PENSKE RESPONDS TO CRASH.Byline: BILL SCHLOTTER Motor Sports The accident at Michigan Speedway in which a wheel bounced into the grandstands and killed three spectators during the U.S. 500 on July 26 has prompted track owner Penske Motorsports to raise the fences at the Brooklyn, Mich., track. But company president Greg Penske said no such improvement is needed at the company's California Speedway in Fontana. ``California Speedway is state-of-the-art,'' Penske said. ``We haven't had an incident here and we don't plan on having one.'' Penske said the fatal accident, where a wheel on racer Adrian Fernandez's car was sheered off in a collision with the wall, then bounced an estimated 40 feet over a retaining wall into the crowd, was the first involving fans in the Michigan track's 34-year history. And Championship Auto Racing, sanctioning body of the race, found no fault with the track or its safety precautions, he said. ``It was just an unfortunate accident,'' Penske said. ``Safety has always been our highest concern and priority for our facilities and it continues to be. Still, we felt we could enhance our safety at Michigan (with a higher fence). ``We, like everyone else, just feel for the families of those killed.'' Stop that train: Jeff Gordon has won three of the past four Winston Cup events and has a streak of six straight top-five finishes going. But anyone hoping for a Gordon stumble at this week's Bud at the Glen road race at Watkins Glen, N.Y., had better wait a week. Gordon is the defending Bud champ and won this year's only other road event at Sears Point in Sonoma. And at Watkins Glen, he has his victory last year, two other top five finishes and a top 10 in his five career starts. King of the rock: Mark Martin took his eighth International Race of Champions trophy and his fourth IROC IROC International Race Of Champions IROC Independent Rental Owners Council IROC Independent Rental Owners Committee IROC Instantaneous Rate of Change IROC Integrated Repair Operations Center (Sprint) IROC Intrusion-Resistant Optical Cable season title last Friday night. And because the victory came on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Indianapolis Motor Speedway, located in Speedway, Indiana (a separate town completely surrounded by Indianapolis) in the United States, is the second-oldest , it was very special. ``This is the sweetest day of my life,'' said Martin, a driver who doesn't waste many words on hyperbole. ``I now know where victory lane is at Indy.'' Martin started the 40-lap, 100-mile race in the back row, 11th of 12 cars. He worked his way into position to challenge, moving past Al Unser Jr. into second place on lap 28. On lap 36, he ran past Jimmy Vasser into the lead and held on. Martin, who won previous IROC season titles in 1994, 1996 and 1997, finished the '98 season with 86 points and $225,000 in prize money. Jeff Burton was second with 57 points, Jeff Gordon third with 51. The rest of the field in order of finish: Unser Jr. 46, Terry Labonte 39, Tony Stewart 37, Dale Earnhardt 36, Vasser 34, Randy LaJoie 31, Dale Jarrett 29, Tom Kendall 28 and Arie Luyendyk 26. Should have listened: Early in the season, when M.K. Kanke was building a Fort Knox-like lead in the NASCAR NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing), organization that sanctions American stock-car races, est. 1948. It held its first race in Daytona Beach, Fla. Featherlite Southwest Tour points race, the Granada Hills racer cautioned that a couple of bad races could quickly bring his team back to earth. A broken wheel, a blown rear-end and two did-not-finish races later, Kanke is bouncing off tree-tops and scraping bottom on hedgerows as the tour moves to Mesa Marin Raceway Mesa Marin Raceway was a high banked half mile racetrack in Bakersfield, California that was demolished following the 2005 racing season to make way for housing developments in the foothills of northeast Bakersfield. in Bakersfield Saturday for the Hall Ambulance 100. Kanke's lead, 115 points over runner-up Steve Portenga before the spate of bad luck, now stands at a meager mea·ger also mea·gre adj. 1. Deficient in quantity, fullness, or extent; scanty. 2. Deficient in richness, fertility, or vigor; feeble: the meager soil of an eroded plain. 3. 12. ``I'm not worried about it,'' said Kanke who considers Mesa Marin - where he holds the track record and has won each of his last two visits - his home course. ``Hopefully, our bad luck will be by us.'' Kanke said his car remains strong, despite the recent problems. ``We were running ninth at Sears point and broke the steering,'' Kanke said. ``And we were third at El Cajon and lost the rear end. We've got a good car, we've just been unlucky.'' Street racers: Work is under way on the 1.4-mile road course through Exposition Park in downtown Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles is the central business district of Los Angeles, California, located close to the geographic center of the metropolitan area. The sprawling, multi-centered megacity is such that its downtown core is often considered just another district like Hollywood or that will serve as home to Los Angeles Street Los Angeles Street is a historic avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, California. Traffic on the street travels northbound only, from the I-10 Freeway in the south of downtown, through the Fashion District, and on through Little Tokyo, where it ends after passing between LAPD Race competitors Sept. 5-7. The Labor Day weekend events include competition by the NASCAR Southwest Featherlite Tour, led by Kanke, with special appearances by Winston Cup drivers Mark Martin, Ken Schrader and Chad Little. Other tours running races on the L.A. road course that weekend will be the American Cities Racing League, the Porsche Pro Racing Series, and the Ultra Wheel Truck Series.Ticket Information: 1-800-690-RACE. Nuts and bolts nuts and bolts pl.n. Slang The basic working components or practical aspects: "[proposing] : North Hollywood's Jeff Shafer finished sixth at last week's KOOL/Toyota Atlantic Championship stop at Trois-Rivieres, Quebec. . . Tom Kendall will drive the No. 46 The Money Store Chevrolet in Bud at the Glen Winston Cup stop on Sunday. THIS WEEK COMING UP NASCAR WINSTON CUP Sunday - The Bud at the Glen, Watkins Glen International Watkins Glen International (nicknamed "The Glen") is an auto race track located near Watkins Glen, New York at the southern tip at Seneca Lake owned by International Speedway Corporation. , Watkins Glen, N.Y. NASCAR BUSCH GRAND NATIONAL This week - Off. NASCAR CRAFTSMAN TRUCK Saturday - Stevens Beil-Genuine Car Parts 200, Flemington Speedway, Flemington, N.J. FEDEX Fed·Ex A trademark used for an express shipping service. This trademark often occurs in print in lowercase as a noun or verb: CART CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES Sunday - Miller Lite 200, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course is a road course auto racing facility located in Troy Township, Morrow County, Ohio, United States, just outside of the town of Lexington. (Mid-Ohio has also colloquially become a term for the entire north-central region of the state, from south of , Lexington, Ohio. INDY RACING LEAGUE The Indy Racing League, better known as IRL, is the sanctioning body of a predominantly American based open-wheel racing series. The League consists of two series, the premiere IndyCar Series This week - Off. FORMULA ONE This week- Off. NHRA NHRA National Hot Rod Association NHRA Northland Human Resource Association NHRA National Human Resources Association NHRA Nursing Home Reform Act NHRA National Hospice Regatta Alliance NHRA National Heritage Resources Act (South Africa) This week - off. LOCAL Glen Helen Raceway (San Bernardino) - Sunday: District 37 HBMC motorcross. Mesa Marin Raceway (Bakersfield) - Saturday: NASCAR Winston Racing Series. Late model stocks, Ultra Wheels SPEC Truck Series. Perris Auto Speedway - Saturday: Dirt late models, lightning sprints and dwarfs. Ventura Raceway - This week: Off. Victorville Speedway - Saturday: 360 sprint cars, modifieds, legends. Willow Springs Raceway Willow Springs International Motorsports Park is located near Rosamond and Lancaster, California, and is about an hour north of Los Angeles. It is a historic race track, in existence more than fifty years, with the first race in 1953. The main track is a challenging 2. (Rosamond) - This week: Off. CAPTION(S): Box Box: THIS WEEK (See Text) |
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