All posts by Joey Barnes

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief After scoring points in his debut Formula 1 race in the Bahrain Grand Prix, it is time for the McLaren-Honda F1 Team to explore the option to run Stoffel Vandoorne for the 2016 season. Vandoorne, 24, substituted for Fernando Alonso after the two-time F1 champion was not medically cleared to race at the Sakhir International Circuit. Alonso was the focal point following a horrific crash that saw his McLaren MP4-31 collided with Haas F1 driver Esteban Gutierrez before flipping violently in the Australian Grand Prix. TheRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief FORT WORTH, Texas – With intense on-track battles taking place over the past few seasons, six-time Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson admitted at Texas Motor Speedway on Thursday that Kevin Harvick is on his radar. Johnson, 40, has finished ahead of Harvick eight times since the 2014 season, the year Harvick moved to Stewart-Haas Racing and teamed with crew chief Rodney Childers. Although Harvick has scored nine wins and 53 top 10’s in 78 appearances with SHR, the 2014 Sprint Cup champion has had aRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief FORT WORTH, Texas – NASCAR Sprint Cup Series veteran Brian Vickers was recently linked to reports that he was in the running for an IndyCar seat for the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500, the 32-year-old touched on the topic at Texas Motor Speedway on Thursday. A few weeks ago, Schmidt-Peterson Motorsports were open to the idea of opening a third seat for Townsend Bell, Gabby Chaves, or Vickers. Since that time, Bell has been announced at Andretti Autosport for their fifth entry at the Brickyard.Read More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief An eventful STP 500 from Martinsville Speedway has been settled and Kyle Busch is the man that grabbed the traditional grandfather clock after holding off AJ Allmendinger in the closing stages. Here are the key topics coming from Sunday’s race at NASCAR’s oldest track. 1) Impatience from start to finish The common theme is patience early and then to take everything late. That certainly wasn’t the case on Sunday, from the drop of the green flag bumpers found each other with drivers more than willing toRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Richard Childress Racing had a phenomenal effort in the STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday, with their trio of drivers all securing top 10 finishes, led by Austin Dillon in fourth. The weekend began with Paul Menard qualifying fourth, Ryan Newman fifth and Dillon 29th. At the start, Menard pushed his No. 27 Libman/Menard’s Chevrolet SS to the front early, leading 10 laps and looking like a contender for the win. Newman also hung among the leaders, but as the race went on the No.Read More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Denny Hamlin headed into Martinsville Speedway with high hopes to overcome mistakes from recent visits at the half-mile oval, but Sunday’s STP 500 proved no different for the defending Daytona 500 champion. Hamlin, 35, had five wins in 20 previous races at Martinsville, including 16 top 10 finishes, but he acknowledged earlier in the week that recent mistakes have hurt his chances to secure wins. Sunday proved to be no different. From the start of the race Hamlin was a man on the move, but itRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Heading into Saturday night’s Desert Diamond West Valley Phoenix Grand Prix, Mikhail Aleshin appeared to have a top 10 within reach, until mistimed strategy and a spin coming to pit road ended the Russian’s chances and left him with an ill-fated result of 17th. Aleshin, 28, was out to prove early on that his No. 7 SMP Racing Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda could keep up with the daunting pace Chevrolet teams set in qualifying at the Desert Mile. The Russian started 13th and was one ofRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief In his Verizon IndyCar Series oval debut, Max Chilton hung with some of the best in the business en route to a stellar seventh place finish in the Desert Diamond West Valley Phoenix Grand Prix at Phoenix International Raceway on Saturday night. Chilton’s Chip Ganassi Racing teammate, Scott Dixon, soared to his 39th series win, but it was the former Formula 1 driver that had other drivers, notably Graham Rahal, impressed by his performance. “I was just happy Chilton didn’t get me because, my God, ChiltonRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series gets back to racing this weekend at Martinsville Speedway and Dale Earnhardt Jr. is worried about some recent changes made by the sanctioning body. Earnhardt, 41, has recorded 13 top-five finishes at Martinsville, including a win in 2014 and addressed his apprehensiveness over NASCAR’s recent gearing adjustment for the .526-mile short track oval. “I think NASCAR took a little bit of the gear away at Martinsville,” said Earnhardt. “That concerns me a little bit because you don’t have the throttle responseRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief There may be no single driver more excited for this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix than Kimi Raikkonen, who returns to the site which was one of his standout performances since his return to Ferrari. Last season, the Finn was a man on a mission as he tore chunks of time out of Lewis Hamilton’s lead in the closing stages at Sakhir International Circuit before finishing a close second to the Mercedes driver. Raikkonen, the 2007 world champion, has shown flashes of brilliance during his second stintRead More