Source: http://www.16thandgeorgetown.com/2012/05/wheldon-receives-winners-ring.html
Thursday
Power Rankings: FroDaddy Jimmie Johnson is back
The race is done, and that means it's time for Power Rankings. Each week throughout the season, we'll size up who's rising and who's falling, based on current standings, behind-the-scenes changes, expected staying power, recent history and general gut feelings. It is not scientific, nor is it meant to be. And remember, whoever your favorite driver is, we're biased against him and like someone else better. We continue with a guy who's strangely familiar...
1. Jimmie Johnson: People love to throw around conspiracy theories for why Johnson is doing so well. Next time someone does, ask them this question: Why? Why would NASCAR benefit a driver who, while popular, clearly isn't the biggest draw in NASCAR? I mean, unless they were TRYING to benefit Junior and Jimmie kept swiping his cars out of the garage and putting a 48 on them. Wait a second... Last week: 2.
2. Matt Kenseth: Another strong afternoon for Kenseth; he was the best of a bunch of cars chasing Johnson and Jeff Gordon. Kenseth fans have a pretty big chip on their shoulder about how their guy doesn't get much media coverage. They have to just settle for having their guy run right up front every single race. That must really suck for them. Last week: 6.
3. Kasey Kahne: Anybody ever watch that HBO show "Oz"? It was the last of the pre-"Sopranos" HBO shows where the creators could do whatever insane ideas popped into their heads without the whole world watching. One of the worst dudes on the show was a vicious white supremacist named Vern Schillinger, and he was played by the same guy that's the professor in those Kasey Kahne University of Farmers commercials. All of which is to say: Kasey, don't ever turn your back on that guy. Last week: 3.
4. Greg Biffle: Hey, Biff. It's Busbee. Look, I'm sorry. I picked you this week. I really thought you were going to come through. I really thought this was the continuation of something special for you. Instead, I doomed you to an 11th-place finish. Really, really sorry about that. Last week: 1.
5. Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Junior is now piling up top-10 after top-10, and you know what? The haters are still out in force. It's like they're redoubling their efforts. If Junior actually does win, they'll say he doesn't win enough. And if he wins the Cup, they'll say he still has to win six more to catch his daddy. In other words, the fact that Junior doesn't go door-to-door with a crowbar ought to qualify him for sainthood. Last week: 5.
6. Denny Hamlin: The Ham-n'-Eggers (the name for Hamlin fans that I just made up) tore me a new one last week for ranking him so low. And then he goes out and posts an 18th-place finish, barely hanging onto the lead lap. Moral of the story: don't ever cheer for anybody, anytime. They'll immediately tank the very next week. Last week: 7.
7. Kyle Busch: You know who's looking the best in the whole "Kurt Busch has gone crazy" fiasco? His bro Kyle. At this point, Kyle could go kick an orphan (note: not recommended) and people would say, "Yeah, that wasn't very nice, but at least he didn't cuss while he did it." That's a good place to be, when your brother is a bigger mess than you. My brothers tell me it's very nice. Last week: 4.
8. Kevin Harvick: At last, Harvick returns to the top of the leaderboard, posting a second-place finish but still, like, miles behind Johnson for the win. Harvick did this while sliding through the pit box. That's some serious wheeling there. I think it's probably due to the Jimmy John's sandwiches. Harvick knows they've got their eye on Jimmie Johnson (may not be true), and so is doing all he can to stay on their good side. Last week: 12.
9. Martin Truex Jr. On Twitter, Truex got upset that ESPN called his little bro "Ryan Truex Jr." Dude! Don't get upset about that! You two need to bond together and make one package driver, RyTin Truex Jr.! You guys could dominate! (...yeah, I haven't got much to write about Truex this week.) Last week: 10.
10. Brad Keselowski: Fairly quiet weekend for @Kes, who finished 12th and didn't make a whole lot of noise, for good or ill. It's not yet time for him to begin worrying about the Chase, since there is that wild card, but he needs to turn these 12th-place finishes into 7th-place ones to be secure. Last week: 8.
11. Tony Stewart: This is Smoke's power: both Landon Cassill and Regan Smith were visibly terrified of him in TV interviews. Smith admitted to a wreck that wasn't even his fault. That, my friends, is power. Tony doesn't even need to use the ol' Chrome Horn; the very threat of doing so is enough to scare at least the back half of the field into line. Last week: 11.
12. Clint Bowyer: What's up, Rawhide? Looking good here after a 5th-place finish. Bowyer's "Here I Go Again" karaoke is the latest in awkward driver-singing commercials. Wouldn't it be great if one driver had a killer voice? My bet is on Mark Martin. I'll bet that guy sings like Barry White. Last week: NR.
Dropping out of the rankings: Carl Edwards.
Lucky Dog: Aric Almirola. There are certain drivers whose names raise an eyebrow when they show up in the top 10 during the race. You assume it's during pit stops or something like that. But lo and behold, Almirola showed up in the top 10 and stayed there, finishing 6th on the day. The missing "E" in his first name is for "excellent."
DNF: Juan Pablo Montoya got caught up in the early-race wreck and was never a factor afterward. Poor guy has done absolutely nothing to kill those "jet dryer" jokes, and probably never will. Unless he hits a bus or something. (That's not a suggestion, JPM.)
Presenting your 2013 NASCAR Hall of Fame Class
The 2013 inductees to the NASCAR Hall of Fame were decided on Wednesday, and making the cut were Buck Baker, Cotton Owens, Herb Thomas, Rusty Wallace and Leonard Wood.
Thomas and Wood tied with 57 percent of the vote. Wallace, the driver with 55 Sprint Cup wins who is now an analyst for ESPN's NASCAR coverage, got 52 percent of the vote. Owens had 50, and Baker and Fireball Roberts had the first tie of the first three Hall of Fame voting sessions with 39 percent.
That necessitated a re-vote for the final spot, which Baker got. The five will be inducted on February 8.
Current NASCAR team owners Rick Hendrick and Richard Childress were both on the ballot, but neither were in the top eight in the voting.
Baker: Baker won 46 races and 45 poles during his driving career which was from 1949-1976. He was the first driver to win consecutive NASCAR championships.
Owens: Owens won 9 races as a driver, including the first NASCAR win for Pontiac, and 38 races as an owner. He and NASCAR Hall of Famer David Pearson won 27 races together.
Thomas: While Baker was the first to win back-to-back NASCAR titles, Thomas was the first two-time champion, winning in 1952 and 1954. He won 48 times in 228 starts from 1949-1962.
Wallace: The 1989 champion and current NASCAR analyst for ESPN, Wallace won 55 races from 1980-2005.
Wood: Half of the legendary Wood Brothers, who inspired the modern pit crew, Leonard Wood was the team's chief mechanic. Glen Wood was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame earlier in 2012.
Volvo Specified Emerging Markets Premium For Manufacturers In Europe
Volvo is determined to emerge as a manufacturer in the European premium market. After years in which to speak out, have gone unnoticed by the market of the old continent, now the situation is changing … and how. One project that the Swedish firm has in mind to carry out short term is the Polestar [...]
Jay Chamberlain Karun Chandhok Alain de Changy Colin Chapman
Wednesday
Are IndyCar team owners conspiring to get rid of the series? CEO?
Goodness, where do we begin?
Tuesday night, a mere 48 hours and change after Dario Franchitti's third Indianapolis 500 victory, IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard tweeted this:
#INDYCAR @INDYCAR it is true that an owner is calling others trying to get me fired. I have had several owners confirm this. disappointing
Well then...
Thus, the speculation began: who was this owner who made the call? Was it an owner acting independently, or was it a "grassroots" effort with multiple accomplices?It was likely a Chevy owner, thanks to (the poorly named) "Turbogate" appeals process that allowed Honda to keep the compressor cover it introduced in April. (Honda engines have a single-turbocharger while Chevrolet's are twin-turbos.)
Wednesday afternoon, SPEED's Robin Miller said these Chevy team owners were involved:
It doesn't matter if it was Michael Andretti making the calls or that Mario wants a change; this movement was started by John Barnes and Tony George, with a silent endorsement from Kevin Kalkhoven, based on everything I've heard or been told. Roger Penske was calling for the hangman a few weeks ago but evidently has changed his mind.
That's basically every influential Chevy team. Michael Andretti responded on Twitter, calling the report sensationalist and that there was no lynch mob.
Bernard came to the IndyCar Series from the PBR -- not the beer, the Professional Bull Riders -- and it's no secret that he's not a lifelong racer. More of a marketer than a mechanic. And many feel that has been held against him, justly or not.
Dissent within the ranks isn't new to open-wheel racing. Hell, the dissent of the mid-90s is primarily the reason the IndyCar Series is where it is now. Without "The Split," there's a chance that, *gasp*, open-wheel racing is the premier motorsports series in the United States, and NASCAR rise isn't so meteoric.
But the past is the past. In the present, the series is in a tough spot. While ratings for Sunday's 500 were up slightly over last year, the number of viewers for a race on what's now the NBC Sports Network could fit comfortably in Indianapolis Motor Speedway. With that limited reach, sponsorship checks aren't very fat. Plus, the new chassis introduced this year has been more expensive than what owners expected.
Not to mention the Lotus thing, the disappearance of the series from ISC tracks, the financial troubles of some races that are on the schedule and Dan Wheldon's death in last year's season finale.
So yes, Sunday's race was a much-needed positive for the IndyCar Series. Heck, if you surveyed people who watched both the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600, 95 percent would pick the 500 as the days better race. And that may be a conservative estimate.
However, it remains to be seen how much of that momentum will carry over to Sunday's race at Belle Isle in Detroit, or even to the race in Texas on June 9. How many who tuned in to the 500 will find the Detroit race Sunday after the Sprint Cup Series race? Plus, how many of those will be disappointed by the likely severe drop in passing? The Texas race has the potential to be the most exciting race of the IndyCar season. But the black cloud of Las Vegas will be there too.
And so, apparently, is a black cloud over the relationship between one sector of the garage and IndyCar management. This could be nothing -- something that could pass in a few weeks with multiple Chevrolet wins. Or it could be something. Something that ultimately helps the IndyCar Series or something that pushes it further away from the mainstream. We're about to find out.
Carl Edwards: Infected by the NAPA Know-How song just like the rest of us
Carl Edwards gave us an interesting revelation at Charlotte Media Day: when he's behind Martin Truex Jr., he starts singing the "NAPA Know-How" song just like the rest of us. And if you know that song, and everyone who's heard it once does, you know it worms its way into your subconscious, wrapping itself around your cerebral cortex waiting to pop out and make you sing it at inopportune times: your wedding, a funeral, driving around a track at 200 mph.
Here's my question, though: we're most often subjected to this ad while we're watching the race. During that time, shouldn't Carl be, you know, racing? Unless he's got a TV feed in his car, which would explain a lot.
2012 Catalunya Moto3 Race Result: Epic Battle For 2nd Behind Clear Winner
Results and summary of the Moto3 race at Barcelona:
Garage House In Tokyo Subway Cars Placed Directly Into The Living
If there is something I like even more than cars are modern art and design (although I do something completely different), so it’s not hard to imagine how I envy disfigured face when I saw these images. Because you have to make something clear, one thing is the love you have for cars is quite [...]
Tuesday
An Audience with Joe in Montreal
Every Formula 1 fans has questions about the sport, and they all want to feel a little closer to the action. An Audience with Joe gives you the opportunity to do just that. The next audience will be held on Friday,June 8, at the Pub St Paul, 124 rue St-Paul Est, Vieux-Montr�al, Qu�bec H2Y 1G2. [...]
Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2012/06/04/an-audience-with-joe-in-montreal-2/
Joey Logano ushers in a new era of awesome firesuits
Joey Logano's firesuit touting the arrival of a new Hitman video game (Hitman: Absolution) is simply magnificent. Logano sported this natty beauty for Saturday's Nationwide race, where he won the pole and would go on to finish sixth.
We hope this entices other sponsors to take some chances with firesuits. Can you imagine Jimmie Johnson in a Captain America suit? (I know, redundant.) We need to suit up our favorite drivers in the best upcoming movie costumes. And Halloween? Forget it. Make this happen, NASCAR sponsors. And roll with it, drivers. Or we'll send Joey to talk with you.
Eugenio Castellotti Johnny Cecotto Andrea de Cesaris Francois Cevert
2012 Catalunya MotoGP Test Round Up: Progress For Some, But Honda Hampered By New Bridgestone
Timesheets don't tell you everything. That much is clear from looking at the results of Monday's MotoGP test after the race. After a race weekend where everything has been focused solely on going faster than the others, the finishing order is not quite as important during testing. Cal Crutchlow summed it up perfectly: "You know when a test is just a test when the race winner by 5 seconds is 7th or 8th. So you can't take anything from today's results."
Crutchlow's day did not start off as planned. The Englishman had a 200 km/h crash on the way into turn 4, which completely wrote off his bike and took a good deal of skin off his shoulders and leg. Crutchlow said it was entirely his own fault, but it is not an unusual crash at Barcelona, as Andrea Dovizioso explained. "I had exactly the same crash in FP1 two or three years ago," he said. The problem is caused by the bridge which runs over the track, which provides just enough shade that when a track is drying after the rain, a few wet spots can still remain, but these are impossible to differentiate from the dry tarmac.
Lost in Transmission: The story of four Americans watching their first Formula 1 race
For my entire sports viewing life, I have dismissed any race involving an automobile as rubbish. How can something be considered a sport if the ?athlete? is sitting down the whole time? Growing up in America, where the motor-racing sport of choice is NASCAR, shaped this view. Listening to people commentate, analyse and write sportsbook [...]
Monday
Virtual freedom fighters?
The police in Montreal are investigating an online campaign designed to disrupt the Canadian Grand Prix on June 10. The threats have been made under the Anonymous banner. Anonymous is a loose collective of hackers and styles itself as an organisation that promotes access to information, free speech, and transparency. However, as it has not [...]
Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2012/06/01/virtual-freedom-fighters/
Practice Rewind? Massive Indy Edition
What a week it?s been! After six days of intense on track action and slowly rising speeds, there is still no true picture on how qualifying will shake out. We always assume that the big dogs will bubble to the … Continue reading 
Source: http://anotherindycarblog.wordpress.com/2012/05/18/practice-rewind-massive-indy-edition/
Mario Andretti Michael Andretti Keith Andrews Elio de Angelis
Bump Day Live Blog! (Update, The Final)
FINAL UPDATE Amid much teeth gnashing, quietly spoken disagreement and silently shattered dreams Bump Day ended with more of a fizzle than a bang. As soon as the qualifying session went green, we saw all nine unqualified machines take to … Continue reading 
Source: http://anotherindycarblog.wordpress.com/2012/05/20/bump-day-live-blog-update-1/
Clint Bowyer recalls Prelude to the Dream triumph
One of the best events of the year isn't even on the Sprint Cup schedule: it's Tony Stewart's Prelude to the Dream, the dirt-track charity event that levels off everyone and brings in some other motorsports stars to compete with your favorite NASCAR cats. Last year, Clint Bowyer won in dominating fashion; here he recalls that triumph and looks ahead to the 2012 showdown.
This year's Prelude to the Dream will take place June 6 at 8pm ET on HBO Pay-Per-View. Check your local cable listings or satellite provider for details on how to order.
Pastrana To Debut With RAB Racing?
When Travis Pastrana, who was in attendance at Texas Motor Speedway, makes his NASCAR debut next weekend at Richmond International Raceway, it may be in a car associated with RAB Racing. Pastrana’s Pastrana 199 Racing has an alliance with Michael Waltrip Racing, but the team hasn’t run it’s #99 Nationwide car since last season and [...] 
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