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)

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.

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

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.

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: NSCS -- Charlotte: Bank of America 500 Results

Image by i heart him via FlickrJamie McMurray got by Kyle Busch on a late restart and pulled away to an easy victory in Saturday night's Bank of America 500 at Charlotte, and Jimmie Johnson added a few more points to his lead in his quest for a fifth straight championship.

McMurray got ahead of Busch coming out of Turn Two on the final restart of the night on Lap 314 (of 334) and pulled away as Busch battled Johnson for second place.  McMurray crossed the finish line 1.886 seconds ahead of Busch for his third win of the season, the sixth of his career and his second at Charlotte Motor Speedway.  It was only the 13th win by a non-Chase driver in a Chase race since the format was adopted in 2004.

The victory comes almost eight years to the day after McMurray's first career victory.  He won at Charlotte in 2002, driving in relief of Sterling Marlin, who had broken his neck in an accident two weeks earlier.

Busch, who led a race-high 217 laps was upset with the runner-up finish.  He appeared to be on his way to victory when NASCAR threw a caution for debris on Lap 308.  "I don't know what the caution was for.  You know, apparently there was a mouse that ran across the race track or something," Busch said.  Around the 100-lap mark, Busch had almost a four-second lead on Jeff Gordon when his throttle stuck.  That problem eventually resolved itself.

Early on, it looked like it might not be Jimmie Johnson's night.  He started tenth, but quickly started falling back with a loose car.  It got too loose and he spun it around coming out of Turn Two on Lap 34.  He was in the middle of traffic, but somehow managed not to hit anything or get hit.  He dropped as far back to 37th, but got up toward the front by staying out when most of the lead lap cars pitted during a caution on Lap 128.  He restarted fifth, then moved up to third through a long round of green-flag stops.  Johnson finally ran down McMurray and took the lead on Lap 189, holding it for 15 laps until Marco Ambrose spun to bring out a caution that got finally got Johnson back in sequence with everyone else.  He was quite happy with his third-place finish.

Denny Hamlin also had to overcome some adversity to finish fourth.   Ryan Newman got loose and pounded the wall on the second lap of the race.  Hamlin had to slam on the brakes to avoid Newman and flat spotted his tires.  After pitting for fresh rubber, he restarted in the rear of the field, but steadily worked his way up toward the front.  He finally settled into the top five, but couldn't get the adjustments he needed to challenge for the win.

Only three other Chase drivers finished in the top ten.  Greg Biffle finished fifth, Matt Kenseth sixth, and Kevin Harvick eighth.

After putting himself back in championship contention with good runs in the last two races, including a win last week at Fontana, Tony Stewart is back to long odds again.  He slowed when Newman spun on Lap 2 and got tagged in the rear by David Gilliland.  He made several pit stops to try to repair the damage, but fought an ill-handling car the rest of the night and came home 21st.

Jeff Gordon also had his share of problems.  The polesitter led the first seven laps, but fell back with a loose car.  On Lap 190, it died on him with a bad alternator.  He coasted around to the pits and lost a lap changing out the battery.  He got the lap back with the free pass on the caution for Ambrose's spin, but was never happy with the way his car was handling.  A pit road speeding penalty on the final stop of the night doomed him to a 23rd-place finish.

Kurt Busch was going for the sweep of the three Charlotte Cup races (including the Sprint All-Star Race), but he spun out on Lap 24.  He didn't hit anything, but couldn't quite get going again.  He finished 30th, worst of all the Chase drivers.

Other Chase drivers:  Carl Edwards finished 12th.  Clint Bowyer was 17th.  After a spin of his own, Jeff Burton finished 20th.  (Race results)

With his third-place finish, Johnson increased his lead over Hamlin to 41 points.  Harvick is the only other driver within 100 points of Johnson; he's 77 points down.  Gordon stayed in fourth place, but dropped 156 points down.  Kyle Busch moved up four spots in the standings to fifth.  He's now tied with Stewart, 177 points behind Johnson.  With the win McMurray moved past Newman into 13th, best of the non-Chase drivers.  (Points standings)

A pre-race stunt caused a fiery mess along the frontstretch of Charlotte Motor Speedway, but no one was injured.  Daredevil Spanky Spangler, driving an RV with "Hold my beer. Watch this" spray-painted on the side, was being chased by a police car driven by his son Bryan.  There was a series of planned explosions as the vehicles approached a jump, but the bottom of the RV caught fire and landed nose first on some junked cars near the ramps.  It took several minutes for rescue workers to pull Spanky from the RV, but he walked to an ambulance that took him to the infield care center.  He was treated and released.

NASCAR: Charlotte Preview

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A Saturday night Cup race means an accelerated schedule for the weekend.  There are two races on the weekend schedule, both at Charlotte Motor Speedway:  the Friday night Nationwide race, the Dollar General 300 (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2), and Saturday night's Bank of America 500 (7:30 p.m. ET, ABC).  The Camping World Truck Series is off yet again, but returns next weekend at Martinsville.

Saturday night's Cup race is the fifth race in the ten-race Chase for the Sprint Cup.  Jimmie Johnson increased his points lead last weekend at Fontana; he now leads Denny Hamlin by 36 points.   The contenders are now separating themselves from the pretenders.  Kevin Harvick (-54) and Jeff Gordon (-85) are the only other drivers within 100 points of the four-time champion, but Tony Stewart lurks back in fifth, just 107 points behind Johnson.  (Points standings)

Again, some bad news for those trying to catch Johnson:  we're in the middle of a string of Johnson's best tracks.  Johnson leads all active drivers with six wins at Charlotte Motor Speedway.  His next win at CMS will move him ahead of Bobby Allison and Darryl Waltrip, making him the all-time winner at the track.

Jeff Gordon captured the pole for Saturday night's race in a rare Thursday qualifying session.  Gordon ran a lap of 28.192 seconds (191.544 mph) to edge out Carl Edwards (191.455 mph) for the top spot.  A. J. Allmendinger qualified third, followed by Mark Martin and Paul Menard.  The pole was Gordon's first in almost a year, dating back 34 races to November 2009 at Texas.  It was Gordon's eighth pole at Charlotte and the 69th of his career, tying him with Cale Yarborough for third on the all-time list.  Gordon has now won a pole in 18 consecutive seasons, tying him with Richard Petty.  David Pearson put together a streak of 20 consecutive pole-winning seasons.

Only four Chase drivers qualified in the top 10 -- Gordon, Edwards, Kyle Busch (sixth) and Johnson (tenth).  Kurt Busch, who is going for an unprecedented three-race sweep at CMS, starts 15th.  Matt Kenseth starts 17th, Jeff Burton 18th, Clint Bowyer 20th, Greg Biffle 22nd, Denny Hamlin 23rd, Kevin Harvick 24th, and Tony Stewart 29th.

Joe Nemechek, Casey Mears, Mike Bliss, Jason Leffler, Kevin Conway and Johnny Sauter failed to make the 43-car field.  (Race lineup)

Charlotte Motor Speedway is a 1.5-mile quad-oval with moderate banking -- 24 degrees in the turns and 5 degrees on the straightaway.  The 1500 feet back straightaway is the only straight part of the track; the frontstretch has little doglegs before and after the start/finish line.  Since drivers spend about two-thirds of a lap turning, downforce wins races here.

NASCAR: NSCS -- Fontana: Pepsi Max 400 Results

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Tony Stewart earned his first career victory at Auto Club Speedway, winning Sunday's Pepsi Max 400.  Jimmie Johnson began pulling away from the rest of the Chase field in the quest for his fifth straight championship.

Stewart's championship hopes were on life support after the first two Chase races.  After four, he suddenly finds himself back in contention again.  He was buried back in the field throughout the first half of the race, but his crew made the right adjustments and the car came to life in the second half.  It was Stewart's second win of the season and the 39th of his career, putting him in a 17th-place tie with Tim Flock on the all-time wins list.

The race turned on a debris caution on Lap 183 (of 200).  Paul Menard and Regan Smith took two tires and led the field to green on the restart with 13 to go.  Stewart got by Smith a lap later to take the lead, but another caution soon flew when David Ragan slid up the track and pinched Kurt Busch into the wall.  That set up a two-lap shootout and Stewart and Johnson led the field to green.  Stewart took the high line and got a good push from Clint Bowyer to keep him ahead of Johnson.  Bowyer and Johnson battled side-by-side through the final lap for second as Stewart pulled away to win by 0.466 seconds.

Bowyer won the battle and nipped Johnson at the line for second.  Kasey Kahne was fourth.  Ryan Newman was fifth.  (Race results)

After the race, Bowyer seemed disappointed with a second-place finish.  He blasted NASCAR for the debris caution, claiming that he would have won easily if the race had stayed green.

Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin and Jeff Gordon finished seventh, eighth, and ninth respectively to keep Johnson in sight in the championship hunt, but it wasn't easy for any of them.  Harvick and Gordon overcame pit road speeding penalties.  Hamlin had to start the race in the rear of the field after his crew changed his transmission after qualifying.

The rest of the Chase contenders had terrible days.  After his run-in with Ragan, Kurt Busch limped home in 21st place.  That was two spots ahead of Jeff Burton, who ran yet another lackluster race.  Kyle Busch's engine blew on Lap 155; he finished 35th.

After all their past success at Fontana, it was surprising to see the whole Roush Fenway Racing organization's title hopes go up in smoke.  Greg Biffle's engine blew just 40 laps in, giving him a 41st-place finish.  Just a few laps later, Carl Edwards lost power and had to be pushed to the garage.  The trouble was finally traced to a distributor problem and he returned to the track to finish 34th.  Matt Kenseth also had engine problems.  His car was smoking badly at the end, but he nursed it home to finish 30th.

Johnson now leads Hamlin by 36 in the points standings.  Harvick (-54) and Gordon (-85) are the only other drivers within 100 points of the four-time champion.  With his win and the other Chasers' misfortunes, Stewart climbed five spots in the standings to fifth.  He is now 107 points back with six races remaining.  Kurt Busch (-140), Edwards (-162), Burton (-177), Kyle Busch (-187), Biffle (-215), Kenseth (-241) and Bowyer (-247) round out the Chase field.

NASCAR: Fontana Preview

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This week's NASCAR action takes place in Fontana, California, at Auto Club Speedway.  There are two races on tap:  Saturday's Nationwide race, the CampingWorld.com 300 (4 p.m. ET, ESPN2) and Sunday's Sprint Cup race, the Pepsi Max 400 (3 p.m. ET, ESPN).  The Camping World Truck Series is taking yet another weekend off; they return on October 23 at Martinsville.

Sunday's Cup race is the fourth race in the ten-race Chase for the Sprint Cup.   Jimmie Johnson took over the lead in the points standings after last weekend's race at Kansas, but Denny Hamlin is just eight points behind and seven drivers are within 85 points of the four-time champ.  Jeff Burton, in ninth place, is just 101 points back.  Tony Stewart (-127) and Matt Kenseth (-149) still have faint glimmers of hope.

Clint Bowyer (-252) is just counting the days until the 2011 season after losing his final appeal of his 150-point penalty after his car failed inspection at the NASCAR R&D Center after he won the first Chase race at Loudon.  NASCAR chief appellate officer John Middlebrook did reduce the fines and suspensions for the No. 33 team though.  Crew chief Shane Wilson's fine was reduced from $150,000 to $100,000 and the suspensions of Wilson and car chief Chad Haney were lowered from six races to four.  Richard Childress Racing competition director Scott Miller will be on the pit box for Wilson beginning this weekend.

The bad news for all the drivers chasing Johnson is that Auto Club Speedway is one of his best tracks.  He leads all drivers with five wins.  Jeff Gordon and Matt Kenseth, both in the Chase, are the only other drivers with multiple wins at the track; they each have three.  Johnson is the only driver to win back-to-back races at Fontana; he won earlier in the year in February and last year's October race.

Hendrick Motorsports (nine wins) and Roush Fenway Racing (seven) have won 16 of the 20 Cup races at Fontana.  Auto Club Speedway is the only current track where Joe Gibbs Racing does not have a victory.

Jamie McMurray grabbed the pole for Sunday's race in the Friday qualifying session.  McMurray ran a lap in 38.859 seconds (185.285 mph).  It was his fourth pole of the season and the seven of his career.  Elliott Sadler grabbed the other front-row starting spot with a lap of 184.407 mph.  Kenseth starts third, the only Chaser in the top five.  Juan Montoya starts fourth, Kasey Kahne fifth.

Only two other Chasers start in the top ten -- Greg Biffle starts seventh and Johnson eighth.  Bowyer starts 13th, Jeff Burton 15th, Kyle Busch 16th, Gordon 17th, Carl Edwards 20th, Kevin Harvick 21st, Tony Stewart 22nd, Hamlin 34th, and Kurt Busch 38th.

Bobby Labonte claimed the final starting spot by using a past champion's provisional.  Mike Bliss and Patrick Carpentier failed to qualify for the 43-car field.  (Race lineup)

Auto Club Speedway is very similar to Kansas Speedway, site of last week's race.  Both are wide, multi-groove tracks with moderate banking.  Where Kansas was a 1.5-mile tri-oval, ACS is a 2-mile D-shaped oval.  Auto Club Speedway's layout is almost identical to Michigan International Speedway.  There should be a lot of side-by-side racing, but the field might get strung out as the faster cars leave the slower ones behind.  The engines run in the high rpm range all day and one or two usually don't make it out alive.  This year, in an effort to make the race more competitive, NASCAR reduced the race from 500 to 400 miles.

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NASCAR: NSCS -- Kansas: Price Chopper 400 Results

Image by fdtate via FlickrGreg Biffle cruised to victory and Jimmie Johnson took over the Chase points lead in Sunday's Price Chopper 400 at Kansas Speedway.

Biffle ran in the top 10 most of the day, but fought an ill-handling car.  After the team made some adjustments, he took off and finally grabbed the lead on Lap 188 (of 267).  That didn't last long; Jamie McMurray and Paul Menard opted for two tires on a yellow-flag stop and came out first and second.  Menard got past McMurray and soon had Biffle on his tail.  Biffle blew past Menard on the backstretch on Lap 207 (of 267).  He briefly relinquished the lead about 30 laps later to make a green-flag pit stop, but was back in front after the field cycled through stops and held it over the final 29 laps.

It was the Biff's 16th career win and his second of the season.  He joins Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart as the only two-time Cup winners at Kansas Speedway.  Biffle also picked up a $100,000 bonus from Ford Racing boss Jamie Allison.  On Saturday, Allison promised to pay the bonus to any Ford Chase driver -- Biffle, Carl Edwards, or Matt Kenseth -- who won one of the final eight races of the season.

Stewart, who was 162 points out of first coming into this race, declared Saturday, "I have dug myself a pretty big hole" and said he was in "go-for-broke" mode.  He was behind Biffle in second in the closing laps, but first Johnson, then Kevin Harvick battled their way past him.  While all that was going on, Biffle just extended his lead and beat Johnson to the finish line by 7.638 seconds.

The top seven finishers were all Chase drivers.  Harvick finished third, followed by Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth.  The other Chasers fought ill-handling cars and did not fare as well.  Denny Hamlin finished 12th.  Kurt Busch was 13th, Clint Bowyer 15th and Jeff Burton 18th. (Race results)

Kyle Busch finished 21st, worst of all the Chasers, after two on-track incidents with David Reutimann.  On Lap 52, Busch was running behind Reutimann coming out of Turn Two.  It looked like Reutimann got loose and lifted off the gas, and Busch got into his rear, spinning him into the wall.  On Lap 155, with Busch running in the top 10 and Reutimann several laps down, Reutimann pulled alongside Busch and slammed him up against the same wall.  Reutimann spun again from the contact, but did considerable damage to Busch's car.  Busch and crew chief Dave Rogers finally decided against taking the car to the garage, and just nursed it along the rest of the way to get what they could.

The first incident appeared accidental, though Busch might have just gotten impatient and decided to move Reutimann out of the way.  The second incident was clearly intentional.  It seems like there was already some bad blood between the two drivers.  After the Bristol night race in August, where the pair finished 1-2 with Busch winning, Busch said,

Reutimann was fast, and he was good, and I’m not going to say why I beat him because then he’ll fix it, but it has to do with behind the wheel...He wasn’t driving the place right. I’m sorry. If he fixes how to drive this place, he’d be right there with me.

Reutimann took exception on a radio show later that week, saying it was "the stupidest comment I've ever heard anybody say."

“I don’t know if [it was] the fact that his Superman cape was flying out the back when I was behind him and I couldn’t see or what the deal was. We got beat fair and square. That’s what it comes down to. We just got outrun. Professor Busch, maybe he can start a driving school at Bristol and the rest of the field can join in and go and [he can] show all of us what we’re doing wrong. I need help.”

Reutimann also hinted that he and Busch had had run-ins before.

“It all comes down to the fact that we just don’t like each other very much,” Reutimann said on the show. “It has been a while. We just don’t like each other, and we agree we don’t like each other and we’re both fine with it.”

In any case, on a day when most of the other Chase drivers were finishing high up on the leaderboard, the second incident took Busch out of contention and put a serious damper on his title hopes.

Wrestler Ric Flair was always fond of saying, "To be the man, you've got to beat the man," and Jimmie Johnson's No. 48 team showed why they're the men to beat Sunday.  The four-time champ was running 21st at the mid-point of the race, but the team kept working to make the car better and Johnson kept running them down for his second-place finish.

“Honestly, I drove 400 miles with my tongue hanging out – just sawing at the wheel trying to get everything I could. Very pleased to have walked that fine line and didn’t make any mistakes. My crew did the same. [Crew chief] Chad [Knaus] called a great race. We needed all those things to work together in order to get a good finish and we did that.”

Johnson's efforts were good enough to put him in first in the points standings, just eight points ahead of Hamlin, who slipped to second.  The standings are a lot tighter after this race with nine drivers within 101 points of the lead.  Harvick (-30) and Edwards (-53) jumped two spots to third and fourth respectively.  Gordon (-58) jumped three spots to fifth.  Kurt Busch (-70) dropped two spots to sixth.  Brother Kyle (-80) dropped four spots to seventh.  With the win, Biffle moved up one spot in the standings to eighth, but more importantly knocked 55 points off his deficit; he's now 85 points behind Johnson.  Burton (-101), Stewart (-127), Kenseth (-149) and Bowyer (-252) round out the Chase field.

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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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• Kasey Kahne edges teammate Paul Menard for pole at Kansas Speedway (sports.espn.go.com)
• Kansas crucial stop for foursome at bottom of Chase standings (cbssports.com)
• Bowyer says his title hopes are over (msn.foxsports.com)
• Kansas track could offer surprises (canada.com)

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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