NASCAR News

Crown Royal has announced that they are significantly scaling back their involvement with NASCAR.  They will end their sponsorship with Roush Fenway Racing and Matt Kenseth's No. 17 Ford at the end of the year.  Also, parent company Diageo will not renew their deal as an official NASCAR partner.

RFR has thus far only renewed their sponsorship deal with 3M.  It appears that their other major sponsors, Aflac and UPS, are waiting to see if Carl Edwards re-signs with RFR and how the rest of the silly season shakes out.

Crown Royal will concentrate its NASCAR involvement on their annual "Your Name Here" race, which has been held at Richmond International Speedway in September.

Geico has signed a three-year deal to sponsor the fall Sprint Cup Series race at Chicagoland Speedway.  It's Geico's first naming-rights agreement in any sport.

Jeremy Fuller, a contract employee and tire changer for Red Bull Racing and Turner Motorsports, has been fired from both jobs for homophobic tweets he posted after the race at Infineon Speedway Sunday.

UPS will honor Ned Jarrett's induction into the NASCAR Hall of Fame with a throwback paint scheme on David Ragan's No. 6 Ford at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  The throwback design, which resembles Jarrett's 1965 Ford Galaxie, was unveiled Sunday at Infineon Raceway.

Cup - Kurt Busch Dominates at Sonoma

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Kurt Busch notched his first career road course victory Sunday, winning the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway.  He made it look easy, leading 76 of the 110 laps (including the final 23) and crossing the finish line 2.685 seconds ahead of his nearest competitor.

It was Busch's first Cup win of the season and the 23rd of his career, tying him with Ricky Rudd for 26th on the all-time wins list.

The real battle was for second place between Jeff Gordon and Carl Edwards.  Both struggled early in the race, then seemed to appear out of nowhere at the end by staying out on old tires.  Gordon passed Edwards for second on the final lap.  Clint Bowyer finished fourth, followed by Marcos Ambrose.  (Race results)

The real story of the race was all the "boys, have at it" action going on behind Busch.  Juan Montoya played the part that Jeff Gordon played so well last year, tangling with everyone he got near.  Two incidents stand out:  On Lap 37, he tangled with Kyle Busch, shoving him off the track in Turn 11 and starting a multi-car pileup.  On Lap 104, he tried to force Brad Keselowski into the grass.  Keselowski returned the favor by spinning him out.

The first incident ended Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s day and started a feud between Tony Stewart and Brian Vickers.  Stewart pushed Vickers into the cars that were slowing in front of him, then spun him around.  Vickers got his revenge on Lap 87.  Stewart was challenging Busch for the lead when they came up on Vickers.  After Stewart went by, Vickers turned him when he slowed for Turn 11.  Stewart came to rest with his rear end up on the tire barrier.

Montoya also tangled with Kasey Kahne, trying to force his way through when there really wasn't anywhere to go.  The move spun Kahne, but also cost Montoya a few spots.  Joey Logano got together with Robby Gordon early in the race, leaving Gordon to ponder doing "a Richard Childress" on the younger driver.

Edwards increased his lead in the series points standings by five; he now leads Kevin Harvick by 25 points.  Harvick rebounded from a tough day to finish ninth.  Jimmie Johnson finished seventh, but climbed two spots in the standings to third, 33 points behind Edwards.  Kurt Busch climbed three spots to fourth, 34 points out.  Kyle Busch (-37) is now fifth, followed by Matt Kenseth (-52) and Earnhardt (-65), who dropped four spots in the standings.  Clint Bowyer (-77), Gordon (-93) and Ryan Newman (-98) round out the Top 10.

Related articles

• Stewart, Vickers tangle at Infineon (msn.foxsports.com)
• WINNERS & LOSERS: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin among victims of rough race at Sonoma (scenedaily.com)

Nationwide - Sorenson Wins Wild One at Road America

Image by jerbec via Flickr

It took three green-white-checkered finishes, then it took NASCAR several minutes to review the mayhem, but they made the right call and awarded Saturday's Bucyrus 200 to Reed Sorenson.  Sorenson inherited the lead on the final lap under caution when Justin Allgaier ran out of gas on the way to the finish line.

It was Sorenson's fourth career Nationwide Series win, the first in 58 races dating back to July 2007 at Gateway International Raceway.

It was a pretty sedate road course race for most of the way.  The biggest excitement early on was the battle for the lead between Michael McDowell and Jacques Villeneuve.  But Villeneuve was penalized on a restart on Lap 25 (of 50) when he changed lanes before crossing the start/finish line. 

McDowell seemingly took the lead for good on Lap 43, passing Brian Scott and quickly pulling away from the field.  But Doug Harrington spun with four laps to go, bringing out the fourth caution of the day and setting up the first green-white-checkered finish.

Villeneuve made the bonehead move of the race on the restart, diving outside to try to get back into contention.  He got his right-side tires in the grass, then got into Scott and Max Papis, spinning them out into the gravel pits.

McDowell got a good jump on the second green-white-checkered restart, but slid off the track on Turn Five, giving the lead to Allgaier.  Moments later, he slid off again, ending any chance of winning, but starting a chain reaction wreck that brought out the caution again.

Allgaier got a good jump on the last green-white-checkered restart and took the white flag, but more bumping and banging left Aric Almirola in the gravel pit and brought out the final caution.  All Allgaier had to do was make it back around to the finish line to win, but he was out of gas and the win belonged to Sorenson.

Then there was confusion.  Apparently, Ron Fellows did not see the caution waving.  He blew past Sorenson and was still at race speed until the pace car pulled out in front of him.  Sorenson and Fellows crossed the finish line side-by-side behind the pace car.  Fellows was initially declared the winner, but NASCAR reviewed the tape and determined that Fellows had passed Sorenson after the caution came out.

Villeneuve finished third, followed by Elliott Sadler and Mike Wallace.  The race went seven laps beyond the regulation distance on the four-mile course.  (Race results)

The victory puts Sorenson back in the lead in the series points standings.  He's five points ahead of Sadler.  Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (-7) drops two spots to third after finishing eighth.  Allgaier (-34) is fourth; Jason Leffler (-73) is fifth.

Cup - Logano Takes the Pole at Sonoma

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Joey Logano grabbed the pole for Sunday's Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway.  Logano, who doesn't have much of a reputation as a road racer, turned a lap of 76.821 seconds (93.256 mph) on the 1.99-mile course.  Logano was as surprised as everyone else, "This is the last place that I figured we'd get a pole."

It was Logano's second career pole.  The other came at Bristol in March 2010.  Logano is the youngest driver (21 years, 1 month) to win a road course poll, besting Parnelli Jones (24 years, 9 months, 18 days) at Riverside in 1958.

Jamie McMurray (76.848 seconds, 93.223 mph) will start on the outside of the front row.  Paul Menard starts third, followed by Denny Hamlin and Ryan Newman. 

Tony Ave, a road race specialist substituting for Travis Kvapil in the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford, was the only driver to fail to qualify for the race.  (Race lineup)

Kurt Busch was trying to earn his fourth straight pole.  He led the first practice session, giving him the final run in qualifying, but he was a half-second off of Logano's time.  He starts eleventh.  McMurray was fastest in the second practice.  Brad Keselowski was fastest in Happy Hour.

Series points leader Carl Edwards canceled his plans to run the Nationwide Series race at Road America.  After a poor first practice and qualifying run, Edwards decided he needed the extra practice time at Infineon.  He starts 23rd Sunday.

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.

NASCAR News

Joe Gibbs Racing:  It turned out just as expected -- no points penalties, but hefty monetary fines for bringing the unapproved oil pans to Michigan.  The three crew chiefs -- Mike Ford, Dave Rogers and Greg Zipadelli -- were fined $50,000 each.  The crew chief, the car chiefs and competition director Jimmy Makar were all put on probation until the end of the year.

Red Bull Racing:  The news that Red Bull was pulling out of NASCAR seems to have leaked a lot quicker than the company might have liked.  Anyway, they're searching for a buyer to keep the team going and will even throw in some sponsorship.  Whatever it takes.

Silly Season:  Carl Edwards is still the top free agent.  His decision -- to stay at Roush Fenway or move on -- will affect everyone else, but the situation at Red Bull throws a big monkey wrench into the works.  It's currently a two-car team, but Kasey Kahne is going to Hendricks next season and Brian Vickers's contract is up at the end of the season.  And what about Mark Martin...and Clint Bowyer and Danica Patrick and Juan Montoya and all the others?

It's a strange weekend coming up for the new official sport of North Carolina.  No Truck race, but the Cup and Nationwide Series are both at road courses -- just not the same one.  The Cup race is at Sonoma, California, at Infineon Raceway.  The Nationwide race is in Wisconsin at Road America.

Road courses?  Yea or nay?  I think they're fun and take a lot of driver skill.  I'd like to see maybe one more road course track on the Cup schedule, maybe even during the Chase.

NASCAR News

Some stories to check out:

• The news has leaked out that Red Bull will be leaving NASCAR at the end of the season.  It sounds like they are going to concentrate on their much more successful Formula One team.  They've had some bad luck and made some bad decisions since they've been in NASCAR, but I thought they were finally turning the corner.  Oh well.
• 
  
• Did you notice Hendrick's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day at Michigan?  Mark Martin had the best finish of the group (ninth), but that was after he ran Junior into the wall with about 15 to go.
• 
  
• Carl Edwards has become the lead spokeman for doing something about the downforce in the Cup cars.  "I'm really hoping that NASCAR will take the opportunity in 2013 to take downforce away, so the fans can see the guys race race cars and not race downforce. That would be cool."
•  
• And Fox is trying to work out an agreement with NASCAR to allow them to move some of their races to Speed.  This is probably good news unless you don't have Speed.  Eh, it probably won't happen for a couple of years anyway.

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.

Cup -- Penalties for Kyle Busch

Image by fdtate via Flickr

Kyle Busch's No. 18 car failed post-race inspection at Pocono Raceway.  In the past, penalties for such violations were announced on the following Tuesday, but NASCAR moved it up a day and announced Busch's penalties Monday.

The car was about 1/16th of an inch too low on the left front, violating Sections 12-1 (actions detrimental to stock car racing); 12-4-J (any determination by NASCAR officials that race equipment used in the event does not conform to NASCAR rules); and 20-12.8.1B (body height requirements - car failed to meet the minimum front car heights) of the 2011 NASCAR rule book.

Busch was docked six driver points.  Car owner Joe Gibbs was docked six owner points.  Crew chief Dave Rogers was fined $25,000.  This is the first such technical violation since NASCAR adopted a new points system at the beginning of the season.

Busch finished third in Sunday's 5-Hour Energy 500.  He remains fifth in the series points standings, now 31 points behind Carl Edwards.

MLB -- Heating Up

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Have you checked out the baseball standings lately?  Six divisions and the biggest lead heading into the middle of June is two games.  This could shape up to be a very interesting season.  I think I'm going to have to start paying more attention.

The Atlanta Braves have put together a six-game winning streak, and moved solidly into second place in the National League East, just two games behind the Phillies, who have the best record in baseball at the moment.  The Braves offense still scares me quite a bit, but it has shown some signs of life during the streak.  The Braves are winning most of these with great pitching.  They beat the Astros 4-1 Sunday; Tommy Hanson struck out 14 to get his third win in a row.  The Braves go for the four-game sweep Monday.

In the National League Central, the Brewers just completed a three-game sweep of the Cardinals to move ahead of them by a half-game.  Prince Fielder hit a 440-foot, 2-run blast for today's 4-3 win.

The Giants lead the Diamondbacks by one game in the National League West.  Arizona plays Florida Monday, then hosts a three-game set with the Giants.

The Red Sox have the best record in the American League and the biggest lead, two games over the Yankees in the East.  In the West, the Rangers have a 1 1/2 game lead over the Mariners.  The Indians have lost four in a row and now their lead in the Central is down to just percentage points over the Tigers.  And on top of all that, Derek Jeter is now just seven hits away from becoming the 28th member of the 3000-hit club.

Fasten your seatbelts!

Cup - Gordon Wins at Pocono

Image via Wikipedia

Jeff Gordon won Sunday's 5-Hour Energy 500 at Pocono Raceway.  His crew was able to get him out the pits ahead of Kurt Busch under caution on Lap 156 (of 200), then increased his lead on a later green-flag stop.  Gordon beat the elder Busch to the line by 2.965 seconds.

It was Gordon's 84th career Sprint Cup victory, tying him with Darrell Waltrip and Bobby Allison for third on the all-time wins list.  It was his second win of the season, solidifying his chances of making the Chase as at least a wild-card entry.  This is the first time since 2007 that Gordon has won multiple times in a season.  It was his fifth victory at Pocono, tying Bill Elliott for most wins at the track.

Kyle Busch was third, but his car failed post-race inspection.  It was too low in the front end.  Penalties should be announced Tuesday.  This will be the first penalty assessed under the new points system.  Jimmie Johnson was fourth; Kevin Harvick fifth.  (Race results)

Harvick tangled with Kyle Busch very early in the race, running him very low on the track on the front straightaway on the second lap, then bumping and banging with him a few laps later.  NASCAR stepped in and reminded both teams that they still had a week of probation left after their run-in at Darlington and warned them that they were being watched.  There were no further run-ins after that.

Harvick says that Busch "knows he's got one coming.  I just wanted him to think about it.   Busch said, "It's not my fight. He's trying to turn it into one."

It was a clean race.  There were just four cautions, all for debris.  Greg Biffle had the most interesting ride.  He spun coming out of Turn Three and went sideways through some traffic, past the commitment cone marking the entrance to pit road.  He didn't hit anything so the race stayed green.  Biffle pitted for four fresh tires and got back to it.

Mechanical problems were the big story of the day.  NASCAR changed the gear ratio which necessitated more shifting, adding to teams' woes.  Series points leader Carl Edward broke a valve and spent most of the day in the garage, finishing 37th, 141 laps down.  Both Stewart-Haas Racing cars, Tony Stewart's and Ryan Newman's, lost third gear.  Marcos Ambrose, Brad Keselowski and Juan Montoya also had transmission problems.

Denny Hamlin had a strong race car.  He led a race-high 76 laps and appeared to be on his way to his fifth win at the track.  But bad luck found him again, a common theme this season.  On a caution-flag stop on Lap 156, something sheared off the valve stem on his left rear tire.  He had to come all the way back around to change it and was mired back in the field.  A part of the shredded tire got wrapped around the brake lines, leaving Hamlin without brakes late in the race.  He finished a disappointing 19th.

The top seven positions in the series points standings remained the same, but Edwards's lead over Johnson shrank by 34 points.  Johnson is just six points behind now.  Dale Earnhardt Jr. (-10), Harvick (-11), and Kyle Busch (-25) round out the Top 5.  Kurt Busch is sixth, followed by Matt Kenseth, Clint Bowyer, Stewart and Newman.  Gordon moves up two spots to eleventh, just six points behind Stewart and Newman.

From the Twitter Machine

The 11 guys pulled this off the rear end housing. http://twitpic.com/5aqebuSun Jun 12 21:04:38 via Seesmic for AndroidMarty Smith
MartySmithESPN

24 HEURES DU MANS 2011

24 HEURES DU MANS 2011, a photo by geoffroy.barre on Flickr.

Wow! An amazing photo from the 24 Hours of Le Mans. They were very lucky that no one was seriously hurt in the car or in the photographers' area.