If it’s pole day in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Joe Gibbs Racing must be celebrating. Denny Hamlin powered his No. 11 Toyota around .533-mile Bristol Motor Speedway in 14.602 seconds (131.407 mph) on Friday to win the pole for Saturday's Irwin Tools Night Race (on NBCSN at 7:30 p.m. ET).
Hot news this week is headlined by the near-demise of Michael Waltrip Racing. The team has announced that it will not run full-time entries in 2016 and that Clint Bowyer will indeed be a free agent after this season.
Matt Kenseth, this is your life. Well, at least Michigan was his race, his and his alone. Of the 200 laps run, Kenseth led 143 of them to claim his third of the season, and 34th of his career.
With no need for the Goodyear wet weather radials brought to the track just in case, here is what was surprising and not surprising in the 30th annual CHEEZ-It 355 at the Watkins Glen International road course.
Still, rain at Watkins Glen means racing. Take off the slicks, replace them with rain tread, and off they go. There is a possibility of rain, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. is among those who would not mind using the wipers. Of course, you just got to know that come Sunday the sun shall be shining.
Kyle Busch: Busch inherited the lead when Joey Logano ran out of gas with three laps to go, but Logano’s misfortune was a harbinger of the same for Busch, whose tank ran dry with one lap to go. Busch finished
Back we go to Pocono, where Martin Truex Jr. won in the spring, where all of the Hendrick drivers shared in winning the previous five. A Busch has won there, twice. His name is Kurt.
Busch held off Joey Logano on the final restart to win his first Brickyard 400 and third consecutive race. Busch also won Saturday’s XFINITY Series race at Indy. “The No. 18 Skittles car was top notch,” Busch said. “And now I can tell you this: Bricks taste better than the rainbow.
I have walked the Little Bighorn Battlefield more than once, seen Devil’s Tower and visited Mount Rushmore. I have watched the Red Sox play in Seattle, and I believe the scenery in Wyoming is second to none. I’ve been there, but I do not live there.
