Five Cars To The Back For Shelby 427

Kyle Busch, who qualified on the pole for the Shelby 427 from Las Vegas Motor Speedway, blew an engine in practice Friday and will go to the back of the field.

Fellow Toyota drivers David Reutimann and Marcos Ambrose, who qualified fourth and fifth respectively, had to replace their engines and will start at the rear of the field. While Reutimann and Ambrose drive for different teams (Michael Waltrip Racing and JTG Daugherty Racing, respectively), both teams have a technical alliance.

Red Bull Racing teammates Brian Vickers and Scott Speed also replaced their engines, and will start from the rear of the field.

Overall, five Toyota teams replaced engines. While Joe Gibbs Racing builds its own engines, the other teams all use Toyota Racing Development engines.

TRD President Lee White  said:

It’s a wear issue between the camshaft and lifter – it’s either a coating, lubrication, lack of lubrication, too much lubrication, not enough coating or a material situation or just the simple fact that we haven’t been testing.

TRD replaced some of the lubricants and hopes that might fix the problem. They plan to look at the engines after today’s practices.

Busch Brothers Qualify 1,2 For Shelby 427

Kyle and Kurt Busch qualified first and second for the Shelby 427 from Las Vegas Motor Speedway. But, Kyle lost an engine in practice and will need to start from the rear of the field.

Jimmie Johnson, David Reutimann, and Marcos Ambrose will start third through fifth, respectively.

Rounding out the top 10 are Ryan Newman, Kasey Kahne, Mark Martin, Kevin Harvick, and Tony Stewart.

Notables: Jeff Burton (14th), Carl Edwards (16th), Greg Biffle (24th), Jeff Gordon (28th), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (31st), Denny Hamlin (34th), and Matt Kenseth (40th).

Go-Or-Go-Homers That Will Start: Stewart, Max Papis, Brad Keselowski, Regan Smith, AJ Allmendinger, Joe Nemechek, David Gilliland, and Todd Bodine.

Did Not Qualify: Travis Kvapil, Dave Blaney, Mike Garvey, Jeremy Mayfield, Sterlin Marlin, Scott Riggs, Tony Raines, and Dexter Bean.

Busch Open To Trying F1 “At Some Point,” Agent Says

Following the reports that the newly formed Formula One team based in Charlotte, NC, USF1, would consider Kyle Busch for an F1 ride, Jeff Dickerson, Busch’s agent, was quoted as saying:

[Busch] would certainly leave the door open to try it out at some point. At the same time, he’s currently focused on winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series championships for Joe Gibbs Racing.

Busch is under contract with Joe Gibbs Racing through 2010. USF1 is planning to go racing in 2010.

The thought of Busch racing in F1 is not that far-fetched. Unlike some other drivers who jump from one type of racing to another, Busch’s potential move wouldn’t be motivated by money.

Instead, I think that Busch would be intrigued to see how he compares to the world’s drivers in a completely different form of racing. It could be a way for him to show just how talented he is.

That’s not to say he will leave NASCAR, but I’m sure the idea is certainly intriguing.

For those of you unfamiliar with F1, learn more about it here.

Indy Racing League driver Danica Patrick and Red Bull Racing’s Scott Speed are others who have been linked to the ride. Also hearing that Marco Andretti’s name has been  mentioned, too.

Harvick Did Not Lose Engine Before Crashing

Upon further review, it appears that Richard Childress Racing driver Kevin Harvick didn’t blow an engine, as originally reported.

Instead, he suffered from a punctured oil filter. Once replaced, the car fired, but the damage sustained from his contact with the wall prevented the team from returning to the Auto Club 500 from Auto Club Speedway.

Harvick’s inability to return to the race also ended his streak of consecutive races without a DNF. He was reportedly three short of the record.

Busch, Speed, Patrick Linked To USF1

Peter Windsor

Former Formula One team manager Peter Windsor and Ken Anderson, a former F1 team engineer, announced that they would start their own team, USF1, based in Charlotte, NC.

While no official announcements were made of drivers, and the team did not mention any drivers they approached, Windsor threw out a few names during the press conference.

He said:

We haven’t made any decision on drivers yet. … All the drivers out there, if one had to take names now … the next generation looks really good. You’ve got Alex Rossi, who obviously won a lot of races in Formula BMW. You’ve got Conor Daly and Josef Newgarden … really three talented young guys. Gabby Chavez is also very good. And if you take a level slightly higher than that, you have Jonathan Summerton, who has won at the international level already in A1GP driving for Team USA .

While those names mean little to NASCAR fans, the next group of names were quite interesting.

Windsor continued:

Scott Speed has Formula One experience. We know Scott. He’s a very talented guy. He’s doing very well in NASCAR right now. It would be interesting to know if he is totally comfortable where he is right now. There are NASCAR drivers out there right now who I really think if they wanted to switch to Formula One, we could groom them and help them make that change. We were chatting with Dave Despain the other night about Kyle Busch for example. What a great star he would be. Formula One would welcome anything like that.

Windsor also added Danica Patrick’s name to the mix.

A report in India says that Anderson would like to offer Patrick the chance to drive. But, no where in the story is Anderson quoted as saying he would like her to.

The news of USF1’s interest in Patrick came as news to her. In an AP report, she said:

You know, it starts with a phone call, and I haven’t heard anything. It’s funny how these things get going. But I’m happy driving in the IndyCar Series, I’m happy in North America.

And, someone has gone so far as to petition fans to get Busch out of NASCAR and into F1.