This wknd was one of only two times this year that virtually EVERY racing series was on, at least every sanctioning body was in action… so let’s get to it…

NASCAR
NASCAR Nextel Cup finally raced in Pocono after a lengthy rain delay, and it was Jeff Gordon with the best pit strategy to end up the winner when the skies opened up again, just 5 laps past the official point.  Hey, when it’s your year, it’s your year.  The Busch Series was in Nashville, where Carl Edwards back flipped his way into Victory Lane yet again.  And the Truck series raced in Texas, the crowd booed Todd Bodine after the win as they thought he purposely spun Travis Kvapil out to take the lead… but please, look at it again… there was a bit too much blocking going on by Travis, and then he himself got loose before any contact was made by Todd… TB won it fair and square.
www.nascar.com
www.jayski.com

 

IndyCar
Also in TX was the IndyCar Series, and after leading only 5 laps this entire year, Sam Hornish came out a dominated the TMS high banks.  However, it was not just the Sam show as Danica and Dan once again provided a lot of drama in the opening laps, Danica herself almost had the car to beat in the closing laps and ‘good friends’ Tomas Scheckter and Marco Andretti went at it friendly style… with Scheckter gaining the cheers as he stomped across the grass to throw his gloves at Marco mid-race.  Yep, another TMS gooden… for our Sam Hornish audio, click here (he’s about 20 minutes in to the 1st hour – GREAT Hornish insight interview) and for the Danica Patrick audio, click here.
www.indycar.com
www.tracksideonline.com

 

Formula One
Formula One had an action packed day in Canada… virtually everyone made a mistake, except for race winner rookie Lewis Hamilton!!!!  Obviously this is huge history as Lewis has become the first black driver to win in Formula One, on top of the fact that he has amassed a rookie season for the record books… he’s now the points leader!  For all the Lewis Hamilton info you can possibly handle, check out these websites:
www.Formula1.com
www.crash.net
www.lewishamilton.com
www.mclaren.com 

 

Champ Car
The Champ Cars were back after a month plus hiatus, and by the time my plane from TX landed and I drove home, I turned on the TV and saw Justin Wilson with a 14 second lead… I was ready to chalk up the day for the British contingent (with a Justin win following Lewis Hamilton) and then turned the station to NASCAR’s rain delay.  When I turned back to Champ Car, suddenly the man Sebastien Bourdais had pulled ahead + 1 second.  WHAT???  How the hell did he do that?  Well, chalk up another one for the Frenchman… another BRILLIANT run that moved Newman Haas Lanigan Racing into another century… it was win #100 for the team.  Sebastien talked about the win with us on SpeedFreaks Sunday night, plus LeMans coming up and his chances on landing an F1 ride in 2008… click here for the audio. 

Onto the Mazda Atlantics… Robert Wickens and Kevin Lacroix each earned their first Atlantic wins of their career by each winning one of the doubleheader event in PDX.  O Canada… yes, Lugg Nuttz is proud.
www.champcar.ws

 

Two Wheel (AMA)
AMA Motocross was in Southwick, where legend Ricky Carmichael was to race one of his final four 2-wheel events of his career before officially retiring on to 4 wheels.  And speaking of #100 on the win list, RC notched number 99 (of the outdoor ranks) by taking the Southwick crown.  Truly there is and never has been anyone better at the outdoor tracks than Ricky Carmichael.  Again, the GOAT.

The Hillclimb series raced in Steel City, PA and for the second weekend in a row, Phil Libhart notched the win.
www.amaproracing.com

 

Two Wheel (MotoGP)
MotoGP in Spain was another really, really good race on the weekend.  Casey Stoner gave multi time champ Valentino Rossi a run for his money… and just nipped him at the stripe by 7 hundreths of a second!
www.MotoGP.com

 

Drag Racing
NHRA had a weekend full of drama themselves in Chicago.  Top Ten Nitro names like last week’s two winners Brandon Bernstein and Mike Ashley failed to even make the TF and FC fields!  Other DNQ’s were David Grubnic, Robert Hight and Whit Bazemore!  But when it all shook out, winners were Larry Dixon (his first since Indy 2005), Gary Scelzi, Jeg Coughlin (enter SpeedFreaks Mojo here) and Andrew Hines.  For the Dixon audio from Sunday night, click here.
www.nhra.com
www.nitromater.com

 

Sports Cars
Grand Am raced the 6 Hours at the Glen and can you believe it has taken this long to get the season’s first duplicate winner?!  Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty took their 2nd prototype champagne toast, while Andy Lally made it happen in the GT class.
www.grand-am.com

 

And then there’s the Sopranos Finale… I know many of you are cussing it out saying it was awful, lacked drama, blah, blah, blah… even CNN was reporting on it this morning saying that the HBO website had to be temporarily shut down due to all the negative comments being sent.  Hey, the bottom line is this, the Soprano family is fine… all’s well that ends well and that is what the finale was all about.  It was symbolism all over the place, but something I had to catch by watching it a second time, to be honest.  It was brilliant directing and a genius way of ending a tense, sometimes turbulent, multi suspense plotted series.  It was ‘the guys’ watching an old TV rerun that mentioned, “Can’t you just give me a chance?”  It was AJ, the new and improved AJ, reminding his father of when he once told him, “Remember the good times… focus on the good times;” it was a show that finally put the bad guys (Phil) out of the picture; it was the families making up, not being had; Tony watching "Lil Miss Sunshine" in Sil's hospital room (a happy-go-lucky storyline); AJ moving on with his life and finally laughing; Meadow on the up and up personally and career wise – and telling her father exactly WHY; Carmella getting to finally remodel her home; Tony trying to help his sister; Tony (in his own way) making up with his father; and Tony divulging info to the right people so as to maybe stay clean of future indictments (though that was still a cliffhanger); and the family moving on from the recent tragedies and starting to pull in the new members (Patrick et al)… all to the tune of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” and abruptly ending on the words “Don’t Stop…”  Altogether… Genius.  I highly recommend you watch it again and you’ll see it that way, too.

 

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CrashG@SpeedFreaks.TV