Norris McDonald's Auto Racing Blog

On TSN's blanket coverage of the Indy 500

Despite the problems facing the annual running of the Indianapolis 500 – they’re scrambling to get Katherine Legge through her rookie test and into the race; Chevrolet and Honda are at each other’s throats; Lotus engines are underpowered; everybody’s getting an extra 50 hp for their qualifying runs (I mean, what is that?) — at the end of the day, it will still be a magnificent spectacle full of schmaltz and pomp with 200,000-plus in the grandstands and it could very well end up being a really exciting race.

Qualifications to set the field of 33 look to be potentially very exciting and I’m delighted to be able to tell you today that for those who care, TSN (through its secondary channel, TSN2) is really delivering the goods.

From the minute qualifying opens Saturday at 11 a.m. (today, if you’re reading this in the Saturday Wheels section rather than online), until the gun goes off Sunday at 6 p.m. to signal the end of “bump day,” TSN2 will be there.

(Okay - not exactly every minute. From 11 a.m. till 2:30 p.m. today. and then again from 4:30 till 6:30. But you get my drift.)

Next Friday, known as “Carb Day,” which is traditionally held two days before the big race, when the drivers practice for the last time, the Indy Lights Freedom 100 race is run and there’s a pit stop contest among the teams, TSN2 will be on the air to bring it to us from 11 a.m. through until 4 p.m.

On Sunday, May 27, the greatest day of the year in motorsport will start at 7:55 a.m. with the Grand Prix of Monaco, followed at 11 a.m. by the 96th Indy 500 to be followed at 5:30 p.m. by the NASCAR Coca-Cola 600 from Charlotte, N.C. — all on the main TSN channel.

Of course, there is other racing. The NASCAR All-Star Race from Charlotte (there’s a million bucks at stake for the driver who finishes first) is on Saturday night (tonight), the World of Outlaws will be racing live, the Nationwide Series and Camping World Truck Series and, oh my — be still my beating heart!

All of the channels and the times, of course, can be found in “George’s TV Listings for Race Fans,” on the home page of wheels.ca

You know, I can remember the days when you either had to go to a theatre to watch the Indy 500 on closed-circuit TV, or else wait till the Saturday following the race for the highlights to be shown on ABC’s Wide World of Sports.

How lucky we are in 2012 to get to watch everything live and in colour and in HD, as it’s happening.

Tony Kanaan wins Long Beach GP (not really, but . . .)

WEEKEND HEADLINES

1. Rosberg wins F1 race for Mercedes - what a coincidence

2. Power wins IndyCar race but Kanaan is real winner

3. NASCAR goes crazy over truck race at Rockingham. Really.

4. Other racing

Nico Rosberg won the first race of his 111-race Grand Prix career and he drove a Mercedes Silver Arrows into Victory Lane for the first time since 1955 to do it at Sunday’s Grand Prix of China.

The fact that shareholders at a Mercedes-Benz meeting last week called for the company to pull out of F1 racing and that the team is most unhappy with the way Bernie Ecclestone has been manipulating the signing of the new Concorde Agreement has nothing at all to do with the two surprising victories – apparently.

To get the nuts and bolts out of the way before getting into my latest conspiracy theory, Rosberg won the first pole of his career on Saturday and then ran away with Sunday’s race to finish well clear of second–place finisher Jenson Button, who was driving a McLaren powered by a Mercedes engine.

McLaren-Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton was third, for the third time in three races this season, while Mark Webber finished fourth for Red Bull-Renault - his third straight fourth-place finish. Defending world champion Sebastien Vettel was fifth (complete results here).

They say the best time to tune into an NFL game is after the two-minute warning in the fourth quarter and that was the case with Sunday’s Grand Prix, as all of the excitement happened in the last few laps.

With five laps to go in the 58-lap contest, Kimi Raikkonen was holding down second place for Lotus-Renault, with Vettel third, Button fourth, Webber fifth and Hamilton sixth. At the finish, it was Button second, Hamilton third, Webber fourth and Vettel fifth with Raikkonen all the way back in 14^th as his two-stop gamble saw his tires disintegrate.

It was a good race with lots to talk about afterward, such as Michael Schumacher’s second retirement in three races (he’d started second but his crew failed to tighten his right-front wheel at the first pit stop and he was forced to pull off the circuit before he crashed), whether Button could have caught Rosberg if his crew hadn’t taken so long to tighten his left-rear tire on his final pit stop (nearly 10 seconds), and whether the Mercedes F-duct front wing system gives that team an unfair advantage (at least until everybody else copies it).

One side note:

I don’t want to sound like Don Cherry but F1 will rue the day it did not put a stop to side-by-side "racing" on pit lane. McLaren released Hamilton from a pit stop early in the race and Lotus gave Raikkonen the signal to go as Hamilton drew alongside. Raikkonen and Hamilton then went side-by-side till the end of the pit (albeit on the speed limiters), at which point Raikkonen gave way to Hamilton.

Analyst David Coulthard went so far as to say the pit lane "is part of the race track" but it shouldn’t be. As in IndyCar, teams should have to hold the driver till the coast is clear. Otherwise, there will be a collision in there one of these days and somebody will get hurt. That shouldn’t have to happen in order to force F1 to act.

Now F1 travels to Bahrain where the majority Shiite population feels oppressed by a minority Sunni family headed by Sheikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa. This political unrest forced the cancellation of the race last year and there are again fears of revolution.

As Bob Varsha said on Speed TV Sunday, "We worry that this sporting event will turn into a news event." For that, we will have to wait and see.

Meantime, I have to say that I never believed that a car race could be fixed until it was proved that Nelson Piquet Jr., Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds conspired at the 2008 Grand Prix of Singapore to create a situation (Piquet would crash on purpose) that would benefit his teammate, Fernando Alonso, who then went on to win the race.

The reason they did this was because Renault had not won a race for close to two years and was reportedly considering leaving the sport.

In no way do I think Nico Rosberg or anybody else in Sunday’s Grand Prix did anything knowingly illegal or immoral, but I still find it really interesting that – on the heels of suggestions that Mercedes might not continue in the sport – the team suddenly has wonderful success.

When there is big business at play, and there are billions of dollars at stake, anything is possible. Anything. And it goes beyond Formula One. The National Hockey League’s mission statement is that come hell or high water, it will sell hockey in the United States. Ergo, it is no coincidence that, with the exception of the Vancouver Canucks, every professional hockey team in Canada stinks. Remember that, and believe it.

The Mercedes shareholders revolt is being led by a fund manager named Ingo Spech of the Daimler shareholder Union Investment. Worried that Mercedes is losing ground to rivals BMW and Audi, Spech called on Daimler to pull its Mercedes team out of F1, just as BMW withdrew several years ago. His motion reportedly drew support from other large investors.

In a parallel development, Ecclestone announced several weeks ago that he had agreed terms on a new contract with a "majority" of teams but not Williams and Mercedes.

Mercedes has not commented publicly but reports suggest the company - if it remains unhappy - could either challenge the contract, citing the European Union’s competition laws, or else walk away from F1.

So with Mercedes and its shareholders down in the dumps over its involvement in F1, what better medicine than success? So a company that hasn’t won a Grand Prix since 1955 - Juan Manuel Fangio was the driver then - suddenly wins one.

And to put an exclamation mark on that, there are Mercedes engines in all of the first three cars. And Nico Rosberg, who’s always shown lots of promise but hasn’t been able to follow through until now, suddenly delivers in spades.

It will be verrrry interesting, as Arte Johnson used to say, to see if Rosberg can keep it up.

Why do I say that?

Well, do you remember the Belgian Grand Prix of 2009? That was two years after two Indian businessmen bought the Spyker F1 team (which had previously been owned by Canadian businessman Alex Schnaider’s Midland Group, who’d bought it from Eddie Jordan) and renamed it Force India.

Force India had entered 29 races and hadn’t scored a point and there were suggestions that if it didn’t finish high enough in the standings to qualify for a share of F1's travel and TV money that it would either be shut down or put up for sale again.

That year, there were 20 cars in F1. Nobody wanted to lose another two. Veteran Force India driver Giancarlo Fisichella qualified most of the time at the back of the pack that season. In fact, three times in 20 races he was dead last; twice he was 19^th, twice he was 18^th – and, well, you get my drift.

The race before the Belgian GP that year was the European Grand prix at Valencia. Fisichella qualified 16^th and finished 12^th. The race after Belgium was in Italy, where he qualified 14^th and finished ninth.

But at Belgium that year, he qualified on the pole – yes, really – and finished second in the race. The points he earned, plus the fourth-place finish at the Italian GP by his teammate, Adrien Sutil, gave the team enough points to finish high enough in the standings to qualify for financial aid.

What a coicidence. . .

As I said, if something has to happen in F1 (or any other mega-billion-dollar sport) to make somebody happy, it happens.

2. Kanaan wins Long Beach Grand Prix, Hinch second

Okay, Tony Kanaan didn't win. He officially finished fourth in Sunday's Grand Prix of Long Beach (official results here) but because the IZOD IndyCar Series penalized 14 of the 26 starters for unauthorized engine changes, and gave those 14 drivers 10-grid-position penalties, I think it must be taken into consideration when calculating who really won the race in California on Sunday.

Officially, Will Power won the race, with Simon Pagenaud second and Hinchcliffe third. Fourth was Kanaan and fifth was J.R. Hildebrand.

However, because of the stupidity of sticking to the engine-change rule rather than taking the spirit of the rule into consideration (which would have seen the penalties suspended – see my blogs on this in posts below), here is the way the race should really have been scored:

Kanaan qualified 10^th but was made to start 19^th (which is not a 10-grid-position penalty but this thing is so complicated that you will just have to bear with me). He officially finished fourth, which is an improvement of 15 positions. But because he was only penalized nine places instead of 10, we have to dock him a position, so he only improved 14 positions. But nobody did it better on Sunday in Long Beach than this.

Hinchcliffe qualified sixth but then was made to start 16^th – a full 10-grid-position penalty. Because he eventually came home third, that means he improved his position 13 places, which puts him second behind Kanaan's 14, in my books.

Will Power finished third in my "race" because he qualified second, was made to start 12^th, and then finished first for an improvement of 12 positions. Good for him – but not as good as Kanaan and Hinchcliffe.

Oh, before somebody says J.R. Hildebrand should have made it onto my podium, consider this: he qualified 16^th, was only penalized four places instead of 10 (he should have had to go off 26^th but you’d have to ask the geniuses at IndyCar why he didn’t) and so by improving his position from 20^th to fifth, he made up 15 places but really only nine.

UNDERSTAND???

I’m going to stop now because I’m getting a headache. Let’s just hope IndyCar never does this to us again.

3. NASCAR tries to inject excitement into non-crashing boredom

After putting on two of the most boring big-league races in the history of NASCAR, the sanctioning body’s management group pulled out all the stops Sunday afternoon by arriving en masse at Rockingham Speedway in North Carolina to watch a Camping World Series truck race that turned out to be about as boring as the Nationwide and Sprint Cup races that preceded it.

NASCAR is all about crashing. If there is no crashing, there is no excitement. The strategy of the drivers and teams is predicated on yellow flags necessitating pit stops where tire changes, fuel fill-ups and chassis changes can be completed.

No yellows means big trouble because, on top of everything else, the fans get restless.

Friday night’s Nationwide race at Texas Motor Speedway was a yawn (Ricky Stenhouse Jr. the winner). Saturday night’s Sprint Cup race there was no better (Greg Biffle the winner, with but two yellows – including one for a hat that blew out on the track). The commentators spent much of the time explaining why "long green runs" are bad for teams.

So Sunday afternoon, NASCAR president Mike Helton and his entourage flew into Rockingham to say how much NASCAR liked being back at one of its spiritual home tracks. Unfortunately, the truck race that followed (Kasey Kahne the winner, with James Buescher second (James who? See what I mean?) and Matt Crafton third (ditto) was about as unexciting as the two stock-car snoozers.

Rockingham used to be NASCAR’s third race of the season. For years and years, the series would start with the Daytona 500, then go north to Richmond, Va., for the second race, Rockingham for the third and Atlanta the fourth (usually held the same weekend as the start of Ontario’s March break, which used to guarantee a huge snowstorm for all those folks driving their kids to Myrtle Beach or Jacksonville).

But those races were cold for everybody. It was winter, after all. So NASCAR wised up and went west and that’s why, after Daytona, there are now races in sunny (or sunnier) southern California, Arizona and Nevada.

They made those changes eight years ago and since Rockingham only had one race on the NASCAR schedule at the time, it meant the end of racing at the facility. Traditional NASCAR fans were not happy

Owner Andy Hillenburg, a former racer, bought the place at auction five years and has been sprucing it up since. He finally convinced NASCAR to give him something – anything – and they responded by adding a truck race there to the schedule.

Hillenburg said he was happy with the turnout Sunday – the NASCAR communications folks used the term "nearly full grandstands" – but it could have been better. A lot better. In fact, there were a lot of empty seats. But that’s understandable, because truck racing ain’t Cup and Cup is what used to pack the place.

But it’s a start and Helton’s presence was a bit like a blessing from the Pope. The symbolism was obvious: keep tryin’, son, and someday you might see stock cars at this place again.

The bloom is off the NASCAR rose (and if there are any more races like the ones on the weekend, that rose will soon be wilting). Going forward, you can predict the strategy: it was a Southern sport to begin with; to revive it, what better way than to return it to its roots.

And there's probably no better place to do that, than at the Rock.

4. Other racing:

Klaus Graf and Lucas Luhr, driving the Muscle Milk Honda Performance Development ARX-03 LMP1 car, won the Tequila Patrón American Le Mans Series at Long Beach for the second straight season Saturday.

Tommy Milner and Oliver Gavin gave Corvette Racing its first victory at Long Beach since 2009 and its first in ALMS since Mosport last July by finishing first in the GT class.

Kyle Marcelli of Barrie finished fourth in the Prototype Challenge class. Tony Burgess of Toronto was eighth in PC.

In World of Outlaws Sprint Car Racing, Joey Saldana won the round at Paducah Speedway in Kentucky.

The ALMS and the Outlaws will both be racing in southern Ontario in July - the sports cars at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park (nee Mosport) and the Outlaws at Ohswegen Speedway near Brantford.

Crashes could determine Daytona 500 winner

Two unknowns won Friday’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race and today’s Nationwide Series stock car race because, in both cases, just about everybody else crashed.

John King (who?) was the winner of the truck race after surviving three attempts at green-white-checkers finishes that featured a truck flying up into the catch-fencing on the last one.

Today, as the laps wound down on the Nationwide race, they had not one but two Big Ones, the first involving 17 cars and the last involving 20.

James Buescher (who?), who was running 11th on the last lap when chaos erupted in front of him and all the leaders were taken out, found himself in Victory Lane.

For the second straight race – the first Sprint Cup qualifying race on Thursday and the Nationwide feature today – Danica Patrick was crashed out. Thursday, Aric Almirola rammed her in the side and sent her into the wall on the backstretch and today she was hit from behind by her rookie teammate, Cole Whitt, and rammed the third turn wall.

Between the two wrecks, she won the pole for the Nationwide race and led the first two laps.

The on-track mayhem in the first two feature races of NASCAR’s showcase weekend suggest that Sunday’s Daytona 500 could also be a wreck-fest and that pileups will determine the winner, not skill.

Lots of crashes will certainly entertain folks who like that kind of thing but lots of crashes also tend to disrupt the rhythm of a race and interrupt any racing that actually might be taking place.

The Sprint Cup drivers, for the most part, are among the best in the U.S. and, given their druthers, would undoubtedly rather show how good they are by outracing their rivals rather than by watching them crash out.

Of course – and nobody likes to talk about this, but – there is also the possibility that somebody going into a wall at 180 miles an hour might get hurt.

NASCAR has had incredible luck since 2001, when Dale Earnhardt didn’t survive what looked to be a routine (for NASCAR) trip into the wall, and sooner or later, it’s not going to be good news again.

But NASCAR wants it that way, apparently, because they’ve gone to great lengths since the end of last season to recreate the “pack racing” that sees dozens of cars tear around the speedway at extremely high speed and extremely close quarters.

The problem with that, of course, is that if anything goes wrong with one car, or a driver makes a mistake, everybody crashes and not just one or two.

Which means, as was the case twice already this weekend, somebody not a household name could wind up winning NASCAR’s biggest race by accident - literally.

Canadian champion Don Thomson Jr. retires

THOMSON TO WRENCH FOR J.R. FITZPATRICK

 

Canadian racing champion Don Thomson, Jr. has put his Farewell Tour plans on hold - perhaps permanently - to take over as crew chief for rising young talent J.R. Fitzpatrick in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series, effective immediately.

 

Thomson, of Hamilton, who's won seven Canadian championships, including five consecutive CASCAR national titles, is returning to the Fitzpatrick Motorsports shop where he spent many years as a mechanic and driver. 

 

Shortly after the 2011 season ended, in which Thomson drove the EHR/Team 3 Red Dodge car to fifth place in the standings, team owner John Fitzpatrick began discussing the idea of him returning to the fold to help his son, who finished third in points behind champion Scott Steckly and D.J. Kennington, win the NASCAR Canada championship.

“I know Thomson well and I know what he brings to the team,” said John Fitzpatrick. “We were a pretty
formidable program, winning eight championships between him and J.R. during the CASCAR days, and I expect at his transition to Crew Chief here will be pretty seamless.”

The role of Crew Chief and advisor to Fitzpatrick is not unknown to Thomson. When J.R. Fitzpatrick was just starting out,Thomson built and crewed a late model program for him and then mentored him when he moved into the CASCAR Super Series.

 

“I am really excited about this next chapter in my career and glad to be back at Fitzpatrick Motorsports," said
Thomson. “I am comfortable here, I know the way the system works and John is really committed to putting the best product on the track for J.R. and our sponsor partners.

 

"I have also known J.R. since he was 8 years old and he has grown to become the best driver in the series so I really want to be a part of whatever he does." 

“I am really pumped to get this season started,” said J.R. Fitzpatrick, who had success several times in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and the Nationwide Series for stock cars in the last few years. “I had a lot of good runs last season and Thomson’s addition to the team will only make us stronger."

The NASCAR Canadian Tire Series season gets under way May 20 on the road course at Mosport International Raceway. The championship will be made up of 12 races in Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia.

 

Thomson told me last fall that he would run one more season and then hang up his helmet. But the opportunity to resume working with the Fitzpatrick family apparently hastened his retirement.

Will resignation impact TV coverage of F1?

A couple of weeks ago, shortly after Mark Webber won the Brazilian GP and Britain’s Sky TV announced plans for an HD channel dedicated solely to Formula One starting in 2012, I contacted TSN about their plans for next year.

TSN has been showing F1 races and qualifying rounds for years, most recently by picking up the feed from the BBC. But the Beeb will only televise 10 of next year’s 20 scheduled races live while Sky will have them all (plus all practice sessions, etc.) and, in fact, has hired Martin Brundle to head up its broadcasting crew.

Now, I haven’t heard back from TSN. I suspect there are any number of reasons for this, all of them legitimate. When they have something to say, I’m sure they’ll call. The season doesn’t start till mid-March, so there’s plenty of time.

But I was discussing the situation with a friend of mine yesterday afternoon and, at the end of the chat, he said this: "Maybe TSN won’t have any F1 next year. Maybe we’ll get to watch it on Speed TV."

I agreed with him (although I stressed that I thought it highly unlikely). But then I got an email later in the day that contained some unsettling news.

Hunter Nickell, president of Speed since 2005, has resigned and will leave at the end of the year.

Now, I don’t know Hunter Nickell from Adam, but I do know that in recent years the Speed weekend racing coverage during the season has gone from a one-hour Sunday night wrapup program to pretty much wall-to-wall coverage of the sport during the weekend, starting Friday.

Host Adam Alexander would pop up before the first race of the weekend, usually the Friday night NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race, with an update on that weekend’s racing calendar (sports cars, motocross, Moto GP, Formula One and IndyCar races, as well as NASCAR) and then would update with other pre-race reports and results through Saturday and on into Sunday evening.

Kind of a mini-CNN on wheels.

As well as his work strengthening motorsport news coverage in general, Nickell also beefed up coverage of, and solidified relationships with, F1, Supercross and Grand Am in particular.

Now, on the surface, his resignation might not seem like that big a deal. But every time there’s a change at the top of just about anything, the new guy (or woman) moves to put his or her stamp on things.

For instance (and I bet you didn’t know this), the minute the president of a major film studio is replaced, every movie in production at that time goes straight to digital. They are not released in theatres. Why? Because the new head honcho doesn’t want to have to take the blame for any turkeys in the bunch and he/she sure doesn’t want to have to pass on any praise to the guy who was fired.

It’s the same with TV.

It’s highly unlikely that the new president of Speed is going to leave everything as it is. Maybe he/she won’t be that big a racing fan. So maybe the weekend racing coverage, or some of it, gets whacked.

Maybe the new person loves NASCAR and isn’t much of an F1 fan. Uh-oh, I can hear you say. But it’s possible this change could have an effect on Speed's F1 coverage.

Or maybe not. (It really doesn’t matter to us in Canada now, because Speed’s F1 race coverage has been blacked out in recent years. But if TSN or Sportsnet passes on F1 in 2012, and Speed’s coverage is altered, we could be in a fix . . .)

What I am saying is that Speed TV under the leadership of Hunter Nickell has been a good friend of all motorsports and fingers should be crossed that this across-the-board approach continues.

Now, speaking of Formula One, it’s really interesting to watch how Lotus-Renault CEO Dany Bahar is now speaking out of both sides of his mouth so far as the return of driver Kimi Raikkonen is concerned.

Bahar had some of the world’s motoring press over for lunch in London on Monday and said that he fully expects Raikkonen to have some difficulty adjusting to F1 after being away from the sport for two years (ya think?) but that the team is quite prepared to give him all the time he needs.

Said M. Bahar: "You cannot expect from a driver that was absent for two years to come back and adapt to the new tyres and new regulations from day one, so he needs his time. But whether this time is three days, six races or 20 races, we will see. What is important is to see how his tendency goes towards the performance. If it is always improving, then of course we will give him the time."

All very well and good. But then, he said this:

"He knows he has to deliver. . . He is not the same kid as he was at Sauber and at McLaren. These are different times, he has to deliver and he realises that."

Well, which is it? Is it, "We will give him the time?" or is it, "He knows he has to deliver?"

This guy Bahar won’t last long if Raikkonen doesn’t live up to what’s expected of him. And on top of that, he’s about to record an even bigger loss in the arena of public opinion.

The contract Renault has with Robert Kubica, the popular Polish driver who was nearly killed in a rally accident at the beginning of the year and was unable to return to F1 racing as hoped, is about to expire and Bahar seems content to let him go.

As a good friend of mine noted a few weeks ago, when that happens, Kubica will become a test driver with Ferrari and if he can recapture his old speed, will be a very good bet to replace Felipe Massa in 2013.

And if that happens, Dany Bahar’s career in F1 could come to screeching halt.

Kurt Busch gets his comeuppance

It’s finally happened.

A high-profile professional athlete has found out what things are like in the real world.

No more pampering, no more putting up with temper-tantrums, no more embarrassing the boss or the sponsor who pays the bills.

Kurt Busch has been told by Roger Penske not to let the door hit him in the butt on the way out. He’s been fired, canned, downsized, whacked.

And not a minute too soon.

Penske fired driver Busch late Sunday as the result of a public meltdown following his elimination from the season-ending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway earlier this month.

Penske waited until the weekend's end-of-season ceremonies in Las Vegas were over before handing Busch the pink slip. According to Charlotte.com, which broke the story Sunday night, the official announcement would be made some time Monday (Penske link here).

(Both Busch and a spokesman for Penske Corp. said Monday afternoon that Busch was not fired but that there was an amicable parting of the ways. Both Busch and the Penske executive couldn't have said nicer things about each other if they'd been written . . .)

The reason for the firing - er, amicable parting of the ways - was Busch's tirade directed at ESPN/ABC pit reporter Dr. Jerry Punch when the network was slow to leave race action in order for the driver to be interviewed after he was forced out of the race because of transmission problems.

After asking "why can't we tape this?" Busch became agitated and swore at both interviewer Punch and a camerman. Eventually, Punch said to "forget it" and walked off. Busch went into the Penske hauler but the scene was recorded on video by a fan with a cellphone (see the video below).

Warning: Strong language

This was the third or fourth incident this season in which Kurt Busch - not to be confused with his younger brother Kyle Busch, who escaped being fired recently by Joe Gibbs Racing after losing his temper during a Camping World Truck Series race and deliberately wrecking an opponent - lost control of his emotions.

He dressed down his crew and swore at his crew chief during a race (the profanity over the team radio was heard on live television), had to be restrained from attacking a television reporter who asked him a charged question and refused to answer questions when confronted by another journalist.

Some of these transgressions may appear to be minor (I sympathized - somewhat - with Busch when I saw the cellphone video of the Punch incident; he had just suffered a major disappointment and had to wait, and wait, and wait to be interviewed when, I'm sure, he just wanted to get out of there) but in the commercial world of NASCAR, where the teams and drivers are paid millions to represent corporations who are providing those millions, you can't behave like a Saturday night dirt car jockey just starting out.

As professional football, baseball, basketball, hockey and golf players are not allowed to behave like jerks, racing drivers aren't either. Both Busch brothers have lost sight of this throughout their careers and it is to Roger Penske's credit that he said enough is enough, and pulled the plug.

You wonder if executives at Mars Inc., which agreed with Joe Gibbs to continue to support Kyle Busch in 2012 after removing their wraps from his cars in the last two races of 2011, might be wondering today if they should have done the same thing.

Of course, Mars has an executive board and those things are quicksand when it comes to making a decision. Penske runs Penske and his word is law. Although Roger has a board of directors, it's clear that he calls the shots. And he calls those shots pretty well.

It's also clear that Kurt Busch didn't see the dismissal coming. He gave a press conference in Las Vegas on Friday in which he talked about working through some issues with a sports psychologist but then veered off on a tangent and said some pretty strong things about a previous employer.

He must have known he was walking on thin ice and yet he still kept going further and further out from shore.

The ice finally broke Sunday night.

There are few, if any, good rides available for 2012, so Busch could be in some trouble - unless he takes his personal millions and purchases the Red Bull team, which is in the process of going out of business, and runs his own entry.

On the other hand, this might turn out to be good news for Sam Hornish Jr. Hornish was a highly successful Indy car driver for Penske but has had trouble adapting to stock cars.

However, Penske has never wavered in his support for Hornish, who won the second-last Nationwide Series race this year (his first in NASCAR), and announced plans to run him for a full season in the Nationwide in 2012.

Might Penske move Hornish up to the big team? We'll see.

'KURT BUSCH STILL DOESN'T GET IT' - SEE NORRIS McDONALD'S TUESDAY COMMENTARY HERE

Meantime, last week was not a good one for promising young  Canadian racing drivers.

Two, in particular.

Ironically, they're both profiled in the current issue of Sportsnet magazine as young guys on the way up.

Robert Wickens, 22, of Guelph and Toronto, was the first one to get a kick in the stomach when he found out, at the Grand Prix of Brazil, that a Formula One ride in 2012 that he had been led to believe he had a shot at was being given to a young European driver whose curriculum vitae is nowhere near Wickens’s.

There was Wickens, at the Interlagos circuit in Sao Paulo, site of the last F1 race of the 2011 season, in his role as official reserve driver for the Marussa-Virgin F1 team. He was reigning champion of the World Series by Renault and had been told by his sponsor, the Marussia supercar company, that all they were looking for in a potential F1 driver was results.

He had kept his part of the bargain and delivered, in spades. He had won the 2011 Renault F3.5 title after two seasons of finishing second in two other European F1 feeder series, Formula 2 and GP3.

So right in the middle of the Grand Prix weekend, Wickens find out – as did the world – that a young French driver named Charles Pic, who in six years of racing in comparable series to Wickens had never finished higher than third in the standings, would become a Formula One driver in 2012 as a teammate to the underachieving Timo Glock.

Of course, the Marussia-Virgin F1 team – like most of the teams in F1 these days (McLaren, Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari excepted) – never saw a cheque it didn’t like. Despite what Wickens had been told, that all Marussa was looking for was results, in the end they went for the money and not the talent.

So that was disappointment No. 1. Here comes No. 2.

In mid-week, James Hinchcliffe of Oakville, who had won the Sunoco Rookie of the Year title in the IZOD IndyCar Series this year, found out that he was suddenly unemployed as a result of his team, Newman/Haas Racing, announcing it would not be participating in the IZOD IndyCar Series in 2012.

Hinchcliffe, who turns 25 today (Monday), had paid his dues and was enjoying his success. A veteran of the Formula BMW, Star Mazda, Champ Car Atlantic, A1-GP and Indy Lights series, Hinch put all his eggs in one basket over the winter of 2010-11 and made it plain that it would be the Big Leagues or nothing by the time spring and summer arrived.

Thank goodness that the Toronto investment firm Sprott Inc. opted to sponsor him. Despite missing the opening race of the season, Hinchcliffe went on to finish 12^th in points, won the rookie title and looked to be well on his way.

But then came Thursday’s announcement and despite putting his best face forward – "I'll have to regroup but there are still some seats available on good teams," he told me on the phone – he had clearly been gobsmacked.

"Hinch," like Wickens, is the perfect driver for a modern-day racing team: fast in the car but – just as important – social media savvy. He’s just the ticket needed to connect with young fans.

Although not officially disappointment No. 3, the fact that two young tiger Canadian drivers are now looking for rides in 2012 does not bode well for Paul Tracy in his quest to land full-time employment in 2012 (I still maintain Wickens would be better off trying Indy cars than continuing to try to make an impression in Europe).

It was going to be an iffy proposition in any event. Love him as we all do, Tracy is just not as fast as he was when he was a kid and when push comes to shove, and the choice comes down to a Wickens or a Hinchcliffe or a Tracy, some car owner is going to nod toward the first two before he sticks out his hand to the veteran who's third in line.

And that, as Stone Cold Steve Austin would say, is the bottom line.

Notebook:

– Tony Stewart was crowned NASCAR Sprint Cup champion in Las Vegas at the weekend and that pretty much wraps up the 2011 season. The Red Bull stock car team is kaput (although there is a rumour around that someone still wants to buy it . . . Jacques Villeneuve, perhaps? . . . but just what is left to purchase?) The employees have all been let go and what infrastructure remains is anybody’s guess.

On the driver front, Kyle Busch is being urged to just be a Sprint Cup driver in 2012; the thinking being that trying to race in three series might be contributing to his periodic meltdowns. Meantime, his brother, Kurt Busch, has let it be known he's working with a sports psychologist to try to get his emotions under control.

– Autosport magazine threw a gala in London Sunday night and handed out a pile of awards. Sebastien Vettel was named international racing driver of the year and Jenson Button was honoured as British driver of the year. Dan Wheldon was given a posthumous award to recognize his lifetime achievements in motorsport, which was accepted by his father, Clive, and his IndyCar friend and rival, Dario Franchitti. F1 driver Paul di Resta was named Rookie of the Year.

– French driver Sebastien Ogier won the Race of Champions over Tom Kristensen at the Esprit Arena in Dusseldorf. Michael Schumacher and a whole bunch of racing people were there. In Brazil, F1 driver Jaime Alguersuari won Felipe Massa’s annual go-kart celebrity race with Lucas di Grassi and Rubens Barrichello second and third. Jules Bianchi, a soon-to-be-Ferrari driver (development program) actually won but was disqualified for being underweight. His car was too light, that is.

– The World of Outlaws sprint cars will race four times in five nights in Canada next July, kicking off their "northern swing" at Autodrome Granby, Autodrome Drummondville, Cornwall Motor Speedway and then the Brantford-area Ohsweken Speedway, where the feature this year was won by none other than Tony Stewart. Trust me on this: if you have never seen the Outlaws in action, go.

Edwards on NASCAR pole; Video - NASCAR Canada

SATURDAY EVENING UPDATE: Brad Keselowski won the final NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway Saturday while Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who finished second, won the series championship. Carl Edwards, in the hunt for the Sprint Cup title, finished third in the race.

Earlier, Edwards won the pole for the Sprint Cup showdown Sunday afternoon, with Martin Truex Jr. second and Kasey Kahne third. Tony Stewart, the only driver other than Edwards in contention to win the Chase for the NASCAR Championship, will go off 15th.

Earlier . . .

The best kept secret in Canadian sports is the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series.

Don’t believe me? Take a look at this video,  which gives you an idea of what this series is all about.

When you finish watching the video, make plans to watch the Year in Review TV program that is scheduled to be shown Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. on TSN2.

(It will be shown again on TSN2 Monday at 8:30 p.m., Tuesday at 3 p.m. and again next Saturday at 11 p.m. Don’t get TSN2? It will be on the main channel, TSN, on Wednesday at midnight and next Friday at 4 p.m.)

 

Speaking of NASCAR, the big showdown for the Sprint Cup Chase for the Championship will take place Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Florida. The pre-race show will be on TSN2 at 2 p.m. and the green flag will fly at 3 p.m.

The only two drivers who can win the title are two-time champion Tony Stewart, who has won four of the Chase races to date, and Carl Edwards, who has won none.

However, Edwards leads by three points (Stewart won the race last weekend at Phoenix and still couldn’t overcome the three-point lead Edwards had going in: NORRIS NOTE - I apologize for the severe brain fade here - Kasey Kahne won the Phoenix race) and has won two races at Homestead-Miami to Stewart’s none, so  they’re really pretty even.

Of course, the trash-talking dominated the last media conference of the week and what would you expect?

Best line was Stewart’s: “I’d wreck my mom to win a championship.”

Of course you would, Smoke, and so would Edwards.

Incidentally, TSN2 will carry the NASCAR Nationwide race Saturday at 4 p.m. And the last truck race of the Camping World Series can be seen tonight on Speed TV at 8 p.m.

Incidentally, NASCAR has still not issued a truck series schedule for 2012. Speculation continues to swirl about a potential Mosport date for that series . . .

Here’s some hard news: Suzuki Motor Corp. has pulled out of motorcycle racing at the Moto GP level but says it will be back on track for the 2014 season.

In a student, Suzuki said: "Suzuki Motor Corp. has decided to suspend temporarily its participation in FIM Road Racing Grand Prix MotoGP from 2012.

"This suspension is to cope with tough circumstances mainly caused by the prolonged recession in developed countries, a historical appreciation of Japanese yen and repeated natural disasters.

"Having an eye to returning to MotoGP in 2014, Suzuki will now focus on developing a competitive new racing machine for that class.

"Suzuki will continue motocross racing activity and support of road racing activities using mass-produced motorcycles, by obtaining FIM homologation and co-operation with the supplier of its development racing kit parts."

Ace Suzuki rider Alvaro Bautist has already left the team for Honda.

Finally, ekartingnews.com is live-streaming editor/publisher Rob Howden’s race call of the Superkarts! USA SuperNationals competition this weekend in Las Vegas. It started Friday morning and will go all weekend at link here.

Four IndyCar racers are entered:  Raphael Matos, EJ Viso, Jay Howard and Martin Plowman.

Rob reports that the team Dan Wheldon was supposed to run with has his prepped kart in Vegas and, as a tribute, his name will be kept on the entry list and in the results. Dan was well-loved in the paddock and his absence is much noted, Rob says.

Busch unlikely to face more discipline

MONDAY NIGHT UPDATE: NASCAR fined Kyle Busch $50,000 and put him on probation until Dec. 31 for actions detrimental to stock car racing as a result of the incident with Ron Hornaday at Texas Motor Speedway last Friday night.

Earlier . . .

You have to wonder which of his sponsors refused permission for Joe Gibbs to fire Kyle Busch, because at least one of them did or else Busch wouldn’t have been allowed to watch Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race from the comfort of the team’s pit box at Texas Motor Speedway.

What made it worse is that Busch was allowed to sit down to watch the race; owner Gibbs had to stand behind him the whole time.

(Or else Busch hopped up there first and sat down and put on the headphones, just like anyone who feels entitled would do. And Gibbs, ever the gentleman he is, didn’t want to create a scene by tapping him on the shoulder and saying something like, "Hey, Junior – you’re in my seat.")

Seeing Busch sitting there – calm, cool and seemingly unware that he escaped being on Death Row for doing something Friday night that very well could have resulted in the death of another racing driver – was disappointing, to say the least.

The question all weekend – at least ever since Busch lined up a Camping World Series truck being driven by Ron Hornaday on Friday night and deliberately sent it slamming into the outside wall at that same Texas Speedway – had been whether Gibbs would fire Busch.

As NASCAR had earlier handed down the stiffest penalty it had ever levied against a driver, and said so when it suspended Busch from competition for the rest of the weekend’s Nationwide and Sprint Cup races, it’s unlikely there will be anything further – although it remains an option.

But when Gibbs said after the suspension was announced that he would be "talking to sponsors," you got the feeling he was asking permission to set Busch down, either for the rest of the season or even longer.

The former coach of the Washington Redskins, Gibbs is a person who has the patience of Job. He previously put up with Tony Stewart’s temper tantrums when "Smoke" drove for him (he made him take anger management counselling) but all Tony ever really did was be rude to reporters.

Kyle Busch, however, has always been a handful. He once threatened to kill Denny Hamlin on national television (it was a radio transmission but there was no doubting his fury), he refused to speak to the media (there was one famous race a year ago when he ran away from reporters by ducking in and out of transporters in the paddock and then made his final escape by running across the track and out a gate) and generally made a royal pain of himself.

That, of course, was the old Kyle Busch. The new Kyle Busch arrived on the scene at the beginning of this year and butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. He was kind, friendly, funny, cooperative and just about completely opposite from the jerk we used to know.

I put it down to his marriage; others said he’d obviously spent time with the Gibbs-contracted anger counsellors. Whichever, he was a different guy. Even when Richard Childress put him in a headlock and punched him, Busch kept his cool (and that must have been a true test).

Everything was wonderful until Friday night, early in the truck race, when Busch and Hornaday were running side-by-side and came across a slower truck. Hornaday had to move up the track to avoid a collison and sideswiped Busch in the process.

It was the sort of thing you see dozens of times over the course of a season in any kind of racing. It was no big deal.

But if you ever want to see road rage in action, take a look at the video and see what happened next.

Now, trying to explain intent is a very difficult thing to do because nobody really knows what’s in another person’s mind.

Did Busch simply try to send a message to Hornaday, along the lines of "don’t do that again?" Or did he try to do something more sinister?

I don’t know.

Did Todd Bertuzzi mean to break Steve Moore’s neck when he sucker-punched him in that hockey game? Did that guy who ran the yellow light in Mississauga the other day mean to kill two people? Did the guy who got into a bar fight in Toldedo mean to kill that other guy?

I don’t know.

But it doesn’t matter. When something bad happens, there have to be consequences – even when somebody "didn’t mean to do it (as Busch seems to imply in his letter of apology to the world)."

Kyle Busch got off easy because Ron Hornaday walked away from that accident. But what if he hadn’t?

NASCAR sent its message and it’s highly unlikely it will do anything further. Joe Gibbs might have sent a message but the sight of Kyle Busch sitting in that pit box Sunday, with his boss standing behind him, was symbolic in more ways than one.

It was, to be blunt, an opportunity missed.

WEEKEND RACING:

– Tony Stewart won his second Cup race in a row at Texas (and fourth in eight Chase races) when he held off Carl Edwards and Kasey Kahne to win the Sprint Cup race there Sunday. Edwards now leads the points race by three over Stewart. Although many of the other drivers are still mathematically in the Chase, the championship is now down to those two. Only two races remain – Phoenix next Sunday and then Homestead-Miami. It will go right down to the wire. Full story here.

– Trevor Bayne won the Nationwide Series race on Saturday and became the fourth Nationwide driver to win a race in the series, the 29 other victories all going to Sprint Cup regulars who dropped down. Denny Hamlin (driving Kyle Busch’s car) finished second and Carl Edwards was third. Danica Patrick qualified 11^th and finished 11^th. Full story here

– Donny Schatz won the final race of the World of Outlaws sprint car season on the Dirt Track at Charlotte. Steve Kinser finished second and Craig Dollansky was third. Schatz won the A-Main on Friday night, too. And Tim McReadie of Watertown, N.Y. (yeah, he’s Barefoot Bob’s kid) won both Super DIRT Series races at Charlotte on the weekend.

– Luca di Montezemolo unleashed a barrage at the FIA over the weekend, saying in effect that if Formula One wanted Ferrari to continue in the category, it had better ease off on testing rules and third cars, in general, and technical regulations in particular. "We are here as constructors, not sponsors," he told media covering Ferrari’s World Finals event at Mugello, suggesting that F1 had to be cutting edge again while still keeping an eye on costs. He suggested F1 is the only sport in the world that doesn’t allow practicing, which is wrong, and said fans would rather see three competitive cars from one marque in a race rather than some underfunded, uncompetitive entry from another that’s being passed every three or four laps.

– In other F1 news, the FIA has officially confirmed that Virgin, Renault and Team Lotus will all have new names for 2012. Renault becomes Lotus. Lotus becomes Caterham. And Virgin becomes Marussia. Clear as mud, right? Who wants to bet that at least two of those teams have new names again within the next two years?

– Casey Stoner beat Ben Spies by 0.015 seconds in the MotoGP event at Valencia in Spain. Full story here.

BACK TO KYLE BUSCH:

Here's an interesting take on the weekend's going-on in NASCAR. The author, Carol Einarsson, dumps all over Michael Waltrip for firing David Reutimann and suggests that if Joe Gibbs wants to get rid of a problem, there's a driver available . . . the good read is here.

Ron Hornaday (and you can't blame him) had some interesting things to say about Kyle Busch and Friday night's little incident:

"If NASCAR doesn't (park Busch), I'm hanging around, and I'm going to buy Tommy Baldwin's ride and that guy will never finish another race. . . We'll see what NASCAR does. If they don't handle it right, I'll be over at his house Monday morning.''

Update: Kyle Busch suspended after crashing Hornaday

SATURDAY UPDATE: NASCAR did more than park Kyle Busch after he tried to run Camping World Truck Series championship contender Ron Hornaday through a wall at Texas Motor Speedway Friday night.

President Mike Helton announced Saturday that Busch had been suspended for the remainder of the weekend - the first time a NASCAR driver had ever been handed such a stiff penalty.

Helton hinted - strongly - that there could be additional sanctions against Busch announced next week.

Busch missed this afternoon's Nationwide Series race (won by Trevor Bayne) and won't be able to race in Sunday's Sprint Cup race. The other two times drivers had been suspended - Kevin Harvick in 2002 and Robbie Gordon in 2007 - were just for the Cup race.

Denny Hamlin drove Busch's Nationwide car today and Michael McDowell will drive his Cup car tomorrow.

Helton said that, "the responsibility over the past two or three seasons we've given back to the drivers came, I think, with a very clear understanding that there could be a line that got crossed. As annoying as the comments that I've made personally in the past about 'we'll know it when we see it' might have been, we saw it [Friday] night."

Busch drives for Joe Gibbs Racing and Gibbs was most upset about the situation.

"Sometimes in life you have to deal with some real tough things," Gibbs said. "This is a tough situation for us. Basically, what we're trying to do is go through it the right way. Everybody here with our race team is trying to meet with everybody that was affected by this and obviously we've got a lot of work to do there and a lot of people to see."

Gibbs refused to discuss possible further sanctions against Busch by NASCAR but suggested there might also be internal team discipline.

Earlier . . .

Friday night, the "new" Kyle Busch became the "old" Kyle Busch at Texas Motor Speedway and the temper-tantrum that saw him destroy an opponent’s truck – with the opponent still in it – might cost him big-time.

If nothing else, it wiped out a season of good will in one fell swoop.

After a year in which "Rowdy" Busch became "Pacifist" Busch (he didn’t threaten to kill anybody all this season, talked nicely to reporters when asked and didn’t even fight back when Sprint Cup team owner Richard Childress put him in a headlock), the younger brother of Kurt Busch lost control of his emotions after his truck and one driven by NASCAR Camping World Series championship contender Ron Hornaday sideswiped each other while passing a slower truck.

Busch then pulled in behind Hornaday and didn’t just try to spin him out to show his displeasure but drove him into the outside wall at the Texas speedway, completely wrecking the front end of Hornaday's truck and putting him out of the race.

Hornaday was not hurt but NASCAR cars and trucks can’t keep going full-tilt into walls at seriously high rates of speed and the drivers just keep walking away. One of these days, it will be Dale Earnhardt all over again and if it’s a case of somebody putting somebody else into the fence on purpose, police other than NASCAR’s will be involved.

NASCAR "parked" Busch immediately and called him to "the trailer" immediately afterward. However, no penalty was announced Friday night and officials said it would be some time on Saturday before anything is decided.

The inference? There will likely be something beyond the race misconduct penalty handed out to Busch Friday night. Although it seldom happens, a driver can be suspended from competition by NASCAR for dangerous driving.

Kevin Harvick won the race, which delighted him because he’s closing down his truck team at season’s end. He was not particularly pleased by what happened between Busch and Hornaday, however, because his team owns the truck that Hornaday was driving.

Asked about the incident, Harvick said: "Kyle showed his immaturity and why he’s one of those guys who can’t stand to lose and (he's) a poor loser. It’s unfortunate for Ron. It’s unfortunate he (Busch) got involved with guys running for the championship.

"At some point, he’ll feel the pain."

Austin Dillon now leads the Camping World title chase with one race remaining.

NOTES: Danica Patrick, who qualified 11^th for today’s Nationwide Series race at Texas (Elliot Sadler won the pole for the race that will get the green at 1 p.m. on TSN2) announced she will drive car No. 10 for Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s team in next year’s Nationwide championship and also revealed the 10 Sprint Cup races she’ll run for Tony Stewart’s Sprint Cup team. The first one, natch, will be the Daytona 500. Strangely absent is the Brickyard 400, although she will be in the Nationwide race scheduled for the Speedway on the same weekend next August. Although no announcement has been made about her driving in the Indianapolis 500 next May, if the logistics can be worked out it’s a good bet that she’ll be in a car entered by her old Andretti Autosport team. . . . David Reutimann is a class act. Obviously disappointed about being thrown out of his ride at Michael Waltrip Racing to make way for senior citizen Mark Martin, Reutimann said he won’t go rustling through the bushes for a decent ride with another team at this late date because it would mean somebody would have to be dumped to make way for him, and "I wouldn’t want that." . . . Greg Biffle has the pole for Sunday’s Sprint Cup race (TSN, 3 p.m.). Carl Edwards, who’s leading the Chase for the Championship with three races remaining (including this one at Texas), will go off seventh. Tony Stewart, who’s nipping at his heels and is in second place, eight points back, will start fifth. . . . Kyle Busch said he lost his temper because of something Ron Hornaday did to him earlier. Maybe so, but the reaction was over the top, boy. Way over the top.

Wickens to run in Abu Dhabi free practice

AND . . . IS STEWART'S NASCAR TEAM REALLY HENDRICK'S?

BUT FIRST: REWARDING SUCCESS

Huge breaking news this afternoon for Canada's Formula One hope, Robert Wickens of Guelph and Toronto.

Wickens, the Marussia Virgin F1 team's reserve driver, will take part in the first Free Practice session of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix next Friday morning as a reward for winning the 2011 World Series by Renault Formula Renault 3.5 Championship.

It's another step in the process of the 22-year-old's march to become the first Canadian to race in Formula One since Jacques Villeneuve.

Wickens's Renault campaign was sponsored by the Marussia car company, who decided that his success in securing the title was deserving of the opportunity to test theF1 car in a race weekend environment.

It's particularly good news for Wickens, because the man he defeated for the Formula 3.5 title, Jean-Eric Vergne, will be running the free practice in one of the Toro Rosso team cars and this puts them on an even footing, so far as showing their talent is concerned.

Of course, the Toro Rosso is a better car than the Marussia Virgin entry, but Vergne's performance will be measured against regular driver Sebastian Buemi's and Wickens's will be held up for comparison to regular Virgin driver Jérôme D’Ambrosio, so although they'll be on track together, the competition will be within their individual teams.

Wickens has been in the Virgin F1 car before. He took part in a straight-line test in September in Vairano, Italy, where he helped the team gather data for its aerodynamic evaluation program. His role next Friday will be to provide a continuation of this experience but in the more critical context of a Grand Prix, where his feedback will have a direct benefit on the team’s race weekend performance.

Wickens will run in car No. 25 alongside Timo Glock and in place of D’Ambrosio. It will be business as usual in the afternoon with D'Ambrosio back in the cockpit.

Said John Booth, team principal of Marussia Virgin Racing: “Robert has had a fantastic season in Formula Renault 3.5 and was the deserving victor of a hard-fought championship. One of the founding principles of our Young Driver Program was that we would reward success with important seat time to aid the progression of our rising stars through the ranks."

Said Wickens:  “I’m thrilled to be given the opportunity to test with the team in a race weekend context and at a track like Abu Dhabi. This year just keeps getting better and better and I can’t thank Marussia enough for their continued support.

"The Vairano test was a good grounding for me but the opportunity to kick things up a gear in a free practice session is obviously the next big step in my career and I hope my feedback will have a positive benefit on the team’s performance there.”

Now, heading into this weekend’s Sprint Cup race at Fort Worth, Tony Stewart is only eight points behind leader Carl Edwards in the Chase for the Championship and really seems to have the bit in his teeth. Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski and Matt Kenseth are running third through fifth in the Chase and all could end up winning it and the last three races promise to be really exciting.

But I have a question: how much of Stewart’s success is because of his Stewart-Haas Racing team and how much of it belongs to Rick Hendrick?

Stewart-Haas has a “working” relationship with Hendrick. Tony gets his cars and his engines from Hendrick and actually works with Hendrick’s organization on race setup for his car and Ryan Newman’s. Of course, he and Newman then race the cars and have pit crews to change tires and gas up the car during pit stops but – for all intents and purposes – this sure seems to be pretty much a Hendrick team.

Of course, it couldn’t be. NASCAR has a limit on the number of cars each team can enter in races — four — and Hendrick is full up with Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin and Dale Jr.

But Stewart doesn’t hold a lot back when talking about the partnership. In an interview with Dave Rodman of NASCAR.com, he said this:

"I don't think that there's anything that they (Hendrick) are holding back from us that we could ask for, to be honest. We work very closely with them every week with the setups. Our engines — I have the ability, and Ryan does, too — if we feel like we aren't getting a good enough engine, we can sit there and look at all six dyno sheets for our engines and handpick the one we want if we so desire.

"I have confidence that our relationship with Rick and his whole group is very solid and that we are getting everything that we need from them. It's just our job to execute it and finish it out on the weekend."

Three of Hendrick’s drivers are in the Chase (Martin’s the only one out) but none are currently in the top five. There have been suggestions, as a result, that Stewart-Haas has been receiving A-list equipment of late in an effort by Hendrick to do all he can to help this “satellite” team win the championship.

Speaking of Rick Hendrick, his injuries as a result of that plane accident he was in earlier this week were more serious than first thought and he’s in hospital in Charlotte where doctors feel they can manage his pain better. He wasn’t badly hurt but broken ribs can really hurt and he suffered four of them

As I am one of the few people alive who actually watched the Toronto Maple Leafs win their last Stanley Cup (quick now: what year?) I have a most difficult choice to make about what to watch on Saturday night because I am also a huge fan of the sport of auto racing.

So, should I watch the Amazin’ Leafs? At time of writing, they are tied for first place overall in the National Hockey League (when was the last time that happened? 1902?) and they will be playing the Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins at the ACC.

Or should I watch the season finale of the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series, live and in colour, on Speed Channel? Although Jason Meyers has already won the championship, the World Finals being held on the dirt track at Charlotte Motor Speedway will still be frantic, with bench-racing boasting and serious money on the line.

I think I have a solution: the hockey game will start at or about 7:10 p.m. Eastern. I can watch the first period and at least part of Coach’s Corner before the sprint car races start at 8 p.m. on Speed.

Problem solved.

By the way, the guy starting on pole Friday night at Charlotte (no TV but Friday time trials are always a harbinger of things to come) is none other than the driver who won the Canadian Sprint Car Nationals at Ohsweken Speedway a little while ago, Sam Hafertepe Jr. of Sunnyvale, Tex.

“Having a good car tonight (Thursday) means a lot and also means we will probably have a good car for the rest of the weekend,” said Hafertepe, whose crew chief is a Canadian, Daryl Turford of Brampton.

Steve Kinser, Donny Schatz, Joey Saldana and Craig Dollansky are other Outlaws regulars who will be at Charlotte.

I’m getting worked up just writing about it.

More than $200,000 has been raised by that Graham Rahal-promoted online auction to help the widow and two young boys of Dan Wheldon.

Many “big-ticket” items have yet to come up for bidding, including the last race-worn helmet in the possession of Graham’s father, Bobby Rahal. Memorabilia from other Indy drivers, NASCAR and F1 stars is all on the block.

To participate, go to the auction site.

TV Guide:

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, Texas, Friday, 8 p.m., Speed Channel

NASCAR Nationwide Series, Texas, Saturday, noon pre-race, 1 p.m. green, TSN2 (Danica Patrick will pay special tribute to Dan Wheldon in this race.)

World of Outlaws Sprint Cars, Charlotte, Saturday, 8 p.m., Speed Channel

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Texas, Sunday, 2 p.m. pre-race, 3 p.m. green, TSN