Motor Sports Weekly News

By: Drew Hierwarter

     What goes around comes around, literally.  Just ask Tony Stewart if that isn’t true.  He had just taken over the lead from Jeff Gordon early in Sunday’s NASCAR Nextel Cup race on the road course at Watkins Glen, New York.  Entering turn 1, a high speed right hander, he overdrove the car and spun himself out of the lead. By the time he got straightened out and back on the track, he was scored in nineteenth place. He spent most of the rest of the day working to get himself back up to the front and by the time the race was in its final stages, he was second behind pole sitter, Jeff Gordon. And that’s when things came back around for Stewart.  With two laps to go, Gordon made a rare mistake and spun himself out in almost the exact same spot and in almost exactly the same way that Stewart had earlier.  In victory lane, Tony said “I gave it away and then I got it back”, while all Jeff Gordon could say as he walked dejectedly through the garage was; “I made a mistake.”  

 Dale Earnhardt, Jr was having a good day, running as high as fourth, until his engine gave up in a cloud of smoke with 27 laps remaining in the race. The resulting 42^nd place finish dropped him to 14^th in the points standings, 100 points away from Kurt Busch who currently resides in the 12^th and final spot for the championship chase.  And while it may not be impossible for Earnhardt to climb back up into the Chase, with only four races to go before the start of the run to the championship, the hill is getting steeper.

        The mid-season swing for the World of Outlaws sprint car series is beginning to look like the summer of Donny Schatz.  Schatz has been on a tear of late winning most of the season’s biggest races.  So far this year he has won the Kings Royal, the Don Martin Memorial Silver Cup, the Summer Nationals, and now the biggest of them all, the 47^th annual Knoxville Nationals.  This was the second consecutive year for Schatz to appear in the storied old track’s winner’s circle.  He led every one of the race’s 30 laps but it wasn’t easy as Schatz had to fend off repeated challenges from Terry McCarl in order to get to his $150,000 pay day.  The Knoxville Nationals always draws a huge field of the sport’s best teams and it is the biggest race of the year for winged sprint cars.  This year’s event was no exception as 112 cars began the complex qualifying process on Wednesday that leads up to only 24 cars being eligible to run in Saturday night’s feature race.

     For the second straight week the Indy Racing League saw Tony Kanaan in the winner’s circle, Dario Franchitti flipping through the air, and Danica Patrick missing out on a good finish due to a flat tire. Weird.  With his win in Kentucky, Kanaan is now only 52 points behind leader Franchitti.  The open wheel racers  have a week off before resuming the series at California’s Infineon Raceway on August 26^th. 

         One of the most coveted trophies in all of motor sports is waiting for the winners when they arrive in Nashville Superspeedway’s victory lane.  The Music City track has established the tradition of handing out an electric guitar to everyone who wins there.  And like Martinsville’s grandfather clocks, the Nashville guitars are a cherished possession.  Add former NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion, Travis Kvapil to the list of guitar owners after his more than 2 second victory over Ron Hornaday in Saturday night’s “Toyota Tundra 200”.  The win moved Kvapil from fourth to third in the points standings, 236 markers behind series leader, Mike Skinner.   “It will still take Mike and Ron having some bad races for us to close the gap but there are 10 races left and a lot can happen,” Kvapil said.  Indeed it can and Kvapil is in the perfect position to capitalize on any mistake by the two leading teams as he has completed all but one lap so far this season. The truck series now gets a welcome weekend off before heading to the eastern end of Tennessee for their next race at Bristol’s newly resurfaced, high banked half mile. 

       And finally, this week; John Force just may be the hottest driver in drag racing right now.  A third of the way through the season the team was 19^th in the NHRA Powerade Funny Car points standings, couldn’t seem to win a single round, and was all but out of any chance of making a run for the championship.  Then, the team seemed to catch fire with a win in Bristol and then again at Infineon. Now, with another win in Brainerd, MN this week, his third in five races, Force is solidly in the “Countdown to the Championship” with only one race left before the cutoff and the run for the for the series title begins. Force beat his old rival and friend Kenny Bernstein in what was Bernstein’s first final round appearance after coming out of retirement to drive funny cars once again. The Bernstein family still got to take home a “Wally” however, as Kenny’s son Brandon was the victor over Larry Dixon in Top Fuel.  And Jeg Coughlin scored his 50^th career victory in Pro Stock over current point leader Greg Anderson.      

This entry was posted on Monday, August 13th, 2007 at 9:10 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.