Keselowski Sweeps Las Vegas Weekend

Brad Keselowski went two-for-two at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend, taking the Nationwide Series race Saturday and making a last lap pass to take the Cup Series race Sunday.

The 2012 Cup champion made it three different winners in three events for both series. Keselowski passed a slowing Dale Earnhardt, Jr. on the final lap of the Cup race to take the victory. Earnhardt, Jr. ran out of fuel on the back straightaway but was able to coast home in second place. Paul Menard finished third after two finishes outside the top twenty to begin the season. Joey Logano finished fourth for the second consecutive week, this time after starting on pole position. Carl Edwards rounded out the top five.

Jimmie Johnson finished sixth for the second consecutive week with Ryan Newman finishing seventh for the second consecutive week. Kasey Kahne finished eighth, his first top ten of the season. Jeff Gordon finished ninth with Matt Kenseth rounding out the top ten. Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin made it three consecutive Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas by finishing eleventh and twelfth. Brian Vickers came home in thirteenth. Martin Truex, Jr. had his best finish of the season in fourteenth with Jamie McMurray rounding out the top fifteen.

Austin Dillon finished sixteenth and was the top rookie. Jeff Burton finished seventeenth in his first start of the season driving for a Michael Waltip Racing/Identity Ventures Racing partnership. AJ Allmendinger was the final car on the lead lap in eighteenth. Kevin Harvick was upfront most of the day before having a front hub issue force him to the garage and finish forty-first.

Earnhardt, Jr., Harvick and Keselowski each have one victory this year. In the points standings, Earnhardt, Jr. leads Keselowski by one. Jimmie Johnson is sixteen back in third with Joey Logano seventeen points back in fourth and Jeff Gordon eighteen points back in fifth.

Carl Edwards is twenty-eight points back in sixth. Matt Kenseth is seventh, twenty-eight points back but loses the tiebreaker to Edwards. Denny Hamlin is thirty-two points back in eighth with Ryan Newman in ninth, thirty-six points back. Kyle Busch rounds out the top ten, thirty-eight points back.

Jamie McMurray is eleventh, forty points back of Earnhardt, Jr. Greg Biffle is twelfth, forty-seven points back. Austin Dillon is the top rookie in thirteenth, thirty-nine points back. Kevin Harvick and Kasey Kahne are fifty points back in fourteenth and fifteenth. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. is fifty-three points back in sixteenth. Stenhouse is tied with Casey Mears on eighty points but owns the tiebreaker.

On Saturday, Keselowski led 144 of 200 laps and won his twenty-eighth career Nationwide Series race. He held off Kyle Busch who won at Phoenix the week before. Kyle Larson finished third with Dale Earnhardt, Jr. in fourth. Rookie Chase Elliott was the top championship-eligible driver in fifth position, one behind his team owner. Matt Kenseth finished sixth with Brian Scott in seventh. Trevor Bayne finished eighth ahead of his Roush Fenway teammate Chris Buescher in ninth and Daytona winner Regan Smith rounded out the top ten.

Smith leads the championship standings by three points over Bayne. Elliott Sadler is nine points back in third. Ty Dillon is twelve points back in fourth with Elliott in fifth, fourteen points back of his JR Motorsports teammate. Brian Scott, Brendan Gaughan, Dylan Kwasniewski, James Buescher and Mike Bliss round out the top ten in the championship.

Both the Nationwide and Cup series head to Bristol Motor Speedway next weekend.

Ogier Wins Rally Mexico and Retakes Championship Lead

Sébastien Ogier faced little adversity on the final day of Rally Mexico as the French driver made it back-to-back years winning the North American round.

Ogier won fourteen of twenty-stages, including the power stage as he breezed to victory by 1 minute and 12.6 seconds over Volkswagen teammate Jari-Matti Latvala. Latvala was leading the championship by five over Ogier entering the third round of the championship. He won two stages over the four days and finished second on the power stage.

Thierry Neuville finished third just under five and a half minutes back of Ogier. The Belgian driver gave Hyundai their first podium in their history competing the World Rally Championship and their first points since the 2003 Rally Australia. This is Neuville's eighth career podium. Elfyn Evans finished a career best fourth position driving for MSport Ford. His previous career-best was sixth on three occasions. Czech driver Martin Prokop cracked the top five just after retiring from the first two rallies of the season. Prokop finished just under ten minutes off Ogier.

Mexican driver Benito Guerra gave the home fan base something to cheer about by finishing in sixth position, just under thirteen minutes back. This is Guerra's best career finish in WRC and it's is the this consecutive round in which the #11 MSport Ford has scored points. Chris Atkinson put the second Hyundai in the points in seventh position. Mikko Hirvonen finished eighth, over seventeen minutes back and finished third on the power stage.

Mads Østberg recovered after a disastrous end of day three and finished ninth overall, winning two of the four stages that took place on the final day and a total of five stages over the course of the rally. WRC2 driver, Ukrainian Yuriy Protasov finished tenth overall, his second points paying finish of the season. Protasov finished tenth at Rallye Monte-Carlo earlier this year.

Kris Meeke was solidly in the points but an accident on the final stage ended the Citroën driver's hopes of making it three consecutive points paying finishes.

Ogier leads the championship standings by three over teammate Latvala after winning the rally and taking the power stage. Østberg remains third overall, thirty-one back of Ogier with thirty-two points. Andreas Mikkelsen failed to score in Mexico but will remain in fourth position with twenty-four points. Elfyn Evans moves up to fifth in the championship with twenty points.

Bryan Bouffier has not competed since finishing second at Monte-Carlo but is sixth in the championship with eighteen points. Mikko Hirvonen moves up tp seventh in the standings with eighteen points but loses the tiebreaker to Bouffier who has more second place finishes. Kris Meeke drops to eighth in the championship with seventeen points. Neuville moves up to ninth with fifteen points after his podium finish. Prokop and Estonian Ott Tänak are tied for tenth, each with ten points to their name. Tänak owns the tiebreaker.

The fourth round of the 2014 World Rally Championship season takes place April 3rd-6th at Rally de Portugal. Sébastien Ogier is the defending winner of that rally and has three total wins in Portugal. Mads Østberg won their in 2012.

Ogier Leads Rally Mexico

With four stages tomorrow to round out the 2014 Rally Mexico, Frenchman Sébastien Ogier is on track to pick up his second consecutive victory south of the United States border.

Ogier has won twelve of eighteens stages and has a one minute lead over Volkswagen teammate and current championship points leader Jari-Matti Latvala. Latvala has two stage victories. Thierry Neuville is in position to get Hyundai their first podium in World Rally in their first season back in WRC. Neuville is four minutes and thirty-seven seconds back.

Welshman Elfyn Evans is fourth and the top Ford driver, five minutes and twenty-four seconds back. Czech driver and Ford driver Martin Prokop rounds out the top five, over eight minutes back of Ogier. Mexican Benito Guerra is sixth place, over ten and a half minutes back of the overall leader and is in position for his best career finish.

Chris Atkinson is seventh in the second factory Hyundai, over twelve minutes back. MSport Ford driver Mikko Hirvonen is eighth, over sixteen minutes back with the most recent stage winner, Citroën driver Kris Meeke in ninth. WRC2 driver, Ukrainian Yuriy Protasov rounds out the top ten, seventeen minutes and thirty-five seconds back of Ogier.

Mads Østberg has three stage wins but is in eleventh place, over seven minutes back of Protasov. Østberg was in second position, 41.2 seconds back of Ogier on stage twelve when the Norwegian driver broke his left-rear upright. Robert Kubica was in tenth position when an accident on stage thirteen forced the Polish driver to retire. Andreas Mikkelsen is in eighteen place in the third factory Volkswagen after rolling his car on the second stage of the day.

The nineteenth stage and first of day four of Rally Mexico begins at 9:55 a.m. ET.

Indianapolis 500 Qualifying Changes Are Redundant

Indianapolis 500 qualifying will become redundant and less risky as IndyCar announces changes to the qualifying format for the premier event on the schedule.

Here are the changes at a glance:

Saturday:
Field Will Be Filled.
Teams no longer forced to withdraw their qualifying time if they want to make another attempt.
Qualifying goes from 11 a.m. to 5:50 p.m. ET.

Sunday:
Positions 10th-33rd will re-qualify in reverse order and set rows 4-11. They will get one attempt and the session will last from 10:15 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. ET.

The Fast Nine Shootout will take place from 2 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. ET. Each team will get one attempt with the fastest aggregate winning pole and setting the first three rows.

Point incentives for Saturday and Sunday will be announced at a later date.

These changes are painful to me. Do people really want to watch cars qualify and then qualify again the next day?

Is the glory of a television ratings bump really worth it? It feels like selling your soul to the devil.

I have stood by it from the beginning, if IndyCar wants to improve Indianapolis 500 qualifying, make sure there is bumping. Do whatever it takes to encourage more teams to take a crack at making the Indianapolis 500. I have been for allowing teams to run the previous Dallara chassis and previous Honda engine if they would like to qualify for the race. If you allow more equipment to be used to make an attempt, then you open the door to many more opportunities that aren't possible today with the limited amount of DW12 chassis and difficult engine leasing rules from Chevrolet and Honda.

The format has it's flaws.

What if it rains Saturday? Would Sunday revert to a six hour session for pole and to fill the field?

Will the restrictions on your TV window on Sunday make it a session where everyone gets one attempt for pole and at 3 p.m. the field is set?

What if qualifying gets in on Saturday and it rains Sunday? Are you just not going to run the second session and have the times from Saturday set the starting grid?

What if the field isn't filled come 6 p.m. on Sunday?

The format discourages one-offs. The days of a team getting their top cars into the field and then running an additional car are over. Now, once a team knows they have their top cars in the field, it is too late for an additional entry because the field will be set. Under this format, Katherine Legge wouldn't have gotten the opportunity to qualify for Sam Schmidt and Michel Jourdain, Jr. would have gotten into the field, over 5 MPH off of Buddy Lazier in 32nd.

The series has become too enamored with just filling the field that it has lost it's drive to encourage more participated of giving the Indianapolis 500 a shot. Filling the field has become an agonizing task of hyperventilation and frustration that you wonder why the series makes it so hard on themselves and the fans? Open up the rule books a little and let's see what happens. It wouldn't be the end of the world if three or four Dallara IR03/05s make the field while three or four DW12s went home. That's how the Indianapolis 500 was for a long time.

IndyCar needs Occam's Razor. Maybe the best thing for IndyCar is doing what is simple and maybe that's not changing the format but going back to a day when the doors were more open.

Ogier Leads Rally Mexico After First Stage

The World Rally Championship makes it's only stop in North America this weekend at Rally Mexico and defending champion and defending Rally Mexico winner Sébastien Ogier is on top.

The Frenchman won the first stage Thursday night by 0.3 seconds over Estonian Ott Tänak who is driving for Drive Dmack Ford Fiesta in the WRC2 classification at this round after driving for MSport Ford at Rally Sweden. Ogier's Volkswagen teammate Andreas Mikkelsen finished third on the stage 0.4 seconds back. Citroën driver Kris Meeke was fourth, 0.6 seconds off Ogier with points leader and Volkswagen driver Jari-Matti Latvala in fifth, 0.8 seconds back of his teammate.

Hyundai had a good first stage with Thierry Neuville in sixth, 1.1 seconds back. The Korean manufacture is still looking for their first points of the 2014 season. Third place in the championship Mads Østberg is seventh, 1.3 seconds back with former Citroën driver Mikko Hirvonen a tenth of a second make of the Norwegian driver in eight. Hirvonen's MSport Ford teammate Robert Kubica is ninth, three-tenths of a second back and WRC2 competitor Italian Lorenzo Bertelli is tenth, 2.3 seconds back in a Ford.

Mexican driver and 2012 Production World Rally Champion Benito Guerra is thirteenth driving for MSport Ford, 3.1 seconds back. His MSport teammate Elfyn Evans is four-tenths of a second back in fourteenth. The second Hyundai for this round is being driven by Australian Chris Atkinson and is in last-place, 24.7 seconds back after his car stopped suddenly early in the stage.

Day two of Rally Mexico will feature ten stages with the first beginning at 9:32 a.m. ET.

Hawksworth, Servià and Why Indy Lights Does A Great Job Promoting Drivers Just Not Indy Lights Champions

The final songs are coming to an end and the amount of chairs are dwindling as two more were taken today.

British driver Jack Hawksworth has been hired by Bryan Herta Autosport to drive the #98 Barracuda Honda. The 2012 Star Mazda champion won three races in Indy Lights last year and finished fourth in the final standings behind Sage Karam, Gabby Chaves and Carlos Muñoz. Hawksworth joins Justin Wilson as the second full-time British driver on the grid. The #98 Barracuda/Bryan Herta Autosport Honda was split in 2013 by drivers Alex Tagliani, Luca Filippi and J.R. Hildebrand. Filippi and Hildebrand were thought to be the leading candidates for the seat in 2014.

Prior to the Hawksworth announcement, it was announced Oriol Servià will be joining Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing for four races in 2014. The Catalan driver has been announced for Long Beach, Barber, the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and the Indianapolis 500. More races are expected to be added to Servià's schedule. Servià split the 2013 season between Dreyer & Reinbold Racing and Panther Racing. He has one previous start with RLLR, the 2009 Indianapolis 500 where he started twenty-fifth and was ninth place when the fuel pump failed and Servià finished twenty-sixth after 98 laps. 

Later that season, Servià would join Graham Rahal at Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing for four races where he finished eleventh at Mid-Ohio, sixth at Sonoma, seventh at Chicago and fourth at Motegi. In those four race Rahal finished eighth, twenty-first after a mechanical failure, fifth and third at Motegi where he was leading late before being passed by Ganassi drivers Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti.

I am glad to see Servià on the grid and I hope those four races turn into a full-season for the Catalan. He has always been quick but has never had a decent ride underneath him for long.

Nationalities aside, it is great to have another rookie on the grid. 

Nationalities aside, it is great to have another graduate from Indy Lights.

Nationalities aside, it stinks the defending Indy Lights champion with scholarship money doesn't have a ride and two drivers they beat for the championship do. 

Hawksworth is a talented driver and showed he could hold his own on road and street courses. On ovals however, there were times he sounded rattled and not comfortable with ovals. I think he could have benefited from another year of oval racing in Indy Lights but when it comes to road courses, he should be more than capable of holding his own in IndyCar.

It stinks Luca Filippi and J.R. Hildebrand appear to left standing as the music nears it's final note. Filippi has had plenty of success to be not only full-time in IndyCar but on the Formula One grid. It is  a shame he hasn't had a chance to fully displace his talent. I think it's safe to say every driver after Sam Hornish, Jr. at Panther Racing deserves a mulligan and Hildebrand isn't an exception. If only Andretti had a opening for Hildebrand after he won his Indy Lights championship in 2009. Who knows where his career would be. 

It is great that this rookie class will actually be a competition. Between Hawksworth, Carlos Muñoz and Mikhail Aleshin, all three drivers have potential to turn heads in 2014. It is a good sign for IndyCar that their is new blood and two-thirds of it is coming from the ladder system. However, something has to be fixed to guarantee the champion a ride.

If third and fourth in the 2013 Indy Lights championship can get rides, then why is the champion Sage Karam who got a million dollar scholarship for an IndyCar ride piecemealing together sports car starts for Ganassi Racing? What does that say to a young driver trying to come up through the ranks? Winning the championship doesn't mean you will be hired over the drivers you beat. That needs to be fixed. 

Or maybe just the limits of what the scholarship can be used for should change. Karam is only allowed to use it toward a full-time IndyCar ride. That's great but if the scholarship doesn't pay for a whole IndyCar ride, why not allow them to use it to continue their career in Indy Lights. Karam turned nineteen years old today. Once again, Karam turned nineteen years old today. Why force a nineteen year old immediately into IndyCar when he could use the scholarship and get another year of seat time under his belt if he can't get a promotion? 

If you are going to limit the scholarship to only be used for a full-time IndyCar ride, then make sure it pays for a whole damn ride and so all Karam and any future Indy Lights champion has to bring to IndyCar is their helmet and a fucking Sharpie to sign autographs.

With that said, I must reiterate that the ladder system and Indy Lights has done a very good job of promoting drivers to IndyCar over the recent years but it hasn't done a good job of promotion Indy Lights champions. Karam appears destine to become the seventh Indy Lights champion out of the last twelve to not have a full-time ride in IndyCar the season after winning the title. And of those previous twelve Indy Lights champions, only one has a ride for the 2014 IndyCar season (Josef Newgarden). 

Once again to reiterate, the ladder system and Indy Lights is working. Graduates Marco Andretti, Carlos Muñoz, James Hinchcliffe, Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan, Charlie Kimball, Sebastián Saavedra, Helio Castroneves, Newgarden and Hawksworth all have full-time rides while Ed Carpenter and Martin Plowman have limit schedules lined up. 

That's not bad at all but...

Tristan Vautier lost his ride after one year.

J.K. Vernay never got a shot. 

J.R. Hildebrand is struggling to continue his career. 

Raphael Matos is gone. 

Alex Lloyd got one full IndyCar season and isn't even 30. 

Jay Howard has only a dozen career IndyCar starts.

Wade Cunningham isn't even 30 and has only five career IndyCar starts. 

Thiago Mederios has one career start.

Mark Taylor had one season and he is completely out of racing. 

And A.J. Foyt IV, who is still under 30, may be the only of the last dozen Indy Lights champions you could say had enough opportunities and can definitely say he had his shot and his time passed. 

Indy Lights champions need a better reward and a longer of a leash because it is clear enough isn't being done. 

Kurt Busch to Attempt Indianapolis 500 for Andretti Autosport

My grandfather couldn't stand the Busch brothers.

I start with that because I can only wonder if he has started doing 360s in his grave or maybe in the three years since he left this Earth the Busch brothers have grown on him.

I never minded the Busch brothers. I actually really liked them because they would stir the pot. But my grandfather. Almost every race it would be given that just one time he would say, "I can't stand those Busch brothers."

My grandfather always pulled for the Andrettis. Mario, Michael, even Jeff and John and Marco and anyone who was driving for Andretti Green or Andretti Autosport. He never expressed that he was a Andretti fan but you could tell. He was a quite fan just as he was a quite man in everyday life.

I wonder what he is think now that one of the two drivers he couldn't stand is driving for the team he silently pulled for.

By the way, the day my grandfather died, Kyle Busch won at Richmond (April 30, 2011). It still gives me a laugh to this day.

Kurt Busch will attempt the Indianapolis 500 for Andretti Autosport. The difference in engine manufacture wasn't an issue... well it's probably still is an issue but not enough to stop this from happening a la the MBNA-Conseco and Chevrolet-Toyota debacle that killed Tony Stewart's chance of driving for AJ Foyt in 2004.

Busch is getting a great opportunity with Andretti Autosport. There aren't many other teams you'd rather drive for at Indianapolis. The team finished 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 18th and 21st last year and all five cars started in the top nine. But the team has moved to Honda and will be using their new twin-turbo engine. Can Andretti Autosport recreate their success in 2013 and be able to pick up Honda after they won only one of six oval races last year?

The 2004 NASCAR Cup Series champion will be trying to become the first driver to attempt to complete 1,100 miles in one day since Robby Gordon did it in 2004. Tony Stewart is the only driver to complete all 1,100 miles. He did so in 2001 when he finished sixth at Indianapolis and finished third at Charlotte.

Busch still has to qualify for the Indianapolis 500. Now if only thirty-three cars make a qualifying attempt, then that will relieve a lot of pressure and based off recent history, bumping will be few and far in-between at 16th and Georgetown (of course, I have my own opinions on how to improve that).

The whole proposal of "the double" make the hairs stand on your neck. One, because it harks back to the days of when motorsports was motorsports. There wasn't a sense that each series was their own sport (which is one of my pet peeves) and there wasn't a sense that drivers were pieces property of the series (which is another one of my pet peeves). Two, it harks back to a day when drivers were drivers. Hopping from ride to ride was acceptable and fear of injury or death wasn't enough to stop them. And three, it makes us crave more. If Busch can do it, why can't other? Why can't other NASCAR drivers give it a shot or why can't an IndyCar driver give it a shot?

There is nothing bad about this. Should he qualify, Busch will become the first driver born in Nevada to ever start an American open-wheel series race. It's never happened. Not in the days of AAA or USAC or CART or the IRL. It's hard to believe. Just that fact in of itself is intriguing. You will have IndyCar champions, a Formula One champion, a Le Mans winner and a NASCAR champion all attempting to make one race. When was the last time that happened?

This is how motorsports should be. No restrictions because of sponsors or manufactures, wife or husbands, girlfriends or boyfriends. It should be a driver just doing it because they can and because life is too short to sacrifice once-in-a-lifetime opportunities.