NASCAR News

This weekend's NASCAR Cup race is at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California.  The Toyota/Save Mart 350 is one of just two road course races on the schedule.

The entry list for the race has 44 names.  Only one car is going home after qualifying Friday.

There's not much NASCAR news until the teams get to the track Thursday. 

There's a small adjustment to the 2012 schedule.  The spring race at Dover will move back to early June right after Memorial Day.  Attendance sagged when they moved the race to May, so they're moving it back.

Michigan International Speedway and ESPN have combined forces to put a race title sponsorship and media sponsorship package together for Michigan's tourism bureau.  This story is really only interesting in that it answers the question of how much money is thrown around to put one of these NASCAR races together.

But the money is nothing compared to what it takes to put on an F1 race.  The Austin city council is voting Thursday, basically signing on the dotted line to officially put on the American Grand Prix. 

It seems that a yes vote by the seven-member council would finally allow race promoters to take advantage of the money in the Texas Major Events Trust Fund.  The promoters would pay $4 million a year for ten years and get back $25 million a year for ten years to give to Bernie Ecclestone and F1 management for the privilege of holding the race.

A host of other problems are rearing their ugly heads, including the fact that Austin, Texas, a town with virtually no extra hotel rooms, has never held an event of this size before.  The latest wrinkle in the saga is that two educators and an accountant have filed a lawsuit to block payment of the subsidy to the race promoters.

Cup -- Hamlin Outruns Kenseth at Michigan

Image by Hans J E via Flickr

Denny Hamlin got out of the pits first on the final stop of the day and held off Matt Kenseth in the closing laps to win Sunday's Heluva Good! 400 at Michigan International Speedway.

Hamlin beat Kenseth to the line by 0.281 seconds for his first win of the season.  It was Hamlin's 17th career victory, putting him in a tie with Kevin Harvick, Marvin Panch and Curtis Turner for 44th on the all-time wins list.  It was Hamlin's second win at MIS.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. brought out the final caution of the afternoon on Lap 192 of 200.  His Hendrick Racing teammate Mark Martin pinched him up into the wall.  Moments later, a tire went down and Junior smacked the wall again.  He finished 21st, his worst showing of the year.

Hamlin was first out of the pits on the money stop, almost running down one of his crew members in the process.  Hamlin led the field to green with five laps to go.  Kenseth spun his tires on the restart, but got a great push from Carl Edwards allowing him to challenge Hamlin for the victory.  Hamlin's car was better on the short runs and he was able to hold Kenseth off.

Roush Fenway drivers dominated the race until Hamlin took charge at the end.  Greg Biffle led a race-high 68 laps, Edwards 39 and Kenseth 17.  Edwards had a lead of about 1 1/2 seconds when the final caution flew.  Hamlin led just eight laps.

Kyle Busch finished third for the second week in a row.  Paul Menard was fourth for his best finish of the season.  Series points leader Edwards was fifth, followed by Ryan Newman, Tony Stewart, Clint Bowyer, Mark Martin and Brian Vickers.  (Race results)

Jimmie Johnson had a rough afternoon.  He spun coming out of Turn Two on Lap 7 to bring out the first caution of the day.  He didn't hit anything, but blew three of his four tires and broke his front sway bar.  He lost two laps while his team made repairs and finished 27th.

Carl Edwards stretched his lead in the series points standings to 20.  Kevin Harvick finished 14th, but jumped two spots in the standings to second.  Earnhardt (-27) remains in third.  Kyle Busch and Johnson are fourth and fifth, both 29 points back.  They're followed by Kenseth, Kurt Busch, and Newman.  Hamlin finally cracked the Top 10 for the first time this season; he's now ninth, tied with Clint Bowyer 77 points behind Edwards.  Stewart is just one point out of the Top 10 now.

Cup -- Kurt Busch on the Pole, JGR Rules Violation at Michigan

Image by Photography by Hank via Flickr

Kurt Busch won his third pole in a row, edging David Reutimann by three one-thousandths of a second Saturday to take the pole for Sunday's Heluva Good! 400 at Michigan International Speedway.

Busch turned a lap on the two-mile track in 38.156 seconds (188.669 mph) to edge Reutimann's 38.159-second effort.  It was Busch's 15th career pole and the fourth in a row for Penske Racing.  Brad Keselowski started the streak at Charlotte in May.

Matt Kenseth will start third, followed by Brian Vickers and Regan Smith.  Series points leader Carl Edwards starts 23rd.  Tony Raines, Brian Keselowski and Mike Skinner did not make the race.  (Race lineup)


The oil pans for all three Joe Gibbs Racing cars -- those of Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano -- were confiscated by NASCAR during opening day inspection Friday.  The teams had to change out the oil pans before practice began Friday.  The confiscated parts were 25-30 pounds heavier than those normally used and could give an aerodynamic advantage by lowering the cars center of gravity.

Because the oil pans were never used in competition, NASCAR seems to be inclined to treat this as a simple case of failing to submit the part for approval.  In that case, the teams might be penalized financially, not by taking points away.

Jeff Gordon weighed in on Twitter...

All I'm going to say about Gibbs cars oil pan is that we had 100 point penalty for a flared left front fender that never went on track. #JGFri Jun 17 18:49:58 via Twitter for BlackBerry®Jeff Gordon
JeffGordonWeb

Sprint Cup Series Director John Darby explained that this would be similar to Michael Waltrip Racing using unapproved radiator mounts at Texas last year.  In that case, the crew chiefs were fined $25,000 and put on probation.

"The whole issue has absolutely nothing to do with whether the oil pans are legal or illegal," Darby said. "But, quite frankly...we never had the opportunity to make that decision.

"When we open the rulebook, we don't have to flip through pages to get back to the oil-pan section. We open the book and we stop on the first page and the very first paragraph says you've got to have stuff approved before you can use it. We don't have to make a judgment of the pan. We don't have to decide whether it's too heavy or too light. We don't have to decide if it's an aerodynamic device or not an aerodynamic device...

"The Hendrick fender flares [in 2007], every square inch of the car body, there's a drawing that supports how exactly it has to be," Darby said. "The wing mounts from Dale Earnhardt Jr [in 2007], those were an exact part that had to comply with the design drawings that were given to all the teams.

"Oil pans, the teams have flexibility to work on them with oil pickups, depths and a little bit of widths. There's some real basic parameters that surround the oil pans, but there is some leniency to work on an oil pan, much like you would have a leniency to port a cylinder head to your liking."

  Penalties will be announced Monday or Tuesday.

Nationwide -- Edwards Outruns Stenhouse at Michigan

Image via Wikipedia

Carl Edwards outran his Roush Fenway teammate Ricky Stenhouse Jr. to win Saturday's Alliance Truck Parts 250 at Michigan International Speedway.  It was Edward's fourth Nationwide Series win of the season and the 33rd of his career.

Stenhouse passed Edwards for the lead with 21 laps to go, but Edwards ran him down and the two dueled for the win in the closing laps before Edwards finally retook the lead with less than ten laps to go and pulled away for a 1.669 second victory.  Edwards led a race-high 62 (of 125) laps, including the final eight.

Stenhouse finished second to give Roush Fenway a 1-2 finish.  Kyle Busch finished third, followed by Paul Menard and Trevor Bayne.  (Race results)

Mark Martin was on pit road when the third and final caution of the day flew over Aric Almirola's spin in Turn Two.  Martin inherited the lead when the leaders else pitted during the caution, but he fell back and finished seventh.

Stenhouse took over the lead in the series points standings, two points ahead of Elliott Sadler, who finished eighth.  Reed Sorenson recovered from a early pit road commitment line violation and pass-through penalty to finish 11th, but fell from first to third in the standings, four points behind Stenhouse.  Justin Allgaier is fourth, 17 points back.  Aric Almirola and Jason Leffler are tied for fifth, 54 points behind Stenhouse.