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Slim Borgudd Luki Botha JeanChristophe Boullion Sebastien Bourdais
Tuesday
Gibbs Ultimately Owns This Penalty
Have you ever gotten a speeding ticket? If the answer’s yes, did you try telling the officer, ‘that wasn’t my intent’? Or maybe you were just a MPH or two over the limit, did you try telling him, ‘I wasn’t speeding that much’? When he got done laughing at you, did he still write you [...] 
Monday
Sunday
Saturday
Dario Franchitti involved in vicious wreck at end of IndyCar race
In the final moments of Sunday's Shell-Penzoil Grand Prix of Houston, four-time IndyCar series champion Dario Franchitti was involved in a wreck that ripped his car to pieces. Wreckage flew into the stands nearby, and the postrace celebration was muted as all waited for word on Franchitti's condition.
On the final lap of the race, Franchitti and Takuma Sato got tangled up, with Franchitti running up on Sato's back and spinning into the catch fence. EJ Viso, trailing, was able to avoid the wreckage of Franchitti's car but hit Sato.
For a long time, the television cameras only carried distant shots of Franchitti's wreckage, leading to obvious concerns. But Franchitti's team owner, Chip Ganassi, brought good news after visiting with Franchitti. "He's got a sore ankle and back," Ganassi said, "but he's OK."
Local news reports indicated there were 15 injuries in the stands from flying debris, none serious.
Friday
Richard Petty Motorsports still searching for consistency
As Richard Petty strolled through the concourse of Kansas City's Memorial Hall, fans streamed towards him with pens an memorabilia for the seven-time Sprint Cup champion to sign.
Others stood and watched, wondering who in the heck that man in the black cowboy hat could be that was causing such a commotion for a few people.
In a way, the varying reactions from fans served as a metaphor for Petty's team's season. At times, both Aric Almirola and Marcos Ambrose have been noticeable. Other times, their performances have been, well, anonymous.
"Up and down. It started way down," Petty said about his race team's progression over the past two seasons. "If you look at the overall deal it?s been better, better and better. Where we?re hurting a little bit is not consistent. We?ve been really super good one week and not so good. That?s our main deal and we know it?s going to take time to do that."
Proof of that consistency issue? Ambrose's ninth place finish and Almirola's 10th place finish at Kansas marked the first time all season that both Richard Petty Motorsports drivers had finished in the top 10 in the same race. Afterwards, both were thrilled, especially Ambrose. He spun to bring out one of Sunday's 15 cautions. But that spin ended up putting him on a strategy that had him fourth for the final restart.
[Power Rankings: And then there were two]
"It felt like a win as far because I thought our day was done," Ambrose said.
"We got a top 10 and I would have never told you that was possible (Saturday) in practice," Almirola said.
Almirola is 18th in the points standings and Ambrose is 20th. That's the reverse of where they finished last year.
"This year we started out really strong and we were up in the top 12 in points and looked like we were going to have a shot to make the Chase and throughout the summer months we just didn?t keep that mojo that we had at the beginning of the year," Almirola said.
Through the first 13 races, the No. 43 was in the top 12. But those Chase chances were over after Daytona where a crash dropped them to 19th.
For Ambrose, it's been a trying season -- "a wash" as he termed it before the weekend began -- and is encapsulated perfectly by Watkins Glen in August. After leading 51 laps in a bid to win a third straight race at the road course, he had a flat tire and was caught up in a crash in the esses. After three top fives a year ago, none have been on the docket this season.
Though perhaps Sunday was a sign of the optimism that Petty shared Thursday. For a team without title aspirations, a good Chase performance can still
"When we started (with the new car at the beginning of the season), nobody knew what was going on so we were as good as anybody," Petty said. "We trucked along there and everything went pretty good and we just didn?t expand quick enough. We got behind the curve and are just now getting back to where we should have been three or four months ago."
Thursday
Russian F1 engines
There is one reason why people do not build their own F1 engines. Money. It takes horse-choking wedges of wonga to invest in facilities, machinery, people and research and development projects. Gone are the days when a couple of chaps in cloth caps draw an engine on the back of an envelope and find the […]
Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2013/10/10/russian-f1-engines/
Wednesday
Tuesday
What?s old is new again: Matt Kenseth beats Kyle Busch at New Hampshire
Two weeks, two Chase wins for Matt Kenseth.
Kenseth won Sunday's Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, the second race in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, much like he won the first Chase race at Chicagoland a week earlier, pulling away from teammate Kyle Busch on the final restart and beating him to the finish line.
Busch got close to Kenseth's bumper over the last few laps but didn't get close enough to come close to making a pass.
An emotional Kenseth called Loudon one of his worst performing tracks in victory lane, but he was not poor on Sunday. After staying near the front, he took the lead for good with 93 laps to go and wasn't passed on the track since.
It was Kenseth's first win at New Hampshire after finishing ninth in the spring. Before Joining Joe Gibbs Racing at the beginning of the season, he had one top 10 finish in the past five seasons at the flat one-mile track.
With the win, Kenseth joins Tony Stewart in 2011 and Greg Biffle in 2008 as the only drivers to win the first two races of the Chase. In 2011, Stewart went on to win the championship, winning three other races.
It's Kenseth's seventh win of the season, and he now leads Busch by 18 points in the Chase standings., despite his teammate finishing second to him in both of those Chase races. Perhaps most strikingly, Kenseth leads fourth place Carl Edwards by 36 points, which is 36 positions on the track, minus a lap led or two. Jimmie Johnson is third, four points behind Busch. Is it already a three person race to the Chase?
While it may be a bit premature to officially declare that, if it was, it wouldn't be the most surprising development in the world. Kenseth, Busch and Johnson have been the strongest drivers in the series this season and have combined for 14 wins in 28 races. Though if Kenseth keeps this pace, even Johnson and Busch won't have a chance.
Monday
2013 Magny-Cours World Supersport Race Results: Close Racing Throughout
Sam Lowes started the 22 lap race, again declared a dry race, needing just two points to win the title. Kenan Sofuoglu, the only man with a chance of delying him the title, started from pole position.
Sunday
Sponsored Video ? The Jenson Button lifestyle in 90 seconds
Think Formula 1 ? think Jenson Button! It?s difficult to imagine that the life of a Formula 1 driver is much more than driving round circuits, albeit circuits all over the globe, competing to be the fastest there is. When it comes to knowing the ins and outs of each of these tracks though, there [...]
Saturday
NAPA ending sponsorship with Michael Waltrip Racing because of Richmond actions
Michael Waltrip Racing has received a bigger shot to the bow than any NASCAR could have given it following the events at Richmond. And it came from a current sponsor.
NAPA announced on its Facebook page Thursday that it would be leaving the team at the end of the season.
After thorough consideration, NAPA has made the difficult decision to end its sponsorship arrangement with Michael Waltrip Racing effective December 31, 2013. NAPA believes in fair play and does not condone actions such as those that led to the penalties assessed by NASCAR. We remain supportive of the millions of NASCAR fans and will evaluate our future position in motorsports.
NAPA stuck by Michael Waltrip Racing at the 2007 Daytona 500, when the team was penalized for having an illegal substance in the intake manifold. In that incident, when Michael Waltrip Racing was in its infancy, Waltrip was docked 100 points and his crew chief David Hyder was fined $100,000 and suspended from the garage.
That was more than six years ago, and MWR eventually recovered to become the three-team stable it is today. And that's in large part to the continued support of the auto parts supplier, who is one of the few full-season sponsors remaining in the sport.
Now that support isn't there. NAPA sponsors the No. 56 of Martin Truex Jr., who was removed from the Chase via a 50 point penalty after NASCAR investigated the finish at Richmond. In the closing laps, teammates Clint Bowyer and Brian Vickers made sure to let Joey Logano finish ahead of them so that Truex would make the Chase. (It's worth noting that the jet fuel incident directly involved the actions of the NAPA team while it was the actions of the two-non NAPA teams at Richmond that led to the penalties.)
The decision also means that one of the most prestigious sponsorships in NASCAR is a free agent, and that a Chase-caliber team and driver is suddenly without a sponsor. To say that the future of the No. 56 car is in limbo would not be an overstatement. And the future of another car and driver combination could soon be solidified.
Friday
Thursday
Wednesday
Rufflings feathers
The FIA World Council announcement on Friday about the new deal between the FIA and the Formula One group included one little phrase which will set the warning sirens going up an down the Formula 1 pit lane. “One of the noteworthy aspects of the new 2013 Concorde Agreement is the new tender procedure for […]
Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2013/09/30/rufflings-feathers/
2013 Aragon MotoGP Saturday Round Up: On Championship Turnarounds, Honda's Moto3 Gambit, And The 2014 Calendar
Qualifying at Aragon showed that the fourteenth round of the season could turn out to be a turning point in all three Grand Prix championships. Momentum shifts, sometimes suddenly, sometimes slowly, and before you know it, title races can open up again. Foregone conclusions are shown up for the illusions they are, and the words of every championship leader - 'I won't start thinking about the title until Valencia - are brought into keen focus.
In Moto3, the lead Luis Salom had built up after the summer break has slowly been dissipating, as Alex Rins and Maverick Viñales have clawed points back from the Spanish veteran. On Saturday, Alex Rins took yet another pole - his sixth of the season - crushing the opposition and putting seven tenths of a second into Viñales, the man in second. Luis Salom struggled, ending the session in 8th, over a second slower than Viñales, and 1.7 seconds off the time of Rins. He must attempt to defend his championship lead from the third row of the grid, and with Rins, Viñales and Alex Marquez ahead of him, he will have his work cut out.
Source:
Michael Andretti Keith Andrews Elio de Angelis Marco Apicella
Tuesday
Power Rankings: It?s a Joe Gibbs Racing switcheroo at the top
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?
EDITOR'S NOTE: Because modifying the number of entries into Power Rankings could be damaging to credibility and integrity of the rankings, Yahoo Sports and From the Marbles have elected not to add a bonus 13th spot to Power Rankings. Doing so would set an unstable precedent that could potentially allow for the creation of "the Danica rule" in which we are obligated to put Danica Patrick in Power Rankings every week.
1. Matt Kenseth (LW: 3): The man who entered the Chase atop the standings only extended that lead Sunday night (Monday morning?). What was most impressive about Kenseth's run was that the team was both good during the day and at night. Given the massive change in conditions, it reasoned that some teams who were good before the rain delay would be slower after it. Definitely not in Kenseth's case.
2. Kyle Busch (LW: 1): Busch was perhaps the greatest example of clean air during the Geico 400. When he had the lead he couldn't be touched, and then when he lost the lead, he couldn't touch his teammate. Still, the fact that he was just one spot away from a weekend three-peat should not be lost. That's impressive, even if Busch in the Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series races is unfair to everyone else.
3. Jimmie Johnson (LW: 2): OH MY GOODNESS IT WAS A NASCAR CONSPIRACY TO PREVENT JOHNSON FROM WINNING THE CHASE WHEN THE OFFICIAL ON PIT ROAD TOLD THEM TO CHECK THE LUGNUTS FOR NO REASON. WHY DOES THIS ALWAYS HAPPEN TO HIM? CAN'T NASCAR EVER BE NICE TO HIM? Signed, no one.
4. Kevin Harvick (LW: 7): That was quite the typical Harvick race, wasn't it? Team adjusts on the car throughout the first part of the race, dials it in in the middle third, and voila, where the heck did Harvick come from in the waning laps? I'm sure this has been written in this space many times already this season, but can you describe Harvick's third place finish any other way?
5. Kasey Kahne (LW: 4): 10 Chasers finished in the top 12 and Kahne was the 10th of those 10. But he's here because that car got pretty beat up on pit road and at one point he was 31st. Survey time: was anyone disappointed that Kenseth wasn't beating Kahne to the line Sunday? That might have broken poor Kasey's soul.
6. Kurt Busch (LW: 9): Juan Pablo Montoya's debris minefield caution was a fortuitous break for Busch who had taken the Lucky Dog when the race resumed after a speeding penalty on pit road during the day portion. Again, the speed is there, it's just that the Kurt Busch Wheel of Destruction keeps feeling the need to be spun. Thankfully for Busch, the wheel of good fortune also gave it a whirl.
7. Clint Bowyer (LW: 8): Should we do what NASCAR could have done and dock Bowyer Power Rankings points in the Chase? No, we're not that mean, but that had to have been the most uncomfortable media week for a driver since when? Should have called Jeremy Mayfield and asked him to come take some pressure off by crashing NASCAR's press conference or something.
8. Carl Edwards (LW: 5): Edwards says he and his team are going to win the Chase and we completely (100 percent, NASCAR) support his efforts to be confident in his team. However, nights like Sunday are why we can't buy in to what Edwards is selling just yet. The 99 car wasn't bad again, but it wasn't great. And it's going to need to be great.
9. Ryan Newman (LW: 10): If you went to Outback on Monday, you got a free Bloomin' Onion because Newman finished in the top 10. Is that a deal you have to ask for when you go, or do a bunch of non-NASCAR fans luck into free appetizers on these Mondays? Inquiring minds that haven't been to an Outback in 10 years want to know.
10. Jeff Gordon (LW: NR): Jeff, you'd be legitimately in our top 12 this week if you weren't in the Chase. That was a nicely timed caution for Gordon to stay on the lead lap, and that car might have been ultimately faster than the 6th place finish showed.
11. Brad Keselowski (LW: NR): This spot ultimately came down to Joey Logano, Dale Earnhardt Jr. or Greg Biffle. All three were plagued by engine issues. That'd be no fun, wouldn't it? That's why we'll go with the defending champion. He's not boring. And we also want to
12. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (LW: NR): Boyfriend! After finishing 8th at Richmond, Stenhouse finished 8th at Chicagoland for the first two top 10s of his career. And yes, this now means that Stenhouse has more top 10s than Patrick. Hope she paid for that Sonic he got during the rain delay.
Lucky Dog: We have to do one of these this week? Let's go Aric Almirola by Morning, because of bacon.
The DNF: Junior and Logano. That was easy.
Dropped out: Joey Logano, Greg Biffle and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Monday
Sunday
There?s Nothing Wrong With Restarts
I’ve got to be honest, I don’t understand why there has been so much discussion this week about restarts. The rules are really pretty clear. The green flag waves, the leader can go between the two lines, you can’t beat the leader to the line, and don’t change lanes before the start/finish line. Seems pretty [...] 
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Elio de Angelis Marco Apicella Mбrio de Araъjo Cabral Frank Armi
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