Norris McDonald's Auto Racing Blog

Vettel wins Indian GP, young U.S. sprint car star dies

Tyler Wolf, a 20-year-old heading-for-greatness sprint car racing star, has died of injuries suffered in a crash Saturday night at the legendary Calistoga Speedway in California.

Wolf was the 2011 Silver Dollar Speedway sprint-car champion, the youngest driver on record to win the title.

In F1 racing, meantime:

Sebastien Vettel won the Indian Grand Prix today from pole and increased his lead in the world championship but it was blunted by Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, who battled through from his fifth-place starting position to finish second.

Vettel's Red Bull-Renault teammate, Mark Webber, was third with McLaren-Mercedes teammates Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button fourth and fifth and Ferrari's Felipe Massa sixth.

Kim Raikkonen (Lotus-Renault), Nico Hulkenberg (Force India-Ferrari), Romain Grosjean (Lotus) and Bruno Senna (Williams-Renault) rounded out the top ten.

Alonso was the driver of the race, never giving up and chasing Vettel through to the end.

With his fourth consecutive victory, Vettel increased his lead in the championship to 13 points but it could have been more if Alonso hadn't risen to the occasion.`

On Saturday:

Sebastien Vettel won the pole today for Sunday's Indian Grand Prix. His Red Bull-Renault teammate, Mark Webber, qualified second ahead of the two McLaren-Mercedes drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button.

Fernando Alonso will take his Ferrari to the line fifth on Sunday, with teammate Felipe Massa sixth. Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus-Renault), Sergio Perez (Sauber-Ferrari), Pastor Maldonado (Williams-Renault) and Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) will go off seventh through tenth.

Now, by the time you get around to reading this, the 41st anniversary Formula Ford Festival at the legendary Brands Hatch circuit in England will be well under way and Canada’s representative, Garett Grist of Grimsby, will be doing his best to follow in the footsteps of last year’s entrant, Xavier Coupal of St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que.

Coupal’s will be a tough act to follow.

But first.

The Formula Ford Festival was started in 1972 and has attracted top racers from around the world every year since. F1 drivers Button and Webber are among the winners. Danica Patrick finished second in 2002. Roberto Moreno, Eddie Irvine and Jan Magnussen are others who’ve made their marks at Brands.

Last year, Ontario Formula Ford team owner Brian Graham of Innisfil, with the help of major sponsor Grote Industries (manufacturers of vehicle lighting and safety systems) and other contributors (more about them below) led a Canadian assault on the Festival, the first “sponsored trip to Europe” for a Canadian driver since the 1970s.

Coupal was selected to go and pretty much set the international racing world on its ear.

The Festival deal is that you arrive at a strange track and climb into a strange car and go. The cream has to rise to the top pretty quickly because there are 200 other young chargers there and there’s limited practice time. Then they send you out for one of 10 heats with upwards of 20 cars in each and you swim or you sink.

Coupal finished second in his heat and started from pole in the feature. He was knocked off the track during the race and eliminated, but he still set fastest lap — an amazing performance.

This year, Graham — with help from a selection committee that included me — chose Grist as the second winner of what’s being called the Team Canada Scholarship. A former Ontario karting standout who cut his single-seater racing teeth in Ontario Formula 1600s, Grist had a “superb season” this year in the highly-competitive U.S. F1600 Formula F Championship Series and that’s what won him the opportunity.

“I am really excited to be selected for the 2012 Team Canada Scholarship,” Grist said in a release. “It’s a great opportunity to represent Canada at one of the biggest Formula Ford races in the world. For anyone racing F1600, this is the event that you want be in at some point in your career. Xavier (Coupal) set the bar pretty high last year, so I know I have my work cut out for me.”

“This was a very, very, difficult decision (to pick Grist),” said Graham, also in a release. “The final group of five drivers were so impressive. We went back and forth trying to pick this year’s winner. If we had the funding, we’d send all five, as they are all deserving winners.

“That being said, we are very excited that we will have Garett piloting the Team Canada entry at this year’s Formula Ford Festival and are confident we will be challenging for top honors come Sunday’s Final at Brands Hatch.”

Graham’s been able to raise sufficient funds to take a driver to England and, of course, to hire Cliff Dempsey Racing to field a car, which is the biggest expense. He would like to have enough money to take at least two drivers and for them to do the Festival and then stick around to race for the Walter Hayes Trophy at Silverstone a week later.

The key is awareness.

“We have to start building interest earlier,” Graham told me in conversation at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park a few weeks ago. “If we want this to grow, we can’t start beating the drums in July — it has to be a year-‘round project.”

To this end, Paul Einarson has notified Graham that his organization, the British Auto Racing Club (he’s the club’s Race Director), will make a modest annual contribution to the scholarship fund starting in 2013 .

Wrote Einarson: “This is to say thanks to Brian Graham and his associates for developing this program as a ladder to international racing opportunities for Canadians. I have copied the other Race Organizers in Ontario on this and challenge them to contribute similarly.”

Good for Brian Graham for getting this going, good for the sponsors and supporters who have already signed on, and good for Paul Einarson for starting the ball rolling on a grassroots support movement.

To learn more about the Team Canada Scholarship, visit www.teamcanadaracing.org and to follow their progress this weekend, please visit the Team Canada Scholarship Facebook page at:

https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/216921815005015/.

This year’s Team Canada Scholarship was made possible with the support of primary sponsors Grote Manufacturing and The Race Drivers Guild of Canada, who were both instrumental in the program’s creation.

Also supporting the Scholarship are Hallman Construction, LSI International, Gen. Lew Mackenzie RET, Bollenbach Insurance, EFormulacarnews.com, Door Doctor, Harvan Engineering, Rod-End Mechanical, Bamford Produce, RMB Inc, the Leda Krikorian Foundation, Altwood Doors, Bruce Gregory/Calabogie Motorsports Park, Canadian Tire Motorsports Park, Inside Track Motorsports News and Formula Tour 1600.

McReynolds right sometimes, but wrong too

When something of importance takes place in the racing world, particularly the stock car racing world, the SPEED channel emails to reporters a release of quotes from their panel of experts who are quick to comment.

Such was the case Tuesday when SPEED sat down with Larry McReynolds to talk about the departure of the Eury family from Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Nationwide Series team – Tony Sr. first, followed by Tony Jr.

Then, later in the day, out came a series of quotes from McReynolds and others concerning the reinstatement of A.J. Allmendinger by NASCAR following treatment after he failed two drug tests.

Now, sometimes McReynolds has amazing insight and is bang-on with his observations. Other times, he shows that he’s making it up as he goes along and doesn’t really understand what he’s talking about.

Tuesday’s two sets of quotes illustrate both tendencies perfectly.

On the departure of the Eurys from JR Motorsports, McReynolds said this:

"I think their current driver lineup is running as well as they’re going to run. In the Nationwide Series, Danica Patrick is probably as good as she’s going to be. She’s going to run between ninth and 15th and maybe score a top five on a really good day. I don’t care if you put Chad Knaus in as her crew chief, she’s going to run where she is running. As much as I’d love to say she could run fender-to-fender with Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Austin Dillon or Elliott Sadler, I don’t think it’s there. Danica is great for our sport and I’m excited about her running full time in the Cup Series, but she has run 51 Nationwide Series races  and that’s a lot of races.

"By the same token, Cole Whitt is going to run where he is running. He was thrown into the deep end pretty fast. I think he’s between a sixth and 12th place driver right now. That’s where he ran with the Eurys, and that’s where he’s going to run without them."

Who can argue with that analysis? Larry McReynolds is absolutely correct.

On the other hand, this is why he should be very careful when he spouts off on subjects that maybe he’s not a hundred per cent up on. Or else, he’s misunderstood what he’s been told.

This is what he said about the possibility of A.J. Allmendinger returning to racing in the IZOD IndyCar Series with Roger Penske’s team:

"What I think might be going on, though - and I talked to Robin Miller (SPEED open wheel reporter) earlier today about this before we even knew A.J . was reinstated – is that A.J. is under consideration for Roger Penske’s IndyCar ride. Roger has an open seat. I know Roger has offered it to a couple of drivers who have turned it down. A.J. was in Fontana last weekend with Roger, and A.J. came from open-wheel racing. That might be the best place for him right now. It might not be what he wants, but it probably is the best option for his career at the moment. What top rides are available in NASCAR? None at the moment. I truly think he’d be better off driving an Indy car for Penske than taking a middle-of-the-road ride in the Cup Series."

Okay, this is what popped out of that paragraph and hit me right square between the eyes:

"Roger has an open seat. I know Roger has offered it to a couple of drivers who have turned it down."

Huh? Drivers have turned down an offer from Roger Penske to drive one of his Indy cars?

I don’t think so, Larry.

In fact, not a chance.

That would be like me saying, "Rick Hendrick has an open seat. He offered it to a couple of drivers who have turned it down."

Which would never happen.

But in case you’re right and I’m not, names please.

Hamilton fastest in second practice at Italian GP

Although Saturday night's NASCAR race in Richmond is expected to be the most important race of the weekend because it will determine the lineup for the Chase for the Championship, the Formula One circus is at Monza for the Italian Grand Prix and, as they say, there is news.

Lewis Hamilton, rumored to be leaving McLaren-Mercedes to drive for Mercedes in 2013, was fastest in second practice (1:25:290) and edged teammate Jenson Button by .038 seconds.

Ferrari teammates Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa were third and fourth quickest, followed by Nico Rosberg in his Mercedes. They were followed by Kimi Raikkonen, Paul Di Resta, Nico Hulkenberg, Sergio Perez and Michael Schumacher.

Red Bull's Mark Webber was 11th fastest; World Champion Sebastian Vettel was 13th.

Schumacher drove his Mercedes to fastest time in first practice today. Although he didn't start from pole because of a penalty, Schumacher set fastest time at Monaco in May, so there's definitely life in the veteran yet and the rumour mill (a.k.a. Twitter) is already in overdrive with speculation that he will replace Massa at Ferrari in 2013 with his place at Mercedes going to - as mentioned above - Hamilton.

Sunday's Italian Grand Prix (TSN, 7:55 a.m.) is the 13th of 20 events on the 2012 Formula One calendar. Alonso leads the  standings by 24 points over Vettel and 32 over Webber.  Raikkonen and Hamilton  complete the top five.

Saturday night’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Richmond could turn out to be a lot more exciting than just about any other race this season because of the importance of the result to so many of the competitors.

The Federated Auto Parts 400 is the last race of NASCAR’s “regular season" — the 26th race of the 36-race season. The remaining 10 races will make up the Chase for the Championship, which will be a 10-race shootout between the  Top Ten drivers in points plus two “wild card” drivers whose seasons haven’t perhaps been as consistent as those up front but who have wins to their credit.

At the end of the Chase, because of the process of elimination, the final race for the title could come down to two or maybe three drivers, as has been the pattern in the past.

But Saturday night’s race at Richmond will decide the fate of as many as eight drivers, so if you only watch one NASCAR race a year, I suggest this be it.

Here are the names of the eight drivers in contention:

Tony Stewart is the defending NASCAR Sprint Cup champion and he currently holds down tenth place in the standings. He won’t drop out of the playoffs if Richmond turns out to be a disaster — like if he crashes out on the first lap, or something calamitous like that — but his hold on tenth is precarious and he would have to depend on being a wild card to make the Chase. Having said that, he’s won at Richmond three times previously, so he knows his way around.

Kasey Kahne, Kyle Busch and Jeff Gordon are close to the Top Ten and any one of them could slide into tenth place in the points with a good result — if Stewart should happen to screw up. Kahne and Busch are currently wild car drivers but that could change once the race starts.

Meantime, Ryan Newman (who surprisingly signed a new contract for 2013 with Stewart-Haas Racing Thursday), Joey Logano, Marcos Ambrose, Paul Menard and Carl Edwards are also mathematically in the hunt but they will only get in "if"  — and there are a thousand “ifs.”

For instance, here is the scenario required for Menard to make it:

He has to win AND Busch has to finish 34th or worse (with no laps led) AND Gordon has to finish 22nd or worst (with no laps led). If Busch or Gordon bumps Stewart out of the top ten, that will eliminate Menard.

So, although those last five drivers might squeeze in, it’s highly unlikely and, in the end, one of Kahne, Busch or Gordon will probably be eliminated and join the rest on the sidelines.

Having said that, Richmond is a short track race and anything can happen.

See what I mean when I say it will be an exciting race?

See George's TV Listings for Race Fans on this site for practice/qualifying/race times and channel(s).

When I said it was a surprise that Ryan Newman had re-signed with Stewart-Haas for 2013, it’s because that team is short of sponsorship at this point. Office Depot won’t be on Tony Stewart’s car in 2013 and the U.S. Army has not re-upped to back Newman’s car.

The only fully sponsored Stewart-Haas Cup car for next year is Danica Patrick’s and she has the support of Go Daddy. Perhaps there's a deal in place with Go Daddy, or else Stewart has already got new sponsorship and is just waiting for the opportune moment to make the announcement(s).

Danica Patrick has to start fighting back

If Danica Patrick wants to survive in NASCAR, she’s going to have to start fighting back.

She’s been wrecked, or nearly wrecked, in every Sprint Cup race she’s started this year.

Saturday night, it was obvious she was just getting too uppity – it was late in the race and she was on the lead lap and closing in on a strong top 20 finish (in the two Cup races she’d actually finished earlier this year, she was no threat to anybody) – so Regan Smith just went up the track and ran into her for no particular reason other than she was there and he felt like taking her out.

Now, NASCAR’s veterans think it’s hilarious to initiate rookies, particularly drivers who aren’t regulars.  But it’s time for her to show them that enough is enough.

My advice to her today is simple: the next Sprint Cup start she gets, dump somebody. Pick a target and put him into the wall. Just do it. Send a warning to every driver out there: mess with me and I’m coming right back at ya.

Her boss, Tony Stewart, would approve, I’m sure. He let Matt Kenseth know how he felt on Saturday night. Yes, it was a little over the top when he threw his helmet at Kenseth after the two of them got together and crashed, but you can bet that Kenseth will have second thoughts about getting too close to Tony Stewart again this season.

And yes, I know Matt Kenseth is a tough guy in his own right and Tony Stewart didn’t exactly throw the fear of God into him with his little hissy fit. However, don’t ever kid yourself that Matt Kenseth won’t be thinking from now on about the possibility of getting wrecked every time Stewart goes to pass him or he goes to pass Stewart. Intimidation is the name of the game in big-league stock car racing and everybody has to learn how to play and that includes Danica Patrick.

Of course, if she starts fighting back on the track, that could open up another can of worms in the pits.

NASCAR drivers have been known to get physical. Not often, but it happens. Would anybody be foolish enough to take a swing at Patrick? Would she be foolish enough to take a swing at another driver? It’s not likely to happen – but it could.

And here’s another thing that some of those drivers would be wise to internalize: do any of them really want to be the driver whose deliberate actions result in her suffering a serious injury? Or worse?

The only time NASCAR will ever be on the front page of the New York Times is if Danica Patrick wins a race or, God forbid, what happened to Dan Wheldon happens to her.

I guarantee you that would be a disaster for NASCAR.

It is 2012 and sponsors might want to be associated with car racing on one hand but, on the other, they sure don’t want to be associated with a sport in which people are killed. Ten years ago, or 20, it was okay. Not any more.

IZOD has disappeared completely from the IndyCar series and that came about precisely because of what happened to Wheldon. The only reason IZOD’s name is still associated with that series is because of the contract.

And the same thing could happen to NASCAR if anything happened to Patrick.

Racing is racing and she’s out there taking her chances with everybody else. And when you have cars travelling in a pack at 150 or 200 miles an hour, negative things can and do happen.

But the next time somebody like Regan Smith sees Patrick and figures she’s an easy target, she might be – but to then take advantage of the situation might wind up doing far more harm to the sport than anybody realizes.

Patrick can help herself, and the sport, by letting everybody know now that it's time to lay off.

Oh, yeah: Denny Hamlin survived Bristol to win the Cup race. Jimmie Johnson was second and Jeff Gordon was third. Click here for story and results. There are two races left until the Chase field is set. Time for some people to get serious.

Friday night, Joey Logano won the Nationwide Series race – his sixth in that series this season. Click here for story and results.

Next weekend’s TV schedule illustrates perfectly why Randy Bernard is so keen to get IZOD IndyCar Series races off of TSN and onto one of Rogers Sportsnet ‘s national channels next year.

The Baltimore Grand Prix goes to the post next Sunday at 2:30 p.m. TSN has CFL football on the main channel that afternoon and U.S. Open tennis on TSN2. So they’re full up, it appears.

Rogers has a national channel plus four regional channels and their purchase of The Score this weekend will soon give them a second national channel.

So I will be surprised if all of the Indy car races in 2013 aren’t available live and in colour on one of Sportsnet’s national channels and I trust Bernard won’t sign a contract until he has that guarantee.

Meantime, I will likely listen to the Baltimore race in my car on my XM Satellite radio. Mike King and Davey Hamilton do a good job announcing. I discovered this when I was driving home from the drag races at Toronto Motorsport Park on a Saturday night in June and tuned into the Indy car race from Iowa Speedway.

It was kinda nice that night, bombing along Highway 6 South with the cruise control and the radio both on. The drag races had been terrific, the moon was bright and although I’d hoped to be home in time to watch the race on TV, the King-Hamilton broadcast on XM meant I didn’t miss a thing.

Now, I don’t want to be too critical of TSN. They reacted really well last year when I complained that they had filler stuff on TSN2 the second day of Indianapolis 500 time trials. Low and behold, somebody was paying attention and they threw out all the recorded stuff and put the time trials on live.

And next Sunday, they are televising the F1 race from Belgium in the morning and the very important NASCAR race from Atlanta on Sunday night. So thank you for that.

But do we really need 11 hours of U.S. Open tennis? Starting at 11 a.m. and continuing to 11 p.m. except for an hour of SportsCentre at 6? And this isn’t even the finals. We’re talking the third round here.

Is there no way to sneak in two hours of car racing at 2:30 in the afternoon (we can skip all the pre-race stuff)? Except for the people watching the race, I betcha hardly anyone will notice. . .

Meantime, the race from Sonoma yesterday – which was shown live at 4 p.m. on TSN2 (hooraaayyy!!!) – featured some great driving (winner Ryan Briscoe was perfect from start to finish and his pit crew was even better, essentially winning him the race at the last pit stop), some really sloppy driving (Helio Castroneves clipping Scott Dixon, Alex Tagliani knocking Ryan Hunter-Reay out of contention) and one of the scariest crashes seen in recent years.

Will Power finished second and, with two races remaining in the 2011 season, seems to be heading toward his first national IndyCar championship. He currently holds a 36-point lead over second-place Hunter-Reay with Castroneves five points further back. Dario Franchitti was third and F1 refugee Rubens Barrichello recorded a career-high IndyCar race finish of fourth.

The crash featured veteran Sebastien Bourdais and rookie Josef Newgarden. Bourdais lost his steering and, unable to control his car, essentially pushed Newgarden off the track and into a retaining wall that was protected by several rows of tires.

As ex-racer, team owner and colour commentator Robbie Buhl noted, the combination of the tires and the HANS device likely saved Newgarden from serious harm.

He did suffer an injury to one of his fingers because he held onto the steering wheel instead of letting it go. Remember the ribbing Danica took when she crashed for the first time in NASCAR and an in-car camera showed her letting go? Now they all do, because there’s a reason for it and Josef Newgarden’s broken finger illustrates exactly why.

James Hinchcliffe of Oakville had a rotten weekend and dropped out with mechanical problems. He was credited with 26^th place in the 27-car race.

One last thing about the Indy car race. Hunter-Reay was the victim when Tagliani went up the inside during a late-race restart and couldn’t stop, hitting RHR, spinning him around and really hurting his chances for the championship. But moments later, RHR ran into E.J. Viso and spun him around.

After the race, Hunter-Reay went to see Tagliani to "discuss" the incident between them. I was kinda hoping Viso would show up to give hell to Hunter-Reay for running into him – but no such luck.

Oh, Chevrolet clinched the engine manufacturer's championship when Briscoe crossed the finish line and Simon Pagenaud won rookie of the year. However, Pagenaud is a former Champ Car World Series driver and a veteran of the American Le Mans Series so, in my books, he ain’t no rookie.

Click here for full story and results.

Other weekend racing:

– Uxbridge native Alex Welsh captured his first career Canadian Pro Superbike victory Sunday at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. It was one of the most exciting Superbike finishes in series history.

Jordan Szoke of Brantford, who won his record eighth national title on Saturday, finished second and Kevin Lacombe of St-Cesaire, Que., finished third.

The three riders went back-and-forth for all 20 laps before Welsh went low on the last turn to squeeze past and take the checkered flag.

Lacombe was later disqualified for a technical violation. Bodhi Edie of Warman, Sask., was elevated to a podium finish.

In Moto GP action at the circuit in Brno, Czech Republic, Dani Pedrosa beat Jorge Lorenzo to the line in another thriller.

By the way, the photo at the top of this report was taken by John Walker and shows Alex Welsh leading Jordan Szoke and the rest of the Canadian Pro Superbike field.

– Canada’s Robert Wickens played bumper cars on the first lap of the German Touring Car Series (DTM) race at Zandvoort, Holland, on Sunday and a 12^th-place qualifying effort for Mercedes went for naught.

As Autosport.com reported, Wickens and Miguel Molina collided twice on the run to the first corner; the Spaniard ending up beached in the gravel at the Tarzan turn, while the Canadian was spun by Christian Vietoris two turns later and collected within seconds by Rahel Frey. All three retired.

The race was won by Edoardo Mortara in an Audi. Canadian Bruno Spengler finished sixth for BMW to keep his championship hopes alive.

– Audi won the manufacturers championship in the first year of the new FIA World Endurance Championship when Andre Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassler drove their Audi e-tron quattro the 2012 Six Hours of Silverstone on Sunday.

– It’s hardly worth mentioning . . . but Sebastien Loeb won his seventh World Rally Championship event of the season, and his fifth straight, when he won the German Rally for the ninth time at the weekend. When I say it’s hardly worth mentioning, what I mean is: who else?

Inactivity is making F1 people crazy

You can tell that even the people in Formula One are going a little crazy, what with the series taking the entire month of August off.

For instance, the teams usually send out their pre-race briefings three days in advance on the Tuesday prior to a Grand Prix weekend. They started arriving this week on Monday, 11 days out from first practice in Belgium.

Oh, and the beat writers are making stuff up in order to fill space, which is also a sure-fire way of telling that nothing is going on.

For instance, a spokesman this week for Volkswagen Group had to deny, yet again, that a Formula One program was imminent.

You always know it’s August when VW announces it’s not planning to enter F1.

Roll on September. Please.

NASCAR is back at Bristol this weekend to take a shot at racing on the high-banked track that’s had some work done on it since the spring race, which was bo-RING.

The jury is out on how much grinding the top lane will have on the quality of competition, which in NASCAR means bumpin’ ‘n bashin’ ‘n tradin’ paint.

Timothy Peters won the Craftsman Series truck race on Wednesday by going almost wire-to-wire. He took the lead on the second lap and was never headed. Two hundred laps without a lead change does not make for riveting oval-track racing.

Please check George’s TV Listings for Race Fans on wheels.ca for channels and start times for all of this weekend’s major races.

The focus in Bristol, as usual, will be on Danica Patrick, who will race in the Nationwide Series Friday night and in the Sprint Cup on Saturday night.

All of the big racing web sites and the newspapers published stories Thursday and today about how hard a time she’s having making the switch from open-wheel Indy car racing to stock cars.

I think she’s done just fine. She qualified fourth for the Nationwide race at Montreal and was leading when mechanical problems forced her out. Time and again she’s been right in there and something has happened to eliminate her.

Anyway, I’m tired of the whole business and the reason I’m tired is because the people writing this baloney about "making the switch" don’t know what they’re talking about.

I’ll give you a test. Here is a paragraph that was published in USA Today. Read it and tell me what is wrong with it:

"Many open-wheel stars have tried to make the transition, including four-time IndyCar champion Dario Franchitti’s failed 10-race foray in 2008. Three-time IndyCar champ Sam Hornish Jr. has only recently found solid footing in NASCAR in his fifth season. Only Juan Pablo Montoya has made it stick at NASCAR’s top level."

Oh?

Give up?

Well, what about Tony Stewart? Correct me if I’m wrong, but I do believe that Tony Stewart was a triple crown U.S. Auto Club champion (midgets, sprints and Silver Crown, all in the same year in the 1990s) before winning the Indy Racing League championship before going to NASCAR where, if I’m not mistaken, he has won three Sprint Cup titles.

I’d say open wheel drivers, as exemplified by Tony Stewart, can do just fine in stock cars if given the right opportunity.

The problem, in order to make a comparison, is that no stock car driver of this generation has tried to go the other way and race in Indy cars. It might be fun to put the shoe on the other foot, for a change, and see what happens.

Except for one-offs in the Indy 500 back in the 1960s (Cale Yarborough, Lee Roy Yarbrough and Donnie and Bobby Allison), the only stock car driver who ever left NASCAR to drive most of a season in Indy cars was in 1971 when Cale Yarborough had a go. 

Know what? He didn’t do all that well - but I don't recall any of the hand-wringing stories that we're subjected to just about every day whenever poor Danica or poor Sam strap themselves into a stock car.

Of course, reporters didn't have agendas then -- and making Danica look stupid is right at the top of the list for some of those alleged impartial observers who make their living writing about stock car racing.

Speaking of open wheel, the IZOD IndyCar Series returns to action on the road course at Sonoma, Calif., on Sunday and – mathematically – there are still 15 drivers in the hunt for the championship.

Realistically, there might be seven who could do it – Will Power, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Helio Castroneves, Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan, Simon Pagenaud and Canada’s very own James Hinchcliffe of Oakville.

If you’re wagering, you can even trim that list down to the top four.

Dario Franchitti, who has won the title every year he’s been in it going back to 2007, looks like his reign is about to end.

Which would be only fair. It’s time somebody else won that championship.

Racing roundup: On Danica, Jimmie Johnson and others

Musings, ramblings and confessions after a weekend of auto racing:

– You have to laugh about everything that’s happened to poor Danica Patrick this year, her first full-time season in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. She’s done just fine qualifying and the speed is there but Murphy’s Law has never been more clearly defined than when applied to her when she's road-course racing.

Earlier this year, at Road America, she was less than a half-lap from a top five finish when Jacques Villeneuve forgot to brake and knocked her off the track.

Last week at Watkins Glen, she was on the inside going into Turn One when a car that went flying past her on the grass re-entered the track right in front of her and stopped. She had nowhere to go and hit it dead-on, knocking her out of the race.

Saturday at le Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve in Montreal, she qualified fourth and was leading the race - leading - when somebody threw a shoe on the track and she hit it. I mean, really. She had other mechanical problems but when she hit that shoe her race went south, so the timing couldn’t have been worse.

One of these days, she will win and that will get the monkey off her back. There’s no doubt the talent’s there; she’s just got to get it all together – speed, strategy, race craft and, most important for her, luck.

Justin Allgaier won his first road-course race at Montreal and the third of his Nationwide career, with Sam Hornish Jr. second and Jacques Villeneuve third. Details here

Now, it has been suggested by some that NASCAR kept throwing yellows so that a "regular" could win the race instead of a ringer, particularly if said ringer happened to be the son of the guy the Montreal circuit’s named after.

If not for the phantom yellows that left him low on fuel, or so go the the theories, Jacques Villeneuve would have won the race.

Now, JV denied that he was running out of gas on the final lap (although he did run out on the cooldown lap) and lost the race because Allgaier ran into him. Maybe. But there’s no doubt he was worred he was going to stall out because he was running noticeably slower on the last lap than the eventual winner.

Having said that, Allgaier didn’t have any fuel problems, so if NASCAR was playing fast and loose with the yellows, it didn’t appear to hurt him.

And nobody was shedding any tears for Villeneuve anyway. The Danica punt in Wisconsin was still fresh in everybody’s mind and he turned Alex Tagliani around late in the Montreal race. The fact that he was angry after being hit by Allgaier was really very amusing. Did somebody say it was like the pot calling the kettle black?

Two other quick notes: For the last fillup, Allgaier pitted later than the others, which explains why he had more fuel when the race got down to the short strokes. And why did he do that? Because at Road America in 2011, he ran out of fuel on the last lap. He obviously learned a lesson.

Oh, and Ron Fellows, Mississauga’s most famous athlete, finished fifth a week ago at Watkins Glen and was fifth at Montreal on Saturday. He is an absolutely incredible race driver.

– NASCAR hasn’t got a clue about yellows on road courses, period, as we saw at Montreal, and they sometimes over-react on ovals, too. David Gilliland lost control early in the Michigan Sprint Cup race Sunday afternoon and went flying through the infield grass but then got straightened out and went back on the track, albeit half a lap behind.

But he didn’t hit the wall and there was no damage or debris anywhere. But as soon as he started sliding, the yellow was on and there was really no need for it.

It’s a good excuse to close up the pack, though. Isn’t it . . . ?

– In the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series race at Montreal, J.R. Fitzpatrick of Cambridge won, with Andrew Ranger of Roxton Pond, Que., second and Robin Buck of Campbellville third. Scott Steckly of Milverton was fourth, he’s the defending national champion, and the leader of this year’s championship chase, D.J. Kennington of St. Thomas, finished fifth. Next race is at Barrie Speedway Sept. 8.

- As NASCAR doesn’t have a clue about yellow flags on road courses, neither does it have a clue so far as passes for the lead on road courses are concerned. Their rule is that in the case of a yellow, the order of finish from the last completed lap will be the order for the restart. Fine on ovals, stinks on road courses.

Ranger had passed Fitzpatrick fair and square and was clear and away in front of him when somebody spun at the back of the pack and since they all hadn’t completed the lap, the order had to revert to the previous . . . yada, yada, yada – you know what I’m saying, eh? – and when they restarted the race J.R. was back in first and Ranger was second and that is not fair, not fair, not fair. (I sound like Jack Lemon as Prof. Fate in The Great Race. . .)

– Okay, moving right along, I apologize for making the same mistake over and over. Every time I write anything about Lewis Hamilton, I say he’s won two world championships. Of course, he’s only won one but that hasn’t seemed to penetrate my thick skull. The latest example was in a story I wrote on the weekend that appeared on wheels.ca and in Toronto Star Wheels. I could change it online but not in the paper. Sorry.

It’s like every time I go to write 1996. It always comes out 1969. Why?

– They say auto racing has the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. We saw both in the Sprint Cup race at Michigan Sunday.

With nine laps to go, Jimmie Johnson took the lead in the race and the TV cameras showed his crew chief, Chad Knaus, fist-pumping with delight. Three laps later, his engine let go and Greg Biffle went blowing by him.

Biffle went on to win the race and Johnson drove straight to the garage area. He passed a dejected Knaus, who was walking in the same direction. Details here

Remember that Grand Prix of Monaco a half-dozen years ago, in 2006, when Kimi Raikkonen dropped out while in second place and he got out of his car and was so angry that he kept his helmet on while he walked around the course to his yacht in the harbour, where he disappeared below decks?

Well, Johnson got out of his car yesterday and didn’t take off his helmet. He walked from his car, between several transport trucks and through the hospitality area on the way to his motorhome.

He was obviously so upset that one of his PR aides, a woman, started to follow him and then thought better of it, staying behind in the garage area.

It's not often that you see Jimmie Johnson so browned off.

– By the way, while the Nationwide stock cars were at Montreal, the Camping World Truck Series was the support race for the Sprint Cup cars in Michigan and that race Saturday was won by Nelson Piquet Jr.

Piquet, who was forced to leave Formula One after admitting to participation in the conspiracy to fix the Singapore GP in 2008, would appear to have completed his rehabilitation. Look for him to move up to Sprint Cup before long.

– Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas won the Grand Am Rolex Sports Car Series race at Montreal on Saturday. Paul Tracy was third (with others). Alex Tagliani finished seventh. John Edwards and Robin Liddell won in GT. Jeff Segal and Emil Assentato driving the AIM Autosport of Woodbridge Ferrari were second in GT. Paul Dalla Lana of Toronto, who was featured in Wheels last weekend and who won the GT class at Watkins Glen a week ago, had a miserable race in Montreal and didn’t finish. There were only 21 cars in the Montreal race – and people can make as many excuses as they want but it’s the border. Americans competing in semi-professionals series like the Grand Am Rolex and the American Le Mans Series and who are field-fillers will run all the races in the U.S. and skip the ones up here. It’s a shame.

– At Road America, where 35 cars showed up for the American le Mans Series race (as compared to 26 that started the ALMS race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park/Mosport in July, see?), the closest finish in the history of the series took place with the P1 Lola-Mazda entry of Chris Dyson and Guy Smith defeating Klaus Graf and Lucas Luhr in their Muscle Milk HPD ARX-Honda by 0.083 seconds.

Tony Burgess of Toronto (and others) was third overall. Martin Plowman and David Heinemeier were first in P2, Tom Kimber-Smith, Jon Bennett and Alex Powpow were first in Prototype Challenge (Kyle Marcelli of Barrie, and others, who was on pole in PC, finished third in class and seventh overall), Bill Auberlen and Jorg Muller were winners in the GT class and Cooper MacNeil and Jeroen Bleekemolen were first in GT Challenge.

By the way, P2 driver Scott Tucker finished 11^th and 12^th overall in the race and third and fourth in the Prototype 2 class. How?

He teamed with Christophe Bouchut in one car – he did the first stint of driving – and with Luis Diaz in the second – he drove the final stint in the second car.

– In Canadian Touring Car Championship action at Montreal, Sasha Annis won the first race in Super Touring, with Jocelyn Hebert tops in Touring Class and Karl Wittmer in B-Spec. In the second race, Marc-Antoine Camirand was the winner in Super Touring, Damon Sharpe won Touring Class and Wittmer repeated in B-Spec.

The Touring Car championship will wrap its season over Labour Day weekend at Calabogie Motorports Park.

– Robbie Wickens of Guelph and Toronto had his best weekend in the German Touring Car Championship since he started his rookie season in the spring. He qualified ninth and finished seventh at the Nurburgring driving for Mercedes. Canadian driver Bruno Spengler won the race in a BMW.

– In World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series action, Sammy Swindell got over his disappointment at missing out on starting the Knoxville Nationals by winning the feature at Grand Forks, N.D., at the weekend.

In other sprint car news, Dustin Daggett of Grand Ledge, Mich., won the Northern Summer Nationals Championship by finishing first in the feature at Chatham-area South Buxton Speedway Saturday night.

- And two weeks out from the Budweiser Oswego Classic 200 for supermodifieds, Joe Gosek won his 42nd feature at the famous northern New York Oswego Speedway, which puts him fourth on the all-time win list behind Eddie Bellinger Jr., Bentley Warren and Jim Shampine.

And by finishing fifth in the super feature, Otto Sitterly of Canajoharie, N.Y., won his fifth Oswego Speedway track championship. I think Sitterly has one of the neatest names in all of auto racing, right up there with Parnelli Jones. I also think Otto has the talent to go to Indy. His sometimes-supermodified teammate, Davey Hamilton, could help pave the way.

Versatile Tagliani wins NASCAR pole in Montreal



You hear the question again and again: why can’t open wheel drivers make the transition to stock cars? Why can’t winners in Indy car racing, say, transition over to NASCAR and win?

The people who ask those question, of course, are primarily NASCAR reporters and fans who love sticking it to the Indy car drivers.

Although Dario Franchitti and Sam Hornish Jr. haven’t exactly set the world on fire in NASCAR, and the jury is still out on Danica Patrick, they conveniently forget that Tony Stewart did it (from Indy car champion to NASCAR champion is pretty good) and they are currently overlooking another guy who’s pretty good at it too.

His name is Alex Tagliani, who’s a top-level Indy car star who’s driving in stock cars as well as sports cars this weekend in Montreal as the Nationwide Series makes its annual visit to le Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve.

In fact, in today’s Nationwide race, he’ll start on the pole. Horish will start beside him, with old friends Jacques Villeneuve and Danica Patrick beside him on the second row.

(An aside here: I earlier wrote that for the first time that I can remember, there is not one regular Sprint Cup driver in today’s race. At the last moment, Kyle Busch flew in from Michigan and planned to start at the back of the field.)

In any event, "Tag" is on pole and he seems to do really well every time he climbs into a stock car. In fact, years ago he saved his Indy car career when he won a NASCAR Canadian Tire Series race in Edmonton and demonstrated in front of the Champ Car World Series owners that he still very much "had it."

This is not the first time that a hometown hero has won the pole in Montreal. Carpentier did it in 2007 and Villeneuve sat on it last year, but that didn’t mean Tag wasn’t overjoyed.

"I want to dedicate this pole to the fans who come and make this event so special," said Tagliani, while pointing to the grandstands. "I feel that there was still a tenth or two left in the car. I wanted to do a third flying lap with the tire pressures and temperatures at their best but my crew chief, Trent Owens, wanted me to save fuel so we have one more lap to go in our first stint in the race."

After the Nationwide race, Tagliani will have to change driving styles because he'll be driving in tonight's Grand Am Rolex Sports Car Series race, also at Montreal.

All of these races - plus a tape of the Canadian Tire race which was held this morning (which was won by J.R. Fitzpatrick, after a thrilling duel with Andrew Ranger) - are on TV today. Please check George's TV listings For Race Fans  on this site for times and channels.

One last thing: unless she's winning the race, don't be surprised if Patrick delivers a little payback today to Villeneuve for the incident at Road America  several months ago where he got into the back of her car on the last lap and robbed her of a fifth-place finish.

These things happen in racing but it was his "not my fault, I don't care" response later that annoyed people, including his sponsor who went so far as to issue a statement critical of the one-time F1 world champion.

'Glen duel makes case for more NASCAR road races

On Saturday, Toronto Star Wheels published a cover story by freelance writer Sylvia Proudfoot about Toronto driver Paul Dalla Lana, an ultra-successful businessman, husband and father who discovered auto racing later in life than most. In case you missed it, here’s the link.

The news today is that Saturday evening, Dalla Lana and co-driver (and coach) Bill Auberlen finished first in the GT Class of the Grand Am Rolex Sports Car Series race at Watkins Glen, N.Y. For Auberlen, it was his 85^th race win and his 180^th podium finish in the Grand Am series.

Dalla Lana and Auberlen have scored eight top-five GT finishes in the nine Rolex races they’ve driven together in 2012. They have two wins and four podium finishes in their No. 94 Turner Motorsport BMW M3.

They are now second in the GT championship standings, with three races remaining. The first of those three takes place at Montreal next weekend.

Now, there are exactly two road course races in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season and none in the Chase for the Championship and I really want to know how come?

With the the exception of Daytona, Talladega, Bristol, Richmond, Martinsville and one or two others, why aren’t all the other Sprint Cup races on road courses?

You want excitement? You want drama? I give you yesterday’s race at Watkins Glen as a prime example of what NASCAR racing could be - and mostly isn’t.

You want boring? You want predictable? I give you Las Vegas, California, Homestead, Loudon, Kansas, Indianapolis, Pocono – and I could go on and on.

Marcos Ambrose won that edge-of-your-seat nailbiter at the Glen yesterday, with Brad Keselowski, and Jimmie Johnson winding up second and third. Clint Bowyer was fourth and Sam Hornish Jr. (and ain’t that a kick in the pants!) finished fifth, ahead of Greg Biffle, Kyle Bush, Matt Kenseth, Regan Smith and Martin Truex Jr.

When the smoke had cleared (literally) Johnson is leading the points standings with Kenseth and Biffle right behind. Dale Earnhardt Jr., who’s been leading the standings of late, is now back in fourth after a 28th-place finish yesterday.

Now, essentially what happened on the last lap is that Keselowski, who was running second to Kyle Busch with Ambrose third, hit Busch and spun him around. This resulted in damage to the front of Keselowski’s car and, although he gave as good as he got for the rest of the lap, Ambrose had a better handling car and was able to get past him at the end.

The thing that impressed me the most is that both Ambrose and Keselowski gave each other room to race. Several times that last lap, they were both off the track and each time the one who got back on the tarmac first allowed the other driver to get back on too.

Yes, they were pushing and bumping and rubbing and all the other good things that NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers do but, in the end, they both fought fair.

Here, take a look yourself.

Ambrose has had more than 140 Sprint Cup starts and now has two wins – yesterday was his second and they both have come on the road course at the Glen. That ties him for wins (also on road courses) with Juan Pablo Montoya, but Montoya has had more than 200 starts.

Now, I know that NASCAR and the majority of its fans would not go for as many road course races as somebody like me would like. But surely, after watching yesterday’s slugfest at Watkins Glen, they would have to agree that several more could be inserted into the regular schedule and at least one into the Chase.

I mean, do they have to go to Loudon twice, to Phoenix twice, to Kansas twice? Of course they don’t - and right there you have room for three more road-course races.

Other weekend racing:

Keselowski also finished second in the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Watkins Glen on the weekend. He couldn’t catch the winner, Carl Edwards, but held off Sam Hornish Jr., who was third (and what a weekend he had!). Danica Patrick recorded her worst finish in NASCAR racing: dead last – although it wasn’t her fault. She was just driving along, going into the first corner on the first lap and Ryan Truex went sliding by on the grass and slid back onto the track right in front of her and stopped. She had nowhere to go. Ron Fellows of Mississauga, incidentally, finished fifth. Fellows, Patrick as well as Jacques Villeneuve, Andrew Ranger, Alex Tagliani and Patrick Carpentier will all be in action next weekend at Circuit-Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal. . . .

Jordan Szoke of Brantford won the Mopar Canadian Superbike Championship round at Le Circut-Mont Tremblant on Sunday and moved closer to clinching his astounding and unprecedented eighth (that’s 8^th) national motorycle championship. He took the lead on lap 4 of the 12-lap race aboard his Waznie Racing/Parts Canada/BMW Motorrad/Canada BMW S1000RR bike and was never headed. Matthew McBride of Mississauga finished second and Jodi Christie of Keene, Ont., who’s second in the standings, was third. The 2012 season will conclude in two weeks with a double-header at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, north of Bowmanville. . . .

Returning to Watkins Glen for a moment, Ryan Dalziel and Lucas Luhr won the Grand Am Rolex Sports Car Series race Saturday, with Sebastien Bourdais and Alex Powpow second and Scott Pruett with Memo Rojas third – all wheeling Riley Daytona Prototype cars with the first two powered by Fords and the third-place car by a BMW motor. As reported above, Auberlen and Dalla Lana were the first GT car; they finished eighth overall. The AIM Autosport of Woodbridge Team Ferrari FXDD with drivers Jeff Segal and Emil Assentato still lead the GT standings but had a disastrous race with a first-lap crash leading to a lengthy pit stop and a seventh-place class finish. . . .

At the 52^nd Knoxville Nationals, which is the Indy 500 and Monaco Grand Prix of sprint car racing all rolled into one, Donny Schatz won his sixth A Main in the last seven years and his second straight but the big story of the night was that for the first time since the 1970s, the race rolled off without either Steve Kinser or Sammy Swindell in the 24-car field. Local racer and Knoxville track champion Brian Brown finished second, with Craig Dollansky third, Kraig Kinser fourth and Jason Meyers fifth. As well as Kinser, who hasn’t missed the feature since 1977, and Swindell, who’s been in every race in 1975, four-time Knoxville champion Danny Lasoski also failed to qualify. . . .

Sticking with sprint cars, Dain Naida of Tecumseh, Mich., won the Southern Ontario Sprints feature at Brighton Speedway Saturday. Chris Jones of Carrying Place and Jamie Collard of Burford, Ont., was third. . . .

At Calabogie Motorsports Park, Kyle Marcelli of Barrie drove his Pfaff Automotive entry to victory in both Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by Michelin series races but since he is a professional racing driver (the American Le Mans Series), he can’t collect points.

At the end of the weekend (and the season, it turns out), Jean-Frederick Laberge is the Platinum champion, Bruce Gregory won the Gold championship and Robert Seitz was tops in Silver. I understand new Porsches are already being ordered up for next season. . . .

Schumi to Ferrari? Allmendinger rumours

Friday morning musings:

1. Ferrari has let the option to pick up Felipe Massa’s contract for 2013 lapse, which means he will not be in the team next year.

By interviewing Mark Webber for the job, Ferrari tipped that it’s looking for a solid second banana rather than a young speedster who would make Fernando Alonso uncomfortable.

There’s another veteran in F1 who doesn’t have a contract for next year. He’s fast — but not fast enough to really challenge Alonso — and he has strong ties to Ferrari.

I don’t think it’s beyond the realm of possibility that Michael Schumacher could sign on for 2013 and then ride off into the sunset for the last time wearing Ferrari red.

2. A.J. Allmendinger has still not said anything about what made him flunk the NASCAR drug test. There are suggestions it had to do with emphetamines and his business people are pushing the “accidental” angle — that somehow, something he ingested legally put him over the line and it was all an accident. I’m hearing it was something else entirely. And that’s the problem: when there is no clear explanation forthcoming, the rumours start. Speak up, A.J., before it’s too late.

3. Danica Patrick told the media at Indianapolis Motor Speedway Thursday that she wants to do the “double” next U.S. Memorial Day weekend — the Indianapolis 500 as well as the Coca-Cola 600 — if the logistics can be worked out and she can get a good ride at Indy. She’ll be driving in the Sprint Cup series for Tony Stewart next year and he’s done it previously, so if she wants to try I can’t see him standing in her way. Who knows? Perhaps he’ll start laying the groundwork for the eventual establishment of an Indy car team to compliment his NASCAR team after he retires from driving. If Roger, Chip and maybe Michael can do it, why not him?

4. JR Motorsports has launched a contest around everybody’s favourite all-‘round Canadian driver, Ron Fellows, who will be competing for them at Watkins Glen and at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve in the Nationwide Series in August. Go to www.JRMracing.com or www.Fellows5.com for contest details and questions. The Grand Prize is a three-day driving experience package at Ron Fellows Performance Driving School at Spring Mountain Motor Resort and Country Club outside Las Vegas.

5. While a lot of attention will be on Paul Tracy in the Daytona Prototype class this afternoon in the Grand Am Rolex Sports Car Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, let’s not lose track of the fact that the AIM Autosport of Woodbridge Ferrari driven by Jeff Segal and Emil Assentato is very likely going to win the GT class in that race. Segal will start the race with the best race-win record in the series as well as the GT class championship points lead. Segal and the first-year AIM Autosport Team FXDD Ferrari program also have a series-best six GT podium finishes in the season’s first eight races, with only one result out of the top four all year.

6. I’ve been in the newspaper (and radio and TV) biz for longer than I can even remember. One of the things I was taught by my very first city editor, Jim Pauk, was to use language that people can understand. Ergo (that’s a fancy word for “therefore”), I can’t figure out why modern communication specialists (they used to be called “reporters”) have to copy down, or repeat, everything the way it’s written or spoken. This is particularly true when it comes to medical explanations. These days, you would think we are all doctors, the way things come out in the paper and on the web. Example. Charlie Kimball apparently crashed during an IndyCar test at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.  All the stories are reporting that he suffered a fracture of the fifth metacarpal of his right hand. Okay, I’m not stupid. I suspect he has a broken hand. But why not just say it? What the heck if a metacarpal? Same thing with broken legs. Why not say, “broken leg?” Why say, “fracture of the femur?”

7. Chevrolet announced Thursday that its NASCAR Nationwide Series car for 2013 will be the Camaro. The Camaro, as we all know, is built in Oshawa. Wouldn’t it be neat if the Nationwide Series and the Grand Am Rolex Series raced a double-header at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park next summer? Maybe everybody employed at GM Oshawa would get a free ticket so they could cheer on “Canada’s car!”

8. Okay – so this is my scenario for 2013: Continuing student unrest in Montreal forces F1 to review the Canadian Grand Prix. Its future there could be in jeopardy. So Montreal needs a new headline event for Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve. How about a NASCAR Sprint Cup race? This means the Nationwide Series event would be free to move to Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. The Grand Am Rolex could support both. The NASCAR trucks could double-head with the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series at CTMP. Add the American Le Mans Series and the Canadian motorcycle championship and Summer 2013 at the facility north of Bowmanville could be non-stop action. I’m dreaming – but it’s a nice dream. (Oh, I have a sollution to the F1 problem. Coming Monday.)

Robby Gordon targets kids with new truck series

Robby Gordon has raced just about everything on four wheels that there is to race.

He started in off-road trucks, went to Indy cars (he was a star of the old CART series and raced several times in the Molson Indy Toronto), switched to NASCAR and raced in the Nationwide and Sprint Cup series and has even been a regular in the Dakar Rally in recent years.

It seems like a lack of sponsorship cash has kept Gordon pretty much out of NASCAR lately (he still shows up from time to time) but now he’s launching a new venture, so probably won't have time for the stock cars anyway.

Called the Stadium Super Trucks Series, it's a combination of  Supercross, Monster Trucks and Mickey Thompson-type indoor arena truck racing.

Imagine a truck with big tires on a Supercross track and you pretty much have what Thompson used to promote before he was murdered and what Gordon has in mind now.

I have no idea if the Rogers Centre will wind up on the schedule but the series will be launched in 2013 and include the Los Angeles Coliseum.

Here are a couple of links for you to see what Gordon has in mind:

Awesome thing or awesomest thing?

Robby Gordon talks about trucks

So, is Gordon on to anything here? My friend, Pete S., thinks so:

Wrote Pete: “Maybe Jacques Villeneuve could make a guest appearance. He hits everything. (It would be a) perfect series for him.”

But then he got serious.

“Robby is smart. Kids love radio controlled trucks. Transfer that to seeing a real truck in a real race environment and you have a market to work with. NASCAR and Indy Car missed on that one.

“Back when I was a kid, my brother and I had state-of-the-art stuff at the time — model cars. Paint and glue and pictures of Mario Andretti and A.J. Foyt. I can still see the box the car came in. The point is, that is how it begins, with the kids. Ignore that and I don’t care what racing series you talk about: ignore it or don't promote it at your peril. One day it will disappear if you do not get the kids involved.

“This stadium truck thing will start small but it’s got legs. You watch.”

Know what, Pete?

You’re right.

Okay, now that I’ve quoted Pete, I’ll share some of my wisdom with you.

Tony Stewart and Cal Wells are not shedding any tears that the U.S. Army is dropping its sponsorship of their second car for 2013. Ryan Newman has been driving that car but he is headed elsewhere next season and GoDaddy will move Danica Patrick into the Big League as Stewart’s teammate.

They haven't announced it yet, but it will happen.

Here’s good news from the Honda Indy Toronto folks.

Organizers of the Honda Indy opened up the streets and sites of Exhibition Place to three important charitable initiatives, helping raise more than $485,000 through the 2012 event.

Throughout race weekend, more than $35,000 was raised for Make-A-Wish Canada by fans, Honda Canada and the Ontario Honda Dealers Association. The popular Free Friday initiative helped not only to introduce the sport of auto racing to thousands of families, but also to help raise funds for Make-A-Wish. Over the past three years, more than $235,000 was donated to Make-A-Wish from race-related activities.

A new partnership for 2012, the YMCA Relay for Strong Kids saw more than 1,200 walkers and runners hit the Honda Indy race track on Thursday, July 5. The fun-filled event raised $50,000 for the YMCA Strong Kids Campaign, which helps children and families in the community get active and healthy.

The 2012 edition of the Honda Indy Toronto also included the addition of a kart-racing track to support the efforts of the Bay Street Grand Prix. The kart-racing fundraiser featured top executives going head-to-head to satisfy their need for speed in exchange for funds for Sunnybrook’s Women & Babies Program.

The event raised more than $400,000 and featured a VIP dinner and after-party at Liberty Grand with performances by hip hop star Flo Rida and Canadian pop sensation Mia Martina.

Good for them.