SM Staff

Ever wonder about those engineers atop the pit box next to the crew chiefs working away on their computers during the race? This week’s NASCAR Behind the Scenes focuses on one such engineer, Tom Gray, who works with Jeff Gordon’s Hendrick Motorsports Team 24.

With drivers wishing their teams good morning due to the night race that went into the wee hours of the next morning, here is what else was surprising and not surprising from the Coke Zero 400 on the July 4th, 2015 holiday weekend.

Everyone has to still be stunned to see Austin Dillon walk away from the horrifying last-lap crash that sent his No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet flipping into the catch fence at the end of the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona.

NBC will be covering its first Sprint Cup race since 2006 and I’m excited to see what they have after FOX kicked the season off with some of the worst coverage I’ve ever seen. Constant production mistakes, announcers giving false or misguided information, biased studio analysts, constant commercials, and a terrible pre-race “grid walk.”

Jimmie Johnson put had a quick car and was running the quickest laps of the race. Chad Knaus had played the right strategy to put his driver out front. It looked as though he would score the victory. Then the caution happened. Rather than celebrating a victory, Johnson crossed the finish line in sixth.

With this win, Kyle tied Kevin Harvick for 23rd on the all-time wins list. This is Busch’s first win this year; his last victory was March 23, 2014. There are 800 starts between the brothers and this is the first time they finished one-two.

Starting on the pole for the Toyota SaveMart 350, A.J. Allmendinger would lead laps early and look to be en route to contending for a victory in the later stages of the event. However, on lap 61, Allmendinger headed down pit road with mechanical issues.

Battling for every position in the late stages of the race, the jocking back and forth for each position in the three, four-wide racing pack was full of action for the Verizon IndyCar Series drivers. Though sometimes, everything doesn't go according to plan.

With his seventh top-five finish of the season in the 11 races thus far in 2015, Juan Pablo Montoya was able to stretch his points lead out some more ahead of Team Penske teammate Will Power. With only a couple months remaining of the season, Montoya now leads Power by 46 points.

After posting a one-two finish in the Honda Indy Toronto, CFH Racing was hoping to carry the momentum through the MAVTV 500 at Auto Club Speedway, posting a strong finish for both of their cars. However, that wouldn't be the case as a crash at lap 158 took both cars out of contention.