Times wires
Friday, April 8, 2011
Edwards escapes, then enjoys win
FORT WORTH, Texas — Carl Edwards escaped a crash that wiped out primary challenger Kyle Busch Friday night and won his second consecutive Nationwide race at Texas Motor Speedway.
Edwards and Busch were 1-2 on Lap 88 when Tim Schendel, nine laps down and last among the 35 cars still running, blew a right front tire coming out of Turn 1 in the O'Reilly Auto Parts 300.
Schendel shot up the track and barely scraped the back of Edwards' car. But he was right in front of Busch, who had nowhere to go and hit him full force.
"I was very close," Edwards said. "Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw that car turn. … I'm glad that I caught it. A split second later, it would have been over."
Edwards, the pole-sitter, never fell below third place and led 169 of 200 laps at the 1½-mile, high-banked track. He beat fellow Sprint Cup regular Brad Keselowski by 0.482 seconds.
Ragan earns first Sprint Cup pole
David Ragan ran a lap of 189.820 mph Friday at Texas Motor Speedway to earn the Sprint Cup pole, his first, for Sunday's race by more than 1 mph. He took the top spot from Roush teammate Carl Edwards (188.521 mph). "Qualifying is just part of the weekend, like practice is. Pit stops are part of the weekend, being competitive on restarts is a part. We've got to put all those parts together," Ragan said.
Raikkonen takes first NASCAR steps
Kimi Raikkonen is testing well in NASCAR — already matching lap times with Kyle Busch, the owner of the truck the Finn will race. Raikkonen, the 2007 Formula One world champion, did more testing Thursday in Rockingham, N.C., after two days this week at Gresham Motorsports Park in Georgia attended by Busch. Raikkonen is slated to make his NASCAR truck debut with Kyle Busch Motorsports in May at Charlotte. "The test went really well at Gresham. Kimi is a race car driver, so he does know how to drive race cars and drive them well," Busch said. "… (We) ran identical lap times. So he's right there, he knows what he's doing."
IndyCar seats still getting warmer
Even with the season under way, IndyCar is seeing several driver moves. Simon Pagenaud of France is set to make his series debut this weekend in Birmingham, Ala. The former Champ Car driver is at Dreyer & Reinbold, filling in for Ana Beatriz, who had surgery after fracturing her wrist in St. Petersburg. Canadian rookie James Hinchcliffe will do the North American races for Newman/Haas starting this weekend. And for the Indianapolis 500 in May, Bertrand Baguette (with Rahal Letterman Lanigan) and Bruno Junqueira (with A.J. Foyt Racing) have secured rides.
Elsewhere
Red Bull Racing's Mark Webber had the fastest time in practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix in Kuala Lumpur, edging McLaren's Jenson Button. Qualifying was held overnight. … Antonio Garcia claimed the pole for today's Porsche 250 Grand-Am race in Birmingham with a lap of 101.369 mph (1:21.682) around the 2.3-mile Barber Motorsports Park road course.
Times wires