Man Distracted by Pelican Drives Bugatti in Marsh

LA MARQUE, Texas – A man blamed a low-flying pelican and a dropped cell phone for his veering his million-dollar sports car off a road and into a salt marsh near Galveston. The accident happened about 3 p.m. Wednesday on the frontage road of Interstate 45 northbound in La Marque, about 35 miles southeast of Houston.

The Lufkin, Texas, man told of driving his luxury, French-built Bugatti Veyron when the bird distracted him, said La Marque police Lt. Greg Gilchrist. The motorist dropped his cell phone, reached to pick it up and veered off the road and into the salt marsh. The car was half-submerged in the brine about 20 feet from the road when police arrived.

Gilchrist said he doesn't know if the car was salvageable, but in his words, "Salt water isn't good for anything." He says the man, whose identity hasn't been released, was not injured.

A 2006 Bugatti Veyron was recently offered for sale in Jonesboro, Ark., for $1.25 million.

From Yahoo News.

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Keselowski & No. 88 Team Scores 4th Win of 2009

[Memphis] Brad Keselowski displayed JR Motorsports strength by taking his fourth win of the season in Saturday’s Kroger “On Track for the Cure” 250 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Memphis Motorsports Park. Keselowski led twice for 34 laps in the No. 88 Delphi Chevrolet, and held off a hard-charging Kyle Busch on a green-white-checkered finish to cruise to his sixth career victory. With the win, Keselowski earned an additional $75,000 from Nationwide’s “Dash 4 Cash” program. It was his second "Dash 4 Cash" victory this season.

Teammate Richard Boswell resembled anything but a rookie in his Nationwide Series debut, qualifying third and racing in the top 10 for the first quarter of the race. The No. 5 RCCA Chevrolet finished 23rd after sustaining damage to its front grill and needing extensive repair time to fix it. Following Keselowski to the line was Busch in second, Jason Leffler third, Mike Bliss fourth, and Brendan Gaughan fifth.

No. 88 Delphi Team / Keselowski
Start – 7th / Finish – 1st / Laps Led – 34 / Points – 190 / Point Standings – 3rd

Starting seventh, Keselowski found trouble early when he sustained damage during a fight for the second position with Justin Allgaier. The team called its car to pit road to repair the fender, and sent it back out in 31st. From the lap-41 restart, it took only 29 laps for Keselowski to climb back through the field and take his first lead of the race.

Keselowski relinquished the point to Mike Bliss on lap 86 and fell back to sixth position, but with fast pit work, the Delphi team gained Keselowski spots on pit road under a lap-124 caution, boosting him back to third.

Following a red-flag period on lap 165, Keselowski came to pit road one final time on lap 228 for fresh tires. Three cars remained on track with old tires, and when they bottled up the restart, Keselowski quickly moved from his sixth-place restarting position and took the lead with a three-wide pass in turn two. With the No. 88 back out front, the race was slowed by three more yellow flags, the last which resulted in a green-white-checkered finish. It was that two-lap sprint in which second-place Busch climbed to the bumper of Keselowski and gave him a nudge in a last-gasp effort to claim to the win, but Keselowski held on to score the win and take home the popular “Elvis” trophy that Memphis Motorsports Park awards its winners.

The win is Keselowski’s fourth of the season and sixth of his career. It continues his success at short tracks, in which he has scored two wins and six top-five finishes this year. Keselowski has now won at all three Nationwide Series tracks in Tennessee – Nashville and Bristol in 2008 and Memphis in 2009. Keselowski’s DNF streak now stands at 64 races.

From BradRacing.com.

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