So far this year Denny Hamlin has won five of the last ten races in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series. A full one third of the 15 races run to date. His current hot streak started at Martinsville, the first race that NASCAR dropped the controversial wing from its cars and replaced it with the more traditional spoiler. And in spite of an injured knee and the surgery to repair it, Hamlin has also finished on the lead lap in every race but two, completing all but four laps out of the season’s total. That, dear readers, is the perfect recipe for a championship.
I was watching the Formula 1 Grand Prix of Montreal on Sunday and a race broke out! There was wheel banging, three wide racing, and competitive passes for the lead on the race track. What’s going on with those guys?
Even at this early stage of his career, Joey Logano has begun to set records. He is the first driver in NASCAR history to win from the pole in three straight starts at a single track. He won his third straight Nationwide Series race Saturday night at Kentucky Speedway. In ten Nationwide races at that track no one else has won more than once.
Once again the Audi team dominated the 24 Hours of Le Mans finishing 1-2-3. This year it was helped, of course, by the complete failure of the faster Puegeot team to get even one of their three cars to the end of the race. The Puegeots were not alone however as only 27 cars out of starting field of 55 managed to make it to the end of this most grueling of motor races.
Sadly, tragedy has struck the NHRA and OldBridgeRacewayPark in Englishtown, NJ once again. In an eerily similar fashion to Scott Kalitta’s crash at this track two years ago, the Top Alcohol Funny Car of Neal Parker failed to stop in the shut down area and ran through the safety barriers at the end of the track. Parker was pronounced dead at the scene. The New Jersey State Police and NHRA officials are still investigating the causes of the crash.
For the second week in a row, rain has interrupted the finals of NHRA’s four professional categories, last week it was Chicago and this week, New Jersey. Officials dried the track three times after the semi-finals only to have rain start again just as the cars were ready to go. As of this writing on Monday morning, the final races have yet to be run.
Over the weekend I watched all or part of six different races on television. From Le Mans to Montreal, Kentucky to New Jersey, there was something for every taste. I can remember when you could find very little if any racing on television. Things are much better these days!