Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s night in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway went drastically haywire after engine issues, during the latter stages, prohibited him from competing inside the top dozen.
Matt Kenseth remained tough while running, or blocking, machines to the apron, while attempting to maintain the race lead in the closing laps. However, Jimmie Johnson coasted around him in the remaining moments handing the 2003 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion another thrashing.
From lap one to lap 400, Sunday Night at Charlotte belonged solely to Jimmie Johnson. Johnson and his No. 48 team dominated as they perfectly executed a game plan en route to their first victory of the year.
The 2013 season was arguably the best season of Matt Kenseth’s career. Seven wins, 12 top-fives and 20 top-10s, very impressive stats by anyone’s standards. He also came up just short of a championship, finishing second to six-time series champion, Jimmie Johnson.
Kurt Busch attempted to complete “the double” this weekend – the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600. That’s 1100 miles of racing in one day on two tracks that are 575 miles apart, not to mention the fact that it is also in two very different types of race cars.
At the end of the 2013 season, Kurt Busch left Furniture Row Racing and headed over to “greener” pastures – Stewart-Haas Racing. After a thorough search, Furniture Row named Martin Truex Jr. as the new driver of the No. 78.
Come Sunday, Kurt Busch will join John Andretti, Robby Gordon, and his boss Tony Stewart as the only NASCAR drivers to complete the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 on the same day. Kurt Busch will start the 98th running of the Indianapolis 500 from the 12th position.
Kyle Busch's expectations of cruising to a 66th victory in the NASCAR Nationwide Series were diminished after finishing third in the History 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Saturday afternoon.
Regan Smith, following a seventh place finish in the History 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Saturday, expressed disappointment within his JR Motorsports organization despite being the NASCAR Nationwide Series points leader entering the summer months.
Kyle Larson ran the entire 2013 NASCAR Nationwide Series season without a win but he now has two in 2014. Larson scored his first career win at California in March and he backed that up Saturday with an impressive win at Charlotte in the History 300.
