We're only a handful of races from the Chase, and oh, it's getting good down in Wild Card territory. Is Jeff Gordon now the favorite to get in? Where does that leave Kyle Busch? And does Carl Edwards even have a prayer anymore? Your favorite NASCAR Jays, Hart and Busbee, kick around all these topics and more! more! more! in this week's Burning Questions. Enjoy!
Sunday
While leading at Montreal, Danica Patrick hits a shoe
Who throws a shoe? Apparently, someone at Montreal.
While Danica Patrick was leading Saturday's Nationwide Series race at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, a spectator threw a shoe onto the track, and the shoe landed in the racing groove. As Patrick led the field back to the spot where the shoe was, she ran it over squarely and its remains shot out from underneath her car.
It looked innocuous enough ? it's just a sneaker, right? Well, Patrick's car immediately started to lose the handling and eventually, what looked to be a bracket or a bolt came out from underneath her car. Her chances at the win were over. She finished 26th, six laps down.
Justin Allgaeir won the race.
The shoe was the bizarre conclusion to Patrick's adventures in the three Nationwide Series road course races this season. In the first, at Road America, she was spun by Jacques Villeneuve (Gilles' son) on the final lap while running fourth. Last week at Watkins Glen, she was collected in a wreck not of her own doing on the first turn of the first lap of the race. She finished last.
Before Saturday's sole incident, Patrick had one of the day's best cars, and after taking the lead through pit strategy and a timely caution, had cleanly held on to it. Patrick has shown flashes of competitiveness at times in 2012 ?�especially on road courses ?�but crashes and incidents like the one on Saturday have been the story of her season. Through 22 races she has failed to finish six times and is 11th in the points standings.
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Massa quickest in touring car weekend at Interlagos | F1 Fanatic round-up
Massa quickest in touring car weekend at Interlagos is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
In the round-up: Massa appears in touring car race at Interlagos ? Ecclestone open to Turkey return ? Hewland gearbox company founder dies
Massa quickest in touring car weekend at Interlagos 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/2012/08/19/f1-fanatic-roundup-198/
Trouble ends promising days for Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
A potential win spun out of Tony Stewart's grasp on Sunday and so did the points lead out of Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s as the two ended up outside the top 20 thanks to late race spins.
Stewart spun in turn 7 after getting his right side tires on the inside curb in turn 7 on lap 71. The contact with the curb, wet from rain during the previous caution flag just a few laps prior, sent Stewart's car around and into the inside retaining wall. He finished 19th.
At the time Stewart, a five-time Watkins Glen winner, was running second to Brad Keselowski after overcoming a pit road equipment violation that put him back in 25th place. Immediately after the violation, Stewart made up 12 spots in seven laps. e's now 8th in the points standings, and as of now, would still start the Chase tied with Brad Keselowski and Jimmie Johnson atop the standings with three wins.
Junior, winless on road courses in NASCAR, ran in the top 10 for most of the day and was in position to maintain his position atop the Sprint Cup points standings, until he spun with eight laps to go.
[Related: Marcos Ambrose victorious in a slip-n-slide Watkins Glen finish]
"I just got in the corner and made a mistake and that was pretty much all there was to it. I was just overdriving the car," Junior said.
The mistake and ensuing pit stop for flat spotted tires dropped Junior all the way to 28th place and put teammate Johnson into the points lead, by one point over Greg Biffle and two points over Matt Kenseth, who finished sixth and eighth, respectively. Junior is now fourth, 17 points back.
"I know most people look at it and they just think we're a shoe-in because we're so far ahead of 11th, but after wrecking out the last two weeks in a row, we needed to get a solid finish and this is definitely not a good track for me, so it's good to get a solid finish," Kenseth said.
That last pit stop that Junior made because of the spin put him privy to the chaos that ensued over the last 1.5 laps around Watkins Glen, a situation that he didn't want to be in.
"(Oil) was everywhere. You couldn't see it, but it was everywhere," Junior said. "So you didn't know where to run and I saw the leaders were coming and I was just trying to get out of the way and they were in oil and I was in oil and then I watched everything that happened in front of me. It was a bad deal, I think. The track shouldn't have oil on it. It's a tough deal I guess. But it finished out with all that oil on the track. I don't really like that. It was a bad ugly finish at the end."
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Restructuring rumours
There are reports that there is another technical restructuring taking place at Mercedes AMG Petronas. Given that the current structure has not even had time to settle down, it seems rather more likely that any shuffling going on is simply to redistribute roles following the departure of Loic Bigois, who had been managing aerodynamic programmes. [...]
Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2012/07/31/restructuring-rumours/
Saturday
Whatever Happened To? Takuma Sato?
I never really warmed to the idea of staking a bet on the F1 result when Takuma Sato was around. Unpredictable didn?t even cover it. Short and comical, he looked more suited to competing in Japanese game show Takeshi?s Castle than Formula One racing. Active at the pinnacle of motorsport from 2002 to early 2008, [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Formula1Fancast/~3/FJxfNUYu1Lo/whatever-happened-to-takuma-sato-2
Juan Manuel Bordeu Slim Borgudd Luki Botha JeanChristophe Boullion
Friday
Rossi, Ducati And Yamaha: And The Winner Is...
So what are we to make of Valentino Rossi's not-so-shock decision to leave Ducati and go back to Yamaha? The initial reaction from fans and media was that the biggest losers from the move are Ducati as a manufacturer and Rossi's reputation as miracle worker when it comes to bike development. There is some merit in both those arguments, but perhaps it is not quite so clear cut as that. Rossi's two years at Ducati have done a lot of damage to both parties - as well as to MotoGP's popularity and TV income - but in the end, this move could have some very positive long-term repercussions.
Kissing A Frog
Valentino Rossi's honeymoon period with the Ducati lasted just a few laps. From the very beginning, Rossi realized that this was not the bike he had been expecting. The bike had no front-end feel, an excessively aggressive power delivery and a seating position that would not allow him to shift his weight as he needed. Three days after finishing third in the race at Valencia, Rossi ended the test 1.7 seconds slower than Casey Stoner, the man whose bike he was now riding. Rossi looked stiff and awkward, a shadow of the rider he was a few days earlier on the Yamaha.
After shoulder surgery and development over the winter, Rossi was not much faster. At the final test ahead of the season opener at Qatar, he was 1.4 behind the leader, Casey Stoner. In the 14 months since then, the gap has been roughly halved, but Rossi on the Ducati is still some seven or eight tenths behind the leaders, and looking only marginally less stiff, awkward and uncomfortable than he did back in November 2010. On a good day, he finishes 6th, telling reporters "this is our potential."
Carlo Abate George Abecassis Kenny Acheson Andrea de Adamich
WSBK News: Liberty Racing Strongly Rumoured To Be Missing Moscow
Troubled World Superbike team Liberty Racing are rumoured not to be running their three riders at the next race at Moscow Raceway. Italian outlet Omnicourse reports that the three Liberty riders, along with Team Grillini, are missing from the entry list and will not be racing. With all of the troubles Liberty Racing is going through, it wouldn't come as a surprise if they were indeed pulling out of the next race, or indeed the rest of the season.
Coulthard hits 300kph in Lincoln Tunnel demo run | F1 Fanatic round-up
Coulthard hits 300kph in Lincoln Tunnel demo run is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
In the round-up: Video of David Coulthard racing through the Lincoln Tunnel in a Red Bull demo ? Domenicali says Massa could keep Ferrari seat
Coulthard hits 300kph in Lincoln Tunnel demo run 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/2012/08/17/f1-fanatic-roundup-178/
JeanPierre Beltoise Olivier Beretta Allen Berg Georges Berger
Thursday
John Wes Townley(!) to make Cup debut at Pocono on Sunday
Yes, the same John Wes Townley who planned to return to NASCAR before the 2012 season but was suspended by his team, RAB Racing, for the first race of the Camping World Truck Series season for being arrested for DUI. The same John Wes Townley who parted ways with Richard Childress Racing after just five Nationwide Series races in 2010 and boasts not one single top 10 in 57 NASCAR Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series races.
Huh.
Townley will be driving the No. 32 for FAS Lane Racing this year. The car, in 34th position in the owner's points standings, is locked into the race. While FAS Lane hasn't been competitive this year, Ken Schrader, Terry Labonte, Mike Bliss, Reed Sorenson and TJ Bell have all taken turns behind the wheel. Labonte and Bliss have NASCAR championships. Hell, TJ Bell has 13 top 10s in the Truck Series. And now Townley will join them on the No. 32 driver roster.
The reasoning for FAS Lane putting Townley in the car is simple. His father is the co-founder of Zaxby's Restaurants. Zaxby's has sponsored Townley for much of his career and will be on the No. 32 on Sunday. It's precious funding for a team that's been off the pace but running at the finish at all but three Sprint Cup Series races this season -- and those three ended early because of accidents.
It's not a stretch to wonder if Townley would have a NASCAR career if it wasn't for the funding that his family provides. Yes, Zaxby's hasn't sponsored his truck for RAB this year, but the chain sponsored his first 44 NASCAR races. He may not even have gotten a shot if he hadn't had a father who is the CFO of the chain and a stockholder in over 40 restaurants.
But with the sponsorship landscape being what it is in NASCAR, funding has become the 1B to talent's 1A. (Or maybe it's the other way around?) Just look at the patchwork of sponsors that Matt Kenseth, the freaking points leader before crashing on Sunday, has had this season. With the costs of fielding a Sprint Cup car -- lest even a competitive one -- still rising while corporate spending isn't, a situation like this was inevitable.
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Video: What exactly happened with AJ Allmendinger?
So you know the developing story with AJ Allmendinger. Your favorite Yahoo! Sports Jays, Hart and Busbee, are on the case and kicking around the matter. We go with what we know, which is: HOW THE HECK DID THIS HAPPEN? Watch the video, and fire away with your comments below.
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