NASCAR Cup Series

Matt Kenseth enters NASCAR’s All-Star weekend as the hottest driver in the Cup Series and a favorite to take home the $1 million prize...

We're 1/3 of the way through the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season, and it’s onto Speedweeks at Charlotte. A million bucks is up for grabs this week (actually 2 million), and unlike the NHL, the NBA, and the MLB, we're already on to the All-Star weekend.

While any death is tragic, especially when it is unexpected, reactions are even more complicated when the person takes his own life. This was definitely demonstrated after the NASCAR family learned of Dick Trickle’s death of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound in a local cemetery.

Kurt Busch, No. 78 Furniture Row/Sealy Chevrolet SS, posted the second-fastest time of the 19 drivers who have earned spots in the 29th NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Busch ran a time of 111.297 seconds and average speed of 144.068 mph in the unique qualifying format that included three laps and a four-tire pit stop.

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Snickers Bites Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing - Starting Position: 4th - How was the qualifying run? "Everything was pretty good right there, but felt like I gave up a little bit in the middle of (turns) three and four. Other than that, I felt like our Snickers Bites Camry was really good. Race speed was really good today and the car moved around the race track really good. Just a little bit of a mistake on my part, maybe and gave up some time. It will be a good top-four starting spot and we will be alright and we can race them from there."

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 CROMAX PRO CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Charlotte Motor Speedway and discussed this year’s All-Star Race format, the correlations of winning the All-Star Race and the championship and many other topics.

DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Charlotte Motor Speedway and discussed the format for this year’s All-Star Race, the success of JR Motorsports and other topics.

MARCOS AMBROSE – No. 9 DeWalt Ford Fusion – “We wrecked our car in practice when an axle fell out, so we had absolutely zero practice getting onto pit lane at all and I just did what I thought I saw from watching the practice the guys did earlier. Obviously, I couldn’t get it whoa’d up, but I had never driven that car before those two laps and I guess the brake bias wasn’t quite right and I just locked the right-front and that was it.”

DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY CARES CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media and discussed, how she approaches the Sprint Showdown, the potential of winning the Sprint Fan Vote and other topics.

Trevor Bayne was out at Michigan International Speedway earlier this week testing with Wood Brothers Racing in preparation for the event in June. Speeds were hitting over 200 mph as Michigan has become one of the fastest tracks since the repave last year.