Bob Sr.'s Weekend Racing Highlights

NASCAR - Jimmy Johnson Wraps it Up
Homestead, FL

Driving an ultra conservative race in his #48 Chevrolet Impala, Jimmy Johnson only needed a mid-pack finish to clinch the title and he did just that winning his 3rd consecutive Sprint Championship (2006-08).

Legend Cale Yarborough is the only other NASCAR driver ever to have matched that feat (1976-78). It was a lot easier back in the day to win three in a row than it is now, the competition today is much closer by far.

Number two in Chase points, Carl Edwards didn’t let it go without a battle winning the race again. In fact he won more races this year (9), than Johnson but was still some 60 points shy of him at the end. Take nothing away from Jimmy though, his consistency was nothing short of brilliant.

Jimmy is not one of the "good ol boys" as Cale was, hard drinking, brawling, always ready to throw a punch or two. On the contrary Johnson is clean-cut, quiet, self-effacing - a popular and well-liked Champion. He is married to a gorgeous fashion model and has a magnificient apartment in Manhattan. Nothing like the typical NASCAR legend of yore. Just a nice laidback kid from El Cajon, California.
My, how things change.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Editor's Note: Bob Sr. is my dad. He has been racing cars for almost 50 years. If he's not racing on the weekend you'll find him watching auto racing on TV. Every Monday he'll post an update with highlights and the inside scoop on the previous weekend’s big races.

Bob Sr.'s Weekend Racing Highlights

Editor's Note: Bob Sr. is my dad. He has been racing cars for almost 50 years. If he's not racing on the weekend you'll find him watching auto racing on TV. Every Monday he'll post an update with highlights and the inside scoop on the previous weekend’s big races.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Interlagos, the Final F1 Race of the Year
Sao Paulo, Brazil

Ferrari's Filipe Massa dominated qualifying sessions taking pole position with ease on Saturday to his hometown fan's delight. Each time he went past the jam-packed grandstands you could hear them cheer for their hero even over the screaming roar of the 20,000 rpm Formula One engines. To win the championship Massa needed to finish 1st or 2nd and Hamilton no better than 6th.

Just before the start on Sunday an unexpected cloudburst sent the teams scurrying for Intermediate and Full rain tires. The start was held up for 10 minutes to allow the changes. Filipe immediately got a great start and started to pull away from the field. He absolutely dominated the entire race and with just a few laps remaining rain fell again.

At this time the order was Massa, Alonso, Raikkonen and then Hamilton comfortably in 4th in front of  Sebastien Vettel. They all had to pit for rain tires and resumed in the same order Massa, Alonso, Kimi in 1,2,3, but Timo Glock did not pit and Hamilton and Vettel had to fall in behind him. Hamilton now in 5th, where he had to be to take the Championship, the ever dangerous Vettel just behind him. Moments later in the pouring rain Hamilton made a tragic mistake going wide. Vettel pounced and took over 5th place leaving Hamilton 6th and his Championship hopes smashed with but a few laps left.

The crowd, the announcers and the pit crews were going wild and had conceded the race win AND Championship to Massa. He crossed the finish line, the winner and World Champ. BUT WAIT A MINUTE... further back, last lap, last corner, Glock, who had not changed to rains, bobbled and gifted Hamilton with the position, the 5th place he HAD to have to win the Championship. OhMiGod!!!

Meanwhile Filipe, his loyal fans screaming with delight was running the cool off lap having been told by his crew that he was World Champ. It was only when he pulled into the impound area that he learned that Hamilton had gotten by Glock for 5th... taking the crown. Filipe walked  to the edge of the grandstands acknowledging the roar of his fans with his hand on his heart and tears in his eyes. Filipe had done all he could - pole position - fastest race lap - complete race dominance - only to lose the Championship by one lonely point.

No Hollywood script could have topped this ending.

The McClaren team was also in shock finally realizing that they had won the title with Hamilton scraping by in the last corner to take 5th.

Ferrari did take the Constructor's Championship handily for the eighth time in the last ten years.

Kimi, 2008 World Champ finished third in the race, third in the Championship.

Massa swallowing hard, graciously saying to the post-race media whom were also in shock, "...we must recognize Hamilton as Champion, he won because he got more points, that’s racing".  I'm sure Filipe was thinking of the two races when he scored zero points because of mechanical failures while leading. If only...
…but that's racing.

Bob Sr.'s Weekend Racing Highlights

Editor's Note: Bob Sr. is my dad. He has been racing cars for almost 50 years. If he's not racing on the weekend you'll find him watching auto racing on TV. Every Monday he'll post an update with highlights and the inside scoop on the previous weekend’s big races.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NASCAR
Atlanta Motor Speedway

Carl Edwards drove a great race to finish first, capped by his spectacular back flip in Victory lane celebrating the win. He thought for sure his main rival for the Chase title, Jimmy Johnson the current points leader, must have been mired back in the field. Earlier in the race Johnson received a pit row penalty and was put way back in 30th place.

Not so... Jimmy steadily, but not too carefully, had fought his way back towards the front hoping to get up close enough for at least a top ten finish. During a caution for debris on the track with only 13 laps to go, Jimmy's crew chief Chad Knaus pulled the defining move of the race. He called Jimmy in, put on four fresh tires, told him to "put on your Superman cape and GO!" With only 8 laps left Johnson passed nine cars to finish an astonishing 2nd place. The drive of the race I thought.

No one was more surprised than Carl Edwards, who thought he had eaten into Johnson's point lead in a big way. Instead he found Jimmy had actually lengthened his lead by finishing second! Carl had aggressively passed Hamlin to take over first place with just a few laps to go and had no way of knowing where Jimmy had finished. When he was told in Victory Lane of Johnson’s feat he was at a loss for words. He told the interviewer "I didn’t want to hear that, you've really rained on my parade" shaking his head in disbelief.

Barring some sort of bizarre circumstances Jimmy Johnson is headed for his third straight championship. Over the final three weeks of the season the team is unlikely to have a complete breakdown. Not with crew chief Chad Knaus pulling the strings.

NIKON Indy 300
Surfers Paradise, Australia

In the last Indy car race of the year the three drivers from down under, Ryan Briscoe, Will Power and Indy Champ Scott Dixon, put on a great show for their loyal fans at this tight street circuit. Powers was the early leader and looked like the sure winner until an inexplicable mistake found him up against a barrier and too badly damaged to continue. He was the pole sitter. With Powers down Dixon and Briscoe were pretty much in their own race. Briscoe had to work hard to hold on to first for rest of the day with Dixon all over him. Dario Franchitti in his first drive back in an Indy race since returning from his NASCAR experience showed he has lost none of his open wheel expertise by finishing third. All in all a fitting finish for the 2008 season.

Danica early in the race spun her car on cold tires colliding with Helio Castroneves.  She probably did not appreciate the closeup camera coverage of her all too familiar tantrums when her car would not restart. Time to grow up.

Bob Sr.'s Weekend Racing Highlights

Editor's Note: Bob Sr. is my dad. He has been racing cars for almost 50 years. If he's not racing on the weekend you'll find him watching auto racing on TV. Every Monday he'll post an update with highlights and the inside scoop on the previous weekend’s big races.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

American LeMans Series
Laguna Seca, Monterey, California

Audi takes the LMP1 Overall Championship once again! Marco Werner and Lucas Luhr took a first overall victory for Audi Sport North America making it a perfect 1-2 with Emanuele Pirro in 2nd. Werner passed Pirro in the dark with just 26 minutes left after a restart.

Tony Kanaan in the Andretti-Green LMP2 Acura had led overall briefly several times but the superior torque of the Audi was not to be denied. Kanaan finished  3rd overall and first in the LMP2 class just ahead of Simon Pagenaud in another Acura. They had a great race passing each other several times in the last 15 minutes. Though Acura won  the final race of the series the Porsche team of Timo Bernard and Romain Dumas were able to take the LMP2 title for Penske Racing by just one point by finishing 3rd in class.

In the GT1 class the Corvette Racing team took honors once again, this time with Olivier Beretta and Oliver Gavin over Johnny O'Connell and Jan Magnussen, but Johnny and Jan won the season championship. All season long it was the two Corvette C6 teams fighting each other, no competition from the Aston Martins this year.

Mueller and Farnbacher took the GT2 victory for the fourth time this year in their Ferrari 430 GT but the championship was already won at Road Atlanta in the last race by the Flying Lizard Porsche Team of Jorg Burgmeister and Wolf Henzler. Finishing a series 2nd to Porsche in just their first year makes Ferrari look very strong for next year.

The 2009 ALMS season starts this March at the 57th running of  the 12 Hours of Sebring. That will be the 100th race of the very successful Le Mans series. I'll be there, only 90 minutes from my digs!

Formula One
Shanghai, China

This is the penultimate F1 race. It was no surprise when Hamilton took the pole and did all but take the title staying well ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in 2nd and Massa in 3rd. Late in the race Kimi gave way (a beau gest) to allow Massa to garner 2nd place points and remain in the championship hunt. Massa has 87 points with Hamilton at 94.

Bob Sr.'s Weekend Racing Highlights

Editor's Note: Bob Sr. is my dad. He has been racing cars for almost 50 years. If he's not racing on the weekend you'll find him watching auto racing on TV. Every Monday he'll post an update with highlights and the inside scoop on the previous weekend’s big races.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Japanese Grand Prix
Fuji, Japan

McClaren's Lewis Hamilton took pole position for the sixth time this season but really botched his start. In an apparent move to make up for that miserable start he sharply cut off his teammate, Heikki Kovalainen, on the long straight before the first turn. Then Hamilton over-braked into turn one forcing Kimi Raikkonen in the overtaking Ferrari to take evasive action.


Still in lap one Hamilton fell back to fifth where Filipe Massa, his arch rival for the Championship, was trying to make up for his own surprisingly poor starting position. They put on a good battle for fifth until Massa body slammed him causing Lewis to spin to the back of the field while Massa was able to continue. Massa was given a drive-thru penalty for his stupid action and Hamilton the same for trying to take Kimi out in turn one. Hamilton could have been given another for chopping off his teammate on his mad dash to the first turn. Clearly not the best of moves for the two potential World Champions.

Kubica smoothly took over first with Alonso, the previous race winner at Singapore, tagging along closely in second. Renault's pit crew got Alonso out in front after their series of pit stops and Kubica was not able to match his pace.

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen meanwhile had been slowly moving up in the field after his altercation with Hamilton. After several failed passing attempts on Kubica he resigned himself to the 3rd place podium finish. Kimi, the current F1 World Champion felt his car was capable of winning having led into the first turn before contact with both McClaren drivers, Hamilton and Kovalainen, which caused some problems with his front suspension.

Hamilton still ends up retaining his championship lead with 84 points, Massa 5 behind with 79, Kubica with 72 and poor Raikkonen at 63 having scored ZERO points five times this year because of uncharacteristic mechanical failures often while leading.

Renault and Alonso are on a roll and with less than ten points between the first three drivers he could still cause some trouble.

McClaren lost the lead in the Manufacturers Championship to Ferrari with Kimi and Massa picking  up 8 points for Scuderia Ferrari.

Next stop for the traveling circus known as Formula One is Shanghai, China on October 19th.

Bob Sr.'s Weekend Racing Highlights

Editor's Note: Bob Sr. is my dad. He has been racing cars for almost 50 years. If he's not racing on the weekend you'll find him watching auto racing on TV. Every Monday he'll post an update with highlights and the inside scoop on the previous weekend’s big races.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The American LeMans Series (LeMans Prototypes and GT Racecars)
Road Atlanta, The Petit LeMans

The next to last race of this professional series at Road Atlanta, Georgia saw favorite Allen McNish crash his Audi LMP1 on the warm-up lap! He is the winner of 8 straight races in the series and his chances looked hopeless. He apologized profusely to his crew and swore if they could fix it he'd drive it like never before. In this 1000 mile race he shares the car with Renaldo Capello and Emanule Pirro. Under these circumstances he took on the lion’s share of driving.

Starting 2 laps down he needed precise pit stop strategy. It took most of 10 hours to get back into contention, but that he did making a brilliant out-braking maneuver minutes from the finish.

This race was really one between the two manufacturers, Audi and Peugeot. This was the Peugeot Team's first venture into the series and they have already shown great promise. In the previous LeMans 24 hour race in France this past Spring they set the fastest time.

Peugeot's Minassian took the pole this weekend. Sarazin and ex-Formula One driver Christian Klien were his co-drivers. The Peugeot had more power and was able to reach higher straight-away speeds, but after 10 hours McNish was somehow able to not only catch but pass Klien! This was truly a heroic drive for McNish.

I thought Minassian was the faster Peugeot driver and should have been left in the car to fight McNish, especially given that Klien had never driven the car or the track before this weekend. In the pitch dark the attrition was heavy and closing speeds of the faster cars led to some spectacular crashes. At the post-race interview the diminutive Scotsman said "I'm really proud of this one…" It was one for the books.

Emanuele Pirro, McNish' co-driver said "Allen would not have been happy with a normal win, he had to make it extraordinary".

Scott Sharp put a damper on the Acura Teams chances by crashing early in the race during the first driver stint.

Coming in 3rd just 7.5 seconds behind was the other Team Audi R10 of Lucas Luhr and Marco Werner.

In a separate class (LMP2) the Penske Porsche team of Ryan Briscoe and Helio Castroneves won while always maintaining a top five or six car position overall. The GM Corvette Team in GT1 class won again to cinch their class championship with Jan Magnussen, Johnny O'Connell and Ron Fellows again the class of the GT1 field.

Jaime Melo and Mika Salo won the GT2 class in their Ferrari 430GT having won both the Petit LeMans and the 24 Hour Endurance LeMans classic.

The next American LeMans Series race is set for Oct. 18th at Laguna Seca in Monterey, California. This four hour race going from daylight to darkness should be exciting once again.

NASCAR
Tony Stewart wins at Talladega for the first time ever and it was his first win this year in a race where "The Big Ones" took most of the Chase drivers out.

Talladega noted for big multi-car crashes did not disappoint. Traveling 3 and 4 abreast, nose to tail lap after lap at 200 mph …shit happens. Fans love it though. Fortunately no one was seriously hurt. Just a lot of hurt feelings and empty wallets. The finish was in doubt for a bit as Regan Smith passed Tony going under the out-of-bounds yellow line right at the finish. Initially Smith and his crew celebrated, but track officials ruled Stewart the winner.

Bob Sr.'s Weekend Racing Highlights

Editor's Note: Bob Sr. is my dad. He has been racing cars for almost 50 years. If he's not racing on the weekend you'll find him watching auto racing on TV. Every Monday he'll post an update with highlights and the inside scoop on the previous weekend’s big races.

Neither my Dad or I caught the NASCAR action at Kansas Speedway yesterday. Jimmie Johnson won and took the points lead in the chase, followed by Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle in second and third.

I spent the afternoon at the 45th Thunder Road Milk Bowl. Check out my post with video from inside Brian Hoar's #45 Goss Dodge Charger.

Here's Bob Sr.'s report...

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Formula 1 World Championship -15th Round in Marina Bay, Singapore

The Course
This was the first Formula One race in Singapore and the first Night
Race ever in F1. Singapore really out-did itself. Not only is this far
east metropolis a model of  modern architechure but the track was
built right in the middle of this wonderous city, parts of it going
over and under local streets and highways.

An Italian lighting firm was brought in to handle the lighting, and
what a job they did. Drivers remarked that the visibility was better
than some previous races in daylight. The colors of the cars, the
glitterati of crews and celebrities on the grid prior to the race was
truly striking.

Flavio Briatore, Renault racing Honcho, Fernando Alonso's boss, and
International playboy (he dates Naomi Campbell among others) was asked
how it compared to Silverstone, England's famous race venue. He
replied, "DEES EEZA  FORMULA ONE!!! SILVERSTONE...HA, TOO MANY SHEEPS
AN COWS". Some would disagree but you get his point.

Racing Action
Ferrari's Filipe Massa takes pole by almost a full second over arch
rival Lewis Hamilton of McClaren.

It looked like Filipe was back in form after the rain race debacle in
Italy a few weeks ago. He had won the two races prior to that in
Valencia, Spain and Spa in Belgium quite handily which brought
Hamilton and him within just a couple of points for the Championship
lead. 79 to 77 entering Singapore.

There seemed to be no stopping Filipe for he drove away from the field
from pole leaving even Hamilton in his wake from the very start. This
track, of over four miles and over a dozen turns, did not allow much
in the way of passing opportunities and not much changed until a crash
by Nelson Piquet around lap 30. This brought out the safety car which
forced the cars to bunch together under the yellow flag. Several of
the cars on different fuel strategies were caught out  because the
pits are closed during Safety Car conditions and they HAD to come in
for fuel or risk running out on course and thus were assessed
Drive-Thru penalties.

Pit Lane Snafu
Massa and most of the rest came in several laps later when the yellow
was gone and that was the beginning of the end for poor Filipe. After
refueling, his flag man gave him the GO signal but the refueling hose
was still attached.The refueler was thrown several feet and the rest
of the crew chased him to the end of pit lane before he stopped
finally realizing what happened.The time lost trying to release the
hose and the subsequent penalty put and end to his race. He finished
13th.

Bob Sr.'s Weekend Racing Highlights

Editor's Note: Bob Sr. is my dad. He has been racing cars for almost 50 years. If he's not racing on the weekend you'll find him watching auto racing on TV. Every Monday he'll post an update with highlights and the inside scoop on the previous weekend’s big races.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We start with the final 2008 Rolex Grand-Am Sportscar Series Race of the year that took place at Miller Motorsports Park, Salt Lake City, Utah on Saturday.

This series uses Daytona Prototype race cars, which are arguably the most sophisticated sports cars racing today, along with their close brethren the LeMans Prototypes.

Here’s some background on these cars. They have a specific chassis developed by LOLA, Fabcar, Dallara, Riley, Doran, and Chase. These guys are all chassis builders for many series such as Champcar, Indycar and many other series.

The engines must be based on road-legal production units from major manufacturers such as BMW, Ford, Infinity, Lexus, Porsche and Pontiac. They're 4.5 to 5.0 Liters, limited to 500 H.P., weigh between 2225-2275 lbs. (depending on horse power), have 24-gallon fuel capacity and operate on 100-octane gas, max.

Drivers are some of the very best from around the world. Some ex-Formula One, Champcar, NASCAR and IRL champions, such as Ricardo Zonta, Paul Tracy, Patrick Carpentier, Jimmy Vassar, Dario Franchitti, Jimmy Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Max Papis, Scott Pruett, Boris Said, Buddy Rice and Christian Fittapaldi among many other notables. You will definitely see all of these guys and many more at the first race of the year, the 2009 24 Hours of Daytona in January.

So back to Saturdays race...

Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty (Gurney, son of legendary Formula One racer Dan Gurney captured last year's Championship) were still in the running this year, but heavy favorite Scott Pruett and Mexican co-driver Memo Rojas in the TELMEX Lexus Riley needed only a few points to clinch the title. Pruett got his needed points midway through the race, leaving the battle for 2nd to Max Angelelli in the SunTrust #10 vs. Dallara and Gurney in the Gainsco Pontiac Riley. Rain caused some turmoil, with most drivers on slicks sliding off everywhere. Angelelli got by Gurney to take second place away at the end, but Gurney — in finishing third, after holding off the Brumos Porsche of Barbos — took a hard-fought second in the series championship.

The biggest surprise of the race... During the pit stops for rain tires, an unheralded Rafael Matos, driving for Shank Racing, suddenly appeared in the lead from fifth place after a brilliant pit stop by his team. He was just inserted as the 3rd driver for Shank, had never driven a DP car before, never saw the track before and simply walked away from the field setting fast lap of the race again and again in the #6 Ford Riley. He won by a huge margin.

We will certainly hear a lot more from this 20 year old.

Winning the race within the race in the GT class were Kelly Collins and Paul Edwards, in the Banner Racing Pontiac GXP-R. They also cinched the Manufacturers Championship for Pontiac with the win. Porsche and Mazda took second and third.

Ganassi's team of Pruett and Rojas look like the team to beat in '09. After his 3rd  Championship Pruett says he'll be back hungry as ever next year.

Too bad guys...

Nascar action at Dover Delaware - The Monster Mile

Biffle Does it Again!!! Roush cars 1,2,3!

The three Roush Ford drivers battled as hard as they could without wrecking each other after passing Jimmy Johnson, who had been leading late in the race. Fans at the Monster Mile were on their feet throughout the last laps as the intensity was terrific.

Team owner Jack Roush didn’t want to look, as all three of his cars were all over each other, but they somehow managed to keep it clean. The top 5 drivers agreed they were all happy to be part of such a terrific race, win or lose.

Not the case with Kyle Busch, the points leader all season. He lost an engine finishing 43rd and dropped to 12th in the Chase.

Edwards still holds the Chase lead with Biffle and Johnson now tied for 2nd.
Veteran Mark Martin took a solid 4th in the race with Johnson eventually coming in 5th.
6th Kevin  Harvick
7th Jeff Gordon
8th Clint Bowyer
9th Jeff Burton
10th Michael Waltrip

The Chase goes on…

Bob Sr.'s Weekend Racing Highlights

Editor's Note: Bob Sr. is my dad. He has been racing cars for almost 50 years. If he's not racing on the weekend you'll find him watching auto racing on TV. Every Monday he'll post an update with highlights and the inside scoop on the previous weekend’s big races.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SATURDAY
The Italian Grand Prix at Monza...

The most famous Formula One track in the world — 3.6 miles long, steeped in automotive history, adored by fans and feared by many drivers for top speeds in excess of 220 mph while slipping by trees forming a canopy over the course in several places. It has taken the lives of too many drivers over the years.

Just as last week in Belgium, the rains came again... bringing more surprises. Up-and-coming 21-year-old German, Sebastian Vettel, the youngest driver in F1, absolutely dominated qualifying on a rain-drenched Monza on Saturday and handily took pole position becoming the youngest F1 driver to ever do so.

Top drivers Lewis Hamilton of McLaren and Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen start back in 15th and 14th respectively... and more rain forecast for Sunday.

SUNDAY
Pouring rain, all cars with maximum rain tires and setups, off they go with young Sebastian setting the early pace. (Author's note: Try to imagine hurtling along at 200mph plus, open cockpit, no windshield wipers and for all but the race leader little to NO visibility because of rooster tails in front. I've been there, it sucks.)

Bob Sr.'s Weekend Racing Highlights

Editor's Note: Bob Sr. is my dad. He has been racing cars for almost 50 years. If he's not racing on Sundays you'll find him watching auto racing on TV. Every Monday he'll post an update with highlights and the inside scoop on the previous day's big races.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Formula One race from Spa in Belgium, the fastest course in the series.

The British Wonderboy, Lewis Hamilton in only his second year in F1 starts from pole position, spins in the early going with Kimi Raikkonen, the present F1 World Champion taking an early lead from his Ferrari teammate Filipe Massa. Kimi leads the rest of the race at the course he has dominated for the last three years until two laps remain when rain falls. Hamilton is in second place and closing rapidly, when Lewis trys to pass Kimi, but Kimi closes the door and Hamilton cuts the corner on the inside going thru the chicane (not allowed) and has to let Kimi by. He retains his momentum and gets past Kimi again. Kimi  passes Hamilton but then spins in the wet crashing into the barrier.

Heidfield in the Williams BMW, who cleverly stopped for rain tires two laps previous, comes from 9th on the last lap to take third. Had there been another lap (of 4 miles) he would have surely won.

It looks like Hamilton wins with Massa in second, but hold on.

Then the surprise... after the trophy presentation, interviews, etc. it is announced that the stewards have assessed a 25 second penalty to Hamilton for passing Kimi off course and MASSA is pronounced winner with HEIDFIELD second and HAMILTON finishing in 3rd. WOW!!!

Massa is now only two points behind Hamilton for the World Championship, poor Kimi pretty much out of it, finishing 18th after leading practically the entire race, now trailing in 3rd for the championship.

Much, much controversy of course, over the penalty, but Hamilton certainly could have been back-flagged for his transgression if it was earlier in the race, which would have left Kimi the winner. Quite a wild result to say the least.There will be much written and discussed.

Next race up, The IRL, Indycar 400 at ChicagoLand Speedway.

Scott Dixon only needed to finish 8th or better to clinch the Indycar Championship but raced Helio Castroneves to the wire for the closest photo-finish in Indycar history to be pronounced winner of the race AND the Championship — only to be informed minutes later that Helio had won!

Dixon was somewhat consoled by getting the $100,000,000 check for the Series win.

For the Danica fans, she finished 10th.

NASCAR At Richmond.

• Jimmy Johnson wins and takes momentum into the Chase starting next week in New Hampshire.
• Stewart a disgruntled 2nd.
• Dale Jr. spins Kyle Busch out, "What goes around comes around"....

Other News...
Dario Franchitti, former Indy 500 winner and Indy Car Champion leaves NASCAR after an unsatisfactory season to return — not to his old home at Andretti/Green — but with Chip Gannasi's Championship team paired with new champ Scott Dixon.

Reports of my Demise are Greatly Exaggerated

My dad, Bob Kilpatrick Sr., has been a car guy his whole life. He has been racing MGs since long before I was born and now in his early 70s he is still racing, most often at Sebring Raceway in Florida. I was searching for stories about him on the web tonight and found this blog post from a former employee of his lamenting that he could not locate him. He surmissed that he "must have passed" and also that he was in his 80s back in 2003! If you knew my Dad you'd know how bugged he's going to be that there are reports of his early demise out there, and maybe even worse, that he's in his 80s. Sorry Dad ;-)

Here's a recent pic of him in his 1962 MGB Roadster at Sebring. Keep on racing!