Only 12 of 26 cars finish Indy race, NASCAR called early cause of rain and leaders upset

By David Mirsky

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 6/29/08 — Saturday’s Indy Car race from Richmond, Virginia saw Tony Kanaan win the Suntrust Indy Challenge nearly setting a new record. Even though Kanaan won the pole position at 167.88 mph, a speed record was not in jeopardy this day, but a caution lap record was. Not since 2002 has there been this many laps run under the yellow flag. This race saw 102 of the 300 laps run under nine yellow flags. The record in 2002 was 116 laps recorded in Nazareth, Pennsylvania.

There was plenty of attrition in this race. Only 12 of the 26 that started the race finished, and there were more accidents than mechanical failures. Helio Castroneves finished 2nd, followed by Scott Dixon in 3rd. Next week, the Indy cars head to Watkins Glen’s famous road course.

Continuing to burn rubber and gas in New England, NASCAR took its show to Loudon, New Hampshire for the Lennox Industrial Tool Sprint Cup race. Tony Stewart, who started well back in the pack, led the race for more than 160 laps before having to make a final pit stop with less than 25 laps to go. By the time everyone left the pits, Stewart had lost 5 places off his lead. It was the unexpected caution flags just a lap later that put the kibosh on Stewart’s hopes for his first win of 2008. And then to add insult to injury, the clouds burst open to a race ending rain shower, and of course, ending Tony Stewart’s chance of a win. NASCAR officials decided that it would most likely be more than 2 hours before the summer showers would move on, and that with less than 20 laps to go, it was prudent to call the race. Kurt Busch, who had started the race from 26th place, was leading the race when the red flag came out, and got the win. Michael Waltrip and J.J. Yeley finished 2nd and 3rd respectively.

The last few laps of this race saw current Sprint Cup point’s leader, Kyle Busch play bumper cars with Juan Pablo Montoya costing them both money and points. They finished in25th and 26th places.

The NASCAR gang heads for their annual 4th of July bash at the Daytona Motor Speedway.

Formula 1 returns this coming weekend from England’s Silverstone circuit.