Source: http://www.16thandgeorgetown.com/2014/05/hinch-hurt-in-grand-prix-of-indianapolis.html
Tuesday
Nissan ZEOD RC Breaks Electric Speed Record at Le Mans
Le Mans has a long history of record making and breaking. Since the 24 hour race first began in 1923, it has been a true mecca of speed and innovation. Now Nissan has attacked this legendary course and set a new Le Mans record speed for electric-powered vehicles by achieving a velocity of 300 kph (186 mph) during qualifying with its ZEOD RC. The record was reached in the first run of the second night’s qualifying by driver Satoshi Motoyama as he blasted down the Mulsanne Straight.
The ZEOD RC uses a unique dual-powertrain configuration with both an electric motor and an internal-combustion engine. Nissan has big plans for this new machine and is looking to break many more records over the course of the weekend’s race.
Nissan wasn’t the only company looking to make waves at Le Mans this year either. Toyota challenged the Audi team that dominated for the last several years, and Porsche has returned to challenge for an overall title as well with F1 ace Mark Webber at the wheel. This year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans was quite an exciting time for motorsports.
Click past the jump to read more about the Nissan ZEOD RC.
Nissan ZEOD RC Breaks Electric Speed Record at Le Mans originally appeared on topspeed.com on Monday, 16 June 2014 09:00 EST.
Monday
Sometimes the messenger should be shot
Reading the F1 “news” today all I feel is depression. For want of anything better to write, the Internet monkeys with typewriters have reproduced a string of remarks about F1 from Flavio Briatore. Lest we forget, the sleazy-looking Italian admitted to fixing races and was slung out of the sport five years ago. I make […]
Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2014/06/12/sometimes-the-messenger-should-be-shot/
Slim Borgudd Luki Botha JeanChristophe Boullion Sebastien Bourdais
Sunday
Montreal gets a new deal
I won’t tell you the full story of my trip to Montreal but it involved Avis, a change of hire cars in Albany, 13 sleepless hours, a bunch of insane truck drivers and a surreal moment when I got lost and went for a tour of Princeton University at two in the morning. Lovely place. […]
Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2014/06/07/montreal-gets-a-new-deal/
Saturday
2014 Barcelona MotoGP FP3 Results: Bradl Posts A Scorcher
Stefan Bradl has topped the timesheets in the third session of free practice for the MotoGP class. The LCR Honda rider looked destined to have to battle through Q1, but a blistering lap at the end of the session saw him leap to the stop of the standings. Bradl dislodged Marc Marquez, who had been fast early and was circulating fast throughout, but ended the session in 2nd. Bradley Smith improved on his own very impressive time from yesterday, grabbing 3rd ahead of Dani Pedrosa, the Repsol Honda rider having found a big improvement since Friday.
The Movistar Yamahas ended the session in 5th and 6th, Jorge Lorenzo finishing ahead of Valentino Rossi, though both men showed a decent race pace later in the session. Aleix Espargaro was the only rider not to improve his time from Friday, but still managed a 7th fastest time and is through to Q2 on merit. Yonny Hernandez posted a very impressive lap on the Open Pramac Ducati, though his best times were posted in Rossi's slipstream. Hernandez still finished as best Ducati, ahead of factory rider Andrea Dovizioso, and the second Monster Tech 3 Yamaha rider Pol Espargaro.
Results:
Eric Bernard Enrique Bernoldi Enrico Bertaggia Tony Bettenhausen
Friday
Matt Kenseth has a novel idea for the Sprint All-Star Race
With every All-Star Race, there's chatter about changing up the format and/or location of the race. 2014 is no different, especially after Jimmie Johnson has won the last two in dominating fashion.
The format of the race has been tweaked a lot. It isn't sacred. The location? Well, it has been sacred. Since its inception, the race has always been held at Charlotte Motor Speedway save for 1986 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Charlotte is home base for most teams, so that's an added benefit. But if you follow NASCAR at all, you know that a 1.5 mile track like Charlotte isn't the most conducive for close, side-by-side racing.
It's why switching location of the race has started to dominate that chatter. Should the race go to Bristol? Martinsville? Richmond? Opinions vary, but if there's a consensus, it'd be that the race should go to a short track.
Matt Kenseth likes the idea of moving the All-Star Race, but he suggests none of the three tracks mentioned above.
?Here?s what my idea for the All-Star race has always been ? this might not be popular, but I thought of this a couple year ago.� I think the All-Star race should move every year and I think it should go to a track that we don?t currently race at, but is equipped to have a NASCAR race.� I think it should go to Iowa and Milwaukee and St. Louis and Pikes Peak and maybe even Memphis�? you have to have enough grandstands.� I think it should move around and go to tracks like that�? I think that would be great for all those markets that don?t have a NASCAR race. I think you would sell them out whether that?s 30,000 or 40,000 people, whatever that is. I think the racing would be good and it?s not a points race. I think that would expose a lot of fans to our product live that don?t get to see it now and I think it would be fun.?
Kenseth's on to something here. NASCAR doesn't need the money from attendance at an All-Star Race. It can afford to host it at a track that doesn't seat 80,000 or more people and not even notice it on the overall bottom line. Butts in the seats isn't an issue.
NASCAR is looking for new fans, too. And what better opportunity to get people who may not be normally able to get to a race than to move it to a different market? With potentially good or surprising racing in store at a track where the Cup Series doesn't normally race at, you not only can win over fans who are at the race, but those tuning in to see what the heck NASCAR is all about.
Nothing against Johnson's dominance, but a 10-lap runaway isn't the best way to convince people your sport is awesome.
Plus, it'd be a goodwill gesture to many fans who think NASCAR has "lost its way" or left the racing "back in the day" behind. There wasn't a bad review around of the Truck Series race at Eldora in 2013. There's little reason to think it wouldn't be the same for a race at Memphis, or, say, Gateway, which produced some great Nationwide and Truck Series racing.
But we're also going to be realistic; Kenseth's idea probably isn't going to happen. SMI, the company that owns Charlotte, won't want to let the All-Star Race leave. It owns Bristol, so if the race departs Charlotte, it could satisfy the short track wailing by moving to Bristol.
We appreciate the originality, however. The more logical and reasoned options for the All-Star Race, the better. Because if it's another ho-hum race Saturday night, the cries for changes are only going to intensify before the Coca-Cola 600.
- - - - - - -
Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @NickBromberg
Thursday
F1 WAG: Fernanda Gallegos
Despite a flop 2013 season with McLaren Sergio Perez made it back onto the grid this year with Force India.�Here is an image gallery of his one-time girlfriend Fernanda Gallegos, she’s quite a looker! CLICK ON FERNANDA GALLEGOS TO REVEAL OUR GALLERY
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Formula1Fancast/~3/AT1qKgqeTHM/f1-wag-fernanda-gallegos
Wednesday
Tuesday
It's been almost 20 years since Jeff Gordon's first Cup Series win
How old were you when Jeff Gordon scored his first Sprint Cup Series win? Heck, you might not have even been born yet.
May 29 is the 20th anniversary of Gordon's first career win in the Cup Series. It came at the 1994 Coca-Cola 600, 87 victories ago.
Those victories must have clouded Gordon's memory, because he said he doesn't remember too many details about the win. His win was honored Wednesday morning at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in honor of the anniversary.
"That's why I love this event that I just did," Gordon said. "They showed video from that day and some crucial moments. It really makes me want to go back and get the whole video and watch the race because it was such a special day. There are so many things that I don't remember about that day.
I remember I started on the front row, that we had a good car.� We led quite a few laps.� But Rusty (Wallace) was the car to beat. (Crew chief Ray Evernham) made that great call."
Actually, Gordon didn't lead quite a few laps. He only led 16 of the race's 400 laps. Wallace led 187. After leading the first lap, Gordon didn't lead again until lap 300. He then led the race's final nine laps.
"Even watching me coming down pit road for that final pit stop made me chuckle because they didn't measure pit road speed the same way we do now so it looked like I was speeding, but they didn't have a way to measure other than by a stopwatch," Gordon said.
"I'd love to go back and relive the race because there are a lot of things that I don't remember."
We'll make it easy for you, Jeff. Here's the entire race, and just looking at the starting grid is one big blast from the NASCAR past. Gordon's pole lap of just over 181 MPH is approximately 14 MPH slower than the pole speed at the 2013 Coca-Cola 600. And that year, John Andretti did what Kurt Busch is attempting this season; run both the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 on the same day.
Gordon says he still has the trophy from the race, but it's not being displayed at the moment. He and wife Ingrid built a house a couple of years ago and Gordon needs to find a spot for it.
"Something I've really never done at home was display really many trophies.� If I had a shelf maybe in an office or somewhere, I might put one or two," Gordon said. "The 600 from '94 has always been a prominent trophy that I've displayed."
"When we did this house, we made an area that has very, very important trophies to me.� I have the four Cup trophies there. I have the first Brickyard, a couple helmets.
"The 600 is in the house but it's not currently being displayed there. It's one that has always been the one that I've displayed, it just didn't fit in there," Gordon said with a laugh. "I have to redesign that area so I can make sure it's there."
- - - - - - -
Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @NickBromberg
Carlo Abate George Abecassis Kenny Acheson Andrea de Adamich
Just six hours after the race
Formula 1 put on a hell of a show in Montreal on a sunny Sunday afternoon as the Mercedes team fumbled and victory went to Infiniti Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo, the Australian’s first Grand Prix victory. The race was breathless in the closing stages as Nico Rosberg tried to hold off Sergio Perez, Ricciardo, […]
Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2014/06/09/just-six-hours-after-the-race/
Monday
Tony Stewart playing it coy about when he'll race a sprint car next
Tony Stewart drove laps in a sprint car this week for the first time since he broke his right leg in August, a crash that forced him to miss the conclusion of the 2013 Sprint Cup Series season. But he's not saying when he's going to be in a race in one.
"I will be able to tell you how it went," Stewart said Friday at Dover. "Let?s put it that way.� You won?t know when it?s coming.� When I do go nobody is going to know about it.� I?m going to just slide in and do it.� I want to enjoy it.� I don?t want it to be a cluster.� Judging off the fact of how many people showed up just to talk to me about going and testing for a couple of hours I can imagine what the group is going to be like after I run my first race.?
Oh, Tony. Had you not tweeted the pictures of getting into the car on Monday, few, if anyone, would have known about the matter. When you scream into a megaphone, you can't even fake that you're mad when it gets people's attention.
Guess who got back in a sprint car for the first time today :) #smokewillrise pic.twitter.com/HBWg4dno8q
? Tony Stewart (@TonyStewart) May 27, 2014 ?I?m smiling because I am laughing at you guys because it?s like my God I went and tested a sprint car," Stewart said. "I still laugh about how big a deal this has all been made.� We had Cup drivers get hurt last year.� One had a broken wrist, one had a broken back and nobody said anything.� It was all minor news.� I?ve made more news by getting hurt in a dirt car than any of these guys.� It?s bigger news than the guy that had the same injury I had falling off a bicycle last week. I get chuckled.?
Well, a scar that size in the picture below looks like a big deal, right? And Denny Hamlin missing four races was a big deal at the time, while Martin Truex Jr. didn't miss a race with his wrist injury. And no offense to either Hamlin or Truex, but neither of them are a three-time Sprint Cup Series champion.
And for the grand finally after therapy... pic.twitter.com/CfW3Yh2qvw
? Tony Stewart (@TonyStewart) May 29, 2014 We're not chastising Stewart -- next to racing sprint cars, one of his favorite hobbies is ribbing media members, his comments aren't unexpected. But it's important to note that not everyone can have everything on his or her terms.
Stewart knows that too. He just wants to show he's the same old Tony Stewart. And what better place to do that than at the site of his last Cup win?
- - - - - - -
Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @NickBromberg
Sunday
Saturday
Friday
Iowa Rain Out Causes Pit Crew Problems
On a normal NASCAR weekend when the Truck Series and/or Nationwide Series run companion to the Cup cars, there are a lot of pit crew members who double or triple dip. Crew members make some extra cash and get more reps, and the teams get top talent pitting their cars. But this last weekend presented […] 
TheNASCARInsiders.com
Follow the Insiders on Twitter or be a fan on Facebook!
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheNascarInsiders/~3/R3FUmt0CNcQ/
Thursday
Power Rankings: All hail Jimmie Johnson, new overlord of the top spot
Our Power Rankings are far from a scientific formula. In fact, it's the perfect blend of analytics and bias against your favorite driver. And you think we dislike your favorite driver, so it makes sense, right? Direct all your complaints to us at happyhourmailbag@yahoo.com.
1. Jimmie Johnson (LW: 2): Before smoking the field at Dover, Johnson revealed he had hernia surgery after the banquet in December. He actually had three; bilateral hernias and one near his bellybutton. So of course, we need to ask if Johnson will have more hernias or Sprint Cup Series titles in his lifetime. (No, we don't.) Anyway, let's get back to the race. Johnson's best track statistically is Dover and after leading 272 laps on Sunday, he's now led more than 50 percent of the laps at Dover since 2009. Yeesh.
2. Matt Kenseth (LW: 4): Oh man, we've got another winless points leader. How is the world going to survive this madness? As with Johnson, it's pretty obvious that Kenseth is going to get a win sometime soon. You don't run up front like he has (and lead laps late) without getting a win sooner, rather than later. But even without a win, Kenseth is in a good spot right now. He's not going to miss the Chase if he's near the top of the standings without a win.
3. Jeff Gordon (LW: 1): The handling on Gordon's car flat disappeared late in the race and his finish of 15th is not indicative of the speed he had all day. Before he started falling to the back, he worked his way up into the top five and was fifth on the next-to-last restart. Suddenly he started falling back and never recovered. No points lead is no big deal, especially because Gordon has the Kansas win, but do you really think he wanted to lose it?
4. Kevin Harvick (LW: 3): Another fast car, another something that went wrong for Harvick. This time it was a flat tire that derailed him while he was leading. It necessitated a green flag pit stop and Harvick lost laps that he was never able to recover. The bad finishes Harvick is piling up with fast cars are a bit of a double-edged sword. He's not wondeing about his car's speed on a weekly basis, which is a great thing. But at the same time, he's wondering what could go wrong next.
5. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (LW: 7): Pick a driver, any driver! We're going to go with Junior after hie finished ninth, one spot ahead of Joey Logano, five spots ahead of Carl Edwards and a whole bunch of spots ahead of Kyle Busch. While Junior is likely content with another top 10 finish, he may be happier about his Tuesday morning eBay purchase.
6. Carl Edwards (LW: 5): With every week of no news about Edwards' contract status, the speculation about his future is only going to increase. And based off previous timing of Roush announcements, we may not know for a few more weeks at least. When Edwards re-upped with Roush in 2011 it was announced in August and when Kenseth departed for Joe Gibbs Racing in 2012 he was announced at his new team in September after informing Roush he was leaving in late June.
7. Brad Keselowski (LW: 10): Brad sure tried like craszy to catch Jimmie Johnson over the final laps of the race, but there was just no way he was going to do there. You could tell how aggressively he was driving his car into the corners, but the aggressiveness was sapping his corner exit speed. For the space he gained on Johnson into the corners for the first few turns, he lost it all (and then some) as Johnson cruised away from him on acceleration. Yeah, the No. 48 team had a really, really good car.
8. Joey Logano (LW: 8): Similar to Charlotte, Logano had a good car but not a great one, and hovered near the front of the field all day, even if he wasn't "at" the front. It was Logano's seventh top 10 of the season and he's looking like he's heading towards a second straight season of a better than 50 percent top 10 rate. In four seasons at Joe Gibbs Racing he never did that.
9. Jamie McMurray (LW: 9): McMurray was very fortunate that he was able to avoid smashing into the backstretch wall after the chunk of Dover concrete ate the front splitter of his car. And the people in the pedestrian bridge above turn 2 were also incredibly fortunate that the piece of concrete that cracked a window up there wasn't big enough to pierce it and hurt someone. But props to Dover's track crew for getting the track patched in such a quick fashion and that the patch held so well.
10. Kyle Busch (LW: 6): Had Busch gotten to Clint Bowyer's bumper and retaliated against him after the two wrecked, what do you think the punishment would have been for him? It was reminiscent of what happened in 2007 between Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart at Dover. Heck, it was almost the same type of incident. Kurt Busch shut the door on Stewart, though he got the worst of the crash.
You may remember that after the wreck, Busch and Stewart had some shenanigans on pit road and Busch was parked for the rest of the race after a crew member of Stewart's had to avoid his car. In addition to the parking, Busch was docked 100 points later in the week. Had Kyle crashed Bowyer (and given what happened at Texas in 2011), it's not much of a stretch to think that a parking would have been appropriate Sunday.
11. Denny Hamlin (LW: NR): The two drivers at the bottom of Power Rankings last week had problems so it's time for two new faces. Hamlin moved up a couple positions on the final restart of the race thanks to a two-tire pit stop. He was the first car to come down pit road for tires and was able to make up some ground, finishing fifth. And despite missing a race, Hamlin is ninth in the standings. Yes, with just four top 10s and one missed race, Hamlin is in the top 10. Avoiding bad finishes will do that to you.
12. Kyle Larson (LW: NR): Anyone else not going to miss a certain NASCAR TV analyst's fascination with Larson? There's not one person who doubts his talent, especially after he's won two Nationwide Series races this year. But much like Chase Elliott in the Nationwide Series, it's OK to give him some space and let him develop. The accolades will (and already have) arrive. There's no need to douse them with hyperbolic lighter fluid. And he, on the space note, it looks like Larson has a lot of it now in his new house.
The Lucky Dog: Martin Truex's sixth-place finish was the higest of his season so far. While you wouldn't have guessed Furniture Row would repeate the excellence it had with Kurt Busch, did anyone think Truex would be 25th through 13 races?
The DNF: Greg Biffle and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. got Allmendinger'd, though Allmendinger said Stenhouse came down on him.
Oh, the dog that Stenhouse and Danica Patrick share now has a Twitter account.
Dropped Out: Brian Vickers, Ryan Newman
- - - - - - -
Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
Tony Stewart is on Twitter, at last, and this could be amazing
Tony Stewart has joined Twitter! Sing hallelujah, NASCAR social media fans!
NASCAR's most outsized personality has finally decided to connect directly with his fans, and it could be one of the most amazing celebrity Twitter feeds around. If Stewart in fact does give his followers an insight into his ridiculously cool life, he'll be a must-follow. (He may also bring down the law/NASCAR brass on his head, but that's a risk we're willing to take.)
As of Monday morning, Stewart had tweeted exactly five times, messages of support and race updates ... fairly straightforward stuff. His first photo was an awww moment for his fans:
Hey, wait a second. WHO TOOK THE PICTURE?
Anyway, as long as Stewart approaches this honestly, and the feed doesn't get overwhelmed with "Please RT #sponsor #sponsor #sponsor for a chance to win some Tony Stewart swag" nonsense, it'll be a lot of fun. It's a delicate balance, truth and commerce, but if anybody can straddle that see-saw, it's Stewart.
The model for holdout athletes in any sport leaping into Twitter has been Dale Earnhardt Jr., who spent years avoiding the social network. But after his Daytona 500 win earlier this year, Junior took the plunge, and his Twitter feed has instantly become one of the best celebrity follows around: funny, revelatory, interactive.
Will Stewart follow in Earnhardt's tire tracks? A big question is whether Stewart will be able to handle the torrents of negativity that Twitter brings. The idiots and the noise have effectively run Matt Kenseth and Jamie McMurray off Twitter, their feeds largely limited to generic congratulations of teammates and contest giveaways. Even Jimmie Johnson has gotten frustrated with the backseat drivers critiquing his performance. One can't imagine Stewart, who barbecues the media for dumb questions, will take too well to some clown from Alabama calling him out.
Stewart's leap means Carl Edwards is the only major driver without a Twitter presence. Given how cagey Edwards is even in the best of circumstances, it'd be a surprise if he starts exposing his private life on Twitter any time soon.
____
Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter.
Wednesday
Tuesday
Into The Crystal Ball: It?s Duals Time Edition
Now, for something totally different. Before the ink is even dry on the 2014 Indy 500 chapter of the season, the circus moves to Milwau? nope? Tex? nope? Detroit? You got it. Nothing against the event, but it really feels … Continue reading 
Source: http://anotherindycarblog.wordpress.com/2014/05/30/into-the-crystal-ball-its-duals-time-edition/
Monday
Kyle Busch crashed after contact with Clint Bowyer at Dover
Kyle Busch's chances for a weekend sweep hit the wall thanks to the rear bumper of Clint Bowyer.
Busch, the only driver to win a truck race, Nationwide race and Sprint Cup Series race on the same weekend at the same track, had crossed off the first two races on Friday and Saturday at Dover. A win Sunday in the Cup race would have given him the second triple of his career and he started on the pole.
However, when Clint Bowyer slid up in front of him on lap 125, Busch ended up crashed into the wall and furious with Bowyer.
After his car was battered from the contact, Busch basically chased Bowyer around the track as Bowyer was forced to accelerate around the cars ahead of him to avoid being retaliated against. Cooler heads prevailed after Busch was told by his team and NASCAR not to do anything and he pulled into the garage without further incident.
Busch's team also told him that Bowyer's spotter had cleared him. Before the crash, Bowyer's spotter encouraged him to get up in front of Busch in his lane before the No. 18 had a run off the high side of turn four. However, when Bowyer heeded his spotter's advice, Busch was already outside of him and contact was unavoidable.
"I hated that with Kyle," Bowyer said. "We're teammates, so to speak, with the manufacturer (Toyota) and it was a bad deal. Obviously I thought I was clear and he kind of got up there and I thought he was going to give it to me and he didn't. Ruined his day for sure and certainly didn't help ours."
Bowyer didn't escape the accident unharmed, either. The right-rear of his car was damaged and his team spent the next part of the race fixing the damage. They did a good enough job of it to allow Bowyer to drive back in to the top 10 and he briefly took the lead late after a two-tire pit stop.
On the race's final restart, Bowyer restarted fourth and tried to give Matt Kenseth, Busch's Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, a push into turn one. However, he hit Kenseth a bit awkwardly and Kenseth's car squirted into the outside wall, though he finished third, one spot ahead of Bowyer. Busch, meanwhile, finished 42nd.
"I was just trying to help him, man we were all spinning (the tires) like crazy and I had a pretty good run at him and he was still spinning when I hit him and knocked him into the wall and I was like 'not another Gibbs car,'" Bowyer said.
- - - - - - -
Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @NickBromberg
Sunday
Hamilton-Rosberg ?not like Senna-Prost? | F1 Fanatic Round-up
In the round-up: Wolff plays down Senna-vs-Prost comparison ? Teams may revive testing ban
Source: http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2014/05/30/f1-fanatic-round-3005/
Colin Davis Jimmy Daywalt JeanDenis Deletraz Patrick Depailler
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)