Nascar
Name: Mike Shustek
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A non-US automaker captured a victory in US top-level stock car racing for the first time since 1954 when Toyota driver Kyle Busch won here Sunday for the Japanese car maker.
Not since Al Keller drove a Jaguar to victory lane 54 years ago at Linden, New Jersey, had a car from a manufacturer outside US borders won a National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) event.
Toyota Racing Development (TRD) struggled in a 2007 debut campaign but added Joe Gibbs Racing, a perennial contender, for this season and finally found the path to victory lane.
"The feeling can't get any better," said TRD president Jim Aust. "This is a fabulous day for Toyota. It is just a fabulous feeling. We are just feeling really great about the whole decision to move into the series."
Aust, who retires in July, said there are more checkered flags to come for Toyota this year in the US series of mostly oval events.
"I said all along from the very beginning that I thought the number was somewhere in the area of eight so I'm going to stick to that," Aust said.
For Carpentier, who missed the first two events of the season and then was involved in a wreck early in the event at Las Vegas, points are like gold. Unlike Franchitti and Hornish, Carpentier did not have the efforts of another to fall back on through the first five races of the season. He has been forced to scratch and claw his way on qualifying day and again on race day.
Now 44th in the point standings, there will be little release in the pressure on qualifying as the 35th driver in the point standings, J.J. Yeley, has outdistanced Carpentier by 197 points exiting Atlanta. A good performance on the half mile at Bristol is going to be critical.
The first big race weekend at Michigan International Speedway is over, and the last fans packed up to head home. It's a family tradition. Every year the Yax family heads to MIS to kick off summer and enjoy the thrill of NASCAR. This year, they're flying flags of their favorite drivers, but as the campground empties, it's time to pack up and head home.
Michael Yax, NASCAR fan: "It's about a 3 to 4-hour ordeal to pack up. We like to let everybody get out of here and traffic dissipate so we don't have to sit in it."
Mom and the girls say they're ready to go. They've been there since Wednesday.
Cynthia Yax, NASCAR fan: "We've spent a lot of energy walking, you know, carrying on, by this time we're ready to go, we're worn out, wiped out."
Daughter Alyssa says it's her favorite part of the trip, so as the flag pole comes down and the gear is put away, mom's already thinking about what she'll unpack first when they get home. As they hit the open road for home, the family says they'll be back at MIS come August for another run.
Casey Mears always said he wanted to keep driving for Chip Ganassi. That is, until a better ride became available.
Mears did an about-face last week when word trickled out that Brian Vickers wants to be released from his contract with Hendrick Motorsports. Mears then politely told Ganassi he would not be signing an extension, and would instead head elsewhere for the 2007 season.
Changing his mind is not a crime, but the decision makes Mears look disingenuous at best.
He wasn't interested in talking to Toyota about driving one of their cars next season, he said. And when the No. 88 Ford opened last month, he quickly said replacing Dale Jarrett was not high on his list.
"Honestly, guys, I'm really trying to work something out to stay with Chip," Mears said nearly two weeks ago at a NASCAR test session. "This is where I want to be."
That thought came to a sudden halt, catching everyone including Ganassi by surprise.
Ganassi has shown more patience with Mears than he's done with any other driver. He's a car owner who demands results, has a very tight timeline for producing and proved it by running through two drivers in his first two years in NASCAR.
He gambled on Mears, who had almost no stock-car experience when Ganassi grabbed him out of the Busch Series at the end of 2002, and stuck with him despite mediocre results.
Now Mears is finally showing some skill, and has been floating around the top 10 in points all season. Other owners have seen the improvement, and even though Mears has never won a race at any of NASCAR's levels, he's suddenly a hot commodity.
He's young and marketable. He has a racing pedigree (his uncle is four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Rick Mears) and a long career ahead of him. Add all that up and any owner with an open seat is willing to pay Mears millions to drive their car.
So when Vickers made it clear he wanted out at Hendrick, Mears decided the exhaust smoke smelled sweeter in that garage.
NASCAR will test unleaded fuel in a Busch Series race next month and hopes to have it in all of its series by the start of 2007.
The tentative timetable set Monday by NASCAR speeds up the stock-car series' earlier intent to move away from gasoline with lead-based additives by 2008.
"The target date is obviously to have it in use for Daytona in 2007," spokesman Jim Hunter said. "Assuming that everything goes well, and there are no unforeseen problems, that is possible. But we'll have to run it the Busch and Trucks Series and ARCA to evaluate it."
Busch cars will use the unleaded fuel in the July 29 race at Gateway International Raceway, beginning a four-week trial of the gas. The Truck Series will also use it at Indianapolis Raceway Park and Nashville, in August.
After those events, NASCAR will switch back to the regular gasoline while NASCAR, Sunoco officials and team engine builders evaluate the unleaded fuel.
Both series will then switch back to the unleaded gasoline Sept. 23 for the remainder of the season.
Also, the ARCA Series will use the unleaded fuel in a race at Talladega to give engine builders a chance to examine the use of the gasoline in restrictor-plate engines.
A decision on using unleaded fuel in the Nextel Cup Series isn't expected until the end of the season.
NASCAR has used high-octane leaded fuel for decades, but has been searching for an alternative for years and has finally found a solution through supplier Sunoco.
NASCAR is exempt from the 1970 Clean Air Act, which required all automobiles to use unleaded fuel. Still, series officials tried an unleaded fuel in 1998 during some Busch races, only to find it contained additives that were dangerous when they came in contact with ground water.
All efforts to develop something that worked were lost when supplier Unocal pulled out after the 2003 season, and it's taken the last few years to get up to speed with Sunoco.
