This week: Crown Royal presents the Curtiss Shaver 400
The Sprint Cup Series took a holiday weekend last week so the teams should be rested and repaired for this week. This week’s race, held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is the Crown Royal presents the Curtiss Shaver 400 at the Brickyard.
No introduction is needed for a track that is so regularly used, and one that so regularly provides a great deal of driving entertainment. There has been some tweaking to the teams however as JTG Daugherty Racing reported that Bobby Hutchens is the new general manager for its one-car team and Bobby Labonte its driver. Gone is Todd Berrier, who left for Furniture Row Racing to replace Pete Rondeau.
It is starting to look like the suspension of AJ Allmendinger may be a long term one if reports that are surfacing are true. ESPN is reporting, via Bleacher Report, that he also failed his “B” test and is in violation of the sport’s substance abuse policy. No idea if Sam Hornish Jr. will keep the wheel of the 22 car.
Broadcast
July 29 at 12 pm ET ESPN
An interesting side bar on this week’s race is that actor and film director Ron Howard will be driving the pace car to open the race. While he has not directed a film about NASCAR he has just completed filming a movie entitled “Rush” about F1 drivers James Hunt and Niki Lauda with a very memorable crash scene.
Twitter– Instead of pointing to a number of Twitter addresses as we have in the past it seems to make much more sense just to send you to a site that appears to have consolidated a who’s who of racing twitter addresses instead. So head over here for a list.
Sprint Cup Series Standings
1) Matt Kenseth
2) Dale Earnhardt Jr. -16
3) Greg Biffle -40
4) Jimmie Johnson -51
5) Denny Hamlin -79
6) Kevin Harvick -85
7) Tony Stewart -89
8 Martin Truex Jr. -90
9) Clint Bowyer -93
10) Brad Keselowski -94
The Nationwide Series did not take a week off last week and points leader Elliott Sadler is happy about that. In a nail biting finish he held off the #3 in points Ricky Stenhouse on a green-white-checker finish to gain victory row at Chicagoland.
Towards the end of the race it certainly looked as if Stenhouse had enough car to catch and pass Sadler but the restart at the end and a push from Justin Allgaier was all that Sadler needed to clinch the win. The top five was filled out by Allgaier in third followed by Kenny Wallance and Michael Annett. Wallace’s car failed a post race inspection and penalties are expected.
Nationwide Series Standings
1) Elliott Sadler
2) Austin Dillon -11
3) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -19
4) Sam Hornish Jr. -42
5) Justin Allgaier -78
This Week Indy 250
Broadcast
July 28, 4 pm ET ESPN
[…] Mobile Sports Report […]