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Watching NASCAR: Sprint is Off, Nationwide Running at Chicagoland

July 20, 2012 by Leave a Comment

A bad call was good news for Kasey Kahne last week at Loudon as rival Denny Hamlin’s miscommunication with his crew chief opened the door for Kahne’s second cup victory of the season. While leading in a dominating car, Hamlin went in for a pit stop during a caution and a misunderstanding led his pit crew to change all four tires rather than the two he was expecting.

While Hamlin returned to the track in 13th place due to the extra time it took, he almost made it all up with a rousing charge that saw him close to second place but the race ended before he could manage to regain the top spot. He led half of the laps during the race. After Hamlin the top 5 was filled out by Clint Bowyer, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Brad Keselowski.

The results were great news for Kahne because it gave him a major boost for the Chase as he moved from 16th to 12th position. After the previous weeks second place he appears to be finding his stride at the right time of the season. Hamlin also managed to move up two places with his second place finish.

http://youtu.be/k814NNNqnoo

No race this week

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 race last week in New Hampshire saw Brad Keselowski win the checkered flag with a major assist from Amber Cope, who effectively blocked then race leader Kevin Harvick in heavy traffic, a move that enabled Keselowski to slip past Harvick for the lead and eventually the win.

Cope, who was a lap down at the time threw the winning block with about 20 laps left after Harvick had led for the last 30 laps. He was fuming about the rookie move and made his displeasure well know in his after race comments. The top five was filled out by Kevin Harvick in second followed by Austin Dillion, Sam Hornish Jr. and Rickey Stenhouse Jr.

This Week: STP 300
While Sprint Cup is off this week, Nationwide will be going forward with the STP 300 held at Chicagoland Speedway’s 1.5 mile tri-oval track. It seems that tempers from the Cope move, as well as a few other bumps from last week this could be a great day of racing.

Broadcast
July 22, 2 pm ET ESPN

Nationwide Cup Leaders
1) Elliott Sadler
2) Austin Dillion -3
3) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -16
4) Sam Hornish Jr. -32
5) Justin Allgaier -73

Filed Under: Chicagoland Speedway, Dale Earnhardt Jr., ESPN, Greg Biffle, NASCAR, Sam Hornish Jr., Tony Stewart

Watching NASCAR this week: Lenox Industrial Tools 301

July 13, 2012 by 2 Comments

There was a great finish last week at Daytona, with Tony Stewart making a last lap pass and then holding off a trailing gang of rivals to win his 18th race at the fabled track. Only Dale Earnhardt has more wins at Daytona. The win moved Stewart up 4 places in the driver standings.

The victory must have been even sweeter for Stewart since he was forced to start at the back of the pack due to a failed inspection, and it took him some time to fight his way to the front. He passed Matt Kenesth and then led to the finish. Jeff Burton managed to roar by Kenesth at the end for second followed by Joey Logano and then Ryan Newman.

There was some last minute prerace activity as NASCAR suspended driver AJ Allmendinger just prior to the race for failing a random drug test that he took on June 29, with NASCAR reporting that he had an illegal stimulant in his system. He has claimed that he does not take drugs and that there is an error in the test. Team Penske flew in Sam Hornish Jr in from Charlotte at the last minute, barely a half hour before the race started, to replace Allmendinger.

Since then Allmendinger has elected to bring in his own experts to test his “B” sample, something that is expected to happen next week at the earliest. If he fails he will face an indefinite suspension and need to take a program to get reinstated.

ESPN put up some interesting tidbits about the first half of the season and one that really jumped out at me was this one that points out how unimportant winning is compared to simply finishing. Brad Keselowski has three victories, five top-5s and eight top-10s this season, which is good for 9th currently. Kevin Harvick has zero wins, three top-5s and eight top-10s, but Harvick is 6th in the standings.

Lenox Industrial Tools 301
Next up is a trip to the New Hampshire Motor Speedway for the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 on a 1.05 mile, oval track. It is interestingly the largest sporting facility in New England and can seat 105,000 spectators. There is also a 1.6 mile road course on the site.

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.

Broadcast
July 15 at 12 noon ET TNT

Sprint Cup Standings
1) Matt Kenseth
2) Dale Earnhardt Jr. -25
3) Greg Biffle -44
4) Jimmie Johnson -58
5) Tony Stewart -90
6) Kevin Harvick -90
7) Denny Hamlin -92
8) Martin Truex Jr. -92
9) Brad Keselowski -103
10) Clint Bowyer -104

Nationwide

Kurt Busch won last week in Daytona with a tremendous finish in a race that had 42 lead changes, more than its fair share of crashes and must have delighted any fan that watched. His car looked like it was about to blow at any second over the last few laps and he managed to reach the front of a greatly diminished field with a lap to go and then held on for dear life. The top five was filled out by Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Michael Ammett, Austin Dillon and Joey Logano.

Broadcast
July 14, 2:30 pm ET ESPN

F.W. Webb 200
This week Nationwide will be featured in a shorter race in New Hampshire, the F.W. Webb 200. This may be old hand and I have just missed it but Nationwide is providing a nice behinds the scene view of teams activities with garagecam Head over here to take a look.

Nationwide Series Standings
1) Elliott Sadler
2) Austin Dillon -8
3) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -18
4) Sam Hornish Jr. -35
5) Justin Allgaier -72

Filed Under: Athlete to Follow, Dale Earnhardt Jr., ESPN, Greg Biffle, Kurt Busch, NASCAR, Nationwide Series, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Sam Hornish Jr., Tony Stewart Tagged With: ,

Watching NASCAR this Weekend: Coke Zero 400

July 6, 2012 by 4 Comments

Driving a second car does not keep Brad Keselowski in second place. Despite destroying his primary car in a practice round last week in Kentucky and yet he managed to drive the backup to victory, something that you very rarely see.

Not only did he win but he led the last 55 laps but he did it with a limited gas supply in earning his third victory of the season. Kyle Busch looked very strong early but a bump into the wall and the resulting damage ruined any chance he had of a win. The top five for the week was filled out by Kasey Kahne in second followed by Denny Hamlin, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon.

Next up- Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola
This week the teams are back at a place they are very familiar with, Daytona for the Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola. Not much that can be sad about the track that fans do not already know. It is a 2.5 mile tri-oval and if my math is correct this race marks the half way point in the season. The leader board is very tight and we will probably expand it to the top ten next week.

I did catch an interesting piece over at ESPN about a proposal to include mandatory cautions in races to add excitement. Burton Smith, a billionaire track promoter said that the inclusion would make the races more exciting, something that he believes long stretches of green flag racing is not. NASCRA official seem very cold to the idea, at least right now.

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.

Broadcast
July 7 6:30 ET TNT

Sprint Cup Standings
1) Matt Kenseth
2) Dale Earnhardt Jr. -11
3) Jimmie Johnson -23
4) Greg Biffle –25
5) Denny Hamlin -68

Nationwide Series
The Nationwide race last week was an up and down day for Austin Dillon. He was absolutely dominating in the race, winning his first Nationwide Series race by leading it for 192 out of 200 laps. The win enabled him to take over the leader board from Elliott Sadler, at least for a very short while.

A look below at the point’s leader shows that Dillon fell out of the points lead. The reason for this was a six point penalty because his car failed an inspection following the race last week for having a car that was too low. The top five of the race was filled out by Kurt Busch in second with Kevin Harvick, Michael Annett and Justin Allgaier filling out the remaining positions.

This Week: Subway Jalapeno 250 powered by Coca-Cola

Broadcast
July 6, 7 pm ET ESPN

Nationwide Series Standings
1) Elliott Sadler
2) Austin Dillon -4
3) Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
4) Sam Hornish Jr. -31
5) Justin Allgaier -71

Filed Under: Athlete to Follow, Dale Earnhardt Jr., ESPN, Greg Biffle, Kurt Busch, NASCAR, Sam Hornish Jr. Tagged With: ,

Watching NASCAR this Week: The Quaker State 400

June 29, 2012 by 1 Comment

Clint Bowyer dominated the Sonoma racetrack at last weekend’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 in Sonoma yet still had to withstand a strong performance from Kurt Busch to earn the green flag. He led 71 of the 119 laps in a race that witnessed few cautions and 8 lead changes and which had an average speed of 86 mph, or as a friend said, lap car speeds.

It was a near thing for Bowyer as he ran out of gas at the end of the race and had to walk to victory lane. Busch, in an unsponsored car fell back at the end and the top 5 was filled out with Tony Stewart finishing second followed by Busch, Brian Vickers and Jimmie Johnson.

Quaker State 400 at the Kentucky Speedway.
Next up is the Quaker State 400 at the Kentucky Speedway. The track is a 1.5 mile tri-oval and will be the site of a great deal of speculation as to Matt Kenseth’s future. At the end of the season his contract with Roush Fenway Racing expires and will not be renewed. He is slated to be replaced on the team by Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

So far this season Kenseth has one victory and eight top five finishes and is the leading point’s leader. ESPN is reporting that now Kenseth is claiming that he has a deal for 2013 but is declining to say where. Let the second guessing begin-or is it still at first guessing level?

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.

Broadcast
June 30 at 6:30 pm ET on TNT

Sprint Cup Standings
1) Matt Kenseth
2) Greg Biffle -11
3) Dale Earnhardt Jr. -14
4) Jimmie Johnson -25
5) Tony Stewart -63

Nationwide’s Road America race last week was won by Nelson Piquet Jr., a race that I missed because ESPN decided to broadcast it like something the late LeRoy Neiman would have painted (my cable company is having trouble with some ESPN broadcasts).

Piquet ran a solid race but at least some of the news has to do with Jacques Villenueve how was dominating for a time and racing for a top finish still on the last lap. Then on the last lap to go he was pushed into the grass and came back on the track and collided with Danica Patick, spinning her out from the 5th place position she was in-she eventually finished 12th. The top five was filled out by Michael McDowell in second, then Ron Fellows, Max Papis and Sam Hornish Jr.

Feed the Children 300 at Kentucky Speedway

Broadcast
June 29 7 pm ET ESPN 2

Nationwide Standings
1) Elliott Sadler
2) Austin Dillion -11
3) Rickey Stenhouse Jr. -23
4) Sam Hornish Jr. -34
5) Cole Whitt -75

Filed Under: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Danica Patrick, ESPN, Greg Biffle, Kurt Busch, NASCAR, Sam Hornish Jr., Sprint Cup Series, TNT, Tony Stewart Tagged With: ,

ESPN to Broadcast All Wimbledon Matches

June 25, 2012 by 3 Comments

Wimbledon is here, the one grass court championship in the Grand Slam pantheon. One of the most watched, if not the top tennis tournament of the circuit is about to begin, with qualifying for unseeded players occurring last week. The tournament will run from June 25 to July 8 this year.

There will be much to watch for during the two week tournament. Will Roger Federer win a record tying 7th Men’s Singles title? Will the Williams sisters return to form and dominate? Will the torrential rainstorms that flooded much of northern England move south rather than east?

The event is held at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club and the seedings are in, with a few surprises. On the Men’s side Novak Djokovic has the top spot followed by Rafel Nadal, Roger Federer and Andy Murray. Between the top two they have won the last none major tournaments and Federer has been strong at Wimbledon, although has slipped in the last few years. Between the three of them they have owned the top tournaments over the last seven years. I think it would be nice to see a great upset and a new rising star in the sport, but not sure of that will happen.

On the women’s side Maria Sharapova, fresh off her French Open victory, has top honors, followed by Victoria Azarenka, Agnieszka Radwanska, and Petra Kvitova is fourth. Serena Williams, a four time winner on grass, is the sixth seed while her sister Venus, still dealing with Sjogren’s syndrome, an autoimmune disease that can cause fatigue and joint pain was unseeded.

Broadcast

If you are looking for the match on the television tune into ESPN, which will be broadcasting 140 hours of play across a number of its properties including nine screens on ESPN3 so that you can view any match you wish and all of the action will also be on WatchESPN and via a mobile app as well.

The two main channels, ESPN and ESPN2 will have three days where they are both showing matches simultaneously so that a viewer can hop back and forth to view the ones that they are most interested in.

The network will be showing four historic Men’s finals on ESPN Classic, each shown on the anniversary of the match. In addition users of ESPN on Demand can watch highlights as well as historic matches.

Last year ESPN signed a 12 year deal to broadcast Wimbledon and the network will be expanding its US Open announcer John McEnroe to host a preview show called Breakfast at Wimbledon. With all of the coverage the network has a large staff covering the event including Darren Cahill, Cliff Drysdale, Mary Joe Fernandez, Brad Gilbert, Patrick McEnroe and Pam Shriver. Chris Fowler will call matches and serve as studio host, sharing that role with Hannah Storm and Mike Tirico.

Mon, June 25 6:30 a.m. – 5 p.m. Early Round Action ESPN2 / ESPN3
Tue, June 26 – Thur, June 28 7 a.m. – 5 p.m. Early Round Action ESPN2 /ESPN3
Fri, June 29 7 a.m. – 5 p.m. Early Round Action ESPN / ESPN3
Sat, June 30 8 a.m. – 3 p.m. Early Round Action ESPN / ESPN3
Mon, July 2 7 a.m. – 5 p.m. Round of 16 ESPN2 / ESPN3 8 a.m. – 3 p.m. Round of 16, Centre Court ESPN / ESPN3
Tue, July 3 7 a.m. – 4 p.m. Ladies’ Quarterfinals ESPN2 / ESPN3 Live 8 a.m. – 1 p.m. Ladies’ Quarterfinals, Centre Court ESPN / ESPN3
Wed, July 4 7 a.m. – 4 p.m. Gentlemen’s Quarterfinals ESPN2 / ESPN3 8 a.m. – 3 p.m. Gentlemen’s Quarterfinals, Centre Court ESPN / ESPN3D / ESPN3
Thur, July 5 8 a.m. – 1 p.m. Ladies’ Semifinals ESPN / ESPN3D / ESPN3
Fri, July 6 8 a.m. – 2 p.m. Gentlemen’s Semifinals ESPN / ESPN3D / ESPN3
Sat, July 7 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. Ladies’ Final ESPN / ESPN3D / ESPN3
Sun, July 8 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. Gentlemen’s Final ESPN / ESPN3D / ESPN3

If you want to follow the matches via Twitter, or an individual player or announcer a good place to check out would be TennisTweets which has an exhaustive list of players that you can follow as well as a running board with the latest from a variety of sources.

The official Wimbledon web site is a very clean and easy to use web site. Want to watch video or listen to the games live on the radio-it is there. Get an app for your smartphone or view the history of the event. All there. Interviews, weather forecasts, as well as what you would expect with all of the draws, schedules and results.

If you happen to be wondering about grass courts, according to Wikipedia they tend to be slippery, with the ball, while remaining fast, staying low. The majority of the grass courts worldwide are located in England and they need to be reseeded annually, and so have a higher cost of maintenance.

This year you may very well see a great deal more play on grass than in previous years because the Summer Olympics, held in under two months in London, will see its tennis matches played at the All-England Club as well.

Filed Under: ESPN, ESPN Radio, ESPN3, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, Maria Sharapova, Novak Djokovic, Rafel Nadal, Tennis, Wimbledon Tagged With: ,

NASCAR takes on the Road at Sonoma Raceway

June 22, 2012 by 1 Comment

Dale Earnhardt Jr. must be feeling lighter a foot these days as a 143 race losing streak monkey just leaped off his back with his victory last week at the Quicken Loans 400 held at the Michigan International Speedway.

The victory for the driver, who is having a great season, could help him break another streak that he would love to see gone, that of never having won a championship. In the top ten in points all season he is now just a mere 4 points behind Sprint Cup leader Matt Kenseth. The top five was filled out by Tony Stewart in second followed by Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle and Jimmy Johnson.

Toyota/Save Mart 350
This week’s race is a horse of a different color, as it is a road race at Sonoma, a good deal slower and much harder to pass. The 1.99 mile track, once as long as 2.52 miles, is situated at the gateway to the Napa and Sonoma wine country so if you are heading out you might want to make a weekend of it.

Road races are not to everybody’s taste. No high curves, the banging and bumping that characterize so many other races is missing. I think that they make a nice change of pace, but do not see a need to add another, not that I am aware of any push to do so.

Broadcast
June 24, 2 pm ET on TNT

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 huge list.

Sprint Cup Standings
1) Matt Kenseth
2) Dale Earnhardt Jr. -4
3) Greg Biffle -17
4) Jimmie Johnson -33
5) Denny Hamlin –51

The Nationwide race last week witnessed Joey Logano winning for the second win in a row by leading the last 24 laps but was forced to hold off a hard charging James Buescher to win his fifth race of the year.

Some of the top racers in the Nationwide series did not have great races including points leader Elliott Sadler finishing 11th. Danica Patrick had a very interesting race, there were seven cautions and she was involved in three of them. She did manage to finish in 18th. The top five last week was filled out by Buescher finishing second followed by Kurt Busch, Cole Whitt and Austin Dillon.

Sargento 200
This week the teams are headed to Road America for the Sargento 200, far away from the wine country where the Sprint Cup is running and instead out where the cheeseheads live in Wisconsin. This is also a much longer course that the one in Sonoma, with a 4.04 circuit and 14 turns.

Broadcast
June 23 3 pm ET ESPN

Nationwide Series Standings
1) Elliott Sadler
2) Austin Dillon -8
3) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -27
4) Sam Hornish Jr. -45
5) Cole Whitt -81

Filed Under: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Danica Patrick, Greg Biffle, Kurt Busch, NASCAR, Sam Hornish Jr., Tony Stewart Tagged With:
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