Richard Petty’s wife, Lynda Petty, has Central Nervous System Lymphoma.  CNS Lymphoma is a type of cancerous brain tumor.  The Petty family made the announcement yesterday that Lynda was diagnosed with lymphoma.

Lynda Petty will begin her treatment at Duke University Medical Center.  The 7x Nascar Champion has stepped down from his duties at Richard Petty Motorsport.

Petty said, ” We are thankful for the medical team at Duke.  My wife Lynda is in good hands.  The doctors and my family are very optimistic that the treatment for this cancer will be successful.”

The Petty family has thanked friends and fans for their support, and asked that everyone respect their privacy during Lynda’s fight against lymphoma.

References

1. La Times.com

2. All Headline News.com

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With the ongoing drama that has plagued Renault since last season, Nick Heidfeld has decided to give up his chance for a Renault seat and instead accept a third seat placement at Mercedes GP. This isn’t a move that i personally saw coming from a racer of his caliber, however it was obvious to everyone including himself that Renault was not going to budge on their second driver choice.

With that being said, Heidfeld will now be playing backup driver to non other than Michael Schumacher himself, and with his past neck conditions, Heidfeld might just get some racing time in this season. I’m not saying that Micheal should take a dive or anything like that, that would ruin the return of the best F1 driver ever. I just think that Heidfeld could be doing better right now, he is just in a bad position with the whole Renault deal. But you know what they say, good things come to those who wait.

References

1. Speedtv.com

2. Picture

Nobody saw it coming, Ken  Block leaving his original Subaru team to go drive the new ford fiesta and ford focus rally cars.

Danica Patrick to race at 2010 Daytona 500. Will Danica Patrick step in and stir things up? It does not mean she is not ready to race. Maybe she did not get put in very many tough situations, the Daytona 500 gets underway on February 13. According to JR Motor sports , Danica Patrick will race in at least 12 nascar events this season . Look out men she is on fire. Danica coming off a super awesome season in the Indy car series , a lot of her fans think that she will do just fine  with the best in nascar.

Justin Wison joins fellow Englishman Mike Conway at Dreyer & Reinbold Racing.

Formula One driver, Justin Wilson, joins Dreyer & Reinbold Racing for the 2010 IndyCar series.  The 32 year old from England, is the last driver out side of Target Chip Ganassi Racing or Team Penske to win an IndyCar Series race.

Wilson won in 2008 at Belle Isle, racing for Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing.  Then he won last July at Watkins Glen International driving for Dale Coyne Racing.

Wilson said, “I’m excited about the potential of the team and I like the way they go about doing business.  It was a pretty tough call to leave Dale Coyne Racing and move on with my career.  Not an easy decision, but this all came together very quickly in the last 2½ weeks.  I was pleased to get the opportunity.”

Wilson will drive car No. 22 and bring sponsor Z-line Design to Dreyer & Reinbold Racing.

References

1. Sports.Espn.go.com

Okay, nascar has been making a lot of shocking changes to this seasons rule book. First it was the spoilers on the cars, then the double yellow line came into question. Right now, nascar really seems to be cleaning house. Well cleaning house is a weird statement to make on this news.

Remember Jeremy Mayfield? I do, i remember how much he complained that nascar was being unfair to him for banning him from the sport. I remember how he claimed that nascar couldn’t ban him because there was no official banned substance list. Well that face changes do to day as nascar makes another rule change

In this case all the usual suspects made the list. Including a few that i have never even heard of before. But i guess nascar is really thinking now. I do not mean to bad mouth the association, but you need to have a list of illegal substances in your rulebook. Nascar was right for banning Mayfield, everyone agreed with that. But you could not ignore the elephant in the room, and that is what nascar is addressing now.

References

1. speedtv.com

2. Picture

Ryan Villopoto wins the Monster Energy AMA Supercross.  The race was held at AT&T Park in San Fransisco and was Villopoto’s 1st win of the season.

Ryan Dungey, who is leading in the AMA Supercross standing, made a crucial mistake that night at the end of the 10th lap.  He lost control of his bike and fell.  Dungey’s bike went about 20 yards of ahead of him and by the time he could regain his composure, Villopoto cut Dungey’s 7 second lead to just 2 seconds.

Dungey said, “I’m just glad I’m all right, it could have been really nasty.”

Villiopoto took advantage of the situation and quickly took the lead and held on for the victory, which is the 3rd win in his career.

Villopoto said, “It was tough out there.  The track was slippery and really difficult to ride.  Its a long season and I just need to keep my head down and keep scoring points, anything can happen as we have seen already.”

James Stewart, the reining champion, was not competing due to a broken wrist.

References

1. LA Times.com

2. Mercury News.com

3. MX Large.com

With all the sucess of other teams in last years sprint cup racing series, some of the little guys got over-shadowed in the mix. One of these, “little guys” was the boys at RCR racing. Last year was well, a terrible season for the team, they didn’t even come close to a chase birth and lets not even go to wins.

Despite this, Burton is claiming that the past is the past and that RCR will perform better. Most thing he will be shooting for the 2006-2008 year seasons where he made every chase and had wins as well. Also, Todd Berrier will rejoin Burton in the pits of race day as the crew chief. So the picture is already looking a whole heck of a lot better.

As for the rest of the team, much stays the same, Harvick isn’t really changing anything on his end, and Clint Bowyer seems to be following. SO for right now, we know that Burton will be ready for race day but what about the rest of the team, i guess they will settle it themselves in the oval.

References

1. speedtv.com

2. Picture

When JR motor sports finally confirmed that Danica Patrick would make a nationwide series appearance, the racing world was excited, no doubt about it. But, many still had some doubt on what the IRL stars schedule would really look like. Even though we knew the number of races, we didn’t know for sure where she would make here appearance.  It might be leaked info that Fontana is the first stop for Patrick, but here is the complete nationwide series schedule for Danica Patrick.

References

1. Nascar.com

2. Picture

Danica Patrick will compete in her first stock-car race this weekend.  Patrick is going to race in the ARCA at Daytona International on Saturday.  The big question on everyone’s mind is, is she going to be able to keep up with the competition.

This is going to be a huge transition for the Indy car driver turned Nascar driver.  The extreme temperature inside of a stock-car is going to take some getting used to.  Plus, the size and weight difference between stock-cars and Indy car is going to be a big adjustment for her.  Patrick has a full plate this season too.  She’s racing full time for Indy car, part-time swimsuit modeling and two year contract with JR Motosports.

If Patrick does well Saturday she could compete in the Nationwide Series race at Daytona on February 13.  She’s not going to race in any important Nascar events yet, Patrick is going to have to crawl before she walks.

References

1. NY Times.com