One Stop Shop, Volume 4… or something like that.  Hey, with all the freakin’ work I’m doing to give you ALL of racing’s weekend results, news, notes and scoop, I can’t believe I’ve convinced myself that someone is actually reading… right? 

You are reading this out there, correct? 

Bueller… Bueller?…

Remember, your comments on this column/blog are always welcome:  CrashG@SpeedFreaks.TV

* MyRacer.com Freakin' Pick of the Week: I guess I thought this was cool because it is a blog created by a guy living in Thailand!  Sweet, the MyRacer.com Nation is everywhere… and, well, he has a blurb on Kimi Raikkonen and I'm needing a bit more Formula One these days:  http://www.myracer.com/community/blog/blog.do?method=blog&sblogId=Q5Mj

To start, let’s go down south… to St. Pete, Florida where the ALMS, IndyCar and Indy Pro Series’ were racing in the streets. 

First there were Sports Cars, and that Audi did it again… this time with drivers Rinaldo (aka ‘Dindo’) Capello and Allan McNish standing atop the podium for the overall win.  Sascha Maassen and Ryan Briscoe led a 1-2 finish for Penske in LMP2, in GT1 the Ollies captured the flag (that’s Oliver Gavin and Olivier Beretta to you and I) and the GT2 winners were Jaime Melo and Mika Salo, but in a new car. Check out all the stories at www.americanlemans.com

Then there was the Indy Pro Series, with two races this weekend… it didn’t really matter though as Lucas Oil driver Alex Lloyd stole them BOTH.  Well, he wasn’t really a thief… he earned both wins, the second thanks to Jonathan Klein who was leading through lap 20, but penalized for blocking (ouch).  Now, for you stat men and women out there, Mr. Lloyd is the first Indy Pro Series driver to win the season’s first three races and is now just one win away from tying Thiago Medeiros’ record for consecutive Indy Pro Series victories (4) when we get to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May.  And damn that guy has a great smile (nice pearly whites!)

Finally on the streets of St. Pete, there was IndyCar.  Remember last week in Homestead and how that race was dominated by Danny Wheldon?  Well, this weekend was dominated by another red and white car… the one of last year’s winner, Spiderman Helio Castroneves.  However, there was a big difference in these two races.  This weekend offered a lot more action (and drama).  Right from the beginning, teammates Franchitti and Kanaan got tangled; several laps later, teammates AJ Foyt IV and Ed Carpenter tried to share the same real estate; and then with a few laps to go, former teammates Danica Patrick and Buddy Rice were going at it for 8th place… and as finally publicly confirmed, there is definitely no love lost between Buddy and Danica.  That could get interesting this year… remember to pay attention to their interviews for any subliminal ‘digs’ at each other.

This coming week should be a big one for Champ Car as they prepare to open their season in Las Vegas and Long Beach.  But the biggest news of this past week was that Graham Rahal was finally and officially announced at NHL Racing… (Newman/Haas/Lanigan = NHL).

And speaking of Long Beach, the Formula Drift Series starts their season this week as well… Tanner Foust joined the Freak Nation on Sunday night to preview their two activities in Long Beach… first their stand alone event on April 7 and then the 2-5 tandem drifts on the Champ Car weekend April 14 & 15.

For those of you in the SoCal area, I have FREE tickets to the April 7 Formula Drift event… the first 3 to email me from this article will win a pair of tickets… so email now:  CrashG@SpeedFreaks.TV

Onto two wheel, Dallas fans watched James Bubba Stewart win his 10th race of the season… and this time he did it a little bit better than last week when he had to come from behind to capture the flag.  This week he cruised for the first few laps, then nabbed the lead from holeshooter Andrew Short and never looked back.  Though according to press releases, Chad Reed kept James honest and stayed on his rear tire… but we know better.

In the Lites class, it was Ben Townley with the Holeshot, then Ryan Dungey taking the lead on Lap 4, then Dungey crashed 4 laps later and Townley went on to take the win.

Also of note, the AMA will reserve Ricky Carmichael’s #4 through 2011… might that be extended?  Only time will tell… I sure wouldn’t want to be the first rider to stick a #4 on my bike, only to live up to the expectations of the Goat!  Oh God… the pressure of a number!

Further south in Texas, in Houston, the NHRA held the O’Reilly Spring Nationals.  More than anything, this was a race to recover from the recent passing of fellow driver Eric Medlen.  No doubt is was VERY hard on the drivers.  Gary Scelzi ran his first qualifying lap as a single… Eric would have been in the other lane.  Finally, after all the tributes and memories of Eric, the race was run… and sort of fitting that one of his good friends, one of the ‘Brat Pak’ took the win in Top Fuel! 

     Top Fuel:  New Crew Chief aside… Memories of Eric Medlen aside… JR Todd did it.  He went the rounds and took the Wally! 
     Excellent job, JR… we know that was a tough one. 
Great JR Todd quotes:
"I'm so glad March is over because it was the worst month of my life," Todd said. "I lost my crew chief and I lost one of my best friends but at least I have this trophy to give to his family. I want to win every race I'm in but this one more than ever. I was wondering how long it would take me to win a trophy and give it to his family. I guess Eric was watching over me today.  You have to get in the car and put all the bad thoughts out of your head. We know the dangers out here and Eric knew what he was doing. Still, you can never prepare yourself for anything like that. He pushed me to be a Funny Car driver and I made a lap in [Bob] Gilbertson's once and he was there watching me. Even so, he was thrilled when I got this driving job. We all miss him."

     Funny Car: Up at the top end, splashing on that Brut AGAIN, Ron Capps took the win, looked up to the sky and held up the trophy in one hand and the number 4 in the other hand. 
Great Capps quotes:
"We're not mourning Eric's loss, we're celebrating his life today," Capps said as he choked back tears. "I miss him so badly. I didn't even want to race this weekend but Eric wouldn't have wanted it any other way. This trophy is going straight to John Medlen and I'm gonna have another one made for his mom.  Eric's spirit was with us all today, even the fans who showed up in record numbers. I know half of them are parked in the mud and they're gonna need to get towed outta here but their love of the sport brought them here. That's exactly how Eric was. The only sad thing is I'm gonna miss that text message he always sends me after I win."

     Pro Stock: Jason Line nabbed the win over Allen Johnson, actually drove around him as AJ had him on the line.

     Pro Stock Motorcycle: Again it went to the women… Girl Power!!  For the 5th Houston race in a row, a chica beat up on the boys… this time around it was Angelle Sampey (in her sweet new form fitted bike, too).  Perhaps more important was her quote on SpeedFreaks later Sunday night… a make good for Lugg Nuttz’ underwear question 7 years ago… sort of puts to rest the red light fiasco for the bikes, too.  Ha, ha, ha… check out the audio archive on our front page. speedfreaks.tv

     Pro Mod:  Local Texan Josh Hernandez pedaled better than Scotty Cannon for the win, his third in a row in Houston.

But the big stories of the weekend in the NHRA were still focused around Eric.  The John Force Racing Team decided to sit out the Houston round all together out of respect for their fallen teammate.  Every other driver and rider carried a #4 tribute sticker on their cars and wore tribute Medlen T-shirts on Sunday.  Race fans on the net can also still send their personal remembrances of Eric to the e-mail address goodbyeeric@castrol.com which will be delivered to the family at a later date.

And in other news, the Larry Dixon / Don Prudhomme trailer caught fire in the pits on Sunday.  Fortunately everyone was OK, but a lot of stuff was lost.  For the complete story, click HERE

Onto NASCAR and that flat track of Martinsville, it was Round 2 of the Car of Tomorrow (can we PLEASE get a new name for the COT since it is racing TODAY??).  I’m still a supporter of the concept of the COT, but so far the old NASCAR tactics are again ringing true… it simply comes down to engineering the cars and money spent in overall resources.  Thus, one of the top teams, Hendrick Motorsports, can do that the best.  Evidence with their second COT win this weekend in just as many races – congratulations Jimmie Johnson.  But perhaps more notable was that this was the 4th Hendrick win in a row… the 4th in just 6 races.  Hmmm… can you say Superteam?  The fact that they have the COT figured out better than the others is a bit scary… COT round 3 will be in Phoenix later this month.

Did you hear about Dale Earnhardt Jr. getting debris lodged in his eye for the entire second half of the race thanks to the track jet dryers?  Painful if you ask me!  For his quotes on the matter, click HERE 

The Truck series raced in M-ville as well and speaking of Superteams, Mike Skinner, took his 3rd win in a row… he credits their overall package of the boys at Bill Davis Racing and the mighty Toyota brains. 

Now here’s a thought to ponder… Jeff Gordon (who was on Jimmie’s ass at the end of the Cup race… and who is just one win shy of tying legend Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s win record) has said that he thought it would be cool to tie The Intimidator’s record at Talladega.  That would indeed be cool, but Jeff, that’s freakin’ 3 races away!!   Are you really fine with that?  No wins in the next two?  I can't see you kickin' back and taking it easy in Texas.

Winning the World of Outlaws in Tennessee on Friday was points leader Joey Saldana.
Also check out RacingOne.com for further stories.

And the World Rally Championship raced in Portugal where Sebastien Loeb nabbed that win.

Now on to some fun/quirky news…
Did you see it?  Female Top Fuel racer Hillary Will was indeed featured on the game show/reality show Identity on Friday… and believe it or not, the contestant correctly guessed her as the Pro Drag Racer… impressive! If you need to catch a replay, check out NHRA.com

Speaking of reality shows, Richard Petty has just partnered up with actor Justin Berfield from Malcolm In The Middle to co-produce a new reality TV series.  The premise lies somewhere along the lines of NASCAR fans competing to become actual race car drivers.  Stay tuned… 

OK, this is frustrating… remember two weeks ago when Kevin Harvick’s helmet was stolen?  Well, during Jimmie Johnson’s victory lane celebration in Martinsville after the Cup race, someone apparently stole the team’s helmets (obviously no one from the team was around to witness the theft as they were celebrating in victory lane with JJ!)  No word yet on if the helmets have been found.  

Beginning with the ’08 MX and SX seasons, the top two classes will undergo another name change, click here for the complete story and remember what date it was posted.

Until next week… that's it Freaks!
CrashG@SpeedFreaks.TV

For last week's One Stop Shop, Click HERE

To make comments on my blog, click here: http://www.myracer.com/community/blog/blog.do?method=blog&sblogId=QwOT