SM Staff

For the first night race under the vast Texas lights, here is what was surprising and not surprising from the 19th annual Duck Commander 500.

Despite having to head down pit road at lap 198 for a loose right rear, Kasey Kahne would recover during the second half of the Duck Commander 500 to post an eighth place finish.

Despite qualifying outside the top 20, Dale Earnhardt Jr. entered the race confident that he would have a good run. That confidence proved true as he crossed the finish line third. However, it wasn't an easy night, though.

Following finishes outside of the top 20 in the first five events of the season, Roush Fenway Racing went to work in building new, faster cars. Those cars were debuted on Saturday night at Texas Motor Speedway and while they were better, the results were still poor. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. would finish best of the three drivers in the 15th spot, with Greg Biffle finishing 17th and Trevor Bayne in 18th.

With lightning and rain in the area, Verizon IndyCar Series officials were forced to cancel qualifying for the Grand Prix of Louisiana. As a result, the field was set by entrant points.

In the third and final practice before the Grand Prix of Louisiana, it'd be Scott Dixon topping the charts in his Chevrolet for Chip Ganassi Racing. Dixon would lap the 2.74-mile, 13-turn road course in one minute and 18.5538 seconds.

Carrying the positive momentum forward, Darrell Wallace Jr. put together a solid performance on Friday night at Texas Motor Speedway, scoring a sixth place finish. For Bubba, it marks his best finish of the season to date.

In an abbreviated session due to rain, it'd be Will Power topping the speed chart in the second practice for the Grand Prix of Lousiana. Power, who led both practices at St. Petersburg before finishing second, topped the charts with a lap of one minute and 20.1704 seconds.

If there was no Raymond Parks, there would be no NASCAR. Before Parks, all stock car drivers were disorganized with little consistency in who they were running for, or if they were running for themselves, wrecking their car and never being heard from again.

After scoring his best career XFINITY race finish with a third at Auto Club Speedway, Erik Jones scored his second consecutive pole award in the O'Reilly Auto Parts 300 at Texas Motor Speedway. Jones lapped the mile and a half oval with a lap of 29.163 seconds.