Three And Easy

After Bahrain, it was a double-header of Stateside racing. Television scheduling over here saw the NASCAR live with IRL shown afterwards. Useful thing the IRL not being live, given the rain delays incurred.

Carl Edwards notched up his third win of the season at Texas. The #99 featured in the battle for the lead throughout and took his opportunity when presented. The revitalised Jimmie Johnson came home in second position, given credence to the talk that his team have overcome recent difficulties. The same cannot be said for team-mate Jeff Gordon who had an unbalanced car from the first day of the weekend. Gordon struggled heavily before spinning out trying to stay on the lead lap. Dale Earnhardt Junior started from pole but NASCAR’s most popular driver faded as the day went on.

Kyle Busch put last week’s troubles behind him to finish third, bringing momentum back to his Chase charge. It was a good day for Gibbs with Hamlin and Stewart finishing fifth and seventh respectively. The every present Richard Childress team who announced this week they would be expanding to a fourth car next year had all their drivers in the top eleven. The NASCAR circuit moves on to Phoenix on Saturday night.

PC's Driver of the Day: Carl Edwards. Over the last few weeks the likeable native of Missouri has had to deal with the shadow of his 100 point penalty after victory at Las Vegas. The #99 team has come out fighting since and got justly rewarded. It's a reminder to the rest of the field that he means business.

COT Proves a Point

It may have his critics, but the Car Of Tomorrow, or Car Of Today, or whatever people fancy calling it now proved its worth during qualifying for the race at Texas.

Rookie Michael McDowell who is piloting the #00 Toyota Camry for Michael Waltrip Racing survived a massive, massive shunt during his qualifying stint. I heard about it but I didn’t actually see it till the pre-race show now. Personally I was surprised that he got out of it unscathed after such a smash. It’s a perfect example of how far car safety has come over the last few years. Not only did McDowell get out of the car safely, but he will be competing today in the race.

Below is a video of the actual crash he had.

IRL Round-Up

At the same time the second round of the IRL season was run at St. Petersburg. The first race off the ovals promised to close up the gap for the ex-Champ Car drivers and the addition of rain spiced things up. Newman/Haas/Lanigan driver Graham Rahal, son of Champ Car legend Bobby, came through to become the youngest winner in open wheelers. This was also Rahal’s first IRL start having missed out at Homestead due to lack of parts to repair his damaged racer. Even before the rain the street course showed that the discrepancy between the two groups of drivers will not be a factor. Champ Car converts Will Power and Justin Wilson both qualified in the top three. The rain brought out the strategic minds and Rahal pipped the vastly experienced Castroneves after eking out his fuel mileage to the flag.