The second World Superbike race at Monza once again demonstrated the kind of excitement that only a fast track can deliver.
Wednesday
A dream win: Matt Kenseth wins at Darlington for third win of 2013
The significance of winning at Darlington is no more evident than when a two-time Daytona 500 champion emerges from his car and says it's the biggest of his career.
That two-time 500 champion is Matt Kenseth, and he passed teammate Kyle Busch with 14 laps to go to take the lead of Saturday night's Bojangles Southern 500 to get his first win at Darlington and third win of the season. And it's a win that comes just three days after Kenseth's team saw the penalties that NASCAR levied against it after his win at Kansas severely lessened.
"Honestly, I've only dreamed about winning the Southern 500," Kenseth said. "This to me feels to me probably bigger than any win of my career. So I really feel bad that (crew chief Jason Ratcliff)'s not here, this is obviously his team and his effort but (interim crew chief Wally Brown) did a great job filling in and all these guys behind me. We had a fifth or sixth place car, fighting loose and those last two adjustments were just awesome."
[Related: Denny Hamlin returns from broken back to finish second at Darlington]
On Tuesday, it wasn't too farfetched to think that Kenseth could miss the Chase this year. Now, there's no doubt that he'll be in the 12 driver field after Richmond in September.
After Kansas, when NASCAR found that Kenseth's car had a connecting rod in the engine that was less than three grams too light, Kenseth was penalized 50 points, saw the win removed from counting towards the Chase and his crew chief, Jason Ratcliff, was suspended for six races and fined $250,000 (among other penalties). On Wednesday, an appeals panel gave Kenseth 38 of those points back, the three points in the Chase for the win back, and reduced Ratcliff's suspension to just for Saturday night's race.
(And before you ask, yes, Kenseth's car and engine will be taken back for further inspection again, as is customary for every race winner.)
Now Kenseth is third in the points standings and all three of his wins will count towards his bid for the Chase. Just like series points leader Jimmie Johnson, who has two wins, Kenseth and team now don't have to worry about their points standings and attempt to accumulate as many bonus points as possible for the Chase.
Throughout the majority of Saturday night's race, Busch had a stranglehold on the field. At one point, thanks to just one caution during the race's first 302 laps and Busch's dominance, there were just 11 cars on the lead lap.
As the caution flags started to accumulate over the race's last 60 laps, Brown was able to make those adjustments Kenseth mentioned. Though as Busch sprinted out to a one-second lead on the race's final restart, it still looked like his race to lose.
However, Kenseth started making up considerable ground in turns three and four especially, and drove away from Busch, whose car started to slow considerably, evidently from a cut right rear tire. Busch led a race high 265 laps but fell from 2nd to 6th over the race's final nine laps. After the race, the team said the right rear had just 12 pounds of air left in it when the car was brought back to the garage.
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Warped Wednesday: Are pedal cars the next step?
Welcome to Warped Wednesday. On this, we'll put out the rush to judgment mat, go a little too far and have a little fun. Will it be funny? Sometimes. Will it be crazy and largely unbelievable? Probably. Will not everyone get it? Definitely.
While the Sprint Cup Series garage's plans of fielding strictly stock cars for the rest of the season was squashed by the sanctioning body, there's a movement afoot to run pedal cars at this week's race at Richmond.
Just like teams were fearing penalties after what happened to the Penske teams at Texas, they're now in panic mode about Matt Kenseth's engine penalty. Teams are fearing they will now have to be incredibly precise with their measurement, something they haven't had to worry about in the past. One source said that there was a team in the field on Sunday that ran an engine that was a whopping 15 grams too light. Can you imagine the penalty they would have received after a further inspection?
So with a short track race coming up, pedal cars may be the order of the weekend. One team has already been scouting out thick soled shoes in the event that its driver has to drag his feet across the asphalt to come to a halt.
However, going to pedal cars may be a distinct advantage for some teams. Word is that Stewart-Haas Racing is already fighting the movement because despite their slow start the team knows Stewart will be more competitive in a regular car. He has no chance in a pedal car race against Jimmie Johnson or Carl Edwards.
It's the perfect time for this change to take place. Richmond is a short track and while the race is listed as the Toyota Owners 400, it's actually only 300 miles, and drivers will likely be coasting through the corners on many laps.
While NASCAR deterred stock cars at Kansas with seven-figure fines for each team that brought a strictly stock car to the track, the sanctioning body may be between a rock and a hard place on this issue. After all, pedal cars fit seamlessly into the NASCAR Green initiative, and the sport would be looked upon as a hypocrite just after Earth Day if it forced teams to use gasoline instead of human power.
Tuesday
Acura NSX
After years of teasing and concept reveals, the Acura NSX is finally going to be a reality. This was confirmed by a press released from Honda informing us that it had selected a production facility: an all-new, 184,000-square-foot Performance Manufacturing Center in Ohio. This production facility will be inside Honda’s former North American Logistics facility nearby Honda?s R&D and engineering operations.
Little is known about the production version of the NSX except the fact that is will carry a mid-mounted, direct-injected V-6 engine and Acura?s Sport Hybrid SH-AWD system. The Sport Hybrid SH-AWD uses a trio of electric motors ? one mated to the engine and two driving the front wheels ? to help boost the V-6 engine?s performance and overall vehicle stability. The latest concept?s engine hooked up to a dual-clutch transmission and we expect the same from the production model. Unfortunately, Honda released no information on the total output and performance of the NSX, so we are in the dark here. We do figure to see at least 400 horsepower from the 2016 NSX and a 0-to-60 mph time around 4 seconds.
The 2013 NSX Concept is likely the one that is most similar to what the NSX will actually look like, minus the crazy headlights and wheels. The red and black leather interior is very realistic for production and the body isn?t too over the top to be considered for production.
Production will begin in Ohio in 2015, making this a 2016 model year not the 2015 model year that anticipated earlier. We will keep you updated as more information becomes available.
Click past the jump to read more about the NSX Concepts
*Image Note: All Images are of the various NSX concepts, not the production model
Acura NSX originally appeared on topspeed.com on Tuesday, 14 May 2013 16:00 EST.
Source: http://www.topspeed.com/cars/acura/2016-acura-nsx-ar155562.html
2013 Monza World Superbike Superpole Results: Three High Speed Sessions
Superpole was blessed with the promised good weather, allowing the riders to get on with pushing their machines down the multiple high-speed sections of the old Italian track. The qualifying tyres were pink-ringed for Mother's Day instead of having their usual yellow stripe.
Track Position Could Be Key At Daytona
While you are taking a breather from the non-stop Danica coverage, consider this: this year’s Sprint Unlimited had 17 less lead changes than last year’s Bud Shootout. Granted the 2012 Shootout was seven laps longer, but it also wasn’t broken up into segments which kept the field together. Combine the number of lead changes with [...] 
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Jaime Alguersuari Philippe Alliot Cliff Allison Fernando Alonso
Monday
Lewis stays ahead
Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time of the Q2 session in Spain on Saturday, beating the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel, the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen’s Lotus. Completing the top 10 were Mark Webber, Nico Rosberg, Sergio Perez, Felipe Massa, Romain Grosjean and Paul di Resta. Knocked out were Daniel Ricciardo and […]
Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2013/05/11/lewis-stays-ahead/
Jaime Alguersuari Philippe Alliot Cliff Allison Fernando Alonso
Ford earns more in the first quarter of 2013
Ford earns more in the first quarter of 2013, despite Europe Ford announced yesterday that netso revenues were up 15% in the first quarter of this year compared to the first quarter of 2012, despite its poor performance in Europe. In Europe, things are getting worse for Ford, for the first quarter of 2013 has [...]
Source: http://www.autocarblog.co.uk/453-ford-earns-more-in-the-first-quarter-of-2013.html
Kyle Larson blows tire and narrowly misses safety truck during Texas Nationwide race
Kyle Larson avoided a Juan Pablo Montoya-like incident after blowing a tire on the backstretch under caution during Friday night's Nationwide Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.
Just laps earlier, Larson had caused the caution after spinning off of turn four. He didn't hit anything, and to stay on the lead lap, his team only changed right side tires. As Larson was accelerating coming out of the pits to catch back up to the field, his left front tire blew and his car went sliding towards the sweeper truck that was hugging the inside wall.
As the car was careening towards the truck, it wouldn't turn back to the right because of the blown tire. Though thankfully at the last moment, it appeared that Larson was able to get the car to dart to the left and miss hitting the truck, and his car pounded the inside wall.
In last year's Daytona 500, a part failed on Juan Pablo Montoya's car as he was speeding to catch up to the field under caution and he went sliding into a jet dryer in turn three. The collision resulted in an explosion and fire that delayed the race for over two hours. The driver of the jet dryer was unhurt. (There was no jet dryer on the back of the truck that Larson missed.)
Larson, who is signed as a developmental driver for Chip Ganassi, Montoya's Sprint Cup Series car owner, was also the driver whose car was ripped apart in the catch fence in the crash on the final lap of the season opening Nationwide Series race that injured at least 28 fans at Daytona. As the pack was racing to the finish, Larson's car was catapulted into the fence and the engine was ripped from its mounts upon the impact with the fence. Larson was uninjured in the crash.
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Mбrio de Araъjo Cabral Frank Armi Chuck Arnold Rene Arnoux
2013 Monza World Superbike QP2 Results: Drying Track Restricts Progress
A storm hit Monza overnight and, in spite of the sun, the morning's qualifying session was declared wet. The track dried out towards the end, allowing a few riders to improve their positions from yesterday and sort out the lower slots for Superpole later. Without a complete dry session, the afternoon's free practice will be crucial to get a setting for both qualifying and racing. Marco Melandri remained in provisional pole, alongside Jonathan Rea, but Sylvain Guintoli was fastest in the session, improving his time, if not his position, from yesterday.
Results:
Jimmy Daywalt JeanDenis Deletraz Patrick Depailler Pedro Diniz
Sunday
Craziest Moment: Major Talladega wreck sends Kurt Busch flipping onto Ryan Newman
TALLADEGA, Ala. - Pack racing is a thrilling spectacle because the threat of a catastrophic wreck is present on every inch of the track. And it doesn't take much to turn pack racing into pack wrecking.
With only a half-dozen laps remaining, the front of the field was tighter than a white-knuckle fist. At that speed, with such little distance between cars, the tiniest mistakes magnify. And that's exactly what happened. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. appeared to bounce off the wall, sending J.J. Yeley right into Kurt Busch. Busch vaulted into the air and began flipping, and only stopped when he landed atop the hood of Ryan Newman.
That set off a cascade of wrecks; Terry Labonte and Danica Patrick sustained enough damage to go to the garage. And, naturally, it also set off the drivers involved.
?My mom doesn?t come to four races a year ? Daytona and Talladega. Wonder why," said Kurt Busch, in a postrace interview that lasted all of about eight seconds. When told he still had a good race, he replied, "Good races don't matter if you leave on a hook. We'll end up only getting about seven points out of this." (He actually got 15, for what it's worth.)
Ryan Newman was even more pointed in his criticism. "They can build safer race cars, they can build safer walls, but they can't get their heads out of their asses far enough to keep them on the race track, and that's pretty disappointing," Newman said. "I wanted to make sure I get that point across, and y'all can figure out who 'they' is." (Spoiler: "They" is NASCAR.)
David Ragan would go on to win the race, but less than half the field would finish on the lead lap. And Talladega would once again live up to its reputation as the most dangerous, and controversial, track on the circuit.
-Follow Jay Busbee on Twitter at @jaybusbee.-
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
Four-stop races ?is too much?, says Horner | 2013 Spanish Grand Prix
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says the Spanish Grand Prix showed the current generation of tyres are too aggressive.
Source: http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2013/05/12/fourstop-races-horner/
Man shoots self in infield at NRA 500
The death of a man in the infield of Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday night during the Sprint Cup Series NRA 500 has been ruled a suicide from a gunshot to the head, according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's office.
The incident happened late in the race when Kirk Franklin, 42, of Saginaw, Texas, apparently got into an argument with other campers, according to the Associated Press. Track spokesperson Mike Zizzo said Saturday night that the incident happened "in or around a pickup truck" in the infield.
Firearms were prohibited by Texas law from being brought in to the track by fans. The NRA's sponsorship of the race came under scrutiny when it was announced earlier this year after Michael Waltrip ran a Sandy Hook benefit car at the Daytona 500 encouraging fans to text to give to Newtown, Conn. It was the NRA's first Sprint Cup Series sponsorship; it sponsored the Nationwide Series race at Atlanta Motor Speeedway in September.
As is custom for all race sponsors, the NRA was offered the chance to buy the premium ad package from Fox Sports that would include commercial time, sponsor mentions and graphics with the race name. The NRA declined, and thus the race was presented without a sponsor on in-race graphics and the Fox broadcast mentioned the title sponsor once an hour. Earlier in the week, Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy (D) wrote a letter to Fox to ask the network not to broadcast the race.
The NRA's sponsorship met and passed all NASCAR guidelines for sponsorship approval, but the sanctioning body said on Friday that it would take a closer look at other factors when going through its standard sponsorship approval process moving forward.
In 2008, a fan was hit by a stray bullet at Texas Motor Speedway after a gun was shot into the air and the bullet came into her RV through the roof and landed in her arm.
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-Follow Nick Bromberg on Twitter at @NickBromberg-
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