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Filed under: Sprint Cup

Paul Menard never was much of a threat to win last Sunday's Sprint Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, but his 5th-place finish left the driver of the No. 98 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford as the most surprising entrant into the top 10 in the Sprint Cup point standings.

Thanks to a crafty call by Menard's crew chief, Richard "Slugger" Labbe, to go with a two-tire pit stop during the final stops of the Atlanta race, Menard lined up on the front row for the second-to-last restart. His two tires quickly showed to be a disadvantage to the drivers who had taken four, but a quick crash in turn four not only helped equalize the tire situation, but also eliminated some contenders who could have taken spots from Menard.

After the final restart, Menard held on to his fifth-place position -- the second best finish of his career -- and jumped from 17th to 9th in the Sprint Cup standings.

 

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Filed under: Formula One

More cars, a return of the sport's Michael Jordan and a conflict over how one team will affect their car's handling by the movement of a drivers' knee.

All in an off-season's work for the ever-changing world of Formula One.

The international open-wheel series opens its 60th World Championship Sunday with the Bahrain Grand Prix (7:30 a.m. ET, SPEED) in its usual fashion -- new rules, new controversies and a still wide-open field for who will take home the season prize.

After a brief flirtation at the end of last season with replacing an injured Felipe Massa at Ferrari was derailed by a previous neck injury, eight-time F1 champ Michael Schumacher makes his return to the sport he last left after a narrow defeat at the hands of Fernando Alonso for the 2006 crown.

 

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Filed under: Carl Edwards, NASCAR Crashes, Sprint Cup

Carl Edwards, undoubtedly, is getting quite the bad rap this week after his move that wrecked Brad Keselowski Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Let's be real -- when you send a fellow competitor flying through the air and smashing dangerously into the outside wall, a lot of folks aren't going to be taking your side. That's exactly what Edwards -- regardless of what his original intent was -- did Sunday.

But before we condemn Edwards for his intentional act, let us not forget that Mr. Ed himself (just ask Kyle Busch about that nickname) is far, far from being the first NASCAR driver to ever wreck someone intentionally. And, thanks to the wonders of YouTube, you'll get to relive just a few of those moments from the comfort of your computer chair.

 

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Filed under: Brian Vickers, Carl Edwards, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Denny Hamlin, Greg Biffle, Jamie McMurray, Jeff Gordon, Juan Pablo Montoya, Ken Schrader, Michael Waltrip, Tony Stewart, NASCAR Videos, Sprint Cup, Scott Speed

As expected, word came from Juan Pablo Montoya's camp this week that he and teammate Jamie McMurray have settled their differences after McMurray wrecked both out of last Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Montoya said McMurray sent him an apologetic text message and Montoya accepted -- coining the situation as one the drivers have to move past, autosport.com reported. Of course, it's rare, really, that drivers -- and especially teammates -- fail to openly "make up" over the next week, even if both are still (and likely are) fuming over the dustup.

In the case of the Earnhardt-Ganassi teammates, this isn't their first run-in involving spinning race cars and bent sheet metal during their NASCAR careers, and for NASCAR as a whole, it certainly wasn't the first time -- and definitely not the last -- that on-track action between teammates has ended in a smoking mess.

Here's a few of the best recent teammate vs. teammate crashes -- and one that stretches back to 1995.


Race: 2005 Coca-Cola 600, Charlotte
Team: Dale Earnhardt Inc.
Drivers: Dale Earnhardt Jr. & Michael Waltrip
Scene: With 156 laps to go in NASCAR's longest race, Waltrip & Earnhardt Jr. run 7th and 8th. Then, Earnhardt Jr. gets a run on Waltrip, clips the No. 15, and around they go.

Waltrip left DEI at the end of 2005.




Race: 2008 AMP Energy 500, Talladega
Team: Roush Fenway Racing
Drivers: Greg Biffle & Carl Edwards
Scene: With each driver trying to supplant Jimmie Johnson as the next Sprint Cup champion, a lot was on the line for a good finish at Talladega. Perhaps that contributed to Carl Edwards doing a little bit of overzealous bump drafting as the laps wound down.

The result? A big crash, and Jimmie Johnson continued to his third-straight title.




Race: 2007 Subway 500, Martinsville
Team: Roush-Fenway Racing
Drivers: Carl Edwards & Matt Kenseth
Scene: I realize that tagging someone with the word "intimidating" might have a few black No. 3 fans up in arms, but in this video -- the lone video that is more focused on post-race actions than what happened on track -- I can't help but be scared of Carl Edwards and his camouflage shorts.

You can bet Matt Kenseth felt the same way.


Race: 2007 Pepsi 400, Daytona
Team: Joe Gibbs Racing
Drivers: Tony Stewart & Denny Hamlin
Scene: In what remains one of the biggest mysteries of NASCAR, Tony Stewart somehow managed to blame Denny Hamlin for this Daytona incident that wiped out both Joe Gibbs Racing drivers in the early stages of 2007 Pepsi 400.

Hamlin, the leader, get bumped by Stewart in second -- sending both into the turn four wall in a crash that collected Dale Earnhardt Jr. The Daytona crowd wasn't pleased.


Race:1995 DieHard 500, Talladega
Team: Hendrick Motorsports
Drivers: Jeff Gordon & Ken Schrader
Scene: Consider this from the way-back file, as we dig into the days of Richard Petty working as a race commentator. With about 50 to go, the non-champion version of Jeff Gordon (he won his first in 1995) gets into Ken Schrader's No. 25 Budweiser machine, spinning the Budweiser Chevrolet around before Schrader takes a wild tumble in the backstretch grass. If you're so inclined, the very same car is still on display at the Hendrick Motorsports museum.

Schrader's biggest injury from the crash was a nasty black eye that he reveals in the interview at the end of the video -- a NASCAR moment worth waiting for.



Race: 2009 Camping World 200, New Hampshire
Team: Team Red Bull
Drivers: Brian Vickers & Scott Speed
Scene: In one of the more unusual teammate disputes, Vickers and Speed showed that a bit of tension simmered under the surface of their Sprint Cup Series team when they had issues during a Nationwide race. Sure, this might be a stretch because they were driving for competing teams during this Nationwide race, but just hours later they were competing under the same Red Bull colors.

Me? I'm just confused as to why Vickers wasn't mad at himself for getting loose.



Related: Vickers scores first win at teammate's expense -- Talladega 2006

 

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Filed under: Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Sprint Cup

Which of NASCAR's Busch brothers has found more success at their hometown race track?

Decidedly, it's Kyle, the kid brother of 2004 Sprint Cup champion Kurt Busch, who has done better on the 1.5-mile oval of Las Vegas Motor Speedway. And he's the defending champion of Sunday's Shelby American Sprint Cup race after winning this race last year by almost a half second over Clint Bowyer.

But it's Kurt who will first see Sunday's green flag posting the quickest time during Friday's Sprint Cup qualifying session to earn the pole position. And he also holds a key in his back pocket that Kyle may wish he still had for the annual visit to Sin City.

Steve Addington, now the crew chief on Kurt's No. 2 Penske Racing Dodge, was instrumental in Kyle's victory last year when he was serving as crew chief of Kyle's No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.

In a champagne-soaked victory lane, Kyle tossed a big line of thanks to Addington for his role in helping Busch come from a back-of-the-pack starting spot to take the checkers in front of the home crowd.

"Steve Addington, I have to thank that guy," Busch said a year ago in victory lane. "He's the leader in this team, everybody believes in him -- I believe in him. As long as you have that everything seems to run smooth."

 

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Filed under: Bristol Motor Speedway, Speedway Motorsports Inc., NASCAR Tracks, Sprint Cup

When the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers roll off pit road at Bristol Motor Speedway for the first practice for the March 21 Food City 500, they will encounter a new change to the half-mile track -- the third in the last 7 races.

Track officials at the northeast Tennessee speedway announced Wednesday that additional SAFER barrier has been added to the outside walls at the exits of both turns 2 and 4 -- a move that, interestingly enough, is more about changing the racing than making the track safer.

Racing at the track became decidedly different after a much-needed replacement of the concrete surface in the summer of 2007. Trying to make the track more of a multiple groove venue that facilitated side-by-side racing, management widened the track by about four feet while adjusting the banking in the corner to feature a varying degree of banking that increased from the bottom to the top.

The result proved wildly popular with drivers who found more room to race and make passes, while many fans were upset, believing the Bristol of old had left the building. Simply, more room for the drivers meant less on-track contact and ultimately fewer crashes and heated tempers, two elements that had made the 160,000-seat bowl of speed the toughest ticket in NASCAR.

Ticket sales -- many attributed to fewer corporate buyers -- have slowed at the track in the last year or so, making seats easily available for the first time, at least March race tickets or season tickets, anyway. For years, especially before tens of thousands of new seats were added, the track had a massive waiting list for tickets to the Sprint Cup night race in August.

 

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Filed under: Sprint Cup

A little bit of uneasiness and uncertainty might be in the air at Hendrick Motorsports this week.

For the second week in a row, a car from the HMS stable dropped from contention in a race because of rear axle problems. At Auto Club Speedway last Sunday, Dale Earnhardt Jr., played the victim, Sprint Cup champ Jimmie Johnson broke down at Daytona.

Both situations, as the drivers tell it, sound strangely similar.

"Down in the center (Turns) 1 and 2, I just got back to the gas and the car felt like it had a flat tire," said Earnhardt Jr. after his 32nd place finish Sunday.

Just a week prior, Johnson exited the Daytona 500 late in the race after what he also thought was a flat tire ended up being a a problem with the drive mechanism in the rear wheels -- an issue very similar to Earnhardt Jr.'s on Sunday.

"We tore up an axle or drive plate," said Earnhardt Jr. "Something's going on there where we're chewing that stuff up and tearing it up. We've got to figure out why that's happening."

 

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Filed under: Juan Pablo Montoya, Sprint Cup

One surprise from the 2009 Sprint Cup season was not what Juan Pablo Montoya did on the track, but what he didn't do.

He didn't win a race.

In easily his best stock car season yet, Montoya never earned a trip to NASCAR Sprint Cup victory lane. All of that could change Sunday afternoon at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Ca.

Montoya lines up for the second race of the 2010 season on the outside of the front row with none other than his new Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing teammate (and Daytona 500 winner) Jamie McMurray on the pole.

And while McMurray, who embarked on a whirlwind media tour last week on both the left and right coasts after taking Daytona's checkered flag, has hopes to follow in the steps of Matt Kenseth from one year ago by winning the season's first two races, it looks like Montoya could play a big role in that battle.

In fact, Montoya thinks his car is so good, that sentiment may have played a role in allowing McMurray to take the pole in Friday's qualifying for the Auto Club 500.

 

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Filed under: Jamie McMurray, Sprint Cup

Since his emotional victory in the Daytona 500 Sunday, Jamie McMurray has been on a nonstop, coast-to-coast roller coaster ride of public appearances, television shows and other activities that are the exclusive privilege and responsibility of winners of NASCAR's biggest race.

"I don't know that I've ever been recognized," McMurray said Tuesday from New York on the weekly NASCAR teleconference.

"I can't believe in just the 24 hours that I've been here the amount of people that have found me and have brought their USA Today paper up and had me sign it. I can't believe how popular that race is and how, by winning it, how many people realize who you are all of a sudden."

But after trips to New York and San Francisco, the long week eventually winds down, and come Friday, he'll be back at the race track at California Speedway, preparing for race number two in a long season full of opportunity and potential disappointment.

in fact, over the past 15 years, the winner of The Great American Race has usually not been the driver who, at the end of the season, hoists NASCAR's biggest trophy for winning the Sprint Cup championship. Likewise, the eventual season champion often has a largely unremarkable finish in the 500.

Just two drivers -- Jimmie Johnson in 2006 and Jeff Gordon in 1997 -- have hoisted both the Harley J. Earl trophy in Daytona's victory lane and the championship trophy at the end of the year. Otherwise, the 500 winners haven't really come close. Dale Jarrett, who won the 500 in 1996, and Sterling Marlin, 1995's winner, came the closest to taking NASCAR's ultimate double with 3rd-place points finishes after winning at Daytona.

The average points finish of the 15 Daytona 500 winners since 1995 is an unremarkable 10th. Ward Burton, the winner in 2002 after a crazy finish that saw Sterling Marlin try to fix his damaged front fender during a late red flag while leading, had the worst points finish (25th) in the measured span.

 

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Filed under: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Sprint Cup, Hendrick Motorsports

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- They say a picture says 1,000 words.

The expression and attitude of Dale Earnhardt Jr., though, might have said a whole lot more after Sunday's extended Daytona 500.

 

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