Regan Smith finished a somewhat disappointing 18th on Sunday after having a shot to wind up much higher. However, about halfway through the race he restarted on the outside of the front row next to Brad Keselowski. After racing Keselowski hard through turn 1 and the South Chute, the two had contact in turn 2. There did not appear to be any malice in what happened, but both drivers never truly recovered.
By Jeff Wolfe Jimmie Johnson sure hopes history repeats itself. If that happens, the driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet might have a …
The Nationwide Series debuted at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday as part of the track’s “Super Weekend.” The 100-lap race started out looking like it was going to be a Kyle Busch walkover, shifted into a Elliott Sadler points lead protector, then finished up with Roger Penske’s first ever stock car win at the fabled racetrack. Most importantly of all, there were actual people sitting there watching it all unfold. While the rumblings among some fans and most of the media was that the idea to move the Nationwide Series from Lucas Oil Raceway to the Speedway was a horrendous idea, attendees came out in some surprising numbers. While NASCAR’s overall estimate might be generous at 40,000 fans, it was, indeed a typical Nationwide crowd. Once the checkered flag flew, Brad Keselowski was in the Winner’s Circle celebrating the victory in the inaugural Nationwide race at the Brickyard.
_ I don’t care if it’s Travis Pastrana racing World Rally cars, or if it’s Kenny Schrader winning the dirt series in the late models or Kenny right now in modifieds or Tony Stewart—they all have a connection. They’re winners, they’re champions, and most importantly, they’re racers.” –Jeff Hammond_
Saturday morning came early to Loudon, New Hampshire, with the promise of being a scorcher of a day, and Kenny Wallace was sick to his stomach. It wasn’t the heat or the flu that was making the 48-year-old Wallace feel like he’d swallowed a whole herd of angry butterflies, but rather the conflict between commitment and opportunity.
*What happens at Penske Racing from here on out?*
The suspension of AJ Allmendinger due to a failed drug test has been a gigantic distraction for the race team. You can argue with me all day, but you cannot convince me that _two_ negative tests and the waiting around in between the two hasn’t at least provided some uneasiness in the Penske camp.
Sam Hornish Jr. will compete in at least the next two races, though Penske has yet to announce what will happen after that. While Allmendinger has agreed to go through NASCAR’s Road to Recovery program, that process is at least five months in the making and Allmendinger’s contract with Penske was up at the end of the year.
Aside from not having any…but of course, that is my opinion. I want to know what you think.
Counting the headline as number one, here’s a second question for you to mull over. Do you think AJ Allmendinger is a drug head? While you think those over, here are some quotes from some of the players involved and some who are not.
“I don’t see how any man, if he’s got any (manhood) at all, can go and take what he’s fixing to have to take — and that’s going through the Road to Recovery for a guy who did not take drugs or did not do what they’re saying he did,” Jeremy Mayfield said, when asked about Allmendinger’s situation. “It’d be tough because you’re basically living a lie to be a poster boy for NASCAR’s drug policy.”
Executing all of our goals as a team, like pit stops or getting through practice without mistakes, or race strategy, or anything that I do in the racecar, it’s kind of just a matter of putting it all together all at once. We need to be able to do that. If we can do that every week, I think that’s where I can run top 25.
In response to the recent issues with lapped traffic, I don’t really think that comparing lapped traffic in Nationwide to lapped traffic in Cup to be apples to apples. I think there’s a vast difference of professional drivers that are in the Cup Series that could drive circles around those drivers in the Nationwide Series that are lapped cars. There’s definitely a huge difference between the guys that are running 30th in Cup and the guys that are running 30th in Nationwide. To me, you’re curious to see what someone like Harvick says about that.
I think they’ll get more than 40,000 at IMS, but with more than 200,000 seats they’re going to look like 5,000. I just think some loyalty was owed to NHRA and IRP for proving, from 1982 on, that NASCAR would sell in Indianapolis. So many people said it wouldn’t.
Anyone that’s followed NASCAR’s scheduling habits the past decade was far from surprised that one of the sure-fire races of the Nationwide Series season (Lucas Oil Raceway) was yanked from the schedule in favor of a 250-mile jaunt at the Brickyard. Never mind the logic that less crappy stock car racing is still crappy stock car racing.
But having said that as the Nationwide Series approaches its debut on the big track in Indy, the 2012 season has been, well, surprising, on a number of fronts. Enjoying a compelling title race for the second consecutive year after an ugly stretch of Cup dominance from 2006-2010, this year’s campaign has actually been worth watching. Now, heading down the summer stretch, here’s a few of those surprises that have made the season just that.
It can be debated where the Indianapolis Motor Speedway stands among NASCAR’s best tracks, though it has been open for more than 100 years and …