Jaime Alguersuari Philippe Alliot Cliff Allison Fernando Alonso
Wednesday
Unfiltered Race Notes: Grand Prix of Indianapolis 2014
Welcome back to the Unfiltered race notes! I was on the ground at IMS this weekend, but didn’t really have a good grasp of what had gone on during the race. Honestly, it surprised me how exciting the end of … Continue reading
Tuesday
Here's what it looks like with a sports car and a stock car on a road course
Ever wondered how a stock car handles on a road course compared to a sports car? Here's a rare chance to see them on the track at the same time.
Kurt Busch and his Stewart-Haas Racing team were testing at Road Atlanta Tuesday in preparation for Sonoma. Also there were two Porsche road racing teams testing too.
Busch's car is the gray car in front and the Porsche is the car behind. You can see how much earlier Busch has to brake and that he's slower in the corners, but also how much the stock car accelerates quicker than the Porsche. Pretty cool, eh? Maybe we can arrange a test session between a Sprint Cup car, a Tudor USCS car, an IndyCar and an F1 car to see the differences between all four of them. Big chance of that happening, right?
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
Monday
Unfiltered Race Notes: Dual in Detroit Race 1 2014
Welcome to Detroit race one notes! no snazzy intro, lets do this! ABC Intros are always awesome RHR… Helio… Fast forward… 4th P2 start of the year for Hinch Belle Isle looks pretty damn good in the overhead shots. Lots … Continue reading 
Sunday
Mattiacci says he?s ready to address Ferrari?s weaknesses
Ferrari boss Marco Mattiacci says he knows what direction the team needs to take in order to improve its prospects. Mattiacci, who took over just before China, has spent the past two months finding his way into the job. He … Continue reading 
Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2014/06/24/mattiacci-says-hes-ready-to-address-ferraris-weaknesses/
Gerhard Berger Eric Bernard Enrique Bernoldi Enrico Bertaggia
Saturday
McLaren M838T Engine Takes "Engine of the Year Award" in the "3 To 4 liter" Category
For the second consecutive year, McLaren Automotive has been awarded engine of the year, as it joins Ferrari as one of the winners of a 2014 Engine of the Year award. Ferrari won its awards in the "Above 4-Liter" class and as the "Performance Engine of the Year," while McLaren’s masterful 3.8-liter, twin-turbo, V-8 engine took home the award in the "3-Liter to 4-Liter" category, proving yet again that when it comes to engine innovation, the British supercar builder takes a back seat to no one.
The engine, technically named the "M838T," was designed and developed in collaboration with engine builder Ricardo. A big part of the M838T’s appeal is the way McLaren was able to modify its capabilities to produce a class-leading output of 640 horsepower and 500 pound-feet of torque. More importantly, the engine not only produces supercar-level output numbers, but it’s also a highly efficient engine, capable of returning 24.2 mpg on the EU combined cycle.
McLaren uses the M838T engine in the coupe and spider versions of the McLaren 650S, the company’s newest supercar. If you didn’t know by now, the 650S is a whole lot of awesome. A big reason for its awesomeness is this 3.8-liter, V-8 engine that is described as a "wonderful piece of powertrain engineering."
Winning engine of the year in the "3-Liter to 4-Liter" category at the 2014 Engine of the Year awards is living proof of that.
Click past the jump to read more about the McLaren M838T.
McLaren M838T Engine Takes "Engine of the Year Award" in the "3 To 4 liter" Category originally appeared on topspeed.com on Friday, 27 June 2014 10:00 EST.
JeanChristophe Boullion Sebastien Bourdais Thierry Boutsen Johnny Boyd
Friday
Up close : Porsche Cayman GT4
During these last few weeks is making a lot of noise GT4 Porsche Cayman . With the official confirmation and implementation of the 4-cylinder Porsche will present almost certainly in less than a year, all eyes are on this version of the Cayman , which could debut worldwide this new engine . The Cayman GT4 […]
Source: http://www.autocarblog.co.uk/708-up-close-porsche-cayman-gt4.html
Thursday
F1 WAG: Camille Marchetti
Jules Bianchi is embarking on�his second ever season in F1, and we are glad he’s back! Not just because of his skill behind the wheel, but because we may get to see some more of the wavy-haired goddess that is Camille Marchetti. Haven’t seen her before? Have a look at our gallery to get acquainted. [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Formula1Fancast/~3/j-c0vNj5l_c/f1-wag-camille-marchetti-2
What Did We Learn At Daytona? Nothing.
If you read or hear any media member say this week that Jimmie Johnson is on his way to a sixth title, or that Danica Patrick is a contender, or that the Gen 6 car needs to be tweaked, know one thing: they don’t have a clue. Did Jimmie win the 500? Yes. Did Danica […] 
TheNASCARInsiders.com
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheNascarInsiders/~3/Tq3m8hayrAA/
Wednesday
Tuesday
Ryan Hunter-Reay wins Indianapolis 500 with last-lap pass over Helio Castroneves
Second place was the most advantageous place to be in the final laps of Sunday's Indianapolis 500.
After starting first on the race's final restart with six laps to go, Ryan Hunter-Reay traded the lead with Helio Castroneves four times and drove past Castroneves for the final time on the last lap to take the checkered flag in the second-closest finish in Indianapolis 500 history.
The margin of victory was a minuscule .06 seconds, second-closest only to Al Unser Jr.'s victory over Scott Goodyear in 1992 when he won by just .043.
Hunter-Reay, the 2012 IndyCar Series champion, is the first American-born driver to win the 500 since 2006 when Sam Hornish Jr. made a last-second pass of Marco Andretti for the victory.
The significance was not lost on him as he celebrated with the customary bottle of milk in Indianapolis Motor Speedway's victory lane as the winner of the 98th 500.
"I knew we had a good racecar," Hunter-Reay said of his first Indianapolis 500 win. "We didn't qualify well, we started 19th but we ran to the front. And I was just biding my time, making the right adjustments on the stops ? I'm so excited now I can't even think. This is just a dream come true, we did everything right today and that's what it takes to win this race."
"I've watched this race since I was in diapers sitting on the floor in front of the TV. My son did it today, he watched me here. I'm thrilled ? this is American history, this race. This is American tradition. Our auto industry is based on it and this is as big as a championship for me."
Kurt Busch, the first driver since Robby Gordon in 2004 to attempt both the Indianapolis 500 and NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600 in the same day, finished sixth. (Coincidentally, Robby Gordon's sister, Beccy, is Hunter-Reay's wife.)
Leading wasn't all it's normally cracked up to be late in the race because of the style of the cars. The draft, where a car behind another car can go faster because of a lack of air resistance, was an integral factor. Over the final six laps, the car in second could consistently close up on the lead car and make a move, as Castroneves did right as the green flag waved for the final time.
Castroneves assumed the lead for a second time following the restart with two laps to go after Hunter-Reay had made a daring pass for the lead on the backstretch, nearly going into the grass to complete the move. However, it left himself open for Hunter-Reay's winning move, which happened on the outside lane on the frontstretch as the drivers took the white flag.
A three-time Indianapolis 500 champion, Castroneves simply ran out of time to get back to Hunter-Reay, only closing to his bumper as the two got to the finish line.
It was incredibly thrilling racing as the two drove for the Borg-Warner Trophy after the last restart, but the impact of it was lessened because of ABC's presentation. While the camera views of the racing were top-notch, the production team inexplicably went split-screen three different times to show the reactions of Beccy Hunter-Reay and Adriana Henao, the girlfriend of Helio Castroneves.
Even worse, split-screen shots on lap 198 and lap 200 each lasted a half-lap. While the previous presence of Ashley Judd, the ex-wife of three-time Indianapolis 500 champion Dario Franchitti, likely played a role in the decision to show the significant others, the space devoted to them detracted significantly from the viewer experience over the final five laps. The racing spoke for itself; as the margin-of-victory strongly points out, it was far from a blowout. It deserved to be full-screen.
While the field was bunched up for the final quarter of the race, the first 75 percent scooted on by. The first caution came out on lap 150 for Charlie Kimball's accident, the longest time since the Indianapolis Motor Speedway started recording caution flags that a 500 had gone without a yellow flag.
The biggest incident of the day was when polesitter Ed Carpenter and James Hinchcliffe, the driver who started second, crashed together with 25 laps to go. The duo were three-wide with Townsend Bell entering turn one on a restart and made contact, skidding into the outside wall. After they exited their cars, Carpenter was very unhappy with Hinchcliffe, who made the group three-wide ? a huge no-no entering turn one ? on the inside.
Bell's car escaped unharmed from the incident, but his crash with 10 laps to go caused a red flag and set up the restart for the thrilling finish between Hunter-Reay and Castroneves.
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Rubens Barrichello Michael Bartels Edgar Barth Giorgio Bassi
Monday
Bill Elliott leads 2015 NASCAR Hall of Fame class
Bill Elliott didn't have to wait long to get in the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
In just his first year on the Hall of Fame ballot, Elliott got in during Wednesday's vote for the 2015 class of the NASCAR Hall and will be inducted in January.
Wendell Scott, Joe Weatherly, Rex White and Fred Lorenzen are also going in with Elliott.
Elliott won 44 Sprint Cup Series throughout his career and the 1988 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship. Elliott was eligible for the Hall of Fame in this class because of NASCAR's recently tweaked eligibility guidelines. In December, NASCAR announced that any driver 55 years old or older was immediately eligible, even if he was currently competing. He received 87 percent of the vote.
Scott was the first African-American to win a Sprint Cup Series race. He won at Jacksonville in 1964, leading 27 of 202 laps. He had 20 top-five finishes and 147 top 10s. He got 58 percent.
Weatherly won 25 races and the 1962 and 1963 Cup titles. He was killed when he sustained head injuries in a crash at Riverside in 1964. He got 53 percent.
White won 28 races and was the 1960 champion. In 1962, he won eight races in 37 starts. He got 43 percent.
Lorenzen won 26 Cup races including two Daytona 500s. His win in the 1967 Daytona 500 was the final victory of his career. He got 30 percent.
Notable exclusions from the 2015 Hall class were Rick Hendrick, Buddy Baker, Benny Parsons, Robert Yates, Bruton Smith and Terry Labonte. When NASCAR announced the new eligibility guidelines in December, it also cut the list of nominees from 25 to 20. Jerry Cook, Yates and Parsons were the next three highest vote getters.
One of the people who fell off the list in the cut down from 2014 to 2015 was Anne B. France. France was awarded the inaugural Landmark Award.
The relatively low vote totals of White and Lorenzen do raise an interesting question about future classes of the NASCAR Hall of Fame. How will candidates separate themselves from each other going forward for a case for the Hall? There aren't many slam dunk nominees going to be eligible in the future and the biographies of the 15 people people who will likely carry over to next year's list won't change much.
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Eric Bernard Enrique Bernoldi Enrico Bertaggia Tony Bettenhausen
Sunday
How not to lose gracefully?
Luca Montezemolo says (again) that Formula 1 is not working and claims that it is declining because the FIA has “forgotten that people watch the racing for the excitement. Nobody watches racing for the efficiency”. Montezemolo might see himself as a campaigner for true sport, but there are a few things which are wrong with […]
Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2014/06/14/how-now-to-lose-gracefully/
Francois Cevert Eugene Chaboud Jay Chamberlain Karun Chandhok
Saturday
Friday
How accurate were Neil deGrasse Tyson's NASCAR tweets?
When Neil deGrasse Tyson started tweeting about NASCAR Sunday evening during the Coca-Cola 600 we were intrigued. And upon reading the tweets below, suddenly skeptical.
Um, no, not really. And it's a wall. While Tyson is an astrophysicist and knows much more about how objects move and relate to each other than we ever will, even your lowly compadres at From the Marbles knew that these tweets didn't pass the smell test.
First, there are a number of factors that help corner speed, namely the age of the pavement, the durability and grip level of a tire, downforce and horsepower, among others. Secondly, Jimmie Johnson's pole speed was an average of over 194 MPH around the 1.5 mile oval. If Johnson was having to slow to under 165 in the corners, it wouldn't be possible attain an average like that without having a straight-line speed higher than a Cup car can currently obtain.
Fortunately, our skepticism wasn't unfounded. BuildingSpeed.org has a fantastic breakdown of what happens when a NASCAR series car (or truck) goes around a race track. And yes, the tires help a lot with being able to go faster than the theoretical 165 MPH barrier.
Here's a snippet rom BuildingSpeed, who feels that Tyson made the calculation based on tires that we buy for our street cars. But you should go read the whole thing for more detail:
The important thing here is the difference in friction between race car tires and regular tires. Race car tires are made of a different composition of rubber. They get much hotter than passenger car tires and the surface layer of the tire actually melts a little bit. Rubber gives additional grip in a way I like to describe as what happens if you step on a piece of chewing gum on a hot day. The chewing gum sticks to your foot and prevents you from moving ? a slightly different type of friction.
Plus, there's that detail about downforce that we brought up earlier and Tyson even mentioned in one of his tweets about the race.
So why did Tyson jump into NASCAR in the first place? Ah, well, Cosmos, the series he's hosting across all Fox networks, was pre-empted for the race. His tweets came during the normally scheduled hour for the show. It was an attempt at cross-promotion and it worked, as you can see how much attention the tweets got via retweets and favorites. They just weren't completely accurate.
Maybe NASCAR and Fox can invite him out to a race to give him the VIP experience after fellow Fox co-worker Donovan McNabb got treated like a king at Auto Club Speedway this year after saying Jimmie Johnson wasn't an athlete.
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Thursday
The Future For Edwards & Biffle
As has been reported nearly everywhere, both Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle are in play on the free agent market. Nobody on either side is saying much, and that silence is deafening. What Biffle does will likely be dictated by the move Edwards makes, but make no mistake, Roush Fenway Racing could be about to […] 
TheNASCARInsiders.com
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheNascarInsiders/~3/sgyh_c52H_Y/
Jaime Alguersuari Philippe Alliot Cliff Allison Fernando Alonso
How accurate were Neil deGrasse Tyson's NASCAR tweets?
When Neil deGrasse Tyson started tweeting about NASCAR Sunday evening during the Coca-Cola 600 we were intrigued. And upon reading the tweets below, suddenly skeptical.
Um, no, not really. And it's a wall. While Tyson is an astrophysicist and knows much more about how objects move and relate to each other than we ever will, even your lowly compadres at From the Marbles knew that these tweets didn't pass the smell test.
First, there are a number of factors that help corner speed, namely the age of the pavement, the durability and grip level of a tire, downforce and horsepower, among others. Secondly, Jimmie Johnson's pole speed was an average of over 194 MPH around the 1.5 mile oval. If Johnson was having to slow to under 165 in the corners, it wouldn't be possible attain an average like that without having a straight-line speed higher than a Cup car can currently obtain.
Fortunately, our skepticism wasn't unfounded. BuildingSpeed.org has a fantastic breakdown of what happens when a NASCAR series car (or truck) goes around a race track. And yes, the tires help a lot with being able to go faster than the theoretical 165 MPH barrier.
Here's a snippet rom BuildingSpeed, who feels that Tyson made the calculation based on tires that we buy for our street cars. But you should go read the whole thing for more detail:
The important thing here is the difference in friction between race car tires and regular tires. Race car tires are made of a different composition of rubber. They get much hotter than passenger car tires and the surface layer of the tire actually melts a little bit. Rubber gives additional grip in a way I like to describe as what happens if you step on a piece of chewing gum on a hot day. The chewing gum sticks to your foot and prevents you from moving ? a slightly different type of friction.
Plus, there's that detail about downforce that we brought up earlier and Tyson even mentioned in one of his tweets about the race.
So why did Tyson jump into NASCAR in the first place? Ah, well, Cosmos, the series he's hosting across all Fox networks, was pre-empted for the race. His tweets came during the normally scheduled hour for the show. It was an attempt at cross-promotion and it worked, as you can see how much attention the tweets got via retweets and favorites. They just weren't completely accurate.
Maybe NASCAR and Fox can invite him out to a race to give him the VIP experience after fellow Fox co-worker Donovan McNabb got treated like a king at Auto Club Speedway this year after saying Jimmie Johnson wasn't an athlete.
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Tuesday
After driver dies last year, Aston Martin team takes 24 Hours of Le Mans class title
Last year in the famed 24 Hours of Le Mans race, Aston Martin driver Allen Simonsen crashed on his fourth lap of the race and was killed.
This year, his team won the race.
The No. 95 Aston Martin Young Driver AMR V8 Vantage GTE won the GTE Am class by two laps at the famed French circuit. The race began Saturday morning in the United States and ended Sunday morning.
We have achieved what we were aiming for last year but didn't succeed,? owner Jan Struve said (via Motorsport.com). ?We have now fulfilled it and we know that Allan has been cheering for us and smiling down on us and, of course, he has been in our thoughts. This win is extremely important to us and I'm proud of all of the team and drivers. They are all Le Mans winners.?
The No. 95 was driven in 2014 by David Heinemeier Hansson, Nicki Thiim and Kristian Poulsen.
Former F1 driver Mark Webber's team was forced to retire from the race in its final stages. As Webber prepared to pilot the Porsche to the finish, the engine had issues. Audi finished 1-2 for the manufacturer's 13th overall victory in the race.
Webber was replaced at Red Bull Renault in F1 by Daniel Ricciardo, who got his first win at Montreal last week. Ricciardo drives the No. 3 car in Formula 1 as a tribute to Dale Earnhardt.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
Monday
F1 WAG: Isabell Reis
Timo Glock may not have been the most successful of drivers on the grid, but that didn?t stop him bagging an absolute beauty in the shape of Isabell Reis. The leggy blonde won Glock?s heart during her appearance on Germany?s Next Top Model, and it?s easy to see why. As well as good looks, Reis [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Formula1Fancast/~3/gKVJd5dWr9g/f1-wag-isabell-reis-2
Mario Andretti Michael Andretti Keith Andrews Elio de Angelis
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