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 - Gordon Wins at Pocono

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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.

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NASCAR: NSCS -- Martinsville: Tums Fast Relief 500 Results

Image by Hans J E via FlickrDenny Hamlin rallied to pick up his third straight Sprint Cup Series win at Martinsville Sunday in the Tums Fast Relief 500, Kevin Harvick finished a surprising third, and we're left with the closest points battle with four races to go in the history of the Chase format.  And the true wild-card race in the Chase, Talladega, is up next.

The final 98 laps (of 500) were run under green, a benefit to Hamlin whose car was much better on long runs.  On the final restart on Lap 402, Harvick led the field to green with Jeff Burton second and Hamlin third.  Hamlin got around Burton on Lap 453, then battled Harvick side-by-side for several laps before finally taking the lead for good on Lap 471.

Hamlin started on the pole and led the first ten laps until he was passed by Marcos Ambrose.  By the first caution 47 laps in, Hamlin had faded to 12th.  But the crew kept working and the track finally came to Hamlin.  He beat Mark Martin to the finish by 2.318 seconds.  It was Hamlin's 15th career Cup win, his series-leading seventh of the year, and his fourth at Martinsville, including the last three in a row.

Martin's day started out bad, then got much worse before he put on a furious rally at the end to finish second.  By Lap 30, Martin was overheating his brakes and had to baby them the rest of the way.  On Lap 226, he spun, backing into the wall and doing considerable damage to his car.  He fell two laps down and was 18th on the final restart before rallying to a runnerup finish.  He was coming hard at the end and might have won if the race had gone ten laps more.  Martin said adjustments didn't make much of a difference. "I think the race track just came to us. We had a good setup in the car for the race track when it was rubbered up in the second half of the race."

Harvick, whose previous best at the track was a seventh-place finish, was expected to lose ground in the points battle.  His 36th-place start also added to those predictions.  But he quickly moved up through the field.  By that first caution on Lap 47, he was in ninth, three spots ahead of Hamlin.  He stayed near the front for the rest of the race and led most of that last long green flag run until Hamlin and Martin passed him in the closing laps.  Harvick also benefited from a crew swap with Clint Bowyer before the race.

After a long, multi-lap battle, Kyle Busch pulled ahead of Johnson in the closing laps to finish fourth.  Johnson, whose car was much better on short runs, held on for fifth, followed by Joey Logano.  Dale Earnhardt Jr. led 90 laps around the midpoint of the race and finished seventh for just his second top 10 in the last 14 races.  Carl Edwards, Jeff Burton and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top 10.

Burton led a race-high 134 laps before fading at the end.  After a restart on Lap 364, he got into an on-track feud with Harvick, his RCR teammate.  Burton was running on the outside and attempted to cut down in front of Harvick.  Harvick cut him off, then accused Burton of cutting him off.  Over the radio, he also accused Burton of doing the same thing at Indy and Loudon.  A short time later, during another caution, Harvick bumped doors with Burton.  For his part, Burton was perplexed:  "I have no clue what he could possibly be upset about.  I cleared him and turned to the bottom the same way he cleared me on the restart and turned to the bottom.  It's Martinsville, that's what you do."  Calmer heads eventually prevailed, and Harvick dismissed the dustup in his postrace press conference:  "We were just racing."

Another on-track incident put the final dagger in Jeff Gordon's fading championship hopes.  On Lap 384, Gordon was trying to nose ahead of Kurt Busch going into Turn Three.  He came in too hot and the two got together.  Gordon tapped Busch.  Busch got loose and Gordon went around him.  But Busch accelerated and caught Gordon coming out of Four.  He hooked him and spun him down the frontstretch.  Gordon lost a lap as his crew tried to repair the damage.  He got the lap back, but lost two more on the final green flag run as his damaged car struggled to keep up.  Gordon got inside of Busch again in the closing laps and pushed him up the track.  Busch lost one spot as a result and finished 16th.  Gordon finished 20th.

Other Chase drivers:  Matt Kenseth finished 15th, Tony Stewart 24th, Greg Biffle 33rd, and Clint Bowyer 38th.  (Race results)

The top three in the points standings have tightened up with Johnson's lead over Hamlin down to just six points.  Harvick gained 15 points on Johnson and is now just 62 points behind.  Although no one has been eliminated yet, it really is a three-man race with just four races remaining.  With his fourth-place finish, Kyle Busch moved into fourth in the standings, 172 points back.  Gordon dropped to fifth, 203 points behind Johnson.

NASCAR: Martinsville Preview

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All three of NASCAR's national series are in action this weekend.  Saturday's Nationwide Series race, the 5-Hour Energy 250 (3 p.m. ET, ESPN2), is at Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Illinois.  The other two races -- Saturday's Camping World Truck Series race, the Kroger 200 (12:30 p.m., Speed), and Sunday's Sprint Cup race, the Tums Fast Relief 500 (1 p.m., ESPN) are at Martinsville Speedway in Martinsville, Virginia.

Sunday's Cup race is the sixth in the ten-race Chase for the Sprint Cup, and going in it's looking like a three-man race for the title.  Jimmie Johnson leads Denny Hamlin by 41 points with Kevin Harvick in third, 77 points out.  Several other drivers still have a shot, but will need a lot of luck between now and the end of the season.  Jeff Gordon (-156) is fourth, followed by Kyle Busch and Tony Stewart, both tied at 177 points out.  (Points standings)

Johnson and Hamlin have combined to win the past eight races at Martinsville.  Hamlin won three of them including the past two.  Gordon leads all active drivers with seven wins at the track, but hasn't won since sweeping both races in 2005.  Johnson is right behind him with six Martinsville wins.  They both have a long way to go to match the King's record; Richard Petty has 15 wins there.

Hamlin started the weekend off right by winning the pole for Sunday's race.  In Friday qualifying he turned a lap of 19.518 seconds (97.018 mph), edging Marcos Ambrose for the pole by just 0.003 seconds.  Greg Biffle qualified third, followed by Ryan Newman and Juan Montoya.  Montoya's lap was just 0.012 seconds slower than Hamlin's.

In addition to Hamlin and Biffle, only two other Chasers -- Tony Stewart, sixth, and Carl Edwards, seventh -- qualified in the top ten.  Gordon starts 11th, Clint Bowyer 17th, Jeff Burton 18th, Johnson 19th, Kyle Busch 26th, Kurt Busch 29th, and Matt Kenseth 32nd.  Harvick has his work cut out for him; he starts 36th.
Michael McDowell, Robby Gordon, Terry Cook and Johnny Sauter failed to qualify for the 43-car field.  (Race lineup)

Martinsville Speedway is one of the oldest NASCAR tracks.  It was on the schedule in the inaugural season of 1949, and is the only track to be on the schedule every year since.  At just 0.526 miles, it's also the shortest track, but it packs a lot of excitement in a small package.  Drag race down one 800-foot straightaway, make a sharp left around a tight turn with almost no banking, then drag race down the other straightaway to another sharp turn.  Repeat for 500 laps or until something, usually brakes, fails.

Saturday's Nationwide race will probably be the last NASCAR race at Gateway.   Dover Motorsports, which owns the track, asked for it not to be included on the 2011 Nationwide and Truck Series schedules.  It is uncertain if they are trying to sell it or will simply shut it down.

Barring a rainout or some other unforeseen event, Brad Keselowski and Carl Edwards will miss the drivers' meeting and have to start at the rear of the field.  They will be spending most of the weekend at Martinsville and will probably show up at Gateway just long enough to jump in their cars and run the race.  Keselowski leads Edwards by 450 points and can clinch the Nationwide Series championship if he gains 136 points on Edwards Saturday.  Keselowski will win the championship if he averages a 26th-place finish in the four remaining races.   Brandon McReynolds and Brad Sweet will be making their Nationwide debuts at Gateway.

Todd Bodine has a commanding 262-point lead over Aric Almirola with five Camping World Truck Series races remaining.  Amber and Angela Cope will be making their Truck Series debuts at Martinsville.  The 27-year-old nieces of Derrike Cope will be the first twins to compete in the same race in any of the three national NASCAR series.

NASCAR: Kansas Preview

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The Camping World Truck Series is idle until October 23, so there are just two races on the schedule this weekend -- both at Kansas Speedway, just outside of Kansas City, Kansas.  The Nationwide Series race, the Kansas Lottery 300, takes place Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. ET (ESPN2).  The Sprint Cup race, the Price Chopper 400 presented by Kraft Foods, kicks off Sunday at 1 p.m. ET (ESPN).

The Cup race is the third in the ten-race Chase for the Sprint Cup.  After his dominating win last week at Dover, Jimmie Johnson seems like the odds-on favorite to win his fifth straight Cup championship, but he still trails Denny Hamlin by 35 points.  And six other drivers are still within 83 points of the lead, so a lot can happen between now and Homestead in November.

Two points to keep in mind:  since the Chase format began, no driver who has led in the points after two races has gone on to win the championship, but no driver has ever had as big a lead as Hamlin after two races.

Greg Biffle (-140), Tony Stewart (-162), Matt Kenseth (-165) and Clint Bowyer (-235) are technically still alive for the championship, but on life support.

Bowyer, who had his 150-point penalty upheld Wednesday after failing inspection at the R&D Center after his win at Loudon, still has one final appeal left with NASCAR chief appellate officer John Middlebrook.  Bowyer is convinced that he has no chance of winning that final appeal and therefore has no chance of winning the championship this year.  He is vowing to help his RCR teammates Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton, and might end up doing a little research and development on the track for them.  Meanwhile, an analyst who testified for RCR at Wednesday's appeal showed that the wrecker that pushed Bowyer to Victory Lane could have caused the inspection violation.  Dr. Charles Manning of Accident Reconstruction Analysis called NASCAR's arguments against his analysis "a bunch of malarkey."

It will be an all-Richard Petty Motorsports front row Sunday.  Kasey Kahne turned a lap in 30.920 seconds (174.644 mph) in Friday's qualifying session to grab the pole.  His RPM teammate Paul Menard will start in the second spot after his lap of 30.951 seconds.  It will be the first time two Petty cars will lead the field to green.  It's the 19th pole in Kahne's career and his third for the season, tying Jamie McMurray for the series lead.

Jeff Gordon starts third, followed by Joey Logano and Greg Biffle.  Only four Chasers start in the top 10 -- in addition to Gordon and Biffle, Kenseth starts eighth, and Kurt Busch starts ninth.   Hamlin starts 12th, Stewart 14th, Kyle Busch 19th, Johnson 21st, Burton 23rd, Harvick 24th, Bowyer 27th and Carl Edwards 31st.

Joe Nemechek, Mike Bliss and Jason Leffler failed to qualify for the 43-car field.  (Race lineup)

Kansas Speedway is a 1.5-mile, D-shaped tri-oval.  There are several tracks of differing sizes with a very similar layout on the Cup circuit.  When the track first opened, the racing was fairly boring because drivers could only run in one groove and it was so hard to pass.  As the surface has aged, the track has become multi-grooved and the passing is much easier.  There have only been nine Cup races at Kansas Speedway.  Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart lead all drivers with two wins each. 

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NASCAR: NSCS -- Dover: AAA 400 Results

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Jimmie Johnson took a big step towards his fifth straight Sprint Cup championship this weekend at Dover.  Johnson won the pole, led five times for a race-high 191 (of 400) laps and beat Jeff Burton to the finish line by 2.637 seconds.

It was Johnson's sixth career win at Dover, most among active drivers, and his third victory in the last four races at the track.  It was Johnson's sixth win of the season and the 53rd of his career.  Johnson has now won 19 of the 62 Chase races he has been in.

Johnson passed Kyle Busch for the lead on Lap 337 and held it until a green flag pit stop on Lap 363.  After the field cycled through stops, Johnson was back in the lead again and pulled away for the win.


Five of the top 6 finishers were Chase drivers.  Kurt Busch overcame a speeding penalty to finish fourth, followed by Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch.  Joey Logano finished third to break up the streak.  (Race results)

A. J. Allmendinger seemed to be the only driver who could compete with Johnson.  He started second and led three times for a career-high 146 laps, but a flat tire put him two laps down.  He rallied to a tenth-place finish.

How quickly the tide can turn in NASCAR.  Last week at Loudon, Tony Stewart and Clint Bowyer were running 1-2 in the closing laps and looked like strong Chase contenders.  Stewart ran out of gas just before taking the white flag and fell to 24th.  Bowyer won, but was penalized 150 points when his car failed inspection.  At Dover, the misfortunes continued.  Both drivers were caught speeding on pit road and couldn't make up their laps.  Stewart finished 21st; Bowyer 25th.  Now, both drivers are virtually out of the title hunt.

Matt Kenseth got on the brakes too hard trying to get on pit road and blew a tire.  He finished 18th.  After his second mediocre finish in two Chase races, his title hopes are just about done too.  His Roush teammate Greg Biffle finished just behind him in 19th.  He was on pit road when a caution came out and lost a lap as a result.

Jeff Gordon had a good run, but lost a lot of time on the final pit stop when a tire changer dropped a lug nut.  His car was too loose at the end, and he fell back to finish eleventh.  Kevin Harvick also had handling problems at the end and finished 15th.

Denny Hamlin was quite satisfied with a ninth-place finish at one of his worst tracks.  That allowed him to hang on to the series lead in the points standings.  Johnson moved up four spots to second, 35 points back.  Kyle Busch remains in third, 45 points back.  Kurt Busch (-59) climbed one spot to fourth.  Harvick (-65) dropped three spots to fifth.  The top eight -- including Edwards, Burton and Gordon -- are within 83 points of Hamlin.

Hamlin had an eventful few days at Dover.  He made quite a few disparaging comments about Richard Childress Racing to the media Friday regarding Clint Bowyer's penalty and the excuses offered up.  Harvick took exception and purposefully ran into Hamlin during a practice session Saturday.  Both drivers took their cars to the garage to bang out the sheet metal.  Since they were 1-2 in points at the time, they had side-by-side stalls in the garage and took the opportunity to air out their differences in a little shouting match.  JGR president J. D. Gibbs later told Hamlin something along the lines of "The next time you have a thought, keep it to yourself."

Meanwhile, RCR's appeal of the penalties is set for Wednesday.  The numbers are not on their side.  There have been 132 appeals since 1999.  88 were upheld, and only 42 were reduced or overturned.  In two cases, the penalties were increased.  No penalties have been overturned in six appeals this season.  If RCR loses the appeal they can make one final appeal to the NASCAR chief appellate officer, John Middlebrook.

NASCAR: Dover Preview

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeAll three of NASCAR's national touring series are in action the next two days, with two of the three races at Dover International Speedway.

First up is the Nationwide Series; they're in Dover Saturday afternoon (3 p.m. ET, ESPN2) for the Dover 200.  The Camping World Truck Series race is the second half of the Saturday doubleheader.  They're on the other side of the country in Las Vegas for the Smith's Food and Drug Stores 350 (9 p.m. ET, Speed).  The main event is Sunday's Sprint Cup race, the AAA 400 (1 p.m. ET, ESPN), back at Dover.  It's the second race in the ten-race Chase for the Sprint Cup.

After a dismal 25th place showing in last weekend's race at Loudon, Jimmie Johnson took a positive step toward his fifth consecutive championship by capturing the pole for Sunday's race.  Johnson turned a lap in 23.116 seconds (156.736 mph) to edge A. J. Allmendinger, who ran a qualifying lap of 23.130 seconds.  Mark Martin initially qualified third, but his lap was disallowed after inspection when the gas pressure in his right rear shock was found to be too high.  Martin will start 42nd.  Martin Truex Jr. starts third, followed by Denny Hamlin and Juan Montoya.

It was the 25th pole of Johnson's career, the third at Dover and the second of the season.  Johnson leads all active drivers with five wins at the track.

Other Chasers:  Greg Biffle starts sixth, Kurt Busch eighth, Carl Edwards tenth, Kyle Busch 11th, Matt Kenseth 14th, Jeff Gordon 15th, Clint Bowyer 24th, Tony Stewart 25th, Jeff Burton 27th and Kevin Harvick 33rd.

Jeff Green, Josh Wise and Ted Musgrave failed to qualify for the race.  (Race lineup)

Dover International Speedway is also known as the Monster Mile, and for good reason.  It's a mile-long concrete oval with high banking (24 degrees in the turns and nine degrees on the straightaways).  That translates into a lot of speed, but the track is very narrow, leaving drivers nowhere to go if (when) something happens in front of them.  It should be exciting.

After Clint Bowyer's 150-point penalty dropped him from second to twelfth in the points standings, Denny Hamlin now has a  45-point lead over the new second place guy, Kevin Harvick.  Hamlin finished fourth back in the May race, but doesn't usually do too well at Dover.  In fact, other than Daytona, Dover is Hamlin's worst track in terms of average finish.  His 22.8 is the worst among all Chasers.  But he was feeling cocky enough to get into a war of words with Richard Childress over Bowyer's rules violation.

Danica Patrick returns to NASCAR for Saturday's Nationwide race.  She got some valuable seat time at Dover in today's K&N Pro Series East race where she finished sixth.

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NASCAR: NSCS -- Richmond: Air Guard 400 Results

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Denny Hamlin put in a dominating performance at his hometown track, Richmond International Raceway, Saturday night to win the Air Guard 400 and clinch the top spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.  Hamlin led six times for a race-high 251 laps (of 400), including the final 69, and held off Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch in the closing laps.

It was Hamlin's second win at the track; he has now won consecutive September Richmond races.  It was his series-leading sixth victory of the season and the 14th of his career.

Hamlin beat Busch to the finish line by 0.537 seconds.  Jimmie Johnson finished third, followed by Joey Logano and Marcos Ambrose.  (Race results)

Greg Biffle clinched his spot in the Chase on Lap 48 when Jason Leffler retired to the garage.  That guaranteed Biffle at least 42nd place in the race, all he would need if Ryan Newman, the 13th place driver, could win and lead the most laps.  Biffle finished 32nd, five laps down.

Clint Bowyer came into the race needing to finish 28th or better to guarantee his spot in the Chase.  He started fourth, led three times for 33 laps, and finished sixth.

Newman finished eleventh and never led a lap.

All in all, it was pretty uneventful for a Richmond race -- no Chase drama and only three cautions on the night.  David Reutimann blew a tire and spun to bring out the first yellow on Lap 55.  Terry Labonte, who failed to make the race in Friday qualifying but replaced Mike Bliss in the No. 55 Prism Motorsports car, brought out the second caution when he blew a tire and hit the wall on Lap 145.  The final caution came out on Lap 226 for some light rain on the track.

The victory gives Hamlin the top seed in the Chase, putting him ten points ahead of Jimmie Johnson going into next week's race at Loudon, New Hampshire.  The points are reset now with each Chaser getting 5000 points plus ten bonus points for each victory in the "regular season."  This is the first time Hamlin has led the points standings in his career.

The Chase seedings:
1.  Denny Hamlin  5060
2.  Jimmie Johnson  -10
3.  Kevin Harvick  -30
4.  Kyle Busch  -30
5.  Kurt Busch  -40
6.  Tony Stewart  -50
7.  Greg Biffle  -50
8.  Jeff Gordon  -60
9.  Carl Edwards  -60
10. Jeff Burton  -60
11. Matt Kenseth  -60
12. Clint Bowyer  -60