NASCAR Cup Series

t’s finally Silly Season time and moves are happening fast. The season started prematurely with A.J. Allmendinger’s failed drug test and Matt Kenseth’s shocking announcement that he was leaving Roush Fenway, but this is the time of year when Silly Season starts in earnest and started it has.

JOE GIBBS, team owner, Joe Gibbs Racing Was part of the appeal in Matt Kenseth his long tenure with one organization? "The reason you stay at one place for a long time is that you're very good and they want to keep you. That's the same way we feel about Denny (Hamlin) and Kyle (Busch) -- we want to keep them forever here and it's a big deal for us. I think that speaks a lot for Matt (Kenseth) and his career."

Kevin Harvick and the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet team return to Richmond (Va.) International Raceway (RIR) this week for Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) race.

This weekend at Richmond International Raceway the Team Chevy Display will feature the Team Chevy Test Drive area located next to the Chevy fan fest. This is a space where fans can climb behind the wheel of an array of featured Chevrolet vehicles and take a test drive on site. The featured vehicles fans can test drive include: Sonic, Malibu, Cruze, Volt, Camaro SS, Camaro Convertible, Corvette Grand Sport, Equinox, Traverse and Silverado. The Test Drive Area will share the same hours of operation as the main Team Chevy display.

Carl Edwards on racing at Richmond International Raceway: “We’re going to Richmond to win. We need some luck and we need it to be good luck. We’ve passed more cars in the last month than we’ve passed all year. I wouldn’t go to Richmond with any other team, in any other car. I feel like the No.99 Cheez-It Ford is the favorite there because of how we ran in the spring and we’re settling for nothing less than victory lane.”

As Sunday’s Atlanta Insert-Sponsor-Name-Here 500 slowly dragged by, in which forty-three brightly-colored cars repetitively drove around Atlanta Motor Speedway something like 330 times, I found myself, once again, not really interested in watching the race, just like I’ve not been interested in watching every other race over the last two Sprint Cup seasons…although I regret missing Watkins Glen a couple of weeks ago.

Thirty-one caution laps in Sunday night’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Advocare 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway netted a donation of $6,200 to the American Cancer Society on behalf of Chevrolet.

Biffle on racing at Richmond International Raceway: “It feels good to be locked into the Chase. I’m ready for Richmond, but it’s been a hit or miss track for us. Richmond is definitely a driver’s track and the night race this weekend will be exciting for fans. We are taking a brand new chassis this weekend and hopefully we can get another win before the Chase starts.”

Follow EGR on Twitter: Continue to follow Earnhardt Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates (EGR) on their official team Twitter page. Find in-race updates and weekly news on the No. 1 and No. 42 teams throughout the 2012 season by following “@EGRTeams”.

RCR at RIR ... Richard Childress has eight NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victories as a car owner at Richmond International Raceway - five with Dale Earnhardt, two with Kevin Harvick and one with Clint Bowyer. Additionally, in 132 starts at the Richmond, Va.-based, RCR drivers have claimed 33 top-five and 60 top-10 finishes at RIR. Childress, a former driver on NASCAR's senior circuit, contributed three of those top-10 finishes from 1976-1978.