June 21, 2009

Inspection complete; no issues

Inspection of the cars at Infineon Raceway is complete, and not issues were found, according to a tweet from @DustinLong.

Our View: The three random cars that will be taken to the R&D center for an engine inspection at the No. 9, No. 14 and No 96.

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Kahne gets improbable win

It's getting harder by the week to handicap these races. After posting a best finish of only 23rd in five starts—and every other result outside the top 30—Kasey Kahne held off favorites Tony Stewart and Marcos Ambrose to win his 10th career victory and his first on a road course.

Our View: No one could have seen this coming, but if you had Kahne on your roster—kudos to you.

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F1: British GP Results

Finally someone other than Jenson Button won a Formula 1 race. Prior to the British Grand Prix, he had won six of seven events with Sebastian Vettel taking the Chinese Grand Prix. It's only fitting that Vettel took this race as well after winning the pole and dominating at Silverstone.

For his part, Button finish only sixth. Is the competition finally catching up to him? Don't assume that just yet because teammate Rubens Barrichello was in third.

In several races this year the Brawn teammates Button and Barrichello finished one-two. Red Bull Racing kept that tradition alive by placing Mark Webber in second. That was his fourth consecutive top-five finish this season, which has made him a good driver to keep on your roster.
One other item of note: with the exception of Sebastian Bourdais and Heikki Kovalainen who retired at the start, everyone finished either one the lead lap or only one circuit off the pace and an impressive 11 drivers completed the distance.

Results, with average finish

FinishStartDriverLapsStatusAvg Fin
11Sebastian Vettel60Running10.00
23Mark Webber60Running12.43
32Rubens Barrichello60Running7.65
411Felipe Massa60Running7.86
57Nico Rosberg60Running8.75
66Jenson Button60Running9.90
74Jarno Trulli60Running11.46
89Kimi Raikkonen60Running4.78
98Timo Glock60Running10.50
1016Giancarlo Fisichella60Running8.93
115Kazuki Nakajima60Running9.50
1214Nelson Piquet Jr59Running14.00
1312Robert Kubica59Running10.33
1410Fernando Alonso59Running8.63
1515Nick Heidfeld59Running10.40
1619Lewis Hamilton59Running6.67
1718Adrian Sutil59Running18.67
1820Sebastian Buemi59Running18.00
1917Sebastian Bourdais0Retired15.00
2013Heikki Kovalainen0Retired10.67


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IRL: Perfection for Franchitti, wins Iowa

Dario Franchitti won the Iowa Corn 200 for his second Iowa victory in two starts as well as his third consecutive IRL short track race.

Our View: Franchitti took last year off to compete in NASCAR, but he swept both short track races in 2007. That makes him an equally good value next week at Richmond.

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Stewart, Kahne and Blaney to race 410 sprint at Sharon

Tony Stewart will make a rare start in a 410 Sprint car at Sharon Speedway, according to WhoWon.com (caution, this site is notoriously bad about pop-ups). He will be joined in the Lou Blaney Memorial Classic by Kasey Kahne and Dave Blaney.

Our View: That makes this a star-studded event on a track owned by the Blaney family.