NNS - Pepsi 300

5 laps to go and all eyes were on race leader Joey Logano as his teammate Kyle Busch was inching closer for the lead. In the end, there can be only one. It was Logano's day. Kyle's runner-up finish is surprisingly the best he's ever finished @ Nashville Superspeedway in a NASCAR event. It wasn't what we'd call a bad day for Busch, he was out in front for 77 of the 225 laps.

"I wasn't too nervous. I was just driving as hard as I could," Logano said in victory lane. "I knew I had to have a good restart but Kyle had one too. And he was bearing down on me in one and two, but he couldn't get out to a lead."


John Sommers II/Getty Images for NASCAR

Joey Logano started 2nd and challenged for the lead almost immediately. He took the lead for the first time on lap 19 and would go on to lead 9 times for a combined race-high 95 laps.

It's Logano's 2nd victory in 24 Nationwide Series races. His first win and 3rd top-10 finish of the season. It's also the 8th time there has been a first-time winner @ Nashville Superspeedway in 15 races at the track.

Carl Edwards led 45 laps in the race. A worry of a lose wheel forced him to go back in for an unscheduled pit stop which sent him to the middle of the pack and on a mission to get back up front before the end of the race. Edwards finished 5th.

Brad Keselowski finished 3rd followed. Kelly Bires finished 4th.

For 'unofficial' race results, click here.

Carl Edwards remains on top of the series standings by 23 points over Kyle Busch.

There were 10 cautions for 40 laps and 19 lead changes among 5 drivers:

C. Edwards 1-18; J. Logano 19-32; C. Edwards 33-48; J. Logano 49-80; K. Busch 81-82; J. Logano 83; K. Busch 84-86; J. Logano 87-97; K. Busch 98-123; J. Logano 124; C. Edwards 125-135; J. Logano 136-141; K. Busch 142-150; J. Logano 151-169; K. Busch 170-185; J. Logano 186; M. Annett # 187; M. McDowell # 188-194; K. Busch 195-215; J. Logano 216-225.

NNS - Pepsi 300 Qualifying

Carl Edwards won the Coors Light Pole Award for the Pepsi 300. His first pole @ Nashville Superspeedway. This is his second pole and 6th top-10 start in as many races this season in the series. Carl also posted the fastest speed during their one and only practice session.








Dak Dillon for NASCAR

Joey Logano qualified second. Rookie Michael McDowell will start 3rd. Kyle Busch - 4th. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. who's making his series debut for Roush Fenway Racing has qualified 5th.

Bad Weather Coverage

Bad weather hit the Nashville area yesterday afternoon canceling most of the on-track activities. From NewsChannel5.com:

NNS heads to Nashville

The Nationwide Series will have the spotlight this weekend at Nashville Superspeedway as the Cup Series will enjoy a weekend off to enjoy their holiday.

At least all but 5 will have the weekend off. Unlike what we've seen in recent years, only 2 drivers are running both full-time Nationwide & Sprint Cup Series schedules - Carl Edwards & Kyle Busch. They sit 1-2 in the series standings. Michael Waltrip, David Ragan and Joey Logano are also entered in Saturday's race.

Kyle Busch is coming off of a dominant win last week @ Kansas. Kyle hasn't had much success @ Nashville. He posted a 6th place finish in his first race there, but since hasn't finished better than 16th. Rewind to last year, he led the race-high 125 laps but ended up spinning out and finishing 20th.

Carl Edwards is the all-time series leader @ Nashville. In his 7 races there, he's scored 3 wins and 6 top-5s. His worst finish was (just) 13th in the June race last year.

Cup drivers have won all 5 races so far this season in the Nationwide Series. The stats say Cup drivers average seven of the 10-spots so far this season. At Daytona opening weekend, Cup drivers finished in 9 of the top-10 finishing spots, the most.

But there's something to consider when heading into Saturday's race @ Nashville Superspeedway. There's been 7 different first time winners there.

Scott Wimmer is the defending race winner. He is entered in Saturday's race, but for a different team this time around. Wimmer drove the the no. 29 for RCR to victory lane in this race last year. Look for him in the No. 40 Chevy for Key Motorsports. The #40 team is currently outside the guaranteed top-30 for starting positions which will force Wimmer to have to qualify on time. The team sits 33rd in the standings.

Three drivers will make their Series debut @ Nashville:
A name familiar to USAC and ARCA fans, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will debut for Roush Fenway Racing. Another ARCA alum, Tim Andrews will drive for Rick Ware Racing. Full-time truck series driver, Brian Scott will be driving today for Braun Racing.

300 Miles = 225 laps
Qualifying - Saturday at 10:05 a.m.
Race Coverage begins at 3 p.m. on ESPN (Saturday).

Bad weather moved through the area on Friday afternoon postponing on-track activities.


Nationwide Insurance Dash For Cash Press Release:

Prior to the start of the 2009 NASCAR Nationwide Series season, Nationwide Insurance announced the Nationwide Insurance "Dash 4 Cash" program. This exciting program, aimed at creating additional support for the teams in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, provides an extra incentive at four stand-alone NASCAR Nationwide events this season.

The Nationwide Dash 4 Cash provides an additional payout to NASCAR Nationwide Series drivers -- $25,000 to the eligible winner of each of the four races and a $50,000 bonus to the driver who accumulates the most NASCAR Nationwide Series Championship Driver points during the four stand-alone events within the program.

In addition, Nationwide Insurance and ESPN have teamed up to award a weekly cash prize to race fans, as part of the "Driver Pick ‘Em" presented by Nationwide Insurance’s fantasy game on ESPN.com. During each of the four Dash 4 Cash races, fans are eligible for a $25,000 prize and throughout the rest of the season fans are eligible for a $500 weekly prize. Participants can register and play the weekly contest at http://games.espn.go.com/dpickem/frontpage.

Beginning April 11 at Nashville Superspeedway, NASCAR Nationwide Series drivers will be competing not only for the victory, they’ll be going after the Dash 4 Cash bonus too. Here are the details:

• The program is open to all NASCAR Nationwide Series regulars and up-and-coming drivers, regardless of whether they have a full-time or part-time ride in the Series. Drivers who have a full-time ride in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series must enter, qualify for and compete in every NASCAR Nationwide Series event to be eligible for the bonus cash.

• Should an eligible driver not win the opening race at Nashville and collect the Dash 4 Cash bonus, the $25,000 prize will roll over to the next race, June 13 at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, Ky.

• The two remaining races in the first-of-its-kind program are August 1 at Iowa Speedway and October 24 at Memphis Motorsports Park.

• The final aspect of the Dash 4 Cash is its cumulative bonus. The driver with the most NASCAR Nationwide Series Championship Driver points accrued in the four-race series wins $50,000 and will be honored at the NASCAR Nationwide Series championship banquet at year’s end.

Nationwide Insurance is proud to be the title sponsor of the NASCAR Nationwide Series and looks forward to the excitement this program will create both on and off the track.

NSCS - Samsung 500 4/5

Jeff Gordon finally breaks his career-high 47 race winless drought after scoring his first win at the 1.5 mile Texas Speedway.

Gordon led 6 times for the race high 105 laps. He resumed the lead with 27 laps to go onto his 1st win and 9th top-10 finish in 17 races @ Texas. It marks Gordon's 82nd career win. He remains 6th on the all-time wins list, one behind Cale Yarborough. Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip are tied for third with 84 victories each.

Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images

"It feels like the very first time I've ever won. It's been a long streak. It's been a lot of ups and downs and tough times, not only here at Texas but just over the past, I don't know they keep reminding me I think it was 46, 47 races. And I knew we were going to get one eventually. I feel like we had some missed opportunities last season, even as we didn't have a great year. But there was still times we could have won. And so that just keeps you driving and driving hard and pushing forward. But at the end of this season, I don't know, I wrote Steve an e mail and we talked a lot. And I just saw the progress that was being made in the final 10 races with how Steve's restructuring the engineering and the team and his efforts. And it just fired me up to want to do even more than I already was" Gordon said shortly after winning. "And when you have that, you just have a great team that works well together, believes in one another, and all we were missing was that victory. And I can't believe it happened here today at Texas. But, man, this is just even better than any other place. I think this is probably the best place we possibly could have won, because it's eluded us for so long, and to break the streak not only here at Texas, but over the last 40 whatever races, it's pretty cool and I'm real proud of this guy. He's worked his tail off to get us here. And this was an incredible team effort today."

Gordon now has a win at every track on the current Cup schedule except for Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Jeff Gordon won by .542 seconds ahead of his teammate Jimmie Johnson. Johnson's 5th top-10 finish of the season and 9th top-10 @ Texas.

Greg Biffle led a combined (second-best) 93 laps and his teammate, Matt Kenseth led for 55 laps. With 39 laps to go, Carl Edwards took the lead from Jeff Gordon. After leading 9 laps, a spin by David Stremme brought out the final caution of the race. Edwards' crew had problems changing tires which caused Edwards to lose 10 spots on pit road. We know races can be won or lost on pit road. Edwards finished 10th with Greg Biffle - 3rd and Kenseth - 5th.

Kyle Busch didn't fare as well as during the cup race after winning the Nationwide Series race the day before. Kyle struggled to get back on the lead lap through much of the race. He finished 18th and as the first driver one lap down.

There were 6 cautions for 30 laps and a new track record of 28 lead changes among 14 drivers:

D. Reutimann 0; J. Gordon 1-7; D. Reutimann 8-46; M. Kenseth 47-50; D. Reutimann 51; T. Stewart 52; Kyle Busch 53-54; M. Kenseth 55-87; T. Stewart 88-98; M. Kenseth 99-116; G. Biffle 117-152; J. Gordon 153; D. Ragan 154; Kurt Busch 155; M. Martin 156; G. Biffle 157-208; T. Stewart 209-211; J. Gordon 212; M. Martin 213-214; J. Johnson 215; P. Menard 216; G. Biffle 217-221; J. Gordon 222-252; D. Earnhardt Jr. 253-258; J. Gordon 259-295; C. Edwards 296-304; T. Stewart 305; B. Vickers 306; J. Gordon 307-334.

For complete (unofficial) results, click here.

NNS - O'Reilly 300 4/4

Kyle Busch made it look way too easy @ Texas after leading 178 of 200 laps for the win in Saturday's Nationwide Series race. His 2nd win of the season and 23rd in the series. Kyle became the first driver to win a Nationwide Series race from the pole @ Texas as well as win three consecutive races @ Texas.

Busch finished 1.447 seconds ahead of runner up finisher, Tony Stewart. Brad Keselowski finished 3rd followed by David Ragan and Paul Menard.

Ronald Martinez/Getty Images for NASCAR

There were 4 cautions for 18 laps and 6 lead changes among just 4 drivers: K. Busch 1-56; Brad Keselowski 57; K. Busch 58-68; T. Stewart 69-73; K. Busch 74-89; J. Burton 90-105; K. Busch 106-200

For the complete (unofficial) results, please click here.