Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/jakehumphrey/2011/10/greetings_from_seoul_its_0800.html
Monday
A Turbulent Start to the NASCAR Off-Season
We’re just a week into the NASCAR off-season and the changes are coming fast and heavy. Layoffs Around The shoe hasn’t dropped everywhere just yet, but so far Roush Fenway has undertaken a massive layoff that we’ve heard was as many as 125 employees. This included many long-time Roush employees. What’s loyalty worth in this [...]
TheNASCARInsiders.com
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Why (again) is NASCAR compelled to make some fines ?secret??
Even though the first three didn't stay very "secret" for very long, NASCAR has apparently tried a fourth secret fine.
According to an Associated Press report, Brad Keselowski was fined $25,000 last week for making comments about NASCAR's move to electronic fuel injection at a fan forum at the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
The fine is believed to be $25,000.
"We're not doing this because it's better for the teams," Keselowski said last week during an appearance at the NASCAR Hall of Fame . "I don't think we're really going to save any gas. It's a media circus, trying to make you guys happy so you write good stories. It gives them something to promote. We're always looking for something to promote, but the honest answer is it does nothing for the sport except cost the team owners money.
"Cars on the street are injected with real electronics, not a throttle body (like in NASCAR). So we've managed to go from 50-year-old technology to 35-year-old technology. I don't see what the big deal is."
While Keselowski's point may be perfectly valid, the point is not that NASCAR disagreed. It's that they disagreed and disciplined in the way that they've disciplined three known times in the past 18 months: via a secret fine.
So, for the third instance, one simple question looms: Why?
Ryan Newman and Denny Hamlin were fined in 2010 (Hamlin for comments on Twitter about cautions and Newman for comments about Talladega) and Newman was fined earlier this season for allegedly punching Juan Pablo Montoya in the NASCAR hauler when the two met to settle their differences from the spring Richmond race. Just like Keselowski's, reports of the fines surfaces shortly after they were issued and the impending reactions were overwhelmingly negative.
Those negative reactions aren't about the outcome. We are used to and, for the most part, accept that fines are part of professional sports. Leagues aren't democracies. But NASCAR could take a lesson from other sports and institute a similar process and make all fines public knowledge at the time of issue. We don't find out in week 10 that an NFL player was fined in week 5 for an illegal hit. And we can pretty well document all the times that Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has been fined for his comments about the NBA.
Does the need for supposed secrecy come from the fact that the actions and comments being fined aren't necessarily against any rules? When a car fails technical inspection, NASCAR typically issues a statement detailing the penalties on the Tuesday after the race. Those penalties almost always include a fine. And that fine is totaled in the statement.
In the report that came out revealing the secret fines of Hamlin and Newman, a NASCAR spokesman said that any action taken by the sanctioning body is "focused on actions or comments that materially damage the sport." Can't the case be made that a rule violation materially damages the sport as much or more than comments about the racing at Talladega or about electronic fuel injection? Is the sole difference that there are no stated rules against speech while there are against the size of a restrictor plate or angle of a car's spoiler? We don't know.
If NASCAR had learned anything from the three previous instances that secret fines don't say secret very long, it would have announced Keselowski's penalty as soon as possible. Instead, the report of the fine was made public on the day that the Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards had their championship press conference. What a contrast.
Just like with Hamlin and Newman, NASCAR didn't directly acknowledge Keselowski and any fine, with NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp saying that the sanctioning body "handled it accordingly" in its conversation with Keselowski. That's a practice that causes more consternation that soothing. Plus, Keselowski is one of the best young drivers in the sport and already one of its most outspoken on many issues. Remember all the grief that Jimmie Johnson has (wrongly) taken over the years for being too "vanilla?" Think of how quickly "secret" financial penalties for perceived over-the-line statements could potentially vanillaize drivers.
Like it or not, many still have trust issues with NASCAR as a sanctioning body (see: Kyle Busch v. Brian Vickers). Without clear guidelines for what constitutes what and if a fine was really issued or not, those trust issues and the question of "why?" will linger, no matter how great Sunday's race and championship battle at Homestead is.
Sunday
Decision made on Maldonado Williams future
Williams have confirmed that Pastor Maldonado will remain with the team next year. The 26-year-old only scored one point in the 2011 Formula 1 season, but he is being backed by team boss Sir Frank Williams to come good. He said: “Pastor has proven he is not only quick but can also maintain a consistent [...]
Williams fall into F1?s vicious cycle | 2011 F1 season review
Williams are caught in a downward spiral of worsening performance and falling sponsorship.
Source: http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2011/12/09/2011-f1-season-review-williams/
Create-a-caption: ?That?s the guy I beat.? ?Hey, me too!?
Jimmie Johnson and Tony Stewart, cuttin' up at the NASCAR banquet. What are these two fine gentlemen saying? You know, don't you? Have your say, friends.
After the jump, a Smoke fan is overcome with emotion.
Richard R:
Race Ticket - 100 bucks.
Old Spice outfit - 125 bucks
Beer - 200 bucks
Missing the end of the most exciting race season ever....Priceless!
Shawn S:
Don't drink the Old Spice!
Razz:
An exhausted Tony Stewart waits on mouth-to-mouth resuscitation from the Sprint Cup girls.
Saturday
Steve Addington named crew chief for Tony Stewart?s team
Anyway, in all seriousness, Addington has just been named the crew chief for Stewart's No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 team, effective right now. Addington won 16 Sprint Cup-level races while crewing for both Kyle Busch (12 wins) and Kurt Busch (4 wins), and if you heard any of Kurt Busch's radio transmissions, you know that Addington must have either alligator-thick skin or selective deafness. In his career, Addington has also crewed for J.J. Yeley and Bobby Labonte.
Addington marks only the third crew chief Stewart has had in his championship career, after Greg Zipadelli and Darian Grubb, and to hear Stewart say it (at least in a press release), all will work out just fine: "I know Steve well and I know how he goes about setting up a racecar. My comfort level with him is already strong. He balances the technical part of our sport with the real-world experiences we get at the track, and that will allow for a smooth transition as we prepare to defend our title in 2012."
[Related: Power Rankings: Tony Stewart goes tops with exceptional Chase run
Of course, Grubb's status as fired-but-not-yet-gone crew chief was the most uncomfortable element of last week's championship celebrations. Stewart refused to give Grubb a vote of confidence even as the confetti was still flying.
"Darian was a very important part of the success we've had at Stewart-Haas Racing," Stewart said in a statement. "I'm very proud of everything he helped accomplish, especially this year when we all rallied to win the championship. He's a great person and I know he'll continue to be successful in this sport."
Just prior to the release of the announcement, Rick Hendrick confirmed that he has been in discussion with Grubb and has offered him an engineering position, since there are currently no open crew-chief jobs at HMS. But Hendrick added that Grubb has "a lot of offers."
You know, Grubb is a crew chief in search of a job. And we can now think of at least one driver who's in need of a crew chief, can't we?
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Create-a-caption: Get a spatula for this Stewart fan
Hey! Fella! Wake up! Your boy won! Somebody caption this fine Getty Images photo of a Tony Stewart fan at Homestead. Before? After? Who knows?
After the jump, Stewart tries to get into Carl Edwards' head ... and we all know how that turned out, don't we?
Dick Smothers:
Carl: "I know it's you that keeps tapping me on the shoulder, Tony."
Joshua:
Even the media room showed how serious the owners were about putting progressive banking everywhere at Phoenix International Raceway.
Fred Agabashian Kurt Ahrens Jr Christijan Albers Michele Alboreto
Photographer's Blog: Working With the �ber-Talented Rich Lee
My attention was drawn to Rich Lee's MotoGP illustrations some time ago when I stumbled across his work on Facebook. As a long-time graphic designer who has worked with many illustrators, I am often amazed at what folks like Rich are able to do: draw! I can't draw at all. Not even a little bit. Just ask my 7-yr old daughter. "That doesn't look very good, Daddy." Seriously, you'd think a half-way decent dog would be pretty easy to draw. Perhaps I'm a photographer so that I can take a picture of a dog that looks just like a dog.
As a designer I'm also very familiar with the software digital illustrators use to turn their sketches into finished art. I use them for my own projects at a level that doesn't come close to that of which these applications are capable, so when I see a skilled illustrator do the kind of shading and detail evident in Rich's work I'm further amazed and humbled.
2012 World Superbike Test Dates Announced - Testing Added To Australian, Spanish, Italian And Russian WSBK Rounds
Infront Motor Sports, organizers of the World Superbike series, have announced the official test dates for the 2012 WSBK season. As part of the cost-cutting initiatives which are now a ubiquitous part of motorcycle racing, testing for the WSBK series has been linked to races, rather than at separate tests, with the aim of reducing travel and transport expenses.
The first test is the traditional pre-season test at Phillip Island, taking place on the Monday and Tuesday before the 2012 season season opener at the Australian circuit. The following test is at Imola, on the Monday after the race at the legendary Italian track at the beginning of April. The Spanish WSBK round at the Motorland Aragon circuit in July also features a test on the Monday after the race, while the teams will get a one-day test - in effect, an extra day of practice - ahead of the inaugural Russian round of World Superbikes at the Moscow Raceway being built just outside the Russian capital.
Below is the press release from Infront announcing the test dates:
SBK official 2012 tests dates announced
Friday
More troubles on the streets of Bahrain
There is a certain irony in the fact that on the day that the FIA World Council voted to have the Bahrain Grand Prix on the 2012 F1 calendar, there was more serious trouble on the streets of Manama, with the Bahraini security forces firing tear gas and rubber bullets as hundreds of anti-government protesters [...]
Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2011/12/07/more-troubles-on-the-streets-of-bahrain/
Paolo Barilla Rubens Barrichello Michael Bartels Edgar Barth
2011 Jerez Combined WSBK And Moto2 Test Press Releases - BMW And Marc VDS Racing
Press releases from the BMW World Superbike team and the Marc VDS Racing MotoGP team, in which Marc VDS rave about the Kalex, and BMW emphasize that it is their own electronics they have been working on:
Year:
2011
Andrea de Cesaris Francois Cevert Eugene Chaboud Jay Chamberlain
Matt Kenseth will wreck you in absolutely anything, anywhere
Check out Matt Kenseth racing Green Machines at Travis Air Force Base as part of a Gatorade promotion. The lucky fellow who won the chance to race Kenseth could have taken a lesson from Brian Vickers: you never, ever wreck Flatline with time still left in the race.
Yep, it's the offseason. How long till Daytona, again?
Jerez Test Photos, Part 2 - More From The Aprilia, And Some Riders Too
Bradley Smith and Tom Jojic got Guy Coulon's handiwork up to speed, improving by nearly a second over the three days of the test
They're pretty handy with aluminium in Buckingham
Thursday
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