From Racedriven – Win a $25 BP Gas card photography Contest.

I’m sure most of us have seen the every changing gas prices daily over the past several months including hitting $4 for a gallon for gasoline at one point this year, so thanks to M80 on behalf of BP, I am running an automotive photography contest with each winner receiving one $25 BP Gift Cards.

I love photography and while I am out and about, I like to take a couple of automotive photos of cars that look cool, where ever its safe and publish them on my blog whether it’s at an auto show, local car show or in just in a parking lot. People have some of the most interesting vehicles and I love seeing them, so to enter the “Wins a $25 BP Gas card Automotive Photography Contest”, just submit a photo or two taken by you (the submitter) of a car, vehicle, something interesting or cool while you are out and about in the United States (for example a Smart car, a Dodge Challenger HEMI, a Camaro, even your own car) and include a brief description including what it is and where you found it, (please follow the rules below in submitting) for a chance to a chance to win a $25 BP Gift card. I will publish the winning entries with first name only and description on my blog.

To enter the contest all you have to do is go to Racedriven.com for full details.

 

Could NASCAR’s penalty on Martin Truex Jr. cost Truex Jr. a shot at the Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship.

Last Thursday at Daytona International Speedway, the headline even before the first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice session was that Martin Truex Jr.’s #1 DEI Chevy was taken by NASCAR because the COT templates didn’t fit his roof correctly, which as a result sent him to a backup car. Oh boy that’s big in the penalty department and it was as on Tuesday as Martin Truex Jr. found out that he and his owner DEI was penalized 150 driver and 150 owner points, both the crew chief and the car chief suspended for six races and Manion was fined $100,000 (From NASCAR PR),

That penalty is right in line with what NASCAR had handed down earlier this season with the two Haas-CNC Racing cars. Personally though, first, I really don’t understand why for the second time NASCAR has to hand down a penalty of 150 driver and owner points penalty, when 100 driver and 100 owner points was enough last year and second, with being docked 150 driver points in my opinion, this will most likely keep the #1 of Martin Truex Jr. out of the Chase for the Sprint Cup Series Championship.

Was this penalty fair or would 100 driver and 100 owner points be better?

 

Does Toyota have a mechanical edge over its competition…or is their advantage simply Kyle Busch?

Cross Posted @ Racedriven.com by Brian.

First this question should be reworded with Gibbs Racing and not Toyota, in the Cup series (and in the Nationwide Series), its Gibbs Racing that is making the headlines and not the other Toyota teams, Gibbs is the only team that is not just winning, but dominating and pulling away from the field on any given week and while I will give Kyle Busch credit of being a driver that can handle just about any racecar even when it’s extremely loose, this is more than just one skilled or daring driver, in my opinion Toyota/Gibbs Racing does have a mechanical edge over its competition plain and simple. NASCAR does have the horsepower numbers to prove it, not to mention what Busch and Hamlin did in the All-Star with those modified engines that blow up in segment two, there is an advantage there period.

At this point, you might be asking, what about Chevrolet last year winning half of the races, well, in most cases, Chevrolet didn’t dominate most of the races, they were there when it counted at the end, need an example, the Spring race at Texas, Burton makes late race pass by Kenseth after a long battle to win, how about the Spring Martinsville, the battle between Johnson and Gordon with Johnson winning at the line, no pull away there, third wasn’t that far back or how about the Daytona in July, that wasn’t even a Chevy victory, it was a the Ford of McMurray edging Busch to win (good close racing).

Now on the flip side, last September in New Hampshire was a dominate victory by Clint Bowyer, in most of these examples, it was most of the Chevrolet teams winning (a lot with Hendick Motorsports) and dominating and not just one team like Gibbs this year. Personally, I would like to see NASCAR tear down the #18 after a dominating victory and to make it far, take the rest of the top 5 too.

The question now is, will NASCAR do anything about it or just let it play out?

 

What victory celebration do you to see the most – Burnouts, donuts or???

This is a NASCAR All-Star Race cross-piece from Racedriven

Yeah, we are getting back to that good old Saturday Night shootout under the light’s with this coming weekend’s NASCAR All-Star race which not only includes the Sprint Showdown qualifier race and the Main event, the Sprint All-Star Race with its new four 25 lap segments, but a new element to this year’s All-Star event, during the preshow before the Sprint Showdown, fans will be treated to a Burnout and donut contest. This is something new, normally fans are treated to a burnout, donut or something once a driver wins an event, but not before an event, so this should be interesting considering I’ve never seen a burnout and donut contest before.  

So with the new element of a burnout and donut contest, I ask this question, what victory celebration do you to see the most – Burnouts, donuts or? Keep in mind it can be just about anything from a donut, burnout, a polish victory lap, to Tony Stewart climbing the fence or Carl Edward’s famous back flip.

I personally like a Polish Victory Lap that entails the driver turning his car around and driving in the opposite direction, which is clockwise on a NASCAR track which in most cases includes the driver holding a checkered flag outside the driver’s window. This lets the driver solute the fans in the grandstands and it doesn’t burn up there equipment.  Alan Kulwicki was the first driver to do a “Polish Victory Lap” following the Checker 500 on November 6, 1988 at Phoenix International Raceway. (Info on Polish Victory Lap: Wikipedia.com)

 

Ashley Force wins her first career NHRA victory in Atlanta.

A picture is worth a thousand words and for this Motorsports fan who is also a John Force Racing fan that has been watching John Force for years, this picture of Ashley Force beating her father John Force (who was going for his 1000 career round win on Sunday) on Sunday to grab her first career NHRA Funny Car victory in the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals is amazing. What a great job by Ashley Force who had been to the finals two previous times already this season back at Gainesville and last time out in Houston, now finds herself as the points leader by -59 points, what a victory. Comments.

(Photo Credit: Auto Imagery)

And as always you can check out this story and many more at my blog Racedriven.

 

From the Boston Red Sox at Fenway to NASCAR in Phoenix – what happened last Saturday Night on FOX?

Now let me state the obvious, as you may have noticed, I am a huge NASCAR fan and I blog about it regularly, the word diehard can be used to describe me and when there is a NASCAR (Cup Series mainly) race on, chances are I am either watching it live or at least recording it on my DVR, however what you may not know about me is that I live up here in New England, to be more specific, Massachusetts and I am also a sports fan who enjoys not only watching Football and my favorite team the New England Patriots, but baseball as well and my favorite team just so happens to be the Boston Red Sox which my friend and family got me into watching since I was in high school and granted I don’t watch every game nor do I know the roster or stats by heart, but nonetheless I am a sports fan who enjoys it.

Now I was excited when these two sports came together a couple years ago, first with Dale Jr. running the MLB paint schemes and then with Roush and the Fenway Group joining forces, it was cool see.

With that said, I never would have imagined that the two would come together in such a way as it did last Saturday Night. Basically, the Boston Red Sox vs. there huge rivals the New York Yankees game which is also good to watch went into a rain delay for a couple of hours, the game was televised on FOX and once the game was ready to resume, it was already into the pre-race coverage for the NASCAR Race in Phoenix. At this point, I didn’t care if FOX televised the preshow or not, it was the timing that would become the issue, more importantly when FOX made the switch.

I mean, there it is with the game being televised on both FOX and FX and while NASCAR fans were waiting for the NASCAR coverage, the baseball fans were watching the Red Sox lead the Yankees by 4-3 in the top of the 9th inning with one out at Fenway, the pitch was thrown and… damn the pictures gone and all of the viewers and fans find themselves in Phoenix looking at Ryan Newman let the pack of 42 other drivers coming at you into turn 3, so what happened, did the Sox win… I turned over to the Red Sox game on FX just in time to see the manager and players celebrating the victory over the Yankees.

So what’s the big deal, it’s the way FOX switched from the baseball game to the NASCAR race in Phoenix and keep in mind that NASCAR had pushed back the race 15 minutes to around 8:53pm to help FOX, in the end, the baseball fans didn’t get to see the last two pitches thrown and the Red sox win, nor did the NASCAR fans see the green flag being waved at Phoenix for the Subway 500. So no one got what they want to see, so now the question is, what’s with the last second switch?

At this point, I will say that I have to give it to FOX for at least trying to show the entire game and show the entire race, however there is two better ways to make the switch, first since FOX has to show the entire race, tell the baseball fans that due to the 2hr+ delay, the game has been moved to FX and now we join the Cup Series race in Phoenix 2 minutes before the start or second, if all else fails, show it in a split screen or side-by-side view of the last pitches and the start of the race.

Bottom Line, there’s not really to much to say here, no fans likes to be shut out like that, this shouldn’t have happened this way with a last second switch from the baseball game to the NASCAR, however while I give credit to FOX for trying to get the entire game in and the start of the race in at the same time, one group of fans were going to get hurt and yes I wanted to see if the Red Sox was going to win, nonetheless, the switch some have been made a minute or two before the green flag and that’s it.

So now that the Red Sox game was over and the Red Sox had beating the Yankees 4-3, the Cup Series race in Phoenix was on and what an exciting race it was, it was worth the wait, I don’t know about the races at the 1.5 mile tracks right now, but the Phoenix race was great, lots of passing, side-by-side racing and no lack of contenders going for the victory. At times during the race, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was leading with his past in the rear view mirror to say the least with the #8 Mark Martin stocking him every which way. I had mixed feelings about this if the #8 won, on one hand any times Mark Martin wins is huge, however it’s the #8 DEI winning and this Junior fan still hasn’t forgotten, would I have been cool with it, yeah I would have, past is the past.

But you know, in the late stages of the race, Jimmie Johnson was coming in a hurry, he was one if not the fastest car on track and then the splash for gas for most of the field. Normally a fuel mileage race wouldn’t be interesting, however this was at Phoenix and you could hear Chad Knaus on the radio saying back it way down, give me two seconds a lap, give three seconds a lap, back it way down and in turn three and four, just put it in neutral and coast and what a victory it was for Jimmie Johnson and the #48 Hendrick Motorsports team.

It was a good ending to the race, on one hand you had Jimmie Johnson going for his first victory of the season and in this day in age, victories are hard to come by in the Cup Series and on the other hand you had Clint bowyer saving gas in second, but at the same time the drivers who had stopped were charging hard, you had a race on your hands period. Would it be Johnson, Bowyer or Hamlin winning, good to see it was Johnson this time in victory lane.

- This is a cross-article from my blog, Racedriven