Tuesday
Open-Wheel Timeline, Part 1? The Sanctioning Bodies
The history of American Open Wheel Racing and its respective national championships are as confusing and intricate as any other aspect of the sport. Controversy between the various sanctioning bodies, participating manufacturers and of course the Indianapolis Motor Speedway has … Continue reading
Tony Eury Jr., Danica Patrick?s crew chief, now out at JR Motorsports
Just over a week after Tony Eury Sr. and JR Motorsports parted ways comes more surprising-but-not-really news: His son, Tony Eury Jr., has also left the company. Eury Jr. was both Danica Patrick's crew chief and a part-owner of the company.
"Unfortunately Tony Jr. is no longer with the company," Dale Earnhardt Jr. said in a statement. "I had hoped he would be here for a long time, but as we've discussed the direction of JR Motorsports moving forward, it was clear our differences in ideas were too vast to overcome. �I love him like a brother, and you'll never hear me say a bad thing about him. �I know he'll have much success in anything he does going forward."
That's got to be tough for Earnhardt, but as the weeks wore on this season, it became clear that something was very off at JR Motorsports. The question, of course, is what. Let's speculate a bit: JR Motorsports revolves around Danica Patrick, and Patrick has, to put it charitably, not exactly lit the track on fire this season. (That's what's called a "softball" for you commenters.)
Could a difference of opinion on Ms. Patrick's value and potential be the cause of the rift between the Earnhardts and the Eurys? It's certainly possible. Tony Eury Sr. said at the time of his departure that the team needs more proven Cup-level drivers, and whatever millions Patrick may generate, she's not yet a proven Cup-level driver.
Regardless, it's a tough day for fans of Earnhardt. Watching the team from this point on without the assistance and advice of the Eurys will be interesting indeed.
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Monday
Positive Vett-ing
Red Bull Racing showed that it still has a solid gap over the opposition in F1 at the moment in the second practice session in Korea on Firday. Sebastian Vettel was three-tenths ahead of team-mate Mark Webber, while the rest trailed the Australian, the pack headed by Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button, Michael Schumacher, Felipe Massa [...]
Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2012/10/12/positive-vett-ing/
Felipe Massa: ?I made some little mistakes in a few corners?
After a frustrating qualifying session in Japan Felipe Massa earned a solid sixth place in Korea, although he was 0.3s off team mate Fernando Alonso. Nevertheless the Brazilian was pleased with the outcome after failing to get out of Q2 … Continue reading 
Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2012/10/13/felipe-massa-i-made-some-little-mistakes-in-a-few-corners/
Continued Performance, Not One Win, Will Save Logano
Before Pocono, all the talk about Joey Logano was that he may be on his way out of a Cup ride at Joe Gibbs Racing. Following a win from the pole on Sunday, the discussion about Logano is now about how the win saved his ride. But I’m not convinced that is the case. 2012 [...] 
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Grosjean Set For 2013 Lotus Stay
Lotus Team Principle Eric Boullier has revealed that Romain Grosjean is likely to stay with the team for 2013. The Frenchman has come in for some criticism this term for his ?crash-prone? style of driving, leading some to believe that Lotus may lose patience with their driver. However, Boullier has said he is impressed with [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Formula1Fancast/~3/Iomh-NLq02Q/grosjean-set-for-2013-lotus-stay
Enrico Bertaggia Tony Bettenhausen Mike Beuttler Birabongse Bhanubandh
Sunday
Matt Kenseth says Talladega win was a boost for his final six races at Roush
Still in 12th in the Chase points standings after Sunday's win at Talladega, Matt Kenseth's championship hopes are pretty much nonexistent in his final season at Roush Fenway Racing, and Kenseth said Tuesday that the win was integral in helping him feel better about he and the team's split when they officially part ways in six more races.
"Well, it's made me feel a little bit better about certain things," Kenseth said."I mean, it's really important for me to finish this thing off on a high note.�It would just break my heart if the thing was broken when I left.�So I certainly didn't want that."
"And we had a really rough few weeks in The Chase with parts breaking and following off and not getting good finishes and not running good and everybody was getting close to being at each other's throats and things like that.� So it's important for me to try to really try to keep that whole unit as a cohesive front-running championship-contending unit.� So I'm hoping in the next six weeks we can continue this momentum, hoping we can get another win or two and finish as high as we can in the points and end this thing on a high note."
Kenseth was the series' best driver at restrictor plate tracks this season, also winning the Daytona 500 and finishing third twice. Drivers rarely move on to other teams when things are going well, so that's one reason that Kenseth became just the third different Chase driver, along with Tony Stewart in 2008 and Kurt Busch last year, to win a Chase race the season before leaving for a new team. But Kenseth said that once he met with Joe and JD Gibbs, his decision to take over the driving duties of the No. 20 wasn't as difficult as you might have expected.
"When I've talked to Joe and JD and went and saw some of their stuff and spent some time with them, I just really felt like that was the right place for me," Kenseth said. "I felt really comfortable with everything.� I feel really good about their stuff, when you watch how good all their cars perform on the racetrack and how many races they win and all that kind of stuff, I just felt like that was the place for me."
"It really wasn't as hard or I wasn't probably as conflicted as one might think."
Conny Andersson Mario Andretti Michael Andretti Keith Andrews
Chase Power Rankings: Really? You want us to make sense of that Talladega mess?
The fourth race of the Chase is over, and that means it's time for Power Rankings! But we're doing things a little differently now that we're in the postseason. It's all-Chasers, all the time. Good job, good effort for those of you that didn't make it, but we've got bigger fish to focus on. We'll be judging who's running well, considering not just finishing position but quality of run, expected potential, and general gut feelings. As always, we hate your guy and are biased against him. Now, enjoy.
1. Brad Keselowski: All right, here's the deal. There's absolutely no way to make any kind of objective judgment about how each driver is doing based on Talladega, so we're going completely the other direction. We're using the Mafia Name Generator to transform your favorite NASCAR drivers into the world's fastest mob. Hey, it makes about as much sense as determining a race winner by who survives a 31-car pileup. Brad Keselowski? He's @Kes no more. Now he's "Slug-Like Marco Santoro," which makes like no sense in any direction. Hmmm. Clearly this isn't a flawless system.
2. Jimmie Johnson: "Valentino the Stink-Eye." Don't know about the Valentino aspect, but when Johnson lasers his eye on you, you're going to start stinking. Just like the end of Sunday's race did for most Chasers.
3. Denny Hamlin: "Tony Lottaspaghetti." Hmm. No bueno for Denny. But you know what was bueno? The way he managed to dodge most of the mess on Sunday. Of course, hiding out in Birmingham while the rest of the race happens is one way to do that.
4. Jeff Gordon: "Green Jack Ricci." That sounds more like a post-Bieber singer than a made man. Gordon, for his part, continues his amazing run of top-3 finishes, and so once he takes that mulligan he'll be in fine sha- what? No mulligan? Oh. He's screwed.
5. Clint Bowyer: "Luca the Wolf." Yes. YES. Now THAT'S a badass name. Of course, Bowyer ended up like the three little pigs, not the wolf, on Sunday. He looked like he was in line for a big jump, but, well ... no.
6. Kasey Kahne: "Angelo the Bookie." Nah. Kahne's too pretty to be a bookie. Bookies look like they blocked punts with their faces. Kahne? Not so much. He won the pole but not much else at Talladega, and the debt is coming due on his season.
7. Dale Earnhardt Jr.: "Paolo Rubberface." Rub 'er face? But I don't even know her! OHHHHH! Junior was in the lead for awhile, which is mandatory at Talladega, but he got caught up in that whole bloodthirsty wreck and looked more than a little shellshocked afterward. Time's up.
8. Tony Stewart: "Decrepit Roberto Rossi." If there's one thing Stewart is NOT, it's decrepit. Whatever. Just curious, though: what do you think Smoke's reaction would have been if any, and I mean ANY, other driver had caused that wreck? He'd have pulled the guy's skeleton out of his skin.
9. Martin Truex Jr.: "Fat Alphonso Barrow." Aw, come on. Hell, Truex is the only Chase driver who legitimately looks like he could be IN the Mob. AND he's from New Jersey! Hmmm. Anyway, as we've discussed, Truex's window is pretty much slammed shut at this point.
10. Matt Kenseth: "'Heavy Load' Bruno." Yeah, victory when you just happen to be in the right place at the right time is indeed a heavy load to carry. Little bit too late, though, for Kenseth's Chase chances.
11. Kevin Harvick: "Tony Fatface." Hmmm. That seems like it might best apply elsewhere. You know who else ought to apply elsewhere? Anybody working on the 29 crew this season.
12. Greg Biffle: "Twisted Oscar DiMarco." Twisted like Biffle's championship chances, amirite? Better luck next year, Greg.
All right, this didn't quite turn out as well as we'd hoped. Hey, sometimes these columns are ridearounds, too. Anyway, your turn. Oh, and by the way, my Mafia name? "Carlo Chainsaw." YEAH.
Tony Stewart picks up Bass Pro Shops sponsorship for 18 races in 2013
Bass Pro Shops announced their partnership with Tony Stewart and Stewart-Haas Racing on Thursday night and on Friday at Talladega, they revealed the terms of the sponsorship agreement that will see the company on the hood of Stewart's No. 14 car for 18 races in 2013.
Stewart said Friday that the team approached Bass Pro when it became uncertain if Office Depot would return in 2013. Bass Pro sponsored Jamie McMurray in the Earnhardt Ganassi No. 1 car for 18 races in 2012. Office Depot and SHR announced in September that the company wouldn't be returning.
"We worked on it then we went to Johnny (Morris, CEO of Bass Pro Shops) and knew that there might be the possibility that Office Depot might be leaving but at the same time we know that the U.S. Army had already made their decision that they were leaving. We gave him different options," Stewart said. "The one thing about Johnny is he is very loyal. We weren't trying to steal him away from anybody but we just threw it out there that if he ever decided to make a change that we had opportunities now that we really hadn't had in the past to do something. When Office Depot made their announcement then it was very clear that we had an opportunity on our car as well. That is when we went to him and we worked on it I would say all the way pretty much through Richmond until we made a decision."
Morris said that Bass Pro would continue to be involved with Austin and Ty Dillon, and that he hoped to stay associated with McMurray in some capacity.
Mobil 1, currently a co-primary sponsor on Stewart's car, will be back with the team for 11 races, leaving nine races that the team is still in need of primary sponsorship for. Unfortunately, From the Marbles won't be able to be that sponsor. We're still working on our 2013 plans.
"Well it's important that we fill it, but I've got a great partner with Gene Haas," Stewart said. "Obviously he is all in with this program. He is not going to let it not succeed. Haas Automation could fill in if we needed to, but it's our hope that we can find somebody that can carry those last nine races for us and be a good partner with Bass Pro Shops and Mobil 1 and really tie this all together and complete it. We do have Haas Automation as a safety net so to speak if we really needed it. My goal as his business partner is to not have to all back on him and have to utilize his resource that way."
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Saturday
Almirola and Ambrose?s teams swap crews for final 10 races
Richard Petty Motorsports announced Monday that it would be swapping the crews for it's No. 43 team of Aric Almirola and No. 9 team of Marcos Ambrose for the remainder of the season.
The swaps include crew chiefs, as Mike Ford moves to the No. 9 and Todd Parrott moves atop Almirola's box.
"We're continuing to make improvements at Richard Petty Motorsports and we've added talented people to our organization this season," RPM director of competition Sammy Johns said in a release. "This move is to make sure that we are using that talent to the fullest to get the best results for our teams each weekend. We feel this adjustment will strengthen the organization, allow us to continue to compete for wins and ultimately challenge for championships."
Ford was Denny Hamlin's crew chief in 2011, and replaced Greg Erwin as Almirola's crew chief after the first nine races of the season. Almirola's highest finish in the 17 races they were together was a 6th place finish at Dover.
Ambrose and Parrott have won the last two Watkins Glen races and had eight top 10s in 26 races this season. Ambrose is currently 15th in the points standings.
Grosjean Targeting Clean Korean Grand Prix
Romain Grosjean is hoping to stay out of trouble during Sunday?s Korean Grand Prix. The Frenchman has earned a reputation for his first lap crashes this season, with Mark Webber branding him a ?nut case? following a collision between the pair in Japan. Grosjean was also responsible for the first corner crash at Spa earlier [...]
Friday
Join us for the latest NASCAR live chat, Tuesday at 1 p.m. ET
Time again for another NASCAR live chat! Join us to talk Dover, 'Dega, and whether this season is already over! Come on, hang, and bring a friend!
Matt Kenseth says Talladega win was a boost for his final six races at Roush
Still in 12th in the Chase points standings after Sunday's win at Talladega, Matt Kenseth's championship hopes are pretty much nonexistent in his final season at Roush Fenway Racing, and Kenseth said Tuesday that the win was integral in helping him feel better about he and the team's split when they officially part ways in six more races.
"Well, it's made me feel a little bit better about certain things," Kenseth said."I mean, it's really important for me to finish this thing off on a high note.�It would just break my heart if the thing was broken when I left.�So I certainly didn't want that."
"And we had a really rough few weeks in The Chase with parts breaking and following off and not getting good finishes and not running good and everybody was getting close to being at each other's throats and things like that.� So it's important for me to try to really try to keep that whole unit as a cohesive front-running championship-contending unit.� So I'm hoping in the next six weeks we can continue this momentum, hoping we can get another win or two and finish as high as we can in the points and end this thing on a high note."
Kenseth was the series' best driver at restrictor plate tracks this season, also winning the Daytona 500 and finishing third twice. Drivers rarely move on to other teams when things are going well, so that's one reason that Kenseth became just the third different Chase driver, along with Tony Stewart in 2008 and Kurt Busch last year, to win a Chase race the season before leaving for a new team. But Kenseth said that once he met with Joe and JD Gibbs, his decision to take over the driving duties of the No. 20 wasn't as difficult as you might have expected.
"When I've talked to Joe and JD and went and saw some of their stuff and spent some time with them, I just really felt like that was the right place for me," Kenseth said. "I felt really comfortable with everything.� I feel really good about their stuff, when you watch how good all their cars perform on the racetrack and how many races they win and all that kind of stuff, I just felt like that was the place for me."
"It really wasn't as hard or I wasn't probably as conflicted as one might think."
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