SM Staff

Although he’s still recovering from a serious back injury that kept him off the track for a few weeks nothing was going to keep Denny Hamlin from winning the pole for Sunday’s Coca Cola 600. Hamlin turned the track at 195.624 mph, a new track record for the Charlotte Motor Speedway.

As NASCAR’s elite briefly battled Mother Nature and then each other, here is what was surprising and not surprising in the aftermath of the 2013 Sprint All-Star Race.

When you talk about the most prestigious races in NASCAR, the Coca Cola 600 is easily in the top two or three. Charlotte is the home for most of the teams which already gives this race importance but it is also the longest race on the NASCAR schedule.

When race fans think of Memorial Day weekend in the motorsports world, one thing immediately comes to mind and that is NASCAR taking to the track at Charlotte Motor Speedway for their traditional May race weekend that many consider to be the greatest weekend of motorsports all year long with NASCAR at Charlotte, IndyCar at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and Formula 1 at Monaco.

For Max Gresham, 20 year old driver of the Eddie Sharp Racing No. 8 AmWINS Chevrolet, his career-best third place finish was inspirational. The young driver also led three laps for the first time in his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career and gave Charlotte-based sponsor AmWINS its first top-three finish right in their own backyard at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Kurt Busch will be a 2x NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) champion; it's simply a matter of when it will happen. Although he and Furniture Row Racing are fast this year, I doubt his second championship will come in 2013 but I will be very surprised if they don't make the chase and win at least one race. Kurt has matured so much as a driver in the last year and has shocked me with his abrupt attitude change.

I hate to quote the Beatles, because it dates me and after watching the Billboard Awards, I get the feeling that no one knows what’s good music is anymore, but all I can say is the first line of a great Beatle song. I heard the news today, but oh boy. The latest news is Bruton Smith, billionaire CEO of Speedway Motorsports is considering moving the fall Charlotte race to Las Vegas.

Reflect back to the early to mid 2000’s. The All-Star Races during those years were action-packed and go for broke events. Team owners told their drivers to only bring back the steering wheel.

My friend Monte Dutton, who is one of the best or probably was one of the best writers on the NASCAR beat, tweeted Saturday night that unlike normal races, the format actually seems to encourage all hell breaking loose UNTIL the end.

Brandon Watson would start off exactly where he left off as he would the victory in the Lucie Alywin Memorial 50 presented by North Toronto Auctions after leading from the pole.