Monday, May 19, 2008

Weekend recap

What you missed while you were considering doing a grease conversion on your daily driver to avoid buying gas. How much is a gallon of Crisco anyway?

- The rain held off in Indy just long enough to secure a 33-car field for this weekend's 500. The last half-hour of Bump Day was damn interesting with six cars vying for the final show-spot. Of those cars, Buddy Lazier, A.J. Foyt IV and Marty Roth all made the field, with Roger Yasukawa, Mario Dominguez and Max Papis left sans spot. Dominguez looked like he had the pace to bump Roth when he made the final attempt of the day, but just as the final gun fired, Mario spun and hit the wall, a fitting conclusion to the day's events.

INDY 500: Lazier Heroics Lead Bump Day

-The Sprint All-Star Race at Lowe's Motor Speedway was Saturday night, and RB'er feels bad for anyone who watched. The incredibly complex system by which drivers advance to the "A-Main" yielded little drama, much confusion and lackluster racing. The "fan vote" went to Kasey Kahne (who won the whole deal), and open wheel refuges Sam Hornish Jr. and A.J. Allmendinger both raced their way into the show. Since we don't understand how this "race" works, what with the transfers and no points and what-have-you, that is all we can say.

Kahne goes from All-Star voted-in to Victory Lane

- Matt Crafton won his first career Truck Series race at Charlotte. This race was roughly 37-times more entertaining than the "All-Star" event and yielded the quote of the weekend. It comes from Ron Hornaday, speaking after being wrecked by Todd Bodine: "He just flat tried to kill me. You don't spin somebody out on the straightaway. Life is too short to have an idiot like that." Cheers to Thorsports (Crafton's team), they're from Ohio, you know?

Late-race mayhem helps Crafton to first career win

- Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard took overall victory in the awesomely-named Larry H. Miller Utah Grand Prix presented by the Grand and Little America Hotels. Penske went 1-2 overall, with the newly christened de Ferran Motorsports Acura taking third. The winner in P1 (Luhr/Werner Audi) finished a staggering seventh-overall. Cheers to Intersport Racing for finishing second in P1, they're from Ohio, you know?

ALMS: Bernhard Wins as Penske Goes 1-2 In Utah

-Ryan Dalziel and Henri Zogaib grabbed DP honors at Laguna Seca driving their SAMAX BMW Riley. GT went to Kelly Collins and Paul Edwards in Banner Engineering Pontiac GXP.R. The race had a NASCAR wreckers or checkers feel to it.... Let Bob Varsha tell you about it.



Dalziel Earns Redemption at Laguna Seca

-Continuing the trend of ladies winning things, Melanie Troxel won in her Funny Car at Bristol. Other pro winners included Tony Schumacher and Dave Conley.

Troxel gets first career Funny Car win; Shoe, Connolly also outlast Bristol rain

1 comment:

Meesh said...

Just because I feel the junior open wheel formulas deserve a shout out too...

Atlantics: James Hinchcliffe dominated the weekend in Laguna taking pole in both qualifying sessions and the win.

Star Mazda: John Edwards, in his debut with Star Mazda (driving for AIM Autosports) smoked the competition, taking pole and winning the race by a dominating 14 seconds over the next finisher.