SEPANG, Malaysia — Spurred by the disappointment of mechanical failures that cost him victory in the Formula One season’s opening two races, Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel led from start to finish to win Sunday’s Malaysian Grand Prix.

After the team’s championship hopes had been written off due to queries over the reliability of its cars, Red Bull answered in the best possible way — Vettel leading a 1-2 finish ahead of teammate Mark Webber.

Vettel led in Bahrain and Australia before his car let him down mid-race but there was no easing up Sunday, the German passing pole-sitter Webber in the run to the first corner at Sepang circuit and leading throughout as forecast rain stayed away.

“A very good result for us, especially for me, after two races where we didn’t finish where we wanted to be,” Vettel said. “Racing cars are built on the limit and sometimes they break.

“We want to fight for the championship.”

Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg was a distant third, with Renault’s Robert Kubica a comfortable fourth. Force India’s Adrian Sutil took fifth, impressively holding off McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, who had stormed up from 20th on the grid to third before he pitted.

Webber gave up the lead when he spun his tires trying to get off the line and had to settle for second after a close battle into the fourth turn on the first lap. He pushed Vettel in the early laps, but that pressure eased when a stuck wheel gun made for a slow pit stop.

“A 1-2 finish for us was sensational,” Webber said. “It was a nice comeback by us after some tough races. We blew everyone away, which is great.”

McLaren teammates Hamilton and Jenson Button— the defending race and series champion — fought their way through the field from the back of the pack to finish sixth and eighth, either side of Ferrari’s Felipe Massa.

Despite not finishing better than third in any race, Massa leads the championship with 39 points, two ahead of Vettel and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.

“Starting 21st and finishing seventh, it was a great result,” Massa said. “Leading the championship is always important, looking at the many drivers that are there, fighting.”

Alonso would be top of the standings but for an engine failure on the penultimate lap as he attempted an ambitious passing move on Button. Alonso was sanguine afterward despite there being a cap on the number of power units allowed.

“Always when you retire you are disappointed, but I prefer to retire when I’m ninth and not when I’m first,” Alonso said. “So if I have to retire one or two times in 2010, I prefer this race and hopefully not another race that I’m in first position.”

Red Bull’s victory Sunday meant it was the first time in 20 years that three different teams had won the opening three races of a championship.

The closeness of the competition was reflected in the standings, with the top seven drivers separated by only nine points.

Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari and Williams’ Nico Hulkenberg were ninth and 10th, with both earning their first F1 points.

Mercedes’ Michael Schumacher, a seven-time world champion, was forced out on the 10th lap with a wheelnut failure. Schumacher, who has a record 91 victories — including three at Sepang — has a disappointing nine points in three races since ending a three-year retirement.

“It’s a shame. We were in a good position … I believe we could have had two cars in very good points,” said Schumacher, referring to Rosberg’s 35 points. “To be honest, I’m right on schedule, in my opinion. The car is not quite on schedule.”

Williams’ Rubens Barrichello was slow off the start line and never in contention and Sauber’s Pedro de la Rosa was done in by engine failure on the installation lap.

Ferrari leads the constructors’ championship with 76 points, ahead of McLaren on 66 and Red Bull on 61.

Next up is the Chinese GP on April 18.

HOUSTON (April 4) — The GEICO Powersports Honda team took a well deserved weekend off for Easter before starting the home stretch of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Series season on April 10 at Houston’s Reliant Stadium.

The Supercross season winding down means the outdoor Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross season is just around the corner. GEICO Powersports Honda will be getting a new team member, Eli Tomac, when the outdoor season starts.

Tomac has been tearing up the amateur ranks, and in fact, blew away the competition in winning his last two amateur races earlier this year.

“I went into Lake Whitney in Texas well-trained,” Tomac said. “Me and my dad (cycling icon John Tomac) prepared really well for it. I kind of had the feeling I was going to win, but you never know. We had taken a lot of time off from November to March, so I really wasn’t sure where I was at.

“I won all my motos there, then went into Oak Hill with a ton of confidence and I made it happen there too.”

Tomac said he can’t wait to join the GEICO Powersports team and face the new challenge of racing as a pro.

“My dad and I have been preparing for the pro team since the winter,” Tomac said. “I’ve been around a lot of the pro guys quite a bit, so it shouldn’t be hard adjusting to the new team.

“I’ve been doing amateur races for about 10 years and going to the same track starts to get a little bit old. It’s going to be fun to take on new competition at new tracks.”

Tomac added that the chance to race on the big stage of the Supercross series is also an enticing prospect.

“I’m totally excited for Supercross,” he said. “I can’t wait to meet all the new fans and people.”

Hmiel has been back racing for three years, but not in NASCAR, where he’s been banned from competing and banished from the garage for repeatedly violating NASCAR’s substance abuse policy. His first indefinite suspension lasted for eight races after he tested positive for marijuana in 2003. After being reinstated, he was indefinitely suspended again for testing positive for cocaine and marijuana in May 2005. He failed another test in early 2006 while on suspension and has been banned for life. Hmiel, son of longtime NASCAR mechanic and current Earnhardt Ganassi Racing competition director Steve Hmiel, isn’t trying to get back into NASCAR. He’s trying to become an accomplished racer again, a champion. It’s better than being on drugs, or possibly having his life end while on drugs. Hmiel said that when he first returned to the track, he noticed people staring at him. They thought he had just been hiding out for a few years and wasn’t truly drug free, he said. Today, he says he has a stack of drug test results that prove he is clean and believes that about 90 percent of his competitors believe him. He talks to people, he says, who want to talk about their own battles with addiction. Hmiel says he doesn’t have the urge to use drugs anymore but says he won’t conquer his addiction unless he never uses again. Hmiel also says he’s a much better race-car driver now. He’s wrecked fewer cars in three years, he says, than he did in three months of stock-car racing.(full story and quotes at SceneDaily and also at SceneDaily: Shane Hmiel says NASCAR’s new substance abuse policy would have helped him get treatment sooner.

Brian Rose, a once-promising young race car driver, will be behind the wheel of a NASCAR racing machine [failed to qualify for the Nashville Truck Series race] for the first time since he was indefinitely suspended for violating the league’s substance abuse policy in the spring of 2003. He’s back with Rick Ware Racing, the same team he was driving for when he was banned by the league. But he is not the same person we knew then. When we last saw him, Rose was a broken, drug-addicted 23-year-old. Sponsorship woes had limited his opportunities to race. In 2001-02, he competed in 36 NASCAR Truck races, including stints with top-shelf team owners Bobby Hamilton and Billy Ballew, earning five top-10 finishes. In 2003 he rejoined Ware, with whom he’d started his career, and raced in two of the season’s first four events, finishing 14th at Darlington and 24th at Martinsville. The other two weekends he was stuck at home, forced to watch others race on TV. See full article at ESPN.com.
AND NASCAR has lifted the indefinite suspension of Brian Rose, who was suspended in April 2003 for failing to take a drug test.(SceneDaily)(4-3-2010)(4-3-2010)

NASCAR ON FOX was wiped out this weekend when wet weather forced postponement of racing from Martinsville Speedway. The race was made up on Monday afternoon and aired nationally on FOX affiliates. Because the race aired on a weekday afternoon, no national rating will be released until next Thursday. The overnight rating for the race was a 2.1/6. The last FOX race to be rained out and made up on a Monday was last year’s Coca-Cola 600, but that’s not really a fair comparison because the make-up date was the memorial Day holiday, and as a result the make-up earned a 3.3/8 in the metered markets. The better comparison is to the 2008 Auto Club Speedway race, which was made up on a normal Monday and earned an overnight rating of 2.3/7. In 2009 the final Martinsville Ratings were 4.6/10 [with an overnight of 4.1/9*] and 7.4 million viewers. The Martinsville race is excluded from FOX’s season-to-date total, which remains a 5.6/12 (9.3 million viewers). However, last year’s Martinsville race stays in the 2009 average, and because it was a mediocre rating FOX’s year-to-year comparison has improved since last week without actually running a race. FOX’s 5.6/12 for the season is now down -7% compared to last year’s final 6.0/12 for FOX. Last weeks final TV Ratings for Bristol were flat vs. 2010 with a 4.4 rating and a 10 share [was 4.5/10 in 2009].

NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin is home resting following surgery on his left knee.

Patrick Connor repaired the anterior cruciate ligament in Hamlin’s left knee Wednesday morning outside Charlotte. Hamlin tore his ACL playing basketball in January.

He wanted to postpone surgery until after the NASCAR season, but decided to have it repaired this week. The surgery had been postponed from Monday, the same day Hamlin won his first race of the season at Martinsville Speedway.

Hamlin moved up four spots in the standings to 15th and is just 24 points out the top 12 and a spot in the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup to determine the champion.

Joe Gibbs Racing says Hamlin will drive as scheduled in the April 10 race at Phoenix, but Casey Mears will be on standby as a relief driver.

“He will start rehab immediately, and now we can concentrate on getting his knee back to full strength, said J.D. Gibbs, president of JGR.

“The doctors tell us it will improve with each passing week and that he cannot damage it by driving.”

The Series is off this weekend.

SEPANG, Malaysia — Red Bull driver Mark Webber took the pole position for the Formula One Malaysian Grand Prix after a chaotic rain-swept qualifying session on Saturday, while the McLarens and Ferraris will start near the back after badly misjudging the weather.

Webber’s time of 1 minute 49.327 seconds around the Sepang circuit put him in front of Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg— who will start on the front row of a grand prix for the first time — and Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel.

The third and final part of qualifying was red flagged and suspended for 18 minutes due to the amount of standing water on the track.

When it restarted, Webber profited by being the only one of the top 10 drivers to take a risk and switch to intermediate tires rather than the full wets, and avoided the puddles to take the third pole of his career, and the third straight for Red Bull in the three races so far this season.

“I kept it on the black stuff and got the job done,” Webber said. “I didn’t know I was the black sheep, but we made the decision and it was about putting it together.”
LINEUP: Malaysian Grand Prix qualifying results

The rain jumbled the grid positions, with Force India’s Adrian Sutil taking fourth and Williams rookie Nico Hulkenberg in fifth, making it four Germans on the grid behind Webber.

Renault’s Robert Kubica qualified sixth ahead of Williams’ Rubens Barrichello and Mercedes’ Michael Schumacher. Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi and Force India’s Vitantonio Liuzzi rounded out the top 10.

Ferrari and McLaren both gambled and lost in the first part of qualifying. Rain began to fall less than 10 minutes before the start, and while some drivers went out immediately to set a time in case the conditions deteriorated, Ferrari and McLaren waited, trusting in their radars that the conditions would clear.

However the rain got heavier, and the Ferraris and McLaren had no hope of matching those early times as the track got so wet as to force a swap from intermediate to wet-weather tires.

McLaren’s Jenson Button slid off the circuit into a gravel trap in the opening session, and while his previous time was good enough to technically make it into the second session, he could take no part and will start 17th.

“We read it wrong basically,” Button said. “We thought that first rain storm was it and there was nothing else coming, so we waited, and it was obviously the wrong thing to do.”

His teammate Lewis Hamilton will begin from 20th, standing no chance as the rain continued to fall.

“It was treacherous out there. We were sliding around and aquaplaning everywhere. Of course with hindsight we would have gone out earlier, but hindsight is a wonderful thing,” Hamilton said.

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso was critical of his team for not putting at least one lap in the bank early.

“For sure we need to avoid these type of mistakes,” Alonso said.

“We were in the wrong place at the wrong time. But the race is tomorrow — we saw last week in Melbourne that we can get results from the back of the grid so we will just have to make sure we do that.”

Massa also said “it was a mistake and the wrong call.”

On its official Twitter feed, Ferrari said: “There is not too much to say, we waited too long in the garage and, together with others, we made a mistake which was paid highly.”

Rosberg was anticipating a strong performance in the race, aided by having a few unlikely high qualifiers behind him and the Ferraris and McLarens.

“Its a special feeling being on the front row,” Rosberg said. “That is where I was hoping to be before the season so it’s nice to make that happen.”

Rosberg again outqualified his teammate and seven-time world champion Schumacher.

“I’m of course a bit disappointed because more could have come out of this,” Schumacher said.

“Eighth place is not quite optimal. But if the start works quite well, as in the other races too, then I should be able to get in front a bit at that time, and the race itself could suit me well.”

Vettel congratulated Webber on his bold choice of intermediate tires.

“Mark did the right decision at the right time,” Vettel said. “Going into Q3, I thought it was a little bit of a risk.”

The German also said it was the correct call by race authorities to suspend the final session of qualifying due to the dangerous conditions.

“It was impossible for all of us,” Vettel said. “There was too much standing water. The cars are so low that we ended up swimming instead of driving.”

Malaysian Grand Prix qualifying results

Qualifying results Saturday for Sunday’s Formula One Malaysian Grand Prix at the 5.543-kilometer (3.444-mile) Sepang circuit with driver, country, car, fastest lap time and laps completed:

1. Mark Webber, Australia, Red Bull, 1 minute, 49.327 seconds, 18 laps.

2. Nico Rosberg, Germany, Mercedes, 1:50.673, 22.

3. Sebastian Vettel, Germany, Red Bull, 1:50.789, 19.

4. Adrian Sutil, Germany, Force India, 1:50.914, 21.

5. Nico Hulkenberg, Germany, Williams, 1:51.001, 22.

6. Robert Kubica, Poland, Renault, 1:51.051, 19.

7. Rubens Barrichello, Brazil, Williams, 1:51.511, 21.

8. Michael Schumacher, Germany, Mercedes, 1:51.717, 24.

9. Kamui Kobayashi, Japan, Sauber, 1:51.767, 21.

10. Vitantonio Liuzzi, Italy, Force India, 1:52.254, 21.

Eliminated after 2nd session

11. Vitaly Petrov, Russia, Renault, 1:48.760, 15.

12. Pedro de la Rosa, Spain, Sauber, 1:48.771, 14.

13. Sebastien Buemi, Switzerland, Toro Rosso, 1:49.207, 15.

14. Jaime Alguersuari, Spain, Toro Rosso, 1:49.464, 16.

15. Heikki Kovalainen, Finland, Lotus, 1:52.270, 16.

16. Timo Glock, Germany, Virgin Racing, 1:52.520, 13.

17. Jenson Button, Britain, McLaren-Mercedes, no time set, 3.

Eliminated after 1st session

18. Jarno Trulli, Italy, Lotus, 1:52.884, 6.

19. Fernando Alonso, Spain, Ferrari, 1:53.044, 8.

20. Lewis Hamilton, Britain, McLaren-Mercedes, 1:53.050, 8.

21. Felipe Massa, Brazil, Ferrari, 1:53.283, 7.

22. Karun Chandhok, India, Hispania Racing, 1:56.299, 9.

23. Bruno Senna, Brazil, Hispania Racing, 1:57.269, 9.

24. Lucas di Grassi, Brazil, Virgin Racing, 1:59.977, 4.

GLADEVILLE, Tenn.— Kevin Harvick took advantage of a late caution to win the NASCAR Nationwide Series race Saturday at Nashville Superspeedway.

Harvick and crew chief Ernie Cope gambled by taking two tires when the eighth yellow flag of the day came out with 34 laps to go. That enabled Harvick to seize the lead from Kyle Busch, who was unable to mount a challenge as the race wound down.

“We were 10 laps short (on fuel) and it seemed like there were a lot of cautions,” Harvick said. “We were in conservation mode so we did what we needed to do to play it both ways. We had options and weren’t in a box like some other guys were, having to pit under green. If you have to do that you’re pretty much done.”

That was the case for pole-sitter Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski,who pitted under green with just over 40 laps left, then found themselves out of contention when the final caution flew. It was Keselowski’s brother, Brian, who touched off the race-changing event by spinning at the entrance to pit road.

“I was a lot more confident with (Logano and Keselowski) in the back,” Harvick said. “I thought (Busch) would go better on the restart. I knew we had 25 laps or so but we had track position.”

Harvick, strong on long runs all day, led three times for 52 laps, including the final 34.

“Clean air wasn’t so much important as you got going but it was for us on restarts because our car was very edgy getting going,” Harvick said.

It was Harvick’s 36th career Nationwide win and his 56th in NASCAR’s top three series. It was his second win in four Nationwide races this season.

Harvick, driving his own Kevin Harvick Inc. Chevrolet, beat Reed Sorenson by 0.2 seconds. Busch, who beat Harvick in the Trucks race on Friday night, was third.

“We thought our car was good after about 15 or 20 laps,” Harvick said. “We did some things after the truck race that we felt were right for today. We stuck to our plans and when we do it usually works out. It did today.”

Justin Allgaier,coming off a victory two weeks ago at Bristol, was fourth, and Brad Keselowski rallied to finish fifth.

Harvick was one of five Sprint Cup regulars in the lineup for the first stand-alone Nationwide race of the season. Among the others were Busch (third), Brad Keselowski (fifth), Carl Edwards (sixth), Logano (eighth) and Paul Menard (11th).

Edwards rallied after his crew bolted an aluminum patch over a baseball-size hole in the grill of his car midway through the race. The damage was caused during a pitstop earlier in the race.

There were eight cautions for 43 laps including a five-car pileup that brought out a 14-minute red flag. Two cautions involved rookie James Buescher and veteran Jason Leffler. They tangled in turn two early in the race and Leffler was ejected later after crashing Buescher into the wall on the front straightaway.

Edwards leads the season standings, 16 points ahead of Keselowski.

Nashville 300
Saturday, April 3rd

Nashville Superspeedway Lebanon, Tennessee

1 2 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 225 52 190 $71,445
2 15 Reed Sorenson Toyota 225 0 170 $32,000
3 6 Kyle Busch Toyota 225 10 170 $26,850
4 3 Justin Allgaier Dodge 225 0 160 $29,043
5 5 Brad Keselowski Dodge 225 21 160 $24,868
6 4 Carl Edwards Ford 225 0 150 $19,425
7 17 Scott Wimmer Chevrolet 225 18 151 $21,918
8 1 Joey Logano Toyota 225 122 152 $20,550
9 12 Michael Annett Toyota 225 0 138 $22,443
10 21 Brendan Gaughan Toyota 225 0 134 $23,768
11 16 Paul Menard Ford 225 0 130 $14,125
12 10 Trevor Bayne Toyota 225 0 127 $21,268
13 19 Johnny Sauter Ford 225 0 124 $14,350
14 24 Kelly Bires Chevrolet 225 0 121 $20,343
15 13 Brian Scott Toyota 225 0 118 $15,650 
16 23 Shelby Howard Chevrolet 225 0 115 $13,725
17 37 Mike Wallace Chevrolet 225 0 112 $20,318
18 11 John Wes Townley Chevrolet 225 0 109 $20,018
19 31 Scott Riggs Ford 225 0 106 $19,943
20 14 Josh Wise Ford 225 0 103 $21,043
21 8 Scott Lagasse Jr. Ford 224 0 100 $19,818
22 22 Jeremy Clements Chevrolet 224 0 97 $13,315
23 41 Robert Richardson Jr. Chevrolet 224 0 94 $20,148
24 26 Brian Keselowski Dodge 223 0 91 $19,713
25 39 Kenny Wallace Chevrolet 223 0 88 $19,793
26 30 Derrike Cope Dodge 222 0 85 $13,125
27 42 Mike Bliss Chevrolet 222 0 82 $19,553
28 27 Joe Nemechek Chevrolet 221 0 79 $20,218
29 40 Eric McClure Ford 221 0 76 $19,483
30 7 Colin Braun Ford 197 0 73 $19,748
31 18 Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. Ford 175 1 70 $19,413
32 35 Tony Raines Chevrolet 152 1 72 $19,368
33 25 Mikey Kile Toyota 148 0 64 $19,303
34 38 James Buescher Chevrolet 142 0 61 $19,283
35 20 Willie Allen Chevrolet 130 0 58 $12,795
36 9 Steve Wallace Toyota 112 0 55 $19,243
37 29 Michael McDowell Dodge 112 0 52 $19,223
38 36 Jason Keller Chevrolet 111 0 49 $12,735
39 32 Jason Leffler Toyota 86 0 46 $12,705
40 34 Morgan Shepherd Chevrolet 55 1 48 $12,600
41 33 Mark Green Chevrolet 45 0 40 $12,575
42 28 Kevin Lepage Chevrolet 39 0 37 $12,555
43 43 Danny OQuinn Jr. Chevrolet 33 0 34 $12,472
Average Speed: 114.028 mph
Margin of Victory: 0.199
Caution Flags: 8
Caution Flags Laps: 43
Lead Changes: 13
Lead Changes Drivers: 7
Total Laps: 225

GLADEVILLE, Tenn. — Kyle Busch raced to his first NASCAR victory as a team owner, dominating the Nashville 200 on Friday night at Nashville Superspeedway for his 17th career Camping World Trucks Series win.

“It’s a big deal,” Busch said. “It’s always nice to win anytime you’re in anybody’s stuff, but especially your own. It seems to set a lot better within yourself.”

The Sprint Cup star led 131 of 150 lap on the 1.333-mile concrete oval. Kevin Harvick, the winner of his previous four Trucks starts, was second, followed by Ron Hornaday Jr., Timothy Peters and Todd Bodine.

Busch won the pole at nearly 1.5 mph faster than second-place starter Peters and used that speed to lead the first 76 laps. On lap 77, Peters passed Busch at the finish line and led the next 15 laps before Busch used traffic to get by Peters on lap 93.

The last time Busch ran at Nashville Superspeedway he made headlines for smashing the trophy, a hand-painted custom Gibson guitar, last June in a Nationwide Series race. This time, he didn’t destroy the guitar.

“I gave the guitar to Sam (Bass, the painter) and said if he wants to do any damage to my truck he could have at it,” Busch said. “But he didn’t feel like it. It’s as good as it can be to come back to Nashville and win a race and put on great show in front of the fans.”

On lap 120, Harvick pulled alongside Busch on the front stretch, but couldn’t complete the pass. It was as close Harhvick would get for the rest of the race.

“I just slid the truck several times there,” Harvick said. “I got a big slide there at the end and I couldn’t make up for it.”

Busch was happy with the victory, but said it doesn’t make him want to drive the truck more than he’s already committed to.

“I might get behind the wheel a little less, to be honest with you,” he said.