Here is your NASCAR Sprint Cup Series News and Bits:
** This week is a off weekend for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, their next race will be the Emory Hamilton 500 at the 1.54-mile-tri-oval Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday September 5th at 7:30 P.M.(ET) and televised on ESPN. These are your current point standings going into race 25.
| Position | Driver | Points |
| 1 | Kevin Harvick | 3,521 |
| 2 | Jeff Gordon | 3,242 |
| 3 | Kyle Busch | 3,170 |
| 4 | Carl Edwards | 3,113 |
| 5 | Denny Hamlin | 3,108 |
| 6 | Tony Stewart | 3,107 |
| 7 | Jeff Burton | 3,101 |
| 8 | Matt Kenseth | 3,095 |
| 9 | Jimmie Johnson | 3,077 |
| 10 | Kurt Busch | 3,073 |
| 11 | Greg Biffle | 3,055 |
| 12 | Clint Bowyer | 2,920 |
| 13 | Jamie McMurry | 2,820 |
| 14 | Mark Martin | 2,819 |
| 15 | Ryan Newman | 2,802 |
| 16 | Kasey Khane | 2,784 |
**Emphasis on Winning, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Chase breakdown with potential Chase bonous points added in.
| Driver | Wins | Current Position | Potential Chase Bonous Ponts | Potential Chase Seeding |
| Jimmie Johnson | 5 | 9th | 50 | 1st |
| Denny Hamlin | 5 | 5th | 50 | 2nd |
| Kevin Harvick | 3 | 1st | 30 | 3rd |
| Kyle Busch | 3 | 3rd | 30 | 4th |
| Kurt Busch | 2 | 10th | 20 | 5th |
| Greg Biffle | 1 | 11th | 10 | 6th |
| Tony Stewart | 0 | 6th | 0 | 7th |
| Jeff Gordon | 0 | 2nd | 0 | 8th |
| Carl Edwards | 0 | 4th | 0 | 9th |
| Jeff Burton | 0 | 7th | 0 | 10th |
| Matt Kenseth | 0 | 8th | 0 | 11th |
| Clint Bowyer | 0 | 12th | 0 | 12 |
**Just because it is a blank spot on the calender, does NOT make it an off week for some Sprint Cup Series regulars. On Friday night at Chicagoland Speedway, Kyle Busch will race in the Enjoyillinois.com 225 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event. Busch, the current defending champion at Chicagoland will attempt to win four consecutive national series races.
On Sunday, at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Brad Keslowski,Max Papis,Marcos Ambrose,Carl Edwards, Michael McDowell,Joe Nemechek, and Paul Menard will run the NAPA Auto Parts 200 NASCAR Nationwide Series event. Edwards is the defending winner.
Kasey Khane will head to Alger, Washington to run a sprint car in his foundation’s Sage Fruit Showdown at Skagit Speedway. Khane started racing at the high-banked, .300-mile dirt track when was 15.
Some drivers are taking time off to travel: Juan Pablo Montoya is vacating in Aruba and Jamie McMurry is flying to Italy.
**In other news Michael Waltrip Racing and Insurance Office Of America & Announce Corporate Partnership Agreement. The agreement marks IOA’s debut in NASCAR.
The partnership between MWR and IOA is for an initial five-year term with a five-year option. In addition to the insurance brokerage services, the IOA program includes hospitality and intellectual property usage that IOA will add to its national branding campaign.
IOA’s program uses sports and entertainment as its lead platform for strategic growth. MWR joins a growing number of professional sports teams as IOA’s client, including partnerships with teams in the National Football League (Jaguars), National Basketball Association (Magic) National Hockey League (Devils) and the NCAA (University of Central Florida).
“This is an exciting time for IOA to enter into NASCAR. We look forward to working with Michael, (MWR Co-owner) Rob Kauffman and the entire team at MWR,” said IOA founder John Ritenour.
Chris Marciani, vice president of sales and service at Michael Waltrip Racing, said the team is honored IOA chose MWR as its first NASCAR Team.
