NASCAR O'Reilly Series

With the Camping World Truck Series and Sprint Cup Series heading to the 2 mile Michigan International Speedway and the Nationwide Series at the road course of Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, there are many headlines to watch as the championship picture is becoming more and more relevant each weekend.

Sam Hornish Jr. (No. 12 Alliance Truck Parts Dodge Challenger R/T) Qualified Second CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR QUALIFYING RUN? “A good qualifying (session) for Team Penske and Penske Racing. I felt like there was a little bit more left in the car.

The Nationwide Series heads to one of its most exciting stops of the season this weekend as the stars of the series tackle the 14 turn Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal. The NNS has been going to Montreal since 2007 and has provided some of the very best racing of the year in the NNS.

Sam Hornish Jr. (No. 12 Alliance Truck Parts Dodge Challenger) CAN YOU TALK ABOUT DRIVNG AT MONTREAL FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A STOCK CAR? “Things have gone pretty good so far. We got a rookie set of tires because it was my first time here in a stock car. I used those for all of two laps because I got a big flat spot. It was a good thing we got the opportunity to use that because the way most of the corners are set up here you’re transitioning into another corner and you have the front of the race car tilted from one direction or the other."

Want a great fan experience? Head out to the Michigan International Speedway this weekend for the Pure Michigan 400. The races at Michigan are always a blast and below the President of the Michigan International Speedway told me some cool details of different things happening at the track.

NASCAR driver Danica Patrick recently discussed her upcoming visit to Atlanta Motor Speedway, where she’ll make her first-career start at the 1.54-mile facility in both the NASCAR Nationwide Series and the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

Montreal Preview: The FedEx Racing colors will return to Canada this weekend for Saturday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal. Joe Gibbs Racing driver Michael McDowell will pilot the #18 FedEx Express Toyota in the 74-lap, 200-mile event on the 2.7-mile permanent street course. McDowell -- a Phoenix native -- has recorded four top-10 finishes in four Nationwide starts this season, including a season-best runner-up result at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis., in June. McDowell is making his fourth Series start at Montreal on Saturday. His best finish of third came in last season’s event after starting fifth.

Justin Allgaier and the BRANDT team took to the 2.45-mile road course at Watkins Glen with hopes of continuing the momentum they had been building through the summer months. The weather threatened to dampen their plans, but moved out of the Finger Lake region of New York in time for the 82-lap race on Saturday. After running in the top-15 for the majority of the event, leading one lap and surviving an exciting finish, Allgaier brought home another top-10 finish for the BRANDT team, scoring a ninth-place result. Allgaier gained four points on the leader in the NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) point standings, but remains fifth, 74 points back from first.

Michael Annett on Going to Montreal: “I always look forward to going to Montreal because it is different than any other track we go to on the circuit. We just came off a decent road course finish in Watkins Glen and we learned a lot throughout that race that we can apply to this weekend’s event. Montreal has it’s own set of new challenges that we don’t face anywhere else, and it is the final road course of the year."

DODGE QUOTES: “We just need to keep our heads down and do the right things. You come to a couple of road course races in the Nationwide Series and even in the Cup series, it’s about staying on the island all day long and not letting somebody use you up but also being smart enough to let ‘em go when you know it’s somebody that’s going to give you problems and generally doesn’t care if they finish the race or not. I feel good about our progression, how we’ve been. The good thing is that we’ve had good reliability out of our Dodge engines and out of our race cars. I’ve felt really good about the road course testing that we’ve done.” -Sam Hornish, Jr.