NASCAR on TV this week

The Big 6: Questions Answered After the 2012 Pennsylvania 400 at Pocono

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In an era where many drivers don’t know how to turn a wrench, it was a refreshing change to see Dale Earnhardt Jr. taking the bull by the horns and helping his crew when the No. 88 suffered a transmission failure. By the time his crew got to the garage from pit road, Earnhardt had the car up on jackstands on the left side and was working on the right. Although handling the jack might not seem like a big deal, it is on a couple of levels. One that a lot of drivers, including some championship-caliber ones, wouldn’t have thought to do that.

IndyCar Mid-Ohio Recap: Caution Free Once Again

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*In a nutshell:* Scott Dixon and the No. 9 team won their fourth career race at Mid Ohio Sports Car Course, this time by snookering early leader Will Power on pit road. The race, which went caution-free, was the second straight caution free race of the season. Will Power led much of the early portion of the race but a slow pit stop relegated Power to a second place finish. Simon Pagenaud, Sebastian Bourdais, and James Hinchcliffe rounded out the top 5.

*Key Moment:* Will Power had the field covered for the first 56 laps of the race, but Power’s No. 12 team had a slow pit stop on lap 57 and subsequently were beat off of pit road by Dixon and the No. 9 team. Dixon made it look easy from there on out, and cruised home by leading the rest of the way en route to his second win of the year.

Mistake and Failure Prone, Hendrick Motorsports Still Conquers Pocono

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When one thinks of a juggernaut in any form of sport, be it Alabama in college football, Michigan State in college basketball, or Hendrick Motorsports in NASCAR racing, the last thoughts to cross one’s mind are often about failures and mistakes. That begs a question: when a race team suffers through failures, makes countless mistakes, and still emerges as the one entity to make a cohesive statement at the Pocono Raceway this weekend, how should they be described?

Hendrick Motorsports was already the headliner entering this weekend, with fan-favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. enjoying his first points lead in nearly a decade. In addition, the team was on-message.

Nationwide Series Breakdown: U.S. Cellular 250

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Oh, what a difference a week can make.

Following a late-race (and hotly-debated) black flag while leading at last weekend’s Indiana 250 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway that relegated the championship points leader to 15th and a mere one-point standings lead over Austin Dillon, Elliott Sadler took to Iowa Speedway Saturday, August 4, with a vengeance. After starting from the pole, Sadler took the race lead from Justin Allgaier late in the going, leading 60 laps en route to his third win of the 2012 season.

“They are not taking the championship from us!” cried Sadler after crossing the line by about a second over Allgaier. He should have plenty to cheer about — following his race win and a disappointing showing from Dillon, the Richard Childress Racing driver gave himself some much-needed breathing room in the points standings, increasing his lead to 18.

Tracking the Trucks: Pennsylvania Mountains 125

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*In a Nutshell:* Nelson Piquet Jr. was the class of the field all day Saturday, winning the pole and running away and hiding during a long green flag run to start the season’s shortest race. But a rash of late-race cautions left the No. 30 vulnerable on a lap 44 restart, allowing Joey Coulter to snag the lead entering turn 1 and driving off to his first career Truck Series victory. James Buescher, Piquet, Matt Crafton and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top 5.

The Insignificance of Dodge’s Absence from 2013’s First Test

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There’s nothing surprising behind the announcement that Dodge won’t be taking part in the first test for the Cup Series’ 2013 race cars at Martinsville next week. Penske Racing’s on the way out of the Dodge camp after this season, a swirling rumor about the Andrettis coming from IndyCar to NASCAR proved fruitless, and there’s hardly a rosy relationship between the manufacturer and journeyman Robby Gordon. The same Robby Gordon that made the Daytona 500 as an underdog Dodge entry, and got no subsequent engine help despite making all but a plea for a Penske motor in his post-Duel press conference.

Fact of the matter is, there’s no sign whatsoever that Dodge has made any progress on finding a new flagship Cup team since Penske announced their defection back to Ford. The chances of Dodge being unrepresented in the 2013 Daytona 500 are not miniscule.

Dakoda Armstrong: Tackling the Tricky Triangle and USAC Excitement

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We went to Chicagoland and we were supposed to have a new truck, but we didn’t quite get it done. We took the truck we’ve been running a lot; we got there and ended up running 16th in both practice sessions. We just stayed in the same area all weekend. I thought we’d be a little better than where we finished, but we just had a little trouble on the restarts getting going. It would take the truck a lap to come back. It was one of the hardest places I’ve ever raced. To finish 16th I was three and four wide on every restart trying to get positions. We just needed to be a little better there and I didn’t quite get it; but I think we’ll work on it. Our teammate Matt Crafton was really good but Johnny Sauter in the No. 13 wasn’t very good. We’re trying to work off of each other and some of us get it while some us don’t, but I think we’ll get it the next time.

IndyCar In-Depth: A Preview Of Sunday’s Race At Mid-Ohio

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*What’s News?*

It’s been a quiet couple of weeks in the world of the IZOD IndyCar Series since the circuit departed from Edmonton. But the news cycle hasn’t been a total snoozer. The biggest change heading into the race in Mid-Ohio is a rules adjustment being applied to the recently reintroduced “Push-to-Pass” system. According to technical bulletins released by series officials, there will now be a five-second delay from the time the Push-to-Pass button is depressed to the time that the boost is actually deployed. This ought to have all sorts of implications on strategy as teams scramble to figure out the best way to utilize the updated boost.

Formula 1 Friday: Mid-Season Grades

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Yes, I know that I promised to write the second installment of the “Great Brits” this week, but with it being the school holidays and the “mid-season break” in F1, I thought it would make more sense to write up a half term report for the teams / drivers thus far.

So in true British boarding-school style (and apologies for likely squeezing the last drop out of the metaphor) I present you with the good, the bad and the…..well……rather indifferent…

Masters of Spin It Again

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You gotta hand it to them, when it comes to making excuses or putting a happy spin on a bad situation, anyone remotely associated with NASCAR are the masters!

Take for instance, this little PR blurb from ESPN regarding the ratings for Sunday’s mega-exciting race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.