Race Central

The craziness started before the green flag flew to get today’s Auto Club 400 from Auto Club Speedway underway. J.D. Gibbs announced about 30 minutes prior to the command to fire engines that Denny Hamlin wouldn’t race due to a sinus infection that affected his vision.

After getting close to winning last year, Kyle Larson would hold off Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch in an exciting finish to win the Treatmyclot.com 300 at Auto Club Speedway for his first career Nationwide Series victory.

Kenseth conquered Knockout Qualifying and drove his No. 20 Dollar General Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to first place at Auto Club Speedway, earning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Coors Light Pole Award with a speed of 187.315 mph. It was his 12th career pole and his first pole at this track.

Rain was the name of the game Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway. It delayed the start of the race and went on to cause much more havoc when it brought the entire day to an end. When the skies opened up with two laps remaining, it was Carl Edwards leading the way after strategy paved his way to victory lane.

“It helps our confidence for sure. It’s been nice working with Mike and the guys again. We’re having a lot of fun. We’re just slowly working and getting better and better. I thought we were a lot better than our finish last week at Las Vegas, except I sped on pit road.

“I wasn’t sure about the backflip. First, I’ve got to thank the fans for sticking around. How about Ford? They’ve done so much in this sport. They make the greatest cars on the road and for them to finish tonight 1-2-3-5, that’s a big turnaround from the other night.

Carl Edwards captured the 22nd NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win of his career with today’s victory. Edwards’ third Bristol win ties him with Fred Lorenzen and Kurt Busch, who each won three times at this track for Ford.

“I’d say 500 laps is gonna be a lot longer than I thought it was gonna be around here, but Todd Gordon and the guys are putting a plan together. There’s so much load here and the car is pressing so hard down on the race track that it makes it so hard to steer.

At this time, the NASCAR Sprint Cup pre-race and Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway are on hold due to weather. There appears to be a mid to late afternoon window and we are hopeful to begin drying the track at that time for the running of the event.

Brad Keselowski passed Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the final lap of Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to score the victory. Keselowski notched his 11th career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory after leading a dominating 52 laps of the 267 laps ran in ‘Sin City’.