This Week in Auto Racing August 28 - 30
Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series is off for the final time this season, but there is still plenty of racing action this week, as the Nationwide Series heads to Montreal. The IndyCar Series and the Camping World Truck Series run under the lights at Chicagoland this weekend, while Formula One revs it up in Belgium.
Nationwide Series
NAPA Auto Parts 200 - Circuit Gilles Villeneuve - Montreal, Quebec, Canada
The Nationwide Series heads to Montreal for the second and final road course event on the 2009 schedule. Watkins Glen, NY was held earlier this month, with Marcos Ambrose defending his race title there. Montreal is now the only NASCAR national touring series event held outside the United States, since Iowa Speedway replaced Mexico City on this year's Nationwide calendar.
Canadian Ron Fellows returns to his home turf to defend his race title. Last year, Fellows endured wet track conditions on the 2.709-mile, 14-turn course and capitalized on an early-race pit strategy to claim his fourth career Nationwide victory. NASCAR ran its first-ever national series points event in the rain, but weather conditions deteriorated to the point where the race was cut 26 laps short of the 74-lap distance.
"I did just one race last year with JR Motorsports and Rick Hendrick in the 5 car," Fellows said. "It was obviously a successful one. It was a wild day with certainly the threat of rain, getting an opportunity to actually race the Nationwide cars in the rain."
Fellows will drive the No.5 JR Motorsports Chevrolet at Montreal once again this year.
Patrick Carpentier, from nearby Ville Lasalle, Quebec, has finished second in the first two races at Montreal. Carpentier will drive the No.99 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota. He drove Waltrip's No.55 Sprint Cup car at Watkins Glen and Sonoma, CA this year.
Ambrose, Carl Edwards and Brendan Gaughan will pull double duty at Montreal. The trio will make their debut in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series. The Grand-Am race runs Saturday, the day before the Nationwide event. Edwards and Ambrose will share driving duties in the No.77 Doran Ford Daytona Prototype (DP) car, while Gaughan and Grand-Am regular Andy Lally will team up in the No.66 TRG Porsche GT3 (Grand Touring) entry. Ambrose finished third in last year's Nationwide event at Montreal.
"I've got a chance to win two races this weekend at Montreal, and that is what I'm going there to try and do," Ambrose said. "The racing at Montreal is always really good, and I've been so close to winning that Nationwide race for the past two years."
Kyle Busch is looking to rebound after he finished a disappointing 28th at Bristol. Busch, who was involved in an early-race crash with Chase Austin, saw his lead over Edwards shrink from 339 points to 248. Edwards finished second to his Roush Fenway Racing teammate David Ragan.
Edwards finished 30th in the inaugural event at Montreal in 2007 and sixth there last year.
"Montreal is one of the most fun events of the year," Edwards said. "I love going to places that are out of the norm. It was an adventure last year racing in the rain, and it was one of the neatest events that I have been a part of."
Busch has yet to compete at Montreal.
The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve has hosted Formula One, CART/Champ Car and NASCAR Canadian Tires Series events. The circuit, on lle Notre-Dame, a man- made island on the St. Lawrence River in Montreal, was named after the late Canadian driver Gilles Villeneuve, father of Jacques Villeneuve, who is driving the No.32 Braun Racing Toyota this week.
Forty-five teams are on the preliminary entry list for Sunday's NAPA Auto Parts 200.
Camping World Truck Series
EnjoyIllinois.com 225 - Chicagoland Speedway - Joliet, IL
Despite his winning streak of five races coming to an end last week at Bristol, Ron Hornaday Jr. continues to hold a sizeable points lead in the Camping World Truck Series. Hornaday has a 211-point advantage over Matt Crafton with 10 races remaining in the season.
Chicagoland kicks off a two-week stretch of an inaugural race at a track new to the series. Iowa is scheduled for Labor Day weekend. Chicagoland has been on the Sprint Cup and Nationwide schedules since 2001.
Kyle Busch, who snapped Hornaday's streak at Bristol, won last year's Sprint Cup and Nationwide races at Chicagoland. He is looking to complete the track's national series triple.
"The biggest thing I learned last year was the track didn't change much," Busch said. "It just got cooler and gained grip. Winning both races at Chicago last year - it was just a great weekend."
Busch has victories in all three of NASCAR's national series at five different tracks (Atlanta, Bristol, California, Dover and Phoenix).
Hornaday has won nine inaugural races in the Truck Series since its inception in 1995. He has also competed in two Nationwide events at Chicagoland, finishing fifth in 2002 and 10th in '04.
"I'm really excited to go to Chicago," Hornaday said. "We tested there some last year, and I really liked the track. We have run pretty well at the 1.5- mile tracks this season."
Hornaday has won two of the last three Truck races on 1.5-mile tracks. He took Kentucky last month and Charlotte in May.
Busch and Roush Fenway Racing driver Colin Braun will attempt the Chicagoland- Montreal combo this weekend. Braun will make his first Nationwide start this season, and he'll compete at Montreal for the first time. He has practiced there several times.
"I feel like there's definitely enough time in between to kind of transition in between those two different types of vehicles and types of racetracks," Braun said. "I could see it would be really difficult to do it on the same weekend."
Forty teams are on the preliminary entry list for Friday's EnjoyIllinois.com 225.
INDYCAR SERIES
Peak Antifreeze Indy 300 - Chicagoland Speedway - Joliet, IL
Three races to go, and three title contenders remain in the show.
After finishing second in last Sunday's race at Sonoma, CA, Ryan Briscoe from Team Penske reclaimed the championship lead in the IndyCar Series. Briscoe holds just a four-point advantage over Dario Franchitti, who led all 75 laps at Sonoma for his fourth victory of the season.
Briscoe won earlier this month at Kentucky and the season-opener in April at St. Petersburg, FL, but has finished second in seven other races this year.
"We just have to keep getting these points," Briscoe said. "Coming in second gets a little old after awhile, but we'll win one of these someday."
Scott Dixon, also a four-time race winner this season, came to Sonoma with the points lead, but after a 13th-place finish there, he has fallen to 20 points behind Briscoe and 16 back of his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Franchitti.
Dixon was one of those involved in a seven-car pile on the opening lap. He got caught in a jam and drove into the back of Tony Kanaan, sustaining damage to the nose of his car. Dixon remained on the lead lap and worked his way back to 10th before Marco Andretti spun him out on the final lap.
"Hopefully, we'll take this as our bad weekend and just move on and get a good result on our next three," Dixon said.
With Chicagoland, Motegi, Japan and Homestead, FL remaining on this year's schedule, Dixon is confident he can repeat as the series champion.
"We have a great run coming up with the three tracks at the finish," he added.
Dixon has finished second in the last two races at Chicagoland, which has been the site of the season-finale the previous three seasons.
Last year at Chicagoland, Helio Castroneves nipped Dixon in one of the closest finishes in series history. While Castroneves captured his second win of the season, Dixon clinched the series title by 17 points.
In 2007, Franchitti, who drove for Andretti Green Racing at the time, entered the season-finale at Chicagoland with just a three-point lead over Dixon. The two drivers battled all the way to the final lap, with Franchitti taking the checkered flag and the series title. Dixon held the lead on the last lap, but Franchitti passed Dixon, who suddenly slowed when he ran out of fuel. He managed to coast home in second.
"It's just so competitive that you can't afford mistakes," Franchitti said. "We've all made them this year. Actually, we've all had bad luck as well. When you get the chance, you got to score the points."
Castroneves saw his championship hopes diminish significantly after an 18th- place result at Sonoma. The Penske driver got slightly airborne after he made contact with Kanaan heading into a corner late in the race. Shortly after, his right front suspension failed, causing him to run off course and into the dirt. He now trails his teammate Briscoe by 126 points.
FORMULA ONE
Belgian Grand Prix - Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps - Spa, Belgium
Brawn GP's Rubens Barrichello revived his Formula One world championship hopes after winning last Sunday's European Grand Prix in Valencia, Spain. Barrichello, who recorded his first grand prix victory since 2004 when he drove for Ferrari. The Brazilian moved to within 18 points of leader and teammate Jenson Button, who finished seventh at Valencia.
Barrichello, who is the oldest current F1 driver at age 37, benefited from Lewis Hamilton's costly pit road mistake to take the European GP. Hamilton started on the pole and led early, but was delayed during his final pit stop when his McLaren team was not properly prepared for a tire change. The defending world champion made steady progress in the closing laps, but settled for a second-place finish.
After the conclusion of the '08 season, Barrichello and Button's future in F1 were uncertain after their Honda team pulled out of the sport due to the world-wide economic slowdown. Ross Brawn acquired the former Honda team and has since revitalized both drivers' careers.
"Last year, people seemed to think that was it for me, but now I can show that it wasn't. I have always thought I had it in me. I think I have just reached the peak of my speed, so I have more on me. I hope I can carry on," Barrichello said.
Barrichello could very continue his march towards his first F1 title in Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix.
The Belgian GP is held on the famed Spa-Francorchamps, one of the oldest courses on the F1 circuit. The track has also been good to Ferrari the last several years.
Michael Schumacher drove a Ferrari to consecutive wins at Spa from 2001-02. Kimi Raikkonen won the Belgian GP back-to-back from 2004-05 and then again in '07. Felipe Massa recorded the victory in last year's race there. The event was not run in 2003 and '06.
One year ago, Hamilton crossed the finish line first in the Belgian GP, but Massa was credited with the win after race stewards penalized Hamilton for an infraction during his late-race battle with Raikkonen.
Hamilton was originally declared the winner, but was later handed a 25-second time penalty after stewards decided he gained an advantage by cutting the final chicane during his duel with Raikkonen. The McLaren driver dropped to third place as a result, with Nick Heidfeld from BMW Sauber moving up to second.
Hamilton said he is skeptical about his team's chances of winning in Belgium this year.
"I don't think we'll be as competitive as we've been at the last few races, because Spa is a circuit where you need a lot of downforce," he said. "I think Brawn, Red Bull and even Ferrari will be fast there. It's a high-speed circuit, and Ferrari has always been very quick there, so I'm expecting Kimi to be quick. It should also suit the Red Bulls, because it's very high-speed and flowing and they have great downforce."
Auto Racing Glance
NAPA Auto Parts 200 - Circuit Gilles Villeneuve - Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Schedule: Saturday, practice, qualifying (ESPN2, 9-11 p.m.); Sunday, race, 2:30 p.m. (ESPN2, 2-6 p.m.).
Track: Circuit Gilles Villeneuve (road course, 2.709 miles).
Race distance: 200.466 miles, 74 laps.
Last year: Canadian road-racer Ron Fellows splashed his way to victory in the first NASCAR points race run on grooved rain tires. The event was cut from 74 to 48 laps because of heavy rain, flooding and poor visibility.
Last week: David Ragan raced to his second Nationwide victory of the year, holding off Roush Fenway teammate Carl Edwards at Bristol in a two-lap sprint to the finish.
Fast facts: Kyle Busch leads the season standings with 3,900 points, followed by Edwards (3,652) and Brad Keselowski (3,597). ... Jacques Villeneuve is driving the No. 32 Toyota on the track named in honor of his late father. ... Mike Wallace will drive J-D Motorsports' No. 01 Chevrolet for the rest of the season, replacing Danny O'Quinn Jr. ... Edwards and Marcos Ambrose will co-drive Doran Enterprises' No. 77 Ford DP on Friday in the Grand-Am race. Ambrose won the Nationwide road-course race at Watkins Glen on Aug. 8 for his first NASCAR victory.
Next race: Degree V12 300, Sept. 5, Atlanta Motor Speedway, Hampton, Ga.
EnjoyIllinois.com 225 - Chicagoland Speedway - Joliet, IL
Schedule: Thursday, practice; Friday, practice, qualifying (Speed, 5-6:30 p.m.), race, 9 p.m. (Speed, 8:30-11:30 p.m.)
Track: Chicagoland Speedway (oval, 1.5 miles).
Race distance: 225 miles, 150 laps.
Last year: Inaugural event.
Last week: Kyle Busch won at Bristol for the second straight year, easily holding off Matt Crafton. Busch has three series victories this year. Ron Hornaday Jr. finished third, ending his series-record winning streak at five.
Fast facts: Busch is trying to complete a career sweep at Chicagoland Speedway. He won the Sprint Cup and Nationwide races last year. ... The 51-year-old Hornaday, a six-time winner this year for Kevin Harvick Inc., leads the season standings with 2,458 points. Crafton is second with 2,247, followed by Mike Skinner (2,153).
Next race: Lucas Oil 200, Sept. 5, Iowa Speedway, Newton, Iowa.
Peak Antifreeze Indy 300 - Chicagoland Speedway - Joliet, IL
Schedule: Friday, practice, qualifying (Versus, 6-7 p.m.); Saturday, race, 9 p.m. (Versus, 9-midnight).
Track: Chicagoland Speedway (oval, 1.5 miles).
Race distance: 300 miles, 200 laps.
Last year: Helio Castroneves won the season finale for his second victory of the year, while Scott Dixon finished second to win his second series championship.
Last week: Dario Franchitti won the Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma, leading from start to finish. The Scot has four victories this season.
Fast facts: Ryan Briscoe leads the season standings with 497 points, four more than Franchitti with three races left. Dixon is third, 20 points behind Briscoe. ... Franchitti held off Dixon on the final lap at Chicagoland in 2007 to win the series title.
Next race: Indy Japan 500, Sept. 19, Twin Ring Motegi, Motegi, Japan.
Belgian Grand Prix - Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps - Spa, Belgium
Schedule: Friday, practice (Speed, 9-9:30 a.m.); Saturday, practice, qualifying (Speed, 8-9:30 a.m.); Sunday, race, 8 a.m. (Speed, 7:30-10 a.m.).
Track: Spa-Francorchamps (road course, 4.35 miles).
Race distance: 191.415 miles, 44 laps.
Last year: Ferrari's Felipe Massa was declared the winner after McLaren's Lewis Hamilton was penalized for cutting a corner late in the race. Hamilton finished 14.4 seconds ahead of Massa, but was penalized 25 seconds.
Last week: Brawn GP's Rubens Barrichello raced to his first victory in five years, holding off Hamilton in the European Grand Prix in Valencia, Spain. Barrichello has 10 career victories in Formula One.
Fast facts: Brawn GP's Jenson Button, a six-time winner this year, leads the season standings with 72 points. Barrichello is second with 54, followed by Mark Webber (51.5) and Sebastian Vettel (47). ... Massa was seriously injured in Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying July 26 when he was hit in the helmet by debris and crashed into a tire barrier at 120 mph. He returned home to Brazil after surgery to repair multiple skull fractures and hopes to return to racing at the Brazilian Grand Prix in October.
Next race: Italian Grand Prix, Sept. 13, Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, Monza, Italy.
Briscoe leads Penske front row for Chicagoland
Joliet, IL (Sports Network) - Ryan Briscoe will start on the pole for the Peak Antifreeze and Motor Oil Indy 300 after edging his Team Penske teammate Helio Castroneves in Friday's qualifying at Chicagoland Speedway.
Briscoe, the current IndyCar Series points leader, recorded a four-lap average of 215.364 m.p.h. to capture the pole at the 1.5-mile oval for the second year in a row. He was awarded one point for his pole victory, which gives the Australian driver a five-point advantage over Dario Franchitti in the championship standings with three races to go this season.
"Definitely at this point, we'll take any points we can get," Briscoe said. "It's an extra point for the pole."
Briscoe qualified 0.07 seconds quicker than Castroneves, who secured the outside pole. Last year, Castroneves had to start from the rear of the field after Indy Racing League officials disallowed his time for running below the white line several times.
"I made sure that I did not touch the white line," Castroneves said after making his qualifying run. "I made sure that I could go as close as I did without doing anything wrong."
Castroneves charged to the front and then nipped Scott Dixon in one of the closest finishes in series history. While Castroneves captured his second win of the 2008 season, Dixon clinched the championship by 17 points.
Franchitti from Chip Ganassi Racing and Andretti Green Racing's Tony Kanaan will share row two, while Graham Rahal from Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing and Franchitti's teammate, Dixon, will occupy the third row.
"The balance of the car was very good," Franchitti said. "I was very happy with that, but the car as a whole wasn't fast enough."
Dixon, who is currently 21 points behind Briscoe, has finished second in the last two races at Chicagoland.
AGR teammates Marco Andretti and Danica Patrick will start seventh and 10th, respectively. Mario Moraes from KV Racing Technology claimed the eighth starting position, and NHLR's Oriol Servia took the ninth spot.
Saturday's 300-mile race is scheduled to start around 10:00 p.m. (et).
Fisichella gives Force India its 1st F1 pole
By PAUL LOGOTHETIS (AP)
SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium — Giancarlo Fisichella gave Force India its first Formula One pole during qualifying Saturday for the Belgian Grand Prix.
The 36-year-old Italian earned the Indian team its maiden pole with a lap of 1 minute, 46.308 seconds around the high-speed Spa-Francorchamps circuit. Entering its 30th race, Force India has yet to win a point by finishing among the top eight.
"It's unbelievable," Fisichella said. "I expected to be competitive but I didn't expect to be on pole."
Toyota driver Jarno Trulli will start second ahead of BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld following a qualifying session that produced many surprises.
Overall F1 leader Jenson Button will start a season's worst 14th after failing to reach the last qualifying session for the first time, while teammate Rubens Barrichello will start fourth on the grid. Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel and teammate Mark Webber will attempt to take some points from Button's lead, but begin from eighth and ninth, respectively.
Trulli was as surprised as anyone considering Toyota had been struggling this season.
"It's a good question that none of us can answer," Trulli said about his car's performance. "We came here and straightaway we looked very strong."
The top three have combined to make 594 race starts, but only Heidfeld has yet to cross the finish line first, something the German hopes to change before BMW Sauber is pulls out of F1 at the end of the season.
"It's obviously very important for everybody in the team," Heidfeld said. "BMW wanted to pull out on a high. It's great that we can show we have good performance."
Teammate Robert Kubica starts fifth ahead of Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen — a three-time winner in Belgium — and Toyota's Timo Glock.
Button will just hope to finish in the points as he leads Barrichello by 18 with six races to go. Webber trails Button by 20.5 points and Vettel by 25. Brawn GP leads Red Bull by 27.5 points in the constructors' series.
In a season where the standings have been turned upside down by regulation changes, few would have predicted Fisichella take the pole in Belgium. His best grid position through 11 races this season was 13th and he was a 150-1 underdog to take top spot.
"It's a crazy season," Trulli said. "You see teams changing and being competitive from one race to another. It's hard to get a handle on it."
It was an unpredictable qualifying session in cool weather of 59 degrees Fahrenheit as Red Bull, Toyota, Force India, BMW Sauber and Ferrari all showed strong pace along the Ardennes hills.
Like Button, defending champion Lewis Hamilton of McLaren, who was coming off victory at Hungary and a second place at Valencia, and 2006 champion Fernando Alonso of Renault failed to get out of the second session and start 12th and 13th, respectively.
Fisichella denied his drive was aimed at persuading Ferrari to hire him to fill in for the injured Felipe Massa.
"I'm a Force India driver and I have a contract with them," the three-time winner said. "And there has been no contact with Ferrari."
Massa's replacement, Luca Badoer, starts last for the second straight race after finishing more than one second off the cutoff point for the first session.
Marcos Ambrose wins Nationwide pole
August 29, 2009
MONTREAL (AP) -When it rained yet again at Circuit Gilles Villenueve, Marcos Ambrose was in the driver's seat.
The hard-charging Ambrose, who grew up in rainy Tasmania, turned a fast lap of 80.905 mph over the rainswept 2.7-mile street course on Saturday to capture the Nationwide series pole. He easily beat Carl Edwards, whose best lap was 80.116 mph but more than a second slower as dusk was beginning to fall.
It's better to be lucky than good,'' Ambrose said. It worked out perfectly. I had a great draw. I went out first in my group, which helped me get clean track. The conditions worked in our favor. The track deteriorated, the daylight disappeared, and we got lucky. We'll take it.''
Qualifying began about 45 minutes late and ended as darkness fell and a heavy mist was settling over the track. The cars were fitted with windshield wipers and brake lights for the conditions. Ambrose was in the second of eight groups to qualify, and like all the other drivers he was caught off-guard.
Nobody expected to qualify in the rain,'' said Ambrose, who won at Watkins Glen three weeks ago. It's been an interesting day.''
Especially for Edwards.
Earlier, his first career start in the Grand-Am Rolex Series ended before the green flag waved when he ran off course on the warmup lap on cold tires and slammed a barrier in the No. 77 Ford Daytona Prototype for Doran Racing. That forced Edwards and his disappointed driving partner, Ambrose, to watch the entire race as they finished last.
It probably worked out the best,'' Edwards said. I had already taken enough from Marcos. Now, we're even, so tomorrow I have zero guilt about racing him.''
The sports car race ended so badly for us. We destroyed that car. That car is junk,'' Ambrose said. Maybe it's karma.''
Maybe it was. Edwards said he was hesitant before going out in the sixth group.
It took me a second back in the car to get my mojo,'' said Edwards, who was involved in a spectacular crash in April at the finish of a Cup race at Talladega. ``That was a pretty hard hit. I didn't think it was going to be that hard, but that was one of the hardest hits I've had in a car, and to do it at that speed was crazy.
It may have helped me to be more cautious,'' he said. ``That could have helped my qualifying laps. I knew that I had to hold my head up. At the end of the day, I knew I had to get a decent lap.''
Defending race winner Ron Fellows of Canada qualified third in 79.717 mph, followed by fellow road race ace Boris Said. Brad Coleman was fifth, and former Formula One star Jacques Villeneuve, who made a gallant run on the track named after his father despite standing water all around the course, was sixth. Series points leader Kyle Busch will start 12th.
Showers are in the forecast for Sunday's race. Last year's Nationwide race in Montreal was the first and only NASCAR race ever run on rain tires.
That wasn't the forecast Busch was looking for. Neither was Saturday's.
It was not too much fun. NASCAR cars are not made for this,'' Busch said after his qualifying effort. ``I had windshield wiper problems, defogger problems, staying on course problems, problems overall. It's a fiasco, but we're making the best of what we've got.
If it's dry (on Sunday), hopefully we can run all right and get up through there,'' said Busch, who won Friday night's Truck series race at Chicagoland and didn't arrive in Montreal until 3 a.m Saturday. ``If it rains, we're going to be pretty bad.''