NASCAR Cup Series

NASCAR announced today the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule for the 2013 season, a highly anticipated campaign that will welcome redesigned race cars to the track.

No. 15 5-hour ENERGY Toyota crew chief Brian Pattie calls his team’s tenth and fourth-place finishes in the first two Chase races “good” but says now it’s time for “great” finishes.

BACK-TO-BACK TOP-10s TO START THE CHASE: Last weekend in New Hampshire, Joey Logano picked up his second-straight top-10 finish and his 10th top-10 of the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. Logano raced around 15th for the first half of the race fighting a tight racecar before a great pit call by crew chief Jason Ratcliff got Logano track position and a better handling No. 20 Home Depot Toyota. Logano then raced his way in the top-10 and stayed out during a late-race caution and held off several drivers with fresher tires to grab an eighth-place finish. Logano also finished in the top-10, coming home seventh, two weekends ago at Chicagoland Speedway.

He is not exactly "calling his shot," but Jeff Gordon is pretty confident ahead of Sunday's AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway.

No. 56 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota driver Martin Truex Jr.’s appointment calendar is several pages long this week as he returns to his home track for Sunday’s AAA 400 at Dover (Del.) International Speedway.

Like all professional athletes, No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota driver Mark Martin leads a hectic life. Between a 24-race NASCAR schedule, weight training, personal appearances and an active family life there are few spare moments. But when the 53-year-old, 40-time NASCAR Sprint Cup winner gets a few moments to himself you might find him soaring miles above the earth’s surface.

RCR has earned four NASCAR Sprint Cup Series wins at Dover International Speedway, most recently in September 2006 when Jeff Burton drove the No. 31 Chevrolet to Victory Lane in the Dover 400. Three additional victories came with Dale Earnhardt behind the wheel, winning both events at the "Monster Mile" in 1989 as well as the spring race in 1993. RCR has earned one pole award, 23 top-five and 49 top-10 finishes in 132 combined starts at the high-banked, one-mile oval. Childress, a former driver in NASCAR's top division, contributed three of those top 10s from 1976-1980.

The 2012 Sprint Cup Series season started with a running tally of how many races Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin would win. A simple bet amongst outsiders interested to see how Stewart would do with new crew chief Steve Addington, while his championship winning crew chief from last season, Darian Grubb, joined Hamlin at Joe Gibbs Racing.

Babe Hamlin? Okay, it might not roll off the tongue as nice as Denny Hamlin but, like George Herman Ruth of old, Hamlin was bold enough to call his shot and was good enough to pull it off in winning at New Hampshire last Sunday.

Hamlin came from the 32nd starting position to the lead before the 100th lap had been run. Hamlin led 193 of the 300 laps in route to his fifth win of the season and the 100th win all-time for Joe Gibbs Racing, becoming only the sixth team in NASCAR Sprint Cup history to reach 100 victories.