Garage Talk

Huge in the garage already this weekend - GM's financial troubles. For more on this story, click here.

Petty Motorsports to show up at the Indi 500. For more details, click here.

The Sprint Cup banquet moves to Las Vegas this year. For more details, click here.

Need For Speed Race Preview: Texas

It's just Friday afternoon and there's already been a lot of action at the Texas Motor Speedway!

Mark Martin was fastest during the 1st practice session with David Reutimann, Kurt Busch, Greg Biffle and Jimmie Johnson also posting top 5 speeds on the leaderboard. 48 drivers will attempt to qualify for Sunday's race, Samsung 500. It might be worth mentioning that in 16 cup races @ Texas, just one race has been won from the pole. Kasey Kahne won from the number one starting spot on April 9, 2006.

Who to watch for?

Jimmie Johnson finished 2nd last year in the spring race @ Texas. In his 11 races at the 1.5 mile track, he has 1 win, 5 top-5 and 8 top-10 finishes. His win last week moved him up 5 spots to 4th in the Sprint Cup Series standings.

Carl Edwards swept both races @ Texas last year. He leads all drivers with 3 wins there and most laps led (467).

Matt Kenseth has faded seemingly out of sight since winning the first 2 races of the season. Kenseth has finished in the top 10 @ Texas in six of the last races there.

And let's add, Jack Roush leads all car owners in wins @ Texas with seven.

Tony Stewart could be a fave this weekend. He says he has "a gut feeling". Stewart has a win, 3 top-5s and 8 top-10s in his 14 races at the track. He's currently 7th in the standings. Not bad for a 1st time owner/driver is it?

There's 2 tracks points leader Jeff Gordon has not won a cup race at on the current schedule: Texas and Homestead-Miami. Gordon extends his longest winless streak to 47 races. Consistency can be king. 7 races into this season, Gordon has only 1 finish outside the top 10 when he finished 13th in the Daytona 500.

After 3 off weekends in the past 4 weeks, the Nationwide Series will be back on a more consistant schedule beginning this weekend @ Texas. We left off with Carl Edwards on top of the Nationwide Series point standings.

Kyle Busch won the spring race last year @ Texas. Kyle will lead the field to the green in Saturday's O'Reilly 300. He won the pole award with a lap of 28.685 seconds at 188.252 mph. It's his 16th pole in the series and 1st of this season. Busch swept both Texas races last season.

Matt Kenseth qualified second and Paul Menard 3rd.

I'm counting 12 full-time cup drivers pulling double duty in Texas this weekend also including: David Reutimann, Tony Stewart, Michael Waltrip, Jeff Burton, Joey Logano and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Todd Warshaw/Getty Images

Catch the O'Reilly 300 on Saturday beginning at 2:30 on ESPN2.
TV coverage for the Samsung 500 starts at 1:30 on Sunday on FOX.


David Reutimann won the pole for Sunday's race. It's his 2nd pole in 70 cup races. His 1st pole and 4th top-10 start this season.

Jeff Gordon will start 2nd and Matt Kenseth 3rd.

Click here to view the starting line-up.

Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR

NCWTS - Kroger 250 3/30

Kevin Harvick won the rain postponed Kroger 250 @ Martinsville Monday afternoon.

Once again, we saw the driver who lead the most laps not win the race. Kyle Busch lead a race high 139 laps. He took the lead on lap 102 until 10 to go when Harvick was able to make the pass to take over the lead.

Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR

"I was able to get to his bumper there and just kind of get him up about half a groove and got up under him," said Harvick, who ran the final 185 laps, including one extra lap because of a green-white-checkered-flag finish, on one tank of fuel.

"I got him up there once before, and he was able to get back by me on the outside," Harvick said. "I didn't want to wreck him, but I knew it was time to start applying the pressure pretty heavily if I was going to get by in case a caution or something would come out. It just takes a while to complete a pass over another fast vehicle."

Kyle Busch was penalized for a commitment line violation under the final caution which sent him to the back of the field for restart to the green, white, checkered flag finish. Busch finished 17th.

There were 14 cautions for 80 laps and 4 lead changes among 5 drivers:
R. Crawford 1-78; R. Hornaday Jr. 79-94; J. White 95-101; K. Busch 102-240; K. Harvick 241-251.

NSCS - Goody's 500 3/29

We've seen it often before - the dominant car doesn't always win. In this case, defending race winner Denny Hamlin led the race high 296 laps but couldn't hold on to take the checkered flag.

With 15 laps to go, Jimmie Johnson made a pass for the lead and held on for the win. Johnson lead twice for 42 laps, but we can't forget he knows how to get around the track they call the "paper clip". Johnson won for the fifth time in the last 6 races @ Martinsville. Nick Laham/Getty Images

Johnson & Hamlin had differing views on the pass.

Jimmie Johnson: "If he wants to think that I tried moving him out of the way, he can believe that, but he should watch the video and see that I was inside of him - climbed up on the curb - and he was still coming down. The only reason we touched and the only reason he ended up in the rubber where he couldn't come back and get me was the fact that he chopped me. I patiently worked to get that spot, to get the position inside of him, and he crowded me on the bottom."

Denny Hamlin: "I would've done the same to him and if it comes back around, I will do the same thing. It's just the way it is. At Martinsville, you've got to battle for every inch."



What's your take? Was it simply 'good hard racin'?

Johnson's win marked the 18th cup victory for Hendrick Motorsports @ Martinsville and on the 25th anniversary of Hendrick's very first cup series win. Geoffrey Bodine drove the #5 to victory lane @ Martinsville in 1984.

Jeff Gordon started from the pole and lead early for a combined 147 laps. His winless streak extends to a career-high 47 races. Jeff said he's "not really concerned with this streak" as his focus is on what his team needs to do to win races and win the championship.

Gordon remains the points leader by 89 points over 2nd place Clint Bowyer.

All 4 Hendrick cars finished in the top 8. Jeff Gordon finished 4th, Mark Martin 7th and Dale Earnhardt Jr 8th.

There were 12 cautions for 66 laps and 13 lead changes among 7 drivers:
J. Gordon 1-43; D. Blaney 44; S. Speed # 45-56; J. Gordon 57-140; J. Mayfield 141; J. Gordon 142-155; D. Hamlin 156-342; J. Gordon 343-348; D. Hamlin 349-354; B. Labonte 355; D. Hamlin 356-429; J. Johnson 430-455; D. Hamlin 456-484; J. Johnson 485-500.

For complete (unofficial) results, click this link...

Garage Talk

Juan Pablo Montoya attempted to apologize to Jamie McMurray for an on track incident @ Bristol. Jamie wasn't receptive and their talk was said to have been heated. For more, click here.

Will Jeff Gordon need back surgery? For more, click here.

USF1 interested in Allmendinger and Speed? Not Danica & Busch? For more, click here.

Dale Jr and Hendrick had a "constructive" meeting regarding season woes. For more, click here.

Matt & Katie Kenseth are expecting their first child together. For more, click here.

On Track - Saturday 3/28

Rain, rain go away...

Rain washed out a portion of the on track activities Saturday @ Martinsville.

The Camping World Truck Series squeezed in final practice and qualifying before the wet weather hit.

Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR

Rick Crawford won the Keystone Light pole award. It's his 6th pole in the series and 2nd @ Martinsville. Crawford has 1 series victory at the track with his win in 2004.

Shane Sieg will start on the outside of the front row. Michigan native Johnny Benson qualified 3rd with Ron Hornaday Jr, Colin Braun, Kevin Harvick, Max Papis, Matt Crafton, Mike Skinner and Timothy Peters starting in the top 10. Geoff Burke/Getty Images

The cup series won't get in any additional track time before Sunday's race.

"For me a rain delay is trying to get (NASCAR) to call it as soon as possible so I can go home especially when we are this close to the house. I'm an hour away so I can go eat dinner at home (in North Carolina)." - Clint Bowyer

Sunday's forecast for Martinsville calls for mostly sunny skies, a high near 70 and a 20% chance for rain. Good news!

* Revised Schedule for Martinsville Speedway *

The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Kroger 250 at Martinsville Speedway has been postponed due to rain. The race will be run Monday at 12 p.m. and will air on SPEED, MRN and Sirius Satellite Radio.

Tickets for the race will be honored Monday. The gates will open at 9 a.m.

On Track - Friday 3/27

Teams are dodging rain drops @ Martinsville.

Both the Camping World Truck & Sprint Cup Series were able to squeeze in practice sessions early in the day on Friday before the rain hit.

Geoff Burke/Getty Images

With rain in the forecast for today & tomorrow, teams are choosing to work on their race set-up rather than the qualifying set-up.

The defending race winner Denny Hamlin was fastest during the 90 minute cup practice session. Kevin Harvick posted the 2nd fastest speed followed by Jeff Gordon, Juan Pablo Montoya, Clint Bowyer, Marcos Ambrose, David Reutimann, Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch and Mark Martin for the top 10.

Qualifying was called due to rain. The starting line up will be based on this year's owner points and according to the NASCAR rule book. Jeff Gordon will start from the pole. As for the 11 go or go homers, 4 drivers did not make the field: Sterling Marlin, Tony Raines, Dennis Setzer and Derrike Cope. In: Scott Speed, Aric Almirola, Paul Menard, Dave Blaney, Scott Riggs, Joe Nemechek, Jeremy Mayfield and Todd Bodine.

With Aric Almirola in the race, he'll showcase Guitar Hero: Metallica as primary sponsor on the #8 Chevy. Activision Publishing Inc will release Guitar Hero: Metallica on Sunday for PS3, Wii and X-Box.