I don't imagine anybody is gonna change the layout at Road America. The layout there is too good for that. I would imagine if the track hosts big events, there is good permanent stands, additional bridges, SAFER barriers in places (like the Kink at RA - Katherine Legge's 2006 crash there gives most race fans the willies), better maintained grounds (RA is very good in this regard) and well-maintained track areas.
List of Alternative Formula 1 World Drivers Champions
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I don't imagine anybody is gonna change the layout at Road America. The layout there is too good for that. I would imagine if the track hosts big events, there is good permanent stands, additional bridges, SAFER barriers in places (like the Kink at RA - Katherine Legge's 2006 crash there gives most race fans the willies), better maintained grounds (RA is very good in this regard) and well-maintained track areas.
They'd get rid of all the fecking deer also, maybe avoiding Da Mattas incident.
Greg Moore isn't dead ITTL. He won the 1999 IndyCar Golden State 500 at Fontana, marking a season where he finished 4th overall. Moore switched over to Endurance racing in 2005, where he has had success in GT and Prototype cars.
He's also a driver coach in the Ron Fellows/Canada P1 Driver Development Program
Road America Racecourse and Resort is a fun place! Like many of a great road course of America ITTL still has its special charm, but it also has the upgraded amenities and safety features.
In the OTL Road America is a nice quaint place to visit in additon to taking in a race. In ITTL, that doesn't change, but it has areas that are more like The Hamptons than Wisconsin. Stunning luxury homes and resort cottage dot Elkhart Lake, and there's the Road America Convention House, nicknamed "Racing's Camp David". Many of the heavies among race teams own some property here. It's a good off-week get away for drivers and team owners.
As far as events, Road America hosts IndyCar, IMSA, and NASCAR Nationwide Series in big leagues, but it is a mecca for the citizen racers. Road America holds the SCCA-IMSA Runoffs each fall.
He's also a driver coach in the Ron Fellows/Canada P1 Driver Development Program
Road America Racecourse and Resort is a fun place! Like many of a great road course of America ITTL still has its special charm, but it also has the upgraded amenities and safety features.
In the OTL Road America is a nice quaint place to visit in additon to taking in a race. In ITTL, that doesn't change, but it has areas that are more like The Hamptons than Wisconsin. Stunning luxury homes and resort cottage dot Elkhart Lake, and there's the Road America Convention House, nicknamed "Racing's Camp David". Many of the heavies among race teams own some property here. It's a good off-week get away for drivers and team owners.
As far as events, Road America hosts IndyCar, IMSA, and NASCAR Nationwide Series in big leagues, but it is a mecca for the citizen racers. Road America holds the SCCA-IMSA Runoffs each fall.
"We love football, meat pies, kangaroos and Holden Cars"
the Supercheap Auto International/Peter Brock 05 Fund Bathurst 1000 is still the crown jewel of the Australian V8 Supercar series, but the circuit at Mount Panorama is also used for a round of the World SportsCar Championship, and there's an announcement coming in a few days the IndyCar Series will come to the Mountain in 2013.
Overall Australian racing is experiencing a boom period. The battle for the Dick Johnson Trophy (given to the Australian V8 Supercar champion) is a huge draw. The Grand Prix of Australia at Adelaide is Formula 1's season-ending party and a hot ticket to get, especially given that one of the top teams in F-1 is Australian.
The sport is surging in popularity and more Australian competitors are heading to the biggest stages in the world in greater numbers than in the OTL.
Mark Webber's upset F1 Championship in 2010, driving for an australian team with and engine co-built by an Australian manufacturer gained Oz a new respectability in International motorsport. The Brock Australia F1 team signed IndyCar ace Will Power for the 2012, and seeks to return to the top.
3-time V8 Supercar Series Champ Marcos Ambrose touched off national celebration 1 year ago with his win in the Daytona 500. Ambrose also hosts a charity race at Calder Park Thunderdome in December called the Down Under-Down South Shootout. A group of NASCAR Sprint Cup stars meet the best in V8 Supercars in twin-100 mile races. One race with the entire field in Sprint Cup Cars, and a second race where the field switches to V8 Supercar Ford Falcon SVTs, Holden Commodore 05-GTs. , and Chrsyler Matador R/Ts
Ambrose's example got a couple of V8 Supercars thinking of February in Florida. 5-time V8 Supercar champion Mark Skaife and 2-time Jamie Whincup will both try to qualify for the 2012 Daytona 500. Skaife will drive a additional entry for Hendrick Motorsports, and Whincup will be Ambrose's teammate for the week in a Boris Said No Fear Ford Fusion.
Early entries for the 2012 Bathurst 1000 have already reached the track. A group of F1 Champions, Jeff Gordon, Alex Zanardi and Ayrton Senna will all be in the field next year.
the Supercheap Auto International/Peter Brock 05 Fund Bathurst 1000 is still the crown jewel of the Australian V8 Supercar series, but the circuit at Mount Panorama is also used for a round of the World SportsCar Championship, and there's an announcement coming in a few days the IndyCar Series will come to the Mountain in 2013.
Overall Australian racing is experiencing a boom period. The battle for the Dick Johnson Trophy (given to the Australian V8 Supercar champion) is a huge draw. The Grand Prix of Australia at Adelaide is Formula 1's season-ending party and a hot ticket to get, especially given that one of the top teams in F-1 is Australian.
The sport is surging in popularity and more Australian competitors are heading to the biggest stages in the world in greater numbers than in the OTL.
Mark Webber's upset F1 Championship in 2010, driving for an australian team with and engine co-built by an Australian manufacturer gained Oz a new respectability in International motorsport. The Brock Australia F1 team signed IndyCar ace Will Power for the 2012, and seeks to return to the top.
3-time V8 Supercar Series Champ Marcos Ambrose touched off national celebration 1 year ago with his win in the Daytona 500. Ambrose also hosts a charity race at Calder Park Thunderdome in December called the Down Under-Down South Shootout. A group of NASCAR Sprint Cup stars meet the best in V8 Supercars in twin-100 mile races. One race with the entire field in Sprint Cup Cars, and a second race where the field switches to V8 Supercar Ford Falcon SVTs, Holden Commodore 05-GTs. , and Chrsyler Matador R/Ts
Ambrose's example got a couple of V8 Supercars thinking of February in Florida. 5-time V8 Supercar champion Mark Skaife and 2-time Jamie Whincup will both try to qualify for the 2012 Daytona 500. Skaife will drive a additional entry for Hendrick Motorsports, and Whincup will be Ambrose's teammate for the week in a Boris Said No Fear Ford Fusion.
Early entries for the 2012 Bathurst 1000 have already reached the track. A group of F1 Champions, Jeff Gordon, Alex Zanardi and Ayrton Senna will all be in the field next year.
They are going to see a F3 race this year and i presume an indy car would be safer then an F3 car. So it is still plausable, The Pit Lane might be the main obstical though
An Indycar travels a LOT faster than an F3 car. Sulman Park to the Dipper would be insanely dangerous in an Indycar, asking for takeoff incidents or huge crashes down the mountainside. Being fairly narrow and having no runoff at all in this area does not help matters. As I said, unless you want to really change the track layout, Mount Panorama is much too dangerous for an Indycar race.
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Report
The 2012 Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona Presented by Gran Turismo
January 28 - 29, 2012
The 2012 24 Hours of Daytona, the first round of both the 2012 IMSA American Sportscar Championship and the 2012 FIA World Sportscar Championship, was a usual it was a wild event. The weather was excellent for the event, and the massive field of cars entered into the event were forced to split the pits at the track, and they had to add a second set of pit facilities on the backstretch in order to handle the 97-car field for the 2012 edition of the race. With five classes of cars in the field and entries from all over the world, the crowd of over 80,000 people at the event got to see of sportscar racing at its finest.
The pole for the event was held by the Chrysler SuperPatriot Abarth P1 driven by David Donohue, Oswaldo Negri, Christian Fittipaldi and Johnathan Bomarito, with the Peugeot 908 HDi of Stephane Sarrazin, Nicolas Minassian, Alexander Wurz and Gary Kachadurian on the outside pole. The second row of the grid was the lead Corvette Racing Entry of Dale Earnhardt Jr, Kevin Harvick, Jan Magnussen and John Heinricy, who also held the pole in Prototype GT, a well as the first of the Panoz entries, the Panoz-Ford LMP15 driven by Ryan Hunter-Reay, Kristen Miller, Bryan Herta and Ali Naimi. Row Three was the Acura ARX-04 of Michael Andretti, J.R. Hildebrand, Ashley Taws and Buddy Rice and the second SuperPatriot of Scott Pruett, Robby Gordon, Tom Kimber-Smith and Alexander Rossi. The Prototype 2 pole went to the Alex Job Racing Porsche RSV Spyder of Paul Menard, Buddy Rice, Rene Rast and Marc Hoover, while the GT1 category the pole was the Falken Brazil Racing for a Better World Nissan GT-R driven by Ayrton Senna, Raul Boesel and Mauricio Gugelmin, while the GT2 category had the pole position held by Scott Sharp, Johannes van Overbeek, Dominik Farnbacher and Joel Weinberger in their Extreme Speed Motorsports Ferrari 458 Italia GTC.
For several of the GT cars, the race for them ended on the first lap, as a pileup involving nine cars happened when Carlos de Quesada's Shelby Mustang collided with the Chrysler Viper driven by David Pintaric as they came out of NASCAR Turn Two, causing a pileup when then Pintaric hit the outside wall and de Quesada spun as a result of the accident. The race restarted minus three cars that could not continue. The restart was better, but the green flag again last only sixteen laps, then the Audi R8 LMGT-2 driven by Allan McNish tripped over Sylvain Tremblay's Lotus Evora and hammered the Turn four wall. After the second restart the Peugeot 908 and Ford-Panoz LMP15 entries began moving away from the Chryslers. Engine heat problems began making the Chrysler cars slow down. In the P2 category, all three of the new Porsche RSVs suffered engine failures by the six hour mark, which allowed the Rafanelli team's Lola-Ferrari to move into the P2 lead.
As the evening came, the lead was being fought between the Corvette GT1 of Earnhardt/Harvick/Magnussen/Heinricy, the Panoz-Ford LMP15 of Hunter-Reay/Herta/Miller/Naimi and the Peugeot 908 HDi of Sarrazin/Minassian/Wurz/Kachadurian, with the Acuras ARX-04s of Andretti/Hildebrand/Taws/Rice and Brabham/Franchitti/Bremer/Edwards in fourth and fifth. The second Audi R8 LMGT-2 suffered gearbox failure in the seventh hour, and while that was replaced quickly, they kept breaking, thus causing considerable delays. Overheating problems slowed both Chryslers during the day as well. One Mazda-powered Lola from Dyson Racing suffered a massive engine failure which set the car on fire, and both of the Lotus Esprit P-GTs suffered electrical problems.
By one-third of the way through, the front three cars were all on the same lap, with the two Acuras and the Cytosport Aston Martin one lap down. The P-GT lead was massively in favor of the Corvettes, as the Porsche PGTs were off the pace and mechanical problems had slowed both the Audis and the Lotuses. The P2 lead was fought between the Ferrari-powered Lola of Team Rafanelli and the Zytek-Nissans of Autocon and Intersport. The GT1 lead was with the Nissans of Senna/Gugelmin/Boesel, Bernoldi/Zonta/Hughes and Campbell-Walter/Nilsson/Krumm/Ara, as well as the Ferrari 599 of Leinders/Bobbi/Barbosa/Potter and the West Yokohama Lamborghini Aventador of Pastorelli/Schweiger/Kowalik/Mallinen. The GT2 category had by this point had six different leaders - the Jaguar of Lewis/Wilden/Wheeler/Gentilozzi was the GT2 leader at the eighth hour point.
As night fell, the less reliable cars began falling by the wayside. Both GT1 Ferrari 599s had suffered terminal failures by nightfall, and the CORE Autosport Lotus Esprit P-GT retired just after 1:30 AM with an engine failure. The P-GT lead was held by the Corvettes, with the lead Corvette still fighting for the overall lead. The BMW and Toyota entries, steady but slow, were starting to move closer to the leaders as the faster cars began falling back with mechanical problems.
Just after 2 AM the yellow came out again after the GT1 lead battle between the Corvette Owners' Team Corvette ZR1.R2 driven by Tommy Milner blew a tire coming out of NASCAR Turn Four and massively lost control, rolling twice as it skewed off the banking and only a pair of incredible maneuvers by the Nissan GT-R of Mauricio Gugelmin and Sarah Fisher in the Libra Racing Radical-Nissan prevented a huge accident. The team attempted to fix the cars but were unable to do so - Milner thankfully wasn't hurt. The cool night was helping the Chrysler Patriots, both of them still soldiering on despite problems with overheating. The race restart here lasted just four laps, then the BMW V12 LMR4 driven by Martin Tomczyk ram the lap of Joe Sahlen's Corvette ZR1 on the brakes for the chicane, and the spinning Corvette caught the Team Lexus Lexus LFA driven by journalist racer Richard Meaden. None of the drivers were hurt, and the race restarted again without problems.
During the night, the lower temperatures allowed the Chryslers to make up ground, and the Donohue/Fittipaldi/Negri/Bomarito car climbed all the way back of fifth place, helped by a tire failure on the Highcroft Acura that forced bodywork repairs. The night-long battle between the very fast Peugeot 908, the better-handling Panoz LMP15 and the bullet-quick Corvette GT-1 kept up, but as they battled, the Andretti Autosport Acura and the lead Chrysler got back into striking distance.
As the sun came back up, 68 of the 97 starters were still going, with nearly all of the P2s still out there. The growing heat again began to effect the Chryslers again, but by this point the team was not about to give up their comeback - they took the chance of engine failures and stayed on the gas, with Christian Fittipaldi overhauling Ashley Taws in the Andretti Acura just after 7:30.
The P2 leader, the team Rafanelli Lola-Ferrari, brought out the next caution just after eight in the morning when the car's engine expired on the tri-oval, a heartbreak for the team as they had a two-lap lead in the P2 category at that point. That cleanup was fairly quick - much of the oil from the blown engine went up in a massive cloud of smoke when it ignited on the car's exhaust manifolds - but the first lap after the restart had a heart-stopping moment for Justin Wilson in the Intersport Zytek-Nissan when his right rear suspension failed on NASCAR Turn Four at over 170 miles per hour, and Wilson caught a tank-slapper that saw him use most of the track apron to get his Zytek slowed down enough to dive for the pit lane. No yellow came out of that, though Wilson and the Young Driver AMR Aston martin undoubtedly needed new underpants after that, and a crowd watching from Turn Four got to see the slide catch of the century. A warm morning saw what as looking to be the final battle between the top three cars, as the rest of the top ten, now led by the lead Chrysler, had little hope of making up four laps in four and a half hour, though the determined driving by the lead Chrysler said that they were gonna go for it in any case. Highcroft's continuing problems gifted sixth to the Toyota of Nakajima/Hirate/Tsukakoshi/Imamura, while the P2 lead was inherited by the Autocon Zytek-Nissan.
With just an hour to go, it looked like Chrysler's huge gamble might just pay off - and a crash with an hour and twenty minutes to go by Andrea Robertson in the Robertson Saleen S7-R put the Chrysler nearly back on the lead lap. With everything to play for, David Donohue put the pedal to the floor in an attempt to catch up, but the Panoz, Corvette and Peugeot crews also had everything to pay for, and while the Chrysler got back on the lead lap, it was clear by the final half hour that it was down to the front three for the win. A heavy right foot the Nicolas Minassian in the lead Peugeot put them into the lead, but Bryan Herta and Kevin Harvick kept him in sight rather easily, and Minassian's enthusiasm wore down the rear tires on the torquey Peugeot, which allowed the Corvette and the Panoz to overhaul him. The winner right down to the last lap, but despite earnest attempts to pass, Bryan Herta led the Panoz across the line first, with Kevin Harvick just 2.85 seconds behind him after 24 Hours of racing. Minassian brought the Peugeot across the line third another 44 seconds back, with David Donohue finishing a strong fourth in the Chrysler SuperPatriot. The Andretti Autosport Acura finished fifth, a godo result for them considering the myriad of problems suffered by the Highcroft Acura.
In P2, Autocon's Zytek-Nissan held off a strong late run by the DAMS Oreca-BMW to hang on to the P2 win, with the Libra Radical-Nissan outdoing the HKS Pro Team Oreca-Mitsubishi to finish third in the category. Prototype GT was a clean sweep by the Corvettes, though there was a 23-lap gap between the lead car and the second place finisher, by far the biggest winning gap of the race.
In GT1, a late-race misfire sank the second Robertson Saleen to second place in the category, allowing Formula One legend Ayrton Senna to claim the class victory in his first race in six years in his Nissan GT-R. Third landed in the hands of the West Yokohama Lamborghini after a steady and strong drive, as well as a little luck. GT2, after eleven different cars leading the category across the race, was won by the Flying Lizard Racing Porsche 911 GT3-RSR of Seth Neiman, Darren Law, Marco Holzer and Akihiro Tsuzuki.
Results
1) Ryan Hunter-Reay / Bryan Herta / Kristen Miller / Ali Naimi
Ford Racing Team Panoz Ford-Panoz LMP15 (802 laps, P1 Winner)
2) Dale Earnhardt Jr. / Kevin Harvick / Jan Magnussen / John Heinricy
Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette GT-1 (+2.852s, P-GT Winner)
3) Nicolas Minassian / Stephane Sarrazin / Alexander Wurz / Gary Kachadurian
Peugeot Sport North America Peugeot 908 HDi FAP (+46.907s)
4) David Donohue / Christian Fittipaldi / Johnathan Bomarito / Oswaldo Negri
Chrysler Patriot Team Chrysler SuperPatriot Abarth P1 (+1:07.134)
5) Michael Andretti / J.R. Hildebrand / Buddy Rice / Ashley Taws
Andretti Autosport Acura ARX-04 (800 laps)
6) Kazuki Nakajima / Youichi Imamura / Kohei Hirate / Koudai Tsukakoshi
Toyota Team America Toyota R12LM (798 laps)
7) Scott Pruett / Robby Gordon / Tom Kimber-Smith / Alexander Rossi
Chrysler Patriot Team Chrysler SuperPatriot Abarth P1 (795 laps)
8) Dirk Muller / Joey Hand / Andy Priaulx / Augusto Farfus Jr.
BMW Schnitzer Racing BMW V12 LMR4 (795 laps)
9) Olivier Panis / Pedro Lamy / Sebastien Loeb / Jacques Villeneuve
Peugeot Sport North America Peugeot 908 HDi FAP (791 laps)
10) David Brabham / Marino Franchitti / Sean Edwards / Ronnie Bremer
Highcroft Racing Acura ARX-04 (784 laps)
P2 Results
1) Bryan Willman / Mario Dominguez / Justin Pritchard / Tomas Schekter
Autocon Racing Zytek Z11SN-Nissan (780 laps)
2) Luis Racia / Pal Varhaug / Gavin Cronje / Sam Bird
DAMS Motorsport Oreca 03-Judd BMW V6 (779 laps)
3) Andrew Prendeville / Sarah Fisher / Austin Snader / Alex Gurney
Libra Racing Radical SR9-Nissan V8 (772 laps)
Prototype GT Results
1) Dale Earnhardt Jr. / Kevin Harvick / Jan Magnussen / John Heinricy
Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette GT-1 (802 laps)
2) Ron Fellows / Al Unser Jr. / Trevor Bayne / Jimmie Johnson / Peter Brock
Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette GT-1 (779 laps)
3) Jorg Bergmeister / Patrick Long / Jeroen Bleekemolen / Colin McRae
Porsche Motorsport North America Porsche 911 GT1-12 (773 laps)
GT1 Results
1) Ayrton Senna / Mauricio Gugelmin / Raul Boesel
Falken Brazil Racing for a Better World Nissan GT-R Spec VR (750 laps)
2) Boris Said / David Murry / Michael McDowell / Brad Keselowski
Robertson Racing Saleen S7-R (749 laps)
3) Dominik Schweiger / Nicky Pastorelli / Jeff Kowalik / Michael Mallinen
West Yokohama Lamborghini Racing Lamborghini Aventador LP700 XR (745 laps)
GT2 Results
1) Seth Neiman / Darren Law / Marco Holzer / Akihiro Tsuzuki
Flying Lizard Racing Porsche 911 GT3-RSR (712 laps)
2) Johnny O'Connell / Max Angelelli / Lawson Aschenbach / Antonio Garcia
Team Cadillac Cadillac CTS-VR Coupe (708 laps)
3) Shane Lewis / Kenny Wilden / Gary Longo / Paul Gentilozzi
Jaguar Rocketsports Jaguar XKR GT2 (706 laps)
The 2012 Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona Presented by Gran Turismo
January 28 - 29, 2012
The 2012 24 Hours of Daytona, the first round of both the 2012 IMSA American Sportscar Championship and the 2012 FIA World Sportscar Championship, was a usual it was a wild event. The weather was excellent for the event, and the massive field of cars entered into the event were forced to split the pits at the track, and they had to add a second set of pit facilities on the backstretch in order to handle the 97-car field for the 2012 edition of the race. With five classes of cars in the field and entries from all over the world, the crowd of over 80,000 people at the event got to see of sportscar racing at its finest.
The pole for the event was held by the Chrysler SuperPatriot Abarth P1 driven by David Donohue, Oswaldo Negri, Christian Fittipaldi and Johnathan Bomarito, with the Peugeot 908 HDi of Stephane Sarrazin, Nicolas Minassian, Alexander Wurz and Gary Kachadurian on the outside pole. The second row of the grid was the lead Corvette Racing Entry of Dale Earnhardt Jr, Kevin Harvick, Jan Magnussen and John Heinricy, who also held the pole in Prototype GT, a well as the first of the Panoz entries, the Panoz-Ford LMP15 driven by Ryan Hunter-Reay, Kristen Miller, Bryan Herta and Ali Naimi. Row Three was the Acura ARX-04 of Michael Andretti, J.R. Hildebrand, Ashley Taws and Buddy Rice and the second SuperPatriot of Scott Pruett, Robby Gordon, Tom Kimber-Smith and Alexander Rossi. The Prototype 2 pole went to the Alex Job Racing Porsche RSV Spyder of Paul Menard, Buddy Rice, Rene Rast and Marc Hoover, while the GT1 category the pole was the Falken Brazil Racing for a Better World Nissan GT-R driven by Ayrton Senna, Raul Boesel and Mauricio Gugelmin, while the GT2 category had the pole position held by Scott Sharp, Johannes van Overbeek, Dominik Farnbacher and Joel Weinberger in their Extreme Speed Motorsports Ferrari 458 Italia GTC.
For several of the GT cars, the race for them ended on the first lap, as a pileup involving nine cars happened when Carlos de Quesada's Shelby Mustang collided with the Chrysler Viper driven by David Pintaric as they came out of NASCAR Turn Two, causing a pileup when then Pintaric hit the outside wall and de Quesada spun as a result of the accident. The race restarted minus three cars that could not continue. The restart was better, but the green flag again last only sixteen laps, then the Audi R8 LMGT-2 driven by Allan McNish tripped over Sylvain Tremblay's Lotus Evora and hammered the Turn four wall. After the second restart the Peugeot 908 and Ford-Panoz LMP15 entries began moving away from the Chryslers. Engine heat problems began making the Chrysler cars slow down. In the P2 category, all three of the new Porsche RSVs suffered engine failures by the six hour mark, which allowed the Rafanelli team's Lola-Ferrari to move into the P2 lead.
As the evening came, the lead was being fought between the Corvette GT1 of Earnhardt/Harvick/Magnussen/Heinricy, the Panoz-Ford LMP15 of Hunter-Reay/Herta/Miller/Naimi and the Peugeot 908 HDi of Sarrazin/Minassian/Wurz/Kachadurian, with the Acuras ARX-04s of Andretti/Hildebrand/Taws/Rice and Brabham/Franchitti/Bremer/Edwards in fourth and fifth. The second Audi R8 LMGT-2 suffered gearbox failure in the seventh hour, and while that was replaced quickly, they kept breaking, thus causing considerable delays. Overheating problems slowed both Chryslers during the day as well. One Mazda-powered Lola from Dyson Racing suffered a massive engine failure which set the car on fire, and both of the Lotus Esprit P-GTs suffered electrical problems.
By one-third of the way through, the front three cars were all on the same lap, with the two Acuras and the Cytosport Aston Martin one lap down. The P-GT lead was massively in favor of the Corvettes, as the Porsche PGTs were off the pace and mechanical problems had slowed both the Audis and the Lotuses. The P2 lead was fought between the Ferrari-powered Lola of Team Rafanelli and the Zytek-Nissans of Autocon and Intersport. The GT1 lead was with the Nissans of Senna/Gugelmin/Boesel, Bernoldi/Zonta/Hughes and Campbell-Walter/Nilsson/Krumm/Ara, as well as the Ferrari 599 of Leinders/Bobbi/Barbosa/Potter and the West Yokohama Lamborghini Aventador of Pastorelli/Schweiger/Kowalik/Mallinen. The GT2 category had by this point had six different leaders - the Jaguar of Lewis/Wilden/Wheeler/Gentilozzi was the GT2 leader at the eighth hour point.
As night fell, the less reliable cars began falling by the wayside. Both GT1 Ferrari 599s had suffered terminal failures by nightfall, and the CORE Autosport Lotus Esprit P-GT retired just after 1:30 AM with an engine failure. The P-GT lead was held by the Corvettes, with the lead Corvette still fighting for the overall lead. The BMW and Toyota entries, steady but slow, were starting to move closer to the leaders as the faster cars began falling back with mechanical problems.
Just after 2 AM the yellow came out again after the GT1 lead battle between the Corvette Owners' Team Corvette ZR1.R2 driven by Tommy Milner blew a tire coming out of NASCAR Turn Four and massively lost control, rolling twice as it skewed off the banking and only a pair of incredible maneuvers by the Nissan GT-R of Mauricio Gugelmin and Sarah Fisher in the Libra Racing Radical-Nissan prevented a huge accident. The team attempted to fix the cars but were unable to do so - Milner thankfully wasn't hurt. The cool night was helping the Chrysler Patriots, both of them still soldiering on despite problems with overheating. The race restart here lasted just four laps, then the BMW V12 LMR4 driven by Martin Tomczyk ram the lap of Joe Sahlen's Corvette ZR1 on the brakes for the chicane, and the spinning Corvette caught the Team Lexus Lexus LFA driven by journalist racer Richard Meaden. None of the drivers were hurt, and the race restarted again without problems.
During the night, the lower temperatures allowed the Chryslers to make up ground, and the Donohue/Fittipaldi/Negri/Bomarito car climbed all the way back of fifth place, helped by a tire failure on the Highcroft Acura that forced bodywork repairs. The night-long battle between the very fast Peugeot 908, the better-handling Panoz LMP15 and the bullet-quick Corvette GT-1 kept up, but as they battled, the Andretti Autosport Acura and the lead Chrysler got back into striking distance.
As the sun came back up, 68 of the 97 starters were still going, with nearly all of the P2s still out there. The growing heat again began to effect the Chryslers again, but by this point the team was not about to give up their comeback - they took the chance of engine failures and stayed on the gas, with Christian Fittipaldi overhauling Ashley Taws in the Andretti Acura just after 7:30.
The P2 leader, the team Rafanelli Lola-Ferrari, brought out the next caution just after eight in the morning when the car's engine expired on the tri-oval, a heartbreak for the team as they had a two-lap lead in the P2 category at that point. That cleanup was fairly quick - much of the oil from the blown engine went up in a massive cloud of smoke when it ignited on the car's exhaust manifolds - but the first lap after the restart had a heart-stopping moment for Justin Wilson in the Intersport Zytek-Nissan when his right rear suspension failed on NASCAR Turn Four at over 170 miles per hour, and Wilson caught a tank-slapper that saw him use most of the track apron to get his Zytek slowed down enough to dive for the pit lane. No yellow came out of that, though Wilson and the Young Driver AMR Aston martin undoubtedly needed new underpants after that, and a crowd watching from Turn Four got to see the slide catch of the century. A warm morning saw what as looking to be the final battle between the top three cars, as the rest of the top ten, now led by the lead Chrysler, had little hope of making up four laps in four and a half hour, though the determined driving by the lead Chrysler said that they were gonna go for it in any case. Highcroft's continuing problems gifted sixth to the Toyota of Nakajima/Hirate/Tsukakoshi/Imamura, while the P2 lead was inherited by the Autocon Zytek-Nissan.
With just an hour to go, it looked like Chrysler's huge gamble might just pay off - and a crash with an hour and twenty minutes to go by Andrea Robertson in the Robertson Saleen S7-R put the Chrysler nearly back on the lead lap. With everything to play for, David Donohue put the pedal to the floor in an attempt to catch up, but the Panoz, Corvette and Peugeot crews also had everything to pay for, and while the Chrysler got back on the lead lap, it was clear by the final half hour that it was down to the front three for the win. A heavy right foot the Nicolas Minassian in the lead Peugeot put them into the lead, but Bryan Herta and Kevin Harvick kept him in sight rather easily, and Minassian's enthusiasm wore down the rear tires on the torquey Peugeot, which allowed the Corvette and the Panoz to overhaul him. The winner right down to the last lap, but despite earnest attempts to pass, Bryan Herta led the Panoz across the line first, with Kevin Harvick just 2.85 seconds behind him after 24 Hours of racing. Minassian brought the Peugeot across the line third another 44 seconds back, with David Donohue finishing a strong fourth in the Chrysler SuperPatriot. The Andretti Autosport Acura finished fifth, a godo result for them considering the myriad of problems suffered by the Highcroft Acura.
In P2, Autocon's Zytek-Nissan held off a strong late run by the DAMS Oreca-BMW to hang on to the P2 win, with the Libra Radical-Nissan outdoing the HKS Pro Team Oreca-Mitsubishi to finish third in the category. Prototype GT was a clean sweep by the Corvettes, though there was a 23-lap gap between the lead car and the second place finisher, by far the biggest winning gap of the race.
In GT1, a late-race misfire sank the second Robertson Saleen to second place in the category, allowing Formula One legend Ayrton Senna to claim the class victory in his first race in six years in his Nissan GT-R. Third landed in the hands of the West Yokohama Lamborghini after a steady and strong drive, as well as a little luck. GT2, after eleven different cars leading the category across the race, was won by the Flying Lizard Racing Porsche 911 GT3-RSR of Seth Neiman, Darren Law, Marco Holzer and Akihiro Tsuzuki.
Results
1) Ryan Hunter-Reay / Bryan Herta / Kristen Miller / Ali Naimi
Ford Racing Team Panoz Ford-Panoz LMP15 (802 laps, P1 Winner)
2) Dale Earnhardt Jr. / Kevin Harvick / Jan Magnussen / John Heinricy
Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette GT-1 (+2.852s, P-GT Winner)
3) Nicolas Minassian / Stephane Sarrazin / Alexander Wurz / Gary Kachadurian
Peugeot Sport North America Peugeot 908 HDi FAP (+46.907s)
4) David Donohue / Christian Fittipaldi / Johnathan Bomarito / Oswaldo Negri
Chrysler Patriot Team Chrysler SuperPatriot Abarth P1 (+1:07.134)
5) Michael Andretti / J.R. Hildebrand / Buddy Rice / Ashley Taws
Andretti Autosport Acura ARX-04 (800 laps)
6) Kazuki Nakajima / Youichi Imamura / Kohei Hirate / Koudai Tsukakoshi
Toyota Team America Toyota R12LM (798 laps)
7) Scott Pruett / Robby Gordon / Tom Kimber-Smith / Alexander Rossi
Chrysler Patriot Team Chrysler SuperPatriot Abarth P1 (795 laps)
8) Dirk Muller / Joey Hand / Andy Priaulx / Augusto Farfus Jr.
BMW Schnitzer Racing BMW V12 LMR4 (795 laps)
9) Olivier Panis / Pedro Lamy / Sebastien Loeb / Jacques Villeneuve
Peugeot Sport North America Peugeot 908 HDi FAP (791 laps)
10) David Brabham / Marino Franchitti / Sean Edwards / Ronnie Bremer
Highcroft Racing Acura ARX-04 (784 laps)
P2 Results
1) Bryan Willman / Mario Dominguez / Justin Pritchard / Tomas Schekter
Autocon Racing Zytek Z11SN-Nissan (780 laps)
2) Luis Racia / Pal Varhaug / Gavin Cronje / Sam Bird
DAMS Motorsport Oreca 03-Judd BMW V6 (779 laps)
3) Andrew Prendeville / Sarah Fisher / Austin Snader / Alex Gurney
Libra Racing Radical SR9-Nissan V8 (772 laps)
Prototype GT Results
1) Dale Earnhardt Jr. / Kevin Harvick / Jan Magnussen / John Heinricy
Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette GT-1 (802 laps)
2) Ron Fellows / Al Unser Jr. / Trevor Bayne / Jimmie Johnson / Peter Brock
Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette GT-1 (779 laps)
3) Jorg Bergmeister / Patrick Long / Jeroen Bleekemolen / Colin McRae
Porsche Motorsport North America Porsche 911 GT1-12 (773 laps)
GT1 Results
1) Ayrton Senna / Mauricio Gugelmin / Raul Boesel
Falken Brazil Racing for a Better World Nissan GT-R Spec VR (750 laps)
2) Boris Said / David Murry / Michael McDowell / Brad Keselowski
Robertson Racing Saleen S7-R (749 laps)
3) Dominik Schweiger / Nicky Pastorelli / Jeff Kowalik / Michael Mallinen
West Yokohama Lamborghini Racing Lamborghini Aventador LP700 XR (745 laps)
GT2 Results
1) Seth Neiman / Darren Law / Marco Holzer / Akihiro Tsuzuki
Flying Lizard Racing Porsche 911 GT3-RSR (712 laps)
2) Johnny O'Connell / Max Angelelli / Lawson Aschenbach / Antonio Garcia
Team Cadillac Cadillac CTS-VR Coupe (708 laps)
3) Shane Lewis / Kenny Wilden / Gary Longo / Paul Gentilozzi
Jaguar Rocketsports Jaguar XKR GT2 (706 laps)
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Big win by Panoz!!!!! Ford gets the first win of the new season!!!
But we have a contract issue with Brad Keselowski. Brad Keselowski is currently under contract with Penske Racing South in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. I don't think Penske or Chrysler American Motors appreciates a key piece of their marketing thrust driving for somebody else in NASCAR or IndyCar let alone Rick Hendrick (yuck!).
But we have a contract issue with Brad Keselowski. Brad Keselowski is currently under contract with Penske Racing South in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. I don't think Penske or Chrysler American Motors appreciates a key piece of their marketing thrust driving for somebody else in NASCAR or IndyCar let alone Rick Hendrick (yuck!).
Oh by the way...Speaking of NASCAR...Who wants to be to be Brian France on this timeline? I'll do it if nobody else takes it...
And we if anybody want to do MotoGP...Have at it.
If you are a petrolhead, get on board this train!
And we if anybody want to do MotoGP...Have at it.
If you are a petrolhead, get on board this train!
The first round of the Indycar Series.....
Round 1
Bombardier Learjet Phoenix 300 presented by Bosch
Phoenix International Raceway, Phoenix, Arizona
The 2012 Indycar series started off at the one-mile oval in the desert in Phoenix, Arizona, with a track that had been proven to be a wild one on several occasions, with its history including some massive wins and huge spills, and a long series of great races. True to form, over 40 cars turned up to run at the event, but the track was such that only 32 were allowed into the event, causing several worthies to go home on Friday. Most obvious among these was Kenny Irwin, teammate to defending champ Tony Stewart, whose day was ended in qualifying on Thursday when he spectacularly crashed missing the slowing car of Mario Dominguez when Dominguez suffered a front tire blowout. The first pole of the season went to Sam Hornish Jr, who had his rookie teammate Al Unser III on the outside pole. Ashley Taws easily won the battle of the ladies by starting third (Pippa Mann started 11th, Sarah Fisher 19th, Ana Beatriz 20th and Ariel Hill 26th), with Paul Tracy next to her in his Forsythe entry, but with teammates Buddy Rice and J.R. Hildebrand immediately behind her. Row 4 was made up of the Valvoline car driven by Justin Wilson and defending champ Tony Stewart, while the Penske car of Helio Castroneves and the Ganassi car of Tony Kanaan rounded out the top ten starting positions.
Inside Row (Start Positions 1-3-5-7-9-11-13-15-17-19-21-23-25-27-29-31)
Hornish Jr., Taws, Rice, Wilson, Castroneves, Mann, Mears, Vasser, Rahal, Fisher, Wallace, Fernandez, Busch, Allmendinger, Phillipe, Renna
Outside Row (Start Positions 2-4-6-8-10-12-14-16-18-20-22-24-26-28-30-32)
Unser III, Tracy, Hildebrand, Stewart, Kanaan, Gidley, Brabham, Franchitti, Briscoe, Beatriz, Foyt IV, Speed, Hill, Villeneuve, Wheldon, Dominguez
Did Not Start
Sato, Bell, Irwin Jr., Conway, Saveedra, Braun, Cunningham, Viso, Tagliani, Kimball, Lazzaro, Rojas, Jourdain Jr., McDowell, Doornbos
The event under bright sun, typical weather for Phoenix in late January - temperature of 71 degrees (Fahrenheit, of course) and bright sunshine, with a crowd of 63,000 on hand to watch the event. The cars lined up in their rows, and the race began just after 1 PM. The start was clean, but the clean race didn't last a lap when Kurt Busch ran into the back of Scott Speed going into Turn 3, which caused Scott to run up the track, and on his way back down off the groove, he was hit by Jacques Villeneuve and spun into the infield. The car stayed running, and Scott got it off the track quickly, thus the yellow lasted just three laps.
The race restarted with the pace rapidly speeding up. Paul Tracy quickly dispatched Ashley Taws and Al Unser, but Hornish proved a harder nut to crack - and more to the point, Taws and Unser had little trouble keeping up the pace. Behind them, Helio Castroneves led his friend Tony Kanaan up the order, while a poor-handling car caused Buddy Rice to slide back down the order. Tony Renna's race lasted 36 laps before his engine failed and he drifted back into the pits and out of the race. The Coyotes of Sarah Fisher, A.J. Foyt IV and Ana Beatriz began advancing through the field as well, though Foyt ended his day with a wall sideswipe on Lap 48 which caused suspension damage and brought out the second caution. Of the front pack, the only ones who didn't dive for the pits were Wilson, Mann, Mears and Gidley, with Villeneuve also using the opportunity to try to get his lap back.
The race restarted on Lap 51, and Villeneuve easily enough got past Casey Mears and Memo Gidley, but didn't couldn't get past either Pippa Mann or Justin Wilson, neither of the Brits willing to let him past to get a lap back. Of the cars that pitted, the Penske crews again did pitstops to perfection, putting Castroneves into the lead pack and putting Briscoe and Wallace back into contention. When the race restarted, the order was Wilson, Mann, Mears, Gidley, Hornish Jr, Castroneves, Tracy, Unser, Taws and Stewart in the top ten.
Justin Wilson and Pippa Mann took advantage of their clear track to put the pedal down, and despite his angry whining about it neither one would let Jacques Villeneuve back onto the lead lap. Pippa peeled off for a pitstop at lap 57 and got lucky from an unexpected source, as teammate AJ Allmendinger's engine failed just as she headed for the stop, failing before the bend in the backstretch. That massive engine failure left a pile of oil on the track, but only three cars were unable to slow in time for the oil, those being the cars of Adrian Fernandez, Kurt Busch and Scott Speed. Speed and Fernandez spun into the inside grass, but Busch was unable to get his car to turn and plowed into the outside wall before his car skidded back into the grass, his day finished. Fernandez got back going, but Speed's spin ended with his car against the inside wall.
Everyone who hadn't pitted at the last caution did so, but the pitstop wound up with Pippa Mann at the back of the field but still on the lead lap. Villeneuve came out of the pits ahead of Justin Wilson, but he was also at the back, with Pippa right in front of him. The cleanup for the mess took a while, and the race didn't restart until Lap 68, and that restart lasted all of fifteen seconds - Villeneuve, still trying much too aggressively to get his lap back, nailed the gas early and tried a hopeless pass maneuver on the cars in front. He missed Pippa but caught the car of Steven Wallace in the left rear wheel. Villeneuve's car jumped up and into the outside wall, but Wallace's car spun right into the end of the pit wall at 115 mph, an impact which broke it in half, with Wallace sliding down the pit lane and the back half of his car bouncing into traffic. Mann, Wilson and five others behind them - Gidley, Mears, Brabham and the laps-back cars of Scott Speed and Adrian Fernandez - had absolutely nowhere to go and piled into the wreckage, with Speed being much too late on the brakes and ending up with the back of Pippa's car in his lap. The Red Flag came out owing to a blocked track, and the cars were routed through the pit lane, while a unhurt by furious Steven Wallace climbed out of his car and went to angrily speak to Villeneuve, where the French Canadian spit on his shoe and gave him the middle finger, and Wallace promptly slugged Villeneuve the face before Wilson and three officials broke the two of them up. None of the drivers were hurt, but both Steven Wallace and Jacques Villeneuve got penalties for their actions.
The green flag came back out at Lap 75, the race now nearly an hour and a half old. The racers made up for lost time by putting the pedal down hard, with the top-10 at the restart being Hornish Jr., Castroneves, Tracy, Unser, Taws, Stewart, Briscoe, Kanaan, Rahal and Vasser. Sam put his foot down hard, and the front five quickly left the others behind, with Tony Stewart starting to slide back down the order thanks to an ill-handling car. Tracy and Castroneves' dueling gave an opportunity for Ashley Taws to pass both of them, and she duly took it, having to the take the curb on the backstretch elbow to get around an aggressively-blocking Paul Tracy, but Helio got his second place back just three laps after Ashley took it by an outside pass in Turn Three. The pace was such that cars not in the top ten were soon sinking backwards, and Hornish was knee-deep in lap traffic by lap 90. Helio used the lap car of Dan Wheldon as a pick to pass Hornish for the lead, but got the stunt used right back at him six laps later, Hornish using the car of Ariel Hill to do the same thing right back.
By the next set of stops beginning at lap 105, All the cars back to now-ninth place Stewart were a lap back, and the pace was getting high. With just 20 of the 32 starters still in it now, traffic was much less of an issue, but it still could be a hazard. Penske pit work put Helio through the pitstop cycle in the lead, but he now had Taws and Unser on his tail - and the AGR guys knew how to double-team somebody, and they proved it on lap 128, with Helio getting a poor run off of Turn Four and getting passed on both sides, with Taws on the bottom and Unser on top, to the awe of the crowd. Taws was held the lead until she pitted on Lap 157, where Unser took over the lead - Hornish followed Taws in, and this time the fancy footwork was with the NHCR driver, and Hornish beat Taws out. Unser ducked in on Lap 163, handing the lead to Tracy, who lost it three laps later to Castroneves when he pitted. Castroneves pushed his gas mileage to the limit, clearly hoping to only have to do one more stop, and he pitted on Lap 172, with Hornish back out front now.
Helio got lucky shortly after his stop when Graham Rahal slid into the outside of Turn 4 on Lap 181, bringing out the fourth caution of the day. On the restart, it was Unser with the slick move, passing Hornish in Turn One for the lead. He didn't have it long, and Hornish forced a mistake out of him six laps later and took the lead back, with Paul Tracy following him past. The pace went sky-high now, but Graham Rahal would be the last retirement of the race, with all of the 17 remaining cars making it to the checkered flag. Despite the dicing for position, Hornish and Tracy stayed out front, with Unser, Taws and Castroneves behind him, but Helio was taking it easier - still aiming for his one-more-stop strategy. Tracy laid down the fastest lap of the race on Lap 221, running a lap at 180.976 mph - a track record for a lap during a race.
Cars began cycling in for the last sets of full stops on Lap 223, with Hornish, Tracy and Taws all following each other in. Unser took the lead and held it until lap 228, when he pitted as well. Bar any yellows, all of the cars knew that they would have to take a splash-and-dash right before the finish, so none cared all that much about fuel mileage - they went all out. The exception to this was Helio Castroneves, who was trying to make it on one stop, and who stayed out as long as possible, only pitting when he felt the buck-and-stumble of running out of fuel on Lap 235 on the backstretch and dove for the pits then and there, handing the lead back to Tracy, who only had a lap before Taws passed him on the track for the fourth time that day. Stewart had sank back to one lap down, leading the cars of Ryan Briscoe, Tony Kanaan and Jimmy Vasser, with Ana Beatriz, J.R. Hildebrand and Sarah Fisher being two laps back.
Ashley Taws was the first to go for the splash-and-dash, doing so on Lap 282 from the lead. The Andretti Autosport Crew got her out in front of Tracy but behind Hornish, but Ashley took care of that on Lap 286. Unser inheirited the lead, but he could only go on until Lap 291, when he pitted for an awesomely-quick 4.4-second pit stop. He got out ahead of Tracy but behind Hornish and Taws, with Helio out front and stretching his fuel mileage to the limit.
Helio throttled back more and more in the final few laps, trying desperately to keep the lead long enough, but Hornish and Taws were coming too quickly, and while Helio took the white flag in the lead, he ran out just past the D-point on the backstretch and coasted along, out of fuel. Hornish easily overtook him with Taws under his wing, and her attempt to push him high in Turns 3 and 4 didn't succeed. Sam Hornish Jr. crossed the line first for the win, Ashley Taws just 0.586 seconds behind him. Unser held to third despite Paul Tracy's not-at-all-subtle pushing, and Helio had enough momentum to coast across the line for fifth places. Tony Stewart held off a late push by Ryan Briscoe for sixth, with Tony Kanaan leading Jimmy Vasser home. Ana Beatriz brought the Coyote home in tenth after a solid, steady run, with J.R. Hildebrand about a hundred yards behind her. Sarah Fisher picked up twelfth and the last open point.
Result
1) Sam Hornish Jr.
#26 Newman-Haas-Cruise Racing Swift/Boeing/Cosworth/Goodyear (300 laps)
2) Ashley Taws
#7 Andretti Autosport Dallara/Dallara-Andretti/Honda/Firestone (+0.186s)
3) Al Unser III
#11 Newman-Haas-Cruise Racing Swift/Boeing/Cosworth/Goodyear (+3.520s)
4) Paul Tracy
#33 Forsythe Championship Racing Dallara/Veilside/Toyota/Michelin (+3.886s)
5) Helio Castroneves
#3 Team Penske Dallara/Penske/Chevrolet/Firestone (+15.235s)
6) Tony Stewart
#20 Stewart-Haas Lola/Haas/Chevrolet/Firestone (+1 lap)
7) Ryan Briscoe
#6 Team Penske Dallara/Penske/Chevrolet/Firestone (+1 lap)
8) Tony Kanaan
#4 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Riley and Scott/Veilside/Toyota/Firestone (+1 lap)
9) Jimmy Vasser
#24 KV Racing Technology Swift/BAT/Chevrolet/Goodyear (+1 lap)
10) Ana Beatriz
#41 A.J. Foyt Enterprises Coyote/Coyote/Chevrolet/Goodyear (+2 laps)
11) J.R. Hildebrand
#28 Andretti Autosport Dallara/Dallara-Andretti/Honda/Firestone (+2 laps)
12) Sarah Fisher
#67 Sarah Fisher Racing Coyote/Coyote/Chevrolet/Goodyear (+2 laps)
13) Dario Franchitti
#16 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Riley and Scott/Veilside/Toyota/Firestone (+3 laps)
14) Dan Wheldon
#98 All American Racers Riley and Scott/Eagle/Toyota/Goodyear (+3 laps)
15) Nelson Phillipe
#34 Payton-Coyne Racing Dallara/Veilside/Toyota/Michelin (+4 laps)
16) Mario Dominguez
#76 Adrian Fernandez Racing Lola/Lola/Honda/Firestone (+4 laps)
17) Ariel Hill
#42 Vector Automotive Swift/Boeing/Chevrolet/Michelin (+4 laps)
18) Graham Rahal
#83 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Riley and Scott/Veilside/Toyota/Firestone (180 laps, accident T4)
19) Buddy Rice
#25 Andretti Autosport Dallara/Dallara-Andretti/Honda/Firestone (162 laps, gearbox failure)
20) Steven Wallace
#12 Team Penske Dallara/Penske/Chevrolet/Firestone (67 laps, accident T4)
21) Justin Wilson
#5 Walker Team Lotus Lotus/Lotus/Lotus-Proton/Michelin (67 laps, accident T4)
22) Pippa Mann
#31 Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan Racing Swift/Rahal/Ferrari/Firestone (67 laps, accident T4)
23) David Brabham
#6 Newman-Haas-Cruise Racing Swift/Boeing/Cosworth/Goodyear (67 laps, accident T4)
24) Memo Gidley
#15 Walker Team Lotus Lotus/Lotus/Lotus-Proton/Michelin (67 laps, accident T4)
25) Casey Mears
#55 Dreyer and Reinbold Team Lotus Lotus/Lotus/Lotus-Proton/Michelin (67 laps, accident T4)
26) Jacques Villeneuve
#19 KV Racing Technology Swift/BAT/Chevrolet/Goodyear (67 laps, accident T4)
27) Adrian Fernandez
#32 Adrian Fernandez Racing Lola/Lola/Honda/Firestone (66 laps, accident T4)
28) Scott Speed
#44 Panther Motorsport Riley and Scott/Riley and Scott/Chevrolet/Goodyear (64 laps, accident T4)
29) A.J. Allmendinger
#8 Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan Racing Swift/Rahal/Ferrari/Firestone (56 laps, engine failure)
30) Kurt Busch
#21 Vector Automotive Swift/Boeing/Chevrolet/Michelin (56 laps, accident backstraight)
31) AJ Foyt IV
#14 A.J. Foyt Enterprises Coyote/Coyote/Chevrolet/Goodyear (47 laps, suspension damage)
32) Tony Renna
#60 Team Menard Riley and Scott/Menard/Menard-Chrysler/Firestone (36 laps, engine failure)
Round 1
Bombardier Learjet Phoenix 300 presented by Bosch
Phoenix International Raceway, Phoenix, Arizona
The 2012 Indycar series started off at the one-mile oval in the desert in Phoenix, Arizona, with a track that had been proven to be a wild one on several occasions, with its history including some massive wins and huge spills, and a long series of great races. True to form, over 40 cars turned up to run at the event, but the track was such that only 32 were allowed into the event, causing several worthies to go home on Friday. Most obvious among these was Kenny Irwin, teammate to defending champ Tony Stewart, whose day was ended in qualifying on Thursday when he spectacularly crashed missing the slowing car of Mario Dominguez when Dominguez suffered a front tire blowout. The first pole of the season went to Sam Hornish Jr, who had his rookie teammate Al Unser III on the outside pole. Ashley Taws easily won the battle of the ladies by starting third (Pippa Mann started 11th, Sarah Fisher 19th, Ana Beatriz 20th and Ariel Hill 26th), with Paul Tracy next to her in his Forsythe entry, but with teammates Buddy Rice and J.R. Hildebrand immediately behind her. Row 4 was made up of the Valvoline car driven by Justin Wilson and defending champ Tony Stewart, while the Penske car of Helio Castroneves and the Ganassi car of Tony Kanaan rounded out the top ten starting positions.
Inside Row (Start Positions 1-3-5-7-9-11-13-15-17-19-21-23-25-27-29-31)
Hornish Jr., Taws, Rice, Wilson, Castroneves, Mann, Mears, Vasser, Rahal, Fisher, Wallace, Fernandez, Busch, Allmendinger, Phillipe, Renna
Outside Row (Start Positions 2-4-6-8-10-12-14-16-18-20-22-24-26-28-30-32)
Unser III, Tracy, Hildebrand, Stewart, Kanaan, Gidley, Brabham, Franchitti, Briscoe, Beatriz, Foyt IV, Speed, Hill, Villeneuve, Wheldon, Dominguez
Did Not Start
Sato, Bell, Irwin Jr., Conway, Saveedra, Braun, Cunningham, Viso, Tagliani, Kimball, Lazzaro, Rojas, Jourdain Jr., McDowell, Doornbos
The event under bright sun, typical weather for Phoenix in late January - temperature of 71 degrees (Fahrenheit, of course) and bright sunshine, with a crowd of 63,000 on hand to watch the event. The cars lined up in their rows, and the race began just after 1 PM. The start was clean, but the clean race didn't last a lap when Kurt Busch ran into the back of Scott Speed going into Turn 3, which caused Scott to run up the track, and on his way back down off the groove, he was hit by Jacques Villeneuve and spun into the infield. The car stayed running, and Scott got it off the track quickly, thus the yellow lasted just three laps.
The race restarted with the pace rapidly speeding up. Paul Tracy quickly dispatched Ashley Taws and Al Unser, but Hornish proved a harder nut to crack - and more to the point, Taws and Unser had little trouble keeping up the pace. Behind them, Helio Castroneves led his friend Tony Kanaan up the order, while a poor-handling car caused Buddy Rice to slide back down the order. Tony Renna's race lasted 36 laps before his engine failed and he drifted back into the pits and out of the race. The Coyotes of Sarah Fisher, A.J. Foyt IV and Ana Beatriz began advancing through the field as well, though Foyt ended his day with a wall sideswipe on Lap 48 which caused suspension damage and brought out the second caution. Of the front pack, the only ones who didn't dive for the pits were Wilson, Mann, Mears and Gidley, with Villeneuve also using the opportunity to try to get his lap back.
The race restarted on Lap 51, and Villeneuve easily enough got past Casey Mears and Memo Gidley, but didn't couldn't get past either Pippa Mann or Justin Wilson, neither of the Brits willing to let him past to get a lap back. Of the cars that pitted, the Penske crews again did pitstops to perfection, putting Castroneves into the lead pack and putting Briscoe and Wallace back into contention. When the race restarted, the order was Wilson, Mann, Mears, Gidley, Hornish Jr, Castroneves, Tracy, Unser, Taws and Stewart in the top ten.
Justin Wilson and Pippa Mann took advantage of their clear track to put the pedal down, and despite his angry whining about it neither one would let Jacques Villeneuve back onto the lead lap. Pippa peeled off for a pitstop at lap 57 and got lucky from an unexpected source, as teammate AJ Allmendinger's engine failed just as she headed for the stop, failing before the bend in the backstretch. That massive engine failure left a pile of oil on the track, but only three cars were unable to slow in time for the oil, those being the cars of Adrian Fernandez, Kurt Busch and Scott Speed. Speed and Fernandez spun into the inside grass, but Busch was unable to get his car to turn and plowed into the outside wall before his car skidded back into the grass, his day finished. Fernandez got back going, but Speed's spin ended with his car against the inside wall.
Everyone who hadn't pitted at the last caution did so, but the pitstop wound up with Pippa Mann at the back of the field but still on the lead lap. Villeneuve came out of the pits ahead of Justin Wilson, but he was also at the back, with Pippa right in front of him. The cleanup for the mess took a while, and the race didn't restart until Lap 68, and that restart lasted all of fifteen seconds - Villeneuve, still trying much too aggressively to get his lap back, nailed the gas early and tried a hopeless pass maneuver on the cars in front. He missed Pippa but caught the car of Steven Wallace in the left rear wheel. Villeneuve's car jumped up and into the outside wall, but Wallace's car spun right into the end of the pit wall at 115 mph, an impact which broke it in half, with Wallace sliding down the pit lane and the back half of his car bouncing into traffic. Mann, Wilson and five others behind them - Gidley, Mears, Brabham and the laps-back cars of Scott Speed and Adrian Fernandez - had absolutely nowhere to go and piled into the wreckage, with Speed being much too late on the brakes and ending up with the back of Pippa's car in his lap. The Red Flag came out owing to a blocked track, and the cars were routed through the pit lane, while a unhurt by furious Steven Wallace climbed out of his car and went to angrily speak to Villeneuve, where the French Canadian spit on his shoe and gave him the middle finger, and Wallace promptly slugged Villeneuve the face before Wilson and three officials broke the two of them up. None of the drivers were hurt, but both Steven Wallace and Jacques Villeneuve got penalties for their actions.
The green flag came back out at Lap 75, the race now nearly an hour and a half old. The racers made up for lost time by putting the pedal down hard, with the top-10 at the restart being Hornish Jr., Castroneves, Tracy, Unser, Taws, Stewart, Briscoe, Kanaan, Rahal and Vasser. Sam put his foot down hard, and the front five quickly left the others behind, with Tony Stewart starting to slide back down the order thanks to an ill-handling car. Tracy and Castroneves' dueling gave an opportunity for Ashley Taws to pass both of them, and she duly took it, having to the take the curb on the backstretch elbow to get around an aggressively-blocking Paul Tracy, but Helio got his second place back just three laps after Ashley took it by an outside pass in Turn Three. The pace was such that cars not in the top ten were soon sinking backwards, and Hornish was knee-deep in lap traffic by lap 90. Helio used the lap car of Dan Wheldon as a pick to pass Hornish for the lead, but got the stunt used right back at him six laps later, Hornish using the car of Ariel Hill to do the same thing right back.
By the next set of stops beginning at lap 105, All the cars back to now-ninth place Stewart were a lap back, and the pace was getting high. With just 20 of the 32 starters still in it now, traffic was much less of an issue, but it still could be a hazard. Penske pit work put Helio through the pitstop cycle in the lead, but he now had Taws and Unser on his tail - and the AGR guys knew how to double-team somebody, and they proved it on lap 128, with Helio getting a poor run off of Turn Four and getting passed on both sides, with Taws on the bottom and Unser on top, to the awe of the crowd. Taws was held the lead until she pitted on Lap 157, where Unser took over the lead - Hornish followed Taws in, and this time the fancy footwork was with the NHCR driver, and Hornish beat Taws out. Unser ducked in on Lap 163, handing the lead to Tracy, who lost it three laps later to Castroneves when he pitted. Castroneves pushed his gas mileage to the limit, clearly hoping to only have to do one more stop, and he pitted on Lap 172, with Hornish back out front now.
Helio got lucky shortly after his stop when Graham Rahal slid into the outside of Turn 4 on Lap 181, bringing out the fourth caution of the day. On the restart, it was Unser with the slick move, passing Hornish in Turn One for the lead. He didn't have it long, and Hornish forced a mistake out of him six laps later and took the lead back, with Paul Tracy following him past. The pace went sky-high now, but Graham Rahal would be the last retirement of the race, with all of the 17 remaining cars making it to the checkered flag. Despite the dicing for position, Hornish and Tracy stayed out front, with Unser, Taws and Castroneves behind him, but Helio was taking it easier - still aiming for his one-more-stop strategy. Tracy laid down the fastest lap of the race on Lap 221, running a lap at 180.976 mph - a track record for a lap during a race.
Cars began cycling in for the last sets of full stops on Lap 223, with Hornish, Tracy and Taws all following each other in. Unser took the lead and held it until lap 228, when he pitted as well. Bar any yellows, all of the cars knew that they would have to take a splash-and-dash right before the finish, so none cared all that much about fuel mileage - they went all out. The exception to this was Helio Castroneves, who was trying to make it on one stop, and who stayed out as long as possible, only pitting when he felt the buck-and-stumble of running out of fuel on Lap 235 on the backstretch and dove for the pits then and there, handing the lead back to Tracy, who only had a lap before Taws passed him on the track for the fourth time that day. Stewart had sank back to one lap down, leading the cars of Ryan Briscoe, Tony Kanaan and Jimmy Vasser, with Ana Beatriz, J.R. Hildebrand and Sarah Fisher being two laps back.
Ashley Taws was the first to go for the splash-and-dash, doing so on Lap 282 from the lead. The Andretti Autosport Crew got her out in front of Tracy but behind Hornish, but Ashley took care of that on Lap 286. Unser inheirited the lead, but he could only go on until Lap 291, when he pitted for an awesomely-quick 4.4-second pit stop. He got out ahead of Tracy but behind Hornish and Taws, with Helio out front and stretching his fuel mileage to the limit.
Helio throttled back more and more in the final few laps, trying desperately to keep the lead long enough, but Hornish and Taws were coming too quickly, and while Helio took the white flag in the lead, he ran out just past the D-point on the backstretch and coasted along, out of fuel. Hornish easily overtook him with Taws under his wing, and her attempt to push him high in Turns 3 and 4 didn't succeed. Sam Hornish Jr. crossed the line first for the win, Ashley Taws just 0.586 seconds behind him. Unser held to third despite Paul Tracy's not-at-all-subtle pushing, and Helio had enough momentum to coast across the line for fifth places. Tony Stewart held off a late push by Ryan Briscoe for sixth, with Tony Kanaan leading Jimmy Vasser home. Ana Beatriz brought the Coyote home in tenth after a solid, steady run, with J.R. Hildebrand about a hundred yards behind her. Sarah Fisher picked up twelfth and the last open point.
Result
1) Sam Hornish Jr.
#26 Newman-Haas-Cruise Racing Swift/Boeing/Cosworth/Goodyear (300 laps)
2) Ashley Taws
#7 Andretti Autosport Dallara/Dallara-Andretti/Honda/Firestone (+0.186s)
3) Al Unser III
#11 Newman-Haas-Cruise Racing Swift/Boeing/Cosworth/Goodyear (+3.520s)
4) Paul Tracy
#33 Forsythe Championship Racing Dallara/Veilside/Toyota/Michelin (+3.886s)
5) Helio Castroneves
#3 Team Penske Dallara/Penske/Chevrolet/Firestone (+15.235s)
6) Tony Stewart
#20 Stewart-Haas Lola/Haas/Chevrolet/Firestone (+1 lap)
7) Ryan Briscoe
#6 Team Penske Dallara/Penske/Chevrolet/Firestone (+1 lap)
8) Tony Kanaan
#4 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Riley and Scott/Veilside/Toyota/Firestone (+1 lap)
9) Jimmy Vasser
#24 KV Racing Technology Swift/BAT/Chevrolet/Goodyear (+1 lap)
10) Ana Beatriz
#41 A.J. Foyt Enterprises Coyote/Coyote/Chevrolet/Goodyear (+2 laps)
11) J.R. Hildebrand
#28 Andretti Autosport Dallara/Dallara-Andretti/Honda/Firestone (+2 laps)
12) Sarah Fisher
#67 Sarah Fisher Racing Coyote/Coyote/Chevrolet/Goodyear (+2 laps)
13) Dario Franchitti
#16 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Riley and Scott/Veilside/Toyota/Firestone (+3 laps)
14) Dan Wheldon
#98 All American Racers Riley and Scott/Eagle/Toyota/Goodyear (+3 laps)
15) Nelson Phillipe
#34 Payton-Coyne Racing Dallara/Veilside/Toyota/Michelin (+4 laps)
16) Mario Dominguez
#76 Adrian Fernandez Racing Lola/Lola/Honda/Firestone (+4 laps)
17) Ariel Hill
#42 Vector Automotive Swift/Boeing/Chevrolet/Michelin (+4 laps)
18) Graham Rahal
#83 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Riley and Scott/Veilside/Toyota/Firestone (180 laps, accident T4)
19) Buddy Rice
#25 Andretti Autosport Dallara/Dallara-Andretti/Honda/Firestone (162 laps, gearbox failure)
20) Steven Wallace
#12 Team Penske Dallara/Penske/Chevrolet/Firestone (67 laps, accident T4)
21) Justin Wilson
#5 Walker Team Lotus Lotus/Lotus/Lotus-Proton/Michelin (67 laps, accident T4)
22) Pippa Mann
#31 Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan Racing Swift/Rahal/Ferrari/Firestone (67 laps, accident T4)
23) David Brabham
#6 Newman-Haas-Cruise Racing Swift/Boeing/Cosworth/Goodyear (67 laps, accident T4)
24) Memo Gidley
#15 Walker Team Lotus Lotus/Lotus/Lotus-Proton/Michelin (67 laps, accident T4)
25) Casey Mears
#55 Dreyer and Reinbold Team Lotus Lotus/Lotus/Lotus-Proton/Michelin (67 laps, accident T4)
26) Jacques Villeneuve
#19 KV Racing Technology Swift/BAT/Chevrolet/Goodyear (67 laps, accident T4)
27) Adrian Fernandez
#32 Adrian Fernandez Racing Lola/Lola/Honda/Firestone (66 laps, accident T4)
28) Scott Speed
#44 Panther Motorsport Riley and Scott/Riley and Scott/Chevrolet/Goodyear (64 laps, accident T4)
29) A.J. Allmendinger
#8 Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan Racing Swift/Rahal/Ferrari/Firestone (56 laps, engine failure)
30) Kurt Busch
#21 Vector Automotive Swift/Boeing/Chevrolet/Michelin (56 laps, accident backstraight)
31) AJ Foyt IV
#14 A.J. Foyt Enterprises Coyote/Coyote/Chevrolet/Goodyear (47 laps, suspension damage)
32) Tony Renna
#60 Team Menard Riley and Scott/Menard/Menard-Chrysler/Firestone (36 laps, engine failure)
And Round 2....
Round 2
The Southern Indycar Classic Presented by Chevrolet
Barber Motorsports Park, Birmingham, Alabama
The first road race of the year was held at the stunning 2.38-mile Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama, with a crowd of over 50,000 at the facility for the biggest race in Alabama outside of NASCAR of the year. The beautiful facility was big enough to hold no less than 36 cars for the event, more than the usual for a track like this but done in large part to get more action for the fans. There were 36 pit spots at the facility, and the track was big enough to have all of the spots used. After the mayhem at Phoenix, everyone was hoping for a more sedate race at Barber.
After the accident Jacques Villeneuve had effectively caused that took nine cars out of the race at Barber, nobody was keen on another pileup, and both Villeneuve and Steven Wallace started the season's first road race on probation after their brawl at Phoenix. Both drivers claimed the other was at fault, but most people asked about it were clear in their view that Villeneuve's foolish pass attempt had been the cause of it. Angry about that and with a point to prove, Villeneuve qualified well at Barber, starting fifth, while Wallace also qualified, though in his case back in 24th. The pole for the first road race of the season went to Justin Wilson, and judging by the fact that he had Casey Mears next to him and Mike Conway and Memo Gidley behind him said that the Lotus chassis were very good on road courses. Villeneuve lined up next to Ryan Briscoe, while Row 4 was made up of David Brabham and A.J. Allmendinger, while Colin Braun and Robert Wickens made up Row 5.
Inside Row (Start Positions 1-3-5-7-9-11-13-15-17-19-21-23-25-27-29-31-33-35)
Wilson, Conway, Villeneuve, Brabham, Braun, Kanaan, Stewart, Franchitti, Castroneves, Fernandez, Unser, Tracy, Hildebrand, Vasser, Mann, Cunningham, Saveedra, Beatriz
Outside Row (Start Positions 2-4-6-8-10-12-14-16-18-20-22-24-26-28-30-32-34-36)
Mears, Gidley, Briscoe, Allmendinger, Wickens, Speed, Busch, Sato, Rojas, Rice, Kimball, Wallace, Taws, Hill, Hornish Jr., Wheldon, Doornbos, Dixon
Did Not Qualify
Rahal, Foyt IV, Viso, Bell, Irwin Jr., Lazzaro, Fisher, Renna, Dominguez, Gurney, Jourdain Jr., Phillipe, McDowell
The race began to an overcast and fairly warm day, though not by any means a hot day. True to expected form, the Lotus chassis were very good on the road courses, and the front four - Wilson, Mears, Conway and Gidley - took off early into the distance. Behind them, Villeneuve, Briscoe and Brabham led the rest of the charging pack. The twisting Barber Park had enough straits to allow passing to be done, and the best road racers near the back - Dan Wheldon and Scott Dixon chief among these, began working their way up the order. The track was busy, but the 2.38-mile track proved to be very good at handling racing, and while the four Lotuses quickly got away from the field, they were battling among themselves fairly quickly.
The first run off the course went to Ashley Taws, who put the power on too soon in downhill Turn 3 and slid off on lap 7, though Ashley didn't let off the throttle and got back onto the track having only lost two positions. The track was tricky enough that minor mistakes were fairly common, even among experienced drivers like Villeneuve, Vasser, Dixon and Brabham. The front-runners didn't run into any real lap traffic until about lap twenty, and that more than anything was brought on by poor handling on the cars of Ana Beatriz and Wade Cunningham, while the first spin of the day happened on lap 21, when Charlie Kimball got way too much curb in Turn 11 and spun off, though he kept it running. A lap later, Memo Rojas' engine oil line blew off on the entrance of Turn 11, scattering oil all over Turns 11, 12 and 13 before Rojas shut it off and drifted into the downhill entrance to pit lane. Buddy Rice, Wade Cunningham, Adrian Fernandez, J.R. Hildebrand and Scott Dixon all suffered for that, Dixon doing three complete 360s as he spun into the grass and Rice breaking a transmission input shaft as he bounced back onto the track. The yellow came out, and all of the cars pitted, with the Penske and KVRT Crews being faster than the Lotus crews, allowing Villeneuve and Briscoe to be the leaders as the cars came out of the pits. Mike Conway stalled the car on his way out of the pits and suffered badly in his positioning as a result.
The race restarted on lap 29 with the front 10 being Villeneuve, Briscoe, Wilson, Gidley, Mears, Braun, Allmendinger, Franchitti, Busch and Tracy. Wilson was soon all over Villeneuve and Briscoe, who were also battling with each other. The Canadian and the Australian were aggressive with each other, at one point passing each other three times in one lap, while Wilson, Gidley and Mears forced them to stay heavy on the throttle. Behind that, a missed shift by Colin Braun coming out of Turn 10 cost him dearly, as that was enough for Allmendinger and Franchitti to capitalize on, and Dario wickedly managed to get the both of them on one straightaway.
The race for the lead was finally settled in favor of Jacques Villeneuve after Ryan Briscoe was way too late on the brakes for Turn Nine and ran off, which was also enough to allow Wilson and Gidley past, and both of them set to work on beating Villeneuve. But Jacques wasn't gonna be beaten easily, and even after Wilson retook the lead on Lap 46, Villeneuve took it back two laps later. Gidley soon sank back from those two, and he soon had Briscoe, Mears, Franchitti and Allmendinger in top of him as well.
The second set of stops for the teams began on lap 63, with one of the first ones in being Briscoe, who had typically good Penske pit work get him back out in short order, fast enough that when the stops cycled through, he was back on top of Villenenve and Wilson. Allmendinger ended his chances at victory when he spun on his out lap, but he kept it going and got back into the race. The pitstops were finishing up when the second yellow of the race came out after a missed pass attempt by Ashley Taws on Sebastien Saveedra on Lap 68 caused a rather big collision between them, as Saveedra's car rolled over, but landed back on its wheels and both slid into the gravel, neither hurt. The yellow's time was almost perfect for most, as everyone pitted to fill their tanks to the brim and get back out, allowing a sprint to the finish. Having learned their lesson at Phoenix, Penske was among these.
Restarting on Lap 71 with 24 laps to go, the Top 10 was made up of Wilson, Villeneuve, Briscoe, Gidley, Mears, Franchitti, Braun, Stewart, Kanaan and Brabham. The Lotuses of Gidley and Mears soon dispatched with Briscoe, but Villeneuve stayed right with Wilson, forcing him to run all-out. Stewart passed Braun on Lap 74 in Turn 5, but Braun forced Stewart into an uncharacteristic mistake, running wide on the exit of Turn 15, allowing Braun to blow past on the Run down the front straightaway later on that same lap. Brabham was hauled back in by an on-form Allmendinger, himself having Paul Tracy right with him. AJ put David Brabham out of the top 10 on Lap 80, but Brabham got it back on Lap 83, and David and AJ gave the fans lots to watch with their own close-fought battling through corners. Up front, Villeneuve forced one last mistake out of Wilson on Lap 86 in Turn 8, and Villeneuve took advantage, both cars blasting into the fast Turn 9-10 side by side, and Wilson backed off to prevent an accident, though in the process he gave Mears an opening and Casey took advantage, driving back pact Wilson. Justin didn't have any trouble putting Casey back behind him, but that battle effectively handed the win to Villeneuve.
After the chaos in Phoenix, Jacques Villeneuve came back to grab win in the second race of 2012, with him being just 2.264 seconds clear of second-placed Justin Wilson. Casey Mears arrived in third, with Briscoe in fourth and Gidley finishing the top five. Dario Franchitti finished sixth, with Colin Braun seventh, Tony Stewart eighth, Tony Kanaan ninth and David Brabham tenth. AJ Allmendinger and Paul Tracy got the last two positions scoring points.
Result
1) Jacques Villeneuve
#19 KV Racing Technology Swift/BAT/Chevrolet/Goodyear (95 laps)
2) Justin Wilson
#5 Walker Team Lotus Lotus/Lotus/Lotus-Proton/Michelin (+2.264s)
3) Casey Mears
#55 Dreyer and Reinbold Team Lotus Lotus/Lotus/Lotus-Proton/Michelin (+4.219s)
4) Ryan Briscoe
#6 Team Penske Dallara/Penske/Chevrolet/Firestone (+4.597s)
5) Memo Gidley
#15 Walker Team Lotus Lotus/Lotus/Lotus-Proton/Michelin (+4.932s)
6) Dario Franchitti
#16 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Riley and Scott/Veilside/Toyota/Firestone (+8.865s)
7) Colin Braun
#17 Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan Racing Swift/Rahal/Ferrari/Firestone (+12.174s)
8) Tony Stewart
#20 Stewart-Haas Racing Lola/Haas/Chevrolet/Firestone (+12.831s)
9) Tony Kanaan
#4 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Riley and Scott/Veilside/Toyota/Firestone (+16.447s)
10) David Brabham
#6 Newman-Haas-Cruise Racing Swift/Boeing/Cosworth/Goodyear (+20.542s)
11) A.J. Allmendinger
#8 Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan Racing Swift/Rahal/Ferrari/Firestone (+22.004s)
12) Paul Tracy
#33 Forsythe Championship Racing Dallara/Veilside/Toyota/Michelin (+25.763s)
13) Takuma Sato
#27 Andretti Autosport Dallara/Dallara-Andretti/Honda/Firestone (+27.708s)
14) Robert Wickens
#55 Forsythe Championship Racing Dallara/Veilside/Toyota/Michelin (+28.225s)
15) Al Unser III
#11 Newman-Haas-Cruise Racing Swift/Boeing/Cosworth/Goodyear (+35.129s)
16) Kurt Busch
#21 Vector Automotive Swift/Boeing/Chevrolet/Michelin (+35.802s)
17) Jimmy Vasser
#24 KV Racing Technology Swift/BAT/Chevrolet/Goodyear (+1:01:256)
18) Scott Speed
#44 Panther Motorsport Riley and Scott/Riley and Scott/Chevrolet/Goodyear (+1:04:220)
19) Dan Wheldon
#98 All American Racers Riley and Scott/Eagle/Toyota/Goodyear (+1 lap)
20) Mike Conway
#65 Dreyer and Reinbold Team Lotus Lotus/Lotus/Lotus-Proton/Michelin (+1 lap)
21) Ariel Hill
#42 Vector Automotive Swift/Boeing/Chevrolet/Michelin (+1 lap)
22) Steven Wallace
#12 Team Penske Dallara/Penske/Chevrolet/Firestone (+2 laps)
23) Adrian Fernandez
#32 Adrian Fernandez Racing Lola/Lola/Honda/Firestone (+2 laps)
24) Robert Doornbos
#91 Payton-Coyne Racing Dallara/Veilside/Toyota/Michelin (+2 laps)
25) Scott Dixon
#84 Vector Automotive Swift/Boeing/Chevrolet/Michelin (+2 laps)
26) J.R. Hildebrand
#28 Andretti Autosport Dallara/Dallara-Andretti/Honda/Firestone (+2 laps)
27) Pippa Mann
#31 Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan Racing Swift/Rahal/Ferrari/Firestone (80 laps, accident T7)
28) Sebastien Saveedra
#80 Team Menard Riley and Scott/Menard/Menard-Chrysler/Firestone (67 laps, accident T9/T10)
29) Ashley Taws
#7 Andretti Autosport Dallara/Dallara-Andretti/Honda/Firestone (67 laps, accident T9/T10)
30) Sam Hornish Jr.
#26 Newman-Haas-Cruise Racing Swift/Boeing/Cosworth/Goodyear (62 laps, gearbox failure)
31) Ana Beatriz
#41 A.J. Foyt Enterprises Coyote/Coyote/Chevrolet/Goodyear (55 laps, gearbox failure)
32) Helio Castroneves
#3 Team Penske Dallara/Penske/Chevrolet/Firestone (53 laps, burned wheel bearing)
33) Charlie Kimball
#83 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Riley and Scott/Veilside/Toyota/Firestone (47 laps, gearbox failure)
34) Memo Rojas
#48 Adrian Fernandez Racing Lola/Lola/Honda/Firestone (21 laps, engine failure)
35) Buddy Rice
#25 Andretti Autosport Dallara/Dallara-Andretti/Honda/Firestone (21 laps, suspension/transmission damage)
36) Wade Cunningham
#44 Panther Motorsport Riley and Scott/Riley and Scott/Chevrolet/Goodyear (21 laps, accident T11/T12)
Round 2
The Southern Indycar Classic Presented by Chevrolet
Barber Motorsports Park, Birmingham, Alabama
The first road race of the year was held at the stunning 2.38-mile Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama, with a crowd of over 50,000 at the facility for the biggest race in Alabama outside of NASCAR of the year. The beautiful facility was big enough to hold no less than 36 cars for the event, more than the usual for a track like this but done in large part to get more action for the fans. There were 36 pit spots at the facility, and the track was big enough to have all of the spots used. After the mayhem at Phoenix, everyone was hoping for a more sedate race at Barber.
After the accident Jacques Villeneuve had effectively caused that took nine cars out of the race at Barber, nobody was keen on another pileup, and both Villeneuve and Steven Wallace started the season's first road race on probation after their brawl at Phoenix. Both drivers claimed the other was at fault, but most people asked about it were clear in their view that Villeneuve's foolish pass attempt had been the cause of it. Angry about that and with a point to prove, Villeneuve qualified well at Barber, starting fifth, while Wallace also qualified, though in his case back in 24th. The pole for the first road race of the season went to Justin Wilson, and judging by the fact that he had Casey Mears next to him and Mike Conway and Memo Gidley behind him said that the Lotus chassis were very good on road courses. Villeneuve lined up next to Ryan Briscoe, while Row 4 was made up of David Brabham and A.J. Allmendinger, while Colin Braun and Robert Wickens made up Row 5.
Inside Row (Start Positions 1-3-5-7-9-11-13-15-17-19-21-23-25-27-29-31-33-35)
Wilson, Conway, Villeneuve, Brabham, Braun, Kanaan, Stewart, Franchitti, Castroneves, Fernandez, Unser, Tracy, Hildebrand, Vasser, Mann, Cunningham, Saveedra, Beatriz
Outside Row (Start Positions 2-4-6-8-10-12-14-16-18-20-22-24-26-28-30-32-34-36)
Mears, Gidley, Briscoe, Allmendinger, Wickens, Speed, Busch, Sato, Rojas, Rice, Kimball, Wallace, Taws, Hill, Hornish Jr., Wheldon, Doornbos, Dixon
Did Not Qualify
Rahal, Foyt IV, Viso, Bell, Irwin Jr., Lazzaro, Fisher, Renna, Dominguez, Gurney, Jourdain Jr., Phillipe, McDowell
The race began to an overcast and fairly warm day, though not by any means a hot day. True to expected form, the Lotus chassis were very good on the road courses, and the front four - Wilson, Mears, Conway and Gidley - took off early into the distance. Behind them, Villeneuve, Briscoe and Brabham led the rest of the charging pack. The twisting Barber Park had enough straits to allow passing to be done, and the best road racers near the back - Dan Wheldon and Scott Dixon chief among these, began working their way up the order. The track was busy, but the 2.38-mile track proved to be very good at handling racing, and while the four Lotuses quickly got away from the field, they were battling among themselves fairly quickly.
The first run off the course went to Ashley Taws, who put the power on too soon in downhill Turn 3 and slid off on lap 7, though Ashley didn't let off the throttle and got back onto the track having only lost two positions. The track was tricky enough that minor mistakes were fairly common, even among experienced drivers like Villeneuve, Vasser, Dixon and Brabham. The front-runners didn't run into any real lap traffic until about lap twenty, and that more than anything was brought on by poor handling on the cars of Ana Beatriz and Wade Cunningham, while the first spin of the day happened on lap 21, when Charlie Kimball got way too much curb in Turn 11 and spun off, though he kept it running. A lap later, Memo Rojas' engine oil line blew off on the entrance of Turn 11, scattering oil all over Turns 11, 12 and 13 before Rojas shut it off and drifted into the downhill entrance to pit lane. Buddy Rice, Wade Cunningham, Adrian Fernandez, J.R. Hildebrand and Scott Dixon all suffered for that, Dixon doing three complete 360s as he spun into the grass and Rice breaking a transmission input shaft as he bounced back onto the track. The yellow came out, and all of the cars pitted, with the Penske and KVRT Crews being faster than the Lotus crews, allowing Villeneuve and Briscoe to be the leaders as the cars came out of the pits. Mike Conway stalled the car on his way out of the pits and suffered badly in his positioning as a result.
The race restarted on lap 29 with the front 10 being Villeneuve, Briscoe, Wilson, Gidley, Mears, Braun, Allmendinger, Franchitti, Busch and Tracy. Wilson was soon all over Villeneuve and Briscoe, who were also battling with each other. The Canadian and the Australian were aggressive with each other, at one point passing each other three times in one lap, while Wilson, Gidley and Mears forced them to stay heavy on the throttle. Behind that, a missed shift by Colin Braun coming out of Turn 10 cost him dearly, as that was enough for Allmendinger and Franchitti to capitalize on, and Dario wickedly managed to get the both of them on one straightaway.
The race for the lead was finally settled in favor of Jacques Villeneuve after Ryan Briscoe was way too late on the brakes for Turn Nine and ran off, which was also enough to allow Wilson and Gidley past, and both of them set to work on beating Villeneuve. But Jacques wasn't gonna be beaten easily, and even after Wilson retook the lead on Lap 46, Villeneuve took it back two laps later. Gidley soon sank back from those two, and he soon had Briscoe, Mears, Franchitti and Allmendinger in top of him as well.
The second set of stops for the teams began on lap 63, with one of the first ones in being Briscoe, who had typically good Penske pit work get him back out in short order, fast enough that when the stops cycled through, he was back on top of Villenenve and Wilson. Allmendinger ended his chances at victory when he spun on his out lap, but he kept it going and got back into the race. The pitstops were finishing up when the second yellow of the race came out after a missed pass attempt by Ashley Taws on Sebastien Saveedra on Lap 68 caused a rather big collision between them, as Saveedra's car rolled over, but landed back on its wheels and both slid into the gravel, neither hurt. The yellow's time was almost perfect for most, as everyone pitted to fill their tanks to the brim and get back out, allowing a sprint to the finish. Having learned their lesson at Phoenix, Penske was among these.
Restarting on Lap 71 with 24 laps to go, the Top 10 was made up of Wilson, Villeneuve, Briscoe, Gidley, Mears, Franchitti, Braun, Stewart, Kanaan and Brabham. The Lotuses of Gidley and Mears soon dispatched with Briscoe, but Villeneuve stayed right with Wilson, forcing him to run all-out. Stewart passed Braun on Lap 74 in Turn 5, but Braun forced Stewart into an uncharacteristic mistake, running wide on the exit of Turn 15, allowing Braun to blow past on the Run down the front straightaway later on that same lap. Brabham was hauled back in by an on-form Allmendinger, himself having Paul Tracy right with him. AJ put David Brabham out of the top 10 on Lap 80, but Brabham got it back on Lap 83, and David and AJ gave the fans lots to watch with their own close-fought battling through corners. Up front, Villeneuve forced one last mistake out of Wilson on Lap 86 in Turn 8, and Villeneuve took advantage, both cars blasting into the fast Turn 9-10 side by side, and Wilson backed off to prevent an accident, though in the process he gave Mears an opening and Casey took advantage, driving back pact Wilson. Justin didn't have any trouble putting Casey back behind him, but that battle effectively handed the win to Villeneuve.
After the chaos in Phoenix, Jacques Villeneuve came back to grab win in the second race of 2012, with him being just 2.264 seconds clear of second-placed Justin Wilson. Casey Mears arrived in third, with Briscoe in fourth and Gidley finishing the top five. Dario Franchitti finished sixth, with Colin Braun seventh, Tony Stewart eighth, Tony Kanaan ninth and David Brabham tenth. AJ Allmendinger and Paul Tracy got the last two positions scoring points.
Result
1) Jacques Villeneuve
#19 KV Racing Technology Swift/BAT/Chevrolet/Goodyear (95 laps)
2) Justin Wilson
#5 Walker Team Lotus Lotus/Lotus/Lotus-Proton/Michelin (+2.264s)
3) Casey Mears
#55 Dreyer and Reinbold Team Lotus Lotus/Lotus/Lotus-Proton/Michelin (+4.219s)
4) Ryan Briscoe
#6 Team Penske Dallara/Penske/Chevrolet/Firestone (+4.597s)
5) Memo Gidley
#15 Walker Team Lotus Lotus/Lotus/Lotus-Proton/Michelin (+4.932s)
6) Dario Franchitti
#16 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Riley and Scott/Veilside/Toyota/Firestone (+8.865s)
7) Colin Braun
#17 Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan Racing Swift/Rahal/Ferrari/Firestone (+12.174s)
8) Tony Stewart
#20 Stewart-Haas Racing Lola/Haas/Chevrolet/Firestone (+12.831s)
9) Tony Kanaan
#4 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Riley and Scott/Veilside/Toyota/Firestone (+16.447s)
10) David Brabham
#6 Newman-Haas-Cruise Racing Swift/Boeing/Cosworth/Goodyear (+20.542s)
11) A.J. Allmendinger
#8 Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan Racing Swift/Rahal/Ferrari/Firestone (+22.004s)
12) Paul Tracy
#33 Forsythe Championship Racing Dallara/Veilside/Toyota/Michelin (+25.763s)
13) Takuma Sato
#27 Andretti Autosport Dallara/Dallara-Andretti/Honda/Firestone (+27.708s)
14) Robert Wickens
#55 Forsythe Championship Racing Dallara/Veilside/Toyota/Michelin (+28.225s)
15) Al Unser III
#11 Newman-Haas-Cruise Racing Swift/Boeing/Cosworth/Goodyear (+35.129s)
16) Kurt Busch
#21 Vector Automotive Swift/Boeing/Chevrolet/Michelin (+35.802s)
17) Jimmy Vasser
#24 KV Racing Technology Swift/BAT/Chevrolet/Goodyear (+1:01:256)
18) Scott Speed
#44 Panther Motorsport Riley and Scott/Riley and Scott/Chevrolet/Goodyear (+1:04:220)
19) Dan Wheldon
#98 All American Racers Riley and Scott/Eagle/Toyota/Goodyear (+1 lap)
20) Mike Conway
#65 Dreyer and Reinbold Team Lotus Lotus/Lotus/Lotus-Proton/Michelin (+1 lap)
21) Ariel Hill
#42 Vector Automotive Swift/Boeing/Chevrolet/Michelin (+1 lap)
22) Steven Wallace
#12 Team Penske Dallara/Penske/Chevrolet/Firestone (+2 laps)
23) Adrian Fernandez
#32 Adrian Fernandez Racing Lola/Lola/Honda/Firestone (+2 laps)
24) Robert Doornbos
#91 Payton-Coyne Racing Dallara/Veilside/Toyota/Michelin (+2 laps)
25) Scott Dixon
#84 Vector Automotive Swift/Boeing/Chevrolet/Michelin (+2 laps)
26) J.R. Hildebrand
#28 Andretti Autosport Dallara/Dallara-Andretti/Honda/Firestone (+2 laps)
27) Pippa Mann
#31 Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan Racing Swift/Rahal/Ferrari/Firestone (80 laps, accident T7)
28) Sebastien Saveedra
#80 Team Menard Riley and Scott/Menard/Menard-Chrysler/Firestone (67 laps, accident T9/T10)
29) Ashley Taws
#7 Andretti Autosport Dallara/Dallara-Andretti/Honda/Firestone (67 laps, accident T9/T10)
30) Sam Hornish Jr.
#26 Newman-Haas-Cruise Racing Swift/Boeing/Cosworth/Goodyear (62 laps, gearbox failure)
31) Ana Beatriz
#41 A.J. Foyt Enterprises Coyote/Coyote/Chevrolet/Goodyear (55 laps, gearbox failure)
32) Helio Castroneves
#3 Team Penske Dallara/Penske/Chevrolet/Firestone (53 laps, burned wheel bearing)
33) Charlie Kimball
#83 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Riley and Scott/Veilside/Toyota/Firestone (47 laps, gearbox failure)
34) Memo Rojas
#48 Adrian Fernandez Racing Lola/Lola/Honda/Firestone (21 laps, engine failure)
35) Buddy Rice
#25 Andretti Autosport Dallara/Dallara-Andretti/Honda/Firestone (21 laps, suspension/transmission damage)
36) Wade Cunningham
#44 Panther Motorsport Riley and Scott/Riley and Scott/Chevrolet/Goodyear (21 laps, accident T11/T12)
Racin' Radio February 7, 2012
Good morning and welcome to Racin' Radio powered by Auto Train..here on Sirius XM Satellite Radio. I'm John Kernan. this morning we have Ryan Hunter-Reay with us in our Daytona Studios...He was part of the winning team at the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona over the weekend, and before he heads back to Europe to get ready for the F1 season, he's spending time with us. Good morning Ryan, congrats on the win and ...thanks for spending a few minutes with us.
"My pleasure, John. I always start my morning with Racin' Radio."
"Ryan, an excellent race over the weekend. Helping to get Panoz out of gate with a 24-hour win. I hear this was kind of a last minute deal."
"It was in a way, John. I talked to Don Panoz while i was in Arizona visiting Eddie Cheever and getting things together for the season. Panoz came out and we worked out a deal over New Years, and I was excited about running the 24 and I wanted the seat time and the race time. I'm used to racing early in the year and F1 doesn't really kickoff until March in a racing sense. I felt the need to compete and I wanted to, and it just worked for us this weekend."
"Take me through the race. The Panoz-Ford wasn't the fastest car early on but it stay in contention..."
"The Chrsylers were so darn fast out of the gate, John. The SuperPatriot was a fast car, but they had their problems. The Peugeot had the flat-out speed too, but tires hurt them. We had a well-balanced car and we just a perfect weekend. The Corvette though? Those guys just wouldn't give up. Especially the NASCAR boys. You expect Nick Manassian to be fast, but Dale Junior and Kevin Harvick clicked the lap times, too. Bryan Herta was nails on the final stint and had to be. We were fortunate to win because there were a lot of strong runners at Daytona."
"Looking forward. The first testing session is coming up. The F1 Spring Training at Estoril. You are driving for the newly-formed Cheever Grand Prix team. What kind of debut are you expecting?"
"I'm excited. Eddie has put together an organized outfit. We tested the car at Sebring and I like it. We have good power from Renault. The chassis is good. We were able to shake it down and run some sound times there. It will be good to see how we stack up against the other teams. We have to prequalify for races, so we have to be on our marks when we go to Kylami and hopefully we can get work our way into the battlefield promotions early and get ourselves out of prequalifying quickly. That was Eddie Cheevers first goal for myself and Loic Duval. We want to get that pass into the Saturday knockout qualifying session, and I think we can. I think we will score points this year and definitely be a team that's running closer to the front than the back."
"What is the one thing you are looking forward to in Formula 1?"
"The tracks, man. It's the tracks. The new Kylami, Long Beach, Silverstone, Spa, the Nurburgring. No videogame can replicate what these tracks are like. I cannot wait to run all them all, and for all my fans following me on Formula 1 TwitterCam, I be giving you all the 4-1-1. I can't wait to take you all on a ride around this circuits.. I'm happy about this weekend and the win but I'm already looking forward to being a Grand Prix Driver."
Racin' Radio Monday through Friday...sponsored by Auto Train. Why rent a car, when you have one..travel with Auto Train.. and by SNCF America....It's the French Way To Rail...Here In America."
Good morning and welcome to Racin' Radio powered by Auto Train..here on Sirius XM Satellite Radio. I'm John Kernan. this morning we have Ryan Hunter-Reay with us in our Daytona Studios...He was part of the winning team at the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona over the weekend, and before he heads back to Europe to get ready for the F1 season, he's spending time with us. Good morning Ryan, congrats on the win and ...thanks for spending a few minutes with us.
"My pleasure, John. I always start my morning with Racin' Radio."
"Ryan, an excellent race over the weekend. Helping to get Panoz out of gate with a 24-hour win. I hear this was kind of a last minute deal."
"It was in a way, John. I talked to Don Panoz while i was in Arizona visiting Eddie Cheever and getting things together for the season. Panoz came out and we worked out a deal over New Years, and I was excited about running the 24 and I wanted the seat time and the race time. I'm used to racing early in the year and F1 doesn't really kickoff until March in a racing sense. I felt the need to compete and I wanted to, and it just worked for us this weekend."
"Take me through the race. The Panoz-Ford wasn't the fastest car early on but it stay in contention..."
"The Chrsylers were so darn fast out of the gate, John. The SuperPatriot was a fast car, but they had their problems. The Peugeot had the flat-out speed too, but tires hurt them. We had a well-balanced car and we just a perfect weekend. The Corvette though? Those guys just wouldn't give up. Especially the NASCAR boys. You expect Nick Manassian to be fast, but Dale Junior and Kevin Harvick clicked the lap times, too. Bryan Herta was nails on the final stint and had to be. We were fortunate to win because there were a lot of strong runners at Daytona."
"Looking forward. The first testing session is coming up. The F1 Spring Training at Estoril. You are driving for the newly-formed Cheever Grand Prix team. What kind of debut are you expecting?"
"I'm excited. Eddie has put together an organized outfit. We tested the car at Sebring and I like it. We have good power from Renault. The chassis is good. We were able to shake it down and run some sound times there. It will be good to see how we stack up against the other teams. We have to prequalify for races, so we have to be on our marks when we go to Kylami and hopefully we can get work our way into the battlefield promotions early and get ourselves out of prequalifying quickly. That was Eddie Cheevers first goal for myself and Loic Duval. We want to get that pass into the Saturday knockout qualifying session, and I think we can. I think we will score points this year and definitely be a team that's running closer to the front than the back."
"What is the one thing you are looking forward to in Formula 1?"
"The tracks, man. It's the tracks. The new Kylami, Long Beach, Silverstone, Spa, the Nurburgring. No videogame can replicate what these tracks are like. I cannot wait to run all them all, and for all my fans following me on Formula 1 TwitterCam, I be giving you all the 4-1-1. I can't wait to take you all on a ride around this circuits.. I'm happy about this weekend and the win but I'm already looking forward to being a Grand Prix Driver."
Racin' Radio Monday through Friday...sponsored by Auto Train. Why rent a car, when you have one..travel with Auto Train.. and by SNCF America....It's the French Way To Rail...Here In America."
Racin' Radio -- Thursday February 9, 2012
"Good morning from Daytona Beach. From our studios at Daytona USA Theme Park along beautiful International Speedway Boulevard this is Racin' Radio powered by Auto Train..I'm John Kernan...Today,a big show for you...with the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Nationwide, Trucks and Dash Series haulers beginning to pile into Daytona International Speedway. Another round of testing this weekend here at the World's Center of Speed.
This morning on the show we'll have Brad Keselowski, who quite a few people think be the Sprint Cup Champ in 2012. Former NASCAR Cup Series Champion Ricky Craven will join us as our Thursday Insider, NASCAR Chief Competition Director Mike Helton will come in to talk rule changes and we also have the Mattel Intellivision HD IndyCar Mash Up with Marlo Klain. That and more to come...
But first, in case you don't know who is who in the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, we brought in a special guest to tell you.
ESPN's Allan Bestwick will take you through who is who in 2012!
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series 2012 Teams
Drivers who are entered in the Daytona 500 only.
Childress-Earnhardt Racing Chevrolet Chevelle SS (primary sponsor)
Tires: Goodyear
1 – Martin Truex Jr. (Napa Auto Parts)
3 – Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Mountain Dew)
8 -- Austin Dillon (Snickers)
29 – Kevin Harvick (AC Delco)
Yates-Allison-Kulwicki Racing Ford Fusion SVT
Tires: Goodyear
7 – Matt Kenseth (Dewalt Tools, Wisconsin Real Cheese, Texaco Havoline)
28 – Jamie McMurray (Express, Texaco Havoline)
88 – Carl Edwards (Aflac, Price Chopper, Texaco Havoline)
Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Chevelle SS
Tires: Goodyear
5- Kyle Larson (Mattel Intellivision HD, Kellogg's Frosted Flakes)
25- Paul Menard (Krogers-Superconfex, Menard's)
50- Ryan Truex (GoPro Video)
80- Mark Skaife (Holden SVT, Brock Automotive, GoPro Video)
Gordon-Evernham Racing Ford Fusion SVT
Tires: Goodyear
10- Erin Crocker (Valvoline)
24- Scott Wimmer (Pepsi, Drakkar Noir)
48- Jimmie Johnson (Lowe's Home Improvement, Oakley)
01- Vanina Ickx (Nicola's Knicker Drawer, Kelemata, Godiva Chocolates, Lella's Race Against Cancer)
No Fear Raceworks Ford Fusion SVT
Tires: Goodyear
9- Marcos Ambrose (Stanley, Supercheap International, Lauren Jackson Design, No Fear)
69- Ricky Carmichael ( Rockstar)
59- Jamie Whincup (Rockstar, Quantas, Irwin Tools)
Penske Racing South Dodge Matador R/T
Tires: Goodyear
2- Brad Keselowski (Miller Lite)
22- Ryan Newman (Pennzoil, Sony HD/3D)
66- Brendan Gaughan (AnswerWear, Penske United Auto)
Petty Enterprises Dodge Matador R/T
Tires: Goodyear
43- Adam Petty (STP, Atari SuperArcade)
44- Jeremy Mayfield (STP, Lumber Liquidators)
45- Elliott Sadler (STP, Tracker Boats, Morgan Shepherd Ministries)
Roush Engineering Ford Fusion SVT
Tires: Goodyear
6- Mark Martin (U.S. Air Force)
16- Greg Biffle (American Humane Society)
17- Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (Country Music Television)
99- David Reutimann (Scott's, Office Depot)
Daughterty-Nance Racing Toyota Supra Talladega
Tires: Goodyear
11- Denny Hamlin (Federal Express)
18- Kasey Kahne (Interstate Batteries, Cartoon Network)
20- Jeff Burton (Home Depot, Re-Elect Huntsman 2012, Coach K Collection by Nike)
35- Parker Kligerman (Tabasco, Activision)
Bouchard AutoMall Racing Chevrolet Chevelle SS
Tires: Hoosier
46- Kevin LePage (Gorton's)
47- Joey Logano (GameStop, MadCatz)
Neme-Tech Florida Toyota Supra Talladega
Tires: Hoosier
13- Todd Bodine (Toyota Racing Development, Citgo)
87- Joe Nemechek (Toyota Racing Development, SunBank Florida)
Bud Moore-Suomi Sports South Ford Fusion SVT
Tires: BF Goodrich
15- Michael Cherry (Sean Jean, Beats by Dre)
95- Markus Palttala (K-Plussa America)
Wood Brothers-Silver Fox Racing Ford Fusion SVT
Tires: Goodyear
00- Cole Whitt (Purolator, Chattanooga Chew)
21- Trevor Bayne (Purolator, Ford Motorcraft)
SABCO-Sabates South Florida Motorsports Chevrolet Chevelle SS
Tires: Hoosier
42- Aric Almirola (Target, IWX)
52- Mike Bliss (Target, IWX)
Fittipaldi Automotive powered by Red Bull Toyota Supra Talladega
Tires: Goodyear
53- Airton Dare (Varig, Ethanol Brazil, Red Bull)
82- J.R. Fitzpatrick (Red Bull)
83- Andy Lally (Red Bull)
Junior Johnson Racing Enterprises Chevrolet Chevelle SS
Tires: Hoosier
12- David Stremme (Service Merchandise)
32- Brian Vickers (RailSouth)
98- Reed Sorensen (RCA)
A.J. Foyt Team Coyote Chevrolet Chevelle SS
Tires: Goodyear
14- Bobby Labonte (Texas Instruments)
51- Cale Gale (Phillips 66)
Sterling Marlin Motorsports Dodge Matador R/T
Tires: BF Goodrich
4- Sterling Marlin (Coors Light, Kodak HD, Dodge)
40- Justin Allgaier (Coors Light, Bally-Midway, Dodge)
54- Brian Keselowski (Coors Light, Michigan Dodge Dealers)
AAR Team Curly Wurly America Ford Fusion SVT
Tires: Goodyear
34- George Mack (Curly Wurly, Snoop Dogg Productions)
67- Jason Watt (Curly Wurly, Designs by Derek B)
Tecate Team Fernandez Ford Fusion SVT
Tires: Hoosier
19- German Quiroga (Pemex, Televisa, Corona)
39- Carlos Pardo (Pemex, Televisa, Corona)
Moise-Robertson RaceGirl Motorsports Dodge Matador R/T
Tires: Hoosier
92- Jennifer Jo Cobb (RaceGirl by Victoria's Secret, Pink, Crystal Light)
94- Tina Gordon (RaceGirl by Victoria's Secret, Golden Corral)
Petree-Hamilton Motorsports Chevrolet Chevelle SS
Tires: Hoosier
55- Bobby Hamilton Jr. (Ponderosa Steakhouse)
75- Casey Atwood (Marathon Oil)
76- Bobby Hamilton Sr. (Benny Parsons Cancer Research Fund)
2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Schedule
1)February 26: Daytona 500 presented by STP
Daytona International Speedway
2) March 4: Sony Sprint Cup on the Strip 400
Las Vegas Motor Speedway
3) March 11: Gibson Music City 400
Nashville Superspeedway
4) March 18: Goody's Fast-Actin' Powder 500
Bristol Motor Speedway
5) March 25: Beringer Wine Country 300
Infineon Raceway
6) April 1: Mattel Intellivision HD 500
California Speedway
7) April 14: Lone Star Steakhouse 500
Texas Motor Speedway
8) April 22: Sunflower State 400 presented by General Foods
Kansas Speedway
9) April 28: Richmond 400 powered by the Burton Presevation Fund
Richmond International Raceway
10) May 6: Aaron's Rent 499
Talladega Superspeedway
11) May 12: Chik Fil'A 500
Atlanta Motor Speedway
12) May 27: Auto Train World 600
Charlotte Motor Speedway
13) June 3 : MBNA Monster Mash 300
Dover International Speedway
14) June 10: Pocono 500
Pocono Raceway
15) June 17: Chrysler American Motors Michigan 400
Michigan International Speedway
16) June 24: Wisconsin Real Cheese 300
Road America
17) June 30: Wild Turkey That's Kentucky 400
Kentucky Speedway
18) July 7: Firecracker 400 powered by Boeing
Daytona International Speedway
19) July 15: New England Yankee 300 presented by Lenox Tools
New Hampshire Motor Speedway
20) July 29: Worldwide Pants Brickyard 400 presented by Eli Lilly Co.
Indianapolis Motor Speedway
21) August 5: Rent Ruan Hawkeye 400
Iowa Speedway
22) August 12: Gamestop at the Glen
Watkins Glen International
23) August 19: UAW Workin' Hard For America 400
Michigan International Speedway
24) August 25: Goody's Dang It Hurts Powder 500
Bristol Motor Speedway
25) September 2: Mountain Dew Southern 500 presented by the Waffle House
Darlington Raceway
26) September 8: Chevrolet Last Chance 400
Richmond International Raceway
Chase for the Championship
27)September 16: Sears Windy City 400
Chicagoland Speedway
28) September 23: Sylvania Chowder In The Chase 300
New Hampshire Motor Speedway
29) September 30: MBNA Chase Monster 300
Dover International Speedway
30) October 7: Electronic Arts 500
Talladega Superspeedway
31) October 13: Auto Train Autumn 500
Charlotte Motor Speedway
32) October 21: Citibank New York 300
Bridgehampton Raceway
33) October 28: Sharpie Chase for the Clock 500
Martinsville Speedway
34) November 4: A.J. Foyt NASCAR Texas 400
Texas Motor Speedway
35) November 11: Toyota Valley of the Sun 400
Phoenix International Raceway
36) November 18: Ford Championship 400
Homestead-Miami Speedway
NASCAR Champions
GRAND NATIONAL ERA
1949 Red Byron (USA) Parks Oldsmobile
1950 Bill Rexford (USA) Buesink Oldsmobile
1951 Herb Thomas (USA) Thomas Hudson
1952 Tim Flock (USA) Blackburn Hudson
1953 Herb Thomas (USA) Nash-Kelvenator Hudson
1954 Lee Petty (USA) Petty Enterprises Hudson (1)
1955 Tim Flock (USA) Kiekhaefer Chrysler
1956 Buck Baker (USA) Kiekhaefer Chrysler
1957 Buck Baker (USA) Baker Ford
1958 Lee Petty (USA) Petty Enterprises Chevrolet
1959 Lee Petty (USA) Petty Enterprises Chevrolet
1960 Lee Petty (USA) Petty Enterprises Plymouth
1961 Joe Weatherly (USA) Bud Moore Pontiac (2)
1962 Joe Weatherly (USA) Bud Moore Pontiac
1963 Joe Weatherly (USA) Bud Moore Pontiac
1964 Joe Weatherly (USA) Bud Moore Pontiac
1965 Ned Jarrett (USA) Bondy Long Ford Galaxy 500 (3)
1966 David Pearson (USA) Cotton Owens Dodge Charger
1967 Richard Petty (USA) Petty Enterprises Plymouth (4)
1968 David Pearson (USA) Holman Moody Ford Torino 500
1969 David Pearson (USA) Holman Moody Ford Torino Talladega
1970 Richard Petty (USA) Petty Enterprises Plymouth Superbird (5)
1971 Richard Petty (USA) Petty Enterprises Plymouth Superbird
WINSTON CUP “MODERN ERA”
1972 Richard Petty (USA) Petty Enterprises Plymouth Satellite
1973 Richard Petty (USA) Petty Enterprises Dodge Charger
1974 Richard Petty (USA) Petty Enterprises Dodge Charger
1975 Bobby Allison (USA) Penske AMC Matador (6)
1976 Dave Marcis (USA) Penske AMC Matador (7)
1977 Cale Yarborough (USA) Junior Johnson Chevrolet Laguna S-3
1978 Bobby Allison (USA) Penske AMC Matador
1979 Richard Petty (USA) Petty Enterprises Chevrolet Monte Carlo (8)
1980 Dale Earnhardt (USA) Rod Osterlund Chevrolet Monte Carlo (9)
1981 Bobby Allison (USA) Harry Reiner Pontiac LeMans
1982 Darrell Waltrip (USA) Junior Johnson Buick Regal
1983 Tim Richmond (USA) DieGard Oldsmobile 442
1984 Darrell Waltrip (USA) Junior Johnson Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS (10)
1985 Bill Elliott (USA) Melling Ford Thunderbird (11)
1986 Dale Earnhardt (USA) RCR Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS
1987 Dale Earnhardt (USA) RCR Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS
1988 Tim Richmond (USA) Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS (12)
1989 Tim Richmond (USA) Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Chevelle SS
1990 Dale Earnhardt (USA) RCR Chevrolet Chevelle SS
1991 Tim Richmond (USA) Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Chevelle SS
1992 Alan Kulwicki (USA) Alan Kulwicki Ford (13)
1993 Davey Allison (USA) Yates-Kulwicki-Allison Racing Ford (14)
1994 Davey Allison (USA) Yates-Kulwicki-Allison Racing Ford (15)
1995 Mark Martin (USA) Roush Engineering Ford (16)
1996 Tim Richmond (USA) Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS (17)
1997 Ricky Craven (USA) Petty Enterprises Dodge Matador (18)
1998 Mark Martin (USA) Roush Engineering Ford Thunderbird
1999 Dale Jarrett (USA) Daugherty-Nance Racing Pontiac Grand Prix
2000 Alan Kulwicki (USA) Yates-Kulwicki-Allison Racing Ford Thunderbird
2001 Dale Earnhardt (USA) Childress-Earnhardt Racing Chevrolet Monte Carlo (19)
2002 Adam Petty (USA) Petty Enterprises Dodge Matador (20)
2003 Matt Kenseth (USA) Yates-Kulwicki-Allison Racing Ford Taurus Talladega
NASCAR NEXTEL/SPRINT CUP CHASE FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP
2004 Dale Earnhardt Jr. (USA) Childress-Earnhardt Racing Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS (21)
2005 Rusty Wallace (USA) Roger Penske Dodge Matador (22)
2006 Jimmie Johnson (USA) Gordon-Evernham Racing Ford Fusion SVT (23)
2007 Adam Petty (USA) Petty Enterprises Dodge Matador
2008 Greg Biffle (USA) Roush Engineering Ford Fusion SVT (24)
2009 Dale Earnhardt Jr. (USA) Childress-Earnhardt Racing Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS (25)
2010 Adam Petty (USA) Petty Enterprises Dodge (26)
2011 Carl Edwards (USA) Yates-Kulwicki-Allison Racing Ford (27)
"Good morning from Daytona Beach. From our studios at Daytona USA Theme Park along beautiful International Speedway Boulevard this is Racin' Radio powered by Auto Train..I'm John Kernan...Today,a big show for you...with the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Nationwide, Trucks and Dash Series haulers beginning to pile into Daytona International Speedway. Another round of testing this weekend here at the World's Center of Speed.
This morning on the show we'll have Brad Keselowski, who quite a few people think be the Sprint Cup Champ in 2012. Former NASCAR Cup Series Champion Ricky Craven will join us as our Thursday Insider, NASCAR Chief Competition Director Mike Helton will come in to talk rule changes and we also have the Mattel Intellivision HD IndyCar Mash Up with Marlo Klain. That and more to come...
But first, in case you don't know who is who in the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, we brought in a special guest to tell you.
ESPN's Allan Bestwick will take you through who is who in 2012!
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series 2012 Teams
Drivers who are entered in the Daytona 500 only.
Childress-Earnhardt Racing Chevrolet Chevelle SS (primary sponsor)
Tires: Goodyear
1 – Martin Truex Jr. (Napa Auto Parts)
3 – Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Mountain Dew)
8 -- Austin Dillon (Snickers)
29 – Kevin Harvick (AC Delco)
Yates-Allison-Kulwicki Racing Ford Fusion SVT
Tires: Goodyear
7 – Matt Kenseth (Dewalt Tools, Wisconsin Real Cheese, Texaco Havoline)
28 – Jamie McMurray (Express, Texaco Havoline)
88 – Carl Edwards (Aflac, Price Chopper, Texaco Havoline)
Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Chevelle SS
Tires: Goodyear
5- Kyle Larson (Mattel Intellivision HD, Kellogg's Frosted Flakes)
25- Paul Menard (Krogers-Superconfex, Menard's)
50- Ryan Truex (GoPro Video)
80- Mark Skaife (Holden SVT, Brock Automotive, GoPro Video)
Gordon-Evernham Racing Ford Fusion SVT
Tires: Goodyear
10- Erin Crocker (Valvoline)
24- Scott Wimmer (Pepsi, Drakkar Noir)
48- Jimmie Johnson (Lowe's Home Improvement, Oakley)
01- Vanina Ickx (Nicola's Knicker Drawer, Kelemata, Godiva Chocolates, Lella's Race Against Cancer)
No Fear Raceworks Ford Fusion SVT
Tires: Goodyear
9- Marcos Ambrose (Stanley, Supercheap International, Lauren Jackson Design, No Fear)
69- Ricky Carmichael ( Rockstar)
59- Jamie Whincup (Rockstar, Quantas, Irwin Tools)
Penske Racing South Dodge Matador R/T
Tires: Goodyear
2- Brad Keselowski (Miller Lite)
22- Ryan Newman (Pennzoil, Sony HD/3D)
66- Brendan Gaughan (AnswerWear, Penske United Auto)
Petty Enterprises Dodge Matador R/T
Tires: Goodyear
43- Adam Petty (STP, Atari SuperArcade)
44- Jeremy Mayfield (STP, Lumber Liquidators)
45- Elliott Sadler (STP, Tracker Boats, Morgan Shepherd Ministries)
Roush Engineering Ford Fusion SVT
Tires: Goodyear
6- Mark Martin (U.S. Air Force)
16- Greg Biffle (American Humane Society)
17- Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (Country Music Television)
99- David Reutimann (Scott's, Office Depot)
Daughterty-Nance Racing Toyota Supra Talladega
Tires: Goodyear
11- Denny Hamlin (Federal Express)
18- Kasey Kahne (Interstate Batteries, Cartoon Network)
20- Jeff Burton (Home Depot, Re-Elect Huntsman 2012, Coach K Collection by Nike)
35- Parker Kligerman (Tabasco, Activision)
Bouchard AutoMall Racing Chevrolet Chevelle SS
Tires: Hoosier
46- Kevin LePage (Gorton's)
47- Joey Logano (GameStop, MadCatz)
Neme-Tech Florida Toyota Supra Talladega
Tires: Hoosier
13- Todd Bodine (Toyota Racing Development, Citgo)
87- Joe Nemechek (Toyota Racing Development, SunBank Florida)
Bud Moore-Suomi Sports South Ford Fusion SVT
Tires: BF Goodrich
15- Michael Cherry (Sean Jean, Beats by Dre)
95- Markus Palttala (K-Plussa America)
Wood Brothers-Silver Fox Racing Ford Fusion SVT
Tires: Goodyear
00- Cole Whitt (Purolator, Chattanooga Chew)
21- Trevor Bayne (Purolator, Ford Motorcraft)
SABCO-Sabates South Florida Motorsports Chevrolet Chevelle SS
Tires: Hoosier
42- Aric Almirola (Target, IWX)
52- Mike Bliss (Target, IWX)
Fittipaldi Automotive powered by Red Bull Toyota Supra Talladega
Tires: Goodyear
53- Airton Dare (Varig, Ethanol Brazil, Red Bull)
82- J.R. Fitzpatrick (Red Bull)
83- Andy Lally (Red Bull)
Junior Johnson Racing Enterprises Chevrolet Chevelle SS
Tires: Hoosier
12- David Stremme (Service Merchandise)
32- Brian Vickers (RailSouth)
98- Reed Sorensen (RCA)
A.J. Foyt Team Coyote Chevrolet Chevelle SS
Tires: Goodyear
14- Bobby Labonte (Texas Instruments)
51- Cale Gale (Phillips 66)
Sterling Marlin Motorsports Dodge Matador R/T
Tires: BF Goodrich
4- Sterling Marlin (Coors Light, Kodak HD, Dodge)
40- Justin Allgaier (Coors Light, Bally-Midway, Dodge)
54- Brian Keselowski (Coors Light, Michigan Dodge Dealers)
AAR Team Curly Wurly America Ford Fusion SVT
Tires: Goodyear
34- George Mack (Curly Wurly, Snoop Dogg Productions)
67- Jason Watt (Curly Wurly, Designs by Derek B)
Tecate Team Fernandez Ford Fusion SVT
Tires: Hoosier
19- German Quiroga (Pemex, Televisa, Corona)
39- Carlos Pardo (Pemex, Televisa, Corona)
Moise-Robertson RaceGirl Motorsports Dodge Matador R/T
Tires: Hoosier
92- Jennifer Jo Cobb (RaceGirl by Victoria's Secret, Pink, Crystal Light)
94- Tina Gordon (RaceGirl by Victoria's Secret, Golden Corral)
Petree-Hamilton Motorsports Chevrolet Chevelle SS
Tires: Hoosier
55- Bobby Hamilton Jr. (Ponderosa Steakhouse)
75- Casey Atwood (Marathon Oil)
76- Bobby Hamilton Sr. (Benny Parsons Cancer Research Fund)
2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Schedule
1)February 26: Daytona 500 presented by STP
Daytona International Speedway
2) March 4: Sony Sprint Cup on the Strip 400
Las Vegas Motor Speedway
3) March 11: Gibson Music City 400
Nashville Superspeedway
4) March 18: Goody's Fast-Actin' Powder 500
Bristol Motor Speedway
5) March 25: Beringer Wine Country 300
Infineon Raceway
6) April 1: Mattel Intellivision HD 500
California Speedway
7) April 14: Lone Star Steakhouse 500
Texas Motor Speedway
8) April 22: Sunflower State 400 presented by General Foods
Kansas Speedway
9) April 28: Richmond 400 powered by the Burton Presevation Fund
Richmond International Raceway
10) May 6: Aaron's Rent 499
Talladega Superspeedway
11) May 12: Chik Fil'A 500
Atlanta Motor Speedway
12) May 27: Auto Train World 600
Charlotte Motor Speedway
13) June 3 : MBNA Monster Mash 300
Dover International Speedway
14) June 10: Pocono 500
Pocono Raceway
15) June 17: Chrysler American Motors Michigan 400
Michigan International Speedway
16) June 24: Wisconsin Real Cheese 300
Road America
17) June 30: Wild Turkey That's Kentucky 400
Kentucky Speedway
18) July 7: Firecracker 400 powered by Boeing
Daytona International Speedway
19) July 15: New England Yankee 300 presented by Lenox Tools
New Hampshire Motor Speedway
20) July 29: Worldwide Pants Brickyard 400 presented by Eli Lilly Co.
Indianapolis Motor Speedway
21) August 5: Rent Ruan Hawkeye 400
Iowa Speedway
22) August 12: Gamestop at the Glen
Watkins Glen International
23) August 19: UAW Workin' Hard For America 400
Michigan International Speedway
24) August 25: Goody's Dang It Hurts Powder 500
Bristol Motor Speedway
25) September 2: Mountain Dew Southern 500 presented by the Waffle House
Darlington Raceway
26) September 8: Chevrolet Last Chance 400
Richmond International Raceway
Chase for the Championship
27)September 16: Sears Windy City 400
Chicagoland Speedway
28) September 23: Sylvania Chowder In The Chase 300
New Hampshire Motor Speedway
29) September 30: MBNA Chase Monster 300
Dover International Speedway
30) October 7: Electronic Arts 500
Talladega Superspeedway
31) October 13: Auto Train Autumn 500
Charlotte Motor Speedway
32) October 21: Citibank New York 300
Bridgehampton Raceway
33) October 28: Sharpie Chase for the Clock 500
Martinsville Speedway
34) November 4: A.J. Foyt NASCAR Texas 400
Texas Motor Speedway
35) November 11: Toyota Valley of the Sun 400
Phoenix International Raceway
36) November 18: Ford Championship 400
Homestead-Miami Speedway
NASCAR Champions
GRAND NATIONAL ERA
1949 Red Byron (USA) Parks Oldsmobile
1950 Bill Rexford (USA) Buesink Oldsmobile
1951 Herb Thomas (USA) Thomas Hudson
1952 Tim Flock (USA) Blackburn Hudson
1953 Herb Thomas (USA) Nash-Kelvenator Hudson
1954 Lee Petty (USA) Petty Enterprises Hudson (1)
1955 Tim Flock (USA) Kiekhaefer Chrysler
1956 Buck Baker (USA) Kiekhaefer Chrysler
1957 Buck Baker (USA) Baker Ford
1958 Lee Petty (USA) Petty Enterprises Chevrolet
1959 Lee Petty (USA) Petty Enterprises Chevrolet
1960 Lee Petty (USA) Petty Enterprises Plymouth
1961 Joe Weatherly (USA) Bud Moore Pontiac (2)
1962 Joe Weatherly (USA) Bud Moore Pontiac
1963 Joe Weatherly (USA) Bud Moore Pontiac
1964 Joe Weatherly (USA) Bud Moore Pontiac
1965 Ned Jarrett (USA) Bondy Long Ford Galaxy 500 (3)
1966 David Pearson (USA) Cotton Owens Dodge Charger
1967 Richard Petty (USA) Petty Enterprises Plymouth (4)
1968 David Pearson (USA) Holman Moody Ford Torino 500
1969 David Pearson (USA) Holman Moody Ford Torino Talladega
1970 Richard Petty (USA) Petty Enterprises Plymouth Superbird (5)
1971 Richard Petty (USA) Petty Enterprises Plymouth Superbird
WINSTON CUP “MODERN ERA”
1972 Richard Petty (USA) Petty Enterprises Plymouth Satellite
1973 Richard Petty (USA) Petty Enterprises Dodge Charger
1974 Richard Petty (USA) Petty Enterprises Dodge Charger
1975 Bobby Allison (USA) Penske AMC Matador (6)
1976 Dave Marcis (USA) Penske AMC Matador (7)
1977 Cale Yarborough (USA) Junior Johnson Chevrolet Laguna S-3
1978 Bobby Allison (USA) Penske AMC Matador
1979 Richard Petty (USA) Petty Enterprises Chevrolet Monte Carlo (8)
1980 Dale Earnhardt (USA) Rod Osterlund Chevrolet Monte Carlo (9)
1981 Bobby Allison (USA) Harry Reiner Pontiac LeMans
1982 Darrell Waltrip (USA) Junior Johnson Buick Regal
1983 Tim Richmond (USA) DieGard Oldsmobile 442
1984 Darrell Waltrip (USA) Junior Johnson Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS (10)
1985 Bill Elliott (USA) Melling Ford Thunderbird (11)
1986 Dale Earnhardt (USA) RCR Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS
1987 Dale Earnhardt (USA) RCR Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS
1988 Tim Richmond (USA) Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS (12)
1989 Tim Richmond (USA) Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Chevelle SS
1990 Dale Earnhardt (USA) RCR Chevrolet Chevelle SS
1991 Tim Richmond (USA) Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Chevelle SS
1992 Alan Kulwicki (USA) Alan Kulwicki Ford (13)
1993 Davey Allison (USA) Yates-Kulwicki-Allison Racing Ford (14)
1994 Davey Allison (USA) Yates-Kulwicki-Allison Racing Ford (15)
1995 Mark Martin (USA) Roush Engineering Ford (16)
1996 Tim Richmond (USA) Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS (17)
1997 Ricky Craven (USA) Petty Enterprises Dodge Matador (18)
1998 Mark Martin (USA) Roush Engineering Ford Thunderbird
1999 Dale Jarrett (USA) Daugherty-Nance Racing Pontiac Grand Prix
2000 Alan Kulwicki (USA) Yates-Kulwicki-Allison Racing Ford Thunderbird
2001 Dale Earnhardt (USA) Childress-Earnhardt Racing Chevrolet Monte Carlo (19)
2002 Adam Petty (USA) Petty Enterprises Dodge Matador (20)
2003 Matt Kenseth (USA) Yates-Kulwicki-Allison Racing Ford Taurus Talladega
NASCAR NEXTEL/SPRINT CUP CHASE FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP
2004 Dale Earnhardt Jr. (USA) Childress-Earnhardt Racing Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS (21)
2005 Rusty Wallace (USA) Roger Penske Dodge Matador (22)
2006 Jimmie Johnson (USA) Gordon-Evernham Racing Ford Fusion SVT (23)
2007 Adam Petty (USA) Petty Enterprises Dodge Matador
2008 Greg Biffle (USA) Roush Engineering Ford Fusion SVT (24)
2009 Dale Earnhardt Jr. (USA) Childress-Earnhardt Racing Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS (25)
2010 Adam Petty (USA) Petty Enterprises Dodge (26)
2011 Carl Edwards (USA) Yates-Kulwicki-Allison Racing Ford (27)
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NASCAR points system
NASCAR points system used in all series.
The winner of each race receives 43 points. All other drivers will be separated by one-point increments—42 points for second, 41 for third, and so on.
The winner also receives 3 bonus points.
Single bonus points are also awarded for leading a lap and for leading the most laps.
The Pole Sitter also receives 1 point.
The leader at half also receives 1 point.
The points system is the same for both driver's and owner's standings.
Manufacturer points system: The winning car earns that manufacturer 9 points. The second-highest manufacturer receives 6 points. The third-highest manufacturer receives 4 points. The fourth-highest manufacturer receives 3 points.
Tire brand points system: The winning car earns that tire brand 9 points. The second-highest tire brand receives 6 points. The third-highest tire brand receives 4 points.
NASCAR points system used in all series.
The winner of each race receives 43 points. All other drivers will be separated by one-point increments—42 points for second, 41 for third, and so on.
The winner also receives 3 bonus points.
Single bonus points are also awarded for leading a lap and for leading the most laps.
The Pole Sitter also receives 1 point.
The leader at half also receives 1 point.
The points system is the same for both driver's and owner's standings.
Manufacturer points system: The winning car earns that manufacturer 9 points. The second-highest manufacturer receives 6 points. The third-highest manufacturer receives 4 points. The fourth-highest manufacturer receives 3 points.
Tire brand points system: The winning car earns that tire brand 9 points. The second-highest tire brand receives 6 points. The third-highest tire brand receives 4 points.