Antron Brown named Night Before the 500 grand marshal

Jimmie Johnson Warns Danica Patrick About Switching to NASCAR Jimmie Johnson has heard the questions and Patrick’s open-ended answers about the possibility of a jump. As NASCAR’s Sprint Cup champion three years running, Johnson’s advice to a potential opponent is pretty simple. Come on over, although not until you’re ready. And, trust me, your not ready. His suggestion is for Patrick to re-sign with the Indy Racing League and spend her free time driving on minor league stock car circuits so she can learn to handle the vastly different machine. It’s not her lack of talent, he says, it’s her lack of experience. It seems to me that the current leader of the good old boys club might have issues with being beat by a female, not to mention that if she moved over to nascar, she would get all the attention, weather she did good or not. She might bring a new fan base to nacar and with those fans comes thier money. I would like to see her in the mix.

I say go for it. It sure didn't hurt Juan Montoya. I think the infusion of a fresh face and new blood is fantastic. She doesn't intimidate, and at 5'2" can handle herself very well as we've all seen when she gets royally pissed........lol I think in this day and age the lady has nothing to prove, she's earned her place to make the jump if that's what she wants to do. Mr. Johnson may not like sharing the lime light, but that's something he has no control of. Race fans want to be entertained and they want to see competition on or off the track. As I recall, I don't believe Mr. Johnson suggested to Mr. Montoya to spend his free time driving on minor league stock car circuits. Just saying.

Button wins F1's Monaco GP to lead Brawn GP http://cli.gs/MzTYqA

Regarding Danica Patrick and NASCAR.....

Calmer, cooler Danica Patrick finishes strong at Indy

INDIANAPOLIS -- If Danica Patrick is serious about the possibility of making the move to NASCAR, she didn't hurt her chances Sunday at the Brickyard.

This was the new calm and cool Patrick on her way to a career-best Indy 500, finishing third and running near the front all day.

Before the final restart with 17 laps to go, Patrick seemed convinced she could win when she talked on the radio to team owner and mentor Michael Andretti.

"I'm ready," she said. "It's getting really fun up here. The car feels really good. I'm happy."

Patrick made a run on Dan Wheldon after the restart but couldn't get by. And neither of them had anything for Helio Castroneves, who was zooming to an emotional victory.

"I had a really good car on long runs, so I wish we could have gone green those last 35 laps," Patrick said. "What are you gonna do?

"The car really came to me at the end. I was able to run flat all the way around, which didn't happen much in practice. I'm glad we had a good result."

One reason for the strong showing was Patrick's calm demeanor. She controlled her emotions better than she ever had in the past for this race.

At one point she lost four spots on pit road (sixth to 10th) by overshooting her stall.

"I'm really sorry, guys," she said as the left the pits. "That was all my fault."

Patrick did show a bit of frustration once, but she had a legitimate reason. She told her crew that Ryan Briscoe had jumped a restart to move ahead of her.

She blamed Briscoe last year at Indy for a bumping incident on pit road that ended her day.

Race officials agreed with her complaint this time, forcing Briscoe to let Patrick move in front of him.

Patrick was methodical and patient all day, a newfound approach that she attributes to former Indy 500 winner Al Unser Jr. She went to Unser a few days ago and asked him what she needed to do to win at Indy.

He told her to make sure in the first half of the race she was there in the last half. "Test your car," he said. "And be steady. Show poise in the cockpit."

Patrick followed Unser's advice. No doubt it was noticed by interested parties, which might include a few NASCAR team owners.

Patrick is in the last year of her contact with Andretti Green Racing. She said she is open to considering NASCAR, but some people believe it's only a negotiation ploy.

Maybe, maybe not. Patrick recently signed with IMG, one of the most powerful marketing firms in sports. IMG reportedly is shopping her around to NASCAR teams and sponsors to gauge the interest in moving to NASCAR.

Every time she finishes near the front in an IndyCar Series event, the NASCAR whispers increase.

Most open-wheel racers haven't fared well lately in NASCAR, but Patrick wouldn't make the move unless it was to a top-tier team and a competitive ride.

And NASCAR could use her star power, especially if Dale Earnhardt Jr. continues to struggle.

AMA MX: Dungey Wins Season Opener at Glen Helen Raceway AMA Motocross 450 Class Overall: 1. Ryan Villopoto (Kawasaki) 2. Mike Alessi (Rockstar Makita Suzuki) 3. Josh Grant (Yamaha) 4. Chad Reed (Rockstar Makita Suzuki) 5. David Millsaps (Honda) 6. Thomas Hahn (Kawasaki) 7. Mike Brown (KTM) 8. Cody Cooper (Yamaha) 9. Weston Peick (Honda) 10. Andrew Short (Honda) AMA Motocross 250 Class Overall: 1. Ryan Dungey (Rockstar Makita Suzuki) 2. Christophe Pourcel (Kawasaki) 3. Tyla Rattray (Kawasaki) 4. Tommy Searle (KTM) 5. Trey Canard (Honda) 6. Justin Barcia (Honda) 7. Brett Metcalfe (Honda) 8. Jake Weimer (Kawasaki) 9. Austin Stroupe (Kawasaki) 10. Blake Wharton (Honda)

Osborne overcoming bad breaks BY SPENCER CAMPBELL BRISTOL HERALD COURIER The boy from Richlands, Va., had waited 13 years for this, sacrificing a shoulder blade and a wrist in the process. He’d battled bronchitis, and lost. He’d been among the best amateurs in the country, and couldn’t get a ride as a professional. Finally, though, all the fractures and the coughing lungs and the relocations paid off in Istanbul, Turkey, more than 5,500 miles from his hometown. In April, Southwest Virginia’s Zach Osborne won his first professional motocross championship at the Grand Prix of Turkey, becoming the first American to win an International Motorcycle Federation (FIM) championship in 10 years and the first U.S. national to triumph in the MX2-GP World Championship division. During that run, Osborne whipped past advertisements touting the sponsors who had once turned their backs on him. He flew across the finish line and gave the crowd a slight pump of his left hand. Surrounded by Istanbul’s mosques, with their pointed domes, he listened to the playing of America’s National Anthem. “That was definitely the best racing moment of my life,” Osborne said in a telephone interview. “It’s a definite boost of confidence. To get a win as a professional in any sort of motorsport is an awesome thing. Not so many people can say that.” Many wondered if Osborne would ever carry the champion label. Osborne’s path into motorsports didn’t take long. His father, Mark Osborne, was a drag racer who won six National Hot Rod Association titles. But Zach shied away from the dragsters, instead taking to his father’s other love: motocross. Osborne began entering amateur races when he was six and won his first championship at eight. At 12, he moved to Austria for a year to develop bikes with motorcycle manufacturer KTM. With phenom status firmly attached, Osborne turned pro at 16 and signed with Red Bull KTM’s motocross team. But Osborne struggled. First, there came a nasty bout of bronchitis. And then he shattered his scapula, the bone comprising his shoulder blade, in an accident. Once that healed, he snapped his wrist in yet another crash. Once Osborne came back healthy, his bike simply didn’t have the power to compete on the U.S. circuit. “Was it tough for me?” Mark Osborne asked. “It’s killer. ... it was very hard for me not to see him be the winner. Just like the guys who are winning nowadays, as amateurs he drove them into the ground.” Just 18-years-old, Osborne was living in Anaheim, Calif., without a job. Fate, however, finally took its foot off his neck. In his neighborhood coffee shop, Osborne struck up a friendship with Utag Yamaha’s team agent. Utag, which has been racing for more than two decades, competes in the IMF’s MX2-Grand Prix World Championships, a 15-round motocross tour that stops in 13 European countries. Osborne traveled to England, where the team is based, for a tryout. “We just thought, ‘OK, looks good in practice,’ ” team owner Steve Dixon said in a telephone interview. “Because I also tested a couple riders before, and they looked quick in practice in their style and aggression. But when it came to racing, they didn’t cut the mustard.” Still, Dixon gave Osborne a shot, and the Richlands native joined the MX-2 tour in mid-June 2008. In only his third event, Osborne won the first heat of the Irish Grand Prix. Dixon saw enough aggression, dedication and humility in Osborne in the final stages of 2008 to commit to the American rider full-time in 2009. Osborne rewarded his owner almost immediately. After his triumph in Turkey, Osborne’s fourth- and seventh-place finishes in the Netherlands moved him six points out of third place in the season standings. “I have some really good guys around me right now,” Osborne said. “Me and my teammate did a lot of training over the winter in South Carolina and at Abingdon, at home, and we just put all the work in and everything’s going well.” Or it was. In the circuit’s fifth race of the season, in Portugal, Osborne tumbled over a jump, chipping a piece of bone from his left wrist. He is currently back home in Whitely, England, undergoing hours of laser and hyperbaric rehabilitation per day. Osborne and Dixon are optimistic that he will be back in the driver’s seat by the GP of Great Britain on May 31. And the now-20-year-old Osborne is confident that he can still make the top 5 in the season standings by the end of the year. With his recent success, the American teams that once spurned Osborne have returned with offers. But Dixon wants him to stick around the UK for awhile, and that idea sounds tempting to Osborne and his father. “I really want him to get that red plate,” Mark said, referring to the MX-2 championship trophy. “He really wants that bad for himself and I think he deserves to have that after all the hurdles – not roadblocks, but hurdles. He deserves something good.”

Mark Martin wins Sprint Cup race at MIS after Jimmie Johnson and Greg Biffle run out of gas

Sunday June 14, 2009

 Mark Martin led just one lap, but it was the one that counted at Michigan International Speedway on Sunday.

Martin took advantage of better fuel mileage to win the LifeLock 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. Martin was running third going into the thrilling final lap, but he was able to cruise by race leaders Jimmie Johnson and Greg Biffle, who both ran out of fuel.

The win came on the 11th anniversary of Martin's last Cup win at MIS in 1998. Jeff Gordon finished second, followed by Denny Hamlin in third, Carl Edwards in fourth and Biffle in fifth.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. has been named NASCAR’s most popular driver for six consecutive seasons in fan voting, and Kyle Busch doesn’t contest the award’s results. He does quibble with its relevance.

“They should change it to, ‘most loved driver,’ “ Busch says. “Everyone loves Junior, so he’s going to get it. But I’m the most popular with the media and the fans talking all the time, whether they say good or bad things.”

“People are obsessed with everything I do. I enjoy it. I’m not here to be vanilla. What’s the ice cream flavor all green and purple? That’s me! Colorful.”

Career move for JR  maybe?

Carmichael Records Career-Best Truck Series Finish

SPARTA, KY. (July 19, 2009) — Ricky Carmichael and the No. 4 Monster Energy Chevrolet Silverado KHI All-Stars team started the Built Ford Tough 225 from the third position. The qualifying effort marked the third time in 2009 Carmichael has started third, his career-best starting position to date. Running in the top 10 the majority of the evening, the No. 4 Monster Energy team was caught one lap down to the leaders following a round of green-flag pit stops, but was able to receive the “lucky dog” award late in the race to put them back on the lead lap. Carmichael was able to battle back and score his career-best finish of seventh and the best finish for the No. 4 Monster Energy team in 2009.

Courtney Force gets her first win at the NHRA Northwest Nationals this past weekend in Seattle.read more at http://www.usatoday.com/sports/motor/nhra/2009-07-21-courtney-force-diary_N.htm

Land Speed Record driver Barry Bryant dies in 200-mph crash at Bonneville

Anyone familiar with land speed trials knows all too well the dangers inherent in pursuing new record-breaking speeds, and today we're saddened to report on the death of one Barry Bryant of Anderson, California.

According to sources, Bryant lost control of his car on Sunday afternoon during Speed Week while passing the five-mile marker on the Bonneville salt flats at 200 miles per hour. The car – called the Tom Thumb Special VII and partially visible in the Bryant family photo above – rolled multiple times, leaving a quarter-mile of debris and emergency crews to cut away at the car to remove the injured driver. Bryant was rushed to the Intermountain Medical Center some 120 miles away in Salt Lake City, but ultimately succumbed to his injuries before arriving there. Our thoughts are with the Bryant family.