Bleacher Report - Articles by Dustin Harlow

Webber Becomes First Time Winner in Germany

Dustin Harlow — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 09:29:34 -0400

Mark Webber is now 130 for 1, as he won Sunday's German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring. Teammate Sebastian Vettel was second, and Felipe Massa in the Ferrari was third. Nico Rosberg and Jenson Button rounded up your Top 5.

Rubens Barrichello, who lead a lot of laps Sunday finished in sixth after a problem in the pits. Brawn GP and Jenson Button lead the points for the constructor's championship and driver's championship going to Hungary in two weeks, which can be seen on Fox.

I'm glad to see a change in F1 with new teams and drivers winning. For so long it was dominated by Ferrari and McLaren, and things have turned but you can be sure they are down but not out and will bounce back.

Dario Franchitti Wins Toronto

Dustin Harlow — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 15:26:09 -0400

Dario Franchitti won Sunday's Honda Indy Toronto at Exhibition Place in Toronto with Ryan Briscoe coming in second and Will Power third.

This was a very competitive race as I thought it would be from the Saturday qualifying sessions. Dario takes the points lead back going to Edmonton in two weeks; he has a two point lead over Scott Dixon, and Ryan Briscoe is in third 13 points back, so this battle is still very tight and I think will come down to the final race again this year.

A rivialary renewed Sunday between Helio Castroneves and Paul Tracy. Going for second place, they touched, and into the wall goes Tracy. The crowd wasn't too happy, but the drivers know it was a racing deal. Personally, I think paul was faster and Helio should've let him go, but it's hard to say in that situation and it was less than 20 laps to go, so you can't give up much.

This was not a good day for the AGR cars of Ed Carpenter and Tomas Scheckter, and even though Alex Tagliani, Mario Moraes, and EJ Viso had good runs it turned out bad at the end with an accident hurting their chances at a win. Tagliani had a great car and so did Mario; They lead a lot of laps in Toronto. It's now off to Edmonton in two weeks before going back to the oval in Kentucky.

Franchitti Tops Final Practice in Toronto

Dustin Harlow — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 10:44:52 -0400

Dario Franchitti, the pole sitter, topped the final practice at Toronto for Sunday's Honda Indy Toronto at the famed street circuit. Mario Moraes was second, with Alex Tagliani third, Scott Dixon fourth, and Tomas Scheckter rounding out the Top Five.

This looks to be a very competitive race in Toronto and we could see a first time winner. Will Power wants to prove he can still win, and he has the team behind him to do it. Also, will the Ganassi boys pull away from Penske in the title hunt? A lot of unanswered questions to come today in Toronto.

Mark Martin Wins in Chicago

Dustin Harlow — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 23:50:00 -0400

Mark Martin made it four for 2009 on Saturday night, winning the LifeLock.com 400 at the Chicagoland Speedway after he led 195 of the 267 laps and the Hendrick cars led a combined 253 of the 267 laps. Can you say domination?

Jeff Gordon was second, Kasey Kahne came third, Tony Stewart fourth, and Denny Hamlin in fifth. Jimmie Johnson, who led laps, got into trouble on the restart with 10 laps to go with Denny Hamlin and then with Kurt Busch, which didn't help his chances nor Brian Vickers' or Kurt Busch's. These guys are all running good, just too many mistakes and it is gonna cost them.

Mark Martin is becoming Mr. Saturday night, well sorta. Besides the win in Michigan this puts him 11th in the points with the most wins of any other driver in 2009, with Kyle Busch having three and Tony Stewart with two, not counting the All Star Race. If mark wouldn't have had such bad luck to start the year, he would be in the top half of the points. I think something needs to be tweaked with this; if a driver with the most wins misses The Chase, well we have a problem.

Tony Stewart keeps the points lead going to Indy in two weeks, 175 points over Jeff Gordon. A bad night for Kyle Busch puts him 10th in points; he is on the edge of missing The Chase, but I think he will rebound. Congratulations to Mark Martin and Hendrick Motorsports. With Rick's birthday Sunday, what a great gift from the team.

Brian Vickers on Pole, Scott Speed Second in Chicago Qualifying

Dustin Harlow — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 22:44:07 -0400

Brian Vickers was the fastest man in Chicago Thursday night winning his fifth pole of 2009 with a fast lap of 29.32 seconds, translating to 184.162 mph to put the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota on the pole with teammate Scott Speed starting second in an all Red Bull front row for the LifeLock.com 400 Saturday night. Jimmie Johnson will line up third with Denny Hamlin and Clint Bowyer rounding out the top 5

Now, here is the rest of the top 10: Kyle Busch and Jeff Gordon start sixth and seventh with Bill Elliott in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Motocraft Ford starting eighth and the Micheal Waltrip cars of David Reutimann and Marcos Ambrose in ninth and tenth, respectively.

Dale Earnhardt Jr did very well in practice and qualifying, and so did Mark Martin. They will start 14th and 15th. The Hendrick cars look very strong for this weekend in Chicago. Could this be the week for former winner Dale Jr?

Also the Fords of Roush Fenway cars are absent from the top 15. Could we have another first-time winner in Chicago? Tony Stewart, last week's winner in Daytona, had a bad qualifying run and will start 32nd. Three drivers failed to make the race as Mike Wallace, Dexter Bean and Tony Raines go home.

You can catch the race live on TNT Saturday with Countdown To Green starting at 6:30 p.m. EST.

Carl Edwards Tops Nationwide Series Final Practice In Chicago

Dustin Harlow — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:29:33 -0400

Carl Edwards topped final practice for the Nationwide Series Thursday night at the Chicagoland Speedway with Greg Biffle second, two Roush Fenway Racing Fords atop the speed charts.

This will be the second night race in a row for the series before going to Gateway next weekend for another, so it will work for the driver who can let his team know how to tune the car for the win.

Kyle Busch swept both the Nationwide and Cup races last summer in Chicago. Can he do that again? It's been an up-and-down year for Kyle, who has lost a lot of races. Maybe his bad luck is coming early and will have a good end to the 2009 season.

Brian Vickers Leads Practice in Chicago

Dustin Harlow — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 18:58:51 -0400

Brian Vickers topped the first practice speed chart Thursday at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illnois getting ready for Sprint Cup Qualifying at 8:30 on Speed. Here's the Top Five from practice on Thursday.

Brian Vickers
Mark Martin
Scott Speed
Jimmie Johnson
Jeff Gordon

Dale Jr. is in the Top 10 and David Gilliland blew a engine in practice.

Nationwide Series practice for tomorrows race is at 7:00pm on ESPN 2 Tonight!

Justin Wilson Wins At Watkins Glen!

Dustin Harlow — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 15:58:46 -0400

Justin Wilson scored big for Dale Coyne Racing Sunday with the Teams first win at Watkins Glen and Justin's first of 2009 in the Camping World IndyCar Grand Prix.

It was the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat for the big teams Team Penske and Chip Ganassi as Ryan Briscoe, Scott Dixon and Helio Castroneves settled for the top 4 spots.

Justin Wilson's last win was at Belle Isle in Detroit last fall and Dale Coyne has been in the sport over 25 years and today was his lucky day with a win at the glen.

This did shake up the IRL Indy Car Series Point Standings going to a street race in Toronto next Sunday at 1pm on ABC. Scott Dixon leads with Dario Franchitti and Ryan Briscoe tied in second 19 points behind the leader and Helio Castroneves in fourth.

I was glad to see the IRL made some changes to the cars and it helped improve the racing at the glen and hopefully at the ovals in the future but for the next few weeks they will stop in Canada at Toronto and Edmonton before heading to Kentucky in August.

Justin Wilson Leads Final Practice @ Watkins Glen Sunday Morning

Dustin Harlow — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 11:40:05 -0400

Justin Wilson led this mornings final practice for todays Camping World IndyCar Grand Prix at Watkins Glen with EJ Viso in second. This has always been a great race and i love the Watkins Glen region myself.

Graham Rahal who is coming off a great third place run at Richmond was third in the warmup with Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti rounding out the top 6. Ryan Briscoe was 8th he is on pole and Helio Castroneves seems to be struggling this weekend as he was 16th.

Paul Tracy is back this week and Richard Antinucci makes his debut from Indy lights.

This should be a great race today and tighten the points up even more or will someone get and advantage as they head to Toronto next week? Find out today at 1pm on ABC.

Tony Stewart Wins The Coke Zero 400 In A Wild Finish At Daytona

Dustin Harlow — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 00:38:01 -0400

Tony Stewart started from pole and stayed in front all night as he had the most dominate car in the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona and his pit crew never let him down as they never lost a spot on pit road. The race seen alot of cautions which took out some big name drivers as in Mark Martin, Dale Earnhardt Jr, and a host of others.

As the race began to venture into the closing laps more accidents started to happen and that set up a dash to the end that would look alot like Talladega when Kyle Busch took the lead on the final lap and tryed to block Tony for the win he was turned into the wall hard and got nailed by a pack of cars, thankfully Kyle was ok and Tony won.

Jimmie Johnson finished in second Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards and Kurt Busch round out the top 5 as the series heads to Chicago next weekend for another Saturday night race Kyle Busch won that race last year passing Jimmie Johnson in a green white checker finish.

Tony Stewart padded his points leader over Jeff Gordon tonight he leads Gordon by 180 points going to Chicagoland Speedway.

Tony looks to be on a roll and is in the best position i think that he has ever been to capture another cup title but it will be interesting after Richmond when the chase starts coming off the win tonight at Daytona it was Tony's third win in the summer race and second points win not counting the All Star Race in Charlotte back in May.

Ryan Briscoe Leads Practice At Watkins Glen

Dustin Harlow — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 13:17:04 -0400

After a bad week in Richmond Ryan Briscoe is atop the speed charts in the first practice at Watkins Glen International Raceway.

The team Penske cars of Briscoe and Castroneves had a terrible week in Richmond and hope to rebound this weekend to get in the top spot in the points but they will have to be the Ganassi boys of Scott Dixion and Dario Franchitti.

Here is your practice speeds from the first practice with the Indy lights race later today followed by Indycar qualifying.

Pole Prediction-Ryan Briscoe

Race Prediction-Scott Dixon

Clint Bowyer Wins Nationwide Race At Daytona

Dustin Harlow — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 23:19:36 -0400

Clint Bowyer finally made it to victory lane at Daytona friday night in the Nascar Nationwide Series Subway Jalapeno 250 holding off Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards for the win in a green white checkered finish.

Clint Bowyer who started on pole and lead a lot of laps made it around to take the white flag before a big crash on the front stretch that ended the race under caution. It was a great race with a lot of passing and Daytona has always come down to a wild exciting finish.

The race saw many caution flags especially at the end which is the usual as everyone starts moving toward the front for a shot at the win. Kyle Busch holds on to the points lead over Carl Edwards by 172 points heading to Chicago next weekend.

Tony Stewart won the pole for Saturdays Coke Zero 400 at Daytona after Qualifying was rained out Friday the fourth time this season Jeff Gordon will start second see race live on TNT with Nascar Countdown To Green @ 6:30 Saturday.

Happy July 4th Weekend!

IRL Richmond Race Was It Really That Bad?

Dustin Harlow — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:09:29 -0400

There has been a lot of debate over last weekend's Suntrust Indy Challenge at the Richmond International Raceway. The teams, drivers, and fans were frustrated because of the lack of passing, but a year earlier everyone was complaning of so many cautions. Well, you cant please everyone and Richmond has been a good track for IndyCar racing in the past. I think the main reason for the problem was the IRL cars, and now rule changes will go into effect starting at Kentucky in August.

Im glad to see the IRL make some changes, and hopefully it's for the better. Now as far as Richmond goes, I don't think the IRL should just blame the track for being too small. We've seen great racing at Milwaukee and Iowa, and this is the only race in the Mid-Atlantic region that has had good turnouts. I would like to see some new chassis designs and new engine suppliers so IndyCar racing is not like the old IROC series, which was a even playing field.

Then again, it is auto racing and you are supposed to beat the competition, so Scott Dixon did just that and now the points battle is very tight going into Watkins Glen with the top two seperated by one point. The IRL has always had close points championship battles, and it has came down to the last lap of the final race the past two years to determine the season champion. Now that is something you dont see often. I say let's move on and see how the changes take effect in August before everyone goes off the deep end.

The IndyCar Series will now hit a bunch of road and street courses in July before the next oval in August, so I hope we have some great racing in July to help the series. I think the season has been a five out of 10, but the second half is always better.

IndyCar Race At Richmond

Dustin Harlow — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 22:09:00 -0400

Now everyone has and opinion on last Saturdays Suntrust Indy Challenge at Richmond International Raceway alot of bad comments have followed and people are frustrated at how things went down, but the bottom line is it was'nt all that bad.

Indycar racing is exciting but sometimes your suppose to beat the other drivers and that is exactly what Scott Dixon did taking the win after he beat his teammate Dario Franchitti off pit road dario was the polesitter for the race.

Last year everyone was complaining about so many cautions so my theory is you cant please everyone this has happened in almost every racing series ive ever watched. Now there has been a lot of talk about the 2010 schedule and that it will be split with road/street and oval courses first off I don't think that has anything to do with it, the IRL has always had there best races on the ovals, and they seem to be moving away from that but i think a mix is good i just hope they don't drop the Richmond race because it is a well attended race and the only one in the mid Atlantic region.

Now if everyone wants to see some big time passing and excitement why not run the IRL at Daytona or Talladega? talk about some fast wild and crazy racing that would either be the best racing in the world or the worst so why not give it a try?

The points battle has always been good and has came down to the last race and last lap the last two seasons so its not like it isn't exciting so don't just downplay one race for all. It would be nice to see some new suppliers come in so its not like IROC, it was a great series but folded and hopefully this doesn't happen with the IRL.