NASCAR: Sadly, ‘Iron Man’ Jack Ingram passed away last week at age 84. I watched him for years in the old Busch Series. He won over 300 races and five championships during his career.
On Saturday, the NASCAR Trucks didn’t even get to the green flag before they wrecked at Pocono. Johnny Sauter got bumped when another car missed a gear on the initial start and he hit the wall hard.
Stewart Friesen also spanked the wall HARD with ten laps to go but his crew got him back out and he was able to finish only two laps down. He is ninth in points. John Hunter Nemechek won over Kyle Busch and Sheldon Creed.
Austin Cindric led the most laps and won Sunday’s Xfinity race over Ty Gibbs and Justin Algaier. Turn 1 one was hard on several drivers evoking memories of Bobby Allison’s horrendous wreck there way back in 1988, an event that basically ended his career.
It’s wonderful how NASCAR safety features have improved as all the involved drivers walked away this year. Justin Haley hit the wall hard and decided to not enter the Cup race.
The Cup cars put on a good show Saturday in the first race of their double header weekend. Kyle Larson had a tire go flat on the last lap letting Alex Bowman slip through for the win over Kyle Busch and William Byron thus demonstrating continued domination by Hendrick Motorsports.
In Sunday’s Cup race Kyle Busch appeared to be out of it when his transmission got locked in fourth gear. BUT he came back and won by a healthy margin (8.654 seconds) over Kyle Larson and Brad Keselowski. Ya gotta love it – Toyota, Chevy and Ford, 1,2,3!!
Larson still leads the points over Truex and Bowman with Kyle Busch now up to fourth. Christopher Bell had the save of the century when he was almost ninety degrees to the track thanks to a ‘little tap’ from Elliott. THAT will make the highlight reel!
FORMULA ONE: Apparently F1 is going a little NASCAR! The organizers of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix are ‘spicing up’ the Yas Marina Circuit with – wait for it – a BANKED corner! Eleven of the track’s corners are being ‘reconfigured.’
And in Austria, on the weekend, the track was modified with the removal of several kerbs and the addition of gravel. The reason, you ask? To help with their ‘Mickey Mouse’ ‘Track Limit’ enforcement.
Max Verstappen won in what amounted to a yawner over Hamilton and Bottas. The only excitement came from Leclerc’s inspired recovery, in his Ferrari. He had some body damage early on and had to pit, which dropped him to the rear of the field.
In the end, he started seventh and finished seventh. Bottas spun on pit road, on Friday, resulting in a three-spot starting grid penalty which bumped Hamilton up to the front row for the initial start.
Lance Stroll ran in the top ten for most of the race before ending up 12th. Nicholas Latifi started 16th and finished 17th in his Williams. Red Bull has a 40-point lead over Mercedes in the Constructor’s Championship.
NHRA: The tour was at the beautiful Summit Racing Equipment Park in Norwalk, Ohio this past weekend. Steve Torrance continues his dominance in Top Fuel besting Brittany Force in the final.
In Funny Car, it was great to see Cruz Pedregon win for the first time in three years. He took out Bob Tasca in the final. In Pro Mod number one qualifier Jose Gonzalez bettered Brandon Snider in the final.
Port Perry, Ontario’s Eric Latino qualified 14th but was taken out by Justin Bond in the first round. Erica Enders cut a .005 light to take out points leader and number one qualifier Greg Anderson in the Pro Stock final.
Matt Smith took out number one qualifier Steve Johnson in the Pro Stock Motorcycle final. The Factory Stock Showdown saw Chuck Watson nose out Bill Skillman in an all-Mustang final.
IMSA: Harry Tincknell put his Multimatic Mazda DPi Prototype into the winner’s circle at Watkins Glen beating second place Oliver Pla and third place Filipe Albuquerque, both in Acuras. The race had 38 entries!!
INDYCAR: Racing next Sunday at Mid Ohio. Noon hour start.
SRX: Tony Stewart put on a clinic Saturday night at his own AWESOME track, Eldora, winning a heat and the main in his own series. Marco Andretti won the other heat in only his second appearance on dirt. Finishing second to Stewart was local hero Kody Swanson followed by IndyCar ace Castroneves. The ‘Thrill from West Hill’, Paul Tracy, made a bunch more ‘friends’ as he continues with his very own aggressive style!! LOL It was neat to see Hinch take over the mike from Danica!! Upcoming SRX races. July 3 – I.R.P., July 10 – Slinger and July 17 – Nashville Fairgrounds.
AVION MOTORSPORTS RS1 SERIES: Their season starts with a double header July 8 and 10 at the Magnificent Area 27 course in Oliver, B.C.
DID YOU KNOW?: Tony Stewart has proposed to NHRA Top Fuel star Leah Pruett and she has accepted. Two popular superstars getting together. Also it was great to see Canada’s own Roger Slack, Tony’s General Manager at Eldora on the broadcast. He’s doing an awesome job at the track.
CANAM STOCK/SUPERSTOCK: Rained out at Grand Bend.
And finally, if your local racetrack has a big race upcoming let me know and I will be happy to mention it in an upcoming blog. motionman@rogers.com
Until next week!!
Discussion about this post