The All-Star

Last weekend was the biggest race of the year: the Sprint All-Star race where one million dollars was the only thing on the line. The night started with the Sprint Shootout where only the top two finishers move through to the All-Star. A.J. Allmendinger was the pole sitter but before the green flag dropped he had a flat left front, thus moving Dale Jr. to the pole. Junior was gone with the drop of the green flag and Jamie McMurray fell into second. At the mandatory caution everyone pitted allowing Allmendinger to catch the field. At the green Junior took off yet again as Allmendinger started his march through the field picking off car after car. As the field took two to go, Allmendinger was hot on the heals of McMurray and made the pass for second, securing a transfer spot exiting turn two. Junior took the win, Allmendinger second, and Bobby Labonte won the fan vote.
The All-Star race was guaranteed to be interesting with the introduction of the new format: each winner of the first four segments would be the first four on pit road for the mandatory pit stop. Kyle Busch had the pole for the All-Star but at the drop of the green it was Jimmie Johnson who rocketed to the front and won the first segment, Johnson immediately started playing strategy after the first round off pit stops and dropped  way back from the field at the green knowing he would be the first onto pit road for the final pit stop, Matt Kenseth took the second segment and fell back to join Jimmie Johnson. The third segment was a fantastic one with a fast Kasey Kahne in second and closing on leader Brad Keselowski, Kahne made a dive bomb off turn four coming to the checkered but was beat by about one inch and Keselowski won the third segment and also followed Johnson's strategy. At the drop of the green flag for segment four it was Junior who had played pit strategy to get the lead but a caution late in the segment allowed for Allmendinger to close again, at the restart Junior was able to slightly pull away and keep the lead to win the four segment, allowing him to be the fourth driver to pit road. As the cars came for the mandatory final pit stop the four segment winners were the first to pit road it was Johnson, Kenseth, Keselowski, and Earnhardt Jr., and what and eventful pit stop they were with no one taking tires or gas they all had to come to a complete stop in there pit boxes before leaving, and they all left how they had entered. At the restart Kenseth bobbled a little and Johnson stretched out in front and never looked back leading the final ten laps and winning the Sprint All-Star race. To celebrate Johnson did one of the most awesome things I have seen in a long time. He picked up team owner Rick Hendrick and placed him on the door of his car and drove him around the front stretch on a parade lap.

Come join Me and Lug Nutzz radio at Ultraluxe Cinemas in Garden Walk in Anaheim for an Official Viewing Party of the Nascar All-Star race, fun, games, and prizes. A playstation 3 contest on a 65 foot screen, Ill see you there  

Big news being made this week involving Michael Andretti's Andretti Autosports, the news is Andretti Autosports will be expanding into the Nascar sprint cup series and possibly be Dodges main team. Could Michael Andretti become the next Penske. Proposed drivers to run for Andretti Autosports are Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman, both are former Penske driver and both have established relationships with Dodge. Could this be true, I definitely hope so. If Andretti were to expand to Nascar I  see a field of Indy fans converting to Nascar. Stay tuned for more updates.

Nascar in the Lonestar state and back at Rockingham

The Nascar Nationwide and Sprint Cup series entered Texas after a week off of racing.

Many felt that Ricky Stenhouse Jr. who won the 2011 Nationwide Championship primarily due to the integration of the new points system (where a driver can only run for points in one series). Well ladies and gentleman Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is out to prove them wrong as he took home his second win of the season in only six races, with top 5's and 10's finishes. With fellow championship contender Elliot Sadler having his worst finish of the year in 12th Stenhouse Jr. leaves Texas only 4 points behind the leader Sadler.

Austin Dillon who sits third, also closed up the gap with an impressive 5th place finish. But what caught a lot of peoples attention was the fact that Trevor Bayne's the driver of the number 60 car who sits 7th in point was MIA in the Nationwide garage. Bayne's nightmare came true as the number 60 car did not have the funding to be able to compete. But Bayne was found in the Sprint Cup garage piloting the number 21 Wood Brothers Ford and also won Fridays practice. On Saturday Jimmie Johnson was the one taking it to the field but the 48 slipped up and the Biff was there to pounce, giving the points leader Greg Biffle the win on Saturday night over Jimmie Johnson, giving him his first win of the year. MWR was making even more noise yet again with Martin Truex Jr. capturing the pole position and finishing 6th, and Mark the kid Martin brought home another third place finish. But the question is when will Hendrick Motorsports get that elusive 200th win, my bet is soon as all four drivers came home in the top ten. But that wasn't all the racing, the Camping World Truck series got the Sunday call this time and Kasey Kahne fresh off his first top ten of the season at Texas took home his third Truck series win despite having to start in last. This was Kahne's third win in only four starts.

The streets of Long Beach

The Indy Racing League was back in action this past weekend for the 38th running of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, and did they put on a show. To start off the weekend it was announced that after a test session in Sonoma, Ca that Chevrolet found a concerning issue in the motor of the number 27 GoDaddy.com of James Hinchcliffe, and as a result Chevy told all 11 teams (who use Chevy engines) to change them. Since the teams had changed the motors before the engines had reach there mileage point all 11 teams received a 10 spot grid penalty after qualifying. This was just the start of the weekend, as Friday approached so did the heavy rains that essentially washed out Fridays practice due to flooding in the turns. Since Friday was a wash out the Indy teams were down to one practice session on Saturday before qualifying later in the day. The final practice session was a mess with 5 red flags due to accidents, 3 of which came in the first 7 minuets of the one hour practice. Franchitti received the pole, since the Chevy's were dropped 10 positions, but soon after the green flew on Sunday’s race Franchitti dropped. Ryan Hunter-Reay was the first driver to take charge leading a number of laps, rookie Simon Pagenaud was the second to take charge. The race soon turned into a strategically races Will Power opted to only make

2 pit stops and gain a huge 12 second lead over rookie Pagenaud. Power was told he needed to save fuel and Pagenaud took his opportunity to pounce and closed the lead to 8 tenths of a second, but Will Power was able to hold off the hard charging rookie and take his second win of the year in only three races. Powers win on Sunday brought Penske Racing there third win of the year, rookie Simon Pagenaud took his first Podium of his career and James Hinchcliffe came home in third for his first podium finish and his third top 5 of the season. The IRL is off to an impressive start with the new car and different manufactures, it is proving to be a great season.

My eye on Indy

There are 3 Indy drivers I am keeping my eye one as ones to watch this season, Marco Andretti, Rubens Barrichello, and funny guy Jame Hinchcliffe, James is off to a great start this year with top 5's off the bat. For those of you that do not know who James Hinchcliffe is, he drives the number 27 GoDaddy.com car for Andretti Autosport. After the departure of Danica the ride was originally going to feature the late Dan Wheldon, the GoDaddy.com machine was the given to Hinchcliffe. Hinchcliffe showed up in style sporting a wig all weekend looking like Danica, he isn't just funny he's pretty good as well.

Action packed weekend race fans

Well Nascar fans what did you think of Sundays cup race, could you have asked for a better race, it was packed full of bumping, slide jobs, and door to door banging. Even Jeff Gordon rubbed his way past his own driver Jimmie Johnson. But I am serious could you have asked for a better cup race and yes I am talking about the David Reutimann debacle at the end of the race which caused a huge mess in turn 1 on the restart. Please let me know send me your comments. But Nascar was not the only racing on, the IRL had there second race of the season at Barber Motorsports Park where Will Power drove the number 12 Verizon Wireless Penske Chevrolet to victory lane. With 2 wins in the first 2 races, seems like Penske is off to a start much like John Force racing. I want to hear about the IRL too, what are you first reactions to the new cars, and new engines. Send me an e-mail let me know what you think or what you want to talk about.