Norris McDonald's Auto Racing Blog

Paul Tracy teases his fans, 2 Canadians approach Dakar finish

Paul Tracy has been teasing his fans all week, suggesting via Twitter that he’s on the verge of landing a full-season ride in the IZOD IndyCar Series.

On Tuesday, he Tweeted: "The emails were flying today, the fax was fired up and the pen moved across the paper."

(Some fans interpreted this to mean he’d signed the long-awaited contract.)

Thursday, he sent this out: "Ordered helmets today, really happy with how the call went. Going back to where it all started."

(Other fans interpreted this to mean he’ll be driving for Dale Coyne Racing this year, which was the team he drove for at Long Beach in 1991 where he attracted the attention of Roger Penske. We’ll see.)

Whatever it is, I hope it officially happens soon.

I can’t stand the suspense.

As a busy week of IndyCar signing announcements came to a close (Alex Tagliani of Montreal at Bryan Herta Autosport Monday, James Hinchcliffe of Oakville at Andretti Autosport Tuesday), Jay Penske’s Dragon Racing announced that Sebastien Bourdais and Katherine Legge will be the team’s pilots in 2012.

Meantime, two Canadians from Montreal are on the verge of becoming the first from this country to finish the Dakar Rally in the car division.

Not only can they finish fairly high up in the four-wheel division but, as of Thursday, they were 41^st overall (more than 400 cars, trucks and motorcycles started the annual marathon event), which is a stunning performance.

David Bensadoun and navigator Patrick Beaule are representing our country.

The first Canadian to make it to the finish of the Dakar rally, Lawrence Hacking of Georgetown, did it on a motorcycle in 2001. Other Canadians who've been successful on two wheels since include Guy Giroux , Eric Dubeau, Bob Bergman, Patrick Trahan and Shawn Price.

The Dakar will wind up on Sunday in Lima, Peru. If you’re interested in finding out how Bensadoun and Beaule make out, check the Dakar website.

The annual Chili Bowl midget racing extravaganza has been going on all week in Tulsa, Okla., and the grand finale, a.k.a. the "A Main," a.k.a. the "featch," etc., will get the green flag around 9 o’clock Saturday night.

The only Canadian at the race (with sponsorship from the Rochester Americans AHL hockey team, by the way!) is Ohsweken Speedway owner Glenn Styres, but he’s in good company.

More than 250 midget and sprint car racers from all around the United States and from Australia and New Zeland enter each year, including Sammy Swindell, his son Kevin Swindell, USAC greats Tracy Hines and Dave Darland, and interlopers like DIRT modified great Tim McCreadie and NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart, who locked himself into the Saturday night headline race earlier this week by finishing third in a qualifying feature before jetting back to Daytona for Daytona 500 practice.

If you’re interested in how Styres and Stewart make out – remembering that Stewart won a World of Outlaws sprint car race at Styres’ speedway last summer – check out the Chili Bowl website.

Speaking of Daytona, the boys (and girl) are back in town and turning speeds of more than 200 miles an hour as Sprint Cup off-season testing gets under way at Daytona International Speedway.

More than 30 cars have been on track over the last two days and Danica Patrick was eighth fastest on Thursday. She was drafting in a pack of about a dozen cars on Friday, learning the ropes.

NASCAR banned in-race radio communication between drivers this week, in an effort to make it harder for teams and drivers to arrange to piggy-back around Daytona. You’ll remember that last year, the cars looked like Siamese Twins joined at the bumpers as they tag-teamed around the place, frequently as a result of one driver asking another to hook up.

Now they can’t do that - at least not directly. Spotters can still make deals.

NASCAR also is playing around with the size of the Daytona restrictor plates and the size of the grilles in the cars an effort to keep speeds from getting too out-of-control (they’re really not fussy about anything much above 200 mph) and to force drivers to pull out of the two-car drafts before their cars start to overheat.

The end result, of course, is "pack racing" and we all know what happens when racing cars run in packs . . .

I'm supplying links to websites this weekend, as I'm taking a few days off to go to New York to see a concert by Christopher Cross, the singer-songwriter who was big in the 1980s and '90s. He still writes nice stuff and he puts on a good show.

Another reason I like him is because he's a former racer (Danny Sullivan was his coach) who still has a great interest in the sport. The release of his third album, Every Turn of the World, in the mid-1980s was delayed because he suffered pretty serious injuries in a Formula Vee wreck.

THE COVER OF CHRISTOPHER CROSS' THIRD ALBUM, 'EVERY TURN OF THE WORLD'

 

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.

What's with NASCAR racing in Montreal in October?

The NASCAR 2012 Sprint Cup schedule landed in my email box Wednesday morning and my adrenaline started to pump when I read the first paragraph:

“NASCAR announced today the 2012 schedule for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, with a lineup featuring a number of adjustments from the 2011 edition.”

Wow. A number of adjustments. Let’s see . . .

- One of the Chase races will be on a road course?

- Montreal’s Nationwide race will become a Sprint Cup race?

- Toronto/Mosport will get a Nationwide race in 2012?

Well, none of the above. It turns out that the word “adjustments” means just that. No additions, or subtractions. Same old, same old.

“Adjustments” means moving a race a week ahead so as not to clash with the Easter weekend, one race trading places with another, and so-on.

I’ll publish the schedule at the bottom of this post, so if you’re planning a trip in 2012, you’ll know what dates to mark down on your calendar. The Daytona 500, for instance, will be a week later next year, on Feb. 26, rather than in the middle of the month.

Now, in recent years, NASCAR issued the Nationwide and Craftsman Truck schedules at the same time as the Sprint Cup schedule but that’s not the case this time around. And what makes it curious is that a NASCAR executive said in mid-summer that he expected the Nationwide, in particular, to be out by mid-September.

Well, it’s nearly the end of the month and there’s no sign of it. Now we're told it should be ready by the end of the first week of October.

Jayski.com, which is owned by NASCAR TV partner ESPN, has got a Nationwide schedule, of sorts, posted with a lot of blanks and question marks.

Of importance to Canadians is the Nationwide race weekend in Montreal that has traditionally been held in August since it was started five years ago. There is no sign of it in August and, in fact, it’s tentatively scheduled (according to Jayski) for Oct. 6, which is two days earlier than the date they ran the first F1 Canadian Grand Prix at what is now Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve. That was on Oct. 8, 1978, and it was bitterly cold and there were flurries in the air. When Gilles Villeneuve won the race and got out of his Ferrari, he put on a parka before he went to the top step of the podium.

If NASCAR is seriously thinking of racing in Montreal in October, then somebody has got to tell them what Montreal can sometimes be like at that time of year.

Having said that, I think the race might have been "parked" on that date to give NASCAR a way out if the Montreal promoters can’t get their act together and the race has to be cancelled.

I’d like to think the holdup is because Mosport officials and NASCAR could be crossing the t's and dotting the i's on a contract to promote a Nationwide race there - according to Jayski's "schedule," Sat., July 14 and Sat., Aug. 18 are both open dates and central Ontario is lovely at that time of year - but that’s unlikely.

The other reason some racing fans are keen to see the finished Nationwide schedule is because it could determine whether Danica Patrick will be able to race in the 2012 Indianapolis 500 on May 27. She said when she made the announcement that she was moving to NASCAR that any chance of doing the 500 would depend on the Nationwide schedule.

Jayski's calendar has the Nationwide Series at Iowa on Sunday, May 20, when qualifying is scheduled to be held in Indianapolis. If that holds, Patrick - who could fulfill her Nationwide commitment at Charlotte on Sat., May 26 - would only be able to drive at Indy if someone else qualifies her car, which is unlikely.

But we won't know any of this until NASCAR gets around to publishing the official calendar.

(On the schedule below, think 'TSN' when you see FOX, SPEED or ESPN)

2012 NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES SCHEDULE

Date                Site                                                                                                     Network

2/18                 Daytona International Speedway (Shootout)                                     FOX

2/19                 Daytona International Speedway (Daytona 500 Qualifying)              FOX

2/23                 Daytona International Speedway (Duel)                                            SPEED

2/26                 Daytona 500                                                                                       FOX

3/4                   Phoenix International Raceway                                                          FOX

3/11                 Las Vegas Motor Speedway                                                              FOX

3/18                 Bristol Motor Speedway                                                                     FOX

3/25                 Auto Club Speedway                                                                          FOX

4/1                   Martinsville Speedway                                                                        FOX

4/14                 Texas Motor Speedway                                                                     FOX

4/22                 Kansas Speedway                                                                              FOX

4/28                 Richmond International Raceway                                                      FOX

5/6                   Talladega Superspeedway                                                                 FOX

5/12                 Darlington Raceway                                                                           FOX

5/19                 NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race (Charlotte Motor Speedway)            SPEED

5/27                 Charlotte Motor Speedway                                                                 FOX

6/3                   Dover International Speedway                                                           FOX

6/10                 Pocono Raceway                                                                               TNT

6/17                 Michigan International Speedway                                                      TNT

6/24                 Infineon Raceway                                                                               TNT

6/30                 Kentucky Speedway                                                                          TNT

7/7                   Daytona International Speedway                                                       TNT

7/15                 New Hampshire Motor Speedway                                                     TNT

7/29                 Indianapolis Motor Speedway                                                            ESPN

8/5                   Pocono Raceway                                                                               ESPN

8/12                 Watkins Glen International                                                                  ESPN

8/19                 Michigan International Speedway                                                      ESPN

8/25                 Bristol Motor Speedway                                                                     ABC

9/2                   Atlanta Motor Speedway                                                                    ESPN

9/8                   Richmond International Raceway                                                      ABC

9/16                 Chicagoland Speedway                                                                      ESPN

9/23                 New Hampshire Motor Speedway                                                     ESPN

9/30                 Dover International Speedway                                                           ESPN

10/7                 Talladega Superspeedway                                                                 ESPN

10/13               Charlotte Motor Speedway                                                                 ABC

10/21               Kansas Speedway                                                                              ESPN

10/28               Martinsville Speedway                                                                        ESPN

11/4                 Texas Motor Speedway                                                                     ESPN

11/11               Phoenix International Raceway                                                          ESPN

11/18               Homestead-Miami Speedway                                                            ESPN

Senna videos, F1 on pay TV and other racing subjects

In case you missed columnist Dave Feschuk’s gripping review of the Ayrton Senna film, here’s the link.

Also, if you go to this link, you will find a page of YouTube videos on Senna, some quite emotional.

Paul Menard was as unlikely a winner of the Brickyard 400 Sunday as Trevor Bayne was in February in winning the Daytona 500.

It was his first win in nearly 170 Sprint Cup starts (see post below) but it was as much a victory for his father, John, as it was for him.

John Menard, a multi-millionaire owner of a chain of U.S. Midwest Home Hardware-type stores, has been trying for more than 30 years to win at Indianapolis, sponsoring Indy cars as well as stock cars.

John Menard was an early supporter of Tony George’s Indy Racing League and yet the closest he came to winning the Indy 500 was 1999 when he hired CART driver Robby Gordon to pilot his car, only for Gordon to run out of fuel on the last lap and wind up fourth.

John Menard’s name has frequently been linked with others seeking to purchase the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, if it should ever be put up for sale. Bruton Smith’s name, and Tony George’s, are often mentioned in the same breath as his.

Once upon a time, when I went to the movies, I paid my admission and got coming attractions and a movie. Now, for the same price, I also get 10 minutes of commercials.

It’s the way of the world and is another reason why nobody should be surprised that Formula One will be available half the time on pay TV in England, starting in 2012.

The news that F1 has gone and done this, literally without warning, has generated a hot response on this blog and elsewhere. Many people have said that if this also turns out to be the case on this side of the pond that they will swear off F1 forever.

Bernie Ecclestone doesn’t think this will happen and I’m not so sure either. You’re either a fan of something, or you’re not. If you aren’t a fan, or are on the fence, you will care less. But if you are a fan, your resolve to give up the sport will only last for so long.

I give up on the Maple Leafs every year around Nov. 1. I swear I will never watch those bums play another game. This lasts, usually, until about Nov. 15. I even pay Rogers extra to include Leafs TV on my pay TV subscription, that’s how much I hate those guys.

By the way, let’s not split hairs about what’s pay TV and what isn’t. It’s all pay TV in Canada (or just about) because most of us pay Rogers or Bell to provide us with our television. I’m talking about the possibility, which I don’t think is that far off, when we will be asked to pay a premium to watch F1 races. Ergo, that's what I'm talking about when I say "pay TV."

It’s worked for professional wrestling and mixed martial arts; why not F1? And why not the Super Bowl? And the Grey Cup? How about the Olympics? The World Series? No, not next year or the year after, but some time in the not-too-distance future.

It’s inevitable with all pro sports and particularly F1. Sponsorships and rights fees to televise the races will only raise so much money. F1 is a privately owned big, big business and how successful the business is depends on net worth and cash flow.

To keep it going, the money’s got to come from somewhere and sooner or later it’s going to come directly from you and me.

There have been 14 different winners of the 20 NASCAR Sprint Cup races held so far in 2011. Keven Harvick and Kyle Busch lead with three wins apiece, with Matt Kenseth and Jeff Gordon winning two each.

Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch, Trevor Bayne, Ryan Newman, Denny Hamlin, David Ragan, Brad Keselowski, Regan Smith and Paul Menard have one each.

Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr. are the only drivers in the top ten who haven’t made it to Victory Lane.

Speaking of Edwards, there are reports, rumours, etc., that he has been offered a $10 million signing bonus to take over the No. 20 Home Depot car at Joe Gibbs Racing. Tony Stewart had that ride and handed it off to Joey Logano, who hasn’t performed. Edwards would be a good choice.

It would also give Joe Gibbs a break. Edwards is his own man; a mature guy. Gibbs had to put up with Stewart's anger management issues and handled that just about flawlessly. Then he inherited Logano's father. And Kyle Busch's antics. Busch seems to have settled down completely. With Logano off the team, dad will be elsewhere also. Gibbs will be able to breathe a big sigh of relief.

Before we leave NASCAR, Steve Arpin of Fort Frances, Ont., finished 13th in the Mike's Hard Lemonade-sponsored truck in the Camping World Series race at Lucas Oil Raceway outside Indianapolis last Friday night. Arpin had qualified 19th.

There were lots of empty seats at the Grand Prix of Hungary, unlike the early years of the modern era. The first was held in 1986 in front of a packed house and I always thought the major media missed the real story there.

It marked the first time that an F1 race – Formula One being the epitome of capitalism – had taken place behind what was then called the Iron Curtain. It was the beginning of the end of Soviet Union-style communism. By the end of the 1980s, with the fall of the Berlin Wall, it was all over.

NASCAR: Childress decision today

Richard Childress makes me think of a father who goes over to the schoolyard to take a swing at a child who’s just sent his kid home crying.

Fathers who do that deserve the condemnation they receive because they should know better.

And Richard Childress should know better.

That’s why NASCAR is quite likely going to come down like a ton of bricks today on the retired race driver who's now the owner of cars in the Sprint Cup, Nationwide, Camping World trucks and ARCA series.

Whether it’s a hefty fine – and I, for instance, do not think anything that ends in "thousand" should be enough – or a suspension (for starters, NASCAR wouldn’t let Childress near the pits for Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at Kansas Speedway), or something else remains to be seen.

But when NASCAR said "have at it, boys," you can bet they meant the drivers and not the car owners.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve undoubtedly heard what happened following the Camping World Truck Series race at Kansas on Saturday afternoon (which was won by Clint Bowyer, by the way. Full story here).

Kyle Busch was passed for fifth place late in the race by Childress driver Joey Coulter and after the checkers he pulled up beside him and either gestured or shouted something (I didn’t see any contact between the two trucks, but there might have been a tap).

When Busch went to leave the garage area later, he apparently was confronted by Childress who attacked him. According to some reports, Childress – who’s 66 – put Busch – who’s 26 – in a headlock and punched him several times.

Busch did not retaliate and remained calm throughout. Unlike Childress, Busch talked to TV reporters on Sunday.

For all I know, Childress had an ulterior motive when he went after Busch. Busch is on probation for an incident with Kevin Harvick a few races ago (Harvick got out of his car and went to take a swipe at Busch, who drove off, pushing Harvick’s car out of the way in the process).

If Childress had suckered Busch into fighting back, that might have been enough for NASCAR to suspend him . As it stands, NASCAR has made it clear it does not hold Busch responsible for anything that happened and are focusing on Childress.

NASCAR is undoubtedly terribly embarrassed by this turn of events. For years, it did everything it could to get itself accepted into the boardrooms of America. While the drivers might get a little out of control on occasion, that’s allowed – within reason.

But when a car owner – an accepted member of the lodge – loses control, it sends exactly the wrong kind of message to corporate America and you can bet that NASCAR will do everything it can today to make sure that sort of nonsense doesn’t happen again.

And, in doing so, it will tell the CEOs of the world that it won't tolerate intemperate behaviour on the part of people that the sanctioning body has entrusted to represent those companies and corporations with dignity and sophistication.

You know, I was astounded to watch Darrell Waltrip and Jeff Hammond spouting off on the telecast about how this "bad blood" could spread – that even the crews might get into it before it all ends.

I like both those guys but this time they were way off the mark. They might have been trying to whip the proletariat into a frenzy but the proletariat doesn't write the cheques.

Once upon a time, tire irons at 20 paces were acceptable in NASCAR. But not any more, boy. Not any more. Where once a local sheriff might laugh off a scuffle in the pits, it’s 2011 and people can be charged for that sort of thing.

Richard Childress should be very happy that Kyle Busch wasn’t interested in calling the cops.

Fathers who go looking for their child’s tormenter in the schoolyard are not so lucky.

Notebook Jottings:

– What is with all the "fuel runs" in NASCAR races these days. The Sprint Cup "race" was a snorer because everybody was saving fuel. Brad Keselowski won, with Dale Earnhardt second and Denny Hamlin third (full story here) but Kurt Busch, who led the most laps – 152 – had to pit with 10 laps to go or else he would have run out.

Saturday night at Chicagoland Speedway, Carl Edwards ran out of fuel on the last lap, letting Justin Allgaier through to win – and he ran out of fuel going down to the checkers (full story here).

A week ago, at Charlotte, Earnhardt was winning the Coca-Cola 600 and ran out on the last corner.

I really wish they would just give everybody all the fuel they would ever need and let them race. I could care less about fuel economy.

– Danica Patrick dropped back into the Nationwide Series for a race and finished tenth. She is proving that she is the real deal in stock car racing. She will return to Indy cars next week at Texas.

Another good-news story out of Chicago was the return to competition of Trevor Bayne, who finished third in the race. Bayne, the Daytona 500 winner, was out of action for weeks after he was bitten by an insect.

– Speaking of Texas, and the Camping World Truck Series, Fort Frances’ Steve Arpin will make his first start of the season for sponsor Mike’s Hard Lemonade next Friday night. The last time he raced at Texas with Mike’s on his car – in 2010 in an ARCA race – he wound up in Victory Lane.

Arpin, by the way, was at Chicagoland Saturday night, spotting for the race winner, Allgaier

'King’ Richard Petty coming to Toronto

Two of auto racing’s highest-profile people are coming to Toronto next week.

"The King," Richard Petty, will be at the Hard Rock Café (beside Yonge-Dundas Square) next Tuesday from 11 a.m . till 1 p.m. to promote the "Richard Petty Driving Experience Canadian Summer Tour."

That’s where you show up at a speedway, pay some money, strap yourself into a NASCAR-type stock car and follow a pace car around for "x" number of laps.

I know people who have purchased rides – at Daytona Speedway, Charlotte, et al – and they say the experience is worth every penny.

Petty, winner of 200 NASCAR races, a seven-time NASCAR Winston Cup Champion and a member of the NASCAR Hall of Fame, hasn’t been to Toronto for many years. One time came in the Sixties when he raced at Mosport. I can still recall a great television story done on him by Larry Solway (remember him?). Always looking for a different way to present a story, Solway went for a drive around Toronto with "the King" at the wheel and directed him onto the Don Valley Parkway at Gerrard during the height of the evening rush hour.

It was great – Petty talking about racing at more than 100 miles an hour while putting on his ticker and looking into the rear-view mirror to try to merge with the stop-and-go northbound traffic.

And always remember that Petty made his very first NASCAR Grand National start (before they called it the Winston Cup) at the long-gone CNE Speedway in 1958. His father, Lee Petty, won that race while "Dick" Petty finished back in the pack.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Also coming to town next week is Indianapolis 500 pole winner – and maybe even Indy 500 winner (we’ll know more about that on Sunday afternoon!) – Alex Tagliani, who will trade his Indy car for a NASCAR Canadian Tire Series stock car and race with the series at Mirabel Airport’s Circuit ICAR a week from this weekend, June 3-5.

"Tag" will miss the Canadian Tire Series opener at Mosport Speedway Saturday night, what with being a bit busy in Indy. But he has a free weekend the week after, so will suit up with Canada’s best stock car drivers and race with them. He'll be in T.O. to promote that race.

Tagliani owes a lot to the Canadian Tire stock car series. When he was temporarily out of an Indy car ride several years ago, he proved to everybody that he still had the Right Stuff by racing – and winning – in stock cars. One memorable outing came in a race at Edmonton when he left Canada’s best in his dust. Shortly thereafter, he was back in the bigs.

Now, I have a friend, John Bassett. He wonders why no PR person (or Canadian newspaper headline writer) saw fit to write the immortal words:

CANADIAN TIRE STOCK CAR RACER WINS INDY 500 POLE

Well, John, maybe they were just waiting to write . . .

CANADIAN TIRE STOCK CAR RACER WINS INDY 500

We can only hope.

Talking about the Indy 500, Paul Tracy caught a great break when Michael Andretti and A.J. Foyt got together to kick Bruno Junqueira out of his ride and give it to Ryan Hunter-Reay (d’ya think he’s gonna get booed during driver introductions next Sunday morning?).

This means the car has to move to the back of the pack. Hunter-Reay will start 33^rd, and last, as a result.

Last weekend, Tracy qualified on the inside of Row 8. With him in that row was Danica Patrick and Ryan Briscoe, two other pretty good racing drivers who would be champing at the bit to make a charge for the front right off the bat.

Ergo, while running on the inside, Tracy would be held pretty much in check for a few laps.

But with the Hunter-Reay change, Tracy now moves to the outside of Row 7.

When the green flag falls, the outside line will beckon and, for the Thrill from West Hill, it will be bombs away!

I project Tracy will pick off a minimum of five cars on the first lap and be up running with the leaders by the end of the first dozen.

Update: Power wins Brazil IndyCar; Canadians F1-bound?

MONDAY MORNING UPDATE

Will Power won the rain-delayed Sao Paulo Indy 300 this morning, with Graham Rahal second and Ryan Briscoe third. Two-time defending series champion Dario Franchitti was fourth and Oriol Servia was fifth.

Power won the race from pole - his second win from his second pole so far in 2011.

James Hinchcliffe of Oakville was ninth; Alex Tagliani of Montreal was well back in 19th position (out of 26 cars that started).

Simona di Silvestro was top woman, eight laps behind as the result of an accident suffered during the original start Sunday. However, di Silvestro turned the race's fastest lap and fought to get a lap back, even passing the race leader at one point, which was something other drivers of damaged cars - Tony Kanaan, Helio Castroneves and Danica Patrick, who (with di Silvestro) were all nine laps behind - weren't interested in doing.

Earlier . . .

WEEKEND HEADLINES:

1. Robert Wickens, Bruno Spengler are winners

2. IndyCar race postponed until Monday by rain

3. Tradin’ paint, NASCAR-style, on the short track at Richmond

SYNOPSIS:

Two Canadians were big winners in international racing this weekend, with Bruno Spengler winning the opening race of the 2011 German Touring Car Championship and Robert Wickens winning one of two races (he was second in the other) in the Renault World Series.

Meantime, the IZOD IndyCar Series race in Brazil was postponed until 8 a.m. today after torrential rains made the circuit in Sao Paulo unraceable. Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin won the NASCAR races at Richmond.

A rally racer was killed during the Rally America event in Washington state, forcing its cancellation. And the youngest winner of the Daytona 500, Trevor Bayne, has been admitted to the Mayo Clinic, two weeks after being bitten by an insect.

1. Two Canadians F1 bound?

Several months ago, I speculated that Robert Wickens of Guelph might be heading for a Formula One seat with Virgin Racing in 2012. Since then, and independently, others have speculated and one story published on the website of a national newspaper made the point that he has solid financial backing from a Russian car company that could be part-owner of Virgin by 2012.

It’s that support that has Wickens racing this season in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series and at the famous Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium on Saturday, he won one of the two weekend races to take the lead in the series championship (details here).

His Carlin Motorsports teammate, Jean-Eric Vergne, won the second race on Sunday while Wickens finished right behind him (details here).

Wickens desperately needs a series victory to advance to the top level. He finished second in the GP3 series last year and that followed by a year his runner-up finish in the Formula 2 Series.

His second-place in Formula 2 led to his dismissal from the Red Bull racing program and even Wickens had to agree with that decision.

"They paid me to win and I didn’t win," he told me in an interview the following winter.

He seems well on his way to that F-Renault title with his performance to date.

Meantime, at Hockenheim, Bruno Spengler of Saint-Hypollite, Que., went from pole to checkers to take the opening round of the DTM (details here) and an early lead in the championship he was nearly won several times, most notably a year ago when he was first going into the final race before being overtaken.

Last year’s DTM champion, Paul di Resta, is in F1 this season with Force India, so the German touring car series is definitely a proving ground for potential Grand Prix drivers.

It’s long been rumoured that Spengler was being considered for an F1 seat and he told me in an interview several years ago that his dream is to drive there.

But he hasn’t been able to deliver that elusive championship, to date, and time may be running out. He can go a long way to proving himself worthy by winning that title this season.

Incidentally, Ralf Schumacher finished on the podium – he was third – in that race at Hockeheim; David Coulthard was 10^th.

At least one of the competitors wasn't a fan of Spengler's driving (details here).

2. Rain creates havoc at Brazil IndyCar race

Perhaps the time has come to take a hard look at the whole business of racing in the rain.

First, if there was no racing in the rain, it would have eliminated the embarassment of Sunday’s schmozzle in Brazil when the IZOD IndyCar Series started the Sao Paulo Indy 300, had to stop it twice because of the conditions, then cancelled it till Monday at 1 p.m., uncancelled it, and then cancelled it again until 8 a.m. Monday.

Second, there would be less likelihood of accidents that cause thousands of dollars in property damage and, sometimes, personal injury.

Third, there would actually be a race. As driver Scott Dixon said: "When you can’t see and you tip-toe around trying not to lose control, you’re not racing – it’s not a race."

Tradition has it that the show in road racing must go on, rain or shine. It’s been that way since the beginning of road racing. But who says it has to continue?

If I’m watching on TV, I’m bored silly watching four guys (who aren’t in Brazil; they’re in some studio in the U.S.) trying to keep an intelligent conversation going during the first 143-minute rain delay. They didn’t do a very good job, by the way.

If I’m at the race, I’m soaked and despite what anybody wants to tell you, I’m wet and miserable and I want to go home. I would do that if they said there would be no race.

(But I don’t dare leave because I’ve paid my money and some genius might decide it’s not really all that bad and the cars could go out and I might miss them.)

If I’m a driver, I’m scared witless because I can’t see a thing and somebody could clobber me, or me them, and somebody could be hurt (like Simona de Silvestro’s tire very nearly landing in Danica Patrick’s cockpit).

So, who needs it?

Yes, there are pressures. The IndyCar organization wants to get it over with in order to head back to the U.S. and start preparing for the 100^th anniversary of the Indianapolis 500, the next race on the schedule.

The drivers want to get the race over so they can fly home to their own beds. Armed bodyguards, or police escorts to and from the circuit and their hotels, are not their idea of a swell time.

The promoter wants a race because he’s got a packed house and he wants to deliver. And the TV network that has the contract wants the race to go ahead because satellite time is expensive and you have to rent blocks and you might run out of time. (Although the program continued a bit longer in the U.S., TSN2 in Canada had to break away at 3:30 p.m. for Toronto Rock lacrosse.)

But at the end of the day, the question must still be asked: what did it prove to start that race when the conditions were so appalling?

And the question going forward has to be: isn’t it far, far better to wait for a nice day when the racing will be fast and real and the fans will be dry and enjoying themselves?

And the TV audience? No debate. Say right off that the race has been postponed and save your credibility rather than harming your brand, which was the case Sunday.

The race started in a near monsoon (the real deal came a few laps later) and there was carnage immediately. Ryan Hunter-Reay started alongside pole sitter Will Power (his fourth pole of the season, by the way) and couldn’t make the first turn, going off and hitting tires.

Dario Franchitti hit Helio Castroneves into the wall and that started the Bg One. De Silvestro had nowhere to go and piled into the stationary Castroneves. As this was happening, Patrick tried to avoid the collision and turned out, only to be hit and spun by Sebastien Saavedra who, in turn, hit Tony Kanaan who was trying one of his usual banzai starts from the back and was flying up the outside.

(Kanaan said he didn’t want to blame anybody but then mentioned Danica as one of the cars that hit his, which would have been a trick, considering her car was already underneath de Silvestro’s at the time. Of course, there’s bad blood between those two going back to last season; he can’t seem to handle being beaten by women, which is now happening with frequency.)

After the first red flag, thrown after nine laps (in which everybody was allowed to fix their cars, and what was that about? These are not the days of 18-car Champ Car or IRL fields – there were 26 cars out there and if I’d either owned or been the driver of an undamaged car, I would have been boiling that everybody got to start equally later), they sent the cars back out.

Here is what transpired then:

– After five laps behind the pace car, the cars went back to the pits, the drivers saying there were too many puddles on the track.

– Four minutes later, IndyCar announced the race was postponed till Monday at 1 p.m.

– Several minutes passed, then this: "Plans have changed. There’s still attempts to get the track sorted being made.

– Three minutes later: "We have not postponed the race. We apologize for the confusion. Stay tuned. We will have an update shortly."

– Then, at 4:25 local time, they announced the race had, indeed, been postponed till 8 a.m. EDT Monday. It will resume at the point of Sunday’s postponement on Lap 15, with Will Power leading, with approximately 1 hour, 19 minutes remaining in the two-hour race time limit.

Now, it had been declared a wet race, hence the time limit. But what if it’s sunny and warm Monday morning?

Two more things:

1. If they can go at 8 a.m. Monday, fine. If not, if it’s still raining, they have almost the whole day to try to get in at least half the race, which would make it official. (If all else fails, they will just send the cars out behind the pace car for an hour.)

2. Never mind the rain and Brazil. It happens. But they had trouble with the track being very slippery again on Friday (they had to grind it Friday night, as was the case last year) and then there were puddles when it rained, which was not supposed to be the case this year.

There is a pretty high-profile individual in charge of this race. He’s messed it up twice. I remember a certain CART official being fired because of alleged incompetence and the circumstances were similar.

I’m curious as to why nobody has said anything about this?

3. Tradin’ paint, NASCAR style

Poor Denny Hamlin. We should all feel sorry for him.

Most of last season, he was in second place in the championship chase and then, when he got to the final go-‘round at Homestead-Miami Speedway, he came up flat.

This year, he’s been doing not much of anything. He's 17th in points, in fact.

Turns out, not enough people are cheering for him. Nobody loves him. He’s feelin’ the pain.

So he’s sold his mansion on Lake Norman, north of Charlotte (that’s where all the multi-millionair NASCAR drivers live, except those - like Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson - who live in their New York City condos) and is thinking about moving back to Richmond, where’s he’s originally from.

Get this quote:

"I should just live there because people just tell me how great I am. Even though I doubt myself at times, they’re behind me more than any fan base I’ve got."

So I guess he must have been listening to those folks tell him how great he is because he won the Nationwide race on Friday night (details here) and then finished second on Saturday night to Kyle Busch in the Sprint Cup race (details here).

Kasey Kahne was third in the Sprint Cup race, David Ragan fourth and Carl Edwards fifth.

Gordon was caught up in one of the numerous wrecks on the Richmond short track and said this over the radio to his crew after he went into the infield wall hard, driver’s side hitting first:

"That hurt. I think I can pick the worst damn places to hit the wall."

After he climbed out of the car, he explained that he meant there should be a SAFER wall everywhere around a speedway and, of course, he’s right.

Meantime, Ryan Newman hit Juan Pablo Montoya early in the race and later Montoya hit Newman. Newman was heading for the NASCAR trailer post-race to complain, ever-present Coke bottle in hand (he actually managed to take a long swig while walking full-speed) when the TV cameras showed up so he gave his side of the story, being that he was and remains completely innocent.

Montoya escaped on a golf cart, snubbing the cameras, which was a double mistake: 1, Newman was at least partly to blame and Montoya could have pointed that out, rather than being seen as the villain. 2, his Formula One stuck-upness is back big-time and that just doesn’t fly in NASCAR.

Chip should have a word with him.

AND IN CLOSING . . .

Driver Matthew Marker of Elk Rapids, Mich., was killed during a stage of the Rally America Olympus Rally outside Ocean Shores, Wash., at the weekend. He reportedly went off the road and the car hit a tree on the driver’s side. The co-driver was not injured. . .

Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne has been admitted to the Mayo Clinic for tests after an insect bit him several weeks ago. He has been suffering from double-vision, nausea and fatigue.

Bayne tweeted his fans on Saturday night:

"Still at the hospital. Don’t think it’s related to the bite . . . but we’ll see! God has something cool going on that we can’t yet see."

I have a friend who was bitten by an insect of some sort several years ago. I’ll tell you about him in a post later this week. . .

Finally, expect big news on the NASCAR truck front this week.

Racing reporter fired for cheering

In 2008, I was in the media room at the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal when Robert Kubica won his first Formula One race.

There were, I would estimate, about 100 reporters from around the world in that press centre at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve.

As Kubica crossed the finish line, most of those 100 reporters started to clap, whistle and cheer.

I was sitting beside my Toronto Star colleague, Gerald Donaldson  who was working for TSN at the time. Dean McNulty of the Toronto Sun wasn’t far away. We were about the only three in that room who didn’t show emotion.

I can’t speak for the others, but I was pleased to see Kubica win. It was his maiden victory in the top auto racing series on the planet and a year earlier he’d survived one of the most wicked crashes in modern F1 history at that very track, so it was a great comeback story.

But one of the things you learn early on in North America is that whether you’re covering hockey, baseball, football, golf, racing — what have you — you do not outwardly cheer for your team/favourite player. It’s considered poor form and an indication of bias. You cannot be seen as objective if every time your team scores/wins you jump up and down with excitement.

So you do it silently . . .

I’m telling you this today because Sports Illustrated dot com (SI.com) just fired one of its reporters for cheering the victory of Trevor Bayne at the recent Daytona 500.

He’s written a post about it on his own website (this is the link, if you’re interested) and acknowledges that he probably shouldn’t have done it but was carried away by the emotion of the moment.

I sympathize with the guy, because I know how he must have felt when that kid won that big race. But he shouldn’t have done it because that North American tradition (see above) extends beyond the press room and into the board room, where media executives worry about appearances and reputations.

It’s different in Europe. If you’re ever in a press box at a European soccer game, you think you’re in the middle of the grandstands. Reporters are cheering, arguing — you name it, they’re doing it. They freely (and cheerfully) acknowledge pulling for their city’s or their country’s team. And their reporting reflects it.

Same with the motorsports reporters. The British writers, in particular, make no excuses for focusing almost exclusively on British drivers or drivers who race for British teams. It’s what they’re paid to do.

So that was my first reaction when I heard that this American reporter had been bounced by SI for his outward display of enthusiasm for Trevor Bayne’s victory: too bad he didn’t cover F1. Or Old Country Soccer.

But he didn’t and now he’s had to pay for it.

It’s a grim reminder for everybody else: if your driver, or your team, wins, keep your hands in your pockets and your lips sealed.

Wait till you get home to celebrate.

TAGLIANI TEAM SOLD

Although it’s a bit of a tangled web, in that I thought there had been one sale of this team already, the news today is that Alex Tagliani’s FAZZT racing team that competes in the IZOD IndyCar Series has been taken over by Sam Schmidt Motorsports.

Here is a link to the story.

NASCAR VETERANS TO RACE AT FLAMBORO

Flamboro Speedway near Hamilton will celebrate its 50th anniversary this summer and to mark the occasion, a special Race of Champions will be held there on July 1, Canada Day, and feature three NASCAR legends.

Jimmy Spencer, Ken Schrader and Sterling Marlin will join a field of local competitors to compete in a main event featuring the Freedom Village Thunder Car class — a division known for full-contact racing.

The afternoon event will be a special race format, including heat-race qualifying and a B-feature race that will advance only the top 15 finishers to join the NASCAR stars for a 25-lap shootout.

Sounds exciting, doesn't it?

SPECIAL SECTION: AUTO RACING 2011

Everything you want to know about Formula One, NASCAR, INDYCAR, Sports Cars and more is included in this special Wheels section on auto racing.

The day Dale Earnhardt rolled over in his grave

Quick reminder: A reception to honour the life of the late Bob McAllister will be held tonight at the Musket Restaurant, 40 Advance Rd. (right off Kipling, four streets north of the Queensway).

A complementary buffet will be served at 7 p.m. Celebration to follow.

I’ll be there (here’s a link to a story I wrote when Bob died) and I hope you will be too.

It will be a gathering of the clan and there will be a million stories.

Moving right along, NASCAR is back in action at Phoenix this weekend — my favourite NASCAR speedway in a great part of the world (particularly in winter) and it really would be nice if INDYCAR could somehow find a way to get back there.

Two things: 1, it’s highly unlikely that we’ll see any of the doggy-style racing
we saw at Daytona last weekend and 2, we’ll get to see what Trevor Bayne is really made of. It’s possible that this young guy is the Real Deal. On the other hand, his victory at Daytona could have been just one of those things.

Something I hope we don’t see at Phoenix (or anyplace else again, for that matter) is all that palsy-walsy-ing between the drivers that went on at Daytona.

Everybody in the 500 had everybody else’s radio frequency. Everybody was everybody else’s friend.

“Hi Kyle . . . this is Kurt . . . want me to push for awhile? . . . or would you like me to push you? . . . we could go to the front together . . .pretty please?”

Dale Earnhardt, who was dead 10 years as of last weekend, rolled over in his grave. Guaranteed.

Dale Earnhardt would drive up behind someone he was racing against for money and glory and he would say OUTTA MY WAY.

Now they say, “Hi Kurt . . . mind if I pass?”

How can any of those guys ever get out of a car again and shake his or her  fist at another driver because of something that happened on-track?

Because two weeks later, they might need each other. . .

“Hi Jimmie . . . this is Kyle . . . how’s the baby? . . . Can I go by? . . .”

NASCAR racing is showing signs of becoming the NBA, which is now officially a fraternity of rich guys who give each other hugs before the games start.

Sheesh. Give me Jay Rosehill and P.K. Subban any day.

Talking about rich guys, and rich series, the Williams F1 team is reviewing the price it wants to charge for shares in the team.

Seems the stock market where the shares will be sold thinks the price is too high and won’t attract buyers.

Read more in today’s Daily Telegraph.

P.S. There’s a chapter floating around from that new book on Bernie Ecclestone that I wrote about yesterday (see post below, if you’re interested). It’s about his marriage to Slavika. It illustrates perfectly that even if you have all the money and just about all the power in the world, you can still be led around by the nose at home.

You read that chapter and you almost feel sorry for the guy.

Almost.