The Southern 500

First Cup Victory for Regan Smith

DARLINGTON, SC – It has been three long years since Regan Smith’s victory at Talladega was taken back from him by NASCAR for illegally passing Tony Stewart on the apron. But Smith kept going after it and he finally made victory circle at Darlington. "This is no knock against Talladega at all, but I would trade in a lot of Talladega wins for one win in the Southern 500," said Smith, “This race is so special and so meaningful. We were standing there looking at the names and the faces on the trophy, and you just look at it, and you think, 'my face is going to be there right next to these guys, and it'll be there forever.'"
It wasn’t at all clear until they crossed the finish line that Smith was the victor.


On lap 341, Kasey Kahne acquired the lead until Jeff Burton’s motor grenaded spewing oil all over the track. During the caution, Smith Keslowski and Stewart decided to forego the final pit stop claiming the first three spots on the restart. Smith, with help from Keslowski, managed to hold Kahne off leading into the final laps. It was an exciting few laps with very close racing. Then on lap 363, Harvick came up a tapped Busch on the left rear bumper then came up beside him to pass. With the duo running side-by-side, Clint Boyer came along the inside making it three-wide out of turn 4. It then appeared that Boyer slid-up on Harvick spinning himself into the infield wall. Seconds later, Kyle Busch came up on Harvick, in apparent retribution spinning him and putting the 29-car into the outside wall.


Carl Edwards on fresh tires made a strong run on Smith crossing the finish line alongside Smith, but Regan held on to the win. Edwards was obviously disappointed that he couldn’t beat Smith, but was happy for Smith. Carl and Regan formed a strong friendship back in 2002 while both drove for Mike Mitter. About Regan Busch commented, “I got a lot of respect for him.”


The tempers were still flaring between the 18 and 29. Harvick commented over the radio that “…the 18 hooked me.” The reply came not to worry, “we’ll hook the 18 some other time.” Harvick must’ve thought that meant now following Busch onto pit row, then cutting in front and stopping him dead in his tracks. Harvick climbed out of his car and walked back towards Busch. Busch wasn’t going to wait for Kevin to come back and punch him, so with Harvick clear of the car, Busch hit the gas, pushing the 29 car into the pit wall. My choices were limited. I was either going to get punched in the face and then wait for Harvick to get back in his car, or just drive through his car and push it out of the way so I could get out of there."
Luckily no one was hurt. Coincidentally, the 18 and 29 haulers were parked next to one another, and the crews had to be separated following some angry pushing and shoving. Then Kevin Harvick arrived and challenged the Busch crew to a fight. “Y’all are a bunch of %$#8!A NASCAR official said “You’re coming with us to our hauler now!” Harvick followed the official into the “woodshed,” followed soon thereafter by Busch and team owners Joe Gibbs and Richard Childress. After about a 20 minute meeting with Mike Helton behind closed doors, NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp stated that “it will be determined Tuesday whether any teams and drivers will be assessed fines and/or penalties.


"It was tight racing after the restart there and Harvick was up on the top, a little bit loose, and I gave him room," Busch said. "He kind of came off the wall -- that's a bad angle, obviously -- and then lifted early to let me go into Turn 3 and I thought it was all good. Then he drives into the back of me there, so ... it made my car loose all the way through the exit, and just made a run for those two guys to get back on my inside. "And then obviously Clint wrecked, bouncing off Harvick. It was just uncalled-for; it was unacceptable racing. I know it's the last couple of laps, but I gave him room coming off [Turn] 2 and I didn't get the room."
"Obviously we were just racing hard and doing what we had to do at the end. And things happen. That's it," Harvick said. Asked what got discussed with Busch, Joe Gibbs and NASCAR officials in the NASCAR hauler, Harvick grinned and said: "Not much."

BMW Wins Handily At The Beach!

LONG BEACH, CA – Racing at the Beach, is there any better to take the sting out of tax day? Not in my book! As has been the norm the past several years, Long Beach was home to the IndyCar league as well as the Tequila Patron American Le Mans Series. The most exciting race was the ALMS GT2 featuring the competitive BMWs, Corvettes, Porsches and Ferraris. The tight city streets seemed to favor the BMWs this year, ending a two year winning streak for the Flying Lizards Porsches.


The BMW M3 of Hand and Muller started from the pole and easily took the lead early in the race. A mishap by teammate Bill Auberlein in the Fountain turn resulted in the two bimmers to be stopped on the track. After extricating themselves, it took Hand a mere 15 minutes to get around the lead Porsche of Parick Long and the Corvette of Oliver Gavin. In the end, it was the BMW followed by the #4 Corvette driven by Gavin/Magnussen. Third place went to the beautiful Risi Competizione F458 Italia driven by Vilander/Melo.


The LMP1 race was a bit boring with only two cars entered – the Muscle-Milk Aston Martin and Mazda-powered Lola of Dyson Racing. Starting from the pole, Chris Dyson-driven the Lola/Mazda was passed by Luhr on the first lap. The Aston went on to an overall and class win with a 24.624 second margin. "In my head, I had planned to get by Chris in the first corner, but that didn't work out quite well," Luhr said of the start. "He really made a good start and didn't give me a chance to get by him. But I saw I was quicker in the Carousel, so I dived into Turn 5 on the inside and tried to build out a gap."


LMPC was won by the CORE Autosport Oreca FLM09 of Jeannette and Gonzalez. The GTC class was won by the Porsche GT3 Cup car driven by Pappas and Bleekmolen. LMP2 was a one horse race by Level5 Motorsports.

Now that the open wheelers no longer run turbos, racing at the Beach for these cars is not the same. The tight street course makes passing very difficult for the open wheelers, and no longer do the tunnels resonate with the pops of blow-off valves and wastegates. Nonetheless, the Beach is one of the most popular venues for the IZOD series. This year’s winner was a surprise with 3-year veteran Mike Conway crossing the finish first. It did not look like it would be his day after locking up in the pit lane during his fist pit placing him at the rear of the pack. But the calm Englishman kept his composure and ran a cool and calculated race, being at the right place at the right time during the restarts. "It looked a bit difficult here earlier this weekend,” commented Conway, “but this morning I knew the car would be fast. It was really tough to overtake here, but they just told me to hang in there. The team did a great job; good strategy. I can't thank the guys at Andretti Autosport enough, as well as everyone at Window World Cares and DHL, for putting their faith in me." Penske Racing’s Ryan Briscoe managed a 2nd place finish while IndyCar champ Dario Franchitti finished third.

Roush-Yates FR-9 Engines Sweep 5 of Top 10 at TMS

FORT WORTH, TX – It was Matt Kenseth’s first win in 76 races, but from his performance Sunday, it is hard to imagine he was out of the winner’s circle this long. Kenseth clearly dominated the race with his Roush-Fenway Ford leading 169 of 334 laps and crossing the finish line 8.34 sec ahead of Clint Boyer. Roush teammates Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle followed in 3rd and 4th places respectively. It was an impressive night for the Roush-Fenway team as David Ragan finished in seventh place.


Kenseth’s win was an important one for the 2003 series champion and was also the first victory for Crew Chief Jimmy Fennig since 2005. After heading up the Roush R&D department, Fennig was recruited as crew chief to the No17 team at the middle of last year in an effort to turn their program around. Together, the Wisconsin natives were able to pull it off with an unquestionable victory at Texas.


With Marcos Ambrose’s 6th place finish, it was an even better night for Roush Yates Engines, placing 5 engines in the top ten spots. "We're really happy to see (Roush Yates Engines) clients performing so well, across so many teams," CEO Doug Yates said. "With the Woods winning at Daytona, to Nationwide and Cup Series poles and wins spread out across so many of the Roush Fenway drivers, that is the service and consistency our company strives for as a provider of engines.”


After winning 2 of the first 3 races of the season, Roush’s dominance in 2011 was in doubt after wins by Hendrick, RCR and Gibbs in subsequent races. But the performance of the Roush-prepared cars at Texas has re-established the Fords as the favorite for 2011. "I am really proud of what we have been able to do in 2011," Roush Fenway Racing owner Jack Roush told reporters Sunday in Texas. "We tuned up our engine with Ford's help over the winter and got a new Ford nose [for the car]. Everybody got a new nose this year, but our new nose is better than our old nose and we have our FR-9 engine up to speed. All of that is going well."


The race went relatively smoothly with a minimal number of accients. The first caution was on lap 11 following some fluid loss from the #37 Ford of Tony Raines. David Gilliland caused the second caution on lap 47 when he slammed into the wall in turn 1. The biggest accident f the night occurred on lap 216 as Martin Truex lost control exiting turn 2, possibly as a result of being tapped by Kevin Harvick. Mark Martin struck Truex’ car and slammed into the wall. Regan Smith also suffered damge in the wreck.

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.