Kurt Busch Crashes at Indy
General
Crash video:
Forum Activity for @dave-fulton
Kurt Busch Crashes at Indy
General
Kurt Busch crashes during Indy 500 practice
Curt Cavin
curt.cavin@indystar.com
1:53 p.m. EDT May 19, 2014
Kurt Busch's magical month at Indianapolis Motor Speedway has taken a hit.
The former NASCAR champion slammed the Turn 2 wall with the right side of the Andretti Autosport car at 1:35 p.m.
Busch got out of the car under his own power.
Busch was following a group of cars in Monday's race-preparation practice when the car wiggled and then shot to the wall as he tried to save it from crashing. It was a big hit.
Busch, a rookie in this field, was scheduled to start 12th in Sunday's Indianapolis 500, but it seems this car is destroyed.
Busch had just turned a lap of 223.433 mph. His fastest of the day was 225.623 mph. That's currently good for 13th.
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:02:07PM
Sad news for the racing community
General
I definitely stand corrected. And... thank you, Perry, for the terrific history lesson.
Legendary Indy 500 car builder A.J. Watson dies at 90
(Photo: William Palmer / File photo)
A legend among the Indianapolis 500 legends died Monday.
A.J. Watson, whose cars dominated the roadster era of Indianapolis Motor Speedway's heydays, died four days after his 90 th birthday.
Watson-built cars won the 500 six times between 1956 and 1964, and he was the winning chief mechanic four times.
He was a fixture in Gasoline Alley for more than 50 years, and he'd counsel anyone seeking his advice.
"I don't know if there were many ever comparable to him," said A.J. Foyt, who won the 1961 race in a car copied from Watson's design.
Foyt won the '64 race in an actual Watson roadster, joining Pat Flaherty, Rodger Ward (twice), Jim Rathmann and Parnelli Jones as 500 winners driving Watson's work.
Watson was the model of professionalism and presentation, and he never strayed from his neatly cropped white crew cut. Foyt said it was amazing that Watson could build a car without getting dirty.
The simple Watson had a simple motto: If it's not broke, don't fix it.
"An amazing man, the most impressive mechanic, engineer and designer I ever worked with," said John Barnes, who in 1998 started Panther Racing. "He's who I want to grow up to be like."
Watson left John Zink's team to join Bob Wilke and Ward, forming the Flying W's as part of Leader Card Racing, which spanned the careers of Ward in the late 1950s through Buddy Lazier in the early 1990s.
"He was a leader in the garage area, both him and his cars," Roger Penske said of Watson, who was born in Mansfield, Ohio, but was known as a Californian. "His integrity as an individual was amazing."
Foyt was at Watson's side Thursday in celebration of Watson's birthday. Foyt spent 45 minutes there as his Verizon IndyCar Series cars practice just four blocks west of IMS. For years, Watson lived near the intersection of Lynhurst and Crawfordsville Roads.
"I'm so glad I got to see him and be there," Foyt said. "We talked about building (engines) in a garage. His cars were No. 1 here; they were the ones to beat."
Sad news for the racing community
General
R.I.P. Jack. I remember it just as though it were yesterday listening to Freddie Agabashian describe Jack on Memorial Day 1961 driving that little Cooper Climax, the first rear engine car in Indy 500 history.
POETRY IN MOTION
Stock Car Racing History
Hey, Johnny....
Check out the opening minute of the video clip below from 1995 ESPN Silver Crown coverage from Richmond. The sprint cars on the Richmond half-mile dirt in 1948 are from a reel of film I found in Richmond's archives and loaned to ESPN for the telecast of the first Silver Crown race at Richmond.
Check out the very, very young "Smoke!"Jamie did it and in style
Current NASCAR
Tim... I'm in 100% agreement about Kurt Busch and his performance at Indy. If he hadn't had to leave early to return to Charlotte for The Winston, oops, All-Star Race, I'm sure he'd of bettered his time and wound up in the "Fast 9." One thing I've got to say about those telecasts from Indy... they need to find a way for the camera operator or director to crop the person in the Firestone Firehawk mascot costume out of the driver interview shots. A little is ok... but it was way over the top with the hawk horning into every single shot on pit road. Way too much.
Jamie did it and in style
Current NASCAR
I tried to watch... I really did.
But, I was feeling very under the weather, lying on the couch. I just couldn't handle those ridiculous driver intros and the guy in the white tee shirt with the tatoos on his wrists screeching. I made it as far as hearing him totally butcher the pronunciation of Vallejo, California and El Cajon, California and turned it off, fell asleep, and read about it in this morning's Sunday paper. Who was that idiot and where did they find him? Even more annoying were the Sprint gals parading with the banners in front of the cars like they were Roman legionnaires.
I'm ready to just see some racing again and leave the hokum to the rassling telecasts.
Guess Danica (and NASCAR) need the Wizard of Oz
Administrative
You're spot on, Bobby. It's not just NASCAR. I mean... who'd have ever thought that in order to cross the street or walk across a parking lot or shop in a store, the younger generation would need the assistance of staring into a smart phone screen. I don't get it.... anymore than my parents understood me buying records like "Great Balls of Fire" and "Purple People Eater" back in 1958. Ole rebel Bob Dylan... I believe... once penned a song titled "The Times They Are A Changing" - or something similar. I reckon it happens every few generations and now the one I grew up in is kinda on the outside looking in at something very different.
My grandsons have absolutely no interest in taking a ride in the car to just see the scenery like I loved to do as a kid. "That's boring" they tell me as they fiddle with their ear buds.
I remember my parents describing grocery shopping in the days before supermarkets. The changes keep coming.
JUST READ SOMETHING THAT I DID NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS DRIVER
Stock Car Racing History
And, just in case TMC-Chase is reading this thread, so far as I can guess, Denny Zimmerman is the only former NASCAR Modified Driver and Indy 500 Rookie of the Year to race in the SCHAEFER 500 !!!
