MOTORSPORT: All hail the new king

Marking the occasion, all 43 drivers in NASCAR's Sprint Cup round at Chicagoland Speedway donned cowboy hats like those for which Petty is known.
And, even more symbolically, the new young superstar of American stock car racing, Kyle Busch, won the race.

It was the 23-year-old Busch's seventh Sprint Cup victory of the year as the season reached its halfway mark. He is on course to equal or perhaps better the 13 wins by Petty in 1975 and Jeff Gordon in 1998.

Regular readers may recall that we have already raised here in recent weeks whether Busch might just be the best racing driver on earth today. Yes, perhaps better than Lewis Hamilton, than Kimi Raikkonen, than Fernando Alonso -- and rally ace Sebastien Loeb too.

This was a race in which Busch, driving a Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, conceded 16 laps from the chequered flag that he could not beat the Chevrolet of Jimmie Johnson, run by the mighty Hendrick Motorsports -- which released Busch this season to make way for Dale Earnhardt Junior.

"Race over," Busch told his crew over the radio as Johnson overtook him.

But then David Gilliland's Ford blew its engine and the 267-lap, 640km race on the superspeedway became a two-lap shoot-out. It set up the kind of finish for which Johnson, the Cup champion of the past two years, was the acknowledged master. He has been NASCAR's ultimate finisher.

On the restart Busch went to the outside and swept by Johnson through turns three and four. On the final lap Johnson closed on Busch's rear bumper but he was done -- beaten at his own game. The Toyota crossing the line 0.159sec ahead of the Chevy.

"I had to go to the outside, because he was going to block the bottom in (turns) one and two -- and it stuck up there," Busch said.

"I drove it for all it was worth. I can't believe it. I don't know how I did that. I gave up on it [earlier]. Without that caution the race was over. This is just an amazing season."

Indeed it is... Johnson was gracious in defeat but clearly stunned.

"There's no way I thought I couldn't get away from him through one and two," Johnson said.

"But as soon as he broke the plane of my bumper I knew I was in trouble and, sure enough, I was. I really wasn't thinking defence, but on a two-lap shoot-out the outside always wins."

NASCAR.com correspondent David Caraviello called Busch: "a driver who seems to take another great leap forward every week".

"He's won races the last two weeks he seemed to have no business winning," Caraviello said.

In fact, he has won three of the past four Cup rounds -- on the Infineon Raceway road course in California, at Daytona, and now in Chicago. The one he didn't win, at New Hampshire, his older brother Kurt did, in a Dodge. Not since Tim and Fonty Flock in 1955 have brothers won four straight NASCAR races. Oh, and Kyle Busch won the second tier Nationwide Series round in Chicago too, with Australia's Marcos Ambrose 15th.

Ambrose is 13th in that series, but almost 800 points behind leader, Clint Bowyer.

Busch now leads the Sprint Cup by 262 points from Earnhardt Junior.
He has won 11 Cup races in his career, so only four were before he teamed up with Gibbs and Toyota.

If Busch is not the best driver in the world today then the car tuning or engine of newcomer Toyota must be exceptional -- because the bodyshells and chassis of NASCAR's 'Car of Tomorrow' racecars are generic.

After the billions of dollars the Japanese manufacturer has squandered on Formula 1, the American success must be especially sweet -- and has come comparatively cheaply, and quickly. But promoting its triumphs with old-style V8s surely will conflict with the message it is trying to convey via its various hybrid and PIH projects.

Yet the Sprint Cup is arguably the world's biggest motor racing series -- not as global as F1, but huge in the US, particularly in the southern states (although it has made giant strides in California and the Midwest, and the Busch brothers are from Las Vegas, where it surely is booming).

NASCAR has produced more than its share of megastars in America, not least Petty, and more recently Dale Earnhardt, so tragically killed after equaling The King's seven titles, Jeff Gordon with four championships and Jimmie Johnson two. Brash he may be, although there are increasing signs of some humility, but for sheer talent and excitement Kyle Busch won't be out of place among the great names.

NASCAR Sprint Cup leaders at mid-season: Kyle Busch (Toyota) 2881 points, Dale Earnhardt Junior (Chevrolet) 2619, Jeff Burton (Chevrolet) 2590, Carl Edwards (Ford) 2509, Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet) 2494, Jeff Gordon (Chevrolet) 2384.

It was Dixon's fourth victory of the season -- including the Indianapolis 500 in May. It brought up the 100th race victory for team owner Chip Ganassi -- 22 of them in IndyCar and a lot more in Champ Car. (NASCAR, though, remains Ganassi's Achilles heel.)

Dan Wheldon made it a Ganassi 1-2 at Nashville, where rain cut short the 200-lap race after 171 laps.

Helio Castroneves finished third, for his fifth podium of the season for Team Penske, and was confident he would have won if the race had run its course -- because the Ganassi cars were low on fuel when it was stopped.

Tony Kanaan was fourth, and Danica Patrick fifth.

Australia's Ryan Briscoe in the other Penske entry was taken out on the third lap when Marco Andretti lost control of his car (under the yellow flag), while Will Power, still coming to grips with America's oval tracks, finished 11th.

The merger of the Indy Racing League and Champ Car has been a great thing for American motorsport, but when the first four drivers are a Kiwi, a Brit and two Brazilians it cannot be doing a lot for open-wheeler racing in the so patriotic USA. The IndyCar organisers can be thankful for Danica Patrick, winner of the series round in Japan early in the season.

The Indy Lights series produced a woman victor at Nashville, but she's Brazilian -- Ana Beatriz. Young Aussie James Davison led 35 laps of that race and was running a close second when taken out while lapping Kiwi Jonny Reid.

Under the terms of the truce, McLaren will pay Ferrari's legal costs and a "concluding payment" -- which Ferrari says will be donated to charity.

While the great rival teams appear to have genuinely made peace with each other, a snag could be that under the Italian legal system a complaint cannot be withdrawn without being properly investigated. And Ferrari is reportedly intent on continuing its action against Nigel Stepney -- its British former chief mechanic accused of leaking a 780-page dossier of Ferrari secrets to McLaren.

There also is still the question of whether the decision of the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) world motorsport council to impose a US$100 million fine on McLaren a year ago was valid -- because of Bernie Ecclestone and Jean Todt not representing national motorsport authorities, even though Todt did not vote. Complete closure may take a while yet.

And VW's motorsport boss, former F1 driver Hans Stuck, has made it clear the group is not interested in F1 in the near future. VW chairman Dr Martin Winterkorn's priority is increasing VW and Audi sales in the USA and grandprix.com reports that: "it is more likely that we will see Audi investing in racing in the US".

"The company has dominated the American Le Mans Series for years but recently sent a representative to a forum at Indianapolis to discuss the future engine rules of the Indy Racing League," grandprix.com says.

"Stuck says that VW is constantly looking at F1, but says it is 'not realistic' to consider anything happening in the course of the next three years, because of 'uncertainties in the regulations' and the policy of freezing (development of) engines."

Audi is active in the German touring car championship (DTM) as well as sports car racing, SEAT in the world touring car championship, Skoda is looking towards rallying, while the VW brand is used in Formula 3 and Dakar-style events.

Grandprix.com points out that VW's motorsport policy could change significantly if (Ed: when?) Porsche succeeds in gaining full control of Europe's biggest motoring empire.

Toyota's national champion of the past two years, Simon Evans, says: "I've been saying for five years that we need a tarmac event in the championship, so it's great to finally have one. Now all we need is a snow event and we'll have everything covered!

"We (S2000 cars) might be a little disadvantaged against the Group N cars (on tarmac) because of their higher top speed, but these things tend to even themselves out."

Neal Bates, the Toyota team leader who won three national titles in the 1990s and heads this year's championship, says: "We've spoken about adding a tarmac event to the championship for 10 years, and I'm glad that it's finally happened.

"While it's not good to lose an event like the Rally of Melbourne, the tarmac event will be a welcome addition. If you're going to have a tarmac event in the ARC, then Tasmania's the place to have it."

The tarmac round, based around Burnie on the island state's north-west coast and to be held on October 4-5, is expected to have a huge variety of cars, including Lamborghinis and Porsches and classic tarmac competitors among more than 100 entries.

Spencer, a former Mitsubishi Ralliart factory driver now competing as a privateer again, says the new event: "will be especially good for young drivers to get some tarmac experience, particularly if they have plans of going to Europe to compete".

And, while Bates says finding the right tarmac set-ups will prove challenging to the gravel brigade, Lowndes says: "there's no reason you can't test suspension settings on the open road, while obeying all the road rules and speed limits".

The Burnie area is expected to also host the first round of the 2009 ARC -- another tarmac event, Rally Tasmania in February.

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