Archive for January, 2011

Jason Bowles won Saturday night’s Toyota All Star Showdown, but Travis Pastrana got all the attention. The X-Games star made his much-anticipated NASCAR debut Saturday night, and while he didn’t win, he impressed the NASCAR nation. Including yours truly. Pastrana started 20th in the 40-car field. He bided his time most of the race, hanging out around mid-pack through the majority of the first 200 laps. Pastrana used that time to get used to the car and racing with others, and managed to stay out of trouble. That, in it’s own right, was a spectacular feat. Seemingly every wreck that [...]

After 24 hours of racing at Daytona, one name stood above all others. And it’s one that, by now, we are quite familiar with. Chip Ganassi. Team Ganassi’s cars finished first and second in the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Scott Pruett drove the #01 car to the checkers, as he celebrated yet another victory in the famous endurance race. Memo Rojas, Indycar driver Graham Rahal, and Grand Am newcomer Joey Hand joined Pruett in Victory Lane as the winners. Also standing on the podium were second-place finishers from the #02 Ganassi car. The runners-up were NASCAR stars Jamie McMurray and [...]

It’s finally here. Racing season officially starts TODAY! The Rolex 24 at Daytona begins today at 3:00 ET only on Speed. And while Speed will have televised coverage of a lot of the event, in the wee-hours of the morning the Rolex 24 at Daytona will not be televised.  So if you find yourself having difficulties sleeping tonight, if you can’t watch the event live, or if you just get sick of the endless commercials, fear not! We’ve got you covered with LIVE timing and scoring of the Rolex 24 at Daytona, courtesy of our friends from Grand-Am.com! For LIVE [...]

Several NASCAR drivers will be competing in the Rolex 24 at Daytona Grand Am race once again this year. With qualifying concluded for tomorrow’s race(3:00 Eastern time on Speed), the field for the Rolex 24 has been locked. Among the NASCAR drivers participating in the Daytona Prototype(DP) division are 5-time defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson(#99 Chevrolet-Riley), defending Daytona 500 winner Jamie McMurray and his Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing teammate Juan Pablo Montoya(#02 BMW-Riley), Richard Petty Motorsports driver AJ Allmendinger and NASCAR Nationwide Series driver Michael McDowell(#6 Ford-Dallara), and former Roush development driver Colin Braun(#8 Ford-Riley). NASCAR drivers participating in the Grand Touring(GT) division [...]

Richard Petty Motorsports is finally out of its financial mess. And with sponsorship secured for both its cars for the entire 2011 season, along with the team’s optimism being at an all-time high, the head honchos at RPM are already looking ahead to brighter things. They want Danica Patrick. Foxsports.com broke the story today that Andrew Murstein, one of RPM’s majority investors, is taking a keen interest in two drivers: Clint Bowyer and Danica. But while Murstein did not comment much on Bowyer(besides noting that his contract with RCR is up after 2011), he had plenty to say about Patrick: “We [...]

NASCAR Chairman Brian France announced some key changes in the sport on Wednesday. France confirmed a complete restructuring of the NASCAR points system; something that had been anticipated since last week. The new points system is designed to be more simple than the previous system, which had been in place since 1975. The new system will award 43 points to the winner, 42 points to second, 41 to third, and so on down to the 43rd-place finisher, who will earn one point. Bonus points include one point for leading a lap, an additional point for leading the most laps, and three additional bonus [...]

Kurt Busch is set to make his drag racing debut. The 2004 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion will drive the Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Avenger in the NHRA Pro Stock series at the Gatornationals in Gainesville, Florida. Busch will attempt to qualify his way into the finals on Friday, March 11, and again on Saturday, March 12. The finals are Sunday, March 13. Busch tested the Allen Johnson-owned Pro Stock car and earned his NHRA Pro Stock license during the offseason.  Busch’s best pass time during the test was 6.576 seconds, or 210.43 mph. His time would have been good enough to qualify him in 11th in [...]

It’s difficult to take what happens in a 3-day test session at a super-speedway track and determine how a full 36-race season is going to go based on what you learned in that short period. What went down over those 72 hours may be completely irrelevant. There’s a chance that what little we saw there(those of us who watch the streaming coverage on Speedtv.com) will have no impact on the season. However, we did see some things over those three days that are worth noting. And those things may be able to give us a little preview as to how [...]

Two words to remember come Speedweeks: Penske Racing. In the final session of testing at Daytona, Penske teammates Brad Keselowski and Kurt Busch worked together in the draft and put up what were by far the fastest speeds of the week. Keselowski topped the charts in the final session with a time of 45.316 seconds; over 198.5 miles per hour. Busch ran a time of 45.322; also over the 198.5 mph mark. The Penske teammates were the only drivers to top 198 mph. The Joe Gibbs Racing teammates of Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, and Joey Logano rounded out the top [...]

Fresh off the best season of his career, Denny Hamlin was the fastest man in Daytona on Friday. Hamlin, who was one of 12 drivers to test on the draft on the session’s second day, took the No. 1 spot with a time of 45.716 seconds; close to 197 mph. The speeds reached in today’s lone session were the highest of the test so far, and they are expected to get even higher as more drivers will likely test the draft on Saturday. Tony Stewart(45.719; 196.855 mph) and Joey Logano(45.757; 196.651 mph) rounded out the top 3. Defending Daytona 500 [...]