THE LINE - JUNE 25, 2014

(Photo by Matthew T. Thacker/NKP, ©2014, courtesy of Ford Racing) 
Carl Edwards (No. 99 Roush Fenway Racing AFLAC Ford Fusion) took advantage of a late caution and held off Jeff Gordon (No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Panasonic Chevrolet SS) to win the Toyota/SaveMart 350 at Sonoma Raceway on Sunday. It was Edwards' second win this season. It was also the 23rd win of his career, and first Sprint Cup win on a road course. “That’s a moment I’ll never forget, to be standing in victory lane and to have held off Jeff Gordon with all of the success he’s had here and in our sport. It’s just really, really special," Edwards said after the race. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Kelley Blue Book Chevrolet SS) finished a very racy third. Watch a NASCAR video from Sonoma here.

(Photo by Christa L. Thomas/HHP courtesy of GM/Chevrolet Racing)
Jeff Gordon (No 24 Hendrick Motorsports Panasonic Chevrolet SS) worked hard and ran aggressively all day, finishing close behind Carl Edwards on Sunday. 

(Photo by Harold Hinson/HHP courtesy of GM/Chevrolet Racing)
Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (88 Hendrick Motorsports Kelley Blue Book Chevrolet SS) drove a very impressive race on Sunday. Earnhardt Jr. has struggled mightily to get a handle on road courses in the past, but he has improved his game considerably.

(Audi Motorsport/newspressUSA)

Mike Skeen (No. 2 CRP Racing Hawk Performance Brakes Audi R8 LMS Ultra), of Charlotte, N.C., completed a weekend sweep in the GT class at Road America in the Pirelli World Challenge series. Andy Pilgrim (No. 8 Cadillac Racing Cadillac CTS-V.R), of Boca Raton, Fla., finished second, and Johnny O'Connell (No. 3 Cadillac Racing Cadillac CTS-V.R), of Flowery Branch, Ga., finished third on Saturday. O'Connell held off Butch Leitzinger, in the No. 08 Bentley/Breitling/Mobil 1 Bentley Continental GT3 for Dyson Racing Team Bentley, for the final podium position. "I was thinking points this weekend, but that was cool," O'Connell said of his race. "Butch and I have never really raced against each other, because when I was GT, he was prototype or vice versa. It's awesome that Dyson Racing and Bentley have chosen to be here, and bodes well for the future of this series."

(Ford)
Formula Ford will adopt the FIA Formula 4 Regulations and guidelines in Great Britain from 2015 onwards. With the signing of a contract with Britain’s motorsport governing body, the MSA, Ford will create and develop a new race series to fulfill the FIA’s vision for a clearer path for young drivers looking to progress to Formula 1. The move will see the adoption of a new carbon-fiber monocoque chassis, which meets FIA F3 safety standards. The cars will be powered by the 1.6-litre Ford EcoBoost engine, which has been successfully race-proven in Formula Ford during the last three seasons of competition. The new Formula Ford championship will continue to feature on the live-televised supporting bill for UK motorsport’s biggest spectator draw, the British Touring Car Championship.

(Red Bull Global RallyCross Championship)
Patrik Sandell (No. 18 Olsbergs MSE Ford Fiesta ST) won Sunday’s Red Bull Global Rallycross event, Volkswagen Rallycross DC, held at RFK Stadium in Washington, DC. Sandell earned his first Red Bull GRC victory by beating Nelson Piquet Jr. (No. 75 SH Racing Rallycross Ford Fiesta ST) and teammate Joni Wiman (No. 31 Olsbergs MSE Ford Fiesta ST) to the finish. “It’s absolutely perfect,” Sandell said after the event. “I felt when we came here that if I could just be smart and not make any mistakes, I could fight for the top. And I knew that the start at the final was so important, so I just tried to focus on that as much as I could. I think I took the start directly on the light, and that made me come off the line so good. That was the key to everything.”

(Alfa Romeo)
Alfa Romeo plans on making a big splash at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this weekend by bringing five cars from the Museo Storico Alfa Romeo, including a GTA 1300 Junior (above) and the gorgeous 1951 Tipo 159 Alfetta Grand Prix car, with which Juan Manuel Fangio won the first of his five F1 World Championship titles. An evolution of the 158, which Giuseppe “Nino” Farina used to claim the first F1 World Championship in 1950, the 159 adopted a more sophisticated De Dion rear axle, improved aerodynamics and an upgraded, straight-eight 1.5-litre engine with dual-stage supercharger, which could produce a peak output of up to 450hp.

(BMW)
BMW Team RLL will be among the GTLM teams competing at the classic Watkins Glen International circuit this weekend at the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen, round five of the 2014 United SportsCar Championship. The series resumes following a seven-week break for teams competing at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. BMW Team RLL drivers Bill Auberlen and Andy Priaulx currently lead the GTLM driver points and their No. 55 BMW Z4 GTLM leads the team points standings. John Edwards and Dirk Müller (No. 56 BMW Z4 GTLM), are sixth in driver points and eighth in team points. BMW is second in GTLM Manufacturer points, two points behind Porsche. You can watch the race live on Sunday, June 29th, at 11:00 a.m. EDT, on FoxSports1.

(Image courtesy of GM/Corvette Racing)
Corvette Racing, America’s leading production-based racing organization, gets its first shot at the famed Watkins Glen International road course this weekend during the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen. The team has never competed at The Glen. The event is the second endurance race in two weeks for Corvette Racing, which finished second and fourth in class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with its two screaming yellow Chevrolet Corvette C7.Rs. Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen – runners-up at Le Mans with Jordan Taylor – are on a two-race winning streak in the TUDOR Championship and stand second in GT Le Mans points in their No. 3 Corvette C7.R. Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner (No. 4 Corvette C7.R) are tied for third in the championship and look for their first victory of the season. They were fourth at Le Mans with Richard Westbrook.

(McLaren Automotive)
McLaren has unveiled its new the 650S GT3, the latest generation track-focused racer, which will contest GT3 championships across the globe beginning in the 2015 season. The 650S GT3 was unveiled in front of fans and the global motorsport media at the 2014 Goodwood Festival of Speed. The 650S GT3 is the second-generation GT3 car from McLaren GT, the GT race car building arm of McLaren, succeeding the 12C GT3.

(Mercedes-Benz images)
The Central Feature at the 2014 Goodwood Festival of Speed is the sculpture created by Gerry Judah. The sculpture - commissioned by Mercedes-Benz - is the most complex and ambitious presented to date at the famous event, and celebrates 120 years of motorsport heritage by Mercedes-Benz and its founding fathers. It was unveiled by Lord March and Head of Mercedes-Benz Classic, Michael Bock. The sculpture, soaring 26 meters over Goodwood House, weighs 160 tons and measures 90 meters in length, and tested the artistic and engineering ingenuity of the team of specialists assigned to making Gerry Judah’s concept a reality. Two cars spanning 80 years form an integral part of the sculpture – a replica of the 1934 Mercedes-Benz W 25 Silver Arrow, like that raced by Manfred von Brauchitsch to victory at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, and a Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 W04, the same chassis raced by Lewis Hamilton in 15 Grands Prix in 2013. Together, the W25 and the F1 W04 show the first – and currently last – of the eight-cylinder Silver Arrows Grand Prix machines. This years’ car, the F1 W05 HYBRID, has a 1.6-litre V6 turbo, and is currently leading the F1 Constructors’ and Drivers’ Championships.

(Aston Martin/newspressUSA)
Aston Martin has unveiled the Design Prototype 100 – DP-100 Vision Gran Turismo, a new addition to the hugely popular PlayStation®3 exclusive racing game Gran Turismo®6 (GT6™). Developed in-house by the Design team at Aston Martin, led by Design Director Marek Reichman, DP-100 Vision Gran Turismo is a new, virtual-only GT racer that will be available for Gran Turismo®6 (GT6™) owners to download in July 2014, following the global launch at Goodwood Festival of Speed.

(Images courtesy of Mercedes-Benz)
Part of the beauty of the Goodwood Festival of Speed is that the good stuff never ends. Here is The Autoextremist's favorite Mercedes-Benz racer of all time - the fabulous W 196 R - going up the hill at Goodwood.