Rain played a large part in pretty much anything NASCAR tried to accomplish this weekend, and Sunday’s race at Pocono was no different. It was also one of the more interesting weekends in Carl Edwards’ professional racing career, that’s for sure. He had to squeegee the rain off his own windshield under caution during Saturday’s Nationwide Series race in Montreal (in which he finished 6th). Then, after both of the Sprint Cup practice sessions were rained out on Saturday, his team unloaded off the hauler on Sunday with a car that Crew Chief, Bob Osbourne, described as “experimental.” Then, they …read more

served by picapp.com
Indianapolis Motor Speedway (aka: the Brickyard) is home of the Indianapolis 500 and is highly regarded as one of the most prestigious tracks in all of motorsports. After taking a week off, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series will now return to the Brickyard for the fifteenth time in a race whose prestige to NASCAR regulars is rivaled only by the season opening Daytona 500. In the previous 14 trips to the track, Indianapolis has produced only three multiple winners in NASCAR, and only two of them will be in the field on Sunday – Jeff Gordon (4 wins) and …read more

Recent Winners:
2007 – Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards
2006 – Matt Kenseth, Kasey Kahne
2005 – Jeremy Mayfield, Greg Biffle
Recent Pole Winners:
2007 – Jeff Gordon, JJ Yeley
2006 – Jeff Burton, Kasey Kahne
2005 – Joe Nemecheck, Ryan Newman
Best Driver Ratings (from racingone.com):
1. Carl Edwards – 112.3
2. Kurt Busch – 106.8
3. Greg Biffle – 105.4
4. Jimmie Johnson - 104.7
5. Matt Kenseth – 104.1
Best Average Finishes (from racingone.com):
1. Carl Edwards – 7.3
2. Matt Kenseth – 9.7
3. Denny Hamlin – 10.0
4. Jeff Gordon – 12.5
5. Martin Truex Jr – 12.5
Most Wins – David Pearson (9)
Most Wins (Active) – Bobby LaBonte (3)
Most Poles – David Pearson (10)
Most Poles (Active) …read more

Image details: Pocono 500 Qualifying served by picapp.com
For the second time in his Sprint Cup career, Kasey Kahne has turned the quickest qualifying lap at Pocono, thus earning himself the Coors Lite Pole Award. His first pole position at Pocono came back in 2004 when he set the track qualifying record at 172.533 mph. The lap he turned on Friday afternoon was about 2 mph slower and took 52.873 seconds, but it got the job done, nonetheless, and he will start Sunday’s Pocono 500 from the inside of row 1.
Jimmie Johnson was the first driver to qualify for the race …read more

With NASCAR’s annual All-Star Race quickly approaching this weekend at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, I thought it would only be fitting to compile the top-ten drivers in the Sprint Cup Series that are not already locked into the race itself. For those of you that might be unfamiliar with the structure of the race, drivers & car owners that have won a race either this year or last year are automatically locked into the field, as are past champions from with the last ten years and former winners of the All-Star race itself. Then, fans are allowed to vote an additional …read more

All year long folks have been trying to figure out what’s been wrong with Hendrick Motorsports and when they would finally get their first win of the season, and Jimmie Johnson and his no. 48 Lowe’s team were able to answer those questions and put a silence on all of their critics Saturday night in Phoenix. Johnson was very strong early on, leading 109 of the first 150 laps, but had to pit under caution when many of the other cars did not after he had gotten himself off pit sequence earlier in the race. The stop shuffled him back …read more

Image details: Subway Fresh Fit 500 Qualifying served by picapp.com
Thursday night’s Sprint Cup qualifying session contained nothing near the drama that was witnessed last weekend at Texas qualifying, but it did feature “Flyin” Ryan Newman turning in the fastest lap of the evening en route to picking up his 43rd career pole award. His lap of 26.975 seconds earned him his first pole at Phoenix International Raceway since 2004, and is his fourth at the track overall. Newman was also the fastest overall in the first Cup Series practice session earlier in the day.
Elliott Sadler was second quickest, a mere …read more

Dale Earnhardt Jr. turned in the fastest lap during Friday’s Sprint Cup qualifying for the Samsung 500, and for the sixth time through the first seven races, a Hendrick Motorsports car will lead the field to the drop of the green flag for the start of the race. Junior’s lap of 28.286 was about 2/10th’s of a second faster than the no. 99 Ford of Carl Edwards. There will be some diversity at the top of the grid on Sunday with Toyota and Dodge joining the mix thanks to the fast laps of Kyle Busch and Ryan Newman, and Jimmie …read more

Sprint Cup Series action finally returned to the track with Martinsville qualifying today after a well-deserved week off of racing, and Hendrick Motorsports remains at the tip of the tongue after quite a bit of talk about their underachievements in 2008. Jeff Gordon turned the fastest lap with a time of 19.666 seconds to record the 65th pole award in his career, tying him for third with Cale Yarbrough on the all-time list. Second fastest was Denny Hamlin – who was also fastest in the first practice session today – with a qualifying lap of 19.775 seconds. Starting behind them …read more

Yes, just as it did to us in Fontana a few weeks ago, Mother Nature has once more reared her ugly head and focused her anger on the NASCAR world.  Rainstorms cancelled qualifying for both the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series races. Due to Bristol being inside the first five races of the season (it is the fifth), the field for both races was set based on 2007 owner points.
What does that mean for us? For the third time this season, Jimmie Johnson will take us to the green flag for the start of the race despite winning only …read more