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 -- Hamlin Outruns Kenseth at Michigan

Image by Hans J E via Flickr

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.

Nationwide -- Charlotte Results

Image by fdtate via Flickr

Matt Kenseth out-dueled Carl Edwards to win Saturday's Top Gear 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.  It was Kenseth's first Nationwide Series start this year, and his first in the new Nationwide car.

The race became a battle between Kenseth, Edwards and Kyle Busch, but the two Fords quickly pulled away after the final restart on Lap 154, leaving Busch to settle for third.  Kenseth, filling in for Trevor Bayne, passed Edwards on Lap 197 (of 200) and pulled away to win by 0.763 as Edwards ran out of gas coming to the finish line.  Roush Fenway Fords have now finished 1-2 in the last two Nationwide races -- a first for the team in the series.  Polesitter Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished fourth to give the team three of the top four finishes.  Reed Sorenson finished fifth.  (Race results)

Bayne, the 2011 Daytona 500 winner, now seems to be fully recovered from the mysterious illness that sidelined him since April 23.  The team set him down for one more week as a precaution, and he's expected to be back on the track for next weekend's race at Chicagoland Speedway.  Stenhouse will make his Sprint Cup debut tomorrow subbing for Bayne in the Coca-Cola 600 in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford.

Kimi Raikkonen made his Nationwide Series debut.  It was not a success.  An ill-handling car, a pit road speeding penalty and damage to the front splitter combined to give Raikkonen a 27th-place finish.

Elliott Sadler, who finished tenth, saw his series points lead shrink to just a single point over Stenhouse.  Sorenson is just two points back.  (Standings)