2011 IndyCar tv schedule

Bayne youngest Daytona 500 winner, ends Wood Brothers drought

(cbssports.com 2-20-11)

Trevor Bayne finally made a mistake. Fortunately for him, it didn't happen until he missed the turn pulling into Victory Lane at the Daytona 500.

The youngest driver to win the Great American Race gave the historic Wood Brothers team its fifth Daytona 500 victory -- its first since 1976 with David Pearson -- and Bayne did it in a No. 21 Ford that was retrofitted to resemble Pearson's famed ride.

In just his second Sprint Cup start, the 20-year-old Bayne stunned NASCAR's biggest names with a thrilling overtime win Sunday at Daytona International Speedway, holding off Carl Edwards after fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. crashed in NASCAR's first attempt at a green-white-checkered flag finish.

"Our first 500, are you kidding me?" said Bayne, who needed directions to Victory Lane. "Wow. This is unbelievable."

Unbelievable, indeed.

Just one day after celebrating his 20th birthday and leaving his teenage years behind, the sport's biggest race was captured by an aw-shucks Tennessean who shaves once a week and considers Rugrats his favorite TV show.

When he found himself at the front, and victory just two laps away, he never thought it would last. Bayne was content just to say he had been leading at the start of the green-white-checkered.

"I'm a little bit worried that one of them is going to come after me tonight," he said. "I'm going to have to sleep with one eye open. That's why I said I felt a little undeserving. I'm leading, and I'm saying, 'Who can I push?'"

Bayne thought for sure Tony Stewart or someone else would attempt to pass.

Nobody did.

"We get to turn four, and we were still leading the band," he said. "It seemed a little bit too easy there at the end."

The rookie had been great throughout Speedweeks, even proving his mettle by pushing four-time champion Jeff Gordon for most of a qualifying race.

"I figured they had a chance after seeing that boy race in the 150s," said Pearson, who will be inducted into the Hall of Fame in May. "I talked to him this morning. I told him to keep his head straight and not to do anything crazy. I told him to stay relaxed. I'm proud of him."

With the win Bayne breaks Gordon's mark as the youngest winner in Daytona 500 history. Gordon was 25 when he won the 500 in 1997.

"I think it's very cool. Trevor's a good kid, and I love the Wood Brothers," Gordon said. "I'm really happy for him. And I think it's great for the sport. To have a young talent like that -- he's got that spark, you know?"

The victory for NASCAR pioneers Leonard and Glen Wood ended a 10-year-losing streak, and came the week of the 10th anniversary of Dale Earnhardt's fatal accident on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500.

This was only the fourth win in the past 20 years for Wood Brothers, which hasn't run a full Sprint Cup season since 2006.

"When you miss a race, like the Daytona 500, it's like somebody died," said Eddie Wood, part of the second generation of Woods now running the team. "When you walk through the garage and you run into people you see every week, they don't look at you, they don't know what to say."

The rebuild has been slow, and they got Bayne this year for 17 races, on loaner from Roush-Fenway Racing, the team that snatched him up late last season when Michael Waltrip Racing -- which gave Bayne his start in 2009 -- couldn't promise a sponsor for this season.

So it was on to Roush, which plans for Bayne to run for the Nationwide Series title this season, and a deal was made to get him some seat time in the Cup Series with the Woods. It wouldn't be for points, and he wasn't eligible to run for rookie of the year.

But the stunning Daytona 500 win -- and the $1,462,563 payday -- might change everybody's plans. The team already said it will now go to Martinsville, the sixth race of the season, which had not been on its original schedule.

Bayne could possibly retract his decision to run for the Nationwide title.

"I don't even know if that's an option," Bayne said.

Sunday's race had a record 74 lead changes among 22 drivers, and a record 16 cautions that wiped out many of the leaders, including Earnhardt Jr. on the first attempt at NASCAR's version of overtime. It put Bayne out front with a slew of unusual suspects.

David Ragan, winless in 147 career starts, was actually leading the field on NASCAR's first attempt at a green-white-checkered finish. But he was flagged for changing lanes before the starting line, then an accident that collected Earnhardt in the middle of the pack brought out the caution, and Bayne inherited the lead.

But he had two-time series champion Stewart, now winless in 13 career Daytona 500s, lurking behind with veterans Bobby Labonte, Mark Martin and Kurt Busch, who had collected two previous wins over Speedweeks. All were chomping at the bit for their first Daytona 500 title, but Bayne never blinked, holding his gas pedal down wide open as he staved off every challenge over the two-lap final shootout.

"It was too easy," Bayne said.

Edwards wound up second in a Ford and was followed by David Gilliland, Labonte and Busch.

Juan Pablo Montoya was sixth, Regan Smith seventh, and Kyle Busch, Paul Menard and Martin rounded out the top 10.

Earnhardt Jr. wound up 24th.

The race was a battle of attrition, thanks to the dicey two-car tandem racing at nearly 200 mph that was the norm throughout Speedweeks.

Hendrick Motorsports had a rough start to the season as three of the team's four cars, including five-time defending Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson, were involved in an early 14-car wreck.

Gordon, who started on the front row, and Martin also sustained damage in the melee.

Gordon questioned the aggressiveness of his fellow drivers, especially so early in the race.

"What I don't quite understand is why guys are doing it three-wide, three-deep running for 28th," he said.

Tony George Reinstated To H&C Board

(speedtv.com 2-17-11)

Almost two years removed from his angry and abrupt departure, Tony George is back in the family business.

SPEED.com has learned that George has been reinstated on the board of directors of Hulman & Company, the umbrella that funds and administers the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, IZOD INDYCAR series and Clabber Girl Baking Powder.

It’s believed that Mari Hulman George, board chairwoman for Hulman & Company in addition to being chairman of the board at IMS, made the call to bring her son back into the fold.

It doesn’t appear that George’s re-emergence will immediately affect the day-to-day operation of INDYCAR or the Indianapolis 500, although he was known to have made an unsuccessful attempt last summer to purchase the series he started with a couple of investors.

George had served as Chief Executive Officer of Hulman & Company and the Speedway before resigning both positions on June 30, 2009 following what can best be described as a civil war among his siblings.

The only male child of Mari Hulman George and the namesake of IMS savior Anton Hulman, Tony had held those offices since 1989 and was replaced by a pair of longtime IMS loyalists -- Jeff Belskus and Curt Brighton.

Belskus, the chief financial officer for Hulman & Company for 20 years, was elevated to president and CEO of IMS on July 1, 2009 while Brighton, who served as general counsel for the Hulman/George family beginning in 1994, took over as president and CEO of Hulman & Company.

Since founding the Indy Racing League in 1994, George had spent hundreds of millions of dollars on IRL teams, drivers, entry fees, marketing plans, airplanes, personnel and his own team.

The IRL was a financial loser from Day 1 and, coupled with the estimated $60 million overhaul of IMS to accommodate Formula One in 2000, George’s sisters voiced their concern to their mother over the spending habits of their brother.

Nancy George, Josie George and Kathi Conforti-George finally convinced Mari Hulman George to take the check book and unchecked power away from Tony George in June of 2009.

That didn’t sit well with George and not only did he resign both of his positions at IMS and Hulman & Company, he also stepped down as IRL president and became just another car owner with Vision Racing, which closed its doors in 2010.
“As members of his family, we are sorry to see Tony leave,” said Mari Hulman George in 2009. “We are grateful for his service to our company as a board member and for serving as CEO and president of our companies.

“I speak for our whole family in wishing him well. All of us had hoped Tony would continue to serve on the board and we made that clear to him. We are disappointed with his decision to step down despite our wishes.”

Josie George took it upon herself to find a successor for her brother and she hired Randy Bernard away from the Pro Bull Riders in January of 2010.

Since taking over the IRL, Bernard’s aggressive approach has new cars and engines in place for 2012, two new engine manufacturers in General Motors and Lotus and multiple companies interested in building bodywork kits.

Bernard also greatly reduced the overall losses for the series in 2010.

Bernard says Motegi not a good fit

(Helio - "This is the thanks I get for moving over to let Danica win?")

(by Curt Cavin indystar.com 2-9-11)

IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard said today that the series’ race at the Twin Ring Motegi circuit in Japan didn’t work for either party, and that’s why the annual event won’t be held after this year.

The final race is Sept. 18.

“To us, it didn’t fit in that time of the year,” Bernard said. “Here we are gaining momentum for the championship and we have this race at 2 in the morning.

“It would make more sense if you had a big TV following in Japan, but it’s marginal.”

As for the track’s ability to make money on the event that requires expensive international transportation, Bernard said “it was a fair deal, but no one was doing great.”

The 1.5-mile egg-shaped track in the mountains north of Tokyo opened in 1997 and hosted five Champ Car World Series events before switching to IndyCar. Motegi is owned by Mobilityland Corp., a wholly owned unit of Honda Motor Co.

Scott Sharp won the first IndyCar race in 2003. Danica Patrick won her only series race there in 2007. Dan Wheldon and Helio Castroneves won two races each.

Bernard said he isn’t worried about losing an oval track because there “are plenty of options.” He declined to name them, but he has been particularly interested in Phoenix International Raceway.

Also possibilities: Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif.; Chicagoland Speedway; Nashville Superspeedway, among others.

Sundance 2011: Tears and thrills from the Formula 1 track in 'Senna'

(by Kenneth Turan latimes.com/movies 1-22-11)

Sometimes a documentary will unexpectedly reach out and grab you by the throat, not giving you a second to breathe. That's that way it was with "Senna," which had its North American premiere Friday night in Sundance's world documentary competition.

Fans of Formula One racing will know at once that this is a film about the legendary Brazilian Ayrton Senna, considered by some to be the greatest driver who ever lived. A boy genius behind the wheel, capable of pushing cars beyond their capacity, Senna won 33 races and three Grand Prix titles before dying in a crash in 1994 at age 34.

Told solely through the use of archival footage, "Senna" is bursting with great racing sequences, many dealing with his bitter rivalry with French champion Alain Prost. But what makes this film so riveting is the remarkable personality of the man himself.

Someone who just flat-out loved to drive, Senna was a purist who had complete disdain for the politics that had to be played in the cliquish Formula One world. Though he drove like the devil, he was a spiritual person who believed deeply and profoundly in a higher power. A philosophical mystic with a jewel thief's nerves and a poet's sensitivity (and good looks), Senna was an altogether remarkable human being.

"Senna" is fortunate in having Asif Kapadia, best known for his award-winning dramatic debut, "The Warrior," in charge. A British director with a keen sense of drama and a gift for narrative drive, Kapadia also had, said screenwriter and executive producer Manish Pandey, the kind of impeccable eye needed to cull 104 minutes of film from 15,000 hours of archival footage.

Though everything about "Senna" took forever -- years to get the cooperation of both the Senna family and the Formula One hierarchy, further years to do the archival research and then to edit -- the result has been extraordinarily satisfying to the team that spearheaded the work.

Pandey talked about showing the film to Ron Dennis, the head of the McLaren racing team, a man known for being unemotional and so conscious of not wasting a minute of time that he has a car and driver waiting for him everywhere he goes.

"After the film ended, Ron Dennis cried for 10 minutes," Pandey said. "Then he sat and talked about Senna for two hours." Such is the power of this man, and this film.

Jos Verstappen tribute

I love the smell of new tires in the morning

A new Continental tire at the 24 Hours of Daytona testing. Can Spring be that far off? I hope not.