Quotes of the Week

"The way the IRL and Versus spin it, their deal for the next 10 years is the classic win-win, but cynics might look at it another way. Races will move from the undisputed go-to source for all things sport to the television home for the World Extreme Cagefighting and the [PBR] tour." Kallmann also said, [It is] "hard to see how a post-unification series with potential to grow can benefit from moving from the go-to source for most sports fans (ESPN/ESPN2) to the smaller, younger home of bull riding, cycling, cage-fighting and (gasp) the [NHL] that's further down the dial." Dave Kallmann, Motorsports Journalist, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“He [Tony Stewart] had me beat getting into the inner loop and to the middle of the inner loop. From there on out I think we pretty much had him covered everywhere else. We were able to get off the corners real well and we were able to get the car wooed up really good with some brakes. That’s what it takes here — you have to be able to stop and you have to be able to go." Kyle Busch, NASCAR Toyota Sprint Cup driver, Joe Gibbs Racing, winner of the race at Watkins Glen

“I’m sorry, what slump?" Busch said on his radio after crossing the finish line at Watkins Glen. "They can keep trying to play these mind games. We’ll just keep winning." Kyle Busch, NASCAR driver, Joe Gibbs Racing, winner of the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Watkins Glen, in reference to statements from his former Hendrick Motorsports teammates, Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon, who said they had seen weakness in the No. 18 team based on lackluster performances in the past two races at Indianapolis and Pocono.

"I'll tell you this. Tony George said that they weren't changing the track and I don't blame them. It's expensive to pave the track. But diamond-grinding the race track with the grooves does directly have an effect on tire wear. Directly. And anyone who wants to say otherwise is just in denial. All right? So, with that said, obviously I wouldn't expect [Tony] to repave the race track, even though they did diamond-grind it for no good reason." Dale Earnhardt Jr., NASCAR driver, Hendrick Motorsports, commenting in the wake of the Allstate 400 at Indy, where Goodyear's tires were so bad that the longest green-flag run was 12 laps

"Formula One does need to control costs, but how you actually achieve that I don't know. We have two-race engines and we should possibly expand that – everyone has been able to cope with it. Obviously Formula One needs the smaller teams in it. At the moment it is incredibly competitive, and we're regularly qualifying well under two seconds off the quickest lap time – and we do that off $120 million. So why are teams spending $500 million? You can blatantly have a competitive series with cars that we produce which, let's face it, three or four years ago would have been middle to top ranked cars." Michael Gascoyne, Technical Director, Force India Formula 1 team

"BMW should be warned after having that accident [with their mechanic in testing], and Frank [Williams] I do not understand. We have calculated that developing and running the [KERS] system will cost 700,000 euros per race. If Frank tells me that his development costs only 2 million, than I can only laugh. Does he really think he can do the job with two million against manufacturers, who spend ten times as much?" Flavio Briatore, Managing Director, Renault Formula 1 team

Klien has ruled out going to the IRL series, because it is "too dangerous". Christian Klien, Formula One driver, said he sees retaining his test seat at BMW-Sauber as his best opportunity for 2009.

Jonathan is "too nice for Formula One." Sir Frank Williams, Founder and Team Principal, Williams Formula 1 team, rules out suggestions that his son, Jonathan, involved with a GP2 team but also with an office at Williams in Grove, will succeed him.

"In the days when you carried your entire race fuel load on board the car, there was a much bigger role for the driver in managing the tires and brakes. You could decide to run non-stop if you could make the tires go the distance, while someone else might pit twice. And because the car's weight changed so much more in the course of the race, there were more fluctuations in performance and handling characteristics, which in turn created more overtaking opportunities. These days, in dry conditions, you very rarely see anyone win from further back than the second row of the grid, because race pace largely mirrors qualifying pace – which is not surprising when the conditions are so similar. So if we need to spice up the racing, in my view one of the best ways of doing that would be to ban refueling." David Coulthard, retiring F1 driver, Red Bull Racing

“What a day. I think we tried to play it kind of safe and just be conservative. Even in traffic we really didn’t rush things. The car was fantastic. We didn’t have as much speed, actually, as we thought we did, especially in practice and qualifying. The car was super fast. We had a couple of guys that definitely sped up, with (Vitor) Meira and Marco (Andretti) toward the end, their cars were very fast. It was strategy in the end, it was crazy. There was no way we were going to catch him. He was half the track ahead of us. I knew our car was probably quicker than his, but not 20 miles per hour faster. It was nice to get it the way we did. I think about the run that Dario (Franchitti) had for the championship last season, and it’s nice to be able to be in that position after how we lost it last year." Scott Dixon, IRL driver, Target Chip Ganassi Racing, commenting on his sixth win this season at Kentucky Speedway

“Just a huge relief. It feels like a big relief off my shoulders, I’m sure it is for everybody in this room, standing next to us, because we’ve committed a lot to it. I’ve come along way, I’ve dragged my family halfway around the world, away from my dad and mom, and everybody who needs me back in Australia, and today it just feels like it’s worthwhile. It feels like I’ve conquered a huge mountain, and it’s just a great day. Marcos Ambrose, NASCAR Nationwide driver, JTG Racing, first Australian to win a NASCAR race

"The season so far has been very good. We had an unlucky race at Sebring but we came back strong at St. Petersburg and Long Beach. No one expected us to be as strong there after last year. The same thing can be said for Lime Rock and Mid-Ohio. Today we did everything right and I think we were fastest in every session. We totally deserved to win this one." Lucas Luhr, ALMS Audi driver, overall winner along with teammate Marco Werner, Elkhart Lake race