NASCAR Probing Menard Spinout After All

((HT: NASCAR/NASCARImages/ABC/youtube))

After Jeff Gordon raised the radar of NASCAR officials eveywhere by intimating that Paul Menard's tire issue with 17 laps left was a bit of a shenanigan...

They're investigating...
Witness below...


There's unsubstantiated evidence that Menard's team went to an encrypted channel just before the crash... in a race that RCR teammate Kevin Harvick went on to win...

"In light of the suspicions, we're going to look into it and see if there is anything," NASCAR president Mike Helton said Friday at Chicagoland Speedway to David Newton of ESPN and others. "And a lot of it is going to be interpretation. Certainly, it is on us to understand exactly what all we can find as far as facts are concerned."

The "ethics of racing" discussion begins anew...

DEVELOPING: Okay, it's official... Danica To NASCAR

((HT: GoDaddy.com/youtube))

The worst kept secret in NASCAR isn't a secret anymore...

Danica Patrick is racing a full-time Nationwide schedule and some Sprint Cup races in the No. 7 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet in 2012.

"We are pleased Danica Patrick has chosen to race full time in NASCAR in 2012," NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France said in a statement. "She has demonstrated a strong desire to compete and NASCAR provides the best opportunity to race against the top drivers in the world with the largest and most loyal fan base in motorsports on a week-to-week basis."

Here's some of the Q-and-A... for the really important stuff, like Daytona...


Here's CNBC's Darren Rovell talking about Danica's economic impact...
((HT: ESPN))

Kyle Busch loses his drivers license

Kyle Busch

((ht:charlotte observer))

Haha! We are betting that Kyle's Sprint Cup competitors probably don't think this is so funny.

Driver Kyle Busch pleaded guilty this afternoon to speeding in an incident we first reported on back in May. Busch was cited for driving 128 in a 45 mph zone in Statesville, North Carolina. Yes, he was going that fast.

As a result, young Mr. Busch will lose his driver's license for the next 45 days and was told by the judge to "Not drive any car during that time" along with fining him $1000.

Read the full story from thatsracin.com RIGHT HERE

While what Busch did was truly scary, we respect that he at least stepped up and took responsibility for it. And he accepted his punishment. No, the license revocation will not keep him off the track. He doesn't need a drivers license to race in any of the races. And oh, by the way, baby Busch is your current Sprint Cup points leader.

Busch has had more than his fair share of problems on the track with other racers too. From Richard Childress trying to give him a noogie, to the war of words with Jimmie Johnson and others, he's sort of become NASCAR's "Bad Boy". No, rest easy, there won't be any suspension forthcoming though we suspect that Busch and his team owner Joe Gibbs have had more than one conversation with the good Mister Mike Helton.

We could not think of any video more appropriate here:

A Hair-Pulling NASCAR Finish

((HT: ESPN/youtube/NASCAR))

It was supposed to be Patrick Carpentier's last race...

The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve was the place for the Montreal Nationwide event, but it dodn't end the way the locals wanted...

Steve Wallace created a bit of a furor that involved Carpentier, but more importantly, the pit road was the place for Wallace and a Carpentier crew man to square off...


Jerry Baxter had his hands full, didn't he...???

DEVELOPING: Danica To Run NASCAR Full-Time Next Season...? Looks That Way...

According to Marty Smith over at the four-letter, it looks like Danica Patrick will be driving Nationwide full-time for 2012 and running select NASCAR events for Stewart-Haas in the same calendar year with the idea of her going full-time Sprint Cup for Tony Stewart by 2013's season...

A presser is being arranged at GoDaddy's HQ in Phoenix to announce the whole idea.

"Tony Stewart has always said he'd love to have her, but we're a long ways from being at that point," Stewart-Haas spokesman Mike Arning said Wednesday. "From a Stewart-Haas Racing standpoint, things aren't there yet."

No word on how this would clash with her running in the Indy 500 every year when and if this announced...

Here was the discussion during SpeedWeeks at Indy this past year...
((HT: IndyCar/ESPN on ABC/youtube))


Turns out they were right...

Yet another 1st time NASCAR Sprint Cup Winner: Marcos Ambrose

Yes, there is nothing like Monday morning NASCAR racing. After a rainout on Sunday, the big boys of Sprint Cup racing took to Watkins Glen on an overcast, but dry morning.

And yes, as is wont to happen at a road course, there was plenty of car carnage.

Denny Hamlin plowed smack into the wall on lap 65 in what looked like a violent collision after his brakes locked up, he got up and walked away.

Also walking away were David Reutimann and David Ragan. Reutimann's car hit the wall and flipped multiple times before coming to a stop. He...and Ragan walked away.

The story of the day though was Ambrose, who is now the 5th first time winner on the circuit. We might add that he won 3 Nationwide races as well, all at the Glen.

Needless to say, you can consider him a pretty good road course driver.

Your final laps from NASCAR.com:



But it gets better... Boris Said wants a piece of Greg Biffle...
And the language is awesome...
((HT: NASCAR/ESPN/EdwinTV42))


When was the last time a driver told another that he'd show up with a black eye on a Wednesday in the future...??? The HQ doesn't care and wants to see it in person...

Race recap: Menard motors to Indy win

Paul Menard kisses the bricks

Nothing like getting your first win at a major track. That's something that few people can say. Paul Menard can now say it.

Menard won for the first time in 167 races and his fifth start at the Brickyard 400. His crew helped him tremendously, balancing his gas milage and enabling Menard to hold off the hard-charging Jeff Gordon. He was in the top part of the race for the most part and didn't take the lead until late in the race. He took the lead for good with 3 laps left.

The win moves Menard to 14th in the Sprint Cup standings and within reach of the finals.

And yeah, he's got a back story too. His family name is one very familiar in the racing business and Menard was a garage rat as a kid. He spent most of his childhood hanging around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with his dad, who raced there and said he's been to every Brickyard 400 since the race began in 1994.

Here's to you Paul Menard, we hesitate to call you a racing jobber, since you race for Richard Childress racing but never the less, its a great win for the unsung guys.

Your race highlights from NASCAR.com:



And the 1st time winner victory lane thing: (Thanks NASCAR.com)

Kasey Kahne Okay After Outlaws Flip

((HT: CentralPARacer))

Head to the 1:15 mark...


Now, the details...

He is okay after his sprint car somersaulted over a retaining wall in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania...

"Got wiped out in my heat race tonight," Kahne wrote on Twitter. "Haven't flipped like that in a long time!"

Kahne, who owns a sprint car racing team, was running in the second heat race of the night, after turning in the seventh-fastest time in qualifying.

Next up for Kahne is the Brickyard...

After the race: KY Speedway has some 'splainin to do

Kyle Busch wins Quaker State 400/Nascar.com

The 1st ever Quaker State 400 was run Saturday night and there were nearly 109,000 people who came to see Kyle Busch win a relatively clean, fast race.

However, not all the 109,000 with tickets made it to the race. And it wasn't because they didn't try. You see, when Bruton Smith and his folks at Speedway Management Inc. expanded the Kentucky Speedway to accommodate the much larger crowd that attends Sprint Cup races, they neglected two, rather significant things: Parking and Roads.

There were people on the road for nearly 7-hours at one point and still unable to make the race. Hundreds, no thousands, just gave up, turned around and went home. And yet, most of the day Sunday was spent with nary a peep from Smith or the folks at the Speedway.

They finally released a statement Sunday night around 7:30pm:

Speedway G.M Mark Simendinger said "Kentucky Speedway regrets the traffic conditions surrounding the Quaker State 400. We're committed to working with NASCAR, state and local officials and traffic experts to assure that this never happens again. The details of these improvements will be announced over time as they are formulated."

"We also recognize the traffic problems resulted in some fans not being able to attend the (Race). We are gathering information on this and will announce a policy for these affected fans within seven days"


NASCAR's Brian France eventually chimed in as well saying they will work with SMI to fix the problem.


We are scratching our collective heads. There apparently were traffic problems getting in and out of the Speedway a couple of years ago for an Indy Car race, which draws a third of what a Sprint Cup race does.

Without knowing the motives of those involved, we have a sneaking suspicion they closed their collective eyes and prayed really hard that it would all work out. Nobody had, or was willing, it seems, to spend the money required to upgrade the roads. Which led to the problem.

With the Satellite office being a mere 40 minutes or so from the track, we can tell you access consisted of two Interstate exits and two way in or out. That is it. The roads were mostly two--or four lanes at the most. That plus reports that they were turning people away at the parking lots because they were maxed out, was the primary problem.

We suspect, Gallatin County, Kentucky taxpayers and the state of Kentucky will soon be ponying up money they don't necessarily have to fix this problem.

Here's the end of the race, which we chose in part for the god awful "Narration" of the people who posted this--wooohooo!

Dale Junior Still Hates Daytona

((HT: ESPN))

He's made no secret about it, but when asked what his favorite race track was on the eve of the Firecracker 400 at Daytona, Dale Earnhardt, Junior said something of the equivalent of: "the race after Daytona..."

He, basically, says the butt-buck racing style that has to succeed there isn't racing, and it's actually weird...

He was a little more colorful after the race Saturday night...


The HQ agrees... Daytona is boring and we sat through the whole thing waiting for what went down in the last ten laps...

If you don't have the horses, you'll finish where you oughta...
Have at it, boys...

Ragan rules at Daytona, gets late victory

David Ragan took advantage of the usual late lap wreckage at Saturday night's Coke Zero 400, getting a little boost from teammate Matt Kenseth and claiming his first victory of 2011.

The race for the most part was clean--and somewhat odd looking as drivers paired up and raced in tandem, one on the bumper of the other for pretty much the whole race.

It was fascinating, in a way, to watch, but kind of boring as literally every car on the track found a dance partner and took turns leading the other. There were only 4 caution flags, until 2 at the end of the race.

Jeff Gordon spun and wobbled, but held his car on the track, bringing out a caution flag with just two laps to go, setting up the 1st overtime. Mark Martin got into Joey Logano's car, causing a pretty big pileup that took out a large part of the field and that set-up the second overtime laps and eventually Ragan's win.

Ragan has struggled all year, the win, and the accompanying points that go with it, left him in 17th place in the cup standings and still with a shot at getting into the chase at the end of the season.

Your highlights from SI.com and NASCAR.com:

BREAKING: Crown Royal Now Out Of Most Of NASCAR Dealings...

Crown Royal will end its sponsorship with Roush Fenway Racing at the end of the year- much like OSG Sports told you about Red Bull leaving NASCAR last week as they focus their, um, energies on Formula 1 and other racing circuits.

Crown Royal has sponsored Matt Kenseth for the last two seasons, and had put their names on Kurt Busch and Jamie McMurray's cars before that.

Parent company Diageo is ending its official sponsor deal with NASCAR as well, but they will keep their title sponsor for the Richmond race... and that's it...

Roush Fenway knows that 3M and driver Greg Biffle are good for next year, but Carl Edwards and AFLAC and David Ragan and UPS are still in play...

Now add Kenseth... RFR is batting .250 for 2012...

More when we know more...

Here's the last good stuff between Kenseth and Diageo from Dover...
((HT: NASCAR on FOX/youtube))

BREAKING: 2012 NASCAR HOF Class Announced

And the winners are:

From NASCAR their ownselves...

NASCAR announced today the 2012 class of inductees into the NASCAR Hall of Fame. The five-person class, which will be officially inducted in a ceremony during the weekend of Jan. 20, 2012 at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, N.C., consists of: Cale Yarborough, Darrell Waltrip, Dale Inman, Richie Evans and Glen Wood.

Members of the 55-member NASCAR Hall of Fame Voting Panel met today in a closed session in Charlotte, N.C., to vote on the induction class of 2012. The announcement was made by NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France in the NASCAR Hall of Fame’s “Great Hall.”

The class was determined by votes cast by the Voting Panel, which included a nationwide fan vote conducted through NASCAR.COM. The accounting firm of Ernst & Young presided over the tabulation of the votes.

As was the case for the first two classes of the NASCAR Hall of Fame, the results of this year’s voting were competitive. Yarborough led with 85 percent of the vote, followed by Waltrip (82%), Inman (78%), Evans (50%) and Wood (44%).

For those of you who don't know... Inman was Richard Petty's crew chief, Evans is NASCAR's King of the Modified Division and Wood is from the Wood Brothers...

Congrats to all the winners selected from the 25-finalist class...

BREAKING: Childress Penalized $150k For Run-In With Busch

From NASCAR their ownselves...

NASCAR has fined owner Richard Childress $150,000 and placed him on NASCAR probation until Dec. 31 for violating Section 12-1 (actions detrimental to stock car racing – involved in an altercation in the garage area) of the 2011 NASCAR rule book. The violation occurred following the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race June 4 at Kansas Speedway.

The probation includes all NASCAR-sanctioned events.

And, no, there's no video of any of this yet...
More when we know more...

Keslowski conquers Kansas, Junior 2nd...again

Brad Keslowski said he used a few secrets to keep enough gas in the tank. He used that to take the lead with 9 laps left and cruised to the win in Sunday's STP 400 at the Kansas Speedway.

It was Keslowski's second win since 2009 and may have established him as a player in the NASCAR top driver roll-call.

Kurt Busch seemed to have the dominant car all week, he was on the poll and led for 152 laps, but he had to stop for gas with 10 laps left and ended up finishing 9th.

Finishing 2nd, for the 2nd week in a row, Dale Earnhardt Jr, who is still trying to break a 106 race winless streak, or roughly the same amount of races it's taken Keslowski to win 2.

NASCAR.com gives us our highlights:



And NASCAR.com also provides some post-race sound for us:

Harvick steals race as Junior runs out of gas

Kevin Harvick/Courtesy: motorsport.com

Geez, what a weird day of racing on Sunday. The nightcap was every bit as strange as the Indy 500. Kevin Harvick got the wind in the Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte late Sunday night thanks to a very late charge and a bit of luck.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. all but had the race won on the last lap. But thanks to bad luck and a couple of late race incidents with other cars, he ran out of gas heading into the last turn...literally.

Harvick who began the 2-lap restart at the end of the race in 6th, somehow navigated through traffic and blew by Earnhardt for the win. Earnhardt coasted across the finish line with a 7th place finish.

Ironically, Earnhardt was driving a car with the National Guard sponsorship prominently displayed on the hood. Rookie Indy car driver J.R Hildebrand, who crashed while in the lead in the last turn of the Indianapolis 500, his car was also sponsored by...wait for it....The National Guard.

No irony there at all, just a cruel coincidence for a couple of really unlucky drivers.

The last 2 laps of the race. Courtesy: TheNARLtv/FoxSports:

Kyle Busch pulled over: Going 83 mph over speed limit

Kyle Busch/Courtesy: racintoday.com

Who says NASCAR drivers are conservative when driving around town anyway? That's just a myth? The reason we say that....NASCAR driver Kyle Busch, apparently got pulled over Tuesday afternoon in Statesville, North Carolina. He was speeding.

Want to know how fast he was going? Well, the speed limit on Perth Church Road where he was pulled over is 45 mph. Busch, was clocked at 128 mph.

Yeah, you heard us, 128.

Read the details from WBTV.com RIGHT HERE

Now granted Busch has driven much, much faster than that while at work. He wasn't at work. He was charged with careless and reckless driving and speeding and may lose his license.

Busch is already in some hot water with NASCAR after his little "Incident" with Kevin Harvick back in Richmond a couple weeks ago.  And yes, Busch is on NASCAR "Probation" because of it. Don't expect this to impact that.

Here's Busch getting a bit salty, chasing after Jimmy Johnson:

Danica To Run NASCAR Full-Time Next Season...?

((HT: ESPN))

Not really surprising anyone, Danica Patrick who has been purposefully coy about her future plans, looks like she is headed to the Nationwide Series full-time in 2012 before heading to the Sprint Cup in 2013.

Who, specifically, will she be driving for...??? Dunno...

Her contracts for both Andretti and JR Motorsports are both up after this season, and she looks like to be the mother of all free agents for the silly season...

Here's Linda Cohn with the guy who broke the story, Terry Blount...


One note... she wants the resources to run in the Indy 500 as well next year- regardless of who she runs for in the NASCAR ranks...

Harvick And Busch Get Probation

((HT: NASCAR on FOX/youtube))

Remember what happened at the end of the Darlington race this past weekend...???


After the visit to the hauler, each driver has been fined $25,000 and placed on NASCAR probation for the next four NASCAR races until June 15 for violating Section 12-1 (actions detrimental to stock car racing – involved in an altercation on pit road after the conclusion of the race).

“These penalties are a result of what occurred on pit road after the race was over,” said Kerry Tharp, senior director for communications, competition. “They are about maintaining a safe environment on pit road.”

Now, let's see if everyone behaves...
The HQ somehow doubts it...

Kevin Harvick vs. Kyle Busch...getting physical

Post-race incident/Courtesy: Nascar.com/Getty Images

 For those of you (us included), who missed the end of last nights Southern Showtime 500 at the Darlington Raceway in South Carolina, you/we missed quite a race.

The winner, was Regan Smith, a first time race winner. Congratulations to him.

However, that win was far overshadowed by the near brawl between Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch as a result of an incident near the end of the race.

If you watch the video, you'll see Harvick and Busch's cars come one in front of the other on pit row after the race ended, Harvick gets out of the car, go over to Busch's car and appears to throw a punch. Busch wants no part of it, nudges Harvick's car, which rolls into the wall and drives off. We might also mention, Harvick spun out Clint Bowyer leading into all the shenanigans.

It gets better.

The two teams were parked next to each other in the garage area. Hostilities ensued and the teams had to be separated. Both drivers were immediately sent to the principal's office (The NASCAR trailer)

You can read NASCAR.com's full account of the craziness RIGHT HERE

As bad as this sounds, in a backhanded way, it's going to be good for NASCAR, a sports that was THE up-and-coming Sport that has seemingly lost all of its momentum the past couple of years. They can use the attention, good...or bad.

As for Mr. Harvick and Mr.Busch, you can expect fines of some sort, but that probably will be it. The two have had an on-and-off feud for the past couple of years now and yes, it's escalating. But NASCAR isn't going to suspend two of its best drivers unless they just do something completely idiotic. And while this was certainly stupid...and on several levels really funny, it doesn't quite reach idiotic level...yet.

 NASCAR.com provides us with the video. The craziness comes about the 1:40 mark.