NASCAR Cup Series

In addition to a dose of roof flap drama, here is what else was surprising and not surprising from the 55th annual Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway.

After celebrating the Fourth of July weekend on the high banks of Daytona International Speedway, the three national NASCAR series head to short, flat tracks in separate parts of the country this weekend. New Hampshire Motor Speedway will host the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR Nationwide Series, while the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series heads to Iowa for a standalone weekend of their own.

Carl Edwards… enters the weekend third in the series points’ standings. This season, Edwards has one win, six top-five, nine top-10 finishes and one pole.

Ryan Newman, one of the fastest and most popular NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers, will make an appearance in the new Martinsville Speedway Party Plaza prior to the Goody’s™ Headache Relief Shot™ 500 on October 27.

TNT’s All-Access features Truex this week following the Michael Waltrip racing driver from the finish of last weekend’s Daytona race to the moment Sunday when he fires his engine at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Truex’s segment airs at noon Sunday during the network’s Countdown to Green pre-race show.

If driving a race car at 200 mph each weekend wasn’t enjoyable enough, there are some really great perks that come with being a NASCAR Sprint Cup driver.

Following a thorough review, NASCAR announced Wednesday that it will not assess penalties to the teams that had to change out the spacers that support the hinge bar of the car’s roof flaps last week at Daytona International Speedway. There were 16 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams and 15 NASCAR Nationwide Series teams that were involved.

Johnson was dominant at Daytona and held on after several late restarts to win the Coke Zero 400. Johnson became the first driver to sweep both Daytona races since Bobby Allison in 1982.

Saturday night’s Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway was race 18 of the 36 race Sprint Cup Series season. In other words: halfway.

The INDYCAR Series returned to “the tricky triangle” for the first time in over 20 years last weekend. Chip Ganassi Racing Teams finished one, two, and three. It was Scott Dixon that gave Target their 100th win at Pocono Raceway while teammates Charlie Kimball finished second and Dario Franchitti finished third. This is the first time a one, two, three sweep has occurred since 1979 and the first time for Chip Ganassi Racing.