Adrian Sutil has been convicted of causing grievous bodily harm to Lotus (then Renault) director Eric Lux in a Shanghai nightclub last April. The incident involving a champagne glass left Lux bleeding from a neck wound which required  24 stitches.  The German driver was handed an 18-month suspended sentence and fined €200,000 (£167,224; $264,092) by a Munich court. Sutil had admitted to unintentionally injuring Lux—saying he had meant to simply throw his drink over him and accidentally released the glass.   But the court decided he had intentionally caused the injury to Lux. GBH (or the German equivalent) is a serious offence, and Sutil can consider himself lucky to have received a "celebrity sentence" o...

Of all NASCAR drivers who were in peril of not getting the chance to continue racing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Brian "The Sheriff" Vickers has had the worst time finding a new ride after the dissolution of his old team, Red Bull Racing. Most, if not all, other drivers who had no contract for 2012 have found a new ride. Not all of them are prestigious, but beggars cannot be choosers. A.J. Allmendinger was signed fairly soon after the sudden departure of Kurt Busch. Busch was then signed to a new team. David Reutimann, kicked to the curb by Michael Waltrip Racing in favor of Mark Martin, has even been signed to race again in the Sprint Cup. David Reutimann? Not to mention David Ragan in addition to that. Vickers is not a NASCAR pushove...

Predicting who is going to win the NASCAR championship is not as hard as predicting who will win the championship in other sports.Winning a NASCAR championship depends on the talent of the driver, the equipment of the team and the financial stability of the team. There are only about 15 drivers who fall into this category. Picking which one of those 15 drivers will win is the tricky part.There are many different websites providing odds to win the NASCAR championship in 2012. Most of them have different drivers at the top of their list. I chose to use TheSpread.com for this article. I have noticed in the past that this website gives the odds consistent with other top betting sites.So, who is going to win the championship in 2012? Here i...

Predicting who is going to win the NASCAR championship is not as hard as predicting who will win the championship in other sports.Winning a NASCAR championship depends on the talent of the driver, the equipment of the team and the financial stability of the team. There are only about 15 drivers who fall into this category. Picking which one of those 15 drivers will win is the tricky part.There are many different websites providing odds to win the NASCAR championship in 2012. Most of them have different drivers at the top of their list. I chose to use TheSpread.com for this article. I have noticed in the past that this website gives the odds consistent with other top betting sites.So, who is going to win the championship in 2012? Here i...

We're standing on the precipice of February, and with the second month of the year comes the start of the American motorsport calendar in earnest.The Rolex 24 at Daytona has been won (by a team that included NASCAR driver A.J. Allmendinger) and Daytona Speedweeks are now in full force, as NASCAR teams prepare for the Bud Shootout, Gatorade Duels, and the crown jewel of the calendar, the Daytona 500.Most teams, by now, have settled on their plans for the season, picking up drivers and filing their entry blanks for full-time or part-time schedules.But in an owners' market, with some big-name teams folding (Team Red Bull comes to mind) or contracting (Jack Roush and Richard Childress are among the owners to do so), and only underfunded private...

We're standing on the precipice of February, and with the second month of the year comes the start of the American motorsport calendar in earnest.The Rolex 24 at Daytona has been won (by a team that included NASCAR driver A.J. Allmendinger), and Daytona Speedweeks are now in full force as NASCAR teams prepare for the Bud Shootout, Gatorade Duels and the crown jewel of the calendar, the Daytona 500.Most teams, by now, have settled on their plans for the season, picking up drivers and filing their entry blanks for full-time or part-time schedules.But in an owners' market, with some big-name teams folding (Team Red Bull comes to mind) or contracting (Jack Roush and Richard Childress are among the owners to do so), and only underfunded privatee...

When will Dale Earnhardt Jr. win again?Will he ever be a factor in the Chase?Does he still have the talent worthy of driving a Hendrick Motorsports race car? As NASCAR heads into 2012, there are—as usual—a multitude of questions swirling around the sport's most popular driver. Naysayers are out in full force, voicing doubts over Dale Jr.'s ability to live up to expectations that, at times, have been sky-high. Several years of underwhelming performance have given Junior's critics plenty of ammunition. Comparing him to Dale Sr., they denigrate his abilities and claim he is a failure. Of course Junior will never be a seven-time champion like his father, but his reputation could certainly use bolstering. And that process ne...

After failing to complete the "six pack" in 2012, five-time consecutive Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson's season may have seemed like a relative failure.He finished lower (sixth place) than any other year in his Sprint Cup career. He also won fewer times than in any prior season where he raced in all 36 scheduled events.But Johnson's relative failure seemed to actually aid NASCAR in declaring 2011 an overwhelming success. Recently, NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France was able to deliver a speech that basically expressed that the biggest challenge for 2012 is repeating 2011.This is a fairly decent position to be in when speaking of an entire sport. Few other organizations could say the same. With the possible exception of the NFL,...

After failing to complete the "six pack" in 2012, five-time consecutive Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson's season may have seemed like a relative failure.He finished lower (sixth place) than any other year in his Sprint Cup career. He also won fewer times than in any prior season where he raced in all 36 scheduled events.But Johnson's relative failure seemed to actually aid NASCAR in declaring 2011 an overwhelming success. Recently, NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France was able to deliver a speech that basically expressed that the biggest challenge for 2012 is repeating 2011.This is a fairly decent position to be in when speaking of an entire sport. Few other organizations could say the same. With the possible exception of the NFL,...

Racin’ with Russ - After spending the past seven weeks explaining the many changes in store for the Sprint Cup and Nationwide series, I thought I’d hit some of the highlights in the same vein related to the Camping World Truck series. I’ll also throw in my predictions as to how well the various combos will fare.Ty Dillon will fill the seat of his brothers (Austin) championship ride in the familiar black No. 3 Chevy. This talented young man comes off seven wins and an ARCA title with a few truck starts under his belt. I think between his natural talent and the Childress team resources, a few wins and a shot at a title are not out of the question.
With Monster Energy drinks moving their backing over to the Busch brothers ...