Shane and Brendans NASCAR site

Kurt Busch wins Budweiser Shootout

2011-02-13T13:21:00.000-08:00

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Budweiser Shootout winner Kurt Busch got it right -- Daytona is a whole new game.

With a push from 2010 Daytona 500 winner Jamie McMurray, Busch won Saturday night's season-opening exhibition race when Denny Hamlin drew a black flag for passing below the yellow out-of-bounds line as the cars approached the finish.

Shootout highlights

Junior, Edwards collide
Martin, Busch get together
Final Laps: Shootout
Victory Lane: Busch
Post-race reactions

Hamlin, who was inches ahead at the stripe, was demoted to 12th for the infraction and scored as the last car on the lead lap.

Without a teammate in the race, Busch took his first victory at Daytona -- and his first victory on a restrictor-plate race track, for that matter -- in the No. 22 Penske Dodge.

McMurray came home second, narrowly edging Ryan Newman, who led the race off the final corner, only to have Hamlin slingshot past him in the dogleg. Newman was third, followed by Jimmie Johnson and Greg Biffle.

This was a brand-new Daytona, with a brand-new asphalt surface and a brand-new style of racing. The fast way around the 2.5-mile superspeedway was to pair up in a two-car draft, and that was what fans saw for the entire event.

The race produced a record 28 lead changes among nine drivers.

"What an unbelievable experience, this two-car draft," Busch said. "I had no idea what to expect going in. I was just going to take it one lap at a time and see how it played out. I wanted to learn as the race went on how this Shell/Pennzoil Dodge raced.

"[McMurray] was the man [Saturday night]. He stayed with us. He stayed true. I can't thank him enough for doing that. I hope it was the show the fans wanted to see."

For McMurray, the experience was equally novel.

"It's completely different plate racing than we've ever had," McMurray said. "I hope it was exciting for the fans to watch. But from the driver's seat, it was actually really exciting to push two-by-two and do the side draft. It is awesome the runs you were able to get, so I hope the fans enjoyed it."

Hamlin said he chose to dip below the yellow line, rather than knock Newman into the fence.

"That yellow line is there to protect us and the fans in the stands, and I just chose to take the safer route," Hamlin said. "A win in the Shootout is not worth sending the 39 [Newman] through the grandstands. For me, as fast as we're running, if I got into his left rear, that car will go airborne."

Polesitter Dale Earnhardt Jr. was the victim of a multi-car crash on the backstretch on Lap 28. Contact from Regan Smith's No. 78 Chevrolet turned Carl Edwards' No. 99 Ford into Earnhardt's No. 88 Chevy and spun it into the outside wall. The chain-reaction crash also collected Joey Logano, Juan Montoya and Kevin Conway.

Johnson also sustained right-side damage in the incident but brought his car to pit road for repairs and remained on the lead lap.

"We were three- or four-wide back there, and I was going between the 88 and the 78, and I don't think the 78 knew I was in there," Edwards said. "He kept coming down, and I just had enough of my car in there. I laid up against the 88 and then the 78 got me in the right-front, but that's just everybody trying to get the best position they can so we can go out there and race."

Jeff Burton led 13 of 25 laps in the first segment of the 75-lap race, including Lap 25, as cars danced in pairs around the track. In an oft-repeated scenario, cars would team up and draft to the front only to fall back dramatically when they separated to get air to the engine of the pushing car.

Kevin Harvick and Burton teamed well together, as did Earnhardt and Kyle Busch, though during the break after the first segment Earnhardt said Busch's No. 18 "jacks my car around like he has Velcro on that thing." Earnhardt led four laps in the first segment, tied for second most with Tony Stewart.

At the completion of the 25-lap opening segment, there was a 10-minute break to service and adjust cars on pit road.

Earnhardt Jr on pole for Daytona 500

2011-02-13T13:17:00.001-08:00

Dale Earnhardt Jr and Jeff Gordon will start on the front row for next weeks Daytona 500. Here is the starting lineup:

1	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet	Amp Energy / National Guard	186.089	48.364	Leader
2	24	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet	Drive to End Hunger	185.966	48.396	-0.032
3	21	Trevor Bayne	Ford	Motorcraft / Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center	185.445	48.532	-0.168
4	27	Paul Menard	Chevrolet	Peak / Menards	185.422	48.538	-0.174
5	33	Clint Bowyer	Chevrolet	Cheerios / Hamburger Helper	185.223	48.590	-0.226
6	31	Jeff Burton	Chevrolet	Caterpillar	185.071	48.630	-0.266
7	39	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	U.S. Army	185.003	48.648	-0.284
8	5	Mark Martin	Chevrolet	GoDaddy.com	184.991	48.651	-0.287
9	14	Tony Stewart	Chevrolet	Office Depot / Mobil 1	184.911	48.672	-0.308
10	16	Greg Biffle	Ford	3M	184.911	48.672	-0.308
11	22	Kurt Busch	Dodge	Shell / Pennzoil	184.896	48.676	-0.312
12	42	Juan Montoya	Chevrolet	Target	184.763	48.711	-0.347
13	9	Marcos Ambrose	Toyota	Stanley	184.748	48.715	-0.351
14	29	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet	Budweiser	184.740	48.717	-0.353
15	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	Lowe's / Kobalt Tools	184.687	48.731	-0.367
16	6	David Ragan	Ford	UPS	184.612	48.751	-0.387
17	09	Bill Elliott	Chevrolet	Phoenix Construction	184.532	48.772	-0.408
18	99	Carl Edwards	Ford	Aflac	184.475	48.787	-0.423
19	43	A.J. Allmendinger	Ford	Best Buy	184.290	48.836	-0.472
20	38	Travis Kvapil	Ford	Long John Silver's	184.271	48.841	-0.477
21	87	Joe Nemechek	Toyota	AM FM Energy	184.222	48.854	-0.490
22	17	Matt Kenseth	Ford	Crown Royal Black	184.102	48.886	-0.522
23	00	David Reutimann	Toyota	Aaron's Dream Machine	184.019	48.908	-0.544
24	2	Brad Keselowski	Dodge	Miller Lite	184.008	48.911	-0.547
25	115	Michael Waltrip	Toyota	NAPA Auto Parts	183.966	48.922	-0.558
26	36	Dave Blaney	Chevrolet	Tommy Baldwin Racing	183.794	48.968	-0.604
27	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	Bass Pro Shops / Tracker	183.685	48.997	-0.633
28	78	Regan Smith	Chevrolet	Furniture Row Companies	183.681	48.998	-0.634
29	4	Kasey Kahne	Toyota	Red Bull	183.602	49.019	-0.655
30	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	M&M's	183.595	49.021	-0.657
31	47	Bobby Labonte	Toyota	Kroger / USO	183.576	49.026	-0.662
32	83	Brian Vickers	Toyota	Red Bull	183.557	49.031	-0.667
33	56	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	NAPA Auto Parts	183.456	49.058	-0.694
34	20	Joey Logano	Toyota	The Home Depot	183.206	49.125	-0.761
35	60	Todd Bodine	Toyota	Tire Kingdom / Valvoline	183.057	49.165	-0.801
36	97	Kevin Conway	Toyota	Extenze	182.949	49.194	-0.830
37	13	Casey Mears	Toyota	GEICO	182.867	49.216	-0.852
38	34	David Gilliland	Ford	Taco Bell	182.697	49.262	-0.898
39	77	Steve Wallace	Toyota	5-Hour Energy	182.574	49.295	-0.931
40	66	Michael McDowell	Toyota	HP Racing LLC	182.434	49.333	-0.969
41	7	Robby Gordon	Dodge	Speed Energy	182.120	49.418	-1.054
42	32	Terry Labonte	Ford	U.S. Chrome	181.492	49.589	-1.225
43	37	Robert Richardson Jr.	Ford	North Texas Pipe	181.466	49.596	-1.232
44	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	FedEx Express	181.316	49.637	-1.273
45	46	J.J. Yeley	Chevrolet	Red Line Oil	180.977	49.730	-1.366
46	71	Andy Lally	Chevrolet	Adobe Road Winery	180.828	49.771	-1.407
47	64	Derrike Cope	Toyota	Sta-Bil	177.894	50.592	-2.228
48	192	Brian Keselowski	Dodge	K-Automotive Motorsports	177.581	50.681	-2.317

Rowdy wins with AMAZING las lap pass at Talladega

2010-10-30T18:49:00.000-07:00

TALLADEGA, Ala. -- Kyle Busch made a last-ditch slide past Aric Almirola at the finish line, then brushed aside Almirola's suggestion that he should be stripped of the victory.
With his truck on the verge of spinning out, Busch appeared to put two wheels below the yellow out-of-bounds line at the bottom of the track just as he made his wild move to win Saturday's Truck Series race at Talladega Superspeedway by 0.002 seconds. He wasn't penalized.
Kyle Busch / Autostock
Mountain Dew 250
Results

Pos. Driver Make
1. Kyle Busch Toyota
2. Aric Almirola Toyota
3. Johnny Sauter Chevrolet
4. Matt Crafton Chevrolet
5. Ricky Carmichael Chevrolet

"I don't even know if I got near it, below it, next to it, on it, I have no idea," Busch said. "All I know was I was trying to save my truck and keep it straight and hopefully make it past the start/finish line before the rest of the guys."

Almirola went to NASCAR officials immediately after the race to plead his case, but he said they ruled that Busch was trying to keep his car from spinning out and wasn't subject to a penalty.

"My perspective is, I feel like I won the race," Almirola said. "NASCAR's perspective is, we ran second. I guess [Saturday], we lose. I'm disappointed in that."

It was the closest finish in series history when using electronic scoring, NASCAR officials said.

It was Busch's series-high sixth victory in 13 Truck starts this season -- and his second consecutive Trucks victory at Talladega.

Busch was in third on a restart with two laps to go, made his way to second and then ducked under Almirola and beat him by a nose as the checkered flag came out.

With Johnny Sauter charging behind him, Busch said he didn't have any other choice than to duck under Almirola.

"I had to bring it back down, and I got underneath Aric," Busch said. "At that point you've just got to stay in the throttle and keep digging. I don't even know where the yellow line was, but for as loose as my stuff was there, I was trying to save it."

NASCAR vice president of competition Robin Pemberton said officials reviewed video of the finish and ruled that side-to-side contact between Almirola and Busch caused Busch's truck to get loose.

"He wasn't forced down there, he got down there because of the door-to-door contact," Pemberton said. "We looked at it two, three times; we had three, four good camera angles and there was absolutely no question whatsoever."

Almirola finished second, followed by Sauter, Matt Crafton and Ricky Carmichael.

The always-feared Big One -- a massive wreck unique to Talladega -- came with three laps to go, collecting points leader Todd Bodine, contender Ron Hornaday and several others.

Bodine now leads Almirola by 216 points in the series standings.

It was a rough day for Bodine, whose truck sustained minor damage in a mid-race incident. Bodine then was penalized for speeding on pit road during a late round of pit stops before getting collected in the accident.

Hornaday escaped serious injury even though his truck flipped on its roof and had to be flipped back over by a tow truck before Hornaday could climb out.

"Ron's fine," Bodine said in a television interview after he left the infield medical center. "He's in there joking about it."

Hornaday joked that he wanted to go watch a replay of the wreck. He still was holding the steering wheel from his wrecked truck.

"If you can't win, you've got to bring the steering wheel back," he said.

Brad K can clintch Championship at Texas

2010-10-25T16:49:00.000-07:00

22-Brad Keselowski just needs to start the final three races of the season to clinch the Nationwide Series championship, or he can clinch at Texas with a finish of 20th or better.

Earnhardt Jr. to run specian "Legend of Hallowdega" car at Talladega

2010-10-24T15:00:00.000-07:00

Junior will drive this car on 10/31 at the Amp Energy Juice 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.

The reason we havnt been posting

2010-10-24T14:40:00.000-07:00

Shane and I have been very busy with school work considering we are now freshman. However we plan to continue running and updating this site as best as we can, posts may be a few days late. Thanks and please continue to visit our site =)

~Shane and Brendan

Hamlin wins, closes in on Johnson's lead.

2010-10-24T14:36:00.000-07:00

MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- Denny Hamlin passed Kevin Harvick for the lead with 29 laps to go Sunday and won his third consecutive Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway.

Hamlin became the first driver since Jimmie Johnson to sweep both races on the smallest track in NASCAR's premier series, and both he and Harvick closed the gap on Johnson in the points race with four races remaining. Hamlin trails by just six points, Harvick by 62.

Harvick finished third after Mark Martin passed him in the closing laps, but Harvick still had his best showing in 19 career starts at the track. He'd never been better than seventh.

Johnson, the four-time defending champion, rallied to finish fifth.

Brad K gets closer to the Championship

2010-10-24T14:33:00.000-07:00

Brad Keselowski made a triumphant return to Gateway International Raceway on Saturday, passing Mike Bliss with less than two laps remaining to win the 5-hour Energy 250 Nationwide Series race.

Keselowski was
200 yards from victory in the July Nationwide race at Gateway when he was knocked into the wall by Carl Edwards and finished 14th. Keselowski said looking back at races is counterproductive and the victory, his sixth of the season, had no special meaning

“I don’t look back at the race and say, ‘I’m going to win this other race and show ’em,’ because I think you’re entering with the wrong mindset when you do that,” Keselowski said. “I enter with the mindset that it’s another race and to do your best and to bring your ‘A’ game.

“If you’re worried or thinking about what you feel like were misgivings in the past, I don’t think you can do that. I’ve never thought of it that way and still don’t.”

Keselowski started in the back of the field Saturday, arriving after qualifying for the Sprint Cup Series race in Martinsville, Va. Edwards was in the same situation.

Keselowski steadily moved up and took the lead on the Lap 77. He led two other stretches before Penske Racing teammate Justin Allgaier passed him on the inside with 26 laps to go. Keselowski led 83 of 200 laps, and Allgaier led 88.

Keselowski was running second to Allgaier with 10 laps remaining when the final caution came out. Allgaier, Keselowski and Edwards -- the top three cars -- pitted and took four tires. When they came out, they were behind Reed Sorenson and Josh Wise, who stayed out, and Bliss and Jason Leffler, who took two tires. Keselowski was fifth, Edwards sixth and Allgaier seventh for the restart on Lap 197.

Sorenson jumped into the lead, but Bliss passed him and had the lead halfway through Lap 199. Coming through Turn 4, Keselowski got a strong run on the outside and passed Bliss for the lead within sight of the white flag. Keselowski pulled ahead by a couple of car lengths and won by .227 seconds in front of Bliss. Allgaier finished third, followed by Leffler and Edwards.

Keselowski extended his lead in the Nationwide standings to a virtually insurmountable 485 points on Edwards with three races remaining.

“I got lucky,” Keselowski said. “It was going to be all about who got going. I lined up in the right row. Getting the high line on the restart was a good break. That’s just dumb luck. I changed lanes a couple of times, and my line went well again. I caught some breaks [Saturday].

“I thought Justin had the best car, and I thought Mike Bliss had a great shot at it. It was just meant to be.”

The trifeca completed

2010-07-29T17:58:00.000-07:00

Jamie Mcmurray won the 2010 Brickyard 400 and completed the trifeca for Chip Ganassi racing. Jamie also won the Daytona 500 for CGR and Dario Franchitti won the Indianapolis 500 for them as well. Also in the history books, Mcmurray is only the third driver to win both the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400 too. Teammate Jaun Pablo Montoya lead 84 laps then got loose in turn 4, taking out Dale Earnhardt Jr. too. Crushing Jaun's hopes at winning at the Brickyard for the second year in a row do to wrecks. The top 5 are, 5. Tony Stewart 4. Clint Bowyer 3. Greg Biffle 2. Kevin Harvick and 1 Jamie Mcmurray.

Transformers 3 to feature three NASCAR stock cars

2010-07-15T17:41:00.000-07:00

During Transformers 3 filming in Chicago, a trio of heavily modified 2011 Chevy Impala stock cars were seen driving around. The three cars are Jimmie Johnson's Impala, Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s and Jaun Pablo Montoya's. No word yet on if these cars are Decepticon (the evil side) or Autobot (the protectors of Earth). There is no pictures yet of these cars regular modes, just of the modded modes.

Kahne to participate in truck race at Pocono

2010-07-15T12:00:00.000-07:00

Kasey Kahne, who is undefeated in two career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series starts, will pilot the #18 Toyota of Scranton Toyota Tundra for Kyle Busch Motorsports in the inaugural Pocono Mountains 125 Truck Series event July 31 at Pocono Raceway. Kahne, who drives the #9 Budweiser Ford full-time for Richard Petty Motorsports in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, won Truck Series races in November 2004 at Darlington Raceway and Homestead-Miami Speedway. Busch is hoping to win as an owner and a driver all in the same day, for while Kahne will drive the #18 Toyota of Scranton Toyota Tundra for KBM at Pocono, Busch will pilot the #18 Z-Line Designs Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing in the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Iowa Speedway in Newton.

Jr Motorsports not moving to cup for 2011

2010-07-15T11:56:00.000-07:00

JR Motorsports is not considering is a move to the Sprint Cup Series. "No Cup plans," team co-owner Kelley Earnhardt said on Wednesday. "No Kasey Kahne. No Mark Martin. Nothing for JR Motorsports. At this point, we would need to get started on that, and it's definitely not in our future for 2011." Instead, Earnhardt and her brother, Dale Earnhardt Jr., need to find sponsorship and drivers for their Nationwide Series cars for next year. She knows Danica Patrick will drive in 13 races in a GoDaddy.com-sponsored car and that Grand Touring Vodka will sponsor 15 races with a driver to be determined. But that doesn't even fill one full season for an organization that plans to have two Nationwide cars again next year. Kelley Earnhardt said the organization needs to know a little more about NASCAR's plans to change the Nationwide Series rules to help promote younger drivers. She needs to know, she said, if there will be limits on Cup drivers and what programs are in place to help young drivers so the team can convince a sponsor to support an up-and-coming driver. "It would be nice to know specifically what we're working with and what we can sell and do," Kelley Earnhardt said. "In the environment that we're in from the economic standpoint, it takes a personality to sell a sponsor. Performance and being up front and somebody they can market and somebody the consumer is going to recognize and want to be a part of whatever they're doing is so important." Sponsors are hesitant to go with a young driver, she said.

Johnsons settle on name for baby: Genevieve Marie

2010-07-11T14:47:00.000-07:00

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Jimmie Johnson has finally come up with a name for the daughter he'd been calling "Baby J" since her birth earlier this week.

The four-time defending Cup Series champion introduced Genevieve Marie Johnson in a Twitter posting Sunday. The introduction included a photo link of her official birth announcement.

Johnson and his wife, Chandra, welcomed their first child Wednesday but were slow to settle on a name. He finished 25th in Saturday night's race at Chicago and is currently third in the Sprint Cup Series standings.

Other NASCAR drivers awaiting the births of their children in the next month are Juan Montoya, whose wife is expecting a girl, and Jeff Gordon, whose wife is having a boy.

Toh Hessert wins at Iowa (ARCA)

2010-07-11T14:07:00.000-07:00

(NEWTON, Iowa - July 10, 2010) - Tom Hessert took charge early and drove to his first career ARCA Racing Series presented by RE/MAX and Menards victory in the Prairie Meadows 200 at Iowa Speedway, along the way giving Cunningham Motorsports its second win of 2010 and its second consecutive triumph at the central Iowa track.

Dillon dominates en route to first career Trucks win

2010-07-11T13:54:00.000-07:00

NEWTON, Iowa -- Austin Dillon held off Johnny Sauter in a green-white-checkered finish and picked up his first career win at Sunday's Truck Series race in Iowa.

The 20-year-old Dillon won from the pole, becoming the second-youngest driver to win a truck series race behind Kyle Busch. The grandson of longtime NASCAR owner Richard Childress kept his car clean while a number of top drivers ran into trouble.

The top four in the points standings -- Todd Bodine, Aric Almirola, Timothy Peters and Roy Hornaday, Jr. -- all experienced issues that hampered their shots at catching Dillon.

Sauter finished second for his third top-5 finish this season. He was followed by Matt Crafton, Ken Schrader and James Buescher.

Dillon, the first rookie to win the pole for three consecutive races, opened a healthy edge from the outset. He led Brian Ickler by nearly 3 seconds only 30 laps in, easily surpassing his previous career high of 20 laps led at Texas earlier this year.

Dillon led for 187 laps and appeared ready to cruise to victory until the very end, when a caution forced a late restart. But with his famous grandfather looking on, Dillon rolled past Sauter for the landmark win.

The truck series was making its second annual stop at Iowa Speedway, a 0.875-mile oval about 35 miles east of Des Moines. But the nearly 25,000 fans in attendance didn't get to see much of the circuit's top stars.

Bodine, the series points leader, was among a number of drivers affected by a crash just over halfway through the race. Ickler and Bodine got together, damaging both trucks.

The wreck knocked out Hornaday, who remained winless on the year. Bodine let Ickler know how he felt about the crash by giving his No. 18 truck a bump from behind before the race went green.

Bodine was the only driver among the top four in the standings to finish the race. He wound up 17th but kept his hold on first place in points.

Truck problems ruined the afternoon for both Almirola and Peters -- who entered Iowa in second and third place in the points standings -- before the race was barely half over.

Almirola, who started on the front row with Dillon, blew a front tire 76 laps in and hit the wall, erasing any chance he had at his third win in five races. Peters, who was 165 points behind Bodine, blew his engine halfway through the race and finished 27th.

Any edge Steve Wallace might have had at a track designed by his father, former NASCAR star Rusty Wallace, ended 40 laps in when he blew a tire and skidded into the wall.

Mike Skinner, who won the inaugural race at Iowa from the pole last year, qualified 15th but moved up for a seventh-place finish.

The race Sunday was the first for the Truck Series since June 12 in Michigan. The drivers won't get another break for two months, during a nine-race stretch that will be critical to their championship hopes.

No raining on this parade, Reutimann wins at Chicago

2010-07-11T13:52:00.000-07:00

JOLIET, Ill. -- With no asterisk and no apology, David Reutimann won the second Sprint Cup race of his career Saturday night in the LifeLock.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway.

Reutimann, whose previous victory came in last year's rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, crossed the finish line .727 seconds ahead of Carl Edwards, who posted his best finish -- and only second top five -- of the season.

"There was no rain [Saturday night]," Reutimann said in Victory Lane. "We earned this one. Nobody gave it to us, and that feels really good."

Reutimann, who is in a contract year at Michael Waltrip Racing, recently reached a handshake agreement on a three-year extension with the team.

"[Saturday night] we earned it, and it's a total team effort," Reutimann said. "Everyone at Michael Waltrip Racing did a phenomenal job. I don't even know what to say. You think about these moments all your life, and you think about all the right things to say.

"I'm about to cry -- this is awesome."

And as of Saturday night, Reutimann can wave goodbye to any asterisks that were attached to his first career win because of the rain.

"I've probably not seen anyone have to walk around for a year-and-a-half and apologize about winning a race," MWR general manager Ty Norris said.

Norris said the team would announce specifics about the futures of Reutimann and crew chief Rodney Childers at Indianapolis on July 23.

"These guys proved [Saturday night] that they deserve a contract," Norris said. "They deserve to be around."

Jeff Gordon ran third after leading 47 laps late in the race. Clint Bowyer came home fourth, followed by pole-sitter Jamie McMurray. Kasey Kahne, Jeff Burton, Denny Hamlin, Tony Stewart and Paul Menard completed the top 10.

It was the 600th career start for Gordon, who joked that he's beginning to feel a little old.

"I do when I get out of that race car and everything aches," Gordon said. "It didn't used to be like that."

As Reutimann hunted Gordon down for the lead, his team came on the radio and encouraged him to wait for Gordon to make a mistake.

"Are you kidding?" Reutimann joked. "He's Jeff Gordon. When's he going to make a mistake?"

But Gordon did develop handling problems, allowing Reutimann to take the lead on Lap 213. He moved in front again after a cycle of pit stops.

After the final round of green-flag stops, Edwards was gaining on Reutimann at the end of the race but ran out of time.

"Second is bittersweet," Edwards said. "You want to win, but we're obviously very happy with the result. If we run that well every week, we'll win plenty of races. The key is that we ran so well. If we can continue that every week we will be in good shape.

"Three more laps and we would have been right there, but you never really know, I guess, because it depends on how hard he is running, too. But I feel like with three more laps, things would have gotten really interesting."

What was an excellent night for Reutimann, Edwards and Gordon was a disaster for Cup points leader Kevin Harvick and four-time defending series champion Jimmie Johnson.

Harvick fought trouble all race long, at one point bringing his No. 29 Chevrolet to the garage to change the fuel pump and fuel pump cable. He lost 16 laps in the process and finished 34th, 16 laps down.

Gordon, who is second in the standings, cut Harvick's advantage from 212 points to 103.

Johnson may have had the fastest car -- having led the first 92 laps -- but he hurt his own cause twice before the race was 150 laps old. On the way to a green-flag stop on Lap 93, Johnson missed the entrance to pit road, lost the lead to McMurray and spent the next 40 laps running down the driver of the No. 1 Chevy.

Less than two laps after a restart on Lap 136, Johnson spun on the backstretch while running in close quarters with the No. 56 Toyota of Martin Truex Jr. It was impossible to tell, even after multiple replays, whether Truex's car made slight contact with Johnson's Chevy or whether Truex simply took the air off Johnson's spoiler and caused him to lose control.

Whatever the case, Johnson restarted 24th on Lap 141, and matters got worse. On Lap 169 Johnson radioed, "Right-front flat -- I scrubbed the wall a little bit," and brought his car to pit road for four new tires. He came out of the pits two laps down and ultimately finished 25th, one lap down.

Busch dominates in Chicago

2010-07-10T06:25:00.000-07:00

Kyle Busch won a Nationwide Series race Friday night he thought he had lost and left Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Joey Logano frustrated and dejected.

In a green-white-checkered finish that took the Dollar General 300 three laps past its scheduled distance, Busch beat Logano on a restart on Lap 202 and held the lead until a caution for a wreck on the Chicagoland Speedway tri-oval froze the field and made Busch a winner in the series for the seventh time this year.

Busch got a break when series points leader Brad Keselowski ran out of fuel on the final caution lap before the last, abbreviated green-flag run. Keselowski's misfortune allowed Busch to move to the front of the outside line, beside his teammate.

Busch was able to pin Logano to the bottom of the track and clear Logano for the win. The race ended under caution because the wreck occurred after Busch took the white flag to begin the final lap.

The victory was Busch's 37th all time, breaking a tie for second with Kevin Harvick for career wins in the series. Rookie Brian Scott ran third, followed by his Braun Racing teammates David Reutimann and Jason Leffler, as Toyotas swept the top five positions.

Carl Edwards, second in the standings, came home sixth and trimmed Keselowski's series lead from 277 points to 227. Keselowski finished 21st, one lap down.

Danica Patrick finished a career-best 24th in her fifth Nationwide start.

Busch said he likely would have finished second at best had Keselowski not run out of fuel.

"I don't think I would have had a shot to win the race," Busch said. "It was going to take too much to get alongside of Joey, had the restart gone with Keselowski in place. … I couldn't make the third lane work around the outside.

"I probably could have run second, legitimately. But the way it turned out, I didn't have to deal with the 22 [Keselowski]. Apparently, those Dodges make good horsepower, but they suck a lot of fuel."

Logano, who won last year's Nationwide race in his first start at the track, said he would have chosen the inside lane whether it was Keselowski or Busch lining up beside him.

"He did what he was supposed to do," Logano said. "He drove down in the turn and got me loose. He beat me. I'm embarrassed more than anything else."

Busch, who led a race-high 110 laps, took the lead for the first time on Lap 10 and dominated the race -- despite a pit-road speeding call that required a pass-through penalty under green -- until NASCAR threw a caution for debris in Turn 2 on Lap 141.

Logano took the lead on the subsequent restart on Lap 148 and remained out front in clean air.

"It's over," Busch moaned on Lap 172, trailing Logano by nearly a second. "There ain't going to be another caution. The freakin' race is over."

As it turned out, Busch was wrong. NASCAR called a caution for debris on Lap 185, and Busch pitted for four tires and a track bar adjustment designed to loosen the handling of his Toyota. He got his chance to win the race when Trevor Bayne slammed the Turn 1 wall on Lap 196.

Harvick wins a wild one at Daytona

2010-07-03T23:03:00.000-07:00

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Kevin Harvick continued his season of resurgence by leading a strong Richard Childress Racing contingent to victory Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway.

The three RCR cars were the class of the field in a wild night of racing, and Harvick, Clint Bowyer and Jeff Burton were poised to run away with the race before several late cautions interfered with a potential sweep.

A three-car accident moments before Bowyer took the white flag set up NASCAR's version of overtime, and Bowyer and Harvick had to restart side-by-side for the final two-lap sprint. Harvick wasted no time sliding into the lead, while Bowyer got little help from behind as Kasey Kahne and Jeff Gordon swapped spots on the restart.

It left Bowyer with no help in re-claiming the lead. He slipped back into traffic and ultimately spun off the track, and Harvick sailed off to his second win of the season.

The Cup Series points leader, also the winner at Talladega in April, won for the second time at Daytona. He won the 2007 Daytona 500, and has eight top-10 finishes in 19 career starts.

"This has been a great place for us," Harvick said. "Daytona has been one of those magical places for us ever since we started coming here."

Kahne was second in a Ford, followed by Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Burton in Chevrolets.

Earnhardt, who wasn't good most of the race, seemingly lucked into the top-five finish but it was enough to move him into eligibility for the Chase. He's 11th in the standings.

The start of the race was delayed almost 90 minutes by rain, and a 20-car accident with 12 laps to go stopped the action another 20 minutes.

Earnhardt Jr wins at Daytona in his father's famous #3

2010-07-02T20:18:00.000-07:00

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Driving the No. 3 Wrangler Chevrolet in honor of his late father, Dale Earnhardt Jr. broke a Nationwide Series drought of almost four years in winning Friday's Subway Jalapeno 250 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Daytona International Speedway.

The victory, the 23rd of Earnhardt's career, was his first in the series since Aug. 19, 2006, when he took the checkered flag at Michigan. It was his first points win in any of NASCAR's top three series since June 15, 2008, when Earnhardt captured the Lifelock 400 Sprint Cup race, again at Michigan.

Joey Logano ran second, followed by Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Brad Keselowski and Kevin Harvick.

With a push from Justin Allgaier, Earnhardt took the lead for the first time on Lap 70, surging past Kyle Busch through Turns 1 and 2. On that same lap, NASCAR called a caution for debris on the backstretch. Pitting under the caution, Earnhardt retained his lead, thanks to a quick, problem-free stop.

Earnhardt held the top spot through Lap 96, when NASCAR threw a debris caution that set up a two-lap run to the finish. Earnhardt stayed out on old tires, as did seven other contending cars, but Busch, Carl Edwards, Clint Bowyer, Trevor Bayne and Ryan Newman came to the pits for tires under the yellow.

Earnhardt chose the inside lane for the restart on Lap 101 and held it for the final two circuits, as the race went two laps beyond its scheduled distance of 100 laps.

The race marked the debut of NASCAR's new Nationwide car.

Busch sets record at Loudon

2010-06-26T19:53:00.000-07:00

It was a day of positive numbers for Kyle Busch, winner of Saturday's New England 200 Nationwide Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, but Danica Patrick rolled snake eyes in her return to stock car racing.

Busch pulled away after a restart on Lap 183, when Joey Logano -- in second place at the time -- spun his tires and allowed series points leader Brad Keselowski to surge into second place. Busch beat Keselowski to the finish line by .644 seconds.hirty-four laps earlier, on Lap 166 of 200, Busch led his 91st lap of the afternoon and passed Mark Martin to become the all-time lap leader in the series with 8,083. By the time he had chalked up his sixth win of the year and the 36th of his career, Busch had led 8,117 laps in 186 Nationwide starts.

Busch, who won at New Hampshire last June, is the first repeat winner in 24 Nationwide races at the 1.058-mile track. Tied with seventh-place finisher Kevin Harvick for second on the Nationwide career wins list, Busch needs 13 more victories to pass Martin for the lead in that category.

"That's pretty cool, and it comes after beating one of the best," Busch said of his status as the all-time laps leader. "There's one more record I'm after, and that's the win record -- to try to beat him and see how many I can set. …

"Hopefully, we can get another next week at Daytona -- with the new one."

The "new one" Busch mentioned is the new Nationwide race car that will make its competitive debut July 2 at Daytona International Speedway. After that, the new car will be raced three more times this year before becoming the full-time car in 2011.

Carl Edwards finished third Saturday and trails Keselowski by 247 points. Logano ran fourth, followed by Trevor Bayne, who posted his career-best finish. Justin Allgaier came home sixth.

"Driver error -- that would be the biggest thing," Logano said of the restart that cost him two positions. "Under caution, I was trying to spin my tires, trying to clean them up. [I thought] 'They don't have much motor in these Nationwide cars; I don't think I'm going to spin the tires [on the restart] if I just floor it,' because Kyle beat me the last restart before that. …

"I figured I was going to give it my best shot, and I screwed up and that's what I get -- I finished fourth."

Patrick's troubles started earlier when she was racing beside Morgan Shepherd on Lap 6. Shepherd had the inside lane but slid into Patrick's Chevrolet and spun it, damaging the left side of the car.

Patrick lost a lap on pit road. Ultimately, she finished 30th, five laps down.

"It was definitely a long day," said Patrick, who showed her frustration by bumping Shepherd's car lightly on pit road after the race. "It's always tough when you start from behind like that, and to be a lap down so quickly, but, you know, it was a bummer to get lapped so many times, but it was a learning process.

"We were very tight to start with, and we just kept freeing the car up, and it helped. There's a lot for me to learn, how to overcome when the car does push and how to drive the car. I felt like by the end of the race, I fin

ally sort of had a couple of things that I knew helped me out there to keep the car under control, to keep the front end underneath me better, and ultimately just have overall faster laps.

"I did learn out th

ere, but it's frustrating."

The next Nationwide race on Patrick's schedule is July 9 at Chicagoland.

Jimmie wins first road course victory at Infineon

2010-06-20T19:37:00.000-07:00

Jimmie Johnson won his first roadcourse race moving him from 6th to 2nd in points. After Marcos Ambrose, who was leading at the time, failed to keep up with the pace car and stalled on the hill at Infineon, while trying to conserve fuel. With 7 laps to go Ambrose was put into the 7th position to restart. Johnson was now in first and led the last few laps to win. Rounding out the top 5 are- 1.Jimmie Johnson, 2. Robby Gordon, 3. Kevin Harvick, 4. Kasey Kahne and 5. Jeff Gordon Marcos finished 6th after being moved back by NASCAR Officials.

Edwards wins at Road America

2010-06-20T06:59:00.000-07:00

Carl Edwards swooped past Jacques Villeneuve on a restart with nine laps to go, then ran away from the field to win the NASCAR Nationwide series race at Road America on Saturday.

Villeneuve made a wild charge to the lead with 12 laps to go. But another caution bunched up the field, allowing Edwards to make his decisive move.

Ron Fellows finished second in a Chevrolet, 4.302 seconds behind Edwards’ Ford. Brendan Gaughan finished third in a Toyota. Villeneuve had mechanical problems in the closing laps, costing him a potential second-place finish.

With the win, Edwards showed he could hold his own against some top-notch road course racers.

“It feels good,” Edwards said in a television interview in Victory Lane. “To race with Jacques Villeneuve all day, to hold off Ron Fellows at the end, it’s just cool.”

Edwards, Paul Menard and Brad Keselowski will fly back to California to run the Sprint Cup race at Sonoma on Sunday.

And for the third year in a row, Edwards made the most of his cross-country commute.

It was Edwards’ third straight win in the series’ annual trip to Wisconsin -- but this time at a new venue, as the scenic four-mile road course replaced the financially troubled Milwaukee Mile on the schedule this season.

For a while, it looked like Villeneuve, the 1997 Formula One champion and 1995 Indianapolis 500 winner, might steal the show.

After taking a restart with 12 laps to go, Villeneuve charged from eighth to first in half a lap, with Edwards right behind him. Villeneuve’s tire was smoking significantly, as it appeared to be rubbing against damaged bodywork on the front end of his car.

Yet another crash brought out another caution, and Villeneuve took a restart with nine laps remaining not knowing if his tire would hold up for the remainder of the race. Edwards then roared past Villeneuve and into the lead in Turn 1, and Villeneuve -- his tire still smoking -- tried to chase him down.

Another wreck set up a restart with three to go, allowing Fellows, a veteran road-racing ace, to pass Gaughan for third. Villeneuve was in second with two laps to go, but began to slip back in the pack with mechanical issues and finished 25th.

Keselowski, who came into Saturday’s race leading the series points standings, finished fourth.

The race was filled with several long delays to clean up accidents, including a red flag period lasting more than half an hour after a nine-car pileup just past the race’s halfway point.

It was a rough race for Justin Allgaier, who came into Saturday third in the Nationwide series points standings.

Allgaier ran off the track on the second lap of the race, coming to a stop on the hill between Turns 5 and 6. He couldn’t get the car moving again and had to be towed back to the garage. Allgaier eventually re-entered the race and finished 35th.

In all, it was a mixed debut for the Nationwide series at the picturesque, fast and technically challenging 14-turn road course that winds through the tree-lined hills of central Wisconsin.

As expected, the on-track action was entertaining. But on a four-mile track, any full-course caution period made for an extended break in the action.

That included a big wreck on lap 30, when a nine-car pileup in Turn 6 brought the race to a halt under a red flag—a Talladega-style “big one” on a road course. Racing resumed after a delay of 31 minutes, 31 seconds under the red flag.

Given all the cautions, is this a viable place for NASCAR to race?

“Sprint Cup,” Fellows suggested.

Gaughan agreed, calling the track a “man’s-man road course.”

Hamlin wins again at Pocono

2010-06-06T17:33:00.000-07:00

Busch held off Tony Stewart for second in his 200th career start. Points leader Kevin Harvick was fourth, followed by four-time defending series champion Jimmie Johnson.

The start was delayed 90 minutes by rain then another 10 minutes or so while officials patched a pothole at the end of pit road inadvertently opened up by a jet dryer. Once the rain cleared, Hamlin dominated at one of his favorite tracks.

Hamlin appeared to have the race won five minutes earlier, but his 2-second lead was wiped out when Harvick nudged Joey Logano into the wall while the drivers were battling for fourth with less than two laps to go. Hamlin couldn't quite reach the start/finish line for the white flag before the caution came out, sending the race into a two-lap overtime.

Hamlin debated on which lane to pick for the restart, and opted to go inside in front of Busch. The two Joe Gibbs Racing teammates haven't exactly been friendly of late, with Busch saying he wanted to "kill" Hamlin following a run-in at the All-Star Race two weeks ago.

There was no drama this time. Hamlin easily drew free of Busch and Stewart, cutting Stewart off as they exited the first turn and cruising from there.

"That last restart was the best [the car] has been all day," Hamlin said.

The finish line was almost in sight when a massive wreck swallowed nine cars. Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin and Kasey Kahne were all involved, with Kahne's No. 9 Dodge on top of the retaining wall as one of the circuit's more sleepy stops ended in chaos.

None of the drivers were hurt, but tempers across the garage were frayed.

The 20-year-old Logano exchanged words with Harvick and had to be restrained by Harvick's crew, a rare display of anger from the normally reserved Logano.
LONG POND, Pa. -- Denny Hamlin won again at Pocono, pulling away from teammate Kyle Busch following a late restart Sunday in the 500-mile race at the massive 2.5-mile oval.

The victory was Hamlin's fourth of the season and fourth in nine career starts at the Tricky Triangle.
Stewart, while admitting he didn't have enough car to chase down Hamlin, wasn't pleased either. He called the racing off the restarts "idiotic" and left little doubt that he'll seek payback starting next week in Michigan.

"I've seen some of the worst driving I've ever seen in my life in a professional series right here [Sunday]," he said. "So for anybody that's looking for drama for the next couple races, start looking because I can promise I'm going to start making the highlight reel the next couple weeks."

Hamlin's been a highlight reel fixture all season, and had little trouble enjoying his fourth win in his past nine starts.

He celebrated with a lengthy burnout and ended up nicking the wall in the process.

He might want to take care of the car, which is 3-for-3 on the season.

The concrete kid wins at Nashville

2010-06-06T17:31:00.000-07:00

LEBANON, Tenn. -- Brad Keselowski was one of four drivers pulling double-duty in Sprint Cup and Nationwide series races this weekend. But Keselowski was the only Cup driver to fly from Pocono to Nashville for Friday practice.

Was it any coincidence that Keselowski won Saturday night's Federated Auto Parts 300 at Nashville Superspeedway? Keselowski didn't think so."It's quite simple: If I didn't come here [Friday], I don't think I would've won the race," Keselowski said after scoring his third Nationwide victory of the season and second of his career at Nashville.

Keselowski came into Nashville with a one-point lead on Kyle Busch, but Busch and third place Kevin Harvick skipped Nashville and will not run the full season. Keselowski's points lead is now 196 over Busch, with Carl Edwards 277 back in third.

Edwards finished second Saturday, with Paul Menard third, pole-sitter Justin Allgaier fourth and Mike Bliss fifth.

Edwards, Menard and Michael McDowell also are running both Cup and Nationwide races this weekend, but none were in Nashville on Friday.

Keselowski figures he owes it to his Penske Racing team to show up and practice.

"This team works in the shop on days when I'm sleeping in," Keselowski said. "They work, and they work. They work, and I get all the glory. It's my responsibility to know when it's time for me to get to work.

"Sometimes, it's not always the funnest thing to do or the easiest thing to do. There was a lot of travel [Friday], but it makes it worth it to be sitting here right now."

How was Keselowski's appearance Friday the difference? Crew chief Paul Wolfe said competition is so close that any edge a team can gain makes a big difference.

"One thing we did have going for us was this was the same car we ran here in [April], and we were very fast with it [finishing fifth]," Wolfe said. "That helped, but it's down to fine-tuning to win these races, and you've got to be close to perfect. That's where having Brad here to tune into what he thought he was going to need [Saturday night] was part of it.

"That's the kind of effort it's going to take, going back and forth. Obviously, that shows Brad's dedication to the series and winning this championship."

Keselowski qualified 24th and slowly worked his way to the front of the field. He didn't get the lead until after the halfway point but led 97 of the final 100 laps. He was one of several drivers to stay on the track under the race's final caution period and, after a brief tussle with Edwards, Keselowski pulled away.

"The Onion" gets sixth win at Texas

2010-06-05T05:44:00.000-07:00

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Todd Bodine added to his resume as the winningest Truck Series driver at Texas Motor Speedway on Friday night with an overtime victory in the WinStar World Casino 400k.

Bodine drove away from four-time and reigning series champion Ron Hornaday and Timothy Peters on a green-white-checkered restart to notch his sixth career victory on TMS' 1.5-mile oval, and third in the summer event here. Bodine also snapped a 24-race winless streak dating to June 5, 2009.
Getty Images
Texas
Results

Pos. Driver Make
1. Todd Bodine Toyota
2. Johnny Sauter Chevrolet
3. Austin Dillon Chevrolet
4. Mike Skinner Toyota
5. Ken Schrader Chevrolet
• Results | Gallery
Race Video

* Victory Lane: Bodine
* Final Laps
* Crafton caught up with Starr
* Starr, Aramendia trigger crash
* Post-race reactions

Johnny Sauter finished second, followed by rookie polesitter Austin Dillon, former series champion Mike Skinner and super-sub Ken Schrader. Bodine's margin of victory after 169 laps was 1.007-seconds.

Bodine, 46, scored his 18th career series victory and 11th in 53 starts on a 1.5-mile layout. Bodine and Kyle Busch each have scored six wins at TMS, with Busch working on a five-race Nationwide Series streak. The Sprint Cup regular also has one Truck Series win.

"It's an honor anywhere to say you've won the most races at a track. It's pretty awesome," said Bodine, nicknamed "The Onion" for his bald pate. "We're proud of the fact we can come to Texas and run this well every time. It's someplace we enjoy and being the only six-time [Truck Series] winner ... it was a goal when Kyle won five to come back and win another one. To get that done, I'm pretty proud of that."

Bodine led a race-high 106 laps en route to his first victory and seventh top-five finish in eight 2010 races.

"We've been struggling all year to make the trucks drive good, and this truck was driving fast and wide open. It was fun to drive," Bodine said. "We had a great Tundra. It was an awesome night all around."

Crew chief Mike Hillman Jr. said his Germain Racing crew tries to treat all the series' 1.5-mile layouts the same.

"But it seems we get our stuff figured out this time of the year," Hillman said. "I'm really proud of our guys. We went to work this winter making our trucks lighter and better. I can't say enough about how hard everyone at Germain works. I'm the lucky guy who gets called the crew chief."

Dillon, the grandson of team owner Richard Childress, capped his first series pole with his first top-five finish.

"What a phenomenal job," Dillon said. "I started off really good and lost it in the middle but at the end I raced hard and got us a good finish. I just had a little trouble on the restarts."

Bodine was leading Peters and a pack of only nine trucks on the lead lap when the night's fifth caution waved to remove the slowing truck of Jason White from the field. None of the leaders chose to pit, setting up a seven-lap shootout.

Bodine easily drove away from Peters, who faltered badly on the start from his spot on the outside lane. But Hornaday, who swept both races here in 2008, barged underneath Bodine from third in an attempt to take the lead. Bodine never lifted and had cleared Hornaday's No. 33 Chevrolet when Matt Crafton and David Starr tangled down the backstretch, bringing out the sixth caution on Lap 164 of the scheduled 167.

"That next-to-last restart, Ron got underneath me," Bodine said. "I've not always been the best at restarts, just OK. But when you got Hornaday on the outside you got to get it right. That last one, I didn't spin the tires until I got into third [gear]. And they got racing hard and ended up giving us a good lead."

Bodine leaves Texas with a 65-point lead over Aric Almirola, who finished 12th.

Kurt Busch sweeps Sprint Cup wins at Charlotte

2010-05-30T19:31:00.000-07:00

After Kurt Busch won the NASCAR Sprint Cup race last Saturday, yet again he wins at the same track. Kurt took the checkered flag after dominating most of the laps. Congratulations to Kurt Busch on his Charlotte sweep. The top 5 are 1. Kurt Busch
2. Jamie Mcmurrey 3. Kyle Busch 4. Mark Martin and 5. David Reutimann.

Dario Franchitti wins Indy 500

2010-05-30T18:08:00.000-07:00

Franchitti handed Target Chip Ganassi its fourth Indy 500 victory in a dominating performance under a searing sun (90 degrees at the green flag) and worldwide spotlight – 45 years after his hero, Jim Clark, won at Indy.

“This tastes just as good the second time,” said Franchitti, who in 2007 won the race shortened 34 laps because of rain. “To come back from a year away and win the championship and then win the Indy 500 it just means so much.”

The No. 10 entry led 155 of the 200 laps, inheriting the point for the final time on Lap 192 when pole sitter Helio Castroneves ducked into the pits for a splash of 100 percent fuel-grade ethanol.

Dan Wheldon was reeling in the reigning IZOD IndyCar Series champion with three laps remaining, closing to 2.9 seconds when a half-lap behind the Nos. 37 and 24 cars of Ryan Hunter-Reay and Mike Conway touched wheels, sending Conway’s car slamming into the catch fence between Turns 3 and 4. The yellow flag flew and Franchitti – with the Honda engine purring with only 1.6 gallons of fuel left – was able to basically coast to the twin checkered flags.

“Up until 10 laps to go, I was pretty relaxed,” said Franchitti, who made his final pit stop on Lap 163. “Then all hell broke loose with fuel savings and all. I just needed to know what the other guys were doing. If they were saving more than me, they were doing something special here.”

Conway was transported to Methodist Hospital for X-rays, while Hunter-Reay and Ana Beatriz (also incidentally involved) were checked and released from the infield care center. Hunter-Reay will, however, have surgery June 1 on his left thumb, which he injured in a pit lane incident.

“It became a fuel race toward the end and I had no idea how much I had left in the tank, and it came down into Turn 3 and it just died,” Hunter-Reay said. “The car died and that’s when Mike latched over me. That’s probably one of the toughest races I’ve ever had.”

Seven different IZOD IndyCar Series teams were represented in the top 10. There were 13 lead changes and nine caution periods.

Wheldon, driving the No. 4 National Guard Panther Racing car, was the runner-up for the second year in a row. Panther has finished second for three consecutive years (in 2008 with Vitor Meira). After video review of the final lap incident and when the caution lights were activated, Marco Andretti was confirmed the third-place finisher and Alex Lloyd advanced 22 positions to finish a career-high fourth.

Scott Dixon, the 2008 race winner, finished fifth and Danica Patrick, who provided Internet fodder a week earlier with comments relating to her qualifying result (she started 23rd) finished sixth in the No. 7 GoDaddy.com car for Andretti Autosport. Dreyer & Reinbold's Justin Wilson, who led 11 laps late in the race, finished seventh (the first time in three '500s' he's finished).

Each of the Ganassi winners – Emerson Fittipaldi in 1999 (158 laps led), Juan Pablo Montoya (167) and Scott Dixon (115) – have dominated in their respective years. All have been the beneficiary of no or miniscule mistakes.

“It was a great day,” Target Chip Ganassi Racing managing director Mike Hull said. “It's what race teams work to achieve, to win this race. This is the biggest race in the world. Today we had great race drivers and great race teams. I don't know what the head count is (at the Speedway), but I think they were treated to a great show.

“What we had to employ today was everything we do as a race team. We had to employ setup, speed, strategy, and understanding fuel after different times during the race. That's what we do well as a team. We just try to be consistent in being able to do that.”

If the final caution didn’t interrupt the flow, Wheldon said he figured to have an opportunity to overtake Franchitti because he was saving fuel early on in the final stint (also pitted on Lap 163). Franchitti’s team owner saw it another way.

“I don't think he could have picked us off, but I think he could have passed us,” Chip Ganassi countered. “A lot of those guys are kicking themselves because they ended up with fuel left over at the end of the race. The worst thing you want to do is have some control over the fuel either with a switch or the 'push to pass' button.

“The worst thing you can do, and we've done it, is come up second in this race or third and have fuel in your tank that you didn't use, you could have used more of it. But that's this race. That's what it's like when you go into the last three laps or two laps and there's a yellow, white flag and then there's a yellow.”

Franchitti joined a list of two-time winners that includes Fittipaldi, Al Unser Jr. and Arie Luyendyk. Now he sets his sights on matching three-time winners Castroneves, Louis Meyer, Wilbur Shaw, Mauri Rose, Johnny Rutherford and Bobby Unser.

“Those guys are legends,” he said. “I said the other night, ‘I'm just a driver, those guys are legends.’ I'm so lucky to be drive for Chip and Team Target, getting in good cars, especially having gone away after we won in '07. To be invited back was pretty cool. To have won a championship and an Indy 500, I didn't expect any of this. I said before, I expected to be retired by the time I was 35 (he turned 37 on May 19). This is all bonus and it's pretty cool.”

Castroneves, who last pitted on Lap 155, picked up the point when Dreyer & Reinbold Racing’s Justin Wilson came in for the final time on Lap 189. But his attempt to become the fourth four-time winner would have to wait until next year.

“Well, we always say the one that makes the fewest mistakes wins the race and I made one that put us too far back,” said Castroneves, who checked in ninth (one spot behind Team Penske teammate Will Power). “We were fighting understeer and oversteer all day but we were still there fighting at the end and we still managed a top-10 result. Congratulations to Dario. Those guys were on it today and they deserve to be Indy 500 champions.”

Alex Tagliani of first-year entrant FAZZT Race Team finished 10, and Tony Kanaan charged from the 33rd starting position to 11th in the Team 7-11 car. Graham Rahal, competing for Rahal Leterman Racing was 12th and Mario Romancini of Conquest Racing was the highest-placing rookie in 13th.

Brian Vickers out for medical issues

2010-05-25T16:42:00.000-07:00

After waking up to pain on late Friday night Brian Vickers took some pain killers and went back to bed. The next morning the pain had reduced, but was still there, he visited an infield care center doctor. The doctor told him to go straight to the hospital emergency room. At the hospital the doctor checked him thoroughly and came to the conclusion of blood clots in both of Vickers' lungs and one in his left leg. Because of these clots Vickers will be out six months, It could have been four, but they chose six months to be on the safe side.
Vickers said at a conference, "I asked if I could drive if I didn't wreck.But the answer still was no." He also added "I think coming back with only 8 races left isn't worth the reward compared to the risk." Casey Mears will take over the 83 Red Bull Toyota for the rest of the season, as seen during the All-Star race. From both Brendan and Shane of this site and hopefully all NASCAR fans we hope this issue clears up, Take it easy Brian! Also congrats to Casey Mears for this great opportunity driving for a great team.

~Shane

Kurt Brings the Cool Million

2010-05-22T20:23:00.000-07:00

An exciting night at Charlotte Carries Kurt Busch to Victory Lane. After Busch won the first segment of the All-Star Race, he sunk down to the back of the top 10. But after major wrecks in the last two segments, that pushed most of the leaders out of the way and gave Busch another chance to take the million, and suceed. This was Kurt's first All-Star win, congratulations to Penski Racing and the Miller-Lite Dodge team.
The top five were- 1. Kurt Busch 2.Martin Truex Jr. 3. Joey Lagano 4. Denny Hamlin and 5. (last year's winner) Tony Stewart

~Shane

Get your name on Tony Stewart's car

2010-05-22T17:10:00.000-07:00

BurgerKing.com has started a new progam on their website, called Sign and Race With Tony Stewart. This progam actually lets you write your name in a box where it will be placed on the hood of Tony's Burger King car that will be raced at Daytona on July third. A great way to interact with fans! Here is the signing box below :

Have fun and remember to watch the All-Star race at Lowe's Motor Speedway going on now and the opening ceramonies of the NASCAR Hall of Fame tomorrow!

Busch dominates Dover

2010-05-17T12:52:00.000-07:00

DOVER, Del. -- Kyle Busch couldn't hear a thing. He flipped from the primary radio to the backup and back again, listening for any sign of his spotter or crew chief. He told his No. 18 team that if they could hear him, to stand up on the pit wall and wave. NASCAR was on the brink of ordering Busch to pit road to get his radio changed, a necessary safety move that would have seriously derailed his effort at Dover International Speedway only 100 laps in.

And then, just like that, communication was restored.

Radio gremlin," Busch said, grinning.

Actually, the likely culprit was the radio plug into Busch's helmet, which the team believed had fallen out. No matter. Sunday afternoon Busch let his yellow race car do the talking for him, taking advantage of a Jimmie Johnson speeding penalty in the final stages to record his second Sprint Cup victory in three weeks. And by the end of this long race weekend at Dover, a tripleheader dominated by the Joe Gibbs Racing driver, every spectator who had passed through the gates of this concrete race track had heard him loud and clear.

Sunday's victory required a little good fortune, to be certain, but Busch was still good enough to lead 131 laps and battle Johnson wheel-to-wheel at almost every turn. That performance came on the heels of Saturday's schooling, a Nationwide Series race where Busch led 191 laps. And then there was Friday, a Camping World Truck Series event where Busch was the class of the field, leading 172 laps before running out of fuel in the end.

Do the math: This weekend at Dover, Busch led 494 of a possible 809 laps, and came frighteningly close -- a few gallons of gas, actually -- to becoming the first driver to sweep a national-series tripleheader at the same race track.

"I told you ... I was going to be mad when I won this race, because I had a shot to sweep the whole weekend," Busch said. "If you miss out on the first one, the last one seems a little easier. If you get the first two, the last one seems the hardest. It's inevitable. It is what it is. It's not going to hurt my feelings to go to bed tonight that I lost Friday. I'm going to think more about today and [how] winning this Sprint Cup championship means more than winning in one of my Trucks does. I want to win anything I can get in, but if I have to give one up ... I'd rather give it up Friday than Sunday." (Continued)

Busch tames Miles the monster

2010-05-15T16:23:00.000-07:00

DOVER, Del. Kyle Busch put the fans to sleep with a dominant victory Saturday in the NASCAR Nationwide Series Heluva Good! 200 at Dover International Speedway.

But Denny Hamlin and Clint Bowyer woke them up with a late-race dust-up that sent Bowyer to the garage and the Nationwide Series hauler.

Busch scored his fourth Nationwide victory of the season and 34th of his career by leading all but 14 of the 205 laps as the race ended with a green-white-checkered finish. He never was truly challenged and easily pulled away from the field on the final restart.

"This is just another product of Joe Gibbs Racing and all the guys that work so hard," said Busch, who won from the pole at Dover. "Everybody at the shop does a great job for us. The preparation was there. When we unloaded, we unloaded good. We just tweaked on it. That's what it takes."

Meanwhile, as Busch celebrated in Victory Lane, Bowyer was waiting in the Nationwide hauler to meet with NASCAR officials. On the next-to-last restart, Hamlin punted Bowyer out of second place as the green flag waved. The fracas triggered a nine-car accident and an 11-minute, 43-second red flag.

After the red was lifted, Bowyer drove from pit road and slammed into the side of Hamlin's car, causing it to spin. NASCAR immediately parked Bowyer and sent him to the garage.

"[Our team has] had a frustrating year, bringing home a lot of torn-up racecars," said Bowyer, who replaced John Wes Townley in Richard Childress Racing's No. 21 six races ago. "It is what it is. I don't have a beef with Denny. We'll be fine. I got one taken from me. Just a little payback."

Hamlin has been involved in Nationwide controversy at Dover before, getting together with Brad Keselowski last year. But this time, his reaction was more calm.

"It just didn't have the speed that those guys did, but we tried to make something happen on the restart and got the 21 and the 38 [of Kasey Kahne] there," Hamlin said of his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. "A lot of times when that happens you kind of expect retaliation."

Ryan Newman drove through the crash and finished second to Busch, with Jamie McMurray third. Reed Sorenson was fourth, followed by Braun Racing teammate Jason Leffler.

Kevin Harvick was sixth, with Brad Keselowski seventh to hold on to the points lead by 11 over Busch. Greg Biffle was eighth, with rookies Brian Scott and Colin Braun rounding out the top 10.

Autism Speaks 400 presented by Hershey's Milk & Milkshakes | Dover International Speedway

2010-05-13T18:18:00.001-07:00

CAR	DRIVER	HOMETOWN	MAKE	SPONSOR	OWNER

00	David Reutimann	Zephyrhills, FL	Toyota	Aaron's Dream Machine	Rob Kauffman
1	Jamie McMurray	Joplin, MO	Chevrolet	Bass Pro Shops / Tracker	Teresa Earnhardt
2	Kurt Busch	Las Vegas, NV	Dodge	Miller Lite	Walter Czarnecki
5	Mark Martin	Batesville, AR	Chevrolet	GoDaddy.com	Mary Hendrick
6	David Ragan	Unadilla, GA	Ford	UPS	John Henry
7	Robby Gordon	Orange, CA	Toyota	BAMVIP.com / James Otto - Whitney Duncan	Robby Gordon
9	Kasey Kahne	Enumclaw, WA	Ford	Budweiser	George Gillett, Jr
09	Mike Bliss	Milwaukie, OR	Chevrolet	Phoenix Construction / GracewayPharm- aceuticals	James Finch
11	Denny Hamlin	Chesterfield, VA	Toyota	FedEx Freight	J D Gibbs
12	Brad Keselowski	Rochester Hills, MI	Dodge	Penske Racing	Roger Penske
13	Max Papis	Como, Italy	Toyota	GEICO	Bob Germain
14	Tony Stewart	Rushville, IN	Chevrolet	Office Depot / Old Spice	Margaret Haas
16	Greg Biffle	Vancouver, WA	Ford	3M	Jack Roush
17	Matt Kenseth	Cambridge, WI	Ford	Crown Royal Black	John Henry
18	Kyle Busch	Las Vegas, NV	Toyota	M&M's	Joe Gibbs
19	Elliott Sadler	Emporia, VA	Ford	Stanley	George Gillett, Jr
20	Joey Logano	Middletown, CT	Toyota	The Home Depot	Joe Gibbs
24	Jeff Gordon	Pittsboro, IN	Chevrolet	DuPont	Rick Hendrick
26	David Stremme	South Bend, IN	Ford	Air National Guard	Bill Jenkins
29	Kevin Harvick	Bakersfield, CA	Chevrolet	Shell / Pennzoil	Richard Childress
31	Jeff Burton	South Boston, VA	Chevrolet	Caterpillar	Richard Childress
33	Clint Bowyer	Emporia, KS	Chevrolet	Cheerios / Hamburger Helper	Richard Childress
34	Travis Kvapil	Janesville, WI	Ford	Long John Silver's Baja Fish Tacos	Bob Jenkins
36	Johnny Sauter	Necedah, WI	Chevrolet	Tommy Baldwin Racing	Tommy Baldwin
37	Kevin Conway*	Lynchburg, VA	Ford	Extenze	Doug Yates
38	David Gilliland	Riverside, CA	Ford	Taco Bell	Doug Yates
39	Ryan Newman	South Bend, IN	Chevrolet	U.S. Army	Tony Stewart
42	Juan Montoya	Bogota, Colombia	Chevrolet	Target	Chip Ganassi
43	A.J. Allmendinger	Los Gatos, CA	Ford	Richard Petty / NASCAR Hall of Fame	Richard Petty
46	J.J. Yeley	Phoenix, AZ	Dodge	Whitney Motorsports	Dusty Whitney
47	Marcos Ambrose	Launceston, Tasmania	Toyota	A&P / MDA	Tad Geschickter
48	Jimmie Johnson	El Cajon, CA	Chevrolet	Lowe's	Jeff Gordon
55	Michael McDowell	Phoenix, AZ	Toyota	Prism Motorsports	Randy Humphrey
56	Martin Truex Jr.	Mayetta, NJ	Toyota	NAPA Auto Parts	Michael Waltrip
66	Dave Blaney	Hartford, OH	Toyota	Prism Motorsports	Phil Parsons
71	Bobby Labonte	Corpus Christi, TX	Chevrolet	TRG Motorsports	Kevin Buckler
77	Sam Hornish Jr.	Bryan, OH	Dodge	Mobil 1	Roger Penske
78	Regan Smith	Cato, NY	Chevrolet	Furniture Row Companies	Richard Childress
82	Scott Speed	Manteca, CA	Toyota	Red Bull	Dietrich Mateschitz
83	Casey Mears	Bakersfield, CA	Toyota	Red Bull	Dietrich Mateschitz
87	Joe Nemechek	Lakeland, FL	Toyota	FrontRowJoe.com	Andrea Nemechek
88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Kannapolis, NC	Chevrolet	Amp Energy / National Guard	Rick Hendrick
98	Paul Menard	Eau Claire, WI	Ford	Zecol / Menards	George Gillett, Jr
99	Carl Edwards	Columbia, MO	Ford	Aflac	Jack Roush
132	Reed Sorenson	Peachtree City, GA	Toyota	Braun Racing	Ralph Braun
164	Todd Bodine	Chemung, NY	Toyota	Gunselman Motorsports	Larry Gunselman

Entry List Heluva Good! 200 | Dover International Speedway

2010-05-13T18:13:00.000-07:00

CAR	DRIVER	HOMETOWN	MAKE	SPONSOR	OWNER
1	Ryan Newman	South Bend, IN	Chevrolet	Phoenix Racing	James Finch
01	Mike Wallace	St. Louis, MO	Chevrolet	J Davis Motorsports.com	Lori Davis
05	Willie Allen	Nashville, TN	Chevrolet	31-W Insulation	Wayne Day
6	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.*	Olive Branch, MS	Ford	CitiFinancial	Jack Roush
7	Landon Cassill	Cedar Rapids, IA	Chevrolet	GoDaddy.com	Bryan Mullet
09	Chad McCumbee	Supply, NC	Ford	RAB Racing	Robby Benton
10	Jason Leffler	Long Beach, CA	Toyota	ABF Freight	Todd Braun
11	Brian Scott*	Boise, ID	Toyota	Braun Racing	Harry Scott Jr.
12	Justin Allgaier	Riverton, IL	Dodge	Verizon Wireless	Roger Penske
15	Michael Annett	Des Moines, IA	Toyota	Germain.com	Bob Germain
16	Colin Braun*	Ovalo, TX	Ford	Con-way Freight	Jack Roush
18	Kyle Busch	Las Vegas, NV	Toyota	Combos	Joe Gibbs
20	Denny Hamlin	Chesterfield, VA	Toyota	Food Lion "Feeding America"	Joe Gibbs
21	Clint Bowyer	Emporia, KS	Chevrolet	Zaxby's	Richard Childress
22	Brad Keselowski	Rochester Hills, MI	Dodge	Ruby Tuesday	Jodi Geschickter
23	Robert Richardson Jr.	McKinney, TX	Chevrolet	R3 Motorsports	Robert Richardson
24	Eric McClure	Chilhowie, VA	Ford	Hefty Odorblock	Ed Rensi
26	Brian Keselowski	Rochester Hills, MI	Dodge	K-Automotive Motorsports	Bob Keselowski
27	Greg Biffle	Vancouver, WA	Ford	Red Man Moist Snuff	Mike Curb
28	Kenny Wallace	St. Louis, MO	Chevrolet	Jay Robinson Inc.	Jay Robinson
31	Donnie Neuenberger	Brandywine, MD	Chevrolet	Plan B Technologies / E-Z Slider	Rick Ware
32	Reed Sorenson	Peachtree City, GA	Toyota	Dollar General	Todd Braun
33	Kevin Harvick	Bakersfield, CA	Chevrolet	Ollie's Bargain Outlet	DeLana Harvick
34	Tony Raines	La Porte, IN	Chevrolet	Continental Fire & Safety	Bob Jenkins
35	Jason Keller	Greenville, SC	Chevrolet	TriStar Motorsports	Mark C Smith
38	Kasey Kahne	Enumclaw, WA	Toyota	Great Clips	Ralph Braun
40	Mike Bliss	Milwaukie, OR	Chevrolet	Strutmasters.com	Curtis Key, Sr
43	Scott Lagasse Jr.	St. Augustine, FL	Ford	American Red Cross	Mike Curb
52	Kevin Hamlin	Snohomish, WA	Chevrolet	Harrington Raceway & Casino	Jimmy Means
60	Carl Edwards	Columbia, MO	Ford	Fastenal	Jack Roush
61	Josh Wise	Riverside, CA	Ford	Specialty Racing	Doug Taylor
62	Brendan Gaughan	Las Vegas, NV	Toyota	South Point Hotel & Casino	Rusty Wallace
66	Steve Wallace	Mooresville, NC	Toyota	5-Hour Energy	Rusty Wallace
70	Mark Green	Owensboro, KY	Chevrolet	ML Motorsports	Mary Louise Miller
73	Johnny Chapman	Stony Point, NC	Dodge	Stratus Racing Group	Derrike Cope
81	Michael McDowell	Phoenix, AZ	Dodge	Mobile-Shop	Pat MacDonald
87	Joe Nemechek	Lakeland, FL	Chevrolet	FrontRowJoe.com	Andrea Nemechek
88	Jamie McMurray	Joplin, MO	Chevrolet	K'Nex	Dale Earnhardt, Jr
89	Morgan Shepherd	Conover, NC	Chevrolet	Racing With Jesus	Cindy Shepherd
90	Chase Miller	Canton, GA	Chevrolet	D'Hondt Humphrey Motorsports	Eddie D'Hondt
91	David Gilliland	Riverside, CA	Chevrolet	D'Hondt Humphrey Motorsports	Randy Humphrey
92	Dennis Setzer	Newton, NC	Dodge	K-Automotive Motorsports	Brian Keselowski
98	Paul Menard	Eau Claire, WI	Ford	Richmond Water Heaters / Menards	Jack Roush
99	Trevor Bayne	Knoxville, TN	Toyota	Diamond Waltrip Racing	Michael Waltrip
139	Danny O'Quinn Jr.	Coeburn, VA	Ford	Blow Bros.	Archie St Hilaire
156	Kevin Lepage	Shelburne, VT	Chevrolet	Mac Hill Motorsports	John McNelly

* Denotes Rookie

Brian Vickers in the Hospital, will NOT race at Dover

2010-05-13T18:09:00.000-07:00

HARLOTTE, N.C. -- Brian Vickers will miss Sunday's Autism Speaks 400 at Dover International Speedway because of a medical condition diagnosed this week, Red Bull Racing team officials announced Thursday.

Casey Mears will take Vickers' place in the No. 83 Toyota this weekend.

Vickers, who qualified for the Chase last season, was hospitalized Wednesday evening for an undisclosed condition and was undergoing tests and further evaluation on Thursday.

Vickers

"It is unfortunate that I will not be able to participate in the Dover race," Vickers said in a statement distributed by the team. "Casey is a good friend of mine, and I know he will do his best for the No. 83 team this weekend."

Vickers' absence will break a streak of 87 consecutive Cup starts, dating to 2007, his first year in the Red Bull car. Missing the race also will deal a serious blow to Vickers' chances of making the Chase this season.

Vickers is 20th in the standings through 11 races, 464 points behind series leader Kevin Harvick and 160 points behind 12th-place Dale Earnhardt Jr. The top 12 drivers after 26 races qualify for the Chase.

"Our main concern right now is with Brian and his health and recovery," said Red Bull Racing general manager Jay Frye. "All things are looking good at the moment. This is just a minor setback."

Vickers, who is well-known for an active lifestyle that includes extensive travel, skydiving, scuba diving and snowboarding, has two career Cup victories -- the most recent coming last August at Michigan -- and 11 poles, six of which he earned in 2009.

Mears has competed in two Cup races this season and has failed to qualify for six others. Last week he failed to make the field at Darlington in the No. 36 Tommy Baldwin Racing Chevrolet, which Johnny Sauter will drive at Dover.

Hamlin wins at Darlington

2010-05-09T05:14:00.000-07:00

Denny Hamlin wins at Richmond: #11-Denny Hamlin won the Showtime Southern 500 Sprint Cup Series race at Darlington Raceway for his 3rd race of 2010 and 11th of his career. He also won the Nationwide race Friday night. It was his first weekend sweep in Nationwide and Cup. Pole sitter #1-Jamie McMurray finished 2nd, followed by #2-Busch, #24-Gordon, #42-Montoya, #29-Harvick, #18-Busch, #31-Burton, #39-Newman, and #83-Vickers. Harvick extended his points lead to 110 over #48-Johnson, who was involved in a wreck with #43-Allmendinger midway through the race and finished 36th. There were 20 lead changes among 11 drivers and 11 cautions for 56 yellow flag laps.

Busch wins at Richmond

2010-05-03T17:16:00.000-07:00

Kyle Busch was able to pass Jeff Gordon and win the Crown Royal 400 after dominating most of the race. Busch lost the lead during pit stops but was able to regroup and go to victory lane again at Richmond!

Two in a row for Brad Keselowski

2010-05-01T05:30:00.000-07:00

After a late caution turned a runaway into a challenge for Brad Keselowski, a late four-tire call proved decisive, as Keselowski stormed to the front from fourth place during a green-white-checkered-flag finish to win Friday night's Bubba Burger 250 Nationwide Series race at Richmond International Raceway.

"I'm coming," Keselowski radioed to crew chief Paul Wolfe, steering his car toward pit road for a four-tire stop.

Kyle Busch and Justin Allgaier stayed out on old tires, while Jamie McMurray and Greg Biffle each took two. Busch led the field to green on Lap 251 with Allgaier beside him, McMurray on the inside of the second row and Keselowski alongside in fourth.

Biffle surged forward from the fifth spot, and by the time the cars reached Turn 3 on the next-to-last lap, Keselowski and Biffle had separated themselves from the pack. A lap later, Keselowski passed to the inside and ultimately crossed the finish line .261 seconds ahead of Biffle.

McMurray finished third, Busch fourth and Carl Edwards fifth. Keselowski extended his series lead to 59 points over seventh-place finisher Kevin Harvick.

The victory was Keselowski's second in as many weeks to go with his victory at Talladega Superspeedway.

"That's what you pay me to do, R.P.," Keselowski radioed to team owner Roger Penske after powering his No. 22 Dodge across the finish line.

"Man, this is awesome to watch you, Brad," Penske replied.

Keselowski and Wolfe's decision to pit for tires proved to be the winning move.

"If we lost this race, and I didn't take tires, I'd be so mad," said Keselowski, who won for the eighth time in the series. "We came down pit road and got those tires and made the right move on Greg on the last lap, and it all worked out."

Busch started from the pole but couldn't hold Keselowski off on old or new tires.

"We didn't have the car tonight," Busch said. "We just didn't have anything for the 22 tonight. He was stellar."

Keselowski and Busch were the class of the field for the first 100 laps. Busch started from the pole and stayed out front for 58 laps, before Keselowski nosed ahead at the start/finish line on Lap 59.

By the time Scott Lagasse Jr.'s blown right front tire necessitated the third caution of the race on Lap 95, Keselowski had opened a lead of more than five seconds in front of Busch and had reduced the number of cars on the lead lap to 16.

From that point on, though, it remained Keselowski's race. He surrendered the lead only once the rest of the way -- when he pitted for the four tires before the final restart.

Brad Keselowski wins the Aarons 312

2010-04-25T17:53:00.001-07:00

It took him only 8 races, but Brad Keselowski gets his first win for Penske racing in the Nationwide series.
Brad Keselowski won a wreck filled race at Talladega after making a last lap charge on Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer. After Brad made his move a huge pile up was triggered after Jamie Mcmurray spun, one car (Dennis Setzer) got up into the catch fence, he was ok. This marks Brads 7'th Nationwide series win, his first for penske.

Harvick Slingshots at Talladega

2010-04-25T13:55:00.000-07:00

Kevin Harvick broke his 115 winless streak in Sprint cup, at Talladega. He bump drafted Jamie Mcmurrey for the last 2 laps, until the fourth corner of the super speedway and did a slingshot move to fly by and take the win just by a fender. After three tries at Overdrive it turns out that the third time IS the charm... for Harvick. The top five for today is- 1. Kevin Harvick, 2. Jamie Mcmurrey, 3. Jaun Pablo Montoya, 4. Denny Hamlin and 5. Mark Martin. Don't for get, the Nationwide series race is right after Victory Lane celebrations.

~Shane

Severe weather stops saturday action at Talladega

2010-04-24T08:07:00.001-07:00

TALLADEGA, Ala. -- The threat of approaching severe weather forced officials from NASCAR and Talladega Superspeedway to cancel Saturday's schedule, including Sprint Cup qualifying and the Aaron's 312, setting up the possibility of 800 miles of racing in a Sunday doubleheader.

While the lineup for the Aaron's 449 will be set by the NASCAR rule book, the Nationwide Series race will now be run Sunday afternoon, immediately following the conclusion of the Cup race. Even though the track does not have lights, Nationwide Series director Joe Balash said Friday local sunset is about 7:30 p.m., which should provide for enough time to complete both events.

Start time for the Aaron's 499 is 1 p.m. ET on FOX. According to the track release, fans holding tickets to the Nationwide race will be allowed to watch both events in unassigned seating. The Nationwide race now will be on ESPN2.

After a morning meeting with forecasters from the National Weather Service, the track issued an announcement explaining the decision.

"In the interest of fan safety, all activities scheduled at Talladega Superspeedway on Saturday have been postponed due to the significant threat of extended periods of severe weather," according to the release. "This decision was made based on advice from the National Weather Service and the Talladega County Emergency Management Agency. Fans are strongly encouraged to take necessary precautions to ensure their safety, especially those guests camping on speedway property."

According to several reports, fans staying in tents are being asked to take them down for safety reasons.

The area was hit with a severe thunderstorm early Saturday morning, and at least two more major systems were expected to move in from the west, forcing officials to make the call. A tornado watch is currently in effect for 29 central Alabama counties, including Talladega County.

Points leader Jimmie Johnson will start from the pole on Sunday, with Matt Kenseth sharing the front row. Terry Cook and Aric Almirola did not make the field, which was set by owners' points, previous wins and attempts.

Fans who want to witness more than 800 miles of back-to-back, high-speed action at Talladega but who have not yet purchased their tickets can still do so by calling 877-Go2-DEGA or visiting one of the ticket booths on site. Gates open at 8 a.m. local time.

Shell/Penziol leaves RCR and finds new home at Penske

2010-04-22T18:24:00.000-07:00

Kurt Busch has signed a multiyear extension with Penske Racing that includes moving from the #2 car with Miller Lite as his primary sponsor into the #22 with Shell/Pennzoil as the sponsor, team officials said on Wednesday. Brad Keselowski will move from Penske's #12 car into the #2, with Miller Lite, which has been with the organization for 20 years, remaining the sponsor for the #2. Keselowski currently is sponsored by Verizon, but because of NASCAR's exclusivity deal with Cup series sponsor Sprint, Verizon's brand logo is not allowed on the car. "Brad is one of the hottest young drivers in NASCAR and we're thrilled to welcome him to the Miller Lite Racing family," said Andy England, chief marketing officer at MillerCoors. "Rarely in this sport are you presented with the opportunity to build a relationship with a top-tier driver at the start of his career."
The addition of Shell/Pennzoil means that Mobil 1, a competing motor oil that sponsors Penske's #77-Sam Hornish Jr., will not return in 2011. But Jonathon Gibson, the vice president of Penske Racing, said Penske is committed to remaining a three-car operation with Hornish in the third car. "We'll be prepared to announce a new sponsorship deal for that car in the next few weeks or months," Gibson said. "We're very excited. For us to have the opportunity to bring in a great brand like Shell and extend our relationship with Miller puts us in a place where we can build for the future."
Kevin Harvick, in the last year of his contract with Richard Childress Racing, is without a sponsor. Harvick is negotiating with RCR to find a new sponsor and stay with the company, according to a source. Harvick has been with RCR since he succeeded the late Dale Earnhardt in 2001. A source said discussions between RCR and Budweiser, in its last season with Richard Petty Motorsports' #9-Kasey Kahne, have taken place. Kahne signed last week a deal with Hendrick Motorsports to replace Mark Martin in 2012 and drive a car to be determined by team owner Rick Hendrick in 2011.(ESPN.com)(4-21-2010)

Dale Jr to run the #3 in nationwide race

2010-04-22T18:23:00.000-07:00

If arrangements go as planned, Earnhardt will run the #3 Wrangler Chevrolet for JR Motorsports at Daytona International Speedway in the NASCAR Nationwide Series race on July 2. Sources have told FOXSports.com that Earnhardt will revive his father's famous #3 in a collaborative effort initiated by JR Motorsports with Richard Childress Racing and Dale Earnhardt Inc. A formal announcement is expected on April 29. According to team sources, a Hendrick Motorsports engine will power the car. Earnhardt Jr. currently has a personal services contract with Wrangler, continuing a family legacy between the brands. Wrangler first sponsored his father for the final race of his 1980 Cup championship season and the following year with Rod Osterlund for the first 16 races. (4-22-2010)

Kyle Busch wins 5 in a row at texas

2010-04-19T16:56:00.000-07:00

Kyle Busch roped in his 5th straight win at texas in the Nationwide series today, at the O'Rielly 300. A feat only done by two other drivers-Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Jack Ingram. The race was pushed back from Saturday to Sunday due to rain, then to Monday for the same reason. The top 5 was-1. Kyle Busch, 2. Joey Logano, 3. Reed Sorenson, 4. Brad Keselowski, and 5. Kevin Harvick. Kyle has just broken into the NASCAR Nationwide series record books, folks! Congrats to him and his crew.

~Shane

Denny fills the boots

2010-04-19T13:06:00.000-07:00

Denny Hamlin won the Samsung Mobile 500 at Texas, after the race was rescheduled because of rain. An amazing accomplishment after coming from an ACL injury and surgury. The race changed after a wreck was caused with 17 laps to go and a red flag. The top 5 for this race is... 1. Denny Hamlin, 2. Jimmie Johnson, 3. Kyle Busch, 4. Kurt Busch, and 5 Kasey Kahne. Don't forget the Nationwide race starts at 5 p.m. on ESPN2.

~Shane

Rain Rain go away!

2010-04-18T13:37:00.001-07:00

The Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway has been postponed due to rain until Noon ET on Monday. The Nationwide race will run at 5 p.m. ET on Monday. The Cup race will air on FOX with the Nationwide race on ESPN2.

Nationwide race postponed to 9:00 ET tomorrow

2010-04-17T17:24:00.000-07:00

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Persistent rain Saturday at Texas Motor Speedway forced NASCAR officials to postpone the Nationwide Series' O'Reilly Auto Parts 300 to 9 p.m. ET Sunday, following the Sprint Cup Series' Samsung Mobile 500, a 334-lap event that will take the green flag at 3:16 p.m. ET.

Kyle Busch swept both Texas Nationwide races in 2008 and '09, and his Joe Gibbs Racing crew chief, Jason Ratcliff, said the night start would present challenges.

"When the track cools off and the sun goes down, the track picks up a lot of speed," Ratcliff said. "The things that you didn't see in practice, like when you pick up speed, your car travels more and bottoms things out. Those little things that you may not be prepared for because you thought you were racing under the same conditions that you practiced can pop up and bite you -- so you have to think about that a little bit. Other than that, the track just gains some grip. I wouldn't expect to see a big balance shift, just the speeds will pick up and be faster."

Sprint Cup regular Joey Logano will lead the 43-car Nationwide field to the green flag after he won his third pole position of the season in Friday's qualifying session.

"The track will have changed whenever we run on it," said Logano, one of 15 drivers scheduled for double duty. "The good thing is that the Cup cars will have run their race on the track, so there will be some rubber out there. We'll have to adjust on the car some during the race, but our team is good at adjusting. I think we'll be strong whenever we get things rolling."

Saturday at 1:13 p.m. ET, track officials issued a bulletin indicating there was an "eight- to 10-hour window" of potentially clear weather in which to run the Nationwide Series' seventh race of the season, beginning at about 3:30 p.m. ET.

NASCAR began running jet dryers after an on-site meteorologist for the National Weather Service said that there was "a 90 percent chance" for the extensive window of fair weather. But rain began before that window was due to open, it never stopped and, at 6:30 p.m ET, NASCAR announced the postponement, the first time it's occurred in the Nationwide Series this season.

"For a while the system was moving and it looked optimistic [for it to clear]," NASCAR spokesman Ramsay Poston said on the ESPN2 telecast. "But it stalled. It's obvious now the sun's not going to come out, and it would take two to three hours to dry the track, once it stops raining."

The rain never stopped up to the time NASCAR made the call to postpone.

Two Sprint Cup Series practices for Sunday's eighth Cup race of the season were canceled by the weather early Saturday afternoon.

Sunday's forecast calls for a 60 percent chance of rain. Tony Stewart is scheduled to lead the 43-car Sprint Cup field to the green flag after he won his first pole position in 155 races, on Friday. Frontstretch tickets still remain for the Samsung Mobile 500. For additional ticket information or questions, contact the TMS ticket office at (817) 215-8500 or visit www.texasmotorspeedway.com.

Poston said five times since 2003 has NASCAR run two national series races at the same facility on the same day: at Richmond in September '08, Fontana in February '08, Daytona in July '07, Charlotte in October '03 and Las Vegas in March '03.

Fans holding tickets for the Nationwide race will not be admitted through the gates until after the checkered flag flies following the conclusion of the Cup race.

Due to contra-flow traffic control following the Cup race, fans traveling to Texas Motor Speedway for the Nationwide race will need to utilize the Dale Earnhardt Way exit off Interstate 35W. From Dale Earnhardt Way, fans will be routed to Mark Martin Drive to access parking and the infield.

The O'Reilly Auto Parts 300 will be broadcast live on ESPN2, beginning at 9 p.m. ET.

Kasey Kahne Going to Hendrick

2010-04-13T16:59:00.000-07:00

The current driver of the No. 9 Ford, who will not be returning to Richard Petty Motorsports next season, has signed with NASCAR's most successful organization with an eye toward piloting the team's No. 5 car in 2012, NASCAR.COM has learned. What Kahne will do next season is still to be determined.

Kahne was at an appearance in San Francisco on Tuesday, and through a spokesperson had no comment. Hendrick officials also declined comment.

NASCAR limits teams to four cars, and all of Hendrick's current drivers -- Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- are signed through the 2011 campaign. Last year Martin signed a two-year extension that ends after the 2011 season, the conclusion of which opens the door for Kahne to join an organization that has won nine championships at NASCAR's highest level.

Kahne's plans for next season, though, are still unclear. One certainty is he won't be returning to RPM, which announced earlier Tuesday that the driver had informed the team he would not renew his contract.

Kahne has been with the organization, which started as Evernham Motorsports, since he entered NASCAR's top level in 2004. After a tumultuous 2009 season that saw him win two races but finish 10th in the Chase, he said he would let RPM's performance dictate whether he would remain at the only home he's ever known at the Cup level.

Evidently, seven races were enough. Kahne is 26th in points heading into this week's event at Texas Motor Speedway.

"Kasey is a very talented driver, and I have enjoyed watching him race," team co-owner Richard Petty said in a statement released by RPM. "We all wish him nothing but the best and hope he succeeds in anything he chooses to do."

"Drivers like Kasey Kahne are the very reason we got into this sport," team co-owner George Gillett added. "Kasey has helped us get to where we are today. We wish him well in his future however we have the rest of this season to race together and we're looking forward to a successful remainder of the year

Jamie Mcmurray to drive Jr Motorsports #88 for 9 races

2010-04-13T13:06:00.000-07:00

MOORESVILLE, N.C. (April 13, 2010) - JR Motorsports will undergo a driver change to its No. 88 NASCAR Nationwide Series team effective this weekend when the series races at Texas Motor Speedway, general manager and co-owner Kelley Earnhardt announced today.

The organization has released 25-year-old Kelly Bires from his contractual driving duties of the No. 88 Chevrolet. NASCAR Sprint Cup Series regular Jamie McMurray, driver of the No. 1 Bass Pro Shops/McDonalds Chevrolet for Earnhardt Ganassi Racing, has agreed to a deal that puts him in the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevy for nine races. Those races include the six upcoming Nationwide Series events - Texas (April 17), Talladega (April 24), Richmond (April 30), Darlington (May 7), Dover (May 15) and Charlotte (May 30) - plus Chicagoland (July 9), Atlanta (Sept. 4) and the return trip to Charlotte (Oct. 15). The Hellmann's brand will be the primary sponsor in all but two of those races, and the Suave Men brand will be featured on the No. 88 at Chicagoland Speedway.

A native of Joplin, Mo., McMurray is the reigning Daytona 500 champion. He is a seven-time winner in the Nationwide Series with 27 top-fives, 59 top-10s, and three pole awards. No driver decisions for the No. 88 have been determined beyond McMurray's nine races.

"We are extremely appreciative of Kelly Bires and wish him the best," Kelley Earnhardt said. "Internally, it was evident the chemistry that is imperative for us to succeed in this highly competitive industry was simply not there. That is the fault of no one person. We owe it to our fans and sponsors to make necessary adjustments in an effort to put our best product on the track, and we'll continue evaluating our progress until we are confident that our full potential is being reached."

Under the direction of crew chief Tony Eury Sr., the No. 88 team has finished third in the Nationwide Series point standings each of the past two seasons, accumulating six total victories. In six races this season, the team has one top-10 finish (seventh at Auto Club Speedway). Bires competed in six races for JRM dating back to last November at Homestead-Miami Speedway. He raced the No. 88 in five of the six Nationwide Series events this year, with Dale Earnhardt Jr. driving the season opener at Daytona International Speedway.

The alteration to the No. 88 team does not change plans for the No. 7 team, which presently is to run the full Nationwide Series schedule with multiple drivers. Landon Cassill began a part-time stint last weekend at Phoenix International Raceway, becoming the third driver this season to get behind the wheel of the No. 7 Chevrolets prepared by crew chief and co-owner Tony Eury Jr. He will race the car this weekend at Texas. Danica Patrick has 10 of her scheduled 13 races remaining on the 2010 slate. Scott Wimmer recently completed a two-race commitment and posted season-best finishes of 10th at Bristol Motor Speedway and seventh at Nashville Superspeedway. Driving vacancies left on the No. 7 schedule are still to be determined.

Nationwide points

2010-04-12T05:35:00.001-07:00

Hello Newman!

2010-04-10T20:49:00.001-07:00

Ryan Newman was able to pass and hold off Jeff Gordon to win the subway fresh fit 600. When the race started AJ Allmendinger was on the pole with Scott Speed beside him, AJ led a handfull of laps but three drivers were able to lead over 100 laps. Those drivers were Juan Montoya, Jimmie Johnson, and Kyle Busch. A caution came out with less than 4 laps to go, the field hit pit road, and some drivers saw this as an opportunity, some took 4, some took 2. But 2 tires was the race winning call that sent Ryan Newman into victory lane for the first time since the 2008 Daytona 500. Congratulations to the #39 Tornados/U.S. ARMY/Hass Automation Chevy for Stewart-Hass Racing

Rowdy wins in the desert.

2010-04-10T06:42:00.000-07:00

Surging to the front after a restart with eight laps left in Friday night's Bashas' Supermarkets 200 at Phoenix International Raceway, Kyle Busch overcame a potentially devastating penalty with 50 laps remaining to post his second Nationwide Series win of the year and the 32nd of his career, third most all-time.

Busch restarted 10th on Lap 193 of 200 at the 1-mile track. By Lap 195 he had gained second position, and on Lap 196 he passed eventual third-place finisher Brad Keselowski for the lead.

Bashas' 200
Bashas' 200

Results

Pos. Driver Make
1. Kyle Busch Toyota
2. Kevin Harvick Chevrolet
3. Brad Keselowski Dodge
4. Brendan Gaughan Toyota
5. Greg Biffle Ford

* Complete Results
* Driver Standings
* Lap-by-Lap
* Race Highlights

Kevin Harvick passed Keselowski and came home second. Brendan Gaughan ran fourth and Greg Biffle fifth. Polesitter Carl Edwards, Paul Menard, Scott Lagasse Jr., Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Joey Logano completed the top 10.

Keselowski took the lead in the series standings by four points in front of Edwards.

Logano led at the final restart but fell back through the field after sustaining damage from contact with Busch's car on pit road on Lap 191.

"Man, this car was pretty awesome [Friday night]," Busch said. "It was super, super fast. Hopefully, that was an exciting win for the fans. I don't know how we could have made it any better of a show right there."usch led the field to a restart on Lap 137 from the outside lane, but Keselowski nosed ahead before the cars reached the start/finish line. Cars in the outside lane stacked up behind Busch, triggering a 10-car wreck that necessitated a stoppage of nearly 10 minutes, as track workers cleaned up the debris.

NASCAR ruled that Busch failed to restart the race in the designated area between two red lines on the frontstretch wall and awarded the top position to Keselowski. On the subsequent restart on Lap 145, NASCAR posted Busch's No. 18 Toyota for a pass-through penalty for jumping the restart.

The penalty dropped Busch to 19th in the running order, 20 seconds behind Keselowski. In the next 38 laps, Busch improved to 11th before NASCAR called a caution for debris on Lap 188.

"All I know is I paid NASCAR back by winning," Busch said.

Busch dominated early, having led 96 laps by the time Steve Wallace blew a right front tire on Lap 111 and bounced his No. 66 Toyota into the No. 01 Chevrolet of his uncle, Mike Wallace, to cause the fourth caution of the race.

In fact, the only segment of the race Busch didn't lead resulted from an out-of-sequence pit stop on Lap 17. Keselowski inherited the top spot for 15 laps, but Clint Bowyer stalled in Turn 1 to bring out the second caution, and Busch regained the lead by remaining on the track.

Bowyer replaced John Wes Townley in Richard Childress Racing's No. 21 Chevrolet after Townley wrecked the car in Friday morning's Nationwide practice session.

In The Drivers Seat with: Casey Mears

2010-04-09T17:37:00.000-07:00

Casey Mears was born March 12 1978, in Bakersfield California. Mears started at 13 in go-karts, like many NASCAR stars do. Then in 1992 he went to SuperLites Off-Road Series where he got many top 3 finishes in both the '92 and '93. seasons. In 1994 he placed third in the USAC Triple Crown Championship, plus picking up one win at Mesa Marin Raceway. The very next season he won it all--the USAC Triple Crown Championship. In 1996 made it up to CART's Indy Lights championship series. Through 1997-01 he competed full time, opposed to the part time schedule he had in 1996. In 1999 he finished second in the championship, just barely though, by a margin of 14points. Then in 2000 he tested Indy cars for a multiple of teams, and ended up on board with Team Rahl. He ended his CART career in 2001. After CART, Mears went on to NASCAR. With Cicci-Welliver Racing in the #66 car in Busch Series at Homestead-Miami Speedway. After starting 21st he finished 28th. He made his debut in NASCAR'S top series, with Chip Ganassi Racing driving the #41 Target Dodge in 2003. He was with that car for two years. He then drove the #42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge for 2006 and placed second in the Daytona 500. Casey moved to the infamous Hendricks Motorsports for 2007 and with that got his first win in NASCAR, at Chicagoland Speedway during a Busch race. Then won the 2007 Coca Cola 600. In 2008 he drove the #5 Kellogg's/Carquest Chevrolet Impala. Casey Mears announced that he would be the driver of Richard Childress Racing's # 07 Jack Daniel's Chevrolet Impala SS for 2009. Now Mears is driving the # 90 Key Motorsports Chevy Impala, unfortunately he has not been in many races for 2010.

~Shane

Harvick wins again!

2010-04-04T17:22:00.000-07:00

LEBANON, Tenn. -- Kevin Harvick found out that two tires were enough as he outlasted cars with four fresh tires over the final 35 green-flag laps as he captured the Nationwide Series' Nashville 300 on Saturday at Nashville Superspeedway.

Harvick won for the second time this year and the 36th time in his career. knew we had 25-30 laps to hold them off and [the car] got tighter than we would have wanted it to," said Harvick, who was competing at the track for the first time in four years and took home his second guitar trophy from Nashville.

"But we had the track position and it worked out. ... It was definitely fun. It's a lot more fun when you win."

The owner/driver beat Reed Sorenson by 0.199 seconds with Kyle Busch finishing third, Justin Allgaier in fourth and Brad Keselowski in fifth.

"We were a little bit better than [Harvick] the whole time and I was catching him," Sorenson said. "When we got caught in lapped traffic, he was able to hold his own through a couple of those corners. At the end, I was catching him. We needed about five more laps to get to him."

Joey Logano, who led 122 of the 250 laps, and Keselowski were the only two lead-lap cars not to pit when the caution came out with 82 laps remaining. Both had to pit later under green, lost a lap and then the caution came out with 38 laps remaining, leaving Keselowski 18th and Logano 19th on the restart with 35 remaining.

Logano got stalled on the inside lane on that restart and ended up eighth.

"We had a winning car," Logano said. "There's no reason why we couldn't have won. We gave it away."

The accident where Logano and Keselowski stayed out wasn't really an accident -- Jason Leffler tagged James Buescher in retaliation for an incident earlier in the race when Buescher got loose underneath Leffler, turning Leffler into the outside wall.

NASCAR parked Leffler for the remainder of the race.

It was at that time that Harvick decided to pit. He took four tires and was about a dozen laps short on fuel, as he went into a fuel-conservation mode in case the race went green the rest of the way. Because he hadn't been pushing his car, he made the decision for two tires when the caution came out with 38 laps left.

"I really thought a lot more people would put two tires on because the tires really didn't fall off that much," Harvick said. "Ours didn't fall off that much. I hate putting two tires on. Tonight, we put two tires on and it worked out for us. ... Track position was more important than the handling of the car."

Carl Edwards, who finished sixth, retained the points lead, 16 points ahead of Brad Keselowski and 21 points ahead of Keselowski's Penske Racing teammate, Justin Allgaier.

Kyle Busch gets first owner driver win at Nashville

2010-04-03T03:46:00.000-07:00

Last Night Kyle Busch went to victory lane in his own truck for the first time. For the past years he has driven the #51 fo Billy Ballew Motorsports. But this year he announced that he would run two trucks full time in the truck series. Kyle was supposed to drive last week at Martinsville, but because of a sponsor offer he decided to put Brian Ikler in the truck, witch was a pretty good move because he finished 3'rd.

In The Drivers Seat with: Brian Vickers

2010-04-02T17:36:00.000-07:00

Born October 24, 1983 in Thomasville, North Carolina. Brian Vickers was 8 when he started go-karting, so his career in motorsports started. Between the years of 1994-1997 young Brian excelled, winning more then 80 races including winning 3 World Karting Association championships plus traveling across the country, so he could race with different kids, almost every time. In 1998 Vickers moved up to 3/4-scale stock cars with his newly formed team--BLV Motorsports. During the '98 season his team racked up 5 wins. In 1999 he went to race NASCAR Late Model Stock Racing series. He got a total of 6 wins that season and the "Rising Star of the Year" award from Motorsports Magazine. In 2000 Vickers wound up in USAR Hooters ProCup and was thrilled to drive stock cars that were almost exactly like those of then, Busch Series. During that year he drove to victory lane twice and got Rookie of the Year honors too. Then in 2001 he also got 2 wins and second in the USAR series chase. 2002 came around and Brian moved up to Busch Series and competed in 21 of the seasons races. He ended early that year when his main sponsor backed out. In 2003 how ever he drove the Hendricks' powered Busch series #5 Chevy. He struck a deal with the the team when he ended his '02 season early. The Hendricks Crew made a good choice with Brian Vickers, because he got Rick Hendrick his first Busch Series Championship. Since 2003 was such a success he hopped into the Nextel Cup #25 Chevy the next year, in 2004. He was with Hendricks for 3 years until Red Bull Motorsports and Toyota came around in 2007. It was a tough year, since the Japanese car company was new to the game the performance factor wasn't there. It showed in a lot of the teams that had transferred over to Toyota, but he did lead the most laps for Toyota that year. 2008 was a better season but still wasn't what he hoped for. While looking for Red Bull's first win in Sprint Cup, 2009 was the right year. It didn't start out too well with a wreck in the Daytona 500. Then finally it happened Brian Vickers got his first win with Red Bull Racing, in August at Michigan. Brian steered his ride into the Chase for the Sprint Cup. 2009 was a good year for he and Red Bull, now Vickers is hoping for the same thing for the rest of 2010... maybe even a championship.

Happy Easter everyone, and thanks for reading!

~Shane

Nahsville entry list: Camping World Truck Series

2010-04-01T12:34:00.000-07:00

CAR DRIVER HOMETOWN MAKE SPONSOR OWNER
01 Dillon Oliver Bowling Green, KY Chevrolet KomaDrinks.com Daisy Ramirez
2 Kevin Harvick Bakersfield, CA Chevrolet Charter Comm. DeLana Harvick
3 Austin Dillon* Lewisville, NC Chevrolet Bass Pro Shops / Tracker Andy Hillenburg
4 Ricky Carmichael Tallahassee, FL Chevrolet Monster Energy DeLana Harvick
5 Mike Skinner Susanville, CA Toyota International Trucks / Monaco RV David Dollar
6 D.J. Kennington St. Thomas, Ontario Chevrolet Northern Provincial Pipelines Rick Ware
7 Justin Lofton* Westmorland, CA Toyota VisitPIT.com Tom DeLoach
07 Donny Lia Jericho, NY Chevrolet SS Green Light Racing Ken Smith
10 Jennifer Jo Cobb* Kansas City, KS Ford drivenmale.com / DriverBoutique.com Tom Mitchell
12 Mario Gosselin Quebec City, Quebec Chevrolet TireMonkey.com / James Carter Attorney Michelle Gosselin
13 Johnny Sauter Necedah, WI Chevrolet In Country Television / Curb Records Mike Curb
14 Rick Crawford Mobile, AL Ford Circle Bar Truck Corral Tom Mitchell
15 Steve Wallace Mooresville, NC Toyota Red Top Collector Car Auction James "Billy" Ballew
17 Timothy Peters Providence, NC Toyota Red Horse Racing Tom DeLoach
18 Kyle Busch Las Vegas, NV Toyota Dollar General Kyle Busch
21 Chris Eggleston Erie, CO Chevrolet H2O Fire Protection Steve Urvan
23 Jason White Powhatan, VA Dodge GunBroker.com Steve Urvan
30 Todd Bodine Chemung, NY Toyota Germain.com Steve Germain
33 Ron Hornaday Palmdale, CA Chevrolet Longhorn Smokeless Tobacco DeLana Harvick
39 Ryan Sieg Tucker, GA Chevrolet S&W Services Susan Bates
46 Willie Allen Nashville, TN Dodge Team Gill Racing Joy Gill
47 Brett Butler* Lawrenceville GA Chevrolet FuelDoctorUSA
.com Bobby Dotter
48 Tim Bainey Jr. Philipsburg, PA Chevrolet DelGrosso Andy Hillenburg
51 Aric Almirola Tampa, FL Toyota AKawareness.com / Graceway Pharmaceuticals James "Billy" Ballew
56 Tayler Malsam Sammamish, WA Toyota Toyota / One Eighty Joe Scott
57 Norm Benning Pittsburgh, PA Chevrolet Norm Benning Racing Norm Benning
60 Stacy Compton Grit, VA Chevrolet SafeAuto Ins,
Co. / Wyler.com Jeffrey Wyler
76 Brian Johnson Jr. Machesney Park, IL Ford Superseal Construction Products Ray Hackett
81 David Starr Houston, TX Toyota Zachry Randy Moss
84 Chris Fontaine Lakeland, FL Chevrolet Glenden Enterprises Chris Fontaine
85 Brent Raymer Concord, NC Ford Ford. Drive one. Pete Raymer
88 Matt Crafton Tulare, CA Chevrolet Ideal Door / Menards Rhonda Thorson
89 Mike Harmon Birmingport, AL Ford Blue Ox / Lafferty Performance Chris Lafferty
90 James Buescher Plano, TX Toyota Great Clips Doug Stringer
93 Shane Sieg Tucker, GA Chevrolet S&W Services Pam Sieg
95 Lance Fenton Tyler, TX Dodge Team Gill Racing Danny Gill
129 Brad Keselowski Rochester Hills, MI Dodge Brad Keselowski Racing Brad Keselowski
150 G.R. Smith Folsom, NJ Dodge Ronald McDonald House of Nashville / MAKE Motorsports Mark Beaver
192 Dennis Setzer Newton, NC Chevrolet fleetHQ.com / BTS Tire & Wheel Distributors Ricky Benton

Nahville entry list: Nationwide

2010-04-01T12:33:00.001-07:00

CAR DRIVER HOMETOWN MAKE SPONSOR OWNER
1 James Buescher* Plano, TX Chevrolet Phoenix Racing James Finch
01 Mike Wallace St. Louis, MO Chevrolet Monster Diesel Lori Davis
05 Willie Allen Nashville, TN Chevrolet 31-W Insulation Wayne Day
6 Ricky Stenhouse Jr.* Olive Branch, MS Ford CitiFinancial Jack Roush
7 Scott Wimmer Wausau, WI Chevrolet Lifetime Television's "Army Wives" Bryan Mullet
09 Scott Riggs Bahama, NC Ford "Sponsor Scott" Fan Car Robby Benton
10 Mikey Kile Westlake, LA Toyota AccuDoc Solutions Todd Braun
11 Brian Scott* Boise, ID Toyota Dollar General Harry Scott Jr.
12 Justin Allgaier Riverton, IL Dodge Verizon Wireless Roger Penske
15 Michael Annett Des Moines, IA Toyota Pilot Travel Centers Bob Germain
16 Colin Braun* Ovalo, TX Ford Con-way Freight Jack Roush
18 Kyle Busch Las Vegas, NV Toyota Z-Line Designs Joe Gibbs
20 Joey Logano Middletown, CT Toyota GameStop Joe Gibbs
21 John Wes Townley Watkinsville, GA Chevrolet Zaxby's Richard Childress
22 Brad Keselowski Rochester Hills, MI Dodge Discount Tire Jodi Geschickter
23 Robert Richardson Jr. McKinney, TX Chevrolet R3 Motorsports Robert Richardson
24 Eric McClure Chilhowie, VA Ford Hefty Ed Rensi
26 Brian Keselowski Rochester Hills, MI Dodge K-Automotive Motorsports Bob Keselowski
27 Johnny Sauter Necedah, WI Ford Red Man Moist Snuff Mike Curb
28 Kenny Wallace St. Louis, MO Chevrolet Bear-Hunting.com Jay Robinson
32 Reed Sorenson Peachtree City, GA Toyota Dollar General Todd Braun
33 Kevin Harvick Bakersfield, CA Chevrolet Armour Meats DeLana Harvick
34 Tony Raines La Porte, IN Chevrolet Long John Silver's Bob Jenkins
35 Jason Keller Greenville, SC Chevrolet TriStar Motorsports Mark C Smith
38 Jason Leffler Long Beach, CA Toyota Great Clips Ralph Braun
40 Mike Bliss Milwaukie, OR Chevrolet Key Motorsports Curtis Key, Sr
43 Scott Lagasse Jr. St. Augustine, FL Ford Baker Curb Racing Mike Curb
49 Mark Green Owensboro, KY Chevrolet Jay Robinson Inc. Jay Robinson
52 Tim Schendel Sparta, WI Chevrolet Means Racing Jimmy Means
60 Carl Edwards Columbia, MO Ford Valvoline Jack Roush
61 Josh Wise Riverside, CA Ford Specialty Racing Doug Taylor
62 Brendan Gaughan Las Vegas, NV Toyota South Point Hotel & Casino Rusty Wallace
66 Steve Wallace Mooresville, NC Toyota 5-Hour Energy Rusty Wallace
70 Shelby Howard Greenwood, IN Chevrolet Foretravel Motorcoach Mary Louise Miller
73 Derrike Cope Spanaway, WA Dodge AssetProtect / Charter Derrike Cope
81 Michael McDowell Phoenix, AZ Dodge Mobile-Shop.com Pat MacDonald
87 Joe Nemechek Lakeland, FL Chevrolet FrontRowJoe.com Andrea Nemechek
88 Kelly Bires Mauston, WI Chevrolet Suave Men Dale Earnhardt, Jr
89 Morgan Shepherd Conover, NC Chevrolet Fans for Faith Cindy Shepherd
90 Danny O'Quinn Jr. Coeburn, VA Chevrolet D'Hondt Humphrey Motorsports Eddie D'Hondt
91 Chase Miller Canton, GA Chevrolet D'Hondt Humphrey Motorsports Randy Humphrey
92 Johnny Chapman Stony Point, NC Dodge K-Automotive Motorsports Brian Keselowski
98 Paul Menard Eau Claire, WI Ford Richmond Water Heaters / Menards Jack Roush
99 Trevor Bayne Knoxville, TN Toyota Diamond Waltrip Racing Michael Waltrip
102 Andy Ponstein Hudsonville, MI Chevrolet Corrie Stott Racing.com Corrie Stott
104 Jeremy Clements Spartanburg, SC Chevrolet SponsorDavis.com Gene Vess
156 Kevin Lepage Shelburne, VT Toyota Mac Hill Motorsports John McNelly
175 Brett Rowe Barboursville WV Chevrolet DuVita Dana Tomes

Hamlin gets 'spoiled' at Martinsville

2010-03-29T12:52:00.000-07:00

After rain postponed Martinsville's race on Sunday, Denny Hamlin took the Monday race, Also as Brendan wrote, earlier this week, this was the first Sprint Cup race ran with a spoiler since 2007. Jeff Gordon Was leading with less than 2 laps to go when Kyle Bush spun and wrecked on the wall while 3-wide with Marcos Ambrose and Paul Menard. The caution came out, which from the reactions of Gordons' pit crew they really didn't need. The caution flag flew and 4 laps later it was back to short track racing. Gordon fended off his opponents as long as he could, until Hamlin snuck through with teammate Joey Lagano right behind and both Joe Gibbs cars took first and second. Jeff pulled in at third, Ryan Newman fourth and Martin Truex Jr. fifth at the Goodie's 500 at Martinsvile Speedway.

~Shane

Cup race postponed

2010-03-28T11:38:00.001-07:00

The jet dryers are being turned off and called back to the garage and the race has been postponed until Monday at noon ET. The weather should cooperate on Monday. The forecast calls for partly sunny skies and temperatures in the low-60s. Rain is in the forecast, but not scheduled to come until after 5 p.m. FOX will have TV coverage of the race.

NASCAR getting SPOILED

2010-03-27T19:27:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow markes the first race with a spoiler on a NASCAR Sprint Cup car since the 2007 ford 400. NASCAR has decided to part ways with the wing because the fans dont like it and it helps cars get airbourne. A few examples are Newman at Talladega, Keselowski at atlanta. Dont get me wrong cars hav gone over with the spoiler also, but there is a major difference in downforce and liftoff speeds between the two. Personaly I think going back to a spoiler is going to be a good move for the fans, the drivers and the sport itself. The fans wanted the wing to go and they got their wish, the drivers may have some relief of not flipping as easy, and it brings the whole stock car look back to NASCAR.

Happy Harvick wins two in a row at Martinsville!

2010-03-27T19:20:00.000-07:00

Kevin Harvick won todays Kroger 250 in domonite fasion, leading his teemate by 1/2 a sreight away. Harvick led the most laps including the most important one, the last one. But there was also some heated words after the rave between Ron Horniday and Johny Sauter who made contact late in the race sending Sauter spinning collecting Mike Skinner.
NASCAR officals were there just incase any fists were thrown but it was just an verbal arguement between the two, during the interview with Ron he just saud "thats martsinville short track racing. CUP RACE STARTS TOMORROW AT 1:30

Kroger 250 line up

2010-03-27T05:59:00.000-07:00

POS CAR DRIVER MAKE SPONSOR SPEED TIME BEHIND
1 2 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet Tide / Kroger N/A N/A N/A
2 51 Aric Almirola Toyota AKawareness.com / Graceway Pharmaceuticals N/A N/A N/A
3 88 Matt Crafton Chevrolet Australian Gold / Menards N/A N/A N/A
4 5 Mike Skinner Toyota International Trucks / Monaco RV N/A N/A N/A
5 17 Timothy Peters Toyota Strutmasters.com N/A N/A N/A
6 30 Todd Bodine Toyota Germain.com N/A N/A N/A
7 13 Johnny Sauter Chevrolet Curb Records N/A N/A N/A
8 56 Tayler Malsam Toyota Toyota / One Eighty N/A N/A N/A
9 15 Johnny Benson Toyota Red Top Collector Car Auction N/A N/A N/A
10 14 Rick Crawford Ford Circle Bar Truck Corral N/A N/A N/A
11 60 Narain Karthikeyan Chevrolet SafeAuto Ins,
Co. / Wyler.com N/A N/A N/A
12 4 Ricky Carmichael Chevrolet Monster Energy N/A N/A N/A
13 81 David Starr Toyota Randy Moss Motorsports N/A N/A N/A
14 10 Jennifer Jo Cobb* Ford drivenmale.com / DriverBoutique.com N/A N/A N/A
15 07 Tony Jackson Jr. Chevrolet ASI Limited N/A N/A N/A
16 7 Justin Lofton* Toyota VisitPIT.com N/A N/A N/A
17 23 Jason White Dodge GunBroker.com N/A N/A N/A
18 57 Norm Benning Chevrolet Norm Benning Racing N/A N/A N/A
19 3 Austin Dillon* Chevrolet Bass Pro Shops / Tracker N/A N/A N/A
20 47 Brett Butler* Chevrolet Fuel-Doctor.com N/A N/A N/A
21 48 Hermie Sadler Chevrolet The Hermie and Elliott Sadler Foundation N/A N/A N/A
22 21 Chris Eggleston Chevrolet H2O Fire Protection N/A N/A N/A
23 12 Mario Gosselin Chevrolet TireMonkey.com / James Carter Attorney N/A N/A N/A
24 85 Brent Raymer Ford Ford. Drive one. N/A N/A N/A
25 39 Ryan Sieg Chevrolet S&W Services N/A N/A N/A
26 9 Max Papis Toyota GEICO N/A N/A N/A
27 93 Shane Sieg Chevrolet S&W Services N/A N/A N/A
28 76 Brian Johnson Jr. Ford Super Seal Construction Products N/A N/A N/A
29 52 Ken Schrader Chevrolet Federated Auto Parts N/A N/A N/A
30 89 Chris Lafferty Chevrolet Blue Ox / Lafferty Performance N/A N/A N/A
31 33 Ron Hornaday Chevrolet Longhorn Smokeless Tobacco N/A N/A N/A
32 18 Brian Ickler Toyota Toyota Tundra N/A N/A N/A
33 46 Clay Greenfield Dodge Team Gill Racing N/A N/A N/A
34 95 Lance Fenton Dodge Team Gill Racing N/A N/A N/A
35 6 D.J. Kennington Chevrolet Rick Ware Racing N/A N/A N/A
36 01 Mike Harmon Chevrolet Koma Unwind Chillaxation Drink N/A N/A N/A
Did Not Qualify
37 192 Dennis Setzer Chevrolet Fleet AO - - -
38 182 Paddy Rodenbeck Chevrolet Green Hills Software - - -
39 106 Dale Brackett Chevrolet Brackett Family Motorsports - - -

Goodys 500 line up

2010-03-27T05:58:00.000-07:00

POS CAR DRIVER MAKE SPONSOR SPEED TIME BEHIND
1 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet Shell / Pennzoil N/A N/A N/A
2 17 Matt Kenseth Ford Crown Royal N/A N/A N/A
3 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet Lowe's N/A N/A N/A
4 16 Greg Biffle Ford U.S. Census N/A N/A N/A
5 14 Tony Stewart Chevrolet Old Spice / Office Depot N/A N/A N/A
6 2 Kurt Busch Dodge Miller Lite N/A N/A N/A
7 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet Caterpillar N/A N/A N/A
8 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet Amp Energy Sugar Free Lightning / National Guard N/A N/A N/A
9 98 Paul Menard Ford NIBCO / Menards N/A N/A N/A
10 18 Kyle Busch Toyota Snickers N/A N/A N/A
11 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet DuPont N/A N/A N/A
12 33 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet BB&T N/A N/A N/A
13 99 Carl Edwards Ford Aflac N/A N/A N/A
14 83 Brian Vickers Toyota Red Bull N/A N/A N/A
15 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet McDonald's N/A N/A N/A
16 5 Mark Martin Chevrolet Carquest / Go
Daddy.com N/A N/A N/A
17 20 Joey Logano Toyota The Home Depot N/A N/A N/A
18 82 Scott Speed Toyota Red Bull N/A N/A N/A
19 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota FedEx Freight N/A N/A N/A
20 56 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota NAPA Auto Parts N/A N/A N/A
21 43 A.J. Allmendinger Ford Charter Comm. N/A N/A N/A
22 42 Juan Montoya Chevrolet Target N/A N/A N/A
23 9 Kasey Kahne Ford Budweiser N/A N/A N/A
24 00 David Reutimann Toyota Tums N/A N/A N/A
25 19 Elliott Sadler Ford Stanley N/A N/A N/A
26 39 Ryan Newman Chevrolet Haas Automation N/A N/A N/A
27 6 David Ragan Ford UPS N/A N/A N/A
28 78 Regan Smith Chevrolet Furniture Row Companies N/A N/A N/A
29 71 Bobby Labonte Chevrolet TaxSlayer.com N/A N/A N/A
30 12 Brad Keselowski Dodge Dodge Motorsports N/A N/A N/A
31 47 Marcos Ambrose Toyota Little Debbie N/A N/A N/A
32 38 Kevin Conway* Ford Extenze N/A N/A N/A
33 77 Sam Hornish Jr. Dodge Mobil 1 N/A N/A N/A
34 34 Travis Kvapil Ford A&W All American Food N/A N/A N/A
35 37 David Gilliland Ford Gander Mountain N/A N/A N/A
36 26 David Stremme Ford Air National Guard N/A N/A N/A
37 09 Aric Almirola Chevrolet Phoenix Racing N/A N/A N/A
38 7 Robby Gordon Toyota Warner Music Nashville / Blake Shelton N/A N/A N/A
39 36 Mike Bliss Chevrolet Wave Energy Drink N/A N/A N/A
40 13 Max Papis Toyota GEICO N/A N/A N/A
41 55 Michael McDowell Toyota Prism Motorsports N/A N/A N/A
42 66 Dave Blaney Toyota Prism Motorsports N/A N/A N/A
43 87 Joe Nemechek Toyota FrontRowJoe.com N/A N/A N/A
Did Not Qualify
44 190 Casey Mears Chevrolet Keyed-Up Motorsports - - -
45 46 Terry Cook* Dodge Whitney Motorsports - - -
46 135 Johnny Sauter Chevrolet Tommy Baldwin Racing - - -

In The Drivers Seat with: Scott Speed

2010-03-26T18:16:00.000-07:00

Scott Speed was born January 24 1983. In his hometown of Manteca, California. At 10 years old Speed started his career in karting,in 1993. He won many titles including his state title just 2 years after starting his karting career. He drove karts until 2001, Then went to Formula 1 racing, which started in 2001. He competed in U.S. formula Russell and took the champion spot. In 2002 he drove two cars, in different series-- the U.S. Barber Formula Dodge and the U.S. Star Mazda Series. In 2004 Speed (which is a fitting name for a racecar driver)pulled two championships in Formula Renult 2000 Eurocup and German Formula Renult. For the following four years Scott took part in many world wide Grand Prix's for Formula 1. Then on March 7, 2008 he made his debut in NASCAR's main big 3 -- in Camping World Truck series, at Atlanta Motor Speedway. He drove the #46 Red Bull Chevy owned by Morgan-Dollar Motorsports. Then on October 18, 2008 he entered his first Sprint Cup race at Martinsville Speedway, with a finish of 30th in the #82 Red Bull Toyota Camry. In 2009 he came back to Sprint Cup with a new number on the side of his ride, #82. Scott Speed still drives the 82 Toyota in 2010, and his persistance drives hiim to sucsess.

~Shane

Special Paint Scheme for Dale Jr at Martinsville

2010-03-24T09:35:00.000-07:00

Kroger 250 entry list

2010-03-24T03:40:00.001-07:00

01 Dillon Oliver Bowling Green, KY Chevrolet Koma Unwind Chillaxation Drink Daisy Ramirez
2 Kevin Harvick Bakersfield, CA Chevrolet Tide / Kroger DeLana Harvick
3 Austin Dillon* Lewisville, NC Chevrolet Bass Pro Shops / Tracker Andy Hillenburg
4 Ricky Carmichael Tallahassee, FL Chevrolet Monster Energy DeLana Harvick
5 Mike Skinner Susanville, CA Toyota International Trucks / Monaco RV David Dollar
6 D.J. Kennington St. Thomas, Ontario Chevrolet Rick Ware Racing Rick Ware
7 Justin Lofton* Westmorland, CA Toyota VisitPIT.com Tom DeLoach
07 Tony Jackson Jr. Lebanon, MO Chevrolet ASI Limited Ken Smith
9 Max Papis Como, Italy Toyota GEICO Bob Germain
10 Jennifer Jo Cobb* Kansas City, KS Ford drivenmale.com / DriverBoutique.com Tom Mitchell
12 Mario Gosselin Quebec City, Quebec Chevrolet TireMonkey.com / James Carter Attorney Michelle Gosselin
13 Johnny Sauter Necedah, WI Chevrolet Curb Records Mike Curb
14 Rick Crawford Mobile, AL Ford Circle Bar Truck Corral Tom Mitchell
15 Johnny Benson Grand Rapids, MI Toyota Red Top Collector Car Auction James "Billy" Ballew
17 Timothy Peters Providence, NC Toyota Strutmasters.com Tom DeLoach
18 Kyle Busch Las Vegas, NV Toyota Toyota Tundra Kyle Busch
21 Chris Eggleston Erie, CO Chevrolet H2O Fire Protection Steve Urvan
23 Jason White Powhatan, VA Dodge GunBroker.com Steve Urvan
30 Todd Bodine Chemung, NY Toyota Germain.com Steve Germain
33 Ron Hornaday Palmdale, CA Chevrolet Longhorn Smokeless Tobacco DeLana Harvick
39 Ryan Sieg Tucker, GA Chevrolet S&W Services Susan Bates
46 Clay Greenfield Clarksville, TN Dodge Team Gill Racing Joy Gill
47 Brett Butler* Lawrenceville GA Chevrolet Fuel-Doctor.com Bobby Dotter
48 Hermie Sadler Emporia, VA Chevrolet The Hermie and Elliott Sadler Foundation Andy Hillenburg
51 Aric Almirola Tampa, FL Toyota AKawareness.com / Graceway Pharmaceuticals James "Billy" Ballew
52 Ken Schrader Fenton, MO Chevrolet Federated Auto Parts Ken Schrader
56 Tayler Malsam Sammamish, WA Toyota Toyota / One Eighty Joe Scott
57 Norm Benning Pittsburgh, PA Chevrolet Norm Benning Racing Norm Benning
60 Narain Karthikeyan Coimbatore, India Chevrolet SafeAuto Ins,
Co. / Wyler.com Jeffrey Wyler
76 Brian Johnson Jr. Machesney Park, IL Ford Super Seal Construction Products Ray Hackett
81 David Starr Houston, TX Toyota Randy Moss Motorsports Randy Moss
85 Brent Raymer Concord, NC Ford Ford. Drive one. Pete Raymer
88 Matt Crafton Tulare, CA Chevrolet Australian Gold / Menards Rhonda Thorson
89 Chris Lafferty Concord, NC Chevrolet Blue Ox / Lafferty Performance Calvin Wood
93 Shane Sieg Tucker, GA Chevrolet S&W Services Pam Sieg
95 Lance Fenton Tyler, TX Dodge Team Gill Racing Danny Gill
106 Dale Brackett Strong, ME Chevrolet Brackett Family Motorsports Valerie Yurek
182 Paddy Rodenbeck Odessa, FL Chevrolet Green Hills Software Patrick Rodenbeck
192 Dennis Setzer Newton, NC Chevrolet Fleet AO Ricky Benton

Goody's 500 entry list

2010-03-24T03:38:00.000-07:00

CAR DRIVER HOMETOWN MAKE SPONSOR OWNER
00 David Reutimann Zephyrhills, FL Toyota Tums Rob Kauffman
1 Jamie McMurray Joplin, MO Chevrolet McDonald's Teresa Earnhardt
2 Kurt Busch Las Vegas, NV Dodge Miller Lite Walter Czarnecki
5 Mark Martin Batesville, AR Chevrolet Carquest / Go
Daddy.com Mary Hendrick
6 David Ragan Unadilla, GA Ford UPS John Henry
7 Robby Gordon Orange, CA Toyota Warner Music Nashville / Blake Shelton Robby Gordon
9 Kasey Kahne Enumclaw, WA Ford Budweiser George Gillett, Jr
09 Aric Almirola Tampa, FL Chevrolet Phoenix Racing James Finch
11 Denny Hamlin Chesterfield, VA Toyota FedEx Freight J D Gibbs
12 Brad Keselowski Rochester Hills, MI Dodge Penske Racing Roger Penske
13 Max Papis Como, Italy Toyota GEICO Bob Germain
14 Tony Stewart Rushville, IN Chevrolet Old Spice / Office Depot Margaret Haas
16 Greg Biffle Vancouver, WA Ford U.S. Census Jack Roush
17 Matt Kenseth Cambridge, WI Ford Crown Royal John Henry
18 Kyle Busch Las Vegas, NV Toyota Snickers Joe Gibbs
19 Elliott Sadler Emporia, VA Ford Stanley George Gillett, Jr
20 Joey Logano Middletown, CT Toyota The Home Depot Joe Gibbs
24 Jeff Gordon Pittsboro, IN Chevrolet DuPont Rick Hendrick
26 Boris Said Carlsbad, CA Ford Sacred Power Bill Jenkins
29 Kevin Harvick Bakersfield, CA Chevrolet Shell / Pennzoil Richard Childress
31 Jeff Burton South Boston, VA Chevrolet Caterpillar Richard Childress
33 Clint Bowyer Emporia, KS Chevrolet BB&T Richard Childress
34 Travis Kvapil Janesville, WI Ford A&W All American Food Bob Jenkins
36 Mike Bliss Milwaukie, OR Chevrolet Wave Energy Drink Tommy Baldwin
37 David Gilliland Riverside, CA Ford Gander Mountain Doug Yates
38 Kevin Conway* Lynchburg, VA Ford Extenze Doug Yates
39 Ryan Newman South Bend, IN Chevrolet Haas Automation Tony Stewart
42 Juan Montoya Bogota, Colombia Chevrolet Target Chip Ganassi
43 A.J. Allmendinger Los Gatos, CA Ford Charter Comm. Richard Petty
46 Terry Cook* Sylvania, OH Dodge Whitney Motorsports Dusty Whitney
47 Marcos Ambrose Launceston, Tasmania Toyota Little Debbie Tad Geschickter
48 Jimmie Johnson El Cajon, CA Chevrolet Lowe's Jeff Gordon
55 Michael McDowell Phoenix, AZ Toyota Prism Motorsports Randy Humphrey
56 Martin Truex Jr. Mayetta, NJ Toyota NAPA Auto Parts Michael Waltrip
66 Dave Blaney Hartford, OH Toyota Prism Motorsports Phil Parsons
71 Bobby Labonte Corpus Christi, TX Chevrolet TRG Motorsports Kevin Buckler
77 Sam Hornish Jr. Bryan, OH Dodge Mobil 1 Roger Penske
78 Regan Smith Cato, NY Chevrolet Furniture Row Companies Richard Childress
82 Scott Speed Manteca, CA Toyota Red Bull Dietrich Mateschitz
83 Brian Vickers Thomasville, NC Toyota Red Bull Dietrich Mateschitz
87 Joe Nemechek Lakeland, FL Toyota FrontRowJoe.com Andrea Nemechek
88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Kannapolis, NC Chevrolet Amp Energy Sugar Free Lightning / National Guard Rick Hendrick
98 Paul Menard Eau Claire, WI Ford NIBCO / Menards George Gillett, Jr
99 Carl Edwards Columbia, MO Ford Aflac Jack Roush
135 Johnny Sauter Necedah, WI Chevrolet Tommy Baldwin Racing Beth Baldwin
190 Casey Mears Bakersfield, CA Chevrolet Keyed-Up Motorsports Raymond Key

Spoiler Alert!!!

2010-03-21T17:20:00.000-07:00

The Food City 500 marked the last race with the rear wing on the NASCAR cup series cars. Hendrick Motorsports won the first race with the wing and the final race with the wing. But now the question is how will the spoilers do? Some drivers say thares no difference between the wing and the spoiler, others noticed more vibrations etc. Nex week NASCAR is going back to the spoiler for the first time since Homested 2007

Johnson wins at Bristol.

2010-03-21T17:16:00.001-07:00

#48-Jimmie Johnson won the Food City 500 Sprint Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway for his 3rd win of 2010, 50th of his career and 1st at Bristol. #14-Stewart finished 2nd followed by #2-Busch, #16-Biffle. #17-Kenseth, #99-Edwards, #88-Earnhardt Jr., #1-McMurray, #18-Busch and #31-Burton. Pole sitter #20-Logano finished 27th down 5 laps. Points leader, #29-Kevin Harvick finished 11th and holds on to the points lead by 1 point over #17-Kenseth. 21 cars finished on the lead lap. There were 10 caution periods for 103 yellow flag laps. There were 29 lead changes among 8 drivers.

Allgaier gets first win

2010-03-21T06:22:00.000-07:00

Justin Allgaier grabbed the first win of his NASCAR career Saturday by passing teammate Brad Keselowski on a late restart, then holding him off over the closing laps at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Allgaier, last year's Nationwide Series rookie of the year, had to hold his line over the final 27 laps to keep Keselowski from passing him."That battle with Brad at the end was awesome, and I couldn't have been happier at the end to see two Penske cars up there running for the win," Allgaier said in his first visit to Victory Lane.

The win was the first for Dodge at Bristol since Aug., 2007.

Keselowski, the pole-sitter who led 73 laps, finished second to give team owner Roger Penske his first 1-2 finish in the Nationwide Series.

Keselowski said he didn't mind Allgaier passing him on the restart with 27 laps to go because of an incident at Bristol last year, before they were teammates, when Keselowski wrecked Allgaier in a similar situation.

"I had one coming," Keselowski smiled.

Keselowski tried to pass on the inside several times, and turned up the pressure over the final 10 laps. But he backed away from his usual aggressive driving -- particularly with a potential win on the line -- and raced clean to the checkered flag.

"I had the opportunity and just erred on the side of caution," he said. "The last thing I need is to wreck either one of us. That's the last thing our program needs."

Kyle Busch was third and was followed by Carl Edwards and Kevin Harvick.

Harvick spun Joey Logano on the final lap to grab his top-five finish. Logano wound up 14th.

"I just raced with him and raced with him, and he kept chopping me and chopping me," Harvick said. "I got in there and just got into the back of him a little bit and I hate that happened. You've just got to have a lane to race, you just got to do what you got to do."

Logano declined to comment.

Nascar to meet with Edwards/Keselowski

2010-03-18T09:45:00.000-07:00

NASCAR Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton said Wednesday that officials from the sanctioning body will meet with #99-Carl Edwards and #12-Bred Keselowski and their respective team owners at some point this weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway, site of Sunday's Food City 500. What Pemberton wouldn't discuss is what is likely to be said at those meetings. But it's a pretty good bet there will be a stern warning to both drivers to stay away from each other. In April 2009 at Talladega Superspeedway, the two made contact at the start-finish line on the final lap of the race. Keselowski won, Edwards bounced off the hood of Ryan Newman's car and into the catchfence separating the cars from the grandstands. At Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 7, the two locked horns again, this time twice. The first contact, which occurred early in the race, resulted in Edwards going into the wall and losing more than 100 laps for repairs. The second contact occurred two laps before the scheduled end of the Kobalt Tools 500, when Edwards deliberately bumped Keselowski, turning his car sideways, whereupon it rolled upside down on its roof at 190 miles per hour. For making that move, Edwards received probation for three races

Ryan Truex to run partial schdule

2010-03-18T09:41:00.000-07:00

Ryan Truex celebrates his 18th birthday Thursday and couldn't be happier with his present from Michael Waltrip Racing. MWR announced Truex will race in six NASCAR Nationwide Series races in 2010 in addition to running the full 10-race K&N Filters Pro Series East schedule in defense of his 2009 championship title. "I'm a racer and the best present anyone can give me is a chance to race," said Truex who won three races and three poles in the former Camping World East Series last season. "Now I have a full plate of racing in the East Series in 2010 and six Nationwide races. Our eye is on running full-time Nationwide in 2011, so I couldn't be happier." Truex will make his Nationwide series debut on July 17 at Gateway Speedway just outside of St. Louis. Also tentatively scheduled are Michigan, Richmond, Kansas the fall Charlotte race and Homestead-Miami Speedway. MWR will be pursuing sponsorship support for Truex's 2010 racing, as well as full-time support for the 2011 NASCAR Nationwide Series effort

Sterling Marlin retires after 30 year of racing.

2010-03-18T09:37:00.000-07:00

Sterling Marlin, retired after 30 years as a driver in NASCAR's Cup Series, is involved in the sport in a new role: team owner. Well, sort of. Marlin is listed as co-owner of a new team, BD Racing, which plans to compete in the Sunoco National Tour this season, but Marlin said his role is mostly as an "advisor.'' BD Racing is named for Bryan Dant, an acquaintance of Marlin's from Nashville's Fairgrounds Speedway. The team is fielded out of Performance Motorsports shop in Richmond, Mich. Brian Oritz, a 21-year-old kart champion from Puerto Rico, will drive for the team. The first of the 10-race schedule starts March 27 at New Smyrna Speedway in Florida. As for his own driving plans, Marlin who had run a limited Cup schedule the last few years has a Late Model car that he may race some at the Fairgrounds. A promoter hopes to run a final few races on the old track that's scheduled to close this summer. Marlin said he may also take an occasional trip to Montgomery. As for Sterling's Sprint Cup career: "It's over," Marlin said. "I won't be racing any more." Marlin said he hasn't attended any races this year, not even to Daytona as a spectator. "I don't think I'd enjoy just standing around watching," he said. "I might go down to Talladega when they run there & I haven't decided for sure." The budding racing career of his daughter Sutherlin has been put on hold while she undergoes treatment for an eye problem. Son Steadman has no ride prospect on the immediate horizon.(Racin' Today)(3-18-2010)

Brendan's note: Sterling will be missed in the sport behind the weel. I wish him good luck as an owner.

Spolier test at Talladega

2010-03-16T13:45:00.000-07:00

While the drivers were getting used to how NASCAR's new spoiler may affect restrictor-plate racing during Tuesday's Sprint Cup test session at Talladega Superspeedway, most of the crew chiefs in the garage area were much more interested in an upcoming two-day test at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

For Pat Tryson, crew chief for Martin Truex Jr.'s No. 56 Toyota, switching out the current rear wing for a spoiler did little to alter his typical Talladega setup. "It's still pretty much what we ran last year, except we have stiffer springs because they've mandated them," Tryson said. "We'll see what's it like in a pack, but it really hasn't been much different. This place [Talladega] is so smooth that it's pretty easy. This is probably the worst place to try to get a feel for it. We'll know a lot more next week. This is, to me, an oddball scenario."

The reason, Tryson said, is that handling is such a non-factor at NASCAR's biggest track, where horsepower and aerodynamics are imperative.

"You can make just about anything drive good here," Tryson said. "So it's not a big deal, besides closing rates and drafting. As far as the spoiler, I don't think it'll be a big deal here. But it might be at Charlotte. This is so different than anywhere else we go to, but when it comes to handling at Charlotte, it'll be a lot different."

Jeff Gordon's crew chief, Steve Letarte, agreed.

"Not at Talladega," Letarte said. "I don't think you're going to see any setup changes. I think you'll see some guys working on their setups, just because we haven't had track time here to play with the car. But I don't see any wholesale changes up and down the garage. Everybody seems to be fine-tuning."

In addition to the spoiler, NASCAR officials wanted to test a restrictor-plate with holes slightly larger than one inch in diameter. And driver Martin Truex Jr. said he could feel the difference right away.

"With the bigger plate and the bigger spoiler, the car accelerates a lot faster," Truex said. "It gets up to speed very quickly. In the past, in single-car runs, you'd run the high side for a lap because it usually took at least that long to get it wound up. Now, like the trucks do, we can leave pit road and run two laps around the bottom, and the second one's as fast as the first." Another factor to consider: visibility. Some drivers have complained about not being able to see through the windows of the car directly in front of them because of the rear wing. Truex said that may not be as much of a problem with the spoiler, although it presents a different set of issues.

"I think you can see better out of the rear of the car," Truex said. "The only thing I noticed -- and we haven't drafted yet -- the cars will travel more in the rear when we're out on the track. So sitting behind somebody on pit road, you could definitely notice it was harder to see on an angle in front of the car ahead of you because the spoiler's so big on the corners and it's so wide. When we get out there in the draft, the cars will travel a lot more and the back of the car will be a lot lower in front of you, so those are all things we're going to look for and feel it out."

A total of 24 cars made the trip to Talladega for the day-long test. Kurt Busch turned the fastest single-car lap of the morning session at 189.320 mph. But late in the session, five cars -- those of Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Brian Vickers, Scott Speed and Tony Stewart -- began drafting, and immediately picked up nearly two seconds a lap.

Truex explained what that feels like, from a driver's perspective.

"You just really feel the air hit the car, and that's what we have with these cars -- with the big spoiler and the big nose and the big greenhouse of these newer cars," Truex said. "And when you pull out of line, it's like throwing out a big parachute. You just really feel the air slow the car down. But when you're behind someone, obviously it feels like it's got two engines in it. That's kind of what we feel out there."

And what about bump drafting, which was banned last fall, only to be reinstated before the Daytona 500?

"If the cars suck up well here, which I think they will, there will be plenty of bump-drafting practice going on," Truex said. "As far as losing the pack, I don't think there's any way that'll happen. I think you could probably catch the pack by yourself. I don't think losing the draft's going to be an issue. It's going to be tough to be the leader. You're not going to lead long, not like in years past, where a guy could get in the lead and if he had a really strong car, he could stay out there."

And that's fine with Truex, who felt like the racing at Daytona was the best he'd ever witnessed.

"I thought everybody raced really aggressively and really hard, but didn't cross the line and kind of policed themselves," Truex said. "I didn't see guys out of control or doing something they shouldn't have. At the end of the day, everybody did a good job of keeping their heads screwed on and not making mistakes and really going to that edge and not crossing it.

"When we come here to race, it'll be a little different. Obviously, it's a lot easier to get around here, as far as the cars handling. It's easier to stay in a big pack of cars. You can go in the middle, you can go three-wide, you can go four-wide fairly easily here. The pack is going to be big and tight, and guys are going to be able to race really hard."

What to watch for at Bristol: Sprintcup

2010-03-16T13:34:00.000-07:00

When you think of Bristol motor speedway, one man comes to mind, Kyle Busch has won 3 of the last 6 races at Bristol, including last august where he bearly held off Mark Martin to win. Or maybe you think of Kurt Busch or Jeff Gordon, they have 10 wins at bristol all toggethor. This is also the potentualy last race with the rear wing. So another driver may want the right to call himself the last person who won with the rear wing on a NASCAR car. One of them may be Dale Earnhardt Jr who has shown alot of strength at Bristol, he sweeped both the Nationwide and cup event in 2004. Carl Edwards has also added a pair of bristol wins to his resmume. Will one of these drivers sneak a win, or will a dark horse win? We will find out on sunday!

~Brendan

Jeff Gordon and wife Ingred expecting a baby boy.

2010-03-16T13:33:00.000-07:00

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Jeff Gordon announced Tuesday that his wife is expecting a baby boy, though the four-time NASCAR champion won't push his son into racing.

"Whatever is going to be their passion in life, I want to support that," Gordon said during a break during testing at Talladega Superspeedway. "If it's racing, I'll support that."

The baby, due in August, will be the second child for Gordon and his Belgian wife, Ingrid. Their daughter, Ella, will be 3 in June.

The couple learned the baby's gender last week.

"For us, the ultimate was having a boy and a girl," Gordon said. "We want two, and we want both. We were going to be totally content and fine, and stop even if it was a girl."

Gordon is part of a baby boom this season in NASCAR. Elliott Sadler and Carl Edwards became first-time fathers last month, and four-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson is expecting the birth of his first child in July.

Juan Pablo Montoya's wife is expecting their third child in July.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

What to watch for at Bristol: Nationwide

2010-03-15T17:50:00.000-07:00

When you think of the Nationwide series at Bristol you may remember last year when Kevin Harvick got his first win in his own car, or Carl Edwards who has been so good here in the past few years. Or Kyle Busch, he could have won both races last year but bad luck struck in both races costing him a win. There may even be some new faces to the sport you may want to keep an eye on to, one of these being Justin Allgaier who led laps in the fall bristol race last year. One more name may come to mind when you think Bristol, Brad Keselowski, he got his second win at Bristol after battling with Clint Bowyer for the lead. Please leave a comment stating who you think may win saturdays race and why?

~Brendan.

Entry list for the 2010 Food city 500

2010-03-15T17:47:00.000-07:00

CAR DRIVER HOMETOWN MAKE SPONSOR OWNER
00 David Reutimann Zephyrhills, FL Toyota Aaron's Dream Machine Rob Kauffman
1 Jamie McMurray Joplin, MO Chevrolet Bass Pro Shops / Tracker Teresa Earnhardt
2 Kurt Busch Las Vegas, NV Dodge Miller Lite Walter Czarnecki
5 Mark Martin Batesville, AR Chevrolet GoDaddy.com Mary Hendrick
6 David Ragan Unadilla, GA Ford UPS John Henry
7 Robby Gordon Orange, CA Toyota Warner Music Nashville / Blake Shelton Robby Gordon
9 Kasey Kahne Enumclaw, WA Ford Budweiser George Gillett, Jr
09 Aric Almirola Tampa, FL Chevrolet Phoenix Racing James Finch
11 Denny Hamlin Chesterfield, VA Toyota FedEx Express J D Gibbs
12 Brad Keselowski Rochester Hills, MI Dodge Penske Racing Roger Penske
13 Max Papis Como, Italy Toyota GEICO Bob Germain
14 Tony Stewart Rushville, IN Chevrolet Office Depot / Old Spice Margaret Haas
16 Greg Biffle Vancouver, WA Ford U.S. Census Jack Roush
17 Matt Kenseth Cambridge, WI Ford Crown Royal John Henry
18 Kyle Busch Las Vegas, NV Toyota M&M's Joe Gibbs
19 Elliott Sadler Emporia, VA Ford Stanley George Gillett, Jr
20 Joey Logano Middletown, CT Toyota The Home Depot Joe Gibbs
24 Jeff Gordon Pittsboro, IN Chevrolet DuPont Rick Hendrick
26 David Stremme South Bend, IN Ford Latitude 43 Motorsports Bill Jenkins
29 Kevin Harvick Bakersfield, CA Chevrolet Shell / Pennzoil Richard Childress
31 Jeff Burton South Boston, VA Chevrolet Caterpillar Richard Childress
33 Clint Bowyer Emporia, KS Chevrolet BB&T Richard Childress
34 Travis Kvapil Janesville, WI Ford Long John Silver's Bob Jenkins
36 Mike Bliss Milwaukie, OR Chevrolet Wave Energy Drink Tommy Baldwin
37 Kevin Conway* Lynchburg, VA Ford Extenze Doug Yates
38 David Gilliland Riverside, CA Ford Taco Bell Doug Yates
39 Ryan Newman South Bend, IN Chevrolet Haas Automation Tony Stewart
42 Juan Montoya Bogota, Colombia Chevrolet Target Chip Ganassi
43 A.J. Allmendinger Los Gatos, CA Ford Insignia / Best Buy Richard Petty
46 Terry Cook* Sylvania, OH Dodge Whitney Motorsports Dusty Whitney
47 Marcos Ambrose Launceston, Tasmania Toyota Little Debbie Tad Geschickter
48 Jimmie Johnson El Cajon, CA Chevrolet Lowe's Jeff Gordon
55 Michael Waltrip Owensboro, KY Toyota Prism Motorsports Randy Humphrey
56 Martin Truex Jr. Mayetta, NJ Toyota NAPA Auto Parts Michael Waltrip
66 Dave Blaney Hartford, OH Toyota Prism Motorsports Phil Parsons
71 Bobby Labonte Corpus Christi, TX Chevrolet TaxSlayer.com Kevin Buckler
77 Sam Hornish Jr. Bryan, OH Dodge Mobil 1 Roger Penske
78 Regan Smith Cato, NY Chevrolet Furniture Row Companies Richard Childress
82 Scott Speed Manteca, CA Toyota Red Bull Dietrich Mateschitz
83 Brian Vickers Thomasville, NC Toyota Red Bull Dietrich Mateschitz
87 Joe Nemechek Lakeland, FL Toyota FrontRowJoe.com Andrea Nemechek
88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Kannapolis, NC Chevrolet National Guard / Amp Energy Rick Hendrick
98 Paul Menard Eau Claire, WI Ford Pittsburgh Paints / Menards George Gillett, Jr
99 Carl Edwards Columbia, MO Ford Scotts Jack Roush
190 Casey Mears Bakersfield, CA Chevrolet Keyed-Up Motorsports Raymond Key
*Notes*
-David Stremme will drive car #36 in place of Boris Said
-Michael Waltrip will quallify car #55

Entry list for the 2010 Scotts turf builder 300

2010-03-15T17:44:00.000-07:00

CAR DRIVER HOMETOWN MAKE SPONSOR OWNER
1 James Buescher* Plano, TX Chevrolet Phoenix Racing James Finch
01 Mike Wallace St. Louis, MO Chevrolet Monster Diesel Lori Davis
05 Willie Allen Nashville, TN Chevrolet 31-W Insulation Wayne Day
6 Ricky Stenhouse Jr.* Olive Branch, MS Ford Roush Fenway Racing Jack Roush
7 Scott Wimmer Wausau, WI Chevrolet JR Motorsports Bryan Mullet
09 Scott Riggs Bahama, NC Ford RAB Racing Robby Benton
10 Jason Leffler Long Beach, CA Toyota ABF Freight Todd Braun
11 Brian Scott* Boise, ID Toyota AccuDoc Solutions Harry Scott Jr.
12 Justin Allgaier Riverton, IL Dodge Verizon Wireless Roger Penske
15 Michael Annett Des Moines, IA Toyota Pilot Travel Centers Bob Germain
16 Colin Braun* Ovalo, TX Ford Con-way Freight Jack Roush
18 Kyle Busch Las Vegas, NV Toyota Z-Line Designs Joe Gibbs
20 Joey Logano Middletown, CT Toyota GameStop Joe Gibbs
21 John Wes Townley Watkinsville, GA Chevrolet Zaxby's Richard Childress
22 Brad Keselowski Rochester Hills, MI Dodge Discount Tire Jodi Geschickter
23 Coleman Pressley Asheville, NC Chevrolet R3 Motorsports Robert Richardson
24 Eric McClure Chilhowie, VA Ford Hefty Ed Rensi
26 Brian Keselowski Rochester Hills, MI Dodge K-Automotive Motorsports Bob Keselowski
27 Greg Biffle Vancouver, WA Ford Red Man Moist Snuff Mike Curb
28 Kenny Wallace St. Louis, MO Chevrolet Hot Rod Grills Jay Robinson
32 Reed Sorenson Peachtree City, GA Toyota Dollar General Todd Braun
33 Kevin Harvick Bakersfield, CA Chevrolet Rheem DeLana Harvick
34 Tony Raines La Porte, IN Chevrolet Long John Silver's Bob Jenkins
35 Jason Keller Greenville, SC Chevrolet TriStar Motorsports Mark C Smith
38 Kasey Kahne Enumclaw, WA Toyota Great Clips Ralph Braun
40 Mike Bliss Milwaukie, OR Chevrolet Key Motorsports Curtis Key, Sr
42 Parker Kligerman* Westport, CT Dodge Smith Iron Works Eddie Smith
43 Scott Lagasse Jr. St. Augustine, FL Ford Baker Curb Racing Mike Curb
49 Mark Green Owensboro, KY Chevrolet Jay Robinson Inc. Jay Robinson
52 Chris Lawson Medway, OH Ford Means Racing Jimmy Means
60 Carl Edwards Columbia, MO Ford Copart Jack Roush
61 Josh Wise Riverside, CA Ford Specialty Racing Doug Taylor
62 Brendan Gaughan Las Vegas, NV Toyota South Point Hotel & Casino Rusty Wallace
66 Steve Wallace Mooresville, NC Toyota 5-Hour Energy Rusty Wallace
70 Shelby Howard Greenwood, IN Chevrolet Foretravel Motorcoach Mary Louise Miller
73 Derrike Cope Spanaway, WA Dodge Stratus Racing Group Derrike Cope
81 Michael McDowell Phoenix, AZ Dodge Mobile-Shop Pat MacDonald
87 Joe Nemechek Lakeland, FL Chevrolet FrontRowJoe.com Andrea Nemechek
88 Kelly Bires Mauston, WI Chevrolet Hellmann's Dale Earnhardt, Jr
89 Morgan Shepherd Conover, NC Chevrolet Fans for Faith Cindy Shepherd
90 Danny O'Quinn Jr. Coeburn, VA Chevrolet D'Hondt Humphrey Motorsports Eddie D'Hondt
91 David Gilliland Riverside, CA Chevrolet D'Hondt Humphrey Motorsports Randy Humphrey
92 Johnny Chapman Stony Point, NC Dodge K-Automotive Motorsports Brian Keselowski
96 Dennis Setzer Newton, NC Dodge K-Automotive Motorsports Kay Keselowski
98 Paul Menard Eau Claire, WI Ford Richmond Water Heaters / Menards Jack Roush
99 Trevor Bayne Knoxville, TN Toyota Diamond Waltrip Racing Michael Waltrip
102 Andy Ponstein Hudsonville, MI Chevrolet CarLocate.com Corrie Stott
104 Brad Teague Johnson City, TN Chevrolet SponsorDavis.com Gene Vess
139 Jason Bowles Ontario, CA Ford Blow Bros. Archie St Hilaire
156 Kevin Lepage Shelburne, VT Chevrolet Mac Hill Motorsports John McNelly
* Denotes Rookie
*Notes*
-Scott Wimmer is back with Jr motorsports in the #7.
-Kasey Kahne will Drive car #38, while Leffler drives the #10
-Jason Bowles will make his debut in car #39.

In The Drivers Seat with: Brad Keselowski

2010-03-12T18:48:00.000-08:00

Brad Keselowski was born on February 12, 1984 in Rochester Hills Michigan. Brad first started racing in NASCAR in 2004, in the 29 truck for the family owned K-Automitive Racing in Camping World Truck Series. His 1st start for his NASCAR career was at Martinsville Speedway. He went full time racing for his family team in 2005. Then in 2006 he raced the 1st 2 races until, sponsership was hard to come by. This halted Brad's racing career momenterilly. Brad found a job racing for Kelly Sullen when he was injured. When he returned he raced the 63 truck for MB Motorsports.
In 2007 Keselowski entered Nationwide series for Keith Colemen Racing. In July though again he was with a team that suspended operations. Soon, owner of a Nationwide series team Dale Earnhardt Jr. called him up to drive the 88 U.S. Navy Chevy for Jr. Motorsports.
2008 Brad resigned to Jr. Motorsports and the 88 car and pulled up his 1st win at Nashville Superspeedway, June 7th . He got his 2nd win on August 22, at Bristol Motor Speedway. Later that year Hendrick Motorsports hired him to drive th 25 GoDaddy.com Chevy in Sprint Cup. In 2009 He drove the 25 car and the 09 car both part time. His first Sprint Cup win was the Aaron's 499 at Talladega with the 09 Chevy, after a full out battle with Carl Edwards. Edwards went into the catch fence and finished Rick Bobby style crossing the finish line on foot.
Now in 2010 Brad Keselowski drives for Penski Motorsports in the 12 Dodge Charger R/T, and in Nationwide in the 22 discount tire Dodge Charger and soon to be Dodge Challenger also.

**Next week In The Drivers seat will be out on Sunday, As I will be on vacation in New York City during the blogs normal time**

~Shane

Waltrip to drive #55 at Talladega:

2010-03-10T12:27:00.001-08:00

In celebration of its 55th year, Aaron's, Inc. will sponsor PRISM Motorsports' #55 with driver Michael Waltrip in the Aaron's 499 at Talladega Superspeedway April 25. Waltrip, a two-time Daytona 500 champion and former winner at Talladega, will return to NASCAR Sprint Cup Series racing with a long-time sponsor in Aaron's and a long-time friend in PRISM co-owner Phil Parsons

The Blue Deuce wins the Kolbolt tools 500

2010-03-07T14:56:00.000-08:00

Kurt Busch won a wild race at Atlanta. He led alot of laps, but most important were the last few laps. Juan Montoya was closing in fast, but Things changed. Carl Edwards who crashed early in the race took revenge on the car that hit him. Sending Brad Keselowski upside down into the wall.
Carl was parked for the rest of the race witch in my mind is a good call by nascar. You cant be racing around a place as fast as Talladega treating it like Bristol. Congrats to Kurt Busch!

Kevin Harvick wins the EZGO200 at Atlanta

2010-03-06T13:18:00.000-08:00

After dominationg the race Kevin Harvick pulled the #2 EZ-Go chevy into victory lane for his 7'th Nascar camping world truck series victory. Harvick Held off Kyle Busch who at one point in the race had to pit and fell back to 18'th, however in less than 3 laps he was back into the top 5. This victory gives Harvick 53 wins in NASCAR between the SprintCup series, Nationwide series, and the camping world truck series putting him 12'th all time in drivers with the most wins between the 3 top nascar devisions.

In The Drivers Seat with: Tony Stewart

2010-03-05T18:46:00.000-08:00

Tony stewart was born May 20, 1971 in Columbus Indiana. He started his racing career at the age of 8, in a go-kart and got his first champion title in the local series. Later in life he won the 1987 World Karting Association championship.He raced three-quarter midgets until 1991, when he moved up to the United States Auto Club series with help from one of his karting sponsors and friend Mark Dismore. Stewart was the USAC Rookie of the Year in 1991, fifth in 1993 after winning the Hut Hundred,and was the National Midget series champion in 1994.In 1995, Stewart became the first driver to win USAC's version of the Triple Crown, earning championships in all three of USAC's major divisions, National Midget, Sprint, and Silver Crown. In 1996, Tony made his NASCAR Busch Series debut, driving for car owner Harry Rainer. In nine races, however, he had only a best finish of 16th place. He had more success in a one-time ride in the Craftsman Truck Series, where he finished 10th. Tony was poised to improve his Indy Racing League standing in 1997, but struggled with finishing at times. He failed to finish the first three races of a ten race schedule, but recovered to finish second at Phoenix. At that year's Indy 500, Stewart had a good enough car to win his first Indy car race, leading 64 laps. However, he trailed off near the end of the race and settled for 5th. Tony finally got his first career win at Pikes Peak, where he led all but seven laps of a 200 lap race. He became the leading contender for the series' championship after a few mis-happs took points leader Davey Hamilton out of the top spot. Despite an average end to his season, finishing 7th, 14th, and 11th, and five DNFs, Stewart did just enough to beat Hamilton for the Indianapolis series title. He also raced in a few midget events, finishing thirteenth and eleventh in the 1997 and 1998 USAC national points, and winning the Copper Classic both years. Between his time in USAC and the IRL, Stewart earned the nickname of Smoke, first for slipping the right rear tire during dirt races, and for blowing his engine often during his '97 championship run.
As he had done the previous year, he raced a handful of Busch Series races. This time, he was racing for Joe Gibbs, NFL Hall of Fame head coach of the Washington Redskins who was having major success with driver Bobby Labonte in Winston Cup(now Sprint Cup). When Stewart was able to finish races, he finished in the top 10, and had a 3rd place finish at Charlotte. Stewart so impressed Gibbs that he was signed to drive the majority of the Busch schedule in 1998 to go along with a full-time Indy Car schedule. Tony Stewart's entry from the 1999 Indianapolis 500.The double duty did not affect his performance in either series. In Indy Car, he won twice and finished 3rd in the championship. His season was something of a disappointment, especially as he finished last in the Indy 500 because of an engine failure.On the Busch side, he finished in the top-five five times in 22 starts. He came extremely close to winning his first Busch Series race at Rockingham, but was beaten on the last lap when Matt Kenseth passed him. Stewart finished a solid 2nd place in 2 of 31 starts, ahead of six drivers with more starts, and had an average finish that was comparable to some of the series' top 10 finishers. Gibbs had enough confidence in Tony that he was moved into Cup for the 1999 season. With that move, Stewart ended his three year career as a full time Indy Car driver.
In 2001, during the Daytona 500 he flipped many times, but walked away. Unfortunately that was the same race that legend Dale Earndthart Senior was killed in. After the terrible loss to all of NASCAR, Stewart won three races and was runner up behind Jeff Gordon in the Championship. In 2002 Tony won his first Sprint Cup championship holding up Mark Martin for it.
Tony Stewart was competing hard in every race, then in 2009 He split from long-time team Joe Gibbs racing to form Stewart-Haas racing driving his new Sprint Cup number, 14. With teammate with new teammate Ryan Newman in the 39 Chevy. Now an owner/driver he worked twice as hard and that paid off as he won the 2009 NASCAR All-star race at Charlotte, though it was not a race for points it proved that Tony could handle being a driver/owner and still win races. Now Tony Stewart can be seen every where, from an Oldspice shampoo bottle to Burgerking kids meal toys-thats how popular he is.

~Shane

Dale Earnhardt Jr on pole for sunday.

2010-03-05T18:35:00.000-08:00

Dale Earnhardt Jr. captured the pole for the Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway with a blistering speed of 192.761 mph.

Earnhardt's lap on a cool Friday evening was faster than any pole-winning speed for a Sprint Cup race in 2009. Mark Martin was the pole-sitter last year in the spring race with a speed of 187.045 mph.

Martin went much faster this time (191.814) but it was only good enough for fourth. Kyle Busch will start from the outside of the front row Sunday, followed by Juan Montoya. Jeff Gordon was fifth, giving Hendrick Motorsports three of the top five spots.

The fourth Hendrick driver, Jimmie Johnson, managed only the 16th-best speed on the 1.54-mile track.

KOBALT Tools 500 entry list

2010-03-03T12:11:00.000-08:00

CAR DRIVER HOMETOWN MAKE SPONSOR OWNER
00 David Reutimann Zephyrhills, FL Toyota Aaron's Dream Machine Rob Kauffman
1 Jamie McMurray Joplin, MO Chevrolet Bass Pro Shops / Tracker Teresa Earnhardt
2 Kurt Busch Las Vegas, NV Dodge Miller Lite Walter Czarnecki
5 Mark Martin Batesville, AR Chevrolet HendrickCars.com / GoDaddy.com Mary Hendrick
6 David Ragan Unadilla, GA Ford UPS John Henry
7 Robby Gordon Orange, CA Toyota Warner Music Nashville / Blake Shelton Robby Gordon
9 Kasey Kahne Enumclaw, WA Ford Budweiser George Gillett, Jr
09 Aric Almirola Tampa, FL Chevrolet Phoenix Racing James Finch
11 Denny Hamlin Chesterfield, VA Toyota FedEx Office J D Gibbs
12 Brad Keselowski Rochester Hills, MI Dodge Penske Racing Roger Penske
13 Max Papis Como, Italy Toyota GEICO Bob Germain
14 Tony Stewart Rushville, IN Chevrolet Office Depot / Old Spice Margaret Haas
16 Greg Biffle Vancouver, WA Ford U.S. Census Jack Roush
17 Matt Kenseth Cambridge, WI Ford Valvoline John Henry
18 Kyle Busch Las Vegas, NV Toyota M&M's Joe Gibbs
19 Elliott Sadler Emporia, VA Ford Hunt Brothers Pizza George Gillett, Jr
20 Joey Logano Middletown, CT Toyota The Home Depot Joe Gibbs
21 Bill Elliott Dawsonville, GA Ford Motorcraft / Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center Glen Wood
24 Jeff Gordon Pittsboro, IN Chevrolet National Guard / DuPont Rick Hendrick
26 Boris Said Carlsbad, CA Ford Sacred Power / Southern Pride Trucking Bill Jenkins
29 Kevin Harvick Bakersfield, CA Chevrolet Shell / Pennzoil Richard Childress
31 Jeff Burton South Boston, VA Chevrolet Caterpillar Richard Childress
33 Clint Bowyer Emporia, KS Chevrolet BB&T Richard Childress
34 Travis Kvapil Janesville, WI Ford Long John Silver's Bob Jenkins
36 Mike Bliss Milwaukie, OR Chevrolet Wave Energy Drink Tommy Baldwin
37 Kevin Conway* Lynchburg, VA Ford Extenze Doug Yates
38 David Gilliland Riverside, CA Ford Charter Air Transport / Taco Bell Doug Yates
39 Ryan Newman South Bend, IN Chevrolet Tornados Tony Stewart
42 Juan Montoya Bogota, Colombia Chevrolet Target Chip Ganassi
43 A.J. Allmendinger Los Gatos, CA Ford Insignia Richard Petty
46 Terry Cook* Sylvania, OH Dodge Whitney Motorsports Dusty Whitney
47 Marcos Ambrose Launceston, Tasmania Toyota Lance Snacks / Tom's Snacks Tad Geschickter
48 Jimmie Johnson El Cajon, CA Chevrolet Lowe's / Kobalt Tools Jeff Gordon
55 Michael McDowell Phoenix, AZ Toyota Prism Motorsports Randy Humphrey
56 Martin Truex Jr. Mayetta, NJ Toyota NAPA Auto Parts Michael Waltrip
66 Dave Blaney Hartford, OH Toyota Prism Motorsports Phil Parsons
71 Bobby Labonte Corpus Christi, TX Chevrolet TaxSlayer.com Kevin Buckler
77 Sam Hornish Jr. Bryan, OH Dodge Mobil 1 Roger Penske
78 Regan Smith Cato, NY Chevrolet Furniture Row Companies Richard Childress
82 Scott Speed Manteca, CA Toyota Red Bull Dietrich Mateschitz
83 Brian Vickers Thomasville, NC Toyota Red Bull Dietrich Mateschitz
87 Joe Nemechek Lakeland, FL Toyota FrontRowJoe.com Andrea Nemechek
88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Kannapolis, NC Chevrolet Amp Energy / National Guard Rick Hendrick
98 Paul Menard Eau Claire, WI Ford CertainTeed / Menards George Gillett, Jr
99 Carl Edwards Columbia, MO Ford Scotts Jack Roush
190 Casey Mears Bakersfield, CA Chevrolet Keyed-Up Motorsports Raymond Key

Atlanta 200 entry list

2010-03-02T12:22:00.001-08:00

Entry Trk# Driver Team Owner Crew Chief
1 00 TBA Potencia Blast Energy Shot Chevy Brian Weber Dillon Oliver
2 01 JJ Yeley Koma Unwind/Chillazation Drink Chevy Daisy Ramirez Micah Horton
3 2 Kevin Harvick E-Z-GO Chevy Delana Harvick Ernie Cope
4 3 Austin Dillon Bass Pro Shops Chevy Andy Hillenburg Danny Stockman
5 4 Ricky Carmichael Monster Energy Chevy Delana Harvick Michael Fritts
6 5 Mike Skinner Int'l Trucks/Monaco RV Toyota David Dollar Gene Nead
7 6 Donnie Neuenberger EZ-Slider Cylinder Liners Chevy Rick Ware TBA
8 07 Donny Lia TBA Chevy Ken Smith Jason Miller
9 7 Justin Lofton VisitPit.com Toyota Tom Deloach Mark Rette
10 10 Jennifer Jo Cobb JJC Racing Ford Tom Mitchell Rudy Prickler Jr.
11 12 Mario Gosselin TireMonkey.com/James Carter, Atty Chevy Michelle Gosselin George Church
12 13 Johnny Sauter Curb Records Chevy Mike Curb Joe Shear
13 14 Rick Crawford TBD Ford Tom Mitchell Blake Bainbridge
14 15 Steve Wallace Red Top Collector Car Auction Toyota Billy Ballew Kevin Starland
15 17 Timothy Peters K&N Toyota Tom Deloach Jeff Hensley
16 18 Kyle Busch Toyota Tundra Toyota Kyle Busch Eric Phillips
17 21 Butch Miller TBA Dodge Steve Urvan Michael Davis
18 23 Jason White GunBroker.com Dodge Steve Urvan Doug Howe
19 30 Todd Bodine TBD Toyota Steve Germain Michael Hillman Jr.
20 *33 Ron Hornaday Jr. [PC1] Longhorn Chevy Delana Harvick Doug George
21 39 Ryan Sieg Waste Pro Chevy Susan Bates Mike Garvey
22 46 Dennis Setzer Team Gill Racing Dodge Joy Gill Joey Jones
23 47 Brett Butler Fuel Doctor Chevy Robert Dotter TBA
24 48 Tim Bainey Jr. Delgrosso Chevy Andy Hillenburg Jeremy Crandall
25 49 Chad McCumbee 75000000.com Chevy David McClure David McClure
26 51 Aric Almirola Graceway Pharmaceuticals Toyota Billy Ballew Richard Wauters
27 56 Tayler Malsam Toyota Tundra Toyota Joe Scott Daniel Stillman
28 57 Norm Benning Norm Benning Racing Chevy Norm Benning James Dugger
29 60 Stacy Compton SafeAuto Insurance/Wyler.com Toyota Jeffrey Wyler Chad Kendrick
30 76 Ryan Hackett Kentucky Steel Buildings Ford Ray Hackett Travis Sharpe
31 81 David Starr Zachry Toyota Randy Moss Doug Wolcott
32 84 Chris Fontaine Glenden Enterprises Chevy Chris Fontaine Kevin Ingram
33 85 Brent Raymer Ford DRIVE ONE Ford Pete Raymer Josh Raymer
34 87 Chris Jones Copy Wizard Chevy Rick Jones Kyle Johnson
35 88 Matt Crafton Menards Chevy Rhonda Thorson Vance Haefele
36 89 TBA Blue Ox/Lafferty Motorsports Chevy Calvin Wood Chris Lafferty
37 90 Brad Sweet Great Clips Toyota Doug Stringer Trip Bruce
38 93 Shane Sieg S&W Services Chevy Pam Sieg Tony Wilson
39 95 Geoff Bodine Team Gill Racing Dodge Danny Gill Danny Gill

Dale Earnhardt Jr donates 1 million to the Victory Junction Camp

2010-03-02T11:54:00.001-08:00

Victory Junction kicked off their “Keeping the Dream Alive” campaign today by announcing that Dale Earnhardt Jr. will join the elite list of Victory Junction Founders, as he commits to donate $1 million to build and maintain The Dale Jr. Corral and Amphitheatre at the Randleman, N.C. camp for children with serious illnesses. On March 27, 2010, during The Dale Jr. Foundation Physical Disabilities Weekend at Victory Junction, Earnhardt Jr. will join the Victory Junction family as a Founder and will break ground on a one-of-a-kind project, The Dale Jr. Corral and Amphitheatre. Eighty-eight members of The JR Nation Crew, The Official Fan Club of Earnhardt Jr., will be randomly selected to be special guests for this private ground breaking ceremony. To become a part of the FREE JR Nation Crew fan club and be eligible to attend, go to www.dalejr.com/jrnation. “There are many reasons why we wanted to get involved with Victory Junction and build this amphitheatre, and it starts with the tremendous impact the camp has on these kids. It’s incredible how one week changes lives,” said Earnhardt Jr. “Just as important to me is my friendship with Kyle and Pattie Petty, and the memory of my buddy, Adam Petty. Adam and I met each other at an early age, and from that point on our lives and careers were virtually parallel. He was as genuine as they get and a great friend. If I can play a small part in helping Kyle and Pattie keep his dream alive, it doesn’t require a second thought.”
This unique, interactive & accessible outdoor amphitheatre will provide campers, the opportunity to sing a song, act in a play, tell a joke, play an instrument, watch a movie or even get their face pictured on an old, western “Wanted” poster along with the infamous outlaw, “Junior.” For more information about Victory Junction visit www.victoryjunction.org.(Victory Junction/Dale Jr. Foundation)(3-2-2010)

Back-to-back wins for Double J

2010-02-28T15:10:00.000-08:00

After Jeff Gordon led 218 of 267 laps in the Shelby American at Las Vegas, Jimmie Johnson some how wins again in the 2010 Sprint Cup, Just 3 races in and he has won 2 of them.
With the last 30 laps or so Jimmie and Jeff battled it out and with less then 10 laps Jimmie prevailed. It looked like a Jeff Gordon day, but at the end it turned out to be an other Jimmie Johnson day. His crew chief, Chad Knaus said over the radio as they crossed the finish line, "No luck here." Well I don't know about that though. His teammates, Jeff Gordon came in 3rd, Mark Martin 4th, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 16th. Congratulations to Jimmie Johnson on his 2nd win in a row.

~Shane

Happy Harvick wins at Las Vegas

2010-02-28T07:53:00.000-08:00

Kevin Harvick cruised to victory after passing Denny Hamlin on a restart for the race lead. Harvick had two horrible pit stops during the race, but had a car strong enough to go from 12'th to first. Kyle Busch was slowly catching Harvick for the lead but drove it in a little to hard and made some pretty hard contact with the wall, crushing any hopes for the race win, Busch finished 16'th. Brad Keselowski started on the pole for the race but struggled with a tight racecar for the first part of the race falling back as low as 8'th, but the team go keselowski's car to his likings and fought back to a 4'th place finish. Keselowski goes from 5'th to 2'nd in the nationwide series points.

In The Drivers Seat with: Kasey Kahne

2010-02-26T16:52:00.000-08:00

This week in, In The Drivers Seat, you will read about the past of the young driver, Kasey Kahne. Kahne was born April 10th 1980 in Enumclaw, Washington. His team is the #9 Budweiser Ford Fusion, for Richard Petty Motorsports. At the age of 17 he left his hometown in Washington to pursue sprint car racing in midwestern U.S. In 1994 Kasey started racing at age 14 with help from his father, Kelly Kahne. He competed in micro-midget car events around Washington. At 16 he won the Hannigan speedway Mini-Sprints championship and the Northwest Mini-Sprints championship. Kahne continued to strengthen his driving skills from 1998 to 2002 as a competitor in the World of Outlaws, All-Star Circuit of Champions, Gumout Racing Series and Northern Sprint Tour winged sprint car series, but in 2000 he really brought out his skills to the table. Winning the USAC Midget Series championship and National Midget Driver of the Year honors. Kahne built on those accomplishments the following season by scoring four wins and 10 top-five finishes in just 11 USAC Midget Series starts. He also won his second consecutive “Night before the 500” Classic at O’Reilly Raceway Park, an achievement only done by one other driver – Jeff Gordon. Kahne was so successful, that by 2001 he had caught the attention of NASCAR team owners, and by 2002 had a part-time racing contract in then known as the Busch series. In 2003 he got his first win in Busch series. He caught the attention of owner and former crew chief Ray Evernham, and in 2009 came into NASCAR's top series, Sprint Cup, driving the #9 Dodge sponsered by Dodge.Now full-time, Kahne was nominated and won 2004 rookie of the year and missed the chase by 28 points in 13th in the overall standings. In 2005, Kahne scored his first career Cup Series win at Richmond International Raceway. In 2006 Kahne won 6 races and started pole 6 times also. He was a champion contender, but by the end of the season he placed 8th. After a sore 2007 season Kasey won 2 races in '08 in addition to winning the Sprint All-Star Race after being voted into the race by NASCAR fans. After Gillette-Evernham was abborbed in 2009 by Richard Petty Motorsports. The change allowed Kahne to work alongside legendary driver and team co-owner Richard Petty. The 2009 season proved to be Kahne’s most successful season since his breakout season in 2006. Kahne scored two wins, including his first career road course win at Infineon Raceway in June. Coincidentally, that win also returned Petty to victory lane for the first time since 1999. The early success of the 2009 season earned Kahne his second trip to the season-ending Chase for the Sprint Cup. Kahne’s two wins, seven top-five and 14 top-10 finishes earned him a 10th-place finish in the final standings. Now you can see Kahne race around the country in the 2010 Sprint Cup season.
If you have a driver you would like to be written about just leave comment below.

~Shane

Will the Keselowski/Hamlin fued continue?

2010-02-25T08:39:00.000-08:00

Denny Hamlin is slated to run the nationwide series race this weekend at Las Vegas with Interstate batteries as a sponsor. Unless you have been living under a rock for the past two years you know that there is bad blood between the two.This Mainly all started at the Carquest auto parts 300 in 2008. Hamlin did not like the way Keselowski was racing him so he took matters into his own hands and slammed into the side of the 88 car. Dale Jr (who was driving the 83 car) relaliated and gave Hamlin a tap, however this was not the end. After the race the #88 and #83 pit crew went down to the 20 pit and shared their displeasure. NASCAR split the three teams up before anyone hurt anyone.At the fall dover race in 2009 Hamlin was holding Brad up and Brad gave him a tap witch spun Hamlin out and sent him into the wall. Hamlin was not a happy camper.Then a few weeks later at Phoenix Hamlin gave Keselowski a tap and moved him out of the way. Brad retaliated and spun hamlin around. After the race Hamlin said "there are alot of drivers that owe him, and im going to be the first to repay him". "im just glad in signed up to run the nationwide race next week. When Hamlin spotted the 88 car he took charge and spun him out. However Keselowski did not hit the wall. He spun 3-4 times and saved his car and came back to finish in the top 15. Will we see another round between the two? We will have to wait and find out.

~Brendan

Drew Blickensderfer named as crew cheif for Carl Edwards #60 nationwide car

2010-02-23T13:00:00.000-08:00

ONCORD, N.C. -- Roush Fenway Racing has announced that Drew Blickensderfer will take over as crew chief on the No. 60 Nationwide team with driver Carl Edwards effective immediately. Mike Kelley, who had served in that position, will assume the role of competition director for Roush Fenway's Nationwide Series effort, and Mike Beam will move into the role of speedway specialist in the research and development department for all of Roush Fenway Racing.

"Drew is a wonderful team builder," Jack Roush said. "He will bring car-of-tomorrow experience to the Nationwide shop. Carl and Drew have a strong track record together. This is great for Copart and Fastenal. It provides them with a great chance to win a championship. This assignment will task Drew's potential."he move will reunite Blickensderfer -- who worked last season as the crew chief of the No. 17 Sprint Cup team -- and Edwards in the Nationwide Series. The duo teamed for 19 races in 2008, running to seven wins, two poles and a second-place series' points finish, while closing the season with nine consecutive top-five runs.

Kelley, who was the car chief for the No. 97 team's Cup championship run in 2004, has worked as a crew chief in Roush Fenway's Nationwide program since 2006, leading drivers Todd Kluever, David Ragan and Edwards. He will be responsible for car builds in Roush Fenway's Nationwide program.

"Mike Kelley is a fierce competitor and a very loyal employee," Roush said.

"This is a great promotion for him. We will look forward to watching him continue to grow."

Beam, a 30-year NASCAR veteran, has served at Roush Fenway as a crew chief in the Truck Series, and most recently as director of competition for Roush Fenway's Nationwide program. He will work closely with Jimmy Fennig in research and development, with a focus on the superspeedway program.

"Mike [Beam] has a great track record and his trucks were always really fast on the superspeedways," Roush said. "We will look for him to bring that knowledge to our overall program and pick up where Todd Parrott left off with that progression."

Las Vegas entry list

2010-02-22T15:24:00.001-08:00

Car# Driver Manu Sponsor Owner
1 00 David Reutimann Toyota Tums Rob Kauffman
2 1 Jamie McMurray Chevy TBA Teresa Earnhardt
3 2 Kurt Busch Dodge Miller Lite Walter Czarnecki
4 5 Mark Martin Chevy GoDaddy.com Mary Hendrick
5 6 David Ragan Ford UPS John Henry
6 7 Robby Gordon Toyota Monster Energy Robby Gordon
7 9 Kasey Kahne Ford Budweiser George Gillett, Jr
8 09 Aric Almirola Chevy Phoenix Racing James Finch
9 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota FedEx Ground J D Gibbs
10 12 Brad Keselowski Dodge Penske Racing Roger Penske
11 13 Max Papis Toyota GEICO Bob Germain
12 14 Tony Stewart Chevy Old Spice / Office Depot Margaret Haas
13 16 Greg Biffle Ford 3M Jack Roush
14 17 Matt Kenseth Ford Crown Royal John Henry
15 18 Kyle Busch Toyota M&M's Joe Gibbs
16 19 Elliott Sadler Ford Stanley Tools George Gillett, Jr
17 20 Joey Logano Toyota Home Depot Joe Gibbs
18 24 Jeff Gordon Chevy Pepsi Max / DuPont Rick Hendrick
19 26 Boris Said Ford TBA Bill Jenkins
20 29 Kevin Harvick Chevy Pennzoil Ultra Richard Childress
21 31 Jeff Burton Chevy Caterpillar Richard Childress
22 33 Clint Bowyer Chevy Cheerios Richard Childress
23 34 Travis Kvapil Ford Long John Silver's Bob Jenkins
24 36 Johnny Sauter Chevy TBA Tommy Baldwin
25 36 Mike Bliss Chevy Kim Kardashian Fragrance Tommy Baldwin
26 37 Kevin Conway # Ford Extenze Doug Yates
27 38 David Gilliland Ford Taco Bell Doug Yates
28 39 Ryan Newman Chevy Tornados Tony Stewart
29 42 Juan PabloMontoya Chevy Target Chip Ganassi
30 43 A.J. Allmendinger Dodge Valvoline Richard Petty
31 46 Terry Cook # Dodge TBA Dusty Whitney
32 47 Marcos Ambrose Toyota Kingsford/Scott's Tad Geschickter
33 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevy Lowe's/Kobalt Tools Jeff Gordon
34 55 Michael McDowell Toyota Prism Motorsports Randy Humphrey
35 56 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota NAPA Gold Filters Michael Waltrip
36 66 Dave Blaney Toyota Prism Motorsports Phil Parsons
37 71 Bobby Labonte [PC1] Chevy Taxslayer.com Kevin Buckler
38 77 Sam Hornish Jr. Dodge Mobil 1 Roger Penske
39 78 Regan Smith Chevy Furniture Row Richard Childress
40 82 Scott Speed Toyota Red Bull Dietrich Mateschitz
41 83 Brian Vickers Toyota Red Bull Dietrich Mateschitz
42 87 Joe Nemechek Toyota NEMCO Motorsports Andrea Nemechek
43 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevy National Guard / AMP Energy Rick Hendrick
44 90 Casey Mears Chevy TBA Raymond Key
45 98 Paul Menard Ford Menards/Moens George Gillett Jr
46 99 Carl Edwards Ford Aflac / Kellogs Jack Roush

Jimmie Johnson's 48th career win-Auto club 500

2010-02-21T15:51:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to Jimmie Johnson as he heads into victory lane at Auto Club Speedway. I ask myself how does he do it. After finishing 35th at Daytona he drives the #48 Chevy Impala to its 48th victory in Sprint Cup. That is why he has 4 straight Sprint Cup championchips. Johnson, Who started 7th led the most laps, 101 laps out of 250. He had a lucky break when a caution came out for Brad Keselowski, and Johnson narrowly making it on pit road before the caution flew. His marigin of victory was 1.524 seconds, with fellow Chevy driver, Kevin Harvick coming in second. Teammates, Mark Martin came in 4th, Jeff Gordon in 20th and Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 32nd. Again congrats to Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus for thier 48th win in the #48 car.

~Shane

Rowdy Busch gets first win of the year.

2010-02-20T17:05:00.000-08:00

In what looked like to be another win by Joey Lagano, Kyle Busch emerged victorious. On the final restart Greg Biffle gave lagano a tap and sent him up the hill. Lagano had led the most laps and was poised to win but he was not able to hold off a fast charging Biffle and Keselowski.

****STANDINGS AS OF CALIFORNIA****
1)Carl Edwards
2Joey Lagano
3)Kyle Busch
4)Justin Allgaier
5)Brad Keselowski

In The Drivers Seat with: Kelly Bires

2010-02-19T12:49:00.000-08:00

I, Shane will be doing a small blog every Friday called In The Drivers Seat, where I will tell you about a certain driver and about his or her history. My first will be about Kelly Bires.
Last week you may have seen Dale Jr. in the 88 Chevy for Nationwide Series, if you saw that you probably saw him flip, in the back stretch. Now for the second race in Nationwide scheduling at Fontana you will see Kelly Bires. Bires, born August 25, 1984 in Mauston, Wisconsin, began karting at Sugar River Raceway in Brodhead, Wisconsin at age 9. He began competing in national karting events at age 12. He won several regional titles and two national championships.

He became the Great Lakes Allison Legacy Series Rookie of the Year in 2000, and followed up the championship by winning the series in 2001. He next moved up to the Super Late Model race cars at Dells Motor Speedway. He finished fifth in points and was the 2002 Rookie of the Year. He finished second in championship points in 2003. Bires made his first start in ARCA in May 2004. He qualified fourth and finished eighth at Lowe's Motor Speedway. He was the 2006 American Speed Association Late Model Series champion.

In 2007 he was to the #21 Wood Brothers Racing truck in 19 races, handing over driving duties for the other six races to veteran Mark Martin. He had a tenth place finish at Atlanta. After the departure of Jon Wood due to illness, he left the Truck Series started racing for Tad Geschickter beginning at Nashville Super speedway. His best Busch Series start was 26th and best finish was 7th in the Meijer 300 presented by Oreo at Kentucky Speedway. He was named the permanent driver of the #47 in 2008, and had six top-ten finishes en route to a 13th place points finish. He lost his job at the end of the season due to a lack of sponsorship. He will be with JR Motorsports in 2010 and 2011.

Disclamer:he is not the 2006 American Speed Association Late Model Series Champion.

~Shane

Rest in peace Dale Earnhardt Sr.

2010-02-18T07:48:00.000-08:00

Nine years ago we lost one of the biggest names in NASCAR history. Dale Earnhardt was killed in a last lap crash while protecting the lead of Micheal Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Earnhardt died of neck injuries when he crashed head on into the wall at over 180 mph. Although the wreck happend nearly 10 years ago it is still painfully in our hearts as one of the most sad days in motorsports history. Dale Earnhardt was the only driver besides Richard Petty to win 7 championships. let us NASCAR fans all accrost the country remember the man in black. Forever rest in peace, The Intimidator.

New crew cheif for Matt Kenseth

2010-02-18T07:38:00.000-08:00

CONCORD, N.C. -- Todd Parrott has been named crew chief of Roush Fenway Racing's No. 17 Ford, effective immediately.

Drew Blickensderfer, who has served as crew chief on the No. 17, driven by Matt Kenseth, since the start of the 2009 season, will assume a role in Roush Fenway's research and development department. Kenseth finished eighth in the season-opening race at Daytona on Sunday.

Blickensderfer had replaced Chip Bolin as crew chief for Kenseth following the 2008 season.

Parrott, who won the Cup Series championship with Dale Jarrett in 1999, has the third-most wins -- 29 -- among active crew chiefs in the Cup Series.

Blickensderfer and Kenseth came out of the box hot in 2009, winning the first two races of the year, at Daytona and Fontana. However, that success was short-lived.

Kenseth, the 2003 Cup Series champion, struggled throughout the remainder of the season -- only 10 top-10 finishes in the final 34 races -- and posted a 15.4 average finish and also missed the Chase for the first time since the system was implemented in 2004. He finished 14th in points.

Parrott was given his first opportunity as crew chief in fall 1995, when he accepted a position at Robert Yates Racing to lead Ernie Irvan's team. Parrott teamed up with Jarrett for the 1996 season.

Parrott also served as general manager for Robert Yates Racing briefly in 2003, then resumed crew chief duties for Elliott Sadler, David Gilliland and Travis Kvapil while with Yates.

Last year, Parrott was the crew chief for Bobby Labonte and the No. 96 team. The duo also worked together at Petty Enterprises.

• Blickensderfer wasn't the only crew chief on the move Wednesday. Earlier in the day, a spokesman for Kevin Harvick Inc. confirmed Dave Fuge, crew chief for defending Camping World Truck Series champion Ron Hornaday, is no longer with the team. No replacement was named.

Fuge, a former co-owner and crew chief at Xpress Motorsports, had replaced Rick Ren, who became the competition director at Kyle Busch Motorsports. Ren had guided Hornaday to the series title in two of the past three years.

Hornaday finished 27th in the season-opening race at Daytona when he was collected in an accident where he had contact with Ricky Carmichael.