Jimmie Johnson: One week after winning the All-Star Race, Johnson saw a top-5 finish in the Coca Cola 600 slip away after he drug his gas man down pit road. The subsequent stop-and-go penalty left him with an 11th-place finish.
With every lap and every race Kyle Busch runs at the Charlotte Motor Speedway, it becomes one of his better racetracks. Good news if Busch plans to contend for the championship since Charlotte is not only in the Chase but several other mile-and-a-half tracks are as well.
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.
Earnhardt nearly broke through at Richmond, finishing second to Kyle Busch in the Capital City 400. Earnhardt now trails points leader Greg Biffle by five points in the Sprint Cup point standings.
Biffle posted his sixth top-10 finish of the year with a fifth in the STP 400 at Kansas Motor Speedway. He maintained the lead in the Sprint Cup point standings, and now leads Martin Truex, Jr. by 15.
After finishing ninth in points last year and struggling at some points, Denny Hamlin and the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) team knew they needed to make a change.
Young up and coming racer Brett Moffitt has had an interesting journey, from his racing start under the tutelage of four-time K&N Pro Series champion Andy Santerre to racing for some of the biggest teams in the sport, including Joe Gibbs Racing and Michael Waltrip Racing.
Tony Stewart doesn't appear ready to descend from cloud nine, where's he's been since winning his third career Sprint Cup Series championship in dramatic fashion last November in Homestead.
When the green flag flew on the seventh annual running of the AAA Texas 500, it seemed almost as an afterthought to a difficult week, with the passing of patriarch Russ Wallace, the plane crash injuring Rick and Linda Hendrick, and of course the parking of Kyle Busch.