By MIKE HARRIS
LOUDON, N.H. (AP) — Former series champion Kurt Busch stayed on track when the leaders pitted late in Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup race at New Hampshire and the strategy paid off with a win when the race was cut 17 laps short by rain.
It is the first victory for the Penske Racing driver since September at California Speedway and it came on a day when two-time Cup champion Tony Stewart dominated, only to see his hard luck continue and his winless string increase to 31 races.
"These guys made an awesome call," Busch said. "Sometimes you just don't win 'em the right way, I think we can honestly say that, but we had a lot of work and a lot of effort put in today and we'll take it."
Stewart, who led a race-high 132 laps on the 1.058-mile oval, held off a challenge from two-time reigning Cup champion Jimmie Johnson late in the 301-lap race and appeared on the way to his first victory since August at Watkins Glen, N.Y. But Stewart and most of the other drivers who had been racing at the front of the pack did not have enough gas to get to the end.
On lap 271, Dale Earnhardt Jr., who had been in the top 10 all day, started toward pit road and was hit from behind by Jamie McMurray, who then spun into David Ragan, bringing out a caution.
Kurt Busch gets rain-shortened victory....
By Jim Peltz, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
Casey Mears, who struggled as the fourth member of Hendrick Motorsports' "dream team" in NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series, will be released after this season, the two sides announced Friday.
His replacement was not immediately named.
Casey Mears to leave Hendrick Motorsports....
Biffle gets three-year contract extension with Roush Fenway Racing
0 comments Posted by Dstall at 10:51 AM
LOUDON, N.H. — Greg Biffle reached an agreement on a three-year contract extension with Roush Fenway Racing.
"Certainly I'm very excited to announce that we've done a multiyear extension with Roush Fenway," the driver of the No. 16 Ford said Friday. He said the long-anticipated deal includes primary sponsorship by 3M for the next three years.
"3M has stepped up," said Biffle, whose contract was to expire at the end of the year. "They had a multiyear deal to start with, but they came and re-upped, so to speak, recommitted to being on the car for those races."
The extension has been a long time coming, with Biffle apparently looking at other opportunities before deciding to put his major effort into finding a way to stay with the team co-owned by Jack Roush and the Fenway Sports Group.
Biffle gets three-year contract extension with Roush Fenway Racing....
Tony Kanaan said he is joining a list of IndyCar Series drivers that includes Helio Castroneves and Dan Wheldon. Their commonality: Negotiating contracts to remain with their current teams for the 2009 season and beyond.
Kanaan said he expects to remain with Andretti Green Racing for a third three-year contract in spite of recent on-track disagreements with teammate Marco Andretti, and the team's general struggles.
Kanaan, who called an Andretti Green Racing drivers-only team meeting at Iowa, said he is "cool with" Andretti to the point they hung out together in Miami during the series' recent off week.
Kanaan staying put with Andretti Green....
By David Newton and Marty Smith
ESPN.com
SONOMA, Calif. -- Casey Mears and Mark Martin look to be on the move, and their futures might be linked.
Mears' future with Hendrick Motorsports appears in jeopardy, ESPN.com has learned. Although Mears has one year left on his contract, team owner Rick Hendrick would not commit to the driver of the No. 5 car beyond this season.
"I'm committed to him right now," Hendrick said on Sunday at Infineon Raceway. "I'm committed to him making that car run better right now."
Earlier on Sunday, sources told ESPN.com that Martin would leave Dale Earnhardt Inc. Later, ESPN.com learned that he would replace Mears, making one last full-time run at a championship.
John Story, the vice president of motorsports at DEI, said there are plans to put Aric Almirola into a full-time ride next season. Almirola currently is splitting the No. 8 with the 49-year-old Martin. He indicated the full-time ride would be in the No. 8.
Sources: Martin to leave DEI, replace Mears in No. 5....
By Curtis Pashelka
Bay Area News Group
SONOMA - He conserved enough fuel for the two-lap sprint to the finish. He hit his marks. He ran consistent lap times to stay comfortably ahead of his pursuers.
And he nailed restart after restart, including the most crucial one of the day.
Kyle Busch said he hardly considers himself to be a "road-course ace" at this point in his promising career. But Busch certainly had the look of one during a dominant performance Sunday at Infineon Raceway.
"Today," Busch said, "we were just in the right positions at the right times."
Busch, 23, was flawless during a green-white-checkered finish to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup Toyota/Save Mart 350 in only the seventh road-course start of his Cup career. David Gilliland finished 1.716 seconds behind in second, and five-time race winner Jeff Gordon was third.
Busch, who started 30th, led 78 laps, including the final 42 for his fifth Cup victory of the season. He has won 11 times this season including his work in the Nationwide and Craftsman Truck series. He won the Nationwide Series road race in Mexico City in April.
Kyle Busch wins Sonoma NASCAR race....
Newton, IA (Sports Network) - Dan Wheldon went the last 90 laps, 37 under caution, without a pit stop to capture Sunday's Iowa Corn Indy 250 at the Iowa Speedway. The No.10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing driver crossed the finish line 0.1430 seconds ahead of Hideki Mutoh.
The victory was Wheldon's second of the season and 15th of his IndyCar career.
Marco Andretti, Scott Dixon and AJ Foyt IV completed the top-five.
Wheldon's strategy pays off in Iowa....
From Times Wire Reports
Carl Edwards was desperate to get back into Victory Lane in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, and he wasn't about to let Clint Bowyer stand in his way at the Milwaukee Mile on Saturday night.
Edwards shoved his fellow Sprint Cup Series driver sideways with 25 laps to go, then held off Joey Logano for his first Nationwide victory of the season after dominating the series last year.
Carl Edwards wins Nationwide Series race at Milwaukee....
BY RICH SCHAPIRO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
A champion hot rod driver was engulfed in flames in front of scores of spectators Saturday when his car exploded at 300 mph and hit a barrier at a New Jersey raceway.
Scott Kalitta, 46, was barely clinging to life when he was pulled from his charred car after the stunning wreck at the Old Bridge Township Raceway Park.
Kalitta, a two-time Top Fuel champion, was pronounced dead at a local hospital a short time later.
"I haven't witnessed anything like that in a number of years," Don Prudhomme, a former top racer, told the Asbury Park Press.
Scott Kalitta killed in fiery race crash....
by JORGE A. MONDACA
Want to find out who is the best pure driver in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series competition? Follow along with all the action this weekend.
For the first time this year, NASCAR's top stars will be forced to make left- and right-hand turns as they do battle at the 1.99-mile Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif. Who will win? Road course races usually come down to strategy and pure skill, so every facet of a team will come into play this weekend.
"These races aren't just an anomaly," said Bobby Labonte. "They are important to the season. A good season can take a turn if you don't run well on the two road courses, so teams take them very seriously."
Who has momentum going into the weekend? Here's a look at the top performers so far this year.
Power Rankings: Busch holding on
By Aaron Bell - Motorsport.com
Rick Hendrick was happy that he spent Father's Day at the race track even after one of his top drivers suggested he should stay home.
Hendrick watched his newest driver - Dale Earnhardt Jr. - snap a 76 race winless skid and take the checkered flag in the LifeLock 400 at Michigan International Speedway on Sunday.
He was glad that he didn't take Earnhardt's advice.
"He told me maybe I shouldn't come today because he said that he wasn't running very good," Hendrick said in Victory Lane. "I'm glad I didn't stay home."
MORE....
LE MANS, France (AP) — Audi survived a collision late in the 24 Hours of Le Mans to win the endurance race for the fifth straight year and give Tom Kristensen a record eighth victory.
Kristensen, a Dane, teamed with Rinaldo Capello of Italy and Allan McNish of Britain in the Audi No. 2 that made the best of wet racing Sunday to beat the faster Peugeot cars.
"It was a perfect race," Kristensen told France 2 television. "The Audi had no problem at all. It's really unbelievable."
Audi's victory thwarted Jacques Villeneuve's bid to win the Triple Crown of auto racing.
MORE....
By AL PEARCE
It took only three races for the hype surrounding 18-year-old NASCAR driver Joey Logano to become reality. Logano, the pole winner, won Saturday night's Meijer 300 at Kentucky Speedway to become--at 18 years, 21 days--the youngest winner in the long history of NASCAR's second-tier series. He beat the previous record of former driver Casey Atwood by almost nine months.
STORY....
By JENNA FRYER
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Two officials suspended by NASCAR are accused in a $225 million lawsuit of exposing themselves to a former co-worker, the Associated Press has learned.
Tim Knox and Bud Moore have been placed on indefinite administrative paid leave.
NASCAR will not reveal the identities of the officials sent home Friday from Kentucky Speedway, but a person familiar with the investigation confirmed to AP on Saturday that Knox and Moore were suspended. The person requested anonymity because NASCAR's investigation is ongoing.
MORE....
By David Caraviello, NASCAR.COM
When it became clear to officials at Petty Enterprises that the legendary NASCAR operation needed an influx of capital to improve its chances of competing at a higher level, the sport's most successful race team did something that many others before them had already done -- they sold part of their organization to another company.
The sale of a majority of Petty Enterprises on Wednesday to Massachusetts-based private equity firm Boston Ventures was the latest in a long line of mergers, acquisitions, and sell-offs that have altered the face of the Sprint Cup circuit. It's become common practice, selling part or all of a team in hopes of raising enough money to hire enough people and buy enough equipment to close the gap on the best in the sport. Of the 19 Sprint Cup teams that went to Pocono Raceway last weekend, all but five had merged with another entity, acquired another entity, or formed a competitive alliance with another organization. It's become one of those irresistible trends, like signing developmental drivers or hiring ex-athletes to go over the wall.
FULL ARTICLE....
Special to the Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service
A former NASCAR official is suing the sanctioning body for $225 million for alleged racial and sexual harassment.
Mauricia Grant, who worked for the NASCAR Busch Series from 2005 through much of 2007, alleges she was fired two months after complaining of race and gender discrimination and harassment by series officials, including series director Joe Balash.
"(Grant's) firing was because she was a black woman subjected to a different performance standard than her white male co-workers, and because she had complained of race and gender discrimination and harassment," states the federal lawsuit, a copy of which was provided by Grant's attorney.
Grant details several instances of alleged racial and sexual harassment in her complaint. Among those were that she was nicknamed "Nappy Headed Mo" by one official, was asked by Balash if her exercise program included "an urban obstacle course with a flat-screen TV on your back" and that other officials used racial slurs around her.
MORE....
LONDON, England (CNN) -- Kimi Raikkonen has lambasted McLaren's Lewis Hamilton for the pit-lane accident that ended both of their races at the Canadian Grand Prix.
Hamilton's McLaren rammed into the back of world champion Raikkonen's Ferrari as the Finn and Robert Kubica, the race's eventual winner, were waiting at a red light after the safety car was forced into action on lap 17.
Raikkonen, while claiming not to be angry, was clearly far from impressed.
"There's not much I can say. My race was ruined by Hamilton's mistake.
FULL ARTICLE....
By Aaron Bell - Motorsport.com
Kasey Kahne is starting to feel like the king of comebacks.
Kahne, who was winless in 2007, won for the second time in three starts when he rebounded from a pit road mistake to take the checkered flag in the Pocono 500 today at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, PA.
Kahne, who started the race from the pole, followed Jimmie Johnson for the first 16 laps before making the first lead change of the day on lap 17. But a miscue on pit road on lap 59 cost him a bunch of track position and threatened to keep him out of contention for the win.
STORY....
By ADAM COOPER
Robert Kubica scored his maiden Grand Prix win on Sunday after a flawless performance in Montreal. It was also the first win for the BMW Sauber team since its humble beginnings as a privateer back in 1993.
Incredibly, Kubica now leads the world championship, thanks to his consistent points scoring while the title-chasing McLaren and Ferrari drivers have endured some unfortunate races. Indeed, Lewis Hamilton dominated the early stages of the Canadian race, only for the McLaren team leader to make a silly error and ram into the back of rival Kimi Raikkonen at the end of the pitlane when the Ferrari man stopped for a red light.
Hamilton secured pole position on a track made difficult by a surface that was breaking up. Kubica was alongside and Raikkonen third, while Felipe Massa was down in sixth in the other Ferrari.
MORE....
FORT WORTH – Saturday night's Bombardier Learjet 550 ended with the cars coasting around Texas Motor Speedway at less than 90 mph.
That's a crawl for cars that reach speeds of 220 mph. What a downer.
Scott Dixon, the IndyCar Series' dominant driver, won his third race of the season. He was the fifth polesitter to win in 19 IndyCar races at TMS.
But he won it as the yellow and checkered flags waved together. Some fans were already leaving before Dixon crossed the finish line. It's the second time in a week that a late crash has forced an IndyCar Series race to end under caution.
That should not happen.
MORE....
(CNN) -- World championship leader Lewis Hamilton dominated qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal to claim pole position for Sunday's race.
But the McLaren man had to produce a dramatic last lap to pip Robert Kubica in the BMW who had surprisingly posted the quickest time moments before in Saturday's session.
Hamilton, who had been on pole prior to Kubica's late charge, certainly reserved his best for last with a stunning one minute 17.886 seconds to be over a half a second clear of the field.
"At the end I had two laps," Hamilton told the Associated Press.
MORE....
Kyle Busch is working overtime to try to win three points championships
0 comments Posted by Dstall at 7:16 AM
By JIM PEDLEY
The Kansas City Star
From the sound of it, Kyle Busch is in the throes of a major funk at this very moment. He’s probably sitting in a hotel room or in his motor home or on an airplane somewhere chewing his fingernails.
All because today he is not in a race car. Today, for the only time in a five-day stretch, Busch’s schedule takes him out of a race car. That means he can only think about racing.
And that really stinks.
STORY....
PARIS, June 3 (UPI) -- Max Mosley, the scandal-plagued president of the world auto sports governing body FIA, will keep the job after winning a vote of confidence in Paris Tuesday.
Mosley, 68, comfortably survived the vote by member automobile racing clubs, held at Federation Internationale de l'Automobile headquarters in Paris, with the vote going 103 in favor of keeping Mosely and 55 against, The Sun newspaper reported.
Mosely had blasted reports in the British tabloid News of the World linking him to Nazi-themed sex acts with prostitutes, decrying it as an invasion of his privacy and launching a libel suit seeking to clear his name.
FULL ARTICLE....
By DAN GELSTON
DOVER, Del. (AP) — Kyle Busch eggs on the jeering pre-race crowd in his role as NASCAR's latest "Bad Boy."
The usual noise he hears after races this year are the sounds of celebration. Busch can tune out those boos when a crew is whooping it up, confetti is falling all over him and victory drinks are spraying in his direction.
No matter the series, the track or crowd reaction, nothing has slowed down Busch this season.
Busch led the way again, dominating the second half of the 400-mile race Sunday at Dover International Speedway and charging to his Sprint Cup series-best fourth win of the season — and 10th overall.
"That darned 18 car got us again," said runner-up Carl Edwards.
STORY....
