Saturday

Lewis Hamilton: ?I was very, very shocked that the team would ask me to do that??

Lewis Hamilton has made it clear that he was surprised that Mercedes asked him to move over for Nico Rosberg in Hungary. The pair came together on track while running different strategies, with the German on soft tyres and planning … Continue reading

Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2014/07/27/lewis-hamilton-i-was-very-very-shocked-that-the-team-would-ask-me-to-do-that/

Karl Gunther Bechem Jean Behra Derek Bell Stefan Bellof

Thursday

NASCAR Closes Fueling Loophole

NASCAR issued a technical bulletin to teams this week with some new language regarding where fuel filler cans could be filled at the track. The new rule basically states that fuel cans can only be filled at the designated Sunoco fueling stations in the infield. This move by NASCAR closes a loophole that some teams […]

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheNascarInsiders/~3/47brgfEztnU/

Colin Chapman Dave Charlton Pedro Matos Chaves Bill Cheesbourg

Wednesday

Carl Edwards leaving Roush at the end of 2014 while Greg Biffle is staying

INDIANAPOLIS ? Roush Fenway Racing will be a three-car team in 2015 and one of those cars will not be driven by Carl Edwards.

The long-rumored possibility of Edwards leaving the team following the 2014 season became a reality on Sunday morning when Roush announced that Greg Biffle had signed a contract extension with the team while Edwards would not return.

?I will always be thankful for Carl?s contribution and the role he played in many Roush Fenway wins and championships,? team owner Jack Roush said in a statement. ?We wish him well for the future. �In the meantime, we are excited about continuing our quest for a championship with Carl and the No. 99 team in 2014.?

When asked if Edwards gave him a reason for leaving the only Sprint Cup team he's driven for, Roush said Edwards didn't provide specifics. He also said that Edwards' decision to not return has been made for over a month.

"(Edwards) didn't give me his reason, you'll have to ask him about that," Roush said while adding that he didn't ask Edwards for it.

In the garage, Edwards once again declined to provide specifics about his future destination saying there were "a lot of moving parts" and added it was unfortunate that the announcement of his departure happened on the morning before a race.

Joe Gibbs Racing is seen as the likely landing spot for Edwards. With three cars currently�? Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth�? the team can expand to a fourth car without changing its current driver lineup.

Wherever Edwards goes, he'll need a new primary sponsor. As part of its announcement Sunday, the team said that Fastenal would move over to the No. 17 of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. next season. Biffle, Stenhouse and Trevor Bayne will be the team's three full-time drivers in 2015. Bayne will be driving the No. 6 next year and Roush President Steve Newmark said that barring any unexpected developments, the No. 99 won't be in use full-time by Roush next season.

Edwards, who is sixth in the points standings, has Roush's only two wins in 2014. Once considered the standard bearer for intermediate-length race tracks, the team hasn't had the outright speed of the Hendrick-powered and Team Penske cars this season.

He got his first break at Roush in the Sprint Cup Series in 2004, jumping in the No. 99 for Jeff Burton, who left the team during the season. In nine full seasons and parts of two others, Edwards has 23 race wins, including nine in 2008. In 2011, he tied with Tony Stewart atop the points standings but lost the title via tiebreaker because Stewart had more wins.

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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!

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nascar-from-the-marbles/carl-edwards-leaving-roush-at-the-end-of-2014-while-greg-biffle-extends-contract-145334347.html

Ivan Capelli Piero Carini Duane Carter Eugenio Castellotti

2014 NASCAR World Cup: Is it Jimmie Johnson's Group A to lose?

Throughout the summer we're running our second NASCAR World Cup. Will Carl Edwards repeat? Or will someone else take the title? Click here for a NASCAR World Cup explanation and a list of all the groups.

Group A: Jimmie Johnson (4th in points, 2 wins), Brian Vickers (13th, 0), Aric Almirola (19th, 0), Danica Patrick (28th, 0)

Michigan Matchups: Johnson vs. Vickers, Almirola vs. Patrick

Sonoma Matchups: Johnson vs. Patrick, Vickers vs. Almirola

Kentucky Matchups: Johnson vs. Almirola, Vickers vs. Patrick

While Johnson is the clear favorite in the group, two of the three group stage tracks are of the four current Sprint Cup tracks he's never won at. Does that mean he's in danger? Probably not. Johnson is winless at Michigan and Kentucky, but sample size delegitimizes the track in the Bluegrass State. There have only been three Cup races there and he's finished in the top 10 all three times. Michigan is one of Johnson's worst tracks in terms of average finish, but he was in the running in the August 2012 race until a blown engine on lap 195 secured the win for Greg Biffle.

Outside of Johnson, the winner of the Vickers and Almirola matchup at Sonoma could decide who advances out of the group. And if that's the case, we give a slight edge to Vickers. He's got just one top 10 in eight Sonoma starts but has run in the top 20 four other times. Almirola has just three Sonoma starts but he's finished 28th, 28th and 20th. Don't discount Danica Patrick, either. She ran well at Michigan last year though any road course advantage she has is muted by facing Johnson at Sonoma. That matchup could be what prevents her from getting out of the group:

Projected standings: Johnson 2-1, Vickers 2-1, Almirola 1-2, Patrick 1-2

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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!

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nascar-from-the-marbles/2014-nascar-world-cup--is-it-jimmie-johnson-s-group-a-to-lose-215303476.html

Gerhard Berger Eric Bernard Enrique Bernoldi Enrico Bertaggia

Tuesday

Happy Hour: Kyle Busch, road courses, rain, dancing and more

Throughout the week you can send us your best questions, jokes, rants and just plain miscellaneous thoughts to happyhourmailbag@yahoo.com or @NickBromberg.We'll post them here, have a good time and everyone's happy.

A little non-NASCAR for a second. Looks like F1 wants to do standing restarts in 2015. Yeah, I realize that restarts don't happen all that often in Formula 1, but what the heck?

Standing starts are great for the beginning of the race, and they're going to be incredibly enjoyable for restarts. I'm not complaining about the potential entertainment, it just looks like a blantant attempt for more excitement.

Onto the fun.

Assuming Kyle Busch never wins a championship, who do you think would go down as the best driver to never win a title? Kyle Busch or Mark Martin? - Paul

You have to say Kyle Busch, simply because of all of the wins, right? He already has Mark Martin's record for Nationwide Series victories and on his current pace if his NASCAR career spans 25 years, he'll have over 260 wins in each of NASCAR's three series. Sure, his 200+ wins may not be the same as Richard Petty's 200 wins, but if Busch gets to 300, that's in a class by itself.

But that being said, if Busch gets to 300, he has a Sprint Cup title, right? The highest he's ever finished in the Cup Series standings is fourth while Martin has finished second five times. Do those five second place finish override Busch's hundreds of wins if he doesn't have five second-place finishes and never wins a title? Because of the Chase format (especially the new one), I don't think so. But it'd be an interesting debate.

Ultimately, Busch is going to win one. I'll be utterly stunned if he doesn't.

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Yes, I think NASCAR does, because I think the schedule eventually gets overhauled. I don't think that overhaul will be next year or maybe even the year after, but after messing with the Chase so many times, the schedule has to be fiddled with as well. Especially if interest continues to stagnate or trend downward.

What road course will it be? That's an incredibly intriguing question. How would a race at the Circuit of the Americas sound? Great, right? Yeah, but politics may get in the way of that one. Texas Motor Speedway would be none too happy with having a Cup race within 500 miles of its radius and there's the whole "F1 at COTA on the same weekend as Cup at TMS in 2014" thing.

And you know what I think would be an incredibly fun idea? What about adding a roval to the Cup schedule? Many cup ovals have infield road courses and you could race at a track with an existing date without having to do any date-swapping. Would that make things logistically tough for the normal infield operations? Yes. Would it be a worthy experiment? In my eyes, definitely.

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By itself, the lack of a full field doesn't really change anything for me as I wrote yesterday. It's a symptom of a problem in NASCAR's top three series for sure, but that problem is there whether or not there's 43 cars entered at Kentucky. However, is the symptom a big enough problem for outrage? It's certainly not impacting the racing that people are going to see Saturday night.

For the second question, I don't think so. It'd be a pretty radical departure for NASCAR to strap on rain tires to the Cup cars after the strong reluctance to do so at this point.

And as far as the dancing goes? This is easy. If you haven't seen the Colombian goal dances, you can click here and here for them. And I'm picking Stewart-Haas Racing. Tony Stewart getting his groove on would be hilarious, Kevin Harvick would have to smile, the intrigue of Kurt Busch's rhythym would be tantalizing and there's Danica Patrick, who'd be liable to bring her puppy out to dance with her. Let's make this happen, SHR.

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Can you tell me if there are 43 drivers on the track or just 1 I believe all drivers should be given some air time - I get tired of hearing about the one and only Jimmy and I believe a lot of others feel the same. It is getting to where the MUTE button is used quite often ? wish they would change their broadcast and give more time to the other drivers. - Judy

While I get how fans of teams who don't win races or run at the front regularly can get frustrated at the attention paid to drivers at the front of the field, asking for equitable time is a pipe dream. It's basically the NASCAR version of primetime games on national television in all other sports. There's a reason that the bigger-market teams and most successful teams are put in those games. They attract the most eyeballs. Are you good and/or popular? You're going to get covered more than everyone else It's that simple.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nascar-from-the-marbles/happy-hour--kyle-busch--road-courses--rain--dancing-and-more-210556839.html

Adolf Brudes Martin Brundle Gianmaria Bruni Jimmy Bryan

Monday

Joe Gibbs Racing plane hits Stewart-Haas plane on ground after Sunday's race

There were as many incidents at Concord (N.C.) Regional Airport after Sunday's race than there were during the race itself.

The team plane of Joe Gibbs Racing collided with the Stewart-Haas plane on the ground on Sunday. The left wing of the JGR plane made contact with the back end of the SHR plane.

An SHR spokesperson told the Charlotte Observer that the JGR plane was parking and clipped the SHR plane, which was empty. Both planes had returned from Indianapolis following the Brickyard 400.

The Stewart-Haas plane is valued at $11 million according to Sports Business Journal.

The only crash in Sunday's Cup race involved Trevor Bayne, who hit the inside wall after a tire went down on his car.

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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!

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nascar-from-the-marbles/joe-gibbs-racing-plane-hits-stewart-haas-plane-on-ground-after-sunday-s-race-185454386.html

Jimmy Davies Colin Davis Jimmy Daywalt JeanDenis Deletraz

Sunday

Gibbs Ultimately Owns This Penalty

Have you ever gotten a speeding ticket? If the answer’s yes, did you try telling the officer, ‘that wasn’t my intent’? Or maybe you were just a MPH or two over the limit, did you try telling him, ‘I wasn’t speeding that much’? When he got done laughing at you, did he still write you […]

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George Amick Red Amick Chris Amon Bob Anderson