Jeff Gordon scored his fourth NASCAR Nextel Cup win of the season in a rain shortened race at Pocono over the weekend.

The start of the race was delayed three hours by the weather conditions and once under way the probable arrival of more rain was a constant consdieration. Taking a gamble on more rain, Jeff Gordon was pitted out of sequence hoping to catch a break that would put him out front.  With the #24 car in the lead on Lap 103 the rains returned and the race stopped. Over an hour later NASCAR called a halt on the days activities and with over half the race distance completed the event was declared official with Gordon as the winner.

The Top 10 at the time of the stoppage were:

1. Jeff Gordon
2. Ryan Newman
3. Martin Truex Jr.
4. Casey Mears
5. Tony Stewart
6. Denny Hamlin
7. Mark Martin
8. Kyle Busch
9. Matt Kenseth
10. Clint Bowyer

McLaren’s rookie sensation Lewis Hamilton did what he’s been threatening to do since the season opener, win a race. With both pole position and a flag to flag victory in the Canadian Grand Prix, Hamilton has yet to finish lower than his starting position in any of the six F1 races he’s run to date. 

But behind the dominant Hamilton the field disintegrated in a series of bizzare incidents.

• Hamilton’s team mate, World Champion Fernado Alonso missed a corner, not once but four times.
• Alonso and Williams driver Nico Rosberg also fell foul of new safety car rules that saw them penalized for refuelling when the pits were closed.
• Ferrari’s Felippe Massa and Renault’s Ginacarlo Fischella ignored a red light at pit exit and were black flagged.
• Scott Speed ran into the back of Alex Wurz’s Williams leaving the Austrian to bravely bring the car home in third with a damaged rear wing.
• The Honda of Jenson Button didn’t even make it off the grid, while Super Aguri driver Anthony Davison says he hit a beaver (Which more likely to have been a groundhog similar to the one that almost ran into Ralf Schumacher’s Toyota during Friday practice), crossing the track.
• Jarno Trulli crashed out his Toyota during a slow lap behind the safety car.

All in all the safety car was deployed a record four times, the longest period following one of the most horrific looking crashes seen in F1 for a long time. The BMW of Robert Kubica was launched into the air, hitting a concrete wall with a ferocious impact (below) before rolling back across the track. Amazingly the Polish driver only suffered a mild concussion and a sprained ankle. 

After all the incidents and mayhem, the Top 10 finishers were:

1. Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)
2. Nick Hiedfeld (BMW)
3. Alex Wurz (Williams)
4. Heikki Kovalainen (Renualt)
5. Kimi Raikonene (Ferrari)
6. Takumo Sato (Super Aguri)
7. Fernando Alonso (McLaren)
8. Ralf Schumacher (Toyota)
9. Mark Webber (Red Bull)
10. Nico Rosberg (Williams)

Penske driver Sam Hornish Jr. dominated this weekend’s IRL race at the high banked Texas Motor Speedway from the drop of the flag. In fact even before the green flag flew he took charge of getting the pack up to speed after pole sitter Scott Sharp recieved a warning from race control for going too slow.

The race had been heavily promoted as a continuation of the Danica Patrick / Dan Wheldon “grudge” match, but despite the two running close on occasions and an off-hand remark by Patrick over the radio about Wheldon “cutting down” in the corners, it never really materialized.

In fact Wheldon was eliminated in a six car incident sparked by A.J. Foyt IV loosing a wheel. Perhaps the most amazing move of the race, if not the year, came from last week’s winner Tony Kanaan as he threaded the needle between the errant wheel and Foyt’s out of control car at close to 200 mph!

Towards the end of the race Kanaan and Patrick (who was the fastest car on track over the last ten laps) caught up with Hornish, but just didn’t have enough to get past the defending series champion.

The Top 10 finishers were:

1.  Sam Hornish Jr 
2.  Tony Kanaan 
3.  Danica Patrick 
4.  Dario Franchitti 
5.  Vitor Meira  
6.  Jeff Simmons  
7.  Scott Sharp  
8.  Buddy Rice 
9.  Kosuke Matsuura 
10.  Sarah Fisher  

No in car footage this week. Instead a special clip in memory of Bill France Jr. The amazing finish of the 1976 Daytona 500, carried live on TV with commentary by  Jackie Stewart. One of the pivotal moments that helped secure NASCAR’s future as a major television sport.

DEI driver Martin Truex Jr. scored his first NASCAR Nextel Cup win today in teh rain delayed race at Dover. Truex lead for 216 of the 400 laps with his only real challange coming from pole sitter Ryan Newman.

Towards the close of the race reigning champion Jimmie Johnson looked like he might keep the run of  Hendricks Motorsport “Car of Tomorrow” race victories intact, but had to pit with just 20 laps left for a cut tire and eventually finished 15th. Fellow CoT winner and Hendrick team mate, Jeff Gordon just scraped a top 10 finish.

The only major excitemnt of the day was a clash between Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch on lap 270 when the two ended up contesting the same piece of track. The incident spilled over into pit lane with Busch brake checking by Stewart’s pit forcing a member of Stewart’s crew to jump out of the way.  As a result the NASCAR officials refused to let Busch continue the race.

The Top 10 finishers were:

1. Martin Truex Jr.
2. Ryan Newman
3. Carl Edwards
4. Denny Hamlin
5. Matt Kenseth
6. Greg Biffle
7. Mark Martin
8. Clint Boyer
9. Jeff Gordon
10. Robby Gordon

Bill France Jr.

The race however was overshadowed by the news of the death of NASCAR vice-chairman Bill France Jr.  France Jr, son of the series founder, is widely regarded as the man who propelled NASCAR from being a regional series to its current media prominence. France Jr, ran NASCAR from 1972 to 2000 when he stepped aside after being diagnosed with cancer. Despite his seven year battle against the disease his death was still something of a shock to the NASCAR community.