You know the motorsports season is in full-gear when you can spend Saturday night and all of Sunday on your couch. NASCAR to Pirelli World Challenge to Indy Lights to Moto GP to IndyCar. And next weekend looks just as good but we will get to that later. First let's cover what happened the last two days.
Keselowski Doesn't Like Being Raced Hard
I turned the NASCAR race on late Saturday night and was treated to a great four way battle between Joey Logano, Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth and Brad Keselowski with Logano coming out on top and getting the victory. After the race Keselowski ridiculed Kenseth saying, "I had a shot at winning the race and I felt like he ran me off the track. It was just a mind-boggling move to me." Keselowski continued, "I just thought it was uncalled for. You make a move like that when you're going to win the race, not just to stop someone else from winning."
I stand by this tweet. I like Brad Keselowski but you can't be complained about being raced hard and believe hard racing by a fellow competitor can only be justified if said fellow competitor wins. Kenseth was giving it his all, just like you, and if you see something wrong with that then you are being hypocritical.
If Keselwoski had won, would he have said, "I've got to put that in the bank and remember it" or complimented Kenseth for hard racing? I like Keselowski but if he is going to do this every time he is raced hard and doesn't win it is going to get really old very quickly. If he doesn't like being raced hard in the Cup Series, maybe he should go run the Nationwide Series full-time so he can win 22 times.
IndyCar Gets Wet and Wild (It wasn't that Wild)
After a weekend with contact galore at Long Beach, Barber was less controversial with the only penalty for contact being Sébastien Bourdais getting into the back of Mikhail Aleshin and spinning him in turn five.
I watched the incident a few times and it is clear Bourdais gets into Aleshin. Two weeks ago I said IndyCar set the precedent:
If contact occurs between cars side-by-side in the corner, it's a racing incident, no penalty.
I can live with that if IndyCar comes out and says that is what they are committing to as the criteria. However, looking at the Bourdais/Aleshin contact I realize it is wet and after St. Petersburg I voiced my opinion that for IndyCar qualifying, wet conditions should factor into the decisions. Sometimes it's out of a drivers control. Bourdais didn't make malicious contact and had the track been dry he may have avoided Aleshin all together.
With that said I don't want IndyCar to draw a line in the sand for what is and what is not allowed but let a wet race wash the line away and make it a free-for-all. A race would still have to be policed following the letter of the law but the officials should keep in mind a wet track may factor into contact.
Goodyears Burn
Like I said before I turned the NASCAR race on late but fire was the common response when I asked what'd I missed. Drivers to see tire problems ruin their nights were Jimmie Johnson, Clint Bowyer. Cole Whitt, Reed Sorenson, Carl Edwards, Kurt Busch and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.
Fontana was aggravating earlier this year when they had a handful of drivers having tire failures each lap toward the end of the race and I just wonder how come after nearly twenty years of being the sole supplier in NASCAR why Goodyear can't develop a tire that doesn't implode but can wear down during a race? I don't want to make this a Firestone/IndyCar vs. Goodyear/NASCAR comparison but one has done a great job of providing a tire teams and drivers can count on work and the other has a reputation of dropping the ball. Eventually someone has to step up and demand improvement or a change.
Márquez is 3-For-3 in 2014
Marc Márquez started the 2014 season on a leg still recovering for an off-season injury and was saying it would be foolish for anyone to think he'd win the opener at Qatar. He won his third consecutive race yesterday from Argentina, all from pole position. He did have a poor start and drop to the back early but worked his his way back to the front and eventually around Jorge Lorenzo.
He turned 21 in February and is the most dominant man in motorsports today. Had he not fallen at Mugello last year and Bridgestone prepared properly for Phillip Island (as well as his team calling him in at the correct time to change bikes due) last year, he would have finished on the podium in every race of his MotoGP career to date. As MotoGP heads to Jerez, anyone picking against Márquez?
Other winners this weekend: Sylvain Guintoli and Jonathan Rea split the World Superbike weekend at Assen.
R.C. Enerson swept the U.S. F2000 races at Barber. Spencer Pigot swept the Pro Mazda races at Barber. Zach Veach and Gabby Chaves split the Indy Lights races from Barber.
Anthony Lazzaro and Andrew Palmer split the Pirelli World Challenge races at Barber. Mark Wilkins and Jack Baldwin split the GTS classes at Barber.
Mark Winterbottom won two of four V8 Supercars races at Pukekohe Park Raceway outside of Auckland, New Zealand. Jason Bright and Shane van Gisbergen took the other two races.
Esteve Rabat won the Moto2 race at Argentina. Romano Fenati won in Moto3.
Coming up next weekend:
NASCAR at Talladega.
MotoGP at Jerez.
FIA World Endurance Championship at Spa.
Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters begins their 2014 season at Hockenheim.
IMSA at Laguna Seca.
Super GT at Fuji.
World Touring Car Championship at Hungary.
Covering All Motorsports. From Indianapolis to Le Mans, Daytona to Monaco.
