The racing weekend that was

MotoGP, the Italian GP at Mugello:

Mugello Areal photo

On Saturday, Dani Pedrosa riding his Repsol Honda took provisional pole position at Mugello with a 1 min 47.284 sec on his last lap. However, not to be out-qualified, Jorge Lorenzo (Factory Yamaha) was aiming to take pole away from Pedrosa when an "apparent" electronic problem cut-out the engine at the very final corner and the fellow Spaniard had to settle for second. Third on the grid and flying the home crowd colours was Hector Barbera aboard the Pramac Ducati.

Jorge Lorenzo (Spain)

It was a different story on Sunday though, as Jorge Lorenzo put the hammer down and broke clear of Dani Pedrosa, as he sliced under pole man Pedrosa at the apex of turn one. After hanging on to Lorenzo for the first half of the race, his searing pace was too high for a "worried" Pedrosa, who slowly slipped back. As the checkered waved, Lorenzo was 5.223 seconds clear of second place finisher Pedrosa.

Casey Stoner's hopes of retaining his World Championship crown have suffered another set-back [last week he crashed out of the race] when they made a costly mistake by opting to run the "special" harder tires. From the very get-go Yamaha rider was running towards the back of the chasing pack but an error on lap ten saw him drop further to tenth. He would finish in eight place.

Valentino Rossi was one second away from a podium finish, while Andrea Dovizioso completed a hat trick with his third straight podium finish. For more race results, please click here.

Lorenzo's fifth win of the season puts him 19-points clear of nearest rival Pedrosa and 37-points ahead of reigning champion Casey Stoner, at the season's midway point.

So, the cat and mouse game continues on July 29 for the Red Bull US GP, at Laguna Seca, one of America's legendary tracks. For more info, please click here. To watch a one-minute video by MotoGP of last year's race, at Laguna Seca, please click here.


NASCAR, at Louden, New Hampshire:
It would be a dramatic finish to the LENOX Industrial Tool 301 race as the with 65 laps to go to the end of the race, a miscommunication pushed the race leader Denny Hamlin back to 13th place.

NASCAR has a short video on the final laps of the race. Please click here to watch it.

The pit stop that cost Hamlin the race

Denny Hamlin dug deep and raced hard to try and catch Kasey Kahne, who inherited the lead due to Hamlin's pit stop miscue. He had wanted 2 tires changed [right side only] but his crew chief Darian Grubb somehow understood a four tire change which cost them precious time. In the end, he passed 11 out of 12 cars in the final 65 laps but he didn't have enough time to catch up to and pass race leader Kasey Kahne, who ended up winning the race.

Race results:
1. Kasey Kahne, 2. Denny Hamlin, 3. Clint Bowyer, 4. Dale Earnhardt Jr. , 5. Brad Keselowski

The next event is the Crown Royal race at Indy. For more info, please click here.

Thanks for reading.

Source: MotoGP, Crash.net, Wikipedia, NASCAR.
Photo credit: MotoGP, Getty Images.