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Thursday
Allmendinger?s NASCAR Career Is Effectively Over
Since we broke the news on Twitter before Saturday night’s race that A.J. Allmendinger was being replaced by Sam Hornish, the Dinger’s world has come apart. NASCAR announced he had failed a drug test, and Allmendinger has since requested the B sample be tested and admitted he tested positive for a stimulant. Penske has tabbed [...]
Wednesday
Honda Press Release: Haslam And Rea Suffer Through Damp Test At Aragon
The Honda World Superbike team issued the following press release after a wet test at Aragon, where Jonathan Rea and Leon Haslam tested new parts for the 2013 WSBK season. The uprated electronics package, put together with the help of HRC and hoped to have a major impact on performance, is due to arrive for the next test of the team at Jerez. The press release appears below:
Year:
2013
Photographer's Blog: Interview with Milena Koerner, Tech 3 Communication and Media Officer
At the 2012 Misano round, Scott caught up with Milena Koerner, Communication and Press Officer at Tech 3 Yamaha. We spoke over lunch in the team's hospitality, and as if to illustrate exactly how vital Milena is to this team's efforts, members of the Tech 3 staff stopped by to ask her questions every few minutes. They promptly received answers, or Milena got up to solve the problem quickly herself before returning to our interview. Milena does the work of several people, as you'll see when reading about her past experience and her current role at Tech 3.
Scott Jones: Please describe you role atTech 3. Obviously you do more than get one rider to his media debriefs.
2012 Charlotte Race Weeks Events Guide
Welcome to TNI’s annual look at things to do in Charlotte during All-Star and Coke 600 weeks. If you?re in town, or on your way, below is a list of things for you to do while you?re here. If you know of an event occurring in town not listed please feel free to add it [...] 
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Massa: Left Side of Grid Worse Than Starting in the Wet
Drivers who have qualified for the even numbered slots on the grid in Austin are anticipating a difficult time at the start on Sunday. The left hand side of the track is particularly dirty at the new venue, and practice … Continue reading 
Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2012/11/17/massa-left-side-of-grid-worse-than-starting-in-the-wet/
Mike Beuttler Birabongse Bhanubandh Lucien Bianchi Gino Bianco
Tuesday
Ferrari: Alonso Will Win
Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo believes that Fernando Alonso will win the Drivers? Championship. The Spaniard is 13 points behind Sebastian Vettel win one race to go. Di Montezemolo is adamant that his driver can overcome the odds in Brazil and secure his third world title: “Now we go to Sao Paolo with the will [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Formula1Fancast/~3/80d32rH--bg/ferrari-alonso-will-win
Maverick Vinales Signs To Ride KTM With JHK Laglisse For 2013
The future of Maverick Viñales has at last been settled. Today, on the eve of a test aboard a KTM Moto3 machine at the Almeria circuit, Pablo Nieto, manager of the JHK T-Shirt Laglisse team, announced that the young Spanish sensation has signed to race for the team in 2013. The deal will see Viñales race a factory-spec KTM Moto3 bike next season, with the team that fielded Efren Vazquez and Hector Faubel in 2012.
The new deal for Viñales took a long time to sort out. The Spanish youngster had already signed a deal with the Avintia Blusens team for 2013 and 2014, the team he was racing with in 2012, before staging a dramatic walk out prior to the Sepang round in mid-October, in a dispute over the speed of the FTR Honda and the competence of the team. Though Viñales returned a week later for the Phillip Island round, he then focused all his efforts on finding another team able to buy him out of his contract and provide him with a sufficiently fast KTM.
Duane Carter Eugenio Castellotti Johnny Cecotto Andrea de Cesaris
Monday
How have Brad Keselowski and Jimmie Johnson fared at Homestead?
During his run of five consecutive titles, Jimmie Johnson entered the final race of the season at Homestead-Miami Speedway trailing just once, and that was in 2010, when he beat Denny Hamlin. And if he wants to hoist the trophy again on Sunday, he's going to have to do it once again.
By the average finish numbers, Homestead hasn't been Johnson's best track; his average finish is 13.5. But that's a little deceiving. He finished 25th in his rookie season in 2001, 40th when chasing Tony Stewart for the title in 2005 and was 32nd last year, the first Chase he wasn't in contention for at Homestead.
Every other race, Johnson has finished in the top five all but once. When falling short to Kurt Busch in 2004, he finished second. (If Johnson would have swiped the lead from Greg Biffle before that race's final caution, he would have won the title.) In his championship seasons, his performances have gone like this:
2006: 9th (won by 56 points)
2007: 7th (won by 77 points)
2008: 15th (won by 69 points)
2009: 5th (won by 141 points)
2010: 2nd (won by 39 points)
Hell, in 2008, that margin was after Carl Edwards gained 62 points on Johnson by winning the race. When Vader can smell the championship, he can usually put it away. However, given the 20-point deficit to Brad Keselowski, it may be too difficult to overcome.
With the usual caveat in this weekly series that Keselowski's average finish is not a reliable indicator of possible performance, Keselowski's average finish is 20.2 in four races at Homestead. Here's how his four races have broken down:
2008: 23rd
2009: 25th
2010: 13th
2011: 20th
As you surely know, Keselowski needs to finish just 15th or better and Johnson can't win the championship. If he doesn't perform strongly on Sunday and scores an average 20th-place finish? Well, that 20-point cushion comes in handy. Under the current points structure, Johnson would need to duplicate his 2010 effort to win the championship. Every other of his Homestead finishes wouldn't be enough.
On to the other Chasers for the final time this season:
Kevin Harvick: Harvick has the highest average finish of any of the Chasers at Homestead at 7.9 despite not having a win at the track. That's thanks to five top fives and nine top 10 finishes in 11 starts. He finished eighth last year.
Martin Truex Jr.: Other Junior's average finish is 10.2 and he finished third here last year. He's a dark horse to steal the win Sunday given the way he's performed at 1.5-mile tracks this season.
Hamlin: Throwing away a 33rd place finish in his first Homestead race, Denny Hamlin's worst Homestead performance (14th) came in that fateful 2010 race when he entered with the points lead, qualified poorly and then spun early. His average finish is 10.4 and he won this race in 2009.
Jeff Gordon: Gordon has 10 top 10s in 13 Homestead starts and his highest finish is a third place in 2006. If he wants to exceed his 11.3 average finish, he better stay the hell away from Clint Bowyer.
Tony Stewart: Last year was Stewart's first win on the new Homestead configuration after winning the first two races at the track in 1999 and 2000. Smoke's average finish is 11.5 in 13 races.
Bowyer: His average finish is 13.8 and he has three top 10s in six races. And his key to a good performance may be pretty simple too: Stay the hell away from Gordon.
Kasey Kahne: Kahne has the best average starting position of any driver at Homestead at 7.2, but his average finish is 14.8. In his two races at Homestead with Red Bull Racing, he finished sixth and seventh.
Biffle: The Biff reeled off three straight wins at Homestead from 2004-2006, but since then it's been a load of blah, with finishes of 13th, 18th, 14th, 10th and 35th. That's why his average finish is 15.3.
Matt Kenseth: Kenseth won this race in 2007 and has an average finish of 16.3. His is so low because in his first five Homestead races, his highest finish was 19th. Yes, Flatline was probably very happy about the move to progressive banking.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.: In 12 Homestead starts, Junior has no top fives and no top 10s. None, nada, zip, zero, zilch. But he was as close as he's ever been last year, finishing 11th. This year, he gets that top 10. His average finish is 23.1.
Bob Anderson Conny Andersson Mario Andretti Michael Andretti
Earnhardt Childress Racing won?t change name after Earnhardt Ganassi switch to Hendrick power
The partnership between Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing and Earnhardt-Childress Racing was easy to understand. Earnhardt-Ganassi was the team that fielded cars for Jamie McMurray and Juan Pablo Montoya in the Sprint Cup Series, and the engine shop was Earnhardt-Childress Racing, which supplied horsepower for those two cars as well as the teams of Richard Childress Racing.
Pretty straightforward, huh?
[Related: Matt Kenseth could play spoiler in Texas]
On Friday, EGR announced that it would be switching to Hendrick horsepower for the 2013 season. So that meant that the engine shop known as Earnhardt-Childress would disappear since Earnhardt-Ganassi wasn't going to be involved anymore, right?
Earnhardt Childress Racing was formed when Richard Childress Racing merged its engine-building operation with Dale Earnhardt Inc.'s Sprint Cup team in 2007. DEI then merged with Chip Ganassi Racing in late 2008, changing the team's name to Earnhardt Ganassi Racing.
Because DEI independently remains a partner in Ganassi's Sprint Cup team and in Childress' engine shop, neither entity is changing its name.
On Friday, Childress said that EGR's decision wouldn't have a huge impact on ECR's operations, as the shop will continue to provide engines for his three Sprint Cup teams (and Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series teams), Furniture Row Racing and other race teams.
McMurray and Montoya are in 20th and 22nd in the Sprint Cup points standings, respectively. The highest driver with ECR power is Kevin Harvick in 11th, behind four drivers who have Hendrick horsepower. No ECR car has a race win -- compare that with 12 for Hendrick powered cars.
However, it's important to note that the Hendrick cars also have Hendrick chassis, an almost equally vital part of the mechanical spectrum. Will the simple switch in power plants for EGR lead to better performance, or is the Hendrick secret the total package? We'll find out in 2013.
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Oh yeah, Kevin Harvick was our winner at the Phoenix race
Look, no disrespect meant to Kevin Harvick; he's a fine fellow and a top-flight driver. But his win at Phoenix, his first victory in more than a year, was at best the third-best story coming out of the Valley of the Sun. The Jeff Gordon/Clint Bowyer team brawl and the fact that Brad Keselowski took a substantial points lead eclipsed what was a strong finishing run by Harvick.
While most of the attention in the race focused on the Keselowski-Jimmie Johnson duel, Kyle Busch was busy owning the majority of the AdvoCare 500. But last season, Kevin Harvick earned a rep as a closer, vulturing away wins like a third-down running back vulturing away short-yardage touchdowns. And he appeared ready to do the same thing on Sunday, snagging a win away from Busch at the last second.
But then the Bowyer-Gordon fiasco happened, with Harvick only a few feet from a white flag that would have won him the race. As a result, he and the rest of the field had to run a green-white-checker, and naturally, that didn't end without drama either.
On the first lap, Danica Patrick spun up into the wall as Harvick was crossing the start-finish line. Although Patrick was sitting laterally on the track, NASCAR did not throw the caution flag, allowing her to drive out of the way while the rest of the field raced back to the finish line. (The other option would have been to throw the caution flag, freezing the field and giving Harvick the win.)
All well and good, except for the fact that Patrick's car was leaking oil, a fact that NASCAR didn't notice until drivers started slipping all over the place in Harvick's wake.
"At the time she come all the way around and she was out of harm's way," NASCAR VP of Competition Robin Pemberton said. "We didn't see any fluid or anything, she rode around on the apron, and when she pulled up on the racetrack, there was smoke, it looked like tire smoke.� It's easy to look back on it obviously and wish that you did something different, but at the time it didn't appear like there was any fluid that was coming out of the car."
Harvick, naturally, disagreed with that assessment. "You can't throw the caution flag as fast as you can throw it one time and then just let everybody run through a whole straightaway full of oil," he said. "Those are the guys that are going to have to look themselves in the mirror, the guy who's calling the races, and decide if they're doing a good job."
Bottom line, this was a much-needed win for Harvick, who's had a forgettable on-track 2012. And while this led to the always-awkward scene of a lame-duck winner and his owner sharing a podium, both Harvick and Richard Childress promised that 2013 would be another championship-run season for the 29 team.
Danica Patrick wrecks herself crashing Landon Cassill
KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Danica Patrick was frustrated with Landon Cassill. However, as she drove into turn one on Cassill's rear bumper on lap 155 of Sunday's Sprint Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway, she got the worse end of the accident.
Patrick entered the corner with her front fender on Cassill's rear bumper, and maintained the contact through the turn while moving him up the track. Her message was delivered, as Cassill's car went into a spin. But Patrick's did too, and when she went to straighten her car out in turn 2, she ended up sliding back up the track and slamming into the wall.
"I have just been really frustrated with the No. 83," Patrick said after getting out of her car. "He slammed into me on the front straight for no other reason than his radio communication 'She was in the way.' I've always played fair. If it's one time, I can imagine frustration. But it's been pretty consistent with him getting in to me. So at some point in time, I have to stand up for myself, or everybody's going to do it. So, the bummer is that this is my Texas car. We were having a good run, we were making the car better. And, I'm out of the race and he's not."
Her crew chief, Stewart-Haas Racing competition director Greg Zipadelli was not amused with Patrick's attempt at retaliation, telling her, according to the ESPN broadcast that "You know better than to do that."
Before crashing Cassill, Patrick was inside the top 20 and on the lead lap in her eighth Sprint Cup Series start of the season before she moves full time to the series in 2013. But because of the damange, she finished 32nd. Cassill was able to keep going. He finished 18th.
"My situation with [Cassill] is really a product of frustration," Patrick said. "He got into me on the front straight and said I was just in the way. That's really no good reason to hit me. If it's one time, I can imagine it's frustration, but it's been quite a few times with him. At some point I have to stand up for myself so this doesn't happen with other people. I chose today. The bummer about it is that my car is out, and he's still out there going, so I've got to work on how to do that."
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Marc VDS Racing Albacete Test Press Release
The Marc VDS Racing team issued the following press release after their recent test at Albacete, which saw Belgian youngster Livio Loi make his debut on a KTM Kalex Moto3 bike:
Year:
2013
Mбrio de Araъjo Cabral Frank Armi Chuck Arnold Rene Arnoux
Sunday
2012 United States Grand Prix in pictures | F1 Pictures
2012 United States Grand Prix in pictures is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Pictures from the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas, won by Lewis Hamilton ahead of Sebastian Vettel.
2012 United States Grand Prix in pictures is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Source: http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2012/11/18/2012-united-states-grand-prix-pictures/
How I Saw It? 2012 Super Review Part The Final, The People Edition
2012 was the year of competition. Even with an unproven hardware package, the fight from the front to the back of the field was close and intense all year long. A new car, new engines, the reworked rulebook, a cleaned … Continue reading 
Alonso: I Can Catch Vettel
Fernando Alonso is adamant he can catch Sebastian Vettel during the United States Grand Prix, despite starting from eighth whilst his rival is on pole. The Spaniard endured a tough Q3 in which his F2012 could not keep pace with the Red Bull. The duo are separated by ten points in the Drivers? Championship, with [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Formula1Fancast/~3/S2UEHQIXREk/alonso-i-can-catch-vettel
Brad Keselowski fined $25K for in-car tweeting
Here's a clear case of NASCAR being shocked, shocked to learn that one of its most popular tweeting drivers carries his phone with him at all times ... even during races.
On Sunday, with the rest of NASCAR focused on the sprawling Jeff Gordon-Clint Bowyer fight and the race red-flagged, Keselowski whiled away the time by taking out his phone and tweeting a few thoughts, responses and jokes with fans. It was reminiscent of the Daytona 500, where Keselowski did the same thing during the Juan Pablo Montoya-incited fireball. The publicity from that netted him hundreds of thousands of new followers.
Alas, NASCAR was not nearly so amused, fining Keselowski $25,000 for his offense. Drivers are not permitted to carry electronic devices in their cars, and that includes smartphones. Keselowski has said that he carries the phone to notify his family in the event of a wreck. (He also tweeted a picture of Victory Lane in Bristol in March, though a defense attorney would note that there's no proof Keselowski wasn't handed that phone as he climbed out of his car.)
Anyway, this might be one of those fines that NASCAR should just kind of forget to collect. As long as Keselowski isn't actually tweeting under a green flag, where's the problem? We mean, it's not like he's smoking or anything:
Keselowski races for the Sprint Cup championship on Sunday, and if he wins, you can bet there'll be some tweeting going on.
Rubens Barrichello Michael Bartels Edgar Barth Giorgio Bassi
Di Resta Excited About United States Grand Prix
Force India driver Paul di Resta has admitted his excitement ahead of the United States Grand Prix. The event will be taking place on the purpose built Circuit of the Americas track, which will be making its first F1 appearance. The Scot is eager to get on the track and believes that it will produce [...]
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