The first winner of the Brickyard 400 became the Sprint Cup race’s latest winner when Jeff Gordon pulled away over the final 17 laps to collect one of most coveted trophies the series offers.
Gordon’s victory was his fifth in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway event ,with his first coming 21 years ago in the 1994 debut [...]
FEATURE STORY, NASCAR - Sprint Cup Series »
The Brickyard Hasn’t Changed; Racing Culture Has
The Brickyard 400 no longer packs 'em in. Not enough 'action'. (RacinToday/HHP photo by Harold Hinson)
By Jim Pedley | Managing Editor
RacinToday.com
It was 1972 and my college roommate Frank and I were at Road America for a Can-Am race. We were walking the paddocks when he stopped and took a deep breath. Man, he said, love the smell of that Castrol. Frank was/is a road racing purist and what he did was what racing purists do: The cumulative jolt they get from their sport is comprised of a thousands of small pixels.
It’s the week after the Brickyard 400 and once again it’s angst time as media and competitors attempt to explain what Sprint Cup driver Jeff Gordon called last week, “the flattening” of fan interest in a race that at one time, packed the excited owners of 250,000 butts on Indianapolis Motor Speedway bleachers.
And it’s true. The Brickyard is no longer the world-stopping, cross-over, must-see event that it was in its first decade. It no longer causes massive traffic jams on Georgetown Road. It no longer demands that television viewers take the phone off the hook for three hours on race day.
But it’s not the event that has changed. It’s the racing culture that has changed.
See, the Brickyard 400 is a race for purists. It does not cater to walk-ins. Because the racing itself in the Brickyard is what the constant-action crowd would call droning, it is the kind of event that appeals only to those who love Read the full story »
By Jim Pedley | Managing Editor
RacinToday.com
Earlier this year, during a break in on-track action at Kansas Speedway, an old friend and former Roush Fenway Racing insider stopped by to bench race. Naturally the conversation turned to the former employer and when it did, the conversation turned kind of dismal.
When asked about the long-term future of [...]
Courtney Force beat father John Force in the final to become the winningest female in Funny Car history at the NHRA Sonoma Nationals on Sunday.
Khalid alBalooshi (Top Fuel), Jason Line (Pro Stock) and Eddie Krawiec (Pro Stock Motorcycle) also were winners at the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series event at Sonoma Raceway.
Force, who won the [...]
The first winner of the Brickyard 400 became the Sprint Cup race’s latest winner when Jeff Gordon pulled away over the final 17 laps to collect one of most coveted trophies the series offers.
Gordon’s victory was his fifth in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway event ,with his first coming 21 years ago in the 1994 debut [...]
RacinToday.com
Carl Edwards and Roush Fenway Racing will part ways following the 2014 season it was announced on Sunday.
“Carl has been a cornerstone of our success here in the last 10 years.,” RFR owner Jack Roush said. “He’s one of the drivers who have come to our program initially. We’ve had 48 drivers in 27-and-a-half-years [...]
RacinToday.com
Andrew Hines drove to victory in the inaugural MiraMonte Records Pro Bike Battle, a race within a race at the NHRA Sonoma Nationals at Sonoma Raceway on Saturday.
Hines, the current points leader in Pro Stock Motorcycle, beat Scotty Pollacheck in the finals of the specialty bonus event final with a 6.835-second run at 196.02 on [...]
RacinToday.com
Ty Dillon passed Kyle Busch for the lead on a restart with 24 laps to go, led the rest of the way and won Sunday’s Lilly Diabetes 250 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The victory was the first of the 22-year-old Richard Childress Racing driver’s NNS career. The 24 laps he led were [...]
Kevin Harvick won the pole on Saturday for Sunday’s Brickyard 400 Sprint Cup Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Harvick put his Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet on the pole with a lap at 47.753 seconds and 188.470 mph. He set a new track record in the first round of the three-round qualifying session with a lap of 47.647 [...]
The No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP team took the lead with 48 minutes remaining, conserved fuel and went on to win Friday’s Brickyard Grand Prix sports car race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway infield road course.
Driving the winning car in the timed event were Christian Fittipaldi and Joao Barbosa.
Barbosa was at the wheel on [...]
RacinToday.com
Sisters Courtney and Brittany Force amped-up their intramural rivalry Friday by racing to provisional pole positions in Funny Car and Top Fuel, respectively, during the opening day of qualifications for the 27th annual NHRA Sonoma Nationals.
Jason Line (Pro Stock) and John Hall (Pro Stock Motorcycle) also were qualifying leaders at the NHRA Mello Yello Drag [...]
RacinToday.com
Ryan Dalziel on Thursday drove the Extreme Speed Motorsports No. 1 Patron HPD ARX-03b Prototype to the pole for the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship’s Brickyard Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Dalziel, who won the pole with a best lap of 1:17.603, will share Brickyard Grand Prix driving duties on Friday with 2001 Indianapolis 500 [...]