NASCAR: Tony Stewart Lucks into Win No. 2 in Fontana

Racin’ with Russ - Tony Stewart wound up the winner on Sunday afternoon after NASCAR series officials pulled the plug with Mother Nature laying down a huge amount of water of the big two-mile track despite 71 laps remaining in the days scheduled race. What might be the shortest and most boring event of the year, this race ran the rain-shortened distance with nary a caution flag. It’s a big wide track with lots of room to pass, therefore lots of room to spread out and have little side-by-side racing or much action of any kind.

The two-thirds distance race could be summarized as follows: Denny Hamlin had the pole, led one lap, Kyle Busch took over out front, then passed by Stewart….Stewart runs to the red flag….he’s declared the winner. Bada-bing….done! No cautions, no incidents to speak of other than Jeff Gordon trying to leave his pit with his gas man still attached to the race car. The top five included Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr, Kevin Harvick and Carl Edwards. With Greg Biffle finishing sixth, the Roush-Fenway driver maintains his position atop the points, but only by seven over Harvick and 17 over Earnhardt. Stewart’s second win of the year is his 44th career trophy, elevating him three spots to fourth overall in the points standings.

Nationwide

Joey Logano took the pole and the win in California on Saturday afternoon. It certainly wasn’t easy as the young driver had to battle with the likes of Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski, Ricky Stenhouse Jr and Elliot Sadler. It took Logano to get up on the wheel to win this one, his 10th career notch in his career win belt. No big incidents to speak of in this race either. The cars crossing the line behind Logano included Stenhouse Jr, Brad Keselowski, Brian Scott and Austin Dillon. The latest results finds Sadler still on top of the points, but only by 18 over Stenhouse Jr. Danica Patrick started 21st, finished 35th with engine problems.

Open Wheel News

The initial round of competition for the IndyCar series took place on Sunday afternoon with heavy hearts remembering the loss of Dan Wheldon at their last outing in Las Vegas. Will Power took the pole the day before and led many of the early laps before Scott Dixon took the point by the half. Helio Castroneves was among the top five foe the first half and slid into the top spot shortly after the mid-point, holding on for his first win in nearly two years. Scott Dixon, Ryan-Hunter Reay, James Hinchcliffe and Ryan Briscoe capped the top five runners.

Across the pond, Formula One drivers took to the beautiful track in Malaysia. Lewis Hamilton once again took the pole, but rain rearranged the running order with Ferrari shoe Fernando Alonso leading during one of the early rain stints. Severe rain stopped the race for nearly an hour well before the half. Once back underway, Alonso motored away with only Sergio Perez in sight of the leader. The race ended with Alonso taking the surprise win over Perez and Hamilton. Alonso now tops the charts by five over Hamilton and 10 over Jenson Button.

From Rumorville

Don’t be surprised if Ferrari officials yank their second driver Felipe Massa before the season is over after continuous poor results and way too many on-track incidents. The natural pick would be Sergio Perez. Stay tuned.

Part-time NASCAR competitor Robby Gordon appears to be backing down their Sprint Cup operation to a handful of races for the remainder of the year. He has quite a few irons in the fire with numerous off-road events planned and of course NASCAR sponsorships are still not easily attainable.

Track owner and billionaire Bruton Smith is taking a poll from his race fans whether he should return Bristol Motor Speedway to the way it was before the current progressive banking was installed. Depending on the results, the project could start within a week or two and be ready for the next scheduled date in August. Me? I say chop it up and bring back what used to be the toughest ticket in town. It needs to go back to a rootin’ and gougin’ race track, then the seats will fill back up again and not have 60,000 empty seats like last week.

That’s it for this week. Next week, RWR will review the NASCAR results from Martinsville along with more racing news from around the globe. Questions?