Tonight’s scheduled points race at Fernley 95A Speedway has been canceled due to a conflict with the grand re-opening of the Hawthorne track, which is hosting round three of the Nevada Pro Stock Associations 10-race championship series. The track is also dark Memorial Day weekend, returning to action on June 4.
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It was a weekend of firsts, records, new winners and disaster in the various professional motorsports series. All three of NASCAR’s top touring divisions visited the Monster Mile at Dover last weekend, dodging rain and wrecks. The Sprint Cup victory went to Matt Kenseth, scoring his first win of 2016 and becoming the seventh driver to join the provisional Chase field. The veteran Kenseth used every trick in his arsenal to hold off a charging Kyle Larson at the end, with rookie Chase Elliott coming home third. Many potential challengers were either out of action or laps down at the end after a wreck that resembled Talladega when Jimmie Johnson’s transmission locked on a restart. Tonight a select number of Sprint Cup drivers compete for a million dollars in the 2016 All Star race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Twenty drivers will compete, based on specific qualifications. A driver must have won a race in 2015 or in 2016 (so far all the 2016 winners also won last year), be a past Cup champion or former All-Star winner. Since only 15 drivers meet that criteria this year, the field is going to be filled with the winners of each of the three Sprint Showdown segments, plus the top two in the fan voting. Jeff Gordon is eligible to run, but it appears he’s going to be in the FOX broadcast booth and not behind the wheel.
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The Formula One series returned to Europe last weekend, and it turned out to be disaster for one team and history-making for another. The battling Mercedes teammates of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton committed the ultimate racing sin, violating the sacred principle of “don’t take your teammate out.” Both ended their race in the gravel trap at the entrance to turn four on the first lap. The team and the stewards declined to assign blame, but I have no such compunction. Hamilton had a run with huge closing speed, Rosberg moved over to block and forced Hamilton into the grass, when he lost control and spun back onto the track, collecting Rosberg in the process. My verdict: fault 70 percent Rosberg, 30 percent Hamilton. When I was a driver instructor and driver observer with the Sports Car Club of America many years ago, that’s exactly how I would have called it. However, this disaster for Mercedes set the stage for a historic victory for 18-year-old Max Verstappen, who wheeled his Red Bull racer home to take the checkered flag, becoming the youngest ever F1 winner. Even more remarkable, Verstappen had never driven the car before Friday practice. When he learns it, watch out!
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Veteran NHRA Top Fuel pilot Doug Kalitta scored the third record-setting performance of the weekend, at the Southern Nationals in Atlanta, beating teammate J.R. Todd by less than one-ten thousandths of a second. It was the closest finish in NHRA history, won on reaction time as both cars topped 320 miles per hour at the end of the run. Kalitta is now fourth on the all-time NHRA Top Fuel win list, surpassing the legendary Kenny Bernstein and current competitor Antron Brown.
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Practice for the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 began last Monday, only to be rained out on Tuesday. Dale Coyne Racing’s Gabby Chavez was fastest in the draft on Thursday, clocking a lap at 227.961 miles per hour. Penske Racing driver Will Power had the fastest NTS (no tow speed) with a lap of 225.381 mph. It looks like the Honda-powered ranks have figured out a good superspeedway configuration, because Hondas have been at the top of the speed charts for all of the practice sessions leading up to today’s qualifying. Qualifying opens at 8 a.m. today and airs on ABC at 1 p.m.