Indy 500: Source of Hinchcliffes crash confirmed
Date:
Wednesday, 20 May 2015
By Marshall Pruett
Posted on 05/13/2015 6:34:14 AM PDT by ican'tbelieveit
When we win at @JRMotorsports we have a beer toast and ring the @TeamHendrick victory bell. #00TruckWin
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REVISED 5-20-2015
Thursday, May 21
1:00 PM, NASCAR Masters of the Clock: The Legend of Martinsville, FS2
2:00 PM, The 10 Greatest Charlotte Moments, FS2
2:30 PM, NSCS Charlotte practice, FS1
4:00 PM, NXS Charlotte practice, FS1
5:00 PM, NASCAR Live, NBCSN
5:00 PM, NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
5:30 PM, NXS Charlotte final practice, FS1
7:00 PM, NSCS Charlotte qualifying, FS1
8:30 PM, The 10 Greatest Charlotte Moments, FS1
9:30 PM, Uncompromising: Kevin Harvick, FS1
10:00 PM, The 600: History of NASCAR's Toughest Race, FS1
3:00 AM, NXS Charlotte final practice re-air, FS1
3:30 AM, One Hot Night: The NASCAR 1992 All-Star Race, FS1
4:30 AM, NSCS Charlotte qualifying re-air, FS1
10:00 AM, NXS Charlotte final practice re-air, FS1
11:30 AM, NSCS Charlotte qualifying re-air, FS1
3:30 PM, NASCAR America Motorsports Special, NBCSN
6:00 PM, NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
7:00 PM, NASCAR Race Hub, FS2
8:00 PM, The 10 Greatest Charlotte Moments, FS2
10:00 AM, NSCS Charlotte practice, FS1
11:00 AM, NXS Charlotte qualifying, FS1
12:30 PM, NASCAR Race Hub - Weekend Edition, FS1
1:00 PM, NSCS Charlotte final practice, FS1
2:00 PM, NXS RaceDay, FOX
2:30 PM, NXS Charlotte race, FOX
10:00 AM, NSCS Charlotte practice re-air, FS1
11:00 AM, NSCS Charlotte final practice re-air, FS1
4:00 PM, Undercover Boss: NASCAR, OWN
4:00 PM, NASCAR RaceDay, FS1
5:30 PM, NASCAR RaceDay, FOX
6:00 PM, NSCS Charlotte race, FOX
12:00 AM, NASCAR Victory Lane, FS1
10:00 AM, NSCS Charlotte race re-air, FS1
12:00 PM, How It's Made - Impact Wrenches, Marble Sinks, Plantain Chips, NASCAR cars, SCI
4:30 PM, NASCAR America: Scan All 43 Special, NBCSN
5:00 PM, NASCAR America, NBCSN
6:00 PM, NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
7:00 PM, NASCAR Race Hub, FS2
Molly & Savannah playing WWD (World Wrestling Dogs)
M23 Ping
Qualifying Order for the Coca-Cola 600 Sprint Cup Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway is posted. 48 cars/drivers are listed.
The first of the drivers lined up on pit road is #41-Kurt Busch
The final driver lined up on pit road is #83-Matt DiBenedetto.
Pit road lineup order is set by a random draw, held about an hour before the first practice.
See the full qualifying order on Jayski.com's Charlotte Qualifying Order.(5-21-2015)
Just on Race Hub Live:
Jeff Gordon will be with Fox for the Cup Races in 2016 in the Booth.
Now the question is Who is going to leave/get run off ?
Gordon, currently competing in his 23rd and final fulltime Sprint Cup Series season, served as race analyst for FOX Sports' coverage of three NASCAR XFINITY SERIES races this year (for video of Gordon calling the Talladega NASCAR XFINITY SERIES race, click here). He has agreed to a multi-year contract that begins this season with in-race reporting from the No. 24 Chevrolet during select Cup Series races, and segues to an analyst role that commences with Daytona Speedweeks in February 2016.
"NASCAR has provided me so many incredible memories, experiences and opportunities throughout my 23 years as a driver, and I can't wait to start a new chapter in racing with this new relationship with FOX and to be in the booth with Mike (Joy) and Darrell," said Gordon. "I feel so lucky to be a part of a sport that I'm very passionate about, and now I get the opportunity to share that passion to millions of race fans from a whole new perspective."
Gordon will call all NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races, practice and qualifying sessions for FOX Sports alongside play-by-play announcer Mike Joy and NASCAR Hall of Famer and analyst Darrell Waltrip. Chris Myers hosts the network's coverage alongside analysts Larry McReynolds and Michael Waltrip.
"Jeff is not only a champion but an icon of a racing generation," said Eric Shanks, FOX Sports President, COO & Executive Producer. "We are thrilled he has chosen to become a part of the FOX Sports family and pair his experience with Darrell. Each is credited with helping elevate NASCAR to the popularity it attained in his respective era, and alongside Mike Joy, this duo will treat fans to unmatched insights each and every week."
Gordon's move to the FOX booth furthers a career in which his affability and crossover appeal have provided him numerous high-profile television and movie opportunities that include: Becoming the only auto racing driver ever to host Saturday Night Live; co-hosting Live! With Regis and Kelly more than 10 times; appearances as himself on The Simpsons, Spin City and The Drew Carey Show; movie appearances in Taxi, Herbie: Fully Loaded and Looney Tunes: Back in Action; TV appearances on Late Show with David Letterman, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Sesame Street; and participation on television's Celebrity Poker Showdown and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire: Sports Edition, among others. Gordon also voiced the character "Jeff Gorvette" in the animated film Cars 2.
The California native, one of the most versatile drivers of his era, has driven for Hendrick Motorsports since November 1992, winning four NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championships (1995, 1997, 1998 and 2001), 92 races and 80 pole positions. With his first Cup Series championship in 1995, Gordon became the youngest champion (24) in NASCAR's modern era in only his third full season. He sits third behind only NASCAR Hall of Fame drivers Richard Petty (200) and David Pearson (105) in all-time victories, is a three-time Daytona 500 champion and record five-time Brickyard 400 winner. He holds the record for most consecutive seasons with a pole (23), among numerous other accolades. Furthermore, Gordon is NASCAR's winningest road-course driver with nine wins, and is the all-time leader with 12 restrictor-plate track victories.
Off the track, Gordon, named one of "NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers" in 1998, established the Jeff Gordon Children's Foundation, which supports pediatric cancer research, treatment and patient support programs. He traveled to Rwanda with the Foundation in 2011, and also visited the Democratic Republic of Congo in conjunction with the Clinton Global Initiative. Gordon was honored with the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) Myers Brothers Award in 2012, recognizing those who have made outstanding contributions to the sport of stock-car racing. That same year, he received the Heisman Humanitarian Award, established to recognize those in sports who give significantly to communities and improve the lives of others.
FOX Sports, which began its FOX NASCAR coverage in 2001, currently is in the first of a 10-year media rights agreement with NASCAR. In 2013, FOX Sports extended its agreement with NASCAR, ensuring the FOX family of networks' broadcast of the first 16 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races each season beginning in 2015, as well as the first 14 NASCAR XFINITY Series races of the season and all NASCAR Camping World Truck Series events, through 2024.
Damned BED HOG TOO!
Ours should read: Mom 1/8th/Savannah3/4's/Dad 1/8th
The Verizon IndyCar Series and Dallara, manufacturer of the DW12 chassis used by all IndyCar teams since 2012, confirmed the component failure that sent driver James Hinchcliffe into the Turn 3 wall at unabated speed on Monday at Indianapolis. The possible cause of the failure was also implied in a document distributed to teams preparing for Sunday's 99th running of the Indianapolis 500.
"Based on the initial findings of Mondays incident of the #5 car, we remind teams to inspect the front rockers with the other routinely performed crack checks," the series wrote.
According to the IndyCar technical bulletin, Schmidt Peterson Motorsport's right-front suspension rocker arm (BELOW) did indeed fail on Hinchcliffe's No. 5 car, as was previously reported. The rocker, which connects the suspension at each corner of the car to its damper and spring (BOTTOM), was manufactured in Nov. 2011 and had accumulated 14,000 miles of use.
The rocker was from the thinner, lighter, first-generation units produced by Dallara for the DW12. A thicker, more robust second-generation rocker was produced by Dallara, which most teams purchased and installed when they became available. Use of the second-generation rocker, however, has not been universal.
After learning of the rocker failure, IndyCar called a halt to Monday's practice session and had its teams inspect the age, integrity, and version of those components on each entry. At least three teams were found to have the older first-generation rockers installed, which prompted widespread sales and installations of new, second-generation units. Some teams with the latest rockers also purchased and used new units before practice resumed.
Most modern racing teams track the usage and mileage of each component from rocker arms to gear ratios to wings through a computer-based parts lifing system. Whether it's through manufacturer-supplied maximum life thresholds, or institutional knowledge gained by the team, each part is commonly assigned a mileage limit before it is replaced. And with metal components, routine inspection for fatigue is carried out, known as "crack checking." Between each team's internal lifing system and crack inspections, component failure from age or fatigue is usually prevented.
On the surface, 14,000 miles on Hinchcliffe's suspension component seems incredibly high, but in a poll of big and small teams on Gasoline Alley, the use of high-mileage suspension rocker arms wasn't as rare as expected.
Due to the sensitivity of the topic, teams were willing to provide information on their lifing practices, but did not want their team names revealed.
One leading entrant said: "5000 (miles) for us and crack checking after each use." Another said: "Crack inspection prior to each oval event, but we have not mileaged out any rockers. Also, we don't use the [first-generation] rockers."
A third team principal went into greater detail on the subject.
"I think you'll find that mileage figure quoted for the rocker that failed isn't all that unique among teams," he said. "It wasn't a part that anyone had issues with before, but based on the data we were shown by IndyCar, we changed some of our rockers out for new [ones] before we went back out for Monday's practice. We thought it was prudent go overkill and swap some parts out."
He also went on to say that due to Hinchcliffe's crash, IndyCar teams should revisit their lifing programs and reconsider any components like suspension rocker arms that might, for some, have fallen into a comfort zone.
"We all pay a lot of attention to suspension pieces, but then we get a wakeup call with something we thought was bullet-proof," he continued. "Then we did a reset after James crashed. We stepped back, did an overview on parts in general on tracking part mileage and lifing for those parts.
"Maybe that's a part that didn't get as much attention as other parts of the car, but if you get focused on that part, you can get too busy and fail to look elsewhere. You don't want to get in a panic on rockers and fail to look at other items that might have received less attention than they might deserve. I think we all came away with an understanding that we cannot take any part for granted."
Speaking with SPM Wednesday night, technical director Nick Snyder reiterated the team's committment to component inspection and lifing.
"SPM has a very extensive lifing program," said Snyder, who noted the team completes an average of 10,000 miles per season. "We track the mileage of every stressed components on the car, including everything from the tub and bellhousing, down to individual brackets and bearings. Every component we own has a 2-D printed bar code, generated and affixed in-house by SPM, solely for the purpose of tracking mileage.
"We knew exactly how many miles were on the rocker, which we immediately provided to IndyCar and Dallara to help the investigation, but had no reason for concern beforehand, as there was not a mileage limit instituted by the manufacturer. To our knowledge, this is the first rocker failure with the DW12, so it was not a component that has been flagged as being problematic. We religiously adhere to the service intervals recommended by Dallara of replacing the spherical bearings every 3500 miles, as well as crack checking the component between events."
The team will have a replacement chassis on track Thursday at 12:15 p.m. for Ryan Briscoe, who will represent SPM and the recovering Hinchcliffe in the No. 5 Honda in the Indy 500.
And by Morning she’s done the toenail crawl from the bottom up to and on Mama’s pillow with her feet towards Me stretching and clawing My back. Sneaky Lil’ thing she is.
Ping to 132 (got too busy getting the pic in the right places)
#22-Logano is on the outside pole
#19-Edwards
#16-Biffle
#11-Hamlin
#2-Keselowski
#55-Ragan
#4-Harvick
#42-Larson
#78-Truex Jr.
#3-Dillon
#14-Stewart.
All five Hendrick Motorsports [5,24,25,48,88] entries failed to advance to the final round of knockout qualifying.
Missing the race were: #26-Burton, #32-Bliss, #39-Kvapil, #30-Green and #62-Gaughan.
See the starting lineup, qualifying results round-by-round, qualifying order and more on Jayski.com's Charlotte Starting Lineup
Documents: Kurt Busch's ex-girlfriend used veterans' charity as bank: An ESPN Outside the Lines investigation has found several questionable practices at the Armed Forces Foundation charity under Patricia Driscoll's (CEO) direction in the past decade. Driscoll is the former girlfriend of NASCAR driver #41-Kurt Busch. The couple made headlines last year when Driscoll accused Busch of strangling her and smashing her head into a wall during an argument. Driscoll was recognized as president of the Armed Forces Foundation, a charity aligned with NASCAR and various sports-related entities that aims to help veterans in need. Documents show the Armed Forces Foundation has, in effect, been repeatedly used as a bank to lend money for or pay various personal expenses, including bills for a private company Driscoll owns. The foundation claims it spends 95 cents of every dollar raised on directly supporting service members and their families, but analysis of documents shows the figure is closer to 72 cents. Outside the Lines has learned, on Thursday morning a representative of a former foundation employee contacted the FBI in Washington, alleging that Driscoll broke laws while running the foundation.(see full story at ESPN.com)(5-22-2015)
NASCAR racers notice IndyCar's safety team: The quick response of the IndyCar Series safety team in saving James Hinchcliffe from suffering catastrophic blood loss in his accident Monday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway demonstrated the critical role the series-hired safety team plays in driver care. NASCAR doesn't have its own safety team, instead relying on the tracks to hire the doctors and emergency medical technicians who treat the drivers. While NASCAR requires an emergency response plan, holds an annual safety worker summit as well as weekly meetings at the tracks hosting each event and can dictate staffing requirements to the tracks, NASCAR's traveling medical staff consists primarily of nurses who keep driver files and know their medical histories. Drivers talked with NASCAR after Kyle Busch's accident earlier this year about the week-to-week staffing levels and training. Busch suffered a broken right leg and broken left foot in an accident Feb. 21 at Daytona International Speedway in one of the most crushing wrecks in recent years.
"NASCAR is adamant that having true ER folks that every single day fight in the ER room to save people's lives are the best people to have in place here on a weekend for us," six-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson said Thursday. "In my heart, I feel like there is maybe a hybrid version where, yes, we have those EMTs here, but we also have people that are very sharp and NASCAR-specific, car-specific, know the drivers, know our cockpits. I know that NASCAR briefs them and works with them on all that." With the tracks primarily owned by two companies, it is not unusual for doctors and first responders to work at multiple tracks.
"Once [NASCAR] explained the process and how the doctors and things were chosen was definitely kind of eye-opening as to how much money and time were spent to make sure they have the right people at every race track -- and really the longevity of the staff," Kevin Harvick said.(full story at ESPN)(5-22-2015)
Johnson shocked over warning: #48-Jimmie Johnson, met with members of the media at Charlotte Motor Speedway and was asked about the warning NASCAR gave the team over the flared skirts.
Q) WHAT WAS YOUR REACTION TO THE WARNING YOUR TEAM RECEIVED FOR THE ISSUE WITH THE SIDE SKIRTS IN THE ALL-STAR RACE?
Johnson: "The warning...we were very shocked to even hear that there was an issue with the side skirts. I think leaving the racetrack NASCAR was upset and thought there was a lot more intent and something going wrong with the side skirt being pulled out. Then as video became available and they looked through it and watched and saw what was done, it calmed down. We were shocked to hear that there was an issue and actually we had crash damage on the right-side of the car. Then it certainly turned out that way."(Team Chevy)(5-22-2015)
Geez 6whine, maybe if your team had not been busted so many times of the years for cheating...
Sarge are You pickin' on the Wildlife again ?
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