Cory McClenethan wears the host sponsor's colors, so all eyes will be on him! (NHRA Photo)

Here's the weekend schedule: Pro qualifying sessions are scheduled for 3:15 and 6:30 p.m. on Friday, July 25th. Qualifying continues at 11:15 and 2:15 p.m. on Saturday, July 26th, and final eliminations begin at 11 a.m. on Sunday, July 27th.

As you well know, the weekend will feature NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series action in Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle divisions. Instead of a quarter-mile, the Top Fuel and Funny Cars will run 1,000 feet, but from what we've seen in the past few weeks, cutting the distance has not diminished the speed or the excitement.

For ticket information, either click on http://infineonraceway.com, call  (800) 870-7223 or check ticketmaster.com for details.

If you prefer sitting in your own grandstand in front of the television, ESPN2 and ESPN2 HD will televise two hours of qualifying highlights at 6 p.m. (Eastern) on Saturday, and ESPN2 and ESPN2 HD will televise NHRA Race Day, a 30-minute pre-race show, at 11 a.m. (ET) on Sunday -- and ESPN2 and ESPN2 HD will televise the race beginning at 7 p.m. that same evening.

And, this just in: The NHRA's popularity has exploded this year. For all the details, see the News Section.

See Hal Wood's brand-new coverage of powerboat racing in the News Section!

Yes, that's Rotter, Rotter, Dam, Dam, Dam down there! -- with Red Bull planes flying over.

The series will resume on the weekend of September 2nd-3rd when it returns to the air above the Thames River in London. Last year the spectacle was a sensational success for Red Bull. 

At Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on Sunday, in a remarkable display of skill that was as much a hand-to-hand combat situation aboard motorcycles as it was racing, Italian Valentino Rossi overtook polesitter Casey Stoner, then swapped the lead back and forth until finally winning the MotoGP World Championship round. See the full story on the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix in the News Section.

Scroll, Man, scroll! This is like the big map in the mall that says you are here! You want to find Joe's Soles or Henrietta's Sexy Lingerie, why take a look and go there. Here, all you need to do is SCROLL down, and we give you a sampling of the things we have stashed in the News, Features, Reviews and Events Sections. Go ahead, give it a try by scrolling down to the note about Gil Bouffard's rant . . . and see it in the Features Section.  See previews of upcoming weekend racing . . . and Tom Benford's piece on James Dean's death car.

Last  week Butch Noble and I made the trip to Livermore, California, to look into a new indoor kart racing facility (Umigo at Patterson Pass Road) and we had a kick. We've taken a solid look at the place and the people behind it and will be having a story on it shortly. Butch took a few laps after we talked with owner Jim Buck and his partner, Natcho. Now that we have all the answers to our questions, we'll be cranking on that shortly!

Butch Noble is our Motorsports Editor, and he knows how to blur! (Photo by Bill Moore)

This silver Noble sports car stood out from the crowd, shot from on high. (Moore Photo)

The BMW 128i -- in Sedona Red -- really stands out in this western setting! (Moore Photo)

YIKES! If you're planning on being at this year's nostalgia automotive wonderland called Hot August Nights, you'd better call for a hotel room right away. It takes place from August 1st through the 10th. For all the info you'll ever need, go to http://www.hotaugustnights.net/. 

Senior Editor Johnny McDonald always has a provocative opinion, and in his new Another Opinion Column (see the News Section), Johnny mulls over the impact of sky-rocketing oil prices and recession on motorsports. How gloomy could it get -- well, maybe bicycles racing around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on the Memorial Day weekend!

General Motors may be the first to start cutting back on its racing involvement, with an announcement that it was scaling back its involvement with small tracks by $10 million . . .. Ford just reported its worst year yet, losing billions last year. And, of course, Chrysler (Dodge) isn't doing all that well, either. What would happen to NASCAR if everyone scaled back? 

One other thing, Richard Parks and Roger Rohrdanz, the writer/photographer team from Southern California, has just completed a tour of the Eibach Springs plant and that's in the Features Section right now! This is a long story, but Richard has done a spectacular job on this article that traces the company's history and takes you inside the big plant in Corona, California.  As usual, Roger has documented everything with photos. 

This is what happens when you clip the wings off an F-104 Starfighter . . . and then add wheels.

And this: The search for Steve Fossett is still going on. Two groups are going to search the California/Nevada border where it's thought that he and his plane went down a year ago. Fossett had bought Craig Breedlove's Spirit of America and was about to launch a land speed effort of his own when he vanished. This search, by an elite group of athletes and mountaineers, will be conducted on the ground. The first group from the Explorers Club (Steve was a member) started looking on Monday. A second group will begin their search in August. Fossett's wife, Peggy, is not part of the effort. Steve was officially announced as dead six months ago. He was 63. Besides finding Steve's remains, the two groups are asking what went wrong with the methodology of the search . . . why it failed to find Fossett a year ago.

Hey, Bonneville Speed Week is fast approaching. Jot it down on your calendar, and start saving funds for the gasoline it'll take to get you there to the spread of white salt just northeast of Wendover, Utah. This year will mark the Southern California Timing Association's 60th Bonneville anniversary. It runs from August 18th through the 24th, with the 17th set aside for registration and tech inspection. Check out the SCTA website or call them at (559) 528-6279. The FAX number is (559) 528-9749.

As you can see from this Nissan 350Z, the Bonneville salt is very sticky! (Bill Moore Photo)

James Dean sits in his racecar, Little Bastard, and waves good-bye for all time!

Looking for racy ladies, fast fellows? If you're single and heading off for a race this coming weekend, why not consider lining up someone who can be your friend at the track? This organization is called Meet Me at the Races -- and you can learn more from the horse's mouth by clicking on Meetmeattheraces.com. It's the first dating website dedicated to racing and romance. Meet like-minded fans from throughout the nation, see who lives near your favorite track and who plans to be there soon. Again, try http://www.meetmeattheraces.com.

While looking us over, don't forget that this is a great place to advertise. How do you do that? Easy! Just contact Roger Leeper. His contact info can be found here.

NASCAR, for the sake of parity, has made a technical rules change that impacts the powerful Toyota engines racing in the Nationwide Series.

Hey, everyone had been talking . . . Toyota motors seem to have more snap, crackle and pop than other brands, and there has been a growing frenzy of complaints bombarding the executive offices in Daytona Beach.

So new rules changes will reduce the Toyota horsepower in the Nationwide Series -- and those changes that came down on Wednesday will be in effect for this weekend's racing.

Toyotas had won 14 of 21 races in the Nationwide Series this year, and all but one of them came in a Camry fielded by Joe Gibbs Racing. The exception was JGR driver Kyle Busch's victory at Charlotte in May in a car fielded by Braun Racing.

NASCAR ordered all the Toyota motors to use a smaller restrictor that will knock down 15 horsepower in the motors.

Naturally, NASCAR has done its homework: It sent 10 different motors out  for testing, and found that David Reutimann's Toyota was the best with an estimated three percent horsepower advantage over the competition. JGR’s No. 18 car—which Busch drove to victory at Chicago right before the motors were tested—was second.

Technically, the new guidelines aren’t directed only at Toyota -- but it is working with a brand new engine, so it may have an advantage over the manufacturers using older engine models. See the News Section for the official NASCAR statement.

While 18-year-old Joey Logano is making news, so is another kid -- 25-year-old Scott Speed. The former Formula One driver who never thought he'd ever run on an oval, is doing that quite well. On Friday night, he won the ARCA race at Kentucky Speedway. With backing from Red Bull, it wouldn't surprise us if Speed and Logano saw a lot of each other on NASCAR ovals next year.  Speed will be racing again as the ARCA series shows up in Marn, Michigan, on Saturday night for the Berlin ARCA 200 at Berlin Raceway. If you're in the neighborhood, it kicks off at 8:30 p.m.

And, hey, you have to admire Kyle Busch's performance this year, even if you're not impressed with his grandiose bowing and showing off after a victory! He's made a quantum leap in his racing this year over last year -- and Kyle has won five times in the Nationwide Series and twice more in the Craftsman Truck Series. And, heck, he's show real maturity this year out on the track during the races, if not afterwards!

In the Nationwide Series,  the cars and the stars will be racing across town at O'Reilly Raceway Park in the Kroger 200. That goes off at 8:15 p.m. (Eastern) on Saturday night  Jason Leffler is the defending champ.

A few years ago, when I was the Editor of KIT CAR Illustrated, we put on an event at what was then known as Indianapolis Raceway Park for Cobra replicas . . . you know, fiberglass-bodied cars that resembled Carroll Shelby's 427 Cobra. We drew 120 cars from across the country to that event for a driver's school (conducted by Indy driver Scott Harrington), a romp around a short road course and drag-racing down the major league dragstrip. The event, called Run & Gun, is dead, but the memories live! Why did we do it? At that point replicas of Cobras, worth up to $85,000 each, had no place to run. So, we gave them a place to do that. Now, Factory Five Racing, which produces Cobra replicas, has a whole series of events for its customers. Recently, we got a quick tour of Infineon Raceway when the NorCal Shelby Club was having a weekend in Bill Landers' car. No matter what they're made of, these cars are beautiful!

If you were wondering why Kyle Busch was racing in the Craftsman Truck Series' Built Ford Tough 225 at Kentucky Speedway last Saturday night instead of the Nationwide race at Gateway International Raceway. Well, he was trying to set a NASCAR record, but came up five spots short. Johnny Benson won the race, holding off  Michael Annett for the victory. Busch was attempting to become the first driver to win in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Nationwide Series and Craftsman Truck Series in successive starts. He won the Nationwide Series’ Dollar General 300 on July 11th and the Sprint Cup’s Lifelock.com 400 the following night. Oh well, better luck next time!

Kyle is currently 7th in the Nationwide Series points standings with 2,663 points, 474 points behind points leader Clint Bowyer who is 170 ahead of Brad Keselowski. Carl Edwards is third, 201 points behind Bowyer. 

This weekend, the Craftsman trucks are racing at O'Reilly Raceway Park on Friday night at 8:15 in the Power Stroke Diesel 200. Ron Hornaday, Jr., is the defending champion. This year's driver's championship couldn't be any tighter: Johnny Benson leads the way with 1,881 points, Matt Crafton is ONE point back, and Hornaday is FIVE! Now that's intense! 

Lots of news and notes about the IndyCar Series, but let's get the basics down first: This week's race is in Canada, the Rexall Grand Prix of Edmonton. Qualifying takes place on Friday and the race is on Saturday at 5 p.m. (Eastern). You can see it on ESPN.

On Thursday, in only the first day of practice for the Rexall Edmonton Indy race, KV Racing Technology teammates Will Power and Oriol Servia swept the top two spots.

Although it’s the IndyCar Series' first visit to the 14-turn, 1.96-mile street circuit, eight drivers, including Power and Servia, have already raced at the facility. Power, the 2007 polesitter, turned a fast lap of 1 minute, 2.3404 seconds (113.936 mph),  with Servia less than five-hundredths of a second off the pace (1 minute, 2.3900 seconds, 113.485 mph).

Team Penske teammates Helio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe were third and fourth, respectively. The two have combined to win the PEAK Motor Oil Pole Award at the last two races on road/street courses.

Former Champ Car star, Paul Tracy, was eighth-fastest in practice. (Shawn Payne Photo)

A final practice session is scheduled for Friday morning, followed by the battle for the $10,000 PEAK Motor Oil Pole Award in the afternoon.

Scott Dixon still leads by a big margin, with 455 points. Helio Castroneves is second (397), followed by Ton Kanaan (365), Dan Wheldon (364), Ryan Briscoe (296) and Danica Patrick who sits in sixth with 284 points.

Which brings up the little snit we viewed last weekend when Danica reprimanded the lovely Milka Duno for getting in her way . . . during practice. Jeez, Danica, cool your jets! While Milka is real eye candy, she is not altogether fast in a racecar and is currently in 25th place in the standings.

Of course, everyone with a microphone, a notepad or a camera ran right up and started recording the event. Hey, maybe they should cool their jets as well! 

And, while on the topic of women racecar drivers, Sarah Fisher (the first woman in Indy Cars to capture a pole position) has just gotten a primary sponsorship from Dollar General and will be racing at the Meijer 300 at Kentucky Speedway on August 9th, and in the Chicagoland 300 on  September 7th.

Champ Car star Paul Tracy has a one-race deal to race at the Edmonton round.  The 39-year-old driver, who has won 31 races in his career, is running a Walker Racing car and hoping that the ride will be expanded. We are too . . . we'd love to see him at Infineon Raceway on August 24th. 

In any case, it should be fun seeing how Tracy does against the guys who have been running the IndyCar racers all season long. Could he win? No, not a chance! But still, as a Canadian, he's probably seen the circuit more than once before!

In Formula One, Lewis Hamilton had been dominant in both practice and qualifying -- so we more or less expected him to win Sunday's German Grand Prix at Hockenheim -- and he did. But, winning required a brilliant drive from the Englishman to get it done as he overtook Ferrari's Felipe Massa and Renault's Nelson Piquet.

In claiming the top step on the podium, the McLaren driver won his second race in a row and took sole possession of this year's drivers' championship, four points ahead of Massa.

Piquet, operating a one-stop strategy, claimed his first podium finish in Formula One in second, with Ferrari's Massa in third place. BMW's Nick Heidfelt was fourth, McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen fifth and Kimi Raikkonen drove a red car to sixth.

Despite setting a blistering pace throughout, Hamilton nearly lost the race thanks to a tactical blunder by his team. A  huge crash involving Timo Glock brought the safety car out, but Hamilton -- who was leading the race -- opted not to take a pit stop and then fell to third after he later pitted. Using his superior speed, he overtook first Massa and then Piquet to claim the victory.

This is the Infiniti G35 Journey. We think you should run to your dealer for a test drive!

Recently, Birchard took a long ride in the Infiniti EX35 and was impressed. And, I tried the Infiniti G35 Journey, and . . . yes, that too was impressive. So, Infinitis are proving themselves strong. More, Hal Wood just did a review of the Chevy Tahoe Hybrid, with photography by Birchard. If you need big, this is the way to go!

This is the Nissan Sentra 2.0 S, but variations in the lineup range here is simply huge!

Tom Benford has contributed an article on the 1956 (you read that right!) Continental Mark II. If you're in need of a flashback, this is it. Hey, Elvis was alive at that point. You can see Tom's article in the Reviews Section.

In case you've never run into Tom Benford (unlikely, mind you!) you can find out more information about him and his latest publication, The Garage and Workshop Gear Guide, which is a generic tome on tools, gear and how to use 'em. See the News Section for the info.

And, if you'd like to know more about the history of land speed record attempts, click on www.landspeedracing.com to see the fine work of Richard Parks who is presenting a wealth of information.

At SpeedStyle we give you the zippidy-do of cars, the real love! But, are you looking for the nuts and bolts of the business side of the equation? If so, check out http://www.automotivedigest.com/view_art.asp?articlesID=24106.

As you can see, everything is easy to access in this stunning track car, the FRC-14.

No one does it like Mazda . . . opening a wide range of competition opportunities to customers.

Not only does this series help the drivers get track time, but it also helps viewers because it includes a television package that will broadcast all eight races in an expanded 60-minute package by DIRECTV and the DISH network. The commentary will be led by veteran Rick Benjamin and Hall of Fame racer Elliott Forbes-Robinson  Pit reporters will be a rotation of Derek Pernesiglio, Todd Lewis, and Rod Albright. 

Here's the upcoming schedule: July 27th, Portland (broadcast beginning the week of August 18th), August 10th, Road America (the week of September 8th), August 16th, Trois-Rivieres  (the week of September 22nd), September 21st, Miller Motorsports Park (the week of October 13th),  September 28th, New Jersey Motorsports Park (the week of October 27th), and October 19th, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca (the week of November 10th).                      

If you'd like to see a different spin on things, from a guy who knows what he's talking about, you need to check out Gil Bouffard's Fastlines International at http://www.fastlinesinternational.com/index.html. The site has just been updated, and this update of the well known and hottest web site in California's Central Valley contains an appreciation of the late Bernard Cahier and other good stuff. Go ahead, check it out! Oh, and Gil has been taking photographs at the world's racetracks for decades, and we're trying to lure him into sharing some of those photos with us  -- and you!.

Troy Casteneda makes his way to the starting grid in Italy -- where he did very well in first race.

Then, in the day's second race, Troy worked his way from the back of the field up into a fifth-place finish . . . that held!

“My family flew over to watch me this weekend and spend some time with me," said Troy who is racing under Gil Bouffard's Golden Bear Racing banner. "They told me during the race that the announcer was saying my name constantly, which is really exciting!”

For Gil's most recent rant, see the Features Section and take a gander. 

Debbie Baker always leads Cruin' parade!

Yes, we like linkin' here, and if you're into street rods, give this site a look -- www.streetrodsunlimited.com.