Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2013/03/08/jenson-button-its-been-an-extremely-hard-to-read-winter/
Friday
Jenson Button: ?It?s been an extremely hard-to-read winter??
Jenson Button says he?s feeling well prepared heading to Melbourne, but admits ? like everyone else ? that he has no idea how the form book looks. Button has a history of starting the season well, having won the Australian … Continue reading
Thursday
SP-Engineering gets a Nissan Juke R 1.000 horses to the wheels
By now we all know the peculiarities of the Nissan Juke R , a car that Nissan will market finally a disproportionate price in a limited edition only available for a few millionaires. It was hoped that, with a machine like this on the market, some other coach would be challenged to go a little [...]
Source: http://www.autocarblog.co.uk/397-sp-engineering-gets-a-nissan-juke-r-1-000-horses-to-the-wheels.html
F1 has least-experienced driver line-up since 2004 | 2013 F1 season preview
F1 has least-experienced driver line-up since 2004 is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
The loss of some of the sport's longest-serving drivers means the combined experience of the F1 field is at a nine-year low, with five rookies on the 2013 grid.
F1 has least-experienced driver line-up since 2004 is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Source: http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2013/03/07/f1-leastexperienced-field-2004/
Decompressing after Daytona
Random notes and observations after the Daytona 500.
Jeff Burton was not happy after crashing out of Sunday's race. He said the crash was precipitated by a block by one of the cars in front of him. Burton crashed in the tri-oval, and the two cars directly in front of him at the time of the crash were Michael McDowell and Travis Kvapil. However, it's unclear which driver Burton is specifically referring to.
"We were going around one of those cars and he just hung a right on me on the straightaway," Burton said. "Just hung a right. I had to turn right to keep from hitting him and the thing hugh a right, head-on into the wall. It's pathetic to race like that. You've got to be smarter than that. I understand it's plate racing, you've got to try to block, but you can't block somebody that is coming 20 miles an hour faster than you are. It's just completely uncalled for."
- What the heck happened to Jeff Gordon? After making an ill-fated move to the inside line in the middle of Sunday?s race, Gordon worked his way back towards the front of the field near the end. But again, he found himself getting shuffled back. He finished 24th.
?I love the start that we got and we were up front there and in great shape. We lost track position and it didn?t seem like we were ever going to get it back. Then we finally did and those last two restarts just didn?t go very well.?
- McDowell?s 9th place finish was his first top 10 in the Sprint Cup Series.
- JJ Yeley finished 10th for Tommy Baldwin Racing, and that means that kids eat free at Golden Corral. And because Ryan Newman finished in the top 10, Bloomin? Onions are free at Outback Steakhouse. Go forth and overeat.
- The first crash of the day took out both Earnhardt Ganassi cars. You know how Kyle Busch said that his engine failure made it feel like 2012 all over again? I?m sure those struggles were a familiar feeling for the EGR cars as well.
?Somebody backed up to my grille. It was just a little touch,? Montoya said of the incident. I saw them when they were all getting together and I said ?Oh they are wrecking.? And as soon as I said they were wrecking (Kasey Kahne) went left into me. I managed to brake and just touched him a little bit with the the nose.?
Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nascar-from-the-marbles/decompressing-daytona-184115088--nascar.html
Kyle Larson spins CE Falk for late model win at Daytona Battle at the Beach
As the Sprint Cup Series takes a brief break between qualifying and practices for the Budweiser Duels and Daytona 500, Monday and Tuesday are opportunities for drivers from NASCAR's regional and touring series to take to Daytona.
On Monday night, it was the NASCAR All-American Late Model Series and Kyle Larson spun CE Falk for the win as the two headed towards the checkered flag on the 0.4 mile temporary oval on the Daytona backstretch.
The evening's crashfest finally got an extended green-flag run at the end of the race, and Larson rumpled up his front bumper significantly while racing with Ben Rhodes for second place. At first, when Larson got around Rhodes, it looked like the damage on the front end of his car would be too significant to reel in Falk, but over the next laps, Larson did just that, setting up a great 10 lap battle between the two.
Over those 10 laps, the contact that Larson and Falk had made was nothing more than customary short-track late-lap fender rubbing. But on the final lap, Larson gave Falk a shove in turns 3 and 4 and then gave him another, harder one coming out of the corner and sent Falk's car spinning to the inside.
?It's the first race I've ever won in that manner, but this was a pretty big race,? Larson said. ?I wanted to win it. It's the last lap. You have to slow down so much in the center of the corner, I got run on him and got into the back of him. I got underneath him and then got him around. I feel bad for him, but like I said, I wanted to win.?
Larson is driving full-time in the Nationwide Series this season and Tony Stewart guaranteed he will be a star at last week's NASCAR media days. And his performance chasing down Falk with a battered car was evidence in favor of Stewart's guarantee. But that move to spin Falk on the final lap? Well, it's hard to defend that. It's one thing to make contact with a driver in the corner in an attempt to move him out of the way. It's another to smack him coming off the corner like that to really get him out of the way.
Do you have an issue with what Larson did last night? Fair game or a low-blow? Drop us a line in the comments.
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Wednesday
2013 Season Preview: No. 3 Brad Keselowski
As we count down to the 2013 Daytona 500, we're also counting down how we think the Chase will play out this season as predicted by Nick Bromberg, Jay Busbee, Jay Hart and Geoffrey Miller. So sit back, relax, and watch the 2013 Chase unfold before your very eyes. Though you should be warned, we picked Carl Edwards to win last year.
2012 Finish: 1st. 5 wins (Bristol, Talladega, Kentucky, Chicago, Dover)
2013 Predictions:
Bromberg: 3rd
Busbee: 2nd
Hart: 4th
Miller: 3rd
Crew Chief: Paul Wolfe
When we last saw Keselowski: Did Keselowski get to have a live interview on SportsCenter after winning the championship? I can't remember. The champ's fuel strategy moves near the end of the race at Homestead proved to be a non-factor as Jimmie Johnson had rear-end gear trouble and Keselowski was able to clinch the championship before the race ended. (For good measure, however, Keselowski finished 15th, good enough to win the championship even if Johnson would have won the race).
Big Question for 2013: Can anyone not named Jimmie Johnson repeat? Johnson is the only Chase-era winner to repeat (four more times) and Jeff Gordon is the only other active driver with a Cup Series title that has won them back to back. Can Keselowski join them? He proved last season that he had few glaring weaknesses -- something that's visible simply by looking at his wins, which encompass four distinctly different types of tracks. (Oh, he also finished second at Watkins Glen.)
Track most likely to win at: Let's go with Talladega or Bristol, the only two tracks that Keselowski has won more than once at.
Track most likely to require a miracle to win at: Las Vegas has not been Brad's friend. (We'll avoid a snake eyes gambling reference.) In four starts, his highest finish is 26th and last year was derailed by fuel-injection issues.
How Keselowski could win the Chase: Do what he did last year. Deep, eh? Keselowski split the head-to-head battles with his main rival and minimized the points loss at perhaps his worst Chase track, Martinsville, which is Johnson's best. He finished no lower than 15th throughout the entire Chase. Because of that, when Johnson had his first bad finish of the Chase, he wasn't able to recover.
How Keselowski couldn't: You won't find many people who feel that Penske Racing's transition to Ford will be a significant hurdle in Keselowski's title defense. Will there be an adjustment period? Possibly, but it would be a stunner if it took more than a few races.
A Haiku:
I'm a champion
A champion Twitterer
Follow me, will you?
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Hill climbing?
It cannot be easy being a modern racing driver called Hill. Every Formula 1 driver who has had that name surname has been a World Champion: and there have been three of them: Phil Hill won the World Championship in 1961. Graham Hill won in 1962 and 1968, and Damon Hill won in 1996. Phil [...]
Source: https://joesaward.wordpress.com/2013/02/28/hill-climbing/
Enrico Bertaggia Tony Bettenhausen Mike Beuttler Birabongse Bhanubandh
Yamaha FXNytro X-TX 1.75
The Yamaha FXNytro has received some upgrades for 2013. One of the most important modifications is the new 1.75 (44mm) lug track that is great for deep snow.
At the heart of the Yamaha FXNytro X-TX 1.75 lies the Genesis 4-stroke High Output engine which features an advanced fuel-injection system to offer maximum performance and fuel efficiency.
Yamaha?s engineers have also spent a lot of time to make the Yamaha FXNytro X-TX 1.75?s ride comfortable. Thereby the Yamaha FXNytro X-TX 1.75 is equipped with the Dual Shock CK 144 rear suspension, along with assertively tipped up rails. Apart from offering a comfortable ride, the suspension also delivers sharp cornering and outstanding floatation off trail. You also get a fresh dual-keel ski design, a 1.75 lug track and many other new features designed to help you deal effortless with snowy tracks.
Hit the jump for more information on the 2013 Yamaha FXNytro X-TX 1.75.
Yamaha FXNytro X-TX 1.75 originally appeared on topspeed.com on Wednesday, 6 March 2013 09:29 EST.
Danica Patrick, and everyone else in NASCAR, is answering questions about her relationship with Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - It's somehow appropriate, if more than a little ridiculous, that on Valentine's Day, the trending topic at NASCAR's 2013 Media Day is the flowering romance between Sprint Cup competitors Danica Patrick and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Heard about it yet?
Yes, NASCAR will be running a completely new car this season. Yes, drivers will be running for different teams. Yes, there's a new champion. Yes, there's optimism that comes from being just days away from the season's beginning. But, just like in high school, the biggest topic of the day is the homecoming queen and her date.
Not that this is necessarily a bad thing. Patrick draws attention wherever she goes, and she's already becoming a master at using that attention to her own ends. She talked for 30 minutes, far longer than any other driver, and fielded virtually every imaginable question about her relationship with style and humor.
"We've been friends for a long time. I've always gotten along with him," she said. "It was just talking a little more often, and then spending more time together, and it just goes on from there ... There was a point when I said to him, are you going to ask me on a date?"
Say what you will about Patrick, she understands the game. She said she and Stenhouse laughed about the "bump-drafting" jokes, and surely sent a few pulses aflutter when she talked about the logistics of the relationship: "Well, like ... which bus do you sleep in?"
Yeah, Dale Earnhardt never had to deal with that question, did he?
And the questions weren't confined to Patrick. No, almost every driver fielded a "have you ever seen anything like this?" inquiry. ("Sry in advance to all the drivers today about the questions," Stenhouse tweeted early Thursday morning.) As would be expected, the drivers handled the questions with reasonable grace, and to their credit none of them visibly rolled their eyes when it was their turn to take on The Stenica Question.
"Them being together isn't that big a story," Brad Keselowski said. "But if they were to break up, that'd be really interesting." (He added that he wished the best for the happy couple.)
"If it started to affect their on-track performance, I think their sponsors and their team owners would have something to say about that," said Jimmie Johnson.
"Call E! Entertainment News," Casey Mears said, shaking his head. "I mean, this is racing. Let's talk about racing."
Perhaps this is an indictment of the sports media; seeing legendary NASCAR reporters asking questions about a driver's dating history and the moment that sparks flew is unsettling, to say the least. And perhaps it's an indictment of our celebrity-driven culture and what readers want; there's a reason the media doesn't publish articles about other drivers' romantic dalliances.
Line of the day so far, though, went to Joey Logano. When asked if he was surprised about the budding relationship between his competitors, he said, no, "Ray Charles could have seen that one coming."
-Follow Jay Busbee on Twitter at @jaybusbee.-
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Tuesday
Clint Bowyer hits crew member and Travis Kvapil?s car while trying to exit pits
The dangers inherent to pit road were on display again early in Sunday's Sprint Cup Series race at Phoenix.
Clint Bowyer, last year's championship runner up, was in his stall for a two-tire pit stop early in the race and, as is customary for many two-tire stops, hit the gas to leave the pits when the jack was released on the right side of his car. One problem, his front tire-changer and carriers were running in front of the car towards pit wall -- there was an apparent miscommunication about a two and four-tire pit stop.
As he left, Bowyer hit one of his crew members. And then, to add insult to the incident, he hit the rear of Travis Kvapil's car as Kvapil pulled into the stall in front of him.
Bowyer's crew member was unhurt, and as soon as Bowyer hit reverse after making contact with Kvapil, his crew went to work fixing the damage on his car. Bowyer finished 6th.
Michael Bleekemolen Alex Blignaut Trevor Blokdyk Mark Blundell
Reminder Of What It?s Like Being A Race Fan
When you spend your weekends pitting race cars all across the country, you end up talking to a lot of race fans. With the drivers so busy with appearances and the like, the crews have become the next best attraction. The conversations are often short and usually consist of the same basic questions. How do [...] 
TheNASCARInsiders.com
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheNascarInsiders/~3/GLp8xbw0wDg/
BREAKING: Kenseth Out At Roush; To Gibbs
Sources are telling TNI, Roush Fenway executives announced to the organization today that Matt Kenseth would be leaving the team at the end of the season. Despite earlier rumors that Penske would be Kenseth’s destination, all signs indicate Joe Gibbs Racing as the driver’s future home. What that means for the Gibbs teams is not [...] 
TheNASCARInsiders.com
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheNascarInsiders/~3/Vkga0Chqd_E/
Aston Martin Vanquish AM 310 New Promo Clip
Aston Martin knows that is staking its future short-term events such as the Geneva Motor Show , an event related to the automotive world which should be able to dazzle your prospects just to acquire one of their vehicles instead to rival the likes of Ferrari, Lamborghini or McLaren, brands may have in their catalogs [...]
Source: http://www.autocarblog.co.uk/429-aston-martin-vanquish-am-310-new-promo-clip.html
JeanPierre Beltoise Olivier Beretta Allen Berg Georges Berger
Monday
2013 Phillip Island World Superbike Weekend Round Up
The opening race weekend of the year was at a freshly-resurfaced Phillip Island, a job that's needed doing for a while that required building an asphalt batching plant on the island. This 3 million Australian dollar undertaking that required 5,000 tonnes of secret Phillip Island recipe asphalt even carried on into the weekend as support staff were seen pumping seams of epoxy resin into newly formed gaps at the edge of the track after the stresses of the first race.
Pirelli knew of the surface composition in advance, being one of the few people sworn to secrecy by the track owners, and constructed tyres accordingly. The grip levels on the track were increased, causing more abrasion than previously and in the Superbike class, the wheels were increased from 16.5" to 17", throwing two unknowns at Pirelli. Luckily, there were two tests at the island track just before the race, giving everyone the feedback necessary. Unfortunately, the proximity of the test to the race would not give anyone time to make drastic changes, if they became necessary. Going in to the race weekend, this thrust tyre talk to the forefront of any conversation, drowning out even discussions of Ducati's new race bike.
Rossi and Ma Qing Hua at Caterham
Alexander Rossi and Ma Qing Hua have been confirmed as Caterham F1 Team?s Reserve Drivers, joining Charles Pic and Giedo van der Garde in the team. Rossi moves from the role of Test Driver to become the Reserve Driver and will take part in a number of FP1 sessions at races this year, beginning in [...]
Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2013/03/01/rossi-and-ma-qing-hua-at-caterham/
Sunday
The Little Engine That Couldn?t
It?s situation normal on the engine side of things in indycar world. A decision a few years ago is biting them in the rear and there?s not much they can do other than wait out the contract cycle. Ask anyone … Continue reading 
Source: http://anotherindycarblog.wordpress.com/2012/12/27/the-little-engine-that-couldnt/
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