Saturday
Hungarian Grand Prix Preview ? The Soap Opera Lands Again
Friday
Denny Hamlin tossed his HANS device at Kevin Harvick after crashing
Denny Hamlin wasn't happy with Kevin Harvick again at Bristol.
Hamlin was leading on lap 162 Saturday night when Harvick was following him on the straightaway. As Harvick's car drifted towards the wall, he wasn't completely behind Hamlin and made contact with Hamlin's bumper, sending him spinning.
After Hamlin's car bounced off the inside wall, he collected Dale Earnhardt Jr., whose car got sheared on the left side like a can opener.
Hamlin emerged from his car unscathed but ticked. He tossed his HANS device at Harvick's car as Harvick drove by.
"Last year he was just not paying attention and he didn't know that I had a cut tire last year and he just thinks he knows everything and probably thought he knew everything again," Hamlin said. "I just wish I had some kind of car left so I could show him the favor back. We're not even halfway, we're racing for the lead -- it's a misjudgment. He's a good driver. He knows better, he just made a mistake."
Harvick apologized on the radio (and on Twitter) afterwards and said the move was not intentional. And yes, Hamlin did follow the new NASCAR protocol that bars drivers from exiting their cars before safety workers arrive in aftermath of Kevin Ward's death on August 9 at a sprint car race in New York.
As you can see from the video above, Hamlin threw his HANS device while near one of the safety trucks around him and did not venture out towards Harvick's car in what could be considered a dangerous manner. Plus, there's nothing in NASCAR's new rule that bans the throwing of equipment at cars. If drivers want to do it like Hamlin did Saturday night, they're going to have to work at long-tossing.
The incident Hamlin references last year is when Hamlin had a cut tire from contact with Brian Vickers. Harvick got into the back of him and a mess of cars were collected. After the crash, Harvick parked his car in Hamlin's pit stall and Hamlin pushed Harvick's car out of it with his own.
Harvick ended up 11th after a late race speeding penalty. Hamlin finished 40th.
- - - - - - -
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!
Eugene Chaboud Jay Chamberlain Karun Chandhok Alain de Changy
Thursday
Wednesday
Tuesday
2014 Brno MotoGP Sunday Round Up: Breaking The Streak
The hot-hand fallacy finally caught up with Marc Marquez. His amazing streak of consecutive wins stays at ten, the Spaniard being beaten for the first time this year. In his twenty-ninth race in the MotoGP class, Marquez and his crew finally failed to find a good enough set up to win, or even make it onto the podium. The Repsol Honda man has only missed out on the podium twice before, once at Mugello last year, when he crashed, and once at Phillip Island, when he was disqualified from the tire fiasco race.
Defeat had been waiting in the wings for Marquez for a while now. Look solely at the points table, and his dominance looks complete. But go back and look at his winning margin, and his advantage has not looked quite so large. Of his ten wins, only two were by a considerable margin: one at Austin, where he has always been better than the rest; one at Assen, where rain created large gaps. His advantage at Argentina and Indianapolis was 1.8 seconds, at Jerez, Le Mans and the Sachsenring under a second and a half. Marquez could only eke out victory at Qatar, Mugello and Barcelona, races he won by a half a second or less. At most races, Marquez was winning by a slender margin indeed, lapping on average just five or six hundredths of a second quicker than his rivals. It was enough, but it was really not very much at all.
Marquez' slender advantage over his rivals was a sign of just how close they really were. Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa had all come close to beating Marquez, and in the case of Pedrosa at Barcelona, Marquez had been forced to delve deep into his bag of tricks to beat his teammate. Marquez' talent may have loaded the dice he was rolling, but eventually they would fall another way. "People said winning was easy for me," Marquez told the Spanish media, "but I know how hard it was."
Why Andre Lotterer is driving for Caterham
Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2014/08/20/why-andre-lotterer-is-driving-for-caterham/
Monday
The latest from Germany
Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2014/07/30/the-latest-from-germany/
Kurt Adolff Fred Agabashian Kurt Ahrens Jr Christijan Albers
Sunday
Live: 2014 Belgium GP3 race two | F1 Fanatic Live
Source: http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2014/08/24/live-2014-belgium-gp3-race-two/
Saturday
F1 WAG: Natalie Sifferman
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Formula1Fancast/~3/zfmwbg34kkU/f1-wag-natalie-sifferman-2
Michael Andretti Keith Andrews Elio de Angelis Marco Apicella
Friday
Rossi to race Marussia at Spa in place of Chilton
Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2014/08/21/rossi-to-race-marussia-at-spa-in-place-of-chilton/
Thursday
It's a Penske front row sweep at Kentucky: Keselowski starts first, Logano second
Two weeks ago at Michigan, Brad Keselowski said the Hendrick-powered cars were "probably a full season ahead of everyone." Well, on Friday at Kentucky during qualifying for Saturday night's Sprint Cup Series race, Keselowski and Team Penske teammate Joey Logano had the fastest cars.
The Penske duo, the best qualifiers in NASCAR this year, qualified on the front row, edging out Jeff Gordon, Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick.
Both Penske drivers were incredibly fast throughout Friday's three rounds of qualifying. Logano was fastest in the first two rounds while Keselowski was third in the first session and second in the second.
The pole is Keselowski's third of the season in the Cup Series and was his second of the day. Earlier he qualified on the pole for Friday night's Nationwide Series race.
While Gordon, Kyle Larson and three Stewart-Haas Racing cars (Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch and Danica Patrick) made the final 12 with their Hendrick horsepower, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jimmie Johnson failed to advance from the first round. Johnson qualified 25th while Junior was 29th.
Because of the short field entered in Saturday night's race, no drivers obviously did not qualify. There was one change to the entry list before practice began on Friday. BK Racing entered a fourth car for Mike Bliss with the No. 44 of Xxxtreme Motorsports withdrew for being too risque.*
*OK, that's not true. The team tweeted that it had "in house politics that needed to be resolved."
- - - - - - -
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!
Wednesday
Sheriff says investigation of Kevin Ward's death could take two more weeks
The investigation into Kevin Ward's death after he was struck and killed by Tony Stewart Saturday night could take two more weeks, according to Ontario County (N.Y.) Sheriff Philip Povero.
Povero issued a statement but didn't take questions about the incident Tuesday afternoon. He said that there were no details to release and that after the investigation was complete, the OCSD would meet with the district attorney and present all of its findings.
He said at that time more information may be released.
Povero reiterated Monday that there were no facts at the present time to find any criminal intent in the matter. After Stewart and Ward were racing together at the Canandaigua Motorsports Park, Ward crashed and got out of his car to confront Stewart. He was clipped by Stewart's right-rear tire.
On Monday, the Ontario County coroner ruled that Ward died of massive blunt force trauma. Funeral services for Ward are set for his hometown of Port Leyden, N.Y., on Thursday with visitation hours on Wednesday.
Stewart has not made an announcement regarding his participation in Sunday's Sprint Cup Series race at Michigan after sitting out at Watkins Glen. He has suspended his sprint car racing schedule.
- - - - - - -
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!
Tuesday
Kevin Harvick gets his fourth pole of the season at Indianapolis
Kevin Harvick has another fast car.
Harvick grabbed his Sprint Cup Series-leading fourth pole of the season Saturday at Indianapolis, beating Jeff Gordon and Brad Keselowski for the right to start first in the Crown Royal presents the John Wayne Walding 400 at the Brickyard powered by BigMachineRecords.com.
(Yes, we typed that race name out simply to show the utter absurdity of the current name of the formerly and simply named Brickyard 400.)
Throughout the three rounds of qualifying, Harvick had the fastest car. All he did was simply go out once in each session, lay down one incredibly quick lap, and go back to pit road and wait to see if anyone would beat his time. No one did.
Stewart-Haas' other three cars are fast too. Both Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart made the final round. Stewart starts sixth while Busch is seventh. Danica Patrick missed the final round but starts 14th.
Harvick has one other pole at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In 2003, he started first and finished first. And in his three other poles this season, Harvick has a win (Darlington) and two second-place finishes (Kansas, Michigan.) We're going to go out on the weakest of limbs and say that at Indy, a place where track position is absolutely critical, Harvick will be a factor.
Defending champion Ryan Newman qualified fourth while Brian Vickers starts fifth.
- - - - - - -
Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
Monday
Sunday
Saturday
2014 Brno Moto3 FP2 Result: Marquez Heads Honda Charge
Alex Marquez leads the field by a third of a second, the same gap he trails behind the lap record of 2'07.622 with. Alex Rins, Marquez's Estrella Galicia teammate, and Alexis Masbou round out the all-Honda, all-Alex provisional front row, with Jakub Kornfeil managing to depose this morning's sensation Enea Bastianini.
Results:
Friday
The No. 77 is 'retooling,' which means there are only 42 Cup cars entered at Kentucky
The No. 77 car owned by Randy Humphrey and driven by Dave Blaney has made four Sprint Cup Series starts this season. Its highest finish is 33rd in those four starts. No, the No. 77 has not been a barnburner in the Cup Series.
This week, Humphrey told NASCAR.com that the team was "retooling" and hoped to be back at Indianapolis. After entering the first 15 races of the season, the team skipped Sonoma and, as of now, will miss three more races.
Normally, the absence of a team struggling to make the field in the Cup Series isn't noticeable to most NASCAR fans. But it's notable this weekend. It means that as of Wednesday, the entry list for the Cup race at Kentucky on Saturday night has 42 cars on it. A full field is 43 cars. (Part-time teams like the Wood Brothers and Leavine Family Racing don't have Kentucky on the schedule.)
If the race starts with 42 cars, it'll break a streak that's gone on for more than 12 years. The last time a race was run without 43 cars was at New Hampshire in 2001, when the race was run in November instead of September because of the Sept. 11 attacks. (The race, run on the Friday after Thanksgiving, was set by owner's points at the time of the originally scheduled and the No. 27 team had folded since. Thus, no replacement was found.)
The last time a qualifying session was held with less than a full field in the Cup Series entered? You have to go all the way back to Dover in 1996, according to Jayski.
Is the lack of a 43rd car a big deal? That's up for you to decide, though if you think it is, don't go reaching for the megaphone to exclaim that the sky is falling. It does mean that each of NASCAR's top three series will have had a short field in 2014 and it's become obvious that there are significant barriers to entry for new and/or underfunded teams trying to make it in NASCAR.
But that's the case with or without one more car entered at Kentucky. NASCAR's national series, especially the Cup Series, are extremely close through speeds and scoring monitors. However, close doesn't always equal competitive; it's why wins like Front Row's at Talladega last year are so exciting. Smaller teams simply don't have a chance of winning most every weekend.
It would have been a victory for the No. 77 to finish above 30th at Kentucky, which is why, again, most fans wouldn't notice its absence on Saturday night. But because of it, there looks like there will be 21 full rows starting the race instead of 21.5. Will you notice that? Maybe. Is the absence of the half row indicative of issues facing teams in NASCAR? Definitely. Will it impact the race's outcome or how you view it? Not at all.
- - - - - - -
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!
Thursday
Kyle Larson wins the pole at Pocono
Before the June race at Pocono, Kyle Larson's team owner, Chip Ganassi, got him a stick-shift Chevrolet Camaro to practice shifting in. With Pocono, a place where drivers shift, and the road course at Sonoma comng up, Ganassi wanted to make sure Larson knew what he was doing.
The lesson has paid off.
In his first race at the track, Larson absolutely dominated in ARCA and won. The next day, in the Pocono Sprint Cup Series race, he finished fifth. And on Friday, Larson qualified on the pole for Sunday's return trip to Pocono.
It's the second time Larson has started first this season, but it's his first official pole. At Richmond he started first by virtue of having the fastest practice speed as qualifying was rained out.
And guess who was right behind Larson? Yep, the Penske cars. Joey Logano qualified second while Brad Keselowski was third. Kurt Busch will start fourth while Jeff Gordon starts fifth.
There were 43 cars attempting to qualify so no one misses the race.
- - - - - - -
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!