Jenson Button was critical of Felipe Massa after qualifying for the Monaco grand prix.

With Fernando Alonso already out of the session due to his practice crash, the other Ferrari could also now be penalised by the stewards for the incident that occurred in the final ‘Q3′ shootout for the top ten grid placings.

McLaren’s Button, the world championship leader, had to abandon his first timed lap when he encountered a slow-moving Massa in the final Anthony Noghes corner.

“I don’t know what he was doing,” the Briton told the BBC.

“There were only ten drivers on the track so it should have been easy (to get out of the way),” said Button, adding that the Brazilian “blatantly slowed me down”.

During qualifying, former grand prix driver Anthony Davidson spotted Button also being held up by Sauber’s Pedro de la Rosa.

“I would be furious if I was Jenson Button — he totally held him up,” said the British radio commentator.

(GMM)

The Daytona 500 is the only event with a unique qualifying system on the NASCAR circuit.  In the primary qualifying, only the front row (the pole position and the second fastest driver) are locked into the race positions.  Since 2005, NASCAR’s top 35 owners points standings from the previous season automatically qualifies those teams (not the drivers) into the event.  The top two teams that are not within the owners’ Top 35, automatically qualify in the Gatorade Duels, a pair of 150 miles (240 km) races. This is followed by a combination of last years’ owners points, pole qualifying speed and if needed, a past champions’ provisional fills out the field.

Qualifying

One round of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series timed qualifying will be held. Each team may run two laps with the fast lap setting the qualifying time. The two fastest qualifiers set starting positions one and two and are the only guaranteed positions, filling the front row for the Daytona 500. • The Gatorade Duels, the 150-mile qualifying races, will determine starting positions for the Daytona 500 beyond the front row. In the event of cancellation, the field will be set according to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Rule Book.

The 2009 Daytona 500, the fifty-first running of Daytona 500, was the first points-paying race to open the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup season.  The race won by Matt Kenseth with car number 17 on February 15 at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach.  The Colombian, Juan Pablo Montoya finished in 14^th position, and the race was called off with 48 laps to go after a severe rainstorm that had been lingering throughout the area hit the track.

Who is your favorite for Sunday’s Daytona 500?

The Gatorade Duel, is NASCAR Sprint Cup Series preliminary event to the Daytona 500 held annually in February at Daytona International Speedway.  It consists of two 150-mile (240 km) races, and serves as a qualifying race for the Daytona 500. The finishing order in the two 150-mile (240 km) races, held on Thursday, determine the starting lineup for the Daytona 500 held on Sunday.

Qualifying for the Daytona 500 is unique in NASCAR. Only the two front row starters (the pole position and “outside pole”) are determined by the ordinary qualifying process of timed laps. After the top two positions are locked in, the rest of the starting grid is set by the finishing order of these two races. Drivers participate in one of the two races. Half the field entered for the Daytona 500 races in the first race, and the other half the second. The finishing order of the first race fills the odd positions of the starting grid (inside of each row), and the finishing order for the second race fills the even positions of the starting grid (outside of each row).

Sprint Cup Series cars are unique in automobile racing. The engines are powerful enough to reach speeds over 200 mph (320 km/h), but high weight makes for poor handling. Their bodies and chassis are strictly regulated to ensure parity, and electronics are generally simple.

In 2009, Jimmie Johnson was the only driver to win 4 consecutive Sprint Cup championships.

This Saturday Kevin Harvick won Budweiser Shootout at Daytona for second consecutive time, but even though he’s very happy, he’s aware that this victory does not guarantee his success in the 2010 race at Daytona 500

Last year, Harvick almost won the Daytona 500 race where he finished in second position after Matt Kenseth.  However, his overall performance during the whole season was far from what he expected.  Still he had to admit he’s excited after winning Saturday’s non-points event behind the wheel of his No. 29 RCR-powered Chevrolet for the second consecutive year.

Although he said there are no guarantees that things improve this year, he hopes that the rest of the season is much better than the last. He declared “he is painfully aware of the fickle nature of races at Daytona International Speedway. What he accomplished Saturday night was great, but in the long run of Speedweeks at DIS it may not mean a whole lot, or even anything at all.

“I’ve been here enough times to know this can be a funny week,” Harvick said. “It can mess with you time after time. Hour by hour can bring something that’s unexpected, just like getting sick to start the week. I mean, that’s not something that you plan for or can plan for.

“Getting sick … having the car wrecked in the first practice with someone else driving it … there are just so many variables that can get thrown at you this week, you just have to stay even keel. This is great that we won this race. We’re all really excited about what we want to do. But the big picture is on Sunday. It’s just taking it hour by hour, one day at a time, and stay concentrated.”

According to a multitude of fans and media members, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. encountered a travesty of a season while driving for Hendrick Motorsports in 2008. Apparently, he was supposed to jump into a Hendrick Motorsports prepared car and post Jimmie Johnson-like stats. When the 2008 season began last February at Daytona, Earnhardt, Jr. captured the Bud Shootout and one of the Gatorade 125 races, increasing his expectations even more.

As the season progressed, Earnhardt, Jr. enjoyed several solid showings throughout the first half of the year. He nearly won a number of races, most notably at Richmond in May when he was spun by Kyle Busch with just a handful of laps remaining. In fact, for the first quarter of the season, Earnhardt, Jr. was arguably the top performing Hendrick Motorsports driver despite the fact that he was shut out of victory lane.

The first win finally occurred at the 2-mile speedway in Brooklyn, Michigan. Earnhardt, Jr. ran among the top five and ten for most of the race, but it was superior fuel mileage that earned him his first and only victory of the season.

Earnhardt, Jr. spent most of the first half of the season among the top three in the Sprint Cup championship standings.

Following his victory at Michigan, Earnhardt, Jr.’s performance began to wane a little. He would only score one top ten finish in the preceding ten races; nevertheless, he still easily qualified for the ten raceChase for the Championship.

His championship pursuit was far from spectacular, as he scored only three top ten finishes in the final ten races and finished last among all twelve drivers in the Chase for the Championship in the standings. Certainly, it was not an ideal way to begin his career at Hendrick Motorsports; however, was it a disaster?

It seems as if Dale Earnhardt, Jr. has topped everyone’s list as the most disappointing driver of the 2008 Sprint Cup campaign. He could have done a lot worse.

Firstly, let us take a glimpse at some hard facts. Earnhardt, Jr. finished twelfth in the championship standings, better than Kurt Busch, Ryan Newman, Kasey Kahne, Bobby Labonte, Juan Pablo Montoya, Martin Truex, Jr., Jamie McMurray, and other familiar stars.

He scored ten top five finishes. Only six drivers in the entire Sprint Cup series scored more top five finishes. Under the traditional championship format, Earnhardt, Jr. would have placed seventh in the final standings, higher than Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, and Matt Kenseth.

He completed 98.6 percent of the laps he races, which is a personal career high. His average running position was 11.6, fourth among all drivers.

Most significantly, Earnhardt, Jr. won a race, something that Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, and twenty-two other full-time drivers could not accomplish.

A true measure of a driver’s performance is the driver ratings. Driver rating’s are an intricate formula consisting of wins, finishes, top fifteen finishes, average running position while on the lead lap, average speed under green flag conditions, fastest laps, most laps led, and lead lap finishes. Basically, the driver’s with the highest rating are the ones that are frequently running near the front of the pack.

Earnhardt, Jr. finished the season with a driver rating of 99.0, which was fourth among all Sprint Cup drivers. Only Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson, and Kyle Busch produced a better driver rating than Earnhardt, Jr, whose rating was higher than Jeff Gordon, Greg Biffle, Kevin Harvick, and Tony Stewart.

So fans, was Dale Earnhardt, Jr. really that awful?

He is the most popular driver in NASCAR, and that comes with monumental exposure. Additionally, he is the son of seven-time champion Dale Earnhardt, Sr, which that alone adds insurmountable pressure. Honestly, it does not matter how well Dale Earnhardt, Jr. performs, he will always fall short of expectations, because people expect his performance to match is popularity, which is utterly impossible. He is a victim of his own name and fame.