Source: http://www.popoffvalve.com/2012/9/5/3294060/viva-zanardi
Saturday
Friday
PVDSA support not under threat, Maldonado insists
Pastor Maldonado has denied suggestions that his PDVSA backing is under threat after Venezuela’s sports minister said that there would be no more support for the country’s racing drivers. Maldonado insisted that politician Antonio Alvarez had nothing to do with … Continue reading 
Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2014/05/21/pvdsa-support-not-under-threat-maldonado-insists/
Thursday
Ferrari and Montezemolo address Alonso criticism
Fernando Alonso caused something of a stir yesterday when asked about a recent comment from Mercedes boss Dieter Zetsche to the effect that the Spaniard was the best driver in the world. Alonso responded by saying that it was always … Continue reading 
Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2014/05/22/ferrari-and-montezemolo-address-alonso-criticism/
Wednesday
Martin Truex Jr. didn't anticipate the start to the season he's having
Through eight races, Martin Truex Jr. is 28th in the points standings and has just two top-20 finishes. Did he ever envision the season could start the way it did?
"I didn't, I'll be honest with you," Truex said Tuesday while participating in a tire test at Kansas Speedway. "We've been running ? the car's been fast. Man, we've had everything you can imagine bad happen to us."
Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch are also below 20th in the points standings, but the sting of their poor starts and bad luck have been eased by wins and likely Chase qualification. Truex doesn't have that luxury at the moment.
At the season-opening Daytona 500, he lost an engine and finished 43rd. While restrictor plate engine failures are fluky, the following seven races have made Truex's look like a sign of what was to come with his new team before the season's first off week.
"It's just been one of those seasons," Truex said. "The other night (at Darlington) we blew a tire for no reason at all and we were running good. A lot of crazy stuff has happened. At California we wrecked in practice because we blew a tire and we had a backup car that was really fast and in the race and I ran 23 laps and hit a piece of debris that absolutely destroyed the nose of the car. So it's like one of these days I'm waiting for a meteor to hit the car, come out of the sky and hit it. It's been one of those kinds of starts."
While the meteor seems farfetched, if Truex's current rate of misfortune keeps up it may be possible. In addition to Daytona, California and Darlington, he crashed at Martinsville and Bristol.
He joined Furniture Row for the 2014 season in the final weeks of 2013 after Truex lost his ride at Michael Waltrip Racing when longtime sponsor NAPA left the team. Truex was coming off what was a Chase berth until his team was penalized for the Richmond race manipulation scandal and Furniture Row was following up on its first Chase berth. It was a partnership that, while inevitable because of the lack of options for either party, had the potential to be fruitful.
It still does. However, Truex may already be in a position of needing to win to qualify for the Chase. At more than three full races off the points lead, getting into the Chase via points already looks unlikely.
"But the team's done a great job," Truex said. "They're keeping their heads up, they're building fast race cars. I feel like we're getting better each week even though the results aren't showing it. We're learning about each other and getting better, so we've got to just keep our heads up and keep working on that and hopefully we can squeak out a win there somewhere and get in the Chase."
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Tuesday
Video: Grid Autosport Shows Off its Touring Car Awesomeness
You may be aware that I love my racing games, and that I am super excited about Grid Autosport, but why should you care about this game? Well apart from the fact that it looks amazing, and that it should be a blast to play, the team at Codemasters has been working as hard as humanly possible to make the new Grid game feel amazing.
If you don?t believe me, take a look at this new trailer. It covers the Touring Car racing side of the new Grid Autosport game. With a huge collection of interviews with current professional drivers and a smorgasbord on wheel-to-wheel action in-game, the video is freaking amazing to watch.
It may not be the most technically accurate game with a million physics calculations like what Gran Turismo or Forza Motorsports wants to provide, but I have never seen a game capture the pure essence of speed and aggression that comes with driving on track like Grid Autosport seems to. Now I am not going to say it should be top on your buying list until I get the chance to play it, but it sure looks like one of the most promising candidates.
The game is coming out in just a few weeks, so keep your eyes glued here at TopSpeed.com for my full review when it goes live. Also, make sure to listen to the TopSpeed podcast, as I am likely discuss the game at length there as well.
Video: Grid Autosport Shows Off its Touring Car Awesomeness originally appeared on topspeed.com on Tuesday, 20 May 2014 18:00 EST.
Monday
Matt Kenseth says he's (sort of) watching the points standings
Matt Kenseth is winless.
Through seven Sprint Cup Series races, it's hardly a shocking statement. Jimmie Johnson is winless too. So is Tony Stewart. And Jeff Gordon. Kasey Kahne, too. But with seven different winners in the first seven Sprint Cup Series races, it may be jarring to some to see Kenseth's name not on the list after he won seven races last year.
However, when you look through the list of seven winners, there aren't any surprises. It's not like someone has jumped up and snagged an unexpected win or two unless you thought Dale Earnhardt Jr. was in the midst of another four-year winless streak.
Kenseth isn't surprised either.
?I can?t say I?m totally shocked, I think whenever you throw a pretty big rules change at everybody some people are going to pick up on it sooner than others," he said Thursday. "I think it always spreads the field out a little bit because some guys are going to hit it and some guys are going to miss it and I think that always creates passing and mixes the field up and makes the racing more interesting in my mind. I think that everybody every week is probably gaining on it and the field is going to get closer together as we keep rolling through the year here.� It?s been interesting because there?s been a lot of different winners and been some guys that have won a lot that haven?t won yet.?
He won last year's race at Darlington after taking the lead after a late restart. It was his third win of the year, though Darlington was the 11th race of the season in 2013 and not the eighth.
Even as he's winless this season, he's higher in the points standings now than he was at this point a year ago. However, Kenseth said he isn't staring at the standings. It's more of a quick look.
"I don?t know about close attention, you always kind of know where you?re at once the week is over you maybe glance at the standings," Kenseth said. "They always park in order of points so when you show up parked the next week you kind of know where you?re at. That really hasn?t changed. I don?t know I think maybe when you get closer to the 26 cutoff then you probably study it a little more and see where everybody is and who?s in and who?s out and that kind of thing."
And based on past history in Chase seasons, a winless driver or two or three is likely to make the Chase anyway. If Kenseth keeps this pace up, he'll likely be just fine when it comes to September.
"Is there going to be 10 winners? Is there going to be 20 winners? I don?t know ? the way it?s going. How important are your points going to be?" Kenseth asked. "I would think, history suggests that there?s going to be a few guys added by points that didn?t win."
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Kurt Ahrens Jr Christijan Albers Michele Alboreto Jean Alesi
Sunday
Testing in Barcelona
The first thing to say about this week’s test in Barcelona is that the times recorded are irrelevant because different teams were doing different things and one cannot make any sensible comparisons, so headlines such as “Wolff faster than Vettel” are wildly misleading. The fact that the fastest time of the test was Pastor Maldonado’s […]
Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2014/05/15/testing-in-barcelona/
Enrico Bertaggia Tony Bettenhausen Mike Beuttler Birabongse Bhanubandh
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