SEC Bowling

I haven't gotten interested in the college football bowl season yet.  How could I?  The SEC hasn't started playing yet.

The Southeastern Conference sends nine of the twelve teams to bowls this year, beginning with Mississippi State vs. Wake Forest in Friday's Music City Bowl and concluding on January 9 with LSU and Alabama playing for the national championship. (Roll Tide!)  Ole Miss, Kentucky and Tennessee are staying home this bowl season.

This is one of those odd years when there are no games on New Year's Day; it falls on a Sunday.  The traditional New Year's Day games are on Monday and stretching out through the week.

The SEC bowl schedule:

Friday, December 30
Music City Bowl -- Mississippi State vs. Wake Forest, 6:40 p.m. ET

Saturday, December 31
Liberty Bowl -- Vanderbilt vs. Cincinnati, 3:40 p.m.
Chick-fil-A Bowl -- Auburn vs. Virginia, 7:30 p.m.

Monday, January 2
Gator Bowl -- Florida vs. Ohio State, 1 p.m.
Outback Bowl -- Georgia vs. Michigan State, 1 p.m.
Capital One Bowl -- South Carolina vs. Nebraska, 1 p.m.

Friday, January 6
Cotton Bowl -- Arkansas vs. Kansas, 8 p.m.

Monday, January 9
BCS National Championship -- LSU vs. Alabama, 8:30 p.m.

Two teams will join the SEC next season, Missouri and Texas A&M.  Missouri scored on their first five possessions of Monday's Independence Bowl and cruised past North Carolina 41-24.  The Aggies play Northwestern this Saturday in the Meineke Car Care Bowl.

Notice that three SEC teams all play at the same time on January 2, leading to a lot of channel changing early, followed by a couple of games that I don't care a lot about.  Those three games at 1 p.m. should be among the best of the bowl season, featuring teams that appear to be pretty evenly matched.

Related articles

• Next Level SEC bowl stats (espn.go.com)
• SEC unveils football schedule with A&M, Mizzou (espn.go.com)
• Who has the most to prove in the bowls? (espn.go.com)

NASCAR

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Six races left, and the Chase for the Sprint Cup is shaping up nicely.

Jimmie Johnson dominated at Kansas, running up front most of the day and holding off Kasey Kahne on a green-white-checkered restart for the win.  Brad Keselowski was third and Matt Kenseth fourth.  Carl Edwards and Kevin Harvick came on strong at the end to finish fifth and sixth respectively.

It all fell apart at the end for Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon.  Stewart gave up track position for four tires on a late stop, then had trouble getting into his stall on the final stop.  Gordon's engine blew to set up the GWC finish.  (Race results)

Six races left, and Edwards leads Harvick by one point in the standings.  Jimmie Johnson sits just four points back and we're heading to one of his best tracks, Charlotte Motor Speedway, next.

Six races left.  Eight drivers within 20 points of the lead.  (Points standings)

SEC Football

It's all shaping up nicely in the SEC West.  The November 5 LSU/Alabama game at Tuscaloosa should decide the division.  The top two teams in the country both looked impressive Saturday; LSU beat up on the Florida team Alabama destroyed last week and Alabama shut out Vandy.

The East is a little more complicated.  South Carolina and Georgia are tied at 3-1 in conference action.  South Carolina has the edge after winning the head-to-head matchup last month.  But Florida is lurking at 2-2 with games still upcoming against the leaders.  South Carolina dismantled dismal Kentucky and Georgia handled Tennessee to give Coach Richt his 100th career victory.

If you're a praying person, put in a few words for the Ole Miss Rebels.  They're 2-3 overall and 0-2 in the conference.  They were off this week, but play Alabama, Arkansas and Auburn the next three weeks and then LSU a couple of weeks later.  Their November 5 game against Kentucky will probably determine the worst team in the league, depending on how the rest of the year goes for Vandy.

Week Six Scores:

#1 LSU 41, #17 Florida 11
#2 Alabama 34, Vanderbilt 0
#10 Arkansas 38, #15 Auburn 14
#18 South Carolina 54, Kentucky 3
Georgia 20, Tennessee 12
Mississippi State 21, Alabama-Birmingham 3

Related articles

• All of a sudden, Georgia has new life (espn.go.com)
• SEC helmet stickers (espn.go.com)

Cup - Kyle Busch Wins Inaugural Kentucky Race

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Kyle Busch held off Jimmie Johnson on a late restart to win Saturday night's Quaker State 400, the inaugural Cup race at Kentucky Speedway.

Busch dominated the event, leading a race-high 125 (of  267) laps, but had to hold off Johnson on a restart with two laps to go to take home the trophy.  The pair entered Turn One side-by-side on the restart, but Busch had the momentum in the outside lane and pulled ahead coming out of Turn Two.  Johnson then had to contend with a hard-charging David Reutimann.  Reutimann passed Johnson for second place as they came to the stripe.

It was Busch's third win of the season, tying him with Kevin Harvick for the most in the Sprint Cup Series.  It was his 22nd career Cup victory, and his 99th victory in the three national series combined.

Ryan Newman finished fourth, followed by Carl Edwards.  Matt Kenseth, Brad Keselowski, David Ragan, Kurt Busch and Jeff Gordon rounded out the Top 10.  (Race results)

It's never a good sign when the big story after a race is the traffic, but the race was a snoozefest until the end and the traffic jam was the mother of all traffic jams.  

It seems that Kentucky Speedway is just another 1.5-mile cookie cutter oval where aerodynamics are king.  The bumps in the track that were supposed to add drama didn't, and the only good racing came on the restarts.  There were long stretches of green-flag runs where the field got strung out and the leader, racing in clean air, checked out.

But the traffic jam was what will be remembered for years to come.  The line of cars stretched some 20 miles down Interstate 71 and track officials ran out of places to park cars.  After many spent hours trying to get to the track, they were turned away when officials began reversing the traffic patterns to get everyone out after the race was over.  Track owner Bruton Smith estimated that 15,000-20,000 ticket holders never made it in.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. continued his free fall in the points standings for the fourth straight week.  He pitted under green late in the race and took fuel only, then blew his left front tire as he re-entered the track.  The tire shredded and destroyed his fender, bringing out a caution on Lap 254.  Clint Bowyer spun and hit the wall just a couple of laps after the restart setting up the final two-lap sprint to the checkers.

With the win, Busch jumped two spots to take the lead in the series points standings, four points ahead of Edwards.  Harvick (-10) dropped two spots to third, followed by Kurt Busch (-18), Johnson (-19), Kenseth (-22), Gordon (-72), Earnhardt (-76), Newman (-86) and Denny Hamlin (-94).  Tony Stewart is just three points behind Hamlin for the tenth spot.  Bowyer dropped out of the Top 10 and is now 16 points behind Hamlin.  Ragan holds one wildcard spot for the Chase.  Keselowski is just three points behind Joey Logano for 20th place in the standings and the other wildcard spot.

Nationwide - Keselowski Stretches His Fuel Mileage to Win at Kentucky

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Brad Keselowski dominated Friday night's Feed the Children 300 at Kentucky Speedway, leading 132 of the 200 laps, but it came down to fuel mileage at the end.  Keselowski conserved enough to take the checkered flag.

Keselowski's only real challenge came from Kevin Harvick, who was also in fuel conservation mode.  But Harvick's crew made a crucial mistake in the closing laps, calling Harvick to the pits for fuel, then changing their minds at the last minute and telling him to stay out.  A car had spun out and they were looking for a caution that never came.  Harvick couldn't make up the lost time, allowing Keselowski to cruise to a 1.180-second victory.

It was Keselowski's first win of the season and the 13th of his career.  It was his first win at Kentucky Speedway in his fourth start.

On Lap 134, Robert Richardson spun and backed into the wall to bring out the fifth and final caution of the race.  Keselowski took fuel only and was the first off of pit road.  Keselowski pulled away on the restart and led the rest of the way.

Kyle Busch started in the rear of the field after wrecking in practice and switching to his backup car.  He quickly worked his way toward the front, but never challenged Keselowski and Harvick.  He finished third, followed by Kasey Kahne and Elliott Sadler.  (Race results)

Sadler took over the lead in the series points standings from Reed Sorenson, who finished 17th.  Sorenson had pit troubles earlier in the race, leaving the pits with the track bar wrench still in the back of the car.  Sadler now leads Sorenson by four points.  Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (-27) is third, followed by Justin Allgaier (-43) and Jason Leffler (-73).

Trucks - Busch Finds a Way to Win at Kentucky

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It didn't seem like Kyle Busch had the truck to win, but, after some great late restarts and some misfortune for most of the other contenders, he cruised to victory in Thursday night's University of Northwestern Ohio 225 at Kentucky Speedway.

Busch started in the rear of the field after missing the drivers' meeting, but quickly charged toward the front, finally taking the lead for the first time on Lap 61.  He led twice for 61 laps, including the last 18.  Toward the end, his was not the fastest truck, but most of the other contenders fell by the wayside.

Polesitter Johnny Sauter passed Busch for the lead on Lap 103, but broke a rear axle while trying to leave his pit on a green-flag stop on Lap 124.  About eight laps later, Austin Dillon challenged Busch for the lead, but his hood came loose and folded back over his windshield.  He had to pit to have it cut loose.

With ten laps to go, Charlie Vest spun.  He didn't hit anything, but NASCAR finally had to throw the caution because he was blocking the entrance to pit road and couldn't get the engine restarted.  About the time the caution waved, Steve Arpin spun straight toward Vest, but he finally had it running again and moved out of the way in time to avoid the collision.

That set up a restart with five laps to go.  Busch got a great restart, but Joey Coulter did not.  He dropped back and bunched the rest of the field up.  Nelson Piquet Jr., another contender, got pushed back in the middle of a three-wide pack.  He got into the rear of the other Brazilian in the race, Miguel Paludo, and they both went hard into the wall.

That set up the green-white-checkered finish.  Again, Busch got a great jump, but Jason White did not.  Busch cruised to victory.  Parker Klingerman, Brendan Gaughan and Todd Bodine got around White to finish second, third and fourth respectively.  White came home fifth.  (Race results)

It was Busch's first win at Kentucky Speedway, his fifth Camping World Truck Series win of the season and the 29th of his career.  It was his 98th national series win, third most all-time.  The race went 152 laps, two past the scheduled distance.

Ron Hornaday made the bonehead move of the race.  After a restart on Lap 76, he was challenging Cole Whitt for fourth place.  Hornaday got loose and came up into Whitt and they both went into the wall.  That would have been the end of it if Hornaday had stayed on the brakes, but he tried to straighten out his heavily damaged truck and keep moving.  He slammed Jack Smith into the wall, then slid down the track and took out John King and Josh Richards.

The series points standings were shuffled a bit.  Sauter stayed in first, and even gained three more points on Whitt (-23).  Dillon (-25) moved up a spot to third.  James Buescher (-32) and Klingerman (-35) each moved up three spots to fourth and fifth respectively as Hornaday (-37) dropped three spots to sixth.

Cup - Ragan Gets First Career Win at Daytona

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David Ragan cruised to his first career Cup Series win in Saturday night's Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway.

Racing in the two-car drafts that have become commonplace at the superspeedways, the top four finished in single file. Ragan was pushed to victory by his Roush Fenway teammate Matt Kenseth.  The tandem of Joey Logano and Kasey Kahne didn't try to challenge the finish and finished third and fourth respectively.

A sedate race by Daytona standards turned treacherous at the end.  It took two green-white-checkered finishes and ten extra laps to settle this one.  With two separate wrecks occurring simultaneously on the final lap, NASCAR let it play out to the finish and didn't throw the caution until the leaders had crossed the line.

After three cautions in the first 50 laps, the race settled down into a long green flag run from Lap 53 to Lap 157.  Then with just three laps left to go, Kahne got together with his Red Bull teammate Brian Vickers, pushing Jeff Gordon up into Kyle Busch and Logano.  It was slight contact, but was enough to send Gordon sideways in traffic.  Gordon made a tremendous save to get the car straightened out again, but that brought out the caution and set up the first GWC attempt.

The first attempt didn't make it through Turn Two.  Racing three wide through the turn, Mark Martin drifted down on Logano, triggering the Big One.  Somewhere in the neighborhood of fifteen cars were involved in various degrees.

They lined up again for a second GWC.  Ragan got a great push from Kenseth to stay out front, but Ryan Newman and Denny Hamlin challenged.  Logano and Kahne went outside to make it three wide, and Newman and Hamlin were stranded in the middle and fell back.  On the final lap, Landon Cassill got together with Marcos Ambrose, triggering a multi-car crash.  As that one was playing out, Jamie McMurray got together with Dale Earnhardt Jr., triggering another melee closer to the front of the field.

Kyle Busch finished fifth, followed by Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Paul Menard, Juan Montoya, and A. J. Allmendinger.  (Race results)

Ragan atoned for a big mistake at the Daytona 500 in February.  Leading the field to green on a late restart, Ragan was penalized for changing lanes before he crossed the start/finish line, ending his chances for a win.

Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne's hopes for a repeat at the track ended early on Lap 5.  A push from Brad Keselowski hooked him into the wall and ended his day.

Carl Edwards's day also ended early.  On Lap 23, he was hooked by his Roush Fenway teammate Greg Biffle.  Biffle slapped the outside wall; Edwards slid through the infield and smacked the inside wall hard.  Edwards came into the race with a 25-point lead in the series points standings, but finished 37th and relinquished the lead to Harvick.

Harvick now leads Edwards by five points.  Kyle Busch jumped two spots to third, ten points behind Harvick.  Kurt Busch (-16) is fourth.  Kenseth (-22) is fifth.  Jimmie Johnson (-22) got caught up in the last-lap melees and finished 20th, dropping him three spots to sixth in the standings.  Earnhardt (-52) is seventh, followed by Gordon (-67), Clint Bowyer (-81) and Newman (-88).  With just nine races left before the Chase, Hamlin has closed to within three points of tenth.  Tony Stewart is just four points behind Newman now.  (Points standings)

Related articles

• Ragan may have saved his job (msn.foxsports.com)
• WINNERS & LOSERS: David Ragan and Matt Kenseth make Roush Fenway Racing the big winner at Daytona (scenedaily.com)

From the Twitter Machine

One of the big stories before Friday night's Subway Jalapeno 250 at Daytona International Speedway was Kevin Harvick Inc.'s four-car mega-team that was entered in the race.  KHI had cars for Harvick, Tony Stewart, Clint Bowyer and Elliott Sadler.

Harvick won the pole, followed by Stewart, Sadler and Bowyer to give KHI a sweep of the first two rows.  It was the first time in series history that a team had started a race 1-2-3-4.  Things didn't go so well after that.  Harvick turned Bowyer into the wall on Lap 80.  All the other cars were wrecked on the final lap.

This was Harvick's wife DeLana's reaction on Twitter after the race...

Well that was expensive.....Sat Jul 02 01:43:14 via SeesmicDeLana Harvick
DeLanaHarvick

Nationwide - Busch Pushes Logano to Daytona Win

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Joey Logano got a big push from his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch to win Friday night's Subway Jalapeno 250 at Daytona International Speedway.  Logano held off a late charge by Jason Leffler to win by 0.040 seconds.

Logano started at the rear of the field after his crew made unapproved modifications to his car before the race.  He was turned early in the race by teammate Brian Scott as they tried to go below the yellow line to pass the slower car of Kevin LaPage, but somehow saved it.  Logano didn't lead in the race until the final half-mile.

It was Logano's ninth career Nationwide Series win, his first of the season and his first at Daytona.

As Logano crossed the stripe, the Big One unfolded behind him.  Mike Wallace ran Danica Patrick up into the wall.  She bounced back down into the pack, triggering an eight-car crash.

Reed Sorenson finished third and collected the first of four $100,000 Dash 4 Cash bonuses Nationwide is giving away this season.  Busch was fourth, followed by Justin Allgaier and Michael Annett.  Kenny Wallace took seventh place going through the infield grass.  The wrecked cars of Elliott Sadler, Aric Almirola and Patrick made it across the line to round out the Top Ten.  (Race results)

On Lap 44, Eric McClure was turned hard into the wall by Mike Bliss.  McClure walked away from the wreck, but was taken to the infield care center, then to a local hospital for further evaluation.

The top eleven spots in the series points standings stayed the same, but Sorenson extended his lead to nine points over Sadler.  Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (-31) is third, followed by Allgaier (-37) and Leffler (-73).

NASCAR News

Crown Royal has announced that they are significantly scaling back their involvement with NASCAR.  They will end their sponsorship with Roush Fenway Racing and Matt Kenseth's No. 17 Ford at the end of the year.  Also, parent company Diageo will not renew their deal as an official NASCAR partner.

RFR has thus far only renewed their sponsorship deal with 3M.  It appears that their other major sponsors, Aflac and UPS, are waiting to see if Carl Edwards re-signs with RFR and how the rest of the silly season shakes out.

Crown Royal will concentrate its NASCAR involvement on their annual "Your Name Here" race, which has been held at Richmond International Speedway in September.

Geico has signed a three-year deal to sponsor the fall Sprint Cup Series race at Chicagoland Speedway.  It's Geico's first naming-rights agreement in any sport.

Jeremy Fuller, a contract employee and tire changer for Red Bull Racing and Turner Motorsports, has been fired from both jobs for homophobic tweets he posted after the race at Infineon Speedway Sunday.

UPS will honor Ned Jarrett's induction into the NASCAR Hall of Fame with a throwback paint scheme on David Ragan's No. 6 Ford at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  The throwback design, which resembles Jarrett's 1965 Ford Galaxie, was unveiled Sunday at Infineon Raceway.

Cup - Kurt Busch Dominates at Sonoma

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Kurt Busch notched his first career road course victory Sunday, winning the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway.  He made it look easy, leading 76 of the 110 laps (including the final 23) and crossing the finish line 2.685 seconds ahead of his nearest competitor.

It was Busch's first Cup win of the season and the 23rd of his career, tying him with Ricky Rudd for 26th on the all-time wins list.

The real battle was for second place between Jeff Gordon and Carl Edwards.  Both struggled early in the race, then seemed to appear out of nowhere at the end by staying out on old tires.  Gordon passed Edwards for second on the final lap.  Clint Bowyer finished fourth, followed by Marcos Ambrose.  (Race results)

The real story of the race was all the "boys, have at it" action going on behind Busch.  Juan Montoya played the part that Jeff Gordon played so well last year, tangling with everyone he got near.  Two incidents stand out:  On Lap 37, he tangled with Kyle Busch, shoving him off the track in Turn 11 and starting a multi-car pileup.  On Lap 104, he tried to force Brad Keselowski into the grass.  Keselowski returned the favor by spinning him out.

The first incident ended Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s day and started a feud between Tony Stewart and Brian Vickers.  Stewart pushed Vickers into the cars that were slowing in front of him, then spun him around.  Vickers got his revenge on Lap 87.  Stewart was challenging Busch for the lead when they came up on Vickers.  After Stewart went by, Vickers turned him when he slowed for Turn 11.  Stewart came to rest with his rear end up on the tire barrier.

Montoya also tangled with Kasey Kahne, trying to force his way through when there really wasn't anywhere to go.  The move spun Kahne, but also cost Montoya a few spots.  Joey Logano got together with Robby Gordon early in the race, leaving Gordon to ponder doing "a Richard Childress" on the younger driver.

Edwards increased his lead in the series points standings by five; he now leads Kevin Harvick by 25 points.  Harvick rebounded from a tough day to finish ninth.  Jimmie Johnson finished seventh, but climbed two spots in the standings to third, 33 points behind Edwards.  Kurt Busch climbed three spots to fourth, 34 points out.  Kyle Busch (-37) is now fifth, followed by Matt Kenseth (-52) and Earnhardt (-65), who dropped four spots in the standings.  Clint Bowyer (-77), Gordon (-93) and Ryan Newman (-98) round out the Top 10.

Related articles

• Stewart, Vickers tangle at Infineon (msn.foxsports.com)
• WINNERS & LOSERS: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin among victims of rough race at Sonoma (scenedaily.com)

Nationwide - Sorenson Wins Wild One at Road America

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It took three green-white-checkered finishes, then it took NASCAR several minutes to review the mayhem, but they made the right call and awarded Saturday's Bucyrus 200 to Reed Sorenson.  Sorenson inherited the lead on the final lap under caution when Justin Allgaier ran out of gas on the way to the finish line.

It was Sorenson's fourth career Nationwide Series win, the first in 58 races dating back to July 2007 at Gateway International Raceway.

It was a pretty sedate road course race for most of the way.  The biggest excitement early on was the battle for the lead between Michael McDowell and Jacques Villeneuve.  But Villeneuve was penalized on a restart on Lap 25 (of 50) when he changed lanes before crossing the start/finish line. 

McDowell seemingly took the lead for good on Lap 43, passing Brian Scott and quickly pulling away from the field.  But Doug Harrington spun with four laps to go, bringing out the fourth caution of the day and setting up the first green-white-checkered finish.

Villeneuve made the bonehead move of the race on the restart, diving outside to try to get back into contention.  He got his right-side tires in the grass, then got into Scott and Max Papis, spinning them out into the gravel pits.

McDowell got a good jump on the second green-white-checkered restart, but slid off the track on Turn Five, giving the lead to Allgaier.  Moments later, he slid off again, ending any chance of winning, but starting a chain reaction wreck that brought out the caution again.

Allgaier got a good jump on the last green-white-checkered restart and took the white flag, but more bumping and banging left Aric Almirola in the gravel pit and brought out the final caution.  All Allgaier had to do was make it back around to the finish line to win, but he was out of gas and the win belonged to Sorenson.

Then there was confusion.  Apparently, Ron Fellows did not see the caution waving.  He blew past Sorenson and was still at race speed until the pace car pulled out in front of him.  Sorenson and Fellows crossed the finish line side-by-side behind the pace car.  Fellows was initially declared the winner, but NASCAR reviewed the tape and determined that Fellows had passed Sorenson after the caution came out.

Villeneuve finished third, followed by Elliott Sadler and Mike Wallace.  The race went seven laps beyond the regulation distance on the four-mile course.  (Race results)

The victory puts Sorenson back in the lead in the series points standings.  He's five points ahead of Sadler.  Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (-7) drops two spots to third after finishing eighth.  Allgaier (-34) is fourth; Jason Leffler (-73) is fifth.

Cup - Logano Takes the Pole at Sonoma

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Joey Logano grabbed the pole for Sunday's Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway.  Logano, who doesn't have much of a reputation as a road racer, turned a lap of 76.821 seconds (93.256 mph) on the 1.99-mile course.  Logano was as surprised as everyone else, "This is the last place that I figured we'd get a pole."

It was Logano's second career pole.  The other came at Bristol in March 2010.  Logano is the youngest driver (21 years, 1 month) to win a road course poll, besting Parnelli Jones (24 years, 9 months, 18 days) at Riverside in 1958.

Jamie McMurray (76.848 seconds, 93.223 mph) will start on the outside of the front row.  Paul Menard starts third, followed by Denny Hamlin and Ryan Newman. 

Tony Ave, a road race specialist substituting for Travis Kvapil in the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford, was the only driver to fail to qualify for the race.  (Race lineup)

Kurt Busch was trying to earn his fourth straight pole.  He led the first practice session, giving him the final run in qualifying, but he was a half-second off of Logano's time.  He starts eleventh.  McMurray was fastest in the second practice.  Brad Keselowski was fastest in Happy Hour.

Series points leader Carl Edwards canceled his plans to run the Nationwide Series race at Road America.  After a poor first practice and qualifying run, Edwards decided he needed the extra practice time at Infineon.  He starts 23rd Sunday.

NASCAR News

This weekend's NASCAR Cup race is at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California.  The Toyota/Save Mart 350 is one of just two road course races on the schedule.

The entry list for the race has 44 names.  Only one car is going home after qualifying Friday.

There's not much NASCAR news until the teams get to the track Thursday. 

There's a small adjustment to the 2012 schedule.  The spring race at Dover will move back to early June right after Memorial Day.  Attendance sagged when they moved the race to May, so they're moving it back.

Michigan International Speedway and ESPN have combined forces to put a race title sponsorship and media sponsorship package together for Michigan's tourism bureau.  This story is really only interesting in that it answers the question of how much money is thrown around to put one of these NASCAR races together.

But the money is nothing compared to what it takes to put on an F1 race.  The Austin city council is voting Thursday, basically signing on the dotted line to officially put on the American Grand Prix. 

It seems that a yes vote by the seven-member council would finally allow race promoters to take advantage of the money in the Texas Major Events Trust Fund.  The promoters would pay $4 million a year for ten years and get back $25 million a year for ten years to give to Bernie Ecclestone and F1 management for the privilege of holding the race.

A host of other problems are rearing their ugly heads, including the fact that Austin, Texas, a town with virtually no extra hotel rooms, has never held an event of this size before.  The latest wrinkle in the saga is that two educators and an accountant have filed a lawsuit to block payment of the subsidy to the race promoters.

NASCAR News

Joe Gibbs Racing:  It turned out just as expected -- no points penalties, but hefty monetary fines for bringing the unapproved oil pans to Michigan.  The three crew chiefs -- Mike Ford, Dave Rogers and Greg Zipadelli -- were fined $50,000 each.  The crew chief, the car chiefs and competition director Jimmy Makar were all put on probation until the end of the year.

Red Bull Racing:  The news that Red Bull was pulling out of NASCAR seems to have leaked a lot quicker than the company might have liked.  Anyway, they're searching for a buyer to keep the team going and will even throw in some sponsorship.  Whatever it takes.

Silly Season:  Carl Edwards is still the top free agent.  His decision -- to stay at Roush Fenway or move on -- will affect everyone else, but the situation at Red Bull throws a big monkey wrench into the works.  It's currently a two-car team, but Kasey Kahne is going to Hendricks next season and Brian Vickers's contract is up at the end of the season.  And what about Mark Martin...and Clint Bowyer and Danica Patrick and Juan Montoya and all the others?

It's a strange weekend coming up for the new official sport of North Carolina.  No Truck race, but the Cup and Nationwide Series are both at road courses -- just not the same one.  The Cup race is at Sonoma, California, at Infineon Raceway.  The Nationwide race is in Wisconsin at Road America.

Road courses?  Yea or nay?  I think they're fun and take a lot of driver skill.  I'd like to see maybe one more road course track on the Cup schedule, maybe even during the Chase.

NASCAR News

Some stories to check out:

• The news has leaked out that Red Bull will be leaving NASCAR at the end of the season.  It sounds like they are going to concentrate on their much more successful Formula One team.  They've had some bad luck and made some bad decisions since they've been in NASCAR, but I thought they were finally turning the corner.  Oh well.
• 
  
• Did you notice Hendrick's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day at Michigan?  Mark Martin had the best finish of the group (ninth), but that was after he ran Junior into the wall with about 15 to go.
• 
  
• Carl Edwards has become the lead spokeman for doing something about the downforce in the Cup cars.  "I'm really hoping that NASCAR will take the opportunity in 2013 to take downforce away, so the fans can see the guys race race cars and not race downforce. That would be cool."
•  
• And Fox is trying to work out an agreement with NASCAR to allow them to move some of their races to Speed.  This is probably good news unless you don't have Speed.  Eh, it probably won't happen for a couple of years anyway.

Cup -- Hamlin Outruns Kenseth at Michigan

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Denny Hamlin got out of the pits first on the final stop of the day and held off Matt Kenseth in the closing laps to win Sunday's Heluva Good! 400 at Michigan International Speedway.

Hamlin beat Kenseth to the line by 0.281 seconds for his first win of the season.  It was Hamlin's 17th career victory, putting him in a tie with Kevin Harvick, Marvin Panch and Curtis Turner for 44th on the all-time wins list.  It was Hamlin's second win at MIS.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. brought out the final caution of the afternoon on Lap 192 of 200.  His Hendrick Racing teammate Mark Martin pinched him up into the wall.  Moments later, a tire went down and Junior smacked the wall again.  He finished 21st, his worst showing of the year.

Hamlin was first out of the pits on the money stop, almost running down one of his crew members in the process.  Hamlin led the field to green with five laps to go.  Kenseth spun his tires on the restart, but got a great push from Carl Edwards allowing him to challenge Hamlin for the victory.  Hamlin's car was better on the short runs and he was able to hold Kenseth off.

Roush Fenway drivers dominated the race until Hamlin took charge at the end.  Greg Biffle led a race-high 68 laps, Edwards 39 and Kenseth 17.  Edwards had a lead of about 1 1/2 seconds when the final caution flew.  Hamlin led just eight laps.

Kyle Busch finished third for the second week in a row.  Paul Menard was fourth for his best finish of the season.  Series points leader Edwards was fifth, followed by Ryan Newman, Tony Stewart, Clint Bowyer, Mark Martin and Brian Vickers.  (Race results)

Jimmie Johnson had a rough afternoon.  He spun coming out of Turn Two on Lap 7 to bring out the first caution of the day.  He didn't hit anything, but blew three of his four tires and broke his front sway bar.  He lost two laps while his team made repairs and finished 27th.

Carl Edwards stretched his lead in the series points standings to 20.  Kevin Harvick finished 14th, but jumped two spots in the standings to second.  Earnhardt (-27) remains in third.  Kyle Busch and Johnson are fourth and fifth, both 29 points back.  They're followed by Kenseth, Kurt Busch, and Newman.  Hamlin finally cracked the Top 10 for the first time this season; he's now ninth, tied with Clint Bowyer 77 points behind Edwards.  Stewart is just one point out of the Top 10 now.

Cup -- Kurt Busch on the Pole, JGR Rules Violation at Michigan

Image by Photography by Hank via Flickr

Kurt Busch won his third pole in a row, edging David Reutimann by three one-thousandths of a second Saturday to take the pole for Sunday's Heluva Good! 400 at Michigan International Speedway.

Busch turned a lap on the two-mile track in 38.156 seconds (188.669 mph) to edge Reutimann's 38.159-second effort.  It was Busch's 15th career pole and the fourth in a row for Penske Racing.  Brad Keselowski started the streak at Charlotte in May.

Matt Kenseth will start third, followed by Brian Vickers and Regan Smith.  Series points leader Carl Edwards starts 23rd.  Tony Raines, Brian Keselowski and Mike Skinner did not make the race.  (Race lineup)


The oil pans for all three Joe Gibbs Racing cars -- those of Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano -- were confiscated by NASCAR during opening day inspection Friday.  The teams had to change out the oil pans before practice began Friday.  The confiscated parts were 25-30 pounds heavier than those normally used and could give an aerodynamic advantage by lowering the cars center of gravity.

Because the oil pans were never used in competition, NASCAR seems to be inclined to treat this as a simple case of failing to submit the part for approval.  In that case, the teams might be penalized financially, not by taking points away.

Jeff Gordon weighed in on Twitter...

All I'm going to say about Gibbs cars oil pan is that we had 100 point penalty for a flared left front fender that never went on track. #JGFri Jun 17 18:49:58 via Twitter for BlackBerry®Jeff Gordon
JeffGordonWeb

Sprint Cup Series Director John Darby explained that this would be similar to Michael Waltrip Racing using unapproved radiator mounts at Texas last year.  In that case, the crew chiefs were fined $25,000 and put on probation.

"The whole issue has absolutely nothing to do with whether the oil pans are legal or illegal," Darby said. "But, quite frankly...we never had the opportunity to make that decision.

"When we open the rulebook, we don't have to flip through pages to get back to the oil-pan section. We open the book and we stop on the first page and the very first paragraph says you've got to have stuff approved before you can use it. We don't have to make a judgment of the pan. We don't have to decide whether it's too heavy or too light. We don't have to decide if it's an aerodynamic device or not an aerodynamic device...

"The Hendrick fender flares [in 2007], every square inch of the car body, there's a drawing that supports how exactly it has to be," Darby said. "The wing mounts from Dale Earnhardt Jr [in 2007], those were an exact part that had to comply with the design drawings that were given to all the teams.

"Oil pans, the teams have flexibility to work on them with oil pickups, depths and a little bit of widths. There's some real basic parameters that surround the oil pans, but there is some leniency to work on an oil pan, much like you would have a leniency to port a cylinder head to your liking."

  Penalties will be announced Monday or Tuesday.

Nationwide -- Edwards Outruns Stenhouse at Michigan

Image via Wikipedia

Carl Edwards outran his Roush Fenway teammate Ricky Stenhouse Jr. to win Saturday's Alliance Truck Parts 250 at Michigan International Speedway.  It was Edward's fourth Nationwide Series win of the season and the 33rd of his career.

Stenhouse passed Edwards for the lead with 21 laps to go, but Edwards ran him down and the two dueled for the win in the closing laps before Edwards finally retook the lead with less than ten laps to go and pulled away for a 1.669 second victory.  Edwards led a race-high 62 (of 125) laps, including the final eight.

Stenhouse finished second to give Roush Fenway a 1-2 finish.  Kyle Busch finished third, followed by Paul Menard and Trevor Bayne.  (Race results)

Mark Martin was on pit road when the third and final caution of the day flew over Aric Almirola's spin in Turn Two.  Martin inherited the lead when the leaders else pitted during the caution, but he fell back and finished seventh.

Stenhouse took over the lead in the series points standings, two points ahead of Elliott Sadler, who finished eighth.  Reed Sorenson recovered from a early pit road commitment line violation and pass-through penalty to finish 11th, but fell from first to third in the standings, four points behind Stenhouse.  Justin Allgaier is fourth, 17 points back.  Aric Almirola and Jason Leffler are tied for fifth, 54 points behind Stenhouse.

Cup -- Penalties for Kyle Busch

Image by fdtate via Flickr

Kyle Busch's No. 18 car failed post-race inspection at Pocono Raceway.  In the past, penalties for such violations were announced on the following Tuesday, but NASCAR moved it up a day and announced Busch's penalties Monday.

The car was about 1/16th of an inch too low on the left front, violating Sections 12-1 (actions detrimental to stock car racing); 12-4-J (any determination by NASCAR officials that race equipment used in the event does not conform to NASCAR rules); and 20-12.8.1B (body height requirements - car failed to meet the minimum front car heights) of the 2011 NASCAR rule book.

Busch was docked six driver points.  Car owner Joe Gibbs was docked six owner points.  Crew chief Dave Rogers was fined $25,000.  This is the first such technical violation since NASCAR adopted a new points system at the beginning of the season.

Busch finished third in Sunday's 5-Hour Energy 500.  He remains fifth in the series points standings, now 31 points behind Carl Edwards.

MLB -- Heating Up

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Have you checked out the baseball standings lately?  Six divisions and the biggest lead heading into the middle of June is two games.  This could shape up to be a very interesting season.  I think I'm going to have to start paying more attention.

The Atlanta Braves have put together a six-game winning streak, and moved solidly into second place in the National League East, just two games behind the Phillies, who have the best record in baseball at the moment.  The Braves offense still scares me quite a bit, but it has shown some signs of life during the streak.  The Braves are winning most of these with great pitching.  They beat the Astros 4-1 Sunday; Tommy Hanson struck out 14 to get his third win in a row.  The Braves go for the four-game sweep Monday.

In the National League Central, the Brewers just completed a three-game sweep of the Cardinals to move ahead of them by a half-game.  Prince Fielder hit a 440-foot, 2-run blast for today's 4-3 win.

The Giants lead the Diamondbacks by one game in the National League West.  Arizona plays Florida Monday, then hosts a three-game set with the Giants.

The Red Sox have the best record in the American League and the biggest lead, two games over the Yankees in the East.  In the West, the Rangers have a 1 1/2 game lead over the Mariners.  The Indians have lost four in a row and now their lead in the Central is down to just percentage points over the Tigers.  And on top of all that, Derek Jeter is now just seven hits away from becoming the 28th member of the 3000-hit club.

Fasten your seatbelts!

Cup - Gordon Wins at Pocono

Image via Wikipedia

Jeff Gordon won Sunday's 5-Hour Energy 500 at Pocono Raceway.  His crew was able to get him out the pits ahead of Kurt Busch under caution on Lap 156 (of 200), then increased his lead on a later green-flag stop.  Gordon beat the elder Busch to the line by 2.965 seconds.

It was Gordon's 84th career Sprint Cup victory, tying him with Darrell Waltrip and Bobby Allison for third on the all-time wins list.  It was his second win of the season, solidifying his chances of making the Chase as at least a wild-card entry.  This is the first time since 2007 that Gordon has won multiple times in a season.  It was his fifth victory at Pocono, tying Bill Elliott for most wins at the track.

Kyle Busch was third, but his car failed post-race inspection.  It was too low in the front end.  Penalties should be announced Tuesday.  This will be the first penalty assessed under the new points system.  Jimmie Johnson was fourth; Kevin Harvick fifth.  (Race results)

Harvick tangled with Kyle Busch very early in the race, running him very low on the track on the front straightaway on the second lap, then bumping and banging with him a few laps later.  NASCAR stepped in and reminded both teams that they still had a week of probation left after their run-in at Darlington and warned them that they were being watched.  There were no further run-ins after that.

Harvick says that Busch "knows he's got one coming.  I just wanted him to think about it.   Busch said, "It's not my fight. He's trying to turn it into one."

It was a clean race.  There were just four cautions, all for debris.  Greg Biffle had the most interesting ride.  He spun coming out of Turn Three and went sideways through some traffic, past the commitment cone marking the entrance to pit road.  He didn't hit anything so the race stayed green.  Biffle pitted for four fresh tires and got back to it.

Mechanical problems were the big story of the day.  NASCAR changed the gear ratio which necessitated more shifting, adding to teams' woes.  Series points leader Carl Edward broke a valve and spent most of the day in the garage, finishing 37th, 141 laps down.  Both Stewart-Haas Racing cars, Tony Stewart's and Ryan Newman's, lost third gear.  Marcos Ambrose, Brad Keselowski and Juan Montoya also had transmission problems.

Denny Hamlin had a strong race car.  He led a race-high 76 laps and appeared to be on his way to his fifth win at the track.  But bad luck found him again, a common theme this season.  On a caution-flag stop on Lap 156, something sheared off the valve stem on his left rear tire.  He had to come all the way back around to change it and was mired back in the field.  A part of the shredded tire got wrapped around the brake lines, leaving Hamlin without brakes late in the race.  He finished a disappointing 19th.

The top seven positions in the series points standings remained the same, but Edwards's lead over Johnson shrank by 34 points.  Johnson is just six points behind now.  Dale Earnhardt Jr. (-10), Harvick (-11), and Kyle Busch (-25) round out the Top 5.  Kurt Busch is sixth, followed by Matt Kenseth, Clint Bowyer, Stewart and Newman.  Gordon moves up two spots to eleventh, just six points behind Stewart and Newman.

From the Twitter Machine

The 11 guys pulled this off the rear end housing. http://twitpic.com/5aqebuSun Jun 12 21:04:38 via Seesmic for AndroidMarty Smith
MartySmithESPN

24 HEURES DU MANS 2011

24 HEURES DU MANS 2011, a photo by geoffroy.barre on Flickr.

Wow! An amazing photo from the 24 Hours of Le Mans. They were very lucky that no one was seriously hurt in the car or in the photographers' area.

Trucks -- Black Flag Gives Hornaday a Texas Win

Image via Wikipedia

Ron Hornaday won the WinStar World Casino 400k at Texas Motor Speedway Friday night when Johnny Sauter was black-flagged for changing lanes on the final restart.

Sauter took the lead from Hornaday on Lap 130 (of a scheduled 167), but was penalized for moving down in front of Hornaday on a green-white-checkered restart before crossing the start/finish line.  Both Sauter and Hornaday spun their tires on the restart.  Sauter finished ahead of the field, but was shown the black flag at the stripe; he was scored with a 22nd-place finish, the last car on the lead lap.  Sauter later contended that he left Hornaday a lane to race in, but doesn't have much of a case.

It was Hornaday's 48th career Camping World Truck Series win, the first of the season, and his third at the track.  The race went one lap beyond the scheduled distance.

Since this week's Cup race is 1500 miles away in Pocono, this was a exclusively a Truck Series regular affair.  Rookie Parker Klingerman, making just his tenth career series start, finished second.  David Mayhew was third for a new career-best finish.  Brian Ickler recovered from a spin of Lap 50 that put him a lap down to finish fourth in his first start of the season.  Rookie Joey Coulter was fifth, matching his career-best finish set last week at Kansas.  (Race results)

Sauter still managed to increase his lead in the series points standings by eight points.  He now leads Cole Whitt, who finished 28th, by 20 points.  Hornaday (-33) jumped three spots into third, followed by Austin Dillon (-35) and Matt Crafton (-41).

The Fight or Altercation or Whatever It Was

If you're a NASCAR fan, you're probably aware that there was an altercation between Richard Childress and Kyle Busch after Saturday's Truck race. I was trying to wait to say anything about it until I knew more about what happened. Finally, it looks like some facts are coming out.

Busch, who owns his own Truck team, was racing hard for fifth position with Joey Coulter, who was driving a Childress-owned truck. Coulter won the position, finishing ahead of Busch. On the cooldown lap, Busch pulled alongside Coulter and their trucks bumped.

It may or may not have been a congratulatory tap; Busch claims it was, several stories on the incident have said that Busch was showing his displeasure but I've haven't heard anything to see how they draw that conclusion. In any case, that kind of bumping is quite common on cooldown laps.

But Childress didn't like it.  He and Busch have had several disagreements over Busch damaging RCR equipment.  There has been some history between Busch and RCR drivers, most recently at Darlington with the pit road/unattended car incident.  After Saturday's Truck race, the 65-year-old Childress put the 26-year-old Busch in a headlock and punched him three times.

NASCAR president Mike Helton gave a statement Sunday morning in which he cleared Busch of any wrongdoing:  "We've concluded that the driver of the No. 18 truck, Kyle Busch, did nothing to provoke or to cause the reactions that, in our opinion, would have violated probation.  He did nothing that would have warranted the actions of Richard Childress."

Childress was not ejected from the track, but his movements were restricted during Sunday's STP 400.  He was not allowed on pit road.  It looks like more penalties might be forthcoming.  NASCAR met with Busch, Childress, and Joe Gibbs, the owner of Busch's Cup car, then issued a harsher statement than the earlier Helton statement, including...

"Richard Childress' actions were not appropriate and fell far short of the standard we expect of owners in this sport. We have met with Childress this morning and made our position very clear to him. Further, we expect he will make it clear to all in his organization to ensure this situation does not escalate any further. We will announce our actions [in] regard [to] this incident Monday.

"Kyle Busch remains on probation with NASCAR, and we continue to watch his actions carefully. However, we have determined that Kyle's involvement in this incident does not violate his probation, and no further action is required."

Busch and RCR driver Kevin Harvick are on probation until June 15 for the incident at Darlington.

From the Twitter Thingy

Jimmie Johnson, a few hours after the race...

Man... came home to a house with no power. Tonight should be fun.Mon Jun 06 00:21:46 via Twitter for AndroidJimmie Johnson
JimmieJohnson

A little later, there was this...

Yes the power bill has been paid (Haha) and I have my gen up and running now. We have a few things working... my beer is cold so I'm happy.Mon Jun 06 00:57:55 via Twitter for AndroidJimmie Johnson
JimmieJohnson

Cup -- Keselowski's Fuel Strategy Pays Off at Kansas

Image via Wikipedia

Brad Keselowski's fuel strategy paid off with a win in Sunday's STP 400 at Kansas Speedway.  Keselowski got 57 laps out of his final tank of gas and finished 2.813 seconds ahead of Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Just like last week's Sprint Cup race at Charlotte, a long green flag run at the end made it a fuel mileage race.  And also like last week, Earnhardt came up on the wrong end of the fuel strategy game.  Junior ran out of gas on the way to the win at Charlotte and coasted home with in seventh place.  This week, he finished second waiting for Keselowski to run out.

It was Keselowski's second Cup win; he got his first win at Talladega in April 2009, sixty races ago.  His previous best finish at Kansas Speedway was 13th in 2009.

Earnhardt should have had enough gas to move up and put some pressure on Keselowski.  Earnhardt made his last stop on Lap 215, five laps later than Keselowski.  But he was in fuel conservation mode at the end and didn't try to force the issue.  The same was true of  Denny Hamlin, who, like Earnhardt, also ran out of gas at Charlotte.  Hamlin also had to conserve at the end and finished third.

Jeff Gordon finished fourth.  Carl Edwards was fifth.  They were the top finishers among those that had to top off with gas in the closing laps.  (Race results) 

Tony Stewart appeared to have the winning strategy.  He pitted on the same lap as Keselowski and had a big lead, but his crew finally decided they didn't get enough gas in the car.  He pitted for a splash in the closing laps and finished eighth.

Polesitter Kurt Busch dominated, leading 152 of the 267 laps, including most of the latter stage of the race.  He didn't get the caution he was looking for, and his final splash of gas gave him a ninth-place finish.

Edwards's lead in the series points standings got four points larger.  He now leads Jimmie Johnson by 40 points.  Earnhardt moved into third place, just one point behind Johnson.  After an eleventh-place finish, Kevin Harvick dropped two spots to fourth, 43 points behind Edwards.  Kyle Busch is fifth, 60 points back.

Kurt Busch, Matt Kenseth, Tony Stewart, Clint Bowyer and Ryan Newman round out the Top Ten.  Hamlin is eleventh, just one point behind Newman, and Greg Biffle is just five points out.  Jeff Gordon could claim one wildcard spot in the Chase.  Keselowski is now seven points behind Paul Menard to crack the Top Twenty; if so, Sunday's win would make him eligible for the other wildcard spot.

Nationwide -- Allgaier Coasts to Victory at Chicagoland

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Justin Allgaier coasted to the win in Saturday night's STP 300 at Chicagoland Speedway, finishing 1.719 seconds ahead of Carl Edwards.  Both Allgaier and Edwards ran out of gas on the final lap, but Allgaier ran out a few seconds after Edwards and had enough momentum to coast to the stripe.

It was Allgaier's second career Nationwide Series win, and the second win of the season for a Nationwide-only driver.  It was Allgaier's first win at Chicagoland, the hometown track for the Riverton, Illinois, native.

With a long green run at the end, fuel became an issue for a lot of the field.  Carl Edwards dominated the race, leading 144 of the 200 laps, but it appeared to be a two-car race with Edwards battling Elliott Sadler for most of the final quarter of the race.  Edwards finally got around Sadler and led 24 of the final 25 laps.  Allgaier was running a distant third, but was slowly reeling in the leaders as the laps wound down.  Sadler had to pit with a tire going down with just six laps to go, ending his hopes for a victory.

As they began the final lap, Allgaier was close behind Edwards.  Edwards ran out of gas as they were going into Turn Three.  Allgaier swerved around him, then ran about 100 yards further before running of of gas himself.

Trevor Bayne, who made his return to the track after a six-race layoff due to a mysterious illness, finished third, the first car still under power.  After the race, he lamented that maybe his team had tried to conserve too much gas at the end.  If they had run a little harder sooner they might have been able to take advantage of the race leaders running out of gas in front of them.  Aric Almirola finished fourth, Jason Leffler fifth.  Allgaier, Bayne, Almirola and Leffler all scored their highest Nationwide finishes of the season.  (Race results)

The tire going down cost Sadler the lead in the series points standings.  Reed Sorenson, who finished sixth, moved ahead of Sadler, who finished 11th, by two points.  Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (-6) is now third, followed by Allgaier (-11) and Almirola (-46).

Trucks -- Bowyer Dominates at Kansas

Image via Wikipedia

Kansas native Clint Bowyer dominated Saturday's O'Reilly Auto Parts 250 at Kansas Speedway.  Bowyer led 124 (of 167) laps and cruised to a 1.695-second victory over Johnny Sauter.

Bowyer picked up his third career victory in just his eleventh start in the Camping World Truck Series.  It was his first start at Kansas Speedway.  It was his first victory in front of his hometown crowd in any NASCAR national series.  He has two second place finishes at the track -- one in the 2007 Cup race and one in the 2008 Nationwide race.

Bowyer's only real snag occurred on a restart on Lap 112.  Bowyer pitted and took four tires and enough fuel to finish the race.  With the cars that stayed out and those that took just two tires, Bowyer was mired back in 11th position on the restart, but he moved quickly through the traffic and regained the lead on Lap 122.

Bowyer led the final 46 laps.  He briefly battled for the lead with Sauter on the final restart on Lap 138 before pulling away to the easy victory.

Todd Bodine finished third, followed by James Buescher and Joey Coulter.  (Race results)

Sauter takes over the lead in the series points standings after Cole Whitt's 15th-place finish.  Sauter leads Whitt by 12 points.  Austin Dillon (-30), who finished 12th, moved ahead of Matt Crafton (-32) to take over the third spot.  Timothy Peters (-47) rounds out the Top Five.

A Qualifying Tweek

NASCAR is still fine-tuning the new rules on qualifying order.  On Tuesday they announced a change for the Nationwide and Truck Series effective this weekend.

The order teams qualified used to be set by a random draw.  At the start of the season, NASCAR changed the rules, setting the qualifying order by practice speeds with the slowest cars going out first.  The cars were split into two groups -- the cars that were locked into the race qualified before the go-or-go-homers.  Now, in the Nationwide and Truck Series, starting this weekend at Chicagoland and Kansas respectively, the entire field will be sorted for qualifying based on practice speeds.

Update:  NASCAR later announced that the Sprint Cup Series will also make the change, but it won't happen until next weekend at Pocono.

Tweet of the Week

I hope we can keep it a while! RT @JimmieJohnson: Hey @KevinHarvick, can I have my horseshoe back? Please?Tue May 31 00:11:51 via Seesmic for AndroidKevin Harvick
KevinHarvick

Hope you can follow Twitterese.

Cup -- Harvick Snatches an Improbable Win

Image via Wikipedia

There was no way NASCAR was going to top what happened today at Indy, right?  I don't know; they might have pulled it off. 

Kevin Harvick came out of nowhere to win Sunday night's Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway when Dale Earnhardt Jr. ran out of gas the last time down the backstretch.

Just like Indy, it came down to fuel mileage.  A lot of cars were running low on gas, and then there's a green-white-checkered finish to push the issue further.  Earnhardt and Kasey Kahne were on the front row for the final restart, both a long time past the last win and both running on fumes.  Kahne ran out of gas on the restart, stacking up traffic behind him.  There were a few cars sliding around and going in the grass, but nobody was hitting much of anything so NASCAR kept it green. 

Harvick dove down low around the jam and was suddenly in third.  Ahead of him was Denny Hamlin who was trying to chase down Earnhardt.  Earnhardt was about a half-mile from breaking a 104-race winning drought.  Then, coming down the backstretch for the last time, Earnhardt was suddenly out of gas; Hamlin too, and Harvick scooted by both of them to grab the win.  "We'll take them any way we can get them," Harvick said on the radio after the win.

David Ragan finished second, followed by Joey Logano, Kurt Busch and A. J. Allmendinger.  Earnhardt coasted home seventh, Hamlin tenth.  (Race results)

It looked like Greg Biffle might be headed for a classic Coke 600 victory.  His car was junk and the problems were mounting during the day, but when night fell the car came to him and he was gone.  But when Jimmie Johnson's engine blew to bring out the final caution with four laps to go, Biffle couldn't go the extra distance and pitted for gas just before the race went green again.  During the caution, Harvick got a gas-saving push from his RCR teammates Clint Bowyer and Paul Menard.  The green-white-checkered restart extended the race two laps past the regulation 400-lap distance.

Carl Edwards finished 16th, but extended his points lead to 36.  Harvick moved up three spots to second.  Johnson finished 28th and fell to third, 37 points back.  Earnhardt remains fourth, 43 points back.  Kyle Busch dropped two spots to fifth, 53 points back.  Kurt Busch, Matt Kenseth, Clint Bowyer, Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman round out the top 10.  (Points standings)