NASCAR apologizes for Indianapolis tire fiasco

NASCAR apologized Tuesday for the tire fiasco that ruined its prestigious race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and vowed to avoid a repeat.

A durability issue with the tires Goodyear brought to Indy forced NASCAR to call cautions every 10 to 12 laps during Sunday's 400-mile race to slow the action and force teams to change their tires before they failed. The longest run under the green flag was 13 laps, and Jimmie Johnson claimed the victory at the end of a seven-lap sprint to the finish in the second-slowest race in the 15 years NASCAR has competed at the Brickyard.

The drivers were disgusted, fans were frustrated and NASCAR is still trying to figure out why things went so wrong.

"I can't say enough how sorry we are and it's our responsibility being NASCAR that we don't go through this situation again," said Robin Pemberton, vice president of competition.

"The race didn't come off like we had hoped, the fans didn't get what they exactly wanted and we'll do everything in our power — it won't happen again, I can tell you that much."

NASCAR must first figure out why Goodyear's tires struggled so mightily at Indianapolis. The only thing that is certain is that the tire compound Goodyear selected was not strong enough when combined with NASCAR's current car.

The new car is a heavier model that puts significantly more stress on right-side tires, and Goodyear's inventory last weekend couldn't hold up to the pressure.

"It's obvious that we didn't go there with the right car-slash-tire combination," Pemberton conceded.

The problem was exposed in a Saturday afternoon practice session, when some cars couldn't make it three laps without the tire wearing down to the cords. A second practice session was only slightly better, when the runs stretched to about 10 laps before tires began to falter.

Goodyear shipped in an emergency batch of 800 tires it had earmarked for this weekend's race at Pocono, and NASCAR pulled all the crew chiefs together hours before Sunday's start to discuss a strategy for staging a safe race.

Officials decided to throw a "competition caution" 10 laps into the race to examine the tire wear, and promised to continuously monitor throughout the race. With Pemberton patrolling pit road, it became clear the tires wouldn't last much past the 10-lap window unless the abrasive Indy surface began to pick up rubber that would help the tires' traction and extend their wear.

It never happened, as the surface became the equivalent of a cheese grater and the rubber turned into a black dust that made the track even slicker — forcing NASCAR to take control of the race.

"We have to run the race and we have to run the safest race possible, and when we're in situations where we have to take control under adverse circumstances, that's what we do," Pemberton said. "To get ahead of it and have the safest race possible, we had to take control and that's what we did — run 10 to 11 laps at a time and let the cautions fly."

Goodyear plans to return to Indianapolis later this year to conduct another tire test. The first was held in April when Kurt Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Brian Vickers participated in a controlled test session for the manufacturer.

NASCAR did not have an open test at Indy this year — something it has done in previous years — because the crew chiefs did not select it when polled late last season on where they wanted to test.

NASCAR is currently working on a new testing policy that would give teams more testing dates and freedom to choose the tracks.

NASCAR officials spoke Tuesday morning with both Goodyear officials and Indianapolis president Joie Chitwood, as all parties tried to move forward. Track chairman Tony George was adamant in an interview with The Indianapolis Star that the surface was not a factor in Sunday's debacle.

"The problem is solely (NASCAR's), and by that I mean it's theirs to figure out," George told The Star. "It's not going to come with anything we do to the track. Figuring it out will only come with getting the car and tire combination right, and that requires actually spending the time and effort to do something about it.

"The track won't change next year, so if they want to come back, they better figure it out because I don't think the fans want to come back and see that."

Pemberton agreed there is nothing wrong with the track, and in admitting NASCAR is deeply affected by the fiasco, vowed the issue will be corrected before next year's return.

"It hurts us whenever we have a weekend like we had," Pemberton said. "There's nothing worse than coming away from a race and knowing the result was ... it wasn't even close. It wasn't even in the 25th percentile of what we're capable of doing and what we do week in and week out.

"When we go back to Indianapolis next year, we'll probably have the best Brickyard we've ever had."

NASCAR squeezes horsepower down on Toyota motors

NASCAR tried to even out the competition in the Nationwide Series on Wednesday by ordering all teams using Toyota motors to squeeze down their horsepower before this weekend's race in Indianapolis.

Toyota has won 14 of 21 races this season in the Nationwide Series, and all but one came in a Camry fielded by Joe Gibbs Racing. The exception was JGR driver Kyle Busch's victory at Charlotte in May in a car fielded by Braun Racing.

NASCAR ordered all the Toyota motors to use a smaller spacer that will knock down 15 horsepower in the motors.

Lee White, president of Toyota Racing Development, said he was "extremely disappointed" and found no justification for NASCAR's decision, arguing the Nationwide teams have been successful this season because of hard work and not technical advantage.

"Despite this setback, we will continue to work diligently to keep our Nationwide teams competitive," White said. "Our hope remains that a Toyota team or driver will be rewarded with a championship at the conclusion of this year."

Technically, the new guidelines aren't directed solely at Toyota: the bulletin distributed to teams did not even mention the manufacturer.

But because the automaker is working with a brand new engine and has access to the latest technology, Toyota teams have gained an advantage over the manufacturers using older engine models.

If the other manufacturers should reach the stage Toyota is currently at, they would be subject to the horsepower guidelines NASCAR mandated Wednesday.

Chevrolet has been pushing to use its new engine in the Nationwide Series, and many believe that model is on par with the Toyota motors.

Robin Pemberton, vice president of competition, said the Toyota motors are legal and in line with previous guidelines. But NASCAR is responsible for maintaining a level playing field, and because Toyota is new to the sport and working with new designs, the manufacturer has gained an advantage over Chevrolet, Dodge and Ford.

"We are not punishing Toyota, but the end result is we have to try to maintain a competitive balance," Pemberton said. "Toyota has the newest, latest greatest parts and pieces — no other company has had new engines in the Nationwide or Truck Series in I don't know how long.

"It can be debated whether this is a small or medium change, but we felt it was just enough to put (Toyota) back to where everybody was almost on par with the competition."

NASCAR recently sent 10 motors for testing, and found that David Reutimann's Toyota was the best with an estimated 3 percent horsepower advantage over the competition. JGR's No. 18 car — which Busch drove to victory at Chicago right before the motors were tested — was second.

Roush Fenway Racing's Nos. 16 and 17 Fords were next, followed by JGR's No. 20 car, which has won nine races with four drivers this season.

JGR builds its own motors for its two Nationwide Series cars. The rest of the Toyota engines in that series and the Craftsman Truck Series come from Triad Racing Development, a Bill Davis-owned company that leases engines.

White worried that NASCAR's tweak to the Toyota motors would stretch beyond immediate on-track performance.

"Unfortunately, the decision by NASCAR could be more far-reaching than simply mandating Toyota to adjust its Nationwide engine," he said. "The real impact will be felt by the Toyota teams as they adjust to the change, work to remain competitive for the remainder of this season and attempt to line up their sponsorships for next year."

Court drama and sex farce merge in F1 boss's suit

The ingredients are explosive: an affluent Englishman, a handful of dominatrices, a tabloid newspaper and allegations of Nazi role-play.

After a week that combined courtroom drama and British sex farce, a judge will rule on the nature of sadomasochistic sessions involving five women and Max Mosley, president of the organization that oversees Formula One racing.

Were they depraved acts by a powerful public figure, or private sexual encounters shamefully exposed by a prurient press?

Mosley is suing the News of the World newspaper for invasion of privacy over a story alleging he attended a five-hour Nazi-themed sex session.

The newspaper argues that Mosley's public profile and "depraved" behavior make the story a matter of public interest. Summing up the paper's defense case Monday, lawyer Mark Warby said the issue at stake was "the fundamental importance in a democratic society of a free press — a free press which may say things which shock and offend."

The hearing ended Monday, and Judge David Eady said he hoped to give his ruling next week. Whatever he decides will have huge implications for Britons' right to privacy — and the media's freedom to publish.

"It's advancing the interpretation of the balance to be struck between respect for individuals' private and family life and the right to freedom of expression," said Caroline Kean, a partner at media-law specialists Wiggin. She is not involved in the case.

Britain has no formal privacy law, but it is a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees the right to respect for privacy and family life. Celebrities have increasingly used this clause to fight media exposes.

In 2004, Naomi Campbell won a privacy case against the Daily Mirror newspaper over a story that included pictures of her leaving a Narcotics Anonymous meeting. The next year, Canadian musician Loreena McKennitt won a privacy suit against a former friend who had published a book about her. The court ruled that information about her feelings and relationships was private and should be removed.

The judge in that case, and in several other high-profile privacy suits, was Eady, the justice presiding in the Mosley case.

For the past week, Eady and a packed courtroom of lawyers, journalists and curious onlookers have watched as the sights and sounds of sadomasochism filled Court 13 at London's neo-Gothic High Court.

The court heard evidence from Mosley and four of the women he met for S&M sessions at an apartment Mosley rented for the purpose — at a cost of $70,000 a year — in London's affluent Chelsea neighborhood.

Lawyers also played covertly recorded videos that showed Mosley being bound and whipped, then relaxing naked with a cup of tea.

The News of the World claims the session, secretly filmed by one of the women involved, had a Nazi theme.

Mosley, 68, has admitted a 45-year long interest in S&M, but told the court he found the idea of Nazi sex fantasies abhorrent. The issue is especially sensitive because he is the son of the late Oswald Mosley, Britain's best-known fascist politician in the 1930s and a friend of Adolf Hitler.

He said he and the women acted out a German prison scenario, with no overtones of the Third Reich.

The two sides have given widely differing views of sadomasochistic role-play. Mosley referred to his encounters with the women as parties, rather than orgies. One of the women involved compared the activities to "children playing Cowboys and Indians."

But Warby said attempts to portray the events as "a bit of hanky-spanky" were misleading.

In fact, he said, "there is psychological darkness" behind such activities. "There is, we suggest, true depravity.

"This is certainly not Cowboys and Indians," he said. "This was not the naughty schoolgirl scenario. This was not the doctors and nurses scenario. This was vicious."

After the story broke in March, Mosley faced calls to quit as president of the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile, which oversees Formula One racing. Despite the pressure, he won a confidence vote last month allowing him to stay until his fourth term ends in October 2009.

Most legal observers expect Mosley to win his legal case as well, further consolidating Britain's privacy rights. Mark Thomson, a media-law specialist at the law firm Carter-Ruck, said an equally significant factor would be the size of any damages awarded by the judge.

Mosley's lawyers are demanding the tabloid pay large punitive damages to discourage similar stories. He said damages have so far been limited to $10,000 to $12,000. If that happens in this case as well, Thomson said, "it's obvious that tabloids will continue to publish and be damned."

Conversely, Kean said, "if he chooses to make a very significant order, say half a million pounds ($1 million), there is a danger that it will have a chilling effect on the press."

Obama passes on potential NASCAR sponsorship

NASCAR's BAM Racing team has presented Barack Obama's presidential campaign with a potential sponsorship deal in the Sprint Cup series later this year, but it doesn't look like an Obama car will be burning rubber on the track anytime soon.

BAM team spokesman Rhett Vandiver told The Associated Press on Friday that the team made a sponsorship proposal to the Democratic presidential hopeful's campaign, and has made similar proposals to the campaign of Republican John McCain and at least one third-party candidate.

Late Friday, the Obama campaign said there would be no sponsorship.

"The Obama campaign will not be sponsoring a car in the Sprint Cup series, though we will continue to look for ways to reach out to voters and convey Senator Obama's message of change." said Bill Burton, an Obama campaign spokesman

Sports Illustrated first reported the proposal on its Web site, saying Obama's campaign is in talks with BAM, a part-time operation that hasn't raced in recent weeks, to sponsor its No. 49 car in the Aug. 3 race at Pocono.

"The Obama campaign will not be sponsoring a car in the Sprint Cup series, though we will continue to look for ways to reach out to voters and convey Senator Obama's message of change." Bill Burton, Obama Campaign Spokesman

It would have been a fairly bold move within a sport whose competitors spend all year turning left on the track but tend to lean to the right politically.

BAM's choice of drivers and car brands might have been a little too sticky politically for the Obama camp.

The car, a Toyota — the only foreign automaker racing in NASCAR — would be driven by veteran Ken Schrader.

According to the Federal Election Commission's Web site, Schrader gave $1,000 to the campaign of North Carolina Republican congressman Robin Hayes in June 2004, and a total of $2,500 in 2003 and 2004 to the failed Virginia congressional campaign of Republican Kevin Triplett, a former NASCAR official.

Also according to the FEC, Mrs. Ann Schrader of Concord, N.C. and Ken Schrader Racing donated a total of $2,000 to President Bush's campaign in May 2004 and $900 to the North Carolina Republican Executive Committee in August 2004.

NASCAR has been playing an increasing role in politics, as so-called "NASCAR dads" were considered a key constituency in recent elections.

A Cup series car carried a George W. Bush logo in 2004 but wasn't officially associated with the campaign. And Democratic presidential hopeful Bob Graham sponsored a truck in the Craftsman Truck Series in 2003.

Truex fined 150 points for failing inspection

Martin Truex's bid to make the Chase for the championship took a severe hit Tuesday when NASCAR penalized his Dale Earnhardt Inc. team 150 points for bringing an illegal car to Daytona.

Truex's car failed its initial inspection last week at Daytona because the No. 1 Chevrolet failed to fit NASCAR's roof template. NASCAR officials seized the car and sent it to their Research and Development Center in Concord for further inspection.

"We've dug ourselves a hole but we're not giving up. This team seems to respond the best when its back is against the wall," said Truex, who missed the only practice session before Saturday night's race because of the illegal car.

"We brought a new car to Daytona and it fit all of the templates at our shop. It doesn't appear to have been anything intentional on our part but it was still our responsibility. We'll deal with it and move on."

But it will be an uphill battle from here for the star driver at DEI, who is in a contract negotiation year.

The 150-point penalty drops Truex from 14th in the standings to 18th. The top 12 drivers make the Chase, and Truex has just eight races to get back into contention.

In addition, crew chief Kevin "Bono" Manion and car chief Gary Putnam were suspended from the next six races and placed on probation until the end of the year.

Manion was also fined $100,000.

"I hate that we're going to lose Kevin and Gary," Truex said. "Obviously, they are important to the team and it'll be weird not having them at the track."

John Story, vice president of motorsports operations at DEI, said the team will use its 10-day window to decide if it will appeal the penalty.

"We are still trying to understand how the car fit our templates multiple times at the shop, but we respect NASCAR's determination that one of our cars did not exactly conform to their template at the track," Story said.

Truex, who won his only career Sprint Cup Series race last year at Dover, was DEI's only driver in championship contention. He made the Chase last season, but finished 11th in the final standings.

This year has not been as solid for Truex, who has just five top-10 finishes through 18 races.

He went into Saturday night's race just 71 points out of Chase contention, but had to drive a backup car that got no practice and just two qualifying laps before the race. While teammates Paul Menard and Mark Martin qualified first and second, and rookie Regan Smith was eighth, Truex qualified 35th.

He rallied somewhat to finish 17th in the race, but it wasn't enough to close the gap on 12th-place driver Tony Stewart.

Now he's 238 points out of 12th place, with 2004 Chase winner Kurt Busch and Daytona 500 winner Ryan Newman among the drivers he's got to pass to move back into contention.

The penalty comes at a tumultuous time for DEI.

Truex, the star of the team since Dale Earnhardt Jr. left this year, is also in a contract negotiation that has yet to be resolved. 2009 is an option year for both the team and the driver, but Truex has not yet agreed to return.

In addition, Martin said last week he's leaving at the end of the season to drive for Hendrick Motorsports. DEI plans to promote Aric Almirola into that seat full time, but sponsorship is in question as the U.S. Army has been shopping its funding across the garage.

Also, Smith's team has had just partial sponsorship all season and DEI has acknowledged it may have to cut down to just three teams if funding for Smith's car isn't found.

Also Tuesday, multiple Internet reports suggested team owner Teresa Earnhardt is trying to sell all or part of the race team that was founded by her late husband, seven-time Cup champion Dale Earnhardt.

Max Siegel, president of DEI, denied Earnhardt is trying to sell or searching for an investment partner.

"She's not selling it, I'm not buying it," Siegel said. "We get calls all the time, but nothing is on the block."

The recent trend in NASCAR has been for owners to take on outside investors as partners to secure financial stability. Most recently, Petty Enterprises sold majority ownership to Boston Ventures.

But Siegel said DEI is not currently looking for help.

"We're not for sale. We're not looking for partners," Siegel said. "I don't know where this stuff comes from."

Chip Ganassi shuts down Franchitti's team

NASCAR team owner Chip Ganassi shut down Dario Franchitti's race team Tuesday because of a lack of sponsorship, putting the former IndyCar Series champion's future in doubt.

Franchitti, the 2007 Indianapolis 500 winner and series champion, has struggled in his first NASCAR season driving Ganassi's No. 40 Dodge. He ranks 41st in the driver standings, failed to qualify for races in Texas and Sonoma, Calif., and missed five with a broken ankle he suffered in a Nationwide Series crash at Talladega.

The poor performance came as Ganassi has searched all season for a sponsor for his third NASCAR team. Longtime sponsor Coors Light left at the end of last season, and Ganassi was unable to secure funding despite releasing David Stremme for the more marketable Franchitti.

"If I keep going I run the risk of dragging the other two teams down. I don't want to do that," Ganassi told the Associated Press. "There's no money. It makes no sense to be running this out of my pocket. I had to put a stop to it."

Ganassi's other two Sprint Cups teams are driven by Juan Pablo Montoya, in his second NASCAR season, and Reed Sorenson, who's in the final year of his contract. Montoya is 20th in the standings and Sorenson is 32nd.

The entire No. 40 team was shut down, which resulted in 71 layoffs that included managing director of operations John Fernandez, Ganassi said. Steven Lane, crew chief for Franchitti's team, was not among those laid off.

Ganassi said Franchitti was disappointed but understood the decision, and the two have to discuss down the road what Franchitti will do for the rest of the season. One possibility is Franchitti could drive for Ganassi in the Nationwide Series, but promising development driver Bryan Clauson is scheduled to drive the car this weekend at Daytona International Raceway.

The decision was difficult for Ganassi, who said he struggled to sleep the past week as he agonized over what to do with his slumping race team. His IndyCar operation is soaring — Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon have combined to win five of 10 races this season, including Dixon's Indy 500 victory, and are ranked first and third in the standings. But the NASCAR team has struggled most of the year.

Montoya and Sorenson have scored just a pair of top-10s each, while Franchitti's best finish was 22nd at Martinsville Speedway.

For Ganassi, a Pittsburgh-based team owner whose only business is racing, he reached a point where he and co-owner Felix Sabates had to stop the bleeding on Franchitti's team or risk his other two teams suffering because of it.

"This is a difficult decision for Felix and I that did not come without its share of anguish," Ganassi said. "In this tough business environment continuing to run the car without proper funding has become increasingly difficult."

Mike Accavitti, director of the Dodge Brand for Dodge Motorsports, viewed the closure of the No. 40 team as a tough decision necessary to improve the Ganassi program.

"We support Chip, Felix and their organization as they make decisions to solidify their overall program and achieve their objective of winning races and competing for the Sprint Cup," Accavitti said. "Chip and Felix now have the opportunity to apply additional resources to areas that can directly impact the on-track performance of the teams of Reed Sorenson and Juan Pablo Montoya."

It's not clear what will happen next for Franchitti, who came to NASCAR after a successful open-wheel career that saw him win 18 races in Champ Car and IndyCar. He won his first championship last season when he edged Dixon for the IndyCar title while driving for Andretti Green Racing.

The 35-year-old driver left Andretti at the end of last season to sign with Ganassi, a move that had been delayed a year. Franchitti and Ganassi had agreed for Franchitti to start his NASCAR career in 2007, but Montoya called before the deal was completed and was given the ride instead.

With sponsorship problems surrounding the No. 40, Ganassi released Stremme at the end of the season in hopes of securing funding for the likable Scotsman, who is married to actress Ashley Judd.

But the money never came in as Franchitti's adaptation to stock cars was slower than Montoya's. He had his best qualifying effort last week in New Hampshire when he started seventh, but he finished four laps down in 38th place.

The year has not been a total bust for Franchitti, though. He was part of the winning team in the prestigious Rolex 24 at Daytona sports car race, a victory that put him alongside Mario Andretti and A.J. Foyt as the only drivers to win the Indy 500, the IndyCar title, the 12 Hours of Sebring and the Rolex 24.