Power Rankings: Does anyone want to challenge Jimmie again?

It's time for Power Rankings! After every race, we'll opine about who we think is at the top of the Sprint Cup heap and how and why they got there. Remember, this isn't scientific, as our formula is the perfect blend of analytics and bias against your favorite driver. So let's get on with it now, shall we?

1. Jimmie Johnson (LW: 1): Johnson recovered nicely from his practice crash and steadily started moving towards the front as soon as the green flag fell. Hell, he was in the top 10 when he started to have engine issues. That's why he gets to stay at the top again this week. Well, maybe it's more because no one else wants to take the top spot from Jimmie yet again.

2. Kurt Busch (LW: 11): Oh why not, right? Who else was going to go here? Three straight top 10s have put Busch in the Chase without having to have a win and his future racing destination is now the silly season topic du jour. And this time, Busch's performance and conduct mean he's got many more options.

3. Kevin Harvick (LW: 8): Lots of movement at the top this week, and Harvick moves back up after three straight finishes outside the top 10. Cupcake got close to Logano over the final laps but wasn't able to get close enough to make a challenge, and when Logano inherited the lead, Harvick's best-case scenario was where he ended up.

4. Kasey Kahne (LW: 5): As the highest finishing Hendrick car, Kahne gets to move up a spot this week. The seventh was good for his Chase chances -- Kahne moved up a spot to 11th -- though he never challenged for the lead. And given that Jeff Gordon was the only other Hendrick driver in the top 20, being the highest finishing Hendrick car wasn't too much of an achievement.

5. Kyle Busch (LW: 2): And once again, the streak lives. Busch was running near the back of the top 10 when he spun and crashed in turn 2. After the team fixed the damage, he spun again, and then his race ended while he was limping the car to pit road with a cut tire.

6. Carl Edwards (LW: 3): Being dropped three spots after finishing 10th is harsh, but Edwards needs to get it in gear if he's going to be mentioned among guys with a championship shot when the Chase begins. He's having a great points season, no doubt, but right now it's one of those seasons that may be a top half Chase finish and nothing more.

7. Matt Kenseth (LW: 6): Kenseth is still on track to start the Chase tied with Johnson, but right now, where would you rank him amongst the 12 driver field? It certainly wouldn't be a surprise if Kenseth won the championship, but it'd be one if he opened Chase betting as a top three favorite.

8. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (LW: 4): Four spots may be harsh for Junior too after he ran well (again) at Michigan and suffered a cut tire, ending his chances at a win. However, he's now getting awfully close to that Chase bubble line. Yes, he's still got a very good shot at making it in, but thinking the opposite was, well, unthinkable a few weeks ago.

9. Clint Bowyer (LW: 9): From first lap spin to fifth place finish. Not shabby at all, and a nice follow up to Watkins Glen. With Johnson's troubles, the gap between he and Bowyer is now less than a full race's worth of points. Just think, Clint could be leading the points after Bristol!

10. Joey Logano (LW: NR): We like to put more stock in the most recent events, so it's a natural tendency to feel that Logano's victory is somehow more significant for the Chase than Martin Truex Jr.'s or Ryan Newman's. But taking recency out of the equation, it's not all that crazy to like Logano's Chase chances the best.

11. Ryan Newman (LW: 7): As long as Truex was inside the top 10, Newman had nothing to worry about as long as a winless driver in 11th-20th didn't get a win. Oops. Now Logano has that win and Truex is out of the top 10. The only scenario that now has Newman likely controlling his own destiny? Winning another race.

12. Brad Keselowski (LW: 10): Safe trumped aggressive in back-to-back weeks for Keselowski, though there was much more of an immediate risk to the potential reward at Michigan. A 12th place finish held serve for @Kes, and he's heading to one of his best tracks.

Lucky Dog: Yes, that really was Paul Menard near the front of the field in the final laps. PFM finished fourth.

The DNF: In the non-Hendrick division the award goes to Bobby Labonte, who finished 35th after a cut tire and spin a week after AJ Allmendinger got the team's first top 10 of the year.

Dropped Out: Martin Truex Jr.

NASCAR video from Yahoo! Sports:

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Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nascar-from-the-marbles/power-rankings-does-anyone-want-challenge-jimmie-again-123848787.html

Roberto Bussinello Jenson Button Tommy Byrne Giulio Cabianca

After Stewart?s surgeries, Stewart-Haas focus shifts to replacement drivers

We know that Max Papis is in Tony Stewart's No. 14 at Watkins Glen. But with the word that Stewart will be out of the car for multiple races, the prevailing topic on Friday in upstate New York was who will replace Stewart after the road course race.

Stewart-Haas Director of Competition Greg Zipadelli said that there were "a couple of really good people" that the team has talked to, but a permanent replacement may not come until Bristol because the Nationwide Series is at Mid-Ohio next week while the Sprint Cup Series is at Michigan. That means the team is potentially looking at three drivers to take Stewart's spot while he's gone.

As Stewart continues to recover from his second surgery on Thursday, Zipadelli said the team would have a better idea of things in a few days as Stewart progresses.

"We would love to put someone in the car until Tony comes back," Zipadelli said. "The problem with next week is that when you look at the schedules and lay out the Nationwide schedule at Mid-Ohio and us at Michigan, they don't match up very well. So somebody would do two half-ass jobs or we could find somebody that's out of the norm and put them in the car and try to go to Michigan and do the best we can. And then hopefully maybe at Bristol we can pick up with one person and maybe be able to do the rest of it and that obviously would be a Nationwide driver."

Those Nationwide drivers would obviously be Chevrolet drivers, and Regan Smith, Austin Dillon and Kyle Larson have been mentioned as candidates for the temporary vacancy. Smith has won in the Cup Series with Furniture Row Racing at Darlington and is running for the Nationwide Series title this year with JR Motorsports. His boss, Dale Earnhardt Jr., would certainly endorse him.

That would seem to be the most seamless of team transitions, as both JRM and SHR are affiliated with Hendrick Motorsports, and Smith also filled in for Junior when he missed two races with a concussion last season.

Dillon drives for his grandfather, Richard Childress, (the team that Kevin Harvick is leaving for SHR on the Cup side in 2014), but he shares a common sponsor with Stewart. Dillon drove the Bass Pro Shops sponsored RCR truck to the 2011 Camping World Truck Series title. Bass Pro shares primary sponsorship of Stewart's car. Larson has been mentioned because of Stewart's glowing remarks about him earlier in the season, and both drivers love to race sprint cars as much as possible. While Larson is in just his first full Nationwide Series season, he's not at the top of the standings, something that could be seen as a deterrent to multi-tasking for a few weeks. Dillon currently leads the standings with Smith 14 points behind.

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Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nascar-from-the-marbles/stewart-surgeries-stewart-haas-focus-shifts-replacement-drivers-214803538.html

JeanChristophe Boullion Sebastien Bourdais Thierry Boutsen Johnny Boyd

Warrior Alonso bides his time

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/10/post_4.html

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Belgian Grand Prix 2013 Preview ? It?s Back!

Sebastian Vettel occupies the most coveted spot in Formula One as he enters the halfway point of the season at the Belgian Grand Prix top of the driver standings. Drivers and fans single out the 7,000 square-km Spa Francorchamps track as one of the greatest Formula One circuits in history. It?s fast surface and flowing [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Formula1Fancast/~3/j1edtodXYKE/16578

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More Seafair Hydro thoughts...

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nofenders/zbjv/~3/1c52QEJBL70/more-seafair-hydro-thoughts.html

George Connor George Constantine John Cordts David Coulthard

The F1 calendar for 2014

It looks like the Formula 1 calendar in 2014 will have 19 or 20 races, depending on various financial and political questions that still need to be sorted out. It seems one event that has been decided is the Australian GP in Melbourne, which will be in mid-March as usual, allowing the teams to do […]

Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2013/07/29/the-f1-calendar-for-2014/

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Cup Start-And-Parks Dwindling

The practice of starting-and-parking has been a much discussed topic over the last couple of years. If you aren’t aware, starting-and-parking refers to a system in which teams enter a race and pull into the garage after only a few laps with a perfectly good race car in order to collect prize money. Teams can [...]

TheNASCARInsiders.com

Follow the Insiders on Twitter or be a fan on Facebook!

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Tony Gaze 1920 ? 2013

Tony Gaze has died in Geelong, Victoria, at the age of 93. He was a man who led the life a comic book hero, which included being Australia’s first Grand Prix driver. Below is an article I wrote about him in the GP+ e-magazine earlier this year: Tony Gaze has led what can only be […]

Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2013/07/29/tony-gaze-1920-2013/

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Indianapolis Stays On MotoGP Calendar For 2014, In Talks For Long-Term Extension

Below the press release from Dorna confirming that all three Grand Prix classes will return to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for 2014:

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Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix To Return To IMS in 2014
FIM MotoGP™ World Championship event expected in August

The Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix will return to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for a seventh consecutive year in 2014, with an expected race date in mid-August to be announced in the future.

Next year is the final year of the agreement between IMS and sanctioning organization and commercial rights holder Dorna to bring all three classes of the MotoGP World Championship – MotoGP™, Moto2™ and Moto3™ – to the Brickyard. But IMS and Dorna have started discussions about a long-term relationship past the terms of the current contract. MotoGP first came to IMS in 2008.

Round Number: 

10

Year: 

2013

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MotoGPMatters/~3/R0iZkOMOX_0/indianapolis_stays_on_motogp_calendar_fo.html

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Singapore swing hands Vettel the initiative

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/09/in_singapore_lewis_hamilton_cu.html

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Would Vettel or Alonso be more deserving champion?

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/11/benson.html

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Time for a break?

As one grows older, one seems to lose that magical childhood ability to unthinkingly make an afternoon last forever. Afternoons were always timeless in my memory of the high summers of my childhood, birds floated lazily in clear blue skies and the air was filled with the humming of hard-working bees. There was always something […]

Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2013/08/01/time-for-a-break/

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Classic cars, tracks and drivers confirmed for F1 2013 | F1 Game

Codemasters have confirmed details of the classic cars, drivers and tracks which will feature in F1 2013.

Source: http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2013/08/16/classic-cars-tracks-and-drivers-confirmed-for-f1-2013/

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Driver Changes Entering Mid-Ohio

Source: http://www.16thandgeorgetown.com/2013/07/driver-changes-entering-mid-ohio.html

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Gianpaolo Dallara: His Racing Cars and his New Factory

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Tony Stewart breaks leg in Iowa sprint car wreck; Max Papis to fill in at The Glen

Tony Stewart broke his right leg in a sprint car wreck on Monday night at Southern Iowa Speedway. He will miss this weekend's race at Watkins Glen at the very least ? road-course specialist Max Papis will fill in ? and this almost certainly kills his chances of winning another Sprint Cup championship.

Stewart was leading the 30-lap main event in Oskaloosa, Iowa when he got collected in a multi-car wreck. He broke both the tibia and fibula in his right leg. According to his team, he has already come through surgery.

UPDATE: Stewart will undergo a second surgery. According to Stewart Haas Racing, the first surgery "served as a preliminary procedure to stabilize and clean the Grade 2 injury." Stewart remains hospitalized for observation.

"It looked like he got into a lapped car," race winner Brian Brown told The Des Moines Register. "When I got close, he was flipping cage down. I didn't really have time to watch and see what was going on."

This marks Stewart's third wreck in recent weeks. Last week, following a wreck in Canada in which he flipped several times, Stewart took shots at the media for daring to question whether this is the wisest activity for one of the sport's most significant drivers.

"You mortals have got to learn, you guys need to watch more sprint car videos and stuff," Stewart shot back during his media session at Pocono. "It was not a big deal. It's starting to get annoying this week about that. That was just an average sprint car wreck. When they wreck, they get upside down like that."

Stewart of course cancelled a Tuesday testing session at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and the team announced Tuesday that Papis will replace him at Watkins Glen. The team did not reveal how long Stewart will be out.

"I told someone to go get my phone or else I was going to get up and get it myself," Stewart wrote on his Facebook page. "Finally got reconnected to the world and just want to say thank you for all the prayers and well wishes. My team will remain strong and I will be back."

This would be the first Cup race without Stewart since 1998, a string of 521 consecutive starts.

Stewart is currently 11th in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, and with a win does hold one of the wild-card spots. However, missing significant time will likely drop him below fellow one-win drivers Ryan Newman and Martin Truex Jr., who are 10th and 19th points behind Stewart, respectively.

-Follow Jay Busbee on Twitter at @jaybusbee.-

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Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nascar-from-the-marbles/tony-stewart-breaks-leg-iowa-sprint-car-wreck-115203250.html

Jay Chamberlain Karun Chandhok Alain de Changy Colin Chapman

Carb Day: Final Practice

Source: http://www.16thandgeorgetown.com/2013/05/carb-day-final-practice.html

Rubens Barrichello Michael Bartels Edgar Barth Giorgio Bassi

Nationwide Craziest Moment: Travis Pastrana?s flat left rear tire sends him around

Haven't we mentioned before that Travis Pastrana is making regular appearances in this post?

In the first Iowa Nationwide race this season, Pastrana was part of it with Max Papis, Brian Vickers, Alex Bowman and others. On Saturday night, he was all by himself.

As Pastrana headed into turn three, his left rear tire went down and as a result, his car went spinning around, hitting the wall with the front end. There was no warning -- Pastrana went into the corner like normal and around the car went.

Brad Keselowski won the race. Pastrana ended up 27th.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nascar-from-the-marbles/nationwide-craziest-moment-travis-pastrana-flat-left-rear-040938209.html

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INDY 500: 2013 Reflections, Trampling Upon a Tradition

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nofenders/zbjv/~3/_tfXTR2fPR4/indy-500-2013-reflections-trampling.html

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Citroën C5

Posted on 08.11.2013 06:00 by Tom Burkart

The Citroen C5 is looking quite fresh since its recent restyle that added softer double-chevron badges and a more flowing style for the company?s executive flagship from nose to tail.

The revisions really work: this car barely seems the same as the dowdy original model that launched for 2008. In fact, the two cars share a great deal of their styling and body panels, but tasteful new detailing is much better than the deep black sills and bumpers that cheapened the appearance of the original Citroen.

Reading reviews in international magazines is always interesting, but not quite as informative as it could be with all the measurements in metric. For most American enthusiasts, reading the horsepower in ?kW? and torque in ?Nm? might as well be meaningless.

This review of the C5 corrects those gaps in our collective ability to convert number formats, and will also be unique because it evaluates the C5 based on U.S. buyer preferences. With pricing for the C5 that converts to about $40,000, this Citroen is a mid-size luxury car.

Key competition for the C5 in its home market comes from the Peugeot 508 and Renault Laguna, with real encroachment from the super-efficient 5 series BMW diesels in Europe.

With throne-like seating and a plush hydraulic suspension, is the C5 up to the task? Click past the jump for the full review of the revised 2013 Citroen C5.

Citroën C5 originally appeared on topspeed.com on Sunday, 11 August 2013 06:00 EST.

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Source: http://www.topspeed.com/cars/citroen/citro-n-c5-ar159910.html

Tom Bridger Tony Brise Chris Bristow Peter Broeker