Kaeding Wins Championship, Pierce the Race 6:45pm

Kaeding Wins Championship, Pierce the Race 6:45pm
KANSAS CITY, Kansas – Aaron Pierce won the race but Bud Kaeding won the championship today at Kansas Speedway. Kaeding came into the race with ignition problems but with a little help from a Richard Childress Racing crew member, the No. 29 ran good enough to clinch the championship. Brian Tyler’s No. 21 experienced mechanical problems near the end of the race. Tyler would finish second in the points. Aaron Pierce started from the pole and led most of the laps. The Phoenix native battled with Pablo Donoso late in the race but won the battle. Pierce finish second in the drivers points. Jay Drake finished second at Kansas. The veteran USAC driver started last but drove to the front only to get loose in another car’s oil and slide back. Drake powered back to finish second. Wayne Reutiman Jr. battled a car that was not perfect but the Florida native was able to finesse the car around the track to finish third. A full report including images will be posted in about two hours.

Final Prerace Update 2:30pm

Final Prerace Update 2:30pm
KANSAS CITY, Kansas – Bud Kaeding has an ignition problem. His team is working on it and plan to have it fixed by the time for the green flag. Everyone else looks pretty good. The Busch race is underway.

Kansas Speedway’s program has 12 pages of USAC stories and images including pics from yours truly.

I am working on a story about the 2007 schedule. I plan to have more on that next week. Well there is not to much more to report. See you after the race.

Good Morning from a Warmer Kansas Speedway 11am

Good Morning from a Warmer Kansas Speedway 11am

KANSAS CITY, Kansas – The sun is out and it is noticeably warmer here at Kansas Speedway this morning. It is already 68 and the mercury is expected to climb to 80 today. Final Cup practice has just ended. Jimmy Johnson led Cup Happy Hour. Kasey Kahne was 4th quick. A few of the USAC teams have arrived to prepare for the day. Most are taking their time as the Silver Crown cars won’t take to the track until about 4:45pm.

We will continue to do updates until the green flag of the Silver Crown race. We will then post the results ASAP following the race. Our post race schedule is tight with a deadline to catch my transportation out of the track and back to Memphis. I will post as much info as possible and write on the plane, then upload the info to the website following arrival at Memphis. Please check back following the race, later tonight and tomorrow morning for additional info.

WoO Sprints on SPEED 7:30am

WoO Sprints on SPEED 7:30am

KANSAS CITY, Kansas – DIRT Motorsports will announce Sunday that the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series will have a portion of their 2007 races televised on SPEED. Sources close to the World of Outlaws indicated in an interview with Open Wheeler earlier this month that the series would announce another television outlet in the future.

That outlet is SPEED. DIRT MotorSports President and CEO Tom Deery will be a guest on “Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain” Sunday night to make the announcement.

The World of Outlaws Late Model Series races currently air on the Motorsports network. Earlier this month the WoO announced a television deal with television sports giant ESPN2. The “Month of Money” races will air on ESPN2. Most of the ESPN2 races will only be tape delayed over night.

Here is the link to my ESPN2 story posted earlier this month. http://openwheeler.blogspot.com/2006/09/why-woo-on-espn2-is-biggest-story-of.html Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain airs on SPEED Sunday night at 9pm eastern.

All images courtesy of SPEED and RE Technologies.

Final Notes from Friday at Kansas Speedway 9pm

Final Notes from Friday at Kansas Speedway 9pm

KANSAS CITY, Kansas – The final practice came and went Friday after noon and the drama for the 2006 USAC Silver Crown championship grew even more. All season Brian Tyler has fought with Bud Kaeding for the points lead. Now, on the eve of the final race of the year, what looked like an easy championship just turned the other direction for Bud Kaeding. The California native qualified 3rd quick for Saturday’s race while Tyler and crew struggled with their car. The tables turned in the final practice session. Bud Kaeding rolled in to the pits near the end of the practice session with engine problems. Something wasn’t right. I didn’t want to bother the crew who were working on the engine so I can’t tell you exactly what the problem is, I just know they were working on the engine. I will follow up on that tomorrow. Meanwhile over in the 21 pit, Brian Tyler and his team are happy with their car. The team made adjustments following qualifying 11th. The USAC veteran told me that the car is great and he thinks he has a chance of winning the race and the championship Saturday. The No. 00 driven by Wayne Reutiman Jr. also reported that they have also remedied their gremlins and are ready for Saturday. The Carl Edwards/ R.E. Technologies Racing team was happy with their car and did not practice. Jay Drake led the final practice session while Pablo Donoso and Aaron Pierce were second and third respectively.

Information Overload

The following information could make your head spin. Bud Kaeding can claim the championship if he finishes 7th or better regardless of what Brian Tyler does. If Tyler leads the most laps and wins then Kaeding must finish 8th to tie. If neither lead the most laps but Tyler wins then Kaeding must finish 9th to tie. If Kaeding leads the most laps but falls back to finish 10th and Tyler wins then they are tied. The tiebreaker would be determined by most wins.

If Tyler wins Kansas, then they would be tied for wins and the champion would be determined by most second place finishes. Brian Tyler has the most second place finishes two to one. Does your head hurt yet?

Off the Market

Some of you guys out there have a thing for USAC Thunder pit reporter Brienne Pedigo. Yes she is a hottie. I have some bad news for you. She is now off the market. Ms. Pedigo got engaged sometime in the last month. We at Open Wheeler offer her congratulations and wish her the best. For more on Brienne, go to http://www.briennepedigo.com

No Repeat

It was chilly this morning but warmed up to comfortable temps later Friday. The forecast calls for the low over night to be 54. Saturday the temps will climb up to a warm 82 before dropping to 59 Saturday night. Oh yea, there is no chance for rain. J

All the people
It is interesting all of the people crowding around the Cup drivers as they made a quick walk from the cup garage to the media center. Some of those folks were down right crazy standing three deep in line, all wanting a piece of the drivers. But hey, this is their vacation. They spent a lot of money to get there. This is what they like to do. Still, it is a different world from the lonely dirt track on a Saturday night.

Kahne on the Pole
It was only a few years ago that Kasey Kahne was winning races in the USAC Silver Crown Series. Kahne grabbed the pole today for Sunday’s Cup race turning a time of 30.273 at 178.377mph. 2003 USAC Triple Crown Champ JJ Yeley timed in 5th quick.

Cup Qualifying
1. Kasey Kahne
5. JJ Yeley
11. Jeff Gordon
15. Ryan Newman
17. Dave Blaney
21. Tony Stewart
27. Carl Edwards
33. Casey Mears
36. Ken Schrader
42. Robby Gordon

Note: Open Wheeler and its publisher are not employed by USAC nor do they claim to represent the United States Auto Club. We just attempt to do independent reporting on the sanctioning body.

Images in this update courtesy of www.briennepedigo.com and RE Technologies.

Pierce on the Pole 2pm

Pierce on the Pole 2pm

KANSAS CITY, Kansas – Aaron Pierce grabbed the pole for Saturday’s USAC Silver Crown race today at Kansas Speedway. The driver of the No. 26 Sam Pierce/ Sam Pierce Chevrolet-Fatheadz Riley timed in at 32.296 at 167.203mph. Pierce compared the Kansas track to Chicagoland, where he won earlier this season. Some of the drivers had trouble with the strong 17mph wind gusts in the session. The Phoenix native said that the wind did not bother him.

“I think we have a good chance,” said Aaron Pierce in the post qualifying news conference. “I would like to win this last one in front of the NASCAR guys. We did it at Chicago and I think we have got a real good chance of doing it here. We changed the right front spring this morning and that is pretty much all that we have changed.”

Pablo Donoso, who paced the practice session, will start outside the pole. Donoso timed in at 32.335. The native of Santiago, Chile credited his experience here at the exhibition a year ago with his fast times. He also credited his crew. Donoso says he prefers the mental game of the 1.5 mile oval tracks because he says they are driver’s tracks.

Silver Crown points leader Bud Kaeding timed in third quick at 32.363.

His team told me that car owner Jason Leffler provided valuable insight about the 1.5 Kansas oval. Kaeding used the former USAC, now NASCAR driver’s knowledge to get around the track. The crew says they are happy with the car and look for a good race tomorrow. If Bud Kaeding can finish sixth or better, he wins the championship.

Reigning points champion Dave Steele was fourth quick at 32.618. Steele drove in the exhibition at Kansas in 2005. Thiago Medeiros was 5th followed by Jay Drake and Pete Shepherd.

Shepherd’s boss, Carl Edwards visited with the Canadian prior to qualifying. Edwards and Leffler will run in the NASCAR Busch Series race prior to the USAC Silver Crown race.

Wayne Reutiman Jr.’s team is working on their car to make improvements from his 8th qualifying position. Reutiman’s cousin David Reutiman checked in with his relative following practice. David Reutiman currently drives in the NSAC Craftman Truck Series and Busch Series. Reports have him driving a Cup car in 2007.

Tim Barber qualified 9th. Earlier in the day, a leak caused him to pit during practice.

Last week’s winner Mat Neely timed in 10th.

Brian Tyler timed in 11th. Tyler and his crew were working on their car following qualifying in an attempt to make the No. 21 faster. Bryn Gohn will start 12th and Rodney Weesner 13th.

Josh Wise did not take time due to engine problems. Today’s final practice session is scheduled for 6:15pm. There is a possibility that the session may be cancelled if the NASCAR session takes too much time and darkness falls.

Images courtesy of RE Technologies.

Pierce on the Pole 11:25am

Pierce on the Pole 11:25am

KANSAS CITY, Kansas – Aaron Pierce grabbed the pole for Saturday’s USAC Silver Crown race today at Kansas Speedway. Qualifying has just completed. We will have a full report shortly.

Pablo Fastest in Practice at Kansas 11am

KANSAS CITY, Kansas – Pablo Donoso and the Hemelgarn 91/ Johnson Motorsports crew turned the fastest time of the morning practice session. Aaron Pierce turned the second fastest time. Official times of the practice session have not yet been made available. We expect them soon.

Welcome to Kansas/ More Open Wheelers Headed to ARCA/ Open Wheeler Truck Notes/ IRL to Detroit in 2007

Welcome to Kansas

KANSAS CITY, Kansas – Welcome to Kansas Raceway site of this weekend’s USAC Silver Crown finale. Teams spent the day unloading today.

The USAC pits are located outside of the Busch Series pits in a tight area that is normally used for media live truck and satellite truck parking. The action gets underway early Friday morning with practice at 9am and qualifying at 10:45am. There is then a seven and a half hour break until final practice at 6:15pm. The NASCAR Nextel Cup Series will practice and qualify Friday. The NASCAR Busch Series will also practice Friday.

The Silver Crown cars are not scheduled on track until 5ish Saturday. The track will see Cup practice, Busch qualifying and the Busch race prior to the start of the Silver Crown season finale. We will have complete coverage this weekend beginning at 8am.

Interesting Fact: While Belleville, Kansas has produced some of the best USAC midget racing, this weekend’s race is the Silver Crown Series first visit to Kansas.

More Open Wheelers Join the ARCA Ranks
By now most of you know Juan Pablo Montoya tested an ARCA RE/MAX Series car at Talladega Monday. Montoya’s first stock car race at the giant track will be on Friday, October 6 at 4:30pm. (The TV broadcast is set for 8pm on Speed. Three other Open Wheelers are scheduled to compete at ‘dega. Justin Allgaier is set to drive the No. 16 while Tony Ave will compete in the No. 66. Erin Crocker is scheduled to make her ARCA return in the No. 98 car.

Juan Pablo Montoya will test another ARCA car at Iowa Speedway Friday. Montoya will be joined by Kriag Kinser. The Indiana native finished eighth in his first series start at Michigan Int’l Speedway and followed up with a win at Talladega in October of 2005. USAC driver Bobby Santos is entered to drive the No. 02 car at Iowa when the series closes out their season at the 7/8 mile speedway.

Open Wheeler Truck Notes

SPEED is reporting that Betty Crocker will not return to Erin Crocker’s No. 98 truck in 2007. Jayski www.jayski.com is reporting that Tyler Walker could join Bill Davis Racing for the 2007 season driving the No. 36 truck. An announcement is expected soon.

Detroit Grand Prix to Return to Belle Isle in 2007

The IRL and officials in Detroit will announce Friday that the league will race at Belle Isle next season. The announcement is expected to be made at 12pm eastern tomorrow.

All images in this update courtesy of SPEED, NASCAR images and RE Technologies.

Champion Crowned this Weekend at Kansas/ IRL to Run at Night at Homestead/ IRL Daytona Drivers Happy/ On the Move

Champion Crowned this Weekend at Kansas

The stage has been set to crown the 2006 USAC Silver Crown Series Champion this weekend at Kansas Speedway. Through 15 races we have seen the points lead changes 6 times, mainly bouncing between Brian Tyler and Bud Kaeding.

Last weekend at the all-nighter at muddy Eldora Speedway, both Tyler and Kaeding got caught up in someone else’s accident. Both cars were damaged but Kaeding was able to make it back onto the track and finish 7th. For Tyler, it was more cruel luck. Brian Tyler led by 7 points coming into Eldora but left trailing Bud Kaeding by 24 points.

It is not over yet but Tyler will have to pull out one of his best performances of the year while Kaeding only has to finish 6th to win the championship. The worst the two can finish is second in the points. If they tie for points, the tiebreaker will be most wins followed by most second place finishes and so on. Aaron Pierce and Dave Steele are fighting for 3rd in driver points. Pierce has a 25 points lead on the reigning Silver Crown points champion.

Over on the owner’s points side, the No. 29 BK-Leffler Motorsports team are in the same points situation as their driver Bud Kaeding. The No. 21 Team 6R team has to perform well and have Bud falter to win the owners points.

The best that the No. 199 Carl Edwards/ R.E Technologies Racing team can do is 3rd in the owners points.

The No. 26 entry of Sam Pierce trails the No. 199 by 34 points. So it comes down to the final race of the season where anything can happen.

Oh yea, the NASCAR boys are in town and will be watching not to mention the Kansas crowd that will have just seen the Busch race moments before. Expect a big celebration Saturday complete with Champaign. Oh yea, the Kansas race also pays one of the highest purses of the season to the winner.

Dave Steele and Pablo Donoso ran the exhibition there a year ago.

Look for a hungry Dave Steele

to show his experience at Kansas while Kaeding and Tyler make a run for the Championship.

We will have updates throughout the weekend from Kansas Speedway so please check back often.

IRL to Run at Night at Homestead
The IRL announced today that the league will race at Homestead Speedway under the lights on March 24th in 2006. Last season the USAC Silver Crown season ran at Homestead on the same weekend. Our friends at http://www.tracksideonline.com/ also have the scoop for the probable date for the Michigan IRL race. TSO also reports that ARCA will probably accompany the IRL on that date. While USAC has not announced Michigan on the 2006 Silver Crown schedule, sources had told me that USAC is looking to add the 1.5 mile oval as well as California Speedway to the 2006 schedule.

IRL Daytona Drivers Happy
There was a feeling of warmth and happiness in the garage today as the IRL finished compatibility testing at Daytona. Most of the drivers said they were hoping that the IRL would add Daytona to the schedule soon.

On the Move

The world headquarters of Open Wheeler will change following the Kansas USAC Silver Crown race. In June, we suffered a break in at our Memphis, Tennessee facility. The morons came in looking for anything expensive but they found that there was nothing of value at our headquarters. Just muddy shoes and used pitpasses. We are moving to the hometown of Justin Zoch, Eden Prairie, Minnesota. You may notice a brief delay in stories and updates during the move. We will do our best to keep the site up to date. Our screen grab coverage of TV events will resume on October 13th. We will have complete coverage from Kansas Speedway beginning Friday so please visit this site often this weekend.

All images in this update courtesy of RE Technologies.

Not So Fast

Not So Fast
We have a better weekend of college football on tap as the top 25 schools wrap up their creampuff scheduling.

6. Auburn 4-0 at South Carolina 3-1
Time to head into conference play in the SEC and this may look like an easy win on Auburn’s way to a national championship. No way sweetheart. No one comes in to play the Ole Ball Coach on his home turf and walks out with an easy win. Auburn by 3.

17. Purdue 4-0 at 25. Notre Dame 3-1
Notre Dame gets a chance to move up by playing another ranked team. Purdue really hasn’t been tested. Notre Dame wins with the home crowd behind them by 6.

7. Oregon 3-0 at Arizona State 3-1
The quack attack should beat the Sun Devils but stranger things have happened. Oregon by 5.

Alabama 3-1 at 4. Florida 4-0
The season did not end with their overtime loss to Arkansas last week but it could slide more at the swamp this Saturday. (Note to SEC teams: don’t take Houston Nutt to OT) The Gators will take a bite out of Bama. Flordia by 12.

23. Georgia Tech 3-1 at 3. Virginia Tech 4-0
The battle of the Techs. Georgia Tech battled Notre Dame to a close one but this will not be close. Virginia Tech by 15.

10. Ohio State 4-0 at 2. Iowa 4-0
People said I was nuts for having Iowa ranked so high. But the polsters say Ohio State is No. 1. Ohio State has the NFL type kids that can win big games on the road but Not So Fast. I picked Iowa for a reason. Iowa is tough and will not die at home. This one will be the game of the week with Iowa winning in a close one.

The phrase Not So Fast is my tribute to Lee Corso of ESPN. It is not intended to infringe on any copyright laws or trademarks. For more on Lee Corso, visit his official website at www.leecorso.com.

Look for my rankings Sunday.

Eldora Sunrise

Eldora Sunrise

This is what it looked like shortly after the final race of the evening at Eldora. No that is not sunset, that is sunrise at about 6:30am. After numerous delays by mother nature and one delay for a damaged fence, the 2006 Four Crown Nationals were in the bag. I will post more later this week as soon as I can get some rest so I can remember it all.

Gas Em Up

Earl and Bernice are wide awake and ready for racing at 4:25am by Mrs. Slideways.

Hello Again Campers 4am!

Hello Again Campers! 4am

USAC PR Guru Michael Harker is ready to go as the voice of USAC, Rob Klepper takes a brief rest to ready his vocal chords.

This father son duo are leaning against each other to get some rest.

This guy and gal are regulars at Cedar Lake Speedway in Wisconsin.

No these folks are not drunk and passed out, well maybe not all of them, they are sleeping.

Even the Eldora Queen takes a nap not far from her sash and crown.

We would also like to say hi to the folks from New Zealand who are watching. It is 8:20pm their time.

Good Morning Campers!

Good Morning Campers 3am
Rossburg, Ohio – Well they are drying the track again. Several folks have requested that I venture out to give folks an idea of what the fans are going through.

These two guys are from North Carolina. Both are excited to see their first Silver Crown race as well as the midgets and sprints.

These folks are tired, sleeping on the benches waiting for the roar of the engines and smell of methanol to wake them up.

These folks are watching the push trucks dry the track. Everyone is sleeping, half awake or gulping down coffee waiting on us to resume racing. Me too.