The News Dump: August 19th

NASCAR- Newman in 39 for 2009: Last night on his radio show Tony Stewart said that his driver Ryan Newman will drive with the number 39 in 2009, not 4. Should make those crybaby Morgan-McClure boys happy. [Scenedaily.com]

NASCAR- 2009 Schedules Announced: NASCAR Announced the schedules for the three big series. The Sprint Cup Series Schedule had a big date swap as Atlanta Motor Speedway will have their second race on Labor Day Weekend. California Speedway will get a date in the chase in October and Talladega Speedway will get a new date in November.

Meanwhile, the Nationwide Series will visit the Iowa Speedway in 2009 and the Truck Series will have the Chicagoland Speedway as a new venue. [Scenedaily.com]

Dandy Dixon wins in Edmonton

Scott Dixon took his first road course victory of the year at Edmonton on Saturday. The Indy 500 winner held off championship rival Helio Castroneves and Justin Wilson to take his fifth victory of the year. Amazingly Dixon didn�t win this race on the track itself; instead it was the quick stops made by his Target Chip Ganassi crew that won him the race.

"I'd sort of envisioned making a move on [Oriol] Servia early in the race, but it wasn't on." said Dixon. "He was quite a bit slower in race conditions than qualifying, so that enabled me to just stay behind him and save a lot of fuel. When the pit stop came we didn't need as much fuel as he did and so we got around him. It was kind of the same thing with the Penskes. I got behind Helio and Ryan, saved fuel and jumped them on the pit stop. That was the key moment of the race."

The race itself was not very interesting featuring very little battles up towards the front, but there were a few noticeable incidents including one in which Marco Andretti punted off his teammate Danica Patrick. Oh, how I wish I could have been a fly on the wall at the Andretti-Green transporter on Saturday evening especially when both Andretti and Patrick were chastised by the team for not letting thier teammate Tony Kannan by who was trying to work in an alternate stratgey.

Paul Tracy who made his return to the Indycar Series on Saturday finished a respectable 4th with a team that was pulled together only a few weeks ago.

"I'm just super excited for the team," said Tracy. "They prepared this car in about a week and a half and I gave it a first class effort. With a little more practice and me not sitting on the couch for the last six months, maybe we could do better!"

With another win Dixon now pads his lead over Castroneves to 65 points, but Dixon knows that the fat lady hasn�t sung just yet.

"There four races to go and a 65 point lead is not that big when you get 50 points for a win," he said. "But it is a big margin if we're still running at the end of every race. And if we can win one or two more, that'll really put the final nail in the coffin."

The Indycar Series next race is on Saturday, August 9th at Kentucky Speedway.

Dixon beats Castroneves in Canada [Autosport.com]

Miss Teen South Carolina works for Indycar.com

I'll be honest with you folks, I never been to Edmonton or even Canada. But I'll tell you this the picture to the left is definitely not of the sky line of Edmonton, Alberta. Unless Edmonton has copied or stolen the skyline of Long Becah, California.

It makes you wonder if Indycar.com has this girl working for them:



Too funny. Credit jcollins at TBK for this find.

Indycar Racing in Canada, eh?

The Indycar Series makes its first ever trip to the fast airport circuit up in Edmonton Canada and the first ever trip for the Indycar Series itself in Canada. Of course the big story is the �catfight� that happened last weekend between the females of the series Danica Patrick and Milka Duno. The two got into an altercation after a practice in which Duno threw her towel twice at Patrick. The good news is Duno is not racing this weekend and Patrick can focus solely on the race.

The Penske team is having some fabulous runs lately last week at Mid-Ohio the team started one-two with Helio Castroneves on pole and teammate Ryan Briscoe starting along side and the two flipped-flop in the final results with Briscoe taking the victory and Castroneves taking second. This weekend is starting out the same with Briscoe nabbing the pole and Castroneves taking second.

But even with the great runs by the Penske team it is still Scott Dixon on top of the point standings. The good news for the Penske boys is Scott Dixon�s results on road courses have been pretty ho-hum. Dixon has only one top 10 on a road course this year and that was a third last week at Mid-Ohio. With road courses making up three of the final five races this year this could make or break the championship for Dixon. But Castronves can�t rely on Dixon stumbling he has to get some wins to get himself closer to battling for the title with Dixon.

Edmonton also marks the return of � theThrill from West Hill�, Paul Tracy. Tracy will be making his first Indycar Series start since the controversial 2002 Indy 500 that saw Castroneves and not Tracy himself in victory lane.

Tracy, himself, is not expecting big things to happen on Saturday. "We all want to do well, our expectations are to do well, but I haven't set any type of goal on myself that we have to win the race," Tracy said. �We�re just going to take it step by step every day. From my standpoint, this is my opportunity to get back in the (IndyCar) series."

Tracy, the 2003 Champ Car champion, has a hard time trying to find a ride in the Indycar Series. Tracy drove at the Grand Prix of Long Beach, but has no luck since, but now things are starting to come together. Tracy hopes that this one-off race with Vision and Walker Racing will lead to bigger things. I hope it does, too. The race will be live at 5 pm eastern on ESPN.

Quick out of the Blocks [Indycar.com]

Indycar Series getting fresh?

Been hearing stuff from the grapevine that Subway as title sponsor for the Indycar Series in the season 2009 season. The rumor sounds a little far fectched though as Subway may be only spending $10 million for the sponsorship for one year, which is chump change as major sponsorships go. Most sponsors spend more than that to sponsor a single NASCAR team, let alone a whole series. But with the way the Indycar Series is right now, they could use all of the help they can get.

There are other rumors of people like Kodak looking at sponsoring the series. Of course Subway will be sponsoring driver Paul Tracy as he makes his return to Indycar racing Saturday in Edmonton.

Subway, Kodak in running for Indycar Series title sponsorship [Indy Racing Revolution]

About this whole Danica-Milka mess

I'm sure you've seen it all over the place now and I'm pretty sure your sick of it too. Why I do feel for Danica about being blocked by the rolling chicane that is Milka Duno. You think maybe would have thought this out before confronting her or maybe just do it like they do it in elementary school and be a nark and tell on her to the teacher aka Brian Barnhart. Just really sad to people do immature stuff like this, hopefully one day we'll be rid of these two and back to some simple racing.

Oh and if was to pick one of them in a fight, I would take Milka winning in three rounds of greuling mud wrestling. Yes i'n perverted, but can you really blame me?

Another new face in victory lane

A long time ago, 4 years ago to be exact, in another open-wheel series, Champ Car, Ryan Hunter-Reay won a race in Milwauke, but carrer went into a bit of a tail spin soon enough he found himself out of a ride, only doing part time work in the Grand-Am series. That was until late last year when he got a call from Bobby Rahal asking him to drive his car and in six races he scored three top 10s and took rookie of the year honors, but the was because he was really the only rookie around.
2008 for Hunter-Reay showed moments of greatness and moments of frustartion. But on Sunday things went all the way to the good as Hunter-Reay took his first Indycar victory at Watkins Glen.

"For something to finally go our way is great," Hunter-Reay said. "It didn't land in our lap; we had to go out there and earn it. Then we just checked out at the end, which was the best. We put an exclamation on the end of that one. It was a beautiful deal."

While Hunter-Reay got the victory, the race was dominated by the strong cars of Scott Dixon and Ryan Briscoe, but the two tangled during second to last caution, when Dixon accidently spun himself out leaving Briscoe nowhere to go, but to collide with him, that left them both out of contention.

"It was like a scene out of Days of Thunder," Hunter-Reay said about the collision. "I couldn't see where they were or where the opening was. I couldn't see any cars, just a dirt cloud. I picked left, and luckily it was open. I got through there, and then I immediately thought, 'This is the point where I get paid back for all the bad luck.'"

The incident moved Hunter-Reay up to 2nd behind Darren Manning and Hunter-Reay quickly dispatched Manning for the lead and held on to the take the victory.

The victory would also be the first for the Rahal-Letterman team since 2004 when Buddy Rice took victory at Michigan for the team. "This is vindication," team co-owner Bobby Rahal said. "Some guys who have driven for us in the past said this team doesn't have the will to win. It's all about having the right driver."

Manning held off Tony Kannan, who was driving with a hurt wrist, to take second. Buddy Rice and Marco Andretti rounded out the top five.

Meanwhile, Scott Dixon, despite all of the late race silliness, was still able to extend his points lead on Helio Castroneves to 48. The next round of the Indycar Series will be held at Nashville Speedway on Saturday night.

Hunter-Reay scores maiden victory [Autosport.com]

Indycar Preview: Watkins Glen

The Indycar Series is in the state of New York this weekend for some road course action at Watkins Glen. The last few years have been pretty the same story, Helio Castroneves on pole and Scott Dixon taking the victory. Well so far its looks like will have a little parity, this year. Qualifying saw Ryan Briscoe take pole while his teammate, Castroneves comically struggled trying to get out of Q1.

Danica Patrick could have gotten out of Q1, but she forgot to finish her fast lap. The qualifying session also featured crashes by A.J. Foyt IV and Will Power. But it will be Briscoe and Justin Wilson on the front row. Points leader Scott Dixon will start 4th and last weeks winner Tony Kannan will start sixth.

Indycar return for Franchitti unlikely

After his Sprint Cup team shut down earlier this week, there have been many rumors sprung up on what 2007 Indy 500 Dario Franchitti will do to get his racing career back on track. Dario will like everyone to know that a return to the Indycars is out of the question.

"Let's see what the future holds," Franchitti said. "I need to sit down with Chip and see where his head is, but NASCAR is where I want to be. I want to be successful here and I certainly don't want it to end like this.

"I made a big commitment coming over here and I'd like to get an opportunity to be successful."

"When I made the decision to come here (to NASCAR), I wasn't going to do the IndyCar thing anymore anyway, so this isn't a case of missing out on what could have been in IndyCar," he said. "That just wasn't a direction I wanted to go in. "Never say never, but it's unlikely I'll go back."

"We definitely struggled in the first couple of races, but we were getting there," Franchitti said. "The results have been this and that, but I really feel like we were getting there."

With a best finish of 22nd, yeah that is "getting there" alright.

"We were starting to run well, me and the No.40 guys all thought things were turning around."

Dario's misfortune has got him some sympathy from other drivers in the Sprint Cup garage.

"I think a couple things happened," Richard Childress Racing driver Jeff Burton said. "Dario is an accomplished racecar driver and I think he can get it done in the Cup Series, but it's going to take time. The question is, how patient can people be? And at a time when we don't have a lot of new sponsors coming in it's hard to build a company that wants to be patient. People that are wanting to make that investment want success right away.

"I think a lot of things stacked up against him and it made it harder for him than if he would have been able to have success sooner. Unfortunately Ganassi have been a little down, too. They haven't been as good as you would expect them to be."

"It's really shocking to us to see a team shut down like that, and it's tough," Roush Racing's Greg Biffle said. "You don't want to see that. Dario, I think, is a great driver. He's improved tremendously. He ran very well at Loudon, and qualified decently, but I don't know. Their organisation has been having a tough time competition-wise lately, and it's sad to see them without a sponsor and having to shut that down temporarily."

Four-time Sprint Cup champion Jeff Gordon believes the U.S. economy is to blame for Dario's bad luck.

"I think it's certainly a wake-up call, you know, any of us are vulnerable," Gordon said. "I would have never thought that they would have struggled getting sponsorship. I'm sure Chip Ganassi thought they wouldn't struggle. They probably didn't think they'd struggle on the racetrack as much as they have either, especially on the road course. We all can be vulnerable and it just makes you appreciate what you have, the sponsors you have, and it makes you work that much harder to try to stay competitive."

Plans about Dario's future may be announced next week, lets hope the boys at CGR aren't wearing rose-tinted glasses like Dario is.

Cup drivers sympathise with Franchitti [Autosport.com]

Franchitti says IndyCar return unlikely [Autosport.com]

Howard returns

After a five race absence, Jay Howard will return to behind the wheel of the 24 Roth Racing machine in the Indycar Series. Howard sat the last five rounds out while John Andretti drove the car. The team stated that Andretti's wealth of experience was needed for conquering the oval tracks, but since most of the final races are road courses Howard would have enough expeience to get through the final few rounds.

"To say I'm happy to get back in the car is an understatement," said Howard. "It's hard to describe the feeling when I'm on the sidelines watching.

"I'm only looking forward now and I'm going to go out and do what I do best and try to get a good result for the team."

Howard returns to Roth [Autosport.com]

Oh Thank Heaven

Tony Kannan took his first win of the Indycar Season last night in the Suntrust Indy Challenge in Richmond. Kannan dominated the race from pole and held off his fellow Brazilian Helio Castroneves and points leader Scott Dixon for the victory. Dan Wheldon and Oriol Servia rounded out the top five.

"I'm going to enjoy my win tonight for sure," Kannan said. "I knew that I had to keep fighting. There's nothing else I can do. If you're going to have the season you expect every year, then it's going to be pretty boring I would say. I knew it was going to turn around," Kanaan said. "I didn't know when. I thought it was last weekend [at Iowa] and I made a mistake."

"When those kind of things happen, I have a tendency to actually have more strength to turn the situation around. I think I work better when I put a lot of pressure on myself, and you know, I came in determined to win this race, and it worked out."

The night featured heavy carnage in which the yellow flag was waved nine times, tying the race record set in 2001. Only 12 cars of the 26 that started managed to finished the race, leaving many drivers frustrated at the end of the night. The crash during the restart on lap 79 was probably the worst as 5 cars were caught up in a crash. Ryan Hunter-Reay crashed out of a race for the second time in three weeks and was none to happy with the man he tangled up with Mario Moraes.

"I was going to give him the benefit of the doubt until I saw the tape of the crash but now I don't know that I can do that," Hunter-Reay said.

"It's just short-track racing. We had a busy race out there tonight. I was holding my breath on every lap. We were just out there surviving and trying to get some points and we can't even get that done without something like this happening to us."

Meanwhile Scott Dixon's points lead over Helio Castroneves was narrowed a little to just 43. The Indycar Series now moves on to twisty road course in Watkins Glen. The race will be next Sunday on ABC.

Kannan thrilled to end win drought [Autosport.com]

Drivers play down Richmond carnage [Autosport.com]

Indycar Preview: Richmond

The Indycar Series is in Richmond for a little Saturday night, short track action. While Dan Wheldon may have won the race on his birthday and donated his winnings to charity the main focus was on Danica Patrick as her racing moves were called out by her fellow competitors. Points leader Scott Dixon called her "a menace", but Danica says she�s probably not being aggressive enough on the track.

"I'm always trying to be aggressive," Patrick said. "If anything, last weekend I maybe wasn't aggressive enough on the restarts and whatnot. That's where I lost my spots."

"I've always been the same person. So I just try and be consistent and follow the weekend as it goes. I really try not to pay too much attention to what goes on around me and focus on myself, because ultimately at the end of the day there's nothing I can do about those emotions and there's nothing I can do about negative comments.

"I don't really know where the comments came from last weekend. I don't even know where they're coming from. So, unfortunately, I don't have a lot to say about it."

Well Danica you better watch out this weekend or you might get the old chrome horn for someone who has lost their patience.

Other than that it will be an interesting race to see who can conqueror lap traffic the best and who can answer the physical demands of the Indycar Series' shortest track.

Always Aggressive [Indycar.com]

NASCAR not in Wheldon's future

Dan Wheldon has ruled out a possible move to NASCAR in the future. The young (if you consider 30 being young) English driver who found victory lane last week in Iowa has changed his mind about making a move to stock car racing.

"Up until this year, I really did consider NASCAR and the reason I did is I'm a driver," Wheldon said. "I like to be on track and I like the fact they race so much. But with the merging together of both open-wheel series, the series is really fun to drive in right now."

Wheldon is in the final year of his contract with Target Chip Ganassi Racing, and said he has talked with Ganassi about an extension of his original three-year deal. Wheldon said the deal isn't done yet, but he hopes it will be done soon.

"When you have more cars like that, it's definitely fun to drive," Wheldon said. "So I would say with the fact I think they're going to continue to build the schedule and from what I understand they're going to allow more testing during the season . . . that's what I'm looking for. . . . I definitely think I will be in IndyCars for certainly the next three years after this one."

NASCAR? Wheldon says no [Richmond Times Dispatch]

Corn, France and Kyle Busch

F1: Man, I wish really had something to talk about this race, but the French Grand Prix was terribly boring. Felipe Massa got the win after his Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen had a piece of his exhaust come lose that cost him dearly in the horsepower that he needed to get the victory, Raikkonen did hold on to second though. Jarno Trulli finished third in his Toyota, his first podium since 2005. Hekki Kovalainen, Robert Kubica, Mark Webber, Nelson Piquet and Fernando Alonso rounded out the top 8. Massa with the win, now takes the points lead away from Kubica. The F1 circus will head off to jolly old England for the British Grand Prix in two weeks.

Indycar: Despite the gloomy weather the state has seen over the past few weeks, Sunday produced beautfiul weather for the Indycar race in which Dan Wheldon, on his 30th birth used pit stratgey to hold off the young Japaneese rookie Hideki Mutoh for the win. But the day was for the flood victims as Wheldon and his teammate Scott Dixon donated thier winnings to the victims. Marco Andretti, Dixon and A.J. Foyt IV rounded out the top 5. Scott Dixon extends his points lead over Helio Castroneves to 48.

NASCAR: Kyle Busch got another victory on Sunday in Somona in a very strong car. Busch held off a final challenge by David Gilliand and took his fifth victory of the season. Jeff Gordon, Clint Bowyer and Casey Mears rounded out the top five. Busch extends his points lead over Jeff Burton to 103 points.

Weekend Preview: June 21-22

F1: The Formula 1 circus is back in France this weekend and Robert Kubica is looking to continue his streak of momentum after winning for the first time in Montreal two weeks ago. Meanwhile Ferrari and McLaren are looking to get back on track after a disappointing showing in Canada that included an embarrassing pit road collision between Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen. Hamilton got a 10 place grid penalty and will start 13th on Sunday. Raikkonen meanwhile scored pole and will start next to teammate Felipe Massa on Sunday. The will be televised at 1 pm eastern, Sunday on FOX.

NASCAR: The Sprint Cup Series makes its first right turns of the year at the road course in Somona, California. Kasey Kahne scored his first pole on road course last night and streak of momentum spanning back a month to a win in the All-Star race in Charlotte. But the big story of the weekend will be the road ringers who have invaded the Sprint Cup series, some have come for glory and others have come in to bail teams out of a dangerous situation. But whatever their cause there are people out there who do not care much for the road ringers. All I can say to those people is since they're racing in northern California is would you like some cheese with that whine? The race will be on TNT starting at 3:30 pm eastern on Sunday

Indycar: The Indycar Series comes to a Iowa Speedway in a area that has been soaked by lots of rain and many people are still trying to recover from the floods. Meanwhile, the Indycar circus hopes that this race won't be the total wreckfest like it was last year. Scott Dixon also hopes that he can continues his momentum and score his fourth win of the year. The race will be on ABC starting at 1 pm eastern.

Grand-Am: Hey, there�s sportscar racing too, this weekend. The Rolex Sportscar Series is in Mid-Ohio for the EMCO Gears Classic and Brumos Porsche pairing of David Donahue and Darren Law is on pole, but everyone will have the eyes on the 01 Chip Ganassi Lexus with Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas behind the wheel. The pairing have won three races this year. The #72 Autohaus Ponitac is on the GT pole. The race is today at 5 pm eastern on Speed Channel.

Pacific Coast Motorsports to skip Iowa Indycar race

Yeah, I'm pretty bummed out about it, too. [Speedtv.com]

Tracy to drive truck at Las Vegas and maybe an Indycar at Edmonton

After a succesful test at Chicagoland, Paul Tracy will get a chance to race in a Craftsman Truck Series race later on this year in Las Vegas.
"Paul did a nice job so we got a little bit if support and decided it would be fun to run him in his hometown," said Tracy's truck owner Bob Germain. "He's our style, very aggressive, and he and Todd are a lot alike." Yeah except for the fact that Paul has hair, Bob.

Tracy hopes with the possible expansion of Germain Racing that he will able to get a full time ride with the team. Tracy may also get ride for the Indycar race up at Edmonton with Derrick Walker in July.

Tracy set for trucks, possibly Edmonton (Speedtv.com)

Paul Newman is battling cancer

A close friend of Paul Newman, who one of the owners in Newman Hass Lanigan Racing team in the Indycar Series, has revealed that 83 year old actor is battling cancer. Writer A.E. Hotchner, who helped Newman start his salad dressing company in 1982, said that Newman told him about having cancer almost a year and a half ago.

�I know that it�s a form of cancer,� Hotchner told The Associated Press. �It�s a form of cancer and he�s dealing with it.� Hotchner said that Newman had an operation a few years ago. �It was certainly somewhere in the area of the lung,� he said.

�He�s battling.� Hotchner continued. �He�s doing all the right stuff. Paul is a fighter. He seems to be going through a good period right now.�

When asked about his prognosis, Hotchner said, �Everybody is hopeful. That�s all we know.�

But the story only gets a little stranger as later yesterday Hotchner denied knowing about the illness to the tv show "Access Hollywood", but then confirmed the illness to the Reuters news agnecy later that day. Other close friends of Newman deny any knowledge of an "illness" says that he�s doing fine and that he was "lively" during a fundraiser for his Hole in the Wall Gang camp for ill children.

Micheal Brockman, who also partners in the racing team, said that Newman wanted to get back into a race car and run a race later on this year.

So believe what you want to believe, that picture though was taken last month and Paul doesn't look too well. Lets hope he gets better.

Friend says Paul Newman is battling cancer (MSNBC)

Dixon domination continues

Scott Dixon last night continued his path to a second Indycar Championship with another win in the Bombardier Learjet 550k. Dixon passed Marco Andretti with six laps to go to take his third victory of the year. Helio Castroneves finished second, Ryan Briscoe, Dan Wheldon and Tony Kannan rounded out the top 5.

"We're riding a wave at the moment," Dixon said. "We're just trying to keep it going. From the middle part of last year until now, we've won a serious amount of races.

"Over the winter, these guys spent a lot of time making these cars super fast. You've got to put this down to the many people back at the shop who have worked on these cars non-stop."

"At the end, he left it wide open. I don't know what he was doing. Marco's car was good on the high line, so maybe he couldn't sit on the bottom. If it was me, I wouldn't have given up that much room."

Unfortunately for Marco Andretti he wouldn't keep second place as he and Ryan Hunter-Reay tangled with six laps to go:

Marco was not too happy about the crash. "There are some guys you can run close with and some guys you can't," Andretti said of Hunter-Reay. "He clearly hit the white line, and that is that. We ran well today, but to me, that doesn't matter. We need to bring home results. It's very disappointing."

Meanwhile Scott Dixon extends his points lead over Helio Castroneves to 35.

Dixon wins again in texas (Autosport.com)

In other action yesterday:

Scott Dixon and Memo Rojas took victory in the Six hours of the Glen.

Ricky Stenhouse, Jr held off a late charge from Scott Speed to take his second ARCA victory of the year at Pocono

And Brad Keselwoski took his first Nationwide victory at Nashville last night passing Clint Bowyer with 5 laps to go.

Indycar Preview: Texas

The Indycar Series continues their busy summer schedule this week they're in Texas, for high speed, close racing and a chance of a really big crash. Let's be honest folks Texas Motor Speedway isn't the most safe track to hold an Indycar race on. I mean last year we had that huge crash that took out 4 cars, in 2003 we had Kenny Brack's devastating crash and 2001 Davey Hamilton had his big crash. For both Hamilton and Brack it would be the end of full time racing for the both them even though have come back to run at Indy.

But with unsafe the Dallara chassis is on this track, its a wonder why they still run here, you have to think Bruton Smith and Eddie Gossage is paying them a lot to run here. Even today was dangerous as Dan Wheldon crashed his car in practice heavily today fliiping it over, Wheldon limped away relatively unharmed.

Dan Wheldon's crash in practice

But with a large starting field tomorrow, 28 cars in total the largest field in a Indycar race since 2002 outside of the Indy 500, you kind have a feeling in mind that something bad will happen, with the shape of the current car and the characteristics of the track Saturday night could be a real wreck-em rodeo.

Qualifying turned out a few surprises, as young rookie Hideki Mutoh turned out the 4th fastest time and fastest of the Andretti-Green drivers. John Andretti turned out the 7th fastest lap in his Roth Racing machine and Will Power is the fastest of the transition drivers in 8th place. What isn't a surprise is that Indy 500 Scott Dixon is on pole and Helio Castroneves is on outside pole. Last weeks winner Ryan Briscoe will start third. The media's darling will Danica Patrick will start 5th. The race will start at 10 pm eastern on ESPN2 tomorrow night.