NNS - Northerntool.com 250

From last to first, Carl Edwards won @ Milwaukee Mile - 2 years in a row. And yes, he celebrated with his signature back flip.

Edwards was unable to make it in time to qualify @ Milwaukee, so he was forced to the back for the start. He traveled over 2,000 miles from Sonoma to race in the series.Jack Roush, himself, flew the plane from California to Wisconsin.

(Photo Credit: Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images for NASCAR)

"It seems like almost every week, we're getting faster and faster," Edwards said. "It's really cool to get that first win. Hopefully, it kicks off the rest of the season like it did last year."

Kyle Busch led the race high 80 laps. He lost the lead to Edwards with 44 laps to go. "It's what we do," Busch said during his post-race interview. "We came here to finish 2nd."

Brad Keselowski finished 3rd followed by Erik Darnell, Ricky Stenhouse Jr, Steve Wallace, Mike Bliss, Stephen Leicht, Ron Hornaday Jr and Jason Leffler in the top-10.

The race was slowed by 4 cautions for 15 laps and 12 lead changes among 7 drivers: E. Darnell 1-14; B. Coleman 15; E. Darnell # 16-20; B. Coleman 21-49; S. Leicht 50; B. Coleman 51-55; R. Stenhouse Jr. 56-79; Brad Keselowski 80-81; C. Edwards 82; R. Stenhouse Jr. 83-104; Brad Keselowski 105-125; K. Busch 126-205; C. Edwards 206-250.

For the (unofficial) race results, click here.

NCWTS - Copart 200

Birthday win for Ron Hornaday Jr

"It's a cool day," Hornaday said. "What'd they (say), 'How old are you?' I don't know. I'm in my 50s, now, I guess."

51 to be precise.

Hornaday is the only series drivers to win a race on their birthday. A feat he has actually accomplished twice. He won the truck race @ Bristol on June 20, 1998.

Driving the #33 Copart Chevrolet Silverado for KHI, Hornaday dominated the Copart 200 from the start. He took the lead for the first time on lap 3 and would go on to lead 180 of the 200 lap race.

It's his 2nd win and 8th top-10 finish this season. It's career win #41 in the series. Hornaday moved up to the top of the standings by 36 points over 2nd place Matt Crafton. Crafton finished 16th.

(Photo Credit: Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Hornaday skipped doing a burnout. As GM recently announced cut backs across the board in NASCAR, Hornaday didn't want to risk damage to the truck. "We're saving dimes right now," he said. "I think Kevin and DeLana (owners) were ready for this and we're all buckling down."

There were 5 cautions for 23 laps and 8 lead changes among 6 drivers: B. Ickler # 1; M. Crafton 2; R. Hornaday Jr. 3-40; C. McCumbee 41; T. Bodine 42-48; R. Hornaday Jr. 49-120; M. Skinner 121-122; T. Bodine 123-130; R. Hornaday Jr. 131-200.

Dennis Setzer finished 2nd followed by Brian Scott, Todd Bodine and James Buescher.

For the (unofficial) race results, click here.

On Track - Saturday

There were a couple of incidents during the first practice session @ Sonoma earlier today.



David Gilliland ran into the back of John Andretti at the end of pit road. There was some damage done to the back of Andretti's car, but Gilliland will have to go to a back-up.



Marcos Ambrose's engine blew in his #47 ride about 15 minutes into the first practice. After qualifying 3rd, his best qualifying effort, Ambrose will now have to start the race in the back of the field. He posted the fastest speed during that practice session.

(Photo Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)



First Practice:

1.Marcos Ambrose 92.490
2.Juan Pablo Montoya 92.293
3.Clint Bowyer 92.144
4.Jamie McMurray 92.123
5.Robby Gordon 92.085


Happy Hour Practice:
1. AJ Allmendinger 92.525
2. Ron Fellows 92.480
3. Robby Gordon 92.348
4. Juan Pablo Montoya 92.307
5. Kasey Kahne 92.220

On Track - Friday

Jeff Burton, Dale Earnhardt Jr and David Reutimann spun during their first practice session early in the afternoon.

Fastest during first practice:
1. Marcos Ambrose 93.404
2. Jeff Gordon 93.368
3. Boris Said 93.336
4. Jimmie Johnson 93.116
5. Brian Vickers 92.883

2 in a row for Brian Vickers. He won his ninth career pole and fourth of the season. It's his first pole in his 5 races @ Infineon.

Kyle Busch qualified 2nd and Marcos Ambrose 3rd. It's the first time this season that Toyotas have claimed the top 3 qualifying positions.

For the starting line-up, click here.

(Photo Credit: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images for NASCAR)

47 drivers qualified for Sunday's race. Scott Speed, Tom Hubert, Chris Cook and Brian Simo failed to qualify.

Vickers' teammate, rookie Scott Speed is currently 36th in the point standings and needed to qualify on time. After Speed failed to make it in, Red Bull Racing worked out a deal with Joe Nemechek to put Speed in the race in his place. "I came here to race," Nemechek said. "But I told them - Hey, whatever you need me to do."

And what would be a racin' weekend without a little bit of rain. The Camping World Truck Series race @ Milwaukee was washed out. The race has been resheduled for tomorrow afternoon at 1:30 (our time).

Need For Speed Race Preview: Sonoma

Change of scenery this weekend as the Cup drivers have already set up shop in the Sonoma wine country for the first of 2 road course races on the current schedule. Are you a fan of road course racin'? Some are; some aren't; and there's those that would rather a road course be featured in the Chase.

Infineon Raceway will celebrate 21 years of cup racin' this Sunday.
Breaking down the stats:

In 20 years, there's only been 5 repeat winners: Jeff Gordon (5), Ernie Irvan (2), Ricky Rudd (2), Tony Stewart (2) and Rusty Wallace (2).

Gordon & Stewart are the only active repeat winners in the race on Sunday. As a matter of fact, those are the 2 names that we can mention the most @ Infineon. Stewart and Gordon are 1-2 on top of the point standings.

Jeff Gordon has the most wins there with 5. In the past 5 races, he has been the only repeat winner (2004, 2006). 5 races have been won from the pole. Gordon was the last to do so on June 27, 2004. Gordon leads all active drivers with the most laps led @ Infineon with 437 combined in the 9 races he has led there. He's also the all-time leader in the series with 9 road course wins between Infineon and Watkins Glen with 5 @ Infineon and 4 @ Watkins Glen.

Current points leader Tony Stewart has 6 combined road course wins - 2 @ Infineon and 4 @ Watkins Glen. Stewart's 47 points ahead of Gordon in the standings heading into Sunday's race.

Kyle Busch is the defending race winner.

Road course "ringers" will be much in the vocabulary over the weekend. Boris Said, Ron Fellows, Brian Simo, Tom Hubert, Max Papis and Patrick Carpentier are on the entry list. The last time a "road course ace" won a cup event dates back to 1973. Mark Donohue won that year @ Riverside Raceway.

Some drivers run great on the road courses and there are some that hope they can just last through it. There very well could be a shake up in the points. One thing is for certain, our race weekend is about to begin.

Qualifying gets underway at 6:30 our time on Friday. TV coverage for the 112 lap race on the 12-turn 1.99 mile circuit starts at 4:30 this Sunday.

There's night racin' on the schedule for both the Camping World Truck & Nationwide Series @ Milwaukee.

NCWTS - Friday at 8:30 SPEED
NNS - Saturday at 8 ESPN2

NSCS - Lifelock 400

Out of gas but not out of luck! Mark Martin wins one on fuel mileage.



"You know, everybody knows that we have had some horrendous luck this year, and it's put us pretty far back," Martin said. "We are on the outside looking in to the Chase. We had a great racecar, but for me, I always, always come up short on the gas mileage thing. I always have. If you look at the stats, you know, I've lost 25 and won two probably on it. You know, I just don't have the luck for it."

It was Martin's 5th win @ MIS and 1st in a Chevy. The victory also makes it his 3rd this season - tying Kyle Busch for the most in the series this year. Martin jumps 5 spots in the standings to 8th. The last time Martin posted 3 or more wins in a season dates back to 1998. He won his career best 7 wins that year and went on to finish 2nd in the standings.

Jimmie Johnson was the one to beat. He dominated the race - leading 146 of 200 laps. Greg Biffle led 42 laps; ran 2nd to Johnson much of the day and was the only other driver to lead laps in the double digits.

Johnson ran out of gas with 2 to go. Biffle's tank ran dry on the final lap. Martin was running 3rd and able to capitalize, although he too, ran out of gas. "After the race was over, I shut it off at the start/finish line, coasted all the way around. I was gonna try to fire it up just to get it in Victory Lane. It wouldn't even spin over. So it ran exactly as far as it was gonna run. We had our hands full if we were going to try to go another lap or another mile. That was cool!"

Johnson wound up 22nd. Biffle finished 5th. Both Biffle and Johnson agreed during their post-race interviews, the outcome would (probably) have been a different had they not challenged each other so hard for the lead with 6 laps to go.

"On the bright side of things, I'm really happy with the performance we had here," Johnson said. "We'll take our lumps and go to the next one."

Biffle said, "Pretty frustrating. It was our first win for the season. I watched it slip away there. Fuel mileage 2 weeks in a row." He finished 11th last week @ Pocono.

Jeff Gordon finished 2nd followed by Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards.

For the unofficial race results, click here.

There were just 3 cautions for 14 laps. There were 11 lead changes among 6 drivers:

Kyle Busch 1-8; J. Johnson 9-73; Kyle Busch 74; J. Johnson 75-117; C. Edwards 118; J. Johnson 119-152; D. Hamlin 153; G. Biffle 154-194; J. Johnson 195-198; G. Biffle 199; M. Martin 200