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Saturday
Cup Start-And-Parks Dwindling
The practice of starting-and-parking has been a much discussed topic over the last couple of years. If you aren’t aware, starting-and-parking refers to a system in which teams enter a race and pull into the garage after only a few laps with a perfectly good race car in order to collect prize money. Teams can [...]
Friday
It?s Your 2013 Exit Interview: No. 1 Jimmie Johnson
Welcome to From the Marbles' 2013 driver reviews. Here, we're going to critique, praise and bloviate about the top 30 drivers in the 2013 NASCAR season. It's the last one, so can we play this song? Because we are.
Jimmie, your battle with Matt Kenseth was simply going to come down to which driver blinked first. And you definitely won the damn staring contest.
On the eve of preseason testing, your run through the Chase is even more remarkable now than it was as you were lifting the trophy. Maybe it's because those four finishes in the races before the Chase stick out more than they did.
At Michigan, Bristol, Atlanta and Richmond you finished 40th, 36th, 28th and 40th. That's not a typo. For giggles, we counted up your finishing positions in the Chase to see how many races it would take us to get to 40 and we got to 39 through eight races. That's counting the 13th place finish you had at Talladega, which has simply become a survive and advance race for drivers in the Chase. Consider that mission accomplished.
You were crazy good. And so was Kenseth, until that Phoenix race, which you can relate to pretty strongly. You were in that position last year when dueling with Brad Keselowski, though you smacked the wall rather than fought an ill-handling car.
Plus, you could have gone to Homestead and coasted. Instead you were around the top 10 for most of the day -- though you did have a couple of close calls.
After last year and your astonishingly poor run of seasons without a championship stretched to two, it was easy to think your dominance had cracked. It's not so easy any longer. As Denny Hamlin said after he won at Homestead, this is the Jimmie Johnson era. And we're not sure if there's an end in sight.
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Previous Reviews: No. 2 Matt Kenseth, No. 3 Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Kyle Busch, No. 5 Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 6 Jeff Gordon, No. 7 Clint Bowyer, No. 8, Joey Logano, No. 9 Greg Biffle, No. 10 Kurt Busch, No. 11 Ryan Newman, No. 12 Kasey Kahne, No. 13 Carl Edwards, No. 14, Brad Keselowski, No. 15 Jamie McMurray, No. 16 Martin Truex Jr., No. 17 Paul Menard, No. 18 Aric Almirola, No. 19 Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 20, Jeff Burton, No. 21 Juan Pablo Montoya, No. 22 Marcos Ambrose, No. 23 Denny Hamlin, No. 24 Casey Mears, No. 25 Mark Martin, No. 26 David Gilliland, No. 27 Danica Patrick, No. 28 David Ragan, No. 29 Tony Stewart, No. 30 Dave Blaney
Christijan Albers Michele Alboreto Jean Alesi Jaime Alguersuari
Subaru Legacy
At the 2013 Los Angeles Auto Show, Subaru unveiled the Legacy concept — a preview of a production model set to be unveiled in 2014. Today the company has released the first teaser image of the all-new Legacy, which will be unveiled on February 6th at the 2014 Chicago Auto Show.
Few details were released about the new Legacy, but the teaser image reveals a sleeker, more coupe-like profile with a faster windshield rake and narrower A-pillars that create a sporty and modern sedan.
We’re not too sure how many design elements from the concept will be carried over into the production version, but we will really like seeing those cool hawk-eye headlights and taillights.
Under the hood, rumors suggest that the 2015 Legacy will get an improved version of Subaru?s famous boxer engine. We also expect to see Suby’s Symmetrical AWD (S-AWD) system and a CVT.
Click past the jump to read more about the 2015 Subaru Legacy.
Subaru Legacy originally appeared on topspeed.com on Thursday, 30 January 2014 14:00 EST.
Source: http://www.topspeed.com/cars/subaru/2015-subaru-legacy-ar162195.html
Thursday
Wednesday
Kyle Busch stood in at a Las Vegas wedding on Wednesday
When you get the opportunity to have Kyle Busch be a groomsman at your wedding, you must seize it with all of your might.
Congrats 2 Crystal n Bobby! Enjoyed being a part of your special day. #onlyinvegas pic.twitter.com/zOkZqSy9Qb
? Kyle Busch (@KyleBusch) January 21, 2014
As part of a promotional appearance at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Wednesday, Busch was in the wedding of Crystal and Bobby Dezarov. How did this all happen? Well, Crystal wrote the Las Vegas Motor Speedway about the couple's desire to get married in October and her love of Busch.
But, we must note, it's not as much as her love for her husband.
From the Las Vegas Review-Journal:
Crystal, who is a veterinary assistant in Palm Desert, Calif., when she?s not watching Kyle Busch drive around in circles, was out wrangling a pony when the speedway called back.
They said the Goody?s Headache Relief Shot 500 was in October in Martinsville, Va., and three other races were scheduled in October, and all of these races were part of the Chase for the Sprint Cup. So chances were that Kyle was going to be a little busy then.
But the speedway people were bringing him to town on Jan. 21, to help spur ticket sales for the Kobalt 400 at LVMS on March 9. If the happy couple would consider moving the wedding up, perhaps they could say something to Kyle.
The Dezarovs agreed, and the Speedway asked Busch to be in the wedding. It was a perfect fit, it's just that the engagement was not nearly as long as Crystal and Bobby were originally planning.
The nine-minute wedding went off without a hitch. The pastor presiding over the wedding was even a Carolina native and told Busch he was a Bobby Isaac fan. Afterwards, Busch posed for pictures, signed an autograph for Crystal's son and signed the couple's wedding document.
Weddings at NASCAR tracks on Sprint Cup weekends have become a fairly common occurrence. In August, a couple got married at Michigan International Speedway's victory lane as the groomsmen wore Dale Earnhardt Jr. firesuits. A year earlier at Michigan, track president Roger Curtis officiated a victory lane wedding.
But weddings with NASCAR drivers actually in them? Far more uncommon. Here's wishing the happy couple much success in the future.
Tuesday
It?s Your 2013 Exit Interview: No. 8 Joey Logano
Welcome to From the Marbles' 2013 driver reviews. Here, we're going to critique, praise and bloviate about the top 30 drivers in the 2013 NASCAR season.
Did you find that you were well trained for the rarefied air of the Chase levels, Joey?
Congratulations on the promotion to the NASCAR playoffs. I know it may not have seemed like such a big deal because there have been CEO-level expectations since you first started full-time. Hell, they existed when you started part-time. Sweeping floors, we imagine. Though you haven't worked at Hendrick (yet), so maybe it's different in other departments.
That promotion also came a year after a transfer, which we can say fairly comfortably was a catalyst for your success. We're going to also go ahead and view it like one of those trades that benefits both teams. No regrets, right?
You excelled at intermediate tracks this year, which is a good building block given the dominance of 1-2 mile tracks on the Cup schedule. That win at Michigan proved to be handy, and you could have had the win at Fontana too, but we all know what happened there.
It looked like you were going to continue that theme in the Chase too. But no, your car went boom.
Your new surroundings brought some more feistiness, and that feistiness had some bite because of your success. It wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if your rivalries with an old teammate and the man you effectively replaced in your old department. Spice is good. And it can go well with sliced bread.
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Follow @NickBromberg
Previous Reviews: No. 10 Kurt Busch, No. 11 Ryan Newman, No. 12 Kasey Kahne, No. 13 Carl Edwards, No. 14, Brad Keselowski, No. 15 Jamie McMurray, No. 16 Martin Truex Jr., No. 17 Paul Menard, No. 18 Aric Almirola, No. 19 Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 20, Jeff Burton, No. 21 Juan Pablo Montoya, No. 22 Marcos Ambrose, No. 23 Denny Hamlin, No. 24 Casey Mears, No. 25 Mark Martin, No. 26 David Gilliland, No. 27 Danica Patrick, No. 28 David Ragan, No. 29 Tony Stewart, No. 30 Dave Blaney
Monday
Weekend Review? Double the Excitement Edition
Welcome Back! Glad you found your way back here after human error delayed and ultimately cancelled the posting of Detroit pre-race article. Nevertheless, the twin billing was a success on most all fronts. A part time driver claimed victory in … Continue reading 
Source: http://anotherindycarblog.wordpress.com/2013/06/04/weekend-review-double-the-excitement-edition/
Elio de Angelis Marco Apicella Mбrio de Araъjo Cabral Frank Armi
Sunday
Looking Back At 2013 - Rating The Rest: Ben Spies
In the last of our series looking back at the riders of 2013, we come to the unluckiest man on the grid. Ben Spies' season was a thing of nightmares, ending with his decision to retire. Here's a review of his year.
| Ben Spies | Ignite Pramac Ducati |
| Championship position | 21st |
| Score | Attitude 9/10, Luck 1/10 |
Up until Qatar 2012, Ben Spies' career had been something of a fairytale. Talent spotted by his later crew chief Tom Houseworth, he took the fight to Mat Mladin in the AMA and beat him fair and square. He won the World Superbike title at his first attempt, on tracks he hadn't seen until Friday morning practice. He grabbed two podiums in his rookie MotoGP season, then a win in his second season after moving up to the factory Yamaha team. And then it all went horribly wrong.
After a series of bizarre mechanical mishaps throughout the 2012 season, Spies suffered major shoulder damage in a crash at Sepang. He had already decided to leave the factory Yamaha team, signing with Ducati to race at Pramac. After surgery to fix the damaged tendons in his shoulder, Spies turned up at Sepang in February 2013 only to find the going tougher than expected. He skipped one day of testing, then tried to make a return three weeks later, but found himself struggling once again.
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