Iowa Speedway
Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa opened last weekend. The $70 million facility was designed by Rusty Wallace. Wallace was no absentee designer, as he came to Iowa on several occasions to test drive the track - first on gravel, then on each layer of pavement.
A Hooters Pro Cup race christened the track Friday night, with Woody Howard, Denny Hamlin's "replacement", sneaking away with the win in a three-wide finish.
Nascar was well represented, with two Joe Gibbs affiliated cars running the race, as well as entries fielded by JR Motorsports (Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s company) and Tony Stewart Motorsports. Johnny Rumley, Jr's driver, finished 6th, while Shelby Howard, Tony's driver sat on the pole.
On Saturday, USAC took over the track, and speed records began to fall. Bobby Santos III set a new USAC midget record, clocking a lap at 139.553 mph. Shortly thereafter, Darren Hagen set a new world record for a sprint car lap at 146.145.
Santos's record broke the mark set by Ryan Newman. Think it is ironic that Ryan's nine year old record was broken at Rusty's track?
Neither Santos or Hagen could maintain those speeds during the races. Dave Steele won the midget and Silver Crown races, while Jay Drake took the flag in the sprint car race.
Next up at Iowa Speedway: ARCA and ASA late models in October.
Formula One
I wonder if non-Formula One fans realize the amazing career Michael Schumacher has had, and what his retirement will mean for motorsports.
Schumacher is only 38. And he is in the hunt for his eighth world championship. He leads all Formula One drivers in virtually every statistic kept - poles, wins (90), & championships.
Will we ever see another driver with his success? People said no one would match Fangio. But they did. They said no one could match Senna's pole record, but Schumacher did this year. Regardless, Schumacher will go down as one of the greatest drivers of all time. Even if he doesn't run ovals.
Loudon
Loudon turned into the crashfest that Bristol & Richmond were not. And now a few people have big holes to dig out of. Personally, I'd rather have the bad luck early, to have time to fix it, than have the big wreck at Homestead (ie Johnson last year).
Harvick appears to be on a roll. In my mind, the true test will be the intermediate tracks. While he hasn't finished lower than 15th since Daytona in July, Harvick had horrible finishes the first time around at Atlanta and Charlotte, and a 23rd place showing at Talladega.
We'll see if the tire controversy escalates into something or not. There were reports as early as July that teams were playing with innovations to mess with tire pressure. However, this appears to be a "gray" area in the Nascar rule book and not a technical violation of the rules.
And I don't think we've seen the last of the Chasers having major trouble. Remember Jr at Atlanta in 2004? Stewart at Charlotte last year? Martin at Talladega last year? Kenseth overshooting pit lane at Dover in 2004? Sometimes I think the Chase is a test of which team will choke first.
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