Michael Duane Bliss Kurt Thomas Busch Kyle Thomas Busch Jeffrey Tyler Burton
Saturday
Hot Seats: 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Convertible vs. Jaguar F-type V-8 S
The Chevrolet Corvette convertible and the Jaguar F-type V-8 S we?ve gathered here fulfill the basic tenets of the hot-rod faith. Window-shattering V-8? Check. Two seats tucked into a body that will draw longing stares and disapproving looks? Check. Guy behind the wheel wearing a Hawaiian shirt? Check. READ MORE ??
Friday
Ed Carpenter wins second consecutive Indianapolis 500 pole; Kurt Busch 12th
Ed Carpenter is starting first in the Indianapolis 500 again.
The last qualifier during Sunday's pole qualifying session at Indianapolis, Carpenter snatched the pole from James Hinchcliffe with his four-lap run of 231.067 MPH.
Carpenter started on the pole in the 2013 Indianapolis 500 and finished 10th.
After suffering a concussion in last week's Grand Prix of Indianapolis, Hinchcliffe's Indy 500 was in doubt. However, he was cleared by IndyCar doctors earlier in the week and was able to practice the car before qualifying began.
The top nine qualifiers from Saturday's qualifying session were eligible for the pole on Sunday. Kurt Busch was 10th Saturday, so he was forced to run again and was unable to improve his position. After Sunday's run, Busch will start 12th. Juan Pablo Montoya, in his first Indianapolis 500 since he won in 2000, was the fastest of the non-top nine qualifiers. He'll start 10th.
Busch left Saturday's qualifying session early to get back to Charlotte for the Sprint Cup Series Sprint All-Star Race and only made one attempt. After running the All-Star Race last night, Busch returned to Indianapolis Sunday morning.
After Carpenter and Hinchcliffe, Will Power completes the front row. Helio Castroneves will start fourth and Simon Pagenaud, the winner of the Indy GP, starts fifth.
33 cars attempted to qualify for the race, so no one will miss the show.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @NickBromberg
Floyd Anthony Raines Scott Russell Riggs Hiroshi Fushida Beppe Gabbiani
Thursday
Orange You Glad There?s Only One? Funky, One-Off Lamborghini 5-95 Zagato Debuts
When Italian design houses like Zagato, Ghia, or Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera take to reworking the lines of legendary established sports cars, they usually come out even more beautiful. Alas, such was not the case with this latest creation, the shovel-nosed Lamborghini 5-95 Zagato, a Gallardo-based one-off that debuted at this year?s Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este. […]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/caranddriver/blog/~3/-RnmtSvB8zw/
Kerry Dale Earnhardt Ralph Dale Earnhardt Sr Ralph Dale Earnhardt Jr Carl Michael Edwards III
Wednesday
Power Rankings: Jeff Gordon stays at the top, but Joey Logano is right on his heels
Our Power Rankings are far from a scientific formula. In fact, it's the perfect blend of analytics and bias against your favorite driver. And you think we dislike your favorite driver, so it makes sense, right? Direct all your complaints to us at happyhourmailbag@yahoo.com.
No. 1 Jeff Gordon (LW: 1): A winless driver atop Power Rankings still? Sacre bleu! Gordon still has the points lead and probably had the best car throughout the entire race on Saturday night. Any of the four drivers in the battle for the lead with five laps to go had a chance to win the race and it simply came down to where drivers were when the contact started to happen. Gordon was trapped behind Brad Keselowski and Matt Kenseth, and by the time he got by both of them, Joey Logano was long gone.
No. 2 Joey Logano (LW: 6): As colleague Geoffrey Miller wrote Monday, this is the Joey Logano we've been told about. Not only does Logano have a second win this season, but he did it at a short track. It may seem insignificant, but all of Logano's previous wins had come on big tracks, save for the fuel-mileage gamble at New Hampshire. Plus, he's been horrible, historically, at Richmond. Logano is a Cup contender and will be for many years. Don't be surprised if Logano gets his first title before Brad Keselowski gets his second.
No. 3 Dale Earnhardt Jr. (LW: 2): Junior started saying his brake pedal was going soft not much past the halfway portion of the race Saturday night. Those must have been some really good brakes, because they held out long enough for Junior to stay near the leaders the entire night. He also had a really good handling car too, and that helps with the longevity of an iffy brake pedal. Junior may be our next multiple-winner this season.
No. 4. Matt Kenseth (LW: 4): Matt Kenseth's car was flat charging forward in the final stages of the race. After being consistently in the back-half of the top 10 all evening, Kenseth found something at the end of the race and moved towards the lead. And he was doing one heck of a job of maintaining it before the game of bumper cars ensued, knocking him out of the lead. Can we all agree that Kenseth was doing what he had to do to keep the lead and that Keselowski was well within his rights to move him out of the way like he did?
No. 5 Kyle Busch (LW: 7): Had the race been 10-15 laps longer, this man would have been your winner. Crew chief Dave Rogers made the decision for Busch to come down pit road and take tires late in the race and it paid off, as Busch made up a ton of ground off the final two restarts. He was chasing down the leaders as the four-car gaggle for the lead was happening, and had it continued for a couple more laps, it would have been a five-car fight.
No. 6 Kevin Harvick (LW: 5): Harvick was good for most of the evening, but his car fell off dramatically on one set of tires, which cost him a chance for the win. He ended up 11th, which is a good finish for Harvick's spot in the points standings. However, it really isn't indicative of his night as a whole. He was better than that for the majority of the race.
No. 7 Brad Keselowski (LW: 10): When listening to Brad Keselowski's comments after the race about Matt Kenseth's driving style over the final laps, it was hard not to harken back to Texas 2012, when Keselowski and Johnson went up the track. Johnson ultimately won that race and Keselowski was second, though he won the championship. We're not using Keselowski's words against him, just that it feels like comments about driving styles can be purely circumstantial. It's human nature, right?
No. 8 Jimmie Johnson (LW: 3): Johnson takes a five-spot tumble after a tire issue derailed his day. However, the drop in the rankings is more so because all of the drivers ahead of him finished in the top 11 and four of them had a chance for the win. Richmond has been the No. 48's nemesis lately, which seems to poke a hole in the "momentum heading into the Chase" theory. He's finished out of the top 10 in five of the last six races there, including three finishes worse than 30th.
No. 9 Carl Edwards (LW: 8): The last driver to win a race at Richmond before Joey Logano (Remember? Edwards won in September) was much like Kevin Harvick. Consistently near the front of the field. But while Harvick led laps, Edwards didn't. Edwards ended up ninth. He's in third in the points standings, but he's 28 points behind Gordon.
No. 10 Kyle Larson (LW: 9): Before we talk about Larson's race performance, how in the world did Fox miss his turn one, lap one spin? The broadcast went to a full-field shot as the field entered turn one, so all viewers saw live was the smoke from the spin past the camera and then Larson's car at the end. Yes, he ended up behind the proverbial eight-ball having to restart the race in the back of the field, but he ended up 16th. However, he got inside the top 20 near the halfway point of the race. He just got stalled there.
No. 11 Ryan Newman (LW: 12): Here's another driver who spent most of his evening near the front of the field. Newman was eighth and he's ninth in the standings. A quarter of the way through the season, the answer on the Harvick and Newman driver swap is success for both parties, right? Newman was never going to replicate what Harvick did at RCR, but he's maintaining his success with SHR.
No. 12 A.J. Allmendinger (LW: NR): Did you know that Allmendinger finished sixth? Unless you checked the box score after the race or are an Allmendinger fan, you probably didn't. The move to an RCR-alliance is paying off for JTG-Daugherty so far. They're not reaping the benefits like Furniture Row did a year ago with Kurt Busch, but Allmendinger is 17th in the standings and hasn't finished lower than 26th.
Lucky Dog: We're going to give it to Casey Mears for not having a black eye after the punch from Marcos Ambrose.
The DNF: We talked about Clint Bowyer's day on Saturday night, so let's go with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Staying out a lap after hitting the wall turned out to be a very bad decision.
Dropped Out: Tony Stewart
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @NickBromberg
Tuesday
Pre-Season, Pre-Race Interview With 2013 IICS Champion Scott Dixon
Strap in for a brief 2014 IndyCar pre-season conversation with 2013 IZOD IndyCar Series Champion, Australian born, New Zealand native Scott Dixon.
Source: http://www.motorsportsjournal.com/archives/2014/03/pre-season_pre-race_inter.php
Eddie Irvine Chris Irwin Jean Pierre Jabouille Jimmy Jackson
No sleeping in your autonomous car, warns California
Filed under: Government/Legal, Technology
Autonomous cars have been testing in California for quite a while now. Google even showed off its self-driving Toyota Prius taking a blind man to Taco Bell in 2012. Perhaps it's not surprising, then, that the California Department of Motor Vehicles has decided it's about time to draft a set of rules governing autonomous cars on public roads.
First off, there won't be any sleeping or reading the newspaper in the vehicles. The rules stipulate that the operator must be in the driver's seat when the vehicle is on public roads and must be able to take physical control of the vehicle at any time. The DMV even wants testers to keep a log of when and why the autonomous function is shut off during testing.
You also won't be able to just hop into one of Google's self-driving models for a drive either (as if they would let you). Each autonomous car and driver must be registered with the state. The pilots must be certified as understanding the technology and go through a defensive driver training course. The manufacture also has to take out $5 million in insurance in case of injury, death or property damage caused by the vehicle.
If they meet all of the stipulations, manufactures can pay $150 to register 10 vehicles and 20 drivers with a one-year, renewable permit. According to Engadget, the new rules are meant to put tighter restrictions on self-driving cars and make sure they are tested safely in public. It does seem like a bad idea to have robot cars prowling the streets with no oversight, right? Scroll down to read the full list of regulations for testing autonomously on California's roads.
Continue reading No sleeping in your autonomous car, warns California
No sleeping in your autonomous car, warns California originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 25 May 2014 17:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | CommentsSource: http://www.autoblog.com/2014/05/25/autonomous-car-regulations-california/
Monday
Power Rankings: It's time for the Nationwide Series to go through the gauntlet
Our Power Rankings are far from a scientific formula. In fact, it's the perfect blend of analytics and bias against your favorite driver. And you think we dislike your favorite driver, so it makes sense, right? Direct all your complaints to us at happyhourmailbag@yahoo.com.
This week, we're going to roll with the top 10 drivers in the Nationwide Series. It's not a protest against the All-Star Race by any means, but it just seems superfluous to rank drivers off a non-points race. Sorry Jamie McMurray, if you want to get into Power Rankings again this year, you're going to need to avoid your points-race bad luck.
Let's get started. It's no surprise who's at No. 1
1. Chase Elliott: You're the only Nationwide driver to win multiple races this season, Chase? Welcome to the top of our semi-annual Nationwide Series Power Rankings! Elliott has taken to the series faster than many (any?) expected, and that could be to his detriment. Lots of folks are enamored with him -- and eight top 10s in 10 races is a valid reason for doing so -- however, patience should still reign. 10 races shouldn't be enough to spur serious "move him up to Cup!" talk.
2. Regan Smith: Speaking of top 10s, Elliott's teammate has finished in the top 10 in every race this season. He won the season-opening race at Daytona (that miraculously finished without a last-lap crash) and has been cruising along ever since. However, is it fair to ask if Smith and the No. 7 team have been off a tick? Seven of those top 10s are seventh and below.
3. Elliott Sadler: Is this the year for Elliott Sadler? Is there ever going to be a year for Elliott Sadler? Those are two questions looming this year as well. Sadler's found a niche in the Nationwide Series, finishing second, second and fourth in his three years since moving down from the Cup Series. But there's always been something to derail the title hopes. Will 2014 make it four-for-four?
4. Trevor Bayne: T-Bayne was leading the Nationwide standings until he fell to fifth after a 23rd place finish. He's still fifth now, a perfect example of the lack of depth in the series among Nationwide regulars. Other than that finish, Bayne hasn't finished lower than 11th, yet he's 36 points out of the lead. Hence why bad finishes throughout Sadler's Nationwide tenure have crippled his title chances.
5. Ty Dillon: Much like Smith above, Dillon's performance makes you wonder if his team is missing a little something too and he's fourth in the standings. His highest finish was sixth at Bristol and everything else has been in the 6-15th range. It's a step down from the consistency that won brother Austin Dillon the series title last year; though we're going to bet Ty Dillon wins a race this year.
6. Sam Hornish Jr.: This is the only year Hornish is going to be running a part-time NASCAR schedule, right? He picked up from where he left off last year at Iowa, beating Ryan Blaney for the win on Sunday, and finished fifth at Talladega in the previous race. Hornish has five more races in the No. 54 and don't be surprised if he wins another race or two.
7. Brian Scott: Here's where the drop-off begins for amongst full-time drivers. All the drivers running a full schedule ahead of Scott have a 70 percent top-10 finish rate. Scott's is at 30 percent with just three top 10s. A crash at Talladega basically eliminated any chance Scott had of winning the series title, but it'll take a bunch of calamities to prevent him from finishing in the top 10 for the fourth straight year.
8. Landon Cassill: Driving for long-time Nationwide Series team owner Johnny Davis, Cassill has finished in the top 10 in the past two races. He's 10th in the standings despite a miserable two races at Texas and California, where he had mechanical issues. How remarkable are those top-10s? In 590 race starts, JD Motorsports has 12 of them.
9. Chris Buescher: Buescher is ahead of Cassill in the standings despite failing to qualify at Daytona, where his team didn't have owner's points to fall back on and the session was shortened by rain. Since then, Buescher has three top 10s and finished second at Talladega to Elliott Sadler.
10. Brendan Gaughan: We pretty much know what Gaughan is as a driver at this point, right? He's hovered in the back-half of the top 10 for most of the season despite two crashes and will probably stay there. He may challenge for a race win at some point this year, and he'll accumulate enough top 15 finishes to stay where he is in the points.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @NickBromberg
Aldo Gordini Horace Gould Jean Marc Gounon Emmanuel de Graffenried
Sunday
TLC Won?t Renew Hack License of Cab Driver Who Killed Cooper Stock
The cab driver who killed 9-year-old Cooper Stock won’t be prosecuted by Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, but he won’t have a hack license much longer.
Koffi Komlani has not driven a cab since he struck Cooper and his father in an Upper West Side crosswalk in January, according to Allan Fromberg, spokesperson for the Taxi [...]
Koffi Komlani has not driven a cab since he struck Cooper and his father in an Upper West Side crosswalk in January, according to Allan Fromberg, spokesperson for the Taxi [...]
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