One Year Later: The IndyCar Finale

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October 16, 2011 was meant to be a celebration of all that was good about IndyCar racing: a gripping conclusion to a tense, frenetic championship battle between the reigning champion Dario Franchitti and his chief protagonist, Australian Will Power, who had won six races on the year and was chasing his maiden IndyCar series title. A huge field of 34 cars, eight more than typically took to the track, would contest the finale that terrible day on the high banks of the mile-and-a-half Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It was the 18th and final race in a season that had seen events in Brazil, Canada and Japan.

Elimination Station: Whittling Down Title Contenders After Week 1

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You can’t win a championship in the first quarter, the first round, or the first pitch. But you can certainly lose it, with a mental error or physical deficit making a comeback so impossible even _Rudy_ would step off the field and surrender. For the best athletes, their curse in learning to beat the best is knowing exactly when the best is about to beat them. When the white flag nears, they project the strength of “never surrender” but the light of the camera sometimes shows a broken spirit with nasty words they cannot speak.

Or in this case… it was a nasty ‘stache.

Pace Laps: NASCAR’s Chicagoland “Cutoff,” Mental Mistakes and Big Payoffs

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*Sprint Cup: Will Judgment Call Cloud The Chase?* Brad Keselowski’s decisive win on Sunday was not without some controversy. On the final pit stop of the race, Keselowski’s crew reeled off a lightning fast pit stop and, as he was coming out of the pits, Keselowski gave it everything he had to get on the track close enough behind Jimmie Johnson to make a pass for the lead. In doing so, Keselowski blended into traffic under Johnson’s car, upsetting his line. Johnson was on the radio immediately, questioning Keselowski’s move. When exiting the pits under green, drivers must stay on the apron of the track until the exit of turn 2 before they blend into race traffic. (It’s a safety measure as much as anything.) Drivers are shown the so-called “blend line” in the weekly drivers’ meeting. Johnson wondered whether Keselowski had moved onto the track too soon.

IndyCar Race Recap: MAVTV 500

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*In A Nutshell:* Now that’s how you end a racing season! The race featured 12 different leaders with cars coming and going all night and a number of different faces running near the front. In the end, Ed Carpenter had just gotten by Dario Franchitti when a caution froze the field on the last lap and he took the win. Scott Dixon, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Helio Castroneves completed the top 5. As far as the championship, points leader Will Power crashed on lap 55 and had to watch as Ryan Hunter-Reay, who had to finish fifth to beat him, pushed all night and in the closing laps finally got there to take the big prize by three points.

The Big 6: Questions Answered After the 2012 GEICO 400 at Chicagoland

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The Chase is on… and for 12 drivers that means the chance at standing at the pinnacle of NASCAR in November. For everyone else, unfortunately, it means toiling in relative anonymity for the next two months, especially when seven of the top-10 finishers in the race are in the Chase as was the case in Chicago. Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin was not among them; but both of his teammates were. Kyle Busch and Joey Logano finished fourth and seventh, respectively, though neither received much recognition during a television broadcast that was clearly more concerned with the Chase contenders.

Nationwide Series Breakdown: Dollar General 300

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It’s hard to believe that Roush Fenway Racing entered the weekend without a win to their credit at the Chicagoland Speedway, but Ricky Stenhouse Jr. took care of that on Saturday. Running down Kyle Busch in the closing laps with a car that was unstoppable on the high side of the track, the defending Nationwide Series champion scored his fifth win of the 2012 season… and took the points lead back for his troubles. Busch, Austin Dillon, Brad Keselowski, and Paul Menard rounded out the top 5.