Brad Coleman's entry and exit to and from the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series with Hall of Fame Racing came to an abrupt halt after just one race, ESPN says.
[Brad] Coleman's fortunes changed quickly [...] According to Hall of Fame Racing, Coleman is now a free agent. He is no longer under contract to Hall of Fame.
Coleman's lone Sprint Cup race came at Michigan International Speedway in August when the 20-year-old driver replaced a fired J.J. Yeley in the No. 96 DLP Toyota. In that event, he started 37th and finished 43rd.
For giggles, I think I'll cite my previous post on Coleman's quick turn up to NASCAR's top division:
Hall of Fame sure isn't a place where a driver is going to go win championships, and knowing that Coleman just might be making a career mistake of jumping in a car that races in the Sprint Cup Series but doesn't compete.
Now I get that "just might be making a career mistake" isn't a "Coleman will be cut after one race"-type prediction, but come on, the writing was on the wall for this kid and his move to a team I wouldn't even drive for if offered the chance.
Yeah, Hall of Shame Fame Racing is just that bad, but this certainly leaves plenty of questions as to why it took so long for word to come out about Coleman.
At least he got to meet Jack Bauer before he lost his ride.
J.J. Yeley's fall from one of the top teams in NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series took another tumble Wednesday afternoon as he was dropped from his ride in the No. 96 Hall of Fame Racing Toyota.
Yeley, who has put together an unremarkable season of one whole Top-5 (it came in the same race that Kurt Busch won thanks to rain at New Hampshire) after getting bounced from Joe Gibbs Racing in 2007 will be replaced with Brad Coleman, the team announced today:
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (Aug. 6, 2008) – Hall of Fame Racing officials announced Wednesday that NASCAR Nationwide Series driver Brad Coleman, who has been under contract as a test driver for Hall of Fame Racing since November 2007, will make his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series debut by piloting the No. 96 DLP HDTV Toyota Camry in the Aug. 17 3M Performance 400 at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn.
Coleman, 20, is currently running a full-time season in the Nationwide Series and has put together equally unimpressive results with a single Top-10 at Las Vegas in 2008. He drove for Joe Gibbs Racing's Nationwide Series program in a limited role in 2007.
I guess you could say Saturday night's LifeLock.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway for J.J. Yeley (yay yay yay-lee!) was pretty normal.
The No. 96 Hall of Fame Racing team started officially in 40th and finished 24th, but the setbacks along the way incurred from NASCAR make that finish seem a little more impressive.
You see, J.J. Yeley is a fan of cold water. He likes to drink it, especially when sitting inside a hot race car for 400 miles. He's not so much a fan of warm water, though, like the water inside his race car after sitting through inspection in the July sun in the midwest. And so, his team replaced his warm water bag with a cold water bag -- like they've done for nearly every race this season -- just prior to the race.
NASCAR wasn't a fan of the move, though. Because Yeley's car had already gone through inspection and because there wasn't an official present to see the H2O transaction, they got suspicious. Really suspicious.
They took the No. 96 off of pit road, put it back through inspection, and in doing so, didn't really find anything different. It made him late joining the field, and as soon as the green flag dropped, NASCAR called the No. 96 in for a pass through penalty for "Disobeying a NASCAR Request". The move dropped him behind the field and one lap down.
That's a steep penalty for a dude that just simply wants some high quality H2O in his ride -- or at least some water that isn't going to boil his insides.
The Busch that everyone expects to win took the checkered flag in the Sprint Cup Series for the sixth time Saturday night at Daytona.
Kyle Busch, instead of his brother Kurt who won last week thanks to rain at New Hampshire, won a crazy finish in the Coke Zero 400 by holding off Carl Edwards in turn one on the white flag lap of a green-white-checkered finish. The race ended in turn one thanks to a big wreck behind the leaders involving Michael Waltrip and a host of others, with Busch edging Edwards by a nose on video replays.
The Penske Racing driver scored his first win of his horrible 2008 season by staying out during a late caution as rain approached late in the going in the Lenox Industrial Tools 301. When the rain finally came, Busch had held the top spot for just 10 laps and after a brief red flag period, NASCAR finally called the race after 284 of 301 laps.
The win elevated Busch four spots in the point standings to 18th-place.
Many more of the Top-10 finishers definitely lucked into their positions because of the rain including Michael Waltrip (2nd) and J.J. Yeley (3rd). For those two, it might be the only time in 2008 that they finish in the Top-5.
Ryan Newman went from first the last Saturday night in a cloud of smoke both from under his hood and from the carnage caused behind him.
Newman, who had led 30 laps, blew a front seal on his Dodge motor on lap 133 during theSubway Fresh Fit 500, ruining his night and several others. Watch as the red flag comes out at 0:06:
Now, I'll admit, I was one of the fans yelling at his TV because Newman failed to get off the track after obviously oiling-down the race track.
His quotes, though, after the race helped to settle me down some after Newman fully explained his issue and tried to reason why he caused a full-fledged race-stopping oil cleanup.
As of a western swing through Fontana, Calif. and Las Vegas, Nev. wasn't enough, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series got its fourth official test session wrapped up in Phoenix on Tuesday afternoon.
The test at Phoenix International Raceway was the fourth of six that teams suggested to NASCAR prior to the season, and joins Daytona, California, and Vegas as tracks the teams have tested at.
Only Pocono and Lowe's Motor Speedway remain on the official Sprint Cup series testing docket. Teams can otherwise only test on tracks that the Sprint Cup series doesn't compete on.
Juan Pablo Montoya -- who was fastest during the Las Vegas test prior to the season -- again led all drivers over the five different sessions offered. The No. 42 put down a lap of 131.459mph in the Tuesday morning test session.
Wednesday wasn't happiness and joy for several teams in the Sprint Cup Series garage area at Daytona.
For starters, the practice times were impacted by rain showers that threw a wrench in the day's schedule. Luckily for them, though, the rains held off enough for engine problems to show their face during practice instead of during Thursday afternoon's Gatorade Duels.
All of the Hendrick Motorsports cars were affected -- Earnhardt, Gordon, Johnson & Mears -- as well as several Toyotas. Tony Stewart, Dale Jarrett, J.J. Yeley, A.J. Allmendinger and Kyle Busch all changed out their Toyota powerplants.
In addition, Scott Riggs, racing a fifth engine from Haas/CNC Racing swapped out his motor.
Hendrick Motorsports head engine builder Jeff Andrews blamed the issue on a bad coating on the lifters. Richie Gilmore, the engine builder for Richard Childress Racing and Dale Earnhardt Inc. -- a team that had no problems -- explained how the coating works:
"If the coating wears off just a little bit, it's like glass and then you have steel on steel and you have that coating going through your engine," said Richie Gilmore, who runs the joint engine program between Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Richard Childress Racing.
None of Gilmore's engines had lifter problems, but the issue had him and other teams scrambling to check their equipment following practice.
"Everybody's going to be pulling stuff apart and looking at it, and it might be a bigger issue," Gilmore said.
The coating isn't a manufacturer specific product, so its likely that Hendrick and the Toyota teams used the same product and a bad batch caused the problems.
I couldn't have been happier for Petty with his run. When he started running consistently in the top 10 with about 100 laps to go, I already knew I would be thrilled for him to get a top 10. A third-place finish for the member of the Coca-Cola Racing Family in the sponsor's title race with a Coca-Cola Zero paint scheme delivered an extra-caffeinated jolt to my happy meter.
In his post-race interview, the always gracious and articulate driver gave all the credit to his crew and praised Casey Mears for his win:
"We've really struggled with our pit crew and they stepped up huge today. They're the ones that put us in position to have the Lucky Dog. They're the ones that put us in position to have a good run there at the end. I can't say enough about that.
"I couldn't be more excited for Casey Mears if his name was Adam Petty. I can tell you that. I'm tickled to death for Casey Mears. That kid is a great racecar driver."
Yeley, Sorenson, Petty and Mears all gained five spots in the owner standings.
What Say You? Who'll drive to victory lane first? Joe Gibbs Racing's J.J. Yeley (W-0, T5-1, T10-4) or Chip Ganassi Racing's Reed Sorenson (W-0, T5-2, T10-7)?
"I was on the outside, and to get taken out on the first lap is ridiculous. There's a little stupidity on his part."
There's no denying that the early race crash was Ragan's fault:
But let's rewind a year to Yeley's rookie efforts, shall we? Because after witnessing Yeley's performance in both the Nextel Cup and Busch series I wondered how this dumbass has a ride questioned his ability to even compete on the NASCAR circuit.
Witness how the #18 did the #6 in Charlotte just five months three racing months ago:
Brad Coleman's entry and exit to and from the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series with Hall of Fame Racing came to an abrupt halt after just one race, ESPN says.
At least he got to meet Jack Bauer before he lost his ride.
I guess you could say Saturday night's LifeLock.com 400 at 
As of a western swing through Fontana, Calif. and Las Vegas, Nev. wasn't enough, the NASCAR 
Wednesday wasn't happiness and joy for several teams in the Sprint Cup Series garage area at Daytona.
The Coca-Cola 600 saw some unlikely names in the top 5:
J.J. Yeley has a lot of nerve 
