After a dominant Busch win on Saturday, Matt Kenseth continued to show that he knows his way around the Fontana Speedway with a victory in Sunday’s NASCAR Nextel Cup race. A smart and fast pit stop put him in the lead and for a while it looked like that advantage would be short lived as Kevin Harvick was fast appproaching. However the Daytona 500 winner’s luck deserted him this time as he was slowed by a puncture.

Like last week’s Daytona race this one was red-flaged with just 7 laps left to run. This time due to the after effects of Greg Biffle turning David Reutimann into the wall. The result was a massive impact that left the car torn apart and on fire. Also for the second week in sucession we were witness to a driver sitting in a burning car for what seemed a long time. In this case made all the more worrying by the in-car camera shot that showed that Reutimann was clearly stunned by the impact and unable to extricate himself. Although the safety team did arrive in time to douse the flames and help the driver out, the delay between the car stopping spinning and the arrival of any help was too long (despite the positive spin put on by the TV commentary team) and would be unacceptable in open wheel racing.

Once the race restarted Kennseth cruised to a relaxed victory ahead of team-mates Jeff Gordon and Jimmy Johnson.

The Top 10 finishers were:

1. Matt Kenseth
2. Jeff Gordon
3. Jimmie Johnson
4. Jeff Burton
5. Mark Martin
6. Clint Bowyer
7. Kurt Busch
8. Tony Stewart
9. Kyle Busch
10. Brian Vickers.

Our “Speed Blog Racer To Watch,” Juan Pablo Motoya finished 26th after another steady race,

Team Germany once again dominated the latest round of A1GP, “The World Cup of Motorsports,” around the streets of Durban, South Africa.

Driver Nico Hülkenberg scored maximum points with pole positions, fastest laps and wins in both the sprint, and incident packed, feature races.  Germany now hold a 30 point lead over second place New Zealand with 3 races left.

The Top 10 positions in overall points currently stands at

• Germany
• New Zealand
• France
• Great Britain
• Switzerland
• Holland
• Malaysia
• Mexico
• Italy
• Canada

As the momentum builds towards the opening Grand Prix of the 2007 Formula One season, Scuderia Toro Rosso have at last confirmed that American Scott Speed will occupy the second seat on the team for 2007 alongside his 2006 team-mate Antonio Liuzzi.

Honda have unveiled an unconventional and possibly controversial livery for 2007. This year their F1 cars will be devoid of any sponsor decals or colors. Instead the cars will feature an image of the Earth (above). It is all part of a “green” initiative to raise awareness of environmental issues. The program is also vabcked by a special website at myearthdream.com.

Hoping to follow the route taken by fellow Indy500 winner and F1 Grand Pix winner, Juan Pablo Montoya, former World Champion Jacques Villeneuve is still talking about a possible move into NASCAR.

According to Autosport.com, he has already committed himself to racing at Le Mans with Peugeot this year but, speaking to Canadian press at the launch of his new album earlier this week he said that he may consider racing in ARCA, Craftsman Trucks and the Busch series before moving up to NASCAR. “That’s still the main plan,” he was quoted as saying by the Toronto Sun. “We’re working hard with Craig (Pollock, his manager) on the NASCAR project for 2008.”

There is still a strong possibility that Villeneuve may make his stock car debut this year at the Montreal Busch race.

Kevin Harvick (left) crosses the line just 0.02 seconds ahead of Mark Martin (right).

The Top 10 finishers were:

1. Kevin Harvick
2. Mark Martin
3. Jeff Burton
4. Mike Wallace
5. David Ragan
6. Elliot Sadler
7. Kasey Khane
8. David Gilliland
9. Joe Nemechek
10. David Stremme

of the other drivers that The Speed Blog followed during the event, Jeff Gordon crossed the line in 12th, Juan Pablo Montoya finished 19th and Tony Stewart was classified in 43rd position.