Austin Dillon was on fire at Charlotte Motor Speedway; at one point, literally. Dillon qualified on the pole for Friday's Drive for the Cure 300 by edging fellow cup driver Kasey Kahne with a speed of 183.524 mph. During pre-race activities, one of the fireworks that were set off, misfired and landed on Dillon and his car, burning his fire suit.
Kyle Busch topped the charts in the final practice session. The driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was the fastest with a time of 28.518 and a speed of 189.354 mph.
Kurt Busch led the way during the second practice session at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The driver of the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 41 Chevrolet posted a lap of 28.606 and a speed of 188.772 mph to top the charts in the second Sprint Cup Series practice.
Today on the Sirius XM program "Tradin' Paint," NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France joined Jim Noble and Danny "Chocolate" Myers to discuss the concerns Jack Roush brought up about moving to a franchise ownership model.
The motto for the 24 team in the Challenger Round struck me as simply "survive and advance." While he had a dominant car at Chicagoland, he was a 10th-place car at best in Loudon and Dover. Now that Gordon has moved on to the Contender Round, he'll find the track lineup of Charlotte, Kansas and Talladega to his advantage.
The penalty rundown is light this week with a P2 penalty being handed to the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing team. All that resulted from it was Cole Pearn being placed on probation until Dec. 31.
To quote a famous Oscar-winning film, "There's no place like home." This Saturday, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Bank of America 500, the 30th race of the season, the fourth of the Chase and first of the Contender Round.
The Challenger Round came to a conclusion Sunday at Dover International Speedway and it was defending series champion Kevin Harvick who conquered Miles the Monster to punch his ticket to the Contender Round.
Theriault underwent a comprehensive CT scan of the upper body, which showed a 10 percent compression fracture of the lower back. Theriault was released and will travel back to North Carolina where he will follow up with an orthopedic specialist for further treatment.