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Rain hits Indianapolis again, canceling most of practice
By STEVE HERMAN, AP Sports Writer
May 23, 2008
INDIANAPOLIS (AP)—The final practice for the Indianapolis 500 was a lot like the rest of the month at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway: cold, wet and short.
What was supposed to be an hour of final tuneups before Sunday’s race was stopped by rain Friday after only 12 minutes, and the annual pit stop competition among top contenders’ crews was canceled altogether.
Former winner Buddy Rice had the most laps of any driver, managing 11 trips around the 2.5-mile oval, while Ganassi Racing teammates Dan Wheldon and pole-starter Scott Dixon had six laps each and turned in the top speeds at 223.934 and 223.028 mph, respectively.
Bruno Junqueira and Tomas Scheckter completed just one lap, while Ryan Briscoe was the only one of the 33 starters who did not get a single lap before the rain hit.
Still, the limited practice went well, Rice said.
“I was able to get our car up to speed quickly,” the 2004 winner said. “The track was very green, no rubber on it from the rain. The downforce was heavy due to the cooler conditions.”
Rice’s top lap was at 221.207 mph.
The latest weather forecast for Sunday called for zero percent chance of rain and a high temperature of 76 degrees.
“That might make it very difficult on the teams and drivers to get the right setup,” Rice said. “Luckily, we have an experienced engineering staff, and we’ll prepare for that kind of day. Right now, I’m very pleased with our car.”
FREEDOM 100 POSTPONED
The Freedom 100 in the developmental Indy Lights Series was postponed Friday by rain.
The 40-lap race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway instead will be run Saturday afternoon after the Indy 500 drivers meeting.
“Obviously, this is not where we want to be today,” Speedway president Joie Chitwood said. “We did everything we could to get the track to come around, and it was starting to dry when the rain hit again.”
Rookie Dillon Battistini will start the Freedom 100 from the pole. The 26 other Indy Lights drivers include Jeff Simmons, who is also racing in Sunday’s 500.
HONDA RE-SIGNS
Honda will continue supplying race engines to the IndyCar Series through the 2013 season.
The Indy Racing League announced a five-year contract extension with the engine manufacturer Friday.
“It brings stability and continuity to a very competitive racing package,” IRL president Brian Barnhart said.
Honda joined the series in 2003 and has been its sole engine supplier since 2006. For the past two years, no car dropped out of the Indy 500 due to an engine problem.
ELDORA INVITATION
Tony Stewart is offering Sunday’s Indy winner a car to drive in the June 4 dirt race at his half-mile Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio.
Part of the proceeds from the annual late model stock car race will go to the Tony Stewart Foundation.
“We’ll have a car waiting for him or her, and we’d love to have whoever puts their name on the Borg-Warner Trophy at Indianapolis come about two hours east,” said Stewart, who owns the Eldora track.
Stewart drove in the 500 five times, including a start from the pole as a rookie in 1996, before leaving for NASCAR.
He and other NASCAR drivers including Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne, Carl Edwards and Kevin Harvick are scheduled to drive in the charity race at Eldora, which comes between the next two IndyCar races, June 1 at Milwaukee and June 7 at Texas.
CHANGE OF PLANS
Olympic skating gold medalist Kristi Yamaguchi will replace boxing champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. as honorary starter Sunday and will become the first woman to wave the green flag to start the Indy 500.
Mayweather bowed out because of the death of his uncle.
Other celebrities expected to attend the race include football Hall of Famer Marcus Allen, basketball’s Baron Davis, motorcyclist Nicky Hayden and skier Bode Miller.
OWNERS’ DELIGHT
Two of the race teams in the Indy Lights Series are owned by former Indy 500 drivers.
Three-time Indy starter Jim Guthrie owns Guthrie Racing, including cars for his son, Sean Guthrie, and drivers Logan Gomez, Micky Gilbert and Tom Wieringa.
Tyce Carlson, who started the 500 twice, is co-owner of Alliance Motorsports, which fields the car driven by Chris Festa.
“I love it,” Carlson said of his return to Indianapolis as a team owner. “It gets me back to the track where I think I belong, and it keeps me out of the race car, where my wife thinks I don’t belong.”
He said he eventually would like to move up to the IndyCar Series.
“That’s what’s in our business plan,” Carlson said. “My goal and dream is to win the 500. If I can’t do it as a driver, I still want to do it as an owner.”
LUG NUTS
Sarah Fisher, whose two expected sponsorships fell through, landed a late deal and much-needed money from Text4cars.com, an Internet site that helps sellers advertise cars online. … Fisher’s husband and chief mechanic, Andy O’Gara, was named winner of the annual Clint Brawner Mechanical Excellence Award. … The Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing crew for rookie driver Justin Wilson received the annual True Grit Award. A team mechanic, Davey Evans, died three weeks ago after a fight while leaving a bar, and the county coroner ruled the death a homicide caused by a stroke brought on by the fight and other health factors. … Roger Penske’s 14 Indy 500 wins as a car owner is almost three times as many won by the second-most successful owner Lou Moore, whose last of five wins came in 1949 with Bill Holland. Besides Penske, active owners with the most wins are A.J. Foyt, Chip Ganassi and Andretti Green with two each.
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Speedway Motorsports buys Kentucky Speedway
By JENNA FRYER, AP Auto Racing Writer
May 22, 2008
CONCORD, N.C. (AP)—Kentucky Speedway moved a step closer to landing a coveted Sprint Cup Series race when Speedway Motorsports Inc. on Thursday added it to its growing portfolio of tracks.
Kentucky’s previous owners have fought for a Cup race, and SMI owner Bruton Smith said he wants a date for his new track by 2009.
Just how he gets one at his eighth facility remains to be seen.
“We will continue to wonder about that,” Smith teased. “We’ll certainly be working on that.”
Smith has battled for years with NASCAR over the awarding of Cup races, and Kentucky already has unsuccessfully sued to get its own date.
Track officials filed an antitrust lawsuit in 2005 against NASCAR and Smith rival International Speedway Inc., but it was dismissed in January. It’s now in the U.S. Court of Appeals.
There was immediate speculation Smith has his eye on Pocono Raceway, which currently has two Cup races. If he purchased that track, he could move one or both its dates to any of his speedways.
“I’m always interested in a speedway,” Smith said. “But here again, if I say something about Pocono, it would indicate to you that it’s for sale. I don’t know if it’s for sale or not, but if you’re telling me it is, then I’ll make a phone call tomorrow.”
Smith has acquired race dates by purchasing tracks before. He and Bob Bahre teamed in 1996 to buy North Wilkesboro Speedway, which they promptly shuttered when Smith took one of its races to his Texas track and Bahre moved the other to New Hampshire.
Smith last year spent $340 million to buy New Hampshire from Bahre, and there was immediate speculation he’d take one of its two races to Las Vegas, where Smith has unsuccessfully lobbied for a second date.
New Hampshire president Jerry Gappens said Smith has assured him the track is not in danger of losing one of its dates to Las Vegas or Kentucky.
“He never made a promise, but he did tell me he doesn’t see any reason to change anything,” Gappens said. “He spent two days up there a few weeks ago looking everything over, we just spent $200,000 renovating the offices and Bruton has a master plan for that track.”
If New Hampshire is safe, then Smith might look to his track in Atlanta. The facility doesn’t sell out and is saddled with a pair of dates that are often afflicted by poor weather. And, Smith has already offered to swap dates with ISC-owned California Speedway to help both tracks overcome weather handicaps.
But, Smith has so far steadfastly refused to take dates from his tracks to secure races at his other facilities. That makes Pocono the most likely scenario for Smith to secure a date for Kentucky.
NASCAR already has started lining up the 2009 calendar, and spokesman Ramsey Poston said “it’s getting fairly late in the year” to open talks with a new speedway. Pocono is owned by Joseph and Rose Mattioli, and is one of just three tracks on the Cup circuit not owned by either ISC or SMI.
“I wouldn’t speculate on (Pocono) having a date or not having a date,” Poston said. “It’s certainly been a very good track; it’s been part of NASCAR’s history and heritage. It certainly has served that region of the country very well.”
Mattioli was not immediately available for comment.
One way or another, it’s clear Smith will find a Cup date to give to Kentucky. The track, about halfway between Cincinnati and Louisville in northern Kentucky, regularly hosts NASCAR’s second-tier Nationwide Series, Indy Racing League and ARCA events, but has lobbied unsuccessfully since it opened in 2000 to bring a Cup event to the 1.5-mile oval.
With crowds of more than 70,000, the track is currently the largest venue that hosts a Nationwide event but doesn’t have a Cup race. Smith said he immediately plans to add 50,000 more seats to make it more suitable for a Cup race. In documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, SMI has already agreed to pay $78.3 million for the speedway that cost $152 million to build.
Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear hoped the sale would lead to a Cup date for the track.
“Jerry Carroll and others built this into a world-class track and their long-held dream of having a permanent home for a NASCAR Sprint Cup race may finally come true,” said Beshear, who will attend his first race Sunday as a guest of Smith’s at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.
“As Speedway Motorsports and Bruton Smith take the wheel, I look forward to working with him to bring a coveted Sprint Cup event to Kentucky Speedway.”
The previous unsuccessful efforts to get a date led track ownership to sue, alleging NASCAR and ISC worked together to create an unfair monopoly and prevent Kentucky from securing a Cup race.
Carroll, part of the original ownership group, said the suit will continue. Carroll has accepted a position to stay with the speedway after the sale.
“The litigation will continue on as long as we think that there is an opportunity to do something right, get an even playing field,” Carroll said.
Smith can not be part of the appeal under a settlement in a Texas-related antitrust lawsuit previously filed by an SMI shareholder against NASCAR and ISC.
Not everyone is so sure Kentucky is the right place for another Cup race. The Southeast is already saturated with races, and there’s four tracks with a total of six Cup races already located within a five-hour drive of Kentucky Speedway.
“In my eyes, the question becomes, if we’re going to go to Kentucky, where are we going to leave?” Jeff Burton asked. “Is the gain of Kentucky a net gain? I’d have to have all that information in front of me to answer that question correctly.
“I have said it’s in our best interest to be in as many places as possible. When I said that, I had Wyoming and Canada in mind, not another place in the Southeast.”
But Kentucky native Michael Waltrip was thrilled about the potential for his homestate.
“Every time I go to Kentucky I always hear, `When are we gonna get a Cup race?’ So those questions will certainly speed up now,” Waltrip said. “I’m real proud that that track has a future now. They know their direction.”
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Hello, Newman: Buzzkill racing
By Ryan Newman, Yahoo! Sports
May 20, 2008
It’s nice to be home. We had a pretty relaxing weekend. We spent some time on Sunday fishing and watching some T.V.
We watched a couple of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies. I hadn’t seen them before. They were okay, but I wouldn’t set my sights on watching it again.
I mostly like comedies and westerns, like “Tombstone.”
My favorite racing movies are “Six Pack” and “Stroker Ace,” though if I had to choose I’d probably go with “Six Pack.” But they’re both pretty good.
I thought “Talladega Nights” was okay. It’s not a bad movie. I like Will Ferrell. I think he did a good job.
As for the All-Star race, we didn’t have the results that we wanted to. Still, it was nice to be at home.
Like most of you, I thought the racing was very poor. I think 90 percent of it is due to this new car we’re driving that they try to call a race car.
The racing has been subject to criticism just about everywhere we’ve gone. That’s what happens when you make a car that’s so much similar to the competition that you have no room for adding advantages. It’s a track position game is all it is.
The tracks that are the worst are the tracks that are the fastest, other than Daytona and Talladega, because they have a different package. The 2-mile tracks are worse than the 1.50-mile tracks; the 1.5-mile tracks are worse than 1-mile tracks. You get down to places that are flat like Martinsville and it’s racing like it used to be because the aerodynamics mean less.
So I didn’t think the All-Star race was good racing. On top that, in a real race you don’t get in on a fan vote. No disrespect to Kasey Kahne, but if we’re here to race, let’s race, let’s not vote people in because we think they’re cool.
I’m looking forward to this next stretch in the season. I like going up to the northeast. I enjoy Dover and Loudon. I don’t really look forward to Infineon, only because the track doesn’t lend to real racing. There are only two places to pass in 11 corners. So you end up following the guy ahead of you through nine of the 11 corners.
Now I’m heading over to Victory Junction Gang Camp to help Kurt Busch with unveiling of the “Superdome.” That should be pretty cool.
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