NASCAR Cup Series

Clint Bowyer’s No. 15 Pink Lemonade 5-hour ENERGY Toyota returns to Charlotte Motor Speedway for Saturday night’s 500-mile race - the fifth stop in the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup.

No. 56 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota driver Martin Truex Jr. said there’s a lot of racing left in the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup season, but it’s time to start cutting into Chase leader Brad Keselowski’s 47-point lead over the eighth-place Michael Waltrip Racing team.

Television personality Mike Rowe will attend the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Saturday, October 13, 2012 and help Caterpillar shine a light on the importance of skilled trades. Rowe will welcome the winners of the Caterpillar "Your Company Name on the No. 31 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Car" promotion.

Dodge has 15 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series wins at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Buddy Baker recorded four wins at the 1.5-mile track while Richard Petty and Kasey Kahne posted three victories each. Others taking Dodge to victory lane include LeeRoy Yarborough, Charlie Glotzbach, Sterling Marlin, Jamie McMurray and Kurt Busch.

Biffle on racing at Charlotte Motor Speedway: “I’m excited to be at home this week and racing at Charlotte. We ran well there in the spring and led a lot of laps. We also ran well there in the fall last year, so maybe this weekend will be our first Chase win. Charlotte changes the most out of any track we race at from evening to night. We’ve been fast, but as the rubber gets down the handling changes. We’ve got to stay up with the track to win there Saturday night.”

Carl Edwards on racing at Charlotte Motor Speedway: “We just couldn’t catch a break in Talladega, but we head to Charlotte Motor Speedway this week where we have had success. The strategy is the same."

Coming into last weekend’s race at Talladega Superspeedway, Joey Logano was the only non-Chase driver to have three-straight top-10 finishes to start the Chase. And coming into Talladega, one of his best tracks on the circuit, Logano had an easy chance to continue that streak. However, as is typical in Talladega, sometimes it’s things beyond your control that have the biggest effect on your day and such was the case for Logano.

Kenseth on racing at Charlotte: “Charlotte this weekend is really about car set-up and being able to get your car through the corner along with great race strategy. We’re taking this Chase one race at a time right now, and we’re going to go out and win some races to hopefully start climbing our way up in the points. Charlotte has been a pretty good track for us lately. I'm looking forward to getting in there this weekend and seeing how our stuff performs compared to the competition. I'm really curious to get there and look at how we'll be competitive because typically it’s been a great track for us in the past.”

Richard Childress Racing at Charlotte ... In 128 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Richard Childress Racing teams have earned six points-paying victories. Four wins were claimed by Dale Earnhardt, while Jeff Burton added to that total with a win in the October 2008 race and, most recently, Kevin Harvick took home the trophy in one of NASCAR's marquee events - the Coca-Cola 600 - in May 2011.

An Olympic gold medalist, a Hall of Fame quarterback and a retiring Kansas politician will all be in the spotlight on Oct. 19 and 20 as they take part in the Kansas Lottery 300 and Kansas Lottery 98.9.