With only one race left for the grand finale of the Sprint Cup in the NASCAR Series, the championship has taken a surprising twist that puts Jimmie Johnson once again at the top of the drivers? standings. Johnson had a poor performance last week, when he ended in 38th place and cut his advantage in the rankings, giving veteran Mark Martin ? in second ? more leeway in catching up. In this week?s Check O?Reilly Auto Parts 500, however, Johnson managed to emerge as the leader of the race and re-established his dominance. The competition, which took place on the Phoenix International Raceway track, added another 195 points to the Hendrick Motorsports driver?s total. He not only kept first place but extended his lead over Martin, his teammate, by 180 points. The victory marks Johnson?s fourth in the Chase for the Sprint Cup this year, his seventh overall in the season and his forty-seventh win in his professional racing career at the Sprint Cup. In Phoenix, the driver of the #48 Chevrolet Impala started from third place on the grid, showing from the beginning his desire to win the challenge. With complete control over his car, Johnson demonstrated his talent and potential, confirming that his loss in the previous competition was the exception rather than the rule. He was sidelined by an accident on the track that hardly reflect his usually very elevated performance. Johnson quickly overcame the momentary embarrassment and instead has stayed focused on the competition. ?We do not have to lose respect for the other drivers. We still haven?t won anything yet, so we have to focus on the last race, which is the competition that we really need to win, to secure the title.? The three-time Chase champion made his presence felt on the track in Arizona, staying ahead of the competition during 238 of the 312 scheduled laps. The #48 driver was able to advance authoritatively until he positioned himself in first place from the opening laps. He spent the rest of the time struggling to defend himself from his closely pursuers, who stayed right behind him and attacked him mercilessly in the struggle to win. But Johnson was unmoved. With the superiority of a true champion, Johnson overcame the attacks and kept his lead, even as the pressure grew, lap after lap. In the 243rd lap, Johnson entered the pits so his mechanics could change his tires and refuel his car. Although the stop was necessary, it cost him the lead, which was taken by Matt Kenseth. Kenseth stood in front for five laps before himself entering the pits. Mindful of what was happening; Johnson took advantage of Kenseth?s track exit and placed himself ahead of the race. From that moment on, the competition was no longer disputed; his led extremely well and avoided being reached by Denny Hamlin and Jeff Burton, who were involved in a rigorous dispute over second and third place. Although the drivers were close behind Johnson, their attacks did not represent any real threat. Nor did the arrival of Joey Logano; Johnson got rid of the rookie smoothly and continued his rally until the end of the challenge. He was followed by Burton in second place and Hamlin in third. For the last race at Homestead, Johnson is planning for an aggressive strategy that ? he hopes ? will guarantee him an accident-free competition and secure his fourth Chase trophy.

Last Saturday it took place the Nascar Sprint All-Star Race, one of the most important and special events as much for the fans as for each one of the drivers who managed to classify for this huge event that has the particularity of not been taken into account for the general classification. Therefore, the one that manages to finish first does not get points; instead he gets the enormous amount of a million dollars as the prize of the race. For this season, the exciting competition was held at the Lowe’s Motor Speedway, where the recognized driver Tony Stewart was the one who managed to be crowned as champion. This was a great moment for Stewart, since it was his first triumph on the present season in which, in addition to being a driver, he is making a debut as owner of its own team, the Stewart Haas Racing, for which him competes on the No. 14 Chevrolet Impala. Saturday night started with the Sprint Showdown, race in which Sam Hornish Jr. was the winner whereas Jamie McMurray finished in the second position. These were the two drivers who had the great opportunity to compete in the maximum challenge. Another lucky driver who got placed on the list of the most famous men in Nascar was the rookie Joey Logano, who won a place on the grid because he received the greater amount of votes from the fans. With the exit order established it started the contest of the All-Stars, a tough challenge where beforehand each one of the pilots knew that they would have to give the best of themselves, since the excitement generated just by fact of being part of something so wonderful, along with the encouraging monetary aspect, were factors that would generate a hard-fought battle with a high degree of difficulty. This time, the All-Star Race was divided in four stages; the first one had a distance of 50 laps which was completely dominated by Jimmie Johnson, followed by Jeff Gordon and Kurt Busch who disputed the second position. The second stage was controlled by Kyle Busch, who in spite of risking his position when doing a change of tires, was able to advance at full speed to be placed at the head of the race. On the third stage it appeared a yellow flag due to an accident between Gregg Biffle and Sam Hornish Jr. Later on, the green flag showed up and affected Kyle Busch as Jeff Gordon took advantage of the situation and went ahead to be placed in front, where he stayed until the end of the stage. The motivation of the enormous amount of money of which the final prize consisted, turned the fourth stage on an exciting and ferocious confrontation between the leader Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch, Ryan Newman and Matt Kenseth, who managed to catch the attention of all those who were there. It was right in the middle of all this where Stewart appeared and in a very talented and skillful way managed to surpass them one by one advancing quickly and positioning himself at the head, where he stayed until the checkered flag waved with which the veteran and famous driver was awarded with the millionaire victory.

Even when he is not at the first place of the overall standings of drivers, the veteran Mark Martin is the one who has achieved so far the largest number of victories for the 2009 season of the NASCAR Sprint Cup. By now the driver of the # 5 Chevrolet has achieved four wins; his last victory was this past weekend at the Chicagoland Speedway, which was the nineteenth event of the season of top racing series of NASCAR. With this fourth victory, Mark Martin added 39 victories on his career as a professional driver in the Sprint Series and he is currently positioned in the eleventh place of the overall standings, which gives him the opportunity to be part of the group of the 12 drivers that will qualify to the Chase for the Sprint Cup. As long as Martin maintains himself constant in his position, his participation in this great event will be guaranteed. On this occasion, at the LifeLock 400, Martin started at the 14th place of the starting grid, something that for many seemed a little distant from the top positions, but for the Hendrick Motorsports driver was quite the opposite; instead of looking at it as an obstacle, he took it as a challenge that he was ready to face and with his cleverness, his great experience and driving skills, he was able to succeed. In Chicago, the competition began with both pilots of Team Red Bull Racing, Brian Vickers and Scott Speed, controlling the actions from the first and the second place respectively, but Jimmie Johnson, who started as third, achieved to reach them quickly until he got to the head of the race, Johnson advanced at full speed setting an advantageous distance that made many people think that he could take the victory. While this was happening, Mark Martin escalated positions with the clear objective to reach and overtake the leaders. With his intentions met, Martin was placed at the head of the competition, a position he held for a long period of 195 laps of the 267 scheduled and with this accomplishment the veteran also marked the record for the maximum number of laps as the leader at the Chicagoland track. Despite the fact that the race was having a very fast pace, it was developed in a very orderly and without accidents in the major part of the route and even when there were several caution flags, just three of them were for accidents that occurred after the 218 lap when Sam Hornish Jr. was the first to get hit. As the competitive challenge advanced, some changes in the leadership were also taking place, this happened during ten occasions while Mark Martin kept himself lurking and close to whom led the tour, looking for the right moment to overtake them and gain the top spot. Upon reaching the 227 lap, again Johnson was the one who placed himself first, but an incident between him and Kurt Busch allowed Martin to regain the fought lead, which he was able to maintain until the end of the competition, when he crossed the finish line in the first place, and then proclaimed himself the absolute winner. Behind Martin arrived Jeff Gordon in the second place, followed by Kasey Kahne, who completed the podium.

You may well have thought that the Mercury Cougar auto that the origins of the Mercury Cougar auto were nothing more than a whale sized version of simple Ford Thunderbird car. Yet many are surprised that the history and development of this classic American sportscar rather was that of the NASCAR legendary Mercury “Pony Car” , which kicked nothing but but “Butt” on the Trans-Am Automobile racing circuit.

Originally Lincoln- Mercury (considered at the time to be the luxury end of Ford Motor Corporation), had devised the idea of developing, designing and marketing a small sized sports car. The germ of this idea had started as early as February 1963 with the idea in the works of this smaller sports type vehicle to be sold within the North American automobile market.

But it was the success of the Ford Mustang product that finally put the pedal to the metal (or the design and marketing staff’s ok and budgeting of departmental project funding). It is said that nothing drives a project the automobile industry than the potential of excellent sales figures and profitability’s. Even the name of the vehicle product “Cougar” is not totally unique. Cougar is in the same vein as “Mustang” – both being sleek fast racing animals.

Although the Cougar was also built on a 111 inch

wheelbase similar to the mustang auto sports car, the Cougar was rather three inches and half inches shorter than its cousin – the Thunderbird. Underneath the elegant sheet metal of the Cougar was a Mustang, so to speak. In actuality the Cougar shared with its cousins – the sporty Mustang, and the dourer family vehicle – the Ford Falcon (which was also known in the Canadian market as the Ford Frontenac product. The Ford Mustang had the greatest fortune of being born from the Ford Falcon product line. Mustang enthusiasts owe a great debt of gratitude to a so called compact “Family” car. The Ford Falcon allowed both the Mustang car project as well as the Cougar car product a quick to develop, cheap to produce as well as a proven and durable base platform. Even the dash of the early Mustangs was a direct copy of the Falcons.

Underneath all of the glitter of its elegant sheet metal the Cougar car was all Mustang, using the exact same Falcon front suspension and a solid rear axle with four-leaf springs. A base 289 cubic inch V-8 made 200 bhp (gross), but the real action came in the guise of a 390 cubic inch V-8 that made 320 bhp. A GT option included a performance handling package and power disc brakes that replaced more standard front brake drums. Finally special GT wheels rounded out the package.

It has been said that Lincoln Mercury’s chief designer had envisioned the Cougar as an elegant European sports car, along the lines of the Jaguar Mark 2. How was it that the Cougar went racing?

In 1967 Lincoln Mercury turned to Bud Moore to be the point man for a shot at the SCCA Trans-Am Championship. Team Cougar made up of drivers, Dan Gurney, Parnelli Jones, Formula 1 driver Peter Revson and NASCAR driver Dave Pearson came in second in Ford Mustang’s team. In 1968 then under the aegis of Moore, driver DeWayne “Tiny” Lund went on to capture the NASCAR Grand Touring Championship.

So where and how did the Cougar go wrong and in the end become a rather non defined wishy washy bloated luxo sort of sports car by the end of its automobile production lifetime? What proved to be this product and projects undoing was the lack of true comprehension from the direct Mercury as well as Ford staff and executives as to what this car’s clear and distinct market was. It may be said that at the best they were disinterested and at the worst clueless and greedy. This lack of market focus, as well as not knowing and perceiving the needs and desires of the potential Cougar customer market proved to be the Cougar’s undoing.

By the 1969 product introduction the Cougar was a little longer and a little wider. From then on it was only a short decent into landau roofs as well as the opera window type styling and options of the day. Once started this downward trend and spiral of the Cougar was inevitable. The halcyon years of the early Cougar – specifically the early Cougar model years of 1967 – 70 remain a time when the Cougar’s roar boomed out of dual exhausts and the sign of a car that had some bite to it.

NASCAR Weekly Report

5/17/09

Author:

In the middle of a sunny afternoon in Pennsylvania, the driver Tony Stewart, who has extensive experience in the Sprint Series and in the other categories of NASCAR and also owns his own team, Stewart Haas Racing, earned his first victory of the season when he amazingly imposed himself at the Pocono 500, fourteenth event of the year that was held at the Pocono Raceway. This victory also impressive due to a serious accident he suffered during the last training session causing that he had to use a backup car for the main event, being forced to start from the bottom in spite of having obtained the pole position, also has its historical significance since Stewart became the first owner and driver at the same time to win a race of the Sprint Cup in more than 10 years. Last time something like this took place was in 1998 when Ricky Ruud, one of the best drivers in NASCAR history, came to the top of the podium in Martinsville. Thanks to the good performance shown at the Pocono 500, Stewart has successfully been placed first in the drivers general standings with a considerable amount of 2043 points, which fills him with optimism to remain steadfast in his position and that opens the doors to remain firm in the run with high expectations of repeating the glorious feat of being crowned champion of the highest level of NASCAR for the third time. This time, the skills of the Chevrolet #14 driver lead him to move from the last position to the top spots, where he got involved in a tight contest with Carl Edwards, David Reutimann, Jeff Gordon and Ryan Newman. Stewart was able to pass through them and for a period of 39 laps, he was in charge of setting the pace of the competition. As the race was passing by, the difficulty of the contest increased as none of the pilots lowered their level of competition; on the contrary, it increased to exert a strong pressure on one another with the intention of making each other lose concentration, but as it was demonstrated, the superiority of Stewart was unattainable. He bravely resisted the attacks and was not intimidated by any of his opponents. With an intelligent but somewhat risky strategy of not entering to the pits area, Tony Stewart avoided wasting time and was able to remain among the top positions, although this meant that he could run out of fuel. However, Stewart gave a great demonstration of his driving skills as a professional driver strategically accelerating and braking at the right time, taking all possible advantage of his car and making the most out of the fuel, which lasted to the whole event. Realizing that he could run out of fuel at any moment, Stewart took advantage of a moment when the other drivers left the track to refuel when there were 37 laps to finish the race and moved forward as fast as he could, leaving Edwards and Reutimann behind, who thinking that he wouldn?t be able to finish pushed him as much as they could, but Stewart was more clever, managing to get to the finish line where he was expected by the checkered flag that made him the winner.

It might seem counter-intuitive but there are so many details that these NASCAR teams take into account when it comes to choose the proper brake package to run at Daytona and Talladega. The brake demand is of course less as opposed as Intermediates and Short Tracks in terms of pressure and temperature but there are other variables and parameters that come into play and every team must be aware of.
The main target for a speedway car is the aerodynamics, they even clear coat the decals, every little thing counts.
As far as the brakes are concerned, the brake package that includes the caliper/rotor combination must be as light as possible but still strong enough to come down pitroad and slow those 3600lbs cars from 195 to speed in pit road safely and in the shortest amount of time. Over the past years the brake makers have made huge efforts to come up with a proper engineered brake package and the state-of-the-art has come a long way. As mentioned, the weight is crucial for every component that is on a race car, especially for the COT where the teams have been left in a little box to work within, the weight of the brakes and unsprung weight can give them an edge to be more competitive than the next car. Some pads prototypes had been developped, with full thickness but party made out of carbon and few mm of real friction material to reduce the pad weight.
Second important requirement is to reduce the drag of the brake pads “rubbing” on the rotor faces. Of course turning left only, the pads facing inward the race track inevitably rub the inner rotor faces due to lateral G, we see this especially at Daytona rather than Talladega that has got higher bankings. To overcome this dragging issue the calipers and pads are usually equipped with a sort of pad retraction device such as springs to keep the pad off the rotors.
Plus, still related to reducing the brake drag, is the instantenous release, that is the capability of the seals to pull the pistons back everytime the driver gets on the brakes and releases them. It’s just a split second but it makes the difference between win the race and finish mid-pack at Talladega. The release can be measured at the dyno or by performing speed coast down test sessions at the proving grounds – it is of course crucial for this type of test to quantify the influence of external factor such us wind, temperature, tires, track conditions, ecc… To improve the release the calipers come with special seals called High Roll Back. The other thing they can do is to run brake pad materials which are softer than std for better release.
In actuality, the driver gets on the brakes on speedways in the following instances:
1. Heavy, to come down pitroad for a greenflag pitstop. It’s important the pedal is there. Most times the spotter comes on the radio to remind the driver to pump the brakes.
2. Heavy, to avoid the wrecks “the Big One”. At the time I am writing this article, todays race at Talladega had to 2 big ones one involved R Newman, the other one M Martin and Talladega is statistically known to have at least one
3. At Daytona, the car handling comes into play. The tires get old or the car gets tightened up so the driver might just tap the brakes to help the handling.
4. The leader might tap on the brakes a little bit to cause the chasers to step on the brakes. Absolutely never lift off the throttle on speedways, not to kill that momentum, with NASCAR mandating the carburator restrictor plates, it takes too long to the engines to gain RPMs back.
5. Drafting and avoing to get bumper to bumper. With the new rule NASCAR established, they want to see day light between bumpers over the corners, so again the might just get on the brakes a little bit but never lift the throttle.
Getting back to point #1, it takes a lot of clamping force to slow down these cars so the caliper piston size is bigger than std. This is because of 3 reasons mainly: a. The brakes are cold so the pads are not within their operating temperature, as a result the grip is mechanical only not thermo-chemical. b. The pad materials for speedways are usually less grippy than those ones for Short Tracks and Road Courses. c. The rotors are usually of smaller diameter – and as a result the brake effective radius is smaller – to save weight and reduce the inertia due to rotating mass.
The Master Cylinder size is also bigger than a std size. This is because of 3 reasons: a. To run with a bigger caliper but at the same time keeping same BIAS, pedal ratio, etcc.. b. To compensate the volume of fluid due to the rotor runout and vibrations pushing the pads back, this happens running at big tracks for many laps without never hitting the brakes then suddently on the brakes, the pedal feels now longer. c. To get more modulation coming down in the pits and reduce the possibility of locking up the front wheels and get past the pitstall – the speedway brake package is typified by a brake BIAS towards the fronts as opposed as Short Tracks.

Bob Griese is very popular. His passion for football made him so popular. Robert Allen Bob Griese is his full name.

He has had lots and lots of fame to be attributed to him for his success on the football field. He also played baseball. He had been a very good player on the baseball team while in college. Currently he is just being a commentator on ESPN for the football games.

Soon after he retired from being a player, he joined the NBC Sports as an announcer teaming up with Charlie Jones. This was indeed a very good way through which he can be in tune with sports. After this NBC sports he joined ABC Sports as they had requested him. He has also written a book ?Undefeated?.

POLL:

Will You Watch The Nascar Daytona 500?

VOTE YES or VOTE NO

Win a gift card for your opinion

He wrote this with his son Brian. He and his son loved his wife Judi. He wrote about her in that book and also about football. After having served in ABC, he switched over to ESPN.

There he had a chance of commentating for the NASCAR sprint cup series. This was really great. When the names of top five NASCAR sprint cup series? players were listed, on the appearance of the name Juan Pablo Montoya he had given a nasty comment saying ?he is having a taco?.

He then regretted for having said so.

With two races left until the grand finale of the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship, the ferocity and intensity of the competition only increase. As is common in the sport, event after event, the situation of each driver changes, often quite dramatically. In previous races, the leader of the tournament, Jimmie Johnson, described each individual competition as a whole new challenge; each track is very different and it is very difficult to predict what might happen next. This quality was revealed very clearly last weekend at the Dickies 500, the thirty-fourth event of the top racing category in NASCAR. The event took place at the Texas Motor Speedway Circuit. In Texas, Johnson caused great amazement, but not because he won; instead, he suffered a serious accident that left the crows agape. The result left the three-time champion in the pits area for more than an hour while his team tried to repair his car. The lost time led him to end in 38th place, adding only 49 points and shortening his lead against Mark Martin, the driver in second place, to 73 points. While Johnson waited to return to the track, a fierce battle ensued between Kyle Busch and his older brother, Kurt Busch, for first place in the race. During the confrontation Denny Hamlin, driver of Joe Gibbs racing, managed to lead the race for two laps. The event proceeded with increasing speed and a growing enthusiasm within both the drivers and the crowd; the competitors were trying to give a good show. The Busch brothers were the center of attention, their clash watched with bated breath. It was a tough battle and neither of the two was willing to give any ground. This confrontation only grew until late in the competition, when Kyle was able to situate himself in first after he passed through the pit area in the 269th lap. Kurt joined the pits in lap 271, and, after exiting speedily, quickly reached his younger brother. Trying to maximize his resources, Kyle didn?t refuel, and as a result in lap 331 he ran out of gas. His brother seized on the moment to pass him and snag first place. Kurt was able to save his fuel to stay at the wheel of his Dodge and complete the scheduled 334 laps, crossing the finish line in first place. With the victory, his third of the season and the twentieth of his professional career in the Sprint Cup, Kurt, the driver of the #2 Penske Racing team, won a total of 190 points, giving him the opportunity to advance two positions in the standings, at 4th place with 6,126 points. Another driver who took advantage of Kyle?s missing fuel ? the younger Busch finished at eleventh ? was Hamlin, who crossed the finish line in second place, followed by Matt Kenseth in third. After this event, Johnson, who is seeking a fourth consecutive title (a feat unprecedented in NASCAR history) adds a total of 6,297 points, with Martin trailing him very closely. His victory, then, is hardly guaranteed.

Jimmie Johnson took his fourth straight Chase for the Sprint Cup title after putting off a stupendous performance in the 2009 championship finale. Johnson won the pole during the classification tests prior to the big event. From that position, he completely committed himself to winning the Ford 400, which was held at the Homestead-Miami Speedway last Sunday. Alas, Johnson was not the driver to cross the finish line at first; however, it was enough for him to finish in fifth place to keep his lead in the general standings and take the championship. Keeping his car firmly under his control throughout the race, Johnson was able to overcome several incidents on the track that left the competition at a stop. Despite losing first place, Johnson knew how to stay near the group that was leading the challenge. The race was tight and extremely difficult as a result of the strong rivalry that had been generated between the drivers throughout the long challenge. All fought hard trying to surpass each other with the objective of finishing in the best positions and garnering as many points as they could to occupy a favorable position and ranking by the end of the competition. Johnson could have completed the race in the twenty-fifth position and still won the major title; however, the #48 Chevrolet driver was not content with an easy win. To the contrary, he displayed his talent as he accelerated strongly throughout the extensive 400-mile journey, moving quickly but carefully to prevent any accidents that might drop him in the placement. Johnson?s only real danger came from his teammate, Mark Martin, who was located in second place of the overall drivers? standings and who was the only one who could threaten Johnson?s aspirations for the title. Yet Johnson did not allow himself to become flustered even when Martin moved in the front for the triumph; the defending champion simply focused on doing his job. Near the end of the competition, first place was disputed between Kyle Busch and Dennis Hamlin. It was the latter who finally prevailed and crossed the finish linei n first. Johnson stayed close behind to arrive in fifth, gaining his fourth consecutive title and becoming the champion of the top flight NASCAR series. Johnson?s four wins in a row place him in the NASCAR Sprint Cup history books, a feat no other driver has yet achieved. Thus, Johnson surpasses even the legendary Cale Yarborough, who is the only other driver who has managed to seize the championship in three consecutive seasons. This triumph for Johnson, who finished the lead with 6,652 points, also represents a momentous moment for Hendrick Motorsports Racing, since the team has managed ? for the first time in NASCAR history ? to install drivers in all of the top three places of the final classification. Martin, who in Florida crossed the finish line in twelfth for an additional 127 points, had 5,611 points total, while Jeff Gordon, who finished in sixth with an added 150 points, secured third place in the drivers? standings.