Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Mercury News Wire Reports
Three-time Indy Racing League champion Sam Hornish Jr. will attempt to qualify a Penske Racing South Dodge today at Phoenix International Raceway for his first NASCAR Busch Series start.
The No. 39 Dodge that Hornish will drive has been raced four times this season by Kurt Busch, with three top-10 finishes, including a second in May at Charlotte.
``I've completed a lot of laps at Phoenix in an IndyCar the last several years,'' Hornish said. ``Hopefully, that experience will transfer to our preparations this week with the Busch car. We're taking a car that has had a great deal of success since its debut earlier this season with Kurt at Charlotte and I'm excited to get behind the wheel, run some laps and get a good finish on Saturday.''
• Indy Racing League veteran Scott Sharp is joining Rahal Letterman Racing, giving the team a second driver for next season.
Sharp will join returning driver Jeff Simmons with Rahal Letterman, which lost Danica Patrick to Andretti Green Racing and has not been able to line up a sponsor for 2004 Indy 500 winner Buddy Rice.
Sharp, 38, is the IRL's longest-tenured driver and has won nine races while driving in all 11 seasons since the series started. He finished 12th in the standings this past season while driving for Delphi Fernandez Racing. He finished fifth in the Texas and Richmond races.
• Crew member Craig Curione was suspended indefinitely by NASCAR this week for shoving Kevin Harvick on pit road Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway.
The push knocked Harvick, his wife and a NASCAR official to the ground. The Harvicks were not injured, but NASCAR official John Sacco was taken to the infield medical center because of a sprained ankle.
Curione, the front-tire-carrier for Scott Riggs, was fined $10,000, NASCAR officials said.
Curione was one of several crew members who approached Harvick minutes after the race and exchanged words with the driver, apparently over an incident late in the race.
Harvick was close behind Riggs when Riggs crashed while running third with seven laps to go. It appeared Harvick's car took the air off the rear deck of Riggs' car and Riggs was unable to maintain control.
When Harvick walked toward the infield media center, witnesses said Curione shoved him in the back. Harvick fell into his wife, DeLana, and she fell into a NASCAR official. All three tumbled to the ground.
• Tony Stewart's victory at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday helped Chevrolet tie its record for single-season victories in NASCAR's modern era, since 1972.
This year marks the third time Chevrolet has achieved 22 victories in one season. It set the mark in 1980 and tied it in 2004.
Stewart's victory was the 595th all-time for Chevy and the 471st of the modern era.
• Jeff Gordon, the four-time NASCAR champion, and Belgian model Ingrid Vandebosch were married Tuesday in a private ceremony in Mexico. Gordon and Vandebosch have been together since 2004. They appeared in the movie ``Taxi,'' in which Vandebosch played a bank robber and Gordon made an uncredited cameo appearance at her invitation.
Gordon announced his engagement in Sonoma in June, one day before winning the Dodge Save Mart 350.