Almost two months ago, I published an article on XSL Speed Reporter examining coverage of the IZOD IndyCar Series from a Canadian perspective. Taking a deep look into the way American network had covered the open wheel racing series, I also couldn't help but to bring up the coverage provided by my courntry's own cable sports network, TSN. Criticial of the station's devotion to motorsports, many Canadian race fans would share my frustations in their choice of programming IndyCar and some NASCAR races.
This Labour day weekend, TSN uttered another non-verbal insult to IZOD IndyCar Series fans by scheduling the 3rd-last race of the 2010 season on the digital cable/satellite only TSN2. Not only is it disappointing the Canadian sports network decided to divert a motorsport event which featured two native drivers (Paul Tracy and Alex Tagliani), the Kentucky Indy 300 was booked on a tape delay so a NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Atlanta can be preferential treatment. While TSN has a very close business relationship with NASCAR, the continuous contempt for the IZOD IndyCar Series is wearing thin on a nation which still remains loyal to open wheel racing.
Instead of providing one live race event, TSN determined a repeat broadcast of the US Open tennis match was more deserving of the primary channel. Of course I expect TSN to favour CFL games but not a tape-delayed tennis match. I could immediately tell it was recorded from earlier in the day because there was still afternoon daylight out when I which on the channel at night. Please don't get me wrong, I have no problems with tennis and the US Open is a major sports event but I'm sure residents in the state of Kentucky and Georgia hold their respected races in just as high esteem.
A couple of months ago, I would have voiced a push for Rogers Sportsnet network to pick up IRL/IZOD IndyCar Series but I've recognized now that this cable sports channel has chosen to copy TSN's ill-executed plan for their own digital channel SportsnetOne. These digital cable channels seem to encourage these sports networks to maintain one-track minds on certain sports to the point of discrimination. Throughout the past few years, I could have at least given some credit to TSN if they would rebroadcast races shown live on TSN2 on the regular TSN channel but this has not happened. They showed Sportcenter around 5-6 times through the nighttime but they chose not to allocate a few hours to the Kentucky Indy 300.
A little disappointed with TSN for Saturday night on September 4th, I will give Canadian's sports channel some major appluase for last week's coverage of the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series in a live broadcast. Like the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series event at the Honda Indy Toronto, it was excellent seeing auto racing in stock car form being treated with respect by the sports channel.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
McMurray and JR Motorsports Prevail at Atlanta Nationwide Series Event
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| Photo Credit: John Harrelson |
By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service
(September 4, 2010)
HAMPTON, Ga.—Jamie McMurray held off Kyle Busch and stopped Busch one spot short of a historic win Saturday night at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Driving JR Motorsports’ No. 88 Chevrolet, McMurray asserted his superiority over the final 40 of 195 laps to win the Nationwide Series Great Clips 300 at the 1.54-mile racetrack. The victory, the eighth of McMurray’s Nationwide career, was his first since November 2004 at Darlington.
Busch is tied with Sam Ard for the series’ single-season wins record with 10.
Carl Edwards ran third, followed by Kevin Harvick and Matt Kenseth. Joey Logano, Jason Leffler, Ryan Newman, Paul Menard and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. completed the top 10. Series points leader Brad Keselowski finished 12th and saw his advantage over second-place Edwards trimmed to 332 points.
“We unloaded today and had pretty much the fastest car off the truck,” McMurray said. “It was just pretty loose, and we just did a really good job of adjusting on it.”
The good adjustments continued late into the race, McMurray said.
“At the end, Pops (crew chief Tony Eury Sr.) adjusted on it, and it was pretty fast, even on the short runs.”
McMurray led 43 of the final 47 laps, including the last 23.
“It’s the same thing every week,” McMurray said. “The car out front—the clean air’s huge.”
McMurray’s short-run speed proved decisive in a race that took a series of intriguing turns, including one sequence where only one car was scored on the lead lap.
Harvick took four tires under caution on Lap 62, while Busch and most other contenders chose to restart on old rubber when the field came to green on Lap 65. After restarting 12th, Harvick passed McMurray for the lead on Lap 70.
By Lap 112, he had the rest of the field at least one lap down, after Busch and other drivers on old tires came to the pits under green. Harvick gave up the lead to Busch when he made a green-flag stop for tires and fuel on Lap 120.
Harvick left the pits eight seconds behind Busch but cut that margin in half before Ryan Newman spun Trevor Bayne on the backstretch to cause the third caution of the race and bunch the field. McMurray was first out of the pits under caution and led the field to a restart on Lap 153.
McMurray stayed out front until contact from Stenhouse sent Reed Sorenson’s Toyota hard into the outside wall on Lap 168. Keselowski and 11th-place finisher Josh Wise stayed on the track under the caution, but they quickly surrendered the top two spots when the field restarted.
McMurray surged to the front with Busch in pursuit, but Busch was unable to make up significant ground in the closing laps and finished .286 seconds back.
“We just didn’t quite have enough there on short runs to keep up with them,” Busch said. “Once we got about 25 or 30 laps on (the tires), we could really start reeling them in and pass them. Typically, it’s always a long-run car that wins here—Harvick beat me last year with a long-run car—but that wasn’t the case tonight.”
Fuel Savings Allow Castroneves to Go the Distance for Kentucky Win
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| Photo Credit: Dana Garrett |
With three races remaining in the 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series as cars arrive for the season's last night race at Kentucky Speedway. Besides the aspirations of 20-plus regular competitors wanting to end the year off on a high note, a contentious overall points fight is brewing between current leader Will Power and reigning IZOD IndyCar champ Dario Franchitii. Optimizing his chance to collect a 3rd overall IndyCar title in 4 years, Franchitti's win at the last round in Chicagoland brought the driver of Target/Chip Ganassi's #10 car just 23 points away from Penske Racing's best hope.
In qualifying for the Kentucky Indy 300 on the 1.5 mile oval gave a snapshot of what could be a very extraordinary event. As the green flag dropped at Kentucky Speedway, wildcard Ed Carpenter led the 27-car field to the start. Immediately fighting off the charge of Penske Racing's Will Power, Carpenter would lead the first lap which was unfortunately greeted with the race's first yellow flag. The #5 KV Racing Technology vehicle of Takuma Sato crashed in turn 4 failing to complete a single lap in the Kentucky Indy 300.
After cleaning up the #5 car, racing action resumed on lap 9 with Carpenter out front. However, Ed Carpenter's reign in the lead in the Vision Racing car would come to an end when Panther Racing's Dan Wheldon passed him for lap 11. Under the Vision Racing/Panther Racing alliance that granted Carpenter a ride through the final races of the 2010 season, Wheldon's 43-lap lead in the #4 car after the #20 car allowed the Panther Racing team to stay out front for the first 54 laps.
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| Photo Credit: Ron McQueeney |
Nearing the end on fuel and tires under green, the front-running teams shot to pit road. The well-funded, well-trained #12 Penske Racing and #9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing crews performed effectively as the night hit the Kentucky Speedway. With Power and Dixon benefiting from their crew armed with almost a season worth of experience, the Ed Carpenter and the Vision Racing team appeared to have suffered from their limited 2010 race schedule. Entering lap 50 second behind Dan Wheldon, Carpenter dropped to 10th place once leaving pit lane. The #6 Penske Racing car of Ryan Briscoe and Paul Tracy driving the #24 Dreyer and Reinbold Racing machine would lead during the pit stop exchange before the #12 of Will Power found himself out front. Taking the lead on lap 61, Power found himself in a unusually strong position on an oval track this season. The #12 Verizon Penske Racing car spent 83 laps in the 1st place position with 81 of those laps occurring consecutively after the first pit stop.
With only two cautions flying in the Kentucky Indy 300, the final caution flew on lap 80 brought out for a multiple car crash involving the #6 of Ryan Briscoe, the #14 of Vitor Meira and the #78 of Simona de Silvestro. Created in turn 3, the incident occured when Meira attempted to pass de Silvestro on the inside while the faster Briscoe steered to the outside of both drivers. Contact was made between the #78 and #14 which would also catch the #6 as a bystander. Insisting that Vitor Meira was aggressive on passing, de Silvestro expressed deep regret for Ryan Briscoe being wrecked. "I knew that Ryan (Briscoe) was on the outside and he kind of stuck his nose in there. I didn't see him, and I didn't know he was there. I'm really sorry if I was in the way." Apart from a long caution, only the cars suffered any serious damage with all three drivers checked and received at the medical center.
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| Photo Credit: Ron McQueeney |
Running clean and green through the second half, the Kentucky Indy 300 was shaping into a possible fuel economy run as pit stops within the lap 140-150 range left many teams on the edge of running to the finish or requiring a stop-and-go stop for fuel. As the numbers were being crunched by IZOD IndyCar race team engineers for each car, Dan Wheldon past Will Power to retake the lead through pit stops. In fact, Power's #12 car began showing troubles keeping his same pace as he fell down in the order of the top-5 cars. "The Verizon car was great out front. I had a little understeer back in traffic." Power commented on the problems through his last run. This was compounded by a near miss incident where the Australian get loose on track. Power, who finished 8th at the end said in post-race ".... I think I hit some oil from an earlier incident between Turns 3 and 4".
Without cautions, green flag pit strategy entered into effect in the races final 10 laps. Wheldon and Franchitti dropped into the pits by 196 for a quick splash of ethanol making it look less evident that lead cars would chance a winning run on a fuel gamble. Carpenter attempted to run his #20 car as close as possible to the checkered flag but just didn't have the reserves to go all the way. The one and only cars in the contending pack to make a fuel economy attempt was Helio Castroneves. Slowing drastically to a pace which involved laps more than 10 mile per hour than the leaders, Castroneves' skilled fuel consuming abilities allowed his #3 Penske Racing car to capture victory.
After a magnificant qualifying effort to grant his #20 car a pole, Ed Carpenter backed up his effort from Friday with a 2nd place in Saturday night's race. Carpenter finishes ahead of Panther Racing's Dan Wheldon who has now secured 2 top-3 results in the past 2 IZOD IndyCar races. In 4th place, the 26th place starting Andretti Autosport car of Tony Kanaan rocketed early in the race to an excellent efforton the night. In fact, after an overall dismal time trial for Andretti Autosport, 3 of the 4 cars finished in the top-9 after 200 laps in Kentucky. Marco Andretti 6th and Danica Patrick 9th, Ryan Hunter-Reay suffered a late-race mechanical issue on his #37 machine. Completing the Kentucky Indy 300's top-5 was Dario Franchitti who gained a small but possibly important 5 points on Will Power in the overall championship.
More than a month passing since his explosive objection to a penalization for blocking at the Edmonton Honda Indy, Helio Castroneves' emotions were more devoted to joy as he celebrates with his #3 Penske Racing team sharing the victory lane at Kentucky. Winning a Barber Motorsport Park earlier this season, Castroneves also becomes the only Penske Racing driver so far this year to win on a road course and an oval. Sitting mathematically a non-factor to the 2010 IZOD IndyCar overall championship in 4th place, Helio Castroneves could easily set sights on the AJ Foyt trophy for oval points scored in the season. The #3 Penske Racing driver is only 29 points away from leader Dario Franchitti for that honour.
Heading to the land of the rising sun next, the 2nd to last round of the 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series season takes place at the Twin-Ring Motegi circuit.
2010 IZOD IndyCar Series
Kentucky Indy 300
Kentucky Speedway
Race Results
1. 3 Helio Castroneves/Brazil/ Penske Racing
2. 20 Ed Carpenter/United States/ Panther/Vision Racing
3. 4 Dan Wheldon/England/ Panther Racing
4. 11 Tony Kanaan/Brazil/ Andretti Autosport
5. 10 Dario Franchitti/Scotland/ Target/Chip Ganassi Racing
6. 26 Marco Andretti/United States/ Andretti Autosport
7. 9 Scott Dixon/New Zealand/ Target/Chip Ganassi Racing
8. 12 Will Power/Australia/ Penske Racing
9. 7 Danica Patrick/United States/ Andretti Autosport
10. 36 Bertrand Baguette/Belgium/ Conquest Racing
11. 22 Justin Wilson/England/ Dreyer and Reinbold Racing
12. 24 Paul Tracy/Canada/ Dreyer and Reinbold Racing
13. 19 Alex Lloyd/England/ Dale Coyne Racing
14. 34 Tomas Scheckter/South Africa/ Conquest Racing
15. 77 Alex Tagliani/Canada/ FAZZT Race Team
16. 2 Raphael Matos/Brazil/ de Ferran Dragon Racing
17. 06 Hideki Mutoh/ Japan/ Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing
18. 32 Mario Moraes/Brazil/ KV Racing Technology
19. 18 Milka Duno/Venezuela/ Dale Coyne Racing
20. 02 Graham Rahal/United States/ Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing
21. 37 Ryan Hunter-Reay/United States/ Andretti Autosport
22. 67 Sarah Fisher/United States/ Sarah Fisher Racing
23. 14 Vitor Meira/Brazil/ AJ Foyt Racing Enterprises
24. 6 Ryan Briscoe/Australia/ Penske Racing
25. 78 Simona De Silvestro/Switzerland HVM Racing
26. 8 EJ Viso/Venezuela/ KV Racing Technology
27. 5 Takuma Sato/Japan/ KV Racing Technology
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