NASCAR news

[HossC]

On 5/22/2022 at 8:42 PM, HossC said:

It's off to Monte Carlo next week for the Monaco Grand Prix.

It was a slightly different race in Monaco yesterday. Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc had put his Ferrari on pole, and was about to do an even quicker lap when Red Bull's Sergio Perez had a minor crash which resulted in the final qualifying session being red-flagged. Behind him on the grid were his team mate, Carlos Sainz Jr. and the two Red Bulls.

Rain had been predicted, and minutes before the race started, the rain came down heavily. The race was initially delayed for about 10-15 minutes, and then started behind the safety car. They only completed a lap before the red flag came out. It wasn't until about 45 minutes later that the race proper finally got under way, and even then, two cars had minor incidents behind the safety car. Because of the wet start, all cars had to start on full wet tires, which meant it was up to the drivers and teams to decide when to gamble on intermediate or even slick tires as the track dried.

Due to bad strategy by his team, Leclerc went from first to fourth in the pit stops after leading in the early stages, and Sergio Perez got his third F1 victory. Carlos Sainz Jr. was second, and Max Verstappen extended his championship lead in third. Mercedes' George Russell was best of the rest in fifth. Mick Schumacher (son of Michael) had a bad crash on lap 27 where his car split in two, but he walked away unhurt.

You can see the highlights here.

[HossC]

Today's race was the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku - a fast street circuit with a 2.22km main straight. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc started in pole position, but Red Bull's Sergio Perez took the lead at the first corner. It wasn't a good day for Ferrari - both of their cars retired with mechanical issues, as did two other Ferrari-powered cars. That left Red Bull to take the 1-2 finish as Max Verstappen beat his team mate, Sergio Perez. Despite their cars "porpoising" on the straights, Mercedes came home in 3rd and 4th, with George Russell beating Lewis Hamilton. The "porpoising" hurt Lewis' back, and he took a while to get out of his car at the end of the race. Pierre Gasly got a good 5th place finish for AlphaTauri, followed by Sebastian Vettel in his Aston Martin.

Red Bull now lead the Drivers' and Constructors' championships.

You can see the highlights here.

It's only a week until the next race as F1 heads back to North America for the first Canadian Grand Prix since 2019.

[Hobie Hartkins]

Ferrari is one of if not my very favorite sports car!

[HossC]

1 hour ago, Hobie Hartkins said:

Ferrari is one of if not my very favorite sports car!

After several seasons which left their fans disappointed, the new rules have given Ferrari a chance to build a very fast car this year. They also have a very talented young driver in Charles Leclerc. Unfortunately, they have thrown away a lot of points this year with bad reliability resulting in non-finishes, and a few more in bad strategy decisions. I just hope they can improve their reliability and Mercedes can sort out their aerodynamics. Then we'll have a great three-way fight between Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes.

[Hobie Hartkins]

I'm sure Mercedes will rise to the occasion.  They are the tops at building all-around great cars, although the Italians build the fastest. 

[Spike]

2022 Silly Season has started...

Ricky Stenhouse has signed a multi rear contract extension with JTG Daugherty Racing https://www.jayski.com/2022/06/24/ricky-stenhouse-jr-signs-multi-year-extension-with-jtg-daugherty-racing/

Martin Truex Jr signed a 1 year contract extension with Joe Gibbs Racing for 2023 season https://www.jayski.com/2022/06/24/martin-truex-jr-will-return-to-joe-gibbs-racing-in-2023/

With Mars dropping out of Nascar Sponsorship Kyle Busch appears to be possibly out of a ride at Joe Gibbs Racing unless another sponsor steps up for 2023 https://nascar.nbcsports.com/2021/12/20/mms-leaving-kyle-busch-nascar-joe-gibbs-racing-sponsor/amp/

[HossC]

I've just realized that I didn't post anything about the Canadian Grand Prix last week. It was on late evening my time, so I planned to post last Monday and then forgot!

Championship leader Max Verstappen (Red Bull) started on pole, while his main rival, Ferrari's Charles Leclerc started one place off the back after engine change penalties. Mercedes driver George Russell started in 8th after trying to qualify on slick tires in a wet qualifying session.

Max Verstappen ended up extending his lead by winning the race, but his team mate, Sergio Perez, had to retire. Ferrari's Carlos Sainz Jr came second with the two Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell in third and fourth. It was damage limitation for Charles Leclerc, fighting his way up to fifth. Race highlights can be seen here.

We're back in Europe next week with the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

[RogerDuke]

I watched MotoAmerica and MotoGP superbikes today. It sure was weird to see last year's MotoGP champion Fabio Quartararo crash TWICE in the same race.

[Hobie Hartkins]

51 minutes ago, RogerDuke said:

I watched MotoAmerica and MotoGP superbikes today. It sure was weird to see last year's MotoGP champion Fabio Quartararo crash TWICE in the same race.

He did the same thing in the Moonshine 400! ( That race will be coming up soon!) 

[HossC]

Today was the British Grand Prix from Silverstone. It's one of a number of British sporting events that get shown live on free-to-air TV (others include the football World Cup, the Grand National horse race and the Olympics). This week there are several sports focused in this part of the world, as the Grand Prix coincides with tennis at Wimbledon, golf at the Irish Open (not far from me), and cycling in the Tour de France just across The Channel.

Yesterday's qualifying was wet, so there were a few people out of position on the grid, but the threat of rain never came to anything today. Ferrari's Carlos Sainz started on pole for the first time (this was his 150th F1 race), but got passed by Max Verstappen off the line. Lewis Hamilton also made up two places off the start, but then there was a bad crash behind them at the first corner which red flagged the race. Alfa Romeo's Zhou Guanyu got turned upside down and his car flipped over the tire barrier. Luckily, he was fine, but the race was delayed by about 45 minutes. Because the crash happened so close to the start, the grid reformed in its original order (minus the three cars that were involved in the crash).

The second time around, Sainz held the lead, Hamilton lost a place and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc damaged his front wing. Verstappen then picked up some underside damage from debris and pitted because he thought he had a puncture. Leclerc quickly caught his team mate, despite his damage, but Ferrari wouldn't order the drivers to swap position. Hamilton made his pit stop much later than the Ferraris, and looked to be in with a good chance of a win until Estaban Ocon's car broke down bringing out a safety car. With Leclerc in the lead, Sainz and Hamilton took the opportunity to fit the faster soft tires. Also back in the mix was Red Bull's Sergio Perez, who passed Hamilton at the restart. Sainz passed his team mate, while Leclerc, Hamilton and Perez fought over the other two podium positions. There was a lot of passing and repassing in the final laps, but in the end Sainz got his first Grand Prix win, with Perez second and Hamilton third in a much more competitive Mercedes. Verstappen had a great battle with Mick Schumacher in the final laps to claim seventh place. Schumacher picked up his first F1 points in eighth.

You can see the highlights here.

We're off to Austria next week for what counts as Red Bull's home race.

[Spike]

Just before Tyler Reddick scored his first Nascar Cup victory at Road America he signed a contract extension with RCR through 2023 season https://www.jayski.com/2022/07/02/tyler-reddick-will-return-to-richard-childress-racing-in-2023/

Rumor is that was the last Road America Cup race as next year they will most likely be racing in the mean streets of Chicago https://www.jayski.com/2022/07/07/chicago-street-course-looking-likely-for-2023-cup-schedule/ . It's unclear if the driver's and pit crews will be wearing bullet proof vests during practice, qualifying and the race though . 

Dale Earnhardt jr's Jr Motorsports team might be going Cup racing soon. He and his sister Kelley are looking into possibly buying or leasing a charter for one of their Xfinity driver's https://www.jayski.com/2022/06/29/jr-motorsports-still-eyeing-cup-entry/ . 

If you don't have cable you won't be watching any Nascar Cup or Xfinity races except for the Indy road course and Daytona race on NBC as the rest of the races till October are on USA and Peacock streaming service. All pre race and post race coverage is only available on Peacock streaming service.  On his podcast Dale jr shared some interesting info about NBC's deal with Nascar a few weeks ago about why the Nashville race moved to USA and Peacock from NBC channels. NBC's deal with Nascar is they can move a race to either USA or Peacock from NBC if the race runs over it's allotted time on the NBC or USA schedule. It doesn't matter if there's several laps left or a few laps left he said that NBC/Universal execs said they're programming comes first instead of Nascar's. So there you have it folks, NBC/Universal doesn't give two wooden nickels about Nascar and it's fans. If you enjoy Nascar you better sign up for Peacock premium to watch the races in there entirety this year. Hopefully NBC loses Nascar when Nascar renegotiates the TV rights soon.

[HossC]

On 7/3/2022 at 8:27 PM, HossC said:

We're off to Austria next week for what counts as Red Bull's home race.

Today's Austrian Grand Prix had a good amount of close racing and overtaking. Red Bull's Max Verstappen started on pole after winning yesterday's sprint race (the second of three this year). He also led the first few laps, but Ferrari's Charles Leclerc had better race pace with a car that seemed to be easier on its tires, and he soon overtook Max. With different tire strategies, it would be the first of three times that Charles had to overtake Max. Mercedes' George Russell collided with Red Bull's Sergio Perez on the opening lap, which led to a 5-second penalty for George and ultimately retirement for Sergio. Ferrari looked like scoring a 1-2 finish until Carlos Sainz's engine blew as he was trying to overtake Max. His car then caught fire as he was trying to park it safely off the track, which resulted in a virtual safety car.

In the end, Charles Leclerc won his first race since the Australian Grand Prix in April, and also his first from a position other than pole. Max Verstappen limited the damage by finishing second and getting a point for fastest lap. Mercedes picked up good points with Lewis Hamilton finishing third and George Russell fourth. It was a particularly good result as both drivers had crashed in qualifying and had to have their cars rebuilt over night. Despite Mercedes' relative lack of pace, this was Lewis' third podium in a row. After scoring his first F1 points at Silverstone last week, Haas' Mick Schumacher picked up more points by finishing sixth. Several drivers received 5-second penalties for exceeding track limits - more than any other race I remember.

You can see the race highlights here.

We now have a 2-week break before the French Grand Prix.

[HossC]

F1 team McLaren is giving US IndyCar driver Colton Herta a test drive this week in Portugal. While British McLaren driver Lando Norris has a contract until 2025, his team mate, Australian Daniel Ricciardo, only has a contract until 2023, which is when Colton Herta's Andretti Autosport contract expires. Read more here.

[RogerDuke]

It sounds like Chase Elliott had a good weekend. 

[Spike]

Roger you'll get a kick out of this Dale jr download podcast they mention Uncle Jessie https://www.dirtymomedia.com/dalejrdownload/episode/266cf363/389-tony-eury-jr-bud-8-and-beyond

I don't remember what time it's at but the whole podcast is really good anyways. 

.... something also mentioned in the podcast is the rumor that Nascar will turn the Xfinity series into a SUV racing series. 

[Spike]

So it seems Tyler Reddick pulled a fast one on Richard Childress. He signed a multi year deal to drive for 23xi starting in 2024 https://www.jayski.com/2022/07/12/23xi-racing-signs-tyler-reddick-for-2024/ . I bet if Richard Childress knew this ahead of time he would not have signed him for a one year extension on his contract a few weeks ago. Rumor is Richard might buy out Tyler's 2023 contract extension.  

Ty Dillon will not be driving the #42 PettyGMS Racing Chevy in 2023 https://www.jayski.com/2022/ 07/15/ty-dillon-will-not-return-to-petty-gms-racing-in-2023/ . 

[HossC]

This week's French Grand Prix saw Ferrari's Charles Leclerc start on pole again, with the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez behind. Charles' team mate, Carlos Sainz, had to start in 19th after penalties for changing engine parts. Lewis Hamilton got a good start from fourth and got past Sergio. For the first third of the race it looked like Charles had the better of Max, with Max having to pit from second. Then, just a couple of laps later, Charles lost the rear end of his car and ended up in the barrier. Carlos made good progress through the field, but had to pit for tires with 10 laps to go. He also picked up a 5-second penalty earlier for an unsafe pit release.

In the end it was a relatively easy win for Max, who now has a 63 point lead in the championship. Lewis improved on his last three third place results by finishing in second, and his team mate, George Russell, jumped Sergio after a late virtual safety car to join Lewis on the podium.

You can see the race highlights here.

Next week it's the Hungarian Grand Prix.

[Spike]

Was an Interesting night in Pocono. Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch were far and away the best cars finishing 1 2, at least until Nascar dq'd them for unapproved modification to the front fascia so Chase Elliot won without leading a single lap https://nascar.nbcsports.com/2022/07/24/chase-elliott-wins-nascar-cup-race-at-pocono-raceway/.

This is the first time since the 1960's I think that Nascar disqualified a Cup race winner.

[HossC]

7 hours ago, Spike said:

Was an Interesting night in Pocono. Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch were far and away the best cars finishing 1 2, at least until Nascar dq'd them for unapproved modification to the front fascia so Chase Elliot won without leading a single lap https://nascar.nbcsports.com/2022/07/24/chase-elliott-wins-nascar-cup-race-at-pocono-raceway/.

This is the first time since the 1960's I think that Nascar disqualified a Cup race winner.

Hey, Spike, how does that sort of decision go over with the fans? It hasn't happened for a while in F1, but drivers have been disqualified for technical infringements after the race, sometimes many hours after it, and it always seems a shame that a great result can be marred by something that the driver knew nothing about. It's always better when the result is determined on the track.

[RogerDuke]

5 hours ago, HossC said:

Hey, Spike, how does that sort of decision go over with the fans? 

Goes over great with us Chase Elliott fans....just kidding.....it does make it seem like nobody is a winner. 

[Spike]

6 hours ago, HossC said:

Hey, Spike, how does that sort of decision go over with the fans? It hasn't happened for a while in F1, but drivers have been disqualified for technical infringements after the race, sometimes many hours after it, and it always seems a shame that a great result can be marred by something that the driver knew nothing about. It's always better when the result is determined on the track.

Depends on who you're fans of.

Nascar warned teams at the start of the season that any team caught modifying supplier parts was going to suffer the consequences. 

PettyGMS Racing was also penalized before the race https://www.jayski.com/2022/07/23/petty-gms-racing-teams-penalized-at-pocono/. 

[HossC]

Hungary for this week's F1, and after a poor start to the weekend on Friday, Mercedes found pace for qualifying yesterday with George Russell claiming his first pole. Team mate Lewis Hamilton was also looking quick, but qualified 7th after a DRS problem on his last lap. Red Bull also had qualifying problems with championship leader Max Verstappen losing power and Sergio Perez not even making the top ten - they started 10th and 11th.

George got a good start and led the first 30 laps, but was eventually passed by Ferrari's Charles Leclerc. Then Max, who had fought through from 10th, took the lead, and despite a spin, he was able to keep it until the end. Lewis Hamilton waited until later in the race to use the soft tires, and managed to pass George to take second and take a point for fastest lap. George ended up third for Mercedes' second double podium in two weeks. With Charles having to change his slow hard tires late on, he could only finish sixth behind his team mate Carlos Sainz and the other Red Bull of Sergio Perez. Even the promised rain which only arrived on the last lap had no affect on the result.

We now head into the summer break with the next race being the Belgian Grand Prix on August 28th. Max leads by 80 points (more than three race wins), but it's getting closer behind. There's only 32 points between Charles in second and Lewis in sixth. In the Constructors' Championship, Red Bull have a 97 point lead over Ferrari, but Mercedes are now only 30 points further back. There's a 205 point gap to the fourth-place team, Alpine, so it'll be between the top three.

ETA. Sorry, I forgot to add a link to the highlights - you can watch them here.

[HossC]

I was just checking F1 news (I didn't expect there to be much as we're just into the summer break), and a few things caught my eye.

Following 4-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel's decision to retire at the end of the season, 2-time World Champion Fernando Alonso is set to take his place at Aston Martin. Story here.

Honda, while not officially taking part in F1, will continue to support Red Bull's engine program until 2025. Porsche are rumored to be entering F1 and may become Red Bull's new engine partner when the rules change in 2026. Story here.

After failing to be part of the winning takeover bid for Chelsea Football Club back in April, Lewis Hamilton has now joined the incoming ownership group of three-time Super Bowl winners the Denver Broncos. Story here.

[RogerDuke]

I've gotten to the point where all I've been paying attention to are motorcycle races. Dirt bikes are pretty big over here but sport bikes not so much. MotoGP is huge in Europe. Ever been to one of those Hoss? 

[HossC]

14 hours ago, RogerDuke said:

I've gotten to the point where all I've been paying attention to are motorcycle races. Dirt bikes are pretty big over here but sport bikes not so much. MotoGP is huge in Europe. Ever been to one of those Hoss? 

I was taken to speedway a few times when I was young, but that was probably 40 years ago now. Since then, I've never really been interested in two-wheeled motorsport, but add another two wheels and I'll most likely watch it!