Memorial Day Weekend at the Races

                                                                            “History 300”


Written by Rick A. Talford                                                                                                                 NASCAR Enthusiast

CONCORD, NORTH CAROLINA- The Nationwide Series ran their 10th race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. Austin Dillon (3) was able to beat Kyle Busch (54) for the pole position. They raced 200 laps on the 1.5 mile track. Michael Annett returns to racing after being out since Daytona, with a sternum injury that happened with just three laps remaining in the race.

In Opening Ceremonies, A moment of silence was held for those impacted in Oklahoma. Nick Terry provided the Invocation. Kolby Garrison sang the National Anthem. TV Show Hosts Danny Koker and Kevin Mack was the Grand Marshall’s. Regan Smith (7) was the In-Race Reporter.

A few Cup drivers were running double duty: Kasey Kahne (5), Kevin Harvick (33), Kyle Busch (54), Matt Kenseth (18) and Joey Lagono (22).

Austin Dillon (3) led the first lap. On lap 9, Chris Buescher (16) tagged the wall and had to head to the pits.

On lap 45, the second caution flew when Robert Richardson (23) was touched and hit the wall. Johanna Long (70) also spun trying to get past Richardson.

On lap 87, the third caution flew for debris. 25 cars remained on the lead lap for the restart. On lap 153, another caution came out for debris. 18 cars are left on the lead lap.

On lap 167, Travis Pastrana (60) lost the rear grip of his car coming out of the corner. His car snapped sideways and ran nose first in the inside wall. John Wes Townley (25) and Joe Nemechek (87) also had some damage. Nemechek tried to get past the stopped car of Pastrana and clipped his rear corner, damaging his own race car.

On lap 178, Reed Sorenson (40) blew an engine and spun out. On lap 183, Dakota Armstrong (21) was spun into the wall during the restart. Michael Annett (43) was the driver that caused the wreck.

Kyle Busch was able to get away from Kasey Kahne for the win. He led all but 14 laps of the race for his 7th win at the track in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.

The rest of the top ten were: Joey Lagono (22), Kyle Larsen (32), Kevin Harvick (33), Trevor Bayne (6), Justin Allgaier (31), Matt Kenseth (18), Regan Smith (7) and Parker Kligerman (77)

The next race will be on Saturday, at Dover on ESPN at 2 PM EST





                                                                 “Indianapolis 500”

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA- The 97th running of the Indy 500 was scheduled to run May 26, 2013. Dario Franchitti and Helio Castronevez both would be trying to win their record fourth Indy 500 race. They would be attempting to match Foyt, Mears and Unser with four each. Ed Carpenter won the pole position for this race. The fastest qualifying lap was in 1996, with a speed of 237.498 mph. The Andretti Family will again race in the 500. 1969 Mario won the race, and in 67 other starts they have not returned to Indy Victory Lane. In 1974, Mario and Jeff Andretti both crashed and Michael was within 10 laps of winning and his engine failed. In 2006 Marco was poised to win with less than 1000 feet left to race, when Sam Hornish Jr. was able to slingshot around him and get to the line just ahead of him. Dario Franchitti is last year’s winner, after Takuma Sato crashed on this final lap. Between teammates Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti, the Target drivers have won three of the last five Indy 500 races. Tony Kanaan has been a well known driver who has come very close to winning this race, numerous times. “Crazy” Carl Fisher was the creator of this famous Superspeedway. The pace car was driven by 49ers coach, Jim Harbough. He drove the 2013 Corvette Stingray. Jim Neighbors sang “Back Home in Indiana” before the race started. He has done so, since 1972. Sandi Patty sang the National Anthem.

Local driver and pole setter Ed Carpenter (20) was able to stay the leader for this first lap. On lap 4, JR Hildebrand (4) crashed as he lost the rear of the car, coming out of the turn. On lap 10, Tony Kanaan (11) led a lap for the ninth straight Indy 500 race. Marco Andretti (26) was another strong car in the race.

On lap 36, Sabastian Saaverda (6) had crashed after being forced to make a move due to another car in his way. Saaverda wanted penalties to be levied for his accident.

On lap 59, Takura Sato (14) had a spin out that led to a third caution in the race. He did not damage his car, and was able to continue on after they restarted his race car. The race ran green for quite a long time after this spin. Last year’s Champion Ryan Hunter-Raey (1) had taken the lead on lap 160. There was a report of rain in the area, and everyone began running their hardest, just in case the rain would shorten the race.

On lap 179, Sabastian Bourdais (7) was going down pit road, when he lost control of his car and crashed against the pit wall. No caution was thrown, as he continued to his pit. Pit road speed was set at 60 mph.

On lap 193, Graham Rahal (15) had a crash, after he lost control coming out of a turn and slammed into the inside wall. On lap 197, after a restart for the fourth caution, Dario Franchitti (10) ran into the outside wall. This brought out the caution for the fifth time. They would not go back to green. Tony Kanaan was able to get to the front on that restart, and went on to win the race for the first time in twelve starts at the famous track. Rookie Driver Carlos Munoz (25) was able to bring home a second place finish, with Ryan Hunter-Raey taking third. Andretti racing finished second, third and fourth.

The rest of the top ten were: Marco Andretti (25), Justin Wilson (19), Helio Castroneves (3), AJ Allmendinger (2), Simon Pagenaud (77), Charlie Kimball (83) and Ed Carpenter (20).

The Average race speed was between 218-220 mph. There were 68 lead changes among 14 drivers. The Average speed of the race was 187.4 mph. These were all new records set in the new cars they have brought to the track this year.



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                                                           “Coca-Cola 600”

CONCORD, NORTH CAROLINA-The Charlotte Motor Speedway is the site for this weekend’s Memorial Day Race. The Coca-Cola 600 is the longest race in the NASCAR Series. This week in NASCAR, Dale Jarrett, Fireball Roberts, Tim Flock, Maurice Petty and Jack Ingram were selected to enter the NASCAR Hall of Fame in January. The Pole Position was won by Denny Hamlin (11) with Kurt Busch (78) starting second.

In Opening Ceremonies, Willie Robertson “Duck Dynasty” provided the Invocation. Amazing Grace was played by Scottish Bag Pipe players. Taps was then played by a US Soldier. Robin Meade sang the National Anthem. The Grand Marshalls for the Race were Sgt. First Class Aaron & Kat Causey and Alan Reyes. The In-Race Reporter was Clint Bowyer (15).

Danica Patrick (10), Trevor Bayne (21) and Joe Nemecheck (87) will start from the back, due to engine changes. 400 Laps will equal the 600 miles that are scheduled to be raced.

On lap 24, Kasey Kahne (5) took the lead. Trevor Bayne was forced to make a green flag stop due to paper getting caught in the grill. The car began to overheat, so they stopped near lap 30. Green flag stops began near lap 45. Casey Mears (13) and David Ragan (34) both were penalized for speeding on pit road.

On lap 69, debris brought out the first caution. 26 cars are left on the lead lap. On the restart Kyle Busch (18) got to the line before Kasey Kahne, the race leader, yet NASCAR did not penalize him as they should have. After just a few laps, Kahne took the lead back. In the first 100 laps, Kahne, Busch and Matt Kenseth (20) were the fastest cars on track.

On lap 114, Casey Mears (13) tagged the wall. This brought out the second caution of the race. Kahne lost three spots during the pit stop, and Kurt Busch lost six spots. 24 lead lap cars are left at this point.

On lap 122, a debris caution flew again. A beer can in a cooler and a Coke bottle were both thrown out on the track. A chunk of fiber rope, from the FOX overhead camera system was also on the track. Marcus Ambrose (9) had a chunk of it get caught under his car, and had to go into the pits to get it removed.

At lap 126, a “Red Flag” was thrown due to the fiber rope. Kyle Busch (18) also received some damage from the rope that fell onto the track. The camera drive, fiber rope that runs the camera back and forth was the one that broke. The support cable was not harmed. During this red flag, Busch got out of his car and was walking around looking at the damage to his car. He went to his pit stall and got a camera to take pictures of the damage. No other driver got out of their cars. Ambrose was already stopped in his pit box.

NASCAR held the red flag conditions, as they sent all the cars to the pit road for a fifteen minute repair time for all cars. Everyone will get their positions back due to this fiber rope causing the issues. The taking of pictures for the pit crew to react upon, should have been looked at, as a penalty. You can’t do anything while under the red flag, yet this was allowed by Busch for some reason. Nearly 40 minutes of a delay was created by the fiber rope. Twenty-five cars are on the lead lap at this point. They restarted at lap 131. After the yellow was lifted, Matt Kenseth (20) became the dominant car. The top three cars were still Kenseth, Kahne and Busch.

On lap 243, another debris caution flew. Again, the debris was not shown to the viewers. As a fan of NASCAR, I call these “Phantom Debris Cautions” that are usually called, when the leader gets too much of a lead. Kenseth had over a six second lead when the caution was thrown.

On lap 257, Kyle Busch started losing the engine on his race car. On lap 258, the fifth caution came out when Greg Biffle (16), Dave Blaney (7), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (88) and Travis Kvapil (93) were involved in a crash. Earnhardt Jr. had an engine issue (head broke) that started the crash for the other three cars. Everyone but the leader (Kenseth) made pit stops. Crew Chief Jason Radcliff apparently made the mistake of telling Matt to stay out.

On lap 304, a caution flew for debris on the track. Kenseth was very upset at this caution, as he told his pit crew that it was a teeny piece of rubber the size of a hand, down on the apron of the track. Just eight laps later, another caution (7th) came out for Landon Cassill (33) slapping the wall.

On lap 325, during the restart another caution came out for a crash involving Mark Martin (55), Aric Almirola (43), Jeff Gordon (24), Casey Mears (13) and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (17). This led to the second “Red Flag” of the race, so they could clean up from the destroyed cars. On lap 328, Danica Patrick (10) was clipped and turned sideways into Brad Keselowski (2) by her boyfriend and rookie Stenhouse Jr., crashing both cars.

On lap 333, Jimmie Johnson (48) lost the rear grip of his car, and slid sideways off the track. As he was sliding, Juan Montoya (42), Matt Kenseth (20), Tony Stewart (14) and Paul Menard (27) all received minor damages. With sixteen laps to go, the eleventh caution flew when the rear panel fell off Johnson’s car.

Kevin Harvick was not a dominant driver in the race, but they call him the “Closer” for a good reason, Harvick was where he needed to be when it counted the most. He was able to out run Kasey Kahne for his second victory of the season, and his second win in the Coca-Cola 600.

The rest of the top ten were: Kurt Busch (78), Denny Hamlin (11), Joey Lagono (22), Ryan Newman (39), Tony Stewart (14), Clint Bowyer (15), Ryan Truex Jr. (56) and Marcus Ambrose (9). The race took 5 hours and 14 minutes to complete.

Next race is Sunday at Dover for the FedEx 400.