Nascar

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Busch apologises for obscene gesture

Kyle Busch apologised to his team and NASCAR after making an obscene gesture to an official following a penalty during Sunday's race at Texas Motor Speedway.

Busch ran strongly in the early going until he got spun by another car on lap 160, suffering damage to his car's bodywork and requiring repairs in the pits.

His crew worked on the car in the pits under the caution, releasing Busch right before being lapped by the field, but while driving out of his pitbox and beating the pace car to the scoring line he was caught speeding, causing him to be held in the pits for one lap as a punishment.

As he served his penalty he made a hand gesture to the official standing in front of his car to show his disagreement with the decision, an action that was caught live on TV by the onboard camera in his car.

"I'm sorry I lost my cool to everybody on this team, to everybody at NASCAR and all of my guys that support me," said Busch. "It's just so frustrating the way that you have such a fast race car and then you get spun out and you don't expect to lose your cool, I guess.

"I lost my cool in what I was doing and I had no worries about a camera inside the car at that point."

The Joe Gibbs racer lamented losing the chance to score a good result that would've moved him up in the standings as some of his closest contenders hit trouble later during the event. NASCAR officials handed him an additional penalty for his gesture, holding him in the pits for two more laps to put him three laps down on the race leader.

He eventually got one of the laps back, but only managed 32nd place in the end.

"I got spun out and just everything else went downhill from there," said Busch. "Through the whole day we had a really fast race car and the guys gave me a great race car that was fast, that was capable of winning, but it's just unfortunate that I tried pulling back and getting down to the bottom lane and I got spun out in doing that.

"Where I had another guy earlier in the race do that to me and I let him in. You get spun out and wrecked like that and you're not supposed to lose your cool...? I mean, hello!

"I came down pitroad and we got the right side [tyres] changed and then tried to get back out there. I wasn't trying to speed, but apparently I must've been a couple lights over or something like that on my tach where it was just a small speeding penalty, but it wasn't intentional.

"Obviously, I got the penalty for that and then the ensuing ones later. I apologise to all of my guys for letting them down and for getting so behind today that we could never make it up."

Busch could yet face further penalties for the gesture he made to the official in pitlane.

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Gordon furious with Burton after crash

Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton got into a physical confrontation in the aftermath of an on-track incident at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday.

The four-time champion finished his race hard against the Turn 2 wall at the Fort Worth track on lap 191, after getting hit from behind by Richard Childress Racing's Burton when the pair were running inside the top 20 and just after the seventh caution of the day had waved for an incident involving Martin Truex Jr.

Gordon got out of his stricken #24 Chevy, and slowly walked towards Burton, who seemed to be waiting to talk to him. However, Gordon shoved the RCR driver and then grabbed him until officials intervened to split the pair, avoiding further physical contact between them.

Both were then driven back to the track's infield care centre in the same ambulance for compulsory medical checks, Gordon later saying later that he did not like having to listen to his rival attempting to explain what led to their crash, as he tried to regain his composure while still fuming over the incident.

"I was walking toward him and I started going through all the scenarios in my mind," said Gordon. "Thankfully I had a long walk down there to him because I thought about the least amount that I wanted to do. I wanted to show him how upset I was but I wanted to do a whole lot more than that.

"But I held back and I'm just still in disbelief; I didn't want to be in the ambulance with him, I can tell you that. But we got in there. I like Jeff. He's a guy that's usually very rational and I respect his opinion. He apologised and said it was his fault. He said he didn't mean to do it and whatever. It's over."

The Hendrick driver showed his anger at Burton as he believes the incident was intentional, arising from an incident earlier in the race while battling for position. He says he has lost some respect for one of the drivers he least expected to have such an incident with.

"We went down into [Turn] 3. He went wide going in. I got to the inside of him and there were four car-widths between us and he drove from the wall all the way down to me; almost in the second groove up," said Gordon.

"I didn't understand why and so the caution came out and we went down into [Turn] 1 and I just drove up next to him. I didn't even touch him. And I don't know, I guess he was just really frustrated with the way his car was handling or something and he just drove into my right rear and put me in the wall under caution.

"Of all the people out there, I never thought that would happen to Jeff Burton and me. I've always has a tremendous amount of respect for him. But I certainly lost a lot of respect today."

Burton took full blame for the incident but failed to clearly explain why he ended up driving into the back of Gordon which put both of their cars into the wall and out of contention.

While Gordon was unable to rejoin, Burton's crew was able to repair his car, allowing him to complete a few more laps in the closing stages of the race.

"I went to pull up next to him to acknowledge him, to say he was right and I turned left and he was turning left and we just hung up," said Burton. "When we hung, off we went. I honestly don't know what happened. It was my fault. 100 per cent it was my fault.

"It was like once we got together, I couldn't get off him. I didn't mean to hit him. I meant to pull up to him and tell him he was right because he was upset with me for what happened off Turn 4. I should have let him go.

"You can't see off there right but you can't see over there right now. You don't need to be side-by-side. I don't blame him for being mad. I'd have been mad too."

The RCR veteran also said he understood Gordon's reactions and his physical aggression after the incident.

"He didn't do anything that he shouldn't have done. He was upset and he should have been upset," said Burton. "I wrecked him under caution. I didn't mean to wreck him but I wrecked him under caution. He meant to tell me he was upset and that was OK. I don't have a bit of problem with what he did. He was mad. He should have been mad."

While Gordon, who was already all but out of contention for the title, dropped two places in the standings down to sixth, Burton is now last among the Chase contenders with two races left in the championship.

Despite the nature of the incident, which caused a stir in the grandstands at Texas Motor Speedway, no penalties are expected to be levied against either driver.

Once Gordon was out of the race, his pit crew went to service Jimmie Johnson's car for the rest of the event, as the reigning champion's team had been struggling with poor pitstops for most of the afternoon.

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Sunday, November 7, 2010

Hamlin: Pressure is on Johnson

Pressure is on Johnson

Denny Hamlin claims the pressure is on Jimmie Johnson to defend his Chase lead and his current champion status as the three-way battle for the title starts unfolding at Texas this weekend.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver is currently second in the Sprint Cup standings heading into Texas, where he won earlier this year only a couple of weeks after getting surgery on his left knee for a torn ligament.

While Johnson has said he is not necessarily under more pressure in the tight championship battle, Hamlin doesn't believe that to be the case, although he doesn't expect his rival to take a conservative approach in the last three events.

"I think [the pressure] is on him to protect," said Hamlin about the Hendrick driver. "He's not going to race like he has to protect, we know that. He's got to look in his mirror for two different guys and both of the teams that he's going to look in the rear view mirror at have won races this year, have shown they have the speed and what not to keep up with him

"...I definitely think that it's tougher to be the one that's being chased versus chasing."

The 29-year-old has a best finish of third in the standings, a result he achieved in his rookie year back in 2006. Although he currently enjoys his best shot at becoming champion, having won seven races thus far this year, he claims he still has age on his side to win a title later if he doesn't achieve it this year.

"I have a few good years left to get it done if we don't this year," said Hamlin. "For me, I feel like if we got the championship this year, it would be sooner than what I'd expect and probably younger in age than what I would expect. It's simply because I hadn't been running in the Cup Series -- this is my fifth year -- I was running Late Models six years ago.

"I didn't have years and years of Nationwide Series experience and things like that, that a lot of guys had before they got to the Cup Series level. I am still relatively new to this ...There's no sense of urgency that I need to get it done this year because I feel like the best is still probably yet to come as far as my potential."

Hamlin hopes to be able to cut back on Johnson's lead on Sunday as he expects next weekend's race at Phoenix to suit the reigning champion. After that, he plans to be within striking distance of winning the championship in the season-finale at Homestead where he won last year.

"It starts this weekend," Hamlin said. "I know this is going to be a big weekend for us. We need to gain points this weekend. Phoenix next weekend is a good track for Jimmie [Johnson] and obviously our record is a little bit better than his at Homestead, but when he has a run at Homestead he can probably run as good as we can. We know where we need to make up points is this weekend."

Hamlin starts Sunday's race at Texas from 30th on the grid, while Harvick will see the green flag wave from 26th behind Johnson's 17th place in the order.

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Keselowski wins Nationwide title

Brad Keselowski clinched the NASCAR Nationwide Series title at Texas on Saturday, giving Roger Penske his maiden NASCAR championship.

Keselowski, who drives for Penske in the Sprint Cup series as well, finished third at Texas Motor Speedway, adding enough points to his tally in order to win the second-tier series title with two races still to run.

Although Penske has won multiple championships in almost every form of racing he has entered in the US, he had never won a NASCAR title before, coming closest back in 1993 with Rusty Wallace finishing second in the Winston Cup to the late Dale Earnhardt.

"Obviously Roger has some major accomplishments, but never a NASCAR title, and you sit back and say 'why not?'," said Keselowski, who is in his third full Nationwide season and his first for Penske after driving for Dale Earnhardt Jr's team until last year.

"Coming to Penske, I told Roger that I wanted to do this Nationwide deal and he looked at me like I was crazy. 'Why would you want to do that? It takes the focus away from the Cup side!' I explained to him that we're building a foundation for success at Cup level and it's here at the Nationwide level.

"It's here that we're building people, cars, attracting sponsors and doing things that will make the company stronger as a whole, and give it a better shot at winning a Cup championship. Winning a championship today is kind of a way to look at Roger and say 'this is what I'm talking about!'."

Keselowski has won six races this season, half the number achieved by last year's champion Kyle Busch, who was not running in the series full-time.

The Michigan-native has one Cup win to his name, which he achieved last year at Talladega while driving for Phoenix Racing.

Danica Patrick took part in Saturday's Nationwide race at Texas, her 11th outing in the series, finishing 22nd and three laps down on event winner Carl Edwards.

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Johnson plans aggressive approach

Jimmie Johnson plans to attack in the three remaining races of NASCAR's Chase for the Sprint Cup, as he targets a fifth consecutive title.

The reigning champion heads to Texas Motor Speedway this weekend with a slim 14-point cushion over Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin, while Richard Childress Racing's Kevin Harvick trails him by 38 points.

Last year Johnson arrived at this race 184 points ahead of his Hendrick Motorsports team-mate Mark Martin, but ended up getting involved in an incident early on, leaving Texas with only a 73-point gap over the veteran, which in the end proved enough for Johnson to go on to claim his fourth consecutive title.

Johnson believes he approached last year's race in a defensive mode due to his healthy lead in the standings, but with this year's gap to his closest rivals being so small - and their performances providing a strong challenge - he says he needs to beat them for the next three weeks in order to remain in the lead of the championship.

He reckons the tight battle at the top of the standings does not increase the pressure on him and claims to be more relaxed not having to protect a points cushion this time.

"I don't necessarily feel more pressure," said Johnson. "I think I feel more pressure trying to defend something. The small margin that we have, it's really easy to know what I need to do - I need to win the race. I need to finish ahead of the #11 [Hamlin] and the #29 [Harvick] and I think that's going to mean me winning the race.

"The week has been really easy for me where other weeks coming into Texas concerned the mind in more of a defensive mode trying to protect and worrying about things. It's all offence right now so I feel really good about things and feel less pressure for this Texas race than I did last year."

Johnson has five career wins in two of the three upcoming races, with Homestead being the only one where he has yet to win among circuits in the Chase. The Hendrick driver believes the past few seasons have prepared him and his team for what he expects to be a tough battle to the wire against both Hamlin and Harvick, who are enjoying their best shots at the Sprint Cup title ever.

"Texas and Phoenix have been really good tracks for us and we've always raced at those race tracks," said Johnson. "Then at Homestead we've been a little more conservative. I don't think we'll have that luxury this year at all.

"I feel like over the years we've prepared for this situation and the way we operate as a team, we never want to leave any points on the table – I think we're geared up and ready for the final three and can race for it. It is making things simple.

"I have to expect the best out of the #29 and the #11 and the way they've been running and average finishes and the finishes they have at the final three tracks – I have to go out and win races.

"It's real simple and almost comforting in a way. It's real easy to know what we need to do and there's nothing to protect."

The 35-year-old has praised both of his rivals as being respectful on the track, although he believes Hamlin is not as aggressive as Harvick, who Johnson claims is not as patient while racing side-by-side.

"In racing situations, I would say both are very respectful in the give and take of the race," said Johnson. "When push comes to shove at times, I think the tolerance that some people have is a little different. I would consider Denny maybe more patient in some situations than Kevin. I would put myself more on the patient side as well.

"With Kevin, I probably need to give up the spot a little earlier than someone else... I've had great races with both of them."

The 38-point gap that splits Johnson from third-placed Harvick in the standings is the closest ever for the top three championship contenders since the Chase format was introduced in 2004.

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Gordon takes first pole of 2010

The Gateway International Raceway, host to CART, IndyCar and NASCAR races in the past, is closing down, parent company Dover Motorsports has announced.

The circuit hosted its final NASCAR Nationwide event last month and Dover Motorsports said it would not be seeking to run any NASCAR events on the track from 2011.

Dover Motorsports said it has been in discussions with "several" interested purchasers.

"Gateway is a tremendous facility in a great racing community, but we are simply unable to operate it with an acceptable return," said Denis McGlynn, CEO of Dover Motorsports.

"We truly appreciate the many years of dedication shown by our Gateway employees and their efforts to make Gateway such a great destination for all those passionate about our sport - from racing fans and drivers to sponsors, team owners and sanctioning bodies."

Gateway, located near St. Louis, hosted CART races from 1997 to 2000, then being the home of IndyCar events until 2003.

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Gateway Raceway shutting down