It?s Your 2013 Exit Interview: No. 17 Paul Menard

Welcome to From the Marbles' 2013 driver reviews. Here, we're going to critique, praise and bloviate about the top 30 drivers in the 2013 NASCAR season. A Menard minute.

Paul, if every season has signature moments, yours had two. However, they were both explosions. That's not the best way to be remembered.

Much like the driver who finished just below you in the standings, you had a strong open to the season and it all came crashing down on you at Daytona. That was explosion number one.

Just 23 laps into the race, your engine bit the dust in a nice bit of fire and smoke. You entered that race 15th in the points standings. Because no one else had issues yet, you finished last. You left that race 20th in the standings. It was all over from there.

You did move back up to 16th, but by then the Chase was an afterthought. You needed a win or two.

The second explosion was that tire at Homestead. Rubber from a tire issue wrapped around your brake line, which started a fire in the right-rear hub of the car. And then when your crew went to change the tire and extinguish the fire, the tire on the car got so hot that it exploded. That might have been a bigger impact than the engine.

With Kevin Harvick's departure at Richard Childress Racing, you're now the longest-tenured Cup driver at the team. That takes a second to sink in, doesn't it? There were some giggles and jokes when you moved over to RCR before the 2011 season -- being sponsored by family does that to you. The Dillons can relate -- but in those three seasons, you've finished 17th, 16th and 17th. That's acceptable, isn't it?

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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

Follow @NickBromberg

Previous Reviews: No. 18 Aric Almirola, No. 19 Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 20, Jeff Burton, No. 21 Juan Pablo Montoya, No. 22 Marcos Ambrose, No. 23 Denny Hamlin, No. 24 Casey Mears, No. 25 Mark Martin, No. 26 David Gilliland, No. 27 Danica Patrick, No. 28 David Ragan, No. 29 Tony Stewart, No. 30 Dave Blaney

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nascar-from-the-marbles/2013-exit-interview-no-17-paul-menard-212259601--nascar.html

Philippe Adams Walt Ader Kurt Adolff Fred Agabashian

It?s Your 2013 Exit Interview: No. 12 Kasey Kahne

Welcome to From the Marbles' 2013 driver reviews. Here, we're going to critique, praise and bloviate about the top 30 drivers in the 2013 NASCAR season.

Kasey, we're glad that it didn't take you nearly as long to get acclimated to the 2013 season as it did in 2012. However, it seems that the struggles just shifted towards the end of the season. And that meant a rough Chase.

Perhaps nothing encapsulated your Chase more than that spin at New Hampshire. You were coming off the corner and looked to have the car pointed in the right direction. But it snapped sideways on you and you found the inside retaining wall. The Chase was over within two races, and a good run was immediately canceled out by an incident.

Speed wasn't an issue at all last season; you led over 100 laps in a race four times. However, three of those times you didn't close the race out with a win. Two of those were at Charlotte, where you finished second both times. The other was at Las Vegas, where you were also second. That race you finished right behind Matt Kenseth, who you also finished second to three times.

But mixed in with all those top fives (11) was an almost equal amount of poor finishes. You finished worse than 30th nine times. Yeah, You can blame some of those on Joe Gibbs Racing too, namely Kyle Busch. Stay away from him during Speedweeks next year, OK?

That like-for-like ratio continued in the Chase -- and JGR had nothing to do with it. There were three top fives ... and two finishes worse than 30th. If you've gotten the bad juju out of the way this year, 2014 looks awfully bright. If you haven't, well, the sample size of the Chase won't be any more forgiving next year.

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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
Follow @NickBromberg

Previous Reviews: No. 13 Carl Edwards, No. 14, Brad Keselowski, No. 15 Jamie McMurray, No. 16 Martin Truex Jr., No. 17 Paul Menard, No. 18 Aric Almirola, No. 19 Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 20, Jeff Burton, No. 21 Juan Pablo Montoya, No. 22 Marcos Ambrose, No. 23 Denny Hamlin, No. 24 Casey Mears, No. 25 Mark Martin, No. 26 David Gilliland, No. 27 Danica Patrick, No. 28 David Ragan, No. 29 Tony Stewart, No. 30 Dave Blaney

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nascar-from-the-marbles/2013-exit-interview-no-12-kasey-kahne-162036675--nascar.html

Clemente Biondetti Pablo Birger Art Bisch Harry Blanchard

The latest from Grenoble

Doctors treating Michael Schumacher at the CHU in Grenoble say that he is in a more stable condition today after undergoing a second operation during the night. This highlighted the unstable state of the situation as yesterday the surgeons said that they did not envisage a second intervention. Once again the operation was deemed necessary […]

Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2013/12/31/the-latest-from-grenoble/

John Cordts David Coulthard Piers Courage Chris Craft

It?s Your 2013 Exit Interview: No. 28 David Ragan

Welcome to From the Marbles' 2013 driver reviews. Here, we're going to critique, praise and bloviate about the top 30 drivers in the 2013 NASCAR season. David Ragan, it's your turn.

David, thanks for stopping by today. We're going to cut to the chase -- that's lowercase, by the way, we'll get to the final 10 races of the season in a moment.

That Talladega win of yours was one of the most dramatic races of the season. Maybe it was the delay, maybe it was impending darkness, or maybe it was simply the drive of yours and David Gilliland's to charge to the front and win the race. That was one of the best NASCAR moments of the year.

Plus, it gave your team its first taste of success and we're proud of that too. It's always great when different departments have great achievements, and we understand the jealous that can happen when certain other departments are seemingly celebrating every week. We apologize for being unable to regulate the budgets across the board.

Now let's talk about the Chase. Your engine group really let you down in three of the final four races and it's unfortunately reflecting in this exit interview. Of course, we know that it's not your fault and we're going to grade you accordingly -- you can't drive a car competitively without a working engine. However, we'd be doing this a couple days later if it wasn't for that.

You seem very comfortable at Front Row and we're glad to see that you want to continue with the team for another season. They seem to like you around and there's potential. Your qualifying efforts were starting to look up and until Martinsville, the engine department was pulling its weight. And we're also glad that you're going to be able to represent your team at the All-Star function next May because of that Talladega win. We know you're really looking forward to that.

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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

Follow @NickBromberg

Previous Reviews: No. 29 Tony Stewart, No. 30 Dave Blaney

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nascar-from-the-marbles/exit-interview-no-28-david-ragan-135026431--nascar.html

Martin Brundle Gianmaria Bruni Jimmy Bryan Clemar Bucci

NASCAR releases rule changes for 2014, including increased spoiler height

NASCAR announced rule changes for 2014 on Tuesday, including an increased rear spoiler height and no front ride height measurements pre and post-race.

The sanctioning body held a test last week to try out four configurations, including one with an approximate 100 horsepower reduction. However, horsepower will not be reduced next season.

The spoiler adjustment is a three/fourths inch raise from last year's 7.25 inch height to eight inches. Will help create a larger hole in the air for cars in traffic? It may "dirty" the air more with turbulence, but NASCAR also increased the radiator pan size from 38x13 inches to 43x13 to help increase front downforce.

Last season, multiple penalties were handed out for teams failing to meet post-race height requirements. (Typically a six-point penalty). Now that's not an issue with no minimum ride height requirements.

The leading edge of the front splitters will also be square and the side skirts of the cars will be slightly lower while the rear sides of the cars will be slightly higher.

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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

Follow @NickBromberg

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nascar-from-the-marbles/nascar-releases-rule-changes-2014-including-increased-spoiler-201032326--nascar.html

David Brabham Gary Brabham Jack Brabham† Bill Brack

A Ramble on Tires, Push and the Future

As the season reaches the halfway point the future of indycar is starting to look quite bright. Something as simple as an in-depth look at the odd link between downforce, pushy racecars and tires, a bone of contention in their … Continue reading →

Source: http://anotherindycarblog.wordpress.com/2013/07/02/a-ramble-on-tires-push-and-the-future/

Felice Bonetto Jo Bonnier Roberto Bonomi Juan Manuel Bordeu

Ana Carrasco To Stay In Moto3 For 2014 With RW Racing

Ana Carrasco will have a second season in Moto3. The 16-year-old Spaniard has signed a one-year deal with Dutch Moto3 team RW Racing GP to race their Kalex KTM in 2014.

Carrasco had a positive rookie season in Moto3, ending the year with points in two races, as well as scoring the best result for a female rider in 18 years when she finished 8th at Valencia. But her performance was overshadowed by her teammate at Team Calvo, where Maverick Viñales became world champion. Despite being teammates, the two were on very different bikes, Viñales racing on a fully-factory supported KTM, where Carrasco competed on the basic KTM Moto3 bike.

Team Calvo had expressed an interest in retaining the services of Carrasco for 2014, but to do that, she would have to being money to fund the ride. Carrasco had been raising sponsorship through a Spanish website, but it was not enough to get her seat. 

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MotoGPMatters/~3/8ycdWUPXtrg/ana_carrasco_to_stay_in_moto3_for_2014_w.html

Jaime Alguersuari Philippe Alliot Cliff Allison Fernando Alonso

It?s Your 2013 Exit Interview: No. 29 Tony Stewart

Welcome to From the Marbles' 2013 driver reviews. Here, we're going to critique, praise and bloviate about the top 30 drivers in the 2013 NASCAR season. It's time for Tony Stewart.

Thanks for stopping by, Tony. It's a good thing you had accrued all that sick time since you joined us and you're able to cash it in right now. You can't take it with you when you go, and we're glad that you had a legitimate medical reason for the withdrawal.

But we're not going to talk about that gnarly leg injury of yours in detail. We get squeamish around blood and open flesh. Please don't show us any pict... Aw crap. Why did you show us that picture? BRB, gotta puke.

OK, as we were saying. Your performance this year was sub-par, though it was getting better in August. You did pull that Dover win out of nowhere after Juan Pablo Montoya once again decided that success wasn't for him. Though to be fair, that Jimmie Johnson guy absolutely handed that win to Montoya on a platter, who ended up giving it to you because it had an ingredient he didn't like. We've never known you to pass up food, so you seized on that like a hyena on a rotting wildebeest.

And that was a good thing too, because hyenas sometimes don't know when their next meal is coming from, so they gorge themselves to feel full as long as possible. That win ended up tiding you over for a while -- and I still hope it is. We didn't wear meat-scented cologne on purpose today. We didn't want you getting any delusions.

You also supervise your own department -- though we have some formal request letters from Gene Haas here that seem to contradict that -- and we're interested to see how your decision to reassign Steve Addington to the Phoenix Racing chapter turns out. Michael Waltrip's area did have a lot of layoffs recently, and you seem to be taking a liking to their former folks. We're glad that in such an aggressive time of expansion that you're able to keep a lot of people in-house.

However, we do ask of you one small favor. If you ever win another title, please don't get rid of Chad Johnston as soon as you do. This pattern of constant turnover is going to start wearing on our human resources department and they're already bracing for Kurt Busch's arrival to your area. Think of them, Tony. Think of them.

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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

Follow @NickBromberg

Previous Reviews: No. 30, Dave Blaney

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nascar-from-the-marbles/2013-exit-interview-no-29-tony-stewart-203604775--nascar.html

Red Amick Chris Amon Bob Anderson Conny Andersson