Ryan Hunter-Reay wasn't fast enough to earn a spot in next Sunday's Indianapolis 500 as he exited Turn 4 on his final lap of qualifying Sunday at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
But somehow, someway, the 28-year-old Floridian conjured up just enough speed in the final few seconds -- the final hundred yards -- to make the field by three hundredths of a second (.03) bumping out Canadian Alex Tagliani, who was sitting in his car, next in line to qualify, as the traditional gun shot sounded ending qualifications.
It was a weekend of comebacks for the IndyCar Series culminating with 2007 series champ Dario Franchitti, winning Sunday's Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach and taking the championship lead in only his second race back after spending most of last year in the NASCAR ranks.
Helio Castroneves, who starred in the weekend's other high profile comeback story, finished seventh in his return to the circuit after being acquitted Friday of federal tax evasion charges. His laps in Saturday 's practice and qualifying sessions marked his first time behind the wheel in six months.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Sure, NASCAR has the high-wattage personalities. Drag racing has the raw speed and IndyCar racing can't be beat for pure, wheel-to-wheel excitement.
But this weekend's Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway represents the truest form of racing in America and is arguably the toughest 24-hour race in the world.
The starting grid is eclectic and richly-talented; the racing diverse and pure - right turns, left turns, high-speed high-banks and tricky chicanes; the conditions unique - daylight, moonlight, rain or shine.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- In one of the first full-length interviews Dario Franchitti has given since leaving NASCAR in the middle of the 2008 season, the former Indy 500 winner said he's still open to racing stock cars.
But more telling of Franchitti's move was how quickly the idea by NASCAR owners to bring open-wheel talent to NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series with limited stock car experience at best became a bust.
Franchitti is the third driver to take the reins in NASCAR with intentions of making a long-term career move at the beginning of 2008 to succumb to the economics of NASCAR. In other words, open-wheel drivers with limited experience struggle early in their stock car careers and sponsors just don't want to spend money and time on such a move.
That list includes Franchitti, Jacques Villenueve and Patrick Carpentier, and leaves just one question.
Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates has to be scrambling to come up something -- anything -- in the way of sponsorship for 2009 with Wednesday's news about the sponsor of Juan Pablo Montoya's No. 42.
Sirius Speedway has learned that Chevron-Texaco will not return as sponsor of Juan Pablo Montoya's #42 Dodge next season. [...]
Texaco-Havoline will not move to another team in 2009, electing instead to end their longstanding involvement in NASCAR. That decision leaves Ganassi Racing in need of at least two new sponsors in 2009, and possibly three. Team owner Chip Ganassi recently parked the #40 Dodge driven by Dario Franchitti due to lack of sponsorship, and there are longstanding rumors that Target may not return to the #41 Dodge currently driven by Reed Sorenson.
Of all the sponsorships one would have expected to stay with NASCAR, the Texaco-Havoline ride is near the top of the list mainly because of the staying power it has had in Sprint Cup Series competition.
Yeah, ESPY fans -- all 32 of you! -- sorry about that headline.
But for the rest of the world who more than likely won't be watching the ESPY's on Sunday, ESPN is apologetic of that fact and announced the winners of each award Thursday on their web site. They show gets taped on Wednesday night and then aired Sunday.
And during that show (I don't know if Johnson was on hand for the ceremony or not, I guess you'll have to watch to find out. What suspense!) Jimmie Johnson was awarded "Best Driver". Last season, Jeff Gordon received the same honor, so Johnson is just continuing the dominance of Hendrick Motorsports.
Kyle Busch, who is dominating what really matters on the track, was snubbed for the award along with Dario Franchitti (for winning the Indianapolis 500 in 2007), Lewis Hamilton (for not winning the F1 championship in 2007), and Tony Schumacher (for kicking the rest of the field for a few years now in NHRA Top Fuel competition).
After blowing up colorful projectiles in name of freedom on the 4th, hang out with FanHouse for the Coke Zero 400 Live Blog Saturday night at 7:45pm/ET.
The team owner cited a lack of funding as the reason why the No. 40 won't be competing anymore in 2008, effective for this weekend's Coke Zero 400 at Daytona. The team has lacked full-time sponsorship all season, but has seemed to get by with a little help from multiple sources, including Fastenal, Tums, Target, and others.
But if Robby Gordon or Yates Racing can race all season with less than perfect sponsorship packages, how in the world can Chip Ganassi -- a true racing mogul -- not afford to run a team through at least one of NASCAR's crown jewel events?
To me, Ganassi's unwillingness to keep Franchitti in through Daytona shows that he isn't satisfied with Franchitti's performance in his first season in Sprint Cup. Franchitti's stats of no Top-5s, no Top-10s, and an average finish of 34th don't do much in his defense.
Regardless, its still surprising to me to know that Ganassi is essentially giving up on a Sprint Cup program for a guy he knew would struggle. A reason that Ganassi gave last fall when he fired David Stremme from the No. 40 ride was that he felt Franchitti either had sponsorship dollars with him or could bring them in more easily.
Then, it looked like Stremme was the victim, but now its looking like he got out at the right time from what seems to be an imploding Ganassi racing.
David Stremme, the driver who was canned by Chip Ganassi from the ride Franchitti now holds at the end of 2007, is expected to make the start in place of the injured Indianapolis 500 champion for the Sprint Cup Series' Aaron's 499.
Subbing in Stremme won't make a difference in the team's starting position because Franchitti was scheduled to roll off dead last in 43rd from the grid anyways.
It's known right now when Franchitti will be back in the drivers seat, especially given that he isn't competing for anything driver points-wise. Instead, a primary goal of the team right now is to keep moving up in the Top-35 standings to keep the No. 40 in each event.
Knowing that, Franchitti might be able to take at least next week's race at Richmond off without having to worry about qualifying the car or starting the race and could potentially do so at Darlington the week after as the Nationwide Series races side-by-side with the Sprint Cup for those weeks.
Stewart, who led a race-high 80 laps from the pole, has never won at Talladega in either the Nationwide or Sprint Cup prior to Saturday's race.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. mounted a terrific challenge from second-place off of turn 2 on the last lap after hanging off of Stewart's bumper to get a run on the No. 20. Junior's No. 5 entry pulled alongside Stewart's Toyota on the backstretch, but the help Earnhardt Jr. had behind disappeared and Stewart pulled back in front.