Times wires
Friday, June 10, 2011
Childress will pay, but he's not sorry
The fallout from last week's Richard Childress-Kyle Busch incident continued Friday with Childress taking responsibility for punching Busch but also taking NASCAR to task.
Childress, left, who was fined $150,000, won't apologize to Busch.
"I am passionate about my race teams, our fans and I let my emotions get … come in front of my passion," said Childress, 65. " … I agree that NASCAR should have done something with me. I don't agree (with how NASCAR handled) the situation that happened on the cooldown lap."
In Saturday's truck series race at Kansas Speedway, Busch was racing Joey Coulter of Richard Childress Racing for position late in the race. Afterward, Busch bumped Coulter's truck. Busch was already on probation for an incident at a Sprint Cup race in May with Kevin Harvick of RCR but was cleared by NASCAR in the Childress incident. According to reports, Childress got Busch in a headlock and punched him several times.
Spencer chides Childress for hits
Jimmy Spencer, once suspended for punching Kurt Busch, believes Childress was wrong to attack Kurt's younger brother Kyle. "Richard Childress stepped over the line … he let his temper lead him to assault someone," Spencer, now an analyst for the Speed Channel, said this week. "That's a big black eye on the sport. The fans and others in the sport may think it's funny, but these major (sponsors) cannot be happy having a car owner represent them who assaults another person." Spencer was suspended one race in 2003 for punching Kurt Busch after a race at Michigan, punctuating a long feud. Spencer now says he was wrong.
Audi on pole for Le Mans
Audi's Benoit Treluyer clinched the pole for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which starts this morning, with a lap of 3 minutes, 25.738 seconds on the 8.4-mile circuit in France. Defending champions Romain Dumas, Timo Bernhard and Mike Rockenfeller will start second, also for Audi, which has won six of the past seven titles in the endurance race.
Elsewhere
Alex Tagliani will start on the pole for the first of tonight's two IndyCar races at Texas Motor Speedway after a lap of 215.186 mph around the 1.5-mile Fort Worth track. The field for the second race will be set by random draw. … Clint Bowyer started on the pole and led wire-to-wire for his first win in Tony Stewart's dirt-track charity race Wednesday at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio. J.J. Yeley was second and Tampa's Aric Almirola third. The event has raised more than $3 million for various charities since 2005.
Times wires
More pain for Indianapolis 500 runnerup Hildebrand
Bad luck just keeps following J.R. Hildebrand. Less than two weeks after a final-turn crash cost him an Indianapolis 500 victory, the IndyCar rookie injured his left knee during a fitness promotion for tonight's Twin 275s in Texas. Panther Racing, his team, confirmed the injury but said it wouldn't provide details. Multiple reports said Hildebrand, left, tore his ACL. He's still slated to drive this weekend and qualified the car Friday. He'll line up 11th for the first of two races. "It's a hassle, but I've got good means of dealing with it this weekend and it's not going to be an issue down the road," he said. Hildebrand was injured Wednesday trying to clear a hurdle on an obstacle course. IndyCar driver Ryan Briscoe also participated in the event.