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Iowa Speedway Sells Out for NASCAR Nationwide Race

According to the Mighty Des Moines Register, tonight's NASCAR Nationwide race at Iowa Speedway will be sold out by race time. 55,000 people are expected to pack in for the festival of paint swap.

Last year's race at Iowa was the only 2009 Nationwide race to sell out. The IndyCar race in June at Iowa Speedway sold about 40,000 tickets, but an estimated 5,000 were no-shows at race time. Officials blamed a forecast of 80% chance of rain for keeping thousands of season ticket holders away from the IndyCar race.

Tonight's Nationwide race airs at 6:30 p.m. on ESPN 2. Look for Rusty Wallace to be in a grand mal froth over all the cats in the stands and on the track. The 2009 Iowa Nationwide race featured TWELVE cautions, which insane commentators here called "about the right number."

In June, Iowa Speedway president and CFO Jerry Jauron said he will certainly answer the phone if NASCAR calls about a Sprint Cup race, but for now they are focusing on packing the house and putting on the best possible events for everything currently at the speedway. That will help generate interest in the speedway among many sanctioning bodies, including NASCAR, he said.

Read Jauron's comments on ticket sales for IndyCar and NASCAR HERE.

Vince Welch, Son and Friend Avoid Serious Injury in Car Crash but will Miss Nationwide Race

ESPN race stallion Vince Welch, his son USAC driver Dylan Welch and a family friend Tom Hays all escaped serious injury in a car accident Thursday night in Indiana.

The three were driving home from Dylan's USAC race in Plymouth -- which Dylan won -- when the accident occurred. All were treated for minor injuries and released after the crash.

Vince will be sticking close to home this weekend, however, and not be rolling to Iowa to be the lap-by-lap announcer for ESPN's telecast of the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Iowa Speedway Saturday night. ESPN said Dave Burns will fill in.

Shannon McIntosh P2 In Her Midget Race

Woman of pressdog™ Shannon "Shantastic" McIntosh posted her best finish of her 2010 midget comeback tour last night at Plymouth (Indiana) Speedway. McIntosh, who turned 21 last week, was in just her fourth midget race after a long layoff.

Dylan Welch, son of ESPN pit stallion Vince Welch, won the event. Mega props to USAC for their streamed video.

Ticket Price Cutting, Brainstorming in NASCAR

OK, good for NASCAR. A couple of stories in the Mighty Indy Star today show that NASCAR is approaching their attendance and ratings (relative) slide in a businesslike fashion.

First, IMS has announced they will reduce some ticket prices for next year's NASCAR race there. Why? Because customers aren't buying them because they can't afford them. Recall that here in America a ticket (or anything else) is only too expensive if nobody will buy it. Clearly some of the seats at IMS are too expensive. Read about it here.

Second, the owners -- THE OWNERS -- are getting together to brainstorm ideas for the success of the entire league. Manly tears. Could be the owners realize that the 1) need each other and 2) need the league to survive, so at some point self interest becomes the common good. Maybe it is worth owners' while to get together and come up with some ideas that will help everyone. Huh. Go figure. Maybe IndyCar teams do this. But I doubt it. If they do, it's either DOUBLE SECRET or unreported. Or I just missed it. Read about NASCAR's owners brainstorming here.  

Props to the Indy Star for reporting these things. Reader service makes me breathe into a bag.

Team REDLINE Xtreme Aims at Indy 2010

Energy Drinks R Us. IndyCar has another potential team. Here's the official news release ..

REDLINE Energy and Newly Formed SH RACING Plan Early Attack on 2011 Indianapolis 500

Weston, FL. (July 27, 2010) - VPX Sports and its popular REDLINE Xtreme Energy brand announced today a partnership with newly formed SH Racing for entry of “Team REDLINE Xtreme” into the 2011 Indianapolis 500.

I like the Rule -- Just Say No to "Defending"

What to say about the Edmonton Block Party that hasn't been said ...

How about: I like the rule, and I hope the league keeps it. Insert flame response here.

Here's why: I want overtaking. The rule encourages overtaking. I understand and appreciate the arguments that this rule artificially stimulates overtaking. To me, the rule fits in with push-to-pass and red/black sidewall tires -- a change that is worth it due to the end result: more passing.

Helio Apologizes for Losing His Shit After Edmonton

Penske PR has kicked out this apology from Helio Castroneves for his post-race freak out ...

Clearly upset with the penalty that cost him a victory, Castroneves, who was scored in 10th place, confronted series officials after the race. He later apologized for his actions.

“Obviously, I disagree with the decisions made by the race officials on the last restart in today’s race, but there is no excuse for my actions after the checkered flag,” Castroneves said. “I apologize to my team, our sponsors, the fans and the entire IZOD IndyCar Series community for my behavior. My actions were totally wrong and I acted inappropriately to some people who are my friends and people I respect very much. Obviously, I am a very emotional person and today I let my emotions get the better of me and I’m very sorry for that.”

Some have called for fines for Helio, specifically for pushing and grabbing league personnel, including Security Chief Charles. This isn't minature golf, so I have no problem with the tirdade right up to the point Helio starts pushing or grabbing people.

League officials can't really crack him upside the head if he wants to get all physical because they'd get fired and probably sued (rightly or wrongly), so going there really should be out of bounds. If he wanted to get into a brawl with another driver, that would be a little different, since another driver is not constrained from defending him/herself or pushing back as a league official is.

Props to Patrick of Trackside Online for making me and all his other subscribers aware earlier in the day. Just one more reason you should SUBSCRIBE to TSO.

Randy Bernard Wants to Make a Deal with the Milwaukee Mile and the State of Wisconsin

Randy Bernard is moving and shaking in Milwaukee. He wants the state to kick in a $400,000 to get IndyCar back to the Mile.

Check it out HERE.

IndyCar Releases Video of Driver's Meeting, Telestrated Explanation of Ruling

IndyCar may feel this is FANS' BUSINESS. Here's a video put out by the league Monday explaining their stance on the whole deal ...

IndyCar Needs to Explain Penalties after EVERY Race

If I were running the league, we would have the following policies ...

1) Whoever is the Iron Hand of Justice (chief steward) for the race would make himself or herself available to the media immediately after the race to explain all calls and non-calls in the race.

2) The regular, pre-race driver's meetings would either be open to the media OR video/transcript thereof would be available to the media. In that way we could all know what the instructions were. Currently, the media (except for the occasional chosen few) are kicked out of the drivers' meetings.

3) I would put the rule book online.

This practice of rules and rule enforcement being NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS has to go.