Capitalizing on the increasing popularity of the Full Throttle Countdown to the Championship, NHRA announced today that ESPN will be expanding its coverage of the NHRA Full Throttle Series’ six-race playoff across multiple platforms and making all of the racing available live to racing fans.

The six-race playoff begins Sept. 3-6 with the traditional Labor Day running of the 56th annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals presented by Lucas Oil, the world’s most prestigious drag race, and ESPN2 HD will carry the final eliminations on Monday Sept. 6 from 1-6 p.m. (ET).

Live coverage of the full days of eliminations action for all six races in the Countdown to 1 will be televised on ESPN3, ESPN's live sports broadband network at www.espn3.com. It is available at no additional cost to fans who receive their high-speed Internet connection from an affiliated service provider, and is currently available in more than 53 million homes – a majority of U.S. broadband homes. It is also available at no cost to approximately 21 million U.S. college students and U.S.-based military personnel via computers connected to on-campus educational networks and on-base military networks.

Television coverage of the remaining five races in the Countdown to 1 will be split between ESPN2 HD and ESPN HD and each of the five races will be presented in prime time.

The O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Nationals at zMax Dragway in Charlotte (Sept. 19) and the O’Reilly Auto Parts SuperStart Batteries NHRA Nationals at Texas Motorplex in Ennis, Texas (Sept. 26) will be  televised at 7 p.m. (ET) on ESPN2 HD; the final three races – the Toyo Tires Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Pa. (Oct. 10), the NHRA Las Vegas Nationals from the Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (Oct. 31) and the Auto Club NHRA Finals from Auto Club Raceway at Pomona in Southern California (Nov. 14) – will all begin at 9 p.m. (ET) and be televised on ESPN HD.

ESPN has been the television home of the NHRA Full Throttle Series since 2001 and will remain NHRA’s broadcast partner through the 2016 season. ESPN and ESPN2 are both available in approximately 100 million households.

In addition to coverage on ESPN HD and ESPN2 HD, NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing will be distributed through ESPN International.

 
2010 NHRA ‘Countdown to 1’ Television Schedule

Mac Tools U.S. Nationals presented by Lucas Oil    
ESPN2: Eliminations, 1-6 p.m., Sept. 6
 ESPN3.com: Eliminations, 11 a.m., Sept. 6
ESPN2: Race Day, 11 a.m., Sept. 5

O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Nationals
ESPN2: Eliminations, 7-10 p.m., Sept. 19
ESPN3.com: Eliminations,  noon., Sept. 19
ESPN2: Race Day, 10 a.m., Sept. 19          

O’Reilly Auto Parts Super Start Batteries NHRA Fall Nationals
ESPN2: Eliminations, 7-10 p.m., Sept. 26
ESPN3.com: Eliminations, Noon, Sept. 26
ESPN2: Race Day, 10 a.m., Sept. 26

Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals
ESPN: Eliminations, 9-11:30 p.m., Oct. 10
ESPN3.com: Eliminations, 11 a.m., Oct. 10
ESPN2: Race Day, 10 a.m., Oct. 10           

NHRA Las Vegas Nationals
ESPN: Eliminations, 9-11:30 p.m., Oct. 31
ESPN3.com: Eliminations, 2 p.m., Oct. 31
ESPN2: Race Day, 10 a.m., Oct. 31           

Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals
ESPN: Eliminations, 9-11:30 p.m., Nov. 14
ESPN3.com: Eliminations, 2 p.m., Nov. 14
ESPN2: Race Day, 10 a.m., Nov. 14

* All times Eastern. Schedule subject to change. Please check local listings.  

 

No sport offers up a more bewildering array of souvenir crap memorabilia than NASCAR, and They Make It digs deep into the corners of the Internet to bring all that strangeness to light. Today: toys!

The item: The Tony Stewart/Office Depot car construction set, $12.99 from K'Nex.

The deal: Now, there are tons of NASCAR toys and such out there, but you know what makes this one for me? It's the stubble on the face of the little Tony figure there. Nothin' like letting the kids model themselves after NASCAR's ultimate what-the-hell-did-I-do-last-night driver, huh?

K'Nex also has cars for Jeff Gordon's pit crew and Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s garage, a curious choice considering the fact that both of those organizations could, in fact, be accused of being toy departments. Zing! 

The hat tip: Reader Andrea B. found this one for us. Got some bizarre NASCARiana for us to check out? Email me at jay.busbee@yahoo.com with the details. Get to it! 

No flukes here, folks. Our final four drivers in the NASCAR World Cup are four of the best in the Sprint Cup Series. And as a reflection of the current microtrend in the Cup Series, none of those four are Hendrick drivers, though Tony Stewart is in Hendrick equipment.

We've got two Chevrolets in Stewart and Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch's Toyota and Carl Edwards' Ford. Plus, all four drivers have won at Atlanta Motor Speedway, home of this week's semifinals, so this could be one of the most even rounds yet.

The Matchups: Kyle Busch vs. Carl Edwards, Tony Stewart vs. Kevin Harvick

Jay's Picks:

Edwards -- On overall talent, Kyle gets the nod, but in terms of consistency--and strength at Atlanta--I'm giving the nod to Carl. Wish these two knew what was at stake here; I'd love to see 'em turn each other going for the WC finals!

Harvick -- In most years, I'd say Stewart in a landslide, but this year, Harvick is the more consistent driver. This one's going to be a tight battle--both in the top 10, at worst--but in the end, I'm thinking Harvick has the edge, setting up a fine Harvick v. Edwards brawl to settle it all!

Nick's Picks:

Busch -- No, I'm not being contrarian for the sake of it, but I can't pick against Busch right now. How crazy would it be to see him win both races this weekend? Book it. Busch wins the Nationwide race Saturday night and the Cup race on Sunday.

Stewart -- We anointed Group B as our Group of Death before the contest started, and it's only fitting that two of the four drivers are in the semifinals and I think that they'll meet each other at Richmond for the title. If Stewart's leading late in the race, he and crew chief Darian Grubb are going to make the decision to come get tires this time and beat Harvick by a few positions.

During the MOTO GP event last weekend, a pair of similar accidents occurred involving Canadian Jesse Phibbs, 21, and American Teenager Peter Lenz, 13. As most likely you’ve heard that Lenz, ironically from nearby Vancouver, Washington was struck and killed during Sunday morning’s Moriwaki MD250H USGPRU race, while Pro Flat track rider Phibbs seemingly is less mentioned, but also remains in serious condition after his Saturday night Flat track crash.

Sadly, Lenz becomes The Speedway’s youngest ever victim and is the first fatality at the Brickyard since Tony Renna’s crash during an October, 2003 IRL testing incident, as his Funeral service will be held today in Vancouver, Washington, while Phibbs remains on Life Support at Methodist Hospital...

Peter Lenz, 13-Year-Old Rider, Killed at Indianapolis MotoGP

Windsor area motorcycle racer suffers brain damage

As NASCAR rolls into Atlanta for this weekend's Labor Day race, it's worth taking a look back at one of the finest races in the sport's history: the 1992 Hooters 500 at Atlanta.

The scenarios at the season's final race were too rich to even be believed. It was Richard Petty's final race and Jeff Gordon's first. Three drivers -- Davey Allison, Bill Elliott and Alan Kulwicki -- had a chance at winning the season's Cup championship.

So let's pick it up right at the start, with the introduction of the race. Check out how far we've come ... and yet, how familiar it all is:

And the race continued ...

With Allison now out of the hunt, it was down to Elliott and Kulwicki, the legend and the one-man show. And with just a few laps remaining, awareness dawned on everyone watching that maybe, just maybe, we were about to see something spectacular:

This race represented the end of an era in so many ways. Petty was done. Within a few months, Kulwicki would be gone. A few years later, Atlanta reconfigured its track from oval to quad-oval. And Gordon ushered in a new tide of driver, media-savvy, with reach and influence far beyond NASCAR's traditional Southern roots. It's poetic, in a way, how much came together that one afternoon ... and how much would later fall apart.

There's plenty to complain about in NASCAR. And it's always easy to bathe the past in nostalgia, to make yesterday look so much better than today. But this isn't one of those times. The 1992 Atlanta race showed us, without a doubt, why this is one hell of a fine sport.

Event info: About | Tickets | Schedule | Entries

From the track: Results | Team reports

Coverage: Notebook | Staff blog | Live blog

Multimedia: Audiocast | Photos | Video

News and notes from Friday at the 56th annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals from O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis. Compiled by the National DRAGSTER staff.

FRIDAY
Last update: 2:15 p.m. (Click to latest)

Finally it's Friday: Welcome to Day 3 of the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals. After two days of Sportsman time trials and class eliminations, today will be the first day of qualifying for the Full Throttle classes. Alcohol qualifying is at noon and the day's lone Pro session at 5:15 p.m.

Full Throttle teams will get two more runs Saturday and two Sunday to set the fields for Monday's final eliminations.

Already big news: Even though the event is still in 2nd gear, already there have been some big developments. The first is the absence of nine-time Indy winner Frank Manzo, whose bid to unseat Bob Glidden as Indy's all-time winner will have to wait another year. Manzo's , Dominic, passed away Monday so he won't nbe in attendance.

The other big news is that the multi-time Hemi Challenge-winning duo of Charlie Westcott Sr. and Jr. both broke their Cudas yesterday and reportedly won't be part of today's always-thrilling class eliminations.

Live blogging: If you haven't already done so, check out the live blogging going on over at our Interactive@Indy page. You can follow the live commentary and asks questions of the National DRAGSTER staff covering the evevt. Check it out here. From that page you also can access the ND Staff Blog, which will be offering behind-the-scenes stories from the event.

Track records: Top Fuel - 3.816 sec. by Tony Schumacher, Sept. ’09; 319.22 mph by Antron Brown, Sept. ’09 Funny Car - 4.073 sec. by Tony Pedregon, Sept. ’08; 309.84 mph by Ashley Force Hood, Sept. ’09 Pro Stock - 6.581 sec. by Mike Edwards, Sept. ’09; 209.01 mph by Edwards, Sept. ’09 Pro Stock Motorcycle - 6.918 sec. by Matt Smith, Sept. ’09; 193.85 mph by Andrew Hines, Sept. ’05.

Pro Stock notes: John Nobile’s son Vince, who made his Pro Stock driving debut at Brainerd, will be back in action again at the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals. But instead of driving his father’s car, he will be behind the wheel of the Ford Mustang that Larry Morgan drove for the first portion of this season. Morgan’s best performance with that vehicle was a semifinal round finish at the season-opening Winternationals.

Bob Benza, who has not attended a NHRA national event since Norwalk, will be competing at the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals. Benza’s engine builder, Tom Martino, said, we’ve been working a lot on our current engine since Norwalk and the dyno numbers are the best that we’ve ever seen. We ‘cautiously optimistic’ about our chances this weekend.

Radio Indy: WFO Radio is running an NHRA special edition show live from the U.S. Nationals.  Guests today included Terry McMillan, Steve Torrence, TJ Zizzo, Greg Stanfield, Kenny Koretsky, Lewis Bloom, Bob Frey, Alan Reinhart, and Herb McCandless. Yon listen to the archive here: http://www.media.softwar.com/wforadio/archives/archivefiles/20100903-joecastello-tue.mp3

They'll be back on the air live tomorrow (Saturday) beginning at 10 a.m.

You want attention for your event/TV show/website? There's only one person to call: Erin Andrews!

The ESPN reporter is guaranteed to draw eyeballs no matter what she's doing, and on Thursday, for the first time, she got rocketed around a NASCAR track -- Atlanta Motor Speedway -- courtesy of fellow ESPN analyst Dale Jarrett.

"I’ve been to probably the biggest events in all of sports – the Super Bowl, both college championships and the World Series – but I have never been to a NASCAR race," she said. (The horror!) And, like everyone who visits a track for the first time, she came away impressed. 

Jarrett, who has a win at Atlanta on his resume, took a newly-firesuited Andrews out on the track for a few laps. ("How fast did we go?" Andrews asked. "170 mph," Jarrett responded. "We went 185," Andrews insisted.) And afterward, Andrews had seen the proverbial light:

 

"I was telling Dale as soon as he could hear me, this gave me such a different perspective and so much respect for these guys do," she said. "I was just on a track by myself [with Dale] and I was [laughing] like a little kid. I can’t imagine all the other cars being on the track and trying to worry about passing them, maintaining position and winning the thing and don’t hit them or the wall. This was one heck of an experience. I can’t imagine doing it with other drivers on the track and it really opened my eyes. I have always had respect for these people, but now it’s different and this was amazing."

Here's video of America's Sideline Princess doing some high-speed cruising:

All right, AMS: your next challenge is getting Justin Bieber in a car. That'll bring a whole new wave of interest!

Larry Dixon, flanked by team manager Alan Johnson, left, and crew chief Jason McCulloch, are a perfect nine for nine in 2010 Top Fuel finals.

With nine victories in nine final-round appearances, Larry Dixon’s regular-season performance in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series was extremely impressive.

Because of his stout run in the Al-Anabi Racing dragster during the first 17 races of the season, the two-time world champion must be feeling a sense of anticipation as he heads into the upcoming six playoff races as the top seed and category favorite.

Despite all those who may tell Dixon that he has world championship No. 3 locked up, he knows better. Last year, he finished second by two points to archrival Tony Schumacher. This season, he’s not guaranteeing anything despite the strong regular season. He knows that the Al-Anabi team led by team manager Alan Johnson and crew chief Jason McCulloch will need to work hard during the NHRA Full Throttle Countdown to the Championship to close the deal.

That hard work begins at the biggest race of them all, the prestigious Mac Tools U.S. Nationals presented by Lucas Oil, Sept. 1-6 at historic O’Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis. The race, the first of six events in the Countdown to the Championship, will be showcased in 10 hours of coverage on ESPN2HD.

Dixon is a three-time winner of the event and a six-time finalist. His primary rival, seven-time world champ Schumacher, has won in Indy a record eight times in 10 finals. Therefore, to get off to a great start in the playoffs, Dixon said that a win in Indy would go a long way in that department.

“We’re not going to have a different approach at all going into Indy,” Dixon said. “I’ve never been a No. 1 seed before, and I’m excited going into Indy. I’m not even thinking about the playoffs, really. I’m thinking about Indy. That is such a big race in itself that you always want to try and do well there.”

Dixon won the U.S. Nationals during his rookie season in 1995, forming an instant bond with the tradition-rich event held each Labor Day weekend. He beat Schumacher in the U.S. Nationals final in 2005 for his most recent win there.

“Whether it’s your first or fourth win, the U.S. Nationals is a special event for most racers, and I’m one of them,” Dixon said. “I have a lot of memories of going to that race when I was a kid, and it’s a big deal. What it means to do well at the U.S. Nationals has been ingrained in my head all my life. Fortunately, I’ve won three times, and a fourth with the Al-Anabi team would mean a lot.”

Dixon earned his No. 1 seed for the playoffs by racing to victories at the 50th annual season opener in Pomona and followed that memorable victory with wins in Houston, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Chicago, Englishtown, Norwalk, Sonoma, and Brainerd. He said that during that stretch, his Al-Anabi team really came into its own on the track and is well-prepared for the playoffs.

“We’ve won so many different ways,” Dixon said. “We smoked the tires and won a final that way. Another time, we pedaled the car, and other times, we have run all right. There are so many variables, and you can just have one hiccup, and somebody else wins. I feel lucky. That is straight up how I feel about it. I’ve had seasons where I haven’t won one race, so to have a season where you have won nine, it is overwhelming. These races are so hard to win.”

As are championship titles. Dixon earned his two series crowns in 2002 and 2003 during dominating seasons when he won eight and nine races during each, respectively. With a victory in Indy, Dixon could set a personal best for victories in a season and inch that much closer to his third world championship.

However, with U.S. Army driver Schumacher lurking to keep his amazing championship streak alive and hungry drivers such as veteran Cory McClenathan still searching for his elusive first series title in his Fram dragster and former Pro Stock Motorcycle racer Antron Brown looking to break through, Dixon knows that the championship run promises to be filled with challenges.

The competition in the 7,000-horsepower category goes even deeper, with Doug Kalitta hovering in stealth mode in his DEWALT/Stanley/Mac Tools dragster, Brandon Bernstein looking to make a charge in his Copart/Lucas Oil dragster, and GEICO Powersports dragster driver Morgan Lucas capable of striking with a win at any time.

“There are 10 teams with an equal chance to win the Full Throttle championship, so it’s way early to even talk about a championship,” Dixon said. “But if we are lucky enough to pull it off, it would mean as much to me as everyone else on this team, including His Highness Sheik Khalid. He had a goal and vision, and Alan, Jason, and everyone else left other jobs to be a part of the Al-Anabi team. If we are successful, it would mean a lot to win a championship for our Al-Anabi team, but it would mean even more to win the title for Sheik Khalid and bring the NHRA Full Throttle Top Fuel championship to the people of Qatar.”

• SCHEDULE: The first of five qualifying sessions is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Sept. 3. Two sessions will be held Sept. 4, at 3 and 6 p.m., and the final two qualifying sessions will take place Sept. 5 at 11:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. Final eliminations will begin at 11 a.m. Sept. 6.

• TICKETS: Call 800-884-NHRA (6472) or log on to www.NHRAtix.com.

• ON TV: ESPN2 and ESPN2HD will televise more than 10 hours of coverage of the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals presented by Lucas Oil. One hour of qualifying coverage will air Sept. 5 at 10 a.m. ET. NHRA Race Day presented by Lucas Oil, a 30-minute newsmagazine show, will air Sept. 5 at 11 a.m. ET. Two more qualifying shows will air Sept. 5, a two-and-a-half-hour show at 11:30 a.m. ET and a two-hour show at 5 p.m. ET. Five hours of final eliminations coverage will air Sept. 6 at 1 p.m. ET.

• LUCAS OIL SERIES: The Mac Tools U.S. Nationals presented by Lucas Oil also will feature competition in all categories of the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series, in which some of the future stars of the NHRA Full Throttle Series get their starts. Lucas Oil Series qualifying begins at 8:30 a.m. Sept. 1, and eliminations begin at 8 a.m. Sept. 2 and continue through Sept. 6.

• GET SCREENED AMERICA PRO MOD SERIES: NHRA’s newest touring series will make its eighth start of the 10-race season at the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals presented by Lucas Oil. The series features some of the world’s fastest and most unique doorslammer cars, with an eclectic mix of vintage and late-model body styles in quarter-mile competition. The first of four rounds of qualifying will be held Sept. 3 at 4:30 p.m. The first round of eliminations is scheduled for Sept. 5. Eliminations will continue Sept. 6.

The repaving project is well underway at Daytona International Speedway. A few weeks ago, we brought you photos of the initial grinding, and now, we can see some actual asphalt. Those of you familiar with Daytona and its surroundings will recognize that as Turn 3 and 4, with the Volusia Mall in the background.

The project is now in its ninth week. Jeff Burton is scheduled to visit the track next week to bury a time capsule at the start-finish line. Gotta tell you, if I were one of the steamroller drivers pressing the asphalt on that 31-degree bank, this would be the greatest job ever ... until I put a co-worker into the wall, that is.