by Jay | Feb 14, 2010 | NASCAR
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — With a last-lap pass of superspeedway ace Todd Bodine, Timothy Peters won Saturday night’s NextEra Energy 250 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway.
With a push from polesitter Jason White, Peters passed Bodine on the backstretch and won the race to the finish line. Bodine, who had won the previous two season openers at Daytona, crossed the stripe in second place but spun into the infield grass after taking the checkered flag.
“I can’t believe it — this thing drove like a Lexus tonight,” Peters said of his No. 17 Toyota Tundra. “We just won Daytona! I was just content where I was at, but the 23 (White) came up and gave me a great run.
“I can’t believe it — I’m going to Disney World!”
Peters’ only previous win in the series came at .526-mile Martinsville Speedway.
Dennis Setzer, White and Matt Crafton rounded out the top five, as Bodine took solace from his second-place run — magnified by wrecks that ruined the nights of defending series champion Ron Hornaday Jr. and Mike Skinner, perennial contenders for the truck series title.
“You’re a sitting duck leading,” Bodine said ruefully. “I saw the replay when I was sitting down there in the mud (after spinning). Timmy did what he had to do.
“We’re disappointed. There’s no doubt about it. But second’s nothing to sneeze at.”
Two separate crashes on the pace laps — before the race had started — promised an action-filled evening, and, indeed, before the race was a lap old, Aric Almirola took the field three-wide in Turn 3. Austin Dillon, making his first superspeedway start, broke loose between trucks and ignited a nine-truck collision that damaged the trucks of Kyle Busch and Landon Cassill, among others.
“I really don’t know what was happening,” Dillon said after exiting the infield care center. “I was sucking up to Jason White, and someone got under me. Just looked like they weren’t being very patient there to start. Just caught in the middle and got banged around there a few times and tried to save it — just nothing I could do there.”
Hornaday was the victim of a 10-truck wreck after a bump from Ricky Carmichael turned him into the outside wall at the end of the backstretch on Lap 32. The same wreck ruined the winning chances of front-row starter Elliott Sadler. Skinner’s race ended early after a tap from Peters launched him into the Turn 3 wall on Lap 62.
by Jay | Feb 13, 2010 | NASCAR
DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. — Tony Stewart held off a snarling pack of cars on his bumper to win the DRIVE4COPD NASCAR Nationwide Series 300 at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday.
Stewart, who had won four of these races prior to this sunny Saturday, dodged a multitude of sensational wrecks to win his fifth of the last six Nationwide races here.
Carl Edwards roared back to a second-place finish after triggering Dale Earnhardt, Jr.’s upside-down exit from the 120-lap race at the 92nd-lap mark.
Stewart teammate Kevin Harvick was third and Justin Allgaier fourth as the cars zigged and zagged their way to a wild finish.
Rounding out the top 10 were Brian Vickers, Paul Menard, who started the race in last place, Joey Logano, James Buescher, Kasey Kahne and Steve Wallace.
Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski, who raced up front most of the afternoon, wrecked back in the pack on the last lap.
A 10-car wreck shortly past the halfway point ended Danica Patrick’s day, much to her dismay. It was one of those “I didn’t have any place to go to miss the wreck” deals.
It all unfolded ahead of her out of turn four when Josh Wise was tapped from behind by Colin Braun, which created a domino effect that eliminated a total of 10 cars, including Patrick, who had been the center of a media blitz for the past 10 days.
Others eliminated in the crash included Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Scott Lagasse, Braun, Brian Scott, Johnny Sauter, Menard, Robert Richardson, Jr., and Jason Leffler.
Another spectacular accident stopped the race with just 28 laps remaining. This time, it involved most popular driver Earnhardt, who was racing hard in third place when he was clipped from behind by Edwards, after Keselowski nudged him. The contact flipped Earnhardt upside down, and he rolled a couple of times before coming to rest rightside-up.
Harvick received some minor damage in the accident, as did Edwards and Keselowski. Earnhardt, Nemechek and Brendan Gaughan’s cars were damaged beyond repair.
Chrissy Wallace spun before the field completed a lap and hit the inside retaining wall, ending her day almost before it began. A little tap in the rear bumper from Menard started her spin which prompted the first caution of the day. It was not to be the last caution.
Just a few after a restart, the caution waved again. Mike Bliss accidentally bumped Trevor Bayne, triggering a multi-car spin. Patrick was almost involved but entered the smoke and came out the other side unscathed. Tony Raines and Braun were not so fortunate. They sustained some damage in the accident. On the restart at lap 11, it was Harvick, Earnhardt, Jr., Edwards and Logano up front.
At lap 25, Harvick was leading with Earnhardt second. Edwards was third, followed by Logano, Busch, Townley, Stewart, Biffle, Leffler and Kahne. Stewart and Biffle had raced their way into the top 10 after starting the race in the back of the field.
After a round of green flag pit stops at lap 44, Nemechek and Raines led a few laps when everyone but them pitted. Another caution on lap 50 bunched the cars up again. Mike Wallace spun between turns three and four to bring out the yellow flags.
When the race resumed at lap 56, Biffle was the leader with Busch second and Keselowski third.
Trailing the leaders were Edwards, Earnhardt, Nemechek, Stewart, Logano and Kahne.
Patrick had made her way back to 24th spot after handling problems forced her to the rear of the field.
by Jay | Feb 10, 2010 | Maine, New England
Portland, Maine – While the pavement went down some 25 years ago at nearby Beech Ridge Motor Speedway and the era of serious dirt track racing seemingly ended in Maine, the regional dirt track scene in Northern New England is on the rebound. The regional dirt track scene will have a healthy presence on Friday and Saturday, February 19-20 as the Portland Expo hosts Racin’ Preview 2010.
Sprint Cars of New England (SCoNE) is a touring series for the fastest dirt track racecars competing in New England, and they race at all three of Northern New England’s remaining dirt tracks. The winged warriors are seeing increased interest in the club and expect a banner 2010 season, which they’ll kick off at Racin’ Preview 2010. At least a couple of the powerful, fuel-injected, winged racecars will be on display at Northern New England’s annual stock car racing showcase.
Bear Ridge Speedway in Bradford, Vermont tops the list of current New England dirt tracks in longevity. Track owner and promoter C.V. Elms IV will oversee the 44th consecutive season of dirt track action at the ¼-mile oval. The weekly racing program is headlined by Sportsman Modified cars. Bear Ridge races every Saturday night.
New Hampshire’s Canaan Fair Speedway also features Sportsman Modified racecars atop its’ weekly racing program. Dick Therrien takes the reigns as general manager of the facility this year. The 1/4-mile Canaan Dirt Speedway, adjacent to a 1/3-mile asphalt oval that uses the same pit area, presents stock car competition on Friday evenings.
Newly-renamed Big Daddy’s Speedbowl operated last season as Rattlesnake Motordrome, and has been known as Legion Speedway, Pines Speedway and Nor-Way Pines Speedway in the past. New promoter Mike Rivers has put a lot of time, effort and money into a near-complete rebuild of the racing facility and has moved the traditional Saturday night racing card to Sunday evenings.
All three tracks will host special events both with the SCoNE Sprint Cars and the Granite State Mini Sprint racing club, and all three tracks will be on hand at Racin’ Preview 2010.
Joining the dirt trackers at Racin’ Preview 2010 will be several paved racetracks, including Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, Lee USA Speedway, Unity Raceway, Wiscasset Raceway, along with touring classes with the Pro All Stars Series, Modified Racing Series and other sanctioning bodies.
Current associate sponsors of Racin’ Preview 2010 include Racin’ Paper, Pave Tek Motorsports of Kennebunk, Redneck Raceway of Acton, Saco Pathfinders, R & D Racing and Fabrication of Limerick, Chad Dow’s Innovative Specialties of Unity and Wayne Elston’s Speed Shop of Carmel.
Racin’ Preview 2010 at the Portland Expo is open from 4:00-10:00 p.m. on Friday, February 19. The show will go on between 9:00 a.m and 9:00 p.m. on Saturday, February 20. For more information call (603) 447-4251.
by Jay | Feb 9, 2010 | Video
The Ultimate “Nor’easter”…the Inaugural New Hampshire Motor Speedway Sno Bowl presented by Ski-Doo.
