Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/09/hamiltons_tough_decision.html
Saturday
2014 Brno Moto3 FP2 Result: Marquez Heads Honda Charge
Alex Marquez leads the field by a third of a second, the same gap he trails behind the lap record of 2'07.622 with. Alex Rins, Marquez's Estrella Galicia teammate, and Alexis Masbou round out the all-Honda, all-Alex provisional front row, with Jakub Kornfeil managing to depose this morning's sensation Enea Bastianini.
Results:
Friday
The No. 77 is 'retooling,' which means there are only 42 Cup cars entered at Kentucky
The No. 77 car owned by Randy Humphrey and driven by Dave Blaney has made four Sprint Cup Series starts this season. Its highest finish is 33rd in those four starts. No, the No. 77 has not been a barnburner in the Cup Series.
This week, Humphrey told NASCAR.com that the team was "retooling" and hoped to be back at Indianapolis. After entering the first 15 races of the season, the team skipped Sonoma and, as of now, will miss three more races.
Normally, the absence of a team struggling to make the field in the Cup Series isn't noticeable to most NASCAR fans. But it's notable this weekend. It means that as of Wednesday, the entry list for the Cup race at Kentucky on Saturday night has 42 cars on it. A full field is 43 cars. (Part-time teams like the Wood Brothers and Leavine Family Racing don't have Kentucky on the schedule.)
If the race starts with 42 cars, it'll break a streak that's gone on for more than 12 years. The last time a race was run without 43 cars was at New Hampshire in 2001, when the race was run in November instead of September because of the Sept. 11 attacks. (The race, run on the Friday after Thanksgiving, was set by owner's points at the time of the originally scheduled and the No. 27 team had folded since. Thus, no replacement was found.)
The last time a qualifying session was held with less than a full field in the Cup Series entered? You have to go all the way back to Dover in 1996, according to Jayski.
Is the lack of a 43rd car a big deal? That's up for you to decide, though if you think it is, don't go reaching for the megaphone to exclaim that the sky is falling. It does mean that each of NASCAR's top three series will have had a short field in 2014 and it's become obvious that there are significant barriers to entry for new and/or underfunded teams trying to make it in NASCAR.
But that's the case with or without one more car entered at Kentucky. NASCAR's national series, especially the Cup Series, are extremely close through speeds and scoring monitors. However, close doesn't always equal competitive; it's why wins like Front Row's at Talladega last year are so exciting. Smaller teams simply don't have a chance of winning most every weekend.
It would have been a victory for the No. 77 to finish above 30th at Kentucky, which is why, again, most fans wouldn't notice its absence on Saturday night. But because of it, there looks like there will be 21 full rows starting the race instead of 21.5. Will you notice that? Maybe. Is the absence of the half row indicative of issues facing teams in NASCAR? Definitely. Will it impact the race's outcome or how you view it? Not at all.
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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!
Thursday
Kyle Larson wins the pole at Pocono
Before the June race at Pocono, Kyle Larson's team owner, Chip Ganassi, got him a stick-shift Chevrolet Camaro to practice shifting in. With Pocono, a place where drivers shift, and the road course at Sonoma comng up, Ganassi wanted to make sure Larson knew what he was doing.
The lesson has paid off.
In his first race at the track, Larson absolutely dominated in ARCA and won. The next day, in the Pocono Sprint Cup Series race, he finished fifth. And on Friday, Larson qualified on the pole for Sunday's return trip to Pocono.
It's the second time Larson has started first this season, but it's his first official pole. At Richmond he started first by virtue of having the fastest practice speed as qualifying was rained out.
And guess who was right behind Larson? Yep, the Penske cars. Joey Logano qualified second while Brad Keselowski was third. Kurt Busch will start fourth while Jeff Gordon starts fifth.
There were 43 cars attempting to qualify so no one misses the race.
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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!
Wednesday
Hungarian Grand Prix ? The Top FIVE
Situated just outside of the Hungarian capital, Budapest, the Hungaroring has played host to a race every year since 1986 when it became the first race to take place behind the Iron Curtain. Tight and twisty, the track has never been renowned as an overtaking haven, often heavily favouring drivers who start on the front [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Formula1Fancast/~3/w7Jcsv58_6k/hungarian-grand-prix-the-top-five-2
Tuesday
2014 Indianapolis MotoGP Post-Race Press Releases
Press releases from the MotoGP teams, Bridgestone and Indianapolis Motor Speedway after the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix:
Round Number:
10 Year:
2014 Duane Carter Eugenio Castellotti Johnny Cecotto Andrea de Cesaris
Monday
In his quest for a fifth title, Jeff Gordon wins a fifth Brickyard 400
INDIANAPOLIS ? Jeff Gordon was a confident man on Friday. The confidence was rewarded on Sunday.
A man who admits he isn't the best on restarts "had the restart of my life" with 17 laps to go in the Brickyard 400 and powered past teammate Kasey Kahne for the lead and the eventual win in the first turn.
Kahne was the leader on the restart and chose the inside lane, typically the preferred lane throughout Indianapolis Motor Speedway's four treacherous 90-degree turns. But after the green flag waved, Gordon stayed even with Kahne entering turn one and pinched the No. 5 down as far as he could to the inside. Gordon's car wobbled a bit as he picked up the throttle, but the momentum he gained was more than enough to clear Kahne.
"(Kahne) was loose," Gordon said. "So I knew that if I could get alongside of him that he was going to have a hard time using the throttle up off the corner. I didn't know if that meant we were just going to bump, wreck, be sitting ducks for (Kyle Busch) to go by, what that really meant. But I thought that was our only shot at winning."
And given the monumental impact that clean air had throughout Sunday's race, there was no chance Gordon was going to get caught unless there was another caution to bunch up the field.
There was not.
Friday, Gordon called Sunday's race "by far the best chance we?ve had at winning in a long time." A four-time winner at Indianapolis, Gordon's last win was 10 years ago. And earlier on Friday, thanks to Gordon's win in the first Brickyard 400 and other efforts, Sunday was declared by Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard to be Jeff Gordon day and Gordon received the No. 24 placard from the old scoring tower at the track.
His performance showed his optimism wasn't simply buoyed by the goodwill of the festivities. After qualifying second, Gordon swept past polesitter Kevin Harvick on lap two. And then, despite a vast array of pit strategies that were the sole impetus for lead changes throughout the race, Gordon clearly had the best car throughout the day.
However, until the final caution, Gordon might have been a victim of the clean air that so benefitted him while he was leading. As he was following Kahne before the final caution, Gordon was unable to get near Kahne for a sustained amount of time to set up a pass thanks to the turbulence from Kahne's car. (Kahne ran out of gas coming off turn four on the final lap and finished sixth.)
The win extends Gordon's points lead atop the standings now and also puts him in line to start the Chase near the top too. In 1998 and 2001 Gordon also won the Brickyard 400 as the points leader. In those two seasons, he won the championship.
Of course, the Chase wasn't around back then. There was no reset of points with 10 races to go. But with the way that Gordon is running, the points format may not matter in the quest for title number five.
"I do think we were (the best team) today," Gordon said. "And I think the reason why we're leading the points is because I believe we're the best team. I don't think that always means we have the best race car We've had a lot of great race cars this year and there's been times when I feel like we've needed a little bit more but this weekend we had the best car and the best team, no doubt about it. And that tells me that if you can do it here, you can do anywhere."
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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!
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Sunday
NASCAR World Cup 2014 Week 2: The JGR cars are in trouble
Matt Kenseth, you're Spain. Denny Hamlin, you could be England. Kyle Busch you could be Italy.
Like the European soccer teams above, the Joe Gibbs Racing trio is are in World Cup trouble. Kenseth is already out, while Hamlin and Busch are longshots to make it in.
It hasn't been a pretty stretch for JGR. Busch lost to Kevin Harvick by five spots at Sonoma, Kenseth lost by 23 to Tony Stewart and Hamlin lost by 18 to Marcos Ambrose.
All three drivers are 0-2, but Busch could sneak in by beating Jamie McMurray by more than 21 spots at Kentucky and with a Kevin Harvick win over Casey Mears. It's not impossible, but it's not likely. Same goes for Hamlin. He'd have to beat Marcos Ambrose by 33 spots at Kentucky while Greg Biffle beats Cole Whitt.
The drivers through two rounds guaranteed to make the knockout round are Jimmie Johnson (Group A), Kevin Harvick (Group B), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Group C), Tony Stewart (Group D), Joey Logano (Group D), Greg Biffle (Group F), Jeff Gordon (Group H) and Kyle Larson.
The drivers already eliminated are Aric Almirola (Group A), Busch (Group B), Kenseth (Group D), Justin Allgaier (Group D), A.J. Allmendinger (Group H) and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (Group H).
The group in the biggest state of flux? That's our now-official Group of Death Group E, which has all drivers at 1-1 and within 15 positions of each other on finish differential.
Here are the final round matchups. The standings are embedded in the post below
Group A: Jimmie Johnson vs. Aric Almirola, Brian Vickers vs. Danica Patrick
Group B: Kyle Busch vs. Jamie McMurray, Kevin Harvick vs. Casey Mears
Group C: Dale Earnhardt Jr. vis Michael Annett, Austin Dillon vs. Martin Truex Jr.
Group D: Matt Kenseth vs. Justin Allgaier, Joey Logano vs. Tony Stewart
Group E: Brad Keselowski vs. Clint Bowyer, Paul Menard vs. Kurt Busch
Group F: Denny Hamlin vs. Marcos Ambrose, Greg Biffle vs. Cole Whitt
Group G: Carl Edwards vs. Kasey Kahne, Ryan Newman vs. David Gilliland
Group H: Jeff Gordon vs. Kyle Larson, A.J. Allmendinger vs. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
*Earlier, we said Hamlin was eliminated from the competition. We were incorrect. Chalk that up to FIFA corruption.
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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!
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