NASCAR Cup Series

Whether NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers are smarter than fifth graders remains a matter of debate after Wednesday’s Las Vegas Motor Speedway-sponsored Fanfest at the Fremont Street Experience.

We all want answers. We demand them, actually. From revered coaches, from players making history, from execs we’re convinced are up to no good. Every time one of them answers a question from us – the reporters, the fans – it reveals a small, unvarnished truth about them and about the games we love.

NASCAR today announced the 2013 schedule for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, a slate that includes two exciting firsts: the series’ first race on dirt and its inaugural international event.

TOYOTA TIDBITS CAMRYS ON CUP CIRCUIT: Toyota drivers combined for 10 wins, 53 top-five finishes and 110 top-10 results in 36 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) races in 2012. Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) teammates Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano all claimed wins in 2012, with Hamlin taking five checkered flags (Phoenix, Kansas, Bristol, Atlanta and New Hampshire) and both Busch (Richmond) and Logano (Pocono) each winning once.

Newly crowned NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Brad Keselowski’s whirlwind of activity continues.

Paint technician Neil Smith was thrilled to learn that he won the final VIP Grand Prize in the 3M Automotive Aftermarket “Your Ticket to the Track” sweepstakes, which will send him and his guests to the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion’s Week™ in Las Vegas this week.

The 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season had a significant decrease in the number of cautions compared to the previous three season. There were 216 cautions during the 36-race NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.

Every NASCAR fan can agree that the Sprint Cup Series has an excess number of mile and a half tracks on the schedule. Mile and a half tracks don’t feature the close, competitive racing that superspeedway’s, short tracks and road courses do. NASCAR is always looking for fan input on the series and one suggestion they’re not listening to is fans no longer wanting as many mile and a half tracks on the schedule.

Now that the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season is in the history books. It is time to look back at how the top teams in the sport performed in 2012. Some teams rose to the occasion and performed at the top of their game while others disappointed and performed below expectations. Here are my grades for the 2012 season.

Want to have fun while putting a smile on a child’s face on Christmas morning? Then check out Martinsville Speedway’s 16th Annual Toy Drive on December 8.