame class 2012 with Rich.� Rich would be so honored and humbled to be included with the inductees, past, present and future.� What a great honor.
I'd also like to thank the nominating committee for including Rich.� With so many deserving people the task must have been difficult.� I'd especially like to thank the Hall of Fame voting panel for stepping outside the box and making Rich the first driver inductee not to have raced in NASCAR's top series full-time.� You have now given hope to thousands of NASCAR competitors throughout the country to maybe someday reach their dream.
I'd like to thank NASCAR for providing a stage for competitors to showcase their talents and for the media for bringing that stage to millions of fans.� Every champion driver has a championship team.� Rich started with the late Gene DeWitt, his longtime sponsor and friend, who along with the family, Byron, Linda and Jamie, helped fulfill his dream.� I'd like to thank them along with crew chief Billy Nacewicz and all of Richie's crews over the years, many whom are here tonight."
Inman was Richard Petty's crew chief, and together they won 193 races together and seven titles. And of course, The King introduced him.
Inman: "Richard hit on me and Maurice driving the race car to Riverside, California, in 1958.� He didn't clear that up very good.� Him and Maurice was supposed to drive it, and he was out in the yard showing off and trying to walk on his hands and hurt his shoulder, so I was his substitute driver, and I won't go into that much, but you didn't race but you drove the race car to Riverside, California, run a 500-mile road course, then got home and rode down in Wilcox, Arizona, had to order a housing from another town, and it come in on the bus.� I didn't think this country boy would ever get home.
And then in today's world, we talk about track conditions.� We might have a ten-degree change in temperature.� We might have a cloud cover.� But I happen to be lucky enough to be with the Pettys on the beach in 1958, the last race on the beach.� Four miles out�-- how many miles down the beach?� A long way.� And then you go through a sand bank, up the beach when the tide is out, and Junior has run there, but you're talking about track conditions, now, that was some track conditions.
And then we still get back to 1958, and back then the drivers had to be 21 years old before they could drive, and that would affect a lot of it today.� But Richard turned 21 July the 2nd, 1958, and ten days later, me and him and the Red Miler took a convertible to Columbia, South Carolina, eight miles of dirt, slick track.� We get down there and Richard had never driven.� We didn't know whether he could last or not.� Joe Willy was down there without a car, so we talked to Joe and said if Richard needs help, will you help him.� He said, well, sure.
And of course this was before radios, so we had to communicate with black boards, and the signal for a driver was go to your head.� Of course the drivers today with radios uses some gestures, but they're pretty expensive.� But Richard went to his head two or three times, and I'd go get Joe and Joe would come and put his helmet on, his little golfing gloves.� Going home, I said, Richard what was you doing, he was wanting relief and you wouldn't come in.� He said, oh, my head was itching.
So it's come a long way.� And of course you probably haven't raced until the mid '60s when we'd leave home with a race car in a period of about ten days.� We'd run five or six races where we'd come home, and that was�-- I guess it was fun.� I don't know."
Waltrip, the current Fox broadcaster, won 84 Sprint Cup Series races. He was introduced by his long-time crew chief and Fox co-worker Jeff Hammond.
Waltrip: "I wanted to mention my grandmother who took me to races when I was a little boy, seven years old.� I got bit by the bug.� G.C. Spencer was her hero, he became my hero, and I told granny one Sunday when we were standing in victory circle with G.C. Spencer, I said, "Granny, someday I'm going to do that," and she said, "Boy, that's impossible."� I took that word and I broke it down, I'm possible, I'm possible, and I took that with me everywhere I ever went.
The picture that's up there is the 1975 race, my first win, and guess who was in victory circle with me, my granny.� My grandmother was there, Jake has got his arm around her.� Robert G. is over here, he's on the right, that's Dale, Jr.'s grandfather, Stevie up there, and that's my grandmother and grandfather, my mom and dad are back there, and that was on Mother's Day weekend in 1975, and by golly, that's where the dream started, and here's where it ends tonight.
'85 was a great year, '82, man, we dominated everything in '82 as Jeff said.� '85, we didn't dominate but we were able to turn the heat up on Bill a little bit and we were able to win the 1985 championship.� That year we made up 206 points after the Southern 500 to win that '85 championship.
When Junior Johnson, when he turned up the wick, like Hammond said, when he said get it done, we all went to work and got it done, and that was the motivation that I had, one thing when I drove for Junior, I never wanted to disappoint him.� I always wanted to do the best I could.� In 1987 I went with Rick Hendrick in the tide ride and everybody said, finally a sponsor that will clean up his act, and by golly, they were right.� And on my 17th try driving car No.�17 and the purse was $1.7 million and I got 17 letters in my name and my 17 handicap is 17, so on and so on, and in my 17th try I won the Great American Race, the Daytona 500."
Glen Wood was introduced by his brother Leonard. The Wood Brothers -- who won the 2011 Daytona 500 with Trevor Bayne -- revolutionized service on pit road, inspiring the 13 second pit stops you see today.
Glen Wood: "Ford gave me a chance in 1956 when they asked me to be a part of the Ford racing team, which has led to this induction into the NASCAR Hall of Fame, and I'm proud to have been with Ford Motor Company for the last 60 years.� We started racing in 1950, and I'd like to thank all my friends and fans from the past 60 some years, and especially from Patrick County.
A special thanks to all my brothers, Ray Lee, Clay and Delano and Leonard and my sister Crystal.� I've said it before, had it not been for Leonard and Ford Motor Company, I wouldn't have been here today.� And to my family, Bernice, Eddie, Len and Kim, and Carol, Nancy and Terry and to my grandchildren John, Kevin and Jordan.
I would like to thank Quinn Collins for use of the biography the other day for all his hard work, and I'd like to thank the guest speakers who had such good words to say about me.� And to all the NASCAR Hall of Fame staff here, too.� They've been pampering me like I've never been before.
Now, this is not just about me being inducted in the Hall of Fame.� It's also about the Wood Brothers.� And it's about NASCAR.� And I'm proud to have been a NASCAR driver and car owner for the past 60 years, and I'm proud of this great honor, and this is about two families, the Wood family and the Ford family working together, which has resulted in me being here tonight.� Thank you."
Yarborough was the first driver to win three straight championships -- and then Jimmie Johnson went on and won five straight. Yarborough was introduced by legendary NASCAR broadcaster Ken Squier.
Yarborough: "A few weeks ago I was out in my farm shop, and the telephone rang, and I knew (wife) Betty Jo had gone to parts, I think, and I knew she wasn't going to answer, so I picked it up and answered it, and it was a lady from Columbia, South Carolina, that owns a very, very high-priced women's dress store.� And she says, "Would you please tell Betty Jo that her outfit for the induction banquet is in."� I says, "Okay, I'll tell her."� I knew this was going to hurt.
Anyway, after I hung up, I got to thinking about the hard times that we went through, and she stuck with me through some awful hard times.� We had a budget we could go by, just had to stick with it.� And we'd go to the grocery store on Saturday night to buy enough groceries to last out the week.� We were there one Saturday night and we had our grocery cart filled with everything we thought we could afford.� We had to keep a count of everything that we bought so we could pay for it when we got to the checkout counter.
Well, we were coming down the last aisle heading toward the checkout counter and happened to come upon a pallet of cans of black eyed peas that were on sale for 10 cents a can.� A big can, too.� So we talked about it, and she agreed.� We went back and put all the stuff that we bought back everywhere it was supposed to be, went back to that black eyed peas pallet and bought every can of black eyed peas that we could afford to buy.� We had black eyed peas for breakfast, we had black eyed peas for dinner, we had black eyed peas for supper, a long time.
Well, honey, I'm glad you went and bought that outfit because you look good in it, and I'm glad we could afford it.� But needless to say, this coming week we're going to be looking for another black eyed pea sale."
Wednesday
Greg Biffle upstaged by surfing dogs at Rose Bowl parade
On Monday, Greg Biffle joined the Natural Balance Pet Food float, riding alongside Mr. Eight-Is-Enough (anybody still remember that show?) Dick Van Patten while, behind them, dogs surfed.
Yes, dogs surfed. And no, nobody paid much attention to the actor or the NASCAR driver as a result. The 116-foot-long, 50-ton float was billed as the "World's Heaviest and Longest," and hey, who are we to argue?
Surfing dogs, everybody. God bless America.
Setback for Kubica as he hurts right leg again
Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2012/01/11/setback-for-kubica-as-he-hurts-right-leg-again/
Tuesday
How The Robot ASIMO Helped Build Honda's MotoGP Electronics Package
The major leap forward which Honda's MotoGP bike has taken in the past two seasons has come in two distinct areas, the chassis and the electronics. Much of the work of sorting out the RC212V's chassis was done during the 2010 season, when the factory tried out five different chassis variations and several different swingarms, before getting the bike right early in the 2011 season. Parallel to the chassis, Honda spent two years improving their MotoGP bike's electronics, after poaching two of Yamaha's key staff to work on HRC's electronics package. The resulting machine, in the hands of Casey Stoner, proved unbeatable throughout the 2011 season.
See here: Kurt Busch joins with Tag Heuer for three races
For a small team in NASCAR, finding sponsorship that sticks is like trying to make a snowball by grabbing flakes out of the air. So it has to come as good news to Phoenix Racing that its newest driver, Kurt Busch, will be getting some sponsor love from Tag Heuer Eyewear.
The company already has a personal-services agreement with Busch, which means he wears their product whenever he's out in public and probably poses for a few pictures with some Tag Heuer honchos. Now, its logo will decorate Busch's car for three races: the Bud Shootout (where it'll be the primary sponsor) and the Daytona 500 and Kobalt Tools 400 in Las Vegas, where it will be an associate sponsor.
There was plenty of press-release-speak in the announcement that nobody really said; you know what it was: Tag Heuer is thrilled to be part of NASCAR, Busch is thrilled to have a sponsor, et cetera, et cetera.
One step at a time for Kurt. One step at a time.
Colin Chapman Dave Charlton Pedro Matos Chaves Bill Cheesbourg
No, We Aren?t Dead
TheNASCARInsiders.com
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheNascarInsiders/~3/ZYcJGH1mSIs/
JeanChristophe Boullion Sebastien Bourdais Thierry Boutsen Johnny Boyd
Monday
Apologies to be Mercedes Benz
Source: http://www.autocarblog.co.uk/140-apologies-to-be-mercedes-benz.html
NASCAR Got The Chase They Wanted
TheNASCARInsiders.com
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Honda WSBK Press Release: Rea And Aoyama Complete Phillip Island Test
The Honda Racing press office issued a press release and video after the Ten Kate World Superbike squad tested the 2012 CBR1000RR at Phillip Island. The video follows below, after the press release:
Fred Agabashian Kurt Ahrens Jr Christijan Albers Michele Alboreto
Raikkonen: I don?t care what people think
Sunday
Wait, Daytona is next month? But I?m still hung over from Homestead!
Welcome to 2012, everybody! Seems like just yesterday that we were weighing out the intricacies of the Tony Stewart-Carl Edwards battle, and here we are ready to do it all over again! Daytona is just a few weeks away, but before then we've got media festivities, Speedweeks and the whole shebang. We'll have predictions and the like all throughout the week, but for now, it's your take: what are you looking for in NASCAR in 2012?
How The Robot ASIMO Helped Build Honda's MotoGP Electronics Package
The major leap forward which Honda's MotoGP bike has taken in the past two seasons has come in two distinct areas, the chassis and the electronics. Much of the work of sorting out the RC212V's chassis was done during the 2010 season, when the factory tried out five different chassis variations and several different swingarms, before getting the bike right early in the 2011 season. Parallel to the chassis, Honda spent two years improving their MotoGP bike's electronics, after poaching two of Yamaha's key staff to work on HRC's electronics package. The resulting machine, in the hands of Casey Stoner, proved unbeatable throughout the 2011 season.
MINI Cooper Bayswater Special Edition
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With the 2012 London Olympics drawing closer and closer, official sponsors like MINI are starting to get their publicity machines going with hopes of squeezing every last ounce of marketing potential that goes with being an Olympics sponsor.
In the case of the German automaker, the marketing initiative involves the release of two bespoke MINI Cooper models: the Baker Street Edition and the Bayswater Edition.
The Bayswater Edition comes with an exclusive Kite Blue metallic finish with optional Midnight Black and Eclipse Grey finishes available for the Cooper S and SD models. In addition, the special edition "Bayswater" Cooper also received special racing stripes on the hood and side mirrors, a black-finished roof, and a new set of 17" wheels.
As for the interior, MINI dressed up the special edition Cooper’s seats in leather with exclusive colors and two-tone stitching on the gearshift/selector lever and handbrake gaiters. The car also has "Bayswater" lettering on the seat tags and door sills, a Piano Black cockpit trim, stainless steel pedals, and MINI’s standard Chrome Line Interior package.
In addition to the Cooper S and SD models, the Bayswater Edition will also be available for the Cooper and Cooper D models with a sale date pegged for early spring of 2012.
MINI Cooper Bayswater Special Edition originally appeared on topspeed.com on Friday, 20 January 2012 12:00 EST.
Source: http://www.topspeed.com/cars/mini/2012-mini-cooper-bayswater-special-edition-ar123421.html