Jimmie Johnson broke the tie he shared with Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon for wins in the NASCAR All-Star race in taking the last of 10-lap segment of this year’s edition, beating Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Kasey Kahne and Kurt Busch.  Denny Hamlin, Dale Jr., Jamie McMurray, Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards filled out the top 10 with Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon, Ryan Newman, Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. filling out the FMFL top 16.  Mark Martin and Brad Keselowski DNF’d due to mechanical problems while Danica Patrick, who was voted into the race by the fans, finished 20th and last in just about every segment.

Kyle Busch qualified fourth and overcame a pit road snafu to win the Friday night Truck Series race at Charlotte in beating Brendan Gaughan, Max Gresham, Matt Crafton and Ty Dillon with James Buescher, Miguel Paludo, John Wes Townley, Ross Chastain and James Lofton sixth through 10th.  Scott Riggs, Dakoda Armstrong, pole sitter Jeb Burton, Brad Keselowski, Ryan Sieg and Tim George Jr. were the last of the points earners as pick favorites Ryan Blaney (25th), Timothy Peters (26th), Johnny Sauter (28th) and Ron Hornaday (30th) scored the big zip.

Indy 500 qualifying also took place this weekend with Ed Carpenter, rookie Carlos Munoz, Marco Andretti, EJ Viso and A.J. Allmendinger eligible for 1st through 5th qualifying points next weekend.  Keep that in mind when picking your starters for next weekend’s RD#15 of SPEED’s Wind Tunnel Super 7 Sweep Fantasy Racing Game.  The deadline is Friday night and there are three other races to choose for:  Cup and NNS at Charlotte and F1 at Monaco.

Congratulations to Ferrariata from De Pere, Wisconsin on scoring the most points for RD#13 to win an autographed Dave Despain Bobblehead.  Ken picked two ALMS starters, three F1 guys and one driver for each NASCAR race to score 1790, the third-highest result of the season.

Kyle Busch won the Friday night NNS race at Darlington over Elliott Sadler, Brian Vickers, Joey Logano and Matt Kenseth; Kyle Larson, Regan Smith, Sam Hornish Jr., Kasey Kahne and Justin Allgaier filled out the top 10.  Austin Dillon, Chris Buescher, Ty Dillon, Brian Scott, Parker Kligerman and Nelson the groin kicker filled out the FMFL top 16 while Trevor Bayne (32nd) was the odd favorite out who provided a big zero on a number of player’s rosters.

Busch dominated the race, leading 107 of 147 laps to win for the fifth time in eight Nationwide starts this year.  Joe Gibbs Racing cars came home first, second, third and fifth; Penske entries were fourth and eighth while Bayne’s Roush Fenway team mates Chris Buescher and Travis Pastrana were 12th and 28th.  RFR needs to get its NNS program together sooner than later.  The Cat in the Hat is winless this season and even Richard Petty’s cars are more competitive so far.

Matt Kenseth did not lead the most laps in Saturday evening’s Southern 500, that achievement went to Kyle, but he did get the win over Denny Hamlin, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick with Busch sixth and awfully crabby after a slowly deflating tire cost him the win or even a top five finish.  Carl Edwards, Juan Pablo, Dale Jr., Ryan Newman, Clint Bowyer, Martin Truex Jr., Greg Biffle, pole sitter and early leader Kurt Busch, Tony Stewart and Jamie MacMurray filled out the rest of the points-paying positions.

Busch had the field completely covered until the tire cut at the very end but alas, that’s racing.  Kasey Kahne was a contenda but came home 17th, Joey Logano was 22nd, Brad Keselowski finished 32nd and last week’s hero David Ragan was 39th for zero FMFL points.

ALMS raced at Laguna Seca Saturday with the #6 Muscle Milk LMP1 Honda barely beating the #12 Rebellion Racing LMP1 Lola/Toyota with the #’s 551 and 552 LMP2 cars third and fourth ahead of four spec LMPC cars, five GT entries, etc. etc.  The #16 Dyson Lola/Mazda broke after 21 laps and the DeltaWing ran 104 of 150 laps to finish 32nd out of 36 entries.  I was therefure bemused when I read the press release touting how the DeltaWing earned its first podium result at Monterey; technically true, but only because the there are three spots on the podium per class and the fourth car was the one that broke first.

Spaniard Fernando Alonso won his home country’s Grand Prix at Catalunya over Kimi Raikkonen and team mate Felipe Massa with Sebastiel Vettel and Mark Webber fourth and fifth.  Pole sitter Nico Rosberg, Paul di Resta, Jenson Button, Sergio Perez nd dniel Ricciardo filled out the top 10 with Lewis Hamilton a relatively dissappointing 12th.  Another good F1 contest.

This week its the Sprint Cup All-Star and truck races at Charlotte with picks due this coming Thursday night.  Make sure you check out which drivers are not eligible as not every NASCAR star is invited to compete in the Saturday night extravaganza.

While I will never be a fan of a spec IndyCar chassis I have to admit the racing has been pretty good since IndyCar introduced the DW12, as evidenced by James Hinchcliffe’s last lap, last turn pass to win the Sao Paolo race over Takuma Sato.  Marco, Oriol Servia and Josef Newgarden were third through fifth with EJ Viso, Dario, Simona, Simon Pagenaud and Charlie Kimball filling out the top 10.  Ryan Hunter-Reay, Tagliani, Helio, SeaBass, JR Hildebrand and Tristan Vautier completed the top 16 with Scott Dixon (18th) and Will Power (24th) the most pissadointing picks.  Justin Wilson (20th), Tony Kanann (21st) and Graham Rahal also finished out of the points.

RHR led early and Sato led the most laps with Marco Andretti and SeaBass also earning lap leader points.  There were spins and crashes and changing strategies but mostly there was great on-track action that showcased the skills, intestinal fortitude and occasional over exuberance of the drivers.  I can’t wait ’til Indy.

Regan Smith beat out Joey Logano, Kasey Kahne and Kurt Busch to win Saturday’s NNS race at Talladega with Justin Allgaier, Parker Kligerman, Mike Wallace, Jason Whilte, Jeremy Clemens and Austin Dillon fourth through 10th. Elliott Sadler, Jamie Dick, Alex Bowman, Mike Bliss, Brian Vickers and Jeffrey Earnhardt scored the last of the game points with Joey Coulter (21st),  Sam Hornish Jr. (25th), Trevor Bayne (28th), and Kyle Larson (38th) coming up with goose eggs, just like pole sitter Travis Pastrana (36th) and Danica (39th).  And BTW, Larson took out Danica right off the bat and of course they were team mates this weekend, for Turner Scott.  Pisser.

There were five caution periods including one for a Big One and another yellow that set up a green white checkers finish featuring, yes, a third multi-car crash on the last lap, behind the leaders.  What a surprise.

David Ragan and David Gilliland were at the right place at the right time Sunday evening, finishing first and second in their Front Row Motorsports Fords ahead of Cousin Carl, Michael Waltrip and Jimme Johnson in a great white checkers finish at Talladega.  Regan Smith, Martin Truex Jr., Matt Kenseth, Scott Speed and Aric Almirola filled ou the top 10 with Jeff Gordon, David Stremme, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Marco Ambrose, Brad Keselowski and Dave Blaney finishing 11th through 16th.  All the rest of the popular drivers finished out of the FMFL points. Obviously.

There were two big ones and the race was red flagged for 3 1/2 hours due to rain.  The first wreck took out Karvick, Vickers, Biffle, Kasey Kahne and Kyle Busch.  The second saw Kurt Busch fly through the air and land on Ryan Newman, who later shared his feelings to the press, saying, “I am doing this interview to let everybody know I’m all right. They can build safer race cars, they can build safer walls. But they can’t get their heads out of their asses far enough to keep them on the race track, and that’s pretty disappointing. I wanted to make sure I get that point across. Y’all can figure out who ‘they’ is.

“That’s no way to end a race. Our car was much better than that. That’s just poor judgment in restarting the race, poor judgment … I mean, you got what you wanted, but poor judgment and running in the dark and running in the rain. That’s it, thank you.”

Well said.

This week we have ALMS at Laguna Seca, where the DeltaWing will hopefully reappear for more than a lap two, NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide at Darlington and F1 in Catalunya.  Starters are due by Thursday at 3:00 a.m. EST or midnight Arizona.

Brad Keselowski won Friday night’s NNS race at Richmond ahead of Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Brian Vickers and Regan Smith.  Elliott Sadler, Sam Hornish Jr., Kyle Larson, Travis Pastrana and Reed Sorenson filled out the top 10 with Parker Kligerman, Trevor Bayne, Mike Bliss, Nelson Piquet Jr., Johanna Long and rookie Ryan Reed earning the last of the FMFL top 16 points.  Alex Bowman, Justin Allgaier and Austin Dillon were among the popular picks who scored the big zip for the players who started them.

Kevin Harvick won the Saturday night Sprint Cup race in a green-white-checkers finish over Clint Bowyer, Joey Logano, Juan Pablo Montoya and Jeff Burton with Cousin Carl, Matt Kenseth, Aric Almirola, Kurt Busch and Dale Jr. sixth through 10th.  Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Paul Menard, A.J. Allmendinger, Ryan Newman and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. filled out the top 16 with Tony Stewart (18th), Kasey Kahne (21st), Kyle Busch (24th), Brad Keselowski (33rd), Brian Vickers (35th), Greg Biffle (36th) and Mark Martin (38th) scoring zero game points.

So much for the racing, which was typically tight and great on the conservatively banked (14 degrees) 3/4 mile track in the conservative state proudly led by Governor Ultrasound. Tight racing at Richmond always leads to contact, spins, crashes and the occasional post-race kerfuffle.  This weekend was no different, except for the arrests and documentation of one driver actually kicking another driver below the belt.

The Cup race was a doozy as what looked like Juan Pablo Montoya’s first non-road-race win turned into a two lap sprint that saw Kevin Harvick take the trophy.  Then the perennially angry Kurt Busch, who actually led some laps, displayed his displeasure with Matt Kenseth and Tony Stewart on the cool-down lap which resulted in a garage area shouting match between Kurt and Smoke.  No punches were thrown but both the No. 14 and No. 78 Chevys suffered plenty of after-the-checkers-flew damage due to their driver’s bruised egos.

Then there was the Friday night NNS display of lunacy.  After the race Brian Scott approached Nelson Piquet Jr. on pit road to express his feelings about how the son of three-time F1 World Champion had behaved.  Nothing unusual there.  Piquet Jr. then pushed Scott, still nothing unusual.  But when Nelsino kicked the RCR driver in the groin — now that was unusual.

NASCAR drivers, and most Americans, don’t fight that way unless its a matter of life or death — which this wasn’t.  Worse (or best) yet, SPEED found an old clip of his father throwing a couple of punches and then trying to kick another driver below the belt after a Grand Prix crash decades ago.  As Ray Dunlap said, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree … or else groin shots are an acceptable technique in Brazil.
That incident then spilled over into a parking lot as some RCR crew members exchanged insults, trash talk and then blows with a couple of Turner Scott Motorsports guys as they were leaving the track. Two Childress employees were arrested for misdemeanor assault.  Not cool.

And speaking of not cool, this coming weekend’s RD#12 of SPEED’s Wind Tunnel Super 7 Sweep game includes Cup and Nationwide at Talladega; i.e. two more restrictor plate races that will definitely produce at least a couple of Big Ones with the potential for harm among both drivers and spectators.  IndyCar is also in action, this time through the streets of Sao Paulo, and starters aren’t due until Friday night.

Good luck with them picks and please say a prayer for safety in Alabama.

Kyle Busch started second and finished first in Saturday’s NNS race at Kansas City, leading Bad Brad, Austin Dillon, Dale Jr. and Kevin Harvick across the finish line with Matt Kenseth, Regan Smith, Kasey Kahne, Brian Vickers and Justin Allgaier filling out the top 10.  Brian Scott, Parker Kligerman, Elliott Sader, Alex Bowman, Reed Sorenson and Kevin Swindell were 11th through 16th with Trevor Bayne (26th), Kyle Larson (32nd) and Sam Hornish Jr. (34th) the more popular picks who wound up with goose eggs for game points.

Matt Kenseth qualified on pole and led the most laps to win the Sunday Sprint Cup race in Kansas with Kasey Kahne, Jimmie Johnson, Martin Truex Jr. and Clint Bowyer following.  Brad Keselowski, Jamie McMurray, Aric Almirola, Mark Martin and Paul Menard filled out the top 10 with Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon, Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. earning the last of the FMFL points.  Drivers who scored the big nod included Carl Edwards (17th), Greg Biffle (19th), Tony Stewart (21st), Kyle Busch (38th, after the second of two crashes) and Joey Logano (39th, the victim of Kyle’s second crash).

The #6 Muscle Milk LMP1 Honda beat the #12 Rebellion Racing Lola/Toyota to win the Long Beach ALMS race with three LMPCs following in front of the #01 Honda LMP2, the #55 Rahal Letterman BMW GT, the #02 Honda LMP2 and eight more GT cars.  Other than the disappointment of starting a car that wasn’t entered, the sight of the #16 Dyson LMP1 hitting the wall and retiring mid-race was especially disdainful.

The Grand-Am Rolex Series made its first visit to Road Atlanta on Saturday with the No. 01 Ganassi BMW/Riley taking the win from pole, followed by the No. 2 Ford/Riley, the No. 99 Red Dragon Chevy, the No. 6 Ford/Riley and the No. 90 Spirit of Daytona Chevy/Coyote.  The No. 10, 60, 9, 3, 8 and 43 DP’s followed with five GTs filling out the top 16 as the only Daytona Prototypes that DNF’d were the No. 4  Sahlen’s BMW/Riley car and the No. 5 Action Express Corvette.

Sebastien Vettel started second and finished first in the Grand Prix of Bahrain beating Kimi Raikkonen, Romain Grosjean, Paul di Resta and Lewis Hamilton.  Sergio Perez, Mark Weber, Fernando Alonso and polesitter Nico Rosberg were sixth through ninth ahead of Jenson Button, Pastor Maldonado, Nico Hulkenberg, Adrial Sutil, Valtteri Botas, Felipe Massa and Daniel Ricciardo.  Pirelli kept their super soft tires at home and the race action was probaby the best its been in two seasons.

Takuma Sato earned his first IndyCar win in fine style at Long Beach, beating Graham Rahal, Justin Wilson, polesitter Dario Franchitti and JR Hildebrand.  Oriol Servia, Marco Andretti, Simon Pagenaud, Simona de Silverstro and Helio Castroneves filled out the top 10 with Scott Dixon, James Jakes, Josef Newgarden, Ana Beatriz, Sebastien Bourdais and Will Power 11th though 16th.  Ryan Hunter-Reay (crash), Mike Conway (mechanical) and James Hinchcliffe (crash) all scored zero for the players who started them.

Sato’s win for A.J. Foyt was as popular as it was surprising.  The Honda -supported Japanese driver who, until Sunday, was no more successful on this side of the pond than he was when racing F1, finally broke through to finish first for the first time since 2001, when he won an F3 race.  He gave SuperTex his first W since Brazilian Airton Dare won an IRL race at Kansas City in 2002 and the team’s first non-oval victory since A.J. won at Silverstone in 1978.  Let’s hope there are more from now on.

The deadine for starters for this coming weekend’s RD#11, with Cup and NNS at Richmond while the sports car and open wheel drivers take some time off is this coming Thursday night at 12:00 a.m. Arizona time.  Good luck!

Kyle Busch is da man — for now at least.  The driver formerly known as Shrub dominated both the Friday night NNS race and the Saturday night Sprint Cup NRA 500, and the only reason I’m mentioning the title sponsor’s name is because a fan in the infied exercised his second amendment right and committed suicide with his own legally owned gun.  Pretty sad.

The Cup race saw Martin Truex Jr., Cousin Carl, Greg Biffle and Joey Logano finish second through fifth behind the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Toyota with Jimmie Johnson, Aric Almirola, Brian Vickers, Brad Keselowski and Ryan Newman in the top 10.  Kasey Kahne, Matt Kenseth, Kevin Harvick, Mark Martin, Clint Bowyer and Jamie McMurray were 11th through 16th with Tony Stewart (21st), Dale Jr. (29th) and Jeff Gordon (38th) among the favorites who scored zero game points.

Friday night’s Nationwide race showed Bad Brad, Austin Dillon, Dale Jr. and Kevin Harvick following Kyle across the finish line with Matt Kenseth, Regan Smith, Kasey Kahne, Brian Vickers and Justin Allgaier sixth through 10th.  Brian Scott, Parker Kligerman, Elliott Sadler, Alex Bowman, Reed Sorenson and Kevin Swindell filled out the FMFL top 16.  Trevor Bayne (26th), Kyle Larson (32nd) and Sam Hornish Jr. (34th) finished out of the points.

Kyle Larson earned his first NASCAR Truck Series victory on Sunday at Rockingham, holding off Joey Logano on a green/white/checkers restart with Brendan Gaughan, Johnny Sauter and Chase Elliott following.  Matt Crafton, pole sitter Jeb Burton, Ryan Blaney, Erik Jones and Miguel Paludo filled out the top 10 with John Wes Townley, Ty Dillon, Joey Coulter, James Buescher, Ron Hornaday Jr. and Max Gresham 11th through 16th.

Fernando Alonso gave Ferrari its first F1 win of the season in beating Kimi Raikkonen, Lewis Hamilton, Sebastien Vettel and Jenson Button at the GP of China with Felipe Massa, Daniel Ricciardo, Paul di Resta, Romain Grossjean and Nico Hulkenberg sixth through 10th.  Nico Rosberg and Mark Webber were the only popular picks who finished out of the top 16 in another race where tires more than car and driver seemed to make the difference between winning and losing.

This week it’s IndyCar and ALMS at Long Beach, F1 at the international powder keg called Bahrain, Rolex at Road Atlanta and both Cup and Trucks at Kansas.  Starting lineups are due by midnight AZ this Friday night.

Max Angelelli and Jordan Taylor drove their No. 10 Chevy/Dallara to the Rolex Series win at Barber Park on Saturday from third on the grid with the pole-winning No. 99 Red Dragon Chevy/Riley second and the No. 90 Spirit of Daytona Chevy/Coyote third.  Pruett and Rojas were fourth in their Ganassi BMW/Riley ahead of the No.6 and No. 2 Ford/Rileys with the No. 42, No. 60, No. 9 and No. 3 cars filling out the top 10.  All 13 DPs finishes in the points with three GTs scoring the last of the FMFL top 16 points.

After being inactive since Daytona, Johnny Sauter is now two for two as he won the NCWTS race at Martinsville over teammate Matt Crafton, rookie Jeb Burton, Timothy Peter and super rookie Darrell Wallace.  Perhaps-Super-Rookie (it’s too early to tell) Chase Elliott was sixth in front of Dakoda Armstrong, Ryan Sieg, Erik Jones and greybeard Ron Hornaday, Jr. with Toddy Bodine, Brendan Gaughan, David Starr, James Buescher, Joey Coulter and Ryan Blaney filling out the top 16.  Ty Dillon was 18th and out of the points, same with Kevin Harvick, fifth-fastest qualifier German Quirogo and John Wes Townley.

Jimmie Johnson won for the eighth time at Martinsville in Sunday’s Cup race ahead of Clint Bowyer, Jeff Gordon, Kasey Kahne and Kyle Busch.  Brad Keselowski, Jamie McMurray, Marco Ambrose, Greg Biffle and Mark Martin filled out the top 10 with Brian Vickers, Danica, Happy Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Cousin Carl and Casey Mears finishing 11th through 16th.  Tony Stewart was 17th and just out of the points, Joey Logano was 23rd with no big incidents, Ryan Newman was 31st and Kurt Busch finished 37th after smacking the wall late and having his car catch fire big time.

Andretti Autosport remains undefeated in the 2013 IndyCar season after Ryan Hunter-Reay won from pole and led the most laps at Barber Park with Scott Dixon and Helio Castroneves making the podium in front of a surprisingly fast Charlie Kimball and and an equally surprisingly non-dominant Will Power.  Simon Pagenaud, Marco Andretti, Justin Wilson, Josef Newgarden and young frod Tristan Vautier filled out the top 10 with Alex Tagliani, EJ Viso, Tony Kanaan, Takuma Sato, Oriol Servia and Sebastien Bourdais 11th through 16th.  Sadly, St. Petersburg winner James Hinchcliffe DNF’d for zero FMFL points.

Congratulations to Husker Express on scoring the most points for RD#8 to win an autographed Dave Despain Bobblehead and to me, The Commish, on scoring the most points this week in the Team Tunnel private league to make a little progress on weaksauce, my mortal nemisis who has all all my respect for being not only a worthy adversary in the Super 7 Sweep game but also someone who is following his dream in producing and directing his first real movie.  Check it out at http://www.romthemovie.com

Bad boy Sebastian Vettel disobeyed team orders and passed Mark Webber to take the F1 win in Malaysia with Lewis Hamilton third in front of teammate Nico Rosberg — who followed orders from the Mercedes team manager.  Felipe Massa was fifth in front of Romain Grosjean, Kimi Raikkonen, Nico Hulkenberg, Sergio Perez and Jean-Eric Vergne.

Fernando Alonso scored the big zip after crashing due to a broken front wing that was damaged when he hit Vettel from behind on lap one.  Adrian Sutil DNF’d after a mechanical failure during a pit stop and Jenson Button also scored nada.

James Hinchcliffe finally found victory lane in beating Helio Castroneves, Marco Andretti, Tony Kanaan and Scott Dixon at the IndyCar opener at St. Petersburg with Simona De Silvestro, EJ Viso, Takuma Sato, Justin Wilson and Alex Tagliani filling out the top 10.  Sebastien Bourdais, Charlie Kimball, Graham Rahal, Ed Carpenter, James Jakes and Will Power filled out the FMFL top 16.

Condolences to Power as the pole sitter and early race leader was litterally run over by JR Hildebrand during a caution period when the Panther Racing driver quit paying attention to what was going on in front of him.

Poor kid.  His first claim to fame was giving away the 2011 Indy 500 in turn four of the last lap via brain fade and now this.  Of course, Dario Franchitti also stepped on it when he drove too hard on cold tires coming out of a green flat pit stop and put his Target car into a wall.  Oops.

Kyle Busch won his ninth consecutive NNS race at Fontana from pole after leading the most laps with Sam Hornish Jr. second ahead of Regan Smith, Parker Kligerman, Austin Dillon, Kyle Larson and Elliott Sadler.  Brian Scott, Trevor Bayne and Kevin Swindell followed with Justin Allgaier, Alex Bowman, Travis Pastrana, Joe Nemechek, Dakoda Armstrong and Nelson Piquet Jr. getting the last of the game points.  Brad Keselowski was 19th and Brian Vickers 34th to disappoint a whole bunch of players who started them.

Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at California Speedway was also a Kyle Busch benefit as he led the most laps to finish first ahead of Dale Jr., his brother Kurt, Cousin Carl and Greg Biffle with Joey Logano sixth in front of Matt Kenseth, Paul Menard, Kasey Kahne and Ryan Newman.  Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Aric Almirola, Casey Mears and A.J. Allmendinger were 11th through 16th.

Of course the big story was Denny Hamlin’s crash, the result of Logano moving up into him on the last lap was they were fighting for the lead.  The No. 11 FedEx driver wound up in the hospital after a hard hit when his Toyota hit a non-soft inside wall while the driver formerly known as Sliced Bread salvaged sixth before being attacked by Tony Stewart on pit road when the race was over.

Joey Logano reminds me of Nuke LaLoosh from Bull Durham; i.e. a million dollar talent and five-cent head.  The next race is Martinsville and I’ll bet Darrell Waltrip’s hair color budget the No. 22 Penske driver gets picked on, pummelled and put into the wall early and often.

Congratulations to Infinitiloco on scoring the most points to win an autographed Dave Despain Bobblehead and to Bones32 for winning a $25 SPEED Online Store gift certificate for scoring the most points in March.
Next week is the game’s only off-weekend with the deadline for RD#8 a week from this coming Friday.

Kasey Kahne started second and finished first ahead of polesitter Kyle Busch in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Bristol with Bad Brad Keselowski, Kurt Busch and Clint Bowyer filling out the top five.  Dale Jr., Ryan Newman, Brian Vickers, Paul Menard and Jamie McMurray completed the top 10 with Greg Biffle, Martin Truex Jr., A.J. Allmendinger, Kevin Harvick, Casey Mears and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. earning the last of the top 16 FMFL points.

Denny Hamlin led the most laps but finished 23rd, Joey Logano led a couple of laps but finished 17th and thought the No. 11 FedEx driver played a role in that result, Tony Stewart popped a tire and hit the wall early to come home 31st, ditto for Jimmie Johnson (22nd) and Jeff Gordon (34th).  And pity galore for Matt Kenseth, who was a definite contenda until hitting Wonderboy when the No. 24 Chevy crashed.

Kyle Busch held off rookie Kyle Larson at the finish line to win the Saturday NNS race in front of Brian Vickers, Sam Hornish Jr., Happy Harvick, Regan Smith, Chris Buescher, Parker Kligerman, Justin Allgaier and Brian Scott.  Austin Dillon, Trevor Bayne, Mike Bliss, Alex Bowman, Brad Keselowski and Travis Pastrana were 11th through 16th.  Elliott Sadler started fifth but done blowed up early to finish 36th for no points and a lot of dissappointed players.

In the final 12 hrs. of Sebring as sanctioned by ALMS the top five qualifiers finished first through fifth with the #1 and #2 Audis the only cars that led any laps and the #12 #13 Rebellion Racing Lola Toyotas splitting the #6 Muscle Milk Honda in fourth.  Level Five’s two LMP2 Hondas were sixth and seventh in fron of the No. 41 Zytek car followed by four spec LMPC cars, one of Scott Sharp’s new LMP2 cars, another PC and two GT cars.  The #16 Dyson car only lasted 81 laps to spread a whole lot of zeroes around while the #01 DeltaWing, now powered by a Mazda-based engine, blew up right off the bat to be classified 42nd and last.  Bummer.

NOTE:  I was so excited about the DeltaWing when it was first introduced as an option for the new IndyCar.  I remained excited when it ran at Le Mans last year and then I got especially jazzed when it finished sixth at the Petit Le Mans.  When the post Grand-Am/ALMS merger announcement was made, including the news that the DeltaWing would be included for the 2014 season I was positively giddy.

And then I saw the closed cockpit version on display at Sebring.  Oops.  Excitement gone.  No, it was worse than that.  I was repulsed.  OTFW.  Better luck next time.

Kimi Raikkonen won the F1 season-opener at Melbourne from seventh on the grid, beating Fernando Alonso, polesitter Sebastien Vettel, Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton. Second-fast qualifer Mark Webber had another horid start and finished sixth in front of the surprising smooth and fast Adrian Sutil, Paul di Resta, Jenson Button and Romain Grosjean.  Nico Rosberg was darn racey until his Mercedes broke and Nico Hulkenberg didn’t even get to start when his Sauber’s fuel system failed before the race.

The big story was the tires.  The fastest qualifiers had to start on the super soft ‘reds’ and they lasted only a few laps before they degraded and forced a pit stop.  Adrian Sutil qualified and started on intermediates and actually led more than a few laps when the Red Bull, Ferrari, Lotus and Mercedes drivers had to stop.  If the rain his Force India team was hoping for had actually shown up, Yo!Adrian would have probably won his first F1 race.

But it didn’t, so he didn’t, and the new Pirellis that are going to be used this season could very well determine the championship.

This week it’s Cup and NNS at Fontana, F1 at Sepang and the IndyCar opener at St. Petersburg.  Lineups are due by midnight AZ this Friday.

Carl Edwards, winless in 70 races, started 15th but finished first in the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Phoenix and led the most laps to boot.  Jimmie Johnson barely overtook Denny Hamlin for second with Bad Brad fourth, Dale Jr. fifth and Clint Bowyer — Jeff Gordon’s BFF — finishing sixth ahead of Matt Kenseth.  Smoke, Wonderboy and Jeff Burton filled out the top ten with  A.J Allmendinger, Juan Pablum, Happy Harvick, Casey Mears, Aric Almirola and Ricky Stenhouse getting the rest of the FMFL top 16 points.

Greg Biffle led 39 laps but came home 17th, Kasey Kahne started second but finished 19th for zero points, and polesitter Mark Martin was classified 21st after pitting early because he thought he had a loose wheel.  Kyle Busch started fourth but smacked the wall early for a 23rd place result, Ryan Newman started 10th but finished 40th, one spot ahead of the most media-friendly driver in America, Danica Patrick, who blew a tire and came home 39th after starting 40th.  Big deal.

NOTE:  I have absolutely nothing against Danica as she is a race car driver who climbs in a car, buckles up and does the best she can — just like 42 other drivers (almost) every weekend. But I DO have a grudge against the media who seem to think Danica is special because she has a different chromosome package.  Come on media guys, get over the whole “skirts vs. pants” storyline.  I mean, really.  Ms. Patrick is a race car driver, no better and no worse than any other person who chooses to compete for competition’s sake.  She’s been around and in the public eye for more than a decade, following in the footsteps of Janet Guthrie, Lyn St. James and others.  Can we please get over her?

2nd NOTE:  This cutting the corner crap at PIR esto muy stupido.  Why paint a yellow line if it means zip?  The Commish suggest they either remove the painted line of demarkation or penalize the drivers, a la Daytona and Tallakillya, if they put four wheels over that line.