Sunday is perhaps the biggest day of the season for race fans, with the Monaco Grand Prix, the 100th running of the Indy 500, and NASCAR’s longest race, the Coke 600 at Charlotte. Last weekend in the lead up to these events, James Hinchcliffe won the Indy pole and Joey Logano took home a million dollar check by winning the NASCAR All-Star race. One year ago, Hinchcliffe watched the Indy 500 from a hospital bed after suffering a life-threatening crash in practice. His return this year has been nothing short of spectacular, as evidenced by his performance in the run for the pole. He leads the field to the green flag Sunday, and hopes to be in the same position 200 laps later when the checkered flag flies. He’ll have his work cut out for him, though. There are six previous winners in the field, led by Helio Castroneves with three victories, Juan Montoya with two, and Ryan Hunter-Reay, Tony Kanaan, Scott Dixon, and Buddy Rice with one win apiece. There’s also Simon Pagenaud, who has won the last three IndyCar outings, and Will Power, who can never be counted out. The Honda teams have been strong all month, so Graham Rahal has a solid shot as well. I can’t wait to see whose face will be the next one on the Borg-Warner Trophy.
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The first race of the day Sunday will be the best-known and most glamorous on the Formula 1 calendar and one of the oldest existing street circuits, Monaco. The race has been run since 1929, although not from 1938 to 1947 during the European World War II years and the immediate aftermath. From 1948 until 1955 the race was intermittent, but since then it has been a fixture on the Formula 1 calendar. Giants of the sport have been victorious at Monaco, from prewar stars like Rudolf Carraciola and Tazio Nuvolari to Juan Manuel Fangio, Stirling Moss, Graham Hill, and Jackie Stewart, and more modern stars such as Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso, and Lewis Hamilton. Last year’s winner Nico Rosberg has been on a tear this season, and is looking for a repeat win for Mercedes, provided he can avoid taking himself and teammate Hamilton out as happened in Russia. There was considerable carnage during Thursday’s practice, with a number of cars colliding with the unforgiving barriers lining the course. Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo was on record pace in the second practice, besting both Mercedes drivers. Qualifying took place early this morning, so results weren’t available at press time.
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No one this year is undertaking the grueling “double,” running both the Indy and Charlotte race. A number of drivers have attempted it in the past, with Kurt Busch the most recent in 2014. Busch did surprisingly well at Indy, finishing sixth from a 12th place starting position but dropped out of the Coke 600 early. Going into Sunday’s race, Jimmie Johnson leads all active drivers with seven wins at Charlotte, four of them in the 600. His Hendrick teammate Kasey Kahne is next with four total wins, three in the 600. Other 600 winners are Kevin Harvick with two and Casey Mears with one. Matt Kenseth and Jamie McMurray each have two Charlotte victories, but none in the 600. Sunday Martin Truex Jr. will start from the pole, his first at Charlotte.
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The NASCAR Hall of Fame inductees for 2017 have been announced, and team owners are heavily featured. Raymond Parks, an owner from the earliest days of NASCAR is joined by current team owners Richard Childress and Rick Hendrick. Two drivers, one also a broadcaster, are the other two inductees: perennial championship runner-up Mark Martin and NASCAR Cup champion and popular broadcaster Benny Parsons round out the class of 2017. Martin got the phone call shortly after arriving at Indianapolis Motor Speedway to attend his first Indy 500.
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Finally, the re-opening of Hawthorne Speedway after 20 years was a success by all accounts. Yerington’s Gene Kay took home $1,000 for winning the Pro Stock feature, Cory Sample won the IMCA Modified main, Jeff Tuttle took Hobby Stock, and Joe Frock was the Dwarf Car victor.