NASCAR Cup Series

For the first time in his NASCAR career Regan Smith enters a Sprint Cup race with the status of being the defending champion.

Dodge has five wins at Darlington Raceway – Buck Baker, Buddy Baker (2), Ward Burton and Sterling Marlin. Dodge posted back-to-back wins at the 1.366-mile track in 2001 (Burton) and 2002 (Marlin).

Kenseth led with one lap to go at Talladega, but was passed by Brad Keselowski, benefitting from a huge push from Kyle Busch. Kenseth settled for third, and advanced one place in the point standings to second, seven behind Greg Biffle.

Roger Penske has won a lot of races with many different drivers over the course of his NASCAR career. He’s had some of the best drivers in the sport drive his cars, represent his company and become big stars.

When NASCAR comes to Talladega it’s almost like playing the lottery; you never know who is going to win, but it’s still fun to gamble. Jeff Gordon started on the pole with last year’s champion Tony Stewart on the outside pole.

Restrictor plate racing is not racing. You have read it here from me for a long time, but rarely do we hear it from the competitors.

Richard Childress is tied for third all time with Holman-Moody and the Wood Brothers for car owner victories at Darlington with eight - each with Dale Earnhardt behind the wheel. In 103 collective starts, RCR boasts 21 top-five and 35 top-10 finishes at the 1.366-mile egg-shaped oval with five different drivers including Clint Bowyer, Earnhardt, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton and Robby Gordon.

The 2012 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 is officially in the “11-second” club, as engineers recently turned an 11.93-second/116-mph quarter-mile elapsed time run in a showroom-stock Camaro ZL1 automatic. A Camaro ZL1 manual ran an 11.96-second ET at 117 mph.

"Darlington has been one of my favorite race tracks since my first trip there. It’s an intimidating place and there is a ton of history there. A win at Darlington in the Sprint Cup Series would be one of the biggest accomplishments of my career."

Kenseth on racing at Darlington Raceway: “Darlington is a challenging track since you get so much speed going into the turns that many cars throughout the weekend end up with “Darlington stripes” down the side after brushing the wall."