TV Times

TV Times: Phoenix A Wash For Chase Contenders Tony and Carl

Monday, November 14, 2011 54 reads
Lou Modestino

There was no gain for Tony Stewart against Carl Edwards after a hectic afternoon run on Sunday at PIR.

The two came out of the second-last Chase to the Sprint Cup race with a mere three point difference with Edwards still in the lead. The upcoming Homestead event will certainly be an interesting point battle between only those two combatants. Third place Kevin Harvick is 51 points out of first. Edwards is now up against a must-win situation next Sunday, especially if Stewart will continue to be on his tail till the race’s finish.

“It’s nice to have the point lead going into Homestead. I’m proud of my guys, and I’m very excited. It’s going to be a battle right down to end. I’m sure that Stewart will be right on his game,” said Edwards following Sunday’s race. Stewart, who led for 150 laps, said, ” We made an air pressure change, and it didn’t what we wanted. We were just a little too loose. It was still an awesome day though.” Unfortunately for Jimmie Johnson, he wasn’t a factor all day.

But it sure was Kasey Kahne’s day with a decisive win for him, especially considering that he hadn’t been in Victory Lane for two years. “It was a great run, and I have my crew to thank for that. In the early going, it was slippery and then the track was fine, ” he said in the Winner’s Circle. This win couldn’t have come at a better time because Kahne’s sponsor, Red Bull, is bailing as soon as Cup season is over next weekend. Team manager Ray Ingle is trying to find a buyer for the team and has a few leads. “We’ll see what happens (on the sale)” said Ingle. Ken Francis, the Red Bull crew chief, was also elated over the win. “This is my biggest win ever, ” he said.

The talking heads in the anchor booth had a few comments following the the PIR event. Dale Jarrett opined, “Those two guys (Edwards and Stewart) are right on top of their game. I expect that they’ll be battling all of the way to the end.” Alan Bestwick quipped what many are saying, “It’s going to be a head-to-head run at Homestead.” On the Speed Report, Ray Evernham stated, “Every point counts. It looks like they’ll (Edwards and Stewart) will keep doing what they’ve been doing. It’s the closest championship run in NASCAR history.”

While Jeff Gordon, who had an off day, was negative on the track configuration, the majority of drivers liked it. Ryan Newman, who finished ninth, had somewhat similar comments. Both were concerned about the “dogleg.” Evernham thought that both Edwards and Stewart should be very concerned about each other during next Sunday’s race at Homestead because there’s so much riding on this last race in The Chase.

Among the other negatives, Kyle Busch blew an engine in the early going, and that was it for him. Matt Kenseth wasn’t too happy with the way he got punted out by Brian Vickers which impacted his position in The Chase.

On other weekend happenings, Sam Hornish was elated with scoring his first win in the Nationwide race at PIR a day earlier. He was fortunate as there was a lot of carnage behind him that took out some of the contenders. He was all smiles in Victory Lane. “I also won my first Indy Car race here,” he reminesed, grinning from ear-to-ear. Good vibes at PIR for him.

Elsewhere, at Abu Dhabi Sabastian Vettel went out in the early going with a broken suspension which sunk his opportunity to match the 13 wins of Michael Schumacher. Lewis Hamilton came home the winner in that one. Fernando Alanso and Jensen Button shared the podium with the German. In the WRC event held in Wales, Sabastian Loeb crashed his Citroen with a passenger car giving the win to the team of Jari and Matt. In the Pomona NHRA action, Del Worsham won the Top Fuel with the Funny Car final going to Matt Hagen.

SPEED TV has set the broadcast schedule for its one-hour telecast from the Porsche Rennsport Reunion IV held recently at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, California (all times are Eastern Standard Time – check local listings as schedules could vary by regions and could be affected by live event coverage):

Sat, Nov 19: 4:00 pm

Wed, Nov 30: 2:00 pm

Sun. Dec 1: 4:00 am

The one-hour telecast will be full of vintage action of Porsche race cars from all eras , interviews with the great Porsche race drivers – both past and present, and the spirit which united the Porsche owners with their heritage during this weekend on Monterey Peninsula. Commentators Justin Bell and Bob Varsha head up the SPEED TV broadcast team.

After weeks of continual Chase improvement, NASCAR’s playoff TV ratings have leveled off. Sunday’s Sprint Cup Texas event, pulling a 3.4 in the Nielsen’s came in flat with its year-to-year comparison from 2010. It’s just the third of this season’s eight postseason races not to post an increase of any kind.

On the viewership side, the audience decreased slightly, from 4.846 to 4.726 million. At-track attendance also slipped a bit, from 156,000 to 151,000 as the Dallas Cowboys posted a sellout across town. Those numbers set new lows for Texas’ Fall event since its addition to the Cup schedule in 2005.

We read the book, DRIVEN BY FAITH: The Trevor Bayne story. (Zonderkidz; $6.99; January 2012) The youngest winner ever of the Daytona 500, Bayne candidly shares the story of his faith-driven racing career with NASCAR enthusiast and Daytona News Journal’s Goodwin Kelly. Kelly’s undeniable love of the sport shines through as he details each crowning moment of Bayne’s young life – how the child attached to his toy cars went on to win three WKA Nationals and world championships, and NASCAR’s highest honor, the Daytona 500. For each accomplishment, the Knoxville-born racer credits his faith: “The biggest thing I’ve ever, and ever could do is find Christ. That’s the reason I’m here.” We were impressed and enjoyed reading DRIVEN BY FAITH: The Trevor Bayne story.

Two weeks after conquering the third European title, Luca Rossetti, Works Abarth driver, codriven by Matteo Chiarcossi, on an Abarth Grande Punto S2000 of the Pegasus Racing team, will take part as a “special guest star” in the 38° Hitit Rally, last round of the Turkish Championship, which will be held in Kemer in Antalya – Turkey, on the roads which in the recent past hosted the Turkish leg of the World Rally Championship. All the strongest Turkish drivers are entered in this gravel rally, from Volkan Isik with a Peugeot 207 Super2000 to Burak Çukurova with Skoda Fabia Super2000 and Yagiz Avci with the Ford Fiesta S2000. For Luca Rossetti, another challenge in Turkey, a nation that in previous years has already seen him the winner of the Rally of Turkey (IRC) and the Rally Bosphorus (ERC).

The three-time European champion, whose sporting management is conducted by United Business, said: “I will be at the start of the 38° Hitit Rally with the car from Pegasus Racing team, with whom I have already done two events, the 2010 Bosphorus and the 2011 Bulgaria, which both ended with the overall victory. My presence is intended as a thank you to Pegasus Racing and its team principal, Cem Acar, with whom I am linked by a relationship of deep friendship. I do not know the race at all, it will once again be a route to discover for me, but I am used to this, indeed tackling always new events, facing new opponents and compete to win is always an exciting challenge for me. In Turkey, I have my ROX Fans Club and I will clearly try to amuse them, because they are really passionate and have always been very close to me”. The 38° Hitit Rally, has a total length of 423.99 km, with 9 special stages for a total of 132.70 km, it will start from Kemer on Saturday, November 19th at 12.00 and will end, also in Kemer, Sunday November 20th at 14.42.

Check RaceFanTV.com to see what else is going on in motor racing this weekend.

NOTE: INFORMATION FOR THIS COLUMN CAME VARIOUS REFERENCED SOURCES AND PERSONAL NOTES.