TOP 100 RACING SITES
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| Webber caught in team war Mark Webber has found himself at the centre of Formula One's latest row, with his Red Bull team to file a protest should a controversial bodywork section of several rival Formula One cars pass scrutineering for the Australian Grand Prix. foxsports.com.au |
Robby Gordon Penalized for Failing Inspection Robby Gordon was docked 50 points by Nascar on Wednesday for failing an inspection after his best finish in almost four years. Kirk Almquist, Gordon’s crew chief, was also fined $50,000 and placed on probation until the end of the season for the infraction discovered at Lowe’s Motor Speedway near Charlotte, N.C. Gordon used strategy in the rain-shortened Coca-Cola to finish third, his best finish in a Sprint Cup Series race since he was second at Watkins Glen in 2005. nytimes.com |
Cash for Clunkers Surprises its Critics Okay, I have to admit that the government’s Cash for Clunkers program worked better than I expected. With the program running low on cash right out of the gate—and Michigan lawmakers requesting $2 billion on top of the original $1 billion that is all but spent--plenty of dealers and analysts are surprised at how fast it worked. The law's critics, including me, figured it had been hammered into mediocrity like so many pieces of legislation in Washington. I wrote that the program was lousy legislation in this magazine story. I still don’t think it was a great bill for improving fuel economy. And the sales boost will be short-lived without more money. But the program has worked. Why has it been so popular? For starters, the government made some changes between the time it was passed and when the feds rolled it out. Some cars didn’t qualify under the original legislation because the mileage rating as calculated by the government was too high. You had to trade in a car that got 18 mpg or worse to get the money. But there was a problem. After 2007, the government changed how they calculate fuel economy ratings for every model in order to match real-world driving. Before that, the government’s mileage rating for most models was unrealistically high and consumers griped that they didn't get that kind of mileage out on the road. So the government decided at the 11th hour to apply the new rating system to older models, thus lowering the mileage rating and making them eligible for a scrappage check. That helped. Some older models and even minivans that wouldn’t have qualified under the original proposal could be scrapped to get cash for a new car once the program started. Another assumption made by analysts at IHS Global Insight and Edmunds.com was that people owning old cars worth less than $3,500 aren’t in the new-car market. They bought used cars and will do so again. They may not even have credit to get financed for a new-car purchase. And for many people driving those older cars, that’s the case. But in many other cases, dealers told me, families with good credit have their teenage or college kids driving the old beater. So they are trading it in for a new model. And last, there’s just good old-fashioned buzz. As long as banks, carmakers and Wall Street are getting bailout money, a lot of consumers figured they’d go and see if they could get their government cheese from Uncle Sam, too. So the program generated showroom traffic and got people shopping. I do stand by the key points from my original column. One, it is a great bill for selling new pickup trucks, which hardly greens the planet as its proponents originally stated. And my bigger point was that the program was grossly underfunded. It was. We’ll only get about a 2.5% sales increase for the year if the House and Senate don’t approve more cash. That’s in the works as we speak. Another $2 billion will likely be approved by the House today. It will be tougher in the Senate, according to sources on Capitol Hill. But it could be approved next week. If so, it could boost sales by 7% to 8% for the year. That will help ailing carmakers. If not, the Clunbker bill's success will be short lived. rss.businessweek.com |
Nascar Fans Get Their Way: Earlier Starts Twenty-one Nascar Sunday afternoon races, including the Daytona 500, will start at 1 p.m. Eastern. All Saturday night races will begin at 7:30 p.m. nytimes.com |
Stoner third after practice Australia's Casey Stoner has posted the third fastest time in final practice at the Malaysian Grand Prix on Saturday. foxsports.com.au |