In the meantime, Helio Castroneves won the IZOD Indy Car race at the same site, long overdue. At Atlanta Tony Stewart won the Sprint Cup event, and he also was due for a win, with Edwards next and then Johnson. Jamie McMurray got to visit the Winner’s Circle at Atlanta in the Nationwide race, while Brad Keselowski still leads the Nationwide point chase by a wide margin over his rival, Carl Edwards.

Robin Miller, who covers the IZOD Indy Cars for SPEED, says there’s going to be a shift from ISC-owned tracks to SMI venues owned by Bruton Smith. And as far as the IZOD Indy Cars go, it appears that Milwaukee will be on the 2011 schedule. According to the Atlanta Constitution, Smith was quite vocal about his disappointment of NASCAR ending the Sprint Cup season at Homestead, calling Homestead “North Cuba”.

He’s still smarting over the fact that ISC wouldn’t change the NASCAR Cup finale to Las Vegas which would have resulted in the SMI principal to move one of the NHMS dates to Glitter Gulch. Having the last and deciding Sprint Cup date is a valuable asset. (So what’s in it for ISC?) Smith wanted the Homestead single Cup date moved to late February, but ISC and NASCAR wouldn’t budge.

It may have been Labor Day Weekend – a time for a little R&R, but there was no holiday for Tomy Drissi and the RSR team as they worked hard to return to the SCCA Pro Racing Trans-Am Series podium at Brainerd International Raceway. Driving the #5 Unstoppable Jaguar XKR, Drissi topped the charts during the morning practice session ahead of qualifying.

Looking for his second pole of the season, the 2009 Trans-Am champion recorded a best qualifying lap at 1:28.198 (102.043 mph) around BIR’s 2.5-mile circuit, but fell just short of the pole. Tony Ave was the pole sitter, and Drissi started on the outside of row one. “I believe our chances of success were hampered by traffic,” commented Drissi. “Ave got two clean laps and his second lap was the fastest one. My first lap was faster than his first lap, so I think we could have had the pole here and that is just upsetting.”

Round 8 took the green flag on Sunday afternoon. Drissi had a good start, but it was Ave who took the lead. Ave and Drissi raced closely through the early stages of the 36-lap race before Ave managed to pull away and take the checkered flag to win by one minute and five seconds over Drissi. “Second place is OK; it is just frustrating to lose to Tony Ave again,” said Drissi. “But at the end, he had the better car and deserved it.”

“We never had the opportunity to run next to Ave during the weekend before the race to be able to compare our cars on-track. Times were close, but I thought that we had the winning combination this weekend. I think that it turned out that the #5 Unstoppable Jaguar XKR was better in handling and braking, but Ave had more speed on the straightaway. I tried to make up for that in braking and cornering, but I used up my tires. Overall, it was a good day for the team; we finished the race and returned to the podium.”

Drissi earned his fourth podium result of the year. He remains third in the Trans-Am driver standings with 834 points, trailing RJ Lopez (in second) by only 55 points. With two races remaining, it is still possible for him to defend his 2009 title. The RSR team will have a quick turnaround for Round 9 of the 10-race season, which will be next weekend at Virginia International Raceway in Alton, VA, September 11 – 12.

The Malaysian GP has secured Petronas as its title sponsor for a further five years as the national oil and gas corporation signed a contract extension with the Formula One Group. The company will also enjoy extensive advertising, branding and promotional benefits until 2015, pushing its international expansion efforts. “Apart from the continuous benefits our businesses and brand receive through the Formula One exposure, our extension of the agreement to partner Formula One reflects our long-term commitment and continued dedication to support efforts to position Malaysia as a major motorsport hub and tourist destination,” said Mohd Medan Abdullah, senior general manager, corporate services division at Petronas.

“As the first modern Asian Formula One venue since Japan, the Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix has since been credited as the catalyst in opening Asia to the sport,” recalled Bernie Ecclestone, Formula One group chief executive officer. Petronas has been involved in international motorsport for the past two decades and has seen a steep increase in its lubricant business internationally ever since.

The Leaders event is to host a “behind closed doors” session for directors from teams, sponsors and broadcasters involved in Formula One.

The gathering will take place on October 6 as part of the event that runs separate conferences for the football, sponsorship and performance industries. Some of the guests already confirmed are Sheikh Salman, CEO, Bahrain International Circuit; Simone Perillo, secretary general, Formula One Teams Association; Rob Montague, CEO, F1 Rocks; Derk Saur, chairman, Moscow City Racing; and Ishmael Pena Munoz, chief director, La Sexta News and Sports.

“Everyone involved is also looking forward to sharing ideas and knowledge with all the other sports attending Leaders in Football and Leaders in Sponsorship in order to further develop new opportunities and business relationships across the sports industry,” said Leaders event chief executive officer James Worrall. The Leaders event takes place at Chelsea FC on October 6 and 7. This came from SportsBusiness.com.
Here’s what’s going on this weekend: NASCAR moves to Richmond, F1 will be at Monza, Italy, and the Grand-Am Series will perform at Tooele, UT. Check out RaceFanTV.com for all of the details. (END)

NOTE: INFORMATION FOR THIS COLUMN CAME FROM VARIOUS REFERENCED SOURCES AND PRESS RELEASES.

Jimmie Johnson experienced another disappointing day coming down to the Chase. What a let down it must be for this driver, considering that he appeared to be practically bullet proof early in the season. Will Power pulled off the Indy Car win at Sonoma, CA, and Ryan Newman won the Whelen Modified Series at Thunder Valley.

In a recent conversation with a longtime NASCAR watcher about the sanction’s new attitude allowing drivers to “be themselves”, we’re worried that some serious injuries may take place at any time. As race fans have more than likely noticed, there’ve been a number of bad wrecks, yet so far lucky competitors have came out of them unscathed, thanks to the Hans Devices and other safety equipment as well as the COT. These safety devices are being pushed to the limit, all to peak interest in the Sprint Cup Series in order to sell tickets and improve TV ratings. Don’t forget that renewal time for revenue-sharing contracts with the networks will soon be coming!

SPEED scored a Nielsen Household Rating of .70 (539,000 households) for its live coverage of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race from Darlington, a 19-percent increase from the 2009 equivalent race from Nashville (.59). Race coverage on SPEED peaked at .83 (637,000 households).

Tevo Hellmund is intent on building a world class F1 track in Austin, TX. It’s going to cost $200 million and it will contain over 20 turns, fast corners and natural terrain. The venue will also be capable of hosting other events not just limited to F1 racing. Previously, F1 events have been held at a dozen or so venues in USA and all fallen by the wayside. While Hellmund looks at F1 as an opportunity to turn a profit from an F1 race, that hasn’t been the case previously. The target date for the first F1 race in Austin is 2012.

Tevo was a guest on on Dave Despain’s WINDTUNNEL on Sunday night. Despain showed a flim clip of Jackie Stewart stating that he doesen’t blame US track owners, organizers and promoters for not hosting F1 races as it’s very difficult to turn a profit. Hellmund, on the other hand, claims to have a long standing relationship with FOCA’s Bernie Eccelstone through his family. Coming up with $200 million in an ailing world-wide economic downturn is a difficult task. The only revenue that the proposed Austin track can turn is through hospitality and ticket sales. Because Bernie Eccelstone controls all of the ad revenue and F1 TV rights monies. No doubt that’s the reason that all previous attempts to establish F1 in the USA has failed. After F1 didn’t catch on at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the USA’s shrine of speed, the chances of this being a profitable venture are slim.

Motorcycle icon Valentino Rossi caused big excitement on the MotoGP circuit this week after announcing that he would switch to Ducati from Yamaha next season. Rossi is one of Italy’s most famous sports personalities and has won seven world championships with Japanese teams. However, the prospect of his now linking up with the Italian bike manufacturer should make for a fascinating new season.

Rossi had previously looked at entering Formula One, undergoing tests with Ferrari. But he’s decided to commit to MotoGP for now. He has competed in World Rally events and may focus on rallying when he quits bikes. Yamaha, whose MotoGP unit is based in Italy, said they made an offer to keep Rossi, but the lure of racing for Italy’s Ducati proved too strong. They are now planning to use 2009 Superbikes world champion Ben Spies for next season. This came from SportsBusinessInternational.com.

ESPN2 continues its season-long coverage of the NASCAR Nationwide Series on Sunday, Aug. 29, as the series goes road racing north of the border at the famous Circuit Gilles Villleneuve in Montreal. The NASCAR Countdown pre-race show airs at 2 p.m. with the race’s green flag at 2:48 p.m.

Also from Montreal, ESPN2 will televise NASCAR Nationwide Series qualifying on Saturday, Aug. 28, at 5 p.m. as well as final practice earlier that day at 11:30 a.m.

Allen Bestwick will call the action with analysis by Rusty Wallace, the 1989 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion, and two-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion crew chief Andy Petree. Reports from two-time champion crew chief Tim Brewer will originate from the ESPN Craftsman Tech Garage, while pit reporters will be Mike Massaro, Shannon Spake and Vince Welch.

NASCAR Now, ESPN2’s daily NASCAR news and information program, airs Tuesday through Thursday this week with half-hour episodes. Tuesday and Wednesday’s programs air at 5 p.m. while the Thursday program airs at 6 p.m. Nicole Briscoe will host.

There will be no episode of NASCAR Now on Friday due to live NASCAR programming, and the Monday roundtable edition will take Aug. 30 off due to ESPN’s live coverage of U.S. Open tennis from New York.

NASCAR Now is hosted by Mike Massaro, Nicole Briscoe, Allen Bestwick and Shannon Spake and originates from ESPN’s high definition studios in Bristol, Conn. Contributors include reporters Marty Smith and Angelique Chengelis, analysts Ray Evernham, Tim Brewer, Brad Daugherty, and Ricky Craven, ESPN.com reporters Ed Hinton, Terry Blount and David Newton and ESPN the Magazine senior writer Ryan McGee. The NASCAR on ESPN team event coverage team of Rusty Wallace, Dale Jarrett, Marty Reid, Dr. Jerry Punch, Andy Petree, Dave Burns, Jamie Little, and Vince Welch also make frequent contributions to NASCAR Now.

Here’s what else is going on this weekend on the tube with the Sprint Cup having a rare weekend off. F1 moves to Spa in Belgium with the Indy Cars, ARCA stockcars and the NASCAR Trucks all performing at Chicagoland Speedway. The Grand-Am will also be at Montreal at the Gilles Villeneuve Circuit and the FIM Motorcycles take to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course with the ALMS in action at Mosport, Ontario. Those events will be aired on Speed and VS. Check RaceFanTV.com for all of the details.

When former owner of NHMS, Bob Bahre, built the Loudon 1.1 miler, he capped the seating at 100,000 to satisfy the local residents who were concerned about traffic and noise. He also accounted for the possibility that future attendance at Cup races might eventually plateau. Bahre’s other reasoning at the time was that tickets for 100,000 seats rather than 150,000 would be a lot easier to sell, as Smith has discovered. Most of his tracks have a capacity of 150,000 seats, and, time after time, not all of them have been sold.

The word around was that Vegas had flashed $8 million to Smith in order to bring another Cup race to Glitter Gulch. While having the NASCAR finale there in November wouldn’t have necessarily meant that Smith would have been consistently able to fill the 150,000 seats, except perhaps for only the first year. Consider that Vegas is close enough to the L.A. market which offers a large pool of motor head fans. Yet why is it that the Fontana track could never be filled to capacity? NASCAR took some lumps when they moved a race out of Darlington, SC, to Fontana, and it certainly hasn’t lived up to expectations and forecasts. As a result, the Fontana race will move to Kansas Speedway which expects to have its long-anticipated gambling casino up and running in time for next year’s Cup races.

While on the subject of gambling, NHMS has indicated to local pols and others in power in New Hampshire that they are very much interested in building a gambling casino on the acreage they own in Loudon. But both Kansas and New Hampshire speedways should consider that the gambling take in casinos during this deep recession has been way off, especially in New England. Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, both in Connecticut, have taken severe financial hits resulting in layoffs and downsizing. Those two venues are full-blown resort casinos that’re run by native Americans, and they don’t have to pay income tax to the Feds or the State! Also, Twin Rivers in Lincoln, RI, owned by a private company, but licensed by the gaming commission in Rhode Island, is in deep trouble and in the midst of some serious financial restructuring. Casinos and slot machine parlors are also on the agenda in nearby Massachusetts for the purpose of raising revenue due to the loss of taxes because of high unemployment. So the gambling handle will be spread out among more entities in the future.

It took RCR from the untimely death of Dale Earnhardt, Sr., until now to bounce back. RCR’s top driver, Kevin Harvick, won the Cup race at MIS over the weekend and he leads Jeff Gordon in the Chase For The Nextel Cup going into Bristol this weekend. Brad Kaselowski continues his success in the Nationwide Series beating rival Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch at the same track. There were lots of empty seats at MIS which is no big surprise given the fact that Michigan has very high employment. Also Todd Bodine continues to be the best in the NASCAR Truck Series winning the Darlington event.

With anticipated crowds exceeding the Super Bowl, Final Four, NBA Finals, World Series games, and even the Stanley Cup Playoffs , New Hampshire Motor Speedway will host the three the biggest sporting events in New England during its 2011 racing season. For the 15th consecutive season, the “Magic Mile” will host two NASCAR Sprint Cup Series weekends. Moving from its recent late June date, NASCAR’s elite series makes its season debut at NHMS on Sunday, July 17, for the LENOX Industrial Tools 301. The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series will make its second trip to the Granite State on Sunday, September 25, as the SYLVANIA 300 lights up the competition for the second race in the “Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.”

“As we have seen for the past couple of months, these NASCAR Sprint Cup Series dates are special and highly coveted by various venues and cities across the country,” said Jerry Gappens, executive vice president and general manager of the speedway. “Though next year’s schedule realignment involved moving some dates from speedways that have hosted two NASCAR Sprint Cup weekends, I think it is fitting that the largest sports and entertainment venue in New England continues to host two NASCAR Sprint Cup races. Our two dates are directly a result of the incredible fan support we have in New England. I know first-hand that our Chairman Bruton Smith and NASCAR recognizes how important it is to have a terrific venue in this region and this New England market.”

In addition to the two Sprint Cup Series races at NHMS, a “New Breed of Speed,” invades the track when the IZOD IndyCar Series returns after a 13-year hiatus. On August 14 Dario Franchetti, Danica Patrick, Helio Castroneves, and all of the IZOD IndyCar Series stars will bring close wheel-to-wheel action and speeds reaching up to 200 miles per hour.

“Because of the date changes with our NASCAR weekends, we had to move this much-anticipated event from its originally announced July 31 date to August 14. With this change, it gives fans from New England, Canada and across the country three consecutive months of major racing events. This will be a tremendous boost to the economic benefit the speedway provides and increase in tourism to our great state.” Gappens added. “In addition, I really appreciate Randy Bernard and all of the officials of the IZOD Indy Cars Series for working with us to make this change. It creates some travel and logistical challenges for their group, but it further demonstrates their commitment to bringing open wheel racing back to New England.”

The 2011 season will also provide top-quality action in all forms of racing for fans; including the NASCAR Nationwide Series, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, NASCAR’s K&N Pro Series East, the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, and the American Canadian Tour. Other series include the Loudon Road Racing Series, a major snowmobile event, vintage racing, and the oldest motorcycle racing event in the world. Gappens also announced that there will not be a price increase for NASCAR events in 2011. “In addition to not increasing prices for the past eight years, we have actually lowered ticket prices in several areas the past two years and offer interest-free payment plans, which offers several affordable options for our fans, Gappens said.”

NASCAR Sprint Cup tickets for next year range from $39 to $110 and tickets for the IZOD Indy Car Series race are priced from $35 to $75. Fans buying all three events can save an additional 10-percent. The next major event scheduled for NHMS, is the SYLVANIA 300, September 16-19.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway has the “Yard of Bricks,” Augusta has the “Amen Corner,” and of course, Boston’s own Fenway Park has the mighty “Green Monster.” Now, New Hampshire Motor Speedway will have the same iconic item that every fan will remember.

This September, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stars will have to pass “The Granite Stripe” at the start-finish line.
Swenson Granite, located in Concord, is creating a brand-new start/finish line on “The Magic Mile.” A six-inch-thick, two-foot-wide by 65-foot strip of Concord Gray colored granite will grace each race start and welcome home each winner.

The Granite Stripe will feature three engraved logos documenting the history of the track: The Bryar Motorsports Park icon, New Hampshire International Speedway logo and New Hampshire Motor Speedway emblem will all have a permanent home at new rock solid finish line.

“Just as we live and race in the Granite State, it is fitting that “The Granite Stripe” marks the rock solid relationship our track, our fans, our drivers and the NASCAR family all share with New Hampshire Motor Speedway,” said Jerry Gappens, executive vice president and general manager of the speedway.

The Granite Stripe is being cut and prepared this month to be ready for the next race at NHMS. “We are proud and honored to be placing such an important piece to help fans and drivers start and finish each and every race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway,” said Gappens.

Did the HISTORY CHANNEL really give the MADHOUSE racing reality program a fair shake in 2009? We don’t think so because it started airing MADHOUSE at 10 p.m. and then moved it to 11 p.m. We heard that even in that late hour, the cable channel got the best ratings of any other program on it’s 24/7 schedule. The show was very popular and peaked the interest of of the roundy round short track fans coast-to-coast. Even those folks who were passing up their local short tracks because the shows were boring. The chatter on the internet, especially Facebook, was tremendous. We think that the HISTORY CHANNEL made major blunder by not booking this program for the 2010 season and offering it in prime time..

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series appears on ABC for the first time this season when it races for 500 laps in prime time under the lights at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway on Saturday night, Aug. 21. The NASCAR Countdown pre-race show kicks off the evening at 7 p.m. ET with the race telecast at 7:30 p.m. The race’s green flag is at 7:43 p.m. Also from Bristol, coverage of NASCAR Sprint Cup qualifying airs Friday, Aug. 20, at 5:30 p.m. on ESPN.

On last Sunday’s WINDTUNNEL on Speed hosted by Lee Diffee, the subject of fans flocking back to NASCAR because of the recent changes made by the sanction by Kenny Wallace was discussed. We can see the fans coming back to the TV broadcasts first and then buying tickets when the economy gets better.

Marty Reid will call the action with analysis by Dale Jarrett, the 1999 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion, and two-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion crew chief Andy Petree. Two-time champion crew chief Tim Brewer will report from the ESPN Craftsman Tech Garage, while pit reporters will be Dave Burns, Jamie Little, Dr. Jerry Punch and Vince Welch.

NASCAR Countdown from the ESPN pit studio will be hosted by Allen Bestwick with analysis by 1989 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion driver Rusty Wallace, three-time champion crew chief Ray Evernham and Brad Daugherty, a team owner in the series. The studio team will interact with the booth during the telecast of the race.

The NASCAR Nationwide Series also races under the lights at Bristol this weekend and season-long coverage on the ESPN networks continues. The race airs on ESPN beginning with NASCAR Countdown at 7 p.m. on Friday, with the race telecast at 8 p.m. and the green flag at 8:13 p.m.

ESPN analysts Rusty Wallace, Ricky Craven and Ray Evernham will be panelists on NASCAR Now’s weekly roundtable discussion program airing Tuesday, Aug. 24, at 1 a.m. ET (late Monday night) on ESPN2. Allen Bestwick will host the edition of ESPN2’s daily NASCAR news and information program.

Mike Massaro will host the weekend editions of NASCAR Now airing around the Saturday night, Aug. 21, live coverage of the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Bristol Motor Speedway. The one-hour preview show airs at 9 a.m. Saturday while the weekend wrap-up edition airs Sunday, Aug. 22, at 10 a.m. Marty Smith and Angelique Chengelis will report from the speedway, while Craven will join Massaro in the studio for analysis.

Massaro also hosts half-hour editions of NASCAR Now airing Tuesday and Thursday of this week at 5 p.m. and Wednesday at 6 p.m. There is no program on Friday due to live NASCAR programming.

NASCAR Now is hosted by Mike Massaro, Nicole Briscoe, Allen Bestwick and Shannon Spake and originates from ESPN’s high definition studios in Bristol, Conn. Contributors include reporters Marty Smith and Angelique Chengelis, analysts Ray Evernham, Tim Brewer, Brad Daugherty, and Ricky Craven, ESPN.com reporters Ed Hinton, Terry Blount and David Newton and ESPN the Magazine senior writer Ryan McGee. The NASCAR on ESPN team event coverage team of Rusty Wallace, Dale Jarrett, Marty Reid, Dr. Jerry Punch, Andy Petree, Dave Burns, Jamie Little, and Vince Welch also make frequent contributions to NASCAR Now.

NASCAR fans looking for an online gathering during ESPN’s telecasts of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series now have a place to go on ESPN.com.

RacingLive! on ESPN.com is a live blog where fans can engage in debate and discussion with ESPN.com writers and editors during the NASCAR Sprint Cup races. On Saturday night, Aug. 21, RacingLive! Bristol will kick off at 7:30 p.m. ET to coincide with ESPN’s telecast of the 500-lap race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Highlights from the recent event at Brainerd (Minn.) International Raceway for the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag racing Series will air in a one-hour format at 11 a.m. ET on Sunday, Aug. 22, on ESPN2. The series features Sportsman drag racing cars.

Here’s what else is happening on the tube this week into the weekend. SPEED offers the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and the NASCAR Truck race at Bristol, TN on Wednesday night. VS offers the IZOD Indy Cars from Sonoma, CA while Speed goes with the ALMS from Road America in WI. Check RaceFanTV.com for all of the dates, times and details. (END)

NOTE: INFORMATION FOR THIS COLUMN CAME FROM VARIOUS REFERENCED SOURCES AND PRESS RELEASES.

Ticket sales for this year’s Cup race at Loudon, NH, were off by only nine percent from 2009.  But as mentioned in all news reports, the other two Cup races (Fontana, CA and Atlanta, GA) have ticket sales off by about forty percent, so why Loudon?  It’s expected that NASCAR will release the “official” Sprint Cup schedule in around 30 days.

Also the Miami Herald posted a story that indicated that Homestead’s finale Cup date could move to Vegas. Further, the Homestead Cup race could get repositioned to late February right after the Daytona 500. The same report also told of Homestead possibly losing the final IZOD Indy Car race in the near future.

We also saw a report on StockCarGazette.com that Indianapolis Motor Speedway may acquire the Nationwide race run on Saturday, the day before the IMS Cup race, at the across-town O’Reily Raceway Park. Is this just another smart business move by IMS? Or is it just another case of a big fish going after a smaller fish in the NASCAR pond? According to the report, former IMS CEO Tony George resisted such a move because he wanted to be a good neighbor to the NHRA which owns ORP.  It appears that IMS is trying to shore-up it’s weekend bottom line when the Sprint Cup Series comes into Naptown for the Brickyard 400.

We have also seen stories that tell of a Cup race moving to Kentucky could impact ticket sales at IMS’ Brick Yard 400.  According to other reports, Kentucky Speedway’s ticket sales for their recent Nationwide race were off considerably. ESPN announced that their final Nielsen TV ratings for the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway Sunday were down from last year’s.

Over the weekend, Greg Biffle was the winner of the Cup race at Pocono.  Mark Weber took the F1 race in Hungary. Kevin Harvik still leads the Cup points by 181 points. Weber leads the F1 points by 4 over Lewis Hamilton. Elliot Sadler won the NASCAR Truck race at Pocono with Todd Bodine in 12 and still leading the point tally. Kyle Busch won the Nationwide race in Iowa while Brad Kasilowski is still on top of the Nationwide points. Robb Brent ended up winning the ARCA event at Pocono.

According to StockCarGazette.com the NASCAR Nationwide Series won’t be returning to the Gateway Raceway in IL. According to Dover Motorsports, owner of the track, financial considerations are at the base of this decision. This stubborn recession continues to gnaw away at motorsports interests. Expect to see more negative financial decisions in this business segment as some economic experts foresee the G7 countries in a slump for another five years.

The ratings for ESPN2’s Nationwide Series telecast from O’Reilly Raceway Park on Saturday were up 21 percent from last year.  The live broadcast saw a 1.7 final household rating — which is an average of 2,356,996 viewers.  Last year’s broadcast on ESPN2 earned a 1.4 rating.

The iconic Monte Carlo street race will remain on the Formula One calendar for the next decade after securing a new deal with Bernie Ecclestone, despite recent suggestions from the sport’s commercial supremo that it could be dropped from the calendar. Ecclestone – who previously suggested Formula One did not need a Monaco grand prix, saying “they don’t pay enough” – agreed to the deal in London with Automobile Club de Monaco’s Michel Boeri.  Estimates are that a F1 race costs $32 million as a bench mark.  If that’s true then Monaco came up with at least that amount.

The North American Cypher Group, has pulled out of the race for the 13th spot on the Formula One grid next season due to lack of funding. The group was understood to contain members of the failed US F1 team, which was granted a slot on this year’s grid, but could not raise the necessary funds and withdrew at the last minute. “We remain committed to developing a credible and viable F1 team, and were able to raise a considerable amount of sponsorship and interest in recent months,” read a statement on the team’s official website

Tim Richmond: To the Limit (Rory Karpf)
Natural. Rock star. Outsider. In the 1980s, race car driver Tim Richmond lived his life the way he raced cars – wide open. Born into a wealthy family, Richmond was the antithesis of the Southern, blue-collar racers who dominated NASCAR. He also was a flamboyant showman who basked in the attention of the media and fans – especially the attention of female admirers. Nevertheless, it was Richmond’s on-track performances that ended up drawing comparisons to racing legends. And in 1986, when he won seven NASCAR races and finished third in the Winston Cup series points race, some believed he was on the verge of stardom. But soon his freewheeling lifestyle caught up to him. He unexpectedly withdrew from the NASCAR racing circuit, reportedly suffering from double pneumonia. In reality, the diagnosis was much more dire: He had AIDS. Richmond returned to the track in 1987, but he was gone from the sport by the next year as his health deteriorated. He spent his final days as a recluse, dying on August 13, 1989, at the age of 34. Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Rory Karpf will examine the life and tragic death of one of NASCAR’s shooting stars.

Chip Ganassi, who is leading his racing teams through one of the most successful motorsports seasons in the history of the sport this year, has agreed to serve as the Honorary Chairman of the 22nd Annual Motorsports Hall of Fame of America Induction Ceremony, Wednesday, August 25, in downtown Detroit. Ganassi’s most recent triumph came just this past weekend in the Brickyard 400 where Earnhardt Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Jamie McMurray gave his team owner a sweep of both major auto races at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) this year.  The victory made Ganassi the first owner to capture in a single season what is widely now considered auto racing’s modern-day triple-crown – the Daytona 500, Indianapolis 500 and the Brickyard 400.  McMurray also gave Ganassi his first Daytona 500 victory in February while Dario Franchitti won the Indianapolis 500 in May, Target Chip Ganassi Racing’s third victory in the Memorial Day Weekend classic.
As Honorary Chairman, Ganassi will preside over the formal black-tie induction ceremony at the Fillmore Theater in the heart of downtown Detroit on the evening of Wednesday, August 25.  This year’s list of motorsports legends and pioneers that will be inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America includes NHRA mechanical genius Dale Armstrong, Sprint Car Champion, Indy driver and stunt driver Joie Chitwood, NASCAR Champion Alan Kulwicki, AMA Supercross Champion Jeremy McGrath, the dean of racing broadcasters Ken Squier, Trans-Am Champion Jerry Titus; and USAC Sprint and Midget Champion Rich Vogler.
The Hall of Fame’s recently formed alliance with the Detroit Science Center will bring renewed focus to the technological innovations that are vital to success in motor racing.  A highlight of the Induction Ceremony will be Ganassi’s Chairman’s Address that will touch on motorsports being at the forefront of cutting-edge technology, how he has seen that role evolve and grow, and what could be in store in the future, based on Ganassi’s more than 30 years of involvement in the motorsports industry.
“We are proud to have Chip Ganassi join us as the Honorary Chairman for the 2010 Motorsports Hall of Fame of American Induction Ceremony,” said Ron Watson, President of the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America. “The timing obviously couldn’t have been better this year as Chip and his talented racing teams in all facets of the sport are once again making history that will no doubt be celebrated and commemorated in the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in the years to come.  At the same time, Chip’s vast experience and vision for the future of motorsports will also be of strong interest as we conduct our first Induction Ceremony since our new relationship with the Detroit Science Center.”