SPORTS
February 18, 2010 | By Jim Peltz
Danica Patrick is as curious as everyone else to see how well she performs in her second NASCAR stock car race Saturday. Patrick made her debut last weekend in NASCAR's second-tier Nationwide Series, but her race ended after a car wreck just past the halfway point on the high-banked Daytona International Speedway. Her next race is the Stater Bros. 300 at the much flatter, two-mile Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. "I don't know what to expect [at Fontana]," Patrick said in an interview, adding that she and her crew chief, Tony Eury Jr., "haven't really talked about it too much" ahead of her first practice here on Friday.
TRAVEL
February 14, 2010 | By Jay Jones
As NASCAR drivers take their warm-up lap around the Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Feb. 28, a shiny Shelby GT350 will lead the way. The pace car's trip to the racetrack will be remarkably short because it was built -- or, more precisely, modified -- right across the street at Shelby American, where workers convert Ford Mustangs into Shelby GTs and assemble the legendary Cobras from scratch. Former race car driver Carroll Shelby began making sports cars in Los Angeles nearly 50 years ago but relocated to three buildings just off Interstate 15 -- about 20 minutes north of the Strip, on Speedway Boulevard -- in 1998.
SPORTS
February 13, 2010 | By Jim Peltz
Even after winning an unprecedented six consecutive NHRA top-fuel championships, Tony Schumacher still is driving scared -- much to his rivals' chagrin. "I'm afraid to lose right now," he said Friday. "[My title streak is] going to end at some point, I just don't want it to end this year." This year starts this weekend with the 50th Winternationals at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona, the season opener for the National Hot Rod Assn.'s Full Throttle Series. The series' fastest class is top fuel -- dragsters that reach 320 mph -- and Schumacher, 40, is top fuel's preeminent driver and reigning champion.
SPORTS
February 10, 2010 | By Jim Peltz
They had colorful nicknames like "The Mongoose" and "The Snake," initially raced mostly for glory in light of skimpy prize money and became legends as professional drag racing's popularity expanded nationwide. As the National Hot Rod Assn. holds the 50th anniversary of the Winternationals this week, here's a look at some of drag racing's most notable drivers over the decades in the premier top-fuel and funny car classes, some of whom will appear to help celebrate this year's Winternationals in Pomona: 1960s "Big Daddy" Don Garlits In the Winternationals' first 10 years, and for decades after that, Garlits was the driver even casual fans knew as being synonymous with drag racing.
SPORTS
February 10, 2010 | By Jim Peltz
Can Tony Schumacher possibly win a seventh consecutive series title? Will Ashley Force Hood or Antron Brown win their first? And can Larry Dixon bounce back from losing last year's title by the narrowest margin on record? As the new season of the National Hot Rod Assn.'s premier Full Throttle Series gets underway with the 50th running of the Winternationals at Auto Club Raceway Thursday through Sunday in Pomona, here's a preview of the competition in the sport's four leading divisions: Top fuel A key architect behind Schumacher's five consecutive season-long titles from 2004 to 2008 was Alan Johnson, his crew chief.
SPORTS
February 10, 2010 | By Jim Peltz
What goes through a drag racing driver's mind while he or she's rocketing to 300 mph in a mere 1,000 feet? A lot, it turns out. While it looks simple enough -- steer the car straight and step on the gas pedal -- actually driving an NHRA top-fuel dragster or funny car is anything but. In the four seconds or so it takes for the car to launch from a standing start to reach top speed, traversing the length of a football field in a second, its...