Rick Hendrick's silver anniversary in NASCAR is now officially his most successful, a dynasty unmatched in racing. With Jimmie Johnson's fourth straight title, it's the fifth for the organization this decade and ninth overall, tying the sport's all-time record for car owners. And with Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon finishing second and third in the standings, respectively, it's the first time in the history of the sport one man has stood alone with three teams atop the Cup Series podium.
HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- There may still be confetti floating in the South Florida air after Jimmie Johnson's championship celebration Sunday night, but in this "full-speed ahead" sport of NASCAR, nothing ever comes to a complete stop. That's just the way NASCAR Chairman Brian France wants it.
Nico Rosberg is the first signing for the new Mercedes Grand Prix team after their takeover of all-conquering Brawn GP.
While much of the focus this weekend will be on Jimmie Johnson's pending fourth straight championship, do not expect to see the No. 48 blowing the doors off the competition like it did at Phoenix. While Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus may say they go for the win at every race track, the Lowe's Chevy will have one of the more conservative setups in South Beach. So if you have already expended your picks this Chase on other drivers besides Johnson, you will not be disappointed. Expect the eventual champ, who only has to score 25th or better to clinch the title, to be a lock for the top 10 or top 15. That means if you are in the same position as the No. 48 team for your fantasy title, Johnson is a safe, conservative bet -- though he has never won at Homestead.
HOMESTEAD, Fla. (AP) -- Jimmie Johnson will go for a record fourth consecutive NASCAR title from the pole in the season-ending Ford 400 this weekend.
Jimmie Johnson leaned out the window of the black sport utility vehicle and waved in the general direction of the guy screaming his name over the din of horns and diesel trucks. A yellow cab tooling up a bustling Columbus Avenue prompted him to tuck back inside quickly.
World champion race driver Jenson Button has joined the McLaren Formula One team, McLaren announced Wednesday.
Timo Glock has been confirmed as Manor Grand Prix's lead driver for their maiden Formula One campaign in 2010.
AVONDALE, Ariz. -- The look on Mark Martin's face when he climbed out of his No. 5 Chevrolet at Phoenix International Raceway certainly didn't look like a man who was frustrated by the fact he probably isn't going to win a NASCAR Sprint Cup title.
Mercedes-Benz will head up their own Formula One team next season after the German car manufacturer confirmed they have taken a 75.1 percent share in Brawn GP -- with Ross Brawn remaining as team principal.
Rick Hendrick's silver anniversary in NASCAR is now officially his most successful, a dynasty unmatched in racing. With Jimmie Johnson's fourth straight title, it's the fifth for the organization this decade and ninth overall, tying the sport's all-time record for car owners. And with Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon finishing second and third in the standings, respectively, it's the first time in the history of the sport one man has stood alone with three teams atop the Cup Series podium.
HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- There may still be confetti floating in the South Florida air after Jimmie Johnson's championship celebration Sunday night, but in this "full-speed ahead" sport of NASCAR, nothing ever comes to a complete stop. That's just the way NASCAR Chairman Brian France wants it.
Nico Rosberg is the first signing for the new Mercedes Grand Prix team after their takeover of all-conquering Brawn GP.
While much of the focus this weekend will be on Jimmie Johnson's pending fourth straight championship, do not expect to see the No. 48 blowing the doors off the competition like it did at Phoenix. While Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus may say they go for the win at every race track, the Lowe's Chevy will have one of the more conservative setups in South Beach. So if you have already expended your picks this Chase on other drivers besides Johnson, you will not be disappointed. Expect the eventual champ, who only has to score 25th or better to clinch the title, to be a lock for the top 10 or top 15. That means if you are in the same position as the No. 48 team for your fantasy title, Johnson is a safe, conservative bet -- though he has never won at Homestead.
HOMESTEAD, Fla. (AP) -- Jimmie Johnson will go for a record fourth consecutive NASCAR title from the pole in the season-ending Ford 400 this weekend.
Jimmie Johnson leaned out the window of the black sport utility vehicle and waved in the general direction of the guy screaming his name over the din of horns and diesel trucks. A yellow cab tooling up a bustling Columbus Avenue prompted him to tuck back inside quickly.
World champion race driver Jenson Button has joined the McLaren Formula One team, McLaren announced Wednesday.
Timo Glock has been confirmed as Manor Grand Prix's lead driver for their maiden Formula One campaign in 2010.
AVONDALE, Ariz. -- The look on Mark Martin's face when he climbed out of his No. 5 Chevrolet at Phoenix International Raceway certainly didn't look like a man who was frustrated by the fact he probably isn't going to win a NASCAR Sprint Cup title.
Mercedes-Benz will head up their own Formula One team next season after the German car manufacturer confirmed they have taken a 75.1 percent share in Brawn GP -- with Ross Brawn remaining as team principal.
The week prior to the Texas race, Jimmie Johnson, like the consummate polished pro he is, stayed "on message" and preached caution, urging anyone who cared to listen that anything could happen with three races remaining.
With two races left, all eyes are focused on the two-man battle between Jimmie Johnson and Mark Martin for the Sprint Cup. But let's not forget that there are 41 other drivers and teams looking to end the season on a high note. Yes, holding up the year-end trophy is a beautiful thing, but those who can't still want to finish the year smiling, come Homestead.
The Indy Racing League looked smart in sassy white pants and cut a stylish businessman's profile in a charcoal suit and hipster glasses. It was uncharacteristically bawdy, a little prance-y on the catwalk, but what the heck, it was fully subsidized for the first time in its 13 years. Time to work it.
Five things we learned on a championship-changing afternoon at Texas Motor Speedway:
Just when it looked like next weekend's trip to Phoenix could be billed as NASCAR's Championship Weekend, which would have made the season-finale at Homestead-"NASCAR 2010 Preseason Thunder," it all changed when Jimmie Johnson hit the wall on Lap 3 at Texas Motor Speedway.
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) -- Carl Edwards has found a way to try to mask the frustration of his winless NASCAR Sprint Cup season.
SI.com's Mark Beech takes a spin around the racing world for the most intriguing stories in and out of the garage.
After the ghoulish Halloween madness at the biggest baddest track of them all, a return to a cookie cutter venue at Texas Motor Speedway will bring some much needed normalcy to the Sprint Cup this weekend. Just three races remain on the 2009 slate and for some, the end of the season can't come soon enough.
What's the best way to push criticism out of today's sports news cycle?
Ari Vatanen, the recently defeated presidential candidate for world motorsport's governing body the FIA, has told CNN he thinks Renault would be "right to quit" Formula One.
Somewhere in a grungy little warehouse, those counterfeit T-shirts are being disgorged from a press. The slogan will be tacky and obviously unauthorized, but the shirt will sell well enough when they show up in the camper lot at Ft. Worth, Texas, or Avondale, Ariz. Might as well get a head start, because Jimmie Johnson has apparently put this NASCAR Sprint Cup title chase away.
This article appears in the November 9, 2009 issue of Sports Illustrated.
Toyota, the largest car manufacturer in the world, has announced it is pulling out of Formula One.
Toyota Motor has decided to follow Honda and BMW out of Formula One racing to save costs as the Japanese carmaker braces for its second straight annual loss, a person with knowledge of the situation said on Wednesday.
Based upon how it's turned out, this has been a pretty mild and tame Sprint Cup season in terms of driver movement and drivers entering the series -- the so-called silly season.
Brazilian Rubens Barrichello will drive for Williams next season after switching from this year's constructors' champions Brawn GP.
TALLADEGA, Ala. -- The more NASCAR tinkers with Talladega, the more mayhem ensues.
Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel made Formula One history by becoming the winner of the sport's first day-night race in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.
Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel took advantage of Lewis Hamilton's early retirement to win the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix ahead of his team-mate Mark Webber.
Last year's world champion Lewis Hamilton has claimed pole position for Sunday's inaugural Abu Dhabi Grand Prix while his successor as Formula One's top driver, Jenson Button, qualified fifth.
It's entirely appropriate that the NASCAR circus swings through Talladega over Halloween weekend. If ever there were a venue that gave drivers heart palpitations, visions of disaster and sweat-soaked nightmares, it would surely be the 2.66 mile-long behemoth in Alabama. With the restrictor plates reduced in size ( by 1/64th of an inch) this weekend, in order to prevent Carl Edwards' Ricky Bobby style crash in the spring race, the net result of this reduction will be a drop of between 12 and 15 horsepower, bunching the cars even more uncomfortably closer together than before.
SI.com's Mark Beech takes a spin around the racing world for the most intriguing stories in and out of the garage.
Heikki Kovalainen prevented practice for the inaugural Abu Dhabi Grand Prix from being an all-British affair as he topped the timesheets after the second session.
As NASCAR heads to Talladega this Sunday, the Cup Series will conclude its 22nd consecutive year of "restrictor plate racing." Designed to slow speeds on the circuit's two fastest tracks, Daytona and Talladega, restrictor plate racing is a temporary solution to an age old question: how can NASCAR keep drivers safe while leaving competition and innovation intact?
German driver Nico Rosberg has revealed that he is looking for a new Formula One team for next season, and that this weekend's race in Abu Dhabi will be his last for Williams.
Formula One cars are a marvel of modern engineering, so much so, that many manufactuers who compete in the sport do so in order to benefit from the technical innovations race-honed research and development creates.
There is something intoxicating about an interview session with Felix Sabates. Four or five reporters, a dozen or so questions, couple of easy set-ups for some zingers, good times.
Ben Spies entered Sunday's final two races in the World Superbike Championship trailing Japanese rider Noriyuki Haga by 10 points. Starting from pole, Spies, a Longview, Texas native, won the first race to take a 15-point lead over Haga, who crashed, and rode strategically in the second to finish fifth and became World Champion by six points, 462-456, at the Algarve Circuit in Portugal. He's the first American to win the title since fellow Texan Colin Edwards in 2002.
KOONTZ LAKE, Indiana -- There's an old legend that Talladega Superspeedway has been cursed because it is built near a Native American burial ground. Since the 2.66-mile track opened in 1969, its races have been grim, dark spectacles where disaster and calamity lurk on nearly every lap.
Jean Todt has succeeded Max Mosley as president of the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) after he was elected to the most powerful position in motorsport on Friday.
As the Chase hits the halfway mark, it might as well be named the Hendrick Memorial Parade. Their cars hold the top three spots in points, with Tony Stewart's HMS-supported Chevy a solid fourth. Barring a major catastrophe, driver Jimmie Johnson will win his fourth straight title -- which would be the ninth overall for the organization since 1995. It's the type of dominance that should keep anyone signing on the dotted line for years to come, right?
Max Siegel nearly bought himself a NASCAR team five years ago. Along with partners Reggie White, Ronnie Lott and Eddie DeBartolo, he was within two weeks and a few pen strokes of completing a deal to purchase what was then MB2 Motorsports. But White's death in December of 2004 scuttled the deal. "Reggie was my best friend, man. He married my wife and I," Siegel said. "It was amazing to see him the last few days of his life so excited about something."
The waiting is finally over for Jenson Button. Ten seasons and 171 races after the 20-year-old rookie made his F1 debut for the Williams team back in 2000, the Briton has finally called time on his critics -- of which there have been many -- to clinch his maiden world title.
Brawn GP's Jenson Button has won the 2009 Formula One drivers championship after finishing fifth in the Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos.
Jimmie Johnson has turned "The Chase" into NASCAR's version of Groundhog Day.
Brawn GP's Jenson Button has won the 2009 Formula One drivers championship after finishing fifth in the Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos.
Rubens Barrichello boosted his chances of overhauling Brawn teammate Jenson Button and winning his first world title by claiming pole position for his home Brazilian Grand Prix in treacherous conditions on Saturday.
In a week where the inaugural class of NASCAR's inaugural Hall of Fame was announced it seems entirely appropriate that the circus swings through Charlotte and the sport's spiritual home base, for race number five of the 2009 Chase for the Sprint Cup.
I don't usually take a rooting interest in Cup races, so I was a bit surprised to find myself feeling a bit sorry for Denny Hamlin after his mistake late in the race at Fontana last Sunday.
Fernando Alonso topped the times for Renault in Friday's second free practice session ahead of Sunday's potentially decisive Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos.
Felipe Massa has been forced to backtrack on comments he made claiming that new Ferrari teammate Fernando Alonso was aware of Renault's plans to deliberately crash at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.
Dario Franchitti indulged in what has become a standard post-final race, post-season, post-championship celebration for race car drivers on South Beach Saturday night. Staring out into the Atlantic Ocean with a drink or three nearby and a few more in his system, the Scot had completed a journey from Indy Racing League star status and a first championship in 2007, to a humbling aborted season in NASCAR last summer, to the top of the IndyCar realm again with another crown.
Kasey Kahne speaks about the Chase.
Tony Stewart rescued his Sprint Cup championship hopes with a stirring, determined and opportunistic drive in the final 55 laps at the Auto Club Speedway. Sure, he had some good luck, catching that caution after getting the wave around to get back on the lead lap, but this was classic Tony Stewart in championship mode. He took a potentially devastating situation and transformed it into the best possible result.
Felipe Massa will not be returning to Formula One this season, his Ferrari team have officially announced.
MIAMI -- Just one night after becoming the "Comeback Kid" by winning his second IndyCar Series title, Dario Franchitti got the ultimate show of respect from his fellow drivers.
Felipe Massa has been cleared to return to the wheel of a Ferrari following medical tests in Paris which confirmed his continuing successful recovery from a serious skull injury.
Six drivers sit within a mere 114 markers of points leader Mark Martin as the Sprint Cup circuit swings into Auto Club Speedway for the fourth race of the Chase and the 30th race on a 36th race schedule. A 2-mile D-shaped circuit with multiple racing grooves and just 14 degrees of banking in the turns, the same as Kansas last week, drivers that run well here typically perform strongly at Michigan which is considered to be a sister track. So it's worth looking at the results from both those races as well as the second race of the 2009 season, held at ACS, when selecting your lineups this week.
Two teammates. One former teammate. Two power teams. Eight points between the three them. One race left. One step on the podium that really matters.
Can anyone stop the Hendrick juggernaut?
"The key to change ... is to let go of fear." -- Rosanne Cash
Ferrari driver Felipe Massa will be in Brazil for his home Formula One grand prix on October 18 -- as a special guest to wave the chequered flag.
For Casey Mears it's a risk worth taking.
BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica has been confirmed as Renault's new F1 driver from 2010 as a direct replacement for Ferrari-bound former world champion Fernando Alonso.
Five things we learned on a cool autumn day at Kansas Speedway:
Maybe drivers other than Mark Martin and Jimmie Johnson in NASCAR's "Chase for the Championship" should approach the rest of the season like a dieter trying to shed excess weight:
The two most popular drivers in auto racing -- Danica Patrick and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. -- may soon be involved in a limited NASCAR arrangement, NASCAR team owner Rick Hendrick confirmed to SI.com.
Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel kept alive his faint hopes of winning this year's Formula One world title with a convincing success in Sunday's Japan Grand Prix at Suzuka.
Sebastian Vettel will begin the Japanese Grand Prix in pole position after the Red Bull driver produced the fastest lap in an action-packed qualifying session which saw Formula One Championship leader Jenson Button penalized five places.
Adrian Sutil posted the fastest time as the second practice session for the Japanese Grand Prix was disrupted by poor weather at Suzuka on Friday.
Heading into Kansas this weekend, Mark Martin, Juan Pablo Montoya and Kasey Kahne sit first, third, and 12th in points, respectively. Dale Earnhardt Jr. sits 22nd. At the end of the year, they'd all better send Junior a really nice thank you card.
Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso has signed for Ferrari on a three-year deal, the Formula One giants announced on Wednesday.
Brad Parrott stood amid the threadbare amenities of the small garage and beamed. The banks of laptop computers and data acquisition technology underscored the disparity between the squadron of Ganassi Racing engineers and the handful of part-time/hard-time wannabes massed at Iowa Speedway for this test session in the grass roots ARCA stock series in late September 2006.
Felipe Massa is back in the fast lane after his life-threatening crash at the Hungarian Grand Prix just nine weeks ago which placed his Formula One future in doubt.
He may not be the points leader, but after wasting the competition in Sunday's race at Dover, Jimmie Johnson may be ready to say "Game Over" in this year's Chase for the Championship.
Five things we learned as the Chase field wrapped up the second of its 10 races.
Lewis Hamilton led from start to finish to win the Singapore Grand Prix at the Marina Bay Street Circuit Sunday. It was the Briton's second win of the season and the eleventh of his career.
Lewis Hamilton led from start to finish to win the Singapore Grand Prix at the Marina Bay Street Circuit. It was the Briton's second win of the season and the eleventh of his career.
World champion Lewis Hamilton claimed pole for the Singapore Grand Prix as current title leader Jenson Button suffered a "disastrous" qualifying session to be back in 12th on the grid.
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