The Official Blog of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Time for a quick merry-go-round to see what’s shaking and baking in the motorsports world today, with tasty links to full stories elsewhere on the Interwebs about these topics, to boot. We’ll focus on the three series that compete annually at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway — IZOD IndyCar Series, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and MotoGP — but anything with wheels and an engine is fair game.

The 2011 IZOD IndyCar Series schedule will be announced Friday, Sept. 10, and the announcement is taking place in Milwaukee. Hmm. Think there’s any coincidence there? Is series CEO Randy Bernard going to unveil the sked in Packerland just because he loves a good beer and a brat as much as the next guy?

You can connect the dots.

While the biggest story this week in the IZOD IndyCar Series is what tracks will and won’t appear on the 2011 schedule,  there’s still a crazy 2010 championship chase going on. Will Power leads Dario Franchitti by just 17 points, and — start the foreboding music of doom — the last two races take place on the equivalent of kryptonite to Superman Will, ovals.

Still, Power thinks he will conquer ovals sooner than later. It better be sooner, Little Dingo (yeah, I love those Verizon commercials, too!), or the not-so-wee Scot will become just the second driver to hoist the IZOD IndyCar Series championship trophy three times.

This has nothing to do with the schedule or the championship chase, but much like E.F. Hutton, when A.J. Foyt speaks, you listen. Paul Dalbey at More Front Wing offers a podcast with Super Tex this week. I don’t know what’s more refreshing, an interview that actually features questions instead of statements with responses or that the hard-drivin’, two-fisted Texan actually is doing a podcast. Either way, it’s a good listen.

Taking stock in NASCAR, the final race before the Chase this Saturday at Richmond has all the suspense of a deflated balloon, as Clint Bowyer has a 117-point lead over Ryan Newman for the 12th and final spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.  Still, SBNation’s Jeff Gluck and NASCAR.com’s David Caraviello both warn that the lack of drama this Saturday shouldn’t force NASCAR into a knee-jerk reaction of expanding the Chase to 15 drivers, as has been rumored.

I couldn’t agree more. Sometimes even the best plan doesn’t work out. This year is an aberration, as the fall Richmond night race usually features at least a couple of drivers fighting with every drop of sweat for the last spot or two.

Michael Waltrip Racing vice president and GM Ty Norris urges Corporate America to take a chance on a young fresh face as the leading man for its stock car sponsorship program. While Ty’s piece is a compelling story, perhaps the best part is the pictures of current NASCAR superstars as young turks. Tony Stewart without two chins and a gut! Jeff Gordon with a trucker hat, Gargoyles shades and a porn ‘stache! Junior with the Clorox look in his locks! Epic.

Formula One continues to be the most melodramatic soap opera on wheels, as the FIA ruled today that Ferrari will face no more punishment despite issuing team orders to its drivers, Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, to fix the finish of the German Grand Prix. That decision only plays into the cynics’ belief — and I’m one of them — that FIA stands for Ferrari International Aid.

The decision also led to cries that FIA President Jean Todt, the former sporting director of Ferrari, cannot judge a case against his old team without bias. It’s a case that veteran F1 journalist Joe Saward lays out convincingly, as usual, in his blog.

Colin Edwards

The MotoGP world understandably continues to reel with sadness following the deaths in consecutive weekends of USGPRU rider Peter Lenz at the Red Bull Indianapolis GP and Moto2 rider Shoya Tomizawa at the San Marino Grand Prix.

MotoGP officials and American riders Colin Edwards and Ben Spies paid tribute to Lenz with a minute of silence before the 125cc race at San Marino. The always-excellent superbikeplanet.com also re-published an excellent feature from earlier this season about the bright light of Tomizawa by longtime MotoGP journalist and TV commentator Julian Ryder.

Godspeed, Peter and Tomi.

I’m a firm believer in racing karma, good and bad. And both kinds of karma were on display last weekend in the NASCAR Sprint Cup, IZOD IndyCar Series and MotoGP races.

NASCAR made its first of two trips this season to the Southwest for the Subway 600K last Saturday night at Phoenix International Raceway. Rowdy, er, Kyle Busch dominated the race, looking to pull off a sweep of the Nationwide and Cup races.

But then that thing called karma entered the building.

Busch took the lead on Lap 262 and stayed out front until a late caution flew after Scott Riggs hit the wall. The newest strategic fad in NASCAR, cars diving on to pit road for four tires to prepare for the mayhem of a green-white-checkered finish, then kicked into gear on Lap 373.

But seven teams only took two tires, and Busch’s wasn’t one of them. So he fell out of the lead and could only manage to finish eighth after the green-white-checkered finish. South Bend native Ryan Newman out-dragged honorary Hoosier Jeff Gordon on the final restart and drove to his first victory since George W. Bush was in the Oval Office – the 2008 Daytona 500.

Busch was fuming and refused to talk with anyone after the race. Then again, Kyle does that even in the best of times.

Still, it was bad karma for Rowdy. And it also might have been a balancing act by the racing gods.

Busch won the Nationwide race Friday night with a spirited, memorable charge, gaining 10 spots over the last seven laps. Busch was forced to slice and dice for victory after NASCAR penalized him for failing to restart within the designated restart zone on the 1-mile desert oval. Busch was irate on the radio, creating an oil painting with a palette of four-letter words, inferring that he was less than pleased with the sanctioning body.

“All I know is I paid NASCAR back by winning,” Busch said after the race.

And karma paid you back Saturday night, Kyle.

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