Colton Herta prepares for Rok Cup world championship in Italy

Jason Bowles wins NASCAR Toyota All Star Showdown at Irwindale

Jason Bowles drove his team's back-up car to the biggest win of his NASCAR career in front of a nationally televised audience at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale on Saturday night.
Bowles won the NASCAR Toyota All Star Showdown joining Joey Logano and David Gilliland on the impressive list of winners in the race that pits the top drivers from the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East and West, Mexico Series and Canadian Series.
This year's edition of the Showdown included action sports star and X Games champion Travis Pastrana.
He finished a respectable sixth place, surviving three red flag caution periods and nearly three hours in the car in his NASCAR debut.
Bowles, driving a car for Rusty Wallace Racing, won the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West championship in 2009, but spent last year piecing together a NASCAR schedule that included races in the Nationwide Series, Camping World Truck Series and the K&N Pro Series East.
He crashed his team's primary car in practice and the team had to switch to the back-up car for the Showdown.
Bowles raced with the leaders for the first 200 laps of the race. In the final 25 laps, he battled with Greg Pursley and Paulie Harraka for the lead. Bowles finally took the lead on lap 217, after the third red caution flag period of the race.
Read my story in the Sporting News for more on the race.

Photo: Travis Pastrana finished sixth in his NASCAR debut in the Toyota All Star Showdown at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale.

Showdown autograph session at Toyota Speedway

Travis Pastrana, Michael Waltrip and Steve Wallace sign autographs before the NASCAR Toyota All Star Showdown at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale.

Derek Thorn - NASCAR Toyota All Star Showdown

Derek Thorn won the pole for the NASCAR Toyota All Star Showdown with a time of 18.334 seconds around the half-mile oval of Toyota Speedway at Irwindale.
The driver from Lakeport, Calif., is making his first Showdown start. He won a late model race and finished second in a Stockcar Racing League Southwest Tour race at Irwindale over the summer.
Thorn won the pole in a field of drivers that included Steve Wallace from the NASCAR Nationwide Series, action sports star Travis Pastrana and Eric Holmes, the K&N Pro Series West champion.

Greg Pursley - NASCAR Toyota All Star Showdown

Greg Pursley will start the NASCAR Toyota All Star Showdown in second and on the front row with pole winner Derek Thorn.
Pursley won the pole for the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West race at Irwindale in July. His team brought the same car to the Showdown. It is the same car that won the pole for the West Series race at Montana Raceway Park. Pursley has won two West Series poles in the car, but the car has yet to finish a race.
Pursley turned a lap at 18.405 seconds around the track in qualifying for the Showdown.

Sean Caisse - NASCAR Toyota All Star Showdown

Sean Caisse, a driver from Pelham, N.H., will start third in the NASCAR Toyota All Star Showdown on Saturday night.
He holds the qualifying record in the Showdown. In 2007, he won the pole with a time of 18.271 seconds around the half-mile oval.
His qualifying time on Friday night was 18.460 seconds.

Travis Pastrana to make NASCAR debut at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale

More on Travis Pastrana making his NASCAR debut

Here's some more on Travis Pastrana making his NASCAR debut in the Toyota All Star Showdown at Irwindale this weekend.
He talks about working with Michael Waltrip and how he's going to juggle NASCAR and X Games in the same season.
Go to the K&N website for more.

Photo: Travis Pastrana unveils his NASCAR Nationwide Series car at L.A. Live in downtown Los Angeles.

Some thoughts on the Supercross race at Dodger Stadium

Since it looks like most of the newspapers in Los Angeles weren't able to publish the results of the AMA Monster Energy Supercross race at Dodger Stadium on Saturday night, Ryan Villopoto won.
Here are some other observations, obvious or otherwise, from Round 3 of the AMA Supercross series.
James Bubba Stewart finished second. More to the point, he didn't win. He was taken out in the heat race and rallied from the back of the field to qualify for the main event. Stewart actually had the lead in the main, but Villopoto took advantage of a rare Stewart mistake and took the lead late in the race.
“It was really slippery out there,” said Villopoto. “The start of my race didn’t go as planned, but I was able to make up some time early on and things went my way.”
Reigning Supercross series champ Ryan Dungey was third and looked to struggle in the second half of the race. Repeating as champ is going to be a real challenge for him, it looks like.
Trey Canard has the most impressive races of the night. He crashed in the heat race. The front wheel on his bike hit awkwardly and Canard flipped head first off his bike. The bike then flipped in the air and ran over his back.
It looked horrific, but Canard recovered, raced his way into the main through the last chance qualifier and finished fourth in the main.
The high-finishing rider from California was Brett Metcalfe from Lake Elsinore. He was eighth.
At least a Californian won the first Supercross Lites race at Dodger Stadium. Cole Seeley, a graduate of Newbury Park High School who lives in Corona, won the Lites race, the first of his career.
“This week I worked hard on starts and it paid off,” said Seeley. “That makes a big difference in the way the race unfolds when you are out front. This is the first win of my career and it feels great.”
Rumor around Dodger Stadium was that the area around the pitcher's mound was not supposed to be tampered with. An orange pylon was placed on top of the mound and the area was sectioned off. But before the heat races started, someone moved the cone. Bulldozers, albeit small ones, rolled over and spread dirt around the mound.
This might be the first clue for when people start asking what happened to the Dodger pitching staff in 2011.

Travis Pastrana unveils NASCAR plans

As Travis Pastrana plans to make his NASCAR debut, he knows he’s going to make some mistakes. On the night he unveiled his plans for the NASCAR Nationwide Series, he referred to Staples Center, site of many of his X Games triumphs, as the Home Depot Center.
A slight slip of the tongue Pastrana easily corrected once he turned around to see the glowing red letters atop the building across from L.A. Live, where he presented his new stock car backed by Michael Waltrip, Boost Mobile and Red Bull. Pastrana will be driving the No. 99 Toyota for Pastrana-Waltrip Racing and making his debut in Indianapolis in July.
Pastrana will be making his NASCAR debut January 28-29 in the NASCAR Toyota All-Star Showdown at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale.
The freestyle motocross, X Games, rally car champion turned stock car racer showed off some of his two-wheel skills in front of Staples Center.
After laying down a few donuts in front of Staples Center, he jumped his bike down Chick Hearn Court in front of a few hundred fans who gathered at LA Live in downtown on Friday night.
Pastrana said his goal for the Showdown is to qualify for the race and keep his car out of the wall.
“I’m really looking forward to it. It should be a lot of fun,” Pastrana said.