Bloggin' is Racin'

Setzer wins emotional Truck series race

Dennis Setzer, left, has won at Martinsville Speedway before, but Saturday's victory in the Craftsman Truck Series Kroger 250 was surely the most emotional for the veteran driver. Setzer outlasted several late-race cautions to win Dodge's first race since the late Bobby Hamilton won at Mansfield, Ohio, in 2005. In a twist of fate, Setzer won in the No. 18 Ram 1500 co-owned by Hamilton's widow, Lori. Matt Crafton finished second, followed by Rick Crawford, Ken Schrader and Erik Darnell. Read more about Setzer's win here.

-- Michele Vincze

Qualifying roundup

With so many series running this weekend, here's a quick roundup of Friday's qualifying sessions, courtesy of The Associated Press:

IndyCar Series
Scott Dixon took the pole position for the first race of the new, unified era of American open-wheel racing. Dixon, who lost last year's IRL IndyCar Series championship to Dario Franchitti when he ran out of fuel on the last turn of the last lap of the season, got off to a good start Friday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, winning the first Indy-style qualifying outside of the Indianapolis 500. Over the winter, the IRL announced that it would adopt the unique four-lap qualifying format used at Indy for all of its oval races in 2008. Dixon took advantage with a four-lap average of 213.341 mph in his Target Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara, earning his ninth career pole. Ed Carpenter will start second and native Texas A.J. Foyt IV will line up third for Saturday's Gainsco Indy 300. A full lineup can be found here.

NHRA
Odessa native Alan Bradshaw raced to the provisional No. 1 qualifying position in Top Fuel during the first day of qualifying Friday for the O'Reilly NHRA Spring Nationals at Houston Raceway Park in Baytown. Cruz Pedregon (Funny Car), Kurt Johnson (Pro Stock) and Matt Smith (Pro Stock Motorcycle) rounded out the provisional No. 1 qualifiers through the first two of four rounds of qualifying. More info can be found here.

Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series
David Donohue took the pole position Saturday's Grand Prix of Miami, the first time the Brumos Porsche team has topped qualifying since the 2005 event. Donohue, the son of late racing great Mark Donohue, set a Daytona Prototype track record on the 2.3-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway infield road course with a time of 1:13.022. He averaged 113.390 mph in the No. 58 Brumos Porsche Riley. Canada's Michael Valiante qualified second in the No. 10 SunTrust Racing Pontiac Dallara at 1:13.305 (112.953 mph). Valiante's qualifying session came in the car's first official on-track activity. Get all your sports-car racin' love here.

Weighty issue in IndyCar

Maybe Sprint Cup regular Robby Gordon was really on to something a few years ago when he complained the smaller drivers in the IndyCar Series have an advantage.
This season, the series has finally addressed the weight issue.
For the first time, the smallest and biggest drivers in the IndyCar Series have a weight adjustment on their cars, The Associated Press reported. IRL officials said Friday that the drivers all stepped on scales during their preseason physicals and have been placed into one of five weight categories. The lightest three categories will have weight added to their cars, the fourth category will remain unchanged and the heaviest drivers will have the ballast weight in their cars reduced.
All of the cars have had lead ballast behind the driver's seat and that will be where it will be removed from or added, with the overall weight difference in the cars set at about 35 pounds.
“I think it's a very touchy situation,” said Brian Barnhart, vice president of competition for the IRL. “So that addresses why I didn't go all the way with it.
“All I really tried to do is reduce the difference between the lightest and heaviest and try and get it to a point where it is virtually an insignificant difference. Where we're sitting right now, the whole field, driver in car, is within one percent.”
None of the current IndyCar drivers is big by the standards of most other sports. Danica Patrick is the smallest IndyCar driver, listed in the media guide as 5-feet tall and 100 pounds, while former Champ Car star Justin Wilson, is the biggest at 6-3 and 193 pounds.