This Week in Auto Racing August 20 - 24
Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - NASCAR roars into "Thunder Valley" as all three of its national touring series race under the lights at Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee this week. The IndyCar Series heads to Northern California for road-course racing at Infineon Raceway, while Formula One runs on the Streets of Valencia in Spain for the first time.
Sprint Cup Series
Sharpie 500 - Bristol Motor Speedway - Bristol, TN
It's sure to be a hot August night Saturday in Bristol, TN as the Sprint Cup "Race for the Chase" hits the track at the half-mile, high-banked Bristol Motor Speedway. While four drivers have a chance to clinch a "Chase" berth at Bristol, several other contenders battling for playoff position are hoping for the best in this year's night race there.
Kyle Busch has already clinched the top seed in the "Chase for the Sprint Cup," which begins September 14th at New Hampshire. Busch leads the standings with 80 bonus points for his eight wins.
Carl Edwards should secure the second position in the "Chase" standings after Bristol. Edwards is currently second in points, and trails Busch by 222 markers. If he finishes 25th or better, regardless of any other driver's performance, he's in. Despite five victories for the year, Edwards has 40 bonus points since he was deducted 10 points for a rules infraction after winning at Las Vegas earlier this year.
Edwards has won two of the last three races, including the last Sunday's 3M Performance at Michigan.
"We're getting to the point where I feel personally that we can win at any racetrack we go to," Edwards said. "Our pit crew has stepped up their game. That was our weakness for a long time, and the guys have repeatedly week after week worked harder and become better, so I feel very confident at all the racetracks we go to. Last year we won at Bristol. I feel great about California. All of the "Chase" tracks I feel we can compete to win at. So, I feel good. It should be a lot of fun."
Edwards is the defending winner of the Sharpie 500 at Bristol. Kasey Kahne started on the pole and led a race-high 305 laps, but Edwards took command in the late-stages. He held off Kahne at the finish by 1.406 seconds for his second Sprint Cup victory of the season and the sixth of his career.
Two-time defending series champion Jimmie Johnson, currently third in points, will secure his spot in the "Chase" at Bristol if he records a top-five finish there. Johnson could lock down the third seed by virtue of his two victories so far this year.
Fourth-place Dale Earnhardt, Jr. can clinch at Bristol if he wins the Sharpie 500 and leads the most laps. The same clinching scenario applies for fifth- place Jeff Burton as does Earnhardt, Jr. Burton won this year's spring race at Bristol.
With three races remaining until the start of the "Chase," the battle for the final 12 positions remains very tight. Just 162 points separate sixth-place Tony Stewart from 14th-place David Ragan.
Jeff Gordon, Kasey Kahne and Denny Hamlin each dropped three positions in the standings after disappointing finishes last weekend at Michigan. All three drivers failed to finish the race. Gordon fell to ninth in points, Kahne to 11th and Hamlin to 12th.
Gordon is just 82 points ahead of Ragan, who shares the same point total with 13th-place Clint Bowyer. Gordon has yet to win this season. His last trip to Victory Lane was 38 races ago in October 2007 at Charlotte.
"We had a great car at Michigan but obviously did not get the result we were looking for," Gordon said. "We dropped positions in the standings, and now we have to enter the next few races with a different mindset. Before we were in a position where taking risks wasn't an option. We had a pretty comfortable margin on the transfer spot, and we didn't want to jeopardize that. We're not in that position anymore, so now we must go all out and see where we end up."
Gordon and Kurt Busch lead all active drivers with five victories at Bristol.
Hamlin led in the closing laps at Bristol earlier this year, but a fuel pickup problem prevented him from capturing the victory. The Food City 500 concluded with a green-white-checkered finish. Hamlin had a good restart, but suddenly slowed as Burton flew past him. Kevin Harvick and Bowyer then grabbed the second and third spots from Hamlin as the Richard Childress Racing trio took the checkered flag one-two-three.
"It seems like Bristol is a track where we really, really run good," Hamlin said. "We've led on the last lap the past couple of times there and not won the race. Its good to go back there because we know we can run really well. Its just a nerve-wracking racetrack because you never know what can happen."
This year's Sharpie 500 will mark the 30th anniversary of the night race at the famed short track. The first Cup race to run under the lights at Bristol took place on August 26th, 1978 with Cale Yarborough taking the checkered flag.
Nationwide Series
The Food City 250 - Bristol Motor Speedway - Bristol, TN
With 10 races remaining on this year's schedule, the points battle in the Nationwide Series is shaping up to be a good one among three drivers. Clint Bowyer currently holds a 113-point lead over second-place Carl Edwards and a 132-point advantage over third-place Brad Keselowski in the championship standings.
Edwards, the defending series champion, trailed Bowyer by 254 points after Chicagoland last month. But Edwards has won two of the last four Nationwide races, including last Saturday's Carfax 250 at Michigan.
Keselowski has remained in the title hunt throughout the season.
Not since 2003 has the championship battle been this close at this point of the season. Four years ago, Scott Riggs led the standings with David Green 28 points behind in second and Ron Hornaday, Jr. in third, 97 markers back. Fourth-place Jason Keller trailed Riggs by 104 points, and Brian Vickers held the fifth spot, 135 markers behind.
Vickers went on to win the championship, taking Green to the last lap of the season-finale at Homestead, FL.
Bowyer has one Nationwide victory so far this year, and it came in March at Bristol. He leads the series with 20 top-10 finishes, but has finished 18th and 23rd in two of the last four races.
"We've given up some points over the last few weeks, so we need get back to business and work on padding our points lead," Bowyer said.
He finished fifth and eight at Bristol last year.
Edwards, meanwhile, has scored one victory and four top-10 finishes in eight Nationwide races there. He won at Bristol in March 2007 and has finished 11th and 14th in the last two races there.
Keselowski has finished fourth, seventh and 41st in his first three races at Bristol.
Craftsman Truck Series
O'Reilly 200 - Bristol Motor Speedway - Bristol, TN
The Craftsman Truck Series runs on Wednesday night at Bristol, and what a treat this race should be. Not only will Johnny Benson be gunning for his record fourth win in a row, but two-time Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson will make his Truck Series debut as well.
Benson's winning streak began last month at Kentucky and continued at O'Reilly Raceway Park and then Nashville. He joined Mike Skinner (1996 and 2007), Ron Hornaday, Jr. (1997), Greg Biffle (2000) and Todd Bodine (2006) as winners of three-straight races. No driver has ever won four in a row in the 14-year history of the series.
Benson has a good shot of setting the record since he is the defending champion of the O'Reilly 200 at Bristol. Last year, he captured the lead for the final time with 22 laps remaining when Kyle Busch and Travis Kvapil spun while battling for the top spot. Benson held off Brendan Gaughan in the final laps to record his second victory of the season.
"Bristol is a place that all the teams have marked on their calendars," Benson said. "We have been lucky enough to win one there, which is pretty cool. [Crew chief] Trip Bruce made a call to pit early last year, which helped us win the race. We had a great truck, and I knew I would have to be patient in order to get back to the front. It was a great night."
Benson enters Bristol with a just a 45-point lead over Hornaday, Jr. and a 91- point advantage over Matt Crafton.
Johnson will drive the No.81 Chevrolet for team owner and NFL All-Pro receiver Randy Moss. Johnson will become the 10th different Cup champion to compete in a truck race. Jeff Gordon is the only active driver without a series start.
"I got my start racing off-road trucks, so it's going to be cool to be back in a truck," Johnson said. "I've never driven one before. I've always wondered how they drive and what they're about. I've spent so much time with Hornaday, and hes been such a big part of my career, to be able to go out and race against him is going to be blast."
Canadian Patrick Carpentier will also make his truck debut at Bristol. Carpentier will be behind the wheel of the No. 04 Dodge for Bobby Hamilton Racing VA.
Kyle Busch will begin his triple-duty week at Bristol by driving the No.51 Toyota for Billy Ballew Motorsports in the O'Reilly 200, and Scott Speed returns to the series since finishing third at Michigan in mid-June. Speed, the current ARCA RE/MAX points leader, runs the first of eight remaining truck races left on his schedule this year, driving the No.22 Toyota for Bill Davis Racing.
IndyCar Series
Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma County - Infineon Raceway - Sonoma, CA
With three races remaining in the season, Scott Dixon could all but wrap up his second IndyCar Series championship with a record-breaking seventh victory of the year at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, CA. Earlier this month at Kentucky, Dixon tied the series record for most wins in a season, set by his Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Dan Wheldon in 2005.
Helio Castroneves ran out of fuel on the last lap as Dixon passed him heading into the final turn at Kentucky. Dixon now holds a commanding 78-point lead over Castroneves, who has yet to win a race this season.
"Obviously with a 78-point lead now, I think it's pretty healthy," Dixon said. "So definitely with Sonoma and Chicago and Belle Isle, tracks that Helio is very good at, as well, and so we are going to make sure we don't lose too many points. But it would be nice to gain a couple on Helio in Sonoma and maybe we only need 82 points or something to have it sewn up by the end. That would be nice."
He won his first IndyCar title in 2003.
Dixon could very easily break the record at Sonoma since he is the defending race winner. He held off Castroneves in the final laps of last year's race to record his third-straight road-course victory and his fourth win of the season. He also grabbed the lead in the championship standings, leaving Sonoma with a four-point advantage over Dario Franchitti. Franchitti went to beat Dixon for the title in the season-finale at Chicagoland.
Meanwhile, Dixon is already making off-season plans as he announced Tuesday he will compete in the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta on October 4th. Dixon will share driving duties with team owner Gil de Ferran, the 2003 Indianapolis 500 winner, and Simon Pagenaud in the 10-hour American Le Mans Series event. De Ferran Motorsports is in its first year of ALMS competition.
Castroneves was in Hollywood this past weekend to attend the 2008 ALMA Awards. The Brazilian joined fellow "Dancing with the Stars" celebrity Cristin de la Fuente to present the "Outstanding Actor in a TV Comedy" award.
"Wow, what a fantastic event," Castroneves said. "It was an incredible honor to be invited to present an award at this years ceremony. I think the ALMA Awards are a very important evening for the Latin community in the United States, and I am certainly proud to have been affiliated with it.
The ALMA Awards was created by National Council of La Raza, the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States.
The show is scheduled to air September 12th on ABC.
Formula One
European Grand Prix - Streets of Valencia - Valencia, Spain
Formula One racing will resume this weekend in Spain after a three-week break as the impressive street circuit in the port city of Valencia hosts the European Grand Prix.
After scoring his first career Formula One victory on August 3rd at the Hungaroring in Budapest, McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen hopes his winning momentum will continue in Spain. Ferrari's Felipe Massa dominated the Hungarian Grand Prix, but his late-race misfortune led the way for Kovalainen's first F1 win in his 27th grand prix entry. Massa's trip to the podium as the winner seemed to be inevitable, but with three laps remaining, his engine blew up as the car came to a halt on the pit straight.
Kovalainen knows the Streets of Valencia will be challenging.
"It looks pretty fast, to be honest," Kovalainen said. "You get used to street circuits being quite slow, with lots of slow-to-medium-speed corners and very short straights, but this is almost the opposite. There are a lot of fast kinks and esses, a couple of decent straights and lots of high-speed stuff. Its too early to say yet whether there will be opportunities to overtake around here, but there are a couple of hairpins where it might be possible."
Kovalainen's teammate, Lewis Hamilton, currently holds a five-point lead over Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen in the World Championship standings.
Fernando Alonso won the 2007 European Grand Prix. The Spaniard crossed the finish line 8.1 seconds ahead of Felipe Massa for his third F1 victory of the season and the 13th of his career. Raikkonen started on the pole but faulty hydraulics on the car led to a 14th-place finish. Last year's race was held at the Nurburgring Grand Prix Circuit in Germany. Valencia will host the event for the first time.
"I'm very happy to be driving at home for a second time," Alonso said. "It's always a special feeling to race in front of my countrymen, and I'm really looking forward to it. I hope this time I can get a good result as the circuit will be new for all the drivers. As a new circuit, I think it gives the drivers a chance to show what they can do, but I am not under any illusions as I expect all the drivers to be quick."
The Spanish Grand Prix was held in April in Barcelona.
Alonso is a two-time winner of this race. The two-time F1 World Champion is winless so far this season, with his best finish, a pair of fourth-place runs in Australia and Hungary. He won back-to-back F1 titles from 2005-06.