Motor Sports Weekly News

By Drew Hierwarter

This weekend’s motor sports events had a little something for everyone. A win that didn’t count, a spectacular crash, a dominant performance, and oh yea, a controversy in NASCAR!

During Formula 1 qualifying in Hungary on Friday the FIA, which is the governing body for F-1, decided that Team McLaren’s tactic to give Fernando Alonzo the qualifying advantage over rookie phenom and teammate, Lewis Hamilton, after Hamilton had blocked Alonzo on the track earlier, was unfair. The team held Alonzo in the single pit stall for longer than normal, preventing Hamilton from changing tires in time to get in that one last charge for the pole before time ran out. Because of this Hamilton missed earning an almost sure pole position start. The result was the FIA’s ruling that McLaren would earn no manufacturer’s points on Sunday. So, on race day Hamilton leads every lap and wins the race, his third win in what’s proving to be a spectacular rookie season, and earns ten driver points for himself, but no points for Team McLaren, thus a win for the point leading manufacturer that really wasn’t.

When the cars of the Indy Racing League take to the high banks of Michigan International Speedway the danger is always as high as the speeds. Dario Franchitti can testify to that as he rode out one of the scariest looking crashes this writer has seen. After bumping wheels with leader Dan Wheldon’s car at over 200 mph, Dario’s car took to the air like an oak leaf in a light fall breeze. It came to earth in front of the pack and was immediately knocked back into the air by several other cars where it continued to tumble and break apart. When the crashing was done seven cars were damaged or destroyed, but thankfully, all drivers walked away from the carnage unhurt. Tony Kanaan was the eventual winner and in spite of the crash, Franchitti still leads the IRL points. Danica Patrick’s potential podium finish was ruined in the late laps by a flat rear tire.

Everybody in NASCAR’s Nextel Cup Series except Kurt Busch might just as well have saved themselves the time and money of running the race in Pocono and stayed home. So dominant was the Penske Dodge that Busch drives, no one could catch him and the only time he lost any significant lead was after a botched pit stop that put him back on the track in ninth. And even from that he simply drove back into the lead with apparent ease. In victory lane, Busch gave most of the credit for this performance to his reuniting with crew chief Pat Tryson who came over to Penske South in July from the Roush team. This was the first car that was totally based on Tryson’s ideas. He had completely revamped the balance of the car and it showed in the way Kurt Busch could simply drive away from the rest of the field at will. The best run of the day however may have been made by Dale Earnhardt, Jr. He fought a very ill handling car in the early stages of the race when a yellow flag pit stop gave the team the time they needed to change the left front shock absorber. He resumed the race in 23rd position, the last car on the lead lap, and drove to a well earned second place finish. The win bumped Busch up to 12th in the points standings, one place ahead of Earnhardt, and into the final cutoff spot to make “The Chase for the Championship”. With only five races to go before the beginning of the “Chase” things are really starting to heat up.

And now, in what seems like an almost weekly occurrence, there was controversy in NASCAR. After a multi-car crash with only a few laps to go in the Busch race in Montreal, Canada, NASCAR officials instructed leader Robbie Gordon to re-start in 13th place. He disagreed and refused, instead taking the green flag re-start in second behind Marcos Ambrose. Gordon then bumped leader Ambrose out of the way, denying Ambrose of his first ever win in the series, and earning the black flag from NASCAR. Not only did Gordon then repeatedly ignore the flag, but he felt he had won the race instead of Kevin Harvick, who was running in third before all this began. After the race, Gordon did the winner’s burnout next to Harvick’s and had to be physically blocked from driving his car into victory lane. The result of all these antics was Gordon being summoned to the NASCAR trailer, the equivalent of being sent to the principle’s office in school. Once there he was reminded of the rule pertaining to the issuance of black flags and then told that while he was welcome to go to Pocono and watch the Nextel Cup race the following day, he would not be allowed to drive his race car. Just another crazy day in NASCAR land.

Next week NASCAR’s Nextel Cup and Busch Grand National stars will be on the road course at Watkins Glen, New York; the Craftsman Truck Series will run at the Nashville Superspeedway; The Indy Racing League is in Kentucky; the NHRA races in Brainerd, MN; and short tracks all over the country will be featuring some great racing. Check your local TV listings or better yet, get out there and see a race in person.