Last week I mentioned all the teammate troubles this season. Well, the teammate tango continued last weekend.
Saturday night at Texas Motor Speedway, Tony Kanaan got his very prominent nose out of joint after being blocked by fellow Andretti Autosport driver Danica Patrick. And, on the last lap of Sunday's rain-delayed Pocono Cup race, Richard Petty Racing driver A.J. Allmendinger ran teammate Kasey Kahne into the grass, triggering a huge multi-car accident. In post-race interviews, Kanaan hinted that he might start charging Danica for setting up her car, and Kahne indicated that he probably wouldn't be able to pick A.J. out of a lineup, he knew so little about him.
• Mackena Bell is getting really tired of bad luck. Engine problems at Martinsville last weekend causing her to qualify only 24th. The engine woes were compounded by a flat tire during the race that led to a green-flag pit stop and dropped her to 18th place at the checker. On the bright side, the team realizes that her bad luck is not of her making, and crew chief Jerry Babb is very pleased with her progress.
"I was really impressed with Mackena this weekend," Babb said. "She fought two issues that were out of her control ... but used it as motivation to keep digging instead of letting it get her rattled. We see improvement in her every week."
Bell's next race, her fifth outing in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East, will be at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on June 25.
• SPEED is carrying much of this weekend's 24 Hours of Lemans live, interspersed with coverage of the Canadian Grand Prix Formula 1 qualifying and race, and the NASCAR Camping World Truck series from Michigan. Sunday is the NASCAR Sprint Cup race from Michigan on TNT with Penske Racing driver Kurt Busch's Dodge on the pole.
• In order to compensate for the extra drag that the new spoiler has added to the Sprint Cup cars, NASCAR announced on Monday that it will be using a larger restrictor plate for the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona on July 3. The new plate will by 3/64" larger than the plate used in the Daytona 500. The July race will be the last one at Daytona on the old paving, as the track will be repaved prior to next season's Daytona 500. Remember the pavement breakup that caused two red flags during the 500? NASCAR wants no more red flags or red faces over a similar situation.
• Speaking of red faces, the Izod Indycar series safety crew should be blushing in shame after finally rescuing Simona de Silvestro from her flaming car at Texas Motor Speedway last Saturday night. Malfunctioning fire extinguishers, a stuck head restraint, and rescue workers milling around like the Keystone Kops could have led to a tragic situation. Fortunately, Simona was extracted with only minor burns to her right hand, but Indycar officials need to make some drastic changes to safety crew procedures, personnel, or both. They also should look at the design of the head restraint system, which prevented Simona from exiting the car on her own. Had it been a driver the size of Paul Tracy instead of the diminutive de Silvestro, the consequences might have been much more severe.
• Finally, there is some sad news from NHRA.
For the second time in three seasons there has been a fatality during the SuperNationals at Englishtown, New Jersey. Following Scott Kalitta's death in 2008, NHRA shortened races from a quarter mile to 1,000 feet. Unfortunately, it was not enough to save Top Alcohol Funny Car driver Neal Parker, 58, who was unable to stop his car from a trap speed of 249.90 miles per hour during a qualifying run on Friday. He crashed through the sand trap and two layers of catch netting before striking water barrels at the end of the runoff area. NHRA officials and the New Jersey State Police are investigating the accident.