UP TO SPEED

Tragedy at Toledo, wild race at Kentucky, and a girl fight.  This is RacingForTheWin.com Up To Speed.

It was a normal Friday night short track race at the Toledo Speedway in Ohio until, once more, the unthinkable happened.  On the third lap of the race, a four-car melee ensued.  This crash sent Terry Gibson, 46 years-old from LaRue, ass end first in to the outside wall.  He was pronounced dead on the scene.  More on this from NBC Sports on MSNBC.com.

ARCA Kentucky 150
With brilliant pit strategy and a fast car, Scott Speed found victory lane for the second time this year in the ARCA Re/Max Racing Series Kentucky 150.  Speed pitted on lap 18 of the 104 lap race and made his fuel and tires last to the end of the race, which was forced into overdrive.  Scott Speed had to hold off a tough challenge from Sean Caisse in the closing laps to score the victory.

Angela Cope had an impressive top-ten qualifying run, but her car did not start on the first lap.  It was a difficult night for both of the Cope twins, Angela and Amber, at the Kentucky Speedway.  Both drivers had a hard time finding any grip at the racetrack until sundown.  Amber crashed out on lap 21, resulting in a 38th place finish.  Angela finished 29th.

This race was a success for those pushing for more diversity in stock car racing.  Speed comes from an F1 background  but has done very well in stock cars, and the race featured four women.  Alli Owens was the highest finishing female driver in the event, scoring a lead-lap 15th place finish despite losing more than ten positions at the start of the race as a direct result of Angela Cope's early tire troubles. 

You can read more on the thrilling battle for the win from ARCA Racing.

IndyCar Series at Mid-Ohio

The most talked about story at the IndyCar Series at Mid-Ohio was the war of words between Danica Patrick and Milka Duno.  Neither driver was willing to back down from this battle when Milka said Danica hasn't seen her dark side. 

Danica got in a heated exchange with Dan Wheldon at last year's IndyCar Series race at the Milwaukee Mile.  She would've liked to confront Ryan Briscoe, who by the way won at Mid-Ohio this weekend, at the Indianapolis 500 but IndyCar Series officials stopped her before she had the opprotunitty.  Milka's not without her fair share of controversey.  Last season, Ashley Judd (who's never raced a racecar at 215+ mph) ripped Milka Duno for not running at race pace and remaining on the track.  Hey Milka, at least Danica's finished a race on the lead lap!  NBC Sports on msnbc.com has more on this.

As I mentioned, there was a race.  Not much to see there, just what the IndyCar Series has been all year, relatively eventless minus a few wrecks.  Ryan Briscoe scored his first road-course win, the second win in his short IndyCar career, at the track with his Roger Penske teammate Helio Castroneves finishing second.  More on this from NBC Sports on msnbc.com.

NASCAR Truck Series at Kentucky

Well, "Wild Thing" Kyle Busch failed to deliver on making racing history at Kentucky despite a solid effort.  Kyle Busch went in to make a pit stop when Chrissy Wallace hammered the outside SAFER barrier forcing a red flag.  Wild Thing got his lap back, started charging through the field and got a "speeding ticket" on pit road.  He'd go on to finish 6th.  Johnny Benson would go on to score the win.  You can read about it at NASCAR.com.

Oh yeah, Kentucky CTS Johnny Benson thinks Kyle Busch will go on to win the championship.

NASCAR Nationwide Series at Gateway

Not much here.  A few cautions for power outages, and a big wreck off the front bumper of Landon Cassill.  Other than that, same story as the past few years, a Cup regular wins in the minor-leagues of NASCAR.  Again, NASCAR.com has more.

For RacingForTheWin.com, I'm Andy Marquis reporting...