SM Staff

Schmidt Peterson Motorsports announced on Thursday, May 21 that Ryan Briscoe will fill in for James Hinchcliffe behind the wheel of the No. 5 Arrow/Lucas Oil Honda in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway

I find the All-Star race to be incredibly pointless. There’s literally only one reason why it still goes on and that is so that Charlotte can keep people in the city for an extra week, something I doubt that most people still do, judging from the lack of interest in NASCAR itself.

In the fourth practice for the Indianapolis 500, it'd be Simon Pagenaud topping the charts as Team Penske found the speed that has served them well so far this season to date in winning the pole for each of the first four events this season.

In Wednesday practice for the Indianapolis 500, a Honda would top the charts for the first time during the week. Carlos Munoz, driving for Andretti Autosport, would top the charts with a lap of 39.1098 seconds. In his previous two starts in the big race, he has finished in the top-five.

While Team Penske has dominated the speed charts so far when it comes to the road and street courses, the tables turned as Chip Ganassi Racing would sweep the top three spots on the second day of Indianapolis 500 practice once the drivers were able to hit the track. The session was delayed as a result of rain falling throughout the early part.

“We made some gains over last year but we’re still struggling with the consistency of the grip level. On our own, it’s pretty good but then when we get in traffic its good for a little bit but then it seems to slide the longer we go so we’ve got to be a little cautious. We turned a lot of laps out there in the Steak ‘n Shake car and I got behind Dixon on old tires and we were doing 221’s which I don’t think is too bad."

With the hopes of attracting a younger crowd to the sport with appearances by Squidward Tentacles, Larry the Lobster, and Patrick Star, here is what else was surprising and not surprising from the 5th annual SpongeBob SquarePants 400 at Kansas Speedway.

Jimmy Johnson spun out early in the race. His chances to win the race seemed distant at best. But just after midnight in the two-hour rain delayed SpongeBob SquarePants 400, Jimmy Johnson took the checkered flag for his third victory of the year and his third victory at Kansas Speedway.

NASCAR provides the show with its headliners, the heroes on the fast horses, that ride in with the stone cold determined stare which steals our hearts and kindles our imaginations. They perform their death defying feats taking our breath away and solidifying their place in our families and our lives.

"Definitely cool to get another pole," Logano said. "Last year it took us pretty much the whole year to get one pole," he said. "We won a lot of first and second sessions, but we'd fall on our face in the third session. So it's pretty special to be able to figure out these third sessions and still have a lot of speed in our car when we get to those rounds.