Aug
8
Written by:
The Commish
8/8/2011 6:04 PM
Let's start with the ALMS Water World Challenge at Mid-Ohio where the #6 Muscle Milk LMP1 qualified second, led some laps and got max mfr pts but scored less than the runnerup #16 Dyson LMP1 which qualified on pole, led the most laps and got 44 mfr pts. Three LMPCs followed, the #17 Porsche beat the #4 Corvette and two BMWs for sixth and ther two LMP1s finished last (#20 Dyson car, qualified fourth, crashed on lap one) and 19th (#12 Burgess/McMurry Lola).
More cars. We need more cars. I love the ALMS so much but it's pretty sad when the SPEED story about the race has the Falken GT win in the headline.
The truck race at Pocono was red flagged due to rain on Saturday and resumed Sunday morning, before the truck race, with Kevin Harvick winning from the pole after leading the most laps to beat Kyle Busch, James Buescher, Johnny Sauter and Austin Dillon. Mark Martin was seventh in a one-off run, Ron Hornaday was ninth, Todd Bodine 12th and early race leader Parker Kligerman 13th.
Players who started both Happy and Shrub did pretty well. I didn't.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. beat Carl Edwards for the Nationwide win at Iowa in unusual fashion; he done blowed up his Ford engine right before the finish line and got rammed from behind by Carl and then pushed across the line. Elliott Sadler, Josh Wise and Aric Almirola filled out the top five followed by Reed Sorenson, Kenny Wallace, Stephen Wallace, Michael McDowell and David Mayhew.
There are no bad races at Iowa. If someone ever figures out how they can make lots of money after paying whatever ransom necessary to get a Cup race it will become one of the best events on the circuit. Even if it is out in the middle of nowhere.
Back to Pocono for Sunday's Good Sam RV Insurance 500 where, after a long rain delay, Brad Keselowski came away with the win over Kyle, Kurt, Jimmie Johnson and Ryan Newman with Jeff Gordon, Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle, Dale Jr. and Paul Menard filling out the top 10. Smoke was 11th, Harvick 14th with Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth getting the last of the FMFL top 16 points.
I like Pocono. I'd like it more just once a year. And I'd positively love it like an Arizona Republican loves his sidearm when going into a bar if it was a 300 miler.
The featured race at Mid-Ohio was the Honda Indy 200 where Scott Dixon found his mojo and won from the pole over teammate Dario Franchitti, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Takuma Sato and Tony Kanaan. Will Power finished 14th, Ryan Briscoe was 16th, Helio Castroneves was 19th and Graham Rahal 24th.
Danica was 21st amid wagging about her iminent announcement on moving to the NASCAR Nationwide Series full time next year for JR Motorsports, with a couple of Cup races thrown in driving for Stewart Haas AND a declaration that she'll be back for the Indy 500 ... probably driving for a Tony Stewart -backed team.
Which brings me to the appearance of the new 2012 Dallara 'safety cell" prototype, powered by a screaming 2.2L Honda V6 at Mid-Ohio last weekend.
It doesn't look any better than it did when they showed it at the Brickyard in May. Maybe the IZOD logo on the side screws up the lines, maybe its the color combo .. or maybe its the too-wide sidepods and that damn rear bobywork.
This is, of course, with the standard Dallara bodywork so I have hope that Honda, Chevy and Lotus can do better.
But I'm not optimistic.
We'll see, eh?
This week is Cup, Nationwide and the Rolex Series at Watkins Glen with IndyCar returning to Loudon for the first time since the CART years. Lineups are due by Friday at midnight and remember, the week after next is that goofy Bristol round with lineups due by Midnight on a Tuesday!
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