NHRA: Schumacher’s season is almost heroic

The firesuit hung on the wall like a costume waiting for its superhero to pull it on. Nearby, Larry Dixon sat as cool as Clark Kent.

He is asked if it makes him feel like Superman.

“You better feel like Superman,” he replies, “or you shouldn’t put it on.”

Dixon, engaged in a classic Superman-Batman rivalry with Tony Schumacher, faced the media Sunday disappointed that he had finished second to Schumacher by the scantest of margins in the NHRA Full Throttle championship. “Two points could be 200, it doesn’t matter,” he said. “We were in charge of our own fate and we lost.”

And Batman won.

Advertisement

NHRA: She’s the people’s champion, for now

Robert Hight celebrated his Full Throttle NHRA Funny Car championship on Saturday when his third-place qualifying effort clinched the title.

In the six-race Countdown to the Championship, Hight had the car to beat – and it seemed like no one could. With crew chief Jimmy Prock finding his groove, Hight won three of the first five races. He was The Man.

Yet Hight’s first title didn’t come without controversy. The apparent choking of team owner John Force in a key race at the U.S. Nationals guaranteed that Hight would be in the Countdown; in the process, Hight’s free pass eliminated defending champion Cruz Pedregon from the playoff.

Chances are that Hight would have beaten Force anyway, but it clouded the integrity of the process and resulted in a first-class row between Force and his former driver, Tony Pedregon, brother of Cruz. Tony said he didn’t expect Force to get down the track, and Force didn’t get down the track. If anyone had the street cred to call out Force, it was Pedregon, who won a championship for Force in 2003.

Which brings us to Ashley Force Hood.

The people’s champion.

NASCAR: Colombian Comet is bleepin’ brilliant

If you’ve ever heard Juan Pablo Montoya unleash a barrage of expletives after missing a shot on the golf course — a shot on the miniature golf course somewhere between the castle and windmill with his young children in tow — you’d realize just how intensely competitive he is.

There are those who live for winning, but Gordon Gekko has nothing on Montoya, NASCAR’s best story of the season for the last two months.

No one except the foolish would have expected Montoya to ace stock car racing in his third season, especially with an outfit like Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates. Imagine, two irrelevent programs combining forces to give Teresa Earnhardt, Chip Ganassi and Sabates the opportunity to play for a championship. Not even Dale Earnhardt would have spotted that one coming. Not this soon.

Nothing fabricated about IndyCar’s championship

In a racing world where playoffs were created to ensure a close championship battle and maintain consumer interest, isn’t it ironic that the IndyCar Series may have the best championship of all?

Going into today’s final race of 2009 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Scott Dixon has the championship lead, teammate Dario Franchitti is five points off the pace, and Ryan Briscoe is eight points back. The series has averaged a new championship leader every other race this season.

There is nothing contrived about this battle for open wheel supremecy, nothing fabricated by artificial means or points. It will be decided in a 200-lap shootout on a 1.5-mile oval under the lights. One of those three men is going to win it, and he will earn it in the process.

Based on the whole season, not just a portion of it.

NASCAR: Kyle is the pile driver in Chase

Kyle Busch was starting to wear a little thin, so maybe he got the comeuppance he deserved by not qualifying for The Chase.

Maybe it was noteworthy that he missed by only eight points, that he came so tantalizingly close, because he acted this season as though victory was his divine right. It might have been easy to feel a little empathy for him if the most dangerous man in the Chase hadn’t been so darn arrogant.

There is a fine line between arrogance and confidence. Maybe Busch ought to study Juan Pablo Montoya to get a feel for how it’s done.

NHRA: Kalitta’s legacy can be measured by 1,000

Has it been a year already?

It seems like yesterday that we were burying Scott Kalitta, acquiescing to the reality of auto racing. It’s a sport that is never completely safe, but shouldn’t be unnecessarily fatal. As followers of the sport, we agree to invest our feelings toward heroes that may not return to the trailer after the next round of competition.

Kalitta’s was the third NHRA professional fatality in five years when a series of events conspired to steal Connie Kalitta’s son from our presence. Top-fuel driver Darrell Russell (2004) and funny car driver Eric Medlen (2007) preceded Kalitta in death, tragically.

Kalitta’s was among the horrific crashes of the ages, a flaming fireball crashing into the end of the shutdown area at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, N.J., site of today’s United Association NHRA SuperNationals.

Doug Herbert likes to believe that “God takes over” in moments like those, grabbing the soul before any pain is felt. It’s a comforting thought, and I’m all for adopting it.

NASCAR: Time for Junior’s defining moment

He’s the most popular driver in America, and right now, Dale Earnhardt Jr., is the most overrated.

He is in the worst slump of his career. He moved to the best team in NASCAR and has won once — the same number of victories as David Reutimann running for a team that isn’t one of the super teams, or Brad Keselowski running for an independent, for gosh sakes.

In other words, Dale Jr. is just a guy. Because of his extraordinary popularity, he might as well be Anna Kournikova. Or Danica Patrick.

NASCAR: Stewart-Haas a surprise at every turn

I scribbled these words onto a notepad more than a month ago.

The biggest surprise of the 2009 NASCAR season?

Tony Stewart.

And Ryan Newman.

Stewart-Haas Racing.

Not necessarily in that order.

Newman had finished third and Stewart 23rd at Talladega. “Nine races into the season after having taken on the project that was Haas CNC Racing, both Stewart and Newman are surprisingly competitive.” Those words were written back then, too. Stewart was fourth in the standings, and Newman 13th.

Why so much attention to something written but never printed? Because the Stewart-Haas Racing saga was important — not to mention surprising — even before the rest of the country dialed in and Racescribe had a chance to transcribe his notes.

IRL: Tracy/Foyt pairing could be heaven and hell

This is what we’ve been waiting for.

Paul Tracy is driving for A.J. Foyt. Two men with take-no-prisoners attitudes.

This fusion of personalities may be what A.J. Foyt Enterprises has been waiting for. Darren Manning was surprisingly good on road courses last season for Foyt’s team. Vitor Meira may not match Manning on the road, but is a step up on ovals even if the team is a step behind everyone else.

Manning and Meira are extremely nice men.

Tracy is not.

IRL: A special memory suitable for ever

There are moments you should remember the rest of your life. This was one of them.

Fewer than six weeks after being acquitted of tax evasion charges, Helio Castroneves won the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday.

For the third time.

Winning once is historic. Winning twice is monumental.

Three times?

IRL: Sex sells, but with luck, Fisher sails

Most Americans with a rooting interest in the Indianapolis 500 later today will be pulling for the wrong girl.

Instead of hoping that Danica Patrick wins the 500, folks should be pulling for Sarah Fisher. Not that she has any chance of winning. She doesn’t, unlike Patrick, who drives for one of the best teams in the IRL IndyCar Series and does a pretty good job of getting around the iconic 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Yet Fisher is starting her eighth Indy race, more than any other woman. She has never driven for a team as good as the Andretti Green Racing squad that squeezes Patrick into and out of a firesuit, nor the Rahal-Letterman outfit that helped Patrick to a fourth-place finish in 2005 that catapulted her to stardom. For those of you who may have forgotten, Patrick finished fourth in spite of herself; she caused a couple of accidents that took out a handful of competitors.

But Fisher — who was the league’s perennial most popular driver until Patrick arrived on the scene — may be the sentimental choice among other drivers. Helio Castroneves said that if he or teammate Ryan Briscoe didn’t win the race, he was hopeful it would be Fisher. Don’t bet that he is alone.

NHRA: Johnson’s impact could snap a Coil

You could see Austin Coil bristle when the question was asked. A man of intense pride and accomplishment, perhaps the question was worded poorly, or the context misunderstood completely.

Whatever, there was a moment when slapping the reporter silly crossed his mind. He might never admit to it, but that’s not what his eyes said.

“I’ve won 16 championships,” said Coil, who won 14 since joining John Force to become the most dominant crew chief/driver combination in racing history. “How many has he won?”

IRL: As weekends go, Rahal stole the show

Alex Lloyd was money. Scott Sharp was off the hook. And Helio  Castroneves was, well, Castronevesque.

But clearly the most impressive performer over the first weekend of qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 was America’s best hope for a superstar.

Graham Rahal.

His first coup came on Saturday, when he pulled a sixth-place qualifying run off the board and,  in a new car, qualified fourth. In other words, he out-qualified Scott Dixon, the defending race champion as well as the defending IndyCar  Series champion for Team Target.

IRL: A step behind, but Americans stepping up

St. Louis may be the gateway to the west, but Kansas Speedway is the gateway to the Indianapolis 500. It might also have been the first step toward a legitimate resurgence among American open wheel drivers.

Two weeks ago, Scott Dixon finally got off the schneid, Helio Castroneves showed he’s in midseason form, and Tony Kanaan proved once again he is as reliable as ever. But perhaps the most notable thing to emerge from the heavy skies outside Kansas City in the IndyCar Series Road Runner Turbo Indy 300 is what took place behind them.

Danica Patrick, 27, Marco Andretti, 22, and Graham Rahal, 20 — three Americans — finished 5-6-7 in the running order. That’s about as good as can be expected as they catch up to the aforementioned, as well as Dario Franchitti. That Franchitti was the only sure thing to not finish the race, it turned out to be a banner day for the red, white and blue.

That’s right, Americans.

NASCAR: Time to rethink Talladega’s course

It’s time NASCAR take a good, hard look at Talladega, maybe not from the front row, but from a seat somewhere near the top of its grandstand.

The track provides close racing and huge crowds, but at what price?

NASCAR nearly suffered a disaster. Seven fans were injured when shrapnel from Carl Edwards’ Ford flipped into the catch fence. The injuries to the fans — lacerations and fractured bones — were nothing critical, which is more lucky than important. Edwards, a superbly talented driver, was the least hurt in the spectacular crash and rightfully called out NASCAR after catching his breath. Later, on Larry King Live, he shared more insight

NASCAR can count itself fortunate that Lady Luck’s evil stepsister carried a gun with a faulty sight.