AGR’s Tony Kanaan just beat team mate Marco Andretti to the line for victory in what appears to be the last IRL race held at the ultra fast Michigan International Speedway. But this race will be remembered for the spectacular crash with points leader Dario Franchetti’s car getting airborne after touching wheels with Dan Wheldon’s car at well over 200 mph and bouncing twice before coming to rest inverted.

Luckily Franchetti and all the other drivers involved emerged unscathed from the scary looking incident. Earlier in the race another crash had taken out Helio Castroneves and Vitor Miera which resulted in a harsh exchange of words between the two.

With just a few laps to go it appeared that the race may also grab headlines as Danica Patrick’s first victory as she clearly had the fastest car and was making a good run on both Kanaan and Andretti, but a cut tire meant a last minute pit stop with an eventual seventh place finish for Patrick.

The Top 10 finishers were:

1. Kanaan
2. Andretti
3. Sharp
4. Matsuura
5. Rice
6. Hunter-Reay
7. Patrick
8. Foyt IV
9. Hornish Jr.
10. Dixon

F1 rookie sensation Lewis Hamilton’s total domination of the Hungarian Grand Prix was completely overshadowed by events during Saturday’s qualifying session which point to a fracture in the once seemingly invincible 2007 McLaren team.

Druring the last session of qualifying Hamilton, who had been fastest all weekend, defied team orders to allow team mate Fernando Alonso past and take the lead on the road so he could time his run at pole for the closing seconds. In what appeared to be a deliberate act Alonso then bloscked Hamilton in the pits for an additional 10 seconds after being given the signal to leave, the result being that the young British driver was robbed of a shot at pole position.  At least that’s the way the stewards seem to viw it as they docked Alonso five grid positions handing pole back to Hamilton.

From there he lead what was in all honesty a processional race with little of interest. Hamilton lead from falg to flag, while Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen sat between 1 and 3 seconds behind unable to mount a challeng. Alonso clawed his way back to 4th but seemed to be taking things somewhat cautiously going for points rather than the win.

The Top 10 finishers were:

1. Hamilton (McLaren)
2. Raikkonen (Ferrari)
3. Heidfeld (BMW)
4. Alonso (McLaren)
5. Kubica (BMW)
6. Schumacher (Toyota)
7. Rosberg (Williams)
8. Kovalainen (Renault)
9. Webber (Red Bull)
10. Trulli (Toyota)

Apologies for the slight gap in coverage whe=ile I was out on vacation - but noraml service will be resumed with coverage of this weekend’s events.

In the meantime I have still been tracking the results from F1, NASCAR, IRL, ChampCar, World Rally and the NHRA. By the end of July, 135 different drivers had qualified to be included in The Speed Blog’s overall driver ranking calculations.

The Top 10 are:

1. Jeff Gordon (NASCAR)
2. Jimmie Johnson (NASCAR)
3. Dario Franchetti (IRL)
4. Scott Dixon (IRL)
5. Denny Hamlin (NASCAR)
6. Lewis Hamilton (F1)
7. Fernado Alonso (F1)
8. Tony Stewart (NASCAR)
9. Felippe Massa (F1)
10. Dan Wheldon (IRL)