I got to watch those guys battle up there. It was just an amazing finish. - Carl Edwards

FONTANA, CA – The guy who said “it never rains in Southern California” obviously didn’t live in California. The start of the California 500 was threatened by rain on Sunday. Luckily, the rain stopped at 10:30 allowing the Fontana crew to dry out the track – a two-hour ordeal. Starting from the pole, F1 champion Juan Pablo Montoya led the first 7 laps of the race. Denny Hamlin, also starting on the front row, placed his FedEx Toyota in the lead until lap 22 when teammate Kyle Busch took over. The race saw 10 leaders with Kyle Busch in front for 151 laps. But there is one lap that is most important to lead, and Kevin Harvick claimed the position with only half a lap to go, passing Jimmy Johnson in turn 3 of the last lap.


Harvick performed a video-perfect move bump-drafting Johnson, pushing him deep into turn 3. Harvick drifting high went around Johnson and crossed the finish line 0.144sec ahead of Johnson. Commenting on his “cone-from-behind-at-the-end” style, “I think, you know, for me, I always was taught to race, just go fast enough to put yourself in position to be around at the end and make sure your car still has all the fenders and tires and everything still underneath it,” said Harvick. “When it's time to go, you have a little something left; your car is hopefully fresher than the guys around you. Probably somewhat of a bad habit that I have, but I guess it works out.” The win propelled Harvick from 15th to 9th in the championship points. This was the native-Californians first win at Fontana, and is Richard Childress Racing’s first win at the California Oval.


After dominating for much of the race, Kyle Busch could not manage better than 3rd followed by Matt Kenseth and Ryan Newman. The most disappointing performance was had by Tony Stewart who could manage no better than 13th. Leading 11 laps of the race, Stewart had one of the best cars at Fontana and was running in second place for much of closing laps of the day. But in the final 10-lap melee, Stewart got a bad restart on Lap 190 and just fell out of contention. Tony’s Crew Chief Darian Grubb commented, “We’re not really sure what happened, obviously, we’re pleased with the way the car ran for the majority of the race, but it’s pretty disappointing that we ended up where we did. For whatever reason, we couldn’t get going in the laps after the final restart, and it cost us a ton of positions.” Stewart is winless in 2011 and is in 6th place in the points.



A 17th place finish by point leader Kurt Busch allowed Carl Edwards to claim the points lead. Edwards leads fellow Ford-driver Ryan Newman by 9 points moving into Martinsville. Edwards appeared to have a good time at Fontana commenting, “I am really excited for these great fans to be able to see that wild of a finish at this race track, which is one of the best race tracks we go to… For our AFLAC team to come out of here leading the points is big, considering how we ran all day. We really weren’t that good. I’m glad I had a cushion. I got to watch those guys battle up there. It was just an amazing finish. That last run, for me, with no [new] tires, was the best run we had.”

I LOVE U.S. RACING

SEBRING, FL – The 12-Hour at Sebring was an emotional race for Team ORECA Matmut. Running an older Peugeot 908 turbo-diesel, the once dominant team was expected to be an “also-ran” in the 2011 race competing against the 2010 race-winning Peugeot “works-team” running the latest generation 908 and the mighty Audi Sport Team Joest R15 entries. But as Providence would have it, Team ORECA ran a splendid race and crossed the finish line first for the overall win. The favored Peugeots and Audis ran into a rash of bad luck with the #1 Audi of Rockenfeller experiencing two tire failures early in the race. Then, the R15 piloted by Capello collided with the #7 Peugeot of Marc Gene putting them both in the garage for extensive repairs. Finally, while running in first place, the front louvers of the #8 Peugeot were damaged, requiring a lengthy pit-stop to replace the nose with only three hours to go. By running a well-planned and flawless race, Team ORECA was able to capitalize on the misfortunes of their rivals winning the race. Commenting on the final moments of the race, following a late-race pit stop for fuel, driver Loc Duval said, after that, the car was perfect and we managed to keep the gap between us and the [HPD], it was tough and we had a lot of pressure because I don’t think we would be in this position, to be honest. As Hugues [de Chaunac] said before, we were building and building during the race. And then at the end, the car was perfect.”


Before the race, deChaunac reflected on Oreca’s history and American-style racing, "In Europe, the focus is on the technical aspect. In America, it focuses more on the show. That's what appeals to me. Whatever the discipline, we have had a popular success. That's what excites me! I remember spectacular and exciting racing, but also very close to the fans. Oreca burned bright and wrote one of the most beautiful chapters of its history with the Dodge Viper. Oreca had two incredible years. This experience has enabled us to discover a new world, a new conception of racing. We enjoyed this adventure which has affected us."


The other amazing story at Sebring concerned the defending ALMS champs Honda Performance Development. Receiving their new car, the ARX-01e on Friday, a week before the race, in Florida, the HPD crew had a lot of sorting and setup to do to make the car worthy of the 12-hour duel. The car ran for the first time on Saturday, and was still involved with testing on Monday. The team must have done remarkable work almost winning the race against the mighty turbo-diesels finishing second less than 32 seconds behind Team ORECA. The expectations will be high for the team come May at Le Mans.


LMP2 was won by the Level 5 Motorsports Honda-powered Lola B11/40 driven by Diaz, Hunter-Reay and Tucker. This was remarkable following a mid-race incident during which a loose wheel-nut caused the car to lose a wheel resulting in the car stopping on the track. The ORECA entry Nissan piloted by Mailleux, Ayari and Ordonez, placed second with the Oak Racing Judd rounding out the podium.

In the competitive GT class, BMW finished 1 and 2 despite the first place M3 of Hand/Muller/Priaux suffering a tire puncture in the first hour of the race caused by rubbing contact with the Level 5 Honda-Lola. A later incident involving a Jaguar XKR-GT caused a spin while at the hand of Muller. Nonetheless, the BMW reclaimed the lead by the 3rd hour of the race. The Auberlein/Werner/Farfus BMW placed second followed by the Corvette Racing C6.R of Beretta/Milner/Garcia. The #4 Corvette driven by Gavin/Magnussen/Westbrook placed 4th and the Risi Competion Ferrari F430 placed fifth. The performance by the BMW puts the team 9 points ahead in the Manufacturer’s Cup, followed by Corvette Racing.

Kurt Busch NHRA Debut at 2011 Gatornationals

“Just three-hundredths of a second… puts you back on the trailer”

GAINESVILLE, FL – What happens when a team is backed by a sovereign nation? It wins races of course! After leaving 0.004 seconds late, Del Worsham drove past Tony Schumacher in the final round of Top Fuel with a 0.004 second margin ( 3.858s to 3.866s). This is Worsham’s first Top Fuel win after a reasonably successful career in Funny Car. Speaking of Funny Car, Mike Neff ran a quick 4.092s, 310.48mph blast in the final round against Cruz Pedregon who after spinning his wheels at the start could manage no better than a 7.819s, 99.32 mph run. I think I could better that in my wife’s Yukon!



The excitement for the weekend was Pro Stock. Kurt Busch, the 2004 NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion, made his debut in NHRA. Driving a Dodge Avenger sporting the familiar Shell-Pennzoil motif, Busch impressed many by qualifying for the field. After a couple of failed qualifying runs – succumbing to tire shake on his first and staging late for his second round – Busch was able to place his car 12th on the grid with a 6.532s pass, pitting him against 4th qualifier Erica Enders. The experienced Enders left ahead of Busch with a .021s vs. 0.04s reaction time. Kurt however was impressive running a 6.541s, 211.59mph. It was not good enough however against Erica’s 6.538s, 211.69mph run. Busch reflected on drag racing, “What’s amazing is [the difference in the race is] just three-hundredths of a second; in this game of drag racing, that puts you back on the trailer.” All-in-all, though he got beat by a girl, Busch had pretty good first day at the office.


The final round of Pro Stock saw Summit Racing team-mates Jason Line and Greg Anderson facing off. Line bettered Anderson at the light running a slower 6.554s, 211.96mph against Anderson’s 6.545s, 212.43mph, for his win second win in two races. “I unintentionally snookered Greg,” Line commented, “because my top bulb blinked a little bit just as it had for Stanfield in Pomona. As a result, it was a really long tree, which caught both of us off guard. Neither one of us had a particularly great light, but mine was just a little better, putting my Summit Racing Pontiac in the winner’s circle.”


Pro Stock bike saw Harley Davidson rider Eddie Krawiec run a near-perfect 6.847s, 197.08s run against a red-lighting Karen Stoffer.

Edwards Wins Vegas 400 with Roush-Yates Power

LAS VEGAS, NV – Roush-Yates Ford engines are the ones to beat in 2011. After a dominating qualifying session, the Fords were 1,2,3 and 4 for Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 400. Tony Stewart was running a marvelous race leading 163 of the 267 laps, but a penalty for an air-hose incident in the pits midway through the race may have cost him the race. Stewart lost the race when, with 32 laps remaining, he pitted to take on 4-tires. After a series of green-flag stops, Carl Edwards chose to take only 2-tires and was able to wrestle the lead from Stewart. Stewart finished 1.24 sec behind Edwards, followed by Juan Pablo Montoya, Marcos Ambrose and Ryan Newman.
Tony Stewart was none-too-happy following the race. Referring to his air-hose incident during a pit stop on lap 154, “I want you guys to explain to me how we lost this race today before we get done today… I don’t even know what to say. This Mobil 1 Chevrolet was the baddest thing on the West Coast. Second sucks,” exclaimed Stewart. “We had the car to beat today, we just gave it away… I don't know what happened on the pit stop there, but we had a miscue and had a penalty and had to go to the back, and unfortunately it kind of dealt our cards for us.” Stewart and his crew worked hard to get Tony back in the race. He continued, “Darian made a good call getting us the track position back, but it also showed everybody else that they could do it, too, and we couldn't run two and a half runs on a set of left-side tires. Just shot ourselves in the foot two weeks in a row now.”

It was a tough day for several of the top contenders. Jeff Gordon, following the win at Phoenix, blew a tire and slammed hard into the wall on turn 4. David Gilliland also suffered a blown tire resulting in his car crashing into the turn-two wall. Though not ending his race, Kyle Busch also experienced a blown tire on lap 96. But only 14 laps later, Kyle’s Toyota engine blew shooting flames into the cockpit. The other Busch brother also suffered a mishap when he lost control on lap 103 causing Kasey Kahne to hit the wall. Kurt was able to recover from his “excursion” finishing ninth.

Following an “altercation in the garage” with Kevin Conway, Robby Gordon was placed on indefinite probation by NASCAR. Gordon and Conway, who drove seven races for Gordon in 2010, have been involved in litigation involving the relationship. "I'm sending you back to NASCAR, or to the Las Vegas police," Conway said. "That's all I can say about right now." The Las Vegas Police department will investigate the case to determine if any charges will be filed against Gordon.
"This is an exciting win for Roush Yates Engines," said Doug Yates, CEO of Roush Yates Engines in Mooresville, NC. "We ran great all week long. I think this says a lot about our program and how we plan to run at 1.5 mile tracks throughout the 2011 season. I want to thank Ford again for their support as we continue to excel with the FR9 engine."

NASCAR has instituted a new points system for 2011. As a result of the Vegas race, with 113 points, Stewart moved up two positions to tie Kurt Busch for the lead. The win at Vegas propelled Edwards to 3rd place. Kyle Busch and Jeff Gordon fell 1 and 14 places respectively showing the volatility in the new point system.

Burns Stainless Sweeps Daytona 1-2-3

“We prayed before the race. We do that a lot. This just shows how powerful God is.”

DAYTONA, FL – At 20 years old and one day, Knoxville, TN native, Trevor Bayne, became the youngest driver to win the Daytona 500. "If I tried to put it into words, I wouldn't be doing it any justice," said Daytona 500 Champion Trevor Bayne. "Roush Yates and Wood Brothers Racing gave me a rocket ship that definitely did me a lot of justice today. Anybody I hooked up with was headed to the front. To get this win in our second-ever race, that's setting a standard." Bayne won the race in the #21 car painted like the Woods Brothers race winning car that carried David Pearson to victory circle 35 years ago – before Trevor was born!


Lap 3 was a tribute to Dale Earnhardt, who died in a final lap accident at Daytona in 2001. The silent lap was run with the announcers not saying a word and the 180,000 fans all holding up three fingers in honor of the Intimidator. “We felt the appropriate way to honor Dale Earnhardt was in the actual racing,” said track president Joie Chitwood. “The best way to appreciate the things Dale did — he was about racing — and how we respect him should be on the track. That to us was a real racing tribute and more appropriate than anything we could have done in the pre-race show.”


The final laps of the race were grueling. With 18 laps to go, Kasey Kahne blew a tire sending him into the wall and causing the 14th yellow-flag of the race. With 4 laps remaining, another accident on the backstretch resulted in a yellow flag setting up the green-white-checkered finish, Unfortunately, Roush driver David Ragan was black-flagged on the restart trying to get ahead of Bayne. Minutes later, Allmendinger was hit by Ryan Newman causing a multi-car wreck and the second green-white checkered finsh.


Trevor Bayne, with a push by Bobby Labonte, stayed out in front at the end barely holding off fellow Ford drivers Carl Edwards and California native David Gilliland. Edwards and Gilliland seemed to come out of nowhere to nose out Labonte. Edwards second place finish was impressive as after running over Kahne’s brake rotor late in the race.
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Hendrick Motorsports had a tough race with Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin and Jimmie Johnson involved in “The Big One” on lap 29. The ever-impressive, 52-year-old Mark Martin was able to rejoin the race three laps down. Martin worked hard running as high as second place and finishing 10th on the lead lap. Junior was faring best of all the HMS cars before he was forced to pit road with a tire going down on lap 199 prior to the first attempt at a green-white-checkered finish. His day went from disappointing to disastrous on the second attempt when he was collected in a wreck not of his own doing. He finished 24th.

The 2011 Daytona race set records with 16 cautions and 74 lead changes. The “Big One” occurred on lap 29 when Reutteman was tapped by his boss, Michael Waltrip, causing a 14 car pileup. Waltrip also caused a wreck and the first caution tapping Kyle Busch in heavy traffic. Neither driver accused Michael of wrongdoing.


All three podium finishing cars were equipped with Burns Stainless collectors. Roush Yates Engines is a long-standing customer of Burns Stainless. We are proud working with RYE.

1-2 Finish For Team Ganassi

DAYTONA BEACH, FL - BMW won its first overall Daytona race at the hands of Peter Gregg in the awesome 3.0CSL. 35 years later, the Ganassi BMW powered Riley again visited victory circle, this time with a 1-2 finish. After a remarkable 2010 with wins in at the Brickyard 400, Daytona 500, Indy 500 and 2 championship titles in including Dario Franchitti’s IndyCar, Chip and Team Ganassi are feeling pretty good. But by no means was this a slam dunk. With only 2 hours to go, the #1 Riley-BMW piloted by Hand struck a tire while exiting pit row and was assessed a 30-sec stop-and-go penalty. Hand entered the race 50 seconds behind the leader and drove an amazing session making up 30-seconds on the leader, Scott Dixon. The critical moment came during a yellow flag with 1 hour to go in the race. Crew Chief Tim Keene chose to bring the car in for fuel, the only one of the leaders to do so, allowing Scott Pruett to take the lead during the final round of fuel stops. The #02 Riley/BMW followed in second place with the Action Express #9 Riley-Porsche rounding the podium in 3rd.



In GT, the #67 TRG Porsche GT3 was nursed to victory by Andy Lally with a failing clutch. The clutch began failing only 6 hours into the race. Team owner Kevin Buckler commented “So we were talking... If the clutch goes out and we go back and fix it, it’s 20 laps. If we drive it until it breaks, it’s going to [take] 30 laps. So we decided to drive it until it breaks or we win, one or the other.” It also helped that the #40 Dempsey Racing RX-8, leading since before 1am, was sidelined with electrical gremlins. The #48 Paul Miller Racing Porsche finished one lap down in second and amazingly, the Dempsey RX-8 was able to place 3rd after some quick repairs.




Also running over the weekend was the Rolex 200 Grand Am Continental tire series race. The winner in GS class was Rum Bum Racing’s BMW M3 and in ST class, the APR Motorsport Volkswagen GTI.

2010 World Finals – Force is still ‘da Man!

NHRA Full Throttle Series 2010 Champions
Top Fuel - Larry Dixon, Al-Anabi Racing
Funny Car - John “da Man” Force, Castrol GTX Ford Mustang
Pro Stock - Greg Andersen, Summit Racing Pontiac GXP
ProStock Bike - LE Tonglet, NitroFish Suzuki
Super Stock - Ryan McClanahan, “Sgt Ryan” SS/AM Cobalt

The most exciting race last weekend was the Funny Car championship. John Force began the weekend in 2nd place behind Matt Hagan. To win the race, Force needed to go 2 rounds further than Hagan. - tough job, even for a legend. When Bob Tasca knocked Hagan out in the first round, it looked good for the 14-time champ to make it 15 as he only needed to make it to the semifinal round. But, in the normal John Force-style, he took them out one-by-one - Densham, Bode, Troxel and in the final round went 4.085s, 310.41 mph against Jeff Arend’s 4.109s, 307.65 run. "I've been 25 years with Castrol and I want to go for 30!” Force said. "I've got to give credit to all the kids on my team.” It was unbelievable the racecar they gave me all year.” On a sadder note, Force’s crew chief, Austin Coil announced his resignation from the Force organization citing “financial issues,” and “some animosities.” Austin stated, “Overall, there’s no real terrible issues going on. It was just time to go. Kind of like when you’ve been married for 26 years and heard all the bullshit.”

With a first round victory on Sunday, Larry Dixon clichéd the Top Fuel title beating out Mike Strasbourg when the over-zealous driver smoked the tires before the 660 lights. "I've never had so much excitement for a first round win in my life," Dixon said. Progressing to the semi-final round, Dixon was paired with Shawn Langdon in his Lucas Oil/Speedco Dragster. Unfortunately for the champ, his 3.856 s, 319.98 mph run was not enough to overcome Langdon’s 0.017s better light. Langdon and Antron Brown went to the final round with Antron piloting the Matco Tools dragster to win the Winternationals Top Fuel event running 3.840s, 311.99 mph.


The Pro-Stock Championship went to Greg Anderson very early in the weekend. With a 115-point lead over Mike Edwards, by simply qualifying for the race, Anderson clinched his 4th championship title. It was a herculean effort to get back on top after a dismal start of the season. He dedicated the championship to team owner Ken Black who has battled his way back from a stroke through most of the season. "We've had to fight scratch and claw our way back to respectability," Anderson said. "We had to find a way to cope with the fact that our team leader Ken Black wasn't with us. We weren't sure we'd ever see Ken back at the race track.” The other saga in Pro-Stock was Greg Stanfield and Mike Edwards. Edwards, who appeared unbeatable early in the season, felt the championship slip from his hands over the last three races. Then, in the first round of eliminations on Sunday, an engine problem at the line finished him for the season. It was exciting news for Greg Stanfield who moved into number 2 spot for the season.

The Pro-Stock Motorcycle Championship went to rookie LE Tonglet. The first rookie since Gary Scelzi claimed the Top Fuel championship in 1997 Tonglet at only age 20, also became the youngest champion in NHRA history in Pro Stock Motorcycle. Interestingly, John Force became the oldest champion in NHRA history on Sunday. "It's been larger than life," Tonglet said. "We just stepped up at the right time." Andrew Hines led the championship and also like Force, Tonglet had to go two rounds further than Hines. Tonglet’s chances much improved with Hine’s red-lighting in the first round. Tonglet blasted past Matt Guidera in the first round and clinched it up with an impressive win over Steve Johnson in the second round. "We've been on a roll since Indy and this is just huge," Tonglet said. "Especially for my dad, this is just awesome to win the championship."


Finally, in Super Stock, Ryan McClanahan, Alta Loma, Calif., took home a pair of winning both the NHRA Lucas Oil national championship and the Pacific Division championship before falling in the final round to Eric Bell, Chandler, Ariz., and his '70 Challenger. Bell went 137.34 mph in 9.540 seconds for the win.