Motor Racing

Just before 5:30 p.m. on March 8, 1970, Don Garlits edged his top-fuel dragster to the starting line at the old Lions Drag Strip in Wilmington, the car's 2,000-horsepower engine belching directly in front of the drag-racing legend from Florida everyone called "Big Daddy. " When the green light flashed and Garlits stepped on the throttle pedal with his right foot, the dragster's transmission, which sat between Garlits' legs, exploded from the enormous power unleashed from the engine.

Had the rain lingered a bit longer in central Alabama, Bob Jenkins and his Front Row Motorsports team might still be looking for their first win in NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series. Instead, they're now the little NASCAR team that could. Front Row's David Ragan, exploiting a push from teammate David Gilliland, won Sunday's race in near darkness at Talladega Superspeedway after a 31/2-hour rain delay. Gilliland, who grew up in Riverside, finished second. It was the first time in nine years of trying that Jenkins' team, which operates on a shoestring compared with powerhouse teams such as Hendrick Motorsports and Roush Fenway Racing, reached Victory Lane in a Cup race.

The black NASCAR truck with a white "54" on the side gleamed on pit road as its driver walked up for the night's race, prompting three dozen photographers and well-wishers to edge closer. The attraction was 19-year-old Darrell Wallace Jr. As Wallace posed for the cameras at Daytona International Speedway, the public address announcer called out his name and added: "That's a driver many people are waiting to see. " Indeed they are - especially the executives who run NASCAR - because Wallace is an African American.

TALLADEGA, Ala. -- Excuse David Ragan if he had to ask how to get to Victory Lane. He was, after all, a 100-1 underdog to win at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday afternoon. But he was the last man standing on a grueling afternoon when he squeezed past a number of NASCAR veterans on the last lap to pull off a huge upset in the Aaron's 499. “This is a true David vs. Goliath moment,” he said. “Man, this is special.” Ragan used a push from Front Row Motorsports teammate David Gilliland to overtake veterans Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth on a green-white-checkered finish shortly after sunset.

Courtney Force, a daughter of drag racing legend John Force, isn't the only funny car rookie who figures to get a lot of attention on the National Hot Rod Assn. circuit this year. There's also Alexis DeJoria, whose father is businessman John Paul DeJoria. It would have been easy for Alexis DeJoria to have chosen to live life in the fast lane, a la Paris Hilton. Instead, she has chosen a different kind of fast lane and has been drag racing competitively since 2005. This will be her first full season in the professional nitro funny car division.

Randy Bernard stepped down as the Izod IndyCar Series' chief executive Sunday after three seasons of trying to revitalize the struggling sport that includes the legendary Indianapolis 500. Bernard's departure came after a special meeting of directors of Indianapolis Motor Speedway Corp., the series' parent that is led by the Hulman-George family, which said both sides agreed "the timing was right to pursue separate paths. " Jeff Belskus, chief executive of Indianapolis Motor Speedway Corp., was named interim chief executive of IndyCar, whose 15-race season this year was capped by a return to Auto Club Speedway in Fontana in September.

Todd Burns of Riverside led all 50 laps to win his second NASCAR late model race of the season before a crowd of 5,510 Saturday night at Irwindale Speedway. In other races, Doug McComb of Thousand Oaks won the 40-lap NASCAR super stock event and Mike Wright of Joshua Tree won the 40-lap MSRA Pro-4 modifieds race.

The elite level of the National Hot Rod Assn.'s funny car drag racing is dominated by two multi-car teams, John Force Racing and Don Schumacher Racing, which have seven funny car drivers between them. But that's of no concern to one of the sport's soloists, veteran Cruz Pedregon. Pedregon, 49, leads the funny car championship standings after his win Sunday near Houston even though he's a single-car team, with Pedregon as driver, chief engine tuner and manager. It's the first time since September 2009 that a driver who does not work for Force or Schumacher has led the funny car standings in the NHRA's premier Mello Yello Series.

Matt Kenseth said Thursday the massive penalties that NASCAR levied against the driver and his Joe Gibbs Racing team were "grossly unfair" and "borderline shameful. " NASCAR on Wednesday stripped Kenseth of 50 championship points and suspended his crew chief Jason Ratcliff for several races, among other penalties, because last weekend Kenseth's No. 20 Toyota had an engine part that was too light. The faulty part -- a rod that connects a piston to the crankshaft and normally weighs just over one pound -- was detected in an inspection after Kenseth won Sunday's race at Kansas Speedway.

Turns out an engine part on Matt Kenseth's Toyota was three grams too light when the NASCAR driver raced to victory Sunday at Kansas Speedway, the equivalent of about two cotton balls in the words of his engine builder. But in terms of Kenseth's bid to win his second Sprint Cup championship, the violation carried the weight of an anvil. Kenseth on Wednesday drew a massive 50-point penalty from NASCAR for having the unapproved part, knocking Kenseth from eighth in the Cup standings to a tie for 14th with Jeff Gordon.

The Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach was a tough day at the office for several of IndyCar's leading drivers. Two-time champion Scott Dixon , reigning champion Ryan Hunter-Reay and Helio Castroneves were involved in minor accidents Sunday. Castroneves and Dixon, however, battled back after their cars were repaired to finish ninth and 10th, respectively, which earned them valuable points. Castroneves kept the lead in the Izod IndyCar Series championship standings by eight points over race winner Takuma Sato and by 11 points over the third-place Dixon.

Long gone are the days when A.J. Foyt, now 78, was making history as one of the world's most famous race-car drivers. But that didn't mean Foyt was done making history as a team owner. Takuma Sato, whom Foyt hired this year for his IndyCar race team, won the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach on Sunday to become the first Japanese driver to win an IndyCar event. It was the first victory in more than a decade for Foyt's one-car team, and Sato's first win in his 52 starts in the Izod IndyCar Series.

I've tumbled down another rabbit hole, wound up in Long Beach, which isn't a worst-case scenario, though close. The cars here all need mufflers, the young fans need more clothes. What kind of sordid little event is this? Indy car racing had always been pretty much a mystery to me, then it split off into two separate circuits, then NASCAR got huge (overwhelming it), then suddenly the big names aged out of the sport. Or worse, died. Sure, more pretty-boy drivers came along, but they seemed like robots.

Simona De Silvestro holds out her hands to show there's hardly a sign that they were seriously burned in a racing crash two years ago. "I wish I had a cool scar because it was really miserable," De Silvestro joked in reference to her car catching fire, "but [the doctors] did a really good job. " De Silvestro, now in her fourth season in the Izod IndyCar Series, hopes to do a good job herself Sunday in the 39th annual Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. The 24-year-old Swiss driver is seeking to become the first woman to win an IndyCar event since 2008, when Danica Patrick scored her only victory in her seven-year IndyCar career.

Ryan Hunter-Reay was born in Texas and now lives in Florida, but the reigning IndyCar champion traces many key moments of his life - the highs and the lows - to Southern California. Hunter-Reay lived in Dana Point when his IndyCar career was teetering in the mid- to late-2000s. Then a comeback win in Long Beach in 2010 finally secured him a ride with a top team. That led to his capturing his first IndyCar title at a dramatic season finale in Fontana last September, making Hunter-Reay the series' first American champion in six years.