motorsports
Kurt Busch wins. Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski fued continues.
Mar 8th
Kurt Busch survived two overtime restarts and a spectacular crash involving Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski to win Sunday’s wild Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Matt Kenseth was second by .483 of a second.
Jimmie Johnson gets win after Jeff Gordon dominates Vegas
Feb 28th
Jeff Gordon dominated Sunday’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway by leading 218 of the 267 laps. But it was Jimmie Johnson who won his second straight race by passing teammate Gordon with 16 laps to go.
Johnson took four tires and restarted fourth. When the race resumed he latched onto Gordon’s bumper and followed him for several laps before making the pass and pulling away for his 49th career victory and fourth at Las Vegas. The four-time defending series champion also won last week in California.
Gordon fell back to third after Kevin Harvick got by him to finish in the second spot.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup series moves on to Atlanta next week.
Flying tire kills fan at NHRA race
Feb 23rd
A spectator died Sunday after she was struck by a tire from a crashing dragster during the NHRA Arizona Nationals near Phoenix, Arizona.
The car flipped in the first-round race and caught fire, said Alia Maisonet, spokeswoman for the Gila River Indian reservation in Chandler, Arizona, where the racetrack is located.
During the accident, a wheel flew off the car and struck the woman in the stands, she said.
She was airlifted to a local hospital, where she died.
The dragster was driven by Top Fuel driver Antron Brown. He went to a hospital as a precaution, but was released, the National Hot Rod Association said.
“The entire NHRA community is deeply saddened by today’s incident and sends its thoughts and prayers to the woman’s family and friends,” the group said on its Web site.
The accident is under investigation.
Jimmie Johnson catches a break to win 48th career Sprint Cup win
Feb 22nd
Jimmie Johnson gets 48th career win
It was the 48th career win for Jimmie Johnson and team 48, and it was an early-season sign that Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 1 team is rolling along just fine only two weeks into the long and winding Sprint Cup schedule.
Johnson led the final 24 laps and won Sunday’s Auto Club 500 at Auto Club Speedway as challenger Kevin Harvick slipped and slid into the outside wall in the closing laps.
Harvick, who chased Johnson over the final 20 laps, eliminated a two-second deficit and drove onto Johnson’s bumper with five laps to go. Harvick’s Chevrolet slipped and brushed the wall with three laps to go, however, killing his momentum and giving Johnson an open door to his 48th career win.
“Life is good, man,” said Johnson, who is pursuing his fifth straight Sprint Cup championship. “We’re right back in victory lane.”
Potholes Delay Daytona 500
Feb 14th
The Daytona 500 was delayed for 1 hour and 40 minutes earlier today due to a pothole in the pavement. It was unclear how or when the hole developed on an area between turns one and two, but officials stopped Sunday’s race with 78 laps remaining in the 200-lap season-opening race.
NASCAR’s biggest race has been delayed again now with 39 laps to go.
Jimmie Johnson & Kasey Kahne win Daytona qualifying races
Feb 12th
Jimmie Johnson nipped Kevin Harvick by 0.005 seconds in the first race, then Kasey Kahne edged Tony Stewart by 0.014 seconds to set the field for this weekend’s season-opening Daytona 500.
Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. are on the front row. Starting grid.
Jimmie Johnson takes AP’s Top Athlete Award
Dec 26th
Jimmie Johnson was named the Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year for 2009.
For Johnson, the first race car driver to be named the AP’s Athlete of the Year in its 78-year history, the award is the validation he’s been waiting for since he began his historic run in 2006.
“We’d been wondering the last few years, ‘When is this going to hit?’” Johnson said Monday after the award was announced. “It seems like the answer is now. The wave is finally peaking, and we don’t know where it’s going to take us. The fourth straight title takes it out of our sport and makes it a point of discussion — like, ‘Wow, a race car driver won this thing.’”
Johnson being named the top athlete of course becomes a matter of contention among those who question whether or not race car drivers are legitimate athletes.
Johnson takes issue with those sort of assertions.
“So to anyone who wants to go head-to-head with me in athletic ability, let’s go,” Johnson said. “I talked a lot with (former NFL cornerback and friend) Jason Sehorn about this, and I don’t know how exactly you measure athletic ability, but I know my 5-mile run time will destroy most NFL players.”
Johnson received 42 votes from editors at U.S. newspapers which are members of the AP. Tennis star Roger Federer (30 votes) and Olympic sprinter Usain Bolt (29) were the only other athletes with totals in the double- digits.
Although Tiger Woods was named Athlete of the Decade, the golfer received only nine votes for Athlete of the Year. He was tied with NBA star Kobe Bryant and slugger Albert Pujols in fourth place. Woods, who was ranked No. 1 in his sport but failed to win one of golf’s majors this season, was never a top contender—even before the sex scandal that unraveled his personal life following a Nov. 27 traffic accident.
Danica Patrick NASCAR debut with JR Motorsports
Dec 17th
Danica Patrick said today she might make her NASCAR debut Feb. 20 at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana.
The popular IndyCar driver recently announced plans to try her hand at stock-car racing on a limited basis in 2010, driving in NASCAR’s second-tier Nationwide Series in a Chevrolet prepared by JR Motorsports, a team led by Dale Earnhardt Jr., NASCAR’s most popular driver.
Jimmie Johnson and the Hendrick Motorsports dynasty
Nov 24th
Sporting News measures Jimmie Johnson’s ongoing string of success not only impressive as it relates to its place in NASCAR history; it stands up against the greatest sporting achievements of all time.
After capping off his fourth consecutive championship season, Jimmie Johnson has put his Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet team in an echelon that includes few others. The New York Yankees (1936-1939 and 1949-1953), Boston Celtics (1959-1966), Montreal Canadiens (1956-1960 and 1976-1979) and New York Islanders (1980-1983) are the only teams in the history of the MLB, NBA, NFL and NHL to win four straight titles. Other four-peat teams are the UCLA men’s basketball team (1967-1973), the WNBA’s Houston Comets (1997-2000), the CFL’s Edmonton Eskimos (1978-1982) and the Cleveland Browns (1946-1949) with the old AAFC.
Read Johnson Dynasty Stacks Up With Those In Other Sports for more…
Jimmie Johnson sets sights on 4th consecutive championship
Nov 16th
Jimmie Johnson comes back from a dismal outing in Texas to take the win in a dominant fashion in Pheonix while expanding his points lead over teammates and competitors Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon. Johnson can wrap up his fourth consecutive NASCAR cup championship next weekend in Homestead by finishing 25th or better to clinch the title.
A fourth championship will match Jeff Gordon’s career mark and an unprecedented four-peat would set Johnson in an elite category all alone. At what point do we start talking about him in comparisons with Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt as the greatest racecar driver of all time?
