NASCAR Cup Series

It’s crunch time and Kurt Busch is excited the next Sprint Cup Series stop is at Pocono Raceway as the Furniture Row pilot continues his quest to become the first driver with a single-car team to make NASCAR’s Chase, the 12-driver, 10-race playoffs.

Denny Hamlin piloted the #11 FedEx Express Toyota to an 18th place finish in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway. After starting the day on the outside of Row 2, a stubbornly loose racecar dissolved Hamlin’s hopes of a first career win at The Brickyard. Indiana-native Ryan Newman took the checkered flag for his first win of the 2013 season, followed by Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne, Tony Stewart and Matt Kenseth.

Target House: Target Chip Ganassi Racing drivers Juan Pablo Montoya, Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti will stop by Target House and St. Jude’s next week to visit with the children and families at the hospital. Joining the dynamic trio will be Olympian hopefuls Shaun White, Roz Groenwoud, Simon Dumont, and Torin Yater Wallace. The Target athletes will participate in a friendly competition of hula hoop, gunny sack races and Pictionary.

Last week’s race at Indianapolis and this weekend’s race at Pocono are more than just a test of drivers and their race cars. The 2.5-mile tracks with their long straight-aways are also challenges for each team’s spotters— the men high above the track in radio communication with their drivers.

At one of the most historic tracks on the NASCAR Sprint Cup venue, here is what was surprising and not surprising in the 20th...

Sometimes it may be hard to like Kyle Busch. All you see on the track is his competitive drive that can lead to heat of the moment actions. That’s in the public eye. What you don’t get to see is what he is like behind the scenes, how much of a nice and caring guy he actually is.

After a rare pit mistake by the No.48 team that cost them a shot at history, Indiana race fans rejoiced as they watched native Hoosier, Ryan Newman triumph over all at the Brickyard. Newman and Johnson were the class of the field all day with Jimmie showing the most strength but this is a team sport and a 17 second pit stop with just a handful of laps remaining is nearly impossible to overcome when your rival takes two tires.

I am normally much more timely on these articles than this, and had actually toyed with the idea of scrapping this one completely to move to something more pressing. But, once I re-read what I had started writing I got fired up about the subject again and decided that this article deserved to be posted and hopefully read.

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

Stenhouse Jr. on racing at Pocono: “We are starting to go back to some tracks that we have already raced at this season so that is a plus for us. In June, track position was crucial because it was so hard to pass and make up ground."