Jimmie Johnson claimed his third career NASCAR All-Star race win by comfortably beating Penske’s Brad Keselowski at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

The five-time Sprint Cup Series champion was able to carry his momentum from last week, when he gave Hendrick Motorsports its 200th Cup victory at Darlington, to dominate the decisive final 10 laps of the non-points event on Saturday night.

Johnson rose through the order during the first 20-lap segment from sixth on the grid, taking the lead from Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch on lap 16 and then pulling away to win the first portion of the event.

That gave him the key advantage of being first in the order for the final mandatory pitstop of the race, which would later be key in determining how the field would line up for the restart ahead of the last 10 laps of the fifth segment.

Having claimed that edge over his rivals, Johnson ran at the back of the field saving his machinery and avoiding any accidental contact while working on fine-tuning his car’s balance.

The Californian was then able to make the most of his lead into the pits after the fourth segment, preserving the top spot off pit road partly thanks to his strategic advantage of having the first pit-stall, which his team earned on Thursday thanks to its pit-crew challenge victory.

When the green waved for the final 15 miles of racing, Johnson pulled away from Keselowski and was never threatened by the Penske racer.

Johnson’s victory, his ninth at Charlotte, earned him US $ 1,071,340 and gave his boss Rick Hendrick a seventh All-Star win in what has been a stellar week for NASCAR’s leading organisation.

“To make the odds be in your favour, being in the front row for the final segment was going to be the key, so winning the first or second segments was the goal,” said Johnson, who now ties the late Dale Earnhardt and his team-mate Jeff Gordon for the most career All-Star wins.

“We weren’t sure we could get there starting sixth but the racecar was so amazing. I put her on the outside at the start of the first heat and let her rip around the top to get the lead.

“Then we were smart from there and worked on the car and got it right so we could be good in the end.”

Matt Kenseth was the winner of the second 20-lap segment, where his Roush Fenway team-mate Carl Edwards caused the first caution of the night following a fiery engine failure. It would be the first of two such incidents for the team, as Greg Biffle’s car succumbed to the same issue during the third segment.

Keselowski, who pitted during the second segment’s caution flag, stayed out during the optional pitstop following the second segment, and led the entire third portion of the race, just edging Hendrick Motorsports’ Kasey Kahne to the line in a photo-finish.

Dale Earnhardt Jr won the Sprint Showdown to race his way into the main event, followed by Penske’s AJ Allmendinger, and eventually won the fourth segment, lining up fourth in the order ahead of the final mandatory stop, where the top five opted for a splash-and-go.

In the end Kenseth, who was second at the final restart, was third at the flag followed by Busch and Earnhardt.

Former Cup and Nationwide champion Bobby Labonte won the fan vote to get into the main event, where he finished 19th.

Kyle Busch claimed pole position for Saturday night’s NASCAR Sprint All-Star race.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver and his team delivered the best combined performance under the unique qualifying format, consisting of three flying laps and including a four-tyre pitstop.

Ryan Newman and his Stewart-Haas crew had previously delivered the benchmark and stood at the top of the leaderboard for most of the session, but Busch, the last driver out on track after setting the pace in practice, bumped him from the top spot.

“We knew we’d be very quick here and I thought we had a good chance at the pole,” said Busch, who was on pole for the same event a year ago. “I think we’ve got a little bit of a system going on here for this place. That’s two in a row for us.”

Busch’s team-mate Denny Hamlin, whose crew set the fastest pitstop time, will line up third in the grid for the 90-lap, five-segment race, with Roush Fenway’s Greg Biffle starting beside him on the second row.

Richard Childress Racing’s Kevin Harvick, the 2007 All-Star winner, rounded out the top-five ahead of two-time event winner Jimmie Johnson, whose team won Thursday’s pit crew challenge, handing the five-time champion the strategic advantage of the first pit stall.

Kasey Kahne was on a good qualifying run, but after completing the mandatory stop he lost control of his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet on cold tyres between Turns 3 and 4, hitting the wall hard and being forced to switch to a back-up car.

Penske’s Brad Keselowski set the fastest first-lap time and was provisionally third after completing his run, but two loose lug nuts meant he dropped down the order. Roush Fenway’s Matt Kenseth and Phoenix Racing’s Kurt Busch were among those hit by penalties as well.

Penske’s AJ Allmendinger beat Michael Waltrip Racing’s Martin Truex to pole for the Sprint Showdown, a 40-lap race that gives entries for the All-Star Race to the top two finishers.

All-Star qualifying:

Qualifying format is three fast laps including pitstop

Pos  Driver              Team/Car                     Time*       Gap

 1.  Kyle Busch          Gibbs Toyota                 1m59.112s

 2.  Ryan Newman         Stewart-Haas Chevrolet       1m59.821s  + 0.709s

 3.  Denny Hamlin        Gibbs Toyota                 2m00.168s  + 1.056s

 4.  Greg Biffle         Roush Fenway Ford            2m00.420s  + 1.308s

 5.  Kevin Harvick       Childress Chevrolet          2m00.622s  + 1.510s

 6.  Jimmie Johnson      Hendrick Chevrolet           2m01.076s  + 1.964s

 7.  Paul Menard         Childress Chevrolet          2m01.147s  + 2.035s

 8.  Jeff Gordon         Hendrick Chevrolet           2m01.297s  + 2.185s

 9.  Tony Stewart        Stewart-Haas Chevrolet       2m01.482s  + 2.370s

10.  Regan Smith         Furniture Row Chevrolet      2m01.721s  + 2.609s

11.  Trevor Bayne        Wood Brothers Ford           2m01.861s  + 2.749s

12.  Clint Bowyer        Waltrip Toyota               2m02.292s  + 3.180s

13.  Carl Edwards        Roush Fenway Ford            2m02.420s  + 3.308s

14.  David Ragan         Front Row Ford               2m04.183s  + 5.071s

15.  Matt Kenseth        Roush Fenway Ford            2m05.351s  + 6.239s

16.  Mark Martin         Waltrip Toyota               2m06.624s  + 7.512s

17.  Kurt Busch          Phoenix Chevrolet            2m08.074s  + 8.962s

18.  Marcos Ambrose      Petty Ford                   2m08.784s  + 9.672s

19.  Brad Keselowski     Penske Dodge                 2m10.436s  + 11.324s

20.  Kasey Kahne         Hendrick Chevrolet
Showdown qualifying:
Pos  Driver              Team/Car                     Time       Gap

 1.  AJ Allmendinger     Penske Dodge                 28.057s

 2.  Martin Truex Jr     Waltrip Toyota               28.265s  + 0.208s

 3.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Hendrick Chevrolet           28.272s  + 0.215s

 4.  Jeff Burton         Childress Chevrolet          28.467s  + 0.410s

 5.  Aric Almirola       Petty Ford                   28.609s  + 0.552s

 6.  Landon Cassill      BK Toyota                    28.620s  + 0.563s

 7.  Juan Pablo Montoya  Earnhardt Ganaasi Chevrolet  28.622s  + 0.565s

 8.  Bobby Labonte       JTG Daugtherty Toyota        28.667s  + 0.610s

 9.  Travis Kvapil       BK Toyota                    28.727s  + 0.670s

10.  David Stremme       Inception Toyota             28.753s  + 0.696s

11.  Casey Mears         Germain Ford                 28.762s  + 0.705s

12.  David Reutimann     Baldwin Chevrolet            28.778s  + 0.721s

13.  Joey Logano         Gibbs Toyota                 28.788s  + 0.731s

14.  Stephen Leicht      Joe Falk Chevrolet           28.922s  + 0.865s

15.  Scott Speed         Leavine Family Ford          28.927s  + 0.870s

16.  David Gilliland     Front Row Ford               28.928s  + 0.871s

17.  Mike Bliss          Humphrey Smith Toyota        28.955s  + 0.898s

18.  JJ Yeley            Robinson-Blakeney Toyota     29.025s  + 0.968s

19.  Jamie McMurray      Earnhardt Ganaasi Chevrolet  29.047s  + 0.990s

20.  Joe Nemechek        NEMCO Toyota                 29.081s  + 1.024s

21.  Josh Wise           Front Row Ford               29.188s  + 1.131s

22.  Tony Raines         Baldwin Chevrolet            29.578s  + 1.521s

NASCAR is to launch a new webpage in partnership with Twitter aimed at enhancing the fans’ experience through social media.

A new Twitter page condensing NASCAR tweets will be launched next month in order to provide fans with more live and inside information, selecting content through algorithmic and editorial signals.

The page, which will be accessed through twitter.com/#NASCAR, will go live on June 10 when NASCAR competes at Pocono and will be presented as a complement to the Sprint Cup series race TV broadcast.

“Twitter amplifies the excitement of live sporting events and gives NASCAR fans insider access to the drivers and teams they love,” said Dick Costolo, chief executive officer of Twitter Inc.

“When sports fans around the world see a hashtag displayed on the air during a game or race, that’s a signal to them that there is a bigger conversation happening on Twitter.

“Between the talented NASCAR personalities on Twitter and the fact that they have some of the most loyal fans in the world of sports, they were a natural choice to partner with as we experiment with ways to create the best experience on Twitter during a big event.”

NASCAR’s most celebrated tweet to date was sent in February by Cup driver Brad Keselowski, who uploaded a picture from inside his car while the race was halted due to a fiery crash involving Juan Pablo Montoya’s car and a jet-dryer truck.

Most of the top NASCAR drivers have their own Twitter accounts, some more active than others, but the sport’s most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr has remained reluctant to engage in social media.

Former IndyCar star Danica Patrick is currently the most followed NASCAR driver on Twitter, followed by ex-Formula 1 race winner Montoya.

Jacques Villeneuve will return to NASCAR action this year with Penske in the two road course races in the Nationwide Series, the team has announced.

The 1997 Formula 1 world champion contested the Road America and Montreal races for Penske last year, finishing third at the US track and taking pole position at the circuit named after his father Gilles.

“I appreciate Penske Racing giving me the opportunity to get back behind the wheel of the #22 Dodge this season,” said Villeneuve.

“Road America and Montreal are two of my favourite racetracks. I feel, after winning the pole last year at Montreal, that we can have a lot of success. A NASCAR victory is something I want.”

Penske Racing team president Tim Cindric added: “Jacques is a great road racer that brings extensive experience to the #22 team.

“He gave us two strong runs last year and we feel he can do the same this season. We would like to be the team that gives him his first NASCAR victory.”

Villeneuve took his maiden Indycar win at Road America in 1994, and he followed it up with another a year later on his way to the title before graduating to F1.

He never enjoyed particular success in Montreal during his Formula 1 career. His best finish came first time out in 1996, where he finished second to Williams team-mate Damon Hill.

General Motors will run the Chevrolet SS in the Sprint Cup Series from 2013, the manufacturer announced Thursday.

Chevrolet will use NASCAR’s elite series to launch its new SS model, which will only be on sale in the US until later this year.

Next season, new bodies will be introduced in the Cup as manufacturers have moved to try to make their race cars look more like their road vehicles.

The Chevy road car featuring the Super Sport badge will be a V8-powered, rear-wheel-drive sedan, the first on offer in the US in 17 years. The SS has been used by the bow-tie brand since the 1960s with the Impala and has also been used in both the Corvette and Camaro models.

“As a passionate race fan and performance enthusiast, I am thrilled that Chevrolet will deliver a true rear-wheel-drive NASCAR race car in the SS that is closely linked to the performance sedan that will be available for sale,” said Mark Reuss, president of GM North America.

“The Chevrolet SS is a great example of how GM is able to leverage its global product portfolio to deliver a unique performance experience that extends beyond the track. I am personally looking forward to driving it.”

While Ford will continues to run the Fusion and Toyota the Camry model, the cars’ looks have been heavily revised relative to the current one.

Despite having yet to announce their teams for 2013 following Penske’s move to Ford, Dodge is set to run a revised Charger.

Drivers run close to the wall at Darlington.

Week Two’s Strength of Field (SoF) race took place at 8:30pm EST on Friday night. The race had 27 drivers and an SoF of 4222. Nascar iRacing.com Pro Series driver Jared Crawford (Michigan) dominated the race, starting from the pole and leading all 100 laps while also turning the fastest lap of the race. Crawford received 270 points for his victory. Last season’s runner up Brad Mahar (New England) finished second to Crawford after started seventh.  Mahar netted 259 points for his second place finish. Brenden Queen (Virginias) started 24^th and finished third while Brian Macklin (Atlantic) started 11^th and finished in the fourth position. For their finishes, they received 249 and 238 points respectively. Rounding out the Top Five was David Cater (Carolina). Cater started ninth and finished in the fifth position and received 228 points.

Watch the broadcast here.

The Top Five in the Weekly standings for Week Two was the same as the Top Five in the week’s SoF race. Crawford finished the week in the first position after winning one of his two races and netting 270 points. Mahar finished second with 259 points after his runner up finish in the SoF race. Queen was third with 249 points after only running one race during the week. Macklin and Cater rounded out the Top Five with 238 and 228 points.

After two weeks, Mahar leads the point’s standings with 511 points. Mahar has run three races and has one Top Five. Devan Hall (Georgia) is second in the season points standings with three starts and one Top Five. Hall has 394 points, 117 points behind Mahar. Cater sits in the third position after making five starts in the first two weeks. Cater has two wins and three Top Five’s and has 391 points. Cody Vincent (Mid-South) and Zach A Hudson (Eastern Canada) round out the Top Five in the season standings. Vincent has five starts with two Top Ten’s and 381 points while Hudson has three starts with two Top Ten’s and 377 points.

Crawford finished the week with the fastest qualifying lap after turning a 28.151 second lap. Ian Hann (Mid-South) finished the week in the second position after turning a 28.213 second lap. Jason Karlavige (Pennsylvania) was third on the week with a 28.241 while Hall finished the week fourth with a 28.265 second lap. Rounded out the Top Five in qualifying was Eric Brundles (Midwest) with a 28.279 second lap.

After Two weeks of the season the top contenders are already making their way to the top. Mahar looks to win the championship after coming up short last season while Crawford looks to dominate the season on his way to the championship. Week Three will see the NiCBS travel to Iowa Speedway. Will anyone be able to stop Jared Crawford? Find out next week at InRacingNews!

Ray Alfalla continued his early season dominance of the 2012 NASACAR iRacing.com Series World Championship, picking-up his third win of the season at Darlington Raceway. It was also the third straight victory for JRMotorsports, with teammate Steve Sheehan winning two weeks ago at Richmond on the heels of Alfalla’s visit to victory lane at Texas. In fact, it was Sheehan who Alfalla had to hold-off on the final 44 lap dash for the checkers.

Alfalla (2) had an answer for everyone, including Ottinger (05) en route to his third win of the season.

Sheehan appeared to be slightly quicker than Alfalla during the last run.  However, the Richmond winner got a little too aggressive with his grille tape, causing his car to overheat if he stayed tucked up behind Alfalla for more than a couple laps. Sheehan could attack and get right to Alfalla’s bumper, but had to fall back every couple of laps to cool his motor, leaving him unable to challenge for the win. Nick Ottinger finished third, over four seconds adrift of Alfalla, while Robert Hall and Michael Conti rounded-out the top five finishers.

Alfalla’s dominance was nearly undone by his pit crew, which cost him the lead twice.  The defending series champion overcame each setback, making short work of Patrick Baldwin and Ottinger, both of whom had fast cars . . . just not as quick as Alfalla’s machine.

“That was a stressful one,” said Alfalla. “I knew the car was stout, but the pit crew was having a hard time for most of the race. Was able to get the lead a couple times, and fortunately they were on their game for the last stop. That last 44 lap run to the end was amazing.”

“That was a stressful one.” — Ray Alfalla

The Lady in Black lived up to her name several times during the online race, with ten caution flags flying throughout the event. Drivers had particular trouble with the exit of Turn Two, which was “Calamity Corner” on more than one occasion. Even seasoned sim racers such as Josh Parker could not figure out the exit of Turn Two and ended-up with short nights and poor finishes.

Although there were many yellows, there were still periods of green flag racing which really spread out the field. Passing, however, proved very tough on such a narrow track, which made starting-up front important. In fact, seven out of the top ten finishers started in the top ten, underlining the importance of qualifying in a NiSWC race.

Darlington proved "Too Tough To Tame" for a number of drivers including Chris Main (38) and Chris Overland (47).

With his third win, and leading a race high 108 laps, Alfalla earned the maximum amount of points possible, and extended his points lead to 11 points over Conti, who kept his nose clean with a strong fifth place finish to stay within striking distance of the points leader.

Brian Schoenburg was not so lucky.  His night was ended early after contact with the wall, relegating him to a thirty-second place finish, 37 laps behind the leader. While he still holds onto third in the points, he now sits 44 points back of Alfalla and only a single point ahead of Ottinger. Hall is another five points back of Ottinger in a tight battle for third.

With their point gap widening over their competitors, Alfalla and Conti further distance themselves from the competition as the series visits Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 29.  At 200 laps (300 miles), Charlotte is also the longest race of the season, and has seen plenty of drama in past seasons including last year when Thomas Hazard held-off a hard-charging Schoenburg for the victory. With Alfalla and his JRM teammates on a tear, it is up to the rest of the field to find the speed needed to compete. Who will rise to the challenge?

Kurt Busch has been fined by NASCAR for a pit road incident last weekend following the conclusion of Saturday’s Sprint Cup Series race at Darlington Raceway.

The 2004 champion hit the back of Ryan Newman’s Stewart Haas Chevy on pit road and crew members from his team and Newman’s were later involved in a scuffle.

Busch had been a top-ten contender before a late spin, while Newman also spun behind him trying to avoid hitting the #51 car of Busch, but their incidents seemed unrelated to the post-race issue, which was under investigation from NASCAR.

Having reviewed the facts, the sanctioning body has issued a US $50,000 fine for Busch and has also placed him on probation until July 25.

His motorhome driver, Craig Stickler, acting as part of his crew, was fined US 5,000 and placed on probation until the end of the year for pushing a cameraman during the altercation between the Phoenix Racing and Stewart Haas crews.

Andrew Rueger, a crew member for Newman, was fined US $5,000 and placed on probation until June 27 for failing to obey instructions from a NASCAR official, while Tony Gibson, crew chief for the #39 car of Newman, received the same probation period due to Rueger’s actions.

NASCAR officials said they would investigate a pit-road altercation after the conclusion of Saturday’s race at Darlington involving Ryan Newman’s Stewart Haas and Kurt Busch’s Phoenix Racing teams.

The scuffle took place after Kurt Busch hit he back of Ryan Newman’s car on pit-road once the race had finished already. Crew members from both teams were then involved in a shoving incident, where a NASCAR official trying to split two crew members ended up lying on the hood of the #51 car of Busch.

NASCAR’s Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton said they were reviewing the facts of what took place, having heard from some of those involved. He added that any resulting penalties, if levied, would be announced later this week.

“We’re still getting all the facts straight,” Pemberton said. “We talked to Ryan [Newman] a little bit and he talked to Kurt [Busch] afterwards and Kurt said that he didn’t mean to hit him on pit road, he was taking his helmet off and looked up and he ran in the back of him.

“There was a lot of stuff going on down there and nobody said anything other than maybe [a NASCAR official] fell back on the hood. Our guys didn’t say anything and we didn’t see that there was anything aggressive towards one of our officials.”

Busch spun with six laps remaining after he had been running in the top ten late in the race. Newman, who was following him at the time, also spun while trying to avoid hitting the Phoenix Racing Chevrolet of his rival.

The 2004 Sprint Cup champion was filmed while verbally abusing an ESPN pit reporter during the 2011 season-finale at Homestead, which added to a few more incidents he had before that, resulting in him losing his drive with Penske Racing.

“It’s easy to say that Kurt blew a fuse again,” Newman told SI.com. “I’m not sure why he did it and tried to run over our guys and NASCAR officials. And nobody is. I think the chemical imbalance speaks for itself. Kurt drilled me in pit lane and said that he was taking his helmet off, and he didn’t see where he was going.

“I’m pretty sure there were 42 other guys that are taking their helmets off and doing whatever for the last 10 years, and that’s the first time that’s happened to me.

“Circumstances I think are that he lied and was so frustrated that he doesn’t know how to deal with his anger.”

Danica Patrick said she accomplished the goals she set for her second Sprint Cup outing, her first at Darlington, finishing 31st on Saturday night’s 500-miler.

The Stewart-Haas driver had an uneventful race at one of NASCAR’s toughest venues, having started the weekend 1.5 seconds off the pace in Friday’s opening practice, where she also had a first brush with the wall.

However, she showed improved pace throughout the weekend despite a slow start to her race, soon falling a lap down as the event unusually ran caution-free for the first 171 laps.

On lap 282, when she was already three laps down, Patrick had her only incident of the day when she was penalised for a hitting the cone that marks the end of the commitment line at pit entry, dropping another three laps behind eventual winner Jimmie Johnson.

Despite her result, Patrick seemed satisfied to have crossed the finish line with her car in one piece, taking some valuable lessons out her first Cup race at Darlington.

“I think I held my own alright,” Patrick said. “And, the other one was to finish, and both of those things happened. So, overall, good night. I will be much less worried coming back to this place.

“My goals were to run respectable, at times even passing and having decent speed and to finish. We did both of those things, so I think overall it was a really successful weekend at a track that could have been a disaster.

“This is a step in the right direction. I can finally thank Tony (Stewart) for putting this one of the schedule.”

Patrick will be back in a Cup car in two-week’s time to face the longest NASCAR race of the season at Charlotte, where she expects to make yet another step towards becoming competitive in Cup.

Rick Hendrick praised Jimmie Johnson and his team following the organisation’s 200th Sprint Cup victory which they claimed on Saturday at Darlington.

Despite Johnson being the driver who had led the most laps during the season ahead of his team-mate Jeff Gordon, It took 17 races for the organisation to move up from 199 wins after the five-time champion had most recently won at Kansas last year.

The team had come close to win a number of races this year but different circumstances had prevented their drivers from getting to Victory Lane, suffering a massive blow at Martinsville last month, where Johnson and Gordon led most of the race and battled for victory between them until their hopes were dashed in an incident during a late restart.

Hendrick paid tribute to late team members as legendary crew chief Harry Hyde, who was instrumental to the outfit’s early success in the 1980s. He also dedicated the milestone win to the memory of family and team members who died in an airplane crash close to Martinsville in 2004.

“I didn’t think it was ever going to happen,” said Hendrick. “I thought we were going to haul those [200th-win commemorative] hats around forever!… When we got to 199, we got stuck.

“I was at a wedding for one of my best friends in the western part of North Carolina. And at eight o’clock we jumped on the helicopter and got [to Darlington]. I’m so proud of the guys and all of the folks from Harry Hyde that helped me get this thing going, to everybody…

“I just want to thank everybody and those folks that gave it all and gave their lives in ’04, my family and my friends, this is a special night we’re going to remember them.”

Jimmie Johnson, who has contributed to the organisation’s tally with 56 wins, was reminiscent of how Hendrick and Gordon gave him the chance to kick off a successful career in NASCAR’s elite series in 2001.

Since then, Johnson is accountable for more than half the races the team has won.

“I wouldn’t have won a bunch of these now if it wasn’t for his vision and [sponsor] Lowe’s coming on board to believe in me in the beginning,” said Johnson.

“I wouldn’t be here today to contribute to these great wins. But in typical Rick Hendrick fashion he said, ‘We got 200, now let’s go get 250′, so we didn’t even savor it. He’s already put the pressure on us to go win 250!”

Hendrick Motorsports ranks second in the all-time NASCAR Sprint Cup winning teams behind Petty Enterprises which claimed 268 wins, 197 achieved by Richard Petty alone.

Jimmie Johnson claimed his and Hendrick Motorsports’ first victory of the season and the team’s 200th NASCAR Sprint Cup win on Saturday night at Darlington Raceway.

The five-time champion led 133 of the 368 laps but had to fend off Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch and reigning champion Tony Stewart (Stewart-Haas), while saving fuel to make it to the finish without an extra stop, following his last visit to the pits with 67 laps remaining.

While Busch seemed to be his main opponent for a while, Stewart eventually emerged as the greater threat until fuel pressure issues at the final restart cost him a last shot at the lead in the green-white-chequered finish.

That allowed Johnson to pull away and claim his third career win at Darlington, but more importantly Rick Hendrick’s long awaited 200th win, following 16 races without a victory for Johnson or the leading NASCAR organisation.

“We’ve been awfully close to getting the 200th win for the last month or two and I’m very happy that we closed the deal today,” said Johnson, who had led the most laps during the season entering Saturday’s race but had not won since the Kansas Chase race in October 2011.

“My mind goes back to the early days of Hendrick Motorsports, the people that won those early races, worked on those early cars, helped Rick build Hendrick Motorsports to what it is today.”

Denny Hamlin led 56 laps through the night and eventually finished second behind Johnson, following a good final restart that allowed him to go past his team-mate Busch and the struggling Stewart.

The three-time champion battled through a broken clutch in the closing stages to finish third, matching his best career result at Darlington, one of only two current Cup tracks where he has yet to win.

Busch was fourth for JGR ahead of a frustrated Martin Truex Jr (Waltrip Toyota), who gave up the lead during the fifth caution of the day, pitting for fuel and tyres as Johnson and Busch, among others, stayed out and gambled on saving fuel.

Roush Fenway’s Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards were sixth and seventh respectively but it was their team-mate and points leader Greg Biffle who seemed to have the edge to fight at the front, leading 74 laps before dropping back in the end with handling issues to finish 12th.

Kasey Kahne also led laps for Hendrick Motorsports and finished eighth ahead of Australian Marcos Ambrose (Petty), who recovered from being a lap down on the leaders. Joey Logano rounded out a great day for JGR with 10th as all three team cars finished in the top 10.

Danica Patrick finished 31st on her second Cup outing, running trouble-free to cross the finish line six laps down after being penalised for hitting the commitment cone on pit entry in a late stop.

Despite Hendrick’s milestone, the team’s day was not all joy as Jeff Gordon carried on his streak of bad luck – suffering two different punctures that caused yet another poor finish.

Results – 368 laps:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car                         Time/Gap

 1.  Jimmie Johnson      Hendrick Chevrolet           3h25m45.000s

 2.  Denny Hamlin        Gibbs Toyota                     + 0.781s

 3.  Tony Stewart        Stewart Haas Chevrolet           + 1.164s

 4.  Kyle Busch          Gibbs Toyota                     + 1.389s

 5.  Martin Truex Jr     Waltrip Toyota                   + 2.037s

 6.  Matt Kenseth        Roush Fenway Ford                + 2.442s

 7.  Carl Edwards        Roush Fenway Ford                + 2.701s

 8.  Kasey Kahne         Hendrick Chevrolet               + 2.872s

 9.  Marcos Ambrose      Petty Ford                       + 3.213s

10.  Joey Logano         Gibbs Toyota                     + 3.303s

11.  Clint Bowyer        Waltrip Toyota                   + 3.479s

12.  Greg Biffle         Roush Fenway Ford                + 3.947s

13.  Paul Menard         Childress Chevrolet              + 4.016s

14.  Regan Smith         Furniture Row Chevrolet          + 4.068s

15.  Brad Keselowski     Penske Dodge                     + 4.086s

16.  Kevin Harvick       Childress Chevrolet              + 4.163s

17.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Hendrick Chevrolet               + 4.265s

18.  Jeff Burton         Childress Chevrolet              + 4.480s

19.  Aric Almirola       Petty Ford                       + 5.035s

20.  Mark Martin         Waltrip Toyota                   + 6.085s

21.  Kurt Busch          Phoenix Chevrolet                + 7.748s

22.  Casey Mears         Germain Ford                      + 1 lap

23.  Ryan Newman         Stewart Haas Chevrolet            + 1 lap

24.  Juan Pablo Montoya  Earnhardt-Ganassi Chevrolet      + 2 laps

25.  David Gilliland     Front Row Ford                   + 2 laps

26.  Landon Cassill      BK Toyota                        + 2 laps

27.  Dave Blaney         Baldwin Chevrolet                + 3 laps

28.  David Ragan         Front Row Ford                   + 4 laps

29.  Bobby Labonte       JTG Daugherty Toyota             + 4 laps

30.  Reed Sorenson       FAS Lane Ford                    + 5 laps

31.  Danica Patrick      Stewart Haas Chevrolet           + 6 laps

32.  Travis Kvapil       BK Toyota                        + 6 laps

33.  AJ Allmendinger     Penske Dodge                    + 11 laps

34.  Jamie McMurray      Earnhardt-Ganassi Chevrolet     + 23 laps

35.  Jeff Gordon         Hendrick Chevrolet              + 29 laps

36.  David Reutimann     BK Toyota                       + 54 laps
Retirements:
     JJ Yeley            Robinson Blakeney Toyota         132 laps

     Cole Whitt          Turn One Chevrolet                35 laps

     David Stremme       Inception Toyota                  32 laps

     Joe Nemechek        NEMCO Toyota                      27 laps

     Mike Skinner        Hamilton Means Toyota             20 laps

     Scott Speed         Go Green Ford                     20 laps

     Josh Wise           Front Row Ford                    19 laps

Danica Patrick says her only goal for her second NASCAR Sprint Cup Series outing at Darlington is to see the chequered flag at one of the championship’s toughest venues.

Despite running a full season in the Nationwide Series, Patrick will only be making her second Cup start in the #10 Stewart Haas Racing Chevrolet on Saturday night, following a tough baptism in NASCAR’s elite series in the Daytona 500, where she was involved in incidents in both the qualifying race and the main event.

The former IndyCar star struggled during the first practice session where she ranked slowest, 1.5 seconds off pacesetter Kevin Harvick, having a brush with the wall which left the tradiional ‘Darlington stripe’ on the right side of her car.

“This is a tough place and everything they said about it is true,” said Patrick following her first few laps at the 1.366-mile oval. “This ‘lady in black’ is very intimidating. I’m just trying to get comfortable with what the car needs me to do: where to brake, how heavy to brake and those kinds of things.”

Despite a tough first outing in her Cup car on Friday, having run earlier in the day in her Nationwide series Chevy, Patrick made good progress during the second practice session, ranking 24th and improving her speed steadily.

Later in the day she ran her fastest lap on her second qualifying flyer, finishing 38th fastest out of 47 cars.

Although she was guaranteed the start on Saturday’s race thanks to her car’s top-35 status in the owners’ standings, being driven by David Reutimann since the second race of the year at Phoenix, her time would have allowed her to make the field regardless.

“I just want to finish, which is going to be a challenge I think,” Patrick said. “The cars definitely move around quite a bit and you’re carrying a lot of speed through these corners and there’s going to be a lot of other guys that are around you running really hard.

“It’s a narrow track. Let’s face it, it’s got great big straightaways, but there’s one lane going in and out. Just getting to the end of the Cup race is going to be the accomplishment for me. It’s also going to be the best for experience.”

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points leader Greg Biffle beat Jimmie Johnson to pole position for Saturday’s 500-mile race at Darlington.

The Roush Fenway Racing driver just edged the Hendrick Motorsports racer with a lap of 27.281 seconds, at an average speed of 180.257 mph, to claim his second pole of 2012, having started from the top spot earlier this season at Bristol.

Biffle, a two-time Darlington winner, had been second fastest in the first practice session behind Richard Childress Racing’s Kevin Harvick, also running second best in final practice behind Penske’s AJ Allmendinger.

The former Truck and Nationwide Series champion joked after his run that his qualifying effort was almost hampered by a small balloon flying in front of him as he was set to start his first flying lap.

“It may sound stupid but that red balloon over there caught me more off-guard than anything,” said Biffle. “I gave up in Turn 4, saw this thing in the middle of the track and almost lost concentration.

“But that was a pretty on-edge lap. I felt like I left a lot on the table on Turns 1 and 2 but I guess I got through [Turns] 3 and 4 pretty good.”

Johnson beat Hendrick team-mate Kasey Kahne to second despite setting identical teams by virtue of his better ranking in the points standings. The five-time champion was the first of at least five cars to brush the wall in the opening practice, getting the traditional ‘Darlington stripe’.

A third Hendrick-built Chevy, Ryan Newman’s Stewart-Haas Impala, was fourth fastest ahead of the Toyotas of Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch and Michael Waltrip Racing’s Martin Truex Jr.

Roush’s Carl Edwards was seventh ahead of pre-race favourite Denny Hamlin, who ran very consistent laps during the second practice, showing strong race pace in his JGR Toyota Camry. Last year’s surprise winner Regan Smith and RCR’s Jeff Burton rounded out the top 10 in qualifying.

Scott Speed, making his third start of the season, was the fastest of the non-guaranteed drivers in 29th, while Danica Patrick will line up 38th for her second Cup race, her first at Darlington.

Scott Riggs, Michael McDowell, Stephen Leicht and Mike Bliss failed to make the field.

The 2012 S2 NiCAS wasted no time getting down to business at Talladega.

Coming into the week, much was in there air about what kind of racing we would see. Early in the week however, it was shown that the tandem drafting method would reign superior over pack racing. With that being said, the cars could only push for 2-3 laps before overheating became and issue, and a swap would be needed.

Joshua B Gerrald of Texas is one man who proved he could master this style of sim-racing, winning the top race of the week and earning 360 points to give him the early Division One points lead. It was a race that Gerrald was almost unable to take a part in, being car number 27 of the 29 car field in a race where a  driver’s rating (iRating) determined their seeding. That was not a problem at all for Gerrald or Cody Byus, as the top two finishers pushed their way through the field to a one-two finish after starting outside the top twenty-five. Adam Gilliland, Alex Ciambrone and defending NASCAR iRacing.com Series World Championship overall champion Ray Alfalla rounded-out the top five.

Gerrald (27) and Byus (26) drafted their ways to the front to win the top split of the week from Gilliland (14) and Ciambrone (7).

As was the case with the last NiCAS season, come season’s end the top ten Class A licensed drivers will be promoted to the NASCAR iRacing.com Pro Series (NiPS) taking place this coming winter. This is the second of three season which will make out the field, and as always it is huge to get a good start to the season. Along with Gerrald and Byus, Maxime Paquetter had a stellar start to the season, along with former NiPS competitor Jukka Savolainen, Brandon Atkinson, and Chase Raudman.

For the drivers who couldn’t care less about points and just want to race, there is a spot for them too. Joey Schmidt threw down nine wins to earn the most trips to victory lane of the 1,653 competitors who took part in the opening week of the season. Mike Burnell raced a staggering 39 times, winning three with nine top fives. A great week of participation, one of the best ever, as 108 drivers raced ten or more times, with the most laps completed going to Rick Savage who made it around the 2.66 mile track 2,314 times.

From one of the easiest tracks to drive on the circuit, to undoubtedly the hardest oval the series will face. Week Two will weed out the boys from the men in a hurry as the haulers make the trek to Darlington, South Carolina for a visit to the track “Too Tough To Tame”. Wheeling a car as it slips and slides around Darlington Raceway will put some hair on your chest, but only the best can make a trip to victory lane.

Daley (2) beating Coleman (15) to the line.

“I’ll have to say that was one of the best races I’ve been a part of on iRacing.” – Byron Daley

For season two, the high Strength of Field (SoF) races were moved to Friday nights. Week One’s SoF race had 28 drivers and a SoF of 5060. When it was all said and done, NiSWC driver Byron Daley (New York) came out on top after taking the lead for the final time with 4 laps to go. Daley had help from teammate Chad Coleman (Georgia), who finished second after pushing Daley to the win. Byron received 324 points for the win while Coleman received 312 points for finishing second. Lee Herron (Carolina) finished in the third position while Peter Bennett (Connecticut) finished in the fourth position. For their finishes, Herron netted 300 points while Bennett netted 288. Alex Ciambrone (Pennsylvania) rounded out the Top Five and received 276 points. The race had three cautions for 11 laps and 14 leaders for 38 lead changes.

Daley had this to say after the race, “I’ll have to say that was one of the best races I’ve been a part of on iRacing. The competition was stout and it made for an action packed race. I think the key that race was when I got tagged and about wrecked out of turn 4 that gave me the run laps later to make a 4 wide pass which put me out front for the end. Narrowly sliding in front of Chad Coleman sealed the win as everyone fought for position to the start finish line.”

Five wide at Talladega.

After the first week of the season, Daley led the weekly and season standings with 324 points after his victory in the SoF race. Coleman was second in the standings with 312 points after his second place finish while Herron was third at the end of the week with 300 points. Defending NiSWC champion Ray Alfalla (Florida) finished the week in the fourth position after finishing sixth in the SoF race and winning his second race of the week. Alfalla finished the week with 281 points. Ciambrone rounded out the Top Five for the week after his fifth place finish in the SoF race. Ciambrone finished with 276 points.

At the end of the week Gary Czlapinski (New Jersey) sat on top of the qualifying charts. Czlapinski turned a 52.728 second lap. Adrian Duncan (Eastern Canada) was second on the charts with a 52.732 second lap while Helge Gravemeyer (DE-AT-CH) was third with a 52.736 second lap. Chris Jessee (Plains) finished the week fourth with a 52.737 second lap while James Howard (Mid-South) rounded out the Top Five with a 52.747 second lap around the 2.66 mile track.

Week one of the NiCBS saw high participation with high points. Week Two looks to be just as exciting as the series will travel to the track that is too tough to tame, Darlington Raceway. Racers will look to gain as many points as possible in route to possibly taking the crown from defending champion Phil Juhring (Atlantic). Who will make their names known at Darlington? Find out next week at InRacingNews!

Tony Stewart was critical of NASCAR rules hampering engine cooling at restrictor-plate tracks, making sarcastic comments following Sunday’s race at Talladega.

The reigning Sprint Cup champion endured a tough end to his afternoon, finishing 24th and four laps down on the winner after being involved in an incident during a late restart, having led 16 laps before that.

NASCAR kept the technical package unchanged from the season-opener at Daytona, where the sanctioning body issued a number of rules aimed at breaking the two-car tandems that prevailed for the past two years at restrictor-plate tracks.

Speaking after the race, Stewart was sarcastic in his comments in reference to how the race unfolded from his perspective, with engine operating temperatures running higher than usual due to the cooling restrictions imposed.

“The racing was awesome,” said Stewart. “It’s fun to be able to race and have to watch the (temperature) gauges at the same time. It makes us as drivers have to do so much more.

“Being able to make yourself run on the apron and everything else to try to get clean air, it makes it fun.”

Jeff Gordon, the winningest Cup driver at restrictor-plate tracks, believes technical rules need to be adjusted before the series returns to Talladega during this year’s Chase.

He reckons drivers avoided racing aggressively for most of Sunday’s afternoon Cup race as there was too much emphasis needed on keeping engine temperatures under control.

“I think that we all knew coming in here that the opening on the grill and some of the things were probably not sufficient,” said Gordon.

“I think that would be nice next time we come back here to have a little concession for Talladega. In July, I don’t know what we are going to do in Daytona in July. There is just that fine line between getting the temperatures right and not being able to push.

“To me right now we are teetering on the side of having to be just a little too conservative. I’d like to be up there taking it three-wide, pushing cars and making some good exciting moves because I know we have a car that can be up front, but it’s just too risky at this point in the race.”

Four cars appeared listed as retired with engine-related issues following Sunday’s race, two of those happening on Hendrick Motorsports units which suffered with oil pump-related issues.

Roger Penske is confident Brad Keselowski will deliver his NASCAR organisation their maiden Sprint Cup title following his second win of the season at Talladega on Sunday.

Penske, who has enjoyed a successful start to his teams’ 2012 campaigns with six wins across his NASCAR and IndyCar programs, was full of praise for Keselowski following his victory on Sunday, labeling his performance ‘perfect’.

The ‘Captain’ has only once won a title after 40 years of his organization fielding cars in NASCAR, the lone championship trophy coming courtesy of Keselowski’s Nationwide crown in 2010.

“He’s been a tremendous asset to the team,” said Penske. “You can see when he comes in the shop, he’s spending a lot of time. I wouldn’t trade him for anybody right now.

“He’s the real package. What we’re trying to do is give him everything we can to make him a winner.

“Obviously, one of the goals in my life is to sit up on that (Awards Banquet) stage in New York or Las Vegas, and I think he’s the guy that can make it happen this year hopefully.”

Keselowski, who made great strides towards making this year’s Chase thanks to his second win of the year, believes he is capable of delivering Penske’s maiden Cup title, which he claims has been a dream of his since committing to work for the ‘Captain’.

Although he refuses to commit to it happening this season despite his strong start, he believes a title in NASCAR’s elite series will just be a matter of time for him and Penske Racing.

“I look at some of the other elite car owners in the sport, and I don’t want this to be offensive, but to win another Cup championship for Hendrick or Richard Childress is not the same as winning the first for Roger Penske,” said Keselowski. “That’s a whole different accomplishment.

“I think he has certainly paid his dues in this sport… he can get it done. I want to be the guy that, you know, proves it in the record books.”

Keselowski, who won three races en route to fifth in the 2011 Cup standings, currently ranks 12th in points after ten races.

Brad Keselowski claimed his second victory of the NASCAR Sprint Cup season as he left Kyle Busch behind in the last dash of a green-white-chequered finish at Talladega.

The Penske driver got the decisive push from Busch on the penultimate lap when the green waved for the last time, following a multi-car incident ignited by Keselowski’s team-mate AJ Allmendinger, who made contact with Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin.

The Roush Fenway duo of Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle had been quickest off the line and pulled away initially until they got disconnected, losing their momentum while watching the Dodge/Toyota tandem pass them.

Keselowski and Busch got up a head of steam, breaking away from their rivals to fight it out between them on the final lap, and although Busch seemed in the ideal position to attack out of the final turn, the Gibbs driver could not stay with his Penske rival heading to the flag, leaving Keselowski’s Dodge unchallenged up front.

“I had this whole plan if I ever got in that situation where I was leading,” said Keselowski after giving Dodge its first win at Talladega since 1976.

“I thought about it and thought about it, dreamed about what to do and sure enough, going into [Turn] 3, it was just me and Kyle. And I knew the move I wanted to pull. It worked because the guy running second should have the advantage, but I had this move all worked up in my mind.

“I went into Turn 3 high and pulled down off of Kyle and broke the tandem up. That allowed me to drive untouched to the chequered flag.”

Busch was left wondering what went wrong on the final half-lap to prevent him from challenging Keselowski, after he had been in the exact opposite position in Saturday’s Nationwide Series race, where he got beaten by Joey Logano, who was pushing him before the finish line.

“Somehow getting into Turn 3 just got disconnected from [Keselowski],” said Busch. “Once that happened, the race was over, it was all his. I’m not sure he did anything, if he did, he’s pretty smart, but I think our stuff just came unplugged.”

Kenseth finished third with bodywork damage on the right front following contact with fellow Ford driver Casey Mears, but despite that he had the speed to contend for victory in the end after leading the most laps. He lamented that his final move with Biffle did not work as planned.

“We got in front of the #2 [Keselowski] and Kyle and as soon as we became clear it wasn’t long after that that I looked back and we were separated and those guys were outside of him,” said Kenseth.

“With nobody behind him he lost his speed and with me not paying enough attention during that to keep us hooked up it cost us a shot at the win, it cost Greg a shot at the win.”

Kasey Kahne finished as the top Chevrolet in fourth ahead of Biffle, who remained the points leader, now followed by Kenseth.

Dale Earnhardt Jr led 10 laps but could not get a proper run in the green-white-chequered finish, complaining of a very loose car in dirty air.

He finished ninth in the end in what turned out to be a tough day for Hendrick Motorsports as Jimmie Johnson retired with an engine failure and polesitter Jeff Gordon was involved in a multi-car incident 45 laps from the end. Another Hendrick-powered Chevrolet, Ryan Newman’s Stewart-Haas car, succumbed to a similar issue to Johnson.

The race went trouble-free for most of the first half of the distance, only one caution waving due to Regan Smith’s Furniture Row Chevrolet blowing up. However there were four different incidents in the last 46 laps, including one involving Keselowski, who accidentally turned around former Penske team-mate Kurt Busch with six laps remaining.

A number of drivers struggled with high engine temperatures during the race, many avoiding any bump-drafting for most of the day to save their machinery for the closing laps, where only 19 cars were listed on the lead lap.

Results – 194 laps:

Pos  Driver                Team/Car                         Time/Gap

 1.  Brad Keselowski       Penske Dodge                 3h13m17.000s

 2.  Kyle Busch            Gibbs Toyota                     + 0.304s

 3.  Matt Kenseth          Roush Fenway Ford                + 0.598s

 4.  Kasey Kahne           Hendrick Chevrolet               + 0.636s

 5.  Greg Biffle           Roush Fenway Ford                + 0.654s

 6.  Clint Bowyer          Waltrip Toyota                   + 0.692s

 7.  David Ragan           Front Row Ford                   + 0.782s

 8.  Trevor Bayne          Wood Brothers Ford               + 0.838s

 9.  Dale Earnhardt Jr     Hendrick Chevrolet               + 0.839s

10.  Jeff Burton           Childress Chevrolet              + 1.046s

11.  Jamie McMurray        Earnhardt-Ganassi Chevrolet      + 1.063s

12.  Aric Almirola         Petty Ford                       + 1.115s

13.  David Gilliland       Front Row Ford                   + 1.218s

14.  Marcos Ambrose        Petty Ford                       + 1.233s

15.  AJ Allmendinger       Penske Dodge                     + 1.292s

16.  Travis Kvapil         BK Toyota                        + 1.300s

17.  Paul Menard           Childress Chevrolet              + 1.918s

18.  Casey Mears           Germain Ford                     + 7.392s

19.  Michael Waltrip       Waltrip Toyota                  + 16.565s

20.  Kurt Busch            Phoenix Chevrolet                 + 1 lap

21.  Bobby Labonte         JTG Daugherty Toyota             + 2 laps

22.  David Reutimann       Baldwin Chevrolet                + 2 laps

23.  Denny Hamlin          Gibbs Toyota                     + 2 laps

24.  Tony Stewart          Stewart-Haas Chevrolet           + 4 laps
Retirements:
     Kevin Harvick         Childress Chevrolet              184 laps

     Joey Logano           Gibbs Toyota                     184 laps

     Robert Richardson Jr  R3 Toyota                        182 laps

     Martin Truex Jr       Waltrip Toyota                   166 laps

     Terry Labonte         FAS Lane Ford                    143 laps

     Dave Blaney           Baldwin Chevrolet                142 laps

     Carl Edwards          Roush Fenway Ford                142 laps

     Juan Pablo Montoya    Earnhardt-Ganassi Chevrolet      142 laps

     Jeff Gordon           Hendrick Chevrolet               142 laps

     Landon Cassill        BK Toyota                        141 laps

     Jimmie Johnson        Hendrick Chevrolet                61 laps

     Ryan Newman           Stewart-Haas Chevrolet            42 laps

     Bill Elliott          NEMCO Toyota                      37 laps

     Tony Raines           Joe Falk Chevrolet                32 laps

     David Stremme         Inception Toyota                  30 laps

     Regan Smith           Furniture Row Chevrolet           15 laps

     Joe Nemechek          NEMCO Toyota                       7 laps

     Josh Wise             Front Row Ford                     5 laps

     Michael McDowell      Parsons Ford                       2 laps

Dale Earnhardt Jr is optimistic that Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Talladega could be the event where he finally brings his long winless streak to an end.

The Hendrick Motorsports driver, a five-time winner at Talladega, has been a top contender in recent restrictor-plate events, pushing team-mate Jimmie Johnson to victory a year ago at the 2.66-mile venue and most recently finishing second in the season-opening Daytona 500.

Earnhardt has enjoyed his strongest season start since joining Hendrick and he currently heads his team-mates Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Kasey Kahne in the standings, running second in the points race, only five adrift of leader Greg Biffle.

“I feel like my confidence goes up when I come here,” said Earnhardt ahead of Sunday’s 500-miler at Talladega.

“I think that any driver should feel the same way when you go to Talladega or Daytona because the cars are all really even. You just have to make good decisions. You don’t really have to rely on a lot of the things, or count on all the things that your normally do at other racetracks.

“I think everything we did at Daytona was a top-five – the Shootout, we wrecked, but we ran second or third in the [Duel], and were second in the Daytona 500. We feel confident this weekend.”

Earnhardt has been critical of the tandem drafting technique that NASCAR is hoping to hamper this year through rule tweaks – which appear to be having the desired effect at Talladega.

Drivers have been wary about engine temperatures running on the edge due to weather conditions this weekend, something Earnhardt believes suits his chances more than in recent races at Talladega.

“This probably is one of our better shots as far as how the drafting has changed with the rule changes they made before Daytona. That suits me better,” said Earnhardt.

“As hot as it is, I think that even leans toward us pack racing more than tandem racing. I’m pretty sure that is kind of in my favour.

“I’m looking forward to the race. My odds I don’t think have increased just because of how well we’ve run this year. We’re just going to see how it goes.”

Besides Earnhardt hoping to end a streak of 138 races without victory, Hendrick Motorports is still seeking its 200th Cup win after coming close a number of times over recent weeks. The Chevrolet squad, 11 times a winner at Talladega, has yet to score its first victory of 2012.

Jeff Gordon claimed his 71st career pole position in qualifying for Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Talladega.

Taking an unusual approach to his qualifying run, Gordon was able to beat the session’s long-standing benchmark set earlier by Penske’s AJ Allmendinger, with a second flying lap of 49.973 seconds, at an average speed of 191.623mph, and was the only driver to break under the 50-second mark.

While drivers usually run the first of two laps on a high line to gain maximum speed and momentum for the second one, which they run on the inside, Gordon took the shortest line on both of them, and was already fourth fastest with his first one.

Gordon’s pole means he continues a streak of setting at least one pole position every season for the past 20 years, matching a record set by NASCAR legend David Pearson.

“We need something to boost our morale and some positives because we’ve had a rough year so far,” said Gordon, who ranks 17th in the drivers’ standings after nine races.

“We just wanted to try something different in qualifying. We tried it yesterday on the one run that we made. This is a different monster than Daytona and you’ve got to treat it a little bit different. I just felt we could get up to speed and you don’t need to run that high line that takes more time. But I did not expect that good a lap.”

Allmendinger’s front row starting position is his third consecutive top four result in qualifying for Penske Racing, as he beat the Richard Petty Motorsports Fords of Australian Marcos Ambrose and his team-mate Aric Almirola, who had set the pace in practice in both of Friday’s practice sessions.

Hendrick’s Kasey Kahne was fifth fastest ahead of points leader Greg Biffle, the best of the Roush Fenway Fords that dominated earlier this year at Daytona, the only other restrictor-plate venue.

Biffle’s team-mate Edwards was seventh fastest and will share the fourth row of the grid with reigning champion Tony Stewart, while Michael Waltrip had a solid return behind the wheel of his #55 MWR Toyota with the ninth quickest lap, ahead of the third Roush car of Daytona 500 winner Matt Kenseth.

Trevor Bayne was the fastest of the non-guaranteed drivers in 11th, ahead of Earnhardt Ganassi’s Juan Pablo Montoya.

Last year’s spring Talladega race winner Jimmie Johnson will see the green flag wave from row 10, beside his Hendrick team-mate Dale Earnhardt Jr, who pushed him to victory a year ago.

JJ Yeley was the only non-qualifier.

Carl Edwards says he has already got over his frustration about the penalty that cost him a shot at Richmond victory last week.

The 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup runner-up had a chance to bring a 42-race winless streak to an end at Richmond before confusion during the fourth caution.

Leader Edwards had yet to pit while most of his rivals had done so already, the majority going a lap down as a consequence. Once he pitted, the order set by NASCAR showed reigning champion Tony Stewart in the lead but there was conflicting information which had Edwards still leading.

When the race resumed, the Roush Fenway driver was black-flagged by NASCAR after officials ruled he had jumped the restart, getting up to speed outside the zone set for that purpose.

Edwards eventually dropped a lap down after serving his penalty and only managed a 10th-place finish after leading more than half the distance.

“Last week is last week, that is done and behind us,” said Edwards. “There is nothing that I can do or say that is going to change it. That is last week.”

Edwards said he had done everything in his power to have the controversial call cleared up after having discussed the issue with NASCAR officials.

“I gave my honest assessment of what I thought happened and how I felt about it,” Edwards said. “I spoke with NASCAR and came to the conclusion that those actions are all that I can take. That is it. There is nothing else that I can do. I am satisfied that personally I did everything I could do and that is that.”

Earlier this week, NASCAR’s vice president for competition Robin Pemberton claimed that the misunderstanding had been on Edwards’ Roush team, not on the officials’ side.

“The confusion was on their part,” said Pemberton. “That’s something they have to work on in their communication. We work with the crew chiefs, and if the crew chief thought there was something, the crew chief would have radioed us.

“But multiple times during that last lap, it was repeated [that the order was] ‘#14, #99′ [Stewart-Edwards] from more than one source.”

Edwards last won a race in March 2011 at Las Vegas and he currently ranks ninth in the standings, right behind Stewart.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers expect little tandem racing on Sunday at Talladega as engine temperatures are running more on the edge than in the season-opener at Daytona.

The 2012 season’s second restrictor-plate race will see a technical package unchanged from the Daytona 500. NASCAR introduced a number of technical and sporting rules tweaks for the first race of the season, hoping to get cars racing in packs again rather than the tandems that prevailed for the past two years at both superspeedways.

Those changes included a smaller and higher air intake for the radiator, a lower pressure on its relief valve, a lower rear bumper, a bigger restrictor-plate, a smaller rear spoiler, plus the banning of driver-to-driver radio communications.

With higher temperatures at Talladega this weekend relative to those of Daytona in February, drivers experienced overheating worries in Talladega practice even when not trying to bump-draft.

“I don’t think you can stay together at all,” said Kyle Busch. “We’re running 230, 240 [degrees water temperature] just pack drafting and then once you get pushed from behind or you have somebody close to you, it kind of moves you forward a little bit to the car that’s in front of you. You’re already 245, 250. That’s already borderline for our engines.

“You can probably take them to 260, 265 on water temperature before you start pushing water, but we don’t want to jeopardise that and push water too early in the race and run ourselves out of water. Our limit is about 240 [degrees] until two [laps] to go.”

Six-time Talladega winner Jeff Gordon said operating temperatures would be a ‘major issue’ during the race and expects NASCAR to review the current technical package before Sunday, when ambient temperatures are expected to raise slightly compared to Friday’s practice sessions.

He added that under the current situation there is little the driver can do to prevent overheating, which he fears may translate into a long, dull race before the final dash to the flag.

“There is nothing we can do other than be in just complete clean air,” said Gordon. “That is the thing, the one positive that I see out of it. We should see a lot less pushing – which I think is a good thing for the racing, but at the same time you want to be able to get aggressive enough to where you can get up there to that rear bumper of that car in front of you and not necessarily push them, just pack air there to try to get the momentum to try to make some passes.

He added: “I think there is a fine line between preventing the pushing and not being able to race hard at all.”

Roush Fenway’s Carl Edwards expects Sunday’s race to be ‘fun’ despite the cooling restrictions and the high temperatures expected. He still foresees potential for multi-car accidents.

“If the weather stays warm like this and the cars are sliding around like they were out there I think it will be a real fun race,” said Edwards. “This package seems to make it a little harder to bunch up and partner up. It will keep us, I think, in a big group. I am torn on that.

“It is worse because you have a better chance of being involved in somebody else’s wreck but it is more fun and I guess fun is why we do this anyway. I think it is going to be as good as Talladega can be.”

Ford drivers dominated events at Daytona in February – taking a front-row sweep, a duel victory and the win in the season-opener with Matt Kenseth. The Roush-Yates prepared FR9 unit is believed to have a cooling advantage over rival manufacturers, which may turn out to be crucial again at Talladega.

Friday’s practice sessions was topped by Richard Petty driver Aric Almirola, as Fords took a top-three sweep in the final session with Kenseth and team-mate Greg Biffle trailing Almirola on the timesheets.

Sheehan burns his remaining virtual rubber celebrating his Richmond win.

Sheehan first took the lead on Lap 144 of 200, but it was the decision not to pit with the rest of the field on Lap 168 that put him in position to win. Alex Warren, Joshua Laughton and Florian Godard tried the same strategy, but were unable to defend their positions from Gorlinsky, Ottinger, Berry and others on fresh rubber.

Sheehan had the luxury of being the leader, which meant he dictated the pace on several restarts, allowing him to build a cushion over the drivers with new tires.

“The longer we went, the closer our tires got, and the more competitive my car got.” — Steve Sheehan

“I think three others stayed out so I needed them to pile-up . . . or I needed more yellows,” said Sheehan. “We got a quick yellow but John (Gorlinsky) was right there. We got a couple more short dashes as per usual, and it took all I had to hold on.  But the longer we went, the closer our tires got, and the more competitive my car got.”

The series of quick cautions which helped Sheehan’s old tires cool down, also took out many of the top contenders. Points leader and defending series champion Ray Alfalla was one such victim. Alfalla was running fifth trying to pass the slower cars on old tires when Godard had to get out of the gas a bit coming out of Turn Four.  In the resulting stack-up, Alfalla made hard contact with the outside wall that left him in 30th spot, 14 laps behind, at the finish.

Alfalla's points lead took a hit as the result of his late race crash.

Ottinger was another strong contender all night. He claimed his fourth pole position of the season and ran in the top five most of the race but just did not have the long run speed of Sheehan, Alfalla and Gorlinsky, who were clearly the class of the field.  Although Ottinger led the late chase of Sheehan, Gorlinsky got the better of him with ten laps remaining to claim the runner-up spot.  Likewise, Berry grabbed third spot from Tyler Hudson with just ten laps remaining and finished less than a second behind the victorious Sheehan.

Alfalla remains the championship leader despite his poor finish.  However, his lead has been trimmed to only two points over Michael Conti, who also had a disappointing result, coming home twenty-fourth. Brian Schoenburg had an up-and-down night before coming home thirteenth and remains third in the standings, now eight points out of the lead. Farther back in fourth and fifth stand Hudson and Ottinger.

Ottinger (05) started on pole and led 16 laps en route to a third place finish.

Next week, the series visits the track that most would consider the toughest out there: Darlington Raceway. “The Track Too Tough to Tame” has claimed its fair share of virtual race cars over the past two seasons of the NiSWC, and this year’s race promises more of the same. Veterans such as Sheehan, Alfalla and Brad Davies are drivers to watch, though last year rookie driver Brad Wright held-off Davies for a surprise win.

Alfalla needs a rebound at Darlington to keep the points lead, but his momentum might be stalled after a tough result at Richmond. If anyone has anything for the defending champ, next week is the time to let it all hang out.

Richard Petty Motorsports has hired race-winning crew chief Mike Ford to run the #43 car driven by Aric Almirola.

Ford, who spent the past six years as Denny Hamlin’s crew chief at Joe Gibbs Racing, winning 17 Cup races and making the Chase in every full season, will start working alongside Almirola with immediate effect – beginning this weekend’s race at Talladega.

Ford replaces Greg Erwin, who has been a crew chief at RPM since last summer, when he was named in the role for the same car, driven by AJ Allmendinger.

“Mike Ford is an elite crew chief who knows what it takes to be a winner at this level,” said team owner Richard Petty. “We’re fortunate that he was available and that we could reach a deal to bring him over to our place.

“We’ve taken a lot of big steps at Richard Petty Motorsports in the past year and I think this might be that one piece of the puzzle we were missing.”

Almirola is currently ranked 23rd in the Cup driver standings, his best result being an eight-place finish at Martinsville. His RPM team-mate Marcos Ambrose ranks right ahead of him in points after nine races.

Although the 28-year-old Almirola has competed in Cup since 2007, this is his first full season at NASCAR’s top-level. Last year he finished fourth in the Nationwide Series standings, driving for JR Motorsports in his first shot at a full campaign in the second-tier series.

“I can’t wait to start working with Mike,” said Almirola. “Everyone in the garage respects him and knows what he’s capable of. It’s a goal of the #43 team to make the Chase this year and I think Mike’s experience and knowledge can help get us there. We’ve got some ground to make up but I think we can do it.”

Kyle Busch claimed his first NASCAR Sprint Cup win of the season by holding off a charging Dale Earnhardt Jr in a short sprint to the finish at Richmond.

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Busch took his fourth consecutive victory at the track’s spring event, making the most of a quick final stop from his crew which allowed him to lead the field during the final restart, ahead of reigning champion Tony Stewart.

Hendrick’s Earnhardt was quick off the line while Stewart spun his tyres when the green flag waved for the final nine laps, Earnhardt surging up to second place to put the pressure on the leader. However, a long brake pedal in the final laps stopped him from closing on Busch.

Plenty of controversy arose following the fourth caution of the race, where Roush Fenway’s Carl Edwards was penalised for jumping the restart as he shared the front row with Stewart. There seemed to be confusion regarding who was leading the field as there was conflicting information, although NASCAR officials stated Stewart was in the lead, once the penalty had been served by Edwards.

The Roush Fenway Racing driver claimed his team was told by NASCAR it was the leader ahead of the restart and was adamant officials made the wrong call by showing him the black flag, costing him a chance to claim his first win of the season after he had led more than half the distance.

Full report to follow…

Results – 400 laps:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car                         Time/Gap

 1.  Kyle Busch          Gibbs Toyota                 2h51m06.000s

 2.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Hendrick Chevrolet               + 1.095s

 3.  Tony Stewart        Stewart-Haas Chevrolet           + 2.021s

 4.  Denny Hamlin        Gibbs Toyota                     + 2.545s

 5.  Kasey Kahne         Hendrick Chevrolet               + 2.887s

 6.  Jimmie Johnson      Hendrick Chevrolet               + 3.375s

 7.  Clint Bowyer        Waltrip Toyota                   + 4.145s

 8.  Mark Martin         Waltrip Toyota                   + 4.677s

 9.  Brad Keselowski     Penske Dodge                     + 4.942s

10.  Carl Edwards        Roush Fenway Ford                + 5.163s

11.  Matt Kenseth        Roush Fenway Ford                + 5.606s

12.  Juan Pablo Montoya  Earnhardt-Ganassi Chevrolet      + 6.106s

13.  Paul Menard         Childress Chevrolet              + 7.331s

14.  Jamie McMurray      Earnhardt-Ganassi Chevrolet     + 16.044s

15.  Ryan Newman         Stewart-Haas Chevrolet          + 16.062s

16.  AJ Allmendinger     Penske Dodge                    + 17.425s

17.  Bobby Labonte       JTG Daugherty Toyota            + 17.514s

18.  Greg Biffle         Roush Fenway Ford               + 17.864s

19.  Kevin Harvick       Childress Chevrolet             + 19.219s

20.  Landon Cassill      BK Toyota                         + 1 lap

21.  Casey Mears         Germain Ford                      + 1 lap

22.  Marcos Ambrose      Petty Ford                        + 1 lap

23.  Jeff Gordon         Hendrick Chevrolet                + 1 lap

24.  Joey Logano         Gibbs Toyota                      + 1 lap

25.  Martin Truex Jr     Waltrip Toyota                    + 1 lap

26.  Aric Almirola       Petty Ford                       + 2 laps

27.  Regan Smith         Furniture Row Chevrolet          + 2 laps

28.  Kurt Busch          Phoenix Chevrolet                + 3 laps

29.  Dave Blaney         Baldwin Chevrolet                + 3 laps

30.  Travis Kvapil       BK Toyota                        + 3 laps

31.  Jeff Burton         Childress Chevrolet              + 4 laps

32.  David Ragan         Front Row Ford                   + 6 laps

33.  David Reutimann     Baldwin Chevrolet                + 6 laps

34.  Reed Sorenson       FAS Lane Ford                    + 8 laps

35.  Stephen Leicht      Falk Chevrolet                   + 9 laps

36.  David Gilliland     Front Row Ford                  + 45 laps
Retirements:
     David Stremme       Inception Toyota                 139 laps

     Josh Wise           Front Row Ford                   127 laps

     Michael McDowell    Parsons Ford                      67 laps

     Cole Whitt          Turn One Chevrolet                29 laps

     Joe Nemechek        NEMCO Toyota                      28 laps

     Mike Bliss          Humphrey Smith Toyota             23 laps

     Scott Speed         Leavine Family Ford               19 laps

Side by side racing in the NASCAR iRacing Class C Series is a common occurance.

The season long battle between Justin Brooks and Heath Hindman for the NASCAR iRacing Class C Series (NiCCS) crown came down the final two weeks of the season. Hundreds of sim racers came out to test their skills at the Darlington Raceway and Kentucky Speedway in the final two rounds, but when the final laps were ran and the checkered flag fell on 2012 Season One, it was Brooks who would ultimately edge out Hindman for the prestigious title.

Week Eleven of the series took the Trucks to the Darlington Raceway where Phil Juhring took the top spot over 400 others who took a green flag at the track “Too Tough to Tame.” Juhring’s big win of the week came during a 2801 sof race on April 10th in which he led all but two laps in the race en route to the win over Michael Simons II, Sam Edwards, Eric Purcell2 and Greg McKinney. Juhring started the 90-lap race from the pole and had to outlast four cautions to punch his ticket to victory lane. The top two in this race were awarded with the top two spots of the week with Juhring and Simons II taking 175 and 163 points away from the race, respectively.

Also on the podium for the week at Darlington was Canadian Jordan Westfall. Westfall would wind up in victory lane on April 11th during a 2582 sof race in which he led 36 laps, including the most important one, ahead of Craig Jernigan, Shelvin Johnson, Wes Weidman and Gary Fridinger. Johnson started from the pole and led 54 laps before surrendering the lead to Westfall, who started third on the grid. For the victory, Westfall was credited with 159 points.

Patrick Smart made the most starts of the week at Darlington, taking 11 green flags over the seven day span. David Krikorian and Chad Pruitt each won four times on the week, the most of any others who were in the search for the checkers at “the Lady in Black.” Jukka Savolainen was the quickest in qualifying, putting in a time of 28.246 seconds around Darlington. Krikorian, Eric Hoggarth, Brooks and Jason Karlavige completed the top five in single truck qualifying. The top Time Trial honor went to Dustin Bartee on Week Eleven, over Manuel Bubbers, Matthew Shanks, Roger Stanley Jr and Earl Landry.

The final round of the season took the NiCCS drivers to the Kentucky Speedway. Pruitt continued his winning ways from Darlington and followed it up with a big win at Kentucky to capture the weekly victory during Week Twelve. His win, which tipped the scales at 3138 sof, saw Pruitt lead exactly half of the 90 laps in the race after starting from the inside of Row Three. In fact, five of the 18 drivers who started the race led at least one lap in the event. Finishing second in the race was McKinney, followed by Fridinger, Tony Monge and Dominic Krischke. Michael Tasillo, who started on the pole and led a dozen laps of the 90 completed would finish 12th. Pruitt was awarded with 197 points for his win.

Casey Malone was second for the week at Kentucky after a win on April 22nd in a 3094 sof race. Malone started tenth and led ten laps en route to the win over Gene Miller2, Edward Burch Jr, Joey Israelson and Billy Weeks. Marko Viitanen led over half (48) of the laps but would cross the line in seventh, faring better than pole sitter Patrick Davis, who finished 15th in the event. Three cautions slowed the event while the lead was exchanged eight times amongst seven drivers. Malone pocketed 194 points for the win.

Rounding out the podium at Kentucky was NASCAR iRacing.com Series World Championship driver Pat Baldwin. The 3120 sof affair on April 21st which saw Baldwin pull into victory lane featured two cautions and saw the winner lead 50 laps after starting in the 11th spot. Following Baldwin to the line was Aaron Lovell, followed by Chris E Pence, Edward Szigeti and Sean Hall. Davis once again found himself on the pole but would up coming home ninth in the race. Baldwin captured 194 points in his victory at Kentucky.

Maxx Harris closed off the season by making 26 starts in the final week of 2012 Season One while Rob Miles put 13 wins up on the board, the only driver to hit a double digit win total at Kentucky. Savolainen once again flexed his muscle in qualifying as his 31.020 second lap was quicker than that of Tasillo, Ray Schoder, Michael McLain and Robert Lee. Victor Vollrath was the top driver in the final week of the Time Trial competition as his run at Kentucky was better than that of Tasillo, Kirschke, Christopher DiBenedetto and Bubbers. Bill Brown was crowned the NiCCS Time Trial champion for 2012 Season One with 785 points. Stephen Riggs, JD Bartone, Chris Allex and Bartee completed the top five of 843 who attempted a Time Trial run in the first quarter of ’12.

After the final laps were ran and the points tallied, Brooks will go down as the 2012 Season One champion of the NiCCS with 1576 points, 37 points more than Hindman’s total of 1539. Division Two titlist Jernigan rallied to finish third overall this season with 1385 points, four more than Trey Jarrell’s 1381. Savolainen completed the top five with 1362 points, just five more markers than Pruitt’s 1357 total. Divisional champions from Division Three to Ten include Tom Moustakas, Michael Atkins Jr., Rock Harris, Michael Valentin, Fausto Bessa Gomes, Robert Cori, Sean Cummings2 and Robert Mason2.

The NASCAR iRacing Class C Series fires up again for 2012 Season Two action at the start of May.

Mark Martin claimed his second NASCAR Sprint Cup series pole position of the season in qualifying for Saturday night’s race at Richmond.

The Michael Waltrip Racing veteran had been quickest in the opening practice session and backed up his speed by bumping Roush Fenway’s Carl Edwards from pole after being the last car to complete his qualifying run.

Martin, 53, set a time of 21.040 seconds on his second flying lap, at an average speed of 128.327 mph around the 0.755-mile track, beating Edwards by a mere six thousandths of a second. His pole is MWR’s third out of nine races this season, as the Toyota outfit continues to look for its first win of 2012.

“That was a good lap, I didn’t think I could get the pole,” said Martin after winning his 53rd career pole. “I enjoy working with MWR. They believe in me and we’re having so much fun.

“In my heart, I really want to make MWR better. That’s more important to me than anything.”

Richard Childress Racing’s Kevin Harvick, the most recent winner at Richmond, was third fastest as he continued his run of good qualifying efforts. Last week’s polesitter, Penske’s AJ Allmendinger, will share the same row with Harvick as he did at Kansas last Sunday when they started first and second respectively.

Kyle Busch, winless for his last 20 races, was fifth fastest in his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, ahead of Hendrick Motorsports’s Jeff Gordon and JGR’s Denny Hamlin.

MWR’s Martin Truex Jr and the Hendrick pairing of Kasey Kahne and Dale Earnhardt Jr – fastest in the second practice of the day – rounded out the top 10.

Reigning champion Tony Stewart, who won Thursday’s Denny Hamlin Short Track Showdown charity race, was 22nd fastest, while points leader Greg Biffle was a disappointing 28th fastest, right behind Hendrick’s Jimmie Johnson, who brushed the wall early into first practice.

RCR’s Paul Menard was forced to use his back up car after crashing his primary one in practice due to a broken throttle which stuck wide-open while exiting Turn 4.

Michael McDowell was the fastest of the non-guaranteed drivers in 25th, while Scott Riggs and JJ Yeley failed to make the field.

Pos  Driver              Team/Car                      Time     Gap

 1.  Mark Martin         Waltrip Toyota                21.040s

 2.  Carl Edwards        Roush Fenway Ford             21.046s  + 0.006s

 3.  Kevin Harvick       Childress Chevrolet           21.087s  + 0.047s

 4.  AJ Allmendinger     Penske Dodge                  21.100s  + 0.060s

 5.  Kyle Busch          Gibbs Toyota                  21.101s  + 0.061s

 6.  Jeff Gordon         Hendrick Chevrolet            21.135s  + 0.095s

 7.  Denny Hamlin        Gibbs Toyota                  21.138s  + 0.098s

 8.  Martin Truex Jr     Waltrip Toyota                21.147s  + 0.107s

 9.  Kasey Kahne         Hendrick Chevrolet            21.161s  + 0.121s

10.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Hendrick Chevrolet            21.169s  + 0.129s

11.  Aric Almirola       Petty Ford                    21.184s  + 0.144s

12.  Ryan Newman         Stewart-Haas Chevrolet        21.194s  + 0.154s

13.  Kurt Busch          Phoenix Chevrolet             21.205s  + 0.165s

14.  Marcos Ambrose      Petty Ford                    21.213s  + 0.173s

15.  Regan Smith         Furniture Row Chevrolet       21.225s  + 0.185s

16.  Brad Keselowski     Penske Dodge                  21.261s  + 0.221s

17.  Dave Blaney         Baldwin Chevrolet             21.266s  + 0.226s

18.  Joey Logano         Gibbs Toyota                  21.274s  + 0.234s

19.  Bobby Labonte       JTG Daugherty Toyota          21.278s  + 0.238s

20.  JP Montoya          Earnhardt-Ganassi Chevrolet   21.290s  + 0.250s

21.  Landon Cassill      BK Toyota                     21.294s  + 0.254s

22.  Tony Stewart        Stewart-Haas Chevrolet        21.302s  + 0.262s

23.  Clint Bowyer        Waltrip Toyota                21.311s  + 0.271s

24.  Matt Kenseth        Roush Fenway Ford             21.313s  + 0.273s

25.  Michael McDowell    Parsons Ford                  21.325s  + 0.285s

26.  Casey Mears         Germain Ford                  21.346s  + 0.306s

27.  Jimmie Johnson      Hendrick Chevrolet            21.350s  + 0.310s

28.  Greg Biffle         Roush Fenway Ford             21.356s  + 0.316s

29.  Travis Kvapil       BK Toyota                     21.369s  + 0.329s

30.  Jeff Burton         Childress Chevrolet           21.408s  + 0.368s

31.  Paul Menard         Childress Chevrolet           21.408s  + 0.368s

32.  Josh Wise           Front Row Ford                21.411s  + 0.371s

33.  David Reutimann     Baldwin Chevrolet             21.423s  + 0.383s

34.  David Stremme       Inception Toyota              21.432s  + 0.392s

35.  Joe Nemechek        NEMCO Toyota                  21.448s  + 0.408s

36.  Scott Speed         Leavine Racing Ford           21.456s  + 0.416s

37.  Jamie McMurray      Earnhardt-Ganassi Chevrolet   21.485s  + 0.445s

38.  David Ragan         Front Row Ford                21.503s  + 0.463s

39.  Mike Bliss          Humphrey Smith Toyota         21.545s  + 0.505s

40.  Stephen Leicht      Childress Chevrolet           21.574s  + 0.534s

41.  Cole Whitt          Turn One Chevrolet            21.663s  + 0.623s

42.  David Gilliland     Front Row Ford                21.690s  + 0.650s

43.  Reed Sorenson       FAS Lane Ford                 21.705s  + 0.665s

Did not qualify:
     Scott Riggs         R3 Chevrolet                  21.807s  + 0.767s

     JJ Yeley            Robinson-Blakeney Toyota      22.030s  + 0.990s

Leading Sprint Cup series drivers have pointed at aerodynamics as the cause for uneventful races in 2012.

Races at Texas and Kansas Motor Speedway have had record average speeds for the winner due to very few caution flags waving, narrowing the number of drivers able to contend for victory in the closing stages.

As a consequence, some fans have expressed their desire to see the field bunched up more often in order to get more closely-fought races.

Last year’s championship runner-up Carl Edwards has pointed the finger at aerodynamics as the key factor preventing races from being more action-packed, saying that cars are very reliant on clean air and that overtaking is extremely difficult as a result.

“I firmly believe, and NASCAR hates it when I say this, that we should not be racing with downforce, sideforce and all these aerodynamic devices,” said Edwards. “We do not need splitters on the race cars and giant spoilers.

“I have not been around long enough to say something definitely, but it is pretty common sense: if all the cars are very similar and all the drivers are within a tenth of a second of each other but are relying on clean air and downforce, then by definition if the guy in front of you is disturbing the air then your car is not going to be able to go as fast as it could in clean air.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr believes that track characteristics can create an additional difficulty in overtaking, with a lack of grip foiling drivers’ attempts to profit from clean air.

“If you get tight [with understeer] behind a guy or you just can’t catch him because you are in the dirty air or whatever, [so] you try to move around and find some clean air,” Earnhardt said.

“You move up to the top, [but] not every track provides you with multi-grooves to run and try to catch somebody or pass somebody. To really make a pass on a 1.5-mile track, it’s difficult to run right up behind somebody and just pull over and go by them.”

Earnhardt’s team-mate Johnson reckons that in order to change the developing trend, tracks must make adjustments that provide for more high-speed side-by-side racing.

“The reason we can’t pass more often is we’re all virtually running the same speed,” said Johnson. “You have to be a half-second faster to pass someone or three-tenths at least; and when you’re a tenth or two off of the leaders, from first to 20th, you can’t pass.

“So, I understand why we’re here, but I don’t think we can look at the garage area for the next change. The Car of Tomorrow has brought a lot of great things for us.

“I think the change comes with the venues. The change comes with the resurfacing of tracks and reconfiguring tracks to make more side-by-side racing.”

Kyle Busch says his Joe Gibbs Racing team is still trying to get to the bottom of set-up issues that have hampered him during the start of the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season – but thinks this weekend’s Richmond race could start his recovery.

The Toyota driver won four races last year and led the standings prior to the Chase, but is currently only 13th in the drivers’ standings, with just a single top-five finish in eight starts in 2012.

While Busch has struggled so far, his team-mate Denny Hamlin has won at Phoenix and Kansas, while the third JGR entry of Joey Logano is one place ahead of Busch in the standings.

Busch is the only one of the trio to have retained his crew chief from 2011 – Dave Rogers – but has not benefited from that stability.

“I think that we have been a little bit off this year and why? I don’t know,” said Busch at Richmond on Friday. “It’s just kind of been a little bit of a struggle to find comfort in the cars and speed in the cars this year so far for me.

“This year, it seems like the #11 [Hamlin] is doing a little bit better job of being able to show up to the racetrack ready to go and have speed in the cars.

“The #18 [Busch's crew] and the #20 [Logano] are now scratching their heads a little bit. We’re trying to turn it around and this is a good place for us that we’ve run really well at in the past. I’m hoping that this weekend we can kind of redeem ourselves and run top five at least.”

Still hunting for his first Cup title, Busch has put more focus on his premier class effort this year and reduced his Nationwide and Truck involvement – but does not think this change of strategy has paid off.

“I’ve spent a lot more time on the Cup stuff,” says Busch. “I’ve been spending time with Dave in the hauler on the weekends during the race events talking over different things about how our car was in practice, what we need to look at to change, qualifying adjustments, race adjustments – all that stuff.

“I could be dialling myself out a little bit too much, maybe by talking too much or saying too many things, where before I’d be off to the next practice and not spending so much time with Dave, and Dave would just surprise me and I’d just drive the thing.”

Hamlin believes that by sharing information with Busch’s crew, his race-winning success will soon rub off on his team-mate.

“We feel like we’re in a good enough spot now that they’re taking a lot of what we see and applying it to their cars,” said Hamlin. “They’re going to get better here pretty soon – this weekend, probably.”

Kevin King was king of the hill in Kentucky, collecting 344 points for Sunday's win.

One of the best championship battles in recent memory, if not ever, took place between Jared Crawford and the up and coming Jason Karlavige. It ended with Crawford on top by a slim 58 points. Along with the championship, Crawford earns the equally important number one seed into the 2012 NiPS taking place at years end. Despite a solid effort, that would have crushed the competition in any past season, Karlavige will have to settle for second on the season.

The top ten overall Class A licensed sim races at season’s end earn a promotion up the ranks to the Pro license level. This is the first of three seasons that the ladder system will be in effect, where the 3o promoted Class A drivers will join the bottom 25 in this season’s NASCAR iRacing.com Series World Championship (NiSWC) season, thus making the 55 driver NiPS field. From there, the top 25 drivers will be promoted to a NiSWC license, giving them a chance to take part in the highest series in online racing, which pays in  excess of $10,000 to the champion.

The following drivers have all put in an outstanding effort, making the top twelve in one of the highest rated season long battles to date.

Jared Crawford 2716
Jason Karlavige 2658
Adam Gilliland 2339
Casey Malone 2252
Philipp Geiss 2161
Richard Dusett 2125
Dylan Duval 2108
Brandon Schmidt 2107
Kyle Gottula 2049
Kenneth O’Keefe 2039

The iRacing.com system places drivers in divisions based on ratings entering the season. Your division does not hinder you from racing in top races throughout the season as the lower rated drivers begin to improve, but it provides a more level playing field, allowing drivers to run for a championship with other drivers with the same skill set. There are ten divisions, which means ten very happy champions at season’s end.

As 2012 Season 1 disappears up the road, it's time to prepare for Season 2 of the NiCAS.

Former NiPS driver Robert Frieary III locked down the Division Two Championship handily over second place Derek Crone, with Mike Avison rounding-out the podium. The Division Three crown went to Malik Ray over Ian Hann, while Daniel Hake won a nail-biter over Bill Ross Jr. in Division Four. Edward Burch Jr. of New York won the Division Five title walking away, while Jay Kluk of Ohio edged-out Jeff Paris by only 16 points in Division Six. Another nail-biter in Division Seven; this time it is Lewis King edging fellow Mid-South driver James Boyett by a mere seven points. Not to be outdone, California’s James Falcon Pratt beat out the Pennsylvanian Andrew Cornelius by just three points to earn the Division Eight title. Two drivers looking to move up in rankings next season are John Schilling and Dustin Bryson, the Division Nine and Ten Champions.

Of the 2,516 competitors to take part in the widely successful 2012 opening NiCAS season, a few drivers stood-out for different reasons. The most impressive was current NiSWC driver Patrick Baldwin going big with 19 wins in his 37 starts, earning him the most wins of anyone. 14 drivers scored ten or more victories on the season. The dedication award has to go to Howard Bell, who competed it 150 races over the twelve week season, earning the most starts. Bell was one of seven drivers who raced over 100 times on the season.

With all that being said, you can put a bow on 2012 Season One, and look ahead to future racing. For some it means trying to steak out their ground at the next level of racing, while others are focused on more modest goals. Whatever your goals may be, good luck, and congratulations to all our champions from everyone here at inRacingNews.

Bristol Motor Speedway is set to lose its progressive banking before NASCAR returns in August, track officials announced Wednesday.

Following decreasing crowds at one of NASCAR’s most popular and unique venues, track owner Bruton Smith announced that the upper lane of the half-mile, high-speed oval will be modified, eliminating the increased, variable banking that had been in place since the track’s latest repave in 2007.

A grippy concrete surface plus the progressive banking allowed drivers to race in different grooves since then, reducing the need for contact whereas the old surface didn’t allow for so much side-by-side racing without some bumping and banging.

Last month’s Cup race at the half-mile oval drew a crowd of just over 100,000, less than two thirds of full grandstand capacity. The event had few incidents and only five caution periods waved for 49 of the scheduled 500 laps, a low figure by Bristol standards.

Smith said he based his decision on fans opinions, although Sprint Cup drivers were mostly against making any modifications, a number of them pointing at tyre-degradation as factoring in making the races dull.

“I said when this process began last month that I would listen to what the fans said they wanted,” Smith said. “The fan feedback over the past month, along with input over the past few years, was the impetus for alterations to the track.

“Since March 28, when we announced that changes would be made, we have listened to fans, heard from drivers and talked to engineers about what to do and how much time we had to do it. Once we knew the direction, we located the right equipment to make it happen.”

Three-time Cup champion Darrell Waltrip, who holds a record 12 victories at the track, suggested that despite the racing still being good at the Tennessee venue, fans preferred the old eventful Bristol carnage, over the current side-by-side racing.

“The problem with this racetrack is it has a reputation,” said Waltrip. “It reminds me of a restaurant. This place was a meat and three (sides), that’s what this joint was. You knew what you were going to get, the food was great, you left there full and you were happy. And then someone decided to turn it into a gourmet restaurant…

“The food in the gourmet restaurant is better than any food you can get in town but it’s not what I want, it’s not what I’m used to. What happened to my meat and three?”

Work has already started at the track with the grinding of the concrete of the upper lane. A number of Sprint Cup teams are expected to run in June during a Goodyear tyre test on the new surface before NASCAR’s national series return to compete between August 22 and 25.

Karlavige starting from the pole at Richmond.

The last SoF race of the season took place at the usual time and had an SoF of 4374. The race had 25 drivers and paid 279 points to win. Jason Karlavige (Pennsylvania) once again dominated the race. Karlavige started on pole and lead 106 laps on his way to a 1 second victory over Brad Mahar (New England).

“The last two weeks have been outstanding for Gale Force Racing in the B series.” – Jason Karlavige

When asked how his last two weeks have been, Karlavige said “The last two weeks have been outstanding for Gale Force Racing in the B series. To go out and lead the whole race in Texas was special; I wasn’t expecting to do that with guys like Tyler Hudson and Devan Hall in the field. We were able to carry our momentum over to Richmond, where our setup was just straight up fast. Between the Cup car and the Nationwide, this has been a season that we all could be proud of. The Nationwide car is my favorite car to run on iRacing, and I really do enjoy being able to run these high SoF races on Thursday nights. I would not be able to get it done without my teammates, especially Joe Holt and Jared Crawford, who put a TON of time into our B cars this season. We’ve been strong not only in race trim, but in qualifying too. It’s a good feeling as a driver to start out front, and stay away from any trouble that may come behind. Congrats to Phil Juhring on wrapping up a championship season and we’re looking forward to a lot of great racing in this series next season!”

Mahar, who was second in points, needed every point he could get to try and win the championship. For his second place finish, Mahar received 267 points. Joe Holt (Mid-South) finished in the third position and received 255 points. David Cater (Carolina) and Devan Hall (Georgia) rounded out the Top Five.  Cater and Hall received 244 and 232 points respectively.

Watch the broadcast here.

At the end of the week, Karlavige was at the top of the weekly standings. Karlavige ran two races, finishing first and second and finished the week with 279 points. Mahar finished the week in the second place after finishing runner up to Jason in the SoF race. Mahar had 267 points. Brandon Buie (Atlantic), coming off a sixth place finish in the SoF race, finished the week in third with 220 points. NiSWC driver Tyler D Hudson (Mid-South) finished the week in the fourth place after winning all four of his races. Hudson left Richmond with 207 points. Fellow NiSWC driver Vinnie Sansone rounded out the Top Five after winning his only race of the week and netting 200 points.

Champion Phil Juhring at Richmond.

As the season came to an, Phil Juhring was able to maintain his points lead after a disappointing final week at Richmond. Juhring finished the season with eight wins in 17 races and 1739 points.

“I had a really good season. We were strong week in and week out. I was fortunate enough to work with a great bunch of guys.” – Phil Juhring

Juhring had this to say about his championship season, “I had a really good season. We were strong week in and week out. I was fortunate enough to work with a great bunch of guys. We put a ton of time in each week first finding speed, and then doing 20 to 25 lap race runs. I especially have to thank Dustin Montgomery for all his help this season. This championship may not have been possible and certainly would have been much more difficult without him. My strategy this season was to start up front each week and have a good long run setup. I didn’t want to press the issue early on in these races and in each run. Just survive, be around at the end and then make the most of what I had. I was able to accomplish that most weeks. I’d also like to congratulate the rest of the top 10 in B car points as well as each division winner. The racing at the front of the fields was solid week in and week out. Thanks to ETV for broadcasting the race each week and bringing these SoF fields together.”

Brad Mahar finished the season in the second position.  After fighting for a second place finish at Richmond and netting 267 in the final week, Mahar came up 71 points short. Mahar ran 26 races on the season with five wins and 17 Top Fives with 1668 points. Buie finished the season in the third position with one win and five Top Five’s in 15 starts. Buie finished with 1508 points. John Bunton (Carolina) finished fourth while Jeffrey Parker rounded out the Top Five. Bunton had one win and 6 Top Five’s in 20 races while Parker had three wins and 16 Top Five’s in 35 races. Bunton finished with 1466 points while Parker finished with 1430 points.

Division Champions

Division 1 – Phil Juhring

Division 2 – Alex Scribner

Division 3 – Matthew Spangler

Division 4 – Bruno Noronha2

Division 5 – Edward Burch Jr.

Division 6 – Matthew Burroughs

Division 7 – Fausto Bessa Gomes

Division 8 – Jim Alexander

Division 9 – Kevin Smith5

Division 10 – Shawn Gayton

Rookie – Justin Flores

Pastrana199 Racing will debut its iRacing.com Toyota Camry in the hands of Travis Pastrana in Thursday’s NASCAR K&N East Series race at Richmond International Raceway, a race which will be broadcast live on SpeedTV beginning at 7 pm EDT.   The world’s foremost online racing service, iRacing.com will also serve as the primary sponsor of Pastrana’s car in K&N East races at Langley Speedway, Iowa Speedway and New Hampshire Motor Speedway (NHMS), as well as an associate sponsor of his Nationwide Series entry at NHMS in July.

“iRacing.com is proud to be associated with Travis Pastrana and Pastrana199 Racing,” says Steve Myers, iRacing.com executive vice president and executive producer. “Travis is one of the most dynamic and popular personalities on the American motorsports scene, and we believe the experienced professionals at Pastrana199 Racing will give him an opportunity to achieve great success in the K&N East and Nationwide Series this season.”

“We’re excited to be partnering with iRacing.com at selected K&N East and Nationwide Series races,” says Ty Norris, Michael Waltrip Racing executive vice president of business development and general manager. “The fact that iRacing.com and NASCAR jointly sanction a number of online racing series speaks volumes for the quality of their service, as does the fact that a lot of us at Michael Waltrip Racing – including Travis – are active iRacers.”

Indeed, while Richmond is the first K&N East race for the iRacing.com Toyota, Pastrana is already quite familiar with the red, white and blue of iRacing.com.  That’s because he prepares for upcoming races by practicing – and racing – on the online motorsport simulation service.

“iRacing is a blast to drive, but it’s also great preparation,” says Pastrana.  “As a rookie in the K&N and Nationwide Series, I’m seeing a lot of tracks for the first time. But after doing hundreds of laps on them on iRacing, I feel right at home right from the start of practice. iRacing really short-cuts the learning curve.”

Pastrana not only practices on iRacing, he races on iRacing. Last week he hosted his own K&N race under the virtual lights of iRacing’s precise replica of Richmond International Raceway. The race attracted more than two dozen iRacers, none of whom cut the “ringer” any slack.

“We had a great time,” says Pastrana. “I managed to qualify in the top ten and then had some good battles in the race with a couple of guys. First of all, it was fun and I think the other iRacers enjoyed it. But I also learned a few things that I intend to put to good use on Thursday.”

Pastrana hopes to host races at all of the iRacing tracks on his schedule this season. And with tracks like Darlington, Charlotte, Chicagoland, Indianapolis, Atlanta, Iowa and NHMS on the K&N East and Nationwide calendar, expect Pastrana to be putting a lot of what he learns on iRacing to good use this season.

Poleske was the one who put the most points up on the board in Week Eleven and Twelve competition at the New Hampshire Motor and Thompson International Speedway’s, respectively. The big race on the “Magic Mile” of New Hampshire Motor Speedway took place on April 12th in which Poleske led 11 of the 75 laps en route to the win over Paul Wisniewski, Brandon Salvatore, David Markham and Rick Webster. Salvatore started from the pole and led 63 laps in the race, the most of any driver in the event. Poleske took a whopping 240 points from the 3868 sof race which saw just three cautions while Salvatore’s 205 point performance was good enough to seal up third for the week.

Thompson International Speedway hosted the finale of 2012 Season NiTMS.

Wisniewski would go on to make three additional starts on the week to compliment his runner up spot in the highest rated race of the week. While he won one race, his second highest point total which went towards his fourth best 197 on the week took place during a 3555 sof race on April 12th in which he finished third to Brett Osborn. Osborn led 12 laps after starting fourth in his adventure to the checkered silk over TJ Graves, Wisniewski, Markham and Larry Pyrtle. Salvatore led the most laps in this race as well (50) but finished in ninth place. For his win, Osborn was rewarded with 216 points while Graves and his 194 points placed him fifth overall for the week.

Gary Holbrook made the most appearances on the grid for the week with seven. He turned two of those starts into wins and shared the top win total with Samuel Dick. Other winners from the week at New Hampshire include Pyrtle, Mungin, Forest Schneiter3, Graves, Wisniewski, Osborn and Poleske. Salvatore topped the qualifying charts with a 28.486 second lap over Mungin, Dick, Jerold John and Herb Engelhart. Holbrook was the top driver in the Time Trial competition over Osborn, Pyrtle, Bruce Hilton and Michael Morrison2.

“This is our fourth straight title in the series and it comes with Giovanni . . . He is an amazing individual and a great driving talent.” — Herb Engelhart, owner, Wide Open Racing

The story was slightly different for Poleske en route to the top of the weekly point standings in the Finale for 2012 Season One for the Tour Modifieds. Poleske gained 190 points by finishing third in the top race of the week, which tipped the scales at 3646 sof. The event at Thompson was won by Troy Talman, as he led 91 of the 125 laps in his victory on the Connecticut high banks. Two cautions slowed the event that saw Dick, Poleske, Ray Farlow and Mitch Miller finish off the top five. Osborn led 33 laps in the event before fading back to the 13th place spot at the finish. Poleske and Farlow’s finishes in this race rewarded them with the top spots in the standings for the week after Talman and Dick went on to make additional starts on the week with Mike Daniel, who finished sixth in this race, taking fifth overall for the week with 138 points.

In fact, Talman (159 points) and Dick (156 points) each went on to make a handful of starts with Talman getting the advantage on Dick  in the win column, edging his 3 to 2. Dick’s biggest win was in a 2463 sof race on April 21st when he took the checkers first ahead of John, Derrick Cormier2, Holbrook and Carl Sundberg. Dick dominated the race, leading 111 laps from the pole.
Four drivers made five starts on the week at Thompson. In addition to Talman and Dick filling their hands, David Chmura and Miller each took five green flags in Week Twelve. Talman and Dick were the only two sim racers to take away multiple wins on the week while Miller, Wisniewski, Osborn, Joe Gauthier and Dillon Raffurty each took a trip to Thompson victory lane. Nathan McGee put his Tour Modified on the pole for the week with a lap of 18.340 seconds over Osborn, Richard Smith5, Dick and Talman. The final week of Time Trials went to Talman over Dick, Osborn, Trent Hullum and Pyrtle. The overall title for 2012 Season One went to Osborn, defeating Hullum by 39 points. Completing the top five for the season included Holbrook, Tim Gould and Hilton.

Mungin may have shown a clean pair of heels to the competition in the NiTMS standings, but the racing action was still plenty fierce..

Mungin’s margin of victory in the standings will officially go down as 187 points to last season’s champ Salvatore with a tally of 1817 to 1630. Taylor Meyn (1491) edged out Engelhart (1473) for third in the standings with Dick completing the overall top five (1402). Poleske’s strong finish to the season vaulted him to the top of the Division Two standings with Chmura taking Division Three by 15 points over Zach Brewer. William Kabela locked up Division Four while David Schamp fell 14 points short of his goal in defeating David Ross in Division Five. Timothy Finnegan took a triple digit victory in Division Six as did Division Seven and Eight champs Sebastian Taylor and James Falcon Pratt. Curtis Berleue (32 points) and Nicholas Maxwell (38 points) collected divisional titles in Divisions Nine and Ten for the season, respectively.

Engelhart, owner of Wide Open Racing, was ecstatic with the way his team and champion driver Mungin performed this season. “This is our fourth straight title in the series and it comes with Giovanni, who makes it three different drivers from our team to win the championship,” said Engelhart after the final event of the season. “He is an amazing individual and a great driving talent. He was a real treat to work with this season. He put in massive amounts of time and effort this season into the series from Day One and it showed quickly.”

The 2012 Season Two season for the NASCAR iRacing Tour Modified season begins in May.

Until next time, keep the hammer down and we’ll see you at the track!

Kansas Speedway officials have started work on the repave and reconfiguration of the track, following Sunday’s Sprint Cup series race.

Amid mixed views from drivers about the planned changes, the green flag waved for the project shortly after the track hosted round eight of the Cup season.

Demolition of the current surface kicked off Sunday afternoon as track officials hope to have the track ready in time for NASCAR’s return in October.

A number of NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers have considered the repave unnecessary, but during the weekend track president Pat Warren showed members of the media at Kansas a large chunk of asphalt that popped from between turns one and two, as evidence of how the current surface was breaking up in places.

The track experiences some drastic temperature changes during the year, which have led to it deteriorating after being in use for nearly 11 years.

Warren stated that a repave was absolutely necessary in order to prevent further issues in the future, like those faced by Daytona two years ago when a pot hole halted the season opener for more than two hours.

“I can’t imagine a situation where a race track would repave unless it had no choice,” said Warren. “We are a publicly traded company. When we have capital to invest, money to invest, we want to invest in things that will make the fan experience better. Repaving a race track is a really expensive proposition that doesn’t necessarily improve the fan experience at all.

“If we had a choice, we would never repave a race track. It’s a lot better to pave it once and leave it. Especially if the quality of racing is good and there are no safety issues. But as we saw in Daytona a few years ago, these things do get old, they do wear.”

Besides the new surface, the track will get variable banking in the corners plus an infield layout will be built in order to host a wider range of events in the future.

Denny Hamlin secured his second victory of the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup season at Kansas Speedway.

The Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota driver defeated long-time leader Martin Truex Jr (Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota) in a tight finish.

Full report to follow…

Results – 267 laps:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car                         Time/Gap

 1.  Denny Hamlin        Gibbs Toyota                 2h46m44.000s

 2.  Martin Truex Jr     Waltrip Toyota                   + 0.700s

 3.  Jimmie Johnson      Hendrick Chevrolet               + 3.324s

 4.  Matt Kenseth        Roush Fenway Ford                + 8.017s

 5.  Greg Biffle         Roush Fenway Ford               + 14.317s

 6.  Kevin Harvick       Childress Chevrolet             + 14.498s

 7.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Hendrick Chevrolet              + 18.621s

 8.  Kasey Kahne         Hendrick Chevrolet              + 21.953s

 9.  Carl Edwards        Roush Fenway Ford               + 24.049s

10.  Kyle Busch          Gibbs Toyota                    + 24.433s

11.  Brad Keselowski     Penske Dodge                    + 27.615s

12.  Juan Pablo Montoya  Earnhardt-Ganassi Chevrolet     + 28.404s

13.  Tony Stewart        Stewart-Haas Chevrolet          + 30.714s

14.  Jamie McMurray      Earnhardt-Ganassi Chevrolet       + 1 lap

15.  Joey Logano         Gibbs Toyota                      + 1 lap

16.  Marcos Ambrose      Petty Ford                        + 1 lap

17.  Kurt Busch          Phoenix Chevrolet                 + 1 lap

18.  Paul Menard         Childress Chevrolet               + 1 lap

19.  Sam Hornish Jr      Penske Dodge                      + 1 lap

20.  Ryan Newman         Stewart-Haas Chevrolet           + 2 laps

21.  Jeff Gordon         Hendrick Chevrolet               + 3 laps

22.  Jeff Burton         Childress Chevrolet              + 3 laps

23.  Aric Almirola       Petty Ford                       + 3 laps

24.  Regan Smith         Furniture Row Chevrolet          + 4 laps

25.  Travis Kvapil       BK Toyota                        + 4 laps

26.  Casey Mears         Germain Ford                     + 4 laps

27.  David Gilliland     Front Row Ford                   + 4 laps

28.  Reed Sorenson       FAS Lane Ford                    + 4 laps

29.  David Reutimann     Baldwin Chevrolet                + 5 laps

30.  David Ragan         Front Row Ford                   + 5 laps

31.  JJ Yeley            Robinson-Blakeney Toyota         + 6 laps

32.  AJ Allmendinger     Penske Dodge                    + 10 laps
Retirements:
     Mark Martin         Waltrip Toyota                   255 laps

     Landon Cassill      BK Toyota                        214 laps

     Bobby Labonte       JTG Daugherty Toyota             132 laps

     Clint Bowyer        Waltrip Toyota                   125 laps

     Dave Blaney         Balwin Chevrolet                  82 laps

     David Stremme       Inception Toyota                  80 laps

     Josh Wise           Front Row Ford                    65 laps

     Michael McDowell    Parsons Ford                      58 laps

     Joe Nemechek        NEMCO Toyota                      47 laps

     Mike Bliss          Humphrey Smith Toyota             27 laps

     Scott Riggs         R3 Chevrolet                      18 laps

AJ Allmendinger claimed his second NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career pole in qualifying for Sunday’s 400-mile race at Kansas Speedway.

The Penske racer improved on the previous benchmark set by Richard Childress Racing’s Kevin Harvick, setting a time of 30.683 seconds, at an average speed of 175.993 mph.

Allmendinger’s pole, the first for his outfit this season, capped a good day for the Penske organisation as Sam Hornish Jr, making his first Cup start of the season, was 10th, right ahead of team-mate Brad Keselowski.

“A pole here, hopefully a top 10 tomorrow and having a chance to win the race, these are just little things to keep building momentum,” said Allmendinger after his first Penske pole, which also made him the seventh different polesitter in eight Cup races this year.

“It’s a big deal today. The important day is tomorrow but for one day we’re the best and it’s all that matters now.”

Behind Harvick, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Joey Logano was third despite being first in the order after sitting out the first practice session on Friday due to an engine failure, which automatically sends him to the back of the grid.

That promoted his team-mate Denny Hamlin to third, ahead of the Michael Waltrip Racing Toyotas of Mark Martin and Martin Truex Jr.

Hendrick Motorsports’ Dale Earnhardt Jr split the MWR trio as Clint Bowyer was eighth fastest behind him. Earnhardt’s team-mate Kasey Kahne was ninth, ahead of Hornish’s Penske Dodge, the fastest of the non-guaranteed drivers.

Jimmie Johnson, the most recent winner at Kansas, who had also topped final practice on Friday, was 15th after saving a sideways moment during his run. Points leader Greg Biffle was 17th despite being the fastest of the Roush Fenway Fords, while reigning champion Tony Stewart was 23rd in his Stewart Haas Chevrolet.

Tim Andrews, Jeff Green and Tony Raines failed to make the field.

Pos  Driver              Team/Car                     Time       Gap

 1.  AJ Allmendinger     Penske Dodge                 30.683s

 2.  Kevin Harvick       Childress Chevrolet          30.726s  + 0.043s

 3.  Joey Logano         Gibbs Toyota                 30.730s  + 0.047s

 4.  Denny Hamlin        Gibbs Toyota                 30.740s  + 0.057s

 5.  Mark Martin         Waltrip Toyota               30.772s  + 0.089s

 6.  Martin Truex Jr     Waltrip Toyota               30.779s  + 0.096s

 7.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Hendrick Chevrolet           30.802s  + 0.119s

 8.  Clint Bowyer        Waltrip Toyota               30.804s  + 0.121s

 9.  Kasey Kahne         Hendrick Chevrolet           30.841s  + 0.158s

10.  Sam Hornish Jr      Penske Dodge                 30.842s  + 0.159s

11.  Brad Keselowski     Penske Dodge                 30.846s  + 0.163s

12.  Jeff Burton         Childress Chevrolet          30.870s  + 0.187s

13.  Ryan Newman         Stewart-Haas Chevrolet       30.877s  + 0.194s

14.  Kurt Busch          Phoenix Chevrolet            30.879s  + 0.196s

15.  Jimmie Johnson      Hendrick Chevrolet           30.892s  + 0.209s

16.  David Reutimann     Baldwin Chevrolet            30.892s  + 0.209s

17.  Greg Biffle         Roush Fenway Ford            30.909s  + 0.226s

18.  Matt Kenseth        Roush Fenway Ford            30.948s  + 0.265s

19.  Paul Menard         Childress Chevrolet          30.977s  + 0.294s

20.  Jeff Gordon         Hendrick Chevrolet           30.988s  + 0.305s

21.  Carl Edwards        Roush Fenway Ford            30.991s  + 0.308s

22.  David Gilliland     Front Row Ford               31.004s  + 0.321s

23.  Tony Stewart        Stewart-Haas Chevrolet       31.009s  + 0.326s

24.  David Stremme       Inception Toyota             31.029s  + 0.346s

25.  Kyle Busch          Gibbs Toyota                 31.031s  + 0.348s

26.  Aric Almirola       Petty Ford                   31.034s  + 0.351s

27.  David Ragan         Front Row Ford               31.044s  + 0.361s

28.  Marcos Ambrose      Petty Ford                   31.059s  + 0.376s

29.  Regan Smith         Furniture Row Chevrolet      31.078s  + 0.395s

30.  Bobby Labonte       JTG Daugherty Toyota         31.080s  + 0.397s

31.  JJ Yeley            Robinson-Blakeney Toyota     31.121s  + 0.438s

32.  Landon Cassill      BK Toyota                    31.144s  + 0.461s

33.  Dave Blaney         Baldwin Chevrolet            31.145s  + 0.462s

34.  Scott Riggs         R3 Chevrolet                 31.169s  + 0.486s

35.  Travis Kvapil       BK Toyota                    31.174s  + 0.491s

36.  Jamie McMurray      Earnhardt-Ganassi Chevrolet  31.181s  + 0.498s

37.  Michael McDowell    Parsons Ford                 31.186s  + 0.503s

38.  Josh Wise           Front Row Ford               31.258s  + 0.575s

39.  Juan Pablo Montoya  Earnhardt-Ganassi Chevrolet  31.303s  + 0.620s

40.  Casey Mears         Germain Ford                 31.398s  + 0.715s

41.  Joe Nemechek        NEMCO Toyota                 31.464s  + 0.781s

42.  Reed Sorenson       FAS Lane Ford                31.754s  + 1.071s

43.  Mike Bliss          Humphrey Smith Toyota        31.506s  + 0.823s

Did not qualify:
     Tim Andrews         Go Green Ford                31.581s  + 0.898s

     Jeff Green          Falk Chevrolet               31.808s  + 1.125s

     Tony Raines         Turn One Chevrolet           31.869s  + 1.186s

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points leader Greg Biffle hopes ending a 49-race winless streak at Texas last week will be the springboard he needs to be a title contender in 2012.

The Roush Fenway racer has enjoyed a great start to his campaign, already claiming five top-10 finishes from the first seven races of the season, with 13th places at Bristol and Martinsville being his worst results thus far.

Biffle had been winless since claiming victory at Kansas Speedway back in 2010 but defeated five-time champion Jimmie Johnson last week at Texas Motor Speedway, after the Hendrick driver had dominated.

Now in his 11th Cup season, Biffle admitted to feeling an “urgency” to challenge for a title in NASCAR’s top championship. Second place behind Tony Stewart in 2005 is Biffle’s best result to date.

He feels confident about his Roush Fenway team’s strength this year, with team-mates Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards currently second and 11th respectively in the drivers’ standings.

“I feel an urgency because I’m ready to win it,” said Biffle. “I feel great. I feel better than I ever have in these past five seasons with the way our team is and how competitive we are, and how I’m driving the car and how I feel personally.

“I think anybody feels the urgency to want to win it and, obviously, some day I’m not going to be doing this anymore.”

Biffle’s team-mate Edwards, the 2011 Cup championship runner up, praised his Roush Fenway colleague for his role in helping raise the team up to its current level of performance.

“Right now, Greg is the number one team [at Roush] because they’re leading the points and winning races,” said Edwards.

He added: “I feel that Greg and [crew chief] Matt [Puccia] have had a huge part in building this team, so that guys like myself are able to come in and have success. Greg has my respect. His team has my respect, just like everybody in the garage right now.”

Biffle could become the first driver in NASCAR history to win titles in the three national touring series if he can add a Cup crown to his 2000 Truck and ’02 Busch (now Nationwide) Series championship wins.

Richard Petty says there is currently no decision about which manufacturer his NASCAR Sprint Cup team will represent in 2013, despite the current Ford squad being favourite to take over as Dodge’s lead outfit.

Dodge has yet to announce its 2013 Cup line-up after Penske – its main outfit since ’03 – decided it would switch to Ford from next year.

Petty gave Dodge some of its best years in NASCAR in the 1970s as a driver, winning two Cup titles and 37 races for the brand. The NASCAR legend also fielded Dodge Chargers with his squad, most recently until 2008, when his team was known as Petty Enterprises.

Richard Petty Motorsports currently runs Ford Fusions for Aric Almirola and Marcos Ambrose, with technical support from Roush Fenway Racing and Roush-Yates engines. The team won at Watkins Glen last year with Ambrose.

Petty believes Dodge is yet to make any firm decisions about the shape of its 2013 NASCAR programme, but left the door open to a return to the manufacturer, while also acknowledging that he is in talks to extend his Ford deal.

“Right now, [Dodge] are pretty confused,” Petty said. “They got a plug pulled out of them and weren’t really expecting it. I would imagine they’re going to have to sit down and have some prayer meetings to figure out really what they’re going to do. But I don’t know.

“We’ll consider going anywhere to make a living out of this… Right now, we’re still up with the Ford deal and we’re going everything we can to win races with them.”

Besides Richard Petty Motorsports, Dodge has few good options for 2013 as all mayor rival outfits are currently tied to multi-year deals with Chevrolet, Ford or Toyota.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers have expressed mixed views over the upcoming repaving of Kansas Speedway, where they compete on the current surface for the last time this weekend.

Following recent resurfacing and reconfiguration projects at a number of NASCAR tracks, such as Daytona, Phoenix and Michigan, and with changes to Bristol looming, Kansas is yet another venue set to take on a different look before the Cup field returns again.

The track will get new asphalt and increased, variable banking, among other changes including an infield road course. The layout’s current 15 degree banking will change to 17 and 20 degrees, an alteration that, combined with the new surface, is expected to increase cornering speeds.

Roush Fenway’s Carl Edwards, who considers Kansas Speedway to be his home track, led critics of the plan.

“I would not resurface this track ever,” said Edwards. “I wouldn’t resurface tracks ever if it were up to me. I’d patch the holes and keep on running.”

He added: “There are so many different things that NASCAR and our sport has to manage and I know no one wants to sit through a delay while they fix a hole in the track.

“I understand that we have to address those things, but I am a racer that likes to race on a bumpy, rough, slick racetrack with the cars sliding all over the place. That’s what I like.”

Jeff Gordon, winner of the first two races staged at the mile-and-a-half track, agrees with Edwards’ view that the track’s current condition makes for good racing – but also insisted he trusted track owner International Speedway Corporation.

“I don’t really understand why they are paving this racetrack,” said the four-time Cup champion. “It looks great out there. This place is awesome. I wish they wouldn’t touch it.”

He added: “I feel like ISC has got enough information and experience paving racetracks that I have faith they can do the right thing.”

Penske’s Brad Keselowski, who claimed his maiden Cup win at Kansas a year ago, recalled how in 2004 a chunk of loose concrete at Martinsville caused severe damage to Gordon’s car, costing him a likely victory, and also how the 2010 Daytona 500 was interrupted twice for more than two-and-a-half hours due to a pot hole between Turns 1 and 2. In both cases the tracks were completely resurfaced as a consequence.

“I think you should ask Jeff if he thought it was worth the risk at Martinsville that year when that chunk came through and cost him the race,” said Keselowski. “I think then he would answer it a little bit differently.”

Adam Gilliland is in a hurry . . . on the virtual race tracks of iRacing.com where he can usually be found out front or battling for the lead, or in a sim racing career he is anxious to take to the next level.  How else to describe a driver who, at age 16, ranks his greatest disappointment in sim racing as falling just short of qualifying for the NASCAR iRacing.com Pro Series?

The young Texan has rebounded rather nicely from that set-back, and currently finds himself ensconced in fourth place in both the NASCAR iRacing.com Class A Series and the Class C Series (Fixed Setup).  Gilliland may not be totally happy with a pair of fourth places – they are, after all, three spots shy of his goal.  But when you consider he placed 15th in the 2011 Season 4 Class C (Fixed) standings (one better than a guy named Scott Speed) and P14 in the 2011 Season 3 Class A standings, you’ve got to like the way things are trending . . .

Q:     How long have you been sim racing?
A:     I have been Sim Racing since 2009. That’s when I first started doing what I consider sim racing; before that the only real thing I had tried with racing was EA Nascar Games.

Gilliland has piloted the GSRacing.net Impala to eight top fives and fourth place overall in the Season 1 Class A series.

Q:     What attracted you to iRacing?
A:     What originally attracted me to iRacing was the realism from the videos I had seen on youtube and from what friends had told me.

Q:     What are favorite iRacing cars/tracks?
A:     My favorite car on iRacing is the Class A Chevrolet Impala; my second favorite car is the Chevrolet Silverado and my favorite track is Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Q:     What do you like most about iRacing?
A:     What I like most about iRacing is the competition and the drive to be competitive and be up front with the top guys.

Q:     What would you change about iRacing?
A:     iRacing really has a couple things I would like to see added, not really changed . . . except for maybe the tire. I would like to see a tire similar to real life where there is separation between the cars over a long run.

Gilliland (20) can typically be found at the front of the Class A action.

Q:     How many hours a week do you spend on iRacing?
A:     I spend 2-3 hours practicing for Class A and probably total (with racing and practicing) 8 hours a week.

Q:     Tell us about the paint schemes on your helmet/car(s).
A:     I am currently sponsored by GSRacing.net on the Cup Side for my journey to make pro. On my truck side I am not currently sponsored. I like to run Alpinestars as a primary sponsor as I use a lot of their products and I like the logo.

Q:     What other sim racing activities (Forza, Gran Turismo, etc.) do you do?
A:     I run NR2003 league races with friends occasionally.

Q:     What are your favorite video games?
A:     My favorite video game series is the GTA series and the Call of Duty series.

Q:     What is your most memorable iRacing moment?
A:     My most memorable moment on iRacing was finishing third in the 2011 Pro Series final race at Kentucky as an A class driver.

“My desire to be competitive and have fun is not only something only I like to do, it’s the desire that thousands of sim racers have worldwide.”

Q:     What is the iRacing moment you’d love to forget?
A:     The iRacing memory I would most like to forget was finishing 13th in the 2011 Season 3 class A points, and missing Pro by 6 points.

Q:     What car/track would you like to see iRacing add to the service?
A:    The car I would most like to see added would probably have to be a shifter kart and the track(s) I would like to see added would be Kansas and Rockingham.

Q:     What person, living or dead, do you most admire? Why?
A:     I admire Dale Earnhardt the most because if his willingness to win and his respect that most people in the garage gave him.

Gilliland celebrates one of his 22 wins (so far) in Season 1 Class C competition.

Q:     What’s your favorite real world racing series?
A:     My favorite series is NASCAR Sprint Cup Series second favorite would be the NASCAR Nationwide Series.

Q:     Name the title of the most recent book you read.
A:     The Blink of an Eye: Dale, Daytona, and the Day That Changed Everything.

Q:     Name of your favorite movie/TV show?
A:     Storage Wars, Inside NASCAR

Q:     How many of your close friends are iRacing members?
A:     Four

Q:     Has competing with iRacers all around the world influenced your opinions/outlook on life/world events? How?
A:     Yes very much so. It shows that my desire to be competitive and have fun is not only something only I like to do, it’s the desire that thousands of sim racers have worldwide.

The NiSWC stars came out to play at TMS, with Alfalla (1) and Kevin King (2) each visiting Victory Lane.

Both Jared Crawford and Jason Karlavige took the week off, as the NiCAS Division One Championship is all but decided. With Crawford out it opened the door for NiSWC driver Robert Hall to sneak in and lead the way, with 330 points to put himself at the top. The 330 points was even more impressive after Hall started three races, so despite having to average his best two finishes, he finished at the point. Brandon Schmidt continued his solid season, both he and Casey Malone are looking ahead to the 2012 NASCAR iRacing.com Pro Series (NiPS) as they finish the week in Texas second and third overall.

It was a blast from the past in the overall start leaders this week, with Al Rodriguez and Terry Garska leading the way. Rodriguez and Garska led the way just about every week last season, but have been quiet thus far in 2012 Season One. Rodriguez put it to good use, leading the way in top fives as well with twelve, and scoring one victory. Experience is big in Texas, and it was the former NiSWC driver tandem of Steven Gilbert and Greg Spears leading the way with four wins in a week where seventeen sim racers found victory lane more than once.

The NiCAS produced its fair share of mayhem in the Lone Star state.

With only one week to go in the season, the race to make the top twelve among Class A licensed drivers, thus locking yourself into the 2012 NiPS, has all but settled out. Cody Byus currently holds the final seat by 74 points over the DE-AT-CH club member Jorn Jens. Both Jens and Ashley Miller still have a realistic shot at making it it Byus slips, but that has not been the case as of lat as Byus tries to close out the season strong.

Next week will not only host an exciting night race at the tricky Kentucky Speedway, it will be the final week of 2012 Season One. For bubble drivers the season is far from over, as they head into the biggest week of their season. Although in only the first of three season to make it into the NiPS, it is important to get it done early because in racing, anything can happen.

Jason Karlavige leading the race.

The high Strength of Field race for Week 11 took place Thursday night. The race had 28 drivers and SoF of 4596, which pays 294 points to win. Jason Karlavige (Pennsylvania) dominated the race starting on the pole and leading all 100 laps while also setting the fasted lap of the race. NiSWC driver Tyler D Hudson (Mid-South) finished in the second position, less than one second off the lead. Hudson started the race 19^th, picking off 17 spots throughout the race. For his effort, Hudson received 283 points. Devan Hall (Georgia) finished in the third position, three seconds behind Karlavige. Hall received 272 points. Ander Shirley (Mid-South) and Juhring rounded out the Top Five. Shirley finished the race just over three seconds behind while Juhring was over six seconds behind. For their efforts, Shirley and Juhring received 261 and 250 points respectively. The race only had two cautions for eight laps.

Click here to watch the race.

Brad Mahar (12) battling Ian Hann (25).

At the end of the week, Phil Juhring was at the top of the weekly standings. Juhring only ran one race and netted 250 points. Hudson finished the week in the second position after attempting five races, winning two and finishing in the Top Five in all his races. Hudson finished the week with 231 points. Jason Karlavige finished third after dominating the SoF race. Karlavige attempted seven races, winning six and finishing the week with 225 points. Alex Scribner (Texas) finished the week in the fourth position after running three races. Scribner won one of his three races and had an average finish of seventh. Scribner finished the week with 210 points. Brad Mahar rounded out the Top Five after only attempting one race. Mahar finished ninth in his only race and finished the week with 206 points.

Phil Juhring maintained his championship point lead after Week 11. Juhring lost three points to Mahar after Texas but still maintains a healthy 195 point lead. John Bunton (Carolina) moved to the third position after Week 11, knocking Brandon Buie to fourth. Bunton has 1466 points while Buie has 1438 points. Jeffrey Parker rounds out the Top Five with 1430 points.

Jukka Savolainen (Finland) once again found himself on top of the qualifying charts with a 28.937 second lap. Karlavige finished the week in second with a 28.955 while Juhring finished in the third position with a 29.020. Jared Crawford (Michigan) finished the week in the fourth position with a 29.027 while Hall finished in the fifth position with a 29.045 second lap.

For the final week of the season, the NiCBS travels to Richmond, Virginia to race on the ¾ mile Richmond International Speedway. Phil Juhring has a lock on the championship while Brad Mahar has comfortable lead for second. The rest of the Top Five is up for grabs. Who will finish the season strong and cement the positions in the Top Five? Find out next week at InRacingNews!

Alfalla (2) managed to keep Berry (72) at bay over the final laps at Texas Motor Speedway,

“It was a very stressful end to the race, definitely lost a few years on that one,” Alfalla said after his win. “The race was very interesting the way it turned out, starting off with over 120 laps of green I think. It was fun seeing everyone’s strategy develop throughout the race, and being able to set myself in position to win at the end.”

While Nick Ottinger put his Chevy Impala on pole for the third time this season, it was Berry who dominated the first two-thirds of the online race. He took the lead on Lap Two and led a race-high 119 of 167 laps, finally losing the lead when he chose to pit under the first yellow flag.

Due to the long green run, and some drivers being able to stretch their fuel farther than others, multiple strategies started to evolve. Some drivers, such as Alfalla and Berry got good enough fuel mileage to go the distance on only two pit stops, while others needed three.

Berry (72) made short work of Nick Ottinger (05) and dominated the first part of the race.

When the first yellow flew, both Alfalla and Berry were within their two stop windows, but each decided to come to pit road, with Berry taking four tires while Alfalla opted to take two and gain track position. With the running order shuffled by the pit stop action, Alfalla (fourth) and Berry (sixth) re-started nose-to-tail and the race became a question of who could get through the traffic the fastest.

Although neither had much trouble passing the drivers on old tires on their march to the front, Berry looked to be the quicker of the two once both had a few laps on their tires. Unfortunately for Berry, seven caution flags over the last 47 laps derailed any hope he had of challenging for the lead.

In addition to putting Alfalla atop the seasonal win column, the victory also moved Alfalla to the top of the series standings. He currently sits six points ahead of Michael Conti, who had an up and down day in the Lone Star state, but recovered nicely to finish fourth. Brian Schoenburg is 23 points back of the lead in third after his ninth place finish, with Robert Hall another ten markers back in fourth. Carson McClelland occupies the fifth spot, but is over a full race’s worth of points behind Alfalla.   So although there are still twelve races remaining in the season, it appears the championship battle is a four man battle at this point. Anyone farther back will have to go on a mid-season tear to get t back in the mix.

Main (38) led briefly, but on worn tires he was no match for Alfalla and Berry.

After three straight 1.5 mile tracks, the NiSWC moves back to a short track for Week Six of the season, as the best names in oval sim racing pay their annual visit to Richmond International Raceway. The .75 mile track is often referred to as ‘the short track that drives like a speedway’ and features high speeds and close, door-to-door racing and plenty of contact. Alfalla won here last year in dominating fashion, and a repeat victory would widen his advantage over Conti and the rest of the field. Will anyone be able to slow Alfalla down, or will his momentum carry him to his third win of 2012? Tune into iRacing Live in two weeks’ time to watch all the action unfold from Richmond!

The Magic Mile was a stroll for some NiCAS competitors, a hair-raising experience for others..

At this point in the season, it is no surprise to anyone to hear the words “Jared Crawford dominates…again.” That is the case once again as the Division One points leader tries to wrap-up the overall championship, along with the coveted number one seed into this year’s NASCAR iRacing.com Pro Series (NiPS). Crawford led 83 of the 110 laps in this week’s top scored race, all the while posting the fastest lap of the race over a tenth faster than anyone else. These 332 points will actually be on the low side in a season that Crawford has averaged a historic 339.5 points per week.

While Crawford tries to run and hide, Pennsylvania’s Jason Karlavige tries to hunt him down. Despite having a less than stellar week in New Hampshire, Karlavige still has an outside chance, being only 58 points out with two weeks remaining.

One sim racer just hoping to race his way into the top twelve, which would earn him a seat in the 2012 NiPS, is Richard Dusett. Being a bubble driver, Dusett needs a strong close to the season, and he came up big at the flat one mile. Leading sixteen laps and finishing second in the race won by Crawford, Dusett earned 320 huge points and now sits ninth among Class A licensed drivers in the standings. Defending series champion Kile Gottula, Casey Malone, and Dylan Duval are a few of the other NiPS hopefuls having solid weeks in the northeast.

When the NiCAS heads to the more difficult tracks, weekly statistics tend to slide with people afraid to attack the track. However not so bad this week, with lots of drivers embracing the challenge. A well known sim racer who is fast no matter what car he’s in or what track he’s at is Dwayne Vincent, and he led the way in starts, wins and top fives. Starting twelve races and earning a top five in ten of them, to go along with three wins, it’s a safe bet to say New Hampshire is high on the list of Vincent’s favorite tracks. Vincent was the only one of the seven drivers who raced ten or more times to score a win, despite most drivers scoring multiple top five finishes.

Next week it is back to the high speed and high banks, this time in the form of Texas Motor Speedway. TMS is always a favorite among competitors, with speeds topping 205 and the tight confines make it feel even faster. This trip bares even more importance as the season begins to come to a close, and the race for the top twelve heats up. Be sure to check back at inRacingNews.com next week for the full recap.

Greg Biffle snatched victory from Jimmie Johnson at Texas, claiming his first victory of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.

Roush Fenway racer Biffle made the most of an opportunity to attack Johnson when the leader was slowed down by lapped traffic. With 31 laps remaining, Biffle dove to the inside of Johnson entering Turn 3 and exited Turn 4 powersliding his Roush Fenway Ford Fusion ahead of the #48 Chevrolet Impala of the five-time Cup champion.

Although Johnson seemed to be able to follow Biffle’s pace for a while, he would then gradually drop back until sliding up the banking at the same corner where he lost the lead, brushing the wall and conceding any remaining victory hopes. A big margin to the rest of the field, partly thanks to very few caution periods, allowed Johnson to still cruise to second place.

Biffle, who entered Saturday’s race as the points leader, ended a 49-race winless streak with his second Texas victory, giving his team owner Jack Roush a record ninth win at the Fort Worth venue.

“I could say it was about time but had work pays off and that’s what this is about,” said Biffle. “We knew it was a matter of time [before] we were going to win one of these things. We’ve been running so good and we had great pitstops, we had good cars.

“Catching the #48 at the end, I had to dig deep. It was all I had to be able to get to him. Seemed like when I got to him it was too easy. I don’t know if he’d used up his tyres or… he had a little bit of trouble with traffic, that’s why I was able to close on him.”

Johnson led nearly half the distance, yet just as two weeks ago at Martinsville he was unable to translate his speed into maximum score. The Californian blamed Stewart-Haas’ Ryan Newman for costing him the lead as he believes the Martinsville winner raced him harder than he should have when being lapped.

“He was already a lap down and proceeded to race me and cost me the lead,” said Johnson.

“Definitely disappointed. Our pit stops were amazing. Just got tangled up in some lapped traffic, and [Biffle] made a great move.”

Michael Waltrip Racing drivers were among the top contenders again, veteran Mark Martin finishing third while Martin Truex Jr, who led for 68 laps, finished sixth after battling a loose car in the second half of the race, while trying to recover from a slow pitstop.

Hendrick’s Jeff Gordon finished fourth, more than 10 seconds behind the winner, crossing the finish line ahead of Roush’s Matt Kenseth, who also led early on and remained a top-five runner all through the 501 miles of racing.

Reigning champion Tony Stewart, driving the same car that he took to victory lane at Texas last November, struggled to a 24th-place finish, two laps down on the race winner.

The lack of cautions reduced the opportunities for crews to work on handling, which was also affected by strong winds all weekend long.

The race saw a venue record of 234 caution-free laps, while a 160.577 mph speed average for the winner was also a record after the race was interrupted only twice and for 10 laps, both due to debris, one of the problems being a hat blown away by the gusty winds.

Results – 334 laps:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car                         Time/Gap

 1.  Greg Biffle         Roush Fenway Ford            3h07m12.000s

 2.  Jimmie Johnson      Hendrick Chevrolet               + 3.235s

 3.  Mark Martin         Waltrip Toyota                   + 9.094s

 4.  Jeff Gordon         Hendrick Chevrolet              + 10.560s

 5.  Matt Kenseth        Roush Fenway Ford               + 11.928s

 6.  Martin Truex Jr     Waltrip Toyota                  + 18.603s

 7.  Kasey Kahne         Hendrick Chevrolet              + 21.969s

 8.  Carl Edwards        Roush Fenway Ford               + 28.100s

 9.  Kevin Harvick       Childress Chevrolet             + 28.576s

10.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Hendrick Chevrolet              + 29.097s

11.  Kyle Busch          Gibbs Toyota                    + 31.110s

12.  Denny Hamlin        Gibbs Toyota                    + 32.785s

13.  Kurt Busch          Phoenix Chevrolet                 + 1 lap

14.  Jamie McMurray      Earnhardt-Ganassi Chevrolet       + 1 lap

15.  AJ Allmendinger     Penske Dodge                      + 1 lap

16.  Juan Pablo Montoya  Earnhardt-Ganassi Chevrolet       + 1 lap

17.  Clint Bowyer        Waltrip Toyota                    + 1 lap

18.  Paul Menard         Childress Chevrolet               + 1 lap

19.  Joey Logano         Gibbs Toyota                      + 1 lap

20.  Marcos Ambrose      Petty Ford                        + 1 lap

21.  Ryan Newman         Stewart-Haas Chevrolet           + 2 laps

22.  Aric Almirola       Petty Ford                       + 2 laps

23.  Regan Smith         Furniture Row Chevrolet          + 2 laps

24.  Tony Stewart        Stewart-Haas Chevrolet           + 2 laps

25.  Casey Mears         Germain Ford                     + 3 laps

26.  David Reutimann     Baldwin Chevrolet                + 3 laps

27.  Bobby Labonte       JTG Daugherty Toyota             + 4 laps

28.  Trevor Bayne        Wood Brothers Ford               + 4 laps

29.  Jeff Burton         Childress Chevrolet              + 4 laps

30.  Landon Cassill      BK Toyota                        + 4 laps

31.  David Gilliland     Front Row Ford                   + 6 laps

32.  Reed Sorenson       FAS Lane Ford                    + 7 laps

33.  JJ Yeley            Robinson-Blakeney Toyota         + 9 laps

34.  Tony Raines         Childress Chevrolet             + 11 laps

35.  David Ragan         Front Row Ford                  + 21 laps

36.  Brad Keselowski     Penske Dodge                    + 22 laps
Retirements:
     Dave Blaney         Baldwin Chevrolet                228 laps

     Travis Kvapil       BK Toyota                        114 laps

     Josh Wise           Front Row Ford                    66 laps

     Mike Bliss          TriStar Toyota                    38 laps

     Michael McDowell    Parsons Ford                      36 laps

     Scott Riggs         R3 Chevrolet                      25 laps

     Scott Speed         Leavine Family Ford               13 laps

The highest strength of field (sof) race for Round Nine took place on March 29th. The 75-lap online race at the Milwaukee Mile was set at 4293 sof and was so strong that the top five in this race would end up in the top five on the weekly standings sheet. Mungin started from the pole and led 60 of the laps in the race, which saw three cautions and the lead exchanged thrice amongst three drivers. Reigning NiTM champ Brandon Salvatore led 13 laps before having to settle for second, ahead of Herb Engelhart, James Poleske and Shane Kline. Mungin’s prize for the win was 261, while Salvatore put 234 in the books for his efforts.

The historic Milwaukee Mile hosted Week 9 of the NiTMS.

Trent Hullum, Brett Osborn and Jeremy Williams each made four starts at the Milwaukee Mile, which set the bar for starts in Week Nine. Mungin and Osborn each took two trips to victory lane with Gary Holbrook, Samuel Dick, Engelhart, Zach Brewer and Bruce Hilton each recording one win at Milwaukee. Mungin’s quick time of 27.986 seconds in qualifying was tops over Salvatore, Engelhart, Dick and Derrick Cormier2. Kline was on top when it came to the Time Trial competition over Osborn, Holbrook, Hullum and Hilton.

While Mungin was the weekly point winner during Round Ten at USA International Speedway, it was Pennsylvania sim racer Samuel Dick who took the honors in the highest sof race of the week. Dick captured a 3674 sof race on April 7th, which featured one caution over the 100-laps of the event. Dick would lead wire-to-wire from the pole, coming home ahead of Cormier2, Osborn, Poleske and James Hearns. The margin of victory was just over two seconds. Dick would go on to make two additional starts on the week, which affected his point total and relegated him to fifth in the weekly standings with 173 points. Cormier2’s 204 points for second place placed him second overall for the week.

Mungin’s win would tip the sof scale at 3470. The race which saw him overtake the field for the weekly point win happened on April 5th and would feature four yellow flag periods. Mungin, who started from the pole, led all but one lap in the race en route to the win over Jamie Collier, Poleske, Ray Farlow and Richard Smith5. Mungin’s win was worth 217 points while the finishes of Poleske (189) and Farlow (176) placed them third and fourth in the standings respectively for the week. Collier would finish sixth on the weekly standings after winning twice in a total of four starts at USA.

14 of the 100+ Tour Mods to tackle USA International Speedway prepare for the green flag.

Chad Wills was the busiest driver of the week, punching the clock for eight races in the virtual Florida sun. Jerold John has a trio of wins, the most of any other driver of the week. He joined Dick, Collier, Williams, Rick Webster, Sebastian Taylor, Hearns, Darrell Pyrtle, Michael Morrison2, Steven Clagg, David Markham and Mungin as winners on Week Ten. Salvatore was the quick man in qualifying, posting a time of 19.637 seconds at USA. He was quicker in the qualifying sessions for the week over Mungin, Dick, Nathan McGee and Collier. Gary Holbrook took the top honors in Time Trials over Larry Pyrtle, Osborn, Morrison2 and Justin Chase.

Mungin has a huge advantage with two weeks to go over Salvatore as he leads the reigning champ by 284 points, 1817-1533. Taylor Meyn (1491) occupies third with Engelhart (1401) and Dick (1384) rounding out the top five. Divisional leaders from Divisions Two to Ten include David Markham, David Chmura, William Kabela, David Ross, Timothy Finnegan, David MacDougall, James Falcon Pratt, Curtis Berleue and Nicholas Maxwell. Two leaders only have single digit leads with Ross leading David Schamp by nine points in Division Five and MacDougall pacing Sebastian Taylor by eight points in Division Seven.

The series heads back to New England to close off the 2012 Season One schedule. The North East swing will begin with 75-lap events at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Who will take away the final few checkered flags of the season? Find out here at inRacingNews!

Until then, keep the hammer down and we’ll see you at the track!

Jimmie Johnson is glad that NASCAR is planning to be more thorough than ever before with its technical inspections, following the controversy over his Daytona 500 car and the penalties initially imposed being overturned.

When Sprint Cup teams compete at Talladega next month, cars will go through a new template during technical inspections as NASCAR seeks to enforce bodywork measurements around the ‘C-post’ area.

There was controversy last month after Hendrick Motorsports won a second appeal against NASCAR’s initial ruling of thar Johnson’s Daytona 500 Impala used C-posts that did not conform with the rules. Chief appellate officer John Middlebrook rescinded suspensions to team members and points penalties imposed by NASCAR, only upholding a US $100,000 for Johnson’s crew chief Chad Knaus.

Speaking at Texas Motor Speedway on Friday, Johnson said he is glad there will no longer be any grey areas around the parts in question, now that NASCAR has come up with a new template that cars must fit inside at all circuits from Talladega onwards.

“I wasn’t aware of that but [am] happy to hear it,” said Johnson. “In some ways I’m very happy. I am very happy to hear there will not be grey area there, but it does take away opportunities to work on the race car.

“But that’s been a reality we’ve been faced with; [that] especially crew chiefs have been faced with for quite some time now. I’m absolutely happy to hear there is going to be one there.”

“Johnson’s team-mate Jeff Gordon, who is listed as the owner of the #48 car, believes NASCAR is simply reacting to having its ruling overturned in the final appeal after Daytona.

“I think what it does show is that there’s a process when these cars are inspected and its NASCAR’s job to cover every area of the car to keep a level playing field out there and they do a very good job of it,” he said.

“Because of the appeal and the way that turned out, I think that it shows that NASCAR wants to make sure that those types of appeals don’t get overturned in the future and that was an area that was a little vague.”

A NASCAR spokesperson said that despite most penalties being rescinded following the final appeal, the large fine standing for Knaus proved the organising body’s point that the car did not conform with the rules.

NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers who tested recently at Michigan International Speedway have given their thumbs up to its new track surface.

Four drivers tested the new asphalt for the first time during Easter week after a US $7million repaving project was completed at the end of 2011, marking the first resurface for the two-mile oval since 1995.

Penske Dodge driver Brad Keselowski applauded the work done at what he calls his home track, and doesn’t expect rubbering-in issues like those experienced last year at the resurfaced Phoenix oval to be a problem this time.

He believes the track will be race-ready when the series arrives for round 15 of the Cup in June.

“I thought it was a great test,” said Keselowski. “I thought all the drivers were on the same page. I think there are some questions, but not a lot to be answered. The track really rubbered in. I think they did a great job re-paving that facility.

“What I mean by that is they did a great job with their approach, which was to pave it in October and give the track a whole winter to cure. They had the [ability] to [do that, so that] when we get on the race track, there is zero break-in time to the surface, which is critical. When we come there in June everyone can just go out there and run.”

Jeff Gordon, a two-time Cup winner at Michigan, says the new surface continues to allow drivers to race in different lines as in the past. He found the new asphalt offers plenty of grip, pushing speeds way beyond those ran the last time the series raced there in August, 2011.

“I tested at Michigan last week and I had a lot of fun,” said Gordon. “It was one of the more enjoyable repave tyre tests that I’ve been a part of.

“You go into it knowing it’s going to have a lot of grip, that there’s potential tyre issues and what’s the racing going to be like. [I looked for ] any other grooves other than the one you’re running in and I thought that while it was extremely fast, I thought that it already showed signs of multiple grooves. I’m pretty excited about Michigan.”

Roush Fenway Ford driver Matt Kesenth, also a two-time winner at Michigan, said lap-times in the test were around four seconds faster in race trim relative to the old surface. Top speeds reportedly broke 210 mph, which the former Cup champion don’t believe need to be looked at by officials.

“I don’t think we were going too fast as far as the cars being out of control or not having a good race or anything like that,” said Kenseth.

“They are big numbers but I don’t know if you would realise you were going that fast if you didn’t have all that telemetry on the car. It is about what we expected. It was a ton of grip and we have been getting faster at all the tracks in the last year or two, trying to make the cars better, and tracks have a ton of grip and it is real fast.”

The Sprint Cup races twice at Michigan this year, the first event taking place in June before the series returns in August.

Martin Truex Jr claimed Michael Waltrip Racing’s second pole position of the season in qualifying for Saturday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Texas.

Truex bumped Brad Keselowski’s Penske Dodge from the top spot with a lap of 28.366s. His benchmark stood unbeaten despite both Roush Fenway Ford drivers Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle and Truex’s MWR Toyota team-mate Mark Martin also breaking the 190mph barrier.

The MWR pole of 2012 continues an upwards trend for the squad, which has its two full-time drivers sitting inside the top 10 of the Sprint Cup points table after six races.

Truex, third in the championship, said: “It means a lot for me to get a pole for this guys.

“This is early but we’ve come a long way. We’re starting to gel as a team, we’re starting to get to where we want to be. We’re not there yet, but this is a good step in that direction and hopefully we’ll be standing over here in Victory Lane shooting guns tomorrow [Saturday] night.”

Behind the MWR and Roush duos on the front two rows, Hendrick Motorsport’s Kasey Kahne was fifth and the fastest Chevrolet driver, followed by Martinsville winner Ryan Newman (Stewart Haas), Richard Petty Ford’s Marcos Ambrose and Keselowski. Earnhardt Ganassi’s Jamie McMurray and Hendrick’s Jimmie Johnson rounded out the top 10 in their Chevrolets.

Wood Brothers’ Trevor Bayne had been fastest in the final practice ahead of qualifying and ended up as the best of the non-guaranteed starters in 19th, right ahead of three-time Texas winner Carl Edwards (Roush).

Reigning champion Tony Stewart, the most recent Sprint Cup winner at Texas, had a difficult Friday after hitting the wall early into practice, being forced to a back up car. His Stewart Haas team took a fresh engine ahead of qualifying, so he will start back in 29th.

Track conditions were affected by strong winds all day. These winds, which affected the handling of most cars through Turns 3 and 4, are expected to pick up even more on race day.

David Stremme, Joe Nemechek and Stacy Compton failed to make the field.

Times to follow…

The NiLMS points battle may be a two man race, but the on-track competition remains wide-open.

Week Nine of 12 on the series took the sim racers to Florida and the virtual USA International Speedway. Both Smith and Lambert made two starts on the week and each took home two wins but it was Smith who got the edge, winning a 2844 sof race on April 1st to take the weekly victory over his rivals. Smith started from the pole and led every one of the 50 lap contested on the night and wound up coming home over six seconds ahead of Jeff Conover. Stefan Marinak was third in the event, followed by Josh Bralley and Ian Blanchard. Smith took home 176 points for the win while Conover, who is contending for the championship this season, went on to make three additional starts, winning in one and finishing his week with 149 points.

Lambert’s win came later in the day on April 1st during a 2644 strength of field (sof) race. Much like Smith, Lambert led wire-to-wire in the 50 lap race and finished six seconds up on runner-up finisher Todd Laribee. Kevin Rutland was third, followed by Marinak and Scott Blackburn. Lambert’s win garnered him 164 points, a dozen less points than Smith got for his victory.

Dillon Raffurty finished his week at USA International Speedway on the podium after four starts resulted in two victories at the half mile track. His biggest win of the season came on March 29th when he started from the pole and led 50 laps en route to the win. Caleb Williams finished second, three seconds in the rear view of Raffurty with Mike McKinney, Cale Shonk and Kyle Wicka rounding out the top five. When the points were tallied up, Raffurty finished Round Nine with 156 points.

Honorable mentions go out Sean Stitt and Ian Blanchard for their win totals on the week. Stitt was perfect on the week, winning all ten races he entered while Blanchard batted .500 by winning seven of the 14 races he entered. Keith Mac made the most starts of the week with 26 and Stitt, Blanchard and Mac all hail from the Eastern Canadian club. Stitt took the pole for the week with a time of 20.988 seconds around USA International with Smith, Lambert, Ronnie Binkley and Johnny Housley completing the top five of 459 qualifiers. Lambert took the top honors in Time Trials over Smith, Housley, Stitt and Jeremy Davis.

While a championship battle roars on, Kenny Humpe was the one stealing the spotlight from the drivers running for points. Humpe took the lead for his first and final time in a 3007 sof race on April 9th with five laps remaining at Martinsville to take the win by eight tenths of a second over pole sitter Shawn Stitt. Finishing in third in the 50 lap race was Maxime Paquette, followed by Sam Edwards and Conover. Humpe, a former Landon Cassill Qualifying Challenge champion, was the recipient of 185 points for his victory.

The top split race of the week at Martinsville saw the two championship contenders collide! The April 9th event featured a 3179 sof rating and it was Smith who got the upper hand on Lambert, leading all 50 laps from the pole to take the win by over a second on the point leader. Housley was third with Edwards and Rick Ricketts completing the top five. With this being Smith’s third start of the week though, it brought his next best finish into the mix when deciding his weekly point total, meaning Lambert would end the week with five more points than Smith, 181-176.

Mac and Stitt once again were statistical leaders for the second consecutive week. Mac made 27 starts over the seven days at Martinsville while Stitt’s 11 wins put him as the only driver in the double digits when it came to wins. Trenton Moriarity was the top driver in qualifying, pacing the field with a 19.843 second lap. Smith, Stitt, Lambert and Housley rounded out the top five. Moriarity also stuck it to his competition in the Time Trial competition, besting Smith, Stitt, Ty Majeski and Housley in that discipline of simulated Late Model racing.

When it comes to the standings, Division One’s Lambert leads Division Two leader Smith by 79 points, 1364-1285 with two weeks remaining in the season. Conover is third overall with 1218 points, followed by Tony Dugan (1133) and Jeremy Ahlum (1088). Ahlum is chased closely for fifth overall by Benjamin Harstle (1085), Division Three leader Housley (1084) and Paquette (1080). Divisional leaders from Divisions Four to Ten include Mark Meech, Jade Williams, Sean Odea, Fausto Bessa Gomes, Darrell Phillips, Cale Thompson2 and Petie Madrid. The closest battle for a Divisional Title is at Division Six where Odea’s lead is just five points over Jeremy Pool2 and only 19 over Mark Parker.

Next up for the iRacing Late Model Tour is the high banks of the Bristol Motor Speedway. Does Lambert have what it takes to lock up his title in “Thunder Valley?” Find out here, at inRacingNews!

Until then, keep the hammer down and we’ll see you at the track!

Hindman took one step forward in his effort to lock down the title during Week Nine when he took the weekly win at the Martinsville Speedway. Hindman, an accomplished short track sim-racer obtained 209 championship points after a win at “The Paperclip” on March 27th. Hindman led 86 of the 120 laps in the race, which saw nine caution periods and a 3323 sof rating. Chad Pruitt, who started the race outside Hindman on the front row, finished second after leading 14 laps of the race. Matthew Spangler was third, followed to the line by Gary Kleinfelter and Frank Kimmel II. The race was also profitable for Spangler, as his 185 point total was good enough to take second overall for the week after Pruitt would go on to make six additional starts on the week, which resulted in two wins but a lower point total when the markers were tallied.

Be it Homestead or the points race, the NiCCS landscape is the same -- Class A drivers rule.

Cody Ware rallied from 16th place in a 2894 sof race on March 31st to take a checkered flag at Martinsville and third place overall for the week in points with 182 markers. Ware led 73 laps in the race, finishing ahead of early leaders Malik Ray (who started on the pole) and Michael McLain. Second row starters EJ ORourke and Andrew Perry rounded out the top five. Six cautions and eight lead changes set the tempo in the event.

Honorable mentions go out to former series champ Tyler Hudson and reigning NASCAR Nationwide Series Rookie of the Year Timmy Hill who duked it out in the second highest split race of the week on March 30th. The race was rated at 3103 and saw pole-sitter Hudson lead 106 of the 120 laps in the race. Hill was second, followed by Aaron Lovell, Alex Bisson and Patrick Smart. The race saw eight cautions and five lead changes. Hudson and Hill had pretty impressive weeks at Martinsville with Hill going 3 for 6 in the win column and coming home with fourth overall in the weekly point while Hudson won all but one of his five starts on the week en route to an 11th place finish for the week amongst 858 drivers.

Jake Goodwin made the most starts of the week, answering 23 calls to the green flag over the seven day period on the Virginia based oval. Bob Howard was the most successful for the week, winning six races and lead 718 laps, tops in both categories for the week at Martinsville. Kenny Humpe flexed his qualifying skills by posting a time of 19.618 seconds around the half mile oval. The effort was faster than that of Class A point leader Jared Crawford, Hindman, David Krikorian and Brooks. The top five were the only five of 301 qualifiers that dipped into the 19.6 second bracket. Ian Hann topped Time Trials for the week as his effort was better than that of Derrick Stone, Mark Robert Gray, Auz Grams and Shawn Haverly.

Kyle Larson was awarded with the top spot during Week Ten in the NiCCS after his win in a 3147 sof race on April 4th at the Homestead Miami Speedway. Larson grabbed 198 points en route to the win in the 80 lap event in which Larson led 61 circuits after starting 12th. Jason Fensler finished second with Spangler, Scoot Johnson and Alex Scribner also taking home top five finishes. Pole sitter Michael McLain led just five laps of the race and was credited with the 13th place spot in the race.
The second highest split of the week went to Randy Hockaday when he went to victory lane on April 3rd. The race was rated at 3250 sof and featured four yellow flags over the 80 lap duration. Hockaday started third and led 30 laps of the race before crossing the line first ahead of Darren Kikolski, Adam Racine, Phil Juhring and Jason Narug. The race saw four cautions and seven lead changes with Hockaday leading two more laps than pole sitter Juhring. Hockaday would go on to make two additional starts on the week and would wrap up his Florida adventure with 188 points, fourth best amongst 1086 drivers. Kikolski’s 192 points from this race placed him second for the week.

Completing the podium at Homestead was Dustin Montgomery. Montgomery finished second to Matthew Moose in the top split race of the week, which tipped the scales at 3261 sof on April 4th. Moose led 11 laps in the race. Montgomery shared the second row on the grid with Moose and led the most laps (46) in the race. Pole sitter Juhring led 21 laps before fading to third, ahead of Gary Kleinfelter and Bruno Le Doare at the finish. The race was run with just three yellow flag periods and saw nine lead changes. Moose would go on to make a total of seven starts of the week, winning in four of those and coming home ninth in the standings for the week. Montgomery’s 188 points from this race placed him third overall for the week.

Dominic Krischke started a round high 29 races while Krikorian set the pace when it came to victory lane, visiting the hallowed ground nine times over the seven day period. Finland’s Jukka Savolainen was the pole sitter for the week with a lap time of 31.740 seconds around Homestead. Krikorian, Brian Viola, Brandon Barke and Chris Jessee completed the top five in qualifying. Mark Russell took the top spot in Time Trials at Homestead over Jessee, Bill Brown, Thomas Faile and Earl Landry.
Brooks (1576) takes a 48 point lead over Hindman (1528) heading into the final two weeks of the season. Division Two leader Craig Jernigan has 1385 points, four more than that of Trey Jarrell’s 1381 points. Division Two’s Brandon Hauck (1328) completes the overall top five. Tom Moustakas is faced with holding off Spangler in Division Three with just five points between the leaders. Brock Garis, Rock Harris, Michael Valentin, Fausto Bessa Gomes, Robert Cori, Sean Cummings2 and Robert Mason2 hold divisional leads from Division Four to Ten with each of the leaders having double or triple digit point lead.

Next up for the NiCCS is “the Lady in Black.” Darlington Raceway plays host to the penultimate round for the series. Who will take the overall crown, Brooks or Hindman? Find out here, at inRacingNews!

Until then, keep the hammer down and we’ll see you at the track!

Some 460 sim racers took-on the challenges of Martinsville in Week 9 of the NiCAS.

One man who is no stranger to the top is Jared Crawford, as he proved once again he can get the job done at any track, no matter the difficulty. Crawford absolutely man handled the 5535 Strength of Field race, leading all 130 laps en route to a victory and 352 point payout. While Crawford was out front setting the pace, his rival in the points standings Jason Karlavige was mired back in traffic having to settle for a third place finish. Among the top two Division One drivers was the surprise second place finisher, Richard Dussett.

A few other surprise drivers putting themselves among the top drivers this week were Casey Malone and Brandon Atkinson. Malone raced twice and while he wasn’t able to make his mark in victory lane, he did put together a solid run earning himself a huge 315 points. On the other hand, Atkinson was able to stear clear of his 10 incidents in his only start, to put himself seventh of the 460 drivers who took part in the week’s festivities.

Maybe it was the famous Martinsville hot dogs that kept a few drivers coming back for more, but there was definitely a handful of drivers that fell in love with something at the speedway. Once again Rick Savage led the way in starts with sixteen, edging-out New England’s William Lyman by three. James Boyett and Paul Beardmore were the only other drivers with ten or more starts on the week. The win totals were much lower numbers with Scott Heckert leading the charge with three. Five other drivers, including NASCAR iRacing.com World Series Championship (NiSWC) drivers Michael Conti and Tyler Hudson, were tied with two wins.

Many try, but few can master the art of sim racing at the track affectionately known as "Marty."

Jared Crawford continues to slowly creep away from Jason Karlavige in the race to be the number one seed into the NASCAR iRacing.com Pro Series (NiPS). Crawford now leads by a still very narrow 37 points. The top two have set themselves apart from the field, with Karlavige holding a 369 point lead over third place Adam Gilliland. Philipp Geiss and the hard charging Casey Malone round out the top five Class A licensed drivers.

Next week for the NiCLAS is a bit longer of a track, but not much more banking to lean on as the series heads northeast to New Hampshire Motor Speedway. NHMS hosted a huge race two seasons ago, which was a turning point for many bubble drivers hoping to lock their seat in the NiPS. The tricky, relatively flat one mile oval always leaves drivers wanting more from their setups. However to win at this track drivers will have to put their setup woes behind them, and get up on the wheel and make it happen for themselves. It’s always fun to watch, but even more fun to strap in and compete in the series for yourself. As always check back at inRacingNews.com next week for a full recap.

Stergios (41) made all the right moves at LVMS in besting Johnson (39) for his first NiSWC win.

Series heavyweights were nowhere to be found among the top finishers, but unpredictable finishes are a staple of the NASCAR iRacing.com Series World Championship at LVMS.  Stergios’ surprise victory brought back memories of Sandeep Banerjee’s amazing drive through the field with a damaged car to win here back in 2010.  While not quite as dramatic, Stergios’ win will still be remembered as one of those “Where did he come from?” moments.

Series point leader Michael Conti had a rough, up and down day. He started on pole, looking to build on his championship lead over Ray Alfalla, who started third. Things looked promising for the opening 11 laps of the race, as Conti built a big lead over the rest of the field before the first yellow flew. However, Hall took the lead during the first round of pit stops and Conti could never find his way back to the front, as his car did not handle well in traffic. He ended-up twentieth at the finish after being involved in a wreck with just a few laps remaining.

After taking the lead on Lap 12, Hall would go on to lead a race high 98 of 134 laps, and it looked like no one but Alfalla could match his blistering pace. The same caution that helped Stergios to the win relegated Hall and Alfalla to seventh and eighth place finishes; respectable, but definitely not what their cars were capable of.

LVMS was not kind to the series heavyweights. Here point leader Conti (5) tangles with Steve Sheehan (6) and Josh Berry (72) as Jeremy R Allen (28) and Jon Adams (84) take evasive action.

Even with his disappointing finish, Conti remains the point leader after four of 17 races, although just a single point separates him from defending champion Alfalla. Brian Schoenburg moved up to third in the standings with his thirteenth place finish and sits dozen points out of the lead. Hall is another 12 points back and Johnson rounds out the top five.

The race at Vegas was the cleanest of the young 2012 season, which bodes well for the series heading to Texas Motor Speedway for Round Five. Texas and Las Vegas are both 1.5 mile tracks, but the similarities stop there, as each has its unique characteristics. The early front runners at Vegas, such as Hall, Conti and Alfalla, will be the early favorites, but as Stergios showed last night, you can never count anyone out until the checkers have flown.

AJ Allmendinger celebrated his best Sprint Cup series to date, finishing second at Martinsville after surviving chaos in the closing laps.

The Penske driver was in the shadows of his team-mate Brad Keselowski for most of the race at the half-mile track, but was able to avoid getting involved in the multi-car incident that unfolded after the penultimate restart, moving up from ninth all the way up to second.

Having started his day ill, requiring a visit to the track’s infield care center, Allmendinger drove a solid race and saw his persistence rewarded with his best ever finish in the Sprint Cup series.

“I think maybe I need to go to the nurse’s office every week and take a shot,” Allmendinger joked. “I didn’t feel very good this morning, but you know these guys work hard, everybody on the Shell/Pennzoil Dodge, they deserve to run up front, they’re used to running up front.

“I’m trying my butt off, trying everything I can to get these guys up front. (crew chief) Todd Gordon and all these guys, the Penske organization, they’re behind me. It feels good to have an organisation behind you even when you feel like you’re struggling a little bit. This is a great race.

“I don’t know if we had a second-place car, but with the way these races play out, you know, I feel like you’ve got to put yourself in position. We weren’t very good all weekend and Todd Gordon kept working hard and all the guys on the team and ultimately got the car better. It was definitely a top-10 car.

“We were actually better in a really long run.”

Allmendinger admitted he didn’t have anything for eventual race winner Ryan Newman in the final short sprint to the finish and praised his rival for racing him clean as he tried to remain in contention running side-by-side with the Stewart-Haas driver for most of the last two laps.

“I knew it was going to be tough to get around him on the outside, but he ran me clean,” he said. “He didn’t run me up the racetrack. He ran me as clean as could be. I thank him for that and congratulate him on that. Hopefully, this gives us some confidence going into the off-weekend.”

“I’m obviously excited about the second-place finish, but happy the way we ran all day. We had a solid top-10 car all day. We had a really good car on the long run. In the short run, we were just too tight. Once we got going and everybody’s rear tires started going off, we were actually pretty good.”

Allmendinger, winner earlier this year in the 24 Hours of Daytona, still ranks 20th in the Cup standings despite his strong finish on Sunday.

Martinsville Sprint Cup winner Ryan Newman said he was not to blame for the late incident that eventually allowed him to snatch victory.

Newman charged back from an early pit road speeding penalty to be in position to contend for a good finish in the closing stages, restarting fifth for the first attempt at a green-flag finish, following a late caution.

He then got a great restart and bumped third-placed Clint Bowyer ahead of turn one just as the Michael Waltrip Racing driver was launching an attack on leader Jeff Gordon. Bowyer hit Gordon and Newman emerged ahead and in the best position for what turned out to be the final restart of the race.

Bowyer tried to point at Newman’s bump as the cause for him ending up hitting Gordon and igniting the multi-car incident, but the Stewart-Haas racer denied that being the case.

“Well, if I was in Clint’s position, I would have tried not crashing the guys and won the race,” said Newman.

“I mean, I was trying to do the same thing to him as he did to the #24 [Gordon], and he actually, whether he was trying to block me or he was just trying to get his run on the #24, he pulled down and my little bump, I think it was a pretty good shot, propelled him up next to the #24.”

“Whether he hit Turn 1 faster than he wanted to or not, he still has got three pedals on the car and a steering wheel; it’s his job to control it. I don’t know if he hit the curb or if he ran out of room or the #24 pinched him down. It doesn’t matter.”

Newman led on the final restart, fending off AJ Allmendinger, who was trying for his maiden Sprint Cup victory.

“The good thing is, we came out on the inside on the right side, and it was just a matter of racing AJ clean on that next restart. I felt like I wasn’t racing AJ on that restart.

“I felt like I was racing (Dale Earnhardt) Junior behind me because I didn’t want the same thing to happen, because I’ve seen it happen so many times here.

It was really important for me to not spin my tyres and get a good start and race AJ and try to eliminate the #88 from the race for the win.”

Newman’s eventual victory is the third of the season for Stewart Haas Racing and the second in as many weeks for the squad, following Tony Stewart’s win last week at Fontana in a rain-shortened event, which he dominated in its late stages.

David Reutimann apologised for causing the last-minute caution which triggered chaos in Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at Martinsville, after Hendrick Motorsports drivers had looked poised to claim a milestone 200th victory for the elite squad.

Reutimann had been black-flagged as he ran off the pace in the closing laps while trying to make it to the finish, but his car eventually stopped three laps from the end just as a side-by-side battle for the lead was unfoldding between Hendrick drivers Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson.

The restart following the caution then involved a multi-car incident ignited by contact between the top-three runners, Gordon, Johnson and Michael Waltrip Racing’s Clint Bowyer, who launched a late move on the Hendrick duo.

“Number one, I just hate it,” explained Reutimann. “I don’t even know how the race ended up finishing, but I just hate that I was involved in anything that changed the complexion of the race so I have to apologise to the guys that it affected. It broke a tie rod or something like that.

“I was just trying to limp around there. We needed to finish next couple of laps to try to stay in the top 35. Then the motor had been breaking up for the last couple of laps. It broke a timing belt or whatever down the back straightaway, and the motor just quit.

“I would not have stopped on the freaking racetrack. I would have limped it around there and come to pit road, which is what I was trying to do. The thing quit going down the back straightaway, and it shut off. I just didn’t stop there intentionally.

“I know it sucks. I hate it for everybody that it affected, but I mean I can’t get out and push the thing. You know, it shut off. It’s that simple.”

Reutimann was called by officials to the NASCAR hauler following the race but no penalties have been issued.

Reutimann’s #10 car entered the race in 34th place in the owner standings, and he was trying to secure a finish that allowed him to retain his position. Drivers outside the top-35 will need to qualify on time for the next Sprint Cup Series event, while those inside the cut have their start guaranteed.

Despite his best efforts, he will need to qualify on time in two-week’s time at Texas, as his car is now 36th in the owner standings.

Danica Patrick is set to get behind the wheel of the same car next month at Darlington, and while her start for the Daytona 500 was guaranteed, Reutimann will need solid finishes in coming races to prevent Patrick from having to qualify on speed for her next Cup event.

Clint Bowyer regretted having caused a late incident in Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at Martinsville, which took Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson out of contention for victory after they had dominated most of the race.

The Michael Waltrip Racing driver was a top-five contender for much of the running and was the most likely to spoil Hendrick Motorsports’ run at its 200th Sprint Cup victory, after pitting for two new tyres and fuel following a caution two laps from the end caused by David Reutimann’s car stopping on the track.

Bowyer restarted from third behind Gordon and Johnson, who stayed out during the caution on old rubber and low fuel to keep their track position.

When the green waved for the first green-white-chequered attempt, Bowyer was quicker off the line, nevertheless he got bumped from behind by Ryan Newman, and while trying a last-gasp pass for the lead on the inside of Gordon, he made contact with the Hendrick driver which caused chaos at the front.

“It pretty much sucked,” said Bowyer. “It is what it is. I don’t know what the hell the #10 car [Reutimann] was doing – drove around there with no brakes until it finally just came to a halt. It’s unfortunate. We had a good car.

“They (Hendrick Motorsports) had the cars to beat. [But] when the car’s got tyres and other cars don’t… he [Gordon] spun the tires pretty hard. If I didn’t go down there, the #39 [Newman] had already hit me in the rear and he was going to. I did and the #39 won.”

Gordon spoke to Bowyer after the finish and admitted to his poor restart, which gave the MWR driver a run at him under braking for turn one.

“Clint is a friend of mine,” said Gordon, who was classified 14th after leading more than half the distance. “He is a great race car driver. It was not like him to do that. He said he got a hit from behind from the #39.

“I didn’t get the best restart. The tyres are really old. I spun the tyres a slight bit. When I saw him go down to the inside of me I knew we were all in trouble. All I could do was just hold on tight.

“The #48 [Johnson] couldn’t go anywhere, I couldn’t go anywhere. He was just coming with so much speed. It won the race for the #39. Yeah, that’s Martinsville right?”

Johnson finished the race 12th after being Gordon’s only true rival during the afternoon. He was critical of Bowyer’s manouvre, blaming him for running out of patience in a desperate attempt to snatch the win.

“That inside lane is awfully inviting at times to dive-bomb on people,” said Johnson. “The #15 [Bowyer] threw a dive-bomb in there. I’m sure once he got in there and realised it wasn’t the best idea.

“It turned me around. It turned the #24 [Gordon] around. But it is what it is. I certainly wish it wouldn’t have happened and I wish Clint was more patient there getting started on the restart, but there’s nothing I can do about it now.

“I really thought we had a chance to get Rick (Hendrick) his 200th win today and it is just unfortunate.”

Hendrick Motorsports drivers Gordon and Johnson looked set to claim a milestone for Hendrick Motorsports at the same venue where the team took its maiden win almost 28 years ago.

Ryan Newman emerged victorious in a wild finish to the Martinsville NASCAR Sprint Cup race.

Hendrick Motorsports had looked dominant until the closing laps, when a yellow came out just after Jeff Gordon had passed team-mate Jimmie Johnson to reclaim the lead he had held for most of the distance.

But at the subsequent restart third-placed Clint Bowyer collided with the two leaders, with Newman then emerging in the lead when the dust settled.

Dale Earnhardt Jr salvaged something for Hendrick with second place, as AJ Allmendinger completed the top three.

Full report and results to follow…

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers have expressed mixed views over planned changes at Bristol Motor Speedway, some suggesting it is minimal tyre degradation that has led to dull racing in recent events at the half-mile track.

Bristol owner Bruton Smith has said the track is set to undergo changes before NASCAR returns for a second race next August, although specifics of the possible modifications to the track have yet to be revealed.

The track was reconfigured with progressive banking and a new surface back in 2007 but for the past few years crowds have decreased notably at a venue where tickets were once much sought after.

Last month’s Bristol Cup race drew a crowd of just over 100,000, less than two thirds of full grandstand capacity – the event featuring few lead changes and lacking the carnage that was once a trademark of races at the venue.

“It’s about time,” said Kevin Harvick about the planned changes. “Sometimes you hear the saying that bigger isn’t always better, the grass isn’t always greener on the other side, that’s a prime example of the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. Sometimes you can’t make things better than they are.

“I’m proud of them for realising that they have a problem. A lot of guys would argue that you can change the tyre, and you can change this or that, but you’re still not going to have bent racecars and ‘doughnuts’ on cars.

“The things that people expect from Bristol still won’t be there unless they put it back to how it was. After the last race there, I think they finally realised what I’ve told them since the first day after the first race. They didn’t like to hear it, but it just wasn’t Bristol. Hopefully they will do a good job.”

Hendrick Motorsports’ Dale Earnhardt Jr, a former winner at Bristol, is not sure the track needs to be changed again and points to tyres as being more of a factor in reviving the kind of racing that made the track a crowd favourite.

“I am not sure that they need to do really anything at all either,” said Earnhardt. “They could work a little bit on the tyre and see if that made a difference. The tyres are the number one component connecting the cars to the racetrack. They have to have a major play in how cars race, drive, and compete against each other on the racetrack.

“So I think the tyres being the number one variable to me of what could affect what the race looks like and what the race appears to be to the fan. I think that is sort of an underappreciated part of the puzzle.”

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin reckons a lack of tyre degradation is the issue.

However, last year Goodyear was forced to change the tyre specification following official practice after cords were appearing very early into a run. The issue led the tyre manufacturer to have a more conservative approach, but not without having an impact on the way the races unfold.

“It depends, what do you want to fix about Bristol?” said Hamlin. “As far as side-by-side [racing], I think it’s got it. If you look at Bristol, it had the least amount of fall off of any tyre that we had during this year. I think you start off around a 16.40s fast time and you ended 100 laps later running 16.90s. That’s just not enough fall off.

“You have to have overtaking and to have overtaking, you have to have cars that are running faster than others…

“It’s a tough job to make a tyre that does that and will live and ultimately not put our safety at risk of blowing tyres. Really, Goodyear has made tyres that are idiot proof now. We can’t abuse them enough to blow them out. That’s why you don’t see the passing that we used to have.”

Smith is reportedly seeking financial aid from the state of Tennessee in order to go ahead with his reconfiguration plan, which he said would be revealed soon.

Kasey Kahne became the first repeat pole-winner of the NASCAR Sprint Cup season at Martinsville.

The Hendrick driver narrowly beat Richard Childress Racing’s Kevin Harvick, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin, Michael Waltrip Racing’s Clint Bowyer and Stewart-Haas’ Ryan Newman to the top spot. Harvick had come close to adding Cup pole to his first-place starting position for the supporting Truck Series race, before Kahne deposed him.

Current points leader Greg Biffle will start 26th.

Full report to follow…

Pos  Driver              Team/Car                     Time     Gap

 1.  Kasey Kahne         Hendrick Chevrolet           19.496s

 2.  Kevin Harvick       Childress Chevrolet          19.512s  + 0.016s

 3.  Denny Hamlin        Gibbs Toyota                 19.521s  + 0.025s

 4.  Clint Bowyer        Waltrip Toyota               19.521s  + 0.025s

 5.  Ryan Newman         Stewart-Haas Chevrolet       19.524s  + 0.028s

 6.  Brian Vickers       Waltrip Toyota               19.569s  + 0.073s

 7.  Brad Keselowski     Penske Dodge                 19.572s  + 0.076s

 8.  Kyle Busch          Gibbs Toyota                 19.573s  + 0.077s

 9.  Jeff Gordon         Hendrick Chevrolet           19.576s  + 0.080s

10.  Joey Logano         Gibbs Toyota                 19.581s  + 0.085s

11.  Paul Menard         Childress Chevrolet          19.582s  + 0.086s

12.  Marcos Ambrose      Petty Ford                   19.597s  + 0.101s

13.  Martin Truex Jr     Waltrip Toyota               19.606s  + 0.110s

14.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Hendrick Chevrolet           19.637s  + 0.141s

15.  Tony Stewart        Stewart-Haas Chevrolet       19.659s  + 0.163s

16.  Bobby Labonte       JTG Daugherty Toyota         19.681s  + 0.185s

17.  Regan Smith         Furniture Row Chevrolet      19.684s  + 0.188s

18.  Jeff Burton         Childress Chevrolet          19.688s  + 0.192s

19.  Jamie McMurray      Earnhardt-Ganassi Chevrolet  19.715s  + 0.219s

20.  Aric Almirola       Petty Ford                   19.715s  + 0.219s

21.  Matt Kenseth        Roush Fenway Ford            19.731s  + 0.235s

22.  Jimmie Johnson      Hendrick Chevrolet           19.755s  + 0.259s

23.  Michael McDowell    Parsons Ford                 19.756s  + 0.260s

24.  David Ragan         Front Row Ford               19.760s  + 0.264s

25.  Casey Mears         Germain Ford                 19.767s  + 0.271s

26.  Greg Biffle         Roush Fenway Ford            19.778s  + 0.282s

27.  AJ Allmendinger     Penske Dodge                 19.779s  + 0.283s

28.  Carl Edwards        Roush Fenway Ford            19.806s  + 0.310s

29.  David Reutimann     Baldwin Chevrolet            19.806s  + 0.310s

30.  Josh Wise           Front Row Ford               19.811s  + 0.315s

31.  Landon Cassill      BK Toyota                    19.826s  + 0.330s

32.  Juan Pablo Montoya  Earnhardt-Ganassi Chevrolet  19.833s  + 0.337s

33.  Scott Riggs         R3 Chevrolet                 19.859s  + 0.363s

34.  Travis Kvapil       BK Toyota                    19.860s  + 0.364s

35.  Reed Sorenson       Turn One Chevrolet           19.886s  + 0.390s

36.  Ken Schrader        FAS Lane Ford                19.906s  + 0.410s

37.  Joe Nemechek        NEMCO Toyota                 19.946s  + 0.450s

38.  David Gilliland     Front Row Ford               19.979s  + 0.483s

39.  David Stremme       Inception Toyota             20.015s  + 0.519s

40.  Kurt Busch          Phoenix Chevrolet            20.024s  + 0.528s

41.  Hermie Sadler       Childress Chevrolet          20.041s  + 0.545s

42.  Tony Raines         Front Row Ford               20.197s  + 0.701s

43.  JJ Yeley            Robinson-Blakeney Toyota     20.315s  + 0.819s

44.  Dave Blaney         Baldwin Chevrolet            20.322s  + 0.826s

45.  Scott Speed         Hamilton Means Toyota        20.560s  + 1.064s

46.  Mike Bliss          Humphrey-Smith Toyota        22.318s  + 2.822s

Tony Stewart believes seven victories from the last 15 Sprint Cup races, plus the fact that he captured his third series’ title in that period, marks his best ever run in NASCAR.

Stewart has picked up this year where he left off in 2011, winning two of the first five races (at Las Vegas and more recently at Fontana, in a rain-shortened event).

The team owner/driver who races for his own Stewart-Haas Racing squad has been able to keep his momentum despite off-season personnel changes to his outfit, including replacing his championship-winning crew chief Darian Grubb with former Penske and Joe Gibbs Racing man Steve Addington.

“This is definitely the biggest one so far,” said Stewart. “Especially to go through an off-season and pick it back up and to have some pretty big personnel changes in the middle of all that so, it’s pretty big right now. You know the hard part is that you just don’t want it to end, you want it to stay like this.”

He added: “I don’t know that it is the best I have run in my career but it is pretty close. I mean when we were running the year we won the (USA sprint car) Triple Crown in ’95 I feel like that is the best that I had ever run in my career and I don’t feel like we are far off that right now.

“This is the best I have run in NASCAR I think as far as just a long, consistent run like this.”

Stewart admits his years of experience have definitely help build his current momentum but he reckons his outfit has been fielding fast cars ever since the 2011 Chase started. The team runs Chevrolet Impalas based on Hendrick Motorsports technology, namely chassis and engines.

He has qualified among the top-ten in eight out of the last fifteen races, besides his seven wins, leading laps in twelve of those events.

“I just feel like I have been racing a lot and I feel like that has helped so I think our group here has done a great job and I just feel like I am always in that race mode,” said Stewart.

“I mean I am always running something but it makes it good when you come on a weekend and the cars are driving good and that’s been that way since Chicago of last year all the way through now.”

Stewart currently ranks fourth in the Sprint Cup standings, while his team-mate Ryan Newman sits not far behind him in tenth.

Brian Vickers has had his Michael Waltrip Racing deal increased to encompass the two NASCAR Sprint Cup road course races at Sears Point and Watkins Glen this year.

The former Red Bull driver was initially set to fill in for Mark Martin in the #55 Toyota Camry at only six races, but his fifth place on his Cup return at Bristol earlier this month has convinced the team to have a rethink.

Vickers, 28, led 125 laps at Bristol, contributing towards the best Cup result for MWR as its Toyotas came home third, fourth and fifth.

“Brian came at MWR and made a statement,” said team boss Michael Waltrip. “He showed not only our organisation what he’s capable of, but the whole world. We felt like that made him deserving to be able to run some more races.

“Eight races, if I do that math correctly, we’re up to a quarter of a season. So you keep going young man. you might have them all one day!”

Vickers completes his second outing for MWR this weekend at Martinsville, where he had a rough race last year after being involved in several incidents.

“Eight is better than six and that’s the way I’m looking at right now. And six is better than none,” said Vickers. “I couldn’t ask being in a better situation obviously. Everyone knows I feel that way with how we ran at Bristol… I’m really pumped about it.”

MWR’s #55 car currently ranks eighth in the owners’ standing, adding points scored by both Martin and Vickers at the wheel of the car.

Free (aka loose) is fast . . . just ask Maxime Paquette!

Paquette scored two wins in three starts at Thompson, with his top win coming on March 24th during a 3018 strength of field (sof) race. One lead change transpired in the 50 lap online race when Paquette, who started third, took the lead from outside pole sitter Chase Raudman with 11 to go. Raudman would hold on to second with pole sitter Jeff Conover less than a car length behind him at the flag. Justin Hoyle and Brian Ewoldt completed the top five. The margin of victory for Paquette was nearly three seconds. Paquette scored 187 points for the win but when his other top finish was factored in, he left Thompson with 171 points, tops amongst his peers during Week Eight.

Raudman’s week was busy as well as the California Club driver took home four checkered flags in eight starts. His biggest win came on March 21st when he led wire-to-wire at Thompson in a 2489 sof race, winning by over three and a half seconds over Tony Dugan. Kenneth Lang, James Edens and Michael Fisher all scored top five finishes and in a numerologists dream, the top five qualifiers finished the 50 lapper in the spots in which they started the race! Raudman finished the week fifth overall in the standings with 150 points.

Trenton Moriarity was perfect on the week, going 3 for 3 in NiLMS competition during Week Eight. Moriarity finished with 165 points after his three wins each tipped the scales in the 2600 sof range. The biggest win for Trenton was during a 2687 sof race on March 21st where he spanked the field by over 13 seconds, leading wire-to-wire on his mission to victory lane. Coleman Anderson finished a distant second, followed by Richard Felton2, Steven Landry and Brian Babb.

Heath Smith made one start on the week and was successful in finding Thompson International victory lane as he secured the checkers in a 2602 sof race on March 23rd. It wasn’t as easy as some though. Even though Smith led all 50 laps from the pole, Shawn Stitt kept the pressure on for most of the race but eventually fell to eight car lengths off Smith at the finish. Brian Lambert, Caleb Williams and Fisher each took home top five runs in the race. For the victory, Smith captured 161 championship points.

Like Moriarity, point leader Mark Lambert was also perfect during Round Eight. Four races resulted in four wins and a 157 point total when all was said and done in Connecticut. His biggest win came during a 2754 sof race on March 26th and once again it was Stitt making the leader very uncomfortable up front. Lambert led all the laps in the race but just three tenths of a second behind at the finish was Stitt. Thomas Fleming2 was third with Chad Detillier and Kevin Gravitte each grabbing a piece of the top five in fourth and fifth respectively.

Timothy Green made the most starts of the week with 26 and converted for five wins, the same amount Darrell Bryson and Colman Anderson achieved in Week Eight. “The Tamworth Torpedo” Jeremy Davis took the pole position at Thompson with a 19.487 second lap in the qualifying sessions. Moriarity, Lambert, Smith and Stitt completed the top five in qualifying. Lambert went to the top in the Time Trial competition as he took the top honor home at Thompson over Smith, Davis, Stitt and Moriarity.

Lambert continues to enjoy the point lead with 1317 points, 105 points more than Division Two leader Smith. Conover is third overall with 1167 points, 150 markers off the pace set by the leader. Division Two’s Jeremy Ahlum is fourth overall with 1050 and Division Three leader Brian Lambert is fifth with 1013 points. The top five are currently the only five of over 2,400 drivers to obtain more than 1,000 points after eight weeks of racing. Divisional leaders from Divisions Four to Ten include Mark Meech, Chad Arnold, Jeremy Poole2, Fausto Bessa Gomes, Darrell Phillips, Cale Thompson2 and Petie Madrid.

Next up for the NASCAR iRacing.com Late Model Series is the USA International Speedway. With a wide track to play with, high speed short track excitement is expected during Week Nine, the first week that drop weeks will come into play with the point standings. Does anyone have anything for Mark Lambert? Find out here at inRacingNews.

Until then, keep the hammer down and we’ll see you at the track!

The Irish Hills smiled on the Class A racers at MIS in Week 8.

Another week of big point totals, and our Division One championships contenders running neck and neck. Leading the way however was former NASCAR iRacing.com Pro Series (NiPS) driver Jeremy Thornton with 353 big points. This is a huge deal for Thornton who is currently on the bubble in locking himself in to the top twelve in points. Leading only 26 of the 100 laps, it was not easy for Thornton, but he rose up in the clutch and took the 5520 Strength of Field win over championship contender Jason Karlavige.

Despite Karlavige putting together a 339 point week, it was not enough to overcome the man he is chasing in the overall standings, Jared Crawford. In a separate, narrowly lower, race than the one won by Thornton, Crawford dominated and earned a cool 347 points to go along with the trophy. What all that means is as the season heads into the final stages, Crawford holds a fourteen point advantage over Karlavige. For those new to the iRacing.com points system, fourteen points equates roughly to one position on the track in the high split races.

While some drivers race for points, others race for fun, not having a care in the world what it might do to their individual statistics. Twenty eight drivers definitely fall into that category, as they competed in more than ten races on the week. Former NiPS driver Rick Savage set a high standard with twenty four starts on the week, besting Ivan Garcia by six races. Kenny Humpe once again set the bar in wins, going to victory lane in seven of his ten starts. The next highest win total came from Kyle Peddle with five.

As the season heads into the final four weeks, drop weeks will now start taking effect. An unusual problem for the top NiPS hopefuls… They don’t have much to drop. In a normal season a driver will compile a few bad weeks over the first eight weeks, utilizing the four drop weeks to overcome their less than stellar performances. To put things in perspective, the current bubble spot, Jeremy Thornton, is averaging nearly 250 points per week. Thornton’s current 1697 point total would have won him the Division One Championship last season.

From the fast, wide, high banks of MIS, to the short, tight, and flat confines of Martinsville Speedway for Week Nine of 2012 Season 1. The paper clip shaped track has built a reputation over the years for twisting fenders, tight racing, and surprise winners. There are no “Lucky” wins at Martinsville, it takes talent and car control to get your Impala to the finish in a position to win, a task in which even the most thrifty drivers have difficulty with.

Bristol Motor Speedway will undergo changes to its configuration before its next round of the NASCAR Sprint Cup, track bosses have announced.

The half-mile banked oval is one of the most popular with NASCAR fans, but it has come in for criticism in recent years following changes made in 2007, which included resurfacing and the addition of progressive banking.

Track owner Bruton Smith has confirmed that work will begin soon on making further changes, but he would not confirm rumours that Bristol will be returned to its previous configuration.

“The race fans have spoken,” he said. “We had input that included a wide range of opinions. But the majority we heard from said they wanted to see changes made.

“As a result, I have ordered the equipment and work will begin within the next two weeks to allow time to have everything ready for [the race in] August.

“The question we wanted to answer as quickly as possible was ‘Is something going to be done?’ The answer to that is ‘yes’. We will have the details in two weeks as to what that ‘something’ is.”

Smith explained that the changes were being made in the hope of restoring Bristol’s popularity on the NASCAR schedule.

“Bristol Motor Speedway has been voted the most popular race track in the country more than half a dozen times, even one of the 10 things you need to see before you die,” he said. “We aim to keep the status as the fans’ favourite.”

Thursday’s SoF race took place at 8:30pm EST and had 25 drivers make the race. Phil Juhring (New Jersey) continued his hot streak as he qualified on the pole for the race but was quickly passed by Brandon Hauck (Eastern Canada), who started in second. Hauck would dominate the race, leading 83 of the 90 laps in route to the victory. For his win, Hauck received 233 points. Juhring finished the race in the second position, after starting on the pole, and received 223 laps. Thomas Davis (Mid-South) finished in the third position, after leading three laps midway through the race. Davis received 213 points for his finish. Will Bell (Mid-South) and Jeffrey Parker (Florida) round out the Top Five. Bell would receive 203 points for fourth while Parker received 194 points for fifth.

At MIS as in the Season 1 standings, Juhring finds himself in pole position.

As the win came to an end, Juhring found himself on top of the weekly standings. Juhring used is strong second place finish in the SoF race to get himself to the top. Hauck finished the week in the second position after winning the SoF race and running three more races on the week. Hauck would finish the week with three wins and 208 points. Parker finished the week in the third position with 194 points after only running one race on the week. Davis finished the week in the fourth position with 191 points after making races starts on the week, winning three and finishing in the Top Five’s in nine of those ten races. Brian Grubs (Mid-South) rounded out the Top Five after making two starts. Grubs finished the week with 189 points.

With his second place finish in the SoF race, Phil Juhring catapulted himself to the top position in the season standings. Juhring now has 1379 points on the season with a 73 point lead over second. To top it all off, Juhring has one less week counted so his lead will ultimately increase next week.  Brad Mahar (New England) was able to maintain his second position after Week Eight after increasing his points total by 145 points, bringing his total to 1306. Brandon Buie (Atlantic) dropped from the top spot to third after Michigan. Buie was only able to net 48 points during Week Eight and bringing his total to 1290. Jeffrey Parker and John Bunton (Carolina) swapped position this past week. Parker jumped the fourth spot after netting 194 points and brought his total to 1265. Bunton dropped to the fifth spot after received 165 points at Michigan. Bunton has brought his season total to 1239 points.

“The championship is certainly within reach.” — Phil Juhring

When asked about his chances to win the championship, Juhring said “The championship is certainly within reach. I missed Daytona which hurts, because of all the points offered up that week. That being said, I’ve got two wins and two seconds the last four weeks to go along with a win at Dover to start off the season. We head to Kentucky this week, a track in which I was very good at last season.”

When the week came to an end, Jukka Savolainen (Finland) was on top of the qualifying charts. Savolainen turned a blazing 39.022 second lap around the two mile track. Juhring finished the week in the second position after turning a 39.081 second lap. Hauck was third with a 39.095 while Andrew Shirley (Mid-South) was fourth with a 39.108. Davis rounded out the Top Five for the week after turning a 39.166 second lap.

Next week the NiCBS will travel to Kentucky Speedway. Week Nine is an important point in the season because that is when drop weeks will come into effect. Will anyone be able to keep pace will Juhring or will he run away with the championship? Find out next week at inRacingNews!

Hindman’s Week Seven triumph came on March 17th during a 3499 strength of field (sof) race at Pocono. Hindman led 15 of the 50 laps of the race after starting in 12th place and finished two seconds up on Craig Jernigan at the finish. Mark Wright was third, followed by Tony Monge and Richard Hillenburg. Mason Weitzel started on the pole and led four laps before falling to 15th place in the finishing order. Wright led the most laps as he paced the field for 18 laps in a race which featured four yellow flags. Hindman scored 216 points for the victory.

Made in the shade. . . . Hightower edged Coleman by .008s at MIS.

Second for the week at Pocono was Stephen Dotson. Dotson, who represents the Indiana club, won a 3182 sof race on March 16th (also) from the 12th starting spot. Dotson led the final eight laps after taking the top spot in the only lead change in the event from pole sitter and second place finisher Jimmy Helie. Randall Robertson was third in the race while Jeff Chandler and Brad Bubel rounded-out the top five. The race saw five yellow flags slow the tempo of an online race that netted Dotson 197 championship points for the win.

Third for the week went to Bubel after he went on to win a 2903 sof race later on March 16th. Bubel led only the most important lap in the race, taking the lead on the final lap and creating the sixth lead chance in the event. Michael McLain led 12 laps and finished second, crossing the line ahead of Michael Vandish, Douglas Lemire. Weitzel once again started from the pole and led 30 of the 50 laps in the event but was out before the finish in 15th place. Bubel, who started sixth in the five caution affair would be rewarded with 182 points for his efforts on the Tricky Triangle.

Nick Ritcey made the most starts of the week, appearing in 34 races at Pocono. Jason Richardson was the most successful in hunting checkered flag as the New England sim racer collected eight wins in Pennsylvania. David Krikorian was the quickest in qualifying, lapping the big track in 55.454 seconds. Championship contender Justin Brooks was second, followed by Cody Byus, Brian Viola and Weitzel. Bill Brown was the top Time Trial competitor for the week over Chris Allex, Kenville Inniss, Dustin Bartee and Paul Conway.

When it came to Week Eight, Hindman was the top when it came to the points as he amassed 248 points in his win at MIS.  His triumph came on March 21st during a 3937 sof race in which Hindman led 25 of the 65 laps after starting third. Alan Gray, who led 37 laps from the pole, finished second, ahead of Austin Lamberth, Greg McKinney and Richard Beasley. The race saw two caution periods and three lead changes amongst four drivers.

“I was digging in the final two laps . . .” — Jordan Hightower.

The top split race of the week was rated at 4347 sof and took place on March 23rd. Jordan Hightower started fourth on a green-white-checkered finish and ended up in victory lane after leading only one lap of the event – the last one. “I was digging in the final two laps,” said Hightower, who started in 13th place in the race, which saw four cautions. Chad Coleman was second, followed by Jeremy Thornton, who won six races in 12 starts at Michigan. Completing the top five were Kevin King and Beasley, who run similar paint schemes on their race trucks. While the top three went on to make multiple starts on the week which would play into their point total, King, who celebrated the birth of his first child on the weekend, was awarded with 228 points on the week and second place amongst 1,488 drivers.

Pat Baldwin was third on the week after his two win performance in four starts resulted in 222 points at Michigan. His biggest win of Round Eight came on March 24th during a 3620 sof race where he led 24 laps en route to the victory after starting in tenth place. Mike McKinney was second, followed by Mitchell Kelley, Mike Burnell and pole sitter Brandon Hauck, who led 17 laps. Three caution flags and nine lead changes set the tone for the race.

Jason Richardson made the most starts of the week at the two mile oval as he raced 39 times at Michigan. He turned those 39 starts into 11 wins, the most of any driver in the Irish Hills. Brooks set the pace in qualifying with a lap of 39.761 seconds. Michael Guest, Brian Viola, David Krikorian and Hunter Davis completed the top five in qualifying. Brown took the top spot in Time Trials over Milt Matice, Edward Szigeti, David Ankeney and Chris Allex.

Hindman has went to the top of the board when it comes to the standings with 1454 points, 68 more than Brooks, who has 1386 points. Jernigan, Division Two leader has 1368 points and is currently ahead of a three driver battle for fourth overall involving Phil Brown (1186), Trey Jarrell (1184) and Hauck (1183). Divisional leaders from Divisions Three to Ten include Tom Moustakas, Brock Garis, Rock Harris, Michael Valentin, Fausto Bessa Gomes, Robert Cori, Sean Cummings2 and Robert Mason2.

Next up for the series is “the Paperclip” as the NASCAR iRacing.com Class C Series heads to the Martinsville. Who will come out of the shortest venue of the season on top of their peers? Find out here at inRacingNews as the series heads towards crowning a 2012 Season One champion.

Until next time, keep the hammer down and we’ll see you at the track!

The 2012 NASCAR Sprint All-Star race will feature a revised format, rewarding the winners of each segment plus putting a premium on strategy before the final sprint.

The event will be run over 90 laps split first into four 20-lap segments, where the leader at the end of each one will be allowed a place among the top-four in the order when the field makes a final mandatory pitstop that will dictate restarting positions for the final 10-lap sprint.

The driver leading after the first segment will get first place in the order before that final stop, ahead of the leader at the end of the second, third and fourth segments respectively. In the event of a driver leading at the end of two or more segments, the second-placed driver will get the top-four spot for that crucial last stop.

Once in the pits, teams will be free to choose which strategy suits their chances better, either seeking track position or maximum performance for the last 15 miles that will give the winner a US $1 million cheque.

“This new addition to the format is going to provide even greater incentive for the drivers to go all out to win one of the four segments,” said NASCAR’s Robin Pemberton.

“It also puts even more focus on the pit crews and how they perform during that final pit stop. The team aspect of the sport will be highlighted more than ever and it helps set the stage for an exciting race and an exciting evening for the fans.”

Drivers eligible for the All-Star Race are race winners from 2011 and 2012, past event and Sprint Cup Series champions over the last 10 years, plus the top-two finishers of the Sprint Showdown, a two-segment, 40-lap race that takes place before the main event. An additional driver will make the field through the Sprint Fan Vote.

Pit selection for the race will be decided based upon results of the Pit Crew challenge, which takes place on the Thursday before the All-Star race.

Tony Stewart claimed his second win of the NASCAR Sprint Cup season by passing Kyle Busch to dominate before rain forced the Fontana race to be halted 71 laps from the end.

The reigning Cup champion claimed the lead from the Joe Gibbs Racing driver on lap 85, after Busch had been up front for most of the running. Once ahead, there was little challenge for Stewart as the race ran caution-free until the expected rain arrived.

When the pits opened during the caution, Stewart seemed to be driving onto pit-road with Denny Hamlin following him, but he then drove back on the track at the last second, while the JGR driver stopped for tyres and fuel, as did a handful of other top contenders.

Although the rain was initially mild, forecasts showed a high chance of it intensifying, making an eventual restart unlikely.

In the end that latter scenario unfolded as cars lined up on pit-road under the red flag, officials then calling the race, to Stewart’s joy.

“I’ve got awesome racecars,” said Stewart. “It starts with all of our guys at Stewart-Haas Racing and the Hendrick chassis department. Especially here at California, the Hendrick Engine department really shows up here.”

Busch, who led 80 of the 129 laps after passing polesitter Hamlin on lap one, lost some of his early speed following a brush with the wall, finishing second ahead of Dale Earnhardt Jr. His JGR team-mate Hamlin was classified 11th after his stop.

“Trying to run back with Stewart’s lap times, that’s when I was trying too hard, too close to the fence, got myself in trouble there, caught the right side a little bit,” said Busch.

“Overall I’m glad that the rains came when they did, as heavy as they were, we were able to go home with a second-place finish.”

Earnhardt, who drove a solid race, also stayed out while his Hendrick Motorsports team-mate Jimmie Johnson pitted ahead of him. The five-time champion emerged in 10th place after his stop and was lucky the race was halted as his car developed a suspected oil leak while running behind the pace car.

Their team-mate Jeff Gordon was a top-five contender as well but had to serve a pit-road penalty under green after motoring from his box while the refueling can was still attached to his car, during his third stop of the day.

Richard Childress Racing’s Kevin Harvick finished fourth after enjoying an interesting battle with Stewart early on, as the eventual winner made his way through the field.

Roush Fenway’s Carl Edwards seemed to be gaining momentum as the race progressed but was only able to move up to fifth place by the time it rained.

Kurt Busch stayed out during the caution as well and got his first top-10 finish for Phoenix Racing.

Roush’s Matt Kenseth finished the race in 13th but was put back to 16th as the last car on the lead lap, due to a pit road penalty caused by an uncontrolled tyre from his crew during his last stop under caution.

Results – 129 laps:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car                         Time/Gap

 1.  Tony Stewart        Stewart-Haas Chevrolet       1h36m39.000s

 2.  Kyle Busch          Gibbs Toyota                     + 3.556s

 3.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Hendrick Chevrolet               + 5.767s

 4.  Kevin Harvick       Childress Chevrolet              + 6.951s

 5.  Carl Edwards        Roush Fenway Ford                + 9.307s

 6.  Greg Biffle         Roush Fenway Ford                + 9.664s

 7.  Ryan Newman         Stewart-Haas Chevrolet          + 11.001s

 8.  Martin Truex Jr     Waltrip Toyota                  + 11.579s

 9.  Kurt Busch          Phoenix Chevrolet               + 14.285s

10.  Jimmie Johnson      Hendrick Chevrolet              + 14.930s

11.  Denny Hamlin        Gibbs Toyota                    + 15.311s

12.  Mark Martin         Waltrip Toyota                  + 15.713s

13.  Matt Kenseth        Roush Fenway Ford               + 16.302s

14.  Clint Bowyer        Waltrip Toyota                  + 17.412s

15.  Kasey Kahne         Hendrick Chevrolet              + 18.244s

16.  AJ Allmendinger     Penske Dodge                    + 24.558s

17.  Juan Pablo Montoya  Earnhardt-Ganassi Chevrolet       + 1 lap

18.  Brad Keselowski     Penske Dodge                      + 1 lap

19.  Paul Menard         Childress Chevrolet               + 1 lap

20.  Regan Smith         Furniture Row Chevrolet           + 1 lap

21.  Marcos Ambrose      Petty Ford                        + 1 lap

22.  Jeff Burton         Childress Chevrolet               + 1 lap

23.  Casey Mears         Germain Ford                      + 1 lap

24.  Joey Logano         Gibbs Toyota                      + 1 lap

25.  Aric Almirola       Petty Ford                        + 1 lap

26.  Jeff Gordon         Hendrick Chevrolet                + 1 lap

27.  David Reutimann     Baldwin Chevrolet                + 2 laps

28.  Bobby Labonte       JTG Daugherty Toyota             + 2 laps

29.  Travis Kvapil       BK Toyota                        + 2 laps

30.  David Gilliland     Front Row Ford                   + 2 laps

31.  David Ragan         Front Row Ford                   + 2 laps

32.  Jamie McMurray      Earnhardt-Ganassi Chevrolet      + 3 laps

33.  Dave Blaney         Baldwin Chevrolet                + 3 laps

34.  Ken Schrader        FAS Lane Ford                    + 4 laps

35.  JJ Yeley            Robinson-Blakeney Toyota         + 4 laps

36.  Landon Cassill      BK Toyota                        + 5 laps
Did not finish:
     Josh Wise           Front Row Ford                    52 laps

     Michael McDowell    Parsons Ford                      41 laps

     David Stremme       Inception Toyota                  37 laps

     Mike Bliss          Humphrey-Smith Toyota             19 laps

     Scott Riggs         R3 Chevrolet                      18 laps

     Reed Sorenson       Turn One Chevrolet                 7 laps

     Brendan Gaughan     Childress Chevrolet                2 laps

Jimmie Johnson claims that last Tuesday’s final appeal ruling proves his Daytona 500 car was legal and believes all penalties for his team should have been overturned.

The five-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion vaulted up from 18th to 11th in the points after chief appellate officer John Middlebrook rescinded all suspensions and points deductions issued following the season opener, when parts of Johnson’s car were deemed illegal. Only a US $100.000 fine remained in place.

NASCAR insists there was still a rules violation, confirmed by the fine being upheld, despite all other penalties being overturned, leaving Johnson unhappy and puzzled.

He expected all penalties to be rescinded and believed even after the first ruling that they were not warranted.

“I’m not totally happy with the decision,” Johnson said. “I’m pleased that the big issues have come down, but I share confusion as well.

“I know our message all along through Hendrick Motorsports and we didn’t feel that the penalty was warranted in the first place. So we’re just as curious.”

Johnson is adamant that Tuesday’s outcome of the final hearing clearly proves that the C-posts on his Daytona 500 car, as presented for initial inspection, were within the regulations.

NASCAR president Mike Helton was asked on Friday morning if those same parts would be ruled illegal again if presented on Johnson’s car for inspection at Talladega in May, and he replied that he would “hope” that was the case.

“I guess this is one one of those positions where we agreed to disagree and through the appeal process we proved that those C-posts were legal,” said Johnson. “So that’s where it stands.”

Despite having to go though two appeals to prove his team’s case, Johnson still believes in the detailed inspection process.

“I believe in the system,” said Johnson. “It’s governed our series for a lot of years and I think in all aspects of our sport we continue to look for areas to improve on.

“The inspection process is not something that I’m a part of, the cars is not something I’m a part of. I really can’t make many comments because it’s not the world I live in but I think all areas can be looked at, addressed and always improved.”

Denny Hamlin claimed his first pole position of the season in qualifying for Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Fontana.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver, who has had an up and down start to his year, winning at Phoenix but then finishing 20th in the last two races, got the 10th pole of his career after setting a fastest lap of 38.626 seconds at an average speed of 186.403 mph around the two-mile oval, bumping his team-mate Kyle Busch from the top spot.

“This is a horsepower and handling racetrack and we’ve improved in those areas and it seems like we’ve got better,” said Hamlin. “TRD [Toyota Racing Development], can’t thank them enough, this is kind of a home race for them and everyone out here from Costa Mesa. Glad to give them the pole and obviously a front row for both of us.”

Toyota Camrys dominated the session. Michael Waltrip Racing’s Mark Martin, returning this week after sitting out Bristol, set the third fastest lap after running second best in practice earlier in the day.

The veteran’s time was exactly the same as that set by Busch, while behind them, Roush Fenway’s Greg Biffle and Hendrick Motorsports’ Kasey Kahne also set identical times rounding out the top five. In both cases the ties were broken by the car’s position in the 2011 car owners’ standings.

All JGR three drivers held pole at some point during the session, Joey Logano being bumped down to eighth in the end behind Stewart-Haas’ Ryan Newman and Richard Childress Racing’s Kevin Harvick, having been at the top of the timesheets for a while.

Reigning champion Tony Stewart (Stewart-Haas) had a sideways moment but still ran the ninth fastest lap, finishing the session ahead of five-time champion and five-time winner of his home race at Fontana, Jimmie Johnson (Hendrick).

MWR’s Clint Bowyer had been fastest earlier in practice but only set the 11th fastest lap in qualifying after going out last in the order.

David Stremme was the fastest of the non-guaranteed drivers in 20th, while local Robby Gordon, Joe Nemechek and Timmy Hill failed to make the field.

NASCAR President Mike Helton has defended the inspection process and the ruling against Jimmie Johnson and his team following the Daytona 500, despite a final appeal overturning most of the penalties imposed.

Last Tuesday Hendrick Motorsports claimed an unexpected victory in the final appeal against NASCAR’s ruling on Johnson’s Daytona 500 car, which failed its first inspection ahead of the Sprint Cup season opener at the Florida oval.

Chief appellate officer John Middlebrook rescinded a six-week suspension for crew chief Chad Knaus, car chief Ron Malec plus points deductions in the drivers’ and owner’s standings, only upholding a US$100,000 fine for Knaus. Hendrick Motorsports had lost a first appeal a week earlier, when all penalties were confirmed by an appeal panel.

Despite Middlebrook’s decision being a clear defeat for NASCAR, Helton says it confirms that the actions taken by officials at Daytona were correct. He doesn’t believe the inspection process has lost any of its credibility as a consequence.

“I think the decision made this week upholds what’s right and wrong when it comes to the inspections process and the things on the car, because there were elements of the penalty that were upheld, relative to parts of the car that did not conform to the rules,” said Helton.

“We did what we felt was correct. Our inspectors did their job, we collectively made a decision on how to react to it and the car owner has a due process to take and follow and that due process completes it up and that’s what happened this past week and will go on down the road.”

Part of Hendrick’s defence was based on the fact that the same parts that were ruled illegal in February had already passed numerous inspections last year at both Daytona and Talladega. However, the actual reasons for last Tuesday’s ruling remain unknown.

Middlebrook, who worked for many years as General Motors executive, has not spoken publicly about his decision to partially rescind the penalties initially levied by NASCAR.

Helton said it is not Middlebrook’s obligation to explain his decisions and says this week’s ruling doesn’t affect their faith in his fair judgement.

“When we chose John Middlebrook as our chief appellate officer, we chose him based on our experiences with him for several years and his pragmatic approach to business and to his relationship with race teams and with NASCAR,” said Helton.

“The reasons that we chose the current chief appellate officers haven’t changed and our opinion and our believe in him haven’t changed.”

Although Helton says NASCAR’s rulebook is a continuous work in progress, he does not anticipate any changes to it or the inspection process for now.

Multi-groove racing was the norm at Bristol Motor Speedway in Week 7.

A new name emerged atop the NiCAS pylon this week, that being Dylan Duval. Duval is no stranger to scoring huge amounts of points in some lower divisions, but he is now putting a stamp on the NiCAS.  This week he did just that on what is arguably the toughest track on the schedule. Duval may be atop the points, but Week 7 saw Paul Kusheba put together one of the strongest performances we have seen from anyone thus far in the season.   The NASCAR iRacing.com Series World Championship driver raced seven times on the week, winning six, including the top split of the week.   That top split would be crucial in determining the outcome of the week’s competition, as Duval brought it home second, while Kusheba’s weekly points haul suffered from the sheer amount of races in which he competed.

Not too many NiSWC drivers stole the show this week in Bristol, as there were only two top-ranked drivers in the top fifteen. Kenneth O’Keefe and Ashley Miller are two Class A licensed drivers who put together some solid races, earning themselves second and third in points with 293 and 288 respectively. The top NiSWC driver on the week was Chris Overland in fourth, while Overland’s teammate and championship chaser, Adam Gilliland rounded-out the top five.

James Boyett started the most races on the week with eighteen and, together with James Robinson, Jeffery Morrisette and Jimmy Winn, was one of four drivers to compete in ten or more races on the week. Of the four, Boyett had by far the best week, stringing together eleven top fives, and two wins to go along with a seventh place average finish. Kusheba doubled the wins of his closest followers with six, while Dillan Raffurty and Phillip Loy each compiled three victories on the week.

As always, staying out of trouble was key to success at Bristol.

With the sudden change with the NiSWC schedule (switching from Bristol to Chicagoland), many top NiCAS competitors utilized Week 7 as a drop week, secure in the knowledge there would be only a few NiSWC drivers turning-up in Thunder Valley. Adam Gilliland did not seem to mind one bit as he raced, earned himself 272 points, and now finds himself atop the Division One points standings….albeit with an extra week counted compared with a few of the people chasing him.

From the tricky confines of Bristol, the NiCAS heads to the wide open expanses of Michigan International Speedway for the next stop on the tour. One thing that will remain the same from week to week is the many options of lines to run, and the little matter of which line will prevail over the long haul. Setup gurus will be tested to not only find speed, but to make the 3,450 pound car stick in multiple grooves, all over the race track. Multi-grooved racing provides awesome side-by-side racing, allowing drivers to make their way forward with a good handling race car. Check back next week at inRacingNews.com for all the week’s highlights.

Sandt scored two wins on the week at “SoBo,” with the big one coming in the top split of the week on March 7th. The race, rated at a 3734 Strength of Field (SoF), saw Sandt leading 81 of the 120 laps of a race slowed by four caution flags. Shawn Colley was second, followed to the line by Trent Hullum, Richard Smith5 and Mike Daniel. Sandt scored 235 points for the win to put him on top for the week while Colley’s 221 points earned in this race placed him second overall for the week at South Boston.

Week 6 brought the 'ground-pounders' to SoBo.

Giovanni Mungin kept up his bid to claim his first NiTMS championship with a 215 point effort at SoBo. He won a 3426 SoF race on March 7th in which he led all but six laps en route to the win over Herb Engelhart, Samuel Dick, TJ Graves and David Markham. Three cautions slowed the event with just two lead changes between Mungin and Dick setting the pace at the front. Mungin’s nearest competitor in the points, Taylor Meyn, recorded a win of his own which was worth 211 points on March 10th, in which Mungin finished third. Mungin led 94 laps in the 3429 sof race but it was Meyn taking the win after pacing the field for five laps. Brett Osborn was second with Paul Wisniewski and Gary Holbrook coming home in fourth and fifth places, respectively.

David Chmura made the most starts of the week at the Virginia track with eight. Sandt, Jerold John, Wisniewski and Chmura each turned in two victories during Round Six while Christian Pedersen, Derrick Cormier2, Dick, Meyn, Mungin, Carl Suundberg, Johnathan Dockery, Greg Ostrander and TJ Graves each took one trip to victory lane. The quickest in qualifying was Mungin with a 14.108 second lap around SoBo, with Sandt, Dick, Salvatore and Jamie Collier completing the top five in qualifying. The top Time Trial honor for Round Six went to Osborn as he defeated Dick, Shane Kline, Salvatore and Tim Gould in the weekly standings.

From the bullring to the one-mile sweeping turns of Phoenix International Raceway, the NiTMS headed west for Round Seven of the series and it was Salvatore showing the way. In fact, the 4325 sof race he won decided four of the top five spots for the week. Salvatore led a third of the race’s 75 laps and defeated Engelhart by a half second at the flag to take the win. Mungin led the other two thirds of the race but had to settle for third, in front of Dick and Smith5. For the win, Salvatore took home 267 points and topped the charts for the week, while Engelhart and Mungin’s 246 and 225 point totals let them round out the podium for the week at Phoenix.

David Colley answered the most calls to the green flags of the week with 10 starts in the Valley of the Sun. Shawn Colley and Osborn each took two wins from Phoenix while Christopher Bream, Larry Pyrtle, David Jaques, Dylan Casey, John, Bruce Hilton, David Colley, Tony Godwin, James Poleske, Cormier2, Richard Woelkers, Mungin, Rich Zimmerman, Royce Valley and Andrew Dairaghi each joined the win list with a single victory at Phoenix. Mungin took the pole for the second straight week with a time of 26.597 seconds around PIR with Salvatore, Meyn, Dick and Cormier2 taking the top five spots. Time Trials saw Osborn top the charts over Kline, Hullum, Gary Holbrook and Gould.

After his efforts in the last round at Phoenix, Mungin heads into Round Eight with a five point lead over Meyn, 1496 to 1491. Third in the standings is Salvatore with 1235, followed by Division Two leader David Markham (1077), as he leads Cormier2 overall by just one point for fourth. Divisional leaders include Noel Parker, William Kabela, David Schamp, Timothy Finnegan, David MacDougall, James Falcon Pratt, Curtis Berleue and Nicholas Maxwell. Some point battles are closer than others as Parker only has two points on Justin Chase in Division Three, Schamp has a five point advantage in Division Five over David Ross and MacDougall’s Division Seven advantage is only a dozen points.

Next up for the NASCAR iRacing.com Tour Modified Series is the high banked, high excitement of Bristol Motor Speedway. With a championship hanging in the balance, every point and every race counts as we head towards crowning a 2012 Season One champion. You can follow all the action here at inRacingNews.

Until then, keep the hammer down and we’ll see you at the track!

Defending champion Alfalla led 80 laps en route to his first win of the 2012 campaign.

Alfalla was pleased with the result, which also moved him up to second in the championship standings behind Conti. “Car was excellent through the curved portion of the course, as they say. It was tough to keep focus on all the consecutive restarts, and I have to tip my cap to Patrick for how good he was at figuring out my start points,” said Alfalla, who clearly has momentum on his side as of late.

Phoenix-winner Nick Ottinger started from the pole again in his quest for back-to-back victories, but found trouble which relegated him to a twenty-eighth place finish. His problems started in the pits when he got a speeding penalty during a stop under an early yellow. It initially appeared Ottinger would recover from the error as he worked his way back into the top ten.  However, he got into Kevin King on the front straightaway, triggering a pile-up that ended any chance he, King, Robert Hall and Carson McClelland had of a good finish.

Ottinger's (05) comeback from a pit lane penalty ended with this get-together with King.

Going into the race, drivers were expecting a much cleaner race than two weeks ago in Phoenix; and things looked promising for awhile, with some green flag runs mixed in with a couple of minor accidents. However, after the halfway point, the complexion of the race changed dramatically as the sim racers realized the restarts were by far the best time to make any sort of passes.

Everyone started becoming more aggressive on the restarts, and the yellows frequently flew.  In the end, the race was slowed a dozen times for 50 of its 133 laps. For the second week in a row this also made it difficult for drivers in the middle of the pack to gain any ground, and after the final pit stop, most drivers were stuck with the track position they had exiting the pits.   Despite the challenges, some drivers overcame poor starts to finish well, including Brad Davies (started twenty-eighth, finished sixth) and Vinnie Sansone (started forty-second, finished twelfth).

Jon Adams (84) led 13 laps but faded to a 14th place finish. Here he battles Sheehan (6), Baldwin (52) and the rest through Turn 2.

Jeremy Allen, the point leader coming into Chicagoland, had a sub-par day in route to an eighteenth place finish. Allen had a poor qualifying run, starting thirty-seventh, and never could get the track position he needed. Crash damaged ended up being his downfall, forcing him to limp home in a car which was well off competitive pace. The finish dropped Allen to third in the standings, 14 behind Conti and just ahead of Brian Schoenburg, who collected his third straight top ten finish, and Hudson.

Next week, another 1.5 mile takes center stage in the NiSWC, as the series heads west to Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Vegas is faster and has more grip than Chicagoland, forcing drivers to get every last bit out of the car to run the fastest laps possible. With his success at Chicagoland, Alfalla has to be considered the early favorite to grab another victory, but others like Sheehan and Ottinger have run strong in recent weeks and are more than capable of getting the job done. Of course, this is Vegas, where anything can happen.  It would not be surprising to see a driver roll the dice on pit road and come away with the spoils of a victory in Sin City.

Hendrick Motorsport got all but one penalty overturned Tuesday in the final hearing against NASCAR’s ruling following technical infractions found on Jimmie Johnson’s car before the Daytona 500.

John Middlebrook, Chief Appellate Officer, ruled to rescind the loss of 25 championship points in both the drivers’ and owners’ standing, a six-race suspension for crew chief Chad Kanus and car chief Ron Malec, but ratified the $100,000 fine against Knaus.

The decision comes as an unexpected result, as for the first time since Middlebrook is in his position he got initial penalties totally overturned.

However, NASCAR officials underlined that there was still a rules violation, that being the reason why the fine remains in place despite all other penalties being rescinded.

Johnson’s car failed the opening inspection for the Daytona 500 on February 17, officials deeming the C-posts on the car, parts made of sheet metal that connect the roof to the rear quarter panel on both sides of the car, did not conform to the regulations. The parts were cut from the bodywork and confiscated by NASCAR.

As a result of the Chief Appellate Officer’s decision, Johnson vaults up to eleventh place in the Sprint Cup standings, despite his very poor season start in the Daytona 500, where he was involved in an incident starting the second lap.

Juhring (1) has a ringside seat as Shirley (11) ducks under a very loose Arndt on the way to victory at Bristol.

The high Strength of Field race took place at 8:30 pm EST on Thursday night, an hour earlier than usual do to the recent time change. The race rated a 3293 SoF and paid championship 209 points to win. Andrew Shirley (Mid-South) would come away with the victory after a late race pass on Christopher Arndt (Carolina). Although Shirley dominated the race, pit strategy in the waning laps nearly cost him the victory.

“I started the race great and led the first 100 laps or so until a car got off the brakes, rolled down the track and spun me after the yellow came out causing me to not be able to pit with everyone else. That set me back a bit but I was able to work my way back up and make a pass on Chris for the win.” Shirley said after the race. “I didn’t have a clue I was going to be that fast and was hoping for a top five in my first ETV broadcast race and second week back in the B car.”

“I didn’t have a clue I was going to be that fast . . .” — Andrew Shirley

In total, Shirley led 106 of the 130 laps after starting on the pole. Phil Juhring (New Jersey) almost made it three in a row but came-up one position short, finishing in the second spot and earning 200 points in the bargain. Ryan Ingle (Mid-South) netted 191 points for third with Fausto Bessa Gomes (Iberia) and Brandon Buie (Atlantic) rounding-out the top five and netting 182 and 174 points respectively. Arndt was the only other driver, besides Shirley, to led a lap, running out front for 24 laps before being caught in a wreck near the finish.

Arndt led for two dozen laps, but not the one that counted.

While Shirley won the top race of the week, Juhring wound-up as the week’s big winner.  He finished in the top spot in the the weekly standings after netting 200 points in the week’s SoF race. Ingle finished the week in second after his third place finish in Thursday’s race. Gomes and Buie would finish the week in third and fourth after finishing fourth and fifth in the SoF race. Jeff Hale Sr. rounded-out the top five in the weekly standings after taking a win and 172 points from his only race. Of the five, Hale was the only driver to not compete in the weekly SoF race.

After seven weeks of racing, Buie still holds the top spot in the standings. Buie was able to net 174 points at Bristol, which brought his season total to 1242. Brad Mahar (New England) still holds the second position after Week Seven. Mahar only collected 125 points which brings his total to 1161 points, 81 out of the top position. Juhring maintained third position, bringing his season total to 1156 points, while John Bunton (Carolina) and Jeffrey Parker (Florida) swapped positions after a week of racing in Thunder Valley. Bunton now finds himself in fourth position with 1074 points after earning 148 points during Week Seven. Parker slipped to fifth position after only collecting 121 points at Bristol, bringing his season total to 1071.

The fastest lap of the week for went to Shirley, who lapped the half mile speedbowl in 14.885s, a shade quicker than Armando Vargas’  (California) best effort, a 14.895s. Juhring (14.925s) finished the week in third while Brodie Kostecki (Australia/NZ) finished in the fourth position with a 14.927s ahead of Peter Bennett (Connecticut) and his 14.943 second lap.

Week Eight sees the NiCBS series travel to Michigan International Speedway, a two mile oval known for its speed rather than the tight racing of Bristol.  As the season enters the home stretch, the battle for the championship heats up. Will Juhring be able to keep his hot streak going or will a newcomer like Shirley spoil the party? Found out next week at inRacingNews!

Dale Earnhardt Jr took blame for an incident with Hendrick Motorsports team-mate Jeff Gordon, which brought the four-time Sprint Cup champion’s strong run to and end.

The pair were running side-by-side battling for position while running in the top-ten in the order on lap 360 of Sunday’s race, when Earnhardt ran a bit wide at the exit of turn two, bumping into Gordon’s #24 Chevrolet.

The contact seemed to cut the left-rear tyre of the latter, causing him to spin as he entered turn three.

Gordon hit hard against the barrier, damage forcing him to the garage for lengthy repairs. Although he would eventually get back out on track, he finished a lowly 35th.

“I think we bumped more than we should have is the way it looks like,” Gordon said. “We definitely didn’t hit in the right location, because I think the tailpipe or something just cut the left-rear (tyre) immediately.

“We didn’t hit that hard. We were a little bit too tight and he was pretty good on the restart there and we were racing hard. I know that it was intentional, but it certainly ruined our day.”

Earnhardt, who was able to carry on without much damage, would later be penalised for speeding in the pits, losing out on a potential top-ten finish, eventually crossing the line in 15th. He lamented causing the incident that hampered Gordon’s strong run as well.

“I absolutely feel responsible,” said Earnhardt. “I got into his door a little bit. We were racing and having a good time, to be honest with you. I put the pipes up against the left rear tyre of his car, and knocked the side wall out of it.

“I hate…I feel bad about that. I’m going to have to do some damage control this week. I know Jeff understands what was going on out there, but his boys work real hard on their car, and they had a good run going. They had a potential win, or good finish going too; and they deserve it.”

“I’ll just have to sit down and talk to him and see where he’s at. I’ve got to own up to my responsibility in the situation, which I will, and go from there.”

Earnhardt continues to be the highest-ranked Hendrick driver in the standings, despite dropping from fourth to sixth following Sunday’s race. Gordon lost six positions in points and he’s currently 23rd.

The former Red Bull Racing driver, who was left without a job when the team he had been driving for the past five years folded at the end of last season, made great use of an opportunity to return to Cup racing filling in for Mark Martin this weekend at Bristol, as the veteran skipped his first race of the year while running a partial schedule.

The 28-year-old led the race for 125 laps and seemed to be on his way to contend for victory, but his long-run pace wasn’t as strong as that of some of his rivals, including his MWR team-mates.

Still his performance was good enough to contend for a top-five finish, crossing the flag in fifth place and matching his best result of his final season with Red Bull in 2011.

The race was probably the strongest showing for MWR yet, a team that made its debut back in 2007 and which currently fields three full-time cars. Vickers’ team-mates Martin Truex Jr and Clint Bowyer – new to the outfit this season – finished third and fourth ahead of him respectively.

“This was pretty good and it felt really good when we were out there leading,” said Vickers. “It would have been awesome to hold onto that, but it’s the first time back so I can’t complain about that. What an organisation.

“So proud to be a part of getting all three cars in the top-five. Can’t thank Michael Waltrip (team owner) and Rob Kaufmann (team owner) and everyone at MWR enough.

“I don’t know those two guys that well, but I can tell a lot about them by the group of people they’ve built and the team they’ve built.”

Vickers, who had to sit out most of the season two years ago due to a blood clot diagnosis, is signed up to run five more races for MWR this season, his next outing coming in two weeks at Martinsville.

Despite his impressive return, he refused to get carried away by this weekend’s result and remains focused on his six-race deal with MWR.

“I’m going to enjoy it tonight and then we’ve got to go back to work tomorrow and think about Martinsville,” Vickers said. “As fast as it can go this way, it can go the other way just as quick.

“I’ve been around long enough to see both sides of the coin.”

The #55 MWR Toyota currently runs seventh in the owner standings, adding both the points scored by Martin and Vickers. The other two cars the outfit fields are also ranked among the top-ten in both the drivers and owners championship.

Brad Keselowski held off Matt Kenseth to claim his first NASCAR Sprint Cup win of the season at Bristol Motor Speedway.

The Penske driver got a perfect score and a second consecutive win at NASCAR’s fastest half mile, after narrowly avoiding an early crash which took some of the pre-race favourites out of contention for victory.

Keselowski made light contact with the spinning #5 car of Hendrick Motorsports’ Kasey Kahne, which had an incident with Furniture Row’s Regan Smith on lap 23. Having survived that early scare Keselowski then became a contender for the lead, climbing up to the top spot for the first time before the halfway mark.

In the end it became a two-horse battle with Roush Fenway’s Kenseth, Keselowski overtaking him for good 111 laps from the end after running side-by-side while managing traffic in the long green-flag stints that prevailed in the afternoon. A late caution allowed both to stretch fuel mileage enough to safely make it to the chequered flag without an extra stop.

Last August Keselowski won the race following a controversial pass on pit road, where by making the most of the position of his stall relative to the timing lines that determine pit-road speeds, he was able to go beyond the 30mph limit, pass Jeff Gordon and then hold on rivals to take victory.

This year NASCAR introduced additional timing lines in an effort to avoid a repetition of the issue, but Keselowski said Sunday’s win proves his 2011 victory was no fluke.

“I got on Twitter and got kind of ‘PO’d’ at some people that said I won it because of the timing line,” said Keselowski. “I knew this [car] was fast enough to win the race last fall with or without timing lines. It feels so good to just prove it here today in the spring race.

“Matt raced me hard and I raced him hard. We rubbed a little bit, but that’s good racing… This is one of the best races I’ve ever been a part of and ever seen from behind the seat.

“I’m just thrilled to death to be here in victory lane at Bristol again, one of my favourite places for sure. If this team keeps performing like they are, we’ll get more.”

Kenseth had a solid run to second, moving up to third in the standings on a day where he was Roush Fenway’s main contender.

“When we started that last run and got out in the lead and got air in the nose, plus we picked up something and I just got too lose,” said Kenseth. “I knew that I wasn’t going to have enough traction, more than likely, to hold him off.”

Michael Waltrip Racing enjoyed its best Cup outing ever, the three-car organisation rounding out the top-five with Martin Truex Jr, Clint Bowyer and series returnee Brian Vickers.

All of them were top-five contenders for most of the running, Truex recovering from a slow pitstop to finish third after choosing to stay out with the leaders on the final caution.

Bowyer pitted from third but bounced back to finish fourth, while Vickers impressed on his first outing of the year and for the Toyota outfit, leading 125 laps and finishing fifth, also choosing to stay out in the final caution.

Richard Childress Racing’s Jeff Burton was sixth, ahead of the Earnhardt Ganassi duo of Jamie McMurray and Juan Pablo Montoya, both making steady progress during the 500 laps in the outfit’s best race of the season so far. Five-time champion Jimmie Johnson (Hendrick) was ninth behind them, while RCR’s Paul Menard rounded out the top-10.

Some big names ended their day in typical Bristol fashion, such as five-time event winner Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards and Marcos Ambrose, who were part of Kahne’s early incident.

Jeff Gordon also had a strong run ended after contact with Hendrick team-mate Dale Earnhardt Jr while battling for position damaged his left-rear tyre and caused him to spin and hit the inside wall hard.

Reigning champion Tony Stewart was a victim of RCR’s Brendan Gaughan, who hit him and caused the #14 Chevrolet to spin and hit the wall backwards while among the top 10, bringing out the caution for the fifth and final time.

Former Formula 1 driver Nelson Piquet claimed his maiden NASCAR victory Saturday at Bristol in the K&N East series.

The Brazilian, who has been competing in NASCAR since 2010 and runs his second full-time campaign in the Truck Series this year, held of American Ryan Blaney to win at one of NASCAR’s most emblematic venues.

Driving for series’ top contenders X Team Racing, Piquet topped the final practice session and then claimed pole position in what was his first outing in the regional championship, which runs both in the west and east coasts of the US, with cars similar in specification to the previous generation of Nationwide Series machines.

Piquet was a contender through the 127 laps, which saw a green-white-chequered finish where he pulled clear of Blaney – son of Sprint Cup regular Dave – beating him by nearly half a second in the final one-mile sprint.

“I really liked this track before, I love it even more now,” said Piquet.

The 26-year-old had previously raced at Bristol last year, qualifying on the front row and finishing eighth in the Truck Series.

Besides his Truck series campaign with Turner Motorsports, Piquet will run a number of Nationwide Series events this year for the same outfit, as he continues to steadily climb up the NASCAR ladder.

A number of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers have voiced their concern about the governing body’s intention of making some of their telemetry data available to competitors.

The introduction of Electronic Fuel Injection in NASCAR’s top series has given teams the ability to have data acquisition on race weekends, a novelty in the Sprint Cup garage, as before they were only allowed to do so in test sessions.

NASCAR is planning to release some of the data from top finishers after races so that teams can also help police the new EFI systems are being run according to the rules.

Last week at Las Vegas reigning champion Tony Stewart was unbeatable on restarts in the closing stages, claiming victory over five-time champion Jimmie Johnson. As both teams share the same engine builder – Hendrick Motorsports – Johnson claims he has already been able to see where his rival was better than him last week.

“I did look at Tony’s data and definitely have a direction and know what’s going on,” said Johnson. “It’s a complicated thing that I’m certainly not going to share for the world to see. But I’ve got a clear direction of where to work.”

Despite accepting such data sharing is key to the success of the Hendrick engine programme, Stewart stated he wouldn’t like all rivals to have access to their telemetry readings as it would essentially give away any edge they have found in tuning the system.

“I don’t know that they need to give all the information away all the time,” said Stewart.

“There’s still the part of having the creativity and guys doing their homework. I feel like from the Hendrick side, those guys have done a great job.

“I don’t think it’s fair you give all that information to everybody else because you did a good job.

“I think as long as it stays in the parameters of NASCAR says we’re allowed to work in, there should be that creativity. You don’t just give hard work away. So I don’t think it’s right to do that.”

Johnson’s Hendrick team-mate Dale Earnhardt Jr has warned about NASCAR trying to equalize the field through the EFI system, as he believes everyone should be allowed to keep certain information private.

“I’d rather not have that,” said Earnhardt. “It would benefit to be able to see that. But, I think it is a slippery slope. With the fuel injection it brings in the ability this year to be able to see data that we’ve never been able to see before.

“I think we should ease into how we use that data, and how NASCAR allows us to use that data kind of slowly not to upset the culture of the sport, or how things have worked in the past.

“I think if we take this new door that has been opened to us and abuse it; it might not be good for the sport. I think it’s better for competition for everybody to have a few secrets.”

Last year’s championship runner up Carl Edwards backed Earnhardt’s view and he reckons that beyond revealing any tuning advantage of the EFI systems, he wouldn’t like rivals being able to learn about specifics of his driving technique, such as fuel saving tactics for example.

“The thing is with us drivers is what we do with the pedals and steering wheel and all that stuff is our proprietary stuff,” said Edwards. “From NASCAR’s perspective I can see how they would want everyone to not have an advantage and keep feeding everyone information to make it tougher and closer.

“I know for me personally with the fuel mileage things and different things there have been times I thought there were things I did in the car that I wouldn’t want anyone else to see. If those days are over, then they are over. I guess that is just the way it is.”

NASCAR officials have stated the data they plan to reveal would be related to the mapping of the EFI systems, but it remains to be seen which channels they would make available.

Jimmie Johnson is hopeful of a positive outcome of the final appeal process against the penalties levied to his team following the Daytona 500.

The five-time Sprint Cup champion could be on the verge of losing a key part of his crew for a number of races, plus a hefty amount of championship points, when his team faces National Stock Car Chief Appellate Officer John Middlebrook next week.

Last Tuesday Hendrick Motorsports lost its first appeal against the penalties imposed, the National Stock Car Appeal Panel upholding a six-week suspension for crew chief Chad Knaus and car Chief Ron Malec, a US $100,000 fine for Knaus, and a 25 points deduction in the drivers and owners standing.

Speaking on Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway, Johnson seemed confident of the final instance turning favorable for the team’s hopes. He said the team is not planning yet on who will replace Knaus and Malec in case their suspensions are ratified or even reduced, as they remain focused on getting the job done on the track.

“To be honest with you we haven’t worked on the back-up plan,” said Johnson. “We’ve had a lot of faith with what took place and felt like last Tuesday things would be overturned. We were shocked with the penalties to start in the beginning. We haven’t made any changes. We do have depth in our organisation.

“We feel like if this next appeal, things don’t change, we are not overly concerned because of the depth we have, but still we know how important this sport is along the lines of chemistry. Chad (Knaus, crew chief) and I have a great chemistry. Ron Malec (car chief) for that matter, the way Ron runs the team.”

Johnson believes that if the final appeal is not successful he could face an uphill struggle in trying to overcome an already poor start to his campaign, following a crash on the second lap of the Daytona 500.

The Californian currently lies 23rd in the driver standing after three races, counting the 25-point deduction issued by NASCAR.

“If things stand it will be a huge blow to the team,” said Johnson. “I feel like we can work through it and still have a chance to win races, but it would be very difficult.

“Then you look at the points that are lost. 25 points is a big number. It puts a premium back on winning and then you don’t have your crew chief and car chief so winning is going to be that much more difficult. It’s a double edge sword. It’s not an easy deal to go through that is why we are fighting these appeals like we are.”

Middlebrook’s past few hearings have seen changes in penalties imposed to competitors, including a two-week reduction to a suspension to Richard Childress Racing crew chief Shane Wilson in 2010, plus a further reduction in a fine for rules violations found on Clint Bowyer’s ca in the Chase opener.

Nationwide Series team owner John Davis also had a fine reduced by half by the Chief Appellate Officer, while second-tier series driver Peyton Sellers got reinstated following an initial indefinite suspension by NASCAR.

The final appeal for Hendrick Motorsports #48 team will be heard next Tuesday.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points leader Greg Biffle claimed pole position for Sunday’s race at Bristol.

The Roush Fenway driver carried on his early season hot streak, claiming his tenth career pole position and his fourth top-10 start of the year in as many races, having finished third in the first three events of 2012.

Biffle beat the previous benchmark set by last year’s autumn winner at Bristol Brad Keselowski, setting a lap of 15.324 seconds at an average speed of 125.215 mph.

Penske’s AJ Allmendinger got within one thousandth of a second of Biffle’s time, locking up his first front row start of the season.

“Man I don’t know, I’ve got to pinch myself, I think I’m dreaming,” said Biffle, who also secured a place in next year’s Shootout thanks to his first pole of the season.

“Everything’s going well right now. I’ve got a lot of support from my team, the guys at the shop and (crew chief) Matt Puccia is doing a great job… I’m still focused and dedicated and giving 100 per cent, just having a great time right now.”

Stewart Haas Ryan Newman, the track-record holder, was third fastest ahead of five-time Bristol winner Jeff Gordon while Allmendinger’s team-mate Keselowski rounded out the fastest five.

Biffle’s team-mate Carl Edwards led practice earlier but couldn’t afford better than eighth in a closely fought session, where the top-nine qualifiers were split by less than a tenth of second in the close confines of the half-mile concrete coliseum.

Five-time event winner Kyle Busch saved a sideways moment starting his qualifying run to take 13th on the grid after struggling for balance earlier in practice.

Reigning champion and last week’s winner Tony Stewart, who struggled at concrete tracks at the end of last year, qualified 23rd while Sprint Cup returnee Brian Vickers was 25th, taking over from Mark Martin in Michael Waltrip’s #55 Toyota.

Timmy Hill was the only non-qualifier of the day, while Robby Gordon withdrew from the event following electrical issues on his car.

Juhrig leads Slama to the checkered flag at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the week's top SoF.

The Strength of Field race for Week Six took place on Thursday night at 9:30pm EST, a timeslot that has become popular with ETV broadcasting the top split each week (http://www.etv-eplay.net/wordpress/?review=testing-2).  The many viewers watching this race saw Juhring dominate en route to a victory over Joe Slama (California).  Although Juhring started in the second position, he quickly moved to the front and led 50 laps throughout the race.

“I had a good car all week along with a good starting spot tonight. It was pretty tough to pass here, so I figured as long as I didn’t make any mistakes to cost myself the track position I’d be up front all race,” said Juhring after his victory. “That is pretty much how it played out. I was real strong throughout the run and the car was about as good as it could be. Took two tires during one of those late race yellows and once I was able to put the guys on old tires behind me, I felt I was good to go.”

For the win, Juhring received 245 points. Slama, who led 12 laps and finished 0.3 seconds behind the winner, collected 235 points for his efforts. Alex Scribner (Texas) finished the race a close third, half a second behind after leading 13 laps, and earned 225 points. Mahar and Dwayne Vincent (Mid-South) rounded-out the top five, with 215 and 205 points respectively.

“I figured as long as I didn’t make any mistakes to cost myself the track position I’d be up front all race.” — Phil Juhring

With his victory in the SoF race, Juhring sat on top of the weekly standings at LVMS with 245 points. Brandon Williamson (Georgia) finished second after winning the week’s second high SoF and earning 225 points. Mahar left Vegas in the third position with 215 points after running two races while Slama finished fourth with 214 points after winning two of his four races. Mark Wright (New Jersey) completed the top five in the weekly standings after garnering 199 points for finishing fourth in his only race of the week.

After Week Six, Buie still leads the season standings after bringing his total to 1068 points at LVMS. Similarly, Mahar retained the second position, only 32 points out of first place, after netting 215 points at Vegas. However, Juhring was the big mover, advancing from sixth to third in the points after his SoF win brought his total to 956 points with only five weeks counted. Jeffrey Parker (Florida) was able to maintain his fourth position after netting 183 points during Week Six, bringing his season total to 950 points. John Bunton (Carolina) rounds out the Top Five in the season standings after netting 184 points and bringing his total to 926 points.

The week's top qualifier, Macklin leads the field to the green.

Brian V Macklin (Atlantic) ended the week with the fastest qualifying time, a 30.262s lap that edged Brodie Kostecki (Australia) by .026s. Juhring was third in qualifying with a 30.331s ahead of  Slama (30.334s) and Western Canada’s Dustin Lengert (30.335s).

Week Seven sees the NiCBS travel to the fastest half mile in the world, Bristol Motor Speedway. Bristol is known for close quarters racing and tempers will flare as drivers try to push their way to the front. Who will come out on top? Will Juhring be able to make it three in a row? Find out next week at inRacingNews!

Hendrick Motorsports has lost its first appeal against penalties imposed to Jimmie Johnson’s team following the Daytona 500.

The National Stock Car Racing Appeals Panel met Tuesday to hear arguments and testimony presented by Hendrick Motorsports but following nearly five hours of deliberating, decided to unanimously uphold the original penalties assessed by NASCAR to the #48 Hendrick Motorsports team.

“Upon hearing the testimony, carefully reviewing the facts and historically comparative penalties, the unanimous decision of the National Stock Car Racing Appeals Panel was to uphold the original penalties assessed by NASCAR,” read a statement issued by the governing body.

Johnson’s car failed the opening inspection for the Daytona 500 on February 17, officials deeming the C-posts on the car, parts made of sheet metal that connect the roof to the rear quarter panel, did not conform to the regulations. The parts were cut from the bodywork and confiscated by NASCAR.

The penalties issued two weeks ago include a six-race suspension for Johnson’s crew chief Chad Knaus, car chief Ron Malec, a US $100.000 fine for Knaus and the docking of 25 points in the drivers and owners standing for the #48 team.

However, Rick Hendrick will take the issue to a further and final instance, the Chief Appellate Officer, which means the penalties continue to be suspended until this final hearing. Knaus and Malec will thus be at Bristol next weekend for round four of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

“The panel was generous with its time today, and we appreciated the opportunity to talk through our concerns,” said Rick Hendrick, owner of Hendrick Motorsports. “We feel strongly about this issue and will continue to pursue it at the next level.”

A date for the new and final hearing has yet to be issued.

Dodge has unveiled the new Charger model that will carry the manufacturer’s hopes in the NASCAR Sprint Cup next year.

The new car, launched in Las Vegas, mirrors the concept of Dodge’s Nationwide Series Challenger, which began racing two seasons ago, in that both bear more of a resemblance to the road-going versions than previous machines.

Ralph Gilles, president and CEO of Dodge motorsport, said that this had only been possible due to a relaxation of NASCAR’s rules regarding the appearance of Cup cars.

From the start, it’s been a collaborative effort with NASCAR,” said Gilles. “NASCAR provided the manufacturers with basic specifications, but offered encouragement to venture beyond the look of the current race car. Our design and engineering group, working with Penske Racing, seized the opportunity.

“We had a fantastic benchmark – the Dodge Challenger – introduced in 2009. This endeavor goes beyond the trend the Nationwide Series Challenger started with a Dodge Charger that amazingly embodies many of the design features of the street version into the race car.”

Following Penske’s recent announcement of its switch to Ford in 2013, Dodge has only one Cup team committed to using its machinery next year; Robby Gordon Motorsports.

Gilles, however, confirmed that “the phone is still ringing” and that he hopes to have at least one more squad signed to the manufacturer by the summer.

Tony Stewart resisted a charging Jimmie Johnson to claim his 45th NASCAR Sprint Cup career win and his first ever at Las Vegas.

The reigning champion was unbeatable on restarts in the decisive stage of the race, taking the lead for good with a bold move after the fifth caution of the day.

Stewart had been a contender since the early stages and survived a brief scare during the first half of the race when some debris blocked the air intake of the Stewart-Haas Chevrolet’s radiator as he was attacking for the lead for the first time.

He eventually got up front after that but his key move came 33 laps from the end. The three-time champion had opted for only two new tyres on his penultimate stop, while most of his key rivals had gone for a full new set.

He also got just a splash of fuel on his last stop to try to remain ahead in clear air and although both Clint Bowyer (Michael Waltrip Toyota) and Penske’s Brad Keselowski stayed out trying to stretch their fuel mileage, Stewart quickly powered past them, never surrendering the lead again.

While he was in control after that, three different cautions waved but in each of them he was able to remain up front, holding back Keselowski, Roush Fenway’s Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth, as well as Johnson in the final two green flags.

The final restart came only four laps from the end and Stewart drove some of his quickest laps of the race to keep Johnson in his mirrors and claim victory for the first time at Vegas, one of only three Cup venues he had not won at before.

Stewart’s victory was also his first with new crew chief Steve Addington after parting ways with Darian Grubb following their championship at the end of last year.

“Every time the caution came out, I’m like ‘not again’,” said Stewart. “You wonder how many times you are going to give them a chance at it on a restart there, and when are they going to be able to capitalise on us. But, that was our strong suit today. We were really strong on the restarts.”

Johnson was disappointed to miss out on victory and was surprised by Stewart’s supremacy on restarts. The four-time Vegas winner still made an impressive comeback from the rear of the field, after crashing his primary car on his first lap of final practice on Saturday.

The Hendrick Motorsports driver had actually completed just 20 practice laps in his back up car before Sunday.

“Definitely a lot to be proud of today,” said Johnson. “I think we had maybe a little bit more speed, but Tony could really get away on those restarts through the gears a lot better than I could.

“I will have to look into that and see if I was doing something wrong or something else is going on there.”

Biffle finished third for the third week in a row and moved up to the points lead following another solid run. His team-mate Kenseth had been his squad’s main contender for victory but his hopes were dashed on the final restart when contact with team-mate Carl Edwards while fighting for position ended up with him hitting the wall.

“Carl just laid back and got by me three-wide and then it just didn’t seem like there was a lot of room getting into [Turn] 1,” said Kenseth. “And then I did get clear behind him and he just stopped in the middle of the corner. I don’t really know what happened.”

Stewart’s team-mate Newman was a solid fourth ahead of Edwards while Bowyer succeeded at saving enough fuel to make it to the chequered flag without an extra stop to finish sixth.

Richard Childress Racing’s Paul Menard was a solid seventh ahead of Earnhardt-Ganassi’s Jamie McMurray while Trevor Bayne impressed in the final stages, coming back from being a lap down to cross the finish-line in ninth ahead of early race leader Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Local hero Kyle Busch made great progress in the first half of the race but then hit the wall after running over fluids left by Travis Kvapil’s engine blowing up. He then made a second charge but spun at Turn 4 six laps from the end to bring out the final caution.

Results – 267 laps:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car                         Time/Gap

 1.  Tony Stewart        Stewart-Haas Chevrolet       2h54m44.000s

 2.  Jimmie Johnson      Hendrick Chevrolet               + 0.461s

 3.  Greg Biffle         Roush Fenway Ford                + 1.526s

 4.  Ryan Newman         Stewart-Haas Chevrolet           + 1.919s

 5.  Carl Edwards        Roush Fenway Ford                + 2.371s

 6.  Clint Bowyer        Waltrip Toyota                   + 3.291s

 7.  Paul Menard         Childress Chevrolet              + 3.423s

 8.  Jamie McMurray      Earnhardt Ganassi Chevrolet      + 3.819s

 9.  Trevor Bayne        Wood Brothers Ford               + 4.465s

10.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Hendrick Chevrolet               + 4.664s

11.  Kevin Harvick       Childress Chevrolet              + 4.832s

12.  Jeff Gordon         Hendrick Chevrolet               + 5.722s

13.  Marcos Ambrose      Petty Ford                       + 5.762s

14.  Jeff Burton         Childress Chevrolet              + 6.207s

15.  Regan Smith         Furniture Row Chevrolet          + 6.505s

16.  Joey Logano         Gibbs Toyota                     + 6.517s

17.  Martin Truex Jr     Waltrip Toyota                   + 6.744s

18.  Mark Martin         Waltrip Toyota                   + 6.891s

19.  Kasey Kahne         Hendrick Chevrolet               + 7.127s

20.  Denny Hamlin        Gibbs Toyota                     + 7.599s

21.  David Ragan         Front Row Ford                   + 8.145s

22.  Matt Kenseth        Roush Fenway Ford               + 12.983s

23.  Kyle Busch          Gibbs Toyota                      + 1 lap

24.  Aric Almirola       Petty Ford                        + 1 lap

25.  Juan Pablo Montoya  Earnhardt Ganassi Chevrolet      + 3 laps

26.  Bobby Labonte       JTG Daugherty Toyota             + 3 laps

27.  Casey Mears         Germain Ford                     + 3 laps

28.  David Stremme       Inception Toyota                 + 4 laps

29.  Dave Blaney         Baldwin Chevrolet                + 4 laps

30.  Ken Schrader        FAS Lane Ford                    + 4 laps

31.  David Reutimann     Baldwin Chevrolet                + 6 laps

32.  Brad Keselowski     Penske Dodge                     + 8 laps

33.  David Gilliland     Front Row Ford                   + 9 laps

34.  Brendan Gaughan     Childress Chevrolet             + 15 laps
Retirements:
     Kurt Busch          Phoenix Chevrolet                241 laps

     Landon Cassill      BK Toyota                        240 laps

     AJ Allmendinger     Penske Dodge                     238 laps

     Michael McDowell    Parsons Ford                     148 laps

     Travis Kvapil       BK Toyota                        123 laps

     Josh Wise           Front Row Ford                    64 laps

     Joe Nemechek        NEMCO Toyota                      44 laps

     Timmy Hill          Rick Ware/Max Q Ford              42 laps

     JJ Yeley            Robinson-Blakeney Toyota          39 laps

World Rally Championship star Ken Block and two-time WRC champion Marcus Gronholm will race in front of a NASCAR crowd in a Rallycross event in May at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

On Friday Speedway Motorsports Inc announced at Las Vegas Motor Speedway that the Global RallyCross championship will host its first event of the season at Charlotte on Saturday May 26, the day before NASCAR’s longest race takes place at the same venue.

NASCAR’s second-tier series will compete on the same day as the rally cars run on a layout built in front of the pits and the main grandstands, similar to that used in the Race of Champions but combining a loose surface and jumps, as seen on American X-Games events. The event will run after a NASCAR Nationwide Series race.

“This is an incredible way to add even more entertainment to what’s already the most jam-packed 10 days in motorsports,” said Marcus Smith, president and general manager of Charlotte Motor Speedway.

The Global RallyCross championship features 600-horsepower compact cars like the Ford Fiesta and Subaru Impreza WRX and includes American stars Travis Pastrana and Dave Mirra in its entry list. British driver David Binks, run as Grongolm’s team-mate this year, while Block has also committed to a full season in the GRC.

Danica Patrick believes she probably set herself too high a target for her first full NASCAR Nationwide Series season, following poor results in the opening two races.

Although the former IndyCar star has already contested 27 Nationwide events since 2010, this is the first time she has embarked on a full-season assualt.

JR Motorsports driver Patrick was involved in an incident early in the season-opening race at Daytona and last week she was only 21st at Phoenix, where she had competed in NASCAR three times previously.

“I think I gave myself maybe a little bit of false expectation about running this year for the championship and using those words ‘for the championship’,” said Patrick.

“It really is still my first-ever full year and what I’ve done still doesn’t add up to one year and I didn’t have anything before that in stock cars.”

Patrick admitted the hype she was surrounded by at the start of the season may have affected her as she tried to live up to expectations. The female racer received substantially more media coverage than anyone else in the American press during the build up to this year’s season start.

“I can’t let all of the exposure and hype and hope – and I’m serious when I say ‘hope’ – to do well, I can’t let that be something that makes me feel like I have to do well,” said Patrick.

“That got to me a little bit, especially coming from Daytona having such disappointing results. I need to remember that there are so many of these darn races and you just need to move on.”

2010 Nationwide champion Brad Keselowski, who also drove for JR Motorsports in the past, believes the current testing regulations will make Patrick’s transition even harder than it has been for other open-wheel racers who moved to NASCAR before her.

“I think the biggest challenge she has is finding a way around that testing ban and getting experience,” said the Penske driver. “Everyone will tell you that race experience is the best experience. It is and it isn’t because you don’t really get a chance to learn on what you need to do to get more speed.

“You can learn on what you need to do to survive the race, that’s great, but that’s only 50 per cent of it. You’ve got to be fast and talented as well. And so she’s obviously behind before the weekend ever starts, as is every Nationwide rookie and there’s challenges ahead for her.

“I guess at the end of the day, if she can overcome those challenges and find a way to be successful, then she will have really earned a spot in this sport. But the odds are very much stacked against her.”

Patrick competes this weekend at Las Vegas, where she claimed a career-high fourth place a year ago.

Kyle Busch has voiced his concern over issues with the new fuel Injection system recently implemented in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

During last week’s race at Phoenix Tony Stewart’s car failed to quickly re-fire after the current Cup champion shut the engine off during the race in order to save fuel in the closing stages. He eventually finished 22nd and two laps down due to a lengthy stoppage in the pits.

Some drivers have experienced similar fire-up problems in practice and races, which makes Busch believe the issue related to the new system and not to a specific manufacturer, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver saying his team-mate Joey Logano had the same problem as Stewart at Daytona.

“I’m sure that all the computer technicians that we all have on our teams now are working through the diagnostics of how to fix that and what to do,” said Busch. “It’s certainly an issue that has arisen that we’re all aware of and we all have to work through it as best we can and figure out the solution to the problem.

“Whether that solution is this week or whether its not ’til May or not ’til the end of the year, I don’t know, but certainly those guys are working through all the different scenarios as best they can.”

He added: “Those guys are working on all that stuff trying to make it where we can do what we need to do the same as what we did with a carburetor, but so far it’s showing me that the mechanics of a carburetor seem to be smarter than a computer. We’ll learn through it all.”

Busch fears the problem could affect the outcome again if fuel strategy ends up being decisive in the outcome of the race, as it has been a number of times at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He believes drivers will need to adjust their fuel-saving technique in order to prevent a repetition of Stewart’s issue.

“Vegas very easily can come down to a fuel mileage race,” said Busch. “Any of these races could. I think the best case scenario obviously is to try to keep your car running the best you can – whether you’re pushing the clutch in getting it into the corners and just letting the thing idle or what have you.

“So we’ll see how all that plays out. It’s definitely something that you can’t just shut the car off and let the clutch out and have it re-fire itself – you’ve got to use the starter switch.”

Busch believes the new system’s reliability still has to prove as good as that of the carburetor, and reckons the EFI may face the ultimate test at longer races with higher temperatures like those expected in the summer, a view shared by Penske’s Brad Keselowski.

“I don’t know if we’ve seen all the issues that there’s going to be,” said Keselowski. “I think that when the races get hotter, there’s a lot of potential for failure, but I don’t think anyone can really quantify what those potentials are or put any odds on it because we are seeing things that I don’t think we even predicted we would see. Who knows? Maybe we’re going to see some other things that are good.”

Stewart’s issue at Phoenix last weekend was related to a circuit breaker problem.

Kasey Kahne claimed his first pole position for Hendrick Motorsports by setting the pace in qualifying for Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Las Vegas.

The 31-year-old, who has endured a tough start to his season, pipped local Kyle Busch to pole by 62 thousandths of a second with a record-setting lap at an average speed of 190.456 mph. Cool track conditions and a new right side tyre compound from Goodyear contributed to both drivers beating the track’s previous benchmark.

“It feels good, the car was awesome, it felt so stable,” said Kahne after claiming his third career pole at Las Vegas. “It was the same way last week at Phoenix.

“Great effort by the team and looking forward to Sunday, it was a great way to win a pole today and I feel good. I’ve always liked racing [at] Vegas. We’ve never won here but we’ve run pretty well at times. It’ll be a good race on Sunday.”

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Busch bounced back from a shortened practice session, which saw damage to the front end of his Toyota after he ran over debris early in the session, to complete the front row.

Richard Childress Racing driver Kevin Harvick was third while Kahne’s team-mate Dale Earnhardt Jr was fourth fastest ahead of Michael Waltrip Racing’s Clint Bowyer, who rounded out the top five.

Four-time Las Vegas winner Jimmie Johnson (Hendrick) was the last man to get on the track after setting the pace in practice and was on a pole-setting run halfway through his lap but ended up sixth, losing time out of the final turn. Reigning champion Tony Stewart (Stewart Haas) was seventh ahead of the best of the Roush Fenway Fords in Greg Biffle’s hands.

Wood Brothers’ Trevor Bayne was the fastest of the non-guaranteed drivers in 25th, while 19-year-old Timmy Hill qualified 42nd for his Cup debut. Scott Riggs and Robby Gordon failed to make the field.

A visit to PIR meant the Class A action was hotter than ever.

The top split of the week, once again nearing the all time SoF record, was won by the NiPS bound Jason Karlavige. Kenneth O’Keefe dominated much of the race before having some harsh luck, which surrendered the lead to Karlavige, who was able to seal the deal and the 387 points that came along with it. Not surprisingly, NASCAR iRacing.com Series World Championship drivers filled-in the rest of the top five, with the second highest Class A licensed finisher being Alex Ciambrone. Despite finishing outside the top five, Ciambrone earned 315 which will go a long way in his bid to race his way to the next level.

Other NiCAS notables were Jared Crawford finishing second in his only race on the week, earning 338 points towards his bid for the championship. Dylan Duval came up with 310 big ones as he makes the transition to the high powered Chrevrolet Impala SS, and Jorn Jens put together a very solid week, scoring 293 points on his way to being tenth overall on the week.

The strong numbers just keep rolling in for 2012 Season One of the NiCAS. This week 645 drivers took to the tricky, flat one mile in hopes of establishing their names in the top level oval car in the world. Seven drivers took the green flag ten or more times, the most being a tie at fifteen starts between Howard Bell of the Mid-South Club, and Helge Hoel of Scandinavia. However it was a different story in the wins department, with two NiSWC drivers at the top with four (Patrick Baldwin, Nick Ottinger).

As will be the case for this season, and the next two, the top twelve Division One Class A-licensed drivers will be promoted to compete in the NiPS come year’s end. To no surprise this has provided a spark for many top drivers, hoping to progress to the top. Right now Karlavige leads the charge with 1655 points, but Crawford is just nine markers back. Adam Gilliland  has put together an impressive start, and currently rounds out the podium. Philipp Geiss is putting the DE-AT-CH Club on the map with his solid footing inside the top five; he is followed by former NiSWC driver Matthew Moose. Other notables inside the top twelve as the season nears the midway point are last season’s champion Kile Gottula, and the surprising Jens.

Next week promises to keep the excitement rolling as the series heads into Sin City for a week of 200mph fun. Las Vegas Motor Speedway is always a favorite among sim racers; with high speeds and high banks there is a lot to like!  Be sure to check back at inRacingNews.com next week for a wrap up of all the week’s events.

Brian Vickers is set to return to NASCAR Sprint Cup Series competition with Michael Waltrip Racing next week at Bristol.

The former Red Bull Racing Team driver will share driving duties of the #55 Michael Waltrip Toyota, currently driven by Mark Martin. The veteran has committed to a limited schedule, consisting of 24 points races, and will first step aside next week.

Vickers will drive in six short-track events, including the two Bristol races, plus those at Martinsville and New Hampshire.

Elliott Sadler was initially set to take on the schedule Vickers will now run, but he later decided not to do so, partly in order to keep his focus on the Nationwide Series title, having won last week’s event at Phoenix while driving for Richard Childress Racing.

“I am thrilled to get back behind the wheel of not just a racecar, but a very fast racecar,” said Vickers, who made the Chase for the Sprint Cup back in 2009 with Red Bull, winning the team’s first race that same year at Michigan.

“I’m lucky to find a ride of this quality so early in the season. That Toyota won the pole last weekend in Phoenix and you saw it up front throughout the race. I know how good [crew chief] Rodney Childers and team are. I’ve known Rodney since I was eight years old.

“This car is tied for sixth in points right now. This is going to be fun. I appreciate the opportunity Michael and the entire MWR organisation are giving me.”

Although neither Vickers, nor Martin, will be able to compete for the Cup title, the #55 car will count the points both score for the owners’ standings. Team owner Michael Waltrip will also add to the tally, driving the car later this year at restrictor-plate events.

“Brian Vickers is a veteran driver with almost 10 years experience, but he hasn’t even turned 30 yet,” said Waltrip.

“He’s shown he can win at this level and we have every confidence he’ll run well with us. I believe in second chances and this is a great opportunity for us and Brian. He wants to show the world how good he really is and we believe in the equipment and people we’re putting him with in 2012.”

The team has yet to name a driver for the #55 car for the two road-course events.

Juhring (2) held-off Buie (5) by .266s to take the win on Thursday.

Week Five’s high Strength of Field race took place on Thursday night, which has been a trend this season. The race had a SoF of 3646 which would pay 231 points to win. Sam Edwards (Mid-South) started on the pole and dominated the first half of the online race before bad pit strategy buried him in traffic. Edwards made his way back to the front before a late spin took him out of contention. Edwards’ pit strategy gave the lead to Phil Juhring, who went on to lead the last 24 laps in route to a 0.26s victory over Brandon Buie (Atlantic).

“I had a good car, was a bit loose on the initial run after making some last minute changes. First stop I had to tighten it back up a bit and was real good after that. Made a mistake on that initial stop though and slid through my stall which cost me track position. Took two tires a stop or two later and got the track position back.” Juhring said. “That also showed me that I was pretty strong on two tires. We had that caution with 25 to go or so and I figured I’d take a shot with two tires, which worked out in the end.”

Buie netted 220 points for his finish. David Cater (Carolina) finished third after leading seven laps early in the race. Cater walked away from the race with 210 points for his third place finish, while Brendan Queen (Virginias) and Peter Bennett (Connecticut) rounded out the Top Five and received 199 and 189 points for their efforts.

“I figured I’d take a shot with two tires, which worked out in the end.” — Phil Juhring

The weekly standings for Week Five nearly mirrored the finishing position in the week’s SoF race. The top four finishers in that race ended-up as the top four in the weekly standings, with Jason Karlavige (Pennsylvania) rounding-out the top five with 189 points. Karlavige attempted two races at Phoenix, winning both while leading 175 of 200 laps.

Five weeks into the season, Buie finds himself back at the top of the season standings. Buie was able to make the jump to first after a great seconds place finish in the SoF race, bringing his season total to 872 points. Brad Mahar (New England) maintained his second place position after Phoenix, bringing his season total to 821 points. Armando Vargas (California) made his way in to the top five after collecting 178 points for his sixth place effort at Phoenix, good for 783 points on the season. Jeffrey Parker (Florida) maintained fourth position while John Bunton was the biggest loser at Phoenix. Bunton ran into problems in the dessert,  netting just 62 points and dropping from first to fifth in the points, with a total of 742 points.

Edwards dominated before his pit stop strategy backfired, resulting in a 15th place finish.

A familiar name showed-up at the top of the speed charts yet again this season as Jared Crawford (Michigan) turned the fastest qualifying time of the week with a 27.134 second lap. Brandon Schmidt (Midwest) ended the week in the second position with a 27.274s while Edwards found himself in the third spot after touring PIR in 27.337s. Richard Dusett (New England) and NiSWC driver Alex Warren (Illinois) rounded out the Top Five in qualifying. Dusett turned a 27.348s while Warren’s best was a 27.418s.

Week Six marks the halfway point in the season and sees the NiCBS traveling north from the Valley of the Sun to Sin City and 1.5 mile Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Bunton lost his points lead when Buie jumped back to the top of the standings as the season just starts heating up. Will Buie be able to maintain his position or will he fall off the top spot? Find out next week at inRacingNews!

The hills of Connecticut were alive with the sound of Tour Modifieds in Week 5.

Salvatore finished second on the week, thanks to a second place finish in the highest sof race of the week, which was won by Derrick Cormier2. Cormier2 was credited with leading just one lap in the race on the way to the victory over Salvatore, David Markham, Rich Zimmerman and Mike Daniel. Engelhart led the most laps in the race (51) but wound-up ninth. Salvatore, who led 48 laps in the online race, put 209 points on the board with his second place run while Markham’s third place run placed him fourth overall for the week with 195 points. Cormier2 went on to make three additional starts at Iowa and garnered 186 points for the week.

David Chmura made the most starts of the week, seeing nine green flags during Round Four. Mungin’s mark of two wins tied that of SJ Golembeski for the most wins of the week. Mungin blistered the Iowa track in 22.699 seconds to take the top spot in qualifying from Robert Sandt, Engelhart, Cormier2 and Nathan McGee. The top honors in Time Trials at Iowa went to Brett Osborn over Trent Hullum, Jack Bohan, Bruce Hilton and Gary Holbrook.

Mungin also capitalized on a massive sof race during Round Five to take the win out of the Stafford Motor Speedway. The Week Four winner roared to victory lane in the 4005 sof race on Thursday by leading 68 of the 100 laps of the race over Meyn, Salvatore, Cormier2 and Paul Wisniewski. One caution slowed the race and two lead changes between the top two finishers set the pace up front. The pull of the race was so strong that four of the top five finishers were in the top five at the end of the week thanks to their performances in this race. Mungin (243), Meyn (218), Salvatore (194) and Wisniewski (145) mirrored their positions in the race with that in the weekly standings as Stafford disappeared in the mirrors of their virtual haulers.  Cormier2 went on to make two additional starts on the week, which dropped his point total to 12th best amongst the Tour Modified drivers on Week Five.

Zimmerman brought home fourth place on the week at Stafford with a win in the 2522 sof race on March 1st. Zimmerman led 12 laps en route to the victory over Markham, Darrell Pyrtle, Joseph Nappi and Gary Limitone. Troy Talman led 64 laps in the race before finishing in 11th place. Nine lead changes took place for the top spot while four cautions slowed the race. Zimmerman pocketed 156 points for the win.
Chmura once again answered the most calls to the green flag this week by making four starts. Zimmerman’s two wins topped the win column at Stafford. The top spot in qualifying belonged to Mungin with a lap time of 18.206 seconds. McGee, Dick, Salvatore and Meyn brought up the back half of the top five in qualifying behind Mungin. The fifth edition of Time Trials for 2012 Season One went to Ray Farlow as his effort bested Osborn, Hullum, Holbrook and Tim Gould for the top spot.

When the dust settled, it was Meyn holding-on to the point lead with Mungin closing to within 29 points, 1085 to 1056. Salvatore sits third with 805 points, which has to seem like an eternity as he sits 205 points out of a third straight title. Cormier2 (785) and Division Two leader Zimmerman (773) complete the top five overall in the standings after five weeks of racing. Divisional leaders include Noel Parker, William Kabela, David Schamp, Timothy Finnegan, David MacDougall, James Falcon Pratt, Curtis Berleue, Nicholas Maxwell and Kyle Welch.

Next up for the NASCAR iRacing.com Tour Modified Series is the popular South Boston Speedway in Virginia. Can Mungin continue to munch into Meyn’s point lead as the series nears the halfway point?  Find out here at inRacingNews.

Until then, keep the hammer down and we’ll see you at the track!

Ottinger battles with Davidowitz (25) at PIR en route to his first NiSWC triumph.

On a restart with only eight laps to go, however, King was spun by Richie Davidowitz and was not allowed to regain his track position. In the end, King got caught-up in another crash on the final lap and finished a disappointing twenty-eighth. King summed up his race, “I felt like I had a chance to win, but it didn’t end up that way unfortunately. We had some nice green runs, and after some adjustments and clear air I felt like the car was really good if we had long runs but we didn’t get many of those.”

Meanwhile, Ottinger took advantage of King’s misfortune on the final restart and drove-off to an unchallenged win. Teammate Tyler D Hudson finished second, Michael Conti third and 2011 champ Ray Alfalla fourth with Brad Davies rounding-out the top five finishers. Daytona winner Jeremy Allen continued his strong start to the season with a sixth place finish.

“All I can say is thanks to the guys at GFR! Setup was a blast to drive.” Ottinger said after earning his first career NiSWC victory, “We all put a lot of time into getting it nailed down. I was a little too free the longer we went and was able to manage to keep control of it. Just stoked about the outcome.”

The race was punctuated by a slew of cautions and incidents, including this spin that ended King's bid for the win.

The online race was quite eventful as a dozen caution flags slowed the field for 49 of the 156 laps, making track position crucial as the short runs did not allow for much passing. Several top contenders got taken-out early in the wrecks, including Derek Wood who finds himself in a deep hole after starting the year with forty-third and fortieth place finishes.

It is not uncommon for the first short track race of the season to be a bit crazy as drivers are still getting used to their cars and each other on the track. Defending champ Alfalla reminded everyone to use a level head, “This happens every year. We always run a short track early in the season that’s got everyone saying the series (stinks), then we go 120 laps or something under green somewhere else and it’s all fine again.”

Josh Berry leads Steve Sheehan and Josh Parker in the early going.

Allen remains the championship leader after Week Two of the season, holding a scant two point cushion over second place Conti, who backed-up his fourth place at Daytona with a solid third at PIR.  Similarly, Brian Schoenburg notched another top ten finish to move-up to third in the standings and currently sits 14 points back of the lead. Hudson and NiSWC rookie Marcus Lindsey sit fourth and fifth, 18 and 20 markers back, respectively.

The series moves onto Bristol Motor Speedway for Week Three, and there is sure to be more exciting racing in store on the half-mile bullring. After the rather messy race at PIR, many drivers know that one more bad result can easily put them out of the running for a good points finish, but now is not the time to run conservatively. As any NiSWC driver knows, when it comes to Thunder Valley, there’s no place to hide.