Tracy to miss GP race
Former Champ Car champion Paul Tracy will miss at least one race after sustaining a compression fracture to his back Saturday in a crash during practice for the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.
The 38-year-old Tracy lost control and his car slid nose-first into one of the concrete barriers lining the downtown street course.
The oldest and winningest active driver in the Champ Car World Series was taken to St. Mary’s Hospital after complaining of back pain. Tests confirmed a compression fracture to Tracy’s first lumbar vertebrae.
“This is obviously a very unfortunate situation; it’s really a shame because it pretty much ruins the championship for us this year,” Tracy said after returning to the track. “I’m very disappointed for the whole team because we had gotten off to a great start in Vegas (finishing second) and we were pretty strong here. We were building momentum and just hoping to be fast and consistent the whole year.”
The Canadian driver said he had no indication of any trouble until the car snapped around when he got back on the throttle after driving through turn one.
Oriol Servia will replace Tracy for today’s race. No timetable was given for Tracy’s return.
Sebastien Bourdais won the pole with a lap of 1 minute, 7.546 seconds (104.889 mph), with Will Power close behind at 1:07.695 (104.658). Rookie Simon Pagenaud, Power’s teammate, remained third at 1:07.883 (104.368).
Nextel Cup
Forget trying to explain them. Jimmie Johnson simply would like to extend a pair of streaks in Texas.
There have been 12 different winners in the 12 NASCAR Nextel Cup races at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, which has gone longer than any other track without a repeat winner.
That will be 13 in a row if Johnson or any of his teammates – Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch or Casey Mears – wins the Samsung 500 today.
Plus, if any of the Hendrick Motorsports drivers finishes up front, it will be the first time since 1971 that a team has won five consecutive races in the same season.
Busch Series
Matt Kenseth made the save first, then he picked up the victory. That might sound a little backward for baseball fans, but it made perfect sense in the O’Reilly 300 Busch Series race at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.
Kenseth ended Carl Edwards’ two-race Busch winning streak by pulling his car out of a spin without hitting the wall early in the race, then overtaking Denny Hamlin with nine laps left.
Hamlin’s frantic efforts to pass over the final five laps failed in the closest margin for a Busch race in Texas at 0.128 seconds. Edwards finished third.
Formula One
Felipe Massa took the pole position for the Bahrain Grand Prix, leading the field in qualifying for the fourth time in the last five Formula One races. Lewis Hamilton of McLaren was second.